Peter Discovers Fresno

Tips help county identify ferryPORT COSTA:

Sheriff's office says the vessel is the Fresno and a nearby hull what's left of the San LeandroBy

Tom LochnerCONTRA COSTA TIMES

A boat moored off the Port Costa shoreline and a hull alongside it are the ferry Fresno and what's left of the ferry San Leandro.
"We've solved the mystery," said Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee, bolstered by solid information as well as hunches and educated guesses that dozens of readers, including many maritime history and ferry buffs, phoned and e-mailed to the Times throughout the day Tuesday.
The two San Francisco Bay auto ferries, launched in the 1920s, were docked at Mare Island in Vallejo for 21/2 years, said their former owner, Phil Wright of Healdsburg. The new owner, whose name Wright declined to disclose pursuant to a confidentiality agreement, had the boats towed out of Mare Island Nov. 29, ostensibly bound for Stockton.
But over the last two weeks, Port Costa and Crockett residents reported an old ferryboat moored across the strait east of Port Costa, along the waterfront of the closed Port Costa brickyard.
Two men working on the demolition of the closed brickyard told the Times on Monday they did not know when the boats arrived.
Coast Guard officials said they had received complaints from the owner of the brickyard -- TXI Pacific Custom Materials -- but could not do anything because the docking is privately owned. The Sheriff's Office investigated. TXI did not return calls Tuesday.
Michael DeOrian, a Richmond police officer, said he recognized the Fresno, which he had seen moored in Richmond some time ago, from a photo the Times ran Tuesday.
Peter Olsen of Crockett, who frequently walks along the shore, recognized the boat as one he had seen moored in the Mare Island Strait: the Fresno -- although he conceded the boat in the picture could be a sister ship, if one still existed.
"If it's not there at Mare Island, it's the same boat," Olsen said.
By and by the puzzle fell together Tuesday.
"I understand that there was some dispute that the owner had with either the tug company or a fellow doing some work," Wright said.
Lee, too, said the boats were docked at Port Costa pursuant to a dispute, which has since been resolved.
"We involved the brickyard and the owners, who said they'd move the ships at the end of the week," Lee said. "We wanted to make sure there was a peaceful outcome. It was a happy ending. It was definitely a mystery for a short period of time."
No one was cited for any violation, Lee said.
The episode of a 250-foot boat docking on the shore of a metropolitan area dotted with chemical and other industries without maritime authorities taking much notice raises interesting homeland security issues, several readers said. What if, for instance, a barge loaded with explosives were to dock unannounced near an oil refinery?
Coast Guard officials referred the question to a public affairs officer who did not return calls Tuesday. Another Coast Guard official, Petty Officer Jonathan Cilley, said he heard about the boat for the first time Tuesday morning and therefore could not comment on any specifics. But he said that typically, and certainly if there were a known homeland security issue, the Coast Guard would board a "foreign" vessel -- foreign meaning one that would not normally be expected in a given port -- to do a safety check. He did not know if the Coast Guard ever checked the Fresno.
The 256-foot-long Fresno was built in 1927 for the Southern Pacific Railroad, according to Web sources. With the construction of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges, the San Francisco Bay ferries became obsolete, and most if not all were sold to be redeployed in Washington state.
"I'm just hoping the guy restores it," Wright said. "That was kind of my dad's dream."
Wright's late father, entrepreneur Arnold Gridley, wanted to restore the two ferries and dock them in San Francisco, Wright said. "But that wasn't in the cards for us."
It would have cost $3 million or $4 million, Wright said, not to mention $6,000 a month in carrying costs during the time the boats were docked at Mare Island.
Another San Francisco Bay ferry, the Santa Rosa, is docked in San Francisco and serves as the headquarters of Hornblower Yachts, according to Web sources.
Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.

Scientific American

Read the entire article. Keith

Fact or Fiction?: Archimedes Coined the Term "Eureka!" in the Bath
The famed mathematician made many important scientific contributions. Was this exclamation really one of them?
By David Biello

Let's begin with the story: the local tyrant contracts the ancient Greek polymath Archimedes to detect fraud in the manufacture of a golden crown. Said tyrant, name of Hiero, suspects his goldsmith of leaving out some measure of gold and replacing it with silver in a wreath dedicated to the gods. Archimedes accepts the challenge and, during a subsequent trip to the public baths, realizes that the more his body sinks into the water, the more water is displaced--making the displaced water an exact measure of his volume. Because gold weighs more than silver, he reasons that a crown mixed with silver would have to be bulkier to reach the same weight as one composed only of gold; therefore it would displace more water than its pure gold counterpart. Realizing he has hit upon a solution, the young Greek math whiz leaps out of the bath and rushes home naked crying "Eureka! Eureka!" Or, translated: "I've found it! I've found it!"

A Bit of History

January 1940
Aircraft engaged in air combat games over Crockett with simulated bombing of the bridge, RR, Mare Island, etc. Also taking part in the war games were anti-aircraft guns atop Grandview Terrace manned by 114 members of Battery "C" of the 65th Coast Artillery

And So It Goes

Biofuels Discovery Promises to End Dependence on Natural Gas
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a new, carbon-neutral way to convert vegetable-based fuels to syngas, a breakthrough that could allow producers to power hydrogen fuel cells or create a replacement for America's dwindling supplies of natural gas, all without relying on fossil fuels.
We've all had the experience of watching cooking oil smoke once a pan reaches a certain temperature—and suffered the indignity of having to scrub off the caked-on, carbonized gunk that results. A similar problem plagued researchers trying to convert biofuels: When heated, they clogged the pores of the catalyst used to transform them into syngas, which is a mixture of gases that include hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide

A Great Use of Space Technology

NASA SUPPORTS UAS FIRE MAPPING EFFORTS ON CALIFORNIA FIRE
A team led by NASA and U.S. Forest Service scientists recently collected real-time, visible and infrared data from sensors onboard a remotely piloted aircraft over the Esperanza Fire in Southern California.The Esperanza Fire, an arson-set fire that claimed the lives of five firefighters, ignited on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006. Whipped by powerful Santa Ana winds, it spread over 40,200 acres, or roughly 62 square miles, destroying 34 homes and 20 other structures.

More Global Warming?

Fisheries face collapse by 2048, study warns
Overfishing, other factors will wipe out stocks worldwide by 2048, scientists say. But there's hope.
By Marla Cone, Times Staff WriterNovember 3, 2006
All of the world's fishing stocks will collapse before midcentury, devastating food supplies, if overfishing and other human impacts continue at their current pace, according to a global study published today by scientists in five countries.Already, nearly one-third of species that are fished — including bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, Alaskan king crab, Pacific salmon and an array in California fisheries — have collapsed, and the pace is accelerating, the report says.

SUN, RAIN, VOLCANOES

This from an October 24, 1936 Hawaii newspaper.

Sugarcane is a giant grass, and "stools out" from the root as other grasses
do. In a recent fair on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, a prize was offered for the
biggest stool of cane. It was taken by the one shown on the cover of this week's
Science News Letter. This one-root jungle of thirty-foot stalks would have
yielded about 400 pounds of sugar.

Great Source of Information on C and H

What was Havermyer's interest in C and H? Spreckels interest in American Sugar Refining? The report of the 1911 Congressional Hearins is essential. It is available through Google books.

Hearings held before the Special Committee on the Investigation of the
American Sugar Refining...By United States. Congress. House. Special Committee
on Investigation of American Sugar Refining Company

Raiders Are Leading

For the first time this season the Oakland Raiders are leading at the end of the third quarter. There is still hope!

Red River Valley sugar beet harvest under way - Examiner.com

Red River Valley sugar beet harvest under way - Examiner.com

Snow and cold weather didn't help.

More News Impacting the Price of Sugar

Norwegian farmers share view of family farms, biofuel potential - Examiner.com: "MINOT, N.D. - Norway's agriculture minister says farmers in his country share the views of North Dakota farmers when it comes to the value of family farms and the potential of biofuels.


Terje Riis-Johansen brought a Norwegian delegation to the Norsk Hostfest, Minot's Scandinavian festival, this week. The group also is visiting Minnesota.
'It's necessary for Norway to move extremely, much faster in the direction of renewable energy in the next 10 to 20 years than what we have done for the last 10 to 20 years,' Riis-Johansen said."

Bay Area expenses drive up salaries

Bay Area expenses drive up salaries

This article explains some of the challeges of living in the California Bay Area.

Claus Spreckels as Publisher

Who knew??

"Whitney owned the paper until 1870, when, financially drained, he sold it to printers James Black and William Auld but remained as editor.
Ten years later, the paper was sold again and Whitney promptly quit. The new owner was the great sugar baron, Claus Spreckels, the man for whom Spreckelsville, Maui, is named. Whitney disagreed with much that Spreckels stood for and Spreckels was a Royalist."

The Honolulu Advertiser | Celebrating 150 Years

The Honolulu Advertiser Celebrating 150 Years: "Claus Spreckels
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Claus Spreckels was a German financier, San Francisco sugar refiner and late-night card player who hit the financial jackpot in Hawai'i, particularly after he became a poker-playing buddy of King Kalakaua.
Thanks to that association, Spreckels became known as 'the power behind the throne' and 'the sugar king of Hawai'i.'
Spreckels was already financially flush when he showed up in Hawai'i in 1876 at age 48 and began investing in a number of enterprises, from land deals to railroads and sugar mills.
Within two years his efforts had led to the formation of what was considered the finest plantation in the Islands, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.
By that time he had realized the corruption potential of being a poker chum of Kalakaua's. Spreckels was able to manipulate the king by playing to his vanity. He made a fortune off a coinage fiasco in which silver dollars bearing the king's image were minted in San Francisco.
Under Spreckels' influence, the king dismissed resistant cabinets. The result was that Spreckels ended up controlling tens of thousands of acres of crown land with the backing of the legislature.
Spreckels returned to California in 1886 after he and the king had a falling out. But he continued doing business in Hawai'i for more than a decade after the king's death in 1891."

