About Amador County, CA

On Sunday evening my friend John "Scully" O'Sullivan was killed in rural Amador County. This was the first violent death in the county this year. but Even one is way to many, and John was a friend.

John and his wife and business partner Krista Clem, are area real estate developers, and we all know that right now developers are at best "looking forward to better times..."

Well I have put up a little site for John, and if you have the chance to drop by please do. If you are in a place to help get him "home to Ireland" I have added a paypal button for donations.

Thanks

We literally fell into the little town of Volcano, after exploring the Indian Grinding Rock State Park in Amador County last week. The distance between the two is a mere few miles.

Volcano (Formerly Soldier's Gulch) is another of those little Gold Rush gems, which provides rich color to the Wild West era tapestry. It is considered by many to be one of the most picturesque of the Mother Lode towns.

Dating back in history to the late 1850s, the town was originally nicknamed "Crater City." Early miners noticed the lay of the land was a bowl-shaped valley, which caused them to believe it was formed by a volcano.

There is a story that in 1849 one miner took out 8 thousand dollars worth of gold in a few days - that was in 1849 dollars. Another got 28 pounds in a single pocket.

Volcano boasts that it is home to California's first amateur theatrical company. This theatre tradition continues to this day. The town has an outdoor amphitheatre, and the Volcano Theatre Company, which stages performances at various times during the year.

Once the largest settlement in Amador County, Volcano now has a population of a mere 101 souls. In its heyday, the town boasted 3 breweries, 17 hotels, 37 saloons and a great deal of gold.

For more detailed history on Volcano you can visit Volcano's AmadorGold webpage

Directions to Volcano from Sacramento: Take Highway 16 through Sloughhouse, and on until you reach Highway 49 toward Jackson (travels through Dry Town, Amador City, and Jackson). Take the Highway 88 turnoff toward Lake Tahoe. Turn left on Pine Grove-Volcano Road. The settlement is about 3 miles from Highway 88. Mileage is about 50 miles from Sacramento to Volcano.

Ok, We took the little steps towards some “GREEN” for Amador County Real Estate in the last post. Now we can look at some bigger steps. These certainly will not be for everyone, but information can only help, so don’t feel bad if these opportunities are a bit out of reach, just do what you can and try to think about what you are doing…

The biggies, or” How dark is your green?” But first some background...

In the last post we talked about turning off the stuff you aren’t using and CFL’s now lets talk about making your own energy. In case you didn’t know it, energy generation is a misnomer. You can’t actually “generate” energy. You can only change its form into one that you can more easily utilize. And all of the energy on this planet comes from only three real sources: atomic, kinetic, and solar. So you might say atomic and kinetic, but I think the local atomic (here on earth) and atomic from that big star we see everyday rate their own mention. The kinetic friction is the stuff that gives us geothermal heating and volcanoes, it has some affect on the planet’s temperature but it is a very stable affect in the big picture. We use atomic energy to heat water into steam to run turbines to turn generators to give us electricity. Only a small percent of our energy gets to us this way, it is rather dangerous in many people’s eyes, and the left-overs are going to be a real challenge.

Lets break those three sources down a bit

There is a little bit of tidal power being tested but so far only on small scale. That would be kinetic… The moon draws tides that in one way or another spin generators, or in some cases “pull” generators… don’t ask… How ‘bout hydroelectric? Well that is really solar. The sun evaporates water into clouds that move by wind (we will get to that next) up mountains where they cool and the rain/snow falls out, eventually ending up above a dam or water wheel that turns a generator…
But what about wind? Yep, that is solar too, the reason that wind happens, is changes in temperature of air over different parts of the planet’s surface, the changes in temperature are due to the sun heating some areas more than others. Hot air rises and is less dense than cool air. The changes move air around that in turn can spin blades… you guessed it, that turn generators. And of course there is that sexy Photo-Voltaic, This is a more direct conversion for photons to electrons due to exciting stuff in thin panels of layered silica and assorted metals, (Ok, it is magic) By the way Gas, diesel, oil, coal, wood, bio diesel, alcohol, are all solar, just stored in other forms.

