The River Journal September 2009

Because there’s more to life than bad news

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A News MAGAZINE Worth Wading Through

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Inside:

The Wolf Debate Biking Schweitzer Looking for Love at SHS Veterans of Radio Remembering Hazel Hall Happy Cows for Dinner An Uncertain Flu Seaon

September 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

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

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

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 $425,000

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

niCE Custom home on 15 ac bordering public land, 5Bd / 3Ba home has hydronic floor heat, master suite, 2nd kitch & laundry, two 40’ covered porches, hand built rock walls and matching barns. Beautiful, well managed forested grounds. Asking $479,500

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

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 $234,500

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

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

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 $125,500

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

GOOD ACREAGE, GREAT PRICE 10 Ac w/ well, driveway, bldg pad, private, views... located good views, nice trees. Convienently located between Sandpoint, CDA and Spokane in Clagstone area.

Asking two good fishing lakes nearby.$75,000

REAdY to Go Five acres in Sagle just off of county maintained road. Water,septic and power are all there, the only thing missing is your house. Property is mostly flat with trees to one side, the rest is covered with grass and ready to be pasture. $89,000 BRING ALL OFFERS!

WHY LIST WITH MICHAEL? Consistently ranked top in sales. Your listing advertised in Page |Estate The River Journal - A& News Magazine Worth | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 & No. 9| September The Real Book, Homes Land, Coeur d’ AleneWading Mag.,Through Sandpoint Mag, The River Journal, Farm Ranch Mag., 2009 22+ websites and more... Member of Cd’A and Selkirk MLS, doubles your exposure.

September 2009 Three sides to hunting wolves. See story by Ralph Bartholdt on page 14

THE RIVER JOURNAL A News Magazine Worth Wading Through ~just going with the flow~

Willie Love follows in his mother’s footsteps at Sandpoint High School.

See story by Trish Gannon on page 22 and Love Notes on page 25

Turning grass into heavenly beef See Trish Gannon’s story on page 28

P.O. Box 151•Clark Fork, ID 83811 www.RiverJournal.com•208.255.6957

SALES Call 208.255.6957 or email trish@riverjournal.com

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

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

Trading a board for a bike See story by Kate Wilson on page 36

Jody Forest dgree666@sandpoint.net

Also...

Cartoonists Scott Clawson, Matt Davidson, Kriss Perras

Hazel Hall remembered, preparing for flu season, radio deejays support veterans, an earthshaking anniversary, and oldtimers predict winter

Departments Editorial 9.........Veterans’ News 17-18.....Outdoors 20.........Faith 24.........Education 26.........Technology 29-30.....Food 38-39.....Sports 40-41.....Other Worlds 42.........Politics 44-45.....Wellness 46.........Staccato Notes 48-49.....Obituaries 50-53.....Humor

Cover

Ministry of Truth and Propaganda

8 Currents The worst ever seen 13 The Scenic Route Discovering the word 21 The Hawk’s Nest Music for Sandpoint 25 Love Notes Never say never 27 Politically Incorrect Filling an empty nest 43 Say What?

Yellow Pages 53 From the Mouth of the River A fireworks policy

Laughing Dog Brewing’s Fred Colby explains to Ernie Hawks & David Broughton the secrets of brewing beer.

See stories on page 32

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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Fall Colors train rides with the North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club and the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad.

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We Were There

Hope’s Scott Hancock travels to West Yellowstone to share the memories of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the 50th anniversary of the Hebgen Lake earthquake

As the last couple was introduced by Joanne Girvin of the Forest Service they ascended the ceremonial stage at the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center, in Montana.

They had a question. The lady spoke haltingly as she asked about her relatives, who were lost with many others the night of August 17, 1959. Her question was whether anyone had spoken to or remembered them for any reason while camping at the Rock Creek Campground.

I looked over the gathering of a hundred or so people, waiting for a hand to go up or a voice to be heard. Neither happened. An emotional moment in an emotional weekend at West Yellowstone and Quake Lake.

They are buried beneath the mountain of rock and debris that came down and dammed the Madison River below Hebgen Dam, forming Quake Lake. Eighty million tons of dolomite rock; boulders as big as houses and tons of gathered earth filled the canyon. The water rose, and some of those not killed climbed to a spot called “Refuge Point;” others climbed anywhere they could to avoid drowning in the newly formed lake.

The air filled with dirt so thick breathing was labored, vision blurred and senses unreliable.

Pandemonium, shock, bewilderment, disbelief and destruction. I remember thinking “the Russians have bombed us!” This was, after all, 1959 and Cold War tensions were high.

Earlier that morning Martin Stryker stood on the same platform and told of opening the flaps of the tent he and his brothers were in after the earthquake. He saw the family car crushed by a tree and his father and stepmother’s tent covered with a boulder.

He had to tell his younger siblings of their parents’ deaths and then walk them out of

Cliff Lake for help. He was fifteen.

Bill Conley, formerly of Idaho Falls, told his story the day before at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in West Yellowstone. A story of a perfect vacation and of the debris ending up 30 feet from their camp. Once he could leave he had a harrowing drive, the next night, to Bozeman, to find injured relatives. He was sixteen.

Joann Gartland and Cookie Kobel, two sisters from Denver, told of their father’s passion for fishing and a trip filled with early troubles and then Rock Creek. After the initial shock their father told them to climb high and fast. Later, others joined them and a meal was made the next day from what could be gleaned. They spoke of losing their ‘57 Chevrolet to the new lake. A gentlemen in the audience asked them the color of the car.

He said he had found their car and wanted to float it out with logs. It didn’t happen.

Mildred, “Tootie” Greene of Billings was at the 50th anniversary also. Her nursing career really paid off. That night she saved many.

With roads gone in all directions, military helicopters started evacuations after daybreak. The geologists spoke explaining why the 7.5 magnitude “Hebgen Lake Earthquake” had been so severe. Who knew of all the variations?

S.W. Hancock gave his testimony, a 38year-old state trooper ordered to mobilize from Billings with equipment, supplies and men. They arrived at 9 am on the August 18.

A humble, 88-year-old hero, reluctant to talk about it.

My wife and I could not attend all four days of the anniversary program. I spoke at the West Yellowstone Conference Center gathering and attended the final ceremonies

the next day at the Quake Lake Center, fifty years to the day after it happened, August 17, 2009.

Twenty-six had been buried, and two crushed, and there were undoubtedly more. I heard a story while teaching in New York one summer of a man who had gone west fishing in 1959 and never returned. I told the 200 or so people of my father, older brother and his father-in-law rescuing people on our side of Hebgen, the South Fork of the Madison Arm, all night into the next day and beyond. My 6-month-old niece was saved by my brother.

Cabins were down, camps destroyed and a storm raged after the roar of the mountain falling. Dirt and screams for help filled the air.

And, of course, I spoke of Irene Dunne (formerly Bennett) of Hope, who lost the most, a husband and three children.

Everyone knew her story; some had a copy of her book.

I visited the Earthquake Center for the first time in 50 years. Irene and I never spoke of the quake. My friend, Scott Clawson, was at West Yellowstone during the earthquake.

I wrote in a new book I gave him about the quake. “Unlike Woodstock, we really were there.” His memories appeared in last month’s River Journal, lighter and happier than mine. Five years in age difference gives a lot of perspective.

For two days folks asked me to sign their 1959 Life magazines or 1960 National Geographics; one man even asked me to write a paragraph for his mother back East. She had been there. I was embarrassed, still am.

I didn’t do anything. I was just there. But maybe that was enough.

L. Scott Hancock

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BE THE FIRST PERSON TO BECOME A FAN OF THE RIVER JOURNAL ON FACEBOOK AFTER THIS ISSUE IS DISTRIBUTED, AND GET A FREE COPY OF “INTO THE NIGHT,” IRENE DUNN’S ACCOUNT OF SURVIVING THE HEBGEN LAKE EARTHQUAKE.

Go to our website and follow the Facebook link on our homepage, or visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Clark-Fork-ID/The-River-Journal/121964902012 September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page

A Life Beautifully Lived When Hazel Hall first arrived in Sandpoint on Jan. 3, 1932, she discovered a bustling logging town. When she departed Sandpoint on the wings of angels on Aug. 14, 2009, she left behind a community that has become well-known as one of “America’s 100 Best Arts Towns”. A coincidence?

Hardly.

Hazel’s well-lived life is celebrated by hundreds of us who benefited from the blessing of spending time with her.

I remember Hazel from as soon as I can remember anything. She was a dear friend of my parents, a sorority sister of my Mother’s, and one of those very special grown-ups who paid loving attention to us “younguns.”

Hazel possessed the gifts of being able to encourage and also to inspire. For my friends and me, that meant praising our fledgling efforts in creativity, which in retrospect was probably not an easy thing to do. Then she worked to create opportunities for us to experience some of the best professional arts experiences available.

Exposure to great art (the kind that gives you goosebumps, thrills your very soul, makes you grin like an idiot, makes you cry, excites your passions, makes you want to be a better person is life-changing. And, of course, that’s only the beginning of what art can do to you. Hazel always knew that.

Marilyn Sabella Hazel Hall epitomized community to me, and I wanted to interview her about that and write a story about her life and the creation of Sandpoint as an “arts town.” She refused to let me do it. “But Hazel Hall isn’t anybody,” she said modestly though in true Hazel fashion, she didn’t end there.

Instead, she took it upon herself to write the story she thought I should print, which appeared in four parts beginning in June of 2003. “This is going to be a huge story,” she told me, and it was, as Hazel tracked down every former gallery owner in Sandpoint, and all those current at the time, to tell their story. (You can read them on our website, starting with “Two Hazels with a ‘Bea’ in their Bonnets for Art.”).

I was blessed that Hazel took me, like so many others, under her wing and shared herself unstintingly as I continued the neverending work of making the River Journal a true, community publication. Where I’ve

succeeded, you can give her much of the credit. Trish Gannon “Those who love deeply never grow old: they may die of old age, but they die young”. Sir Arthur Wing Pinero It was the way she loved. Whether the relationship was as Hazel-mom, a dear friend, a neighbor or as the unofficial ambassador of Sandpoint, she demonstrated that “God is Love” wasn’t just a concept, it was a way of life. Everyone she met was special in her eyes. You walked away from

an encounter with Hazel always feeling the best about yourself. And even when our best fell short we were nothing less than perfect in her eyes. She loved unconditionally, was all forgiving, and was ever so kind and patient.

The best part is we all got a priceless inheritance from her. She didn’t pass on trinkets she gave us a treasure trove!

It was sayings and/or practices that she had.

The first one she was well known for: 1. Attitude and gratitude (Look for the good and praise it.) She could see positive in anything.

2. Stay curious -(this probably is what

kept her so young) expose yourself to learning—attend everything 3. Always plant flowers—it’s God’s way of showing love 4. Don’t take yourself so seriously- (she was never stressed) 5. Never complain, never explain. “I’m just no count” was all she’d say about her health.

6. Take a walk every day 7. Write notes to your friends. She acknowledged every kindness.

8. And this last one was so important to Hazel because her light shone, not by her or of her but through her—She meditated.

She meditated and prayed faithfully every day. The reason Hazel took herself so lightly is that she was so firmly rooted with Spirit. She talked to Christ every day, faithfully met in her small study group and could vision nothing but Him in front of her.

She never once gave a sermon.

But she was the best preacher we ever witnessed Hazel single-handedly lit up a town. The best part is she showed us how it’s done. We now know what it sounds like, feels like and behaves like. Now that we know better we get to be better—and we are for having known her. Hazel’s light didn’t dim with her passing, it ignited a blaze!

Jeanelle Shields.

“Someday after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Like with so many others, Hazel was an inspiration to me. Just being around her was comforting, healing, nurturing and FUN!!! Hazel was very firm in her beliefs and by spending time with her I felt closer to greatness.

Hazel and I shared the same birth date, so each year we would both try to be the first one to call the other. She usually won.

In July I was having dinner with Hazel and she told me her grandkids were coming to visit and then she would be ready to meet God. The woman knew what she wanted.

What a blessing it has been to get to know Hazel. I will always cherish my memories of her.

Barb Perusse Hazel Hall, upbeat, inspirational, muchrevered Woman of Wisdom and wife of Sandpoint’s legendary photographer Ross

Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Hall, died at noon Aug. 14, 2009. She was 96.

Hazel’s son Dann is one of my classmates.

I’ve known Hazel most of my life, not only as Dann’s mom, but also as a woman who never wasted a minute of precious life.

Sandpoint lost a gem.

Marianne Love (at www.slightdetour.com) Knowing Hazel Hall was a gift. Reading about her life has been very inspirational as many of her friends and family have expressed their beautiful thoughts of this gracious lady. Her many accomplishments and contributions in this community over her 96 years are well known. We can all learn from her “attitude and gratitude” philosophy of life.

I was privileged to have grown up in Sandpoint and to know the family for over 70 years. Over the years I appreciated her support of so many community activities, especially the arts and classical music. She was always thoughtful about her point of view and never judgemental. Her kind and jolly affection for everyone, including strangers, was admirable. Living her later years has been an enlightening experience— what an amazing role model for growing old. Clever and funny, she always brought a smile to people around her. Hazel Hall was a woman of faith, integrity and wisdom. Her memory and the lessons of life will live on and on and on.

Joanne Kelly Hazel was always ready for a new adventure and welcomed a new challenge.

I don’t know anyone who truly didn’t love talking with her. All her stories were priceless.

Her favorite color was blue.

Her favorite flower was a rose (PeachyPink in color).

Her favorite wine was White Zinfindel.

Her favorite book was the Bible.

Her one and only true love, Ross Hall.

Hazel loved to dance. She loved to read She loved to dress up in pretty dresses and have dinner with friends using only the fine china. She told me once, as a child she loved to ride her horse to school. Then her dad bought a car. From that point on she drove to school. She was 12. Every moment with Hazel was a memory in the making.

The one thing Hazel always looked forward to was being with Ross. She is with him again.

Adapted from “Hazel Hall, That’s All,” presented on Hazel’s 95th birthday, which by proclamation the city of Sandpoint re-named “Hazel Hall Day.” Read more about Hazel in Sandy Compton’s “A Scenic Route” on page 19.

Hazel Hall March 26, 1913 - August 14, 2009

Hazel Hall lived a life beautifully lived.

“She seemed to have an open door policy in her heart for everyone,” as one friend said. “Most of us open a few of our doors to a few people. Hazel seemed to open all her doors of her heart to all people. Her heart was like the door of her home. It was not locked.”

Dorothy Hazel Hall was born in Kansas in 1913. Unlike that other Dorothy, she had no desire to find her way back after she discovered a place called Sandpoint, Idaho.

She arrived in Sandpoint on January 3, 1932, with her new husband, Ross Hall, and never moved away. For 77 years she entered into community affairs. She was there with friends at the beginning of many small events that eventually became cornerstones in the community.

Sandpoint Mayor Gretchen Hellar said, ”She was one of the truly admirable citizens. She represented to me what the ideal Sandpoint resident is.” Those words probably represented well what Hazel’s previous 20-plus mayors might have said about her.

Walking, hiking, plants, flowers, the outdoors, kids, dogs, fun, companionship.

All of these seemed to combine in the recently completed Hazel Hall Children’s Garden. Volunteer-friends in the community arranged to place it in the Healing Garden, next to Bonner General Hospital Hazel and her husband started the Ross Hall Studio in 1938. They went on to build a thriving photography business. Many of the best photos can still be seen at the Hallans Gallery, founded by their son, Dann.

Many Ross Hall photos have her prominently displayed. Ross was in love with her for the full 58 years they were married. She was both his posing and hiking companion on many photo shoots.

Ross Hall died in 1990.

She kept on enjoying the outdoors, and finally stopped skiing at Schweitzer Mountain in 1997 at age 84.

Her passing was swift and peaceful.

She had a heart attack on Wednesday morning, and was rushed to the hospital by a concerned friend who had spent the night

with her. Her family talked to her briefly as she maintained, “I’m all right.” She saw some of her closest friends the next day. She then passed away at high noon on Friday, August 14, 2009, age 96 1/2 years. She now resides in Heaven with her beloved Lord, Jesus Christ.

She loved her family and her family loved her. Her son Dann said, ”She was an embracing mother and a remarkable human being. Her life was lived in complete fullness thanks to her many cherished and loving friends, all of whom were a reflection of her own boundless gusto for life.”

Her other son, R. Ross simply said, “We know having her as a mother gave us “A Wonderful Life.” His wife, Leslie, Hazel’s daughter-in-law of 42 years, called her “Hazel-mom.” “She was the perfect motherin-law, a friend and mentor and fun to be with. Her friends wouldn’t be surprised to know that, among her personal things, I found clown noses, crazy glasses, fake buck teeth, and goofy hats.”

Her daughter Loyce stated “She wasn’t the perfect mother, you know. She had this annoying habit of always looking younger than me!” Loyce provided Hazel with the great joy of her first grandson, Britt Haslow.

Britt lives in Palatine, Ill., with his wife, Karen and their son, Logan.

Ross and Leslie have two children, Jonna Weber and Jordan Ross Hall. Jonna lives in Boise with her husband, Reed Weber. They have two children, Alec, 8, and Charly, 6.

Jordan lives in Phoenix, Ariz., with his wife, Amanda, and 16-month-old daughter, Lilly.

Hazel was able to enjoy being with them all “one more time” just last month.

In addition to the immediate family, she is survived by several nephews and nieces and their families living in Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, California, Nebraska, Utah and Texas as well as countless friends who will miss her.

Friends of Hazel will be hosting a Hazel Hall Community Event in the fall. The date will be announced later. Donations can be made, in Hazel’s honor, to Kinderhaven, the Children’s Healing Garden and Women Honoring Women of Wisdom.

Read Hazel’s stories about the development of the arts in Sandpoint online at www.RiverJournal.com.

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page

by Taryn Hecker Earwigs are bad this year.

I’m finding them in my laundry pile, in the sink with my dishes and I even found one inside my loaf of bread.

They’re marching through the house sixby-six, hurrah, like ants headed for a sugar bowl.

When I was a kid someone told me that earwigs were to be feared. They’d climb inside your ears while you were sleeping and start nibbling away at your brain, make little nests in your frontal lobe and give birth to hundreds of miniscule baby earwigs who would eventually come back out your ears and nose to wreak more havoc on the world.

The only thing scarier than having my brain eaten by the creepy little bugs with menacing pinchers: The idea that their presence might be a sign of another long, hard winter.

I dubbed last winter “The Winter of My Discontent.” The thought of a repeat was enough to scare me out of my Spirit Lake home and into a condominium where someone else will be responsible for the shoveling.

Perhaps I made the decision hastily. It’s hard to tell.

You ask the old timers what kind of winter we’re going to have and it’s a crapshoot.

John Dunlap is sitting next to me at the Post Falls American Legion telling me it’s going to be a “medium winter,” but a day earlier William H. Miller told me it’s going to be a doozy.

“The squirrels are working their asses off storing nuts so it’s gonna be a bad winter coming,” says Miller, a well-known Silver Valley rebel rouser who everyone calls “Uncle Bill.”

He’s been watching the squirrels from the front porch of his Kellogg home, the same home where he was born in 1935.

Uncle Bill said the spiders predicted that last winter was going to be bad. One bit him. It was either a brown recluse or a black widow.

“I was lame for three days,” he said, sipping a Milwaukee’s Best. “It was one of the worst winters we had for a lot of years.”

While a lot of the regulars at the Post Falls Legion go by what Coeur d’Alene Press climatologist Cliff Harris says about the coming winter, Dunlap puts his money on the birds and cow spleens.

“There’s going to be a lot of snow, but I don’t think it’s going to be that cool,” Dunlap said. “The birds are not moving as fast. I’ve not seen any flocks of geese. Usually this time of year you see them start gathering in flocks.”

The geese are still in the fields.

A chat with the butchers on Highway 41 is further confirmation that this winter might not be too bad, Dunlap says. They can tell by the way the spleen lies in a butchered cow.

Lorna Carpenter predicts a cold winter.

Something close to last year, judging from the activity in her garden.

She’s seen very few spiders and bees.

“It’s going to be cold faster,” she said.

Based on what the old timers have to say, it appears the jury is out on Old Man Winter.

Put me in the category of expect the worst and hope for the best.

Summer has gone by so fast, I haven’t even had time to observe the birds and bees and pontificate on weather predictions.

Chuck Hoard tells me the Indians are the best at forecasting.

“If the rock is hot, it’s hot weather,” he says. “If it’s wet it’s raining.”

When the rock is white, well, winter is here.

Funny guy. Only one who is funnier is the guy from the draft horse barn at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds who promises to tell me what kind of winter we’re having “at the end of March.”

“I don’t predict the weather,” Dick Frank says. “Only damn fools and newcomers do that.”

Note: The Farmer’s Almanac predicts a “frigid” winter, though not as bad here as in the Midwest, but the National Weather Service says a strong El Nino will result in warmer-than-normal temperatures throughout the winter, especially in the north.

Uncle Bill photo by Taryn Hecker

Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

It crept in at the end of the last flu season, swine flu, however, 51 percent of deaths are

by Trish Gannon but it didn’t come on little cat’s feet. A new occurring in the age group 20-49; and some of form of swine flu, novel influenza virus A those deaths, disturbingly, are in (H1N1), swarmed through Mexico, killing as young adults with no underlying it went. And then the first identified cases conditions which might make began occurring in the U.S. Suddenly swine them more susceptible to flu. flu was on everybody’s lips.

Obesity, by the way, is a risk But here in the states, swine flu didn’t factor for complications from seem to be as lethal as it appeared in Mexico, swine flu infection, so now and the populace quickly became complacent, there’s one more reason to start even irritated, at what it saw at best as a losing that extra weight. media frenzy over a non-issue or, at worst, a Officials say it’s possible that deliberate attempt to boost profits for drug older people have some sort of companies and vaccine makers. immunity to the current swine flu Perhaps it’s a reflection of a poor American due to exposure to other swine education in science, or maybe it’s an inability flus in the past, in particular the to retain scientific information, that has left so epidemic of 1957—but if you’re many people asking, “What’s the big deal?” over 49, you shouldn’t count Familiarity does indeed breed contempt, on that. When older people do and Americans are familiar with the flu, become infected, their mortality given that it comes around every year. Most rate is higher than with other get through it after a week or so of feeling flus. miserable, but the families of the 36,000 Since swine flu first made its people (on average) it kills every year will appearance, it has steadily made tell you it’s something to take seriously. And its way throughout the world, infecting a the particular strain of swine flu now known population that is predominantly susceptible. as novel A (H1N1) has demonstrated some In America alone, at a time when flu normally peculiarities that cause great concern in those falls off the reporting radar, it’s estimated 1 responsible for the health of the world. million people have been infected, and 586 First, there’s those deaths in Mexico, have died. Once schools throughout the which no one is yet able to explain. Did nation open their doors to students again people die because they lacked access to this month, it’s believed that cases of swine proper treatment? Did many more people flu, as happens every year with regular flu, actually contract the virus than was initially will increase dramatically. We’re already believed, which would make the lethality of seeing this at the college level—currently Although swine flu is currently the the virus less than what it appeared? Or has over 200 students at WSU in Pullman have flu dominant flu strain throughout the the virus become less lethal as it spreads? symptoms, and seven have tested positive (as world, seasonal flu is still out there, and That third possibility raises its own of August 31) for swine flu. (Not everyone is recommendations for vaccinations remain concerns, as the first wave of the pandemic being tested.) the same. A vaccination for novel influenza 1918 flu virus, the one that all officials fear Although knowledge about this strain of virus A(H1N1) is currently undergoing human ever seeing again, was incredibly lethal but flu increases every day, recommendations testing, and is expected to be available by the second was not; and then the third wave to protect yourself from becoming infected mid-October. Because availability is limited, came back lethal again and killed over 21 or from spreading the infection remain the the vaccine will initially be offered only to million people, some dying within 45 minutes same: wash your hands frequently, sneeze into pregnant women, those who live with or care of feeling ill. your elbow, don’t hang around sick people, for children under the age of 6 months, health As data becomes available it’s scrutinized stay home if you’re ill. Be aware that those care personnel, those from age 6 months to heavily for clues to the lethality of the virus infected can spread virus a full day prior to 24 years old, and those from age 24 to age and any genetic changes that might make showing symptoms—so washing your hands 64 who are at high risk due to chronic health it even more so. Currently, it’s bad enough. after touching public objects (for example, disorders or who have compromised immune Novel influenza A (H1N1), according to a the handle of a grocery cart) is a good idea. systems. That’s an estimated 159 million study published by Eurosurveillance, the The CDC has recently issued an advisory people, yet the first shipment of vaccine is monitoring arm of the European Centre for asking that you do not partake in “swine flu only 52 million doses, and it is not yet known Disease Prevention and Control, may be parties.” Reminiscent of earlier years, when if one dose will be sufficient. It’s expected two to three times as deadly as the regular, parents sought to expose their children to that each week an additional 20 million doses seasonal flu we’re accustomed to, though infections like chicken pox and measles, will be available. there is still not enough data to determine a some have taken to hosting swine flu parties Because the strains are genetically definite case fatality rate. That won’t happen so that people can become exposed now, just different, the immunization for seasonal flu is until the flu has made its way throughout the in case the virus mutates in the future and not expected to offer any protection against entire population—and at that point, it might becomes even more lethal. Although swine the swine flu strain. Everyone is encouraged not be any more lethal than seasonal flu. flu may appear to be mild in most cases, CDC to get a flu shot for the seasonal strain, More disturbing, though, is who dies. In points out, “There is no way to predict with however, as an immune system compromised a regular flu season, old people, infants, and certainty what the outcome will be for an by seasonal flu can be more susceptible to those with a compromised immune system individual or, equally important, for others to swine flu. are most likely to die from an infection; 90 whom the intentionally infected person may For more information, visit www.flu.gov. percent of deaths are among the elderly. With spread the virus.”

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page

Currents

The Worst We’ve Ever Seen Some folks sprayed insecticide around the perimeter of their Lou Springer vegetable garden hoping nox5594@blackfoot.net to keep the hoppers out.

By golly, Miss Molly, there have sure been How could this have a lot of bugs this summer. Usually there is only been effective against the billions? Using one prominent insect each summer. Years ago, enough poison to kill all the grasshoppers Spend your time the September air above the yard was filled would kill beneficial bugs including honey with minute fluffs of blue—aphids in flight. bees. We notice the hoppers are thickest in doing what you That, of course, had been the summer of the the drier portions of the field and yard. It love— I’ll spend mine aphid. This summer has been the season of could be that frequent watering of the garden multiple insect infestations. has discouraged them, because the vegetables working for you.