Brazil boosts ethanol output as prices soar - After Oil - MSNBC.com

Brazil boosts ethanol output as prices soar - After Oil - MSNBC.com

It is sort of interesting about the effect one counry can have on the industry.

The Discussion Continues

: "How cane sugar is different.
Cane sugar contains trace minerals that are different from those in beet sugar, and it’s these minerals that many experts say make cane sugar preferable to use. As professional bakers have long noticed, cane sugar has a low melting-point, absorbs fewer extraneous and undesirable odors, blends easily and is less likely to foam up. And that can be very important when you’re caramelizing a syrup, making a delicate glaze, baking a delicious meringue, or simmering your family’s favorite jam recipe."

Ethablog: SUGAR CANE GROWERS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT LAYS OUT PLANS

Ethablog: SUGAR CANE GROWERS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT LAYS OUT PLANS

This blog provides much info about the Brazilian sugar industry

Abstracts of 2004 Meeting

Abstracts of 2004 Meeting: "#860 IMPROVEMENTS IN WHITE SUGAR CRYSTALLIZATION CONTROL AT C&H SUGAR CO.
Jean Paul Merle and Vijay Hemraj, C&H Sugar Co., Crockett, CA, USA
The previous control system for white sugar crystallization used an absolute pressure – temperature relationship to determine the seed point. Grain establishment was carried out by increasing the absolute pressure and reducing the steam flow rate. Boiling consistency control was carried out by pan circulator motor load. The new system is microwave-based. The sugar liquor is based on density as indicated by the microwave sensor. Grain establishment is controlled in two steps: a grain-formation period controlled by a timer and a dilution period, also controlled by a timer, that admits increasing amount of fresh feed liquor, water or a mixture of liquor and water. During the boiling period, the concentration set point is changed continuously as the massecuite level increases. Final concentration is carried out by pan circulator motor load. The whole boiling operation is monitored and controlled by DSSE system (Danish Sugar & Sweetener Engineering)."

Grove Farm History

I think Grove was the home of the first successful cane sugar operation.

Management change at Grove Farm - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):: "Guido Giacometti resigned as president and chief executive officer of Grove Farm Company Inc. to pursue other interests. Giacometti first became a director of the company in 1987 and assumed the position of president and CEO in 1996. In other news, the board of directors elected Hugh W. Klebahn, chairman of the board of directors, to the position of chief executive officer. "

When Does Duck Season Open

N.D. ducks top average: "N.D. ducks top average

BISMARCK - The number of breeding ducks in North Dakota is down from last year but still well above the long-term average, state wildlife officials say.

The state Game and Fish Department said a spring breeding duck survey conducted in May showed an index of nearly 3.7 million birds. That was 11 percent lower than last year but still 76 percent above the long-term average, said Mike Johnson, a migratory game bird management supervisor.
Duck indices were up from 2005 for mallards and pintails, and unchanged or down for all other species, the department said. All species except pintails were above the long-term average.
The 2006 water index was down from last year but still 3 percent above the long-term average. However, Johnson said the wet cycle that began in 1993 appears to be waning."

Even in Norway

Krekar feared CIA plot: "Krekar feared CIA plot
A Norwegian newspaper is reporting that several agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been present and operating in Norway, in an effort to spirit Mullah Krekar out of the country.
Mullah Krekar's pronouncements in support of terrorists have infuriated many, not least US officials.

We Get Bigger

"Updated: June 16th, 2006 12:05 PM PDTAmerican Sugar Refining Acquires Hansen Specialty Sweeteners


American Sugar Refining, Inc. has purchased the specialty sweetener division of Chr. Hansen, Inc. for an undisclosed amount. The transaction includes the specialty sweetener product line of molasses, malt, rice syrup, oat extract, honey, and invert and fondant sugar, as well as production facilities in Louisiana and Illinois.
Shortly after PAI Partners acquired Chr. Hansen last year, it was decided to divest the sweetener activities of the company.
'As we reviewed our business strategies with a determined focus on growth, we realized that sweeteners are not within our core product areas,' said David R. Carpenter, president and CEO of Chr. Hansen in North America, in a prepared statement.
'Thus, we decided to divest Sweeteners, and further strengthen our expertise in developing and supplying cultures, dairy enzymes, natural colors, and flavors.'
American Sugar Refining, Inc., based in Yonkers, N.Y., is the largest cane sugar refiner in the U.S. Its products are marketed by Domino Foods, Inc., which offers a full line of sugar products under the Domino®, C&H® and Florida Crystals® brands.
Brian O'Malley, Domino's president and chief executive officer, said 'the acquisition adds to Domino's offering of specialty sweetener products, which includes natural and organic sugars and rice syrups, molasses, and fondant, icing and brown sugars. We intend to continue to grow the specialty ingredient business through the development of new and unique products that meet our customers' needs for specialty sweeteners.'
The sweeteners business wa"

A Lesson for US Voters!

"At least by U.S. standards, Calderon is a centrist, very much in the middle of the road," said Arturo Sarukhan, his chief foreign-policy adviser. "He would be like a liberal Republican or a moderate Democrat. He knows he will have to negotiate with the other political forces."

With Calderon as President of Mexico, in November maybe we will vote in the Center also.

Snowshoe Thompson

This has little to do with sugar but is about one of the people that brought skiing to the US.

A famous Norwegian immigrant skier was born in Telemark, Norway. His name, at birth, was Jon Torsteinson Rue. He was only ten years old when he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1837. In 1851 the family came to California to join the gold rush, without apparent success. Jon had changed his name to the more easily pronounceable John Thompson, and he was to become a legend as a one-man postal service carrying heavy mail sacks over the Sierra Nevada on skis in the winter.
Nobody in California and Nevada had seen skis before, so they called John's boards snowshoes, and he became known to everyone in the Sierra Nevada as Snowshoe Thompson. His service in speeding up mail deliveries was invaluable, since letters from one coast to the other frequently took a whole year. Skiing the 90-mile route through the wild mountains from Placerville, California, to Genoa and Virginia City, Nevada, Snowshoe Thompson was completely on his own. He maintained his route for twenty years, rarely if ever getting paid. He would accept food and other goods from some of the people who asked him to carry special packages for them and would even get shopping lists from people in the mountain communities who needed things from Sacramento stores. On several occasions, he saved the lives of snowbound and wounded miners because of his speed and skill on skis. During the summer he tried to supplement the income from his little farm outside Placerville by driving a stagecoach. On the whole, there were many people who depended on Snowshoe Thompson. He died in 1876. A memorial stone on his grave in Genoa, Nevada, has a pair of crossed skis chiseled into the granite.

A new water boon

"In Crockett, the East Bay Municipal Utility District recently won a $3 million grant to help build a water desalinator in the C&H Sugar plant. The facility, which will convert unused steam to generate the power needed to treat the water, will replace 1.5 million gallons of potable water the sugar factory uses each day for cooling and other industrial purposes."

Record meteorite hit Norway

"The record was the Alta meteorite that landed in 1904. That one was 90 kilos (198 lbs) but we think the meteorite that landed Wednesday was considerably larger,' Røed Ødegaard said, and urged members of the public who saw the object or may have found remnants to contact the Institute of Astrophysics."

And if you read this issue (click title) you find that unemployment is at a new low.

Cane Growers Full Employment Act

Planned ethanol plant in Tampa gets boost from Gov. Bush - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:: "Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:39 PM EDT Monday
Tampa's Port Sutton area is expected to be the home of Florida's newest ethanol production facility, and Gov. Jeb Bush used the site to sign into law a four-year, $100 million plan that could diversify the state's fuel supply while promoting energy conservation and efficiency.
Bush signed Senate Bill 888, otherwise known as the Florida Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency Act, that is expected to reduce regulatory barriers to expedite electric generation capacity and providing rebates, grants and tax incentives to drive the development of alternative fuel technologies, officials said. "

With 51 cents a gallon federal subsidy for ethanol, Florida growers may make out like bandits!

OpinionJournal - HOT TOPIC

"U.S. taxpayers today pay twice for ethanol: once in crop subsidies to corn farmers and again in a 51-cent subsidy for every gallon of ethanol. Without such a subsidy, ethanol simply wouldn't be cost competitive with gasoline. Then last year, Congress went further and passed a new ethanol mandate, requiring drivers to use at least 7.5 billion gallons annually by 2012."

[This opinion piece is worth reading in it's entirety.]

Wait and See

ETHANOL: Officials: You cane not beet sugar: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to issue a long-awaited study about July 1 on the viability of converting sugar into ethanol. Keith Collins, the USDA's chief economist, said that the soaring demand for ethanol and Brazil's successful track record make it worth discussing sugar-based ethanol."

Unintended Consequences

Maybe this will spell the end of sugar subsidies!

greatfallstribune.com - www.greatfallstribune.com: "Ethanol in the United States is subsidized through a 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit. Corn-based ethanol, largely produced from Midwest crops, dominates the U.S. market."

Uninteded Consequences !

Bloomberg.com: Latin America The focus on ethanol as a gasoline substitute promises significant changes in the sugar market. Who knows what the effect will be on Crockett.

Man battled moose with slipper - and won

Man battled moose with slipper - and won On the other hand it may be that the slipper carried the odor of feet belonging to a native fed for generations on lutefisk.

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: A Mighty Windmill Returns to Salinas, Calif., Estate

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: A Mighty Windmill Returns to Salinas, Calif., Estate: "Boasting 1,300 blades, a 114-year-old wind engine will spin once again at a historic farm in Salinas, Calif. A team of workers completed reinstallation of the mammoth structure at the Harden Estate, part of a 19th-century ranch, on June 7. "

C & H to Launch Organic Brand Sugar

Recipes by Florida Crystals Corporation Although C & H parent company has been producing Organic Cane for some time, the C & H Organic will soon be marketed in the west. Come to the Crockett Museum and Historical Society for more information.

Sugar House / American Sugar Refining Company

Sugar House / American Sugar Refining Company

This article provides background and history to the sugar trust in later years.

