The River Journal Nov. 2009

Because there’s more to life than bad news

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A News MAGAZINE Worth Wading Through

Inside:

Swine flu arrives Up, up in the sky Taylor-made for Veterans’ Day Prescription card scams & the World’s most mysterious book

It’s a miracle so Why do we cry?

November 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

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

690 ACRES - borders the Clark Fork River & National Forest with paved county road access. VIews are spectacular in all directions, you can see to Lake Pend Oreille & Schweitzer Mtn. Property is 1/3 productive pasture lands & about 2/3 forest land. Power & phone on site, plus a little year-round creek. Easy to subdivide. $3,500,000

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

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

undER GRound houSE on 130 ACRES bordered by two big creeks & timber company land!

IncludeS well, electric plus solar and generator backups, two good log cabins, shop & greenhouse. New interior road system & county road access. Awesome views. Priced as vacant land, only $599,000!

thiS GEoRGEouS 85 ACRE property features deeded waterfront, borders public lands, and has river & mountain views. Located about 9 miles down Lakeshore Dr. from Sandpoint on county roads. This exceptional land is nicely forested, with plenty of usable land.Three parcels sold together or separately. Asking $925,000

8 ACRES w/ 800’ of WAtERfRont, where the Pack River meets Lake Pend Oreille. 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. Bring all offers $995,000

LIST NEW

ING

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. $199,500

DU E RE PRIC

Georgeous 25 Acre Kootenai Riverfront Estate very nice 2007 home is 3930 sq’, hardwood & tile floors, Corian counter tops. Huge shop with full office, foyer-sitting area and full BaRm both house and shop have hydronic heat, wood fired or electric and backup generator system too! Awsome cedar barn, fully insulated, top of the line stalls, tack room and arena. Nice new cabin on the river. Extensive water system throughout property, entire property post and rail fenced, perfect walk out waterfront, views, too much to list, see website... $1,200,000

BEAutiful, old WoRld Monitor style Barn/ House, on 20 acres, just a few minutes to Sandpoint.

Property has lake views, pond, forest and meadows, with nice walking trails throughout and great views.

House is unfinished on inside, currently set up as shop & apt. Asking $399,000

DU E RE PRIC

niCE, WEll Built homE on 27 AC Located on a paved county road 10 min. north of Bonners Ferry. This 3 Bd/3Ba Super Good Cents Energy Home was built in 1996 to CA building codes & is quality throughout. Nice property, hike to public land & lakes, great views. Backup gen. elect. $324,900

Nice little, well built cabin on 5 acres with additional lake view bldg site. Sunny Side area, just a short walk to Lake Pend Oreille! Cabin has sleeping loft, kitchen, bathroom and laundry. Road to building pad w/ lake view, septic and well on site. Asking $185,000

DU E RE PRIC

20.6 ACRES IN THE KELSO LAKE AREA At the end of Sunset Road... sits about 7 ac of good, usable land with nice forest and great views, plus an additional 13ac area of subirrigated pasture / wetland/ shallow pond with farming or grazing potential.. Owner Financing $59,900

CED

CED

2008, niCE, nEW, WEll Built 3Bd/2Ba in Kootenai, ID 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 $224,500

CED

17 ACRES w/ SAnd CREEK fRontAGE beaver pond, nice forest,good- usable land, power & phone,and cabin. Less than 10 ml to Sandpoint, 1 mile off paved co. rd, 3 parcels sold together for $99,500

20 ACRE piCtuRESquE fARm & RAnCh,.

Quaint & beautiful horse property with good home, barn & shop. Pproductive pasture, nice views, county maintained road, Easy access into public lands, town or lake. Asking $399,500

GOOD 3 BEDROOM STARTER HOME. Just 7 blocks from downtown Sandpoint, big yard equals three lots, zoned for a triplex and excellent long term, stable renter for the investment minded. Asking $199,500

E PRIC

Very Nice 15ac property with one big pond, one little pond, beautiful views, good usable land with nice mature trees, forest and meadows. Well built,3 story, Alternative energy house, with passive solar design is about 90% “ dried in” and ready to finish your way.

Owner financing available, Asking $179,000

RE D U

CED

Beautiful lake view 21 Ac parcel, aprox ten miles to Sandpoint, Selle Valley, awesome views of Lake Pend Oreille, valley, selkirks and cabinet mountains, flat / benched & sloped land, road to building site roughed in, appraised Oct 2009 $175K Asking $170K

WHY LIST WITH MICHAEL? Consistently ranked top in sales. Your listing advertised in Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009 more magazines and websites. Member of Cd’A and Selkirk MLS, doubles your exposure.

November 2009 The faces of swine flu See stories

by Ralph Bartholdt and Trish Gannon beginning on page 4

Would you like to ride? See story by Rhoda Sanford 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 Call 208.255.6957 or email trish@riverjournal.com

Planning shortfalls in response to pandemic. See Trish Gannon’s story on page 7

Prescription drug scams. See story by Trish Gannon on page 9

Also...

STAFF Calm Center of Tranquility Trish Gannon-trish@riverjournal.com

Ministry of Truth and Propaganda Cartoonists

Departments Editorial

Cover

(Email only) to editorial@riverjournal.com

Jody Forest dgree666@sandpoint.net

The lord of the forest, new benefits for veterans, an energetic coalition, the real “wild” things and tips for those turkey leftovers.

12-15.....Outdoors 16.........Politics 18.........Education 20........Veterans’ News 22.........Food 24.........Faith 25.........Lite Lit 26-27.....Other Worlds 28.........Wellness 30-31.....Obituaries 32.........Staccato Notes 33-35.....Humor

PRESS RELEASES

10 Love Notes Taylor-made 17 Say What?

Thoughts on CR 19 The Hawk’s Nest Golden garden 21 Politically Incorrect Why we cry 23 Currents Dam power 25 The Scenic Route Throwing away 36 From the Mouth of the River Friends who fish

Dustin Gannon, Lauren McGinnis and new arrival Keira Elizabeth Gannon. Birth is a joyful time; so why do we cry? See Politically Incorrect on page 21.

Scott Clawson, Matt Davidson, Kriss Perras

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; and Pat Williams

“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.

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That First Airplane Ride An indulgent uncle and a love of adventure gave Lucille Cravens wings back when people weren’t supposed to fly

by Rhoda Sanford Mother is looking through a stack of old Smithsonian magazines I have. She’s found one that features vintage airplanes, and among the photos is a picture of The Spirit of Saint Louis.

“I went up in the first airplane,” she tells me. “Do you remember that?”

Mom will be 92 years old in October.

She scoots along slowly with the help of a walker; she does everything slowly. I wonder if we purposefully go at a gentler pace as time starts to race by.

She shows me the photograph of Lindberg’s plane. “I went up in the first airplane,” she says again.

My husband says, “Not in that airplane, you didn’t. They only made one Spirit of St. Louis.”

“I know that!” she continues, “The plane I flew in had two wings, one on top of the other, and an open cockpit—my hair blew all around.”

The event took place in a farmer’s field in Oregon, and Uncle Pete took Mom and Auntie Vi, motoring in his open yellow sports car. They saw the

airplane, and the pilot, who was young and dashing and brave. What were these brash young pilots called in those days?

Darned Fools? Brave Heroes? Young Idiots? People weren’t supposed to fly, for if God meant for us to fly, he’d have given us wings!

“A PENNY A POUND,” the sign read.

Rides on the biplane were a penny a pound. Little kids circled the plane, but no adults.

“You want a ride?” Uncle Pete asked Mom and Auntie Vi. “No,” Violet demurred. She wouldn’t fly; after all she was three years older than Mom, and had a great deal more sense.

“Oh, yes, please.” Mom was jumping up and down, grabbing Uncle Pete’s hand, rushing him toward the pilot. “Yes, I want to fly.”

The pilot helped her climb onto the wing and into the back seat, then he climbed into the front. The prop was turned, and they were off the ground.

Mom grabbed her long dark hair, holding

it off her face and the engine roared and the wind whistled, and she was flying.

“As soon as we got started, you couldn’t hear anything. It wasn’t a long ride, we just went up a little ways, over the trees and buildings. It was strange and funny looking down on the tree tops and roofs. We circled once and came back down.”

I asked if she waved to the people looking up at her flying.

“No people were there,” she tells me. “Just kids. People didn’t believe in flying... we’re not supposed to fly.” She looks at me. “They were afraid.”

Most of the gawking kids didn’t have indulgent uncles, so they watched Mom fly and imagined what it was like to be up in the sky with the birds.

But Mom had Uncle Pete, and she flew way back when airplanes were new, and just the daring ventured into the sky.

“I flew in the first airplane,” she says.

I smile. She was a kid, she dreamed and she believed.

Question: What is the biggest threat to Lake Pend Oreille?

Answer: Perpetual pollution from the Rock Creek mine.

Protecting Lake Pend Oreille since 1996 November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page

Swine Flu in North Idaho

Most people who contract the new H1N1 virus will have a relatively mild illness. Some won’t. These three examples tell you what to watch for.

No More Pokes Brock Lesner is a bad mutha.

The heavyweight Ultimate Fighting Champion is so tough that he eats raw iron and makes, well, steel chain. Or, so it would seem.

Last month, though, a small bundle of protein that’s not even visible under a light microscope did to Mr. Lesner, a 6’3”, 265pound former NCAA wrestling champion, what many UFC bad boys couldn’t.

The virus, known as H1N1 or swine flu, knocked Lesner off his game, and then it put him on his butt.

After battling swine flu for three weeks the behemoth man from Minneapolis opted

out of a championship fight this month.

The fight’s cancelation might be a tragedy to hard core UFC fans but it doesn’t blip the radar screen of the millions who, like Lesner, contracted the swine flu virus, resulting, in some cases, in real life-altering, or life-ending tragedies.

In a way, it shows that no one is immune to the disease, not even the ultimately fit.

My 4-year-old son and I watched Lesner

by Ralph Bartholdt

defeat UFC legend Randy Couture in an early October rerun. My little boy hooked his legs under the covers on the couch, eyes glued to the television, his little boy hands pulling the blankets up to his chin as he wheezed quietly and coughed on occasion, complaining of chest pains. But this was just a cold, a bacterial infection and if it didn’t get better, he would see the doctor again in a couple of days.

According to reports more than 1,000 deaths in the U.S. were attributed to H1N1 by fall. The virus struck nationwide and residents of North Idaho and eastern Washington, part of the Center For Disease Control and Prevention’s Region 10, weren’t spared, and it is not over.

Washington and Idaho were named among 48 states with widespread cases and so far, the toll has been great.

Four deaths in the Spokane area were confirmed swine flu cases, and across the state line in Post Falls, a 50-year-old man is confirmed to have died from it. H1N1 was suspected in the death of an otherwise healthy 39-year-old football coach, but tests have come back negative. Bonner County has also seen its first death in a young adult who was suffering from swine flu. (See “Loss of a Local”) When Lesner trounced into the ring he impressed the cameras with his size. They had to pull away to get full frame. Randy Couture, ever the glutton, with the calm of an old man much smaller than Lesner, didn’t pull away. He was dropped in the second round after methodically socking it to the big man and my little boy coughed

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and said his throat hurt. He had been throwing up too, and lay under the covers with the shivers.

Physicians had prescribed antibiotics because he definitely had a bacterial infection, they said.

As hospitalizations jumped last month, in some cases swamping emergency rooms and filling hospital beds with sick children and adults, vaccinations could not keep up with the demand, in part because of a shortfall in the supply.

The 120 million doses of the vaccine that were supposed to be distributed by mid-October, according to the federal government, didn’t arrive. Instead, about 13 million doses were shipped by the deadline according to the Centers for Disease Control, and manufacturers ramped up production.

The available vaccines were free and set aside to inoculate thousands in the area, including 3,600 in North Idaho, where schools, medical personnel and Panhandle Health District clinics were put on the short list.

My boy was out of preschool for a week, and then, just as it seemed he was healing up, as if he had done to this nasty old cough what Lesner had done to Couture— choked it out of his system—he was back in bed whimpering about his throat and his fever spiked. The cough came back and the color faded from a sorrowful face that was usually wrapped in a grin lifting his ears and raising the cowboy haircut of his forehead. His asthma aggravated his cold, or vice-versa the doctors said.

When the swine flu struck the region, the medical community made a roster of people who were likely more susceptible, or at a higher risk of contracting H1N1. Pregnant women were included; so were people who live with or care for small children, school-age kids, people with chronic health problems and health care workers. Children with asthma were listed too.

In most cases, the flu can be handled by staying at home, but people were told the signs of heightened infection included difficulty breathing sometimes accompanied by pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, dizziness, persistent vomiting and then an easing of flu symptoms followed by the return with vengeance of a fever and a cough.

Emergency warning signs for children included rapid breathing and skin discolored to a bluish or gray hue.

I got a text message that they were going to keep him at the hospital. Then

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

another that said they were awaiting test results. The last one said that my 4-yearold was alone on a medical helicopter wheeling through the early fall dark and rain to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. Can you meet him there? I got in the car and buzzed down Highway 41 through rain splatter, pressing the red tail lights in front of me.

So many children were absent from schools in North Idaho this fall because of flu-related illness that it skewed school enrollment figures. School districts use the fall enrollment numbers as a base to acquire school funding from the state.

But, because absenteeism in many schools nudged towards 30 percent, some districts asked the state education department for waivers, or otherwise to consider the affects of swine flu on their attendance rates when the state writes out its checks.

The Idaho Department of Education braced itself for a pile of swine flu-related waivers, said spokesperson Melissa McGrath.

“We understand that this is a strange year and H1N1 has hit. We’ve encouraged students to go home and staff to go home if they’re feeling ill. So we’re doing all that we can at the state level to ensure they still get their funding,” McGrath said.

The health district last month also suggested schools consider shutting down

for a week if they experience “sustained absenteeism greater than 25 percent for three days.”

The nurse said, put this on. And this.

Rubber gloves, smock and mask. Don’t forget to disinfect.

What followed were nights of sleeping on hard chairs or slumped on the floor in the darkened room where IVs buzzed and other aliens too, dressed in the same attire, stopped in at all hours for x-rays as my son winced in his sleep. They suited up to check the oxygen level, listen to his wheezing chest, monitor the red and green lights, the blips and beeps or just to say hello.

They opened and closed the door, shuffled about. He cried.

When they were through they tossed the smocks, face masks and gloves into a bin and said we’ll be back in a few.

“If you need anything… anything at all…”

Just sleep, thanks.

He was all giggles, before, and grins.

Sing me a song, he said. He was all about the bus ride from preschool where he attends with his pals, the blushes when asked about little girls in dresses and the principal who he tries not to call by her first name. He was 4-wheelers and apple trees and naming the different kinds of deer.

An elk’s a deer, he said, and a moose

Break Bone Fever You or your child begins to cough and sneeze. Is the flu? Is it swine flu? Do you go to the doctor? How do you know? Is swine flu just the flu, or should I be worried?

Despite a billion or more Google queries, the answer to most of those questions is: we really don’t know yet. What we do know is that, despite all our preparations for pandemic flu, it looks like we really weren’t prepared for pandemic flu at all.

Following is one person’s account of infection with (probable) swine flu—my

own. At the end, you can read what public health officials are telling us about symptoms, risks and when to see a doctor.

But before you start, just a little more information.

Swine flu—what’s now referred to in

by Trish Gannon

the scientific data as A/California/H1N1— is the predominant flu strain circulating throughout the United States at this time.

Rapid flu tests are expensive and not always (or even mostly) accurate; therefore, little testing for swine flu is being undertaken.

You are told to assume that if you have flu symptoms, you have swine flu. The only time you should assume differently is when a flu vaccine becomes available. At that time, you’re asked to assume that no matter how sick you were, you are still not immune to swine flu and you should get vaccinated if you want immunity.

If I’d had to guess what was wrong with me, and if I didn’t know that swine flu was circulating in the area, I would have speculated I was suffering from dengue fever.

Why dengue? Simply because of its common name—break bone fever.

I didn’t feel like my bones were broken; it was worse than that.

I felt like my bones, particularly my joints, were trying to break themselves into millions of tiny parts.

I would also say I suffered a “rapid onset” of symptoms, but what, really, is rapid? After all, one minute you’re not sick and the next minute you are and can it get

too!

He is one of those statistics on the news.

The local health district called asking questions about the little guy’s bout with the flu.

H1N1 they said.

In the big hospital bed it was mostly “no more pokes!” Exhaustion, and a few shed tears. When they finally let him out he chirped. The light jumped back into his dark eyes and his mouth turned up.

He’s better now. But the bout drew him scrawny, with eyes looking out from shadowed orbits and there’s room between his belly and his belt.

The grin is back. The grin and the glint.

He made it through and knows it.

Lookit my card, he says. A handcrafted get-well-soon from the preschool class.

I’m not tough, he said. When will it snow?

He doesn’t like the cold.

He doesn’t like to shiver and shake and sweat and have his skin crawling. He didn’t like the stomachaches and the cough that razored his throat, so every bout had it raw and hurting.

I’m not tough, he said. No. Not like Lesner.

He’s one of the statistics, but the news is good. He made it through. any more (or any less) rapid than that?

Still, by my third cup of coffee, sometime around 7:30 or so in the morning, I found myself wondering if I were getting sick.

There was that tingly, somewhere-in-theback-of-your-head feeling that warned either “something wicked this way comes,” or that the coffee was not going to sit well with me.

By 9:30 am, delivering the October issue of the River Journal at North Idaho College, I no longer wondered if I were getting sick. I only wondered if I were going to be able to make it home to Clark Fork.

But those magazines needed to be delivered, so my trip back to Clark Fork was punctuated by stops at over two dozen racks where I would pause to soak my hands in anti-bacterial hand wash, load up the rack, then force myself back into the Geo for the next leg of the trip.

When I got home around noon, too tired to contemplate building a fire, I cranked the electric heat to 75, wrapped myself tightly in my jacket, and crawled under the down blanket on my bed. Except for necessary bathroom trips (which, I gotta say, seemed less and less ‘necessary’ as the hours went on), there I stayed until close to midnight, when I staggered out to the couch, still wrapped in coat and blanket, hoping to find a position where my bones might hurt less.

For the next four days, the only time I took the jacket off was when I took my Continued on next page

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

Bonebreak- Cont’d from page daily hot bath in a desperate attempt to get warm.

On day two, the aching eased somewhat and the sneezing began; powerful sneezes that, uncovered, would send virus shooting four or five miles away I’m sure. And the exhaustion kicked in. Walking to the kitchen to eat was so enervating it took an hour nap to recover. Most of my time, in fact, was spent asleep and while asleep I would have enormously vivid, yet extraordinarily banal dreams. Despite their mild content, I would often awake from them with a start, heart beating rapidly, as if Jason himself were coming up through the middle of the couch.

On day three, hell took up residence in the interior of my body. I didn’t feel like I had fever, but everything inside me was coming out hot—Kleenex were unpleasantly warm to the touch after use. My eyes burned so badly that tears dripped down my cheeks most of the day and my eyelids turned bright red, a fashion touch I can’t ever imagine becoming much of a fad.

On day four I had two good hours where I could work and be active before needing a nap, and my energy slowly returned each and every day thereafter. Slowly is the operative word there... as I write this, day 26 from onset of symptoms, I am still not back to where I was at the start. My

symptoms have faded to an intermittent cough, that persistent lack of energy, and a likely ear infection given the shooting pains that sometimes go through my eardrum.

