NC Media Watch

Cobalt Book Signing Update

Russ Steele

The books signing was a huge success, not in the number of books sold, but in the sources of new very valuable information on Cobalt and the Blackbird Mine. One visitor  drove a 150 miles to bring a suit case full of material he had saved from the Cobalt school house while it was being torn down. He also had a portfolio of about 50 color photos of the town site before it was destroyed, plus 8mm movies that had been converted to a digital format.  Wow!

We are delaying out trip one day to spend Friday in the Museum to digitize the pictures and copy the movie DVDs. This material will be posted to the Cobaltmemories blog in the coming months.  Other former Cobalt residence came by the Museum, some to buy more books and others just to chat, adding details to existing stories and telling some that I had never heard before. Others offered their photos collection. Powerful primary source information.

By any measure a huge success.

Road trip!

Russ Steele

Ellen and I left on a road trip this morning to Idaho for a book signing in Salmon Idaho, a visit with our new puppy Harper in Montana (still too young to bring home), then a quest for four elusive Idaho surface stations for Anthony Watts' surface station survey research project.  We will make a side trip to Vancouver Canada for a to visit with our youngest daughter's husband parents, then we will return home via Bend Oregon and Crater Lake.

I will be posting on our observations along the way, especially the hunt for the surface stations. Ellen and I really enjoy surface stations quests, moderns day photo treasure hunts.

My book, Cobalt: The Legacy of the Blackbird Mine is selling well in the region surrounding the town of Cobalt and the Blackbird Mine. An Idaho Historical Society Survey Team discovered the book and everyone on the five member team bought a copy. It is being sold at the Lemhi County Historical Society and Museum as a fund raising benefit, where the team was conducting a survey.    The book signing will be at the Museum on the 12th of August.  Pictures and details to follow as we progress on our trip.

FamCamp #5

Russ Steele

Our first family camping trip was over 40 years a go. Ellen and I build a camper into a Dodge Van and drove across the country with our first born who was only 9 months old. We were taking 30 days leave to explore the USA on the way to our next Air Force Assignment.  I was being transferred from Loring AFB, ME to Castle AFB CA. We built the camper's interior and our camp boxes using some Better Homes and Garden plans in the Air Force Base wood shop.  The camper is long gone, but we still have the camp boxes. After years of use they need a little TLC, which Ellen and I rendered in the weeks leading up to FamCamp #5. 

Table with camp boxes and ham radio.

After the three oldest daughters we married, we stopped taking family camping trips. We went camping in Yellowstone NP and Redfish Lake with our youngest daughter who was not yet in college. But, no communal gatherings of the whole family, son-in-laws, grandchildren, and dogs.  About five years ago, at a Christmas dinner the girls ask if we could have an annual family camping trip, they wanted to recreate the fun times we had when they were growing up. Ellen and I agreed, we had our RV and they had collected some tent camping gear over the years. Ellen and I had helped them build their own camp boxes, or gave them as gifts.

Our Tent

Lunch with Tom Under the Trees

Russ Steele

 The setting was a beautiful yard on Cement Hill under the shade trees. Somehow a beautiful yard on a cement hill is hard to fathom, that is until you visit Jo Ann Rebane’s beautiful yard.  What a lovely place to discuss the politics of the day.

 

The House and Yard

When we arrived there was a large table of sandwiches, fruit  and scrumptious brownies, with bottles of chilled water and green iced tea waiting for us.  Soon neighbors, friends and recognized tea party supporters started arriving, all of us looking forward to hearing our 4th District Representative, Tom McClintock, give us a first hand report from the circus in Washington.

The Food

While selecting our food, and enjoying the light lunch, we had an opportunity to ask Tom  questions and participate in one-on-one discussion of issues important to us all. He was most gracious, listening and then giving direct answers.  No “daisy talk” as George calls useless chatter devoid of content. This was an opportunity for access to first hand knowledge of the political process, and nobody wasted this opportunity on “daisy talk.”   More on Daisy Talk at Ruminations

The Conservation

On the top of the discussion was the  Cap and Trade Bill that just made it’s way through the House of Representatives. According to Tom, we are deciding our survival as a nation. Tom has an excellent grasp of history, and explained the impact that Smoot-Hawley had on delaying the recovery following the 1929 market crash. Smoot-Hawley levied import tariffs on 20,000 products coming from foreign countries, to make US make products more competitive in the US. Tom explained that Cap and Trade is really just a tax on all US products. A tax that makes them less competitive on global markets. All these new taxes in the middle of a recession, could cause the nation to sink into a depression.  Smoot-Hawley caused a depression, do we have another one just over the horizon?

The Details

Tom’s next subject was Healthcare. Unfortunately, my interest in the discussion caused a lapse in my note taking.  He thinks that we should give the same tax credits to employees that we are giving to those who employ workers, so they can buy an insurance plan that will meet their family needs. Interesting, no mention of how us retired folks will fair.

