Celebrating Life at Diamond Lake and Sacheen Lake Volume 6, Issue 5
Summer winds down
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Gardening at the lake
August 2017
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Published: August 2017 Publisher: Michelle Nedved Writers & editors: Don Gronning and Sophia Aldous About the cover: Diamond Lake photographer Cliff Snow photographed this eagle Aug. 23 as it takes off after going down in the water to get a fish. Advertising: Lindsay Guscott, Cindy Boober and Micki Brass LAKE LIFE is published monthly in April, May, June, July and August as a supplement to The Newport Miner and Gem State Miner, 421 S. Spokane, Newport WA 99156. TELEPHONE: 509-447-2433 E-MAIL: minernews@povn.com, mineradvertising@povn.com FAX: 509-447-9222
Reproduction of articles & photographs is prohibited without permission of the Publisher.
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The Miner Online: www.pendoreillerivervalley.com. If you want to receive Lake Life in your mail contact The Miner at 509-447-2433. August Lake Life
Garden tour comes with stories BY CANEEL JOHNSON FOR THE MINER
NEWPORT – “We are looking forward to all the beautiful gardens,” says Diamond Lake resident Lynda Heckman. “We are new to the area and thought this tour would be a great way to get to know the area,” added her husband Ed Heckman. There were several people out enjoying the Master Gardener’s 26th Annual Garden Tour, Sunday, Aug. 6. The $25 fee granted people access to three gardens in Newport and two in Diamond Lake, along with a dinner at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. Each garden has a distinct personality and holds a
unique story. “All the produce from our garden is donated to the Food Bank,” says Loretta Nichols, one of the volunteers. The tour began at the Washington State University Extension annex on Garden Avenue in Newport where people received an access bracelet and explored the Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden. Each year they add a new aspect to the display. This year it was raised beds for berries. They also offer brochures to help with your own garden. Other volunteers included Barb Bateman, Kay Bettencourt, and Vicky Green, who was selling plant starts. “All of the proceeds from the starts will go to First Step
program,” Green said. Bob and Vi Shanklin’s garden on Circle Drive in Newport was the next stop. “I like my garden to be both beautiful and functional,” says Vi. She was taught the art of gardening by her grandmother. All the rows in her garden are neat and orderly. Vi and Bob have come up with some clever ways to keep the birds from ruining their beds. They use lattice to keep the birds from digging up the beds after they have been harvested, and they use burlap sacks over beds with fresh seed to keep the birds from eating it. “It is great because unlike SEE GARDEN, 4
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Rob and Marleen Laurich’s Secret Garden. The garden was the site of an underground cabin the couple lived in for three years. The cabin was removed and a garden planted. August Lake Life
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GARDEN | FROM PAGE 3
plastic it breathes and you can water right through it,” says Vi. The most unique part of their garden is the storage system Bob made for all their carrots and potatoes. He sunk two fivegallon buckets in the ground, and lined a wooden lid with Styrofoam for insulation. “This was the best way to store them all winter without them rotting. Now when we need to replenish our stock, Bob comes out, wipes off the snow, opens the lid on one of the buckets and they are perfect until spring,” says Vi. “Welcome to the private sanctuary of Troy and Loanne (Odell),” says Jane Bolz, the Master Gardener volunteer helping out. The Odell’s Diamond Lake sanctuary has many little nooks where people can relax and enjoy the flowers, archways, and frog sculptures. There is a section of the garden for feeding the household. It is filled with enormous specimens of different veggies, and has a green house filled with gigantic tomatoes plants. “Our food garden did not do as well this year. There was a serious lack of bees, and there was just not enough pollination,” says Loanne. The most unique thing about her garden is the koi and goldfish pond. The soothing sounds of the water and the majestic fish are a calming combination. “I used to have frogs, but the water snakes keep eating them,” says Loanne. “I think they live under the pond, but they don’t seem to bother the fish.” Rob and Marleen Laurich live near Diamond Lake. “Welcome to my secret garden,” says Rob. They are the only couple on the tour to have a garden that you walk down into. Ron and his wife moved here in 1982. Ron spent a week digging out a hole for the
underground cabin they lived in for three years. “When my wife became pregnant she refused to have the baby in the cabin. So, we built the house.” After the baby, the old house was dug up and taken out. The hole where it was is now the garden. They still get to enjoy coffee every morning in what was the kitchen of their old home. “It took me a week to dig it out alone,” remembers Rob. “Then after the house was built we had a party to bury it.” The last garden on the tour is probably one of the most famous in Newport. Newport Natural Iris, established by Robert and Linda Karr, was originally founded in 1999 to sell irises. “We have so many different types of plants we had to start labeling them,” says Linda. Over the years they have cultivated more than 1,500 different types of irises, as well as many other types of flower. “All our children are taught not to eat or pick anything they cannot positively identify. A lot of poisonous plants are beautiful,” says Linda as she points out a prickly magenta flower. “It is a caster bean, very poisonous.” Although the tour was too late to see the beauty of the Iris blooms, which typically happens from May 1 through
June 15, it had the opportunity to view the other passion of Robert’s hostas. Since beginning his new obsession in 2009 Robert now has 180 different types species on his property. “There is only one hosta club west of the Mississippi,” says Robert, “and it is in Utah.” Robert hopes to find enough people interested in creating one closer to home. If you missed this year’s tour, or would like to add you garden to the tour. For more information on the Master Gardeners classes visit www. extension.wsu.edu/pendoreille/gardening/ or call 509-447-6453.
