Summer is definitely here and the swamp cooler is a much-appreciated appliance right now! After dark, it cools off and I sleep with doors and windows open: except on those nights when the wind is gusting and the roof sounds like it's about to be ripped off! I find those howling winds so unsettling. Our beautiful Desert recently reminded me how wild it is out here. Our beloved 13-year-old cat Oreo, was killed by coyotes, right under my bedroom window. I grew up in Kenya and was exposed to the cruelties of nature from a very early age, but I was completely devastated by the primal savagery I heard under my window that night. Oreo killed many helpless birds, reptiles and rodents during her Life, so her death does seem just in the natural order of things. I try to comfort myself that some Coyote babies ate well that night and Nature is the ultimate recycler, but it doesn't help me: I miss her achingly. With her presence, personality and incredible vocal talents; she was the last of a herd of cats that have lived here over the years and she was truly amazing. A home without a cat is less joyful to me and wow, those rodents have wasted no time moving in to chew on my flowers!
Well, Life goes on, so I'll get down to business. There will be No Breakfast or Bingo for the months of July and August.

The Board Meetings will still be held on the second Saturday of the month at 10a.m. (July 11th, August 8th and September 12th.) Please join us, discussions get pretty lively at times and we value your input. By the way, there has been a change on the Board. Our friendly, longtime neighbor Brenda Zimmer has resigned from the Board, as well as the Membership Committee and moved off the Mesa. My dear friend, Rob Reese, (who has lived up here, off and on, since 2006 and is a fellow writer), has agreed to take her place.

Our very own Hi-Desert Star columnist, Bob DeLoyd will be joining Rob, Kathy Quinn and I on the Membership Committee. We will be meeting and planning events during the Summer and I will let you know about future get-togethers in the Fall Newsletter. The first event hosted by the Membership Committee, will be an "End of Summer Blast" on Saturday October 10th, 2009: a master B-B-Q event, with $1.00 hot-dogs, $2.00 hamburgers, $2.50 cheeseburgers and all the Fixin's. This neighborhood Family get-together starts at 2p.m.: coffee and water will be served and we have a soda machine. We would love to see you there and bring your Friends and Family.

The Potluck Parties will continue on the last Saturday of the month. These are a lot of fun and the food is delicious, so if you find yourself free on July 25th and August 29th at around 4p.m., please join the party and bring a culinary masterpiece of your own to share.
The U.S.D.A. Food-Distribution will still be held and the Thrift Room may be visited during the previously mentioned events, or by appointment during the Summer months. Please call the Center at (760)362-5212 for more information. Leave a message and your call will be returned a.s.a.p. Please remember, you can Recycle your unwanted Tires inside the fenced compound, behind the Fire Station, on the first two Saturday mornings of every month, through the Summer. Please, no rims and no dumping after hours.

Speaking of the Fire Station, 2nd vice-president on the Board - Ray Foyil, has now set up a dialogue with the Fire Department. Negotiations are continuing, to find solutions around Fire Station 44 and how to use it for the benefit of our Community. I will keep you posted.

Keep in touch with the Neighborhood, by logging on to: www.coppermountainmesa.com and check out all the News and important dates. The website is run by Bob DeLoyd: don't forget to check out his "Copper Mountain Mesa" column in the Hi-Desert Star every Saturday.

In the interests of saving money on postage stamps, we are trying to send our quarterly Newsletter to as many Members as possible, via e-mail. Please contact me at: cmmcanewsletter@gmail.com and I will e-mail you the next Newsletter. This is the official Newsletter e-mail address, so please be sure to use it from now on: I'd love to hear from you. Suggestions on how to make the Community Center more welcoming and accessible to our Neighbors, would be most appreciated.