I could go on… but I bet you see where I’m going. But how does this fit in to Real estate?

I’m glad you asked…

If you play your cards just right you can take advantage of at least one of the three energy sources we have, in and around your own home. We ought to leave that tricky atomic stuff out. It is rather dangerous. And Geothermal heating is also rather large scale for all but the very luckiest of us, unlike geothermal cooling witch is different. But you can reasonably think about solar in its different forms.

Most of us think of big black panels up on roofs when we hear solar and that is because that is the most popular alternative power system for individual homes these days at least here in the USA. Those panels are Photo-Voltaic (Light-Electricity).

You also see Solar-Thermal (that is sunlight to heat) often on residential roofs. Solar-Thermal is a great way to cut heating bills, these systems coupled with on demand water heaters, and radiant floors or even pool heaters, all make great sense. But we really think most about PV. These days, systems are being sponsored by government at all levels, from Federal down to City. Programs abound, and many of us can actually finance these systems to the point that the monthly savings on electric bills can counter the monthly cost or the systems. Break-even dates are ever closing with the cost of systems dropping and the cost of electricity on the rise. These days it is common to see systems pay for themselves in five to seven years. That is about the historic amount of time between average house re-sales here in California. Now remember that these systems often have 25 year warranties and tests show very little degradation even at the 50 year mark. So if they pay off in five years, that means FREE POWER for the next twenty years minimum.

Look at your last bill, what could you get with that much cash each month? Installing a PV solar system could easily get you that savings in a few short years.

Don’t forget how that cost savings could affect the ability of more buyers to purchase a given house… If the system saves $100.00 per month that means around $16,000 more house (assuming 6%, 30 year fixed) The ability to convince appraisers and banks of this simple math is growing but the average buyer can understand it already.

Programs to bundle improvements like this into purchase loans have been in the market for decades, but they are really just catching on now.

PV is a great answer for many of us, but it’s not the only answer. Wind is getting more and more popular, It has its problems sound, sight, safety, and vertical space issues, Not to mention the long term /big environmental issues with slowing down the wind ( I will come back to that in some other post), but it is something to think about and if you are lucky enough to have a stream on your property, micro-hydro-electric is a fast growing technology.

Very few of us in the US have the opportunity to plumb into geothermal heat sources, that tech is growing fast in other parts of the world, but it may never get to the point of individual homes being powered that way, but towns or neighborhoods maybe… I will talk more later about geothermal cooling, that is much more available to the average person, although not cheap to ad on, but with the cost of energy going up, I expect to see more and more of this wonderfully sensible technology.

For most of us this stuff in just background, or things to think about. If you would like to talk about ways that these things can help you in you real estate endeavors, feel free to give me a call (209) 257-4590 email me, or click over to Mainstreet Brokers' website. In the next post we can talk about some Building technology to help put some of these things together

Close your eyes for a minute, and imagine that you are traveling back through centuries - long before white man had the audacity to show up and begin shuffling around the New World.

You look at your hands - they are brown. They may be weathered; but perhaps not. In your right hand is a long conical stone pestle - unless you are a lefty. You are using this tool to grind acorns in mortars formed on a massive marbleized limestone rock outcropping with 1,185 mortar holes. There are others in your group performing similar activity. You know each other. Some of them are your kin. All of them are of your tribe. You are a member of the Miwok Native American people. And you are among the FIRST people of this land, which will later become known as California.

Meanwhile, back in today's world where reality can get into mischief, the 135 acre Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park, exists as a testament to the original people of California, who lived in this area for many centuries, before being driven into less desirable land, by settlers, who arrived during the California Gold Rush.

The Roundhouse emphasizes the aboriginal importance of the site. A reconstructed Miwok village provides present-day descendants of the Miwok with an opportunity to preserve their heritage and traditions. Several times during the year, local Native Americans hold ceremonies. In September, Indian families gather at the park for the annual acorn gathering ceremonies. Dancing, story telling, and games are traditional activities. But, there is no fixed schedule of events.

