EVA HOLCOMB has died. A lovely and truly gracious lady has left us. It’s not an exaggeration to say that everyone who knew Eva is saddened and feels diminished at the news of her passing. Our deepest, most heartfelt condolences to the Holcomb and Pardini families. A full obituary will follow.
FUNDRAISER For Carolyn Livingston & Family. Tickets are $10. On Monday, January 14, Carolyn Livingston, our sixth-grade teacher at Anderson Valley elementary, lost her home in a fire. Luckily, her family and pets are safe. Unfortunately, her home was a total loss. To help offset some of the costs that the family will incur, we are having a drawing. There will be six gift baskets including a variety of handmade gifts, soaps, local wine, gift certificates to local markets and restaurants and many more items. We are accepting monetary donations if you are not interested in purchasing a ticket. All donations will be greatly appreciated. Tickets are $10 each. The drawing will be held on Friday, February 1. Call the Elementary School for time and place at 895 3010. Tickets are available now. Call Belma or Nicole for more details. $10 each Tickets are being sold at AVHS, AVES, Boont Berry, Mosswood Café, and Poleeko Roadhouse. Two sets of Warriors tickets for the February 10th game have just been added.
BILL HARGRAVE of Rancho Navarro passed away at his home least week. We have no further details, but he had been a resident of Navarro for about ten years, some of those years fairly turbulent. Mike Saner was associated with Hargrave before they fell out, leaving Saner adrift in the area until Saner shot Willie Martinez to death two years ago as Willie sat down to a meal at Fritz Ohm's place. Saner has been confined to the County Jail ever since while the charges against him are weighed and debated by the authorities.
THE GOOD NEWS. A solid rumor says Anne Fashauer is in escrow to buy the Live Oak Building in central Boonville. If true, and I’ll bet it is, good things are sure to follow. One good thing already happening in the venerable, tuned up structure that began life way back as a garage, is Andy Duvigneaud’s, Bee Hunter. Anne’s winery, Witching Stick, presently based in Philo, is sure to follow.
GARDEN SEASON APPROACHES. Some of the raised beds (14X4) have become available at the Elder Home property in Boonville. $30 per year, April 1st to the end of March. Rich soil and irrigation included. Contact Peggy Ridley for more info. Possible inground beds also available.
ONLY a true atheist could fail to appreciate Monday’s spectacular sunrise, and I hope lots of you were awake to see it.
A READER tells me there’s a rock and roll band based in Detroit called Anderson Valley. So I googled it and found the group consists of three people surname Anderson and one called Valley. The music? I’ll leave that for better attuned people to decide.
AV ART GUILD SHOW — Works of fine arts and crafts by members of the Anderson Valley Art Guild are on display at Lauren's Restaurant, Boonville. Now through early March.
SCAM ALERT. Phone call claiming to be PG&E about to shut off power because of failure to pay smart meter deposit. $398.28 deposit required, to be refunded in 3 months. Payment accepted at CVS and Rite-Aid express payment kiosks. I am not aware of these kiosks. Fortunately, PG&E confirmed this as a scam. Although it sounds ridiculously obvious in the reading, it sounds very convincing on the phone, as they give you an extension number and a switch over to a “supervisor,” who “apologizes” for this disruption. I wonder what these people think of themselves as they go to sleep at night.
AGRICULTURAL FAMILY LOOKING FOR NEW HOME: We would like to grow flowers, veggies, culinary herbs and other food crops. Rustic/off grid fine. We have pictures of previous gardens. Cabin, cottage, yurt/efficient house with garden/farm space. 707-683-2369
MUCH PRAISE for the mechanic work of Rich Farley, “a great go-to guy for car repair right here in Anderson Valley. Fixed my Toyota right up, quickly and for a more-than-fair-price. Also available at Starr these days.”
VARIETY SHOW: It's that time of year again: the Anderson Valley Grange's 28th annual Variety Show is on Friday March 8th and Saturday March 9th, at the Anderson Valley Grange. We need YOU and your acts onstage! Please contact Captain Rainbow at 895-3807, or Robyn at 272-2127 (you can text her, too) if you have a talent, skill, animal, joke, or anything else you'd like to put onstage for all of us to enjoy. We'll discuss what you need for rehearsals and for the night of the show. We have professional calibre lights and sound, and the kindest, most enthusiastic and forgiving audience found anywhere in the world. This is your big chance to show us what you've got!
"I AM LOOKING for local group therapy sessions…or a book-club…or just people to talk to… I find it hard to connect in this valley… Yeah, I may be too old, etc. But, as a social animal, I don't want to have to depend on bars for conversation (besides, I have stopped drinking alcohol…)"
WE NOTED this plaintive note on one of the electronic gizmo pages, which confirms the opinion of lots of people in the Anderson Valley, and not only the newcomers, that this place can be a tough social nut to crack. Pursuing the nut theme, the nut of the prob is the transient nature of the place, of the whole country for that matter, and leaving aside the old standbys of social class and race, people come and people go, lots of them simply disappearing until we notice they’re not there. People born and raised here enjoy a community based on a shared psycho-social experience. En masse you find them at the crab feeds, old timer funerals and, in smaller groups, the Redwood Drive-in. They used to be able to get drunk and fight at the old Boonville Lodge but local society has been radically blanded down over the past forty years, going from Flannery O'Conner to John Updike, you might say. The back-to-the landers group around the Philo Grange and Boont Berry Farm. Ditto for the neo-hippies. The wine people, one supposes, have a community of sorts where they surreptitiously criticize each other's wines and talk about radicchio recipes while one-upping one another with tall talk about their excursions to France. The airport people socialize among themselves now and then, but tend to be aeronautically single-minded. Lauren's Restaurant is a social focal point for both Nice People and nice people, with all sorts of community-oriented nights set aside for fun stuff like the Trivia Night and more serious discussions about, and not to put too fine a point on it, death. The ever-larger local Mexican community, much of it first generation and still suffering the two-way language barrier, remains largely apart from the Anderson Valley branches of Gringolandia, although Mosswood Market has created a pleasant cross-over intersection and second generation Mexicans have learned some English at the local schools and have more or less fully integrated themselves into what’s here. Locals truly desperate for not particularly sympathetic company, and who dare risk being seen at the ava's office or, worse, in the company of one of the beasts lurking there, are assured of lively exchanges of views with drop-ins welcome, free advice and candid personality assessments per request. But anybody who dares say in our presence, “Gosh, really, I think Joe Biden would make a great president,” is not only unwelcome but subject to physical attack.
GET YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHERS inspected and serviced at the fire house in Boonville, Friday, February 15 at 14281 Hwy 128. Extinguishers will also be available for purchase. Service by Ukiah Oxygen Supply from 9am to 2pm Service fees begin at $15. A limited supply of fire extinguishers will be for sale from $50 to $120. More info: 895-2020.
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