I should clarify - it's not that we're 'evacuated', a person's fire plan is to either stay and fight or leave. So on high fire risk days, we go! It's still like an evacuation. So yes, we left again and guess what? Monday a fire breaks out a couple of towns away from where we were staying!! But DH's nephew has everything ready to defend his house so I watched them get their fire plan into action which was to top up their ginormous water tank, check the sprinkler system that's on the roof, fill pails with water and have mops by the pails then put them all around the house so that if a cinder falls you can douse it with a wet mop, change into all cotton clothing which is slower to burn, get wool blankets out to wet and put over yourself... have I missed anything? Oh yeah, then sit on the porch and watch the smoke and wind, listen to the news, and wait to see if the fire spreads our way. To be honest, we would have been safer if we stayed home! But on Monday the big worry was south east of here and, fortunately, nothing happened. Tomorrow, Friday, is another high risk day but I'm not sure if we're going to the nephew's house. Maybe we'll just spend the day at the mall. Then, if something happens in our area we'll go to the nephew's house. I don't know. This is getting very tiresome. I want these fires to stop already but someone told me she heard they were predicting a few more months before it's all settled. MONTHS!! And then yesterday we saw a new plume of smoke in the hills out yonder. So I called 000, our 911, and told the lady that I saw smoke coming from a hilltop but I couldn't tell her the name of the hill top and was just guessing about the area the hilltop was in. She suggested I check the CFA website to see if there was anything written there about the plume but I said it just started as I had been watching the mountains all morning and this one area suddendly started smoking - I called her as soon as I saw the plume of smoke. The lady asked if I saw flames. I said I was too far to see flames so she gave me this xyz number to call and report it. So I call xyz and I'm talking to this guy who seems absolutely clueless as to what to do and eventually suggest a number to call. And guess what number he gves me? xyz... I yelled at him and said that it's his number and asked him if he didn't know his own number. Sheesh. So then he gave me another number and I speak to that person who eventually says she'll transfer me to somebody else who might be able to help. So I'm talking to this lady and she says I've called the wrong number and that I have to call 000. I tell her that's who I started with but they didn't want to know. So this lady asked if I could see flames and I said no and then she said that 000 wouldn't do anything about it until ya saw flames. So I said, "Well, isn't it a bit too late by then? I mean, if you see flames the fire's on ya and you're dead." She was silent. So I then threatened to tell a popular news journalist here about the inefficiency and run around I was receiving and there was a big silence so the lady switched me to someone else and they said a fire truck would come by to have a look. So from when I first called to when the fire dept came was about 1 hour. The fire crew said it was a flare up within contained lines, and really that was what I was trying to find out, if the new fire was in a containment area, or even backburning by the CFA itself, or something new that needed watching. I kinda think it turned into something they needed to watch because after dark we could see trucks up there. I never felt threatened by this fire cuz it really is too far from my place, but it was extremely frustrating that when I reported it, no one seemed to want to respond. Thanks Luvs and Karen. Karen, your arm feeling any better?? LOL SHould probably ask that on 'your' thread. lol Thanks Nona. Why can't Bella write on here? I think that very weird. Glad to hear her son was safe. Well, will fill you in as it happens... or, as I'd prefer, DOESN'T happen. ;-)

