Idaho Senior Independent Apr/May 2011

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by Rhonda Lee

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Rita Dixon Is A Little Bit Batty

By Holly Endersby It was a blistering hot day at the Red River Wildlife Management area near Elk City when Boise based Rita Dixon walked in after a long day in the field searching for abandoned mines.

After grabbing a glass of cold water and some food, Dixon gathered gear and checked her map for another nighttime session of bat tracking.

Working for the Idaho Department of Fish and

Game as a non-game biologist means Dixon looks after the critters on public lands that walk, swim, crawl, or fly but which are not hunted.

“I was born in Tennessee and both sides of my family were farmers,” she explains. “My brother and I spent a lot of time on our grandparents’ farms and we were outside all the time.

I really think that’s why I chose the work I do today.”

Dixon’s father was in the Air Force and then transferred to the Navy after Vietnam, which meant some moving, but with her grandparents’ farms as anchors, Rita did not feel displaced. One move in particular she enjoyed.

“Dad was transferred to a base in Florida adjacent to what is now a black bear preserve but which we got to explore as kids,” she recalls.

After finishing high school, Dixon went on

to complete her BA in Biology at the University of California, Riverside. It was then that the travel bug bit hard.

“I worked at a fish camp in Alaska and also did a stint up there as a whitewater rafting guide.

But then, I really branched out and traveled to Europe, Africa, Greece, and Scandinavia before I decided to focus my life.”

Like the trained scientist she was, Dixon says she sat down and thought about all the things that were important to her and what she could do with that interest.

“I realized the thing I loved most was ornithology,” she says. “So I got an internship at the Manomet Bird Observatory on Cape Cod to find out if I really did want to be an ornithologist.”

That experience was followed by an internship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Arizona and finally a position with the U.S. Forest Service in LaGrande, Oregon where for three years she focused on woodpecker and owl research. That experience led her to enroll in a Master’s degree program in Ecology at the University of Idaho, with a focus on white-headed woodpeckers. This past summer she finished her PhD in Natural Resources at the University of Idaho.

“I was hired by IDFG in May of 2000,” she says. “I started in the (Continued on page 25)

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A Second To Commencement Surprise One of the best commentaries I have read in a long time was Marylyn Cork’s Commencement Surprise in the August issue. She related her having been to the University of Washington’s 2010 commencement exercises and was both surprised and appalled at some of the attire of those attending.

I did not have to read very far to agree with her.

I attended a granddaughter’s high school graduation a few years back and had similar feelings. You do not have to step out of a fashion magazine, but could you at least take off your work boots, shrug off the t-shirt, forget the baseball cap, get a longer skirt than the one that grazes your bottom, and come with the attitude that this is a ceremony you are attending, not a Little League game? There are few meaningful ceremonies in most people’s lives, so dressing appropriately in something clean and simple should not be too much of a sacrifice.

Thanks to Marylyn for the reminder and for letting me second it.

Clare Hafferman Kalispell, Montana

A Special Invitation To Retires Work so often becomes our world and identity that it is necessary to be re-engaged with our community upon retirement. May I suggest joining a Lions Club? Lions Club International is the largest service organization in the world. Its motto is simply “We Serve.”

Thousands of pairs of glasses are provided for school children and the financially disadvantaged every year. Free screening is done to detect diabe-

tes, sight loss, hearing loss, and glaucoma. Used lenses and frames are recycled. Each club has its own identity and local projects.

As president of the Pocatello Sunrise Lions Club, I would like to extend a special invitation to anyone who is service-minded and who would enjoy getting together with some very interesting folks. We meet every 1st and 3rd Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. for one hour at Elmer’s. Check us out and let breakfast be on us. Call me - Steve Yadon - at 208-406-9975, or Bill Johns at 208-233-0484 for more information. It is fun, inexpensive, and meaningful.

Steve Yadon Pocatello

Your Chance For A Place In The Spotlight The Music Theater of Idaho announces auditions for the upcoming 2011 season. This professionally managed production company is unique in offering performance training and on-stage, professional opportunities to citizens of the Treasure Valley.

We are seeking approximately 200 performers of all ages and levels to fill roles in eight musical productions throughout 2011. These productions will include Company, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Secret Garden, The Music Man, Hairspray, South Pacific, The Wizard of Oz, and A Christmas Carol. Auditions will be held on the evening of Friday, November 12, and all day Saturday, November 13 at the Nampa Civic Center at 311 3rd St. South. All auditions are by appointment only.

The Music Theater of Idaho is offering audition

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preparation coaching as well. For more information about coaching and auditions, or to sign up for either, call 208-468-2385. You can also sign up for auditions by going online to www.mtionline.org and following the audition links. Sign up today!

The Music Theater of Idaho Nampa

Great Book Review, If I Say So Myself I received my first issue of ISI today, and on page 15 was Ms. Daugherty’s report on my book, Fishing with Uncle Bud - Wow! According to her, I finally did something right in my life. One book does not make me an author; it was just something that had to be done to sort of pay back nature and the good people I met along the way. But I’ll have to admit, Ms. Daugherty’s in-depth report was sure an ego boost. Refreshing to read a book review/ report by someone who did, in fact, read the entire book. Truly a professional job - you are a credit to the fine newspaper.

Respectfully submitted, Bud Larsen ISI

Reverse mortgage Larry Waters Reverse Mortgage Consultant 1-866-787-0980 Toll-Free 208-762-6887 Local Must be at least 62 years old.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is a division of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. © 2009 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. #169503 7/10-7/11 Equal Housing Lender

Idaho Senior Independent A Barrett-Whitman Publication P.O. Box 3341 • Great Falls, MT 59403-3341 208-318-0310 • Toll Free: 1-866-360-5683 Fax: 406-761-8358 www.idahoseniorindependent.com email: idahoseniorind@bresnan.net The Idaho Senior Independent is published six times each year in February, April, June, August, October, and December by Barrett-Whitman, 415 3rd Avenue North, Great Falls, MT 59401 and is distributed free to readers throughout the state of Idaho.

The mail subscription rate is $10.00 per year (6 issues). The Idaho Senior Independent is written to serve Idaho’s mature population of all ages. Readers are encouraged to contribute interesting material. Views expressed in opinion stories, contributions, articles, and letters are not necessarily the views of the publisher. The appearance of advertisements for products or services does not constitute an endorsement of the particular product or service. The publisher will not be responsible for mistakes in advertisements unless notified within five days of publication.

All copy appearing in the Idaho Senior Independent is protected by copyright and may be reprinted only with the written permission of the publisher. Advertising copy should be received or space reserved by the 5th of the month preceding the month of publication.

Jack W. Love, Jr., Publisher/Editor Colleen Paduano Julie Crittendon Dan Hubbard Rhonda Lee Sherrie Smith

Office Manager Production Supervisor Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Graphic Artist Admin/Production Assistant

Contributing Writers Natalie Bartley Connie Daugherty Holly Endersby Clare Hafferman Cate Huisman Gail Jokerst Bernice Karnop Craig Larcom Liz Larcom Jack McNeel Michael McGough Dianna Troyer © 2011

PAGE 4 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

APRIL/MAY 2011

We have had a long winter in Idaho, but now things are finally starting to warm up and it is time to enjoy the sunshine and all the wonders of spring. Respond to one of these letters or create your own to find someone with whom to share a walk in the sun and maybe even your heart!

To those who wish to respond to any of these personal ads, simply mail your message, address, phone number, and/or email address to the department number listed in the particular personal ad, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Your response, including your address, phone number, and/or email address will be forwarded to the person placing the ad. If you answer an ad in this section, there is no guarantee that you will receive a response. That is up to the person who placed the ad. Please make sure you submit your correct address plainly printed so you can promptly receive responses.

Respond to the ads in this issue and also sit down now and prepare your ad for our June/July 2011 issue.

There is no charge for this service, and your ad may bring a breath of fresh air to your heart as well. Responses to personal ads appearing in this column can be submitted at any time. However, to place a personal ad in the June/July 2011 issue, the deadline is May 10, 2011.

WWM, 70, from ranch country of SW Idaho – SE Oregon – Northern Nevada areas. I am seeking a lady, petite, white hair, who desires friendship. I love all sorts of animals, historic places, and small and large birds.

I know how to make a magpie talk. I love both motel and RV travels, back country gravel roads, mountain scenery, people, and Jesus. Reply ISI, Dept. 7101, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

SWM, 66, southern Idaho area, searching for warm, fun-loving woman companion to share some adventures, travel, and possible relocation. Must not be tied down, and must be financially independent. I am a non-smoker, social drinker, and healthy but not religious. Will answer all inquiries – send current picture. I will do the same and you won’t be sorry! Reply ISI, Dept. 7102, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

I am 5’7”, 129 lbs, and white with long blond hair. I am a little eccentric in that I don’t live in a “box” mentality. I’m happy with my life as it is, my children are grown, and I am financially secure, but I like to dance and would really enjoy a partner with a cute personality. I also enjoy traveling and it is nice to share that with an interesting individual. I have many talents, but cooking and sewing are not among them. So here I am, considering a quality relationship filled with positive laughter and good days.

If this letter grabs your interest and you are between the ages of 26 and 79, please write to me and send a photo!

Reply ISI, Dept. 7103, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

SWW, active, friendly, outgoing, 72, seeking an honest, friendly, sincere, active gentleman who is interested in a down home country gal for friendship, companionship, and a possible relationship. Must be morally and financially secure. I retired as a professional cook, but am currently working part time to stay active. I am finan-

cially independent and not tied down. I love traveling, long walks, quiet evenings at home, the outdoors, and children. I am a light social drinker, non-smoker, non LDS. If you share these similar qualities, spring is on the way.

Write to me and we will see where it leads.

A stranger is a friend I haven’t met yet. No drugs and no couch potatoes, please. Age is not important to me – you are only as old as you feel. Reply ISI, Dept. 7104, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls,

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 5

MT 59403.

SWM, 67, retired, looking for a SF for a friend and companion. I like camping, fishing, and going for walks. I like pets. I do not smoke or do drugs. I am honest and friendly. Write me; you won’t be sorry. It’s what is in the heart that counts. Reply ISI, Dept. 7105, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. ISI

PAGE 6 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

Spring Holiday Match-Up Created by ISI Staff Below are 20 numbered questions about holidays in April and May along with 20 answers. On a numbered sheet of paper, match each question with its correct answer. The winner will receive a $25 cash prize. Good luck!

1. This holiday is named for a British missionary.

2. This holiday is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday in May. 3. Memorial Day officially got its name in what year?

4. This holiday started in 1872 in Nebraska.

5. This holiday celebrated its 40th anniversary

last year.

6. This holiday is celebrated on different days within Christianity.

7. Mother’s Day is celebrated in how many countries?

8. This city has the world’s largest Cinco de Mayo event.

9. This holiday started in the US, but is no longer celebrated here.

10. This American was the creator of Mother’s Day. 11. This percentage of Americans eats a chocolate bunny’s ears first.

12. Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22nd of what year?

13. Lent lasts for this number of days.

14. Another version of this day is observed on April 26 in Georgia.

15. Wackiness and hilarity are the order of this day.

16. This is the old English word for spring.

17. This holiday is celebrated on May 5th.

18. How many billions of jelly beans are eaten at Easter?

19. This city has the oldest US St. Patrick’s parade.

20. This US Senator founded Earth Day. A. Memorial Day B. 16 C. Earth Day D. 1970 E. Lent F. Mother’s Day G. Easter H. April Fools’ Day I. Los Angeles, CA J. Gaylord Nelson K. Arbor Day L. 76 M. Cinco de Mayo N. 1967 O. Anna Jarvis P. Boston, MA Q. St. Patrick’s Day R. 46 S. May Day T. 40 ISI

Answers to Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, I Love Trivia, And So Do You! Submitted by Peggy Parks, Challis 1. I - Dove 2. L - Chicago 3. D - Women give men chocolates.

4. O - 1962, Jackie Kennedy 5. H - President James Polk 6. E - Vinegar Valentines and Penny Dreadfuls 7. A - Cupid 8. J - England 9. M - Nectar 10. F - Lorenz Hart 11. K - 1913 12. B - Fertility 13. N - Tomato 14. C - Heart 15. G - Scrimshaw ISI

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 7

Down

19 Revenue from this source is used to protect wildlife habitats (2 1 Conceal oneself by blendwords) ing in 20 Trapping device 2 Electrical unit 22 Lobbing a fishing line 3 Tall plant of the lily family 23 Scaring animals out of con(2 words) cealed areas 4 Wear 25 High bank 6 Deluge refuge 26 Enter cautiously (2 words) 7 Fox or turkey follower 28 Alternative maker 8 Grayish brown 32 Tangelo 10 Big pig 35 Discouraging words 13 Vineyard in France 36 One of the Bobbsey twins 14 Morse code line 37 America ISI 15 Pale

Across 1 Term to describe period when hunting a particular animal is illegal 5 Used a decoy 9 Throw gently 11 Quiet 12 Cause to hit the ground (2 words) 16 Little Rock state 17 ___ premium (2 words) 18 Small trees and bushes in a forest 21 Raleigh locale

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APRIL/MAY 2011

How Important Tax Changes for 2011 Can Affect Your Estate Planning I finally realized that being grateful to my body was key to giving more love to myself. - Oprah Winfrey

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By Jonathan J. David, Senior Wire Dear Jonathan: I know that a new tax law was passed at the end of last year. What should I be doing, if anything, regarding my estate planning?

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was signed into law on Friday, December 17, 2010 by President Obama. This law provides, among other things: • A two-year extension of the current tax rates through 2012. • A two-year patch for the alternative minimum tax (AMT). • A temporary employee payroll tax cut of two percentage points for 2011. • A temporary modification of the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax.

From an estate planning/tax perspective, the new law: • Increased the exclusion from federal estate tax from the $1,000,000 per individual ($2,000,000 per couple) scheduled for 2011 to $5,000,000 per individual ($10,000,000 per couple) for the years 2011 and 2012. • Reduced the top estate tax rate of 55% scheduled for 2011 to 35% for the years 2011 and 2012. • Allows the estate of a person who died in 2010 the option to pick between (1) having to pay no estate tax but being subject to a modified carry over basis, or (2) being subject to the federal estate tax with a $5,000,000 exclusion, a 35% top estate tax rate, and a “step upâ€? in basis.

By way of example, if someone died in 2010 with an estate valued in excess of $5,000,000, the executor of the de-

cedent’s estate can elect to “not be� subject to the estate tax and have the modified carry over basis applied to the estate’s assets. On the other hand, if someone died in 2010 with an estate valued at less than $5,000,000, the executor of the decedent’s estate can elect to be subject to the estate tax, which due to the availability of the $5,000,000 exclusion would cause the estate to be exempt from estate taxes, and the estate could also take advantage of the step up in basis regarding its assets.

The step up in basis is a huge benefit to heirs because instead of receiving assets with a potentially low tax basis, they are now receiving assets with a tax basis equal to their fair market value at the decedent’s death, which in essence eliminates (or, at a minimum, greatly reduces) any capital gains tax heirs would have to pay if they sell those assets after the decedent’s death. • Allows the transfer of any unused exclusion to the decedent’s surviving spouse. In other words, if a husband and wife have an estate with a combined value of $10,000,000 and the first spouse to die did not use any of his or her $5,000,000 exclusion, at the surviving spouse’s death, that spouse’s estate can take full advantage of the $10,000,000 exclusion from federal estate taxes. • The $5,000,000 estate tax exclusion will also be available for lifetime gifts. • The $5,000,000 exclusion will also apply to the generation-skipping transfer tax.

Right now, this new law is only in place through 2012, so Congress will have to act before December 31, 2012 to extend it beyond that date.

Hopefully, this summary gives you a fairly good idea of how this new law applies in the estate planning/tax arena. Because you did not provide me with any information regarding your personal circumstances, I cannot provide you with any specific recommendations regarding your estate planning. However, I recommend that you meet with, or at least talk to, an estate planning attorney in your area to review the specifics of this law in more detail, how it impacts the estate planning you currently have in place, and how you can use the new law to your advantage going forward. Good luck. lSI

Benefits for Veterans and Their Families

By Jim Miller That is a great question. There are actually millions of older veterans and their families who do not take advantage of the VA benefits they are entitled to because either they do not know they exist or they do not think they would qualify for them. Here is what you and your parents should know.

Underused Benefits - While the VA provides a wide range of commonlyknown benefits and services for its veterans - like health care, education support through the GI Bill, and home loans - it also provide a bevy of lesserknown benefits that were specifically created to help senior veterans and their family members, as well as their survivors.

To be eligible, however, your parents’ income and assets in most cases will need to be below certain limits, and your dad’s discharge from the military must have been under conditions other than dishonorable. Here is a breakdown of four benefits that are often overlooked by older vets and their families.

Veterans Pension - This is available to limited-income veterans who are age 65 and older or are totally disabled and who served at least 90

APRIL/MAY 2011

days of active military service with at least one day of service during a period of war (stateside or overseas). To be eligible, your parents’ assets will generally need to be under $80,000, not including their house and vehicle. Their annual “countable income” must be under $15,493 or $11,830 for a single veteran. Countable income includes earnings, disability and retirement payments, interest and dividends, and net income from business or farming, minus medical expenses if they exceed at least 5 percent of their total income.

Death Pension - This is available to lowincome surviving spouses and dependents of wartime veterans whose death was not related to military service. To receive this benefit, a surviving spouse’s annual income must be under $7,933, or under $9,696 if she is housebound (minus medical expenses), with cash assets under $80,000.

Aid and Attendance - This little known benefit can help elderly veterans and their spouses pay for in-home care, an assisted living facility, or nursing home care. It pays up to $1,949 per month in addition to the monthly pension benefits. To qualify, the veteran must be 65 or older (or permanently disabled), have served during wartime, and meet certain financial and medical requirements.

To qualify medically, one of your parents would need assistance with basic everyday living tasks like eating, bathing, dressing, or going to the bathroom. Being blind or in a nursing home or assisted living facility for mental incapacity also qualifies.

To qualify financially, your parents’ annual income as a couple (minus medical and long-term care expenses) cannot exceed $23,396; $19,736

for a single veteran; or $12,681 for a surviving spouse. Their assets must be less that $80,000, excluding their home and car.

Burial Benefits - Regardless of income and assets, this benefit provides all veterans, spouses, and dependents a free burial at a national cemetery and a free grave marker. Unfortunately, funeral or cremation costs are not covered.

