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Valley People (September 8, 2021)

BIG CAT WARNING: “Rancho Navarro - the mountain lions are getting hungry. Our neighbor's cat’s remains were found this morning clearly remnants from a mountain lion attack. The Big Cat has been around Bald Hills Road for a few nights this week. Please keep your pets close and be extra aware of your surroundings."

HELP WANTED STILL! Bus Driver & Volunteer Drivers Needed at the AV Senior Center

The AV Senior Center is looking for a new Bus Driver - Please help spread the word!

In the meantime, they are in great need of volunteer drivers to help with meal deliveries (Tuesday and/or Thursday to homebound seniors) and trips to doctor appointments. Reimbursement for gas is available to volunteer drivers for rides to medical appointment. The AV Village has volunteer drivers for our members but many of the seniors that frequent the Senior Center are not currently Village members... Thank you for the support! Contact Renee for more updated info, if you are interested in volunteering or the job:

Renee Lee, Executive Director, Anderson Valley Senior Center. 707.895.3609, avseniorcenter@pacific.net

COACH TOOHEY: AVHS football is looking for a used, working exercise bike. If you have one taking up space in storage and you would like to donate it, we would love to have it. Thank you!

COMPTCHE ENGINE 8271 and her crew are part of CalFire strike team 9113 Charley and are committed to the Caldor fire. We will provide regular updates on their commitment. 

After a 24-hour rest period, CAL FIRE Strike Team 9113 Charley is back at work today on the Caldor Fire. Here's a report on their activities during their last shift from Aisea:

"Last shift was 100% mop up in the same area we worked yesterday. There was a hose lay already in place and we had to mop up 100 to 200ft inside the black from perimeter. Terrain was a challenge...hiking downhill for approx a mile and then hiking back up to our trucks. We monitored for potential spotting across the line and any fires close to the line. Night saw us being pulled back to our trucks due to many snags in the area. At day break, we walked line again to ensure it held and look out for spots. Seems like line held well and thanks to decreased winds, area appears to have stopped fire spread. Grateful - Couldn't have asked for a better crew!"

Sunday morning, CAL FIRE's Caldor Fire web page indicates the fire is now 43% contained, which is major progress toward gaining control over this high-priority fire.

PUNCTUALITY being my sole remaining virtue, I seemed to be the first customer in line this morning (Sunday) at Scott Baird's pop-up breakfasts and lunches when it opened promptly at 8am, Sunday, at Mosswood Market. And I am a most satisfied first customer, downing a delicious posole at Mr. Baird's Sunday debut. Morgan Baynham and Bill Holcomb were right behind me, and after them a seeming deluge of customers. Monday morning, Pilar Echeverria, presumably rested after her first day off in 11 years, resumes direction of Mosswood.

LAST SUNDAY was the first Sunday morning in eleven (count 'em) years that Pilar Echeverria was not at the counter of her essential Mosswood Market. No sir, Pilar was enjoying her first day off in all that time. In her irreplaceable place every Sunday thereafter will be Scott Baird, a local man who will be offering pop-up breakfasts and lunches, a departure from Pilar's baked goods, which will resume Monday morning as always. Early Sunday mornings in the Anderson Valley won't be the same without Pilar at her old stand, but we'll be among the first crack-of-dawn customers to try Mr. Baird's breakfasts, return for lunch, and report back right here Sunday night. We wish Mr. B well as he embarks on his busy Sunday mornings.

SHALL the circle be unbroken! It wasn't an hour later, post posole, that Bill Holcomb's grandson, John Toohey, AVHS football coach, appeared with Trenton Rossi, one of his star players on this year's revived football team. They moved some heavy pieces of furniture for me. Which they accomplished in about a half hour. I promised not to tell anybody about Coach and Player Movers, Inc. lest every geezer in the area beat down their doors looking for them to shift their Lay-Z-Boys around for better tv angles.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED to support our local seniors - become an AV Village volunteer today! The Anderson Valley Village is part of the national Village Movement that emerged in response to a common challenge facing older adults in the US: staying independent, safe, and socially connected while remaining in their homes.

The membership dues make it possible for us to hire a Coordinator to: respond to the needs of members, organize social and educational events, coordinate our team of volunteers, maintain a list of services for hire

In order for us to support our members we are always looking for more dedicated volunteers (and members as well).

