At War With Nature

I have officially declared war on nature! It's a war I know I can't win, but none the less it has to be fought. Until now I have tolerated the deer, squirrels, and turkeys with mild indifference, but nature has dealt me the ultimate insult! A gopher. Yes, a gopher. He is burrowing into my new lawn, undermining the structure, munching on the roots and pushing up mounds of unsightly dirt.

I played around with this little creature, thinking I could drown him out. I figure that drowning is a fairly natural death for creatures that live their entire existence in holes in the ground. I mean with rain, irrigation, melting snow, this little feller has probably faced that terror before. He refused to take the easy way, so no more now I am getting tough. I went down to the old shed and rummaged around a while and found five old gopher traps.

I am not a stranger to gopher traps. When I was about 13 or 14 I probably trapped more gophers than anyone south of the crick. We have an alfalfa field of about fourteen acres. Unchecked, gophers will plow a field for you about every other year. Of course if you are trying to raise hay, you don't want it plowed up. Dad paid me fifty cents per gopher, and was pretty upset if I didn't catch at least one or two per day. When I had trapped all winter, he owed me a little over $50.00, which he paid off with a scope for my Savage model 99 lever action .243.

Of the five traps I found, only one was workable. The other four were in various stages of disrepair. One is enough though and with the help of some pliers, I bent it into reasonable shape and set it in the gopher hole. That little sucker is in for a surprise when he comes up to see who opened his door!

Lest you think I am fighting this war on only one front, let me continue. Saturday I spent a good part of the day planting some fruit trees. We have decided that eight trees is a reasonable number for a retired person's orchard. I have Fuji and Jonathan apple, two Hale Haven peach, one Tilton apricot and one Bing cherry. I am still looking to purchase a Bartlet pear and for the last one I world really like to find one of those plumb trees that has huge deep red plumbs.

Sorry, I digress... this morning when I went out to water the trees a deer had been chewing on Johnathan! I had placed some net wire rings around the trees to keep the deer away from the bark, which they love to rub with their horns, but eat the leaves? It's not like little John is the only apple tree in the valley. Not too far to the northwest are some of the largest orchards around. Do yo think they just saw this little tender suckling tree and decided to sample it? I think not, I think they are just looking for ways to irritate me. Especially since I put the electric fence around the back yard and disturbed their daily migration route. They won't soon forgive me for that. I'd really like to see the look on their face when their nose touches that electric wire!
I am not one to go to war unprepared. I did my research on the Internet and a terribly expensive study done by some university, in Iowa I think it was, showed that hanging Dial hand soap was as good a deterrent as any other remedy, commercial or homemade. So I have sent Ellie after a dozen bars of soap and some netting to tie them up in. We'll see how that works. I have tried sitting on the front porch and shooting them with a BB gun but they just sneak back after dark. It is fun though, watching them jump when that little BB stings them, especially if I pump it up about 20 times!

The turkeys have pulled back for a while. Some say it is because they are nesting. I think they are just planning their next assault. Pretty soon they will show up around here with a whole bunch of new young recruits, scratching and pecking worse than ever. I'm thinking of getting a robotic dog that barks when it senses their presence, but I dislike barking dogs more than turkeys.

Squirrels are not that aggressive, and they usually don't attack in numbers. They usually send an advance scout to sample my English Daisies. If the scout gets back successfully he may bring a few more with him. It's funny how they can sort through all the weeds in my wild flower garden and eat only the flowers. I have found out a sniper rifle is quite effective against these little buggers. If I detect an advance scout, and can sneak out the door and get in a position so that I am not going to shoot the house, shop, barns, horses, the neighbor's house, barns or cattle, that bushy tailed sneak will be history.

I will not take time to elaborate on the weeds, box elder bugs, ants, mourning doves that keep kamikaze diving into our windows, hornets, raccoons, skunks, coyotes or foxes. I figure within a few years I will be a seasoned veteran in this war and probably available for hire as a mercenary in distant places, perhaps as far away as the other side of the crick!

