Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1985)
“Everybody talks about the treat her' I h< Hi I lij/ iili I m n > 11« I*I»it•*I OrrjjiMi V\r<inr\d.i> J iin u a n f . IIK y M X K Ice has collected at higher elevations during the past week’s cold snell Wvotas coimwxy of Frost build C 8 1 C near ^ ^ Cutsforth Ax many of us have gone about our business and complained atxiul the cold weather during the past week, we may have [Mused (or a moment to enjoy the enticing beauty of an icy trie or frost laden liush, hut if we live and work in Heppner. Lcxing ton. or lone, we may not realize that, not so far away . the cold weather is causing much extra work just to keep activities at a normal level Ice generally Ix-gins to form near the L’,ia»lf<xil level which includes all of the Condon area, the Hlackhorse canyon area to Sandhollow. (ileason Hulle. Jones Hill. Krunklin Hulge. Social Kidge, and the Hardman Kightmile area The elevation at the Heppner depot is I.WiH feet but lixiking toward the hills surrounding Heppner. a frostline has tx-en dis tinctly visible during the week's 2li degree tem peratures Ranchers sometimes face difficul ties in taking care of cattle when the severe cold lasts more than a couple of days The main problem, accord mg to V’alhy area rancher Don Peterson whose herd includes ap proximately 150 cow calf pairs and 100 yearlings, is that the anim als re i|uire more feed during the colder weather Since the ground is mostly covered w ith ice, animals are unable to graze normally and must be given a protein and vitamin A supplement which is usually alfalfa hay Beginning in November, when the calves are sm aller. Peterson esti males that they feed an average of six pounds of hay per day per anim al, hut by March, when the calves are much larger. It is neces sary to have increased the supple ment to as much as about 12 pounds per day t half dumps which some farm ers leave in their wheat fields following grain harvest help to lower the cost of supplementarv feeding. Peterson says because when the rest of the ground is covered with ice. the chaff remains free of frost 5 ou have to watch the animals during calving he says, hut the chaff dumps "seem to serve as insulation enough" when the calves lie on them if the tem perature is around to degrees If the tempera lure drops to around zero, it is necessary to help every calftow arm up when it is horn Although January is usually cold, it is still the usual calving lime because the animals need lo lx- large enough to eat grass during the summer which means that they will grow faster, gain more weight and lx* more desirable animals says Peterson of course, water for the animals, atxiul in gallons per animal per day must also lx' kept from freezing generally some sort of propane tank heater is used in the watering troughs to prevent the w ater's free/ mg of course, if water pipes are not Ix’low the frost line or wrapped in heal tape to prevent freezing water must lx- hauled for the animals from other sources which means that the water tank must be filled an emptiest again before it freezes As a rule of thumb. Peterson says that the cold weather will double the normal chore time Another rancher in the same area, Roger Palm er, suys that his situa tmn is a little different from Peter son s because he does not use chaff dumps, but plans a regular daily supplement of atxiul 5o bales ot alfalfa hay for no cows He ways that unless the tem perature is below zero, he does not notice too much stress among the animals We can get around easier when it's frozen to feed every day Also to consider are times when there is no electricity at the ranches because power lines become coaled with ice which cause problems tor Columbia Basin Klectnc Coop Generally the condition occurs over an area of atxiul Jno Jix) square miles when freezing fog sticks to 'he metal conductors suvs Mark laivgren of C B K C The freezing fog which we have been experiencing happens when the weather report says it will lx' generally clear but with patches of tog which means that the air is not moving Wind, sunshine and warmer weather will all help to eliminate the ice problem on the wires laivgren says that C B E C gen crully uses an aluminum conductor with a steel reinforced core atxiul a half inch in diam eter Since icr weighs 57 lbs per cu ft . when it has collected around the conductor to a radius of one inch the coop be comes concerned The conductors wires can reach a diam eter of three to six inches says laivgren which not only causes them lo sag sometimes from the normal 21 ft height ot atxiut three feet which