Colony Magazine #27 • September 2020

SEPTEMBER 2020

FALL

t es v ar &H

Prsrt Std US Postage PAID Permit 19 13Stars Paso Robles CA ECRWSS

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Tooth & Nail Winery Rallies in the Face of Adversity 'World Day Against Human Trafficking'

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c on ten ts September 2020 | Issue No. 27

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FALL & HARVEST

PASO ROBLES WINERIES’ RESILIENCY COMING THROUGH DURING THE PANDEMIC

18

J.B. DEWAR COMPETITION

ATASCADERO HIGH’S CASEY HAVEMANN EARNS TOP PRIZE IN TRACTOR RESTORATION COMPETITION

20

RISE UP: HUMAN TRAFFICKING MARCH

22

POPE X 3 ADVENTURE

SLO COUNTY GREETS THE FIRST ‘FARM-TO-TABLE’ CRAFT BREWERY: ANTIGUA BREWING CO.

PEACEFUL MARCH TAKES PLACE IN SUPPORT OF ‘WORLD DAY AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING’

ON THE COVER Rolling vineyards of Law Estate Wines.

Photo courtesy of Mira Honeycutt and Law Estate Vineyards

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Atascadero 93422 • Santa Margarita 93453 • Creston 93432 Hotels • Wineries • B&Bs • Waiting Rooms • Restaurants • High-traffic Visitor Hotspots for advertising inquiries and rates email publisher @ colonymagazine.com, or contact one of our advertising representatives.

Call today for Air Conditioning System Service & Maintenance

September 2020 | Colony Magazine

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DEPARTMENTS

Something Worth Reading Publisher’s Letter

8

12 13 14 16

17 19

24 25 26

27 28 29

30

31

32 32

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ATASCADERO • SANTA MARGARITA • CRESTON

Round Town The Natural Alternative: How to Boost Your Immune System Colony Buzz: Wayne Copper Memorial Lighthouse Golf Tournament Did You Know: Atascadero’s Open Container Law Santa Margarita: Appreciating Our Local Harvest

publisher, editor-in-chief

Hayley Mattson

Nicholas Mattson

managing editor

Brian Williams

layout design

ad design

Michael Michaud

Colony People Barbers & Salons: The Hair Necessities Mid-State Fair Auction: Virtual Livestock Show

publisher, editor-at-large

Denise Mclean Jen Rodman

community writer

Connor Allen

ad consultants dana@colonymagazine.com jamie@colonymagazine.com

Dana Mcgraw | Jamie Self |

Taste Of Colony Tooth & Nail: Rallies During Pandemic Sip & Savor, Exploring the Enclaves: The Other White Wines Taste of Americana: Food Feeds the Soul Local Business Fatte’s Pizza: A New Slice of Pie Santa Maria Brewing: Atascadero Location Now Open North County Pilates: Committed to Keeping You Healthy, Outside & on Zoom Tent City San Luis Obispo County Office of Education: What About the Greatest Generation?

Off the Beaten Path: The Great Outdoors

office administrator office@colonymagazine.com

Cami Martin |

OUR NEXT ISSUE:

2020 ELECTIONS & COLONY DAYS HISTORY october 2020

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Commentary reflects the views of the writers and does not necessarily reflect those of Colony Magazine. Colony Magazine is delivered free to 17,000 addresses in North San Luis Obispo County. Our costs are paid entirely by advertising revenue. Our Local Business section spotlights select advertisers. All other stories are determined solely by our editors.

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Colony Magazine ©2020 is a local business owned and published by local people — Nicholas & Hayley Mattson

DID YOU KNOW? The Carlton Hotel, built in 1929, received several decades of popularity and notoriety before falling into deep disrepair during the 80’s. Sitting vacant since 1987, a joint-venture between David Weyrich, David Crabtree and Steve Landaker in 1999 sparked a massive renovation project. Costing an estimated $15 million, construction completed in 2003 with the doors of the new Carlton Hotel reopening in 2004. Photo by Nicholas Mattson

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Colony Magazine | September 2020

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September 2020 | Colony Magazine

colonymagazine.com | 7

Something Worth Reading

A

s we welcome September and the fall season’s changing temperatures, we are reminded once again that life is dramatically different.

Our kiddos are back in school, but not really, distance learning is the new homeschooling of the 21st Century, and for the most part, that is what we have decided to do.

This way of living is new to us all, and learning to navigate our way through it comes with many challenges.

No one will handle it perfectly, and that is the underlined beauty of it all, and if we can continue to see that, then we will make it through stronger than ever before.

September marks our year anniversary of adopting the Atascadero News and the Paso Robles Press, along with all the ancillary publications that came with them.

Being the stewards of the local newspapers during the pandemic has been both an honor and a humbling experience.

As with many other businesses, our company has weathered the storm. We changed our direction, our business model, and with each turn,

stayed true to our motto, “bringing communities together through print.”

Having that as our guiding light has helped us navigate some of the most challenging times during this pandemic. We could not have made it through without the deep love and respect we have for one another, our family, and our resilient business partners that continued to advertise even through the unknown.

Then there is our team. This talented group of professionals inspires us each and every day from our managing editor Brian Williams, to our company administrator Cami Martin, to Mike Michaud, our layout editor, who lays out all 252 pages (respectfully) of our publications each and every month. Connor Allen, who was our Sports Editor turned News Correspondent, now tells our community’s stories along with our freelance journalist Camille DeVaul. Dana McGraw our full-time advertising consultant along with our long-time sales freelancer Jamie Self to our part-time ad designer Jen Rodman and freelance designer Denise McLean.

Each of them are loyal, extremely hard-working, and dedicated to bringing our community the very best.

As we continue to walk through these challenging times, of open and closures, school or no school, mask or no masks, vaccine or no vaccine, protest or no protest, red or blue, please remember the support, love and “in this together” that we all shared when we started this journey, because at the end of the day that is all that matters.

As we start to embark on the next chapter of our story, we are looking forward to what that will bring for us all.

We hope you enjoy this month’s issue of Colony Magazine.

Please stay safe, share love, and be a good human.

Stronger Together, Hayley & Nic Mattson

if thou wouldest win immortality of name, either do things worth the writing, or write things worth the reading.

— Thomas Fuller, 1727

8 | colonymagazine.com

Colony Magazine | September 2020

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colonymagazine.com | 9

THE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE NUTRITION CENTER

I

f your immune system is weakened due to a poor diet and an unhealthy lifestyle, you are more susceptible to viruses such as Coronavirus. Remember that fear creates a stress response that can lead to a lowered immune response and sluggish digestion. Customers are stopping by or calling with questions on how to support their health during this difficult time. I might suggest a “news fast” (goes a long way to calm the nerves!), a healthy, antioxidant-rich whole food diet, self-care, and plenty of restorative sleep.

While we are currently advised to wear a mask, social distance, and wash your hands, I believe there is more we can do. What do I take? I’ll tell you!

Immuplex by Standard Process is an “immune system” multi that contains essential nutrients including zinc, Vitamin C & E all from whole food sources. A winner! I also take NAC (n-acetyl cysteine), a supplement especially supportive of the lungs and a source of glutathione, andrographis, and echinacea. A word on andrographis—this multi-tasking herb used widely in Ayurvedic medicine is associated with fighting colds and flu, acts as a liver protector (similar to milk thistle), soothes digestive disorders, fights inflammation, supports brain health,

and protects the heart and arteries.

Yes, I said a GREAT MULTI-TASKING HERB! You must buy a quality Andrographis to get results—we have it!!

As we talk about nutrients to keep viruses at bay, how does diet play in? A diet filled with sugar has been shown to suppress the immune response for several hours. Did you hear me?

SEVERAL HOURS! It might be time to avoid or limit your sugar intake. If you are having trouble controlling your blood sugar or just need some motivation, make an appointment for a nutritional consultation—let me help you!

And guess what else?

Being happy boosts health!

Remember the simple things in life - get out in the sunshine! SLO County has beautiful beaches and some great hikes to explore. The sun destroys harmful organisms with its ultraviolet rays, helps your body make Vitamin D, relaxes your nervous system, and boosts your immune system. Pack a healthy picnic lunch and head for the hills or the beach! Stop by for some backpack treats such as THINK Grass-Fed Beef or Turkey jerky in yummy flavors such as Classic Beef Jerky, Sweet Chipotle Beef Jerky, Sriracha Honey Turkey Jerky, Sesame Teriyaki Beef Jerky. Also, check out our other snacks like trail mix, chips, organic nuts, protein bars, and chocolate. Try our new siddha chocolate—all organic, blended with botanicals and flower essences to support energy, mood, focus, and more! I love these chocolates!! Instant happiness!

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE DIAGNOSIS, PRESCRIPTION OR TREATMENT AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE USED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL COUNSELING WITH A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.

12 | colonymagazine.com

Colony Magazine | September 2020

Colony Buzz |

T

he Atascadero Greyhound Foundation announced that the Wayne Cooper Memorial Golf Tournament that benefits Lighthouse Atascadero has not been canceled amidst the pandemic. This year’s annual fundraiser will take place on October 10 at Chalk Mountain Golf Course in Atascadero.

The Golf Tournament has been an annual fundraising event that the Greyhound Foundation has hosted in support of the Lighthouse programs and resources.

“Lighthouse Atascadero aims to raise awareness of the dangers of drug addiction and use with educational resources, a reality tour, mentoring, and more. It also offers intervention for those battling addiction. That includes therapy during school hours and a wellness center.” Donn Clickard, Executive Director of the Greyhound Foundation, explained.

In August 2018, Wayne Cooper, then sitting President of the Foundation, passed away suddenly after

September 2020 | Colony Magazine

attending their annual summer track and field event.

“For anyone that knew Wayne knew that he dedicated his time and energy to the kids of Atascadero,” Donn said. “He was a crucial part of the organization’s start, and his endless efforts helped us get to where we are today.”

Donn shared, “There was an empty chair after Wayne passed, and it is still empty, but the Board wanted to find a way to honor his memory, and that is when the annual Golf Tournament adopted his name.”

