Do you know about The Coop Coffee Company and Egg Ranch in Valley Center??? What a fabulous find! New Palomar neighbor, Samantha Nye and I went on an adventure and this was our first stop. They have cartons, flats of Jumbo eggs, and flats of 30 CHEX eggs is… how much??? $4.00 a flat?
Four dollars for 30 delicious Cage Free eggs? Yes. We just finished our first two flats and are very happy with the eggs. Chex eggs are fresh with irregular shapes, or might have a little crack. And, there is more! This cute little drive-through coffee and tea stop has delicious pastries, too!
About 9 pm last night, we checked the weather and it said “Little or no snow accumulation”. So, bright and early when we looked out the bathroom window, this was quite a surprise. Some of the locals checked later than us so were more prepared because the forecast changed shortly after and we were treated to our 4 to 7 inches of snow. Lots of plowing ’round the mountain today.
So yes, all you folks off-mountain, we have snow. Looking for a fun place to play? Bring up a nice picnic and get a day pass at the State Park. Mid week is always the best.
Be sure to pop in at the Palomar General Store for sleds, snacks and the best hot chocolate, ever! Please avoid the neighborhoods as they are private property and remember to bring a bag to take your trash back with you. Thank you for helping to keep Palomar the very special place that it is and enjoying our winter wonderland.
Bonnie Phelps, Resident Realtor loving the Four Seasons on this beautiful mountain for the past 25 years!
Palomar now has a licensed electrician, servicing and living on Palomar Mountain. Meet Sergio! With twenty years of experience he is ready to go to work for all your electrical needs on the mountain or in North County.
Sergio is available for any trouble shooting, service work on your indoor or outdoor lighting. Do you need a panel upgrade, new installation or remodeling work? Reach out to Sergio.
Text or call Sergio Reatiga on his cell 760-289-1471
For those of you on Palomar, you might recognize Yasmira who manages our little Post Office. It was so fun to meet Sergio and their daughter Angelica and the Christmas Music evening. Yasmira has already worked here two years and now instead of driving up the mountain, she can walk to work as they just moved up close by! Her husband is a licensed electrician – hooray! More about that in the next post. Their eight year old daughter Angelica is homeschooled and would like to meet more mountain kids. She loves art, drawing, coloring and playing games. Welcome to the Mountain!
Beautiful view from Boucher Camera Station. That white tower below is the fire lookout tower that is manned with trained volunteers from May through November. After hearing of some of the challenges with the LA fires, people have been asking questions.
How prepared Palomar is for a fire? Are the water tanks full? How much water do we have available? Is our CalFire Station at the top of the mountain fully staffed? Are the fire lookouts manned? What about fuel for our fire department?
Good news!!!! I did some homework, made some calls, did some pop-bys and think you’ll be pleased with the the answers.
Mountain neighbor, Mike Pique and I had calls with the Forestry Station in Ramona, CalFire in San Diego that manages the fire lookouts and stopped in at our Cal Fire Station at the top of the mountain.
MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT – Captain Dean was very generous with his time and so knowledgeable. He and his entire crew had been at the station since fire LA fires started. Ten days without going home as of our visit on Monday, January 13th. They would have liked to go help in LA but needed to stay here with the strong winds we were experiencing.
WATER AVAILABILITY – The Observatory replied today: “We have a 1,000,000-gallon water tank on the observatory property that is full or close to full. Per procedure, we will start filling it to capacity if a fire approaches.”
The Christian Conference Center has two tanks that are full for a total of 195,000 gallons of water.
Tonight I stopped by the General Store and in addition to a pond that has been used in the past for drawing water, they have several full tanks of 80,000 gallons of water and they have it in every size for you!
Mike and I stopped at the County Road Station, their 10,000 gallon tank was completely full. Captain Dean at our Cal Fire Station also assured us that there is at least another 100,000 gallons of water in private tanks along the south rim. It addition, ponds at the top of the mountain are used to draw from during times of fire.
FUEL – The Country Road Station is also a fuel station for Cal Fire and Law Enforcement. A generator runs 24/7 and is checked monthly. We got a call-back from maintenance and they said the decades-old generator is to be replaced soon with an automatic on/off switch.