Pride Enterprises in dispute over land for hospital - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Pride Enterprises in dispute over land for hospital - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

I'd be interested in what Bel Glade residents have to say.

H no longer means Hawaiian

Little by little the world changes. Land use change is probably a good idea.

Energy is the future for Maui sugar plantation - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):: "Changes in the sugar industry have left the 125-year-old company little choice but to seek more profitable uses for its land holdings. Sugar prices are unstable, operating costs have risen and market share for Maui Brand sugar has declined.
As a result, HC&S is following the lead of Mainland corn, soy and other commodity growers that have focused on ethanol, biodiesel and the like for the past couple of decades to revive their balance sheets. "

Gore Movie making Headway

I haven't seen this movie yet but I may break my rule of not spending any of my dollars at movie theatres.

Comcast Message Center:

"An Inconvenient Truth' is breaking records at the box office. Even though it was only open in 77 theaters, its per-theater average gross was higher than any other movie last weekend!1

For the last two months, Al Gore has been criss-crossing the country to sound the alarm about global warming and make sure people see the film. He's gotten amazing coverage for this important issue. Now,
this Sunday, he wants to talk to all of you—MoveOn members"

Ethanol versus Refined Sugar

Who knows where this will take us. Maybe leave refined sugar to the world market or the beet growers and run automobiles with the cane. Cane to ethanol is certainly more efficient than corn to ethanol.
KRT Wire 05/30/2006 Some sugar cane farmers eye ethanol as potential cash crop: "Florida, which ranks third in the country in fuel consumption, is slowly warming to the idea of ethanol - just not from sugar. Construction on the first of two ethanol fuel plants is expected to begin this summer near Tampa. The $155 million project will be privately financed and have a combined capacity to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year - primarily from corn brought from the Midwest, Alvarez said. The University of Florida also is seeking $20 million from the state legislature to build an on-campus ethanol research plant."

Murphy's Ranch is the Place to Start

After several years the new park is ready to open. Plan on visiting during the town birthday celebrations in September.

One Down One to Go

Energy is the future for Maui sugar plantation - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

In many ways this is distressing news for Crockett.

Martinez to Benicia Ferry

a license was granted to Oliver C. Coffin (ominous name!) to establish a ferry between Martinez and Benicia, after he had filed a bond in the amount of two thousand dollars. The court permitted him to charge the following fares: For each foot man, $1; man and horse, $2.50; single horse, mule or ox, $2; wagon, $5; carriage, $4; each head of sheep or hogs, 50 cents.

A Problem for Beets

AP Wire 05/27/2006 Farming outlook grim for Pembina County: "'If you can't plant land until June 1, sugar beets and canola are out, and you lose 20 percent of your yield potential on wheat,' Symington said. 'This situation devalues our land because it limits what you can plant.'"

Friends of the Library Cookbook

The friends of the Crockett library have completed their cookbook project. We have them for sale at the Museum for $14.

Archaeologists uncover lost era

Archaeologists uncover lost era: "BRENTWOOD: John Marsh House dig reveals American Indian artifacts dating back 9,000 years
By Tanya Rose
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Archaeologists scouring the historic John Marsh House-Cowell Ranch site in Brentwood say there are American Indian artifacts and bones buried within the soil, some dating back as far as 9,000 years to the 'Paleo-Indian' era."

Wow! 9000 years.

Crockett Day in the Park

Memorial Day, Monday May 29, is always celebrated by the Museum and Historical Society. About 150 Crockett veterans and their families will stop by the Museum for refreshments and conversatio. Between 1 and 3 pm, the Generation Gap Band will play in Rithet Park. Given $3 gasoline, stay home, come to the Museum. Admission is always free.

Crockett Still Sets Records

Crockett sets rainfall record: "Crockett set a record today for annual rainfall, according to the town's official weather watcher, Karen 'Dejah' Dorantes.
'Ta-dah, we broke it,' Dorantes said.
The old mark of 30.51 inches, set back in 1957, fell at exactly 2:22 p.m., Dorantes said. It happened during an intense hour of rain that lasted until almost 3 p.m.
'We had a huge downpour right around 2 o'clock this afternoon,' Dorantes said. 'The skies just opened up.'
At 6:20 p.m. today, the total stood at 31.18 inches for the July 1 to June 30 period.
'We had not budged an inch since the beginning of May,' said Dorantes, who monitors Crockett's weather for KTVU Fox 2. There was measurable rainfall Friday, Saturday and today, she said.
Crockett's weather record applies only to 'recorded' history. There is a hiatus from 1977, when the National Weather Service decommissioned Crockett as a weather-monitoring post, until last year, when Dorantes became the TV weather watcher."

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: Oakland Preservationists Open Doors to Threatened Victorian House

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: Oakland Preservationists Open Doors to Threatened Victorian House: "Lushly decorated in the high Victorian style, the interior of the Cohen-Bray house in Oakland, Calif., is a must-see. Unfortunately, the 122-year-old structure is so fragile—compromised by a shaky foundation, leaky roof, and water damage—that it is usually closed to the public. On May 21, however, Cohen-Bray's board of directors will offer visitors a rare glimpse inside the house to shed light on current preservation efforts there. "

American Bridge awarded Bay Bridge span deal - East Bay Business Times:

American Bridge awarded Bay Bridge span deal - East Bay Business Times:

What we ought to do is sell all the bridges and revert to the old electric trains.

Before The Fall

Ninety years ago, as the month of June 1916 began, residents of Crockett, Valona, Selby and Port Costa looked forward to the anticipated joys of the coming summer season. The John Swett Senior Class dance and entertainment held at the Crolona hall on Loring was, according to the weekly Signal, “a big success.” The John Swett champion baseball team ended its season by winning every game against other schools in the county league. In honor of the champions, the student body gave the team a banquet at the Venus Café. The newspaper reporter, in the paper’s June 2nd issue, wrote “Crockett is certainly invincible when it comes to sportsmanship, or anything else for that matter, where skill and endurance is concerned.”

Before the Carquinez Bridge

For those who are curious about how folks crossed the Carquenez in the days before 1927:

The Solano and Contra Costa were the World's Largest Train Ferries and operated between 1879 - 1930. They ferried passenger and freight trains for one mile across the Carquinez Strait between Benicia (Army Point) and Port Costa (known earlier as South Benicia or Bull Valley). The ferryboats were named after the two counties served by the ferryboats as Benicia was located in Solano County and Port Costa was located in Contra Costa County.
The Solano was 424 feet long and 116 feet wide and were capable of carrying entire passenger trains or a 48-car freight train and locomotive. It was built in Oakland, California in 1878.
The Contra Costa was built in 1914 due to increased traffic over the line and the need for a second ferryboat. It was slightly larger and wider than the Solano.
Original traffic levels over the line could not justify the large capital expense of a long railroad bridge across the Carquinez Strait. However, by 1927 the two ferries were working at their maximum capacity. On May 31, 1928 the Southern Pacific authorized construction of the railroad bridge at Benicia. The bridge was completed eighteen months later and was formally dedicated on November 1, 1930. The bridge is 5,603 feet long and runs from Suisun Point (Martinez) to Army Point (Benicia).
The opening of the bridge marked the end of the ferry service at Benicia. According to historian Jerry Bowen, "(The) Solano was dismantled and the hull sank and rotted away at Morrow Cove (located at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo). The Contra Costa was dismantled at Oakland and sold for junk."

Local History

A couple of pertinent quotes from:


Ronald Limbaugh, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of History, University of the Pacific

“Preserving the raw material of history is one of the most important roles of local historical societies and libraries, for without documentation, history can truly become, as iconoclast John Dos Passos once said, “a mass invention, the daydream of a race.” (p.17, Summer 2005, California Historian)

“Regardless of whether the subject is the Peloponnesian Wars or the Fresno Armenians, no matter if you are a trained professional or a gifted amateur, if you write history, make it meaningful by telling us not only what happened but why. Flesh out bare skeletons with real people living real lives. Record not just events but explain their context and significance. Give the story perspective, depth as well as breadth. Finally, tell the story in simple, direct, literate prose. Thucydides did all this, and his words are still very readable today.” (p. 18, Summer 2005, California Historian)

Eye On The Bay

Today (May 3) the TV program "Eye on the Bay" brought their cameras and crew to C & H. The refinery will be included in an upcoming segement about factories and refineries around the San Francisco/San Pablo Bays.

Juan Bautista de Anza

Explorers Juan Bautista de Anza Blazed the Anza Trail

Juan Bautista de Anza was the first European to establish an overland route from Mexico, through the Sonoran Desert, to the Pacific coast of California. New World Spanish explorers had been seeking such a route through the Desert Southwest for more than two centuries. Born in Mexico in 1736, Anza joined the army in 1752 and served on the northern frontier of Sonora. In 1774, he led a small expedition from the presidio at Tubac (now in Arizona) to the mission at Monterey, California. The following year, he led a second colonizing expedition with livestock and more than 200 people, to establish the mission and presidio at, what would become, San Francisco. At the time of Anza's first expedition, the English still called California New Albion, the Russians were stalking the Pacific Northwest coast and the American Revolution was still years away. But starting in 1768, the Spaniards had already established a series of presidios and missions along the California coast as far north as Monterey.
……..
Upon his arrival back in Tubac on May 26, after traveling more than 2,000 miles, Anza immediately began plans to return to Alta California with a colonizing expedition. Colonizing Expedition A year later, after receiving permission and funding from Viceroy Bucareli in Mexico City, Anza began organizing his second expedition in the fall of 1775. Authorized to colonize the San Francisco Bay area by transporting 38 families, together with livestock and soldiers, he began to recruit from among the poor in Culiacan, 600 miles south of Tubac. The assembled expedition finally left from Tubac on October 23, 1775, with 245 people (155 of them women and children), 340 horses, 165 pack mules, 302 cattle. Father Pedro Font was selected to accompany this expedition, because of his expertise with navigation, along with a number of soldiers, 28 of whom would remain at the presidio once it was built in the San Francisco Bay region. The diary Font kept remains one of the great historical documents of the time. … Unlike the first expedition, they headed due west past Pilot Knob, arriving again at Yuha Wells on December 11. From there, this expedition followed the same route to San Gabriel Mission as the first expedition. After a freak desert snowstorm killed a number of their livestock, they headed up Coyote Canyon, going through San Carlos Pass on December 26. They arrived in San Gabriel on January 4, 74 days after leaving Tubac and 8 months after leaving Culiacan, the principle point of assemblage. He had succeeded in leading an enormous expedition safely to its destination through 1,800 miles of desert wilderness. On February 17, Anza and his expedition resumed their march north, traveling the familiar El Camino Real to Monterey, where they safely arrived on March 10. While the colonists remained there, Anza with Font and a squad of soldiers spent the following month exploring the San Francisco Bay area. Before leaving, Anza designated the future site of both the San Francisco Presidio and Mission Dolores. On April 13, 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza left Monterey and returned to Tubac. On June 17, the colonists left Monterey to sew the seeds for the city of San Francisco. Two weeks later on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies on the eastern shore of North Åmerica formally declared their independence from England.

