# 558 - 12th April, 2017

    Greetings one and all. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin…
    Let’s begin with the Turkey Vulture’s update on ‘Evening Dining in the Valley’… Aquarelle Cafe and Wine Bar re-opened last Friday with  a new menu featuring Santa Maria BBQ dishes such as half-chickens and ribs to accompany popular items from their previous menu. Their opening hours for now, which may well change, will be Friday to Tuesday, from 1-7pm each day… The Buckhorn’s long-awaited re-opening, after a number of last minute delays, is tonight - Wednesday, April 12!. The bar will be fully stocked with beer, wine, and liquor, and the kitchen will be serving burgers and wings for three days until the full menu is introduced beginning on Saturday. Hope to see you there… Now to the other options, in geographical order as you travel through the Valley on Highway 128… Lauren’s Restaurant (895-3869) continues with their regular hours of lunch on Thursday-Sunday, 11.30am-2.30pm, and dinner on Tuesday-Saturday, 5-9pm. And their pop-up ‘Natalie’s Sunday Supper’ is on April 30 from 4-8pm - not to be missed if you like Fish and Chips, and other such home-style goodies… Lizbby’s, the Mexican Restaurant in downtown Boonville, is open every day except Tuesdays, serving breakfast (on Saturday and Sunday) and lunch from 10am-3pm and dinner from 5-8pm… The Boonville Hotel continues with their family-style, prix fixe menu served Friday thru’ Sunday… The Redwood Drive-In just keeps on doing what they do, with reliable hours - every day from 6am to 8pm, serving breakfast until 11.30am, and don’t forget to try the donuts!… Stone and Embers’ spring hours are from Noon to 8pm Friday-Sunday and Noon to 4pm on Monday and Tuesday… The Bewildered Pig! is open Wednesday-Sunday, 5:30-9pm… And that’s it for now… Join us again next week for another culinary cruise along the Dining Highway… Meanwhile, I encourage you all to eat, drink, and be merry…
    Public Service Announcements (P.S.A.’s)… Calendars and pens at the ready - lots of ‘stuff’ this week… #542 - For the month of April, a Diabetes Workshop will be offered by the AV Health Center at the Senior Center on Tuesdays in Spanish from 10am-Noon and on Thursdays in English from 1-3pm. To register please call 707-895-3477… #543 - Historical theater in the form of the Mendocino County Museum's Road Show comes to the Anderson Valley Grange in Philo on Friday, April 21 at 7:30 pm. Step back in time and experience life in Mendocino County during the 19th century through story and song. This year's Museum Road Show tells the true stories of the Frolic shipwreck, and the birth of the lumber industry; schooners and stagecoach lines; the truth about the Mendocino Indian “Wars"; Grace Hudson, her paintings, and her love for the Pomo; and the scandalous and comical tale of the Cattle King of Round Valley and the Fraud Queen of Spiritualism! Advance tickets are $18 Adults; $14 Seniors & Students. For more information visit www.MendocinoMuseum.org. … #544 - The Vets from the Mendocino Animal Hospital have two visits this month to the Anderson Valley Farm Supply on Highway 128, north of Philo - tomorrow, Thursday April 13 and then again next week on April 20, from 2-3.30pm each time. To avoid a line perhaps turn up at around 3pm - you will definitely be seen. New customers and their pets are always welcome and previous visitors should be aware that they can call 462-8833 and the vets will bring your pet’s charts with them - making this an even better service than it already is!… #545 - Gardeners, Farmers and Produce Growers of all kinds, please remember Food Bank days (3rd Tuesday of every month) as a place to donate your extra produce. That’s next week, Tuesday, April 18. The food bank has added new hours. They are always open from 8-10 am on the 3rd Tuesday of every month; they are also open on the Monday evening before, from 4-6. Please drop off on the Monday, behind Boonville Methodist Church. If you need someone to glean your produce to take to the Food Bank, contact Valerie Kim at valerie.h.kim@gmail.com. Denisse Mattei is the Food Bank director. You can reach her at 895-3763… #546 - I believe that the Mendocino Bookmobile also returns to the Valley next Tuesday, April 18. Phone 463-4694 for confirmation. They are usually here on alternate Tuesdays for 45 minutes at each of these places and times: Navarro Store 9am (for just 30 minutes before heading out to Comptche); the Floodgate 12.30pm; Philo 1.30pm; Boonville (Apple Hall) 2.30pm.… #547 - The A.V Museum is open every Saturday and Sunday from 1pm-4pm. Situated in The Little Red Schoolhouse next to the Elementary School on A.V. Way, visiting the Museum is a perfect thing to do in the Valley when you have a couple of hours to spare on a weekend afternoon. It is not without reason that it is generally regarded as ‘The Best Little Museum in the West’… #548 - Following it’s winter break, the monthly Barn Sale at The Big Barn next to the St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church Refectory on A.V. Way, just north of Boonville resumed in April and will now take place on the first weekend of every month - the next one is May 6/7… #549 - The 3rd Annual Anderson Valley Goat Festival will be held from 10am-4pm at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville on Saturday April 22, in conjunction with the Wildflower Show. This fun and informative event  focuses on "everything goat" - workshops on goat care, as well as cheese, yogurt & kefir making; a tour of Pennyroyal Goat Farm and Creamery; a best dressed goat parade; a birria cook-off (spicy goat stew); music by Joe Blow, and more!… #550 - And finally this week, I am reliably informed by the Yorkville Master Shepherd that this coming Saturday, April 15, the first local sheepdog trail of the year will take place at The Fairgrounds in Boonville. Called The Spring Trial the fascinating battle featuring Man and Dog versus the Ornery Sheep will begin at 10am and everyone is welcome to attend…
    As a bonus P.S.A. here is the menu for the Community lunches over the next week in the Senior Center at the Veterans’ Building in Boonville. The Center asks for a $6 donation from seniors and charges $7 for Non-seniors… Tomorrow, Thursday, April 13, the lunch, served by Marti Titus and her crew at Noon, will be Sweet Mustard Chicken followed by Cocoa Revel bars… Then, next Tuesday, April 18, the lunch will feature Stir Fry Beef and Cherry Crisp for dessert. All meals include vegetables, salad bar, and fruit, plus milk, coffee, tea, and lemonade. What a deal - it maybe the best value for money you’ll get all week!… Meanwhile, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-9.45am the Center offers ‘Young at Heart Exercise’ with Linda Boudoures and Karen DeFalco… Tai Chi is now available every Tuesday at 11am, while on Thursdays at 11am-Noon it is Kathy’s Easy-stretch Yoga class. Also on Thursdays, the Active Life Club runs from 10am to 2pm and features games, crafts, and music. The Senior Center/Community Bus goes to Ukiah on Monday's and also Santa Rosa on the first Wednesday of the month. These trips fill up fast so don't forget to sign up early at 489-1175… Hopefully you will be able to attend some of these events and certainly the lunches and dinners, and remember – ALL ages are welcome! Hope to see you there…

