02/08/10 -Book Club
March  8 -    The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, A Memoir at the home of Barbara Oddy
April 12 -     City of Thieves by David Benioff, a novel at the home of Debbie Holden
May -        The Mascot by Mark Kurzen
June -        Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

02/08/10 - Needles & Pins

February 9, 2010 - Carol Deurloo

February 16, 2010 - Dale Conley

February 23, 2010 - Debbie Holden

02/08/10 - Valentines Dinner

Everyone is invited to our Valentines Dinner.
Date: Sunday Feb. 14th
Time: No Host Bar 6:00 p.m.
Dinner 6:30 p.m.
Place: St. Bernard's Restaurant
Menu: Prime Rib $26.95, Deep Fried Prawns $19.95, Halibut $19.95 & Fried Chicken $15.95
Price, plus tax & tip payable at St. Bernard's.
RSVP by February 8th, Call Judy Martin 259-2667 or Georgia Knutsen 259-2287 with your
dinner selection.
Reservations after Feb 12th call Sharon at the St. Bernard 258-3382

02/02/10 - WATER BOARD VACANCIES

West Almanor Mutual Water Co. will have THREE VACANCIES on the Board of Directors for term of July 2010-July 2012.
The deadline for application is May 15, 2010 and applications must be received in the WACC office by 2 p.m.
If you are interested, please contact the WACC office at 177 Lake Almanor West Drive, Chester, 530-259-4646 or email at wacc@citlink.net

Ballots will be opened, counted and election results announced at the annual meeting on Saturday, July 3, 2010.

02/02/10 - WACC BOARD OF DIRECTORS VACANCIES

West Almanor Community Club will have THREE VACANCIES on the Board of Directors for term of July 2010-July 2012.
The deadline for application is May 15, 2010 and applications must be received in the WACC office by 2 p.m.
If you are interested, please contact the WACC office at 177 Lake Almanor West Drive, Chester, 530-259-4646 or email at wacc@citlink.net
Ballots will be opened, counted and election results announced at the annual meeting on Saturday, July 3, 2010.

01/31/10- JANUARY JUMP START

It's difficult to find the proper set of adjectives to describe January precipitation. Perhaps it would be better to simply avoid descriptions and stick with facts. So here they are. January 2010 brought 91 inches of snowfall to the west side of the Lake Almanor basin. That's seven feet, seven inches of new snow, with almost all of it arriving during the ten day period from January 17 through the 26th.

January began with a near-average amount of accumulated snowfall for the season but well below average amount of water (only 69%). We were basically 4 inches behind in water content on New Years Day. Rainfall during the first half of the month did begin to ease that deficit, but there was no measurable snowfall until the 17th. The storm series that followed was truly extraordinary. A well forecast shift in the jet stream over the Pacific sent back-to-back waves of moisture into California. At one point during the peak of the storm series, local snowfall was arriving at a rate of more than an inch and a half per hour. The daily snowfall totals for January 20th and 21st were the highest at 22 inches each day.

The main storm series had passed by early Friday, the 22nd, but residual moisture and minor follow-up fronts brought additional snow over the subsequent several days. When it was all done, the snowfall total for the month stood at 91 inches, which is well over twice the average amount of snow expected for January. The early snow was quite wet, causing it to cling to tree branches, but most of the subsequent snowfall was in the relatively dry category. Between the rainfall and snowfall, total water content for the month at the Prattville recording station was 9.67 inches, well over the average for January.

In terms of season totals, the Lake Almanor basin is now looking considerably better than it did at the start of January. The initial large water deficit has now been erased, and the season total precipitation at the end of January is 18.46 inches, or 97% of average. Season snowfall now stands at 133 inches on the west shore, or 173% of average at this point.

An average February would bring us another 28.5 inches of snow and 5.5 inches of water content. An average month would be just fine, thank you.
 

01/26/10 - Snow Load Info

Department Head, John Cunningham, wants me to remind everyone that the Building Dept. has a handout describing how to do your own measurements (should you wish to do them). Also, if you do decide to shovel your roof be sure to remove snow equally over the roof as you dig. Do not remove all the snow from one side before moving to the other side this can cause unusual snow loading and could cause structural problems. - Sherrie

The Building Department performed roof snow load sampling today in the Almanor Basin . This was done to determine the weight of snow on roofs in the area. Structures in the Almanor Basin have been required to be designed to a minimum 100 lbs/sqft snow load, since approximately 1970. The result of today’s sampling is less than 40 lbs/sqft of snow on roofs in the basin.

John Cunningham, County of Plumas, Building Official

johncunningham@countyofplumas.com, (530) 283-7011 dept main line, (530) 283-6134 fax

01/26/10- County Building Department

If you are involved in a project involving repair work caused by the recent winter storms, please be sure to mention that when submitting for the building permit. Our goal for these repair submittals is to provide a maximum 24-hour turn-around, over-the counter when possible; assuming we receive a complete and adequate submittal

All repairs, alternations, etc., require a building permit, and all repair work is required to meet current code requirements. Building permit submittal documents shall be of sufficient clarity to indicate the location, nature and extent of the work proposed and show in detail that it will conform to the provisions of code. The drawings are required to be dimensioned and drawn to scale.