In late May and June, friends complained seem not to have been slowed down.

• Estate Planning that mosquitoes kept them out of their yards Fortunately, the well-spaced and welcomed and gardens. The worst they had ever seen. rain storms give temporary relief from the (Wills/Trusts) We were smug in our oddly mosquito-free flying bugs until the temperature climbs • Guardianship zone until the slow sticky flies showed up by again. The swallows have been swooping over the thousands. The worst we had ever seen. the shorn fields, raising a cloud of hoppers on • Conservatorship The flies were annoying and then the bald each pass by. Since the bugs are too big for • Probate Services face hornets came hunting flies and gave you swallows to swallow, we wonder if they are something else to think about. “Is that a fly doing it just for the hell of it. Our dog used • Real Estate/Business Law or a bald face under my shirt?” The bald face to chase minnows down a shallow irrigation invasion was the worst we have ever seen. ditch with the same joyful abandon.

The face flies are nearly as thick as sand on One cannot help but wonder if human a beach. Stir them up while walking through activity has contributed to these ‘worst ever grass and they seek to kamikaze themselves seen’ insect invasions. In the case of one in your eyes. Mowing the lawn is only possible insect invasion—Tegenaria agristis—humans by wearing a saw helmet with safety screen. definitely caused it. This spider, native to The worst we have ever seen. agricultural fields of Western Europe, first Mid June thousands of yellow jackets appeared in Seattle in the early ‘30s. Probably suddenly began to aggressively protect their the egg sacks had been attached to wooden hidden hives. While we merely stay out of the crates of veggies that were subsequently way of the slow-moving, spider-eating paper transported via the Pacific to the port of wasp, we immediately attack yellow jackets Seattle. In its native habitat, a larger house before they can bite again. Wasp and hornet spider has kept it out of human habitation. spray is applied remorselessly into and around On its new continent, there are no natural their homes. The worst we have ever seen. controls, and this very venomous spider is Yellow jacket attacks are serious stuff. occurring in and around houses. The spider Bees and bald faces won’t come after you, but is expanding its range, and now reaches as far those hell raising yellow jackets will chase you north as Prince Rupert B.C., south to Logan, down. More Forest Service field work hours Utah and west to the Continental Divide. The are lost to yellow jacket stings, than to bear, common name, chosen because of the spiders’ Wonderful Family Home lion or moose encounters. spread, is Hobo. Human deaths have been Great home that’s been wellJust when we had decided this was the reported. A neighbor’s goat, being milked and maintained. New vinyl siding, firepit summer of the stings, grasshoppers showed well cared for died in a day from a Hobo bite. in back yard, close to Kootenai up in Heron. Their squashed bodies defined The brown creature would just about fit, Elementary. Wrap-around deck less car tracks in the post office parking lot. The legs and all, on a silver dollar. It is not its size than 2 years old. 8x8 storage shed and un-smashed were a moving blanket of brown. that makes this spider dangerous, it is the Local hay producers were seeing the hungry dreadfulness of the quick acting and deadly electric, free standing fireplace. Two horde decimate their fields. In five days some venom. It would behoove you to become car attached garage. Just $212,000. of the multitude had travelled a mile and a familiar with this spider’s appearance and MLS#2084771 quarter up creek. We hayed early and had the habits.Google hobo spider or check out www. bales out of the small field a week before the hobospider.org. Pumped with hormones, male hoppers arrived here at the junction of the Hobo spiders are on the move in September. creek. The worst we have ever seen.

Ask for George Eskridge at Considering the insect invasions County extension agents explain the dry experienced this summer, you might expect FOUR SEASONS REAL ESTATE spring helped promote the numbers, but no one more to make an appearance before our 800-801-8521 • 208-263-8521 has remembered so damn many grasshoppers. killing frosts.

205 North First Ave. Sandpoint A National Debt of grasshoppers; and now the www.FourSeasonsRealtySandpoint.com billions have developed wings and are feeling sexy.

Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Tevis Hull He’s Back!

Call 208-255-2226

Veteran’s News

Panhandle Bank Raises Over $14 Grand for Disabled Vets “The Community Assistance League contacted us after receiving the DAV’s initial grant request,” PSB Marketing Specialist Tami Wood said. “Panhandle State Bank had just announced our Powered By Community Program. They thought this need in our community might qualify. The bank employees decided to take on the fundraising project for the new van as our Community Match Project for 2009. CAL

PSB held two fundraisers, one in May and the other in mid-July, for the DAV van fund. Numerous generous donations Kriss Perras Running Waters poured in from the Sandpoint community rw@runningwatersproduction.com at the first event.

“During our 28th anniversary celebration It was going to be a long haul to raise in May, we collected donations during our enough funds to purchase a brand new BBQ event,” Wood said. “We then planned van. This was a special van to transport a Walk-a-Thon activity to help raise the rest veterans from Sandpoint to the Spokane of the money. This was an activity that a Veterans Administration Medical Center for majority of our employees could physician appointments. With only participate in. So it was a great a meager start, the local Disabled fit.”

American Veterans Chapter #15 The July 17 PSB Walk-AAudie Murphy thought it would be Thon surpassed its goal of 160 an uphill battle to reach a minimum miles, the distance of walking to $18,000 goal. Then the Community Spokane and back to Sandpoint.

Assistance League and Panhandle With 40 people walking for six State Bank came along. hours, the group walked a total “I’ve got to kiss those ladies of 182 miles. from CAL,” local DAV Commander The two successful benefit Ross Jackman said of the PSB efforts from PSB brought in a check in the astounding amount total of $9,505. With the PSB of $14,505 presented August 20, matching funds program of 2009. $5,000, the donation to the Van Jackman and Russ Fankell, Fund was a whopping $14,505.

Chapter Adjunct, had a few PSB has the last six years held months prior been to a CAL check fundraisers that directly benefit presentation. That day earned either education and schools $675 for the DAV van fund, which or the senior community in was wholly unexpected and to that point the largest check donated Panhandle State Bank matching funds benefit check for $14,505 was Sandpoint and the surrounding for the fund. Jackman and Fankell presented by Hugh Gavin, PSB Commercial Loan Officer, to Ross Jackman, areas.

Chapter #15 Audie Murphy Commander August 20, 2009. PSB Vets Calendar Outlook & received a standing ovation from DAV employees: Branch Manager Paralee Gates, Commercial Loan Officers CAL after the check was presented. Anita Porter, Kelly Glenn and Andy Gion, Relationship Services Officer Look Back: GOLF SCRAMBLE That day at CAL sealed the fate for Colleen Spickelmire, Personal Banker Jenny Taylor, Credit Analyst Kim Carlson. Veterans Service Officer Don Carr. Vietnam Veterans of America Sandpoint Elks Lodge #1376 the DAV’s efforts to purchase a Chapter #890 President Howard Bigelow. Veterans: Ray Kemp, Don hosted the Second Patriotic Golf new van.

Williams, Steve Charchan.

Scramble, a benefit for veterans The support from CAL was on August 23 at the Sandpoint was instrumental in helping us receive a the connection to Panhandle State Bank where a number of major sponsors and generous donation from the Sandpoint Elks Golf Course. Look for a full report next issue. the community at large came out in Rotary Club.”

Kriss Perras Running Waters is a local The major supporters of the DAV van overwhelming support of the purchase of filmmaker, former publisher and a disabled U.S. fund benefit were Panhandle State Bank, a much-needed new van that runs Monday, Navy Veteran.

Community Assistance League, Sandpoint Wednesday and Friday, every week of the year, and serves over 6,000 Bonner County Rotary Club, Litehouse, Inc. and Coldwater Creek. and outer area veterans.

THEY GIVE THEIR ALL. Can you give, too?

Our Air Force’s Aero-medical Evacuation units in Afghanistan are in need of t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants and boxer shorts. Often, when injured soldiers arrive, their clothing must be cut off their bodies, and they’re shipped on to Germany in only their underwear. The corps could use additional clothing for our soldiers to wear as they are moved. If you have items to donate, please mail them to Scott Wilkes, 451st AEG/EAEF, APO AE 09355. And remember, FREEDOM ISN’T FREE. September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page

The Few, The Proud...

Local area veterans make a difference in the community

by Kriss Perras Running Waters

FADE IN He sat across the table—a deep booming voice from an average-sized man.

He told stories of standing his ground against urban drug lords and living the cautious life— “armed and dangerous” while living in Tacoma.

Steroid-driven bouncers at every corner, teedoff because he fired them for dealing drugs in the four-story nightclub he managed there, 20 of them to be exact. Then there was the lady he followed to Seattle all the way from Massachusetts, the mother of his only son, William. This is an Army Cold War vet who sat armed in Outpost Alpha, right at the border between East and West Germany at the height of Cold War tensions, the clock ticking two minutes to midnight, a qualified M60 man. His favorite.

CUE THE THEME MUSIC from “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”—the guy needed a pair of spurs and a cigar sticking out of his mouth, telling tales of a kind of gun-duel life all over the world. This is Sandpoint’s own Jonny Knight, the deejay for local radio station 95.3 FM KPND. His day job.

“We were known as the West Germany Speed Bump,” Knight said. “The life expectancy at Outpost Alpha, in the event the Russians actually did decide to cross the border, was 18 minutes or less.”

Knight said Americans sat on one side of the border and the Russians on the other, both sides just watching the other.

This was a little tinder box of terror, if the right spark was struck. Fortunately both sides kept their cool. No gun duels or deadly showdowns, just a lot of narrow-eyed distrust typical of the Cold War. After training with the French Commando, a joint NATO training unit, and travelling Europe, he left the Army for the Reserves. He tried to get back in for the first Gulf War, but the Army was overflowing with more highly trained combat arms than they needed.

Knight moved on from Massachusetts to Seattle, following a lady love across the states.

That’s where he managed Lakewood Bar & Grill next to Fort Lewis, just outside of Tacoma.

Another policeman-style job, but this time he had to throw out five to ten people per night, mostly military men who had too much to drink.

“We kept things on the down low for those

guys,” Knight said. “I had a relationship with the post commanders who’d send MPs over to get them. This was the kind of place where there’d be 300-pound Samoans on one side and military guys on the other.

The fight would break out. The Samoans would throw these

Jonny Knight 80pound tables, the kind of table that could kill a guy if it hit him.

It was a lot of fun sprinkled with a little terror.”

Knight shifts in his seat, the flash in his eye recalling it all.

“We’d detain people ourselves,” Knight said.

“Cuff ‘em to the light pole outside. That place had a lot of disparity between the low-end and high-end client.”

Knight earned a reputation there as a money guy, the kind of guy who had strict control on the cash flow. Not long after the Lakewood, Knight was hired by John Hemmen to run what was at first a two-story and later a four-story nightclub, the top two stories a long-since-defunct gay bar.

The place was expanded into a 500-person dance floor with techno, and cutting edge sound and lights. The upper floors housed jazz, blues and pool tables. The top floor held live music from rock and roll and hip-hop headliners.

“One night a deejay left his house with

toast cooking. The burning toast started a fire,” Knight said. “So when the firemen came with the police to put the fire out, they found a bag of pot and arrested him.”

Hemmen then hired Knight at an extra $5,000 per year to his already healthy salary with the hitch that he wouldn’t hire a back-up deejay, and Knight would then be the back-up.

“So I was a general manager-slash-DJ-slash street fighter. There were five fights per night at that place,” Knight said. “When I first took over managing, there were 20 bouncers all dealing drugs out of the bar. I fired them all. So I was armed and dangerous the whole time in Tacoma.”

In 1996, Knight’s marriage was on the rocks and they divorced.

He had a second “bad marriage” there—but something even more disturbing happened next.

Two bouncers had escorted a gang-banger out to his car in the parking lot. The gangbanger killed them both instantly with a 9mm.

Knight decided his night club days were over.

He was then hired

by Jack Peterson, who owned several restaurants that used to be owned by the county— things like golf course restaurants and the like, all prior municipal properties. Knight went to work running the wine program at the River Rock Grill, owned by Peterson on the public county golf course.

“I used to be able to do food pairings. We were gold medalists in ‘Wine Spectator’ for our wine lists,” Knight said. “One night Jack and I went to an Aerosmith concert. Jack got into a Corvette with a woman he didn’t know. They got into a car accident. He ran into a light pole, and the car was on fire. He burned to death.

This was very devastating. It was sort of sordid because he was married at the time.”

Knight said Peterson was the “greatest boss anyone could hope for. He would take us to his cabin for management meetings. He’d let us raid the wine fridge. We’d take $1,000 worth of wine with us and cook and have our meeting.”

Knight said after Peterson’s death, it soon became apparent he was on the downsizing list for River Rock, a three-property company he and other management were streamlining for Peterson’s wife so she could take it over.

“I was given a nice separation package on friendly terms,” Knight said.

Out of a job and no lady to follow across

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the states, Knight had another life-changing moment. After Peterson’s death, Knight had a phone call with his first ex-wife. She suggested he come live in Sandpoint, where she was living. Knight, accustomed to an $85,000 per year salary, at first wasn’t too hip on the idea.

In the classifieds he found an ad: “Woman seeking deejay for weddings.” That was his first job here in Sandpoint. Not long after, KPND had a ski party at the Power House Bar & Grill.

Mike Duprez hosted the party, but his co-host never showed-up. Duprez then hired Knight to deejay between giveaways. Shortly thereafter Knight was interviewed at KPND and hired on the spot. It didn’t take long for our regular morning show voice to gain a following and earn his own show.

This is the same man who for free sponsors all the Disabled American Veteran and Vietnam Veterans of America events with live air-time coverage.

“I feel a sense of responsibility for our ‘Hot War’ vets,” Knight said. “We’re willing to send them to war but not willing to take care of them when they come home. The psychological effects of going back to Iraq and Afghanistan three, four, five, six times takes its toll. To me, the current treatment of our vets should be a national source of shame.”

Knight also narrates Operation Grad Night, a collaborative effort between Bonner General Hospital, the Sheriff ’s Office, Emergency Services, Sagle and Sandpoint Fire Stations, Idaho State Patrol, Clark Fork, Priest River, Lake Pend Oreille and Sandpoint high schools, and KPND. Op Grad Night is an edgy and ultra real-life presentation that includes a mock DUI crash, complete with triage, extrication and helos, narrated by Knight and actor Joe Figaro (Star Trek).

If you ever wonder where that morning show voice gets its deep tones and sometimes serious style, check into a seat next to Knight.

Saddle up for a few stories right out of a Clint Eastwood movie or a few scenes straight from the film “Training Day.” CUT TO BOB WYNHAUSEN Heading down Highway 200 in the DAV van, the American flag striped across its side, this incredible hulk of a voice tells a story to pass the time. He’s driving a load full of sick vets to the Veterans Hospital in Spokane for physician appointments. He finds a way to articulate through the ill tension hanging in the air. The sheer entertainment of his stories breaks the feeling of sickness. This is Bob Wynhausen, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from ‘62 to ‘68.

He tells a story of his Marine Corps Boot Camp Drill Instructor (DI). In the cadence of his voice, DI Hartman in “Full Metal Jacket” should’ve been watching over his shoulder: “I

am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your Senior Drill Instructor. From now on, you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be “Sir!” Do you maggots understand that?”

FLASHBACK: “My DI called me Bilko, after S g t . Ernie Bilko from ‘No Time for Sergeants’ played by Phil Silvers on TV in the 1950s, partly for the glasses and partly for my attitude,”

“The next day he warned me that if I continued to jerk the trigger, he was going to pound my trigger finger with a ball-peen hammer to make it so sore all I could do is squeeze,” Wynhausen said. “At the range I improved my score over Monday’s, firing in the 160s. Not good enough for Sgt. Regalot.”

Regalot’s cadence made its way into the silence of the van. That DI had to be sitting right next to Wynhausen as he relived that moment.

“I never really expected Regalot to go through with his threat,” Wynhausen said. “But when I went into his tent and stood at attention in front of him, he told me to put my left hand on his field desk. He slowly and dramatically opened the top drawer to reveal the hammer. He took it out and hit my finger five times.

As he raised it for the sixth, I pulled my hand away. I’d had enough. He told me to put it back. To his credit, and my relief, he didn’t hit me again.”

The next day, Wynhausen shot a 195.

“Regalot moved on to other problems, having apparently solved mine,” Wynhausen said. “Truth be told, I was just a slow learner. The next day, prequalification day, I shot a 213. At 190, you were a Marksman. At 210, you were a Sharpshooter. And at 220 and above, you were an Expert.”

Friday morning was qualification day.

Wynhausen, figuring his problem was solved, went out to the qualification course confident he’d make it.

“When the dust settled I’d shot 227, the third highest score for the day,” Wynhausen said. “After everyone finished, Regalot pulled one guy out of the ranks to announce he’d failed to qualify. To humiliate the guy further, Regalot said he should be really ashamed of himself because ‘Even Bilko qualified.’ Then he looked at me and asked what I’d fired. I proudly told him, ‘Sir, 227, sir!’ He said skeptically, ‘Come on Bilke, what did you really fire?’ I emphatically shot back, ‘Sir, 227, sir!’ He turned to one of his assistants and asked, ‘What did Bilko really score?’ He was assured I’d shot 227. The poor guy who’d failed really got an ear full.”

Wynhausen earned a small trophy at boot camp graduation, recognizing him as Third High Expert.

DANGEROUS LIFE AS A CPA? Now a high power CPA by civilian profession, early on working at Arthur Young & Co in Los Angeles, one of the Big 8 public accounting firms, and later becoming a partner in the Seattle office, one wouldn’t think life would get too dangerous.

“The first audit I worked on was at a small independent oil company with their headquarters on the top floor of a five story

Bob Wynhausen

Wynhausen said, cracking a smile. “I was the oldest member of our platoon at 22.

I didn’t show too much fear of the DI.” Wynhausen is at the rifle range in boot camp learning to use an M14.

“I’d never shot anything more powerful than a .22,” Wynhausen said. “I was also the only left-handed rifleman in my platoon. Normally they would’ve made me learn to shoot righthanded, because the rifle was designed for right-handers. My Drill Instructor was also a lefty. For some odd reason, he liked me.”

Shooting left-handed didn’t seem to improve his game. Wynhausen was holding the rifle wrong so the recoil shot back so hard the rifle split his lip. Wynhausen earned many a “Maggie’s Drawers”—a term for a red flag waved from the rifle pits signifying a total miss during qualification firing. To qualify, a private had to earn a score of 190 or better out of 250. Wynhausen was shooting in the 140s.

His DI, Regalot, wasn’t happy and duck walked Wynhausen up and down a hill called “Little Agony” with his rifle at arms length to make him comply.

Continued on next page September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 11

Vets-continued from previous page

building on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills,” Wynhausen said. “Our audit team physically apprehended and subdued a kidnapper who’d tried to forcibly remove a female employee from the office. He came into our work room while running from some men who worked for the company. We dragged him down and subdued him, holding him until the Beverly Hills police arrived. He was a little crazy, and I got the misimpression that auditing was an exciting business.”

In 1983 Wynhausen left the firm and established a private practice doing tax consulting with small CPA and law firms, which he continues today.

Wynhausen settled in here in Bonner County after a year in 2001 of touring the country with his wife in a fifth wheel.

THE POLITICAL LIFE “We got involved in Democratic politics,” Wynhausen said of his early time here in Sandpoint and Clark Fork, where they owned some acreage.

“I learned the futility of Democratic politics as I helped candidates run for office and fail. In 2005, when no one came forward to challenge George Eskridge (the republican representative to the House for District 1B), who had run unopposed in 2004, I decided to run for the Idaho House. I won my first race in the primary of 2006. Of course, I was unopposed. But I got my hat handed to me in the general.”

Wynhausen had little hope of winning, but said he ran to offer voters a choice.

“A funny thing happened to me a few months before I even announced my candidacy. There is a woman by the name of Helen Thompson who lives in retirement at The Bridge here in Sandpoint,” Wynhausen said.

“At the time, my father-in-law was living next door to her. Over time I came to know Helen, and I discovered she and I shared Democratic politics and agreed on most issues.

When I made up my mind to run, I told Helen I had exciting news. I was going to run for the

Legislature. Her faced lit up. She asked who I was running against. I told her, ‘George Eskridge.’ Immediately the smile disappeared.

Her face went flat. I asked what was wrong. She told me, ‘I’ve known George Eskridge all his life, and I have to vote for George.’ Right then and there I knew I’d lose. When a strong Democrat like Helen had to vote for a local boy, I knew there was no chance for a newcomer.”

Wynhausen is on the radio locally now, a Friday show where he plays out the Democratic side in a political debate. The talk show runs on KSPT 1400 AM from 12:10 pm to 1:00 pm.

“Toward the end of the campaign, I got a call from Bill Litsinger wanting to discuss the idea of doing a radio show together. He laughed when I suggested we should wait to see how the election turned out. After all, I might have had to spend three months in Boise,” Wynhausen said.

“Shortly after the election, which I lost 6238 percent, we got together and began planning what is now the ‘Face to Face’ program every Friday.”

THE FEW, THE PROUD Fortunately for America, most of our military members do come home. They bring with them a wealth of experience from having served in the United States military. Much of what they share is gritty, raw, hard-earned veteran’s comp and pension blood and tears. Even in peace time they bring home anxiety that slowly whittles its way out of their life. You’ll see them.

Sometimes they’re panhandling on the street, sometimes they’re the person who built your house. And sometimes, they’re the voice on the radio airwaves. They’re out there. And never, ever forgotten.

FADE OUT

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Page 12 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

The Scenic Route

Finding the Word Sandy Compton

mrcomptonjr@hotmail.com www.SandyCompton.com

It is full summer. My friend Don and I have been playing Huck Finn when I spy an old friend dining al fresco with her family. We smell of the lake, with hints of huckleberry and a good IPA. The sun is setting over Baldy and the river below the Long Bridge is a long heliotrope runway stretching east.

“May we join you?” we ask. We won’t stay long — just long enough to say “hello,” and to ask a riddle. My friend will know the answer. She’s been here—Sandpoint, Idaho—longer than most residents have been alive.

“I want a word, friend,” I tell her. “Just one.” I want one word from her that will sum up what she thinks, feels, knows, intuits about this place.

She has seen much happen. The fall of mighty Humbird and the bleak days of the Depression. The beginnings and ends of wars that took young men and never gave them back and the arrival and departure of platoons of sailors. Smoked bluebacks by the thousands. Native encampments at City Beach, and the birth of POAC, the saving of the Panida and the first concert of the fledgling Festival at Sandpoint.

On her watch, Schweitzer Basin mutated and morphed for 46 years into its latest iteration—but she knew how to ski long before they built Chair One. My friend has been around.

This place where she—and I—live is the point of my query, and not just this little town with the big growing pains caught between Lake Pend Oreille and the Selkirks. I’m asking about the rivers with rapids where she watched them put dams; the high country at the end of the Pack and up behind Hope and Clark Fork, where the bears and berries and goats and westslope cutthroats still can be found—though not in the abundance she knew in her prime, when she taught kids to fill a berry bucket and flicked hooked ’hoppers into crystal pools for dinner.

She arrived in the middle of the night in the middle of the winter and doesn’t have that “Long Bridge experience” which many claim as a calling to sell everything they own and move here from everywhere else. She took a chance to be here; not with

her money or her kid’s education or her husband’s business; but with her whole, complete, entire life. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, until death do them part, my friend as good as married this town when she came here.

She has never been unfaithful. She has raised her children and helped raise the children of her neighbors. She has stood up and had her say about things when she had something to add to the conversation, and kept her mouth shut when she didn’t. She has helped build things that only lasted a And they don’t have that to—after don’t few seasons and others will lastall, beyond wechildren’s Americanschildren. believe ifShe it’s ours, it’s ours her has watched andcome we can with it whatthe we city want?

Or folks anddogo, watched grow in odd directions and the country be cutis we want it, then up and sold, and seen and success and failure standing back to back duelists ondon’t, First you have to give it tolike us and if you Avenue and sponsor come to terrorism know thatand in that then you we’ll contest being lucky is almost as important as being good, butChina not quite.

By the way, wants that oil as “So, friend,” I say, leaning so who she well. Remember China?

Theclose people can understand I her, “what’s loaned us all me thatand money?

China’sthe oil word?” consumption is around 6.5 billion barrels She looks up toward the crest of Baldy, a year, and is growing at 7 percent every where the light and dark are welded year. It produces aboutsun.

3.6 billion barrels together by the setting She smiles a every year.

Does this math look good to winsome smile, a smile of age and wisdom. anyone?

Can she anyone Sarah “Complete,” says.other “Thethan word is Palin and” George Bush believe we can ‘complete.’ drill our way out of this problem? Anyone who doesn’tHazel think Bridges we betterHall hit the Dorothy wasground born figureCity, out how to fuel whatthe we inrunning 1913 intoKansas Kansas.

At five, family Colorado, and then wantmoved fueledMontrose, with something other than tooil Delta, Paeonia and Hotchkiss, wheretoshe probably deserves to go back an graduated from high school. Hazel met her future husband, Ross :Hall, at agego 16 on in I could front of a drugstore in Palisades, Colorado, forever, but you’ll quit reading. So one final where they were both workingpublic. in the fruit discussion for the American First, harvest. let’s have a true, independent analysis of In January of 1932, the newlywed Hazel what happened on September 11, 2001. and Ross came to Sandpoint, where Ross Theworking official for explanation doesn’t was the Hinessimply photography hold water.

This is one of those “who studio. Eventually, they would buy the studio knew what, when” questions that must be and build a very successful photography answered—and must business, Ross Hall people/institutions Studio. Hazel had three children, Robert Ross, Dann and Loyce.

Speaking of was accountability, you might Hazel herself a fine photographer. bewas surprised to learn that I would not She also a master at hand-tinting black and white photos. support an effort to impeach President As public as her life in Sandpoint Bush after the November elections.often First, was, she seemed a private because that’s to toomelate, and person; second, much content to live, in thehave shadows, because more thannotBush been but in the back of the scene; but always involved in crimes against the American ready to come frontlike when people.

Whatto Ithe would to need see be. are Her endless and tireless work in and for the charges (at the least, charges of treason) Sandpoint community alluded to above. brought against Bush,isCheney, et al.

Bring That search for a word happened last the charges and let’s let the evidence of

September, and now, truly, this thing we know as life is complete for my—our— friend Hazel, who went on without us a few weeks ago. It has been over four decades since I first met her, when she was one of the leaders of the Sandpoint Methodist Church youth group. Early on, she remembered me better than I remembered her. But that has changed. Now, I will never forget her.

Goodbye, Mrs. Hall. It was a pleasure to know you. Thank you for all you did while you were here.

