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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2018)
A10 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Beds that have gone out on deliveries with us,” she said. “It is also heartwarming Continued from Page A1 to know you have helped a family in need, no matter what their situation is. McDaniel branded one of the 20 We are here for the kids, and it’s our beds with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace pleasure to be able to serve them.” logo. One mother said she would like to Brown said no special skills are pay it forward in the future, Susie said, needed to help build bunk beds. and another couple expressed interest “Just the desire to help families and in volunteering for the cause. get kids off the fl oor or into a bed of The nationwide nonprofi t, started their own,” she said. by Luke Mickelson, has grown from She and her hus- nine chapters before band Mark started the Mike Rowe’s TV show Eastern Oregon chap- to over 131 chapters in ter last summer after 36 states. seeing Mike Rowe There are fi ve chap- highlight the Twin ters in Oregon, and Falls, Idaho, organi- Grant County has the zation on his TV pro- only chapter in Eastern gram “Returning the Oregon. Favor.” The nonprofi t relies The Browns’ Contributed photo on monetary donations daughter Nato- Nancy Buhler of Twin to purchase lumber, hard- sha McLeod, also of Falls, Idaho, helps Natosha ware, equipment, tools, John Day, jumped in McLeod of John Day as they mattresses and bedding. as well, and all were stain the bed frame pieces. Donations of new trained in running the bedding, such as com- nonprofi t and building the beds. forters, quilts and pillows are wel- Their inaugural build day was in come, but the nonprofi t cannot accept Dayville with six bunk beds, made in used items. Also, they have to build the honor of the late Jake Streeter. beds according to specifi c plans that Susie said, while she and her hus- have been approved and are insured. band do a lot in the background, it’s Each bunk bed costs $350. not just them working at it. Susie said they can hold corpo- “It’s a community project,” she rate builds with a business sponsoring said. a number of beds and hosting a build With other helpers, they’ve given day with employees. away 12 beds, so far, and 14 more will “What a great service project and be delivered to John Day, Mt. Vernon, team-building activity,” she said, add- Prairie City, Burns, Vale and Morrow ing individuals can also sponsor the County by Christmas Day. building of a bed. Susie said being involved in the She said a friend of hers is involved nonprofi t has been rewarding. with starting a chapter in Jackson “We are all volunteers,” she said. County. Susie is also in contact with “We have full-time jobs, so we do a person who may start a chapter for Sleep in Heavenly Peace things in the northeast Oregon (Union, Wallowa, evening and on the weekends — it’s Morrow and Umatilla counties). basically our part-time volunteer job.” “I’m recruiting,” she said. “If there She said families who have received is a kid in need, I’m going to do my the beds for their children have been best to try to help them.” grateful, adding one young boy from For more information or to volun- Burns made sure to thank each one of teer or make a donation, email susie. the volunteers as they left. brown@shpbeds.org. The main web- “There have been tears and a lot of site, where bed requests can be made, smiles from the parents and the kids is shpbeds.org and their Facebook as well as from us and the volunteers page is shpjohnday. Wednesday, December 19, 2018 Hunt Continued from Page A1 California and desert. Some hunting organizations only recognize four subspecies, so a hunter only needs to bag four to qualify for the grand slam. It’s considered the most chal- lenging grand slam for hunting. Kight bagged a Dall sheep in Alaska and a stone sheep in British Columbia. He doesn’t expect to bag a desert sheep, which are found in Mexico, Ari- zona, New Mexico and Utah, because of the limited lottery chances, so he may never com- plete the grand slam recognized by the Wild Sheep Foundation. Kight knew from his expe- rience transplanting sheep around Oregon there were an abundant number of California sheep in Oregon. The current state record holder shot a Cali- fornia sheep in the Catlow Rim district near the Steen Moun- tains south of Grant County in 1997. But getting a tag for a sheep in Oregon is not easy. Kight