49 Years

Friday was our 49th anniversary, something I find amazing. We were both too young,(she 18, me 19) we couldn't afford it, (she just out of high school, me an unemployed college student), and a wedding would ultimately result in my leaving college. She did only go a short time, but I finished college and later got my master's degree. She did child care for a number of years and then became a self taught bookkeeper, a job she has always loved. We have both been active in our church and in community affairs. We have 2 great kids who are each great in their fields of endeavor, and I think that each is doing what they enjoy in their area of work. We are both healthy relatively speaking. As I reflect on the past 49 years, I think they have been very good years. and they just keep getting better. Thanks Jean, I wouldn't change a thing...Here's to 49 more.

Tired not Retired

This has been a busy week for me. Jean found out Sunday that the guy who was dispatching for the trucking company was leaving. He has a wealth of knowledge of the trucking business and felt he couldn't refuse a salary twice his current amount. I volunteered to learn the dispatching business and fill in until the right dispatcher was found. Alan has been great as a teacher. He allowed me one day to observe, one day to learn the software, and then put me to work with him acting as back-up. I know that I won't live long enough to amass the knowledge that Alan has, but I think that by the time he leaves I'll be able to get by. I just got used to staying up late and getting up at 7 and then a good nap after lunch. This morning we were up and working by 7 AM. I'm going to have to get to bed earlier, or I won't last another week.

It is fun to take on a challenge and make it. My brain is sure getting a workout. Do you have some freight you want moved? Call me at Schatzie Trucklines, Inc.

Hunting with Pa

After I wrote my bit about my father for Father's Day I called up some stuff about how my dad hunted before and after he lost his leg. Apparently Pa was the meat gatherer for a fair portion of the mill workers families during the Depression. According to Pa he had killed 149 deer prior to WW II. That would be over a period of 10 to 12 years. I guess folks would tell him they were out of meat and a few days later he would deliver a dressed out deer. He once told me that he usually shot barren does and avoided those with fawns. After the war Pa lost his leg well above the knee in a logging accident and was fitted with an artificial leg that was held on by straps and a waist belt. He soon found that he couldn't walk on rough ground with his prosthesis because the toe would hook on brush and rocks and the knee wouldn't lock and he would fall on his face. Some guys in the Carpentry Class at OTI built him a peg leg to wear while hunting. Unfortunately the peg would sink into soft sandy soil and occasionally sink into a gopher hole and go clear to the basket for his stump. When that occurred he would have to unstrap the leg, balance on his good leg and pull the peg leg out of the ground. My brothers and I became Pa's gun bearers and he switched to clamp on crutches for hunting. As we aged and got old enough to hunt by ourselves the next son would take over the job of gun bearer. I recall that when it became my turn to pack Pa's gun I was really excited. I knew that he would teach me how to hunt. And he did. The hard part was after he had made a kill I got to pack the deer to the road, and failing that, go find one of my older brothers to help with the pack. After we had all become hunters on our own Pa continued to hunt by himself. He rigged a sling for and old model 94 Winchester 30 30 and wrapped 50 ft of rope around his waist. When he made a kill he would tie the rope to the deer's hind legs and walk to the end of the rope and pull the deer to him. Then repeat the process over and over until he reached the road. When I moved to Vale, a pheasant hunting mecca, he and Ma came over to visit and go hunting birds. We put him on the end of a corn field and drove the birds to him. When I came out of the corn he pointed out where the birds had fallen. He said that he could have gotten more except that every time he fired the shotgun recoil would knock him over. He was standing on his one good leg and the crutches were hanging from him forearms as he swung on the bird. He didn't miss a shot. His last deer hunt was a year or two before he died. My brothers and I were all married and living far from home, so he hooked up with a local rancher to hunt on his ground. They put him on a stand and drove the deer toward him from horse back. The only problem was that the deer didn't go where the riders thought they would and they went down the other side of the canyon. No problem, he killed both of the bucks that he saw. The rancher paced off the distances of the shots...one was 450 yards and the other was 600 yards. Pa was a pretty good shot.