FIRE LOOKOUT CAMERAS – One call I made was to see if we could get our two Fire Lookouts opened again. They are manned by trained volunteers to ‘watch for smokes’ and a very fun place to visit when open. They close in November and open May 1st each year. Then actually shutter the windows and winterize and so it’s quite a project. So, the very good news is; Palomar has four locations with fire lookout cameras! There are four 4 cameras at each location for a total of 16 cameras looking all over the mountain and out across the county ‘watching for smokes’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Click for a link to the cameras. The four Palomar locations can be found in the middle column: Birch Hill, Boucher Lookout, High Point and Observatory.
More info to come! Have a wonderful weekend!
Bonnie Phelps, Realtor on beautiful Palomar Mountain since the beginning of the Century
What a fun find during a walk around downtown Escondido. There are some colorful new murals and I was delighted to happen on this beautiful mural depicting historical books. Of course, seeing the very first book published about the mountain, ‘Palomar From Teepee to Telescope’, was very exciting.
Author, Catherine Wood named her cabin ‘Wood Pile Inn’. She enjoyed her friendships and adventures up here so much she published the very first book on Palomar History in 1937. Her family inherited her cabin and enjoyed it for many years. They left so many of her things and they were fun to discover to stage for the new owners to enjoy. Click to see a photo of Catherine with her sister, and a peek of her cabin.
GOOD NEWS!!! Wood Pile Inn has been restored and preserved as an absolutely charming vacation rental. I’m quite certain Catherine would be thrilled with the modern kitchen and bath. The roof no longer leaks and … oh, something else is different… it is insulated!!! Oh, and those windows have two sheets of glass! And two big decks for dining in the forest! And the stone fireplace has an insert now so it keeps the cabin very toasty in the winter. And, look, her typewriter is in the corner… how very inspiring!
Where can you get her book? The Palomar Mountain General Store, of course. It is also available on line through used bookstores and our Palomar Historian has a pdf available at no charge through his webpage.
Where is the mural? In Escondido, on the west side of Kalmia, just north of Grand Avenue, painted on the side of a building. Guessing that book is about 11 feet tall. Wouldn’t Catherine be pleased?
Bonnie Phelps, Realtor and lover of cabins and books and all things Palomar
For those of you who were able to join us for the delightful evening of Christmas music, you know what a special evening it was. We appreciate so much Bruce and Rita Druliner bringing their guitar and keyboard, creating and printing the sing-along booklets and sharing their talent with us.
For the rest of you , here is a peek of what I hope to be our First Annual Christmas Sing Along with many more to come:
During a New Years Day hike with friends, I couldn’t help but notice how very dry it is. We were in the State Park enjoying the fabulous views along the Silvercrest Trail. This afternoon I was down off East Grade and the wind was really blowing. There were little touch downs like mini tornados. East Grade folks are all off-grid so don’t depend on SDGE. Coming home, it calmed down for a few miles through the Dyche Valley area. I was surprised to look out and see Ramona and Valley Center still have power … so do we at the top of the mountain. When I got home I took down the flag, wind chimes and put away the patio cushions that had already blown off the chairs.
Even though we still have power, we’re sitting ’round the fire now by candlelight. I keep candles in glass containers, lighters and flashlights close by for times like this until we get the generator humming. Last time SDG&E turned the power off, I’d just lit some candles but it wasn’t windy at all then. It has calmed down now at our place out on the rim. But surprised we still have power as of 7:50 pm.
We keep watching for rain or snow clouds as it has been so dry for so long. In August we had a few minutes of rain, and then hail at our place. But nothing else since April.
Another wind storm is apparently heading our way. Click for a link predicting the strongest wind Wednesday. NOAA’s forecast shows a little different although Wednesday wind is mentioned in the discussion.
Our generator will be running as needed. Starstrucks, our coffee, tea and hot chocolate counter is freshly stocked. Always glad to share. Just reach out and I’ll give you our address.
Thanks to Rosemary for sending the UT link our way. Son Nathan snagged that photo at Round House Ranch a couple nights ago. Beautiful Sunsets!
Palomar Mountain News 