1) CMMA Breakfast is on Saturday 3 at 8:30am
2) CMMA Board Meeting is on Saturday 10
3) USDA Food Distribution will be on Monday 19.
3) Potluck is on Saturday 31
05/10/2008
Our little community is warming up. Isn't spring wonderful! On my daily jogs through the desert I’m seeing all kinds of critters coming out of their holes to prance and skitter about the desert! Bob Stonebraker called for me to come over and take some pictures of baby doves that are in a nest by his tool shed. I went on over but the Mom and Dad were both on the nest and wouldn’t let me see their babies. I didn’t want to disturb them much so I’ll try again another day.
Only four folks showed up for potluck. Bob and Rick Seeley were there when I arrived at 4pm. We sat around reminiscing on the “good old days” when the place would be packed with sounds of folks yapping and their kids running around doing whatever mischief kids do. Judith Bowman showed up just as I was leaving and I stuck around a little longer to have some of the strawberry pie she had brought.
Our friend Wessel arrived from Holland this week for a short stay. I went over for a visit; we had a discussion on the many issues that effect our planet. It’s refreshing getting an international perspective. Wessel said the way to find out if a restaurant makes good hamburgers is if the waitress asks how you want it cooked. It was getting late and Wessel jokingly blamed it on me for talking so much, when in fact I was doing most of the listening!
Birthdays for May: Tim Herrera, Jackie Johnston, C. Myer, Karen Van Noort, and Mary Moowea.
Thought of the week: Seems to me that we can’t wait for the government to do much of anything about the environment. We should take on the responsibility ourselves, like: drive less, conserve water, use more efficient products in our homes, and act responsibly as a consumer. That would be a good start!
Got something to sell, trade, or give away and you live in our community? Write a brief description, include a picture if you want and email it to: CopperMountainMesa@hotmail.com I'll post it here free for 2 months or until you notify me it is sold.
LAST WEEK
05/03/2008
Our little community: I was sitting on my porch enjoying the day when a truck caught my attention that had stopped down the road. A lady leaped out, ran into the desert, picked something up, and jumped back into the truck. When the truck rattled slowly on by I saw it was full of smiling children with two adults. They stopped just up the road and the lady got out to retrieve something else. So I made my way up to where they were and had a look see.
I met Egie Eaton, her husband Marvin Burns, and their five grandchildren, who were out cleaning up our desert of trash and collecting any glass or metals they could turn into the scrap yard for cash. This proud family had fallen on hard times recently; Egie had been laid off since January as a purchasing agent in the construction industry; Marvin a master mason does jobs as they come along. There’s nothing steady anymore since the housing market collapse, they told me. Their family has taken to collecting anything that they could recycle for extra cash to make ends meet, plus it gets them out of the house.
Their daughter Melissa Burns, after loosing her job and home, had to move in with Egie and Marvin with her four girls and one boy: ages four to eleven. Egie has been around horses all her life and raises nine of them on their property and says the children love them. “I believe that it’s good to have animals around kids”, she said, “but there doesn’t seem to be a market for horses these days, nobodies buying them and you can’t even give them away. I just hope the price of feed doesn’t go any higher”.
They asked me to write a “Thank You” to all the folks that come out to hand them cans and other recyclables. “It is nice to know that there are people who care enough for those they don’t even know”, Egie said.
FIVE YEARS AGO THIS WEEK The Year 2003 By Bob DeLoyd 05/10/2003
Our little community has learned that a long time resident has moved down the hill to live with her niece. Marylou Kernop has been a real asset and was involved with many activities at our community center. She had run Bingo for a number of years and attended many a board meeting where she was very outspoken. Marylou was a nurse in her younger days and taught nursing later in her career; some of her old students still keep in touch. She was an eye witness of the attack on Pearl Harbor and told me of that day. She was well liked and will be missed. I hope she will keep in touch.
Birthdays this month: Bob Nelson, Tim Herrera, Jackie Johnston, C. Myer, Ruth Ruffin, and Mary Moowea.
Have any of you ever wondered about that picture of me, at the beginning of my stories? Well, I guess that I can tell you how that came to be. It's kind of.... embarrassing!
I had been emailing Bob on & off for several months, never talking on the phone and had not yet met him in person. Bob mentioned that he would like me to write stuff for his "Website". Not being a computer wizard like Bob is, I got my wires crossed & thought that he was talking about his column in the newspaper, which as I found out later, that wasn't the case at all.
I thought "WOW", I didn't know that I could write that good. But what do I know.
