Sorry to see him leave us.

So tragic to lose biologist, Mike Tyner due to a falling tree limb. He was such a gift to the Condors in the Ventana Wilderness and those he inspired.  We'll all miss you.

March 2011 Big Sur Road Closures

Check in for Big Sur Road Closures. According to Cal Trans they are trying to stop pedestrian traffic on the road so it's still Naciemento-F Road or 46.

Stay tuned for more info.

They are hoping to have the road open via ONE LANE by April 16th.

1st Annual Easter Pet Parade Sat 4/3 in Carmel

Join us at the 1st Annual EastMinster PetShow.com Pet Parade Sat 4/3 at the Sunset Center in Carmel, CA 9th and San Carlos. 12 noon to 4pm. Costume Contest, Doggie Easter Egg Hunt, Costume Contest, Awards Ceremony, Silent Auction, Pet Products and Booths, Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny, To Benefit: SPCA, AFRP, POMDR and ACGSRescue of Hollister.

Blain Deaton and the Stingrays will provide live music (dog related theme songs),
Face Painting and so much more family fun. K9Sign Language Demo's too by Sean Senechal.

Adoptable Pets will also be part of the parade which will begin at Sunset Center and walk down the sidewalks of San Carlos to Ocean and turn around and travel back to Sunset Center. Please do not bring retractable leashes for your pets.

Sponsored by the EastMinster Animal Welfare Alliance and SocietyDog.com

see www.EastMinsterPets.com
Listen to the radio show at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/EastMinsterPetShow

Applications on line for Vendors/Booths. WE are looking for some food vendors. 831-238-6111

If you ONLY READ ONE POST...THIS IS IT

This website exists was to protect the interests of Big Sur Residents and Home Owners when it became apparent that only "certain homes and certain areas" were being protected from the fires and because those who stayed behind were treated to a police state by the County Sheriff. So the following article SAYS IT ALL!
Firemen wanted to help their hands were tied.

It was quite evident that something smelled from the top guns in charge of resources for the fires. No one has answered the question as to WHY...was the fire allowed to come over into the Valley behind Big Sur Station like it did when there were old dozer lines? According to old times...when in the past there were fires....dozers worked 24/7 and not only daylight hours.

The more "controversial postings" alleging mismanagement and lack of resources were "safe" to post here.
This article pretty much says it all! By the way...there are still more issues to address post-fire . So Start talking and posting!
==============================================>
When flames are on the way, buy a $120,000 bulldozer

By CHRIS COUNTS

Published: July 25, 2008

http://www.pineconearchive.com/080725-4.htm
H E'S BEEN in Big Sur longer than anybody, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Don McQueen wasn't about to let the Basin Complex Fire — or a sheriff's evacuation order — move him off his 70-acre property.


Besides being perhaps Big Sur's tallest resident at 6 feet 8 inches, the 79-year-old McQueen is also arguably its most experienced firefighter, having battled blazes since 1948. So when fire officials decided it was time for McQueen and his neighbors to leave Big Sur, he gave them an earful. Now, three weeks after he and his neighbors put up a desperate — and largely successful — fight to save their homes, McQueen still has a lot to say about the fire and the agencies in charge of managing it.


For starters, McQueen insisted the fire burned far more acreage than he believed was necessary.


"This fire was not a wildfire," insisted McQueen, who moved to Big Sur with his parents in 1939. "It started out as a wildfire and ended up being an uncontrolled burn monitored by the U.S. government."


While firefighting officials and ecologists generally agree wildfires play a necessary role in the life cycle of California's native vegetation, McQueen believes firefighting agencies should be fighting fires on their own terms, not Mother Nature's.


"I think they need to adopt the idea that it is a very bad idea to let a fire burn itself out in the summer," suggested McQueen, who along with his wife, Mieke, lives just east of Highway 1 near the Big Sur River Inn. "If you want to reduce fuel, do it in the winter."



Sons, Caterpillar come to rescue


McQueen has always been a man of action. When he was just 11, he built a cottage at Deetjen's Big Sur Inn. So when the recent wildfire started moving in his direction, he didn't waste any time. Realizing he and his neighbors needed to widen and improve existing fire breaks and had little time to clear acres of vegetation, he ordered a D-4 Caterpillar bulldozer, which he considered a bargain at $120,000.


