#117. Claudia Lima on Timber, Art, and Making a Life in Humboldt

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and neighbors, and all those out to sea, it's Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt Podcast, located in Humboldt County, California, with my new best friend, Claudia Lima. Hi, Claudia.

Claudia Lima: Hi, Scott. How are you?

Scott Hammond: I am really good.

Claudia Lima: Oh, good.

Scott Hammond: Really good. I'm on vacation.

Claudia Lima: You're looking good.

Scott Hammond: I look great.

Claudia Lima: You're on vacation with your State Farm Scott Hammond?

Scott Hammond: I'm on vacation 'cause Joni and I leave for Zion National Park on Saturday for three days in the park.

Claudia Lima: Ooh.

Scott Hammond: I know. And then Vegas, and then we're gonna see Pink.

Claudia Lima: Ooh.

Scott Hammond: I don't even know her that much- … but I like some of it.

Claudia Lima: You will.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Apparently she's got a good-

Claudia Lima: Get some vinyl.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, we'll get some vinyl. We'll talk about vinyl in a minute. So tell us the Claudia Lima story. You're from San Diego, I understand.

Claudia Lima: Yep. I am the oldest of nine. We grew up in a town called Julian, a small town.

Scott Hammond: I know Julian.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: I was the Apple Day Queen.

Scott Hammond: I bet you were.

Claudia Lima: Yes, I was.

Scott Hammond: What's that, is that a high school thing, or is that-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, pretty much.

Scott Hammond: Did you go to, is there a Julian High, or?

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, 'cause we always-

Claudia Lima: Julian High School.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: My brothers and sisters all went there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: Still real good friends. There was 21 in my graduating class.

Scott Hammond: That's right, 'cause it's famous for apples.

Claudia Lima: Yes.

Scott Hammond: And on the other side is the desert, Anza-Borrego.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Right? Borrego Springs.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Great place to grow up.

Scott Hammond: Oh my gosh.

Claudia Lima: Great place to grow up.

Scott Hammond: Right. Yeah, love that. Cleveland National Forest.

Claudia Lima: Yep. And, well, I worked at Cuyamaca State Park-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … when I was in high school.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. We went to Camp Cuyamaca in sixth grade.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: All the sixth graders in National City-

Claudia Lima: Oh, yes

Scott Hammond: … which is San Diego. Um, got to go up there, and I met, met a girl named, I still remember her name, Jeri Reddy, and she was really cute, and she lived in El

Scott Hammond: Cajon, and-

Claudia Lima: Ooh

Scott Hammond: … a little crush thing going on, and it never went anywhere, but I

Scott Hammond: digress. Just a little. Uh, tell, tell me more about growing up there-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and how'd you get to Humboldt?

Claudia Lima: So I grew up there. I, uh, was really involved in 4H and FFA.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Claudia Lima: And my ag teacher, uh, thought that, and I agreed, that I should get, go to Cal Poly.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And I was headed to get a, uh, teaching

Claudia Lima: credential 'cause I wanted to become an ag teacher, but then life kinda went on. My dad bought, uh, a wholesale lumberyard from, uh, Simonson-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Claudia Lima: … which was up at the Smith River.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: And that yard was in El Cajon, so when I graduated I went back down there, and we opened up a wholesale distribution yard, and so I sold-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Claudia Lima: … wholesale lumber.

Scott Hammond: So you were a s-

Claudia Lima: Redwood

Scott Hammond: … salesperson on the road?

Claudia Lima: Yes, I was.

Scott Hammond: San Diego County-

Claudia Lima: Yes. Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … in the county only, or?

Claudia Lima: Yeah, just San Diego County.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: But it, I'd travel up here quite a bit with my dad to buy wood.

Scott Hammond: At Smith River?

Claudia Lima: Well, we would land in San Francisco or Oakland.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: It'd take us two weeks because in those days there were sawmills

Claudia Lima: everywhere.

Scott Hammond: Ooh. The good old days.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Now it takes you three days.

Scott Hammond: Right, right.

Claudia Lima: And you're mostly driving.

Scott Hammond: It's interesting taking the Madaket cruise around Humboldt Bay, and they always point out this thing had, like, 150 mills.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And now we got one and a half.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's, like, Schmidbauer and then there's, I don't, so there may be a second one. I don't know what it would be, but-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … just-

Claudia Lima: Humboldt Redwood down in Scotia, and then-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Claudia Lima: … North Fork out in Korbel.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's a big, big one.

Claudia Lima: And then Sequoia Forest Products, the old Arcata Forest Products.

Scott Hammond: Right. Where's that at?

Claudia Lima: That's, uh, off of Gentili.

Scott Hammond: Okay. It is the-

Claudia Lima: Where the Britt mill used to be.

Scott Hammond: Where Britt was.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Okay, yeah. What about Emerson, Red Emerson's mill out there?

Claudia Lima: It's closed.

Scott Hammond: That's all done.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That was a big mill, right?

Claudia Lima: That's all done. That was a big mill.

Scott Hammond: Some, in Manila.

Claudia Lima: And there's another fencing sawmill off of, uh, oh, in Arcata by the high school, or the college.

Scott Hammond: Oh, um, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Campbell's. Mad River Lumber.

Scott Hammond: Right, right.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Kind of around the corner.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. After, so we were heavy, heavy duty lumber at one

Scott Hammond: time.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And the, the, by the way, the logging conference was a lot of fun this year.

Claudia Lima: Oh, wasn't it?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Jamie had a great time.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, she's dinner, yeah, she's… That board did a great job. It was, you know, a, an absolute new location 'cause we've always-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … been, we always go f- uh, Eureka, Redwood

Claudia Lima: Acres-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … to, uh-

Scott Hammond: Ukiah, right?

Claudia Lima: … Ukiah.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And during COVID we went to, um, Willits. It was just a little one.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So Ukiah, they're at the fairgrounds?

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: So do you think this'll c- So this, so for those of us that don't know anything about the logging conference, uh, tell us what that is. And it rotates every other year.

Claudia Lima: Right.

Scott Hammond: In Humboldt.

Claudia Lima: It goes from Ukiah to, uh, or from Mendocino-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … Ukiah to Humboldt County.

Scott Hammond: It celebrates, well, does it celebrate logging? I guess it does, but-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, it does

Scott Hammond: … yeah.

Claudia Lima: It's, it's a great three-day celebration for all the families in the timber industry, and a great opportunity for people to come and learn more about, you know, the timber industry.

Scott Hammond: Right. And all the modernization and the families and-

Claudia Lima: And the families and-

Scott Hammond: Other industries surrounding it

Claudia Lima: … and job opportunities and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … yeah, it's just a great three days-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … to get together.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I liked, I like the fairgrounds at Ferndale for that 'cause there's so much room to kinda spread out.

Claudia Lima: It, it, it worked out very nicely.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: All the equipment and everything.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, it was kinda interesting because I take my artwork to all

Claudia Lima: of the-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … to the, uh, Sierra Cascade Logging Conference and the one-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … in Oregon, which is huge.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And normally by 2:00 on Saturdays it's pretty much cleared out, but-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … it wasn't that way-

Scott Hammond: This one?

Claudia Lima: … in Ferndale.

Scott Hammond: We'll talk more about the artwork.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But do you mean, like, this artwork?

Claudia Lima: Yes. I was gonna bring you-

Scott Hammond: Oh, no

Claudia Lima: … a calendar.

Scott Hammond: I've got the calendar here.

Claudia Lima: But you already have one.

Scott Hammond: Woo-hoo. There it is. So Claudia was featured as the featured artist for the Coast Central Credit Union, uh, calendar for 2026.

Claudia Lima: Huge honor.

Scott Hammond: Huge honor. Look at that.Yeah. We'll talk more about art.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I wanna go back to your, um… So what Cal Poly were you gonna go to?

Claudia Lima: The real Cal Poly. I went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Scott Hammond: To SLO.

Claudia Lima: And I got a degree in animal science.

Scott Hammond: Ooh, what a great school.

Claudia Lima: It was a great school.

Scott Hammond: Oh, we toured campuses with Jesse, and we went to Pacific, and we went to Malibu, and we went to, uh, San, UCSB, but the one I wanted to go to without my choice, was SLO, 'cause it's so beautiful. The culture there is so cool. The people are nice.

Claudia Lima: Well, I have to tell you, so I w- like I said before, I was real active in 4H and FFA, and I would always qualify to go to the state animal judging contest that was held in San Luis Obispo.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And the first time I went, my aunt was my s- chaperone- … my Aunt Pearl.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Claudia Lima: And we took the Greyhound bus.

Scott Hammond: Sweet. From El Cajon?

Claudia Lima: From El Cajon to, uh, San Luis Obispo, and we pulled into that town and I said, "I'm going to college and I'm going here."

