Liz Writes Life 8-28-18

August 28, 2018

Liz Writes Life

Once again, I send a huge “thank you” to friends for their condolences regarding the passing of my husband, Jack, on Aug. 14, 2018. He had many friends and recently visited with some of them at the fair or in town. I have written his obituary, but need to check a few facts with his sister. So, it will be finished within a day or two, hopefully, and then sent to Editor Skye for publication.

Jack did not want a church service, so we will hold a Celebration of Jack’s Life on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018 at the Etna City Park. Time is noon. It is a potluck, if you would like to bring just one dish that will be great as Grill Master Dave Tyler has volunteered to barbecue beef ribs.

Garden

Aphids have attacked one of the lemon cucumber plants. All three are pumping out a lot of cucs, but the middle plant has leaves that are nearly black with aphids. Don’t know how to stop them at this stage of the garden. If you have any ideas, give me a call! I did throw a bunch of four-year old coffee grounds on them hoping to chase the ants away.

The zucchini is slowly producing, which is actually very nice and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. Oh, the rhubarb has grown back. It isn’t as thick, but the newer plant has some huge stems and leaves. Folks are asking me what I do to make it grow so large? I don’t really know, except I give it huge amounts of water – about three times as much as the rest of the garden plants. In a couple of weeks I will harvest the bigger stems, but I will only take 10 to 20 percent of the plant this time.

POW

The Scott Valley Protect Our Water meetings are back on schedule. The next one will be held this Thurs., Aug. 30^th at the Fort Jones Community Center. Time is 7 p.m. Erin Ryan, from Congressman LaMalfa’s office, and Siskiyou Co. Dist. 5 Supervisor and board chairman, Ray Haupt, have lots of info to share.

Comment

Gotta say I was shocked by the sub-headline, last week, claiming 28,000 animals have been killed in Siskiyou Co. during the last eight years. I don’t know what is going on with the wildlife management services contract and the county, but I greatly question any information from the Center for Biological Diversity, which is based in Arizona. Yep, I just don’t like their obstructionist bias. I am withholding judgment on the issue, until we hear from the county.

Demorest’s

I was going through storage tubs and came across 130 year-old magazines that were originally owned by the Hovenden family. Dick and June Sweezey purchased the ranch from my Uncle Charlie Hovenden and family in the 1960s and it is now known as Rancho del Sol. The magazines are called Demorest’s. It was published by W. Jennings Demorest, in New York City, beginning in the 1860s. Demorest’s wife, Ellen Louise, was a U.S. fashion arbiter, who invented mass-produced tissue-paper dressmaking patterns. The couple was quite successful with their magazine businesses, cosmetics and fashion lines. Ellen made French dress styles accessible to ordinary women, which greatly influenced U.S. fashion.

So, I began thumbing through one of the monthly magazines. It is dated February 1888. It cost 20 cents and has an editorial font type that is extremely small. I notice that magazines nowadays are going back to the tiny or thin font type. I don’t like it as my eyesight is not as good as it used to be – but I haven’t brought out the magnifying glass yet!

There is a large fashion section with illustrations of dresses. Boy, I am glad I never had to wear corsets or crazy hats! I love my jeans and was born in the right century! There is a beautiful lightly-colored full-page picture of a young adult girl and illustrations throughout to go with a variety of stories. In fact, Demorest’s touts that it is an illustrated magazine. The table of contents lists specific stories and departments of Home Art and Home Comfort, The World’s Progress, Household, Sanitarian, the editor’s recent train trip to “California and the Far West” (love that one) and an entire section on prohibition. It looks like he used his magazine to influence women on the evils of alcohol. One article is titled: The War on the Saloon. I haven’t read it yet.

But, I did squint and read some of “What Women are Doing” and these items are choice. Of course, Annie Oakley’s name, in bold type, caught my eye. The paragraph states “… the little sure-shot of the ‘Wild West,’ is very proud of the letter written her by the Princess of Wales, and the gold medal given her by the London Gun Club. On the latter she has had engraved the Prince of Wales’s words: ‘I don’t know any one who deserves it more than you do.’”  Now that is a bit of fun.

The section “The World’s Progress” includes arts, sciences and literature. The first paragraph was entitled, “Centennial of the Inauguration of Washington.” It reads: The Centennial Anniversary of the Inauguration of General George Washington as the first President of the United States is to be celebrated in New York on April 30, 1889. Prominent citizens of the metropolis have already commenced to make preparations for the event. A committee composed of representatives of the historical societies and the descendants of the old Revolutionary families has already been formed, and great interest is shown by the members.”

