Thursday, June 30, 2011

Sustainable Thursday

For a while, Sustainable Idyllwild had a contest going with Fairway Foods that people who brought their own bags for their groceries could enter for a $25 gift certificate.  But like most things, interest fades and I don't know if people are still bringing their own bags or not when they go shopping.  I am pretty good about that when I grocery shop, but the other day it dawned on me that I am not doing it when I run errands and pick up things here and there while out doing other types of shopping. 

So today I was pleasantly surprised to find a gift on my desk when I came in to work this morning.   Thanks to Holly over at the Earth Fair, I now have a nice, new canvas tote bag that isn't all stained with meat juice or other unidentifiable stains.  It even has the Earth Fair logo on it and it is beautiful.   I am going to put it in my car and use my new Earth Fair tote bag for all my other shopping.  Thanks for the bag Holly.  It made me re-commit to not using plastic bags unnecessarily.

Sometimes living sustainably seems overwhelming and hard to do, but I  want to remind everyone that if we all do a few simple things, like using canvas or re-usable bags,  it does make a big difference. 

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Rebates

As you are all aware, we are currently offering some rebates as an incentive to encourage our customers to continue to conserve water in and around their mountain home. We wanted to let everyone know that  as of July 1, 2011, we will no longer issue a rebate unless we have a copy of the receipt as proof of purchase.

We cannot accept a plumber's invoice as proof of purchase or any paper work  other than the original receipt with the purchase price listed.  Please keep this in mind when applying for your rebate.  In order to be eligible, you must bring in or send us a copy of your original receipt showing the purchase price of the item you are wanting a rebate on. We will not accept a copy of a bill from the person installing the item as your proof of purchase.  That bill would be for proof of installation only.  Labor charges for installation are not included in the rebate.

For some reason, this has been an ongoing problem and so we want to be very clear what the requirements for the rebate are.  We hope you will take advantage of our current rebate program and appreciate your cooperation in this matter.  If you have any questions regarding our rebate program, please give us a call at 951-659-2675.  All rebates must have the proper documentation and be approved by the General Manager prior to a check being issued.  Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Space Saving Garden Ideas

The ingenuity of some people never fails to amaze me.  At my home, I only have 1/5th of an acre of property.  While I long for 4 or 5 acres, that probably will never happen, so I have to do the best I can with what I have.  Gardening on a space that small sure is challenging.  So while searching for some interesting material for the blog, I went to a favorite blog of mine call gardenrant.com to see what was going on over there.  There is always a lot of info on that blog, but it was a picture that caught my eye.  It was a picture of the garden of someone named Emily Goodman.  She lived in an apartment with a paved over courtyard, but she still managed to grow an edible garden.  They found pictures of her garden on Flickr, which is somewhere I never thought to look for gardening inspiration. 

She did all of the usual things you do in a small garden like using pots and containers for edibles and she even re-purposed some items for use in her garden.  She was growing tomatoes upside down, hanging pots on her fence and using and file cabinet drawers to grow herbs in.  But what caught my eye was her strawberry towers. 

That's right. Strawberry towers.   PVC pipes with strawberries in them.   Two large pieces of it with holes drilled up and down the length of it and were filled with dirt and planted with strawberries.    Kind of a new take on the old strawberry pots.  These strawberry towers were as tall as her fence and looked like they held several dozen strawberry plants in each tower.  Now that is really clever because as we all know, strawberries take up a fair about of space in a garden.  I just might have to give this a try in my own garden. It is like the old saying, "If you can't go out, go up." As I looked around Flickr more, I came across several other variations of this and it seems to be to be a quite logical way to grow strawberries in a small space. 

 As someone who would love to grow enough strawberries to not only make jam with, but to freeze for year round use, this is an enticing idea because I just don't have the space to grow that many strawberries in traditional beds. I think this fall as I get the garden ready for winter, I will have to give this a try and do some strawberry transplanting!   So if you are going past my house one day and see PVC pipes springing up out of the garden, don't be surprised!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Monday Musings

Each Monday morning, I try to take the time to go through the stats for the blog.  It is amazing that we are getting hits from around the world!  A lot of them are due to searches people are making and a related post from our blog pops up in their search.  While they are are not specifically looking for Pine Cove Water District, I still think it is pretty neat that our little blog is being seen and some posts are being read around the world.  We do have a lot of hits from people coming directly here to read the latest posts or about the board meetings or various other things going on here at the water district as well and we are grateful to those who read regularly.    We want to thank everyone for their support of our little blog.

