Fountain Valley News - Your Hometown Community Newspaper

Temperatures are rising and you would think we are well on our way to some beautiful spring and summer days full of garden prepping and planting. We should be able to linger on our patios and decks enjoying the air and do cook-outs... but NO!

We are covered in a brown cloud caused by all the horrendous winds we have been having. I heard on the news last night that the cloud is full of dirt and sand most likely from the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Will there be any dunes left? What about the poor folks that are at the park getting sand blasted? We are helpless in this situation.

The fire danger remains so high, it is scary. All of our beige here where I am is just a tinder box. No rain and high winds make the perfect cocktail for wildland or grass fires; yet every day we see people tossing cigarette butts out of car windows, and every day we see grass fires on the sides of the roads. I cannot tell you how real this is out here, there are fires every single day. There is no news coverage unless it is near a larger more well-known area; we are the forgotten. Houses lost and families displaced. Started by a chain dragging from a vehicle or a spark from a machine. Target shooting, even at a shooting berm, can make a spark and someone loses. The tips of the brown prairie grass will carry a fire to your front door and it doesn't knock - it gets what it wants.

We are not using our grill, and we just filled our freezer with some beef in anticipation of some good grilling weather this summer. We cannot really grill even with propane because the wind will knock the flames down and blow the heat right out of the grill... it is ridiculous.

Who knew prairie life would be so glamorous? My hair spray is not working when it gets sandblasted either. Our poor dogs cannot go outside and expend any energy playing because they are too busy avoiding getting mouthfuls and eyefuls of sand.... They just sort of stare at the house squinting until we let them back in... so sad.

We tried to put out some bird feeders and hummingbird liquid feeders for our worn-out feathered friends... yeah, the wind blew them all empty then blew them off the house. Wind is responsible for emptying our chickens' water every afternoon; it normally lasts several days.

We heard a big crack the other night while watching TV and haven't gotten outside to see what it was because of the wind; we hope it was not the house. The wind alone is damaging enough to everything out here, but add to it the dry... it's so dangerous.

I hope you all had glorious celebrations with your moms and any women who helped you be the great human you have become. I hope everyone felt honored and appreciated. My son-in-law had "all the moms over" for a cookout. He lives out here. Some meat was raw because of the wind, but we spent time together laughing and playing and enjoying ourselves. What's a little raw meat between family?

Please keep your cigarette butts in your car's ashtray and watch the chains hanging from your vehicles. There are real lives at stake.

You can contact Alice at [email protected]