This year I did nothing (or it feels that way).
That is: I did not complete the contoured bench behind the deck at the top of the 94 foot staircase that had come into being over the previous two years.
So of course I did not begin the final leg up to our intended destination, the pleasant arroyo that nestles behind the ridge above us.
I did not replace our small grey water pond with a larger one that can accommodate plants that will not dry up and die when water gets sucked out to feed the trees.
I did not fiberglass tape the plywood splits on the exterior walls and I did not repaint the whole thing.
I did not complete renovation and painting of the interior.
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Pseudo-Addition:
Last year's vague idea
Instead, on or about November 14, I laid some loose boards on the ground between our small home and our solar utility house/office/shower, roughly outlining a 21' x 14' rectangle, and
1. Began to rough out a rough plan on the computer for a two story addition;
2. Sometime later I took realistic measurements between rocks and recreated the plan;
3. Showed it to Eileen and then redesigned the whole damn thing;
4. Got a laser level and therefore really accurate elevations. Recreated the model again.
ie: from the beginning I have known that the SE corner of the addition would have to lift itself up and over the bedrock terrain, sharply rising at that SE point. Eyeballing it at the start, I allowed for a 23" concrete pier to carry that corner. The laser level changed that to 60". That means that everything on the south and east walls (doors, windows, interior stairway, electrical outlets, etc.) had to be adjusted accordingly.
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I used Google's SketchUp to do this, a sophisticated but relatively easy CAD program. Its community warehouse includes an endless collection of 3D objects designed by people like us, and by corporations, etc., free of charge. Hence my interior stairway was designed by Ian Cleasby, a British architect. My windows were designed by Marvin Windows, Inc. I in turn provided a detailed and scalable aluminum post footing.
I can flip the 3D model on its head and I can float through the walls to study it from the inside out. This is fun.
After a few casual visits over time to the San Bernardino County Building & Safety department in Joshua Tree, I submitted my "final" proposed building plan and plot plan on April 27.
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Other Endeavors:
Actually, I did do something else. On Nov 12, eight days after our arrival, I built a step for Molly. With her arthritis, she was finding it difficult to step over the 3" square steel carport base and step up into the house at the same time. The new step gives her a nice wide platform that she can navigate with ease. Us too; turns out it was also kind of a nuisance for us. Now it is not.
Also I went for blood work at the VA clinic down near Palm Springs on that same day to make sure that my San Joaquin Valley Fever was truly gone (it was). While there, I made a second visit to the Toyota place to get our 2007 Prius fully serviced.
The first visit there had occurred shortly after our arrival at midnight on November 3 in a rental from LAX. We did get a good night's sleep. In the morning I made my annual call to AAA where they sent a guy out to start our Prius. He found that the little 12V battery hidden under the right rear taillight, that actually starts the car and powers the electrical system, was caput. This tends to happen every couple of years.
Without taking my foot off the gas, we returned the rental and took Eileen back home. Then down the hill, an hour's drive, to the Toyota place where they replaced the $279 battery with one guaranteed to last 7 years.
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Van's Van:
Our van is gone.
We had bought the 1998 Dodge RamVan on eBay in 2005. Its initial purpose was primarily to haul lumber from the Palm Springs Home Depot, but also as a comfortable, roomy and warm place in the winter to half live in as needed, especially when traveling. It turned out to be a great place for either one of us to get away from the other, as needed.
Also it was our charging center. At the time we had no power in our home. We relied entirely on rechargeable batteries and devices being charged through an inverter wired into the van.
Two years later, an unexpected one-time windfall allowed us to buy a brand new Prius, build an 8 x 8' work shop/office with an attic dormer, and install a solar system, all paid for in full at the time.
Suddenly, the van was no longer really needed. With the cost of fuel, maintenance, registration and insurance, it was cheaper to just rent a Home Depot truck for $35 a shot to haul materials, since one had just opened up in our neighborhood. Over the next few years, the van did serve well as a storage unit.
In 2010 I converted its registration status to "Nonoperated Vehicle" and canceled the insurance.
In 2012, I assembled a "Lifetime" American made plastic shed and moved the entire contents of the van into it.