I figured that Bob sent his newspaper stories in to the newspaper around Thursday or Friday, over the Internet. So I wrote my first story & emailed it to Bob, on a Tuesday and I didn't hear from Bob, so I thought that he didn't like my story about Lil' Brat.
I always check my email in the mornings right after I get up. This one evening I think it was a Thursday night, about 9 pm I decided to check my email, and I had a email from Bob that he had sent to me about 4 pm that day. He said he liked my story, and wanted a picture of me & Brat A.S.A.P.
I don't have any recent pictures of me. Since I've gained all this weight, I haven't allowed anyone to take a picture of me in the last 10 years!!
Any way, I was so excited, I started running through the house saying: Oh my god, Oh my god. I ran in to the bathroom & start applying make up! I told my husband Dana that he was going to be my photographer. He took pictures of me in the front room sitting in my chair. With and with out my glasses on. I have a digital camera so you can check out the pictures right then. I didn't like any of them. I decided we should try the bedroom. Dana took some of me standing in front of the wall, then I had him get up & stand on the bed and take pictures of me there!! (NO, Not me on the bed)!! He was taking them on a angle is all, with me still standing in front of the wall!!
By this time, Dana had taken about 30 pictures of me, I didn't like any of them & he was getting fed up with this whole thing. So I told him to never mind that was good enough. So he went off to finish watching what ever TV show I had interrupted.
I downloaded all the pictures & went through them all, and didn't like any of them. Then I got to thinking about those commercials on TV, of people taking pictures of themselves!! I didn't know if my arms were long enough or not!!! But I gave it a try. It worked!! But I had missed myself on a couple of shots so I guess those people must have practiced "A LOT" to have got such good pictures of themselves.
I got out a tape measure & measured Bob's picture in the newspaper where his column is. It is one inch tall & about a 1/2 inch wide. So I went back to looking at the pictures of myself and I thought my head looks too flat, I could use some height to it. So I took my hair & twisted it up & stuck one of those holder/comb things in my hair. I didn't even try to brush it out or anything before I did it. Bobs picture is so small & black-n-white, I thought nobody will know the difference anyway!!! I took more pictures with my hair up & there were a few pictures where I actually got my whole face in the shot. I guess Dana had seen the camera flashes going off so he came in the bedroom to investigate just as I was taking a picture of myself. We both started laughing, I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face.
After we calmed down I downloaded the rest of the pictures I took. After sitting there looking at all of those pictures, I realized they all looked like mug shots & started laughing again. After looking at all the pictures, I just picked one out by closing my eyes & moving my fingers around until I decided to open my eyes & see what picture I had picked. I thought well, it's going to be black & white, a inch tall & half a inch wide, it'll look just fine.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA, how shocked I was when I went to Bob's website & seen my picture. It was in FULL COLOR & much BIGGER, than I thought it was going to be!! The first thing I said to myself was: "OH NO!" Then I started thinking to myself; How do I always get myself into situations like this?
I keep asking you to send in stories to me but I realize I don't tell you where you can send them to, so.. If any of you out there in computer land have any stories that you would like to share, send it in to Bob at: CopperMountainMesa@hotmail.com He will see to it that I get it. Thank you. Karen
Subject: Opt Out Links For Snail Mail and DO Not Call List
National Do Not Call Registry "The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free."
Opt Out Credit Card Prescreen "Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you ("Firm Offers"). The FCRA also provides you the right to "Opt-Out", which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for Firm Offers."
DMA’s Mail Preference Service "With DMA's MPS you can remove your name from DMA member prospect lists. Please note that signing up with MPS may prevent you from receiving mail you want, such as new catalogs, coupons, announcements about new businesses in your community, and notices of special offers.
Members of the DMA are required to use our name-removal service, and all marketers are encouraged to use it. Because some mailings are prepared far in advance, please allow 30-90 days for your registration with MPS to become fully effective." Note: At one time they charged a $1.00 fee for the service but now it's free. You will need to provide a credit card number if you do it online, or you can also mail in the form.
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ROGER SMITH'S
DESERT GARDEN By Roger Smith
Here Roger's new post as of Dec. 2007!
It's December 13th as I write this. Cold at night. Nice during sunny days IF there is little or no breeze but unfortunately.....
So after the cold of early this year [12 degrees twice, teens and twenties and heat waves of 30+ degrees], the citrus "orchard" had probably no more than a half dozen bedraggled leaves/tree. And there were a couple of dozen mandarin oranges that were damaged beyond eating to add insult to injury. But, ever the optimist, I got them nursed back to health whereupon I forgot to set the automatic irrigation timer and goodbye leaves and this winter's citrus. So the score reads 0. If it isn't me, it's Mother Nature.