I hope you have a pleasant Summer and look forward to seeing you bumping down the dirt roads!
Stay well, Annelies Kuiper

Karen's Corner
By Karen Van Noort
04/04/2009

THE GREAT ESCAPE

Our Copper Mountain Community; Dana and I had been talking about taking our wild cat "Mama" to get her shots for a couple of weeks now. Because she is a "Wild" cat, we can't just put her in a cat carrier and take her to the Vet, like you take your domesticated cat. In order to protect both the animal and the person giving the shots, they need to be able to get up close, to give the shots with-out taking them out of the cage. You can't do that in a cat carrier! We haven't tried to get Mama back in a cage, since the time we had Mama fixed a couple of years ago. She is behind on getting her shots, so we really need to get her in to keep her protected against diseases.

I don't know if it's because of the economy or what, but the S.P.C.A. no longer rents traps. Dana had to go to Hemet, Ca. to Harbor Freight to buy our own cage/trap. It doesn't look as sturdy as the ones we rented from the S.P.C.A. For several months now, we've had two male cats hanging around our place. They are both beautiful, but they are constantly fighting each other, so we would like to capture them & have them fixed and get all their shots also. The males are both bigger than Mama, so if we get Mama to the Vet in this cage, it may work for the two males also. I don't know if any of you have ever had any dealings with a "Wild" animal? They are not like a domestic animal when they get hurt or scared. They are about 10 times more explosive and violent than a domestic animal, and you never know what will set them off. Even though Mama will let me pick her up & hold her, I am always careful to not make sudden moves and not scare her.

We got our cage and made plans on what day we would be taking her in to get her shots. The night before, Dana brought the cage inside and put it in our bedroom. This cage is about 3 ft. long; it takes up a lot of room. I asked Dana why he doesn't leave it outside until the morning. His answer was: he didn't want the cage to be cold for Mama. I started laughing! Mama has 3 inch long fur, I don't think she will notice if the cage is cold.
The night before putting Mama in the cage, Dana informs ME that "I" will be the person putting Mama in the cage! I hadn't really thought about it, I just assumed that it would be Dana doing it.
I said; ME? Why ME? I thought that you were going to do it? Dana replied that "he didn't want Mama to get mad at him".

Dana's comment made me think back to several years ago, when we had taken Mama & her two kittens in to be fixed. We came home and put the cages in our kitchen. We were supposed to keep them quiet for a couple of days to let the anesthesia get out of their bodies and give them a chance to start healing from the surgery. As we were putting litter boxes into their cages Mama got out and Dana tried to catch her. Even though she was still under the influence of the anesthesia, she literally ripped and bit Dana up good. So now, I'm wondering if he is still remembering that, and afraid this could happen to him again.

Here is a strange thing I've been living with for several weeks now. On March 12TH, Dana & I did a quick two day, turn around trip to New Mexico, to pick up a Burro camping trailer for our daughter Gina. We were back on the night of the 14TH. Since that trip our animals have all changed.
Mama, now comes in by the front door around 7 or 8 pm. She climbs up onto my lap & lays there purring. She has "NEVER" done that before. When she first started doing that I looked over at Dana, like do you see this? Dana has a funny look on his face, and shrugs his shoulders. He said I guess she is telling you that she loves you? Before our two day trip, Mama would sneak in after we went to sleep, then climb up on the hot water heater and fall sleep right there. But now, after coming back from our two night trip when it's time for bed, Mama has decided that she is going to sleep on my pillow!!! I don't want her to sleep on my pillow, so I have gently pushed her off the bed several times and she keeps hopping right back up! I finale thought I had got her to stay off the bed, but I woke up later with her asleep right next to me. She has been doing this every single night since that two day trip and I don't understand what is going on with her.

Dana made the comment; maybe Mama will get mad at you for putting her in the cage, and she will decide not to sleep with you anymore. I thought about it for a minute, then decided that was a good idea.
OK, so it's about time to get Mama in the cage. Dana has me put on one of his heavy duty Levi jackets, and some leather gloves. I'm nervous; I don't know how Mama is going to re-act to me trying to put her in a cage. I'm thinking to myself: (I should probably stuff a pillow in the front of this jacket, I should also put on my full face motorcycle helmet, and to round things out, maybe I should put my oven mitts on over the leather gloves as a little bit more protection).

