LAKEPORT – The 79^th annual Lake County Rodeo took place Friday and Saturday, and was accompanied Saturday by the second annual All Horse Parade through downtown Lakeport.

A few hundred people lined the west side of Main Street on Saturday for the parade, which featured the

Clear Lake Junior Horsemen Drill Team and the Diablo Ladies Drill Team among others.

Photographer Harold LaBonte captured the horses and riders as they made their way along the route.

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He'll be featured in a call-in interview show on Channel 8 beginning at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, July 16.

Markowski will talk about the station's mission and answer questions from callers during the show, which will be broadcast from Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

Calls can be directed to interviewer Dante DeAmicis at 408-482-0921.

For matters relating to the station, Markowski can be reached at 994-8201 Extension 109, via e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at the station's Web site, www.laketv8.com.

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Kimberly Walker and one of her Suffolk/Hampshire-cross lambs. Courtesy photo.

Hi, my name is Kimberly Walker. I am 16 years old and this is my seventh year in 4-H.

I can’t wait for the start of the fair on Aug. 28. I will be bringing my Suffolk/Hampshire cross lambs Chips and Salsa.

I have been exercising them and monitoring their weight gain so that they are the appropriate weight by the fair. In my sheep project, we’ve learned all about different breeds and diseases as well as things like how to shear our sheep, showmanship techniques and lamb science.

This year the fair’s theme is “1950’s: Let The Good Times Roll,” so we're all very busy planning our educational displays to put by our animal pens at the livestock barn.

But getting to the fair isn’t just about raising our animals – no, we also have to attend at least 80 percent of our monthly club meetings and 100 percent of our animal project meetings. We also have to do a presentation at either a project meeting, club meeting or our countywide presentation day event – whether that be an educational display, a presentation, a speech or a play.

This year my brother, friends and I earned a gold award doing a play that was a twist on “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent,” and it was a lot of fun. We also have to send out buyer letters and market our animals individually.

There are multiple ways to purchase animals at auction and it is very simple to buy an animal with another person and split the meat and the cost. For more information on this, contact the fair office at (707) 263-6181.

This will be my second year taking two market lambs to the Lake County Fair. In previous years at the fair I have shown my two Mini Rex rabbits and entered various still exhibits. This past year I was president of the Kelseyville 4-H Club. I also participated in the scrap booking, horse and leadership projects. I am also Teen leader of the countywide shooting sport project. This coming year I will be working very hard on my All Star project.

Outside of 4-H I am involved in the Konocti Rod and Gun Club, Lake County B.S.A. Venture Crew No. 44 and I volunteer at Wiloth Equine Center in Lower Lake.

My friends and I have been working hard all year to learn about our animals and prepare them for the fair. So please come and support FFA and other 4-Hers like myself by purchasing a high-quality, grain-fed, hand-raised animal at the Junior Livestock Auction on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 1 p.m.

The 4-H Youth Development program is a part of the University of California Cooperative Extension. For more information contact U.C. Cooperative Extension, 883 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport, telephone 263-6838.

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Mendo-Lake District Director Gina-Belle Smith, Award Chairman Jo Shaul and Clearlake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club President Claire Grieve.

LAKE COUNTY – Clearlake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club, a member of the California Garden Club Inc., won the Rosette Sweepstakes Award this year, plus 11 other awards.

Categories included Publicity, Wildflower Photography, Backyard Habitat, Touring, Achievement, Horticulture and other Photo Collection awards.

Nine members attended the Mendo-Lake District Garden Club meeting held in Fort Bragg at the Mendocino-Coast Botanical Gardens.

Twenty-one books were submitted. Clearlake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club President Claire Grieve received the 12 Awards and “Golden Gnomes” on behalf of the club.

Jo Shaul and Mary Secord worked many hours encouraging club members and getting the books together and mailed on time.

Clearlake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club is accepting new members, men and women. They meet the third Tuesday of the month, September through June, at the Scott’s Valley Women’s Club House, 2298 Hendricks Road, in Lakeport.

They are having their planning/organizing meeting for the 2008-09 year, at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 15 at Mendo-Lake Credit Union on 11^th Street in Lakeport. Members are encouraged to attend and visitors are welcome.

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Esther Oertel of Hidden Valley Lake is the new Friendly Visitor Program director. Courtesy photo.

CLEARLAKE – Esther Oertel of Hidden Valley Lake is the new program director for the Friendly Visitor Program where volunteers offer friendship, understanding and companionship on a regular basis to South Lake County seniors having limited access to outside activities.

The free program is administered by Konocti Senior Support, Inc., which also provides senior peer counseling throughout Lake County.

“As the Friendly Visitor Program Director, Esther will expand communities of Friendly Visitors,” said Lawrence Grant, board president, Konocti Senior Support Inc. “We currently serve seniors in Clearlake Oaks, Spring Valley, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Kelseyville and Middletown.”

Program volunteers are trained and participate in monthly supervision meetings.

Oertel earned her Associate of Arts Degree from Santa Rosa Junior College. She formerly worked for Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Clearlake.

She can be reached at 995-1417.

Konocti Senior Support, Inc., incorporated in 1995, is a nonprofit public service corporation dedicated to enhancing seniors’ quality of life. All services are free.

For more information, contact Gwen Snyder at 995-1417.

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The show airs at 10 a.m.

Saro Fleishman is an elementary school teacher and her father teaches on mass media and has taught public speaking at Mendocino College. He also worked in Hollywood with writers and producers for many years, and has a sense of the power of the media, including great stories, to inspire change.

Both Norman and Saro Fleishman spent some of their formative years at Play Mountain Place, a humanistic alternative school founded by Norman's dad and stepmother more than 60 years ago.

They believe the atmosphere at the school was conducive to encouraging a sense of being a citizen of the world, and will discuss how what they learned at Play Mountain Place can translate into today’s educational system.

The program will repeat the following Monday morning at 9 a.m.

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