The River Journal July 2009

Because there’s more to life than bad news

FREE

A News MAGAZINE Worth Wading Through

Inside:

Mountain Hall firefighters An unfair land exchange?

Matt Keen is keen to play Meeting the moose A 4,000-mile march Cooper’s story

Finding God in the Garden July 2009

Michael White, Realtor

BS Forest Resources & Ecosystem Management For land, Ranches, and Homes with Acreage

Harry Weerheim Sales Associate, R E S O R T

R E A LT Y

You will get more knowledge skills and service Óän°Ó ä°nx ÊUÊwww.NorthwestLandman.com

690 ACRES - borders the Clark Fork River & National Forest with paved county road access. The views are spectacular in all directions, but from Castle Rock you can see all the way to Lake Pend Oreille & Schweitzer ski mtn. Property consists of about 1/3 good, productive pasture lands & about 2/3 forest land. Power & phone on site, plus a little year-round creek. Easy to subdivide. $3,500,000

240 ACRES Of fORESTED LAND With beautiful lake, mountain and valley views. Four contiguous parcels (two 80acre and two 40-acre) borders USFS on multiple sides. $799,500

Residential & Resort Specialist Captain & EMT, Schweitzer Mtn VFD Experienced Home Builder 208-610-6577

640 ACRES of some of the most productive land in North America! 240 acres of Palouse farm fields, 400 ac of prime timber land with a big year-around creek, awesome views, and wildlife galore. It even has an old farm house, well, electric, phone, new rocked road and paved access! This is the perfect property for farming and ranching, survival, family or corporate retreat. Bring Offers! Asking $1,700,000

LARGE UNDER GROUND CEMENT HOUSE ON 130 acres bordered by two big creeks & timber company land! Features include well, electric plus solar and generator backups, two good log cabins, shop & greenhouse too. New interior road system & county maintained road access just off the pavement. Awesome views. Priced as vacant land, only $649,500!

90 ACRES on Deep Creek w/ alternative energy cabin, Borders state land, good productive pasture land, beautiful forest and great views. 20 minutes to Sandpoint Bring offers! Asking $495,500

20 ACRES iN HAyDEN, iD. Quaint & beautiful horse property with good home, big barn, productive hay fields, pasture, views, good county maintained road, close to shopping, dining, lake, etc... $425,000

20 ACRES with nice cedar sided home, wired for conventional, solar and generator electric. One mile off paved county road, on newly rocked private road with secondary access road too. Big barn, good views, private but easy drive to town. Asking $299,500

17 ACRES w/ SAND CREEk fRONTAGE beaver pond, nice forest, usable land, power & phone,and small cottage.

Less than 10 ml to Sandpoint, 1 mile off paved co. rd, 3 parcels sold together for $125,500

2008 fRAME BUiLT construction just minutes to downtown Sandpoint. This home features beautiful wood work, vaulted ceilings and great views. Nearly a half acre lot is biggest in subdivision and access is all on paved roads. Large two car attached garage $244,500

40 ACRES with gorgeous lake views, county road frontage, less than one mile to Clark Fork, ID power and phone are in the road, property is flat on bottom and up on top for excellent building sites.

Unparalleled views of Lake Pend Oreille, River, valley & mountains. $249,500

21 ACRES ON LOST LAkE! Great views, power & phone, two building pads w/ roughed-in roads, mostly paved roads on the 10 mile drive to town. Area of nice homes. Great price at $275,000

21AC W/ BiG ViEWS Of THE LAkE, Great views of Lake Pend Oreille, Lost Lake, surrounding Mountains and valley below. Easy drive to Sandpoint, mostly on paved roads. On the edge of Selle Valley, in an area of very nice homes. Firm at $189,500

8 ACRES w/ 800’ Of WATERfRONT, where the Pack River meets the lake. adjacent to Idaho Club! Boatable into Lake Pend Oreille. Great road access, building pad in, perc tested and gorgeous views of river, lake, mountains & wildlife. $995,000

WHY LIST WITH MICHAEL?

Consistently ranked top 10% in sales. Your listing advertised in The Real Estate Book, Homes & Land, Coeur d’ Alene Mag., Sandpoint Mag, Inland Northwest Real Estate Guide, Page | TheMag River Journal - AMember News Magazine | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol.exposure.

18 No. 7 | July 2009 Farm & Ranch and more... of Worth Cd’AWading and Through Selkirk MLS, doubles your

July 2009 When volunteers come together, anything can happen. Just ask the Mountain Hall firefighters.

See story by Desire Aguirre on page 3

THE RIVER JOURNAL A News Magazine Worth Wading Through ~just going with the flow~ P.O. Box 151•Clark Fork, ID 83811 www.RiverJournal.com•208.255.6957

SALES

Life with a special child. . See

Cooper’s story in Marianne Love’s Love Notes on page 23

Call 208.255.6957 or email trish@riverjournal.com

PRESS RELEASES (Email only) to editorial@riverjournal.com

STAFF Calm Center of Tranquility Matt Keen is ready to break into the music scene. See story by Trish Gannon on page 7

Cartoonists Scott Clawson, Matt Davidson, Kriss Perras

Concerns with land exchange, an unhappy moose encounter, understanding the rules of the (forest) roads and pepper on strawberries (?!)

Departments Editorial

Cover

Ministry of Truth and Propaganda Jody Forest dgree666@sandpoint.net

Also...

8..........Veterans 10.........Staccato Notes 14-20.....Outdoors 22.........Technology 24.........Politics 26.........Faith 28-29.....Food 30-31.....Wellness 32-33.....Other Worlds 38-39.....Obituaries 40-43.....Humor

Trish Gannon-trish@riverjournal.com

9 Politically Incorrect Joys of under-doing 11 The Scenic Route Hunting the elephant 21 Currents God in the garden 23 Love Notes Cooper’s story 27 The Hawk’s Nest Summertime 35 Say What?

Appearances 44 From the Mouth of the River My good left hand

The joys of the summer garden! See God in the garden by Lou Springer on p 19, garlic scapes on p 25, and financing local food on p 28. Cover photo of the Dick family garden by Trish Gannon.

Regular Contributors

Desire Aguirre; Jinx Beshears; Laura Bry; Scott Clawson; Sandy Compton; Marylyn Cork; Dick Cvitanich; Duke Diercks; Mont. Sen. Jim Elliott; Idaho Rep. George Eskridge; Lawrence Fury; Dustin Gannon; Shaina Gustafson; Matt Haag; Ernie Hawks; Hanna Hurt; Herb Huseland; Emily Levine; Marianne Love; Thomas McMahon; Clint Nicholson; Kathy Osborne; Gary Payton; Angela Potts; Paul Rechnitzer; Boots Reynolds; Kriss Perras Running Waters; Sandpoint Wellness Council; Rhoda Sanford; Lou Springer; Mike Turnlund; Tess Vogel; Michael White; Pat Williams; and Kate Wilson

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle Proudly printed at Griffin Publishing in Spokane, Wash. 509.534.3625 Contents of the River Journal are copyright 2009.

Reproduction of any material, including original artwork and advertising, is prohibited. The River Journal is published the first of each month and approximately 8,000 copies are distributed in Sanders County, Montana, and Bonner, Boundary and Kootenai counties in Idaho.

The River Journal is printed on 40 percent recycled paper with soy-based ink. We appreciate your efforts to recycle.

FOR A LONG LIFE...

FEED HIM WELL.

THE

CO-OP

125 Tibbetts Ln. Ponderay, ID 208-263-6820

www.HuckleberryTentandBreakfast.com

Old-fashioned canvas tent cabins with all the comforts of a Bed and Breakfast located 45 minutes east of Sandpoint, Idaho

SPA CLEARANCE

Third Annual

BATTLE

208.266.0155

BULLS OF THE

SAVE THOUSANDS!!!

TREAGER BBQs Pellet and PRIMO ceramic, charcoal, wood & gas stoves up to 50% off.

BRING THIS AD FOR AN ADDITIONAL $100 OFF!!! at the

Bonner County Fairgrounds

July 18 • 8 pm • 263.0814

Offer expires 7/31

MOUNTAIN SPA & STOVE

1223 Michigan St. • Sandpoint • 208-263-0582 Open M-F, 9-5 and Sat 9 to 3 or 4 www.MountainStove.com

The Hall Mountain Volunteer Fire Fighters

From Humble Beginnings: Volunteers grow a fire department

by Desire Aguirre

Dave Aller started The Hall Mountain Volunteer Fire Association of Boundary County in 1978. Bill Branson, volunteer firefighter, said that he went to the first meeting dead set against it.

“It wasn’t very long into the meeting that I changed my mind,” Branson said. “I ended up joining to help out. And I’ve been a paying member and a firefighter ever since.”

Hall Mountain started with nothing.

The community came together and built a hall. The first engine was an army 6x6, with a panel school bus and a shop truck from the Moyie Lumber Company as back up.

“We come from humble beginnings,” Branson said, “and never owed a dime.”

Today, Hall Mountain covers 300 square miles and has approximately 300 subscription members. The yearly fee, $75, provides protection from fire and car accidents with the support of three halls, six fully functioning state of the art fire engines, support vehicles and an ambulance. Hall Mountain also has the only ice rescue sled north of Coeur d’Alene.

If they help fight a state land fire or cover a fire for a non-subscription member, they get paid, and that money goes toward purchasing equipment and supplies.

Branson said his first fire was the Sundance Fire in the Idaho Panhandle, which started August 23, 1967 after a lightening storm. On August 29, the fire seemed to be under control, but later that evening, a fierce wind helped it jump the containment lines. Within eight hours, it doubled in size, covering over 2,000 acres. On September 1, fire induced winds reached 95 mph, and the fire ran 16 miles in nine hours. Once it crested the Selkirk Divide, it torched the Pack River drainage and proceeded over Apache Ridge, traveling more than 10 miles in three hours. The fire ravaged 55,910 acres.

“I was at the Sundance fire,” Branson said.

“And I served as Mountain Hall fire chief for 18 years. So I’ve fought a lot of fires.”

Branson recently retired from his regular job. Still fit and trim, he attends training sessions for the volunteer firefighters twice a month.

“Last week we practiced for a pack test.

You have to be able to carry 27 pounds for a mile in 15 minutes,” he said. “We train to not get hurt, to watch out for wild fires and to be safe.”

Branson said that fighting fires doesn’t scare him.

“I’m not a good swimmer, so I stay away from water,” Branson said. “But I know how to fight fires.”

According to Branson, the worst kind of fire is a house fire because people can lose everything they have.

“Last winter a house burnt down and the owners lost everything,” Branson said.

“They didn’t have insurance. If my house burnt down, I’d be all right. But my mom’s secretary and my dad’s saddle, I couldn’t replace them or the memories they carry.”

Ivan Dunnick, Hall Mountain volunteer firefighter for 10 years, said that it’s an honor to be a part of the crew.

“We’re pretty good at putting out fires,” Dunnick said. “We have five or six new firefighters on board. We had a grass fire the other day, which was a good trainer for them. The terrain was difficult, but we got the job done.”

The newest hall, almost complete, was built in Good Grief, Idaho. Branson said that Kathryn, the owner of Good Grief restaurant, donated the land and food for the workers.

“She got insulted every time we tried to pay her,” Branson said. “She said bring hungry workers and I’ll feed them.”

Dunnick said that Kathryn was one of their staunchest supporters.

“She fed the whole crew, sometimes as many as 20 people in one sitting,” Dunnick said. “And the food was incredible.”

The project could not have been completed without the help of Cliff Kramer, who owns Feist Creek Resort. Kramer donated a boom truck, grader, Cat, and dump trucks and refused any compensation.

“He kept asking, ‘when are you going to need me again?’ And he got real mad when we tried to pay him,” Branson said.

The volunteer firefighters noticed that Kathryn was getting low on firewood, so they organized a wood cutting party. Branson said that over 20 people showed up to cut wood. Half of them had to leave in the middle to go put out a fire up the road.

“Even with the interruption, we managed to cut and stack 14 cords of wood. This is a special bunch of people,” Branson said.

Bill Branson shown below. Photos courtesy Desire Aguirre.

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page

Fast and Furious

Although it’s rare, moose will attack when they feel threatened. Just ask Drewe Dickson, who was knocked unconscious by a moose in her yard.

Today I read a book about moose, simply titled “Moose,” written by Scott Wrobel.

He states so proficiently that encounters

family; a bull moose can actually stand up to seven and one half feet and sometimes be 10 feet in length. Females are typically

Joe Tajan sent in this picture of a moose relaxing in a backyard pond.Pictures like these are best taken through glass (i.e., from inside the house) and/or with a long, telephoto lens. When moose feel threatened, they may choose “fight” over “flight.” between moose and humans can have smaller than males, but still, that is a negative results. formidable critter. Therefore, it would You would think, right off the bat, that stand to reason, that one would steer clear people would know this, right? I mean, a of a meeting with a moose. Again, I ask, moose is the largest member of the deer right? increase nutrients, such as nitrogen and septic pilot project is being AllThis Beverage Liquor introduced in order to comply with water License Sale by the quality standardsfor as determined

Federal Clean Water For Act. use inDesignated Sanders to protect water quality, the plan, known as County Montana. a “Total Maximum Daily Load” All offers willfor be Lake Pend Oreille, considered. addresses Please nutrient callissues Dennis Varga for info.

In addition, many lakeshore homeowners 406-847-0033 participated in or a survey in 2007 concerning a variety 253-720-4311 of water quality issues. As is turns out, their

by Jinx Beshears

However, Drewe Dickson of Hope didn’t think twice when her husband told her that momma moose and her twin calves were on their property again, as she had been for several months. Drewe grabbed her camera, hoping for a good photo opportunity.

“Hopie,” Drewe’s Airedale, and the momma moose had been engaged in playful animal activities, neither infringing on the other’s space, but very aware of their presence. Momma moose didn’t seem to mind Hopie too much, and had been spotted by both Dicksons several times. Imagine Drewe’s shock when she saw momma moose on the path in front of her, approximately 40 yards away. Before Drewe could back away, Momma moose charged her.

Drewe states, “I made a grave error in judgement when she came at me. I grabbed Hopie and hit the ground trying to play dead. I think, instead I should have ran and hid behind a tree, or put a tree between us at least.

But Drewe played dead, and looking at her injuries, you realize how close to not playing dead she actually came.

A single blow from the leg of a moose can kill a wolf, a human and even a bear.

To a moose, security is what life is about.

Moose seldom attack, but when you do see one, if is turns its ears forward and then lowers them, that is a threatening signal.

Drewe is lucky her injuries are minimal, including a deep gash in her arm, still swollen after a week, and being knocked unconscious. She realizes it could have Continued on page 18

Council website at tristatecouncil.org.

Hay’s Chevron Gas • Convenience Store Unofficial Historical Society

Oil Changes Tire Rotation by appointment

208-266-1338

Lightning Creek Trailer Park & Mini Storage

• Mobile Home Spaces • Boat and RV Storage • Large and Small Storage 5x10 • 8x10 • 10x10 • 8x16 10x20 • 10x30 208-266-1574

Worth Wading Through www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18Wading | November 2008 | Page 5 Page | The| River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Proposed land exchange creates concern for some area residents.

by Ralph Bartholdt A land exchange that will affect the use of more than 5,000 acres of Forest Service land in the Panhandle could be ready for public comment this fall.

In the meantime, a local group wants to make sure the public is informed of the exchange.

The exchange between the Forest Service and parties responsible for the demise of the multi-million-dollar Yellowstone Club in Montana includes parcels of land from Priest River to Mullan and at least 1,200 acres bordering McCroskey State Park near DeSmet.

Opponents think that Western Pacific Timber LLC—owned by Tim Blixseth of the infamous $375 million Yellowstone Club bankruptcy—will build homes on the land it gets from the Forest Service in exchange for almost 40,000 acres of former Plum Creek ground in the Upper Lochsa of the Clearwater National Forest.

The remote Lochsa land has been clearcut, said opponent Kathy Judson of Tensed, while the 28,212 acres of Forest Service land that could be deeded

to Western Pacific Timber is prime forest land bordering parks, towns or other high value real estate.

Judson, who belongs to a group called Friends of the Palouse Ranger District, thinks the Forest Service has failed to keep the public informed about the exchange that could influence the use of land in their backyards.

“People don’t know there is a land exchange,” she said. “The Forest Service has done a horrible job informing the public. The public needs to know where it is, and what we lose.”

Land named in the exchange includes 57 acres at Rose Lake, 320 acres near Mullan, 3,737 in southern Benewah and northern Latah counties including land surrounding McCroskey State Park and Crane Point to West Dennis, as well as 1,100 acres along Highway 41 and 55 acres at Athol, according to FPRD. “Everybody in the community needs be concerned,” said Judson. “It is going to directly affect all of us and set a precedence for more land exchanges to continue. We need to stop it from happening and send a clear picture that it’s not appropriate.”

Teresa Trulock, Forest Service natural resource specialist on the Clearwater National Forest, said the public will get a chance to weigh in on the proposal within the next few months.

The agency collected comments last winter that were used to sketch alternatives in the draft environmental

impact statement that will be released in October. The statement will include several options. Once released, the public has 45 days to choose which alternative— including one called “no action”—is in the best interest of the forest.

The draft was supposed to be released earlier, she said, but some of the work hasn’t been completed.

“We still need to get some of the field work done,” Trulock said.

The Forest Service was approached by Western Pacific several years ago with a proposal to trade the Plum Creek Ground near Montana’s Lolo Pass for land near McCall, but the Forest Service declined, she said.

The timber company then asked for land in northern Idaho around Pend Oreille Lake, but that was also turned down. Instead, the agency asked supervisors to inventory property that was similar to the Plum Creek ground and compile it for a possible land exchange.

Foresters from throughout the Clearwater as well as the Panhandle National Forest took chunks of land used for timber production and added it to land that might be considered in the trade, she said.

The Forest Service considered the exchange, she said, because the Plum Creek ground, intermingled with Forest Service land, was part of a real estate trust that allowed the land to be Continued on page 12

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page

Opening Doors

Festival remains committed to providing first-rate opening acts “It’s one of the first things that attracted demonstrates that, in part, by giving special Festival stage again during the kid’s concert me to the Festival at Sandpoint,” explained consideration to local acts as openers with the Spokane Youth Orchestra. “Jacob Dyno Wahl, now executive director for the for their headliners. “I don’t know if it’s Kramer and Rachel Kennedy will be singing non-profit organization which puts on a something in Sandpoint that draws them then, too,” explained Dyno. “They’re the two-week summer concert every August. or what, but we have an amazing amount recipients of our Festival/Coldwater Creek “One of the objectives in the mission of talent here locally,” Dyno explained, scholarship.” And the winner of the Festival/ statement is how the Festival ‘strives to pointing to groups like the Shook Twins Angels Over Sandpoint scholarship, Zack present a range of music.’ That includes or Kristy Osmunson (who opened last year Baker, so wowed Dyno and the board that new and old forms of music, known with Bomshel). “The festival is committed he’ll be performing the full 12 minutes of and unknown singers. It’s a a Chopin concerto during the wonderful thing to provide to a season finale. community.”

“Sometimes I have to That was 12 years ago when take the opening act that a Dyno took over the helm of the main stage player brings with area’s premiere musical event them,” she said. “If they’re not and in the dozen years since, bringing one, and I choose the she’s had her own hand in act, then the main acts have helping to make those objectives to approve that person. But come alive. While a booking on the whole I’ve had a lot committee, comprised of Dyno of freedom in booking those and several board members, opening acts and I’ve been books the mainline acts each very pleased with the level of season, it’s mostly Dyno who talent that we’ve introduced to takes on responsibility for the community.” booking the opening acts for Matt Keen, featured in each night—and it’s in opening the story at right, is another acts where some believe the local artist looking to warm Festival has shone its brightest. up the audiences this Festival “One of my favorite things The Shook Twins, who open for Jonatha Brooke and Michelle season—Wahl is just waiting is turning people on to new Shocked at this year’s Festival at Sandpoint, first played the on approval to finalize his music,” Dyno explained, “so it’s a Festival in 2005, when they opened for Ryan Adams. appearance. “It’s just so great thrill when I hear from audience to be able to offer something members that they liked the opening act as to fostering talent from the ground like this to a local artist,” Dyno said. much as, and sometimes even more than, up—through things like our instrument The only difficulty Dyno has found in the main stage performer. Like the year assistance program in the schools to booking acts to open, in fact, is coming when Leroy Bell sold out of CDs... I feel like financial support for music programs, up with money to pay them. The price for it’s truly a success when people will get partnering to provide scholarships (with main stage acts has grown enormously in up out of their fan chair [after the opening Coldwater Creek and the Angels Over the time she’s been at the helm as director, performance] and stand in a line halfway Sandpoint), and the Fifth Grade Outreach often leaving little left over. program [which takes place each year in across the field to buy a CD.” “We budget very carefully for the It’s not just luck that leads Dyno to just May]. We want to help grow the talent Festival,” said Dyno. “Part of our mission the right act to book as an opener—like the that’s here.” is to keep ticket prices affordable. Without Support for local talent is reflected in the support we receive from the community, Blind Boys of Alabama in 1997 or the now blockbuster Diercks Bently, who opened the lineup for the 2009 Festival season, we’d never be able to do that.” Currently, for Delbert McClinton in 2004. “Ideally I’ll and in other Festival venues as well. The tickets sales account for approximately have seen them perform,” Dyno said of her Shook Twins will be back for their second 53 percent of the Festival’s budget; the booking strategy, and she offers praise to Festival opening act—this year they’ll rest is made up by sponsors and other the Festival’s board of directors who ensure warm up the stage for Jonatha Brooke and donations (24 percent) merchandise and that she attends dozens of conferences or Michelle Shocked, making for “a night of bar sales (11 percent) grants (7 percent) other artistic venues throughout the year powerhouse female singer/songwriters.” and other fundraising events (5 percent). where she can be exposed to available Spokane artist Joel Smith will open on the “We expected that with the tough financial music. But she doesn’t have to see an act to first night of the season, coming on before times, donations, sponsorships and grants investigate booking them for the season— Firefall and Poco. “Our audience loved would be lower this year,” Dyno said, ”Bands drop off their CDs, members of the him when he opened for Josh Ritter and “and we budgeted accordingly. And we’ve public point out a good group to me. I hear Madelene Peyroux [in 2007],” said Dyno. attained those budget goals.” She credits about music from a lot of different venues, “He also opened a few weeks ago for Jackie the financial support the Festival receives, and if they sound good initially, I check Greene at the Panida, and I heard there in part, to its record of success. “I think our were people who liked him even more than them out.”

Continued on page 19 Committed to its location, the Festival Jackie!” Amy Craven will appear on the Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Now out of school, 19-year-old Matt Keen hopes to kick off his music career as an opening act at the Festival at Sandpoint “The first time I met Matt Keen, he was sitting on a picnic table, playing guitar and singing a Ray Charles song. I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. There was such joy and energy coming out. It was so clear that this was someone who was extremely gifted—it took my breath away.”

Bruce Bishop, a local musician and guitar virtuoso himself, is no stranger to talent but he says meeting then 17-year-old Matt Keen “changed my life. He restored my faith in the joy of music and how [a performer] can take the energy of an audience to new places.”

At the time, Bishop was beginning his first year as a guitar teacher at the Monarch School in Heron, a college-prep school for teenagers who may not have walked the easiest of roads in life. Matt was one of those teenagers: “I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and making some very bad decisions,” Matt said. “My mom saw what was going on and reacted to it immediately,” and Matt, a Chicago resident at the time, found himself in rural Heron, Montana in a program where ‘poor choices’ were not an option.

With both parents in the Air Force, Matt experienced a peripatetic childhood where “I was exposed to a ton of stuff and living a pretty mature life.” One he wasn’t totally prepared to deal with —at least, until his mom

intervened. “She saw any kind of bright future for me fading if I continued to make bad choices.”

Throughout that upbringing, however, was music—Matt’s first big performance took place when he was nine years old, before a couple of hundred people, at a “little Catholic school in Edmond, Oklahoma.” But he was no prodigy as far as instruments go; “I took guitar lessons but I didn’t want to learn scales and chords—I wanted to play music. “Foxy Lady” was at the top of the list,” he reminisced.

Still, by the time he was 17 he was able to knock an accomplished guitarist like Bishop out of his socks. “He already knew a couple of hundred songs and could perform them at the drop of a hat,” he said.

Although Bruce says he “didn’t teach him much of anything,” Matt disagrees. “Bruce is the man,” he laughed. “That guy really made my being at the Monarch bearable.

He has a sense of reality and balance and he believed me from the moment he met me. Besides, he’s a helluva guitar player, and a great guitar teacher. He’s my role model.”

