LORETTA HOUCK remains in serious but stable condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital after suffering a terrible injury to her head in an accident in Boonville three weeks ago. As of Sunday, the family reports, "She is opening her eyes more and for longer periods. She is very purposeful with her right hand movements. Still not much on the left. She is now moving her head more. While getting adjusted in bed today she lifted her head. She put it back on the pillow after a bit. I told her to lift her head if she wanted a pillow out and up came her head! She will soon be leaving the ICU and on to rest and recovery. Wonderful news! W Dan messaged this morning that when he arrived at the hospital today she had her eyes open, looked up at him and then reached up to touch his face. Then she gave a thumbs up when asked. Our Loretta is coming back, slowly but surely. You can help Loretta and her family with expressions of good will and medical expenses at this on-line address:
https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/kfp8/loretta-jean-houck-s-medical-expenses
THANK YOU to all who have supported Loretta and W Dan during this very difficult and uncertain time. We've reached and exceeded our goal of $10,000, and we did it in less than a week. Please continue to spread the word.
OYSTER MUSHROOMS! Locally grown organically right here in the Anderson Valley. Write Llama@emeraldearth.org
WEDNESDAY MORNING, twenty-foot purple banners announced each of the Anderson Valley's wineries. As an every day presence they wouldn't fit, but for a weekend? Nice. Festive. Celebratory.
SO HERE COMES BIG ORANGE, and soon most of the roadside banners were down. Encroachment, you see.
THE DOWNED BANNERS, looking like the fallen remnants of Waterloo, had officious Caltrans messages attached to them that said, the wineries had violated "Status Governing Advertising" defining "Right of Way from CA Constitution Article 16 claiming violation is a misdemeanor as per Streets and Highways Code Div. 1 Chap 3 Art 1 Secs 600 - 734." The affected businesses included, Toulouse, Scharffenberger, Elke, Navarro Vineyards, Greenwood Ridge, Husch, Phillips Hill, and Edmeades, aka Jackson Family Vineyards…
THE WINERIES aren't exactly political pushovers. They fund our elected reps at the state and federal level. I'll bet by now that Caltrans bureaucrats in Sacramento have gotten earfuls from the wine industry's elected gofers.
TED W. HALL and Family of St. Helena are the new owners of Corby Vineyards, Philo.
Hall is described as "an entrepreneur and business leader with deep experience in agriculture, wine, specialty foods, food service, consumer products, and retailing. He is a frequent panelist and speaker on sustainable farming practices, especially on the science and economics of organic farming."
KEVIN HARVEY, "venture capitalist," owns Rhys Vineyards in Navarro, which has its primary wine operation in Santa Cruz. He owns several thousand acres in the Laytonville area, and occasionally flies in to Boonville International in a private, piloted plane. Harvey was chairman of the board at MySQL, which sold to Sun for $1 billion in 2008 and is well known for other billion dollar deals. The cheapest bottle of Rhys wine goes for a mere $75.
ANOTHER VALLEY BOOZE MOGUL, a fellow named Mullins who owns the Balo Winery, has placed a large new pump on depleted Indian Creek. He's not pumping from the once fish-flush blue-line stream yet, but people living nearby, not wine people, are worried that he will, further diminishing a severely diminished resource.
WITH ALL THESE financial high fliers doing business in the Anderson Valley, one might think they'd do a little more for their host community, by a very long way the wealthiest area of Mendocino County. How many billionaires would it take to persuade a bank or a credit union to open an office here? Used to be, way back, and way before magic money, we had a bank and even a drug store, amenities that benefitted all of us.
SPEAKING OF DRUG STORES, I visited the Anderson Valley Health Center just this Monday. I was in search of real cough medicine to beat back the night-time hacks from a cold. Last December, for a more serious whatever it was, the cough syrup and anti-biotics were right there in our Center's pharmacy. Since then, thanks to the red tape strangling what's left of government services in this country, our little clinic has had to go though a lengthy licensing procedure, complete with a lot of intrusive scrutiny of clinic staff that seems to assume they're a bunch of junkies slavering to get at the pills. Eventually, we'll again be able to get our healing nostrums, but sheesh, this is getting to be like Roosha before the wall came down.
