Did you feel it?

No, not an earthquake, but that little nip in the air the past couple of mornings.  It is chilly in the morning.  I love that.  I checked the weather forecast and next week they are calling for overnight lows in the 40's!  That is just about cold enough to make me want to turn the heat on for a few minutes to take the chill off the house.

 It seems that nowadays, the seasons come and go in a flash.  No gradual warming or cooling, just cold one day and hot the next and visa verse.  Perhaps it is just me, but it seems like someone just throws a switch and bam, summer is over and winter is here. Very odd.  Spring and fall seem to come and go in the blink of an eye as well.  Which is too bad as they are my two favorite seasons.

The nip in the air reminds us that now is the best time to winterize you home in order to avoid problems down the road. 

The single most important thing you can do to prevent a leak from broken pipes, is to turn your water off at your customer valve when you leave your mountain home.

We cannot stress this enough.  There have been so many instances of leaks that could have been prevented if the homeowner had just turned their water off prior to leaving their home.  So we will keep promoting this until everyone gets it!

Some other winterizing tips are located on the left side of the blog, down towards the bottom, but I will post them here as well.

Winterizing Tips

Every winter season, homeowners in mountain communities are at risk of the damage and expense caused by frozen pipes. However, just a few precautions can greatly reduce your risk and may even help with your winter heating efficiency.

1. Disconnect and Drain-detaching hoses from outdoor faucets allows water to drain from the pipe.

2. Insulate-if you have pipelines in an unheated garage or cold crawl spaced under the house, wrap the water pipes before temperatures plummet. You can also purchase insulated covers for your outdoor faucets as well.

3. Seal Off Vents, Cracks and Doors-winter winds whistling through overlooked openings can quickly freeze exposed water pipes.

By following these simple steps, you will be protecting yourself from a possible leak or broken pipe due to freezing.

These are just a few tips to get you started and help prevent a broken water pipe due to freezing.  And remember, it is so much easier to do these chores now before temperatures plummet.  No one wants to be outside doing winterizing chores when the weather is cold and wet.  So do yourself a favor and get them done now while the days are still warm and sunny and come winter, you can sit inside in front of the fire and enjoy your mountain home instead of worrying.

Frugal Friday

Today is the first day of autumn.  That means summer is over and the gardening season is winding down quickly.  I am always amazed at how fast the vegetable garden goes from lush abundance to looking like it's better days are long gone.  It seems to happen over night.  The good news is the tomatoes are ripening by the dozens and that means all sorts of yummy things like tomato pie, BLT's and of course fresh, homegrown tomatoes adding to just about everything I make from salads to pizzas. 

I have also been sharing my bounty.  I think as gardeners, we love sharing what we have grown with others.  They always seem so appreciative and it makes me happy that someone else will enjoy what I labored all summer to grow.  I should can some tomatoes, but I don't know if I will get around to it or not.  Right now I am enjoying taking bags of tomatoes to unsuspecting neighbors and watching their faces light up!

Hope your garden was bountiful and that your autumn will be too!

October Board Meeting

The October Board Meeting will be held on October 12th at 10 a.m. in the board room here at the district office.  Our address is 24917 Marion Ridge Road in case you would like to attend.  Everyone is welcome.  Hope to see you there.

Lemon Lilies

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going out to the Highway 243 well property to disperse the lemon lily seeds from the pods that were open and full of seeds.  I don't know if we will get any new lilies next year or not, but I made a good try at putting the seeds in spots where they would have a good chance to germinate.  Apparently lemon lilies don't have a high germination rate, but we will see what happens.  Perhaps Mother Nature will smile upon us and a few seeds will actually develop into lilies. 

I was amazed at how many seeds are in each pod.  They were also a beautiful honey yellow color and were stacked very neatly inside the pods.  They just poured right out of the pod.  Very cool.  So we will see how it all works out.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Monday Musings

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  The Idyllwild Area Historical Society had their annual fund raiser this past Saturday.  That's right, the Idyllwild Home Tour.  I hope you were able to attend.  As per usual, there were 5 spectacular houses on the tour, each very distinctive in their design.  I played my harp at one of the houses and thoroughly enjoyed the day.  This is a major fund raiser for the IAHS. 

