Skamokawa News

WHITE WORLD! As I begin this column on the first Sunday in February, it is a white world in West Valley in good old Skamokawa! It was like a blizzard for a time, with huge white flakes. The biggest I’d ever seen, and then they changed into a bunch of tiny flakes; blowing all around our house like a whirlwind, wild! I must say that I did enjoy the sunshine break that came shortly after, as I was afraid we would wind up with feet of snow if the snowy sessions continued much longer. At any rate, for those of you who are snow lovers, I hope you’re happy since the snow showed up just like my app said it would, and if it continues to be correct then we’re going to have several more days of these snow flurries. By the time you read this, I may be buried in the white stuff... ha! Hopefully, we’ll just see the short bursts of snow and not days of steady snow. That would certainly put a damper on a lot of events and some of our cheery moods. I hope you snow lovers have some fun and that everyone who has to drive in the stuff will be extra vigilant. Take care!

SPECIAL DAYS. Those celebrating birthdays this coming week from Feb. 6 thru 13 are: Ed Stornetta, Bailey McKinley, Bob Montgomery, Terry Ostling, Ken Zacher, Elizabeth Anger, Caitlin Hembree, Eric Burke, Dixie Johnson, Bret Hart, Tyler Havens, Dale Waddell Jr., Ann Pedersen, Tom Petrenchak, Wendy Peek, Aaron Boehler, Mandee Burkholter, Ethan Havens, Lucas Havens, JoAnne Nortrup, Shaen Cortay, Ron Bigelow, Chandler Nortrup, Max Hovey, James Hoven, Iaian Haney, Issac Hendrickson, Brandon Souvenir, Wendy Havens, Mykall Stensland, Kim Jones, Tony Setera, Hailey Blain, Carlie Freeman, David A. Pedersen, Aunika Taylor, Scott Pedersen and Annette Healy Miller. Those celebrating anniversaries this week are Mr. and Mrs. Randy Montgomery, and Ryan and Breanna Lorenzo. May you all have wonderful celebrations this coming week. Enjoy!

THURSDAYS. As you should know by now, the Community Breakfast is held each Thursday at the Skamokawa Grange Hall from noon to 3 p.m. If you get this paper in the morning, you still have time to head this way and enjoy the coffee and comradery of others in the area, while having a bite to eat as well. Recently, some folks who are new to the area stopped by and the old-timers and other newcomers filled them in and answered all their questions. Lots of folks move here to enjoy “country living,” but they are often unprepared for the real country, which can be quite noisy. They often expect it to be a quiet, blissful place and they forget that all the “city things” they were used to are no longer available without taking a lengthy drive in one direction or another. Anyway, the Grange Hall is a good place to meet your neighbors, find out about your new community, and find out what keeps us all ticking & whether you’d like to join one of the many groups/organizations that could always use a helping hand!

SATURDAY AT THE FAIRGROUNDS. The second Saturday of the month is always the time to head down here to the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds, where they have their sales in both the T-building and the Youth Building. They are open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and would love to have you come down and check them out. If you’re new here and are looking for a few things to fill up your new apartment/house at a bargain price, then head this way because they have a deal for you! If you have some things that you’d like to get rid of that are in great shape, you can always contact Patty and see if they are still taking things in to sell. There’s no sense throwing perfectly good things in the trash, so why not see if the fair will take them and help raise money while you’re at it, win, win! You can leave a message on the fairgrounds phone, 360-795-3480 and she’ll get back to you.

BINGO TIME. No Bingo this week due to weather!

ON THE LIST? I do hope that if your group/organization/etc. are having huge events this year, you were able to contact the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce by now and get on their list so that if they do get an events calendar put together, you will be included. Please also contact the Wahkiakum Eagle office and they can get you included in their calendar. It doesn’t do a lot of good to put so much work into some event/fund raiser/etc. that nobody even knows about. There’s no such thing as too much advertising when it comes to trying to raise money for a worthy cause! While Facebook is a good platform to utilize as well, just remember that not everybody has FB and not everybody sees every post, so it’s a great extra to use but it shouldn’t be the only one you use. Then there’s me! You can call me up and I will happily help you spread the word about your upcoming event! For those who are doing some important fund-raising projects, it’s imperative to reach out early and often as those who donate items and those who attend these functions need some time to plan on what they’re donating, and the host needs to get those things out to the community.

GROUP MEETING/SPEAKER/12TH. In case you missed the notice in last week’s paper, the Senior Friendship Group will be holding their monthly potluck meeting over at Our Saviors Lutheran Church this coming Wednesday, Feb. 12. This will be their “Valentine’s Potluck” meeting and it’s a special one as they will be having several speakers that day who will focus on emergency preparation and what kinds of things we should have in our “to go” bags and all the other things that need to be thought of in case we have to evacuate our homes in a hurry. We all know that we’ll forget something if we suddenly find ourselves in a big rush and are in “panic mode” so planning time and having some things in place and ready to go can give you some peace of mind. So, head over to Puget Island on the twelfth and enjoy the potluck, (feel free to bring something), and listen to the three speakers: Sheriff Mason, Austin Smith, and Brandi Beedle. A big thank you goes out to Nancy Nelson who formed this group and thought this information would be helpful to all of us.

ABRUPT STOP. Well, I wound up ending my column last week a bit abruptly as I found myself with a frozen keyboard! I had no idea what was going on, but I could not type anymore ... ugh! It was getting late, and I didn’t have time to figure things out, nor did I want to end my column and have it disappear or not get back into this doggone contraption so I hit send. If I left things out that you wanted me to say, I apologize!

BLAST FROM THE PAST. It was during this week five years ago, that I got a surprise when looking out my dining room window, as my first daffodils bloomed! Sadly, the days turned cold and frosty and by February 12, they were covered in three inches of snow! It was also around this time that another huge snowstorm arrived back in 1990. The big news that week came when DNA testing on the salmon in the Elochoman Fish Hatchery proved that the fish there did not have the deadly fish disease that was devastating other parts of the world and were therefore spared from being destroyed. However, six years earlier, four and a half million fish were killed to stop the disease because the hatchery fish had some kind of infection but sadly, they were killed for nothing because the testing was not as advanced then and only later were found to have a nonlethal Pacific strain, instead of the deadly European variety. To top it off, the folks in charge of this termination program were even thinking of dumping chlorine into the Olympic Peninsulas’ Sooes River. Thank goodness that crazy idea never took place! At any rate, the fish at the Elochoman hatchery, valued at a half million dollars, were spared the death penalty thanks to modern DNA! Down here in Skamokawa, The Friends of Skamokawa were getting ready to put on their Musical Revue with the theme being “Best of Friends” and were taking the favorite parts of past shows that would make it the “best of the best” so to speak. The revue would be dedicated to the memory of Mary Ann Madden who had been a very active member of the Friends of Skamokawa and instrumental in putting this show together. That year, the show would be taking place over three days at the end of April at Arnold Andersen’s Lurline Auditorium, now known as Viewpoint Landing.