Appliance Repair in Caruthers, CA

No, the beer does not contain tulips. Rather, Chuckanut Brewery’s Skagit Tulip Ale is brewed for, and in conjunction with, the annual Skagit Tulip Festival. In particular, it’s brewed to help celebrate the annual Skagit Farm to Pint Roadshow, a series of events that support a really cool agricultural program in the valley. Learn more about all of this below, in the announcement from Chuckanut Brewery.

Chuckanut Brewery Taps Skagit Tulip Ale

April is the Skagit Tulip Festival and with it the Skagit Farm to Pint Roadshow that benefits Viva Farms (an organization that empowers aspiring and limited-resource farmers by providing bilingual training in holistic organic farming practices). Chuckanut’s Skagit Tulip Ale is a delightful California Common using a blend of old world Noble & new world hops with a mix of German and Skagit Valley malts to create an ale with a smooth malty center. The use of triticale (wheat/rye hybrid) and Talisman Pilsner malts from Skagit Valley Malting makes this blonde ale an uncomplicated and hoppy beer with a crispy, dry finish.

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California Common (A.K.A. Steam Beer) is a beer brewed with lager yeast but fermented at ale temperatures. It’s the perfect spring ale available for the Farm to Pint Roadshow supporting Viva Farms. Farm to Pint Roadshow in Skagit Valley is part of the celebration of the Skagit Tulip Festival. If you want to pair Skagit Tulip Ale with food it’s a great accompaniment to seafood dishes and chowders. But it’s also the perfect beer to enjoy on its own!

Available on draft and in cans at accounts around Puget Sound and the Portland area. Cans of Skagit Tulip Ale are available at the Chuckanut P. Nut (Portland) Beer Hall and South Nut (Skagit Valley) Tap Room, and in very limited accounts in Bellingham. Wherever you find cans get some as supplies won’t last long!

Chuckanut Brewery’s P Nut Beer Hall is located at 920 SE Caruthers St, Portland, OR 97214. Chuckanut Brewery & Tap Room is located in the heart of Skagit County at 11937 Higgins Airport Way, Burlington, WA at the Port of Skagit. Chuckanut has won Large Brewery of the Year at WABA 2017, 2019 and 2021. Both locations welcome guests of all ages! Check out additional information about Chuckanut http://www.chuckanutbrewery.com/

For more news about recent beer releases, visit the Washington Beer Blog’s New Beer Releases page.

CARUTHERS, Calif. (KFSN) -- The last hardwood floor Hall of Famer Charles Barkley played on as a member of the Phoenix Suns now sits in the tiny farming community of Caruthers.

Over the last decade or so, the Fresno County town has built a reputation as a basketball hotbed thanks to its perennial power high school girls program and subsequent travel teams.

But now it's the surface they play on that has opposing teams taking notice.

"You're talking Steve Nash was on that court, Danny Ainge was the coach at the time," says Clovis East boys basketball coach Adrian Wiggins.

Rancher Larry Trigueiro led a team of investors to purchase the very same court once owned and used by the Phoenix Suns.

Trigueiro says they bought it from a youth center in Oregon who got it from the NBA team when they were done using it a number of years ago.

"A floor like this new is about $175k, we didn't get to six figures but it was a high five-figure count. Part of it is the events we put on are going to help pay for it. We had a group of generous people who donated a lot more than just me, a lot of people have a part in this and working their butts off to make it happen. Ultimately our kids and our community are going to benefit from it all," Trigueiro says.

But before the floor could be purchased, Trigueiro, who also coaches one of Caruthers' elite AAU teams, needed an indoor facility large enough to house the 94 feet of court.

He found it inside the commercial building at the fairgrounds.

"People are amazed that the kids get to play on an NBA floor, it's got first-class baskets, shot clocks, got digital clocks here, we have a PA system the fairgrounds let us use, we got music piped in and it's kind of got an old school feel and so it's been very positive," Trigueiro says.