Public Health advice said I could go out and about 24 hours after the fever went away. Nonetheless, I went several weeks without seeing my newborn granddaughter, Some studies have shown that H1N1 can be contagious for a longer period of time than the seasonal flu, and that an infected person might be shedding live virus as long as they have symptoms. With a newborn, it’s not worth taking a chance.

So what are the symptoms of swine flu?

Honestly, it seems to present as many faces as there are people who get it. In a CDC study of those hospitalized from swine flu, however, 95 percent had fever; 88 percent had a cough. And it usually hits fast.

Flu is, at least initially, an upper respiratory infection with the concomitant runny nose, sneezing and coughing that goes along with such things. Some who get the swine flu experience some gastrointestinal symptoms as well, like diarrhea and vomiting. Body aches go hand-in-hand with fever, as do the chills; when a virus invades your body, cytokines rush to your bones to tell the marrow to produce more white blood cells for fighting the infection, making the bone ache. Chills are the result of rapid muscle contraction

Loss of a Local Jody Matz was your typical fun-loving 30-year-old young lady when she developed body aches and a bad headache on Saturday, October 17. She went to Bonner General Hospital Immediate Care and was put on intensive ibuprofen. On Tuesday, with fever, congestion and ear aches, she returned

and was diagnosed as having contracted influenza A, the predominant strain of which is the H1N1 referred to as swine flu.

She began taking a pain reliever, Tamiflu and an antibiotic.

On Thursday Jody’s parents, concerned

that she wasn’t answering the phone, entered her apartment and found her mostly non-responsive.

They called for an ambulance, and Jody was heart-flighted to Holy Family Hospital, where she died on Friday afternoon, with a massive pneumatic infection of the lungs.

“Jody has gone to join Granddad in heaven,” wrote her heartbroken mother. “They are playing, riding horses, laughing and waiting for all of us to come.”

Although it’s early in the course of this pandemic, there are certain things we think we know about swine flu: one of them is that for young adults, it can be a deadly infection. Forty-one percent of the deaths that have occurred have been in young adults in Jody’s age group—24 to 49. Jody did not have any of the known risk factors that should have made swine flu deadly, but her mother believes that being a smoker didn’t help.

At this writing, Jody’s death is not, and will not be, officially attributed to swine flu. Because she died at a hospital that does not test for H1N1, and because that testing is only a recommendation, not a requirement, in Washington state, Jody will be among the uncounted numbers who die in this pandemic.

In a normal year, it’s incredibly rare for

and relaxation, and occur as your body attempts to generate heat—to create the fever needed to fight infection.

Sore throat can also be a flu symptom, in many cases due to the virus yuck that’s draining from your sinuses down your throat. Strep throat, however, is also a possibility, and some studies are showing that swine flu can make people more susceptible to the strep viruses that may already live within their bodies.

Chest pain can occur due to fluid buildup in your lungs and can indicate a serious complication.

The CDC recommends that anyone with the following symptoms call a health care professional immediately: pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, any trouble breathing, fever that’s accompanied by a rash, sudden dizziness or confusion, severe or persistent vomiting.

For children, contact a physician if they begin breathing fast or have any trouble breathing, if skin color looks bluish or gray, if they’re not drinking enough fluid, if they have difficulty waking up or interacting, are so irritable they don’t want to be held or touched, have any type of seizure or any sudden mental or behavioral change.

In addition, consult a doctor for any adult or child whose flu symptoms seem to improve, then return, especially with fever and/or a worse cough. a person Jody’s age to die from flu; it is primarily a serious infection for the very old and the very young. Yet the H1N1 swine flu going around now has been most deadly for those in the prime of life: 41 percent of deaths occur in young adults aged 24 to 49 and, just a few weeks after the second wave of swine flu began passing through the U.S., we’ve seen 114 deaths in kids under the age of 18. By contrast, in the last flu season as a whole there were just 65 pediatric deaths from the flu.

Jody is a reminder to all of us to take this year’s flu season seriously, as it can have deadly consequences for a precious part of our population: our children. There are certain pre-existing conditions that make children and young adults more likely to experience complications from swine flu but disturbingly, 30 percent of deaths occur in those with no identified pre-existing conditions at all. If your child develops flu symptoms, monitor them closely; a frightening number of deaths have been marked by rapid deterioration. Keep them well hydrated, and watch for any problems in breathing, changes in skin tone, rash with fever or inability to respond. And be sure to contact a medical professional with any questions you might have regarding diagnosis or treatment.

Read Jody’s obituary on page 30

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

Early Flu Season Highlights Planning Shortfalls

by Trish Gannon

Judging by my email inbox, swine flu (aka H1N1(A) or A/California/H1N1) has people fairly confused. I get notices that swine flu is just media hype, designed to encourage profits for drug companies. Then the same people send emails warning that you can’t get the swine flu vaccine because the government wants to kill you off. First the Obama girls aren’t getting the vaccine (so you shouldn’t, either), then they got it and that’s not fair, because there’s others who can’t.

Seems like Public Health just can’t win for losing, and that’s not just on the Internet.

Despite 90-plus years of preparing for the next big influenza pandemic, our current national bout of swine flu demonstrates that we’re not as prepared as we thought we were.

On the plus side, Public Health and the government can point to several things they did right. They recognized the threat in this new form of H1N1 flu; they promptly ordered vaccinations to be prepared; they issued anti-viral medications and masks to health districts nation-wide; they established websites and hotlines to provide accurate information; they encouraged hospitals, schools and other entities to develop preparedness plans.

But as swine flu makes its premiere early throughout the U.S., it is, unsurprisingly, the shortfalls in pandemic preparedness that stand out.

Vaccine shortages

Vaccine shortage is only the first. Delays in the time it takes to create and package the vaccine have left many areas coping with limited vaccine distribution at a time when flu is already widespread. And while it’s hard to see how things could have been done differently, the harsh truth is there just won’t be enough vaccine to protect everyone. The U.S. ordered 195 million doses for its population of 304 million; elsewhere, it’s estimated there will only be enough vaccine to protect approximately half of the world population. The latest numbers suggest the U.S. may only get 150 million doses before this flu season comes to an end. Yet there are approximately 159 million people just in the “high risk” groups identified by the CDC as priority recipients for a vaccine. Nonetheless, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius continues to assure that, eventually, there will be enough vaccine for everyone.

The culprit in this is a vaccine program

that relies on growing virus in eggs for production—a time consuming process.

But because there is little profit in flu vaccines (despite the hype that swine flu is a “plot” to make money for pharmaceutical companies), there has also been little interest in developing a new, and faster, method of growing the virus needed.

An added glitch to the system was that much of the first vaccine available was the FluMist form, a nasal spray that uses live, attenuated virus and is not recommended for use in people with a hypersensitivity to egg proteins, those with a history of Guillain-barre syndrome after vaccination, anyone with asthma or under the age of 24 months, people with a compromised immune system, or anyone who might be considered high risk for complications from influenza infection. In addition, federal science officials in the U.S. say pregnant women should stay away from the nasal spray, though experts at the World Health Organization say it’s safe for pregnant women to use.

In practice, many who thought they would be vaccinated in the first run found out they would not be, either due to the contraindications or due to concerns with the nasal form of vaccination. That left, for example, almost 2,000 vaccine doses in Spokane begging for a nose to infiltrate on the first day of vaccination.

That same problem also plagued area elementary schools, causing additional delays in vaccination for those needing or wanting the shot.

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Medical response

With the vaccine lagging behind the outbreak, the pressure on medical centers to respond to ill patients is also highlighting some strains in the system. Just in this area, intensive care units in all area hospitals are almost full: Kootenai Medical Center, Sacred Heart, Deaconess and Holy Family have critical care units operating at peak capacity. These are the hospitals where critically ill patients are sent from our area, as they have more specialty resources available to desperately ill patients.

Luckily, hospitals have been planning for months on how to handle a surge in pandemic flu cases; other medical offices seem to be less prepared for what to do when flu is moving through a community.

A large pediatric practice in Coeur d’Alene, for example, has made no preparations to protect infants under the age of six months or, indeed, any other Continued on next page

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Unprepared- Cont’d from page children coming to the office for “wellbaby” checkups from a waiting room full of potentially flu-infected children. This situation can be seen at medical offices throughout the region.

And while many hospitals across the nation are limiting visits from children, among whom the virus is spreading rapidly, not all do, though truthfully, there’s been little to show that a ban on visitors will even work.

In these cases, it’s up to the individual to be informed and proactive regarding their own health. If you’re scheduled for a nonemergency visit to the doctor, especially if you are pregnant, have an infant, are in a high-risk group or your immune system is otherwise compromised (for example, chemotherapy patients), and that doctor does not have well-patient waiting rooms, tell the office you’ll wait in your car until the doctor can see you.

If you’re in a hospital and meet any of those risk criteria, don’t hesitate to inform medical personnel if you believe you’re being exposed to someone who’s ill.

H1N1 testing

Testing is also an area where the resources of Public Health are lagging behind the need. Studies of two “rapid tests” for swine flu showed that one could only detect about 10 percent of actual swine flu infections, while the other could detect only 40 percent. This is part of the reason why, back in July, WHO and the CDC quit requiring testing for suspected cases of swine flu and instead recommended a diagnosis based on symptoms. The best test for determining the presence for swine flu at this time is real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rtRT-PCR); it is not, however, a “rapid” test that can be performed in your local doctor’s office.

This identification shortfall will further complicate responses to an epidemic now that seasonal flu is also making an appearance. There is no way to tell by symptoms which flu a person might be infected with; and with the risks inherent to swine flu, smart policy will require that all flu cases be treated as if swine flu were the diagnosis. This will undoubtedly create concern in those infected but more

importantly, may drive their response when vaccinations become more widely available; many may believe they don’t need a vaccination because they were already sick, a decision that potentially could cause some to become infected who might otherwise have een protected.

Staying home

As might be expected, economic concerns can get in the way of individual health. Current recommendations say that those who contract swine flu can return to work 24 hours after fever subsides naturally. The science, however, is showing that people can be infectious for a much longer period of time—potentially, for as long as they have symptoms. Isolating yourself for that long a period, however, can have serious repercussions on both the national economy and your family’s personal finances.

Yet even staying home until 24 hours after fever breaks naturally can be difficult for those living in a stressed economy where every penny counts. Some businesses are being pro-active about this: Bonner General Hospital, for example, is not only encouraging workers to stay home if they’re ill, they’re modifying their policies regarding sick days to make it possible for those workers to do just that.

Many businesses, however, can’t afford to provide paid sick days at all, much less afford to increase those to accommodate swine flu. And many employees simply cannot afford to miss work.

This situation is even more complicated for parents of school-age children, who must not only come up with a plan to deal with their own potential illness, but for that of their children as well. The schools don’t want your child if he’s sick, and neither do the day cares. So who’s going to stay home to watch him when he’s ill?

More serious is the recommendation that those with symptoms stay home and not head immediately to their doctor or emergency room; it is not recommended that you seek medical attention unless symptoms are serious. Yet if symptoms are mild at first, growing serious later, that recommendation may have drastic consequences on your individual health, as the benefits of antiviral drugs in fighting serious symptoms are decreased if that drug regime is undertaken more than 48 hours after symptom onset. In some of the

studies undertaken of those who have died from H1N1 infection, anti-viral medication was not started within 48 hours (or not taken at all) in every patient who died.

Vaccine responses

Another question to be answered by scientists in the future is the efficacy of providing FluMist® vaccines to school age children. Because they were more readily available, much of the earlier vaccination was undertaken with the nasal mist form which contains live, but attenuated, viruses.

All studies to date have shown this is a safe way to vaccinate, and that the attenuated viruses have little ability to cause infection in others beyond the person vaccinated. In addition, in the 0.6 percent to 2.4 percent chance that the virus does spread, it appears to be so weak as to be crippled in its ability to make a person sick.

Yet never before have we attempted to vaccinate entire schools full of students against influenza; what risks might not appear in a small-scale study might seem more obvious in retrospect from a nationwide undertaking. Though the risk of vaccination is vastly smaller to an individual than the risk from the flu itself, Public Health might have to deal with the repercussions of a widespread vaccination program that’s little understood by the public at large.

Public response

Most of these shortfalls could have been avoided with proper funding of a Public Health system that would provide better educational outreach to the public, support for the science necessary to understand and respond to various strains of flu, funding for better methods of vaccine production and testing, and financial support to ensure that people are able to respond in a way that not only protects their own health, but the health of their community at large. Just the cost of Tamiflu alone is $60 to $80 for those who need it—a stiff price to meet for families struggling in the current economic times.

Pandemic illness is not a plus, and every person lost to death from this virus diminishes us all. But the debut this year of A/California/H1N1 can be to our benefit in the long run if it helps us to better understand the role that Public Health plays in our lives, and increases our willingness to support it when pandemic doesn’t threaten.

Additional resources are available at:

www.Flu.gov

The official government website regarding influenza and pandemic H1N1(A)

1-877-415-5225

Toll free hotline for Panhandle Health, designed to answer your questions about swine flu.

www.RiverJournal.com/ swineflu

Finding the answers to your questions about (A)/California/H1N1

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

Beware the Lure of Cheap Drugs

by Trish Gannon

Do you take Crestor ($115) or Lipitor ($75) to lower your cholesterol? How about Plavix ($176) for your heart or Synthroid ($46) for your thyroid? Do you take Zoloft ($82) to counter your depression over how much your medications cost? (Prices averaged from Internet sources) As if paying for your prescriptions weren’t bad enough, now you need to keep up with an ever-growing amount of prescription drug card scams targeting you for their business.

That’s the warning Shannon McGlashan, office manager of White Cross Pharmacy in Sandpoint, would like to get out after one of her customers brought in a prescription drug card they had received in the mail.

“Generally, we’ve found the price the card issuer tells us to charge the customer often offers little or no savings. compared to walking off the street,” Shannon explained.

These cards are generally offered to someone whose name was obtained from a mailing list, and the recipient is told they’ve been offered the card because they’re a “preferred customer” of the institution who sold their name—many times, it’s their own bank, whose name

seems to lend the prescription card some legitimacy. a significant monthly or annual “membership fee,” don’t always offer the financial benefit advertised.

That’s where your local pharmacist can come in handy. “Before someone signs up for one of these cards, they should check with their pharmacist to see if it offers them any financial benefit,” Shannon said. And oftentimes, a frank discussion about the cost of medications with your pharmacist can offer financial benefits you might not have been aware of.

“We’ve always been concerned (about drug prices),” said Shannon. “We see that customers with good prescription insurance coverage get decent prices, but

the uninsured pay the equivalent of the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. So we decided to change it.”

What she’s referring to is a discount program instituted at White Cross to help people cover the costs of their medications.

Many pharmacies are doing the same.

“We formulated our discount program to offer the best possible price to all our uninsured customers.”

The program, she said, favors generic medications, but each customer should ask for an evaluation of whatever medications they’re taking. “We can’t always offer the lowest price on every single medication,” said Shannon, “but what we’ve seen is that we can offer a dramatically lower price on some, resulting in an overall savings for our customers.

It’s definitely worth shopping around,” she said, “when it comes to buying your medicines.”

Her final advice to those tempted by a seemingly promising prescription benefit?

“Don’t pay to get a discount,” she said.

“Find out first if you can get one without a charge.”

Or like your mama always told you: buyer beware.

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Gala Event • December 5

5:30 p.m. in the Sandpoint Events Center. Catered dinner by Ivano’s, plus a live and silent auction. Tickets to the event are $70 per person, or sponsor a table for 8 people for $1,500. www.KinderhavenSandpoint.com or contact Jacinda Bokowy at 208-610-2208 or jbokowy@ma.com November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page

Love Notes

Taylor-Made for Veterans’ Day Marianne Love

slightdetour.blogspot.com

billmar@dishmail.net

This month, I’m happy to share a story, Taylor-made for when we honor Veterans’ Day and celebrate Thanksgiving.

Why “Taylor-made?”

Well, this story involves the Taylor family of Selle, who live across the road from me.

My husband Bill and I have known them for several years through scouting, school, church and neighborhood activities. We’ve witnessed their dedicated, passionate involvement and their never-ending work ethic. I believe this entire family’s continued

Brian Taylor

At the Taylor home, kids were expected to do their best in school. If not, there was plenty of shoveling time at home to think about it. They also learned that dinner time was sacred.

“We waited until their daddy came home, and then dinner was served,” Mary explains. “Then, we’d eat. There was no excuse (except maybe sports) not to be there. We had a family meal and spent the time talking about the day. When they got up from the table, they would say, ‘Excuse me,’ and they would thank their mom for the dinner.”

This past summer Jim and Mary spent a week on the John C. Stennis CVN74, one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarriers.

Michael Taylor

contributions to community, to this nation and to people, in general, give us many reasons to be thankful.

Married 36 years and hard-working farmers, Jim and Mary Taylor have five children, including four boys and one girl.

A daughter, Katie Jean, died at age 3. Jim and Mary, both natives of the Silver Valley, first met when Jim was home on leave from the Army and Mary was attending Eastern Washington University (then a state college).

Jim is now retired from Trans Canada Gas Co., where he finished his career in the company’s Northern Area as a supervisor in charge of operation, maintenance and shipping gas to California. Mary has lived a lifetime of volunteering, and it seems as if she’s ubiquitous. One time I went to the annual forestry contest, and there were three Taylors, flipping hamburgers for the hundreds of participants.

Peter Taylor

The couple sailed from Everett, Wash., to San Diego with their son, Chief Petty Officer Michael Taylor, currently stationed in Bremerton on the Stennis.

The “tiger cruise” came after Michael’s most recent six-month tour of duty at sea.

Mary even steered the huge vessel, and the trio enjoyed a spectacular Fourth of July in San Diego Harbor, watching fireworks extravaganzas put on by several San Diegoarea communities.

“We were able to stand on the flight deck in the “crow’s nest” where the captain watches operations as jets took off and landed,” Mary recalled, while recently telling me about her experiences as a Navy mom. “How many parents get to do that?”

Jim and Mary have also spent time in Guam, hiking and snorkeling. That was when they pinned Michael’s anchors on his collar after he’d reached his rank of chief.

On other occasions, they’ve visited

Washington, D.C., when their oldest son, Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Peter Taylor, was stationed there. He serves as a SEAL team support medic out of Little Creek, Va. Mary visited New England when their third son, Electronic Technician 2nd Class Brian Taylor, was stationed in Portsmouth, NH. So far, they haven’t taken any trips associated with their son Terry’s Navy involvement. That is sure to come, however.

Terry graduated last month with academic honors from Basic Training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station near Chicago. He’s now stationed in Groton, Conn.

Besides traveling opportunities, Jim

Terry Taylor and Mary are justifiably proud that their four sons serve in the United States Navy.

They’re equally proud that each young man earned his Eagle Scout while growing up in Sandpoint.

And, they’re delighted that their daughter Elizabeth will provide her own brand of service to others as an educator, specializing in American Sign Language interpreting for the deaf. She’s already put in four years of signing with the Blackfoot School District and is currently completing her four-year degree through the University of Idaho.

Now for a little rundown on the Taylor kids: Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Petty Officer Peter Taylor (33) has served in Iraq three times since enlisting ten years ago.

He’s currently deployed. He and his wife Jen (served six years in the Navy) have Continued on next page

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three small boys, Ethan, Evan and Eli. As a member of Kiwanis Boy Scout Troop 111, Peter earned his Eagle badge by completing a bench and its concrete work in front of the Bonner County Courthouse.

As a high school student, he served as an SHS Bulldog soccer manager.