However, some veterans may qualify for a $300 funeral allowance and $300 for a plot if they choose to be buried in a private cemetery. To learn more see www.cem.va.gov.

VA Resources - A good place to learn about all types of veterans’ benefits is online at www.ebenefits.va.gov or www.vba.va.gov. Or, contact your regional VA office or local veterans service organization, where you can get personalized help and assistance in filing claims. See www.va.gov/statedva. htm for contact information, or call the VA benefits helpline at 800-827-1000.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of The Savvy Senior book. ISI

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How The New Estate Tax Law Will Affect You - At Least Until 2013

By Jonathan David, Senior Wire Dear Jonathan, Can you provide some of the highlights of the new tax law that was enacted in December of last year in relation to estate tax planning issues?

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was signed into law on December 17, 2010. After the temporary repeal of the federal estate tax in 2010, the estate tax was set to return on January 1, 2011 but revert back to the 2001 level (i.e., the applicable exclusion amount would fall back to $1,000,000 per individual, as compared to the $3,500,000 per individual exclusion in 2009, and the estate tax rate was set to rise to a top rate of 55%, as compared to the top rate of 45% in 2009).

Here is what is in the new law, which is effective for 2011 and 2012: • Increases the exclusion amount to $5,000,000 per individual and drops the top estate tax rate to 35%. This means a married couple can shelter up to $10,000,000 from federal estate taxes, as compared to (i) 2009 when a couple could shelter up to $7,000,000, and (ii) the $2,000,000 combined exclusion that was going to be in place for couples as of January 1, 2011, prior to the enactment of the new law.

• Gives the estate of a decedent who died in 2010 the choice between (1) being subject to the federal estate tax with the $5,000,000 exclusion and 35% top estate tax rate, and “a step up” in basis of the decedent’s assets to their fair market value on the date of death, and (2) not being subject to the federal estate tax and having a modified carry over basis applied to the decedent’s assets.

• Unifies the gift tax with the estate tax. In other words, a $5,000,000 gift tax exclusion will also be available for lifetime gifts. In 2009, the estate

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PAGE 10 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

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tax exclusion was $3,500,000, but the lifetime gift tax exclusion was only $1,000,000. Now both the estate tax and gift tax exclusions are $5,000,000.

• Increases the generation-skipping transfer tax exclusion also to $5,000,000 for individuals and drops the generation-skipping transfer tax rate to 35%.

• If the proper elections are taken, allows the unused portion of a deceased spouse’s exclusion to be transferred to the surviving spouse. Under prior law, if the first spouse to die did not exhaust his or her exclusion, it was in effect “wasted” and was not available to the surviving spouse.

Curiously, the new law only applies for years 2011 and 2012. Con-

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sequently, we will be facing uncertainty as to how to plan for 2013 and beyond. One thing is clear, however: due to the increase of the lifetime gift tax exclusion to $5,000,000, wealthier individuals can take advantage of that gift tax exclusion this year and next to remove significant assets from their estate while they are alive by making gifts.

This was a very brief synopsis of the new law. ISI

Talk Everything Over with the Kids Now to Avoid Complications Later

By Jonathan J. David, Senior Wire Dear Jonathan, In a trust I created several years ago, I divided everything equally among my four children. I am currently updating that trust, and in doing so, I am going to give half of my estate to one daughter who has fallen on hard times and the balance of my estate in equal shares to two of my three remaining children. I am not going to give anything to my fourth child because I have already given him plenty. Once I complete my new trust, and since I have altered the percentages going to my children upon my death, do I tell them now as to what I did and why I did it, or should I just wait and let them find out after my death?

I am a big proponent of open and honest communication in families when it comes to estate planning decisions, especially when the children are not treated equally in the estate plan. Although I understand that it might be uncomfortable for you to discuss this, I think you would be doing them a great service because it allows the three that are being treated differently than your daughter to understand why you are doing what you are doing.

Your reasons may or may not salvage any hurt feelings, but at least those children will understand why you did what you did and not be left questioning it after your death. Further, by discussing these matters with your children now, you might be able to avoid irreparably damaging their relationships with each other, which could easily happen if they do not find out about the change to your estate plan until after your death.

Finally, explaining to your one child the reasons why you are not leaving him any money at your death could head off any attempt by him to challenge your estate plan in court after your death.

Dear Jonathan, I am in the process of updating my estate planning documents, and I am having a difficult time deciding which of my children to name in the various fiduciary capacities, i.e., agent under my financial durable power of attorney, patient advocate under my health care durable power of attorney, trustee under my trust, and personal representative under my last will and testament. I have four children, I am equally close to each one of them, and they are all very capable of serving in those capacities. What I don’t want to do is offend any of them by naming one person over another. Is it possible to name all four to act together?

Although it is possible to name all four children together, I would not recommend it. Having that many decision makers will only serve to make things more complicated and could possibly inhibit them from taking action if they cannot all agree as to what action should be taken. I always tell my clients who have these types of concerns that acting as a fiduciary is a thankless job because it is a lot of work and a lot of responsibility and that they should make that clear to any child who is offended at not having been named.

What you might do is name one or possibly two children to act as your patient advocate under your health care power of attorney. You could also name one person, or possibly two, to act as your personal representative under your will, your agent under your financial durable power of attorney, and your trustee under your trust. I usually like to name the same people in these positions since they would be doing basically the same thing.

I would also recommend that you discuss this dilemma with your children to let them know whom you are thinking of naming and in what capacity and even allow their input. In doing so, you might find your problem resolved one or more of them may not have any interest in acting in those fiduciary capacities as long as there is someone else who is willing to act on your behalf. Good luck. ISI

APRIL/MAY 2011

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Imprisoned in Paradise: Japanese Internee Road Workers at the World War II Kooskia Internment Camp by Priscilla Wegars; Asian American Comparative Collection, 2010 Reviewed by Connie Daugherty U. S. Highway 12 from northern Idaho to northwestern Montana has been in the news lately as people either support or protest the movement of oversized loads across the scenic two-lane road. “Paralleling the path” of Lewis and Clark, “this road runs beside the wild and scenic Lochsa River and traverses the mountains between Lewiston, Idaho and Missoula, Montana.” The current process of transporting huge and potentially dangerous equipment over this particular stretch of highway is an experiment. But this is not the only experiment to take place along this roadway.

Imprisoned in Paradise by Priscilla Wegars details another significant and somewhat controversial experiment that took place along Highway 12. “This unique wartime experiment was a road building project employing Japanese alien internee volunteers.” Over the years, much has been discussed and written about the various camps where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II, but “Idaho’s Kooskia Internment Camp was so obscure that” even experts in the field had never heard of it. Using letters, diary excerpts, personal interviews, and newspaper articles as well as federal and state documents and archived photos, Priscilla Wegars details the story of this all-but-forgotten piece of Idaho’s history. Imprisoned in Paradise is a well-written, extensively researched, scholarly account that acknowledges the controversies surrounding the internment of Americans while at the same time paying tribute to the work that these men did.

The focus is not so much on the physical labor of building the muchneeded highway as it is on the camp itself - how it came to be and what it was like for 265 Japanese men living in the north central Idaho wilderness.

Because the men at the camp came from all over the country - most were transferred from other camps - Wegars points out that “the Kooskia camp became a microcosm of the wider internment camp experience.” All the men at Kooskia camp were volunteers and were paid for their work in accordance with Geneva Convention rules. Each chapter of Imprisoned in Paradise explores life at the camp in conjunction with specific articles of the Geneva Convention.

In chapter one, Anti-Japanese Attitudes, Wegars succinctly sums up the Japanese experience in America for the late 1800s to 1941. “Immigrants from Japan were first welcomed for their labor, later resented for their agricultural independence and commercial acumen, and finally despised as the enemy,” The detail of the transition from welcome to enemy is explored extensively.

Later, Wegars explores the history of the Canyon Creek camp and the establishment of the internment camp. The first group of 104 internees arrived in Lewiston on May 27, 1943 and was efficiently transported to the wilderness camp. “According to the terms of the Geneva convention, internees could not be conscripted for this kind of work… they were all volunteers,” from War Relocation Authority (WRA) installations throughout the United States, Mexico, and Central America. “Most of the men… were permanent residents of the United States, but their alien status subjected them to detention,” explains Wegars.

Wegars also details the living conditions of Camp Kooskia, describing them as being within Geneva Convention guidelines. “In general, the internees… were pleased with their living conditions… they lived amid scenic surroundings, with no barbed wire… meals were ample… and even included a few Japanese foods.”

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In many ways, these alien detainees were better off than they had been before at WRA installations.

The work also contains photographs of detainees working on the highway and in the camp. According to Wegars, detainees did everything from clearing brush and operating jackhammers to cooking and barbering - often working side-by-side with Caucasian supervisors. Wegars also reminds readers that, according to Article 34 of the Geneva Convention, workers were required to be compensated for their work. The money they earned could be spent in the camp store.

Although conditions in general were not horrible, problems did occur. Issues began to arise when the management of the camp was transferred from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) employees to the former superintendent of the prison camp, Deane Remer. Remer ran the camp in the same way he had previously managed the federal prison camp, treating the detainees as hardened criminals and ignoring or skirting the Geneva Conventions as much as possible.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 13

However, some detainees petitioned the INS for proper conditions. “Of all the aliens detained by the INS who were subject to… provisions of the Geneva Convention, the Kooskia internees were one of only two groups to use the document to… effect,” Wegars explains. “Once they submitted a petition detailing complaints, conditions began to improve… with the major irritant… removed, the men’s patience and cooperative attitude allowed time for… recreation.”

In chapter six, Wegars describes some of the recreational activities at Camp Kooskia. The recreation room housed a piano and a library. Artistic outlets included drawing, painting, metalworking, and woodworking. The men gardened, landscaped, and gathered mushrooms in the woods. They also enjoyed boating and fishing and even formed their own softball team.

Wegars uses excerpts from diary entries by Reverend Hozen Seki to show both internee and employee perspectives on life at Kooskia. Internee attitudes are generally positive - resigning themselves to aspects of their detention they could not control and working within the system to change or

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improve what they could. “While at the Kooskia camp, the internees explored the available avenues that might allow them to be released for employment elsewhere and/or to rejoin family members,” Wegars writes in chapter eight. Throughout the chapter, she details the options open to internees and gives examples of both success and failure.

The Kooskia internment camp was closed in May 1945 and internees left to return to their families and to rebuild their lives. They were gone but never totally forgotten. Some kept in touch with each other or with Caucasians they met at the camp. The highway was eventually finished, and while there are no accurate records as to how many miles of road were built by Japanese

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internees, Wegars argues that the experiment was successful and offered internees an opportunity to “regain much of self-respect…” and contribute to the cause as American citizens.

Priscilla Wegars is an independent editor, historian, historical archaeologist, and artifact ana-

lyst. She is a volunteer curator of the University of Idaho’s Asian American Comparative Collection, and her book on Chinese immigrants in the West received an honorable mention from the Idaho Library Association in 2003. ISI

Death Panel Misnomer Nothing But Baloney!

By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire I went to a “death panel” a few days ago and came out alive.

Sarah Palin and others warned, when the Affordable Care Act to overhaul the country’s health system was enacted, that the law provided for “death panels,” encouraging the elderly not to prolong our lives and enabling the government to cut medical costs.

The new law, now one year old, has a provision for Medicare recipients to go to their doctors once a year for a comprehensive checkup, including the matter of end-of-life wishes. Medicare pays doctors a special fee for these visits.

So, I went to see my doctor and came out of the two-hour visit believing that it was well worthwhile. First, the nurse took the usual measurements: weight, height, blood pressure, pulse rate. Then she embarked on a series of tests.

“Spell the word ‘world’ backwards.”

“What do you get when you subtract 7 from 93?” “I’m going to say three words and ask you to remember them, because I’ll ask you later what they are: penny, table, apple.”

There were several other cognitive-related tests, including a series of questions to determine how depressed you may be. You had to select whether you had any thoughts of suicide,

for example, or had ever tried to kill yourself.

I was rated a relatively jolly fellow - not depressed, although I do wish my memory were sharper. It is getting as dull as a rusty knife.

The nurse also had me walk out to the hallway and back to see how bad my balance was.

And she asked me for my list of medications, which I had brought along.

When my doctor came into the room, he looked over the results of my tests with the nurse. He asked if I had had a colonoscopy and when. They are recommended every ten years.

I do not expect to have one. The last one I had in 1990 found no polyps.

He asked about the pneumonia shot (I got one while I was there) and a variety of other medical questions. I asked him if he would refill my prescription for Lipitor. Surprisingly, he told me, with a roll of his eyes, that Medicare would not allow him to write a prescription during that session.

My doctor gave me a brochure that I was to fill out and get a copy back to him and to my hospital. In the brochure I could list the person I want to make health-care decisions for me when I no longer can, the kind of medical treatment I want or don’t want, how comfortable I want to be, how I want people to treat me, and what I want my loved ones to know.

There is also a form for a living will, or durable power of attorney for health care. There are places to fill in whom you want to make the big health decisions when you cannot make them for yourself. There is a “do not resuscitate” form to fill out. There are other pages of the folder that allow you to choose whether you want life-support treatment and the conditions under which you want to be kept alive.

Included also are places to fill in if you are having a funeral or memorial service, what readings from scripture you wish and what hymns - if you want any.

Finally, it asks whether you want to donate any useable parts of your body when you die, and whether you wish to designate a charity to receive memorial contributions.

I am planning to sit down with my wife this afternoon and fill out the folder. It will not be a fun hour, but it is certainly important. ISI

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 15

Hearing Better May Mean Earning More (NAPSI) People with untreated hearing loss may see their income decrease by as much as $30,000 a year, according to a national survey by the Better Hearing Institute. But hearing aids were shown to reduce the risk of income loss by 90 to 100 percent for those with milder hearing loss, and from 65 to 77 percent for those with severe to moderate hearing loss.

Most of the more than 34 million Americans with hearing loss are either in the workforce or in school. The loss in income due to underemployment for people with untreated hearing problems is estimated at $176 billion, with the cost to society as high as $26 billion in unrealized federal taxes.

Hearing is critical to effective communication in the workforce. The ability to hear and listen well

enables employees to be more productive and understand the work that has been assigned. Poor communication can result in unhappy customers, missed deadlines, poor morale among co-workers, and mistakes on the job. Effective hearing may also be critical to job safety.

In the study, those with unaided, severe hearing loss had unemployment rates double that of the normal-hearing population and nearly double that of their aided peers.

“People are losing their hearing earlier and staying in the workforce longer,” says Sergei Kochkin, executive director of the Better Hearing Institute. “In today’s tough job market, hearing your best is essential for career success.”

Hearing aids remain the optimum treatment

How Technology Helps You Hear Better (NAPSI) A new generation of hearing instruments is using advanced technology to help those with hearing difficulties reconnect with their friends and family and feel a part of today’s “plugged in” society. These modern devices offer a solution to the most common challenges, like watching TV or talking on the phone.

Technology’s Answer For example, a new Bluetooth-compatible hearing aid uses the same cutting-edge wireless technology as a hands-free cell phone. These virtually invisible hearing aids let users get a phone call, watch TV, or listen to their iPod directly through their hearing aids. The device also offers better sound quality. Voices sound more natural and background noises remain audible, so you can keep in touch with your surroundings.

“This new device creates a personal wireless network around you,” explains John Cariola, Doctor of Audiology. “And unlike other wireless hearing instruments, this product doesn’t require you to wear necklace-style devices around your neck. A remote control lets you independently adjust volume and sound quality.”

How It Works The most compelling part of the new technology, offered in the Beltone True, may be its wireless capabilities. Through a direct wireless connection to TV, stereo, or computers, users can listen “privately” through their hearing instruments at the volume they prefer. Others in the room are free to enjoy at a volume comfortable for them. The instrument can also link wirelessly to a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, allowing for calls to be heard directly and hands-free. Frustrating side effects such as ringing or feedback in the ears are now almost completely nonexistent. In addition, the new device is ultra-tiny and light as a feather, while its state-of-the-art design and blended coloring make it almost undetectable.

Award-Winning Design The breakthrough hearing aid has received rave reviews within the industry, recently winning the prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Award from the Consumer Electronics Association for its extraordinary design and capabilities. This is good news for the more than 34 million Americans who experience hearing loss. If someone you know has difficulty hearing, you can learn more at www.beltone.com. ISI

I’ve never known any trouble that an hour’s reading didn’t assunage.

- Charles De Secondat

for the vast majority of people with hearing loss.

Yet only 40 percent of Americans with moderate to severe hearing loss, and only 9 percent of those with mild hearing loss, wear them.

Half of all people with untreated hearing loss have never had their hearing professionally checked. To help, the Better Hearing Institute has a five-minute hearing test at www.hearingcheck. org. You can learn more about hearing loss and how to manage it at www.betterhearing.org. ISI

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procedures and handles the samples in a consistent way.

According to Elizabeth Hammond, M.D., FCAP, co-chair of the CAP/ASCO Hormone Receptor Testing in Breast Cancer Panel, a boardcertified pathologist at Intermountain Healthcare, and professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, “Increased attention to simple measures such as the handling of tissue specimens from the moment they are taken from the patient to when they reach the pathologist, the uniform fixation of specimens, the standardization and validation of lab assays, rigorous reporting procedures, and greater access to treatment interventions have the potential to significantly improve breast cancer outcomes around the world.”

The CAP/ASCO Panel also expects that the new ER/PgR guideline will foster improved communications among cancer specialists and also between patients and their doctors. “It is our hope that the CAP/ASCO ER/ PgR guideline will facilitate processes at each health system and institution, so that appropriate measures to ensure accurate predictive biomarker testing [including ER/PgR] are in place and that breast cancer patients receive the highest quality care possible,” says Dr. Hammond.

Chermok agrees. “My skilled team of a radiologist, surgeon, and pathologist had brought me this far, and I had great confidence that my pathologist had correctly identified the nature and structure of the tumor cells, and given the oncology team the information necessary to create a plan of treatment.”

The College of American Pathologists offers two websites, www.MyHealthTestReminder.org and www.MyBiopsy.org. These sites can help women remember to schedule their next mammogram, as well as provide patient guides for those diagnosed with breast cancer, including breast cancer that is ER/PgR-positive.

For more information, visit www.cap.org. ISI

New Guideline Helps Doctors Diagnose Breast Cancer

(NAPSI) About one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, but the disease is much more than a statistic to Ruth Chermok.

