Page 2
The INDEPENDENT, December 13, 2007
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Assoc. Editor Noni Andersen, noni@the-independent.net
Opinion
Some “stuff” is important
Cars, carpet, that new couch with matching re-
cliner and love seat. The monetary loss has been
no small thing. Photos of loved ones and senti-
mental keepsakes lost. The emotional toll has
been great.
I’ve spoken with many people in the last week
who have been dealing with the devastating
damage done by the flood and mud. With the
many losses suffered, there is one phrase that is
often repeated, “It’s just stuff.” Another phase
heard, “I still have my family.” The loss of a loved
one is the greatest loss one can suffer. We have
been extremely fortunate not to have lost any
lives in our community to the great forces of na-
ture that have visited us lately – I am thankful.
I am also thankful for the seemingly unending
sea of volunteers that have done so much to help
us all in our time of need. They have fed us,
clothed us, given us shelter. Provided the man-
power to pick up piles of debris. Delivered truck
loads of much needed supplies. Selflessly done
whatever was needed to help us recover. Much
of the work has been dirty, smelly and downright
disgusting.
We know some of the people that put them-
selves at risk to save others. Robert Ray, Josh
Shultz and Dean Smith are just three of the many
that did what they felt they needed to do to help
others. Jeff Burch worked tirelessly, around the
clock, to keep the water supply safe for all of us,
even though doing so kept him from being able to
help his own family while their home was being
flooded. Others belonged to groups whose pur-
pose is to help others; like the Firefighters (fight-
ing water, hmm…), EMTs, law enforcement offi-
cers, Red Cross, CERT teams and National
Guard units. There were also prison inmates that
were glad to work hard for others. Church
groups, Social clubs, public municipalities and
private businesses all helped out. And, individu-
als not associated with any group or organization
helped, too.
All of these people had but one goal. That goal
was simply to help others in need, even though it
was rarely simple to do.
Two thoughts that keep crossing my mind are
how blessed we have been and how important it
is for me to say how grateful I am and thank you
from the deepest depths of my soul.
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League
Deer season this year
found me over in Eastern
Oregon with three genera-
tions of Webbs hunting to-
gether again, after my son
Michael’s return from the
Army. The rest of our
camp consisted of my
brother-in-law, nephew,
and good family friend
Don Tiffney. We decided to skip the opening
weekend mad house and set up camp on Tues-
day of the first week of the season. We got our
usual camp site and the weather was good for
setting up the tents. The weather then turned
cold and spitting sleet, good deer hunting weath-
er. My brother-in-law, Don Larson, scored first
with a nice 3 pt on our first day of hunting.
Michael and I saw a couple of small bucks and
decided to pass; we had a lot of season left.
Day two produced more deer sightings but no
bucks. On day three Michael and I were hunting
a draw, doing the old one on each side trick. I
heard some deer jump up in front of me, but due
to the thick jack pine trees I could not see them.
We moved ahead slowly and I noticed Mike was
in the bottom of the draw now. Then I caught the
image of a deer standing up the hill above Mike
about 80 yards. I scoped the deer, which turned
out to be two Does and then I noticed another
deer to their left, yep a buck. I could see only the
rear half of the antlers, but they looked better
than average, I steadied my hold as I moved
back to the rib cage for the shot. The buck dis-
appeared in a flash at the report of my old 270.
I wished I could have seen Mike’s face when I
shot, it must have been loud down there. I held
my place and had Mike move up to the spot the
buck was standing so we didn’t loose the spot in
the thick trees. By the time I got over to Mike, he
had already found my buck, a nice 4 pt. We field
dressed the buck and then took a GPS waypoint
to see how far the pack was going to be, it turned
out to be an easy pack to an access point. The
packing would be the next day and we had a few
miles to go to get back to camp before dark, so
we started hoofing it out of the woods. Just be-
fore we got back into camp we heard two shots
and soon my nephew, Rob, and Don Tiffney
were chatting on the radio about the buck Rob
just shot. Soon, four of us headed up from camp
and made a quick drag of the forked horn down
to where we could load it in the pickup. A few
days later Dad got caught behind a local ranch-
er’s cattle drive and ended up helping push the
cattle along towards camp. We know this local
rancher and soon he showed up and gave Dad
a ride back to camp since he was going that way,
anyway. He mentioned that he had seen a fair
buck a few hours earlier at a certain place. It
was mid-afternoon and we thought, heck, we
might as well check out that buck. We piled into
the truck and headed to the spot, but just before
we got there, I looked up the hill on the opposite
Please see page