Postscript: Upon his return to Sonora, Juan Bautista de Anza Anza was named governor of New Mexico. He died 12 years later on December 19, 1788 and was buried in Arizipe, Sonora, Mexico. Although rivals attempted to discredit his achievements, Anza's legacy is well established in history. He opened the overland corridor to the Pacific Southwest and had a primary role in the European settlement of California. Anza arrived in California with two more people than he had left with. Three children were born along the way; one woman died in childbirth. This almost doubled the population of California. The colonists who traveled the Anza Trail also gave birth to the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose. Their cattle and horses provided the foundation stock for the vast herds that would establish the great ranchos of California in the following years. In 1990, U.S. Congress created the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, comprising the overland route of the colonizing expedition from Tubac, Arizona to San Francisco, California. -- Bob Katz [Crockett should have been on the trail - but it's not. Keith]

Congressman Miller visits John Swett High School's "Student Creek Restoration Project"

January 3, 2006

Even the biggest storm to hit California in 20 years could not stop Congressman Miller and students from the “Water and Environment” class at John Swett High School in Crockett from their plans to restore Edward Creek located directly behind their school. On January 3, 2006, George joined the team of ten students, and their teacher, Ms. Meilin Duncan, to get the densely wooded area ready for habitat restoration. George and the students worked diligently in the rain clearing the riparian zone (the area around the creek) by identifying, collecting and removing invasive non-native plants and replacing them with native coast live oak trees. The class hopes that their efforts will eventually bring back endangered Monarch butterflies and become a sanctuary for other native California wildlife.
The team was led by Sandra Dare and Karina Korde of the Carquinez Regional Environmental Education Center (CREEC). CREEC is a nonprofit that educates students about the environment and encourages communities to volunteer in creek restoration along the Carquinez Strait. CREEC has worked with the class for over a month on the restoration project.

South Vallejo View toward Crockett 1868-1869

Strait of Carquennes, from South Vallejo, 1868–69Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829–1916)Albumen silver print from glass negative; 15 7/8 x 20 11/16 in. (40.3 x 52.5 cm)Gilman Paper Company Collection (L.1995.2.160)





When Watkins exhibited his mammoth prints in 1869, a critic remarked, "They justly deserve the encomiums passed upon them. For clearness, strength, and softness of tone, these picturesque views are unexcelled; and while they present truthful representations of the scene chosen, they are an earnest of the artistic skill of the photographer." The site of this photograph (known today as the Carquinez Strait) is a narrow, tidal body of water twenty miles inland from the mouth of San Francisco Bay. Part of a busy, deep-water shipping channel to Sacramento, the strait (and the surrounding shoreland) is still beloved for its extraordinary beauty and diversity of wildlife and flora. The Star Flour Mills (center) is featured by Robert Louis Stevenson in The Silverado Squatters (1883), his prescient travelogue about the California wine country of Napa Valley. Stevenson's account of his 1880 honeymoon discusses his journey from San Francisco to Calistoga and Mount Saint Helena, where he and his new wife and stepson lived for two months as "squatters" in the bunkhouse of an abandoned mining camp.

C&H From the WSW

When crossing the Carquinez, this is the sign seen from the bridge. Since the new owners took over, the sign has been turned on.

World's largest cruise ship in Oslo

I'd like to see this ship sail into the Carquinez! At least it stopped in Norway - never to see it again.

There are 1,800 double rooms on the ship, and space for 4,370 passengers. A
crew of 1,360 are ready around the clock for their guests, and the vessel
includes a 136-meter long shopping avenue on board.

More Bridge Pictures

The Museum now has complete pictorial documentation of the lowering of the first section of the 1927 bridge from the time it began to being floated away on the barges. Anyone who wants to view them can drop by on Wednesday or Saturday.

The Crockett Bridge is Coming Down

Today, April 24, dismantling of the steel structure began. The first section is being lowered to a barge. So far they are a bit ahead of schedule in a job expected to take until September 2007.

Crockett's Weatherpeople

After many years Crockett may again have an official weather station. This article was in this morning's West County Times.

Weather watcher revives tradition Crockett's official weather watcher waits for a record-breaking drizzle By Tom Lochner CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Karen "Dejah" Dorantes was set to post Crockett's all-time record for rainfall in a season when wet winter turned to sunny spring this past week, leaving her a fraction of an inch short.
"We just barely missed during this past rainstorm" over Easter weekend, said Dorantes, the official KTVU-TV weather watcher for Crockett since last year. "I thought we'd see the record fall." She's confident it will happen yet -- after all, the 2005-06 rainfall year ends June 30.
But after a record March, which saw 25 days of measurable precipitation in Crockett, and 10 rainy days out of 17 to start April, the climate has taken a turn for the better -- or worse, if you're chasing bad-weather records. A low-pressure system over the Pacific that appeared headed for a weekend Northern California landfall a week ago was falling apart by Friday, making a new record iffy -- for now.

Dorantes is undaunted.
"We will break the record; we're not done with the rain," she said. "We're at 30.26 (inches). We're very close. A quarter of an inch, that's all it's going to take, and the record falls."
"Come on, heavy weather," she coaxed. The record in Crockett's recorded history -- the qualifier is crucial -- is 30.51 inches, set in 1957.

Dorantes' husband, Rick, gave her a weather kit for her 50th birthday last year, rekindling a girlhood passion. "I've always enjoyed meteorology," she said. "It was one of my favorite sciences in high school and junior high school." The gift also revived a lost Crockett weather-watching tradition. From 1918 to 1977, Crockett was an official weather observation station for the U.S. government, said Keith Olsen, historian at the Crockett Historical Museum.
In those days, the official observation station was at C&H Sugar Co. In 1977, the National Weather Service determined the Crockett weather station needed new equipment. Instead of having it replaced, the government designated other stations in the area. The loss was not only Crockett's but science's. "The weather right here is a little different because of the location," Olsen said.

Dorantes agrees. "Crockett's a perfect observation post because it's at the mouth of the Carquinez Strait, just uphill from the Dead Fish (restaurant)" near the shore, she said. "Vallejo's weather station is way over the hills somewhere, in downtown. I'm closer to the water than they are." Soon after she got her weather kit, she called up KTVU Channel 2 and offered to become the Crockett weather-watcher. "They said, 'Sure.'" Her equipment includes a rain gauge and devices to measure wind direction, speed, humidity, air pressure and temperature. She does "Mornings on 2," rising at 4:30 every weekday morning to check her readings and her software, she said. "I e-mail my data in a few times during the broadcast, every few minutes if the weather's changing." She does it in part, she said, because "I felt Crockett was getting kind of ignored. Now, I get my shout out. Now, people know there is a Crockett."

In some future Crockett Meteorology Hall of Fame, Dorantes would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a giant: the late, aptly-named Charlie Wind, who combined weather science with poetry. An instrument technician who retired from C&H Sugar Co. in the 1960s, Wind was Crockett's weatherman for about 30 years, Olsen said. "In the spring, when the swallows came back to the warehouse, Charlie would go through the whole plant and announce, 'Spring has arrived. The swallows have returned,'" Olsen said. "It would be like 'The Swallows of Capistrano,' Olsen said, alluding to the famous 1940 composition by songwriter Leon Rene. Like Capistrano's swallows, Crockett's would return on March 19 -- or around that date, Olsen said.

In an era when records are increasingly accompanied by asterisks, Crockett's, when it finally falls, will come with one, too. "The qualifier is 'recorded' history," Dorantes said.
That excludes 1977 to 2005. There were some wet spells in that span, notably 1981 to 1983, when rains washed out the Carquinez Scenic Drive east of Port Costa, cutting Crockett's direct road link to Martinez. National Weather Service statistics for Martinez show 32.94 inches of rain in the 1981-82 season; 36.28 in 1982-83; 33.85 in 1994-95; and 35.66 in 1997-98.
Could Crockett's 1956-57 total of 30.51 have been beaten in any of those years?
"Since there wasn't any weather observation," Dorantes said, "we'll never know."

Park Dedication

Sunday, April 23, will be the dedication of the changes to Alexander Park. For those of you who haven't visited the town recently, come see. The Generation Gap Band will play for a couple of hours. Visit the new restroom. The new wall is attractive and the garbage cans are in an enclosure.

The Nation Newspaper | Minister: Sugar here to stay

The Nation Newspaper Minister: Sugar here to stay

"That [closing the sugar industry] is not our mandate. Our mandate is to transform the industry through diversifying it into a viable operation, maintain as many jobs as we can, and add some new jobs because there will be new skills required," he told the Press following the opening yesterday of a regional sugar seminar organised by the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme and the Barbados Agricultural Management Company. "

Rising Cost of Sugar

My relatives in North Dakota expect that sugar beets will be more profitable than ever this year. The largest sugar refinery in the world (Al Khaleej Sugar Company) has experienced an increase in the cost of their raw. They atribute much of the increase to Brazil.

