Loans funded by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) account for a significant percentage of new mortgages, and with many of today’s buyers only able to purchase a home with an FHA loan, it is essential that REALTORS® understand which condominium and townhome properties are eligible for FHA loans.
Eligibility Check provides members with the only real-time source for checking condominium FHA loan eligibility and approval status by property address. C.A.R. members receive up to a 25 percent discount off the standard Eligibility Check pricing.
Clarus FHA Approval™ also offers Approval Services to assist condominium associations in obtaining FHA approval. Discounts are provided to condominium associations referred by a REALTOR®. Failure to be approved for FHA loan eligibility will almost certainly impact the marketability of a condominium. Encourage the condominium homeowners associations in your market area to seek approval for FHA loans now!
Approval Services is available by calling (818) 338-6588.
More info on Eligibility Check and Approval Services: www.clarusfhaapproval.com.
For all your real estate needs call or write:
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Approval Servicescondominiumcondominium projectsEligibility CheckFHAREALTORS
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjQB-6WNHs I’ve moved my office into the Holbrook Hotel and I keep hearing about the ghost that resides in the hotel. Here is a video I found on Youtube describing the ghost. For all your real estate needs, write or call For all your real estate needs write or call: John J. O’Dell Visit my other website www.johnodellrealty.com by Lisa J. Lehr Looking for the ideal exercise? Whether you’re still trying to make good on a New Year’s resolution, thinking about the upcoming swimsuit season, or looking for a way to add variety to your workout routine, walking and running rise to the top of the list of possible choices. For overall fitness, nothing beats walking and running. You need no expensive equipment; you don’t have to join a club or travel to a special place; you can do it at pretty much any time of day or year. But which is better? Well, it depends. Here are the pluses and minuses of both. Running: Walking: I’m going to add a reminder to vary your terrain to avoid one-sided leg pain, and try to disconnect from your iPod. We live in a friendly community full of natural beauty. Say hello to the neighbors you pass; listen to the frogs croak and the birds chirp; be alert to approaching cars. So…walking or running? It’s really a matter of what works best for you. Walk, run, or do something else. Just do it. Lisa J. Lehr is a writer, copywriter, and fitness enthusiast living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for a message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide. For all your real estate needs, call or e-mail DRE# 00669941 Photos courtesy of Bill Wells By Bill Wells Agriculture The trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869 with its terminus in Sacramento where passengers and goods were transferred from the railroad to the steamers plying the river for the rest of the journey to San Francisco. The railroad brought in many European immigrants from the East Coast over the next few decades. By the turn of the 20th Century, the steam powered clamshell dredge was used to remove material from riverbeds to increase the size of levee barriers. Delta levees are built on sand, silt and peat, which makes them susceptible to erosion, seepage and breaks. In 1917 Congress authorized the Sacramento Flood Control Project, which was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1960. “Project levees” built by the Corps were designed to provide superior flood control protection. Once completed, the general upkeep was turned over to local entities. There are over 1600 miles of State-federal project levees in the Central Valley, with about 385 miles located in the Delta. Over a 40-year period about 100 clamshell dredges were used to create the geography in the Delta as we know it today. In 1927 the bridge over the Straits of Carquinez was completed. This was also the year the majestic steamers Delta King and Delta Queen entered service to Sacramento. The writing was on the wall however and the days of the overnight steamers between Sacramento and Stockton were numbered with the advent of paved highways. There were 300 plus steamers cruising the Delta from 1849 to about 1951. The smaller ones that could ply the smaller rivers and sloughs were called “Mosquito boats” because of the huge clouds of mosquitoes they would attract when their paddle wheels churned the water. The larger ones were floating palaces with elegant food and drink as well as gambling and other activities. Recreation As the people of the Delta region became more prosperous they had more time for leisure and pleasure boating. The Sacramento Yacht Club is