The Golf Tournament will be the first fundraiser that the Greyhound Foundation has put on since the start of the pandemic.

“We have lost three fundraisers this year, so this one is extremely important for us to be able to provide the Lighthouse resources to the community,” Donn said.

Lighthouse is a committee of the Foundation that works in partnership with the Atascadero Unified

School District since 2012. Funding is through donations from local community members. As with other nonprofit organizations, their fundraising efforts have been deeply impacted.

While many fundraising events this year have been forced into the virtual world or canceled altogether, the golf tournament continues since it will be held outside in a naturally socially distanced setting. Local golf courses have continued to stay open throughout the coronavirus pandemic on the Central Coast. They have implemented new protocols such as one person to a cart, not in a family group, and no touching of the flagsticks or ball washers.

The tournament will be played as a 4-man scramble tournament but is limited to only 30 teams. The cost to play in the competition is $40, which includes the green fee, cart, and lunch.

Those interested in making a reservation can call Chalk Mountain Golf Course and speak with Jeremy Clay at 805-423-3524 or email him at jeremy@chalkmountaingolf.com.

Those not playing in the tourna-

wayne cooper memorial

lighthouse golf tournament — october 10 —

By Connor Allen

ment can still support the causes and are encouraged to become a hole sponsor for $100.

This year the Cooper Family in honor of Wayne will be sponsoring a “Golf Ball Drop.” The raffle’s premise is to sell numbered raffle chances based on the winner being the closest to the target’s center in a drop of numbered golf balls. You can join in on the fun and purchase three balls for $10 or 1 for $5.  Anyone wishing to donate an item or sponsor can contact Donn Clickard at (805)712-6356.

colonymagazine.com | 13

did you know?

atascadero does not have an

open container

By Connor Allen

T

here has been a debate in Atascadero that has raged on for decades outside bars and in backyards centralized around one question, can you walk around the city with an open container of alcohol or is it an urban legend?

Atascadero Police Department Police Chief Jerel Haley helped set the record straight by explaining precisely what is and isn’t allowed when enjoying a cold adult beverage in public.

“The City of Atascadero has not passed an open container law,” Chief Haley explained. “So, it is legal in the City of Atascadero to walk around in public with an open container of alcohol.”

So it is true, Atascadero is the Las Vegas of California. You are well within your right to sit in the park with a glass of wine while watching some live music or even spike that evening coffee before you walk around the neighborhood with your children as they ride bikes and scooters.

Atascadero is one of the few cities in the state that allows for open containers. The way it came about is interesting as it is less about entrusting their citizens to be responsible and more like something that just never got around to as we started so small.

“As to how the City of Atascadero didn’t end up with a law, it is actually something

14 | colonymagazine.com

that, rather than taking affirmative action, it was something that they never took action on at all,” Haley said. “The law in the state of California for business and professions code that governs says that any community can pass an ordinance to make it illegal to possess an open container law. The city would actually have to take the proactive measure to pass such a law, and in Atascadero, after incorporation, they never got around to doing it. It is one of those things that I am assuming was not added in at the time of incorporation, and it just has been standard practice since that time.”

However, even without an ordinance banning open containers, there are still times and places that Atascadero natives can find themselves in trouble with the law if they don’t know the proper rules and regulations.

While it is legal to enjoy a drink, those partaking must continue to be

law

Learn when, where, and why you can have a tasty beverage on the go

responsible if they wish to stay out of trouble. The Atascadero Police Department can’t write tickets for possessing the open container but are on the lookout for public drunkenness, which is defined as when, “...An individual is so intoxicated that they are unable to care for their own safety,” Haley clarified.

“So, someone who is staggering drunk out into the roadway and might get hit by a car, that is the type of thing that would cause somebody to be arrested for public intoxication potentially,” he continued. “That is very different than somebody who has had two beers and a little buzz but can take care of their own safety. We are talking about a standard that is somewhat incumbent upon the officers to make those determinations one way or another. So we look for actions or behaviors that are indicative of someone not being able to take care of their own safety.”

Before taking full advantage of the Las Vegas of the Central Coast, it is also essential to know where one can pop-a-top and where it might land you with a hefty citation, an arrest, or perhaps a stern talking.

Fi r s t a n d foremost, when purchasing alcohol from a liquor store or supermarket, it is vital to get into the public domain before consum-

ing it. Laws about retail alcohol sales are unique and specific.

Certain retailers are not allowed to let customers drink on their property as a company policy. While on their private property, you are subject to their regulations.

The most common question raised regarding the lack of an ordinance surrounds the fun events and activities that happen in downtown Atascadero like the Craft Beer Festival or Hot August Nights.

Primarily, it comes down to if the venue is selling alcohol or not.

To sell alcohol at an event such as the Craft Beer Festival, retailers need a special license from the state’s Alcohol and Beverage Control department. These licenses allow events to sell alcohol within an enclosed, defined area and only inside the area. Once outside the marked boundaries, state law takes over and trumps the cities’ lack of ordinance. This means that even though there is no open container law in Atascadero, you cannot take your beer from the festival and head down El Camino Real.

However, events like Cruise Night, where alcohol is not being sold, citizens can bring a drink purchased somewhere else and enjoy it while sitting on the sidewalk as they watch candy painted hotrods and hydraulic lift packages bounce down the street.

Unfortunately, we will have to take advantage of that next year due to COVID-19 and most events being canceled.

It is crucial that everyone drinks responsibly, but now you can navigate the laws responsibly. 

Colony Magazine | September 2020

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THOMAS JODRY Our son Thomas died on September 14, 2019, in San Luis Obispo.

Please help us find out how he died.

O THOMAS JODRY

ur precious son, Thomas (“Tommy”) Jodry, 21, died on Saturday, September 14, 2019, in the City of San Luis Obispo. At around 9:15pm emergency services were called, reporting that he fell from the third floor of the Marsh Street Parking Structure across the street from the Eureka Restaurant. It was a horrifying way to die.

Tommy was only 21 years old. He was just starting life and was hopeful for the future. And he was a wonderful boy.

We need to find people who may have seen what happened to Tommy in the hour before he fell to his death.

• Did he lose his balance and fall from the parking structure?

• Was he pushed from the parking structure?

DAVID A. KNIGHT

To the best of our knowledge, the last person with Tommy on the night he died was David A. Knight, 56, of Atascadero. It was Saturday evening, Cal Poly WOW weekend, and the streets were crowded. The places he was seen on the night of his death include Kreuzberg Coffee, the Frog & Peach Bar on Higuera Street, and the pedestrian walkway between Express and Barnes & Noble.

If you have any information whatsoever that could possibly help us to understand how Tommy died, or for more information, contact William or Mary Jane Jodry at Tommy’s website: justiceforthomas.com. We assure you that anything you tell us will remain confidential – we will not disclose your identity to the police or anyone else without your express permission, in writing.

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September 2020 | Colony Magazine

colonymagazine.com | 15

| Santa Margarita

Local Harvest Appreciating Our

Simone Smith

H

arvest- just saying that word conjures up so many visions of bounty, buckets, and baskets overflowing with apples, semi-trucks with trailers filled to the top with tomatoes and bins of grapes, piles of pumpkins and winter squash, multicolored melons hiding their sweetness inside.

Harvest, however, if you’re not working in the Ag industry, has not really been something we have been connected to in a participatory kind of way besides perhaps joining local growers Picking Party or attending a Harvest Festival, that is, until now.

In ancient times and some poor or remote areas, life depended on the successful harvest of crops and their preservation to provide a source of food during hard winter months.

For us, life here on California’s Central Coast has been pretty easy with our relatively mild climate and fertile soils and not to mention the modern-day convenience of basically being able to get anything from anywhere around the world at any point in time, regardless of the season. Many people seemed to have become complacent, disconnected from our environment and taking our abundant food options for granted, for a price you could run to the store or go out for a meal to pretty much get whatever your heart desired.

Enter the year 2020 with it’s ongoing theme of global pandemic, shaking us from what we now know were our comfortable lives, giving people feelings of insecurity with business closures, job losses, and thoughts of food shortages. In general, humans are very resourceful, and facing insecurity has spurred on a renewed interest in self-sufficiency, including gardening, cooking, baking, and learning various methods of food preservation as well as sharing resources with friends and neighbors.

After months of planting, watering, pruning, protecting, and nurturing, efforts have come to fruition. In Santa Margarita,

16 | colonymagazine.com

September should see harvest in full swing with the ripening of grapes in backyards, small farms, gardens, and the nearby vineyards of Ancient Peaks and Soaring Hawk.

Soon apples, olives, tomatoes, squash, and so much more will be filling countertops and refrigerators of local residents. Waste is no longer acceptable. Our local food now has more value, and people are finding resources to learn preparation and preserving techniques or ways to share and distribute their abundance for others.

The San Luis Obispo County Master Food Preserver program has tons of great information online regarding food handling, safety and preservation, seasonal recipes, classes, activities, volunteering, and a form to sign up for or download issues of their monthly newsletter: The Pantry Press.

Have more produce than you can or will be using? Santa Margarita has it’s very own Produce Exchange Box located in front of The Educated Gardener Nursery on El Camino Real. This box was the great idea of and maintained by some wonderful local residents several years ago and has seen increased usage in these times. The Exchange Box has been a popular resource for locals to share their abundance or find items to fill the gap.

If you find your fruit trees or vegetables are getting away from you either by excess production or due to lack of time or means to harvest, don’t let it go to waste! Contact GleanSLO, whose mission is: “Rescuing nature’s bounty for the benefit of the community”. GleanSLO is a volunteer agricultural service dedicated to reducing waste and getting excess produce to those in need through distribution by the SLO Food Bank.

Sure the pandemic is no picnic, but through planting, growing and participating in the harvest we are more self-reliant, aware of our environment and able to share the abundance, after all, “we’re in this together” and our communities will be stronger, healthier and more connected because of it. ■ For more information about the SLO County Master Food Preserver program find them online, email: slomfp@ucanr.edu or call their helpline at 1(805)781-1429. Information for GleanSLO can be found online at gleanslo.org or email gleanslo@slofoodbank.org.

