RICH FERGUSON, a Boonville resident, died unexpectedly at home in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 18, 2020—just two weeks shy of his 81st birthday. He was a regular tennis player at the high school courts; an avid gardener and home winemaker; and a professional policy advocate for renewable energy, environmental protection and conservation. He could be seen twice a day, regular as clockwork, walking his dog Deri throughout Boonville. A celebration of his life is being planned and will be held in Boonville in the spring.
THE APPLE FARM is seeking a local part time employee for the 2020 season to serve as our weekend farm stand attendant and cooking class assistant. Must have some experience with customer service and be willing to work some Saturday nights. The position is available starting any time in the coming month through the end of apple season in the late fall. A great opportunity to be part of a local business providing high quality products and food to the community. Email karen@philoapplefarm.com to inquire about further details.
FIRE SURVIVOR’S FUND: “Over the past two months we have witnessed an outpouring of generosity, from donors throughout the county and beyond, coming together to help survivors of the December 5th Boonville fire. The fire destroyed three residences, damaged another three, and destroyed Lizbby’s Mexican Restaurant and the PicN’Pay Market. Within days the Community Foundation of Mendocino County was fielding calls on how we could collectively support these families in need. Through the generosity of Duckhorn Wine Co. we were able to establish a sub-fund within the Disaster Fund, allowing us to raise money for the recovery needs of the seven households impacted by the fire. The response has been generous, and to date the Community Foundation has raised $42,000.
WE ARE GRATEFUL to Sueno Latino of Anderson Valley, who have been integral in working with the survivors for their immediate relief needs, and with the Community Foundation to understand the scope of need.
THE FUNDS RAISED will be used to assist survivors with rent and deposits for long-term housing, replacement of furnishings, clothing, tools required for work, and other necessary expenses for recovery.
ONE HOPES some of the money raised might also be directed to the family of Stephanie Barton, the unfailingly gracious lady woman-ing the morning shift register at Anderson Valley Market. Stephanie’s home also went up in flames only a few days after the central Boonville fire, leaving her, her husband and 10-year-old son temporarily homeless. They’ve since managed to re-house themselves but they’ve suffered a tremendous loss.
VARIETY SHOW 2020. It's 2020 and time to get your vision for an act into focus for the stage. YES, the 29th annual AV solar grange variety show is prepared to accept your act. This year the show is Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th. But now is the time to call Cap Rainbow at 895-3807 or since he's having trouble with his phone if you can't get through call Kate at 357-7682. You don't have to be from the valley to participate— come over the hill, in from the fog, away from the brightlighters and experience the best audience anywhere; you will be welcomed. Especially seeking animal acts, magic, demonstrations of skill, or erudition. We bill it as four minutes in front of 400 people. Operators are waiting at the phone(s), or leave a message and hopefully the phones will be working. Keep trying. Don’t wait. Call Cap Rainbow at 895-3807 or Kate at 357-7682.
SHEEP-KILLING DOGS, from facebook: "We just had 2 dogs, a german shepherd and a boxer, take down 2 sheep right next to the house here on the Prather ranch (right by the grange). They are torn up bad and will have to be put down. 2 other sheep are missing from our little herd of 9. I’ve been told these dogs are also taking down sheep across the road, and are coming back every day now to do more killing. If these are your dogs, know that they will be shot on sight next time they get onto these sheep pastures. They are killers and are not being controlled. If you know who they belong to, please let them know and make sure they are kept contained. Once dogs get a taste for blood, they are relentless. These poor sheep are defenseless and I am personally furious that dogs are being allowed to roam and hurt them. Especially when it’s lambing time and so many babies are at risk. Please get the word out; there is actual video of these 2 dogs killing sheep and they will be destroyed if it doesn’t stop.”
A READER WONDERS: “When Jeanne and Tommy closed the Buckhorn, who could have guessed that the Franchise Tax Board would hold the liquor license captive in for the nearly $45,000 in employee withholding not paid to the tax people? When one of the employees called to ask where the W-2's were they were told, 'Leave the Buckhorn behind... I have'."
THE YORKVILLE MARKET!
This is now our fifth year in business and we have decided to make a few changes and plan to try out some exciting new ideas:
First, our current winter hours will be
Monday -Thursday 8:00-6:00
Friday- 8:00-7:00
Saturday and Sunday 8:30-6:00
MENDO SPORTS PLUS ASSESSES THE BOONVILLE GYM and the Mendo-AV rivalry:
“These are more rivalry games where you can throw the team records out the windows — Mendo seems to ALWAYS have a tough time at Anderson Valley High. Thank God they've been replacing those yellow mercury-glare overhead lights in the Boonville gym — after an hour under them, you'll confess to crimes you've never committed just to get away.
"The Lady Cardinals have won 13-straight over Anderson Valley (and are 30-6 against them going back to 2005). The Mendocino boys have won seven straight against the Panthers and are 24-12 going back to 2005. But don't let that fool you — these are intense rivalry games and AV Coach Luis Espinoza is back at the helm of the boys team — only God knows what he has cooked up to beat Mendo. But Mendocino breezed to their eighth straight victory over Anderson Valley Friday night in Boonville 69- 37. Liam Pothast started off the scoring with a layup 8 seconds into the game and the Cardinals never looked back.
"Mendocino’s Isiah Williams tied Anderson Valley’s Audie Hanes for game-high scoring honors (they both had 16 points) while Cardinals Francis Martinez had 13 points, Kona Parker 12 & Liam Pothast 11."
