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Photographer Robert Eliason shot plenty of photos of the Live Oak High School graduation ceremony June 8 at Reichert Field in east Morgan Hill.

With more than two weeks left to go for the official nomination period for candidates for local offices in the Nov. 5 general election, the list of potentially interested names on the ballot is growing.  As of July 23, local business owner and former planning...

Jayme and Jeremy Simmons were just about to head out on the Rubicon Trail, a 22-mile route through the Sierra Nevada, when they got the message from Jayme’s mom.They had made the trip annually for the last 13 years and were about to be out of cell range for the next four days; this would be the last call they made before they hit the trail.“She would have never usually called me at the start of my trip,” said Jayme, 41. “When I called her back she was hysterical, crying, ‘Your house is on fire and I cannot save your animals, and I think they’re all going to die. I got your dogs, but I think the livestock isn’t going to make it. I don’t think anything is going to make it.’”   The blaze, the Simmons would soon learn, started as a vegetation fire at 4:15pm July 25 in the 12100 block of Church Avenue. Before being contained by a firefighting blitz of ground crews and a helicopter, it would burn 20 acres and multiple homes, displacing 21 residents in the area, CalFire would later report.Unsure what they’d find when they arrived home, the Simmons headed back to San Martin—an agonizing four-hour-drive.The Simmons arrived to their home on Lena Avenue after nightfall.“You could see flames,” said Jeremy, 41. “We were able to walk up as close as the neighbor’s fence over here, and we could see low embers and little flames. And, we could see the freeway behind the house, which you shouldn't be able to see the freeway because the barn should be there.”The main house on nearly 2.5 acres and owned by Jeremy’s parents Judy and Chuck Simmons was mostly unharmed by the fire, but the barn with a loft—which Jeremy and Jayme had converted into an apartment—along with Chuck’s workshop and the original cottage from the early 1900s, had been leveled.Fifteen years earlier the Simmons had moved in with Jeremy’s parents. The young couple had lived in Murphys, and his parents had a home in nearby Arnold. Both couples sold their land and headed for the South Valley, where Jayme and Jeremy searched for a place to buy.They didn’t find what they were looking for and stayed on the Lena Avenue property, where they taught themselves to farm and decided to return to school.Jayme, now a ranger at Pinnacles National Monument, studied environmental geology while Jeremy earned his degree in environmental studies with economics and now does trail repairs and finish carpentry at Pinnacles.Having previously been evacuated from their mountain home in Murphys, the Simmons thought they’d be safe from the same fire risks in South Valley. They didn’t expect to lose everything.When they arrived, they couldn’t access the property.“Last night we put up the hammock stretched between the Jeep and one of the trees out there.” said Jeremy.Jayme said they just wanted to be sure the animals were OK and see if anything could be done to help them.“All the chickens are dead,” said Jayme. They had lost about two dozen chickens—mostly rare breeds like silkies and small millefleurs.The Simmons were relieved that their pigs had survived along with the majority of their goats, all Nigerian dwarves."This guy next door came over and saved their lives; he sprayed water on them the whole time," said Jayme pointing to their neighbors, the Bettencourts.“You can’t possibly get them to go where they don’t want to go,” said Jayme’s mom Gayle Ng of the seven pigs—a mixture of Yorkshires, Hampshires and Glaucester Old Spots—each weighing hundreds of pounds.“They had the fence ripped up and were trying to get out,” said Jayme.Touring the aftermath, the Simmons walked through the ashes.“That’s our storage unit; that had everything in it,” said Jayme. “All my pictures from my childhood. All of that.”Jamye was still searching the ashes for a ring and a broach that were given to her when her grandmother passed away.She did find a piece of her baby blanket, which she hopes her mom will make into a quilt—a replacement for the one she had just received from her mom.“She's drawn me a lot of pictures,” Jeremy said as his eyes welled up. “Just for a lot of years now on anniversaries and birthdays, she just would draw me some memorable part of our trip. It just made me realize how fleeting my memory is.”“Here’s my chop saw,” said Jeremy, picking up a melted circular blade—the only recognizable part that remained of the tool.“My ’77 J20,” said Jeremy pointing to a green J20 Jeep Gladiator, they fondly called “The Beast.”“You need a truck on a farm,” said Ng.But the Simmons only had their Jeep, with the top and sides that were left behind destroyed. They lost several cars and motorcycles, including both of their daily drivers, which they needed to get to work on separate sides of the Pinnacles.In addition to the vehicles and the chickens, their barn, the Simmons lost a breeding buck, named Jack.Also lost on their property were several outbuildings including their storage, a welding shop and the original cottage.“They lost everything,” Jayme said about the welders. “All their vehicles are here.”Without the welders, Jeremy’s parents may not make their mortgage payments.Mireya Mora, 31, had about 10 minutes to get out of the cottage, which she and Felipe Zamora, 30, had been renting for about a year.Mora had only enough time to grab her dog, her purse and some clothes for the couple.“His mom and his brother came here to help me, but the fire was here already,” said Mora. “Everything is gone: jewelry, money, everything.”The water was still bubbling out of the pipes into the ashes.“She had a couple things like her grandfather’s little wooden box that had been in her family for 200 years,” Zamora said about Mora’s precious family heirloom passed down from generation to generation from her family who had come from a town near Guadalajara.“For now we’ll spend a couple of nights with my mom,” said Zamora. “I didn’t have any renter’s insurance.”The Simmons also were without coverage and were not named in Jeremy’s parents’ policy.“Having studied geology,” Jeremy said, "we were really prepared for an earthquake. It's hard to prepare for fire because everything is gone. All your possessions are up in smoke.”Jayme cautions readers, “Have an exit strategy, a way to contact your loved ones.”The Simmons have been staying with Jayme’s parents and will be looking for housing.Through the devastation, an experience of recovery that is just beginning, Jayme is still grateful “for my life, my husband's life, my family,” she said. “Everybody is OK. My dogs. My goats were saved by a number of people—that helps.”Jeremy is also grateful for the firefighters.“They kept it wet,” he said. “They tried.”To donate to the Simmons relief fund, visit https://bit.ly/2OsKY4a. People who wish to donate a tangible item can visit https://amzn.to/2LVnPJj.

