#121. Leira Satlof on Ferndale, Senior Services, and Getting Things Done

Leira Satlof joins Scott Hammond for a conversation about her path through Humboldt County, from Dell’Arte roots and Ferndale Repertory Theatre to food trucks, gardening, and her current work leading the Ferndale Senior Resource Agency. She talks about Meals on Wheels, transportation, medical equipment lending, healthcare access, community fundraising, and what it takes to help older residents stay connected in a small town. The conversation also touches on Humboldt’s arts scene, Ferndale’s layered history, the pull of Oregon, and Leira’s legacy: “She cared and got some stuff done.”

Transcript

Welcome To 100% Humboldt

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, boys and girls, and all those out to see it. Scott Hammond with 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend Lyra. Hi, Lyra. Hi, Scott. How are you? I'm doing well, thank you. Tell us your last name. Sat Lof. Sat Lof. Gotcha. Tell us your story. Who's who who's Lyra? Who are you and what are you doing here?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Well, I've done a lot of things in Humboldt County. Most people probably know me either because I ran Ferndale Repertory Theater for a number of years.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Yes, you did.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Or because I had a food truck for a hot minute. Really? Called Nature Serving World Food Fast. Wow. Um now I run Ferndale Senior Resource Agency.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

And Ferndale, which is in California. Yes. Wait, I could use my my prop already. Look at this. So this is my uh map of Humboldt. Nice. And this is where we are here in Humboldt Bay, Eureka. Oh, Eureka's here. That's Arcata. And Ferndale is right down there, as you know. There it is, right there. The little village of the Victorian village. It is a Victorian village. Is it true that you have to live there about 20, 200 years before you're local? Or considered as a local?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I don't think so, but it is true. That's not my impression.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Uh most of the main street businesses are owned by people who retired and got some sort of, you know, retirement project and thought it would be fun to be in retailer are now dealing with the consequences of that. Right. Um, and they seem perfectly welcome in town. Um, but it is true that Ferndale has a long history and that um, especially in my business where I'm taking uh, you know, providing services for older folk, that there are uh layers

Ferndale Life And Community Layers

SPEAKER_01 1:45

of family relations.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Uh and so it's been I I often say I wish somebody would give me like a family tree overlay with the town map so that I know who's, you know, which families are related to whom in which houses.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah.

unknown 2:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

No, it's got a rich heritage. So Portuguese, Italian, and what's the it's not is it Dutch? It's not Dutch. They're uh Danish, Copenhagen. Finnish? I've there some Finnish, maybe from Denmark. A lot of dairy people. Anyway. Yes. Hi Ferndale, what's up? You know who's cool in Ferndale that was on my show is uh my boy from um the steeple, the old steeple. Oh yeah, he's great. He's a great guy, man. Isn't it terrible?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

And that's and that's a beautiful thing that that he's doing there. Um Mark uh Daniels, I think is his name, right? No, it's the other guy.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

It's the other guy? He might yeah, it's the other guy. And I'll think of it here in a minute. I had him as a guest. Great guy. He's in a band, he's in a surf. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Their guy, they they do good shows, too.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

They do great shows, and it's a they've done a it's a beautiful little space that they've created there. Yeah, it's really a fun space to see an artist in.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

We see a Huckleberry Flint every year uh there. They do two shows. It's always fun. Nice. And Tuya's tacos. Hi Tuyas is great. Hi, Gloria. Yeah, you're right. There's a lot of people that kind of are imports, but yeah. To my to to not make my point, it's always friendly there. I've never felt that, you know, that vibe, whatever that vibe is. But that unwelcoming, hey, we're we're local and what are you doing here vibe.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Oh, I mean, I think that's just the difference between those who understand tourism and those who understand cows. Right. Right. I like that. Good. So tell us tell us the Lyra story. Oh, the Lyra story. Okay, so I uh was born in Manhattan and my parents are artists. And uh my mother, we moved to San Francisco. My parents divorced, my moved to San Francisco with a crazy Italian guy and uh bought a piece of property in southern Humboldt County. Wow. What was his name? Carlo Mazzone Clemente. Oh, famous. People people might know him as the founder of Delarte, which he founded with my mother

From Manhattan To Humboldt Arts

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Jane Hill. Wow. So that started, Dell Arte started on a piece of property in Panther Gap.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Famous, yeah. Uh yeah. Yeah. Not that not that necessary.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