COURTESY PHOTO|CANEEL JOHNSON
Loanne Odell shows one of the carrots grown at her garden near Diamond Lake. Loanne says the food garden didn’t do as well this year because of the lack of bees.
COURTESY PHOTO|CANEEL JOHNSON
The ornamental part of the Odell’s garden. August Lake Life
Bees, other pollinators topics of Sept. 14 gardening class NEWPORT – People are invited to join the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension Master Gardeners Thursday, Sept.14 from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension Office at 227 S. Garden Avenue in Newport for an information packed class, “A Pend Oreille County Gardener’s Guide to Pollinators.” Two speakers, Vicki Green, WSU Extension Master Gardener and native pollinator enthusiast and Pat McGinty, local gardener and beekeeper, will present information on the different kinds of pollinators, why they are important and what people can do to attract and encourage them in their gardens.
Class participants will receive a free packet of pollinator garden seeds and the Master Gardeners are cooking up some snacks that require pollinators to produce the ingredients. The cost for the class is $5 for community members and $3 for Master Gardeners. All funds raised from the class will be used by the local Master Gardener Foundation to provide gardening education programs to the community. Pre-register by calling the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension Office at 509-447-2401 to provide contact information should the class schedule change and ensure adequate materials for all participants will be available.
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WEATHER BABBLE
TOP RATED BY A LEADING CONSUMER MAGAZINE
Winter or no winter That is the question BY BOB LUTZ CLIMATOLOGIST
SACHEEN LAKE – I don’t know about you, but a little snow or ice about now would feel real good after such a blazing hot summer. Too bad we can’t Lutz have the seasons mixed up a bit, with a little heat one day, and snow the next ... Oh wait a minute, that’s what we call spring around these parts. Okay, so a little test for you who follow my summer articles. Do you remember where I told you that our local red squirrels were building their nests this past spring? And, what that might mean for our summer weather? Think about it and I’ll have the answer for you August Lake Life
at the end of this article. Now onto the meat (mmmm-mmm-mmm MEAT) of this commentary, which will include what my pee-brain thinks the upcoming winter might bring to us here in our little corner of Washington. Whether you love winter or hate it, most will probably welcome that first day of cool, refreshing air once it arrives. Our patterns this summer were like none we have seen in quite some time. In fact, some records broken this season were older than the day – well, maybe not quite that old, but we certainly saw 100-year-old records fall with the brutal heat this season. As of this writing, we have had 31 days over 90 degrees with five of them soaring to over 100, which I don’t
have to tell you is quite unusual for south Pend Oreille County. Other than thunderstorm activity, precipitation days have been far and few between. The combination of heat and dry weather has resulted in one of the busiest fires seasons in recent memory – and – one grumpy climatologist as well. (No, I am not a big fan of the heat at all, though a fan is exactly what saved my hide this summer). As far as I am concerned, there was one main culprit that caused all the drama this summer. It is that monster pool of unusually warm water in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, which some have so lovingly named “The Blob.” This area of warm water was observed late last year
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FROM PAGE 5
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and has only expanded in coverage in recent months. It currently extends from southern California all the way to the Gulf of Alaska. This phenomenon has resulted in a nearly stagnant area of high pressure, which has essentially blocked most of the major Pacific storms from entering the West Coast. In addition, the primary air circulation around the high has been from a rather warm southerly direction and I don’t have to tell you what that did for us over the past few months. So the big question is, ‘will this phenomenon stick around for the upcoming winter season like an unwelcome ground squirrel?’ (Yes, I’m still mad at those things) Well, I think the short
answer is yes. While there is still a lot of uncertainty as to why this warm water developed in the first place, most climatologists agree that it will be very slow to dissipate. In addition, the El Nino (warm water phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific) continues to strengthen. Oddly enough, many long-range models are in surprisingly good agreement that this particular El Nino cycle will become rather strong for the upcoming winter season. All this points toward another warmer than normal winter for the Pacific Northwest as an active subtropical storm track will likely keep us under the influence of the milder Pacific marine air mass. While there will no doubt be some colder periods mixed in, I think that by the time it is all said and done, the overall average temperature will come in well above normal. Precipitation amounts on the other hand
