Moehawk Rest

"This is the creation of our dream. We invite you to be a part of it with us by watching as we breathe life into it. What is this dream? We want to build a place for creative people to feel inspired and for lovers of the Mojave Desert to find peace and respite. Welcome to our dream..."

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The beginning of 2017 saw heavy rains in Southern California especially towards the end of winter.  We have a beautiful wash / arroyo bed running through our property that saw some excess water this year.  A kind friend who lives full time out in JT checked out how well our arroyo bed fared at the beginning of March 2017. Looks like it held up okay.  Seems our neighbors are still using it as a dune buggy access way. 

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Quick video of how things are looking on the land at the end of 2016

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In October 2016 SJ took a quick visit out to the property.  There had been some  rain and the place was looking lush. 2016 had quite a few set backs for us, with plans not turning out as we had hoped so nothing got built that year. 2017 we hope to break ground. 

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Spaceships in the sky or just beautiful Nimbostratus clouds. View over towards our neigbours.

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Melanie Dizon was kind enough to come and visit our land to help us with inspiration for what to build and were to start. 

“Between permaculture, natural building, earthworks, and hybrid solutions we have a lot of room to play whilst keeping in harmony with the land. “ - Melanie Dizon

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Name that plant? Any ideas as to what this lovely desert plant is?

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The Yucca brevifolia of the Mojave Desert was used by ranchers and miners as fencing and for fuel for ore-processing steam engines. However as times have changed we hope to keep as many of these beautiful trees standing and look to build around them as much as possible.

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Moehawk Rest at sunset. This slice of desert is dotted with Joshua trees, Yucca and various desert foliage as far as the eye can see. A wash bed can be seen snaking through the sand lyinging in wait for the next mountain thraw.

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We were inspired by Cal-Earths building designs, which included Superadobe, Eco-Dome: "Moon Cocoon", Vaulted House Design and examples of their Emergency Sandbag Shelters. The earth bag possibilities seem endless.

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At the end of January 2016 we visited Cal-Earth California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture Education centre in Hesperia, California.  Melanie Dizon a student of Cal-Earth kindly showed us around this amazing nonprofit organization. These images show just a small overview of some of the sustainable living designs that they have on display there.

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2016 Sunset at Moehawk Rest

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What’s in a Name: “Moēhawk Rest” was created by combining New Zealand Māori and English words, with a Native American flare.  One of the co-founders (SJ George) of Moēhawk Rest is of Māori decent and her Great Grandmothers name was Moewaka - meaning "Moe"- Dream and "Waka" - Canoe "Dream Boat". We took part of her name and combined it with a native bird of the Mojave Desert. 

We embrace and recognize that Moēhawk looks similar to Mohawk the name of the most easterly Native American tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy.  The design of our logo was influenced by the art of the Mohave Native Americans who are indigenous to the Colorado River in the Mojave Desert.

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We discovered this beautiful mystery desert flower as we walked on our property for the first time together. It grows almost like a mushroom, popping its head up in a little purple clump. If you know what this mystery plant is, please let us know... MoehawkRest(at)yahoo.com  

UPDATE: 12.01.15 we just found out that this plant is the rare Scaly Stemmed Sand Plant  It's parasitic which grows off the roots of other plants.

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Second Visit continued...

OUR SECOND LOOK | A FRIEND PAYS A VISIT & MEETING THE NEIGHBORS

Second Visit continued: While exploring our land, we had a surprise visit by a friend from the "Big City", who was in the area for one of three local festival being held that weekend; Wonder Valley Festival is a one night event held at the Palms Restaurant in Twentynine Palms. Joshua Tree Music Festival is a  four day event held in the heart of Joshua Tree (only 15 minutes away from Moehawk Rest. And, Bhakti Fest is a 2 day festival which celebrates yoga, kirtan and meditation. The desert is home to many musicians, writers, artists and other creative people.

As we stood roadside, looking at our properties parcel map, trying to figure out our exact borders, we were visited by some Good ol' boys in dune buggies. They stopped to check if we were lost or stuck. When we told them that we had actually just bought this gorgeous piece of land, we were greeted with neighborly exuberence. They helped us find our land markers, gave us some great advise on building, and invited us to meet one of their "old ladies" and have some beers. After spending several hours out in 100 degree heat, those cold beers in their shaded garage really hit the spot (even if they were Bud Lights). Good Times!

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Silver Cholla in full flower - we have several of these native plants dotting our property. With spring still upon us they are all in full bloom which is a beautiful sight to see.

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Second Visit

OUR SECOND LOOK | WALKING THE LAND & WHAT WE FOUND

Second Visit: We walked the perimeter of the property to try to figure out the borders as best we could, then walked around to explore and find treasures. We found various native plants in full bloom, including and abundance of Joshua Trees and chollas, plenty of rusty food cans, a rusty mattress bed spring, a metal drum container dug into the ground, which can be used as a fire pit, and a concrete slab structure. We are going to come up with some creative things to do with all the rusted metal treasures we found. The previous owners had not visited or done anything with the property since they bought it in the 90s.

Property line this way .....

Old Mattress Springs - we discovered some creative ideas for using this as art check out our Pinterest Rusty Mattress Springs page.

A fire pit ready to go...

Silver Cholla (Cho-Ya) in full flower. We have several of these native plants dotting our property. With spring still upon us, they are in full bloom. Such a beautiful sight to see.

Some of the native plants growing on the property...

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Second Visit: We walked our land and found a snowmelt runoff which goes straight through our property, asking the neighbors about it they said that it becomes a small river once a year and looks really cool. So we are thinking its going to be a nice feature. We already started looking at garden bridge ideas for it visit our Pinterest Bridge ideas page, any cool suggestions welcome just pin them to our board.