recognized as the oldest yacht club in the Delta area. The SYC started as the Capital City Boat Club in 1929 but has ties to the Undine Boat Club dating from April of 1870. Originally the club was located on the Sacramento side of the river but eventually moved to its present location on the Yolo side. The oldest yacht club in Northern California is The San Francisco Yacht Club, which began in 1869. These days the Delta is reported to have “1,000 miles of waterways” but some publications in the 1930s mentioned 1500 miles of waterways. My recollection from the mid-1950s is that by then people were saying 1,000 miles and the late Erle Stanley Gardner mentions in his 1965 book World of water the 1,000 mile figure. That is the earliest written mention I have seen of 1,000 miles. The City of Rio Vista in their publication says 1,100 miles. Hal Schell used the figure of 1,000 miles but was always challenging people to measure the waterways. The Delta Protection Commission reports “635 miles of contiguous waterways”. Whatever the figure, there are plenty of places to visit and explore by pleasure boat and if you have a canoe, kayak or shoreboat there are even more creeks and swamps to explore that larger craft can not enter. With the advent of the internal combustion engine around the turn of the twentieth century pleasure boats no longer had to rely on oars, sail, or steam for motivational power. Sailing vessels had problems from the time the rivers began silting in around 1870. (Steamboat Slough went from a depth of 15 feet in 1850 to 5 feet by 1870!) Steam vessels generally were larger, expensive and used large amounts of wood or coal for fuel. The gasoline engine so successfully used in automobiles was soon modified for use in boats. This opened boating to a whole new class of people. No longer were power vessels the playthings of the very affluent but were now available to middle class Americans. Small powerboats were ideal for traversing and exploring the Delta with their shallow draft and shorter length they could get into many small backwaters that the larger steamers could not. Ship and boat construction started early in the Delta area. The first steamer to visit Sacramento was Sitka a 37-foot boat assembled at Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1847. Lady Washington was launched in Sacramento in August of 1849. Her owner / skipper was Peter Lassen for whom Mount Lassen was named. (Some accounts say John Sutter was the owner.) She was apparently shipped from the East Coast and assembled in Sacramento). On her maiden voyage she made it all the way to Coloma the site of Marshall’s gold discovery. Unfortunately she hit a snag and sank on the return trip. She was raised and later renamed Ohio and cruised the area until 1868. Several boat builders made the area their home. The Nunes family were boat builders in the Azores who moved to Sausalito where they founded the famous Nunes boatyard. Along with many other famous yachts they built Zaca a beautiful schooner owned by actor Errol Flynn for several years. Some of the other builders of note in the bay and Delta were Stone Boat Yard, Stephens Brothers, Madden and Lewis, Anderson and Cristofani, Geo. Kneass, Colberg Boat Works, Besotes, and United Ship Repair. Stephens Brothers began operation in Stockton in 1902. In 1901 two brothers Theodore and Robert Stephens built a 33 foot sloop Dorothy in their back yard on Yosemite Street in Stockton. They sailed the boat from Stockton to Santa Cruz on her maiden voyage. Soon after, they started receiving commissions to build other boats. The neighbors complained about the commercial activity going on in the back yard so the brothers purchased a barge moored in the Stockton Channel to use as a construction site. Within a few years the company was moved to its location at 745 South Yosemite Street where it remained until 1987 when it went out of business. Currently the location is the home of the fine 5 Star Marina operated by the McDonald brothers Bob and Terry. Many of the buildings today look like they did in the heyday of the business. Early on Stephens built quick open runabouts that were called “spud boats”. In 1912 a Stephens spud boat set a speed record from Stockton to San Francisco. They were used by brokers and produce dealers to roam the Delta buying crops. Speed was important, as generally the first buyer to reach a farm would purchase the crop. These boats later evolved into pleasure boats that were both beautiful and fast. In the winter of 1925 a Siam teak hulled, Scripps powered, 26-foot Stephens runabout ran from San Francisco to San Diego in less than 24 hours, a record time. For the next several years the 26-foot runabouts carried the company financially. In 1929 Stephens started producing stock cruiser hulls which could be customized to the owner’s requirements. These would allow the owner a custom yacht at close to a production boat price. These