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During the next few months, | had several more contacts, both in the ships and with people from other planets who are working anonymously amongst us. Palomar Gardens had been sold and we moved a few hundred feet up our mountain. Flying Saucers Have Landed was released in England in September, 1953, and the American edition followed in October. There was much to be done in opening up this new territory. Not only was it grown thick with live oak trees, but the land was filled with boulders. We often spoke wistfully of the knowledge known on Earth ages ago which enabled men to lift and move great slabs of stone as though they were feathers. The Egyptians who built the pyramids knew the secret, as did those who moved into place the great ancient statues found on Easter Island. But we were obliged to depend on snorting bulldozers to break a road up through our land and nose out the rocks. Our little group passed many stimulating evening hours planning the simple buildings we would have liked to put up here, not just to take care of ourselves but also to accommodate the ever-increasing number of people who were coming up to see me. We had expected that the purchasers of Palomar Gardens would continue to operate it as a restaurant and modest guest house since there were no such accommodations within many miles from here. But, for some reason, they decided to close it. So, although we have no servants, we felt that we must give our visitors meals as a courtesy in view of the effort many of them made in planning time to come up for a visit. We managed to build a kitchen unit convenient to level terrace we cut in the flank of our mountain. The terrace turned out to be a colossal job, but with the help of several muscular young men who gave their time, it was finally accomplished. Our efforts were well rewarded. A portion of the terrace is shaded by magnificent live oaks and we can look out to the tops of mountains, lifting one behind the other in soft pastels until the last all but blends into the sky. We equipped this spot with outdoor chairs, benches and picnic style tables and bought a small charcoal grill. At first we all lived as best we could in two old cabins belonging to friends ona strip of land just next to ours. We used the kitchen unit, also serving as an office and a bedroom for one of us, as a meeting place when weather drove us indoors. As yet, we had neither running water nor electricity. A pure stream flowed underground down the side of our mountain. We piped this to the surface and made a little pool with an outlet so that the water was always fresh. This we carried up in buckets. We knew that, in spite of our dreams and the need for such things, we could not just go ahead and have these buildings constructed until we had the money to pay for them. So, although our living would no doubt appear uncomfortably primitive to most people, and the 1a~ior hard, we were happy with what we did have, and every small contributing comfort to ease the daily chores that we could add from time to time meant more than if it had come easily. DAYS AT PALOMAR TERRACES