At some point the van just stopped running. Every year of non-use, I had still managed to hook up the charger and get it running when we returned each fall. When it refused to start, I just quit trying. Even the tires eventually expired and flattened in place. Now it was simply an eyesore. I was trying to decide between going through the hassle of selling it AS-IS or donating it to a good cause who would tow it away and give me a tax deduction (that I probably would not have been able to use anyhow).
About then, a guy working next door expressed an interest, but nothing came of it. I also happened to come across some kind of car buying service that was in the neighborhood buying a neighbor's car, but they had no interest in old dead vans.
Then Gabe and Lino showed up. They had moved in next door and were taking daily walks by our van and had apparently fallen in love. When we arrived a couple months later, they were almost knocking on our door. We agreed upon a reasonable price and Gabe went to work on it. He discovered that packrats had eaten the wiring harness, which is why it had stopped running.
A few weeks later, it was gone. I raked the area clean and now we have a nice unobstructed view of the valley below.
Occasionally I see our van driving by and I am happy to know that it has found a good home.
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Elusive Permit:
On Nov 18, I went to the County Building & Safety department, as I had been told to do by Code Enforcement, to pay them a $400 TUP (Temporary Use Permit) fee so that we can live in our home on a temporary basis. They are trying to call it a "travel trailer", which people in San Bernardino are not allowed to live in. I am insisting that since it no longer has wheel wells and it is on a permanent wood frame on concrete piers with electric and plumbing, that it is a "cabin". I don't know if they will just quietly let that slide, or if I will have to fight for it.
Even though the current Code Enforcement officer is in a big hurry to get this off his books, we are pretty much resigned to indications that this is going to take a while.
The building inspector said no to the TUP. You have to apply for a permit first and you will need a building plan to do that. So I left there $400 less poor to return to our illegal home.
Over our 6 month stay, nobody seemed to mind that we were living there comfortably in our home until I departed on May 11 with plans to come back in 6 months. (Eileen & Molly had already returned to Massachusetts on March 1).
On a later visit to the department, an inspector quietly commented, "All of this because of one nosy meddling neighbor …". I guess they don't like vindictive neighbors either. He also contacted my Code Enforcement officer, through their private intranet, and politely told him to bug off.
So I think they understand. And I understand - we are all locked into a system that has to be played out.
Just in case, Gabe and Lino have agreed to throw their bodies down in front of any heavy equipment that may show up intending to raze the place, as long as they show up at a reasonable hour.
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Daughter-In-Love:
Note that I am back east typing this on July 15, the day before my youngest daughter, Brianny, gets married.
So no matter what is happening in my alternate universe, life does go on in the real one, big time.
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Terror Hits Home:
As said above, Eileen had returned east on March 1 to open her shop. On March 12, I sent her the following email labeled "Stunned".
I just looked for, found and studied the list of people killed and wounded in the San Bernardino shooting on December 2. This is Saturday, March 12.
On Wednesday the 9th at 8:15 AM I had been at the San Bernardino Land Use building east of Joshua Tree applying for a permit to build an addition that I had just finished designing in 3D with Google's SketchUp. I had begun this mid-November at their request, so that was pretty much 4 months of 24/7 dedication doing almost nothing else.
They liked what I had done. Ed Dion studied my plans carefully and then provided me with a list of things that I would need to do before they could issue a permit. In a subsequent email to my Code Enforcement officer, Sharon Wild, I listed these as:
1. clarify lumber type and size,
2. research pier requirements,
3. bring in the water department,
4. bring in EHS,
5. bring in the fire department.
I assumed that each of the latter three would have to inspect the place and provide a letter or such approving our existing setup or telling us what we have to do to get there.
I think the fire department just needs to verify that their trucks can get to the place.
The water department, I assumed, needs to approve my existing water tank up on the hill, or tell me what I have to do to connect to the town water that ends somewhere down the street. I called them and left a message on Thursday and again on Friday. No response, as of yet.
