RANDY BLOYD TRIBUTE-CELEBRATION OF LIFE
December 11, 1971-July 29,2024
Navarro, California
August 10th, 2024
by Kira Brennan
So for those of you who don’t know me. My name is Kira Brennan and I grew up in Navarro. We lived in the Big white house on the way to the dump. We were the Hippi kids, and our neighbors, the Bloyds and the Mayberry’s, were the Logger-Redneck kids. Our family had a white Dodge Coronet station wagon with fake wood paneling. Their family had an orange Plymouth Road-Runner- a bitchin’ race car.
They… ‘owned’ Navarro.
As a long-time friend of Randy, and the Bloyd family-I am honored to be here today. On behalf of the Bloyd family-I thank you for being here today.
I am so sorry for your loss. I am so sorry for our loss of a truly unique human-being.
This valley has seen wave after wave of change over time. The Bloyd family, over generations, have lived through this history.
From Wilderness, to the Pomo Indians who resided on these lands.
From Homesteaders, to the Logging Boom, to the Apple Orchards and Sheep Pastures, this land saw change.
From the ‘Hippis’, (Back-to-Landers) and the ‘Brite-Liters’ who arrived from the ‘Flat-Lands’, to the Marijuana grows and the $100 bills that became the local currency.
Vineyards expanded. The Mexican Community grew.
We watched our Navarro River and the fish diminish.
All of this is still here. The history of the valley, this heritage lives on in the fabric of Randy’s being, and his family’s roots.
So, I’d like to take a moment, each one of us, and think about our Randy. Touch into your own heart, and think about the way he touched yours. How did Randy show up in your life??
Did you get to walk the creek with him and pick blackberries?
Did he show you a video of a salmon he saw in the North-Fork? Or an arrow-head he had found?
Did you ride a dirt-bike with him out there in the forest and the hills that he loved?
Did he just show up, Budweiser in hand, ready to share whatever woe or wonder of the day?
Did he make a split rail fence for you? His last act of pride and love?
Did he do work for you? The hardest worker I have ever seen. Do you see Randy everywhere? In the mowed lawn, the remnants of a burn-pile, the wired together fender?
Did he take you to Blue-Rock on his mule that seemed to drive sideways on a cliffs edge?
Did you save fish with him in the dry season?
Did he bring his chain-saw and cut a tree and make firewood for you?
Did he take something you had discarded and make some use of it?
Did he show you his new home? His new kitchen?
Did you have coffee with him in the morning?
Did he care for you in some way or another?
Randy will always be a part of this land, this landscape, of our inner landscape.
We stand here today, in a shared love for Randy.
There is no other person like him.
He is from another era, a renegade. A person who stayed outside of the law, but followed his own moral compass.
He deeply loved, and followed each one of his passions.
He was deeply loyal, and would do anything to help you, or be there for you.
He was a ”wheeler-dealer”-always some ‘thing’ that could be sold or traded.
He would figure out how to get some vehicle running-wiring something to something else, and against all odds, get that damn thing to run.
When he moved to Donlad Dukes- the ‘Glovers’- it’s like he took his rightful place. The Gate-Keeper.
Randy was there. Watching over things. Welcoming you into whatever project, or mood he had going on.
It’s hard to imagine a life without Randy, zipping in and out of our lives.
He will be missed.
And he will never be forgotten.
JIM LARSON
Jim Larson In 1969 Jim and his wife, Nadjah, came to Ukiah and taught at Ukiah High School. Over the years, thousands of students passed through his math classes. Jim had an exceptional knack of making math understandable. For 18 years, Jim was the head varsity football coach. Together with Ed Schweitzer, Jerry Aikman, and Pat Wilson, they brought UHS four North Bay League championships. Having three athletic daughters, he also coached basketball, volleyball, softball, and track in his spare time at St. Mary’s School. Jim eventually became a counselor at UHS, later the principal at South Valley, and ended his career as the principal of Eagle Peak Middle School. During his 23 years of retirement, he enjoyed camping, abalone feasts, fishing, taking cruises, watching his grandsons play baseball, bowling and bocce ball. Jim is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nadjah, who he loved and adored more than anything in the world. He is also survived by his daughters Leah (Tony) Routon, and Andrea Larson, (son-in-law) Bud O’Donnell, and (grandsons) RJ and Brady Routon. He is preceded by his daughter, Tanya Larson O’Donnell, his sister, Sylvia, and his parents. Jim’s greatest loves were his family, friends, and the Ukiah community. Donations can be made to Adventist Hospice or any Ukiah community service organization. Arrangements are under the direction of the Eversole Mortuary.
