{"id":36201,"date":"2013-01-10T00:46:30","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T04:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=36201"},"modified":"2013-03-09T20:18:21","modified_gmt":"2013-03-10T00:18:21","slug":"no-burn-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=36201","title":{"rendered":"no-burn day"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the drive to work this morning, my local public radio station<\/a> advised that today is a no-burn day.
\nI had never heard that term before, though I’m familiar with the reasoning behind it: <\/p>\n

“A ‘no burn’ alert is in effect through midnight Wednesday for parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties.<\/p>\n

Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said this is the third time the agency has issued an alert this winter.<\/p>\n

‘During the winter, we can get these low-level temperature inversions which trap the smoke from the fireplaces low to the ground and can contribute to unhealthy air quality,’ he said.<\/p>\n

A ‘no burn’ alert means residents in affected areas cannot burn wood or manufactured logs in fireplaces or outdoor fire pits.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I love to burn wood in an outdoor fireplace<\/a>, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that my outdoor fires are an unnecessary indulgence, an ill-advised luxury that contributes a shocking amount of particulates to a neighborhood, a city, a county, an inversion layer. So now it’s a rare occurrence, maybe once or twice a year, burning only the driest wood to keep the smoke down. I mostly keep potted plants on our old Ben Franklin stove now. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a>
\n<\/center>
\nIn late December we trialed a new flue we had built. Along with building the flue, the stove was sandblasted again, the second time since we’ve come to own it over a decade ago, after retrieving it from an outdoor dump site in Riverside County. Marty put a quick coat of silver paint on it after the sandblasting to protect it from the winter rain. Willie’s Tin Shop built the flue. Sometimes I think we invent projects just so we can work with a business that would choose a name like Willie’s Tin Shop. Plus, the original, decades-old shop had really cool signage. (Forget Yelp, we go by signage and heartfelt business names.)<\/p>\n


\nWe trialed the flue in a couple locations, moving the heavy monster around on a wheeled base, settling on a spot out of the wind. <\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I do miss the long-ago fires we had throughout the winter before I knew better. We all<\/em> love a good fire here.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But this will most likely be the only outdoor fire I’ll enjoy this winter, the torches of aloes in bloom. <\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No tag, possibly Aloe africana, growing at the entrance to the 710 Freeway on Seventh Street.<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My own Aloe capitata var. quartzicola’s bloom taking shape.
\n<\/center><\/p>\n

So the Ben Franklin remains dark for the foreseeable future, this no-burn winter.<\/p>\n

<\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the drive to work this morning, my local public radio station advised that today is a no-burn day. I had never heard that term before, though I’m familiar with the reasoning behind it: “A ‘no burn’ alert is in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1897,27],"tags":[2551,2550,1898,2552,2556,206,2554,2555],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-9pT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36201"}],"version-history":[{"count":80,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38757,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36201\/revisions\/38757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}