EHS? I had to look it up. Environmental Health Services. They would need to inspect my grey water pond that all water drains into, from which my trees get watered twice a week automatically. They would also need to inspect our compost toilet, that uses no water and therefore does not require a septic tank. Ed Dion was afraid they would not approve that, in spite of the current critical water shortage in the state of California.
I found their web site at http://www.sbcounty.gov/dph/dehs.
I read their homepage, and then it began to sink in.
Almost all of the shooting victims worked in that department.
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November 26, 2015: Thanksgiving in Palm Springs
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Jojoba Nurture:
Last year we developed an affection for a particular female Jojoba bush up on the hill. I had found her while building a deck up there so I wrapped it around her. She was sitting in a nice bed of soil nestled between boulders so I could see that she was happy. I cleaned her up a bit and gave her some of the nourishing water from the pond below our home.
Then as we proceeded to climb the stairway that leads to that deck on a daily or more basis, we began to notice another Jojoba about halfway up the top flight of steps on the left. He was much larger, but kind of scraggly and dry with a lot dead wood scattered around and within. You could see that he was struggling to get a good grip on the sloping terrain with very little soil around him.
We had a composter full of old drawer dumpings from our compost toilet. This was clean rich and very dry compost that had been sitting in there for over two years with nowhere to go. This stuff does not compost very well in the high dry desert air; it just dries up and crumbles. The plan was to dump it in our pseudo yard next to the driveway-to-nowhere when our current composter fills up and we need to switch.
I scooped out a couple of buckets full of this stuff, created something of a catch basin under the male Jojoba with rocks and his old dead branches, dumped the compost in there and gently tamped it down. I then gradually added enough pond water to soak this new soil without the water running off.
That was in December. The last time I looked him over in May, he was covered with a nice layer of small inconspicuous flowers. His Jade like leaves are almost half the size of those on the female above and not yet as robust but he is healthy. I suspect that the leaf size is simply the difference between the male and female. BTW, even with the research online, we are still not sure that we have the genders correct.
Meanwhile, the female above is indeed green and robust and dropping large pea sized seeds on the deck, rocks and soil beneath. Those are what professional Jojoba farmers harvest and sell, primarily to be processed into a skin conditioner of sorts, though the original natives here used to carry some along on their travels to munch on when they got hungry.
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Broken Handle:
After about 7 years of use, the handle to our Sun-Mar Compost Toilet broke off, specifically the plastic end that connects to the steel rod that penetrates the toilet and spins the interior barrel.
Small vice-grip pliers replaced the broken handle while I ordered a new one. The handle did not turn up in searches since it was not in their online catalog. However, a call to 888-341-0782 got results. They sent me a new one right away. (5 months later, I can find no record of Sun-Mar having charged me for it.)
It came with an allen wrench and explicit instructions on how to line things up and mark them. I guess I wasn't precise enough because the bolt did not go all the way back into the threaded hole. It got to where I was afraid that applying any more torque might break something, again, so I left it part way out. It still had a good grip, and it was not sticking out enough to catch on any clothing or whatever, so I decided "mission accomplished" and left it that way. There have been no problems since.
Let me add one more thing that I figured out - to leave the interior barrel upside down when going away for a period of time. To begin, I have deduced that it is best to leave as much compost in the barrel and in the drawer as is possible, when going away. That way the microorganisms can do their thing over time which helps them reach an equilibrium that works for them. There is absolutely no smell upon return and that's pretty good after having sat for six months with no fan and no heater contributing to the process.
In fact everything dries out so much that there is no moisture left to smell. What you do end up with is a big bed of solid compost permanently lodged in place if it has not been spun on occasion. If you have left the barrel in its normal position, then you have to spend some time breaking up that big block of compost into smaller chunks that can then drop into the drawer for disposing.
To resolve this, I just leave it rotated half way so that the hinged flap that is normally on top is on the bottom. That also helps keep it moist for a little longer. When you return in 6 months and rotate it back to its normal position, that big bed of dry compost breaks loose and drops to the bottom which makes it more manageable.