BILL CHAMBERS
William (Bill) Chambers passed away peacefully in his home on August 2 surrounded by loved ones. He was 88 years old. Complications from covid contributed to his sudden decline.
Bill lived the life he always wanted: Simple, grounded, contemplative, surrounded by nature and meaningful relationships. Bill was loyal, warm, since, stead and genuine. His generous spirit inspired those around him. One could always count on Bill for some sound advice. he was reliable, ethical and most caring: a true gentleman.
To those of you who wish to commemorate and celebrate his life, Bill asks that you plan something fun and special for yourself in his honor and raise a glass to his life!
And most importantly, remember that William lives on! In the redwood forest that he cherished so much, and in our hearts. He shall continue to inspire and protect a great many of us, anyone who asks, really.
He now rejoins with his life partner and husband Robert (Mandel).
“The forests are Calling and I must go.”
AV UNIFIED NEWS
Dear Anderson Valley Community,
I am excited and deeply grateful as I begin my work with you as Superintendent of Anderson Valley Unified School District. I have already met many students, parents, staff, and community members during my first days here, and I am thrilled to work with such a close and caring community.
This year, we are an entirely new administrative team! We are committed to learning about and maintaining all the special traditions within our district, while striving for continuous improvement in our programs and services for students and families. We are ready for hard work and community engagement as we collectively set the vision for the coming years.
Alyson McKay joins us as Anderson Valley Elementary School principal with many years experience as an educator and vast experience in the areas of bilingual education and instructional leadership.
Heath McNerney joins us as Anderson Valley Jr-Sr High School's principal. Mr. McNerney's background in education includes school counseling, coaching of multiple sports, and extensive school leadership experience.
Both principals are experts in developing and maintaining positive relationships as well as strong school culture and engaging academic programs.
A lot of construction is in progress at our school sites! We are thankful to our supportive community for voting to pass Measure M in 2022. This is the major source of funding for most of these projects.
At the Jr-Sr High School, our Science rooms are being renovated and the main wing of the high school is undergoing many renovations as well, including new counseling offices, new teaching walls for digital presentations, new windows, flooring, learning patios, a new fire alarm system, and more. We are also thankful to CalTrans for the Clean California grant which will fund an entirely new track.
At AV Elementary, the hallway flooring is being replaced and plans are in place for a renovated kitchen very soon. More to come!
We are deeply grateful to former superintendent, Louise Simson, for her extensive work in procuring funding for these projects, her hours of planning, and for consulting with us as these projects come to life!
Finally, I would like to thank the dedicated summer school staff, who worked diligently to ensure a quality program for our students. I would also like to thank our dynamic district office staff, who worked all summer getting reading for the coming year, and our site office, maintenance, and custodial crews, who also have worked long hours over the summer to ensure we will be ready to go on the first day of school, August 19, 2024.
I am looking forward to continuing to get to know the community. Please be assured that my door is always open to talk about what is important to you with regard to your child's education. Please feel free to contact me at klarson@avpanthers.org or (707) 671-3620.
I am looking forward to a fantastic year! Please reach out to me if you would like to connect!