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. It-

Scott Hammond: Did it to visit

Claudia Lima: … it was so much fun, and I still have a lot of really good friends there.

Scott Hammond: That's a cool place.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Joey's sister, Lisa, has Pizza Republic, which is out by the airport.

Claudia Lima: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they love it.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They love that place. Yeah. It's always fun visiting there. The weather's always really good.

Scott Hammond: People are-

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … still kind of got that country feel. It's got a real downtown that's alive.

Claudia Lima: It's really alive.

Scott Hammond: It's got an alive d- which is rare for, for California anymore, so.

Claudia Lima: The biggest adjustment I had was when you went to the beach, the water was so cold.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah.

Claudia Lima: It was really cold-

Scott Hammond: You are not in-

Claudia Lima: … compared to San Diego's

Scott Hammond: You are not in San Diego anymore.

Claudia Lima: No.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Just a little s-

Claudia Lima: You about turn purple and you go, "Oh, maybe this isn't working."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: "Maybe I'm not gonna get used to this."

Scott Hammond: "Maybe I'll just wait for Hawaii."

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, that brought you to sc- so how was your… Did you do four years there?

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: No, actually… Well, probably almost four, but I went to, uh, junior college at Mt. SAC for two years.

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Claudia Lima: Which was a great way to do it because-

Scott Hammond: Where, where's that?

Claudia Lima: It's in Pomona.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: It's right next door to Cal Poly Pomona.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: And so I was still able to keep my job at the state park and go home on the weekends, and, you know, it cost a whole lot less-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, JC

Claudia Lima: … to go to the junior college, and they had a, a great animal science program there.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Claudia Lima: So it was a great way to get, you know, the things you had to get out of the way.

Scott Hammond: Were you gonna be a vet?

Claudia Lima: No, I was gonna be an ag teacher.

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Instead, what happened?

Claudia Lima: I went to, went back to work for my dad.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: Went into the lumber business and went into the wholesale business.

Scott Hammond: And that's how you met John?

Claudia Lima: Yes, 'cause I worked for my dad. Well, the whole family has worked at the lumberyard, and so I worked for my dad for, I don't know, about eight or 10 years.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Claudia Lima: And then I moved to Mendocino County and opened up a lumber brokerage office so that I just sold truck and trailer

Claudia Lima: loads-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Claudia Lima: … of redwood and high-end Douglas fir.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. So I broadened my horizons a little bit.

Scott Hammond: By yourself?

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So that's iconic, right? I mean, a lot of… Did a lot of women do that in the day?

Claudia Lima: Oh, no, no, no. There was-

Scott Hammond: I was gonna say

Claudia Lima: … it was me and Betty Foster.

Scott Hammond: Just you and the crew.

Claudia Lima: We were the crew. Betty Foster worked for Thatcher Lumber Company.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Claudia Lima: And, uh, yeah, in those days, no, there… Then, then a few start dwindling in.

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: But…

Scott Hammond: You know, anybody that I've ever met in the lumber industry is just… They're great, dandy people.

Claudia Lima: Oh, they're the best.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Just normal and-

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Yeah

Scott Hammond: … there's always gonna be one or two, but there's… I remember golfing with the Hoo Hoo guys up at Baywood.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And they have a riot.

Claudia Lima: Oh, that's my… Those are my people.

Scott Hammond: Oh, those are the, the-

Claudia Lima: Yeah. I grew up with all those guys

Scott Hammond: … the bros, man.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We, um, used to call on, when I sold advertising, I'd call on Copeland Lumber.

Claudia Lima: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: And a little bit of Schmidt Bauer, but um, you know, some of the local

Scott Hammond: yards.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And they're always great guys.

Scott Hammond: Just-

Claudia Lima: Yeah. I, I, you know, the people in the timber industry are

Claudia Lima: amazing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: All, all aspects of it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Now j- your husband, John, was a timber… Was he a faller, or was…?

Claudia Lima: Um, he started out as a truck driver.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: But, uh, he was a logger.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: Then he bought a cat and, um-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Claudia Lima: … started logging.

Scott Hammond: So he had his own company.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Wow. Would he be a Gypo? Would that be appropriate?

Claudia Lima: Yes, he is a Gypo.

Scott Hammond: Gypo meaning what?

Claudia Lima: Kinda like gypsies. You just, uh… I mean, we've had a great life. You just go from job to job. You just, you never know where you're gonna end up.

Scott Hammond: Get the phone call.

Claudia Lima: You get the phone call,

Claudia Lima: uh, and you go pack up your trailer and off to the woods you go-

Scott Hammond: There you go

Claudia Lima: … for the summertime.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: Great life.

Scott Hammond: Could be anywhere.

Claudia Lima: Could be. Well, we stayed mostly in Humboldt County.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, uh, who do I know? Oh, Joe Kent.

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Oh, yes.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Joe Kent. What's up?

Claudia Lima: Yeah, Joe.

Scott Hammond: Little Joe. He's from the show.

Claudia Lima: He's one of my fans, big fans, him and Reagan.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Oh, what a guy. They're funny. So if you knew Joe Kent, and, uh, and I do and you do, uh, I, I was talking to Reagan once. I go, "Do you ever see Joe mad?" I mean, 'cause Joe is like Mr. Christian Jesus, lovely guy, ho- Mr. Hospitality. If you-

Claudia Lima: But down to earth

Scott Hammond: … and down, and lovely.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Not-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … not a weirdo like me.

Scott Hammond: Um, however, he, he was… I go, Reagan goes, "Yeah, I saw him get really pissed once." He goes, "These, these lo- new guys with their corks, their spike boots-

Claudia Lima: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … put 'em on the dash of this brand-new F-

Claudia Lima: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … F-150-

Claudia Lima: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … truck that Cor, that they had just bought, Simpson had just bought." And he goes, "Joe came fricking unhinged." "He lost his mind, screamed at these guys." I go, "Oh, good. My brother's a human being."

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "He's real. He's a real guy." Way to go, Joe.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, 'cause he's pretty Steady Eddy.

Scott Hammond: Oh, he's just lovely, man. I just love that him and Lynn.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, he is a good man.

Scott Hammond: We go way back with he and Linda. Just sweethearts. So you went back to the lumber industry-

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … a- and you wound up in Mendo, soUh, how'd you get to Humboldt, beautiful Humboldt County?

Claudia Lima: Well, I came up here for Bill Scott, who was the, uh, sales manager for Simpson Timber Company.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: It was his 50th birthday party at the Sidelines, and that's where I met my husband.

Scott Hammond: You met John at the Sidelines?

Claudia Lima: I met my husband. I met my husband at the Sidelines.

Scott Hammond: How about that? In Arcata.

Claudia Lima: In Arcata.

Scott Hammond: So for-

Claudia Lima: In downtown Arcata.

Scott Hammond: For, for those of you-

Scott Hammond: … that don't know the Sidelines, it's gone now, right? It's they, they shut, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. They, they got… Something happened. Anyway, so yeah, there used to be like a bar row there at all the four.

Claudia Lima: Yep, yep.

Scott Hammond: The Boot, The Boot Club was on the other side. And then Sidelines and Everett's. How do I know that?

Claudia Lima: And the Alibi.

Scott Hammond: Alibi.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then Marino's, which burnt, right?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow. Back in the day. And then we used to go to the Red Pepper in college.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, that's before my time.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It was, um, yeah, it was… You didn't need an ID, let's say it that way. ID, IDs are optional.

Claudia Lima: That's why it's not there anymore.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's long gone. It's like Hum Brews now. It's something-

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: … it changed.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It changed over time for good reason.

Scott Hammond: So-

Claudia Lima: Oh, God

Scott Hammond: … so then you met John at, and what, what were you doing? Oh, so you're up at this party.

Claudia Lima: I was at this party. There was… I, I have to throw this in. They even had a stripper.

Scott Hammond: Really? At the Alibi?

Claudia Lima: No, at the Sidelines.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Claudia Lima: On the bar.

Scott Hammond: On the bar?

Claudia Lima: With baby oil.

Scott Hammond: Oh. Hey, you've heard it here first. Wow. This was a PG-rated show.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Nick, what happened here?

Claudia Lima: Oh, my God.

Scott Hammond: That's great. Well, that's back in the day.

Claudia Lima: I had no idea all that was gonna happen, but we all ended up over at the Plaza Grill, and he wanted to, uh, split, you know, a hamburger, and I had to tell him first off, I don't share my

Claudia Lima: food, so.

Scott Hammond: Okay. There's the first thing.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, first thing, and then-

Scott Hammond: That's funny

Claudia Lima: … we were married little over a year after that.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: Well, I ran into him again at Ruth Lake.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Claudia Lima: He was logging up there, and a bunch of my friends-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … we flew up there to the-

Scott Hammond: Flying AA Ranch.

Claudia Lima: Flying AA.

Scott Hammond: Stayed there.