I just love reading these historical notes. Another is about a new torpedo boat that was invented and expected to “revolutionize fighting, and prove a powerful protection to cities and harbors from hostile attacks.”

Another item titled “Commercial Union” discussed a controversial commercial union with Canada. One side of the issue claimed there would be great benefits to the people of the U.S. and the opposition believed that great injury will be done to a large number of industries. As of today, Aug. 27, 2018, it looks like the U.S. has made a new trade deal with Canada; and the stock market was up.

Personally, I remember being greatly opposed to NAFTA that President Clinton signed in the 1990s. Guess pro and con opinions about international commercial business haven’t changed much in 130 years.

There were rumors of war in Europe with Austria asking Germany to help invade Russia and the Czar allegedly thumbing his nose as his neighbors. Germany secured control of the Samoan Islands. China was hit with calamity as the Yellow River broke its banks (once again) destroying 10 large cities resulting in the loss of millions of human lives.

Also, Frank Cushman, of Zuni fame, discovered a buried prehistoric city 80 miles northwest of Tucson, AZ. Underground vaults with skeletons, clay pots, wheat and barley were found. Cushman found evidence of an irrigation canal running through the city and opined the city’s population could have been at least 25,000. Well, that’s all for today. Have a good 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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Liz Writes Life 8-21-18

Aug. 21, 2018

Liz Writes Life

Sure would like to thank all those who stopped by, called or sent up prayers. A week ago, my husband, Jack, died in his sleep after having a near perfect day -- for him -- that consisted of raking, baling and hauling hay. He has recently had pneumonia, twice, stomach problems and heart problems that seemed to come on just this year. His passing was not expected and I am finding out that we have a lot of friends and family who care about us.

Life is interesting, especially when you live in one place for many years. I call it growing-up together even though we were adults. Many of us raised our families at the same time. We worked hard at our careers and for our community. Our kids have been raised and now we are grandparents. So, we are getting old and get to deal with this part of life -- together. Sorta sad, but very nice and comforting at the same time.

Jack’s celebration of life will be at the Etna City Park on Fri. Sept. 7 at noon. I will have more info later will write an obit this week.

Garlic

So, I finally learned why a third of my garlic went soft – after I harvested it. I hadn’t gotten around to mentioning it to you cuz I was kinda embarrassed. Jeffy and Bill Marx stopped by to give condolences and I learned Bill is a garlic  connoisseur. (I had to look up how to spell that French word!) So, I told Bill about my problem cuz it goes bad after it goes soft. He said garlic is very fragile. (Never would have thought that.) Anyway, this year after pulling it, I left it in the sun to dry for several days and the heat cooked it. I always dry it under the pine tree in the shade, but decided to just leave it in the sun in late June. Bad decision! So, I guess there is a reason for not changing your process for doing something – even if you don’t remember why you are doing it!

My tomatoes are starting to ripen – slowly. Zucchini is quite slow, which is about right. Both varieties of cucs are really producing, but unfortunately one lemon cuc plant is getting aphids. Ugh! Don’t know if I can stop them. And, the head on the sunflower is getting big.

Fundraiser

Last Saturday, the Siskiyou Co. Republican Women Federated, Walt Moody and Siskiyou Co. Veterans Leadership Council held a fundraiser for the victims of the Klamathon Fire up in Hornbrook area. I called Co-President Kathy Tyler on Sunday and learned they brought in over $24,000! Wow! Grill Master Dave Tyler barbecued pulled pork and the women made the food and fancy desserts. One dessert (accompanied with a bottle of impressive wine) went for $1,800! We certainly have a fantastic empathetic community.

All the funds are going into Sheriff Jon Lopey’s Foundation account located at the Mechanics Bank (used to be Scott Valley Bank), who will disperse the funds.

Water

The Siskiyou Co. Supervisors had quite a busy board meeting last week. I chatted with Ray Haupt about it. Officials and an attorney with the California Water Quality Control Board -- this is the agency that is mandated through the Environmental Policy Act – were there to talk about hydrology and groundwater.

 Ray said he questioned them why they were planning to do a hydrology study on the Shasta River, when the Board of Supervisors recently approved a contract for the same type of study with Dr. Thomas Harter, who is the lead of the decade-long Scott River hydrology study. Ray said he and Supervisor Michael Kobseff really pressed them for an answer as to why they would spend the money to do a duplicate study. They did not give an answer.

