It was with great relief when I drove up to striking Teamsters at the front of Oak Harbor Freight that the picketers pretty much ignored me when I brought the cameras out. I don’t look forward to showing up at these public showings because generally the participants see the cameras and try to make their strike look as good as they can. I’ve been to some strikes where the picketers were sitting around when I drove by but when I appeared with cameras on neck, they immediately began walking in a line.

At these times, I usually drive away and come back later or shoot photographs from the cover of my car.

I feel like I am there to show our readers what it truly is like on the picket line - I don’t want to be used by them to publicize their cause.

The best experience I have had at a strike was in Quincy recently when picketers continued to sit in their chairs, cook food on the barbecue, and watch t.v. using a generator. They had been on strike a long time and had set up a small campsite outside the gates to the business.

So I was happy this time too when my cameras didn’t change this scene.

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When shopping, see what can be purchased at stores like Grocery Outlet, Prospectors, or one of the Dollar Stores. You might also be surprised at what good buys can be found at Goodwill and the Salvation Army Store. In view of the number of people I know who have never been in those stores , I wonder if the problem is one of simple ignorance of what those places offer, or whether it’s not wanting to be seen shopping in a discount or liquidation store. Pride not only ‘goeth before a fall’ but costs you more at the store.

The Dollar Stores seem to be gaining acceptance, as the last time I visited one, it was crowded with shoppers. As with shopping anywhere, you are wise to know your prices and to read the labels, as the item may contain ingredients not acceptable to you. Off-limits to me are ‘partially hydrogenated’, ‘high fructose’, ‘artificial anything’, or a list of ingredients longer than one or two lines.

Sharing is also possible when shopping at Costco, or at Food Pavilion. Because buying at Costco usually entails buying in large quantities, sharing purchases can be helpful to you and to a friend or neighbor. Food Pavilion has great buys on produce, and sometimes on meat, if you buy ten pounds or more. While I can seldom find a use for ten pounds of anything at one time, and have no way to store that much anyway, I find that sharing is the answer.  Sometimes the bulk price is so good that I can buy ten pounds, keep half, give half to a friend, family member, or to the Community Cupboard, and still save money over the price of buying by the single pound.

Now that fruit and vegetable season is here, think about preserving and freezing. The internet is a gold mine of information on doing this. Also, the three counties in our general area, Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan, have numerous booklets for a nominal cost. You can call the general offices for the order forms. You can also call food specialist Margaret Viebrock (509-745-8531) with questions. If you are new to canning, jam and jelly making, or freezing, get together with a friend. Here, too, purchasing large amounts of fruits and vegetables is usually less expensive than buying small amounts. You share the task, double the enjoyment, and end up saving.

And should the price of oil go down and the economy right itself, you will already have been a winner, with new friends and new abilities to be more independent and self reliant. It all begins with “Let’s all get together, try to help one another right now.”

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For those of you who don’t know, the Wenatchee World is a family owned newspaper.

The Woods family has kept this ship afloat for more than 100 years while providing excellent community journalism and becoming a community pillar in the process.

Today Wenatchee World Chairman of the Board, former publisher and possibly the person with the sharpest memory and most knowledge about the history of North Central Washington on the planet, Wilfred Woods, celebrated a birthday. Calling him a community institution would not be a stretch. That’s Wilf sitting at the head of the table in the photo above chatting with some World retirees during his party.

Earlier this afternoon a large group of World employees got together to sing “Happy Birthday” to Wilf and have some cake while the Chairman shared some stories about the early days of the Wenatchee World. One of the stories Wilf shared was about his first job here at The World.

Wilfred’s first job at the World was as a fly swatter. Apparently, back in the 1930s the flies were so pesky and annoying in the offices of The World that Wilfred was paid to swat the flies in the office. Talk about having worked a job as just about every position at the paper. Well, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

He said his first real job at the World was as a printer. He was paid $12 a week to work as a printing apprentice, which was a “gopher job” as he described it.

I won’t share Wilf’s age (but if you see him feel free to ask, I’m sure he will gladly share that information), but I do want to wish a happy birthday to a community institution from Applesauce’s little spot in the blogosphere. So happy birthday Wilf!