Matt, who’s working on his second CD this summer, isn’t quite sure how to describe his music. “I was born to sing the blues,” he said, but on his MySpace website (www. myspace.com/matkeenmusic) he lists

by Trish Gannon

as inspiration such artists as Ben Harper, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and Tupac Shakur.

Others say he’s his generation’s John Prine or Jack Johnson. Bishop says “he’s like Ray Charles reincarnated; he posesses that same great magic. (I’d say) he’s a bit of a throwback—he’s absorbed the essence of the 60s and the 70s where music is expression. If he sings about the sun you can feel it on your face. You couldn’t put up walls and keep him out.”

Keen, who as a student at the Monarch School wasn’t allowed to attend the Festival at Sandpoint, is nonetheless thrilled to be considered as an opening act. “I’ve heard such great things about it, I can hardly believe it,” he said. “I am so thankful for this chance.”

Now back in Chicago and with a couple of years of college under his belt (where he studied jazz, blues and gospel voice), Matt looks back to his years in the Pacific Northwest as a “lucky gift. At times it was rough, but the Monarch thing was really great. It forced maturity on me and I ran with it. And when I look at where I’m going... wow. Things are happening for me and I know it’s because of what I’ve gone through.”

Bruce says that as he’s watched over and worked with Matt through the years, “I’ve never seem him falter, never seen him lose confidence. He’s very consistent and very smart. [Matt describes himself as a ‘closet intellectual’ though he says he “hates math” and has managed to “avoid any math classes in college.”] When he was at the school, he was totally focused on keeping everything running smoothly so he could write songs and play his music.”

Earlier this year Matt joined his mentor Bruce, and local phenomenon Beth Pederson on the stage at Di Luna’s, where he wowed the crowd with his unique voice, amazing stage presence, and original music. [A crowd favorite was a song he wrote for a former girlfriend: “don’t go away angry, just go away.” The song, despite its catchy lyrics, resonates with the love he felt. “I still love her,” he said. “Sometimes things just don’t work out.”] When his set was over, dozens of people lined up to purchase CDs, and hardly any could believe he was only 19 years old.

Continued on page 19

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page

208.255.2955

909 Hwy. 2 Sandpoint

Veterans’ News

by Kriss Perras Running Waters

The 4,000-Mile March $13,200

2006 SUBARU IMPREZA Gray, sedan, 5 speed , AWD, CD, PB, PL, PS, cruise 55,308 mi

2005 SUBARU OUTBACK LL BEAN Silver automatic, similar to picture.

Call for price. $6,800

2003 TOYOTA MATRIX Silver, hatchback, automatic, air, cruise, PB, PL, PS, PW, CD, 134,553 miles, 90 Day / 3,000 Mile Limited Powertrain Warranty with every vehicle we sell. All vehicles have been inspected by our technicians.

SIX STAR AUTOMOTIVE www.SixStarAutomotive.net

Ron’s Repair

Recycling - Lawn, Garden, Snow Equipment, Generators, Pumps and Older Outboards.

I also buy/sell batteries Two doors west of the Hope Post Office

208-264-5529

He came wheeling up the grassy curb in Dover, Idaho, red-faced, sweaty and looking a decade younger than his actual age on that May afternoon. His top-of-the-line mountain bike hauled a 55-pound pack behind it: clothes, food and papers to hand out. Sixty-twoyear old Disabled American Veteran Paul Halverson was on a mission, an outreach for new veterans only just arriving home for some, a longawaited momen t for others, to provide exposure and awareness for America’s disabled veterans and returning military personnel.

With the warming summer sun shining through the trees above, Halverson sat in the middle of a local veteran’s yard in Dover grinning about his daughter, Shara Halverson. He doused his sweaty face with water and took a deep breath.

“My daughter is an avid marathon runner,” Halverson said. “She ran me out of town in Everett, Washington on May 15. She ran the first ten miles with me.”

Halverson is riding across the country, a 4,000 mile, four month long journey that will take him from Everett on through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, a 500-mile jog up into Canada and back down into New York, New Hampshire and Vermont, leaving the final leg of the journey through Maine with the finish line in Bangor. He began this arduous undertaking with the single thought: what can I do to help?

“Some people get frustrated, throw their hands up in their air and say screw it,” Halverson said eating a well-earned supper at the local Pizza Hut while passing through Sandpoint on

his journey. “Don’t ever give up.”

Halverson hopes through his efforts he can gain enough exposure that local Disabled American Veterans chapters will be able to raise enough funds from their local sources to help America’s veterans, most of whom are returning home with injuries. As it stands now, the DAV processes about 30 percent of all veterans’ claims, and the 12 other veterans service organizations together handle all other claims.

“I just reached the thousand mile mark near the Montana-North Dakota border,” Halverson said in a recent phone call to our local chapter.

Halverson spent two tours in Vietnam in the 9 th and 25th Infantry Divisions.

During that time, he was exposed to Agent Orange and also took a hit from a grenade that left shrapnel in his leg and cost him his hearing and gave him a nasty case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Through the help of his own DAV chapter, in Duluth, Minnesota, Halverson received the support he needed. He hopes through this ride across the states, other veterans will come to understand the importance of the bond with their local DAV chapter.

Halverson is one of a growing number of Vietnam era vets who are increasingly making bonds with current generation veterans returning home. With the number of unprocessed Veteran’s Administration claims quickly approaching the one million mark, this type of outreach is necessary for generational bond building. A veteran typically goes through a severe financial hardship while waiting for their VA claim to be resolved, with the average waiting time at four months for the first answer and 18 months for the claim to be completed on appeal.

In other points of interest: The DAV Mobile Service Officer Van will be at the Bonners Ferry Idaho Commerce and Labor Center, 5641 Main Street, on July 8 from 10 am to Continued on page 12

Kriss Perras Running Waters is a local filmmaker and former publisher. She is a disabled American veteran who served in the US Navy. Reach her at rw@mailibuartsjournal.com.

Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Politically Incorrect

by Trish Gannon

The Joys of Under-doing When I got the email from Becky suggesting I throw my name in the hat to serve as Melanie Snider’s replacement on Lake Pend Oreille School District’s board of trustees, I no longer felt guilty at my plan to suggest that Becky be the one to take over cooking all the breakfast burritos for the booster club’s food booth at this year’s Fourth of July shindig. I’ve cooked those burritos for several years now, spending four or five hours on the third of July doing so, and with my final child at home now graduated, I’m ready for a break. So I’m sorry, Becky, but I won’t be asking for consideration as a board member, even though I think it’s one of the most important volunteer jobs that can be done in the community.

The concept of taking a break, which has occupied my mind more and more of late, is a novel one for me. I remember once joking with then-superintendent of schools Max Harrell that without we children of alcoholics, the world might just fall apart and while it was a joke, it holds a strong kernel of truth, as well. Take a look at any roster of volunteers around town, especially the names that appear over and over again, and if you ask, you’re likely to learn that one of their parents had a wee bit of fondness for the drink.

If we’re lucky, however, there comes a time in life when we ‘set aside childish things,’ and a tendency to overdo is one of those I might be better off without. I’m thinking it’s at least worth a try. With my children now all grown, a new life opens up before me and that makes it somehow easier to think of what can and should be changed in what I’m doing now.

Take the River Journal, for example.

(Seriously, isn’t there some fabulously rich transplant out there who would want to take the River Journal?) No, I’m not quite

ready to let it go, though if things don’t improve economically, I might not have a choice. It’s a little difficult to put in morethan-full-time work on a job that can’t give you a paycheck, while trying to figure out what else you can do in order to keep the electricity and the water turned on (and to pay enough on those medical bills to keep the bill collectors from making your life miserable). As long as I possibly can you will still find yourself holding a copy of this news

magazine in your hands each month, but this new attitude of mine has allowed other possibilities to percolate through my brain—for example, making it more affordable by making it an online publication only. Of course, overdoing comes into play right about the time I think that, and I’ve spent more time than I like to admit learning to understand html, exploring new programs for online design, and expanding my vocabulary to include such terms as MySql, unique visitors, click-throughs and optimization. In the process, as I discover and implement (however imperfectly) what I want the River

Trish Gannon is the owner/publisher of the River Journal.

You can reach her via email at trish@riverjournal.com

Journal’s website to do, it is growing more and more into a venue where people on a daily basis can find out what’s happening of interest in their communities—a place where there really is more to life than bad news, and the good news lets them know how to become informed and involved on projects and events that better their community.

Then there’s the Festival at Sandpoint.

No, even though I’m closing in on close to a decade and a half of volunteer work there, I’m not ready to stop with that, either. I believe in what the Festival provides to this community, and it’s more than just the incredible opportunity of walking to your car in the Safeway parking lot and hearing the likes of BB King, David Grey, the Beach Boys or Johnny Cash himself performing sound checks that echo throughout town. It’s the commitment to providing access and exposure to new music, to providing a venue for local musicians to interact with those who have ‘been there and done that’ on the national stage, to the sounds of the Spokane Symphony as it harmonizes with the music of the stars overhead, to the experience of providing exposure to good music to area kids— everything from the rental assistance program to the Fifth Grade Outreach.

Music has been an enormous part of my life, and I believe it’s an enormous part of most lives—this is something I work for that provides such a great, added benefit to my life that I don’t want to stop.

The Booster Club, however, will no longer hold a meeting time on my monthly calendar. In part this is because I’ll no longer have a dog in the race, so to speak—if my kids don’t mind being alluded to as dogs, that is. But it’s well and good that those with a vested interest in what Clark Fork High School provides for its students now step up for their turn in the barrel. And on the bright side, I get to leave on a high note. After 23 years of commitment to public education, from that first PTA meeting at Farmin/Stidwell to years on the PTO at Hope Elementary, and then another 13 years with the Booster Club at Clark Fork, I see public education in Bonner County doing a better job than ever at understanding just what constitutes a quality education. Not that there isn’t plenty of room to improve—I still think our students are sadly lacking in the English skills they desperately need in order to be successful in the world at large—but the improvement is real and continues to grow.

So what else will I let go of? I’m not really sure; this is going to be a learning process for me, with undoubted setbacks Continued on page 18

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page

STACCATO NOTES Music

classical Indian music, and are accompanied

by Mahapunya Dan on Tabla. Tickets are $20 at the door, or $15 in advance through BrownPaperTickets.com. 208-610-2701 or 208-265-2453 July 11—Louisiana Blues Night Prepare for a hot night in July when Di Luna’s Café, 207 Cedar St. Sandpoint, hosts Louisiana Blues Night with Neighbor John and Ray Allen. Di Luna’s will be cookin’ up jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp and grits along with a lot of other great New Orleans specialties. There will be no cover charge for this evening’s musical entertainment, which will be playing during dinner. Doors open at 5 pm and the music begins at 6 pm. 208-2630846 July 11&12—Dover Bay Days Join the Dover Bay community for two days of home tours, boat demos, food, music, shopping and much more. Bring the family and enjoy kayaking, hiking, biking, and beach fun while visiting incredible food booths and browse displays showcasing local craftsmen, retail outlets and services. Tour Dover Bay’s waterfront condominiums, waterfront home sites, luxury custom homes, Cabin in the Woods, Cottages in Dover Meadows and the Parkside Bungalows.

Hours are 11 am to 5 pm Saturday, and 11 am to 4 pm Sunday. 208-263-5493 July 16—William Fitzsimmons Concert Folk musician William Fitzsimmons performs in the Panida Theater. Opening act is Jenny Owen Youngs. Tickets are $10 in advance, available at The Loading Dock in Sandpoint and The Long Ear in Coeur d’Alene; and $12 on the evening of the show at the Panida box office.

Or purchase tickets online (an online handling fee applies) at www.sandpointgeneralstore. com. 208-263-9191 July 18—Schweitzer Bluegrass Festival. Live bluegrass music on the lawn at Schweitzer Mountain Resort, with spectacular views, brews and barbecues. Kids’ activities run all day. Admission to the music is free. Schweitzer. com. 208-263-9555

THE AREA’S FREE EVENTS PLUS EVENTS HOSTED BY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS. Compiled with help from SandpointOnline.com

muscles. Learn more at CarrieRodriguez.com.

Presented by Idaho Concerts; tickets are $10 in advance, and $12 at the door. 208-263-9191 July 10-12—Jerry Fest The 13th annual summer music festival at Sagle’s Camp Eureka features Acorn Project, Spoonshine, Trolls Cottage and others. Activities include dance workshops, yoga, bike rides, kid’s parades, painting, environmental workshops, a beer garden and an open mic on the main stage.

Food from local vendors will be available for purchase. Camp Eureka is located off Sagle Road (follow the signs). Gates open at 5 pm on July 10. For details, visit EurekaCenter.com or call 208-265-4190. Tickets are available at Eichardt’s Pub and Misty Mountain Furniture.

Funds benefit youth scholarships to attend Camp Eureka.

Club Music at Three Glasses Located at 202½ First Ave. in Sandpoint, Three Glasses hosts live music at 8 pm. On July 10 catch the “funkytonk honkadelic” sounds of Stoney Holiday. On July 11, Stoney Holiday opens for Jared Mees and the Grown Children from the Tender Lovin’ Empire. It’s KPND Homegrown Music featuring Mac Lloyd on July 12 and on July 16 it’s Mon Cherri and Mark Ward.

Winery Music. The Pend d’Oreille Winery, 220 Cedar St. in Sandpoint, hosts live music from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. On July 10 enjoy Montana’s experimental folk, Americana and blues musician Larry Hirshberg. July 18 features Truck Mills on acoustic slide guitar rock and blues. Justin Lantrip on originals (our own local version of Dave Matthews he rocks!) performs July 24. July 31 catch the Shook Twins. Justin Lantrip welcomes Winery July 10—Artist Series Presentation III. Hope’s Music back on August 21 and you can enjoy Memorial Community Center, 415 Wellington the awesome musical wizardry of California’s Pl., hosts artist Janene Grende for the final Mitch Polsac on August 28.

Artist Series Presentation in the three-part series. The evening begins at 6 pm with a wine Summer Sounds at Park Place. The Pend sampler and appetizers by Pend Oreille Pasta, Oreille Arts Council presents live music every and the artist program follows at 7 pm. Tickets Saturday from noon to 2 pm on the Park are $15 each, available at the MCC or from Place Stage at the corner of First and Cedar Pend Oreille Pasta in Sandpoint. All proceeds in Sandpoint. In July, enjoy the Selkirk Bass benefit the charitable programs at MCC. 208Quintet on the 11th, Mike and Shanna on 264-5481 the 18th, and Backstreet Dixie on the 25th. In August enjoy the Mick Coon Band on the first, July 11—Sandpoint Wooden Boat Festival.

Rex James on the 8th, and Bridges Home on The Inland Empire Antique and Classic Boat the 15th.

Society hosts their annual Wooden Boat Show as part of the daylong Wooden Boat Festival The 26th Annual Festival at Sandpoint in downtown Sandpoint. The 7th Annual event Poco and Firefall kick off this year’s season will be held at the City Boardwalk beginning under the stars at Sandpoint’s Memorial at 10 am. Visit the Wooden Boat Festival Field on August 6. The August 7 Phat Phriday website at www.sandpoint.org/boatfestival phenomenon features JJ Grey & Mofro for a detailed calendar of events, including followed by Blues Traveller. On August 8 a Mountain Man Breakfast, giveaways, a New Orleans group the Subdudes open for barbecue and more. 208-255-1876 Grammy-winning Boz Scaggs. Sunday, August July 12—Jacey’s Race Join the fun and fitness 9 it’s the kid’s concert with the Spokane while helping others in our community. Jacey’s Youth Orchestra, performing “Green Eggs and Race is a 5K/1K run and walk benefitting local Hamadeus.” Music begins again the following kids with life-threatening illnesses. The events week on Thursday, August 13, starting with a take place at Sandpoint High School, beginning complimentary microwbrew tasting followed by a powerhouse of female talent featuring July 9 and 11—Paris 36 The Panida Theater at 8:15 am with the 5K run/walk race, and Jonatha Brooke followed by Michelle Shocked. presents the foreign drama Paris 36, playing then at 9 am with the 1K fun run/walk. Events August 14 sees Donovan Frankenreiter return at 7:30 pm each night as part of the Global include face painting, a dunk tank, pottery, (hopefully without the thunderstorms) with Cinema Cafe series. This vibrant homage to the free massages, a jumping castle, clowns and Keller Williams opening. August 15 is Jypsi, now-gone days of vaudeville is set in a French pony rides. Find more information and register after which country legend Clint Black takes the musical hall in the ‘30s. Tickets are $7 adult; $6 at Jaceys-Race.com. 208-610-6480 stage. The signature finale concert takes place seniors and students. 208-263-9191 July 18 Priest Lake Huckleberry Festival. Priest August 16 and starts off with the tradtional July 10—Carrie Rodriguez Concert Expect the Lake Search and Rescue, Inc. hosts the Priest wine tasting, Then the Spokane Symphony unexpected as the classically trained singer/ Lake Huckleberry Festival 10 am to 5 pm at the performs a “Tribute to Benny Goodman,” with songwriter from Texas, Carrie Rodriguez, takes Priest Lake Golf Course. Events include artist special guest Richard Stoltzman. the stage with her fiddle and tenor guitar at booths, bluegrass music, a golf tournament July 10—Father and Son Sitar Masters. 8 pm at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater. With a and dinner, and an evening of blues music.208Sandpoint’s Gardenia Center, 400 Church critically-acclaimed solo record and several 263-6139 St., hosts the 11th Generation Father and well-received duet records in her wake, See a complete calendar of events at www.

Son Sitar Masters at 7 .m. Pandit Shivnath Rodriguez has just begun flexing her artistic SandpointOnline.com Mishra and Deobrat Mishra will perform their Page 10 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Theater

Events

The Scenic Route

by Sandy Compton

Hunting for the Elephant

I succumbed to an internet quiz recently, one asking the question, “How old are you, really?”

Depends on the day, I thought, and what I have to do, and sometimes on what I did last night. Some days I’m 12; some days I’m 82.

Most days, I’m somewhere in between.

The quiz was more complicated than that. As I answered a series of 30 questions, the quiz kept a running tally of my “virtual” age and my life expectancy. I was working on a nice little virtual age of 51 and a life expectancy of almost 90 (regular exercise, good diet and sleeping habits, reformed smoker and so on), and as a 58-year-old, I was feeling pretty good. But then came the last few questions.

One was “How much do you drive?” My answer cost me four years of virtual age and another four years of life expectancy for a net loss of eight years.

Sell the car!

Another was, “How much high-risk activity do you engage in.” The answers ranged from “None at all.” to “I’m jumping out of an airplane right now.” The closer to the airplane jump, the more virtual and expected years fell away. My answer cost me three years of life expectancy and two years of virtual age.

Give away the skis and backpack!

Uh, excuse me, quiz master—Joe Actuary—but what do you think I live for?

Every once in a while—not nearly as often as I would like, given the price of gasoline and restrictions on disposable personal time—I get in my car and drive to wherever it is my little heart desires, within reason (which translates to somewhere within Idaho, Washington and Montana, most of the time). Sometimes during these long drives, I engage in “high-risk” activities, like going for an impromptu hike on a trail to God knows where without

filing a hike plan with the local authorities or my mom (which doesn’t even drive her crazy anymore). Sometimes, there isn’t even a trail. It’s just me and the forest and that big chunk of rock I could see from the road.

I have yet to die while doing these kinds of things. Of course, I’m not all that close to my quiz-generated life expectancy, either.

In the old days, back before there were cars with which to lower our life expectancy and actuarial scientists to point it out, there was a phenomenon called “going to look for the elephant.” It is a Western sort of thing to do. When someone said they were going to do that, it could be expected that the next day they would be gone. It means—still does—that the person who made the pronouncement is off for a look over the next horizon and maybe the one after that—“gone walkabout” as the Australian Aborigines say. It means, simply, they are going exploring.

I love going to look for the elephant.

If I could find a job looking for the elephant—and writing about the experience—my virtual age would drop to 25 and my life expectancy would soar to 100-plus.

After a few road trips with my mother, I have come to understand that I come by the predilection honestly. This is a woman who once eschewed a nice, sit-down breakfast in Jackson Hole and a 250-mile meander to Salt Lake City for a 7-11 donut and a 600-mile-marathon to Moab. She is a fine companion on looking-for-the-elephant journeys. I will not discuss her virtual age, except to say that it’s a sight younger than her real one. Of course, she doesn’t engage in many high-risk activities, unless you count riding with me.

I have looked for the elephant for 30plus years in most of the states west of

the 100 th Meridian. From the Ponderosaladen north rim of the Grand Canyon to the storm-pounded cliffs of Cape Flattery, from the lettuce fields of the Imperial Valley to the orchards of the Methow Valley, from the Black Hills to Rabbit Ears Pass I have pursued that pachyderm. I’ve searched from San Diego to Searchlight to Seattle to the Pumpkin Hills to Pahrump to Billings to Mesa Verde to Mexican Hat, and never seen it once, not even its tail disappearing over some horizon just ahead.

Friends and family have assisted me in elephant searches, as well as occasional strangers, many of whom have become friends. I have also searched alone, and sometimes this is best, but company always seems to make the hunt more interesting.

High-risk activities notwithstanding, if I can keep looking for the elephant, I will live for a long, long time.

Of course, there are no elephants to find in these places where we look for one, but that’s the point of the whole thing. We who go to look for the elephant hunt for something that we know we can’t find so we can keep looking.

A lot can happen to a guy while he’s trying to grow up to be what he wants to be when he grows up.

Blue Creek Press &

Vanderford’s Books present a special Solstice edition of

The StoryTelling Company celebrating the release of Sandy Compton’s book

Side Trips From Cowboy:

Addiction, Recovery and the Western American Myth

Many of Sandy Compton’s elephant-hunting expeditions are outlined in his latest book, Side Trips From Cowboy: Addition, Recovery and the Western American Myth. Buy it at Vanderford’s in Sandpoint or go to www.bluecreekpress. com. You can reach Sandy at mrcomptonjr@hotmail.com

Stories and selections from the book On Cedar Street in Sandpoint Saturday, June 20, 2009 10 am to noon Save the date.

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 11

Land Exchange- Continued from page parceled and sold to the highest bidder.

If the agency retained the Plum Creek land, it could be more easily managed for fire and timber than small swatches spread across the map.

In addition, the Forest Service, in its Notice of Intent published in the Federal Register, said these lands, “are of interest to the Forest Service because they encompass the headwaters of the Lochsa River and hold outstanding values for many fish and wildlife species. The... lands also hold significant cultural resources including the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and Nez Perce Tribe treaty area.”

Brian Disney, a spokesman for the timber company, said that Western Pacific has no plans to develop the land it receives.

He said the company doesn’t want the land in McCroskey Park if it cannot be sold to the state, or exchanged for state land.

“We want that land to stay in the hands of a state agency, or be part of the park somehow,” said Disney.

The Portland-based company uses its land for timber management, he said, not to sell as real estate.

If the company cannot make a deal with the state over the McCroskey land, he said, it would prefer to take it out of the exchange.

“We don’t need all of that,” he said. “We can throw it out.”

Because of its owner’s track record, which includes multiple rural developments, Judson said, she is certain the land, once removed from the public domain, will be sold to developers.

She agrees with the Forest Service’s push to acquire the Plum Creek property, she said, but she opposes a land trade.

“None of us are opposed to getting that land,” she said. “We all agree that should be in public ownership, but not at the expense of what we have here.”

The 12 parcels in the Panhandle include 1,145 acres in Bonner County, 57 acres in Kootenai County and about 320 acres in Shoshone County, according to the Forest Service. It includes 16,000 acres in the Clearwater National Forest—with more than 10,000 acres surrounding the town of Elk City and 700 acres around Dworshak Reservoir and the Upper North Fork of the Clearwater River—10,700 acres in the Nez Perce National Forest and 1,500 acres in the Panhandle National Forest, said Trulock.

For more information on the exchange including maps, go online to http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/clearwater/Projects/Upper_ Lochsa_LEX/Upper_Lochsa_LEX.htm.

Veterans- Continued from page 5 pm, and the Coeur d’Alene Idaho Commerce and Labor Center, 1221 W. Ironwood Dr., on July 9 from 10 am to 5 pm.

The local Vietnam Veterans American Chapter #890 will hold its annual yard sale August 1 from 6 am to 6 pm, and August 2 from 7 am to 1 pm at the VFW Hall located at 1325 Pine Street in Sandpoint.

The yard sale is a benefit to assist veterans and/or their families who are less fortunate or in need. The VVA asks citizens who have items to donate to please call Michael at 208-263-8724 or Will at 208-2659164 so the VVA can arrange to have your items picked up. The VVA is a 501(c) organization, so all donations are tax deductible.

