Breathe easier on smoky days
The same mask that stops colds and flu in the winter can help you breathe easier when forest fires are filling our air with smoke. Your breath moistens the inside of the mask; smoke particles get caught up in the moist cloth, greatly reducing the amount you take into your lungs. A bandanna cold mask has more cloth to catch the smoke than a dust mask or medical mask, and more room inside it to breathe easily. You can breathe easier in your yard by using misters to clear the smoke by taking it to the ground, where it becomes good fertilizer. The snakelike standing plastic misters with twin emitters that you can usually buy at the Grange Coop or Diamond Building Supply work very well for this, as they produce a very fine mist. They also can be moved around, as they are made to be used on a hose. (The hose should be heavy duty 5/8” or cheap ½” to take the pressure.) Individual mist emitters tha...