We are working our way to 10,000 hits and this is amazing to us.  I remember when we hit 1,000 and thought that was really great.  We never thought we would get anywhere near 10,000 hits, so we are very excited about that.

 We would also like to encourage everyone who reads the blog, to let us know what subjects they are interested in seeing here on the blog, as sometimes we feel like we are repeating ourselves quite a bit.  Water is a very important subject and can also be a very deep subject as well, (I know, very puny) but we are trying to keep it light and local here on the blog.  So if you have a suggestion for a subject, please let us know.

 If you would like to write a post on a topic that is pertinent to our blog, drop me an email and if it fits our format, I will publish it and let everyone know it was a guest poster.  You can be anonymous if you prefer, but I would love to have some guest bloggers to give the blog a bit of variety.   You can email me directly at pcwd2675@yahoo.com.  We would also like to encourage everyone to leave any comments they might have as we love to hear from our customers.

We hope you are all enjoying the nice summer weather and have a fun filled summer.

Lost Dog Reunited With Owner

The little lost dog I found two weeks ago has been re-united with it's owner!  Thanks to an ad in the Town Crier, we were able to re-unite them.  Another happy ending.

Newsletter

Our spring and summer news letter went out on Friday afternoon.  You will notice that the envelope says billing enclosed.  There is not.  We had to use our metered mail envelopes for the mailing and this is how they come.  So, there is no bill enclosed, just the news letter and our annual Consumer Confidence Report as well as a rate schedule.  It is our hope that you will take the time to read the news letter and the reports as there is a lot of information in both of them.  We try to provide plenty of information to our customers and it is our hope that you will read it and stay informed about the water here in Pine Cove.

Bills Due!

The June billing is now due and payable.  The due date was June 25th and if it is not payed by July 10th, a $15 late fee will be assessed.  If you are having difficulties paying your bill, please call us and let us know.  You can reach Becky at 951-659-2675 or email her at Becky@pcwd.org.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Board Meetings

If you weren't able to attend the last board meeting, you can find the past agendas on our website at  http://www.pcwd.org/.   You can read them and catch up on what is happening around the district.  The new budget for the fiscal year of 2011 - 2012 has been posted as well.  So pop on over and see what is happening around the Pine Cove Water District. 

Monday Musings

I think summer is finally here.  What an odd spring we had this year. As summer arrives tomorrow, the weather is due to heat up for the next couple of days.  I am sure since we had such a cool spring that this will feel like a heat wave to many people here in Pine Cove.   I think we have been having perfect weather lately.  It doesn't get any better than the low 70's in the day time and 50's at night.  What could be better?  The coming week looks to be very pleasant once we get past Wednesday's predicted high of 86.  It will then go back to the 70's and night time temps will drop from the 60's back to the 50's.  It is during this type of weather that I enjoy living in Pine Cove the most.  It is truly idyllic.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Edible Cottage Gardens

One thing I love about Idyllwild and Pine Cove is that we have very few lawns.  I have always been more fascinated with gardens than lawns and never quit understood what all the fuss was about anyway when it comes to grass.  To this day, I do not understand the fascinating people have with grass.  While a small patch here or there is nice, especially if you have young children, any more than that is such a waste.

As for me, I am fascinated with potage gardens, edible landscaping, cottage gardens and woodland gardens.  Why?  Well, several reasons.  One, I love the idea of growing your own food.  If you are going to water something, it should provide you with something in return.  Grass doesn't really do this, but berry bushes, fruit trees and vegetables do!  Two, I love the mix of flowers and edibles all in one landscape.  By growing tomatoes next to roses, you are getting double the bang for your buck.  Since they have similar watering needs, you not only get beautiful roses to decorate your table with, but you also get delicious tomatoes for on your table as well.  All for the same watering effort.  Thirdly, I just love the kind of wild and overgrown look of an edible cottage garden.  It is organized chaos.  Isn't there something enchanting about a garden that is just a little bit overgrown and that you can't see through?  It makes you feel secluded and protected.  You want to step through the gate and follow the path around to see what surprises lie in store for you.