All local veterans’ organizations would like to thank the following organizations and civilians for their tremendous support for the Second Annual Stand Down to be held at the Bonner County Fairgrounds July 11: Newport, WA. Safeway, CDA. Super 1 Food Stores, Second Ave Food Harvest in Spokane, Veterans Outreach Specialist, Coeur d’Alene, “Brandia Young” Food Banks in Newport, WA., Oldtown, ID., Priest River, ID, all civilian volunteers, ACE septic, Pamela Faye Houston, who sang the National Anthem, the Idaho National Guard, Litehouse in Sandpoint, Sandpoint Boy Scouts, message therapist Krystle Shapiro, Carleen Roberson and all ladies providing hair cuts, and Kris Fankell.

Photo on page 5 by Kriss Perras Running Waters

Did You Know?

Last year we performed 5,786 surgical procedures.

Our surgery staff provides a comprehensive range of inpatient and outpatient surgical services, utilizing leading-edge technology: • Ear, nose and throat • Endoscopy • General surgery • Gynecology • Opthalmology

• Orthopedic • Pain management • Plastic & reconstructive • Podiatry • Urology

When you need quality, convenient surgical care, we’re here for you.

We are proud to be your not-for-profit, community hospital!

BONNER GENERAL HOSPITAL Celebrating 60 Years of Quality Compassionate Care

263-1441

www.BonnerGeneral.org

Page 12 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Shakespeare

In the Parks The Tempest

Saturday, August 15, 2009 • 6:00 PM (MT time) at the Heron Ballfield

Now in its 37th season, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is proud to present “The Tempest” on Satudray, August 15 at 6 pm in the Heron Ballfield in beautiful Heron, Montana.

This professional production is provided at NO CHARGE to the viewing public—so bring friends, family, picnic hampers, a bottle wine and a comfortable chair to sit back and enjoy the show!

The Tempest, which is believed to be the last play Shakespeare wrote by himself and also his farewell to the world of the theatre, is a dense, rich story of revenge and forgiveness that immediately grabs us and hurls us into a fascinating world filled with spirits and imaginative characters. As Prospero, with help from his trusted spirit Ariel, uses his wizardry to plan revenge on those who deposed him from his dukedom years before. The play ultimately ends with Prospero forgiving all as he buries his magic books and returns to his native land.

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is an outreach program of Montana State University’s College of Arts and Architecture. Performances this summer are supported by NorthWestern Energy, The National Endowment for the Arts, Montana Arts Council, Montana Cultural Trust, State Farm Bureau, Clear Channel Radio and Bozeman Daily Chronicle and hundreds of individual donors who give what they can to keep the performances free and available to everyone in the touring area .

A Bird in Hand

by Mike Turnlund

Osprey - Really, really cool to watch Snowbirds: sun worshipers afraid of snow. Yes, these are a common type of fowl in our neck of the woods, many of which do not even have feathers. You’re familiar with the type: those rich neighbors who have a summer home on Lake Pend Oreille and a winter home in Phoenix. But before you get into your haughty groove about such weak humans, keep in mind that this sort of behavior is common among our feathered friends. Many, many “native” species of birds are only native during the spring and summer months. And counted among the largest of these is the osprey, often called the fish hawk.

The osprey is a distinctive bird with its black and white coloring and bandit’s mask.

It is also the bird which seems to perch its very large nest on any and every microwave relay tower and abandoned telephone pole within sight of a lake. Interestingly, the osprey is cosmopolitan and lives on every continent, except Antarctica. It is a migrant in the higher latitudes of its range and a year-round resident in rest.

Ospreys are also large birds and within the local distribution of the River Journal second only to the eagles in size. Though grouped by the American Ornithological Union with the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae, they are sufficiently different to warrant being placed in their own subfamily Pandioninae. But even this classification is not unanimous among all experts, with some placing the bird in its own family.

So how is the osprey so distinctive?

What is most readily apparent to the birder is the shape of the osprey’s wings. Notice how they are more like those of a gull

rather than like the “related” raptors, such as a hawk. Likewise, the osprey holds its wings in a bent, backward-swept fashion.

This is probably the most notable field mark from a distance.

Less obvious is the osprey’s flexible outer toes, with which it can shift forward or backward. It uses this unique structural trait to maneuver the fish it captures into a head-forward position, which is far more streamline when hauling over distances.

Its talons also have grippy scales, which have obvious benefits when handling its slimy victims. Osprey can also hover like a sparrow hawk before they plunge into the water feet-first when fishing. Really, really cool to watch.

Osprey can be very vocal, if not downright noisy. From my back porch I have many times witnessed an adult bird sweep

the sky in lazy circles, piercing my peaceful afternoon with its shrill vocalizations. Key word: shrieking. I don’t know why these birds carry on in this fashion, but it is interesting at first. But like an obnoxious neighbor, it gets tiring after a while.

Osprey really are quite common in our area, but don’t equate common with not being entertaining to watch. Though they are primarily fish eaters, I have witnessed one particularly hungry individual dive down and capture a vole on the ground, which it carried back to its nest to devour. Obey the stomach. I have also seen one nestbuilding bird complete an airborne cartwheel when it discovered the stick it grabbed from a tree was still attached. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

I have also watched a bald eagle bully an osprey into dropping the fish it had just captured. The eagle then swooped down and snatched the treasure before it hit the water. Size rules in the jungle.

Enjoy these grand birds while they are here. If you have some free time one afternoon, stake out a nest site and watch the babies as they fledge into adult birds. It is an interesting and readily available birding opportunity.

And osprey don’t mind nosey neighbors, as long as you don’t get too close. Happy

Buy ...

Sell ...

Trade ...

Rent ...

Connect It’s all free, in the

FREE Classified Ads That’s not all. Get local news, event calendars, movie showtimes, job listings and more. Only on ...

In addition to being an avid birder, Mike Turnlund is a teacher at Clark Fork High School. You can reach him at miketurnlund@gmail.com

Produced by Keokee Creative Group Web services for area business, too www.keokee.com 208-263-3573

Page 14 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

The Game Trail

by Matt Haag

Summertime is here; at least that’s what the calendar is showing. Folks are gearing up for their summertime camping trips and adventures in the woods. For some that includes motorized recreation such as riding ATVs, or motorcycles, generally referred to as Off Highway Vehicles. Some rules have changed that regulate the use of OHVs on public lands, and I’ll attempt to cover those in this column so riders can have a better understanding.

OHV use in Idaho had grown exponentially over the past 20 years; subsequently the regulations are becoming more detailed and change often. An astonishing 81,000 OHVs were registered in Idaho last year compared to a little over 6,000 in 1988. With such a quick growth in popularity of off road vehicles, conflict has resulted among user groups, especially those who prefer to travel without motors.

The evolving rules are geared toward minimizing conflict and encouraging safety.

There has been a huge growth particularly in the Utility Terrain Vehicles section of the off road vehicle market.

These are the larger, two-seater vehicles that some people refer to as mules.

Unfortunately folks don’t realize that UTVs are illegal on most Forest Service ATV trails due to size restrictions. USFS restricts all vehicles over 50 inches wide from their motorized trails. Most UTVs are 50 inches or more in width, with the exception of the Polaris Razor, so please don’t travel on motorized trails if you own a UTV; stick to the main roads travelled by full-sized vehicles. If you ignore those restrictions and you are caught, the fine is

$180 according to the Forest Service.

Before heading out on your OHV, one needs to get the machine registered with the state, like any other motorized vehicle.

The only exception is OHVs that are used exclusively for agricultural purposes. As of April 9, Senate Bill 1098 changed the requirements for OHVs. Restricted use plates for Idaho residents will no longer be required if riders are operating on state or federal lands, only the off-road sticker is required. However, the restricted use plate is still required for operation on local and county roads open to such use. To make it simpler, if you are going to ride on state and federal grounds buy an off-road sticker. If you want to ride on both county and state roads along with federal and state ground, buy a plate along with the off-road sticker.

Non-resident operators can purchase Idaho plates and off-road stickers or if their OHV is properly registered in their home state they don’t need to register them in Idaho.

Clear as mud? Contact your local DMV office for more information or to purchase required plates and/or stickers.

When you are out enjoying the trails and roads by OHVs, lead by example. Stick to the open trails and roads; going off road does serious damage to the soil and vegetation and will get you a visit with the local judge.

There is absolutely no excuse for damaging public ground, so please report anybody you see operating an OHV off established trails and roads. Also, use some common sense when riding on muddy trails. For some out there, their manhood is directly related to the amount of mud displayed on their vehicles; unfortunately that causes permanent damage to the trial or road.

Matt Haag is an Idaho Fish and Game Conservation Officer. Reach him at mhaag@idfg.idaho.gov.

Find pictures of Clark Fork’s 4th of July online at RiverJournal.com

Wait until the trail dries out a bit and slow down when traversing muddy areas. If enough people use discretion when riding that may make the difference in keeping that trail or road from being closed.

Also use some trail etiquette when approaching other trail users. When coming upon horses and/or hikers pull to the side of the trail and turn off your motor. Having respect for other users goes a long way; more people become tolerate of others when the right attitude is displayed.

OHVs are considered a motor vehicle— on county roads or in the woods, it doesn’t matter. You need to have a valid driver’s license and proof of insurance when operating an OHV. That means your 14year-old can’t operate the family ATV when on public roadways or land. Children under the age of 18 must wear a helmet at all times when operating or riding on an OHV, and really all people should be protecting their melons regardless of age.

During the fire season, May 10 through October 20, all OHV operators must carry a shovel and bucket with them when traveling on Forest Service land. Your helmet can substitute for a bucket so all you need is a shovel!

A couple of reminders before I sign off, and it includes my usual spring warnings.

Please bear proof your homes and businesses. If the bear has a reason to be there, like bird feeders, garbage, dog food, dirty BBQ grills etc., it will never go away.

If you have a dumpster at your business ask Waste Management for a bear proof lid, or find a way to bear proof it yourself.

Also, please do not pick up baby wildlife of any kind; you are only doing more harm than good. Your Conservation Officers in the Panhandle feel strongly enough about leaving baby wildlife alone we are issuing citations to those who are picking up fawns and calves. If you have a legitimate reason to believe the baby wildlife is abandoned, please call us before you handle it.

Happy trails to all you riders out there.

Please tread lightly and remember to set a good example for all to see. See you out there.

Leave No Child Inside

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 15

by Michael White

What to do if you are not overrun with wildlife yet.

As spring came on, I was thinking of spring planting and how to create wildlife habitat through landscaping, just in case your property is not completely overrun with wildlife yet. Well, now it is pushing summer but it is not too late to improve wildlife habitat within your human habitat.

The first step would be to take an inventory of the plants you currently have in your yard and map out their location, along with terrain features such as hills, low spots, boulders, etc. Now you can begin to develop a landscaping plan, taking into account the natural terrain features and existing plants, so that the plan is one of

adding in the right components to create the multi-story structure and diversity of native plants which will create good wildlife habitat. When creating wildlife habitat, the combination of habitat elements (food, water, cover and places to raise young) you provide should take into consideration the needs of the wildlife you wish to attract.

Carefully selected plantings can provide food, cover and/or places to raise young.

Landscaping for wildlife habitat should include plants ranging in size and density from small evergreen shrubs to tall, fullgrown trees so that birds and other wildlife can choose which cover they need for feeding, hiding, courting and nesting activities. Dense plantings of shrubbery provide safe areas for many species of wildlife to mate, build nests and raise their families.

For the best results, use native plants.

Plants native to the soils and climate of this area provide the best overall food sources for the wildlife of this area. In addition, native plants generally require less fertilizer, water and effort to control pests. Native plants can support 10 to 50 times more species of native wildlife (mostly insects, the basic

wildlife food) than do exotics (plants that are not native to your area). Too often, exotics such as tansy and knapweed, brought to our area for their horticultural or wildlife value, grow and spread rapidly, taking over farm and woodland and decimating native plants and animals.

To offer food for wildlife there are three basic approaches: provide plants that produce food, set up a supplemental feeding station, and attract insects (or small prey) that are the food source. It is best to provide plants in a variety of sizes, shapes, densities, arrangements, and maturity levels to suit the preferences of a variety of critters. Try to select plants from each of the five broad categories: conifers, grasses and legumes, summer fruiting plants, autumn fruiting plants, and nut plants. Douglas Fir cones are seed sources of preference for squirrels, while chipmunks prefer sunflower seeds.

When people think of supplemental food for birds they often think strictly of seeds, but many species want additional nutrient sources like fruit, nectar, or insects.

Attracting insects or smaller food sources will be the most difficult of your three options. The best way to accomplish this is by planting trees and shrubs native to your area. Second in effectiveness is to resist the urge to kill bugs on sight. If those

=PcdaP[[h

t h e f e s t i v a l at s a n d p o i n t, 2 7 y e a r s o f m u s i c u n d e r t h e s ta r s , o n t h e l a k e , i n s a n d p o i n t, i d a h o

E N J O Y G R E AT M U S I C …

4HURSDAY !UGUST

firefall & Poco

All tickets $34.95

The Festival at Sandpoint celebrates Opening Night with FIREFALL and POCO, digging into the fertile soil of American rock and folk music that flourished in the 1970s, creating a sound that changed the world’s musical landscape. FIREFALL is one of the few surviving bands of this genre, that over its thirty year history transcends and embraces many labels — rock, soft rock, country rock, unplugged and Americana. From 1976 through the early 1980s, the Boulder, Colorado-based band saturated the national radio waves with their harmony-laden rock, toured the world over and sold millions of records, earning two platinum and three gold albums containing many hits including “You Are the Woman,” “Just Remember I Love You,” “Strange Way” and “Cinderella.”

POCO is another group that spearheaded the birth and continuation of the country rock/folk rock sound of the Seventies. Their first album, Pickin up the Pieces is the only debut album to ever receive a perfect review rating from Rolling Stone Magazine and is considered to be the best and most important album of the new musical genre that united country with rock music. A favorite of FM stations with hits like “Crazy Love” and “Heart of the Night,” Poco was a highly innovative and pioneering band. Poco’s 20th anniversary Legacy album went gold and featured two more top forty hits, “Call it Love” and “Nothing to Hide.”

A red-carpet welcome for Festival fans and a complimentary glass of champagne will add to the exciting Opening Night festivities.

888.265.4554 800.325.seaT

Info and TIckeTs: The festival at sandpoint or all TicketWest locations or by phone at

To order online visit us at:

www.festivalatsandpoint.com

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 16

aphids won’t kill your plant, why don’t you leave them for the ladybugs to eat? Spraying pesticides will damage beneficial insects as readily as those we deem harmful. Snakes have a bad reputation, but are often times better friends than foes. They will take care of slugs and pesky rodents.

Consider the location of the food source.

Some animals feed from the ground; others prefer an elevated site. Make sure the food is close enough to cover that the animals feel safe while eating but not too near for a predator (like your house cat) to lie in wait for its next meal. Keep seed dry and off the ground so that it doesn’t rot. Be diligent about changing the nectar in hummingbird feeders so that it doesn’t spoil and ferment.

Don’t use red food color or honey. Honey was formerly recommended but it can cause fungal growths in their throats. Remember nocturnal feeders such as deer mice, bats, owls, and toads and try to provide for them whenever possible. Small brush piles are excellent habitat for rodents and small birds which are in turn food for hawks, owls, etc.

Finally, separate feeders so that territorial animals can comfortably eat.

Water: At your site, water may or may not be easy to provide. Animals need water for bathing, drinking, washing food, and completing their life cycle. Think about the wildlife you hope to draw and their specific needs. Water can be provided in several ways. Large sites may already have a stream or pond or have the room to accommodate one. With these you will be able to attract fish, ducks, and geese. In smaller yards, use hardscapes like bird baths, fountains, or other water features. Don’t underestimate the potential of mud puddles for frogs and toads, wet sand for butterflies, and misters for hummingbirds. Avoid stagnant water, which is a magnet for mosquito larvae (West Nile Virus habitat = BAD) and bacteria.

Keep water fresh and available year round.

Put wood logs into a birdbath to help keep the water from freezing in the winter and during warmer months they will provide

Ray Allen - Live music from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s & 70s. Jazz standards and pop songs. Ray Allen playing a single on guitar and vocals is available for private parties, special events, restaurants, etc. Low rates.

Call 208-610-8244

a landing pad for bees and other insects.

Again, place water on the ground and in elevated positions so different animals gain access. Inexpensive options include reusing the lid of a trashcan or a saucer from a garden pot or use that old satellite dish to create a small pond.

Shelter/Cover: The purpose of shelter is to protect animals from the weather and predators. Ideal hiding spots include densely branched shrubs, evergreens, snags (dead and dying trees) hollow logs, brush piles, meadow grasses, and rock (in piles, outcroppings, or walls). The key with live vegetation is variety. Much like with natural food sources, it is important to have a combination of trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, and grasses with different attributes: deciduous versus evergreen, tall versus short, dense versus thin, and so forth. Retaining walls and dry streambeds, which are both functional and attractive, are often overlooked as excellent near-by hiding places for chipmunks, lizards and other reptiles, and insects that rest on the rocks soaking in the sunshine. Combine these ideas to create safe passages so animals don’t feel exposed and in danger when crossing your yard.

Place to Raise Young: Early on it was mentioned that many aspects of cover/ shelter overlap with a place to raise young. Birds will often build nests in the same shrubs they flee to for safety. Snags are ideal sites for squirrels to build dens and take cover from the weather. Water not only serves as protection for fish and frogs, but is also the place for laying eggs.

Waterfowl will use cattails and reeds next to a pond for both protection and nesting, but prefer islands inside bodies of water for the added distance from predators.

You can leave a strip of grass un-mowed or seed using native grasses and wildflowers Continued on page 20

DON’T GET CAUGHT IN THE DARK!

The weather here is unpredictable, and your connection to power can be too.

We can help you keep the lights on. Call today to learn more.

The Last Resort

Vacation rental available.

Cabin in the woods features fully equipped kitchen, covered deck, and panoramic view of the river with boat ramp. Cabin is designed for 2, max occupancy 4. Kids welcome, pet friendly.

The fish are jumping, so reserve your time today.

208-266-0525 www.lastresortvacation.com

We pay attention to detail 1200 Triangle Drive Ponderay

208.263.1258

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 17

Under-do- Continued from page

300 Bonner Mall Way • Ponderay

208.263.4272

CRAZY DAZE!

Double the fun this year at your hometown Bonner Mall!

July 17, 18 & 19 AND

July 31, Aug. 1 & 2 Plus, don’t miss the Marcy’s Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Premiere on July 11 & 12!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Centerfield Sports GNC Hideaway Lounge Horizon Credit Union Idaho State Liquor Store JC Penney Les Schwab Tires Marcy’s Hallmark Meyer’s Sporttees McDonalds Days Inn North Idaho College Pizza Hut Sandpoint Diner Sandpoint Furniture Sandpoint School of Hair Design Sayers Jewelers Sears Sew ‘n Vac Smokers Express Staples Wonderland Studio Yokes Fresh Market Deep Creek Crystals & Gems Dollar Tree Home Sweet Home Antiques Paris Hair Designs & School of Poise Sandy’s Sugar Shack “That’s a Wrap” Gyros

300 Bonner Mall Way in Ponderay

(i.e., making commitments to other projects I really shouldn’t commit to) along the way. But I’m growing (or aging) into an understanding that happiness doesn’t necessarily require an 18-hour workday, and already I’m seeing some benefits to that. Take this weekend, for example.

Though it’s Sunday afternoon and yes, I’m sitting at the computer writing this column (i.e. working), I spent much of it lazing around in the sunshine, spending time with my partner David. Okay, we had a yard sale at his house, trying to clear out years of accumulated junk as my brother Joe sells his place in Dover and moves out to Clark Fork with me, but we didn’t have many shoppers so the workload, compared to my traditional weekend workload, was almost nil.

And it was fun. I gave Matt a muchneeded driving lesson (sorry, Kriss, for not asking first) and discovered that I probably won’t give him another—like childbirth, I was immediately reminded of the three kids I’ve already taught how to drive and remembered that it’s not an experience I really want to repeat. I got to visit with some of the grandkids—Tyler and Jade and Tristan stopped by before they went fishing.

I had time with my oldest daughter to just

Moose- Continued from page

been much worse.

Drewe isn’t new to this area; she knows the woods and she is aware of the animals.

She isn’t a “newbie” to North Idaho. Still, moose are unpredictable wild animals; no matter how many times they see you, it’s better to stay at a safe distance from them.

They don’t act like deer, bolting at the mere sight of you. They will consider your appearance a challenge and react. They are fast and furious and, according to Drewe, she would rather have had Moose Drool in a bottle; at least then she would have been stepping on her own lips, instead of the moose stepping on them for her! What does Drewe consider a “safe distance?”— definitely more than 40 yards!

chat and laugh and visit and share music and stories. David fixed the mower and I mowed the lawn, but better yet, we spent quite a bit of time just sitting side by side in the sunshine, holding hands. I can do with more weekends like that, and am realizing that I can have them—if I choose to.

I hope this summer that all of you get some time to hold hands as well; to enjoy the soft heat soaking into our bones before the winter snows come all too soon again; to visit and talk with your family and loved ones; to teach a kid how to drive. All but one of you, that is. To that one person out there, I would suggest you consider throwing your name into the ring for consideration as a school board trustee.

It’s a worthy job to do.

Seriously. If you’d like to be considered for Melanie Snider’s position on the school board, and live in the areas of Hope, Clark Fork, or east of Hwy. 95 north of Sandlpoint, give the district a call at 208-263-2184, or visit their website at www.lposd.org for the press release giving details. Deadline for letters of interest is July 24. The appointment would last untl the next election in May 2010. If elected at that time to fill out the remainder of Snider’s term, the term would last one additional year.

When moose, like most other mammals, feel threatened, their two choices are fight or flight. Luckily, in most cases they choose flight, but there are times when that doesn’t seem to be the best choice for a moose—for example, as when they have babies present.

Although moose attacks are considered to be rare, they happen often enough that anyone living in the same area should be aware of simple precautions, most of which can be boiled down to: don’t approach a moose. They’re a wild animal with no interest in making your acquaintance.

Moose can be particularly aggressive when protecting young ones, or during the fall rut season.

Spend your time doing what you love— I’ll spend mine working for you.

• Estate Planning (Wills/Trusts) • Guardianship • Conservatorship • Probate Services • Real Estate/Business Law Tevis Hull - He’s Back!

Call 208-255-2226

Page 18 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Opening- Continued from page

reputation is one of the things that keeps us at the top of the list (for donations),” she said. “In addition, I think many sponsors recognize that we help to fuel the local economy in a large way. A conservative estimate is that we bring in around $3 million to the community each August.”

That record of success spills over to the artists themselves, as well. “We’re finding it easier and easier to book acts,” Dyno explained. “Artists have heard of us and

want to be here.” Especially artists who have been here before. “You know, Jim Messina stayed for a week—and he’s been back several times, though not to perform at the Festival. Los Lonely Boys wished so much they were staying. David Grey did his research beforehand and they stayed for several days. I know we offer a great experience when I see some of the agents at conferences and they tell me [their particular artist] wants to come back.”

Part of what makes artists want to play

the Festival, and return to play again, “is the quality of our audience,” Dyno offered, and said that’s particularly apparent during opening acts. “At other venues, people don’t even show up to see the opening act, or they talk all through the performance.

They don’t do that here, and that’s because of the level of sophistication our audiences bring to music. They’re truly interested and appreciative, so we have to make sure we book people they’ll enjoy.”

Matt Keen- Continued from page 19 That triggered interest locally in having him appear on the Festival stage. “I get a lot of recommendations from the public for acts,” explained Dyno Wahl, executive director of the Festival at Sandpoint. “And I love it when we can accommodate that. I have to get approval from the main stage artists, but when we find someone with talent, it’s one of my greatest pleasures to help support that. As far as Matt Keen goes, Bruce Bishop’s support speaks volumes.”

“I’m almost 20,” Matt says when asked his age,

but he won’t turn that age until a month after the Festival tent is folded up and put back in storage.

Still, he doesn’t hesitate in his belief that music is the field where he’ll make his home.

“There’s no doubt about it, this is what I’m gonna do,” he said. “It’s the most positive outlet in my life.”

Bruce doesn’t hesitate in his belief, either.

“Listening to Matt is like getting in on the ground floor of a real new talent. You can’t help but fall in love with him,” he added. “Matt is the real thing.”

FINAL DAY JULY 26!

After 35 years, it’s time to close

EVERYTHING must go!

This is the end of a great era and the Belwoods family is grateful to the entire community.

Now is your chance to save big as Belwoods must close out their entire inventory of name brand furniture, floor coverings,mattresses, and accessories . Shop today and save 23% to 67% off all merchandise.

Credit cards, 90 days same as cash and G.E. credit all accepted.

Hurry in for the best selection, Monday through Saturday 10 to 6 and Sunday 11 to 4.

