A Wreaths Across America semi truck will be pulling into Lake County on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Wreaths destined to decorate the graves of veterans in cemeteries spanning Lake County are due to arrive this week.
A Wreaths Across America semi truck loaded with the holiday greenery will be pulling into Lakeport on Wednesday, Dec. 15.
Organizers said the truck is scheduled to arrive at 5 p.m. at 301 N. Main St. in downtown Lakeport.
Community members are invited to bring flags and assemble on the sidewalks along Main Street at 4:45 p.m. to welcome the truck, which will be escorted through town.
The ceremonies to place the wreaths at Hartley, Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown, St. Mary’s and Upper Lake cemeteries will take place beginning at 8:50 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 18.
This year’s theme is, “Live Up To Their Legacy.”
Everyone is invited to attend the Saturday ceremony, as Lake County residents gather together to honor veterans during the holiday season as part of the annual Wreaths Across America Day.
Youth and veterans organizations have volunteered to conduct the Wreaths Across America ceremony this year at the cemeteries.
Eight ceremonial wreaths will be placed to remember all soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who served, honor their sacrifices and teach younger generations about the high cost of our freedoms.
Specially designated wreaths for the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, Space Force and POW/MIA will be placed on memorials during a ceremony that will be coordinated simultaneously at over participating locations all across the country and overseas.
In 2020, more than 1.7 million veteran wreaths were placed on headstones at 2,500 participating cemeteries around the country in honor of the service and sacrifices made for our freedoms, with each name said out loud. More than 500 truckloads of wreaths were delivered across the country by hundreds of volunteer professional truck drivers.
Wreaths Across America pursues its mission with nationwide wreath-laying events amid the holiday season, and year-round educational outreach.
Organizers invite the community to take an hour amid the hustle and bustle of this holiday season and attend one of these heartfelt ceremonies on Saturday, when they will remember and honor veterans, and teach children about the value of the sacrifices that have been made by men and women in the armed forces.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors is set to consider accepting new supervisorial district boundaries and discuss the crop report this week.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting ID is 935 8833 1995, pass code 713603. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16699006833,,93588331995#,,,,*713603#.
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and pass code information above.
At 9:30 a.m., the board will consider a resolution supporting the launch of the Blue Zones Project, which is aiming to improve Lake County’s health outcomes.
In other business, the board will discuss a resolution to adopt the new supervisorial district boundaries. That item is timed for 9:35 a.m.
The board is now in the final step of this redistricting process, carried out every 10 years once the U.S. Census Bureau released its final count data.
At 9:45 a.m., the board will receive a presentation from the agriculture department on the 2020 Crop Report.
In an untimed item, the board will consider sending a letter to the California Department of Water Resources opposing the Sonoma County Water Agency’s grant application requesting funding for Potter Valley Project-related matters.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Approve public defender contract amendment No. 6 between the county of Lake and Lake Indigent Defense LLP for a maximum monthly compensation of $135,000.
5.2: Approve Board of Supervisors meeting minutes for Oct. 5, Nov. 2, Nov. 30 and Dec. 7.
5.3: Approve amendment six to the agreement between the county of Lake and the Kelseyville Motel for COVID-19 emergency isolation housing and authorize the board chair to sign.
5.4: Approve closure of the library to the public from Tuesday, Dec. 21, through Saturday, Dec. 25, to observe the county holiday.
5.5: Approve amendment four to agreement between the county of Lake and Quincy Engineering Inc. for final design and right-of-way services for the South Main Street and Soda Bay Road Corridor Improvement Project in Lake County, California, for an increase of $412,458.53 to the contract amount.
5.6: Approve award of bid for the FEMA FMAG Culvert Replacement No. 3 Project, Bid No. 21-04, Federal Aid Project No. FEMA-5189-FM-CA, to Wylatti Resources Management Inc., of Covelo, California, in the amount of $255,861.78.
5.7: (A) Approve the FY 2021 Homeland Security application in the amount of $103,488, (B) authorize Sheriff Brian Martin to sign the grant subaward face sheet, the authorized agent document and the subrecipient grants management assessment form; (C) authorize County Administrative Officer Carol J. Huchingson to act as the authorized agent on behalf of the county to sign the standard assurances and initial each page, the lobbying certification and the FFATA financial disclosure document and (D) authorize the chairperson of the Board of Supervisors to sign the certification of the governing body resolution.
