Yvonne Barnette, an employee at the Blue Wing Saloon restaurant in Upper Lake, Calif., will be honored at a fundraiser event on Saturday, December 3, 2011. Barnette is fighting cancer and recently underwent surgery.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – This Saturday, Dec. 3, the Blue Wing Saloon Restaurant in Upper Lake will help to raise funds for one of its most outstanding servers, Yvonne Barnette, who has recently undergone serious cancer surgery and is recovering in a San Francisco hospital.

Barnette was one of the first employees hired by the Blue Wing when it opened in June 2005. She has been extremely popular with customers and co-workers ever since.

She worked for many years at Renee’s Restaurant in Lakeport and has built up a loyal fan base among her many customers over the years.

Friends of Barnette are invited to stop by the Blue Wing for lunch on Saturday. The restaurant will donate all of the gross proceeds of the lunch to a fund to help defray her medical and other expenses.

Blue Wing servers have volunteered to donate the tips they make that day – including the dinner shift during the Upper Lake Light Parade – to the Yvonne Barnette fund.

The restaurant will maintain a contribution box for Barnette through the following week for friends and guests who may wish to contribute.

Those wishing to contribute by mail should do so by addressing a check to Yvonne Barnette, c/o Ms. Kelly Yoemans, Tallman Hotel, 9550 Main St., Upper Lake CA 95485.

Christmas in the Country takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, in downtown Kelseyville.

Becca Brookes is a 17-year-old senior at Kelseyville High School.

She has lived in Kelseyville all of her life and loves this country town.

Ever since she was a little girl she loved the Christmas in the Country celebration.

She has enjoyed seeing the decorations go up around Thanksgiving week, but has been troubled by the “candlestick” ornaments hung on the telephone poles with broken lights and unorganized colors.

This year her dream of seeing these decorations in good working condition and strung with the proper colors and long lasting, energy saving LED lights, has come true.

Brookes' goal brought together three generations in the project of rewiring, attaching wires and plugging in the proper colored lights.

Her grandfather, Russ Porterfield, gave his expert knowledge, tools and perfect work space at his hangar. He spliced the wires and tested all of the connections.

Becca Brookes determined the color pattern for the candlesticks and carefully screwed in every LED light.

Her little sister, Blair, a sophomore at Kelseyville High, attached the strings of lights to the candlesticks with zip ties and literally worked until she had blisters on her hands.

The girls' mom, Lynn, helped to organize the project, ordered the supplies and took off the old wires.

The Kelseyville Lions Club and Kelseyville Business Association supported the project. The Pear Festival Committee and the Brookes family covered the costs.

The Brookes family hopes to assist with keeping these decorations in proper working condition for years to come.

Merry Christmas and let your light shine this holiday season.

For more information about Kelseyville Christmas in the Country, call Mary Morse, 707-279-8559.

From left to right, Diane Guzman, Patricia Janaka, Lioness President Anna Jones, Linda Keyes and Valerie Davison at the Konocti Lioness meeting on Thursday, November 17, 2011. Courtesy photo.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – At its meeting on Thursday, Nov. 17, the Konocti Lioness Club welcomed four new members.

Inducted into the club were Diane Guzman, Patricia Janaka, Linda Keyes and Valerie Davison.

Flotilla 88 Vice Commander Gary Dromi, District Vice Commander Harold Hauk and USCG CWO Don Miterke hold the special Thanksgiving cake at a Thanksgiving lunch served at Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Courtesy photo.

FORT BRAGG, Calif. – On Wednesday, Nov. 16, several members of Flotilla 88 of Lake County traveled to the United States Coast Guard station at Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg to once again prepare and serve an early Thanksgiving lunch for the personnel stationed there.

Also, participating were members from Flotilla 87 of Mendocino County.

Three turkeys were cooked and served with mashed potatoes, yams, gravy, dressing, salad, cranberries and dinner rolls.

Soft drinks were provided and a large decorated sheet cake with a Happy Thanksgiving greeting was presented for dessert.