And then eventually they got tired of commuting. Uh-huh. And so they found the building in Blue Lake and they moved to Eureka. And I think I was in, I don't remember, fourth or fifth grade when that happened. So did most of my childhood here. Uh-huh. And then uh went to Manhattan to study opera. Whoa. And then lived in Santa Rosa for twenty-something years. Wow. Uh, and then came back here. Manhattan. I bet that was something. Manhattan is something. Manhattan in the 80s was really something. I bet it was. Everybody was dropping dead.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, it was really a lot of I remember New York really needed cleaning up at some point, as I remember.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Oh, it was also the height of the tragic AIDS crisis. Right, right, right, right. That's hard. So when I was in school, lots of my colleagues were unwell.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

That's uh so today you've uh did you graduate, you did graduate Arcata High.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

No, no, I didn't graduate anywhere. Um I left Eureka High, which was just a little too provincial for me at the time. And uh I um went, I told my parents that I had been accepted at the Wa University of Washington, which was not quite true. I had been accepted by a voice teacher who also taught at the University of Washington. It's a little different. It's a little different. Um but by the time they caught me out, I had um gotten some big city experience and I had applied to the Manhattan School of Music. Wow. So I went there and I got an actual degree, a fantastic degree, a BM. A BM, which is a Bachelor of Music, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

And your mom was probably proud because she's from Manhattan.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Uh yeah, all the parents were proud. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

And Carlo was where was he from?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, he's from Italy. Is he Italian?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Okay. Yeah. They had split up by then. Um and actually my mother had remarried my father when I graduated from college. Cool. Uh yeah. And then I came back here to uh have a baby with my first husband who just had a baby of her own.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

And uh got a graduate degree from what was then Humboldt State University.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Now it's Cal Poly. And now it is. Just had uh President Richard on. He's an amazing guy. Nice. Yeah, good school. Yeah. So cool. You've so you traveled a bit. I've traveled a bit. What did you do when you came back from uh opera school or music school with your Oh, let's see, what did I do?

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Well, we came here, I taught at Delarte for a while, I had a baby, I got a graduate degree, my husband and I split up. He moved to Santa Rosa, and then I moved to Santa Rosa with my now current husband. Nice and we lived there for 20-something years, where I was the cantorial soloist at a uh synagogue and taught at the junior college, did a lot of directing of shows at the junior college in Santa Rosa. Nice, good school. Yeah. And then in 2012, um, I had the crazy idea that I would open a food truck in Humboldt County. Wow, absolutely and like most food businesses, it lasted three years and nearly bankrupted me. And then uh lucky for me, Ferndale Repertory Theater was looking for somebody to help it recover from some bad leadership. Aaron Powell They had a long, colorful history, right?

unknown 7:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yes, Ferndale Rep has been around for almost fifty years, I

Opera Training And Reinventing Careers

SPEAKER_01 7:41

think now. Maybe more than fifty years.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

I still have theater too. Beautiful theater. And then there's a theater in Scotia, which I thought was really cool back in the day. I have no idea what it's like today. I think it's exactly the same. All redwood and kind of interesting, like tree thing, like tree forms of wood in there. Indeed. Yeah, interesting. Well, cool. Um, so your current gig is you're taking a senior center, senior resource center.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

We don't actually have a place. We uh use the commercial kitchen at the Ferndale Community Center, which some people know as the firemen's pavilion. And we have a nice the city owns that building and we have a nice partnership with the city where we we run some classes in there and we have activities during the day and then I love it.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah. Yeah, I've been working with Area One on Aging. Agency on Aging. A1AA. Yeah. What about them? Oh, I just uh I've started to r be uh to resource them for like Medicare and things of that nature. Yeah, that high cap program is fantastic. Hi, Rosanna. Yeah, they she does a really good job. Maggie Kraft is coming on soon.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah. So yeah, I think you guys all do a super noble mission there in taking care of all of our seniors who are turns out are us.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Well, that's true. That's become us. Yep. Well, Ferndale's a little bit tricky, right? Because um the bridge turns out to be a bit of a barrier for folks. Oh. So um so we run the Meals on Wheels program in Ferndale. Uh about 70 clients a day. Wow. And uh we have a transport service because Ferndale has no bank and um we're working on improving the grocery store. The grocery store's just been sold, so we all have high hopes about the grocery store. Um But yeah, it's hard for folks to get, you know, to their doctor's appointments and whatnot. So we have a transport service and then we have all these kind of social groups and uh educational and uh exercise kinds of things geared specifically for older folk. Aaron Powell We have a building someday. Oh, my board would really like me to do a capital campaign and get us a building someday. Maybe somebody will give you one.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Maybe. Could happen. Patrick Cleary, hey, um well, he does he did did he own that big