5.8: Approve the second amendment to the agreement between the county of Lake and Management Connections for temporary staffing support services completed during fiscal year 2021-22 for a sum not to exceed $120,000 and authorize the board chair to sign the amendment.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:30 a.m.: Consideration of resolution supporting the launch of the Blue Zones Project.
6.3, 9:35 a.m.: (a) Consideration of a resolution adopting supervisorial district boundaries for the county of Lake, Pursuant to Sections 21500 Et. Seq. of the California Elections Code; (b) consideration of an ordinance rescinding Ordinance Number 2958 which amended Article II, Section 2-4, Of Chapter 2 of the Lake County Code establishing the boundaries of the supervisorial district for the county of Lake, pursuant to sections 21500 Et Seq of the California Elections Code.
6.4, 9:45 a.m.: Presentation and consideration of the 2020 Crop Report.
6.5, 10 a.m.: Discussion and consideration of board action in response to a gate on a public roadway — six month review.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of appointments of a director and alternate to the California State Association of Counties Board of Directors for 2022.
7.3: Consideration of letter to the California Department of Water Resources in opposition to the Sonoma County Water Agency’s grant application requesting funding for Potter Valley Project related matters.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Public employee evaluation: Title: Director: Agricultural commissioner.
8.2: Public employee evaluation: Title: Director: Child Support Services director.
8.3: Public employee evaluation: Title: Director: Public Services director.
8.4: Public employee evaluation: Title: Director: County librarian.
8.5: Public employee evaluation: Title: Director: Interim Health Services director.
8.6: Public employee appointment Pursuant to Gov. Code Section 54957(b)(1): Appointment of Public Health officer.
8.7: Conference with legal counsel — existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(1): In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation MDL No. 2804/Case No. 17-MD-2804.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Every 10 years, following the federal Census, the boundaries of the areas by which the Yuba Community College District Governing Board is elected is subject to change.
At the Oct. 14 regular board meeting, the governing board received a presentation from Cooperative Strategies, YCCD’s demographers, highlighting changes in the YCCD population since the 2010 Census.
Cooperative Strategies also informed the governing board that due to population growth within YCCD’s boundaries since the 2010 Census, under state and federal voting rights laws, the governing board should redraw its trustee area boundaries to satisfy population variance standards between the most and least populated trustee areas.
At the Nov. 10 regular board meeting, the YCCD Governing Board reviewed and considered map options that ensure compliance with state and federal voting rights laws.
After receiving public and trustee feedback on the proposed map options, the board will review and consider a second round of map options at the Dec. 16 regular board meeting.
Any changes to the YCCD trustee areas need to be approved by the YCCD Governing Board by Feb. 28.
The governing board encourages public participation throughout this process. The public can view the current trustee area maps and the draft maps outlining change options the board will consider on Dec. 16 here.
Scientists around the world have been racing to learn more about the new omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, first declared a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26, 2021 by the World Health Organization. Officials cautioned that it would take several weeks before they’d know whether the recently emerged coronavirus variant is more contagious and causes more or less serious COVID-19 than delta and other earlier variants, and whether current vaccines can ward it off.
Peter Kasson is a virologist and biophysicist at the University of Virginia who studies how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 enter cells and what can be done to stop them. Here he explains what lab-based scientists are doing to help answer the outstanding questions about omicron.
Does prior immunity protect against omicron?
These are the key lab results everyone is waiting for: How effective are the antibodies people already have at fighting off omicron? If you got the booster shot, are you protected? Or if you had COVID-19 and then were vaccinated?
The goal is to see how well antibodies from real people who have had COVID-19 or have been vaccinated against it can hold off omicron in petri dishes in the lab. Scientists expect that antibodies from people exposed to other variants won’t work as well against omicron because of its mutations, but they need to measure how much less well and whether it’s still enough to stop the virus.
To answer these questions, most researchers first make a version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can enter cells but not reproduce. A few specialized labs with extra levels of biosecurity use the actual virus. Scientists add antibodies from the blood of people vaccinated against or recovered from COVID-19 to the virus. They then mix this with human lung cells to see whether the antibodies can stop the virus from infecting the cells.
If antibodies people made against prior variants can’t stop omicron from infecting lung cells in the lab, then those antibodies probably won’t protect people out in the world either.