I have Dana set the cage up in our front room, then we re-hearse for a couple of minutes, about me shoving Mama in the cage and Dana shutting it and locking the door so she can't get out.
When we figure that we got that down pat, Dana puts a big plastic tarp in the back of our Jeep, just in case Mama decides to spray the inside of the car. In the car we put; my sunglasses, cell ph., my asthma in-haler, and a small cooler of water. We are all set, all we have to do is get Mama in the cage, put her in the car, lock the house and we are off.

I get Mama and walk in to the house, Dana is standing by. I'm petting & talking to Mama, then I bend down and into the cage she goes. Dana locks the door. I tell Dana; that was just too easy!
We lock the house doors and put Mama in the back of the Jeep. Dana puts a white sheet over the cage, hoping it will keep Mama calm. We get in, fasten our seat belts. Mama is making all this noise and it sounds like she is bouncing around in the cage. We back out of our parking space, Dana puts the Jeep in gear and we start to take off.
I hear this strange sound, I turn around, and YIKES!! There is Mama out of the cage, YIKES!! All the hair on her head is pushed up from both sides & literally comes to a point on the top of her head, if it wasn't so scary it would have been funny. Mama is sitting on the back seat with this wild eyed frantic look on her face!! Double YIKES!! I yell at Dana: SHE'S OUT!! He hits the brakes & looks at me like he can't believe it and says: WHAT??
Before I could say anything else, Mama flies up in the air between us. I have no idea how she did this, but as she was flying between us, she makes a left handed turn in mid air and flies right past Dana's face and smacks really hard into Dana's window. She slides down the window and is now sitting on Dana's arm stunned. Dana is trying to pet her to keep her calm. We knew we wouldn't get her back into the cage, so Dana opened his door and out she flew. We didn't even make it a whole 10 feet before Mama made her escape!!
All the doors are still locked on the cage, so I'm thinking that Mama was somehow able to squeeze between the cage walls & the door to make her escape.

I guess we really hurt her feelings. We didn't see her for the rest of the day. Later that night, I awoke to Mama sleeping next to me, so I guess that she has forgiven me. We are going to get her in to get her shots, but before we do that, we will have to do some kind of re-enforcement to this cage. It is just too flimsy as it stands for now. Does anyone out there have any: taking the pet to the Vet stories to share? Send it in to Bob, we would all like to hear what your experience was. Thanks, Karen:)

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.

DTV converter box with the $40 coupon that the government sends out (1-888-DTV-2009 or online at WWW.DTV2009.GOV). I had earlier called the station (County Service Area 70 TV-5 at 367-1833), which sends our signal over UHF; a nice lady told me we wouldn’t be needing converters in our area. But I bought one anyways just in case I wanted to someday sell my old analog TV set. Well I connected it to my TV just to make sure it all functioned ok and wasn’t really expecting to receive anything. I turned the dang thing on; it did a scan, and found four channels! Unfortunately three were paid advertisements and one was a Spanish station. I tried it later that night and found that the three advertisement ones changed to Korean and Armenian languages, while the third played Spanish. I watched a little of a Korean soap opera, but had trouble keeping up with the subtitles. I’ll tell you one thing the picture I received was crystal clear just like satellite! Maybe someday we can get some American-speaking channels on it. That would be nice!

