Wrenching Decision

My 99 year-old mother-in-law is at Mercy Care Center where, once a month they do an evaluation on each patient (this is not her picture). Sally always goes to these but at the last one there was a question that was new: after listing all her meds they asked "do you wish to continue prolonging her life or stop those drugs and just continue those that prevent pain?".

Sally years ago worked out a medical power of attorney with her mom when her mind was still clear and she was adamant that her life not be prolonged. If she suffered a medical crisis there was to be no life support, no efforts at resuscitation.

But there was no crisis and it was not clear what she should answer. But Sally focused on the phrase "prolonging her life" and chose to stop those medications. Her mom is now taking only drugs for her arthritis. The heart medications are gone.

Lita (Spanish diminutive for abuleita or grandmother) does not always recognize Sally now. Or her grandchildren. But on other visits she plays a lively game of cards and jokes with the staff.

She has had a proactive and exciting life . . . a degree from Stanford, a teaching career, two husbands, three successful children, and several years as a business owner in Mexico. A strong, independent, and at times even formidable woman.

So at nearly the century mark after such a full life she would be the first to agree. Yet when the doctor called to confirm Sally's decision she was shaken. He wasn't all that gentle about telling her that she must understand that letting nature take its course with this decision could lead to stroke or heart attack and death. Did she really want this?

But after talking with him for quite a while affirming her decision he confessed that it was exactly what he would do if it were his own mother. While Sally felt relieved at that she is still feeling the enormity of the decision which many people make for their parents and loved ones. "Pull the plug".

We talked for a long time; if she did suffer a stroke because her heart meds had been taken away would it cause her suffering since no efforts would be made to revive her? Is removing life-prolonging meds really following her wishes?

And a real head-scratcher; does a person in her condition KNOW what the quality of her life is at this point? And if she does not know is it our responsibility to decide for her whether to live or to die?

The F6F Hellcat Wreck

This is Jim Gubetta (left) and Jim Nile, the first a retired timber faller and Mr. Nile a retired timber cruiser. In 1954 Mr. Nile saw the fuselage of a crashed airplane just west of his north-south cruise line in Section 11 of the Trinity Mountains. Three years later Mr. Gubetta spotted shards of metal in the same area.

Saturday June 27th, fifty plus years later they found it again. Without the incredible memories of these two men our warbird recovery group would have spent years searching for the wreckage but they led us right to it.

Jim Gubetta and I had made two previous scouting trips and on the second one we found a significant piece that established the sites authenticity . . . this section of what may be an area near one of the landing gear bays. Having spent the better part of the day on the hillside before locating this we went home, planning to bring more guys and equipment now that we had it pinned down.


So on the third visit we had the men and the tools to really do some good . . . . Terry Weathers, Jim Gubetta, Jim Nile, Ted Pfeiffer, Jason Coats, and myself. Once we reached the spot where I had found the housing we fanned out and began finding things almost immediately. We spent perhaps two hours at the site and recovered several artifacts. Some, like this assembly that Jason Coats is holding even had legible part numbers and semi-recognizable locations on the airplane. Steven Star another team member with several hundred hours of experience restoring TBM Avendgers thinks for example that this part might be the tailwheel pivot.


Other parts such as the tappet and valve spring that I'm holding here clearly came from the engine (a Pratt & Whitney R2800 radial we think). Significantly, the parts were all found in a relatively small area that surrounded a small pit. It is on a gentle north-south slope and the parts were in a broad fan-shaped pattern to the side and downhill from the depression.

At first we thought the pit which is only about four feet deep and maybe 15 feet wide was an impact crater. There was a fire scar on a nearby tree too, leading us to suspect it had been scorched in the likely fire / explosion of the crash. But this first theory didn't last long. The pit was too regular, too circular. And it looked as if some dirt had been pulled out downslope by hand. Maybe a miner was trying to find out if the area was worth digging (there were several pits like this one and a rock-mining operation lower on the slope for chrome).

We have heard a rumor that the Navy had destroyed the craft with explosives after salvaging what they could and this scenario is our best guess at this point. (I have ordered the official recovery and will report when it arrives.) The downhill fan shape of the debris field does indeed look like the signature of an explosion although, as Jim Gubetta pointed out primer cord was used a lot in those days and he would have expected a much larger scattering of debris ___ perhaps a 1,000 foot radius or even more for smaller parts.

