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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2022)
COFFEE BREAK B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022 Late brother’s dying wish becomes one-sided eff ort her children attend and seem to have a good time. I call or text her monthly, but I rarely receive a reply. She did text me happy birthday. I was OK with this until I heard from my nephew (Clark’s son) that there was a memorial service for him. When I asked him who was there, he said everybody. It really hurt because I wasn’t informed, nor were any of my siblings. I want to respect Clark’s wishes, but even before this, Liz didn’t seem to respect my nuclear family. I don’t know what to do going forward because I have such sad and angry feelings over not being invited to his memorial. DEAR ABBY: I am one of six adult siblings. Our youngest brother, “Clark,” died of cancer fi ve years ago. He was my best friend. As kids, we did every- thing together, and we remained close as we got older. As he was dying, Clark asked me to keep his wife, “Liz,” and his chil- dren in the family. I have tried my best. Every year, I have a large family Christmas party. Liz and have said something to the man- ager or server and sat at another table? If the manager had said something to her, I doubt she would have admitted what she said. — NOT RIGHT IN OHIO DEAR NOT RIGHT: You were right not to challenge the woman who said that. If she wasn’t embarrassed when it turned out you could hear clearly, little you could say would have shamed her. There was nothing the restaurant manager could do about this woman’s breach of eti- quette. You, however, could have asked to change your table if you were no longer comfortable seated next to that party. and assumed neither of us could hear. One of them told her friends we were deaf and dumb. When the server came to my table to take our order and they realized I could hear, they were visibly surprised. The speaker did not appear to be embarrassed by what she had said. The woman’s back was turned to my friend, so my friend was unaware of it. (Thank heavens, because my friend can read lips.) I didn’t say anything at the time and let it go. Should I have? I didn’t because their table was near ours, and I was afraid the woman would have gotten ruder and made the whole dining experience bad. Should I — CONFLICTED SIS IN THE EAST DEAR SIS: Please accept my sympathy for the loss of your brother. What you should do is call your former sister-in-law and ask her WHY you and your siblings were excluded from the memo- rial, which is a shocking oversight. Then, if her apology is not satis- factory, consider yourself relieved of that deathbed promise, which clearly hasn’t been appreciated. DEAR ABBY: I was recently in a restaurant with a friend who is deaf. (I can hear.) We were using American Sign Language to com- municate. A group walked past us, saw we were using sign language NEWS OF THE WEIRD Beekeepers using tracking devices to protect precious hives In the past few weeks, 1,036 beehives worth hun- dreds of thousands of dol- lars were reported stolen from orchards statewide, authorities said. The largest heist involved 384 bee- hives that were taken from a fi eld in Mendocino County, prompting the state bee- keepers association to off er a $10,000 reward for infor- mation leading to their recovery. “It’s hard to articu- late how it feels to care for your hives all year only to have them stolen from you,” Claire Tauzer wrote on Facebook to spread the word about the reward. A day later, an anonymous tipster led authorities to recover most of the boxes and a forklift stolen from Tauzer’s family business some 55 miles (88 kilome- ters) away, at a rural prop- erty in Yolo County. One suspect was arrested. Investigators also found frames, the kinds used to hold the honeycomb, belonging to Helio Medina, another beekeeper who lost 282 hives a year ago. By DAISY NGUYEN The Associated Press WOODLAND, Calif. — For a few frenzied weeks, beekeepers from around the United States truck bil- lions of honeybees to Cal- ifornia to rent