Santa Rosa, CA

If you are like me, a full day tasting wine can be a bit much. I can only drink some much Carbernet in a day. If you are planning a trip to Sonoma County's Wine Country here's a great alternative to the usual wine tour.

Sonoma County is home to some of the best micro breweries in the country. The following list is some of Sonoma County's best brew pubs. They are listed from South to North so you can easily plan your tour if you are coming up US 101 from the San Francisco area.

Dempsey's Restaurant and Brewery 50 Washington St. Petaluma, CA 707 765-9694 www.dempsey.com

Lagunitas Brewing Co. 1280 N. McDowell Blvd Petaluma, CA 707 769-4495 www.lagunitas.com

HopMonk Tavern 230 Petaluma Ave Sebastopol, CA 707 829-7300 www.hopmonk.com

Ace in the Hole Pub 3100 Gravenstein Hwy (North) Sebastopol, CA 707 829-1223 www.acecider.com

Barley and Hops Tavern 3688 Bohemian Hwy Occidental, CA 707 874-9037 www.barleynhops.com

Russian River Brewing Co. 725 Fourth St Santa Rosa, CA 707 545-BEER www.russianriverbrewing.com

Third Street Aleworks 610 Third St Santa Rosa, CA 707 523-3060 www.thirdstreetaleworks.com

Stumptown Brewery 15045 River Rd Guerneville, CA 707 869-0705 www.stumptown.com

Bear Republic Brewing Co 345 Healdsburg Ave Healdsburg, CA 707 433-BEER www.bearrepublic.com

Although not in Sonoma County, these breweries are in neighboing counties, and worth a visit.

Anderson Valley Brewing Company 1770 Hwy 253 Boonville, CA 707 895-BEER www.avbc.com

Mendocino Brewing Co. Hwy 101 Hopland, CA

Downtown Joe's American Brewhouse 902 Main Street Napa, CA 707 258-BEER www.downtownjoes.com

Jim Cheney, Broker "Your Rincon Valley Realtor"

Serving Rincon Valley and Santa Rosa's real estate needs.

Rincon Valley Santa Rosa Sonoma County California

I live in a medium sized city in Northern California called Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County which is know for producing world class wines. Napa county and Sonoma County are jointly known as "The Wine Country".

Santa Rosa has about 150,000 people and is almost perfectly divided by two highways that intersect in the center of town, dividing Santa Rosa into four almost equal quarters. US 101 which travels north and south and divides the town into East and West Santa Rosa. Hwy 12, which runs east to west divides the town into North and South.

North East Santa Rosa has a number of established neighborhoods; Fountaingrove, Hidden Valley, Junior College, Proctor Terrace, Montgomery Village, Oakmont, and Rincon Valley.

Rincon Valley, which is part of the 95409 zip code has about 25,000 residents living in about 12,000 homes and/or apartments. Rincon Valley is approx. 42 sq. miles, and sits between 2 ranges of hills and is made up of mostly older homes. If you had to describe an average home, it would be a 1970's single level ranch style home on a 6000 sq ft lot although there is quite a variety of homes, newer and older. Currently, the average priced home for sale is about $375,000.

The average age is 45 years old, and the population is approx. 80% Caucasian with black, Asian, and Hispanic making up the other 20%. The average income is approx. $59,000, slightly lower than the state average. This paragraph was written for statistical purposes only. Information was obtained from City-data and can be found at http://www.city-data.com/zips/95409.html.

One of the nice things about Rincon Valley is that the businesses are smaller, and mostly family owned. There are no big "box stores". I believe the largest "chain" store is Safeway in the St. Francis Shopping Center. Rincon Valley is serviced by two small to medium sized shopping centers, St. Francis & Monticeto. In each, the anchor tenant is the supermarket. Both are full of the usual businesses, barbers, hardware, ice cream, pizza, cleaners, etc. There are quaint, local services such as the Rincon Valley Feed store, Rincon Valley Yard and Garden, Rincon Cyclery, Oliver's Market, SkyHawk Market, and much more.

Most of the elementary schools are highly thought of, Austin Creek, Madrone, Whited, Sequioa, and Binkley. The high school, Maria Carrillo, is only a few years old and sits on the outskirts of Rincon Valley with beautiful views of the surrounding hills. There are a number of private elementary, charter and high schools.

Rincon Valley is a beautiful place to live. It offers most services a person would want with a small town atmosphere.

Jim Cheney, Broker "Your Rincon Valley Realtor"

Serving Rincon Valley and Santa Rosa's real estate needs.

Rincon Valley Santa Rosa Sonoma County California

Do you have any clients who are bothered by raccoons, opossums, skunks, etc???

