April 2023 Homestead Headlines

Volume 67, Issue 4 April, 2023

Download the Headlines here

April 2023 Community Center Calendar

11 | HVLT Board Mtg |

18 | HVCA Board Mtg |

25 | Sanitary District Board Mtg |

1st/3rd Weds. | Tam Design Review Board Mtg |

Saturdays | A.A. Mtg | 10:00 AM

Homestead Valley Pool Season 2023

Spring is finally here and we are looking forward to opening the Homestead Valley Pool for the 2023 Season! We have been busy hiring lifeguards and gatekeepers, finalizing schedules, reconnecting our solar heating system, dusting off the lounge furniture and getting ready to roll back the pool cover to welcome our Homestead Valley swimmers.

Flyers with details and information about rates and spring and summer opening hours will be available soon. All important information will also be posted on our website. We are hoping for clear and dry weather and aiming for an opening date in late April. Stay tuned for more specific details in a separate email coming soon. Happy Spring!

We're Hiring

Join our fun and dynamic pool crew for the 2023 pool season!

We are currently seeking full and part-time team members for weekday and weekend shifts. If you are looking for an engaging experience to work outdoors surrounded by nature, this is the perfect opportunity for you. Shifts can be after-school, on weekends, and are flexible.

Pool season begins in late April 2023 and runs through the end of October.

Available Positions

Pool Manager (Seasonal)
Lifeguards (Seasonal)
Gatekeepers (Seasonal)
Swim Instructors

Apply Now!

Horizon Community School/Homestead Valley Swim Program

Horizon Community School (HCS) is partnering with the Homestead Valley Community Association to offer a new swim program for HCS students at the Homestead Valley Pool. We are so excited to have volunteer instructors bring the joy of swimming to a whole new generation of swimmers later this spring!

In order to transport students from school to the pool, we are looking for donations of new or gently used boosters or carseats. We are also looking for child sized wetsuits (youth size 4-8).

If you have items to donate to the program, please reach out to Mattie Greenstone at mattie.greenstone@gmail.com. Thank you for your support!

HVCA Sponsors the Homestead Grays - Mill Valley Little League

The Homestead Valley Community Association is getting into the baseball business! Well, the Little League baseball business. We are officially the team sponsor of the Mill Valley Minors - Homestead Grays!

The Homestead Grays were a professional baseball team in the Negro League from 1929 -1948. Mill Valley Little League, through arrangements with the Nego Leagues Baseball Museum, adopted two teams a few years back - The Homestead Grays and the Kansas City Monarchs both of which remain as active teams within the league.

If you’d like to root on our team at Boyle Park or any of the boys and girls playing this year, you can find a link to the game schedules here. Play Ball!

Homestead Valley Music Festival - Save the Date and New Grant!

Save the Date: We’re excited to announce that plans for the annual Homestead Valley Music Festival are in full swing and we’re looking forward to another beautiful day in the meadow! Always the Saturday before Labor Day Weekend, this year’s event will take place on Saturday, August 26, 2023 from 11-6pm. We’ll have lineup updates throughout the course of the Summer, but if you’ve attended before, you know to mark your calendars. Pictures of past events can be found on our website here and shots from last year’s epic event are here.

New Grant: As many of you know, the Homestead Valley Music Festival is a free event that is supported through corporate sponsorships, community sponsorships and attendee donations. As a non-profit organization, the HVCA’s interest is to break-even financially, however occasionally there is excess monies and we’re excited to announce a newly formed grant that will be used to help local musicians in the community. To get started, we’ve begun by contributing to local Homestead resident and Music Fest alum, Tomas Dessle aka Sunhunter on his new album. To get more information, or if you’d like to contribute yourself, you can check out this link. We’re very excited about the opportunity we have to support music in our community because of your contributions. Thank you all!

Local Artist Series Continues

Homestead Valley Community Association is excited to present the artwork of Tam High Students: Sophie Delacrose, Sol Grossman, Marina McGowan. The exhibit will run from April 1 - April 31.

Please join us for an opening reception

Sunday, April 2nd

2:00-4:00 pm

Homestead Valley Community Center

315 Montford Ave

Sophie Delacrose

Hi! My name is Sophie Delacrose and I am a sophomore at Tamalpais High School. I've started painting as a toddler and have been painting ever since! My favorite medium as of right now is acrylic for painting and oil pastel for drawing. Oceans are my favorite thing to paint and I've done many different seascapes. I hope you enjoy seeing my art as much as I enjoyed making it . All of my artwork is available for sale. Visit my Instagram @sophie.d.art for more art and email me at bellesophied@gmail.com for interest in purchasing one of my pieces. Thank you!