And speaking of small parts the smallest artifact was the most touching . . . a gold cufflink. Bent, rusting around the steel pin, and missing two of its three stones it is a very moving item that will be returned to the family if we can ever find them. The pilot, Lt. jg R. A. Hopen was probably in his early 20's and not likely to have been married much less a father so we'll be lucky if we can trace his parents or siblings.

Ferry pilots (this was November of '45, after the war and the airplanes in this flight were on their way to storage in Oaklahoma) were said to sometimes wear dress clothing under their flight suits if they had a girlfriend where they were headed. A romance that never had a chance to happen . . .



Some of us will be back at the site for more poking around and GPS work and we hope to get some more data. In the meantime all the artifacts are here at my house until we can find a place in the museum. Mr. Gubetta is working on that. If anybody would like to view them and the maps and photos just give me a call.

Finally, Danielle will be posting this article along with photos as they come in to our new website www.localhistoryprojects.com. I am also writing a longer article for the Siskiyou Daily News and the editor Mike Slizewski has even hinted we might get front page. Wouldn't THAT be something?

"Stand by Me" video, you gotta see this

Warning; when you first pull this up it takes a minute for the video clip to load. At first the space below looks blank but give it a few seconds and a graphic for Vimeo (a video site where people share videos called vimeo.com) will start rotating followed by the play screen. If you click on the play button there is an extraordinary music video of the 60's tune "Stand by Me" originally composed by blues artist Ben E. King. It's about five minutes long and a real toe-tapper.

Tip: Move your curser over the screen to display the play controls. When you move your curser off the screen they disappear so you can enjoy the video better. The volume is the group of little vertical lines on the lower right. Just click to the left or right of where it is showing to reduce or increase the sound level.

Best of all though, click on the four-arrow symbol just to the right of the volume icon and it blows up the screen for really good viewing. You can press the escape key on your keyboard at any time to exit the full screen mode and there is a scaling control icon in the upper right (when you move the curser onto the screen) which says either "on" or "off" which is kind of like "minimize" and "maximize"...you can make the image a little smaller or bigger on the already-full screen.

Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

The montage below captures some of the performers. I don't know any more about how these people pulled off this audio-visual feat any more than I could explain what "embedding" is but I think you will agree that the result is amazing.





Bruce

Grassoline

I read about this subject in Scientific American while I was waiting in the doctor's office, the only place I have ever found this brainy magazine. It is very interesting to read and I used to contemplate a subscription but it is SO cerebral that I fear it will surely cause headaches or permanent damage to my head.

Anyway, the story was about the so-called second generation of biofuels ___ those that use non-food crops like switchgrass, ag waste (corn stalks, etc.), chipped logging slash, and so forth. Without getting into the details (which is just as well as I'm not sure I could) the idea is to produce cellulosic ethanol.

The article explained that cellulose is much harder to break down into sugars (or separate from the sugars, I'm not sure) than corn or sugar cane. Apparently the same molecular structure that provides strength for a blade of grass to grow upright also makes it hard to work with.

See how well I did in chemistry? Guess I'd better stick with the broader implications . . . the upshot is that cellulosic ethanol takes more work and energy to produce. And will thus cost more. And thus will not be on the table soon, at least until the technology is discovered to reduce its cost and make it competitive with the "easy" ethanol. This is like the oil produced from deep wells or oil sands in Canada versus the cheaper Arabian imported stuff.

It seems hard to sell the public on the idea of spending more on gas to help the environment. Gas is already expensive and while ethanol reduces the carbon output it does not eliminate it like a plug-in electric car might (but only if the generating plants were nuclear or solar or wind-powered).

In a depression is this the time to invest in the environment? Or, as a reader in another magazine wrote about a story on Canada's (hugely destructive) mining of oil sands: "I work in one of those mines and it lets me feed my family. Which is more important?"