Chief Petty Officer for Radar and Navigation Michael Taylor (32) was the first of the Taylor brothers to join the Navy in 1996. To earn his Eagle Scout badge in Troop 111, he built a handicap ramp at the Hunter Safety Building near Pine Street Park. He also converted the bathrooms for handicap accessibility. Michael served as soccer manager and played lineman for two years on the Bulldog football team.

Electronic Technician 2nd Class Brian Taylor (25) is also stationed at Bremerton, Wash., aboard the USS Seawolf SSN-21 submarine. He’s in charge of submarine navigation and upkeep. Brian met his wife Melanie in Portsmouth, NH, where she served in the air guard. The couple are parents to a 5-month-old son, Theodore.

Construction of six benches at Northside School (where all Taylor children attended) earned Brian his Eagle as a member of St. Joseph’s Troop 308. As a high school student Brian participated in football and wrestling, taking fourth place at State as a heavyweight his senior year.

Seaman Terry Taylor (18), after graduating with academic honors in a class of 815 recruits, is currently attending basic submarine school in Groton, Conn.

Upon completion, he’ll attend electronic technician “A” school to navigate submarines. Terry’s Eagle Scout project for St. Joseph’s Troop 308 involved erecting signs at the Water Life Discovery Center on Lakeshore Drive. He participated in golf and wrestling for four years at SHS and competed at State twice as a 215-pound and heavyweight grappler.

Terry also distinguished himself as a chess player, taking second place at last year’s first SHS All-School chess tournament and excelling in speed chess.

Elizabeth Taylor (27) will finish her U of I degree in the next year or so. As a high school student, she was active in band, playing the clarinet and bass clarinet.

I had a chance to visit briefly with and glean some information from Michael Taylor, who was home recently on leave.

I have fond memories of Michael as an enthusiastic student in my graphic arts class at SHS. He joined the Navy because of its advanced computer offerings, and its college fund. He has recently applied for its officer program.

Michael has lived the time-honored slogan “Join the Navy and See the World,” with opportunities to ski in Chile and go white-water rafting in Turkey. He’s visited Rome and Spain and has been deployed several times. One six-month tour took him to the Horn of Africa.

A typical day on the job for Michael involves supervision of 19 Electronics Technicians in preventive and corrective maintenance for all air and surface search radars, aircraft landing systems and navigation. Before retiring in 7 to 12 years, he hopes to complete his college degree, be selected for the officer program and have a family.

For now, he appreciates the support of his own family, his scouting background and a little friendly sibling rivalry.

“My parents helped a lot in teaching me to stand up for what I believe, and to do the right thing. I remember how proud their were when they came to Guam to pin on my chief anchors,” he says. “In Scouts, I learned how to follow and, later, how to lead people.

“My siblings continue to influence me by making sure that I continue to outrank them,” he adds. “I want to make sure they do not pass me in rank.”

At this point, Jim and Mary are content to leave the competition to the kids and to support them in whatever career decisions they make.

“We are proud parents,” Mary says.

As the neighbor who lives across the road from the Taylor’s, I believe Jim and Mary have every right to be proud. Families like the Taylors keep this nation on track through both military and public service.

For that, we can all be grateful.

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Land Management Riparian Areas Michael White

NorthIdahoLandMan.com

michael@keokee.com

Land Management, well now. That encompasses a lot of territory, so to speak (pun intended), but the resident critters of the land are undoubtedly a part of land management. For the private land manager it tends to be a matter of perspective and goals.

If the land manager, who is usually the land owner, considers some of the critters to be pests, then it is a matter of decreasing habitat and killing off as many as possible. I have a neighbor who has issues with bears getting into his trash, being too bold, and possibly threatening his family. For him, the bears are to be eliminated through hunting them or killing them to protect what is his.

I personally prefer to decrease the habitat for bears which means making sure the trash is unavailable for them, making sure fruit trees are enclosed in tall, strong fencing, that bird feeders and dog food are unavailable to them, keeping multiple dogs on my property, etc. The same goes for deer, elk, moose and the like, whom I prefer not to eat my wife’s garden and I will make life uncomfortable for the moose who wander too close to the house by running them off, and generally making it an uncomfortable atmosphere for them but without actually harming them.

However; many land owners want those critters on their property, enjoy seeing them and do not mind if they munch some or all of the food available, if not actually feeding them. For those land managers it is a matter of increasing the habitat needs of the animals they wish to attract or sustain on their property. This may include planting food plots, utilizing wildlife forage species in seed mix, planting unprotected fruit tress, creating nesting tress, putting out feed, or otherwise improving the basic habitat needs such as food, cover, breeding grounds and travel routes.

For public land managers it gets very complicated though. The USFS is mandated

by Congress to manage the public forest lands for wildlife, water quality, timber and recreation too! Well, that gets pretty tough, because first off, one wonders what did Congress mean with this mandate? Are we talking about managing every acre for each of these uses or managing for each of these uses throughout the entire area

drainage and/or drainages in a larger area?

Personally, I think the latter makes more sense, and I believe, from my experience with government, industry and private landowners, as well as, my education in both timber management and ecosystem management, that it is neither practical nor possible to manage every acre for every use and/or aspect of the mandate. It can be done with wise and proper management but conflicts are bound to occur.

The government agencies have a tough mandate now even more complicated by the wolf populations being on the rise. Make no mistake. I am a firm believer in restoring the forest ecosystems to a more natural state, but of course, the impact of man and society must be taken into consideration.

Given that the human predator is nowhere as efficient or successful as wolves or any other predator, the needs and impacts of humans and their communities must be factored into the management regime.

This means keeping wolf populations in check. As former outfitter/guides in the Frank Church Wilderness, David Meers (who is the designated outfitter for Clark Fork Outfitters and the business manager as well), and myself both have seen the effects of wolf populations which are out of proportion to the ungulate populations.

We have seen firsthand the effects of these most efficient predators on the elk and deer populations, as well as the success of the human predators too.

Another case of conflict of interest may be the use of the National Forest for commercial hunting. However, there does appear to be a conflict between those who would use hunting unit 4A for their own personal hunting and the outfitter who has the exclusive right (through the Outfitters and Licensing Board), to bring in out-of-state hunters who pay the outfitter to provide guides, lodging, food, packing and processing of the game which are killed. I know this is an issue because I have purchased Clark Fork Outfitters, a big game outfitting company operating in unit 4A, near Clark Fork, and my guides have been run off the road, had stands and personal effects stolen from their rigs, have been insulted and have even had hunters firing off many rounds when they detect my guides working in a particular area.

Now, Clark Fork Outfitters has evidently previously been under the ownership of a person who was not well liked, not trusted and whom, as I hear it, was considered a dishonest and unethical business owner.

This I have heard from many different folks

in the Clark Fork community. At this point I am not sure if the animosity is because the previous owner was so disliked or because the local hunters resent “their” hunting area being shared with those who would make a profit from the land and associated hunting. The thinking goes, as I understand it, that those individuals consider hunting unit 4A their personal hunting ground and resent a business making “profit” (which I do not expect for a few years) by selling off the big game to “rich” out-of-state folks.

I would like to make it clear that I, the designated Outfitter/Business Manager David Meers, and the guides employed by him intend to operate with the utmost integrity regarding both the way in which our hunts are conducted and also with respect to the local community. Clark Fork Outfitters would like to be a partner in game management with the community.

We would like to have community input on how to improve our relationship with the community and to make sure we do not “step on” long term personal hunting spots of local residents. We have plans for a community meet and greet/suggestiontype gathering in which the community can let us know how we can better serve the them and decrease animosity within the community.

I would like to point out that we do employ two Clark Fork residents, which considering the relatively small population of the community is significant on a statistical basis and all of our employees, as well as my family who owns the business, are locals who have lived and raised their families in the area. We put a lot of money into the Clark Fork community, donate hunts for charity causes, contribute to the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation, Trout Unlimited and Ducks Unlimited. We want to be very active in improving the habitat for and populations of the forest critters, namely the big game species, so that all hunters will have a renewable and consistent source of wild game.

But the main point I would like to make is much more esoteric, if you will, because like it or not, the large population centers of the eastern U.S., as apposed to the western half of the U.S., do fund the majority of subsidies for the National Forests, which are far and above located in the West. Through tax dollars which support the national forest and park systems, the east monetarily supports the majority of habitat improvement for our local hunting grounds. The out-of-state hunters provide not only a higher dollar

Page 12 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

29th Annual amount for licensing and tags, but also pay more per capita in taxes which go into the management of our public lands. They put a lot of money into the western communities too, while here hunting and recreating in the National Forests. All monies from their licensing and tags go to the state Fish and Game agency for habitat improvement and land management. And, while not on a per-capita basis but on sheer volume of donations, they do provide the majority of funding for groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

It seems to me, that given the disproportionate share of the cost of maintaining and enhancing the western national forest and parks for habitat of big game species, they have a right to hunt these western hunting grounds. Given the higher volume of taxpayer money and income to the communities they provide, they are well within their rights to utilize Western Outfitter’s services to hunt this land which they pay for but are unfamiliar with. They do not know how to hunt these mountains, as well as the locals do, so hiring a guide service is the best way for them to be able to enjoy the land and the game they help pay for.

We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the local community. I invite anyone who has questions or concerns to contact me.

Meriwether Inn 208.266.1716

Hwy 200 & Antelope Loop Rd Clark Fork, Idaho

www.Meriwether-Inn.com

Along the Pend Oreille National Scenic Byway

Affordable •Wireless Access Kitchenettes • Satellite TV •OnSite Laundry Facility • Four Season Recreation • Close Gas • Food• Bars

Holly Eve Holiday Fashion Show A Sandpoint Tradition presented by Eve’s Leaves Saturday, November 21 at the Sandpoint Events Center doors open at 6:30 pm

Live & Silent Auctions Also: Fashion show, complimentary champagne and hors d’oeuvres plus live entertainment from harpist Donna Brosh, the Sandpoint Youth Strings Orchestra, SHS choirs and Danceworks

Tickets are $25 and are available at Eve’s Leaves, Panhandle State Bank, and the Festival at Sandpoint office.

Proceeds from this event benefit the Festival at Sandpoint, the Panida Theater, Pend Oreille Arts Council, Community Cancer Services and Bonner Community Hospice

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 13

A Bird in Hand

The Raven: Lord of the Forest Mike Turnlund

mturnlund@gmail.com I never understood Edgar Allan Poe’s selection of the raven for his poem of the same name. Why a raven? Because the symbolism of its color—black, like the night? Why not an owl? A great horned would have been a better choice as an ominous visitor. They just sit there and stare. Granted, owls can’t mimic words like a raven, but they are far more mysterious.

Even better, why not something really strange, like a toucan? “Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, in there stepped a stately toucan...� Hmm, on second thought maybe raven does fit the imagery better.

Nonetheless I prefer to not think of ravens as foreboding creatures of some poor fool’s mental anguish. Instead, I look at ravens as lords of the forest, gliding over their domain with regal purview. Oh, by the way, that is one feature that you can use to separate ravens from their smaller cousins the crow. Ravens can glide, crows can not.

People confuse ravens with crows the same way they confuse Peterbilts and Kenworths. They’re both the same: big black birds. Excuse me, I don’t think so.

They obviously have no trouble telling themselves apart. In fact, you will rarely see ravens and crows flocking together,

let alone in the same neighborhood, although Peterbilts and Kenworths are less ecologically segregated. They will share the same interstate highway, but this proclivity might be because of shared genotype.

In contrast these two cousins from the family Corvus are quite distinct, in spite of common misconception. Size is one important difference. The Common Raven, Corvus corax, is probably the largest passerine bird in the world. The passerines are a large group of birds that are also sometimes referred to as the song birds. Ravens are much larger than crows, though this can be difficult to judge in the field. But there are

other indicators to help differentiate between the two.

Note the size of the raven’s bill. It is huge and thick.

Whereas the crow’s bill is more symmetrical and streamlined, the raven’s bill carries a distinctive upper mandible. Some have referred to this unique field mark as a “roman nose.� I am not sure if that is the best of terms, but I can’t think of anything better!

Yes, the raven’s bill is significantly heavier and robust looking than the crow’s.

Ravens also seem to carry a full beard of feathers under their chins. These feathers sometimes give the raven a scruffier look than the crow, though in a good way. Hey, they live in the forest. They don’t need to be urban chic.

As noted above, ravens are capable of soaring, a feat that crows cannot duplicate except in a strong headwind . But if you see one of these large black birds in flight, look at the shape of the tail.

The crow’s tail will be rounded on the hind edge, whereas the raven conforms to a pointed, wedge shape. At first this field mark isn’t always obvious, but it becomes clearer and more distinctive with practice.

Lastly, ravens don’t caw, they craw with a trill. They also make assorted other noises that a crow could only dream of making. Notably the voice of a raven is always deeper and more robust than that of a crow. But the neatest sound ravens make is that of their wings in flight. While you are sitting quietly in the woods, the overhead flight of a raven is marked by the swish of their wings as they beat forward in flight.

Distinctive and memorable.

Ravens are not urban dwellers. They are creatures of the forests and the mountains.

And honestly, if I were given the opportunity to return to earth as any creature it would be as a raven. As far as I am concerned, they rule the roost. Happy birding!

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Page 14 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

The Game Trail Hunter ethics

Matt Haag

mhaag@idfg.idaho.gov

with higher success rates, the shorter season will mean we’ll have a little head of steam going into next year. No promises for next year yet, though—lots more data to come in.

Remember the deer seasons have changed a bit. The whitetail doe season have been reduced and as always mule deer does are closed. Before you head out in the woods pick up a copy of the regulations and double check the dates. If you have questions call me or the Fish & Game Regional Office in Coeur d’Alene at 208-769-1414.

During the heat of the whitetail deer season your local Conservation Officers receive hundreds of calls related to trespassing. Here are a few reminders of Idaho’s trespass laws. If your land is not cultivated, you must post your land with signs or fluorescent orange paint. The paint or signs must be 100 square inches (10x10 square). The signs must be posted every 660 feet along the property boundary, and at any reasonable access points (trail, driveway, gate, etc.) If someone disregards the signs and enters your property they are in violation.

Please call the Bonner County Sheriff ’s office dispatch to report this immediately. They will dispatch your local Conservation Officer, or a sheriff ’s deputy.

If you post your land “No Hunting”, does that mean you and friends can’t hunt your own property? Of course not! It’s just letting folks know that you don’t want them hunting your land without permission. However, I really recommend you do not use the “No Hunting” as that implies that it’s okay to trespass, just not to hunt. Use the “No Trespass” sign to cover your bases.

Fish & Game officers will be deploying their robotic decoys at record numbers this late summer. This is not a threat, but more of a warning to those that think illegally shooting animals is fun. It may prove to be the most expensive fun you’ve had. We set the decoys to catch folks that are hunting at night, out of season, or on private property without permission. If you are hunting legally you will never see our decoys! If you are a land owner that has experienced problems with trespass, spotlighting issues, and are interested in having a decoy operation on your property, please call me, or your local officer.

Hard to believe it’s November already!

Happy Veterans Day to all our Vets out there, thank you for your service to our Nation and the sacrifices you’ve made. The Sandpoint District Conservation officers wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving as well. Remember to take the time to be thankful for the natural resources we have here. It’s all our jobs to take care of it responsibly.

Leave No Child Inside

DON’T GET CAUGHT IN THE DARK!

I’ll share a sad, pathetic story with you all with hope that someone out there may have some information to help us out. On October 19 at approximately 5:30 am some degenerate wildlife thieves shot a bull elk in the private field behind the Northside School on Rapid Lightning Rd. The scumbags cut the head off and ran from the scene leaving the bull to waste. This poacher is neither a hunter nor sportsman, and the people of Bonner County are outraged.

Anybody with information on this case may contact me directly, or call the Citizens Against Poaching Hotline at 1-800-632-5999.

If the information leads to an arrest there is a very handsome reward available. As always, callers can remain anonymous.

Elk season is behind us and the prime time whitetail hunting is right around the corner! The elk season seemed to have a slow start with the sunny cold days, but the good weather rolled in just in time for cow season.

Jim Hayden, our Big Game Manager in the Panhandle has sent out some preliminary check station data. Here is what he has to say: At the two check stations Enaville and St. Maries, we checked 106 bulls and 68 antlerless elk for the first two weekends (combined), compared to 98 bulls and 55 antlerless elk last year. Hunter success rates were actually quite a bit better because fewer hunters took more elk. Quite a few 3year old bulls in the harvest this year, so it looks promising for small 6-points next year.

There have been Lots of reports of cows with calves as well.

In a nutshell, the number of hunters through both stations hasn’t changed much since 1999, and is down just a touch compared to last year. The success rates so far are higher this year than last year at both stations. Success at St Maries was 8.4 percent per trip, about average (8.8 percent average).

We pay attention to detail At Enaville, the success rate was 5.8 percent 1200 Triangle Drive per trip. This is well above the average 3.8 percent (lots of day-trippers through the Ponderay Enaville station), and in fact, this year had the highest success rate in the last 19 years through the first two weekends.

The season is short this year, and even November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 15

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

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A Seat in the House

A Western Coaliton on Energy George Eskridge

Idaho Dist. 1B Representative

idaholeginfo@lso.idaho.gov 1-800-626-0471 The Wyoming legislature passed legislation this year to organize and host western states to determine if the states could agree on a single approach to energy and environmental policy. As a result the Wyoming legislature, under the leadership of the Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives and the President of the Wyoming Senate, hosted the “Western States Energy and Environment Symposium” held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming October 25 through 27.

Fifteen states—Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming—participated in the symposium. I was one of five Idaho legislators representing our state at the conference.

All fifteen of these states have developed their individual state policies and one of the purposes of the symposium was to get a good understanding of each state’s energy policy and then determine if there were areas of consensus that would allow the states to work together on strategies “for increasing energy production, energy efficiency and curbing environmental impacts such as carbon dioxide emissions” that would serve the region better than each state pursuing their individual policies independent of neighboring state interests.

The formal objectives of the symposium were: 1) Bring together public officials, key stakeholders and notable thought leaders to examine state energy policies from a regional perspective and work towards establishing a common regional vision; 2) Explore opportunities for and impediments to coordinating western states’ energy policies to advance regional and sub-regional economic performance of a Western energy system; 3) Identify state, regional and federal policy challenges and potential solutions for delivering energy resources to consumers; 4) Develop potential regional policy

solutions to mitigate the environmental impacts of energy resource development, delivery and consumption in the west; and 5) Work to establish a cooperative agreement among the participants to develop a high-level cost/benefit economic analysis assessing the challenges of energy development, production, reliability, marketing, use and environmental protection within these states.

I don’t think that any of the participants in the conference believed that we could get consensus on all energy issues but did believe that if we could get agreement on some specific issues we could develop more efficient and practical regional strategies for energy development in the west Additionally many of the western legislators were concerned that “national energy policy is being driven by the high population centers of the nation on the East and West coasts while some of the least populated states in the west have the most at stake in terms of renewable and fossil fuel based industries.” By reaching regional agreement on energy issues there may be a greater opportunity for our region to influence federal energy policy that impacts western states’ developers and energy consumers.

As stated in the beginning of this article, consensus wasn’t expected on all the issues; some states, for example, are not supportive of the current “Cap and Trade” concept to reduce carbon emissions in proposed federal legislation. Many of the Idaho legislators, myself included, have concern with this concept, believing that there are other alternatives that would be more efficient in meeting goals for reduction in carbon emissions.

However, we did reach consensus on other issues including streamlining permitting procedures for electric transmission line siting, supporting research and technological development

related to carbon emission reductions, and exploring the need to change state Public Utility Commission regulations to facilitate and accommodate interstate arrangements that may affect rate design and transmission siting.

