Liz Writes Life 10-16-19

Oct. 16, 2019

Liz Writes Life

Two early-morning freezing temperatures, last week, took out the last of my flowers – except for the red and yellow snapdragons. It was down to 26 degrees Thursday morning, but I heard it was even cooler in other areas. Sure was glad I decided to shut the outside water-line off. These warm 70 degree days and then frosts are hard on the perennial plants, but they will either survive or not.

Jesse Mullin

A reminder: Friends of Jesse Mullin are holding a fundraiser this Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, to help purchase a wheelchair-accessible van after his life-altering accident in August when he broke his C-5 vertebrae resulting in paralysis from his chest down. This fundraiser will be held at the Little Lot on Etna’s Main St. from 4 to 7 p.m. with a suggested donation of $10. There will be entertainment from local talent and the idance studio, a silent auction, raffles, desserts and hot drinks. Should be a fun time for a great cause.

You can also donate through a Jesse Mullin Go Fund Me page on the internet and Banner Bank has a Jesse Mullin account, where donations can be made.

Fish count

With autumn in full-swing, Chinook salmon are returning from the ocean up Klamath River into Siskiyou County rivers. Morgan Knechtle, who is the Klamath River Project manager for the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, reported the salmon count is underway.

On the Shasta River, the adult fish counting video facility was installed and began operation on Sept. 4, 2019. Through Oct. 3, 2019 at least 2,722 Chinook salmon have been counted. The Bogus Creek station was installed on Sept. 5, 2019 and 141 Chinook have been observed through Oct. 5, 2019. On Sept. 19, 2019, the Scott River station, down in the canyon, was installed. As of Oct. 6, 2019 there have been 23 Chinook observed.

Controversy over salmon numbers has raged, since the 1980s when Congress passed the Klamath River Basin Fishery Resources Restoration Act and funded it with $1 million per year for the next 20 years. The Act did sunset in 2006 and the issue has not been fixed. It is still quite controversial.

Those who favor the removal of four hydro-electric dams in the Klamath River claim the destruction of the dams will improve returning salmon numbers. I disagree. In watching and reporting on this issue for over 30 years, I have seen many opinions and statements made both pro and con. It is complex to say the least.

Recently, the Siskiyou Co. Water Users Assoc., responded to a statement by non-profit Klamath River Renewal Corp. regarding water quality. KRRC wants the dams out and claims California’s 401 Water Quality Certification for the Lower Klamath Project hydro-electric dams removal project is not necessary. The Water Users responded with – yes it is. Removing the dams requires legal environmental processes by the state and the federal governments. Addressing all the environmental issues, including water quality, and making final decisions is the process that must be followed.

The Water Users, Siskiyou Co. and many individuals believe the destruction of the Klamath dams is an experiment not yet fully studied. I agree.

Last month, I learned about the massive loss of 80 percent of fish in the Animas River in southwest Colorado, which was due to ash and sediment that entered the river after a fire. The Colorado Parks & Wildlife’s full-scale survey of the fish population followed the 416 Fire that burned over 54,000 acres. In a CNN news article by Allen Kim on Sept. 24, 2019, it said that heavy rain hit the region “and that led to a runoff filled with ash that suffocated fish in the river.”

We were so lucky this past summer to have fewer local fires, but fires have burned around and over the Klamath River for years. Not only will the sediment from the actual destruction of the dams affect water quality and salmon, natural disasters also impact the river. And, if the dams are removed the Klamath River will have a much lower flow in the summer and fall and that will greatly slow the outflow of sediment or ash and will surely affect salmon, other fish and wildlife.

Fat Bears

Now for a fun story: Last week, Alaska’s Katmai National Park held a contest for Facebook users to vote for the fattest bear. Photos of park bears are posted from early summer, when they are still thin from weight loss during hibernation. The bears have numbers and names. This year, 435 Holly took the grand prize. Yep, the most recent photo of her shows that she is really rolly-polly fat. This means she ate a lot of salmon, berries and who knows what else. Holly received over 17,500 Facebook “likes” making her the Queen of Corpulence.

It was a fun contest, but those of us that have to deal with the real-life over-abundance of bears here in Siskiyou County are frustrated. The first part of Sept., a bear decided he was hungry for ripe plums and broke-down a third of the two little trees by my house while getting to the plums. A few weeks later, I didn’t get all the Concord grapes picked and the bear came-in and climbed the trellis eating and crushing a big batch of grapes.

So, I hurried and picked the few red apples and lots of tiny yellow apples before he or she decided to tear down my apple trees. Sorry, there is no Fat Bear contest here, only irritation.

Veterans Parade

This year, the Veterans’ Parade will honor Joe Hudson as Grand Marshal. Joe served in the U.S. Army doing two tours in Korea and two tours in Vietnam. Wow, that is a lot of service.