CC&R Corner for July 2009

July 2009 by Will Bullington

You Called 911 but They Can’t Find You

Its four o’clock in the morning and a 911 call goes out for a person needing help with excessive bleeding. The fire rescue and ambulance are dispatched to an address in Lake Shastina. The units drive onto the street looking for the address in the dark. Volunteer fire fighters and medical personnel using spotlights can’t find the address. Finally, someone sees a porch light come on and a door open. As everyone runs up to the home you can now see the house numbers next to the garage doors. A brown house with lighter tan house numbers, which match the trim. Looks nice in the day time but you can’t see them in low light.

Living in a community with no street lights, homes with earth tone paint colors, long driveways, and lots of trees, compounds the problem with finding addresses. The County requires the house numbers are posted prior to an occupancy permit being issued, and many cities have ordinances requiring house numbers be “visible” from the street. Drive past your own home some night and look and see if a stranger not knowing where the numbers are posted, could find your home. Now think about a loved one needing a rapid response by emergency services. You know a heart attack or someone trying to kick in your back door to rob your family. Think how much adrenaline is pumping through a emergency responders body driving fast with lights and sirens on. Compounding the issue is the fact our addresses are so long: 15118, etc. “What was that address again? Was that 1511? Was it 15119. All I can see is a white reflective sign on the side of the road for a neighbor: 15116. Should be next door, but there is no numbers on the house.” The clock is ticking and those first critical minutes in a heart attack are gone. The chances of survival are destroyed by an aesthetically pleasing color scheme for house numbers.

Mellow dramatic? Talk to your local police officers and ambulance crews. Happens ALL THE TIME. “We can’t help you if we can’t find you.” The local fire department is so motivated to fix this problem that they make the white signs with reflective letters on them. They cost $12.00 and they install them for free. Do they look as nice as an earth tone wood sign? No, but who cares, it might save you or someone you loves life. All you have to do is call 938-2226, leave a message and someone will call you back to order the sign. You can also find illuminated house numbers on line or at home improvement stores. Some run on batteries, solar or low voltage.

On a lighter note, get out there and enjoy the new park during the safety day event on August 1st, jump house, games, fire engines, helicopter, bicycle safety events, etc.

Gasoline Discounts in Siskiyou County ___ Every Day

I have just learned that Siskiyou Development offers a 5 cent discount on gasoline for seniors at every one of its three locations: the Spirit station in Weed, the Chevron in Mt. Shasta, and the Texaco at the central exit in Yreka. But get this . . . it's every day of the week.

Owner Margaret Dean has made this courtesy available for some time without fanfare and hopes seniors will take advantage, especially in these hard times.

But be advised. You may be carded (wouldn't that be a treat?!?!).

Forensic Gardening

Andrew, the ever-alert guard dog / sheltie was the first to see them. He dashed to the bedroom door and danced around barking. The two does who were grazing Sally's flowers down to roots bolted right through the netting we had put up around the back yard as soon as I opened the door to go out. I couldn't believe the mesh didn't even slow them down although one arched her head back gracefully as she passed through the fabric.

They of course had been there for some time and had visited our precious vegetable garden at length, taking out row after row of lettuce, radishes, and corn. Mark Carion tells me they are pregnant this time of year and thus more choosy, wanting to feed their babies only the best. Shastina becomes a drive-thru deli under these circumstances, my Armor-All garden notwithstanding.

During the post mortem Sally and I discovered two places they might have slipped in. One is a tree that I went around with the netting which was so close to our existing 3 foot fence that I didn't feel it was necessary to bring the netting down to the ground. That (see photo at top) is now remedied.

The other possible point of entry is this gate which, before its medieval makeover, was actually presentable and is by the way almost exactly 13 feet from our bed. Surely we'd hear these heavy does launch over it, right?

I have never been a hunter myself but the motto "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em" is suddenly becoming more relevant at this moment in my life. Sally drew this to my attention when I noticed her browsing the web for venison recipes yesterday.

But out in the woods the other day I almost stepped on this fawn and well, jeez.

The Ping Pong Open

Our neighbor Larry Harrison asked when we'd be putting our table out for ping pong and it got me to thinking. Here we have this neat (5/8 inch thick) tournament-grade table that I picked up at a Sears fire sale just folded up in the garage. We only break it down when we have family and since that's far between why not do an all-comers thing and just keep it open?

So. If you like ping pong, drop by. We'll keep the car outside so's to have a shady place to play and all you need to do is knock on the door.

