 THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN -
An Exclusive ongoing Plymouth School Garden series
By Michael & Little Amber Spinetta
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#31 How to Build
a Better Library
Once again, I did not want to read the rules of Arthur
Shapiro’s ‘beer-for-a-butterfly’ contest. I know now that the
contest does not apply to my county – nor to my butterfly. The blog
post "Pop Goes the Pieris" by Kathy Garvey on
http://ucanr.org states it’s all
over anyway.
The good professor captures a cabbage white
specimen and wins again. He must wash his car with Gatorade and drive
around attracting the flittering things. And here I sit stupidly in
the middle of my own butterfly garden with a Satyr Anglewing
mocking me, landing in my friend’s hair, teasing my cat, tasting my
calendulas. So you don’t end up like me, please visit:
http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/butterfly/Pieris/rapae and read,
read, read.
UCCE & Our School
Readers have asked how the Master
Gardeners are involved with Plymouth Elementary School. Teacher
Toni Linde asked Chris Taylor to plant a butterfly garden in 2004,
and students kept records of plant growth and cycles. The garden
has since flourished, diminished, and reached a happy medium.
Students are more aware of their environment: one in particular
demanded better food in the cafeteria, and now there is breakfast
program with a salad bar coming soon. Thanks, Brook Velasquez.
Plants that were bad for the school have been
taken out – like the Cyprus that would have broken up the school’s
foundation, and the impossible-to-maintain junipers in which I
found a Pepsi can from the 1960’s. Two test plots of UC Davis’
"Arboretum All-Stars" are thriving on and off campus.
When the kids helped to prune the plants
yesterday, we left the cuttings in the beds so parents and teachers
can take them home to hold back an eroding slope, fill in a bereft
yard, or simply make a spouse happy with beautiful roses.
Flowers & Paintings
The "Bulbs for Books" program
succeeded. The 1100+ bulbs are in the ground in front of the school
and will hopefully give yellow blooms on March 2nd, 'Read Across
America Day'. Why then? That’s Dr. Seuss’ birthday (and the release
date of the Lorax movie, too)!
Right now, I’m sketching out about 20 canvasses
large and small with the Cat in the Hat and balloon themes
in them. Why balloons? Yellow balloons with tags for pen pals were
the rewards for my mom’s reading program. Why paintings? Be-cause
the students are good at it, as evidenced in this month’s photo.
And yes, the paintings will not at all draw from my mom’s library
fund mentioned below. Please read more online at
www.goldcountrytimes.com/plymouth_main.htm and help out
if you can.
Laura Spinetta Library
Plymouth Elementary School will
double the size of its library this winter, and the Laura Spinetta
Library Fund has been established to fund this project. Supporters
will raise $25,000 to expand the school’s library, and Charles
Spinetta initiated the fundraising with a $7,500 donation. "We ask
the community to help with this project because improving the
school library is important for our children", said Mr. Spinetta.
"Several people will make significant donations, and everybody
agrees that enriching the library is a wonderful tribute to my wife
as well as a great asset for our students and their teachers."
The library will be named after Laura Spinetta,
who volunteered as a librarian at Plymouth Elementary School for
many years. She organized the library, recruited a volunteer staff,
and made the library a comfortable place for students. Laura’s work
encouraged teachers and students alike, and she taught the
fundamentals of using a library for research and enjoyment to
countless children. She also helped establish reading programs at
Plymouth Elementary School and appreciated support from many local
businesses and neighbors who donated time, money, and supplies
whenever the library needed help.
Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti, assistant
superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Amador County
School District, explained the specifics of the library’s project.
"We are going to double the square foot-age of the school’s library
and purchase a wide assortment of new books as well as shelving and
supplies. Our students will discover a welcoming room with an
abundance of books!"
She explained that the theme of the Laura
Spinetta Library would be inspired by Dr. Seuss’ "The Cat in the
Hat". The Laura Spinetta Library Fund has been established with the
Amador Community Foundation. Donations should be made payable to
Amador Community Foundation with Laura Spinetta Library Fund noted
on the check. Please mail your donations to P.O. Box 1154, Jackson
CA 95642. You may also donate at
www.amadorcommunityfoundation.org/local-charities
**************
T he butterfly, a
cabbage-white, (His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight.
~Robert Graves, "Flying Crooked"
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#30 The
Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic Parish
My daughter Amber and I take out Christmas decorations after
Thanksgiving, and put them away after Epiphany – out of respect to
the local Serbian community’s traditions. But we leave the icicle
lights up all year in case Amber needs a special day. That’s just
an aside to a greater thing happening in Amador County...
Our New Parish
 The last evening in November saw an
important celebration at the (formerly named) Amador Catholic
Center in Martell. Bishop Jaime Soto presided over a liturgy that
blended our three Parishes into one in name, community, and
location. The former Parishes of The Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Immaculate Conception, and Saint Patrick are now the Saint
Katharine Drexel Catholic Parish with Father Lawrence Beck as
pastor.
Photo courtesy: A rainbow arcs behind a stone cross atop
a mausoleum on Good Friday in 2009 in the Plymouth Catholic
cemetery.
Saint Katharine Drexel
What a wonderful woman to identify with our
local Catholic family. The banker’s family she was born into breaks
all current stereotypes of that industry. Born in 1858, just six
months after one of the last horrific events of Bleeding Kansas
called the Marais des Cygnes Massacre, St. Katharine could easily
have been physically and financially sheltered from the violence
and resultant poverty of the on-coming Civil War.
However, for example, her family chose to
regularly support and feed the poor in their own home, and she thus
learned what was right and wrong at an early age. From the time in
her youth when she secretly used her clothing stipend to buy a
statue of the Blessed Virgin for a church, through the legacy of 96
years of a well spent life, she and her two sisters gave what is
valued today in the hundreds of millions to schools, missions, and
other community centers through St. Katharine’s belief in the Holy
Eucharist.
The Blessed Sacrament
During the late 1880’s, St. Katharine and
her two sisters traveled through the miasmatic situations of the
peoples most affected in the post Civil War era. At the Pope’s
suggestion, St. Katharine entered the Religious life in 1891 and
founded a new group based on combating racism through education and
hard work. To quote the website: "As Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament, we believe God calls us to be a sign in the world of the
power of the Eucharistic Christ to effect unity and community among
all peoples.
Guided by the spirit of Katharine Drexel, we are
called to share the Gospel message with the poor, especially among
the Black and Native American peoples and to challenge the deeply
rooted injustice in the world today." Personally, it seems to me
this is a pure, active, daily form of what Thanksgiving in America
should be. St. Katharine survived with her vow of a poverty of
spirit, while her family’s wealth was used to bring disparate
groups around our nation together.
The Sacramento Diocese
Some in our Parish say that St. Katharine’s
name is appropriately associated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Sacramento. Sacramento’s name means "Sacrament" or "Lord's Supper."
The first Catholic mass in California was held in 1850 in a house
on 5th and L St. in Sacramento. In 1852, the first Catholic priest
was recorded traveling through our local missions, leading to the
subsequent founding of the St. Bridget church in 1854 – the same
year Amador County was created.