Chermok is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed with ER/PgR-positive breast cancer at age 46. “I was on top of the world. Rick, my high school sweetheart, and I had just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and had started our lives as empty nesters. Life throws you for a loop sometimes. Shortly after, I was diagnosed with ER/PgR-positive breast cancer.”

Thanks to her medical team, Chermok can count herself as a survivor.

That team included a pathologist - a physician who examines cells, bodily fluids, and tissues to diagnose disease. And now, pathologists have a new tool to help them give their patients the best possible care: new evidence-based recommendations from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that will improve the accuracy of ER and PgR testing in breast cancer.

As many as two-thirds of breast cancers are ER and/or PgR-positive, with their growth influenced by activation of the estrogen receptor pathway.

Accurate determination of tumor phenotype is critical for proper selection of therapy options and individualized treatments.

In particular, the new guideline recommends that breast cancer patients should have their tumor tested for estrogen and progesterone receptors, and that the testing should be performed by an accredited laboratory that follows specific testing

Regular Mammograms A Must -Schedule Yours Today Dear Betty, I schedule my mammogram every October, probably because one of those “October is Breast Cancer Month” articles got me going a long time ago. I asked my mom if she would schedule hers. I was shocked to learn she has not had one in several years! She said they seemed like a waste of money because they always came back fine and added she had heard some talk that they were not necessary every year anyway. Betty, my mom is on Medicare now, and I cannot believe Medicare does not pay for mammograms. I do not know about any changing guidelines either. My husband’s mom died of cancer when she was just 45, and I learned from him not to take our family’s health for granted. I wish Mom would not act so unconcerned.

Any ideas on what I could say?

Looking for Words Dear Looking: You might want to start by addressing the reasons she gave you. Tell her that Medicare pays

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100 percent. So cost should not be a factor.

Regarding the guidelines, your mom may have heard that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has questioned the usefulness of screening for women age 40 to 50 and those 75 and older.

However, the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons, and other professional groups continue to support annual screening mammograms for all women age 40 and older.

Even as experts discuss best approaches to screening, though, there is no controversy at all about one thing: the importance of discussing mammograms with your doctor, no matter how old you are. You mom should also note that, whether

at one- or two-year intervals, everyone supports regular screening for women between the ages of 50 and 74.

While your mom’s tests have come back negative every time, that is no predictor of the future.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. It is estimated that this year 207,000 women will be diagnosed. These women have been fine - until now. Tell her breast cancer increases with age too, with most breast cancers occurring in women over the age of 50, with 61 being the median age at diagnosis.

If your mom has any other risk factors, make sure she is aware of those. These include being overweight, being physically inactive, having had

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 17

postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy for more than five years, starting menstruation early, going through menopause late, and giving birth after age 30.

And good luck on your own mammogram, which, by the way, may be even easier for you to get in the future. New regulations under the Affordable Care Act provide that new health plans now include coverage without cost-sharing for annual mammograms for women 40 and older, plus referral to genetic counseling and discussion of chemoprevention when appropriate. ISI

Chinese Exercises Refresh, Enhance Eyesight

By Tu Riya, Senior Wire While traveling in China 30 years ago, I watched people doing intricate work in dimly lit factories. I noticed that few wore glasses. When I asked how that was possible, the translator shared their secret. These exercises refresh tired eyes and strengthen muscles to alleviate the need to wear glasses.

You start by quieting. Close your eyes and be sure to slowly count out each of the movements to yourself as you go through the following 8 steps: • Gently move a curved, hooked finger (each side) across your forehead (tip at brow, knuckle toward hairline), dipping down to the side of your eye 8 times.

• Place 2 fingertips on each side of the face beside the outer eye (hollow space) and circle it clockwise 8 times. Then circle those fingertips 8 times counter-clockwise.

• Place a curved, hooked finger under each eye and gently move it upward 8 times.

• Place a curved, hooked finger over each eye brow and gently move it downward 8 times.

• Place 2 fingertips beside your nostrils. At that outer spot, circle clockwise with your fingertips 8 times. Then repeat counter-clockwise 8 times.

• Place 2 fingers at the apples of your cheeks and circle clockwise 8 times, then 8 times in the opposite direction.

• Gently move 2 fingertips across your eyeballs 8 times.

• Stick the knuckle of your finger in the corner of each eye and massage that socket 8 times in one direction and 8 times in the other. Keep your eyes closed for a minute.

Another technique uses an acupressure point - with your palm open and your thumb up, notice a ridge of skin between your thumb and a top plateau that runs flat up to your forefinger.

Take the thumb of your opposite hand and place it over this fold of skin on top. Roll the thumb further over the side - you will

locate a point about a thumb’s distance in. Meet your thumb with the forefinger and press together. You have the point if you feel a wincing pain like when the dentist is drilling a tooth.

Stimulate this point on each hand several times a day to improve your eyesight.

Here is another exercise to relieve eyestrain: cup your hands and gently press the palms over your eye sockets, without touching the eyes or eyelids themselves. Your fingers should be pointing out and upwards, towards your hairline. Now press your palms evenly inward, creating a uniform pressure all around the skull and muscles that enclose your eyes.

As you press, “look” to the left. It will be dark, of course, but you can feel the eye muscles at work. Now “look” to the right.

Continue to press, and “look” up, then down. Repeat all four motions. Then repeat twice more.

Now easily remove your hands, slowly open your eyes, and wait a minute.

Although I have no plans to take up intricate sewing or painting, I am often at the computer and experience eye strain. All of these suggested exercises are quick and instantly satisfying. Although I must wear glasses in order to see, after using this technique I seem more relaxed, and ready to resume work. ISI

Know Stroke. Know Signs.

Recognizing stroke symptoms More than 600,000 new strokes are reported in the United States each year. In fact, stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in adults. However, treatments are available that can greatly reduce the damage caused by stroke if you know the symptoms and get to a hospital quickly.

“A stroke is a brain attack and occurs when blood flow is interrupted to the brain. Brain cells in the immediate area begin to die because they stop receiving the oxygen and nutrients for optimum cell function,” says Hisham Bassiouny, M.D., medical director of the Vascular Institute of Chicago at Weiss Memorial Hospital and chief of vascular surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center. “Strokes affect the entire body and can result in a wide range of problems. Knowing the signs of stroke and acting quickly is

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crucial to minimizing its long-term effects.”

Think FAST - face, arms, speech, and time - the four areas to observe when detecting and seeking treatment for a stroke, according to the Stroke Awareness Foundation. Hone in on these healthful hints from the experts at Weiss Memorial Hospital, watching out for these signs: • Numbness or weakness: The loss of feeling or extreme weakness on one side of the body such as face, arm, or leg is a key indicator a person is having a stroke. The sensation may be complete or partial, and there may be an associated tingling sensation in the affected area.

• Trouble speaking or/and confusion: Sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding is another key indicator. Often weakness in the

facial muscles will cause drooling, or the victim may experience trouble seeing in one or both eyes.

• Trouble walking: Loss of balance, coordination, problems walking can be a sign your brain has been denied the blood flow it needs.

• Headache with no known cause: Headaches that suddenly appear or that are severe also may be an indicator of stroke.

Not all stroke victims will experience all symptoms, which is why it is important to know what to look for. If you or someone you love has these symptoms, immediately call 911 or get to a hospital right away.

Prevention is the best medicine. If you are at high risk for stroke, annual vascular screenings at a trusted medical provider are encouraged. ISI

French Paradox: Does a Little Wine Do Your Body Good?

By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire For years, medical scientists have been talking about the “French Paradox,” the seemingly mysterious fact that, although the French eat all sorts of rich and fattening foods, they do not have the heart troubles that afflict Americans.

It is said to be all about the wine - especially red wine, which contains an element called resveratrol.

If a wine glass has ever touched your lips, you probably have read about the supposed wonders of resveratrol.

So, you prefer Chardonnay? Or you do not drink at all? Well, you can buy resveratrol pills. But they are costly and may not be safe for everybody. Side effects can include joint pain. Or, if you do drink and enjoy it, just about any alcoholic drink has some benefit.

The latest on red wine, resveratrol, and the heart comes from the respected Mayo Clinic. “The alcohol and certain substances in red wine called antioxidants may help prevent heart disease by increasing levels of ‘good’ cholesterol and protecting against artery damage.” Because heart disease is the number one killer of the elderly, any way to help the heart is welcome.

Doctors, however, are leery about telling patients to start drinking if the patients are teetotalers.

Too much alcohol can have harmful effects on your body. But we also cannot ignore the results of the study published not long ago in the New England Journal of Medicine. It tested 12,000 women, aged 70 to 81, who had one drink per day. It actually increased their brain function, the study discovered.

Any alcoholic drink has some positive effect, according to WebMD. It tends to decrease the amount of food consumed in a meal and increases the ‘good’ cholesterol - HDL. “Research studies on the heart-health benefits of red wine have reported mixed results.” Some studies show that red wine “has more heart-health benefits than other kinds of alcoholic drinks. Others indicate that “red wine isn’t any better than beer, white wine, or liquor for heart health.”

A new study published by the American Society for Nutrition reported that moderate consumption of red wine, specifically 250 mL of red wine daily for 21 days (about 8.5 ounces a day), was associated with an improvement in vascular function and acts “to prevent cardiovascular disease.”

According to Mayo Clinic, the support for red wine suggests that antioxidants in red wine, called polyphenols, help protect the lining of blood vessels in the heart. These antioxidants come in two main forms: 1. Flavonoids - antioxidants that are in a wide assortment of foods, including grape juice, apples, oranges, onions, tea, and cocoa. Red wine has the highest levels of flavonoids - more than other types of alcoholic drinks such as white wine and beer.

2. Nonflavonoids - antioxidants in red wine that appear to help keep arteries from getting clogged with fatty blockages, said the Mayo Clinic. But this research is at an early stage, because it involves mostly mice. There are few experts in the drinking habits of mice.

The resveratrol in red wine originates in the skin of the grapes used in making the wine. Red wine is fermented with the grape skins for longer periods than is white wine. So, naturally, red has more resveratrol.

So, why not just eat grapes or drink grape juice? Some studies, say the Mayo researchers,

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have suggested that plain grape juice has some of the same heart-healthy benefits as red wine. But other foods, including peanuts and blueberries, have some resveratrol, too. But not to the extent that red wine does.

The alcohol is also important. “It is thought that alcohol raises high density lipoprotein (HDL), the good cholesterol; reduces the formation of blood

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 19

clots (and) helps prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the bad cholesterol.”

Although red wine’s health potential appears promising, “more research is needed before we know whether red wine is better for your heart than are other forms of alcohol, such as beer or spirits,”

the Mayo report hedged.

Neither the American Heart Association nor the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that you begin drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. As you know, alcohol is associated with other health issues, such as high blood pressure and liver damage. ISI

Make Exercise Work for You

By Fred Cicetti, Senior Wire Q. I’ve been told I should exercise more, but I am afraid that at my age (73) I might damage something. Am I safer as a couch potato?

All the current scientific evidence shows that you should exercise, even though many older people think it could harm them. Study after study demonstrates that people hurt their health a lot more by being sedentary.

If you are inactive, you deteriorate. Physical activity can help restore your capacity. Older adults, regardless of age or condition, will benefit from increasing physical activity to a moderate level.

Warning: If you want to begin a new exercise program, you should consult your physician and request a list of exercises that are best for your age and physical condition.

Four types of exercise are important for your health. These are exercises for strength, balance, stretching, and endurance.

Strength exercises build muscle and raise your metabolism.

Doing these exercises will help to keep your weight down.

Balance exercises help prevent falls and, therefore, will keep you from breaking yourself and losing your independence. Each year, U.S. hospitals have 300,000 admissions for broken hips; many of them are the result of falls.

Stretching exercises give you more freedom of movement. And endurance exercises raise your pulse and breathing.

Here are 10 tips to make any exercise program safe: 1. Don’t hold your breath during strength exercises. This could affect your blood pressure.

2. When lifting weights, use smooth, steady movements. Breathe out as you lift or push a weight, and breathe in as you relax.

3. Avoid jerking or thrusting movements.

4. Avoid locking the joints of your arms and legs into a strained position.

5. Some soreness and slight fatigue are normal after musclebuilding exercises. Exhaustion, sore joints, and painful muscle pulls are not normal.

6. Always warm up before stretching exercises.

7. Stretching should never cause pain, especially joint pain.

8. Never bounce into a stretch; make slow steady movements instead.

9. To prevent injuries, use safety equipment such as helmets for biking.

10. You should be able to talk during endurance exercises.

Measuring your progress can motivate you. Test yourself before starting to exercise to get a baseline score. Test and record your

scores each month. The following are some tests you can use, if your doctor approves.

For endurance, see how far you can walk in exactly six minutes. For lower-body strength, time yourself as you walk up a flight of stairs as fast as you can safely. For upper-body strength, record how much weight you lift and how many times you lift that weight. For balance, time yourself as you stand on one foot, without support, for as long as possible. Have someone stand near you in case you lose your balance. Repeat the test while standing on the other foot.

Remember, above all, exercise should make you feel better.

If you have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com ISI

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PAGE 20 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

Growing An Herb Garden

By Clare Hafferman Herb gardens have been among the oldest forms of gardening known to growers. The pungent plants were not only for the kitchen; they also served as a “physician’s assistant” in areas without a doctor. Their properties were useful to treat coughs, colds, and skin disorders, to alleviate fevers and jaundice, as a cure for gout, to reduce bleeding and bruises, to sweeten the breath, and in herbal teas or as a spring tonic.

The history of these plants began five thousand years before the Christian era when the ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Assyrians instituted schools for herbalists. Their knowledge came from both written scrolls and word of mouth. This knowledge was later passed down to the Greeks, whose philosophers and historians, particularly Aristotle and Plato, advanced the use of herbs in their literature, history, and medicine.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the English herbals came to be the best known and most quoted resources on herbs. Immigrants brought this knowledge with them to the United States. If you have ever visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, you will have seen a modern

representation of a way of life practiced by these colonists, including the herb gardens common at both homes and businesses.

If you have never grown herbs but wanted to, or have had a few of the standards and thought about putting in more, this is a good time to start. An interest in growing what we eat can be enhanced by adding herbs to the mix. All you need to convince yourself is to stir up your first batch of spaghetti sauce, with tomatoes, parsley, marjoram, oregano, basil, and a clove or two of garlic, all grown in your own garden. Then taste the difference. Mama Mia! That is good stuff!

Many herbs can be grown from seed, but some of them - like sage and winter savory that take a long time to germinate - and others like Rosemary and Lemon Verbena are better begun by buying a plant. These plants are best grown in pots because they do not endure winter. One herbalist suggests cutting the Lemon Verbena plant back, digging up the roots, covering them with moist sand, and keeping them in an unheated cellar. Do not overwater them, especially in the winter. Rosemary is known to shed its narrow leaves if it dries out, so watch the humidity.

Once you succeed in starting your herb garden, you can make marinades, seasoned salts, flavored mustards and vinegars, teas, potpourris, pesto, bouquet garni, salads, salad dressings, salsas, sauces, herbal butters, breads, and cheeses. You can also provide bouquets and attract good bugs and butterflies. Think of it! What fun!

It is helpful to have resources for buying seeds, identifying plants, and getting advice on growing herbs. One of the books I have consulted and have had on the shelf for years is Herb Gardening In Five Seasons by Adelma Grenier Simmons. She divides her chapters into five seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn, and Christmas.

Each one provides gardening advice, herbal lore, and recipes to add to gift giving and celebrations. The book has six illustrated garden

plans, a one-hundred-page dictionary of herbs, and seven drawings of herbs for identification. Check an online bookseller or a second hand bookstore for a copy.

A newer book is A Beginner’s Guide To Edible Herbs, by Charles W.G. Smith, and it features 26 herbs everyone should grow and enjoy. There are beautiful photographs so you know what each herb looks like as well as tips for using them. One section features seasoning blends that are good to try and make nice gifts.

All gardeners have their favorite catalogs, and here are some of mine. An easy place to begin is by ordering from Le Jardin du Gourmet, P.O. Box 75, St. Johnsbury Ctr., VT, 05863-0075. Their web address is www.artisticgardens.com. Their sample packet costs only thirty-five cents and their large packet costs one dollar. They also sell herb plants for two dollars and fifty cents each, and produce shallots, garlic, and leeks for sale, plus flower and vegetable seeds, all at reasonable prices.

I have also used Pinetree Garden Seeds, P.O. Box 300, Gloucester, ME, 04260, and Johnny’s Select Seeds, 955 Benton Ave., Winslow, ME, 04901-2601. Both of these have a good selection.

Pinetree is less expensive. Johnny’s features many colored photographs and a bigger catalog with bigger prices.

Johnny’s also offers gardening tips, and recently featured a section about growing herbs in pots on your patio or deck. Using one gallon of potting mix per plant, a twelve-inch pot holds three and a half gallons of mix and can accommodate three or four plants. A twenty-inch pot holds six and a half gallons for seven plants. They advised using plants with similar water requirements. Rosemary, thyme, and sage do better in drier conditions. Basil, lemon balm, and shiso (a spicy Asian herb) need more water. Plants that are compact are the best choices. In cool weather, you could group chives, chervil, dill, parsley, and fennel together. When summer heats up, basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, and thyme will grow well.

When you begin this adventure of herb gardening, you will increase your botanical and medicinal knowledge, improve your cooking talents, attract good bugs and butterflies, and prove again that digging in dirt is a good thing! ISI

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 21

Passing the (Gas Grill) Torch

By Harvey Silverman, Senior Wire The backyard cookout. Half a century ago, it meant the three-legged grill, charcoal lit with crumpled newspaper, and a lot of blowing. My dad cooking the burgers, my mom’s homemade potato salad. The excitement when hearing the parental suggestion, “Let’s have a cookout.” Celebrate a birthday, or the Fourth, or a visit from family. Or just because.

“The food tastes better,” they say, and I think so, too, whether by the power of adult suggestion or because it really does. Of course, it isn’t really the food, is it? It is the “happening” of it all - the people who are there, uncles and aunts, grandparents and cousins, neighbors and friends.

Later, my dad discovers charcoal lighter. The burgers still seem to take forever to cook; my mom’s potato salad remains a constant. Still a

“happening,” though the people who attend slowly change - there are births and deaths, marriages and kids, some people move away.

Gradually, over a number of years, the location changes from my folks’ home to mine. I am the cook, the charcoal grill is now propane, the burgers cook faster, and potato salad is often store bought.