But the peach tree, a desert gold variety, was beyond description. Folks, if you believe that what you get from Stater's is a peach, you need to plant a tree of your own with the money with which you would part by buying your peach-like objects at the store. What are we talking here? Less than $20 for the tree, $3 for the planter mix at Barr Lumber [forget Home Depot], and a bag of plant food for $5. It isn't rocket science. But DO place a piece of furnace pipe around the trunk and be sure it is about 36 inches in length. That keeps the rabbits from girdling your tree and killing it and the chipmunks are unable to climb up the stovepipe's metal sides into the fruit. I also use a bird net. As the tree is going to be kept trimmed to the 6 foot tall level, the bird net takes very little time to emplace and with care is usable for years. Your planting spot should be one that gives shelter from the wind but you need full sun for much of the day. I am building windbreaks for my trees as I have done for the vegetable garden.
You may recall my mentioning that I have started using bagged steer manure. I think it is working well but I have a feeling that it should sit in the beds for probably a month to further decompose. I say this because as the stuff is composted it does have a rather high nitrogen level. I think this is why I have noticed the white icicle radishes growing large tops but no radish worth eating. So late winter, say early February, I'll try some in the same bed but with no recent additions of manure to test my hypothesis.
Now, as I didn't sell my garlic crop this year, I had a great deal more for planting purposes. It got into the ground a month late; end of October. There seems to be no problem. The bulbs sprouted very soon after planting; 4 days! Onions got in late also and then I replanted due to grasshopper damage. They are coming up slowly. I have been using bubble wrap to warm the soil somewhat and of course forwind protection.
Put the toad back into the vegetable garden last month. I believe it is 7 years old now. Two years ago it had taken it upon itself to move to the citrus trees during an unusual event; rain. There wasn't much to eat though due to the drought so we'll see how it does out in the vegetable garden again.
If you are in need of some earthworms for your endeavors, the pet store in JT has them. I have some surprisingly large ones in the raised beds by the cabin. They came with some spare sod that I was given and which was put down as a mulch. That idea reflected my lack of awareness of the termites we have out here. They ate all the dried grass. As they do anything that grows and sheds leaves and branches. So, as another experiment, this spring I planted wheat to enrich the soil and to prevent the wind from blowing away any more ground. This isn't Oklahoma 1930, you know. The termites have not bothered this. Then I planted two rows of garlic right into the dead wheat and it is a practice I shall continue in the future. No, you don't touch the wheat or ground; just poke a hole in the dead wheat/soil and then water. The wheat is dead remember, so there is no competition for whatever is planted in it and the soil is not prone to blow away as the wheat's roots and dry stalks prevent this. You will find that without fencing the rabbits would eat every last stalk so fence it off to about three feet high. And let me emphasize; you don't dig the ground up come planting time. Don't disturb that wheat/soil top layer. Simply plant in it and water. Of course, if you are planting seeds and not garlic bulbs then scratch a seed row but the less disturbance to the wheat/soil layer the better. This technique is growing in popularity in this country and has been in use for decades in some other small grain growing regions. Studies also show a mulch such as above produces higher quality produce, reduces water use, and again, prevents wind erosion.
So what's growing? Carrots, tons of garlic, radishes are just coming up, onions are showing their heads, and I'm waiting on some lettuce. The arugula and mustard spinach are gone now; victims of an aphid infestation and some other small critter. Also, I scattered flower seeds in a new bed. Spring will tell what was planted.
Oh yes, we are trying some genetic manipulation of the bees. We'll see how this one works this spring also.
Happy growing! Roger Smith
Letters From Kenya
Annelies Kuiper lives in our little community and is a professional writer: "Kenya Cowgirl" Uhuru International 1990. Also she is a board member of the Copper Mountain Mesa Association. Annelies has decided to return to her place of birth "Kenya" and wants to share her adventure with us. Kenya has been going through a period of unrest lately and we all hope for the safety and well being of our neighbor Annelies.
EMAILS SENT TO US: For Older Emails(click here) Only nice emails will be posted on this Website! All others will be forwarded to the CopperMountainMesa.com vault and stored for my future amusement.
FROM: Brenda Zimmer SENT: Fri 4/04/08 SUBJECT: Community Center Break-in
hi bob
this is brenda and im sure you have heard that the center got broke in to again
sometime between 6 p.m friday the 29th and 11 a.m satuday the 30th
this really upsets me that there is a person or people somewhere in our community
that think they can get away with breaking in and vandalizing property that does not belong to them.
if u havent put it in the paper yet i would like for u to add my say so about the whole thing
WHOEVER the CULPRITS are that they will not get away with this behavior and will be caught and held responsible for there actions.
we work hard to keep what little we have in our community and no one has the right to do what this or these culprits have done
thank you very much
brenda zimmer
and yes you can put it that Brenda Zimmer said these words!