"Shakir Husain, Gulf News Dubai Dubai: With the world's dominant sugar producer
and exporter Brazil diverting its sugarcane crops to produce ethanol to provide
cheaper fuel for motorists, sugar prices may be turning sour for
consumers.Coupled with a general rise in sugar consumption, the energy factor in
sugarcane use is affecting supplies of sugar, an industry expert said. Sugar
prices have risen from $270 per tonne at the start of 2005 to above $400 per
tonne this week.In the UAE, a kg bag that used to cost about Dh50 is now priced
above Dh80. "We expect high sugar prices to prevail in the short term," said
Somit Banerjee, an assistant general manager for trading at Al Khaleej Sugar.
The UAE company sources its raw sugar from Brazil. There is a "perceived
shortage" of sugar in the market and prices are volatile," Banerjee said. This
year Brazil is expected to divert 54 per cent of sugarcane yield towards
producing biofuels. ...(25 January 2006)"

Welcome to Al Khaleej Sugar

Strange place, I believe, for the worlds largest refiner. Twice the capacity of C&H Inc and still growing.

Al Khaleej Sugar Company (L.L.C) (Authorised and Paid-up Capital AED 50,000,000: Commercial Registration No. 53836), Dubai was established in 1992 to set up a sugar refinery to cater to the ever growing needs of high quality refined sugar for the domestic and the international markets. Engineering design of the sugar refinery located at Jebel Ali Port, Dubai was started in 1992 and construction of the refinery was completed in 1994. Commercial Production of the refinery commenced in July 1995 with an installed capacity of 2,400 tons per day of Refined Crystal Sugar. Being located in a country devoid of sugar cane production, the refinery was designed to process available raw sugar of different qualities from different sugar cane growing regions of the world. The company added substantial capacity for raw sugar storage in 2004. A dome shaped store with a diameter of 176 metres and a height of 84 metres, installed for the purpose, is the largest such structure in the world. With the addition of this new raw sugar store, the total storage capacity of raw sugar has increased to about one million tons. A team of qualified technical professionals have developed innovative means to achieve production capacity exceeding the installed capacity. The refinery has already achieved a capacity of over 5,000 tons per day (as of July 2005), which incidentally is the largest sugar refining capacity in the world.

Norway tops in coffee drinking

Norway tops in coffee drinkingPerhaps it's the cold winters, or simply tradition in a country where it's common to invite people over simply for cake and coffee. The brew is a fixture at dinner parties, where it's common for dinner guests to leave the table after dessert and adjourn to another room for coffee, cake and often a cognac around smaller tables.

Right After North Dakota!!!!

Concentration of Cane Sugar Refining

At the present time, there are but three cane refiners in the United State since American Sugar acquired C & H in California.

The most
recent move came in August, when the American Sugar Refining
Corporation purchased C&H Sugar, leaving only three cane sugar refiners in the country. American Sugar Refining's output is marketed by Domino Foods, which also markets production from the Florida Crystals refinery.

What this means to US growers remains to be seen. Some North Dakota beet growers are looking forwar to a better year in 2006.

Wyoming Sugar Beet Projection 2006

"Wyoming producers intend to plant around 39,000 acres of sugar beets, which would be 2,800 acres more than last year and 2,600 acres more than in 2004, Thorson said.
If the weather cooperates, Wyoming could see one of the largest sugar beet crops in recent memory.
Mark Bjornestad, senior agriculturalist with Western Sugar Cooperative in Lovell, said his company earlier this year extended an option allowing for producers to plant more beets."

North Dakota Sugar Beet History

The earliest record of sugarbeets being produced in North Dakota indicates that they were first planted in1890. While sugarbeet trials were conducted over the next 30 years, there was no amount of commercial production until the first sugar factory was completed at East Grand Forks, Minnesota in 1926. The first record of sugarbeet production is for 1924 when 2,600 acres were harvested in North Dakota. The total value of this crop was $194,000.
In 1953 there were 34,800 acres of sugarbeets harvested in North Dakota with a value of $3,729,000. By 1977 sugarbeet production had reached a peak of 155,200 acres harvested in North Dakota with a total crop value of $ 59,257,000. Sugarbeets have played an important role in the developing economy of the Red River Valley.

Wet Beet Fields in North Dakota

Again the Red River Valley is being soaked. Is this good or bad for the 2006 crop?


Walsh County Road 15 west going to Warsaw, N.D., had white caps on the water. The road more than three miles west of the Red River.

HOOVER Summary of C & H

This thumbnail appears on the Hoover Business report:

C&H Sugar's products go hand-in-hand with baked sweets and candy
treats. The company processes about 700,000 tons of cane sugar per year. It
makes such sugar products as baker's, dark brown, golden brown, powdered,
superfine, washed raw, and white granulated. C&H Sugar serves consumer, food
service, and industrial customers. Its products are processed, packaged (in various
sizes and forms including bulk and liquid), and shipped from its refinery in
Crockett, California. Formed in 1906 as California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining,
the privately held company was acquired by American Sugar Refining in
2005.

Boston Business Journal: Boston Beer mulls Freetown brewery - 2006-04-06

Boston Business Journal: Boston Beer mulls Freetown brewery - 2006-04-06

Beer may be as great a topic as sugar. The Mayflower loaded more beer than water on its trip to Plymouth Rock!

The Voice Of The Northern Plains

What is "Flodding?" Maybe Minnesota speak.

"Flodding; Manvel
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
MANVEL, N.D. (AP) _ The Manvel Fire chief says the town is safe from flooding.
But Fire Chief Steve Schumer says some homesteads in the rural areas are still at risk of flooding. He says volunteers will continue to put out sandbags wherever they are needed.
Grand Forks County Extension Agent Ken Nichols says some fields in the Manvel area are saturated and have standing water. He expects a slight delay in starting planting dates because of the flooding. Nichols says farmers are trying to protect buildings and machinery from floodwaters. Schumer says emergency responders evacuated a woman from her home about three miles east of Manvel yesterday. The home was surrounded by water."

Rain won't be going away

"The Bay Area's nearly relentless run of wet weather is expected to keep drenching the region for the next couple of weeks."

If this keeps up we may find ourselves in a rainforest.

Truth About Trade & Technology - Commentary: Sweet Opportunity

One can't help but wonder what would happen if the US abandoned sugar supports.

Commentary: Sweet The U.S. price of sugar has been two to three times higher than the world price for the past 25 years. The longer that imbalance has persisted, the more inefficient U.S. sugar producers have become. And, paradoxically, the more powerful they have become as a special
interest blocking U.S. trade expansion. Now that a spike in world prices has put the U.S. on par with foreign producers, there is a window of opportunity to do away with a sugar program that costs American jobs and has become a source of
trade friction around the world.

There is Always Next Year

When profits fall, people leave, farms get bigger demanding an ever increasing capital layout.

Farm
and Ranch Guide: Regional News: "Red River Valley farm profit falls nearly
50 percent in 2005
By ANDY SWENSON, Farm Management Specialist, NDSU
Extension Service
Thursday, March 30, 2006 9:47 AM CST

The Minnesota and North Dakota Farm Business Management Education programs have compiled their annual financial summary of farms in the Red River Valley.

This is the most detailed farm analysis information available to the public for this region. It is available at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/farmmgmt/FBM.htm and will soon be available at http://www.mgt.org Financial performance in 2005 was much worse than in 2004. Gross revenues were similar, but total expenses were up 10 percent. This caused net farm income to shrink by 49 percent."

Another Part of the Sugar Industry

The Business Review (Albany): Maple producers tap into sweet season; extra cash comes flowing in - 2006-03-27: "Maple producers tap into sweet season; extra cash comes flowing in"

Maple sugar is a much bigger crop than I ever suspected. Also, I was surprised to learn that Wisconsin is a significant producer.

Out with the Old, In with the New

And so it goes.

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: N.Y. Town Approves Demolition of 190-Year-Old Inn for Walgreens:

"A 190-year-old inn that may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad could be torn down for a Walgreens. Last week the town of Chili, N.Y., located outside Rochester, approved a developer's plan to build a
drugstore on the site of the Stagecoach Inn.

'There are quite a few people
who are against it,' says Darcy Beeman, a member of the grassroots group Friends
of the Stagecoach Inn. 'Our take is that the two buildings can coexist.'
On
Mar. 15, the planning board of Chili, a town of 28,000, voted 7-0 in favor of
Illinois-based developer Maude Development's plan to build a 14,820-foot
drugstore in place of the inn. Critics of the demolition plan will attend a
meeting with the zoning board of appeals next week.
'My feeling is that they
didn't do their homework on its cultural and historical significance,' says
longtime resident Pastor Rodney Jones. 'It's the most important historic site in
our town.'
Built around 1816 as a stagecoach stop, inn, tavern, and post
office, in 1867 the two-story brick building became the Chili Seminary, the
first Free Methodist educational institution in the country. The Free
Methodists, who were abolitionists, operated a 'temperance house' in the
building and may have sheltered runaway slaves there, Beeman says.
Last used
as an art studio and apartments, the building has been vacant for only three
months. Its owner, Alexander Tulloch, asked tenants to move out by January.
An Eckerd's drugstore, video store, gas station, and strip mall already
surround the Stagecoach Inn."

Molasses

I'm still searching for internet sites on the topic of Molasses. If anyone has suggestions, make a comment.

mosquitos in Arizona??

The Business Journal of Phoenix: Lowe's store fined for mosquito hazard - 2006-03-24

Do you think the snowbirds from the Dakotas brought the insects?

Dane considers porn fringe benefit - Aftenposten

I always knew the Danes were ahead on most social issues.

"An IT company in Nordjylland, Denmark has introduced a novel program to keep
employees satisfied. After examining well-known trends in Internet and business
traffic, LL Media decided it would be sensible and appreciated to offer all of
its employees free subscriptions to Internet pornography."

