Sunny Saturday, March 4th

[BarbaraRose]

Ann, is that top photo what it looks like now?

[Cudedog]

Sue, I'm well aware about both propane and natural gas lines , as I have had each at various homes. The difference is, they can't dig gas lines in where it's big rock close to surface, so propane is used in mountains of northern CA! I'm aware the perils amd advantages of each. People in our area of Sierras, don't have natural gas lines, period! I was simply expressing surprise they were able to dig in natural gas lines in southern mountains. they must not have the rock obstruction we have in the northern Sierras. Both propane lines and tanks and natural gas lines can be damaged by snow load!
Velda

Velda is 100% correct about rocks in the northern Sierra. If one hasn't lived in the northern Sierras, this rock business is difficult to imagine.

Where I used to live in the Sierra foothills, if one wished to plant a tree (apple trees grew well there) one needed a pickaxe and chisel to get started on the hole, a hammer to smash up the larger rocks still in the hole, and a crowbar to pry these larger smashed and loosened rocks out of the hole. That is, if one was lucky - often I would hit a rock too large to budge, and would need to start again somewhere else.

Once a hole was made large enough to fit the root ball - with lots of room to spare - of the prospective tree (it might take an hour or more to create this hole), then it was off to the hardware store to get several bags of potting soil and/or garden soil to fill up the hole once the tree was inserted. There was never any soil from the newly-created hole - only rocks. Decomposed granite, I think it was.

Tree planting was always quite a project.

Interestingly, once a tree was planted (so long as it was watered regularly) it would tend to do fairly well.

Aside: this rocks-everywhere business is also why there are not many underground electric lines in the northern Sierra particularly - the "soil" - rocks and boulders, and underground solid rock shelves that might go on for miles - is pretty much un-dig-able.

Thus the overhead electric lines - that are known to cause wildfire.

Anne

[Cudedog]

Ann, is that top photo what it looks like now?

I think not, Barbie, although I haven't been up there lately to check. I think that top photo is a photo of that section of the lake at a time when it was actually full. It's not that quite full just yet.

Checking this morning, Oroville still has about 65 feet left to go before it reaches "full pool" (900 feet).

https://oroville.lakesonline.com/Level/

In the top photo, it doesn't look like it is quite there yet.

Anne