ENGLEBRIGHT DAM - SALMON AND STEELHEAD HABITAT

If you have never been upstream from the Highway 20 bridge on the Yuba River there is a good reason. Both sides of the river are privately owned therefore if you have been to the dam by way of foot then you were trespassing.

If you are law abiding citizen like I am then the video below is the only way you will see it via land.

I'm a fisherman and while I would love to chase the ocean going Rainbow trout (steelhead) into these areas I have stayed away. Until I can talk Clay Hash or Tom Page in to take me in their boat I will only dream of the day when I will swing a streamer in the discharge of Lake Englebright. So until then I will enjoy the footage.

Thank you to the conservationists who invest time and money into improving the spawning habitat of the lower Yuba. While it may never be what it once was that does not mean the work they are going is not worth doing.

BEAR RIVER BASKETBALL - PVL TIPOFF

The Lady Bruins start season play on Wednesday traveling to Foothill (6-7) before hosting Lincoln at their regular season home opener. 

The team to beat in the Pioneer Valley League's girls division Bear River who is led by 5-foot-9 junior Kaitlyn Reina who has delivered 14 points per game along with 9 rebounds. Coach Jeff Bickmore's team does not have to rely on their high scorer to carry their team as they also have long range shooter Savannah Welz who leads the team in shot attempts and well as banger Teryn Rath who is always a strong post presence.

On Friday night the Lady Bruins (15-1) host Lincoln (9-6) which is a rematch game from 12/29/12 where Bear River jumped out to an early lead and coasted to a 48-17 victory. Freshman game at 4 p.m. with the JV and Varsity to follow.

Box Score Lincoln        2  11    3   1  17
Bear River 14   5  22   7  48

The Lady Bruins were led by Welz and Reina who scored 13 and 12 respectively.

Bear River Boys

Bear River's boys basketball team will tip-off their 2013 Pioneer Valley League campaign on Thursday night as well at Lincoln. The Bruins bring a 13-3 overall record as they take on the Fighting Zebras who are 13-4, tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Bear River is led by 6-foot-6 inch senior Justin Beskeen who leads the team in scoring with a 22 point average and has scored over 30 points four times, including back to back games earlier in the season.

While Lincoln has three players who hold an average of over 10 points per game with junior Marcus Salgado leading the way with over 13 points per game including a 22 point scoring effort in a win over Yuba City High School.

The most impressive win in their 10 game winning streak for the Zebras was on Jan. 2 when the defeated Sierra Foothill powerhouse Del Oro (12-5) 74-69.

This is a very important game for both team as they will want to start league play off on the right foot.

WHO WAS LESTER ALLAN PELTON - MINER'S FOUNDRY - NEVADA CITY

In the late 1870s Pelton modeled, tested and manufactured his first turbine wheel, dubbed the Pelton Runner—later referring to the impulse blades only—at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City, California. In 1878, at the Mayflower Mine in Nevada City, he installed the first operational Pelton wheel. At that time the Knight Foundry wheel was being sold as the industry standard, but in a head-to-head competition staged in 1883 at the Idaho Mine in nearby Grass Valley, Pelton's design proved much more efficient. 

The Pelton design provided 90 percent efficiency (of converting streamflow kinetic energy to horsepower) while the next best competitor achieved less than 77 percent—at a time when most extant water wheels typically rated less than 40 percent. 

The Pelton wheel also provided sustained power during (typical) lowflow conditions in a mountain stream. In 1887 a miner attached Pelton's wheel to a dynamo and produced the first hydroelectric power in the Sierra Nevada. 

In 1895, the largest installation of Pelton's wheel during his lifetime was accomplished at the North Star Mine Powerhouse, Grass Valley, California, by the engineer Arthur De Wint Foote, who designed and installed an over-sized wheel of 30 feet diameter; it performed successfully, greatly increasing the hydropower delivered by the Pelton runners to produce compressed air for mining operations.

 Pelton was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. There are memorials and monuments celebrating Pelton and the Pelton Runner mounted in Camptonville, California, in the Miners Foundry in Nevada City, California, and at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., California Resort at Disney Land, among other sites.

NEVADA COUNTY SWAP SHOP - OPEN FOR BUSINESS - FACEBOOK GROUP

A new group named Nevada County Swap Shop popped up on Facebook in late December of 2012 which will compete with KNCO's radio program of the same name as well as Gold Country Craigslist.org.

I have copied and pasted the mission statement as well as the rules below.

Community Effort to Recyle, Reuse, and Reclaim! Our LOCAL home-town swap shop where you can buy, sell, or barter with local community members!

Description

Nevada County CA Swap Shop is a local online store on Facebook and only for local Nevada County residents. At Nevada County Swap Shop you can buy or sell items. Come to our page frequently and check out what we have and how we can help you sell the items you no longer need (or want). See you soon.