Do you have a little time in your schedule and room in your heart? Please join our team of much needed volunteers to support our elders as they age in place! Hours are flexible and dependent on your availability; every little bit helps.

There are a variety of volunteer opportunities, with our biggest need being rides to medical appointments (usually in Ukiah), tech support, friendly visits or calls, light help around the house and garden. Again you choose what you feel comfortable doing and how often.

There is some paperwork and a short training that can be done on Zoom if need be, but your contribution is much needed and greatly appreciated!

Because we are working with a vulnerable population we do require our volunteers to be vaccinated - thank you again for the support!

Thank you!

Anica Williams, Cell: 707-684-9829, Email: andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

WHO'S AFRAID of the Boonville Fair Board? Everyone in County government, it seems. The Fair is on although almost all the service clubs and usual local exhibitors won't be involved this year out of the very real fear of the ominous spread of the covid virus. Our supervisor, Mr. Williams, and our dual public health doctors, haven't said a public word about the hazard of a crowded event in the teeth of a dangerous epidemic. 

LOOKS LIKE early Fall out there, with the leaves on the thirsty trees turning yellow and light red, all of us praying the weather forecasters are wrong about another dry winter. Easterners say we don't have seasons in California, but we do; not as dramatic as in the East but we can tell when one is becoming the other.

BOONVILLE FAIR SUNDAY COMMUNITY CHURCH SERVICE, September 19th 2021, 8:30 AM, Apple Hall Auditorium.

BILL KIMBERLIN RECOMMENDS: If you are driving through Santa Rosa you might want to consider stopping at the newly updated Flamingo Hotel and Spa. Not a bad lunch or brunch stop. If you work it right you can get a pool side table in the shade. 

AVHS VOLLEYBALL RESULTS

Thursday night our high school girls volleyball team had an exciting game against Calistoga. Having defeated Calistoga at their home last week, they were ready to answer back at our home gym. However, our Panther girls did not give them that opportunity. Our junior varsity girls won both of their matches, allowing Calistoga to score only 14 points in the first match and 20 in the second match.

Our varsity girls also swept their matches, allowing Calistoga only 9 points in the first match and 14 in the second match. The third match was a nail-biter as Calistoga fought hard and took the lead. Yet the Panthers narrowly won the match with a three point lead with a victory over Calistoga's 22 points.

Anderson Valley volleyball is off to a great start! We will be traveling to Santa Rosa to play a preseason game against Roseland University Prep today, September 3. 

Arthur Folz, AV High

COMPTCHE WATER TENDER REPLACEMENT

The Comptche Volunteer Fire Department is the first-responding agency for all non-law enforcement emergencies occurring within the approximately 100 square miles of our fire district in Comptche.

We are raising money to replace our 1989 water tender that has irreparable mechanical problems with a Tactical Tender that has the capability of pumping water up steep inclines, which is imperative to fighting wildland fires in the Comptche area. The water tenders currently utilized by CVFD are built with the mechanics to transport water but not fully support firefighting as the practice has evolved over the last 30 years, as well as being significantly out of date with National Fire Protection Association safety standards.

The Comptche Volunteer Fire Department thanks you in advance for any contribution you can offer: https://gofund.me/583a348d

I'D READ that youth sports had become heavily professionalized, that kids as young as 8 were organized as little all-star teams and on the road most weekends to compete against other midget stars. Adult coaches apparently comb the elementary schools for likely prospects. Here on the Northcoast I'm aware that precocious junior soccer players travel around the state to compete against teams of other elementary-age selects.

MY TWO GRANDCHILDREN are among thousands of children in the Northbay now competing in organized sports un-associated with their primary school. Have they been compelled into premature competition by their sports-loving families? Frustrated old jocks who demand the kids take the fields of glory at a young age? The kind of yobbos you see yelling abuse at Little League umpires, typically teenagers picking up a few bucks? 

NOT IN OUR CASE. My granddaughter was beguiled by watching high school girls play softball. My grandson was throwing a mini-basketball at the tiny hoop attached to the front door. Soon after he began walking he was attempting the impossible Steph-moves he avidly consumed on television. He's now on a traveling Marin hoops team that recently held its own in an LA tournament of 8 and 9-year-olds. Granddaughter is playing age-group softball most weekends and practicing week nights. They enjoy the heck out of devoting hours to their sports. Most of the coaches are from Marin County high schools, meaning they are scouting little kids with a view to their high school years. Parents, not-so-incidentally, are not permitted into tryouts for these junior teams, another major plus in keeping psycho-mums and pops out of the process.