Claudia Lima: Yes.

Scott Hammond: That's a cool place.

Claudia Lima: That was a great place.

Scott Hammond: Man, that was iconic.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: People would go fly and, and camp and-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … hang out, eat.

Claudia Lima: No, it was fun.

Scott Hammond: Eat and drink and-

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … fly home.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you flew in for what purpose?

Scott Hammond: To see John?

Claudia Lima: Oh, just… No, no, no. I had no idea. I was walking across the tarmac, and he was standing there by his pickup, and

Claudia Lima: I said-

Scott Hammond: "Hey"

Claudia Lima: … "I think I know you."

Scott Hammond: That's a, that's a nice way to say hi.

Claudia Lima: And that was the beginning of the end.

Scott Hammond: That's nice.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you guys hung out ever since.

Claudia Lima: Yep, ever since.

Scott Hammond: Been best friends.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: How many years is that?

Claudia Lima: Uh, 34 years this year.

Scott Hammond: That's a really cool story.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, great. And you guys have Christopher.

Claudia Lima: And we have Christopher.

Scott Hammond: Yep, that's wonderful.

Claudia Lima: The love of our life.

Scott Hammond: He's a b- How old's Chris now?

Claudia Lima: He's gonna be 29 the end of the month.

Scott Hammond: 29, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Gabriel just turned 27.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So yeah, we had parallel paths, Chris and Gabe. A lot. So I love it.

Claudia Lima: Well, Joni and I go back way backs because we had a

Claudia Lima: mom's group.

Scott Hammond: With Nancy Cardelli? Was that back in the day?

Claudia Lima: No, it wasn't Nancy. It was Helene Wilke.

Scott Hammond: Helene, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, all you moms supporting each other.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. And we all… And I still have my picture-

Scott Hammond: That's beautiful

Claudia Lima: … with us and our babies.

Scott Hammond: That's won- Yeah, she was a real, uh, force of nature. I know she brought everybody together.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Joni always spoke very highly of her.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Is she still around?

Claudia Lima: I don't think so. I think she moved out of the area.

Scott Hammond: Some people do that.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I don't know why. Don't come here. It's rainy. It, it dumps rain like 10 months out of the year. The, the people are weird. It… Don't, please, if you're thinking about Humboldt, come and spend money.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then, you know, just know that it's, it's, it's, it's actually magical. So, uh, let's go right to the hard stuff. Ready? So you met John-

Claudia Lima: Sure

Scott Hammond: … you stayed here, and you have-

Claudia Lima: I stayed here

Scott Hammond: … a family, and what did you, what did you, what have you done with since then?

Claudia Lima: Well, so John was in the lumber b- or the logging

Claudia Lima: business.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: So I phased out of my logging or my lumber. I gotta get it all straight here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: So I phased out of that and just started helping him with the books and parts runner and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … uh, just all around-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … helper-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … for the last

Claudia Lima: 33 years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And, uh, then I started… Well, actually, John bought me some,

Claudia Lima: uh, painting lessons for Christmas-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Claudia Lima: … from this gal. God, she was beautiful, and she was really good, and I couldn't tell you her name.

Scott Hammond: How long ago was this?

Claudia Lima: Oh, God, probably 33 years ago.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: But-

Scott Hammond: That's a cool gift

Claudia Lima: … it was a great gift, but the problem was she had a substance abuse problem.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Claudia Lima: So when I would show up,

Claudia Lima: um, they might still be in bed.

Scott Hammond: Just-

Claudia Lima: They didn't know what day it was.

Scott Hammond: It's Humboldt County, folks.

Claudia Lima: I said, "You know what?"

Scott Hammond: It's hard to say.

Claudia Lima: "I don't think this is gonna work. Give me a painting, and I'm out, and we'll all go our separate ways." But she was really good, but it got me thinking. So Humboldt used to have art, art painting and drawing classes in the-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Claudia Lima: … summertime, and it was a great way to do it. So, uh, that's when I started painting and, you know, off and on, but now I'm able to do it full time.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've seen your stuff everywhere.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no, your iconic, iconic style. We were talking about you last night. You're, I mean-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … maybe that's a real basic thing to say. There's nobody with your style.

Claudia Lima: What's the name? It's an impressionistic-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … style.

Scott Hammond: It's beautiful.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Thank you.

Scott Hammond: No, it's, and always with a, a lot of color. So, uh, who are you and what do you want?

Claudia Lima: Who am I and what do I want?

Claudia Lima: Well, um-

Scott Hammond: Those are, those are Joni's dad's… Thank you, Tom Those are his two questions of life. So let me just spring those … Can I just spring those-

Claudia Lima: Well, I, uh-

Scott Hammond: … on you real quick?

Claudia Lima: Well, I, uh-

Scott Hammond: Who the, who the heck are you? What, what are you doing here?

Claudia Lima: I, I'm Christopher's mom and John's wife.

Scott Hammond: There you go.

Claudia Lima: Logger's wife.

Scott Hammond: That's part of it.

Claudia Lima: And yeah, and an artist.

Scott Hammond: Okay. Cool.

Claudia Lima: And what do I want? I just want things to… Things are good.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Claudia Lima: You know? I just want 'em to stay good.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: There's a lot of good stuff happening.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: As much as the news-

Claudia Lima: There, uh-

Scott Hammond: … the news would tell me otherwise if I watched it.

Claudia Lima: Well, if you watched it.

Scott Hammond: I just, we boycott it since COVID.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's like-

Claudia Lima: No, it's

Scott Hammond: … really? It's the same stuff. Did you know, Nick, that, uh, there's a storm in back east and there's-

Scott Hammond: … big trucks that turn over in Minnesota and, and that, uh, Trump's doing more stuff and- … and that CO- I remember it was three stories. It was Trump COVID, and, um, uh, and, and storms back east, and, you know, the death count of COVID. It was like, "What am I watching here?" It's like-

Scott Hammond: … there's nothing new happening here.

Claudia Lima: He, we had- I thought we had the best summer that COVID because we were camped out on South Fork

Claudia Lima: Mountain.

Scott Hammond: Oh, nice.

Claudia Lima: So you, it, we, the whole crew was up there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: We had a beautiful logging camp with a whole view of all the way to the ocean.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: Um, you didn't even know COVID was going on till you came to town and saw somebody with a mask.

Scott Hammond: Right. So South Fork, that's up toward… Is it out of Blue Lake?

Claudia Lima: Route 1.

Scott Hammond: So you go out-

Claudia Lima: You go up and turn at that, uh-

Scott Hammond: Deland, Deland

Claudia Lima: … No, no. That's Showers Pass.

Scott Hammond: Is it-

Claudia Lima: You go up 299.

Scott Hammond: Like Snow Camp?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Up that way?

Claudia Lima: Up that way.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, you could go up that way.

Scott Hammond: Let me show everybody where Snow Camp is. Nick, focus in on me here.

Claudia Lima: Oh, is this what the-

Scott Hammond: This is my little, see my pointer here?

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: So this is Humboldt Bay. You and I are right here in Eureka, and this is 299. And I'm guessing Snow Ca-

Claudia Lima: It's ri-

Scott Hammond: … Snow Camp is right up-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … South Fork is right in this area.

Claudia Lima: It's Route 1. It'll take you all the way to the Dinsmore Store.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah. It goes all the way-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … to 36.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, here it is right here. Look.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: There's Route 1.

Claudia Lima: There you go.

Scott Hammond: And there's 199. We go up to Medford to the Jacksonville Brit

Scott Hammond: Festival.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And Medford's up here, and, uh, Spain is over that way.

Scott Hammond: Ole.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hola. So, uh, got up here, met John, got married, been logging. Um,

Scott Hammond: what, um… Let's go to the quiz. You wanna do that?

Claudia Lima: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Do you wanna earn one of these candy bars?

Claudia Lima: Ooh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's not a candy bar. It's a delightful fleur de sel courtesy of Dick Taylor Chocolate. You know what I was thinking about?

Claudia Lima: What?

Scott Hammond: I really considered this the other night.

Claudia Lima: What's that?

Scott Hammond: Not yours, but we just pop one and start eating it on the show.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm thinking about it. So anyway, so let me put this right here.

Scott Hammond: And this-

Claudia Lima: You're not eating mine.

Scott Hammond: No, no, I wouldn't touch yours. No, you're fine. That's… Brought to you by Quality of Body, by the way. Gotta get a plug in there. So yeah, you, you've done full circle then.

Scott Hammond: You've come San Diego to Mendo to-

Claudia Lima: To Humboldt? Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: I love this state.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Claudia Lima: It's a beautiful state.