Nevada County Swap Shop is a great online store to buy or sale items. We (will) have everything and will be offering a wide variety of clothes, furniture & home goods, books, holiday decorations, jewelry, kid’s clothes, items & toys, and much, much more. We'd love to help you sell the items you no longer need and find something you've always been looking for, whether it's for yourself or someone else. In our pictures you can find a few of our featured items that we offer. Come by often as merchandise will be changing frequently. We're sure you'll find something you love!
Remember to share us with your friends.

Thank you and happy shopping!
CiCi Stewart and Friends

Ok, so rules... no one likes them and everyone needs them!

PLEASE REVIEW THESE. You will be removed from the group if you do not follow the rules. These rules are here in order to help this group run smoothly, so please comply.

Have you looked around your house and decided that you have things you no longer want or need? Here is a place where we can post things for sale for our friends to take advantage of, or you can even decide to post something for FREE for someone to take! Your trash could be someone else's treasure!

1. Only post items to sell or items you are looking to buy---NOTHING ELSE.
2. Do not post crafts.
3. Do not advertise your personal business.
4. Limit your posts to no more than 5 posts. (This means you only need 5 posts in the newsfeed at all times. If you post 5 things, and sell two things, you can then delete those two sold posts, and post two more, as long as you have only 5 things at a time belonging to you in the rotation.)
5. Do not bump your items to the top of the newsfeed continually.
6. Delete your post after you have sold your item and no longer need the post.
7. To snag an item, be the first to comment that you want it.
8. You make the arrangements for payment and pickup.
9. Treat everyone on here with respect and kindness. (Yes, this is a rule.)
10. Bring exact change! Don't expect everyone else to be your personal bank.
11. Do not post drugs or drug paraphernalia in Nevada County Swap Shop.
12. Do not post weapons in Nevada County Swap Shop.

If you are harassing someone, using poor language, or being unnecessarily negative or rude, you will be automatically banned. This is a zero tolerance issue. We want to keep this group at clean as possible. DO NOT COMMENT ON A POST with your opinion, only comment if you are interested in buying an item. We will delete any unapproved links, opinions, filthy language, and negativity at our discretion. Please just use caution and common sense when meeting people. (Meet in public places, etc.)

*I am not responsible for any transactions made in Swap Shop, other than those I personally post.

Thank you and Happy Swap Shopping!
CiCi Stewart and Friends

NEVADA COUNTY SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND FARM CONFERENCE 2013

Nevada County's 2013 Sustainable Food and Farm Conference will once again bring together an internationally renowned panel of speakers, local and national farming related businesses and organizations, and the public, for a weekend full of informative lectures, lively discussion, a food and farming exposition, plus numerous workshops for all levels of farming and ranching.

January 19 & 20, 2013 at  the Grass Valley Veterans Memorial Hall.

Keynote Speakers include: 

Will Allen Founder and CEO of Growing Power from Milwaukee, WI
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms, Swoope, VA, 

Temra Costa Author of Farmer Jane - Women Changing The Way We Eat, Oakland, CA
Mark Baker: Farmer and Patriot, Baker's Green Acres, Marion, MI

This year's conference kicks off Saturday morning where you will have the opportunity to sit down with the Salatin Family, Joel, Daniel and Sheri, to learn firsthand how their multi-generational Polyface Farms operates.

Visit the Conference website for more information.

WHO WAS LYMAN GILMORE - GRASS VALLEY - RARE 1931 FOOTAGE

Did you ever wonder why the middle school in Grass Valley is named Lyman Gilmore? He built a steam-powered airplane and claimed that he flew it on May 15, 1902

Gilmore was granted two patents on steam engines, the first of which was granted in 1902. He invented in other areas too, for example a rotary snowplow. On March 15, 1907, Gilmore opened the first commercial airfield, Gilmore Airfield, in Grass Valley. The location of the now middle school was named in his honor on the site of that airfield.

Local legend says Gilmore wore the same long coat for years and was never far from it. It continues to say that when he was involuntarily hospitalized for his last illness the coat and all of his long-worn clothing were burned. While he had never accumulated much money, it was said that all he had was sewn into the lining of that coat and was destroyed with it.

After the fire in his hangar, Gilmore began mining for gold and died a poor man in Nevada City, California. His grave can be found in Pine Grove Cemetery, about a half mile outside of town.

Rare video footage 

BULLARDS BAR DAM CONSTRUCTION - 1969 VIDEO

The New Bullards Bar Dam took two years to construct the 645 foot tall concrete wall in 1969. Below you will find a video why it was built as well as the construction process. The video is educational as well as entertaining. That is if you find big trucks, explosions , earth movers and dirty men exciting.