FROM: Susan Jordan SENT: 03/27/08 SUBJECT: Sahara Mustard plant Invasion
Bob:
Hello. We've got a little cabin up on the mesa, corner of Sunfair and Winters, near the community center. We've met once at a potluck and I called you one time a few months back about suspicious activity at the cabin involving a blue truck. Anyway, I'm writing because I just went over and pulled all the Sahara mustard at the cabin and there was a lot of it.
You've probably read about it in the newspaper: a non-native plant trying to take over the area. I talked to a ranger at the park center in Joshua Tree and he said this plant is the biggest threat to our area that we have right now. The biggest threat! He said it is reproductively aggressive, getting its seeds out before any of the local plants can. It is right now sucking up the moisture and nutrients that the native plants need to grow. He says it will wipe out the native wildflowers.
If you pick it and throw it on the ground, the seeds will continue to mature. Kill the plant and the seeds survive. You've got to pull it an bag it to keep it from spreading.
It's easy to identify once you get the hang of it. And sure enough, the stuff on our property is already loaded with seeds. If you need me to show you what it looks like, I'd be glad to. Seems like if everyone on the mesa pulled it out and bagged it from their property we might be able to stop its march of destruction.
Thought you'd be interested.
Susan Jordan
PS We live in Joshua Tree now. Had the cabin from back when we lived in Big Bear.
Here is a link to the Desert Museum: Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) that describes that plant, has pictures, and the devastating effects it has on our desert! //bob
FROM: Mary SENT: Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 8:02 PM SUBJECT: Saying thanks to all our friends in 29 Palms
There comes a time in everyone's life when we have to say goodbye. Chuck Sercu loved living and made sure he enjoyed everyday. Had many good friends, who all looked out for him as his cancer got the better of him. You: friends /angels know who you are. I can't thank you enough. Chuck had a chance to be with his grown children and grandchildren toward the end and he seized the opportunity.
His ex wife and 25 year companion offered and she took care of him in his final months of life with the help of his loving daughter Sheri and son Christopher and I am sure both of their family also helped. The Collins family where also their to make his final months where ones a family man could be proud of. My sisters Susan and Marian made sure our parents Marge and Joseph had a chance to say goodbye by driving them to Watertown, Tenn. to say goodbye. I know there are many more people who helped make his life more comfortable by doing things as he needed them done, again can't thank you enough.
May we all wrap up our lives with this many angels around us.....
FROM:karen gay mcburney SENT:Fri 9/21/07 3:59 PM SUBJECT: Hi Everyone
Hi bob,
Say hi to all and tell all them everyone up here is okay, i'm just having troubles with my meds as normal. Here it's wet and cold again. but it's warm in the late morning and afternoons. Have a wonderful day.
thanks for all the news! Everyone says hi back at you.
in friendshipness,
karen gay mcburney FROM: Frank Francis SENT: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:15 PM SUBJECT: UFO Sightings
HI Bob,
I was reading about ufo sightings in your column. Tere seeing and never said anything to
anyone hoping that it was something military. It's nice to know we
weren't the only ones. There is something to these reports.
Frank Francis
SPECIAL NOTICES:
Shati has been FOUND! Ok, I know this has been here for a long time Shati been home for many months now So dog dang it! give me something else to post!
The time has come to take a bold jump into the unknown and fight the beast with yer bare hands. To go the way of yer ancestors and build a fire for warmth, to slay a critter for food. To understand the meaning of hunger in a time of plenty. To spit in the eyes of yer antagonist! To howl at the moon... And enjoy life! LIVE!
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Our little community is warming up. Isn't spring wonderful! On my daily jogs through the desert I’m seeing all kinds of critters coming out of their holes to prance and skitter about the desert! Bob Stonebraker called for me to come over and take some pictures of baby doves that are in a nest by his tool shed. I went on over but the Mom and Dad were both on the nest and wouldn’t let me see their babies. I didn’t want to disturb them much so I’ll try again another day.
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Karen's Corner
I didn't like any of them. I decided we should try the bedroom. Dana took some of me standing in front of the wall, then I had him get up & stand on the bed and take pictures of me there!! (NO, Not me on the bed)!! He was taking them on a angle is all, with me still standing in front of the wall!!
By this time, Dana had taken about 30 pictures of me, I didn't like any of them & he was getting fed up with this whole thing. So I told him to never mind that was good enough. So he went off to finish watching what ever TV show I had interrupted.