Tom noted that Europe is abandoning socialism, while the US, Iran and  Venezuela are moving toward adopting  socialism. This is leadership driven effort, as conservatism is growing in the nation. Time for the citizens to let their leaders know change is afoot.  American’s are sensing the growing danger and are becoming restless. Calls requesting a vote no on Cap and Trade crashed the House Switch Board.

 

George and Jo Ann in a Final Word With Tom

Tom pointed out that the nation should be learning from the “greening of California” . Once AB-32 was passed, companies started moving to Nevada, Arizona and Texas where they did not have to deal with the excessive carbon taxes and regulations. Since 2007, implementation of AB-32, California unemployment  has been growing faster than the national average, when in the past, California’s unemployment was lower than the national average. The rush of green jobs promised by California politicians never appeared, leaving thousands of Californians unemployed.

There were questions about healthcare, funding of czars,  why Mary Bono, a Republican voted for Cap and Trade ?  His assessment of Nancy Pelosi, and why we are allowing the darter fish to turn the Central Valley into a desert ? Do we really have to fill out all the private data on the Census forms ? Where do we stand on national defense with the new challenges from North Korea and Iran ?

I did not capture all the answers, except for the last one.  In Tom’s view, the Obama apology tour has given rogue nations the high sign, they have nothing to fear from the US.  Being a student of history, Tom recalled the events that set the stage for WWII, when Europe told Hitler he had nothing to fear from nations of friendly people. Tom’s fear is that Obama is sending the same message to Iran and North Korea, we are not going to be a obstacle to your ambitions.   

George, has more on the meeting with Tom and forty friends and neighbors on Rebane’s Ruminations.

 

The rewards of being a Dad.

Russ Steele

Jeff Ackerman wrote one hell of an ending to his Fathers Day Column that has been with me all day.

There is nothing more rewarding in life than looking across the table at a beautiful human being and knowing you had something to do with that.

Today I had a wonderful fathers day celebration and these four beautiful human beings, along with there mother, their husbands and the grand children that made it all possible. 

We had a party on the deck with lots of great conversations. The girls brought there favorite salads and appetizers. Ellen made a orzo salad and fixed chicken for the grill. The youngest made Dad a diabetic friendly lemon pie, one of his very favorite deserts. 

We had a family book signing and a lot of hugs and fathers day wishes before they all left for their homes in Roseville and San Francisco.  A Dad could not ask for much more! 

Will Nevada County be left out of the DTV revolution?

Russ Steele

Nevada County is at the center of the national conversion from analog to digital TV, with our cluster of video manufacturing companies. But, the question comes up, will Nevada County's citizens be able to take advantage of this emerging technology they are creating?

In the early 1950s we were living up on Banner, part of the Thomas Ranch, and from our house we could see Mount Diablo where the San Francisco TV antennas were located. We did not have a TV, but our next door neighbor had one. Howard climbed a tall pine tree and put an antenna at the very top, so his family could see two channels of black and white TV on a seven inch screen. Mrs Welch, Roberta, was my Dad's distant cousin and my two brothers and I were often invited to come and watch TV. Buffalo Bill and Howdy Doody was one of our favorite programs. The picture was not great, and wind and weather often caused more snow than picture.  When we finally got a TV at our house in the mid 50s the antenna went up in the top of a tall pine tree.  Until a few months ago, my aunt who lived has always lived next door got her TV signals from an antenna in a tall pine tree next to the house.  A couple of months ago she switched to satellite TV, digital TV did not work.

It is just not going to happen!

Russ Steele

In the early 90s, due to circumstances I will not go into now, I found my self sitting in an empty office at TRW Systems and Engineering Office just outside the gate at McClellan AFB, with no job. Well I had a desk and a paycheck, but no assigned responsibilities. On my desk was three blank sheets of paper, a fountain pen, and my Mac laptop, serial number 6046. I needed to come up with my next concept, my next job.

In my previous ten years at TRW I had helped create a systems and software development lab for TRW, an aerospace and automotive parts supplier company. Ninety engineers and support people were working on systems engineering and software development projects down the hall, some on concepts I had helped developed, to make effective software changes in combat systems when they are engaged in combat. Making sure a software glitch did not turn the pilot into a little greasy spot on the ground. No Microsoft blue screens allowed in combat. 

One of the projects the lab staff was working involved the FB-111, an aircraft I had flown in when in the USAF, and helped solve some of the problems with the aircraft's digital computers. But, that is another story for another time. I had recently read that the Ford Lincoln had more computing power than the FB-111, a operational strategic bomber. I had also been reading about intelligent vehicles that visionaries wanted to integrate with smart highways.

The lack of sunspots and remembering the winter of 54-55

Russ Steele

Sunspots Are Fewest Since 1954, but Significance Is Unclear, writes Kenneth Chang in the New York Times.

