The nice thing about web sites is that if you don’t like what you see, you can click it “off”.  Wouldn’t it be nice if one could do that with the unpleasant things that happen throughout life?

On the internet, which is a new thing during my lifetime, one can share thoughts and opinions with a simple click and know that your opinion will be given the attention it deserves, you can move around and read what you wish and ignore the rest, read it now, read it later, don’t read it at all.  Doesn’t matter.  In my opinion, this is communication at its finest.

This web site is full of my opinions and my stories that accumulated in the eighty plus years that I have spent on this planet.  Yes, I am in my mid-eighties and recently lost my husband of forty-eight years, actually fifty-two years that we spent together.  We were blessed with two very successful, family-owned business ventures, one being Beaverton Foods, Inc. which was started by his mother in 1929.  Geno and I worked together at Beaverton Foods after our marriage in 1975 and took it over upon the death of Rose Biggi in 1985.  It was a struggling food manufacturing company, famous for its horseradish, and having a hard time handing out pay checks to the thirteen family members working there.  Geno was a genius at product development and it wasn’t long before we had over 200 formulas for various condiments on the market.  Upon his death in 2022, it was a thriving business with product in 97% of American grocery stores and also in several other countries.

Our other successful business venture was under the name of Gene Biggi Properties and it was a property management company that managed several properties that were originally part of the old horseradish farm, plus other real estate that Geno and I purchased and/or built.  The horseradish farm ended up being downtown Beaverton, Oregon thus strip-centers, restaurants, Office buildings, Firestone and banks soon occupied the buildings we built on the land that previously grew horseradish.

Early in our marriage, me with two children from a previous marriage and Geno with five, we were what one would call – dirt poor, however, through hard work, the American way, we prospered and ended up having the ability to purchase two acres and a run-down house four blocks behind the main street of Palm Desert, California.  Thereafter, in 1994, we left Oregon to become “snow birds” in Palm Desert.  Geno, knowing that I had totally dedicated my life to his pursuits in Oregon for the last two decades, gave me his blessing to do whatever I wished with the two acres in the desert.  My wish – was to make it a place for animals to love.

I love animals, but especially birds. I definitely qualify as a practicing bird-aholic with hopes of never finding a cure.  Birds are fun, loyal, smart, funny and relatively easy to live with. It is said that they came from the sea millions of years ago and upon emerging, instead of walking, developed wings so that they could fly through the air as they once flew across the ocean floor.  Regardless of how they evolved, I love them.

Upon moving into this house which had been vacant for eight years, you could actually look up and see the sky from the living room.  That fact, meant the first thing needed was a new roof and after that, fixing all the deferred maintenance on the house would wait, as I needed accommodations for my birds.

Coming from Oregon, I never had the opportunity to know about cockroaches and the first night that I slept in the desert, with a mattress thrown on the floor, I had a rude awaking.  Needing the restroom, I woke in the middle of the night and being totally unaware as to the location of light switches, I start walking.  I can’t see, but it feels and sounds like I am walking on raw eggs.  By the time that I find a light switch, I discover that I was walking on a ocean of cockroaches.  Needless to say, calling pest control moved to the very top of the “To Do” list.

As I type this narrative, I realize that I have lived here in the desert that I love for the past thirty-two years and in that time, I have been very active and supportive of many of the fabulous non-profits, especially those serving animals.

In 2008, I founded LOVING ALL ANIMALS because I became frustrated seeing all the beautiful animal lovers working for the benefit of animals, but none together, leaving them powerless.  I couldn’t understand why they acted like they were competitors, not comrades?

My first horror was when one of my friends wanted to buy a dog and I asked her to consider adopting rather than supporting a puppy mill.  I agreed to go to all the shelters with her to find her new soul mate, which we did.  In those days, there was a shelter in Indio, one in Cathedral City & another in Palm Springs that we visited.  All Hell-holes beyond description.  (All have since been torn down). The animal lovers of the desert knew of the deployable conditions and yet they didn’t work together to get anything done about it.  The rest of the community had no clue what was happening to homeless pets.

In those days, the community was not informed that the SUPPLY AND DEMAND for Companion Animals was out of balance.   No one was encouraged to spay/neuter their pets. Lost and stolen animals were rarely returned home as no one knew anything about Microchips.  When I would mention the word Microchip, people thought I was talking about a computer part.  Hence was the birth of saying “If people knew better, they would do better”

My purpose was in hopes of getting the non-profits to work together in order to truly make it a better world for companion animals.  After I retired from running that non-profit, the job was taken by Mike Russell whom has truly been a God Send for thousands of dogs and cats.  He accomplished many of the tasks that I failed to reach.  He is now talking about retirement and I wonder – who will continue the unfinished work?  If you are reading this and want to help, please go to their website at www.lovingallanimals.org

In 2021, I purchased SHADOW MOUNTAIN GOLF COURSE, not because I wanted a golf course, not because I was a good golfer, not because it was a good investment.  I purchased it because it was about to go bankrupt and turn into a housing development.  This beautiful 65 acres was the very first golf course in Palm Desert, opening in 1958.  The Golf Course and the Tennis Resort next door were at one time, the center of Palm Desert.  It would be a shame to lose it.  The jury is still out as to if I will succeed or fail at this venture.  Check it out at www.golfshadowmountain.com

Some old people (my age) write a book, I chose a web site to tell various stories.   I remind all my friends and all that I wish were friends that my main lesson in life was that my time on this planet will be measured by what I leave behind, as when we die, we take nothing with us.  I have often repeated. “None of us are “OWNERS”, we might pretend we are, but we are merely “RENTERS” and the rent we need to pay for the space we occupy, is to leave that space in better condition than it was prior to our phony claim to ownership”.