301 Cedar St • Sandpoint 208.263-3189 July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 19

Land- continued from page 17 and let it go natural. Some species such as butterflies may need very specific types of plants, called host plant, on which to raise their young? A Monarch won’t lay eggs unless she knows she’s resting on a milkweed. Nest boxes have some very specific characteristics which they are built with to invite certain species of birds.

Features such as overall size, hole shape and size, outside perching, interior space, and construction material will determine which species find it most suitable for raising young. Other factors to consider are where the box is hung and how it is

also have access to building material. That seems like an odd requirement, but it will be less challenging to build a nest if small twigs, pine needles, and mud are readily available.

Some of the more common and better native plant choices for shrubs are rabbitbrush; red currant; serviceberry; Cascara brick thorn; blue elderberry and Manzanita. For trees, look to the Pacific Dogwood, madrone, mountain ash, hawthorn, vine maple, big leaf maple, and red alder. Good choices for evergreens include the Western red cedar, the Western white pine, Douglas fir, Western hemlock and White fir. Flower and perennials

butterfly weed, wild columbine, scarlet gilia, penstemon, fireweed and trumpet vine. You can visit my website at www.

NorthIdahoLandMan.com for a more extensive list.

The distinctive Indian Paintbrush (castilleja) shown above is a good native landscaping choice and is a favored food of butterflies.

Heron Veterinary Services

• Equine and small animal medicine & surgery • Covered, equine haul-in facility • Mobile service available Clark Fork, Idaho to Thompson Falls and Libby, Montana

George White, DVM

Monday-Friday by appointment only oriented to the sun. Make sure animals

include Indian paintbrush, blazing star,

Call 406-847-8387

Visit us in our new home!

In the Mountain West Financial Center on Hwy 2 in Sandpoint.

We take care of ALL your insurance needs Home • Auto • Life •Business

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 20

Currents

by Lou Springer

Face to Face Bill Litsinger • Bob Wynhausen 1400 AM KSPT • 1450 AM KBFI

Coming to the garden

I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. If these words sound familiar perhaps you have sung this old hymn, as I sing while I open the gate.

Entering the garden is like entering a place of worship; you do so respectfully.

We are profoundly lucky to live near a creek junction where the creeks have carved through much of the clay bottom of Glacial Lake Missoula and replaced it with alluvial deposits. Twelve thousand years of creek meanders, with the attendant sand bars and tumbled cobbles; 12,000 years of siltcatching beaver ponds; 12,000 autumns of alder leaves have created a deep chocolate brown soil.

Ours has been a working vegetable garden since 1912. Mountains of cow, horse, chicken, goat and pig manure dug into a cleared alder thicket has produced garden soil full of humus and so friable, it could be dug with your bare hands. It is so rich and naturally moist that seeds have abundantly germinated from last summer’s neglected heads of dill, poppy, sunflower, spinach.

We plant our garden in stages. Around the first of spring—new moon and easy to remember date—tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, basil and zinnias are planted in flats. By April, the seedlings have been transplanted into small pots and commandeer every south- and eastfacing window. Flower seeds are sprinkled into the flats. Early May, the upper part of the garden is dry enough to cultivate and onions, peas, spinach, carrots, radishes are planted. By mid-May, most of the seedlings—I was beginning to regret the successful germination of so many cosmos, zinnias, marigolds—are transplanted to bigger pots and hauled out to a cold frame.

The broccoli and cauliflower are taken out of pots and planted into their plot. Eight rows of spuds are carefully patted into place.

Once the broccoli is set out and the spinach germinating, the five strand electric wire fence is erected and the big arched gates brought out of storage. Now the deer can only graze on the crocus and hyacinth.

The soil is warm enough in early June to plant beans and squash. The tomatoes, peppers and all those flowers are growing too big for pots and are transplanted into And don’t have to—after all, don’t the realthey world. we Americans believe if it’s site, ours,with it’s ours This well-chosen garden its and we with it what we want?

Or fertile soilcan and do abundant sunshine provided by the creek junction location, has oneis drawback. Cold air flowsand down we slope. want it, then Forhave someto reason, only you give it toperhaps us and known if you don’t, tothen God, you the full moon on a clear night will sponsor terrorism and we’ll summon icy breezes. It was cloudy and rainy when we went to bed around 11pm and so By thethe way, wants that oil as we figured earlyChina June full moon brought Remember The people who nowell. threat.

Around 3China? am—I must have heard loaned us all that money? the tomatoes moaning—I awokeChina’s and sawoil a consumption around 6.5 billion barrels moon glitteringislike a newly-minted dime and issky. growing at 7out percent every inaayear, cloudless Jumping of a warm and cozyIt bed, we scrambled the garden. year. produces about 3.6tobillion barrels Byevery the dim of our year.ray Does thishead mathflashlights, look goodwe to placed buckets, and anyone?

Can baskets, anyone pots, other plastic, than Sarah tarps tender Bush plants.believe we can Palinover and158 George The early June weather pattern of drill our way out of this problem?

Anyone cloudy, cool days, followed by bright clear who doesn’t think we better hit the ground nights, gave me time to contemplate why running figure out how toflowers. fuel what we the hell I toplanted so many Four want fueled with something other than days of removing 158 covers and four nights probably to goa lot back to an ofoil replacing thedeserves 158 seemed of extra work. : I could zinnias, go on Ah, but today—with marigolds, cosmos, and reading. peppersSo flowering, forever,tomatoes but you’ll quit one final basil and nasturtiums forming big leaves— discussion for the American public.

First, every of afrost protection effortanalysis is worth let’s bit have true, independent of the price.

Tasty spinach and radishes are what happened on September 11, 2001. harvested daily,explanation with promisesimply of peas, then The official doesn’t early red potatoes in the near future. hold This things is oneinoflifethose “who One water. of the finer is to be in knew what, when” questions that must be on page 25 answered—and Continued people/institutions must Speaking of accountability, you might be surprised to learn that I would not support an effort to impeach President Bush after the November elections. First, because that’s too late, andis second, Lou Springer a fan because more of thanwater Bush inhave all been its involved in crimes againstforms. the American myriad You Louseeviaare people. What I can wouldreach like to emailcharges at nox5594@ charges (at the least, of treason) blackfoot.net. brought against Bush, Cheney, et al. Bring the charges and let’s let the evidence of

Friday lunch at 12:15 They have ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ and ‘touch the face of God.’

Coffelt Funeral Service helping those who are left behind.

P.O. Box 949 • Sandpoint, Idaho

208-263-3133

www.CoffeltFuneral.com Moon Chapel Pinecrest Cemetery Member by invitation only Moon Crematory

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 21

Thomas’

Tech Tales

Remember to Back Up! Throughout my high school career and now on into my college career computer problems have plagued me and my peers on basically every paper we have written.

Whether it is losing files, computer crashes, printer jams, or any other scenario someone always seems to get burned and suffers for it.

An easy way to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen to you is to follow some simple guidelines that most people are aware of yet fail to follow.

First and foremost, when working on any kind of document for any reason save early and save often! It doesn’t matter if it is a 15page history paper or you’re editing a family photo in Photoshop; be sure to save more than you think is necessary and to save your file in an easy-to-find folder. As a student I like to create a new folder for every class I am enrolled in, and save papers for said classes in their respective folders. That way I know exactly where to find my projects in a hurry if I am in a rush.

Just saving your files to your computer is definitely not enough; be sure to back up important documents at least to a flash drive.

Think of it as cheap insurance if anything should happen and you are unable to access your computer. Also another easy route, but one that takes a few more steps, is to simply attach your file in an email to yourself.

Then you can retrieve it from any computer with Internet access. However, there is an important step you must take when you plan on opening your files on other computers, be it from a flash drive or email. Make sure that the file type is compatible with the outside computer you are planning on using. This is very important for Office 2007 users as Office 2003 can not read your files. Fortunately Office makes it very simple to save as both, plus 2007 can read 2003 files. Be aware that 2003 files will take up a little more space.

School projects aren’t the only things that should be saved and backed up however. Your entire system needs to be backed up on a regular basis as well. This is much easier then it sounds so don’t freak out. For Windows XP users you just simply need to go to Start>All P rog rams> Accessories

>System Tools>System Restore. From there you can make a restore point so that in a case of emergency you can simply go back to System Restore, select “Restore my computer to an earlier time” and your computer will reset itself in a sense back to that period.

Mac users will tell you that Macs don’t crash, but that’s not true—they do. Maybe not as often as a Windows-based computer will, but a crash on a Mac results in the same file losses. So backing up is important even if your computer features that cute little apple icon.

Unfortunately I did not follow the last rule… and am now paying for it. God was able to smite my laptop from above (immediately after I finished my finals luckily) and it was rendered useless. I went to System Restore hoping there would be a date to revert to, but of course there was not. Alas, all was not lost!

For if I had managed to back up my computer to a portable hard drive I could reload Vista with no worries about losing my precious files! A grand idea indeed, except that I’ve never owned a portable hard drive. Luckily for me, the problem my laptop is encountering is only keeping me from actually using my laptop and I can still access my files. So after a stop at Staples where I picked up a 320GB hard drive (which apparently can survive falls from 51 feet, not that anyone one is going to test it out.) for about $100. Sizes ranged from 120GB all the way up to 1.5TB, which is roughly 1500GB. Prices rise accordingly with size and vary with brand and you should be able to find something for your needs and in your price range. Even if you are not backing up your computer to it, I still recommend getting an external hard drive. It’s a great place to save media files without cluttering up your computer, and since you can take it anywhere its really easy to share your music, pictures, videos, documents, etc, with a friend.

A lot of this is common information, but its good to make many of these steps a habit in order to save yourself a lot of grief in the future.

Thomas McMahon is a student at the University of Idaho. You can reach him at auzie_boy@hotmail.com

June Weather

by Frank Coupal June was close to average in temperature, with a high of 89 degrees at Noxon on the 4th and a low of 31 degrees at Heron on the the 7th. The last June freeze at Heron occurred on the 7th in 2002. Precipitation varied substantially between the two locations. Noxon totaled 1.47 in., about 56 percent of average and the least in 10 years.

Heron received 2.32 in., about 86 percent of average, and over half of which fell in a downpour of 1.77 in. on the 15th.

The year of July 1 thru June 30 was significantly cooler than average. At Noxon the average annual temperature was 1.6 degrees cooler than the 30-year average, the largest departure on the cool side in 30 years. Heron was 0.6 degrees cooler. Heron had 9 days with minimums of 0 degrees or lower, the most since 1990-91. Total precipitation for the year was 36.41 in. at Noxon and 33.48 in. at Heron, both less than one percent off the average. Snowfall was heavy at both locations, with 155.4 in. at Noxon and 134.1 in. at Heron.

Pancake Breakfast

for the Sam Owen Fire District

Saturday, August 8 8 am to 10:30 am

corner of Hwy. 200 and Peninsula Rd. in Hope, Idaho

Pancakes, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage, orange juice and coffee will be served. Just $5.50 for adults and $2.50 for children under 12.

• Tour the fire station • Meet volunteer firefighters • Enjoy a great breakfast!

See You There!

Page 22 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Love Notes

by Marianne Love

Cooper’s Story

Cooper Vierra visited our Lovestead a few weeks ago. He came with his mother Nikki Ross Vierra. We rode around the place in our 4-wheeler, petted horses’ noses, and, of course, both mom and son joined our Lodgepole Society.

Since Cooper comes from a long line of local loggers and farmers, including his great-grandfather Herman Crabb and his grandfather Randy Ross, his induction into the society seemed appropriate.

During this visit, we also spent time in our living room while I asked Nikki questions and Cooper downed about four grasshopper Oreos. After demonstrating for me how he could get down on all fours all by himself, he invited me to join him on the floor.

So, I did.

“Thank you,” he said.

Within moments of meeting Cooper for the first time, I said to him, “Ya know, Cooper, a few minutes spent with you every day, especially in the winter, and I’d never need to leave town to get over the doldrums.”

Cooper’s smile and total enjoyment of life are infectious.

That’s just one reason this 7-year-old from Sagle has an amazing story. Cooper also has two amazing parents and a cool 4-year-old brother named Trapper who watches out for him. He’s overcome some daunting challenges in his young life. I can’t help but believe that Cooper Vierra will continue to amaze all who know him in the future as he happily continues to defy the odds.

Cooper has cerebral palsy.

His mother Nikki is also on a mission

to see that her son can achieve his full potential through the Anat Baniel Method of therapy and from her own training as an ABM practitioner (www.anatbanielmethod. com). To help with expenses for therapy a n d

training, Nikki is organizing a benefit dinner/auction July 16 at 6:30 pm at the Ponderay Events Center.

For more of Cooper’s story, I’m deferring to Nikki who recounts the saga in her own words: Nikki Ross Vierra: I was still in college pursuing my nursing degree when I unexpectedly got pregnant. Everything was going great. I was never sick or anything.

Life was good!

The standard 19-week check-up and ultrasound showed that we [Nikki and her husband Aaron] were carrying identical

Marianne Love is a retired teacher and author.

Her books include Postcards from Potatoe Land, Pocket Girldles & Other Confessions of a Northwest Farmgirl and Lessons With Love. You can buy them at Vanderford’s in Sandpoint, or online at www.

SandpointGeneralStore.com. Visit Marianne’s blog online at slightdetour.blogspot.com. Reach her via email at billmar@dishmail.net

twin boys. We were so excited. They sent us to be seen by a specialist in Spokane.

The following week during that visit, I was showing signs of early labor. From that day on, I was put on strict bed rest.

Cooper’s water broke at 24 weeks, and we were heart-flighted to Deaconess Hospital. They stopped my labor for two more weeks. On Friday October 26, 2001, my labor could not be stopped.

Two tiny babies were brought into this world via emergency C-section: Cooper, weighing 1 pound, 10 ounces and Tyler weighing only 1 pound., 3 ounces. This started a very scary and traumatic roller coaster ride of events that being in hospital for 99 days will do.

During the first 48 hours of Cooper’s life, he suffered a Class-4 bleed on his brain. (damage to all four ventricles). The doctors asked us to unplug him several times. We said ‘no.’ No matter what, Cooper chose us, and we were taking him home.

We moved on.

Cooper had to fight for his survival almost daily. He underwent eight surgeries, including bowl, eye surgery and shunt placement for his hydrocephalus.

We got to hold our little babies for the first time on November 20. Though it was a very brief time, it was amazing. They could tolerate being out of the beds for only about five minutes a day.

Six weeks after his birth, an infection took Tyler’s life. The night he passed away, we felt his spirit move into Cooper.

We believe he is always with Cooper, helping him and protecting him.

This time was so hard for Aaron and me.

Our young marriage was put to the test.

We got so much closer and grew together during this time. We lived at the Ronald McDonald house two blocks away from the hospital.

After losing Tyler, Aaron decided not to return to work, feeling he needed to be with Cooper and me. We were at the hospital every day, by Cooper’s side. After a long 99 days in the hospital, we were able to bring our little man home. We were so excited.

Cooper came home from the hospital on February 2, 2002, still on oxygen and with a few medications. At this point he was eating about 3 cc. of breast milk and weighing six pounds!! He was huge!

We were so concerned with for Cooper’s fragile immune system that we only allowed visitors, (except for close family members) to look at Cooper through our dining room window. In retrospect, it seems kind of Continued on page 34

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 23

A Seat in the House

by George Eskridge

211 Cedar St. Sandpoint, Idaho

208-263-3167

cmbrewster.com • cmb@netw.com BEAUTIFUL 160 WOODED ACRES WITH PRIVATE SETTING

$689,000 • Tom Renk MLS# 20900954

Level to rolling land with sunny southern exposure and tremendous views of surrounding mountains. Good building sites w/ super solar potential. Lots of wildlife. Borders large timber company holding. Less than half a mile off paved county road and less than 30 min. to Sandpoint.

PANORAMIC MTN VIEWS FROM ALTERNATIVE ENERGY PROPERTY

$375,000•Tom Renk MLS# 20901957 End-of-road alternative energy property. Beautiful home has large windows, skylights, vaulted ceilings for bright, open interior.

Custom wood cabinets, wood and tile flooring. Outbuildings include guest house, large shop, woodshed. 40 acres includes fruit trees, grapes, berries. Borders timber co. land on 3 sides

LONG ESTABLISHED HEATING & COOLING BUSINESS FOR SALE

$249,000•Tom Renk MLS# 20900277

Many loyal customers over the years. Includes approx.$25$30,000 in inventory, 2 vans, custom pipe trailer, and all machinery and equipment. Seller will consider short-term lease of 3300 sq. ft. building and will provide assistance to new owner to ensure a smooth transition. Lots of possibilities for expanding.

COZY LOG CABIN ON 14 WOODED ACRES

$234,500 Tom Renk MLS# 20901528

Home includes many custom wood and stone details on interior. Great room has vaulted ceiling and large windows.

Rustic 1,700 square foot home has wooded setting with excellent year-round access, just off paved county road. Most of the land is level and usable.

40 ACRES WITH SPECTACULAR PEND OREILLE RIVER VIEWS!

$139,999•Tom Renk MLS# 2082367

Remote mountain getaway has varied forested terrain with small cabin shell, travel trailer, developed spring, septic and drain field

This last legislative session was difficult in part because of the economic situation we have been experiencing over the past year that resulted in approval of a budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2010) that is over 12 percent less than the original budget for this fiscal year (FY 2009). As a result, General Fund revenue updates are of significant interest as we enter into FY 2010 that began July 1.

Based on the latest General Fund update ending May 31, the numbers could be better. The state’s May General Fund revenues were 11.9 million dollars lower than expected for the month. This means that with only June revenues yet to collect this fiscal year, the shortfall for this year is at a total of 77.1 million dollars.

By revenue categories, individual income tax is at 46.3 million dollars below the fiscal year estimate, corporate income tax below the estimate by 10.9 million dollars, sales tax at 15.5 million dollars less and miscellaneous revenues (interest revenues, etc.) were under estimate by 4.5 million dollars. The one bright spot was in the category of product taxes at 200,000 dollars above the estimate, but this is not a significant revenue source since it is estimated to produce slightly over 27 million dollars for this fiscal year.

However, even with revenues coming in under estimates, because of spending measures taken by the legislature and the Governor during FY 2009, Governor Otter was able to tell the Idaho citizens in a press release on July 1 that “the State of Idaho ended the fiscal year through June 30 with a balanced budget—as required by the Idaho Constitution—and with its financial house in order.”

The Governor also “thanked the Legislature, his fellow constitutional officers, and the people of Idaho for their support of the public servants who are carefully and responsibly managing the tax dollars with which they are entrusted.”

As I have written in a previous article, in order to meet the balanced budget

requirements for this year spending cuts had to be implemented by the Governor and the legislature during the middle of this budget year, and many of these cuts affected state employees directly through layoffs and non-paid furloughs from work.

Many of these efforts toward reducing spending will also have to be carried forth in FY 2010. As an example, I learned just before writing this article that Legislative Services staff will be required to take a forty-hour work furlough without pay during this next year to meet that staff’s spending reduction requirement.

Additionally, the Department of Health and Welfare just consolidated seven regional areas into three, eliminating four regional director positions and four administrative assistant positions.

There have also been changes in employee benefits. For example, retirees will lose the ability to continue their present state insurance coverage beginning in December of this year.

Instead of keeping the full insurance coverage they now have, they will have to rely on Medicare for their primary coverage and subscribe to a supplemental insurance plan to cover medical costs not covered by Medicare. It is anticipated that the costs for coverage under Medicare and the cost of the supplemental will be less than the insurance premium retirees are now paying for state coverage and the overall cost to the state is far less than it is under the current program.

There have also been changes in benefits for part-time employees. The amount of hours required for part-time employees to receive partial or full benefits have been increased, resulting in additional savings for state taxpayers.

It is to the credit of our state employees that they understand the economic circumstances requiring that these actions be taken and that they are still committed

George Eskridge is a Representative from District 1B to Idaho’s legislature. Reach him by email at idaholeginfo@lso.idaho. gov, by phone at 800-626-0471 or by mail at PO Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720

Continued on page 29

Garden- continued from page 21 the garden at sunrise. The morning choir is stirring and fills the air with song. Yellow warbler and warbling vireo are warbling as they move about the weeping willow.

Swainson’s thrush flute arias rise from the coniferous hillsides. Catbirds carry on in the hawthorn thicket. Veery song descends from streamside alder. Swallows chatter from the phone line. Flicker taps on power pole, cedar waxwings buzz and robins, siskens, chickadees provide a continuous musical background.

The garden is a place where true communication between human and nature is possible. People climb mountains to experience this connection, yet nowhere else but a garden opens the path to an acceptance and understanding of nature.

The gardener enters a 10,000 year old tradition of working with soil, sun, water and the soul of a seed to provide the essence of life—food and beauty.

Thus it is with reverence and on my knees that I tenderly care for our garden.

a garden eSCAPE

If you care about food then I’m probably about to introduce to you an old friend.

And if you don’t know about food, then I’m sorry to say—it’s too late for you. Because garlic scapes, my newest food acquaintance, are in season right now for about two short weeks, so if you didn’t get some before this magazine even went to the printer, you’re probably going to have to wait another year.

Don’t know the scape? Don’t let its appearance (which, let’s face it, can be just a bit creepy in a space-alien sort of way) keep you from getting to know it better, because this “trash” food (many gardeners throw it away) is a delight just waiting to be experienced.

Scapes are the flower stems produced by the hard-necked garlic plant, which most growers trim in order to

allow more energy to go to the bulb itself.

These stems are far from just compost, however, as their mild flavor (when picked early and tender) are a delightful addition to a number of dishes; there are those afficianados who even like to eat them raw.

Christine Dick, who introduced me to the tasty scape (and whose garden appears on our cover), offered her favorite pesto recipe for the stem. (You’ll have to visit our website to get a copy for yourself.) Other favored uses include sauteeing them into a frittata or omelette, mixing them into a stirfry, sharing star billing with wild mushrooms in a soup, pickling... in fact, in any recipe calling for garlic or onions. (The flavor of the scape is said to be milder than that of garlic, with less of a bite.) I even found a recipe for a simple saute of garlic scapes, brown sugar and fresh sweet corn—though I’m not sure where you could find both the scapes and the sweet corn in season.

And if you find yourself with more scapes than you can eat—you can wear them! Yes, true garlic scape-nuts have been seen with the curly stems wrapped around their upper arms (or ankles) for decoration.

-Trish Gannon

=PcdaP[[h

t h e f e s t i v a l at s a n d p o i n t, 2 7 y e a r s o f m u s i c u n d e r t h e s ta r s , o n t h e l a k e , i n s a n d p o i n t, i d a h o

E N J O Y G R E AT M U S I C …

4HURSDAY !UGUST

Starring

With

C_Y^[bb[ I^eYa[Z

@edWj^W 8heea[

All tickets $29.95

JONATHA BROOKE began issuing albums that merged folk and pop during the early 1990s first as the female duo The Story and later as a solo artist with her own record label, Bad Dog, with hits like “Linger” and “Steady Pull.” Her latest effort The Works is a masterpiece that pairs her original music with the previously unheard lyrics of Woodie Guthrie’s lyric journals.

le Micheled k c o h s

tha jonaoke o r b

Headlining the evening is one of America’s premier singer-songwriters MICHELLE SHOCKED, whose self-proclaimed status as “the most sophisticated hillbilly you’ll ever meet,” belies the erudite and focused artistry that has garnered her critical acclaim at every juncture of a vast and varied career. Influenced by her Texas roots, she was first compared to artists like Joni Mitchell and gained popularity with albums like Short Sharp Shocked, Captain Swing and Arkansas Traveler and songs including “Anchorage,” “If Love Were a Train” and “Come a Long Way.” Fiercely independent, she famously escaped “major-label servitude” in the 1990s and went on to create more critically-acclaimed albums on her Mighty Sound label, including To Heaven You Ride, recorded live at the There is a Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and the latest release her “lucky thirteenth” album complimentary Soul of My Soul. microbrew tasting prior to the concert, starting when the Info and TIckeTs: gates open at 6pm, for ticket holders over the age of 21.

The festival at sandpoint 888.265.4554

or all TicketWest locations or by phone at

To order online visit us at:

800.325.seaT

www.festivalatsandpoint.com

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 25

Gary Payton’s

Faith Walk Pushing Edges

I’ve been reading a little poetry this summer, a literary form I haven’t spent a lot of time with in my adult life. In “At the Solstice,” Celtic poet Kenneth White shares lines which have gripped my imagination. the hills are still the same remember and the rivers and the winds give yourself room for a real beginning the man who works in a narrow space builds no more than prison or grave In the rhythm of my life, I sometimes think that I am working in a “narrow space.” Likely you recognize the pattern: work, meals, conversations with familiar family and friends, sleep, and all repeated again and again. No, “prison or grave” is far too harsh a description, but surely the space has edges. So in recent weeks two completely different experiences allowed me to push the edges of my “narrow space” and continue the journey that is my faith walk.

