Meet Your New Neighbors

Rob Dixon and Catherine McCord originally bought their Old West Ranch property as a vacation home. It was a perfect getaway for them and their animals from the congestion of the Ventura coast and a chance to own a ranch. They have owned the property and have been coming to Tehachapi for over a year. They bought a homestead where the house had been destroyed in a brush fire that had been started by a plane crash. Although the main house was gone, there was an apartment over the garage. It would have been perfect, except that they had no power, no water and no sewer their first week there. However, this year they decided it was time to make a permanent move. They rented the two homes they owned in Ventura, packed up the animals and moved to Tehachapi, ready for an adventure.

Rob was born in North Carolina and grew up on the east coast moving to Orange County, California at the age of 15. His brother still lives in Southern California. Rob is a self-described “Jack-of-all -trades” and, of course, has dozens of projects lined up.

Catherine is a California girl, born in Santa Monica and moved to Ventura in 1977. She has two brothers, one in New Jersey and the other in the Midwest. She is an insurance claims examiner but also a Red Cross volunteer. She is an accomplished rider and has trained horses at a ranch in Sand Canyon.

Most of their life in Tehachapi revolves around their horses as anyone who has owned horses can attest. Twenty year old Thomas of Cowington had a disagreement with his prior owner and kicked her. As a result he was taken on by Catherine. She said he is best described as the class clown or the school bully. Sir Ernest of Fabio (Ernie) is a ten year old rescue horse Catherine found online. Malika is around twenty and was abandoned in Ojai, near Ventura, before joining the family. That little herd is watched over by a Border Collie named Ophelia, a Rat Terrier named Calvin and a nameless cat.

We welcome all of you to Tehachapi. Rob and Catherine, you surely have your work cut out for you.

Judy Bliss told me that she had lived in Ridgecrest off and on since she was seven years old but she is very happy to finally be in Tehachapi. Her good friend Dennis Turkish, a local marriage and family therapist, urged her to make the move from Ridgecrest. As she has had pneumonia twelve times, she is looking to the clean mountain air here to be a healthy change for her.

Judy is now retired but has worked in the accounting area of the aerospace industry. She was born in Mesa, Arizona, where her father was working at the time. The family ended up in Ridgecrest where her father took a job on a nearby military base. She has a brother in the Pacific Northwest but the rest of her siblings are in Ridgecrest. She married a Navy man and that allowed her to travel. She spent a year in Sicily, Italy, and her youngest son was born in Naples. She explained that according to Italian regulation, expectant mothers were sent to the hospital prior to their due date to await the birth of their babies. However, Steve was late and as a result Judy ended up spending a month in bed in a hospital in a foreign country. It was a very long wait.

Judy has two sons. Steve is the youngest and is a plumber living in Hesperia, California. His older brother, Shawn, is a heavy equipment operator living in Arizona. When I asked her how many grandchildren she had, she said that she thought it was about nine but she loses track. Her favorite place to live over the years was Santee, near San Diego, where they lived for around ten years.

Judy is a trained member of CERT and would eventually like to be involved with a group here in Tehachapi. Also, Judy is a very accomplished beader and makes very high-end beaded jewelry when she has free time. She said that she would like to get back to that here as well. In the meantime, she is helping to care for two dogs, Chloe and Ricky, and two cats, Sam and Nilla.

Judy, I look forward to seeing some of your work in town in the near future.