Sunday, August 17, 2008

What lakesider gave her grandkids last week is at risk

HotCurry
With all the talk about today's gas pain and 'inspired' by the moment solutions like 'drill, baby drill' and the ever Republican 'let the people decide how their money should be spent', we need a little reminder to bring us back to what our vote is all about.

Our wife has a little blog called sixtyfivenowwhat where she writes about life and times here on the Curry, some call it Wild Rivers, Coast. Today she reflected on our granddaughter's visit and it really touches all the bases. So, if you don't mind too much (who cares whether you do or not) here is her blog with just a little bit of husbands political editorializing.


Vacationing on the Oregon Coast

by Lakeviewer


with editorial comments by HotCurry

The World Newspaper (Coos Bay) had a great write-up recently on the local farmers, people who have decided to go back to farming or started farming and producing food for locals. We have already known Abby's greens and the chickens from Joe Pestana. I'm sure there are more people out here that we can connect with for mutual benefit.

Yeah, we can do this because developers haven't snapped up all the land yet here on the Southern Oregon Coast.

Ever since I've been cooking with Martha's fresh eggs, we have been having these small rendez-vous, my hubby and me, experiencing farm tastes and farm flavors without the bother of farming. Some bother is good, though, to help us appreciate the work and the sweat and the caring that goes into food production.

The only drawback is that the nearest airport is 150 miles away in Arcata and our highways are sliding down the hillsides rather than being redesigned to withstand Oregon winters.

This time when my grandchild and friend visited us, they experienced a farm-food connection they'll never forget. We picked vegetables and herbs, visited the chickens for eggs, and help with the preparation of food before sitting down to enjoy the labor.

They were tired, and hungry. And they know what real, unpackaged food tastes like. Who needs to go to Provence for French (apparently we do because that's where we're going in September) food when we can gather the lavender on our hill and mint from our patch, mix it with our blueberries, add a touch of cream and voila, bon Dieu, c'est la belle vite sur la mer. Or, as hubby says, life is good by the sea!

I might start a new career, farm-kitchen-summer-camp-for-all-grandchildren who come up from Los Angeles with smells of malls and sounds of crowded freeways, and plastic toys in their pockets.

They'll go home smelling of heathers and lavender, stained with red, black and pink berries. They will be awakened by the thundering Pacific hitting the rocks and teasing the shore lines. The surf will spritz the grasses and chase the gulls. Ducks,blue herons and ospreys will compete with the sun for worshipped attention.

see development comment above. In fact developers in Brookings and Port Orford are right now violating building codes, destroying habitats, and increasing both noise and air pollution even during this housing downtime making new housing available those buyers who are probably in foreclosure. So don't expect those things in a few years because they will either be extinct or paved over.

And they'll have shells and agates and multicolored pebbles and sticks and sea stars in their pockets. At wash time, their mothers too, will get a glimpse and a sniff of the Oregon vacation the girls experienced.

Thanks for the picture mom.

We won't keep all that for long if we let guys like 'We don't need no damn infrastructure' Smith' and 'Tax the non-existent rigs to replace lost Timber Funds' Walden stay on any longer. I mean Geez. Our harbor dredging funds are at risk every year. Fisheries aren't being protected, dredging funds are under constant attack.

Roads are decaying and their maintenance tax base is drying up. But, hey, the citizen knows what he needs to spend his money on. Except he doesn't because instead of responsible government telling him that the resource is going away, the Republicans are going drill, drill, drill, profits, profits, profits, while prices are going up, up, up, as supplies go down, down, down, for those of us here in rural land who can least afford it.

Communications are being delayed because Private Utilities, yeah, those guys who have exclusive access to you the voter in this area, might have a little smaller profit margin if they provide us rural folk some service. That's darn nice of the government for the Utilities, but, us ratepayers in the rural area keep getting worse service for more money.

Finally our Republican friends sure don't want to get in the way of development because those people know how to make a wonderland into a slag pile in record time.

So, the next time you are tempted to pull the lever, OK, draw a line and mail it in, for one of those nice Republican fellows who want to drill for you, develop for you, and let you spend your tax money for their clients' products, just remember. Remember you are giving up the chance for your grandchildren to visit the world Lakesider provided for her grandchildren last week.



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