Surrounded by American flags, the cozy confines inside the barn-like building only adds to the nostalgia of this unique basketball setting now used by the high school and area youth teams.

"You worry about if the ceiling will be high enough, is it going to be safe, are they going to have some issue where the walls are too close. They didn't, it was spaced out perfectly. The fans could see, they weren't too close, the benches were fine, the floor was kept in great shape. Honestly it's great idea," says Clovis East coach Wiggins.

From hotly contested NBA games to then 12th ranked Fresno State's showdown vs Arkansas in '97, this court has hosted its share of great players. Now the next generation of talent is using it to foster their own success.

"There's a lot of history on this floor so we want to keep some of that and the fact that our college down the street played on it, so NBA legends played on it. I think it was NBA Finals court at one time, there's a lot of cool stuff here."

Right now the court is used for practice and exhibition games but the goal is to begin hosting tournaments and there's even talk to build an outdoor streetball surface adjacent to the pavilion.

Did you know that the closest All-Ability playground is two hours away from us in Hayward? That is exactly why Walk with Austin is working with the El Dorado Hills Community Service District to expand the current plans for the park at Bass Lake in El Dorado Hills to be accessible by all.

The Hands4Hope-Youth Making A Difference Youth Board is helping the Walk with Austin achieve this goal of making sure all youth have a safe place to play by holding a benefit dinner “Dine with Austin” from 5 to 7 p.m. on April 2 at ShadowRidge Ranch in Placerville. The Youth Board has a fundraising goal of $10,000, which they are hoping to raise via event sponsors, ticket sales, gift basket drawings, donations and the dessert dash.

Tickets to this family-friendly outdoor dinner event includes the karma that comes with supporting this cause and a dinner featuring pasta, salad and breadsticks. Guests can win many items and experiences donated by local businesses, participate in a dessert dash competition and be entertained by talented local high school students.

“This will be a pivotal year for us in fundraising for the ALL-ABILITIES playground as the El Dorado Hill Community Service District (CSD) hopes to break ground at Bass Lake in late 2022. We’ve currently raised $80K and have a goal of $250K to supplement the CSD’s existing traditional playground budget. We are thrilled that the Hands4Hope-Youth Making a Difference Youth Board has chosen to support Walk with Austin for their 2021/2022 project,” said Holly Reininger, founder of Walk with Austin. Holly and Adam Reininger founded Walk with Austin because raising children with impaired mobility is very taxing for families emotionally, physically and financially and their passion is to find ways to help.

“The Youth Board chose Walk with Austin because we believe that it could directly impact so many kids in our community. Not only that, but because the closest non-age-restrictive All-Abilities park that is truly accessible for all children is in the Bay Area. This new playground could have an even wider reach than our local community,” noted Grace Brasil, Hands4Hope Youth Board vice-president.

Tickets and event sponsorship information can be found online in the event section of hands4hopeyouth.org. For questions related to Dine with Austin, contact Simone Caruthers, Hands4Hope Youth board secretary, at ybsecretary@hands4hopeyouth.org.

Hands4Hope – Youth Making A Difference is a nonprofit, youth-driven organization with the mission to inspire and empower youth in leadership and service. The nonprofit offers hands-on education and community engagement opportunities to youth from kindergarten through 12th-grades through school-based and after-school programs in Sacramento and El Dorado counties. For more information, visit hands4hopeyouth.org or call 916-294-7426.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- "My name is Gizelle Aguirre and I play volleyball, basketball, softball and soccer."

Caruthers freshman Gizelle Aguirre is a four-sport athlete -- currently playing for three Blue Faider teams simultaneously.

"We recruited her over to basketball, as time went on she was a beast of a softball player," says basketball coach Anna Almeida. "Volleyball was something that we added recently."

The freshman says she's grateful that Caruthers is allowing her to play in all four sports, a circumstance unique to the pandemic.

"It's been crazy," she said. "My coaches, we have a schedule of what practices and games I can go to. Sometimes, they'll schedule games earlier so I can go to the next game. It's crazy but I like it."