The very first early results are starting to come back, and it looks like antibodies against earlier variants are less successful at blocking omicron. Researchers took antibodies from six people who each had two doses of vaccine and from six other people who each had two doses of vaccine and had also recovered from an earlier COVID-19 infection. Antibodies from both groups of people were about 40 times worse at stopping omicron than original SARS-COV-2 strains, based on how much antibody was needed to prevent infection. But the people whose immune systems had seen the virus three times – that is, were doubly vaccinated and had also recovered from COVID-19 – had antibody levels that were high enough to still stop infection.
I’d expect people who have received booster vaccines will have similar or greater levels of immunity and will be at least moderately protected from omicron. But it will need to be tested. Pfizer has said their early results agree with this prediction, but the data is not yet publicly available. All of this work is not yet peer reviewed and still very preliminary.
Scientists will need to determine how a drop in “neutralization titer,” or how good antibodies are at blocking the virus in the lab, corresponds to a drop in “vaccine effectiveness” or how likely a vaccinated person is to get COVID-19 compared to an unvaccinated one. Scientists know that better antibodies correspond to more effective vaccines, but the precise numerical relationships need to be determined.
How contagious is omicron compared to delta?
The past pandemic year has shown that contagiousness, or transmissibility, has been the key factor in determining whether a coronavirus variant becomes dominant. Delta’s transmissibility has made it the current dominant variant because it simply outran others. But that situation may change with time.
The basic elements of the viral “life” cycle are getting into cells, making more virus, and getting out. Scientists can measure each of these stages in the lab and report what aspects of a variant make it more or less transmissible. In addition to binding to human cells better, some mutations enhance the packaging of new virus and the delivery of its genes once the virus gets into the cell.
While lab-based science can help people understand the biology behind just why a variant is more or less contagious, right now nature is doing a much bigger real-world experiment. Disease surveillance data from the U.K. and other countries where delta has been dominant suggest that omicron is gaining share and may eventually displace delta.
Exactly how this plays out may differ from one country to another, depending on factors like the number of vaccinated people and which variants were previously in circulation, but this news about how good omicron is at spreading is concerning.
Does omicron make people more or less sick?
This is again a question that will be answered much more quickly by the thousands of people infected with omicron than by work in the lab. It’s important to remember, though, that nature’s experiments are not as carefully controlled as lab experiments. Precise lab work will help explain why omicron might be different, but the first answers here will come from hospitals.
Lab-based scientists will be working with hospitals to analyze what makes some patients more or less sick once they contract omicron. Some early numbers suggest that the first omicron cases are mostly mild, but public health officials urge caution: Most cases of all COVID-19 variants are mild, and many of those infected so far with omicron are younger. Hospitalization counts tend to increase somewhat after the initial increase in cases. So this question will take time to answer.
How are lab data and public health data complementary?
Laboratories will provide the first results on immune protection against omicron, although this will be followed up with public health data that will likely confirm the lab results. Public health data will bring the first results on contagiousness and disease severity, which will then be explained by laboratory results.
Once the initial answers from public health data are in, laboratory results are still important to understand why these changes happened and to help predict what future variants will do. How do officials declare a variant of concern in the first place? It’s a combination of public health data and understanding from the lab.
What do we know already?
Variants of SARS-CoV-2 don’t change the laws of physics and biology. They cannot leap tall buildings in a single bound. Physical barriers like high-grade masks and good ventilation will still stop the virus. And, very likely, vaccines will continue to provide some amount of protection. The question is how much, and whether the world needs to change the current vaccines or just provide more of them.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has four kittens awaiting adoption this week.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
This male domestic shorthair kitten in cat room kennel No. 96a, ID No. LCAC-A-1871. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has an orange tabby coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 96a, ID No. LCAC-A-1871.
This male domestic shorthair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 96c, ID No. LCAC-A-1873. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has an orange tabby coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 96c, ID No. LCAC-A-1873.
This female domestic shorthair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 96d, ID No. LCAC-A-1874. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic shorthair kitten
This female domestic shorthair kitten has an orange tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 96d, ID No. LCAC-A-1874.
This female domestic shorthair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 101a, ID No. LCAC-A-1945. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic shorthair kitten
This female domestic shorthair kitten has a gray tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 101a, ID No. LCAC-A-1945.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The bass sculpture created by Diego Harris. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — An organization that’s working to raise the profile of Lake County as an arts destination is debuting a new series of sculptures in the city of Clearlake.
