Mendocino County Today: Sunday, May 30, 2021

Inland Heat | Musical Gatherings | ATV Fatality | Ray's Resort | Pet Maggie | Corrections | AV Brewing | Lunar Eclipsing | Parking Validated | Ed Notes | Belt Recommendation | Bostrodamus | Braxton Bragg | Meth Men | F-Booking | Large Bust | JDSF Gathering | Missing Philbrick | Peleliu Marine | Emerald Cup | Yesterday's Catch | Infant Mortality | Germ Bags | Sandhill Trestle | Ocean Water | Two Thieves | Getting Old | People Nowadays | Southern Poverty | Ten Mile | Marco Radio

DRY WEATHER is forecast to prevail across the region during the next seven days. In addition, interior valleys will enter a warming trend, with afternoon highs ranging from 90 to 110 degrees Sunday through Wednesday. Meanwhile along the coast, periods of late night and morning stratus will be probable. Farther inland, gusty west to northwest winds are expected to develop within channeled terrain today through Wednesday, while ridgetop locations experience breezy north winds during the overnight hours. Later in the week, temperatures are forecast to cool 5 to 10 degrees across interior portions of northwest California. (NWS)

AV HILLS ALIVE AGAIN WITH MUSIC!

Story & Photos by Debra Eloise (and Nikki Daggs)

What a great weekend of music we just had in Anderson Valley, May 22-23! And perfect timing with the sunny weather (albeit that cold wind forces us to keep those winter jackets around!) and the fact that the events were not conflicting with each other made it possible to enjoy BOTH activities. Let's hope we continue to get more freedom in our lives again and more events like this WILL be happening. Keep your eyes and ears open for signs and announcements of these not-so-quiet LIVE music events!

How many of you got to go to the Yorkville Market BBQ (chicken and lamb kabobs with grilled veggies and Greek salad) and see Kevin Owens and The High Rollers? Classic rock and blues with some vintage musicians who are so good, they can jam to just about anything and improvise on the fly! And there were guest musicians in the crowd, like Jennifer, who also plays bass for other bands like our favorite Variety Show entertainment or Pilar Duran (Daughter of the famous Eddie Duran!), who was being shy that day. But I hope Kevin finally got her up on stage! And the best part: the proceeds for this fun event went to the Yorkville Community, so the Fire Department, Community Center and other needs are getting a little boost. Here's a few fun fotos of the event:

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Following an afternoon of music and social time in Yorkville, I headed up Peachland Road to another special event that turned out to be a cross between a neighborhood gathering and an annual camp out for many people who usually attend the Boonville Beer Fest. Unfortunately, since that was canceled this year, these folks decided to keep the fun going anyway and hence, a grand turnout of eager people looking for some outdoor fun, entertainment and gathering with friends and family whom we haven't seen in over a year. They even held an auction for some collectible glasses “Boonville (sort of) Beer Fest 2021” with customized etchings by a local artist. (Sorry, I couldn't hear the name) of some fun Boontling and various local depictions.

Two bands entertained the crowd, 30.06 - having their 20 year reunion as a band. Some of the members are school teachers! Yes, Valley people tend to be multi-talented. And the evening was lit up by a refreshing new look to Boonfire, the second band! Stephanie Frost is their new lead singer and wow, did she look good AND sound fantastic in the chilly night air! Thanks to Nikki Daggs, for her photos of the second half of the party!

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BIG THANKS to the host and hostess of this event, but they asked me to keep information discreet as one can be with a published article so I'm not naming names or the exact location. We know who you are and we appreciate your kindness and generosity for putting on a GREAT EVENT! Let the photos speak for themselves!

A DRIVER OF AN ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLE WAS KILLED FRIDAY after it flipped over on a property north of Philo in Mendocino County, according to the CHP.

A 79-year-old Philo man was killed in the wreck that occurred at 1:30 p.m. on a property off Clow Ridge Road, the CHP said. Authorities have not released his name.

The driver and his 63-year-old passenger were on a Honda ATV going up a steep hill when it began to flip over, the CHP said. The passenger escaped from the ATV before it overturned, but the driver remained on the vehicle and was killed as it flipped over.

The CHP said neither drugs or alcohol are believed to be a factor in the accident.

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Maggie is a social butterfly—so much so that she wants to explore her neighborhood and meet everyone. Secure fencing and a family who is home a lot will be important for Maggie. She would thrive in a family with folks who enjoy taking their dogs out and about with them. Maggie would be very happy with that arrangement! Mags enjoys car rides and does well with dog-social dogs. Maggie's previous guardian describes her as an athletic, sweet natured, intelligent dog. Plus, she is housetrained. Maggie is a Hound X, 4 years old, 40 pounds of cute, and spayed—so she is ready to sniff her way outta the shelter and into your heart. 

Visit us at mendoanimalshelter.com to see all of our canine and feline guests, our services, programs, events, and updates regarding covid-19, as it impacts Mendocino County Animal Shelters in Ukiah and Ft. Bragg. Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/ For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453. 

REGARDING OUR POTTER VALLEY IRRIGATION DISTRICT REPORT YESTERDAY…

DEAR MR. ARMSTRONG:

Corrections:

1. The Potter Valley Irrigation District’s belated reduction to 9,000 acre feet for the 2021 dry season is 40% of their historical allocation of 19,000 acre-feet which is a reduction. But only because that’s all that’s available, not because of mandatory conservation. 

