MONDAY, MAY 19TH, 5:30pm, a crucial board meeting convenes at the Anderson Valley Health Center, Boonville, the nut of which is the concern that mismanagement of the facility is imperiling it. Be there.
THE ANDERSON VALLEY WINEGROWERS got Mother's Day off to an early start when many of them turned on their frost protection fans at 4am, although the lowest recorded temperature in the Anderson Valley was 44 degrees, far above freezing. The vineyard owners claim the fans are only necessary to protect grapes against freezing temperatures, and it wasn't anywhere near freezing. The Mother's Day din was particularly intense at the south end of Boonville. It marks the 12th morning this growing season that Anderson Valley's vineyard owners have disrupted the sleep of roughly 2000 residents.
BILL ALLEN WRITES: “Make room in your Memorial weekend schedule for the 12th Annual Anderson Valley Open Studios Art Tour; May 24, 25 & 26, 11 AM — 5 PM. Take the free, self-guided tour and visit with some of the valley's finest artists and crafters who create paintings, pottery, sculpture, fine prints, musical instruments, assemblage, folk art furniture, and more. Tour maps are available at local shops, tasting rooms and inns. Also at: www.andersonvalley-artguild.org. By supporting local artists you are supporting the valley's cultural vibrancy!”
THAT LARGE CALTRANS presence near the junction of 128 and the Ukiah Road last week was helping Ferrington Vineyards clean up a load of fertilized soil from an overturned trailer. The trailer was being towed by a truck that apparently lost its brakes. The trailer began shimmying on the downhill towards Boonville then overturned behind the truck, which came to a rough but upright stop in front of the Hulbert property. Caltrans and the CHP were soon on-scene where Caltrans workers wetted down the spilled soil to keep it from blowing into the Hulbert's place. No one was injured in the mishap.
SPEAKING OF CALTRANS, Big Orange is telling callers that the rough road between Boonville and Philo will remain rough until CalTrans gets around to re-paving it, which could be two years from now — or more. Lots of local are both unhappy about it and incredulous that that stretch of heavily traveled 128 wasn't resurfaced soon after CalTrans did the site prep for the work.
SARTORIAL NOTE: “ON MAY 4th of this year, Hamburg (5th District supervisor) and Lauren Sinnott (former mayor of Point Arena) were traveling through Boonville on their way to Elk's annual Pepper Martin community baseball game where Hamburg served as an umpire. For that, he wore black Carhartt jeans, black sneakers, a white t-shirt, and at no time did a hat adorn his head. Sinnott was wearing a long, full, gathered-at-the waist white cotton blouse with big patchpockets and a button front. Not low cut. Bra inside. She also wore a sheath-styled skirt (smooth, not ruffled or gathered) with a floral pattern, above the knee. Also, she was wearing a dress length black coat and tall white socks. The rookie fashion correspondent got the boots right. The former Point Arena Mayor, when I asked her about all of this, noted ‘I do not consort with boy toys,’ and reported further that she was ‘drawn to intelligence, wit, accomplishment and compassion.’ She likes the way that Hamburg dresses and feels he is ‘in no need for fashion coercion.’ Also, she did express some concern for the correspondent's eyesight.”
THOSE interested in making value-added products might want to check out the Cottage Food Operations Workshop Series being offered by UC Cooperative Extension. There are two dates in Ukiah — May 15 and May 22. For more info: UCCE Mendocino …http://ucanr.edu/cfoworkshops. 707-463-4495
“CHARM” is a descriptive not often applied to school administrators, but it seems a perfect fit for Michelle Hutchins, the new principal at Anderson Valley High School with whom we enjoyed a brief intro-coffee at Mosswood the other morning. Smart, funny, and genuine in a profession seemingly hostile to those qualities, I'd have to go back literal decades to remember a local school leader as impressive.
WHENEVER there's a big event in Boonville, the spillover sends any number of people scurrying for the bathroom facilities wherever they can find them, and that too often means the already busy facilities of the Farrer Building. The ladies of Mosswood Market, Farm House Mercantile, and the Farm Girls have to spend way too much of their time cleaning up after people who, well, seemed to have suffered traumatic toilet training.
HERE'S where the Boonville Fire Station and our Community Services District could help — should help. How about the Fire House and the CSD doing a Healdsburg? Healdsburg posts downtown directions to the bathrooms in City Hall and the Healdsburg Police Station. Tourists are invited to use the town's restrooms. We could do it here, too, and there's no reason not to.
BOB MAKI, a true Angel of Mercy. Bob, wheeling his Triple A tow truck out at 3am a couple of mornings ago, retrieved a Boonville woman whose car had conked out some 15 miles out Mountain View Road, not a place where a lone woman wants to be stranded late at night. This guy routinely helps out any number of people any given week, and just because it's his job doesn't make his speedy, round-the-clock responses any less admirable.
THE 3RD ANNUAL EARTHDAY CLEANUP and Fundraiser for the old Captain Fletcher’s Inn at Navarro-by-the-Sea is Saturday, May 31st. This will be an all-day event with cleanup activities, free tours, and an evening fundraising concert. The morning will be a volunteer cleanup from 9-noon, focusing on invasive species removal; trash pick up on Navarro Beach and estuary; and maintenance work and repairs on the historic Inn and Mill House. Bring boots, gloves and tools if you have them. There will be a free BBQ at noon for the volunteers (RSVP for the BBQ by calling 877-3477), then from noon to 3:00 the Inn will be open to the general public for informal tours. From 6 till 9 p.m., there will be a fundraising concert at the Inn with food, beer and wine, and silent auction items to raise funds to continue to make progress on renovations, which includes restoring the floors downstairs, rebuilding the fireplace and installing a wood burning insert to heat the building, and installing a permanent roof to replace the “temporary” metal one installed in 2001. The musical line-up pulled together by Pattie DeMatteo of Mendocino Stories and Music include The Ukeholics from Anderson Valley, Lenny Laks with Marc Gauche, and Marcus McCallen. There’s still a ways to go with the renovations, and it's going to be a rustic experience for the concert, but folks can see the place is no longer on the verge of collapse and have some fun. This is the first time in over 30 years the Inn has been in use again, so come down and be part of this historic event, and support saving this long-neglected treasure of our coast.
EMIL ROSSI says he remembers when Archie Schoenahl used smudge pots to warm his apple orchards near downtown Boonville. Lots of farmers went to smudge back in the day but, Emil said, Archie took smudge to a whole new level even by the standards of smudge. One spring he burned tires and diesel!
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