Mojave National Preserve

Water for Wildlife project

April 11-12-13, 2008 guzzler repair

To All

The project is a go and this time we will have perfect weather?????????

Directions from Los Angeles area:

Here is the directions for the April 11-12-13 projects.  From Barstow you take I 15 about 70 miles towards Vegas to Cima Road.  You will exit Cima Road going East, go 18 miles to the town of Cima, road ends you have to go right or left, go right on Kelso/Cima Rd about 100 yards and you are at Cima.  There is only two buildings in Cima, the Post Office and a little store, they are next to each other and are on the West side of Kelso/Cima Rd.  We will be camped about 50 yards South of the Post Office.  There will be a red flag on the gate post next to the hwy, you can see us from the hwy.  I will be at the camp site around 9 am Friday morning.  We will work Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and most of Sunday. 

You can bring an RV, motor home, trailer or tent camp, the ground is level and you do not need four wheel drive.  What to bring:  gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs, dust mask, one or two 5 gal jugs of water (don't go buy any, if you have them bring a couple), paper plates, firewood, bug spray, lantern, lawn chairs and if you have a folding table we can always use them to serve breakfast and dinner.   Make sure you have plenty of gas, no gas in Cima. 

Last year Lumbermans lumber yard donate 42 bags each of ready mix concrete and mortar and we have used up this supply.  What would be a good thing if some of the volunteers could bring one 80 or 60 lb bag of ready mix concrete and mortar.  Guzzler B90 will take 30/35 bags to replace the lid.  I have 8 bags of concrete and 8 bags of mortar left.  I am going to buy another 8 bags of each but this is about all the weight I can haul.  We will need lots of water for mixing so if you can bring a couple five gallon jugs this would also be a good thing.  I will scrape up a gas mixer for the concrete.

I am going to rent a porta potty for the weekend and this will be the only luxury available.  The Cima store has some goodies but it is not a supermarket so bring what you need.  Our cooks, Kippy and Judy are going to cook breakfast on Saturday and Sunday and dinner on Friday and Saturday.  

Menu:  Breakfast, sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes, tortillas, fruit, coffee and juice, plus Judy is going to have a breakfast surprise for us, she don't want me to say what's cooking but I know it going to be good.  We will also purchase another large coffee pot (unless someone has one they want to donate, let me know) so we don't run low on morning coffee.

Dinners: Friday,   Again we will have deer venison chili (not hot) with tortillas.  I guess you guys liked it, there was not a bean left.

Saturday, Kippy has managed to get us Tri-Tips at a wholesale price soooooo, Tips it is with all the trimmings.  PLUS

Bud and Lynn have volunteered to make us 40 venison burritos for our lunches, first come first serve.   

What we want to accomplish on this project:

We want to finish B95-96-97, B90 will take some work to replace the concrete lid.  B 92 also has a caved in lid, this  one will also take mucho work and lots of concrete to restore this guzzler.  B 93-203-204-198-5 are within range of the Cima camp, so we will try and complete as many of these as possible. 

This will be the last three day project, no more cooks this year unless I can talk them into a two day project.  Depending on what we can accomplish on this next project I am planning two more mid-week overnight projects.   

These projects should be around the first week of June and the last week of June.  The second project it looks like guzzler B46 and B4 are within range of my cabin (5500 ft elevation) so we will be staying on my property in 4th of July Canyon.  The month of May I have to do work on my property so I am not able to plan a project in May.

We will be working in Desert Tortoise habitat and the tortoise will be out, we want to make sure we do not disturb them in any way.  Along with the tortoise being out running around there will also be snakes (rattle) and on the preserve you are not allowed to take snakes, so we must leave them where we see them.

If any of you have any suggestions that can help make our projects more enjoyable and more efficient please let me know.  We will have more goodies for Friday and Saturday night raffle.

Take care

Cliff

760-326-2935

PS  I want to thank BJ and Jesse for purchasing blades for the deck walkers and grinders.  PLUS...... A special GET WELL goes out to Jesse.  Jesse had back surgery and will be laid up for a while, Debbie has to take care of him so all I can say is GOOD LUCK.