Hawaii Crop Damage

San Francisco Business Times: Lingle seeks federal aid for flooded farms - 2006-03-24

Flooding in Hawaii is causing significant problems for the state's adricultural community.

Modern Sugar Cubes a Disaster

When I was a boy my grandmother taught me how to drink coffee while holding a sugar cube in my teeth. Cubes in the market today cannot withstand the moisture and pressure and immediately disolve. What is a Norsk coffee drinker to do?


Lump sugar: "Lump sugar is refined sugar which has been pressed or cast into a particular shape. Chemically speaking, refined sugar is ultrapure sucrose which has been obtained from white sugar by dissolution and recrystallization. Its sucrose content is 99.9%. Refined sugar is pure white in color with sparkling crystals. Refined sugar has no secondary odors or flavors. The crystals are readily soluble.

Sugar cubes are available as either pressed or cast cubes.

Pressed cubes:

Sugar cubes were first made in 1840 by the Austrian Jacob Christoph Rad. Cubes were initially made by pressing moistened sugar and casting it in sheets, which were broken up first into strips and then into cubes.

Today, fine-grain refined sugar with 2 - 3% of added water is still pressed into sheets and strips, which are dried and divided into cubes. The dividing surfaces of pressed cubes may vary between smooth and very uneven as the strips are not always uniform in structure.

Since pressure bonds the sugar crystals together firmly only at the surface, pressed cubes are easily crushed and then break apart completely.


Cast cubes:

Refined sugar massecuite is allowed to solidify in a sheet mold. The sheets of sugar are then centrifuged and washed once more with saturated refined sugar solution. Then they are dried and divided into cubes.

Cast cubes are stronger, harder and somewhat more porous than pressed cubes. The sugar crystals are clearly recognizable. Due to their porous structure, cast cubes dissolve in liquids more easily than pressed cubes.

Sugar cubes are often arranged in neat rows in their packaging.
Loaf sugar:

Sugar loaves are also produced by the pressing process and used, for example, in traditional German burnt punch and in jam making."

Google Finance: Florida Crystals Corporation

Florida Crystals leans heavily on its cane. One of the top US sugar producers, the company, a unit of Flo-Sun, grows sugar cane and rice on its 180,000 acres. It makes granulated, baking, powdered, and large and fine grain sugar under the Natural Sugars brand name. The company also produces Sem-Chi rice. Florida Crystals jointly owns American Sugar Refining, a top sugar refining company that processes 3 million tons of sugar per year, with the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. American Sugar Refining's products are sold through Domino Foods, one of the largest sugar marketers in the US. Flo-Sun is owned by the Fanjul family, which founded it in the 1960s after fleeing Fidel Castro's Cuba. "

Since American Sugar owns C & H, I guess that makes us cousins or something.

Its Not Just Cane Fields That Were Damaged

Crawfish not as plentiful in 2006
Memphis Business Journal - 3:58 PM CST Wednesday
Summer crawfish boils across the South are likely to be more expensive this year, as the forces of last year's hurricanes combine with more aggressive action by U.S. Customs.
As the harvest gets underway this week, crawfish growers along the Gulf Coast are reporting yields of about 30 percent compared to last year's bumper crop, according to a report by the Louisiana State University Agricultural Extension Service.

Info for event nc51169283

Info for event nc51169283: "A minor earthquake occurred at 1:41:42 PM (PST) on Tuesday, March 21, 2006.
The magnitude 3.7 event occurred 6 km (4 miles) SE of Moraga, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 13 km ( 8 miles). "

More tax for foreigners

Just when I was thinking about getting a job teaching sugar history in Norway!!

New regulations mean that foreigners temporarily living in Norway will have
a bigger tax bill.
Foreigners with temporary employment in Norway are
entitled to a standard deduction on top of other common deductions, such as a
basic tax allowance, personal deductions and other schemes.
Beginning in
2006 this standard deduction for foreign temporary workers will be reduced from
15 to ten percent of earnings, and a ceiling for the deduction will be set at
NOK 40,000 (USD 6,000)."

Claus Spreckels Sugar King

One of my hero sugarmen


In 1857, he established the Albany Brewery in San Francisco, and after conducting both enterprises for a time, sold the store. His next concern was the establishment of the Bay Sugar Refining Company, but two years later he sold this and went to Europe to study more thoroughly the production and refining of beet sugar. While in Europe he entered a beet factory as a workman, and thus became familiar with all the details of the industry. He discovered that beet sugar could not at that time be manufactured in the United States with profit, and he accordingly returned to California and started the California Sugar Refining Company, which has grown to such proportions that it is now a landmark of San Francisco.

Sugar Outlook Brightens

Here are excerpts from several business news outlets:

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 News provided by Comtex.
Byline: Jo Studdert
Feb 14, 2006 (The Australian - ABIX via COMTEX) -- An improved outlook for the Australian sugar industry has lifted the price of sugarcane
farms. It has been difficult to sell sugarcane farms since 2000. However, the price of sugar rose to $US0.19 a pound in February 2006, the highest price for 24 years. The rise is due to a fall in sugar supplies. High oil prices have caused the world's major sugar producer, Brazil, to use
its sugar for the production of ethanol. Real estate agents in Queensland sugar- growing areas have reported strong interest
from buyers and an increase in land values.
Publication Date: 15 February 2006 HERRON TODD WHITE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD:

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Argus Media Inc.
Brazil's sugar and ethanol producers are expanding the area devoted to planting cane at a rapid pace to meet growing domestic and foreign demand for their products.
As part of this process, they expect to increase the excess electricity produced from biomass to operate their mills from 3,000MW to 10,000MW by 2010-11. Brazil's total power matrix--including imports of 8,000MW--amounts to 100,000MW, according to the national energy regulator Aneel.
Brazil is the world's largest and most efficient sugar and ethanol producer, and operates the world's most developed programme in biofuel production, which is based on cane.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Argus Media Inc.
Brazil's sugar and ethanol producers are expanding the area devoted to planting cane at a rapid pace to meet growing domestic and foreign demand for their products.
As part of this process, they expect to increase the excess electricity produced from biomass to operate their mills from 3,000MW to 10,000MW by 2010-11. Brazil's total power matrix--including imports of 8,000MW--amounts to 100,000MW, according to the national energy regulator Aneel.
Brazil is the world's largest and most efficient sugar and ethanol producer, and operates the world's most developed programme in biofuel production, which is based on cane.

Sugar is at the root of everything Mauritius is. It was the reason for importing slaves who gave the country its Creole language, the one common element that binds its different groups together, and later for bringing in indentured labour from India, the source of its majority population and dominant political class. Surplus proceeds from sugar were what enabled Mauritians to branch out into textile factories and tourism. Under the ACP deal, put in place more than 30 years ago, Mauritius sends all but a small share of its sugar to Europe, almost all in raw form and mainly to Tate & Lyle of the UK. The arrangement means it effectively commands the same price as EU sugarbeet producers.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Asia Pulse Pty Ltd
TAIPEI, March 14 Asia Pulse - Taiwan Sugar Company (Taisugar) Chairman Yu Cheng-hsien said Monday that the company will increase cane plantation acreage in the wake of rising world sugar prices.

Norway tops in coffee drinking

Norway tops in coffee drinking

When you read this story in Aftenposten, you must wonder what is happening to the people in North Dakota!

Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for $4.5 Billion - New York Times

Grand Forks-Contra Costa Connection moves from San Jose to Sacramento


Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for $4.5 Billion - New York Times: "Knight Ridder, the second-largest newspaper company in the United States, agreed last night to sell itself for about $4.5 billion in cash and stock to the McClatchy Company, a publisher half its size, according to people involved in the negotiations"

Dominican Republic - Cash Crops

The Dominican Republic Remains the Place to Grow Cane.

"Despite ongoing diversification efforts, in the late 1980s the Dominican Republic continued to be the world's fourth largest producer of sugarcane. The sugar industry influenced all sectors of the economy and epitomized the nation's vulnerability to outside forces. Fluctuating world prices, adjustments to United States sugar quotas, and the actions of United States sugar companies (such as Gulf and Western Corporation's sale of all its Dominican holdings in 1985) all could determine the pace of economic development for decades. "

What if the Survey Included Crockett?

Sex survey with crown prince and princess

No doubt I would have been on top of the ladies list!!

100th Birthday Party for C & H

The event went off better than expected. About 200 people came. Ate both cakes and drank all the bubly. The sun shown until noon. C & H puts up the tents tomorrow. Great fun.

Celebrate Crockett 2006

C&On Friday, at exactly 10:25 a.m., the whistle will blow at the C&H Sugar plant, marking 100 years of sugar refining in Crockett.

"That's the time it started, 100 years ago, March 10, 1906," said Keith Olsen, the historian at the Crockett Historical Museum on Loring Avenue across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks from the C&H truck entrance. The museum is in Crockett's former railroad depot, which is owned by C&H, as were once most of Crockett's public buildings. Crockett early in the last century was virtually a company town, employing much of the working-age population directly and providing work to others indirectly through businesses that catered to C&H and local needs.
C&H also owned and operated buildings and parks and sponsored clubs, parades, picnics, festivals and other social events. At its peak, it employed about 2,300 people. But in the latter half of the century, with increased mechanization and globalization of the sugar business, C&H retrenched its social functions. About 600 people work at C&H today, and few of those are Crockett residents.

But the history of C&H still largely defines the town. The museum is the repository of a lot of it.
In its C&H section, the museum exhibits old sugar boxes, sugar barrel photos, magazines, documents, photos and other and artifacts. Retired C&H workers who still live in town frequently hang out at the museum, where they revel in their role of "living history," recounting how sugar used to be processed: sandy-textured, raw sugar was mixed in big bins into a syrup and put through filters and centrifuges to separate the molasses from a clear liquid, which would be boiled, leaving the crystallized sugar.