The Parish Center
The Parish Center in Martell symbolizes the
unity of Amador’s long standing Italian, Irish, Californios and
other cultures’ Catholic community. Historically, there were active
churches in our now small cities – but remember – even Drytown used
to have tens of thousands of people set up in tents, however many
of those going to St. Stephen's, because it was impossible to
travel to a central point every Sunday. In modern big cities,
collecting Parishes together would seem a thing of progress, but in
our ‘small town of a county’ we are so connected to our old
churches and Parish boundaries, this is more of a marriage of the
Parishes.
For example, living on the "far end of the
county", I know many people in Jackson who have never seen
Shenandoah Valley. Now, maybe the new norm will be meeting new
friends around the county and ridesharing with neighbors. It may
not bring everyone to extremities, but bring all to the middle. The
building itself is coalescing into the beauty of a church. The
spirituality of the newly consecrated grounds will come about
through artwork and architecture, like the Crucifixion mural by
Leona Garibaldi in Plymouth and the Pinotti Steps in Sutter Creek.
The parishioners’ spirit will show externally
first with the display of the Cross on rock facing. The building
currently has a small chapel inside, where Mass is currently
celebrated on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 AM. My daughter and I
eagerly await going to Mass there on Sundays.
Online
Visit
www.amadorcatholics.org
for updates;
www.kzub.com/stdrexel for a well-produced video;
www.katharinedrexel.org
for more information. Please contribute to: Saint Katharine Drexel
Catholic Parish, 11361 Prospect Drive, Jackson, CA 95642, (209)
223-2970, M-F, 9 AM - 4:30 PM.
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#29 Learning from History
 Amber’s ‘Baba’ – my Mom – passed
away last month. My brother Jim ‘volunteered me’ to work at my old
school and Mom told me to write this column (formerly titled
Plymouth Elementary School Gardens) as a way to have a positive
hobby with Amber. If you knew her and want to learn more, you can
find two pages online. One is written by my brother Tony and the
other is by Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee. Both celebrate
the dedication she had to children and to the land.
Photo courtesy Mike Spinetta
Mom the Librarian
She volunteered as the librarian and K/1
music teacher at the elementary school for over two decades. The
sound of kids stomping up the metal stairs leading up to that
drab-colored, single-wide full of books is one of a dozen lingering
memories there.
Another is the pictographic sticker system she
applied to the book spines that showed if they were a romance (a
heart) sci-fi (a rocket ship) or whatever other genre. Poring over
the encyclopedias (NOT Google), reshelving and repairing books,
reading newly delivered periodicals like Cricket, Highlights, and
World. The Dewey Decimal System, specifically 741.5 for comics, and
resultantly labeling my Scholastic order books FIC BLU for
Superfudge, FIC ALEX for The Black Cauldron, and so on, and so
forth.
Reading Programs
Mom was well known to encourage communal
education. She created a reading program in 1982 in which students
had to read a certain number of books, depending on grade level, to
receive one balloon. (The photo above is from the year-book
showing her in November of that year with an enthusiastic student.)
Each balloon carried a tag so pen pals might
find the student's name with the school’s address and write back.
Students participated to such a degree that the principal, Rick
Carder, looked lost in the thousands of balloons hovering in the
school cafeteria. And yes, multiple dozens of pen pals were made
from the experience, some across state lines.
About six months ago, my brother Jim came up
with "Bulbs for Books" that he’s going to use for the seventh and
eighth graders in Ione. I kind of stole the idea, and with a
thousand daffodil bulbs from Amador Flower Farm, we’ve implemented
it here in Plymouth. The after school reading clinic kids and the
extended learning kids, about 60 in total, are participating. Once
the goal of a thousand is reached, the bulbs will be planted by the
kids on the Amador County Fair-grounds and on campus. Mom thought
this was a pretty cool idea. I have no idea how she did things with
the entire school, but there was a lot less of a time restraint in
the school day back then.
The cool thing is that the daff's should be
blooming come 'Read Across America Day' – March 2, and 'National
Grammar Day' – March 4. Surely the kids will remember exactly where
they plant their bulbs and maybe read a few more books now and
then. My mom’s past volunteer efforts will be honored at one of the
planting sites at the school, and I’d like to thank the teachers
there very much for that. Another point of recollection is that my
mom made it mandatory for my eighth grade and senior class write
thesis and research projects. If the Class of ‘92 didn’t have the
highest cumulative grade point average by the time we graduated, it
sure felt like it.
Mimeographed Music
The smell of that old blue ink paper pushing
machine in the office is tattooed in my nose. Sooo many sheets of
lyrics for kids to put in order and so many songs learned through
osmosis in classrooms and on the piano bench at home. All that back
then and watching Mom and Amber play and sing the same songs,
especially Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf... and all our
Christmas music means more because of all the programs she played
for at the school... it’s all an endless loop of good times.
Cookies in the Vineyard
Always, always, always giant bags of
granola side by side with cookies ready for us to eat in the garage
freezer when we were working in the fields. Biscotti, oatmeal
raisin, chocolate chip, M & M, Hershey Kiss, sugar cookies, and
most of all, peanut butter cookies. I have the last two
fork-pressed peanut butter cookies (Amber ate the third one when
she saw the bag in my truck) and I’m going to keep them in my
freezer like all good Italian kids do with their relatives’ best
recipes. Sometimes those cookies would appear in our lockers at
school along with Whoppers and fries, too. The best thing, though,
was the smell of sweet rolls for Easter, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas. Cups of drizzled sugar all over them, yum! Candied walnuts
from the trees of our ranch – all these things made sure we weren’t
cold in the winter. And no matter what happens, I don’t think we
ever will be cold.
Support Local Schools
Donations are tax deductible to the
fullest extent allowed by law. Write checks to "Amador Community
Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth Elementary
Improvement Fund" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA
95642. 257-7800 to donate materials or time.
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#28 UCCE
Central Sierra Four-County Partnership
 This month's article is mostly dedicated to
informing you about the University of California Cooperative
Extension Central Sierra multi-county partnership serving Amador,
Calaveras, Tuolumne and El Dorado counties. Here are Q&A quoted
(and modified to fit this format) from a flier sent out recently.
Photo by Michael Spinetta, A Swallowtail ready to alight
upon a "Pink Delight" buddleia davidii (butterfly bush) planted at
Spinetta Family Vineyards.
What’s New, CE?
The CE is funded cooperatively through the
UC, and federal, state, and county government. This will continue,
but instead of keeping the funds separate at the county level,
multiple counties will pool resources, capturing efficiencies in
administration and putting more resources into program delivery.
There will still be a CE office in each county
with part time program staff serving the public. The El Dorado
County office will serve as a central administrative hub and will
be open full time. Each CE advisor will have a more defined area of
specialization, allowing all advisors to better utilize their
strengths. New advisors covering other subjects will be made
available to you.
The general public will be able to draw upon an
expanded pool of expertise regardless of county boundary. In fact,
more resources could be available as larger populations and acreage
may attract more or greater grant funds. Strong agricultural
companies create new jobs. The re-search grants that UCCE brings
into the county create job opportunities and an entrée for young
scholars into the business world.
