Westlake Village Real Estate Blog

Archive for the ‘Local Information’ Category

As we all sally forth into the malls buying gifts and throwing them in our closets until the special day, here is a word to the wise about another march: Bedbugs are on the move!

 Two years ago year my son suffered an infestation in his apartment in San Francisco. “There’s one on the dust ruffle!” he screamed into the phone at 11:30 one night. Thus began an expensive ordeal and two months of his sleeping in his livingroom.

The advice below came across my desk from a friend, and even if you don’t believe it, it offers an easy precaution:

 “We have friends here in our community and one of their sons is an entomologist (insect expert) who travels all over the country as an advisor to many of stores. He is telling them that there is an epidemic of bedbugs now occurring in America. Recently,  several stores in New York City have had to close due to bedbug problems, as well as a complete mall in New Jersey.

“He says that since much of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc. now comes from companies outside of America, even the most expensive stores sell foreign clothing from China, Indonesia, etc. The bed bugs are coming in on the clothing as these countries do not consider them a problem. He recommends that if you buy any new clothing, even underwear and socks, sheets and towels, bring them into the house and put them in your clothes dryer for at least 20 minutes. The heat will kill them and their eggs. 

“DO NOT PURCHASE CLOTHES AND HANG THEM IN THE CLOSET FIRST. It does not matter what the price range is of the clothing, or if the outfit comes from the most expensive store known in the U.S. They still get shipments from these countries and the bugs can come in a box of scarves or anything else for that matter. That is the reason so many stores, many of them clothing stores, have had to shut down in New York and other places. All you need is to bring one item into the house that has bugs or eggs and your live will change forever in an expensive way as you try to get rid of them.”

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He walked a thousand miles on patrol, toting his pack on his back through terrain that can only be described as desolate. He is Stateside now, but not at home in the Conejo Valley. Rather, he is at a naval hospital undergoing treatment and observation for back injuries. He considers himself fortunate: he can stand upright.

This is just one of the thousands of stories emanating from Afghanistan and Iraq. Project Holiday Stockings, now in its eighth season, seeks to provide a bit of cheer at this time of year to our troops enduring brutal conditions, injuries, and death on our behalf.

The stockings are filled with items requested by our troops. The Project is a nonprofit organization, with  no salaries or expenses. Everyone involved donates their time and associated expenses.  To date the Project has shipped over 27,000 stockings to our troops. 

To show your support, fill a holiday stocking not longer than 20 inches from top to heel with some of the items listed on the Project’s website. Be sure to include your personal holiday greeting and/or e-mail address, as well as a check for $10.70 to cover shipping for your stocking. Make checks payable to Denise Snavely.

All monies are deposited into a special account set up by the Westlake office of Merrill Lynch.  The checks drawn on that account are made payable to the United States Post Master of Thousand Oaks.     

You can deliver your stocking to one of the local collection points listed on the website. The deadline is December 13.

This year Project Holiday Stockings is dedicated to U.S. Army Spc. Andrew Jordan “A.J.” Castro, who graduated from Westlake High School in 2008; he was killed August 28 in a land mine explosion in Afghanistan.

The photos above are courtesy of a serviceman from the Conejo Valley. His mother, who live in Westlake Village, asked that I not share his name.

In 1975, the North Ranch area was being planned and developed. However, there was a caveat. A fire station was required in order to safely service the North Ranch Community. Although the agreed upon location eventually became a park, North Ranch was erected.

At the time, the City of Thousand Oaks wanted to save the Wildwood Mesa on the west end of Avenida de los Arboles as open space, so the city reached an agreement with the owners of Wildwood Mesa. Wildwood mesa agreed to allow homes to be built in the North Ranch area. As part of the agreement, Conejo Recreation and Park District would agree with the city and Mesa owners only if they could have the original fire station site to add to their park site. Therefore, a second fire station site was agreed upon, which is the northeast corner of Kanan Road and Upper Ranch Road. This is the site of today’s fire station: Fire Station 37.

Many residents of North Ranch and throughout the Conjeo Valley live in a Wildland Urban Interface, that is, bordering a natural area. Many others live within a mile of a natural area – the Ember Zone – and are at risk of embers blown from a wildfiare. It’s comforting to know that in North Ranch we have a great fire station ready to service our area if we need help. And by the way, this stations doubles as a polling center on Election Days.

Information retrieved from: North Ranch Living, October 2010.

What do electronic waster, good food and wine, and breast cancer research have to do with each other? Find out today at Bellavino in Westlake Village (3707 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.)

