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Posted on July 28, 2010 at 10:30 am in

Unrelenting heat fails to sap spirit of

Mosquito Festival

On the weekend of Friday, July 23, the small and intimate town of Paisley dedicates to limiting mosquito presence, the more unrelenting foe ended up being the sun. One local resident remarked that the weather felt like triple digits.

The largest float during the the Paisley Mosquito Festival parade was a gigantic fish caught in the Chewaucan by John Gaylord, family and friends. The float won grand prize at the parade.

 

Paisley residents and out-of-towners spent the weekend celebration playing volleyball, basketball and horseshoes. Others took to the outer reaches of town to watch or take part in rodeo roping while kids and families took to the two-year old Paisley Youth Fishing Pond for the serenity and excitement of rainbow trout fishing. Traditional events such as the Civil War Cannon Live Fire and bow shoot ended up being cancelled  but that failed to dampen enthusiasm during the parade itself. If smiles were any indication, highlights included the gigantic fish prepared by the Gaylord family.

At market row, Patricia Johnson offered background behind a lunch pale, which she had for sale, adorned with the female-empowering “We Can Do It!” poster so prevalent during World War II. Johnson recalled the work of her  mother, who worked on the Civil Air Patrol in San Diego during, building blimps. Her mother, she said, was a “very good friend to then presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.”

Late into Saturday evening, the town held a dance in the Paisley Community Center lasting late into the early morning hours.

Community

Posted on July 28, 2010 at 10:30 am in

Ruby’s Roadhouse is open

A new eating establishment with a full-service bar opened on Wednesday, July 21.

Ruby’s Roadhouse, developed by local entrepreneur John Cogar, features indoor and outdoor seating, as well as bar service ranging from wine to beer to mixed drinks.  It is located on North E Street on the site of the former Viddy-Oh Store.

Ruby’s Roadhouse is a new eating and drinking establishment developed by John Cogar of Lakeview. Located in the former site of the Viddy-Oh store, the site features indoor and outdoor seating, a full-service bar and buffet-style food and service.

 

Cogar said that the concept’s genesis dates back to the summer of 2009, when he met with Ruby Pipeline contractor Rockford Corporation representatives.  He inquired on whether or not they would be furnishing recreational or food services, to which they replied they would not.

With this in mind, Cogar approached local businesses, scouting interest in possible catering services for a mobile circus tent-type satellite eating site for the Ruby Pipeline workers.  

When he found insufficient interest due to potential conflicts with existing business priorities, Cogar brainstormed another idea, ultimately settling upon the Ruby’s Roadhouse design that features a 48-foot commercial kitchen service trailer. 

Cogar noted that while local businesses weren’t interested in the satellite tent concept, they did support a location in the heart of downtown Lakeview.

Cogar said that he recognized the impact the anticipated in flux of workers would have on local businesses, which led to the development of Ruby’s Roadhouse.  

He acquired the mobile kitchen trailer earlier this year in Casper, Wyo., and acquired the necessary approval from the town planning commission, along with Oregon Liquor Control Commission licensing.  Due to the close proximity of the eatery and the bar, the inside restaurant is open only to patrons 21 years of age and older. Outside patio seating is available for those under 21.

The site Ruby’s Roadhouse calls home has an interesting history, as at one time the late Dan Collins attempted to establish a Volkswagen dealership in the building, Cogar said.  While this deal fell through, it served as a Nash-Rambler dealership for a number of years, eventually even becoming a fire dispatch center for the Forest Service.

In more recent years, however, the shop area served purely as a storage area for a variety of materials.  To view it now, the difference is night and day, with neon signage and various regional décor — coupled with a horseshoe-shaped bar — the building is revived with new life.

The building adjacent to the bar and eatery will be utilized for a clothing storefront for convenient access by workers, as well as office space for varied needed employee meetings, Cogar said.  Cogar said that he’s currently working with Grange Co-Op to find inventory.

Kenneth Bettencourt of Bend will serve as the chef for Ruby’s Roadhouse, and has a variety of menu items sure to please. Tom McDonald will serve as the bar manager. 

A 500-lb. commercial smoker rented from Wubba’s Barbecue in Klamath Falls is also a part of the operation.  Daily specials will be a regular occurrence, and menu items will include whole smoked chicken, beef brisquet, pulled pork, three sizes of steak and numerous appetizers, salads and bar foods, he said.

“The smoked chicken makes an excellent smoked chicken salad,” Bettencourt said.

Hours for Ruby’s Roadhouse, located at 220 N. E St., are 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week.

Lifestyles

Posted on July 28, 2010 at 10:30 am in

LCUWC and LLCWMA host

Warner Valley Weeds and Watershed Tour

 

John Taylor shows the group his fish screen and explains how it works.

On Monday, July 7, the Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council (LCUWC) and the Lake County Cooperative Weed Management Area (LCCWMA) teamed up to host a tour of cooperative restoration projects in the Warner Valley.  