Here are all previous articles that pertain to our compost toilet and to the composter:
2009: Off-Grid Toilets
Compost Toilet Image Series
2010: The Compost Toilet And The Compooposter
2011: Sculpting An eComposter
2014: Vacuuming The Compost Toilet
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December 25, 2015: Christmas in Laguna
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pInteresting Farm Family:
At the end of January we flew north to do Christmas with Eileen's son, Jody F Kerr, the ranching farmer and his family in Sulton, Washington. He and Tiffany were just closing on their home in Tempe, AZ at the time, so there will be no going back to their previous life.
He had already brought up his collection of Jensen-Healeys, etc. in various states of repair and dropped them in a small clearing on their farm. Their son, coincidentally named Jensen, already has the bug as evidenced by the picture below left.
I guess this is an affliction that some guys have to experience. I dragged (and sometimes even drove) my 1947 Willys Jeep CJ3A (I think - got to find the receipt) all over the country until I finally relented to stupid wisdom and sold it to a younger guy who in turn returned it to pristine condition, so that he in turn can drive or pull it around the country as needed.
I took a lot of pictures on that farm, in their home, at
Tuscano's an exceptionally nice restaurant in Monroe, at a hockey game in Everette, and flying back on the 3rd day - one of which seemed to have an interesting story to tell. There was in fact no story, but the picture seemed to say otherwise.
It was of Jensen and his sister Ellie sitting in the front seat of his Jensen-Healey appearing to be on a road trip, perhaps across country in the ‘40's robbing banks and such along the way.
Anyhow, it struck me as interesting enough to go ahead and create an account on
Pinterest, something I had been thinking about for awhile, copyright the pic and enter it as my first contribution.
So far, nobody else has found it as interesting as I did.
I have since added 69 digitized photos taken a half century ago, a few of which have been getting attention.
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February 28, 2016: Day in Laguna
March 01, 2016: Eileen and Molly depart LAX for BOS
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Rotating Mats & Stomach:
The entire plywood floor of our home is covered with large black and brown rubber mats, and a blue one, bought at Home Depot. I had urethaned the floor in 2001, and again the bedroom a few years later, but the mats keep it from wearing out and, with their soft knap, are more comfortable to walk on at night.
Every so often, one gets replaced for whatever reason. We don't really need a reason but if the dog gets sick on one, or the knap is beginning to wear out, or a corner tears, etc., I might get a replacement.
I am very chemical conscious, meaning I don't want to fill our home with formaldehyde, phthalates or whatever unknown carcinogen might be in those new mats, so the mat gets to spend a few days on the deck basking in the hot sun and being washed by the rain, if any. It will also get to enjoy a shower or two under our feet in the outdoor shower where the chemicals in our shampoos and soaps can do their thing. It then gets quickly draped over the shower door while still puddled, so the sudden flow of draining water can carry the bad stuff away.
I apologize to the citizens of the underworld that will now have to deal with it (bugs, lizards, rabbits, etc.).
The discarded mat gets a similar treatment before it goes into the utility house/office on the other side of the deck. It will replace the worst of the mats in there which is usually the one under my rolling office chair.
That one will go to the new shed east of the driveway. I have not yet actually thrown one away, but when that happens, it will go to Burtech's recycling center north of Yucca Valley.
Anyhow, thank god one particular mat was where it was when it was.
With Eileen gone, I am back to fending for myself come dinnertime. That usually means a visit to the local Subway or a trip to the Stater Bros Supermarket deli in Yucca, 6 miles up the highway. That deli is one of the best I have come across anywhere. I can buy a nice hot meal to go for a reasonable price, or just grab a few sandwiches made that day, garden salads, and/or their potato salads or coleslaw, and/or their substantial soup of the day, all of which are very good. I will usually buy about 2 or 3 day's worth in either place.
Occasionally, I just go to our local pizza place and bring home a large one with everything on it except fish, which is what I did on March 7. I ate 1/3 of it. That night I began feeling these rumbling eruptions in my gut. Just in case, I brought along a large plastic salad bowl (which is not actually used for salads) and set it next to the bed.
I awoke suddenly sometime later reaching for the bowl, but did not quite make it in time. Some of that violent and fast burst of everything ended up on the rubber mat next to the bed. I survived. Eventually my gut calmed down enough so that I could diligently take the bowl and the mat out to the deck to deal with in the morning.