I live in a part of Northern California called Rincon Valley, where wildlife is abundant. I am currently trying to rid myself of 3-4 raccoons that come into my garage at night through the cat door, and raid the pet food. I don't know if you've ever cornered a raccoon, but they are mean, and I wouldn't want one to attack me!

A friend of mine has a small trap that he offered to lend me. "I catch them all the time" he said. In the morning I take them up to Mark West Creek and let em go. (Mark West Creek is about 8 miles away in a different water shed).

Well, let me tell you the truth about trapping and releasing small animals in California. It's illegal! Sounds like a humane way to deal with nuisance, but actually it's cruel, and dangerous.

It's cruel because these rodents that come into our yards at night to eat our fruit, pet food and garbage are not as wild as you think. They were probably born and raised close by, and become adjusted to looking for easy human food and garbage. To trap them and take them out of their environment is almost a death sentence. Not to mention any possible young that depend on the trapped animal for survival.

Secondly, it spreds disease. Animals in a geographical zone may have different strains of disease that when relocated, spread to other animals.

It is far more humane to simply removed the food source so the nuisance animal goes elsewhere.

California law T 14 CCR Sect 465.5 states: "A trapper must either euthanize a trapped animal or release it within 100 yards immediately."

Jim Cheney, Broker "Your Rincon Valley Realtor"

Serving Rincon Valley and Santa Rosa's real estate needs

Rincon Valley Santa Rosa Sonoma County California

Overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time? Here are some tips to help free up some of your time, and hopefully, help you become more efficient.

1) Plan your day: Make a list of everything (fun and professional) you would like to accomplish during day. Put it in order according to importance, or grouped by location, whatever your preference. Don't try to commit your day to memory. By having it on your calendar, or PDA, you'll be most efficient at making your appointments and can keep yourself accountable. Being efficient results in more free time for you.

2) Use a chore check list: By setting up a chore checklist, you'll eliminate becoming overwhelmed or frustrated with your daily chores. Put down what chores you want done daily, weekly and monthly. Don't spend time vacuuming if you just did it 2 days ago. Allow yourself the time to get your chores done. By having a check list you'll establish a routine that you can easily jump into.

3) Plan your meals: How much of your time is spent at the store, finding parking, walking the isles, standing at check out, writing checks. Plan your meals for the week and go to the store once, preferably when your store has the most items on sale. Clip your coupons and buy, buy, buy.

4) Set goals and deadlines: Then set mini goals with deadlines to get the job done. If you need to paint the bathroom, pick a date you want it painted by. Then pick a date to have all the supplies, pick a date to tape off, and pick a date to paint.

5) Identify: Identify where things are. Get a label maker, and mark your storage boxes so you know which ones are old taxes, and which one is Christmas decorations. Color code you holiday decorating so you know which box has which holiday in it. Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July. Color code your file cabinet folders so you know which folder belongs to you and which belongs to your spouse. The less time you spend looking for something, the more time you have to use what you were looking for.

Jim Cheney, Broker "Your Rincon Valley Realtor"

Serving Rincon Valley and Santa Rosa's real estate needs

Rincon Valley Santa Rosa Sonoma County California

REALTORS - AMBASSADORS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY?

Sonoma County has recently announced a community action plan to generate discussion and education about the issues and challenges we face in dealing with the impact of global climate change. We are very proud of our county for initiating this undertaking as many "talk" about what needs to be "done" but few implement the difficult tasks necessary to change. I was happy to attend a meeting sponsored by the county to promote the involvement of Eco-Green certified real estate agents in this enterprise. This is NOT going to be an easy fix and most of us know it. What we need is leadership and direction and the real estate community can be a part of it.

Here are the main points discussed at the meeting.

1. Home Energy Rating Service (HERS).. The HERS home analysis is a national energy rating system and is one of the requirements necessary to receive an energy improvement mortgage. A signed retrofit contract is necessary before the close of escrow. Completion of the retrofit must be within three of months of closing escrow. All funds are paid by the escrow company to the contractor after HERS has given verification that the work is done correctly. There are two (2) types of EEM (energy efficient mortgages). One is for new construction and the other is for older homes in need of an energy retrofit.

2.Assembly Bill 811(AB 811). The California legislature is developing a municipal financing program the details of which are still being crafted. This will supplement federal sources of funding for energy retrofit.

3.Green building is becoming more popular as people realize that "green" living and energy costs in the future will increase significantly as effort to deal with global climate change gathers momentum. This means that contractors and builders who are on the leading edge of green building practices will be more and more in demand. Obviously realtors should keep abreast of these developments and provide guidance to their clients. Leaders in the real estate community should take the opportunity to encourage the changes in attitudes and behavior that the climate challenge requires us to make as a people.

3.A wonderful web site to answer many questions and also make you think of other aspects of green living is www.builditgreen.org.