Category Archives: Humboldt

Humboldt County California, SoHum, southern Humboldt County California, happenings in Humboldt

Getting anywhere from here…

Well in case you don’t know, southern Humboldt and most of northern California were hit with a series of very heavy rain and wind storms starting mid-December. After a week of rain we were all like, “Wow the rivers and creeks are really running high, it’s so cool to see water finally.”

A week later, there was no way to get here or out of here..every main-major road was blocked by some kind of slide, slip-out or flood. The Confusion Hill slide is still moving and road closures south on 101 are constant. The bluffs between Garberville and Redway keep dropping muck and rocks on the road there so that road is also closed half the time… still 3 weeks later.

That doesn’t even cover the roads we all live on, many of them are still sliding, including the one we live on. It has a major slide behind us, and a slide and a slip-out between us and the county paved road. So far it has remained passable, although very narrow with a 300 foot drop to the creek on the slip-out side. We keep the truck on the county road side and my 4 Runner here at the house. That way if it totally goes, at least we can shuttle supplies in and out.

Others have had it far worse, several homes have been pushed off their foundations. Some of the roads are so bad that people are shuttling 2 or 3 times and sometimes walking across long stretches of slides. It is hard hauling food, laundry and propane tanks that way.

In the midst of the major storm Redway and surrounding area had no grid power for days, some places for a week. Garberville lost its water pump so the town was asked to use sparingly. You never knew just when or if the roads leading in or out town would go… so keeping gas and food supplies up is now my mind set, don’t let anything get low, go into town only when it isn’t raining, as the ground is so far beyond saturated that any rain now is run off and damaging already unstable hillsides.

One very bright light in all this was our beloved Estelle Fennell, at KMUD who kept us updated hourly for days. You can also check out some of the weather related pictures at the MUD, just go to their picture gallery.

As for us, we had wood and were warm, we had water, we had off the grid solar power (only had to generator charge the batteries 4x so far this winter!), we only had a couple of leaks in our storage shed. We were lucky. We are still shuttling our cars and it’s a hassle, but hopefully our road will get shored up good enough to make it through the winter, with a major fix when the rains have stopped (I hope).

More to come later, as I play catch up with the blog, and start considering new blogging software so I can turn comments back on and not be spammed to death.

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44 Days ’till Reggae!

This may be the LAST Reggae on the River in it’s current location on the Eel River in Piercy. The producers are looking for a new home for it, and one way or the other the show will continue. ROTR was started to rebuild the community center now know as Mateel Community Center. It offered a venue where all the local non-prophets, like the schools, fire departments, and health organizations, and local artists had a place to make money while making the operating costs for the Mateel. If this event is moved away from the area, it will be beyond the reach of most of these non-prophets to take part.

We will see what happens.

This year’s line-up pleases me.. both Prezident Brown and Michael Franti are going to be there!

Along with some other favorites, but to have 2 of my most favorite artists in the same place is awesome.

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Survived Reggae .. again!

Fridays line up of music was quite good…very roots for the most part.
I did come home (no camping on site for me!) early so I would have the energy to do 2 more full days and nights.

Saturday, with a few exceptions, the music was NOT roots, and made me want to leave several times.

Sunday was a mix, but Michael Franti and Spearhead made it all worth while, I need to really check out some of his music thoroughly. [did that.. he shares my player with Bruce!]
And there is a good write up with pictures at the
North Coast Journal by Bob Doran and more pictures and info at Mateel.

Especially fun was meeting and hanging with Joellen and her tribe of friends. I wish I could remember every ones names!! I hope those of you who got my email addy will keep in touch.

Pictures coming..sometime soon!

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Reggae (ROTR) is upon us again!

Last year I talked about 2003 Reggae on the River after the fact.

It seems like every year it gets longer, this year the ‘real’ music starts at Noon on Friday, instead of 4pm. So? That means vendors, especially food vendors should be up and running by Noon Friday….BUT.. from Friday morn at 6am-till Noon is the ‘Crunch” time when all the ticket holders who want to camp on the river bar flood the gates to get a good spot.

Building a city in the middle of no where is a lot of work for sure. This event pays a lot of non-prophets yearly budget to operate.

Town of Garberville mostly, and Redway, are flooded with people today and tomorrow, it’s a zoo out there. When 15000 people descend upon our little world! It’s sort of fun to watch, but I don’t like being out there as much as I used too.