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are still the big unknown as some strong El Nino events could be rather moist. The fly in the ointment (and it’s the mother of all flies) is this larger pool of warm water just off our coast. Persistence tells me that we’ll probably see more of the same; however, I should point out that this warm water event in the Eastern Pacific is unprecedented in “recorded� history so it’s really a wait and see thing. Now, back to this squirrel business. For those of you who follow my summer articles on a regular basis, you know that I have a particularly keen interest as to what our local red squirrel does to prepare for the upcoming seasons. In one of my earlier articles, I told you they were building their nests at the base of the trees, instead of up higher in the trees like they normally do. One could only conclude that this was because they wanted to capitalize on the cooler ground temperatures as I suspected - that they suspected - that it was going to be a particularly hot summer. Well what do you know, they called it right again. By the way, our squirrels have just started to cut cones off the trees which is a month later than when they started last year. Bet it’s going to be a mild fall too. Okay, consider yourself informed, (or at least marginally entertained) and whatever the weather brings this upcoming winter, remember to stay safe.
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August Lake Life
Bats, grapes, leaves questions answered Editor’s Note: This is a series in which Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners answer questions about gardening in the short Pend Oreille County season. There is contact information at the end of the column.
Question: Why do the leaves of my red maple show wide bands of yellow and brown as well as the normal green? Answer: Large shade trees such as maples may experience leaf scorch during long stretches of summer heat especially when wet, cloudy weather is followed suddenly by windy, sunny weather. A small amount of the water absorbed by a plant is used for cell activities and growth. Almost all the water is used for transpiration and cooling. When not enough water reaches the leaves, they may look scorched. To reduce the effects do not over fertilize, avoid rock and plastic mulches, and avoid compaction. In addition, deep watering will improve water uptake. Application of bark mulch will help conserve water. Read more at Washington State University Extension, “Garden Tips.” Question: We have bats in our attic. What should we do? Answer: Bats play an important role in our neighborhoods since they prey on night-flying insects, including mosquitoes. It is possible for a bat to consume its weight in insects just in one night. They also act as pollinators for some night-blooming flowers. Even though it is beneficial to encourage bats August Lake Life
to live near-by it is not best to have them living in your attic and you should take steps to encourage them to roost elsewhere. You will need to find where they are entering your attic and then block the entrances after they have left to feed for the evening. Right now (after-mid August) is a good time to do this since the baby bats have now learned to fly and are leaving the roost each night with their parents. The next morning, take the blocks away to allow any remaining bats to leave the roost the following night. Follow this procedure for several days until you are certain all bats have left your attic and then permanently seal all the cracks and openings that a bat may use to regain entrance. Bats may enter an opening that is as small as a half inch. Another option is to harass the bats so that they will leave. Bats do not like a lot of noise or bright light so installing a fluorescent light, a noisy fan, a radio or other noise making equipment in your attic may drive them away. For complete information about bats and how they can be managed, check out this fact sheet provided by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, www. wdfw.wa.gov/living/bats. html At this site you can also learn all about bats; find plans to build exclusion devises and a bat house; as well as obtain information concerning bats and public health. Question: What variet-
ies of grapes grow in Pend Oreille County? Answer: Growing grapes in our short growing season is a definite challenge. To be successful, you must first have a sunny, warm, protected area on your property to plant your vines. On the south side of building or mid-way down a south facing slope may provide the required 150 growing days that will give grapes enough time to mature. The leaves and vines of grapes are also a favorite of our local deer so make sure that your grape plants are well fenced. Grapes grow well in wide range of soil pH and nutrient levels but they do prefer a well-drained soil. Your second key to success is wisely choosing grape varieties that are disease resistant, cold hardy and early maturing. There are good choices of “very early” and “early” grapes available depending upon whether or not you desire seedless or seeded varieties and what color of grape you wish to plant. The Master Gardeners have planted Campbell’s Early, a blue/black grape with a few small seeds, and Interlaken, a green seedless grape, with good success at the Create garden in Newport. Other good choices may be Himrod, Reliance, and Canadice to name just a few. An excellent source of information on growing grapes is www. smallfarms.oregonstate. edu/sites/default/files/publications/growing_table_ grapes_ec1639_may_2011. pdf You can also purchase SEE BATS, 8