They are also holding a drawing for a lovely garden bench that was hand made from local bark beetle pine by staff at the Pine Cove Water District.  The lumber was milled by the Bautista inmates and the Pine Cove Water District donated the garden bench to the IAHC.  It would be an adorable addition to any one's garden or deck.  Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.  The winner will be notified by phone and need not be present to win.  So make sure you get your tickets and a chance a winning a great bench that was made right here at the Pine Cove Water District.

Rain, Rain Come & Stay!

Rain, rain come and stay,
And come again another day. 

What a great rain storm yesterday!  The weather station up at the Rocky Point tanks has now registered  a total of .71 inches of rain for the month of September.  That is great.  Wonder if we can make it to an inch?  Anyway, it was a very refreshing day giving everything a well deserved shower.  Hope you enjoyed your rainy day yesterday.

Board Meeting Reminder

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is our monthly board meeting.  It starts at 10 a.m sharp and is open to the public.  It is held in the board room here at the water district office.  We hope to see you there.

Board Meeting Reminder

Just a quick note to let everyone know that our monthly board meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 14, in the board room here at the water district.  The public is welcome to attend and the agenda is always posted in the box next to the front door, as per the Brown Act.  If you would like to see what as transpired at past meetings, feel free to visit our website at http://www.pcwd.org/ where you can read the minutes from past meetings.  Our board meetings are held the second Wednesday of every month.  We hope to see you there!

Monday Musing

Here we are back in the office after an absolutely gorgeous Pine Cove weekend.  Sometimes it is hard to believe what beautiful weather we are often blessed with.  As we move towards autumn, these last warm days of summer are to be relished.  All too soon we will hunkered down indoors with darkness arriving as we prepare our evening meal and Old Man Winter howling at our doors.  Autumn is such a glorious time of year as we grow weary of the heat and gardening chores of summer and prepare for the upcoming holidays and for spending time indoors.  But in the meantime, enjoy every glorious moment that you can and hopefully there will be many more sunny days we can spend outdoors before cold temperatures force us inside.

Labor Day

Well folks, I guess it is official.  Summer is winding down.  We just had our last official holiday of the summer season.  Since it was cool and rainy all day on Monday, I imagine a few plans got rained out or changed.  As for myself, I spent the day making jam from some boysenberries I got from a friend in Anza and canning green beans that I grew myself.  So I was happy for the less than perfect weather.  In my book, rain is the perfect weather.  But no matter, we hope everyone had a great holiday regardless of what they did.  And as the summer of 2011 comes to a close, we can take comfort in the fact that we  have the wonderful autumn season to look forward too! 

Autumn means cool, brisk mornings, spectacularly perfect sunny autumn afternoons,  leaves changing colors and that feeling in the air that the seasons are changing. We will smell the smoke from the first fires of the season as the evenings start to get cold and the smell of pine and cedar will permeate the cool evening air. It is also a time to get back to cooking soups, stews and all sorts of things that get put away for the summer months when cooking heats up the kitchen too much or there is just too much to do outside to be stuck in the kitchen over the hot stove.  But sandwiches and salads lose their appeal after several months and a bubbly beef stew with warm, homemade bread fresh from the oven and a fresh baked apple pie for dessert have been on my mind lately. 

While I am sure summer has a few punches left for us, I know it won't be long until my favorite season of the year is upon us.  Meanwhile, I will be having salad again for dinner tonight!

Board Meeting

The September board meeting will be held on September 14, 2011 at 10 a.m. in the board room here at the district office, which is located at 24917 Marion Ridge Rd.  The public is welcome to attend.  Hope to see you there.

Mail Issues?

I am not sure why, but for some reason we are having a lot of customers tell us that they haven't received their bills this past billing cycle and have had quite a few tell us that they mailed in their payment 10 or more days ago and we either have not received them or they are taking a long time to arrive.  We don't know what is going on, but the bills were mailed on on August 1st and were due on the 25th.  So if you have not received yours, please give us a call so we can tell you how much is due.  Late charges will be added to unpaid bills on Sept. 10th, so you want to avoid that.  While it is normal for a bill or two to go missing, there seems to be a rash of mail either not showing up or coming very slowly.  Hopefully, this won't continue, but in the meantime, feel free to contact us via email at Becky@pcwd.org or call us at 951-659-2675 or stop by the office and we will be happy to tell you if your payment has arrived or not or what the balance due is on your account.