Reggae is attracting a different crowd than in the early years (this is year 21). Of course there still are plenty of hippies, but also these other beings college kids, because they have the money, who don’t really practice peace-love-irie vibes…but come to drink a lot of beer and smoke a lot and be obnoxious. Kind of ruins it to have a bunch of them near you under the parachute, or any where really. And they smoke cigarettes more than ever before.

Ok, enough bitching, I will go, on Friday this time for some good roots music, and probably miss most of Saturday with its putrid hip hop, and then mellow with the sunday roots … more later …maybe better pictures this year too!

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Citizen of the Year – Day to Day

Estelle Fennell – Citizen of the Year

Last fall we had fires. We also had our intrepid reporter and news manager at KMUD, Estelle Fennel, who 24/7 kept us informed, went into the fire zone, and won great respect for her efforts from CDF and other locals.

Estelle Fennel has been named Citizen of the Year, by a strong vote. There will be a party in her honer on Valentines Day at the Mateel Community Center in Redway.

I am really glad to see this honor go to her. She has been the lifeline through many El Nino storms, keeps a level head and perspective to an often diverse population at odds with each other. She is fair, honest and we, are very lucky to have her.

Day to Day

In other news, Russel got a chest cold on top of what he was already dealing with. He has been home in bed most of the time since last Thursday. Poor baby,
this is so not him.

I have no Holiday Spirit.

We are going to Eureka, if he can make it, tomorrow to buy tires for the Toyota, as they are bald and we need to drive about 200 miles over hill and dale to Sacramento on Saturday to catch our flight to Michigan on Sunday.

Michigan where it was 10 degrees and snowing the last time I looked. brrrr

Give me wet windy 50’s in northern California any time.

I miss working on sites. My host (Hosting Matters) just added some new software within CPanel that is gonna be great to start playing with. I need to redo my www.creationdreams.net site. [Still needs to be done 3/15/2010 !]
And I am still waiting on content for the client site i started almost 2 months ago.
When I return from Michigan, I hope to start in earnest these web projects.

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KMUD News

Here’s a link to a great story about KMUD’s better than wonderful news director and reporter: Estelle Fennel

Doing a little local (So Hum) surfing around I found a great article on Joellen, so I am gonna post that here.

Local Girl Makes Good News

by Pat Bernstein

That bright, exuberant new voice on the KMUD News belongs to Joellen Clark-Peterson, journalism student and enthusiastic KMUD fan. She came to the station after meeting Diana Hahn at College of the Redwoods and learning that Estelle Fennell needed a reporter for the northern Humboldt area. For Joellen it was a wildly welcome opportunity.

Joellen Clark-Peterson and Estelle Fennell

Joellen Clark-Peterson and Estelle Fennell in the studio at news time.

Born and raised in Eureka, Joellen graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1998 with degrees in Literature and Politics. After two more years of study at College of the Redwoods she did a stint in the Peace Corps. From 1999 and 2001 she was in Romania teaching English in a public school. In that position she became aware of the vast and profound influence of American media on Romanian culture and point of view. It was immediately apparent to her that her treasured experience of listening to KMUD was significant in more ways than she had at first imagined. Community radio, listener supported radio, a voice for a specific community of interests and commonly held values, stood out starkly against the monoculture product, the corporate news and entertainment America exports to the rest of the world.

Since 9/11 the importance of responsible reporting has become even more critical to her and the craft of journalism has taken on a new luster. What better offer could she possible receive than that of working with Estelle Fennell, a skilled, experienced, masterful reporter and an excellent teacher in the bargain?
“It is a huge honor to be her apprentice. I love saying I am her apprentice.” There is a lot to learn about professional journalism, professional ethics, the diplomacy of interviewing, the technical aspects of working with broadcasting equipment and of simply being on the air. There is honing one’s intuition for the story. There is simple talent and hard work. Estelle communicated at the very start the morality that goes with assuming the awesome power of being the one to say “This is the news.”

Now, on Mondays Joellen goes to the news room and checks the press releases that accumulate in the fax box. If there is anything worthwhile there, she makes phone calls to track down more information. She records telephone interviews, writes her copy, puts it all together and at 6 PM takes a deep breath and goes on the air.

In The Political Economy of Growth Paul Baran made a distinction between “intellect workers” who use their minds to earn a living and “intellectuals.” An “intellectual” he said, is someone who knows their place in history. To cover the mundane bread and butter issues of living, Joellen works at Mazzotti’s in Old Town Eureka. Drop in for a fine Italian dinner and your dishes may be bussed by a young woman with a quick, warm smile. She is Joellen Clark-Peterson: intellectual, apprentice newswoman and a very lucky catch for KMUD.

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