Catching Up

Winter Storms - - - Flooding and Power/Satellite Outage - - - Lengthy Typed Post Disappeared - - -A Little Knitting - - - Pioneer Cabin Tree Falls.

How is that for a few topics?               Yes, just as the National Weather Service reported. We are having the largest weather event to strike this area in the past 30 years.

With the day after day of dark skies, sometimes fog (very unusual), rain (frequently very heavy) and cold temperatures, my activities have been less than productive. It  just feels so good to lie on the sofa with soft yummy cozy warm blankets and stay warm. And it helps to have a nice cup of tea or maybe cocoa nearby.

Even though I have been diligent in energy conservation and sleeping in the living room (the warmest room) with the thermostat set at 67 degrees, my Electric Bill was $220.00 for the past month! My heart goes out to the folks that do not have proper protection from the elements and others that have been impacted with structural destruction and devastation.

This is a tree down along a nearby roadway that caused a multi-vehicle accident. Night time darkness sure adds to the danger.

This is the  Little Community Park and Creek that is a five minute walk from where I live. The area has been closed to through traffic due to roadway flooding. The water from my little stream (roadway culvert drainage) is one of many tributaries that flow into The Creek.

The next photos are of my yard a year and a half ago when I was working on the culvert/stream to insure it would flow and not back up in my yard.

This photo of The Creek is more typical without all the flooding.  It is so lovely!

There are many photos in the newspapers of  flooding and heavy rain damage.

A few days ago when our First Power Storm started, I was working on my second post about family. Not an easy post to write. It was about 1:00 AM and suddenly all the power and satellite went off and my long post disappeared from the monitor. I tried everything I could think of to find it. But it was gone - gone - gone! Talk about being upset! I was beside myself! I guess that is something they used to say?  Not sure when I will get to writing it again. But, I will.

Two more colors of Bamboo Bloom Handpaints Yarn

                        Kimono on the Left  side.

                     Fallen Petals on the Right side.

                                       I really like the pattern and these colors.

                             

SAD LOSS OF SEQUOIA TREE     

And, not just ANY Sequoia - But, "The Pioneer Cabin Tree"

Pioneer Cabin Tree Falls

This information has been taken from Big Trees State Park wesite.

On Sunday, January 8 at approximately 2:30 pm, the iconic Pioneer Cabin Tree, one of California’s oldest tourist attractions and a beloved specimen of a rare California native species, fell.  During one of the wettest periods in several years, a combination of trunk and root decay and storm water runoff appears to have brought the giant sequoia down at its base, shattering it and a nearby cedar tree. No one was hurt.  Flowing water and fallen tree branches are current public safety concerns being addressed by state park staff. Almost a foot of rain has fallen at Calaveras Big Trees State Park near Arnold in the last two weeks, with more than three inches falling Sunday.  Since then over a foot of snow has added to the unstable trail conditions at the Park

The Pioneer Cabin Tree is one of the best known giant sequoias, which grow naturally only in a few locations on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. The giant sequoia is the largest tree species in the world, with some trees reaching a diameter of 27 feet. The Pioneer Cabin Tree stood approximately 100 feet tall and was 22 feet in diameter at breast height – this is as it stood in recent times. The tree is located in the North Grove of the state park within a relatively large sequoia grove containing more than 150 specimens roughly 2,000 years old.

Lightning strikes in the 1800s hollowed out the Pioneer Cabin Tree’s base and later knocked off its crown and opened up its side. In 1881, the Pioneer Cabin Tree base was squared off and enlarged. Similar to Big Stump, the base of the 1850 Discovery Tree at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the Pioneer Cabin Tree helped visitors experience the enormous size of the ancient sequoias. For sixty years, tourists rode horses and carriages through the Pioneer Cabin Tree, and in the 1920s automobiles passed through it. Thousands of visitors posed for photos at the tree.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park became a state park in 1931 to preserve the North Grove of giant sequoias.

The Pioneer Cabin Tree was one of the last of the historic tunnel redwoods in the Sierra. The Palace Hotel Tree and Smith Cabin Tree remain standing in the more remote South Grove Nature Preserve at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The California Tree in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove and three coast redwood tunnel trees in northwestern California are other storied sequoias in public parks.

This is the water flow along the fallen Pioneer Tree.

Photo taken in early 1900's - I think.

Well, I am a little "caught up".

Hope you are Healthy, Happy and Safe.

Mary