can lx- dangerous if they come in contact with fences Also, if the conductors sag tixi much, they will break or cause mechanical (allure on a pole Sometimes the ice falls off the wires by itself and the weight imbalance may cause the conductors to snap and either come in contact with other conductors thus causing a power outage or the force from the snap may cause a pole lo break which would also cause an outage When the icy situation occurs, laivgren says that if s important to gel the ice off the conductors before damage incurs All regular ( ' B E X"^ * crews and trained supervised volunteers are out working as many hou*-s as possible sometimes having problems just getting to the lines Ixt a use of road vondilions anil then working in heavy i lothmg lo protec t themselves from the cold ( rews must use extra precautions not onlv because ot the danger from the storm but also to protect against the normal dangers from improper use of electricity Eor example, the ice not only makt-s the poles more slippers to climb, but also a conduc lor of electricity, so the electricity must lx* turned off txdore work is begun Which means that anyone served by that line must wait until the lines are clear for the power to bo restored on the other hand if crews did not d e ar the lines, and they broke, electrical service could lx1 interrupted for a longer [ xtuh I ot lime because of the amount of lime involved in fixating anil repairing the damage Even with the interruption, elec Incal service still has a high reliabil ily with only one hour ot down time out of every R.TSn hours of service. Uivgren explains "A car or a furnace won t start more often than that " Earlier this winter he says crews worked on lines in the Hardman area from h lo a m and because of weather conditions, the work had to hr re done again by I p m Some limes however, the entire area can lx" icy and the weather will change and the problem gone in only a lew hours It is still early this winter and although there was another storm before this more recent one. the extent of damage so far is no where near the extent of the 1978 storm which resulted in the loss of over Hon electrical poles in the Condon area which the co op subsequently rebuilt to withstand future ice situations REG. *9.99 SAVE *4.00 FAMOUS SPRED QUALITY... VALUE PRICED! GLIDDEN S BEST LO-LUSTRE FINISH GALLON REG '13 99 SAVE s4.00 Sale starts today Ends Jan. 19 Ice covered fen ce at 676-9157 rr Snipton Substation Heppner Arts Assoc, to meet Jan. 28 The Morrow County Arts and Crafts Assoc will hold its next no host dinner meeting Monday . Jan 2H at # 30 at Kate s Pizza and Pastry in Heppner City Planning Commission sets meeting The Heppner City Planning Com mission will meet on Monday. Jan uary 14, 1985 at 8 p m at Heppner City Hall Removing ice from lines neor Cutsforth JV Fillies fall prey to TigerScots Ily D \ \ \ REII> The junior varsity girls basketball team went up against the Weston McEwen TigerScots Saturday Jan 5 The game was played here at the Heppner High School gym The starters for the Fillies were guards Beth E orrar and Tina David son forwards Cindy Stroeber and Theresa Lindsay, and center Tare ena Nash Weston McEwen received the tip off to start the gam e They took the ball down court Heppner s gixxl defense forced the TigerScots to turn the ball over Heppner hustled down court and set it up to run a play The Killies were patient on offense but also turned the ball over Weston McEwen then took the ball down court and went all the way for the first two points of the game At the end of the first quarter Weston Mc Ewen was ahead 13 3 Heppner really hustled in the second quarter Although, having a bit of trouble retxiunding they were Park drawing a lot of fouls on the TigerScots and held them down as the Killies started to play gtxxl ball and make a come back The score at the end of the first quarter was 715 in Weston McEwen s favor The second half was started with the tip off going to W eston McEwen The third quarter the score stayed pretty even but in the fourth quarter the Weston McEwen TigerScots pul led way ahead A good effort but at the final buzzer Weston was ahead 21 15 MORROW CO UNTY G RA IN GROW ERS DOLLAR DAYSH CONTINUES THRU JANUARY Don't wait or hesitate' Turn your hard earned green" into tomor row’s "gold " Our yields at 11 02% and rates at 10 60% are top-notch and just what you need Guaranteed and insured by the FSLtC Open your retirement account and lower your taxes today' It's a golden opportunity 274 Mam Street PO Box 551 Heppner. 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