"I haven't seen her get tired, I haven't seen her complain, she just loves it so much," says soccer coach Jon Allen. "She's just having fun."

Last week, she scored eight goals in a single game - beating a Caruthers record set by her sister who scored seven.

"Once I got eight, I got taken out of the game because we were already winning but I was like, I don't care," she said. "I just wanted to beat my sister."

Through seven games - she's hitting .750 at the plate, and is one of seven softball players who also play basketball. Caruthers and the teams' parents pitched in to start a college-like program so that the girls stay injury-free.

"They've waited an entire year to play sports, we don't want them to have to wait another year," Almeida said. How can we protect their bodies? It's our responsibility as adults to make sure that they can continue to compete."

The Blue Raiders purchased a compression device to help with recovery and have even created meal plans. The girls eat anywhere from 3,700 to 5,000 calories a day and have to check in with Almeida on what they're eating for breakfast.

"For me, when I go from one game or practice to the next, she'll bring me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat so that I don't feel sick from going from all those sports, so she makes sure we're all healthy," Aguirre said.

Aguirre goes by the nickname 'Monster" but says it's not because of her talent.

"People think it's because I play all these sports, but it's because when I was little, my hair was huge and when I would wake up, I would look like a monster and still is to this day," she said.

These days -- "Monster" goes through three to four practices a day.

A rare breed and a player who has been a game changer for the Blue Raiders on the court and on the field.

The Blue Raiders beat the Spartans 62-49 in the Division 4 semifinals during the 2020 season as they won that division title. Caruthers was the fifth-best team in the Central Section this season, just missing out on the Open Division playoffs.

Orcutt Academy has been a top-10 team in the section for much of the season. They're now 21-7 on the season after going 6-4 in the Mountain League, which had two of the four teams make the Open Division playoffs this year.

Orcutt Academy won the CIF-CS Division 4 title last spring, beating Bakersfield Christian in the final.

Caruthers is now 26-3 on the season.

Orcutt Academy coach Tom Robb is quick to point out that five of the Spartans' losses this year came to Open Division teams, with two each to Nipomo and St. Joseph and one to Bakersfield, which is in the Open final against Clovis West.

On Wednesday, Orcutt Academy was down to West 11-4 in the first quarter, but the Spartans went on a 13-0 run to take a 17-11 lead in the second quarter. OAHS led 20-15 at halftime and built up a 29-16 lead in the third quarter after a 3-pointer from Devyn Kendrick.

But West didn't quite go away, cutting the OAHS lead to 40-36 in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans typically rely on their stifling defense and transition offense to beat teams, but their half-court offense was clutch Wednesday. With the score at 40-36, the Spartans ran their offense leading to a Khaelii Robertson-Mack basket inside.

Robertson-Mack then fed a nice pass inside to Chyanna Medina-Tell for another half-court basket in crunch time.

Kendrick drove and scored to put the Spartans up 46-36 and they cruised from there. Kendrick was solid in the fourth quarter, scoring and facilitating teammates, including an over-the-shoulder assist to Robertson-Mack.

"Besides that first quarter, I'm pretty happy," Robb said of his team's performance. "We had the jitters, missing layup after layup after layup. But once we started running our offense, things started looking a lot better. Our defense was fantastic all night."

Robb said of his team's half-court offense: "When we're patient, we find the holes in the defense. If we're patient, we're really good on offense. We can find the gaps."

When asked about the matchup with Caruthers, Robb said: "I know they're really good, but we're going to bring our 'A-game.' We'll play anybody. We're battle-tested and ready to go."

Devyn Kendrick led the Spartans with 14 points and senior Giselle Calderon had 11 for Orcutt Academy in Wednesday's semifinal. Robertson-Mack finished with 10. Diaminsol Malicdem had eight.

Mikayla Villalobos led West with 11 points. The Vikings were the third seed in the bracket as the top four teams in the division reached the semifinals with the top two meeting in the final Friday at 6 p.m. at Caruthers.