2. We took the term “water tender deliveries” to be a reference to water tender trucks. However, in the case of the PVID, the term “water tender” refers to a job title, not a truck.

(Mark Scaramella)

THE ANDERSON VALLEY BREWING COMPANY IS OPEN ALL WEEKEND

ECLIPSE OF THE SUPER FLOWER MOON

by David Wilson

The full moon of May, 2021, called the flower moon, was a real doozy: it was a super moon, an eclipse, and a blood Moon — the first Super Blood Flower Moon into which I can ever remember having tuned. So how does it come by all of those monikers?

The Moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, a squished circle, which means that sometimes the Moon is closer to Earth than at other times. When the full moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach, called perigee, the full moon is called a super moon, and naturally, being closer, it is a slightly larger full moon than otherwise. 

Blood Moon is a term referring to the deep reddish-orange that the Moon becomes during a total lunar eclipse, which we saw on May 26 this year. A total lunar eclipse such as this occurs when the Moon passes directly through the densest part of the shadow that the sun casts behind Earth. The plane in which the Moon orbits Earth is offset from the plane about which the Earth orbits the sun, so it isn’t often that Earth, the Moon, and sun line up in this way. When the three celestial bodies line up with the Moon behind Earth, the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow and is eclipsed.

Do you think a photograph is always going to show reality? Or that it has to? Since I began teaching Digital Photography at College of the Redwoods, a beginning class, I’ve noticed a common conception that photographs always show “reality,” and that they capture instants in time. It’s understandable, since this is how we typically use our cameras — to capture and freeze what we saw. The typical photograph does often capture an instant in time and space pretty much the way we saw it, or remember it. It can even become the way we remember it, whether it was exactly how we saw it or not. This makes an interesting topic for discussion in class.

Cameras see the world differently from the way you or I see it, and sometimes what they capture is either beyond what we can see with our own eyes, or else it falls far short of what we see with our own eyes. I call those phenomena the camera’s superpowers and limitations. To have powers beyond ours, while also having limits greater than ours, means that it is possible to capture photographs that do not closely resemble what we saw with our flesh and blood eyes. So which was reality: what we saw, or what the camera saw? I tend to say either or both, for our realities are a matter of perception, and seeing things in new ways is useful.

This image represents both the camera’s amazing superpowers, and its severe limitations. The camera’s superpower here is its ability to see so much better into the low light of night than my naked eye can. It was still the dark of night for me, just enough light cast by the Moon to throw a shadow behind me as I watched its face darken and redden. The Milky Way was visible, too, but as always it was fairly faint to the eye, and color on the landscape was almost nonexistent, though I could discern some yellow in the stripe. 

Our eyes see the world moment-by-moment, and staring into the night for seconds at a time does not make the night any brighter. But unlike our eyes, the camera’s patient eye in this case gathered light for a full thirty seconds, building up the image lightness and detail with each passing second. The camera’s more patient eye was able to capture the road, landscape, and night sky with far more clarity, detail and color than I could. The sensor’s ISO can be turned way up, too, allowing it to capture even more detail in near darkness. These are superpowers of the camera that can bring us views of the night that we will never see with our naked eyes. It’s still reality.

But what about the Moon? It didn’t fare as well in the exposure; it ran into a severe limitation of the camera and became over exposed, which resulted in it not looking the way I saw it at all. To my eye that morning as I photographed beside the road, the eclipsed Moon glowed a beautiful, amber-red, bright enough to easily see color and detail in it. But to the camera, which was set to capture the much darker landscape and night sky, the lighter Moon became a featureless bright white spot in the sky. The camera was not able to capture both the relatively bright eclipsed moon, the dark landscape, and faint Milky Way all at once because the difference in brightness values between the darkest and lightest elements was simply too great. Its superpower of seeing into the darkness did not allow it to see both the dark landscape and bright Moon at once, and the Moon became too bright.

I wanted to bring home the full eclipse experience that I’d had, with the moon appearing the way I had seen it, and the Milky Way accompanying it with the landscape visible beneath it. To do so, I made a second exposure in which the moon looked normal. But though the Moon looked good in this one, now the sky and landscape were nearly completely black, much darker than even my naked eye had seen it. My solution was to use the moon from that image on top of the too-bright moon in the photo of the landscape and sky, with the result that now my image of the Super Flower Blood Moon eclipse of May 26, 2021 more closely resembles what I saw that early morning. 

I had to work at it to bring you the eclipse as I’d seen it. A single snapshot couldn’t do it. Some might say I should have left the sky black and had a normal-looking moon surrounded by blackness. Some might say I should have left the moon a bright white spot with the Milky Way and landscape as you see here. Neither of those is what I saw, though. I chose to share this.

(To keep abreast of David Wilson’s most current photography or purchase a print, visit or contact him at his website mindscapefx.com or follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx and on Twitter @davidwilson_mfx . David teaches Art 35 Digital Photography at College of the Redwoods.)

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ED NOTES

IMAGINE YOURSELF as Sheriff Kendall, the very soul of accessibility, a guy who will meet with anybody who wants to meet with him, and suddenly total strangers zoom into a Supervisor's meeting claiming to represent racial justice organizations that don't exist beyond their vague acronyms, demanding that his department submit to an audit, the auditor to be all the way woke. Like them, Mendo's very own Red Guard.