We've got garden surplus too, so you may end up with an armfull of lettuce as well.

The Lavender Farm and the Shoe Fence

This is a photo Sally took today as we were day-tripping on her (XX-th)birthday. It is a little-known lavender farm off Harry Cash Road that is only open about a month during the year, from mid-June to mid-July. There is no admission and you can pick your own fresh lavender ($3 for 100 stems), take gorgeous pictures of the mountain and valley (the view is awesome), try their lavender lemonade, or buy any number of lavender products in their tasteful store ___ soaps, candles, baskets, too much to list.

Or you can sit outside as I did and relax with the fields unrolling to the left and the valley to the right enjoying lemonade while Sally did all the above.

After leaving consider turning right on Harry Cash instead of going back the way you came. This will eventually take you into the beautiful Little Shasta area and past the Shoe Fence.

I have no idea who did this or why, perhaps a reader who does will let me know. But it's been here for a long time and just the first of many photo ops along the road. Beautiful country homes, farms, colorful wash hanging in front of an ivy-covered garage, and of course the iconic church at Little Shasta ___ a favorite spot (although the lavender farm is too) for weddings.

The road eventually brings you into Montague where you can turn north and visit the old county airport where radio control enthusiasts and sail plane pilots practice. Or west on Highway 3 to Rohr Field (sightseeing airplane rides, charter, and center for the hot air balloon events Montague sponsors) and Yreka.

We have flyers from the lavender farm if you'd care for one and you can see more on their website, www.shastalavender.com.

Yankee Make-Do

Here's the thing, much of what we make and sell to ourselves can't be fixed. It's patriotic actually because throwing things away and buying new ones keeps our economy alive. Build a whatzit but do not offer parts. Or, if you do, make the shipping and parts cost more than a new whatzit.

Consumer spending drives our economy but I sometimes wonder what the redeeming value is in manufacturing throw-away consumables. In this green age shouldn't we be making stuff that lasts? I mean, look at the Honda 90 trail bike. Ahead of its time. And discontinued because (I suspect) it worked too well and lasted forever if you took care of it.

But what do you do after you build a whatzit that is a) built so well that repairs are not needed for a long time and b) when a fix is needed parts are readily available? Well, think about it. You'd have to lay off your workers, close your plant, and disappoint your stockholders because you've satisfied the need and the demand has filled itself up. Sort of self-defeating.

The manifesto maybe sounds a little lofty but I buy it anyway. We have been sold on recycling so that we don't feel so bad about throwing things away. They're really not gone to a landfill they actually are reborn! I'm amused that we can pay ten or 15 bucks at Office Depot for them to haul our old computers off to be recycled (picture the Indian child melting out the gold in motherboards).

But I'd fix things even if it weren't "creative" or "challenging" for the simple reason that it's how I was raised (and perhaps where I was raised). I'm from the east coast you see, Yankee stock. We were decidedly middle class and my dad worked in the field of radio, designing and testing vacuum tubes for various military instruments. Unlike my mother though, he came from a less fortunate background and was not in the habit of buying things when they broke down. He passed on this trait to me, a college-educated kid who grew up during the (for kids) worry-free 50's and 60's.

So I'll spend ten bucks to fix a five dollar whatzit just to prove to myself once again that we're not doing this right.

The F6F ___Our First Ground Trip to the Site

First Try ___ Terry Weathers, Bill Lloyd, Jim Gubetta, Bruce Batchelder. June 8.

We ran up the South Fork of the Sacramento River on Road 26 to and through Mumbo Basin, intersecting Road 25 (these are county numbers, I think) at a gulch whose name I have already lost (there are a LOT of gulches up here). We then followed 25 generally west along the East Fork of Trinity River, looking for a north-bound spur that might lead into the target, Section 11.

After many stops to check our route (see map) we hit a road that led to the Altoona Mine which is just a section west from the Integral Mine which is just a section away from ours, number 11. The Altoona mined cinnabar, the ore that produces mercury and it has been leaching into Trinity Lake so the EPA's Superfund just finished burying all the mine tailings in a clay-lined pit and sealing it. I'll attach a picture.




