For those of you who chose to be in your warm beds the past few nights at midnight, this is a peek of what you missed. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful photos with us, Ernie!
From: Ernie Cowan
The 2023 Persoid Meteor Shower is history, and as usual it was not as spectacular as media hype would suggest. At any rate, it was a soft, beautiful evening and I did get a few nice images from Palomar Mountain and Lake Henshaw.
Above are two (right side) meteors at the same time over Will Valley Pond.
Later, three at the same time (far left) over Lake Henshaw.
The Highway to the Stars brought a lot of folks up to see the meteor shower from our normally clear sky. Dotted with some scattered clouds, a last minute idea took us to Round House Ranch with the perfect setting to watch the show. Thought you might enjoy the view from the deck looking southwest off the mountain. The marine layer hid the majority of the city lights of Escondido, Valley Center and out to the coast.
New friends from the city are pretty star-savvy and suggested we face more to the north. If you’re going watch tomorrow night, you might appreciate a comfy chair, jackets and some cozy blankets. We sure we enjoyed our couple hours, scanning the sky. Several shooting stars appeared as we were turning into pumpkins.
Have you inherited or acquired your property from family? Did your grandparents pass the property down to their kids and now it is owned by you and a few cousins?
Have you purchased adjoining land from a neighbor?
Was there property that came up at a county or public auction that you couldn’t resist?
Did you buy land in your personal name without vesting or in the name of a trust?
When this happens, it usually means that there was no title insurance. Maybe there are old, back taxes due or a Nordstrom lien (true story). The County will record basically what ever is presented to them. When deeds are recorded, you might think all is well.
If you have read this far, you might be saying “I don’t want to sell”. I understand. But, one of these days, there might come a time when you or your heirs decide to let your property go to someone else to care for and enjoy.
Five escrows in a row have needed work to jump through some pretty crazy hoops to move forward. One is delayed because we’re promised a month or so and several thousand dollars per parcel to be ‘clear to close’. Some just need copies of old trusts mentioned from decades ago. Do you have any clue at all where they are? The attorney office that created them is no longer in business and the prior owners are not to be found. An affidavit notarized and signed by whoever granted the property can be pretty simple, however when the grantees are no longer living, it can be a lot more complicated. Some issues need an attorney to sort out.
Now I have three new listings that all need – drum roll – title work. Yes, we are hot on this before we even put them on the market to avoid delays during escrows.
Are you curious about title to your property? Simply reach out, we’ll pull title and point you in the right directions to have everything all set.
IT’S DUMPSTER TIME!! Palomar Mountain Fire Safe Council is offering large dumpsters this year for community clean up.
August 5th and 6th to the left of the Fire Station. Turn into Summit Road where the line often begins. It’s also a social event so you can meet your neighbors!
Open 8 to noon Saturday (and Sunday, space permitting) 2 pickups full per household until noon Saturday, then all you want. NO TIRES, PAINT, HAZMAT, ELECTRONICS, CHEMICALS, or LARGE APPLIANCES DONATIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED Come early; bring your combustibles, trash, small appliances, and other rubbish that litters your yards.
This is a grant but donations are welcomed to keep it coming our way. We don’t know how long this grant offering will last so “make hay while sun shines”
For those of us who still have a landline phone, ‘reverse 911 calls’ during emergencies come to us immediately. But what happens when we are out and about on our cell phones? You don’t get emergency calls unless you are registered. You can also provide your email for email alerts, too.
It is simple to do. Sign up on line in less than a minute for you and any family members with cell phones and email. All emergency info will reach you whether you are on top of Palomar Mountain or the other side of this big, wonderful world of ours:
Like to keep the news of your favorite Mountain heading your way? You’re invited to scroll and see the archives and simply subscribe at Palomar Mountain News
Want a great view of a SpaceX Launch tonight? Well, my camera just didn’t catch the last one so you have to be here in person or watch on line. Info follows…
Can you make it to one of the lookouts on Palomar tonight? The flatlands have been a little overcast but we should have a crystal clear view with a front row seat up here. Let’s meet up!!! We’ll be at the lookout on State Park Road, just west of the County Road Station, across from Fern Meadow Road.
Thanks Eddy for send the word out about another StarLink train heading to space! They are so much fun to watch. Here is the scoop from Eddy:
From: Eddy Riener
California peeps! Rocket launch at 9:34pm tonight! It takes about 2 MINUTES to see the rocket after liftoff, so check to the West right around 9:35-9:36pm.
What’s super fun to do is to watch the live liftoff on Twitter or YouTube simultaneously on your phone and to see the rocket fly by (with the first stage engines returning and landing also)
This is one of the first launches in a while that’s close enough to sunset to see the glowing contrail… should be beautiful!
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will send another batch of the company’s Starlink internet satellites to orbit tonight, Tuesday the 18th. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 15 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday at 9:40 p.m. on July 18 local California time.
You can watch the liftoff live at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before launch.
We just got a call from a neighbor, Ken Ruth, asking us to close their windows. So glad he was keeping up on the weather report!
