A6
Community
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS
John Day
Seniors
Nicky Essex
Welcome to Grant Coun-
ty’s new game show, “What
Season is it? And What Shall
I Wear?” New rules every
week.
On Monday, May 22, greet-
ing us at the front door were
Merry Henry and Drew Harm-
er. Our friends from the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints took good care of us as
always. Darlene Nodine and
Ann Huffman served at the
tables, after having delivered
meals to John Day and Canyon
City, while Marcus Perkins and
the Step Forward Crew took
the Mt. Vernon route — in all,
delivering 29 regular meals and
28 frozen meals. What would
our community do without the
caring volunteers who step up
to see to all of the daily details
that are needed to keep our “vil-
lage” working? Thank you for
your services.
Veanne shared that it was
National Vanilla Pudding Day.
Also she said that the Health
Fair is going to be held on June
16. Ann Huffman led us in the
flag salute, Lyle Chesley won
the drawing for the free meal
and Dida Porter won the Len’s
Drug gift certificate. Darlene
Nodine prayed for our meal
and those who prepared it.
We ate BBQ pulled pork
sandwiches, creamy coleslaw,
potato chips and, you guessed
it, vanilla pudding. We left the
table stuffed. There were 29
diners.
Thursday, May 25, Bonnie
Kocis and I staffed the greeters
desk. Our friends from St. Eliz-
abeth Catholic Church were
here to see to our needs. Walt
and Agnes Hall, Jimmy Maple
and Dave Turner had the duties.
Beginning with Dave Turner
and Jimmy Maple doing the
meal deliveries in John Day
and Canyon City, teaming up
with the crew from Step For-
ward, who take the Mt. Vernon
route. Delivering 40 regular
meals, and because of the hol-
iday on Monday, they also de-
livered 32 frozen meals. Busy
day. Thanks for your great ef-
forts.
It was only appropriate that
Walt Hall opened our time
with a salute to the flag, as
only he can do it.
Veanne announced we
should watch our debit cards.
We are advised not to use
them online. There are plenty
of senior scholarships avail-
able through Veanne or at the
hospital. Be aware that the
hospital will be doing “disas-
ter practice drills” this week.
Don’t freak out.
Another reminder, contin-
ue to keep Ron Dowse in your
prayers. They could be coming
home pretty soon.
Maria Strawn won the
Valley View meal, and Na-
dine Smith won the Chester’s
Thriftway gift certificate. Jim-
my Maple shared out of the
Holy Bible, and led our table
grace. What a group of sweet
spirits in our midst. We cel-
ebrated with fantastic fried
chicken, macaroni salad, corn
on the cob and watermelon.
We had 59 diners.
Thursday, June 1, we will
have sweet and sour chicken.
Then Monday, June 5, we’ll
have garlic beef sandwiches.
Please arrive at the center by
11:45 a.m. so the servers can
start on time. Don’t forget we
play bingo at 1 p.m. on Thurs-
days after a great meal.
Please let Shay know if you
can help serve brunch each
morning (three days) during
the solar eclipse in August.
The parking lot will be closed
that Monday due to the eclipse
campers.
Psalms 5:3 “In the morn-
ing, LORD, you hear my
voice; in the morning I lay my
requests before you and wait
expectantly.”
Prairie City
Seniors
Rose Coombs
Look. That big, bright ob-
ject in the sky. Hooray, the
sun is out and warming up
our county. Finally got out to
do some yard work. Oh, does
that ever hurt. But it does look
nice – for a while. Neighbor
Vicki said that she has some
ground-covering plants that I
can get some starts of and may-
be my gravel patch will look
better – when I get around to
it. The weeds do have pret-
ty little flowers on them, but
they are so sharp and sticky.
We’ll see how far this plan
gets in the days to come. The
wild roses and transplanted
poppies are in bloom now.
Don’t have to worry about
them, anyhow.
Larry Wright led the flag
salute, and Jack Retherford
asked the blessing. Our table
decoration was in honor of
Memorial Day – little vases
with flowers and a flag. Larry,
Carlos, Ken and Marjean did
the deliveries. The gift certifi-
cate donated by Prairie Hard-
ware & Gifts went to Nadine
Smith. It was good to see Jerry
and Evelyn Sheets back from
Third book in Strawberry Mountain Series released
Blue Mountain Eagle
The third book in the Strawberry
Mountain Series, “Eddie,” is now avail-
able.
Jane Meador Nagler, who writes
historical fiction as Jae Carvel, uses the
upper John Day Valley as the setting for
the series. Her writings are inspired by
her Prairie City ancestors.
Readers of her first two books, “By
the River” and “Secrets from the Little
Red Box,” often asked what happened
to the character Eddie, she said.
Believing he had killed a school
teacher after a fight, Eddie saddles his
horse, leaves the ranch and rides into
the rugged Strawberry Mountain coun-
try. He believes the sheriff is searching
for him so he vows never to return to
his beloved valley. Eddie never realiz-
es the teacher did not die and spends
his life looking over his shoulder as he
grows to be a man of whom his family
would have been proud, had they only
known.
The author’s books are carried at
Roan in Prairie City, Twisted Treasures
in Dayville and Betty’s Books in Baker
City.
their winter refuge. Frances
did the announcing and had
a lot of them: Clean-up day,
Buzz’s service and reception,
eclipse projects and Bruce
completing his service on the
Senior Advisory Board. Then
we ate our Memorial Day
meal and was it ever good.
A more-than-green salad and
dressing, TGIW cheesy baked
potatoes with all kinds of
toppings for them, pork loin
roast, rolls and a rhubarb cus-
tard bar for dessert. A wonder-
ful meal from Iva, Tom and
helpers Livy and Alan. And
the liquid refreshment was
overflowing (oops), too: Cof-
fee, tea, water, orange juice,
milk, buttermilk, chocolate
milk and iced tea. Whew.
There were 56 names on the
book. Lorna and Shauntele
brought Otho Laurance, Mar-
ilyn Randall, Dorothy Blasing
and Dorothy Bishop from the
Blue Mountain Care Center.
Made the trek to see the
ENT man in La Grande. He
said that my ears look good
and the hearing level I have
now is probably as good as
it will get. So when the Eu-
stachian tubes “pop” open, I
inquired, why don’t they stay
open? He said that he had
been asking that question for
40 years, and so far, no one
knows. Hmmm. OK, every-
one. Google it. And let me
know.
Derrol was all set to get the
lawn mowed up at Camp El-
kanah until he discovered that
the three-bladed lawn mower
that he uses was missing a
blade. Hmmm, again. Nobody
knows what happened there
either.
To complete your edu-
cation before Thanksgiving
and Christmas dinners come
around again, here with the
lowdown on sweet potatoes
and yams. Sweet potatoes
belong to the same family
as morning glories, while
yams are related to lilies and
grasses. So do sweet potatoes
grow on vines above ground?
And yams below? Mysteries
abound again.
And according to some-
body’s almanac, June 1, 7-9
and 12-14 are poor plant-
ing days. Maybe that’s why
I couldn’t get the carrots to
sprout last year. Not going to
bother with them this year.
Try beets instead.
Gen. 1:10, 11: “… God
called the dry ground land
… Then God said, ‘Let the
land produce vegetation:
seed-bearing plants and trees
on the land that bear fruit
with seed in it, according to
their various kinds.’ And it
was so.”
Author Jane Nagler
of East Wenatchee,
Washington,
welcomes visitors
at the Grant
County Art Show
Saturday, as her
husband, Skip, in
back, chats with
Tobe Zweygardt of
Prairie City.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Church Services In Grant County
Come Worship with us at