Warmly,
Kristin Larson Balliet
Superintendent, Anderson Valley Unified School District
CATCHING UP WITH GENE HERR
Dear Family and Friends,
We are very sorry to let you know that our mother and long-time Valley resident, Eugenia ‘Gene’ Herr, was placed in hospice care yesterday. Mom had a series of falls during the last three months, and broke her collarbone in the most recent fall on July 3rd. She has been in the hospital and a skilled nursing facility since then, and although her collarbone is healing, she was so weakened by the falls and infections that her body no longer has the strength to keep going. She has not eaten normally in the last 6 weeks, has lost a huge amount of weight and has refused to work with the physical therapists. Her doctors have told us that there is nothing more that can be done to bring her back to a recovery track, particularly given her many pre-existing complications dating back to her serious stroke in August of 2017.
So, we reluctantly accepted the medical prognosis and decided to move Mom to Serena's house in San Anselmo, where she has been placed in hospice care. Mom is resting comfortably in a very nice sunroom, surrounded by flowering orchids, with a view out to the garden and a glimpse of Mt. Tamalpais through the trees. While she was in the skilled nursing facility, Mom often asked if she could "go home to San Anselmo", and since Serena's house is a mere third of a mile from the home that Mom grew up in on Calumet Ave, her wish has been granted.
If you would like to visit or try to talk to Mom, you could call Serena's phone at (510) 589-2980. Mom sleeps a lot, and may have difficulty talking, so another option would be to leave her a voicemail that Serena would later play for her when she was alert. It might be best to text first, so Serena knows to let the call go to voicemail. If you would like to send a card,
Serena's address is: 48 El Cerrito Ave, San Anselmo CA 94960.
Thank you and take care,
John Herr and Serena Fox
BOONVILLE PROJECTS UPDATE
by Valerie Hanelt
I want to give you an update about Boonville projects. First of all, the Drinking Water and Wastewater projects are nearing the end of the planning process (after ten years) and entering the LAFCo process. Then we will send out a letter to all parcels in the boundaries of the included parcels (240 for drinking, about 150 for sewer/wastewater) and see if the proposed rates we will charge meet with acceptance. This is called the “218 Protest Vote.” If we get through that without 50% plus 1 protests we can go into the construction grant phase. We are looking at construction over two years, hopefully 2026 and 2027.
Once those projects are installed Caltrans is coming in with the “Complete Streets” grant. This is a very large grant that will provide sidewalks and bike lanes as well as resurfacing. It might include some funding for our bench project (this might be a different grant). But the main thing is figuring out what we want “sidewalks” to look like as well as how we are going to figure out parking and bike lanes. This grant concentrates on the main drag of Boonville from the Highway 253 intersection to the Anderson Creek bridge.
Sash William, Johnny Schmitt, and Marcus Magdaleno have agreed to be the project leaders to work with Caltrans and our local folks over the next 3-5 years. They will be arranging meetings to gather your input and eventually meet with Caltrans engineers on the ground and in meetings.
We have a starting plan that was developed by the Valley Trails group in 2014. Burt Cohen is one of the original Valley Trails Committee members and Burt we are so grateful for that early work. I know ten years seems like a long time to hear more about this project. But it was just dormant, not dead. After working on the Water Projects for all this time, this timeframe is starting to look about right for State projects. Also, the Caltrans surveying that was done this spring through Boonville will be the baseline info on their easements.
Start thinking about what you want the main street of Boonville to look like. Start collecting ideas about sidewalk treatments and other features while you are traveling and visiting other towns. Let’s keep a folder. Do we want traditional cement? Or a different treatment? How will parking work? How can we keep enough parking spaces? What do bike lanes look like? These are all questions for us to provide input.
Sash, Johnny and Marcus will be organizing a meeting before long (and maybe a group walking discussion?).
Please feel free to share this info with anyone who might like to be involved and have input. Have them let us know they would like to be on this thread.
There is also all the recreation and public use planning possibilities with the new 20 acre area for the treatment plant distribution area. But that is a future topic.
Valerie Hanelt is Chair of the Anderson Valley Community Services District Board. The CSD can be reached at 895-2075. Their website is avcsd.org where additional project information can be found.
WHY THIS S.F. COCKTAIL WHIZ JUST OPENED A ROADSIDE BURGER STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
by Jess Lander
San Francisco cocktail whiz Scott Baird, formerly of Trick Dog and 15 Romolo, opened an old-fashioned roadside burger stand on Sunday in an unexpected location: Anderson Valley wine country.
