Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
June 15, 2017
By Pat Edwards

Burning season has ended for now in rural Lane County. I’m not sure our neighbors have appreciated some of the smoke generated by our burn piles of wood waste from all the fallen trees and limbs that came down during the ice storm this winter and the removal of some trees that were sitting too close to the house, but it’s something that needed to be done. Thanks to our son Rob and grandson Kev who cut up the firewood, Jim and I were able to clean up a whole lot of what was left these last couple of weeks. Trudging up and down the hill in front of our house, dragging large limbs to the burn pile wasn’t the easiest thing in the world for either of us, but it felt good to get the big job done.

Doing a large, labor-intensive job such as this at our age brings out a lot of sweat, bumps, scrapes, scratches, bruises and amplifies our never-ending aches and pains, but when it’s done, it feels so rewarding. I’m learning that the secret is to do it in shorter increments of time than we used to, rest, and do some more. It’s so tempting to hire or ask someone else to do it, but for me, personally, the accomplishment of doing it ourselves is worth it. Now, once the remaining firewood from the fallen trees is stacked for pickup, we can tackle the jungle grass that needs to be tamed and mowed.

I checked with the Lorane Community Association and apparently the plans for the Lorane Growers Market will be to locate it at the Lorane Deli again this year. Terry Johnson Morris is redoing the produce table and says that it will be set up soon for those who want to offer garden starts and plants. Watch the bulletin board for an announcement and I’ll try to keep you posted here.

The sophomore class of Crow High School is sponsoring a fundraiser on June 22, 23, and 24, and are hoping to get some parent and student volunteers to help. The Lane County Sheep Gathering will be held those days and will pay the class $1,250 to help lay down shavings and straw and to provide overnight security in the barns from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. at night. They will need 2 or 3 adults and 6 or 7 students to stay in the barns each night to catch any loose sheep and make sure that the sheep are safe and secure. They need volunteers to sign up ASAP. The Crow High School Volleyball team has done this for the past several years and I’ve heard that it’s a lot of fun, and you can always catch up on your sleep the next day.

Notes have been sent out and more information is on the Lorane and Crow Facebook pages. To volunteer, please contact organizer Paula Christine Bloom or leave a message for her at the high school office at 541-935-2227.

A Little Bit of Lorane History: (quoted from History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington – 1889)

“George Ozment was among the first to volunteer his services to suppress the Indian outbreak in 1855, and participated in the savage fight at Hungry Hill and at the big bend of Cow Creek…

…“After been mustered out of the service, he returned to the Siuslaw and took up a Donation Claim. In 1868, he made a visit to his old home in North Carolina, and persuading three of his brothers to make their home on this coast, conducted their train of wagons to Oregon. For some fifteen years he was engaged in the sheep business on his farm of two thousand acres near Cartwright, Lane County, Oregon. While these liberally provide for himself, he is equally liberal-minded to others, giving especial attention and care to public schools, and contributing largely to churches and all public enterprises. He is a man of wide influence, and an eminently useful citizen.”

George Ozment grazed 1,200 head of sheep and cultivated 150 acres of grain on the land. He never married, he died on April 17, 1899, and is buried in the Lorane Grange Cemetery. (From Sawdust and Cider; 1987; 2006)