CHARLIE PAGET-SEEKINS of Boonville was badly injured Wednesday afternoon when a tree he was working on at Airport Estates, Boonville, unexpectedly fell with Charlie still strapped onto it in his safety gear. He was about fifteen feet up when the entire tree came down, inflicting numerous, life-threatening injuries to the popular young man. Charlie was flown by medical helicopter from Boonville to Santa Rosa Memorial's trauma center, and from Santa Rosa to Stanford where, as of Sunday, his mother, Diane Paget, said in an e-mail that Charlie was much improved and “sitting up in bed.” Mom also said that Charlie will undergo lengthy surgeries to repair severe injuries to his face.
A READER WRITES: “This effort came about through a discussion among friends about how long we can reasonably stay here before we are truly 'over the hill' and have to go over the hill. It became more pertinent after Mark Apfel’s breaking his hip, and by changes in the Health Center, and the realization that our plans were dependent on our present facilities continuing. We are trying to gather information about what is available now and what could be available. We prefer to 'age in place'.
"IF YOU'RE LIKE MOST SENIORS in Anderson Valley, you've wondered about the availability of any service that provides in-home health care here, of Medicare coverage for it or personal cost, whether a qualified nurse or physical therapist or speech therapist will drive miles off #128 into the hills to look after you. And you may have also wondered about the availability of hospice service.
“THESE SERVICES are all available, and you can learn about them and ask questions at an Information Presentation at the AV Senior Center in Boonville on July 9, 2014, beginning at 11:00 AM. Presenters will be Nancy Runyan, Director of Adventist Health Home Care and Phoenix Hospice Services and Tammy Long, AH Marketing Liaison and Hospice Volunteer Coordinator."
ROEDERER, the large, French-owned winery near Philo, has removed its giant frost fans from its vineyards. Neighbors speculate that the removal could be in anticipation of a lawsuit against Roederer for maintaining an ongoing nuisance. We think it's more likely that the machines had been rented and have been returned until Noise Season 2015. We also think that Roederer is more sensitive to public opinion than its Yankee colleagues, dreading the bad publicity that is sure to come as outside media become aware of the widespread unhappiness in the Anderson Valley with the giant noisemakers. At least one unhappy party intends to seek a court order permanently prohibiting vineyards from using the machines.
WHAT'S THE DROUGHT looking like from the bird's eye view of the Anderson Valley? The flow gauge on the Navarro River is hovering at about 5 cubic feet per second. Same week last year it was also low at 12 cubic feet per second. The year before that, 2012, it was running at 23-24 cubic feet per second. The 60-year median for the last week in June is about 35 cubic feet per second.
WES SMOOT and Steve Sparks have assembled an interesting book on the old buildings of the Anderson Valley, which seem to be going almost as fast as the old timers who inhabited and worked in them. “Then and Now, An Anderson Valley Journey,” is a crucial addition to our history, and you will want to attend Wes's and Steve's book signing at 2pm, Sunday, at the Anderson Valley Museum for a most interesting look back. All proceeds from book sales go to the Anderson Valley Historical Society.
IT'S LEGAL to buy pot in the state of Washington, but it's not legal to grow much of it there, which probably explains the massive new grow by people from that fine state on the tranquil slopes of Nash Mill Road.
IT ALL HAPPENS in Boonville. If you're looking for good wholesome 4th of July fun, especially if you've got children you need to entertain for a few hours, you can't go wrong by driving in for the big 4th celebration at the Boonville Fairgrounds, all proceeds to the Anderson Valley Educational Foundation and on to scholarships for all local students who want to go on to college.
MONDAY was hot, 103 in our shade, but a slow news day whose only excitement turned out to be the best sandwich I've ever had, and I got it right down the street at the Boonville General Store. I know my fellow gluttons are just dying for the details, but just before I swooned from the pure ecstasy of downing it, I remember sour dough bread baked on the premises, homemade mayo, what seemed like a half-pound of turkey, the smiles of the utterly charming women who work there and…
WE ARE NOW just a month out from Not-So-Simple Living Fair 2014, Mendocino County Fairgrounds, Boonville, July 25-27. (http://notsosimple.info.)
THE ANDERSON VALLEY Lending Library reminds us that “It is time to stock up on your summer reading. All sale books will be $3 a bag for the month of July. Please bring your own bag. We also have a lot of new books available to check out. Please drop by and see what we have to offer. Our hours are Tuesday 1:30-4:30 and Saturday from 2-4."
JERRY YOUNG, a 2010 graduate of Mendocino High School who local sports fans will remember as leading the NCL in basketball scoring for two years, has graduated from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon with a major in Mass Communications. As a senior, his dad reports, Jerry was manager of the campus radio station, KSLC 90.3 FM. In his 4 years at Linfield he produced and broadcast more than 140 live sporting events (and one Lua'u for the Hawaiian Club). The talented young man is now working with Stretch Internet based in Gilbert, Arizona. Stretch provides live streaming of sporting events globally for more than 500 colleges. “I, Jerry's father, have just returned from my first visit to Stretch Internet. I'm proud to say my son will be getting the big bucks for watching and talking sports 40 hours a week. The business is 10 years old and is the brainchild of, yes, a 6'7 basketball player nicknamed “Stretch", in his high school days. He employs 14 like-minded twenty and thirty-somethings doing what this 60-year-old has no idea of what on the internet. It looked like what I envision an ESPN control room to look like. 17 screens, all sizes, all sports."
TWO LOCAL CALLERS this week were alarmed at the swathes of dead trees they could see on Mendocino Redwood Company land to the northwest. MRC uses an herbicide to kill non-commercial trees. Another local said the men who do the hacking and squirting, are ferried to the work site in a white vans with a white pump/hose truck bearing the logo "Great Tree Tenders — Rehabilitation and Restoration.” And, in smaller print, “Farm Labor Contractor.”
MRC, as do lots of companies these days, hacks and squirts to poison and kill tanoak. They call the procedure “hack and squirt,” because they hack into the bark to squirt an herbicide (imazapyr) into the wound. The tree absorbs the toxin and dies. Imazapyr is a non-selective broad-spectrum systemic herbicide, which means it is not particular about what it kills. You can imagine the potential for collateral damage, to all living things, through the soil, water, air, food chain, etc. (If you've missed this discussion, the whole Better Living Through Chemicals show is on our website at www.theava.com.)
102 YEARS AGO June 19, 1912. From the always interesting Glance at the Past column in the Fort Bragg Advocate by Debbie Holmer: “By the middle of next week, the city of Fort Bragg will be the proud possessor of two quick and easy routes to San Francisco, namely by water and rail. Just stop to think, we have something to be proud of. Ours is the only coast town directly connected with the metropolis by rail, not to mention our semi-weekly water service. At present, the road is practically completed and ready to use. But due to a few slight incidentals and the waiting for the arrival of the new locomotive, the running through of the first passenger train will be postponed until the middle of next week. As far as we can learn, there will be no excursion run from this end of the road, but on the 23rd of this month, the Ukiah people are planning to run an excursion line to the coast.”
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