APROPOS of the above, I recently read a biography of Steve Jobs, the genius behind Apple, and came away kind of admiring the guy's ruthlessness. You either produced for him and his gizmos or you were outtathere. And he was almost always correct in his judgments. He was also insufferable in lots of ways, but I found myself wishing that Jobs, maybe for a week, could have gotten carte blanche to streamline government. Of course we're way past even obvious reform, or even the desire for it, among public officials, having reached a perfect entropic dead-end of privatization of the services that still generate cash for the people who own them, and abandonment of the rest.
THAT WAS A Gray/Silver 2011 Toyota Tundra pickup with a camper shell on the back that was found on Peachland Road, Boonville, last Wednesday morning. The Tundra was rolled over on its right side with 56 bullet holes in it, suggesting it had been shot up with an automatic weapon.
THE VERSION we have says the owner, Hardy Nieto, 30, of Boonville and Healdsburg, ran out of gas and went to town to get a can of petrol only to return to find his truck dead.
UH, this doesn't sound even a little bit plausible, and the hunt for the facts of what really happened is still on.
FREDRICK SODERLIND, 71, of Comptche was arrested last week at his home where, police said, he had some 1,200 marijuana plants under cultivation in indoor and outdoor grows. Soderlind, a former Boonville real estate agent and Mendocino High School basketball coach, also had approximately $484,000 in cash stashed in old vehicle, which the police confiscated. Soderlind was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of possession of drug proceeds over $100,000, possession of marijuana for sale, marijuana cultivation and for an outstanding arrest warrant related to a previous marijuana cultivation case. He has since been released from custody after posting $50,000 bail.
NAVARRO STATE BEACH CLOSED TO VEHICLES 3 WEEKS
The only way to enjoy the benefits of iconic Navarro State Beach is to wade to the mouth or kayak it - vehicle access has been closed going on three weeks due to the sandbar refusing to breach. An energetic crew with a few shovels might be able to do something, though - they used to breach it manually in the old days. (Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)
ALEXIS MOYER alerts us: "Artists and businesses, sign up by June 15th to participate in Mendocino County Celebrates American Craft Week. It is a week long, countywide, self guided tour October 2-11. 2015. Galleries, studios and businesses throughout Mendocino County will open their doors with special shows, events and demonstrations featuring the beautiful handmade crafts produced here in Mendocino County. If you would like to host one or more craft artists at your business or are an artist wanting to show during Mendocino County Celebrates American Craft Week please sign up now. For more information or to get an entry form contact Alexis Moyer at potshop@saber.net (707) 895-2810. To see last years event listings visit www.MendocinoCraftWeek.com
THE TURNOUT for Saturday's pinot protest was small but made the point that not all of us are happy with the local wine industry. Some of the wine businesses are very bad neighbors, especially those who resort to frost fans for many days in the spring. We won't go into the industry's blank draw on local streams and their better-living-through-chemicals "farming," but the frost fans make it impossible for roughly a thousand residents of Anderson Valley to sleep from midnight to 8am for up to twenty nights a year.
THE LEAFLETTING went well, in that the more thoughtful among the pinot festival crowd will now understand that the wine they enjoy comes at a cost much greater than they pay in The Valley's tasting rooms.
THIS IS THE LEAFLET:
Campaign For Quiet Nights
by the Anderson Valley Red Eyes
Key Points:
The recent drought has caused vineyards to choose new methods of frost protection.
Many community friendly vineyards have adapted without disturbing the neighbors.
Many nuisance vineyards choose to use outdated frost protection fans that create intolerable nocturnal noise (up to 80 dB) that keeps the community awake all night, night after night.
The Mendocino County noise ordinance states that no one can emit more than 40 dB of noise between 10 PM and 7 AM.
Quality of life and health are severely impacted by the noise, the accompanying low vibrations and the associated sleep deprivation.
Local residents have taken every measure to resolve the problem, including talking with vineyard owners, local officials and even bringing legal action — to no avail.