Colony Magazine | September 2020

I

n July, when COVID19 cases were spiking throughout the state, Gov. Newsom ordered personal care businesses such as salons and barbershops to close. Less than a week later, he said they could reopen if they could do it outside.

Diane Howard, a long-time owner of Morjesi’s Salon in downtown Atascadero, set up a canopy in front of her shop at 5905 Entrada and decorated it with colorful festival blankets to shade clients from the sun.

And, after securing a permit from the City of Atascadero, she was back in business. Well, kind of.

“There is only so much we can do out here,” Diane said. “We can’t rinse.

Nobody can go inside.”

| The Hair Necessities All they can do is cut and style. They ask people to wash their hair before they come, and everyone is required to wear face masks.

Morejesi’s has eight stations inside and pre-COVID-19 they were booked solid daily. They were closed for three months due to Newsom’s stay-home orders and allowed to reopen in June.

“And then we were open for six weeks; things were going good,” Diane said. “We were working in shifts. We were complying, getting clients to wear masks, making it a priority. Kind of got everything tuned in, got our schedules back, just making it work.”

Diane said they have found a way to make it work again.

“We have eight stations in there, and we could maybe push out 60 people a day,” she said. “Out

Barbers & Salons

ules straight.”

That same optimism is echoed in neighboring Templeton by Kasey Osman co-owner of The 9’s, at 420 S. Main St. Kasey, and her twin sister Kelley took advantage of the ample space they have behind their shop.

“I’m thankful that we have some way that we can work,” Kasey said.

They rented a large canopy and set up four stations and still had room for two more. They decorated the area with plants and have corn hole boards set up as well. They also have misters at the ready.

“We were concerned that this would go on for months, so we really wanted to be accommodating to people as much as we could,” Kasey said of the elaborate outdoor spa-style setting. “It’s comfortable out here. We just felt we had an obligation to our clients and our staff to do it.”

Kasey said the response from the community has been positive.

and displayed on the sidewalk directing people to the back of the shop next to McPhee’s Grill.

“We are open,” Kasey said. “We are willing to do this as long as we can. We will do anything to stay open. Just let us stay open. I don’t want an unemployment check. I want to work.”

Felix Lopez, Felix’s Barber Shop owner at 8420 El Camino Real, also wants to work, and although people can easily see his canopy and chairs from the road, business is slow.

“People are staying home, they are scared, they don’t know what to expect,” he said.

Before COVID-19, all four of his shop’s chairs were busy. He’d barely have time to eat.

Being outside reminds him of his early days when he cut hair out of his garage. Except being in the garage was better than the sidewalk in front of his shop.

“Outside, it’s terrible,” he said. “The

“I’ve heard many people say they enjoy the experience of getting their hair done outside,” she said. “People have been very supportive.”

The only problem now for The 9’s is getting people to realize it’s open again.

The setup is not visible to people driving by on Main Street. There is signage on the shop’s front doors and windows

lighting is terrible. You got hot days.

You don’t want to see your customers sweating. It’s windy, hair is blowing everywhere.

Felix is trying to stay positive but admits it’s hard to see people struggle to support their families. He’s hopeful this does not drag on into the fall and winter. 

By Brian Williams

here six or seven, bare minimum. But at least it’s something. We are having to figure out who is going to work.Try to give everybody something. Even if they can work very part-time, it keeps things flowing, keeps our clients lined up, our sched-

Happy Labor Day!

September 2020 | Colony Magazine

“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence,” Martin Luther King, Jr.

colonymagazine.com | 17

| Community

J.B. Dewar Annual Competition

By Connor Allen

looks nice, it is the students to keep.

Then, what they do with it is totally he JB Dewar's Tractor up to the contestant, but I would say Restoration Educational more than 90% of the students end Program held its annual up keeping them." competition on the weekend of July While the competition might seem 25 with the largest field of tractors like it is aimed at lifelong gear heads, the event has seen in its 20 years, it is open to all skill and knowledge and Atascadero senior Casey Have- levels. mann earned the grand prize. This "We had a group of girls this year year's competition, which usually that I joked about not knowing the takes place during the California difference between a steering wheel Mid-State Fair, featured 10 differ- and a tire," Rachel said. "They truly ent tractors with 15 competitors. came into it blind, and by the end of The program was founded in the year, they are talking about things 2000 by Ken Dewar as a fun educa- over my head. It is fun to see them tional program for kids in San Luis learn the mechanical side and also we Obispo County and tied it to the have had students who came in really DELO National Tractor Restoration shy and then talked your ear off at program, which Casey is set to enter. the end. It's great to see them grow."

The competition is judged in three Casey entered the program as a equally weighted areas, the actual rookie but is, at this point, a veteran restoration of the tractor, their record going out on top. He is a shining book where students record every- example of what can happen when a thing they do to their tractors and student commits to the program. The how long they spend, as well as a brief current Greyhound is John Elway oral report to the judges. walking off the field in 1998 hoistMost students begin in the fall ing a championship trophy, except his and spend between nine months to prize is a yellow 1958 Case Terraa year, logging more than 400 hours, trac 320. on their tractors preparing them for "I'm done with the tractors now," the competition in late July. Students Casey said. "But I'll use that money can choose to restore their own trac- to pay off what's left from the tractor or pick their own from the JB tors and then the rest is Dewar yard of tractors donated to going toward the program. college."

"JB Dewar owns the tractor until they enter it into the competition," Program Coordinator Rachel Dewar said.

"Once they finish all the work, and it's running, and it

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18 | colonymagazine.com

Casey and his brother Taylor grew up showing pigs at the Mid-State Fair until one day; the tractor restoration program caught their eye. A few months later, Taylor had his first tractor entered in the program.

Casey watched, became interested, joined, and continued to do so after his brother went off to college.

Casey entered his first tractor, a 1951 Farmall Super-C, in 2018 and placed third, but a few weeks later found the tractor that would take him to the national competition.

"I first saw the tractor at the MGE yard in Paso where people can donate tractors to the JB Dewar program," Casey said. "My brother had done an Oliver Dozer with a blade on it, and I thought it was a super cool tractor, so I wanted to do one. I ended up liking this one, and it was a complete tractor and a good enough one to understand what it was like from the factory."

The future mechanical engineer began working on this tractor in 2019 and spent 533 total hours breaking it down and building it back up.

Another critical factor in the tractor competition is the student's ability to fundraise to support their projects.

"Students are responsible for funding their tractor restorations, and we encourage them to go out into the community and ask for help from different companies," Rachel stated.

"The businesses around here love this program and love supporting the kids."

Luckily for Casey, he was able to keep his rebuild on the lower side of costs spending $3,000 on the restoration, some of which he had from the prize money won in 2018.

"I was able to keep money from working on years past and save up," he said. "Total, on my tractor, was about $3,000, which kind of seems like a lot but if you think about a professional paint

job on a car is $10,000 nowadays, so it is kind of surprising I was able to rebuild that tractor completely for just under that amount."

Months of work and hundreds of hours in his shop all led to July 25 and the potential to win and take home JB Dewar's grand prize of $4,000. When he finally heard his name, he didn't know what to do.

"It never really sunk in until the day after when my mom posted something on Facebook for me, and there were multiple comments of congratulations," Casey said. "I was a little in shock."

The senior still has one more year of high school. He can start considering colleges but already has a list in mind, including Reedley, where his brother currently attends, and the John Deere college in Oregon.

Behind Casey in second place was fellow Greyhound Josh Jorgensen, who entered a 1941 McCormick Deering O4, followed by Ben Foxford and his 1961 Massey Ferguson 35 Diesel from San Luis Obispo.

Casey will have his tractor submitted to the DELO National Tractor Restoration Competition this month, with the event taking place in September. ď Ž

Atascadero High School’s Casey Havemann restored a 1958 Case Terratrac 320 and earned the top prize in the J.B. Dewar Tractor Restoration Competition.

Colony Magazine | September 2020

he California Mid-State Fair Livestock Show came to a successful close following several days of online judging as the show and auction moved to a virtual platform for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of all the organizations to enter the Livestock Show this year, Atascadero High School’s FFA chapter proved the deepest with the most supreme winners, four.

Atascadero’s Robert Featherstone kicked off the run of ribbons for Atascadero FFA, winning both the supreme champion and reserve supreme champions for meat rabbits. Jonathan Nunez earned supreme champion with his market steer while Morgan Ramos did so with her replacement heifer. Atascadero FFA’s Brayden Kahler closed it out, winning supreme champion with his market hog. Additionally, Tyler Cronkright missed out on earning supreme champion in the meat goat division finishing as the reserve supreme champion.

However, Atascadero FFA was not the only Atascadero organization to earn the top prize as Rio Rancheros’ Ava Diefenderfer earned supreme champion with her market lamb.

Templeton 4-H’s Lacey Conlan won both supreme and reserve supreme champion in the market broilers while Templeton FFA’s Claire Duenow earned reserve supreme champion in the market lamb division.

Holyn Slyvester of Canyon Country 4-H was named supreme champion in market turkey division, and San Luis Obispo FFA’s Bella Marden took the top honors with her meat goat.

The show operated precisely the way it usually would, except that everyone had to participate wirelessly. The contestants were divided into groups based on the different weights and breeds and prepared a video clip up to 90 seconds of them showing their animal the way they would in the show ring.

The Mid-State Fair staff sent the clips to the judges in the same order that they would have seen them had they been in person and clicked through the clips making their assessments. However, unlike in years past, judges had the ability to click through links multiple times to get a closer look rather than just one shot inside the ring.

Once the 4-H and FFA champions were selected, the top animals were then put up against one another, and a supreme champion was chosen.

Overall, all the exhibitors were the big winners as the fair announced that the 2020 livestock sale brought in nearly $1.2 million for the kids.

While the pandemic may have caused the show and auction to move virtual, it does sound like some of the new features resonated with the public and might be here to stay.

