MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – The Mendocino National Forest is seeking qualified applicants to fill several temporary, full-time positions.

The vacancy announcements involve labor and administrative jobs.

Applicants can find contact information within each announcement on the USAJOBS Web site. Please note the open and close dates for each position.

The following employment opportunities are available:

• Visitor Services Information Assistant with duty at Stonyford - GS-1001-05 – USAJOBS Vacancy Announcement Number: 17-TEMP-S5-1001-5VISIA-DT (Opens: 5/25/2017 - Closes: 5/31/2017).

• Fire and Aviation Administrative Support Assistant with duty at Willows - GS-0303-05 – USAJOBS Vacancy Announcement Number: 17-TEMP-S5-0303-5ADSUP-DT (Opens: 5/30/2017 - Closes: 6/5/2017).

• Laborer (Engineering) with duty at Elk Creek - WG-3502-3 – USAJOBS Vacancy Announcement Number: 17-TEMP-S5-3502-3LABO-DT, WG-3502-03, LABORER (Opens: 05/31/2017 - Closes: 06/06/2017).

• Visitor Services Information Assistant with duty at Willows - GS-1001-04 – USAJOBS Vacancy Announcement Number: 17-TEMP-S5-1001-4VISIA-DT, GS-1001-04 (Opens: 5/26/2017 - Closes: 6/1/2017).

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Watershed Books will host a book signing for local author Steve Bartholomew on Friday, June 2.

The event will be held at 5 p.m. at the store, located at 305 N. Main St. in Lakeport.

Featured will be Bartholomew’s book, “Finding Joaquin: A Tale of Old California.”

Bartholomew is the author of several other books, including “The Imaginary Emperor,’ “The Woodcutter,” “Tunnel 6,” “Gold: A Tale of the California Gold Rush” and “Black Bart Reborn,” among others, all of which are available on Amazon.

For more information call Watershed Books at 707-263-5787.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will offer a free traditional hunter education course in June. 

The course will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, June 12; Tuesday, June 13; and Wednesday, June 14. The final class on Saturday, June 17, will be held from 8 to noon.

The location for the course is the Brick Hall, 16374 Main St., Lower Lake.

Training topics include hunter and firearms safety, ethics and hunter responsibility, basic survival and first aid, wildlife identification and management, hunting techniques and equipment, and wild game care.

Students must attend all days and hours to receive full credit and must pass the required test for certification of completion.

Registration must be completed online by visiting the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Web site at www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunter-Education and following the step-by-step instructions.

Class space is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

Additional course dates and locations are also located at this site. 

For additional information or if your organization would like to host a course, please contact Wildlife Officer Mike Pascoe at 707-263-1044 or Roland LeDoux at 707-994-0637.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County is one of the undiscovered gems in California: its beautiful mountains, the slow pace of life, friendly people and fresh clean air, the cleanest in the nation.

Swaddled in the midst of stock and agriculture, it’s a great place to live and raise your children, but it can be a bit challenging to raise a home garden.

If you’re new to Lake County or to gardening in general, this article will address some of the local difficulties.

For starters, Lake County is a land of microclimates. Everyone says that about where they live, but it’s truer here.

We’ve got the banana belt around the lake where some people can grow citrus. We’ve got high upper valleys where cold pools and settles in, so that some years the length of the growing season is just 4 months.

The east side of the lake is more temperate than the west because of moderating winds across the lake. USDA growing zones show the east side of the lake 8b (normal winter temperatures average 15F) while the west side is 8a (average 10F).

What diverse microclimates mean to the gardener is that it’s difficult to know what will grow where you live. You could figure it out by trial and error: buy it, plant it, watch it die… buy it, plant it, watch it die. But, dang, that’s a lot of money down the tubes.

Another way is to look at what your neighbors are growing, peek over the fence: if it grows down the street, it’s likely to make it in your yard. In addition, you can consult the UC Master Gardener Program of Lake County. We have lists of plants that grow well here, even ones that are deer and gopher resistant. 

