BILL MCEWEN has died. A long-time resident of Philo, Bill, 63, was well-known in the Anderson Valley for his quiet commitment to family and friends. Most recently, Bill, a skilled farmer himself, managed Anderson Valley's popular Farmer's Market. Suffering from cancer for some time, Bill was able to die at home on March 11th surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife, Bebing McEwen, their daughters Orianne and Shekina McEwen, and his sons from a previous marriage: Isaac, Jesse, Josh and Lee. Memorial services will take place in Boonville on Saturday, March 21st, eulogy by Eric Peterman, with a closed-casket viewing at the Apple Hall at 2pm, burial at Evergreen Cemetery at 3pm, followed by a potluck memorial gathering at the Apple Hall at 4pm.
THE GOOD NEWS: Dave Severn counted 18 steelhead in the Navarro River last week. Where there are 18 there's got to be more, hopefully a lot more, but Dave said he doesn't know if the fish are "pooling up" as they wait for more rain to get them upstream or downstream. The bad news: the Navarro is at a record low for March, lower than at any time in our long history.
JOY KINION, daughter of the late Carl Kinion and Marianne Kinion of Boonville, has worked for County Mental Health for 35 years, and who better to staff half the County's experimental "mobile outreach team" aimed at keeping disturbed people out of jail? As a kid at Anderson Valley High School, Joy, an excellent student and always what mental health people call a "centered" (sane) person, was a very good basketball player. Everyone who knows her is confident that she can handle her new responsibilities.
THE AV FOODSHED 3RD SUNDAY POTLUCK in March will be followed by a brainstorming session for our upcoming Goat Festival at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville. Goat Fest will Sat April 25, in conjunction with the Annual Wildflower Show. Join us at the AV Grange in Philo at 6 pm on Sunday March 15 with your food AND your ideas. If you cannot make it but have ideas, would like to be involved or know of someone who might, please contact Jim Devine 707 496 8725 avgoats@gmail.com
KIRA BRENNAN reminds us: The first ever Community Mile Run/Walk! Please join the AV Elementary staff and parents run or walk the Mile! on Tuesday, March 31st @ 2:30 pm. AV Elem Lower Field The students will keep track of scores and cheer us on! 1 Mile is 5.5 laps. Mile Run Challenge: 10 minutes or less. Power Walk Challenge: 15 minutes or less. The students Mile Run will follow with K-6 Girls: WED April 1st and Boys: THURS April 2nd. (Kinder will 'run' both days). For a schedule please call the Office 895-3010 or AV-B-Well ext 711
DEBRIS from a honey oil operation has been found on Elkhorn Road, Yorkville. A hazmat team will have to clean it up. Honey oil, for the data banks of you non-stoners, is a marijuana concentrate produced via a chemical conversion involving butane, among other hazardous substances. It's not known yet if the honey oil was being cooked in the wilds of Elkhorn or its chefs simply off-loaded their leftover toxics out there.
BOONVILLE KID MAKES GOOD. Dave Shapiro, son of Mike and Sharon Shapiro of Boonville, and a graduate of Anderson Valley High School, has been named CEO of Steel Sports, an appointment noted by the Wall Street Journal because Steel is a business force worth noting, and a graduate of Anderson Valley High School at the helm? Well, doubly worth noting.
WE COUNTED SIX DAYS OF WINTER in Mendocino County this season, two furious rainfalls lasting three days each. At our place in Boonville, like many Mendo people outside the incorporated areas, we depend on a well. It's a good well. Hasn't conked out yet, although our demands on its bounty are modest, spartan even. Other residents of the Anderson Valley aren't so lucky. Their wells grind to a sandy halt late summer even in wet years, and this year, so far, is pretty wet in the concentrated form of a few days of big rains, perhaps enough to see us through. Stream and spring-dependent Valley-ites also go dry and they, too, like all of us want more rain. The drought seems to be deepening as the state prepares new rules on water use.
MARSHALL NEWMAN alerts us to this article from Yahoo Travel that details going through Anderson Valley without mentioning Anderson Valley and then "comments on the Mendocino coast “Cyprus.” Yes, should be cypress. Sad example of “journalism” which I – at least – spelled correctly." I enjoyed a reference to "hipster-laden Healdsburg," which seems just about as far off from the reality of that staid little town as one travel writer could possible get. https://www.yahoo.com/travel/the-best-under-the-radar-road-trips-in-the-u-s-113734531202.html
STATE WATER RESOURCES may, pending a hearing, order Nancy K. Donovan and Stephen J. Peters to put an end to their appropriation from an unnamed tributary of Maple Creek that feeds two ponds near Maple Creek not far from the intersection of Fish Rock Road and 128, Yorkville. The Hearing is scheduled for July 1st.
BRUCE PATTERSON WRITES: "Didn't mean to fall off the edge of the world but it got so I liked it. Been checked out every way from Sunday and my heart is healthy and strong, my circulation and blood pressure fine, my chest free of cancer. Had a couple of exotic and mysterious allergic reactions that laid me low (two near death experiences) but now strong enough to get back to normal life. Be hauling dirt next week… doing some landscaping and painting and getting back to hiking."
WILDEACRE FARM in Boonville has herb, flower, asparagus, nettles and raspberry volunteers available for the digging. Please contact Cindy at wildeacre@gmail.com.
A DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER is meeting with Mayor Steve Sparks — Mayor, that is of the Anderson Valley by acclamation— with a view to including The Mayor in a forthcoming film on the murders of Mathew Coleman and Jere Melo by the deranged Fort Bragg isolate, Aaron Bassler. Sparks, with Sheriff Allman, wrote up the awful series of events in a fine little book called "Out There in the Woods."
THE NOT SO SIMPLE Living Fair organizing committee is looking for someone with website skills to apprentice this year. The 6th annual NSSLF will be July 24-26 at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville. Please contact info@notsosimple.info if you are interested.
THE OLD MARSH PROPERTY bordering the state park at Indian Creek has been restored to a park-like redwood splendor all its own, and just up the hill the mill shacks seem to have undergone their own rehab. Down the road at Bev Bennett's and Monica Fuchs' fetching property — ancestral home of the pioneer Prather family — there's a for sale sign out front. Hope they aren't moving on, but given the number of times they've had vehicles fly through their front gate we can hardly blame them for wanting to get away from 128's careening traffic.
TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County has been awarded to a pair of Anderson Valley institutions: The Anderson Valley Teen Center gets $5,000 "to provide trips to six universities for sophomore and junior high school students in Anderson Valley, which will allow them to obtain pertinent information, experience and encouragement to pursue higher education." And the Yorkville Community Benefits Association will rake in $5,000 "to furnish a rainwater catchment and storage system that will provide a previously untapped and much needed water supply for firefighting and training in the Yorkville community and greater Anderson Valley."
FOR SOME DARN REASON, the County's garbage czar, Mike Sweeney, refuses to communicate with the Boonville newspaper, meaning the guy simply can't maintain professional emotional distance from his personal antipathies to let us all know that HazMat will be at the Boonville Fairgrounds parking lot on March 27th and 28th, from 9 AM to 1 PM. Mikey O' Greenie reminds us, "Send your old paint, varnish, pesticides, ex-wives, and old prescriptions over the Hill to be properly disposed of."
SOUTH COASTIES will enjoy the irony in the new name of Point Arena's legendarily out-of-control Sea Shell Inn, long time home of fog belt tweakers and even a couple of commercially available ladies. The Sea Shell is now called Wildflower, which seems kinda like a linguistic lateral move, but who's to nitpick the energetic new owners who've invested large amounts of money and time in a radical upgrade?
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