AV HOUSING ASSOCIATION seeks part-time administrative manager; part-time property manager. Flexible hours. Salary dependent on position and skills, starting at $20/hour. Bilingual English/Spanish is a plus. To apply submit resume with cover letter to AVHA, PO Box 341, Philo, CA 95466 or email: info@andersonvalleyhousing.org. Applications due by Feb. 15, 2020.
RED MUSTANG, a local facebooker wants to know who drives it: "Anybody have any information about a red mustang (late 90s/early 2000s) with a black hood stripe driving in Anderson Valley? He followed me the whole of 253 and was driving crazy. I tried to pull over twice and he pulled behind me and wouldn’t pass. Started getting even crazier on the Ukiah side of the hill. Turned off his headlights, driving in the oncoming lane and more. He continued following and harassing in Ukiah but I lost him when he was forced to turn on Talmage. First digits of the license plate 7FND. I didn’t recognize the guy."
CABIN RENTAL ANYONE? I'm Looking for a quiet, small house or cabin to rent. I'm a volunteer Paramedic here in AV, been around since 2000. Ideally somewhere up in hills, or set back from Hwy 128 so you can't hear the highway. Nothing in town please. I'm a licensed electrician and General contractor, happy to do a work trade or rent/work combo, or just pay rent. I have many local references.
Please call, text, email or message me.
Many thanks!
Miguel Ridolfi
707-799-8595, miguel@mcn.org
KICKING OFF SUNDAY MORNING with my usual PowerBall loss — not one correct number — I hit the pavement as a fine, damp drizzle fell, lamenting the loss of the frogs that used to be everywhere after a rain before the industrial wine industry poisoned them unto extinction. I also mulled over the morning headlines that said the "prestigious" Des Moines Register had endorsed Elizabeth Warren. The newspaper said Warren would "push an unequal America in the right direction," but "she's no radical although she's viewed by some as too far left." Continuing, the prestigious newspaper's prestigious editorialists declared, "The senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts is not the radical some perceive her to be. She was a registered Republican until 1996. She is a capitalist." Whew! Spare us the wrath of non-believers in capitalism — more stuff for more people forever! What kind of nut could possibly oppose it?
GIVEN that we seem doomed as a species, the young ones should probably be spared the bad news, at least until they're old enough to reasonably process that they might live long enough to witness the final curtain come down. In that interim-innocence between infancy and puberty, I'm here today to urge that the Boonville schools re-institute Arbor Day, accompanying the annual hour or so that might be devoted to it with a riff or two about how trees not only cleanse the air we breathe they help beat back global warming. I've suggested as much to the school people who, of course, instinctively reject any suggestion coming from Boonville's beloved weekly but I try, he said, choking back a sob. The Arbor Day Foundation gives away trees. All you gotta do is ask. No in-services, no grant apps, simply the request. Why, just a week ago the Foundation offered 10 free flowering trees or 5 free crape myrtles for the asking, not that these particular parking lot species are what I have in mind for Boonville, but the grander tree seedlings are also free for the asking from not only the Arbor Foundation but local timber companies. Both our school campuses badly need trees, and what better excuse to combine a "learning experience" with beautification?
AVA POSTAL RATES are up again for 2020, especially for our out of county and out of state subscribers. Many out-of-the-area subscribers have shifted to on-line where the goods are cheaper and faster, but it now costs us about 80 cents to mail a paper out of state on top of the 40 cents per copy printing cost, a little less out of county. We have not raised our rates on our loyal subscribers, but it now costs us about 20 cents more per paper per week in direct out of pocket print/mail costs over the $50 sub rate (which goes back to the mid-90s) — or $1.20 cost for a $1 price. And that doesn’t include our other costs: contributors, office, rice and chopsticks for us, taxes, etc. By comparison the weekly New Yorker is now up to $3 a week and they have lots of ads, which we don’t, not deigning to descend to that area of the begging bowl. On a three-glub scale, we're at two-and-a-half from glub, glub, glub.
PETIT TETON MONTHLY FARM REPORT - DECEMBER 2019 Welcome to the new year everyone. We visited a local animal shelter for the new year and found a beautiful 5 month old Belgian Malinois male, Rafa, who could be a pure bred—or not.
He and Pito are already best buddies and yesterday they bonded even more by killing Rafa's first chicken, one that, despite our best efforts to close all but the tiniest openings, insisted on escaping from our very large blackberry maze cage which is chicken wired top to bottom, is 10' tall and is even chicken wire roofed. Not a good start to our training regimen. It happened while we were hiking with the grand kids, Kellie and Zoey, up a steep, never explored, part of the property. We followed a fence line straight uphill, found a seasonal creek and traced it to its source out of rocks under a copse of oaks on the side of the hill, before heading home at sunset. At one point we sat on a shelf of rock to admire the view, and Zoey, 11, noticed an owl pellet directly under a lone post near the rock. What a treasure! It is a downy nugget filled with various bones, bug legs and a beetle carapace. After googling owl pellets I learned they are regurgitated and if one knows enough, one can identify the type of owl by its pellet, that people study the bones in the pellets and most important, they are valuable...as in people buy them!! Who said there was nothing on this land of value. We are hoping for a happy new year although it's certainly touch and go at this point. Nikki Auschnitt and Steve Kreig, Yorkville
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