“We received some really positive feedback from the way our auction was set up and how you could view all the kids and all the animals and watch the videos of the animals,” Special Programs Coordinator Hailey Rose Switzer said. “And the extended add-on’s, so that is definitely a conversation right now at the fairground about how we can incorporate that sale, having a preview where people can view the animals before the sale starts, and to have add-ons still accessible online as they were this year.”

The Mid-State Fair also extended its add-on’s this year until August 4. The additional time and wireless aspect increased the animals’ accessibility to those who may be located out of the area and have only continued to bring in more money for the exhibitors.

To view this year's virtual award ceremony please visit their Facebook page  September 2020 | Colony Magazine

CALIFORNIA

By Connor Allen

Atascadero FFA Jonathan Nunez — Supreme Champion Market Steer

VIRTUAL LIVESTOCK SHOW

T

Virtual Auction |

MID-STATE

Atascadero FFA Morgan Ramos — Supreme Champion Replacement Heifer

Atascadero FFA Brayden Kahler — Supreme Champion Market Hog

FAIR

Atascadero FFA Robert Featherstone — Supreme Champion Meat Rabbit

colonymagazine.com | 19

march for

WORLD DAY AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING

By Brian Williams

O

n July 30, in honor of World Day Against Human Trafficking, nearly 200 people gathered together in Atascadero’s Sunken Gardens to bring awareness to a worldwide epidemic.

“Rise Up For Children” was the theme of the awareness campaign initiated by Operation Underground Railroad (OUR).

OUR is a nonprofit founded by Tim Ballard and Mark Stott, which assists governments worldwide in the rescue of human trafficking and sex trafficking victims, with a particular focus on children.

“We at OUR truly believe your voice and influence will help inspire others to join us in the fight against modern-day slavery,” said local event organizer and spokesperson Alyssa Lewis. “Child trafficking is not a conspiracy theory. It is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world. 2020 has been a horrific year for our children.”

Alyssa provided some grim facts and statistics on human trafficking as it relates to children specifically. ▷ A minor is sexually abused in the US every 3 minutes. ▷ The average age of a teen that enters the sex trade in the US is 13 years old. ▷ Infants as young as 6 months old have been rescued from sexual abuse and trafficking. ▷ Globally, sex trafficking generates an estimated $99 billion each year and close to $10 billion annually in the US. ▷ 77 percent of trafficking victims are exploited within their community. ▷ Since COVID-19 hit, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has experienced a 90.46 percent increase in Cyber Tipline reports between January and June of 2020, versus the same time period in 2019.

“We will not let these children continue to be overlooked,” Alyssa said. “Because these vulnerable children cannot rally up to fight for themselves, we need to stand up and be their voice. It’s time for us to rise up and get loud for them now.”

Passionate guest speakers, including San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow, spoke to the crowd before peacefully marching south on El Camino Real crossing at Morro Road and looping north on El Camino Real back to Sunken Gardens.

Dan talked about a harrowing and “eye-opening” human trafficking case in 2013, involving two

20 | colonymagazine.com

teenagers, 15 and 16 years old. It led him to form the San Luis Obispo County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force shortly before being elected DA. The Task Force mission is three-fold, Dan said.

“One is to educate the community with events like this so that people understand it’s actually happening and it’s not a myth,” Dan said. “Two, it’s to educate law enforcement and help them have the right tools that they need to proactively go out and hunt down the predators selling other human beings and then to support victims.”

Support for victims is available through various Central Coast agencies, Dan said, including the Women’s Shelter Program San Luis Obispo, RISE, the Christopher G. Money Victim-Witness Assistance Center and the North County Abolitionists.

Susan Carter of North County Abolitionists based in Templeton encouraged people to do what they could to help. The mission of the faith-based group is to “expose and assist in the eradication of human trafficking in our community through awareness and education, while working to help restore victims to a life of hope.”

Paso Robles Magazine and Colony Magazine co-publisher Nicholas Mattson shared that Human Trafficking is an important issue, not talked about often enough, and his commitment along with his wife is to bring awareness to the community through both the newspapers and the magazines.

A group of local moms led by Alyssa, Mariika Tidwell, Mel Heinemann, Christa Abma, and Katherine Fazio were the driving force behind the local event.

Each expressed learning about human trafficking and wanting to bring greater awareness to the criminal activity happening on the Central Coast and across the globe but said they could not do it alone.

Their like-minded drive and determination brought them together two weeks ago, and in that time, they organized the local demonstration.

“This has been a cause that has been dear and near to me because I am a mother of five, and it’s not just for my kids’ safety but future grandkids’ safety,” Christa said, who is a mortgage lender with Infinity Mortgage. She provided tips for children and parents to keep them safe from a possible human trafficker. ▷ Run, don’t walk to safety. ▷ Don’t let anyone on the phone or at the door know Colony Magazine | September 2020

that you are home alone. ▷ If you ever get lost, ask the closest store clerk for help and stay there until help arrives. ▷ Avoid shortcuts when walking from one place to another. ▷ If you ever get scooped up, scream, kick and fight as hard as you can to get away.

Katherine, who grew up in Germany, has been working with victims of human trafficking for 15 years through the Christian nonprofit organization — Unstoppable Love International. The group operates a safe house and uses it to get people away from harm.

“It’s a really, really long process

and you have to have patience, but it is so worth it to see when they are free and get the healing they need,” Katherine shared.

Following the demonstration, the local organizers said they were pleased with the turnout and contemplated their next steps.

“I’m still in a little bit of a state of shock. I was not expecting this great of a turnout,” Lewis said. “My hope is that with the success of this demonstration, we will be able to move forward with getting more community outreach, having more local community support. I believe it was a great event. We will be doing more.” 

LOCAL RESOURCES • National Human Trafficking Hotline — 888-373-7888 • North County Abolitionists — 805-296-2317 • National Center for Missing and Exploited Children — 800-843-5678

September 2020 | Colony Magazine

colonymagazine.com | 21

x3

Hoppy Harvest A POPE

Antigua Farms, the first “Farm to Table” Craft Brewery in San Luis Obispo

By Sarah Pope

A

ntigua Farms is located in the southern part of beautiful San Luis Obispo, owned and operated by the Banys family. Chris, Bambi, and their two children have put a lot of special care and dedication into the whole process.

In 2017 they moved to San Luis Obispo to enjoy a better quality of life with more outdoor space. Chris, who had been a homebrewer for over 20 years, was ambitious in joining the many amazing craft breweries in the area.

Immediately after settling in at Hacienda Antigua, three different varieties of hops were planted, for a total of 500 bines! They grew remarkably!

Their first year of farming, the Banys hosted the Small Batch Brewers Festival presenting the many small craft brewers in the area and benefiting Wood’s Humane Society. Chris’ homebrew, made with Antigua Farms fresh hops, won Taster’s Choice! This was the push they needed to continue their dream, and the Antigua Brewing

22 | colonymagazine.com

ADVENTURE

Company was born. Since then, the farm has doubled the size of the hop yard and added two new varieties of hops.

All of Antigua’s hop bines are hand-cut and picked. By not using machines, this allows the bines to be cut as they are ready.

The hop plant grows as a rhizome, a vine-like root system. These vines are called “ bines. ” The bines grow up a twine, which is hung from hop top cables that set 23 feet high.

They grow crawling upwards in a clockwise direction following the movement of the sun. Bet some of you didn’t know that!

These hop flower fields that grow on the plants are an amazing sight to see. They are used as a bittering, flavoring, and as a stability agent in beer. The fresher, the more flavor!

When the green cone-like flower

feels light and springy … it’s pickin time!

This year our family had the opportunity to attend the 2nd Annual Antigua Hop Harvest Party.

This was a first for us, and we were anxious to see how we could help!

It was the first big day of harvest and a warm and breezy day in San Luis Obispo.

Ninety-eight pounds of Zeus hops were cut and picked just minutes before our arrival, keeping them at their absolute freshest before being sealed and frozen.

As we entered the large equestrian barn located on the farm, we were greeted by the intense aroma of the freshly cut bines. Zeus hops, which we were harvesting that day, are known for their aromatic hoppy “kick” and spicy herbal flavor.

Several chairs were placed in a circle surrounding a red blanket and paired with a bucket. While placing the lush bines onto the blan-

kets, Chris started explaining the harvest. Soon we all began filling our buckets with bright green hops while getting to know and making new friends with the other attendees.

As the youngest of the Banys family collected the picked hops from each of the guest’s buckets, I admired the joy he put into his family’s farm. Once the collection was complete, the hops are taken to Bambi, she then places them in air-flushed, vacuum-sealed packages to be placed in the freezer.

It was an unforgettable experience to follow the hops’ journey and support the Banys family on theirs.

You will soon be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor at their secured location in downtown San Luis Obispo and, in just a few months, they will be the first “Farm to Table” Craft Brewery in San Luis Obispo.

They are truly putting the “Local” in local brewery, crafting happiness with locally grown hops. ■ For more information, you can contact Antigua Brewing Company online at Antiguafarms.com or antiguabrewingusa.com

Colony Magazine | September 2020

FALL

t es v ar &H

A

fter what has been a challenging year, North County wineries are weathering the pandemic surprisingly well, all things considered.

“I would say certainly, it’s been a challenge, but it’s also been an opportunity for so many wineries to pivot, strengthen their marketing and get creative and find ways to survive,” said Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (PRWCA) Executive Director Joel Peterson.

“You are still seeing folks selling wine. It’s just through different channels.”

And survive they are as many are reporting increased sales online and a much-needed uptick in tasting rooms since reopening.

Joel said PRWCA partners with Community Benchmark, which uses proprietary algorithms to measure the relative success of tasting rooms and help wineries discover new growth opportunities. Nearly a third of the 175 PRWCA winery members take advantage of the affiliation.

Comparing numbers from early August of 2020 to the previous year, Joel said participating wineries were seeing club sales up 5 percent and online sales were up across the board 143 percent.

