Surveying has started

The surveying for the hydrology study started on Monday.

Randy reports that "I was out with Myndi and 2 surveyors for 4 1/2 Hours today. We got the side next to Houston Mesa Rd. staked. Zonge still has to tell us what they need done. The terrain is very hilly and dense. I think if we had to do much clearing it would take days if not weeks. We walked about 3 miles to survey a little less than one mile. Not sure when the other line is to get surveyed they will let me know."

Myndi reported that "Randy and I spent most of yesterday out with Northstar Surveying marking the approximately 1 mile line every 200 yards. It was quite a hike and will need some thorough clearing in sections. Because of weather today we have put off line 1 until tomorrow. We have about 1000 - 1200' in the center section of line 2 that was missed because of lack of radio signal due to the canyons we were in. Northstar will set their radio equipment in new locations to remark the 5 stations missed. I have a call in to Zonge Engineering to clarify the width of clearing and will work with the Forest Service on marking any trees we cannot clear."

Progress is moving forward toward a solution.

Winter Wonderland

The snow began falling at 2:45 pm on Tuesday. Various sources say it was 5 or 6 inches. No matter. It is pretty and will be with us for too short a time. This picture was shot by Minnie Norman.

Survey postponed

The surveyor could not make it on Monday and it appears we have some weather coming in this week. So for now we are temporarily put off until next Monday 12/28. I will keep you informed if that changes. (I suspect it will be put off until next year.)

Two black ELK (aka Angus steers) were spotted on Caballero near the Llamas on Friday. The rancher was called on Tuesday and he said he would get to it in a few days. A second call is probably in order. Here is the information in case someone else would like to call him too:

Fred Henderson
"Houston Mesa Cows"
602-463-8036

I hope everyone has a happy holiday and please be safe out there.

Hydrological Survey Project

The first step in the hydrological survey by Zonge Engineering is to survey the two lines in the forest where the equipment will be set up. The survey will be performed by Northstar Surveying and starts on Monday, Dec 21st. The Water Committee committed to helping the survey by clearing brush. We are not talking about a major effort. They just need enough cleared for a person to walk through. Anyone interested in helping Randy should contact him via email or phone at (928) 474-4454 or Norman1635@Msn.com.

Proposed Rate Tiers

Current Rate Tiers


$1.93 per 1000 for 1 -- 4000 gallons
$2.99 per 1000 gal for 4001+


Suggested Rate Tiers

Winter Rates ( Oct 1 – Apr 30)

$? per 1000 gallons for 1 -------4000 gallons
$? per 1000 gallons for 4001—7500 gallons
$? per 1000 gallons for 7501---10000 gallons
$? per 1000 gallons for 10001 & more gallons

Summer Rates (May 1 – Sep 30)

$? per 1000 gallons for 1 -------4000 gallons
$? per 1000 gallons for 4001—7500 gallons
$? per 1000 gallons for 7501---10000 gallons
$? per 1000 gallons for 10001 & more gallons

Proposed Conservation Levels

Suggested Conservation Stages

Conservation Stage 1
(based on 250 gallons usage per day per meter)

Outside watering:
even addresses Wed Fri Sun
odd addresses Tue Thu Sat
(no outside watering on Mondays)
Summers: Irrigate at night after 7 pm or early mornings (between 3 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.) to reduce water loss due to evaporation and wind)**

Conservation Stage 2
(20% reduction in daily water usage = 200 gallons usage)
Voluntary conservation measures should be taken to reduce daily inside & outside water consumption by 20%.

Outside watering:
even addresses Wed Sun
odd addresses Tue Sat
Summers: Irrigate at night after 7 pm or early mornings (between 3 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.) to reduce water loss due to evaporation and wind)**

Conservation Stage 3
(30% reduction in daily water usage = 175 gallons usage)
Voluntary conservation measures should be taken to reduce daily inside & outside water consumption by 30%.

Outside watering:
even addresses Wed Sun
odd addresses Tue Sat
Summers: Irrigate at night after 7 pm or early mornings (between 3 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.) to reduce water loss due to evaporation and wind)**

Conservation Stage 4
(40% reduction in daily water usage = 150 gallons usage)
Mandatory conservation measures should be taken to reduce daily inside & outside water consumption by 40%.

Outside watering:
even addresses Tues
odd addresses Thurs
Summers: Irrigate at night after 7 pm or early mornings (between 3 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.) to reduce water loss due to evaporation and wind)**

Conservation Stage 5
(50% reduction in daily water usage = 125 gallons usage)
Mandatory conservations measures should be taken to reduce inside & outside daily water consumption by 50%.
No outside watering allowed
No irrigation of outdoor lawns,
trees, shrubs or any plant life
No washing of any vehicle
No water use for dust control or
any outdoor cleaning
No use of a drip or misting system
No filling of any swimming pool, spa,
fountain, or ornamental pool
No construction water usage
No other water intensive activity is
allowed



**AZ Dept of Water Resource

A quiet Sunday

Here's a photo from the Xmas dinner at the Caballo Club. Sunday we had a progressive party with stops at Ed & Diane's, Randy & Minnie's, Debbie's, and Pat's house. Sunday was just a movie at the Sawdust Theater. The Blind Side was excellent.

We got an additional 1/2 inch of rain.

The water committee did meet for an hour on Sunday. We posted a proposal to the community. The response so far has been positive.

TGIF

The Xmas dinner at the Caballo Club was fun and the food was delicious. Don Enen is getting to be quite a good cook. It was raining lightly when the dinner ended.
The pothole repair to the parking lot is holding up. Unfortunately two new ones sprouted at the entrance.
Steve reports that the campers and the mules that were in the corral are gone. General concensus is that they were Elk hunters. The Shoefly Tank is half full of water thanks to the storm earlier in the week. Maybe we will start seeing Elk and other animals out back in the forest again. Word has it that all the tanks from here to the Rim were dry and even 3 cattle died in the mud in one of them.