How fabulous is it to walk around the garden, stop and smell a rose and then take a step or two and bend down and pick a delicious, ripe strawberry?  Now that is my idea of a garden.  I have many books in my personal library on this type of gardening.  While it is slow going at my own garden, I am working towards this. Everyone can do this type of gardening.  Thinking of planting a new tree this year?  Why not go with a fruit or nut tree?  Need some bushes, how about blueberries?  Not only will you get some delicious fruit, but some varieties turn a brilliant red or orange color in the fall.  Looking for a vine to shade a spot or grow up an arbor?  How about a grape vine?  There are many ways we can incorporate edibles into our landscaping.  Think of adding edibles as getting a twofer!

Veggie gardens don't have to be long straight rows of vegetables.  There are a variety of wonderful garden accessories these days that can make a vegetable garden aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.  How lovely are pole beans scampering up a wooden trellis?  Or cucumbers or cherry tomatoes climbing up an arbor?  Growing your own food can be a very rewarding experience.  While growing your own vegetables may not be cheaper than buying these items at the store, there are many inherent benefits from gardening that have nothing to do with money.  You will be getting exercise, fresh air, sunshine and a hobby out of it.  Plus, I guarantee you that what ever you grow will taste way better than anything you can buy in the store.  So the next time you are out shopping for plants for your garden, don't forget to stop by the vegetable and herb section and see what edibles you can add to your garden.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Lost Dog!

Can you help this poor lost girl find her humans?  On Friday afternoon, my daughter found a little, black dog in front of our house.  She is a terrior mix and has no ID tags.  I will be keeping her at my home and if her owner's don't come forth, ARF will be putting her up for adoption after the required amount of time goes by.

She is a very sweet girl and it is obvious she was someone's pet.  She is house broken and a very good girl in the house.  I am sure she is missing her human family very much.  I will be fostering her until her owners claim her or a new home is found.  Please contact us if you know who owns this sweet little dog.

Monday Musings

What a wonderful weekend we just had.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  There is nothing better than warm days and cool nights.  Makes for wonderful sleeping.  Well, unless you  have to listen to your neighbors barking dogs from 1 am until about 8 or 9 am each day. Please forgive me for the rant that follows, but I have gotten no more than about 3 or 4 hours sleep each night over this past weekend and I may not be in my normal good humor, as I am not one that can function well if I don't get my 8 hours per night!

Here in Pine Cove, I would like to think that we are all neighbors, regardless of our specific addresses.  Since I work at the water district and get to met many of you, I view you all as my neighbors and would hope that you would return that favor to me as well. That being the case, I try to keep my home's appearance and noise level to what I would consider reasonable for my particular neighborhood and I would hope that others would return the favor.  I am finding out that this is not the case.

 Since I have moved to my current home, I have been inundated with music blasting so loud it rattled the dishes in my cupboards, couples fighting in the street using extremely vulgar language within ear shot of my two young daughters,  a pit bull breeder who beat his dogs in the front yard despite my attempts to stop the abuse, various renters who brought with them assorted problems such as drug use and child abuse, a condemned property, a drug dealer who had customers coming and going at all hours and then there was that whole woman's shelter fiasco.  If I described some of the goings on I have witnessed over the past few years to people unfamiliar with Pine Cove, they would think I was living in the ghettos of the inner city somewhere!  I don't think that my experiences are typical of life in Pine Cove though.  At least I hope not.  As each one has moved on, I breath a sigh of relief and think OK, now things will be normal.  But to no avail, as one problem seems to be replaced with another.  I am beginning to think that I have had the misfortune to purchase a house smack dab in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle of Pine Cove. 