them to almond growers who need the insects to pollinate the state’s most valuable crop. But as almond trees start to bloom, blanketing entire valleys in white and pink fl owers, so begin beehive thefts that have become so prevalent that beekeepers are now turning to GPS tracking devices, surveil- lance cameras and other anti-theft technology to pro- tect their precious colonies. Hive thefts have been reported elsewhere in the country. Most recently three hives containing about 60,000 bees taken from a grocery chain’s garden in central Pennsylvania. They happen at a larger scale and uniquely in California this time of year because bees are most in demand during the largest pollination event in the world. “More often than not, they steal to make money and leave the bees to die,” said Rowdy Jay Freeman, a Butte County sheriff ’s detective who has been keeping track of hive thefts since 2013. A tightening supply of bees and soaring pollina- tion fees — jumping from less than $50 to rent a hive two decades ago to as much as $230 per hive this year — are likely motivating beekeepers to go rogue. The demand for bees has steadily risen over the last 20 years as popularity of the healthy, crunchy nut turned California into the world’s biggest almond pro- ducer. Accordingly, the amount of land used to grow almonds has more than doubled to an esti- mated 1.3 million acres. Beekeepers have been keeping up with that growth by providing an ever-increasing proportion of the nation’s available stock of hives. This year, a survey of commercial bee- keepers estimated it will take 90% of honeybee colo- Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press Beekeeper Helio Medina displays a beehive frame outfi tted with a GPS locator that will be installed in one of the beehives he rents out, in Woodland, California, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. As almond fl owers start to bloom, beekeepers rent their hives out to farmers to pollinate California’s most valuable crop, but with the blossoms come beehive thefts. Medina says last year he lost 282 hives estimated to be worth $100,000, and is now installing GPS-enabled sensors to help fi nd stolen hives in the future. “We have do what we can to protect ourselves. Nobody can help us,” Medina said. Thefts usually happen at night, when no one is in the orchard and the bees are back in their hives. The rus- tler is usually a beekeeper or someone familiar with the transportation of bees. Medina said the theft devastated his apiary, so this year he placed GPS trackers inside the boxes. He also strapped cable locks around them and installed cam- eras nearby. As the almond bloom approached and the hives became most valuable, he drove around patrolling the orchards in the dark. weather | Go to AccuWeather.com AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 28/51 Kennewick 23/50 St. Helens 22/50 23/45 Condon 23/48 25/49 TONIGHT FRI SAT SUN MON Sunny, but cold Mostly sunny and cold Showers of rain and snow A couple of showers 28 10 31 16 40 21 Eugene 0 0 0 0 22/49 35 16 35 24 38 25 44 31 1 0 0 0 Comfort Index™ La Grande 7 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 0 0 1 Comfort Index™ 34 0 5 40 20 39 31 3 0 0 3 ALMANAC NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High Tuesday Low Tuesday High: 100° Low: -27° Wettest: 3.78” 24° 12° 29° 13° 26° 15° Tuesday Trace Month to date Trace Normal month to date 0.46 Year to date 0.38 Normal year to date 1.16 0.05 0.57 0.96 1.84 2.63 0.31 1.42 1.85 5.35 5.12 PRECIPITATION (inches) AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 30% SSE at 4 to 8 mph 0.6 0.06 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir 26/60 3% of capacity 32% of capacity 22% of capacity 42% of capacity 26% of capacity 50% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday) Grande Ronde at Troy 1840 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 1 cfs Burnt River near Unity 7 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 201 cfs Minam River at Minam 129 cfs Powder River near Richland 33 cfs Zapata, Texas Crosby, N.D. Lexington, Tenn. OREGON