Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Just about now, Jim Pickerell and Cindy Johnson should be making their final move from Castaic, California, to their new ranch in Stallion Springs. They bought the property last March but expected the move to take several months since they will be moving from a ranch that had been in Cindy’s family for many years. Castaic was becoming too crowded so the open spaces of the Tehachapi area were the perfect solution. I met Jim and Cindy at Tehachapi’s 4th of July celebration in Central Park. Rango,...
I first met Sarah and Randy Frantz at Tehachapi’s 4th of July Hot Dog Festival when they told me that they were buying a home here. They finally were able to make the move from Long Beach in August. For the last 12 years, Randy has worked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department in Palmdale and had commuted to work from Long Beach. Since Randy’s parents live in Bear Valley Springs, Tehachapi seemed like an ideal move with a much shorter commute. Randy and Sarah were both raised in Hun...
Irene and Rory Fox love the mountains. They met in Mt. Baldy, California, 12 years ago. Irene was teaching school and Rory was and still is a contractor. Their move to Tehachapi brought them back to the mountains from Canyon Lake, near Lake Elsinore in Riverside County. They had lived in that gated community for six years but the lure of the mountains and friends who were already living here made them think that Tehachapi might be just the place to retire. They found a house in the mountains of...
It was July when Hugh, Miriam, Dustin and Collin Shane arrived in Tehachapi with a black lab named Ashes and two cats (Duke and Duchess). They moved here from Colorado Springs where Hugh had been a contract engineer for MITRE Corporation. Now employed by Scaled Composites in Mojave, Hugh is an engineer on the Stratolaunch project. Miriam said that Tehachapi was a natural place for the family to settle as they were used to mountain living with Colorado Springs at 6200 feet and similar high...
Susan Showler had moved from Minnesota to Valencia, California in 2014, but she loved the mountains of Tehachapi and the change of the seasons so in the spring of this year, she packed up and moved to Tehachapi. She said that the mountains here are “crazy beautiful”. Susan came to California as a contractor in marketing, communications and graphic design for Donaldson, a global industrial filter manufacturer; a job that she was able to bring with her from Minnesota. However, after her move to...
It was his work as an aircraft mechanic that brought TJ Fargo, his wife Roni, and their three children, aged nine months to fourteen years, to the Antelope Valley from Vacaville, California. They lived in Littlerock for less than a year before the lure of the mountains, the change of seasons, and friends in Stallion Springs prompted them to make the move to the Bear Valley area of Tehachapi. According to Roni, since they made the move they have had company almost every weekend. That’s what h...
After spending four years in Aviano, Italy, Vince and Janine Laluz and their 16 year old daughter, Dora, have settled into Bear Valley. Vince is now assigned to Edwards Air Force Base. His field is precision measurements and he told me that he deals with mathematical conversions with increments as small as “parts per million”. “At that level,” he says, “accuracy is extremely important.” Vince has been in the Air Force for 18 years and admitted that he and Janine had tried to avoid Edwards for...
Bill and Erika Elliott moved to Tehachapi in June from San Leandro, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they both were teachers. It was Tehachapi’s seasonal mountain setting and the fact that Erika’s daughter lives in Bakersfield that lead them to look in this area for a place to retire. Bill had lived in the Bay Area his entire life. For the last 17 years he has taught high school science in the Newark (California) school district. He has a brother who lives in the little town of Pion...
John and Lynn Rastaetter had lived in Ojai, California, for 27 years. However, the beautiful little resort town near Ventura was becoming too crowded and too expensive. They had looked for a place to retire for five years before finally deciding on Tehachapi where they loved the seasonal weather changes and the open spaces. However, it wasn’t until this year when Lynn decided it was time to retire from her 26 year position of Administrative Assistant for the well-known Ojai Presbyterian C...
David and Carol Faber moved to Tehachapi this spring from Paso Robles where they had lived for 20 years. They told me that it had just become too crowded. When it came time to retire, they decided that it was time to make a move. Four of their grandchildren were in Bakersfield so they thought Tehachapi would be a great choice. They brought Carol’s mother and sister with them as well as Molly, their twelve year old Basset/Lhasa Apso mix. Both David and Carol had worked for the Department of C...
After living in Palmdale for a few years Jean Morgan and Gary Katz have moved to Tehachapi. It seemed natural since Jean’s family lives here and Gary saw a need in Tehachapi for his skills. Gary is a third generation horologist. He repairs clocks of all kinds at his home in Bear Valley. He started in the 1970s with his dad and uncles. His family was, at one time, the world’s largest importer of clocks. They owned Ted’s Clock Emporium, a business located in 14 malls all over Southern Calif...
Like many from Bakersfield, Sarah and Steven Settlemire longed to raise their family in the natural setting of the mountains. They had friends in the area so Tehachapi seemed a great place to settle. At the beginning of this year Steven, Sarah and one-year-old Levi found a home nestled in Bear Valley. Both of the Settlemires were born and raised in Bakersfield. Sarah has an older brother in Taft and a younger sister in high school and at home with her parents. Until she married, Sarah worked in...