Uncles and aunts are replaced by nephews and nieces, my folks are the grandparents, the cousins now include those of my kids. It remains a “happening” - really a tradition - even if an irregularly scheduled one. A time for family and friends coming together, to gather and visit, to catch up, to just enjoy each other. Different from Thanksgiving, or Christmas. More casual, it is outside, in summer, the food is simpler.

New reasons to celebrate. A son goes off to study in Germany, another to work in China. A visit

from a sister and brother-in-law from Australia.

Graduations. Anniversaries. Retirements.

We, my wonderful wife and I, continue this for years more. It is our pleasure, a happiness.

Time passes. Age happens. It remains a joy but seems a bit harder. We are tired now at the end of the day.

Our 20-something son and his wife invite us to their new home. Energetic and enthusiastic.

A cookout. A celebration. Our 40th anniversary.

I stand with him and watch him cook on his new gas grill. The menu changes to thick, well marbled steaks, shrimp, marinated chicken. The food is perfect... everything is perfect... perfect.

With beverage in hand we toast him and her, and all mark and celebrate the passing of the (gas grill) torch. ISI

Win A House!!!

The North Idaho College Foundation’s Really BIG Raffle is a great way to support student scholarships and program needs and possibly win big!

With a good cause at stake and prizes that include a brand new $250,000 home, a car, and boat, the event is a winning combination. In its 18th year, NIC’s largest annual fundraiser is now underway with only 5,000 tickets being sold for the upcoming July 13, 2011 drawing. Tickets are sold for $100 each at area businesses and through the college.

Located in beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the grand prize home offers

over 2,300 square feet of living area. The four-bedroom, three-bath plan features a vaulted living room, gas fireplace, Carrier heat pump, three-car tandem garage, and fully landscaped lot. The home is constructed by the college’s Carpentry program students, offering them a learning lab for their trade. The raffle is a fun event that community members support year after year and typically generates around $200,000 for NIC students. To learn more about participating in this event, please call 208-769-3271 or visit www.nic.edu/rbr. ISI

Grandparents Submitted by Julie Hollar Brantley 1. She was in the bathroom putting on her makeup under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she had done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, “But Grandma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!” I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye.

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him 62. My grandson was quiet for a moment and then asked, “Did you start at 1?”

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair.

As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she

threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say in a trembling voice, “Who was THAT?” 4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like. “We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire - it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods.”

The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in.

At last she said, “I sure wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!”

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, “Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?” I mentally polished my halo and said, “No, how are we alike?” “You’re both old,” he replied. ISI

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PAGE 22 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

Two Words For Those Trying To Sell Their Homes: Be Creative

(NAPSI) If you are still having trouble selling your house, it may be time to think outside the box.

We are not talking about renting out your property until the market improves -something even Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was reportedly forced to do more than a year ago when there were no takers for the five-bedroom Tudor in upscale Larchmont, New York, that he had paid $1.6 million for in 2004. Although, if you absolutely need to relocate for job reasons, that could be one way to go.

No, we are talking creative ways that Bankrate.com and others say help “stressed-out sellers” - sound familiar? - make their homes stand out from all the others on the market. Read on for some tips.

Sweeten the Deal - In an effort to weed out sketchy borrowers, the

Federal Housing Administration, which backs the bulk of all new mortgages these days, recently lowered the ceiling on the monetary “concessions” sellers can offer buyers to help cover expenses like loan fees and closing costs. But that does not mean you can’t try sealing the deal by throwing in a 3-D TV, or a country club membership, or a car, like the Prius that one real-estate agent justified to CNN by saying, “In this market, you have to learn

to do things differently.”

Go Viral - “The Internet has essentially leveled the playing field across the real-estate market,” proclaims ForSaleByOwner.com’s Greg Healy.

True. But don’t limit your thinking to just eBay or Craig’s List. If a YouTube video of a cat bouncing off a mirror can garner gazillions of views across the world, surely you can think of some novel way to show off your home’s assets.

“Gift Box” Your Roof - One of the questions that potential buyers routinely ask, according to MarketWatch.com, is “How old is the roof?” One nice touch is to present your documentation tied in a bow with a box of chocolate-covered strawberries. That is assuming, of course, that your roof is new and attractive enough to have even gotten you to the walk-through stage. If not, and you want to replace it with one that practically screams “curb appeal,” check out GAF’s Lifetime Designer Shingles Value Collection at www.gaf.com. These shingles from North America’s largest roofing manufacturer are designed to add style to your home at a very affordable price. (Strawberry-Boxing Alert: All the company’s laminated shingles now come with a lifetime limited warranty transferable to new owners, which can be another powerful selling point.)

Enlist Your Neighbors - Sure, some would help spread the word out of the kindness of their hearts. But human nature being what it is, offering a $200 gift card to anyone who brings you a real, live serious buyer can work wonders.

Oh, and for those questioning whether any of this works, the award for the “Most Out-of-the-Box Thinking” goes to Bob and Ricki Husick of Wexford, Pennsylvania. They gained international attention a while back after advertising that the buyer of their two-story Colonial would receive the full purchase price back after they die.

The house, originally listed for $399,999, sold soon after for $377,000.

Not bad, these days. ISI

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 23

With pack goats toting their gear, the Locatis explore wilderness trails

By Dianna Troyer As soon as Caldwell residents Greg and Barbara Locati walk out their back door, Sierra, Simeron, Shiloh, and Rowdy greet them with a chorus of bleats and baas. Translating, Greg explains that their four pack goats are saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hi, whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for dinner and glad to see you.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re really socialized to us,â&#x20AC;? says 58-yearold Greg, who relies on the gregarious quartet to carry camping gear and grub when he and his wife, Barbara, 61, explore the wilderness of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Since 2000, the Locatis have been goat packing, a pastime they share with other Treasure Valley residents. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have about 75 goat packers in this area,â&#x20AC;? says Greg, who has organized goat packer gatherings, taught seminars, and is a resource leader for 4-H goat packing clubs.

The Locatis trace the start of their goat packing passion to a patch of weeds on their property. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have about an acre of land, and weeds were taking over one part of it, so we thought weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have a garden. It was too much for us,â&#x20AC;? recalls Greg, who at the time was operating his own machine shop.

Barbara suggested buying a goat for weed control about the same time that Greg happened to see a fateful and fortuitous public television show about goat packing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I always wanted to backpack, but I have back problems and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t carry a heavy load, so goat packing appealed to me,â&#x20AC;? Greg says.

They visited a local breeder, and two wethers, neutered males, tugged at their heartstrings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One kept rubbing against me and looking up at me, so I picked him and named him Rhubarb, and Barbara chose Sierra.â&#x20AC;?

Soon, the caprine weed-eaters were capering around the Locatisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; land, earning their board.

Meanwhile, Greg found an experienced goat packer on the internet, George Bogdan, who lives southwest of Boise near Givens Hot Springs. They bought some packsaddles and panniers from him and trained Sierra and Rhubarb to pack, conditioning them on hikes and overnight camping trips. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eventually, we had 10 pack goats,â&#x20AC;? Greg says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but the feed bill got a little too high, so now weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re down to four. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Oberhasli/Saanen crossbreeds, except for Sierra, a Nubian. Rhubarb died last year. Generally, goats live to be 10 to 15 years old.â&#x20AC;?

During the past decade, the Locatisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; backcoun-

try trips have ranged from several days to their longest one, a 42-mile, 12-day trip in the Bitterroot Mountains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The goats pack one-third to one-fourth of their body weight. We have two that weigh 300 pounds, so they carry 75 to 100 pounds of food and gear,â&#x20AC;?

Greg says of 10-year-old Sierra and 9-year-old Shiloh. Nine-year-old Simeron weighs about 250 pounds, and Rowdy, a 7-year-old, weighs about 150 pounds â&#x20AC;&#x153;and lives up to his name. When we did the Bitterroot trip, our goats were young. We had two 2½-year-old goats, and they carried about 45 pounds each. The three 1½-year-olds carried about 25 pounds each. We packed their loads based on their age, weight, and training.â&#x20AC;?

The goats do not require any food on the trips. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re happy to browse wherever we camp. When we leave a campsite, you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even tell we were there. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had deer and elk come into camp because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re curious about the goats.â&#x20AC;?

Besides having encounters with curious wildlife, the Locatis have met inquisitive hikers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of times, we might only make three miles a day because people along the trail keep talking to us about the goats. Once, a woman with a huge, heavy backpack sat down on a rock and told us, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to have to rethink this.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Another time, we had about 10 hikers around us, asking questions and petting the goats. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re leisurely hikers.â&#x20AC;?

To share his enthusiasm, Greg organized several weekend goat packer gatherings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first year, we had about 45, and then by the fourth year, we had 85.â&#x20AC;?

People told stories about their goatsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; intelligence. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been a compass during storms, leading their owners out of the wilderness after a trail had disappeared under snow. Once, Simeron was annoyed when I told him, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;no,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; so he walked behind me and undid my suspenders. Another time, he unzipped our tent and came inside to sleep beside us.â&#x20AC;?

As his local reputation grew, Greg was asked to teach seminars, and eventually he and Barbara became resource leaders for local 4-H goat pack clubs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been a 4-H goat packing judge at fairs in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.â&#x20AC;? When people at fairs ask him how much it costs to start goat

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PAGE 24 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

packing, he tells them it is a minimal investment.

“A saddle with blanket costs $95, and panniers range from $60 to $160 depending on the size,” says Greg, who put his machining skills to work in 2003 and began making aluminum and wooden packsaddles. “Some people just want to day-hike and have a goat carry their fishing gear and lunch, so they like a smaller saddle, which costs $60, and training panniers, which cost $60.”

When purchasing a goat, Greg advises people to buy one that has been bottle-fed or to bottle-feed

it themselves, so it will be accustomed to people.

After August, when Barbara retires as an administrative officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Locatis plan to take more goat packing trips. “I sold my machine business, but I’ll keep making the packing gear and going on trips,” Greg says with a grin as his goats nuzzle him for treats.

To learn more about goat packing, Greg suggests reading www.goattracksmagazine.com, calling him at 208-454-2015, or calling George Bogdan at 208-896-5068. ISI

Gold lures Idaho prospectors to their claims

By Dianna Troyer Gary Scott blames his ongoing case of gold fever on channel surfing and hopes his newfound affliction is incurable.

“I happened to watch a couple of shows about gold mining after I retired in 2006,” says the Meridian, Idaho resident, whose symptoms recur every year from May to October when he works his claims.

“I had worked 33 years as a conductor for Union Pacific Railroad and didn’t want to sit around on the couch and become a bump on a log when I retired,” he says. “I wanted to do something outside and had always been intrigued with gold. There’s a timeless thrill with being able to find this pretty yellow stuff.

It fascinated the Egyptians 5,000 years ago and is the only metal that historically holds its value. Countries worldwide still count on it for currency stability.”

Gary found a local chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America and, once he had learned how to file a claim, pan, and dredge, he found himself elected president of the Idaho Gold Prospectors Association in Boise.

“We have 356 members,” he says.

With gold valued at $1,400 an ounce, Idaho residents with time on their hands are turning to prospecting.

“We teach classes on how to pan, sluice, and dredge, and how to file a claim and other legal issues,” he says. “It costs $145 to file a claim with the Bureau of Land Management, then $10 a year to renew a claim.”

The association has mining claims near Idaho City and Silver City where productive and prosperous mines once operated, so members can test their skills and try their luck.

Gold prospecting “is not an easy thing to do,”

Gary says. “You have to move around a lot of dirt. When I started doing this, I found muscles I didn’t know I had. I like dredging the most, but I don’t own one myself, so I usually go out with a friend who has one.”

Once the dirt has been dug and washed away, prospectors hope to see a glimmer of the precious yellow metal to reward them for their efforts.

“It’s amazing that gold is 19 times heavier than water, so once the dirt is washed away, it sinks right down to the bottom of a pan or dredge,” he says.

“I’ve found some flakes and pieces the size of rice grains. It’s pretty stuff.”

His prospecting has not made him rich. “It’s not as lucrative as you might think,” he says, “but it’s rewarding in other ways. It’s fascinating to know you’re the first person to unearth this gold that is millions of years old.”

Gary has not sold the flakes and bits of gold he has found. Instead of converting it to currency, he uses it as a conversation starter. “I keep it and show it to prospective and new members at our open houses, so they know what to look for. If I would sell it, I’d like knowing that I was putting gold into circulation, contributing to the monetary system, instead of taking from it.” Some prospectors sell their gold to jewelers or gold dealers who melt it down and sell it to smelters.

Would he recommend gold in a stock portfolio? “You can tinker with a few gold stocks, but don’t put all your marbles in one basket. The price of gold fluctuates so much, and you have no control over it. When you mine it, at least you have some control.”

When the weather permits, Gary and his wife Shirley head out to their claim, a 40-acre parcel down on Jordan Creek in the Owyhee area south of Boise, or to a 120-acre IGPA claim near Idaho City north of Boise.

“Last year was the first year she helped dig.

Before, when we went out, she was content to cook and relax at the campsite. Once she started doing it, she became intrigued and is looking forward to going out again this year.”

Gary equates gold prospecting to gambling on a slot machine. “You never know what to expect when you pull the handle of those one-armed

APRIL/MAY 2011

bandits, and the wheels finally stop. You’re surprised. Well, when you pan down some dirt, you never know what you’ll find either. Besides gold, I’ve found old horse shoes, historic square nails, glass bottles, garnets and other gems, platinum, and breeches of rifles.”

Along with those items, he has gained an education in geology during the past four years.

“The gold is at bedrock or in the dirt right above it.

We joined a local gem society, too, to learn more about the rocks and gems we’ve found.”

When he is not mining for gold, Gary helps a friend build trommels, screened cylinders used to separate rocks. They are designed for the individual to make mining a little easier. “We fabricate them from recycled materials, like chains from old garage door openers and sheeting from old hot water heaters.”

Gary still watches some gold prospecting shows on the Outdoor Channel. Popular programs are “Gold Fever” and a documentary series, “Alaskan,” about the daily lives of gold prospectors near

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 25

Nome. “The shows have good pointers on what to do, and what not to do.”

He advises beginning prospectors to join a club. “If amateurs are using big equipment, they could get hurt if they don’t know what they’re doing. Old mines are unsafe, and you need to be aware of the hazards of stale air that might have toxic gases.”

More information about gold mining may be found at www.idahogoldprospectors.org. ISI

A Little Bit Batty - continued from cover Clearwater Region as the non-game biologist with a focus on developing the non-game program.”

After three years in that position, Dixon moved to Boise where she became the zoology program leader. Now, as the Biodiversity Program Leader she interfaces between the botany and zoology state programs.

“In the southeast part of Idaho, the aspen stands are doing poorly. This means that the animals that depend on the aspen are struggling, too. As the biodiversity leader I try to bring the pieces together into a whole picture to find out what is happening and what we can do about it.”

But where do bats come in?

“Well, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has contracted with IDFG to conduct surveys on abandoned mines statewide because the majority of old mines are on BLM land. Our job is to find the old mines and decide which ones are most likely to get human visitation and whether or not they are safe to enter. At the same time, we know these mines and mine shafts are often critical habitats for bats so we have to analyze the physical characteristics of the sites to find out if they are suitable for bats.”

Which brings us to her night foray.

Idaho has fourteen species of bats, with four listed as species of greatest conservation concern, meaning that their numbers are so low they are at risk of extinction, but have not yet made it onto the Endangered Species List.

“Two species, the Townsend and Big Eared bats, are declining in Idaho.

These bats are closely tied to mines and caves, so as we enact mine closures we may be reducing needed habitat.”

Dixon says to keep bat habitat available the BLM and USFS often use “bat friendly closures” to prohibit human entrance to mines and shafts but still provide habitat for bats.

“The three biggest issues facing bats are mine closures, wind energy, and an emerging infectious disease called white nose syndrome,” Dixon explains.

Scientists believe that the disease was accidentally brought into the US from Europe on a caver’s clothes or boots. Now, bats along the mid-Atlantic coast, Ontario and Quebec are being infected. Dixon hopes the disease does not travel to Idaho.

Despite her continued interest in birds, Dixon has also become enthralled with bats. And she is a treasure trove of bat trivia. I learned while talking to her that bats enter true hibernation each year, some as early as October, with an emergence from that state in April or May. Dixon also told me that the oldest known bat was 41 years and that they live an average of thirty years!

“Bats have one ‘pup’ a year,” she said. “And unlike rodents or birds, they will not rebreed if the pup dies.”

And the reason bats like attics is simple: they are warm places to roost and bear young.

“Maternity season runs from May to the end of August,” says Dixon. “It is a live birth and the female nurses the young from teats in her arm pits.

Bats mate in the fall and the female stores the sperm inside her for delayed fertilization so that pups are born during the summer.”

When I asked Dixon what she thought was one of the most interesting things she has learned about bats, she was quick to respond.

“When I have rehabilitated bats that were injured or dehydrated I have

been able to observe their behavior on a daily basis. It was a surprise to learn that they are extremely communicative and are very social animals.”

Dixon was also eager to debunk the rabid bat scenario.

“Less then one half of one percent of bats in the wild gets rabies. When they do they exhibit symptoms of lethargy, loss of appetite, become dehydrated, and are too weak to fly.”

But despite her current bat assignment, ornithology remains her true love.

Despite her years of experience as a scientist, Dixon remains amazed at the interwoven fabric of the natural world. The white-headed woodpecker feeds almost exclusively on Ponderosa pine trees. But in Canada, the pine beetle is killing large numbers of Ponderosa.

“While this is bad news for the white headed woodpecker, it may help other wood peckers that forage on dead and dying trees,” Dixon explains.

PAGE 26 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

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“The same is true of issues surrounding global warming. Some species will thrive and expand their habitat while others may become imperiled.”

Dixon says one of her “absolutely best” outdoor experiences happened years ago in Oregon while she was doing white-headed woodpecker research. After banding three birds, it took her a week to pick up any radio signals and when she did, “I grabbed my field vest out of the car and took off.

It took me all day to find one bird right before dark and I found the second one right at dark. It was then I realized I was off my map and didn’t know where I was. I had no food but did have an illuminated compass so I picked a route and hiked until 10 pm when I found a travel trailer with hunters in it. They kindly drove me back to my car. But what I realized as I was hiking in the dark was how at home I felt in the woods. Great horned owls were

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 27

hooting, coyotes were howling, and the gravel was crunching under my feet and I felt perfectly safe.”

