Greetings All!!
Been a long time. Lots of good stuff has gone on and lots of good stuff is coming up. We are all healthy, not so wealthy and not so wise!! All is good!!
We are hastily readying for the upcoming season. We will be having our Memorial Day BBQ this weekend. Same place, same menu, and even Tony Lompa will be here again.
Don’t know if you knew it, but this is the Centennial year for the Store. Happy Hundred Years!! We will be having Birthday Festivities during the 4th of July BBQ . This year the 4th lands on a Wednesday. We will be having our BBQ on Saturday the 7th. If you get a chance, please come, it will be a lot of fun.
Camp Sherman is still in good shape! No new major changes. No new drama! The talk of the town is the prescribed burn. It is located along the 14 Rd and the 1419 Rd. You will see it when you get to the Y on you way down from Hwy 20. It goes east along the 14 Rd for a good half mile. It goes north along the 1419 for what seems like three quarters of a mile. It will help make a great fire break for the future. Now the ground is black, the trunks of the Pondos are black and scorched and there are a lot of brown needles on the trees. I talked with on Forest Service person about the brown needles. He said that Spring burns always look a lot worse than Fall burns. The reason is that there is still a lot of pitch in the trees which includes the needles, limbs and the trunk. It takes a lot less heat to scorch the needles this time of year. There will be some mortality among the small diameter trees, but a lot of them have to go anyway.
There is good positive talk that a cell tower will be built along Hwy 20 that will be able to provide access for the Basin. Yea!! It is part of a major statewide communications upgrade. As much as some folks like to be here and not have a signal, there are a lot of folks who for several reasons, family or work, etc have to be connected. The bottom line is that there are numerous reasons why it will be a major improvement for our area. The other bottom line is that if you don’t want to be connected….turn off your device!! You can always tell “them” that it you were in a cell shadow.
The girls are doing well. Kelsey and Seth are still in Portland and working away. Seth will be attending Nursing School this Fall. It will be a full time effort, but well worth it. Lauren earned her Masters in Education from UP last Summer. She has been living with us since then. She signed up as a substitute teacher in the Central OR region. She has been in Bend, Redmond, Sisters and even Black Butte School here in Camp Sherman. It has been fun hearing of her exploits in Sisters where she has several friends who not that long ago were teacher her. The other big fun has been here where she started Black Butte School in kindergarden and went thru 8th grade. She has also taken advantage of an open school board seat, applied and is now an appointed member of the Black Butte School Board. Nothing like full circle.
I don’t want to get political, but I will be sending another newsletter with some information regarding the fishing on the Metolius. There has been a big uptick in the poaching of fish from the river. The river is still catch and release for the entire river and all species. The State Police have been very diligent in finding people taking both rainbows and also bull trout. The bulls are Federally listed as a threatened and endangered species. At this point, every arrest has ended with felony charges. There is a push to simplify the Oregon State fishing regulations. Please read the info and if you feel so inclined, please respond to the State officials.
I’ll be in touch.
Have a great Summer
Roger and the Store Gang