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MCT: Tuesday, October 8, 2019

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A COLD FRONT will move across the area today bringing cooler temperatures and occasionally breezy to locally windy conditions through Thursday. (National Weather Service)

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POWER SHUTOFFS LIKELY FOR MUCH OF MENDOCINO COUNTY Wednesday and Thursday.

Potential PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff Scheduled For October 9, 2019 Through October 10, 2019.

The County of Mendocino has been notified by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) that power may be turned off in our area due to red flag fire hazard conditions. At this time, affected areas include Redwood Valley, Potter Valley, Hopland, Ukiah and the greater Ukiah Valley. This information continues to evolve and could change prior to the scheduled event.

The potential power shut off will begin on Wednesday, October 9 at 12:00 am, through Thursday, October 10 at 12:00 pm. Residents should be aware that at the conclusion of the shut-off, it could take several days for power lines to be re-energized.

Residents should be prepared with food, water, and any other necessary supplies for this extended outage. Residents can go to the County of Mendocino’s website mendocinocounty.org/community/public-safety-power-shutoff and PG&E’s website www.prepareforpowerdown.com for power outage information, helpful preparedness tips and lists of markets, grocery stores and fueling stations that will be open during the outage in your area.

For more information, please contact the Executive Office at 707-463-4441.

Carmel J. Angelo

Chief Executive Officer


SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS said via his Facebook page that 6000 "customers" in Mendocino County will lose power beginning Wednesday, October 9, with 200 of those being medical baseline "customers".

"Mendocino County OES was informed on the evening of 10/6 of an upcoming PSPS event due to severe winds that are forecasted to effect the county. PG&E is holding multiple PSPS operational briefings with OES from all effected counties, the most recent occurred at 8:30 am today. There are 2 more briefings scheduled for 12:30 pm and 5:30 pm today. Below is the most recent information Mendocino County OES has received. OES will continue to keep you updated throughout this event.

Overview

  • Severe 2 phase windstorm forecasted
  1. Phase 1: 10/9/19, 4 am-6 pm, winds 35-50 mph, gusts 55-65 mph
  2. Phase 2: 10/9/19-10/10-19, 5pm Wed-12 pm Thurs, winds 40-50 mph, gusts 60-70 mph
  • 29 counties effected
  • 200k customers will lose power during phase 1
  • 500k customers will lose power during phase 2

Mendocino County Specific Info

  • 6000 customers will lose power beginning 10/9/19 (200 of those are medical baseline customers). We do not know have specific location information at this time. PG&E will be sending out maps later today.
  • PG&E said they will begin notifying customers today of the PSPS event

Note: Although it is estimated at this time that 6,000 Mendocino County PGE customers will be impacted, this number may be low given the City of Ukiah, for example, is considered one 'customer'."


UPDATES (from PG&E website Tuesday morning):

  • Anticipated power shutoff start time will be 4am Wednesday.
  • Detail from PSPS Area Map implies Anderson Valley may dodge this bullet:


FROM PG&E ON 'POWER SHUT OFFS'

HEADS UP - MENDO COUNTY ‘PSPS WATCH’ WEDNESDAY

Higher elevations (above 1,500’) in Mendocino County should prepare for a possible power shut off - PG&E boosted the chance of a PSPS (power shutoff) from “Elevated” to a “PSPS Watch” starting Wednesday morning.

MSP runs this feature daily during fire season of the PG&E "projection" of possible/potential "Public Safety Power Shutdowns" (PSPS). PG&E, however, may announce a PSPS with only a 24 or 48-hour notice.

PG&E said, “Weather models continue to indicate potential for a widespread and strong offshore (Diablo) wind event Wednesday into Friday of this week with the main period of weather risk being Wednesday into Friday morning.

Weather forecast models continue to show ample support for the event and have remained very consistent in forecasting the strongest event of the season so far and the strongest event since October 8th and 9th of 2017. The emergency operations center remains activated to prepare for a potentially widespread PSPS event.

Fire Weather Watches remain in effect for the Sacramento Valley, elevated terrain adjacent to the valley, the northern Sierra Nevada, and the North/East Bay Hills. Predictive Services Northern Operations has issued a high risk’ forecast for the upcoming event.

The PSPS potential forecast indicates a PSPS watch zones 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and elevated in zone 7 for Wednesday and Thursday. The PSPS potential forecast also indicates an Elevated potential in zones 3,4, 5 and 9 on Friday. Please note that PSPS decisions are made at a more granular level; thus, only a portion of a zone may experience a PSPS event if warranted.

DETAILS: Fair, dry and slightly warmer weather is expected today when the warmest spots will get into the low 90’s under the light offshore flow. Slightly cooler weather is then expected by Wednesday from a passing low pressure system on Tuesday night with high pressure rebuilding quickly on Wednesday.

Widespread gusty north to northeast winds are then expected to develop Wednesday morning across the northern reaches of the territory, spreading down through the Sacramento Valley throughout the day. Late Wednesday these strong winds will transition to a northeasterly direction, expanding to the Northern and Central Sierra, North Bay and northern coastal mountains, and into the east and south bay areas. Winds should decrease in intensity on Thursday but could remain locally gusty through Friday across the north.

Much of the period of strong winds will be coupled with critically dry relative humidities, and fuel moistures in the regions of interest remain at or below critical values.