Apparently, the Water Quality Control Board is also trying to up-date CEQA for Klamath dam removal. Ray and other county supervisors brought up the fact that California water standards are very high. Their concern is that if J.C. Boyle dam is removed, in Oregon, the water quality entering California will not meet California’s standards. Oh, good question that certainly must be answered and was not.

POW

There is much more on this subject and Ray will be at the Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting on Thurs., Aug. 30^th to tell us about it. That meeting is at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7 p.m. Erin Ryan, from Congressman LaMalfa’s office, will also be in attendance.

Secretary Zinke

It was great to hear Secretary of Interior, Ryan Zinke, and Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, toured the Carr Fire damage down in Redding with our Congressman Doug LaMalfa. KRCR television interviewed him. I watched the video and was impressed that Sec. Zinke believes the health of our forests is in a terrible situation. He said he was a Seal Commander in Iraq and that the devastation from the Carr Fire reminded him of the destruction in Iraq.

He said the density of the trees and undergrowth is a huge problem and that we should be thinning and cleaning our forests instead of importing lumber from foreign countries. Zinke did not want to assign blame except to say that multiple lawsuits erected barriers for access to the forests and that some radical groups don’t want to see a single tree come out of the forest.

Then Ray told me he watched a video, later in the week, of Zinke and Perdue in a Cabinet meeting with President Trump and it looked like Trump gets it. It is the first time, in years, Ray has heard a president talk about the terrible mismanagement of the forests. “It’s encouraging,” said Ray.

Wow, sounds like something good regarding governing policy of our forests could start to happen.

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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Liz Writes Life 8-14-18

August 14, 2018

Liz Writes Life

Oh, how glorious to see blue skies on Friday and Saturday! Before that, the smoke was so thick, I didn’t like opening the windows at night to let in the early-morning cool air. The smoke hadn’t bothered me much until Thursday and I finally felt really yucky. I am hearing of sinus infections, dry throats, coughing, breathing problems and yucky-ness to the point of throwing-up.

The past 30 years of demands by the enviros’ to save the trees has sure backfired, yet they still claim it is global warming causing the problem. Ugh!  The fact is there are just too many trees. And too many trees suck-up too much water. And, in the winter, too many trees close the tree-tops’ canopy stopping snow from packing under the trees. Again, no snowpack means there is little melted snow for natural irrigation for the trees.

We are certainly learning that Disney-looking thick, green forests are not healthy for the trees, wildlife or humans. There was a photo of a good-sized bear cub found on the Carr Fire with severely-burned paws. It was so sad! Veterinary-type people have come up with a new patch to sew onto their paws with medicine for healing. I hope it works!

It makes me sick to think of the wildlife that are burned-up in the fast-moving fires or lose their habitat and food creating starvation. Once again, I have learned from my forester friends that healthy forests are in a variety of stages of ages and sizes – and most importantly are not too thick.

So, I will take another step higher on my soap box and claim that the old or newer fire lines that bulldozers have made for preventing fires need to be much wider. Wider and wider. Take out those trees. Shaded fuel-breaks are still too thick for fire carried by dangerous winds. Bulldoze huge wide swaths of scrub oaks, brush, weeds and grass in the lower elevations – especially under or near power lines. Next, criss-cross the huge fire lines. From a distance, we would see huge a giant checkerboard of cleared vegetation. This is an extreme premise and would never happen, but vegetation must be cleared and re-cleared -- cuz it grows back!

We must create a real industry of thinning the trees – yes, logging. The industry must be profitable, which will establish a healthy economy for rural counties. Heaven knows this fire fighting economy is not profitable. It sucks the life out of county, state and federal budgets and leaves a black apocalypse of environmental destruction.

Last week, I talked with Ray Haupt, our Dist. 5 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor. He is really frustrated over the enormity of the wildfires and said nearly all fire fighting resources are being utilized. In other words, any new fires will not get the attention they may need because fire engines, water tankers, fire crews, hot shot crews, air attack, bull dozers and other equipment are working to control existing fires.

Ray also said we need to pay close attention to the use of fire – anywhere. The fuels condition (that’s the trees and vegetation) are at the highest level of dryness and humidity is extremely low. No sparks from anything!

Once again, I’ll mention that in the “old” logging days, loggers were out in the woods with their bull dozers and equipment. Loggers were the first to arrive at many fires and immediately began work on containment, because they had the equipment. Talk to any old-time logger and their goal was to “put the fire out.” Logging roads were maintained for access and use.

