Caps with Many Feathers

We had food, live music, a corn hole tournament, a raffle and quite a turnout for our Bell Springs Volunteer Fire Department fund raiser, Thursday evening at the Rusty Shovel Ranch. Supervisor candidates John Haschak and Johnny Pinches were on hand, testimony to their efforts to convince Northern Mendocino County voters, that we will be represented at the county level.

There were babies, dogs and kids and it was “nice and warm.” That’s how HeadSodBuster described the weather from behind the counter of the HappyDay Farms produce booth. “We don’t work when it’s hot,” he went on to explain, “and we work every day. Therefore, it must be just nice and warm.”

With that established, I will say that I thought it was pretty ideal out, with a cooling breeze in effect at all times. Earlier in the day, when I was wheelbarrowing soil out of the chickens’ yard, and onto my compost pile, I might have been persuaded that we were bordering on hot, but not when we were funding it up at the Rusty Shovel, thanks Kevin Porter!

Zounds! Is that a photograph of Chimney Rock?

The raffle table was heavily laden with a wide assortment of items, to be selected by lucky individuals who had their ticket pulled in the drawing. All proceeds were headed into the Bell Springs Volunteer Fire Department fund. For the event the quarry where market is usually held, was turned into a parking lot, such was the proximity of the Rusty Shovel to the quarry.

Live music provided appropriate background for the event, and a culinary spread that couldn’t be beat was available for a flat ten dollar fee. There was a stir of excitement when the kombucha arrived, from those who tout the fermented beverage, and there was a most entertaining bean bag toss tournament going on in the background. 

I brought along several folders of 8 by 10 prints of pics I have taken, and offered them up for sale at a flat five dollar rate, regardless of what the price sticker on the outside of each folder read. I did not set any records for sales, but the photographs did provide a glimpse of what you might see if you lived up here on the ridge, on a farm.

Not being the social butterfly that I may have been in my youth, I don’t get to a lot of these gatherings any more. I encountered many old and valued friends, and watched Gluten-Free Mama doing the same. We had not intended to stay as long as we did, so when it got close to seven, we made our way out of the arena, and down to Bell Springs Road, where we had parked the Subi.

The road was lined on both sides with vehicles as far as the eye could see.

Events of this nature are what help make this community so special. Even in lean times, folks turned out to support a grass roots effort, to provide first-strike-capability in a most rural setting. Our fire department has already decorated its collective cap with an array of brilliantly colored feathers, for past accomplishments.

And speaking of feathers in caps, big ups to all of the effort that went into planning this event. The behind-the-scenes work to pull off something of this magnitude, is extensive and time-consuming. An appreciative community gratefully acknowledges this effort.

I was not there when the raffle took place, so I can’t say who won any of the prizes, but I will declare that the ultimate prize went to each person who attended this event: the knowledge that you helped contribute to a potential lifesaving cause.