Monday, July 2, 2018

Liz Writes Life 7-3-18


July 3, 2018 

Liz Writes Life



It is zucchini season! When I was out and about last week, I heard people talking about their zucchini picking and eating. One friend was buying it from the store. Guess he didn’t have any plants at home! Another friend said she had several volunteer plants that look to be a cross between zucchini and yellow crookneck. They taste and look like zucchini, but are yellow.

For several years, we have notice that our first zucchini starts rotting at the blossom-end, when it is about three-inches in size and we don’t get to eat it. Yep, once again, I got excited last week and then it died. But, the next two look to be growing OK, so I hope to make our sausage-zucchini casserole this week.

Don’t remember if I mentioned it, but I really cut back on the garden this year. Jack is re-doing our large porch and boards were stacked into the garden area in May at planting time. Also, the carpel tunnel in my hands has made it more difficult to do plant-tending and weed-hoeing. So, I planted in a row hoping to lay a soaker hose down it. There are six tomato plants, three lemon cucumbers, two zucchini, seven pickling cucs, volunteer potatoes and the two giant rhubarb plants. Volunteer amaranth plants have been transplanted into the row, cuz I just really like the unusual maroon plants that get five-feet tall. In a zig-zag, there is a volunteer 4-foot tall sunflower and transplanted chives.

Problem is that I can’t seem to find soaker hoses that soak correctly. At different times, during the past 17 years, I have purchased soaker hoses that either seeped too fast or not at all. But, for the most part, they seeped just right. I still have two that work well. Last year and this year, the ones I have purchased seep the first half of the hose (these are 50-foot hoses) and literally not at all from the last 25 feet.

As a result, the vegetable plants are not on a soaker hose with a timer, but are being hand-watered. Yes, I know I should do a drip-system, but it is quite time-consuming to put in and a bit expensive. So, I echo what one friend mentioned recently: No matter how you do it, gardening is a lot of work! Also, my knees complain a lot.

But, I can update you on my friend, Tim Grenvik’s, larger garden. He reported that his corn is “definitely knee high” and sunflowers are up to his belly button. He and wife, Lynn, are eating snap peas, broccoli, radishes, garlic and artichoke heads. Wow, that is great. His artichokes are in a variety of stages of growth, but he is fighting with earwigs as they like artichokes too.

Tim’s melons are crawling off their mounds, but the crimson watermelons are slower than the cantaloupes and honey dews. He wondered if that was normal and I think it was for me. Seemed like the cantaloupe vines grew faster than watermelon. Oh, and his tomato plants are putting on tomatoes.

POW

Scott Valley Protect Our Water met last Thursday. It was a small turn-out of stalwarts. I reported CA. Dist. 1 Congressman Doug LaMalfa and three other congressmen have written a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urging the agency delist three species of wolves: gray wolf, Mexican wolf and red wolf. Among other facts, they cited the recovery success stories in Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have led to the removal of wolf species in certain states from the federal Endangered Species Act list.

POW President, Andrew Hurlimann, read a letter from Mark Baird, leader of the Citizens for Fair Representation lawsuit against the CA. Secretary of State. The decision by the judge has been pushed back again, so the group is still waiting.

I spoke about the Bundy Ranch situation. When Ammon Bundy was here in May, I was able to question him for nearly an hour. I now understand his dad, Cliven’s, situation much better. We, in California, think of grazing on public lands as needing a permit. That is how things work here. But, in Nevada a grazing right is the same as a water right. We understand water rights and POW formed in 2010 to stop the state from demanding we pay for a permit to open our headgate to obtain our legal water right property allotment. That water is our right to use without a permit.

When Cliven said his problem was with the State of Nevada and not with the federal agencies, he meant just that. In Nevada, water and grazing rights are tied together. His family enjoy “vested” water and grazing rights, which are even stronger. The legal definition of vested is: a right belonging completely and unconditionally to a person as a property interest, which cannot be impaired or taken away without the consent of the owner.

So, it is through Nevada that Cliven owns his legal water and grazing rights. It is Nevada that should collect any grazing fees.

For 20 years, the Clark Co. Sheriff (whoever was serving at the time) had provided protection from BLM. Some sheriffs were better protectors than others. This last sheriff didn’t even try. When, Ammon drove from his home in Idaho to support his family in early April 2014, he immediately went to the Clark Co. Sheriff asking for help – he received none.

He went to the ranch, where Cliven and Ryan Bundy families were literally surrounded by BLM employees. Grudgingly released government documents prove there were 213 federal agents with 143 in full-tactical gear, including 19 law enforcement contractors, watching from the hills. There were convoys and guards on the main road and helicopters running the cattle. Ammon said they really thought the BLM was going to kill them. Later, it was learned the military-op had authority to use lethal force.

Also, Cliven had never signed for the federal BLM permit, which is a contract. He never obtained or agreed to a federal grazing permit, so how could he owe a million dollars in grazing fees? In a court of law, there must be a contract that has been breached to demand restitution.

There is something evil behind the removal of cattle ranchers in Clark Co., Nevada and it is higher than the BLM. Back in the 1970s, there were 53 cattle ranchers in Clark County. As the BLM became more aggressive, Cliven tried to get them to stand together. Most did not. Some obtained the dreaded BLM grazing permit and still lost their ranch.

In 2014, Cliven and Ryan Bundy were the last ranchers left. The State of Nevada and the county sheriff did not protect them. That is why Cliven’s frustration is with the state. That is where the protection of his water and grazing rights should have been. What is going on behind-the-scenes in Nevada government? And why were the federal agencies allowed to do a military operation? I’ll provide more next week.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Call her at 530-467-3515. Check out her blog at: LizWritesLife.blogspot.com

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