Kudos to UkiahDailyJournal.com for doing a good job of keeping up with wildfire news in the Mendocino County area of northern California. In their Fire Updates sidebar for today is a link to DIY Smoke Filter from Ukiah Valley TV.

What a great YouTube video showing you how to make your own simple smoke filter for under $30. We all ought to have one of these in every room for the duration of the fires.

Buy more than one filter, if you can, because it needs to be replaced after it becomes clogged with particulate matter and other stuff in the air. The DIY video shows how much stuff their filter collected in 2 hours. Yuck, I hate to think what we dogs and people have been breathing in!

Just tape the filter to the BACK of the fan, making sure that the air-flow directional arrows on the filter face toward the fan — in the direction that the air moves.

It's hard to judge how much protection you can get from the DIY smoke filter, but it's better than nothing. I've been so wheezy that I wish we had one right here in our home office right now.

"Portable smoke filter" : Here's a trick that dog-ma saw for breathing more safely while getting from place to place outdoors in the smoke. Wet a washcloth or small towel, even a shirt. Wring it out a bit and wrap it around so it covers your nose and mouth. You can use a wet cloth to help someone else, too — like a pet, or a young child or baby — but make sure the cloth is loose enough to allow them to breathe.