Father's Day

My father has been dead for 40 years, but I still have vivid memories of him. Some are good, and some are bad, for he was, as we all are, human. I have long ago forgiven him for what were the bad times for me. I loved my dad, but I don't ever remember telling him so. That wasn't done in my family, emotions were, for the most part, held in. When emotion did show its face, it was generally anger, and I am sorry for that. I wish I could have said, "I love you, Pa", certainly more than I did, if ever. My brothers and I are better at showing our emotions to one another, but not much. I fortunately married into a family that was good at telling each other they cared, and I think my wife was the best. So, our children are very open about telling us that they love us. It's interesting that we know that the love is there, but it feels so good to hear it said. There never was a time that I felt that Pa didn't love me even though I didn't hear him say it. I got many things from my dad, his love of working with wood, his liberal politics, his sense of fair play, how to hunt and shoot, how to fish, how to build things, how to stand up for the little guy, honesty (except following the fish and game laws). I would have to say that I reared my own kids much the same as my dad did for me. I know that after he lost a leg in a logging accident he was always in pain, and so he self medicated with beer. That changed him and the family too, in ways that we probably never realized. I can still remember going on a road trip listening to Pa sing some of the old cowboy songs or recite a Robert Service poem. According to my oldest brother, Pa had a voice similar to Gene Austin. And, he was a fool for his grandchildren. Happy Father's Day, Pa. Love, Dan

People Will Say We're In Love

This video is a little strange, uses new shots from the present time, but the music is great. I may drive some of you crazy with my new found music machine, but it's the only way to hear some of the great oldies. I even found some Red Sovine tear jerkers.

I Love You Tube

When I was much younger I had an album titled "Powerhouse Dance Party" by Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five. I wore it out playing it and have never been able to find a modern (CD) copy. Found this today on You Tube. I am so happy.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow -- IZ

I thought no one could surpass Judy Garland on this song, but IZ made it his own song. Here are both Judy and IZ, you decide.

This is for Emery

Here's one for you Bro! Enjoy!

Ella

I'm trying this out to see if I can embed an Ella Fitzgerald video here.

November Elections

Well, the Democrats have finally come up with a probable nominee for President. Now we all have to get together and support Barak Obama in his bid to become the first Black President. I heard on PBS this past winter a black man quoting his mother who said "it will be harder for a female to be elected than a Black man". It looks as though she was right. Now I hope that the Democrats don't screw it up and lose to McCain. When that long list of possible Demo candidates came out last fall I thought at the time that I hoped that someone other than Hillary or Obama was nominated because I felt that they were both unelectable. I still have that fear, it seems that they both have a lot to attack, and attack the Republicans will. I think that maybe I was wrong. There seems to be a lot of support for Obama and Hillary. I have been getting e-mails asking me to get behind Obama and get him elected. I'll do what I can, but I don't see many folks in Malheur County voting for a man of color for president.

Fall

Summer was pretty short this year. Sunday, June 1, was the last day of summer. Fall set in on Monday and is still around, but I suspect winter will soon be here. The weather folks are talking about snow in the mountains this weekend, so fall is on the way out. Hopefully, we will have a couple of more summers before November.

Logging in Oregon

I have become a follower of "Ax Men" on the History Channel. It is a reality show following 4 logging outfits in the Northwest corner of Oregon. They are logging in the Coast Range Mountains which aren't terribly high, but are very steep. This is the land of the clear cut, made necessary by the method used and the steepness of the terrain. The TV narrator tries to talk it up as very dangerous and it seems that sometimes they ask the loggers to do things that aren't done much (if ever) any more, such as topping a tree. In the old days they did pick a big tall tree at the top of the mountain and top it to use as a spar tree. Today's loggers use movable spar trees called yarders, but they had a guy climb a tree and top it like they did in the past. I suspect that the TV crews do a lot to make the job dangerous. I do know that danger lurks in logging, my dad lost a leg logging in the coast range in 1946.

They got more than they bargained for when the December hurricane? hit the very area where they were logging. The show did a great job of showing the devastation in and around Vernonia, which suffered heavy flooding. I am somewhat familiar with the area and until this show didn't see much footage of the flooding since we live 400 miles to the east in the desert. This was the second 100 year flood in the past 12 years for that area, and many people were wiped out. We spend a lot of time praying for the victims of natural disasters around the world. I suppose that Global Warming has nothing to do with that. yeah, sure.