While there, I kneeled down over the large dog water dish, turned on the faucet and splashed water all over and into my face. I carried an empty bucket back in with me and went back to sleep. Sometime the next morning, I awoke feeling somewhat weak but better.
Later in the day, I returned the remaining pizza and quietly made sure that they understood exactly what had happened. I did not ask for my money back, but I probably will not eat there again.
Good people work there, some of whom I have casually known and liked for over a decade, but somebody was negligent. Somebody chose to hang onto an ingredient for another day, when it should have been thrown out. I can easily forgive them, "shit happens", but half a year later my stomach still tries to turn at the thought of that pizza that I used to love.
I then went to Home Depot to find a new mat. They were out of the kind I usually buy, but I was looking for something lighter anyhow. The one that had been between the bed and the long low bureau was dark brown which makes it nearly impossible to see Molly, our black Lab mix, at night, even with dim lights on nearby. That is why we had gotten the medium blue one mentioned above.
I found an intriguing one; something different from my usual. It was in their runner collection, each being on a long roll. The one I selected was a brick red and beige floral pattern, almost persian. The rug guy cut it to 6' for me. I also bought a pair of 30" brick red tapes to wrap around the edge of each cut end. I like it. I hope Eileen will also.
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Hot Bot, Not:
Our "Rheem RTG-64XLP 6.4 GPM Low Nox Outdoor Tankless Propane Water Heater" has been misbehaving again. Sometimes we could get a good hot shower or wash the dishes all the way through; sometimes not. In the latter case the electronic water heater would beep and flash an error message on the remote control window.
Occasionally, I have even found myself boiling water on the propane camping stove in the open shower room for Eileen to wash dishes, wash clothes, or to give herself a sponge bath.
I eventually discovered that, like any misbehaving computer, if I just shut it down and back on, in other words unplug the WH and then plug it back in again, it would usually work just fine - at least once.
Eventually, I called Rheem. 1-866-720-2076. Their tech suggested two things:
1. Call a plumber and have him pressure-check the regulator, and
2. Clean the heating element.
I really did not want it to be the regulator. That was an expensive extra-large regulator that I had special ordered to work with the 100 gallon propane tank that I had set up next to the water heater.
I decided to try the 2nd option first. In an email to Eileen, I said:
"Gently removed oxidation from the heating element with a synthetic pad.
Took a shower. Did not get hot. Took shower anyhow.
Washed dishes and brushed teeth last night. Did not get hot.
This morning got tougher on the heating element with emery paper (very fine sand paper).
Sink water got and stayed HOT while I brushed my teeth.
We will see …"
That seemed to do it. We will see.
Here are other articles that pertain to our water heaters:
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Eye In The Sky, Delayed:
On April 14 around midnight I began to peruse the day's collection of triggered webcam shots from 5 cameras, 4 west and 1 east. The Blue Iris software captures them and distributes them to dedicated folders that reside in 'the cloud'.
Long ago, I had written a program to display the entire content of each folder full screen, one after the other. It begins with a slow motion stop-action display, but I can click on a "Faster" button to graduate it on up to a fast-frame near-movie pace.
99% of the action is the movement of branches on bushes. I have learned to ignore those and instead to be alert for anything that changes significantly, such as the sudden appearance of people or vehicles on the road, or animals passing under the deck, etc.. I can stop the action at any time with one click. I will usually save a copy of those passers-by in case I need to know what happened back then.
In fact, with that technique, I have caught the Code Enforcement officer checking out our place. I have also caught an unknown van passing by just prior to, and just after, a house up the street was broken into. I emailed them the pictures.
This is great for keeping a record of things that happened in the past, but it is not terribly useful for alerting me as something occurs. I could set Blue Iris to send me an email or text as things happen, but I do not wish to spend my days looking at my cell phone every time it beeps for a moving branch.
So if anybody ever needs to know what was happening in my life after I have been terminated, they will have plenty to look through, if they know how to run my software, and I don't think anybody else knows how to do that. Oh well.
