So to wrap up the Ukiah Sale sheep auction management saga, here’s a description of what a grueling summer day out in the dusty sheep pens and corridors felt like to a forty year old…
Posts published by “Brad Wiley”
Last week I recounted how, with a mere half dozen years of sheep farming experience, I undertook the job of managing the weekly sheep sale at the Ukiah Livestock Auction. The time of year I…
After a summer’s absence, I am back in The Valley, adjusting to drought- and-fires life here at the vineyard, and going through my list of Boont fables possibly worth telling. This one has been wandering…
BOOK REVIEW: An Eclectic History of Mendocino County, by Katy M. Tahja. Tahjanjoki Press, Comptche, 2019, 166 pages, $22.00. Katy Tahja, a local retired educator and librarian, defines “eclectic” as “drawn together from a broad range…
Thinking back on the Lyle memoir I wrote last week, I realized there were clues he and Grace were getting restless living in Anderson Valley. One of the themes we used to explore regularly in…
George Zeni’s family represented, in my explorations into American family sagas, one pattern of immigration and settlement in our country. Find the best piece of land to settle on, sink your roots, work hard, create…
This story owes a great deal to an article George’s Fish Rock neighbor Steve Alden wrote for the Mendocino Grapevine in July, 1984. Steve’s recollections highlight much about the immigrant Zeni family’s roots and his Army career…
In the last episode of the House of Morgan saga I described my millworker career from the humble Point job up to the celebratory Greenchain #4 puller position working next to “Highload” Hurst. This week…
In the last episode in the House of Morgan saga I reported luck more than skill had elevated me on The Greenchain to position #4, right next to and facing “The Boss,” Ken “Highload” Hurst.…