The community will continue to have access to
educational programs and expertise in nutrition, healthy living,
youth development, agriculture, home gardening, animal husbandry,
forestry, and natural resources. Therefore, the Master Gardener,
Master Food Preserver, and 4-H Youth Development volunteers will
continue to serve at the county level. 4-H Community Clubs will
maintain their local presence. Youth in 4-H, along with their
parents, donate hundreds of hours to creative local community
service.
We certify over 300 adults state-wide to work
with youth, using the latest research on youth development
practices to instill qualities our young people need to succeed.
For example, the 4-H Program reaches out to military kids, offering
them fun experiences while cultivating their coping skills.
Cooperative Extension’s multidisciplinary
approach pro-vides leadership and innovation through applied
research, education and service in addressing California’s decline
in youth science achievement. The 4-H SET Initiative provides
innovative out-of-school models, curricula, deliveries, and
professional development for effectively engaging youth in
self-directed learning and discovery.
What More, CE?
CE collaborates with many UC researchers to
help solve the current environmental, agricultural or quality of
life issues affecting residents of Amador, El Dorado, and Tuolumne
Counties. Techniques developed by the farm advisor keep tons of
soil in place, preventing erosion and saving valuable topsoil. Farm
advisors also teach farm and land owners ways to improve efficiency
and to use less water.
UCCE was instrumental in the creation of the
Tuolumne County Resource Conservation District – now in its 6th
year of operation. Cooperative Extension is the neutral party
bringing together entities who need to work together to find
workable solutions to vexing issues. Locally UCCE facilitated
changes in agricultural zoning in Calaveras to allow hundreds of
agriculturally related business opportunities. UCCE worked with
residents affected by the Angora fire to develop voluntary
guidelines for replanting in the burn area and coordinated with
other agencies to provide vouchers to residents to purchase plants
at local nurseries. The UCCE diagnostic lab is often the first
point of detection for new plant diseases and in-sects that could
harm California crops. UCCE farm advisors inform farmers about the
most effective ways to treat pests. Using scientifically tested
treatments can save thousands of dollars.
UCCE worked with local agencies to create the
Calaveras Garden-to-Family program that provides excess fresh
produce from local farmers and gardeners to a local food bank.
Trained Master Gardeners provide practical scientific gardening
information, answering help lines, staffing information booths,
creating demonstration gardens, and presenting workshops. They
provide hundreds of volunteer hours each year. Innovative
practices can provide targeted local solutions.
Support Local Schools
Plymouth Elementary School's programs
and classes like First Five Bridge, Special Ed, Extend-ed Learning,
Kindergarten (and more) have art and ag projects completed and
underway. BTW, Kudos to Karson, Jessie, and Charlie at ELP for
laying out the red and white (school colors) checkered pavers for
the container garden. Wait ‘til you read here in upcoming months
about the sundial made from a potter’s wheel, Rotary pouring wine
to raise school funds at the Farmer’s Market, and more...
Donations are tax
deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Write checks to
"Amador Community Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth
Elementary Improvement Fund" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154,
Jackson, CA 95642. Call the school at (209) 257-7800 to donate
materials or time.
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#27 Now, Now my Good
Mantis is no Time for Making Enemies
 Apologies to Voltaire for the title
of this month’s column. But I’ve learned from his words. Why make
an enemy of the mantises that eat the caterpillars in my butterfly
gardens? I shall neither make their life comfortable nor call a
pied piper to take them away, but enough already.
Photo by Michael Spinetta A monarch butterfly vigorously
drinks from a thistle in the "Fun and Yummy Chenin Blanc" plot at
the Spinetta Family Vineyards in Shenandoah Valley.
Mantis is Annoying!
Why is the mantis circle of life in
my yard centered on my daughter’s little patio table? The mantis
that jumped into her breakfast cereal – hard enough to splash us
with milk – was leaping from its regular station near the "spider
web bed". That bed is in full sun, and I regularly see up to three
mantises at once stealing wayward bugs from their spider captors.
Sometimes though, the food chain is reversed. Now, I have seen
mantises in Spinetta Family Vineyards attack and be attacked by
ants all the time. In the last month, I have watched ants carry two
mantis corpses to that kiddie table and chow down. Really, I don’t
know why. I don’t want to know why. I want them to stop and go
away, but with what I’ve seen in nature, that’s not going to
happen.
Mantis or Humantis?
Every year there is an enormous hatch
of mantises at the hilltop plantings of our Chenin Blanc / Barbera
vines. This year, the hatch was delayed past the typical early
summer time. The big hatch happened in early August, and I know
that because when I find mantises all over me on a daily basis,
it’s kind of like being on another planet there. From miniscule
1/8" long babies to 3"+ adults, the pests out there stand no
chance. Mantises will stay on me when I am driving the tractor. And
from that vantage, I can see one mantis egg sac per post in the
vineyard – at least. Amazing.
Oh yes, one more link in the food chain is felis
domesticus. My cat cornered a mantis and was punching and teasing
it enough to get the mantis to scream. It put chills down my spine,
so I left the two alone. Both walked away fine. A week later
though, another mantis was the aggressor to me, flying through the
back yard to bite a bit of flesh out of my hand. That mantis
survived, too.
So, morally, I believe my cat and I are
justified letting these space aliens for insects survive. And the
balance of our peace counters the army of ants attacking them. Just
leave my butterflies alone (ironically, that one goes out to my
cat, too.)
Mantises on Film
I took a video about all this, too. You can also see the
Monarch that was dive bombing me while I was on my tractor. I think
he liked the orange paint on the Kubota. Check it out:
http://youtu.be/45BZo5XfvF0
Pest Problems?
 Not enough mantises in your yard? UC
IPM Pest Management Guidelines and more information about managing
pests, including University of California's official guidelines for
monitoring pests and using pesticides and non-pesticide
alternatives for managing insect, mite, nematode, weed, and disease
pests. There’s also a great weed key.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/crops-agriculture.html Click
"Grape".
www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/selectnewpest.grapes.html Oh! "Black
Widows":
www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r302302311.html You can also see
when the information was last reviewed.
Photo: Courtesy Mike Spinetta, A praying mantis is rescued from
my darling, dear daughter Amber's breakfast cereal
Support Local Schools
Donations are tax deductible to the fullest
extent allowed by law. Write checks to "Amador Community
Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth Elementary
Improvement Fund" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA
95642.
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#26 A
Swine on the Lamb goes Well with Drytown Wine
Runaway Baby
It’s not just the Amador County Fair that’s exciting. Even the ride
to the fair can make lifetime memories. The 240-pound pig, Baby
Edison, decided he’d take a pit stop before his ride to the big
show. Owner Zach Conrardy didn’t know this was in store when he
loaded his first ever Gold Nugget 4-H animal into the trailer
earlier that afternoon.
It’s not common that live-stock is loaded in the
midday heat – it’s usual for the creatures to come to fair early on
Tuesday. Was that ten year old in for a surprise! "Since the pens
were not ready that morning, we had to take Ed later in the day to
weigh him in," said Jim Swift, the chauffer of the vehicle. "We
were driving on Highway 49 through Drytown when Ed kicked the
tailgate right off the trailer. I slowed down and pulled over near
the driveway of Drytown Cellars."