The Lake County Rural Arts Initiative, or LCRAI, is a small but big-thinking organization that is building a portfolio of public art work projects throughout Lake County.
In recent months, LCRAI has installed two sculptures of bass in Clearlake, with plans for another two to be placed in the coming year.
Martha Mincer, an LCRAI Board member, said one of the group’s main goals is to use the arts for economic development.
“We believe this county could be a dramatic arts designation,” she said.
Studies have shown that a focus on public art isn’t just good for the soul, it has a measurably positive impact on the communities where it’s offered.
The mural of a seaplane titled “Pan Am,” was painted by muralist Ben vanSteenburgh on Third Street in downtown Lakeport, California. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative. There is an understanding that outdoor art and making a commitment to a community “really raises even the community’s feeling about itself,” said Mincer, adding, “which is what we want to do.”
Mincer said that in the group’s three and a half years it has raised awareness in Clearlake and Lakeport of what can be accomplished with an arts destination.
The group also has a mandate to support art in schools. In 2020, they gave out grants to county teachers to cover art supplies. Mincer said fundraising is ongoing to continue that work.
She said they believe strongly that art nourishes a part of the brain that nothing else does, especially for children, citing a Harvard study about how art lights up the brain.
Mincer said putting arts in the school raises scores in every single subject. “I have a real passion for it.”
Mincer, who came to Lake County from the East Coast, said people are looking to retire in places that stay rural, a fact that positions Lake County to attract new residents.
If a community makes upgrades through art, Mincer suggested that people are OK with it otherwise remaining rough around the edges.
She also pointed to places like Taos, New Mexico, that have unique geographic and cultural character. Lake County, similarly, has its own character and natural beauty that lend themselves to art.
Mincer said Lake County’s community members need to celebrate who they are and art is a powerful way to do that.
“It’s been powerful since we were in caves,” Mincer said, noting that art influences how we think about ourselves.
“It’s very additive in terms of its ability in terms of shaping success in a community,” and has a unique ability to drive thinking in ways that are powerful and successful, she said.
Muralist Robert Minuzzo painted this mural of a water skier on the side of City Hall in Lakeport, California. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative. The mural trail
LCRAI already has carried out other noteworthy projects, supporting artwork that emphasizes what’s unique about Lake County — including Pomo history and culture, wildlife and Clear Lake, at the county’s heart and center.
One project that already has drawn significant notice is the Lakeport murals project, which is the focus of the group’s mural trail.
Mincer said the city came to LCRAI to ask about the murals, and wanted them to be historic and lake-related. LCRAI additionally wanted them to be “buzzworthy.”
LCRAI pitched the idea of starting a mural trail and the city agreed. So Mincer said the group reached out to local artists and muralists.
Mincer said her favorite mural is the 1949 airplane landing on the lake, painted on a building across from City Hall. Other highlights on the trail are a native Pomo woman on the wall of the Silveira Community Center, painted by Michael and Violet Divine, skiers by Robert Minuzzo and birds by muralist Gloria De La Cruz, whose work can be seen around Lake County.
LCRAI also got donors for murals on fire stations on Lakeport and Kelseyville to pay homage to the bravery of firefighters and how they put their lives in danger to protect us “from the ravages of a pretty formidable enemy,” Mincer said.
A mural of a bass by the Divines can be found at Redbud Park in Clearlake.
Mincer said there are more murals in the mix, some of which will include a focus on history. Hope Rising in Clearlake wants one for its building.
“We’re a little overwhelmed,” said Mincer.
However, that hasn’t kept LCRAI from continuing to move forward with more work.
The bass sculpture created by Judson Eden. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative. Bass statues placed in Clearlake
The group’s latest endeavor is the placement of bass statues in Clearlake.
Mincer said Supervisor Bruno Sabatier has been a real supporter of art in the county. He also helped create the bass statue project.
Mincer said he brought the idea to LCRAI, presenting them with the iconic image of a bass that they should start to put around the county after they are made artistic.
“I originally thought of the idea when I traveled through Wyoming and saw buffalo forms everywhere,” Sabatier said. “I’ve seen similar things in Sonoma County and Napa County with roosters and cows. So I thought, what is Lake County famous for, and I thought of our bass. I've never seen our bass really illustrated in our county, so I approached RAI and they took my idea and made it happen.”
Mincer said Sabatier has helped by reaching out to donors, including the cannabis community.
