PROST: Like her grandmother, Bavarian-born Monika Holderied...

PROST: Like her grandmother, Bavarian-born Monika Holderied knows how to stir up a scrumptious batch of sauerkraut. Just ask her husband, Werner. It’s the best he’s had, he says. . . . It was a big hit when he started the annual Oktoberfest in Thousand Oaks eight years ago as a Newbury Park Rotary Club member. . . . But last year, someone else took charge of the cabbage. One club member told him, “Don’t try it, it’s a bunch of crap,” and he threw it in the trash. So Monika’s sauerkraut will be back for this Sunday’s Oktoberfest at Conejo Creek Park.

A PICKET A DAY: Some students in Moorpark got a primer on labor protests Thursday, seeing their new teachers on a picket line before class (B4). . . . The new school year can be stressful for some kids, says Moorpark schools psychologist Richard Jenkins. But he believes the protests should add little stress as long as the pickets remain informational, not confrontational. But Ventura child psychologist Madeleine Waddell considers it an “ugly” situation: “When adults can’t sort out their problems, it is confusing to kids.”

BIG CAT SCARE: Call it a close encounter of the fanged kind. Two women on horseback were stalked by two mountain lions at Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park near Moorpark (B5). . . . Animal officials report a resurgence of big cats in the Santa Susana and San Gabriel mountains. In these areas, authorities say, don’t hike alone. Keep children close to adults. And if you do see a lion, don’t flee in a panic. Running may stimulate a lion’s instinct to chase.

BUCKET BRIGADE: Want to clean mannequins used by the Red Cross for CPR training? How about painting a Boys & Girls Club? Or planting trees at the Conejo Valley Botanic Gardens. . . . The United Way of Ventura County will dispatch 500 volunteers Saturday to spruce up public service agencies and do other bits of dirty work. . . . The sixth annual Day of Caring kicks off the United Way’s annual fund-raising campaign.