Slow Death Of A Small Town

The other night I attended a planning and zoning meeting for the town of New Harmony. I have had a phobia of attending such meetings ever since serving as mayor of the town of Kamas for a couple of terms and later spending time being beat up in their meetings. I was abused mostly by people that as mayor I had appointed when I tried to provide some 'affordable' housing for the community. I got beat up so badly by my 'friends and neighbors' that I finally vowed I would never go to another such meeting.

So I relented, and attended this meeting primarily to show interest in what is going on in the valley. I am not a resident of New Harmony; I live outside the city limits, consequently I have no voice in the town's policy nor do I get to vote for their elected officials. The meeting was a work session where they were reviewing their regulations to see if changes needed to be made. I applaud these people for their work, which is often thankless and often times even maligned.

In the course of the meeting, reference was made to the Town's Capital Improvements Plan and a copy of the document was made available for our review. I spent some time looking it over. I was interested because I was involved in preparing and updating a similar document for the town of Kamas. Prior to looking at this document I knew that 'town policy' was primarily anti-growth. I guess I didn't know just how 'anti' it really was until I looked at the plan.

I won't spend a lot of time in the details, suffice it to say that when a town requires five acres of land for a new building lot, and impact fees that would choke a Belgian draft horse, they really don't want or expect growth. Unless you have in excess of a million bucks burning a hole in your pocket, don't plan to come to New Harmony.

So what's the problem? New Harmony is a nice town. We all like it the way it is so why change it? If we can keep it small we will avoid lots of problems faced by our growing neighbors. We will have lots of open space, clean air and no traffic congestion. Crime will be limited to ATVs roaming the streets and an occasional rolling stop through a rare stop sign. No kids loitering in the mall, no gangs, no drugs and no low-life taggers spraying graffiti on buildings and cars.

Sounds pretty good doesn't it? Yes it does, but what do you see when you dig a little deeper? What do you find when you peel back that shallow layer of selfish thinking and isolationism? Do we really want a community of rich absent residents and retirees? I find that New Harmony is dying. It might be a very slow death, but yes, it is dying. I don't know if anyone has bothered to check, but I estimate the average age of a New Harmony resident is over 65. If you take out the only sub-division ever allowed in town (which many curse as the worse thing to ever happen) the average age probably increases to 75. Unless you enjoy watching something die, if it is going to survive, New Harmony badly needs a transfusion. It needs new blood!

If you are still reading at this point, you are probably either getting red in the face or you agree that there is a problem. At the risk of being too long winded, I want to expound a little further. Obviously when people die, the make room for others. Hence, one would assume that there would be an automatic renewal going on. Look at what is really happening. Nearly every home that comes up for sale in New Harmony is purchased by a folks that are retiring and want a quiet place to spend their declining years. I mean no offense, most of these are great people. I am one myself. But that is not new blood. It's just old blood moving to a new location.

In my opinion, there are two main barriers to young people moving to New Harmony. The first is the commute. With soaring fuel prices, an economic hurdle is added to the time factor and a 30 minute commute becomes quite undesirable, especially when you think you need to run your children to the city to every extracurricular event that occurs. This is all relative however; people still don't mind a 60 to 90 minute commute just so they don't have to live in the Salt Lake Valley. Add to that the cost of trying to buy or build a home here, and the barrier becomes insurmountable for most. Young people just starting out, or those with young families, just can't pay the price.

Is there a solution? I bet you thought I would never get to it. Trouble is, I don't know. I kind of doubt it, but my hope keeps me writing. My mind says that the solution to the problem is to become growth friendly. There I've said it. You can start throwing the rotten fruit and vegetables you have been saving. Undesirable as it sounds, to keep from dying New Harmony needs to grow. New Harmony needs some quarter-acre lots that can be reasonable purchased and built upon. It needs impact fees that are adequate, but not exorbitant. It needs a city staff and government that will welcome those who want to develop such opportunities, and welcome those who want to live here.

Could such a radical change really ever happen? Yes it could, but it has to start in the hearts and minds of those in positions of influence. It has to spread to those who follow them, and to those who through lazy indifference don't care.

How can you change the heart, mind and attitude of those who so firmly believe they are right? I don't know. Perhaps they are really right and I am wrong. Maybe I am the one that needs converting. Perhaps we will just have to let New Harmony die, and see if when it is dead and buried in our beautiful cemetery, something new and better will spring up to take its place.