Sabatier said he approached cannabis businesses both in Clearlake and around the county to see if they were interested in donating to the project, and they donated funds directly to LCRAI, “and now we're finally seeing the results of those actions.”
Six cannabis companies donated to the project: Benmore Valley Project, Triple C Collective, Napa Valley Fume, Jed Morris, Lake Investments and Lakeside Herbal Solutions.
Mincer said the project has had a bit of lag time because of the pandemic.
Originally, the idea was to put the bass statutes around Lake County. However, the city of Clearlake wanted all of them, Mincer said.
She said it’s become part of an effort to take an area and make an immersive art destination theme as part of changing the narrative.
“They have a lot going for them,” she said of Clearlake, which also plans to work with LCRAI to extend the concept of Main Street art, noting the city has put a considerable amount of money toward it.
Mincer said they want to make something that’s dramatic and unique, adding that it will be surprising.
The project is drawing on Lake County’s deep and extraordinary amount of artistic talent, which is one of the reasons Mincer said LCRAI felt the project was doable.
Renowned wood sculptor Mark Colp — known for winning chain saw carving competitions — created three large wood fish based on the image designed by D.B. vanSteenburgh and carved out of redwood trees harvested from the Valley fire.
The artists chosen to decorate and enhance the wood sculptured images are Judson Eden and the Divines, with Diego Harris using the bass image to create a full metal sculpture.
Harris, of Upper Lake, is known for his unique sculptures — fantastical creatures, trees and shapes — that look as if they were lifted from a dreamscape.
Mincer said Harris, whose mother Sherry also is an accomplished local artist who works in mediums including basketry, is becoming more well known. His sculpture took several months for the creation process.
Diego Harris wanted to do his sculpture from scratch if he mimicked the image and Mincer said OK. His has been placed in Austin Park, while Eden’s is at Austin Beach.
Gloria Gloria De La Cruz’s mural titled “Wildlife” is located at Main and Third streets in downtown Lakeport, California. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative. “They’re glorious looking,” and people love them, said Mincer. “They look at them and find them to be magnificent, which they are.”
Then there are the Divines, whose previous work in Lake County includes the fish mural at Redbud Park and the mural of the Pomo women on the Silveira Community Center.
Violet Divine grew up in Southern California and has connections to the Burning Man festival, and did her graduate degree at UC Irvine. They bought a home in Lake County in 2016.
Divine said she’s hacked on the wooden base made by Colp quite a bit. She’s doing a stone mosaic as part of her creation, using small concrete appliqués and locally sourced obsidian for the kids, with the body of Brazilian quartz.
“It’s very tedious,” Divine said of the construction process.
But she is nothing if not determined.
When she first pitched the project to the Clearlake Marketing Committee, she had a locally sourced obsidian stone and serpentine to discuss her project with them.
At one point, the sharp obsidian sliced her finger and, despite bleeding, she continued with her presentation. Finally, City Clerk Melissa Swanson asked if she could get her a bandage.
Divine is working with her husband on another bass statue, which will be adorned with materials collected off the beach such as driftwood.
Their statues will be placed at Highlands Park and Redbud Park. Mincer said the Divines’ fish are set for installation in the spring.
Like Mincer and the LCRAI founders, Divine sees the chance for economic benefits to emerge from the project. She said he hopes to entice entrepreneurship to come into the area, and is working with a team of people to carry out that goal.
LCRAI also is acting as a strategic partner and helping the city write a Clean California grant that will focus on art and beautification, Mincer said.
Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the availability of $300 million in grants for the program, with cities, counties, transit agencies, tribal governments and other governmental entities able to submit proposals of up to $5 million to beautify their communities and address trash and debris.
Mincer said the project is expected to include installation of trash cans, creation of a mascot and the potential for more murals, with art development opportunities along Highway 53.
To support LCRAI in its efforts to improve art and life in Lake County, visit its website and reach out through the group’s contact page.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Muralist Ben vanSteenburgh created “Only The Brave,” painted on the side of the Lakeport Fire Protection District’s Fire Station 50 at 445 N. Main St. in Lakeport, California, to commemorate the efforts of firefighters to protect the community. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Container ships wait weeks in harbors to be unloaded and unstable supply chains struggle with broken links. During a season of gift giving, this can cause stress. Will presents ordered online arrive in time? Will beleaguered department stores have mostly empty shelves?