"I have $2.5 million of equipment in my shop," explained McQueen, who once owned Torre Engineering, which for decades was involved in nearly every aspect of home, business and road construction in Big Sur. "Compared to losing my equipment and my home, $120,000 is nothing."


Quinn Company — a Caterpillar dealer located in Southern California — not only entrusted McQueen and his wife with the bulldozer (the company required no money down), but hand-delivered it to him in just 18 hours.
Meanwhile, McQueen called England to tell his two sons — Jonathon and Wade — about his dilemma. Both quickly boarded flights for California.


"I had to sneak them in," said McQueen of his sons, who weren't allowed into the evacuation area. "Jonathon is a very good equipment operator. Ten minutes after he got here, he was driving the bulldozer three times faster than me."



Residents, firefighters help each other


After the evacuation order was issued, a fire official came up to McQueen's house, presumably in an effort to convince him to leave.


"He said to me, 'I don't know what all you people's problem is,'" McQueen recounted. "'We're carefully allowing these homes to burn. You can build a new house at no cost with your insurance money.'"


"I couldn't believe a human being could say that," McQueen said.


Sometime during the fire, McQueen crossed Highway 1 to visit his business, Big Sur Campground and Cabins, which is located just across the pavement from the dirt road that leads to his home. His campground was filled with firefighters, and he was simply trying provide hot water so they could take showers. Unfortunately, a sheriff's deputy caught him straying from his property and scolded him. The deputy eventually let McQueen go, but the irony of the situation — that McQueen was being hassled for providing free services to firefighters — couldn't escape him.


"What I'd really like to emphasize is that a real tragedy happened when fire command and the sheriff decided that anyone staying here was under house arrest," McQueen said. "House arrest is what it is when you can't set foot on the highway. You're arrested on your own property."


As McQueen, his family and his neighbors fought the fire, hundreds of professional firefighters — strictly forbidden to assist locals — were stationed along Highway 1. While McQueen blasted fire officials for their leadership, he had nothing but kind words for the stranded firefighters.


"One guy told me he was ashamed," McQueen recalled. "He said, 'I was taught to put out fires, not let them burn.'"


Remarkably, when McQueen needed help maintaining his fire break, he received covert assistance from one of the grounded firefighters.


"One of the guys said, 'I can't sit here and watch what you're doing,'" McQueen remembered. "He went up there, parked his engine in a safe place, laid out over 4,000 feet of fire hose and started maintaining our fire breaks."



'This place could have been saved'


While McQueen's home survived, a neighbor's home burned to the ground. Not just any house, the building was constructed by Hans Ewoldsen in the early 1940s. Ewoldsen married Esther Pfeiffer, the granddaughter of one of Big Sur's first homesteaders. Hans and Esther are now deceased, and their descendants live outside the area.


"I get tears in my eyes coming up here," said McQueen as he surveyed the charred remnants of a home he'd visited since childhood. "Hans and Esther took such great care of this place. They raised their children here and most of their food here."


Curiously, much of the terrain immediately surrounding the house was unaffected by the fire.
According to McQueen, the house survived previous fires because "Hans and Esther stayed here."


"I was with them fighting the fire in 1960 that burned this canyon," he recalled. "You can see by all the stuff that's green that this house could have been saved. It's so sad. So many things were lost.

THANKYOU CHRIS COUNTS FOR WRITING THIS ARTICLE!!!
and there is more...Watch SuzNews here on You tube for a brilliant take on Big Surians and why we stay behind to protect home and hearth: Thankyou SUZ!! Past in the following URL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smxolkjC5nA

Jack English Returns to Big Sur-article & video

http://www.mercurynews.com/video?bcpid=1620670567&bctid=1691247399

UPDATES on the Fire Front, Soft Rd Closures, Food Specials

Sunday 7/26 While sitting at the Pebble Beach -Beach Club...it was evident that backfires and other fires were still happening in the Carmel Valley. Large smoke plumes noted. Fire has become and everyday occurence.