Mayla Swift, 18, of the Sutter Creek FFA took
over at that point. She drove the swine up the hill from the
highway. Zach caught up with her and they both held sticks to guide
the pig to the safety of the tasting room parking lot hundreds of
feet up the hill. Once the junior agrarians reached the summit,
they were greeted by Drytown Cellars winemaker Jon Campbell. Jon
couldn’t believe what he saw at first, because typically one’s food
is cooked when wine is at hand. Jon got a punchbowl full of water
and gave the kids the hose to cool down the poor little piggy.
Since Drytown Cellars didn’t have a corral and a
chute handy to reload Ed, a friend brought a lowboy by and made it
to fair safely. By the way, Mayla’s pig stayed in the trailer,
making this affair much easier to deal with.
Pigformation
According to Zach Conrardy’s poster above his pig’s pen, Baby
Edison, "...is a Pietrain Hamp-shire cross breed. The Pietrain
breed is raised in many different countries. Edison was purchased
in Iowa. The Pietrain breed is known to have big shoulders and like
the Hampshire, produce a lot of meat. An interesting fact is that
the birthplace of the breed was a village in Belgium named Pietrain."
"...When I first got Edison I thought he was
going to be boring and lazy, but then I realized he was kind and
social (for a pig). Over the past several months Edison and I have
had great fun together. Even though sometimes we had our ups and
downs, I know I still love him." "You know, someone had to teach me
my skills and those people are Mayla Swift and Ed Fulton. Mayla
taught me how to control my pig, feed my pig, bathe my pig, work
with my pig and much more. Thank you Mayla and Ed!"
This is why we should always have the 4-H, FFA,
Grange, Master Gardeners, and a variety of other agricultural
resources locally. These children demonstrated through writing,
action, and the love of what they do that agriculture is very
valuable in the modern day. Visit
http://ucanr.org/sites/AC4H/Community_Clubs/Gold_Nugget_4-H_Club
Thanks
To the graciousness of Amador Flower Farm to supply dozens of
daylilies and grapevines for the City of Plymouth Fair Booth. To
the staff at City Hall – next year we’ll get first place! To
Rochelle Cooper over at the Shenandoah Valley (of the Moooon) fair
booth: nice painting of dancing steers! And they were not cows,
they were definitely steers.
Those butterflies you raised in the Buena Vista
Butterfly Farm booth, Lish Baylor, were put to good use. The
hundreds and hundreds of little blue eggs on the potted cheese weed
and plantain hatched on my dining room table. My box of Wheat Thins
was conquered overnight. Some of the 30 or so Monarchs and Painted
Lady butterflies in the cage you let me borrow were released at the
first farmer’s market of the year in Plymouth a couple weeks ago.
About a dozen kids stood still over next to the buddleias in the
park on Main Street and the butterflies land all over them for over
an hour.
No Thanks
To the preying mantises in my yard: stop eating my
caterpillars!
Support Local Schools
Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by
law. Write checks to "Amador Community Foundation"; note in the
lower left, "Plymouth Elementary Improvement Fund" and send to ACF
at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA 95642.
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#25 Vista Seating and
Garden Sitting
Weather’s Good for 'Tempest'
 Amador County’s modern music venue
at Helwig Winery’s Amphitheater is a must to visit for sight and
sound. Tempest, a professional Celtic band from Oakland,
played to an intimate crowd the evening of July 8th. Clarity
Sound did a wonderful job blending their talents with the
band’s, and provided a very in-tense yet not loud show. It seems
the acoustics of the amphitheater and the landscape work, and it
makes me want to hear a concert from in-side the cave. I did not
need ear-plugs, and could carry on a conversation anywhere. The
theater absorbed sound so well, I’m hoping they don’t plan to grow
any vines down the main face.
While the sun was up, the snow crested Sierras
(yes it’s July) looked spectacular. It was like the music was
played to keep the mountains as sleeping giants, but then, maybe
some of it was to give them a little night quake. Original tunes,
including "Captain Morgan", were the first of many great stories to
be told that night. Personally, the traditional song Eppy Moray
was my favorite to sit and listen to with eyes closed (and mouth
open to wine). The sun set during inter-mission, and the band gave
a quiet, impromptu non-song to the end of the day. What a way to
paint that dusk landscape with music that built slowly from then to
a raucous yet controlled couple of last songs.
 From another Mike in the audience
falling in love with the "Queen of Argyle" to whatever was played
last because I wasn’t taking notes anymore – I was on my feet. For
a first effort, Helwig’s was applaudable. I’m encouraged by
overhearing the staff figuring out during the show how to make
folks more comfortable next time. For example, I learned how the
plan for parking to accommodate a full house will work. It was
smart for Helwig to try out a smaller crowd the first time, putting
a toe in the water rather than jumping in blindly. And absolutely a
first rate choice of music to bless the Valley – many happy
returns, fellows. The next scheduled show is the Dave Russell Band
on August 27, 2011 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. For tickets, call
(209) 245-5200, or
www.helwigwinery.com
Garden Sitting
Others' yards have greener grass and riper
lettuce. O'er the fence oases provide a getaway from one's own
garden duties. More than I like alliterative over the top
paragraphs, I love sitting on my friend's porch (when she's on
vacation) kicking back and eating her food while I water the
plants. The best part is the irrigation system and hoses are
manageable and not something only the 'management' gets. Unlike the
entertainment system her front room that is maladaptive enough to
keep me outside. But the outdoors had its cautionary ‘tails’ too,
like dealing with the wandering dog getting into her garbage cans
and cat food.
One bed at this old Amador homestead provided
the first fruit of the year - a golf ball-sized tomato on July 18.
Yep, that's what 54.40" of precipitation and a dozen snow events
did to the grow days locally. The Shasta daisies seeded two years
ago bloomed on the tenth and the black-eyed Susan's just winked
their petals. The corn is below knee high - lower than a baby
elephant's eye - and I heard from a tasting room customer corn also
isn't doing so well above or below the Bible Belt.
Of interest here is the old ash pile garden.
This land is well settled by old Italians, and its green rubbish
and leaves has been burned in the same place for a dozen decades.
The current owner spread out the pile and let it lay back in June
at the end of burning season. A couple weeks later melons,
pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, peppers, chamomile, corn, and more
sprouted! The nearby compost pile even has a nine-foot long mystery
cucurbid springing forth, and lemon balm, kale, and other
volunteers to boot.
Dear reader, the benefits of relaxing and caring
for a vacationer's yard follow. I know a bit of brown trout was
caught in another state's river and will migrate here to my plate
in a cooler. I'll also have pretty good salad mixes coming at me
from now 'til the grape harvest. She and her beau already left me
some fresh plum jelly and a half gallon of day-old pesto his in-law
made. And yum, a leftover marinated cheese and salami dish, too.
Support Local Schools
Donations are tax deductible to the fullest
extent allowed by law. Write checks to "Amador Community
Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth Elementary
Improvement Fund" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA
95642.
Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#24 Fourteen Days of
Spring
I finally have a farmer’s tan! It even got hot enough to break a
sweat
 this week. I have been home
gardening at night the last couple weeks anyway, with my daughter
deftly weeding away. We’re building a new bed for a winter garden –
it was going to be for our summer garden, but we’ve been flooded
out. The bed will be rustic and utilitarian thanks to some
brain-storming with a friend. Quartz and marble from local mines
will line the side facing the house. Flat concrete block will line
the opposite side where the walkway is so no one gets stubbed toes.