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BATS | FROM PAGE 7
Gardening in the Inland Northwest, by Tonie Fizgerald from the Washington State University Publications Website at www. pubs.wsu.edu/ItemDetail. aspx?ProductID=14405 E-mail your gardening, plant and insect identification and other questions to your Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners at pomastergardeners@outlook.com or call the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension Office at 509-447-2401. Plant clinic hours are every Thursday from 4:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Extension Office at 227 S. Garden Avenue, Newport, where Master Gardeners are available to discuss gardening and landscaping issues with homeowners. Please join us! Extension programs and policies are consistent with federal and state laws and regulations on nondiscrimination regarding race, sex, religion, age, color, creed, and national or ethnic origin; physical, mental, or sensory disability; marital status or sexual orientation; and status as a Viet Nam-era or disabled veteran. Evidence of non-compliance may be reported through your local WSU Extension Office. Washington State University provides access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation contact Mike Jensen, mike.jensen@wsu. edu or call 509-447-2401 at least 14 days in advance.
PAGE 8
August Lake Life
What’s worse than Milfoil in our waters?
Shannon Sheckler Specializing in Waterfront Properties
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COURTESY PHOTO|WEED BOARD
Hydrillafront
COURTESY PHOTO|WEED BOARD
plant – both for ponds and aquaria. It is worse than milfoil because the top sticks up out of the water forming a dense mat that shades out plants below (including itself). This makes injecting herbicides below the surface ineffective. The leaves above the water have a hard coat that makes penetration with herbicides very difficult. Please keep in mind, all three of these are illegal to import, buy, sell or otherwise allow to grow in Washington state. There are a couple of other dis-
honorable mentions, yellow flag iris and water hyacinth. Neither of these should be planted nor allowed to escape into natural waters of the County.
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August Lake Life
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NEWPORT – It may be hard to believe, but there are worse aquatic weeds than Eurasian watermilfoil. The three candidates on my list include hydrilla, Brazilian elodea and parrot-feather milfoil. Although hydrilla is neither an attractive plant nor sold as a pond or aquarium aerator, it could arrive as a contaminate of packing material for other aquatic plants ordered from nurseries specializing in aquatic plants. It resembles our native elodea, but in cross section it has five leaves instead of the four our native elodea has and there are serrations along the leaf edges giving it a rough feeling when drawn through the fingers. If you should discover it, please notify the Weed Board and dispose of it where it cannot get into water. Hydrilla is worse than milfoil because it is very difficult to control. It produces a hard reproductive structure called a turion that settles into the sediment and it cannot be controlled. It may sit there, undetected, for several years before sprouting and the new infestation could grow quite large before it is found. Brazillian elodea, also called anacharis in the aquarium trade, is sold as an aerator. It also resembles our native elodea; however it is much larger. It is worse than milfoil as it is resistant to the herbicides available for treating it and will come-up around a barrier mat placed to smother aquatic weeds. Please make sure this one does not find its way to our natural waters. Parrot-feather milfoil is an attractive plant, often used as an ornamental or aerating aquatic
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Myriophyllum-aquaticum PAGE 9
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Pend Oreille & Bonner County Waterfront Specialist
Sacheen Sewer system working well Lawsuit resolved, 310 hooked up
BY DON GRONNING
SACHEEN LAKE – It’s been a long time in the process, but the $15 million Sacheen Lake sewer system is in place, collecting sewage from 310 homes and delivering it to four lagoons several miles away. “We’ve been hearing that the lake looks a lot cleaner,” Perry Pearman, a Sacheen Lake sewer district commissioner said. The project seemed to face one obstacle after another, the final one being a lawsuit the sewer district settled for $500,000 last fall. The lawsuit was filed by Contractors Northwest, Inc., of Coeur d’Alene. They sought $1.3 million for change orders that were denied by the project engineer, Kevin Koesel of Sewell En-
gineering. The lawsuit was settled through mediation in November 2016, District Manager Sheila Pearman said. Of the $500,000, Pearman said the Sacheen Lake, Sewer, and Water District paid $275,000 and their insurer paid $100,000. Sewell Engineering, and their insurer paid $125,000. Sewer rates were adjusted to reflect the settlement. Sheila Pearman said cost spread out over all ratepayers amounts to $8 a month for 10 years. The sewer project was financed with a $7.2 million, 0 percent loan and a $5 million grant from the state Department of Ecology, and a $2.72 million .5 percent interest loan from the state Public Works Trust Fund.