Sat 7/25 State Parks to Reopen Camping in Big Sur July 25
Location: Big Sur

Type of Notice: Official Notices

State Parks to Reopen Camping in Big Sur

BIG SUR - Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park will re-open for camping on July 25, 2008. The State Parks in Big Sur were closed recently as fire from the Basin Complex Fire moved through the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Andrew Molera State Park during different phases of the Basin Complex Fire. Refunds for campers who had reserved campsites in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park Campground had been authorized up until July 24, 2008. While there are still significant areas of these parks closed because of fire damage, the majority of the visitor serving facilities were untouched by the fires. Valley View Trail in Pfeiffer Big Sur on the east side of Highway One and the trails on the west side of Highway 1 will be open to the public as well as The Big Sur Lodge, the campground and the swimming holes within the campground.
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park will re-open the small parking area and the Waterfall Trail from the parking area to the overlook. All other park facilities east of Highway 1 will remain closed. “Ninety percent of our visitation to this park is due to this trail and the beauty it provides with the view of the waterfall and the Pacific Ocean,” said Mat Fuzie, District Superintendent of California State Parks Monterey District. Park facilities west of Highway 1 in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park will be open.
Andrew Molera State Park has served as the fire camp and Incident Command for the Basin Complex Fire and is still serving in that capacity but to a much smaller extent. “We are opening Andrew Molera as the fire response teams leave and allow us to open the park back to the public. The Day Use Parking Area is open as well, as are some of the trails to the beach on the west side of the Big Sur River” stated Fuzie.
“These parks are important to the community and the people of California,” Fuzie said. “We feel the essence of these parks is intact and opening them to the public at this time with the measures we have taken is the best course of action given our mission to provide quality outdoor recreation opportunities for the People of California”.
The State Parks department has issued a temporary closure order for those areas of the parks that are unsafe or off limits due to the impacts of the fire. Failure to obey the closure order is a misdemeanor violation punishable by fine or jail time. “It is very important for people to pay attention to the closure order for their safety and the safety of others, “ Fuzie said. “The firefighters and our employees did a wonderful job protecting the resources, but make no mistake, fire did come through here and there is good reason for these closures.” The trails that are to remain closed were damaged beyond immediate repair with tree hazards and ground stability issues associated with the damage. We expect to open the closed areas as repairs can be made. “
Maps of the closure areas and the posted order will be given to every camper as they enter Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and will be posted throughout all of the parks in Big Sur.
For information contact State Parks Big Sur Sector office (831) 667-2315

Contact Info
Big Sur Chamber of Commerce
Phone: 831.667.2100
Email: info@bigsurcalifornia.org

Posted 7/24/2008 03:57 PM



A week ago we noted: Tassajara is evacuated...only 5 people remain there. They are keeping the sprinklers on until the fire gets closer. Keep our neighbors in your thoughts and support them with your ACTIONS!

In BIG SUR: Remember that we are all still on a "soft" closure in Big Sur. Since tourists cannot yet come back to Big Sur, many employees are still without work.

Redwood Grill at Fernwood: Specials till the road opens (maybe Monday???)

To help locals celebrate local residents return to Big Sur, the Redwood Grill is serving Black Angus Burgers (or Buffalo, vegetarian or Turkey) for $7 - with fries. Also, Taquitos or Chicken Fingers for $3.95. Draft beer at the bar is $3.

Esalen Update: Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Word from the fire command this morning is that they are “done setting fires on Highway 1” as of today—meaning that even though fuel still remains in the canyons and along the road in our area (and spot fires still persist up the upper canyons and down toward Dolan Ridge), they are essentially pulling out from the southwest perimeter of the Basin Fire, leaving only a bare number here, in favor of a big push on the northern, more active end to try to keep the fire out of Carmel Valley.

For us at Esalen this means the active danger level has ratcheted down considerably—and yet it’s not all over yet. Our tanks survived another night, with 20 professional crew members working there till around midnight, clearing even further below the tanks and waterline in the area of yesterday’s burn, improving the firebreak under the bridge, and putting out spots in the lower canyon. This is another switch in their strategy, as they have now given up hope of achieving a complete burn in Hot Springs Canyon and right along Highway 1 under these recurrent marine layer conditions. Instead, they are apparently prepared to call a partial victory and move to more urgent concerns to the north (and elsewhere in the state).
(excerpt taken from Gorden Wheelers Blog..visit it at www.esalen.org
=======================================================>
BIG SUR NOW notes: Fire could happen again, so stay prepared.