The National Weather Service has issued ‘Fire Weather Watches’ for much of the area of concern. Continued dry weather is expected over the weekend behind the system. The current stretch of warmer weather and lower humidity will allow dead fuel moistures to decrease over the upcoming week and live fuel moisture values in the shrubs/brush class in low- to mid-elevations remain near to below critical values.”

NOTE: “This forecast is based on weather conditions and fuel moisture content only and does not include other criteria used to determine whether a PSPS may be necessary.”

(via MendocinoSportsPlus)

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KAREN OTTOBONI popped in Sunday afternoon to remind me that the brand new elder home was at that moment open to visitors. I hustled down the street for a look and immediately wanted to move in. The idea is to provide affordable housing for local people no longer able to live in their present homes. I liked everything about it, from its roomy design by local architect Steve Wood to its meticulous construction by Yorkville contractor, Jack Davis with big assists from Fred Wooley and Ryan Davis; Joshua Townsend who applied the interior paint, Erica Zissa and Bob Day the merry exterior yellow. Pat McClure contributed his formidable electrical wiring skills as Rafa Engavi did the bathroom and kitchen. Wally Hopkins and Kirk Wilder did an impressively professional job on the cabinetry and Brian Wood was responsible for the interior finish. Plenty of room in this nifty little house for two fortunate Seniors who, I understand, are already poised to take up residence. The convenient SoBo (South Boonville) setting comes with a thriving garden, and another duplex planned for the site, the whole of it adding up to an all-round major plus for Mendocino County’s most happening community. Major kudos to the Elder Home’s board of directors for bringing this most valuable project to fruition.

BOONVILLE ELDERHOME FUNDRAISER

Please join the AVEH Board and other Elder Home supporters at the Boonville Hotel on Sunday, November 10, 2019, to enjoy a sumptuous multi-course dinner paired with Anderson Valley’s finest wines. Proceeds from the dinner, $150 per person, will help complete the parking and sidewalks of the new Cottage 1. Attendees can buy tickets singly or can “buy a table” by inviting like-minded friends to join them and us for a fine meal for a good cause. To reserve your place or for more information contact Brian at 510.388.9103 or Scarlet at 707.360.7730 (text or voice). You may also send us an email at AVEH@pacific.net.

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AN INTROVERT WALKS INTO A BAR

by Doug Holland

Once a week I treat myself to breakfast at a diner. It used to be breakfast with my wife, but she died, damn it, so now it's just breakfast alone at the diner. Same diner every Sunday morning, same waitress, same omelet and pancakes and coffee.

A semi-friend says to me, "That diner you always go to is OK, but if you want a really good breakfast, you have to go to my favorite bar."

"Breakfast at a bar?"

"Yeah," he says. "Some bars serve breakfast, and this particular bar serves a dynamite breakfast. Give 'em a try."

Thing is, I'm not a bar guy. When I was growing up my family allowed no alcohol in the house, and I never developed much taste for such stuff. I've been inside a few taverns, perhaps five times in my life, but always as an obligation, not really as a choice. I purchased a six-pack of fancy beer in the spring to help me past my grief hump, but I only drank two cans, and the rest will stay in the fridge until it goes skunky.

I'm also not a terribly sociable guy. Given a choice, I generally prefer to be alone. No close friends really, but to me that's a plus, not a problem. Humans are only technically my species. On a day-to-day basis, people almost never make for good times; people are what prevent good times.

But I read some on-line reviews, and people seemed to agree with my semi-friend, that this bar serves a mighty fine breakfast. So I thought about it. Told myself it had been too long since I stepped out of my comfort zone. Dared myself do it, and decided I was up for the dare. When I pulled into the bar's parking lot at 7:15 on a Wednesday morning, there were already 30 cars parked outside, and I thought to myself, That must mean the food is really good.

An introvert walks into a bar. The place has only a few tiny windows, so it was dark inside. It's a big bar, and crowded. I wanted to sit at the counter — that's my strategy at any diner; you get quicker coffee refills at the counter than at a table. Eleven guys were already seated at the counter, all side-by-side, but there were plenty of empty stools. I left a looong line of empty seats between me and those people, who were obviously friends, all chatting enthusiastically. I was there for the food, not for conversation.

First thing the bartender said, "What kind of beer do you want?"

"Uh, no beer for me. Can I have coffee please?"

I flipped through the menu and ordered breakfast. And then I started looking around the place. There were about 50 customers — the buddies at the bar, and the rest scattered at tables, and another thirty or more customers came in, one or two at a time, while I was eating. I might have been the only person there who wasn't a "regular," as the staff seemed to greet every customer by name.

Almost all the customers were men, and almost all of them ordered a beer. Most of those had a second or third beer while I was eating. Bud Light in cans seemed to be the best-seller. Other than myself, I noticed only two customers who didn't have beers — a father having breakfast with his kindergarten-age son.

Two questions: 1.) Is it legal to bring children to a bar? And 2.) Is beer with breakfast ordinary in American culture?

Even at a bar, my expectation was that at 7:30 in the morning, most people would be quaffing coffee or orange juice, not beer after beer. Maybe it's my teetotaler upbringing, but my mom always said, "If you're drinking an alcoholic beverage before lunch you have a problem." By that rule, everyone in the building had a problem, except for me and the dad and the kindergartener.

A big-screen TV on the wall played Good Morning America, a show I haven't glanced at since the 1980s. Celebrity gossip, with constant commercials and shallow news on the side, and everyone's required to be glib and toothy. GMA was vapid 30 years ago, but it's gotten worse, lots worse (as has much of American media, in my cranky-old-man opinion). The sound was muted but closed-captions were on, and my IQ wasn't very high when I sat down but it lowered every time I glanced at the screen.

