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Posts published by “Shepherd Bliss”

Water Or Wine?

“California Puts Mandatory Curbs on Water Use” reports the April 2 New York Times long article at the top of the front-page. “Steps to Confront Record-Setting Drought,” the sub-headline reads. The article describes Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order—California’s first time restricting water use.

Sebastopol v. Winery

After the Sebastopol City Council heard from two-dozen residents on Feb. 3 -- all of whom spoke against the huge Dairyman Winery and Distillery proposed for Highway 12 -- it unanimously and vigorously opposed the…

Ten-Day Village Building Convergence Rocks Sebastopol

Participants in the ambitious ten-day First Annual Sebastopol Village Building Convergence (VBC) painted murals on streets in this small Northern California town and filled the Grange Hall, the Permaculture Skills Center, and other sites from…

Village Building Convergence Coming to Small Town Sebastopol

Village Building Convergence (VBC) activists and their supporters from Cittaslow Sebastopol, Transition, the Grange, Permaculture Skills Center, and other groups recently packed the City Council meeting of small town Sebastopol in semi-rural Sonoma County, Northern…

Black Oak Down

A loud, crashing sound startles my young farm-hand Emily Danler awake in the dark of the night. She camps out in order to start picking berries at sun-up. My dog, inside, barks. After a physically-demanding…

A Second Chance—25 Years Later

A “Second Chance,” after 25 years of absence and silence, was recently offered Shepherd by Assumpta. Her email arrived from Europe to his farm. We met in Barcelona in 1988 and have had no contact during the last quarter of a century. I answered her email within 15 minutes of its sending, without thinking, but with a deep feeling of connection.

The Paul Hobbs Wine Empire Strikes Back

The Watertrough Children’s Alliance (WCA) — mainly mothers with stu­dents at schools near where yet another apple orchard is being converted into a chemical vineyard — filed a law­suit on the afternoon of November 25…

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