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 13

Strong Feelings on Both Sides When it Comes to Hunting Wolves

story and photos by Ralph Bartholdt

East of St. Maries along the St. Joe River, two sheet metal wolves howl from atop a ranch gate.

The wolves are hand painted blue and gray in acrylic. They have been there for years.

Despite a public sentiment in this area that is vocally anti-wolf, the renditions have not been vandalized.

The St. Joe River country, a mountainous backwoods section of the Idaho Panhandle where anti-government rhetoric flourishes as easily as the beer Friday night from the tappers at the local Calder Cafe, is a place

says Walters, between bites of his burger.

He has been fighting for years for the right to kill wolves, or sue the federal government for what he calls an illegal introduction of wolves into the state.

Walters, a barrel of a man with long hair going gray, is a former construction worker who was injured on the job and now collects disability. He and his family live upriver at Marble Creek.

The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho native moved to the St. Joe Country in 1983 after years of advocating for the Fish and Game department that he is now at odds with.

“If a wolf didn’t kill them,” he says, “having their nose and ass chewed off sure didn’t help them any.” of big pickups, logging trucks that trail dust and signs pock-marked by target practice with high-powered rifles.

Twenty-five miles upriver from St. Maries at the town of Calder, John Walters eats a burger in the cafe. On his table by the window newspapers are opened to pages with wolf pictures. A recent ruling by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission that establishes the latest attempt at a hunting season for gray wolves in Idaho is the top story.

Walters, one of the directors of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, planned to be first in line to buy a hunting tag when they went on sale for $11.25 per resident last month.

He called his attorney a few days before an injunction was filed August 20

by Earthjustice to stop the hunt. Thirteen groups were named in the suit.

He asked his attorney whether he could sue Fish and Game for fraud if the heavily advertised wolf hunting season didn’t transpire.

“He said no, because an injunction hasn’t been filed yet to close the season,”

“I spent hundreds of hours as a volunteer,” he said.

His father was a Fish and Game hunter safety instructor for 36 years, and as a Boy Scout Walters took part in a variety of projects that spurred his interest in hunting and the outdoors.

His father bought a tag in the state’s first elk hunt in 1948 a few years after the animals were introduced from Yellowstone Park and, because of a lack of predators, began expanding their range, similar to what has happened with the gray wolf since its reintroduction in 1995.

“My family has supported Fish and Game for 63 years,” he says.

But the department, he says, has let him and the rest of Idaho’s hunting public down by allowing wolves to deplete the state’s elk herds, a revenue source for a Fish and Game department that relies solely on hunter dollars to survive.

“They are supposed to be the ranchers of our ungulates,” Walters says.

The agency, in Walter’s opinion has

turned tail on the hunting public that buys the hunting licenses and who expect the department to manage the herds so hunters can bag bulls and bucks.

“Until we have a 90 percent success rate for deer, and a 50 percent success rate for elk, Idaho Fish and Game is failing,” he says.

The gray wolf that was “dumped” into Idaho by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 is a super predator, Walter says, and it is the reason for the decimation of the elk herds in at least two of the state’s wildlife management units.

For the past two winters he has shot pictures of the dead elk he has found with the nose and hindquarters eaten, a telltale sign, he says, of a wolf kill.

“If a wolf didn’t kill them,” he says, “having their nose and ass chewed off sure didn’t help them any.”

He has a stack of photographs so high, he says, gesturing with a hand raised 10 inches from the table top. The dead elk were emaciated before they were taken down by wolves.

The latest debate is about wolves and elk, surely, says Walters. But the bigger picture is a push by environmental groups for a massive Yukon to Yellowstone biological corridor that includes vast tracts of land reserves that aren’t open to the public.

Once the elk are gone there will be little reason to hunt, the land will be locked up, he contends, and an American tradition will take a back seat to preservation.

“It’s about the Wildlands Project,” he says. “Wolves are just a tool.”

The gray wolf of the 1993 reintroduction, Walters, and many others contend, is not the same wolf that lived in the Rocky Mountains when Lewis and Clark trekked West in the early 1800s. The Canada gray wolf is much larger than the wolves that were exterminated from the territory more than half a century ago.

“The Rocky Mountain wolf that was here was a smaller wolf that was timid and not a whole lot bigger than a coyote,” he says.

The statement draws a chuckle from Stephen Augustine, a nemesis of Walters in the Idaho wolf debate.

Walters and Augustine are opposites in many ways.

Continued on page 15

Page 14 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Wolf Tag- Continued from page 14

Augustine is one of the early members of the Sandpoint-based North Idaho Wolf Alliance, a group that sprang up last year during hearings on a state wolf management plan. Where Walters and his Marble Creek neighbors have relied for years on a steady winter larder of elk and deer meat to feed their families, Augustine is a vegetarian who raises bees in a subdivision with a view of Lake Pend Oreille.

The street sign near his yard that reads “Ponder Point Drive,” is apropos for the philosophical debates about wolves that are common at Augustine’s dining room table.

The idea that the gray wolf whose population is spreading to the far reaches of the state is somehow a “super wolf ” is ridiculous, says Augustine.

world.

“We are the super predators. We don’t tolerate competition very well.

This is more of a self examination about us as a species and where we are going.”

Wolves, he says, belong in the ecosystem; they evolved with the animals they kill and eat, and the populations of both elk and wolves will balance once an equilibrium is reached.

“The hunters’ claim that the wolves will decimate the elk herds is untrue,” he says.

“Wolves and all prey animals have evolved hand in hand for a million years. To say wolves will wipe out the elk is a ridiculous fallacy given they have evolved together.”

The fallacy, though, has taken root in hunters throughout the West, including the many who have traditionally come to Idaho to hunt.

“We are the super predators.

We don’t tolerate competition very well.”

He concedes that the wolves were brought to Idaho from Canada, but there is a reason for that.

“It’s the same wolf,” he says. “They were just all wiped out here.”

Unlike Walters, Augustine is slight and trim.

His dark animated eyes spark when his compassion is piqued. He is passionate about wolves.

Augustine, a computer scientist who works from home for a Virginia aerospace company, first learned about wolves in the 1990s when he left Pennsylvania to visit his wife’s family in Missoula. He was handed a book by author Rick Bass called “The Nine-Mile Wolves,” read it, and joined a burgeoning group of people in the U.S. who wanted to see an end, as he says, to the persecution of wolves.

“There are almost no other animals that have been persecuted to the extent that wolves have,” he says.

He was quoted in an Associated Press article during the state’s wolf debates and his comments were targeted as weird by the anti-wolf crowd, he says.

“All this discussion has to do with us as human beings,” he says. “It’s about us and what is our relationship to the natural

He cites a letter from Idaho Fish and Game that urges out-of-state hunters to buy an Idaho elk tag.

“Out of state tag sales are down,” he says, “because of the misconception that wolves are chewing up the elk here.”

At Augustine’s dining room table Rich Hurry, who moved west from Michigan this summer, teeters in his chair as Augustine’s small daughter comes out from a room in the modest home, crossing the carpet to tell her dad she’s hungry.

Augustine goes to the kitchen to prepare a plate and Hurry tells how he traveled as a concerned citizen to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission meeting in Idaho Falls last week where the state’s wolf hunting quotas were set.

He wanted to comment, he says, but there was no public comment period.

“It was like a kangaroo court,” he says.

“All that was left was to set a target quota for how many wolves to kill.”

Among what he calls a sea of camouflage, he was one of the few people in sandals, shorts and a T-shirt to speak on behalf of the wolves.

At the meeting, the commission considered three options: Setting a state

wolf kill quota at 130, 220 or 430.

It decided on a quota of 220 wolves to be killed in Idaho with no more than 30 dead wolves in the Panhandle for the 2009 season.

“They were afraid that a high target would invite an environmental injunction,” he said.

The number chosen by commissioners “was more palatable and would not trigger lawsuits,” he said.

What gripes Hurry and Augustine about the wolf hunt is not just the unnecessary killing of a beautiful animal, but that by having a wolf hunt the state game department is catering solely to hunters, money and politics instead of listening to science and the concerns of people like themselves.

“They are trying to achieve a desired number of elk according to politics instead of science,” says Augustine. “That’s what we take offense to.”

Although Augustine and Walters are on the opposite side of the wolf issue, the target of their ire is the same: They think that Idaho Fish and Game is on the wrong track.

Enter Tony McDermott, a 30-year Army veteran who as a young helicopter pilot was shot down twice in Vietnam and who, reluctantly, after his retirement as cadre commander at the University of Montana’s ROTC department, joined the ranks of Idaho Fish and Game as its commissioner.

McDermott is known as McMule to his email buddies and the moniker bespeaks his straightforward persona as much as the mules he pastures on his rural mountainside property not far from Lake Pend Oreille’s Garfield Bay. To say that the commission doesn’t hear public comment just plain pisses him off.

He has read Augustine’s letters and responded to them, he says, and as far as comment is concerned, in the past four years, he has pretty much heard all there is to hear from the public about wolves.

“I probably know more about Idaho’s wolves than 99 percent of the people in this state,” he says.

It isn’t because he asked to.

He is a member of the commission’s wolf subcommittee and is therefore obligated to be in the know.

“This is the most contentious social, political, emotional, irrational subject that I have ever been involved with,” says McDermott as he paces in his stocking feet across a kitchen floor white with sun.

He is making coffee, piling some deer jerky from the refrigerator onto a plate, but the topic and the accusations against Fish and Game have his full attention.

Continued on page 16

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 15

Wolf Tag- Continued from page 15

“The irrationality on both sides of this astounds me,” he says.

Most of the letters, emails and comments he receives are from the outer fringes of the debate, he states.

“I’m a huge environmentalist, but I’m not wacko,” he says. “Both ends of this spectrum are a little bit irrational.”

On one side are those who see wolves as a cult figure and a demagogue, he says. To others, wolves are a bane of Idaho’s natural resources and must be exterminated.

“People who think wolves are sacred religious symbols are misinformed; they don’t understand the issue and they don’t want to,” he says, sipping coffee from a big mug and chewing on jerky. “People who want wolves out of Idaho don’t understand the issue and don’t want to.”

Twenty percent of Idahoans hunt, says McDermott. The majority of those resident hunters, 170,000 of them, combined with 25,000 out of state hunters, understand the issue, he believes.

“They want wolves managed,” he says.

“The general population of Idaho wants wolves managed.”

Idaho has 40 breeding wolf pairs with 90 packs making up approximately 1,200 wolves, up 400 from last year’s estimate of 850, he says.

The quota set by Fish and Game was extrapolated using a formula that would allow killing the number of wolves that the department thinks is added each spring during the whelping season.

If met, the current wolf-kill quotas would stabilize the population of the predator in the state.

Originally, he says, Fish and Game bested a federal plan that called for 100 wolves in the state with 10 breeding pairs.

The department instead called for 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs. In 2008 the commission, in an effort to reach a further compromise, called for between 500 and 700 wolves in Idaho for five years after the wolves were delisted this spring.

He doesn’t think the wolf harvest quota will be met. He thinks the state’s wolf population will continue to grow, in part because wolves will be difficult to hunt in the state’s brushy, mountain terrain.

“Hunters aren’t effective when it comes to wolf control,” he says.

And because of the opposition from environmental groups that seem to have the ear of a federal judge, who last year stopped delisting because of an argument by environmental groups that the state’s wolf population wasn’t genetically viable: That it didn’t mingle enough with an outside gene pool.

McDermott disagrees.

A wolf tagged by Fish and Game near Hailey showed up 200 miles north of

“This is the most contentious social, political, emotional, irrational subject that I have ever been involved with.”

Calgary, he says, and another, tagged in central Idaho, was found wandering in Colorado.

“So how can they say there is no genetic dispersal?” he asks.

Last year he says the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services killed 84 problem wolves in Idaho. In Montana, 150 wolves were killed.

The numbers aren’t often reported and don’t seem to have made a ripple in wolf dispersal in the state, or in wolf predation.

“Every wolf eats approximately 16 ungulates, a combination of deer, elk and moose,” he says.

In Idaho, 80 percent of a wolf ’s diet is elk. In two of the department’s wildlife management zones, including the Lolo and the Sawtooth Zone, he says wolves are preventing a depleted elk herd from recovering.

“We also have a huge problem in the Salmon Zone and we’re going to have a huge problem in North Idaho if management isn’t granted,” he says.

To Walters and his neighbors, however, the problem is already out of hand.

He and his wife Renee used to watch elk from their porch, and they often had friends from out of state visit during the hunting season. The friends don’t come anymore.

“Nobody wants to come here to see wolf tracks and scat,” Walters says.

When the sale of wolf tags opened August 24 at 10 am, Walters was the first

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person in St. Maries to pay for a tag and the 159th person in the state. When the next hunter at the counter of St. Maries’ Blue Goose Sporting Goods bought a tag a minute later, more than 300 tags had already been sold in the state. By noon the number was in the thousands.

“Animosity is driving these sales,” he said.

He contends that sportsmen are tired of watching wolves eat the elk they like to hunt, while the elk, despite a positive forecast by Fish and Game, are virtually on their way out.

Augustine enjoys seeing elk. “I like to take pictures of them,” he says.

But he also enjoys seeing wolf tracks and hearing the howl of the animals that have become his passion.

Augustine agrees that killing wolves is a lesson in animosity, but, he says, animosity isn’t a positive human trait.

“We need to direct where we’re going if we want to be a civilized people,” he says.

“We’re still lingering in barbarism.”

McDermott, with his stocky build and barrel chest, seems almost ideally built to hoist the scales of balance, if balance is something Idahoans demand.

He admits that he doesn’t know if balance can be achieved in the state’s debate over wolves.

Given the latest injunction he is dismayed that once again a judge will decide if there will be an Idaho wolf hunt.

“I will have a lot of heartburn with the legal process if an injunction is granted,” he says. “If there’s an injunction, the Endangered Species Act is a farce that has been totally hijacked by environmental organizations for their self-serving purposes.”

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 16

The Game Trail

The Straight Skinny on Wolf Regulations

Matt Haag

mhaag@idfg.idaho.gov Wolves have been a topic of many discussions for people, including Idaho Fish and Game employees, over the past few years.

I suspect that won’t change for another few years, but like all hot topics, it will fade away and another topic will take its place.

Remember all the heated talk about grizzly bears a decade ago? Not so much anymore.

In 1995 and 1996 the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service introduced 35 wolves to central Idaho as an experimental, nonessential population under the Endangered Species Act, and over the objections of the State of Idaho. Many things have happened over the last decade, and in 2008, with public involvement, the Idaho Fish and Game commission approved the Idaho Wolf ’s Population Management Plan. It set the wolf population objective at 2005 and 2007 levels—a range of about 500 to 700 wolves for the five-year post-delisting period. Following the commission’s approval of Idaho’s wolf management plan, legal challenges of a federal delisting rule precluded state management of wolves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the 2008 Idaho Wolf Management Plan, and a federal judge found it acceptable.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service de-listed the wolf in May, and management of wolves was turned over to the state of Idaho.

The following are some highlights of the Fish and Game Commission’s decisions that have brought us to where we are today. The Fish and Game wolf population model shows Idaho now has at least 1,000 wolves and the population is increasing at a rate of about 20 percent a year without hunting. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission adopted a harvest strategy plan that would help meet the state’s population objective as outlined in the above mentioned 2008 wolf management plan.

So what does that all mean? Hunters will be allowed to take up to 220 wolves this fall and winter. Commissioners hope this action will help Idaho retain state management of its growing wolf population. Commissioners also want to manage the wolf population toward the 2005 level of 520 wolves through regulated

hunting, a level that is five times higher than the federal recovery goal. The 2005 wolf population figure was used as a target number because wolf conflicts both with wildlife and livestock increased significantly that year.

Commissioners have set limits for each of Idaho’s 12 wolf management zones. When the limit is met in a zone, the season will close in that zone. When the statewide quota is reached, hunting in all zones will close. The next few wolf hunting seasons will give Fish and Game an opportunity to learn how public hunting will work as a management tool for wolves. Like all seasons, methods and seasons will be tweaked over the years to meet the Fish and Game management plan. The same is true for deer, elk, salmon, black bears and mountain lions. Wolves will be managed in a similar fashion.

There is no doubt wolves are having an impact on elk populations in Idaho, particularly in the Lolo and Sawtooth zones. Harvest limits can be increased in areas where wolves are causing unacceptable problems for big game and domestic livestock and subsequently, limits can be reduced in zones to promote linkage between populations in other states.

Wolf tags went on sale August 24 at 10 am at all vendors and at Fish and Game Offices. Tags cost $11.50 for residents of Idaho and $186 for non-residents. Of course, a hunting license is required as well.

In the Panhandle wolf management zone, which includes Units 1-7 and 9, the limit has been set at 30 wolves with the season opening October 1 and ending December 31. Hunters have to report a wolf harvest by calling 1-877872-3190 within five days of the harvest date.

You can also call that number to find out if the season has been closed or visit http://fishand game.idaho.gov/cms/hunt. Additionally, hunters must present the skull and hide for tagging to a Fish and Game Regional Office or Conservation Officer within five days of the kill.

A hearing in federal court on Monday, August 31, could result in an injunction halting Idaho’s wolf hunt. Scheduled wolf hunting seasons in the Lolo and Sawtooth wolf zones open Tuesday, September 1. The injunction, if granted, may affect these and later hunts.

Hunters are asked to check the Idaho Fish and Game Web site at: http://fishadngame.idaho. gov , or call the toll free wolf hunt information number 1-877-872-3190 before their hunt.

Please don’t forget to pick up a copy of the hunting regulations. There have been changes to season dates so read up before you head out.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call me or the Regional Office at 208-796-1414. Be respectful to the resource, your fellow hunter and non-hunter, and most of all your local Conservation Officer! See you out there.

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 17

A Bird in Hand

Clark’s Nutcracker Mike Turnlund

mturnlund@gmail.com Like many things in life, a person gets out of bird watching what they put into it. It is a simple thing to put up a bird feeder to attract some of our little friends and to identify them with the help of a guidebook. The more types of feeders that are put up, the more types of birds that will be attracted. For instance, a seed dispenser will attract seed eating birds whereas a suet dispenser will attract those that think that life is more than a bowl of cherry pits. Nectar feeders turn backyard into war zones, proving that the most selfish creatures in our area are not those living in gated communities, but hummingbirds. But the hard fact of the matter is that backyard feeders will only attract a very limited number of species. If they are not coming to you, you’re going to need to go to them, or your life list of identified birds will be limited to a couple dozen—all of which you know, very, very well.

There is so much to be seen in life off the beaten path and nothing demonstrates this more than birding.

Some of the most unusual and interesting bird species in our area only exist off the highways and byways of our normal, regular lives. And one of the most beautiful and striking of these is Clark’s Nutcracker. If one of these birds show up at your backyard feeder you either live far off the beaten path or it is the Apocalypse.

If you are a Northwest native, you probably correctly surmised that this bird was named after that indomitable explorer William Clark. He was the first Westerner to identify it. It is a fairly large bird, smaller than the crow, but bigger than a jay. It is also related to both of these and seems to have characteristics of each. To find one you are going to have to climb. Get up high on some ridge line or mountain top near the tree line, and chances are it will be you who is discovered by the nutcracker.

Yup, just like the rest of the Corvidae family, they are curious folk.

The plumage of this nutcracker is unlike any other bird. They are a steely-blue gray that might appear white from a distance.

They have black wings and tail, and with white accents on both. These white highlights become most apparent when the

bird is in flight. Look for the bright white trailing edges of the central wing primaries and both edges of the tail. Quite beautiful in flight. The birds also have huge, black, pointed bills that almost looks like they belong on a woodpecker. Their call reminds me of the kaw-kaw-kaw of a Steller’s jay.

As the name suggests, this bird is a nutcracker—if you consider pine cones to be nuts. These birds are prodigious harvesters of pine seeds and individual birds are able to harvest tens of thousands of seeds in a given year. And what do they do with all of these seeds? They hide ‘em! Clark’s Nutcracker maintain scores of caches where they stow away seeds for the winter. Experiments have demonstrated that these birds have memories as big as their appetites and are able to remember most, if not all, of their hiding places. And the ones they forget are probably found by the squirrels. As it true for most birds that rely primarily on plant material for food, they also take in a good share of meat, be it insects, bird eggs, or carrion.

I recently encountered a Clark’s Nutcracker during a hike up Mount Baldy with my sister, Annie, and my brother, Jeff.

The bird kept following us making sure we weren’t up to no good. If we observed the bird for too long, he (or she) would fly off.

Once we headed back up the path our little feathered sheriff ’s deputy continued his monitoring. I think he was afraid we’d find one of his pine seed storage units.

Get out there! Hit the trail! Grab your binoculars, your Sibley Guide to Birds, and your hydrating unit (water bottle). Climb, climb, climb (or take the Jeep), find some pine trees and wait to be discovered by that big white and black cop. You won’t be disappointed. Happy birding!

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Protecting Lake Pend Oreille since 1996 Page 18 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

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Gary’s Faith Walk

Huckleberry Picking and Health Care Reform

Clark Fork Baptist Church

Main & Second • Clark Fork

Gary Payton

gdp.sandpoint@gmail.com

A question please, what does huckleberry picking in our North Country and the raging debate about health care reform have in common? The answer: perspective.

Standing amidst our favorite huckleberry patch (the location to remain a closely guarded family secret), I’d been reaching in, picking berries, enjoying the morning sun on my back and the beauty of the mountains. After a joyful few minutes of dropping the purple delights into my water bottle-turned-berry container, I’d snatched every edible gem in sight. I paused, then moved sideways a foot, and a whole new selection of huckleberries presented themselves tucked under leaves or behind stems not visible from my first vantage point. God’s creation teaches another valuable lesson—that which you see and believe to be true depends entirely upon perspective.

If I were to believe talk radio, unsolicited emails, biased telephone surveys, and shouting voices at town hall meetings, I might think that the sinister black helicopter types had proposed to take over the entire U.S. medical and insurance system as a step toward the annihilation of American democracy.

The major goal of “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act,” or HR 3200, is to achieve universal coverage while seeking to cut costs and improve quality. There are no death panels. The government isn’t intent on owning private hospitals. Doctors won’t become government employees.

For me, as I continue my faith walk, I choose to take a step sideways and view the health care debate from a different perspective. Consider the story of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus’ parable can be summed up in a few words.

Walking along a road a man is beaten by robbers and left half-dead. First a priest

and then another religious leader see the victim and pass “by on the other side.”

Finally, a foreigner (a despised person) sees the man, bandages his wounds, carries him to an inn, and puts him in the care of the innkeeper, stating he will repay all the expenses upon his return. In today’s language, the Samaritan does not ignore the plight of the wounded stranger, a person in desperate need of health care.

The Samaritan refuses to pass by on the other side.

Shouldn’t I be concerned that over 45 million Americans have no health care coverage, placing an unsustainable economic burden on society and families alike?

Shouldn’t I be concerned that in 2006 the combined profits of US health insurance companies was $68 billion while more than 15,000 families were forced into bankruptcy because of medical expenses?

Shouldn’t I be concerned that every 51 seconds a baby is born in America to a family with no health insurance, and that the infant mortality rate in our wealthiest nation is second highest in the industrialized world—in part due to mothers’ poor health care?

My perspective as a follower of Jesus compels me to believe that I have a moral imperative to work to assure that everyone has full access to health care. Health coverage that is universally accessible regardless of income, race or ethnicity, geography, age, gender, employment or health status because God’s promise of shalom, health and wholeness extends to all. And health coverage that is equitable because the right to adequate health care comes from our worth as human beings, not from any merit or achievement of some and not others.

If I believe anything less, then I too pass by on the other side of the road.

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 20

The Hawk’s Nest

Music for the Future Ernie Hawks

photosbyhawks.com ernie@photosbyhawks.com The summer is about over, and we have been to our last summer concert and music festival for 2009. Each one gives us an opportunity to hear wonderful music and groups we don’t always get to see at home. At the same time, we remember the high quality of musicians that are here, but invariably we hear individuals or groups we think would complement the talent that we already have.

Sandpoint and the surrounding area has some outstanding venues for all kinds of performers. The Panida offers a fine concert stage with a good-sized hall. The Festival at Sandpoint is one of the best music festivals I’ve seen. There are other weekly outdoor stages each summer for listening to all kinds of music. In addition, there are fun venues offering everything from dinner and a concert (think DiLuna’s) to lively music as you enjoy a drink with friends. There are also quieter background music venues for getting a softer musical fix.

We finally had the opportunity to attend a concert in the Fox Theater in Spokane.

It is as beautiful as we had heard and the acoustics are as good or superior to any hall I have been to.

The occasion was a gift from friends, tickets to the group Pink Martini (pinkmartini.com). If you have missed this “little orchestra,” you are in for a very pleasant surprise. Their webpage says, “We bring melodies and rhythms from different part of the world together to create something which is new and beautiful.” Needless to say, they have a rather international flavor. They may sound like a samba and suddenly you think you are in a French music hall, yet they are a very American band. We heard them first on the New Year’s Eve show over NPR a few years ago and were immediate fans, ordering two CDs that night.

This Portland-based band would be an excellent choice for the Festival at Sandpoint. I would much rather watch them here than drive to Spokane or listen to their CDs. I think, let all those folks who enthusiastically filled the Fox drive to Idaho for an evening with their favorite band.

Incidentally, we ran into several friends from Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene at the Fox that night.

Another band I would like to see in town is Mimosa (mimosamusic.com), a quartet

from Vancouver B.C. These three stellar women and a male drummer also have an international sound; sometimes jazz sometimes cabaret, all with fun melodies and thought–provoking, if not quirky, lyrics.

Mimosa would be a good fit either on the Festival stage or at the Panida Theater. We caught them at the Kaslo Jazz Etc. Festival where the crowd delighted in asking for encores.

Now, just when you are thinking I only like bands that sound like drinks, let me tell you about a band called Barbara Dennerlein (barbaradennerlein.com). Okay, she is not a band but she sounds like one, a true virtuoso on the Hammond B3 called the “Organ tornado from Munich.” She is international but lays down a jazz groove with the best.

Whether she is playing a solo that almost sounds like three hands plus bass or a bass solo only with her feet, she shows total mastery of her instrument. Reviews of her use words and phrases like “supercharged,” “Killer Jo walking vibes,” and “shatters the mold, she does it all without any sacrifice of groove.” We saw her with a drummer and sax player and they sounded like a full band.

Barbara would certainly fill the Festival field with sounds from classic progressive jazz to bebop to boogie.

Someone else I think could please folks in North Idaho is Flora Ware (floramusic. com). Flora works out of Nelson B.C. and would fit in many of the venues we have, maybe even as an opener at the Festival.

