Post Wildfire Annoyances

There are numerous petty annoyances post wildfire. One of which is each morning the dogs do their duty in the back yard. The back yard has ash and soot blown in from areas that are totally burned. This time of year the wind blows every day and the pine needles blow along with clouds of soot and ash with the wind. We recently had a picnic at our picnic table and we were constantly picking pine needles out of our food.

Above and beyond that the back yard is covered in pine needles and the dogs poop tends to roll down hill picking up the needles as it goes. When we go out after they have finished to clean up the dog poop we often miss it as it is covered in needles and blends in. We try to keep the back yard raked free of pine needles and leaves but with the wind and so many falling from burned trees it is next to impossible.

Another problem is we keep the house closed up but the wind blows the soot and ash inside the house anyway. Each morning I wipe off soot and black ash from my laptop computer. Sometimes more than once a day. Carol is constantly dusting the black ash off the interior of the house. I wash off the sidewalk and tractor and the next day they are black in color again. When or if we get snow this will stop temporarily but if it is just a few inches it too will blow away and the remaining snow will be black.

Our teeth and skin is always gritty and our eyes are irritated from the clouds of ash blowing in the air. The dogs need constant brushing to keep it out of their fur. Our electronics are malfunctioning because of the soot and ash getting in the components. None of this is covered by insurance because it is cumulative and not a single incident so the deductible applies to each single incident. We will be thankful when we finally get some rain or snow to wet this non-stop black/grey dust down. It limits our time outside doing work that needs to be done and it irritates our eyes and lungs. It is currently as dry as it was when we had the wildfire and it would be easy for another one to start if there were anything left to burn.  End of rant.