Month: September 2015

Hi Vista

The tiny community of Hi Vista, located in the Mojave Desert northwest of El Mirage dry lake, is a shred of what it once was and that being a shred of what it could have been, I suppose.

Hi Vista Community Hall in an early phase of life.

Although the little hall was in a quiet and remote location, it was quite plain. A cover over the entry, a faux bell tower and a mission-style decoration were added to make it appear as a Catholic church for the movie, True Confessions (1981), with Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro.

Over twenty years later when the movie Kill Bill (2003) came along, the hall was due for and given another facelift — a wood porch and cover were built on.

The hall in its most pristine condition.

Note the Joshua tree on the right has appeared, at least in part, in each shot. This is visual proof that Joshua trees grow considerably faster than once thought.

Church interior

September 29, 2015
Aphid Loaf

I have heard the Indians would go to the reeds in the riparian areas where aphids fed in large numbers, brush away the tiny bugs and scrape their shiny-sticky waste from the blades. En masse the material would be shaped into a large, heavy loaf with a hardness and sweetness similar to rock candy. In Jedediah Smith’s first expedition across the Mojave his guides recovered a cache of the sweet bread to supplement their then meatless diet.

“But men accustomed to living on meat and at the same time travelling hard will Eat a surprising quantity of corn and Beans which at this time constituted our principal subsistence.”
~ J.Smith, 1826

http://mojavedesert.net/jedediahsmith/journal-1-08.html

September 21, 2015
Ideas that didn’t Work for Whatever Reason

#14: Bed without breakfast
#675: Elephant armor.

#75: Instant powdered horse
#233: Wind-powered pioneer dragster (‘rail’ as to be run out of town on a ‘rail’)

September 21, 2015