Meals On Wheels And Senior Services

SPEAKER_00 10:08

barn where the Kham was? I'm not sure about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

That might be true.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Hey, he's a generous man.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, right? Hi, Pat. No, that is absolutely the kind of thing that can happen in Ferndale. So for example, we just did a fundraiser. It was an online fundraiser. It had a $3,000 goal. We did it in partnership with Access Humble, who kind of hosted it. There were 32. It was called the Bold Day of Giving.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah, we were part of that a little bit. Oh, were you? Who's we? Me, Scott Hammond State Farm, like a good neighbor. State Farm was a part of the bold day of giving? My state farm was. Huh. Interesting. I was bold and I gave.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Oh, I see. As a donor. Yeah, good. I thought you meant as a organization. State farm is not a nonprofit, is it?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

No, no. They're they're super they're super helpful because they air all these shows. We'll see you there.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Fantastic. Well, thank you, State Farm.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Good for you. Thank you, Christina Shields and all of Access Humble.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Anyway, yes. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

They're a wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

They they did incredible work. So anyway, um, we had a $3,000 goal and we were raised $6,095. So that a building could drop into our lap is not an entirely impossible thing. Think big, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Watch what you pray for, you might get it. Yeah. Yeah. You don't receive because we don't ask. So we need to ask more. I love that. And so I I'd love the fact that you have a heart for seniors. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Seniors are really quite interesting. And as you said, we are them.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

We are them.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

So I have a mother who's 87 who, as we speak, this is why I have a heart out. As we speak is being moved from a hospital where she's just had a variety of procedures to um uh Granada. And she is not happy about it. Um so I took this job kind of just in time to learn. I've been in the job for just over a year now, and uh I have learned a ton. And lots of resources. And um lots of folks in this community have been really helpful to me. Cool. And uh but also the seniors are are fascinating. And I get to come to work like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there's a thing called a sale class, staying active and independent for life. It's free to anybody who's in the Ferndale neighborhood. Um and uh people are very devoted about it's a long class, it's a two-hour long class, right? But it starts with aerobics and you know, to music. Sure. Yes. So I will come into my office Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and there are all these people, you know, like dancing to the BGs through their whole thing. It's like the most cheerful way to come to work.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

I think it's really cool. And and so many seniors have so many cool stories and life lessons and and want to share. Yes. Yeah, and want to share. I have a 93-year-old attorney that I'm gonna have on later in the summer. Fun. Local guy that's got, you know, he's gonna regale us with crazy history of Humboldt. It should be fun. Speaking of Humboldt, what do you like about Humboldt County?

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Oh, you know, the environment is pretty incredible. Uh my husband and I are thinking about retiring to Oregon to be with our youngest child. And um, so we've been spending some time up there looking for property and whatnot. And every time we drive back down, it's like, hmm, hmm. Hmm. It's very beautiful here. It's very beautiful there. What part of Oregon? It's quite different. They want to be in Jackson County. Yes, that's um is that Grant's Pass? Or is that Josephine? Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm not sure if Jack if Grants Pass. I think Grant's Pass is in in Jackson. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

One's Josephine, one's Jackson.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

I think Yeah, Josephine is right when you cross the border, and then it pretty quickly becomes Jackson.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

So uh sh my youngest, who is a uh world-traveling lighting technician, needs to be within 45 minutes of an international airport, which Medford has. Sure. So that's kind of our circle.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

And then there's Ashland, the Brit Festival. Yeah. Have you been to the Brit and seen concerts? I have not seen a concert, but I have driven by the Brit.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Oh my gosh. It's so cool. Yeah. And we now have like a favorite coffee shop in Jacksonville.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Oh, the uh which one? It's right by the Brit down the hill. Bean something with a bean in it. Human bean. It's got it's got brick. It's got brick in the big. Yeah, yeah, exactly right. It's a cool place. They make a mean bagel in there. Really? Yeah, they're good. Yeah. We eat there sometimes. Yeah, we love going up there to see shows. In fact, we're going in a few weeks to see uh first show of the year Los Lobos, I think. Oh, nice. Yeah, it should be fun. Good job. Whiskey Myers.