I looked around the bar again. At a corner table, a man and a woman ate breakfast and drank beer and never said a word to each other. At a different table, an old man wouldn't stop talking, full volume, about how he'd righteously banged Sandra Bullock before she was famous; I'll wager all my 2019 wages he's never even met Ms Bullock. Several customers spoke fluent Republican Dumbass — "Build the wall," "Keep the Mexicans out," and that's when I noticed that everyone in the place was white.

Conversation was coming from every direction, and I'd stupidly sat at the geographic center of the room, so everyone's words bounced off the walls and back to my ears. Too many words. Too many people. And every ten or fifteen seconds, from somewhere in the bar, pffft — the sound of another can of beer being opened.

Bud Light. Busch. Bud Light. Pabst Blue Ribbon. Coors. Bud Light. Me? Yeah, I'd like more coffee, please.

Soon, almost all the empty stools between me and the buddies at the counter had been taken, as more and more buddies came in, clapping each other on the back and sitting nearer and nearer to my stool. When still more of the breakfast beer-buddies came in, several of them left the counter together, taking their food and beer and resettling at tables. Probably I'm the one who should've offered to relocate, but bite me, I was in the middle of my meal.

And I must admit, breakfast was pretty dang good. Might've been the best French toast I've ever had. The coffee was hot, the service was OK, the prices were reasonable, and there's no way in hell that I'm ever coming back to that bar.

It was loud, like any boisterous tavern in a movie, and it made me uncomfortable. Not fearing for my safety — it wasn't that kind of rowdy — but I prefer to quietly eat my eggs in a place that's, well, quiet. In a word, this place was nuts. Too many extroverts and alcoholics, too much beer at the crack of dawn, and like more and more of America these days, too many idiots. Damned good French toast, though.

(Doug Holland lives in Madison, Wisconsin.)

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NIGHT LIGHT OF THE NORTH COAST: Be the Moon

by David Wilson

In the days of film just prior to digital photography’s boom, photographers simply could not have made many of the nightscape images that we see today. Film with enough light sensitivity to capture the stars and the rest of the Milky Way in all of the grandeur that we are used to seeing in modern nightscape images did not exist; film that came anywhere close to sensitive enough was extremely grainy. Modern camera sensors are many times more sensitive to light than film was. Night photography wasn’t born with digital photography by any means, but it changed with it.

When it became possible through modern digital photography to capture such faintly illuminated subjects as the Milky Way or a dimly lit nighttime landscape using shorter exposure times, photographers leapt at the chance. Now it was possible to capture a scenic landscape with a gorgeous, sharp star field above. Where before the stars would become streaks during the longer exposures required by film, now they could be stopped as the pinpoints of light we see with our eyes, for current camera sensors are sensitive enough to light to take a picture in a much shorter time.

I got into night photography when I was shooting film. My photos then were different from now, not only because I’ve evolved but because the ability to capture light has evolved. My first digital camera was no step up from film at all for nighttime purposes. My night photography lapsed while I used that camera until I found a better model a few years later. I researched specifically for camera models with low light capabilities. When I found one that allowed me to capture the stars and nighttime land features well enough, I was hooked on night again.

Many of us who can’t resist photographing the night tend to emphasize the Milky Way in our images, myself included. It’s exciting to capture the visible structure of the core of our galaxy. Capturing it still feels like stepping into a science fiction story, as though we’re on one of the planets of a broad Federation with the stars at our fingertips. It calls to us, almost close enough to touch…

But about half the time the moon washes out the stars to varying degrees, depending on its phase and position in the sky. I say “but” as if it were a bad thing; it’s my love of the Milky Way speaking. But the moon can bring its own magic in many ways. It can illuminate the landscape, make a backlight, or it can itself be a part of the composition. Don’t be afraid to use the moon. Play with it. Be the Moon.

One can’t always be the Moon, but I was almost it for the image I’m sharing here. My friend Ryan and I were both moving around to avoid the occasional glossy sheet of water that the waves sent sliding across Moonstone Beach’s smooth plane. Between sheets I set the camera down very low, almost on the sand, to get a photograph of him as a silhouette taking a picture near the moon. I didn’t know where he’d be exactly when he set his own tripod down, but it worked out to pretty well: the crescent moon is almost perfectly situated between his legs. I got one shot before I had to move as another little sheet of water sent in by the waves was sliding toward my camera. And then the moment was gone.

My friend Ryan photographs the crescent moon setting at Moonstone Beach, seen here between his legs. A fishing boat’s bright light shone intensely to the right. It was about the same brightness as the moon, and both appear very light here due to a fairly long exposure and a high light sensitivity (ISO) setting. Humboldt County, California.

(To keep abreast of David Wilson’s most current photography or peer into its past, visit or contact him at his website mindscapefx.com or follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx.)

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MIXED MESSAGES

Editor,

People wonder why their children are using drugs, especially marijuana. All they have to do is look at Wednesday’s front page [of the Press Democrat]. A farmer smiling because his marijuana farm has been approved against opposition.

The farmer and the issue aren’t the problem. The problem is the front page can be read through every paper stand by every child who takes the time to read. The word “marijuana” will draw their attentions. Talk about double messages: Hey kids, don’t use drugs even though we adults consider drugs our No. 1 news. All I can say is, What?