Please encourage the veterans in your family and veteran friends to participate in the 19th Veterans’ Parade in Etna on Sat., Nov. 2, 2019. The Rotary Club of Scott Valley and City of Etna are sponsoring the parade. Staging is at 9:30 a.m. at the Etna High School and the parade starts at 11 a.m. It is easy to enter -- call me at the below phone number.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Oct. 9, 2019

Liz Writes Life

Yep, it froze one morning, last week, and there were several additional mornings, when my thermometer said it was just above freezing and yet there were pretty good frosts. Tomato plants looked pretty sad, as well as the dahlias, impatiens and four o’clocks. I am surprised that five-foot tall cosmos still have blooms and don’t look too bad. The frost did take about a fourth of the blooms, but the plants are still green.

I decided to pull-up the tomatoes. Oops, I hadn’t irrigated the soil, so was dry and I needed to take the shears and cut the tomatoes and four o’clocks above the ground. Drug the bushy plants outside the garden to a compost pile. I was able to pull-up the last pie pumpkin vine and counted 15 pumpkins. Then, I noticed some Russet potatoes poking out of the ground, so I gathered those. I also cut off hollyhock stems from about half the hollyhocks. So, I am getting started on cleaning-up the garden. Yay!

Jesse Mullin

Several fundraisers will be held for Jesse Mullin, a young man from Scott Valley, who had a freak accident in August that broke his C-5 vertebrae resulting in paralysis from his chest down. He was a rising local star in the field of dance.

Jesse is able to breathe on his own and talk and there is some arm movement. Currently, he is in U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento learning to feed himself and doing strength training. Jesse’s family is in desperate need of a wheelchair-accessible van.

The first fundraiser will be at the Knights of Columbus annual dinner this Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. The Knights are donating all of the proceeds from the dessert auction items. The dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Yreka Community Center at the north-end of Yreka. Call Jesse’s aunt, Dona Farnam at 530-467-3617, if you would like to donate a dessert.

Then on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, friends of Jesse are holding an activity at the Little Lot on Etna’s Main St. from 4 to 7 p.m. It is still in the organizational stage. Jan Gaynor said, “We are going to do everything we can to raise funds to help this great guy!” So, save the date. Also, a Go Fund Me page has been set-up for those who know how to navigate the internet and Banner Bank will take donations into the Jesse Mullin account.

Vets Parade

It is full-steam ahead for the Veterans’ Parade in Etna. This is the 19^th year, since it was started after the 9-1-1 attack in 2001. It will be held on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019 in Etna and is sponsored by the city and Rotary Club of Scott Valley.

All veterans and soldiers are invited to participate – which is easy, just drive your vehicle or have someone drive you. In the past, individuals, groups and organizations have been very supportive by entering as well. It is super easy to enter, just call me at 530-467-3515.

Line-up for the parade is at Etna High School at 9:30 a.m. and the parade officially starts at 11 a.m.

We are starting to check-in with the different folks, who hold other activities during or after the parade. Jim Sutter said the Sutter, Whipple and Farrington families will cook-up barbecue hotdogs on Main St. once again -- and veterans eat free.

United Nations

Debbie Bacigalupi spoke at the September Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting about attending the 68^th United Nations Civil Society Conference that was recently held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Debbie has attended a variety of United Nations meetings, including those held in Brazil, and is quite concerned. She has learned there is deception in the definition of their terms and believes agriculture and farming is under attack by this global group. Her goal is to expose the deception on a variety of global issues.

Debbie showed the “Global Governance” book that she obtained at a past conference and has thoroughly read it. The book explains Agenda 21, which has to do with “sustainable” goals set for 2021. Many of those global governance goals have not been met, so the new Agenda dates have been set for 2030 and 2050.

During the Civil Society Conference, Debbie learned that agricultural landscapes must be changed to cities growing gardens, including growing vegetables on roof tops. She asked a presenter about the sustainability of farmers and ranchers, who presently grow much of the food and was told “obviously not all farmers are going to be needed.” To Debbie this is ludicrous. She rebutted that her family are farmers. “What will happen to them?” she asked. The response was, “… they may survive.”

This is Debbie’s concern: The expectation that city people will grow the food that farmers and ranchers now grow. Yep, the idea boggles the mind. Debbie sees their plan for “sustainable development” to be population control as stated in their workshops.

Man is always wondering what the future may hold. But, the fears created by global warming, affects to environment and how to govern the mass populations is what drives the Civil Society Conference and Agenda 21 meetings.

Debbie said “they” are now admitting it is all about one world governance; comprehensive planning and what is called “Smart Growth,” which is the mass compaction of people into cities. Debbie is frustrated at the indoctrination and hypocrisy of past Global Warming scares and fears. One claimed Miami, Florida would be under water by 2015. That didn’t happen.