Scott Hammond: There's no state like this. This is-

Claudia Lima: I know, I, I know. It's a beautiful state, and I feel so fortunate that I've been involved in most all aspects-

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: .. of the lumber and timber industry.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: Um, and I've got, I've got, I get to travel up and down it all the time.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah, there's so mu- I mean, between, we just got back from Sonoma.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And that was magical and fun and, you know, there's all the Mount Shasta and Lassen areas. It's like there's-

Claudia Lima: The whole state. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I mean-

Claudia Lima: We just got back from Monterey.

Scott Hammond: Monterey's cool.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Tahoe's magical.

Claudia Lima: Yep. I haven't spent much time up there,

Claudia Lima: but, uh-

Scott Hammond: Jo- Joni's brother's got a place that's, they call it The Cabin.

Claudia Lima: Oh, I'll bet.

Scott Hammond: It's, like, amazing. And it, the sun rises up from the east, and it's-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the whole lake is right there. It's just so much fun. Joni hikes and saw a bear last time, and

Scott Hammond: it just, it's, it's awful cold.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know, hot day in the summer is 75, but-

Claudia Lima: I know. It's perfect.

Scott Hammond: It's-

Claudia Lima: I love, I mean, like, Julian, the elevation was 5,000-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … feet, so the days were perfect.

Scott Hammond: So you come out for Julian West, and you get to Ramona?

Claudia Lima: Yeah, but we always went the Cuyamaca route-

Scott Hammond: And went south

Claudia Lima: … down through Cuyamaca.

Scott Hammond: Pine Valley.

Claudia Lima: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Or Alpine.

Claudia Lima: Y- Alpine.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then head into San Diego.

Claudia Lima: And then Del Cajon and Mission Valley.

Scott Hammond: I miss that area. Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We used to go to Desert Lake Camp.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: We are, uh, young ne'er-do-wells with long hair and, um, kinda hippie feral children.

Claudia Lima: Well, so we would go, coming home, come up Interstate 8, and everybody's headed to the desert.

Claudia Lima: And one-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … one of the games we used to play is to count how mu- what the value was of the motor homes and all the toys.

Scott Hammond: Oh, right. 'Cause they're all headed-

Claudia Lima: 'Cause it was, they were all headed-

Scott Hammond: They're all going to Glamis.

Claudia Lima: Yes, they were.

Scott Hammond: That's right. They're all heading to the dunes. That's where they filmed Star Wars, uh, III, s- some of that, uh-

Claudia Lima: Is it?

Scott Hammond: … Jabba the Hutt. Yep. That was filmed out there. We used to go to the other route down to Tecate-

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … to get, uh, tacos. Again, no ID necessary in Mexico.

Claudia Lima: No, no.

Scott Hammond: And we're, we think we're cool. We're 16 chugging beers and quarter tacos, which are now two bucks-

Scott Hammond: … or more.

Claudia Lima: Spent a lot of time in Tecate. My dad's right-hand man was from Tecate.

Scott Hammond: Oh, is that right?

Claudia Lima: Yeah, so we'd go down there quite a bit.

Scott Hammond: It seemed like a cool little town.

Claudia Lima: It is a very cool town.

Scott Hammond: We did a thing. I'm gonna just confess my crime real quick.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So we would stash our weed in a rock under, uh, another rock before we'd go into Mexico.

Claudia Lima: That was smart.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, we were just being smart. So maybe I'm confessing smartness.

Scott Hammond: We'll see.

Claudia Lima: You're, you're, you're brilliant.

Scott Hammond: The jury is still out.

Scott Hammond: So we Nickel liked this story. So we stashed our weed, went into Tecate, drank and, and ate and had fun and came back, and it's nighttime now and we-Go over and off the side road and get your stash and put it back in the car.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And within three minutes we're pulled over by, by immigration, by border patrol.

Claudia Lima: Oh, God.

Scott Hammond: "Hey man, pull over." "Hey man, what? Oh, what? We, we didn't do nothing. We didn't do nothing." And it's like, and they're not there for the weed.

Claudia Lima: No.

Scott Hammond: They're there to see if we had- we're trafficking people.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, you know, "No, we live in National City. We're just going back home, dude. We're just… Tacos, you know?"

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "We didn't do nothing." It's like, "Get out of here. You, you idiots."

Claudia Lima: I got thr- My girlfriend and I got thrown out of a whorehouse in Mexicali one

Claudia Lima: time.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's another story.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We've got-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … pray tell.

Claudia Lima: Well-

Scott Hammond: What, what were we doing there?

Claudia Lima: We had actually been down in the Imperial Valley and we were, I don't know, we'd gone horseback riding or something, and we told her brother we wanted to go have good Mexican food.

Scott Hammond: In Mexicali.

Claudia Lima: In Mexicali. And good, uh… And hear some good music. And he goes, "I know just the place."

Scott Hammond: Just the place.

Claudia Lima: The Bahia Hotel.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Claudia Lima: So we're making a big circle around town going, "Donde la Bahia?" And everybody's looking in the window going-

Scott Hammond: What?

Claudia Lima: … "Bahia?"

Scott Hammond: Are you sure?

Scott Hammond: Que? Que?

Claudia Lima: We finally found the place.

Scott Hammond: And it's prostitution.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. We were asked to leave. We- they bought us a drink and then they said, "You need to leave."

Scott Hammond: Right. Yeah. We, we have working people.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Too much competition.

Scott Hammond: You, you don't appear to be on the job right now.

Scott Hammond: Well, I remember going down there for a beer and it was, it, it was a beer… It was a joint that was about as wide as this Nick's studio, and it went back, you know, 200 yards. And we could… I don't know what was going on there. They, they couldn't seem to get us beer. And then it was like, "Mas dinero." So we just-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … we did the walk of shame out of there. It's like, okay, I guess you don't serve our kind here.

Scott Hammond: But yeah-

Claudia Lima: Ah

Scott Hammond: … all those Mexico stories. And then there's Tijuana, that's a whole, whole 'nother-

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah. That's a whole different… I have whole photo albums of that.

Scott Hammond: That's next level stuff there. I did my, um… You might know this place in Mexico. Uh, it was down, uh, down at Puerto Nuevo on the way to Ensenada.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: The lobster place.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Where you could get two tails of lobster. Check this out. Lobster, beans and rice, tortillas, 20 bucks. And everybody was there. Sailors, hippies, locals,

Scott Hammond: knuckle-

Claudia Lima: If it was even that much money.

Scott Hammond: Maybe it wasn't that, maybe it was 15. And then, you know, and then the knuckleheads were there.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, um, it was just famous. Everybody would lo- And it was all broken tur- turquoise walls with broken paint and-

Scott Hammond: … it didn't matter.

Claudia Lima: Well, we used to, uh, camp down below Ensenada at El

Claudia Lima: Bufadora.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Pre-

Scott Hammond: Estero Bay.

Claudia Lima: My dad camped there when he was a kid, and we all camped there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's beautiful there.

Claudia Lima: Oh, it was great.

Scott Hammond: It's like San Diego with no people.

Claudia Lima: I know.

Scott Hammond: Big giant bay and-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … yeah.

Claudia Lima: The bay on one side and the ocean on the other.

Scott Hammond: Mm. And the blowhole.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Claudia Lima: Yep.

Scott Hammond: We went down there and there was this, uh, federale police with, with Uzi, with automatic weapons.

Scott Hammond: We're going, "I don't know, man. What are we what are we doing here?"

Claudia Lima: It, well, it has its moments, you know? There's more-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … enforcement sometimes than others. I don't think I'd really wanna go down there right now.

Scott Hammond: Not these days.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: But, so the blowhole, there was never anybody there.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Claudia Lima: And we hadn't gone down there for a while, and so we thought, "Well, we'll run over there." They had a Ferris wheel.

Scott Hammond: Oh. That's a whole thing.

Claudia Lima: It was like, "What is this?"

Scott Hammond: Did a whole thing with it.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Before it was nothing.

Scott Hammond: It's like Cabo Wabo with Sammy-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Sammy Hagar.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Although he never was there in T- Baja. Was that La Paz? Is that-

Claudia Lima: What's that?

Scott Hammond: Uh, s- down south of Baja. Uh, Cabo Wabo-

Claudia Lima: I think-

Scott Hammond: … is in, is it in Baja?

Claudia Lima: It's in Cabo San Lucas.

Scott Hammond: Cabo San Lucas. My bad.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Have you been down there?

Claudia Lima: I used to go down there when there were two hotels.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: The Sol Mar and the El Presidente. And a, and a hotel in town, but-

Scott Hammond: Mucho gusto.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's fun.

Claudia Lima: It was great.

Scott Hammond: I love going back to San Diego.

Claudia Lima: But-

Scott Hammond: Tacos every day

Claudia Lima: … see, my brother raced off-road.

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Claudia Lima: So we would pre-run down. So we got to know all of Baja.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you got to go in the car, in the car?

Claudia Lima: No.

Scott Hammond: In the race cars?

Claudia Lima: I was pre-runner.