    The Three-Dot Lounge, where “Moans, Groans, Good Thoughts, and Rampant (yet surprisingly reliable) Rumors” from my favorite gathering place in the Valley are shared with readers, is closed this week as most of the customers are enjoying a draft beer and a shot of Jameson’s Irish whiskey at the newly re-opened Buckhorn. However, former world-class alcohol imbiber, and 3-Dot regular, The Old Buzzard, is not one to let such momentous occasions stop him from sharing the truth and so here comes another in his insightful series – ‘Signs that the Apocalypse is Approaching’… Buzzard reports, “Lets go straight to ‘The Trump Thing,’ or as it had been known for almost 250 years up until now - The U.S. Presidency… This time let me focus on some statistics… According to Politifact, an independent study group, 69 percent of the president's statements are to some degree false. A third are outright false, while 16 percent are "pants on fire” lies… Meanwhile, perhaps an even more disturbing fact is that just 58 percent of eligible voters showed up in 2016, despite the campaign being one of the most fraught, controversial, and engaging of any in recent memory. That's actually up from some presidential years, like 2000, but slightly down from 2012. Compared to other industrialized democracies, this is absolutely disgraceful. Why is it so? Because folks here simply don’t want to, perhaps. But surely voting isn't something you do because you want to. You don't look at it like, what do I want? What do I feel? It is a right but also a duty. You don’t say that the candidates are both bad and not bother at all. You say: What will happen if I don't? And what will happen if I do? That's called being an adult, and the sooner folks in this country realize that then the more hope we will have of avoiding the Apocalypse…”

    Can’t argue with that, Buzzard… Meanwhile, I’m outta here - I’ve got see a man about a sheep… So, until we talk again – be careful out there; if you break a leg don’t come running to me; stay out of the ditches; be wary of strangers with more dogs than teeth; show love to your pets, they will be faithful and true to you to the last beat of their hearts, and please remember to keep your windows cracked if you leave them in your vehicle for any amount of time; think good thoughts; ‘Keep the Faith’; try to not let life get in the way of living; may your god go with you, and may your dog go with you too… Oh, and of course, one final request, “Let us prey”… Sometimes poking, often stroking, but almost always humbly yours, Turkey Vulture - saddened but ultimately comforted in the knowledge that the old hare has safely moved to his new burrow in the sky…
p.s. You can contact me with words of support/abuse either through the Letters Page or by e-mail at
p.p.s. Keep on wagging that tail, Fred… Hi, Silver Swan – behaving yourself? Hopefully not!… Hope all is well south of the Border, Round-eyed Robin…