Tag: gardnerville

The Record Courier has a list of all the Christmas events that are coming up in the Carson Valley over the next couple of weeks, with the big ones being the lighting of the Gardnerville Christmas tree, Wednesday Dec 3rd at 5:30pm in Heritage Park, and the big Parade of Lights which travels from Lampe Park to downtown Minden along Hwy 395. That's Saturday night, Dec 6th, starting at 5:00pm.

And also remember the Carson City Christmas tree lighting, Thursday night, Dec 4th, on the Capitol grounds at 5:30pm.

The Record Courier has a story about the old Carson Valley Hospital (now an office building across the street from CVMS), and all the ghost stories the owners tell about the building.

This coming weekend is when all the various area ghost walks are talking place. Both Carson City and the Carson Valley are having their haunted walks this weekend. Four in all, spread over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• Friday, October 24: Gardnerville Ghost Walk. Tour times are 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Guided tours will depart from the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center, 1477 Highway 395, Gardnerville. Tickets are $5 per person.
• Saturday, October 25, Daytime: Carson City Kit Carson Trail Ghost Walk. Tours depart every 30 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Meet in front of the Firkin and Fox, at the corner of Third & Carson Streets. Tickets are $15 per person.
• Saturday, October 25, Evening: Haunted Gardnerville Cemetery Tour. Guided tours depart every 15 minutes between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Meet at Gardnerville's Garden Cemetery. Tickets are $5 per person.
• Sunday, October 26: Haunted Genoa Ghost Walk. There are two tours, leaving at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Meet at Genoa Courthouse Museum. Tickets are $5 per person.

You can also read my report of the 2005 Carson City Ghost walk.

Last weekend we headed down to the Corley Ranch south of Gardnerville to go to the Carson Valley Harvest Festival. Much more than just a pumpkin patch, the Corley family transforms their farm into a public park every October. For a small fee, families can have the run of the place and partake in a number of autumn amusements, such as a corn maze, petting zoo, pony rides, wagon rides, food, drink, and music. There is a large pumpkin patch where you can search for the perfect gourd to take home. There are wooden cows and horses set up where young cowboys can practice roping cattle. The pig races take place every two hours. For the really little ones, there is a bounce house and a hay bale maze to keep them occupied while the bigger kids are getting lost in the corn. All together we spent over two hours there, and we had to drag the kids back to the car when it was time to go.

This is one of the advantages to living in an agricultural area, things like this. A couple of weeks ago we were in Las Vegas and we went to a pumpkin patch, It was held in a parking lot, with hay sprinkled down to walk on, and all the pumpkins were from out of state. At the Corley Ranch, it's a real actual farm, with three generations of Corleys manning the festivities. The land the ranch sits on was originally part of the Dangberg holdings, and has been a ranch for 140 years. The pumpkin patch you search through is actually where the pumpkins were grown, and as you're walking you're tripping over roots and leaves. You're also stepping on the rotted remains of the pumpkins that didn't make it, and even some of the pumpkins that look fine from the front are a little brown and gooey in the back. The animals you meet were born and raised on the ranch. The bunnies and goats were even for sale!

There have been stories about the Corley Ranch in the Douglas Times and Nevada Appeal. Another family also wrote a trip report about the festival, and I've written about the ranch on this site before, two years ago. There is one more weekend left for the Harvest Festival, so if you want to go you need to get down there this Saturday or Sunday, October 25th and 26th. The ranch is open from 11 to 5, then after dark on Saturday they open the corn maze for the "Night Crawler Maze Event."

See all the pictures on Flickr.

Record Courier: Free movie tonight in Heritage Park

The Town of Gardnerville’s Movies in the Park continues with Carson Valley Pops Orchestra entertaining at 6:30 p.m. today with show tunes with the classic movie “Citizen Kane” following at dusk in Heritage Park, one block east of Highway 395 off Gilman Avenue.

The Record Courier reminds us that tonight we have a concert in Minden Park, starting at 6:30, followed by a movie in Gardnerville's Heritage Park at dusk. Think you can make it to both?

Finally we now have curbside recycling pickup in the Carson Valley. We're probably the last place to get it in Nevada. I think Belmont and Manhattan had curbside recycling before we did. Which is strange, because Douglas County has the highest per capita income in the whole state. I guess rich people don't recycle. I don't know. I only know that Douglas Disposal, our local trash pickup outfit, has never offered recycling.

So it was left to a start-up company, Carson Valley Recycling, to fill that need. Right now it's just a husband and wife team, with one truck, serving the whole valley (or at least Douglas Disposal's entire service area). Which is fine, because they only have 50 customers. But as their client base grows they'll probably get stretched thin, and hopefully will be able to get more employees and more equipment. This is a service that I'd like to see succeed, and at $10 per month I'll probably be signing up soon. Right now you have to take all your recyclables to a drop-off point yourself. The main one is at the old landfill out Pinenut road, and there are also drop-offs at many of the area schools. But usually doing that is such a pain that I don't recycle glass and plastic, just paper and cardboard. Signing up for this service will definitely help out, and I urge all of you to sign up too. Both because recycling is the way to go, and also because we want to support this new company and make sure they don't have to shut down.

Here's a list of the items they'll accept:

aluminum
plastics #1 & 2 (these can be combined)
#2’s are usually colored plastics ( Tide&Downy and milk containers)
glass~(rinsed)
tin cans (canned soups, pet food, veggies, etc.) ~ not tin foil
cardboard (must be dry) (broken down if possible)
paperboard( cereal boxes, non-wax items, egg & milk cartons) (must be dry)
plastic grocery bags
dry newspaper (ads are accepted too)
magazines&catalogs (kept dry)

You can contact them by phone, at 775-267-6524, by e-mail at cvrecycling@mac.com, or sign up on their website.

The Carson Valley Days parade is tomorrow. The Record Courier calls it their favorite time of year. The parade starts around 9am at Minden Park, and runs to Lampe Park, taking three hours or so to run all the way. The parade travels down Hwy 395, so really anywhere along the parade route is good for viewing. I've always been partial to locations near where the road curves, so it's easier to see the floats coming and going.

I won't be making it to the parade this year, but hopefully I'll get some photos from you loyal readers!

Gardnerville is putting on movies in Heritage Park this summer.

• June 27 - The Goonies
• July 18 - E.T.
• August 15 - Citizen Kane
• September 5 - Meet the Robinsons

All movies start at dusk. Pack a picnic or enjoy treats offered by Carson Valley Lions Club and Boy Scout Troop 411, Coldstone Creamery, Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N Bake Pizza and Subway.

Monster dust devil in the distance.

We've mostly tamed the desert here in Western Nevada, but sometimes the desert still knows how to fight back. The one weapon mother nature will always have against us is wind, and around here that means dust devils. Big, violent ones. The Record Courier has the story of a house in the Ranchos that was hit by a monster dust devil. It smashed up his chicken coop and threw his back patio into his front yard.

These monster winds have struck our house too. Last October a particularly bad windstorm toppled the wooden playground in our backyard. It weighs hundreds of pounds, but a big gust just knocked it right down.

So we may not live in the land of tornadoes, but we still get our share of angry winds.