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Thread: Nevada Solar farm

  1. #11
    Drew Wiley
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    Sep 2008
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    SF Bay area, CA
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    18,338

    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    Interesting. Maybe a probe can be sent to Bakersfield and hopefully survive the heat and fumes long enough to compare the results. It's the only place I've ever heard of where someone started their car across the road from a refinery, and the atmosphere literally exploded, destroying both him and his car (true story). There's a reason it's called the armpit of the West.

    All that is separated by a long anticline directly adjacent to the San Andreas Fault called Elkhorn Ridge, which geologically cleanly divides one of the biggest oil well forests in the US from what is perhaps the most uninhabited pristine natural grassland left in the State, thankfully oilless. It's also famous for periodic Superblooms so colorful they're easily seen from space; surreal at times, really. I prefer it slightly off season, and things somewhat less conspicuously spray painted for miles on end. Late fall is nice if one likes browns; but the constant wildfire smoke filtering in, along with sandstorms last year were quite uninviting, especially since that part of the world is the epicenter of Valley Fever, a really nasty lung fungal disease spread on blowing dust, not as statistically lethal as Covid, but with a far worse record of serious debilitation afterwards among those who do get infected. The Refuge was originally set up for the endangered tiny kit fox, a creature of small bushes and fond of kangaroo rats. About the size of a large house cat.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    9,599

    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Interesting. Maybe a probe can be sent to Bakersfield and hopefully survive the heat and fumes long enough to compare the results. It's the only place I've ever heard of where someone started their car across the road from a refinery, and the atmosphere literally exploded, destroying both him and his car (true story). There's a reason it's called the armpit of the West.

    All that is separated by a long anticline directly adjacent to the San Andreas Fault called Elkhorn Ridge, which geologically cleanly divides one of the biggest oil well forests in the US from what is perhaps the most uninhabited pristine natural grassland left in the State, thankfully oilless. It's also famous for periodic Superblooms so colorful they're easily seen from space; surreal at times, really. I prefer it slightly off season, and things somewhat less conspicuously spray painted for miles on end. Late fall is nice if one likes browns; but the constant wildfire smoke filtering in, along with sandstorms last year were quite uninviting, especially since that part of the world is the epicenter of Valley Fever, a really nasty lung fungal disease spread on blowing dust, not as statistically lethal as Covid, but with a far worse record of serious debilitation afterwards among those who do get infected. The Refuge was originally set up for the endangered tiny kit fox, a creature of small bushes and fond of kangaroo rats. About the size of a large house cat.
    If you find yourself in New Cuyama, say hello to all my drinking buddies at the Buckhorn. The coldest beer within 40 miles or something like that.
    Oh wait, I just did a search and found that the ol' Buckhorn was rebuilt as an upscale Resort in 2018 (!) I'll bet the peanut shells and the rattlesnake are gone
    https://www.cuyamabuckhorn.com/
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  3. #13
    Drew Wiley
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    Sep 2008
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    SF Bay area, CA
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    18,338

    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    Well, i probably will head down the "Airline Highway" (Route 25) - named for its directness, certainly not its smooth pavement! But I try to stay a fair distance from any evident gentrification going on, especially with vintners, around Paso Robles and some of the inland valleys. That might be a tough occupation to sustain, however, given all the extreme drought of the past decade. In general, the population of that whole inland corridor has dramatically diminished in the past half century or so. Fine with me. I've been over most of the side roads many times before, starting way back when my dad would take me fossil hunting at Reef Ridge near Avenal.

    Interesting that there is a second huge Condor refuge down that way now, almost completely off-limits to the public. Of course, most people wishing to spot condors do so at the summit of Pinnacles NP, further north on that same route.

  4. #14

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    Dec 2001
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    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    That whole area is ground zero for Valley fever. The US Navy developed a vaccine for it and was testing on sailors at NAS Lemoore back in the 80's but I never heard what became of it.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  5. #15
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    SF Bay area, CA
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    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    Well, I got it and ran a high fever for six months when I was 17, probably from digging out fossils, artifacts, etc. I knew athletes who ended up flat on their backs for a year or more. The spores can allegedly survive for hundreds or even thousands of years in the soil. And extreme windstorms plus droughts in recent years have spread those spores all the way across Arizona and into dryer portions of the Midwest, where many cases started popping up. It used to be called the Turkey Ranchers' disease because of all the Turkey farms around Coalinga.

    There was already an endemic related variety of fungal lung disease called coccidiodomycosis in the ole Dust Bowl region. Both are tricky to diagnose and treat, and often mimic Tuberculosis. Creates similar antibodies. The only specialty clinic in the world I'm aware of is logically in Bakersfield. I was never correctly diagnosed until it was already long over. Hopefully I now have lifetime immunity, but am NOT about to take any careless chances.
    Besides, blowing dust is miserable for photographic film and gear.

    I'm relatively useless today. Minor aches, stiffness, and chills. Had my covid booster shot yesterday, so am not surprised at having almost exactly the same temporary effects as my previous shot.

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    9,599

    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    Chills ain't fun. I hope you feel better soon!
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  7. #17
    Drew Wiley
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    Sep 2008
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    Re: Nevada Solar farm

    Oh, I feel great today. And a warm week is forecast. So I'll get back to working out my knees again on some nearby steep hillsides with my 8x10 pack in a few days. We've got emerald green hills now, with a distinct start of wildflowers. I'm not going to burn any 8x10 color film on that, but might or might not bring along 8x10 color headed down toward the Carizzo. All in the timing of the color, which I suspect and hope will be a little more earthtone interspersed that farther south, since they got a lot less rain than us this winter. If I get cold feet about that, I'll take more affordable 4X5 film instead.

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