A real rising star, she crosses from jazz to folk to R&B or sings swing standards beautifully. I personally like the compositions she has written; they obviously have been influenced by Latin jazz and soul.

There are two who work out of the Coeur d’Alene/Spokane area who haven’t made it up north yet.

The Angela Marie Band (singsonga@ gmail.com) is very tight, the sound of wellrehearsed veteran musicians. Angela Marie’s smoky vocals lead the group through her original edgy light rock that is energetic and fresh. Playing an acoustic guitar as if it were an electric, she drives the band. Her lyrics are without boundaries, from the heart but not whiny or placid. She is an animated performer who complements the character of the group.

Amy Zahara is another jazz voice who needs to be heard in the Sandpoint area.

I would put her in the “better than Diana Krall and Eva Cassidy” class. All right, she is a friend who charms my socks off every time I hear her but she isn’t just another

jazz wanna-be. She works the standards with a new and vivacious energy that excites even veteran musicians, then turns around and rocks the stage with an up-tempo folk song. Amy can have you bouncing with the music then crying with the beauty and sophistication of her arrangements.

Amy or Angela Marie would create excitement in any of the local venues.

These acts are not instead of what we already have in a talent-rich musical arts community, but other sounds to add to it.

I don’t work for any of these people, nor do any of them work for me, so I have no idea of their availability. Some are nearly local while others are international performers; my only purpose here is purely selfish-—I just want to hear them here at home with my friends.

Got bands you’d like to see perform in the area? Let us know who they are (email editorial@riverjournal.com) and we’ll pass your suggestions on to such venues as POAC, the Festival at Sandpoint, Di Luna’s and more.

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 21

You’ll find him behind door E-8

by Trish Gannon You might say that Sandpoint High School’s Cedar Post, the school newspaper, has found true love. That’s because when the doors opened for the 2009-2010 school year, Will Love was sitting at the teacher’s desk in classroom E-8, where he’ll spend the next year instructing students in the art of journalism. Of course, the CP has seen Love before—Will’s mom, Marianne, advised the program for seven years, from 1990-1997, and Will himself, an SHS graduate (class of ’95). spent two years as a CP staffer, mostly writing about sports when he wasn’t playing them. But don’t look for a re-run of what’s gone on before—journalism has entered a new era and it’s one that Will is well-prepared to teach.

Graduating from Boise State University with a degree in English literature, Will immediately went to work in the familiar field of newspapers, writing for the Newport Miner. He went on to become the sports writer, and eventually assistant sports editor, at the Idaho Press Tribune in Canyon County. His newspaper career has encompassed a changing media world that repeatedly predicts the demise of newspapers as people turn more and more to the Internet for news and information.

“We’re going to delve into all aspects of ‘new’ journalism,” Will said, as he worked to prepare his classroom for the arrival of students. “Newspapers have changed in how they’re presented. There’s the Internet, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter… when I worked (at the Tribune) I had a blog. These are all new tools in journalism, and I want to teach my students how they can use the technology they’re learning in other aspects of their lives.”

This is on top of the traditional instruction high school journalists are exposed to—learning the difference between news and opinion, hewing to a code of ethics in writing, and understanding (and using) the ‘five W’s’ in telling a story as they prepare a print product for their

readership. “I want to make kids conscious of the media they are reading (because) so much of what’s out there today is opinionbased,” Will explained. He said he expects his students to read newspapers a lot, and to learn that “writing is a process and, on a newspaper, you’re part of a team.” He also plans to have his students put a lot of work into developing that code of ethics.

A tall, craggy-faced man with a marked similarity to his father, Bill, Will speaks in a quiet but reserved tone. He says he’s “not sure” what style of teacher he’ll be—as he hasn’t taught before he won’t know until he gets into the classroom—but even though he’s young, his classroom won’t be a freefor-all. “This is not going to be an easy A,” he warned, adding that he expects his students to call him “Mr. Love.”

It wasn’t an easy A in his mother’s class either, and she’s left behind some pretty big shoes to fill. “There may be a few tracks left behind by my experience for him to check out, but I figure he’ll trod on into some new journalistic territory, and that excites me,” Marianne said of her son’s acceptance of the position as Cedar Post advisor. “During my career, I always embraced the future while holding on to the basic principles and high standards of journalism. I hope he does the same.”

Others have similar high expectations at learning there’s another Love at the school newspaper.

Bob Hamilton, advisor to the Cedar Post from 1961 to 1990 (Marianne Love was one of his editors), says of Will’s position, “Obviously I wish him well. I have strong emotional ties to the Cedar Post.”

Bob’s granddaughter, Erin Daniels Bangle, was not only another CP staffer, but an advisor to the program herself just a few years ago. An English teacher at SHS, she took over the Cedar Post for four years; today, she’s teaching an online journalism class through the Spokane Public School District.

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 22

“Every time I think of Willie taking over, I get this huge smile on my face,” she said. “I just think it’s so neat that another child of an advisor is advising the program.”

In Erin’s senior year on the Cedar Post, Marianne was her advisor; Will was just starting 9th grade and was a classmate of Erin’s brother. “It’s kind of a small town thing,” Erin said, “but it’s also really neat.

The Cedar Post has got its own personality (and I know that) Willie is going to do a wonderful job.

All the Loves have been that way; he just won’t accept anything less.”

Being the child (or the grandchild) of a previous advisor, Erin says, “gives you that extra little push to do well. You don’t want to disappoint them.” She adds that she believes that with his lifelong connection to the program, Will “is going to breathe new life” into the Cedar Post.

Erin passes on to Will the advice her grandfather gave her when she began advising the newspaper: “If you’re going to do it, just do it right.”

Billie Jean Plaster, editor in 1985 and now editor of Sandpoint Magazine and Keokee Books, says she’s “excited” about Will taking over the job. “I think he’s going to do very well,” she predicted.

Dr. Becky Kiebert, principal at Sandpoint High, said, “The reason I’m so excited as that he’s so excited about this. He’s already been here (prior to the start of school) a couple of times. The kids love him and he has some great ideas.” Kiebert said Will’s references were, “glowing. He’s all about dedication and perseverance. Plus, he has that family connection (to the Cedar Post) which gives him a great support system. I really think Will has the ability for longevity in this position.”

“I want my students to respect journalism,” Will said. “They have to understand the power of what they do.” It’s a field that Will believes provides skills that translate well into many different careers. “I’ve been doing a lot of reading on this, and kids who have come through high school newspaper programs have a higher graduation rate, are more likely to go to college, and even have a higher rate of graduation from college. They become in demand in the workplace because they’ve learned all types of skills.”

This is illustrated in an impressive list of achievements from the Cedar Post alumni roster, not just those who have gone on to local renown, like Love mere, Billie Jean

Plaster and Laurel Wagers (former editor of Multilingual Computing), but Jim Borden (class of ‘75) who is the managing editor for the Kalamazoo Gazette, Alana Watkins (class of ‘95) a former publicist for Random House who owns her own marketing company, Cindy Wooden (class of ‘78) who has been a reporter at the Vatican Bureau of the Catholic News Service for 20 years, and Chris Pietsch (class of ‘75), Kathryn Head (class of ‘94) and Bob Hamilton Jr. (class of ‘73), who all work as photojournalists.

Former staffers haven’t just made their mark in the media world, either. Kirsten Thompson (class of ‘76) is a judge in Portland, Ore., Chad Berkley (class of ‘95) is a computer programmer for UC Santa Barbara, and Megan Merriman (class of ‘88) is a lawyer in Seattle. And that’s just a few examples!

For those who think journalism is just about writing, Will points out that producing a newspaper requires much more—photography skills, editing and proofreading, design and layout, and that all-important business end, that not only includes selling the advertising that pays for the product, but billing and collections and tracking the money involved. “This is a student-run newspaper,” he pointed out, “which means they have to do it all.” And Will will have to teach it all, something he says his real-world experience will make easier, because the expectations of today’s reporters encompass much more than just turning in copy. Though Will says students will eventually find areas where they’re more specialized, the ‘real word’ of journalism requires a lot of flexibility. “They need to be able to do it all. I think that students learn by doing,” he added. “That’s the cool thing about this program in particular.”

With a frequent turnover in advisors the last few years, Will believes the Cedar Post has struggled to maintain the quality it was once known for. “I understand where this newspaper has been and I want to continue the growth,” he said. “I’m excited to be back and I’m ready for this challenge.”

Just thirty-two years after becoming Sandpoint High School’s newest Bulldog, Will is now one of their newest Bulldogs again, and is looking forward to helping guide the next generation of students as they develop skills for the Cedar Post that will stay with them throughout their lives.

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Focus on Education

My Summer Vacation Dick Cvitanich

Superintendent, LPOSD

dick.cvitanich@lposd.org

clear the desk of reading material, papers, and the accumulation of the nine month school year.

I suspect some would argue that I do not need “Catch Up” time, but think of building a house or any other project. There is always cleaning up to do.

Worry—July was pretty much a great time to worry. I know people who like to fish, hike, read, garden, etc. Me? I get the opportunity to worry at work during the month of July. What do I worry about? Test scores, building projects, and budgets. The good news is our test scores were the highest they have ever been, so my worrying went for naught. On the other hand, our community expects these scores to rise, and if they do not, they assume the schools are doing a poor job. That gives me cause to worry.

Arriving next is the Adequate Yearly Progress report from the federal government and the No Child Left Behind legislation. I am proud to report that 10 of our 11 schools made AYP; not an easy task. As I like to say, we are good and intent on getting better. Our work tends to be judged by the public on student performance, fairly or not. I am happy we performed well, but this nervousness continues.

The other worry is our building projects at Kootenai Elementary and Sagle Elementary.

Even though we are on time and under budget, the work still leaves me anxious. It has been 20 years since a Plant and Facility levy was approved in our community and we are determined to get it right for our students, staff and community so everyone understands that our district can bring a project of this scope to a conclusion that all can support. Consequently, there were many trips to the jobsites, meetings with contractors and architects, and reviewing the value of change orders. Again, when a house is being built, vigilance regarding the work is imperative.

Plan—Principals, teachers, and parents begin to realize in August, because of “Back to School” sales, that school will start anew in September. As a result, August becomes “Meeting Month” in the life of a superintendent.

It seems like every day there are meetings; one streaming into the next. However, I enjoy August as it is a time to reconnect with people I value, proactively address problems, and do everything we can to make for a smooth and productive school year.

Finally, that worry returns for the first day of school. Will enrollment be up or down? If it is up, will class sizes grow to the point of needing a new staff member? If it is down we will lose state funding. Will a kindergartener be lost on the first day? Will the buses be on time...?

Frankly, I am happy summer vacation is over so I can stop worrying so much! Have a great school year.

Each year when I returned to class in the Tacoma Public Schools my new teacher would invariably ask me to write a brief essay with the inspirational title: What I Did On My Summer $349,921 Everything you want Vacation. This was usually a fairly easy task for from North Idaho. Beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bath, cedar sided home me. In fact, I could almost use the same essay on 6+ acres of heavily timbered every year. property with seasonal creek running Living in a family of six siblings, one summer through it! Wrap around deck, had a tendency to look very similar to the masonry touches and custom amenities make this home a next. Being the second oldest sibling further very comfortable place to live. Easy access to town. MLS reinforced the day-to-day chorus of the hot 20902245 $399,000 This home with 39.43 season. Get up, eat a bowl of Frosted Flakes, or hotcakes on my mother’s day off, then head acres affords you the ability to hunt outside. If my mother was home it was free on your own property and still have easy access to town. The 3 Br 2 bth time to hang out and play baseball on the street home is cozy with a landscaped yard corner, mow the lawn, weed the garden, paint and plenty of fruit trees. A huge shop the fence; whatever chores my father assigned with double doors and framed for a work area. Territorial for the day. If my mother worked breakfast and mountain views. MLS 20805866 $450,000. 51 acre property has incredible views from looked the same, but on these days I rode herd on siblings Vickie, Rickie, Georgie and Kathie. the top of Schweitzer, Idaho Club, Lake Pend Oreille and the Selle Valley. Granite outcroppings and a huge pond.

Oldest sister Cheri was around to help from The shop will hold all your toys or large equipment. The time to time, but she wisely found a summer 3 BR 2 BTH home is cozy with plenty of fruit trees in the job. As a result, my school essay was a carbon yard. Sitting on a well maintained county road with easy copy from one summer to the next. Despite the access to elementary school or town. Lots of timber to seeming monotony, I loved those summers! harvest. MLS 20805865 At age 58, I am still asked what I did on $499,921 This waterfront home my summer vacation. Community members, on Cocolalla Lake has 204 front relatives, and friends all ask me the same feet, 2 decks, and is immaculate. question. One even asked me if my job was full Two bedrooms, two baths, circular driveway, 2 car garage and many time. I don’t mind the question, as I am used large mature trees shade this .57 to it after all of these years. Even my parents acre parcel. Easy access to Sandpoint or CDA. Affordable would ask me from time to time, “What do you waterfront and private. MLS 2084098 do during the summer?” Vickie, Rickie, Georgie $124,921 Views to forever. This is a beautiful parcel and Kathie are all grown up and yet the summer with lots of trees. Nice benched area for a house with views work hasn’t disappeared. of surrounding mountains. Fenced on 2 sides. Close to The first misconception I try to correct is that Lake Pend Oreille’s Camp Bay and Livermore Lake. Small structure on site which would be good as your school superintendent, I do not enjoy three months off. Nor do I enjoy two months for storage. MLS 20902021 off. Frankly, there is not one month off. My job is similar to most others in our community in that I have a set amount of vacation time that I earn. This summer I set myself somewhat free from the office for about one week. That felt pretty good until Kathie and Rickie showed up!

So, what did I do on my summer vacation and what do most superintendents do during this “quiet” time?

Catch Up—When graduations conclude in CAROL CURTIS the second week of June, a collective sigh of 315 N. Second relief occurs. My necktie comes off so I am not Sandpoint identified as the only fellow in northern Idaho 208-255-2244 with a tie. This makes me feel almost like a local 888-923-8484 and changes my mindset. The final two weeks of the month are spent reviewing evaluations with principals and directors, completing state reports, winding up budget information, interviewing new employees, and trying to September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 24

Love Notes

Learning Never to Say Never Marianne Love

slightdetour.blogspot.com

billmar@dishmail.net

I thought I’d never throw away my school notebooks. Apparently, however, I have discarded several of the 3-ring binders, filled with my brain while it was addicted to teaching.

I also know that I’ve deleted oodles of materials from my computer and that almost everything school-related in my document files during the ‘90s has gone to computer heaven.

I know all these materials have disappeared because of spending most of August scanning my files and disks and rummaging through cupboards, boxes, storage rooms and even the tack room in the barn.

My mission was to find whatever hand-outs, lecture notes or lists I’d assembled during my seven-year stint as Cedar Post adviser/journalism teacher at Sandpoint High School. Those notes would come in handy for the new kid on the Cedar Post block. You can read more about on page 22, Looking for Love at Sandpoint High School.

Sadly, I have very little tangible to pass on to the new Cedar Post adviser at SHS. Still, there’s plenty packed away in the brain, which will be shared, only if he asks. I learned a long time ago that we learn better from our own mistakes and personal struggles than we do from unsolicited advice.

While enduring those challenges, we may eventually seek and welcome guidance.

Otherwise, most “you oughta’s” will likely fall on deaf ears. So, I’m also in the continued life struggle of learning when to keep my mouth shut.

I’ve learned a lot since leaving education seven years ago. First and foremost, I’ve learned how fast time can zip by when we’re “having fun” during our “rocking chair” days. Where are those rocking chairs anyway? I know I haven’t sat in one very often. Wouldn’t have it any other way either.

Seems like just yesterday since I said good-bye to teaching for the last time. When I consider what’s happened in my life during that time frame, I know the calendar is accurate, and I know firsthand that learning marches on with time and definitely outside the walls of a classroom.

One of the major ongoing lessons for me involves the constant reminder that we should never ever say “never” and never ever be surprised at the possibilities of what fate can dish out in this life.

Just when I’ve thought I’ve surely seen it all, my mouth hangs open absolute amazement, sometimes even because of my own surprising decisions. For example, one day I started my own blog. Its sole purpose was to help promote my

brother’s cartoons. In its initial phases, I thought to myself, “I’ll never keep this up for more than a few days. My daily blog at www.slightdetour. com is now almost five years old.

You’d never catch me at a political caucus or at anything political, for that matter. Yet I attended one at the Panida Theater in 2008, along with a lot of other people who had uttered similar pronouncements.

Our family would never move from the farm where we’d lived for 30 years unless we moved far, far away. It just wouldn’t be worth all the trouble, I said. Well, we moved all of nine miles three years ago, and we’ve found it well worth the effort.

I said many times that I would never, ever ride in a horse show class again. I’ve done it twice in the last year, and who knows how many times I’ll make myself a liar in that department in the future.

When I left my teaching position at Sandpoint High the first time in 1997, I must have announced dozens of times to hundreds of people, you’ll never catch me in a classroom again. I returned just months later. It was good that I had not thrown away those school notebooks. They came in handy. I fell in love with teaching again.

My second departure from SHS occurred on a more positive note. It occurred thanks to official retirement. No need to keep those notebooks or computer files this time.

Still, I held onto many items. Then, we moved. Then, our storage shed fell down. Then, I must have taken a lot of damaged items in boxes to the Colburn Transfer Station because now I cannot find very many school items.

I never dreamed that there would be any need for that stuff anyway. I also never dreamed that a day would come when someone I’ve known since his “Newest Bulldog” baby picture appeared in the Cedar Post 32 years ago would be advising that very publication and teaching journalism at Sandpoint High School.

Well, another “never” has happened. I didn’t inadvertently lie about this one, but I also never envisioned it. Apparently I never dreamed of such a possibility 32 years ago when I listed expectations for this “newest Bulldog” son of mine. The list included achievements or interests in sports, music, fly fishing, horses, hiking, intellectual pursuits and future editor of the Cedar Post. After all, he was to keep his parents, aunts and uncles happy by taking up strands of their individual interests.

At the time that article appeared in 1977, I never envisioned myself advising the Cedar Post, which had been so masterfully guided for years by my mentor Bob Hamilton. But I did for seven years, and the “newest Bulldog” served as a sportswriter on the staff.

Never, however, did I really consider he would actually pursue a journalism career. He did.

Never did I dream that his professional journalism experience would lead him from an editorial position on a big Idaho daily directly back home to the Cedar Post. It has. Now, this Cedar Post alum is returning to his alma mater to take over the newspaper helm.

I really do wish that I could find more of my classroom materials, but that’s okay.

Forty years ago this fall, when I began my SHS career, retiring English teacher and Monticola adviser Ruby Phelps had not yet discarded her lesson-plan books. She handed them over to me. I may have used them a few times, but for the most part, I developed my own program as an English teacher and yearbook adviser. I followed established patterns that first year and then began adding my personal touch, a little each year.

It was a lot of work, and it took many years of attempting to “get it right,” as Bob Hamilton used to say.

The same will happen as this school year 200910 unfolds. A young man faces a monumental challenge as he teaches high school students for the first time and advises a long respected highschool newspaper. He may not have access to his mom’s materials, but that is definitely okay.

He’s taking the Cedar Post reins during a transitional time in journalism. He’s been living these dramatic changes firsthand as an assistant sports editor. He’s keenly aware that methods of packaging journalism for public consumption are rapidly changing. Fortunately, he’s had on-the-job experience working with these trends.

He’s also grown up with teachers; about 95 percent of all living and past generations in our family have taught school. He knows and appreciates the Cedar Post’s phenomenal history and tradition for excellence. Moreover, he knows how much work he faces as a teacher/ adviser because he watched his mom in action throughout his high school years.

He knows his return to Sandpoint comes with high expectations from staff, students community, and, yes, his family. He welcomes the challenge. He knows where to go quickly if he needs guidance or support with classroom or curriculum management. His aunt Barbara is a respected SHS veteran teacher/publications adviser, and most of the staff either taught him or went to school with him.

Yep, the “newest Bulldog” is returning to his roots after spending the past 14 years out there in the world, educating himself and working as a journalist.

To suggest he’ll never make a mistake is an unrealistic expectation for any teacher. To predict that he’ll do his best to “get it right” and to make a positive difference in the lives of students is a given.

Welcome home, Mr. Love, and good luck.

You’ll do just fine, even if you never have the aid of Mom’s notebooks.

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 25

Thomas’ Tech Tales The Death of Books 211 Cedar St. Sandpoint, Idaho

208-263-3167

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PANORAMIC MTN VIEWS FROM ALTERNATIVE ENERGY PROPERTY

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

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Power runs to property line, septic is approved, and driveway goes almost to river

FILTERED LAKE AND MOUNTAIN VIEWS

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secondary waterfront lot at the Cape Horn Estates gated community. Enjoy community beach or drive just 3 miles to Bayview for easy access to the lake. Lot adjoins National Forest on north line for hiking and more expansive views. Community water system and utilities are at the lot line.

NICELY WOODED 5 ACRE PARCEL

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Level to gently rolling, with a seasonal creek along northern edge. Easy access off the county road; power and phone are nearby. Enjoy nice views of the surrounding mountains

Thomas McMahon

auzie_boy@hotmail.com

The days of cuddling up with your favorite book could soon be coming to an end; that is of course if the eReader boom keeps on growing. eReaders are any device that is used to read material in a text format. This includes smart phones, some media players (like iPods), but most importantly, actual eReaders. A true eReader’s sole purpose is to act and read like a book without the bulk and limited space (and expense of print).

The main eReader on the market today would have to be Amazon’s Kindle 2 with Sony’s PRS700 following behind. While both have the same basic goal in mind, the two companies took two very different approaches to their products.

The Amazon Kindle 2, which I’ll just refer to as the Kindle from now on, is very sleek and lightweight. Looking much like a Mac product with its white face and chrome back, the Kindle boasts a wide range of extras to put itself above the competition.

In a partnership with Sprint Mobile, the Kindle uses Sprint’s 3g network so that you can wirelessly buy books and download them wherever you have cell service. So you could, in theory, never have to hook up your Kindle to a computer.

Listing off the extras of the Kindle would be tedious, so the main headliners will have to do. With a dictionary built in you can simply highlight a word you don’t know and get an on-screen definition; if you want to find out more about what you’re reading simply connect to Wikipedia straight from your current page; the ability to subscribe to newspapers, magazines, and blogs is a major bonus. However, what I find to be the coolest feature is its screen.

The Kindle, along with many other eReaders, uses electronic ink technology which acts much like real paper. Flat panel displays, e.g., computer screens, need a backlight in order to illuminate the pixels

that make up images; electronic ink, on the other hand, uses no backlight. Instead, it reflects sunlight just like paper; even better by some reviews. Since a backlight isn’t constantly needed to see the image there is no power being used while the image is still, so battery life can last up to weeks on a single charge. I’ll do a follow up article on electronic ink and paper as this has really caught my interest.

If you’ve ever seen the first generation Kindle then you are in for a treat.

The Kindle 2 has a higher resolution screen at 16 shades of gray rather than the former 4 shades of gray. This means a very clear image is seen; the pixilated photos from the original Kindle are now almost picture perfect.

Other improvements on the new Kindle include a smaller body, better button layout, a five-way direction controller, improved keyboard, expanded national network (that includes some of North Idaho!), zoom function, faster page turns, and a read-to-me feature that… well it reads your material to you. The major disadvantages that users have stated are lack of a touch screen and that the Kindle does not support PDF files. For a small fee, ten cents or so, you can send your PDF files to Amazon, who will convert them so that your Kindle may use them.

Amazon certainly didn’t reinvent the eReader and there are a lot of great competitors out there. However Amazon did get a lot of things right with the Kindle and definitely marketed their product better than any other eReaders. All I can say is that I’ve added it to my “Wish List.”

The 6-inch Kindle runs around $299; the 9.7” version costs about $500.

Sony’s Reader Digital Book features the ability to flip pages naturally and highlight, and has a touchscreen keyboard. A major drawback to this device is that titles for download are only available through Sony’s online store and tend to be pricey. Also the touchscreen is said to be harder to read.

This device retails around $700.

Politically Incorrect

Filling an Empty Nest Trish Gannon

trish@riverjournal.com It took less than a day for my house to officially become an “empty nest.” David and I followed Amy down to Lewiston, both cars packed to the gills, where 106-degree temperatures ensured we wouldn’t drag out the good-byes to an unbearable level as we left her there for college.

In the days since I have been consumed with deadline for this issue of the River Journal, plus trying to catch up on some of the many hours of sleep I missed during the two-week Festival at Sandpoint. Still, I have noticed the lack of Amy’s sweet presence, and friends far and wide have offered me advice on how to deal with this new phase of my life.

“I always sent the boys care packages after they left home,” said sister Sheryl.

“Made them feel good and miss momma a little.”

Care packages. Hmmmm. What could I put into a care package for Amy that would remind her of home? Let’s see. I could do burnt pizza. A pillowcase with cat hair all over it so she could pretend Nosy had snuck into her bed again. A spider trained to leap from the ceiling and dangle right in front of your face. A few earwigs—my goodness, there have been a lot of those this year. A dead cordless telephone because no one remembers to hang it up and let it recharge.

A big piece of wood that needs to be split.

A farm fresh egg from Huckleberry Tent and Breakfast and a pound of hamburger from one of Dex Vogel’s cows, except she can’t cook in the dorm. No, the care package thing doesn’t sound like it would work too well for me.

“Just enjoy it!” said Tony and Russell and Dana and Kelly. That’s easier said than done, because they just don’t know how enjoyable it is when my kids are home. But still, it’s good advice given I don’t have any choice in the matter.

Of course, I would enjoy it a lot more if I had regular contact with my children.

Misty is good—we talk just about every day.

Dustin is not good, and even worse now that he’s off working in North Dakota for a while (though he’ll be back before this comes out).

And Amy... well, it’s a busy time when you first go off to school and she doesn’t check her email very often.

That might sound funny—after all, aren’t young adults the biggest users of email? If

you think that, then you’re probably as old as I am, because kids don’t use email much anymore—they use Facebook.

Which is why I decided to get a Facebook account, so that I could stay in better contact with my beloved children.

Wow! Why aren’t more people doing this?!

For those of you who don’t really have a clue what Facebook is (all right, you know it’s about social networking, but you don’t really have a clue what that is, either), let me explain. Facebook is a social networking site. (Ha ha ha ha ha... I couldn’t resist that.)

Okay, Facebook is like a combination of email, telephone, home movies and free entertainment.