boats did well and saw the company through the depression. Pleasure boat construction stopped at the outbreak of World War II and yards such as Stephens concentrated on building military vessels for the duration. Plywood and Fiberglass became popular boat building materials after World War II, which further opened boating to a wider class of boaters. Likewise many war surplus vessels were converted to yachts and placed in service in the Delta. Other boats that had been seized for duty during the war found their way back into private hands, stripped of their gray paint, and varnished once again. The vessel Pat Pending owned by the Owen family of San Francisco which was mounted with a cannon and depth charges during the war and used as a submarine net tender was purchased back from the government, restored to her original beauty and cruises the Bay and Delta today. The Lauritzens were early pioneers of the Delta. They ran Lauritzen Transportation Company and at one point had a fleet of 8 boats that moved goods and people between the bay and various Delta landings. Today Chris III and his sister Margaret run the business as one of the finest yacht harbors in the Delta located near the Antioch Bridge at the gateway to the Delta. In 1931 the Korth family purchased land at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Mokelumne Rivers at the very Southern tip of Sacramento County. They originally planned to be farmers and grow asparagus on the property. In 1937, the Korth’s began renting out rowboats for a dollar a day. The following summer in 1938 Albine Korth decided to start building his own rowboats and his rental fleet began to grow. After World War II the Korths purchased more boats at US Government surplus auctions, and so Korth’s Pirate’s Lair as a Delta destination was beginning. During the 1940’s a snack bar was opened which evolved into the current restaurant at Korth’s. Boat sheds were constructed and the harbor was dredged and breakwater built in the 1960’s and Korth’s evolved into the fine marina that it remains today. These days the third generation of the Korth family operates three of the best marinas in the Delta with Korth’s Pirate’s Lair, Oxbow Marina, and Willow Berm Marina. As shipping on the river declined the owners of river ports converted the docks to moor pleasure boats and converted large produce sheds into dry storage for trailer boats. Tower Park marina on Potato Slough and Boathouse Marina on the Sacramento are two examples of this strategy. Boating expanded greatly in the Delta after the war due to the new low cost materials and the availability of surplus boats at very low prices. Many military vessels were converted to yachts, and people learned how to build a conventional pointed bow onto Higgins landing craft. With a superstructure added and cabins built inside many of these found there way into the Delta as yachts. At this writing there are about 95 marinas with 11,700 boat slips in the Delta area and every year thousands of other boats are trailered in from all over the West coast and beyond. Many boats visit the Delta from San Francisco Bay and larger yachts travel in from West Coast ports and all over the world. According to the Delta Protection Commission the Delta area covers about 750,000 acres with about 64,000 acres of urban areas and about 56,000 acres of waterways, and much of the remaining given to agriculture. Recreation opportunities abound with Cruising, sailing, gunkholing, water-skiing, wakeboarding, wind-surfing, camping, hunting, fishing, biking, hiking, and just hanging out all available in the Delta. The Future At this writing, there are many pressures on the Delta. Delta waters serves perhaps two-thirds of the population of California (about 20,000,000 legal residents) and most of this population lives in Southern California. One recent study by the University of California made a case for more of salt water intrusion in in the Delta which is supposed to help restore the ecology of the area. Other plans call for a dam possibly at Carquinez Strait or flooding Delta Islands to store water. The peripheral canal has reared its ugly head again after lying dormant for many years. The peripheral canal is a plan to take water out of the Sacramento River well above the Delta, which will drastically reduce the water quality in the Delta. One thing is known, the next hundred years or so in the Delta will certainly be interesting! Source: Bill Wells 916-777-4041 Click Here for California Delta Chambers Website For all your real estate needs call or write: John J. O’Dell Picture from Guide Lines News Letter By Bill Wells European Settlement The Mexican Government surely became concerned about the interlopers ferreting around in their territory and it is believed that this is what led them to grant John Sutter his vast tract at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. One of Sutter’s boats was the