Scott Hammond: Oh, pre-runner.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which means what?

Claudia Lima: You take the gas.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Claudia Lima: You run-

Scott Hammond: Okay. You're the pit crew.

Claudia Lima: We're the pit crew.

Scott Hammond: Okay, got it. Okay.

Claudia Lima: Oh, but on the pre-runs, no, you got to go in the car.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Not in the actual race car, but-

Scott Hammond: But in a four-wheel drive.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, it'd be cool.

Claudia Lima: Oh, no, we'd do that. Yeah, it was great.

Scott Hammond: Oh, the desert's so beautiful-

Claudia Lima: Yep

Scott Hammond: … in the summer, in the, well, in the spring.

Scott Hammond: It's just-

Claudia Lima: Yeah. And fall.

Scott Hammond: And fall.

Claudia Lima: Too hot in the summer.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. We're getting to the chocolate here in a minute. Let me, let me ask you about Humboldt for a minute.

Claudia Lima: Okay.

Scott Hammond: What do you like, what do you like the best about Humboldt, and what do you like the

Scott Hammond: least about-

Claudia Lima: Oh

Scott Hammond: … Humboldt County?

Claudia Lima: Well, I love the people.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: People are great.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: And it's beautiful.

Scott Hammond: Oh, both. Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. It's p- the people, the beauty. You know, you live in a place like this, you have a lot of freedom.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. That's a good point.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: A lot of freedom.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: What do I like… The least thing I like is, um, probably the homeless situation.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: Um, I, I mean, I feel for some of those people. You can tell, you know, when you go behind Reed's Food Place-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … those peop- you know, they got their trailers. I would suspect those people have jobs. They just can't afford to get a house-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … or get into an apartment.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: I have a lot of empathy for them.

Scott Hammond: Lot of, lot of mixed stories.

Claudia Lima: But, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … yeah. But I, I don't like, I don't like the thievery.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: That's pretty nasty.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And the five-gallon buckets full of everything.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's, it's hard, 'cause I s- I see, uh, Aaron Ostrom with Pack Out, uh, his organization. They'll clean a camp-

Claudia Lima: Oh

Scott Hammond: … and it'll be, it'll be needing a cleaning again in six months. I'm goingOkay. Um

Claudia Lima: Well, you know, I, I, uh, I have a lot of empathy for those

Claudia Lima: people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … but if they just clean up after themselves

Scott Hammond: There's some common decency here and some-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … humanity, yeah.

Claudia Lima: That, that would be-

Scott Hammond: I don't, I-

Claudia Lima: That'd make it less hard

Scott Hammond: … I don't think it's asking that much.

Claudia Lima: No.

Scott Hammond: You know? Do you have to poop everywhere?

Scott Hammond: No, I don't.

Claudia Lima: No.

Scott Hammond: Okay, good.

Claudia Lima: No.

Scott Hammond: Can you clean up your needles and throw your shit away? Yes, I can. And why don't you do it? We don't… Well, we don't know. Not everybody violates that, but some, you know.

Claudia Lima: But I have to say, I have been down on Third Street and s- and seen where they're using the trash cans-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … but nobody's picking the trash cans up.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. City of Eureka.

Claudia Lima: So there's trash everywhere.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: That's what makes me crazy.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And we're not gonna be too shiny for tourists if we're gonna rely on-

Claudia Lima: No

Scott Hammond: … that income with the comm-

Claudia Lima: No, that's not, that's not very welcoming.

Scott Hammond: What do you s- So what do you see for our future and our, our present and our future? What do you, how do you, how would you like to see-

Claudia Lima: Well-

Scott Hammond: … a version of us that's-

Claudia Lima: It's interesting-

Scott Hammond: … success prosperous?

Claudia Lima: Uh, I, I think we're just in an ideal situation. We have access to everything, especially with the internet now.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: You know?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: Um,

Claudia Lima: I just, I, I guess I'm involved at the hospital and so what I'd like to see is if our medical care… But I don't, you know, people complain about it, but I don't think-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … it's much different anywhere else in the state now.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Claudia Lima: Because my sister just had some issues in San Diego, and it's the same thing, the same wait, no

Claudia Lima: doctors.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: It's just, it seems to be kind of a California

Claudia Lima: issue now-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … that didn't exist, you know, 25 years ago when my son had leukemia.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: I mean, there… I, I am … I mean, if he was gonna have it, it was good time-

Scott Hammond: To have it

Claudia Lima: … good thing he had it then.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Claudia Lima: Because, I mean, things were just taken care of.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Claudia Lima: There was no waiting. The-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … if you needed a test done, you just went to another room.

Scott Hammond: So on the Providence Board, we've seen a lot of doctors, talked to a lot of them.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And that is a kind of inside education, which I think is really good.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, we ain't doing that bad for a small area.

Claudia Lima: No, no, no, no. And like, uh, and what I think is, you know, you may go out of town for a specialty thing that can't be handled here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: But you're still gonna use this hospital.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: There will be something that comes up during your treatments,

Claudia Lima: whether-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … it's, you know, cancer or whatever, that you're gonna have to

Claudia Lima: come-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … to our local hospital.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: So, um, having experienced that firsthand, I'm a real strong believer in that.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And the importance of keeping this hospital.

Scott Hammond: I did an ER visit, mm, probably within the year, and it was… I was really surprised.

Claudia Lima: Oh, it's pretty cool, huh-

Scott Hammond: I had like-

Claudia Lima: … now

Scott Hammond: … like, Michael came down and said hi, and it was like, oh, this is, this is hands-on medicine that I feel like I'm being taken care of here.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And-

Claudia Lima: Well, them getting you in and, you know, triaged

Claudia Lima: immediately.

Scott Hammond: Oh, man. They had the one record day, right? They did, was it f- uh, 252 people in a day? That can't be right. 67? They… Like some crazy number.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like record number-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … last year.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, um, yeah, medicine and healthcare and homelessness. Well, the, the next H word is housing.

Scott Hammond: So-

Claudia Lima: Oh

Scott Hammond: … these seem to be the three that are the, the, you know, nobody has-

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Well, you know, uh, the housing, yeah, if it was affordable, but it just costs so much.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: And I think it's more the bureaucracy than anything else because trust me, I'm in the lumber or, you know, have access to the lumber business and it's not the cost of the lumber.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: But, uh, yeah, it's the bureaucracy and the time it takes.

Scott Hammond: The taxation and all the-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … costs to-

Claudia Lima: I just don't think it's all that-

Scott Hammond: … get goods to market

Claudia Lima: … necessary.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I, I, I feel like, I, like poor cannabis people-

Scott Hammond: … that tried to do it right. They got taxed. I, I don't know that-

Claudia Lima: Well, welcome to the real world.

Scott Hammond: Right. I don't know that I'm a cannabis guy, but are we gonna tax them to death? And, and the answer is yes, we already did.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Yeah. You did.

Scott Hammond: Like-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … thanks for coming. Appreciate-

Claudia Lima: Rest in peace

Scott Hammond: … the revenue.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, that kinda get a l- got a little outta hand.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: I didn't really stay on top of that, but…

Scott Hammond: It's the boom and bust. It, it's the whole-

Claudia Lima: Well, yeah, and somebody made a comment about it the other day, but you know, it's supply and demand.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Can we create that many more weed smokers or eaters? I, I don't think so. Especially if it's really good weed because you only need a, like one or two hits and you're good.

Claudia Lima: I, I don't know.

Scott Hammond: How would I know about that?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well, I have a 21-year-old son.

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: And would I ever thought that'd be normalized anywhere around my h- my life? And, and the answer is no, I didn't.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But hey, I digress yet again.

Claudia Lima: You got a liquor cabinet.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. He does. He's got- Yes, he does. The, the band's got a collection.

Claudia Lima: Oh, there's a band here.

Scott Hammond: Well, there's, there's a, um, there's a, there's a lot of liquor. You know who drank liquor here?

Claudia Lima: Who?

Scott Hammond: Um, there are only two people in 115 shows. Of course, Eric Hollenbeck-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … in his Dixie cup. He had s- What did he, he had some bourbon or something. Yeah. Just casual. It's like we're-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … having a Kool-Aid.

Claudia Lima: Oh, he was having it while he did the interview?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he's fine.

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he's-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … yeah. He was holding the liquor bottle.

Claudia Lima: Cocktail hour.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, and then, um, um, um, Rosa Dixon, she just broke out… She took over the show and broke out his vodka and poured and made a couple drink. I'm going, "Okay, this, this is actually happening."

Claudia Lima: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Whose show is this?

Claudia Lima: Yeah. I was gonna say, who's in control?

Scott Hammond: So how do, what do you see as our challenges going forward as a, as a county?

Claudia Lima: Oh, well, I think, I don't know. It's just that, you know, y- you listen to history and you think we are experiencing this for the first time,

Claudia Lima: and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … it's been going on forever.