The Sun has been strangely unblemished this year. On more than 200 days so far this year, no sunspots were spotted. That makes the Sun blanker this year than in any year since 1954, when it was spotless for 241 days.

It was the winter of 1954-1955 that we got six feet of snow up on Banner Mountain over three nights. We got 30 inches the first night, and 24 the second night and about 18 the third night. My grandmother's little cottage were we were living only had 2x4 rafters and the roof was groaning with over four feet of snow by the second night. My two brothers and I were dispatched to shovel off the roof. An then the next night we got about 18 more inches of snow. When the sun came out on the forth day, we were without power and no way to get to Banner Lava Cap, except shove the long driveway. And, shovel we did for two days. We had water from the NID ditch and heat from the oil furnace, but no power for ten days. Once the road was shoveled Dad took the meat in our freezer to Grass Valley and rented a storage locker and brought home some more grain and hay pellets the rabbits and chickens. We used the snow banks to keep our milk cool.

As the sun remains quiet we will have to wait and see what the winter or 08-09 brings our way. We could have an early soaker this weekend, with 2-3 inches of rain predicted. It may be a really wet winter, but with the PDO shift to cool it some of that moisture could come as snow on Banner Mt. Stay Tuned.

Farmers Almanac: Cold winter for most of US

Russ Steele

When I was growing up in Nevada City as young boys my two brothers and I often visited the Thomas Ranch up on the south side of the Banner Ridge, where my Great Uncle Frank Thomas was living. Uncle Frank was a big user of the Farmers Almanac. When we went for walks in the woods, he would point to signs of climate change, wildflowers blooming early, animals collecting extra food, extra heavy crop of acorns, acorns dropping from the trees early, phases of the moon and his own temperature records which he kept in a school note book with a Number 2 pencil sharpened with his always handy pocket knife.

Uncle Frank was always quoting the Farmers Almanac, he would point with pride when it was right, and with distain when it was wrong, or it did not match up with his own observations.  Regardless, we loved to hear what the Farmer's had to say about the coming winter.  The latest version of the Almanac goes on sale this coming Tuesday and has some bad news for most of the US according to an Associated Press wire report in the Maine News.

Households worried about the high cost of keeping warm this winter will draw little comfort from the Farmers' Almanac, which predicts below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.

"Numb's the word," says the 192-year-old publication, which claims an accuracy rate of 80 to 85 percent for its forecasts that are prepared two years in advance.

The almanac's 2009 edition, which goes on sale Tuesday, says at least two-thirds of the country can expect colder than average temperatures, with only the Far West and Southeast in line for near-normal readings.

"This is going to be catastrophic for millions of people," said almanac editor Peter Geiger, noting that the frigid forecast combined with high prices for heating fuel is sure to compound problems households will face in keeping warm.

Where is all that much vaunted global warming when you need it?  Watch for a June 2009 killing frost in the Mid-West, a sure sign that a little ice age is on the way. No not in the Almanac, just one of my own sign posts of climate change, which was suggested by my friend George.  We came close this year with some killing frost in late May 2008.

Loading up and heading out again

Russ Steele

Since we arrived back in Nevada County on the 16th of July we have been preparing for our next trip, the Annual Family Camping trip to Lake Tahoe. For years we went camping almost every summer when our four girls were growing up. When they went off to college we included the boy friends in our camp outings.  About six years ago, during a family get together, the girls expressed a desire to return to family camping, and proposed an annual return to Sugar Pine Point, where we had a wonderful experience in the late 90s.

We did not go to Sugar Pin Point last year, due to Caitlin and Travis June wedding in Mendocino, so everyone is anticipating this return trip to Lake Tahoe. When we left on our cross county jaunt there were some strongly worded suggestions that we better return in time for the family camping trip to Sugar Pine Point at the end of July.

We have been busy preparing: cleaning the trailer, repairing the furnace. rehanging an exterior door that was about to fall off, building some more retractable shelves and doing general fix up.  Today we load the canoe, stock the refrigerator, and make our final clothing adjustments to match the weather, and fuel up the GMC and make the final adjustments for our family camping trip on Thursday.

Our trailer will be the anchor for several tent camp sites, and will be big attractor for the four grandkids, thus Grandma had to rig for kids on board. Since Sugar Pine Point is a dry camp, with no power, water or sewer we also had to do some reconfiguring, cooler chest, making sure the generator was loaded with extra gas, and there is lots of firewood on board the GMC, plus some extra guest chairs, plus our bikes. More stuff than we had on the cross country trip.   

While all this was going on, we made multiple trips to Roseville for family birthday celebrations. Way too many July birthdays, Christmas in July, Ellen's mom called it. With each birthday party the excitement grew more intense. We now have a complete hiking/biking/canoe schedule, with meals assigned and menus planned. Grandpa is looking forward to sitting under a tree and reading, and maybe doing a little blogging if the GMC-2500 hotspot is working, while baby sitting a daughters new puppy.  I will try to take some pictures to share.