In early June I traveled again to Siberia to meet with new Christians emerging from cultures of shamanism. Morning worship was highlighted by the newly written “throat singing” hymns of Andee Krumanov, a man from the Altai Republic, a part of Russia bordering Mongolia and Kazakhstan. To experience the harmonic overtones of the human voice in ways I did not think possible pushed hard against the edges of my “narrow space.” First, the very sounds were like nothing I had ever heard before. Second, the hymns demonstrated the power of “letting the gospel run free!”

Rather than the musical styles of Europe or North America imposed on other cultures, I was experiencing prayer through song flowing naturally from the instruments

and styles of this Siberian region.

Now, I’ve been home a few days, have recovered from the shift of 16 time zones, and have joyfully walked our nearby forest paths. A June rain gently showered moisture onto fields of purple lupine.

As the sun broke through I witnessed a phenomenon I’d never seen before. Think of lupine’s green leaves as an upside down umbrella. On that special day, raindrops on each plant rolled down to collect at the base of the tiny umbrella. Morning sun burst through, and each plant radiated with the brilliance of a single diamond at its center as light glistened in the bead of collected water. Looking up, there were diamonds shimmering everywhere— all sparkling from the centers of these beautiful flowers!

As I move further into the second half of life, it seems I can grow too comfortable inside my “narrow space.” So, I delight when circumstances let me push edges to experience new things across God’s creation. Psalm 100 reminds us to “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth (NRSV).” Surely many would hear the “throat singing” of Central Asia and think only of noise, but for me this amazing sound moved me another step in my journey as a child of God. And, indeed, remembering Psalm 104 keeps my eyes fresh for new ways to experience nature.

From the Message Bible, “What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.”

A “prison or grave? Certainly not, but if I am to keep my “narrow space” from closing in, I’m obliged to take every opportunity to push the space wider.

Clark Fork Baptist Church

Main & Second • Clark Fork

Sunday School............9:45 am Morning Worship............11 am Evening Service...............6 pm Wednesday Service.........7 pm Call 266-0405 for transportation

Bible Preaching and Traditional Music M&E Custom Building LLC Homes Built for Living

Residential and Commercial Construction

Dan McMahon, General Contractor Visit us at www.mebldg.com 208.264.6700

Northland Cable Northland Cable TV | High Speed Internet | Digital Phone

TV | High Speed Internet | Digital Phone

Gary Payton is on a Faith Walk that takes him to Russia, Eastern Europe and Sandpoint, Idaho. You can reach him via email at gdpayton@aol.com.

CALL 208-263-4070 CallTODAY! today! 208-263-4070 www.NorthlandCableTV.com

www.NorthlandCableTV.com

Page 26 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

The Hawks’ Nest

by Ernie Hawks

Summertime Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. The song title says it all, or at least we wished it did.

In this season of outward expression the world all around us is blossoming.

Flowers—wild and domestic—are starting to give us their colors and fragrances possibly improving on their show from a year ago. The yards are producing at peak yield while, at the same time, the trees are expanding their drip circle as they reach higher into the light.

In one of our outbuildings, a flycatcher is sitting on eggs. In the back yard, woodpeckers are visiting the suet cage, regularly taking beaks filled with the stuff to a nest in the hole of a nearby tree. The swallow nest, near the ridge of our house, is full of life, adding to the rather colorful and noisy but fertile chaos around our house and in our woods.

A couple weeks ago a doe was eating in our yard being neighborly and helping with the mowing. I’ll take help anywhere I can.

We were commenting on how round in the middle she was, looking a little burdened, when we spotted movement in her belly.

We looked closer and saw it again, and again—a first for me. A few days later, after a rain, I saw a tiny, less than an inch, deer track in some mud.

Our cat spends more time outside, mesmerized by bugs in the grass and trying to be mole control. She can sit motionless for hours waiting for some kind of critter, and then the frenzy of summer explodes in her and she has to run, full tilt, toward a target, until something shiny, or not, appears to attack her little A.D.D. brain

Caribou Physical Therapy

Call appointment Call for for an appointment

Aquatic Therapy Total Joint Rehab Sports Injuries Back and Neck Rehab Strains and Sprains Pre- and Post-Surgery Work Related Injuries

Hope: 264.5067 • Sandpoint: 265.8333

Visit us at

www.CaribouPhysicalTherapy.com

and she is off in another direction.

Watching all this production going on around me is somewhat overwhelming, to the point I really wonder about this “livin’ is easy,” that Gershwin wrote about in his song.

The swallows are accumulating enough air miles for a trip to Capistrano as they catch bugs on the wing; enough to feed the little ones and themselves. The deer are on super vigilant alert protecting the fawns while browsing for mom and the babes. As I said, the woodpeckers seem to be in overdrive, taking sustenance back

the colorful noisy chaos. I add color by watering as my wife plants annuals, I add to the noise by mowing and cutting our firewood for next winter. I also hope to add some beauty; just as I do the rest of the year, by recording some of the season with photos and continuing to pile words on pages; both activities give wonderful returns but still take time.

However, the added work isn’t all that clogs my calendar; as they say in the commercials “there’s more!” I need to save time for sailing on the lake, camping, hiking, summer trips and concerts. Oh, I

to the family. In addition, don’t forget all the plants—the trees, grass, flowers and weeds—doing whatever they do in order to reproduce to give us all those colors, fragrances and fruit.

So, I try to do my part of adding to

don’t want forget the music festivals; you know, those places where people stand on the stage and sing “summertime and the livin’ is easy.”

Easy may not be the perfect descriptor, mostly due to scheduling. Whatever the word is though, it must mean fun, even the woodcutting and lawn mowing. Then, in a few weeks when fall starts to change the colors, the swallows have headed south and the nests are empty, my A.D.D. brain will have had enough of clear sunny warm days, beautiful flowers, babies and days on the lake, and be ready to enjoy another season to photograph and write about.

Now I’m watching our cat—small for an adult—stalk one of those spotted fawns in the corner of the yard. I think she wants to bring it home as a pet.

Ernie Hawks is a writer and photographer in search of Spirit in nature. Visit his website at www.photosbyhawks. com, or email him at ernie@photosbyhawks.com.

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 27

Local Food

of the

Inland Northwest

Money. It’s all about money.

Personally, I have nothing against it.

Nothing against making it. Nothing against spending it. Nothing against investing it, saving it, or giving it away. It makes the world turn, and, in my life, is a wonderful symbol for the infinite exchanges of energy that occur every day. Money is power, in a good way. We can use it to manifest our beliefs and values in a society that often seems to smother our outcries. Yet, some people argue that it is the finances of local food production that is its greatest obstacle to entering mainstream society. In reality, money is the local food movement’s greatest ally. It is not the high price of real food that should be the target of criticism; it is the mindset of the American people that must shift in order for local products to become “affordable” and accessible to the masses.

Conventional grocery stores now offer lettuce heads for about $1.75. Farmers Market lettuce, at the same time, ranges from $2-$2.50 for the “same” product.

Thus, deem the skeptics, local food is simply not affordable for the average, working class family, and is not a possible solution for food supply in this country.

Resetting our Priorities:

The Finances of Local Food

farmers had to fully support their own enterprises as small farmers do, our food wouldn’t be so cheap.

The second reason that our food is cheap is the illusion of cheap fuel. For the last twenty years, we have floated high on the clouds on the big oil, cheap oil ride. I’ll skip the gory details, but I think it’s clear that those days are quickly coming to an end, if they’re not already over.

The third explanation for underpriced food goods is that we have failed to integrate the price of our degrading environment into the cost of our food. Perhaps it is impossible to assign a number to the health of our air, the clarity of our water, the integrity of our soil. But excluding it completely from the cost of our food is ignoring and insulting the systems that allow us to exist and sustain in the first place.

I disagree.

Small farmers work hard. I’ve never, ever met one who is in it for the money. We do it because we have to, because we want our communities to be healthy, thriving places. And even charging the “extreme” prices that real food costs, there are few who are compensated for their own hourly wages.

My dictionary defines “affordable” as “reasonably priced”. So now, we must answer two vital questions to determine the affordability of local food:

So, for the growers: that extra cost is not only reasonable, but necessary to earn a living wage and to repay ALL the costs of farming.

Is the price reasonable for the grower? and Is the price reasonable for the customer?

Now on to the consumers, where the controversy truly lies. Is it worth it to pay a little (and it really is just a little) more for your food in order to buy fresh, local, homegrown food?

Grower first. The current system of agriculture is, quite frankly, a big lie.

There are three main reasons that we are able to pay such a shockingly low price for food items in this country. This first is government subsidies. Basically, the federal government chips in to support large, industrial agriculture in order to stabilize the costs of crops. If industrial Emily LeVine is in her first season of growing produce and cut flowers for Red Wheelbarrow Produce in the Selle Valley. If you have ideas, questions, or comments, or topics you’d like to read about regarding local food, please contact

There are many grounds for defense.

The first is, for me, fairly plain and obvious. Good food equals health. Health

by Emily LeVine equals low or virtually non-existent medical bills. With the fees of drugs and doctors these days, the small extra cost of good food would most likely SAVE money in the long run.

The most vital switch that must occur for people to be able to “afford” local food is a shift in mindset.

I attended a movie this weekend at the library called “Good Food”. Afterward, a man stated that he didn’t think that the working class could afford local or organic (not theman community garden foods. Another in the back of thesite) room spoke up. “I am a chiropractor,” he said. “I have patients with steady, wellpaying jobs who claim that they cannot afford my services. Simultaneously, I treat regular patients for whom my bill is a significant portion of their income, and they keep coming back. The difference is one of priority, not money.”

What this man said is the truly the heart of the matter. If you closely examine your finances, you’ll see that there are many things you find a way to afford despite your income. And if good, local food isn’t a priority for you yet, that’s OK. But I would recommend attending your local farmers market, buying something, anything, and feed it to your family. You’ll feel better about your health, your economy, and the land around you. And one day, you’ll find the extra 50 cents in your wallet every time you need a head of lettuce.

Or every other time.

I’d bet that once you try it, it’ll be hard to stop.

Local Food of the Month:

BROCCOLI

It is feared among children all across America.

Often times, it is feared among adults. But if you want to take a risk, taste a real head of broccoli this month. Available at the farmers’ market around the first of July, broccoli is loaded with vitamin C, potassium, iron, fiber, and much more.

If you already like the taste of this yummy green treat, just steam it briefly until it’s bright green, dust it with lemon and a dash of salt, and sink into brassica oblivion. If your taste buds (or your children’s) aren’t already adjusted to the heaven that awaits you, try this: steam a head of broccoli, and chop it up really fine (the size of a dime or smaller). Cut a loaf of french bread in half, smother it in melted butter, chopped garlic, and load on the broccoli. Top with cheese and bake. Yum.

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 28

Duke’s

Food Obsession

Spicing up your Favorites

Growing up on the Texas Gulf coast, summer meant blazing, humid, asphalt-shimmering heat. But, like everywhere, it also meant great foods exclusive to the season. Foods that might be available other parts of the year, kind of like our insipid tomatoes and rock-hard watery avocadoes that we can buy as the snow flies.

We would drive down to Galveston, hop the ferry to Bolivar Penisnsula, tie some chicken necks to a string and catch mean, but tasty blue crabs. Since this was long before anything with an “SPF,” the girls would rub themselves in baby oil, and maybe a bit of iodine. Texas summers alos meant lots of peaches and peach ice creams, or mangoes fresh from Mexico.

And, like any fruits or vegetables that come into season, we ate our fill—so much so that by the time the season came to an end, we’d rather eat anything but that particular fruit. But this also led to creative ways to serve that fruit. So, I thought I would jot down a few creative ways to deal with some of summer’s bounty, once the tried and true preparations get a bit boring: • Many of you I hope, put salt on your watermelon. But, how about black pepper on strawberries? No joke. It’s delicious. Also, balsamic vinegar. Just toss the berries with some balsamic, a bit of sugar, and freshly ground black pepper. Let them sit for a bit and serve with creme fraiche or cream.

• Speaking of watermelons, aside from the salt, or pouring Everclear into holes in the fruit to give it a bit more, oh, punch, try putting watermelon in a salad. A nice vinaigrette, the fruit, some red onions and goat cheese make a terrific summer salad.

• Okay, maybe you’ve had that. Then how about trying watermelon with pork belly? The Fatty Crab in New York makes a great, Asianinspired version with the watermelon and its rind, seared crispy pork belly, chiles, and asian spices. Yum. Just google it for the recipe.

• Enough about the melon. Corn. Our corn man comes later in the summer, so if you get some corn that is not the sweetest, simply add honey to your cooking water. Bored with just butter and salt? Well, either boil or grill the ears, spread them with mayo, and roll them in

cotija cheese or feta.

Let’s move on. To meat. I know, I know. It’s not seasonal save for spring lamb, baby goats, etc. But since many of you will be grilling this summer, here are a few thoughts. (I am reticent about saying tips as this implies that I know something.)

• Burgers. I have written about this before, but make sure your meat is 80-20 meat to fat for a juicer burger. Also, do like Judy Rodgers of Suni Café in San Francisco, and salt your meat the day before. Just add 1 tsp. Kosher salt per pound of meat and mix it in, let it sit overnight in the refrigerator, and cook as normal.

• Chicken. First, brine the bird. You can find a brine recipe online or even at my very own site: www.bbq-recipes-for-foodies.com/ brine-recipe. Then, for the very best chicken you have ever had, rotisserie it over charcoal.

This has been without a doubt, one of the best investments I have made. Weber makes a rotisserie attachment for their charcoal grills.

They are a bit pricey—$129 I think—but well worth it. You simply fill a large chimney with charcoal, and spread it around the grill when it is done, leaving a circle where the bird will turn. Put the bird on, cook for 1 hour covered and presto: crisp skin, juicy meat. And, since whole chickens are always cheaper than cut up, a great, cost-effective meal • Steaks. Salt and pepper only, please.

Great steaks are really really hard to find. Even store-bought premium steaks can be boring.

And expensive. So? So try one of these two lesser cuts: the flat iron, cut from the chuck, is nevertheless very tender and flavorful. Also, much harder to find, but worth a call to your butcher is the hanging tender. This cut, so called because it “hangs” near the diaphragm when the steer is butchered, requires some trimming, but is very flavorful and quite tender.

It is, my personal favorite on the animal—great for carne asada, and the cut commonly used in the classic bistro fare, steak frites.

There you go, a bit of a summer sampler.

Now go forth and cook.

House—Continued from page 24

to providing the services to Idaho citizens in the best manner possible.

However the news is not all of a negative nature: Recently the Governor announced the Project 60 initiative. Project 60 is a “comprehensive initiative to grow Idaho’s Gross Domestic Product from $51 billion to $60 billion. Designed in three tiers to strengthen both rural and urban communities, the plan will create quality jobs for all Idahoans by fostering systemic growth, recruiting new companies to Idaho, and selling Idaho’s trade and investment opportunities to the world.”

The Governor just announced that Project 60 efforts are paying off and cited examples of new economic growth in the state. Examples he provided were: Fifty-seven new jobs were restored to the Idaho Air National Guard. The facility has been given the assignment of retrofitting half of the nation’s A-10 “Warthog” combat aircraft with new high-tech equipment.

The new jobs are expected to last through 2010 and may support “using Gowen Field as a central depot in putting the nation’s National Guard’s key equipment back to work.”

In the north it was recently announced that Burly Products is breaking ground this summer on a 20,000 square foot plant in the Riverbend Commerce Park in Post Falls that will bring at least 16 new jobs to Post Falls. The company is moving to Post Falls from Spokane and is increasing its facility size to almost triple the size of the facility that is in Spokane.

It is said that “every cloud has a silver lining” and these signs of business growth are signals the economic cloud over Idaho does have a silver lining and that we can be optimistic that a better Idaho economy is ahead Thanks for reading and as always please let me know of issues that are of concern to you. My home phone is (208) 265-0123 and my mailing address is P.O. Box 112, Dover, Idaho 83825. George

On Hwy. 200 in Clark Fork Open 7 days a week for breakfast, lunch & dinner

Duke Diercks is a first-class chef who currently exercises his “cooking jones” on his blog. You can read it at www. bbq-recipies-for-foodies.com. Email Duke at duke@ riverjournal.com.

Monday - Saturday 8 am to 7 pm Open Sunday 8 am to 3 pm Call ahead for takeout!

208-266-0500

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 29

A Holistic Approach to Immune Function

by the Sandpoint Wellness Council www.SandpointWellnessCouncil.com

The Sandpoint Wellness Council welcomes Gabrielle Duebendorfer, Naturopathic Physician as its newest member.

Immune System, Swine Flu, and Staying Healthy—A Naturopathic Viewpoint by Gabrielle Duebendorfer Despite the fear about the swine flu epidemic, actual numbers show that this flu’s impact with regard to lethality and transmission appears to be considerably less than the regular seasonal flu. What makes the swine flu unique, other than its viral makeup as a ‘new’ virus, is that it’s occurring at the “wrong” season and that it affects young, healthy people more than the typical infant and elderly flu population.

We know that epidemics occur in waves and it is theoretically possible that there will be a more severe wave during the regular fall flu season. It would be prudent to understand the peculiarities of this swine flu, which actually is a hybrid between the human flu, the swine flu, and the bird flu, in order to be prepared for that possibility.

One possible reason for young, healthy people being more affected by the swine flu is their stronger immune system.

As this virus seems to have a tendency to over-stimulate certain inflammatory pathways which cause heavy congestion of the lungs with resulting pneumonia, people with strong immune systems might over-react and therefore have more severe

symptoms.

Considering this scenario, the use of immune stimulating substances such as echinacea or elderberries might be contraindicated during the actual disease as they could increase the inflammatory response.

Immune modulating herbs such as turmeric, reishi and maitake mushrooms might be more appropriate, as would anti-virals such as garlic, goldenseal and oregano oil.

As the problem seems to be excessive inflammation, it is prudent to look at ways of balancing that response. Inefficient elimination of inflammatory products may be one of the causes of “flooding” of the lungs. The lymphatic system is the primary agent for this “housecleaning” and now would be a good time to get it in good working order. Castor oil packs, dry skin brushing, lymphatic massage, regular movement (esp. trampoline jumping), and good probiotics such as home-made yoghurt activate overall lymphatic flow.

During the actual flu lymphatic herbs such as red root or red clover can be added. Alternating applications of hot and cold towels to the chest would enhance elimination from the lungs in particular (constitutional hydrotherapy).

Making sure that all the elimination organs are open will assure release of excessive inflammatory compounds from the body. Regular outdoor exercise will support the lungs, skin-brushing and sweating will encourage skin elimination,

half your bodyweight in ounces of water will ensure proper kidney elimination, and extra ground seeds such as flax or pumpkin will make sure the bowels are moving well.

Of course the liver as the main cleaning house will have to be supported with ground milk thistle seeds or dandelion root tea straight from your garden.

More specific ways to keep inflammation levels at bay include fish like salmon or sardines or good quality fish oil, spices such as turmeric, and an anti-inflammatory diet consisting of natural, fresh foods.

Because of the interface of hormones between the brain and the immune system, it is equally important to evaluate stress sources and modify circumstances or stress responses to keep the adrenal glands as the major stress organ in balance. Licorice tea and B Vitamins support this important gland and Lemonbalm tea or fresh steel cut oats porridge calm and nourish the nervous system.

Naturally, these methods will not only prepare your body for eventual exposure to the swine flu, but also prevent the build up of toxins which leads to chronic, degenerative disease farther down the road. So the fear of the swine flu monster can actually turn into positive action to take care of your body long-term and make healthy life-style adjustments.

Carpe diem—seize the day—or maybe the opportunity.

As of June 11, there were four confirmed cases of swine flu in Bonners Ferry. Swine flu continues to spread throughout the United States... more specific homeopathic and naturopathic measures might be considered for prevention as well as treatment. Do make sure to contact your conventional or traditional health care provider if you have had direct exposure to swine flu patients or if you are exhibiting flu symptoms such as fever over 100F with sore throat or cough and you have asthma or another underlying chronic condition or if the patient is under the age of two.

Gabrielle Duebendorfer, Licensed Naturopathic Physician, (208) 265-2213 A Chiropractic Viewpoint by Will Mihin So how can chiropractic care affect immunity? Your nervous system controls every single cell, tissue, and organ in the body. Scientists used to believe the nervous system and the immune system were separate from each other until in the early 1990s, using an electron microscope, they found nerve fibers embedded in immune cells. If the nervous system is compromised or irritated by a spinal misalignment or subluxation, it will effect how your immune system reacts. The better your nervous system functions, the better your immune system will respond.

Continued on next page

Page 30 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Chiropractic care corrects these spinal process designed to protect or heal the containing the situation, much like the first misalignments or subluxations, balances body, creating an unintended result. To responders to an oil spill contain the spill. the nervous system, and has been shown effectively treat this you don’t cut out all Then they start reconnecting the broken in studies to boost immune function after the scar tissue, you remove the stress and parts, mending the tears. treatment. So the next time you’re under release the tension. There are many ways to Stress produces a self-perpetuating the weather, see a chiropractor and you accomplish these results. Over my 30-plus cycle: stress trains the fascial system to may feel better quicker than store then reproduce stress. you think.

As your body accumulates Dr. Will Mihin is a Doctor of tension, that tension becomes Chiropractic and the owner of a stress agent of its own the North Idaho Spine Clinic in weakening your immune system. Your body learns to Sandpoint. He can be reached at (208) 265-2225. respond to events in a stressful way even when the event is A Cranio-Sacral Viewpoint not threatening or negative.

by Ilani Kopiecki, BA & CMT Over the years, I have heard CranioSacral therapy can hundreds of stories from help in the restoration of a clients about how their new healthy immune system by awareness showed them how the simple fact it releases even pleasant experiences tight tissues in the body, were producing the learned and restores sore muscles to stress response. their optimal function and This stress response is alignment. When the body a survival response. The is out of pain and working problem is not the response, properly, it is not using up its the problem is that you took a vital resources dealing with natural behavior and adapted any distractions. In turn, it can it to multiple experiences. This focus all of its healing power to means that you often exist in the more inner workings of the a stress or survival state. The body, one of them being the consequence of this is much immune system. of your resources are going Ilani Kopiecki, Integrated to survival. To the extent you Bodywork and Cranio Sacral, are going into survival mode, (208) 610-2005 your immune responses are A Rolfing Viewpoint by compromised. Your ability to Owen Marcus—How Rolfing heal and regenerate is limited Supports Your Immune because your resources are System Emergent new viruses, like H1N1 shown above in a photo unnecessarily allocated to Your immune system is surviving. a backup system. It kicks in courtesy of the CDC, highlight the need to understanding The stress response when your body needs help in immune function. reflected by and anchored in maintaining your health. When your fascial system can hugely you’re healthy, your body’s affect your body’s ability to years of treating clients with Rolfing and operating systems deal with all potential conducting mindfulness stress reduction effectively fight infections. If your body problems. When a threat is too much classes, I have seen thousands of people is run down, your immune system is for your normal processes, your immune reverse the scarring of stress. overtaxed. Physicians have often referred system steps in to support these systems In a broad sense, all our bodies’ systems me their chronically ill patients hoping that I to prevent a threat from becoming an are possible components to our immune could release their fascia, thereby releasing illness. system. At any point in an illness, any part their stress allowing their immune systems We all know that stress wears down our of our body may step in to aid recovery. to fully function. Gradually over the course health and our immune system. Constant Fascia’s job is to surround every organ of treatment, or through attending the strain wears down even a machine. Living and muscle forming a sac that contains stress reduction class, these people would or mechanical systems can’t withstand the and attaches that organ or muscle to the reverse years of tension, stressful behavior, stress without regular maintenance or self- body. From an immune system standpoint, and weakened immunity. healing.

Your immune system is only as strong these sacs can act as barriers that contain Your body’s primary stress organ is potential problems and keep them from as you are relaxed. The more resources fascia, as Hans Selye MD, PhD, wrote in his entering other sacs. Fibroid tumors are you have available from being de-stressedbook, Stress of Life. Fascia—the system of an example of how the body uses its scar -because your body is not wasting time connective tissue that holds everything tissue; a fibroid is a fascial sac that can and energy in survival mode—the more together—forms scar tissue from stress. It contain a possible problem. resources your body has to fight infections might be the stress of a trauma such as a Fascia’s ability to form scar tissue is and heal. Dealing with stress not only sprained ankle or it could be the constant what welds broken body parts. When improves the quality of your life, it might psychological stress of a bad relationship. you tear soft tissue, fibroblast cells—the save it.