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ROGER SMITH'S

DESERT GARDEN
By Roger Smith
06/28/2009

Well, some rules that are cast in stone have been gleaned from this fall, winter, and spring growing endeavors. Here they are;
#1, red onions are not suited for my place. Despite years of attempts, only the initial attempt was successful. This includes a number of varieties.
#2, onion transplants are not worth the effort. Eat; don't plant your onion thinnings.
#3, leeks...........again, can't handle the weather at my place.
Now, the "continuous cover" experiment. It is working but buckwheat simply doesn't produce enough vegetative mass. It decays down too quickly and there isn't enough to my liking. I will try Peaceful Valley or some such outfit to try something different; maybe a clover or alfalfa. I prefer a grass as grasses generate goodly amounts of ground cover and mulch and would die off much more quickly than the clover and alfalfa with their deep roots.
So that's all for now! The final for the onion grows is in the future and I'll write of the results.

Alright! Here they are at last. The results the entire basin has been eagerly awaiting; The Great Onion Grow-off.
First, the varieties.
Red onion seed used in the test came from the red anposta and early California varieties.
The "sweet spanish" varieties, what the store calls yellow onions or brown. There were 4 of them and they are hybrid granex, texas early grano, spanish Utah, and ringmaster.
The results take few words.
The two reds were failures. As has been the result every time I have tried growing reds except........................that's right. The first one. So after at least 5 years of wasting water, I am zeroing red onion off my list.
The others; Easy. The Texas early grano from Lilly Miller and hybrid granex yellow prr from Ferry Morse are about equal. A delight to grow. Pull them out mid May. The hybrid granex had the biggest ones but also two were lost due to disease.
The Texas early grano is very uniform. Boy are they eye candy.
The ringmaster had poor germination and is not bulbing up. Spanish Utah did not bulb and has gone to seed.
There ya have it from my spot on the earth.

Something interesting happened close to where we live on Mesa Rd. Perhaps something for your website. I am sending it to Hi Desert Star as well.
At about 9.00 pm on June 24 going about 3/4 of mile west on Mesa Rd from Border we discovered a 25ft trailer blocking the Rd completely. A white pick-up truck was hooked up to the trailer, but no sign of human beings.
We called Sheriffs department who referred us to CHP. The call was logged at CHP office around 9:30 pm. CHP promised to investigate.
In the morning I walked to the trailer. The truck was gone. I called CHP again. I was referred to Code Enforcement who referred me to the County traffic divison. I was informed that the Mesa Rd is County maintained from Border to Sunburst. The trailer is sitting on Mesa Rd between Sunburst and Sunset
Confused I called CHP again. Apparently no officer investigated the trailer June 24. However this morning June 25, Officer Moffit CHP showed up by the trailer. Le Fevre's Towing company is as far as we know in the process of removing the trailer today (11.00 Am).
I want to give credit to CHP and Le Fevre's Towing who responded and took some action quickly. Many of us are using Mesa Rd to get to Border and are just upset that some people don't have respect for the environment and just dump stuff in the desert causing headaces for us living here.
Attached are a pictures of Officer Moffit and the trailer as well as the trailer itself. (Used by permission of Officer Moffit)
Lennart Nyberg

Hi Bob
I don't really have to ask what's new with you all up there read your site every week to keep up! my daughter Anna does too. One of these days I'll just have to come up and see you all again and maybe have breakfast or play a little Bingo! We'll shall see, might just do that.
Just wanted to say hi to everyone and tell you all what is new with my family. My oldest Son Dave is in the Air Force stationed in Wyoming. He is married as all you know and he has two boys, Zane 3 and Owen 2 will enclose pictures later. But the real news is my Daughter Anna you all know she got married a few years ago cause we had her shower for that at the center. She now lives in Houston Texas and works for NASA. Anyway She is going to have her first in August and we know already it's going to be a boy. Then some of you remember my youngest BJ well he is all grown up now and owns 2 Fork Lift sales, repair and rental shops sown here in Santa Fe Springs. Then there is me well same stuff different day with me. Just getting older like the rest of you. So that is my life with my kids all in a nutshell.
Just really wanted to tell you hi and let you know I think about you all often. Please say hi to everyone for me! Hope to see you all soon,
Jackie Johnston