Zonge Hydrology Project

We had a meeting with Brooke Utilities yesterday at 10 am. The Zonge project has slipped about 2 weeks. Myndi is going to let us know when they will survey the first two lines which are basically parallel to Houston Mesa Rd. She is pushing to get them moving next week.

The TOP project is moving along. We now have all parties in agreement and on board. Sorry, we will give out full details when the time is right.

Brooke is looking to send a new rate structure to the ACC in January. We are going to float the proposal to the MdC residents next week. We did agree that Supplemental Charges should be handled outside the proposed rate structure. Emergency Supplemental Charges will cover water hauling. Incidental Supplemental Charges will cover TOP expenses. Both will have no profit built in and will only cover costs which will be spread over the customer accounts based on customer usage.

Short Term Project

Our short term solution was to see if existing well owners would sell excess capacity to either Brooke Utilities or the Caballo Club. We mapped all the registered wells and have contacted some of the owners. For the most part, most are suffering the same problems as Brooke's wells. The fractured granite below us is basically dry. The privately owned wells are not producing enough for even their owners. The Caballo Club is suffering as well. The well that is on the club property is generating a mere $20-40 a month in revenue when it used to do over $90 per month. If it continues at this rate and we cannot encourage more residents to join, we may lose the park and club house in 2-3 years. The membership fee is a mere $35/year/household.

Long Term Project

The long term solution is to hook into the CC Craigen project and get our fair share of the 500 acre feet of water that is allocated to the communities along the pipeline. Above is the description of the project as submitted to the AZ Corporation Commission by Brooke Utilities.

Midterm Solution Project

Our midterm solution project involves Brooke Utilities drilling a new well. They have contracted with Zonge Engineering to do a hydrology study to see where we can find water. Above is the project as submitted by Brooke to the AZ Corp Commission.

Water News

We are waiting for Zonge Engineering to survey where they need to set their instruments. It may require some effort by our forest fuel reduction volunteers. We expect to see Zonge's schedule by this week's end.

The water committee will be meeting with Brooke Utility tomorrow, Dec 10th, for an update on several initiatives that will help us move forward toward a better water situation. I will post the news on this site and email the citizens who care in Mesa del.

The latest storm dumped 2 inches of water on Mesa del. Since it was a slow, steady rain, we should have some of our fractured granite (and wells) showing life over the next couple of days. One can only hope!

Mesa del is on Stage 2 water restrictions. Residents often ask why we are not on Stage 1. My opinion is that we will stay on Stage 2 all winter while the committee and Brooke Utilities work out solutions. Stage 2 is a voluntary restriction level and only asks residents to try to cut back by 10%. It basically says please do not forget to try to conserve water. Considering how dry November was, I'm amazed that we were able to stay down at Stage 2.

Weather

It did snow heavily around 4 pm on Monday. It then rained until sometime after 2:30 am on Tuesday. When we got up, it was white outside. Everything was coated with ice crystals. We had gale force winds from midnight until 2:30 am. We carefully drove into town at 8 am and watched cars slipping and sliding as drivers tried to remember how to drive in these conditions. By early afternoon, the roads were dry and the sun was shining. So much for "weather"! Diane begrudgingly drove down to Scottsdale at 5 pm to go to work. Randy and I attended the uneventful Caballo Club board meeting at 5:30.

Junior

Since I mentioned him, I dug out a photo from July. He has grown a little since then and has two cohorts. Dick insists that he live in the wild but has lots of peanuts for him.

It has been rainy, cold, and windy all day. We need the water. The watersheds were totally stressed out. It should turn to snow by sunset. It is about time winter showed up.

I picked up Diane at 7:40 am and drove up to Payson. There were 4 major accidents between the Pecos 202 and the Red Mountain 202. They were in the HOV lane which made matters worse. The first one had at least 6 vehicles smashed against the center barrier.

Snow

We had a light dusting of snow on the ground when we woke up yesterday. It was gone by noon and didn't qualify as any significant moisture. The watershed is still dry.

Both New Orleans and Indianopolis are still undefeated in the NFL.

Rocky, the ground squirrel, got into the garage. I left the quad door open a tad to let him escape. I also set a live trap. He is much more frenetic than Junior and his gang. I did see one of them walking the power wires yesterday. I need to put more peanuts and food into the feeder.

I'm in Phoenix for the night. I will be glad when I don't have to come down here anymore.

The Tom Tom gps I bought on Black Friday is worlds better than the Magellan. It is better than Garmin too!

Winter is here

The GCC (Gila Community College) Master Gardener classs was here on Friday to learn how to prune trees and bushes. It was a cold day. Yesterday it was cold and cloudy. Supposedly, we will be clouded over all week and should get 1-2 inches of rain. There are weather alerts for snow. I will believe it when I see it. We are stuggling for precipitation of any kind.

Diane attended a Xeriscape Council of AZ meeting on Saturday and just barely ducked in time to avoid being elected as an officer. She did get a nice t-shirt that was created for the council by the Star Valley nursery.

So far this month in Mesa del, we have filled in the pot holes in the club parking lot and have gotten a start on the fuels reduction project. It is going to take a bit of effort to create a 100 foot buffer around the community.

Verde Watershed

Eight seniors from the Payson area investigated conditions in the Verde watershed yesterday. One word completely describes it: DRY. One wonders what the animals are doing for water. Bartlett Lake is down 50 feet. The picture gives you some idea.

June Elk

Ms Elk in this video is munching away and having a good time. She is still a little jumpy though.