It appears a pandemic pairs well with wine.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his stay-athome orders in mid-March, effectively shutting down the nation’s largest economy and one of the world’s most significant, people used some of the downtime to drink and order wine.

Wineries instantly turned their attention to their website, making sure it was user friendly, especially when it came time to fill their digital cart, and that deliveries arrived promptly and in the right number of pieces.

September 2020 | Colony Magazine

By Brian Williams

Simultaneously, staff attention turned to social media and teams brainstormed creative ways to reach former, current and potential customers. Winery owners, winemakers, heck anybody with a big, likable personality went live on any number of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Zoom, just to name a few.

“The exciting thing was immediately a lot of people went to digital and virtual tastings and really had to figure out how to sell wine without getting tasters through their tasting room doors every day,” Joel said, adding that he sees what was working online becoming the status quo post-COVID-19.

“I think people are still going to want to have that interaction with the winemaker or the winery owner. People will be more apt to order a six-pack of wine or a case of wine over the phone or online because they have had to do it for the last six months,” Joel said.

Newsom’s order shuttered tasting rooms for nearly three months, late winter, and almost all of spring. Wineries that weathered the darkest days of the quarantine were those with strong wine clubs. Their support carried wineries through March, April and May, Joel said.

Wineries used the time to freshen up their tasting rooms and hospitality centers for the day when they could welcome visitors back, albeit behind a face mask and from six feet away.

Once reopened reservations and Michelin-quality food pairings became industry standards at wineries. No expense was spared in the kitchen as wineries quickly learned high-quality eats helped boost their Yelp status.

Now, if they can stop having to pivot. About six weeks after reopening with tasting both inside and outside, Gov. Newsom changed the

rules again, forcing everything outside for tasting rooms, due to spiking COVID-19 numbers across the state.

Joel is hopeful the governor will provide relief sooner rather than later, possibly in time for wineries to have events during Harvest Wine Weekend, Oct. 16-18. In previous years, this weekend was a significant draw to the area.

“Events are a big part of what we do and how we succeed in the wine industry,” Joel said. “If we can’t have in-person events that is going to hinder us. We are obviously keeping our eyes on those regulations.”

Speaking of harvest, PRWCA Communications Director Chris Taranto said 2020 was shaping up to be a good growing year. When writing this for the magazine, the Paso Robles AVA was in the middle of veraison.

“Status is right now, we have had a really cool growing season,” Chris said. “But we’ve had a couple of heat spikes recently and that definitely jump-started veraison. We see that pretty widespread and that’s a good thing because that is right about on target.”

Chris did his best to project the impact of the cool growing season on the final product.

“We will see what comes of it. It could mean for some syrah is going to be not black pepper, but white pepper, stuff like that,” Chris said.

“It’s always interesting. It’s always a fun story that you end up being able to retell once the wine is finished and in the bottle ready to release.” ■ For more information about PRWCA, visit online pasowine.com, and be sure to check out PRWCA’s podcast with Adam Monteil, “Where Wine Takes You,” and Zoom Hangouts with PRWCA Communications Director Chris Taranto. colonymagazine.com | 23

Tooth & Nail Winery Rallies During Pandemic

By Brian Williams

24 | colonymagazine.com

T

ooth and Nail Winery made the most of its mandated COVID-19 downtime, and now they are reaping the rewards.

“You’ve just got to adapt and then it’s how quickly you can adapt and that is where our team really did rally behind us. We’ve got an amazing team of people,” said Caine Thompson.

The native of New Zealand is president of Rabble Wine Company, which operates the one-of-a-kind Tooth and Nail Winery castle on Highway 46 West.

“The parent company is called Rabble Wine. A rabble in its definition is a revolt, this disorderly mob, where people rally behind a common cause,” Caine said. “Our team rallied behind making us better during this period. It was really great to see that kindred spirit; no job is too big or too small.”

Rabble Wine Company was founded in 2012 by Rob Murray and moved into the estate winery facility in 2014. It includes a visitor center that operates under the banner of Tooth and Nail Winery.

Rabble Wine Company is known for its balance-driven wines. It has four labels — Rabble, Stasis, Amor Fati and Tooth and Nail. Jeremy Leffert is the winemaker.

Tooth and Nail Winery features castle-inspired architecture, an expansive tasting room and when COVID-19 guidelines allow a robust schedule of concerts and special events.

The company was charging along in early 2020 after posting its best quarter, Caine said, and then everything came to a halt in mid-March when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his stay-at-home orders.

The hospitality center was closed to the public for nearly three months. Caine’s team used the time to prepare for the day they would reopen.

“Instead of just closing, we had some essential staff members help renovate the tasting room,” Caine said. “We spent that time basically just preparing to reopen. We knew we were going to reopen at some point.”

The tasting room inside and out received a complete facelift. They painted, did some concrete work, added new lighting, new pergola and new furniture. And when there wasn’t something to do related to the tasting room, people regardless of job titles and job descriptions pitched in on the bottling line and even helped prune in the vineyard.

“It’s not often you close for that long,” Caine said. “For the hospitality center, it gave us the chance to get all of the things that we wanted to do done. So when we did get that notice from Paso Robles Country Alliance that we could open, we immediately

opened the next day with all of the COVID regulations and rules in place.”

The May reopening included a full culinary team that allowed Tooth and Nail to offer a seasonal menu and food and wine pairings daily, and a brunch on Sunday.

Another stipulation of reopening, beyond the social distancing and sanitizing protocols, for wine tasting was that visitors make a reservation.

Reservations have been a pleasant surprise.

Caine said they are fully booked on Saturdays and Sundays and as a result, sales in the tasting room are booming.

“I think we benefited from being one of the first to open and people were looking for something to do. We caught a lot of that early post-COVID business,” Caine said.

“We can give people that full experience — great wine, great food and great hospitality — all while feeling really safe and secure and that the company is doing everything possible to follow the COVID precautions.”

About six weeks after reopening, COVID-19 cases began spiking in the state and Gov. Newsom directed businesses such as wineries and restaurants to conduct business outside.

Caine and his team pivoted again, closing the indoor side of the tasting and moving everything outside. All of the terraces right around the castle were utilized and intimate tastings were scheduled on the castle’s rooftop.

The winery moved seamlessly through the newest guidelines and continues to see a steady stream of visitors.

Another positive for the winery was seeing the company’s e-commerce sales increase threefold during the pandemic.

Rabble is also a 1% for the Planet member, which means 1% of the revenue from each bottle sold goes to the initiative.

The company is also known for its augmented reality labels. Caine said this is an excellent way for the winery to connect with its customers long after they leave the facility. The wine labels “come to life” when viewed through the app.

Nobody wanted a pandemic, but it’s a reality and Caine said the company has grown stronger. He’s appreciative of the support shown by people who come to the winery.

“We feel like we are coming through and going through this COVID period really well as a company,” Caine said. “It feels great.

It’s a relief and we feel fortunate that our customers feel safe coming out and want to be here.” ■ Tooth and Nail Winery is located 3090 Anderson Rd., Paso Robles. For more information, visit online rabblewine.com or call (805)369-6100.

Colony Magazine | September 2020

Exploring the Enclaves |

The Ot her

P

aso is known for hi-octane, voluptuous red wines. But summertime calls for refreshing whites. Yet instead of reaching out for the usual “go-to” whites —chardonnay, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, and Rhône whites like viogniers, roussannes, marsannes, how about exploring The Other White Wines?

This means Italian varieties such as falanghina, fiano, vermentino, arneis, and malvasia bianca; the French pantheon that includes sémillon, ugni blanc, picardan, bourboulenc, picpoul blanc, chenin blanc, and clairette blanche or a Portuguese verdelho.

How about a German riesling, Alsatian gewürztraminer, Austrian grüner veltliner, Argentinian torrontes, or Spanish varieties like albariño and verdejo? These wines offer a broad spectrum of flavors from lively acidity and minerality to lush tropical notes and fragrant blossoms.

Surprisingly, all these varieties are produced by Paso winemakers. Given the region’s diverse soils and climate, all are grown in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County. Wineries mentioned below produce red and white wines, with these uncommon whites in limited production, generally introduced through wine clubs.

“It’s a testament to the incredible diversity of climates in Central Coast,” noted Jason Haas, general manager, and partner at Tablas Creek Vineyard, in our phone conversation. The winery is noted for importing all 13 grape varieties from Châteauneuf-du-Pape (CdP) in France’s southern Rhône region, varieties that makeup Tablas Creek’s flagship blends, modeled on the CdP red and white wines. It’s also among the few wineries in Paso producing some ten varietal whites.

I tasted 2019 vintages of picpoul blanc exuberant with tropical notes; picardan showing rich texture and a lingering minerality; a honeydew September 2020 | Colony Magazine

White Wines

melon-laced clairette blanche; and a textured bourboulenc, the latter, clearly a wine for geeks looking to claim bragging rights. There were two non-Rhône varieties in the lineup: the honey-laced petit manseng (native to Languedoc-Roussillon in South West France) and a crisp and citrusy Italian vermentino. Denner, Cayucos Cellars, and Vina Robles are other local vermentino producers.

Broken Earth Winery is yet another winery with a large portfolio of underthe-radar whites. The winery’s portfolio boasts some 40 wines, including eight white wines produced from its 722-acre east side estate vineyards planted to 21 varieties ranging from French, Spanish, Italian, Argentinian and Portuguese.

The 2019 vintages of six whites I savored reflected each wine’s varietal character, ranging from an aromatic verdelho and a citrusy vermentino to a minerally albariño and a fragrant torrontes. (Symbiosis is another winery producing torrontes). I also tasted two rare varieties, native to Italy’s Campania region — fiano and falanghina, which exude bracing acidity and floral characters. Tin City’s Giornata is another winery producing these two wines.

Villa Creek Cellars’ Cris Cherry also crafts a brilliant fiano bursting with bright floral notes with a hint of spice, sourced from neighboring Luna Mata vineyard.