Please help Anderson Valley residents return to quiet nights by: asking the nuisance vineyards listed to stop disrupting our nights; and spending money at community friendly vineyards only.
Thank you. We hope you enjoy your visit to our beautiful valley!
* * *
The Anderson Valley Red Eyes are a group of residents who have had their health and well-being affected by intolerable nocturnal noise generated by the vineyard industry. For the last two years, this noise has been coming from the vineyard industry frost protection fans and pesticide spraying. Neighbors describe the fan noise as if a helicopter has landed outside their homes and run all night long. In fact, several of our residents have been in hospice at home and have had to pass away with the sound of those fans rattling their windows. Some residents have measured the noise at 80 dB inside their houses.
The World Health Organization states that health problems from noise or interrupted sleep increase significantly when noise is accompanied by vibration or by low-frequency components (as with the frost fans). This intensity and duration of noise exposure invokes the fight or flight response by increasing heart rate and peripheral resistance, increasing blood pressure, increasing blood viscosity and levels of blood lipids, shifting electrolyte balance, and increasing levels of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. Noise pollution aggravates existing mental illnesses and accelerates and intensifies the development of latent mental disorders. A wide range of negative emotions are caused by noise pollution. These include anger, disappointment, dissatisfaction, withdrawal, helplessness, depression, anxiety, distraction, agitation or exhaustion. Lack of perceived control over the noise intensifies these effects. This is why all communities, including Mendocino County, have noise ordinances. Ours states that no one should emit noise over 40 dB between the hours of 10 PM and 7 AM.
Residents have already had community meetings, talked with officials, filed complaints, and some have even filed lawsuits but the county refuses to enforce its noise ordinance. The majority of vineyards do not cause problems for their neighbors, so it is clear that there are many other options. Nuisance vineyards like Roederer (also the owner of Scharffenberger and Domain Anderson), Navarro and their Penny Royal Farms, Goldeneye (owned by Duckhorn), V.Sattui, Foursight Wines, Cakebread, Elke, and others continue to claim that their private profit is more important than the health and well-being of their neighbors.
The Anderson Valley Red Eyes has launched our campaign for quiet nights. It is our intention to cause these businesses to lose money until they realize that harming their neighbors is neither moral, legal nor profitable. We will be demonstrating the sound and volume of these frost fans throughout the Pinot Festival so that you may experience what we have been dealing with. Want to help? Please talk to any vineyards that you visit about their practices and how they affect their community. Choose to spend your money at community friendly vineyards only!
ANDERSON VALLEY'S MASSIVE ANTI-FROST FAN demonstration at the annual Pinot Fest as reported by David Severn:
“I made a couple signs and showed up at 10:30 for the 11:00 event and spent about an hour and a half by myself politely explaining the wind fan situation to people going in. One of the private security guards (“Bruce #19”) had initially started belligerently shoving me around with his fat belly and shoulder until the guy in charge moved him across the street and peacefully allowed me my right to be there as long as I didn't block the driveway. Just before noon I zipped to Lemons where and when Wendy Read said she was having everyone meet. There I learned they weren't planning to be at the event until 1:00. Roger Hecht joined me and we went back to picket and inform the in-and-out participants a tad more on our ant-frost fan position. Roger had some leaflets that I think either John Lewallen or Linda McClure had printed up. Around 1:00 Linda showed up with another batch of leaflets. At about 1:15 Wendy, Robby Lane and a truck with speakers pulled in and parked right beside the entrance to Goldeneye. After ten minutes or so it started blasting a loud recording of the frost fans. A young kid whom I don't know was at the controls. At 50 feet away the noise was quite loud, close to what Robby and Roger said they experienced inside their homes up on Clow Ridge but it was noted by someone that the sound wasn't audible at the event inside the gate. Wendy had talked about a 5 or 10 minute hit-and-run though it seemed to me the thing ran for close to half an hour. I don't think anybody told them to stop or seemed disturbed in any way. When the noise was over I was exhausted, my legs and ears ached and I left — that was somewhere around 2:00. Mostly the event goers were friendly toward me, there were some thumbs up and a few even stopped to chat, yet a couple of my wine involved friends completely snubbed me while others painfully smiled when they said hello. My daughter, Saffron, stopped on her way in to give me a big kiss that made me feel really good. She's got class. Personally I'm glad that they all saw we're going to stay on their case. One local gal did have a hard time with my presence and came by two or three times to emphatically tell me I was an ‘idiot.’ On a last pass by with a couple of friends (I believe it was specifically to tell me what we had already heard, that the sound wasn't reaching inside) she again said, ‘You know you're really, really dumb.’ I nodded and replied, ‘Yea, I know, I'm a dumb idiot.’ ‘No!’ one of her friends said, ‘You're a dumb fucking idiot!!’ I laughed, they scowled. My summation would be that nobody's experience at the Pinot Fest was dampened by our actions, even the gal who took so much issue with my intelligence. She should and probably does take pride in having the moxie to tell me off. In my opinion the most out of hand was the big-bellied security guard. We protesters do realize that some of the vineyard managers have taken notice of our plight and are working to make changes toward quieter frost protection methods. But vineyard owners and managers not only are of differing minds they change and the issue really needs to be dealt with on the County regulatory level. There is in existence a Mendocino County sound level ordinance based on World Health Organization standards. It seems a no-brainer that it should be followed and enforced. The Board of Supervisors needs to recognize that all citizens require equal dignity and treatment under the law. It is past time for Dan Hamburg our do-nothing Fifth District Supervisor to stop pandering to wealthy, mostly absentee, wine grape growers by going on the radio and other venues with statements of the nature that it is ‘unproductive’ for us to voice our frustrations. As one tearful victim of repeated nighttime noise assaults stated, ‘Like fresh air and clean water, a good night's sleep should be a basic human right’.”
VAGUE SNAFUS have finally been untied, releasing $180,000 of the $200,000 for rural emergency medical services that provide, on an experimental basis, advanced life support services. Laytonville, Covelo and Anderson Valley will get about $60,000 each for training. According to the Supes, “The goal of this project is for each service provider … to form partnerships with existing providers within the county to meet the objective of enhancing and/or sustaining existing emergency medical services in the rural area.” Translation: More training for volunteers already much put upon.
OLD TIMERS will remember the days when “emergency services” in the Anderson Valley, and most areas of the county, consisted of an old station wagon manned by un-uniformed volunteers who turned out at all hours to bundle the wounded over the hill to hospitals in Willits and Ukiah. These days, volunteers are highly trained, so highly trained many of them are essentially volunteering double time in classes and responding to emergencies.
RANDY BURKE OF GUALALA REPORTS:
Re: Navarro gage USGS 11468000
Looks like USGS calibrated the gage at Navarro on May 8. When looking at the gage website, the little red star is when USGS staff calibrate the gage after cross sectioning the river. On the Gualala River that effort is completed every three months. Could be the same for the Navarro which today is running at 20 cfs.
MARSHALL NEWMAN alerts us: "Ticks are definitely out in the woods of Anderson Valley now. I got bit last week. The good news is a single dose of the prescription antibiotic doxycycline within 72 hours of a bite has been shown to be 90% effective in preventing Lyme Disease (which can be very nasty stuff, should one get infected). Who knew? I didn’t, until now."
DAVE EVANS at the Navarro Store has another all-star line-up this summer with four popular acts appearing in July, August and September.
On July 18, The Subdudes will perform after an as-yet unspecified opening act from 6-9pm. Tickets: $45.
On August 8, Guitar Shorty will be back to the Navarro Store amphitheater to perform with another opening act from 7-10pm. $25.
August 28-29 will be a two-day special event featuring, among others, the New Riders of the Purple Stage. (Ticket price not yet set.)
And again wrapping up the season will be the fabulous Charlie Musselwhite Band on September 5 from 7-9pm. $35.
An Outdoor Barbeque will be Going All Day Long for all events accompanied by the usual selection of beer, wine and soft drinks. Tickets are available at the Store (Charge by phone, 895-9445). And at Dig Music in Ukiah, the Albion Grocery and Music Merchant in Fort Bragg. Get your tickets early, these events are very likely to sell out as they have done in past years.
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