One of the most difficult challenges in Lake County is what I like to call spastic weather or psychotic temperature extremes.

March and April can sport several weeks of wonderful sunny days with temperatures soaring into the 70s and above and then bam – a sudden blast of arctic air comes barreling down sending nighttime temperatures into the 20s.

Some plants get tricked into budding out too early only to have their leaves frozen back. In Lake County the general rule of thumb is that it rarely frosts after the ides of May (that’s Latin for May15).

In those high valleys isolated from the lake’s influence, trees, such as cherries, can be tricked into budding out by the lovely March weather. But after several years of being frosted back, they start to decline and eventually die. The trick is to grow trees that don’t get tricked, like those plants smart enough to wait until May to bud out.

Your UC Master Gardeners’ Office has an extensive list of both ornamental and fruit tree cultivars that can save you from plantings that don’t do well here, and that translates to saving lots of time, money and heartache.

Most people would agree that Lake County has hotter sun than elsewhere, eh? And, while there are those that would think that statement doesn’t make sense, I would say those folks aren’t gardeners.

Think about it, if the last day for a killing frost is May 15 and by June we’re having heat waves, that doesn’t give plants much time to equilibrate.

If you’ve ever grown vegetables here and wondered why the skins were so tough, it’s the sun, coupled with the thinner atmosphere.

Vegetables are tougher here, because they produce extra lignin in an effort to protect themselves from sunburn. Extra lignin makes the skin tough and gnarly to eat.

This atmosphere can also produce a weird condition in tomatoes call physiological leaf roll, where the leaves curl upward, turn brown and die. Although this condition doesn’t affect the yield, it does get your attention. In both situations, a little shade cloth will go a long way.

Winter flooding and summer drought is standard here in California. You’ve heard the song “It never rains in California, but when it pours, man, it pours!” Ain’t that the truth!

So you need to be mindful of how, both, no water in the summer and too much water in the winter, can affect what you plant. For example, I just learned Deodar cedars don’t like to be flooded.

Would you believe that UC Master Gardeners can help you with all these challenges? Yep. Give us a call, that’s what we live for.

Here is a sampling of some of the types of information we can provide: a planting schedule for vegetables, trees to avoid, trees that do well, native plants for carefree landscapes, veggies that grow in the fall, deer resistant plants, gopher resistant plants, and soil and compost.

Karole Ward is a member of the UC Master Gardener Program of Lake County. For more information, stop in at the UC Cooperative Extension, 833 Lakeport Blvd. in Lakeport, or call 707-263-6838.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Solidarity Sundays of Lake County is writing in response to the inaccurate statement, voiced by House Speaker Paul Ryan and parroted by conservative members of the House of Representatives, that the Affordable Care Act is collapsing.

This is a clear attempt to misdirect the public’s attention from the more serious rationale behind the Republican-controlled House of Representatives recently approved plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with an initiative that rations health care to fund tax cuts for the U.S.’s highest earners, while allowing even greater profits for the insurance industry.

This cynical move would allow states to seek federal waivers to ignore certain mandates in the Affordable Care Act — including the one blocking insurance companies from charging people more because of pre-existing conditions

In Lake County, with over 3,000 citizens enrolled in ACA and more than 16,500 enrolled in Medicare, this action could inflict punishing costs on people with ailments from asthma to cancer, as well as on pregnant women and seniors.

The Republican plan would create an opening for state-level programs that would allow less robust protections for those who rely on the individual market for coverage. 

Additionally, the new plan would cut $880 billion from Medicaid by 2026 causing the most devastating impact on those who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid – those who are the poorest and sickest of all and need help with toileting, bathing and eating. 

Nonpartisan health advocacy groups, including the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society, reviewed the legislation and concluded it would weaken protections for people with ongoing medical issues.  And the American Association of Retired Persons stands squarely against this plan.

States will be able to seek waivers from requirements that insurers cover 10 “essential health benefits,” including maternity, mental health and prescription drugs.