Anyhow, something did happen while I was fast asleep at 6:30 one morning. A man and his dogs and a 2+ year old little girl in a pink jacket climbed our hillside driveway-to-nowhere. A half hour later, they came back down. She sat down on our ground level driveway and played with pebbles for awhile, as he and the dogs wandered on up the street (the real one). She caught up to them shortly thereafter.
I knew nothing about this, even though they were maybe 50 feet away from me.
At another time (the day we arrived), there were 2 seemingly wasted women parked on the street near our corner. This is a first. The camera did record them so I would have learned about it 12 hours later, but we happened to go right by them on our way back from a walk and asked if we could help them. They said they were just enjoying the view, and as we continued on, they took off, in a hurry.
Note that if I am doing my due-diligence properly, there is nowhere on this website that a reader could find our actual location if they were so inclined. That is on purpose. Please let me know if I am wrong. I doubt that any of my readers would be so inclined, and that may be extraordinarily naive, but I like being who I am. Of course, our friends and family are welcome to the address at any time. (email first & BYO tent.)
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Off-Grid Essential Alternative:
The Winter Solstice, December 22, was not a good day. Off-grid solar people could rightly say that it was the worst day of the year; the shortest day; the day with the least amount of already too distant sunlight.
If you stretch it out to maybe a month and half each way, it becomes 3 months of hoping to get enough power from the panels to keep the electrical system up and running, which close to the solstice, just ain't gonna happen with these 8 panels.
It becomes 3 expensive months of figuring the best time each day to run the propane generator before it is needed, and for how long, so that we don't wake up in the morning to a very dead silence and no coffee.
Since the panels have not fully charged the battery bank by late afternoon, the generator has to complete the task. Close to the solstice, this can be 3 or 4 hours each afternoon, or more if the sky has been overcast. By mid-February, the panels are generally doing their job again and the generator stays off.
This year, even with the price of oil, and therefore propane, at an all-time low, we spent over $1000 on propane and two extra tanks. That propane also provided heat and hot water but the bulk of it went through the generator.
One 20 pound (barbeque size) tank keeps our "Champion Power Equipment 71330 LP Portable Generator" running for about 7 hours.
A small 12 volt battery usually starts the generator with the push of a button. If it sits unused for too long, its power will bleed away. Instead, the pull cord gets the generator going. It is somewhat awkward to reach and pull in that confined space, especially when having to simultaneously push aside the stiff wrap-around sound barrier. It keeps me limber.
On the very last day of running the generator this year, the battery broke. By then, its wires, very tightly bolted to the battery and to the generator, were pretty well eaten away by corrosion. One snapped off when I tried to remove it with a socket wrench.
I have purchased new wire with jacks that will allow me to unplug the battery (negative ground wire first!) and charge it with a battery charger in the comfort of our utility house. All I have to do is remember to order a new battery just before we return.
In the meantime, we are waiting for a quote from our solar guy, Dan Pritchett, to add enough panels this summer such that the generator will rarely be needed if at all.
(August 19: Dan has submitted a reasonable quote and I have sent him a deposit.)
Previous 2013 photo series:
Running a cable from the inverter to the generator, building a stone wall around it and adding sound wrap.
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Back On Topic:
From time to time I get reminders that some kind of survey has to be done. Of course, I have to be able to prove that the property lines are where we think they are. And every time I think about that my mind assumes big bucks and tries to kick into forget-it mode. But also confusion; exactly how much proof do they need?
Last year I brought in a surveyor to give me a quote. He arrived and climbed out of his pickup, looking up at my hill. He did have some trouble getting out of the vehicle since he was almost as wide as the door frame. We discussed the situation and he said he would check things out with the county and get back to me.
Meanwhile, I pulled together everything I had regarding the property lines. In previous years I had searched for and finally located all 4 of my corner tags.
Here are all previous articles and photos that pertain to our borders:
1968: The original
35mm photos that I took of my raw land, including some corner flags.
1993: An old satellite image with area
contours and elevations and owners of record superimposed.
2006: Pictorial:
Finding our borders.
2007: Article: Can't find
the missing corner.
2008: Article:
Finding my land (not).
2011: Article:
Found the 4th Corner.