Dixon hopes that Idaho residents will volunteer to help in the non-game wildlife program.

“We love to have people volunteer because with our limited budget it is a real need we have.”

Dixon says people can call up their regional IDFG office or contact headquarters in Boise to find out how they can help.

And someday, if you are lucky, you might be able to feel as at home in the woods as Rita Dixon.

ISI

Peace Corps volunteer teaches Ukrainian egg decorating during museum exhibit

By Dianna Troyer Connie Collins waited until she was 63 to fulfill her dream of volunteering for the Peace Corps.

“You’re never too old,” says the semi-retired professional counselor and educator who teaches counseling classes part-time at Boise State University.

“I thought about joining when I was in college and John F. Kennedy started the corps, but I wanted to finish my degree first. After I graduated, I started a family, worked as a professional counselor, had my own consulting business, and didn’t have time.”

Once her children were grown and she semi-retired, she treated herself to the international experience she had postponed for four decades.

“I’ve always been fascinated by cultures,” says Connie, now 70. “I was assigned to the Ukraine from 2003 to 2005. For me, living in another country is such an enriching experience. It was wonderful.”

Connie is among 16 members of the Idaho Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are giving presentations and leading musical and craft activities at the Idaho Historical Museum during a two-month exhibit entitled Idaho Celebrates 50 Years of Peace Corps Service. The exhibit runs until May 1. Since Kennedy established the corps on March 1, 1961 to promote peace and international friendships, 1,300 Idaho residents have been volunteers.

To share the culture of the Ukraine during the exhibit, Connie is teaching people to do pysanky, the art of decorating eggs using melted wax and dyes. “The colorful eggs are so beautiful, and the designs are so intricate,” Connie says. “I saw so many examples of it, while I was there. After the eggs are decorated, families take them to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday before Easter Sunday.”

When she returned to the U.S., she bought a pysanky kit. “It’s inexpensive to do,” she says.

“An artist in the Ukraine taught me to do it. I’m no expert, and my eggs reflect that, but that doesn’t stop me from having fun doing it. Like any art or craft, it can be relaxing.”

Pysanky is the Ukrainian word for writing, in reference to a metal stylus called a kistka, a tool that allows hot beeswax to drip through it, so geometric or pictorial patterns can be sketched on the eggshell.

To start, Connie applies hot wax in any design

- dots and swirls, flowers, or animals. Next, she patiently alternates the layers of wax in various designs with progressively darker dyes until she is satisfied. In the final step, she uses a candle to melt off the layers of wax to reveal the colorful patterns beneath. It generally takes about an hour to complete an egg, depending on its complexity. After it is decorated, an egg can be coated with varnish to strengthen and preserve it.

The eggs symbolize rebirth of life in springtime, explains Connie, whose Peace Corps assignment dealt with the environment and the rebirth and rehabilitation of polluted land and water. Ukrainians are still suffering from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster’s impact on the environment.

During her two years in the Ukraine, Connie was assigned to an environmental nongovernment organization and taught adults at community workshops and students in schools about water conservation and how to prevent water pollution.

“The water and land is contaminated with heavy metals from steel plants and other factories and chemical runoff from corporate farms established when the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union,” she says. “We taught high school students in villages how to test local wells for contaminants,” says Connie, who also helped write grants. “We purchased trash bins for parks and We have 3 offices and 13 diabetes educators to streets.” help you manage your diabetes. Call today.

Connie has a decorated wooden egg she Boise Meridian Nampa bought in the Ukraine to remind her of her expe208-331-1155 208-884-4220 208-884-4220 riences there. She enhdiabetescenter.org courages people to join the Corps, share their HDC is a community program affiliated with Saint skills, and develop inAlphonsus & St. Luke’s Regional Medical Centers. ternational friendships.

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PAGE 28 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

APRIL/MAY 2011

The Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial: A Reminder to Us All

By Holly Endersby While walking along the Boise River Greenbelt as it winds through downtown, I was lured off the path by a simple carved panel with a poem The Butterfly. In it, the butterfly represents the beauty and freedom that the poet, Pavel Friedman, can no longer experience confined as he is in a European World War II ghetto in April 1942.

Stunned by the poem, I followed the curving path into the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, the only memorial to Anne Frank in the United States. It is also one of the few places in the world where the entire Universal Declaration of Human Rights is displayed for the public. More importantly, the memorial notes the triumphs the world has achieved in human rights, as well as the work still to be done.

While many memorials are static testaments to achievements or events, the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial was designed to be a teaching tool for people of all ages. According to the brochure I picked up at the entrance to the outdoor memorial, it was “designed to actively engage us to think, to talk with one another, and to respond to the human rights issues we face in our community, our country and our world.”

“It all began when the Anne Frank in the World Exhibit from the Anne Frank Center in New York came to Boise in 1996, sponsored by the Idaho Human Rights Center founders,” explains Amy Herzfeld, Executive Director of the Idaho Human Rights Center. “Nearly 50,000 people came to the free exhibit in the Idaho Historical Museum in Boise. Most were schoolchildren, and in such a sparsely populated state as Idaho that was amazing. Children were boarding buses at 4 a.m. in Idaho Falls to come to the exhibit!”

Because of that outpouring of interest, people began wondering if Boise could build something of permanence to highlight human rights, advocacy, and speaking out against injustice says Herzfeld.

“At first I thought getting a rock along the river would be what was accomplished,” she recalls.

“But what we got was a $1.8 million human rights memorial all paid for from private funds.”

The simplicity of the memorial, with its curved and carved concrete panels set in front of benches on which to sit and contemplate the writings, is profound. In all, there are sixty quotes from people who have faced or fought injustice around the world. From Eleanor Roosevelt come these words: “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on the map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.

Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.”

The Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial was dedicated in 2002 and has become an important teaching tool for children and others in Idaho.

“We give free docent lead tours to thousands of people every year,” says Herzfeld. “And two of our docents are Holocaust survivors.” She goes on to say the memorial is an expression of “the moral obligation to human rights we all have and the recognition that universal human rights values are

relevant in our community and everywhere.”

But the memorial is not all about doom and gloom, she adds. “The memorial also celebrates our human rights victories while acknowledging what we need to work on.”

In the words of Anne Frank, “How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment, we can start now, start slowly changing the world!”

For me, the process of taking an hour, sitting quietly in front of each panel and reading and reflecting on the quotes, was both humbling and inspiring. I read the courageous words of Elie Wiesel who said, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

And I had to ask myself, “Were there times I stood silently by when I should have spoken?”

The memorial had its intended effect of causing me to reflect on my own actions. According to Herzfeld, the hope is that people experiencing the memorial will examine their highest ethical values and “remind us of the terrible cost of failing to act when action is required.”

In the frantic world we live in, it is easy to bow to expediency or to simply say “It is not my responsibility” or, “I don’t have time” to deal with an issue of inhumanity, repression, or prejudice. But in the end, we are the only ones who can do something.

As the great sociologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” And as Dr. Seuss has been telling children for decades in the book The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

The next time you are in Boise, visit the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial along the Boise River Greenbelt just off River Avenue in the downtown cultural district. In advance, contact the Idaho Human Rights Education Center to ask for the assistance of a docent. You will not regret taking the time to learn from these dedicated volunteers.

Call the Center at 208-345-0304, visit its website at www.idaho-humanrights.org, or turn your computer’s search engine loose on the Idaho Human Rights Education Center to find out about the exact location of the memorial as well as a list of planned events. If you go solo, be sure to pick up the audio tour materials at the kiosk in the memorial. And take your time. ISI

There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval.

- George Santayana

APRIL/MAY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 29

Don’t Miss The Secret Garden The Music Theatre of Idaho’s Spectacular Broadway Season 2011 continues with the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical The Secret Garden. This enchanting classic of children’s literature, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman and composer Lucy Simon (sister to pop singer Carly Simon), is sure to delight audiences of all ages. The story centers around 11-year-old Mary Lennox (Julia Tan/Savannah Majors), who was orphaned in India and returns to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle Archibald Craven (Jeffrey Gunstream) and his invalid son Colin (Will Donohue/Holden Kennedy) on their

estate.

The play includes a magical locked garden, flashbacks, dream sequences, a strolling chorus of “memories,” and some of the most beautiful music ever written for the Broadway stage. The Secret Garden’s compelling tale of regeneration is a treasure for children and adults alike. The Secret Garden is based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which has delighted readers for many years.

The Music Theatre of Idaho production will be performed live at the Nampa Civic Center on

Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 pm, with an additional matinee at 1:30 pm on April 30.

Performances will also be held on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7 at 7:30 pm, with an additional matinee at 1:30 pm on May 7. Tickets are available through the Music Theatre of Idaho Box Office by phone at 208-468-2385 or in person at 203 9th Ave South in Nampa. Tickets are also available 24 hours a day at www.mtionline.org. Season ticket packages are also still available for the remaining six productions in the Music Theatre of Idaho season. ISI

Utah Festival Opera takes theater-goers around the world this season Utah Festival Opera is ready to sweep you away! Grab your passport while we take you on a fabulous World Tour! Venture back to 17th-century Spain with Don Giovanni, Mozart’s thrilling work concerning an unrepentant womanizer who eventually meets his demise. Walk on sand covered beaches and fall in love on an island paradise in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Steal through the back alleys of London with the infamous Fagin and his band of pickpockets in the incredible tale of Oliver! And then journey to Russia with Tsars, ambition, assassination, and intrigue in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov!

There is nothing like world-wide adventure from a comfortable seat in a beautiful theater.

Come to the festival for two days and see all four works! UFO has gathered the most exquisite talent from all over the United States to be in these amazing performances. You will laugh, cry, and experience the wonder and majesty of four great masterpieces. The festival season runs July 6 through August 6, 2011.

You are also invited to attend UFO Guild’s Fundraiser Dinner Dance “Some Enchanted Evening” on Saturday, April 16, and Dickens Delight, a fundraising gala dinner and theatre performance

Idaho Repertory Theater Offers Summer Fun For Everyone A summer tradition for 58 years! From July to August, the Idaho Repertory Theatre’s summer schedule features a family-friendly performance, a comedy, and a Shakespearean piece performed at the University of Idaho Hartung Theater. Past performances include You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, The Dining Room, You Can’t Take It With You, High School Musical, and Unnecessary Farce, to name a few!

This season, we will feature Noises Off by Michael Frayn, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and Moss Gown by Micki Panttaja. Noises Off is a farce about the madness of putting on a performance, from behind the scenes as well as on the stage! The Taming of the Shrew is Shakespeare’s comedy about sisters, one sweet and one sour, and the men who try to woo them. This season’s family performance, Moss Gown, is part Cinderella, part Shakespeare, and spun together with a Cajun twist!

Noises Off – July 6-9, 13 & 14 at 7:30 pm, July 10 & 17 at 2:00 pm; The Taming of the Shrew – July 21-23, 27-30 at 7:30 pm, July 24 at 2:00 pm; Moss Gown – August 3-6 at 7:30 pm and July 7 at 2:00 pm. ISI

Grandparents Submitted by JulieHollar Brantley I didn’t know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was.

She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, “Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these colors yourself!” ISI

of Oliver! on Friday, July 15. Visit www.ufoc.org for additional information about UFO, the festival, the fundraising events. For tickets, call 800-262-0074.

ISI

PAGE 30 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

A few years ago, a woman named Dee Klenck regularly sent in articles to the Idaho Senior Independent, a number of which we published. We always enjoyed our phone conversations with Dee, and she always had great stories to share. A while back, the articles stopped coming, and we learned that she had passed away. This month’s Remember When contribution is a tribute to Dee, submitted

by Dallas Cox of Meridian. We hope you enjoy this

APRIL/MAY 2011

story about her passion and perseverance. Thank you, Dallas, for your contribution.

Remember When contains our readers’ personal reflections or contributions describing fictional or non-fictional events from some time in the past. Contributions may be stories, letters, artwork, poems, essays, etc. Photos may be included.

Each issue of the Idaho Senior Independent features the contribution(s) deemed best by our

staff. The contributor of the winning entry receives a $25 cash prize.

We look forward to receiving your contributions for our June/July 2011 issue. Mail your correspondence to Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403, email to idahoseniorind@ bresnan.net, or call 1-866-360-5683 or 208-3180310.

A Dream Realized: In Memory of Dee Klenck

By Dallas M. Cox, Meridian A few years ago, a lady by the name of Dee Klenck submitted stories to the Idaho Senior Independent, which graciously published them. This thrilled Dee more than anyone can know. She passed away in December of 2009 at 84, but there is one last story that I would like to pass along.

In the mid 1980s, Dee founded an organization called Idaho’s Hall of Fame, Inc. This organization came about by accident, on the heels of a project/ dream that came very close to becoming a reality.

The project was to paint red stitching on the Payette High School dome with a signature - Harmon Killebrew - in huge, red script lettering across its face… a signed baseball.

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sponsor the project. David Letterman had Mr. Killebrew on his late night show to discuss the project, and our local news channel 7 carried the story on several occasions. However, like so many dreams in our lives, this one did not materialize.

But what did happen was that Dee, who had been part of this project, reasoned, “If Harmon Killebrew, baseball legend, graduated from Payette High School, who else has?”

Thus began a 25 year search for the “Gems of Idaho,” a mining project that came up time and time again with handfuls of “jewels.”

The first Induction Ceremony and banquet was held in 1995 in Pocatello. Harmon Killebrew was one of the first recipients; since that time, there have been over 125 men, women, businesses, and organizations recognized - J.R. Simplot, Chief Joseph, and Lana Turner to name a few.

Through these years, Dee’s passion was to fulfill the organization’s mission statement, “To introduce the Past and Present of Idaho - those… that have made a positive impact in their communities, the state, the nation, and the world - to the Future of Idaho… Idaho’s greatest resource… her Youth.” But Dee had a secret wish that she shared every once in a while but that was not taken seriously.

With the organization’s focus on youth, Dee’s desire was to create a “Color Book” depicting all of the inductees over the years that could be distributed throughout Idaho schools to show what role models were really all about.

The project was always put on the backburner until September of 2009. One day, Dee was sitting in her recliner, staring out the window at the autumn colors and watching the squirrel on the windowsill eating peanuts. She spent a lot of time doing this as her declining health left her tired and not prone to a lot of activity.

Dee happened to look down at a pile of files sitting by her chair and noticed that the one on top belonged to Harmon Killebrew. It had been a long time since she had visited with her old friend. She leaned over, picked it up, and leafed through it. It was full of old articles of his awesome career.

Like Harmon, Dee was not a quitter. She was in the last game of the series, the last inning - two outs, bases loaded, score 3-0 - her last trip to bat.

She glanced at the phone. What did she have to lose? She picked it up, dialed a number, and was transferred. She explained her “Color Book” project in detail and asked if there might be an artist who would be willing to take on the project of doing caricature drawings of the IHF inductees. “No, sorry, not interested.” The phone went dead. Heavy sigh.

Strike one…

She reached for the phone again, dialed another number, same results. Strike two…

She shivered, pulled the blanket on her lap closer to her, and stared again at the squirrel on the windowsill. A tear slid down her cheek… NO! She had one more shot!

She straightened in her chair, grabbed the phone, and dialed with purpose.

The call was answered again, she explained.

Again she was transferred - this time to a teacher, the art teacher of Fruitland High School, Barbara Phillips. And right out of the park! Grand slam! And the crowd roared!

Within 60 days, Barbara and her art classes had almost 40 of the drawings completed, and the “Idahoans on Loan to the World” Color Book was a reality. Dee was able to see the start of the project, but never saw the completed work.

But it is complete, thanks to the dedication of the 2009/2010 Fruitland High School art students and their teacher. Dee would be proud!

Caxton Publishers printed copies of the book to present to the students who participated in the final work. The presentation was on December 13, 2010 at the Fruitland High School Gym. And there is a moral to this story: No matter how old you are, or what stage of life you are in, whether just starting the game or in the final inning, never give up... and Dee never did! ISI

APRIL/MAY 2011

George Topping - biking and running like a kid

By Jack McNeel Scott Ferguson of Pedals-N-Spokes bike shop in Lewiston provides an apt description of George Topping’s introduction to bicycling. “It was about 1988 when George came in to the shop,” Scott explains. “He was trying to decide if he wanted to buy a bike or a new saddle. He went totally crazy in the shop and is still crazy about bikes.”

George adds, “I just got through selling my horses and quit chewing Copenhagen after 35 years and needed an outlet so I went in to buy a bicycle. I just slowly rode it up and down the block till I graduated out to 100 miles. I had to graduate bicycles, too.”

That was 23 years ago - when George was just 53, but he has not slowed down on biking and maintains a very vigorous exercise regime.

George was born in Deer Park, Washington but moved to Clarkston to start the 4th grade and graduated high school there. His working career took him to Lewiston, where he worked for 46 years with Potlatch Corporation, eventually working as a shift’s millwright. “You fix everything,” he comments. He is now retired, living in the Orchards area of Lewiston.

He had biked as a youngster, until his second year of high school when he got a car. “That took care of the bicycles,” he says with a laugh.

Many years passed before he bought that bike from Ferguson.

“It was a 10-speed Schwinn mountain bike. I wound up riding it a little bit to work and then I got to riding with young fellows on weekends. They had road bikes so I bought an 18-speed Gran Turismo touring bike. I rode it stripped.”

George recalls a ride down through Lapwai and Spalding where “this young fellow was riding along with me and drafting me.” At the first stop the young man asked George about the bike. “I told him I’d been thinking of getting a racing bike and he said, ‘I’m glad you didn’t have it today. I don’t think I could have kept up with you.’”

George’s third bike was a Schwinn Circuit. “I rode it for thousands of miles. Every place you can think of out of Lewiston I rode it. Up north to Pullman – 82 miles. From here to Kendrick and to Moscow and down you can get 100 miles in. I got to doing 10-mile time trials, too. In 1993, I turned in 23.16 minutes for 10 miles.”

Those time trials qualified him for the Masters - races for people 50 and older. There is a race in Lewiston with age limits, but he still rides in the category for those 70 and older.

But biking is only half the story. George also started running about seven years ago. “A friend

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who had been doing it about 30 years invited me to come run. I said, ‘I don’t know if I can keep up with you guys who have been running 30 years.’

One day I said, ‘Gee, I’m getting pretty strong at this,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, slow down.’”

George belongs to the Seaport Striders running club and does all their runs. “I’m fairly fast for an old man,” he laughs. “I run three or four miles or up to 10 Ks. I’ve run two half-marathons which are 13.2 miles. I ran that last year. I’m the oldest to run the Lewiston hill, the old spiral highway. That’s eight miles – uphill.”