Scott Hammond: It's true.

Claudia Lima: So I, I think a, a big part is the brain drain.I would like more opportunities for young people to stay here

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That'd be nice

Claudia Lima: That, that I think is, is huge.

Scott Hammond: Keep it fresh.

Claudia Lima: Is, yeah, keep it fresh and keep the-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … demographic young.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. I wonder how we could do that better. Well, we got Hum- with Cal Poly, not Humboldt. I was gonna call it Humboldt State.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, no, g- well, you got Cal Poly, and that's a good thing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: I just think, um, instead of nay-saying all the job opportunities-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … that, that get presented to this county, that perhaps we should be a little more

Claudia Lima: open.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Joni and I were talking about that, so-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the, the whole Amazon thing came, uh, forward and, um, uh, the, the project they're trying to do at the, at the

Scott Hammond: airport.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Business park, and it's like, well, y- and all these people violently came out against it. You know what? Have your say, and then you gotta sit down and then go with, go with the flow, go with the democracy.

Scott Hammond: And so, um, not going, I'm not going into the process, but I'm going, "You know, Joni, a couple of jobs is not gonna hurt. Things are hurting here, and there's no jobs for families."

Claudia Lima: We need jobs.

Scott Hammond: And so it's not a dirty industry. It, but it's gonna take up space.

Scott Hammond: Okay. I think we have some space that we could-

Claudia Lima: It's a business park.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's-

Claudia Lima: What do they think what's gonna happen there?

Scott Hammond: They're not burning things. It's not gonna cl- create pollution. So I, I often wonder about this, and I, I hesitate to call it small-mindedness. I think smaller mindset thinking about why, why is everything a no?

Claudia Lima: I know.

Scott Hammond: It's like almost everything's like a no.

Claudia Lima: It's a nay-say. Well, uh, what I-

Scott Hammond: It's a, it's a heck no

Claudia Lima: … it's a heck no. It's a hell no. And the sad thing is-

Scott Hammond: No kids here. Keep 'em-

Claudia Lima: It's all, it's all contributing to the hopelessness-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … and the homelessness in this county.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: If a person doesn't have a job and a purpose-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Claudia Lima: … they become hopeless.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And that marijuana industry just keeps selling product.

Claudia Lima: And then it just- … you know, it's pot or much, much worse, so.

Scott Hammond: We're generalizing, but I think it's a fair generalization that there's, I know so many people that just grouch on the couch, man. I'm, I'm gaming and, yeah, he just, he's been without a job for a year. I, uh-

Claudia Lima: There's no hope

Scott Hammond: … uh, I've got a, uh, yeah, I've got some s- business stories of people that just, "Is, did he get a job yet? He's still on unemployment? What?"

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "What? Why? He's a capable person. Huh." Yeah, just that, that trippy,

Scott Hammond: stuck place.

Claudia Lima: Well, i- if there were jobs and opportunities and things that would get people out of bed.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: Um-

Scott Hammond: And, and we know multiple people that are looking for work, younger people, and they can't find jack squat, and they c- they, they'd like to work at The Habit Burger, but I'm sorry, The Habit's full of people. Already, they've already hired. That's, those jobs are take-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … this, this job is taken. You know, and, and Amazon, I don't know, a couple hundred jobs, that, how could that hurt the team? I, I don't know. Maybe there's a big downside, and I just don't see it because-

Claudia Lima: I don't see it

Scott Hammond: … um, let's do something, man. Let's get going.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Let's-

Scott Hammond: Offshore wind, that, that's on hold, and the Great Ro- Redwood Trail might happen in my kids' time,

Scott Hammond: but there's-

Claudia Lima: Well, what's that? I mean, when they, when everybody was trying to outlaw the timber industry, their big cry was, "We'll have service. It'll all be s- it'll be a service economy."

Scott Hammond: Mm. Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: Well, where did that get us? And especially, where did that get us during COVID?

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: The timber industry went crazy.

Scott Hammond: I bet.

Claudia Lima: Couldn't find, you know, employees. I mean, it was, it was a great time to be in the timber industry.

Scott Hammond: Right, 'cause people were building, right?

Claudia Lima: And, yeah.

Scott Hammond: There was demand.

Claudia Lima: But there were no tourists here.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh. Good, great point.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: I mean-

Scott Hammond: That, that dried up

Claudia Lima: … the service industry, yeah, I mean, that's not-

Scott Hammond: And I wonder what $7 a gallon's gonna do to-

Claudia Lima: Oh

Scott Hammond: … tourism this summer.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's like they ain't gonna fly. Maybe they'll drive more, and they'll come to Humboldt, but I don't know that.

Claudia Lima: That's still-

Scott Hammond: You know? 'Cause it's gonna cost a pretty penny to go anywhere.

Claudia Lima: I, I think people, I, I think what's really sad about it is people now are probably having to make a decision between what do we eat-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … and filling up their gas tank.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Claudia Lima: 'Cause it's, it's, it's pretty awful.

Scott Hammond: It's coming to-

Claudia Lima: Prices, yeah

Scott Hammond: … I just saw 7.65. I'm going-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … let's joke with somebody, which is no joke.

Scott Hammond: I go, "What if it goes into double figures? It's like 10 bucks a gallon-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … plus." I'm going, "Do, could they fit that on that board?"

Claudia Lima: I'm sure they'll make it happen.

Scott Hammond: They'll add an extra piece of wood on the side.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, gosh.

Claudia Lima: Like the old days, you know, when they had the little wooden-

Scott Hammond: Right

Claudia Lima: … or the plastic.

Scott Hammond: We'll tape, we'll tape it on.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Good Lord. Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: No, we have the worst gas prices. By the way, Humboldt has the worst gas prices in America.

Claudia Lima: Well, I don't think so because-

Scott Hammond: Amongst

Claudia Lima: … we just made this trip to Monterey and there wasn't-

Scott Hammond: Is it hot?

Claudia Lima: … that much difference.

Scott Hammond: Was it?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. No, everybody's caught up.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That's, that's so assuring.

Claudia Lima: Everybody's caught up.

Scott Hammond: I feel great now.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We're not alone.

Claudia Lima: Don't worry about it. You're not… Yeah, we're not that special anymore.

Scott Hammond: We were in Maui, like, four years ago, and it was cheaper in Maui than it was in McKinleyville.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm going, "What?" You know, and you, and you go to Weaverville, and it's a buck

Scott Hammond: cheaper.

Claudia Lima: I know it.

Scott Hammond: You go to Oregon, it's two bucks cheaper. I'm going, "What, what are we doing here?"

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, my gosh. Anyway, hey, time for the quiz.

Scott Hammond: Hey.

Claudia Lima: Okay.

Scott Hammond: It's time for you to earn some Dick Taylor chocolate. Brought to you by-

Claudia Lima: All right

Scott Hammond: … Dick Taylor Chocolate Bar, Chocolate, Craft Chocolate. Oh, let me read it rather than-

Claudia Lima: Oh

Scott Hammond: … wing it. Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate, 73% dark with fleur de sel.

Claudia Lima: Ooh.

Scott Hammond: I know. This is our, uh, best-selling fleur de sel chocolate bar. It's made using our award-winning two-ingredient Belize dark chocolate. We add, uh, a sprinkling of hand-harvested fleur de

Scott Hammond: sel-

Claudia Lima: Ooh

Scott Hammond: … sea salt. Salt.

Claudia Lima: Oh, I know. I love it.

Scott Hammond: From the Bittermens Salt Company, I don't know where that is, for a subtle and delicate finish. Um, are you ready?

Claudia Lima: I'm ready.

Scott Hammond: Okay, question number one. I'm gonna ring the bell again just for effect. What's your best day that you've ever had? One of your best days.

Claudia Lima: Oh, probably the day Christopher was born.

Scott Hammond: Aw, that's cool.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Was he born in Mad River?

Claudia Lima: No, he was born at General Hospital.

Scott Hammond: At General, okay.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I r- we- so-

Claudia Lima: That was a great day

Scott Hammond: … so was Gabriel. Yeah. They shut it down, I think, kind of like-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … related to that. Yeah, General, that was a good hospital.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: I thought that was a good vibe. Uh, number two, worst, what are your worst days?

Claudia Lima: My worst days?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: I think the worst days were when you'd get a phone call that there'd been an accident, but

Claudia Lima: fortunately everybody was pretty much okay.

Scott Hammond: But just starting the day with some sort of like-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … phew. Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, the accidents.

Scott Hammond: My brother called from Missouri, it was nine, 2004 when my dad died. "Hey, Scott." It's like 6:00 in the morning.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "Yeah, Jeff. What do you… You never call, do you?" He goes, "No. Hey, Scotty, uh, Dad's, Dad died last night." "Okay. Thanks, bro."

Scott Hammond: "Goodbye."