Oh, it was nice to see that our local fabulous photographer, Mel Fechter, is back taking photos after problems with his hip replacement. He emailed photos of a chopper dipping retardant out of a mobile Cal Fire base at Trinity Center Airport west of the Carr Fire. As of Sunday night, the Carr Fire is 191,211 acres and 59 percent contained. He reminded us that 8 deaths are associated with this fire. Just too sad.

And Oregon’s Natchez Fire is threatening to come over Greyback into Happy Camp. Not good. Evening Town Hall meetings are being held for those residents.

Ok, I have ranted that subject to death!

Not guilty

A jury listened to 11 days of testimony from more than 40 witnesses during three weeks of FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita’s trial. After six hours of deliberation, last Friday, the jury found him “not guilty” on all three counts. I am not surprised.

Blogger of Nextrush Free.blogspot.com wrote about the situation. I would like to quote him: “He was prosecuted for lying about firing two shots at LaVoy Finicum's truck moments before Oregon Standoff protest spokesman Finicum was killed by Oregon State Police along US Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon on January 26, 2016.

“One of Astarita's shots injured Ryan Bundy, another Oregon Standoff protester.

“Going into the trial Lavoy's former associate and leader of the 2016 protest, Ammon Bundy, expected that Astarita would not face any consequences when the trial was all over. Bundy proved to be correct.

“Reflecting on the trial before the verdict, LaVoy's widow Jeanette Finicum said the federal prosecutors made a poor case against Astarita.  She has also said in other videos that the trial seemed to be heavily into the assassination of her husband's character rather than a robust attempt to prosecute the FBI agent.

“Even if Astarita had been convicted, an appeal was certain.   Some observers at the trial said that the 91-year old federal judge presiding, US District Judge Robert E. Jones, had actually fallen asleep at times.

“One thing that did come out during the trial was a lot of sniping between the Oregon police and the FBI, with witnesses from both factions expressing criticism of how the other faction behaved during the "felony traffic stop" that ended up killing LaVoy Finicum and injuring Ryan Bundy.

“At least two civil lawsuits are in the system right now over what happened including the one filed by members of the Finicum family.

“The plantiffs got plenty of ammunition about bad acting and or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement during the whole fiasco of January 26, 2016 delivered by the competing factions in the trial.”

One of the jurors was interviewed by reporter Maxine Bernstein of OregonLive.com. He said that it looked like more than one person could have fired the two unaccounted-for shots, which gave him sufficient doubt. But, he did add it is possible that someone was lying. He didn’t know which side, or who, or “it could be both.” His identity was kept confidential. Hum, sounds like a very truthful observation.

POW

Scott Valley Protect Our Water will hold its next meeting on Thurs., Aug. 30, 2018 at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7 p.m. Ray Haupt will be one of the speakers.

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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Liz Writes Life 8-7-18

August 7, 2018

Liz Writes Life

Garden

Yep, picked two red tomatoes on Aug. 1^st! Made our first bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for dinner. Pretty tasty! Hopefully, we won’t have to wait very long for more to ripen.

Last week, I reported on my flowers that are blooming. Since then the double orange Tiger lilies are in full glory, some lemon yellow cosmos popped-out and the giant dahlia has three multi-colored blooms. I had forgotten to mention the bright pink impatiens are doing really well this year and the gladiolus had started with big white ones and now dark orange and lavender blooms are spiking-up.

The sad zinnias I purchased in June (they were the last ones at the nursery) must have liked the heat, cuz the sunny yellow ones have spread-out and the orange plants are growing taller – with lots of flowers. I noticed the miniature purple asters are blooming and a couple early-spring type of Shasta daisies and California poppies have volunteered in mid-summer in the flower beds. I broke-off the spent snap dragon stems and found a second-round of colors coming on.

Only four of the Sweet Williams are blooming. I guess they don’t like it where I have them planted. Maybe they get too much shade. I remember Sweet William doing real well in full sun. Well, I think my flower report is now complete!