2013: Pictorial:
Signs of refuge.
2014: Article:
Two maps for finding corner tags.
To my way of thinking, the only borders that matter are the South and the West since the building plot sits on that SW corner. Those 2 lines are defined by 3 corner tags which are almost line-of-sight from each other, which I guess is something like being almost pregnant. So the surveyor will have to climb the hill in two directions, at least.
Regarding the South border, he will have to get up to the SE corner. I have done so a number of times, approaching from the west. You have to be fairly nimble just to get over the first ridge. This is the same ridge that my 94 foot staircase is aiming for, but maybe a hundred feet south of that point.
I have seen people in the distance approach the peak just above my corner from the south, young limber people including children. That is a much longer climb from afar, but more gradual.
As mentioned, the street level SW corner is clearly marked and easy to reach with no effort.
The western border is a little more doable; he won't need any climbing gear. It takes me about a half hour to climb it in something of a switchback pattern. However, I drove around back into what used to be the Joshua Tree town park and found a relatively easy 15 minute climb from a parking area up to my NW corner.
At the top of each of these climbs, at the SE corner and the NW corner, if you stand over the respective bronze tag, each literally glued to the side or top of a small boulder, and then look out along the border line, all you can see is a slightly higher cache of boulders that a glacier had dropped there a few million years ago.
After you maneuver to the top of these boulders, then you can look way down to see the distant SW corner at ground level. Hence, I suspect the surveyor will have to set his tripod on top of those boulders.
The distance between any two markers on this 10 acre parcel is 663 feet or about â…› of a mile. Of course, that 663' is the bottom leg of a triangle so the hypotenuse, the slope, is somewhat longer.
I also explored the surrounding terrains to locate all neighboring survey tags (most marked with a 3' stake) that can be used to verify our property lines, and then superimposed all tags onto a recent satellite map of the area. I emailed that to the surveyor.
I never heard back from him.
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I am typing this on July 18. Tomorrow Eileen takes Barnstable County's senior bus to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for blood work.
A week later, on the 26th, we will be there at 5:30 AM for Eileen to undergo surgery to remove excess plaque from inside an artery in her neck.
I am NOT allowed to tell anybody about this.
The doctors are saying that without the surgery, she may will have a stroke.
This is the same surgeon that did the same for Senator Ted Kennedy a few decades ago, successfully.
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Finding Neighbor's Surveys:
Three of my four corners are literally set in stone. Those are solid bronze tags permanently glued to immovable bedrock boulders.
I assume that they were put there back in the 1930's and 40's when Franklin D Roosevelt put millions of unemployed people to work defining our land and then crisscrossing it with a network of interstate highways and other public structures such as water mains, city halls, schools, hospitals, etc..
My father, Thomas Ledyard Blakeman, was a part of that. He had just graduated from MIT as a City Planner.
If I understand correctly, he was in charge of a crew that helped survey the mountains of Virginia. Knowing him, these surveys and the tools they used would have been very precise. They would have to be just so that they would meet up with the lines surveyed by neighboring crews.
Likewise with crews setting up tri-pods and laying markers 3000 miles to the west.
My SW corner is not in stone. It is a rubber (plastic?) plug set into the top of an iron pipe driven into the ground. Hence, potentially movable.
On April 11, I applied for and was granted free access to the San Bernardino surveyors' database at http://surveyor.sbcounty.gov/SurveyorMaps/Search.aspx.
This allows me to search for any surveys that have been done near our property.
Note: this does not work right in Google's Chrome browser (re Version 52.0.2743.116); buttons overlap boxes you need to click on, and it does not list them as described below. In Windows, use Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. Some blank fields may require a 0 to work at all.
It asks for:
Township Major, Minor and Direction
Range Major, Minor and Direction
Section
Quarters (3)
Book/Page # / # to #
Map ID
Control
Description
The Tax Collector's webpage at
https://www.mytaxcollector.com/trSearchProcess.aspx gives my Description as
"SE 1/4 NE 1/4 NW 1/4 SEC 7 TP 1S R 7E 10 AC".
The ‘SEC 7 TP 1S R 7E' part gives me the Section, Township & Range asked for above.
