12 | HVLT Board Mtg |

19 | HVCA Board Mtg |

26 | Sanitary District Board Mtg |

31 | HV Halloween Celebration |

1st/3rd Weds. | Tam Design Review Board Mtg |

Saturdays | A.A. Mtg | 10:00 AM

SAVE THE DATE: Dennis Rodoni's office hours: Tuesday, Oct 7, 6:00PM via Zoom, see details below.

As this project is being led by the County of Marin, any questions or concerns about the construction process should be directed to Tara McIntire, Project Manager, ASLA, RLA #5309 PRINCIPAL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT - 415 521 8059 TMcintire@marincounty.org.

The Homestead Valley Community Association (HVCA) is pleased to announce that our Community Center (HVCC) is now equipped with a fully operational emergency backup electric generator. In the event of power outage on the grid, planned or otherwise, our backup power system will automatically detect the outage, start the generator and transfer the power load to the generator. The system is designed to keep our facilities fully operational in the event of short, or long-term outages.

Collaborative Effort: This project was the result of a collaborative effort initiated by the HVCA Board and Safety Committee, working with the CSA-14 Board, and the County of Marin. Recognizing that the HVCC could play a significant role in providing emergency services in the event of regional electric power outages, the HVCA Board approached the CSA-14 Board with a proposal to authorize funding to purchase and install a backup generator system for the HVCC. The CSA-14 Board and the County of Marin recognized and concurred with the need and

approved the funding request.

What this Means for our Community: In the event of a regional power outage, the lights will be on at your Community Center. When we have an extended power outage, the HVCC will be able to provide our community with:

What we Need: Volunteers! We would like to establish teams of volunteers that would be available to serve as hosts at the HVCC when it transitions to an emergency power, community resource mode. The teams could be 2 or 3 people that would be knowledgeable and responsible hosts to assist neighbors who come to the HVCC to utilize the available resources. Send an email to hvsafety@homesteadvalley.org if you’d like to be a volunteer host.

During the next few weeks we will be developing guidelines, or operational protocols for when the HVCC transitions to emergency power, community resource mode.

A helpful link regarding preparations for a power outage:

By Curt Oldenburg

The fire season motivated significant vegetation management activities around Homestead Valley. In late spring 2021, HVLT sponsored a plant mapping survey (GIS-based) to identify locations of various invasive species of plants useful for planning fire hazard reduction activities. One example is the planned removal of a stand of invasive and non-native cotoneaster adjacent to Amaranth Blvd. in the western part of HVLT managed Marin County Open Space land.

HVLT continued its ongoing fire-fuel reduction work with projects on broom and brush removal around Cowboy Rock and the eastern end of the Homestead Trail.

Multiple debris boxes and a chipper day in August were sponsored by HVLT-Firewise. HVLT also coordinated with the Southern Marin Fire District in their use of Measure U funds to reduce fire hazard by removing or trimming large trees within 150 feet of houses. HVLT helped coordinate the replacement of steps (treads) on the trail linking Tamalpais Canyon to Edgewood.

HVLT learned that Google Maps was routing bicycles on certain Land Trust trails where bikes are not allowed. HVLT informed Google of this problem and Google remedied it to some degree by adding the words “walk bikes along this segment” to their route descriptions.

Finally, while most of the open space lands managed by the HVLT are Marin County Open Space lands, the HVLT owns outright a number of miscellaneous small lots, paper streets, and paved roads in Homestead Valley and Mill Valley. The Board continued to develop its policy for selling these properties so that it can focus entirely on Homestead Valley land management issues.

Increased use of Stolte Grove and of the trash can located there (for dog poop bags) led to the can being too heavy to empty resulting in frequent overflows and the need to remove the trash can altogether. Installation of a new trash pick-up system able to handle more weight is in progress.

Maintenance of the stage in Stolte Grove was carried out involving fixing loose boards and re-staining the whole thing. In addition, a drinking fountain was added to the sink, and various trimming and raking was done to clean up Stolte Grove for the Fourth of July event.

Abundant apples in the Three Groves orchard were gathered off the ground, and a dead branch hanging over Montford was removed. Fencing around Three Groves was reinforced to prevent deer from getting in and eating flowers and plants in the garden.

In Volunteer Park, HVLT coordinated with the adjacent homeowner on vegetation removal to assist with the replacement of their fence, and the vegetation was trimmed and park was cleaned up for installation of the “Drops” art installation currently on display.

Whether it's that I know a seasonal change is coming, or that there is an objective quality of expectancy in the land, I don't know. But to me there is a definite feeling of big events about to happen in the late September landscape of Homestead Valley. The plant world has gone into hold for the duration; the blossoms long gone, the fruit produced and now dropping, picked, or blown off.

To sit in the bay woods is to risk being bombed; the bay berries come down with quite a force. Even in the dryness of this drouth year, the abundance of natural life is very evident. Fresh layers of mulch cover all but the trodden path. The detail is rich and amazing as ever, just not so fresh in color. There are fewer greens and whites, more tans and reds.

What few poison oak leaves remain on the branches are crimson. The jewels of the fall woods are the wild honey suckle berries. Ruby clusters dangle down from some host branch.

Moving further along the spectrum, the deep purple-black of huckleberries is more than equal to the rich green of the red-edged leaves. Here and there is a bush of "blueberries", a variant of the huckle whose coal black spheres have a light blue dusting.

The squirrels and jays have long since taken care of any hazelnut not eaten by boring worms. Now they are harvesting acorns of the live oaks. There is precious little greenery for the deer. It is understandable why our gardens are so tempting to them.

In colder climates the land is dormant over winter. But in coastal California, the rains of autumn will be like a magic catalyst. Whether it's a gently drizzling soaker or a splatting gale, the first rain will start things happening in a most wonderful fashion. Several decades ago I read in a book for children called Green Christmas, "Spring in California begins with the first rain in fall."

October 1988

In the early 1900’s, Anton S. Perry and his large family lived at 370 Montford in Homestead Valley. He milked cows on the Dias ranch. In 1956, the historic Perry house was occupied by Locke McCorckle, a poet/carpenter. He and his family lived frugally, considering themselves refugees from American consumerism. After a shack up the hill was converted into a habitable cabin, Locke invited Gary Snyder to stay there. Gary moved in, named the dwelling “Marin-An” and invited Jack Kerouac to join him there for rent-free peaceful living. They both took Buddhism seriously. Beat generation poets and writers who hung out with them there included Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Kenneth Rexroth, William Burroughs, Peter Orlovsky, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, and Gregory Corso. There were poetry readings, meditations, serious discussions and co-educational parties, always with lots of wine and sometimes nudity. Jack Kerouac’s book, “The Dharma Bums” describes the scene and his experiences while living at Marin-An. Typical of his writings, real characters are given fictitious names and the site is said to be in Corte Madera. Today, the site is on Homestead’s Open Space Land. The custodian lives in the old Perry house.

info@homesteadvalley.org

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