Shula on thu 1 jun 06
Background:
I am continuing my quest to find a home or land on which to build a home within my budget and I am trying to find this dream in California. I am now turning to the desert. I plan to spend a day this weekend checking out Desert Hot Springs. It's near Palm Springs, but less expensive. (It's also near Joshua Tree national park.) I am looking for an affordable (if you can use that word in CA) home to buy so that i can set up a clay studio and a kiln (or two). Since i am back to being a road warrior during the week, I have to live fairly close to an airport.
Questions:
I have never lived in a desert region, so I am requesting help. What do I need to look for besides a swamp cooler? Are there animals, vegetables, or minerals that i should watch out for? It appears many of the properties have septic tanks. I've never had a home with a septic tank. Are there any special problems related to septic tanks in the desert? i have seen several properties advertised that have their own wells. I am steering clear of them because when I think of the desert, I think of the lack of water and I don't want to be dependent on a well on my property. Is my logic sound?
I remember Joyce commenting about the wind/sand storms with winds sand blasting the paint off of cars. Does this happen often, high winds and sand storms, that is? Here near the coast, we can depend upon ocean breezes cooling things off every afternoon about 2 pm. If I live in the desert, does the same sort of thing happen - only with hot, dry winds? I have (allergic) asthma. Do any of you desert dwellers have astha? Do these winds or anything else common in the desert climate aggrevate your asthma? Are there problems with pollution in the desert? Are the particulates larger so that our respiratory system can filter out the stuff before it wrecks our lungs?
As a potter living in the desert, are their any things i need to knowr besides the fact that clay dries much, much quicker than it does in Redondo Beach a mile or so from the Pacific Ocean (where the fog, or as it is called here, the marine layer, rolled in over LAX and delayed my flight back to LA from Phoenix tonight)
Are there any questions that i should have asked but didn't know enough to ask?
Please respond to me offline since I doubt there are many clayarters interested in the above.
Thanks for your help.
Shula
back in Redondo Beach, California for a long weekend before I go back to Phoenix, Arizona for an extended (10 day) stay - work, not pleasure
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on sat 3 jun 06
Hi Shula,
Below...amid...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shula"
> Background:
> I am continuing my quest to find a home or land
on which to build a home within my budget and I am
trying to find this dream in California. I am now
turning to the desert. I plan to spend a day this
weekend checking out Desert Hot Springs. It's near
Palm Springs, but less expensive. (It's also near
Joshua Tree national park.) I am looking for an
affordable (if you can use that word in CA) home
to buy so that i can set up a clay studio and a
kiln (or two). Since i am back to being a road
warrior during the week, I have to live fairly
close to an airport.
> Questions:
> I have never lived in a desert region, so I am
requesting help.
Well, technically, I t-h-i-n-k, broader Los
Angeles, or Los Angeles County, was or
is...a 'Desert'...just old Mulhullen ( sp?) et al
kinda brought a lot of Water 'in' from various
surrounding areas' Water Tables...
Which made other outlieing areas, just that much
more 'Deserty' sometimes...
> What do I need to look for besides a swamp
cooler?
Swamp Coolers are excellent, and inexpensive
to run, and easy-enough to take care of IF one
remembers to take care of them...and in arid
climes work very well to make things cool and
comfortable and entirely Civilized.
Thats about it...
> Are there animals, vegetables, or minerals that
i should watch out for?
Yes...
Well, I was being dramtic/playful...
Prolly not, but some areas may have Side-Winders
or other 'Rattlers' which one need only be
respectful of in easy ways and not go poking at
them with a stick or finger tip to see if you can
get a
reaction...
Ghila Monsters...( do not poke them with your
finger either of course, to see if you can get
them to open
their
mouth and say "Ahhhhhh" or to see how fast they
can move or whatever...and of course I know you
would not! Lol, otherwise, they are
easy going, dreamy often, and bored
with people anyway...and look like old time Beaded
Purses sort of...)
Scorpions...which can sometimes creep into one's
clothing and make for surprises for them and the
clothing-wearer...they are usually on the shy side
unless upset about something. Most seem 'moody' to
begin with, and will upset or become 'testy'
rather easily...if they were not testy already.
Some orders of Spiders...
I have endless Spiders here, Black Widows mostly,
many Cellar Spiders ( who even with two inch span
of legs, have rather small Bodys with designs on
them like old Indian Blankets, can not bite
anyway, or
at least can not bite anything so large as any
part of us, ) and I never bother any of them,
they all
variously just live tremble-plump and happy in
their webs, where-ever they like, and if I have to
bother them because
they picked some inconvenient location, I am nice
about it and just gently put them somewhere else
in here...