IF THERE'S A NEED for an audit in this county it would be the money pit known variously as Redwood Community Services, Redwood Quality Management Company, Redwood Children's Service, owned by an enterprising up-from-hippie couple named Schraeder, organized as a private company, into which over $20 annual millions disappear every year. 

AUDITS, incidentally, find what the people who hire the auditors want them to find. I always got a few strangled laughs at Boonville's annual school audit, same guy for years who unfailingly reported that the Boonville schools were a model of fiscal probity. He was paid by AV Unified. There's little room for theft in a rural school district operation; most of the money goes to staff. The one time our tiny district was looked askance upon occurred when a certifiably insane man functioned as superintendent. I still miss him. Phil Crawford, aka Wobbling Eagle, assisted by a smarmy little nuzzlebum we dubbed Mr. Burble Gurble. Crawford became something of a legend in state education circles when he inspired mass student-faculty walkouts at the two subsequent school districts that hired him. During Wob's year in Boonville the state bean counters wanted to know how it was possible that no child, K-12, was absent for an entire fiscal year. A hundred percent attendance for an entire school year simplified the annual accounting but was a little too implausible even by edu-crat standards. Prior to Mr. Eagle's reign, the Boonville superintendent was a guy who locked himself in his office every day while he dove into the bottle. Can't say as I blamed him. That was the year the high school veered completely out of control, with students on the roof drenching their peers in classrooms with fire hoses aimed through the rooftop vents. A delegation of administrators from the County Office of Education hustled over the hill from their remote koffee klatch at Talmage to restore order, probably the first time in years any of them had encountered an actual young person. Ah, those were the days. 

AND THEN THEY DRIVE OUT ONTO 101 and.... “A beer and a shot: Rohnert Park brew pub 1st stop in county bid to vaccinate more young people.” (Press Democrat)

THE MONSTER who opened fire on his colleagues Wednesday at a San Jose rail yard, killing nine of them, was reportedly scheduled to attend a work disciplinary hearing over alleged racist remarks on the day of the massacre. Bay Area media have devoted hours to re-hashing the sad event, reporting yesterday that 12 guns and 23,000 rounds of ammo were found in the shooter's house, a middling arsenal by gun guy standards.

INCIDENCES is not a word. The plural of incident is incidents. Please pass the bad news along to your fave visual media. Party isn't a verb either, but we lost on that one.

ON THE PLAIN OF GRINGOS 

Editor, 

Gavin Newsom is prohibited from running in the recall election. But his wife is not. Wouldn't that be fun? Does Fort Bragg want a Grocery Outlet? Not west of the highway, says Katy Tahja. If they only knew what happened in Willits. When the store opened there they had twice as much business as they expected. Refugees from Safeway. They doubled the amount of merchandise they carried. They are still doing a big business. 

On the coast they won't bother the Harvest Market because only Republicans shop there. Fort Bragg’s better class of people don't want to be seen pushing a shopping trolley down a Safeway aisle. They mince down the aisles carrying a basket. They never want to be seen at a Grocery Outlet.

Now we have a bunch of State legislators passing restrictive laws restricting dumb people from figuring out how to vote. Negroes seem to think that means them, too. The answer is just as with progressive gun laws, elect a few more Democrats to the Senate. 

But wait. Katy Tahja says there may be a better way. Two black substitute linemen sitting on a bench in below freezing weather. One says, “I don't want to play those three Florida teams.” The other says, “You don't look like you're playing any games this year.” The General Manager says, “Both of you signed a contract to sit on the bench and a stunt like this means no money, no money, no money.” I hear there are three third-string black quarterbacks who don't want to play any Georgia, Texas or Arizona team. We got plenty of white third string quarterbacks looking to replace your ass. Anybody else want to go on vacation? 85% of players in the NFL are black. Anybody want to upset America's sacred cow? Just give us a stimulus payment to get us through the season and see what happens. We will play winter ball in Cuba.

Occasionally I give out a new original idea. Here is number 39: “A secret vote.” Midway through the 2024 elections all Republican senators and the 25 most senior members of the House will take a secret vote on who they want for president. The same day all Democratic senators and 25 most senior members of the House will take the same vote. John Roberts will count the ballots and see that no one voted for themselves. He will announce the results of both votes on Labor Day. If any member refuses to vote, that person will be identified.

My purpose is to call attention to social, economic and political injustice. In so doing I intend to disturb people. However, I will never match the great disturber of the 80s and 90s, the AVA of Boonville, with its proprietor Bruce Anderson. 

One time Richard Shoemaker, the Second District supervisor, wrote a nice friendly letter to the AVA. The Editor said, "Hallelujah, now's my chance." The letter was followed by (in bold type) an Ed Reply which was followed by a black hole where the paper had been burned away. That's just one example of many. No wonder the PeeDee casts the fish eye toward Boonville. I tend to check to see what the prevailing wisdom is and take the opposite view which is the correct one most of the time.

I do not favor protecting local businesses against chain stores. Compete or die. Advertisements proclaiming 20% off? Off of what? Public servants soliciting input but giving the computer addresses only? Usually Republicans. They aren't interested in what people without a computer think. KZYX pledge drives doing a minute at the top of the hour. One lousy minute! When I see “ilk” in a letter to the editor I know I am going to disagree with what he has to say.

