Author: paedwards

Sweet Lorane Community News, May 11, 2023

May 11, 2023Newspaper Columns, 1 Comment
The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
May 11, 2023
By Pat Edwards
It’s amazing how swiftly Mother Nature changes her mind as far as our seasons go—in Oregon, at least. A few weeks ago, having had freezing temps and snowflakes in April, spring seemed a long ways off. Weeds and grass had not even begun to grow much. Now, all of a sudden, lawns are being mowed weekly and the weeds in the flower beds are trying to play “catch-up.” Now, it’s my turn to play the same game. I’ve ordered bark mulch to be delivered and blown over a large area that we need covered by the house. We normally just go in to town with Jim’s pickup and have it filled with bark mulch one or two times, bring it home and spread it ourselves, but the fact that Jim no longer drives, we no longer have his pickup, and my back will no longer allow me to spread as much as I need to have done this year, we decided to bear the extra expense.
This week, the sun’s been out and I’ve been able to head outside in shirt sleeves to work in short increments to get the flower beds under control. I work for 15 or 20 minutes at a time and then sit in our yard swing for another short period to rest my back before heading out again. At the same time, I’m allowing our kitten, Gigette (yes, I know that’s not the normal spelling), to play outside in the sunshine as she has been longing to do while, at the same time, teaching her that the birds at the bird feeders are off-limits. I have the garden hose and nozzle turned on and ready whenever she ventures over to visit the birds. A quick spurt in that direction changes her mind in a hurry and she runs off to explore the bushes and shrubs around the house. When it’s time for me to go back in the house, she comes in, too.
Several years ago, I built petunia boxes for myself and a daughter. I made them out of scrap wood pallets and the construction is nothing I want to brag about… in fact, it’s fortunate that when the petunias are in full bloom, very little of the wood can be seen. Jim helped me drill 1.5″ holes all along the sides and ends of each box and each spring I plant both boxes by shoving the roots through the holes into the planting mix inside the box starting at the bottom and working my way up where I plant the whole top layer.

The petunia box when it is first planted (2016)

This year, with freezing temperatures still fairly recent, I hesitated in planting the petunias yet, but yesterday I brought three flats home and planted them last night anyway. I’m trying an experiment this time and I’m anxious to see how it turns out. Among the colors of petunias available where I shop I chose flats of red, white and dark purple. I decided to plant them in my box like an American flag… a row of red on the bottom, white above it; another row of red with three dark purple ones at the left on the third row up; a row of white and purple

Petunia box in full bloom, (2019)

above that, and continuing the pattern in a blanket on the top layer. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that Mother Nature doesn’t throw us a curve-ball in the form of a few more freezing nights as I’m anxious to see what it looks like when the small plants begin to cover the outside and top of the box.

The weather forecast is showing that the temps should get up into the 90s soon, so I’m trying to get as much done before then as I can. I’m not complaining… at least not yet. Other parts of the country have borne a much greater degree of Mother Nature’s wrath this winter… snow, ice, floods and deadly tornados. We, in the Pacific Northwest, have been fortunate and I’m glad that we live where we do.
Happy Spring, all! It really has arrived.

Sweet Lorane Community News, May 4, 2023

May 4, 2023Newspaper Columns 4 Comments

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
May 4, 2023
By Pat Edwards

I have been struggling lately to get my weekly column out on time. Our days since Jim’s retirement have been filled with scheduled doctors’ appointments, haircuts, pedicures—you know… preventative maintenance for not only our home and car, but for our bodies as well—and errands to town for groceries and just the general “busy-ness” of living.

For the past several weeks, however, we’ve added regular twice-a-week visits to the Campbell Community Center in Eugene where Jim takes part in a wonderful fitness class called “Fight Back with Neuromuscular Exercise.” Many of his group of 6-8 people, like Jim, are dealing with balance and coordination issues and their caring and patient instructor, Eric Beins, takes them through strength- and balance-building exercises each Tuesday and Thursday. Since mid-April, when Jim signed up for the class, our whole family has seen how much improvement he’s showing. Jim loves the class and enjoys the social interaction he has with Eric and the others who attend with him. I am made welcome there as Jim’s “assistant.” It’s my job to make sure Jim’s walker is available when needed for the standing exercises and to move it when it tends to get in the way during the sitting segments. I’m also the official “ball chaser” when loose balls that the class uses, escape. The class takes place in a beautiful new room recently added in the renovation of the Campbell Center. It has floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the Willamette River as it flows past at Skinner’s Butte Park. We all received a bonus for the past few weeks when we began seeing the beautiful pair of bald eagles who built a nest this spring a short ways from the center, soaring slowing outside the windows.

In the last couple of weeks, Jim has added twice-weekly physical therapy sessions to his routine, as well. He chose to schedule them on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 2-hours before his fitness classes, to save trips to town. The PT workouts are more strenuous, using 2-pound ankle weights to his leg lifts, and he knows he has had a workout when he leaves after each session, but he is determined to gain strength and balance before our next vacation scheduled for the end of June.

Each day, twice daily, when he is not in his classes, he works diligently on the homework exercises that he has been assigned by his physical therapist. We even bought some 2-pound ankle weights for him to use. I have no doubt that by the time we head off for our vacation in June, we will be able to enjoy it as much as we did the one we took last fall.

I am so proud of this man who has been so active all of his life as a rancher and store owner. He used to love to run 8-miles a day, several days a week, into his 60s and even completed the Portland Marathon one year. Two hip replacements, a pelvis, broken in 3 places after a fall, and two surgeries that fused vertebrae in his back brought an end to all of that, however. He’s had to walk with a cane and now, a walker, for the past 4 years. I ordered him a new walker recently because his old one was adorned with duct tape “repairs”—a trademark of Jim’s from his ranching days.

