Palomar Mountain News

It was new dryer time at Cabin Fever Vacation Rental on Palomar! B&B Appliance in Escondido didn’t let a little bit of snow stop them. They are family owned and have been in business for 52 years. Here is their website and they are just a quick call away.

The driveway was plowed and we were in luck as the current guest offered to shovel the deck!

Thinking of a few days away? You might consider Cabin Fever – a nice, new dryer is waiting for you!

Bonnie Phelps

Palomar Mountain has been treated to a beautiful snow. We’re up here on snow alert! About 16 inches fell from our last storms. Yesterday’s forecast had promised more snow then it changed to ‘heavy rain’. But look at the forecast now! Maybe up to 11 more inches by Friday night? Here is another Palomar weather Station. Ohmygoodness! Time will tell which one is the most accurate.

Meanwhile, if you are thinking of coming up for some snow fun, please carefully read through ‘Snow Tips’. In addition, here is the latest scoop:

Four Wheel Drive vehicles are the very best – you might consider renting them. You MUST have chains. CHP may require you install your chains before coming up the grade.

Visiting mid-week has a lot fewer tourists up than on weekends. Arriving very early in the morning is always better than later in the day. We have very limited parking. The County Road crews have been working around the clock and today brought in more equipment and pushed the snow further off the sides of the main roads in anticipation of even more.

The General Store is the ONLY place open up on Palomar. (Please patronize them!) However, Mother’s Kitchen is closed so you’ll want to bring your own lunch. Observatory is closed. State Park has hiking only.

Be sure to plan to take all your trash back with you.

A trash-free mountain would be very nice. We don’t have ‘city employees’ to clean up trash. We don’t even have public trash cans. Clean up is left to the locals that hike around and have picked up way to much trash over the years. Thank you for your help to keep Palomar the special place it is.

Questions? Glad to get them answered. A phone call is usually the quickest.

Bonnie Phelps, Four Season Realtor having lots of fun in the Snow

From: Vaucher, Yvonne
Subject: County Debuts Life-Saving Knox Box Program

Please post with info for the Knox Box posted on the County Fire website: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/sdcfa/ResidentialKnoxBox.html

When San Diego County Fire is called upon to help during emergencies, their mission is clear. To reach those in need, as quickly and safely as possible.

Sometimes, they must overcome barriers. Locked doors are among those barriers, when residents cannot reach them due to their conditions.

The Residential KnoxBox Program is designed to give residents a back-up plan to be accessible during crisis.

Qualifying residents will receive a lock box at no cost. Inside, a spare house key can be stored for access by County Fire during emergencies. County Fire will install the box. 

Click to learn about who qualifies and how to apply.

Most of you are watching the the forecast for strong winds, a tease of rain and snow and now more snowflakes next week, too.

Our Treasures (grandkids) have been here during the first of this blistery storm to help bring in firewood, “button down the hatches” and get the horse all situated in his stable. It was like being in a very dramatic reality show. The wind was so loud and strong and several times fun flurries of wanna-be-snow arrived on State Park Road. A couple hours later I talked to Cecilia Borland out on Birch Hill. They hadn’t had wind at all. Crazy times! Everything is calm now with sunny sky. We’ve gathered up the sleds that had blown all around, picked up a few downed branches and are ready for the next storm.

The wind over the past few days was so much stronger than the last time we had a planned power outage. Thankfully we all kept our power this time. However, speaking of outages, some of you on Crestline and Birch Hill may have a planned power outage 8 am to noon-ish Friday.

Looking out from my desk, I love to watch this flag.

Long may it wave,

Bonnie

When the owners of this charming knotty pine cabin decided to sell, I just had to kidnap a neighbor to see. I thought it would be perfect for you. She owned 68 acres that she’d had off and on the market for a couple years. She did love the cabin, but even with so many showings and a couple offers, the land hadn’t sold. So, the cabin went active. Lots of folks toured, several offers. Then, the owners decided to take the cabin off the market over the holidays. They had family coming that would be enjoying using it during the snow.

Ring, ring!

Withdrawing listings always seems to really get my phone to ring. So, I slipped a few folks in. The last couple were looking forward to moving here full time, so escrow was opened. Alas, their doctor in LA didn’t feel the same way. Mr. Buyer had a surgery scheduled and would have such long long drives back and forth for physical therapy. They reluctantly cancelled their contract. By now the cabin owners decided to make some changes with the staging and wanted to keep it off-market a little longer. (Take a look at the new pix!)

Meanwhile, quite a few of you have toured the beautiful 68 acres. After a couple of offers that didn’t work out, the seller decided to keep it as a getaway for her family. As soon as I withdrew the listing, my phone started ringing again! Five calls in two days and then a buyer who submitted an offer in November saw it slipping away and decided to play his hand again. He won!