“Can’t make enough white wines,” said Ryan Pease, who produces three brilliant whites at his Paix Sur Terre winery on Paso’s westside. “Our white wine program took off when we made ugni blanc,” said Pease of this variety widely planted in France and known

as the popular trebbiano in Italy.

Here in Paso, Pease found an acre of ugni blanc and turned this bone dry wine layered with pear notes into his flagship wine. Joining the white portfolio is the stone fruit exuberant picpoul blanc and a richly textured clairette blanche.

Lone Madrone, Barton Family Wines, and Four Lanterns are among others producing impressive clairette blanche and picpoul blanc.

As for chenin blanc, the classic grape of France’s Loire Valley, winemaker Tyler Russell recently released Lady Amherst, a delicious version dancing with quince and citrus notes and a marzipan finish.

Four Lanterns has added a minuscule planting of 0.8 acre of sémillon to its westside vineyard. In its Botrytis cinerea (noble rot) form, sémillon is the star of Sauternes, Bordeaux’s exalted dessert wines. But Four Lanterns and LXV Wine produce it in a dry style with beguiling acidity and luxurious mouthfeel.

The Spanish variety albariño, grown mostly in the cool Edna Valley appellation, has become widely popular with Paso winemakers. High in mouthwatering acidity and salinity, it’s ocean breeze in a glass and an ideal match with coastal bounty.

Brecon, Diablo Paso, Caliza, Bodegas Paso Robles, Barr Estate, Absolution Cellars, Lusso Della Terra, and Bodega de Edgar are among the many SLO County producers.

In addition to falanghina and fiano, other Italian varieties I discovered include malvasia bianca produced by Clesi and Lost Blues, and arneis (native to Italy’s Piedmont region) made by Deno Wines and Bovino Vineyards. Fans of chardon-

nay could be attracted to the stone fruit notes of this fragrant, crisp, and full-bodied wine.

Among the German and Alsatian varieties, SLO County’s coastal corridor vineyards are gaining a reputation for riesling and gerwürztraminer, wines that are bone dry yet rocking with seductive aromatics. Mike Callahan pours his passion into Maidenstoen, his all-riesling brand, sourcing fruit from Counties of Monterey and Santa Barbara. Union Sacré’s Xavier Arnaudin is another under-the-radar winemaker producing delicious rieslings, the off-dry Fräulein, and bone dry Elsass.

I tasted the above rieslings alongside a gewürztraminer crafted by Nicole Pope, the winemaker at Cambria’s Stolo Family Vineyards.

Made a mere three miles from the Pacific, the wine is redolent with sea salt and jasmine blossoms. Other SLO County wineries producing gewürztraminer include Cutruzzola, Détente, Bushong, Moonstone Cellars, and Tackitt Family Vineyards.

Edna Valley’s Claiborne & Churchill has long been known for producing outstanding riesling and gewürztraminer.

Austria’s significant variety grüner veltliner is little known in the U.S. Yet I found two vibrant grüners: Paso’s Ulloa Cellars and Zocker in Edna Valley.

On my odyssey, I came across some tinted whites — orange riesling from Ambyth Estate, Union Sacré’s Belle de Nuit pink gewürztraminer, and a yellow roussanne at Lone Madrone.

Although not delving in obscure whites, Dave McGee of Monochrome Wines deserves mention. His unconventional vinification involves fermenting each variety with different yeasts, in different vessels, and then blending all the variables, resulting in sensory textural white wines.

Drink responsibly, in good health. ■ colonymagazine.com | 25

| Taste of Americana

FOOD FeeDS ThE SOUL Barbie Butz

D

espite the situation we are in with COVID-19, Mother Nature continues to do her job. Just as summer begins to slow down, nature itself explodes with a palette of colors, unlike those we have been living with, reminding us to prepare for a seasonal change.

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons, and its arrival brings to mind those events and activities we have participated in and enjoyed for years. Of course, I get excited just thinking about the “fall foods” we prepare and serve to those people we love and care about.

We know that with the virus, it will be an unusual season this year, and we will need to be more creative in the way we deal with it. Probably our tailgate gatherings at the stadiums, before football games, will come to a halt for a while. Even Halloween ORIGINAL SAN ANTONIO CHILI Ingredients: • Flour • 2 pounds beef shoulder, cut into ½-inch cubes • 1 pound pork shoulder, cut into ½-inch cubes • ¼ cup suet or raw beef fat • ¼ cup pork fat • 3 medium onions, chopped • 6 garlic cloves, minced • 1 quart water • 4 ancho chiles • 1 serrano chile • 6 dried red chiles • 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, freshly ground • 2 tablespoons Mexican oregano • Salt to taste

26 | colonymagazine.com

parties and Thanksgiving dinners will look different. However, we can’t celebrate the glorious colors, the chill in the air, and the outdoor days that are left before winter.

Remember that “food feeds the soul” and nourishes the body, so during this period, remember to thumb through your recipes. If you have inherited recipe files and cookbooks from family members, look for old recipes that you remember from your childhood. The memories will also “nourish your soul!”

I suggest you plan a tailgate picnic. If there’s a football game you can listen to on the radio (a what?), or a portable TV, or maybe a smartphone, set it up for your picnic. Decorate the tailgate and the food table with a football theme. Tell the family that they are going to a football game, even if it’s in the driveway!

Now, for your menu. Chili comes to mind imme-

Directions: Lightly flour the beef and pork shoulder cubes. In a heavy chili pot, add the lightly floured cubes with the suet (or beef fat) and pork fat and cook quickly, stirring often.

Add the onions and garlic and cook until they are tender and limp.

Add the water to the mixture and simmer slowly while preparing the chiles. Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and chop very finely. Grind the chiles into a paste using a mortar and pestle, and add the cumin, oregano, and salt to the chile mixture. Add the chile mixture to the meat. Simmer for another 2 hours. Remove suet casing and skim off some fat.

Never cook frijoles (beans) with chiles and meat. Serve as a separate dish. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

diately, and here are two recipes to try. One is hot; the other is not as hot, so you have a choice, or fix them both! The hot one, called Original San Antonio Chili, comes from a wonderful book in my collection, titled “Hidden Kitchens,” published in 2005, and compiled by Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva.

The second recipe for “Vegetarian Chili” was found in a beautiful little book by Mary Engelbreit, titled simply “Mary Engelbreit’s Autumn,” and was published in 1996.

The recipe for San Antonio Chili is prefaced with this note: “Although the campfires and little decorated booths of the chili queens are gone from the plazas of San Antonio, some of the earliest recipes for chili have been collected and preserved in the archives of the Institute of Texan Cultures Library.

You won’t find beans in this chili, but you will find various savory compounds swimming in fiery pepper, which biteth like a serpent!” Go Team! Enjoy!

VEGETARIAN CHILI Directions: Cut one eggplant into 1-inch chunks and place in a small, shallow pan. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, cover with foil, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a casserole. Add 2 chopped onions and 3 minced cloves of garlic. Cook for 5 minutes. Add 2 diced zucchini, 2 large red peppers-cored and dicedand if you like, a jalapeňo seeded and finely minced.

Cook 5 minutes. Add 4 diced fresh plum tomatoes, one 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes, ½ cup dry red wine, 2 tablespoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon dried oregano, 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon fennel seeds. Add cooked eggplant: simmer 20 minutes. Add 1 cup canned white beans, the grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon, 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley, (less heat!) and ground papper to taste. Simmer 5 minutes. Garnish with grated cheese and sour cream. Serves 8 to 10.

Note: Do experiment with the amount of chili powder if you want to tone down the chili even more, and use parsley instead of cilantro. Also, this is another way to use all that zucchini in your garden!

Here’s a quick recipe for an appetizer!

TORTILLA RELISH Ingredients: • ¾ cup frozen corn • ¾ cup sliced black olives • ¾ cup chopped red pepper, cored and seeded • 2 tablespoons diced onion • 2 minced cloves of garlic • 1 teaspoon oregano • 2 tablespoons lemon juice • 4 tablespoons olive oil • 1/3 cup white vinegar • Salt to taste • 2 chopped ripe avocados Directions: Combine ingredients, except avocados, the day before serving and refrigerate overnight. Just before serving, add two chopped avocados and transfer to a flat dish. Serve with tortilla chips. (“Scoops” work well!)

Colony Magazine | September 2020

A New Slice of Pie |

O

dero a c s a t A n i g n i n Re-ope p i h s r e n w O w e Under N r Allen

By Conno

ne of Atascadero’s longest-standing restaurants, Fatte’s Pizza, will re-open its doors in September under the new ownership of Sam and Sarah Nutile, who own and operate Fatte’s Pizza in Paso Robles.

Over the past year, the Atascadero location experienced some ownership issues that led to the departure of several dedicated workers and legal trouble that shut down the popular buy-one-get-one pizza spot.

However, the Fatte’s faithful need not worry about any changes to their recipe or style of operation. This will be the second round of ownership for the Nutiles in Atascadero.

“We are excited about it now. It is kind of a sad story what happened with the Atascadero location. Our former business partner and a former friend left in a bad way.

The business started failing.

He ended up robbing us just a few months ago, and he is now in jail,” Sarah said. “He completely lost that store, the customers have been upset because they can’t get their Fatte’s Pizza anymore, the employee’s lost their jobs, and so we were in the back of our mind waiting until things settled down. Now we are in there opening up brand new.”

The Nutiles understand that they will need once again to build up their goodwill in the Atascadero community. They are focused on three things — customer service, consistency, and speed.

“Every owner runs their store a little differently, so when we go in here, we will be doing it our way and not the way it was done before, but we are really excited. We do have a reputation here, and we know

people love Fatte’s, so we are excited to come back in and make it better than it was before,” Sarah shared. “We focus here a lot on customer service, being friendly, being fast, and making things correctly and consistently. Some places you can go on a Friday and then go back on a Saturday night and get a totally different pizza, even if you order the same thing.”

Fatte’s Pizza, which has locations in Atascadero, Paso Robles, and San Luis Obispo, allows for subtle differences between franchisees, but the main deviation comes from the ingredients.