 

We will be celebrating our 59th wedding anniversary at the end of this month—on May 30. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1958 and played on the winning basketball team that year. I met him after he returned from Germany where he spent a 3-year hitch in service to the U.S. Army at the time the Berlin Wall was being built. After he returned, I was asked to keep score for his AAU basketball team in Springfield, and we were married in 1964 in the gymnasium of St. Alice Catholic Church while the new church was being built. As it turned out, basketball played a big part in our lives over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary, Jim Edwards… my husband… my Superman. Through this week’s column, I want to express my love and deep respect for you a bit early because we never know what our days will be like down the road for either of us.

I believe that we all tend to take our blessings for granted as we wade through the intricacies of daily living. We need to express our love and appreciation as often as possible when we feel them, especially in the winters of our lives. Life may be difficult at times, but if you look for them, there are also blessings.

Sweet Lorane Community News, April 27, 2023

April 27, 2023Newspaper Columns, 2 Comments

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
April 27, 2023
By Pat Edwards

Last Thursday night, the Lorane Grange hosted a presentation by Lane County Sheriff Cliff Harrold to familiarize our community with the upcoming Lane County Jail levy that will be on the May 16, 2023, ballot. Jim and I went to the meeting and were pleased to see a large number of residents in attendance including West Lane County Commissioner, Ryan Ceniga.

I explained in an earlier column what the levy entails, but I feel it is vital to repeat it now that the ballots have been sent out. The proposed levy would “fund a minimum of 255 jail beds for local offenders, as well as 8 detention and 8 treatment beds for youth offenders, including associated treatment services. Currently, the jail has 317 beds for local offenders, 62 more than the minimum required by the levy.”

If the levy is passed, it will be a renewal, meaning the current tax rate will not increase. Residents won’t have to pay any more than they are already paying in taxes. The tax rate for this levy is $0.55 per $1,000 of assessed value. It is the same rate that was approved by the voters in 2013. At that time, funding had been cut so drastically by voters that dozens of dangerous convicted criminals and those awaiting trial were being released because of a shortage of beds at the jail. This levy, which is up for renewal, is the same one that was passed in 2013, and in our opinion, it is vitally needed. We urge everyone to give the Lane County Sheriff’s Department the support that it needs to help keep crime in check for those of us in unincorporated areas of the county who do not have local police departments and depend on them.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jim and I have lived, worked and raised our family in the small, unincorporated community of Lorane for over 57 years. It is “home” to us in so many ways. We owned the Lorane Family Store for almost 45 years until we sold it a year ago, so I feel that I can speak of the pros and cons of living in a rural setting with the knowledge gained through our experiences.

We are surrounded by Mother Nature and have experienced all of her moods, up close and personal, both good and bad. We’ve been able to help build “community” with our neighbors that allows us to share our common concerns and goals through the friendships we’ve made in the organizations we’ve formed. Over the years, we’ve learned to work with and get to know people—our neighbors—from all walks of life. At the store, we welcomed them all—the hard-working members of our community who frequently came in with grease-smudged faces, dusty work jeans and corked boots; the farmers who came in from the hayfields with sweat and dirt-streaked faces to get a cold drink from the coolers or a quick snack. Then there were the families coming in to buy groceries with their food stamps—the same ones who struggled to pay their rent each month. And, of course, we had our resident locals who fought their battles with addiction who brought in cans and bottles to enable them to buy a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer. We also welcomed the wealthy members of our community who fit right in with those less fortunate. One local business owner, in particular, frequently came in dressed in bib overalls to look through our hardware offerings to find something for one of his do-it-yourself projects.

Unfortunately, over the years, many of us has had to witness and/or deal with crime of all kinds—theft, assault, illegal drugs, vandalism, dangerous drivers on our roads, etc. We have set up neighborhood watch groups and kept an eye on suspicious activities and reported them to the Lane County Sheriff’s office. As one of the many unincorporated communities in Lane County, we have no local police force. In the first 30-or-so years we had the store, it was broken into several times to steal beer and wine; it was vandalized, and one time, someone rammed a large truck into the store’s front door and the ATM machine that was sitting along the front wall was hauled off. During those years, deputies from the Lane County Sheriff’s office came right out to investigate and many of the culprits caught. That, however, is no longer true.

Funding has been cut so drastically for Public Safety through Lane County, that currently, only 3.5 deputies are available to respond to crime reports in our unincorporated areas ranging from coastal communities to Oakridge. When a crime takes place, if there is not an imminent danger to human life, no deputies will arrive to investigate. The victim is required to call or go into the Sheriff’s office to file a report of their complaint. No on-scene fingerprints are taken; no interviews of witnesses can be done because of the shortage of available deputies to do these jobs.

As a consequence, more and more residents are buying their own guns and setting up security systems, putting up locked gates on their driveways that keep out not only thieves, but neighbors, as well. We are suspicious of and report to each other unfamiliar cars in the area to beware of—many of whom are merely people pulling off the road to talk on their cell phones.

We need solutions that will make us feel safer and allow the Lane County Sheriff’s Department to once again be proactive in helping us to prevent and solve crimes in the area. We need to make Public Safety a priority by voting for the levies that will allow us to live our lives with less fear in the places we have chosen to live and raise our families.

It’s worth the additional tax dollars we must pay for such a vital service.