applied for a tag every year for 48 years. Unlike other hunts in Oregon, there are no preference points awarded to hunters who don’t get a tag, so the years piled on. Finally Kight got his tag. It was for the third hunting sea- son on the east side of the John Day River canyon. The dis- trict extends from Spray north to McDonald Ferry. Kight esti- mated 600 sheep live in the can- yon, and each season allowed three animals to be harvested. River canyon Much of the district is Bureau of Land Management land, but Kight had permission to hunt on some private prop- erty, where he also camped. The 56,763-acre Stubblefi eld fi re had burned in the area in August, so that limited some of the hunting area and raised the possibility sheep might move out of their normal hab- itat, Kight said. The third hunting season kicked off on Nov. 10, but Kight wanted to begin scouting weeks in advance. Low stream- fl ow prevented him from raft- ing the river until late Octo- ber. He was joined by his wife, Kathy, on the fl oat from Thirty- mile Creek to the Cottonwood Bridge. He spotted the ram he wanted 10 days ahead of the hunt. Not only did it have a large set of horns, but the ram stood out because its horns were chipped from fi ghting other rams. He nicknamed the ram Chiphorn. Kight tracked the ram for the next 10 days, occasionally los- ing sight of the sheep and then fi nding him again on the talus slopes dotted with boulders in a side canyon. He said he never saw any other hunters. His hunting crew showed up the night before the hunt. They included his longtime hunting friend Carl Stout, Kight’s stepbrother Chris Grif- fi n, Griffi n’s son David Grif- fi n, David’s fi ancee Nicole Sit- ton and David’s friend Jimmy Hurley. Their job was to help with the scouting and packing out the animal after the kill, but Kight had already done the necessary scouting. The hunt Opening day for the season began with a hiccup — Chiph- orn couldn’t be found. Then Kight located a group of sheep about 800 yards away and saw Chiphorn join them. Kight, David and Nicole moved within 600 yards of the group. They changed positions sev- eral times and then crawled to within about 320 yards to take the shot. All told, several hours passed between spotting Chiphorn and the kill, includ- ing half an hour of crawling, Kight said. Kight used a custom-made 7 mm magnum rifl e made by Benchmark Barrels of Arling- ton and Oregonsmithing of Pendleton with a Leupold VX-6 scope. The 162-grain Hornady ELD-X bullets were handloaded by Stout, Kight said. The setup provided a fl at trajectory at 3,000 feet per second. Kight said he’s mostly a bowhunter these days, so he doesn’t see as much time at the target range as he used to, but all those years of hunting paid off. It was afternoon when he made the kill and dark when he hauled the 55-pound head and cape back to camp. The hunting crew scored the ram at their camp, and Kight knew it was “knock- ing on the door for a new state record.” Later at home in John Day, a local Boone and Crockett representative and an ODFW offi cial scored the ram at 185 2/8 with 40-inch curl horns. That’s a green score and is still pending — the horns must go through a 60-day dry- ing period, Kight said. Scoring by the Boone and Crockett Club includes tip to tip spread, length of horn, cir- cumference at the base and cir- cumference of the horns. Age can be determined by count- ing rings on the horns, start- ing from the tip. ODFW per- sonnel estimated the ram’s age at 11 1/2 to 12 years old. Kight said he plans to have the head and cape put on a ped- estal mount by Merle Rempel in Vale, the same taxidermist who is remounting an ante- lope he shot in 1999. That was a No. 2 record holder, he said. We wish you a Merry Christmas! and a happy New Year, from all of us at 60643 US 26, John Day 541-575-2102 Mission Statement: CENTRAL OREGON MOBILE VET CENTER WHEN/WHERE To welcome home and honor those who served, those still serving, and their families by reaching out to them, engaging their communities, and providing them with quali- ty readjustment counsel- ing and timely referral. READJUSTMENT COUNSELING Civilians...they just don’t get it! Come down and let’s talk...Veteran to Veteran. John Day-Elks Lodge- December 19th BENEFITS Find out about what is available that you may have earned. WHO ARE WE? CENTRAL OREGON VET CENTER 1645 NE FORBES RD, SUITE 105 BEND, OR 97702 541-749-2112 WWW.VETCENTER.VA.GOV For more information contact Grant County Veterans 541 620-8057 61008 80939