On Friday, former plant manager Jon Wolthuis and current plant manager Charles Nelson will offer toasts. There will be a birthday cake with the C&H logo and champagne and sparkling cider.
"We've invited all past employees and retirees and anybody else," Olsen said.
On Saturday, there will be a celebration in the C&H-owned parking lot across the street from the museum with finger foods and desserts and activities under big tents. Some C&H officials are expected to participate, Olsen said.

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.H Sugar Co. celebrates century

ME at work

 

Norwegian sexologists unveil "penis atlas"

You have read this and wonder what has happened to Norway! Imagine. Ufdah

Carquinez Bridge is Falling Down!

Once noted Carquinez span now being torn apartBy Mike AdamickCONTRA COSTA TIMES

A tangle of rusted metal, twisted steel and broken concrete crosses the Carquinez straits like a crazed, tetanus-laced house of horrors. Holes gape where cars once traveled securely. Workers prepare to lift out entire 500-foot sections of towering metal. It's a somber ending for a once remarkable bridge.

The Carquinez Bridge was once the largest span west of the Mississippi. Built for $8 million in 1927 -- $83 million in today's dollars -- it incorporated seismic safety engineering and three kinds of steel. As a new connection between Solano and Contra Costa counties, it touched off a bridge-building boom throughout the rest of the Bay Area, replaced a ferry system that once carried 400,000 people a year and opened a motoring gateway to the Central Valley. The Golden Gate and Bay bridges didn't follow until the next decade. Now, it's quickly becoming a shadow of its former self, picked apart and scavenged as crews begin a painstaking demolition expected to last through next year.

"We can't just blow it up," said Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus. "We basically have to reverse engineer it, and take it down like it was put up -- piece by piece." The bridge is coated with lead paint and corroded with rust in some parts -- not particularly healthy food for protected smelt and salmon that swim below in the straits. So crews have begun taking the bridge down in sections and likely won't finish until September 2007, according to the latest schedule.
It begins with the road decks. Basketball court-sized chunks of concrete and metal are laced with cables and slowly lowered onto barges. The process takes more than six hours per piece.
Once the road decks are gone, crews will turn their attention to the steel towers that support the cantilever span, Haus said. When the bridge was built, the sections were hoisted into place by large cranes. Haus said the exact same thing will happen beginning this month. Only instead of lifting the pieces into place, the cranes will lower the towers onto barges, he said.
Under terms of the $35 million demolition agreement, the contractor -- California Engineering Contractors -- will be able to cart the metal to a scrap yard and keep any profits from selling or recycling the steel.

That's not to say the bridge will disappear altogether. Crockett's historical society will receive pieces, while Caltrans will keep portions for its own museum. Haus said a segment may even be displayed near the pathway of the new suspension span, which replaced the 1927 span.
"This was the first of the Bay Area bridges," Haus said. It deserves some recognition, he said.
So why not just keep it up -- for BART or extra traffic? Haus said the bridge has reached the end of its useful life and can't be easily retrofitted. Plus, Caltrans doesn't want to pay the maintenance costs of keeping it in operation.

So after almost 80 years, the bridge will enjoy one last party -- a retirement ceremony slated for March 17 when Caltrans hopes to send the bridge out with a bang . . . just not a big one.

Opening: The Carquinez Bridge opened on May 21, 1927 -- one day after aviator Charles Lindbergh's famous solo flight across the Atlantic.

Operator: 1927-1940 private; 1940-today Caltrans
Length: .8 miles
Cost: $8 million ($83 million today)
Demolition cost: $35 million
Completion date: September 2007

Tampa Bay Business Journal: Dairy Queen to test new store concept in Clearwater - 2006-03-07

"Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:58 PM EST Tuesday
The first freestanding DQ/Orange Julius TreatWorks restaurant in the United States has opened.
The new TreatWorks location at 2046 Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater replaced the DQ/Limited Brazier store at that address since Oct. 1990. It marks the first time a DQ/Limited Brazier store has been converted to a TreatWorks. "

I wish they would open one in Crockett.

Breakfast Lunch and Dinner!!

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: Taylor Farms in joint deal with Sunkist - 2006-03-06: " foodservice market, has entered into a joint venture with Sunkist Growers, the nation's oldest and largest citrus growers cooperative.
The new venture, called Sunkist Taylor LLC, will leverage the two firms' skill and assets in both the foodservice and retail markets.
Bruce Taylor, Taylor Farms' chairman and chief executive officer, said the goal 'is to build our fresh-cut fruit operation to serve both foodservice and retail customers nationwide... Our expertise in fresh vegetables and bagged salads and Sunkist's expertise in fresh citrus and other fruits are a perfect combination. Working together, we are creating a world-class fresh-cut fruit and vegetable company.' "

Man found dead after four months

This simply proves the old adage that you have to have a sharp eye to tell the difference between a Norwegian at rest and a dead body!

Strike Rumors??

The word floating around the drinking fountains these days is that a strike is brewing at C & H. Evidently the company is building its warehouse stockpile. Hopefully nothing will happen to mar the 100th anniversary celebrations on the 10th and 11th.

Angry hare attacked dogsled

This is the first item I've seen about an angry rabbit since President Carter was chased in his canoe.

Mardi Gras in Crockett

A good reason to come to Crockett. Copied from the West County Times

A little of New Orleans made an appearance in Crockett Saturday at the fourth
annual Crockett Mardi Gras Festival on Second Street.
The Crockett Chamberof Commerce, which hosted the event, encouraged festival-goers to dress in Mardi Gras costumes and join the fun, which also was a fund-raiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The weather cooperated as an outdoor stage featured live jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll music. Street performers, booths with vendors selling arts, crafts and other items, face-painting and more lent the appropriate good-times-roll feel to the festival.

An evening concert in the John Swett High School auditorium featured jazz singer Mary Stallings, the Neo Classsical Jazz Ensemble and the Terry Henry Trio.
For more information on the Crockett Chamber of Commerce and upcoming events, call 510-787-1155."

Crockett's Mardi Gras

Saturday, Feb 25, will be celebrated in Crockett as Mardi Gras. At least for part of the day, 2nd Avenue will be closed off, tables and booths will be set up (the Museum has one), music will play, and all those good things. Mary will have books, t-shirts, cards, etc for sale. It is a way to Celebrate Crockett. In the evening there will be a Jazz concert in the John Swett Auditorium. Be there.

Soybean Growers Arise!

Cargill moves ahead with glycerin business - 2006-02-22 - The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

Things are looking up for soy bean growers.

Celebrate Crockett T-Shirts Arrive

The Museum has received its order of 500 t-shirts. These will be sold for $10 (sm, med, lge, 1X) and $12 for 2x and 3x. Already 9 shirts sold. I think these will all go and our loans will be repaid. Mary will have a table at the Mardi Gras on Saturday.

Bay Area Levee Concerns

Levee funding changes may sink some islands


Posted on Mon, Feb. 20, 2006
TIMES WATCHDOGLevee funding changes may sink some islandsBy Kiley RussellCONTRA COSTA TIMES

The New Year's storm that tormented many of the Delta's aged levee systems blasted through the earthen walls protecting little Fay Island, submerging it under 10 feet of water. The privately owned, 115-acre island in San Joaquin County suffered a roughly 65-foot levee break early New Year's Day. "The wind was anywhere from 45 to 60 miles per hour. I have never seen wind like that in this area before and I've been here for 57 years in the Delta," said the island's caretaker, Frank Craffey. "It was just horrifying. The water was spraying over the levees tremendously and just eating them up."
The wind and waves that sank Fay and damaged several other Delta islands are now quiet, but another storm, perhaps more powerful, is brewing in Sacramento as politicians and state water officials contemplate changes to the way levee maintenance districts are funded. So while the immediate effort to pump out and rebuild Fay Island is fraught with complications, its owners -- along with dozens of other landowners and levee district mangers in the Delta -- are also casting a worried eye toward the future. "A couple partners and I bought the island about five years ago. It was in terrible shape. The levees were all torn up," said Paul Edwards, who sits on the board of Reclamation District 2113, the local agency responsible for the island's levees.
"We've been working for the past four or five years to build the levees up to an acceptable state and make it so we could last through a storm like last winter, but we didn't quite get there."
To salvage their investment, Edwards and his partners have embarked on a reclamation project and are still trying to discover how much, if any, state money they can corral. If they can't enlist state assistance -- and state money -- for levee reconstruction and water removal, they will have to shoulder the entire $190,000 bill. Compounding Edwards' troubles is a growing debate in Sacramento among lawmakers and state water officials about whether islands like Fay, which protects little of statewide interest, are worth saving at all.

The Politics of Sugar

To understand the power of Florida sugar, it is illustrative to look at the very wealthy, very private members of the Fanjul family of Florida. With an enormous sugar empire that dwarfs even the U.S. Sugar Corporation, the Fanjul family's sugar holdings in Florida and the Dominican Republic total more than 400,000 acres, operated by a family of companies under the corporate umbrella of Flo-Sun, Inc.
Four brothers -- Alfonso 'Alfie,' Jos� 'Pepe,' Alexander, and Andres -- are the principal owners and managers of Flo-Sun. The Fanjuls are Cuban-American descendants of the wealthy Gomez-Mena family of Cuba, which controlled much of the American-dominated sugar industry in Cuba until Fidel Castro seized power, and the New York-based Fanjul family. Matriarch Lillian de Fanjul and her four sons make their home in exclusive Palm Beach, Florida, an hour's drive and a world away from the gritty sugar plantations of western Palm Beach County.
Unlike U.S. Sugar Corporation, its Florida rival, whose offices are smack in the middle of Clewiston's sugar fields, Flo-Sun is headquartered in a posh complex in Palm Beach. The Fanjuls themselves live in multimillion-dollar mansions set among the palm-tree-lined streets of the town. "

A Bit Of History

Insects Affecting Sugarbeets in North Dakota: "The earliest record of sugarbeets being produced in North Dakota indicates that they were first planted in1890. While sugarbeet trials were conducted over the next 30 years, there was no amount of commercial production until the first sugar factory was completed at East Grand Forks, Minnesota in 1926. The first record of sugarbeet production is for 1924 when 2,600 acres were harvested in North Dakota. The total value of this crop was $194,000.
In 1953 there were 34,800 acres of sugarbeets harvested in North Dakota with a value of $3,729,000. By 1977 sugarbeet production had reached a peak of 155,200 acres harvested in North Dakota with a total crop value of $ 59,257,000. Sugarbeets have played an important role in the developing economy of the Red River Valley. Also,certain insects have played a role in the production of sugarbeets. Historically the sugarbeet root maggot has been without a doubt the main insect culprit affecting sugarbeet yields, but in recent years, cutworms, grasshoppers, flea beetles, white grubs and a few other shave managed to take their 'bite' out of sugarbeet profits as well."