“They are all very similar but have subtle differences in toppings that you use; you have the freedom to choose. You could be buying the cheapest topping or the most expensive topping, but and we don’t like to skimp,” Sarah noted.

The new owners are excited to start cooking pizzas for hungry houses in Atascadero and become a part of the community. The new location has established a new Facebook page to interact with customers and answer questions and might be on the lookout for local youth teams to sponsor when sports can make a safe return.

“What we do in Paso is what we would love to do in Atascadero,” Sarah said. “We sponsor a lot of sports teams. You know, soccer and softball and things like that and a lot of people love that, and they come to us looking for sponsorships for their kids, and we a plaque with their picture. We love doing stuff like that.” ■

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Atascadero, CA 93422 colonymagazine.com | 27

T

he wait is over.

It’s been a couple of minutes, well four years worth of minutes actually, but Santa Maria Brewing Co. officially opened in Atascadero on Friday, August 7.

Santa Maria Brewing’s owner Byron Moles knows people have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

“Everyone has been like, ‘Dude, are you ever really going to open.

I’m just hoping that they all haven’t given up yet,” Byron said with a smile and a laugh from inside the 27,000 square foot building on 7935 San Luis Avenue. “It’s been a long time, four years, but we haven’t lost excitement because we just knew it was going to be the turning point for us as a company.”

Byron candidly said he bit off more than he could chew four years ago when he acquired the Atascadero building. Things were going well, Santa Maria Brewing Co. was growing fast.

Byron purchased Tap It Brewing in San Luis Obispo. He then opened a Santa Maria Brewing taproom and restaurant in Paso Robles on Park Street with plans for Atascadero to come online not long after.

“I spread myself too thin. Fortunately, I’ve got some fantastic partners that have helped us get through the whole thing, but because this was such a big one, it was hard to funnel enough money through here to get it done any sooner than what we did,” he said. “Hindsight should have let some of the other things go, but hindsight is always easy.”

The Atascadero building used to be home to Gary Bang Harley-Davidson.

The 35-year motorcycle dealer closed the location in December of 2015.

In 2013, Byron and his wife, Karen, along with brewer Dan Hilker purchased Santa Maria Brewing Co., which had produced award-winning craft beer for 15 years. They moved it into a new home, expanded barrel production, partnering with select pubs, restaurants, and retailers across the U.S, and started a successful Beer of the Month Club.

They quickly outgrew the Santa Maria location and began looking to move to North County.

“My wife and I have always loved Paso Robles and Atascadero, the upper part of SLO County,” Byron said. “We

28 | colonymagazine.com

Santa Maria

Brewing LOCAL BREWPUB & DISTILLERY'S ATASCADERO LOCATION NOW OPEN

By Brian Williams

Santa Maria Brewing Co.’s Atascadero location is also a distillery and will be offering mixed drinks as well as craft beer.

outgrew the brewery in Santa Maria and were looking to open up something this way. Four years ago when this building was sitting here, I talked a friend into purchasing it for us and told him kind of what the dream was and what we wanted to do, he said yeah go for it and helped us out.”

The dream was to build a destination brewery and distillery in Atascadero that had room for expansion as production and distribution grew.

umbrellas for shade to the south of the taproom with plans for a large beer garden behind it.

The expansive restaurant and taproom have plenty of large televisions for sports fans when they can be inside again. The south wall of the restaurant has nine large-screen TVs arranged in a rectangle that can play different stations or be programmed as one huge screen.

“We made a decision four years ago that Atascadero was going to be our future,” Byron said. “I think this community is a sleeper. It’s just waiting to do some great things here on the Central Coast, and I’m looking forward to being a part of that.”

Atascadero has changed over the past four years due to more high-quality restaurants, breweries, wineries and distilleries opening. Byron sees this as a good thing for the community.

“I think if we can keep building on what is happening in Atascadero right now, we can pull some of that tourist clientele from Paso to help support these businesses. I think you need options to do that,” he said. “I think the quality of the restaurants and breweries that are opening up is nothing but phenomenal. I think that is just going to help everybody.”

Santa Maria Breweries restaurant menu is the same as the Paso Robles and Nipomo locations. It features burgers, sandwiches, and salads with a plan to add pizzas and smoked meats.

The Atascadero location will also have a full bar because of the craft distilling license.

The taproom has 50 taps. They will start by serving roughly 20 of its craft brews and then grow to feature 35 to 40 Santa Maria Brewing Co. beers when it ramps up production. Also, there is a 12-tap station devoted solely to filling growlers.

“As far as a grand opening,” Byron said, “that will have to wait until COVID-19 restrictions allow for larger gatherings inside. Until then, he’s considering this an “extended soft opening.”

“When this is over, the music will kick in, and we will do it right,” Byron said. 

“All of the production needs that we have as a company for the next couple of years can definitely be met from here,” Byron said. “We are excited to be able to get things under one roof now and do what we wanted to do.”

The restaurant and taproom occupy 14,000 square feet and the distillery and brewhouse with bottling and canning lines occupy the remainder.

Santa Maria Brewing Co. Atascadero They have a storage facility north of Brewpub and Distillery is located at 7935 the taproom.

San Luis Ave., Atascadero. For more inforThere is an outdoor patio with mation, visit santamariabrewing.com.

Colony Magazine | September 2020

Health & Fitness |

By Camille DeVaul

R

emember when we first went through shelter in place, and we all said, “Well, since I’m stuck at home, I may as well work out! I’m going to come out of this toned up and ready for summer!” Then, three weeks later, we said, “forget it, let’s binge-watch, Tiger King.”

Well, by now we have all watched everything there is to see on Netflix and have possibly gained a few pounds to show for it, a badge of honor if you will. But now it is time we learn to navigate this new way of life. For some of us, COVID-19 has shown us the importance of our health.

We need to take care of ourselves, mind, body, and soul.

North County Pilates on Traffic Way in Atascadero has been adapting to every blow the pandemic has thrown their way since the beginning. They have been there to keep their clients healthy and keep those happy endorphins flowing!

In March, owner and instructor Melissa Barton, knew she needed to temporarily close her studio’s doors after her surgery in San Francisco was canceled due to their city’s shutdown.

Rather than wait for the inevitable to happen, Barton and her team got themselves ahead of the COVID game.

Almost immediately, the studio had online classes scheduled via Zoom. Pre-recorded lessons were made and sent to members to use on their Scheduled during shady times of the day, outdoor own time. As of now, North County Pilates has classes are being offered on equipemnt eight feet stopped all in-studio classes. But, no worries, apart and sanitized before and after each session.

Zoom classes are also available for those not quite there is more than one way to peel an orange.

North County Pilates is now offering outdoor ready for in-person classes.

NOW OFFERING TELEMEDICINE CONSULTS

chair, mat and reformer classes, as well as online Zoom classes.

Outdoor classes hold five students with eight feet apart spacing. Classes are scheduled during shady times of the day. Before starting, everyone sanitizes, and socks are required to wear on the equipment. Masks are not required but welcomed if anyone wishes to wear one.

After class, equipment is wiped down with a sanitizing wipe by the client and again sanitized by staff before the next session.

Zoom classes have a capacity of 10 or 20 clients at one time and are held at various times throughout the week.

Classes for Zoom and outdoor are held Monday through Thursday and on Saturdays.

For those with businesses like Melissa, all you can do is play it by ear and roll with the tides of change. The continually changing regulations make Melissa appreciative for her supportive and understanding clients.

“I’m so thankful for everyone’s support and care during this time. I feel like so many of my clients reach out to me and ask me how I am,” says Melissa, “[they] send me well wishes, good thoughts and how much they love our business along with how much they love what we do and that they hope that we can continue, that makes me feel like what we’re doing matters.” ■ Anyone wanting to learn more about classes offered or to sign up can visit the North County Pilates websites at nc-pilates.com.

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805-434-4848 colonymagazine.com | 29

| San Luis Obispo County of Education

What about the

Dr. James J. Brescia, Ed.D

COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF SCHOOLS

T

he Greatest Generation is sometimes known as the G.I. Generation and World War II Generation. The Greatest Generation is the demographic cohort following the Lost Generation and preceding the Silent Generation. This generational group includes people born from 1901 to 1927. My grandparents were part of the Greatest Generation. COVID-19 has prompted a review of our family albums, records, and documents during our evenings at home.

My paternal grandparents were born in 1899 and 1901, and my maternal grandparents were born in 1921 and 1923. In seventh grade, my social studies teacher assigned an essay about family history, struggles, and challenges.

As a result of the assignment, I interviewed my grandparents about our family history, how things changed, the events they remembered, and the problems their generation encountered. At the time, I did not realize the sacrifices, challenges, and notable world events the Greatest Generation faced. This summer, I ventured into the attic and rummaged

Greatest Generation?

“One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation.” –Fred Rogers

People born between 1901 and 1927 are considered the Greatest Generation, having faced the 1918 pandemic and World War I.

through a box my father had given me over thirty years ago with items from my childhood.

My walk down memory lane described my paternal grandmother completing her schooling and subsequent nursing training in the middle of the 1918 pandemic, my maternal grandfather standing in bread lines as a child for hours, my paternal grandfather serving in both World Wars, and my maternal grandmother serving in the auxiliary as my grandfather served in WWII. Until this summer, I did not fully appreciate what the Greatest Generation faced, how they sacrificed for subsequent generations, and the changes in the world they witnessed. One summer, while staying with my grandparents and standing in line at the bank, my grandfather

became visibly angry and began cursing about waiting to give the bank his money. My grandmother later explained that she lived on a farm during the depression and had food but that my grandfather lived in the city as a child and often stood in line for hours waiting for food.

Tom Brokaw’s book “The Greatest Generation” talks about how this generation lived through events marked by economic depression (The Great Depression 1929–1939) and global unrest (World War II 1939–1945). In his book, Tom Brokaw said, “These men and women developed values of personal responsibility, duty, honor, and faith. These characteristics helped them to defeat Hitler, build the American economy, make advances in science, and implement visionary programs like Medicare.”