Finding a way to support immigration but the overwhelming number of gringos are against any more immigrants from anywhere. I'm here — to hell with you (unless you want to clean shithouses at $8.00 an hour). Rena Lynn’s daughter Bridget went down to Texas with her husband who had to take care of family business. After a couple of years she came back and I asked how the Texans were getting along with the African-Americans? “They're called (N-words) she said, and are tolerated as long as they clean the toilets and mop the floors.

The Willits Safeway. A black woman is seen shopping by the 25 or 30 white people in the store. They're all thinking the same thing: “Probably just passing through town.” “I hope so.”

Looking for a good lawyer? Choose one who refuses to do probate work. 

Why do I like the bullet train? Because the money spent will not be spent on projects like homelessness that are failures and the money is just thrown away. Jack London and his wife rode their horses from Lakeport but did not pass through Willits, just a little to the south.

The Republican primary of 2016. About where they are today, only worse. Did you read Maureen Dowd’s column on Liz Cheney? A classic. Subscribe to the PD for $342 a year, that's only 98¢ a copy.

Let's remember some good businesses. The US Cafe, entrance on Stockton and Columbus, Clifton’s Cafeteria on Market. Uncle’s Chinese Cafe on Waverly Place. Foster’s. JC Penney. Their Seattle store was seven stories tall. The Frisco store five. The Willits store one. Patagonia. Friedman Brothers in Santa Rosa and later in Ukiah. Friedman decided to do an honest business. No one has ever beaten them on price. It might be the best retail store in the state. Best inventory, knowledgeable employees.

The other issue: We said that if Mendocino County had a few more interesting people the AVA would have 4,000 subscribers. Heck! Make that 5,000 – 6,000! An asteroid started going round and round the world every 27 days per trip. DiFi appointed Fred Gardner on the naming committee. The lowest point was over South Western Mendocino County and was 1000 feet lower each trip. It was named the Anderson Valley Asteroid. 

Needless to say, news organizations from around the world were interested because eventually it was going to touch earth, probably in the Redwood Drive In parking lot. The AVA told the five republics of Central Asia (can you name them?) to just send $50 subscription to the AVA and we'll keep you informed. That became the protocol for all interested news organizations around the world. Boonville began feeling the heat when it passed over every 27 days, as it was made up of flaming hot rocks and chunks of iron. The heat was felt in Ukiah as well and the County jail was evacuated, the prisoners relocated to the newly completed Superior Court building on Perkins Street. Just as the asteroid skimmed the roof of the Redwood Drive In the AVA’s circulation hit 6,000.

A gringo dude bought a used 2006 Nissan and drove it to the bottom of Mexico where he met up with Subcomandante Marcos, something that John Ross failed to accomplish. Then he went home and wrote a book about his trip. He called it “On the Plain of Snakes.” The author drove over highways and visited towns and cities familiar to many of us. The best thing about the book is the author's ability to speak and understand enough Spanish to record conversations he had with Mexicans. Wherever he went he spoke with Mexicans he discovered they had traveled to the United States illegally, worked and returned to Mexico. He got shaken down by police and highway patrolmen several times for rather large sums of money. It seems as though crime has gotten worse (the trip was in 2018). Although people in rural areas have more consumer goods, the level of poverty hasn't changed much in the last 60 years.

"If the dust of Mexico has settled on your heart," you will like this book.

Ralph Bostrom 

Willits 

PS. New word by Thom Hartmann: Magrants.

TWO POUNDS OF CRANK

On Friday evening, May 28th, 2021 at approximately 6:45 PM, Officer Angell of the Willits Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle in the 800 block of S. Main Street. During the traffic stop, officers located approximately three to four pounds of packaged methamphetamine within the vehicle and about three pounds of processed marijuana.

Travis Ninnemann, 36, of Tuscon, Arizona was identified as the driver of the vehicle. His passenger was identified as Julius Gruber, 58, of Willits. 

Travis Ninnemann and Julius Gruber were transported to the Mendocino County Jail and booked on the following charges of: Penal code 182(a)(1), conspiracy to commit a crime; Health and Safety Code 11378, possession of a controlled substance for sale; Health and Safety Code 11379, transportation of a controlled substance for sale; Health and Safety Code 11379(b), transportation of methamphetamine for sale; and Health and Safety Code 11360(a)(2), transportation of marijuana for sale.

Travis Ninnemann is a (37) year old male and a City of Maranna Arizona resident. Julius Gruber is a (59) year old male and a City of Willits resident.

The Willits Police Department would like to thank all of those persons involved in this case for a job well done!

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THREE ON LINE COMMENTS

(1) Good get the tweaker trash off the streets. Shut down his supply chain so that he’s not dragging more people down. Meth is not a substance to be used lightly, if you start using it you will have nothing.

Now hang out in front of and around his place for a few days and you’ll see all the creepy crawlers looking for their Supply and no one’s going to have any so you’ll have a bunch of other people probably with violation of probation and also bringing other meth over, hint hint.

(2) There is an endless supply of meth.

(3) If some random tweaker grower has 3 elbows of tweak it is beyond the point of no return. Remember when only like real drug traffickers had that much weight of “hard” drugs? No longer. Every mf who is willing to ride with that much dope is now a major trafficker. And there are apparently lots…

SPY ROCK POT RAID

On Wednesday, May 26, 2021, wildlife officers with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) served a search warrant on the 9000 block of Spyrock Road in Laytonville. Support was provided by a CDFW Environmental Scientist, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the State Water Resources Control Board.

