Daylight Savings ends Saturday at midnight

NICE ENDING--I was so happy to have the last weekend of October turn out to be a really nice one, as so often our Halloween events and our little trick or treaters wind up sloshing through the puddles and having to cover their costumes with rain jackets, but not this year; yippee! It was great to have the sunshine out on Sunday, but I do wish the freezing morning hours could have stayed away a little longer; brrr! Those temps took me by surprise so I was definitely feeling the chill when I first got up but thrilled to see the blue sky and sunshine. Our forecast looks pretty soggy for the coming week, so I hope you enjoyed this break!

LAST THURSDAY--I'm sure glad I already had plans for having "dinner out" last Thursday evening, as many of us here in the Skamokawa area wound up with no power for several hours after a big tree fell across East Valley Road and took down power lines, got several poles leaning, left a transformer dangling and yanked service wires from homes. You may recall this had been a wet and nasty day, and I believe our rain gauge had us over three and a half inches of rain in a 24 hour period, so it was definitely a soaker! Beings we had quite a lot of rain for a couple of days prior to that, there were some flooded fields in the usual places and roads on the west end were going under water, so it was not very pleasant outside. We want to thank the PUD crew for battling the horrible conditions and getting us back up and running as soon as they could while they dealt with numerous issues that evening.

This was another one of those tests to see how ready we are to handle these no power events, as while this one was only about five hours, we all need to be prepared to be self-sufficient for much longer in case of a really major storm. So if this one caused you any problems, now's the time to figure out how you'll cope if this happens again. Afterall, it's not even winter yet!

MORE NOTICE--I hope you were all able to get out and have fun at the haunted houses, barns and other Halloween activities that took place this past weekend. When holding an event that you want the public to attend, there's nothing more important than putting out a lot of publicity well ahead of it so people can include it in their plans. Sorry, but a quick blurb on Facebook the day or two before you're having it isn't really giving people much time to find out about it, if at all, as not everybody is on Facebook and not everyone sees everyone else's posts. So, here's to advertising your upcoming event using a multitude of avenues at your disposal that will ensure that you will have a good turn out.

Your Westend writer/columnist, Karen Bertroch and I really appreciate it when you give us a call and let us know what's happening as trust me, the old "everybody knows already" statement is just not true and too often we find out about things after the fact and we're asked why we didn't mention it; well, a little FYI: we can't spread the word if we don't get the word!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from Nov. 4-10 are Elaine Britt, Brad McNally, Aubrea Helms, Lisa Robinson, Ashlynn Grasseth, Marsha Souvenir, Gary Quigley, Anna Kuhn, Ryan Vincent, Ginger Moonen, Diane Tischer, Chelsea Paulsen, Carol Carver, Kaden Chevalier, Michael Watkins, Jesse Holm, Lindsey Anderson, Nicole McKinley, Greg Parke, Charlie McClain, Bobbie Clark, Skip Irving, Henry Pype, Jordyn Kaattari, Tiffany Tischer, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Hedges, Jasmine Brown, Jonnie Knowles, Lynda Jensen, Kennan Lindsey, Ray Lindsey, James Turner, Mike Parker, Denise Fuller, James D. Pedersen, Linda Palmer Spieth and Elizabeth Davison Bach.

Those celebrating anniversaries this coming week are Mr. and Mrs. Bob Wegdahl, Mr. and Mrs. Tim Dickson, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Edminster and Tony and Kari Martin. May all of you have wonderful birthday and anniversary celebrations this coming week!

NEW MONTH-- As we come towards the end of the year and closer and closer to Christmas, there are many more things going on in the community, so I hope that if you're holding an event, that it is listed on the Chamber calendar so that we can all enjoy taking part in it. However, there are a few things that have changed since the calendar came out, like the "walk-n-knock" by the Lions Club, as that already took place this past Saturday, so no, it won't be happening this Saturday too. If you still have food items to donate, you can take them to the food bank at 42 Elochoman Valley Road (Tuesdays 3-5) or to the Helping Hand FB at 3 Fern Hill Drive at the Seventh Day Adventist Church (Thursdays 10-3).