Still don’t get it? Facebook is email because on your “wall” (the homepage of your account) you can post messages that go out to anyone you’ve accepted (or who’s accepted you) as a friend. You no longer have to write a group email (laboriously going through your email address list to see who to include) to let those who care about you know that the cat just brought in a three-pound mouse and left it at your feet, or that your car was repossessed, or that you won ten bucks on a lottery ticket. Just add a post to your wall, and they all know about it. A message is not only added to their own wall about it, but they get an email that tells them the same thing.

Facebook is a telephone because it lets you know when your friends are online, so you can “live chat” with them. Just last night I got to live chat with both Amy and Dustin; I wouldn’t have called either of them on the phone that late at night, nor would they have called me. It was kind of like winning the lottery, albeit without the money.

Unfortunately there’s no three-way calling here, so I had two separate chats going, but I type fast so that was okay.

Facebook is like home movies because you learn a lot of stuff you didn’t want to know, but that’s okay too. Because that’s an important part of friendship—you share what people think is important to share about themselves, not just the parts that you want to hear.

Finally, it’s entertainment ‘cause Facebook apparently has a heck of a lot of games that a heck of a lot of people play. I know this because all my friends are super competitive.

That means they’ve set their games so that it sends posts to let you know how they’ve done (which, they hope, is better than how you’ve done).

Now that you know the basics, here’s what I’ve learned in the 32 hours that I’ve had a Facebook account.

1. Your kids are not always online. Yeah, I know, that runs counter to what we thought when they were home, but they really aren’t on there 24 hours a day. Yesterday I spent over 15 hours working at the computer on this magazine (man, we have some great stories in this issue!) and I kept my Facebook open, so I know this for a fact. Still, they will be online eventually at some point during most every day, which means you can stay in frequent contact.

2. There is no such thing as privacy online.

We all already knew that, kinda sorta, but given what people post, we don’t really know that at all. Rule number one for a Facebook account should be “don’t post anything online that you would be embarrassed to see in the next day’s newspaper.” Given that so many people don’t follow that rule, postings are not just information, but are also part of that free entertainment I mentioned.

Seriously, though, this is an important thing to learn. Employers and schools check your Facebook account to learn things about you, and the cops check it too. (This is how that one student got busted for a party in Spokane—the cops read about it on her Facebook page. Or maybe it was her MySpace page, which is kind of the same, but more people do Facebook.)

You might set your account to private, but the friends of your friends can see your information, which means your postings— like, say, herpes—are viral. You’re sharing with people you have no clue you’re sharing with.

3. You will question your definition of friends. Now 32 hours into Facebook, I’m at 52 friends and counting. Which begs the question... if you’re my friend and you’re not on Facebook, does that mean you’re not my friend anymore? Or how ‘bout this? If you’re my friend on Facebook, will you come to my funeral? Will you cry?

About five hours into my Facebook account, I realized many other ways it could be used, which means the River Journal is now a ‘group’ on Facebook. As a Facebook member, you can become a fan of the River Journal. (I’m not quite sure how you do this, but I have a Facebook thing on the RJ’s homepage and you can click on that to become a fan.) Why be a fan? Because if you are, Facebook will let you know when new stories are posted online, when the print issue hits the streets, and other information as I figure out what that other information should be. And you can win a prize. See page 3 to find out what and how.

So why not try it? And once you’re there, invite me to be your friend. It will help me to fill my empty nest.

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 27

Dex Vogel Raises Happy Cows

by Trish Gannon

He’s never heard of Joel Salatin and PolyFace farms. He’s never read anything

by Michael Pollan, and doesn’t subscribe to Allen Nation’s Stockman Grass Farmer. He’s a local boy whose family roots go back four generations, to his great-grandfather Oliver who homesteaded in the Clark Fork River Valley. Dex and his wife, Liz and daughter, Tessa, live in the house Oliver built. He hunts at every opportunity, volunteers at his daughter’s school, and every now and then likes to head to the local bar for a cold PBR and, if you catch him at the right moment, a little bit of Kenny Chesney karaoke. Dex Vogel also happens to raise some fine, grass-fed beef.

“Happy cows,” is Dex’s recipe for success in raising beef cattle, and though he’s never heard of Salatin he almost seems to be channeling him as he explains his philosophy of ‘cow farming.’ “They need a place to get out of the weather and plenty of pasture, so a cow can stand and eat all they want.” Or as Salatin would put it, “Farm friendly food asks the question—’Is

the pig happy?’”

Happy cows also need someone to check on them “at least once a day. When you have cows, you can’t just take off on vacation—you have to make sure you have someone trustworthy to come by and make sure they’re all right.”

Dex has taken a break from fixing fence damaged by snow flung by plows last winter—a job that never seems to be complete—in order to talk about his cows.

It’s a hard-working life he lives, especially on each end of summer, during calving in the spring and haying in the fall. And it’s not the life Dex thought he’d be living, even though he grew up living much the same lifestyle he’s providing for his daughter today.

“I thought I was going to be an engineer,” Dex explained. A graduate of Clark Fork High School, he headed off to Spokane for college and after two years, in ‘89, he went to work for Ruen-Yaeger and Associates, putting his engineering training into practice. He still works for Ruen-Yaeger,

but after marrying Liz and a stint working with his father in the gravel business, plus moving around a bit from Post Falls to Sandpoint, he returned to Clark Fork to create a new life.

“If I didn’t love cows, and enjoy the good times involved in raising them, I wouldn’t do this,” said Dex, referring to his 130 acres and approximate 50 head of cattle.

He grows hay on about half the land, while the other half is pasture for the cows.

He started out with two cows and two calves, and his herd has slowly grown to its current size. “I didn’t really plan on having this many,” he said. The beef he raises is “a mutt mixture,” he laughs, saying his herd includes Black Angus, Simmetal, Hereford and even some Jersey and Holstein. He brought in the big Simmetal bull, who presides over the herd looking more like a buffalo than a placid bovine, because he wants to breed in the size, but on the whole he’s fairly pleased with the calves he’s been turning out—on average, about 17 every spring.

Page 28 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Generally five or six of those calves will end up as meat in a local freezer, and the rest will be trucked to the sale.

“I’m not a commercial operation,” Dex explains. “If you buy beef from me, basically you’re buying one of my cows.

Then I keep it for you, and haul it down to be slaughtered, cut and wrapped on your behalf.” He’s just as happy to sell the cows locally as he is to sell them at one of the weekly beef sales available, and says those interested just have to give him a call. His cows are not as large as some—it will take a few generations for that Simmetal bull to make an impact—but hanging weight at butchering is generally 500 to 600 pounds.

If that sounds like a lot of meat, it is, but there’s plenty of people willing to go in on half a cow, and Dex is happy to make those arrangements.

Despite his small size in the beef industry—”basically I’m just a hobby farm”— Dex keeps his prices competitive with comparable local beef. “I’m not doing this to make a killing in cows,” he said. “I need to cover my costs but this isn’t my day job,” even though it takes up a good portion of many days.

The demand for local beef “exploded,” Dex says, when Mad Cow Disease was making the news, especially when an infected cow was found in Washington state. That demand stayed pretty steady, but “the economy’s tight,” he said, and people aren’t as willing to buy their meat for the year up front. Still, there are a lot of people in the area willing to spend a little more than they do at the grocery store in order to buy beef raised in a way that’s in line with their values, beef they can see for themselves on the hoof before plonking down their hard-earned cash.

Although much of the way that Dex raises his happy cows could describe a growing, environmentally-based approach to eating meat (and a growing awareness of the drawbacks of corporate beef) Dex points out that what’s really going on is a return to the way his grandparents provided food for the table. “This is the way it was done when I was growing up,” he explained.

So why is that a better way? Bovine spongiform encephalopathy—popularly known as Mad Cow Disease—is a bovine infection caused by... well, by cannibalism, basically. Beef producers, in the ongoing quest for bigger, more beefier cows, have gotten in the habit of feeding cattle supplements that contain parts of cattle and other animals. Not only are all breeds of cattle susceptible, BSE can be passed on to humans who eat infected meat, who then develop Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, resulting in dementia, hallucinations, and motion problems. It can be fatal within weeks and there is no cure. Although identified infection is rare, there are those

for whom any infection is simply not worth the risk—especially when some commercial beef products (like hamburger) can contain the meat from hundreds of cows.

Of other concern is the U.S. practice of feeding grain to cows in order to fatten them for slaughter. Michael Pollan converted thousands of people to grass-fed beef in his book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: In Defense of Food,” where he referred to humans in the U.S. as “processed corn walking.”

The biggest portion of every bushel of corn produced, he says, goes to feeding animals not designed to eat it; like the grass-eating cow, an animal “exquisitely adapted by natural selection to live on grass.. adapted by us—at considerable cost to their health, to the health of the land, and ultimately to the health of their eaters—to live on corn, for no other reason than it offers the cheapest calories around and because the great pile must be consumed.”

The only time Dex grains his cows is when they calve, and have less access to pasturage. “I ask (my customers) what they want, and everybody who buys it loves the taste of grass-fed beef.”

Dex also avoids all medication except for some vitamins, scours prevention and selenium, which doesn’t exist in the soil around here. Only once has he given antibiotics, when an epidemic of pink eye spread to his herd from a neighboring herd that had been trucked in from ‘outside.’

Most telling, probably, is that a smile lights his face as he shakes an old pear tree and calls for his ‘girls’ to come and see him.

“I won’t keep a mean cow,” he says to explain the placidity of his herd, even the bulls. “It’s just not worth it.” Dex, you see, wants only happy cows. He invites anyone interested in buying his beef, and seeing where it originates, to come out to the farm for a visit—though you might want to come prepared for fixing fence while you’re at it.

If you’re interested in purchasing some grass-fed beef, give Dex a call at 208-2661347. Leave a message if you get the machine; like Dex explained, the farm is not his day job.

But he’ll get back to you.

Photos: (facing page) the Vogel ranch sprawls across the Clark Fork River Valley just a few miles north of where the river terminates at Lake Pend Oreille. (this page top) When Dex isn’t raising beef, he’s sometimes cooking it. Here he grills smokies for the high school Booster Club’s annual food booth during the fourth of July. (middle) A bull to build on. Dex hopes this Simmetal bull will breed more size into his cows. (bottom) Much like a cat, when a cow isn’t eating, it’s napping. This group of happy cows rests away from the summer sun in the shade of some trees.

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 29

Local Food

of the

The Recipe Episode

Inland Northwest

by Emily LeVine

Well, now we know all about local food: where to find it, how to grow it, and all of the wide-reaching political implications of its production or lack thereof. The hard work is done.

Now we feast.

Here are some recipes that I like.

Enjoy the harvest!

Smoky Braised Greens from One United Harvest 1 tsp olive oil 1 small onion, diced 2 strips bacon, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips 1 bunch collard greens 1 bunch kale salt and pepper beer Over medium heat, cook the bacon and onions together until bacon is crispy, 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and add greens to remaining bacon fat. Saute until bright green, then add back bacon and onions. Pour in enough beer to cover the bottom of the pan. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, adjusting liquid level if needed. If too soupy, uncover and cook off the beer more. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Summer Squash Relish (not the community garden site

6C chopped yellow squash 6C chopped zucchini 2C chopped onions 1Tb canning salt 3C white vinegar 4 1/2 C sugar 2 tsp celery seed 2 tsp mustard seed Finely dice squash and onions. Sprinkle with the salt and let stand for one hour. Drain and pack into sterilized canning jars. Bring vinegar, sugar, and spices to a boil. Pour into jars and process 20 minutes in a hot water bath.

Mustard Glazed Carrots from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone 1 1/2 pounds carrots, scrubbed.

1 Tb butter 1 Tb honey or light brown sugar.

2 tsp. dijon mustard salt and pepper fresh chopped parsley

Any Fruit Cobbler Filling: 6 to 8 cups fruits (peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, etc.)

1/2 C light brown sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 1/4 C flour 1 Tbsp lemon juice Topping: 1 1/2 C all purpose flour 1/3 C sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 6 Tb cold butter, cut into pieces 1/2 C buttermilk 1/2 tsp vanilla For topping: Mix dry ingredients together, then cut in butter. Stir in buttermilk and vanilla

Emily LeVine is in her first season of Cut the carrots into 3” lengths. growing produce and Steam until bright orange. In a cut flowers for Red Wheelbarrow Produce skillet, melt the butter with the For the filling: in the Selle Valley. If honey or sugar, then stir in the Toss the fruit with the rest of you have ideas, carrots, mustard, and salt. questions, or the ingredients. Pour into a comments, or topics Cook several minutes, until well 8x10 baking dish, and spoon you’d like to read coated and bubbly. Serve with on the topping. Bake at 375F about regarding local parsley. about 25 minutes. food, Journal please contact September 2009| The River - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. Yum. 18 No.9| Page 30 her at localfoodchallenge@gmail.com

Duke’s Food Obsession

An OCD Primer for Stocking Your Pantry Duke Diercks

duke@riverjournal.com bbq-recipies-for-foodies.com

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Aside from the fact that autumn is gorgeous in this part of the country, it’s a beautiful thing to see kids, especially mine, going back to school. But the lackadaisical gives way to frantic as the start of school ushers in fall sports, activities and events.

The only way to survive sober, it seems, is to become organized, starting with meals and the kitchen. Also, an organized kitchen saves money, by actively using specials and seasonal produce, reduces time spent in the grocery store (!) and negates nagging questions as to what’s for dinner.

No one, especially my wife, would accuse me of being overly organized. But I am in the kitchen. This is, in part, due to my background in the restaurant and food service industry. So in the paltry amount of space allowed me by the publisher of this magazine, I will attempt to help you run your kitchen like a food and beverage manager. We will do this by using inventory and order sheets, and weekly menus.

My first job, for Bon Apetit Management Company of San Francisco, required each food service manager to inventory their entire store room, refrigerators, and freezers each week, most often on Friday afternoon. Yuk. The way to minimize the time spent, other than my favorite method of “taking inventory from your desk,” was to set up your order sheets and take inventory from “shelf to paper.” This basically means that you organize your shelves in the same order as your inventory sheets. Also, to be really slick, you organize your grocery company’s order guide accordingly, so once you inventoried, you knew exactly what and how much to order for your next grocery, dairy or produce delivery. Thrilling isn’t it?

Wait. It gets better.

Unless you are The Red Lobster, The Olive Garden, or any other depressing chain that only changes their menus with the timing of presidential elections, weekly or daily menus help dictate what is on your shelves and how much. Every company has a specific goal for holding inventory, whether it’s one week or one month, with the idea being that although you do need a certain item, any excess is money tied up that can be used for other things. For companies, it may be paying workmen’s compensation premiums; for you, it might be dentist bills, or movie tickets.

Aside from that, if you are like me, with the attention span of a three-year-old and the same amount of patience, weekly menus let you get creative. They save money by allowing you to use those weekly grocery fliers to take advantage of specials. They let you take advantage of what’s fresh by actively thinking about certain ingredients and buying them for specific uses at, say, our farmer’s market, rather than buying on impulse five pounds of squash or fresh cheese and then storing it in your crisper for a month and thus conducting your very own science experiment. (Look! I made penicillin!

So, here’s how I run my home kitchen, for my dysfunctional family of five.

First, I read the weekly coupons and fliers on Wednesday of each week. Yokes publishes their fresh board on Friday, so I look for that on Friday. Safeway also has 72hour sales on certain items that I look for.

Wednesdays, if I have time, I cruise by the farmer’s market to see what’s fresh and talk to farmers about what’s coming in.

Next, I make a menu for Saturday through Friday, including lunch and dinner. If there is something on special that I like, I menu it. If it is in a value pack, and most often meat is so the stores get you to buy more of something they are making less on, I plan on using the meal twice as leftovers, using a part of that item in something else, like say roast chicken one day becomes tortilla soup the next, or freezing part of the meat for use in the following weeks. I use the specials for produce and for buying dry goods that I may need later or are low in the pantry.

I’m afraid I can’t help you actually menu, but you know what your family likes. For me, it’s just what I feel like, very often according to the time of year, and what I want my kids to try. I am a firm believer in making them

try new things. But I will tell you, burgers make an appearance at least once a week.

Armed with my menu, I print out my store “order sheet” that I have on Excel. I have made a spreadsheet according to what we buy most. This I have by store, in the order of the aisles. (It’s a short hop from organized to OCD, I know. ) This saves me time, and allows me to send someone to a different part of the store who has absolutely no clue as to where things are, or what they are, and find it, like my 9-year-old son, or ahem, my wife.

I mark the order sheet with things I need for that week’s menu, and then I take my very own inventory in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer to fill in the other blanks. Then it’s off to the store, most often on one day, and most often a few stores, depending on the item. A national brand of dry goods, for example, is almost always cheaper at Wal-Mart, but I really don’t care for their meat, and certain specialty items I most likely will find at Yokes. Yes, it is a pain, and time-consuming, but I have found that although shopping daily in the European fashion for what’s fresh is hugely romantic, it also is inefficient and more costly.

This “scientific” method allows me to shop for who-is-home-on-which-nights, and since my kids are now trained, I no longer field questions like what’s for dinner?, or what can we have for a snack? They just simply go read the refrigerator where it is posted. And that, dear reader, is worth the price of admission.

Both on-premises and off-premises catering.

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11 am to 3 pm Wed-Sat in the Sandpoint area.

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Your Way

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 31

A Passion for Hops

At the source of beer, alchemist Fred Colby might have found the Philosopher’s Stone.

The yellow lab, Benny, greeted Fred centric breweries around. We love hops,” he it comes to beer, Fred says, “It’s truly more Colby’s sister in the manner all dogs prefer, grins. microbiology than anything.” Then he’s off by shoving his nose up between her legs.

Fred grins and exults and exclaims a lot, on a verbal quest into the different types Pushing him away she exclaimed, “You crotch- by the way, because this is a man passionate of hops, yeast, and temperatures, that then sniffing bastard!” and a beer was born. about beer, both the drinking and the brewing delves into sweating copper pipes, the Now that might not be a typical birth for of it. Not that he necessarily saw a brewery cost of stainless steel and how to wire an beer, but then, what Laughing Dog Brewing resting on his career path when he went to electrical panel that can rival those found in bottles right here in Ponderay isn’t just your school to become an engineer. He went back an Air Force jet. typical beer, either. In fact, if you want to get four times and “skipped any semblance of “There’s not a thing in this brewery I can’t right down to it, Laughing Dog makes ales (a graduation as I went to work for a company do,” Fred said and for a moment he’s more subset of beer) that have a national reputation to pay for my schooling.” And then he went serious, reflecting on what it takes to run and distribution and more importantly, a back again, to become a computer systems a successful business. “Breweries are funny number of River Journal fans. engineer, and went to work at Coldwater things,” he mused and admitted that when “Yakima (Washington) is the center of the Creek back in the day, and actually opened it comes to being a boss, “I’m a taskmaster.” hops universe,” said Fred Colby, brewmeister their sixth store. “What kind of people did Even more important, however, “We don’t and owner of Laughing Dog, a business he Coldwater Creek hire back then?” he asked, back away. I stay the course. You know shares with his wife, Michelle. “Every year and that’s another Colbyism—instead of what they say about a successful business?” they host the Fresh Hops Festival, which they answering a question he asks another that he challenges, and when no one offers an advertise by saying ‘Come to the source.’” In he thinks you should know the answer to. “It answer he provides it. “They make it past the first four years the festival was held, Sierra was entrepreneurs!” three years. We’re in our fourth!” and the Nevada took top honors. “In year five and six, Coldwater Creek grew beyond the smile is back again. (the second and third years Laughing Dog entrepreneurial stage, and in 2005 Fred And not just in their fourth year of competed) we creamed them,” Fred exulted. and his wife poured their life savings, and a business; with steadily increasing orders “We didn’t just take first, we knocked ‘em hefty small business loan, into opening the from beer distributors throughout the United completely out of competition!” brewery.

States, Laughing Dog has already grown out A beer lover would give you as many “It’s a no fail situation,” he said. “It’s do or of its puppy kennel, and will be taking over reasons for Laughing Dog’s success as there die,” and going into their fifth year, Laughing 10,000 square feet in the old KMart building are beers it bottles (currently there’s five Dog is doing. come January. regular, four seasonal and two reserve ales).

There’s a lot more to a successful business And then it’s back to beer as he teaches his But for hopheads throughout the nation, Fred than the product it produces, but the product Continued on next page points out that “we’re one of the most hop- has to be pretty special as well. And when Page 32 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

students/guests how to smell a hop. “Cascades is the quintessential Northwest hop,” he said, but added there’s a lost varient of the “cluster hops.” It’s question time again: “Guess who owns them?” he grins. Yep, that’s right, it’s Laughing Dog Brewing. Not that all Laughing Dog’s ales are made from cluster hops—Fred has a walk-in cooler full of cascades hops and another with pelletized (and patented) Simco hops, and more. It’s pulling the flavors out of the different varieties of hops that creates the different flavors of beer. Well, that and the water, the yeast, the malt, the barley, the temperatures, the equipment...

Given all the variables, it’s almost a miracle (or alchemical magic) that beer can carry such a consistent taste from year to year. Not that Fred would agree—he thinks that’s the result of a lot of hard work. “People don’t expect a change in the taste of their beer,” he said. “So maintaining the same flavor is fairly complicated. We have a computer program that calculates the changes in ingredients.”

Still, one year’s Alpha Dog won’t taste exactly like the next year’s. “We let it change to a degree, we just don’t let it get out of hand,” said Fred. “After all, that’s the purpose of a craft brewery.”

No alchemist in his quest for the

Philosopher’s Stone could be more overjoyed with the steps along the way, from the crow’s head to the green lion (or India Pale Ale to Dogzilla). So how does the Philosopher’s Stone translate into brewed beer? It probably doesn’t.

“If I didn’t love beer, I wouldn’t do this,” Fred said, “but I’m sure one day the brewery will get so big that I’ll be ready to move on,” he offered. So what might come after? “Bourbon!”

You wouldn’t think someone so passionate about beer could become equally enthralled with something else, but it’s a transition Fred makes with ease. “You know how bourbon starts, don’t you?” he asked in one of his expected interrogations.

“It’s just barley beer.”

The smile on his face practically lights the room and you know the story for Fred isn’t about the final product at all... it’s about the adventures along the way. Lucky for us, the product is pretty fine as well.

You can learn about Laughing Dog Brewing by visiting their website at www. laughingdogbrewing.com. But if you really want to understand this quiet, local revolution in the field of ales, stop by the brewery, located at 55 Emerald Industrial Park Road in Ponderay. That’s just behind

Benny the Dog, also known as the CSB Idaho Computer and Satellite on Hwy. 200, across from the Bonner Mall. Pony up your $5 for an eight-glass tasting platter, and explore the ales from light to dark. Then ask Fred a question—one question is all it will take and you’ll walk out the door with more knowledge of beer than you thought existed.

Photo at left: Ernie Hawks and Fred Colby, standing where hops become beer.

Beer Tasting and the Picks for Best of Show I read somewhere, years ago, that beer should not just be a carrying agent for alcohol. For me, I need it to include good taste and a pleasant finish. This, along with good friends, is what makes a beer special.

Last week Trish invited me and several other friends for a tasting at the Laughing Dog Brewery in Ponderay. We tasted eight beers and each came away with a different favorite. Beer tasting is very subjective, which may be why so many different styles

are made.

We started with their Cream Ale. I found it to have a full malty flavor. For an ale it has a bit of a lager flavor and was crisp, but not bitter. A good beer to keep in the fridge for any occasion requiring a fresh cool one.

The Huckleberry Cream Ale is—guess what?—fruity. But has a good “summer fresh” sweetness, and is not overpowering, just right for that hot August afternoon.

CSB is a fun beer that says hello,

Russell Lacy and Ernie Hawks are serious about evaluating beer

sometimes in the wrong places. CSB is named after Benny, our brewer’s dog. This beer gets just a little hoppy, but is playful to the pallet. As they say in the tasting room, “a good beer when you are out sniffing around.”

St. Benny’s is Laughing Dog’s offer to all the Belgian beer lovers in the world. This full beer has a rich aroma and just the turbidity one would expect from a Belgian. Its finish left me wanting more, so I indulged.

I think there must be a law that a Pacific Northwest brewer must have a Pale Ale on its roster. Laughing Dog’s Pale has intense hop flavor, due to the five hop varieties it uses, and is crisp with an herbal nose.

The next three are beers for definitely for you hopheads out there.

India Pale Ale has the hoppy bite and just the right malt for a very full bodied beer. The malt gives it a fresh aroma, more than is expected in a typical bitter.

Dogzilla Black IPA is another hophead’s dream, a little nutty, with a very hoppy bouquet and a dark roasted finish.

A hophead’s delight is in a glass of Alpha Dog Imperial IPA. When asked what it was like, Fred the brewer said, “Hops, hops and more hops; need we say more?” I say, “Ya gotta try it—enjoy.”

I found it quite amazing in eight very different beers that there wasn’t one I would reject for any reason. All of the beers Continued on next page

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 33

Head east of Hope to get South of the Border Come join us every Thursday for the most authentic, freshest and tastiest house made tacos, carnitas and chile you can get this side of Mexico.

Top it off with an imported beer or margharita and you'll be shouting 'Ole all the way home!

Taking a BITE out of the BEER Industry story by Karen Farrar, Idaho SBDC

In the midst of the recession, Laughing Dog Brewing is breathing fresh energy into a well trenched beer industry.

Laughing Dog Brewing was started by Michelle Douglass and Fred Colby in 2005.

Colby was a home brewer for many years and won several home brew competitions.

So with Colby’s passion for good, handbrewed beer they decided to put their hard work into their own business and opened Laughing Dog Brewing.

Laughing Dog is profitable and thriving.

Their beers have won several awards, ranging from bronze to double gold. The brewery has also been awarded the 2006 Chamber Small Business Appreciation Award. Their distribution network has grown to 11 states.

They brew twelve different beers, consisting of Ale, Reserve and Seasonal, with the best seller being Alpha Dog. With growth, Laughing Dog is in need of a larger space for production and will be relocating to a 10,000-square-foot space on Highway 95, in the former Kmart building.

The move is expected to take place in January 2010. The new site will provide not only a larger manufacturing capacity, but also a larger tap room with an interactive high definition golf game, electronic dart board, and outside seating. Tours will be available on a daily basis and canine pals of Benny, the mascot of Laughing Dog Brewing depicted on the logo, are welcome.

Idaho Small Business Development Center Business Coach Mike Wells, who has been coaching Colby and Douglass said, “Fred and Michelle are perfect business owners to work with. They are passionate about their business, committed to a quality product and have a vision of what their future business model will look like.

They also grasp the importance of business fundamentals, such as profit margins and customer service.”