Kevin Parsons

Forestville

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WHO'S ON FIRST IN DRAFT RESISTANCE?

Editor,

I had never heard of Darryl Skrabak who certainly led an exemplary life. He was one of the few draft resisters sent to Lompoc, a youth prison, ages 18-26, instead of to a camp where conditions were not nearly as hard. I talked to a resister who was there and it had traumatized him for life.

The obituary says Mr. Skrabak was the first West Coast CO to go to prison in early March 1966. It is true that he was the first West Coast person to do so, but the deceased legendary activist, John Ross, who was from the East and three years older than Mr. Skrabak was the first Vietnam era draft resister to enter prison out here in early 1965. A few weeks ago I was listening to a blues show on KVMR in Nevada City. They were talking about the blues players to be inducted into the Sacramento Blues Hall of Fame. The DJ said that one musician, Gary “Whalin’” Black, who died ten years ago, had routinely ignored all letters from the Selective Service. So they came and put him in jail for two years. He deserves belated recognition. About 3250 men went to jail says the Wikipedia site. My assumption is that two-thirds of those were Jehovah’s Witnesses as that is the usual proportion and often they get longer sentences than the resisters.

Lloyd Dennis

Lodi

ED NOTE: Thanks for the note, Mr. D. My brother Rob Anderson was sentenced to 18 months at Lompoc in '65, my cousin Jim Rowland in '66 out of Arizona, both for consciously refusing to register for the draft. Rob had to have been among the first in California. As I recall he was second in the state. Can't remember the first. Rob said he was the only resister at Lompoc for political reasons, but there were lots of Jehovah's Witnesses and lots of Native Americans sent to prison for otherwise misdemeanor offenses because all "crimes" committed on a reservation at the time were federal offenses. Lompoc did not offer the country club option it has now. Straight lock-up with lots of tough guys.

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A DO-ABLE CHALLENGE

The reason that AV Foodshed features C’mon Home To Eat in October is that local food is extra plentiful during this harvest time of the year; the idea is if you take the challenge of eating locally in October you’ll feel the benefits and want to continue all year long and more fully appreciate what each season offers.

A very lively Boonville Farmers’ Market ushered in C’mon Home To Eat last Friday. Vendors displayed a wide variety of fruit, summer and winter veggies, mushrooms, meat, and oil just ahead of the first frosts. Musicians serenaded the ambient event as folks were pressing apple cider, enjoying the potluck, and visiting. The children’s activities were well appreciated. Each purchase earned a raffle ticket and lucky winners garnered a dinner for two at the Boonville Hotel—Table 128; a $50 gift certificate for Inland Ranch produce and meat; a magnum of champagne from Disco Ranch; a Boonville Farmers’ Market apron; and a BFM T-shirt. Many, many thanks to Lama Nasser-Gammet for so adeptly managing the Boonville Market this year.

What’s next? When your summer garden is finished you can shop at AV’s many excellent farm stands, look for local in the stores, and choose local options at our restaurants and cafes. Plant a winter garden. Or travel to the Ukiah (Saturday morning), Mendocino (Friday afternoon), or Fort Bragg (year-round on Wednesday afternoon) Farmers’ Markets. Either create your own special local food get togethers or check the AV Foodshed website at www.avfoodshed.com for community events as they come up. If you are not already on the Foodshed email list and receiving the Weekly Update you can email avfoodshed@gmail.com to be added. The Weekly Update also has all the grit on what’s in season and where to get it.

(Barbara Goodell)

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THE BOONVILLE QUIZ returns to Lauren’s restaurant in Boonville on Thursday, October 10. Hope to see you there. — Cheers, Steve Sparks, Quizmaster

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"JUST BEFORE SUNSET"

(photo by Harvey Reading)

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GET READY! An on-line comment: “Remember, a 3.5 quake isn't really even a keeper. But what should keep all of us on alert is the fact that even a 3.5 can be a precursor to a larger, potentially more destructive event, so while there is nothing to become concerned about with a single event like this one - 3.5 off Colma - we SHOULD be concerned with being prepared. If you have not yet done so, go get CERT training. Build go-bags for every member of the family and for your pets. Create a plan in the event of separation during an emergency. Build a family emergency supply - at least 2 weeks of food and water for every member of the family (Talk to the folks at Caspar about how they developed their pickle barrel kits). You cannot predict when a really bad event will happen, but you can get prepared for one. Do it today, stop putting it off! “

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COMING INTO WAHSATCH . . .

Big Boy 4014

(photo by Steve Alder)

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ED NOTES

WE EXPECTED that Friday’s appearance of Supervisor Ted Williams and Planning Director Brent Schultz on KZYX would be dominated by pot. But that may have been because they didn’t take any calls at all. Instead, they spent most of the hour dealing with softballs from the show’s host about the local housing shortage. At one point, Williams asked Schultz how many new home permits have been issued this year compared to “the need.” (Something Schultz should be providing to the Supervisors monthly, of course, but not in Mendo.) Schultz said they’d issued a few dozen. Asked why so few, Schultz answered “It’s very hard” because of the state’s increasingly complicated and rigid building rules, and “costs have gone up.” In fact, those were the answers to almost every generic housing question.

WILLIAMS AND SCHULTZ also talked in general terms about the wonderfulness of accessory dwelling units. Local officials inevitably trot out granny and her imagined units as a “solution” to the housing shortage as housing scarcity continues to grow. Planning and Building's failed attempts to “simplify” or “streamline” the permit process remain invisible. Having gone through that process a few years ago, I'm here to tell you, from first-hand experience with P&B how arbitrary and drop-fall stupid the process is.