He has run the Lewiston hill in one hour and 28 minutes.

He has also run Bloomsday (7.2 miles) in Spokane in one hour and 17 minutes.

Asked which sport he prefers, he has to think a bit, but says, “It’s kind of a tossup. If I really came down to it, it would be the bike riding.”

His love for biking was clear when he bought another bike from Ferguson, a Trek-5500 carbon fiber. “That cost me $3,000, and I added another hundred and some dollars for arrow bars and had to buy a different pair of shoes because I ride with cleats which are locked in the pedals.”

He also purchased a stationary bike to keep in his house. He still has all the other bikes except for that first mountain bike. Just two years ago he replaced that with a new mountain bike.

“I train seven days a week. I’m up at 6 o’clock every morning and have to be someplace by 8.”

George joined World Class Fitness in downtown Lewiston and is down there on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. “I lift weights and work the machines – pumping iron I guess you’d call it.”

This is his third year of fitness training. “It’s strength training. I think it helps strengthen you for running and cycling. I think older people should get into it because it strengthens you all the way around as you get older.”

Tuesdays and Thursdays he runs “The Edge of Hell.” It is a four-mile trail so-named because it is located above Hells Gate State Park. Those runs take about 46 minutes.

On Saturdays, he runs the bridges from the Clarkston confluence of the Snake River. “That’s about four miles around,” he comments. “Then we go to Manns Lake on Sundays and run the six miles out there.”

Keep in mind George is 76!

“I can still do the ‘I Made the Grade.’ We bicycle from Chief Timothy State Park all the way up and across the Red Wolf

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 31

PAGE 32 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

Bridge on the other side and on to the top of Lewiston hill. It’s 18 miles. I generally do that in about one hour and six minutes.” Remember, the uphill climb is eight miles.

As one might expect, George’s medical exams are exceptional. “I recently went to the doctor for a checkup. The nurse took my blood pressure and pulse, and my pulse was 40. She wrote that down in big letters - 40 - and circled it.” Laughing, he adds, “When you’re this old doctors might want to send you to Spokane and have a pacemaker put in to pep it up a little bit.”

He takes apple cider vinegar every morning.

“It’s good for high blood pressure and all kinds of

APRIL/MAY 2011

different things. I take two teaspoons full of vinegar and just about that much honey and stir it up in a glass of water first thing in the morning. The old timers used to take it and swore by it - apple cider vinegar, unprocessed, no preservatives.”

George has been married to Barbara for 56 years. Their three children have given them many

grandchildren and even more great grandchildren.

Their acre of land in the Orchards produces a garden and even more physical exercise, as he mows the acre by hand now that they no longer own any animals. With his physical regime, it is a good bet George Topping will be mowing that acre by hand for many more years. ISI

Ernie and Carol Escapule are into bee keeping in a big way

By Jack McNeel Life does not always bring what we planned or anticipated. “Never in our entire lives did it come to our minds we’d be bee keepers when we hit 60,” Carol says with a laugh. “Bee keeping is a young man’s business because it’s a lot of heavy, hard work. We kind of fell into this because our son needed the help.”

The couple met in Arizona, began dating in high school, and later married.

Their two sons were born in Arizona. Ernie entered the service in 1970, and after getting out it was not many years until they moved to northern Idaho. He had a 30-year career with Verizon, retiring in 2007, while Carol worked for a variety of companies as an administrative assistant and bookkeeper.

Then the bee business began. It is actually their son Jason’s business. “He recruited us - or drafted us, however you want to call it,” Carol says laughing.

Jason started the business in 2003, but he waited for Ernie to retire from his job so Ernie could work for him full time. “The bee business was just growing and growing, and he needed more help,” Carol explains.

This is no small maand-pa type business, even though in this case Mom and Dad are major fixtures in a business with just three people. In fact, Harvard Yale Honey Company is huge by bee-keeping standards.

Size is often measured in numbers of hives, and this company has anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 hives. That fluctuation is due to colony collapse disorder. This struck U.S. beekeepers first in 2006, when massive numbers of bees suddenly disappeared for reasons still not thoroughly understood.

“Jason had over 3,000 hives when that hit and he lost some,” Ernie explains. “The hive count has fluctuated since then.”

Ernie explains about beekeeping work. “Once we extract the honey in the fall, we have to start feeding the bees and taking care of them because we’ve taken their honey away. We feed them a high fructose corn syrup. Once it gets too cold, they won’t break the cluster to take the syrup so we make what we call a candy board. We take 950 pounds of sugar and 12 gallons of water, boil it, and pour it into things that fit on top of the hives.

Vitamins and minerals are added.” That gets them through the winter until they can start collecting pollen and generating their own food.

“You have to make splits and all kinds of stuff.

Keep building the hives up and replacing queens.

There’s quite a bit involved.”

The hives must also be moved several times.

Pallets are built to hold four hives, and forklifts built just for this purpose load the pallets and hives on semis. “They go to California for almond pollination. From there they go to Washington for apricots, apples, cherries, and pears. Once that’s done they come back home and start making honey for us,” Ernie explains.

Beekeeping requires a lot of physical work.

“Ernie does everything Jason does - in fact, he does a lot more because he’s the grunt,” Carol laughs. “When we need new pallets or when the candy boards get made, he does that. When they clean, they have to tear the boxes apart and find the queen to make sure she’s in there and doing her job. Ernie is officially a beekeeper.”

“I am too,” she adds. “I’m mostly in charge of

APRIL/MAY 2011

the sales of honey, both retail sales and bulk sales.

We sell barrels of honey to bakeries in Spokane.

We sell to the food co-ops and also do the Moscow farmer’s market from May through October. We both go in every Saturday and sell at the market.

I also do the books and administrative stuff.”

Additionally, Carol does much of the packaging of the honey for retail sale. “We buy literally cases - usually 40 cases of quarts and pints at a time for the Moscow farmer’s market. “We sell literally barrels of honey in quarts, pints, and squeeze bears.”

The numbers are impressive. Last year, they had over 100 barrels of honey. The year before that, it was close to 160 barrels. A barrel is a 55-gallon drum that weighs about 650 pounds.

Although those numbers are remarkable, the main thing the company actually does is comb honey. Comb hives are put on the regular hive bodies. The bees then fill them up. “We have to get them, clean them, put them in packaging, and then they go in the freezer for 72 hours.” They had orders for 32,000 sections of comb last year. “Ours are round,” Carol noted.

The rounds are plastic and their supplier tells Jason that he orders more than anybody else in the U.S. “It’s huge,” Carol says. “Most people don’t envision it. It’s a big business and three of us have

been doing this all these years. Jason keeps saying he’s going to cut down except he never does,” she laughs.

“Bees keep multiplying all by themselves. Every 21 days you have a new population of female or worker bees if you have a good queen that’s laying. It’s every 23 for the males or drones,” Ernie explains.

While in Idaho, the hives are placed from the Clearwater Valley in Lewiston up to Peck and Orofino. “That’s where most of the yellow star thistle is, and it’s a real good honey that doesn’t sugar fast. It doesn’t sugar in the comb. We set hives up on the Palouse. It’s good dark honey. Then we set on the canola fields,” Ernie says. “It pollinates the canola and we get really good honey but it sugars pretty fast. That’s usually what the bakeries get.”

“Honey never goes bad. You can always reconstitute it,” Ernie explains.

The honey from different areas is kept separate, and the barrels are marked with where it came from, the date extracted, and what type of honey it is.

Carol laughs, “It’s a full time job. We can’t believe that three people can do it.”

“That’s why we work 12-14 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week,” Ernie adds. “We both put in an

Many a mom won’t remarry

By Bill Hall When my father died, lowering the curtain on a marriage of 54 years, I worried about the loneliness of my mother. About how a person who had never lived alone could suddenly cope with a life in which she was no longer part of a pair.

On the other hand, she had finally been freed from the exhausting bondage of the toughest year of their marriage - a final year of taking care of a husband who was mostly missing from his own body.

That year began as he was driving them across the Nevada desert. He had a stroke that blinded him. But he could be irrationally selfreliant. So he kept right on driving.

My mother never learned to drive, and he was determined not to pull over. He insisted on driving to the next town with her telling him whether to steer left or right - and whether there might be a deer or a truck in the way.

They made it to a motel where his eyesight returned after a rest, but he refused to see a doctor. Bear in mind, this is a man who, a few years before, had tried for a couple of hours to walk off the pain of what turned out to be a burst appendix. He had doctor phobia and the doctors barely saved him from that one.

Not many months after the blindness episode, his eyesight remained but his mind began to abandon ship. The doctor told me the condition would resemble Alzheimer’s but progress more rapidly. Within weeks, my father became an obstreperous little boy.

He lasted about half a year. But he was a handful for my mother. He would place a bag of groceries on the gas range and turn it on, trying to cook dinner. He was awake off and on through the night, roaming the house speaking gibberish.

My mother, drained of her last drop of energy, finally relented and signed the papers that would have handed him over to professional help. But he died the next morning, a few hours after an astonishing moment of sudden apologetic lucidity in which he patted my mother and said, “I’m so mean to you and you’re so good to me.”

Over the next year or so, she was lonely, of course. I told her that, as far as I was concerned, she should feel free to date and remarry if that appealed to her.

“I loved your father,” she said with a smile, “but I just got through taking care of one sick old man, and I don’t want another.”

She was about 75 when she said that, not much older than I am now. I didn’t fully understand her feelings then. I do now. You think about such questions at this age, no matter how fit and healthy you feel. And so it was that Sharon and I were talking about future remarriage the other

day; we had both come independently to the same conclusion: We each want the other to remarry if that has some appeal, but it is the conceit of our marriage that we both doubt we could do half as well on choosing a mate another time around.

Meanwhile, we had also both come to the conclusion that searching for someone new at this age sounded exhausting. Young or old, you don’t just go out the door one day and find someone tolerable in 20 minutes.

And then, even if by some miracle you do find a likely candidate, it takes months, even years for two people to adjust to each other’s whims, needs, and preferences.

It is marriage boot camp. You have to go through a lot of trial and error, forging compromises, adjusting yourself to new ways of living with a mate.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 33

average of 200 hours a month during the summer.”

“We keep telling our son we’re going to retire,” Carol says. “We’re both over 60 and have noticed a change as we get older. It’s a young man’s business. It’s a very lucrative business that I would recommend for any younger man.” ISI

PAGE 34 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

That sounds like a lot of time and work - and at a point in life when time is too precious to squander on some geriatric dating game.

Maybe you could just call the Spouse Store, tell them your needs, and count on them to send

APRIL/MAY 2011

over a ready-to-roll mate. But of course, it is not that simple. If you need company, learning to live with a cat or a dog or even a pet pig is less work.

If left alone, we would rather visit grandchildren, drink coffee with friends, or maybe watch

baseball with the pet pig while we try to remember the good times.

Hall may be contacted at wilberth@cableone. net or at 1012 Prospect Ave., Lewiston, ID 83501.

ISI

Lenny Frasure - Metal detecting in retirement

By Jack McNeel Lenny Frasure recently sold the glass shop he has owned since 1977, but retirement does not necessarily mean slowing down. For Lenny, it is a matter of changing focus to activities he has long enjoyed and to which he can now devote more time. One of those activities is metal detecting, another is writing about the outdoors, and still another is local Indian lore.

Lenny was born in Michigan but moved to a logging camp in California.

Not long after, another move brought the family to the Clearwater Valley and a job with the Potlatch Mill. Lenny went all the way through school there and then served a 21-month stint in the Air Force during the Vietnam era, but not in Vietnam. “We were in direct support off of Okinawa. We were there during the Pueblo incident in January 1968.”

He returned to the Lewiston area when his military tour ended and entered school at Lewis & Clark State College in Lewiston, graduating in 1971

with a degree in business. Three years later he married, and three years after that opened his own glass shop. Another 36 years passed, and he retired.

His interest in outdoor writing began some 28 years ago.

“I was in a jet boat that sank up in Hells Canyon,” he explains.

“I did a story on it that wound up in the Lewiston Tribune. I was asked if I’d be interested in doing a column for them and I did that for 17 years, weekly at first and then bi-weekly. That opened doors to an organization called Northwest Outdoor Writers Association (NOWA), which gave me quite a bit of opportunity to meet new trades people and potential markets in the outdoor realm of toys and equipment.”

He says that writing was, and remains, just a sideline, “One step above a hobby really.” Now, with more free time, who knows?

Lenny’s interest in local Indian history also dates back many years. “During the winter, especially, I’ll spend quite a bit of time in the side canyons of Hells Canyon. It’s really thrilling to find some Indian writing - be it petroglyphs or pictographs that probably no one has seen for years and years and maybe no one knows about them. It’s just intriguing - always has been. The canyon has lots of representations of native art. Some go back thousands and thousands of years. To me that’s hallowed ground.”

But the metal detecting seems to be currently holding the greatest attraction. Lenny explains that about 35 years ago he was given a metal detector for his birthday. “It was a real fancy Garrett. I used it for quite a while and got it down to where I could find quite a bit of stuff. Then, like a lot of hobbies, it got put away. I went 20 plus years without even thinking about it.”

But the yen for metal detecting was still there, and about three years ago he got back into it. “The machines are lighter now. You can tell whether to dig or not. They’re just much more sophisticated with today’s technology.”

Lenny recently was told by his doctors that he should not lift anything over three pounds. That was no problem for his hobby, as the new metal detector checked in at just three pounds! “For the past several months that’s what I’ve been lifting,” Lenny says with a chuckle.

“They’re so lightweight; you can cover a lot of ground. The coils are elongated so you’re making an 18-inch swath and about 3 inches wide. You can get to an old football field or something and really cover some ground.”

He cautions others to secure permission and respect property rights. “I have found that in most places, if you go to headquarters or the police station right off the bat and ask if there is any objection, they’ll usually open up the whole town to you.

It’s a lot better to do that than to have someone try to run you off.”

The modern technology helps in deciding when to dig. “You can tell if it’s iron, or you can flip a switch to ‘discrimination’ and determine if it’s a good metal like copper or silver. I’ve found gold in

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a few rings but I’ve never found a gold nugget.”

So in what types of places does he look? “Normally I just check out the parks and the schools.

If someone gives us permission to do their old house, that’s fun. It’s become a mutual interest for my girlfriend and me, so we travel. We’ll go 100 miles to some little town and maybe do their park or their school. It’s always especially nice to find a Barber dime or a Mercury dime or just any of the real coins. We find coins I would say 99.9% of the time. There have only been three places we’ve looked, if it’s an older area, that we haven’t found a coin.”

But they find more than just coins - it could be

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 35

anything that interests them. “Chinese coins, buttons,” Lenny comments. “I did an old schoolhouse here a couple weeks ago and found a button off a pair of old bib overalls. It showed a picture stamped in it of a little choo-choo train so it had to be a kid’s.

That could go back well over a hundred years.”

Rings are another frequent item that turns up.

“I’m up to 66 rings,” he says. “Some are gold and diamonds, some are silver, and a lot of them are junk, but it’s intriguing enough to keep me coming back.”

He also finds a lot of toy cars, some from the 40s. “I’ve got a couple dozen of those,” he adds.

Each item goes into a sandwich bag for its cat-

egory. Jewelry goes into one and wheat pennies or older go into another. Keys go into their own sandwich bag. He also unearths a lot of junk, “but it’s always kind of neat - kind of like an Easter egg hunt.”

Lenny does not sell any of his finds. Although he adds, laughing, “The way this economy is going I might have to have it melted down.”

His advice for others? “A lot of people get too technical with it, but as long as you keep the fun in it then you’ll continue to have fun.” ISI

April Is The Cruelest Month For Bob

By Saralee Perel “Whooooooo,” went the screech owl near dawn. He was perched on a branch outside our bedroom window. I nudged my husband, Bob, to wake him so he could see. He looked out the window and ran naked into the yard.

I yelled, “What are you doing?”

“Owls eat small birds!” he screamed over his shoulder. With arms flailing, he shouted to the screech owl, “Go home!” But owls never listen.

Bob goes into paternal overdrive and has hormonal surges each spring, when all the wild animals make our backyard their nursery.

That same day, our dog Gracie began barking crazily at the back door. At her feet was a tiny bunny. Bob carefully picked it up. Gracie, clearly still upset, herded us to a spot about twenty feet away where there was a nest.

Bob protectively cradled the tiny bunny. We saw that the nest held a second little one. “Put the bunny in the nest with the other,” I said. He wouldn’t. “Go ahead, Bob. It’s not yours to keep.”

He possessively held the baby to his breast. I expected him to start lactating. He sang softly, “If that mockingbird won’t sing, Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.” I gently pried the little bunny from his arms and put it in the nest.

I called my pal Rachel at the wildlife center.

She said, “Leave them alone and let the mother take care of them.” I could hardly hear her because Bob was beside me, crying. I held the phone away.

“What is the matter with you?” I whispered.

“The babies need me,” he said, whimpering.

“How do we know if the mother is around?” I asked Rachel.

“Have you seen an adult rabbit?”

I said to Bob, “Have you seen an adult rabbit?”

He looked away. “I’m not sure,” he said, sniffling. I know I saw the front of his shirt getting wet.

“You have to tell the truth, Bob. If they have a mother, it’s best for her to tend to them.”

He refused to answer.

“Just tell me.” I was trying to be patient. “Have you seen something hopping around with really big ears and a cotton tail?”

“Maybe I have and maybe I haven’t.”

“Yes, Rachel. The mother’s around.”

And so, we let nature take its course, which is never easy for Bob. He checked on the babies day and night.

Soon, he went into a postpartum thing. “I’m a

terrible father,” he said while binge-eating chocolate. “Raising two babies at once is so draining.”

“Bob, their eyes are still closed.”

One day, I saw him standing with his hands on his hips about ten feet from the mother rabbit, saying angrily, “I do everything around here. I baby-sit when you’re out shopping.” He stomped his foot. “Ever since I built that moat, have North Central Idaho’s Premier Retirement Community you seen even one raccoon? You could show a little appreciation.”

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APRIL/MAY 2011

Humans fight like a buffalo

By Bill Hall The evidence mounts that - much like a buffalo, a federal judge, or a first responder - we are driven by our genes to ignore our own safety when anyone in our pack is threatened by danger or death.

