LAKEPORT, Calif. – The June 10 meeting of the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee has been canceled.

The next meeting will take place at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 8, at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Join docents and friends on Saturday, June 13, when the Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum hosts its annual “Picnic on the Porch” fundraiser event.

Don’t miss this food and fun-filled day on the beautiful wraparound stage stop porch looking out on Mount Konocti.

The day will be filled with entertainment and living history. Professional Harpist Linda Brown will offer a range of Celtic, classical and other melodies.

Fashions “then and now” will be featured during the event. Barbara White, local specialist in period clothing, will model fashions popular in the Stage Coach Era.

Anna Jones of Anna’s Boutique and friends will model local contemporary women’s fashions.

A delicious seasonal box lunch from Rosey Cooks, local gourmet catering owned by Rosemary Martin, will be provided at noon. Rosey’s lunch is always a big hit.

Bring your own wine to sip in beautiful Ely Stage Stop wine glasses that are always available for purchase. Games, basket raffles and silent auction items will round out the afternoon.

Although the action that day is “on the porch,” a visit inside the main house affords the viewing of the current display on the history of the dairy industry in Lake County.

In addition to the stage coach and retired San Francisco cable car, pieces of historic farm equipment can be viewed in the barn and on the grounds. Come see the progress being made on the blacksmith complex.

Lunch is typically served at noon but the fun will begin at 11 a.m. and continue until 3 p.m. Event cost is $30/per person.

For tickets, call Ely’s message line at 707-533-9990 and a docent will call you back, or visit the museum and ask the docents for tickets during museum hours, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tickets must be purchased by June 8. Seating is limited so get your tickets now.

The Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum, home to the Lake County Historical Society, is located at 9921 Highway 281 (Soda Bay Road) in Kelseyville.

Visit www.elystagestop.org or www.lakecountyhistory.org or check out the stage stop on Facebook at www.facebook.com/elystagestop .

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Until late July, visitors to Middletown’s Gibson Museum and Cultural Center can get a closeup view of a genuine Pomo tule boat.

This example is recent rather than historic, constructed by Big Valley tribal members for their annual heritage races.

Racing boats are somewhat more shallow than some traditional tule boats.

The boats are crafted from reeds of tule (the “e” is sounded as a second syllable) rushes that grow along the shores of Clear Lake and other waterways.

Tule rushes themselves are falling prey to the onslaught of civilization, crowded out by piers and pollution.

Tule reeds are approximately eight feet tall when cut. They are tied together in bundles, which are then bound together to form the boat.

Traditionally, the bindings were tule reeds; for the boat on display at Gibson Museum plastic rope has been used.

Usually, one boatsman – sometimes two – kneels atop the craft and uses a paddle to propel it across the water.

Historically, most Northern California natives used tule craft. Today the Big Valley tribe may be the only group doing so.

They make the boats only for the Tule Boat Festival, which the tribe started a dozen years ago for the specific purpose of maintaining the art of making the boats and using them.

The Heritage Festival typically takes place in July. For information, contact the Big Valley Rancheria: 707-263-3924 or send email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Gibson Museum is located on the corner of Calistoga (Highway 29) and Callayomi streets in Middletown.

The gallery is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday afternoons from 1 to 5 p.m.

The tule boat, however, is positioned in the garden and may be seen at any time in the next eight weeks.

Call 707-809-8009 or write This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Wine Studio and Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake are joining together to present a unique weekend event on June 5 and 6.

The event will combine art opening and local wine tasting with a multimedia concert featuring acoustic guitar and live digital drawing inspired by scenes from Lake County wine country.

Featured artist at the Wine Studio opening and tasting both Friday and Saturday evenings will be acclaimed illustrator Bill Russell exhibiting his unique drawings of the North Coast and its rolling wine country.

Russell will be joined by guitarist Brian Gore in a “concert with conversation” the following evening, Saturday, June 6, starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Tallman Meeting House.