Anyway, several backups, some don't-go-there skid paths later we hit 38N24 which led up the west side of section 11 and back to 26 at the top, and home. Enroute we found one of Jim Nile's old markers dated 6/5/57, I'll attach a photo. It says we were standing 1,610 chains east of the junction of sections 10,11, 15, & 14 (left to right, top to bottom).

So in short we did not find the plane but we did encircle the section where its remains were last seen and
we are reasonably certain that we can penetrate the area from the west, coming down 38N24 from county road 26. There looked to be at least two spur roads leading into the search area.



We think that the craft may have impacted in the north part of the section, along an east-west cruise line that Jim Nile performed in 1954 and that the Navy may have dragged the larger parts of the wreck to an open mine pit lower down the slope where Jim Gubetta saw it in 1957. This was close to the old county road where they probably trucked it out for salvage. Depending on how extensively the ground was disturbed with logging both sites should give up some evidence of the wreck.

Another trip is planned, more direct this time, to pinpoint both the pit and the higher impact point. If we can establish either we will advise the wider group that (or not) a formal survey may be in order. The tentative date for this second visit is Friday 19 June and we will again meet at the dam at Lake Siskyou, this time at 8am in order to give us enough time on site.

Please let me know if you are interested in this one. As you can see from the photos a 4WD vehicle with high clearance is helpful. The first tour was about 100 miles but this should be maybe half that as we have a much better idea of where to go. We also learned that cell phone signal strength is little to none so I'm hoping we can round up some walkie talkies, especially if we also have ATV's to work with. The terrain is steep but there are innumerable skid roads and ATV's could fan out and report back.

In the meantime Jim suggested finding out who logged that section since 1957 and Jason volunteered to check USFS records. Jim will also work with Jim Nile who is the other eyewitness (saw blue metal about 3/8 mile from the north edge of the section) because Nile may be able to help us locate who logged the area since the 1950's. We think it may have been done in the 70's or 80's and if we can locate any fallers who worked that slope we might obtain more exact location details.

Rentals in Lake Shastina

Homes are not selling well here as everyone is painfully aware and many owners are moving their vacant homes into rental to generate cash flow and provide some maintenance by means of occupation. As with the 87 unsold homes on the market (43 of which are new), many homes that are for rent are new or nearly so___0 to 5 years as we say in real estate.

Sally and I started our Batchelder Property Management company for this reason. We each had to earn a broker's license to do it because management involves another set of skills not included in selling real estate. But the expense and effort have proven well-spent. We are managing 14 homes as I write this, with three or four more in the pipeline, that is, owners we are working with who are considering our lease program.

Like many other property managers we do not handle month-to-month rentals. There is not enough security for the landlord in that type of arrangement, so we mainly do 6 and 12 month leases. This also seems to provide more stable tenants and so far we have not had one break one of our leases.

Managing a home starts with a maintenance inspection. We use a local man to help us identify minor things and cleaning items that the owner may not have fixed before putting it up for lease. When the home is move-in ready we advertise it on our blog and website and recommend classified ads paid for by the owner in the local papers. Then we put up a sign with a flyer box and take photos (and sometimes a video) for use in our online advertising.

When people call we show the home just as we do homes for sale except there is no lockbox, we are the only ones who have access. The application we give is written by the attorneys in our state association (with all the built-in legal protection that implies) and we request supporting documents as well, such as pay stubs, credit report with FICO score, and a resume-like page of who the applicant is and why he or she would make a good long-term tenant.

If the income seems strong (we look for a front end ratio of 30% or less ___ rent to income) we start calling the employment and landlord references. Then, if all that turns out as well we present our findings to the landlord and they make the final decision.

It's an interesting process because many times while credit may be weak for instance, there might be other mitigating factors that balance it out such as unusually high income or strong references. That's why we encourage applicants to really put together a complete picture when they apply.

The process also weeds out prospects an owner might not want. One of the "triggers" that does that is requiring pay stubs. More than once we have received a very nice-looking app that did not include proof of wages. When we request it the applicant just vanished____completely dropped off the radar, which is a sure sign that it might never have worked out. Not requiring proof of income was one of the dangerous practices lenders were doing with the so-called "no doc" loans by the way, which was part of the reason for our current real estate mess.