In theory, at least.
Mown Rows Grow Slow
But right now, I’m outside taking a break
from mowing our family’s vineyard. We’ve promoted no-till treatment
to our soil for decades, and our hills stay knit together in
exceptionally rainy years. Dozens of acres of dandelions brighten
the rows, but the grass is reedy, tall, and thick. I have to drive
my brand-new Kubota tractor gently the first 50 hours anyway, but
this is ridiculous – down at 3rd and 4th gear in June? More like
the first pass through in March. The vines grew more this second
week of June than in the previous two months.
Cane drop is just beginning in the Barbera
vineyard atop our hill, and the grapes will surely bloom someday.
Other than being a bit behind, our vineyard was spared major frost
and hail damage this year and the crop looks okay. Our
Mediterranean climate offers the calmest non-weather in the world,
but let’s not be surprised by anything. I remember in June 1992
that a funnel cloud touched down on our property, and it snowed for
three days. And these five years of cooling weather are tricky –
don’t be fooled by the temperature – there’s potential for a bad
fire season with all this grass. So keep things cleared out safely
around your house.
A Rose of a Rosé
Our "fun and yummy pink wine" Rosé,
affectionately termed "Rose" by our customers, took Best of
Class Rosé at the Amador County Fair! The Rosé made it into the
top four -- and maybe the top two? -- and barely missed Best of
Show. Sweet wines are showing well nowadays, and we’ve made them
like this since the mid-eighties. Come into our tasting room one
weekend at 12557 Steiner Road in Shenandoah Valley and I’ll pour
you a taste!
Vineyard Videos
We’ve ten years of vineyard stories online,
and now we’re making iPhone videos. It’s pretty cool seeing my
brother Jim show how to bud over a vine. Check them out at our
website
www.charlesspinettawinery.com when you’re online next!
They’re at the Theater
There’s a new local venue in the heart of
Shenandoah Valley. Near the intersection of Steiner Road,
Shenandoah School Road, and Shenandoah Road stands the amphitheatre
at Helwig Winery. Plan to be at the first-ever concert there on
Friday, July 8th, when the Celtic band Tempest will play to
an intimate crowd. Dinner and a wine glass are included in the $45
admission – and so is the drop- dead view of the Sierras. The
theatre is North facing, so it will likely be comfortable in the
summer.
For tickets, go online to
www.helwigwinery.com or
call (209) 245-5200. Doors open at 5:30 pm; Tempest plays 7-
9pm. Better yet, local people should come out and visit the Valley.
Just buy your ticket over the bar at 11555 Shenandoah Road!
Long-Lived Lavender
Speaking of famous local intersections,
think about where Fiddletown Road and Shenandoah Road converge just
outside of Plymouth. I’ve been watching for umpteen years a
lavender plant grow in the ditch there. If I’ve ever seen a
domestic plant naturalize, this surely has. It’s been run over, in
a fire, frozen, through drought, and probably chewed on by a cow.
Why is it there? Was it on its way to South River Lavender Farm or
Amador Flower Farm when the delivery cart got upsot? I will never
know, but it is a lovely yet savage plant in my mind and maybe it
has a lesson to teach. Maybe through an accident, someone can
adapt, survive, and thrive in the worst of circumstances, and be
beautiful nonetheless. I don’t know what moral to apply, but maybe
next time I’ll write about the palm tree growing in the same ditch
two miles further down (not sure it made it through the winter).
As always, please donate to your local schools,
and help us give more to the kids at Plymouth Elementary. Donations
are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Write
checks to "Amador Community Foundation"; note in the lower left,
"Plymouth Elementary Improvement Fund" and send to ACF at P.O. Box
1154, Jackson, CA 95642.
Plymouth Elementary School Gardens
#17 January 2010
Crabs Walk Sideways, Lobsters Walk Straight
By Michael and Little Amber Spinetta
Amber cannot pen this month’s column because she is playing with
the "MusicNotes" and "Rooster Piano" apps on the iPhone.
Arboretum All-Stars
Six new plants are part of
our UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars experiment at the school this
year: Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome'; Bulbine
frutescens; Salvia clevelandii 'Winnifred Gilman';
Floribunda rose 'Korbin' or 'Iceberg'; Osmanthus x fortuneii
'San Jose'; and Ribes viburnifolium Evergreen Currant. These
will be described in following columns.
At this point, I feel the
aster and currant will perform quite well. I like looking at roses,
but I am not a rose person; I prefer someone else to care for a
thorn bush. I promise I will water this plant sometimes, Karrie,
but if it gets powdery mildew ... arrrgh Heidi likes the look of
the osmanthus – the budding leaves are very showy. The sage tastes
very nice this time of year: it’s a bit sweet and I want to cook
with it already.
We repotted these plants,
and they will be kept out of the new Arboretum All-Stars bed (by
the school cafeteria) until a bit later in winter. It’s a chilly
year when the snow girl on my lawn lasts a whole week, and the
aloes and geranium on my porch melt while under a shelter.
By the way, Amber and her
cousin Sierra put six pink roses in place of the snow girl’s
"hair." They also wanted to play outside when it was ten degrees on
that cold December Monday. I said no, how about hot chocolate and
marshmallows? Okay!!! Later, we and lots of others tromped down the
middle of Main Street in the snow! Interested in local
precipitation history? Visit my family’s winery website
PEP Club Crab Feed
The kids need playground
benefactors right now – the photo from my October column shows a
jungle gym that is no longer there. Almost 200 attended the 6th
Annual PEP Club Crab Feed on January 16th at Pokerville Hall in
Plymouth. The Esquires put the funky blues to everyone there, and
even the crabs got up off the plates and did the eight- legged
boogie woogie.
The fifth graders raised
some cash for their Science Camp trip with the big tip jar and the
sales of the yummy desserts they made with their parents.
Everything went well – however – even after the tally from this
event, the first phase of the improvements is barely met. If you,
dear reader, are interested in lending your body, sponsoring a
piece of equipment, donating some soil or other materials, contact
Sara Dentone of the PEP Club at the number at the end of the
article. There will be many volunteer construction days coming up.
The PEP Club is very grateful to the MANY local folks and
businesses who participated in this event – you really care, and
the kids will know that. Think globally by acting locally, your
dollar is bigger when it is kept closer to home. These kids are
part of the "plugged in" generation, let’s get them outside in the
garden and on the playground! PEP Club is a nonprofit now, like
Plymouth Elementary School Gardens, so keep this in mind at tax
time, too.
FFA Dinner in March
If you’re hungry now,
Argonaut High School student and Future Farmers of America
Historian Leanne Weese has got the solution. Leanne says, "Come to
the First Annual Argonaut FFA Booster Club Dinner at the Evelyn
Bishop Hall in Ione Sat, March 27, 2010. Social hour begins at 6:00
p.m., dinner follows at 7:00 p.m. Electra Road will provide groovy
music for dancing. More details forth-coming next month in this
column. Contact Ryan Mendosa for tickets at 209.257.7726."
iPhone Applications
A couple of apps are
useful for UCCE Master Gardeners.