(Though there is no ‘sbcounty.gov' in the above URL, it appears that San Bernardino owns the ‘mytaxcollector.com' domain name.)
A survey map that was sent to me in 1979 when I paid off the seller's loan and acquired the deed, gives the Book/Page as 589-19. Centered on the map is a circled 192. At the bottom is a "Parcel Map No. 2474, P.M. 24/46". However, typing 589 and 19 into the Book/Page fields above gets nothing. Leave them blank.
It also shows that my lot number is 13. The surrounding lots, clockwise, are 11, 14, 15, 29, 32, 33 and 54. There is no Lot# asked for above, but the Tax Collector's webpage includes it in the property name of "Parcel 0589-192-13-0000".
After clicking on the Search button, I get 5 pages of document lists, 18 to a page. Most of their Cart boxes are greyed out and "Unavailable". There is one blue cart on page 2. On page 4 about a third of the way down, they are all blue and on into page 5. On each, you can click on "View Document" and a lo-res image will appear on the right. A click on that will get a full screen rendition, but sideways. Ctrl-+ will enlarge that. Click on its Cart button to add it to your cart. (There are indications here and there that these have to be purchased, but they did not ask for anything when I downloaded my selections.)
I downloaded a number of surveys just so I could study them in detail and see if they pertain to my needs or not. I am not at all sure if I was reading them correctly, especially if they did not include street names. Many were obviously way off track and I deleted those, but a few still remain that I want to review when I know more about what I am doing.
If it comes down to the wire that I have to have more proofs of boundary, then I will run another search to find the ones I missed. Of course everything everywhere has been surveyed at one time or another. But have they all been scanned into the county's database? I have to assume so. I just have to figure out how to find the 7 that surround my land.
The surveys are all basically imaged copies of hand-written and carefully sketched diagrams, cluttered with information, usually in 2 or 3 different directions so that you have to rotate it around (or rotate your head) back and forth, just to read the whole thing. That makes it kind of hard to read on the screen, so each would have to be printed out.
Found A Neighbor's Survey:
I did find one that definitely confirms our SW corner, and if I am reading it correctly, it may be confirming our SE corner also. It is a survey of the Malin property catty-corner to ours. It was done in 1981. Its NE corner is our SW corner.
It is labeled "PARCEL MAP No. 7625".
The surveyor was Robert M Uriarte, L.S. 2859.
Regarding that corner, it says:
Fd. 2"x 2" Stk. tagged L.S. 2966 at midpoint. Accepted for C-E- NW 1/64 Cor., and replaced Stk. with 1" I.P. tagged L.S. 2859.
At four outlying markers to the north and west, it refers to "P.M. No. 2474, P.M.B. 24/46", which almost matches the "Parcel Map No. 2474, P.M. 24/46" at the bottom of my 1979 survey map.
It also shows that our SW corner is 659.46' due west of the next corner on a horizontal line, which would happen to be our SE marker; not the 663' the county says we have, but close enough.
What is interesting is that south of that 659.46' stretch, it shows the distance as 659.37', and further south as 659.27'.
I guess that is proof enough that the earth is not flat (and that nobody's property is truly rectangular).
Therefore, the planet Earth is indeed round. How about that!
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| June 6: | Eileen takes bus to Boston for ultrasound & to meet with surgeon. |
| June 16: | Molly to vet to remove external tumor. |
| June 29: | Molly to vet to remove stitches. |
| July 6: | Van's bottom left tooth cap falls out while flossing. |
| July 16: | Daughter Brianny marries Andy Hall. |
| July 18: | Molly overnight at vet to fix bladder. She cannot pee. Possibly internal tumor. |
| July 19: | Eileen takes bus to Mass Gen for blood work. |
| July 19: | Vets suggest euthanasia. Molly pees on our final walk together. We take her home. |
| July 26: | Eileen's surgery Mass Gen to remove plaque from neck artery. |
| August 2: | VNA nurse removes Eileen's stitches. |
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| Molly is happy; is peeing, pooping and taking long slow walks with Eileen. |
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| August 29: | Molly died today, peacefully but sadly. |
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