Ron's Log

The French Come To The Rescue

A farmer in [old] Jersey was surprised to see his cows giving pink milk after he began feeding them carrots. The cows love the carrots, so what to do? Fortunately, the French, the kings of all food, have white carrots! Genius. The cows like them just as well, and their milk is white again.

More Local Weblogs

Rolling Marbills is the weblog of a couple of snowbirds! Yes indeed, we finally get an inside look at the lifestyle of Canadians in RVs who flock to our valley every year. They travel in Canada, Mexico, Arizona and have just settled their wings at Desert Pools RV Resort on Dillon Road near Desert Hot Springs. They hike a lot too, visiting the Coachella Valley Preserve and the Vargas Oasis near Snow Creek! They've got photos too. Check out this one. Explanatory story here. Amazing isn't it? In Mexico, RVs travel by train! Could you picture that in the U.S.? New Englanders rolling their RVs aboard trains at South Station in Boston, and then set up their folding chairs to enjoy the view as they roll to the west.

Scribblings From The Desert is written by Stephen Lodge in Rancho Mirage. Mr. Lodge is a professional writer, and has written for Hollywood. His filmography. You may recall Rio Diablo with Kenny Rogers, but I'm going looking for Kingdom of the Spiders starring William Shatner.

Most of his weblog concerns daily routine, but he took a break on January 17 to reprint a letter-to-the-editor that he wrote. An excerpt:

I'm really getting sick of the mainstream press comparing our present war to the conflict in Vietnam - a war we eventually lost because of the communist influence within our own universities.

Why not compare the Iraq war to World War II, a war the United States won? Like Bush, Roosevelt tapped phones, interned those suspected of enemy connections, treated enemy prisoners of war a thousand times better than our enemies treated U.S. soldiers and had a very good relationship with Britain's prime minister.

Oh, off the top of my head, I think the reason the Iraq war is not compared to WWII is that Iraq was not a threat to us, didn't attack us, and wasn't in the process of pursuing a successful imperial war that had already crushed many nations that had been friendly to the U.S. Also in WWII we weren't so stupid to go in with no plan for what to do when the government toppled.

OTOH, I have heard some comparisons between the two wars - mostly that we've been in Iraq longer than we were fighting WWII.

$280,000 For Research On Frightening Deer

The idea is to place canisters of wolf urine (you get that in the alley next to the wolf bar) near roadways. The research part is finding out if that really scares the deer away and reduces the number of deer/automobile accidents. Steve Gent, traffic and safety engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation, acknowledges the root of the problem is the ever-rising population of deer, and that proposals to reduce deer population are "very controversial." Uh-huh. The reason we've now got such a big deer population, spreading diseases, destroying vegetation and accelerating erosion of hillsides is that people removed most of the predators. We can re-introduce wolves in more areas, or we can increase the number of deer killed in hunting season. I think expanding the hunting season would go over better with a lot of people in midwestern farming states.

Or we can spend money on canisters of wolf urine which, if it works, means we will have MORE deer.

Moonlight Hike Friday

I'll be leading another moonlight hike on Friday evening. Meet us in front of Hunter's on Arenas in Palm Springs at 7:30 PM, and we'll carpool down to Rancho Mirage where we'll take a short, easy, but interesting hike up to the oasis at the base of Magnesia Falls. Good shoes and a flashlight are recommended. This is a Great Outdoors hike, so non-members should be prepared to pay $2.

I Hope This Shows Up On "COPS"

A highway patrol helicopter crew spotted some men "moving electronic equipment in a suspicious manner." I think the fact that they were moving it out in the open desert south of Desert Hot Springs was what raised the suspicion. The men tried to flee, but the helicopter called in a patrol car to follow. The article never states whether that was a Riverside Sheriff's car or a highway patrol car, but whoever it was, they managed to corral the suspicious men at the AM-PM store at Palm Drive and I-10. The helicopter then had to land so the two airborne officers could provide backup to the officer in the car. The getaway vehicle turned out to be stolen.

Very likely, the usual morning traffic backup on Palm Drive at I-10 was what brought this chase to an end. The only escape route for the miscreants would have been across open desert.

Here's a little bit more info from KESQ.

Mt. San Jacinto Peak In January

Tim of Temecula climbed to the peak of Mt. San Jacinto peak this past Saturday via Devil's Slide Trail. Here's a description of that route. 16 miles RT with 4,500 feet of elevation gain (but after that, it's all downhill). Still, he had the energy to smile for his photo at the top.

Big Morongo Canyon & Palmwood

Earlier this week I decided to go hike Big Morongo Canyon. I only hiked it once before, and that was with the usual vehicle shuttle, so that I could hike only five miles, all downhill. The fence around the future Palmwood development put an end to that. If the lower end of Big Morongo Canyon is eventually re-opened for public access, it will probably be after Palmwood is developed, and we'll have a golf course and lighted, paved streets leading right up to the edge of the preserve's property. And who wants to wait for that?

So I hiked it alone, the five miles downhill, and then back uphill. I saw no lions, no bighorn sheep (but I did see a hoofprint), and I didn't even see a coyote. Saw a lot of birds. The trail seems to get a lot of use, despite the required ten mile hike. There are lots of human footprints all the way down to the motor vehicle barrier across the lower end of the canyon.

I went beyond that barrier, hoping to find some clear line or a No Trespassing sign to tell me where the edge of the Palmwood property is, but I saw no such thing. I suppose I might have wandered a little ways onto the Palmwood property, since I walked to the very edge of the hills and a bit beyond. I've never seen the area cleaner! No couches or loungers, no junked cars, not even a refrigerator! I took a few pictures to show how beautiful the desert view is from there. The whole set is here, and these are a few samples:

Here's a link to a Google satellite image showing the area. The arrow is pointing to the motor vehicle barrier across Big Morongo Canyon. Palmwood would encompass the entire area between Indian Avenue and the San Bernardino mountains.

Wikipedia: Unusual Articles

Meta-article in Wikipedia that lists articles that are unusual, for example: 826 Valencia, San Francisco's only independent pirate supply store. Hours of distraction and fun.

Mayor Bias Makes A Half Endorsement

From The Desert Sun:

Mayor throws support behind Baker, Sanchez
DESERT HOT SPRINGS -- Mayor Alex Bias would like to see either Karl Baker or Adam Sanchez win the March 6 election for City Council, he has told The Desert Sun.

Five candidates, also including Bobby Bentley, Scott Matas and Ted Mayrhofen, are running for a spot on the council that was vacated when Mayor Pro Tem Gary Bosworth died last summer.

"If I wanted someone to fill in Gary Bosworth's shoes, both (Baker and Sanchez) have done a great amount of work in our city to further the democratic system," Bias said.

"Surviving the diagnosis, surviving Kaiser"

I've recently added a new weblog to my list over there in the sidebar: Surviving the diagnosis, surviving Kaiser. This is the weblog of a friend of mine, and if you read the first entry you'll see he says he's awaiting his diagnosis. He has since gotten that diagnosis, and I don't know if he doesn't want to state it outright, or if his morphine is just clouding his writing. He's been diagnosed with small cell carcinoma of the lung. It has metastasized. He's been a long-time heavy smoker. If you have support to offer him, his weblog is open to comments.