A final report on the conference is due December 11 that will outline the areas of consensus and recommended actions developed during the conference. Idaho Senator McKenzie and myself have been designated as leads for Idaho in reviewing a draft of the report prior to its final publication and to pursue within the Idaho legislature those specific regional agreements and strategies that will benefit Idaho.

This was an intensive, three-day conference but I believe productive in that it will lead to better understanding and cooperation among the western states and aid in establishing regional energy policy that will serve our citizens better than each state “doing its own thing” independently of its neighboring states.

The Idaho legislature will convene in Boise on January 11 and as we get closer to that date, please feel free to contact me with issues important to you. My home address is P.O. Box 112, Dover, 83825 and my home phone is 265-0123.

Thanks for reading! George

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

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 16

Say What?

Some Thoughts on CR

There’s Hope if you need physical therapy.

There’s also Sandpoint.

of the Bonner County ambiance The problem, assuming you agree that there is a problem, stems from the assumption that if blowing a horn for Paul Rechnitzer crossings is one way to get your attention pushhard@nctv.com then making the sound louder would reduce For those of you who have long ago given the number of idiots who like the challenge up trying to figure out how people think, of beating the train. the letters CR are short for conditioned (If by now you find this boring you can Caribou Physical Therapy response. That is a term derived from Pavlov’s (1) be assured it will not get any better or (2) Hope: 264-5067 • Sandpoint: 265-8333 experiments on dogs. As I understand it we go on to some other story.) www.CaribouPHysicalTherapy.com can all be trained to respond to various By law the engineer is required to blow or stimuli. Sounds weird to some but pretty honk for each grade crossing by emitting two someone is late for church. In the back of logical when you give it some thought. So longs, a short and a long , the latter which your mind is the possibility the engineer has here is some thought. must be blown WHILE IN THE CROSSING. been up and awake for hours and outwardly The other day a neighbor had the (Hard to imagine that by the time the train resents the fact you are tucked in. On the temerity to write a letter to the local rag is right in front of you the horn does any other hand, the engineers who seem to use complaining about the on-going stream good at all, but that’s the law (CR). Just like a their horns excessively may just be those of locomotive horns being blown for the well-trained dog you are supposed to react who have been involved in one of those nearby grade crossing. (In the summer it can to the sound and behave accordingly. tragic accidents become annoying, what with windows open Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work If we could only get drivers to calm and patio sitting.) Anyway this kindly soul that way. You might not believe it but down when they see a train coming, respect expressed himself. people run into the side of trains which is the gates and not ignore flashing red lights As is with most anything in Bonner one reason you see all those little reflective we might generate some support from the County these days there isn’t a subject patches on the side of cars when you are bureaucrats who are students of Pavlov that won’t draw some comment from the patiently waiting when the gates are down and his work. Their reasoning has to be other side. As in a tennis match there was and the lights are flashing. It is sad to say that if some ear shattering sound reduces a ‘back atcha’ comment saying how much but the tales of grade crossing accidents are the number of fatalities then more shrill, they enjoyed the horns and if the other guy hard to comprehend; but then, there are penetrating sounds will do better. There didn’t like them he should move. (Standard many things hard to comprehend in these probably is a ratio of longs and shorts to North Idaho response to any criticism of days of change and they don’t just involve accidents; if not, maybe we can get some things around here, especially if you think matters of safety, i.e. what the Liberals will baseball nut to come up with some stats the criticizer is from California) think of next. that will make our case.

Now I happen to know a little about One of the problems we have observed Fortunately there are solutions that don’t the subject, including what it would take is that we get more horn than we deserve involve moving: Quiet Zone Technologies to get a silent crossing. I too hear all those because the engineer either doesn’t care according to November TRAINS magazine. horns that prompted the first letter. I also or can’t figure out how to space out the Called Automated Horn System, a know more than my share of stuff about blasts so that the last one is in the crossing stationary devices alerts the motorist with railroading. I have to agree with the party (it involves train speed and distance to the a locomotive-sound horn that is focused on of the first part that there is a limit to how crossing). The result is that he throws in a the driver and not the surrounding county. many decibels of calculated engine noise couple of extra honks to make them come When the automated horn is working the that is reasonable and acceptable. And to out even or he makes each blast extra long. locomotive engineer is not required to begin the party of the second part, I don’t intend In either case we are getting far more bang the federally mandated sequence, thus it’s on moving. Been here too long to even for our buck than the law requires. The more quiet. Of course this costs big bucks Train sounds are, after all, a part subsequent CR is that we either tolerate the and consider Council it. website at tristatecouncil.org.

These wayside systems are working sound and concentrate on the view or we in five states. Since one of the states is just get ticked off. So much for conditioning, California maybe there is hope for Idaho. Of ing in the name of safety and the bureaucracy. course, Washington and Oregon will have to ater Now for the really serious part. The pave the way. Anyway, there is a possibility Gas • Convenience Store the engineer, whose locomotive hits something, that sometime in the distant future there Unofficial Historical Society d to anything, is indeed very unfortunate. We will be an alternative to a sometimes endless know that they seldom if ever get over the stream of blasts from a locomotive horn. n as fact that someone may have died or was ake Oil Changes To those of us who are not using the killed right in front of them and there was crossing, believe me, we have heard the ues Tire Rotation nothing to be done to prevent it. That some message. Unfortunately at this point there of the incidents involved animals really isn’t are not enough folks tired of the sound to by appointment ore a big help. So when you are trying to get a justify a quiet crossing. Maybe the teens with vey few more minutes sleep on Sunday morning their head phones are on to something. ater and there are some extra blasts of that threeNow the whistle of a steam locomotive is chime horn you would prefer to believe it another story... heir 208-266-1338 is because a few deer are crossing or that m | VolNovember 17 No. 182009| | November 2008 | Page 5 The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 17

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Focus on Education

Parent Conferences: A Time for Learning Dick Cvitanich

Superintendent, LPOSD

dick.cvitanich@lposd.org With the loss of the leaves on the aspen trees and the growing gold on the tamaracks, November begins its time on stage in our schools. It features harvest fairs, school auctions, Veterans’ Day celebrations, Thanksgiving and parent conferences. For those of us working with your children, conferences are significant events. We look forward to meeting with parents to share good news regarding their children but also to share concerns so school performance can be improved. It is a great opportunity for us, as partners, to help your child.

You can help make these conferences more effective by following some simple guidelines. Here are some that I feel are extremely important: Attend the Conference: Attending the conference sends a very clear message to your child that you care about their progress in school. They want you to meet their teacher and they want to be the center of that discussion. If you cannot attend the conference, let both your child and your child’s teacher know in advance. Then schedule the conference at the nearest time available the following week. Typically, over 90 percent of our parents attend the conference.

Ask Questions in Advance: Email or call your child’s teacher in advance to let them know what you would like to talk about.

Teachers want to answer your questions. If you don’t share your concerns in advance, your child’s teacher will only be guessing at what you might want to know. It also saves

valuable time at the conference for both of you.

Be on Time: Please don’t forget that other parents have scheduled appointments as well. Arrive at least five minutes early and exit at the end of the appointed time. If the time allotted doesn’t meet your needs, schedule another opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher at a later date.

Remember, if you run late you disrupt the conference for another parent.

Listen: Time is short. Use the time to listen as opposed to telling stories about your school experience. Remember, this time is about your child and their progress.

Debrief: Your child will be curious about what his/her teacher shared. Share this information in a calm manner, particularly if you heard some information that concerns you. Celebrate the positive with a toast at dinner and calmly set goals around the shortcomings. Check those goals regularly with both your student and teacher.

Remember to remind your student that effort and good behavior are important to you.

Follow Up: Don’t be shy about following up with your child’s teacher regarding the goals you have set. In fact, it is a good idea for both of you to meet with the teacher together at a later date to share the goals.

Your child’s teacher can provide assistance and encouragement.

Enjoy Your Child: Remember, there are very few perfect children. Recognize that your child will have some success as well as areas of challenge. Celebrate their unique style and understand their schooling is a life long experience.

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Doors open at 5:30 pm. Dinner is available before the concert (reservations required). Tickets for the show are $15 in advance and $18 on the day of the show.

Call 208-263-0846.

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

The Hawk’s Nest

The Garden of the Golden Tamaracks Ernie Hawks

photosbyhawks.com ernie@photosbyhawks.com As the Tamaracks turn golden it is time for me to let go of outdoor activities and projects; see, I really don’t relish getting soaked to the bone. That doesn’t mean I’m not planning fall and winter outings of, say, colorful photography sessions of fall foliage along lakes or waterways with snow-capped peaks in the background. That will be fun.

It’s the projects and routine jobs that I’m going to try to get away from. Still, when I am out for whatever reason this time of year, I get the sense of being in a garden as it goes into hibernation.

Gardening seems to be a three-season activity, but we don’t need to understand it very deeply to know that, even though the gardener may not be working the soil, pruning the plants and trees or mowing the grass, gardening continues through the winter—the fourth season—as well.

I’m not the kind of gardener who creates and maintains a manicured space for walking, sitting and reflection. I dream of that, but I’m not there yet. As a gardener, I would fall closer to the category of a forester. Most of forest we own is still rather natural, not parked out at all. Still, walking through it I get a feeling of a garden—and I should. It is the Garden of the Golden Tamaracks.

Pretty much the same thing is happening around our place in the forest as is happening in a garden. The abundance of the growing season has reached completion. Shedding has begun and the life fluids in the trees are moving inward and downward back to the earth.

All growth is preparing for hibernation and rest—renewal. Is there significance there for me? It appears a cycle in a spiral is completed but the message from nature is about the cycle. What appears to be death in the forest is transformation in lives.

With the shedding, needles, leaves and branches go back to the earth. The growth of these parts took much effort and was absolutely necessary for vibrant expression of the plant. Even after that investment, the growth—at this point in the cycle—is now old and must be shed if the plant is to rest, renew, and thrive next year.

I seem to be getting a sense that nature, in working her cycles, is trying to tell me something. I wonder if it is about all that stuff I worked so hard to acquire. I think I’ll keep moving it and working around it, and creating new space for it while sometimes

cussing it, but shed it? Naw. And that’s just the physical stuff. Of course this is just a hypothetical question, but what if there were attitudes, grievances or unnecessary old ideas floating around in my psyche? Continuing with the hypothetical of course, should I shed this old baggage even after all the investments of cultivated thought and worry I have into it?

It’s a good thing this is just an imaginary consideration, ‘cuz I’m getting a little uncomfortable right now.

Let’s go back to the comfort of the forest. What are the trees doing as they shed? It appears they are giving back to the earth. When we leave it alone, all those needles, leaves and branches become next year’s mulch for the forest floor. That’s a neat thought and they make fun crackling sounds under feet as we walk around. There is a pleasant musty aroma as the decaying process begins. Moreover, we know, next year the forest will flourish because of this giving back.

So is this a lesson for me too? I can

dance around with the idea of shedding but now this giving back thought comes along. Back to the hypothetical—if I gave back some of the abundance I have worked so hard for, will I be better for it? Will others, even the whole planet, be better for it? Like the forest benefits from all the trees giving back, will giving back have a universal gain?

Following the logic of the trees shedding and giving back, I notice a lot of them are a lot older then me; okay that is a bit convincing. There are people who say they are even grander than me, too. Okay, so it does seem to be working pretty well in the woods.

I don’t know, this is getting kind of personal; maybe I don’t want to take lessons from the woods. On the other hand, maybe my sense of wanting to rest is a part of the cycle including shedding and giving back.

It appears a walk in the Garden of the Golden Tamarack has given me fodder to contemplate the seasons, as the spiral of the cycles continues.

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November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 19

Veterans’ News Our most potent weapons Gil Beyer

vintage@gotsky.com When I heard that Kriss Running-Waters would no longer be writing the veterans’ column for the TRJ I wondered who was going to take over that task. I knew that Jody Forest was pretty much burned out and would be looking for someone to try and fill both his shoes and Kriss’. After reading his article about the Pat Tillman book and its connection to our local veterans’ scene— which , it turns out, wasn’t much—I felt that maybe, just maybe, I’d try my hand at this.

I don’t claim to be a newspaper writer but I do have what could be considered a few good qualifications to write this column—I am a retired Navy veteran, a Life Member of and a Past Commander in the DAV. I’m proud of both my service to this country and of the fact that I have stood in front of Wal-Mart on the past three or four Memorial Days and helped in some small ways to keep that essential DAV van on the road. There is no way that I can bring Joe’s spice nor Kriss’ flavor to these pages but I’m willing to give it a try. I’ll write the best I can and hopefully I’ll be able to pass on some information of value to our area vets.

I would like to add my two cents to Joe’s sentiments as expressed in his last article and about the local veterans’ organizations.

Many years ago I received a pair of medals for my very limited participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis. These awards made me eligible to join the VFW. While I was the Commander of the DAV chapter in Priest River I was asked if I would join the local VFW chapter. This was during the “Grenada Invasion,” where, arguably, the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth invaded a small island nation with a total population less than that of Spokane.

This invasion was ordered by President Reagan after a military coup ousted and executed the Grenadian Prime Minister. This action by the USA was roundly criticized by the UN General Assembly, United Kingdom and Canada.

What, you may ask, has this got to with local veterans’ organizations? Well, here’s the connection—the National Board of Directors of the VFW put out a position paper that said that any VFW chapter that did not fully and enthusiastically support the President’s actions on Grenada would be stripped of its charter! Now, losing your charter is the death knell of a chapter.

Without a charter you legally cease to exist.

The local VFW chapters acceded to this

extortion with unseemly haste. Yes, this was over 25 years ago but then I’ve been known to hold a grudge.

It is my view that any organization that threatens this kind of sanction to freedom of individual thought is contrary to those things that I have dedicated my life to. I believe that dissent is patriotic. We must question the motives and actions of our elected representatives. It is our duty as citizens to hold our leaders accountable.

The most potent weapons we have against those who would take away our freedoms is our vote and our questions.

We have been subjected over the past eight years to lies that have cost thousands of American lives and several thousands more abroad. These lies have cost us our credibility and stature in the community of nations and hundreds of billions in misdirected funds. Our national indebtedness—both morally and monetarily—is not the fault of the current administration. It is the legacy of the previous administration and we have only ourselves to blame. We must accept the fact that our current situation is our fault; our fault simply because we blindly accepted whatever pap and BS we were given by a group of people that would literally say and do anything that helped them to achieve their goals, regardless of the fact that what they said had no validity or foundation in fact. It is our duty to hold our representatives to a higher ethical standard and not let them treat us like sheep. I don’t care if you are an Independent, a Republican or a Democrat, we must use our vote wisely and elect only those who will best represent their constituency and not special interest groups or lobbies.

New “Presumed” Illnesses The Department of Veterans Affairs established a service-connection for Vietnam veterans suffering from Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease (IHD) and B-cell leukemias such as hairy-cell leukemia. These illnesses are now considered “presumed” illnesses. This “presumption” simplifies and speeds up the application process for VA benefits. It is important to note that this new policy will not go into effect until sometime in 2010. At which point affected veterans will be urged to submit new disability claims.

Additional information about Agent Orange and VA’s services and programs for veterans exposed to the chemical are available at VA’s Agent Orange web page, or call the toll-free helpline at 800-749-8387.

As has become the custom there will be program at the Sandpoint High School honoring local veterans. Time and date are still to be determined so readers should call the high school for information. All area veterans are welcome and are encouraged to attend.

There will be a Veterans Day Ceremony at Sandpoint’s Memorial Field, 11 am with Honor Guard and Rifle Squad.

A pot-luck dinner will be held at Sandpoint’s VFW Hall (Pine & Division) at noon on Sunday, November 8.

The Golden Corral on Division (just south of Costco) in Spokane will have its annual free dinner for veterans on Monday, November 9.

Proper ID is required.

The Applebee’s chain will be offering selected menu items to veterans on Wednesday, November 11. Again, proper ID is required.

The Coeur d’Alene Casino in Worley is having a veterans’ dinner at 7 pm on Thursday, November 12 with the prerequisite proper ID. The Kootenai Casino in Bonners Ferry will be offering special deals for veterans but at this time we don’t know if it will be meals or some other bargains.

Members of any veterans’ organization are welcome to participate in the decoration of veterans’ graves at local cemeteries on November 11. Contact your local chapter for time and place to help out.

Next month we’ll have Ross Jackman as a guest columnist with his annual Christmas column. I’ll try to find some interesting tidbits for veterans and maybe I’ll be able to find some new information about items of interest on veterans’ health care and benefits.

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Upcoming Dates With Veterans Day rapidly approaching I’ve got a few announcements to make about events and programs in the local area: Page 20 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

Politically Incorrect

Why do we cry?

Trish Gannon

trish@riverjournal.com “I don’t know why I’m crying,” Amy said, and as I looked at her across the bed where Lauren lay, the new baby Keira crying on her stomach, I saw that Amy’s eyes were overflowing, as were those of just about everyone else in the room in that moment as Keira was born.

So why do we cry?

Isn’t childbirth a time of joy?

As I write this, three weeks after Keira’s birth, I’ve barely gotten to see her. That’s because I contracted swine flu right after she was born; just the flu, they say, but I still do not have my energy back. Even worse, the daughter of one of my best friends just died from swine flu; my own youngest daughter has a sore throat and is far away in Lewiston at college, with no mama there to care for her; David’s daughter and two grandsons are also recipients of this year’s swine flu prize, though thankfully they seem to be on the mend.

On top of all that, my website crashed, through no fault of anyone except myself; the egg I cracked for breakfast this morning was bad, and the smell now permeating my house is indescribable.

Give life a little time, and it seems more than capable of giving us things to cry over.

So why do we need the ability to cry at happy times?

“I’m not sure why we cry [at the birth of a baby],” Dr. Bruce Honsinger said when I asked him that question. “But we do.

We seem to need to cry at times of strong emotion: birth, death, weddings.”

Crying, they say, is a uniquely human activity—at least, the part of crying that includes tears. While animals have tear ducts, they seem only to be used to bathe and heal the eyes (although there’s some evidence to suggest that both elephants and chimpanzees can cry emotional tears). But humans, in the grip of strong emotion, use those ducts and those tears for... something else. Something more.

Several scientists have studied tears,

and each seems to have a different theory to explain why we cry. One of my favorites comes from Oren Hasson, an evolutionary biologist at Tel Aviv University, who believes the purpose of tears is to signal submission, issue a cry for help, or to serve as a “group display of cohesion.” There is a bonding that takes place, he believes, when we show through tears that we share the same emotions.

The tears we cry through emotion, as

opposed to those instigated by eye irritation or the need for lubrication, have a different chemical makeup; they contain more protein-based hormones like manganese and prolactin. It’s believed that releasing these chemicals through tears helps us to relieve tension. Or as Dustin put it right after his daughter was born, “You know, throughout labor I tried not to cry, but once Keira was born, it was like I had 800 pounds of estrogen inside me.”

I’m not sure how helpful that is, but it made me smile.

“Tears are a bodily function,” Ernie tells me in a tone that suggests there’s nothing more to say. His advice: just do it. And read Tear Soup, one of his favorite books about tears and why we need them.

At this point in time, I couldn’t define the emotions surging through me when Keira was born. But I couldn’t do it then, either.

What I remember is there were a lot of them, some contradicting others. There was happiness, awe, relief and disbelief, pride; there was sadness (given the world we’ve brought her into), fear (she’s so small and helpless), even grief—grief that mothering an infant is an ability now only in my past.

