05/25/2026
Hi Guys…it’s been awhile.
2025 turned out to be a nightmare for Holly and I and for Desert Curios as well.
Due to circumstances way beyond our control Trump’s political maneuvers and all his s**t talking pretty much dried up almost all of the tourists to the Joshua Tree area from outside the U.S. We had almost zero Canadian tourists come into the store.
For us to have had a successful store front business plan we relied on foreign tourists. And with everything being so high priced spending habits seemed to be drying up. We seemed to be barely hanging on.
And then the new location we had been in for a few years now never satisfied Holly and I. Our hearts remained with the previous building that was destroyed by fire. ☹️
And the new location even though we were paying a high rent, the building had no water running to it so we had no toilet or sink. The owners promised to hook up to the sewer as quickly as possible but they never did. Really mean and terrible people.
So as we began to get more demanding about having a working toilet and sink, the owners decided to just tell us to shut down and leave saying they had an offer from someone to buy the building.
We were shocked but knew we had no choice. About two weeks into preparing the store to be shutdown we found out the landlord for the house we had been renting for six years suddenly died in his 40’s. His parents came to us and said they were selling all his real estate and that we would need to move.
So omg…a double whammy and we were screwed. Since then it’s been one disaster after another. Almost four months of pretty much just Holly and I figuring it out and dealing with all of full well knowing we had no income coming in. We were quickly going broke. Holly had to be hospitalized twice during all of this with one being due to her having a mini heart attack.
For me and this is where I’m going with all of this. While moving out of the shop my hand was badly injured. A huge wall unit piece can crashing down jamming my hand between it and the wall. I was there alone and realized it was stuck and because of the angle I was at I couldn’t lift the wall unit off my hand. So I attempted to drag my hand free which in turned ripped away all the skin from the top side of my hand. It was a horrible bloody mess and the pain was extreme.
But as screwed up as it was I had to keep on working as there was no other option. A a few months went by and my hand would get better and then get worse. But by March it was only now getting worse. I kept it wrapped everyday so nobody could see it, but in early April Holly demanded to see it and as I unwrapped the bandages it looked like she was going to faint. We took some photos of it and once I saw it from the perspective of a photo I was shocked. It truly looked like the hand of a cadaver that had experienced some tragic ending.
A few weeks back a client who is now a good friend stopped by and eventually the subject about my hand came up and she wanted to see it. And when she did she panicked. She immediately call a friend of hers who is a skin specialist working out of the Palm Springs area. She wanted me to come in right away but we couldn’t because earlier in the year I was dropped from my insurance as I would soon be turning 60 and they wanted to triple my premium which I could not afford.
Explaining all of this to our friend she called the doctor once again and was to to bring us down no matter what money or no money.
The next day a met with the doctor and she appeared to be deeply concerned telling my that this is the kind of thing that can eventually lead to amputation.
She said “this has to be treated beginning now”.
And thankfully car god she said I will try and work within your financial constraints but this is going to be a long and slow recovery.
Holly started this Gofundme as we have nowhere else to turn and I too am worried about everything but in the short term I know my hand needs to heal.
You can see a photograph of my damaged hand taken in April. It continued to get worse after that.
All of this has financially overwhelmed us and sucked up every bit of our life savings and we needs help.
The only positive I can see from all of this is that it was time for Desert Curios the storefront to retire and go away. That chapter now closed. Desert Curios is now being constructed to be a worldwide type shopping experience. Online so everyone everywhere can enjoy it.
But putting it all together is taking time which does not help us right at this moment.
If you can donate anytime thank you.
If you can share the Gofundme link thank you.
We can also take financial donations with Venmo or Zelle.
I’m sorry to have burdened you with this sad story but we know we can eat the odds against us. We beat the fire and somehow came back. So please consider help us come back once again.
Jeff and Holly
Desert Curios
Here is the Gofundme link. 👍
Most of you know that last November we shut down the store and moved o… Holly Carlyle needs your support for Help Jeff Heal From his Progressive Hand Injury