New Caltrain schedule is not convenient Written in support of my daughter-in-law who commutes from Morgan Hill to Palo Alto to work long days: She and her husband moved back to Morgan Hill in part because the CalTrain schedule met her needs—but no more.  The extra...

In the last week of June, millions of pilgrims are preparing for Hajj, the most important journey in a Muslim’s life. Hajj, the Pilgrimage to Mekka, is an epic journey. It’s the 5th and final pillar of Islam. Hajj takes Muslims on a journey back...

Morgan Hill Police was one of many public safety agencies nationwide that participated in the National Night Out Aug. 7. Also present at the local event, which took place on Depot Street in the city’s downtown, were the Morgan Hill Fire Department, Santa Clara County Fire Department, South County Fire District, CalFire and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

With a cold winter storm bearing down on Morgan Hill, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrators joined local and regional representatives Feb. 23 at the top of Anderson Dam to announce the availability of $727 million in low-cost loans that will fund the rebuilding of...

Rich Firato—known as Morgan Hill’s pirate and a devoted father, husband, friend and business owner—died unexpectedly of natural causes on Aug. 22 at age 64.  In a testament to his giving, welcoming nature and a naturally magnetic personality, hundreds of people—including many who traveled long...

The approximately 600 workers at Christopher Garlic’s production facility in Gilroy in July received a raise that’s part of an aggressive plan to increase wages in the nation’s biggest garlic producer.The increased wages benefit not only the workers but also the company, said Ken Christopher, Christopher’s executive vice president.Christopher Ranch increased the minimum wages for its workers from $11 per hour to $13 an hour in January 2017, and increased the company minimum again in July 2018, to $15 per hour."We now offer one of the highest minimum wages in the nation, and unlike many other agribusinesses, we're at full employment and even have a waitlist," Christopher said.Christopher Ranch was stung by a Netflix documentary in January that alleged that it benefited from imported garlic harvested by Chinese prison labor. The company has vehemently denied the allegations that it uses any imported Chinese garlic in its products, and believes its wage increase should go a long way to counteract any negative publicity from the documentary.Field workers are provided by the federal H2A Temporary Agricultural Program. Unlike many other farms, Ken Christopher claims that Christopher Ranch has had no trouble attracting farm workers.“They work at piece rates, and they are incredibly efficient,” Christopher said. “They make above our corporate minimum wage.”Gilroy may be the “Garlic Capital of the World,” but only 300 acres out of Christopher Ranch’s 5,500 acres in production in California are in Gilroy."Fresh garlic costs between 50 cents to $1 per pound to harvest, with the variance depending on different fields yields and whether it was harvested organically or not," Christopher said. "From there, depending on the end product, costs will vary wildly whether we sell it as fresh garlic, peeled garlic, roasted garlic or pureed garlic."This year Christopher Ranch celebrated the Gilroy Garlic Festival simultaneously with one of its most robust harvests to date, over 100 million pounds. This bumper crop was due in part to increased water and labor availability. Christopher Ranch will only sell American garlic, foregoing imports from Argentina and Spain.“We have absolutely not, never, used Chinese garlic, past, present or future,” Christopher said. “We take pride in our integrity. We’re not a faceless company. We’re a 62-year family farm that has had success."Donating money and product to the Garlic Festival has been a long-term effort by Christopher Ranch and the Christopher family. It's also a show of gratitude for the support that Gilroy has shown Christopher Ranch."Christopher Ranch and the Christopher family donated approximately $200,000 to the Gilroy Garlic Festival this year, with about half of those funds going to sponsoring celebrity chefs," Christopher said. "About $20,000 was donated in the form of scholarships for the Gilroy Garlic Queen competition."Christopher Ranch has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in new software to track mentions of Christopher Ranch on social media, and Ken Christopher has committed himself to answer emails or requests for tours of the plant.