I suspect that some of those tears have simply to do with being unable to process so many different emotions in such a short amount of time.

Not that the birth went quickly. On Saturday, October 3, my birthday, we sat as a family group in Jalapenos for dinner; at the end, everyone (the entire restaurant, I think) sang happy birthday to me and, at my suggestion, to “baby” as well. By the last line, Lauren had gone into labor. Keira, however, was in no hurry to make our acquaintance; that labor lasted until Monday afternoon, and most of her family was in attendance for the occasion. Both grandmas, Dad, and two aunts were at Lauren’s side as she labored to bring Keira into the world. We all watched her first breath. We probably didn’t need to cry in order to bond by that point, but cry we did and the bonding was there too.

Lauren is probably the only one who will ever ‘forget’ the day that Keira came; nature’s little trick to ensure that mothers are willing to give birth more than once.

The rest of us will likely always remember Lauren’s rather astounding grace throughout the process; that one time when she gave Dustin a look (had he bumped her tooth with the straw in the water he held for her to sip?) that had all of us laughing, and Dr. Bruce assuring Dustin that he was “doing a good job” and this was “just labor”; Lauren upset and asking worriedly “why isn’t she crying?” even though Keira was doing her best to protest this bright, noisy new world she had entered; the paparazzi image of dozens of flashes as we all took pictures of the new baby (my own came out as blurry as my eyes, but I think in her first minute of life, there were at least 100 pictures taken of Keira).

And probably we will all remember the lesson demonstrated in the tears rolling down every face; that sometimes, life shows us a miracle that will forever change who we are and what we know about how to live.

Welcome, Keira Elizabeth Gannon. You have entered a world full of love and tears of joy at your presence.

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 21

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Duke’s Food Obsession

Turkey Leftovers Duke Diercks

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Is there anything better than a turkey dinner? A great steak, foie gras any which way, killer spareribs or fresh fried chicken may compete, but better? Nope. On Thanksgiving Day, after our annual Turkey Bowl touch-football game with friends, the holy grail awaits in pounds of butter disguised as mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy made from actual turkey fat drippings and real turkey stock, that 70s era green bean thing, and oh yes, the bird itself.

This gets even better the next day, doesn’t it? I think turkey dinner is like a great pot roast—the flavors meld

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overnight and it just tastes better. And it’s microwavable, of course, a plus the day after you have slaved over a huge dinner.

But, on the third day, then what? Pretty quickly it becomes fourth-down-and-turkey and you run out of options, motivation, or both. Plus, the turkeys these days are rarely less than 600 pounds so you almost always have leftovers.

(Actually, the deep discounts on turkeys during this time of year invite you to over buy and I do. Often I buy two or three and freeze. Often, on one of them, I sacrifice all but the breast to make quite a bit of rich turkey stock that I use for gravy, and freeze for later use. The breast on this one I roast for sandwiches. And, no, I am not going to debate the ethics of buying birds bred to have such abnormally large breasts that they can no longer mate normally. To you, I invite you to order a heritage bird at www. heritagefoodusa.com. Or contact a local farmer about purchasing a turkey.)

So, turkey leftovers. Here are some ideas:

Turkey Enchiladas. You can make a white sauce, use canned enchilada sauce, flour or corn tortillas. My favorite is to make an unauthentic yet delicious sauce using beef stock thickened with a roux, and bumped up in flavor with canned chipotles en adobo. Fill corn tortillas with sauce and jack cheese.

White Trash Lasagna. This I made one year and it has become a family favorite.

Simply make lasagna using noodles, mashed potatoes, turkey and stuffing. Sure, throw in some green beans. For sauce – you guessed it: gravy. Pull it all together with cheese. Inspired white trash food.

Pot Pie. You can use a frozen pie shell, but it’s better to use a deeper oven-ready serving vessel and buy frozen puffed pastry at the store. Roll this pastry out and cut it to fit over the top of the vessel. Presto.

Tu r k e y Te t r a z z i n i .

This beehivehaircut-era casserole still works. Basically it’s turkey, mushrooms and bell pepper bound together with a béchamel or white sauce mixed with noodles and baked. I omit the bell peppers because they give me the willies, and top the whole thing with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Soup. The last bastion of turkey leftover creations. My father used to make a soup whereby he threw the whole carcass in a pot with celery, onions and carrots. Once it had cooked for a while, he threw in some rice and served a large portion, bones and all. This serving method works beautifully with something like cioppino, with crab legs, etc. With turkey bones, it is downright scary. My mother used to make so much fun of him, he would get really upset. I am not sure if that caused the divorce, or not, but it didn’t help. I prefer to take all the meat off of the bones and make a rich stock.

Then I roast some poblano peppers, some tomatoes, onions, and ancho chilis. I add these to the stock, with the turkey and top the soup with home fried or bagged tortilla chips, cotija cheese, and avocado and lime juice. This turkey tortilla soup is a light, delicious end to a food-filled weekend.

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 22

Currents

Awful Power Lou Springer

nox5594@blackfoot.net

These dark mornings should remind all of us what an awe-inspiring Gift from the Gods cheap electricity is. We flip on the lights, grind the beans, run the water, start the coffee maker, flush the toilet, turn on the computer and radio– all for pennies. We unthinkingly use this godlike power with no respect for the real cost.

Growing up in the optimistic ‘50s, I never questioned the assumption that humans had the right and the knowledge to control nature. If I thought at all about dams and fish ladders, it would have been as a win/win situation. This attitude changed in 1971 when we first followed the

Kootenai River north from Libby. The dam had been completed, but the river had not yet drowned the lovely mountain valley, lush with side streams, that stretched to Canada. From amount of sawn down fruit trees, piles of house lumber and driveways, this valley had once held a fair population.

Tended yards, hayfields, barnyards, small towns were doomed to a watery death.

Two reasons were given for building the dam: Electricity for the aluminum plant in Spokane and flood control for Bonners Ferry. Today, when we drive around ‘Lake’ Koocanusa, we seldom see a boat on the grey, still water, but if there is one, it will always be aluminum. Seems a high price to pay, and it also seems that it would have been more reasonable to move the lower section of Bonners Ferry to the bluffs above.

I am so glad I did not see the lower Clark Fork valley before Noxon Rapids and Cabinet Gorge Dams were built. Most people who lived here before dam building have mixed feelings. The expanse of water has physically opened the landscape, one lady told me. Another said, “We had no idea how extensive the flooding would be.”

“People accepted it easily,” one fellow told me. “They thought they would make money supplying the dam builders with lunches.”

“We thought the fish ladders would work, but then they didn’t even put a ladder in.”

“If it weren’t for the dam, our well would be dry in the summer.”

“The dam building did bring some shortterm prosperity and got us better schools.”

“Oh, I miss snagging trout at the rapids.

I remember big washtubs full of fish.”

“How could anyone have believed that a fish ladder as good a free river.”

And they was don’t have as to—after all, don’t Avista has done an admirable we Americans believe if it’s ours,job it’s with ours relicensing by we thewant?

Federal and we canasdorequired with it what Or Energy Regulatory Commission, but theyis blew off one powerful set and suggestion: we want it, then up a savings account to pay for dam you removal have to give to us from and ifnow you when don’t, fifty ityears thenrelicensing you sponsor terrorism and rolls around again. we’ll Our autumn salmon run to Seattle By the way, wants that oil of as always rams China home the awareness well.the Remember China? Thewealth people real and squandered of who the Northwest.

Salmon were China’s once this loaned us all that money? oil regions’ gold, but 6.5 to secure cheap consumption is around billion barrels energy, wegrowing ruined attheir rivers every and a year, and is 7 percent now squander the power to keep year. It produces about 3.6 billion barrels huge cities alight Christmas trees.to every year.

Does this as math look good At the Interstate rest stop close to anyone? Can anyone other than Sarah Moses Lake, I noticed a well-dressed, Palinelegantly-coiffed and George Bush believe we can 80 something-yeardrill old our woman way outstep of this problem? out of LincolnAnyone Town whocar. doesn’t think we hit the ground The car hadbetter British Columbia running to figure out how fuel what we plates, and I thought the towoman really want fueled with royalty. something looked like British She other staredthan at our VW bus with a to halfgosmile oil1971 probably deserves backontoher an face. “Our old workhorse is working again” I said,” bringing a half ton salmongoback : Iofcould on toforever, Montana.” but you’ll quit reading. So one final “Salmon. Oh so lucky!

We live in discussion for you the are American public.

First, Vancouver, but we couldn’t get any salmon let’s have this year. “ a true, independent analysis of what happened September 11, I2001.

Her expressionon was so sincere, was The official explanation simply doesn’t briefly tempted to open a box and give her This“Itis isone “who a hold couplewater. of filets. suchofa those loss not to knew what, when” questions that must be have good salmon runs,” she continued.

Gesturing to people/institutions the ten-foot-tall corn answered—and must growing across the highway, I said I respected agriculture, but wondered such Speaking of accountability, youif might a water-needy shouldthat be grown in arid be surprisedcrop to learn I would not central Washington. replied that it was support an effort She to impeach President field corn, grown to fatten cattle in feed Bush after the November elections. First, lots. “All that energy to produce protein,” because that’s too late, and second, I ventured. because more thanbeen Bushdancing; have been We could have the involved in crimes againsta the American elegant lady, not missing beat, spoke, people.

What just I would see are “And the salmon came like to us,todelivered charges (at charges of treason) themselves to the us.”least, Turning to me she added, mournfully, “All weBush, had Cheney, to do was to Bring take brought against et al. care the rivers.” theofcharges and let’s let the evidence of

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November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 23

Gary’s Faith Walk

Homecoming Gary Payton

gdp.sandpoint@gmail.com

The fire crackles in the wood stove. Moist birch leaves raise their smell from underfoot on morning walks. And the snow again settles on Baldy Mountain, Schweitzer, and the peaks of the Cabinet Range. I cannot tell

you how very good it is to be home in our North Country as fall becomes winter.

To say that I have been “on the road” a bit is quite an understatement. For most of September and October I’ve had the privilege of visiting churches in Idaho, Washington, and Ohio sharing the story of God’s mission in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland and of the renewal of churches there. Sermons, pot lucks, conversations across restaurant tabletops all gave me the opportunity to share with folks from 22 different congregations.

It was exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time.

After a long and demanding journey is there anything quite like the hugs from those you love, the stretched out and settled in feeling of your own bed, or the renewal of the daily rhythms of life? To me, all these things speak of the joy of homecoming.

To be home is to be embraced. The embrace begins with the drive across Long Bridge, past well known shops, along familiar

streets and up the ridge toward our house.

Rounding a bank of mailboxes, there are letters addressed to me from people I care about. Then the gravel road where I pulled knapweed in the summer at last brings me into view of our home. Walking inside, I’m physically embraced by the love of my wife, surrounded by pictures of children and our grandson and memories of past times together. Home is more than a place. It’s knowing and being known; loving and being loved.

Wise Augustine, an early Christian leader, observed that our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in God. Perhaps home speaks most deeply of relationship.

I have a special relationship with the trees and boulders, mountains and water which surround me at home. I also have life-giving relationships of love with my family which are rooted in this place. In my faith walk, all this brings me face to face with that deeper sense of home, my existence and resting within God’s presence.

Oh, my travel was not without its highlights: pounding ocean surf on the Washington coast, a pod of orcas swimming gracefully off the San Juan Islands, and the sight of skilled fisherman casting again and again into the gently moving Boise River.

God was present in these fresh encounters with creation and with my time meeting new people while sharing God’s work in foreign lands. But there’s an amazing sense of homecoming as I round the last curve and familiar lights welcome me back to this particular place in creation and the love of

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my family. All this lovingly calls me back to awareness of my true home in God. Soon, we’ll share the time-honored feast of Thanksgiving. It is a time of gathering with friends and family and perhaps folks we do not yet know, of sharing the goodness of special food, but most of all sharing care and laughter and love. It once again reminds me, “Welcome home.”

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Page 24 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

The Scenic Route

How Much is Too Much?

Sandy Compton

mrcomptonjr@hotmail.com www.SandyCompton.com

Once upon a time, a close relative went to visit some remote relatives with the intention of helping the remote relatives, who were moving out of their house and into a retirement home, with the resultant yard sale. The next time I saw the close relative, they were relatively upset. This related to a family row that began when yet more remote relatives showed up at the yard sale and began trying to dictate what would and would not be sold to the general public.

Their battle cry was, “Oh, you can’t sell that!” and the fight began.

After listening to my close relative go off about this for a while—they had miraculously managed to relegate themselves to semineutral observer during the battle—and after they had been calmed to the point of relative sanity, I took my leave.

“I’m going home,” I told the close relative, “and guess what I’m going to do when I get there?”

“What?”

“I’m going to throw something away.”

And, I did.

Selling, throwing and giving stuff away are God-given responsibilities and sacred rights, as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t really matter, either, where that thing you don’t need any more came from. If it doesn’t belong in your life any more, you and it will be happier if it finds a new home. In fact, I recommend the web-based Freecycle (you can look up your local chapter on Google) for finding new homes for old stuff. You might also find new—at least to you— stuff there, but that misses the point of this little missive. Stuff reduction leads to life simplification, and, in our complicated world, that ain’t a bad goal.

So, if it’s in the closet or dresser, in relatively good repair, and I can’t remember the last time I wore it (with the exception of a Gerry parka, my dad’s Woolrich shirt and my grandpa’s London Fog jacket), some guy at the Gospel Mission is going to be stylin’ soon. If I have two of most things (certain hand tools excepted), that’s enough; and sometimes one too many. Sometimes, it’s two too many. In fact, I have this one thing—it’s a plastic jar modified to resemble a moose—that is definitely one too many, but it’s so cute.

The moose-jar, filled with yogurt-covered pretzels, was a Christmas gift from a remote relative, and the pretzels have been long gone for a long time. The other day, I got almost to the garbage can with the moose before I pulled up. Now it resides in a little niche right above the garbage can, smiling moosily at me when I throw other things away, awaiting the day when I figure out something to store in it, or when someone walking through my shop says, “That’s cute.”

“It’s yours!” I’ll say. Until then, I don’t think I will be able to throw the moose away.

So, I’m not entirely relentless or an ascetic. I just try to keep my stuff quota at a reasonable level. If I don’t use it, I try to divest myself of it. For a long time, I collected business cards with the intent of doing something with them. Gone.

Cameras. Gone. Coins. Gone. Stamps. Gone with the mail.

Even with this philosophy, I have too much stuff. Two vehicles, for crying out loud. More than two computers, although they are in different places, and I think of them as hand tools.

Music. There is so much to listen to, I have dozens of CDs, and I find myself buying another one without giving one away. I have more than one CD player. And I have many books. Books often flow on out of my life after a brief stop, but some stay for longer periods of time, some approaching a lifetime.

There are works of art and photographs of loved ones and great adventures, both digital and paper. There are deeds and wills and last wishes. A box of Christmas ornaments. Russian Life magazines. Every ski pass I’ve had for the past 20 years. Three pairs of skis (but only one set of poles and one pair of boots).

Maps. I’m not sure one can have too many maps.

So, even with intentional stuff reduction, I am more materially blessed than about 93 percent of the world population.

Still, once upon a time, as members of the governing body of an organization that was having a rough time, we were asked as a group by our temporary, trouble-shooter leader, “Who’s authorized to throw stuff away around here?”

I raised my hand. Everybody else looked at me like I was relatively nuts. I did not take my hand down. But, then, I think there are only two things that we can’t have too much of—friends and love.

Lite Lit

Little Secrets 2 Tess Vogel

tessievogel13@aol.com As I noted in last month’s review, I’m reviewing the “Little Secrets” collection by Emily Blake. The first book that I reviewed was her first, “Little Secrets Playing with Fire. “Now, this review is on her second book of the series, “Little Secrets No Accident.” This book is full of more lies, deception and blackmail. There is plenty of drama in this series of books. In this twisted, soap opera-like story friends turn on friends and no one’s secrets are safe anymore.

When grandmother Diamond gives Alison an invitation to move in with her, she accepts it thinking that it will help with everything going on. As her mother sits in prison and her father is hardly ever around Alison feels a little more in control of her life; that is until she starts to think about how her best friend stole her boyfriend and then tried to ruin her life forever. Alison has vowed to never let Kelly Reeves get the best of her again; does she have the will power to do it? Kelly Reeves seemed to be on top of the world, until someone found out her secret and is using it to blackmail her. Chad, Alison’s exboyfriend, knows that having Kelly Reeves as a girlfriend is all he needs to stay on top, but doesn’t he feel bad about what has happened to Alison and how he’s been acting around her?

With Alison staying at her grandmother’s house, she learns of some “very interesting” family history that could work to her advantage. It just burns Kelly up that Alison is staying at Grandmother Diamond’s house and that their grandmother is treating Alison like she is a perfect angel. The longer Alison stays under her grandmother’s wing, the more dangerous the family game gets.

Whose side is Alison on, her mother’s, her grandmother’s, or a side all her own? When Alison and Kelly were little and Kelly pushed her off the swings, her grandmother told her to push back or it will never stop. Alison never pushed back then, but will she now?

I rate this book five stars. I think that this series of books is just a delight to read because of the way that Emily Blake writes her stories. I would urge readers to continue with Book three, “Over the Edge” and the rest of the series.

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 25

Where the Real Wild Things Are

“... the shadows hump and slide, climbing the mountainside, clouds go over. The town has moved away, leaving a bitten hill where the mine heas is visible...”

- Charles Tomlinson

Valley of

In ThE

ShadowS with Lawrence Fury

The house in November sounded of that would have been more than seven feet after World War II. winter. The wind blew outside in gales and off the ground to see in over the curtain.

The remnants fell into disrepair as the gusts, some going over 30 miles an hour.

Recovering from his initial shock, Carl property went through a succession of Inside, a young couple sat watching a turned, opened the nearby closet door, and owners. The final one I am aware of was an rented movie. No cable hookups this far out withdrew a hunting rifle. Since they didn’t obscure, Seattle company. of town on the Pack River Road and they have any children as yet, he kept it loaded.

When I was there with my friend, his couldn’t afford a satellite yet.

He quickly moved a round into the chamber. son an two friends of his, the last of what The young woman had always felt “Hit the lights!” he yelled and ran to the was left of the mine was a machine house, isolated out here on the property her new door as Becca, her husband’s voice bringing rusting equipment and a rat-infested bunk husband had inherited from his grandfather, her out of her initial shock, complied. house which we spent a couple of nights but they couldn’t afford anything else as Carl ran to the door, hitting the porch in—my friend’s idea of fun times. yet. light switch as he flung the door open. He Situated well north of upper Priest AS the movie ended, in an unsatisfactory quickly stepped out onto the small porch Lake and only about five miles south of the way, Carl looked at his wife and pointed the and swung the weapon to the right. Nothing Canadian border, I would be hard pressed remote at the VCR, hitting rewind. “What a was there. A moment later Becca joined him to imagine a more isolated part of North piece of crap.” as they heard a movement from the edge Idaho.

“You rented it,” Becca responded and of their maintained lawn as something large There was no encounter with the smirked. crashed through the perimeter brush. unexplained on my trip, though I didn’t Rewound, the machine turned off; the After a long moment they looked at relish the two hours I spent at the eerie site sound of the wind fell on them. Both used each other silently, an stepped back into alone when my buddy and his other friend to living in town, they thought it eerie, the the house. decided on a whim to venture through old sounds of nature without human noise to Later, friends kidded them about seeing mine tunnels a half mile from the mine while go along with it. a Bigfoot. But what bear stood over seven I had ridden my mountain bike.