People had been paying monthly since January 2016. The sewer district passed a rate increase in January 2017. The sewer district required a one-time balloon payment in March to capture funds for repayment of the loans. In the face of opposition to $500 annual assessments, in addition to monthly charges, the district commissioners decided to bill monthly. The March payment rose about as much money as the annual assessment, Pearman says. “As we already bill monthly, the Board believes that adding these fees and charges to the monthly billing will be easier for residents to budget and pay,” district commissioners wrote in a Jan. 18 letter to rate payers.
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PAGE 10
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The lagoon system, located off Rocky Gorge Road, is functioning as planned. It hasn’t filled yet, so spraying treated effluent in the woods hasn’t started yet. August Lake Life
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Cedar Creek Resort is one of two resorts on the lake. They pay the biggest monthly sewer bill at $469 a month.
In the one-time balloon payments, a full service lot paid $535, a stub or undeveloped lot paid $400, the Cedar Creek Resort paid $1,500 and the Old Sacheen Resort paid $1,200. After the one-time bill, monthly rates went to $178 for a full service lot, $130 for an undeveloped lot, $469 for Cedar Creek Resort and $404 for Old Sacheen resort. Developing the sewer system was a trying process, with a lawsuit, unexpected costs and an effort to disincorporate the district, along with neighbor dissention. The sewer system was controversial from the start. Some property owners said they had their own modern, expensive systems and didn’t
August Lake Life
need a sewer system. Others objected to the cost of the system. The project was kicked off in 2010 when sewer district commissioners voted to establish a Local Improvement District. LIDs are formed by the commissioners voting to do so. If people don’t want to have an LID, landowners representing 40 percent of the LID area needed to formally object. Sewer district commissioners thought they had withstood the many challenges, but they were wrong. The formation of the LID was successfully challenged in Superior Court by a group opposed to building what they said was an unnecessarily
expensive system. The judge ruled that the district had improperly included some public property in the LID area. So district commissioners went back and formed another, smaller LID. Opponents then petitioned to dissolve the district. That went to a vote in 2011, with the disincorporation defeated. Construction went ahead. Months into the construction, workers discovered they had punched into the water table at the lagoon site. That cost $1.5 million to fix, contributing to the project increasing from $7-8 million discussed when the LID was formed to the $15 million end cost.
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Who to Contact Pend Oreille County Website: pendoreilleco.org
Commissioners 509-447-4119 District 1: Chairwoman Karen Skoog (2020) District 2: Member Mike Manus (2018) District 3: Vice Chairman Steve Kiss (2020) Four-year terms Annual salary: $53,945.28 P.O. Box 5025, Newport, WA 99156 Board meets every Monday and Tuesday at 9 a.m. in commissioners’ office, main floor of the courthouse. Clerk of the Board: Rhonda Cary Office hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
Auditor 509-447-6474 Fax: 509-447-2475 Marianne Nichols (2018) Four-year term Annual salary: $57,492.24 P.O. Box 5015, Newport, WA 99156
Assessor 509-447-4312 Fax: 509-447-6450 James McCroskey (2018) Four-year term Annual salary: $57,492.24 P.O. Box 5010, Newport, WA 99156
Treasurer
208.443.2193
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509-447-3612 Fax: 509-447-0318 Terri Miller (2018) Four-year term Annual salary: $57,492.24 P.O. Box 5080, Newport, WA 99156
August Lake Life