Turning our eyes to alternative local sources can alleviate these uncertainties.
Even in rural Lake County, shopping options abound, whether a family-owned storefront, farm, winery, craft fair or artist studio.
Farmers’ markets are another, perhaps surprising, resource. We currently have two in the county, and in addition to seasonal produce, both offer opportunities to find creative and unique gifts.
I spent last Saturday morning perusing stalls at the farmers’ market near Kelseyville, and I can be found most Friday evenings at the farmers’ market in Middletown. Both offer a variety of handcrafted items, from jewelry, birdhouses and works of art to soaps, candles, baskets and jams.
Local honey, baked goods and oils (both olive and walnut) are among the foodstuffs offered and make appealing gifts, especially because they’re handcrafted or harvested locally.
Cornelia Sieber-Davis is the market manager for the Lake County Farmers’ Finest market, and she tells me that this Saturday, Dec. 18, will be a special one themed for the holidays.
The Saturday morning market is now year-round and is back at the old Steele Wines facility on Thomas Lane at the corner of Highway 29 between Kelseyville and Lakeport.
The property has been purchased by Shannon Wines, and a major remodeling of the tasting room, dubbed The Mercantile, is now finished and also offers gifts.
The market is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is located at the winery’s side lot.
The DeJulius family, with a farm near Middletown, spearheaded the creation of Middletown’s Friday night farmers’ market, which opened in the spring of this year.
As a resident of Middletown, it has been a thrill to see the market thrive. It’s held on the massive lawn in front of the library-senior center complex on Highway 29.
I’ve so often reveled in the energy there, with kids running around, music, dinner options and the large number of vendors lining walkways under the oaks. With darker days upon us now, the time for the market has shifted an hour earlier, from 4 to 7 p.m.
This Friday, Dec. 17, is the last market of this season, but I look forward to its reopening next year.
What follows is a pictorial essay of the farmers’ market in Kelseyville to showcase the variety of gift items that were on offer there last Saturday. Some of the vendors are a constant presence, while others pop in on occasion.
The Middletown market offers equally creative options, and a few of the vendors appear at both markets.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown, California.
The pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice with bonfires on Dec. 21 inspired the early Christian celebrations of Christmas. Gpointstudio/ Image Source via Getty Images
Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way.
While Europeans participated in church services and religious ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Jesus for centuries, they did not commemorate it as we do today. Christmas trees and gift-giving on Dec. 24 in Germany did not spread to other European Christian cultures until the end of the 18th century and did not come to North America until the 1830s.
Charles Haswell, an engineer and chronicler of everyday life in New York City, wrote in his “Reminiscences of an Octoganarian” that in the 1830s German families living in Brooklyn dressed up Christmas trees with lights and ornaments. Haswell was so curious about this novel custom that he went to Brooklyn in a very stormy and wet night just to see these Christmas trees through the windows of private homes.
The first Christmas trees in Germany
Only in the late 1790s did the new custom of putting up a Christmas tree decorated with wax candles and ornaments and exchanging gifts emerge in Germany. This new holiday practice was completely outside and independent of Christian religious practices.
The idea of putting wax candles on an evergreen was inspired by the pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice with bonfires on Dec. 21. These bonfires on the darkest day of the year were intended to recall the sun and show her the way home. The lit Christmas tree was essentially a domesticated version of these bonfires.
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave the very first description of a decorated Christmas tree in a German household when he reported in 1799 about having seen such a tree in a private home in Ratzeburg in northwestern Germany. In 1816 German poet E.T.A. Hoffmann published his famous story “Nutcracker and Mouse King.” This story contains the very first literary record of a Christmas tree decorated with apples, sweets and lights.
From the onset, all family members, including children, were expected to participate in the gift-giving. Gifts were not brought by a mystical figure, but openly exchanged among family members – symbolizing the new middle-class culture of egalitarianism.
From German roots to American soil
American visitors to Germany in the first half of the 19th century realized the potential of this celebration for nation building. In 1835 Harvard professor George Ticknor was the first American to observe and participate in this type of Christmas celebration and to praise its usefulness for creating a national culture. That year, Ticknor and his 12-year-old daughter Anna joined the family of Count von Ungern-Sternberg in Dresden for a memorable Christmas celebration.