Oh, there was civilization—after all, feet tall an could peer in through a window?

My buddy’s next trip with other friends Buck and Edna’s was less than half a mile Then again, what ‘natural’ creature had was more memorable. This time, having away and there was... well, actually, that glowing red eyes? enough of the old rat-infested bunk house, was it for another couple of miles.

The legend, if not the reality, of Bigfoot my friend and these other guests chose to Turning the TV off, Carl headed to the has long since been a denizen of folklore sleep in a tent nearby. During the night, my bathroom as Becca went to turn the porch dating back to the American Indian’s buddy heard the call of nature and trekked light off. Not that they expected visitors to Sasquatch. There are other incarnations: a few dozen yards into the brush to relieve just drop in this far out, but the light made The Wild Man of China, the Skunk Ape of himself. her feel better for some reason.

Halfway through, he heard a growling in the U.S. Deep South, and the most famous She returned to the couch and flicked member of the family, the Yeti or the the darkness, a noise that did not sound at off the lamp with the only light coming Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. all familiar. Jeff and his family were loggers, from the kitchen/dining room. A scratching The rational, scientific explanation and had spent a lot of time in the woods came from the outside wall around the is that these creatures are a remnant and knew the sounds of bears and other front window. Just a branch moving in the population of Giganthapithagus, a huge animals. This was completely new. wind, most likely. The scratching, however, hominid whose fossilized bones have been Pulling up his pants an departing in seemed... well, as if something more found in many places; the bones indicate a a hasty manner, he was sure that he was substantial was behind the noise than just creature ranging from seven to twelve feet chased until within a few feet of his camp. a branch. Besides, there wasn’t a tree close tall. They were thought to have been less Next morning, he returned to the scene enough to be the culprit. of his indisposition and, after a time, found than a human, but more than an ape.

Carl emerged from the short hallway, Could a small remnant population of a tuft of hair snagged in a tree. He sent this the sound of the flushing toilet behind him. these creatures have survived in several to the Department of Lands in Boise and, Glancing at her husband, Becca suddenly forms past the time of their supposed after a few months of silence, called, only saw a startled expression come to his face. extinction thought to have been during the to be informed that no such sample had “What the hell?” he said. There was real last ice age, 12,000 years ago? arrived. fear in his voice. Becca turned to see what Final analysis, this attitude of government About twelve years ago, a longtime agencies seems to be dominant, as in a story he was looking at.

There, just above the curtain that covered friend of mine took me up to the Continental I related last year: denial. Denial of anything the bottom half of the old fashioned, two- mine. beyond its control or understanding.

Abandoned in the late 1940s, the mine paned window were two glowing red orbs.

Next month: the Haunted Apartment...

Or so Becca first interpreted the sight. had extensive facilities, even a small hotel. in my own building, here in the Valley of As she continued looking, however, she But the vein of silver played out suddenly, Shadows. realized they weren’t orbs, but eyes! Eyes making profiting from the mine unlikely Page 26 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

From ThE

Files

of The River Journal’s

SurrealisT Research BureaU The World’s Weirdest Book by Jody Forest A fellow devotee of the bizarre and unusual, in a casual discussion with me, had never before encountered or heard of the mysterious “Voynich Manuscript” so I thought this month I’d recap it briefly for you all. While it’s true the world’s full of strange tomes and forbidden grimoires (Ludwig Prinn’s 15th Century “Mysteries of the Worm” or Lovecraft’s 20th Century “Necronomicon” come to mind) only one has captured the fascination of both the CIA and the world’s top cryptographers and linguists in a quest for answers that continues to this day.

Bought among a batch of old books from an Italian Jesuit monastery in 1912 by rare book dealer Wilfred Voynich, it was an octavo volume of 204 pages with letters and manuscripts included with it.

Untitled, it came to be called “The Voynich Manuscript” (another 28 pages have been lost over the years as Voynich sent samples

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away to various linguists and cryptographers).

Documents found with the manuscript included a letter regarding it dated 19 August 1666, written by Joannes Marci, then rector of Prague University. It’s thought that Marci in turn had gotten the book from the famous Elizabethan “magician” Doctor John Dee, for Dee’s son Arthur later wrote about his father visiting and studying in Prague “a book containing nothing but strange writings, hieroglyphics and peculiar drawings.” Marci further claimed the book had been passed down from the 13th century monk and scientist Roger Bacon.

The Voynich Manuscript ”looks” like an ordinary medieval herbal and alchemical tome, with sections of strangely futuristic astronomical drawings, advanced mathematical schematics and botanical cross sections and detailed drawings of plants and flora that mostly don’t exist in nature; however the language it was written in was unknown, despite the best efforts of linguists to decipher it. Cryptoanalysts had at first no trouble finding the book’s “language” had 29 individual letters or symbols, but from there they were stymied.

Some Voynich researchers (Newbold, et al) claimed that whoever the author was, from the drawings in the margins he’s apparently used a microscope and examined cells and spermatozoa, as well as a telescope, long before Galileo (due to apparent drawings of various spiral galaxylike objects in the manuscript).

After WWII the U.S. government got involved when it thought to have its cryptography department “code breakers” have a go at it, thanks to the advent of computers, but all they could discover was that it was written in a real, synthetic language, one based on logic. Recently the

CIA’s best code breakers likewise tried to crack it but also came up stymied.

The Voynich manuscript today resides at Yale University rare books room, where it was donated in 1961. You can view it online for yourself at a number of sites (simply Google variations of “Voynich Manuscript” and a number of cool sites should pop up). Also on the Internet is the scholarly “Project for the Translation of the Voynich Manuscript.”

The Sandpoint library has at least one non-fiction book devoted to the mystery and I’m presently reading a fiction book about it, “Book of God and Physics” by Enrique Joven (William Morrow Books, 2009) and if it’s decent I’ll let you know.

“We will eat of the lotus, and the fruit of lands whereof Odysseus never dreamt, drink the pallid wines of faery, driven by sails filled with fantastic sorcery and perhaps we shall never return.”

-Clark Ashton Smith

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 27

A Holistic Approach to Detoxification

by the Sandpoint Wellness Council www.SandpointWellnessCouncil.com

Far Infrared Saunas, a Safe and Effective Way to Detoxify What Is Making Us Sick

By Krystle Shapiro, LMT

Health concerns are on everyone’s mind with the rise of so many symptoms and chronic conditions plaguing people today with very little resolution for long term wellness. With my background in massage therapy, especially studying anatomy, physiology, muscles, bones, and pathology, I began researching into the benefits of massage and how massage would help to alleviate many symptoms I was seeing in my clients. My studies have furthered my research into nutrition, especially the importance of detoxification, and environmental factors that create many of the causes for illness.

Several years ago I purchased a far infrared sauna with the intention of adding sauna therapy to my practice. My research about FIR saunas proved auspicious as I came to learn the value of dry heat sauna as a valuable preventive as well as curative therapy for many conditions. I wish to share with you the astounding benefits of regularly using a FIR sauna to improve health and well being. I have gathered the following information from the sources listed at the end of this article.

Light is something we all need to be well. We receive light and warmth from the sun. All living beings benefit from light and warmth, and plants require light to carry on photosynthesis. The sun emits its rays as waves of light. We understand ultraviolet light and its potential to damage our skin and vision. But other light waves are also

emitted from the sun in the form of gamma rays, X-rays, visible light, and infrared.

Sunlight, natural light, is important for the human body as it stimulates the endocrine system (our autonomic or automatic system that controls breathing, digestion, body temperature, etc.), metabolic processes, and enzyme reactions.

We even receive benefit from the foods we eat that are dependent upon sunlight for proper processing of nutrients, as in the example of plants requiring sunlight for photosynthesis. We understand the effects of light deprivation, especially in northern regions where low light exposure may cause some people to suffer depression, fatigue, and suppressed immune function as well as other conditions. The use of light boxes often helps people who suffer this light deprivation.

Far infrared light is natural to the human body. In fact, each of us emits FIR energy.

This type of light is not seen as light, however, but rather is felt as heat. The waves are the longest in the red spectrum and have the ability to penetrate into the body and create warmth. These are the safest and most beneficial waves.

Saunas most people are familiar with are moist or wet saunas that require heating rocks and splashing water on them during a session. Oftentimes the temperature in these saunas can become quite high and may not be regulated. Overheating can occur. As well, our bodies do not sweat as profusely in wet, hot saunas as they must compete in the external moisture. In contrast, a FIR sauna is dry heat, and profuse sweating can occur with lower temperatures, for many 110120 degrees. The reason is that FIR waves penetrate up to one and onehalf inches into the body. These warming waves create a vibration within the body, exciting the energy of our molecules.

This warming creates a dilation of vessels, improves the flow of fluids, and the vibration causes a breaking

up of water molecules to release more oxygen into the system. As well, when our cells receive this gentle stimulation, they begin to release stored toxins which can then be eliminated by the liver and bowel.

Our skin is also an organ of detoxification in the form of sweating The human body accumulates toxins every day from air, water, and food sources.

It takes a huge amount of nutrients to detoxify these substances, and oftentimes, because we all face tremendous exposure, our detoxification systems become clogged, backed up, or unable to rid these substances because it lacks the nutritional components to effectively do so (bringing into our awareness the importance of eating better foods).

Sweat therapy has been practiced around the world, but is currently gaining popularity in the United States. Many toxins are fat soluble and are drawn to sweat and expelled through the skin. And since the accumulation of toxins contributes to illness, sweating becomes a valuable consideration to practice often.

Here are some of the benefits of using a FIR sauna: • Improvement in oxygen delivery • Improvement in circulation and cardiovascular conditioning • Muscle relaxation • Reduction of pain, achiness, and discomfort • Improvement of skin tone and elasticity • Improved skin conditions from improved blood circulation and the removal of toxins improving conditions of acne, rashes, burns, skin lesions • Improvement in weight management by the burning of calories (a person can sweat as much as 500 grams in a sauna, mostly water which can be replaced with rehydration, but the fat loss remains) • Improvement with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome by the removal of toxic overloads Another benefit of FIR sauna is that the lower temperatures are easy on the eyes and breath. It is easier to breathe in dry heat versus moist heat. Many hospitals use FIR warmers in the nursery for newborns.

Research has revealed that when using a conventional sauna, sweat contains about 95 to 97 percent water. In users of a FIR sauna, sweat contained 80 to 85 percent water and the non-water portion was principally cholesterol, fat soluble toxins, toxic heavy metals, sulfuric acid, sodium, ammonia and uric acid. These high amounts of heavy metals will not be eliminated in sweat from normal exercise.

Toxic overload will bring on the following symptoms: fatigue, headaches, joint or

Page 28 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

muscle pain, frequent colds and flu, signs of allergy and hormonal imbalance, chemical sensitivity, sinus congestion, psoriasis and other skin conditions, loss of dexterity, insomnia, and more. Psychological symptoms include poor concentration, memory loss, mood changes, mental confusion and changes in behavior. These are great reasons to consider FIR sauna therapy as a regular part of one’s health care regimen.

I love to sit in my sauna sometimes to be quiet and meditate, sometimes to listen to music or a book on tape, or to read, often a novel, but mostly science texts about how we can improve health through massage, sauna, and proper nutrition. I set it at 120 degrees for thirty minutes. It is always best to begin with low temperatures for a short duration to see how your body responds. Some people take a long time to sweat as their bodies become accustomed to the warming. Over time, temperature and session duration can increase. As with all new practices, it is always best to check with your medical health provider to discuss the use of sauna therapy.

With so many benefits to using a FIR sauna regularly, it becomes an affordable investment in health and well being by restoring healthy function to our physical systems, removing toxins which also reduces our acidity (a major cause of illness), and bathing us in nurturing warmth of the safest most natural kind.

Krystle Shapiro is a licensed medical massage therapist with Touchstone Massage Therapies in Sandpoint and is the founding member of the Sandpoint Wellness Council. She may be reached at 208/290-6760 or at sandpointwellnesscouncil.com.

Please call any of us or visit our blog at www. sandpointwellnesscouncil.com to ask questions or leave comments. Our goal is to be a resource for our community; our blog is your forum to interact with us and other readers.

Sandpoint Wellness Council members: Krystle Shapiro, BA, LMT, CDT,Reiki, Touchstone Massage Therapies Oncology Massage Specialist 208.290.6760 Owen Marcus, MA Rolfing 208.265.8440 www.align.org Kristine Battey, MA, PT Divine Health and Fitness Personal Training & Physical Therapy 208.946.7072 www.divinehf.com Mary Boyd, MS, PT Mountain View Physical Therapy 208.290.5575 J. Ilani Kopiecki, BA, CMT Integrated Bodywork and Craniosacral Therapy 208. 610.2005 Robin & Layman Mize CBS Quantum Biofeedback 208.263.8846 Chris Rinehart Homeopathy 208.610.0868

Family Fun Night

Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 21. In celebration of the end of another great 4-H year and anticipation of the upcoming year, Bonner County 4-H and the Bonner County Fair board will be hosting a Family Fun Night from 6 to 8 pm. at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. This event is open to any family interested in learning more about 4-H and our current 4-H families. There will be games for all ages, cake walk, ice cream social, and line dancing. There will be musical entertainment also. We will also be honoring a Leader of the Year, selected by 4-H members and parents.

There will be door prizes and fun for all. Area 4-H clubs will be available to answer questions about joining 4-H. This event is open to all and there is no charge. 4-H is open to all youth ages 818 and parents are welcome as volunteer leaders. 4-H projects are not just for farm kids. There are many non-livestock or small animal projects to choose from.

For more information about 4-H or the Family Fun Night, contact Nancy Wright at the Bonner County Extension Office, at 263-8511.

IT’S TURKEY BINGO TIME! November 12 thru 14 Games on Thursday & Friday from 6 pm to 8 pm, ten games each night Games on Saturday from 12 to 4 pm, 20 games total

Don’t miss the kick off for the Lions Club’s annual toys for tots drive!

Keep on Wading

Online at RiverJournal.

Sponsored by your friendly Bonner Mall com and Facebook (www. Merchants along with the Bonner County Daily Bee, Blue Sky Broadcasting’s 106.7 facebook.com/pages/Clark- the Point and K102, and the River Journal.

Fork-ID/The-River-Journal/ 121964902012?ref=nf) or follow us on Twitter (@ 300 Bonner Mall Way riverjournal) in Ponderay 208.263.4272

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 29

Coffelt Funeral Home, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Get complete obituaries online at

www.CoffeltFuneral.com GREENLEAF Concette “Connie” Greenleaf, 96, of Sandpoint, Idaho died Friday, October 2 at Bonner General Hospital She was born June 14, 1913 in Spokane, Wash. the daughter of Frank and Martha (Fish) Rogers. She began her schooling at St. Xavier in Spokane. The family moved to Sandpoint in 1922 and she completed the 8th grade at Farmin School. She graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1931. On December 25, 1937 she married Paul Greenleaf in Sandpoint, and they were married for over 60 years.

Connie worked in retail sales for a number of years at Delamarter’s, Marjean’s and Sears. In addition to her career she was active in local politics, serving as democratic precinct committee woman and served on the election board well into her 90s.

She was an avid swimmer, was famous for her cooking especially her pies, enjoyed working in her yard, but the greatest joy in her life was her family.

She was a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and a long time member of the Altar Society at the church.

Connie is survived by two daughters: Paula (Craig) Royer and, Barbara (Larry) Headden; grandson: David (Lisa) Sutliff; 6 great grandchildren: Joseph (Amy) Sutliff, Madyson Sutliff, T.J. Loosmore, Keila Loosmore, Jacob Heuscher, Samantha Heuscher; 4 great-great grandchildren: Luke Sutliff, Peyton Guercio, Shelynn Loosemore, Ryiely Loosemore; 3 sisters-in-law: Murle Rogers, Wilma Rogers, Patricia Rogers, and by many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents and 10 brothers and sisters.

The Vigil Service with Rosary Prayers was said at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Sandpoint. The Mass of Christian Burial was held with Father Dennis C. Day, officiating. Interment followed in Pinecrest Cemetery.

HALPIN Verna Kathryn Halpin, 86, of Sandpoint, Idaho died Thursday, October 8, at Life Care Center.

She was born June 15, 1923 in Ponderay, Idaho the daughter of Andrew and Mary (Stans) Pomerinke.

She attended local schools and lived for many years in Sprague, Wash. In 2003 she returned to the Sandpoint area. Verna enjoyed sewing and embroidery work.

She is survived by 7 children: June Higson, Ray Arquette and Mike Arquette, Wallace Halpin, Reva Rose Hildreth, Carolyn, Jimmy; 14 grandchildren: 20 greatgrandchildren; 5 great-great-grandchildren; and by 1 brother: Danny McMurtrey. She was preceded in death by her parents, 3 brothers and 1 sister.

Private family services will be conducted at a later time.

PUSEY Glenn T. Pusey, 73, of Sagle, Idaho died at his home.

He was born July 7, 1936 in Philadelphia, Penn., the son of James and Pauline Pusey. He graduated from high school in Lancaster County, Penn., and served in the U.S. Army for 3 years with the 82nd Airborne.

He became an iron worker in 1964 in California and worked construction for 30 years throughout the west.

He was a member of the International Association of Iron workers Local #14 in Spokane and Local #416 in Coeur d Alene.

He moved to Sagle in 1976. He enjoyed boating, water sports, nature and all outdoors.

Glenn is survived by 2 children: Terry Pusey, Laurie Kish; 3 siblings: Virginia Weed, Joan Bowers, Kenneth Pusey and by his ex-wife: Connie Pusey. He was preceded in death by his parents, and 1 brother Wayne Pusey.

Funeral Services were conducted at Coffelt Funeral Chapel. Private interment followed in Whispering Pines Cemetery.

SPILLER Charles R. Spiller, Jr., 85, of Sandpoint, Idaho passed away October 12 at Life Care of Sandpoint.

Charles “Chuck” Spiller was born October 21, 1923 in Los Angeles, Calif the son of Charles R. Spiller, Sr., and Regina Roberts Spiller. Both parents were originally from Montana. Chuck was raised and educated in West Los Angeles, graduating from Hamilton High School in 1941. Immediately upon his graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Army, qualified for the Army Air Corp and served during World War II. Upon being honorably discharged from the Air Corps he came home and held two jobs to support his family.

He soon attracted the attention of the prestigious insurance firm E. Brooks Randall & Son in Beverly Hills where he began his business career. After five years he struck out on his own to form his own agency, which he eventually moved to Newport Beach, Calif. In the early 70s he began his second career as a real estate broker and land developer, which was the profession he loved and in which he became very successful. It was in Newport Beach that he met Joyce Waltze, and after a whirlwind courtship they were married in Las Vegas in 1983. This marriage resulted in the uniting of two loving families.

The couple enjoyed 26 years together, much of which was spent traveling in an RV. Chuck was adventurous and their travels took them the length and breadth of North America from the Mayan pyramids to the Arctic Circle.

They discovered Sandpoint in 1992 and built their dream house on Pine Street in 1993. During the middle 1950s he became involved with Little League baseball by supporting his sons’ involvement as players and eventually became manager of the team. One of the members of that team went on to enjoy a successful career in the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox. Chuck also served as president of the entire West Los Angeles Little League and was instrumental in getting a water line put under the 405 freeway(during its construction), which to this day serves the West Los Angeles Little League and Pony League fields from the Veterans Administration property at no cost to the league.

