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Water update
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Water update Water update. I bought a falling down cabin from a retired Los Angeles school teacher in 1976. The school teacher had homesteaded a five acre plot of desert sand in the mid-fifties, and built a cabin on the site from lumber he'd somehow wrestled up the THEN two-lane gravel grade from Palm Springs to the site on the open Mojave Desert he'd homesteaded. Enter little ole' me. The Real Estate Agent from Twentynine Palms--12 miles to the South of the cabin-- drove me to the cabin over winding sand trails. We got lost 3 or 4 times on the way to the teacher's cabin. I fell in love with the place when we finally arrived... It seemed surrealistic to me. The setting of the cabin was right out of LONESOME DOVE even though that was Texas, and this was Southern California. The cabin was 14 by 24 feet, with a black (leaking), shed-style tarpaper roof. It was clad in bright red fireproof, asbestoes siding, both the front and rear doors had been bashed in, and it was obvious that squatters had been living in the cabin-- although they'd been gone for some time. The escrow closed on May 13th, 1976. The number 13 has always been a lucky number for me, and buying this place and getting me out of Hollywood, and Los Angeles when I was still young enough to change a lot of bad habits, WAS lucky. I was 39. I had some money I'd made in the early porn industry, and intended on nursing that money for as long as I could. The cabin had no electricity, no water, and only a poorly constructed outhouse for a toilet. The boundary markers were government surveyor stakes on all four corners of the 320 by 640 foot rectangle of desert sand. Open desert was all around for miles. There were no neighbors in any directions. The roads in and out were sand trails. Enter years of hard, enjoyable work. My DNA, my body, was made for hard physical work. I still love doing it. I had a girlfriend in Los Angeles at that time where I spent a number of summers when it was too hot to work on the cabin. In 1980 electrical power was brought in after I'd wired the cabin, and given the electrical company an easement for three power poles to bring in the line. Around the same time I installed a 2100 gallon steel, copper-lined underground water tank, built a bathroom with all the essentials, put in a fiberglas septic tank and leach line, and hooked everything up to a Sears Captive Air, shallow well water pump connected to the large underground water tank. Little by little I put up a chainlink fence all around the five acres with a solid heavy steel gate.... And got my first dog. The was a small pitbull-mix. He was a puppy when I found him, a stray. I found him one day early in June laying panting under a creosote bush. I brought him home, gave him all the water he needed, and fed him some Hormel Chile--all I had in the way of food for him. I named him George. He went everywhere with me.... Except for my grandmother of my youth, he was the first thing I ever truly loved. Okay, if you've made it this far you're wondering about the water. Before I put in the underground water tank, I lived by bringing in five gallon containers of water. After the water tank was installed I contracted with a water company to bring me water in a water tanker every month. The cost was $7.00 for 3,000 gallons of water emptied into the underground tank and other surface water tanks I acquired. After a few years the water company went out of business, so I bought a broken 1966 International 3/4 ton heavy duty pickup with solid booster springs and was able to repair the old truck and put it back on the road. For a couple of years I drove the truck to the fire station in 29 Palms and filled a 300 gallon tank in the back for twenty-five cents, drove the truck back home, and emptied the water into the underground tank. In a few more years, the water company in 29 Palms, built a paymeter water station about five miles from my place to sell water to desert rats like me who dared live out on the open desert. 300 gallons of water cost about $2.50. For 29 years I bought water once a week from the paymeter station, hauling the water in the old International down the dirt trails back and forth to my home and dumping the water down into the underground tank. During the last couple of years, a woman started living with me in my home--Marisol--and she and I had a lot of fun traveling back and forth to the water station and buying the water. Then, early in June of 2011, there was a notice that the paymeter station was being torn out, and would be closed for good on June 30, 2011. M. and I went to the water company and pleaded with them not to close the station. I wrote them emails asking them to at least wait until the end of the summer of 2011, before closing the station.. It all fell on deaf ears. So...last summer we were left without available water. M. moved into 29 for awhile, and came out to our place with a few five gallon water containers every few days during the hot summer of 2011. I got the water I needed for me and the dogs to survive anyway I could! Okay, if you've come with me this far to this too long post bear with me. Only a small part of this convoluted water story has been told, but it's enough for those of you who're interested to get the gist of it. Yesterday morning, M., drove our 1966 International truck, along with a trailer, down a dirt trail for about two miles to a neighbor's house where we bought 550 gallons of water from our neighbor for $10.00. So that's it. We've made arrangements to buy the water from neighbors who have piped in city water. They pay $2.40 for 748 gallons of water, so they make a little profit on the water they sell us. It's a pain in the ass though, because it takes over an hour to fill 550 gallons up from a water hose. But this method beats having to drive about 30 miles round trip through traffic in order to get to a still open paymeter station. I've repaired the outhouse and we use that most of the time. It's a shame to see the water we've worked so hard to get go down the drain with each flush of the toilet. If you've read this post all the way through, you deserve a medal for getting this far. I'm sorry it's so long, once I got started this morning, I couldnt stop. I type fast.. One more thing. There's plenty of water down at the 250-300 foot level. The trouble with drilling a well isn't the money involved, we could afford that, it's all the regulations and permits required from the State of California to drill a well on our property. We could also have the city of 29 Palms Water Distict bring water to us, but that IS a question of money, We checked, and it would cost approx $40,000.00, together again with permits and inspectors checking everything out. So. We conserve, and decided not to build an inside swimming pool after all, lol. by davidstardust Tuesday morning, August 14th, 2012...  |
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any pictures of the house when you first bought it??? It was too difficult taking pictures in those days, then having to remember to take out the film and take it somewhere to be developed, and then drive more miles a couple of weeks later to pick up the developed film. I bought a Polaroid, and took pictures with that, but after a few years the pictures became yellow and came apart. xxxxdavid
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any pictures of the house when you first bought it??? silky... 
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I agree with you Emer. Nothing is free in this state anymore... I could have simply told you we were buying the water from a nearby neighbor, but it was fun to write this post and remember back over 36 years. Even without having all the water we'd like to have, we still feel we've got the best of most worlds.. xxxxdavid
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your water should be free........
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your water should be free........ silky...
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