ROSBURG BAZAAR/LUNCH--This Saturday, Nov. 6, the Rosburg Community Club will hold a Holiday Bazaar from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Rosburg Hall. To make it even better, the group is serving a baked chicken dinner, so you can top off your shopping with a nice meal and leave the cooking and dishwashing duties to someone else. Win - Win! Face masks are required.

FLEA MARKET--The second Saturday of each month means Flea Market time at the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds, so if you're looking for a treasure or would like to sell some of your own, there's the place to be from 9 to 3! Tables can be rented for $10. Call Patty at 360-795-3480.

FOS--While you're at the Flea Market, why not stop by Redmen Hall and check out their things as many local folks have items in the gift shop for sale. There are also several books written by local authors, so they'd make great Christmas gifts. As far as I know, the annual "Deck the Halls Open House" at the hall will take place right after Thanksgiving, so there's sure to be some items you'll want to check out then. Here's hoping it all works out as planned. Contact the hall at 360-795-3007. It's located at 1394 W SR 4, milepost 29 in Skamokawa.

LEFSE/BINGO--The Sons of Norway will host their annual Lefse making event on Nov. 11, 12 and 13 at the Norse Hall on Puget Island. If you'd like to learn how to make lefse or help roll it out, fry it or put it together, then show up on those days and they'll put you to work! They hope to have plenty made up by the last day so that those who come to bingo that evening will be able to buy some as well. For the bingo lovers, the doors open at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 and games start at 6 p.m. with cards costing $5 each. Face masks are required. For more info about the lefse making or purchasing/ordering, contact Jan, 360-431-1705.

TIME CHANGE--It's not only a new month but we'll also be dealing with one of those usual things that many don't like and that's our "Fall Back" routine. Before you head to bed on Saturday night, November 6, set those clocks back so you don't wind up at church too early on Nov. 7!

CONGRATULATIONS--We want to send our congratulations to the Tsuga Gallery for being the winner of the Scarecrow contest held by the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce recently. With "Miss Sally" getting the most votes, well, her grin was probably even bigger now that she won, and seeings how this meant that the gallery got a year's free membership to the WCCC, there was plenty to be smiling about. Way to go!

MULES--We also want to say congratulations, Mighty Mules, for their football win over Adna this weekend, which put them in fourth place in the Central 2B league. They will now travel to Forks this coming weekend and play the number two team in the Pacific 2B league, so we want to cheer them on from afar. Go Mules!

VETERANS DAY--Nov. 11 is Veterans Day and with many of our family members and many of our community members being able to say they are veterans, I just want to say that we appreciate your service in the past and your continued service in the present. May we never forget to honor our brave men and women who have served and for those who are still serving our country in the various branches of the military. Your strength, bravery and dedication to our country is deeply appreciated and is the reason that you will always be our heroes.

OUT OF THE PAST--This week back in 1951, the week began with some beautiful weather but then it got wet and by the last day, a big storm had come along, which wound up taking out the power in Cathlamet and Grays River. Even Portland got hit pretty hard by the storm and suffered a lot of wind damage. In the Midwest, the huge snow storm was still wreaking havoc and schools and businesses had to close. By Nov. 7, there were 218 deaths due to that storm.

On a heavy, early morning foggy day, which later on turned nice and sunny, Krist Pedersen celebrated his 38th birthday.

Prior to this week, there had been concern by the power agencies the PNW would probably wind up having interrupted power outages and brownouts and scheduled outages. Luckily the Bonneville Power Adminstration had no sooner sent out some dire warnings of some power allocations and reductions, than it began to rain and the crisis was diverted. It made the locals realize that the gloomy wet days were actually a good thing compared to the alternative of not having any power!

Lots of baby news that week as the Kehrlis had a baby girl, the Ken McNallys also had a girl and the M. Olsons had a boy. Then the Everest family learned the Shane/Walker branch of the family announced that they'd be adding to their family in May. It was a joyous time for all those families.

It was hunting time in the area and on one of the decent days, Leon Healy and his usual group of fellow hunters wound up getting six elk, while son Gene got a nice big buck. Everyone was very happy with the meat they'd have in their freezers for the winter.

This according to my Grandma Elsie Everest's 1951 diary.