For both Ticknor and Brace, this holiday tradition provided the emotional glue that could bring families and members of a nation together. In 1843 Ticknor invited several prominent friends to join him in a Christmas celebration with a Christmas tree and gift-giving in his Boston home.
Ticknor’s holiday party was not the first Christmas celebration in the United States that featured a Christmas tree. German-American families had brought the custom with them and put up Christmas trees before. However, it was Ticknor’s social influence that secured the spread and social acceptance of the alien custom to put up a Christmas tree and to exchange gifts in American society.
Most Americans remained skeptical about this new custom. Some felt that they had to choose between older English customs such as hanging stockings for presents on the fireplace and the Christmas tree as proper space for the placing of gifts.
It was also hard to find the necessary ingredients for this German custom. Christmas tree farms had first to be created. And ornaments needed to be produced.
The most significant steps toward integrating Christmas into popular American culture came in the context of the American Civil War.
In the following years, Nast developed the image of Santa Claus into the jolly old man with a big belly and long white beard as we know it today. In 1866 Nast produced “Santa Claus and His Works,” an elaborate drawing of Santa Claus’ tasks, from making gifts to recording children’s behavior. This sketch also introduced the idea that Santa Claus traveled by a sledge drawn by reindeer.
Declaring Christmas a federal holiday and putting up the first Christmas tree in the White House marked the final steps in making Christmas an American holiday. On June 28, 1870, Congress passed the law that turned Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving Day into holidays for federal employees.
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And in December 1889 President Benjamin Harrison began the tradition of setting up a Christmas tree at the White House.
Christmas had finally become an American holiday tradition.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has eight dogs ready for their forever homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of German shepherd, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff and pit bull.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
This 1-year-old male German shepherd is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1892. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1892.
This 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever-pit bull mix is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1769. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Labrador-pit bull mix
This 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever-pit bull mix has a short chocolate-colored coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1769.
This 3-year-old female mastiff is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-1868. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female mastiff
This 3-year-old female mastiff has a short brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-1868.
This 1-year-old male husky is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-2190. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male husky
This 1-year-old male husky has a black and white coat with bright blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-2190.
“Snuffy” is a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever mix in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-2152. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Snuffy’
“Snuffy” is a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever mix.
He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-2152.
This 2-year-old male German shepherd is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1903. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male German shepherd
This 2-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1903.
This 2-year-old male shepherd mix is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-1743. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male shepherd mix
This 2-year-old male shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-1743.
This female German shepherd is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-2169. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female German shepherd
This female German shepherd has a black coat.
She is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-2169.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
In this new citizen science project, participants will help identify bursts of plasma coming off the Sun, called solar jets, in thousands of images captured over the last 11 years by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory. Image credit: NASA.
If you ever wanted to be an astronomer, now is your chance. A new citizen science project, led by researchers at the University of Minnesota with support from NASA, allows volunteers to play an important role in learning more about the Sun by using their personal computers.
Participants will help identify bursts of plasma coming off the Sun, called solar jets, in thousands of images captured over the last 11 years by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory.
The project, called Solar Jet Hunter, is the newest citizen science project under the Zooniverse platform originated at the University of Minnesota. Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular people-powered online research platform with more than two million volunteers from around the world. These volunteers act as armchair scientists and archivists helping academic research teams with their projects from the comfort of their own homes.
In this project, citizen scientists will detect solar jets by looking at short movies made from a sequence of still images. They decide if a solar jet is visible in any of the movies and provide information about the jets by annotating the images where solar jets are found.
By building a database of solar jets, the volunteers help narrow down the vast amount of data about the Sun to the most important information for further review by solar researchers.
Solar Jet Hunter is the newest citizen science project under the Zooniverse platform. In this project, citizen scientists will detect solar jets by looking at short movies made from a sequence of still images. They decide if a solar jet is visible in any of the movies and provide information about the jets by annotating the images where solar jets are found. Credit: Solar Jet Hunter, Zooniverse
“These solar jets are sort of like a million hydrogen bombs going off on the star that’s actually not that far away from us, so it is important that we try to understand more about how that happens,” said Lindsay Glesener, a University of Minnesota associate professor of physics and astronomy. “But with our small research team, it would probably take a decade or more to look through all these images ourselves so we’re asking for help.”
The team decided that the project would be perfect for the Zooniverse citizen science platform.