In either case, a specific area or the body in floating facial cell in your blood—are some Owen Marcus, MA Certified Advance Rolfer, general will become tight. www.align.org.

265.8440. of the first cells to arrive at an injury or The scarring of stress is a natural infection. These cells immediately start

Continued on page 37

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 31

The Decade After

“Our failures creep with soldier hearts, Pointing their guns at what we love... When they shall paint our sockets gray and light us like a stinking fuse, remember that we once could say, Yesterday we had a world to lose.” -Stanley Kunitz The accounts I was originally asked to write for the River Journal were chapters from a book of local and area ghost stories, each column being a chapter from that collection. However, over the last year, family remembrances and stories told to me by friends and co-workers have led me to expand from this original subject matter as related in the first half-dozen Valley of Shadows and its former subtitle: Local ghost stories by ‘Me.’ I’m surprised that Trish has not acquiesced and added the amended subtitle: Local stories of ghosts and unusual phenomenon.

Well, this month, next, and likely most of the rest of the year I will delve back into the world of phantoms.

With this in mind, the decade after

Lighting as unique as you are ONE-OF-A-KIND HANDCRAFTED LAMPS MADE FROM SALVAGE AND RECLAIMED TREES

www.PackRiverLighting.com

In ThE

Valley of

ShadowS with Lawrence Fury

the Second World War was a brief time of healing and recovery, the Marshall Plan being the centerpiece of this endeavor.

Similar, though smaller, programs were started to help Japan. One such healing effort took place in the early ‘50s, when a group of women who suffered scarring from nuclear blasts, called the Hiroshima maidens, were brought to this country in an effort to improve their appearances with plastic surgery.

Underlying this era were accounts, reports and stories of unusual happenings, sightings and otherwise weird tales that only occasionally made their way into the mainstream media of the time.

Worldwide, these included not only ghostly encounters, the first of which actually began before the end of the war. Suspected then of being last-minute Nazi secret devices, Foo Fighters were increasingly reported by World War II pilots. This is not the current rock and roll band, but small red and orange balls that would zip and fly around our bombers. No evidence was found to indicate they were German. (Ed. note: after the war it was learned that German pilots also reported similar sightings; ironically, the Germans feared they might be an Allied secret weapon.)

Some thought they might be the souls of the fallen, but the most common theory was that these were the forerunner of the UFO phenomenon.

A few years later came reports of “Ghost Rockets” over the Norwegian Sea, between and over Iceland and the Scandinavian countries. Many thought they were the first test rockets built with the help of captured German scientists.

There was and reportedly still is a Bermuda Triangle-like area off the coast of Japan which the entertainer and pilot Arthur Godfrey got caught up in. In this country, the infamous tale of a crashed saucer(s) happened in 1947, near Roswell, New Mexico.

Locally, this area experienced happenings that were told to me by a few older neighbors in the late ‘60s and ‘70s.

While unusual aerial displays have occasionally happened here, for the most part the accounts were of ghosts or poltergeists.

With all the deaths, most of which

were of a horrendous nature that took place during the war, some psychic residue would remain and even unlock areas of reality which only a select few are even remotely aware of.

One neighbor, whose yard I mowed in my mid-teens, told me over lemonade and cookies (yes, more innocent times) of 20 years earlier, when she received phone calls from no one. The phone would ring at odd hours until, when tiring of it, she and her husband would leave the receiver off the hook. (You couldn’t easily disconnect the line or turn the ringer off in those days.)

While only once did she think she heard a distant, wispy voice in the background, what they would usually hear would be a rushing sound, such as the wind blowing.

Or sometimes a pinging, neither of which would respond to their requests for who it was on the other end.

A second neighbor related that several times when he went out to the Farragut area to camp, hunt or visit a friend, he would hear in his tent at night the sound of ‘40s music wafting through the trees, reminding him of USO dances during the war.

In another account, a driver winding his way along U.S. 2 to Priest River one gloomy day in the late 40s, said that as he came around the then-35 mph curve to the right just a mile this side of Laclede, he was confronted by what appeared to be a large, army troop truck sitting across the road only feet in front of him. So amazed, he was unable to even jam on the brakes even if he had had time. When nothing happened, he narrowed his eyes, looked back and saw... nothing. He was alone on the narrow highway, no other vehicle in sight.

Finally, a downtown cafe, long since out of business, on the nights when a waitress would be closing up. She would put the chairs on the tables after the last customer left, but would find them all upright on the floor the next morning. This is a precursor to an upcoming column which may indicate this poltergeist is still around.

Next month: The Scarecrow of Sagle Got your own ghostly tales of this area?

We’d love to hear ‘em! Email them to editorial@ riverjournal.com.

Page 32 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

From ThE

Files

of The River Journal’s

SurrealisT Research BureaU Strange News From Another Star by Jody Forest

“Two things alone mystify me, the fact that we are alone in the universe, and the fact that we may not be alone.” Arthur C. Clarke I’m glad I never lost my youthful sense of wonder, of being surrounded by the marvelous. Led and guided by wise (to me) adults, loyal, adoring pets, great and true friends I was enamored by the beauty and wonder about me, whether silent, majestic woods or the bustle and futuristic citiscapes of the metropoli.

Even today, reading the daily paper or catching a brief newscast can set my mind to soaring into the realms of fairy.

Recently it was an Internet discussion of a strange signal from deep outer space that caught my eye. The signal was received back on August 15, 1977 at Ohio State University’s “Big Ear” telescope (conspiracy watchers take note: the day Elvis died). The signal, on computer printout, read simply; 6EQUJ5. Without getting too technical, the “U” portion was the highest power signal the OSU telescope had ever found and it was a narrowband signal at 1420 megahertz. Now the Ohio researchers knew, from a 1959 paper in Nature, that two physicists from Cornell (Cocconi and Morrison) had predicted that any extra-stellar civilization wishing to broadcast their whereabouts would most likely use 1420 mhz, since hydrogen emits radiation at that frequency and was a number that would have meaning to anyone listening.

(There were a number of other criteria specified by the Nature article, such as a narrow bandwidth, that the signal had to meet as well. The signal met all requirements!)

The signal lasted for barely three seconds and since then not only has Ohio State’s telescope been dismantled (demolished!) to make room for a parking lot, but SETI funds have been slashed to the bone; only a scant few small sites remain actively searching, funded by a few noble computer geeks and movie directors (kudos to Hewlett and Packard, Spielberg and Lucas).

The 1977 signal came not from a known star but from deep space, leading to the most logical conclusion that it was a brief locator signal from an alien spacecraft aimed momentarily, perhaps even accidentally, in our direction. Astronomers since 1977 have since found over 250 planets orbiting other stars. As our telescopes become more sophisticated we’ll find more and more.

I’m reminded of a few years back when our local VFW and others got their panties in a

bunch when asked to shine their nightly lights down on the flag instead of up.

They refused of course, and it’s ignorant, narrow-minded attitudes like that causing our giant telescopes like Palomar to lose a percent of their magnification per year due to light pollution. By mid-century only a few orbit-based telescopes will be left for observing the heavens.

But it’s not only the “Calling Elvis Home” signal that excites me, it’s still more news from deep space, which seems to cast doubt on gravity itself! As everyone knows, the Pioneer 10 and 11 spaceprobes were launched in the early 1970s and they are now far, far outside of our solar system. However, the probes are veering off course by more than 8,000 miles a year. There’s scores of reasons why it’s impossible for them to behaving this way and every month or two a few obscure papers are written up in scientific journals trying to explain the discrepancy, but always to no avail. The only plausible explanations that seem to fit (though far beyond me technically) is that our laws of physics no longer apply in deep space and will have to incorporate string theory’s alternate universes, dark matter and Grid knows what else.

It was discrepancies in the orbit of Mercury that led to Einstein’s breakthrough and even now I’d be willing to wager some young college students are wondering idly about those “impossible discrepancies” in the Pioneer Probes that will lead us to… who knows? Other dimensions? Faster-thanlight travel? Warp drives and matter transmitters? Perhaps even the Realms of Fairy! I hope so, this place sucks!

Photo of Pioneer 11 launch courtesy NASA.

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 33

Cooper—Continued from page 23

funny. We are very protective over him.

For sure, I’m his advocate and a lioness of a mother. I held him all of time and was unwilling to let other people hold him.

I was making up for lost bonding time, I guess. He had to stay on oxygen for only about a month or so. After that, it was a little less stressful leaving the home.

In April, 2002, Cooper got an infection in his shunt. (A shunt drains spinal fluid most always into the abdominal cavity, but, in his case, the heart.) We had to be heart-flighted to Scared Heart. Cooper’s shunt had to drained externally for over three weeks, before doctors could do a surgical shunt revision procedure.

I had to fight the hospital to stay by Cooper’s side. At that time, they did not allow parents to spend the night in the ICU with their children. Let’s just say we changed the rules. I slept by Cooper’s side in a crib for four weeks while he recovered from the procedure. My first Mother’s Day was spent in the ICU. After that, Cooper’s health picked up. We were able to go a road-trip type vacations and relax a bit about his health. At this time we started traditional therapies, and the Birth-to-3 program.

Cooper’s health continued to improve, and we became less concerned with infections. We started taking him into the store with us (instead of my staying in the car with him) and being a little more free from our germaphobia. Life was great.

When Cooper was two, we decided that he needed a sibling. I started seeing a specialist in Spokane, regarding the septum in my uterus. (This was the reason Cooper and Tyler were born so early). I needed to have it removed in order to have a full-term pregnancy. I had surgery, and we got the go ahead to start ‘trying.’

It took us a while and a few miscarriages later, but finally we were very excited to be pregnant. Trapper, Cooper’s little brother was born March 17, 2005, mostly full term, just three weeks early.

I had a great pregnancy, with no problems lifting and carrying Coop around.

My biggest fear was being on bed rest and

unable to take care of Cooper. Thankfully, it all worked out. The closer we got to the due date, the more nervous I got about leaving Cooper, who had never slept away from me, while I was in the hospital.

Thank God for Dr. Joyce Gilbert. She arranged with the OB department at BGH that Cooper could stay there with Aaron and me, after I was out of the recovery room. It all worked out as a great experience for all of us.

Cooper and Trapper are great friends.

They play together very well. It is so fun to see them interact. Their imaginations are wonderful. Trapper always sticks up for his brother and watches out for him. They are so much fun.

Their dad is also a wonderful and supportive father. The boys are lucky to have such a terrific role model in Aaron.

They look up to him so much. They are so excited at the end of the day to hear the pickup roll into the driveway. I have the perfect partner for this wonderful life of ours.

Also, Dr. Gilbert has played a big part of our lives. She has been Cooper’s doctor since we brought him home. I’ve had to call her at home after hours a few times, and she as always been wonderful.

Just a few months ago, for example, we were in Salt Lake when Cooper woke up in the middle of the night with a severe headache. There was only one person who would understand our situation, so we called Dr. Gilbert at 1 am. She was so great.

I apologized profusely. Her only response was that she chose to live in a small town and that she was happy to help.

We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, talented and personable pediatric physician living in our community.

We are amazed with her dedication and the respect she shows to her patients.

We have been very diligent in implementing all of the traditional forms of therapy for Cooper over the past six years.

Last year, however, through a friend of a friend, we were very blessed to discover an alternate form of therapy called the “Anat Baniel Method.”

ABM uses gentle, innovative techniques

DI LUNA’S PRESENTS

HOT Louisiana Blues July 11, 5 PM

220 Cedar St. Sandpoint

208.263.0846

Neighbor John and Ray Allen perform.

Jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp and grits. No cover charge. Doors open at 5:00 for dinner, show begins at 6:00. Call for reservations.

to help the brain form new neural connections and patterns in a brain-injured child, enabling the child to move beyond his current limitations.

The ABM office is in California, but after some research, I learned that one of their practitioners lives in Salt Lake City. I called her.

We had a 45-minute conversation about Cooper. I hung up the phone in tears. She told me she could see Cooper in two weeks for four days and that he would receive two lessons a day. Aaron and I were so excited.

A few days later, Cooper had a seizure.

I have never been so scared. I heard him cough via the monitor, (he was napping). I ran into the room, and he was completely lifeless. I picked him up and ran outside where Aaron was working. We grabbed Trapper and took off for the ER. On the way I called Joyce and she had the ER ready and was waiting for us. We live in Garfield Bay, so the whole way to town, I kept checking Cooper’s pulse and telling him that we loved him so much.

We didn’t know that Cooper had experienced a seizure until we got to the hospital. He had never had one before. We again had to be heart-flighted to Spokane, to be monitored for the night. He was released the next day. To say the least, I was very nervous about our 12-hour drive to Salt Lake just a week away. Dr. Gilbert gave us some emergency seizure medication to take with us.

So we went to Utah and met our new friend and practitioner, Maralee. Cooper had a great four days of lessons and was doing new things every day. He was able to touch and play with his feet for the first time. It was so exciting.

During our conversations with Maralee, she kept telling me about the practitionertraining program for ABM and that it was still open for applications. She said she loved the way I worked with Cooper and that I would be a great practitioner. She wrote me a letter of recommendation. I nervously applied.

Thankfully, I got accepted and started the three-year training program in February.

My training is outstanding. I have met some amazing and inspirational people from all over the world: professionals and parents of children with special needs, all coming together to make a difference.

I have witnessed this method of therapy change the lives of so many, and seeing the daily transformation in my son, I know I was meant to be a part of this. Sometimes different situations or circumstances in life can change your dreams.

My dream of being a nurse has been changed in a way that I can not even explain. I found a future for me and my son that is better than any fairy tale I could have ever imagined.

If you’d like to help Nikki and Cooper, tickets for Cooper’s Night can be purchased at Sandpoint Furniture, Panhandle State Bank, and Odies Store in Garfield Bay. If you wish to donate items for the auction, call Nikki at 208-265-0997. To learn more about Cooper, visit www. coopersspace.com. Photo of Cooper used with permission.

Page 34 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Say What?

by Paul Rechnitzer

Appearances

This article is dedicated to the memory of Frances Swanson one of the best dressed women to ever grace Sandpoint or wherever she happened to be. May she always be missed.

Over the years I have observed that, around here, how you are dressed doesn’t seem to mean much until you go to town with either a tie on or wearing a suit coat.

You can almost count on someone asking “what is going on?” Since I come from the old school where appearances do count knowing the consequences of not looking too bummy is sort of a laugh.

As all the new graduates start looking for a job I would like to suggest they try to look at least AS GOOD as the prospective employer. If you are content to look like the average customer you start out in a hole. I doubt any of your recent teachers ever heard of “one-upmanship,” especially when most of them appear to have worn out the idea of casual.

One-upmanship is the art (or is it a science?) of having a slight advantage over the other guy. It isn’t like a big weight advantage in rasslin’ or being taller. It is simply improving your stance when it counts. In the old days, when you went into a bank looking for a loan, there was something to be said that looking down and out was a help. The banker would be fittingly attired in a suit and tie so that he looked like he was successful in what he was doing. So the loan applicant should look like he could make the payments, not like he couldn’t even spell payment.

Looking a shade better than the banker is what is known as ‘one upmanship’. And it works.

Down in south Texas, Uvalde, is a beautiful bank with Oriental rugs on all the floors and real works of art on the walls. The

many women employees wear dresses and are neatly coiffed. The men are all wearing ties and suits (pants and coats match), no jeans. Now this is ranching country. And if you are a rancher down there you are a real rancher who has cowboys working for him.

The customers are the only ones wearing boots!

The point of mentioning a bank in the town where a former Vice-President originated is to try to get across the idea that looking good isn’t a sin. By looking good you may create the impression you are not struggling to earn your GED. On the other hand, if appearances are not everything why is it I get annoyed watching the people who are holding up traffic on the by-pass boon doggle by just standing there? To the big boss, assuming there is one, might I suggest you have a little one-on-one with the folks being paid with my tax dollars to not give the appearance they really don’t have that much to do?

Lord knows the place has been surveyed to death.

If there has to be a serious conversation about the next move please do it other than standing on the right-of-way. Also, try to coordinate the flow of materials so that when the traffic is being delayed you at least get the impression that something is happening, not like yesterday. When you have been waiting it is discouraging to know that the project was going nowhere in the meanwhile. How it looks is called appearance.

If you are still with me and have managed to fight off the cry of conformity, let me carry on.

To those who consider themselves private and to those who pride themselves

Transplanted 30 years ago, Paul Rechnitzer is a retiree from the oil business who knows no other place he would rather live and breathe local history. You can reach him at pushhard@nctv. com.

$1,200,000 Calling all developers!6 parcels adjacent to Little Muskrat Lake with open space; total 25 acres. Abundant wildlife.

Views from some of the 2.5 acre parcels. Surveyed, road punched in and prepped, close to final plat. MLS 2084727 $324,921 Pristine home in Northshore Subdivision.

Community water access to Lake Pend Oreille with dock, landscaped yard, large covered front porch, back deck, fenced yard. Close to schools, parks and located inside city limits. Call for an appointment today! MLS 20902654 $349,921 Everything you want from North Idaho. Beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bath, cedar sided home on 6+ acres of heavily timbered property with seasonal creek running through it! Wrap around deck, masonry touches and custom amenities make this home a very comfortable place to live. Easy access to town. MLS 20902245 $399,000 This home with 39.43 acres affords you the ability to hunt on your own property and still have easy access to town. The 3 Br 2 bth home is cozy with a landscaped yard and plenty of fruit trees. A huge shop with double doors and framed for a work area. Territorial and mountain views. MLS 20805866 $450,000. 51 acre property has incredible views from the top of Schweitzer, Idaho Club, Lake Pend Oreille and the Selle Valley. Granite outcroppings and a huge pond.

The shop will hold all your toys or large equipment. The 3 BR 2 BTH home is cozy with plenty of fruit trees in the yard. Sitting on a well maintained county road with easy access to elementary school or town. Lots of timber to harvest. MLS 20805865 $499,921 This waterfront home on Cocolalla Lake has 204 front feet, 2 decks, and is immaculate.

Two bedrooms, two baths, circular driveway, 2 car garage and many large mature trees shade this .57 acre parcel. Easy access to Sandpoint or CDA. Affordable waterfront and private. MLS 2084098 $124,921 Views to forever. This is a beautiful parcel with lots of trees. Nice benched area for a house with views of surrounding mountains. Fenced on 2 sides. Close to Lake Pend Oreille’s Camp Bay and Livermore Lake. Small structure on site which would be good for storage. MLS 20902021

Continued on page 36

CAROL CURTIS 315 N. Second Sandpoint

208-255-2244 888-923-8484

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 35

Appearances—Continued from page 35 in “I don’t care what anyone else thinks” it is worth pointing out that how you look speaks volumes. I know that I am getting close to the dreaded word profile but no matter what the warped liberals say, we all profile. It is part of nature. Animals do it and so do we. At any rate your appearance is a statement even if you don’t intend it to be. So is your beard, your hair, your jeans, your T-shirt etc.etc. Why do you think they invented lipstick? Tank tops, ugh..

Eons ago someone said that “first impressions are lasting impressions” or something like that. In any event they were right on, or for you late bloomers, “cool.”

How you perceive someone is largely determined by that first look. So why not try to look your best? Get over the idea that grunge is in. Looking like something the “cat dragged in” is a statement in itself. If the crotch of your shorts is closer to your ankles than your knees you don’t need an advertising agency.

Have you ever heard of self image?.

And what is all this crap about “casual Fridays?” Around here, ‘most everyone is so laid back getting casual is alive and well.

Giving a thought to how others see you is apparently not taught either by word or deed. That ship is overdue. Clean and sharp is money in the bank!

I am sure there is a line of reasoning that stresses the inner qualities are what counts.

That “clothes make the man” is some sort of old fashioned idea that went out when grandpa expired. Appearances only count when it comes to restoring that old clunker? The antique boat show is all about appearances? So are the Oscars, that “Old House” and on and on. So appearances do count. Ask Michelle. Try it, you will like it.

P.S. Remember, new jeans are only for funerals and weddings (semi-formal).

Slightly worn jeans are “country casual” and, when worn out, the default style.

Read Tessa Vogel’s review of “Harry Potter” online at www.RiverJournal.com. Just click on the “Lifestyles” tab.

Wonderful Family Home Great home that’s been wellmaintained. New vinyl siding, firepit in back yard, close to Kootenai Elementary. Wrap-around deck less than 2 years old. 8x8 storage shed and electric, free standing fireplace. Two car attached garage. Just $212,000.

MLS#2084771 Ask for George Eskridge at FOUR SEASONS REAL ESTATE

800-801-8521 • 208-263-8521 205 North First Ave. Sandpoint www.FourSeasonsRealtySandpoint.com

=PcdaP[[h

t h e f e s t i v a l at s a n d p o i n t, 2 7 y e a r s o f m u s i c u n d e r t h e s ta r s , o n t h e l a k e , i n s a n d p o i n t, i d a h o

E N J O Y G R E AT M U S I C …

0HAT 0HRIDAY !UGUST

Keller Williams & Donavon FrankenreiterAll tickets $34.95

“PHAT PHRIDAY” is a double-header concert evening with shows at 7pm and 9pm featuring the best in progressive alternative music. KELLER WILLIAMS opens the evening with what is sure to be a fascinating live performance fusing his virtuosity on the guitar and quirky songwriting. He’s been called a “one-man band,” a “solo cult hero,” and “Music’s mad-scientist,” all of which are clever labels paying tribute to his uncanny ability to captivate a packed house. Starting with his self-released debut album Freek, Williams began touring with String Cheese Incident after meeting them at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1997, and has built his career as a master of improvisational performance art. He uses looping effects with guitar, bass and percussion to layer sound atop sound until the stage swirls with full-blown compositions, blending genres of music.

DON FRANK AVON ENREIT ER

DONAVON FRANKENREITER is back by popular demand! After establishing himself as one of the most acclaimed free surfers in the world – he picked up a guitar and soon released his self-titled debut on Brushfire Recordings – the label run by longtime friend, collaborator, and fellow surfer Jack Johnson. Songs like “Free” and “It Don’t Matter” quickly became AAA radio staples. He moved in an independent direction for the release of Move By Yourself with some funkier grooves and a sound that is undeniably, and unabashedly, organic. With his latest, Pass it Around, he continues to find his own musical voice injecting new sounds on “Your Heart” and “Life, Love and Laughter,” which he notes as an apt snapshot of his life. It is hard to miss the delight with which Frankenreiter approaches life: “When I pick up a guitar, I feel good.

It makes me want to open a bottle of wine and have a party, and that’s what I’d like people to feel when they listen to my music.” Festival fans, grab your picnic baskets!

ER KELL S M A I Info and TIckeTs: The WILL

festival at sandpoint 888.265.4554 To order online visit us at:

or all TicketWest locations or by phone at

www.festivalatsandpoint.com

800.325.seaT

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 36

Boz Scaggs never had much to do with the military, even though he was born just two days after D-Day, on June 8, 1944. Around the time American forces got interested in the situation i n Vietnam, Scaggs had left the states for Europe and his burgeoning music career. He didn’t return until the height of the flower power season, when he hooked up with a former high school classmate, Steve Miller, and recorded a few albums. Then, in 1976, he recorded “Silk Degrees” which hit number 2 on the American charts and introduced the public to “Lido Shuffle,” “Lowdown,” and “What Can I Say.” But for a short time (just this month) Boz Scaggs and America’s war efforts will be linked in at least one way— by helping the latter, you can win tickets to see the former when Scaggs appears at this year’s Festival at Sandpoint on Saturday, August 8.

Here’s how it works. At any time during the month of July, head into Panhandle State Bank (any location) and make a donation to the Disabled American Veterans’ Van Fund.

These monies will be used to replace their current medical transportation van when the time comes. The van, by the way, provides a wonderful service to any American veteran in the area—vets can hop on three days a week for trips to the Spokane VA hospital, the closest medical care available to them.

Once you’ve made your donation, write your name and telephone number on the receipt you get from the bank (that’s your entry to win) and mail it to the River Journal (PO Box 151, Clark Fork, ID 83811) or drop it off in one of three drop boxes located in downtown Sandpoint: at the Tango Cafe, inside the atrium of the new Panhandle State Bank building, at Keokee Publishing (located at 401 Church St.) or at the Festival’s office in the Old Power House building. Sounds too hard? You may also enter by mailing a check (make it out to “DAV Van Fund”) with your name and telephone number to the River Journal. Entries will be collected on July 31 and the drawing will take place that night.

Of course, you don’t have to make a donation to win (making this a contest and not a raffle) but why wouldn’t you? Our local area veterans did not die on your behalf, but in many important ways they did give their life for you; and for those who utilize the van for medical care, they certainly gave their health. (If you prefer not to donate, you may email your name and telephone number to editorial@riverjournal.com to ener. Please put “Boz Scaggs tickets” on the subject line.)