CONSPICUOUSLY not raised, of course, was the subject of trailer parks, the only short-term low-cost option for housing for many Mendolanders. But trailer parks don’t quite fit the Schultzian-Mendo Planning and Building model. Instead, Schultz said he was working on the latest iteration of the General Plan’s Housing Element, but made no mention of why the last housing element was a complete flop — so much so that a local legal aid attorney successfully sued the County to require them to be more realistic in their “housing element” — and why this one probably will have the same problem. (Hint: they couldn’t find any non-city areas to zone for housing because there were none with adequate water or sewer. The lawsuit simply pointed out that the few acres Mendo said they’d zone for housing were either not for sale or had already been determined to be unsuitable for housing.)

THERE was also no mention of the status of Ukiah’s Lovers Lane, project just north of Ukiah on County-zoned property. Whatever its drawbacks and limitations, the Chico developer went to lots of trouble and expense to file his 200-unit development permit application and should at least be getting a fair hearing and reasonable processing — but is not. Nobody ever brings that project up either. Nobody asks what the hold-up is or what can be done to address it. No matter — the discussion's host, Bob Bushansky, gushed his appreciation for his guests even coming on the air and saying nothing of consequence while he accepted either “nothing can be done/it’s too hard” or other bland non-answers to his softball questions.

SURELY one of the many debauchees reading this can help me out with this mystifying, perhaps new wrinkle, in pervery. Last weekend SF Gate, the feeble on-line edition of the enfeebled mother ship, the SF Chronicle, ran photographs from the Folsom Street Fair, mostly featuring fat people waddling around with their bare bums hanging out of leather apparatuses. But a couple of the photos featured naked people wearing carefully crafted horse heads that looked as precise as chess set pieces. What "sexual" practice do these figures represent? Should I notify the SPCA that horses are perhaps being coerced into unnatural acts?

INTERESTING POST from a Coastie named Mr. Hannah:

“These are the 2016 demographics for Fort Bragg, CA. With a median household income of $37,506 and a median home price of $308,578, home ownership is not possible for most citizens in the area. They simply will not qualify for mortgages, despite spending nearly one-third or more of their annual income on rent. What solutions do you [Supe’s candidates] have to create a path to home ownership for the citizens of the 4th district? What is your plan to increase job growth? How do you propose to close the growing gap between median household income and median home price in this part of Mendocino county? Thank you.”

I’LL TAKE that one, Mr. Hannah. I’d say that at the Mendo level the Supervisors could agitate for trailers, perhaps FEMA trailers, to be established on suitable public parcels on the Mendocino Coast and inland from Willits to Ukiah. Trailer villages could be established pronto, not that there wouldn’t be resistance from the Coast aesthetes and the inland snobs. But if it weren’t for the trailer parks we now have in Mendocino County many more of our citizens, particularly the elderly, would be homeless.

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“TANNERIN” – The Best Shoe Polish – Tanner & Co. Frauenfeld (Switzerland)

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SAVE THE LOCAL GRAIN PROJECT

The Mendocino Grain Project has been a successful and impressive effort to grow and process local grains into flour for baking and cooking here in our county. Its founder Doug Mosel now needs to move the project to a new home. Lake County grain farmer John LaBoyteaux, in a letter sent to fellow food producers, discussed the large storage space Mosel rents north of Ukiah to house his grains, as well as the cleaning and milling equipment needed to process them.

According to LaBoyteaux, “Right now it provides the only fully equipped, commercially viable, grain-cleaning facility anywhere on the North Coast, (currently processing) grain from Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake and Humboldt counties.”

It would be a real shame to lose that capability locally.

Doug Mosel

Mosel and LaBoyteaux are proposing the creation of what they are calling the North Coast Grain Institute, which they envision as an agricultural research station dedicated to grains, but including other organic crops, which would also house and operate the cleaning equipment and other grain infrastructure, as well as serving as a place to train younger farmers.

A location for a new home has been found on a 25-acre site in Upper Lake. It’s a certified organic walnut orchard which is described as having the industrial structures needed to clean and store grain, and provide research and educational facilities. The walnut operation would be continued to support the Institute, but non-productive sections would be removed to devote to grains and other crop research.

To create the institute, the farmers are looking for “a person or persons who can front the money, at least in the short-term, to acquire the property and continue cleaning grain while pursuing public benefit grants and matching fund options. The ranch does have continued income from the walnuts to cover the property taxes and other expenses. However, in the short-term we need benefactors who have the cash, understand the importance of the project for North Coast grains, and are willing to work with us to make this happen and put the institute on a sound financial footing.”

We hope that person is out there. Anyone interested in helping get the Institute up and running can contact contact Mosel at 707-621-0972 or LaBoyteaux at 707-496-3270.

(K.C. Meadows, Editor, Ukiah Daily Journal. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019

Fermin-Garcia, Gandy, Gonzalez, Huerta

MARCOS FERMIN-GARCIA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, pot cultivation of over six plants, contempt of court.

AIMEE GANDY, Sacramento/Willits. Domestic battery.

ANDRES GONZALEZ, Sacramento/Willits. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, vehicle theft, burglary tools, paraphernalia, suspended license (for DUI).

DANIEL HUERTA, McKinleyville/Ukiah. DUI.