LaVoy Finicum

Jeanette Finicum, wife of LaVoy, who was shot in the back with three bullets and died, on January 26, 2016, in Eastern Oregon, has been attending the trial of an FBI agent, who is accused of lying about the situation. Jeanette is making videos and posting them on facebook.com/cowboystand/videos. I watched the first one, where she was shocked to hear Judge Robert E. Jones continually refer to LaVoy as a “militia leader” during his opening statement and instructions to the jury. While Jeanette does not like the fact that the government, courts and media has demonized the term “militia,” she is adamant that LaVoy was not a member of any militia. He went to support the Bundy’s, because he believes in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

To get caught-up on the trial of FBI agent Joseph Astarita, I read Jeanette’s posts on facebook, then I checked Redoubt News.com, Freedomoutpost.com and a new really good blog called Next Rush Free.blogspot.com. I even read reporter Maxine Bernstein’s articles in OregonLive.com. It is worth checking these sites out. A lot happened that we don’t know about and it just looks bad for these bureaucratic agencies.

Agent Astarita is charged with lying under oath and falsifying an FBI report. Surprisingly, it is the FBI that has accused him of discharging his firearm during the shooting and then claiming he did not. He is not accused of shooting LaVoy. The shooters that killed LaVoy are referred to as Officers #1 and #2 and were Oregon State Police.

It was learned during the trial opening statements that FBI did not follow its normal protocols and procedures before, during and (more importantly) after LaVoy was killed. The crime scene was not preserved, official reports were not prepared and firearms were not properly secured or inspected. Jeanette said, “It’s almost as if the FBI didn’t want to preserve the evidence.”

An FBI agent of 47 years on the force testified that protocol was not followed. No officers are allowed to pick up any items. Piles of shell casings were noticed and mentioned and then disappeared in reports. A video from a (second) high-flying plane with infrared was viewed by the jury. It showed there were three people that night picking up items at the crime scene. A huge no-no. It was also learned there were over 300 FBI officers involved with the entire Bundy Malheur Refuge situation.

Bundy

Ammon Bundy has sent out a call to the jurors of the Bunkerville Trial to view newly-gathered evidence that was hidden during the case. This information was vital for the defense, which it did not receive. A major example is the fact that the U.S. prosecutors willfully claimed the Bundys were spreading lies about a military operation with snipers surrounding their ranch homes. In fact, it was the U.S. prosecutors that were found to be the liars, which is why the Bundy trial was dismissed.

Many documents that were withheld from the Grand Jury and the first jury, who convicted Greg Burleson and Todd Engel in the case of the USA vs Cliven Bundy et al, are now available. Ammon has them and will share them. He is also asking media outlets to contact him and will conduct interviews to share these important court documents.

And the Dept. of Justice prosecution just won’t quit. Now, they are attempting to try the Bundys a third time as the DOJ is appealing the this year’s misconduct trial to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Cliven Bundy’s legal counsel, Larry Klayman, said Cliven will fight the DOJ’s attempt to retry him. Klayman added that, in this case, the Dept. of Justice has become the Dept. of Injustice.

Smart meters

Because residents showed up to a special meeting held by the Mt. Shasta City Council, last week, more complaints are being exposed regarding PacifiCorp’s process of removing existing Analog Home Power Meters and installing new electrical SMART meters. Situations occurred this summer on homes in Mt. Shasta. Residents are frustrated, because the company installing the SMART meters is not complying with “do not remove” signs and opt-out letters. These residents have found new SMART meters on their homes, when they have verification from PacifiCorp they have opted-out.

Another huge complaint by residents is the ambiguous cost they will receive from PacifiCorp by opting-out. Through many phone calls to PacifiCorp, it has been learned no specific costs, terms or conditions that have been set for opting-out.

As a result, the Mt. Shasta City Council approved a resolution requesting the California Public Utilities Commission institute a temporary moratorium within the City of Mt. Shasta on the replacement of ratepayers’ analog meters with SMART meters until after the CPUC actually sets the financial cost to ratepayers, who may be considering the opt-out option.

SMART meters have become extremely controversial with complaints they short-out (or something like that) actually igniting a fire. The company installing the SMART meters is scheduled to begin work north of Mt. Shasta very soon.

Irony

Well this is interesting. Environmentalists have filed suit to stop construction of Obama’s Presidential Center in Chicago. The non-profit called “Protect Our Parks” claims an unlawful “bait and switch” was pulled when Obama’s project went from being a Presidential Library to the Obama Presidential Center. The group also claims the parkland, which is the site for the center, cannot legally be transferred to a non-government entity.

POW

Scott Valley Protect Our Water will hold its next meeting on Thurs., Aug. 30, 2018 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. Call her at 530-467-3515. Check out her blog at: LizWritesLife.blogspot.com

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