The winner will be notified on August 1 and their photo will appear in the next issue of the River Journal. If you win, you’ll have two patron tickets to see Boz Scaggs at the Festival at Sandpoint. Patron tickets allow you entry to the field from the patron gate, located just east of the main gate and generally featuring a shorter line. And while you can sit anywhere on the field you please, these tickets also allow for reserved seating in the patron area—the white chairs located directly in front of the grandstands.

You always “win” when you support our area veterans, but for the month of July, your support can win you even more. Please, support our vets and enter to win.

Immune—Continued from page 31

Homeopathy Viewpoint by Chris Rinehart Constitutional homeopathy strengthens the immune system by giving the vital force or “chi” the boost it needs to overcome stress and heal us from the inside out.

Our predispositions to illness such as allergies, asthma, and arthritis are like road blocks preventing our vital force from successfully resolving illnesses as they arise in a gentle and lasting manner.

Consequently many of us develop chronic illnesses we learn to accept or mask with

prescription medication.

Without the energetic input homeopathy provides, our predispositions stay with us, and try as hard as we may we cannot rid ourselves of their influence and the limitations to our freedom that they impose on us.

To learn more about homeopathic constitutional treatment contact Chris Rinehart (phone 208-610-0868) This article and many more health and wellness articles are at the blog: www. sandpointwellnesscouncil.com. Please visit the blog to ask questions or add your comments any article.

The I in illness is isolation, and the crucial letters in wellness are we.

Personal Training & Physical Therapy 208.946.7072 Physical Therapy 208.290.5575 Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine 208.683.5211 Craniosacral Therapy 208. 610.2005 Biofeedback 208.263.8846 Rolfing 208.265.8440 Homeopathy (208) 610-0868

Oncology Massage 208.290.6760 Chiropractic Rolfing (208)265-2225.208.265.8440

Personal Training & Physical Therapy 208.946.7072 Physical Therapy 208.290.5575

Naturopathy 208.946.0984

Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine 208.683.5211

Oncology Massage 208.290.6760

& Skincare Learn moreReflexology, aboutHerbs SWC, its 208.597.4343 articles and members at our Learn more about SWC, its articles and web atblog orblog just call members our web or just callus. us.

Craniosacral Therapy 208. 610.2005 Biofeedback 208.263.8846

sandpoint

Complimentary health choices

wellness council.com

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 37

Coffelt Funeral Home, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Get complete obituaries online at

www.CoffeltFuneral.com Opferman Patrick Clifford “Pat” Opferman, 50, died May 29. He was born in Kirkland, Washington on Sept 24, 1958, the son of Joe and Ursula Opferman. He moved to Cocolalla, Idaho in 1973, attending local schools. In 1976 he graduated from Sandpoint High School and in 1982 graduated from the University of Idaho. While in college he was active in the ROTC. He earned his degree in architecture. Pat lived in Los Angeles for several years returning to Sandpoint in 2006, to help his mother. He was a Boy Sxout having become an Eagle Scout at the age of 15. He is survived by his mother Ursula Opferman.

Ramsay Helen Elizabeth Ramsay, 93, passed away in Sandpoint, Idaho on Sunday, May 31. Funeral services were conducted Saturday, June 6 in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel.

Interment was in Pinecrest Memorial Park. Helen was born in LaSalle, Colo. on October 4, 1915, the daughter of Walter and Emma Kimzey. The first grade of school was in Evans, Colo. in a schoolhouse her dad had just built.

She finished high school in Torrington, Wyo. and moved to Wrencoe in 1935. She worked in Spokane, Wash. for Paul Kemp and his wife, returning to Wrencoe and going to work for the Ramsays. On November 13, 1939 she married James Warren Ramsay in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

She worked on the family farm in Laclede. Following the death of Warren, in 1981, she moved to Sandpoint and shared a home with her son Robert. In 2007 she returned to Laclede and lived with her daughter, Catherine. Helen was a member of the First Christian Church and enjoyed needlework. She was a 4-H leader, in sewing, for Wrencoe and Dover. She is survived by her children James Warren, Jr “Butch” (and Pat) Ramsay; Catherine J. Rembowski, Richard J (and Maria) Ramsay; and Robert A Ramsay; 12 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren, and 4 great great grandchildren. Also surviving are special friends Vi Torpen, Glenda Winters, and Cherryl Ramsay. She was preceded in death by her parents, a grandson Max, 6 brothers, one sister, and her son in law Leon Rembowski.

Garvey Sean Michael Garvey passed away at his home in Spokane, Wash. Monday, June 1. Sean was born in Spokane on August 22, 1946.

He attended Sandpoint schools, and upon finishing high school joined the Navy. He made the Navy submarine service his career and found himself on the USS Blueback. Having grown up on Pend Oreille, he thought this was an inspiring coincidence and a sign of good luck. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War in which he earned several medals. After his years of submarine duty Sean returned to the Northwest and settled in Spokane as a Navy recruiter. When Sean retired from the Navy, he became an agent for Allstate Insurance as well as running his own tree trimming service. He was married to Judy Baldwin Garvey and together they raised their three children: Brian Garvey, David Garvey, and Seana (Ryan) Sorensen. Judy preceded Sean in death in 2000.

Sean spent the past few years wintering in Arizona with his wife Patti Thomson, perfecting his golf game. All his life Sean was a strong and adventurous person. He faced his final illness with courage and selflessness. We, his family, found him to be a hero in his life and in his death. As his family we cannot find words to express our gratitude for all the loving support he received from his wife Patty. He is survived by Patty Thomson, his three children his four sisters Lois Lebowitz, Teresa Sudut, Shannon Abromeit, Colleen Dalebout and two brothers Pat Garvey and Kevin Garvey. He will be greatly missed.

Stevens Ewell Edward Stevens was born on July 6, 1931 in Long Beach, Calif. He died on June 8 at his home in Sandpoint. After attending schools in southern California, he served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean Conflict. Ewell worked in the aerospace

industry in southern California during his career. He retired in 1986 as Manufacture Engineering Manager for Northrop Corporation. He and his wife Pat moved to Sagle at that time. He is survived by his wife Pat, of Sandpoint; daughter Stacy (Todd) Taylor; son Scott (Cheri) Stevens; grandchildren, Nicki, April, Jared, and Kelly; and three great grandchildren, as well as stepdaughter Gail (Ralph) Rhodes, and stepson Mark (Cindy) Barnes. He was preceded in death by his stepson Jim (Bonnie) Barnes; his mother, Marian Jeffress and father Jack Stevens. At his request there will be no services.

Thiele Scott G. Thiele was born in Minneapolis, Minn. on January 19, 1928 to Stanley and Jeanette Thiele. He was one of three siblings. He graduated from West High School and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He missed World War II but spent most of his enlistment time in Hawaii. He married Jean Brovold on January 28, 1949. They had four girls. He was employed by 3M for over thirty years and was one of the original computer programmers. He loved skiing in Aspen, and frequented Mille Lacs Lake in northern Minnesota for ice fishing. He enjoyed taking his family to Ely, for vacations that included fishing and canoeing in the Boundary Waters. He took early retirement from 3M so he could move to North Idaho in 1985 to be closer to his grandson, Conor. During Conor’s young years, he walked down every morning to have breakfast with his grandpa. He learned the game of poker and cribbage from his grandpa. Scott became a member at the Elks and spent most of his free time on the golf course with his friends Al Malak and Jerry Van Ooyen. He enjoyed men’s club and traveling to various golf courses. He would drive to Milwaukee in the fall and southern California in the spring to spend time with other grandchildren. Scott is preceded in death by his wife Jean, and his daughter Nancy (Pastrano). His surviving family members include Peggy, David and Conor Baranski; Mary, Ralph, Rachael and Max Zimmermann; Bob, Michael and Olivia Pastrano; Joanne, Jeremiah and Justin Cornehl.

Rodne Henry, “Hank” Rodne, 86, of Bothell, Wash., former Ponderay resident, died Wednesday, June 17. He was born Oct. 23, 1922 in Alkabo, North Dakota one of 7 children born to Nikolai and Thea Rodne. He was raised in North Dakota and then traveled, ultimately ending up in North Idaho where he met Frances Mary Tashoff whom he married on Nov. 14, 1953 in Bonners Ferry. In 1956 they bought property in Ponderay where he lived until moving to the Seattle area in 2007 to be near his daughter and family. Hank was a worked for various mills in the area, but spent many years at Louisiana Pacific as a planer, retiring in 1987. He is survived by 1 daughter: Joyce (Carston) Thode, 2 grandchildren, Christoph and Alexis Thode; 1 brother: Sven Rodne, 2 sisters: Hanne Wickstrum and Martha Kirkpatrick. In addition to his wife who died on April 21, 1998 he was preceded in death by 2 brothers and 1 sister.

Misner Helen M. Misner, 78, of Sagle, died Thursday, June 18, at her home. She was born July 8, 1930 in Miami, Okla. the daughter of Jesse and Maxine Helm. When she was a child the family moved to California where she was raised.

She was married to Phil Misner on June 2, 1951 and they were later divorced. Helen moved to Sandpoint in 1965 where she has since resided. She was an accomplished artist. She was a talented painter, maker of Indian bead work, and needlepoint. The greatest joy in her life was her family. She is survived by 5 children: Shela (Jim) Pierce, Gerald (Stacia) Misner, Michael (Diana) Misner, Philip Misner, Shelly (Dan) Phipps; 13 grandchildren; 9 great grandchildren; 2 great-great-grandchildren: and by 3 siblings: Lela Walters, Lois Sexton, and Stanley Earl Good. She was preceded in death by her grandson, Derek Misner and 3 siblings, Ricky Helm, Jean Reeves, and Maxine Rakowski.

Stevens We give into God’s loving embrace a wonderful woman, Sharon Stevens, who passed away on June 18, at Kootenai Medical Center. She was a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and best friend. She was born July 16, 1938 in Sandpoint, Idaho the daughter of Andrew and Mary Anna Carnegie. The only thing brighter than the smile on her face was her smiling eyes. She was loving, gentle, kind, and so funny. One of her favorite things to do was sing and play guitar with her family and friends. She had a passion for arts and crafts that we all still get to enjoy. Her sense of humor which she acquired from her adored daddy was a quality we all loved about her. She was deeply loved and will be held in all our hearts always. WE LOVE YOU MOMMY! She will be met with open arms in heaven by: Andrew Carnegie (Daddy), Mary Anna Carnegie (mother), 3 sisters: Delores Wright, Gerri Eastin, Carla Therien, David Kamp (Grandson). She leaves behind her husband; Joe Stevens; 8 children: Rocky (Nita) Eveland, Nancy

(Don) Metcalf, Rita (Vance) Stapleton, Carlotta (Jim) Martin, Clayton (Penny) Eveland, Rennie Eveland, Clinton Eveland, Laura (Dave Kindall) Eveland; 2 brothers: Jimmy Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie; her sister: Charlene Bennett; her stepmother, Marie Klink; and by many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren Miles Wanda Lanell Miles, 73, passed away in Sandpoint, Idaho on Saturday, June 20. Wanda was born in Arkansas on Sept. 22, 1935 the daughter of Jesse and Nevel Easley.

She moved to California in 1948 and graduated from Butte Valley High School in 1953. She graduated from a nursing program in Portland, Oregon, becoming a registered nurse. She worked as an office nurse for many years. She also lived in Florida, returning to Crescent City, California.

In Crescent City she worked on a commercial fishing boat and as an office manager. In 1993 she moved to Sandpoint where she married Al Miles on Dec. 10, 2004.

Wanda enjoyed golfing and her family. She is survived by her husband Al Miles; 2 children Rod Padel and Roxanne Holmes; 4 grandchildren; 1 great grandchild; 3 brothers Jim, Paul, and Gale Easley all in Redding, CA. She was preceded in death by her parents and 3 sisters.

Poelstra Cornelies “Cornie” Poelstra, 87, passed away in Sandpoint, Idaho on Monday, June 22. Cornie was born in New Holland, South Dakota on July 24, 1921, the son of Elmer and Lena Poelstra. He lived in Manhattan, Mont. and worked on a cattle ranch. On March 15, 1944 he married Frances Mize in Belgrade, Mont. In 1945 he moved to the Selle area and purchased the Charles Selle Homestead. He established a Grade A dairy farm, retiring from Poelstra and Sons Dairy in 2002. He established, and operated, Cornies Feed, selling Purina Products, from 1966 until 1986. Cornie was well known for water witching wells in northern Idaho. His wife Frances preceded him in death in 1988. Cornie was a member of the Sandpoint Gun Club and the Sandpoint bowling leagues. He was a 4H leader and a poultry judge at county fairs in North Idaho.

He enjoyed hunting and fishing and was a faithful Seattle Mariners Baseball fan. He married Edith Frazier on July 20, 1989 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He is survived by his wife Edith Poelstra; seven children Randy (and Carla) Poelstra; Tony (and Tamara) Poelstra; Diana Johnson; Patricia (and Terry) Eller; Carol McCoy; Norma McKitrick; Marie Johnson; 19 grandchildren and 22 great grand children. Also surviving are two brothers Renald and Arie Poelstra; three sisters Toni Tiffany, Edna Johnson and Ellena Brown; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins; three step children Vickie Sennett; Gayle Vinion; and Julie Davidson. He was also preceded in death by his parents and a brother John.

Lakeview Funeral Home, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Get complete obituaries online at

www.LakeviewFuneral.org Menghini William Henry Menghini, 56, passed away at his home in Sandpoint, Idaho on Saturday, May 30, due to a sudden heart attack. Will was born on November 30, 1952 in Great Falls, Mont. to Henry and Catherine (Shea) Menghini. He grew up and attended schools in Power, Mont, graduating in 1971.

Will attended Eastern Montana College in Billings for one year prior to being drafted into the United States Army, where he was stationed at Ft. Ord for 2 years. Upon his discharge from the military he enrolled at Montana State University, where he received his Electrical Engineering degree in 1978. Will married Julie Blair on September 4, 1976 in Peoria, Ill. Will’s electrical engineering career began first in Spokane with Washington Water Power, transferring to Coeur d’Alene in 1986, to Sandpoint in 1994, and Spokane in 2004 where he was the network engineer for Avista in downtown Spokane. Will also owned a consulting firm; he investigated electrical contact injuries and fires for the utilities. Will was a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, a past Rotarian, past SARS

Page 38 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Kelly Floyd Tony Kelly, 70, went home to be with the Lord June 18. He passed away at home of cancer with his loving wife, Claudia, by his side. He was born in Kellyville, Okla. Feb. 4, 1939 and at age 3 moved to California with his family.

Shortly after graduation from high school Floyd served his country in the army and was stationed in Germany during President Kennedy’s assassination. After six years in the military he came back home to California and met his future wife Claudia in San Jose, and they married in Carson City, Nev. in 1964. In 1970, they moved to Bonner County, living in Dover, Hope and Clark Fork. He worked for Pete’s Auto Wrecker as a tow truck driver and moved mobile homes and trailers.

Floyd also drove forklift for Brand S Lumber in Laclede and also worked for Bonner County School District as general maintenance and custodian. In 1992 they went on the road and Floyd and Claudia supervised telephone book deliveries in five states, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho until Floyd was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and they retired to their Clark Fork log cabin in the woods. They love Bonner County better than anywhere they ever lived, and Floyd wanted his ashes scattered over Lake Pend Oreille where they spent a lot of time fishing, boating, and relaxing. He is survived by his wife Claudia, one son, Raymond (Tracey) Kelly, five grandchildren, several nieces and nephews and too many other relatives to mention by name. He requested no services. Memorials may be made to Bonner Community Hospice, PO Box 1448 Sandpoint, ID 83864.

(MENGHINI) Board President, and a current board member for the Festival at Sandpoint, as well as many other boards and committees throughout his career. He enjoyed skiing, backpacking, biking, golfing, kayaking, and wine tasting and bottling. mHe is survived by his loving wife of 32 years, Julie Menghini; two daughters, Katrina Menghini and fiancé Mark Regier, Angela Menghini, and son Louis Menghini; parents, Henry and Catherine Menghini; and three sisters, Carol (Ron) Ostberg, Janice (Doug) Denson, and Kathy Shanahan. He was preceded in death by his brotherin-law John Shanahan. Memorial donations may be made in Will’s name to the Festival at Sandpoint, PO Box 695, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

Schempp Conrad P. Schempp, 77, of Clark Fork, Idaho passed away at Kootenai Medical Center on Saturday June 6, after a ruptured aortic aneurism. He was born November 1, 1931 in Los Angeles where he was raised. After graduating from Army & Navy Academy in Carlsbad, Calif., Conrad married his sweetheart Jeanne Calder in March of 1952. He served time in the Air Force and then worked in the trucking industry. In 1966, moved his family to Corona, California when he was hired by Corona Fire Department. He retired after 28 years of enjoying the department camaraderie and years of coordinating training exercises. Conrad was an involved father who always made time for family vacations of camping, waterskiing, motorcycling and every other sort of sport.

He never met a stranger and was an entertaining storyteller. After retiring, Conrad became a hobby pilot. He and Jeanne bought a summer home on the Clark Fork River in 1994 and soon loved it so much they made it their full time home. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Jeanne Schempp; his four children, Wallace (Toni) Schempp, Peggy Schempp, Laura (Jeff) Emmer, Diana (Scott) Walker, his two brothers Leonard (Kitty) Schempp, Martin (Vicki) Schempp, six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister Alberta Anderson.

In lieu of flowers it would be appreciated if donations were made in Conrad’s name to: The Filling Station Youth Center, PO Box 777, Clark Fork, ID 83811 Siemsen Franz Hartwig Walter Siemsen, MD, 85, passed away peacefully at his home in Sandpoint, Idaho on Tuesday, June 9, after a long courageous battle with Parkinson’s. Dr. Siemsen was born the fifth child to Herman and Auguste (Hartwig) Siemsen on October 4, 1923 at the home ranch near Roundup, Mont. The family of seven moved to Idaho and settled in the Winchester area. He grew up on the farm and attended the Golden Ridge elementary school. He graduated in 1942 from Yakima Valley Academy before entering the pre-Med program at Walla Walla College. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from Loma Linda University in 1950. In his first year of medical school, he met a vivacious nursing

student. Franz married Doris Donaldson on December 18, 1947 in Santa Anna, Calif. He began his medical practice in Sandpoint in 1951. In 1953 Dr. Siemsen was drafted into the United States Air Force. He served his country for two years while stationed in Moses Lake, Wash. He returned home and continued to practice medicine for over 50 years. Dr Siemsen was dedicated to his patients.

For years he not only worked long hours at the office, but many evenings he carried his trusty medical bag on house calls and was featured for his determination and passion for patients on the Paul Harvey radio show. Dr. Siemsen was a member of Sandpoint Seventh-day Adventist Church where he served as an Elder for many years. He supported the mission emphasis of his church and twice donated his skills and time to serve in mission hospitals in Sierra Leone and Malawi. He was a strong believer in education and supported Sandpoint Junior Academy, as well as assisting numerous students financially in obtaining a Christian education. Family times were highly valued. When he worked, he worked hard and when it was family time, he played hard. Creating relationships and good memories were important. He had an awesome sense of humor and loved to have a good laugh. He enjoyed growing a picture-perfect garden and baking sweet rolls. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Doris Siemsen; two daughters, Debbie (Lawrence) Letniak and Patti (Steve) Schultz and two sons, Donald (Cyndie) Siemsen and David (Sue) Siemsen. Ten grandchildren and one sister, Irmgard Hooper. He was preceded in death by his parents, one brother Walter, and two sisters, Hildegard Patch and Ruth Robinson. Memorial donations may be made to Sandpoint Jr. Academy, 2255 W. Pine St, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

Gunn Lawrence “Larry” Hubert Gunn passed away June 11, at the age of 77, in Sandpoint, Idaho. He was born in Los Angeles on November 22, 1932, to Wilfred and Lucille Gunn. In 2006, he moved with his wife to Sandpoint, to be near his children. He was married to Monica Millar Gunn for 52 years until her death in 2007. He is survived by his children, Kevin (Christine) Gunn, Teryl Gunn (Sean) Riley, and Brenna Gunn (Drew) Meredith; his grandchildren, Aaron, Ben and Corey Gunn, Derick and Lauren Riley, and Max, Zoe, and Mya Meredith. He is also survived by his sister Marlene (Walter) Estelle, and his sister-in-laws, Anne Windsora, and Marilyn Sund, and many nieces and nephews. He attended Montrose Elementary School, Clark Junior High School, Glendale High School, and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He was an architect, artist, and self-employed businessman, designer with Larwin developers, and was executive and co-owner of Pestcon.

A longtime member and vestryman of St. Luke’s of the Mountains church, he was instrumental in the remodel design. He was very active in the Episcopal Cursillo and Soma ministries. He also served on the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity Board. He traveled abroad for work, ministry, and pleasure. He will be remembered as a faithful husband, father, grandfather, family member; a loyal friend to so many; and a compassionate man of good character who did his best to reflect the grace of God to others. Many friends and family will fondly remember enjoying his unique and original culinary presentations while sitting around a firepit, surrounded by his artistic, self-designed backyard garden. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Larry to: St. Luke’s Anglican Church Reestablishment Fund, P. O. Box 8307, La Crescenta, CA 91224, or to San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, 400 So. Irwindale Ave., Azusa, CA, 91702.

Bierman Mary Lucille Bierman, 85, resident of Priest Lake, went with Jesus, hand in hand, to be in her heavenly home on Saturday, June 13. She passed away at St. Mary’s Hospital in Cottonwood, Idaho with her daughters by her side. Mary Lou was born to Peter J. Tully and Hazel M. Struthers on February 3, 1924 in Sprague, Wash. She was raised in the area and on September 1, 1946 married Everett Bierman in Spokane, Wash. They made their home in Ritzville, Wash. farming wheat on the Columbia Basin. In November 1961 together they moved their family with daughters Kathy and Denise to Priest Lake, becoming year-round residents. Mary Lou was especially noted for her excellent cooking and hospitality creating a warm and welcoming home for family and friends. She was a member of St. Blanche Catholic Church in Priest Lake, Idaho. Mary Lou’s life has been a sentimental journey of love and loyalty to her family, friends and faith. She will be deeply missed by everyone who was touched by her beautiful presence. She is survived by her husband, Everett Bierman; daughters, Kathy (Roger) Ward and Denise (Jerry) Lacy; grandchildren Rob Ward, Daniel Thornton, David Thornton, and Ashley Ward; great grandson Francis Xavier Pigott; brother, Pat (Betty) Tully; and numerous loving nieces and nephews.

Mary Lou was preceded in death by her parents, three

brothers Raymond, Bill and infant brother Peter Eugene Tully. Memorial Donations may be made to Poor Clare Nuns, 4419 N. Hawthorne Street, Spokane, Washington or Union Gospel Mission, P.O. Box 4066, Spokane, WA 99220-0066.

Pietsch Carol Ann (Rojan) Pietsch passed away peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday, June 17, at Life Care of Sandpoint. She was 74. Carol was born October 14, 1934 in Sandpoint, the first of four children born to Carl William Rojan and Elnora Adelaide Therien of Hope.She attended grade school in Hope and later graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1952. Carol married Gary L. Pietsch, her high school sweetheart, in August 14, 1955.

Their first home was in Moscow where they were senior students at the University of Idaho. Carol began a 30year teaching career in Bonner County in 1960. She was selected as Idaho Home Economics Teacher of the Year in 1975. During her teaching career, Carol served twice as President of the Bonner County Education Association, and served two terms on the Idaho Professional Standards Commission under the State Department of Education.

Always a teacher and up for a challenge, Carol purchased the old Matheson farm house that sat in the middle of what would later become the Westwood condominium project in 1975. She made arrangements to have it moved to property the family owned. Under her direction, the family began a restoration of the structure from top to bottom.

She employed students from her vocational classes, and over the ensuing years, many of her home economic students enjoyed gainful employment. Carol never lost her love for art, photography, interior decorating, sewing, needlepoint, knitting and crocheting. She loved baseball, basketball, water skiing, sailing, and skiing. After retiring, Carol led the Democratic Party in Bonner County. She served as State Representative for Legislative District 1 for one term. Carol joined her husband Gary, working in their printing business, Selkirk Press Inc., from which they both retired in 2000. They loved tending their Goose Crossing Iris Garden that, at its height, featured over 200 different varieties. They would have enjoyed their 54th wedding anniversary on August 14. Carol is survived by her husband, Gary; a son, Christopher and his wife, Therese and two granddaughters, Tiernan and Delaney; two daughters, Jaye Schuck and her husband David; and Wesley Dustman and her husband Jim and one grandson, Terrin; two sisters, Patricia Patton and her husband Jim; and Nora Nikkola and her husband Bill; and a brother, Russell and his wife Linda; and numerous nieces and nephews. Her parents Carl and Elnora Rojan preceded her in death. Donations may be made in her memory to the Bonner County Alzheimer’s Association Support Group, 220 S. Division St., Sandpoint, ID 83864 or the Daybreak Center, c/o Sandpoint Area Seniors Inc, 820 Main St, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

Koich George Koich, 84, passed away on Monday, June 22, in Sandpoint, Idaho. George was born on September 9, 1924 in Los Angeles, Calif. He grew up and attended schools in Victorville, graduating from high school there.