schooner Isabella which legend has it had been the private yacht of King Kamehameha the Great of the Sandwich Islands, possibly the first yacht in the Delta! Leaving what is now San Francisco in August of 1839 it took Sutter and his band eight days to find the entrance to the Sacramento after passing through Carquinez Straits which speaks to the maze of waterways even then. Sutter eventually landed on the bank of the American River at about where the city dump of Sacramento is located. He built his fort nearby at what is now the corner of 27th and L streets in Sacramento. Sutter became a Mexican citizen on August 29, 1840 and was appointed Captain in the Mexican Army as well as judge and representative of the “Government at the Frontier of the Rio Sacramento”. Sutter’s treatment of the Indians is a matter of controversy. Certainly he treated them no worse than did the Mexicans or the Spanish before them. What is known is that he minted tin coins with stars stamped into them for payment to the Indians for work performed and the coins could be redeemed later for food or dry goods in Sutter’s store. Charles Weber migrated westward and arrived at John Marsh’s ranch at the base of Mt. Diablo in October of 1841. Weber made his way to Sutter’s fort and was employed there in the winter of 1841. Sutter sponsored Weber to obtain Mexican citizenship, which made Weber eligible to receive a land-grant from Mexico. In 1844 Captain Charles Weber and William Gulnac obtained a Mexican land grant for the Rancho del Campo de los Franceses of about 48,000 acres. Weber later bought out Gulnac for $200 and started the settlement of Slough Town later renamed Tuleburg. During the Mexican-American war the Mexicans imprisoned Weber for refusing to raise arms against the Americans. Commodore Robert F. Stockton the American military commander of California rescued him. In gratitude Weber renamed his settlement Stockton which name it still bears today. The Steamer John A. Sutter was the first power boat to arrive in Stockton on November 1849. On June 16, 1846 the settlers in California under the command of John Fremont declared independence from Mexico and created the Bear Flag Republic. On July 11, 1846 Paul Revere’s nephew Lieutenant Joseph Revere sent a United States flag to Sutter and the U.S. annexed California under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which included paying Mexico a cash payment of $15,000,000 and the United States assuming claims of American citizens against Mexico of $3,250,000. This ended Mexico’s 21 year control of California. On September 9, 1850, by act of congress California became the 31st state in the Union. Gold! In January of 1848 James Marshall found gold at Sutter’s sawmill on the American River at Coloma and the news quickly spread to San Francisco in spite of Sutter’s attempt to keep the discovery secret. The first known newspaper account was on March 15, 1848 in The Californian in San Francisco and from then on the population of Northern California grew exponentially. Sam Brannan seized the opportunity and opened a store selling mining supplies. Sam is credited with founding the city of Sacramento and was rumored to have been seen running through the streets of San Francisco yelling “gold has been discovered in the Sierras!” Brannan was reported as California’s first millionaire. John Sutter later in 1848 said:”Every little shanty in or around the Fort became a store, a warehouse or a hotel, the whole settlement was a veritable bazaar.” Captain William Warner and Lieutenant William T. Sherman (later as General Sherman of Civil War fame) surveyed the area between Sutter’s Fort and the Embarcadero along the Sacramento River laying out the first grid of the city that would be known as “Sacramento City”. Sam Brannan claimed credit for the name. From Sherman’s memoirs: “ Having finished our work on the Cosumnes, we proceeded to Sacramento, where Captain Sutter employed us to connect the survey of Sacramento City, made by Lieutenant Warner, and that of Sutterville, three miles below, which was then being surveyed by Lieutenant J. W. Davidson, of the First Dragoons. At Sutterville, the plateau of the Sacramento approached quite near the river, and it would have made a better site for a town than the low, submerged land where the city now stands; but it seems to be a law of growth that all natural advantages are disregarded wherever once business chooses a location. Old Sutter’s embarcadero became Sacramento City, simply because it was the first point used for unloading boats for Sutter’s Fort” Originally the San Joaquin had a myriad of turns and bends and plans to straighten it were formulated in the 1870’s. The project was finished in the 1930’s by cutting through numerous islands and dredging the channel to 26 feet. This one project created many new islands and meandering waterways that are still in existence today. John Bidwell had a 17,700 