Fundraising Momentum And Big Hopes

SPEAKER_00 14:48

And then we're gonna see. I mean, I'm really old, but I like string cheese. Incident. They're really like this they're so good. Okay. Well, you're out my outside my wheelhouse now. Yeah, I gotta wear a tie-dye and everything. It's really gotta be colorful. So anyway, uh fun, fun group of people. So yeah, we get we see we're gonna see about six shows this year. Nice. Yeah, it's just fun to hang out. And we look around and all the silver hair people, and Joni goes, My wife, hey, our tribe is they're all here.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yes. I go, Yeah, yeah, they're there. They are. We went to see Curtis Salgado recently. And uh see blues? Yeah. Incredible. Incredible story, an amazing performer at his age with only one lung. Wow. Um yes, the entire audience was Where'd you see him? We're all old now. Yeah. Uh I don't remember the name of the theater. It's a converted movie theater in uh in Grants Pass. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, Judy Collins is coming there in October. There you go. Yeah, it's the Rogue Theater. Been there for a long time. They have uh they've had a lot of shows over the years, too. But uh Brit, we just like it because it's outdoors and it's it's a very small Hollywood bowl surrounded. You've been there, you've seen it. But it's uh it's it's well, it's magic. You're right. So you leave Humboldt County, you go up there, and Joni and I have nine kids, three of which live there and three grand four grandkids. Wow. And so we've been going back and forth for a while and mentally going back and forth, going, I don't know, uh could we leave Humboldt County? I think.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Right, I know. It's a tricky decision.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

It's there's so much, so much here.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Well, I'll tell you what the deciding factor for us is. I mean, aside from the fact that we'd like to be near our children, um, uh is healthcare. Is this talking senior talk again? As my as my 87-year-old mother is trying to access healthcare, and I am looking at how hard that is, not just for her, but also for many of our clients. Yeah. Uh, you know, I'm thinking maybe go someplace with a really good healthcare infrastructure would be smart.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Robust. Yeah, it is robust. So my daughter's next door neighbor, Tim, is a doctor, and he sees a lot of people from Humboldt. Go figure. You know, so they we, they come up there.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

And um, yeah, they have a lot of health care and a lot of senior housing and senior programs and pretty, pretty hardcore. International airport, good weather, kids, yep, healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Yep. All good reasons. But we're not retiring yet, so we'll see what the universe has in store for us.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

That's right. Hear that universe. So what do you what do you not like since we're back on Humboldt? What do you not like about Humboldt? Anything that catches you Healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

There's No, I mean, I love Humboldt. You know, Humboldt has uh, I don't know, this might be apocryphal, but uh more artists per capita than any place else in the United States is something that we used to say when I was in the arts world. I'm not sure it's actually true. Kind of anecdotal, but it's probably true. Uh it might

Caregiving, Aging, And Staying Active

SPEAKER_01 17:50

be true. Uh in part because um there were fantastic programs for developing those kinds of things in the 70s when I mean that's when Ferndale became an artist resident town. That's when Delarte was established. That was, you know, we were trying to get people working after the Vietnam War, and there were all these programs. Aaron Powell And you got the Inc.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

People that does a lot here still?

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Yes, and m more theater than any small area could possibly need.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Aaron Powell Talking to Paul DeMarc uh about music in the old town bar and grill in those days. He had music five, six nights a week. Yes. Real bands. Yep. Robert Cray would come through and you know, all these guys that were fabulous. And um so less of that doesn't mean we don't have good music. There's lots of good musicians.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Lots of good musicians. Do you ever go to the Arcada Playhouse? I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

I really like that. Me too. We saw the Wardens. They were a bluegrass band from BC. They had they had like ranger uniforms and they had a s a slideshow of Banff and Vancouver. They were great. Yeah. I've seen a couple people there that were really good. It's a fun venue. It's a great venue. Very sweet. Arcade Theater Lounge is interesting. We just saw um Dirty Cello at Humbrews uh last weekend. And she's amazing. She played rock and roll cello. She's fantastic. You talk about a hard-working band. They're from Bay Area and they come. She's come several times now. She's quite good. So hey, let's do the quiz. You already walked right into the uh Dick Taylor chocolate world. Oh. Are you a milk chocolate? We're gonna have a chocolate quiz? You yeah. I'm a milk chocolate kind of gal. Oh, perfect. Okay, let's do this. Hazelnut okay? Yeah. Okay, look look at it's not yours yet. So Okay. You gotta you gotta you gotta earn this now.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Okay, maybe I should have asked a question or two.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