Flotilla 88 and Flotilla 87 have made this a traditional occasion for the past several years.

It is always a great privilege to serve the Coast Guard personnel, known as Coasties, who give so much to our country by patrolling our shores, answering distress calls for help and assistance, and much, much more.

They stand by their motto, Semper Paratus.

Chow time for United States Coast Guard personnel at Noyo Harbor station in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Courtesy photo.

The winds, expected to be 35 to 45 miles per hour with gusts up to 60 miles per hour, could result in falling trees taking down power lines and poles and interrupting electric service throughout the region.

To prepare for such storms and minimize outages, Pacific Gas and Electric Company has an extensive preventive maintenance and tree trimming program.

Each year, the utility inspects every mile of line in its service area – more than 130,000 miles total – and spends more than $180 million to reduce the hazards from trees and bushes.

When outages do occur, PG&E employees remain focused on ensuring public safety, determining the extent of the damage, providing customers with all available information, and restoring service as quickly as possible.

During outages, PG&E communicates with customers regularly and through many channels about when power is expected to be restored.

Customers can get information by calling PG&E’s automated outage line at 1-800-PGE-5002 or by accessing the following online resources: a live outage map and storm guide at http://www.pge.com/stormoutages; PG&E’s Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/pge4me; and PG&E’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pacificgasandelectric.

PG&E offers these suggestions to help customers get ready for the oncoming storm:

• If you see a downed power line, assume it is “live” or carrying electric current. Do not touch or try to move it—and keep children and animals away. Report downed power lines immediately by calling 911 and by calling PG&E at 1-800-PGE-5000.

• Before calling PG&E about an outage, customers should ensure their outage is storm-related by checking their circuit breakers and/or fuse boxes to see whether the problem is limited to the electric system in their home or office, and/or by checking with neighbors to see whether other people are affected.

• Do not use candles because of the risk of fire. If you must use candles, use extreme caution. Do not use candles near drapes, under lampshades or near holiday trees. Keep candles away from small children and do not leave candles unattended.

• If your power goes out, turn off or unplug all electric appliances; otherwise, several appliances may come back on at once and overload your circuits when power is restored. Hot appliances also pose a fire hazard if they come back on while you’re away or asleep. Leave a single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your appliances back on one at a time when conditions return to normal.

• Have battery-operated radios with fresh batteries ready for updates on storm conditions and power outages.

• Have battery-operated flashlights with fresh batteries on hand.

• Have a cell phone or hard-wire, single-line telephone on hand. Cordless phones will not work without electricity.

• Fill used liter-size plastic soda bottles with water and place them in the freezer. During an extended outage, transfer them to your refrigerator to prevent food from spoiling. Open the refrigerator only when necessary to keep warm air out and cooler air in.

• If you have a generator, inform PG&E and do not use it unless it is installed safely and properly. If it is not, you risk damaging your property and endangering yourself and PG&E line workers who may be working on nearby power lines. Information on the safe installation of generators can be found on our website at http://www.pge.com/generator.

More than 100 families have registered to date, however Spirit of the Season reports that it can accommodate 150 families on a first-come, first-served basis for those who live in Middletown, Cobb or Hidden Valley Lake.

Registration closes on Dec. 9 so act now by calling JoAnn Harmon at 707-987-4704.

The registrations for the wish tree portion of Spirit of the Season has already ended and is now closed.

Anyone wishing to assist Spirit of the Season can send a tax-deductible donation to SOS, P. O. Box 1468, Middletown, CA 95461.

To date the group has received $5,025.

Spirit of the Season thanks all the businesses and individuals for their generous offerings as they continue to support the program.

Spirit of the Season is not a part of any other holiday fundraising effort receiving all of its donations directly from the public.

Those wishing to purchase a gift for a child will find wish trees at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Tri-Counties Bank, WestAmerica Bank, Mulligan’s and HVL Realty.

Please remember to bring that unwrapped gift back by Dec. 9 to the place from which you took the wish tree bell.

Contact Sandy Tucker regarding the wish trees at 707-987-0263.