Yes, we need to be concerned about our environment, she said, but moving into this one-world government control over land, cities and agriculture has underlying deceits. Debbie spoke to what some left-leaning leaders are pushing: The Green New Deal. “It is not green. It is not new and it is not a good deal,” she finished.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life 10-2-19

Oct. 2, 2019

Liz Writes Life

It was a bit soggy for activities held last weekend. I certainly didn’t expect that much rain or the temps to cool off so much. Snow levels were down to 4,500 or below on our mountains. So, it was quite a shock from the high-80 degree days from mid-week. We needed more than one coat!

Even though it was cold, the fund-raiser event for the Congressman Doug LaMalfa campaign turned-out really nice. It was held at the Dowling Ranch barn. Dave Tyler’s barbecue ribs, grilled chicken and beans were delicious along with his wife, Kathy’s, coleslaw and muffins.

Doug’s wife, Jill, was able to drive up too. I hadn’t visited with her for a few years, so it was nice to chat with her. Later, she took the mic and shared that she was driving, when they dropped down Forest Mt. into Scott Valley. The scene was breath-taking. She told us, “You really do live in God’s country! You are our people and we thank you for your support – from the bottom of our hearts.”

She is such a great wife. You see, Doug flies back and forth every week to WA. D.C., when congress is in session. This makes family-life very busy. Jill stays in California at their rice farm with their two younger daughters, who are still in school.

Jill believes in our country and the need to stand for our Constitution and conservative values. She told us about her family attending President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. It was bitter cold, but so incredibly inspiring to see history unfold before their eyes. She even played a calm, but firm “Mama Bear” part, when some anti-Trump people started to confront her 6’ 10” tall college-age son for wearing a MAGA hat.

Doug has met with Trump on different issues and found him to be very considerate and engaging. He listens and “does what he says he’ll do.”

Doug was questioned about the current impeachment threat of President Trump, because of his phone call with the president of Ukraine. Our congressman explained that impeachment really is a process, which must be followed. He said House Speaker Pelosi is caught in the middle of the mess and is doing an inquiry, which is the first part of the process. But, because the pro-impeachment House members are so loud, she is trying to make the inquiry look like it is the process.

President Trump released the transcript of that phone call and Doug said there is nothing in the call that is illegal or an impeachable offense; and it reads like two world leaders talking about a variety of issues.

Doug added, “The stuff they are accusing Trump is what they (his opposition) have done.”

Doug thanked Siskiyou County citizens for their support. He recalled the first time he came to Siskiyou on the campaign trail. It was to participate in the Fort Jones Christmas Parade, in December 2001, when he first ran for state assembly. That is when I met him, talked with him, liked him and voted for him ever since.

When local issues were brought to him, Doug always understood and was a champion for us during his assembly and state senate years. He questioned and argued for us, when, then, Dept. of Fish and Game, demanded a permit that would have taken away our legal water rights. A permit, with its resulting fee, would have added a huge cost for agriculture to do business and confiscated property – especially when under California law, the water is already owned by the landowner or water right holder.

Doug said headway is being made in stopping the removal of the Klamath dams. The “phony-baloney shell corporation,” of Klamath River Renewal Corp. does not have the $450 million in funding that will pay for the destruction cost. He said the process is now at the level where it will be the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make the big decisions.

Those are two decisions: The first is if FERC will allow KRRC to obtain the hydro-electric licenses from PacifiCorp and the second is actually allowing the destruction of the four Klamath hydro-electric dams.

Once again, our congressman brought up the environmental issues that are now part of the federal and state mandates before dam removal can occur. He said the devastating amount of sediment that will contaminate the Klamath River must and will be addressed.

Garden

I decided to pick the last of the tomatoes and the rhubarb on Friday. Several friends were hoping for some rhubarb and I gave most of the red tomatoes to another family, who wanted to freeze them.

Finally, I got the rest of my tomatoes in the freezer. I cut them up, scattered them on wax paper in a big pan and put in the freezer. Did pretty good this year, cuz I didn’t forget about them and gathered them into freezer bags. Even put the date on them!

Think I picked my last bouquet of the year. The maroon and lavender cosmos are five-feet tall with lots of blooms, so I picked some to go with a very late-blooming salmon-colored gladiolus and some Shasta daisies. The sky-blue morning glory never did bloom. Bummer! But the vines from the one plant took over the ladder and lattice I put up for it to climb. The purple morning glories are wrapped around old glads and the big maroon elephant amaranth plants.

