Liz writes her last column

June 1, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Well, I have some news – don’t know if it is good or bad? I have decided to end my newspaper column “Liz Writes Life”. Today will be my last one.

It is time that I really focus on getting my photos organized and re-writing different family history stories. I have been scanning photos -- 100s of them – yet, find myself not naming, dating and organizing them in a timely manner. I will be sorry, if I don’t do this.

I am realizing that not all the photos need to be digitalized and that is actually my biggest problem – making decisions and sifting a lot more out. Ugh! It is hard.

Besides shooting lots of family, scenic, rodeo and wedding photos over the years, I have been taking photos for newspapers and a few magazines since I began writing for the “Pioneer Press” back in 1976. Gary Mortensen started that weekly newspaper on Nov. 16, 1972 in Fort Jones, CA. I was attending Etna High School at the time.

Many rural news reporters didn’t have sidekicks of photojournalists. Back then, I used a basic SLR camera and black and white film. Gary had a dark room, processed the film and printed photos. Wow, things have changed in the printing business! I even remember when he started using computers. I hated the mouse! Remember, when it had a tail hooked to the computer? Yep, I started out typing on a manual typewriter.

I think I began writing a “Garden Corner” in about 2000. The “Pioneer Press” stopped publishing hardcopy news around 2007 or 2008. At that time, the editor of the “Siskiyou Daily News” asked me and the other columnists to write for the SDN. We did and the editor put our columns and other local news articles in a section just for Scott Valley. Sometime along the way, (I can’t remember when) my garden information morphed into “Liz Writes Life”. And, typically, I never knew what I would be writing about until my deadline! Sure do have a love-hate relationship with deadlines!

Garden

So, I will share my garden with you one last time. Because my knees are so creaky and my energy is rare, the garden will be even smaller this year. The drought has stunted many of the perennials in my wild flower garden under the pine tree, but a do see a few old-fashioned purple iris blooming.

Grandson Bryce helped me dig four big holes for the Early Girl tomato plants and they have been planted. Then we mixed steer manure in the soil in a trench and planted cucumber and zucchini seeds. We left a few hollyhocks that are growing, but need to be irrigated. The chocolate mint has woken-up, because of irrigating and a Shasta daisy just started blooming.

While I was irrigating the four-foot-tall comfrey, I noticed several bumble bees poking into the tiny pink bell blossoms gathering pollen.

Two weeks ago, I harvested one rhubarb plant. Probably got about 40 pounds. Gave most away and made a batch of rhubarb-strawberry jam. The other rhubarb is just as tall at over four-feet, but will harvest it this week. Boy that horse manure sure makes it grow. Well, that and lots of water, especially in this drought. The 20 garlic plants are 14 to 18 inches high, but I have struggled keeping it irrigated and need to fertilize it again.

So, there is my garden report. Good luck with your flowers and vegetables this summer.

Now for the finish!

News writing: It has been quite a run. I have written hard news, agricultural news, rodeo news, feature articles, local and regional news. Oh, and lots of obituaries. I wasn’t much of a sports writer, though. Also, sat-in and reported on the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors’ meetings over the years. It seemed like there was always plenty going on that was newsworthy. At least to me!

On the family historical aspect, which I have shared with you at times, I will close mentioning that my parents Hearst Dillman and Jeanne Fowler married on this day, June 1^st in 1941. They met and lived here in Scott Valley. First meeting was at a Callahan dance! Times were still hard from the Great Depression in 1941, so they decided to make the wedding easy by driving to Reno, Nevada -- in a borrowed car!

In the early 1990s, dad asked me to write-up his life. I never up-dated the text program and it needs to be re-typed (and improved) again. Yep, it was saved to what was truly a “floppy” disk that I no longer have! My sister has written our mom’s life history.

My parents are buried in the Etna Cemetery along with dad’s parents and siblings. Mom has about 20 Fowler family members in the Etna Cemetery as well. My grandchildren and daughter-in-law helped me put out about 50 red, white and blue (fake) flowers on our relatives and some friends graves last weekend in honor of Memorial Day. I have great respect for our soldiers and veterans.

So, there is always plenty to do. I want to send best hopes and wishes to you all. Thanks for reading me!

May peace and calm be with you in all ways. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

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

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