Drop of electronic waste today between 9:00 and 3:00 at a 25% discount coupon on all food for a dinner of your choice. Receive an additional 25% discount for a delicious lunch served between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm the day of the event. The discount applies to both food and drinks.

Don’t forget to apply for a 42 inch flat screen when you drop your electronic waste.

Proceeds will benefit the Susan C. Komen for the Cure of Los Angeles County. OCtober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

It’s a happening weekly event in Westlake Village. And no wonder! At $22.96 per two people, it’s a great deal. From 6:00 until 8:00 pm on Thursday nights, Bristol Farms in the Westlake Village Promenade offers several wines, each paired with a mini course of the chef’s specialties – and it’s sit-down style (no more balancing a glass of wine with a plate of food and trying to eat and drink at the same time)!

This month’s featured wines are from the Piedmont region of Italy. Last evening a merry group of eight ladies eschewed tennis, families and a teen-ager’s driving lesson for this delicious activity. The chef even prepared a special meal for one of us who was pork-shy.

At the end of the meal – no surprises here – all the featured wines are offered for sale at special pricing.

So for a wallet-friendly evening, grab a friend and head to Bristol Farms on any Thursday at 6 pm, where you can eat, drink, be merry, and buy your groceries too.

It began as an epiphany, became a passion and is now a multi-faceted business. Six years ago Thousand Oaks resident Stephanie Jaffe experienced a meal at Planet Raw Organic Restaurant, a Santa Monica raw foods vegan restaurant.  Already a long-term vegan and used to buying foods in bulk directly from a distributor, Jaffe wondered if she could use her purchasing power and palate to re-create delicious organic raw-food vegan raw meals. The task became her raison d-être.

Today Jaffe has a vertically integrated company:  She grows some of the food in her own yard, where she cultivates 65 fruit trees and a dozen herb plants. She develops recipes, prepares food and sells it from her home and online; she teaches classes and caters parties.  She also sells smaller quantities of her bulk purchases (25 pounds of nuts, for example, can go a long way, even when used in a lot of preparations). Jaffe prepares all of her recipes herself in her state-of-the-art kitchen, which, coincidentally, she designed.  She will even make deliveries to her local customers.

At first blush, a human diet of raw food sounds frankly, ridiculous, if not impossible. So sampling is in order. At a recent pot-luck dinner Jaffe contributed her marinara pea and green-bean pasta. “Delicious” is an understatement!  To be honest, some of the foods, such as this dish, require light cooking or steaming, no more than a minute in 110-degree water for this delicate Asian pasta. Other preparations – such as the “breads,” which look like Triscuits of different colors and shapes – consist mainly of dried seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

In the works, Jaffe reveals, is a new offering: the Weekly Box, which will likely be prepared foods for a family of four, for example, consisting of four complete meals for that week, at the reasonable price of about $70.

Jaffe is exuberant as she talks about her company. Frequently she refers to her product as “my food.” Now, however, her food can also be your food at www.rawliciousliving.com. Bon appétit!

Pictured below: granola, marinara pea pasta, hemp heart cookie, Jaffe teaching a class, untuna, veggie sun bread

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 Not to be outdone by my colleague Jeff Biebuyck, who found some great 1920s photos of Encino (http://ewingsir.com/historic-encino/), I’d like to present the early days of the Conejo Valley.

 My favorite photo, shot by Thousand Oaks chronicler Ed Lawrence, is not in the public domain. Lawrence took it in the 1960s at the intersection of Thousand Oaks Blvd. and Moorpark Rd., right by the 101 freeway exchange. It shows shepherds together with their dogs, herding a mass of sheep (none of whom faced the camera). Lawrence’s collection – a 50-year chronicle called From Ranches to Residences – is private (as he one time said, if I were a rich man, I would donate it, but I’ll be working till I die).

However, I did find a trove of photos from the old Jungleland site, now the home of The Lakes shopping center, City Hall and the Civic Arts Plaza. These photos, actually dating to the 20s, can be found at http://stagecoachmuseum.org/jungleland_exhibit/jungleland_exhibit.htm.

Don’t remember Jungleland? Take a look!

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There is also an archival video, a cross between Ronald Reagan’s General Electric Theater and Bonanza, at http://www.cosf.org/website/html/multimedia-video.html

Welcome to my blog: Westlake Village Real Estate Blog: Real Estate, Life and Times in Westlake Village and Beyond! Here you will find snippets and tidbits about everything from the local real estate market and home loans to happenings and openings around our town.

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