April 6, 2017 - 7:51pm
So a tree just crashed down on my deck:(
fives years of drought took its toll on Califorina. There's three very old olive trees right behind my back deck. We have a late season storm going on with powerful wind gusts. It caused one of the olive trees to split down the middle. Fortunately it didn't hit the house
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How far north in NorCal are you? I grew up in Sonoma County and have family in Mendocino County.
So how did you end up in Canada?
My folks are American though they lived in Montreal for seven or eight years, where I was born. We moved to California before I turned two. I live in West Sonoma County until graduating high school, then I moved to Portland, Oregon for university and ended up staying there until five years ago, after I did the paperwork to claim Canadian citizenship for me and my kids. We moved to Vancouver shortly thereafter and love it here.
the wind was made worse because I'm adjacent to a knoll and the back of the place faces a vineyard. So it creates a wind tunnel effect. The deck railing is gone, but fortunately the tree missed the house--but only by a mere two feet!
it was a mess outside this morning, but most of it superficial--tree branches and leaves everywhere. But that will all grow back. I was just thinking it was nice to see all the trees finally leaf out with the abundant rain.
Sonoma County has sure come into its own. It's quite a food and wine destination. Heraldsburg is the St Helena of Sonoma County. When I get out of town visitors, I always take them to Sonoma and Healdsburg.
than Napa now a days and food is great. Hope we get some of that rain in Phoenix but you can keep the wind, Sorry to hear about your damaged deck but like you say at least it wasn't the house
they refer to us as "that other valley!" --
Yeah, it is pretty nuts. I'm from the West County, near Forestville. It was still a pretty even mix of apples orchards and vineyards when I was there but it is all grapes now.
Now it's vineyards from Solano County clear through Lake County. On the plus side, you can walk through downtown Sonoma now without the stench of the Stornetta Dairy stockyard lingering in the air--
I had a couple Stornetta kids in my high school. They had never ridden the BART or been to the city except on a field trip. True Sonoma county locals.
--I was a train operator for about 9 years.
What I love about the Napa and Sonoma Valleys is despite the zillions of tourist that descend upon the region, despite the international interests and investments into the food and wine economy here, it remains in many ways a simple agricultural community.
No major freeway cuts through Napa Valley; 101 is the only freeway in Sonoma county. Our sense of community and rhythm is at work in the Napa Vine Trail and Sonoma Valley Trail projects. People actually use their pickup trucks for work. Farm tractors ramble along the side of the roads. Sebastopol still hosts the annual Gravenstein Apple Fair every August. Napa's Shackford's is the only game in town for kitchen supplies. There's no Costco, no Macy's--heck there isn't even a JC Penny's within Napa's county lines! Best of all, the cities in both counties still have their Main Streets. Albeit, the earthquake is really reshaping the look and direction of Napa's downtown, but it hasn't changed how the people live.
Wind keeping us awake, too. I'm a few miles from Sonoma in Cordelia. That 680 corridor is infamous for wind. Sorry about your tree.
PS Sonoma is prettier than Napa too.
you got there in the storm. Years ago I looked at homes in Cordelia, but the wind was too much. I head up that way now and again for a late breakfast at Bab's Delta Diner.
Yeah, last night was pretty wild in the Bay Area. Spent the morning picking up broken off pieces of trees spread everywhere. Wind gusts went well over 50 mph and would then almost totally reverse direction. A lot of fences also met their fate. Lucky enough the power was still on so the bake could go on at 4:00 AM this morning.
Wild-Yeast
swept through the region. There was a ton of debris scattered here too. But at least the state declared us officially out of the drought!