I have tried several ways to get rid of my moles; traps, worms, drowning, (the tunnels never fill), smoke bombs, waiting with a pickax outside the hole. etc. Through trial and error, I have found something that has worked for me for over a year. First, a little bit of theory. Moles are fastidious creatures. They are impelled to keep their tunnels clean. I found out that by putting mothballs down one. Shortly after, they pushed the mothballs back out, with seemingly, no effects. I realized, that I needed to use their habits against them. Here is my procedure for ridding my lawn of moles. Step 1. After identifying a traveling tunnel, (as opposed to a feeding tunnel), I use a shop vac, with a small 1 1/4" hose to clean out the hole to the tunnel. The suction will find the tunnel by pulling the loosest dirt away. (Be sure to scrape the pile away at grade level, first.) Find both directions if possible. The small hose will fit into the tunnel easier. Make sure your vac has a blower port for the hose. You may need to unclog the hose and/or the suction port on the vac motor, due to moist dirt. Step 2. Pour some mothballs and a very fine powder into the the vac hose, put the hose into the tunnel and use the blower to propel the contents into the tunnel. Be sure to use something to seal the tunnel around the hose, while you do this or the stuff will blow into your face. The powder, I use because it's on hand is the waste from a product I used to split boulders. It's called Ecobust, but I wonder if diatomaceous earth or powdered insect killer would work, just as well. Use a stone large enough to cover the hole, without filling it with dirt. You can put dirt aound the stone to block sunlight. The theory is, the odor of the mothballs would irritate the mole's sense of smell, he would have to push it out. They bulldoze with their nose, so it would get this fine powder into its breathing passages and suffocate, or be poisoned. This conforms to Washington state law as it does not grip the body. Be careful not to breath the powder, use a mask and gloves. Let me know how it works for you. Thanks for reading.

Jay That's the one! And just yesterday, my Interface on AOL had the video of Ann Heile's ordeal about the Mountain Lion attack she survived although with terrible disfiguration of her face, and multiple reconstruction surgeries. I know she and her family are just thanking God she survived. It could easily have been fatal. If we are going to have to live with these predators, we'd all be well advised to know what to do, 'in case of'. I'm asking my son to please be armed and alert when camping and treking in the wildernesses where he often goes, in NM, Utah and Wyoming. Ann's video can be seen on this link. It's shocking. I must say, she seems to be a great lady, and very lucky to be alive. Barb Here is a link that might be useful: Video of Ann Heile's account of Cougar attack

Lars it seems there is no one chart which describes the temperatures accurately here as there is such a difference from one end of the island to another. The south is much warmer and Santa Cruz - the capital city about a half hour drive from here on the east coast - has another temperature range again. Here's the official temps for Santa Cruz from the Spanish Office of the Environment: Coldest month Dec....mean temperature is 66.2 F. (19C) Warmest month Aug.....mean temp is 77F. (25C) Yearly mean temp is 70.16 F. (21.2C) That's taken from a study 1971 to 2000. Another range of temperatures comes from the north airport - Los Rodeos, and still another from the top of the volcano area. Sufficient to say that it's shirtsleeve weather during the day most of the year - except when it rains, or if you're hiking up on top of the mountain when there's snow LOL. One of my ex-work colleagues in Ibiza lived for years in Costa Rica and her sons now live permanently in San Jose. She told many stories of her interesting life there. One of my cousin's sons has also settled somewhere in Costa Rica. I hear many Canadians have retired there because of the beautiful climate and peaceful life. Lars if you like hiking then this is hikers' paradise. Our German friends love coming here and spending many days climbing all around the ravines and the volcanic area. There are many hiking groups here which organize and transport folks with buses to the main starting points for hikes from the easiest to those reserved for experienced alpine climbers. It is a common daily sight to see people walking around wearing German hiking shoes, shorts, walking poles and knapsacks. They will have just come off a bus after having been somewhere up in the mountains. The large older crater area at the base of the volcano is called "Las Cañadas" and it has an amazing lunar-like landscape, part of which was used in filming the original Planet of the Apes. You can see plenty of images of that on this Google image link. Teide is the name of the volcano. There was a cable car which ran nearly to the top which may still be in operation. My brother once took it and walked right up to the existing crater where it was hot, and the air was thin. Another beautiful hike is to the mountain hamlet of Masca. (Click to enlarge the photo at top left corner.) There the roads are so steep that I am nervous even driving in a car. There's a very steep hike from there down to the sea, where a small boat will pick up the hikers, but it's really for only the most experienced mountain climbers. Needless to say I haven't done that myself but I love to see the photos LOL. Ilisa I think everyone is feeling the cold right now even in Europe. A friend just e-mailed me that it's -0.4F in Munich, Germany right now ! Guess I shouldn't complain when I have to wear an extra sweater at night ! SharonCb