"Google Earth" is handy for an MG taking a phone call (Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at 209.223.6838) from a
flora-concerned citizen. Audubon’s nature guide apps are useful,
especially "California Wild-flowers." Independently produced
"Butterflies" and "iButterflies" are good in the field for
lepidopteraddicts.
Visit Online
www.arboretum.ucdavis.edu/arboretum_all_stars.aspx
www.charlesspinettawinery.com/Wine/Tour/tour.html
www.esquiresblues.com/
www.ceamador.ucdavis.edu/Master_Gardener
Gardens & Playground
Funds
Donations are tax
deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Write checks to
"Amador Community Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth
Elementary School Gardens Fund" or separately for new playground
equipment, note "PEP Club" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154,
Jackson, CA 95642. Volunteers, call PEP Club at 209-257-7800.
michaelspinetta@yahoo.com
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Plymouth Elementary School Gardens
#18 March 2010
Springing into Spring
By Michael and Little Amber Spinetta
Amber cannot help write this
month’s column because she is busy watching her goldfish, Dorothy,
swim around the bowl wide world. Dorothy came to us from Jenae,
whose skillful hand popped the ping pong ball into the special big
fish bowl at the 2009 Amador County Fair. Sadly, Toto, the gray
fish from the school carnival, wasn't around too long. Click your
silver slippers three times and wish the best for Dorothy’s next
Toto. Yes, that’s right, silver (the standard the populist farmers
wanted for credit access) combined with the yellow brick gold
standard. Well, now everyone has the plastic standard, so we’re all
good for it. Whoops, I digress. Let’s stop and smell the poppies, I
mean...
Narcissus for the
Missus
 There
are a few great spots to check out daffodils this year. Five
thousand are in bloom along Main Street Fiddletown right now. Tens
of thousands are showing their faces on Steiner Road in Shenandoah
Valley. Sixteen thousand more were planted at Daffodil Hill,
bringing the total to umpteen zillion planted there. They aren’t in
bloom all at once in all three spots, so you’re going to have to
take a few relaxing road trips to the country. Just another excuse
for you.
Arboretum All-Stars
It is a
good idea to acknowledge those who fund the statewide portion of
the UC Davis All-Stars program. They are: The Elvenia J. Slosson
Endowment for Ornamental Horticulture; Saratoga Horticultural
Research Endowment; and the California Association of Nurserymen
Endowment for Research and Scholarship. You can also support the
project by becoming one of the Friends of the Arboretum, which
allows you to pick and choose from their Member Preview Sale on
March 13 on site in Davis. Non-member AA-S sales are subsequently
on April 10, 24, and May 15, 2010. And thanks to everyone else
involved, btw.
FFA Dinner in March
Again,
you are invited to buy tickets for the First Annual Argonaut FFA
Booster Club Dinner (Tri-Tip!) at the Evelyn Bishop Hall in Ione at
6:00 p.m., Sat, March 27, 2010. Contact Ryan Mendosa for tickets
($18 each, but down to $12 each when you by a large table’s worth!)
at 209.257.7726. The FFA Floral Class is arranging the
centerpieces in artistic metal sculptures the shop class is
designing. There will be silent and live auctions and a raffle.
Proceeds will go to students who want to go to the state meet and
to a forthcoming scholarship fund.
The Playground Breaks
Ground
I made
a mistake in last month’s article – PEP Club raised more money for
the new playground than I reported, but yes, they do need more.
Also, call the school for the next volunteer day to build the
playground! We’re going to need a lot of hands to help build
everything, and we need them now. The primary installation of the
equipment is going on as you read this, so why not call and ask
what you can do? I even heard on TV that volunteerism is good for
your health, so hey, it’ll benefit everyone!
Visit Online
AA-S:
http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/plant_sales_and_nursery.aspx; Butterfly
Garden Timeline:
http://michaelspinetta.com; Previous articles can be found
online at:
www.goldcountrytimes.com/plymouth_main.htm
Gardens & Playground
Funds
Donations are tax
deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Write checks to
"Amador Community Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth
Elementary School Gardens Fund" OR separately for new playground
equipment note "PEP Club" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154,
Jackson, CA 95642. Volunteers, call PEP Club at (209) 257-7800. We
are also looking into using the resource website
www.refresheverything.com to post projects for grants; E-mail
michaelspinetta@yahoo.com
"Inspired by
when William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a
"long belt" of daffodils. Written in 1804. 'I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud'
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Plymouth Elementary School Gardens
#19 April 2010 Working To
Play
By Michael & Little Amber Spinetta
Amber and I just visited the
kindergartners at Pine Grove Elementary School. She showed the kids
the painted lady caterpillars (that were born on her birthday) that
many students up there will raise this spring. The kids also
planted peas, poppies, and wildflowers in their beautiful school
garden. And Amber loved the handfuls of worms – it’s always the
worms – the kids showed her.
Work Hard Now
With the Amador County Unified School District’s necessity to cover
a near $6 million deficit for the 2010 - 2011 school year, funding
for the Agriculture Department and its related classes and programs
are in jeopardy. It’s up to us as parents and members of the
community to think differently and act in a positive way to protect
and preserve localized vocations. We especially need the nearly
500 students in ACUSD ag classes to spend their free time figuring
this out (text each other about it, kids!) Ranchers like Ray,
Robert, and Mary near Camanche are willing to help out with soil
for school gardens, and possibly much more than that if asked!
Amador County government is honing the FFA students’ abilities to
persevere and grow through this situation with on-campus meetings
and making Amador County Ag Department staff available for
assistance. Mike Boitano, the Agriculture Commissioner, offers some
advice to the students. “What you students do now is not just for
you, it’s for the kids that are following you. If you do not
promote strong Ag programs on each campus, there is a good chance
that there will be no programs in the future. It is also my hope
that past students and parents will always support these Ag
programs. Agrieducation also gives practical experience to students
who may not have ag backgrounds.” Even the “Class of 2010” must
support the youngest inductees into ag classes and programs.
Student/community ag interest is maturing, with rumors of a
centralized certified kitchen in the works for small growers – a
great opportunity for Amador High’s culinary kids. Alter-native
forms of ag related education are also in the rumor mill. Let’s
make it through the down time with our heads up, aware of what we
can do together.
Work in the Vineyard
 Amador High School students from Millie Butler’s Floral Design and
Art classes took the annual field trip to Spinetta Family
Vineyards. They learned about the culture of wildlife art in
America, where our vinegar originates from and how it grows,
responsible water use, and good agricultural practices. I showed
how to prune a grapevine and Millie demonstrated how to weave the
canes into wreathes. This year’s class was spot-on with their
questions and was quite fun to teach. Members of the Amador Bonsai
Society were also on hand to help. One bonsaier mentioned that
their fiftieth inductee received a skull and crossbones-shaped
poison oak bonsai.
Work Hard to Play
Heather Ketel’s fifth graders earned science camp funds by
weeding the butterfly garden. They also received a bag of goodies
from the California Fertilizer Foundation, CA Grown, and the
California Foundation for Ag in the Classroom. This is what the
garden’s about. If the kids maintain it, it will be used as a
teaching tool and instrument of school pride. Good job, everyone.