Set in a 120-year-old building on Highway 128 about three hours north of San Francisco, Jumbo’s Win-Win (8651 Hwy. 128, Philo) brings nostalgia-inducing burgers, fries and soft serve ice cream to the budding wine region, which Baird said is seriously starved for “comfortable, fun and affordable” restaurants.
“There are a couple of great restaurants that I really love in town, but they’re just not affordable on the regular,” said Baird, who moved to the rural area in 2020. “I wanted a place for high school kids to work, for families to go eat, a place we can all kind of count on.”
While Anderson Valley wines are growing in popularity, the rustic region, which has only three small hotels, has notably struggled with tourism. The best known restaurant in the area is at the Boonville Hotel, helmed by former Healdsburg Shed chef Perry Hoffman, but the $75 tasting menu isn’t local-friendly. So Jumbo’s, which will be one of the only restaurants in Anderson Valley to operate seven days a week, has created quite the buzz.
“People are pumped,” said Baird, noting that roughly 15 people stopped by every day in the weeks leading up to the opening. “I might as well have run for public office doing this.”
About four years ago, the James Beard-nominated San Francisco native quietly disappeared from the city’s bar scene after he stepped away from his partnership with Trick Dog co-founder Josh Harris. “I felt like I’d had enough,” he said. “I felt like I’d lost my way with making drinks, and I felt like I’d done all I’d needed to do to scratch the itch.”
He was still consulting for hotel bars in Nashville, Savannah and New Orleans, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, like many people, he sought refuge outside the city. Baird and his family landed on a 25-acre former pot farm complete with pet mini-cows in the quiet, redwood-dotted Anderson Valley, a “very special place,” said Baird, with its “own gravitational pull.” He and his wife Molley Green had recently welcomed their third child, Jumbo — a name chosen by his older brother — and with no bars to run, it was a chance for Baird to step up as a father. “I’d missed out on all the young time of my other kids’ lives,” he said, “so I spent two years getting to raise my son in a way I didn’t with my other two kids.”
For a while, he resisted the pull of another brick-and-mortar. He busied himself with other projects, like founding Donna’s Pickle Beer, a Milwaukee lager with fresh pickle brine, which he’ll pour at Jumbo’s and will soon be sold in nine states. But he always looked at an empty, old-timey building on Highway 128, formerly home to the Anytime Saloon, and thought it would make a great burger stand.
Finally this spring he decided to go for it. “We were going to call it the Win-Win. But Molley said, ‘You know, Jumbo really loves hamburgers, and Jumbo’s Win-Win is a really good name,’” Baird recalled. They ran it by the family, and Jumbo’s older brother Jasper eventually came around to the idea, especially once Baird promised to name the fries after him.
A Gott’s-inspired burger stand might seem out of Baird’s usual wheelhouse. The only cocktails on the menu at Jumbo’s will be wine-based: a frosé and a slushy sangria. Nevertheless, he’s taking on the role of chef-owner. “I’d probably rather cook than make drinks,” he said, claiming that his mother refused to send him to culinary school. “It’s my favorite thing to do.”
Affordability is important to Baird, who said he’s purposely keeping Jumbo’s profit margins low to allow people to come more frequently. All menu items are priced at $15 and under, and he claimed he’ll be happy if he breaks even. The counter-service menu is short and simple, and he doesn’t plan on making many changes. “No one is ever mad that In-N-Out has the same menu all the time,” he said. “You know exactly what you’re going to get and you’re happy about it.”
There’s a classic burger ($10 single, $14 double), a smashburger ($9 single, $13 double) and a hot dog ($9) topped with dill pickle and jalapeno relish, sweet corn, mustard and pickled mustard seeds. Baird said diners shouldn’t sleep on the fried rock cod fish sandwich ($13), and the fried chicken sandwich ($14) has a Japanese touch, topped with crunchy chile kewpie. There’s also a veggie melt ($13), a couple of salads ($15) and Jasper’s hand-cut fries ($5), store-bought from a brand called Sidewinder. Shaped like a potato chip, Baird described it as “a really ‘get the sauce’ french fry with a crispy crunch to it.”