Douglass attributed part of the business’s success to the Idaho SBDC, saying “The coaching and knowledge the Idaho SBDC has provided to help with business decisions and expansion has been great. At any stage of business from startup to growth, they are a wealth of information.”

Visit the brewery’s web site (www. laughingdogbrewing.com) or try the awardwinning brew at Laughing Dog’s Ponderay location at 55 Emerald Industrial Park Road.

The Idaho SBDC at North Idaho College exists to help businesses thrive and grow by delivering confidential business coaching, affordable highimpact business training and free resources to business leaders. Business assistance is available at the NIC’s Work Force Training Center in Post Falls or at the Bonner Business Center in Sandpoint. For more information, please call (208) 666-8009 or visit www.IdahoSBDC.org.

The Beer - Continued from page 33 I tasted were far more than carrying agents for alcohol—each has plenty of flavor. Naturally, with that many different varieties to choose from, there were some I liked better than others. So for me, the favorite to take home would have to be the Belgian. I often drink Belgian but can get a little picky about it also.

Laughing Dog Belgian is near the top.

As for the rest of the tasters: Russell Lacy, whose preferred beer is a Miller Genuine Draft (a Killians if he’s feeling feisty) said he stuck with his sissy nature and went for the Cream Ale. His wife Linda, more adventurous

by far (her regular beer preferences are Dos Equis and Hefeweizen), walked away as a fan of both St Benny’s and Dogzilla, “depending on my mood.” David Broughton, normally a Miller High Life boy, went for the CSB. And Fred Colby, master brewer himself who joined us for the tasting was was holding on to a St. Benny’s, the beer that taught him to appreciate the Belgians.

-Ernie Hawks

078- 5):3-< +).264-0506 next to the post office in hope Page 34 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

The Circuit Rider photos and story by Desi Aguirre

T

he circuit rider arrived at the Norton Ranch near Sandpoint on Monday, August 17, 2009, at approximately 3:30 pm. He smiled as he swung off his horse, Pilgrim Blue, and quickly took off the saddlebags, bridle and saddle.

Annette Carr, vice president of the Backcountry Horsemen, said Trailside Ministry had contacted the BCH asking for homes along the circuit rider’s route that could take in a traveling minister and his horse for one night.

Carr’s parents, Jim and Carol Norton, have a horse facility with 14 indoor stalls and enough room for 30 head of horses.

Carr led the minister and his horse to a clean stall that smelled like new summer grass and leather. Ken Downey, 69, didn’t look like he just rode 26 miles from Clark Fork, but Pilgrim Blue had a little sweat from the saddle pad and slurped from the water trough.

Downey, the circuit

rider, began this cross-country journey last March. He trailered his first horse, Pilgrim, from Minnesota to North Carolina so they could get in shape for the long trip.

“It was a hard winter, and we went to North Carolina in March to get a leg up,” Downey said.

Downey said he was a late bloomer to both horses and Christianity.

“I didn’t get into horses until after high school,” Downey said. “I fed my kids with carpentry, and I didn’t become a minister until 19-something-or-other.”

Downey took his hat off when he walked inside the Norton’s house, and asked if he could take his boots off.

“I don’t want to mess up your carpet,” he said.

Downey’s hair, snow white, matched his beard, and his blue eyes and quick smile reminded me of a jolly Santa Claus. He had a natural presence and spoke softly. When someone else joined in the conversation, he really paid attention.

According to the Trailside Ministries website (www.trailsideministries.com) Downey received Christ as Lord and Savior when he was 16 and has pastured in Illinois, done missionary work in Chicago and British Columbia, ran wilderness learning and character building camps and expeditions in Wyoming and founded Trailside Ministries. He married Carolyn in 1961 and they have five children and 14 grandchildren.

Downey said that he enjoys spreading the word of the Lord via horseback because it is a part of our history and when people see a minister on a horse, they slow down and stop to listen.

“I’ve had people stop me at mailboxes and ask me to pray for them,” Downey said. “And there was this young woman that came out of a bar. When she realized I was on a horse, she got this smile on her face. Just for a moment, she was a little girl again.”

Downey began this trip on Pilgrim, who injured his foot on July 13 after four sets of shoes and 2,000 miles. Downey’s team came from Omaha, purchased a roan quarter horse, Pilgrim Blue, and brought Pilgrim back home to recuperate.

“Pilgrim is healing up fine.

Blue is 7 or 8 and he’s had a lot of firsts on this trip,” Downey said.

“He’s doing real good.”

Downey said they travel 3 miles an hour and have been pulled over

once.

“The officer asked us to ride on the sidewalk,” Downey said.

Downey explained that he details his trip all winter. His team sets up a schedule that includes stops at numerous churches where Downey reminds people how much God loves them. He travels between 24-40 miles a day, and camps at a new location every evening.

“I’ve met so many great people,” Downey said. “The hardest part is riding away. It’s like mining for gold when you meet people.”

Downey and I shared some cowboy cookies that Annette and her daughter, Lenora, had baked. Lenora, a Sandpoint High 2009 graduate, showed us her scrapbook. Downey grinned at the page marked “best friend,” which had pictures of Lenora and her mother.

I noticed that Downey’s pack was light, and he said he travels with one set of clothes, his Bible, an oil slicker, cowboy boots with spurs, 10 gallon hat with a cross a boy made for him out of nails, and a cell phone.

“When I made the trip in ‘94 I didn’t have a cell phone. This time, I’m glad I have it. I haven’t seen a pay phone all across the country, and if I ran across someone who needed help, I’d want to be able to help them,” Downey said. “And I call my wife every day.”

Downey said he has traveled from North Carolina to Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. He plans to arrive in Everett, Wash., September 13, and then he’ll trailer Pilgrim Blue with his renovated school bus back to Minnesota.

“It’s been cool and wet this trip,” Downey said. “But it’s always a joy. Rain makes for a quiet day.”

He looked through his itinerary, adjusting his wire-framed glasses and changing the battery on his hearing aid. I noticed two of his fingers were missing, and he explained that they got tangled up in a rope attached to a mare.

“It hurt real bad,” he said, “and I thought, I’m going to need stitches. Then I realized they were gone.”

Downey flashed me his 10-gallon smile.

“This is my forte,” he said. “There’s super people in this country, and I’m on the front lines, seeing the wide open and all the nooks and crannies. People share from the heart. I’ve met people who don’t have much [and] offer me what little they had. That’s America.”

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 35

story by Kate Wilson photos by Matthew Augustine

In a homeland such as ours that boasts abundant water courses, big mountains and even bigger views, recreation meets its perfect match. However, keeping these resources close to how we found them can be a challenge; a fine line exists between outdoor recreation and protecting natural resources. It is possible to have both.

Schweitzer Mountain Resort is up to nearly 30 miles of mountain bike trails, seven miles of which are new this year.

The trail crew has been busy working on the new trail as well as over a dozen new bridges and boardwalks. These features help mitigate erosion issues by avoiding direct contact with natural water courses. The ramped-up attention to trails at Schweitzer this summer has seen new miles of trails completed and lots of happy bikers.

“Mountain biking is starting to become an expectation for summer visitors; many of the Canadian resorts have been offering mountain biking for years and we wanted to be competitive with our neighbors to the north and have more variety for our regular summer guests,” says Schweitzer

Rental and Retail Director Jon Harding.

“Schweitzer also has a very passionate group of mountain biking employees that wanted to build more trails.”

When planning for new trails, there are lots of important factors to take into account.

Harding cites the biggest considerations to be figuring who will ride the trail (i.e. beginner, intermediate, or advanced) and where it will be built.

“Because we are above the watershed, stormwater management is a big deal,” says Sean Mirus, who leads the trail crew.

Before the newest trail, Bear Grass, a “beginner downhill/intermediate crosscountry” trail, was built this summer, each trail crew member spent a week in a classroom and the field learning Best Management Practices for trail building.

Harding completed the Panhandle Stormwater and Erosion Education Program last spring, a voluntary course aimed at preventing erosion, a costly problem that can shut down projects and adversely affect water resources.

“The SEEP class has been huge—more

so in helping me to identify potential problem areas with runoff and soil types,” says Harding. “The wattle has become my friend. We used them some last year—but I did not know how to use them properly; the SEEP class fixed that.”

Best Management Practices on the Schweitzer bike trails include boardwalks, bridges, wattles, packed berms and plantings. The vegetation planted is a variety made especially for Schweitzer comprised of ryegrass, fescue, and clover.

The seeds are covered in straw to hold the moisture in and help with germination. The plantings will help keep the soil in place, preserving the integrity of the trails.

“Our initial trail design itself is a BMP,” says Harding. “The majority of the Bear Grass trail has a five degree out-slope for water runoff along with grade reversals to help direct the runoff—this trail was redirected many times to avoid both sensitive terrain and extreme terrain.”

The Bear Grass trail was created to give new downhill riders a chance to get some good experience. It provides an easier

Page 36 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

alternative to the existing downhill trails for those who don’t want to ride the lift back down. That said, it’s not really a place for training wheels either.

Many of the trails have wooden bridges and boardwalks to avoid natural water courses. Not only are they ecologically responsible and aesthetically pleasing, these features are also quite fun to ride over.

“Boardwalks allow us to keep water courses and flow as they are—we don’t have to divert them,” says trail builder Matthew Augustine. “The streams get to stay in their natural state.”

Trail building on Schweitzer is not without its challenges either. The steep terrain and dense vegetation make accessing the trail sites quite difficult.

“Schweitzer is such a rocky hill,” says Mirus. “Decomposing granite and heavy runoff make it a challenging terrain to build on—it goes from super wet and muddy to talcum powder dry.”

Harding and Mirus cite another valuable resource for trail planning and design—the International Mountain Biking Association.

This organization was founded over thirty years ago to “bring out the best in mountain biking by encouraging low-impact riding, volunteer trailwork participation, cooperation among different trail user groups, grassroots advocacy and innovative trail management solutions.” They have a myriad of resources online (www.imba.com) as well as publications and guides for trail builders.

Downhill mountain biking is one of the nation’s fastest growing sports. Dual suspension bikes are designed to navigate and endure more challenging terrain. The bikes often have longer travel suspension and overall heavier duty components.

Downhill bikers (a.k.a. “Freeriders”) tend to wear more protective gear and padding.

The features on downhill trails are generally steeper and full of rock drops, elevated wooden structures, teeter-totters, deep berms and more jumps than cross-country trails.

Whistler/Blackcomb near Vancouver, B.C. seems to be the mountain biking Mecca, and a model for other resorts. For some time now, Whistler has had over 75,000 rider days in the summer months; 75 percent of that traffic is going for the lift-accessed downhill trails.

“Whistler is on a different level,” Mirus explains with a reverence reserved for only the most gung-ho trail builders. “They were the first ones in the resort industry to really embrace [mountain biking]; they are setting

the benchmarks.”

The trails at Schweitzer are fun for bikers of all levels. If you’re not into the downhill scene, there are nearly 20 miles of crosscountry trails to get your cardio going.

Every Wednesday evening during the month of August Schweitzer hosted the Twilight cross-country race series. The course changed weekly and threw in extra challenges—changing a tire, scaling the climbing wall, or even walking a tightrope or a hula-hoop obstacle course.

Silver Mountain has been a formidable mountain biking destination for years, though this summer they scaled back their operating hours. Schweitzer, on the other hand, increased theirs, opening and running the lifts seven days a week all summer.

They’ve yet to have a single day without bikes to hang picturesquely from the hooks on the Great Escape quad.

“Customer response has been fantastic; people seem super stoked,” says Mirus.

“Now they want more!”

Schweitzer will stop running the lifts for the summer on Labor Day (September 7), so if you haven’t checked the downhill trails yet, you’ll have to wait until next season.

Remember though, you can always peruse the dynamite cross-country trails. When you do make it up there, take a look around at the sweat and planning (and most likely some tears too) that went into crafting those nifty dirt-trodden trails.

Let your finger do the walking

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As I See It

Beating a Dead Horse Scott Johnson

johnsonmail@sandpoint.net

Hey, what are those guys doing by the side of the road? Wow, they seem to be swinging sticks or something... at that object on the ground. Geez, it’s certainly a large object... hmmmm, what’re they doing? Oh, yeah, now I see, they’re beating that dead horse.

What am I talking about? Whaddya think? It’s the Brett Favre saga of course, you silly gooses. So, the question is, do I pick up a stick and join in, or do I just go along my merry way? It’s a poser to be sure.

What to do, what to do...

Lemme just pick up a twig and toss it on the pile. Favre leads the NFL in many statistical categories, such as most TD passes, most interceptions, most consecutive games started by a QB, most consecutive 3,000 yard seasons, and now we must add, most retired/un-retired player the NFL has ever seen.

How will he fare in the purple and gold of Minnesota? Well, he’ll have one of the best running backs in the league with Adrian Peterson, and one of the most exciting defenses to get him the ball back, so he’ll have plenty of opportunities to throw TD passes (and picks). He’ll also be playing in a dome, which may help as the season wears on. But he also has a losing record in domes… In the last two years, both in Green Bay and then last year with the Jets, he started off the year great only to fizzle at season’s end when it mattered most.

Frankly, I think his stay with the Vikings will play out similar to his last two years, without a trip to the Super Bowl, and he’ll head into yet another retirement. Hey, wait a minute; he signed a two-year deal with the Vikings—for 25 million, 12 million this year and 13 million the next. Whew, what a relief, looks like we can relax and go through next summer without the annual retirement/unretirement deal. Thanks Brett, for giving us the next off-season off, for not obligating the media to cover in detail your employment status.

See, just a twig, nothing more.

It’s been over a year since I last editorialized about the sporting world in the River Journal; with my new career path into the financial services industry taking up about 12 hours per day 6 or 7 days per week and leaving me little mental energy left for creative writing projects. However, that

situation changed last month, and I am now free to again wax poetic in the world of sport on the lives and tales of athletes and their successes, miscues and retirements. (Simply stated, it means, I am now in the market for full time employment. I’m thinking a position involving salary, commissions, and bonuses with health benefits. My experience includes advertising, marketing, publishing and sales management, and I am a fully licensed financial advisor for all your investment consulting needs. I am a published sports writer and trained actor and director for the stage. I am a Taurus, and my pet peeves are people who tailgate and cat hair on a freshly vacuumed carpet).

One more thing before I sign off, it’s Fantasy Football time everyone, so get your league going and a team name chosen before all the good ones are taken. I’m still wrestling with what name I want to call my team this year. When I first started Fantasy, back in ’94, I used the name “Go For Two.” I chose it because the league had just reinstituted the rule to allow teams to go for the two-point conversion instead of just the extra point after a touchdown. Well, I decided to keep the name, but just change how it was written each year. My derivatives have been, “Go 4 2,” “Go Fort Who,” “Gopher II,” “Gifford Who?,” “Goin For Two Again,” but I’m running out of ideas. Since we visited Italy last year I thought maybe, “Via Per Due” or I could go French with “Allez Pour Deux”, or Spanish with “Vaya Por Dos.” But none of these is hitting me on a gut level.

I am considering going a whole new direction, with team names like: Commish & Chips—Cuz I’m the commissioner of the league, or A Rivers Runs through it—Cuz I like Phillip Rivers of the Chargers, or Blood, Sweat & Beers—Cuz I like beers, or Live & Let Addai—Cuz I like Bond movies and Joseph Addai, or Thesaurus Tex and his Cosmic Cowboy Barbs—just cuz I’ve always liked that name, or maybe, I’ll just go with my recently reun-retired hero and call my team: Favre From Over.

Page 38 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Spilled Milk & Skinned Knees

Football this year is all about quarterbacks Dustin Gannon

dustin@riverjournal.com Michael Vick returns to the NFL and lands in Philadelphia. What does this mean for the 2009 Eagles? QB battles surrounded the league this preseason, are teams focusing on QB’s as that ‘it’ factor that will earn them a trip to the Superbowl? The NFL season is just around the corner, my fantasy football roster will be laid out on the table as well as these questions in this issue of...

The River Journal. Buh nah nuh, buh nah nuh.

(That’s the sounds from Sportscenter in my imaginary newscasting room that surrounds my laptop and I as I write this story.)

Okay first things first. Obviously the biggest news this past month has been the Eagles and the risk they took when they signed former Pro Bowl quarterback Michael Vick. Let’s get one thing straight, Philadelphia is Donovan’s team, it has been for the past decade and it will be for a while to come. However, McNabb has had a little history with injuries and has missed several games because of them. Vick still has the talent, that will never go away and even if he only has half of what he used to, it’s still more than half of most of the starting quarterbacks in this league.

The thing that shocked me about Vick going to the Eagles wasn’t what he could do for that team, or how he could hurt that team, it was the fact that nine of the league’s 32 teams could be starting a new quarterback this year, with three of them potentially being rookies. How did those nine teams all pass on Vick? I understand that the risk is high, but the reward could

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be greater. Oh, and did I mention he was cheap? $1.6 million for this first year with the Eagles which none of that is guaranteed.

That’s mereley a percentage of what he made with the Falcons. The biggest concern for me is his chance of being injured. When you miss this much time away from the game you miss what it’s like to play in a full length NFL season, the wear and tear that it puts on your body and the strength and stamina needed to survive for 16 long weeks. That is the only thing that I think will affect his ability to perform like he used to.

Like I said before, there are nine teams that could possibly be starting a new quarterback this year. Three of them could possibly be rookies. It’s easy to say that defense really does win championships, but quarterbacks win championship games.

Every team in the NFL is looking for that franchise quarterback who can be the last peice of the puzzle. Which is why Minnesota coach Brad Childress couldn’t say no to Brett Favre. He is an established franchise quarterback who is more reliable than the two that Minnesota was juggling back and forth last year.

The Jets forked out the big bucks for Mark Sanchez who hasn’t even had a chance to prove himself in the league and is still my number one pick for biggest bust of the season.

Once a team finds their franchise quarterback, it’s just about keeping him there. Contract extensions like you’ve seen to Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger over the last two years were to ensure that they get to keep their franchise quarterbacks.

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Defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth was by far the most expensive free agent transaction this offseason but will he be the one who can get theRedskins over the edge? Don’t coun’t on it. They are going to need a reliable quarterback in order to succeed in this league.

Fantasy football is a little different story when it comes to your franchise player. I believe that running backs are the ‘it’ factor when choosing your first round pick for your fantasy team. My draft day isn’t for another week but I’m going to try and lock up players like Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte and Michael Turner before I go for Ben Roethlisberger or Peyton Manning. Wide receivers come next and you can’t overlook players like Randy Moss, Santonio Holmes and Roddy White. I’d look to avoid players like Terrell Owens and T.J. Houshmandzadeh because they can’t catch passes with quarterbacks who can’t throw them. Defenses you gotta look at the top, and you can’t say the top without following it with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Afterwards I’ll look for tight ends and kickers. Heath Miller is still my favorite tight end, but that’s just because he wears the black and gold.

Next month we’ll discuss the first couple weeks of the regular season and how upset the Jets are for spending so much money on a quarterback that they’re going to sit after he throws 14 consecutive interceptions.

Tune in next time to, Sportscenter. Buh nah nuh, buh nah nuh.

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 39

House of Dark Shadows “...suicide is painless, it brings on many changes, and you can take or leave it... as you please.” - Johnny Mandel, The theme from M*A*S*H Now that autumn is here, it’s the time of year I equate with the start of the “haunting” season that extends through Christmas; gloomy, rainy days or a low angle, stark sun casting long, dark shadows amid the reds and yellows of the dying trees.

A house built in the ‘20s on Lake Street in Sandpoint became haunted probably sometime during the 1960s when either a murder or suicide occurred. Whichever, it reportedly happened in the alley behind the house.The victim’s identity is not talked about, nor the possible murderer’s identity. While known by rumor, it is spoken of in hushed tones by the older residents of town, that it was a member of a well-known local family. Unfortunately, while the party(ies) involved have been mentioned to this author, I do not have the full and hard details so will not mention names.

The focus is the current goings-on in the house.

The young family I am acquainted with moved into the house about ten years ago and lived there for eight years before moving to Ponderay.

In their twenties with two young children, things got off to an unusual start as one afternoon, during their first week there, the young girl called to her father while watching cartoons.

When he arrived from the back of the house the girl asked her father the identity of the old man in the TV. Glancing at the screen, the father saw only the yellow sponge character from the show she was watching and was about to reassure his

Valley of

In ThE

ShadowS with Lawrence Fury

daughter that it must be her imagination or something in the show... when he saw it, too. Looking at the screen during his reassurance, he stopped in mid word when, for a split second, the face of a haggard old man with stringy white hair glared menacingly at them.

The cartoon flashed back on with a scene of the talking sponge running helter skelter. The young man was at a loss as to what to tell his daughter.

Other nights, the family would be sititng in the living room watching TV when the mother, who could see into the kitchen from the couch, would in a few flickers from the TV see an older lady in either a white dress or pajamas with long, white hair, standing in front of the kitchen sink.

Getting up, to the surprise of her family, the young mother hurried into the kitchen, flicked on the lights, only to find nothing but a puddle of water in the doorway and the figure of the woman gone. Other times, there would be wet spots on the walls where there were no pipes to account for them.

One cold, fall night, in ‘03, the parents had several guests over to play cards in the dining room. As the night wore thin, they were playing Liverpool Rummy. Suddenly the lights flickered and then went out. Just before then, everyone had three cards left or one card in their hand. Suddenly the lights came back on and one person went down with three sixes. Everyone else had only sixes in their hands.

Getting more and more spooked, the family uncharacteristically locked their

doors one night when they went to bed.

The next morning they woke up to a foul odor and called 9-1-1. The smell turned out to be methane gas at toxic levels from an unknown source. The family had never locked their doors before, but that night, they would have died or become seriously ill if they hadn’t. What told them to do so and thus saved their lives?

In later incidents, their CD player turned itself on in the basement, which the father was cleaning out one day. When going to shut it off, he found it was already off and there was no CD in it.

At that point the young man suddenly had an urge to clean out a drainage hole for the washer and found an ancientlooking, rusty, homemade knife or shank lodged deep in the drain.

On their final night in the house the young parents were anticipating their move into more modern... more normal... surroundings, when suddenly the nightstand radio came on. The dial strip began rapidly moving all over the bands between the stations, but it played only the same music, music of the early 60s. The music of the Rat Pack, of Dean and Sammy and Frank.

Having had enough, the young father yanked the power cord out of the wall only to have the room suddenly go freezing cold... in August.

But then, of course, this ghostly event had a silver lining. What do a healthy young couple do in bed when it gets cold?

Next month, a story of witches... in the Shadows.

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Call David at 208.290.6577 Call Trish at 208.255.6957 Page 40 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

From ThE

Files

of The River Journal’s

SurrealisT Research BureaU The Sirius Mystery Revisted

An extremely bright star in the eastern night skies recently over Clark Fork led to a discussion of which planet it could be. I tended towards the Dog Star Sirius myself since these were the “dog days”

of summer and Sirius tends to rise in the east. The object turned out to be the planet Uranus, then at its closest approach to earth in the past century but in the conversation that followed I brought up Robert Temple’s book “The Sirius Mystery” (1977, St. Martins Press, NY) and once again my fancies led me soaring through the heavens.

Temple’s book drew on the work of a French anthropologist, Germaine Dieterlen, who had lived among the West African Dogon tribe for most of her life. The Dogon are a tribe believed to hail from Egypt originally for much of their astronomical lore and rituals can be traced to pre-dynastic Egypt before 3200 B.C. In the late 1940s four Dogon priests told French anthropologists of a secret oral tradition concerning the star Sirius; that Sirius has an invisible companion twin star and that further, this invisible twin takes a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, is small, incredibly heavy, and rotates on its own axis.

What’s strange is that all these “secret oral traditions” turned out to be true, though that fact wasn’t appreciated until many years later. Sirius’s white-dwarf companion, now called Sirius B, was not photographed until the 1970s. Skeptics and critics assailed Temple’s book, claiming that modern-day astronomers must have visited the area and fed the Dogon their “traditions” by accident.

Anthropologist Dieterlen, whose papers had spurred Temple’s book, and who’d lived among the Dogon for years, called this claim “absurd” on BBC television and held up a 400-year-old Dogon tribal urn depicting the rotation of Sirius B around its twin.

The Dogon claim their ancestors got their information from strange beings they called the “Nommo” who came from the sky many thousands of years ago in “fire and thunder,” and made their home in the sea, coming on shore every night in suits of iron to

by Jody Forest

teach the Dogon the secrets of planting crops, of the mysteries of writing and numbers, and of course, the tales of the Nommo’s home world, a small planet in the Sirius star system. The Nommo are apparently the same half-fish creatures the Babylonian’s worshipped as Oannes, the Sumerians as Enki, and the Egyptians as the mermaid Isis, all of whose homes were also the star Sirius.

Temple’s book deserved far better than it received. His critics simply ignored all evidence that the Dogon beliefs had persisted far longer than was possible under their scenario of lost and wandering modern astronomers haphazardly regaling a Dogon shaman over a campfire with revelations about the latest findings from Palomar.

Other Dogon astronomical lore, by the way, included the rotations and orbits of planets of our solar system, the major moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.

As I mentioned, Temple’s book deserved far better than it got.

More valid critics would have pointed out the unlikelihood of intelligent life being developed in a multi-star system (for a number of reasons space forbids, it’s highly unlikely and the Sirius system would be far down the list of any exobiologist’s probable list of possible extraterrestrial civilizations).

Anyway, I read on the Internet while researching this article that Temple has updated “The Sirius Mystery.” with a new edition incorporating the latest scientific findings and answering his critics in some detail. I look forward to reading it.

Coming up next month is the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Ore. and I hope to have some news to report from it.

For more info you can check out www.hplfilmfestival.com on the Internet.

“Man lives on a tiny island of ignorance surrounded by a vast, dark and terrible sea of knowledge. It was not meant for us to travel far from shore.” H.P. Lovecraft

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 41

A Seat in the House

Alternative Energy Gets Idaho Focus

Coats 4 Kids Drops your used coats in good condition off at the Mall from September 15 through October 15.

Coats will be distributed to those in need from October 16 through October 31. Please call the Mall at 208-2634272 if you have any questions.

300 Bonner Mall Way in Ponderay

208.263.4272

George Eskridge

Idaho Dist. 1B Representative

idaholeginfo@lso.idaho.gov 1-800-626-0471 I have been asked several times over the summer, “How is it going down in Boise?”

In response, I remind those who have asked that Idaho has a part-time legislature with many legislators working at regular jobs when not engaged in legislative activity and that we actually adjourned the 2009 session on May 8 of this year; the second longest session in Idaho’s history. The next legislative session will convene in Boise on January 11, 2010.