We are back on-line to keep you updated: Meanwhile the Coast Weekly has an article about the Curtis family that is worth reading. Note link will be provided under the Curtis family Debate link.

We appreciate all of your posts here and private emails and will continue to give you much needed updates and information.

Check back to this post today often as we will keep changing it. Meanwhile post your updates via comments on this post or under the other topics.

And Please support the Sat Night Fundraiser:
For Anyone : Big Sur Gallery Fire Benefit Location: Big Sur Gallery (Carmel)
Big Sur Gallery:Fire Benefit Saturday, July 12, 2008 3:00 to 8:00, Auction at 5:00
Proceeds to To benefit the Big Sur Fire Relief Fund

Auction of work donated by our local artists.
Food, wine, music, and art
All donations and proceeds from the auction
will be given to the Big Sur Fire Relief Fund, as will 10% of Gallery sales.

visit www.bigsurgallery.net

Contact Info: maxine keene Phone: 624 1172 Email: bigsurgallery@sbcglobal.net

At Esalen Today

I am at Esalen today.  There are guests here from all over.  Three different workshops.  Gestalt Singing.  A couples workshop and a massage workshop.  It feels great to be back and there is a HUGE sign that says...Welcome Back Esalen Tribe.  I just spoke to Gordon Wheeler who looked great and ready to take on anything else that might happen in the area. If you haven't read his fire blog on Esalen's site.  It's still worth reading.  

Ruby the kitty, is still in charge and roaming about.  A stellar blue jay was just caught drinking water out of the fountain.   The sign in the lodge for breakfast read:  Wake up Sleepyheads to another wonderful breakfast at Esalen.

  If there are any of you here who have read the blog and happen to be in Esalen today...come and get a hug from me and meet my Dutch friend Emil, who wrote a fantastic book on Somatologie.  I will be helping translate from Dutch to English.  Have Emil read  your bone structure and what it says about you.  

The garden's are gorgeous as usual but there seems to be just a slight subduedness, kind of a quietness here ...a tip tip tip toeing of the return. Guests are saying how dramatic it looks to see areas without the lush vegetation that was once there.  Not everyone is back just yet...but soon...but soon....

It's a bit foggy yet this morning, I have to go...Esalen is calling and I must find out if that massage class needs any volunteers.   hmmmmm

Keep writing and sharing your thoughts and needs on this site.  Reach out and love someone today!

Do you have services to offer the community to help rebuild?

Hello all...Start posting here if you are available for work whether in fire clean-up, handyman work, hauling supplies to Big Sur, construction, or whatever.

Have truck and am available for Hauling and helping with demolition at a reduced rate. Tile work too!
David Nicholson yourbesthandyman@hotmail.com Have great references. 831-392-7909

If you have services or need someone to hire either send them to my email at Harpist4You@cs.com or post it as a comment on this blog.

Basin Complex East INFO and LINKS

Basin Complex East Information Links
July 13, 2008 by tarawings

Hello! I have been doing some researching to find good sources of information on the Basin Complex East. Thank you to people who have sent me links. If you have any other links to good information, please send them along! This is what I have found at this point:

This is someone attending fire meetings and writing up summaries and giving first hand accounts of what it is like to be in Jamesburg right now. Definitely the most information about the East side of the fire that I have found so far.

http://thefirelane.blogspot.com/

A good standby:

http://www.kusp.org/fire/sur.html

This is the official County of Monterey site. It gives good, brief, official information.

http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/PR_OES/default.asp

This is a non-official, but more detailed site that gives timely information along with thermal maps:

http://xasauantoday.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/big-surventana-wilderness-fire-news/

This seems to be an official federal site. If you scroll down about 3/4 of the way on this one there is some good information.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/fire/south/fwx/operations/osc-archive/sitreport.html

This is where I get my weather reports from. Go to the page, then type in your city and state in the box on the upper left hand side (not the right hand box, this does something else), and you can then narrow down your area. Then it will show you a map that you can click on to make your location and elevation even more accurate. Takes a bit of guess work with the elevation, but it works.

www.noaa.gov

WELCOME BACK TO BIG SUR-UPCOMING EVENTS

Janet of the River Inn said that they are continuing to have Sunday Music as usual. Get out there an support BIG SUR!

Sofanya is back in her newly reinvented Gallery.

If you want information posted here...pls email us the text at harpist4you@cs.com