Baird is sourcing whole animals from the 15,000-acre Mailliard Ranch in Anderson Valley’s Boonville. In addition to burgers, he’s planning to dry age several cuts of steak and offer steak frites ($20-$40) at dinner. There will be occasional specials, like beef tartare or Korean short ribs. “In the evenings, we’re going to become an odd little steakhouse,” he said.
For dessert, Jumbo’s has apple hand pies ($5), an homage to the region’s agricultural history with apples long before wine grapes took over, and soft serve ($4-$6) from organic dairy Straus Family Creamery.
Soft serve comes with topping combo, like churro crunch with cornflakes, cinnamon sugar and butter, or fennel pollen honey, olive oil and salt. The wine list is also short, simple and affordable, featuring some of Anderson Valley’s smallest, little-known brands that are “kind of hiding,” Baird said. The frozen drinks — one made with strawberry, honey, peach and mint, and a spiced hibiscus, passionfruit and blood orange fruit punch — are kid-friendly, but adults can add wine to make them boozy.
Green handled the design, focusing on what she coined “delicious colors.” The exterior was painted a shade of dark chocolate — which from the road, looks black — with the restaurant’s name spelled out in giant white letters. Inside, wood panels and curtains are the color of ketchup and mustard. She preserved the old bar top and tables and added faux taxidermy to the walls: A black bear head that hangs over the kitchen window was purchased on a visit to Joshua Tree; wooden deer heads came from the Alameda Flea Market; and shark heads originated from a carnival in Mexico. The bathrooms feature hand-painted tiles from a local artist depicting signature representations of Anderson Valley — even a marijuana leaf. “It’s something to look at while you pee,” she said.
The restaurant seats about 55 people indoors, and an outdoor patio provides additional seating. Baird hopes to host tournaments with the Buck Hunter arcade game that’s nestled in a corner.
With Jumbo’s, Baird is digging deeper into his new Anderson Valley roots, but he’s also started to ease his way back into the San Francisco scene. He was called upon to create the drinks menu for Starlite, the recent reopening of the famous Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, and he’s consulting on the new menu at the Final Final sports bar, which has new owners. “I felt an overwhelming responsibility to make sure it was done well and taken care of. It was an honor to be involved in that program,” he said of Starlite.
“That kicked me back in,” he continued. “I thought I was done with it. I realize I’m not.”
Jumbo’s Win-Win. 8651 Hwy. 128, Philo. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. jumboswinwin.com.
(SF Chronicle)
GREAT DAY IN ELK
The 48th annual Great Day in Elk will be held on Saturday, August 24, from noon until dusk. The noontime parade will travel through downtown Elk to the Greenwood Community Center for the day’s festivities.
All afternoon there will be game booths with prizes and do-it-yourself crafts projects for children, plus a greased pole with a $100 bill at the top. Watermelon-eating contests, sack races, and an egg toss will be held throughout the day.
This year’s live entertainment features music by Mama Grows Funk.
There will also be a silent auction, a cake auction and a raffle.
Lunch options include tamales and Caesar salad (with or without chicken), hot dogs and focaccia with Moroccan lentil soup, and the Civic Club’s ice cream sundaes topped with fresh berry sauce. Drinks include fresh-pressed Greenwood Ridge apple cider, Elk’s famous margaritas, soft drinks, beer and wine.
Dinner will be served from 4 to 7. This year the theme is Greek: Chicken and Veggie Kabobs, salad, tzatziki, and roasted lemon potatoes.
So, come to the little coastal village of Elk and enjoy a fun-filled family day, while supporting the Greenwood Community Center, five miles south of Highway 128 on Highway 1. Please leave dogs at home.
For more information email Mea Bloyd at meabloyd@gmail.com or visit the Elk community website, www.elkweb.org.
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