Chuck was an avid baseball fan, especially rooting for his beloved Dodgers, and listening to the voice of Vin Scully broadcasting when he was unable to attend the games. He enjoyed sports fishing, which kept Chuck and Joyce returning to Mexico and Alaska for many years.

The game of golf was another of his accomplishments, even hitting a hole-in-one at the Hidden Lakes course a few years ago. No matter what he enjoyed or in what he was involved his greatest pleasure was his family. His grandchildren and great grandchildren have retained a close relationship with their beloved grandfather and he has been a guiding force in many of their lives.

In addition to his wife, Joyce of Sandpoint, he is survived by 3 sons: David Spiller, Phil (Ann) Spiller, and Joe Spiller; 3 step-children: Lori Brewster and her husband Bob Powers and Mike (Alyssa) Waltze, Todd (Annette) Waltze; 1 sister: Teresa Stoker, 1 brother: Robert (Midge) Spiller; 19 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, 1 son: John, and 1 sister Joanne.

BOUTIN James Fred Boutin, 73, of Clark Fork, Idaho died October 12 at his home following a valiant battle with cancer.

He was born June 28, 1936 in Winchester, Conn., the son of Lewis and Mary Boutin. He was raised in Winsted, Conn., and graduated from high school there. He later served in the US Army. After his honorable discharge he began a career as a technician in the nuclear industry.

His occupation took him all over the US. He married his wife Jan and they celebrated 40 years of marriage before her death in 1992. After Jan’s death he lived with his dear friend Bobby Wales until her death in April 2008. He has lived in Clark Fork since the early 1980s.

He is survived by 3 sisters: Ginger Chatfield, Mildred Hubbard, and Shirley Veronesi, 1 brother: Joseph Boutin; numerous nieces and nephews and by many friends including Carol Halkyard and Bill and Donna Harp of Clark Fork. Private services will be held at a later time.

JOHNSON Arthur F. Johnson, 96, passed away October 14 at his brother’s home.

He was born July 12, 1913 in Blitzen, Ore., 90 miles south of Burns, the son of Arvid (Bob) and Rose Johnson.

He finished the first grade in Oregon and came to Idaho with his parents in 1920. Art finished the eighth grade at Oden School and his freshman year at Sandpoint High School. His second year he followed the love of his life and spent more time at the airport than he did in class playing hooky, and thus dropped out of school. In 1930 he went back to school with his brother, Herb, and graduated from Hope High School in 1932. He built a primary glider in shop class. He went to work on the railroad after high school. In 1936 he went to Indiana for aeronautical engineering, but ran out of money. He went to Chicago and got a job welding and worked in the same shop for over 50 years.

He returned to Idaho in 2003 and resided with his brother and sister-in-law, Don and Nancy.

He owned and built many airplanes and gliders. He would fly his “T” craft to Idaho and land in the hay field. Art never married but had two loves; flying and family.

He is survived by two brothers: Robert and Donald (Nancy); two sisters: Ethel Whalen and Betty (Phil) Csorosz; sister-in-law: Anita Johnson; ten nephews, and seven nieces. He was preceded in death by two brothers, Herbert (Helen), Harry, and Robert’s wife Dorothy Johnson.

Memorial services were conducted at Oden Hall, with Pastor Jon Pomeroy, officiating. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Oden Hall Restoration Fund, or to a charity of donor’s choice.

IRVING Daniel LeRoy Irving, 65, of Sandpoint, Idaho died October 15 at his home following a short battle with cancer.

He was born July 7, 1944 in Phoenix, Ariz. to Dixie and Marvin Irving and grew up in Oakland, Calif.

He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served 4 years and was a Viet Nam veteran. At 22 he married Mary Ellen Costa. They moved to Pittsburg, Calif. where they raised their family and lived for 33 years. In 2000 they moved to Sandpoint where he has since resided.

Daniel worked as a surveyor until his retirement in 1999. He was the supervisor of surveying crews, where his skills of exactness served perfectly.

He loved God, his family, and gardening. He spent hours in his garden, which he said, “was ever changing.”

He even planted 58 trees at the family home in Sandpoint to celebrate his wife’s 58th birthday.

He is survived by his mother: Dixie Nadine Machado, his great aunt: Mildred Carrier; an uncle: Theron Irving; a sister: Sandra Irving Alamillo; 3 brothers: Tim Irving, Al and Tony Machado; his wife: Mary Ellen Irving, daughter: Dana Scholes; and by 3 grandchildren: Amanda Allen, Katelyn and Kimberly Scholes, and by many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father, Marvin Irving, 1brother, John Michael Irving, 1 daughter Leah Katherine Irving, Mass of Christian Burial was conducted at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church with Father Dennis C. Day officiating.

MATZ Jody Marie Matz, 30, of Ponderay, Idaho died October 23 at Holy Family Hospital in Spokane after a brief illness.

She was born May 7, 1979 in Boise, Idaho, and was adopted by Ray and Doris Matz in October of that year.

She was raised on the family ranch in Sagle, Idaho. She attended schools in Sagle and Sandpoint and graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1999.

Jody had various physical challenges that never held her back whether in her work or play. She was active in Special Olympics both summer and winter, loved horse riding, having been active in 4-H when younger, enjoyed dancing, both cross country and downhill skiing, swimming, bicycling. Jody also had a deep affection for animals, having had many pets over the years; most recently her beloved dog Freckles. She was deeply interested and excelled in both geography and history.

Her warm, irrepressible, people-loving spirit influenced her career choice of working with the elderly as a dietary aide in various area assisted living facilities.

She was deeply loved by friends, family, and co-workers.

She loved many many people and never forgot a single one of them.

Jody is a member of Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

She is survived by her parents: Ray and Doris Matz, her brother: Jay (Stephanie) Matz; her niece: Makenzie Matz, and by her grandmother, Grandma Ruth Blair along with numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. She had over the years made contact with her birth family who are too numerous to mention.

Page 30 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

Jody was preceded in death by her paternal grandparents, and by her maternal grandfather.

Memorial services were conducted at Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church with Pastor Steve Nickodemus, officiating. The family suggests memorials to Bonner Community Food Center, 921 5th Ave., Sandpoint, ID 83864 or to a charity of donor’s choice.

Lakeview Funeral Home, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Get complete obituaries online at

www.LakeviewFuneral.org PICK Donald Earl Pick, 84, passed away on September 26 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Funeral services were held at the Sandpoint Seventh-Day Adventist Church with Pastor Matt Lombard officiating. Burial will followed at the Pack River Cemetery with full military honors.

Don was born on July 31, 1925 in Greeley, Colo. to Earl and Vonita Pick. He grew up and attended schools in Greeley prior to enlisting in the Army Air Force. Don served during World War II in Iwo Jima, Sipan, and Tentang operating a grader to build airstrips. He was qualified as a marksman, and received several citations including the WWII Victory Medal, Asiatic Pacific and American Campaign Medals and the Good Conduct Medal.

Don studied engineering in college in San Francisco prior to marring Mary Oliver on October 4, 1959 in Mountain View, Calif. Don worked as a printer for Pacific Press Publishing Association until 1973 at which time the family moved to Sandpoint.

He is a member of the Sandpoint Seventh-Day Adventist Church. He has served as Deacon and Elder.

He enjoyed boating, playing guitar, and camping.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Mary Pick; five daughters, Karen (Craig) Miles, Linda (Jesse) Valenzuela, Donna (David) Frome, Carolie Pick and Bonnie Pick; two brothers, Tom (Ruthi) Pick and David Pick; 15 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, Ferrel Pick.

TREFTS On October 5, following a long, valiant battle against cancer, Todd Hubbard Trefts passed away at his home in Sandpoint, Idaho with his wife at his side. The world is diminished without him.

A Celebration of his Life was held at Trinity Lutheran Church, Bonners Ferry; officiating was Rt. Rev. James Waggoner, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Spokane, and the Rev. Marge Stanley of Sandpoint. Guests wore their favorite color.

Todd was born January 29, 1933, in East Aurora, New York, second son of Linette Hubbard and John Chilion Trefts. He attended grade school and high school in the Buffalo area, and attended Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he graduated in 1955. Todd served in the Army from 1955 through 1957, when he entered Virginia Theological Seminary. In 1961 he graduated with a degree in Sacred Theology. He was ordained as Deacon in 1961, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, in the Diocese of Western New York. In 1962 he was ordained to the priesthood in the Church of Uganda.

In 1956, Todd married Carolyn Ellis in East Aurora.

They divorced in 1986. Immediately following graduation in 1961, Todd and his young family moved to England for a year of training, and then to MBale, and to Mukono, Uganda, to teach at the Bishop Tucker Theological College, now known as Uganda Christian University. He remained in that position until 1969, when the family returned to the United States (although a corner of his heart has always remained there.)The family then moved to Bozeman, Mont., where Todd served as Chaplain at Montana State

University. While in Bozeman he launched several innovative programs, which had the “establishment” shaking their heads, and the students cheering.

In 1987, Todd moved to Maine, serving several small churches there. His health became an issue; and he returned west, moving to Cody Wyoming and then to Westfir, Ore. In 1998 he officially retired from active clergy service, and in 1999 moved to Sandpoint,. In 2001 he married Janet Louise Merrill.

Todd loved the outdoors—hiking, fishing, sailing, cycling; he was passionate about honoring and protecting “this fragile Earth, our island home.” He could build anything, and completed his second recumbent bike shortly before his death. His hand-made rifle stocks, bowls and knives are well known. Even with failing health, he has been perfecting his crafts, and cherishing the love and joy he found in every day of his life.

Todd is survived and will be missed by his four children, their spouses and their children: Gwen Trefts and Tom Olesby; sons Robbie and Hubbard Coe; Mark and Pam Trefts and their children, Ashlee Lent, Brandon Lind and Bailey, Nic and Eli Trefts; Susan Trefts and Jeff Lehman; Valerie and Tim Trefts, and their daughters, Carley and Tatum. He will also be missed by his three stepchildren, their spouses and their children: Tom and Martha Roeder; Karin Wallen and her children Willie, Bekka and Elizabeth, and her grandchild, Becky; Ellen and Scot Pfalzgraff and their children, Will and Katie. He is survived by his wife, Janet, who will miss him the most.

Todd was preceded in death by his brother, Hubbard Trefts, of Hancock, Maine.

Memorial suggestions: Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield VA 22116-70058.

Or Musicians for World Harmony, PO Box 892, Ithaca NY 14851. Or to Hospice.

BARKLEY Helen Barkley, 87, our sister in Christ, was peacefully taken into the arms of Jesus as the sun was rising on Schweitzer Mountain October 17. A celebration of her life was held at the First Lutheran Church in Sandpoint, Idaho with Pastor Dave Olson officiating. Burial took place at the Union Cemetery in Hellertown, Penn.

Helen was born on June 24, 1922 in Leithsville Penn., the eighth of 11 children born to Stephen and Sophia Duh. She grew up on a farm in that rural community, and remained in the farming industry most of her life. People would come from all around the region to ask Helen’s advice on any type of plant.

Helen was known for her service, attitude toward others, and for volunteering her time to family, church, and local causes. Helen loved the Lord and singing in the choir at New Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Bethlehem Penn. In her later years she learned to travel and became a yearly visitor to her family in northern Idaho.

She is survived by her son Stephen (Brenda) Barkley; 3 daughters LouElla (Eugene) Dillon, Barbra (David) Goerlich, and Tina (David) Sundquist.; grandchildren Shannon (Jason) Biddelman, Bryon (Zabrielle) Dillon and Makayla and Paul Sundquist. Great-grandchildren Joby Dan and Emelee Dillon, and Zoey Biddleman; two brothers Oscar Duh and Louis Duh and one sister Ida Mease. She was preceded in death by her parents and husband George Ellis Barkley.

Memorial donations may be sent to the First Lutheran Church, 526 S. Olive, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

TUCHON Tara Ann Tuchon, 24, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Denver, Colo., on October 18. Memorial services will be held at 11 am, Saturday, November 7, at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint, Idaho.

BANKS Clifford W. Banks, 90, passed away on October 20 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Memorial services were held at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint.

Clifford was born in Chicago, Ill. on August 7, 1919. His parents were Scottish-born Harry Banks and Catherine Robertson. Clifford met and fell in love with Nancy A. Clukas at an ice skating rink in Chicago in 1935. He always said that he married Nancy because her father had a lot of dough. Alfred Clukas (her father) was a bakery shop owner. Cliff drove the bakery delivery truck (1932 Chevrolet van). Soon he went to trade school to learn ornamental plastering. He excelled and became a journeyman. He worked on many buildings in the Chicago area, including the Prudential Building which was the tallest building at the time.

Clifford and Nancy married September 2, 1939. In 1940 he built a home for his new wife. When WWII broke

out, most construction jobs ended and he went to work for National Malleable Steel Company, a manufacturer of tanks and war equipment, where he was an overhead crane maintenance man. After the war he returned to plastering.

In 1946 Clifford tried farming in Indiana and grew soy beans and corn. It was a tough time, and now with three children, he would do plastering in Chicago during the week and farming on the weekends in Indiana. In 1950 he sold the farm and moved to Stickney, a suburb of Chicago.

He remolded their home in Stickney, including digging a full basement, and added several bedrooms to accommodate his growing family of five children. He joined the Stickney Volunteer Fire Department and was instrumental in remolding the firehouse. After receiving additional training he became the Fire Chief.

In 1959, Cliff and his family moved to Buena Park, Calif. where he worked as an ornamental plasterer for Disneyland. His creations can be seen even today. In 1969 he worked for the Wilshire Boulevard Jewish Temple and was appointed Maintenance Superintendent over all properties. He retired in 1974.

They then moved to Sandpoint where he built the Pack River General Store on Rapid Lightening Creek Road. He worked a short time as a maintenance man at the Northside Elementary School. Cliff again became a volunteer fireman for the Northside Fire Department for 20 years. During this time he was instrumental in the building of five new firehouses in the Bonner County area.

He claimed “We’ve never lost a foundation yet.” He also served as the Bonner County Building Inspector.

Cliff is survived by his wife, Nancy, his sister, Jeannie Boots, his son, Clifford A.(Mary Lou) Banks and his daughters, Nancy Kerr, Pamela Banks, and Sandra Cartwright.He is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Cliff was preceded in death by his brothers, Harry, Hugh, and Jack, and his sisters, Martha, Isabelle, Catherine, and Marie, and a son, Jerry Banks.

In lieu of flowers, family has requested donations be made to Bonner Community Hospice, P.O. Box 1448, Sandpoint, ID 83864 or Community Cancer Services, 1215 Michigan St., Sandpoint, ID 83864.

FURY Timothy Andrew Fury, 20 April 1959-2 September, 2009.

On the afternoon of September 2, Timothy A. Fury died as the result of injuries suffered during a car accident on Highway 2 at the Yack Hill not far from Libby, Mont.

A brief memorial service was held at the Lakeview Funeral Home on the night of October 1 by congregations he had been a member of.

Timothy is survived by his brother, River Journal columnist Lawrence Fury, who will remember Tim as a happy soul unfortunately trapped within a mental disability that proved impossible to overcome; he grieves for the brother that might have been.

Tim is also survived by extended family members: Cousins Robert and Michael Fury of Eugene, Ore.; Greg Fury and wife Mary 0 of Colbet, Wash., along with their son Robert and grandson Connel; and last but certainly not least, his aunt Joyce Fury of Spokane Valley, Wash.

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November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 31

STACCATO NOTES What’s up in November?

The nights are getting longer and the community responds with a lot of wonderful things to do!

For food, try Hope’s Harvest Dinner on November 13. Appetizers, no-host bar and a bucket raffle followed by dinner catered by Pend Oreille Pasta, starting at 5:30 pm. Tickets are $20 and $2 from each goes to the Christmas giving program. Feel free to bring canned goods as well! It’s all at Hope’s Memorial Community Center. Call 208-264-5481.

Or how about a Tango Cafe catered affair on Saturday, November 14 as part of the Model United Nations International evening? $25 gets you heavy appetizers and desserts representing cultures througout the world. The event helps send Sandpoint’s youth to the Model United Nations Conference in New York City in March 2010. Call 208-946-3483. It all takes place at the Panhandle State Bank building in Sandpoint.

The food doesn’t get any fresher than when you catch it yourself, and November marks the annual Thanksgiving Derby. Friday through Sunday, November 27 through 29, get out on the lake and catch some fish! Visit www.lpoic. org for more information or call 208-264-5796.

November also provides the opportunity to

experience some great music. On November 13 catch the blues hit The Insomniacs at Di Luna’s in downtown Sandpoint. Doors open at 5:30 pm. Dinner is available before the concert (reservations required). Tickets for the show are $15 in advance and $18 on the day of the show.

Call 208-263-0846.

Other musical experiences include a piano concert by Tien Hsieh at 7:30 pm. on November 13 in the Panida Theater (208-263-6139). A Dave and Tami Gunter dinner concert at 41 South, (208-265-2000) A Songwriters’ Circle fundraiser to benefit Human Rights education in Bonner County (call 208-263-9191), Eric Church at the Panida on November 29 (visit www.ericchurch. com), and pianist Del Parkinson at Hope’s Memorial Community Center on December 4 (call 208-264-5481).

In film, don’t miss the Teton Gravity Research Film on November 21, and the animated film Ponyo on November 27 and 28, both at the Panida (208-263-9191).

The November arts scene features an art reception in the Old Power House, That Thing You Do (208-263-6139) and a Southeast Asia Photography Exhibit and Benefit (208-2655533), both on November 20.

Finally, to kick off the holiday season, it’s a round-up of traditional festivities.

Holly Eve will take place this year on November 21 at the Sandpoint Events Center.

Fashion show, live and silent auctions, dance performances, complimentary champagne and hors d’oeuvres and more. 208-263-8956.

Downtown Sandpoint begins festivities with the traditional tree lighting ceremony and caroling on November 27 at 5:30 pm at the Town Square, followed by specials at stores downtown. Kinderhaven’s Festival of Trees begins with Family Night on December 3 (free and open to the public at the Sandpoint Events Center from 4 to 7 pm) followed by the Holiday Luncheon on December 4 (lunch buffet catered

by Ivano’s and silent auction, $30) and the Gala Dinner and Live Auction ($70) on December 5. Visit KinderhavenSandpoint.com for more information. And you won’t want to miss the traditional performance of The Nutcracker at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater.

To find out more, visit the activities calendar at Sandpoint Online (www.SandpointOnline. com/current/index.shtml.) and check it out.

There’s something going on for everyone!

Page 32 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

Scott Clawson

acresnpains@dishmail.net Carpentry is one of those fields where, if you’re out in it long enough, you’ll be part and parcel to a wide variety of entertainment, much of which should not be divulged to mothers of carpenters.

Take dirty words and phrases. Not yet a category on “Jeopardy,” but capable, just the same, of some amazing things anyway!

A few that come to mind are fear, shock, giggles, guffaws, dread, panic and loathing. Out of that group, the most important one is consciousness from those who are in desperate need of some.

Profanity can also clear a crowded work space faster’n last night’s roast garlic!

Progress often follows a well-placed dirty word. Like any tool, though, results vary by user and the mood in which it is given. There are those who can swear one minute and get fired or arrested the next, and there are those who do it right and get promoted or re-elected.

I prefer construction in this regard in that it’s always to the point and not all flowered up like some other professions. There’s no guesswork about what it means. Unlike in church, say, or maybe a library where it never seems to work in the way I mean it to. On special occasions like blunt force trauma, for instance, I’ve been known to recite without intermission or repeatin’ myself until my endorphins kicked in hard enough to allow my lips to stop movin’. This can take a minute or two, depending on the impact.

