March 18, 2020
Liz Writes Life
Finally, March weather has arrived! It was great
to wake up to seven inches of snow on Sunday morning
here at the south end of the valley. Yay! Hopefully, the upcoming predicted rain
and snow showers will continue to add moisture.
I remember back in 1975, Jack was working for the
Beckman ranch outside of Etna. His folks drove up for a visit from Cottonwood
on March 19th and
on the first day of spring, March
20th, it snowed and snowed.
Ended-up with over a foot of snow (more I think) and the freeway shut-down for
two days. So, a Miracle March could still happen. Maybe a Miracle April could
be in the works as well.
Believe it or not, I did get out in the garden
last week and hooked several hoses together. It was T-shirt weather. Made some
furrows by the five-inch tall garlic and some volunteer garlic and onions. In
grubbing-up some weeds, I found a few volunteer butter crunch lettuces, so made
a circle around them. Also, dug around the rhubarb that was barely poking out
of the ground and then irrigated everything; plus a few perennials. Wow, it was
dry.
The lawn clippings that I put on much of the
garden, last year, worked really well. When I grubbed-out the few weeds
growing, the soil was pretty soft under the clippings -- even though they had
composted down to less than an inch. I think this is working to improve the
soil, at least a bit, and I will continue begging for lawn clippings from
friends this summer.
Thinking of all the work involved in the garden,
I decided to ask my 14-year-old grandson, Bryce, if he would help me.
Thankfully, he said “yes,” so I picked him up after school on Friday and we pulled
the dried-up plants that I didn’t get cleared last fall. The garden looks great.
We also added manure to a spot and planted more butter crunch lettuce and
spinach.
We even cleaned-out most of perennials from the
flower garden area. Boy, the rye grass has moved-in something terrible. Don’t
know quite what I am going to do to stop its spread. Looking out the window
on Monday morning,
I could see eight-inch tall green blades sticking-up through the snow. Ugg,
guess it will give Bryce and I a challenge.
Virus
Ok, I will admit that I am surprised that the
covid-16 virus pandemic is creating such havoc. All levels of governments moved
fast this past a week, because of the concerns world-wide. Shockingly, I will
stay away from making any political comments except that more trees may need to
be cut down to make more toilet paper.
Certainly never thought it would be a virus that
would cause panic over the need to store extra food. I am sorry that I haven’t
been encouraging a bit of extra food storage the past few years and will admit
that I have become lax, but I did have an extra large package of toilet paper
in the cupboard – before the recent run.
Locally, our stores seem to be able to keep up
with the demand for food. No, I don’t believe we should be purchasing an over
amount just to hoard things, but having or purchasing extra of our favorite
foods and necessities is prudent. Good luck to everyone as we weather this
pandemic.
Schools closed
I just learned that the Scott Valley schools will
be closing, today, March 18, 2020, because of
the threat of the covid-19 virus. The schools will re-open after Spring Break
on April 20,
2020. Wow, that is a long time, especially for parents that may be working. My
goodness, we are in unusual situations. Let’s be sure to check on our
neighbors, especially older folks and those with children. We may need to share
our food and necessities. Fortunately, we are great at helping each other!
Veterans
Many activities are being canceled. One of those
is the annual Siskiyou County Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day that was
scheduled for March 28,
2020 at the Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds in Yreka. Bummer.
American Legion
But, members of the American Legion Perry Harris
Post #260 are revitalizing the group, which has been in a hiatus for two years.
Revitalizing is good news, because the Post provides free military services for
funerals of veterans as well as memorial ceremonies at our local cemeteries for
Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day.
Bob Prather was recently selected as Commander
with Bruce Hurlbut as Vice, Dave Bradford as Finance Officer and Al Buchter is
Adjutant. All those that have served in the military and released from active
duty are invited to join. The next meeting will be held on April 8, 2020 at the Etna
City Hall at 7:30 p.m. Give Bruce a call at 530-467-5327 or Dave at
530-467-3477 and let them know you are interested.
Election
Surprisingly, it looks like $15 billion bond
measure Prop. 13, that we voted on in the March
3,
2020 General Primary Election, was defeated. With all the campaigning in favor
of the bill, it is interesting that it only had about 46 percent of California
voters in favor. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association alerted voters that
this proposition would cause private property taxes to increase.
“The state should fund school facilities itself
rather than adding to school districts’ debt,” HJTA reported. It is the HJTA
that fought for the passage of the 1978 Proposition 13 to protect property
taxes from continually increasing. So far, the group has been able to alert the
public, when the legislature or politicians try to chip away at that
protection.
POW
Scott Valley Protect Our Water is still planning
on holding its monthly meeting on Thursday,
March 26, 2020 at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7
p.m.
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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