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A HARD RAIN

by James Kunstler

A lot of readers (some of them former readers now) have been angrily twanging me by email for writing about the three-year Resistance effort to un-do the 2016 election. I did not vote for Mr. Trump (or Mrs. Clinton) but I resent the coup mounted to overthrow him. I object to the bad faith and dishonesty of the Resistance. I object to the criminal misconduct among the federal bureaucracy, and the mendacity of its partners in the news media, and the hysteria they continue to generate — at the expense of other matters that concern our future.

The political disorder spooling out is the political expression of the long emergency that the nation faces as it finally encounters the limits to growth we were warned about decades ago. The techno-industrial phase of history is ending, and we are left only with inadequate fantasies for coming to terms with it and moving forward. The dynamic relationship between affordable energy supplies and the operations of money roils at the core of this predicament. They are undoing each other and the result will be a contraction of human activity. The big question we refuse to face is how to cope with contraction.

Beyond the ongoing orchestrated coup stands a reality-optional political Left consumed by serial hysterias, uninterested in truth, steeped in social despotism, and apparently willing to do anything to gain power. We should be very concerned with what they intend to do with that power. As they attempt to redistribute wealth, they will make the unhappy discovery that the wealth itself is subject to the wholesale contraction underway. The overvalued “assets” representing “money” hoarded by the “wealthy” will turn out to be figments of a runaway debt crisis. We have already debased the operations of banking, and the tokens that banks issue — currencies and securities — levitate over an abyss.

We already have plenty of evidence for what the Left will do to the principle of political liberty. Their shibboleths of “diversity” and “inclusion” really mean shutting down free speech and telling everybody how to think. They are less interested in “social justice” than in plain coercion, the pleasure they take in pushing people around. What’s worse is that they want to use government as the instrument for enforcing their will. I object to that not just on principle but because government itself will be subject to the same contraction affecting everything else. It simply won’t be able to compensate for all the other losses. Can we downscale its activities coherently, or will we make that journey violently, in some sort of civil war?

The Left seems to be opting for civil war. It is surely underway among branches of government and the administrative bureaucracy I call the Deep State. Barack Obama, John Brennan and others set the intel and police apparatus against Mr. Trump and the war goes on in the latest reckless campaign of “whistleblowers” who are no such thing, but rather agent-provocateurs of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Democrats in congress play a dangerous game with this as they attempt to engineer a non-impeachment impeachment — that is, without a vote by the whole House. To allow that vote would be a move to allow the opposition to participate in issuing subpoenas and seeing evidence, and the Democrats are bent on preventing that. That ploy will provoke the White House to ignore their subpoenas and demands for documents on the principle that this mode of “Impeachment” is not legitimate.

The machinations of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff in this latest “whistleblower” affair pulsate with skullduggery. Are we to suppose that they will march out one “whistleblower” after another whose identity — or very reality — will remain secret through these proceedings? This is the sort of thing you get in Spanish inquisitions and Soviet show trials.

Until recently, all Americans had very firm objections to kangaroo courts and star chambers where the common-law safeguards of due process are thrown out the window. If the standoff goes to the Supreme Court, we’ll surely get yet another crusade to disqualify Justice Kavanaugh.

The Democratic Party is doing everything possible to destroy the legitimacy of these institutions — starting with elections themselves. The origins of the RussiaGate hoax will demonstrate that the party itself was behind the “interference” in the 2016 election, and enlisted the help of several foreign governments in doing so. That is why they are so desperate to keep the level of hysteria amped to the max. The day may be not far off when a great and chilling silence falls over this mob as they look to the sky and see the indictments raining down.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

* * *

'THE WAR AND US' 1923

Nationalmuseum in Warschau, Edward Okuń (1872–1945)

Edward Okuń was a painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, representative of the Symbolist movement in the art of the Młoda Polska period. He was born in Wólka Zerzeńska, and he died in 1945 in Skierniewice.

He began his artistic education between 1890 and 1891 with Wojciech Gerson's drawing class in Warsaw. In the years 1891-1893 he was attended the School of Fine Arts in Kraków…

* * *

TRUMPMANIA

What’s happening now

Happened before in Jonestown.

This will be much worse.

—Jim Luther

* * *

* * *

SHOULD CALIFORNIA SUBSIDIZE GROWERS’ LABOR CAMPS?

In California many farmworkers can’t find decent places to live, or even any place at all. When the grape harvest starts in Coachella Valley, families of pickers bed down in the Mecca supermarket parking lot. In Sonoma County wine country, workers live outdoors and under bridges.

capitalandmain.com/should-state-subsidize-growers-barracks-for-guest-workers-1004

* * *

MEADOW FARM COULD USE….

Non-Profit Needs support for the Healthy Soils Program work

Dear Coastal Neighbors,

Meadow Farm has been delivered 48 tons of compost to spread thinly over cover crop seed and then mulched on 6 acres. Our needs are for the use of a tractor, seed spreaders, horse teams or about 100 human volunteers with shovels. A small tractor would work (we have a riding mower and a manure spreader at this point). Please pass on the information her to someone who may be able to help and is not on this listserve.

Meadow Farm Community Land Trust was awarded a grant to improve the soil and sequester carbon in garden, orchards and fields over a period of 3 years. This has been a complex application process and we are so grateful to be selected to recieve funds for soil, seed, mulch and hedgerow plants. This is the only coastal farm to receive this out of the nine grants awarded in Mendocino county this year.

