# 116 - June 25th, 2008

Greetings one and all, and I hope I find you safe and sound as the fires and smoke County wide, and beyond, continue to be of great concern. Of course, we also had the Sierra Nevada Music Festival taking place here in The Valley over the weekend but this was somewhat overshadowed amongst local folk with the continuing worries about the fires/smoke that resulted from the lightning on Friday evening - the largest lightning fire situation in recorded Mendocino County history with well over one hundred separate fires reported. Obviously these events will be covered in grater detail elsewhere in this newspaper but I would like to take the opportunity to thank the many brave firefighters for their unwavering efforts and also praise the work done by local public radio station, KZYX & Z, in keeping people informed of the ongoing developments as it affected each and every one of us, and in particular Mary Aigner and Paul Hanson who, amongst others, did a wonderful job over the airwaves…
So how was it for you?...The Sierra Music Festival that is…Apart from a few complaints about the loudness of the music late on Friday/early Saturday ("I live over a mile away and didn't hear a song I liked until 1am on Saturday!") and the sheer number of people in town clearly under the generally very mellow influence of various substances ("this smoke hasn't come from all their f***ing pipes and bongs has it?), I heard mainly positive comments as I hovered in and around downtown Boonville over the weekend…
I finally landed at The Boonville Lodge on Sunday afternoon and, along with about seventy others, watched some soccer live from Europe. It was Spain against Italy in the European Championships (think World Cup for Europe only) and the crowd in attendance, mostly visiting for the Music Festival but taking a break to watch some soccer, featured a wide spectrum of nationalities, including French, Australians, English, Irish, Ethiopians, Nigerians, Senegalese, German, Italian, Lithuanians, a Scotsman in a kilt (not Bruce Anderson) and a sprinkling of Valley folk. It was a veritable Lodge of Nations! They all seemed to have a great time and only one local left in disgust at the whole proceedings, muttering to himself as he left, “I f***in’ hate this s***”…I’m not sure whether he was referring to the soccer, the Festival, or his life in general - or perhaps all three…
All over town a brisk trade was being enjoyed by the local businesses and during my walkabout I observed many out-of-towners devouring the delicious corned beef and prime rib hash and eggs for brunch at The Lodge, all sorts of goodies at The General Store, pick-me-up coffees and delicious smoothies at the One Horse Espresso coffee stand, and the Vanilla Chocolate Chip ice cream that sold out at Buddy’s Ice Cream Parlor just moments before I arrived. This led me to return to The Lodge for another beer to drown my sorrows – once again foiled in an apparent never-ending, and largely unsuccessful, search for my favorite flavor…
Overall, Id’ say the Festival was a success for most and insiders tell me that it has grown over its three years here in The Valley. It has a good ‘feel’ about it, with virtually none of the ‘silly’ behavior that comes with The Beer Festival. Those “in the know” say it is one of the best music festivals anywhere. No doubt we will hear about the problems and inconveniences that arose but, as I mentioned above, there were many, many “thumbs-up” both from visitors for our Valley and by locals for the Festival...
Now it’s time for Public Service Announcement #121: We have the monthly visit to The Valley of the Mendocino Animal Hospital’s vets tomorrow afternoon (June 26th) at Dig Landscape and Garden Supplies (formerly the A.V. Farm Supply) north of Philo. These guys do a great job and if you have a pet care need at this time I urge you to support their efforts to give care to our pets in the Community. They will be in town from 2pm until 3.30pm approximately…
And that provides the perfect segue into…Public Service Announcement #122: It’s Barn Sale time! “The Best Big Barn Sale and BBQ in the West”, as I humbly like to call it, will be taking place this coming weekend, 9am to 3pm on Saturday and Sunday, June 28th/29th. For those unaware, it’s at The Barn just north of Boonville on the west side of Hwy 128 – access is from Anderson Valley Way at The St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic church sign. There are always plenty of bargains to be had and I’d be very remiss if I failed to mention the fact that, as usual, Bill Holcomb will be working his magic on the grill. See you there – I’ll be the one with a ‘sack of stuff’ and a burger in each hand…
I don’t know what was in the Valley’s water for an extended period over the last year or so but the effect of whatever that was has apparently resulted in the “Great Boonville Baby Boom of 2007-08”. They are everywhere - Quinn Reilly-Kalinowski, Wyatt Gatlin, Clayton “Spike” Mattson-White, Elliot Sutherland-Crangle, Grant of Dave and Laura Williams, Laia and Keith’s Bo, Tasman Ouchida-Pratt, Ferdinand of Ferd and Tracy Thierriot, Libby’s new granddaughter Natalie, Victor the new son of Wes and Snez, and finally, for now, there is another Severn offspring is in town, this one going by the name of Marvel…This large Bundle (the collective noun for a bunch of babies) is settling into Valley life very well and furthermore, apart from resembling either Winston Churchill, Don Knotts, Mr. Magoo, or even Don Rickles for the first few months of their lives (not too much longer than that, hopefully), it must be said that they seem to be developing into a good-looking crew… Congratulations and welcome to one and all…
So, be careful out there – take your inhalers if you have them, don’t breathe too deeply, spare a thought for those less fortunate than yourselves, and may your god go with you…Oh, and of course, one final request, “Let us prey”…Humbly yours, Turkey Vulture…
You can contact me with words of support/abuse by e-mail at
turkeyvulture1 @ earthlink.net