acre land grant along the Sacramento River starting in 1844 that included the area that now is the City of Rio Vista. In 1848 at the beginning of the gold rush a wharf was built to handle the steamer traffic. N.H. Davis purchased the town site from Bidwell in 1855 and by 1860 the town was called Rio Vista. The great storm of 1861 washed the town away and it was later rebuilt on higher ground where it remains today. The channel of the Sacramento river originally went through horseshoe bend to the east of Decker Island just downstream from Rio Vista but a cut was made and the channel moved to its present location in 1918 creating Decker Island. Up until the rivers were silted in by hydraulic mining in the 1870’s steamers could make it all the way up the Sacramento to Red Bluff and up the Feather River as far as Yuba City. On the San Joaquin steamers made it as far as Firebaugh near Fresno. There are even records of steamboats going as far as Coloma (!) on the American River. The hydraulic mining caused terrible silting of the rivers, which is still a major problem today. The Yuba river near Marysville went from a “fish filled 30-foot (deep) water” in 1850 to where “the river was almost level with Marysville streets” in 1878 according to Marysville mayor at that time C.E. Stone. The Briggs orchard near Marysville was covered with 20 feet of silt. In one year in the 1870’s “46 Million cubic yards of gravel, a mass a mile wide and a mile long and fifteen yards deep had been hurled into the streams or spread over the farm lands”. Over a thirty year period two billion cubic yards of debris filled the Sacramento River and its tributaries. The gold rush brought hoards of people to Northern California. Some came overland but many came by sea. As of March of 1850 Sacramento City had thirty stores, six saloons, and many other business establishments. By 1855 Sacramento produced $300,000 worth of manufactured items per month. The name of the settlement of Yerba Buena was changed to San Francisco in 1847. The original settlement was started at Yerba Buena Cove but as the population and area expanded a new name was thought to be in order. Gold captivated most people until about 1860 at which time agriculture was rediscovered. The original farmers were called rimlanders because they farmed on the edges of the Delta before the islands had been surrounded with levees and reclaimed. Source: Bill Wells 916-777-4041 Click Here for California Delta Chambers Website For all your real estate needs call or write: John J. O’Dell By Bill Wells European Exploration Hernando Cortez with his Indian allies seized Mexico in 1519, and in 1521 two of his soldiers deserted and headed north to Alta California possibly because of rumors of great wealth to be found there. Legend has it that these two were the first Europeans to visit the Great Valley and to view the Sacramento River. In April of 1879 two miners cutting down an old oak near the Middle Fork of the Feather River found an old manuscript buried inside the tree. Ten years later in 1889 the miners showed it to a Spanish speaker and the manuscript was translated as the story of the two. It was shipped to the Naval Museum in Madrid but apparently lost and as of yet has not resurfaced. A Portuguese, Joao Rodriquez Cabrilho is probably the first European to venture up the California coast and in 1542 discovered San Diego Bay and sailed as far North as Monterey Bay before turning back and dying in an accident at San Miguel Island early in 1543. The Spanish possibly still smarting that Columbus was Italian corrupted his name to Juan Cabrillo. Francis Drake was possibly the first European to enter San Francisco Bay and anchored near what is now San Quentin prison in 1579. (This is in dispute and some say he actually anchored in Drake’s Bay or Bodega Bay or even farther North). In the 1930’s a brass plaque was discovered near San Quentin purportedly left there by Drake, in the 1990’s it was exposed as a fake. The description later narratives left of the Indian culture Drake and his crew spent five weeks with is convincingly Coastal Maidu. The Coastal Maidu inhabited the area from Duncan’s Point on the North Coast to the Northern side of the Golden Gate and included Bodega Bay, Drake’s Bay, and the North Bay area of Sausalito, San Rafael, Petaluma, and Cotati. Continue reading A Short History of the California Delta Part 2 of 4 By Bill Wells The Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta is the largest tidal estuary on the West Coast of the United States. Technically it is an inverse delta where many waterways combine into one and empty into the sea. This is the opposite of a delta such as the Mississippi where one or a few waterways expand into many as they reach the sea. Pre-history About 140 million years ago the predecessors to the Sierras rose and eroded away giving rise to the present Sierra range. Later perhaps 1,000,000 years ago