What can I say, I grew up in a Montana bar and learned how to swear before I was introduced to toilet paper.

When you’re driving nails, it’s awful easy to drive in one of yer own, especially while in the framing stages. One crew I worked on got in a serious competition over just how few whacks were necessary to drive home the average 16d sinker. We all had 22-ounce waffle heads and too much coffee, so the playing field was fairly even. By the time the boss showed up, there were just two of us left. The rest had dispersed to get medical attention. The winner overall was a kid we nicknamed “Knuckles” for the way they drug on the ground. He was so inspired he managed to drive a nail-in-one! Well, actually, he got three in one blow, but only one was metal. If he hadn’t had sunglasses on, his eyeballs would’ve popped out on the floor. This is what they mean by “leaving a little something of yourself in your work.”

The interesting thing about ‘peening yer

thumb/forefinger nail holding jig is this: it’s very similar to biting the inside of your cheeks. It will happen more’n once unless you take the rest of the week off to do a little fishin’.

If you hit the same one twice, everyone around you will hear cusswords three octaves higher than the first one. A third hit will typically see the hammer go off on a fling someplace followed by a lot of whimpering and some first aid.

I missed “orientation day” at the School

of Hard Knocks and’ve been workin’ on my degree the hard way ever since!

I once shot three fingers together with a 2-inch finish nail while I was, of course, up a ladder. I let out a quick reference to the gun’s lineage, sexual preferences and moral turpitude and let it go at that. It didn’t hurt so I thought I’d finish up what I was doin’.

“Did you shoot yerself Clawson?” This blurt came out of my boss at the time and oddly still my friend, Scott Hancock. “Well, there go my premiums you blockhead!” I can’t reiterate the next several statements; suffice it to say they had some color attached.

“Where you goin’?”

“Get a camera,” says I. “What for?!”

“Ta show my wife and kids! It’ll crack ‘em up. Besides, my wife thinks I probably just screw around all day. Well, here’s proof that sometimes I use nails.”

I handed my camera to Jim Ford who obligingly took my portrait while I pulled one of my fingers free so I could give him one of only two salutes known to carpenters throughout the world. Actually, there’s a third but it requires sound effects you just can’t get on a typewriter.

About a month prior, Scott and I were discussin’ some details, when I noticed a framing nailer looking in our direction. I mentioned, without the use of swear words

(why, I don’t know), the risks involved in such a practice but was informed that I needn’t worry about it. Before I could throw out a couple of meaningful obscenities, the very next round split its intended board, ricocheted off a rock and stuck twenty feet away in the center of my leather and felt knee pad, stopping just inside my Levis and lightly dimpling the skin over my patella.

Scott was speechless and a little pale for about two seconds, then the color returned to his cheeks as well as his vocabulary. “&#!@T*&F@+%!! That coulda been MY knee, you moron!” Hell, I’d take a nail fer him any day; that’s what friends are for.

Some other things that precede colorful words and phrases are practical jokes. Two words joined together by an absolute idiot! For instance, there’s really nothing practical about having someone shave a couple degrees off your speed square just to watch you argue with yer work.

Or getting drilled in the back by a snowball with a hidden cargo of drywall mud.

Or getting your boot screwed to a bundle of trusses you just hooked to a crane. I’ll agree to funny, but not practical.

Once in a while these little episodes of practicality have a delayed “swearingin” ceremony. Like gettin’ home, thinking about something cold and sweaty awaitin’ in the fridge, set the ol’ lunch bucket on the counter to clean out the remains of the day and have something fast, furry and claustrophobic jump out and vanish before you can get your underwear untied.

Or get home, take off yer coat to find a sign on the back warning everyone behind you not to light matches or use a cell phone with fifty feet. Then you recall all the stops you happened to make on the way home; the library, three stores, chiropractor, gas station, post office and the bank.

On the job, pets are quite capable of inciting near riot conditions when least expected. It all depends on the phase yer in. The wet cement, wet paint, new carpet or freshly varnished floor phases are some to leave your pet home by. Other’n those, they’re great to have around, especially at recess.

One day a blue healer named Buddy went past what I was doin’, grabbed a sawed-off broom, headed upstairs under a NO ADMITTANCE sign with an addendum attached underneath that read in plain English “under penalty of death,” and proceeded to pummel every freshly Continued on next page

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 33

Half a Decade Jinx Beshears

jinxbychoice08@yahoo.com I woke up, breathing hard. My chest felt cramped, like someone or something was sitting on me, rendering me helpless to what was coming. What was coming? It was there in the back of my mind, looming over me like some hideous villain about to take my birthday away.

What was wrong? Why was I feeling so ominous? I was sweating profusely, fear enveloping my heart, causing it to beat wildly in my chest. Was I suffocating? I expected my life to flash before my eyes at any moment. It was still dark outside, but the morning was quiet; was I in danger?

I stretched my legs out on the bed, listening to each bone and muscle snap and pop into place. I listened to the silence until I was sure there were no boogie men waiting under the bed to snatch my world away. I got up out of bed to shuffle to the bathroom, my knees unwilling to move properly, so like a penguin I waddled until I gained my daytime legs. Turning the light on in the bathroom, I glanced into the mirror. The previous moments of fear came crashing back to my mind.

Oh yeah, I remember what was wrong. I turn 50 today. Fifty! Five decades! One half of a century! No wonder I was breathing hard.

No matter how you sputter it, 50 sounds really old. Just yesterday I was still in my 40s. Now, I am 50. No denying it, everyone in my life seems determined to remind me of how OLD I am. I am old enough to get my AARP card, (which for some weird reason they have kept up with my aging body?), old enough to be a Red Hat Lady. Which is not that big of a deal, I have met some Red Hat ladies I really admire and they are great, but at the same time, they are, well, for lack of a better term, OLD. Why is 50 such a milestone? Why do we feel obligated to harass those who are turning 50? I always have. Turning 50 means I have to dress my age and my kids love that idea. No more low cut blouses and shiny gold jackets with earrings that hang down to my shoulders! Turning 50 means having an empty nest (although I have had

Colorful- continued from page 33 painted door jamb on the second floor. Don McCabe and his crew were so taken by this gesture of friendship that they essentially played ‘volley-dog’ with him from room to room until he got bored and came back downstairs where he gave me a big ol’ grin and sauntered back outside, mission

that for a while now). Turning 50 means I get to have a mid-life crisis! Like I haven’t had enough crisis in my world already?

Now, if I get to pick my own crisis, that will be a different story. I could pick a crisis that for once involves me getting money and being thin and beautiful, yeah, that is the crisis I am talking about.

Being 50 means I get to have bifocals which aren’t “bifocally” strong enough for me to apply mascara to my eyelashes properly and instead end up with goo on my eyelids. I can’t read the fine print on the groceries I buy to help my 50-yearold metabolism try to kick start my life. I get to have hot flashes, although they are nothing new, I have been having those since enduring my chemo period. Menopause, however, brings a new and improved version of hot flashes/spontaneous human combustion and menopause brings back the good old acne era. Yup, zits, erupting and disrupting everywhere. It’s like my skin has turned on me. Pimples and wrinkles, what joy!! I woke up to wrinkles where I didn’t think wrinkles would dare to go. My epidermis decided somewhere along the line that it was not going to age gracefully; instead it has entered the not-so-Golden age kicking and screaming, and it shows. If 50 is supposed to be the new 40, my skin declined the invitation.

It’s not like I think life is over at 50.

Some articles I have read say life begins at 50, while the next page states, “it’s all downhill from here.” The later statement proves true because every part of my body has decided to travel several inches south, except my new post-breast cancer boobs, of course. Those babies will be perky until I die, which could prove to be interesting for the mortician assigned to my interment!

(Which is kind of a creepy thought, so I will not go any further into that!)

Fifty is supposed to be the age where we start becoming financially secure, but somewhere along the track, I got off that train. That is why I look like I do, because I can’t afford to buy the new magical potions and creams that take 30 years off your looks, but the cost of those items will take 30 years off your life! Botox is no longer necessary, there are creams and gels and pencils that do the trick. (It’s true, I’ve seen accomplished. I managed to catch three new bawdy phrases and five blasphemes I’d never heard before, three of which rhyme!

But, other’n for rips, tears, splinters, splatters and contusions, bent ladders, weak bladders, slippery conditions, lame renditions, bad gas, building inspectors, meter maids, crappy lumber, cranky lumbars, hypothermia, heat stroke, frostbite,

pictures!). Although I don’t see the need for such facial treatments—I am 50 for Pete’s sake, who cares what your skin looks like?!

No one is looking anymore.

Maybe that is the confidence that comes with turning fifty. It doesn’t matter what you look like, ‘cause no one looks anymore?

I am a baby boomer, but no longer a babe; gone are the days of being a “hot mama;” now I am a warm, fluffy grandma. Bye bye to the winks that used to come my way daily, now I get the boy scouts trying to help me across a street that I don’t care to cross.

According to my friend Sherry I now have to watch my step for fear of breaking a hip and curb my taste for alcohol so that it won’t interfere with my dementia medication. Sherry is not just a friend, she is more like my twisted sister. If I had a talking tumor on my shoulder telling me to be careful, encouraging me to fight and survive, telling me I was beautiful on the inside and out (no matter how many wrinkles and blemishes I have), it would be Sherry. One of the best things about Sherry, besides her always giving it to me straight, is that she is 15 days older than me and as luck would have it, that will never change!

The bygone days of melting and pouring myself into a pair of jeans, only to lie on the bed to pull the zipper up with pliers, are oh so thankfully, gone!! Now comfort wins out every time. If I had to attend an “affair,” I would request a pair of dress sweats!

Because of my lust for adventure, coupled with misfortune, Sherry drew a picture of me. Me in my new life as a fifties-plus woman. (Thank God that is age and not size, yet!). I made the mistake of telling Sherry that if I ever had to have a wheelchair it would have to be neon pink, with 4 wheel drive and basket on the front of it for Aspen, (who even in dog years is younger than me). Like the Red Hat ladies, I would wear my big red hat and purple scarf, I would have to add bright red lipstick, and Sherry insisted on adding wobbling wheels on my chair, so Banjo would have something to harass me about. (like my son-in-law needs an excuse!).

So, I am 50. It should be liberating some say. I should feel free. The only thing I read about turning 50 that I actually liked, was that after 50 women feel invisible! Now I like that idea! Do you know what I could do if I were invisible? I could get away with... nope, that is a whole different story! stupidity, morbidity or mud, as well as knots, trots an’ snots, it’s seldom you’ll hear a disparaging sneer from carpenters, unless you’re in their way. In closing, there ain’t much can compare with sneezing behind a welding hood with a mouth full of cupcake, but rollin’ off a roof to land in a fresh mound of horsemanship sure comes close.

Page 34 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

Christmas in downtown Sandpoint!

November 23 Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Town Square, 5:30 pm

December 11 Men’s Night Shopping downtown, 5-8 pm

December 12 Family Day - events for the entire family.

FREE horse-drawn trolley rides! 11-3

Plus: Free all-day parking in the city lot until December 31 and Visit Santa Claus at the North Pole (located in the Cedar Street Bridge) every Saturday from 11 to 3 pm through December 21. See complete downtown holiday details at www.

DowntownSandpoint.com or call 208-255-1876

Downtown Sandpoint Merchants InviteYou to Celebrate the Season with a

Holiday Block Party Thanksgiving Weekend Fri, Sat and Sun Nov 27-29

Special Values and Treats in Every Store . . . PLUS

pen Stores o iday.

7pm Fr 7am to hours d e d n e t Ex n!

Sat & Su

Register to win a gift basket worth more than Santa will draw the winner at the treelighting ceremony Friday night.

Photo: Ross Hall “It’s a Wonderful Life.” ©Hallans Gallery

Come downtown to kick off the holiday season - your friends are waiting for you!

All Smiles Scandinavian Affair Larson’s Fritz’s Fry Pan Northwest Handmade Sharon’s Hallmark Outdoor Experience Finan McDonald Hallans Gallery Blue Lizard Zany Zebra Athlete’s Choice Bella Jezza MeadowBrook Great Stuff Petal Talk Cedar Street Bridge Café Pedro’s Zero Point Few and Far Vanderford’s

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 35

From the Mouth of the River

“Camaraderie,” a word used to explain the enjoyment that occurs when old friends get together on fishing trips or in hunting camps and remembering the good times of past trips together while sitting around camp fires. When the sizzling of fresh caught trout, onions and potatoes ignite over an open fire blackening every thing in the pans, you’ll hear in unison, “That’s just the way we like ‘em.” That’s camaraderie for you, knowing dang well the first one to complain will have to do the cooking for the rest of the trip.

These friends I hang out with are long in the tooth. That is to say, some are balding and some are gray but most are just old.

They have many stories to tell from past experiences and are hard to prove wrong unless their story involves a large fish or a giant buck. Then it’s an obvious lie, but they insist on telling them anyway.

All of our hunting trips as young men started out the same way, whether it was for elk or deer. Get up early before daylight, hike up to the top of the nearest mountain, sit for twenty or maybe thirty seconds, and then hike up the next mountain and so on until dark and then drag back to camp.

Next day start all over again until you shoot something, and the distance between where you downed your game and camp is measured in miles not minutes. But you were young back then and time and distance meant nothing. Besides, the next day two of your closest friends would go help you pack it out.

These days it’s a different story. When some young hunter comes into camp bragging about shooting the biggest bull elk you ever saw and he’s just over that second ridge it creates a whole different set of reactions.

“Funny you should call those ridges,” I said. “The last time I climbed them they were mountains.”

Then, about this time, my old and well-seasoned friend, Pat McManus, starts complaining about his chest pains and asks if anyone has seen his nitroglycerin tablets. Dave Lisaius (the nationally known outdoorsman), on the other hand just waves an arm towards the cooking fire and declares he’s doing the cookin’ and ain’t got time to be wandering off looking for no dead elk. Even though Dave, according to Pat, is a legendary tracker of some Indian decent and claims to be the only one left in his tribe. Dave was chosen to be the camp cook because he owns and operates “Dave’s House of Fry,” where everything is fried and his platter-size chicken fried steak covered in milk gravy is guaranteed to plug your arteries before you get to your car. In fact, his chicken fried steaks are so looked forward to, that most patrons don’t even notice his waitress is topless!

“You should either get a younger waitress or make that old woman put on a shirt. Did you see what she just drug through my gravy?” Cliff asked. Cliff Dare, another one of our group of retreads, has been a fishing guide on the Kootenai River for over forty years and his family before him were fishing guides and helped in the development of the McKenzie River drift boat over in Oregon. He knows so many funny stories about his clientele you wouldn’t believe half of ‘em. McManus said he doesn’t believe half of them anyway.

He claims Cliff makes them up because he never tells the same story twice. Not at all like Winston. Wind, as we call him, tells the same story over and over again. Before he’s through with his first cup of camp coffee in the morning he starts in.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I worked for the Forest Service? Why, when I was a young man I could run up those Forest Service trails with a chain saw in each hand, carrying a barrel of

Boots Reynolds

water on my back, cut down a tree and use it to whip out a mile of forest fire before them smoke jumpers could even get off the ground. Damn, I was good. Did I ever tell you about the time I worked for the Forest Service? Why, when I was a young... ” It doesn’t matter if someone is right in the middle of telling a story or not, Wind is deaf as a post and just starts talking.

After seeing the movie “UP,” we all stood up around the camp fire and in unison pointed out towards the brush and yelled, “Squirrel!”

Wind stopped talking, for a change, and started looking towards the woods, just like the dog in the movie!

He walked right into a heard of elk one time while hunting and said he had to shoot his way out. He emptied his gun and never touched a hair on one of ‘em. “But I saved myself,” Wind exclaimed, “and that was the important thing.”

Back in his younger days Wind was a trained opera singer and a pretty good one as I understand it, but just like losing his hearing, his hair, and his memory, his voice is changing as well. We talked him into standing out on a ridge away from camp and singing one of his favorite operas. Dave shot a cougar that was sneaking up on Wind and Cliff said he could’a swore he saw Big Foot swooning not far away. Pat thinks Wind’s new CD will make a great varmint call and is looking forward to giving them to his hunting buddies for Christmas.

We let our new Canadian neighbor, Woody Debris, and his son Chip join us on several of our excursions now. Whether it’s a hunting or fishing trip and especially if it’s an overnighter we invite Woody and Chip.

Chip looks up to us older guys as mentors and is real eager to please and we are all very eager to be appreciated. All we gotta do is mention we’re a little low on firewood or water and Chip jumps right on it, which really makes it easy on us old farts. His dad wanted to be part of the entourage so bad that after whining and begging to go along we finally let him buy the groceries and use his new camo-covered motor home to drive us out to camp. We hid it in the brush so other hunters would think we hiked in.

Tim Johnson is another one of our comrades who is old enough to think on his feet, but it’s usually after the fact. Tim was a law officer in Oregon. He even worked for Fish and Game until he got to watching how much money those river guides were making and decided to shuck it all and get rich guiding steelhead and salmon fishermen.

“You wouldn’t believe how much it costs to outfit a proper guide boat,” Tim said. “It took all my retirement. I sold everything I

Page 36 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 11| November 2009

had and refinanced my home twice just to buy a heavy duty aluminum jet boat with all the proper gear, trolling motor, rods, reels, a duelly two-seater, gas-guzzling pick up and another open top boat and motors for a back up. My wife finally had to take two jobs just so I could fish in the manner I had become accustomed to. And you wouldn’t believe how arrogant and demanding my clientele gets when I insist on them letting me fish with ‘em.” We always introduce Tim as our in-house game warden when we don’t want people to ask too many questions, like how many fish we have in our cooler, or did anyone tag that camp meat hidden in that tree over there? And no one would ask to see our license if we were with a game warden. Who would be crazy enough to be out with a game warden without a license?

I remember the only time a warden actually checked us. Can’t recall what state we were fishing in but our licenses were two years old, which the warden pointed

out. “Not a problem, sir.” I pointed at the regulations and explained. “It says right here, we’re allowed six rainbow and no one here has caught more than four so we still got two to go on these licenses.” The young warden looked at us with a blank stare and walked away mumbling something about old farts. Let’s face it, you don’t get to be our age without picking up a few traits that are on the ornery side.

Like fishing with Cliff the other day. We were fly fishing on the Clark Fork and I had caught the first fish which I quickly brought to Cliff ’s attention. “That’s okay,” says Cliff.

“The day’s still young,” he exclaimed as he reached over and released my fish. Being a river guide for over forty years this is a habit he has acquired, one of releasing fish for his clients so they don’t get smelly hands. No one wants to eat a bologna sandwich that smells like fish slime. Cliff, on the other hand, is used to it. Everything he eats smells like fish. Cliff caught a couple of fish and I

missed a couple.

“I’m up one on ya,” bragged Cliff.

“Yeah, but I missed two,” I said.

“That doesn’t count even if we do release them. They gotta be brought to the boat.” I missed two more while he released two.

“What am I doing wrong?” I asked.

“I think you’re lifting your rod too quick,” he said. “Give ‘em time to start down with your fly before you set the hook.”

“You may be right,” I said. “I may just be a little anxious.” Three more hits, no fish.

“You’re waiting too long before you set the hook,” he says.

All of a sudden I had this real dumb feeling come over me. I quickly checked my fly. Instead of mashing my barb down so I would be fishing with a barbless hook, Cliff had snipped the hook off the fly completely.

I turned to see a big smirk on his face. This is the kind of camaraderie you have to put up with when you are out with this bunch, and you know paybacks are hell.

November 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.11| Page 37

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