The opinion expressed herein is the sole responsibility of the author. Please don't blame his wife and family. If have an opinion on the matter, for or against, especially if you are from this area, I would like to hear your comments.

The Problem With Snakes...

Saturday, June 28, 2008. I really messed up today. I was moving an old concrete blanket (that's a blanket to cover concrete to keep it from freezing, not a blanket made of concrete) and underneath was a little light grayish-green snake. At first I thought it was a big night crawler but when it started moving I could tell it was a small snake about 12 inches long, and I also noticed that it had a bright orange belly. I decided to take a picture, so I replaced the blanket, got my camera, and snapped a couple of photos. Then I got the bright idea to take it over to a friend's house to see if he could identify it. I just mean try to find out what kind of snake it is. I don't care about it's name or driver's license number. It was obviously a native so I didn't ask to see a green card.

I put the snake in a plastic ice cream bucket and set it on the floor of my truck on the passenger side. It didn't seem to be able to climb much as it only raised it's head a few inches up the side of the plastic bucket. It did cross my mind that I really didn't want it to get loose in my truck, but I thought that seemed unlikely.

Arriving at my friend's house I rang his door bell and waited a couple of minutes but he wasn't home. When I got back to the truck, the snake was no longer in the bucket and was no where to be seen. I looked carefully around, under the seats, under the mats, behind the tire jack, all around the console. No snake. I met a cousin at the town dumpster and together we looked again but still no snake. When I got home, I decided to try and smoke (figuratively speaking) him out. I turned the heater up to maximum and left it running for about fifteen minutes, but that didn't work and I decided I didn't want to cook him in there.

Now I guess I will not be falling asleep when driving my truck. I will ever be alert for that little snake to drop from the visor or crawl up my leg or the steerting wheel. I don't know how long a snake can live in such a place though I doubt he would make it through the winter. I guess unless I detect a really bad odor like the one made by a dead snake, I will continually be on the look-out, at least until the temperature drops below freezing.

By the way, if any one knows of someone that wants to drive to northern Canada, say somewhere above the arctic circle, I would let them borrow my truck.

If You Could Hie To Kolob...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008. This evening the New Harmony Young Men/Young Women went on a hike to Taylor's Creek in Kolob Canyon. Obviously I am not one of the young ones, but someone has to slow these kids down. We had a great time and were treated to cold watermelon when we returned to the trailhead. A couple of the leaders found out they needed to add a little more walking to their

weekly routine but I am sure they will recover in due time and be ready to go again next year. It was hot as we made our way up the trail to Double Arch Alcove in the early evening, but by the time we returned it had cooled of just enough to be really pleasant.

Coming back, when you turned around and looked at the cliffs behind you it was stunning! The remaining light from the sun slipping behind Pine Valley Mountain left the Kolob Fingers glowing in a brilliant vermillion radiance.

The top photo is the group about half way there. The bottom one is of one of the cool Young Men's President in his Indiana Jones hat, posing for a photo at the old Fife Cabin along the trail.

A Horseback Ride To Remember

Monday June 23, 2008. Ellie and I Went for a horseback ride on Pine Valley Mountain today with my brother Brent. We went to Anderson Meadow and should have returned from there but decided to go on over to Mill Flat. It turned out to be to far and we were all dog tired when we got home. Ellie got rubbed off on a low-hanging tree but survived without injury. I don't think she will be wanting to go again for a long while though.

With the negatives out of the way, the mountain is beautiful, lush and green. The wildflowers such as Columbine and Bluebell are just starting to bloom in the upper elevations. There is a good stream of water in Anderson Canyon, Dam Canyon and at Mill Flat, and several of the smaller canyons also still have water. There are many places where the trail needs maintenance, mostly to remove fallen trees. There are several places where you need to make a detour, but none are severe.

We spent quite a bit of effort cleaning the way around a good sized tree blocking the trail going to Mill Flat, then when I went to lead Cletis (my horse) around it he decided to jump over.

The trail down the Long Ridge was hot and dusty on our return, and we were all sore, tired and covered with trail dust when we got back, but there is nothing like a day on that mountain to renew your spirit and your appreciation for the beautiful place it is.