Occasionally, I notice Net Web Spiders who are
also 'Black' if
differently so, with matte Black extremities and
gloss Black body and near joints...who make little
messy confused-looking matted little Webs in small
sheltered areas, like shirt armpits in the
Chiffarobe and so on...
One I found that way in a Winter Shirt I had not
worn in some time, I gently put her into a small
Victorian ornamental Wicker Cannister on the
Kitchen Table that was otherwise for Spoons to be
in, and she
lived in that on her own volition for several
years, having made her
wacky web in there and so on, comeing out every
day when I would call, "Hey Spider Girl! What you
doin' there kiddo?!!" And she'd slow-motion move
them legs up and over he edge and come on out to
say 'Hi' and visit for a little
while, then go back in...we did
this every day for two years or more. I was always
lavish
with my compliments of course. Then she molted,
and moved
on, and I never figured out where-to...but in here
somewhere or other I am sure...
Same with other kinds of Spiders I do not know the
names of...almost all kinds of them in this
broader region anyway, are easy
going, sensitive Creatures, who are happy to get
along
with respectful others...and be appreciative of
one's
deferences and small gestures of kindness toward
them...and are really much more bright and willing
to
be benignly sociable than mose people may have
supposed...
Road Runners, ( 'Meep-Meep!') who of course are
shy-ish and usually focused on hunting some
insects or small
Snakes or Lizards or something...
Camels...but likely not many left...if any...
There used to be reports of occasional feral
Camels in the Arizona and SoCal and Southern
Nevada regions, who were
presumed to have descended from those let loose at
the disbanding of the 'United Stated Camel Corps'
way-back-when...but the last of them I think died
off ( shot, usually by unpleasant people amazed at
the novelty of such a prospective target, )
around the First World War...
Wind Scorpions, or Sun Scorpions or Harvestmen of
some kind, who in spite of the names are not
Scorpions in any way whatever, and are very
bright, self posessed, energetic
and curious little Creatures which seem like they
would have just landed from some other far distant
Planet...they do not bite even though they have
huge powerful Jaws, and can be very brave and even
chase
you persistantly if you have offended or alarmed
them. They look kinda like Spiders but carry their
two frontmost arms elevated, and in the ends of
these arms, are pulseing membranes with which they
sense various things. They are fierce preditors
who eat small insects and are usually very focused
and 'busy'...or enjoying some small respite
between such periods.
> It appears many of the properties have septic
tanks. I've never had a home with a septic tank.
Are there any special problems related to septic
tanks in the desert?
Yes...
Or, with septic Tanks period, regardless of
localle...
But others will have to advise on that since I
have never had one.
One puts 'enzymes' into them now and then, and one
is best being disciplined about the kinds of items
one allows to get into them...
And, the Grass is always 'greener', over them...if
one has Grass...and if not, then it is a good
place for a shaded Garden of some kind...
> have seen several properties advertised that
have their own wells. I am steering clear of them
because when I think of the desert, I think of the
lack of water and I don't want to be dependent on
a well on my property. Is my logic sound?
It all depends on the supply source or Water Shed
for the Water Table feeding those Wells, or how
various layers of water-permiable strata are at
play, and, on
the demand or future demand that Water Table will
have put on it, how deep it is or goes, with
respect to whatever the
fluxuations or finite limitations of volume from
it's sourse of replenishment is...so...some Wells
can be counted on forever more or less, and some
are more ephemeral or may fluctuate...
...or, Muhullen's successors and their wiles...
Las Vegas at one time had many, perpetual,
eternal, Artesian Springs bubbleing up making
small Creeks and Marshes and so on where Deer and
migrating Ducks and others would frequent...very
lush and green and marvelous...luminous tender
Katydids and Flowers and so on, all paved over now
of course...
There was plenty of perpetually renewing Water
'here' for a sensible population to have
enjoyed...'for ever'...
> I remember Joyce commenting about the wind/sand
storms with winds sand blasting the paint off of
cars. Does this happen often, high winds and sand
storms, that is?
Not often enough, no...at least for this area
where I am...
Never, in fact...
I wish we did have them, really good ones I
mean...one really 'good' one
a-week say...
I'd be satisfied 'then'...
...sigh...
> Here near the coast, we can depend upon ocean
breezes cooling things off every afternoon about 2
pm. If I live in the desert, does the same sort of
thing happen - only with hot, dry winds? I have
(allergic) asthma. Do any of you desert dwellers
have astha? Do these winds or anything else common
in the desert climate aggrevate your asthma? Are
there problems with pollution in the desert? Are
the particulates larger so that our respiratory
system can filter out the stuff before it wrecks
our lungs?
