Stuck in Fresno

[Leszek Vogt]

Yes, the best part of Fresno is on the other side of the tracks. Excuse the sarcasm oozing...

Les

[Drew Wiley]

On a less than humerous note, I do expect an epidemic in Valley Fever due to this drought and its dust getting blown widely. It takes awhile for those spores to
break out in the lungs, but when they do it can behave a lot like TB.

[gleaf]

Perhaps we need to mount Photographic Rescue Expeditions to our compatriots.

[John Kasaian]

A lot where 1.000s of wooden power poles are stored caught on fire----there's a huge smoke cloud covering both 99 and 41 right now.
Those power poles are treated with some pretty nasty stuff.
This can't be good.
http://abc7news.com/news/massive-fir...fresno/688511/

[Kevin Crisp]

I'll bet creosote soot is nasty.

[Drew Wiley]

Everybody once treated fence posts with creosote. I had an Appaloosa that would gnaw one side of the post while flirting with the neighbor's Arabian mare, which
would gnaw the same post from the other side. Eventually there were just wooden balls suspended by the barbed wire. Apparently they liked the taste of creosote.
Maybe be it was an aphrodisiac, which might have been important since my Appaloosa was a gelding.

[matthew blais]

There is always someplace worse John...
Vinny and wife were stuck in Pearsonville a few years back when their "new-to-them" Vinniebago took a dump.
On my way north to hook up with the gang, I hung out to help and chauffeured to Ridgecrest the next day for parts.
Camping at a Shell Station was not the pinnacle of our week to say the least.

But...I did meet the charismatic and eccentric owner of the "hubcap" collection (Hubcap Capital of the World). I wanted to take her portrait but she said she send me a snapshot...guess she didn't get it... Vinny got a cool shot of the old bus out front if I recollect.
Silver linings in grey clouds...

[John Kasaian]

Everybody once treated fence posts with creosote. I had an Appaloosa that would gnaw one side of the post while flirting with the neighbor's Arabian mare, which
would gnaw the same post from the other side. Eventually there were just wooden balls suspended by the barbed wire. Apparently they liked the taste of creosote.
Maybe be it was an aphrodisiac, which might have been important since my Appaloosa was a gelding.

Drew, that Appy of yours was eatin' 'em, not smoking 'em lol! I've used lots of creosote back when you could still buy the stuff.

[Drew Wiley]

It's illegal for anything now except railroad ties and public utility poles. But creosote is abundant naturally in a lot of wild plants, esp in the chaparral zone. A bit of
it gets into the streams or onto other foliage, and every now and then onto my taste buds too! It's pretty hard to keep me away from a berry patch or miner's lettuce out in the woods. Wild blackberries are the sun-loving ones, most likely to be adjacent to chaparral.

[CropDusterMan]

Amazing photographs are to be had in Fresno...I know a bunch of salty old cropdusters there with great airplanes
and cool old hangers. There is also a ton of unemployment there due to the drought and water cutbacks...some of
the towns have huge unemployment. Adversity in a population can lead to some great environmental portraits.