More smoke

The SacBee had an interesting story this morning about how the smoke we are experiencing now was normal in the 1800s, before they fought fires in the Sierra.

Analysis of tree rings and oral histories of American Indians and Euro-American surveyors suggests that the cobalt blue skies typifying the Sierra today were more the exception up through the 19th century.

The skies likely were smoky much of the summer and fall in the mountains and other remote and parched regions of California, where fires were largely ignored.

...

As C.H. Merriam, chief of the federal Division of Biological Survey, noted in 1898:

"Of the hundreds of persons who visit the Pacific slope in California every summer to see the mountains, few see more than the immediate foreground and a haze of smoke which even the strongest glass is unable to penetrate."

It's supposed to be over 106 today and the smoke is back, although evidently worse in the foothills than it is here in Davis. But the sky is hazy and we can smell it.

Owen is in the city's basketball camp in the mornings this week and really enjoyed it yesterday, but today woke up with a sore groin muscle. Hopefully he hasn't pulled it and is just feeling the effects of some different muscle group work.