You may remember the popular YouTube video of cape buffalo running to the rescue of a calf being hauled away by lions. At first, a half dozen lions terrified a herd of buffalo. But when the big cats grabbed a calf, it was too much for the buffalo. They were not built to do nothing in that circumstance.

They beat up on the lions, tossing them into the air with horn-tip uppercuts, saving their own little one from becoming lion fodder.

Many among our kind are built like a buffalo, and I don’t mean because they eat too much fast food. The sacrificial urge is in our genes, whether we all heed the urge or not. We are designed to rush to the rescue of strangers, to save fellow humans - those who are part of our pack. Just like a buffalo, we aren’t built to do nothing.

Consider the recent reminder in Arizona. When a disturbed man started shooting people, the most common reaction of bystanders was to run to the rescue. They threw themselves on top of others almost instinctively, using their own bodies as shields.

Among those who sacrificed themselves was a federal judge, John Role. He decided on impulse to place himself between flying bullets and another defenseless human being.

That cost him his life. He had spent his years dodging personal death threats from angry cranks and shielding the innocent with the law. And then, when the law was powerless to help the situation, he threw himself over a fellow human, becoming judge, jury, and savior.

The heroes of the Arizona shooting said what most people seem to say in such situations. They protested, quite sincerely, that they acted impulsively. They saw someone in danger, and before they knew it, they had put themselves in peril - without fully weighing whether they should have or not.

On the other hand, there were some in the

crowd who were able to resist that impulse, and you can hardly blame them. But what happened reveals that there is nonetheless a lot of buffalo in the human animal. Ultimately, we rise and we fall on the collective strength of the herd. It is not that those who gave their lives were not truly brave.

But what we learn from this event is that Nature has built our kind to be brave when the herd is in danger, and a remarkable percentage of people rise to the occasion.

If many members of the herd are inclined to be brave when some are under attack, then the herd is likely to survive and to perpetuate our genes, although at the cost of our most plucky members.

You see the same thing time after time - first responders running toward a collapsing building, almost without thinking about it.

And each Pearl Harbor sends the free and the brave rushing off to war. The herd is threatened, and they must help.

In partial explanation, we humans possess a phenomenal trait that may make it easier to exercise whatever built-in bravery we have. In a crisis, Nature sometimes floods us with a kind of courage and adrenaline that lessens the fear of what must be done.

Some people who have been in situations where they believed they were truly about to die will tell you that they were not afraid once death seemed certain. Perhaps that is because - when one is trapped in an apparently hopeless situation and doomed to die - fear becomes pointless. Some people who have miraculously escaped probable death say they were astonished at how little fear they experienced once they had accepted the inevitable.

Strangest of all, some people have reported that, when being chomped on by lions, they forgot the pain and fear and became euphoric instead.

So perhaps we are built to avoid panic when about to die, giving us the focus to fight back and free ourselves.

Not me. If a lion starts eating me, I will whistle for the buffalo.

Or if I am feeling really mean, I might summon a pack of outraged vegetarians.

Hall may be contacted at wilberth@cableone. net or at 1012 Prospect Ave., Lewiston, ID 83501. ISI

Grandparents Submitted by Julie Hollar Brantley 1. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, “It’s no use, Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights.”

2. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, “I’m not sure.” “Look in your underwear, Grandpa,” he advised. “Mine says I’m 4 to 6.”

3. A six-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. “Oh,” he said, “she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we’re done having her visit, we take her back to the airport.” ISI

APRIL/MAY 2011

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 39

Classic DVDs For Your Entertainment Pleasure

By Mark Fee As a film critic for many years, I have become increasingly disillusioned with the flood of bad films from Hollywood. Many, including action, comedy, and other genres, lack character and script development, while many remakes like the recent Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) and Steve Martin’s Pink Panther films (2006, 2009) are inept.

By contrast, the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth with James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl was sensational with astonishing special effects, a sinister soundtrack, and great acting.

The earlier film was nominated for three Oscars, while the recent remake required 3D glasses, felt like a roller coaster ride of cheap special effects, and didn’t even have a villain. The Pink Panther films directed by Blake Edwards with Peter Sellers (1964-1981) were howlingly funny and included Henry Mancini’s unforgettable music. The Steve Martin films pale by comparison.

There are many great films from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s available on DVD and worth picking up at your local video store. Since humor is healthy, rent the following four comedies - they will have you doubled over in laughter. I dare you to frown!

Double dare!

The remake of The In Laws (2003) with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks was strained and pretentious. But the original (1979) with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk is priceless and side-splittingly funny.

Falk plays a mysterious government agent whose son is about to marry Arkin’s daughter. Arkin is a successful New York dentist and distrusts Falk, who visits Arkin’s office and asks Arkin for help with a small job. Arkin is almost killed helping Falk.

Falk kidnaps Arkin and flies him to an island off South America for another strange mission. Will they make it back in time for the marriage? This

movie proves that laughter is indeed the best Cookie (1966), Jack Lemmon is filming a Clevemedicine, with both Arkin and Falk devastatingly land Browns game when he is bowled over by a funny. Rated PG with three stars.

Browns star and suffers a concussion. His brother In The Party (1968) Peter Sellers plays an in law (Walter Matthau) is an unscrupulous lawyer incompetent Indian (India) actor who is mistakenly and sees the possibility for big money. Lemon invited to a party given in honor of the producer is outraged at the scheme, but Matthau uses who fired him. The party is hilarious from beginning Lemon’s ex-wife, with whom Lemon is still in love, to end. The actor is not used to Western culture to convince Lemon he has Lemon’s best interests or habits and makes numerous mistakes, but the at heart. This was Lemon and Matthau’s first film guests are amused and tolerate his blunders, together and is a classic and extremely funny which go from bad to worse, including stumbling movie - even more hilarious than The Odd Couple into the producer’s bathroom and discovering toi- (1968). Rated PG with 3.5 stars. let paper, which he has never seen before. Blake Yes, it is true. There is not a frown in the Edwards (The Great Race, 1964) directs with a bunch! ISI deft hand, and Sellers is even funnier than he was in A Shot in the Dark (1964). NR (Not rated) with 3.5 stars.

In Eight on the Lam (1967), Bob Hope plays a banker, who is mistakenly accused of embezzlement after he finds money outside a grocery store.

Bob is a single parent who needs the money for a family vacation. Phyllis Diller, as the family cook, is convinced Hope stole the money. Jonathan Winters, Diller’s boyfriend and the local sheriff, wants to nab him. In one very funny scene, Diller accidentally gives Bob, the family dog’s dinner. The dog growls, and while Hope keeps a straight face, you will not. Eight on the Lam is a sleeper - one of Hope’s last truly funny films. Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger, 1964) is Bob’s love interest and so is the stunning Jill St. John (Tony Rome, 1967) NR (Not rated) with three stars. at the Idaho Botanical Garden. Fourteen acres of gardens In The Fortune

Enjoy Spring

including the evolving Children’s Garden, Lewis & Clark Native Plant Garden, and Meditation Garden.

Where Are They Now? – Richard Kiel

By Marshall J. Kaplan The menacing character actor best known for his role as the James Bond villain, “Jaws” is still menacing in height, but don’t let that scare you, as he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet!

Richard Kiel was born on September 13, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. After reaching his tremendous height of 7’ 2”, Richard headed out to Hollywood to see what heights he could reach. A smart move on his part, as acting roles proved to be abundant.

Richard made his acting debut in 1960 on the television Western Laramie. Then came his film debut in the 1962 cult film, Eegah!

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Kiel appeared on almost every television show. His most famous television appearance was the lead in The Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man. His most famous film role during this period was as one of the prisoner football players in the 1974 Burt Reynolds

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PAGE 40 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

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hit The Longest Yard.

In 1977, Kiel was cast as The Incredible Hulk - starring in both the original two, made-for-TV movies. However, after filming, the producers felt that the Hulk should be more muscular and buff, rather than tall. Kiel was then re-cast by Lou Ferrigno.

Kiel has no regrets about this decision, “Lou getting the role and me losing it was great for both of us. I went on to be cast as Jaws in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and earned international fame. It really worked out for both of us.”

Kiel was now a huge star (pardon the pun). He recreated the role of Jaws in another James Bond film, Moonraker (1979) – again starring opposite Roger Moore.

In 1992, Kiel suffered a head injury in a car accident, which affected his equilibrium.

Today, he gets around with the use of a cane and scooter.

A new generation of fans found Richard through his role as Mr. Larson in the Adam Sandler golf film, Happy Gilmore. Today, after so many years as a supporting player, Kiel has been cast as the lead in a scifi trilogy of films, “I love this character. There is something really secretive about him!”

Upon meeting this on-screen menacing character, one quickly realizes that Richard Kiel is one of the sweetest and most eloquent men you could ever know. Kiel’s words of wisdom? “To be loved is important. But to love is equally important in life especially when combined with taking action to do something for someone and making their life better.”

Richard Kiel is definitely walking tall! ISI

Air travel can be confusing… for some Ticket agents encounter many different types of passengers as they help them negotiate the ins and outs of moving around the world. Below are a few of these humorous encounters from the agent side of the ticket counter.

1. I had a woman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window.

2. I got a call from a man who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, “I’m not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts.”

Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, “Cape Cod is in Massachusetts. Cape Town is in South Africa.” His response was a click of the phone.

3. An older man called, furious about a Florida package we had done for him. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that that was not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.

He replied, “Don’t lie to me! I looked on the map, and Florida is a very thin state!”

4. I got a call from a woman who asked, “Is it possible to see England from Canada?”

I said, “No.” She said, “But they look so close on the map.”

5. A man once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a one-hour layover in Dallas.

When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, “I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.” ISI

APRIL/MAY 2011

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Underwater world fascinates scuba diving couple

By Dianna Troyer Floating weightless and warm among hammerhead sharks and manta rays off the coast of Hawaii in February, a giddy thought surfaced in Mike Branchflowerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I realized the older I get, the luckier I get whenever I scuba dive. We saw amazing fish.â&#x20AC;?

He and his wife Kathy are both certified scuba

Mike and Kathy Branchflower teach a deep dive class and made it to 85 feet below the surface of the water on a recent vacation. [Photo courtesy of Mike and Kathy Branchflower]

diving instructors who live in Boise. They never tire of escaping the constraints of gravity, as they explore endlessly fascinating underwater worlds and share their enthusiasm with students and fellow divers.

For Mike, scuba diving fulfills a childhood dream. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wanted to dive ever since I was a kid and watched Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt, but career and family intervened,â&#x20AC;? says the 62-year-old. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I was 53, I finally had more time and took a class and became certified. I was definitely a late bloomer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Scuba diving is such a wonderful sport. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be a great athlete, and you can be any age. We just certified a woman who is 83.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great way to meet people, too. Here in the Treasure Valley, we have about 300,000 people and about 1 percent to 2 percent who take scuba diving vacations to warm water. Then you have another couple hundred people who dive locally in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah.â&#x20AC;?

Scuba diving provides â&#x20AC;&#x153;a fabulous sense of freedom,â&#x20AC;? Mike says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re diving, you have to concentrate, so for a while you forget about anything that worried you on the surface. Because you feel weightless, scuba diving is probably the closest sensation youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ever have to floating in outer space.â&#x20AC;?

Diving is his passport to an enchanting environment, where aquatic creatures, whether in salt water or fresh water, fascinate him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fish donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to mind people down there, so you can get

incredibly close to them,â&#x20AC;? Mike says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They just think a diver is a funny creature blowing bubbles.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve heard whales singing to each other, and fish feeding on the coral.â&#x20AC;?

Researchers are still finding new species of marine creatures, he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Scientists know more about the moon than they do about what lives in the ocean. Off the San Juan Islands, a six-gilled shark was discovered that was previously thought to be extinct. There are giant Pacific octopuses there, too.â&#x20AC;?

Mike says his wife did not always share his enthusiasm for scuba diving. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At first, Kathy was definitely reluctant,â&#x20AC;? he recalls, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but she continued to progress and last year became an instructor, and now she leads trips.â&#x20AC;?

Mike says he bribed her to learn to dive by promising to take her to Jamaica. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a farm girl from Kimberly who had never been out of Idaho,â&#x20AC;? she says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but I wanted to see Jamaica, so I took a class. I progressed slowly because I was afraid. What finally turned me around was taking a rescue class. I learned I could take care of myself, trust my gear, and be able to take care of a buddy. It took me quite a while, eight years, to become an instructor.â&#x20AC;?

Now, she specializes in teaching students who are fearful like she once was. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I tell beginning students my story and how I was scared to learn, it helps put them at ease. I tell students they can overcome their fears. When I started, I did it for my husband because I wanted to do things with him. Now I do it for myself. I love looking for colorful underwater fish and seeing the beauty of the underwater world.â&#x20AC;?

Their daughters, Jenny and Mary, eventually became certified instructors, too. The family has taken diving vacations to Hawaii, Bonaire, Jamaica, Borneo, St. Lucia, Belize, Mexico, Canada, Honduras, and Dominique.

The Branchflowers do not have to fly far away from home to find warm water diving spots, however. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We can drive a couple of hours to lakes warmed by hot springs in Utah,â&#x20AC;?

Mike says.

Not even winter weather can chill their desire to dive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll put on a dry suit and dive in the ponds and reservoirs around here, as long as

the ice is off,â&#x20AC;? he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and a few of us are certified to dive under the ice.â&#x20AC;?

Diving in fresh water is as enthralling as diving in an ocean. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like asking whether you like chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream,â&#x20AC;? Mike says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re both wonderful and a little different. You can see trout and other fish in the Blue Heart Spring or Thousand Springs where the water is so clear, you have 100 feet of visibility.â&#x20AC;?

Mikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s childhood aquatic interests were sidelined as a young adult. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I served in the U.S. Air Force from 1968 to 1972 in Southeast Asia,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was on a recreational leave in Japan and almost ready to

8, (OSPICE )$3R)ND PDF !-

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finish my certification for open water diving, when I was sent back to Southeast Asia.”

After his discharge, he visited an uncle in Pocatello, Idaho, and eventually landed a job building center pivots. “I traveled throughout the Northwest and even did some projects in Saudi Arabia until we sold the business in 2002.”

With their business sold and two daughters raised, Mike finally fulfilled his desire to dive and

eventually became a business partner at Dive Magic and Boise Water Sports.

His next trip outside Idaho will be to Vancouver Island. “We’ll do some ship wreck diving and help people finish up some certifications. It’s not too time-consuming to become certified. You need about two weekends to pass academic and practical courses, then you have to complete some open water dives. It’s definitely worthwhile.” ISI

Why the ‘Recreation’ in Recreational Vehicle?

By Bernice Beard, Senior Wire Even retirees need recreation. “If bread is the first necessity of life, recreation is a close second,” wrote Edward Bellamy (1850–1898), American author.

What Is Recreation?

Recreation is a way to refresh ourselves and regain control of our lives. It is an acceptable way to build feelings of self-worth and find pleasure in life. Recreation is subjective and personal: while surfing may be fun for some people, others may prefer hiking.

Recreation includes indoor activities such as reading, playing games, writing, singing, and listening to music. Outdoor recreation includes camping, traveling, boating, fishing, swimming, surfing, scuba diving, hiking, horseback riding, and much more.

Why We Need Recreation?

In good times and bad, we all need recreation.

Why? • To nurture our bodies and minds with relaxation and enjoyment.

• To serve as the antidote for workaholism by providing a beneficial break.

• To stretch our physical and mental abilities, giving us a renewed sense of achievement.

• To give us the benefits of physical fitness, positive thinking, satisfaction of accomplishment, knowledge, and intellectual experiences.

• To provide healthy activities that help counteract stress.

• To supply a useful diversion from chronic pain and other health problems.

How RVing Meets That Need?

What is a recreational vehicle if not recreational? The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) defines an RV as “a vehicle that combines transportation and temporary living quarters for travel, recreation, and camping.”

According to a 2005 University of Michigan study commissioned by RVIA, “Nearly one in 12 U.S. vehicle-owning households now own an RV. That’s nearly 8 million households - a 15 percent

increase during 2001-2005 and a 58 percent gain during 1980-2005.” The study also found that approximately 8.2 million RVs travel the nation’s roads. RVIA finds that people choose and use RVs for their flexibility and convenience, comfort, family appeal, affordability, lure of the outdoors, versatility, and rentability.

How can RVing meet your recreational needs?

• RVing provides meaningful, satisfying ways to use our precious time and to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

• PKF Consulting, travel, and tourism consultants, found that even during times of high fuel prices, typical RV trips cost an average of 27 to 61 percent less than other types of vacations.

• RVing refreshes the mind and body through relaxation away from normal routines and enjoyment of new scenes and activities.

• It helps build relationships among family members and friends.

• RVers join clubs to take advantage of discounts and other benefits; meet other RVers, and participate in campouts, rallies and caravan adventures, and otherwise enjoy using their RVs. • RV travelers can visit national recreation areas such as Big South Fork in Kentucky and Tennessee (www.nps.gov/biso/). This area offers camping, an outdoor coal-mining museum, hiking, fishing, mountain biking, and rock climbing.

• RVers can also visit national parks. For example, more than 17 million people visited Blue Ridge Parkway in 2007. The National Park System (www.nps.gov) began in 1872 with the founding of Yellowstone National Park and now administers more than 84 million acres that include scenic panoramas, prehistoric, historic, and scientific sites, and recreational areas.

• In addition to the many other benefits of RVing, a study by PKF Consulting found that RV vacations generate less carbon dioxide (CO2) than traveling by plane or by car and staying in a hotel.

A long time ago, Miguel de Cervantes (1547– 1616), author of Don Quixote, wrote, “The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation.”

For a list of national recreation areas, go to http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004780.html to find them by state, go to http://www.nps.gov/.

Bernice Beard is the author of the At Your Own Pace series of RVing books, including 301 Ways to Make RV Travel Safer, Easier, and More Fun. For additional information and tips that make life on the road more carefree, visit www.rvatyourownpace. com. ISI

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Sticking to the basics of golf means the fastest learning curve

By Jimmie McDowell A typical golf instructor might use the following commands when teaching golf to beginners: “Keep your head down! Keep your left arm straight! Don’t look up! Swing easy!” This approach can lead to an information overload, and is therefore a typical mistake instructors make. Many golf instructors using this approach cloud their students’ minds and bring about a level of paralysis by analysis.

Beginners in the sport of golf learn most quickly when they limit their focus to the most important aspects of the golf swing - the grip, the stance, the takeaway, and the downswing.

