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.

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/.

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. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Well the first holiday weekend of the summer has already come and gone.   The weather wasn't so good on Sunday, but the rest of the time was nice.  The village seemed to be pretty busy and the yard sellers were out in full swing.  There seemed to be a good bit going on everywhere!   No matter how you chose to celebrate, we hope you had a great weekend.

Hopefully, everyone got to take a moment and remember all the brave men and women who have died while serving our country.  Please keep all of our service men and women, as well as their families, in your thoughts and prayers.  I think we all know how difficult it is for the military families as well as those deployed.  We are very grateful for their service and we hope that picnics, yard sales and other activities don't over shadow the real meaning of the Memorial Day holiday. 

June Billing

The June bills will be out later this week.  Jerry and Jeremy are out reading meters today and tomorrow and we will be sending out the bills later this week.  The bills are for April and May's water usage.  Remember that we bill every other month on the even months.  If you have any questions, please give us a call at 951-659-2675 and we would be happy to answer your questions.

Olla Project

At the Earth Fair last Saturday, I introduced a new way of watering.  Unglazed pots buried in the garden are called ollas and are an ancient way of irrigating.  However, they are very efficient and so I felt they would be worth a try. 

You can purchase ollas ready made and they run between $20 and $30 depending on the size.  Or you can make your own by using unglazed clay pots that you can pick up at the nursery or craft store.  They come in a variety of sizes and are very inexpensive to make.  I will do a separate post on how to make one and include pictures.

Jerry and Jeremy were good enough to make me a couple of acrylic boxes so that I can see how the olla is working.

While I will be putting ollas in my own vegetable garden, I thought it would be fun to see how the plants in this container do.  Obviously it is not an idea container since it has no drainage holes, but it is for studying purposes, so we will just do the best we can with it.

I will post pictures of the ollas I put in my garden as well, but that is a few days off.  In the meantime, we will follow my planter here at the water district.  I will be keeping track of how often I have to fill the olla and how well the plants seem to do.



Acrylic planter box with two marigold plants and one olla made from two unglazed clay pots.



Close up of olla in the ground and filled with water.

You can see where the dirt is moist.

Meter Reading

Next week the boys, Jerry and Jeremy, will be out and about reading meters.  Luckily we should have no problems with snow this time.  Bills will be out by the end of next week. We bill ever other month on the even months.  The new bills will be due on June 25th.  If you do not receive your bill, please give us a call as once we mail them we have no control over them.  Not receiving your bill does not mean you do not have to pay it.  We can very easily tell you the amount you owe over the phone, so feel free to give us a call at 951-659-2675 if you do not receive a bill.

Monday Musings

PCWD's booth at the Earth Fair on May 21, 2011



A view of a compost bin made we made out of old pallets.

What a wonderful weekend it was!  The weather was just beautiful.  We had a booth at the Earth Fair and it was great to see so many of our customers there.  Many people stopped by to see our ollas and to learn a little about composting.  We had a fabulous spot in the shade and couldn't have been happier with how our booth looked.  We are very grateful to Holly Owens who was so very helpful and worked with us very closely in order for us to have this wonderful exhibit.

I think the Earth Fair was a great success.  Our neighbor booth happened to be Wild California.  For those of you not familiar with them, they sell California native plants.  You can check out their website at http://www.wildcalifornia.co/.

Wild California had a wide variety of plants available for sale and I have put their website in the links bar on the left side of this blog.  Check them out if you are looking for natives that are available close by.

Rain Again?

What is going on here?  Rain, rain and more rain.  First we had a very wet winter when the experts were calling for El Nina like conditions and now we are getting one storm after another.  This is amazing.  The wells are rising and hopefully the trees and the streams are all being replenished.  Hopefully, the temperatures will stay above freezing.  I guess planting our gardens is on hold for yet another week.

Board Meeting Today

The board meeting for May will be held this morning at 10 a.m.  Hope you can brave the rain and join us!

Board Meeting

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is our monthly board meeting.  It will be held at 10 a.m. in board room here at the water district.  Our address is 24917 Marion Ridge Road.  Hope to see you there.

In case of emergency

Just a reminder that during an emergency situation, you can tune in to WNKI radio at 1610 AM for the latest information regarding the emergency situation.

Monday Musings

It's Monday again folks and the weather is still cold!  Why is it that these cold spells come along on the weekends?  I have long wondered this.  It seems as if Mother Nature is out to get those of us that work Monday through Friday and only have the weekends off.  As of today, I only have lettuce and asparagus planted.  I keep putting off planting my garden due to the weather.  For once, my procrastinating is paying off.  I don't know about you, but I am ready for some 60 or 70 degree days.  Gardening here in Pine Cove is definitely a challenge.  But each year I get a little smarter about it and hopefully one day, I will have it all figured out.

In the meantime, I will start making some ollas for the garden and keep working in some compost.  Fire abatement can be done anytime and is a big one on the To Do List.  Luckily, mine is done.  So I am anxious to get on with the fun stuff.  It seems we have such a small window of time to be out in the garden, so it always seems like a rush to get everything done each summer.  But that is life here in Pine Cove and if I wanted summer year round, I would move to the desert.  I think living up here does make us appreciate the nice weather a little more, since we don't get it as much of it as they do off the hill. So I will keep waiting and when it turns warm for good, I will plant my garden and hope that there is enough time for it to grow and flourish.

Board Meeting Reminder

Our next board meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 18th at 10 a.m.  These meetings are open to the public and everyone is invited to come.  We hope to see you there!