Isn’t it interesting how everything always seems to work out? We have a nice, new family with great plans for the 68 acres, and the seller? Well, you guessed it, she can hardly sleep at night thinking about very fun ideas for decorating the knotty pine cabin that she has in escrow!

But, there is more!

A couple years ago a young man came up to look at properties … and stayed for dinner. We get to see him quite often. His family lives on the east coast. We met in the fall and they came again over Christmas. We had so much fun. After looking at homes in two other states, they wanted to see what Palomar had to offer, but nothing was for sale. We walked around the outside of this one. I can hardly wait to tell the rest of the story, but for now, it looks like they will be new neighbors in about a month!

A couple is coming up for a tour in the morning. I have a few sets of keys but nothing in their price range. I am glad to always give a tour and get folks familiar with our fun mountain community, but it should would be nice to have a few doors to open that they could actually make their own.

So, Real Estate is crazy busy! Great time to sell!! You’ve got questions? It would be a pleasure to get them answered.

Bonnie Phelps, Realtor, DRE 1293695

For all your Real Estate needs since the beginning of the Century in the Cities and Above the Clouds

Mike is living his dream of being in the woods, shaded by beautiful trees with a big dose of privacy. Having very nice neighbors was a real bonus. In fact, the former owner of his cabin, has a getaway next door and did the remodel on Mike’s home. Mike and Guy work both for the military so have lots in common. Mike spends his days at Pendleton as a heavy equipment mechanic and looks forward to coming home to his cabin in the woods. He already had a 4wd truck and is experienced in snow so is totally dialed in. He and other neighbors have worked out good parking options when we are under a blanket of snow. It’s all good!

Mike has great plans, looking forward to taking advantage of the perfect spot on his land to build a garage and workshop. Ah, lots of fun projects ahead. Welcome Mike!

It was so fun to see Mike Pique having a wonderful hike and a good dose of Vitamin D, picking up trash around the Fire Station. He said he really scored at a snow bank finding a few quarters and some dimes. Think he cashed in with about two dollars!$!

Mike is just one of many people that has volunteered for years to help keep our mountain free of debris. We don’t have trash cans on Palomar as we are just a little mountain community. Volunteers have lots of extra work after snow days, but it is good exercise and just think, we don’t have to go to a gym! Well, gyms are closed anyway so we’ve got it made on the Mountain!

Of course, it would be wonderful if the snow bunnies would pick up after themselves. Most folks do, but a lot don’t. I keep an empty trash bag in my car year-round, make it fun out and about, with a big black bag. I meet the nicest people. Usually they have their camera with them so I often ask if they would like me to take a picture of their family. Everyone is all smiles, they see I’m picking up trash, then pitch in and help fill up my bag pretty quick.

Guessing the locals that live in other tourist destinations like down in Borrego and along the beaches, pick up trash, too, but might not be as lucky to find two dollars!

Here is a link for Snow Info when coming to our Palomar Snow. Visitors make make the locals happy when those fried chicken buckets, broken sleds and all the rest go back down the mountain. But, tip$ are appreciated!

Just having fun…

Bonnie Phelps

Will you look at that!!!! I had to pull over and and meet the artist who had just finished up with her snow sculpture!

Courtney Rieches hails from Valley Center. She calls herself an ‘aspiring artist’. I think an ‘inspiring artist’ is more like it! She loves to create and has used sand and other mediums over the years. However, she has found snow is her favorite as she can warm it up with her hands to make it really come together. Courtney looks forward to snow days on the mountain. She heads up to Palomar to leave us a special gift; Smiles for everyone who happens to drive by!

Her latest creation may still be playing in the snow in the morning, waiting to be admired. If you’d like to take a peek, from the Summit, take State Park Road just past the first water towers, about 200 feet farther on the left, you should be able to meet Courtney’s Snow Dragon.

Thank you Courtney, for delivering a big dose of joy to Palomar Mountain!

Bonnie Phelps

Jeremy Dyson is at your service! He does a great job and lives and has his equipment ready to go on Crestline Road.

Give him a call or text 760-300-0345

Most of you might have had a call or message from SDG&E about another potential power outage on Palomar. The weatherman shows a possibly of strong winds again. So, our power could be out tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon, evening and maybe even until noon-ish on Christmas Eve. Of course, it might stay on… time will tell. Since we don’t seem to get the messages consistently, I just thought I’d let you know. Guessing it might affect some Christmas plans in the kitchen.

Click for the SDG&E link to outages, updated every few minutes. (Thanks for sending, Jim Billups!)

As always, we are glad to be a source for power with our generator humming and Wi-Fi hotspot. Let’s get those candles out again, too. Candlelight can make these outages pretty nice!

Bonnie Phelps