Dakota Beets are Best

Fertilizing Sugar Beet in Minnesota and North Dakota: "The three grower-owned cooperatives in Minnesota and North Dakota vary in their payment programs. Some programs pay strictly on net sucrose quality, which is determined by sugar beet root quantity and quality. Other programs give financial incentives for delivering higher quality sugar beet roots to the factory. In both cases quality is determined by the concentration of sucrose and impurities in the root that need to be separated during the refining process.
Optimum sugar beet production in Minnesota and North Dakota relies on a sound soil fertility program. A sound fertilizer program can enhance the quality of the sugar beet. The recommendations suggested in this publication for the supplemental application of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are based on thirty years of scientific research in the sugar beet growing areas of Minnesota and North Dakota. "

Billeci murder

From the CROCKETT SIGNAL Friday, August 26, 1910

Two Sicilians Killed and Four Injured

Scow Town, that section of the Crockett Waterfront lying directly east of the old Eppinger warehouse, the inhabitants of which number mostly Sicilians was the
scene of a cutting and shooting affray last Saturday night about 9:30 o’clock that resulted in the death of two persons and the wounding of four others. All the parties concerned in the affair are related and the exact cause leading to the trouble is hard to ascertain because of the conflicting stories told. The truth will probably not be known until the matter is sifted out in court. Out of the varied accounts the writer has secured the following story which shows that a misunderstanding, added by a family feud, resulted in the death of Joe Billici and his niece, Rosa Billici, by shooting, while Steve Billici and Mrs. C. Enea were wounded by shots and Mrs. Steve Billici and Mrs. L. Bruno injured by cutting.

Harmony has not prevailed in Scow Town for many months especially between the family of Joe Billici and the families of L. Bruno and Steve Billici. Two month ago last Saturday night, or to be more explicit on June 25, Joe Billici created a disturbance at the home of Bruno and his brother Steve for which he was arrested on the following Monday and fined $30. This instance is cited to show the unfriendly feelings existing
between the families.

Last Saturday night Joe Billici, accompanied by a man named Enea, came uptown to make some purchases and entered the Toscano saloon to secure a drink. Shortly after entering another crowd, said to have been friends of Steve Billici, came in and wanted to drink at Joe’s expense but he refused because of a lack of money. Some words were passed and trouble ensued between some of the party that resulted in their being ejected from the building. Constable Fox appeared on the scene at this juncture and put a stop to further trouble, the crowd dispersing. Some of them were from Scow Town and they happened to return home ahead of Joe. The latter’s wife inquired after him and was told that he was coming. She was also informed of the saloon quarrel. When he did appear he was scratched about the face and his wife thought he had been fighting with his old enemies. Under this belief she hastened to the home of Steve Billici and smashed a front window. This brought Mrs. Steve Billici to the door, also Mrs. Bruno her mother. Joe’s wife accused Steve’s folks of beating
her husband and wrangling ensued. In the midst of this quarrel Joe appeared
armed with a razor with which he slashed his brother’s wife about the head and
face and also made two long gashes, extending almost from ear to ear, about the
throat of Mrs. Bruno. The screams of the women brought Steve to the door and he
received a gash on the forehead. Steve retreated into the house and secured his
revolver, his brother Joe returning home. As Steve came out with his weapon
another brother, Frank, who was attracted by the disturbance, grappled with him
to secure the revolver. In the struggle the weapon was discharged, the bullet
barely breaking the skin on the left arm of Frank but striking his 9 year old
daughter Rosa, standing off several feet, in the right eye. The child lived
about three hours.

From this point the rest of the evening’s affair is muddled. Steve claims that after the revolver was discharged that Salvador Billici, eldest son of Frank Billici, shot him in the right wrist while he and Frank were struggling over the weapon. Then Frank secured the weapon and he and his son disappeared.

In the meantime, it is claimed, Joe rushed home and secured his rifle and was returning to the scene when Steve emerged from the house with a rifle and opened fire. One bullet passed through the corner of a storeroom and struck Mrs. C. Enea in the right breast. As the force of the bullet had been spent it made merely a slight flesh wound. The second bullet from Steve’s rifle pierced Joe’s head,. entering at the left eye and emerging at the back of the head, making a gaping wound. Death was instantaneous.

Constable J. J. Fox, followed by J. J. Lewis and Oscar Prytz, hastened
to the scene after the first shot was fired. In the darkness they were unable to
distinguish just where the trouble was. All was quiet then in Scow Town, so
Constable Fox hastened to the Lucido house on the bluff side where a commotion
was going on. When he reached there the first person he encountered was Mrs.
Steve Billeci, who had fled from her home and from whose head and face blood was
streaming profusely. While this woman was trying to explain to him the trouble
two more shots were fired from below and Constable Fox rushing toward the place
found Steve with his smoking rifle. Throwing his revolver on Steve, Constable
Fox disarmed him. In the meantime Lewis discovered the dead body of Joe. Pacing
Steve, who was weak from loss of blood, inside the house, Constable Fox passed
the rifle to Lewis and arrested Frank Lucido on suspicion for witness purposes.

Shortly after Lucido had been taken into custody, Constable Fox arrested
Salvator Billeci on suspicion that he had taken part in the shooting. Lucido and
Salvator were placed in jail.

Later Frank Billeci was also arrested and turned over to Deputy Sheriff Veale and Constable Palmer of Martinez who conveyed their prisoner by launch to the county jail. Lucido and Salvator were taken to Martinez the following day and placed in the county jail. Lucido was afterwards released, evidence showing that he had nothing whatever to do with the affair. Young Salvator and his father were brought down from Martinez Wednesday and taken before Justice of the Peace O'Neill, who released the father on $500 bail, as it was shown that he had acted in the role of peacemaker. Salvator’s bail was placed at $5,000, which friends raised for him
Wednesday.

Doctor G. W. Sweetser and A. W. Rickey and Druggist A. A. Paul were summoned to attend the injured, who were placed in the Bruno home. The sight presented the medical men on entering the place was one they will not soon forget. The house represented a shambles more than a dwelling place.

INJURED TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
Steve Bellici and Mrs. Bruno, the ones suffering the most injury, were taken to the county hospital at Martinez Sunday morning. While at first their cases were considered dangerous, under skillful treatment they have made good progress toward recovery.

Steve is suffering from the effects of two wounds, one in the right wrist which he claims his nephew Salvator inflicted with a revolver and the other from a bullet wound in the right breast. Then again it may be that another bullet was fired aside from the one laid at Salvator’s door.

Mrs. Bruno’s close call from death was miraculous. Had the razor blade
sank a fraction deeper, arteries and windpipe would have been severed. The cuts
made exposed the throbbing arteries and windpipe.

CHARGED WITH
MURDER
As soon as Steve Billeci, now in the county hospital, recovers from his wounds he will be taken into court to face a charge of murdering his brother and his niece. As he admits killing Joe and it is known that the shot he fired with his revolver killed Rosa, his niece, he stands a small chance of going free.

SALVATOR CONFESSES
It is said that Salvator Billici admitted in the sheriff’s office Tuesday that he shot
his Uncle Steve after the latter had killed his sister while Steve and the girl’s father, Frank, were struggling over possession of the weapon. It is reported that he did the shooting with a revolver throwing the weapon into the bay after the firing.

FUNERAL SERVICES OF THE DEAD
The funeral services of Joe Billeci and his little niece Rosa were held Tuesday at Martinez under the direction of Undertaker J. J. Hauser. The services were largely attended, two processions forming that stretched several blocks. Services were held at St. Catherine church and interment made at St. Catherine cemetery.

Brief History of Brickmaking in California

Brief History of Brickmaking in California: "Among them is the oldest brick plant in California, the McNear Brick Company on the shores of Marin County which has been in operation since 1868."

Celebrate Crockett News

C & H Sugar will participate in town celebration of the C&H 100th birthday. They will have music, balloons, food and games at Rithet Park. The Museum will have finger food, deserts and drinks with some short speeches at the Museum. Stay tuned.

Wine or Sugar

By the looks of things I need to shift my interest from sugar to grapes!


Record grape crush raises price worriesCelia Lamb
California winegrape processors crushed a record quantity of grapes last year. The 2005 total, 4.3 million tons, stomped the 2004 crush by 19 percent, the California Agricultural Statistics Service reported today.
Benign weather helped growers produced a bountiful grape crop last year. Crushing operations took more red and white wine varieties, up 35 and 34 percent respectively, and cut back on less-desirable raisin varieties by 36 percent. The table grape squeeze was down 6 percent.
Chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon made up nearly 30 percent of the crush.
Despite the plentiful supply, the average price in California rose by 1 percent for red winegrapes and 3 percent for white varieties, reaching the highest levels since 2001. Growers worry that the bumper crop will lower prices for this year's harvest.
Winegrapes from the Sierra foothills sold for an average of $1,093 per ton, compared to $529 in the Delta and $427 in other parts of southern Sacramento and northern San Joaquin counties. Those were bargains compared to the state's better-known growing regions. In Napa County, the average was $2,887 a ton for grapes that weren't grown at the winery where they'll be bottled; one variety went for more than $5,000 a ton.
In the region which includes Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, a ton went for an average of $1,028.29. In the Monterey region, the average price was $979.04.
Statewide, prices for raisin and table grapes plummeted by 18 percent and 39 percent, respectively.