Hard Work to Play
On this column’s website version you can see folks raising the
first of the playground structures. Call PEP Club and volunteer!
Hard Work about Play
One of baby Dionysus’ first toys was a bronze hoop that he’d
drive forward with a stick. Though the sport never made it into the
Olympics, the innate need to play hoop and stick pervades most of
the world’s cultures. Our school gave a short stack of wine barrel
hoops to a student at a neighboring campus for a report on the old
time game. He wrote back stating he got a ‘4’ on his presentation.
Good job, Anthony.
Wordplay's Too Hard
Here’s a 140 character (Twitter truncation pun) limerick I
wrote that did not win ragan.com’s National Grammar Day “March
Forth on March 4th” competition: “California's dynamics of
word-play," Miwok, Valley Girl, Silicon say, "Like, I live off the
land, With iPhone in my hand, And I text all my friends all through
the day!” When next you know not what you say, ask Grammar Girl.
Play Too Hard
http://grammar.quickandditrytips.com
for eggheads; for caterpillars,
http://buenavistabutterflies.com and for emerging farmers, the “Amador
County FFA” Face-book page.
Gardens & Playground Funds
Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by
law. Write checks to "Amador Community Foundation"; note in the
lower left, "Plymouth Elementary School Gardens Fund" or separately
for the playground note “Plymouth Elementary Improvement Fund” and
send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA 95642. Happy Ag Day back
on March 20, by the way.
michaelspinetta@yahoo.com
www.michaelspinetta.com
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Plymouth Elementary School Gardens
#20 July 2010 Just One More
Game
By Michael & Little Amber Spinetta
Amber’s ‘hands are tired’ (her
real-life excuse not to do things) and can’t write this month’s
column. Although, she just “wrote” a sentence on the fridge with
magnets, “AMBER is 4 Ni GIRl SCoUTs”.
What’s Good for Mother’s Day?
1. Buy live caterpillars from local farmer Lish Baylor around
March 28 to time their emergence for the holiday. Ours hatched
March 21 and took flight May 3 & 4. The cycle varies with household
climates and outdoor weather. Lish taught me if a chrysalis falls,
barely dip its knobby tip in a bubble of hot glue that is cooling.
Other glues are toxic.
2. Or, if it’s cold, get mom a nice...Snood
Way back in the 1900’s a video game named Snood came out that was
so good, it had a “One More Game” option to be used only during an
emergency when a player was having too much fun.
Dave Dobson is the creator of this happy face laden game
 that is still available for
Mac and PC platforms. Game play revolves around the player “saving”
Snoods by matching sets of three or more. Why name it Snood? The
game was named after a hand-me-down renamed fantasy football team
with predetermined initials that was named after an inspirational
protective hair snood in a lab gear catalog. That's why!
Mr. Dobson’s history with programming
goes back to the 44 pound, 6” x 4” screen Commodore PETs that he
and his buddies signed up to work on after elementary school. On
many occasions, he tweaked the parameters of the programs and
figured out how to push the limits of the code. And after messing
with computers at school, they’d all go down to the local arcade.
Through the years and many cassette-loading VIC 20’s and IBM PC’s
down the road, he eventually was also influenced by Macs.
Thankfully for that, since many Mac users aren’t game heads
typically, but we do like our quality games. And good for him, too,
because his wife is a Mac person.
Mr. Dobson is now 40 and continues to teach Geology at Guilford
College in North Carolina. His family of games has grown to include
Snoodoku, which I love because I can substitute in a colored shape
symbol for a number symbol and make a different part of my brain
hurt while I solve it. Mr. Dobson says that he is so used to it, if
he’s ever doing Sudoku on a plane, he often wishes for a green
“Midoribe” or yellow “Sunny” instead of a number.
I started playing Snood when it was introduced in 1996. Soon after,
during our biggest wine grape harvest in history, my mom started
playing and we created dozens of Snood puzzle level sets still
included with the game: “Mom’s Levels” I, II, and III! Hey mom, Mr.
Dobson gives his regards.
Snooding Your Garden
Is this related to gardening? Somehow! In the year after the game’s
release, players got a chance to vote for the names of the Snoods.
The game had caught on in Japan, thus the light blue hairy Snood
became “Geji”. A geji or gejigeji is a many-long-legged centipede,
and I think I almost stepped on one the other day. It’s really a
beautiful bug, and it looks like it glides rather than walks.
Another connection? Sometimes Snood is a reward for players, as
recounted in Mr. Dobson’s words. “One woman compared making a good
play in Snood to pulling a big weed in her garden successfully.”
But is it Art?
My friend Darren talked with me about video game creation as a way
of expressing himself through art. Games are graphic and engage the
viewer emotionally, physically, even verbally. There’s background
music. All objects in the game have hidden architecture. Though not
truly 3D, it’s surely mimicked with forced perspective and
shadowing. And even the new Dante’s Inferno is based on a poem. In
the past, the “fine arts” included grammar and arithmetic, then
visual and decorative arts, and later split off auditory and
performance arts. When I was in college, digitally created prints –
both graphics and photographs – were eschewed by art judges.
Definitions and media change...
Another friend, Elizabeth, says games
will one day take kids through worlds of virtual reality to learn
algebra, history, and more. My daughter Amber currently likes to
play Weekly Reader and Super Why. What about apps like Farmville?
Though that ag-based game is popular, I have a tangible food garden
I share with friends. Besides, the power goes out quite often in
the country - we better remember how to use shovels and sapas.
Visit www.snood.com to check out
the coolest games in the world.
Gardens & Playground Funds
Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Write checks to "Amador Community Foundation"; note in the lower
left, "Plymouth Elementary School Gardens Fund" or separately for
playground equipment note “Plymouth Elementary Improvement Fund”
and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA 95642. Thanks to
Dewey, Ivvy, Charlie, and others for helping a lot this month
putting weed paper on the flower beds. Happy Mother’s Day!
michaelspinetta@yahoo.com
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Plymouth Elementary School Gardens
#21
August/September 2010 Winter’s End
By Michael & Little Amber Spinetta
On this Thursday, a long moment of lightning has made for
foothills’ toes curling as my daughter watches TV. (A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, a less month too early) whilst she has pasta dinner
bites.
Rainy Days and Mondays
And Tuesdays. I wanted to see the beehives at Whispering Pines
Christian School (WPCS) in Plymouth, but they should not be
disturbed during inclement weather, however beneficial that weather
is. The school sells honey to support itself, and their wildflower
honey is from local flowers, so I encourage all to buy a bit of the
golden stuff. Please call their office at (209) 245-4976 for
orders.
I’m impressed with the students’ gardens and orchards at WPCS.
Those children are lucky to be getting an education with an
emphasis on agriculture. I lectured to the fifth through eighth
graders about the prices per ton of fruit in different regions –
how some get three times the amount of money for their product
compared to our region, and how local farmers could demand more if
they cared to. We discussed the positive impacts of quarantines –
for example, how farmers find ways to have their crop utilized in
cities nearest them. We also talked about the “magic line” on the
map near Madera regarding invasive bees, and rules for beekeeping
above and below that line. Lots of things! Once again, kids in
Plymouth know about farming.