Therefore the legislature is now in the interim between sessions; however this does not mean that we are not involved in legislative matters. During the interim legislators are responding to constituent concerns, attending meetings that are relative to their legislative responsibilities and for some legislators, participating in one or more legislative interim committees.

Senator Curt McKenzie of Boise and I co-Chair one of these committees, i.e., the Energy, Environment and Technology Interim Committee.

Idaho has a history of low electric energy rates that have been beneficial to Idaho citizens and business development in the state. Our low energy rates have been an important contributor to the quality of life in our state.

Idaho is getting close to reaching capacity on our energy supply and needs to look closely at all alternative energy resources.

We will not be able to rely on hydropower to the degree we have in the past, although it will continue to be a resource option. As a result, other conventional methods of electrical generation including nuclear, gas, and coal need to be on the list of options to consider. However, recognizing that there are cost, political and environmental issues associated with these conventional generation resources, the Idaho legislature has recognized that these resources may not be available in the right time frame to meet our needs and has prioritized acquisition of energy resources based on cost, political and environmental acceptance. As a result, renewable energy resources are awarded the highest priority in the Idaho Energy Plan for development.

The Interim Committee on Energy, Environment and Technology has the responsibility of following energy issues and reviewing proposed energy legislation that surfaces during the interim between

sessions to assist the legislature during the regular session to address energy issues that need to be addressed.

The committee will be holding its first meeting of this interim period on September 1 and 2. Three agenda items are of particular significance: 1) Currently there is a large amount of interest by various groups in using biomass, including woody biomass, for electricity and fuel production in Idaho. At the same time it appears that the communication among these groups and various state agencies charged with assisting these groups is fragmented and leads to confusion in terms of what is actually being accomplished in terms of development of biomass resources.

The interim committee has invited members of these entities to attend the September meeting in an attempt to a) increase the communication and collaboration of the groups; b) assist the state agencies to understand their roles and to focus their efforts together and appropriately and c) raise the understanding of the legislature of what the possibilities are for this renewable energy resource development.

2) There is a legislative proposal being developed that would provide qualified Idaho taxpayers with a business and residential energy tax credit for development and/or use of a renewable resource. The proponent of the legislation will be presenting a draft of the proposed legislation to the committee for discussion during the meeting.

3) LS Power is a new player in Idaho’s energy interests. The company is proposing a 500-mile, 500 KV electric transmission project from southern Idaho to Las Vegas to move renewable energy from generation sites to western energy markets. A representative of the company will be providing information on this and other LS transmission projects to the committee.

The Interim Energy, Environment and Technology committee will meet at least twice and possibly three times prior to the legislature going into session next January in its effort to keep up to date on energy issues affecting Idaho.

Thanks for reading and as always please contact me with issues of concern to you.

My home phone is (208) 265-0123 and my mailing address during this interim period is P.O. Box 112, Dover, Idaho 83825.

George

Page 42 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Say What?

The Yellow Pages Paul Rechnitzer

pushhard@nctv.com Forget it. Don’t even go there. This isn’t a plug for that universally recognized portion of the local phone book. In some places it is its own book. No, this is a piece about that segment of our society that is actually the backbone of our economy. The little guy who is working hard to make his idea work and in the process make your life a bit easier.

Nor is this an assault on your precious cell phone, Ipod, Blackberry, Jitterbug or whatever electronic marvel that has become such an important part of your life. Rather it is one way to describe in a couple of words the small retail and wholesale businesses upon which we rely. Even includes the folks you find on the World Wide Web. The point of this is to remind us that the business world isn’t just made up of organizations like GM, GE, Chrysler, Kraft, BNSF, United & Delta or any of the bailout types but countless—and I mean without number—of your neighbors who get up each morning, usually early, to get down to the store and get ready for another business day.

They turn on the lights, unlock the front door and turn that sign around that now reads OPEN! Small business is somewhat like your lawn. That green space is easily described in one word when it actually is countless (that word again) blades of grass. It is those blades of grass that are being so easily overlooked these days.

The guy down the street is working hard, diligently to say the least, to keep the people that work for him employed and willing to do what that business requires.

This little guy isn’t sitting before a bunch of politicians in Washington either begging or defending himself. No, he doesn’t even get a hearing—he just gets the opportunity to take a chance on being his own boss and serving his neighbors.

You know I am talking about the drug store where you find the River Journal, the hardware store where they try to answer the question you can’t quite phrase or that café where the morning coffee seems to

always do the trick. These are the folks who make up small business in America.

The French have a word for it— entrepreneur—which the dictionary tells me means undertake. We have long had a business climate in America where you could try out your idea. In many cases the idea worked. In many cases the idea did not work. Sandpoint has had a lot of both.

These days where the taxpayer is being required to bailout some huge business that has failed for reasons too numerous to mention, no one has given much thought ,if any, to the man or woman who is having just as much a struggle to stay afloat as some huge enterprise. It has been very easy for many to take the local retailer for granted, unless someone is trying to raise some money for whatever, in which case that merchant is on the front line of the givers.

So the next time you are being overwhelmed by your involuntary generosity for the benefit of some outfit you have never heard of, give a thought to the guy down the street who is sweating just as hard but never was in line for a bonus.

Think about the people who are there to answer your questions, in person, not in India or Bangladesh, but standing right there in front of you.

The same people you may see at the Festival, or standing on the curb with you on the 4th or your table partner at the latest spaghetti feed.

Give a thought to how these days of “change” are affecting them and what you might do to improve their morale. And contrary to many all the money that goes in the cash register is not profit but the funds from which the cost of the goods is paid, as well as the lights, the heat and above all the services of that man of woman who just helped solve your problem.

So the Yellow Pages are at the least a compilation of those around you that are trying to provide the goods and services that make this such a great place to live. In my view they are the unsung heroes of our economy. Individually perhaps unimportant to you or your life style but always one of the blades of grass that make for the lawn you enjoy.

PS: Buy local and please don’t expect more than of them than you do of yourself.

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

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Oncology Massage 208.290.6760 Chiropractic (208)265-2225.

Personal Training & Physical Therapy 208.946.7072

Rolfing 208.265.8440

Physical Therapy 208.290.5575

Naturopathy 208.946.0984

Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine 208.683.5211

Oncology Massage 208.290.6760

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Craniosacral Therapy 208. 610.2005 Biofeedback 208.263.8846

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Complimentary health choices

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 43

A Holistic Approach to

Solving the Health Care Dilemna by the Sandpoint Wellness Council www.SandpointWellnessCouncil.com

Sandpoint, a Holistic Town - A Model for Solving Our Healthcare Dilemma

By Owen Marcus, Rolfer The Sandpoint Wellness Council would like to thank the community for the overwhelming support we have received during the last two years. It is very apparent to us that we are truly in the middle of a major shift toward wellness, self-care, and personal responsibility.

A nation in crisis. This country needs to encourage self-responsibility personally and collectively as healthcare consumers.

We need to transform the current system of treating the immediate crisis to a system that supports our citizens becoming and remaining healthy. Presently there is an incentive to use the healthcare system to treat a problem versus using the system to prevent a problem. We need to create a system that educates our citizens about incorporating may types of therapies into their healthcare regimen.

We know that such a shift will not occur quickly. With good intentions our present healthcare system rivals the “military-industrial complex” President Eisenhower warned us about. It will take a strong commitment to establish a balanced healthcare system that goes beyond serving the profiteers of the “healthcare-industrial complex.”

A way out. A December 11 article in the Washington Post gives us a clue to a solution.

“More than one-third of adults and nearly 12 percent of children in the United States use alternatives to traditional medicine, according to a large federal survey released today that documents how entrenched acupuncture, herbal remedies and other once-exotic therapies have become. The 2007 survey of more than 32,000 Americans, which for the first time included children, found that use of yoga, “probiotics,” fish oil and other “complementary and alternative” therapies held steady among adults since the last national survey five years earlier, and that such treatments have become part of health care for many youngsters.”

The article goes on to say, “adults were most likely to use alternative therapies for pain.” This holds true with our local experience. Readers want to know how to eliminate their pain. Practitioners want to reduce or eliminate pain for their patients. Therefore it becomes increasingly more important to learn all we can about a variety of methods backed by solid science to prevent conditions and illnesses from beginning and to maintain our own wellbeing. In this way, we will impact the healthcare system one consumer at a time.

The Sandpoint Wellness Council loves bringing information to public awareness about the variety of complementary health care practices available from its members.

We appreciate the feedback we receive in The River Journal and on our blog as our collective mission is to provide science-

based treatment information to you to enable you to make wise choices for your particular condition and to be as healthy as possible.

Sandpoint leading the way. With the growing number of massage therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, physical therapist, naturopaths, homeopaths, energy medicine practitioners and rolfers in Sandpoint, we are recognizing the rising value of complementary health care practices as our community increasingly now chooses more often to utilize these therapies to support wellness. A new Sandpoint Holistic Chamber of Commerce is presently forming to support this growth.

As well, a New York Times article highlighted the Sandpoint Transition Initiative for not only supporting holistic health, but also for their mission to be an avenue of support for the health of the entire community. In spite of Sandpoint’s size, we are in the forefront of the shift from feeling that it is the responsibility of others to keep us healthy to a responsibility of each individual. As a council, we support each of us learning as many options as possible to enable wise decision making, to learn to ask appropriate and relevant questions of all of our health care providers, and to feel personally committed to health and well being.

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 Will Mihin, DC North Idaho Spine Clinic Chiropractor 208.265.2225 Continued on next page

Page 44 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

What does Holistic Health Care Really Mean?

By Krystle Shapiro, LMT I often hear people asking what exactly does the term “holistic” mean? Isn’t health care, well, health care? We as a society are so accustomed to visiting with our doctors and care providers, registering our concerns, aches, pains, and conditions, and then receiving a prescription to resolve our discomforts. This is a traditional Western model of medicine, of course in its most simplistic form.

Holistic health care looks at each client/patient in the context of their entire environment, lifestyle practices, emotional and physical situation, stress levels, and nutritional practices.

As human beings, everything impacts our responses both internally and e x t e r n a l l y.

The holistic practitioner aims to understand all these factors that influence the well being of a client/patient.

Oftentimes, educating a client on stress reduction will begin the elimination of other debilitating conditions, such as rashes, irritable bowels,

hypertension, etc. Understanding a person’s eating habits may provide clues to food sensitivities, allergies, and digestive disorders that commonly lead to more serious ailments. Changing diet may lower cholesterol and hypertension, and in turn will improve cardiovascular health. When a person is under stress and/or is too sedentary, thus contributing to frustration, anxiety, and discomforts leading to other ailments, educating clients on proper exercise to promote health and well being becomes an important component of holistic health care recommendations.

Holistic practices recognize that health care is not a “one prescription fits all” as each individual, while complaining about the same ailment or condition, is an individual with very different environmental, lifestyle, and genetic backgrounds.

By taking into account all this information, a well rounded protocol can be developed as individualized to meet the unique needs of each person.

The Idaho State Draft Horse & Mule Invitational

Fall Home Horticulture Workshop Series Presented by the U or I and Bonner County Master Gardeners

September 16 “Perennials for North Idaho” Presented by Loie De La Vergne, Master Gardener Emeritus. Visit a wonderful garden display of perennials in an in town back yard garden and learn how to grow your own – This class starts at 5:30 at 426 Willow Lane. Turn west off Division at the Library.

September 23 “Building and Using Your Greenhouse” Presented by Bob Wilson, Horticulturist. Join us to learn all about greenhouses –what size do you need?

Where should you put it? What can you do with it?

September 30 “Building Compost Bins and Using Your Compost” Presented by Mike Bauer, Extension Educator. Come and learn about all the different kinds of compost bins, how to treat your compost and where and when to use it to benefit your gardens and flowers.

October 7 “Worms, Worms, Worms” Presented by Master Gardeners Janae Dale, Mike Williams, and Shirley Barksdale. Where do you get them? How do you keep them happy so they can keep your garden happy?

Learn all about “Red Wigglers.”

October 14 “High Altitude Gardening and Use of Season Extenders” Presented by Master Gardener Judith Pagliasotti. Judith has carved her gardens out of her forested property at 4000 feet and she can harvest fresh food in January. Come and learn how to extend your garden season.

October 28 “Holiday Flower Arranging” Presented by Nicole French from Petal Talk.

Put your own flower decorations together for the holiday after learning all the tips from Nicole.

A $10 registration fee per class is required. Fees cover the cost of publications, materials, and the support of non-profit activities of the University of Idaho/Bonner County Master Gardeners. Class space is available on a first registered and paid basis. Unless noted, all programs will be held Wednesdays from 6 PM – 8 PM at the Bonner County Extension Office 4205 N. Boyer Sandpoint, Idaho 208-263-8511

September 24 - 27

At the Bonner County Fairgrounds www.IdahoDraftHorseShow.com September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 45

STACCATO NOTES What’s up in September:

August is a busy month, but September offers its own share of great events. Make sure you get down to your local farmer’s markets before they close (most in October) to sample the bountiful harvest this area provides. Speaking of harvests, you won’t want to miss the annual Harvest Party at Pend d’Oreille Winery in downtown Sandpoint from Sept. 11 through Sept. 13. Take part in the release of the 2007 Primativo, enjoy live music, and try your (hand?) at cork spitting, grape stomping, and a smelling bee. Visit the winery’s website at www.powine.com.

It’s the David Thompson bicentennial and there’s a full round of events on Sept. 12. From 10 am to 4 pm at the Bonner County Museum enjoy a fur trade and living history exhibit, just $3 for adults and $1 for students. At the same time in Lakeview Park (where the museum is located), it’s a Friends of Spokane House living history fur trade camp and demonstrations, free to all interested. At 2 pm author Jack Nisbet (Sources of the River, the Mapmaker’s Eye) will speak.

At 6:30 pm head down to Sandpoint’s Panida Theater for “Shadows of David Thompson,” a new documentary about Thompson and the time he spent in the Columbia River drainage.

Want to know more? Call Ann Ferguson at the museum at 208-263-2344.

On September 18, The Pend Oreille Arts Council begins their 2009/2010 Performance Art Series with Los Pinguos, a concert featuring the guitar and vocalists from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Call 208-263-9191 for times and prices.

September 19 and 20, The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce presents the inaugural Scenic Half, a new event featuring a half marathon (about 13 miles), plus 10K and 5K fun runs and a kids’ run. It starts at 4:30 pm. on Saturday with a 1 mile Kids’ Fun Run at Sandpoint City Beach followed by a spaghetti dinner and expo featuring sponsor businesses, also at City Beach. On Sunday, the races begin at 8:45 am. with the Half Marathon, followed by the 10K at 9 am and 5K at 9:15 am. An awards ceremony will be held immediately following the event at City Beach. Visit ScenicHalf.com on the web or call 208-263-0887 (toll free at 800800-2106).

On September 24 through September 27, the Northwest’s largest Draft Horse and Mule Expo takes place at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.

Find a schedule of events plus ticket price information at IdahoDraftHorseShow.com or call 208-263-8414.

On October 3, Sandpoint’s Luther Park, (510 Olive Ave.,) hosts an Oktoberfest event, open to the public, with food, drink, entertainment and

fundraising. Dinner will be served from 5 pm to 7 pm, and includes traditional brats, German potato salad, spaetzle in brown butter sauce, cucumbers in sour cream sauce, black forest cake and apple streudel. Laughing Dog beer and rootbeer floats will also be available for purchase. A live auction takes place at 7 pm. Call 208-265-8823.

On October 10 you can benefit the Bonner County Food Bank and have a ‘ball’ as the Sandpoint Events Center hosts the Fall Harvest Ball, a dinner and dance benefit. Enjoy a fourcourse gourmet dinnerer plus a silent auction and raffle. It all takes place at 6 pm, at a cost of $50 per person. Call 208-946-6646.

Memorial Community Center in Hope hosts its always fun Fall Tailgate Sale on September 12 from 8 am to 1 pm. It will host a free event, “Burning Harry Potter and other ways of misreading fantasy” on September 18. The center is located just off Hwy. 200 in Hope. Call 208-264-5481 for information.

There’s lots more to do in this area in September—to find out more, visit the activities calendar at Sandpoint Online (www.

SandpointOnline.com/current/index.shtml.) and check it out. Trivia Tuesdays, historic train rides, music, movies, piano concerts, dinners... there’s something going on for everyone!

Get out and enjoy your communities!

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 47

Coffelt Funeral Home, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Get complete obituaries online at

www.CoffeltFuneral.com CHEVALIER Muriel W. Chevalier passed away on August 13 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Family services will be held at a later date.

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio on March 3, 1914.

She attended high school in Cleveland and two years of college. Muriel married Albert Chevalier in 1937 and they lived the Chicago area where she worked for American Airlines as a secretary. After retirement, they lived in Bradenton, Florida from 1977 until 2005. She moved to the Sandpoint area in 2005 and enjoyed reading and sewing.

She is survived by her daughter, Patricia Dutkobich and her son Michael Chevalier. She is also survived by 4 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild.She was preceded in death by her husband, parents and 2 brothers.

HALL Hazel Hall - see information on page 4 HINDBERG Allen Irvin Hindberg, 83, of Careywood, died Saturday, August 15, at his home. He was born Dec. 11, 1925 in Brigham City, Utah, the son of Irving and Ophelia Hindberg. Allen was raised and attended schools in Brigham City, and graduated high school there. Upon graduation he enlisted in the US Navy and served during World War II in the Pacific theatre.

After his honorable discharge he attended Utah State University in Logan, UT for two years. On June 3, 1948 he married Leola Peters in Logan. In 1950 he and his family moved to the Careywood area where he farmed. He later got into mink farming.

He was a member of the LDS Church.

In addition to his wife he is survived by four children: Elden (Judy) Hindberg, Terry Hindberg, Tommy Hindberg, Elaine (Frank) Crawford; 12 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren; 1 son-in-law: Duward (Bub) Perkins; 2 brothers: Arthur and Marion. He was preceded in death by his parents, 1 daughter Sandra Hindberg Perkins; 4 siblings: August Hindberg, Emily Hindberg, Lydia Hindberg and Charlotte Jones.

Funeral services were conducted in the Westmond LDS Chapel, with Bishop Bill Justis, conducting. Interment followed at Westmond Cemetery, with military rites by the Athol American Legion Post 149.

ELDRED Walter Raymond Eldred, 85, passed away at Sacred Heart Hospital on August 19. Services were held at Sagle Community of Christ Church.

Walt was born May 10, 1924 in Mott, North Dakota to parents Sarah Sorenson Eldred and William Henry Eldred. Walt’s parents and family came to Sagle to farm in 1936, where Walt and Joy still reside. He started 6th grade and went through the 10th at Sagle School and later graduated from Sandpoint Senior High. He met his wife Joy at a dance at Sagle School. Walt worked the ranch, raised cattle, hay, poultry, and many other pets and farm animals. Walt also worked for Sunshine Mine, Bonner County Road District, logged and had various other jobs throughout his life. He served on the Co-op Board of directors, planning and zoning, was a 4-H leader, and helped to build the Sagle Community Hall.

Walt was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers: Lester, Phillip, Robert, and Marvin, three sisters: Margaret Popovich, Lavonne (Bunny) Turk and Rosemary (Dolly) Turnbull. He has one surviving sister, Laura Carothers. He is also survived by his wife of 55 years Joy, three daughters: Sydney Moran, Danielle Bartro, and Gaea Elderd, two son-in-laws: Mike and Bill, three

grandchildren, four great grandchildren, also four step grandchildren and three step great grandchildren, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Walt had a natural talent for carpentry and woodworking. He built his home, barns, out buildings, birdhouses, beautiful furniture and lots of toys. He also loved to hunt and fish. He loved all the children and animals in his life over the years and they couldn’t resist him. His little dog “Shadow” was never far from his side.

Walt, you will be truly missed - always. Memorials may be made to the Sagle Community Hall PLASTER Nancy Jeanne Plaster, 75, of Sandpoint, died Thursday, August 27, at Life Care of Sandpoint with her loving daughters at her side.

Nancy was born May 3, 1934 in Sandpoint the daughter of Roy and Maurita Kirkhoven. She was raised and educated in Sandpoint, graduating from Sandpoint High School in 1952. On May 22, 1953 she married Jack Plaster in Plains, Montana. After Jack’s untimely death in 1972 she returned to school and graduated from North Idaho College with a degree in nursing. She worked as an RN at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Roseburg, Oregon. In 1997 she returned to Sandpoint where she has since resided.

She is survived by two daughters: Raquel Plaster and Valerie (Jeff Hannan) Plaster; 5 grandchildren: Tony (Theresa) Spade, Brian Reinhart, Brenton Reinhart, Waylon Hannan, Wyatt Hannan; 1 great-grandson Jeffrey Spade, and by 1 sister: Roxy Albright. In addition to her husband she was preceded in death by her parents, and 1 brother.

Funeral Services were conducted at Christ our Redeemer Lutheran Church, with Pastor Steve Nickodemus officiating. Interment followed in Pinecrest Cemetery.

HAINES Jed B. Haines, 50, of Priest River, Idaho died Thursday, August 27, at his home.

He was born July 5, 1959 in Houston, Tex, the son of George and Carol Haines.

Jed lived in the Houston area until his mid teens when he moved to Washington to be with his brother,later returning to Houston. In 2001 he married Becky Henson in Winlock, Wash. They lived in Texas and Oregon and in 2007 moved to Priest River. Jed was a member of the L.D.S. Church. He was an avid outdoorsman, and loved to hunt and fish.

He is survived by his wife, 5 children: Junice Edmonds, James Haines, Janice Haines, Jade Haines and Jordan Haines; 3 brothers, Jack Haines, Jerry Haines, and Jeff Haines, and by 8 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents. Funeral Services will be announced.

HAM Edward “Ed” James Ham, 91, passed away in Sandpoint, Idaho on Sunday, August 30 at the Valley Vista Care Center.

Ed was born on August 3, 1918, the son of George and Lillian Ham in Philipsburg, Mont. The family moved to Sandpoint in 1925 where he has spent the remainder of his life. He graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1925 and married Helen Bonner on December 27, 1938 in Sandpoint.

He worked with his father, George Ham, at the Savon Grocery Store on Cedar Street. He drove school bus for the Bonner County School District for several years and worked for Sandpoint Furniture, laying carpet, for 25 years prior to retirement in 1983.

Ed was an outdoorsman, enjoying hunting, fishing, and golfing. He especially liked picking huckleberries in the mountains. He enjoyed spectator sports including football, basketball, and golf tournaments. He liked it so much that he would watch two TVs at a time. He encouraged, and supported, his grandchildren by attending their sporting events. He was very competitive and liked to win at board games and cards. Family and friends would gather at the Ham house to play games.

He was a member of Sandpoint Elks Lodge # 1376, enjoying his membership and playing golf at the Elk’s Club. Ed will be remembered for his love of family and his attendance at birthdays, graduations, and other special occasions. His family is grateful for the compassionate care he received at Valley Vista Care Center and from Dr. Leedy.

He is survived by his children Terri (and Don) Albertson; Larry (and Donna) Ham; 6 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild; his sister Naomi Hagadone, numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Helen, and 2 sisters Emma Martin and Lucille Bottcher.

Memorials may be made to the Bonner County Historical Society in memory of Ed Ham.

Lakeview Funeral Home, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Get complete obituaries online at

www.LakeviewFuneral.org LaFEVER

John Gresham “Jack” LaFever, 69, passed away on Sunday, July 26 in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Jack was born on August 18, 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio to John and Marguerite LaFever. He joined the Navy at age 17, and was able to travel the world. After the service, he resided in New York City working in Manhattan and spent many years touring with music groups such as the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen as a “roadie” and lighting technician.

Eventually he followed promoter Bill Graham to San Francisco, working in the Bay Area and northern California primarily.

Upon a request by friend, Randy Walters, to help with a welding job, Jack came to Sandpoint, fell in love with North Idaho, and stayed to call the Upper Pack River area his home. He went to work for Mark Dunkel’s logging crew, and later worked as a security guard for Securitas Security Services of Spokane at the Ceda-Pine Mill in Samuels, Idaho.

Jack enjoyed his hobbies of fishing, hunting, reading, riding motorcycles, and playing poker and Scrabble with his friends.He is survived by his many friends all over the United States and the Upper Pack River.

ABBOTT Carl E. Abbott, Jr., age 75, resident of Cocolalla, Idaho. On Friday, July 31, a beautiful sunny afternoon, our beloved Carl left this earth to be with his Lord and Savior.

Memorial services were held at the Sandpoint Nazarene Church with Pastors Chad Wilks and Craig Carl’s final resting place is in the Orland, California Cemetery.

Carl was born on March 27, 1934 in San Jose, Calif. to Carl and Gladys Abbott. He grew up on the Abbott orange and olive orchards in Orland, where he graduated high school. He went on to attend Lassen College in Redding and finished at UC Davis with a degree in food science.

Carl worked as a microbiologist with Dole Fruits and Nuts doing research and development on nuts, and was the head of quality control. He married Mary Grady on January 1, 1977 in Reno, Nev. Carl retired in 1998 with the status of Emeritus. He and Mary built their retirement home on Lake Cocolalla in North Idaho in 2001.

Carl is a member of the Sandpoint Nazarene Church and the International Food Technologists. He enjoyed woodworking, building furniture and cabinets, hunting, fishing, reading and traveling.

He is survived by his wife Mary; 4 sons Ed, Roy, James, and Jim; 3 daughters Jennifer, Lori, and Linda; 12 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren; one sister Lila Olson; numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews; and his much loved aunt Evalyn McIntire.He was preceded in death by his parents and son Ron. SODORFF Richard Lockwood “Dick” Sodorff, 87, longtime Principal at Sandpoint Senior High, passed away on Sunday, August 02, in Sandpoint, Idaho. Memorial services were held at the Sandpoint Events Center on the corner of Pine and Euclid with Paul Graves officiating followed by military honors.

Interment will be held at a later date at the Lakeview Cemetery Niche Wall.

Dick was born on January 31, 1922 in Moscow, Idaho to Harold and Olive Sodorff. He grew up excelling

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in athletics, graduating from Moscow High School in 1939 and attended the University of Idaho on a basketball scholarship. He also participated in the ROTC program and was called to duty in 1944. He was honorably discharged in 1945 after being wounded in the European theater. He received several decorations for his service, including the Purple Heart.

Dick returned to the University of Idaho to complete his education. On August 4, 1946, he married Claire Evelyn Becker of Spokane, Wash. In 1948 Mr. Sodorff began teaching and coaching at Priest River High School. He began his administrative career in 1955 in Sandpoint, where he served as principal at Southside School and Washington Elementary.