High: 48° Low: 6° Wettest: 0.39” North Bend Meacham Rome SUN & MOON FRI. 6:39 a.m. 6:38 a.m. 5:32 p.m. 5:34 p.m. 2:03 a.m. 3:17 a.m. 10:46 a.m. 11:37 a.m. MOON PHASES New Mar 2 First Mar 10 Full Mar 17 24/52 Grants Pass Last Mar 24 Boise 14/36 Jordan Valley 9/30 Paisley 12/40 Frenchglen 8/34 Diamond Grand View Arock 9/31 14/34 11/30 Fields 19/58 10/33 Klamath Falls 9/45 Lakeview 9/42 McDermitt Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs. 9/32 RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY SAT. City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W Astoria 51/35/pc 50/39/r Bend 49/18/s 51/24/pc Boise 36/13/s 41/19/s Brookings 56/39/s 55/44/c Burns 34/9/s 39/14/s Coos Bay 55/28/s 55/40/c Corvallis 50/21/s 49/33/c Council 29/-1/s 30/7/s Elgin 37/6/s 39/12/s Eugene 49/25/s 52/38/c Hermiston 41/19/s 45/21/pc Hood River 45/25/s 48/26/pc Imnaha 39/16/s 46/28/s John Day 39/15/s 47/25/s Joseph 31/9/s 40/18/s Kennewick 40/19/s 43/21/pc Klamath Falls 45/8/s 51/24/s Lakeview 42/6/s 47/20/s 11/38 Silver Lake 9/46 Medford Brookings Juntura 5/34 23/61 34/56 Ontario 15/38 Burns 8/40 Chiloquin FRI. Ice on the lower Susquehanna River in Maryland began to break on Feb. 24, 1852. During the preceding 40 days, an ice bridge across the river had been used for the crossing of 1,378 loaded freight cars. THU. Beaver Marsh REGIONAL CITIES WEATHER HISTORY Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset 7/40 8/43 Roseburg Powers Brothers 19/56 Coos Bay TUESDAY EXTREMES TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin Huntington 3/34 10/49 Oakridge 3/29 13/34 Seneca Bend Elkton 26/55 Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable. 8/39 9/49 Florence Council 0/29 John Day 7/46 Sisters 25/52 40 13 4/30 Baker City Redmond 31/51 30/55 Halfway Granite 1/33 18/53 23/50 Corvallis 11/43 20/50 Newport Enterprise 1/34 7/35 Monument 19/47 Idanha Salem Clear and frigid 4 Elgin 4/37 La Grande 16/42 Maupin 29 16/38 Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg 22/51 Lewiston 17/38 Hood River 14/38 25/53 0 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022 Walla Walla 18/40 Vancouver 21/51 TIllamook Baker City nies in the U.S. to pollinate all the almond orchards. “What that means is that beekeepers are coming from as far as New York and Florida, and to get them to come all that way, pollinator fees have to rise,” said Brittney Goodrich, an agriculture economist at the University of California at Davis. But bee populations are notoriously unstable due to a host of problems, including disease, loss of habitat and insecticides. The drought that gripped Western states last summer also weakened colonies. The lack of rain ravaged wildfl owers that provide the nectar that bees turn into honey. Beekeepers had to artifi cially supplement their diet with sugar solutions and pollen substitutes — and incur more costs. For beekeepers, the loss of a hive means the loss of income from honey produc- tion and future pollination, not to mention the expense of managing the hive throughout the year. They say they hardly break even. City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla FRI. SAT. Hi/Lo/W 38/20/s 50/23/s 36/8/s 58/21/s 51/37/s 47/23/s 38/17/s 40/18/s 38/15/s 49/30/s 60/31/s 46/14/s 52/28/pc 50/23/s 31/14/s 48/25/s 37/8/s 38/20/s Hi/Lo/W 46/26/s 47/35/sh 39/14/s 57/33/pc 51/43/sh 47/34/sh 41/18/s 43/24/pc 44/20/pc 51/39/c 57/43/c 50/26/pc 54/40/pc 51/36/c 36/22/c 48/27/pc 46/20/pc 41/25/pc Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice ANTHONY LAKES PHILLIPS LAKE Not as cold Sunny and cold 22 13 33 4 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Sunny, but cold Cold with sunshine 28 17 35 8 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Turning colder Sunny, but cold 24 -1 32 10 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Sunny, but cold Sunny, but cold 31 9 39 19 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Sunny; quite cold Sunny, but cold 29 4 Veterans Appreciation Day at Anthony Lakes Complementary skiing for Veterans and their families February 28, 2022 Details at AnthonyLakes.com 35 16