the ice ages carved the Markley Gorge, which today lies about 2,000 to 5,000 feet under the floor of the Great Valley (the combined Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys collectively are known as the Great Valley). As the sediment filled Markley Gorge the current Delta as we know it was created. As the last ice age receded 10,000 to 12,000 years ago humans wandered down from the northern latitudes and settled the land we know today as California. Probably the first written reference to the name California was in 1510 in the book: Las Sergas de Esplandin published in Seville and written by Garci Ordonez de Montalvo. This was a fantasy and spoke of a mythical island in the West Indies populated by Amazons ruled by Queen Califia. The early Spaniards gave the name to the land lying West of Mexico, which we now know as Baja California. Originally this was thought to be an island and later the Spanish gave the name to all the territory from Cabo San Lucas to Alaska. Aboriginal Culture Indians were the first inhabitants of the central California area. Radio Carbon dating of shell mounds near San Francisco Bay show that the area was inhabited at least 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. There were 425 recorded shell mounds around the bay and up into Suisun Bay. These mounds were composed largely of mussel shells but many artifacts and human remains from burials were also found. Some of these mounds were up to 40 feet high.. The vast majority of the mounds have been destroyed to build parking lots and shopping centers throughout the bay area. Shellmound Road in Emeryville was so named because of its proximity to a large mound. At the time the Spanish began exploring California it is estimated that there could have been as many as 250,000 Native Americans in what is now the state. The Maidu and Miwok groups inhabited the Delta and its tributary river areas. In the late 1700’s it is estimated that there were about 9,000 Maidu and about 11,000 Miwoks inhabiting about 1000 square miles of the greater Delta area in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. The native cultures in the Delta and bay area used acorns as a dietary staple. The acorns were gathered, stored and dried, and ground into meal and the acid leached out with water. There was also a huge abundance of game and fish in the Delta area. There were many villages in the Delta area and these lent their names to many local features. These people lived in a Stone Age culture until the Spanish began settling the area with their missions in 1770. After the missions were established most of the Indians that lived in proximity were either conscripted for labor or fled, many into the Delta area. A terrible fever probably malaria swept through the Indian population starting in 1833. Trappers passing through the Sacramento valley in the fall of 1832 reported a large Indian population but when they returned in the summer of 1833 they found only five living Indians between the head of Sacramento valley and the Kings River. Malaria was probably brought to California by early adventurers, fur traders, and Spanish missionaries beginning in the early 1800’s, and remained epidemic in the Central Valley until the late 1800’s. By 1900 the level of malaria had been greatly reduced by the efforts of many of California’s mosquito control districts. Tomorrow: Part 2 Source: Bill Wells 916-777-4041 Click for California Delta Chambers Website For all your real estate needs Call DRE# 00669941 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ztPXBBxG28 Sista Monica & Her All-Star Band with Lorraine Gervais & the Burning Sensations are coming to the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley on Saturday March 5 at 8 pm. Tickets are $20 and their music is soul, blues, gospel along with a dance party! In 2001, she released her first gospel album, Gimme That Old Time Religion, an artistic full circle for her, as she returned to the gospel roots of her youth. That same year, she released Live in Europe, which captures the spirit and energy of her live performances with her touring band. It was on tour in Europe in the late ’90s that she first got the moniker “the Blues Lioness.” In 2002, she was presented with the Blues Artist of the Year award at the 17th annual Monterey Bay Blues Festival. After completing a 17-concert tour of the Netherlands in late 2002, she discovered a lump under her right arm and later found out it was a rare and severe form of cancer, synovial sarcoma. Parker underwent more than a year of chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and physical therapy, always affirming herself and holding onto her faith in God and her will to live. In 2004, she re-emerged on the scene and recorded an album of soul and jazz standards popularized by Ray Charles and Dinah Washington, Love, Soul & Spirit, Vol. 1. Her latest release, Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down!, showcases her abilities as a blues and classic R&B vocalist, but also includes some well-chosen covers, including Willie Nelson’s Funny How Time Slips Away and Sam Cooke’s A Change Gonna Come. Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down! reflects her new perspective on life, reaffirms her faith in God, and casts new meaning on the healing powers of blues and gospel music. Not only is she one of today’s most powerful singers of blues, gospel, classic R&B, and soul, she’s also a cancer survivor. As of late 2008 and early 2009, Parker continues to tour around the U.S. and parts of Europe. Sister Monica Parker’s Website For all your real estate needs Call DRE# 00669941 By John J. O’Dell I awoke this morning to having the power go out for the third time this winter. Not only that, but as I looked out my window, there was three feet of snow. Within the next hour, it was about 4 inches over the top of the handrail. Now I don’t have a wood stove so there is no way to heat my house when the power goes out. So needless to say, it was starting to get cold. The best thing to do when this happens is to get out of there and go somewhere else. I thought I could work at my new office located in the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley, but guess what? Power was out in Nevada City, the Brunswick Area and Grass Valley. So much for working today. I’ve taken a bunch of pictures of my trip from my house in Cascade Shores to Grass Valley. On the trip down the hill (I’m at the 3,700 foot elevation) there were power lines and trees down again as in the last snow storm. There was even a power line down on S. Auburn Street in Grass Valley where a tree came down and took the line down from a power pole to a house across the street. Hopefully the power will come back sooner than the 4-5 days it took PG&E to restore power in the last snow storm. For all your real estate needs Call DRE# 00669941The Ghost at the Holbrooke Hotel, Grass Valley, CA
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530( 263-1091
Email John at jodell@nevadacounty.comFive Signs That Say Now is the Time to “Buy”
Home buyers sitting on the fence wondering if now is the right time to buy should consider five factors when making this decision: Jobs, recent sales activity, construction, mortgage availability, and anecdotal evidence. Each of these issues can help consumers make the best choice for their situation and financial circumstance.
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email John at jodell@nevadacounty.com
DRE# 00669941Run, Walk, Just Don’t Sit Still!
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Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how.
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John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email John at jodell@nevadacounty.com
A Short History of the California Delta Part 4 of 4
Reuben Kercheval is credited with building the first man made levees in the Delta on Grand Island about 1849. They were built from peat and only lasted a few years. In 1850 the Swamp and Overflow act which gave control of these swamplands to the state was enacted. Later the state gave control to the counties and most of the swampland was sold off. The original levees were built upon berms of material that were deposited by floods on the banks of the rivers and sloughs over thousands of years. Some of these natural levees were as much as 25 feet high. Once drained the land was prime agriculture land with fabulous peat soil that was later bagged and sold for gardens. Many early farmers were almost able to recoup the price they paid for the land with their first harvest. Sacramento-San Joaquin levees were built in the mid to late 19th Century to prevent flooding on prime agricultural land. Most of the land was at sea level, and levees were frequently constructed on top of natural dirt barriers that formed along rivers and sloughs. Originally Chinese laborers using hand shovels and wheelbarrows built most of the levees.
Executive Director
California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau
PO Box 1118
Rio Vista, CA 94571
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091A Short History of the California Delta Part 3 of 4
Executive Director
California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau
PO Box 1118
Rio Vista, CA 94571
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091A Short History of the California Delta Part 2 of 4
A Short History of the California Deta Part 1 of 4
Executive Director
California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau
PO Box 1118
Rio Vista, CA 94571
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.comSista Monica with Lorraine Gervais Coming to Grass Valley
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.comSnow in Nevada County February 25, 2011
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com