Prior to serving the search warrant, a thorough records check was conducted on the property to determine what steps may have been taken to secure a state license. In this case, no state license to cultivate commercial cannabis was obtained.

The site was located on Burns Creek and its tributaries, in the Eel River Watershed. CDFW has documented many species of concern in the area including steelhead, Chinook salmon and the foothill yellow legged frog.

Environmental violations and impacts observed on the site include impacts to four tributaries to Burns Creek:

• Two water diversions on a tributary to Burns Creek
• Two hoop houses constructed directly within streams which were graded to accommodate the buildings
• Heavy equipment abandoned within a stream
• Gas cans, fertilizer, and other chemicals improperly stored within a few feet of a stream
• A large volume of cultivation waste and household garbage dumped into streams
• Unpermitted and improperly installed stream crossings constricting stream channels and delivering sediment
• Over 3,800 illegal cannabis plants were eradicated and one stolen firearm was recovered.

A formal complaint will be filed with the Mendocino County District Attorney’s office. No other information is available at this time.

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RE RECENT SPY ROCK BUST, a reader comments: "Remember when CAMP was rolling and would knock out like a dozen of these scenes a day? Good times. Now we have many agencies driving all the way out and getting ONE a day. Sure - they are putting huge fines on the property but those fines will never be collected and the busted properties just keep replanting. I guess when the LLC on the Deed of Trust dissolves some day then maybe these kind of properties will somehow change hands and then maybe somebody will do something besides grow on them? I don’t think the regular folks know how intractable the problem really is…The agency press releases keep pushing the idea that they are “winning.” The only full solution is to crash the market hard for a few years and drive everybody out. But now that we have these “legal” corporate mega-grows they won’t allow that to happen… Eternal War… Always revolving and evolving but never resolving…"

JACKSON STATE GATHERING

Reminder: Community ritual Sunday may 30 near the tree sit in East Caspar, 11am

As an expression of community solidarity for the protection of forests in Jackson Demonstration State Forest there will be a community ritual near the tree sit in East Caspar for those who wish to express solidarity with the tree sitters, Sunday May 31, 11am. Unceded Pomo land near the tree sit in east Caspar. 

We will gather at the kiosk along Rd.500 near the tree sit. As a community we will recognize the inter-connectedness of life and the importance that our great forests of the Pacific Northwest play in the web of life and state our intention that Jackson State be protected.

Participants are encouraged to bring to the forest biodegradable, non-toxic items to offer as their expression that these goals might be achieved.

Participants who wish will be offered a guided hike to “mama tree,” the site of the tree sit. Afterwards we will assemble at Fortunate Farm, Caspar, to socialize, strategize, and prioritize. Through song, prayer intention and action we will “make it so.” Coffee, tea and pastries will be provided by local donors. 

DIRECTIONS to ritual site: From Highway 1 go East on Fern Creek Road (at the duck pond) and turn right at the, Caspar Orchard Road. This heads South and turns into a dirt road in about 1mile. On the right is the kiosk - this is the ritual site, there is a parking area for everyone. 

Sponsored by: The coalition to protect Jackson Demonstration State Forest. 

Contact Chris Skyhawk, 707-409-4789, hawkwork@mcn.org 

The tree sit that has sprung up (dubbed ”mama tree” in Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF),) is a statement of public sentiment against the proposed massive harvesting of timber on state-owned public land, which raises numerous issues: Is the land put to better use for recreation? Carbon sequestration? Cultural renewal for displaced tribes? Reforestation demonstration? etc.? But it certainly is emblematic of the growing awareness of the essential inter-connectedness of the web of life and that the forests of the Pacific Northwest play in moderating climate.

It has also struck a deeply emotional chord amongst people who, in greater numbers, are coming to collectively recognize that our environmental crisis is a symptom of a deeper crisis, a profound disconnection in our relationship with the earth that sustains us. 

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This Wednesday, representatives from CalFire came out and had a conversation with concerned community members gathered around the base of Mama Tree. In response to that dialogue, they returned Thursday and blacked out the marks around Mama and Papa tree as well as some of their neighbors. Signifying that they will be spared from the harvest, and acknowledging that they are worth more standing. We are always grateful for dialogue, and for the honoring of community concerns. We are not declaring victory just yet! Historically, trees have been returned as part of “trades” in which the board feet is simply taken from elsewhere in the THP. This can not be the case here. This action was never just about Mama Tree, or even the Casper 500 THP. It is about the dangerous fallacy of logging for fire prevention, and of logging during a time of severe drought and increased climate instability. 

The Tree sit will still have company for the foreseeable future, so DM us for more info on how to get involved. 

WHERE’S JERRY?

Editor,

I received my AVA in the mail today and for the second week running there’s no letter from Jerry Philbrick. I hope he is well.

Ashley Jones

Alameda

SANTA ROSA’S ANNUAL EMERALD CUP adds LA awards event, will keep Santa Rosa harvest party 

by Dan Taylor

The Emerald Cup, hailed as the cannabis industry’s most cherished awards show, will move its annual presentation honoring growers and advocates from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles in March, organizers said Friday.

The winter cannabis event, held almost annually in the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa since 2013, will continue there as a December harvest celebration, said Emerald Cup founder Tim Blake and his daughter Taylor Blake, the event’s associate producer.

The move is prompted by a desire to put the awards event center stage on a statewide level as the cannabis industry grows.