Meadow Farm is located approximately 1.5 to 2 miles along the northern edge of Pudding Creek waterway. When: Now, before the rains.

We are a 501c3 non-profit suppling our produce to the local food bank, senior center and hospitality house among other goals. Please see our website for more information on our endeavors: meadow farm.org

Thank you for any support financially (donations via website on PayPal under Support Us) or physically that you might offer. If nothing else send some well-wishes, prayers or ideas.

The Leadership Circle and Residents of Meadow Farm and the Earth that we Steward.

Sojourna Lee, Secretary

Meadow Farm Community Land Trust

Biointensive Mini-Farm

Food Security for our BioRegion

Disaster Prep and Relief

Community Building

MeadowFarm.org

info@meadowfarm.org

(707) 813-9234

* * *

* * *

WHEN MARY SOMERVILLE, one of our foundation-stones, told some people that ours was the most celebrated hotel in this part of the world, I objected to her limiting the area, but she had in her mind Clough Williams-Ellis's astonishing invention at Portmerion ["Castell Deudraeth"]. I said that hotels like his, or the Beetle & Wedge, Philip Sainsbury's, and perhaps others and mine had no competitors or comparisons, simply because they are expressions of different individualities and, as such, are not for universal appreciation. This Inn, fourteen crooked miles from a town, has been created in four years out of none of the factors that are the making of hotels which otherwise could never have existed for a day, not golf nor shooting, hunting, riverside, seaside, climate, landscape, main road, nor jazz & cocktails — I have used only food, wine, furniture and people with which to express myself in the language of Innkeeping.

—John Fothergill, 1931; from "An Innkeeper's Diary"

* * *

MEET THE MONEY BEHIND THE CLIMATE DENIAL MOVEMENT

Nearly a billion dollars a year is flowing into the organized climate change counter-movement

smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-the-money-behind-the-climate-denial-movement-180948204/

* * *

* * *

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] If not a civil war in the US, there is a blogger war about the inquiry on the web. I’m not going to weigh in but I have a funny story. I was at a small party and a Trump supporter I was talking to began to read an article that was just posted to his Facebook page. The story was that NASA finally admitted that global warming is actually caused by the sun. I asked, could you go to the NASA site to confirm this? He said, there is no point, there is so many stories out there and no way to say what is true or false.

[2 It’s hard for me to believe the CIA actually has spies inside the President’s office, but there it is.

If you go back to say, Franklin Roosevelt, 80 years ago, and all the presidents since then, if every high level phone call was listened in on and mined for anything that might remotely be ‘impeachable’, there might have been impeachment proceedings initiated by the party out of office every single year. What a way to run a government! Dems seem to think this is 1973, and people are paying rapt attention to their subpoenas and hearings. What I’m seeing, even in this lefty blue state of CT, people are taking this impeachment with a grain of salt. Dems started this too soon after the 3 year Russia collusion hoax, and it’s pretty obvious what’s happening here.

[3] None of this decriminalization jazz is about making life easier for marijuana enthusiasts or growers. It's all about providing a tax revenue stream that politicians can rely upon and which relieves them of the fear of having to repeal Prop 13 or otherwise discomfit the California Landed Aristocracy. I wonder what that old crook Howard Jarvis would say were he to find out that his efforts led to decriminalization of the debbil's weed.

* * *

FOUND OBJECT

22 Comments

  1. Pat Kittle October 8, 2019

    “MEET THE MONEY BEHIND THE CLIMATE DENIAL MOVEMENT”

    As if inviting everyone on Earth (open-borders & “sanctuary”) to move to its most notorious carbon emitter (the US) isn’t the EPITOME of “climate denial”!

    :-)

    PS: Yeah, I’m talking to YOU!

    :-)

    • Pat Kittle October 8, 2019

      Floesyrah byenind, jo cay knoenda dowxensis.

  2. Pat Kittle October 8, 2019

    “It’s hard for me to believe the CIA actually has spies inside the President’s office, but there it is.”

    The “CIA”??

    Let me fix that for you…

    “Israel Spies and Spies and Spies –
    This time the target was Donald Trump”:

    — [ https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-spies/5689437 ]

    (By Philip Giraldi; Global Research, September 17, 2019)

    • Bruce Anderson October 8, 2019

      Kittle, I wonder if you’re familiar with this one: “Anti-semitism is the socialism of fools.” You spend too much time on fascist websites, and I really don’t want to see evil opinions repeated here every day, as I’m sure most readers agree.

      • Louis Bedrock October 8, 2019

        Bruce,

        With all due respect, GLOBAL RESEARCH is anything but a fascist site.

        It is the work of Michel Chossudovsky:

        “Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.  He has taught as visiting professor in Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. He has served as economic adviser to governments of developing countries and has acted as a consultant for several international organizations. He is the author of eleven books including The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003), America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005), The Global Economic Crisis, The Great Depression of the Twenty-first Century (2009) (Editor), Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War (2011), The Globalization of War, America’s Long War against Humanity (2015). He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.  His writings have been published in more than twenty languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia.”

        Please check it out yourself at https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky.

        Anti-zionism is not anti-semitism.

      • Louis Bedrock October 9, 2019

        And Bruce, …

        I don’t agree with everything Pat Kittle says. I strongly disagree with his criticism of black people and Hispanic people. My family is mainly Ukrainian Jews: there are many who don’t consider non-Christians to be “white”.

        Many, if not most, of my friends are black or Spanish or both. The only difference between them and “white people” is the color of their skin and their birthplace. They—we, are no less human.