AND THE COACHES are very good, technically good and emotionally sensitive to the obvious fact that they're working with children, small children. My two heirs and assignees are already good at the fundamentals of their sports which, you old jocks will certainly recall, you didn't get instruction in until you got to high school.

I HOPE they go on to play sports at the high school level given the minefield-like realities for young people who must now elude daily bombardments of depraved invitations and destruction. (In my day we could only yearn for depravity.) Continuing in full Teddy Roosevelt mode, nothing like an exhausting regimen of daily exertion to keep the young, young as they prepare to step into the chaos. 

THE ABOVE PHOTO is of the Tremors, granddaughter's team of 8 and 9-year-olds. The Tremors are fully accoutered; they've got home and away uniforms, practice uniforms and, as the gear gets more and more hilarious, rolling equipment suitcases embossed with the team name!

THE POST OFFICE has bumped us another twenty bucks a week, as everything seems to conspire against what's left of paper-papers, including a recent notice from the people we lease our office trailer from who raised our rent forty bucks for "services" they neither specify nor provide. They hauled the thing over here from somewhere over in the Sacramento Valley six years ago and we haven't seen them since, and only hear from them when they want the monthly money. So we're giving up the office as of October 1st fully anticipating false claims from the trailer crooks that their property is not as pristine as when they towed it to Boonville and attempt to extort additional fees out of us for alleged damages. But I swear to you on everything holy — if you can find something to revere — the trailer is as it was received — an empty shell on wheels with two engrimed interior doors.

SO WHERE'S YOUR NEW OFFICE? Farther west in the first of the two modulars, making this operation one of the most socially-distanced businesses in Mendocino County. At my old stand on Anderson Valley Way I installed five gates between the street and the inner sanctum, but still the Grassy Knoll and Building 7 people managed to find me, one of them appearing in my kitchen at 9pm one dark and stormy night to startle my poor wife into a scream that propelled me to my gat, which I couldn't immediately find and had to settle for a baseball bat. "Bruce," the nut began, "I really need to correct you about the Farm Labor Movement of 1915." I said, "My wife just went to get my gun, and if you're not outtahere right now I'm going to shoot you and tell my friend, Deputy Squires, I shot an intruder." I flashlighted him out through all five gates, him jabbering about the Farm Labor Movement of 1915 all the way out to his vehicle.

ANYWAY, Friday night I’d hauled accumulated detritus out of the abandoned trailer and carelessly arrayed it on the pavement for a yard sale, and in no time at all potential customers were wandering through piles of old scanners, intercoms, ancient floor lamps and unopened fishpond filters, most with barely suppressed sneers. “These people have a lotta never asking money for this stuff” looks on their faces. But darned if a guy didn't buy an ancient shoe shine box and another guy a poster of B. Traven. “Isn't he the guy who wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Disappeared in Mexico?” Yes, that's the guy, but he died peacefully at home in Mexico. Ambrose Bierce disappeared into Mexico where, I read somewhere, he was shot by Pancho Villa's forces on the suspicion he was a Yankee spy. A very bad and totally false movie called The Old Gringo was coughed up out of Hollywood on a twisted version of the Bierce saga. (Ask an old man a question and get a filibuster.) A lively woman named Yolanda bought a table and eight chairs, and a young man carried off a hamper basket. “My wife will like it,” he said. An ancient hippie rolled up in an antique VW van, and was instantly delighted with a few issues of 1920-era Life magazines, and Katy Tahja drove off smiling with a county topographical map. By the end of the day about half the goods were in happy new homes. The next morning, hoping to off-load the rest of the stuff, I placed a free sign on a lawn chair beside the highway. The chair was gone in an hour, free sign and all. Low theft or misunderstanding in a world of them, large and small?

IRRELEVANT ASIDE: The front area of the ava property is blacktop left over from when this place functioned as a drive-thru coffee kiosk. The black top is cracking. I turned to Anna Beck at the wonderfully diverse Whispering Winds Nursery, Ukiah, my go-to person for plants and plant instruction, for advice on how to further my plan to seed the cracks to someday bury the macadam in vegetation. Ms. Beck was totally for my plan, but at a loss as to which seed might eat the blacktop, referring me on-line to Prairie Moon Seeds where I've found a couple of likely prospects. End of irrelevant aside, but plenty of irrelevance to come. 

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