“The main awards ceremony will move to L.A., bridging the gap between Northern and Southern California. Los Angeles is the media capital of the nation and the largest market for cannabis,” Tim Blake said.

The Emerald Cup will eventually become a statewide competition, he predicted, and the March dates, yet to be announced, will allow more time for growers to submit entries for the awards competition and more time for judging.

“We moved the event from the Emerald Triangle (the cannabis-growing region in Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties) to Santa Rosa years ago, and now we’re expanding the triangle to include the whole state,” he added.

Both father and daughter live in Mendocino County, Tim in Laytonville and Taylor outside Willits.

The Los Angeles venue for the Emerald Cup awards hasn’t been announced yet, but negotiations are underway, Taylor Blake said.

“We’re not abandoning Santa Rosa,” Tim Blake said. “The tribe can still come together, although I imagine it will be somewhat smaller.”

The Santa Rosa event will be held indoors Dec. 11-12 at the fairgrounds in Grace Pavilion and the Hall of Flowers, with live music mostly by Northern California talent, he said. Moving the entire event indoors will be an advantage, he predicted.

“In December, we sometimes had issues with rain,” he said.

The fairgrounds management expressed enthusiasm for continuing its relationship with the event.

“The Emerald Cup is a great event and provides significant economic benefit to the city of Santa Rosa and the surrounding communities,” said Rebecca Bartling, chief executive officer for the Sonoma County Fair and its fairgrounds event center in Santa Rosa. “We are looking forward to its return to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in December.”

While shifting the awards event to Los Angeles might disappoint some local fans and participants in the event, Tim Blake hopes for continued support.

“The farmers, vendors and contestants all realize that the best place to be is in the center of the market,” he said.

The Emerald Cup began in 2003 as an after-harvest party for clandestine Emerald Triangle growers in Mendocino County. It moved to Santa Rosa in 2013.

The event drew 25,000 people in 2019, but organizers canceled the Emerald Cup for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. A virtual version of the event for 2021 happened last month.

Willie Nelson appeared in Santa Rosa in December 2018 to accept an award at the Emerald Cup event for his longtime cannabis activism. The musician is the founder of a recreational cannabis company named Willie’s Reserve.

In 2019, Tommy Chong of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong was presented with the second annual Willie Nelson Award, created to honor people who helped push marijuana into the mainstream.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 29, 2021

ALECIA BRICENO, Fort Bragg. DUI causing bodily injury.

KYLE BYRNE, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

RAYMOND DALZIEL, Sonoma/Ukiah. DUI.

MICHAEL DEJONG, Ukiah. Trespassing/refusing to leave, probation revocation.

TRACI EVANS, Folsom/Ukiah. DUI, misdemeanor hit&run with property damage.

MON FALCON-CHAVEZ, Daley City/Ukiah. DUI.

JULIUS GRUBER, Willits. Pot possession for sale, controlled substance for sale, conspiracy. 

ZACHARY HOOD, Arcata. DUI-alcohol&drugs, employing individual under 21 to sell marijuana, controlled substance for sale, assault weapon, armed with firearm in commission of felony, loaded firearm with intent to commit felony.

LAROY MADDEN-STEPHENS, Willits. Protective order violation.

FRANCISCO NAVARRO-SANDOVAL, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JARRETT NELSON, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

TRAVIS NINNEMANN, Tuscon, Arizona/Willits. Pot possession for sale, transportation of controlled substance, conspiracy.

HUGO VALLEJO-IBARRA, Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, assault with deadly weapon not a gun, conspiracy.

LARRY VINZANT, WILLITS. DUI-Alcohol&drugs, controlled substance, under influence, paraphernalia. 

DOUGLAS WHIPPLE III, Redwood Valley. Controlled substance, under influence, smuggling controlled substances or liquor into jail, offenses while on bail, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

DAVID YBARRA JR., Ferndale/Ukiah. Resisting.

INFANT MORTALITY, THEN & NOW

Editor,

You may have seen this. There was an essay by Perri Klass in the June Harper's entitled "When Children Die." He comments that there is no word in English for the parent of a dead child, perhaps because throughout history, it would have been very likely that a parent would lose a child. 

In 1800, nearly half the children born in the US died before the age of 5. By 1900, between a fifth and a quarter of them died. In 1915, as my grandparents were growing up, one out of every 10 infants died before turning 1.

The 20th century brought pasteurization, antibiotics and immunizations against diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, roto virus and polio, which were often lethal. 

In 1950, infants were dying at a rate of 29.2 per thousand live births. By 2018, it was down to 5.7 (African American rate: 10.7). 

Let's get childhood death rates back up. No more vaccines. 

Peter Lit 

Elk

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I have been sick 4 times since the start of the pandemic, the first time was covid so after that we returned our kids to daycare. And everyone knows that if you have kids in society you’re gonna get sick. It does kinda make me wish I was able to hide at my house with them because I wouldn’t have got sick at all. But then again I would have lost my house to the bank so it’s a Catch 22. Although this year I’m gonna get the flu shot for the first time ever, nothing to do with covid, just kids are germ bags.

LOOK TO DESAL

Editor: 

Michael Burwen wants water from the great lakes — “Oil is moved from Canada to the Gulf, far more distant than (for example) the Great Lakes to California." First issue: reality. Lake Michigan to California is 2,400 miles. The Keystone XL Pipeline would have been 1,200 miles. How did that idea work out? Then there are the Rockies and other mountains. And how would someone pay for a pipeline? Profits from selling water?