John Cunningham, County of Plumas, Building Official

01/25/10 - Winter Warnings

Well, it's been another exciting week at Lake Almanor West ... but most of you already know that all too well!

Electrical power was finally restored on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 pm, after 96 consecutive hours of black-out conditions. The PG&E repair crews were working their fannies off trying to deal with multiple down lines to our south, where the power comes up the west side of the lake. It's an area that has been noted previously as being a vulnerable stretch due to tall and close trees, but alas, not much preventative maintenance has been done there. (You can bet that if PG&E headquarters in San Francisco experienced an extended outage like this, it would cause some serious follow-up action, in addition to making headline news.)

The main storm series ran from last Sunday through Friday, dumping 75 inches of snow. Yesterday was largely uneventful (thank heavens!), with only 1-1/2 inches of snow. Today saw the onset of another front come through, with just a few inches of snow. The outlook is for unsettled conditions this coming week; some days snowy and some just partly cloudy. At least nobody is forecasting anything remotely close to the dumping that we got last week!

I've collected some "lessons learned" from the past week, some of them from our own household and some from neighbors, and offer them up for your consideration. It's likely that you may have other tidbits to share, so don't be shy.

- By way of preparation for such events, there's a simple bit of advice: Read the "Home Survival Guide" that is part of the L.A.W. Auxiliary "Community Directory & Information Guide." The Auxiliary went to considerable expense last winter to mail a copy to EVERY Lake Almanor West property owner, so there's no excuse for not having one. Periodically we do have a pop quiz on the material contained therein ... as we just did.

- When the power goes out, promptly call the PG&E hotline to report the outage. Nothing happens until somebody calls it in, so don't delay, and don't assume that somebody else will take care of it for you.

- When we lose electrical power, here are some of the things that don't work (duh!): lights, forced-air furnaces, pellet stoves, electrical hot water heaters and stoves, washing machines, garage door openers, heat tape and cordless phones. (Be sure to have at least one old fashioned corded phone in your house!)

- Backup heating and cooking arrangements are essential. LED flashlights, "headlights" and lanterns work really well and don't take much battery power.

- Whole-house generators work great until they run out of fuel. If they run out of fuel while sharing the propane tank as a fuel supply ... you are well and truly had.

- If power is out in Chester, good luck finding an open restaurant.

- If power is out in Chester, it will be tough finding an operating gas pump.

- Empty fuel tanks or gas cans are no help at all; same thing for dead batteries. Plan ahead.

- Eventually, cell phones and laptop computers need to be charged.

- In an extended outage, we may need to limit water consumption to allow our water supply pumps (running on emergency generators) to keep up with demand.

- When you observe sawdust on the snow, it isn't due to beaver activity. Somebody lost a tree to the elements. By the way, even healthy looking pines will snap with enough snow load on them.

- Flatlanders' Guide to Driving in Snow:

- 4WD simply allows you to get further away from help before getting stuck.

- Insurance adjusters know ... you can skid very nicely with 4WD. Slow the heck down!

- Big wide tires are known as "floaters" on icy roads. Same thing with dualies.
You want a small footprint on the pavement for best traction.

- Driving in a snowstorm at night can cause vertigo, even if you did not consume
any adult beverages.

- Murphy's Law of Snowblower Maintenance:

The machine will fail before you get the berm cleared, forcing you to
shovel through by hand so that you can get to the repair shop.

Here's hoping that we have no further outages or heavy storms ... we've had our share for the year already!   - Dale

1/9/10- Groomed Trails

Welcome Winter Snows. The snow trails groomed up beautiful this week. Behind our snow grooming tiller, a smooth corduroy blanket trailed. Remember that frozen mornings make for some icy riding conditions. Keep your speeds down and always ride in control.

Eagle Lake Ranger District
The trail between Highway 44 at Goumaz and A-21 at Mason Station is unavailable. It is part of an active timber sale and plowed down to a dirt surface. We anticipate this route closed until the middle of February. The roads are dirt and the trucks are active. An update will be included in our grooming report when the timber sale is complete.

This year, experience the riding on Antelope Mountain. Through the Pine Creek Valley, up to Crater Lake, to the top of Antelope Lookout to A-1 at Eagle Lake, the trails are groomed. The trail to Antelope is beautiful and the views breathtaking. The snow play area does not have enough cover for cross-country travel.

Hat Creek Ranger District
The first mile of this system is bare dirt. Please follow the track-packed route from the snow park to the first intersection below Ashpan Butte.

Almanor Ranger District
Our volunteer, Larry Bird, is keeping these trails in excellent shape. Larry does run the groomer on the weekends….so please be very cautious of equipment on the trails when you are out riding.

Winter Trail Maps are available at all our trailheads and at the three Ranger District offices. These maps are free and display all the riding opportunities available on Lassen National Forest.