While I was lecturing and touring, Amber was learning to play the
bells with the kindergartners. I was the audience for their
impromptu concert. I am totally wowed. There will bee more from
WPCS in this column soon, but I will bee taking a break next month,
so bee patient.
The New Mural
 “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” The sketch looked fit for print and the
finished painting best for
www.goldcountrytimes.com. “College -
Trade School - Business Opportunity” is splayed on a banner among a
world of possibilities. Nearly every square foot of the school
cafeteria’s wall are covered with murals now. Good job, sixth'ers!
 Photo courtesy to the Gold Country Times:
Tyler Bardin holds a sketch of the mural that Coleman Gambrill
helped the sixth graders paint. Nice to see the sun, even if only
in a painting.
Amador County Fair!
There will be a Butterfly Exhibition at the Fairgrounds this year
from July 29 to August 1. The UCCE Amador County Master Gardeners
will have a chrysalis hatching exhibit and Plymouth Elementary with
Buena Vista Butterfly Farm will have a 8’x8’ cage full of the
fluttering ones! There will be a butterfly release the first day of
the fair! The 4-H garden next to us will have a perfect tie-in
theme that I can’t divulge here because of a special pact us farm
groups have to not give away the other’s secrets for Fair exhibits.
You’ll have to visit!
Playground Dedication
Monarchs and painted ladies were released for the dedication of
the first phase of the new playground (we still need money to build
the rest!) There were a lot of people there for Open House, and
lots of cake to feed them. As for my job in this, I’ve got to get a
couple kids to help me move five flowering pear trees to the west
of the play structure, because the trees will soon interfere will a
new sprinkler system for the school lawn where they are now. Always
more...
Ag “Teacher Feature”
No longer a rumor, Toni Linde is the “Teacher Feature” for
Cream of the Crop, the newsletter for the California Foundation for
Ag in the Classroom. Congratulations! Without you, there would be
no butterfly garden.
Toni Linde: Ag teacher of the month!
Gardens & Playground Funds
Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by
law. Write checks to "Amador Community Foundation"; note in the
lower left, "Plymouth Elementary School Gardens Fund" or separately
for playground equipment note “Plymouth Elementary Improvement
Fund” and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154, Jackson, CA 95642
A Hopi song from the collection
The Path on the Rainbow (1918)
Korosta Katzina Song
Yellow butterflies,
Over the blossoming virgin corn,
With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant throng.
Blue butterflies,
Over the blossoming virgin beans,
With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant streams.
Over the blossoming corn,
Over the virgin corn
Wild bees hum!
Over the blossoming beans,
Over the virgin beans
Wild bees hum!
Over your field of growing corn
All day shall hang the thunder-cloud;
Over your field of growing corn
All day shall come the rushing rain.
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Shenandoah Valley Ecclectetcetera
#23 December 2010
Honey of a School
By Michael and Little Amber Spinetta
Amber is busy reading
Winnie-the-Pooh to me chapter by chapter. She told me to stop
reading the book and that she wanted to read the rest to me – who
am I to argue? But, she isn’t busy enough to ignore this month’s
column about honey!
A Local School
 Whispering Pines Christian School has worked for two
decades with a small group of students to provide them with the
best education and personal attention that each one of them
deserves. The school is located at 240 State Highway 16, #1 in good
old Plymouth California - you pass by their signs every time you go
to Sacramento. If you want to order the honey we review below, call
them at (209) 245-4976 for hours when they have the honey available
to sell. Photo: What
better present for the holidays, or any time of year, than food
from a local farmer? Especially if the funds support agrieducation!
Photo by Michael Spinetta
Agriculture Class
Earlier this year, Amber and I visited
the school. The kindergarten teacher was nice enough to take Amber
in for the day while I toured the school and taught ag class. Yep,
ag class – taught right here in Amador County where it should be. I
had a somewhat prepared topic to present the students before I met
them.
After I got the gist of what they knew, I pumped
the lecture up to college level. I also told them that they have a
greater opportunity than most in the county who want to prolong the
rural atmosphere that we as a local culture present. If just one or
two kids from each grade stay on and help the school in the future,
it will be one of the great-er local modern agricultural success
stories.
A True School Garden
Before we talk flavors, I must say, the
best part of the trip was watching everyone work as a team, getting
ready for the holiday rush. Labeling the containers, counting off
inventory, filling out orders, packing up boxes. We even learned
that there are plans to have a new building on campus where honey
will be produced on site. And, since the last time we visited, the
school went from 4,000 to 6,000 hives! Wow! Soon (not yet!) they’ll
be ready to invite public school students to tour and see what kids
can really do to support their own good education. The gardens and
orchards are so inspirational, too – what an absolutely wonderful
opportunity for everyone.
Hunny Pots for Presents
Unlike Pooh Bear who ate all the hunny
on the way to give Eeyore a present, a group of friends snuck only
a wee bit from each two pounder I bought as presents for my family.
Wildflower: Above and beyond, this is the
purely local honey of the eight varieties. This is the one I
recommend everyone buy because I believe it’s beneficial to eat
local honey. We should all have a steady supply.
Buckwheat: We all smelled its bouquet
when we opened it. We loved its drizzliness and thought it would be
good with something like lamb.
Sage: It seemed the more traditional
honey, somewhat tart maybe, a bit more viscous, and likely good
with everything. Our favorite. Yummmmmm.
Mint: We couldn’t agree how it was
different. It is more crystallized than the others at room temp.
Maybe Bruschetta or hard crackers with dried tomatoes. I like
crystallized honey to melt atop meat dishes like chicken once
they’re one the plate. It’s cool to see a cube of honey melt on
your food, and it adds a crunchy texture. Spreadable. Amber’s
favorite.
Clover: Super sweet, and a yummy mouth
feel and finish – a good aftertaste. A good work-out for the
salivary glands. Good on toast. Our third favorite.
Cactus: Another that seemed a more
traditional honey (what-ever that means) that has a quick taste and
no aftertaste. Good with figs and walnuts. Amber’s second favorite,
and she wonder-ed how they took out the thorns.
Orange Blossom: Absolutely perfect for
tea. We argued if we liked this more than the clover. Great
texture, addictive.
X-Mas Berry: Smoky and the little bit of
bittersweet that we perceived would go really well with a fish
dish. The most runny honey that got everywhere be-cause someone
(not the youngest one) was messy.
Make sure to visit online:
www.whisperingpinesschool.com. Donate to them and buy honey. I
always promote my alma mater, too, so here goes: Donations are tax
deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Write checks to
"Amador Community Foundation"; note in the lower left, "Plymouth
Elementary Improvement Fund" and send to ACF at P.O. Box 1154,
Jackson, CA 95642.
Enjoy these links
to articles on Plymouth's Elementary School Gardens (PESG):
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/datastore/detailreport.cfm?usernumber=119&surveynumber=236
http://www.charlesspinettawinery.com/Wine/WineNewsletter/SN2008/plymouthbutterfly
gardens.html
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Published in Sutter Creek, our paper is a positive
example of journalism with an eclectic assortment of articles and
reviews ranging from health and wellness to the arts.
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