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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2010)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, December 2, 2010 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 Mentor Noni Andersen Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes Opinion Looks a lot like Christmas Vernonia’s downtown is looking very merry thanks to the many volunteers who put up holiday decorations the day after Thanksgiving. This holiday decoration project was taken over this year by the Vernonia Downtown As- sociation. Much of the organizing was done by the asso- ciation’s president and City Council person-elect Marilyn Nicks. Here is a big thank you to all of the volunteers. We also give a big thank you to Vernonia Pride, a community service group that supplied the decorations this year and has been responsible for taking care of most of the downtown holiday decorating (and many oth- er projects) for more years than we can remember. Dede and Donna Webb deserve a special thanks for being the “push” behind Vernonia Pride and Dede’s husband, Don Webb, for being an amiable “pushee” and storing all of the decorations these many years. Not much like Christmas While we enjoy the delights that the holiday season brings, our thoughts will turn towards the multitude of men and women of our armed forces who are making daily sacrifices to fight in Afghanistan in what now has become America's longest war. The war in Afghanistan has been raging for over nine years. The war began on October 7, 2001, with current U.S. military fatalities at 1,137 and another 9,256 wounded. The war has taken its largest toll on Afghan civilians with over 34,000 (yes, thirty-four thousand) killed. We often use this space to talk about fiscal responsi- bility, mostly chastising the Vernonia City Government. But in comparison to the $1,115,441,500,000 (that is one-trillion one-hundred-fifteen-billion four-hundred- forty-one-million five-hundred thousand dollars) the U. S. has spent on war since 2001 (Iraq & Afghanistan), Ver- nonia looks pretty good. These numbers kind of dampen the joy of the holiday season, which is probably why we have not seen a lot of recent publicity concerning the war. Imagine if that money had been spent on schools, roads, health care, jobs, or just reducing the deficit. Mankind must find a better way to resolve our prob- lems than resorting to war. With war, nobody wins. “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Isa- iah 2:4. Ike Says… By Dale Webb, member Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League Elk season this year seemed to be a bust and then boom. First season hunters struggled with warm temperatures and quiet conditions. The elk seemed content to stick to the reprod patches and chew their cuds. Need- less to say, the first sea- son hunters came home empty-handed in most cases. Second season elk hunters faced totally differ- ent conditions, snow and very cold conditions. Sometimes snow is not a hunter’s friend, if the snow gets crunchy or squeaky it is hard to ap- proach elk with out being heard. This year though was different in that the temperature got really cold. Even though the snow got noisy, elk were forced to feed during the warmer daylight hours and they, themselves, were making a lot of noise. My son hunted for elk with me for the first time since he got out of the service. He has made a few trips over to hunt mule deer, but has always lacked enough vacation time to hunt elk. We hunted the first two days and, of course, didn’t find any of the four legal bulls I had seen in three previous days of scouting. One of the bulls was taken on opening day, just down the hill from where we were. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of shooting going on, but that was soon to change. The third day of the hunt, Mike and I ran into a herd of elk first thing in the morning, before we could split up to hunt our separate routes. We caught a bull bedded next to a road at about 300 yards and we both ended up taking a shot at the bull. Mike used my shooting sticks and settled in for the shot, and I followed with a back up shot off my knees as the bull jumped up out of his bed. The bull didn’t go far and piled up, but we did- n’t know that right away because of the chaos that ensued as the herd of elk panicked in a hur- ried rush. Once I started looking for the bull I was a little dismayed that I didn’t see blood in the snow right away. Then I saw the antler sticking up out of the snowy landscape; Mike had taken his first bull elk, a 5X6. I had to trudge around in the snow a few more days before my time came. As is typical when elk hunting, the moment usually happens when you least expect it (I had actually just told myself this). For me, it was while I was walking down a road eating some cheese and summer sausage on the fly. The next thing I knew, I saw a head sticking out of the brushy roadside. I swung my rifle off my shoulder and up on the elk’s head, which I discovered had antlers. Then the cogs in my head slowly turned and I realized that this was a legal bull, which is a 3pt or better where I was hunting. I swung down on the neck and proceeded to cleanly miss the bull! That bull erupted like he had been shot out of a Please see page 3