You offered to answer questions.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

We've never done it that way.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Go ahead. You want to ask a question? No, no, no. I'm just saying when we were setting up the interview, you asked if I had any questions, and I said no. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

You know, just a little bit of hubris. Okay, okay, okay, got it. Question number one. Best day ever.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Hmm. My youngest's wedding.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Ooh. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Prairie Creek, beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

That's my wife's favorite hiking spots. All over there. Like right out in the meadow there?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

That'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Well, it was in the forest. Like there's a little theater, little amphitheater light luxury spot. That's where they did it.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Oh, that's a cool spot. Yeah. Wow. Plenty of free parking. Up and down the road there, you could park a million cars. Yeah, that's true. We'll go up there when it's uh uh they gated off and we can ride bikes. Nice on the old dirty whatever park web. Question number two. Worst day ever.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I broke my leg while conducting while having a temper tantrum during a technical rehearsal at Santa Rosa Junior College. And I finished the rehearsal before being whisked off to the hospital. And then I was in a wheelchair for four months. Whoa. You actually broke your leg. Oh yeah, in several places. Ouch.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Did you fall off the stage?

SPEAKER_01 21:06

No, I was being a jerk and I was demonstrating something, and there was a soft spot in the stage, and my leg just sort of went sideways. Armor. I'm a big girl, so when I go down, I break things.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

I break things when I go down. What do you find fulfilling in your life?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Uh I love to garden and I use that as sort of a regulation tool. When life gets overwhelming, you will find me weeding.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Where's mom? She's processing in the garden.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, exactly right. Exactly right. It's good. It's good that you're not going to be able to do that. She's out there. Well, then they know whether or not they really want to come out and talk to me, right? Right. What's she doing? She's pulling weeds. Mm, maybe later.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah. Today she's fertilizing. Okay, I could go say hi.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Right, exactly. Today she's harvesting.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Oh, good, let's go. Let's get a snack. It's a process. Yes. And what is for you a perfect day in Humboldt? Do whatever you want, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Money's not an object. Where do you go? What do you do?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Oh, nice. Well, I start at what is that beautiful restaurant that's right over the in Trinidad that's right over the um it's owned by the tribe of Seascape. Is it Seascape?

SPEAKER_00 22:25

On the on the pier?

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Right on the pier.

unknown 22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Best sourdough blackberry pancake you could ever hope to eat. Really? Oh my gosh. Go try it. Really, really good. Really? Uh so that would be the start of it. And then there would be a beach walk.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Lots of beaches up there.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Yeah. I mean, you can just step across the parking lot if you want to take the low-hanging fruit. It's right there. It's good. It's right there. Yeah. Uh and then let's see, we'll drive back south, maybe stop at Los Vegas and pick up a little something, something to have as a snack later. Uh and then I would happily spend the day hanging out in my beautiful yard in Fields Landing. Very nice. If I was feeling super ambitious,

Humboldt Beauty And Healthcare Gaps

SPEAKER_01 23:10

I might go for a walk in a redwood. Oh, there you go. Okay. Something.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Fields Landing. So you have a garden in Fields Landing? I have a big garden in the world. What do you grow up?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Fields Landing. Well, for a minute, I left this out of my biography, but from uh during COVID, when theaters closed, I took a job as a bread baker at the co-op. Oh. Because I wanted to learn more about that and how better to do that than take a job. Uh and I gave up my vegetable garden while I was working at the co-op because we got great vegetables for free at the co-op. So I now have a lot of flowers because I changed everything over to flowers. But now I don't work at the co-op for the last year and so I've begun growing vegetables again. It's going okay. I've got various squashes and tomatoes and lettuce and radishes and all the things.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Wow, you and flowers. And lots of flowers. I love it. Yeah. Joni had a garden and we just have we have a lot of apple trees now around the garden. Ooh. And deer. Oh. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. We have lots of deer.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

That's a great sideline of my job in Ferndale is that I often go to people's homes to deliver uh if they need medical equipment. We have a medical lending library for free. So if you live in Ferndale and you need a walker or something for a little while, give us a call. Cool. Anyway, I get to go to people's houses to drop things things off. And during apple season and plum season, you can just like oh, so-and-so out on Centerville, they have the best apples. And they're giving some away. They're giving them away because they're broken and they can't pick them up.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Would you like some zucchini with that?

