Many events are available for public participation

STORMY--It sure depended on where you were as to how good or bad it was last week. Last Friday was gorgeous here while Portland was dealing with a lot of rain. Those in the eastern part of the Columbia Gorge felt a winter blast with horrific thick, icy road conditions, while just west of Multnomah Falls, it was just wet. Last Monday it was blowing and raining here in West Valley, while it was sunny and warm in Longview, so if you travelled less than an hour in just about any direction, you were likely to find a different batch of weather. Forecasters are currently saying that we are going to have a lot of wind and rain around our area this week, so I'm hoping that everybody got prepared for the worst, just in case.

BACK EAST--Friends and relatives back East are definitely dealing with some much worse conditions than we are and I wanted to give them a "hang in there" shout out from here, as our troubles seem pretty minor compared to theirs. Even the capital was closed down for a time, and down in Texas, there was a 34 mile back up of vehicles due to the snow, so while we're not thrilled with some of our weather, we are counting our blessings that we don't have several feet of snow and ice to deal with. One member of the family is still getting snowed on and temperatures have dipped to one degree, so you know her piles of snow aren't going anywhere anytime soon. We hope all of you back there will be safe and will be free of this miserable weather soon!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from March 6-12 are Sara Fletcher, Quin Bassi Sr., Jami Rainey, Gladys Mace, Mark Whitaker, Katy Goble, Teah McNally, Rhiannon McNally, Curtis Lindsey, Mary Thomas, Tyler Hoven, Ryan McNally, Ray Brooks, Jean Wallen, Ian Turner, Karen Lawrence, Paul Ehrensberger, Kelly Zink, Evadell Beard, Robert Chamberlain and Amy Bernard. Happy Anniversary wishes this week go out to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Webb, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Beard and Mr. and Mrs. Jake Schillios; may you all have wonderful celebrations on your special day.

FRIDAY NIGHT--Jillian Weiss and the Rock and Roll Congress is hosting an open mic night at the Pioneer Community Center (Pioneer Church) in Cathlamet this Friday night at 6 p.m. It's open to all ages and all talents, so here's a chance for you to perform!

THIS SATURDAY AND NEXT--The Crab & Oyster Feed at the Rosburg Hall is taking place this Saturday, and we sure hope you got tickets for that, but if not, you could get lucky and maybe snag a ticket at the door, but contacting Dale Rose real quick like to hold a ticket for you would be best. Also, the following Saturday, the Chamber of Commerce will be holding theirs at the Norse Hall, so either way, there's no reason not to get your fill of crab and oysters this month!

MUSICAL MEETING--Those who are interested in taking part in the proposed musical show put on by the Skamokawa Grange for mid-May (17 &18 ) are asked to be at the Skamokawa Grange Hall at 2 p.m. this Sunday. If you're interested in being in the show but can't make it, please give me a call at 795-3425 so we can at least get you on the list. This show depends on whether we can get a good listing of performers, so we hope to see you there; or call me!

THIS MONDAY--The Skamokawa Grange #425 will hold their first meeting in March this coming Monday. Potluck is at 6:30 and the meeting at 7 p.m. Members are asked to bring a can of food to donate to the food bank. The grangers have several things going this summer, like a Vendor's Market on June 28, which will be held inside the grange this year, and we'll be taking part in the Bald Eagle Day festivities in mid-July, as we'll be selling tickets for our huge $300 holiday gift basket once again, and then there's the Wahkiakum County Fair in August, so we'll be staying pretty busy for the next few months!

ANTIQUE SALE--If you didn't get a chance to get up to the Friends of Skamokawa's annual antique sale at Redmen Hall last weekend, we hope you'll head up that way this Thursday through Sunday. This will be the last four days of it, so stop by from noon to four and check it out.

PRAYERS ASKED--There are still a number of folks who are dealing with some tough health issues in our area, and we want them to know we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers. In our family, we have an unborn baby boy that is dealing with a potentially life-threatening condition, so we could certainly use some of your positive energies directed his way. We hope you will keep his parents, Ty and Kendra, in your thoughts as well as they deal with this serious issue over the next couple of months as they await the arrival of their first born son. Grandparents of this baby are my brother, Frank Pedersen and his wife, Carolyn, of Longview.

SEALS--If you were driving along Ocean Beach last Sunday and were looking out at the Columbia River, you may have witnessed one of the many churning whirlpools that were out there. What were they? Well, the river was almost boiling with seals! They were everywhere! I have never seen so many in my whole life. They were obviously in a feeding frenzy, which caused the churning water affect. There were also others leaping in long lines going up the river as well as the ones in concentrated areas. When we allow the seal population to go unchecked, it is little wonder why we have less fish. As they have no predators here, they are just going to continue to multiply. We also protect the terns, who eat the smolt and "we" even built them another island to breed some more, but yet the solution to our problems seem to be to flood acres of farm land in the name of the fish, while ignoring the real problems; it makes absolutely no sense. (Just like scheduled flooding of a good deal of Skamokawa, behind the fairgrounds clear to Ingalls Road, which is still "in the works" by the way!)

STILL DYING--In the last three weeks, there have been as many elk die in our area and while the scavengers, such as the bald eagles are enjoying them, it is truly sad to see these young elk dying while we wait and wonder if those in charge will ever come up with a remedy to help them. In this day and age of modern science and cures, it just doesn't seem like it should be so hard to figure out. Like the guy said in a recent letter to the TDN, he doesn't understand why we continue to allow hunting when there seem to be so few healthy animals left. Plus, it puts pressure on these sick animals for months and months at a time and keeps them traveling from one area to the next trying to escape the onslaught of hunters, while possibly spreading the disease even farther and faster than need be. We/they, need a solution and soon.

OUT OF THE PAST--For the first couple weeks of March back in 1945, it was mostly wet and miserable with a little snow and hail on March 12. Only towards the end of that time did it get nice. On March 2, there were lots of smelt coming into the Cowlitz River, but the season was over by March 15. The movie "Coney Island" was playing in town and Grandma Elsie thought it was pretty good. There were lots of planes flying this first week which kept folks a little nervous, as they came down so low that they appeared to be almost touching the rooftops. The Pochahontas group got together to celebrate a couple of birthdays and Mrs. Elsie Everest and Warren Stone were honored at the affair with Mrs. Mathilda Hansen as hostess. Grandma Elsie turned 52 that year with family meeting at daughter Marian's house for a nice dinner and gifts. Ralph Everest headed out to Orth's with Mr. Goodfellow; they had gotten a posthole digger and were headed out to fix some fence. All this according to my Grandma Elsie Everest’s diary.