Sunday, October 26 - There is a big fire to the north of us. This is the view to the north from our driveway. The fire started in Ramona about midnight. It's about 9 a.m. in this picture.

As the smoke billows above the hill, the fire seems very close.

The fire is not as close as it looks, but the wind is blowing from the North East - toward us.

This is our neighbor to the north - with all the eucalypus trees.

This is a view of our house from the top of the hill. We're looking Northwest. You can see two rows of trees below our house. The first row is the citrus trees, the second row is avocado trees. The area below that has been cleared for fire protection. We have yet to plant iceplant there, but it is mostly dirt, which won't burn.

Jack noticed a huge "mushroom" cloud of smoke in the southern sky. He hiked to the top of the hill behind our house to get a closer look. This is a new fire burning in the Otay Lakes area. We havn't heard anything on the news yet. We can see flames on the ridge.

Zooming in on the western end of this fire.

Looking over the valley to the east of us from the ridge above our house.

This is the trail on the ridge above our house. This is looking North again, past our two neighbors. That's Red on the trail. You can also see the homes over the ridge on the East side.

It's early afternoon. The sun looks red through the billowing smoke.