Riverside County will host another free COVID-19 testing day at the Idyllwild Library from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Visit https://gettested.ruhealth.org/ to make an appointment or call 800-945-6171.
COVID-19 testing is available for those with or without symptoms. Testing is free and available for everyone.
Additional testing Residents can also visit www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus/testing to schedule an appointment online or call 800-945-6171 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. to make an appointment over the phone for drive-up testing. Looking for a shorter wait time when calling to make an appointment? The county suggests calling between the hours of 5 and 10 p.m.
State testing sites are also operational in Riverside County. To make an appointment, visit https://lhi.care/covidtesting or call 888-634-1123.
Fern Creek Medical Center in Idyllwild offers a COVID-19 antibody test.
Did you know? We have FREE Water Saving Kits for Pine Cove residents available at the Pine Cove Water District.
We appreciate everything you do to help us save and conserve water and here is an additional way to make sure we are all doing our part.
This kit includes: Earth Massage 1.5 gpm Showerhead – 2 setting massage spray showerhead Kitchen Swivel 1.5 gpm Aerator – Dual-spray functionality, with wide-spray radius and water pausing on/off valve ( 2 ) Bathroom Faucet 1.0 gpm Aerators – Half the flow, twice the power. Commercial grade aerators for the home Toilet Water Saver (Fill Cycle Diverter) – This patented water saver takes excess water from the bowl and diverts it to the tank to reduce water consumption. (This is NOT a flow restricting device) Toilet Leak Detection Tablets – FDA-certified, non-toxic dye tablets used to detect leaks in toilets Flow Meter Bag – Kit bag doubles as a flow meter to identify water wasters throughout the home Water Conservation Wheel – Provides useful ways to conserve water around the house Installation Instructions
To get your kit, come visit us in the office. We are open to the public (masks are required, 1 person in the office at a time). Or you can call us at 951-659-2675 or email info@pcwd.org.
I recently read an article in The San Diego Union-Tribute dated July 13, 2020 that said butterfly plants are in short supply. They cited the pandemic-fueled gardening boom as well as public’s awareness of shrinking monarch population and wanting to help increase it. The Center for Biological Diversity put a release out on March 13, 2020 that stated the yearly count of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico shows a decrease of 53% from last year’s count and is well below the threshold at which government scientists predict the migration could collapse. They attribute the decrease of Monarchs to milkweed being devastated by increased herbicide spraying in conjunction with corn and soybean crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate direct spraying with herbicides. Additionally, they are being threatened by other herbicides and by neonicotinoid insecticides that are toxic to young caterpillars and decrease the health of adult butterflies.
At the Pine Cove Water District, we were lucky enough to procure several new narrow-leaf milkweed as well as tropical milkweed for our butterfly garden. We’ve even seen a couple of visitors and look forward to seeing more as we come to the end of the season.
There’s a little guy hanging upside downAnother bigger guy across the garden
What can you do to help?
Plant the right milkweed. According to The Laid-back Gardener, Monarchs seem to like common milkweed best but also fed happily on swamp milkweed. Apparently, butterfly weed isn’t too well liked in the caterpillar community.
Cut your milkweeds back. Prior to blooming, cutting back the plants make them more attractive hosts for caterpillar larvae. Research at Michigan State University shows that female monarchs prefer to lay their eggs on fresh young stems that haven’t flowered yet. Heavy pruning doesn’t harm the milkweed plants and they quickly rebound.
Know your sources and avoid pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. When purchasing flower starts or seed, know the source. Make sure they are all natural and have no pesticides. Additionally, keep that same mind set when amending your soil and use natural compost like the compost we supply at the Water District to Pine Cove residents.
Plant additional flowers to feed adults. Although the female monarchs only lay their eggs on milkweeds and their caterpillars only feed on those same plants, adult monarchs feed on nectar of additional flowers like Wild Bergamont, Mountain Mint, Pale Purple Coneflower, and more. Try to provide a wide range of flowers that bloom through the entire growing season. It is also suggested that you grow single plants isolated from others by mulch or wood chips (which the Water District also can supply to Pine Cove residents) instead of mixing them as the butterflies rely on seeing the plant shapes to know where their food is.
Here in Pine Cove, many residents like to garden and even grow some of their own food. Now is the time to start thinking about spring projects and what you can do to conserve water in the garden.
If you have an existing garden, there are several things you can do to reduce the amount of water you use in the garden. First, be sure to add compost to your existing garden. Soil that is high in organic matter stays moist longer. Improve your soil by adding a source of organic material such as compost or well rotted manure. If you consistently work to improve your soil each season, the texture and water holding capacity of your soil will increase and your garden will require less water. In order to make this easier for you, we have wonderful compost available to our customers for free!