At the end of last year, Lara and Chris Martin moved to Tehachapi from Palmdale where they lived for the last five years.They dreamed of raising their children in the natural surroundings of our mountain community. They had actually been visiting Tehachapi off-and-on for the last two years before they finally decided to make the move with their two children. Active Lily is a three year old fairy princess, loves tea parties and being older sister to six-month-old Quin. Chris originally came from...
Teresa Magart and Ryan Young moved to Tehachapi in January with their two-and-a-half year old daughter, Skylar. They came from Wrightwood, an area in the San Bernardino Mountains that is known primarily for snow skiing. They had looked for three years for a place that would fill all their requirements. Ryan is a biological consultant and for the last 15 years has been studying the tortoise in the Mojave Desert. He needed their new home to be near his work and be a place where he could pursue...
I first met Laurence Gutierrzez last summer at the Tehachapi Beer and Wine Fest where he had a booth for his business, Blacktop Cyclery. He said that he had plans to move to Tehachapi when he and his wife, Molly, found the right house. They finally found their hilltop retreat by the end of last year and I finally got the chance to visit their new home and meet Molly in March. Laurence was born in Bakersfield and lived there all his life with the exception of 10 months when he lived in Lancaster....
Michael and Becca Dillenbeck had been trying to move to Tehachapi from Bakersfield for quite a while. According to Becca, after losing a couple of short sales, they decided to just move and worry about buying a house later. Becca is not new to Tehachapi. She grew up here. She was born in Kearney, Nebraska, but moved to California and Tehachapi at the age of five. Her mother is Tehachapi civic leader Mary Beth Garrison and her father is a real estate broker in Bakersfield. She met Michael at Poin...
Last fall Chris and Carolyn Wiles finally moved to Stallion Springs from California City where they had lived since 1998. Carolyn said that she used to drive around Tehachapi pretending that she lived here. As a result of her work as a supervisor at Terra-Gen Operating Company, Carolyn was often in town. She represents Terra-Gen at Chamber of Commerce meetings and has been on the board of both Tehachapi and Mojave chambers for some time. Chris is a civil service employee at Edwards Air Force...
A desire for a quiet and peaceful lifestyle is what originally attracted Ellen and James Rice to Tehachapi. After 31 years as a heating and air conditioning fitter, James finally decided to retire. The couple had lived in Palmdale for 21 years and was more than ready to make the move to their mountain retreat. However, before settling into their Bear Valley home in the fall, they spent almost six months in Bridgeport, California, where James could enjoy the outdoor activities he loves: archery,...
Sara and Fred Nilson moved to Tehachapi last October from Bakersfield. When I asked what brought them here, Sara said it was the beautiful area, the horse-friendly atmosphere and they also had friends here. Both of them were raised in the Bakersfield area. Fred attended Kern Valley High School in Lake Isabella and is an only child. He currently does international sales for an oil related company in Bakersfield. His company builds and leases out mud coolers to be used on hot oil wells. He is a...
It was the clean air and country setting that lured Curtis and Sharon Cummings to Tehachapi. Two of their children have been plagued by allergies, so they were really looking forward to the healthful change in beautiful surroundings. Curtis has been a directional driller for Geo-Guidance Drilling Services in Bakersfield for seven years. Of course, I had to ask what a directional driller does; Curtis told me that it was his job to steer the drill to the oil. He has a fifth wheel trailer, which he...
Izabel Tahsini and David Gutierrez purchased their Bear Valley home last November. They wanted to move away from the congestion of Inglewood, Ca., to a more rural setting. They had friends in Tehachapi who encouraged them to come for a visit and then to look for a home here. David is owner of Precise Home Services, a construction/home repair business. He is in the process of moving this business from Los Angeles to Tehachapi. He was born in Nicaragua and was five years old when his family came t...
Keith Wilson and his wife Annie purchased their Tehachapi home last year. They were attracted to the experience of four seasons and the great weather. Keith felt the new house needed a little work and has been upgrading it a bit at a time ever since. They still have a house in Inyokern, California, which they plan to sell and Annie still has her house in Palmdale. Even though the couple has been married for five years, Annie’s children are finishing school there and it is convenient to her j...
The latest square dance class started on 11 February 2015 for the Tehachapi Gandy Dancers Square Dance Club. We had eight new students join us as well as us welcoming back some returning members of the club. Rod Shuping provided the calls for the square dance class, teaching several of the basic calls and movements. Everyone had a great time! It is not too late for you to join us! The next class workshop will take place on 18 February 2015. Come on out, have fun while learning to square dance. You can come meet your neighbors and make new...
Carol Figueria and Jack Tate wanted a vacation home in the mountains and last summer they found their Tehachapi getaway. Since they are only here about two weekends a month and were traveling in Italy in the fall, it took a while for me to give them an “official” welcome. It was almost December before we connected. When they are not in Tehachapi, they live and work in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angelescounty. Jack owns Tate Heating and Air Conditioning, “The Weather Changers”, located in Mis...
After spending most of their lives in Bakersfield, Chris and Carla Sheldon wanted to raise their family in the clean air and natural surroundings of Tehachapi. They finally made the move along with their four children, who are all under eight years of age. The couple runs an oil equipment company in Bakersfield that deals with valves and hydraulic controls. Carla was born in Bakersfield and comes from a family that has been involved in the oil equipment business for 40 years. Before becoming a...