Click to see the forecast. The weatherman is teasing us with a ‘slight chance rain and possible thunderstorm’ tomorrow afternoon. “Slight chance”. If that is still predicted, we’ll be running around closing the windows at Ken and Lynda’s and all my listings, just in case.
Are you off the mountain with windows open up here? We’re glad to get them closed. Just let me know.
When lightening is in the forecast, it is also always a good idea to unplug computers, phones, ipads, TV’s, refrigerators and anything else at risk of frying in a thunderstorm. Neighbors have lost all of the above leaving them plugged in. So sad!
There are some of us that really enjoy our summer thunderstorms. It reminds me of a day while we were remodeling nearly 50 years ago. A delivery man had just pulled up with a big load cement block for the fireplace chimney. The sky opened up when he was out on his little forklift. We got 4 inches of rain in 20 minutes. It was kind of like being in middle of a river. He wasn’t too friendly. We asked him if he’d ever been to Palomar before. “No, and I’m never coming back.”
He has missed out on a lot of great storms that come with our beautiful four seasons.
Yesterday, my dog Siggy and I were walking along the main path on my land, which is 36 acres of old growth forest at the top of Palomar Mountain, when I happened to see a mountain lion just after 7 pm walking directly towards us in the middle of the same path. This was just after I saw a deer grazing in an adjacent open pasture to my left and took a picture of it, so my cell phone happened to be out and still in camera mode. The mountain lion and I stopped at the same time, facing each other, and I told Siggy to stay and spoke to her in a loud and intense voice so that she would look (and keep looking) in my direction and sit still, while also scaring the mountain lion away. Siggy was between me and the mountain lion, but facing my direction, so she never saw it, but it saw us – which is clear from the pictures. I kept Siggy looking my way because she probably would have chased the mountain lion had she seen it, as she always does for squirrels, birds and deer. And she is so intense every time she does this! Once the mountain lion and I were stopped and facing each other, I managed to get a few quick pictures of it (and Siggy, who was still facing me) before it turned and ran up the hill (it blinked first, hahaha), toward where my mountain car was parked. Then I went the opposite way and had Siggy walk with me, keeping her close, while pulling my horn and pepper spray from their holsters on my belt, and removing their safety features. For now, I kept my knife in its holster which, along with the horn and pepper spray, is always on my belt when I walk the land in case Siggy and/or I are ever attacked by a mountain lion. The difficulty was that I didn’t want to keep walking the land in case the mountain lion decided to stalk and attack us, but it had turned and gone up the hill toward where my mountain car was parked. So we walked up the hill to the car and I blew the horn once while talking loudly to Siggy in an attempt to not surprise or startle the mountain lion. Just as we got to my car, Siggy suddenly chased something for about 200 feet until I was able to call her back. It might have been the mountain lion, but I didn’t see what she had chased into the trees. What a wonderful experience, seeing a mountain lion in the wild for the first time, and on my own land – something I had been hoping for since moving up here a few years ago. And while it looks somewhat like a ghost in the cell phone pictures, I could see the mountain lion with my own eyes just as clearly as I could see my own dog Siggy. A little earlier on the same day, Siggy and I were surprised by a large great horned owl on the floor of the forest that was right near us, and it flew away with such a large wingspan. We walked around the land until we found it again on the branch of a tree enjoying the sunshine. What a magical land.
Today is a special day for everyone who has a dad! That is how my dad always looked at it, so I do, too. We all have our stories and thought I’d share a bit about the fathers in my life with ties to Palomar Mountain.
My grandfather is the first photo I slipped in ‘just because’. I came across it today looking for one with him on a horse. Decided to use this one. Those of you who know our sons, Brandon and Nathan, might see a strong resemblance. Grandpa’s parents and friends, immigrated from Sweden. They homesteaded land they built into farms, across the road from each other in South Dakota. Both families had children and Conrad married Ruth, the little girl next door.
My dad and mom lived in Vista and ‘Popo’ loved horses. He looked forward to saddling up each year for the week-long Vista Palomar Ride. From what I understand, they rode through Vista, Bonsall, Pala, Pauma Valley then up the Nate Harrison Grade and camped in the State Park. Folks didn’t take many photos back when I was seven. So, I do remember mom taking a couple that day in the meadow down and to the left of the group campground.
Don, my husband and father to our two sons, has volunteered the past few decades with the cattle for all the local ranchers. The guys have been to brandings and helped out occasionally. The ‘Treasures’ (our grandkids) all took riding lessons from the wrangler at the State Park and loved their five years growing up free range and usually barefoot on Palomar.
Brandon, Heidi and the Treasures moved to Missouri last year and it is so much fun to visit them. Horses may be in their future. Meanwhile events like their Boots to Bows Homeschool Dance where I snapped this pic, is keeping them up with the western flair.
I’ll be back on the mountain this week. Thankful for my mountain men, Don and Nate, keeping the Real Estate business rolling so smooth on the mountain.
Hope you are all enjoying your holiday remembering and celebrating the fathers in your lives.
Palomar Mountain News 