Claudia Lima: Well, well, we had-

Scott Hammond: It was like one of those calls

Claudia Lima: … we had two weekends in a row, somebody ran one of our employees off the road, uninsured-

Scott Hammond: Of course

Claudia Lima: … on and on.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: So that was, you know, the Saturday morning phone call, and then the following Saturday our log truck had gotten in a wreck, and thank God nobody was hurt. So it was two back to backs.

Scott Hammond: And they were both vehicles.

Claudia Lima: And they were both vehicles.

Scott Hammond: This wasn't logging, uh, with a tree.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: This is, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's all related though. It's all risk.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, we were pretty, we were pretty

Claudia Lima: lucky.

Scott Hammond: Has John ever had any sort of accident?

Claudia Lima: He broke his back in a truck driving, log, log truck.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: And then, you know, some of the old-timers come around and talk about some of the near-death experiences that-

Scott Hammond: Oh, man

Claudia Lima: … he doesn't really bring up.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah, they don't… Those are for after two or three beers.

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah. No. They come out-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Claudia Lima: … and it's like, whoa.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I remember losing, uh, Marshall Sundberg-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … back in the day. We used to go to church with his family.

Claudia Lima: Well, you know, that painting at the airport-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … when you're in TSA-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … the climber on the, uh, end of the wall-

Scott Hammond: Right

Claudia Lima: … that's him.

Scott Hammond: That you painted?

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Claudia Lima: They did that for Garth-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool

Claudia Lima: … the family, yeah.

Scott Hammond: They're a nice family.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, they're a great family.

Scott Hammond: What a nice, nice-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … family. They're so cool. Okay, question number w- whatever. Let's see if it rings. There we go. Um, what's crushing, soul-crushing for you and what's

Scott Hammond: fulfilling?

Claudia Lima: Soul-crushing?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, what takes the out of your, the wind out of your sails?

Claudia Lima: Oh, boy.

Claudia Lima: Hmm. What… Well, let's see. I don't know. I've been, been, uh… When my husband doesn't tell me something.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Scott Hammond: Hear that-

Claudia Lima: That's it

Scott Hammond: … hear that, John?

Claudia Lima: That's it. When I have to find out through a phone call or from somebody else.

Scott Hammond: Third party.

Claudia Lima: That's soul-crushing.

Scott Hammond: Disclosure.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's fair. That's a good answer.

Claudia Lima: Or an email.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: "What is this?"

Scott Hammond: "Why didn't you tell me this?"

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You're a mandated reporter. That's a good one. What do you find fulfilling?

Claudia Lima: Oh, I don't know, hanging out with my friends and doing my artwork

Claudia Lima: and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … hanging out with Christopher and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … uh, yeah, my family.

Scott Hammond: Family and friends, I love it.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, we got a great, we got a great little posse.

Scott Hammond: Nice, I love it.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, we're very lucky.

Scott Hammond: You Blue Lake kids are all cool kids.

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: We haven't been out for a while 'cause the weather I guess, but it, it's-

Claudia Lima: Well, the weather and, I don't know, are they having music out there very often?

Scott Hammond: I think they do on the weekends still.

Claudia Lima: Oh, they do?

Scott Hammond: At Mad River.

Claudia Lima: 'Cause it was so consistent.

Scott Hammond: Oh, it was such a thing for many years.

Claudia Lima: It was so much fun.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, and it's changed over the years and f- COVID, again, changed-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … a lot of life, but-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … they tell me the Logger Bar is really fun.

Claudia Lima: Oh, it is fun. Have you ever been to one of the plays?

Scott Hammond: I have not. I want to go.

Claudia Lima: Oh, my God, you should interview him.

Scott Hammond: We had Michael Fields on.

Claudia Lima: Oh, you did?

Scott Hammond: Oh, he's great.

Claudia Lima: Oh, yeah. No. God, he-

Scott Hammond: He was a lot of fun.

Claudia Lima: See, uh-oh.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: I disclosed. I didn't, I missed an episode.

Scott Hammond: You missed an e- You're supposed to know all the episodes, Claudia.

Claudia Lima: I know.

Scott Hammond: How dare you?

Claudia Lima: Um-

Scott Hammond: No, he's great

Claudia Lima: … oh, no, you need to go to one of those plays. They're, they're outrageous. They are so much fun.

Scott Hammond: Over the top.

Claudia Lima: Over the top, and it involves all the local politics-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Claudia Lima: … in Blue Lake.

Scott Hammond: Perfect.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, it's-

Scott Hammond: In Blue Lake

Claudia Lima: … he does such a great job

Scott Hammond: … where we're, we're calling all the council people. Poor Blue Lake. Did they ever figure that out or have they-

Claudia Lima: Oh, my God, who knows?

Scott Hammond: Did they-

Claudia Lima: It's a different story every day out there.

Scott Hammond: … expel anybody yet?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you know Jason and Bethany Shea, Pastor Jason and Bethany.

Claudia Lima: Um-

Scott Hammond: Uh, they live right next to the school. They're our great-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, I know

Scott Hammond: … great friends. They love-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … we go out there and hang out. Um, yeah, I love going out there. The funnest, the funnest, the funnest, is that a word?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, Mad River Brewery used to do the, uh, Bob Dylan's birthday party.

Claudia Lima: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: In the, right before COVID they had a big one, and it was in May. His birthday's in May, and all the bands that, and all the, the cadre of local musicians-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … they'd, they'd cover Bob songs, Dylan songs.

Claudia Lima: Oh, in Blue Lake.

Scott Hammond: In Blue Lake at-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the Mad River Brewery.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And th- the last one was just like a, a riot. Joni's dad was there, and he got so excited, uh, 'cause that was his jam, and just had such a great time.

Claudia Lima: We're so lucky we have these great musicians here.

Scott Hammond: There's a lot of talent.

Claudia Lima: There is a lot of talent.

Scott Hammond: And envious of Blue Lake. It's cool 'cause of the weather and the-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, the weather's perfect and-

Scott Hammond: The vibe is cool. It's hard to find a house there, but who knows? Who knows? Maybe one day. So, um, we'll talk about music in a minute, but in the meantime, last question.You get to go out to dinner and, first of all, you get to do anything you want in a day-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and then go out to dinner at your favorite restaurant. What, what are you gonna do and where are you gonna go with your day off, uh-

Claudia Lima: Oh

Scott Hammond: … with the, uh, 100% Humboldt credit card?

Claudia Lima: Oh, with the 100%?

Scott Hammond: Anywhere you wanna go.

Claudia Lima: Oh. Well, I'd probably go fishing or clam digging.

Scott Hammond: Oh, fun.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. With Linda, my friend Linda.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: She likes clam digging?

Claudia Lima: Yeah, but we haven't been able to do that here for a while.

Scott Hammond: Where do you go, on the bay? On the bay?

Claudia Lima: No, no, no. You go out,

Claudia Lima: uh, out by Clam Beach.

Scott Hammond: Oh, right.

Claudia Lima: But I don't, I don't think you've been able to do it for a while.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, it's been a minute.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Or go out and … The other day I got to go out and gather cows with, uh, Linda for Dean Hunt.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: Got to cowgirl up a little bit.

Scott Hammond: But on-

Claudia Lima: That was fun

Scott Hammond: … on horseback?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Dean's an also nice guy.

Claudia Lima: I know.

Scott Hammond: Hi, Dean. We know Brian Rille- We knew Brian Rille when-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … he's, he's our realtor.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Well, and-

Scott Hammond: Hi, Bri- hi, Brian

Claudia Lima: … He's watching over us.

Scott Hammond: Love you.

Claudia Lima: Yep. And then my favorite places to eat are Larrupins and Brick and Fire.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Good calls.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Good, good, good.

Claudia Lima: Those are really good.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. You know what new restaurant is in town? The Habit Hamburger. But let me just tell you, the, uh, suppo- I've had the burger in Redding, they were great, but they have, um, deep-fried green beans.

Claudia Lima: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: It's supposed to be delicious. I, it sounds like I would get my vegetable for the day.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They gotta be healthy.

Claudia Lima: They gotta be healthy.

Scott Hammond: They're green beans.

Claudia Lima: They gotta counteract.

Scott Hammond: It's gonna be delicious. Yeah, it'll counteract.

Claudia Lima: Let's hope they're fried in lard.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I've, I'm pretty-

Claudia Lima: In the real thing

Scott Hammond: … pretty sure they are lard, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So speaking of music, so you, you have a, a vinyl collection like I do.

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And my, my kids got me a big stereo for, uh, for my birthday in January 2nd. And, uh, started the collection with Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd,

Scott Hammond: and now, um, let's just say we have a room full of vinyl.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I've upgraded the turntable. I mean, it's-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … like a dark, they call it black crack.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's kind of an addiction.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know, and it's not that. It's, it's a habit.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's a, it's a hobby.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Did I say habit? I guess it's a habit too.