        That being said, Mr. Kittle knows that I am a Jew by birth and an atheist.

        He’s never insulted me on either count.

        Your vile Court Reporter, McEwen, has frequently referred to me as “The Godless Jew” among other similar epithets related to my birth-religion and my chosen non-religion.

        I’m not in favor of anyone being censored. But it would nice if the playing field were level.

    • George Hollister October 8, 2019

      Pat, you have company. The Nazis didn’t start Environmentalism, but they did embraced it. How anti-semitism fits in, I’m not sure. But there is a rhyme here.

      So Israel is spying on Trump, and so are the Russians, the Chinese, and likely a host of Western countries who want to make sure they know what’s going on, so they’re not caught by surprise. Of course the US is spying as well, likely on everyone. Some irony here though, why bother spying on Trump? If you want to know what he is gong to do, or try to do, or is thinking about doing just listen to his daily statements and read his daily tweets. Trump could not be part of conspiracy, and could hardly keep a secret if his life depended on it.

  3. Jim Armstrong October 8, 2019

    It is a little disconcerting to find that all our lives will be seriously affected for up to five days because PG&E has failed to build power lines that resist high wind.
    Then that those winds are coming tomorrow.
    Then to read that the US Weather Service predicts for Ukiah peak winds of 9 miles per hour during the wind event.
    Hold on to your hats.

    • Lazarus October 8, 2019

      The Sherriff was just on KZYX. He said from his conference call with all the major players, weather, PGE, and of course himself, we would see 60 mph winds “North from Alsaka” starting tomorrow… Mendo Voice and KZYX seem to be covering the situation in real-time.
      As always,
      Laz

      • Jim Armstrong October 8, 2019

        Current forecast:

        * AFFECTED AREA…Elevations above 1500 feet across fire weather
        zones 276 and 277.

        * WIND…Northeast 10 to 20 mph with gusts from 20 to 40 mph.

        This should not bring everything to a halt.

        Also my brand new Honda generator with about 15 minutes on it will not start. Honda dealer blames “bad gas,” recommends carburetor re-build, my fault. Bull shit.

        • George Hollister October 8, 2019

          What I have done with my generator, over the years, is to shut off the gas coming from the tank when it’s time to stop the generator, and let it run out of gas. Then drain the tank. Next time I need it, I fill up with fresh gas and open the valve under the tank. This has worked for the last 15 years. I store the generator in my garage, when not in use, as well. The battery has gone dead, though. I have had to jump it from my pickup.

          • Harvey Reading October 8, 2019

            I have a gasoline lawn mower that I bought in ’93. It’s seen a lot of hard use. I have never drained the gasoline at the end of a season, it has no fuel shutoff valve other than the needle-and-seat valve in the flloat bowl of the carburetor, and it starts just fine months later.

            My outboard motor (2-cycle, mix your own fuel with oil) sits often for years without being started, and i still starts right up and runs fine.

            I agree with Mr. Armstrong. He’s being fed a line.

            • Harvey Reading October 8, 2019

              Probably of no no relevance but my neighbor told me of having had a problem getting his new Honda Generator (that he uses to power his camp trailer electrical system) to start a few months back. He described pulling and pulling on the starter rope to no avail. About then his wife walked up and asked him, “Aren’t you supposed to turn the switch to the “on” position first?” He did so, and the thing started right up.

  4. Debra Keipp October 8, 2019

    Hey parents!!! The last AV Farmers Market was Fri., the 4th. What a crowd!!! Disco Ranch is always enjoyable. But I gotta say, parents were a big fail. I guess a child was almost run over in the parking lot early in the season, which initiated parents putting a blanket right at the walkway entrance to Disco Ranch. This blanket, i was told, was a time out area. Not a kid on it, I stood on it and asked for time out from the screaming contest the children were in. Not one parent responded. My favorite 4 yr old, the loudest and shrillest of the screamers breathlessly bragged that she was loudest! What gives? Disco Ranch is an adult wine store… A business. But the onslought of children over running the place without any parental supervision reigning them in when play reached a fever pitch was downright rude!!!! Not your business?!? Have some manners, then, and require your children to act accordingly, or go home. Next year please show some respect by not obstructing the entrance to the business space used by farmers mkt. Thanks!!!

  5. Lazarus October 8, 2019

    Professor, I’ve been on Shasta only twice. My last trek we took Sargents Ridge, by no means the easy, but beautiful. I met a climber along the way who claimed to have climbed many times.
    I ask casually if he had ever seen anything, the Lemurians, flying saucers, etc, it got weird real quick, he gave me a spooky look and said he had never seen anything, and that was it, he moved on. I instinctively did not believe him, then again maybe he thought I was just a wacko
    All this said I never saw anything either, only the occasional rumbling a rockfall, fortunately not our vicinity.
    As always,
    Laz

    • Shitbird October 8, 2019

      I think i am due for a handle change! You called me “Professor”. That was like a shot of steroids! Is it allowable to use “Professor Irwin Corey”??? Who I think is still alive. Or, Professor Spacehead (not Airhead)??

  6. John October 8, 2019

    Kunstler sounds more like Trump with every post.

    • Cotdbigun October 9, 2019

      That certainly negates every single point he made, you sir are a genius!

  7. Lazarus October 8, 2019

    FOUND OBJECT

    Situation Room at the AVA

    As always,
    Laz

  8. peter boudoures October 8, 2019

    No power? What a bunch of cry babies

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