Both the LCUWC and the LCCWMA are local non-profit organizations made up of local stakeholders that collaborate with private landowners and public agencies.  The LCCWMA assists in controlling noxious weed through chemical and biological control, education, and early detection rapid response methods.  

The LCUWC strives to implement cooperative restoration projects that will have multiple benefits to the resource and the landowner, projects range from juniper control to bank stabilization to passage and screening efforts and much more.  

The objective of the tour was to show case volunteer efforts that both private landowners and public agencies are implementing to have a positive impact on the local resource. 

The LCCWMA and the LCUWC found this tour as the perfect opportunity to inform the community of all the hard work that landowners and agencies have been putting out over the past several years to make the Warner Basin a better place.   

Tour participants met at 8:30 a.m. at the Safeway parking lot and departed to the field to see the first project on the tour, an aspen stand restoration project implemented by Collins Timber Company.  

This project was implemented in 2009 by Collins Timber Company Forester Travis Erickson.  The project involved removing encroaching conifer from an aspen stand that was showing signs of stress.  

Removing the conifer opens up the area and allows for more sunlight and water and nutrient availability to the aspen trees. 

Next, the caravan headed to Honey Creek, where the group looked at the three-phase passage and screening project the Taylor Ranch and the LCUWC has been working on for the past five years.  

The project involves installing three fish screens on the landowner’s irrigation diversions to eliminate entrapment into the canals.   

In addition, the project addressed passage concerns associated with pulling water.  John and Theresa Taylor of the Taylor Ranch explained the project to the group.  

At the same location, the group looked at a 5,000-acre cooperative sage steppe habitat improvement project that was completed between 2008 and 2010 on BLM, Taylor Ranch, and Fitzgerald Ranch.  

The objective of the project was to improve sage grouse habitat and over all watershed health by removing post-settlement juniper trees.  James Price with the BLM, Anna Kerr with the LCUMW, and John and Theresa Taylor explained the project to the group.  

The next stop on the tour was the Warner Valley Wetlands to see a project that ODA and BLM has been working on cooperatively.  The Warner Valley has been plagued with perennial pepperweed for the past ten to fifteen years.  

The valley waters move from the south starting in Adel and end at the Warner Valley Wetlands.  Due to this water movement the Warner Valley Wetlands have been a trap for all of the weed seeds in the valley.  

The Warner Valley Wetlands are an area of critical concern since it is a wetland surrounded by the high desert, making the area a very diverse habitat.  Due to this valuable habitat the BLM has been funding a large weed control project in the wetlands for about the last seven years.  

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has been managing the project and has been seeing good results for what limited herbicides they have to work with at this time.   

This year the LCCWMA, Oregon Department of State Lands, BLM, LX Ranch, and Crump Ranch are cooperating to spray over 1,000 acres around the South end of Crump Lake.   

By controlling the perennial pepperweed at Crump Lake and the southern portion of the Warner Valley will prevent seeds from settling in the Warner Valley Wetlands.  

From lunch the group had one more stop to make, the Crump Ranch.  At the Crump Ranch the group got to see a large Russian knapweed control project.  The Crump Ranch embarked on an integrated weed management program starting in the fall of 2009.  

Since then the Crump Ranch has sprayed 460 acres of Russian Knapweed, perennial pepperweed, and hoary cress.  At that stop Craig Foster with ODFW also talked to the group about the Mule Deer Initiate Plan that is taking place in the Warner unit.  The plan will address habitat issues that are negatively impacting mule populations in the area.   

Lake County

Posted on July 28, 2010 at 10:30 am in

Modoc National Forest and Lake Railway

protect threatened species

 

 

A combined group of weed and wilderness trail crews worked on a stretch of railway to ensure fire safety while protecting a threatened species of vegetation.

 

In 2009, a Modoc National Forest botany crew found several new occurrences of a federally threatened plant species, Slender Orcutt Grass, within the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way. 

This section of railroad is currently under lease and management of Lake Railway, out of Lakeview,  and the site of these rare plants were in an area that the railroad planned to use manual and chemical treatments to remove all vegetation adjacent to their tracks so as to comply with their required fire safety regulations.

To protect these plants while ensuring the fire safety of this right-of-way, Forest Botanist Judy Perkins negotiated a participatory agreement with Lake Railway, in conjunction with California Department of Fish & Game and US Fish and Wildlife Service, to perform manual vegetation and noxious weed control within the railroad right-of-way to meet both objectives.  

The work was completed recently with three days of work by a combined weed and wilderness trail crew from the Modoc National Forest, and two additional days of work by the weed crew and the Modoc Wildlife Refuge Youth Conservation Crew which is comprised of Alturas high school students.  

Through a collaborative effort and a significant amount of perspiration this potential problem area turned into a successful, low cost, educational venture for all concerned, while protecting a threatened plant species and ensuring that no wildland fires will be started by a passing train in this area.

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