Claudia Lima: You said it was a habit.

Scott Hammond: It's a habit hobby.

Claudia Lima: It's a spending habit for you now.

Scott Hammond: It's fun.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's like collecting baseball cards as a kid-

Claudia Lima: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … because all this old music that you can ex- Oh, look at th- Hey, we had this Rod Stewart album. This is so cool.

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Oh, I love this.

Claudia Lima: I, I have all my originals.

Scott Hammond: Fleetwood Mac, what? She sounds … Oh, it sounds really good on vinyl. And so it's, it's a whole interesting different culture. So what did, what did you like to listen to? What's your, what was your jam?

Claudia Lima: Oh, geez. I think I have every Wil- Willie Nelson.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Claudia Lima: Every Merle Haggard.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Claudia Lima: Every Jimmy Buffett.

Scott Hammond: Merle lived here for a while, right?

Scott Hammond: No.

Claudia Lima: No. Sha- Lake Shasta.

Scott Hammond: He was over there.

Claudia Lima: Or Mount Shasta. Somewhere over there.

Scott Hammond: Who's the guy that lived here and was in logging for a while? Uh, the, the other guy. He was part of their, um … Was it Merle? Did … I think Merle lived h- here for a minute.

Claudia Lima: I don't know.

Scott Hammond: Hold on. I'll come back. I'll get back to you.

Claudia Lima: But anyway. Well, he might. He wrote that song about the bar in

Claudia Lima: Garberville.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: So you had to spend some time there to know the Blue Room.

Scott Hammond: The Blue Room-

Claudia Lima: Right?

Scott Hammond: … in Garberville?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Really? Is it still there?

Claudia Lima: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Is there … Is-

Claudia Lima: Well, I think it is.

Scott Hammond: Is that the name of the bar?

Claudia Lima: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Claudia Lima: I'm pretty sure.

Scott Hammond: The Blue Room.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. How do you know about The Blue Room?

Claudia Lima: Are we gonna go over every one of my stories?

Scott Hammond: It's, it's a logging bar. It's a logging bar. Do they have PBR on tap? You bet they do.

Claudia Lima: You bet they do. So one time we were in one of those bars and my girlfriend ordered a, uh, Kahlúa and cream-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Claudia Lima: … or some little drink like that.

Scott Hammond: Right

Claudia Lima: And this guy just leans over the bar and he goes, "Honey-

Claudia Lima: … this is a working man's bar. We don't have that stuff here."

Scott Hammond: We don't do that here. We, we got two beers.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Went back to Sioux City, Iowa. They had … I thought, "Yeah, we'll go in here and get an IPA or whatever."

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: They had Miller and Miller Lite, and then they had a tap of, um, the cinnamon whiskey, the Red

Scott Hammond: Hot, um-

Claudia Lima: Oh. Oh, y-

Scott Hammond: Tell us what that cinnamon whiskey is.

Claudia Lima: Oh, the Red Hot.

Nick Flores: Fireball.

Scott Hammond: Fireball.

Claudia Lima: Fireball. Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: On tap.

Scott Hammond: Chilled. I go, "Okay, I'll just have the Miller I guess." Get out of

Scott Hammond: here.

Claudia Lima: Champagne and bottled beers.

Scott Hammond: That's right. Oh, what a, ugh. Yeah, we're less beer, beer people now. I like cider now.

Claudia Lima: Oh, you do?

Scott Hammond: There's some good ciders.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yep. So, uh, what else did you listen to? F- Fleetwood Mac?

Claudia Lima: Oh, shoot. I, well, you know, uh, yeah, I have my Fleetwood Mac and the Gordon Lightfoot and,

Claudia Lima: uh

Claudia Lima: …

Scott Hammond: Gordon Lightfoot.

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Now there's a guy.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's, he, he did-

Claudia Lima: From way back in the day, and the Jim Croce and the Jesse Winchester.

Scott Hammond: Is he country?

Claudia Lima: No. You didn't know them?

Scott Hammond: Jesse Winchester?

Claudia Lima: Um, how old are you?

Scott Hammond: I'm 66.

Claudia Lima: Oh, you're younger than I am.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Jesse Winchester.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, I liked a lot of those singer-songwriters, kind of folk.

Scott Hammond: Croce?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I have some Croce. Also Boss Gaags, but he's-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, I have a Boss Gaags

Scott Hammond: … a little newer. Um, best of Arlo Guthrie. You ever heard of Slim Whitman?

Claudia Lima: Yes.

Scott Hammond: He was a-

Claudia Lima: I might have one of his

Scott Hammond: … he was a yodeling cowboy.

Claudia Lima: Yeah. And, uh, Lefty Frizzell.

Scott Hammond: I've heard of-

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he's famous, right?

Claudia Lima: Yeah. And who were the two, uh, the dad and the brother, or the dad and the son that, uh, did the bluegrass?

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Oh, I know who you're talking about.

Scott Hammond: Um-

Claudia Lima: And the son was killed in an accident.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: Merle and-

Scott Hammond: Not Merle Haggard.

Claudia Lima: No.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Claudia Lima: Anyway.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Claudia Lima: It'll come to me when I leave here.

Scott Hammond: That's okay. We'll get it later. Well, hey, great having you. Let's talk about your legacy real quick. What are you proud of?

Claudia Lima: Oh, I, I, I'm pr- I th- I've had a pretty good life. I think I've been a pretty good person.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Scott Hammond: It's, I, I

Claudia Lima: I think I've been nice.

Scott Hammond: Except for Mexicali.

Claudia Lima: Well, I mean, you know.

Scott Hammond: We stumbled in there. We were just directed. We didn't know where we were.

Claudia Lima: I wasn't bad.

Scott Hammond: It wasn't bad. We just had a beer.

Claudia Lima: Just-

Scott Hammond: A beer, gone

Claudia Lima: … had a margarita and left.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That's a good story. I like-

Claudia Lima: The music wasn't any good.

Scott Hammond: We're outta here. That's a good one. Yeah, no, I love that. And so, uh, I always ask this question. So at the end of your life, what do you wanna be remembered for? Uh, what are we gonna say at your memorial, and what… And then, and then what would you like on your tombstone?

Claudia Lima: Well, I, I just think that I had a lot of fun.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Claudia Lima: And my dad's was the best. He said he had himself a time.

Scott Hammond: Ooh, I like that.

Claudia Lima: Yeah, that was a good one.

Scott Hammond: Had a t- had himself a time.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Ooh, I like that.

Claudia Lima: So I might steal that.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You could, yeah.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Borrow it.

Claudia Lima: That's a good one.

Scott Hammond: I would borrow that one all day long.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well, thanks for coming. I always know these are great-

Claudia Lima: Well, thank you

Scott Hammond: … when they go quick. This one went quick.

Claudia Lima: I know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Any- anything to add?

Claudia Lima: No. Thank you. This was fun.

Scott Hammond: No, you were fun.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no, thanks, thanks for being here. Hey, if you're just joining us- As we wrap here, my friend Claudia Lima, my friend from Blue Lake. And, uh, hi to John. Hi, John and Chris. Uh, if y- if, uh, you'd like to, uh… First of all, thanks for joining us. Thank you for joining us, uh, Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt podcast. Like us, love us, leave us gold bullion, your Jag, whatever you wanna do. It's all online. You could plug it in and, and donate. Uh, we don't do this for free. Actually, we do. In fact, none of it's for free. It all costs money, but we'd love… With that being in mind, if you like the show, why don't you just take a minute and write a nice review or a comment?

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or a heart or a little five-star thing or something. And better yet, vote for us, uh, for Best of Humboldt.

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: North Coast Journal, ncj.com, or northcoastjournal.com, go to Best of Humboldt. It's under the bonus section and Best

Scott Hammond: Podcast, and we'd very much like your vote. It is the nomination month for May, and then we're gonna vote in June, provided we make the pri-

Claudia Lima: What do you win?

Scott Hammond: … the primary. You win a little plaque and a little, little pointed hat that says you're number one.

Claudia Lima: And you get that little banner.

Scott Hammond: You get a little banner.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You get to go to a party at Blue Lake.

Claudia Lima: Oh.

Scott Hammond: At your, at your house. No, it's-

Scott Hammond: … it's at the casino. So h- we're, we're looking to win that this year.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So we're in it to win it, baby.

Claudia Lima: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And so-

Claudia Lima: Yeah, vote

Scott Hammond: … yeah, get out there and vote. So, uh, northcoastjournal.com, Scott Hammond, uh, 100humboldt.com, and we're on all the podcast platforms. We're on, uh, Access TV and of course YouTube. So, uh, thanks for joining us. Have a great rest of the day, and thanks, Claudia.

Claudia Lima: Thank you. This was fun.

Scott Hammond: I had fun, too.