Story time

Celeste McFall, branch manager for libraries in Scott Valley, announced a weekly story time and play group for children ages 0-5 will begin next week. The Fort Jones session will start on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019 from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. and the Etna session will start on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019 at the same time. This is a parent and children activity, which includes a craft. The theme is “Harvest of the Month. There will also be a book giveaway courtesy of the Fort Jones Lions group.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life 9-25-19

Sept. 25, 2019

Liz Writes Life

You can tell it is autumn, not just because the weather is unpredictable going from cool to hot then cool again, but the calendar is full of activities and events. Here are a few that I wanted to share, today.

POW

The Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting will be held this Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019 at the Fort Jones Community Center. Time is 7 p.m. The speaker will be Debbie Bacigalupi, who recently attended the 68^th United Nations Civil Society Conference “Building Inclusive and Sustainable Cities and Communities” in August. Debbie will share info from this meeting and the movement from Agenda 21 to Agenda 2030. Yep, it is real.

LaMalfa

Be sure to attend the “Fun” Raiser for Congressman Doug LaMalfa that will be held this Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019 at the Dowling Ranch Barn at 4500 East Side Road in Scott Valley. Grill Master Dave Tyler and his wife, Kathy, will serve barbecue ribs, chicken and all the fixins at 6 p.m., but plenty of activities start at 3 p.m. with Hay Rides, Corn Hole Contest, Chicken “Chip” Contest, Dessert and other Auction items -- and the interesting “Apple Pie Spirits Contest.”

During the event, our congressman will also hold a town hall meeting sharing the latest from WA. D.C.

This fundraiser is sponsored by Siskiyou Citizens for Doug LaMalfa in his bid for re-election in 2020. For tickets call Kathleen Bergeron at 530-842-4400. They are $30 for adults, $15 ages 8-12 and $3 for 7 and under.

Doug has done so much for our county, starting back in 2002 when he was elected our California District Assemblyman. He is always assessable, especially with great staff like Erin Ryan, who drives up to Siskiyou Co. -- a lot. Doug knows the ropes in congress and that is huge. With Doug, we have someone working for us!

CASA

An introductory workshop will be held on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019 for adults to learn about the Court Appointed Special Advocates program. CASA advocates are volunteers, who build one-on-one relationships with foster children and help them through the difficult time of being separated from their parents and the overwhelming court process.

CASA Program Director, Lori Keyser-Boswell, is holding a “Coffee with CASA” in Fort Jones on Oct. 3, 2019 at the Gifted Horse in Fort Jones. Complimentary coffee and pastries will be available as Lori explains the program. There will be a $50 gift certificate drawn as a door prize donated by Gifted Horse. That would be fun as there are lots of interesting items at Gifted Horse.

For more information, call CASA at 530-841-0844 or visit CASA’s website at siskiyoucasa.org.

Etna FFA

What has become a long-tradition as a successful fundraiser will be held by the Etna FFA on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019 at the Etna High School. Dinner and the silent auction is between 5 and 7 p.m. with a live auction at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults with reduced rates for children, seniors over 60 and families. Call 467-3244 to get your ticket.

I don’t know which officer makes the facebook posts, but he or she is doing a good job showing many FFA activities and classes -- using lots of photos. Students were learning about trees for a forestry competition at Shasta Jr. College and football players, as well as the girls, are shown with the flower bouquets they made in one of their classes. Yep, the football guys looked pretty proud of themselves.

As a past member of the Etna FFA Chapter, I feel qualified to tout the program. It encourages leadership and learning in fun and responsible ways.

Veterans Parade

November 2, 2019 is the date for the annual Veterans’ Parade in Etna. I checked with the Etna City Council for support (yes) and need to fill out an event form with all the information and obtain insurance coverage. City Council member, Lori Fleck, who is also a Rotarian reminded me that the Rotary Club of Scott Valley was likely to provide the mandatory insurance. So, on Thursday morning, I attended the Rotary weekly meeting. They were happy to support the parade and approved the insurance. Luckily, once again, Prudence Magnuson and Vinnie and Bob McNeil volunteered to organize the parade entrants at the Etna High School. They have been staging the parade for so many years, they could do it blindfolded! Yay, we are off and running. The parade will start at 11 a.m.

Veterans: You are invited to participate. This parade is for you!

Family members of veterans: Please encourage the veterans in your families to participate. Drive them in your vehicle. It doesn’t need to be fancy. We just want to show our veterans and current soldiers that we honor them for their service.

Yes, once again, the parade is a week before Veterans’ Day, which is Nov. 11, 2019, so you gotta be thinking about it a little sooner. Of course, the community and individuals are an important part of the parade. Karen Clark, director of the Jackson Street Marching Band, said the group is planning on it. Hooray!

For more info and to get entered, please give me a call at 530-467-3515 or Heather Ford at 530-467-3193. Tim Grenvik is also helping gather veterans for the parade committee.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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