The maintenance agreement stipulates that we visit (by appointment) in six months to make sure everything is working alright and it has the side benefit of allowing us to view how well the tenant is maintaining the home. The law is very strict about what is called "quiet enjoyment". A tenant has the right to occupy the premisis and not be bothered by the landlord or his agent without due cause. Unannounced inspection visits for example expose the owner to litigation for this reason.

But if a tenant does fall behind in their rent, cause damage or complaints by neighbors then we step in and do the dirty work to get them in line or out of the premisis. That's part of our contract with the landlord. That contract by the way typically lasts three years, enough to outlive three 12 month leases although it can be cancelled by either party with written 30 day notice.

So we try very hard to find good people and people who will not cause problems for the owner or the neighbors. I know there is concern about renters and for that reason we comply with every single requirement in the CC&R's (we even provide copies of relevant sections to the tenant and a list of our rentals to the LSPOA). If done right we believe a good tenant can be every bit as good as a new neighbor who just bought the home.

A Eureka Moment

The nightly news showed retired racehorses being cared for by prisoners. Horses which were headed to the slaughterhouse because they had not "won" in races and were "second-best" (more on this cultural tragedy later).

But somebody connected the fact that prisoners were headed nowhere too, and put the dots together.

This is already being done with abandoned dogs in selected prisons by the way, and the reviews are unanimous ..... criminals "reform" if given a chance to care for animals.

To which I say ___ duh. Of course. Animals bring out our nurturing emotions. The very feelings antisocial people lack. So what about making our prisons & jails the custodians of all the abandoned and homeless dogs, cats, and horses that now clog our humane shelters?

I mean, win-win, right? Humans who have gone off the track meet up with animals who need their care. How can this NOT work?

So here comes the cynic . . . no, it won't work because it makes sense. Economically, ethically, polically. You name it. There is some special interest group out there which may not benefit from this and therefore it will not fly.

Hmmm. Comments?

Doing With One Car

About this time last year, just about when gasoline was reaching for the $4.50 per gallon mark Sally and I wisely decided to dump the two gas guzzlers that we had, a Dodge Ram pickup and a Dodge Durango. Each was getting around 12 miles to the gallon and although we had owned the truck for only a year and a half at that point, we hadn't put that many miles on it. 15,000 or so I think, which proved to us how little use it was getting and that we might get away without it. (We had put new tires and brakes in the Durangeo a month or two before making this decision, being the charitable types that we are. Murphy would have a lot to say about that.)

The idea seemed straightforward ___ lower car payments, DMV, insurance, and of course MUCH lower fuel bills. It looked great on paper.

The red Hyundai looked just as sleek as the picture. It ranked #1 in safety, having airbags in the ashtrays, the cup holders, and I suspect, in the seat underneath the driver. Oh, and a fabulous traction control system where if one wheel injudiciously decides to slip on something all four somehow lock up into four wheel drive. Automatically!

Sally unintentionally tested this safety feature one day on that infamous curve on Big Springs road where the black ice lives. She later said that something had "happened" on the turn but she didn't realize until she came home and saw a car in the ditch there that the traction control might have kicked in.

Just about then gas topped out and began sliding back into the comfort zone. And then we each took parttime jobs and for a brief while there it was like playing tag. Sally would run me in to work, come home, and then run back to pick me up. So I'm going, uh okay, we dumped two 12 mpg cars for one 24 mpg but we're running it twice as many miles. So that puts us back to square one, right?

And there were as my wife politely puts it "issues" when it came to hauling things. The Ram you see, had a cargo bed about the size of my own bed. That is to say, it could carry a couple hundred 2x4's, or a pallet of cement sacks, or a yard of topsoil. All of these are hard to do with our Hyundai. Very hard.

The Hyundai Sant Fe comes with a receiver hitch and we briefly thought we could buy a small trailer to fill this need. But ever so gradually alternatives began sounding more attractive: pay for things to be delivered, borrow a friend's truck & buy the gas, hire someone with a truck to do it.

We got to the point where even a $1,000 trailer was not worth it. We found ways to work around most all these needs. In some cases it's do without until the economy gets better and when we can afford to get another truck again.

We plan more now in order to make the most out of each trip but this whole thing has been good for us. It seems time we should learn to do with less and plan more.