Remove all Dairy and commercial 'meats' ( or all
factory or 'farm raised' or wild
'meat' in general but for the occasional bit of
Ocean caught Fish, ) and eschew all
processed 'food' products from your Diet, and you
will not have any Asthma or Allergies
anymore...or, that is my
friendly $100.00 bet anyway...
You can then bury your nose in the Cat's furr and
go
"blubbah-blubbah-blubbah'...'cooootchycooochycooo'
.....'yummmuh-yummuh-yummuh' and so on, all you
want, and have no, zero, nada, zip for regrets...
How the Cat feels about it, may be another
matter...
Dusts, Pollens, and what-have-you, likewise...
Allergies ( like Artritis and lots of other
unhhappy sufferings or degenerative maladys) are
( or will turn out to
be, ) pretty much a presentation of
secondary or incidental auto-immune
aetiology...eliminate the basic dietary
auto-immune
antagonists, and the rest follows...'nicely'...if
in one out of a thousand cases it should not, I
will gladly for over the "C" Note...
Well, that, and some excercise anyway...
> As a potter living in the desert, are their any
things i need to knowr besides the fact that clay
dries much, much quicker than it does in Redondo
Beach a mile or so from the Pacific Ocean (where
the fog, or as it is called here, the marine
layer, rolled in over LAX and delayed my flight
back to LA from Phoenix tonight)
Make a nice, old fashioned, prim, tidy, well lit,
'Damp Closet' full of various height and
deep-enough shelves, for
those Pots or Pots-on-Bats that are awaiting
further
proceedures...or, a variant of one, in addition,
for slow, controlled, 'even' drying...
> Are there any questions that i should have asked
but didn't know enough to ask?
If all the surrounding properties have Oil Wells
and Pumps running night-and-day on them, you might
consider that yours could too...or that the
bastards have already drilled 'sideways'...which
they will
do of course...
But you might not be in 'that' region...
And 'Mineral Rights' are usually some seperate
area of 'property' concerns, anyway...
The odor of stale Horse 'pee' at night in areas
where no
'Horses' are ever to be seen, can signal precursor
chemicals' proceedures of Meth Labs...
My neighborhood used to REEK of this for years,
but I guess they all moved on or matriculated to
be city council members or real estate investors
or something...you know, how 'money likes to marry
money' and so on...
Something to notice anyway, if it is there, those
diaphenous whisps comeing from the homes or
buildings or
trailers of prospective
'neighbors'...
That or lots of 'sportsters' parked outside all
the time, and the 'Stars and Bars' being flown and
maybe other things as-may-be, which can signal
some order or other
of
interest, sympathy or possible
social-disjunction...
Painted 'pentagrammes' with curious symbols'
surrounds and so
on near stone 'bar-b-que' pits in neighbor's
back yards...little odd vertebra amid the Roses
and so on...
I would kinda look around a little to see what
sort of neighbors there are, and or if they seem
friendly, just talk with them about what ever they
have to say about living there and so on...see how
they are...if they only open the door a tiny bit,
keeping the 'chain' on,
after loooooooooooooooooooooooooong period of
muffled anxious voices and things clunking after
you'd
knocked or rang, and if they seem 'guarded' or
'nervous' or terse...furtive...
Nice home-made Cookies-on-a-paper-plate-Doily of
course really go a long
way...unless they are distrustful of them...
> Please respond to me offline since I doubt there
are many clayarters interested in the above.
Oh! Too late, I already sent it...!
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Shula
> back in Redondo Beach, California for a long
weekend before I go back to Phoenix, Arizona for
an extended (10 day) stay - work, not pleasure
Good luck...!
Sounds like fun..!
Old OLD back issues of Arizona Highways were often
quite steeped in some Romance of the Desert, even
if of a little different area of the Mojave than
here, or where you are thinking...
Why SoCal?
Why not Arizona?
You could always move 'here' I suppose...!
Was one-oh-five supposedly here today, ( Friday I
mean, ) and I was
out and about and it felt 'nice' too...sitting in
the traffic jams and so on, endless mexicans in
new cars with their four of five babys, pale girls
with bracelets blareing bad rap music outta their
SUVs, and me, sipping a mediocre 'star-bucks' and
all, day dreaming now and then, and really, I
liked the warmth today, I liked the Day today as a
'day'...I was probably the only happy person for
miles...or at least, none of them looked
'happy'....nope, not one bit...
...'they' should all move I think...somewhere far,
FAR
away, you know, like the Marianna Trench or the
South Pole or
something...
Be fine with me...
Poor old 'el vee'....yeeeeeesh...!
Keep us posted!
Phil
el ve
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