He served as the principal at Sandpoint Senior High for 21 years, retiring in 1981. His professional accomplishments were many. He was a member of the Idaho State Committee of the Northwest Assn. of Schools and Colleges for eleven years as Chairman of Special Schools in seven states. He was honored to be chosen as a member of the Idaho Hall of Fame for school activities. He was a lifetime member of Bulldog Bench and Sandpoint Elks Club.

In retirement Mr. Sodorff started the SHS Alumni and Friends Scholarship Fund which donated over $80,000 to all school departments over a period of 20 years. He filled in as high school principal in 1990. He also occasionally drove the athletics team in the Silver Eagle bus to out of town school events. He enjoyed sports such as boating, golfing and fishing, and in his younger days, was quite good at pitching horseshoes and softball. History was his favorite subject.

He is survived by his wife Claire; son Steve (Patricia) Sodorff; daughter Marcia (Tom) Vanderford; 7 grandchildren Stephanie, Breanne, Chris, Greg, Ryan, Kelly and Kara; and one great-grandson Conner; sister Glenna Hamilton; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers Leon and Ronald, and two sisters Gertrude and Lois.

Memorial donations may be made to Bulldog Bench, 1105 Michigan St, Sandpoint, ID 83864; or to the V.F.W., 1325 W. Pine St, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

ESTELL Doris Mae Estell, 95, passed away on Friday, August 7, in Sandpoint, Idaho. A private family memorial will be held at a later date.

Doris was born on May 22, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York to Chichester and Mae Lloyd. She spent her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1926 moved to Boise, Idaho with her mother, older brother Ted, and baby sister Diane to join their aunt Maude.

After completing the eighth grade, Doris went to work to help support the family. She was the first licensed beautician in Boise.

Doris married Dave Addison, Jr. in 1936, and the couple adopted a son Leo in 1944. After almost 25 years of marriage they divorced, and she married Clark Estell in Idaho City. Mr. Estell died of a heart attack a few years later leaving Doris to run the only grocery store in Idaho City.

Doris’ mother Mae came to Idaho City to help her run the store, but instead built Estell’s Chalet a walk-up fast food stand which became well known throughout Ada and Boise Counties. Doris moved to Sandpoint in 1989 to be closer to her son and family. Her last few years were spent peacefully at Life Care Center.

She enjoyed flower gardening, pheasant hunting, fly fishing, and the family tradition of camping where many wonderful memories were made. Family was her passion, and she is survived by one son Leo L. (Mary) Addison; three grandchildren Kristina (Rex) Owens, Eric (Patti) Addison, and Jerad (Briana) Addison; and six great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her mother Mae, husband Clark Estell, brother Ted, and sister Diane Compton.

NORDGAARDEN Sandpoint native, retired educator and devoted family man, Glen Wesley “Glennie” Nordgaarden, died Wednesday, August 12, at Spokane’s Providence Sacred Heart Hospital.

Glen, the youngest son of 11 siblings, was born in Sandpoint, July 18, 1943, to Gilbert and Emma Nordgaarden shortly after the family moved here from Roseau, Minn. His childhood and early adult years

were spent in West Sandpoint. He attended Old Farmin Elementary School as well as Sandpoint Junior High and Sandpoint High School, where he graduated in 1962.

As a dedicated player and team leader on legendary coach Cotton Barlow’s football squad, Glen pulled off a remarkable play, remembered to this day by his fellow players. “He made one of the best shoestring tackles that I’ve ever seen—high school, college, or pro—in one of our football games,” classmate Mike Brown of DuPont, Wash., recalls. “Coach Barlow ran the movie back and forth, showing it over and over as an example of how it should be done.” Sandpoint’s John Pucci, who played the same position behind him, remembers Glen as his football mentor.

A hooky-bobbing stunt in downtown Sandpoint one winter night led Glen to his soul mate and his 43-year marriage to Ruthann Kiebert of Hope. She was driving the car. Glen hooked on and never let go. The two were married February 12, 1966 in Sandpoint. Glen always expressed his adoration for Ruthann through thoughtful compliments. The couple reared two children, Eric and Kiersten.

Glen moved on to St. Louis after high school, working for a time at an airline and flipping burgers at Chuck-aBurger. He later attended North Idaho College and then the University of Idaho, graduating in 1972 with a BS. Ed., specializing in industrial arts.

His entire teaching career was spent at Clark Fork, where he taught seventh graders through seniors.

Students learned to make schematic drawings and then turn them into final products, including bookstands and other more intricate pieces of furniture.

Besides his teaching assignments, Glen coached a number of sports, including track, girls’ and boys’ basketball and baseball. For a time, he served as Wampus Cats’ head football coach.

His students respected him. Many who had provided him challenges in the classroom later showered him with expressions of appreciation.

Throughout his adult life, Glen worked in a number of venues—always on time, always willing to fill in, never missing work. “Gofer” was his job description while working at the Auxer Mine in the Wellington Creek area near Clark Fork. His father-in-law Pete Kiebert leased the gold mine, and Glen helped with everything from drilling to blasting to milling and hauling the concentrate to Smelterville.

He also ran heavy equipment for Lippert Construction, spent some time at Litehouse, Inc., and worked the assembly line the past five years at Unicep Packaging Co. For 15 years he served as Ruthann’s first hand groomer at their Quality Pet Grooming, starting in Hope and then moving to their Ponderay location.

Since the family had horses, Glen learned to shoe them from professional farrier Tom Selberg. Using tools given to him by Tom, he kept the horses shod, often receiving compliments on his work from other professional farriers.

Family was paramount to Glen who always beamed with quiet pride while watching his children and grandchildren participating in sports, horse shows, trail riding, at-home dramas and splashing around in their back-yard pool.

His granddaughter once caught him on video reciting the “Gettysburg Address” from memory and under the influence of helium. He also patiently served as guinea pig for family make-up sessions, even donning a wig and lipstick.

He loved to golf and to fish on the lake, often assigning Ruthann to pilot the boat to a certain area, then propping up his pole in the back, snoozing and only waking up to utter a few suggestions about her driving.

Glen Nordgaarden was known by family and friends as unpretentious, hard-working, honest, fun, kind, and gentle. Asked what she’ll remember about him, his 10year-old granddaughter Adéola said, “Everything.” Other family members concurred.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers Millard, Earl, LeRoy and Gaylord. Survivors include his wife Ruthann, son Eric, daughter Kiersten Ogbeide, granddaughters Osazé, Adéola and Lehana Ogbeide, and granddaughter Keonah Nordgaarden.

Also surviving are brothers Arnold (Peggy) and Eddie (Sonya). Surviving sisters include Gladys Wall, Manda (Marion) Benton, Grace (Steve) Brixen and Lila (Randy) Petersen. Numerous nieces and nephews also survive.

ADAMS Jeanne Camille Moomaw Adams, 79, passed away

on Friday, August 14, in Sandpoint, Idaho, free at last from the pain and suffering of pancreatic cancer. She will be laid to rest in the Fairview Cemetery in Roanoke, Virginia alongside her ancestors and youngest brother Daniel Christian Moomaw.

A genteel southern lady, she was born on January 10, 1930, in Roanoke, the eldest child of the late Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Crumpacker Moomaw.

Her brother, Dr. Benjamin Clovis Moomaw grieves the loss of his beloved sister. Her dutiful children Pamela Jeanne Adams, Nancy Adams Felando and James Moomaw Adams, will carry her memory in their hearts with undying love and devotion forever. Five grandchildren, Noah, Molly, and Will Fisher, Stevi Jo Maytubby, Dawson Adams, and a great grandson Rodion Jacques will miss their “Greenie.”

Besides her family she was passionate about education, art appreciation, literature, and music, being an accomplished vocalist and pianist.

As a cat fancier and animal lover she requested donations be made to Panhandle Animal Shelter, 870 Kootenai Cutoff Road, Ponderay, ID 83852 As she travels forth she leaves us with a favored quote by Albert Camus, “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

CARTER On Sunday, August 16, Melvin G. Carter, 81, resident of Clark Fork, “Drags Up” for the last time.

Mel will be laid to rest next to his parents and grandmother in the Clark Fork Cemetery.

Mel was born on February 16, 1928 to Faye and Margaret (Meade) Carter. He grew up and went to school in Clark Fork, where he played basketball with great enthusiasm and passion. Mel graduated in 1946 and hung up his number “3“ jersey for the last time. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1951 and upon his honorable discharge returned home and married Grace Morris on August 14, 1954.

Mel worked in the timber industry as a sawyer, later he joined the laborer’s union, local 292. In 1962 Mel left Clark Fork and moved his family to Snohomish, Wash.

Melvin always held his childhood friends close to him. He would visit his “home” every year during the 4th of July.

Whenever Mel mentioned going home, his family knew they were going to Clark Fork.

Mel retired in 1987, and he and Grace spent several winters in their RV in Mesa, Ariz., and summers here in Idaho. Mel was finally able to move back home to his beloved Clark Fork in 1990.

Mel’s passions were FISHING, hunting & sports, He enjoyed attending Seattle Seahawks games, and supporting the Snohomish Panthers Football and Basketball programs.

He is survived by his “Sweetie” and loving wife of 55 years Grace Carter; three daughters, Donna O’Conner, Melinda Locke, and Patty Jo Carter; and four grandchildren, Stacy Dammann, Luke Jackson, Kelsi O’Connor, and Jackie Haines; and soon to arrive, to “carry the torch” Mel’s great-grandson Jackson Dammann.

He was preceded in death by his parents, and one sister Viola Gissel.

Memorial donations may be made to the Clark Fork High School Athletic Program P.O. Box 86, Clark Fork, ID 83811 BRADLEY Corrine Jane (Radovitch) Bradley, 81, went to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Tuesday, August 18.

Memorial services were held at the Lakeview Funeral Home with Pastor Scott Douglas of the Cabinet Mountain Calvary Chapel officiating.

Corrine was born on February 4, 1928 in Seattle, Wash., to Rudolf Nicholas and Josephine Martha (Purvis) Radovich. The oldest of her two sisters Joy Lou and Maxine, she lived her early childhood years in Seattle.

Corrine then moved from Seattle to Oakland where she became an overseas operator. She married Elwood (Brad) Wilson Bradley in 1945 and had three children.

She moved to Sandpoint area in June of 1997. She passed away peacefully after spending time with family.

Corrine is survived by her three children, Jeff Bradley, (his wife) Gail Bradley; Greg Bradley, Oregon; and Jenny Bradley. She is also survived by thirteen grandchildren and one sister Maxine. Corrine was preceded in death by her husband, parents and sister.

September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 49

Getting Momma Jinx Beshears

jinxbychoice08@yahoo.com I think my children have tried to find ways to “get Momma” since the day they were born. I don’t know if it’s just some gene they inherited from their father, Terry, (certainly they wouldn’t have gotten it from my side of the family), or if all kids are like that. At 3 years old, Dustin was given a huge piece of bubble gum. I walked into the living room just as he turned around, pulling the gum from his throat like soft taffy. That feeling of watching helplessly while your child chokes has never left me.

That incident caused a minor chain reaction, Dustin choked, I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest daughter and couldn’t see my feet. Terry and I grabbed at Dustin, I stepped on Stacey’s one-yearold fingers, causing her to cry and stop breathing. I grabbed Stacey, Dustin’s dad ran with Dustin to the truck, Dustin hanging upside down, with Terry beating his back as hard as he dared. Stacey on the other hand, went stiff in my arms, eyes rolling back in her head and stayed that way for a bit before she started breathing again (they are called Relfex Anoxic Seizures). Dustin’s father brought Dustin back in, right side up and not nearly the same shade of blue he was on the way out; evidently Terry had managed to dislocate the gum in some weird non-Heimlich maneuver and Dustin could breathe again.

I decided I wasn’t going to panic; after all, I was pregnant and didn’t want to go into premature labor. So after Dustin and Stacey were settled in, I set off to the kitchen to do dishes. The water was warm when I plunged my hands into the bubbles, and as I picked up a glass I wondered briefly why my dish water was suddenly red. I lifted my hand out of the water and noticed blood was gushing from the base of one of my fingers. I screamed loud enough injure my tonsils as I sank to the floor, grasping at a dish towel to stop the blood flow.

I was sure we had done something to anger God at that moment and I was playing my mind over the day’s events (or was my life flashing before my eyes?) to try to figure it out. Terry came rushing to my aid with Dustin at his side and Jamie and Stacey following close behind. I knew I was white—had to be from all the blood loss— and I was terrified to let Terry even look at it. Slowly I took the rag away from my wound, knowing that my skin was peeled back to the bone. The bleeding had already

stopped from the pressure I had applied accidently while panicking. I suppose it wasn’t as bad as I had initially thought, but with the rest of the activities of the day it seemed pretty traumatic at the time. That was the first time one of my kids had choked and the first time Stacey had a seizure, but it certainly wasn’t the last.

About six months later, Dustin left a small toy car in the middle of the kitchen floor. Stacey stepped on it, causing her to fall backwards and hit her head on the corner of the kitchen cabinet. She fell to the floor; another seizure ensued. Having a child with seizures of any kind cannot be fun, and when your child quits breathing, so does the parent.

Several years later Dustin was 9, the twins were 8 and Kerry was 6. We were sitting at the dining room table. All of my kids and I were enjoying chili dogs before rushing off to tee-ball practice. I noticed Jamie’s eyes frozen in fear and she grabbed Stacey’s arm. A piece of weiner had lodged itself in Jamie’s throat and my terrified child automatically looked to her twin sister for help. I grabbed Jamie up, hitting her in the back several times before the wiener came launching out of her throat. Jamie was crying and I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Not because I was angry, but because I was so scared.

Hotdogs were over. We ate soup for dinner before tee ball that night. We didn’t quit eating hot dogs, but I did learn to dice them up before putting them on the buns.

In fact, I learned to do that so well that to this day my kids will not hardly eat a hot dog in front of me, because they know I am going to harass them about cutting it up to eat first. This year Banjo and Stacey had a BBQ for the 4th of July celebration in Clark Fork. Several friends came over, but one in particular handed her children whole hotdogs. I looked at Stacey and Stacey looked at me, never uttering a word when I excused myself from the party for a while. I just can’t watch a child eat a whole hot dog without that overwhelming urge to scream, run in circles, and bat my arms like a crazy woman.

Dustin, practicing his golf moves, slammed his father’s nine iron into Stacey’s chin, ripping it wide open. Stacey was mortified that her 10-year-old chin was scarred, but it was Dustin who was amazed that so much blood could come from one person’s face.

The older my kids got, the more intense the wounds became. Kerry flew head first off her new bicycle, gashing open her chin at the age of nine. She insisted that I hold

her head while the doctor stitched her up. I needed sedatives but the doctor seemed to think I could do it sober. You would think that Kerry would have steered clear of the bicycle for a few days, but that is not the case. She promptly jumped on her gallant steed and began to perform tricks I am sure she learned from watching old Evel Kneivel stunts.

I personally believe that all of my children only took naps and slept at night so they could dream and dwell on new and improved ways to “get momma.” You would think over time that would all stop, but now it’s just a matter of getting me in a different way. Last week I noticed a plastic package from the store on the kitchen counter. I asked Dustin what was the odd looking things inside were and he told me they were mouse traps. As I innocently reached to pick them up Dustin yelled at me, “No don’t, they are already set!” When I squealed and dropped the never-opened package, Dustin practically fell to the floor in peals of laughter. “Gotcha again, Mom,” Dustin managed to say through his giggles.

By this time, my daughter-in-law Jerin had joined in making fun of me. Jerin even went so far as to post the incident on Facebook online for my other kids and the world to see.

My children have given me a great gift though. Dustin and Jerin have Loralei, who smiles a lot and is just on the verge of walking and already grabbing at electrical cord. They have to constantly follow her, because if it is within reach, it is hers.

Jamie and Chris have given me Kelsie and Gracie, both adorable in their own rights.

While Kelsie merely looks mischievous, Gracie inherited Aunt Stacey’s seizures and Aunt Kerry’s audaciousness.

Banjo and Stacey have given me Billie Jaye, my little hillbilly; she refuses to keep her clothes on and her smile can light up a room. She also runs like the Energizer bunny on steroids.

Kerry Lynne has given me my only grandson thus far; Jacob, my handsome ham. Let him see a camera and suddenly he is a Calvin Klein model, posing for his audience. Being a boy, he is constantly taking things apart, but like his Uncle Dustin at his age, he is more into destruction than construction.

So, for those of you like me, who have managed to live through our childrens’ escapades, well-deserving of the grey hair we dye monthly, and for my own kids who have seen me through the thick and thin of their worlds: Revenge really is sweet!

Page 50 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

Scott Clawson

acresnpains@dishmail.net As I mosey on towards curmudgeondon (a state of greaseless sarcasm, unwavering negativity and the optimism of a leper), I still have to do my chores.

Chores are things you do just to maintain and if you have acres of trees, you also have acres of chores. Like clearing out the casualties; the snow-broken, tortured, twisted failures of the battle to gain favor with the sun. Many don’t make the struggle and if you ignore things for long, don’t expect it to be pretty. If you can’t walk the dog without taking along a chain saw, your woodlot needs tending.

This can tie up an astounding amount of “free time” (time you get to work for free)! Like the rest of my neighbors, I can’t afford to hire it done and, therefore, I’m about 20 years behind schedule. But I’m optimistic that somehow, some way, I’ll manage to get all eight of my acres ‘parked out’ at the same time or a meteor will strike nearby and make it all a moot point. I’ve got a little side money on the meteor.

I may have to give up something to accomplish this state of woodsy nirvana, however; like sleep and the two forms of entertainment I can still rely on these days. Mainly developing trick answers to give telemarketers and trying to figure out our universal remote.

If I’m in a forestry mood, I’ll wander around with a pole saw, pruners, chain saw and a roll of TP in case I run into a moose, cougar, bear or feral ‘beefalo’ doin’ the same thing. I limb everything up so I don’t have to duck anywhere as I go wanderin’. Then I toss out a rope fer a choker, pile on enough slash to ensure the possibility of a pretty good hernia and start pullin’ it toward a designated burn area. I call this “jivin’.

If any firewood happens to be a byproduct, it gets chucked in the general direction of the wood shed. I used to do a lot of this shuckin’ and jivin’. It kept me in shape and almost out of trouble. Then I bulged a disc, racked my sacroiliac, lost my stride, pride, momentum and a decent six pack.

By the time I got back to my version of forest management, I’d become the poster boy for the National Atrophy Foundation.

I found it doesn’t pay much though, and had to think up something that would.

I’m still at it.

It’s hard to bounce back if you ain’t made of rubber. Back before I bulged that disc, my muscles were tight and my ligaments loose, cartilage strong and a light caboose.

Anymore, my muscles are slight, my roost is loose and that six-pack looks more like a keg.

It’s yer typical conundrum. Seriously!

Work yer butt off to keep yerself and place in shape only to end up with compressed cartilage, lackadaisical ligaments, torn tendons and a pain killer monkey poking your ribs with a broomstick.

Something has to give eventually and it’s probably gonna be you.

I used to be able to consistently uproot two-inch thick ‘jacks’ with no problems; even bigger if I put my mind on politics.

Now, I’m down to one-inchers and seem to be struggling with even them!

Pulling trees is something you can do when you ain’t doin’ nothin’! It’s easy, really. Say you want a weather report. You go outside, look up, and get one. If you need a long range version, you head uphill a ways to get one of them. Along the way, yer bound to walk past a few overgrown pine cones who don’t belong where they are. Yank ‘em out of the ground while you still can ‘cause next time you meet, it might kick yer butt and make you walk home like Quasimodo mumbling promises to God about exercising more.

I use it therapeutically to settle out the angst and anger of a really crappy mood. Ones brought on by tailgaters or the evening news.

But I can see the handwritin’ on the wall more clearly now and must modify my approach to forest management. I need help of a mechanical nature.

I was mullin’ over this very topic a week ago, when Janis came over the radio waves like an angel of guidance and inspiration! So I wrote this little ditty, inspired by her. You can hum along ifn ya want to. It goes somethin’ like this: Oh Lord, wontcha buy me a big ol’ fourwheeler; I’m counting on you Lord, wontcha be my dealer?

Relieve my achin’ muscles and be my one true healer.

Oh Lord, wontcha buy me a nifty fourwheeler?

Oh Lord, wontcha help me get over these bends?

My back’s screwed up and my head’s fed up with the pain it always sends.

Worked hard all my lifetime, made less money than friends.

Oh Lord, wontcha help me, my back (on you)

depends.

Please, Oh Lord, I need one to keep my woods from bein’ jungle, full of honeysuckle vines, assorted jack pines and miscellaneous fungle.

But they don’t come cheap, even if they don’t go beep; I’d be ferever humble if you’d get me one, I’d have more fun and be less apt to stumble.

Rig it with a winch, Oh Lord, to skid small logs and slash.

I just can’t get it done anymore ‘cause my back has gone to trash.

A rig like that’s expensive, though, I can’t justify the cash.

So drop one here in my driveway Lord, with a pop an’ a brilliant flash.

Oh Lord, wontcha buy me a big ol’ fourwheeler?

I’m countin’ on you Lord, wontcha be my dealer?

Relieve my achin’ muscles and be my one true healer.

Oh Lord, wontcha bless me with a nifty fourwheeler?

Amen

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 51

Page 52 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No. 9| September 2009

From the Mouth of the River

Lovie and I were sitting out in the yard relaxing in our lawn chairs when I turned to her and said, “This is the perfect temperature for the Great Northwest. Not too hot, not too cold, just perfect weather.”

“Yes it is,” Lovie said. “What is the actual temperature?” she asked.

I checked both our thermometers, “Sixtyeight percent on both,” I said.

“That’s perfect,” she said, “I wonder how many days this year it has been this temperature?”

“Well, counting today I would say, one, so far.”

The Fourth of July, however, was fantastic. The best three-day weekend anyone can remember.

The parade in Chipmunk Falls went off without a hitch. Not one person was killed, which was a disappointment to some who come just for the purpose of seeing which gene pool is going to be reduced and if by chance they had drawn that person’s name in the pool. Not saying there’s some families who couldn’t stand to lose a few chips off the old block but, hay, let the chips fall where they may. That’s what I always say.

On the Fourth of July our town is known for its fireworks. It all started back in the Depression when no one could afford store-bought firecrackers so they made their own out of black powder or dynamite. That soon escalated into a range war. Not the Old West kind, but to see who could shoot a beer can the furthest.

I asked Lefty how they celebrated the Fourth back before firecrackers. Lefty said his Pappy used ta entertain him and Stubby by driving a piece of one-inch pipe into a tree and loading it with black powder. He’d cut a hole in the pipe about an inch from the tree with a hacksaw. Then he’d build a fire and, using a burning stick, reach around the

tree and touch it off. Made a hell of a noise and shot fire and smoke all over the place. Us kids would get a real kick out’a it.

One day when his Pappy was out running his trap line, Stubby decided it would be a good time for him and Lefty to try this idea out themselves and show Titsy how easy it was done. Unable to find any black powder, Stubby decided to use the new, smokeless powder from twelve gauge shotgun shells. No one told Stubby how much more potent this new powder was than the old black powder they had been using. Of course, he had no idea how much to put in the pipe to start with or how far to drive the pipe into the tree.

I don’t remember how many shells Stubby said he used, but it was at least a double handful of powder. He said because it was his idea and since he was the oldest, he would get to touch it off.

Stubby’s hearing didn’t come back for days and his eyes were so bloodshot he could hardly see.

The blast split the tree in half and they never did find that piece of pipe, Lefty said. Later they found out the military called what Stubby had “shell shock” and it kept him out of the Army.

Here in Chipmunk Falls black powder and dynamite were easy to come by. They sold it down at the Mercantile for loggers and farmers to blow stumps with and, of course, there was all that hard rock mining that required lots of dynamite. It all started out innocent enough. Make something small that would blow up and make some noise to celebrate our national holiday. Then someone put a can over it just to see how high it would go and then to see who could blow it the highest.

Beer can cannons were made out of pipe welded to an axle on wheels. No one wanted to waste a full can of beer so it was drunk first, then shot off.

The more beer they drank the bigger the charge and the higher and farther the projectiles went until someone got hurt. Then it was the Hatfields and the McCoys all over again.

Mrs. Sally Saw, who taught music at Chipmunk Falls middle school, complained that half of her students didn’t have enough fingers to play musical instruments.

“Well,” said Mrs. Whipple, “that’s jes cause their family has a weak gene pool. Got nuffen ta do wif fireworks.”

Tourists driving through town had no idea until it was too late that they were the targets for the beer cans, plus bottle rockets and roman candles that a few in town could afford. The Geneva Convention came into play and finally some rules were laid down. No one under fourteen could use dynamite and then no more than a half a stick in the city limits.

This lasted a few years until the

Boots Reynolds

citizens started complaining of all the one-eyed cats with hairless tails, spastic dogs, and chickens that were egg bound. Milk cows wouldn’t let their milk down until it clabbered and some had mastitis because of all the noise over the Fourth.

Grass and brush fires were constantly being set by haphazard use of fireworks. Finally, it was decided something had to be done before there were casualties.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” said the city fathers.

“Everyone will bring their family fireworks to the football field at dusk and take turns shooting them off, after which the city will put on its own fireworks display. This will keep the fire hazard contained in one place and be easy to control.”

This was the first year Lovie and I went to this function; we had to park several blocks away and walk up the side streets to the football field.

In doing so we noticed other families doing the same, except they were carrying trash can lids and the streets were lined with EMTs from all over the state. I asked one of the drivers as we passed by why there were so many EMTs. “You’re new here, aren’t you?” he said. “We all come here each year for emergency training in flesh wounds and the handling of burn victims.”

As luck would have it we found a seat in the end zone. No sooner had we set down than the fireworks began. Everyone that was lined up around the outside of the football field started shooting off firecrackers, bottle rockets, roman candles and other flaming missiles all at the same time and all aimed towards the center of the field. That meant they were all basically shooting at each other no matter where they were. That’s where the trash can lids came into play. They were used as shields to protect people from the incoming fireworks! Soon there were screams of pain and profanity as people were being hit with something still blazing in sparkling colors. One woman ran by us with her hair all ablaze in bright orange while her husband was chasing her, trying to put out the fire with a can of beer. As I turned to Lovie, a rocket went right between us and landed amidst a family of five and one golden Lab, who left with their youngest attached to his leash and was later seen crossing the highway down by Hay’s gas station. Yep, I believe Chipmunk Falls has finally solved its containment problem for their Fourth of July fireworks.

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September 2009| The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 18 No.9| Page 53

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