We have more water than the Midwest. The Pacific Ocean is right here. We need water, we have water. Desalinization technology has been around for a long time.

Roger Delgado

Sebastopol

I WANT TO LIVE

I want to live
I want to give
I've been a miner
For a heart of gold
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keep me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

I've been to Hollywood
I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean
For a heart of gold
I've been in my mind
It's such a fine line
That keeps me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

Keep me searching
For a heart of gold
You keep me searching
And I'm growing old
Keep me searching
For a heart of gold
I've been a miner
For a heart of gold

— Neil Young

DEEP SOUTH: ROAD CANDY AT THE DIXIE CAFE

by Paul Theroux

"Poverty is a great educator. Those who have never known it lack something," the Anglo Irish writer Gerald Brenan observed in ‘Thoughts in a Dry Season.’ Brenan spent most of his life among peasants in Spain, but this wise saying was a great epitaph to the southern lives that were themselves peasant existences. To travel through the South is to see this insight proven over and over. Southerners, especially the older folk, black and white, often reflected with pride on the pleasure they took in their austerities.

I thought of Brenan's words as I made my way on a lonely summer afternoon drive from Hot Springs, Arkansas, northward along simple Route 7 through farmland and forests, past Jessevillel and Ola and Dardanelle and across the Arkansas River, dark brown in spate to Russellville.

They're at the Dixie Café I met Patricia Atkinson who had grown up in poverty in a family of 15 children, ten boys and five girls. She was number 12 and now in her late 50s. Her eldest brother had recently died at the age of 89. The family had been near Hughes, in northeastern Arkansas, in the Delta. Her father, Jim Short had done sharecropping, cotton mainly. An enormous, poor white family farming outside a country town. But they had struggled and succeeded and stayed together. Later Pat went to college, got a job as a secretary in a housing development organization, learned the ropes, stuck with it through a transition -- "it's self-help housing" -- and was now executive director.

We sat among the remains of catfish, chicken stew and dumplings, fried tomatoes, fried onions, fried corn on the cob -- cobs dipped in egg, battered in flour and deep fried.

"My father used to cut off the corn kernels and fry them up," Pat said, poking at her corncob. "Very good eating. But we ate everything. Imagine, 15 of us kids. Only five of us graduated from high school. If you're farming, you can't go to school. One of my brothers never set foot in a classroom -- my father wouldn't let him."

"Because he needed him on the farm?" I asked.

"No. Thought he'd be bullied. My father was protective of Hopper," she said. "Short for Clodhopper. He was always running around the fields."

"15 children -- how big was your house?"

"Put it this way, there were two or three beds in every room. Privacy was unknown. We shared a room, we shared the bed."

“The three beds had always held all the Lesters,” Erskine Caldwell writes in Tobacco Road, “even when there were sometimes as many as eight or nine of them there.”

"I guess you all had to cooperate."

"We had hard times," she said. "I started picking cotton when I was six or seven, using a pillow case. Later on I had a tow sack, about the size of a feed bag. Then I got a proper cotton sack -- 9 feet long. The boys used to step on the end of it so I couldn't pull it. They thought that was real funny."

"But you were still in school all this time?"

"Oh, yes. The cotton we picked on Saturdays we got to keep for ourselves -- kept the money, I mean."

"What sort of money?"

"In the 1960s we got a $1.50 for 100 pounds. My brothers could pick 300 pounds apiece, easy."

"It doesn't seem like much money," I said.

"It wasn't, but we had to do it. Imagine trying to feed 15 children in one house. It was always a problem. We always worked and we helped each other. We raised our own meat -- pork and chicken -- and we hunted deer and squirrels. We trapped raccoons, mink, bobcat, and sold the hides. Catch a good coon and you could sell the hide and eat the rest."

"Raccoons -- I tracked them," I said, "when they were being a nuisance, crawling down the chimney, clawing the shingles off the roof. They are so smelly, scavenging in the garbage."

"Baked coon is some good eating," Pat said. "A lot of people around here eat it. Baked raccoons and sweet potatoes. Skin it, cut it up, salt and pepper, then bake some. Chunk up some sweet potatoes and put them around it and bake it some more."

"They can sleep through a freezing winter," I said, "so they must have a lot of fat."

"Lots of fat on a coon. It bakes off, adds to the taste."

"You mentioned squirrel?"

"Squirrel's big," she said. "Squirrel season's coming."

"How do you cook ’em?"

"Squirrel for breakfast – smother-fried," she said. "Gut a front shoulders and back legs and rib cage. You can cook the head too. Roll all of them in flour and shove them in the skillet. Squirrel cooks real fast. Then put water into the skillet with the browned squirrel. The flour turns into gravy. Cover it, let it simmer a while. It's delicious first thing in the morning."

"I guess you had chores to do on the farm, before you went to school?"

"For many years we didn't have water in the house, we had a well. Jerked water out with a pump. It's sometimes real cold in the winter in Hughes. I remember going out to get water one winter morning when I was a girl. The snow was up to my waist." Pat had shoved her chair back and was looking into the middle distance, reflecting on this scene in her girlhood. "Of course, you had to prime the pump, so we always kept some water back for that. That day we had to dig a lot of snow out around the pump before we got in the water."

"I think of the Delta as warm," I said. "It wasn't that cold when I was there in the winter."

