AN HOUR OF NOTHING BUT SMILES AND LAUGHTER
by Antoinette von Grone, member of the AV Fire Department
I understand nothing about basketball except that you have to somehow get a ball through a hoop. But I do understand smiling and laughing faces, something that you rarely see for an entire hour. It says people feel good, they are having fun and not just one or two people but a whole giant room full of them — from toddlers to grandparents.
If you wonder where you can find such a small miracle, well you missed your opportunity at least for this year at the high school gymnasium in Boonville, where the high schoolers challenged the AV Fire department to a game of donkey basketball. (Yes you read correctly, this game is done with live donkeys wearing “shoes” so the flooring of the gym doesn’t get ruined.)
These wooly placid animals seemed to be ok with people struggling to get on and off their back. Guided by their keepers they dutifully walked back and forth between the hoops.
The competition was perfectly friendly, sometimes a player even got help from the opposite team to get back on the donkey after scrambling down to retrieve a wayward ball. The latter had to be done without letting go of the reins of your beast, and believe-you-me the beasts didn’t always want to comply.
Yells and screams from all sides encouraged the valiant donkey knights to make a goal and in the final minute the high schoolers won 26 to 24 to much applause, smiles and laughter.
What a perfect evening!
CALTRANS PROJECT ON PAUSE: BOONVILLE COMMUNITY PLANNING WORK CONTINUES
From the Boonville BoontWorks group
We are a volunteer group of Anderson Valley residents focused on gathering community feedback to influence the Caltrans project to revamp Highway 128 as it passes from 253 to Mt. View Road, Boonville.
The original schedule from Caltrans was that they were to begin designing the project this year. However, in December, the Caltrans project manager let us know that our project will be pushed off for about two years due to statewide budget constraints.
We plan to take advantage of this time. When Caltrans comes back to us, we want to be ready with what we want as a community. So, you will hear more from us in the near future. When we have enough to share, we’ll put out notices for the next community gathering to fill you in. In the meantime, you can find more information on the BoontWorks webpage and we’ll do our best to keep that updated.
If you are interested in helping, please lets us know when you see us around town or you can email us through the website.
Best,
BoontWorks, Boonville
REPORT FROM A SMALL BOONVILLE FARM: An a-political Big Pig story - Farm life, and death
Whew, he's finally in packages and in the freezer. We purchase all of our pigs, including Big Pig (we never name our meat animals) and his brother, both barrows (castrated male pigs), from a neighbor who raises pigs for FAA and 4H. The brother started to prolapse a week or so after arrival on the farm, and much as we and the neighbor tried to help him, he became worse and was in such pain that we had to "put him down" (aka shoot him). I have written about "death on the farm" before. It is very painful for all concerned and never really forgotten over time, at least not by me.
Shortly thereafter, we bought two more pigs. Pigs are smart, social animals who prefer company. In this case we kept them separated for awhile since Big Pig was already bigger and could hurt them, but once it was clear they'd get along we put them together. It was the holiday season and Big Pig was growing by leaps and bounds. Usually it takes 6-9 months for a pig to reach ideal weight, 250-300lbs. We set a slaughter date in January and put the trailer out for him to get used to eating from it. At first he wouldn't go in to feed and was keeping the younger two pigs from accessing the food. Meanwhile, Big Pig was destroying and eating the plywood pig shelter and feeding box. We saw him in his field stomping on the 4x8' plywood shelter siding to break it into edible slices!
When the due date arrived we guessed his weight at around 300lbs. On the last day he finally realized that the younger pigs eating from the trailer were getting more food than he, and he barged into it, and Juan quickly slammed the door. A relief! By tractor, the trailer was hauled to the driveway to await the time of departure. That afternoon, Wynne, my son, and I towed him two hours to the slaughterhouse in Petaluma, the only one within a drive-able distance that will still take pigs.
The young fellow at the slaughterhouse took one look at Big Pig and said he'd have to call his boss because the pig looked too big to fit into the scalder and might need to be shot. He also asked if the pig had tusks and/or armor, which shocked us since our pigs are farm raised meat pigs, not wild boar. We were also surprised since he didn't seem that big. This was, for us, a new rule in the "process" of slaughter all of which is controlled by the USDA. We sat around for over an hour awaiting the bosses arrival with the shotgun.
Before we left and after the deed was done, we received an explanation from the boss that since he was big, and a pig over 300lbs is considered a boar or a sow, by law he required both stunning and shooting. As yet it wasn't clear if he'd fit in the scalder which is where the skinning takes place. If he didn't fit we'd have to pay a higher fee. We were relieved when we were finally able to drive home, arriving just at dinner time.
Turns out that he did-just-fit into the scalder. Whew. That he did have some "armor" on his belly, from our understanding a thickening of the skin. And he was the largest pig we'd ever brought in — 400lbs live and 350lbs hanging weight. It also turns out that we're lousy weight estimators! The butcher said Big Pig was beautiful meat. All we can think is thank goodness he's in the freezer now. We brought the two younger pigs to slaughter last week before they even came close to that weight and will give the pig pen a break for awhile, to dry out and be refurbished.
We hope you're all surviving the weather events in good order, staying well, eating well, and fighting this regime like hell.
Nikki Auschnitt and Steve Krieg
Boonville
JIM ARMSTRONG (Potter Valley):
If you are thinking that this seems pretty rainy for late in February, you are right. This afternoon about three o'clock, the East Fork of the Russian River measured as it flows out of the valley, was the highest it has been for this date, 5710 cubic feet per second, in 84 years (when gauging began). This is also in the top five or so flows for the whole month of February in that period. At 4 PM, it seems to be receding.
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER ALFONSO who's store used to be in this space?
He sold tobacco, records, licorice and other odds and ends. I heard a story that pre-internet back in the '70s and '80s he'd somehow hacked into the phone lines in town and used to play music which you could hear over the phone. Does anyone know the full story? Anyway, he (and characters like him) are missed here in Mendocino.
ED NOTE: Sure do. Always had a bin of strictly classical records, plus incense and an array of other stuff. Very amusing guy. Owned a house in Fort Bragg where, for all I know except probably Marco, he still lives.
JOHN SCHARFFENBERGER, WHITE COURTESY TELEPHONE PLEASE
Hello AVA,
I've lost touch with John Scharffenberger. do you have a contact?
Ansley Coale [email protected]
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