Sol Grossman

Hi! My name is Sol Grossman and I am a sophomore at Tamalpais High School. I’ve been doing art through the mediums of pencils and charcoals for a bit over a year now, and I’m just now starting to experiment with watercolors and other paint mediums! I want to eventually learn to use bigger canvases and other types of paint, but for now I’m sticking to the stuff I’m comfortable with. I really hope you enjoy this show and that you can find the beauty in the imperfections in my art. All of my artwork is available for sale, price on request. You can text me at 415-272-2502 or email me at grossman.solomon@gmail.com. Thank you!

Marina McGowen:

Hi! My name is Marina McGowan and I am a sophomore at Tamalpais High School. I’ve always loved art, but recently I have been using art as a creative outlet. I love every form of art including ceramics, photography, drawing, and painting. This painting was inspired by a photo of two swans swimming peacefully in Italy, so I hope my painting brings peace to you as it does to me. This piece is available for purchase.

Homestead Valley Land Trust

HVLT Winter 2023 Update

by Curt Oldenburg

Rain and Wind

What a season of rainfall! Homestead Valley has received around 48 inches of rain this year since October 1 (the start of the water year) which is about 150% of normal for an entire water year (Oct. 1 to September 30). Rather than arriving in two main events as occurred last year, the rain this year has come over long periods often with very little sunny weather in between events. While we appreciate the general lack of prolonged high-intensity rainfall so far this year, the number of rainy and cloudy days has been remarkable with little time for the water to runoff and the ground to drain and dry between rain events. What this means for Homestead Valley trail users is saturated soils which we experience as mud while walking. But more serious is that these saturated soils have led to instability of the steeper slopes in Homestead Valley leading to landslides. This instability arises from gravity acting on soils that have become saturated with water, which simultaneously makes them heavier and less cohesive. In addition to the tendency to slide downhill, wet soils along with high winds have led to many fallen trees throughout Homestead Valley. Even very mature trees can lose their support in the wet soil and fall over resulting in power outages along with damage to homes, trails, and surrounding trees and vegetation.

The Pixie Landslides

Walkers along Pixie Trail in the open space area (extending from the western gate to the eastern gate at Janes Street) have all seen the two landslides downslope from the trail. Both of these slides started last year as runoff water ran over the graded road bed. The eastern landslide has been stable this year despite the heavy rain. In contrast, the western slide has grown considerably with new debris moving downslope (south) and across the Dharma Way trail. The failed material here is mostly fill that was placed in the small valley to create the roadbed over 100 years ago. Maverick has tried his best to keep the slides covered with plastic despite the winds and rain, and he put temporary orange plastic fencing along the trail to alert people to the slides. HVLT Board Member Kyle Brown has been spearheading the effort to address the slides with consultants and the County. The current status is that the geotechnical firm Miller-Pacific will be contracted to drill two borings to determine the depth of the fill and properties of the soils. Miller-Pacific will use this information to determine potential solutions to stabilize the sites. The information collected will be included in a report that will propose approaches to mitigating these slides.

Homestead Valley Vignettes by Chuck Oldenburg

Lion Hill

Thaddeus and Ludmilla Welch were famous landscape artists. In 1896, they built a snug cottage on Webb Creek near the bottom of Steep Ravine. They painted scenes of Mount Tamalpais, the spit at Stinson Beach, Bolinas Bay, Steep Ravine itself and many other scenes near Mt. Tam. In 1902 they moved to a cottage in San Geronimo Valley where they would have easier access to San Francisco via the railroad, as well as a better climate. In 1903, Thaddeus produced a painting titled “Springtime, Lion Hill, Millwood”. He positioned himself where Whole Foods is today on Miller Ave. In the foreground are ranch buildings that survived the fire of 1900 that destroyed “The Homestead” ranch headquarters. In the background is Lion Hill. In his 1988 book, “On Foot in Homestead”, Matthew Davis named the 858 ft. hill “Homestead Hill”. The hill appears in the background of a 1973 photo of the Chevron station on Miller Ave. Ludmilla Welch also painted a picture of Lion Hill. It is displayed in the History Room of the Mill Valley Library.