"The summers are very hot, but summertime was fun for us. We'd fill a 65 gallon barrel of water, leave it in the sun to heat up, and play in it. If you don't have money you make your own fun. We made toys out of corncobs. Soaked them in water, got them soft and threw them at each other. We were barefoot most of the time, wore hand-me-downs, just like everyone else."

"By everyone else, you mean black people?"

"Blacks were our neighbors. We worked in the fields with them, side by side."

"But the Delta in the 50s and 60s was segregated."

"We worked together. I didn't feel any prejudice." She thought a moment. "My dad was from Tupelo, and he was old-fashioned. He thought blacks have their place." She shook her head and added, "He had a sad life. His parents died in 1915 when he was 12. He was deemed too old to go to the orphanage with his two brothers and two sisters who were younger. So he was separated from them and was sent to a woman he called his grandma -- only she wasn't. She was some distant relation. Aunt Jones."

"Did he reconnect with his brothers and sisters?"

"He wanted to. He tried to find them later but never did," Pat said, "then I tried -- tried everything, all the databases, all the connections. But I failed. It was a sadness to him his whole life."

“Your upbringing was amazing," I said.

"Growing up that way is the reason I'm doing what I'm doing now."

What she was doing now was improving housing for the poor in nine counties in west central Arkansas. Her stories of growing up poor in the Delta, offered modestly, were wonderful examples of the full life she had led. The stories were like road candy to me, the happiest aspect of my seasons in the South.

SHEESH!

"Vhere is money, Julie? Money for Toorkey house? he says. And then they end it with a bunch of superfluous emojis: pony, pony, pony, cricketbat, sad-face, tablecloth." —Bill Bailey

The recording of last night's (2021-05-28) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg is right here: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0438

This is a show with a nice small-town feel. Very early in the show Steve Gomes called to, among other things, rebut the Mendocino Village sewer district board's weird letter to the editor of the AVA where they lied that Steve had frivolously sued them and that they won, and he talked a little about a solution to Mendocino's major water problems, that he claims they rejected not because they think it wouldn’t work but because if it worked then more people would move here because there'd be water for them, and the board doesn’t want that; what they want is to keep charging people money and putting a cap on use of their own well water whose source is nowhere near Mendocino Village, because they can— or could, rather, before they lost the lawsuit they say they won... Y'know, I may be a little confused about the details. Ask Steve, he’ll tell you: mendowater21@yahoo.com

Calpella Cowboy set up a three-way call with a retired woman in Southern California named Bunny, mother of six, who to take her at her word is an Eskimo, which I didn't think was even okay to say anymore, but apparently I was confused about that too. Cowboy read his story about Willits (CA) calories and talked about the stark misery of Arizona. Bunny also talked about Arizona: she went there on a church mission once, to an Indian orphanage to deliver a truckload of crocheted spiritually medicinal bears and meet, as she put it, the Chief. She also was personal friends with tough-guy actor Charles Bronson who used to stay at her father's house when out on a movie shoot in her area (and who we learn elsewhere in the show, from an interview with a young and patiently incredulous John Belushi, was gay, as was Lee Marvin, and as were many other stellar purported machos in the L.A. of the 1970s, certainly not that there's anything wrong with that).

There's a mini-tribute to activist and truly helping/caring person Ed Murrell, who died last week. And an even mini-er but no less heartfelt note or two about musician-composer Jay Sydeman, also dead now. He missed rehearsal and the bass player went to get him; Jay died peacefully in his bed. He had a great visit with his grandkids and family just a little while before, and that was nice for him.

Sakina Bush sent an anthropomorphic story about the social sexy relations of DNA and RNA molecules. Scott M. Peterson provided the third installment of his epic work about genocide in Mendocino County. It got to be 1:30am before I reached that, though, so if he wants me to I'll recap it earlier in next show. Paul Modic continued his Date With An Angel series of October-May-relationship erotica in a story titled The Perfect Date. There's John Sakowicz' poetic apology to the 17-year cicadas, and his brief condemnation of the Israeli apartheit situation, which is dire and outrageous, as usual; there's some useful related information after that, including someone calling him a disgusting blot on humanity, or something like that, because of criticizing Israel for murdering children. And plenty more; there's just so much. Comical sweary country music of John R. Butler. Some yodeling. Some lamentational war music, for Memorial Day. And it all ends with the first Firesign Theater album I ever bought, playing in all its glory of pops and scratches and soothing rhythmic Motorola puck-driven record player rumble: pur-roorm pur-roorm pur-roorm pur-roorm...

BESIDES ALL THAT, here’s a fresh batch of not-necessarily-radio-useful but worthwhile items that I set aside for you while gathering the show together, found mostly thanks to the fine websites listed to your right:

Bees up close and in your face. They're not all the same. Some look like a chipmunk. Some look like a rabbit, or a foxbat. Some look like a schnauzer-dog in puffy headphones. I like the kind that looks like an old Russian woman about to cast a spell on you for trampling her hedge. 

https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/05/do-all-bees-look-same.html

I bought Blood On The Tracks on cassette in 1976 and literally wore the tape out, so I appreciate this and can hear it properly inside my head. I think you can too. 

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/bob-dylans-zombie-blood-on-the-tracks

And ride, Gunhilde, ride! https://boingboing.net/2021/05/25/divas-in-drags-amazing-ride-of-the-valkryies.html

-- Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com