Also, states could seek waivers from requirements that they charge their oldest customers no more than three times more than their youngest ones, potentially driving adults between 50 and 65 out of the health care system entirely.

The people of Lake County are fortunate to have representatives like senators Diane Feinstein and Kamala Harris and Congressmen Mike Thompson and John Garamendi working on our behalf in Washington.

We urge all community members to share their concerns with their representatives, stay abreast of the “Healthy California” bill (SB 562) working its way through the California legislature and get involved at the local level.

To learn more about Solidarity Sundays, visit www.solidaritysundays.org . To join our Lake County group, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Pamela Bordisso, Kelseyville
Nancy Harby, Lakeport
Sissa Harris, Clearlake
Shirley Howland, Clearlake
Cindi Koehn, Kelseyville
Carlene Leskar, Clearlake Oaks
Martha Mincer, Kelseyville
Kathleen Morgen, Hidden Valley Lake
Paula Mune, Upper Lake
Valerie Nixon, Kelseyville
Gillian Parrillo, Lakeport
Anne Rubin, Hidden Valley Lake
Kate Schmidt-Hopper, Hidden Valley Lake

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The winners of the annual Lakeport Memorial Day weekend parade, which took place on Saturday, have been announced.

This year’s parade theme was “Honor Our Veterans.”

Operation Tango Mike won both the grand sweepstakes and judges’ choice awards.

The winners, reported by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, are listed below.

DIVISION I – FLOATS/GROUPS

Best of Division: Operation Tango Mike       
   
ORGANIZATIONS
       
First place: Operation Tango Mike
Second place:     Lakeport Elks Lodge
Third place: Lake County Rodeo Association

MILITARY

First place: Lake County Pearl Harbor Survivors   
Second place:     Vietnam Veterans of America   

SENIOR/ADULT

First place: Tie – Sons in Retirement, SEIU 2015
Second place: Lakeport Senior Center

YOUTH

First place: Mountain Vista Middle School   
Second place: United States Sea Cadets
Third place: Lake County Sheriffs Activities League
           
DIVISION II – VEHICLES

Best of Division: Lake County Funeral Honors

CARS

First place: Corvettes of Lake County   
Second place: Cadillac Pat
Third place: Red Cross

MILITARY

First place: Lake County Funeral Honors
Second place: David Kacharos

OTHER

First place: 40 & B Voiture 912 of Lake County
   
DIVISION VI – MUSIC

Best of Division: Mountain Vista Middle School

BANDS

First place: Mountain Vista Middle School

DIVISON VII – EQUESTRIAN   

Best of Division: Lake County Rodeo Association

MOUNTED GROUP

First place: Lake County Horse Council

NOVELTY COSTUME

First place: Lonne Sloan

JUNIOR/SENIOR PARADE HORSE

First place: Lake County Rodeo Association   

The University of Minnesota Press has published a wonderful new collection of bee poems, “If Bees Are Few,” which may in some small way help the bees and will certainly offer some honey to poetry lovers.

Here's just one poem, by Heid Erdrich, who lives in Minnesota. Her most recent book is “Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems” from the University of Arizona Press.

Stung

She couldn't help but sting my finger,
clinging a moment before I flung her
to the ground. Her gold is true, not the trick
evening light plays on my roses.
She curls into herself, stinger twitching,
gilt wings folded. Her whole life just a few weeks,
and my pain subsided in a moment.
In the cold, she hardly had her wits to buzz.
No warning from either of us:
she sleeping in the richness of those petals,
then the hand, my hand, cupping the bloom
in devastating force, crushing the petals for the scent.
And she mortally threatened, wholly unaware
that I do this daily, alone with the gold last light,
in what seems to me an act of love.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited submissions. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by Heid Erdrich, “Stung,” from If Bees Are Few: A Hive of Bee Poems (Univ. of Minnesota Pr., James P. Lenfesty, Ed., 2016). Poem reprinted by permission of Heid Erdrich and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.