The Northern Sierra Miwok established their villages alongside the rivers and streams of the Sierra Nevada - from the Cosumnes River on the north to the Mokelumne River on the south. Other Miwok groups lived to the west as far as Mount Diablo and as far south as Yosemite National Park.

The park is located near the town of Pine Grove, approximately 8 miles east of Jackson on highway 88 (headed toward Lake Tahoe). The distance is about 48 miles from Sacramento.

For more information about this fascinating place, you can visit the Indian Grinding Rock State Park website.

[*Note from Myrl]: The grandkids will be starting back to school next week. I promise to get back to writing more about real estate related things then. But, I must admit, I've enjoyed these little summer day trips with the kids. Summer is ending too quickly.

A Few Green Steps in Amador County Real Estate

As Amador County’s First EcoBroker certified® REALTOR® and GREEN designee, I obviously have a thing for “GREEN,” I love to share and discus opportunities and choices in energy efficiency, sustainability, and the triple bottom line in Real Estate. In these next few posts I aim to share a few ideas on ways to save you money as you save energy, water, and other resources. Making good green choices is not about suffering for savings, but just the opposite, living a comfortable life with less waste.

So lets go!

Low Hanging Fruit.

Lighting and electrical use…

This is free, and rather obvious; turn it off if you aren’t using it. This goes for almost anything, and this is getting easier and easier all the time. Now you can even have smart systems installed to do the more difficult part of this for you. They can even be set up to automatically power down the things you really can’t use while you are away. This type of system knows when you leave and shuts down power for things like your TV, PC and wall warts. All of the little electrical draws do really ad up to a big difference in your bill and in the need to “fire up” power plants and even build new ones. Standard size wall switches are even avalible that will turn themselves off if they do not detect motion for a preset time. Areal "no bainer."

And how about the lights themselves? Those old off color, slow to warm up, and costly, Compact Fluorescent Lamps are just about a thing of the past, These days CFL’s are mostly instant on and many are even dimmable and color temperatures have improved greatly as well. As for the neysayers who ballyhoo about mercury in the lamps, of course, it is contained unless you break the lamp, and even then it is a very small amount. So that you have an idea what to do when this happens, here is what the EPA says to do with broken CFL’s.

Old CFL’s should always get recycled. Here in California we have the “Take It Back” program at many hardware and home stores (take old household batteries there also).

Spring and fall are great times to walk around the house and look for things like weather-stripping that needs to be replaced or upgraded. This inexpensive little fix can save hundreds of dollars in energy bills and make you more comfortable at the same time. If you are thinking of moving in the future, or just want to doing the best job of sealing those leaks you can, you might think about having a home energy rating done. This will tell you ware the biggest bang for your bucks will be, and often you can do “before and after” tests to show real improvements. You want to do these fixes as early as you can to be able to show good data to buyers. Keep in mind, and be sure that those prospective buyers are informed that these savings are real dollars that can let them more comfortably buy (Their) your house. If the question is between your house and an other similar house, if you can show that your energy bill is one or two hundred dollars (or more) less that the norm, that can make a big deal to a buyer who is already stretching every penny to buy.

Other things to keep in mind are passive solar opportunities. Don’t think that this is all just about site selection, and that your home is already where it is so you can’t fix this. Go out and take a good look at what you have, figure out those solar angles, and think about planting some shade trees on the sun side of your home. Maybe a canopy or some drop down shades? You will be surprised at the difference these changes can make.

These are a few cheep and easy things to think about doing, whether you are just starting to look, moving in, thinking about selling or looking for the little thing that will make your listing stand out from the crowd. In my next post I will up the ante a bit, we can look at some of the bigger things…

By the way if you are looking for a great easy way to shop for green products, Let me invite you to look at New Leaf America, I will vouch for them, I have met and talked with the owner, Chris Prelitz and he is very “dark green” and very well informed.

As always I would love to talk to you about these things and Amador County Real Estate.
Leave a comment, Email me, Give me a call (209) 257-4590 or visit Mainstreet Brokers’ Website.