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

That was the old joke. How do you know somebody with no friends? They're buying zucchini.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Humboldt in the summer somewhere. Anyway. So here's the fun question. This comes from Joni's father, Tom. Okay. Hi, Tom, and heaven. Um who are you and what do you want?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

I want to retire with joy and enough energy in my body to do the things that life has not given me room to do yet. Ooh. Well thought out answer. I've been thinking about this for a while. It's a good one. You you work with older folk and you start to think pretty clearly about your end of life. Right. Uh who am I? Yeah, I don't know. Ask me tomorrow, I'd probably give you a different answer. Right. Change shifts a little bit. I'm uh I'm a creative and energetic problem solver.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

I like it. I think what I like about you is you're really self-aware. There's some self-aware thing that you do that I like. Huh. Yeah. I mean, I you may be wrong, but it it I think probably not. Well, it's acquired if it's true. Yeah. No, that whole emotional intelligence thing that we all talk about. Well, hey, um, you've done very well. Oh, well enough to earn chocolate? From Dick Taylor chocolate. Fantastic. Located in Eureka, California. I love Dick Taylor. Just for you.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Don't eat it all today. Might share it. I won't. I might even share it. This might even be my favorite hazelnut milk chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

It's tasty. You know, all of it goes good with a little bit of red wine.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah, so true.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

That's super true.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

That's uh Or a zucchini.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Or an apple. Sliced apples. They do a lot of pairings over there. They've done Yeah. I mean, they've done pairings with whiskey and beer and wine and somebody needs to invite me to the whiskey and chocolate pairing that. That'd be a trick. I should go to that. They have a whiskey chocolate. They do once a year. Or no, it's ongoing. Actually, it's an ongoing flavor. What what's the other that uh barley wine that they make that they the

Chocolate Quiz, Gardens, Legacy, Contact Info

SPEAKER_00 26:55

old-timey whatever beer? That was interesting.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Yeah. Didn't know it could be that good. So uh let's as we w wrap it up, give us the shout-out. How do we get a hold of you and the the agency and and how could we participate or give it away? Oh, very, very easily.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

So uh 707-786-4141 is how you reach the agency. Okay. We have a website, ferndalesenior.org, not ferndale seniors, just one senior. There's only one senior in Phoenix Ferndale.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Senior.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

I'm kidding, of course. No, it's just that some town in Connecticut or something had the plural. Yeah. So I took the singular. It's shorter. Yeah, FerndaleSenior.org. And there you can learn all about our programming and all the different things we're doing. And uh you can give in many different ways. You can just send me a check. That's cool. P.O. box 726 Ferndale 95536.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

36. You heard it here first. Um so I could bring my Jag and donate a car, donate some land, maybe donate a facility for the Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

If you have, not really interested in trying to remodel a barn, but if you actually have a building in which we could put a commercial kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

That'd be something.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

That would be something.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah, I think it's great taking away.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Or here's the other thing we're looking to have, in case somebody has one and is gonna not need it forever. We are looking to have the kind of van that you can transport a person in their wheelchair that has a wheelchair. So we have one that will transport a wheelchair but not with a person in it.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

We have a disabled daughter, so I don't we have one. Oh, you do? It's a Honda, yeah. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Well, when you don't need it anymore, you'd be wonderful. When you up when you upgrade.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Yeah. Michaela, you hear that?

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Think think of me.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Yeah. No, it's it's beautiful. It's a Honda. It's beautiful. So uh real quick before we go, we always ask what what would you like to be your legacy? What would we what would you like us to say about you?

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Hmm. She cared and got some stuff done.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Nice. I like it. Get that stuff done.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah. Appreciate you being here. I appreciate you inviting me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

And um, yeah, and and if you ever um if I could ever help, uh I I'll come. Well, I I was gonna say I'll come by the building. You can come by the building. We're there most mornings. You have an office?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Yeah, I have an office and the kitchen is popping off until early afternoon. You got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Well, hey, that's it. That's a wrap. Scott Hammond with 100% Humboldt Podcast. Like us, love us, join us on Facebook, access Humboldt, all the podcast platforms. Uh give. We would like a building and a Jag too, but maybe just a donation would be great too, if you feel like you want to support us. And uh mostly you could support us with a nice review. That'd be cool. Would you agree? I do agree. Thanks for being here, Lyra. Happy to be here. Have a good day. You too.