Once you have freshened your soil with compost, it is time to add some mulch. Mulch aids the garden in several ways. It adds a source of organic material which and will eventually improve the structure and the water holding ability of the soil. Mulch slows surface evaporation so you will water less and it helps to smother weeds, making your gardening easier! As it happens, we also have mulch (Wood Chips) available to our customers for free as well!
One wonderful thing you can do to help keep your garden looking good throughout the summer is harvest rainwater. Rain water is FREE water. Just catch it and store it then use it. You can search for rain water harvesting online and find a ton of helpful information and lots of examples on how to set up rain harvesting system. By using your roof water you will reap water benefits from even a gentle rain by capturing all of the water that falls onto your roof surface. This can be as simple as a rain barrel under your down spout or shallow trenches to divert the rainwater to the garden. Adding berms strategically in the garden will keep the water form running off. You can even go so far as to install a large water storage tank either above ground or underground in order to store thousands of gallons of rain water.
Installing a drip irrigation system will deliver water directly to the plants root zone instead of watering the entire surface of the garden. Although, a drip irrigation system can be expensive initially it will certainly pay off in drastically reduced water use if you intend to grow a garden year after year. The hoses, emitters, fittings and valves must be laid out to deliver the water to each plant. If you can’t afford to install a drip system, an easy alternative is to use soaker hoses that allow water to seep through the porous material along their entire length. Soaker hoses are less expensive to install and you can put them under the mulch to prevent evaporation. Both methods are better alternatives than sprinklers or letting the hose run.
Higher the humidity lowers your risk for airborne viruses. Do you run a humidifier in your home during cold an flu season? If you don’t it might be time to consider investing in a humidifier for your home or office to reduce your risk of getting sick. Researchers found raising indoor humidity killed 85% of airborne flu virus within an hour, 100% within 24 hours. In dry air, the virus thrived for days. Increased humidity can also help with other health conditions like Asthma, coughing, snoring and dry skin and hair. According to WebMD, “Changes in humidity in different seasons may also affect how often people get sick. The most common cold viruses survive better outside the body. Also, cold weather may make the lining of your nose drier and more vulnerable to an infection by a virus.”
Our humidity level here in Idyllwild and Pine Cove is notoriously low. With the cold weather running your heater or burning a fire can suck the moisture out of the air. Keeping a cast iron pot or kettle on your wood burning stove while burning a fire can help raise the humidity level as well. Keeping the humidity level up and investing in a humidifier seems like a relatively simple solution to protect your health this time of year.
Rather than helplessly sit by when unsafe or illegal road or parking behavior happens, witnesses can do something about it. CHP officers can’t be everywhere at the same time, but residents are! In addition to phoning, we can now report incident details by email.
It’s a traffic safety campaign the San Gorgonio Pass
California Highway Patrol (which covers the Hill) has started that asks our community
members to report unsafe and/or illegal driving or problem roads.
Using the license plate, Capt. Mike Alvarez will mail the
registered owner a courtesy warning letter. (You remain anonymous.) The warning
letter is kept on file at the San Gorgonio Pass CHP office for future
reference.
Here’s how to do it. Simply PROVIDE: date, time, location and
vehicle license plate (or a passenger’s or dash cam’s photo).
When you report a problem, the CHP will log it using data to
track the locations via hot-spot mapping so CHP can deploy resources in
high-violation areas.
Please call or email the CHP for any driver or road problem you see. It’s the only way our voices, numbers, and problems can be heard!
Just a quick reminder about our Leak Reward Program. Be the first to spot a leak and report it to the water district and earn a $25 gift certificate to the restaurant of choice here on the hill.
A valid leak is not a spring or something we already know about and it can’t be something like your toilet is leaking. This time last year we had a water loss of over a million gallons because of customer leaks. This has been a very successful program and we hope you will keep your eyes and ears peeled when you are out and about in Pine Cove.
Hello Pine Cover’s and happy 2020! The board meeting for this month has been cancelled. The next Pine Cove Water District board meeting will be Wednesday February 12th at 10:00 am.
Pine Cove Water District would like to wish everyone a very happy new year! Next week the office will be closed Wednesday January 1st in observance of New Years Day. If you would like to make a payment while we are closed you can do so online or drop it though the office door slot. If you have a water emergency like a burst pipe or leak please call the on call emergency line (951)294-8282
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