As a young man he enjoyed working as a cowboy. During the war he worked in machine shops. George married Patricia Bowers in Los Angeles in the mid 1940s, she preceded him in death in 1998. George worked for Beverly Hills Ford for 22 years prior to opening George Koich Automotive in Burbank. In 1979 he bought property in Sandpoint, where he moved in 1982 and built a log home.

George was a “jack of all trades,” and he enjoyed working on old cars and farm equipment. He could fix anything with the attitude, “keep trying and never give up.” He also said, “Don’t ever be afraid to say I don’t know.” George met Patricia “Rusty” Petersen, a special friend, in the Tri-Cities in 2000. He enjoyed traveling with Rusty and visiting her grandchildren. George was a member of the Panhandle Antique Tractor and Engine Club. He enjoyed restoring equipment, camping, fishing, waterskiing, riding motorcycles, cooking, reading and especially helping others. He is survived by Patricia “Rusty” Petersen; daughter, Lory (Dan) Adams; two sons, Tim (Laurie Brown) Koich and Chris Koich; granddaughter, Amanda (Olin) Leader; two brothers, Mel and Paul Koich; and nephew, John Koich. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, step mother Addie Koich, wife Patricia, brother John and sister Ann.Memorial donations may be made to Bonner Community Hospice, PO Box 1448, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

Culclasure Ilene D. Culclasure, 85, passed away on Monday, June 29, in Boise, Idaho. No services will be held. She will be interred in the Lakeview Cemetery in Sandpoint, Idaho. Ilene is survived by her husband Al Culclasure and daughter Judy (Ross) Capawana.

Harvey Bonnie Lee Harvey, 74, passed away on Thursday, July 2, in Sandpoint, Idaho.

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 39

by Jinx Beshears I wanted to leave Louisiana as fast as I could. Sherry had quit her job, so it seemed logical that we should just load up and head for Texas. But first, we needed to get a tan. I don’t know why it was important, but at the time, it was.

So, on Sherry’s first day of freedom, we headed for Mississippi River to a small beach we had heard of there. Armed with all the appropriate beach gear, towels, suntan oils, water, dogs, bucket and a shovel, off we headed, pulling it all in a wagon for our convenience.

It was a beautiful day; the sky was mostly clear and the beach was mostly empty. The dogs were on their leashes, because although Aspen is antisocial with strangers, Sherry’s dog, Little Man, is a social butterfly.

So we leashed them and kept them close.

We set up the perfect spot—nice white sand, the water was close, we pulled out our chairs and began to bask in the warmth of the sunlight, even spraying ourselves down with water from a cool spray bottle now and then.

After a few minutes we realized that we had forgotten to apply suntan lotion, so we grabbed the tan “accelerator” and liberally applied it to our extremely pale, hadn’t-seen-the-sun-in-years skin.

Warning labels? We don’t pay attention to no stinking warning labels! It was tanning oil, for Pete’s sake, why would we look at a warning label?

While we were sunning, we decided to try our hands at building sand castles and quickly discovered that it is a lot harder than it looks initially. The sand has to be just the right consistency or it doesn’t work and Sherry and I would have been better off working in concrete. At least that would have stood up. Of course, it didn’t help that Aspen and Little Man have some weird aversion to sand castles and were continuously running through them or trying to build a moat inside them.

The dogs got pretty worn out after a bit though, all that fresh ocean air and sunlight made them sleepy.

Being smart

pups, they crawled into the shade of the wagon and proceeded to nap. It’s a little uncomfortable to realize that the dogs had more sense than Sherry or I did.

Sherry and I do tend to talk constantly when we are together and this day was no different. We were making plans to leave Louisiana in the morning as soon as we woke up and contemplating why anyone in their right mind would chose to stay in New Orleans on purpose.

There are critters that have not yet been

identified in New Orleans and some of them only have two legs!! I noticed Sherry’s shoulders were getting red and commented on this to her and she said that mine were, too. We laughed and decided we should probably be going soon. Then we continued blubbering about the economy, the fear of the swine flu and how pretty the sand was on this beach.

I wanted to take pictures of us before we left, so Sherry sat in the sand and began to play, halfway burying herself in it. “Look, Robin” she laughed gleefully, “the sand is so rough it exfoliates your skin when you rub it on you.” We both laughed and I took pictures of her and she took pictures of me, which we would later use as clear evidence of our lack of common sense. We should have just taken a sander/grinder to our skin and been done with it.

After six hours of lazy play in the sun, the beach finally lost our interest, and we decided we had better trudge the wagon we had used to tote our beach equipment to the shoreline back up to the car and ride on back to the trailer, so we would be rested up for the next day’s traveling experiences. After falling a few times pulling the heavy wagon (laden with wet towels and chairs) through the deep sand to the truck, loading it and the dogs, we sat in the comfort of the truck’s air conditioning and stared at each other with our mouths wide open.

“Whoa,” I whispered, as if it would help, “you are really red.” Sherry just shook her head and pointed towards the review mirror and I glanced at myself.

At least, it was supposed to be myself.

My freckles had come to the surface of my skin, the sun had baked my body to a nice shade of burgundy and my lips were chapped and swollen—not a pretty picture. Sherry was pretty much in the same boat. We were wearing shorts and tank tops, you know, to better expose our white flesh to the unyielding UV rays that we had forgotten about. Personally, my own skin felt like it had been dried like jerky and stretched and nailed across a plank of weathered wood, left in the desert for about three weeks. It looked it also. Sherry is a bit darker -complected than me and although she was in much pain, she was a bit sassy when she informed me that by the morning, her redness would be gone and she would be tanned; at least, that’s what it had always done when she was younger. Those words would haunt her later.

I knew tanning was not going to be the case for me. After 49 years of freckling and burning, you would think I would realize I was not going to be one of those tanned girls on the beach. My skin is white and it is going to remain white... or extremely red.

We got home an hour later, barely able to move, ready to strip our clothes off and shower to remove the sand. I know for most people that is a simple task, but when your skin is on fire and your brain cells have been all but scalded out of your head, it’s not an easy thing to do. Aspen and Little Man just lay on the bed staring at us as if we were aliens and we sorta looked like it, I imagine.

The warm water took my breath away when it hit my back and as I turned more cold water on, I began to get hot chills.

I know, you wouldn’t think that was possible, but it is. It’s kind of like hot ice, looks nice and cold, but is as hot as coal.

Even the part in my hair was burned. My hairline? Burned. The tops of our feet?

Burned. Ankles? Burned. There was no amount of lotion with Aloe that we could soak ourselves in that was going to save us.

Dinner... cold sandwich, we couldn’t stand the heat of the stove to cook. We went to bed, the heat radiating from our bodies like the surface of the sun.

Aspen wouldn’t even get on the bed with me. Nor would Little Man. Nope, they chose the comfort of the living room air conditioning.

After barely sleeping all night, because even the air touching our bodies sent shrieks of pain rippling through those heat chills, we got up to get on the road Continued on page 42

Page 40 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

by Scott Clawson I’ve got a friend who lives in Sandpoint.

Well, actually, I have several, but this particular one has her mood bunched up over the subject of water flouridation, a topic I’ve seldom contemplated in my 57 years of contemplatin’.

I get my water from 300 feet under my Careywood butt and I enjoy every sip, gulp and glug of it. I’ve had one cavity. I brush.

Well, anyways, I’ve done some pokin’ around in a few websites lately and I think I even hurt my contemplater! I came to one conclusion early on and that is I’m damn glad I get my water where I do and grateful that it’s deep.

Flouride is a highly toxic substance, no ifs, ands or buttheads. Yet, and this is a big yet, it is produced in great quantities as an unfortunate by-product of the phosphate fertilizer and aluminum industries, driven country wide and sprinkled into twothirds of the nation’s municipal water systems. “Only two-thirds?” you say.

Those responsible (or not) want to see that increased to 75 percent next year.

The original concept sprang from the war department back in the ‘40s. They had to devise a way to get rid of mountains of this dangerous by-product from the Abomb program and apparently they figured that since most of the uranium had been removed, it was then safe enough to hide in the public water systems. They had their own scientists label it safe enough for the economy (like leaded gas, DDT, asbestos and good ol’ Agent Orange). Sounds to me like adding flouride to everyone’s water is simply a very clever way to get rid of nuisance toxic waste and hide it literally under our noses.

AFter 50 years of water flouridation there have been zero chronic health studies on silicaflourides and all studies to date by the people who have pull were done using pharmaceutical grade sodium flouride, not the cheap stuff scrubbed from the stacks at fertlizer and aluminum plans like hydraflourasilica or flouosilicic acid (Sandpoint’s choice) and sodium silicoflouride. According to what I’ve also read, these also come with other groovy sidekicks like mercury and arsenic. Those same facilities are also responsible for some rather large problems out their back door. According to a 1972 report, the USDA stated “Airborne flourides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic (hey, how ‘bout the wild?) animals than any other air pollutant.” And we have many. “... but the standards that are set were financed by the industries that were responsible for getting sued for pollution.” That’s according to the EPA’s Criteria Document. For a good ol’ case of heartburn, go to www.flouridealert.org/

health/epa/industry. Then go try and take a nap!

Actually, the research that hasn’t been done is beyond overwhelming. Or if it has, the info has been safely kept away from yer worry wart (for reasons you don’t need to know).

The EPA’s Headquarters Professionals Union, made up of roughly 1,500 scientists, lawyers, engineers and others, opposes water flouridation based on studies documenting increased out-of-control exposure to flouride, lack of dental benefit from ingestion, hazards to human health (how about your pets?) from that same ingestion, including kidney damage, bone cancer, neurotoxicity, brittle bones, gene mutations, dental flourosis, etc., etc., etc.

Bad times and big bills.

The Flouride Action Network has a website you should definitely visit and they have a startling list of reasons to stop flouridation of drinking water. Check ‘em out at flouridealert.org.

They also call for an immediate halt to the use of the nation’s drinking water reservoirs as disposal sites for the toxic waste of the fertilizer industry. Bingo!

Overexposure is a huge concern! And if it gets past yer epiglottis, it’s overexposure!

Flouride is effective as a detifrice if it’s applied topically. It’s an effective poison if it’s swallowed. Even the American Dental Association admits tap water should not be used to mix infant formulas.

A curious fact I bet most mothers are not aware of.

As applied, it is actually a medication, given to all (well, actually, you buy it with your taxes) like it or not. This kind of flies in the face of the constitutionally guaranteed right to choose yer own.

Only three percent of western Europe is gullible enough to accept flouridated water. They are healthier than us, and enjoy way less problems associated (by many) with flouride overexposure (flouride toxicity).

Flouride is bio-accumulative. Stored in your bones, it probably has a lot to do with osteoporosis, hip fractures and the like. Kidneys don’t do well on it, not yer thyroid. Shall I go on? Go online! See for yourself. Check out “The Flouride Deception” by Christopher Bryson on YouTube. It’ll open your eyes.

The Chinese are now getting the drift that flouride is reducing the IQs of their children. Other tidbits I’ve found include the Soviets using it for mind-control; the Nazis used it a lot, and not for dental hygeine, either. There’s also links to ADD and hyperactivity.

Downstreamers are complaining about elevated levels of flouride causing salmon

to avoid their rivers of origin. Where would a salmon spawn if it can’t go home?

To find out, search out the Columbia Riverkeepers website.

And then there are people who are downright allergic to it, with no or low tolerance. Like bee stings, which don’t bother me, but make others swell up something fierce. And there’s some who die from it. What’s your level of flouride tolerance. How ‘bout your kids’?

Here’s the rub, and it ain’t barbeque sauce; what if everything you ate, drank and drooled on was also flouridated. A feat not all that absurd in this day and age.

Foods and beverages (and there are many) that use flouridated water in processing add even more to your body. Think hard on that one.

How many times have you taken a mouth full of wate rand swished it through your teeth so it will actually do some good before it goes down to do some damage?

Systemic exposure to a topical medication for your teeth. Hmm, would you drink sunblock? How about hair conditioner?

Wart remover?

Early research, according to one site I visited, showed that flouride ingestion caused complacency and even addiction (poisons will do that in low doses) which could be handy at stifling unrest in a population.

So, how complacent have you become?

Ask yer ‘other half.’ If that half says “Who gives a rat’s @$$?” then yer both gettin’ too much.

Which leads me to ignore-ance. A condition not of education (or lack of it) but of just plain ignoring, like the wishes of constituents, evidence brought forward (even if it needs to be ‘hardened’) and the most important... your own well-being.

So here’s your chance to do a little research into what yer drinkin’. Water is everywhere, in everything, essential to everything yet we treat it like a low-grade commodity gret for flushing the system of things it’d sooner forget, l i k e flouride.

The road to ignoreance is paved with good contributions.

So contribute your good opinion to those who run the show. If that doesn’t get you any satisfaction, open a can o’ whoop ass with the next ballot you fill out!

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 41

Jinxed- Continued from page 40 toward Texas. I stumbled to the living room to sit in the chair to discover that my jerky-like skin had already begun to peel from my body. Sheets of skin, like onions, tore themselves away from my legs and arms. We looked a lot like lepers. Where we were not peeling, watery blisters had risen, covering our epidermis with leaky little pods. The part of us that didn’t look like we were lepers, looked like we had a seriously infected case of chicken pox. I am pretty sure our skin hated us. Even my eyelids were peeling. How were we going to drive 500 miles towards Texas in the heat?

It didn’t matter though, we were going.

We loaded up both trucks, attached the gooseneck and off we took at the neckbreaking speed of 50 mph. Sherry wasn’t real confident in her ability to pull the trailer and I soon discovered why. She is hard headed. We were so anxious to escape Louisiana, she was in the front and I was bird dogging for her in the back. We had CBs to communicate with each other and after an hour or so of following her like a puppy in love, I heard her voice on the radio. “I think I am lost.”

I didn’t quite know how to respond. “In Louisiana?” I grumbled back to her. “We are lost here?” We stopped to compare notes by the roadside. I just shook my head at her. “You realize we are lost,” I snickered at her. “Only we could get lost with a Google map, an atlas and two GPSs!” I laughed pretty hard I admit when she looked me dead in the eye and said, “Oh, I haven’t looked at those, I was just going by how the fellas at work had told me to leave.”

My giggling stopped immediately.

“The same guys that told you straight out they didn’t want you to leave? Those guys?!” Then she handed me a map, telling me to look at it because she can’t see it. “Glasses?” I calmly asked her, but evidently she thinks her eyes are 25 years old still, kind of like our skin, that used to be tanned when the morning arrived.

Sherry and I are pretty close. We had been friends for a very long time. That is why I was so shocked to realize she is too hard headed to admit that her eyes—as well as her skin—have aged a little.

We were on a thin country road when we decided we were lost, but it looked as if it connected to a nearby highway that would take us straight to the Texas border.

We were very excited. Unfortunately, the connection couldn’t quite be made because the road we were traveling down, pulling her trailer at a speedy 30 mph now, ended in a cattle field, marked plainly, “Property of the Corps.” Thinking that at any moment an league of guns would be greeting us, Sherry and I got out to put our baked brains together to figure how to get turned around. You see, Sherry didn’t pull the trailer usually, her boyfriend did.

However, he was unavailable at the time, so it was up to her to turn it around. The mere thought of that scared both of us into praying.

She did it, though I am pretty sure God in his infinite mercy looked down on us and, through tears of laughter, turned the trailer for her.

Eventually, we did manage to get on a road that would lead us to what we had decided was not really Texas... but Heaven. If you have ever been to New

Orleans, you will understand what I mean by that. Maybe it was just us. Two Texas country girls, stranded like fish out of water, burned beyond recognition, pulling a trailer at runaway speeds, two dogs, hanging out the window, tongues lolling to the side. I chose to believe it was Louisiana, more exact, New Orleans, where Sherry had angered the Voodoo masters or something equally horrendous, and I, of course, just fell under the hex, guilty by association kinda.

Either way, I don’t recommended staying for any length of time in New Orleans or trying to get a tan in one day.

It’s very painful, and two weeks later Sherry’s trailer is molding on the outside and my skin is still shedding. I wonder just how important those first layers of skin are, anyway?

I would say I had learned my lesson at this time and Sherry had gone on her merry way. At the moment I write this, though, I am sitting on one of the beaches in Corpus Christi with Sherry. Aspen and Little Man are curled up in the shade. We did leave the accelerator at home though, and brought sunscreen with us. We haven’t exactly opened it yet, but I feel like the simple fact we brought it with us is an improvement.

By the time I get back to Idaho, maybe I will have that tan, but more than likely you will know me by the freckles that will dot my face instead.

Written in Corpus Christi, but as you all read this, Jinx is indeed back in Idaho, and living in my front yard. You can reach her at jinxbychoice08@yahoo.com.

Page 42 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

Charity begins at home

Are you giving the IRS

HELLO HOPE!

more than you should?

WHY?

We’ll keep an eye on your money, and help you keep it where it belongs. In your pocket.

Jim Hutchens, PA Certified Public Accountant 1211 Michigan, Sandpoint

208.265.2500 • 800.338.9835

Need reliable, high-speed Internet service? Call for a free site survey today! Intermax serves many areas of Bonner County from Dover to Hope.

208.762.8065 - Coeur d’Alene 208.265.3533 - Sandpoint www.IntermaxNetworks.com

SANDPOINT WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL JULY 11, 2009

Get ready for a tail wagging good time!

On the City Boardwalk & Sandpoint Marina and Downtown 7-11 AM Mountain Man Breakfast-Sandpoint Community Hall 9 AM Farmers Market Opens – Farmin Park & Town Square. National Guard Presentation of Colors-Sandpoint Community Hall. ACBS Skippers Meeting – Sandpoint Community Hall 9:30 AM Retiring of colors – Sandpoint Community Hall 10 AM 7th Annual Sandpoint Wooden Boat Show Opens • ‘The Ships Store’ aka “The Dog Pound” • Spokane Model Boat Club Exhibit & Demo • Kids Boat Building Program 11 AM Sandpoint’s ‘Summer Coats Canine Fashion Show’ (PAS models) – Cedar Street Bridge 11-3 PM Beer Garden – Sponsored by Laughing Dog Brewing – Sandpoint Marina • Barking Good BBQ-sponsored by Arlo’s

Ristorante – Sandpoint Marina 11:30 AM Parade of Dogs-(PAS) Cedar Street Bridge to Sandpoint Marina Noon-Park Place Summer Sounds: Selkirk Brass Quintet 12-12:15 PM Search Dog North Idaho Presentation-Sandpoint Marina 1–3 PM ‘Flock of Dogs Floater’ Children’s Chalk Art-US Bank across from Town Square 2 PM Spokane’s Model Boat Clubs Parade of ‘Model Boats’ – Sandpoint Marina 2:30–2:45 PM Search Dog North Idaho Presentation – Sandpoint Marina 3 PM Parade of Wooden Boats – (spectator favorite) Sand Creek 5 PM Close of Wooden Boat Show 7 PM FREE Classic Family Movie – The Shaggy Dog at the Panida’s ‘Little Theater’.

Doors open at 6:30 (seating is limited)

July 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.7| Page 43

From the Mouth of the River

“Does this hurt?” Doc. asked as he squeezed my shoulder. “Quit screaming and get down off that counter, you’re scaring the other patients! I take it you have hurt yourself again. When will you old farts ever learn you can’t lift heavy things without exercising first? Your muscles are like mush. I bet the heaviest thing you picked up all winter was a table fork. Now quit whining and get down here, I’ll get a nurse to come in and clean up that wet spot.”

“When did you hurt this shoulder?” he continued. “About a month ago,” I said.

“You did this a month ago and you just now came in to get it fixed?”

“Well I wanted to see if it would heal itself,” I said. “And I didn’t want to bother you with every little ache and pain I get, you’d think I was a wuss.”

“You are a wuss,” he said. “Now we need to x-ray that shoulder; you have any money?” he asked.

“Does your machine take quarters?”

“No. I mean, do you have insurance?”

“Oh yes, I have old farts’ insurance, plus a helper outer that costs more than I get out of it.”

“Well, take it down to Sally at the front desk and come back to the x-ray room and we will x-ray your shoulder. And be nice to Sally and don’t give her any lip, she’s a surrogate mother to a whole platoon of Marines. Or maybe she was a drill sergeant. I can’t remember. I don’t talk to her myself.”

A nurse came in with

a mop to clean up the wet spot. “What happened in here?” she asked. “Sounded like some little kid wet hisself.”

After dropping off my insurance cards for the nice lady who stared at me without blinking the whole time, I went back down the hall to a door that said x-ray. When the technician came in it was a young lady who told me they don’t use backless gowns here to x-ray shoulders and I should put my clothes back on.

After the doc got my x-rays and studied them for a while back in the darkroom I could hear him giggling and saying “caching, ca-ching, ca-ching.” Then he asked me to come in and have a look.

“See this shoulder bone, this round, ball-looking thing?” he pointed out. “See all these muscles down here by your elbow? They all need to be attached up here, to the ball. You need an operation.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’m not doing anything tomorrow or Thursday, what about one of those days?” He just looked at me and smiled. “Go ask Sally to put you on the list for a right shoulder operation, and be sure to tell her it’s the “right,” shoulder.”

Sally thumbed through her reservation book like she was looking for a lost recipe.

“Okay,” she said, “how about a month from Thursday at six am?” Without looking up she said, “I’ll put you down.”

“What?!” I said, “but I’m in pain now, have been for a month already.” She looked up without smiling. “That’s not my problem,” she said. “If you would have came in a month ago you would be up tomorrow. Here is a prescription for some pain pills the doctor wrote out for you, take as needed.”

When I got home I took two pain pills and sat down on the couch; at two o’clock in the morning I was still sitting on the couch and telling myself funny jokes. A week went by very fast; at least I think it did. After about ten days Lovie asked me when I had gone to the bathroom last. “You’re looking awful bloated,” she said.

I went back to the doctor’s office and this time Sergeant Sallie was smiling. “You look like you could use some suppositories,” she said as she handed me a package, “Do you want me to tell you where to stick these?” she asked with a grin.

Boots Reynolds

Finally, the operation went well and now I’m home. “Damn, these are good pain pills!” My advice to others in my situation is: drink lots of water and get plenty of fiber in your diet. Having my first meal at home became quite interesting. With my right arm tied down and pulled close to my chest it meant I would do everything left handed; I sat at the table staring at my left hand as though it was a complete stranger. I knew it was there, I had seen it hold a slice of bread on occasion, even a napkin, but to see it holding a fork made me a little nervous and wishing I had given it more attention while I was growing up.

“Are those pock marks on your face?”

Sally asked on my first visit for therapy, “or did your fork get away from you?” she snickered. “I bet your wife said it was easier to feed you like a baby than it would be to clean up after you, huh?”

“You think that’s funny,” I said, “you should have seen me try and wipe myself left-handed—it didn’t even know where my butt was. Now that got ugly.”

I will never ever take my left hand for granted again.

Boots

Touchstone Massage Therapies At Stepping Stones Wellness Center Oncology • Sports Medical • Energy Stress Relief Krystle Shapiro, LMT

803 Pine Sandpoint•208.290.6760

MANAGER'S SPECIAL FOR JULY

$26.99 Lube, Oil & Filter 2WD and 4WD. Includes inhouse filter and 5 qts oil

SHELL RAPID LUBE 404 Larch • Sandpoint 255-2251

Oil Change • Heating System Transmission • Tire changes Mechanic on Duty

Page 44 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 7 | July 2009

WATER FEATURES, NATURAL STONE & MORE! 1000 Kootenai Cut-Off Road Ponderay, Idaho 208.265.5178 www.idaho-stone.com

Over two acres of great ideas!

Open Tues-Fri 8:00 am-5:00 pm Saturday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

MINERALS & CRYSTALS Quartz, Amethyst, Citrine, Fluorite

NATIVE AMERICAN ART Navajo Rugs, Indian Baskets & More!

JEWELRY

Bracelets, Earrings, Necklaces, Pendants, Rings

GIFTS

Incense, Angels, Windchimes, Flags

MENTION THIS AD FOR 10% OFF YOUR PURCHASE!

226 North First Ave. Sandpoint, Idaho 208.255.2522 www.zeropointcrystals.com