I have long pondered why people get dogs, only to shove them out into the yard and pay little mind to them or their socialization and training.  My dogs are not perfect and every naughty behavior they have developed is due to either a lack of training, discipline or an over indulgence on my part. They are not to be blamed.  Such is the case with the barking dog in my vicinity.  He is obviously lonely outside all night and all day and is trying to get his human owner's attention.  Barking is the only way he has of communicating.  When he is ignored, he continues on in hopes of getting attention.  Unfortunately, from what I heard, all he got was shouted at. What people don't seem to realize is that dogs do not train themselves and do not just automatically behave in the ways we want them to.  They have to be taught

This really breaks my heart to think of a dog not getting the love and attention he so desperately wants and needs.  So I would like to remind everyone that being a dog owner is a very long and serious commitment.  Sometimes as long as 15 years or even more. Please do not get a dog without taking the time to really stop and think it through.  They look to us to meet all of their needs.  There is so much more to owning a dog than just feeding it every day.  They have mental needs as well as physical needs and providing them with plenty of  mental stimulation is just as important as giving them  lots of exercise and  fresh, clean food and water.  On top of that, they need training, discipline and lots of affection and interaction with their humans.  There is also the financial aspect of owning a pet.  They need shots, visits to the vet, get sick and of course need things like food, collars, leashes, toys and medications.  So please, be brutally honest with yourself before you adopt a dog, because it you aren't, then it is the dog and your neighbors who will pay the price for your bad decision.

We have a very special and unique community here in Pine Cove and it would be my dream that we would all live by the simple rule we learned in kindergarten.  Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.    It is really that simple.  Please, think through your decision to get a particular pet and really be honest with yourself as to the level of care and commitment you can realistically provide for the animal before you get it.  They have no control over who adopts them and I am sure it isn't the dog's choice to be locked outside in the yard all night.  I know my dogs are at their happiest when they are with their human family.  I hope that this particular dog's owner will see the light and provide his dogs with the attention they are so desperately trying to get.  And if you are thinking of adopting a dog, make sure you can do so for the right reasons and that you can provide for ALL of it's needs.  Please take the time to think it through and be sure you are ready to make such a huge commitment.  Everyone will thank you for it.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Board Meeting this morning

There is a board meeting this morning at 10 a.m.  The public is welcome.  Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Board Meeting Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our monthly board meeting.  It will begin at 10 a.m.  The agenda has been posted outside our front door since Friday if you care to see what is going to be on it.  Minutes from previous board meetings are posted on our website at www.pcwd.org if you care to read those.  Everyone is welcome to attend and we hope to see you all there!

As mentioned in a previous post, Tom McCullough and Mike Esnard will serve another term on the board.  Since no one choose to run against them, no election was necessary.  Congratulations to Tom and Mike.  We look forward to continuing our work with them.

In case you are wondering, our board consists of 5 members who are Tom McCullough, Joel Palmer, Dan Fandrich, Lou Padula and Mike Esnard.  You can see their pictures posted on the right hand side of the blog.

We would encourage everyone to come to a board meeting and find out more about the water district, how it is run and what are plans are for the future, as well as the state of our water supply here in Pine Cove.  Our board meetings are very informative and will help you understand where our water comes from, how good it is and what we do to preserve the supply.  Hope to see you there.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Congratulations to Tom and Mike

A hearty congratulations goes out to incumbents Tom McCullough and Mike Esnard on their re-election to the Pine Cove Water District Board of Directors.  Since no else decided to run against them, it was not necessary to hold an election.  This will save the water district approximately $4,000 by not having to hold an election.   We take this as a sign that the residents of Pine Cove are happy and content with the way the current board is handling the running of the water district.  Everyone here at the water district, Jerry, Becky, Vicki, Jerry J. and Jeremy are glad to have them back for another term.

Board Meeting

Just a quick reminder to let everyone know that there is a board meeting on Wednesday, June 8th at 10 a.m.
The public is invited to attend.  The minutes from the last board meeting are posted on our website at http://www.pcwd.org/.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

June Board Meeting

The June board meeting will be held on June 8 at 10 a.m. in the board room here at the water district.  Everyone is invited to attend.  We hope to see you there. If you are interested,  minutes from the past board meetings are posted on our website at www.pcwd.org.  Just look under the heading Meetings.