Most people gathered at the Sawyers Bar Cemetery to say their final words to Tim Kissling thought that he might be riding Ol' Lady's wings to heaven.  Tim died where he lived, in the woods doing what most of us remember him best for, dealing in one way or another with wood.  At 49, we think he left us too soon, but tears and stories ran freely as friends brought his memory close.  His wife, Susan, taught school in Sawyers Bar a few years back, and there's gotta be a better way to see how her boy's have grown to men and the men grown older.

     Twin brother Tom is going to college in northern Iowa to get a master's degree in social work.  He plans to return to Siskiyou County.

     The recent loss of Bob and Jeanie McBroom Griggs' daughter, Shylo, has further rocked our lives.  The Scott Valley and Salmon River stand side by side easily in these moments of tragedy. I looked Marge George in the eye for the third time in two years and said, "We've got to stop meeting like this".  The last time had been to watch Shylo graduate last May, an emotional high point of  the ceremonies.  Life can bring such painful tests of our spirit and faith.  Our hearts go out to her large loving family.

     But, to our credit we've had a bunch of good news this fall and winter, too.

     There's John and Hedy Salter, married in Oakland with family and friends.  Kristy Cameron and Steve Gunther tied the knot on the South Fork of the Salmon.  Jason and Lacey O'Brien married out in Etna.

     Then there's the Preggers (as Richard Marley's mom, Miki would say)...  Adrienne and Will Harling are expecting sometime in March.  Dara and Toz Soto are expecting just about a month later.  Cathy Leavens and Pete Caffereta are awaiting their new addition later in the spring.  Woody Watson and Alicia Whitman are expecting their second 'bout the same time.  Not to be outdone, Margaret Lawson and Phillip Purcell are expecting twins.  I think their daughter, Karuna, would rather have a pony...  Oh, and did I mention, Kristina and George Pearligini are awaiting their second?  Busy community!
                              
                                              Adrienne, Kristina, Dara, Cathy and Margaret
                                                                                  Six out of seven.

     The way I hear it, Liz and Jody Pullen are spending their 25th anniversary in Guatemala, doing a two week intensive Spanish language course.  Makes sense for Liz who spends her time hanging around the hospital emergency room in Watsonville.  For Jody, I suspect, he just wants to  be able to ask locals where the best fishing is.

      In our prayers are Barb Bennett who's getting the upper hand on some health issues; Rachel George in her continuing battle with cancer.  

     Congrats to Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze ("can I buy a vowel, Bobo?), who remains cancer free and looking good.

     Karuna Greenberg  (Karuna the Elder) has been traveling and living on farms in Spain.  That's the good news.  The not as good news is that it's hard to understand your surgeon and nurses after you've had an emergency appendectomy.  She's doing well.  She'll stay in Europe for a while longer.

     Driving up river from the mouth of the Salmon one can't help notice the piles of cleared brush waiting to be burned on the up-road side.  The Karuk Tribe did the work.  A few residents  still remember the origin of the Offield Fire in '73 in this area, when the "new" bridge was being built.  The Orleans-Somes Bar Fire Safe Council has cleared over 300 acres to help protect private property between Dillon Creek and Aikens Creek.  

     I boated the South Fork of the Salmon just before Christmas and pretty much had to endure the smell of death along my whole run from Methodist to below Forks of Salmon.  The good news is that it was the smell of the aftermath of a big fall salmon run. Not getting exact numbers, but in the thousands.

     Speaking of the past-holiday season... Have you heard the one about Hans and his inlaws?  About how Hans and Chris' parents were stuck for 15 + hours on I-5, on Siskiyou Summit (along with a mess of other folk), in a blinding, white-out blizzard and how when they finally got turned around and headed home the next day, after a long night, they were greeted with too much snow on the Ti Bar Road to make it to their house and Chris had got the new 4X4 stuck at her end and and... Ask Hans, I think he's finally warmed up enough, anyway, he tells it better.

     Ya gotta be sad to see the "man in black", Johnny Cash walked that final line.  A line from a song of his... " and I can sing rock n' roll...  if I have to."   And look in obits to see why you should care that Roland LaPrise died.  

    When I was nine or ten I was playing tackle-football with my friends at our neighborhood park and in the middle of the game (I was one of the younger players) this big guy who we had all seen running around the park for sometime while we played, came up and asked if he could play.  We all just about died right there on the spot.   We knew who he was and when the legendary Elroy "Crazy- Legs" Hirsh, split end for the Los Angeles Rams, came up wanting to play football with a bunch of kids, we were in every young boy's fantasy; playing a game with your hero.  I must have come up to about mid thigh on him.  When I read that he'd died, I realized I was still in awe of the memory of that day.  Sports hero's were a tad straighter-laced in those days.

     Did you know that Stephen Hawking and Elvis Presley were born on the same day?  What a universe!  My usually reliable source on the North Fork informs me that it was also John Denver's B'day... go figure.

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