Gripping the golf club is the foremost component of the swing that beginning golfers must understand. To identify the top hand position, a golfer has to let his/ her hand hang down to allow a natural position to form. The club must then be gripped in this position, and the golfer must mirror the position with the bottom hand. J. D. Turner, a professional golfer says, “For a good shot to occur, the grip must support the club at the top of the swing and rotate the clubface back to square at impact.” A natural position will accomplish this.

A golfer may overlap, interlock, or grip with all ten fingers, but he/she should make sure the grip is not in the palm of the hand and that the grip pressure

is moderate.

The second focus that is essential to a good swing is a balanced, steady stance. The golf swing must start with a solid base of support with the feet shoulder-width apart, and weight evenly distributed with slight flexion in the knees. The upper body posture is central. The back ought to be fairly straight with the arms hanging naturally from the shoulders. The chin should be held up. When your chin goes down, your back tends to bow and your weight slips back on your heels, making an in-balance swing difficult at best.”

Next, focus on the backswing and the downswing. The correct backswing starts with a proper takeaway. Emphasis must be placed on pushing the club with the arms and hands at the start of the backswing. There should be virtually no movement of the lower body until the shaft of the club is parallel to the ground. Once again, it is critical to keep flexion in the back knee. This will create a wide, level shoulder turn that generates tremendous power. According to professional golfer Hal Sutton, “The hands should remain in front of the chest all the way to the top of the backswing.”

When properly executed, the upper body will turn ninety degrees, and the lower body will resist by turning only forty-five degrees.

Tips For Beginners: The Approach Shot

By Dane Pearson After mastering the concept of the tee shot, the next step as a golf instruction beginner is to move on to the short game and what are known as approach shots. For most people, these shots will be increasingly more difficult because they require more skill and patience than a simple tee shot.

There are a variety of approach shots, all of which are used in different situations depending on where your initial shot lands on the course.

However, your intention with these shots is always to land on the green.

The pitch shot is an approach shot that is played from farther away than the other shots.

Using a wedge, the ideal pitch shot is the perfect combination of enough swing momentum to carry your shot through, but not enough to send it sailing over the green. Trajectory will be low to average depending on how far you are from the cup. It is very important to make sure the ball does not roll too far.

You must start off with a slightly open stance, positioning your right foot directly across from the ball. When following through on a pitch shot, always make sure to keep your backswing as short as you possibly can. Failure to keep your backswing in check will usually cause you to instinctively put the brakes on your shot while accelerating, which is a definite no-no. You want to have enough confidence in your wedge to let the

club do the work for you. Do not think you have to assist the ball through the air.

Another approach shot is known as the chip shot. You will need to use a chip shot once you are within about 30 yards of the green, usually after a fairway drive or tee shot. The idea is for this shot to have a much shorter trajectory, so you will need to use a less lofted club. Proper weight distribution is paramount to getting off a decent chip shot. If you are a right handed golfer, you want to put the majority of your weight on the left side and hold this position through the duration of your shot.

There are generally two kinds of chip shots that concern us. The first one is known as the bump-and-run shot, and the second is a flop shot.

The bump-and-run is usually taken with an 8, 7, or 6 iron club and with the clubface hooded. That way your shot will have less loft. You also want to have just enough power in your backswing to follow through. The flop shot is used when you want to get over an obstacle like a rough patch or a sand trap, so you are going to want to have a much higher trajectory in order to push the ball over. Open up your stance and follow through as far under the ball as possible to try and pop it up, and you will keep your ball away from the danger zones with a good position for a subsequent shot.

With every aspect of golf there is one answer – practice, practice, practice… and pretty soon you will be good at approach shots. ISI

The last point of emphasis for beginners is to hit down on the ball. The beginning golfer should swing the club so it travels slightly downward at the point of impact. By mastering a downward swing, where the bottom hand delivers the clubface in a palm-down position, golfers learn how to trap the ball against the clubface to produce powerful, accurate shots. This movement is initiated by letting the arms and hands drop naturally with a quiet lower body. Once the hands drop below the waist, the lower body will have a more active role.

Again focusing on the basics, the grip, the stance, the takeaway, and the downswing, will result in the quickest learning curve. ISI

PAGE 44 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

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Fairbanks-The Golden Heart of Alaska

By Holly Endersby the Fairbanks campus. The dramatic, two-story, As our Alaska Airlines flight slipped below the white museum is a stunning piece of architecture clouds, the vibrant city of Fairbanks lay like a last and holds an amazing array of Arctic history and outpost in the vast boreal forest surrounding it. culture. Exploring the five permanent galleries Located in the Tanna River Valley, water surrounds can easily absorb half a day, an experience not Fairbanks. Gold spelled the real start of Fairbanks, to be rushed. Be sure to use the audio guide as with Italian immigrant Felix Padro finding the first you move through the museum and explore 2,000 bonanza in 1903. From those beginnings, Fairbanks later opened its arms to railroads, military bases, and oil exploration and oil production, to develop a diverse and thriving community. Today, tourism adds significantly to the economy as well.

Our first stop was the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The facility features viewing pens, footpaths, tours, and a gift shop.

Animals studied at the facility include caribou, reindeer, and musk ox. The musk ox story is one of near extinction. By 1906 Compound [Photo courtesy of Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum] the 1860s, the original musk ox vanished from Alaska just as they had earlier years of Alaskan art, culture, wildlife, history, and disappeared from Asia and Europe. To keep the geography. In particular, take the time to experispecies from extinction, 34 animals were brought ence The Place Where You Go to Listen, a visual from East Greenland to Fairbanks in 1930 and to and auditory sound and light environment created Nunivak Island, Alaska in 1935 and 1936. Today, by composer John Luther Adams. In addition, I musk ox number 3,000 in Alaska and 80,000 world- was enthralled with the Gallery of Alaska and its wide. Visitors to the Research Station are usually presentation of the five major geographic regions amazed at the short, bulky stature of musk ox of this huge state. Hours of operation through May - in size and weight an 14 are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. closed Sundays. Summer adult bull is equivalent hours May 15 through September 15 are 9 a.m. to a Volkswagen Beatle! to 9 p.m. daily. Visit www.uaf.edu/museum/ for We were entranced by additional information. these mountains of hair We chose to eat a quick lunch at Creamer’s and watched their slow, Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge right in Fairmethodical movements banks itself. The site of an old dairy, 1,800 acre with an appreciation Creamer’s Field is a birder’s dream, with trails and for how well adapted viewing platforms. One hundred sixty-one spethey are to the rigors of cies of birds have been counted and the refuge the Arctic weather. By provides a handy bird list for visitors to use. Our contrast, the reindeer August visit coincided with the Crane Festival and caribou seem al- when hundreds of migratory sandhill cranes as most delicate but the well as Canada geese use the lush meadows for majestic antlers on the feeding. Spotting scopes are available but be sure bulls reminded us they to bring good binoculars as well. looked that way only Associated with Creamer’s Field is the Alaska in comparison with the Bird Observatory, a private, non-profit research blocky musk ox! and education center dedicated to the advanceFrom the Research ment of bird conservation. ABO is located on Station we went on to the grounds of Wedgewood Resort that borders the University of Alaska Creamer’s Field. The center is a good place to Museum of the North on find gifts for avid birders in your life. In addition,

APRIL/MAY 2011

Wedgewood Resort has developed a network of easy nature trails with interpretive signs that are a delight to walk.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Fairbanks was the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum also located on the grounds of Wedgewood Resort. Not a car buff myself, I went along reluctantly. However, as soon as I entered the museum I was hooked.

There are more rare and antique cars restored to mint condition here than any other museum I have visited. The information along with the cars was fascinating, including historical photos of the cars in use. As an added feature, mannequins in pristine period costumes dot the floor and add immensely to the fun. The collection features over 70 automobiles with around 50 on the floor and 55 vintage fashion exhibits. It really is a must-see in Fairbanks. My husband, Scott, and I had great fun putting on old touring costumes to have our picture taken in one of the early automobiles.

Of course, be sure to stop at the Fairbanks Visitor and Convention Bureau, a modern building just bursting with Alaska exhibits, and tons of free information. Be sure to check the schedule of cultural events held here as part of the Morris Thompson Cultural Visitor Center within the building.

A trip to Fairbanks would not be complete without at least a day trip to Denali National Park, an easy 3.5 hour drive away. Start early in the morning and you can stay several hours at the park and still be back in Fairbanks for dinner. Be sure to keep your eyes open on the drive: we saw a large lynx outside the park entrance and were able to watch it long enough to pull off the highway at a marked sightseeing spot and take photos.

The park itself offers a variety of ways to experience this incredible landscape. Shuttle buses drive the Park Road daily and riders can get off

and on at any point along the route. The route is not narrated on these busses, but they do stop for wildlife viewing. Fully narrated tour buses offer a variety of options from a Natural History Tour ($60.75/person) to the Tundra Wilderness Tour ($103/person). Reservations and gathering point for all bus trips is the Wilderness Access Center a short way from the park entrance.

For those not wishing a bus ride, private cars are allowed on the first 15-miles of paved road, with plenty of turnouts for wildlife viewing along the way. We were treated to views of enormous bull caribou just a few yards off the road and what had to be the biggest bull moose on the planet a quarter mile away but easily seen with the naked eye and simply stunning through binoculars. The Park Road is 92 miles long and folks who take one of the buses would do well to stop at the Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66 for one of the best views of Mt. McKinley - weather dependent of course.

The Denali National Park Visitor Center is open just a few miles inside the park and offers wonderful displays not to be missed. The nearby gift shop has a marvelous selection of books and other gifts to remind you of your visit. The Muri Science and Learning Center near the entrance serves as the Winter Visitor Center. Although the Park Road is typically open mid-May to mid-September, winter visitors will find opportunities for snowshoe and cross-country ski explorations - if they are prepared for the rigors of an Alaskan winter!

Winter in Fairbanks brings with it the opportunity to experience dog mushing, aurora viewing, festivals, and the wide array of cultural events in the city ranging from symphony performances and ballet to theatre. No matter what time of year you visit Fairbanks, you will find plenty to keep you entertained and busy. It really is the “Golden Heart of Alaska” and your gateway to the Far North! ISI

Tulips Galore Paint Colorful Panorama At Washington Festival

By Craig & Liz Larcom Vibrant tulip fields splash the landscape in western Washington’s Skagit Valley each April. So many people drive to see the spectacle that, in 1984, folks in Mount Vernon decided to create a festival - the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival was born.

Today, it is the biggest festival in the northwestern part of the state, attended by hundreds of thousands. Seniors, young couples, families with kids, and photographers come to enjoy the tulips.

For many, it would not be spring without a trip to the Skagit Valley, 60 miles north of Seattle.

Most growers raise red or yellow tulips, planted in stripes a foot wide. New maps each year tell where the tulips (and daffodils and irises) grow. To reduce disease and improve the soil, growers rotate the tulips with other crops, so tulips only grow in any particular field every five years. To keep visitors up-to-date as the season progresses, an online map at www. tulips.com tells which fields are blooming.

Bloom time runs about two weeks and varies with each year’s weather, which is why the festival runs from April 1 to 30. Flexible travelers keep in touch by phone or on the web to arrive at peak bloom.

Those who need to decide in advance have the best odds between April 9 and 17.

In addition to driving past fields of vivid blooms, visitors can stop at two show gardens.

Bright purple tulips, two-

color tulips, tulips with white petal tips, and ruffled tulips are just a few of the varied tulips to be found.

Founders of both companies in the Skagit tulipgrowing business today emigrated from Holland.

The Washington Bulb Company’s owners, the Roozen family, made the jump from Holland to the Skagit in 1947. William Roozen, Sr. came with an extensive tulip pedigree - the family began growing tulips in the mid-1700s.

Putting his knowledge of tulips to use, William began his bulb farm in the Skagit with five acres of land, some used farm equipment, and a lot of energy. From that humble start, the family business became the Washington Bulb Com-

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pany, now the nation’s largest bulb grower.

Festival visitors enjoy a three-acre display garden, planted with 90 kinds of tulips. The display uses a mind-boggling quarter-million bulbs. Beyond the garden with its windmill lies a 15-acre field of tulips.

Another company, the Skagit Valley Bulb Farm, offers its show garden at Tulip Town. In addition to a windmill and the World Peace Garden, fifteen eye-pleasing acres of colorful tulips flourish out back plus a building full of vendors. The building is especially welcome in the event of April showers.

Visitors who would rather ride, or who want an elevated view of the fields at Tulip Town, can take a tractor-pulled “trolley” ride around the fields for $2.

Descendants of the DeGoede brothers run the Skagit Valley Bulb Farm, whose family also emigrated from Holland. Henry and John arrived in 1948.

Over the years, the Skagit valley tulip extravaganza has spawned a multitude of ways to see the festival, including bicycle and motor coach tours, and flights over the tulip fields in helicopters. Visitors can even arrive via a clipper-ship-and-bus combination from Seattle.

Those who come on the weekends should be prepared for heavy traffic, but the trade-off is a heap of additional activities from which to choose. Art

Key questions to ask the nursing home

By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire At least 3.2 million people in this country will spend some time in a nursing home this year.

You hope and pray that you are not one of them. But if it appears you are headed that way, a national voluntary group has developed a list of questions you and your family members should ask to promote skilled and compassionate nursing care.

AConsumers must take a more active role in pushing for higher quality care for family members and themselves,@ points out Mary Jane Koren, M.D., M.P.H. She is the chair of Advancing Excellence in America=s Nursing Homes. She also is assistant vice president of the Commonwealth Fund in New York, a health systems foundation.

To help member nursing homes improve, the Advancing Excellence campaign’s website furnishes technical assistance, online resources, and other materials for nursing home staff and consumers. There are 28 participating organizations representing nursing homes, health care professionals, care workers, quality-improvement experts, and government agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Veterans Administration.

Half of the nation=s nursing homes have joined Advancing Excellence.

You can get a copy of the campaign=s new guide at www.nhqualitycampaign. org.

Questions to ask when considering a nursing home • What ongoing training is available to the staff? Continuing training helps staff learn new skills and methods for improved care. It also translates into increased job satisfaction. This creates stable staffing and higher quality care.

• How many caregivers should each patient have? A patient should have as few different caregivers as possible. Strong bonds are often developed between the patient and a caregiver who consistently offers care for the resident. Consistent care assignments are important for all residents, but they are especially important for patients with Alzheimer=s because they can easily become distressed when dealing with unfamiliar people.

• Are staff members trained to handle special conditions and resulting behaviors, such as those associated with Alzheimer=s? Staff should understand that wandering and yelling are typical.

in the Pickle Barn, the Kiwanis salmon barbecue, a home tour, a parade, concerts, the Tulip Run, a quilt walk, and a “Prodigious Potato” Silent Auction are just a sampling of events scheduled in April.

Bulb growers here produce more tulips than anywhere else in the nation, owing to the extended growing season of the maritime climate and the rich topsoil. For buyers, the ideal conditions will translate to robust bulbs that grow exceptionally well.

Luckily for viewers, the procedure is to let the bulbs blossom before the growers top them. (After topping, the bulbs stay in the ground to grow until summer, when the growers dig them up.) Farmers also cut a small percentage of the blooms to sell as cut flowers during the festival.

Savvy visitors, take note of the damp climate and bring foot gear that can handle mud in case the fields happen to be wet.

For more information, pick up a brochure at the Tulip Festival Office at 311 West Kincaid in Mount Vernon, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, have one mailed to you from the Tulip Festival Office (360-428-5959), or download one from at www.tulipfestival.org. Check on how the bloom is going at the same phone number or check online. ISI

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• What is your plan for pressure ulcer (bedsore) prevention? The skin, as with other parts of the body, can fail over time. Residents who cannot move by themselves are likely to have pressure sores. Bedsores can develop on heels, hips, ankles, elbows, shoulders, and ears - wherever skin is exposed to pressure for long periods of time. Staff can prevent them by inspecting patients’ skin daily. Staff also should keep residents clean and dry from incontinence. And staff should make sure patients eat and drink nutritious food and fluids.

• How do you assess and treat residents’ pain? Pain can be difficult to measure. Staff should inquire about patients= comfort and pain level daily.

For someone with dementia, staff should watch for pain signs such as pacing, holding a body part, or grimacing.

• How are medications handled? Residents often take several drugs.

Some are prescribed. Some are over-the-counter, such as vitamins. The more medications, the greater the possibility of dangerous interactions. Nursing home staff should continually assess the potential complications of these drugs. Addition of any new medication requires monitoring by the nursing

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staff. Staff should notice sleepiness or confusion that could be caused by medications.

• Are staff members familiar with your family member=s medical background, as well as his or her preferences? Residents and family members should share as much information as possible with staff. If a resident likes to eat early or listen to the radio, staff should know this.

• How are suggestions from family members handled? Collaboration with staff should be sought. If issues continue to arise, alert the nursing home administration and attend the care-planning meetings to get more information.

• Does the nursing home have a long-range plan to improve care for everyone? How often are quality assurance meetings held? Does the nursing home have a specific plan to address potential problems? What issues are they currently working on?

• Does the facility have a consumer satisfaction survey? If so, ask to see it. A high satisfaction rating by residents and families often correlates with higher quality care. ISI

Celebrate Older Americans Month

By Bernice Karnop When Older Americans Month was established in 1963, only 17 million living Americans had reached their 65th birthday. About a third of older Americans lived in poverty, and there were few programs to meet their needs. In April of that year, President John F. Kennedy, with the advice of the National Council of Senior Citizens, designated May as Senior Citizen’s Month. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter revised the name to Older Americans Month.

The Idaho Senior Independent joins in celebrating Older Americans Month this May. The theme of this year’s celebration is Older Americans: Connecting the Community. We have a front row seat to appreciate the many ways in which older adults bring inspiration and continuity to the fabric of Idaho communities. Their shared histories, diverse experiences, and wealth

If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have time to do something about it.

- Anthony D’Angelo

of knowledge make our state what it is today.

We also celebrate all the advances that help older Americans live longer, healthier, and more engaged lives. Older Idahoans are out and about, giving back and making a difference in their communities across the state. They mentor leaders of tomorrow and take time to volunteer in schools. They connect with others by delivering meals, helping with home repair, assisting with shopping, and offering companionship and care.

Join us in celebrating Older Americans Month by not only recognizing those who have gone beyond the call of duty, but also by contacting your local Area Agency on Aging to find out how you can be part of this amazing volunteer force. Opportunities are so diverse, we are sure there is a perfect place for you! ISI

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