Brokaw describes how the world events experienced by the Greatest Generation shaped some of the civic organizations serving our country today.

Colin L. Powell describes Brokaw’s book as “Full of wonder-

SLO County Schools Superintendent James Brescia recounts writing an essay on the Greatest Generation.

30 | colonymagazine.com

ful, wrenching tales of a generation of heroes.” We have those in our world, country, and community who are today’s heroes. The medical professionals, public servants, parents, and essential workers all dealing with the challenges of our time.

As our community begins the school year with distance learning, physical distancing, waiver requests, and reduced in-person services, we can keep the Greatest Generation in mind and the sacrifices they endured. Today we face some of the challenges the Greatest Generation encountered, such as poverty, prejudice, cultural displacement, access to education, political divisions, and impatience.

The Greatest Generation reports making mistakes while striving to save the world. I have confidence that history will note the care, empathy, flexibility, patience, and service countless Americans are demonstrating every day during this pandemic. Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Perhaps the positive in this pandemic is that we can come together to help one another.

It is an honor to serve as your county superintendent of schools. ■ Colony Magazine | September 2020

Off the Beaten Path |

By Connor Allen

O

h, the great outdoors. A few weekends ago, eight of my closest friends and I set out on our annual backpacking trip, and as per usual, I returned bruised, battered, blistered, and more in love with escaping into nature than I was before. We started these trips as a way for all of us who now live stretched across California to have at least one weekend a year where we can all get together and sink into the blissful ignorance that comes with no cell service and total detachment from the outside world.

I can't speak for the entire group, but it transports me back to the days when the amount of sunlight left in the sky was my only governor of the time.

Back when the only thing I was scared of was being late for dinner because I knew it would jeopardize the next day's list of activities that I had planned.

September 2020 | Colony Magazine

This year our trip was to the Eastern Sierra, First Dinkey Lake, to be specific. As mentioned earlier, we live sprawled out across the state now with some friends coming from as far south as San Diego and as far north as the Bay Area. This results in extremely varied arrival times, which explains how we all met at midnight on Friday.

For most groups, that would mean a couple hello's maybe a few hugs and then off to bed ready for a bright and early start. We are not most groups.

Our night was far from over. Once at the first rally point, we exchanged three short-range walkie-talkies and code names and set off on an hour of off-roading toward the trailhead. I rode shotgun of the front car wielding a map while calling upon my Boy Scout training from elementary school, but it never returned.

After a couple of wrong turns, a few potty breaks, and complete abandonment of one of our trucks in a turnout, we finally reached the trailhead an

hour later. Time for bed, right? Wrong.

Our anarchist, slightly crazy, perhaps a bit thickheaded group voted to hike throughout the night.

Forward we trudged for what felt like hours with only the dim light from old headlamps and the scuffing of tired feet to guide us. We could have hiked for four hours, four days, or four minutes. Without service or sunlight, it was impossible to tell. When we were ready to call it quits, we finally broke the tree line and could see the moon shimmering off the lake. Suddenly, the hike was well worth it.

Saturday was filled with fishing, swimming, and more hiking as we set off to discover more lakes while leaving our basecamp at Dinkey. First Swede Lake then South Lake, each body of water clearer and more inviting than the last.

Sunday morning, we packed out. As we started passing people on the trail, we were slowly reminded of the grim reality that our country is still going through a pandemic and a revolution despite our best efforts to escape it.

Was it essential to travel? By the state's definition, probably not, but it

was essential to my well being. As we creep closer toward spending an entire year in quarantine, I think it's important for all of us to remember that while we can't see a movie or go to a bar for drinks after work, we can still find safe ways to unplug and boost about our own mental and physical health.

You aren't the only one battling anxiety or having trouble sleeping right now. You aren't the only person putting on weight they don't want or are tired of arguing with people on the internet.

Sometimes you have to take care of yourself and your mental health and what better way to do that than getting lost in nature. One of the great blessings of living in this county is the number of hikes available to us. You might not be able to get away for an entire weekend, but I highly recommend an unplugged hike, a walk around the neighborhood, or a stroll down the beach.

For those looking for new hikes, download the app "All Trails," You will be pleasantly surprised by the number of walks and trails in this area. We must eventually return to our burrows as this virus rages on, but we can feel normal once again for a few minutes. â–

colonymagazine.com | 31

I

By Nicholas Mattson

t is extremely hard to write something that doesn’t come off political these days. As we enter the home stretch of the most toxic election season of most of our lifetimes, it’s hard to pen a thousand words on a tightrope. As publishers of this coffee table magazine, we entered this venture on the foundation that our community in SLO County is one deserving of high praise and quality content.

The year of 2020 has been a wild ride. Given that it did little more than expose faults, weaknesses, wounds, and insanity, I don’t expect that a clink of champagne glasses on New Year’s Eve will put the toothpaste back in the tube here.

What we dedicate to here is to make our communities better through print and communication. We service nonprofits, youth activities, charity organizations, new and existing businesses, events, and culture in our community to remind ourselves of the great community we live in and share the message throughout the North SLO County in an unprecedented way. We distribute more than 40,000 monthly magazines, with most of those being direct mailed to homes and businesses. We adjusted through the shutdowns, zigged, and zagged through the variations trying to help businesses keep their fingers on the wheel of their livelihoods.

Looking in from the outside, we rarely-if-ever comprehend the

full spectrum of sacrifice and challenges that an entrepreneur faces. We simply make our purchase or receive our service and move on. There is a trend in entrepreneurism to run a million-dollar company as a single owner without any employees. While that is a substantial benefit to a single person, as well as a benefit to associated subcontractors, it removes potential jobs from the workforce.

Over the past several years, we have seen a shift in the way businesses operate. Technology made remote work more effective than ever. Automation improved efficiencies and eliminated some jobs. California’s AB-5 dramatically impacted independent contractors in 2020.

COVID-19 shutdowns stress-tested budgets and forced reorganization upon those who could adapt.

All said the North SLO County continues to retain more of its normalcy than many regions. Our civic and business leaders have risen to meet our issues. Unfortunately, there has been too much silence on important community issues by many of our elected officials. Business owners and their employees are the core of our community — serving as parents and family members, volunteers, donors, taxpayers, customers, and clients that serve to make this community great. We wake up early, stay up late, answer customer service calls at all hours to make sure our community has what it needs. We do

this because we care. We tackle issues and work to fix gaps in our community that need to be filled.

We live in one of the most privileged places, in one of the most privileged times, at one of the most privileged intersections in the history of the world. We are here because more than a century of hard-working Californians did what they could with what they had.

That brings up a load of valid criticism that the past century is marked with the use of undocumented or illegal immigrant, workers who were disadvantaged in a system. I knew a family of illegal workers in Las Vegas at a construction company.

They earned and sent money back to Mexico, and when they saved up $10,000, they would return and retire.

This is the way the world worked at that time. Those workers will never have the lifestyle of the owner of the company did, but they will forever be wealthy in their own hometown in Hidalgo.

I don’t have an answer for who is the villain in this anecdotal story.

What I do know is that the characters in the story came together for a mutual benefit. The owner of the company used his expertise to create an opportunity, and the illegal workers — who traveled in and out of the U.S by stretched limousine at the cost of $400 a trip — took advantage and worked their tails off. I don’t fault them for taking advantage any

more than I fault the owner of the company for his part in the matter — it was definitely mutual.

Not every path forward is a straight line, but we have a standard of living that is built on hard work and making the best of any situation. We all have a lifetime of pain and suffering that has shaped us, and simplifying a person’s existence to intersectionality is as anti-American as it gets. Our personal decisions determine our outcomes, and that is a human experience that dates to the origin of our species.

When I began to take responsibility for my situation, I joined the ranks of great human beings working toward making communities better, and I had to find humility quickly. As great as my decision was for myself, it was hardly remarkable to those who were already there.

What is remarkable to me is that no matter what a person’s background is — from first-generation immigrants, ex-felons, or those lacking traditional education — those who take responsibility for their circumstances, and take charge of those circumstances, obtain the minimum freedoms promised in the American Dream.

People have to find humility, accountability, and purpose in order to find the opportunity that is promised in the American Dream. Enjoy your journey — it beats the alternative. ■

Thank you for being #atascaderostrong 13 Stars Digital ...................................2 76 Gas Station ................................. 27 A Heavenly Home ............................ 15 American West Tire & Auto .................5 Atascadero News ............................. 35 Atascadero Pet Hospital .....................7 Colony Clipper ................................. 33 Fattes Pizza of North County ........... 15

32 | colonymagazine.com

Five Star Rain Gutters .........................9 Frontier Floors .................................. 27 Greg Malik Real Estate Group ......... 10 Greg Malik Real Estate Group ......... 11 Hearing Aid Spclst., Central Coast .....3 John Donovan Insurance & Financial Services, Inc.................. 12 Kaitilin Riley, DDS ............................ 13

DIRECTORY TO OUR ADVERTISERS Colony Magazine is brought to you by Morro Bay Hearing Aid Center ........ 17 Nick's Painting ................................. 15 North County Pilates ........................ 17 O'Conner Pest Control ..................... 21 Odyssey World Cafe ......................... 21

Optometric Care Associates ................7 Pasadera Homes .................................5 Paso Robles EAA Chapter 465 ............9 Paso Robles Safe and Lock .............. 13 Paso Robles Veterinary Med. Ctr. .......9

Robert Fry M.D. ................................ 29 RoCoco Luxe Resale Boutique ...........9 San Luis Obispo County Office of Education .......................... 31 Sierra Pacific Materials .................... 34 Solarponics .........................................7 The Natural Alternative .................... 12 Thomas Jodry .................................. 15

Writing Support Group ................... 29 Wyatt Wicks Finish Carpentry, Inc.... 15

Colony Magazine | September 2020

Introducing a New Section into Colony Magazine...

Colony Magazine prints

20,000 Copies Monthly 17,000 Direct Mail & 3,000 Hot Spot Deliveries to

▷ Atascadero ▷ Creston ▷ Santa Margarita

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