During the concert, Russell will complete a finished drawing live and projected onscreen, based on his impressions of the beautiful and evolving Lake County wine scene. 

The audience will have the chance to help decide what Russell will draw by voting from a menu of possible options.

“I’ve seen many of Bill’s great illustrations,” said Wine Studio owner Susan Feiler, “and heard a great deal about his pairing with Brian Gore. We’re looking forward to having his art on the walls here and enjoying their performance.”

Russell, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design in New York, is a versatile visual artist working in a wide range of styles.

He pushes the creative envelope by incorporating a variety of new multimedia technologies, such as live digital drawing, for use in performance and on the Web.

Gore is based in San Francisco and is one of the country’s most influential performers in the fingerstyle guitar tradition.

A musical romantic, his lyrical compositions draw inspiration from nature, history and literature.

Tallman owner Bernie Butcher said he loves working together with the Wine Studio to promote Lake County wines. “This pairing of art, wine and music is a perfect extension of our ongoing Concert with Conversation series.”

The Wine Studio will host the art opening and wine tasting starting at 5 p.m. Friday, June 5, and 4 p.m. Saturday, June 6, at a cost of $12.50.

The featured wines will be from Vigilance Winery & Vineyards with paired appetizers designed by Chef Mark Linback.  

The Concert with Conversation will start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 6, in the Tallman Meeting House. 

Tickets for the concert at $25 plus tax may be purchased by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Republican Women Federated will meet on Wednesday, June 10, at which time the group will discuss the effort to overturn Proposition 47, passed by voters last fall.

The club will meet at 11:30 a.m. at TNT Bar & Grill, 2599 Lakeshore Blvd. in Lakeport. Lunch will begin at noon.

The guest speaker will be Lynne M. Brown, director of Advocates for Public Safety.

Brown started her career in crime prevention in 1982. After five years and four promotions with a top notch security company, she left the crime prevention industry but always stayed in touch with the latest crime and personal safety trends.

In the early 1990s, she began a career of "helping parents raise their children.” For the next 16 years, she operated a full-time daycare business then moved to the position of program director for an elementary school.

While managing both the day care and the two school programs, she brought her expertise of personal safety training and crime prevention tactics to her students and their families.

In 2009, after leaving the school, Brown decided it was time to get back into her first love, teaching people to stay safe. She and her husband began teaching people how to keep themselves and their loved ones safer in an increasingly interesting dynamic, the "empty the prisons" culture.

In 2011, Brown started a coalition of experts to combat Assembly Bill 109, Prison Realignment. Her ongoing role in the coalition was to educate the public on what they have not been told about AB109 and just who was being let back into our neighborhoods under the misleading classification of "low level offender.”

In 2014, Brown became the co-manager of the Overturn Prop 47 campaign and continues to raise awareness and develop strategic relationships to try and restore public safety.

Guests are welcome to the meeting.

Lunch costs $20 and includes the main dish, ice/hot tea or coffee, with all other beverages no-host. Menu choices are TNT's low-cal salad, chicken tostada or TNT's cheeseburger
 
Reservations are required. For club information or lunch reservations contact Marcia Chauvin, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-994-3543.

Find the group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lake.rwf .

NORTH COAST, Calif. – On Monday, June 1, beginning at 5 p.m., Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit will conduct live fire training exercises on the Warm Springs Dam, at Lake Sonoma, in northern Sonoma County.

The training will begin at 5 p.m. and will continue to approximately 9 p.m.

Along with Cal Fire, Healdsburg Fire Department, Geyserville Fire Protection District, Dry Creek Rancheria Fire Department, Knights Valley Fire Department and the Cloverdale Fire Protection District also will be participating.

This training will provide realistic wildland fire conditions to train firefighters in different tactical operations.

Due to the current drought conditions, the training will also provide firefighters additional training using water conservation measures.

The area being used for the training burn is on the downstream face of Warm Springs dam.

By burning the 80 acres of grass off the dam, it assists the Army Corps of Engineers in doing their annual inspection of the dam face.