“Solar jets are very difficult to identify in any sort of automatic way,” said Sophie Musset, a research fellow at the European Space Agency and former University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher who is leading the Solar Jet Hunter project. “You can’t just write a piece of code that will tell the computer to search and find all of the solar jets, but it's very easy to see with human eyes.”
Musset and Glesener said the information they get from the citizen scientists will not only be used to study the Sun but will also help to write a computer algorithm that could speed future identification of solar jets by combining computer help with human expertise.
Glesener also said that the University of Minnesota was the perfect place for solar research and citizen science to come together.
“We have both the expertise in studying solar jets and the Zooniverse team here at the University of Minnesota,” Glesener said. “You can’t just throw some random images up on a website and expect that you're going to get the information from the citizen scientists that you need. It takes people who really know how to make it work.”
Lucy Fortson, a fellow University of Minnesota physics and astronomy professor and one of the founders of the Zooniverse platform, is one of those experts.
“While Zooniverse has been involved in all kinds of citizens projects from the humanities to biology, this project brings us back to our astrophysics roots,” Fortson said. “Our partnership with NASA and the Adler Planetarium has expanded our capacity to take on important projects like this one and increased the acceptance of citizen science as a valid research methodology within the scientific community. This is real proof that citizen science has come of age as a research tool.”
In addition to Musset, Glesener, and Fortson, the Solar Jet Hunter international research team includes co-investigators Gregory Fleishman, a professor in the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; and Navdeep Panesar, a research scientist at Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory and Bay Area Environmental Research Institute.
Other members of the team include Erik Ostlund, a Zooniverse web developer at the University of Minnesota; Suhail Alnahari, a data scientist in the University of Minnesota’s School of Physics and Astronomy; University of Minnesota graduate students Yixian Zhang and Charlie Kapsiak; Mariana Jeunon, graduate student at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; and Paloma Jol, a master student at Leiden University in The Netherlands.
The Solar Jet Hunter citizen science project is funded by NASA under the Heliophysics Guest Investigators program, and has supported students under a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER grant.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A semi rollover on Saturday morning resulted in a fatality and caused a milk and diesel spill near a creek.
The California Highway Patrol first received reports of the crash shortly after 6:30 a.m. Saturday on Highway 20 about four miles west of Walker Ridge Road, east of Clearlake Oaks.
The semi tank truck had gone over the side of the highway and initially was not visible from the roadway, the CHP reported.
When authorities accessed the truck, they confirmed a fatality, shortly before 7:30 a.m., according to reports from the scene.
CHP separately issued a notification just before 8 a.m. confirming a fatality, and reporting that Highway 20 west of Walker Ridge Road was open but impacted by emergency traffic as work at the crash site continued. The agency asked drivers at that time to use caution or take an alternate route of travel.
The early scene reports stated that the tanker appeared to be carrying a load of milk and that the crash resulted in milk going into Grizzly Creek.
Reports also estimated that up to 100 gallons of diesel fuel could have been spilled had the truck’s fuel tanks been full.
Fish and Game and the Office of Emergency Services were requested due to the hazmat concerns, according to CHP reports.
The recovery efforts required heavy equipment, with two wreckers responding but other assistance needed to remove the fuel.
The CHP also reported challenges with recovery due to the crash being on a blind curve on the highway.
The work to remove the semi continued into the afternoon and evening, the CHP said.
Radio reports stated that the hazmat team cleared the scene at 5 p.m.
At 6:40 p.m., the CHP reported that all lanes of the highway were open and the incident had been cleared.
Additional information will be published as it becomes available.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service said a winter storm will bring rain and mountain snow this weekend, with wet weather expected to impact the region through the middle of next week.
The agency’s Eureka office said that, as the cold front approaches, winds are expected to increase on Saturday, diminishing in the wake of the cold front on Saturday night.
In Lake County, rain is expected to start on Saturday evening, with less than a tenth of an inch during the day but up to three quarters of an inch on Saturday night.
There is the possibility of another inch of rain on Sunday.
On Monday, the forecast calls for as much as an inch and a half, the National Weather Services said.
The forecast expects more rain from Tuesday through Thursday, with specific amounts not predicted.
Temperatures over the coming week will hover in the high 40s during the day and the low 40s at night until Monday, when they will drop into the 30s and continue in that range through late in the week.
There also will be light winds in the evenings until Monday, when southwest winds of up to 17 miles per hour and gusts of up to 23 miles per hour, are forecast.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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