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I’ve had a single sweet potato sitting in my root veggie basket for about 3 weeks now. I hadn’t really been thinking about it until I glanced over yesterday and was reminded of a wire story I read earlier in the day about making a kugel from sweet potatoes as opposed to regular potatoes.

So, knowing the ingredients in my fridge, I was happy to be able to make my own version. I grated the single sweet potato and added it to a mixture of about 1/3 cup sour cream, an egg, salt, pepper and about 1 tablespoon melted butter. Then I grated some Parmesan cheese, about 1/3 cup, and mixed it in. I spooned the batter into individual pie pans and topped with a generous serving of more grated Parmesan cheese. Into a preheated 350 degree oven they went. About 30 minutes later they were done, bubbly and browned on top.

My little personal serving really hit the spot. And I have one more sitting in the fridge, waiting to be eaten.

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Sunday was racking day at Rick’s Wine Rancho. Not my favorite way to spend a sunny weekend day, but it’s an essential part of making good wine. Especially so for me and other amateurs who age their wine in glass carboys rather than barrels that breathe somewhat. Racking is a process of transferring the fully fermented but aging wine from one container to another. It’s necessary to give the wine a little air and to get it off the yeast and other sediment that has settled to the bottom of the container. Usually this is done at least twice during the first year. At this time of year, the second racking is also a time to make room in the cellar for the new wine soon to come.

I have about 30 gallons of various red wines aging in six carboys from last year’s harvest. It’s pretty simple to siphon the wine from the full container into an empty one. It brings great pleasure to see the dark red wine gush through the siphon hose and swirl in the clean carboy. My cellar fills with the pungent aromas of lush blackberries, leather and oak. I’m careful to keep the siphon hose above the layer of yeast and oak chips at the bottom of the carboy as the last of the wine fills the new container. Less exciting is the march up and down the stairs as I bring the empty carboys and cleanse them of the sticky sediment and then sterilize them with a rinse of potassium metabisulfite.

Each wine gets tasted to make sure it’s aging well and to judge whether another round of oak chips is needed to soften the flavors. I decide to forego any additional oak until I’m ready to do more individual tastings. I’ve had problems with over-oaking in the past and would rather err on the side of too little rather than too much in the future. The cabernet tastes especially deep and full. The co-fermented cab-merlot is lighter but seems nicely balanced. The syrah is nice and fruity. I top each carboy from bottles of my 2006 wine and then seal them back up with sterile caps. By late winter, they’ll be ready for bottling. About a year from now, they should be ready to drink.

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The federal government now urges all children to get an annual flu shot.  That means, according to a story on Web MD, an online health site, 85 percent of the U.S. population, or 260 million Americans, are now supposed to get the immunization every year.  I report the reasons in a Wenatchee World story today.  Now, as a parent, I have to decide whether I’ll be heading to our local clinic to get my son a shot.  He’s 13 years old. (more…)

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Saturday afternoon and evening I attended two events supporting the Chelan-Douglas Democrats  at which Governor Christine Gregoire was present. Knowing that someone from the Wenatchee World would be present and reporting on the evening event, I went to www.wenatcheeworld.com the first thing this morning to see what had been said. I was not happy with what I read, beginning with the headline.

First: “Governor ventures into Rossi land”? How loaded is that title?  Christine Gregoire did not ’venture’ into Chelan County. She stepped firmly forward to meet the over 500 cheering people who came to listen as she spoke of her policies and of her concern for us all should we here in Washington be subject to the same sort of Republican rule which has decimated Wall Street.

And who says this is REPUBLICAN Rossi’s land?  Rossi’s trick of trying to fool the public into thinking he is something other than a Republican by calling himself GOP is pathetic. Does he think we are so dumb as to fall for that? GOP…Grand Old Party… is a synonym for REPUBLICAN. Of course this area has many Republicans, but it also has many independents, and many of both leanings are ’seeing the light’ and are turning away from the disastrous national Republican policies of the last eight years.

Also, this was supposed to be a news report about a meeting of Democrats, yet it turned into a recount of one citizen’s gripes and a display of Rossi’s half-truths and fabrications about Gregoire. Nothing was said about the events of the evening.

I guess I have a lot to learn about the world of reporting. It was my understanding that a good article tries to present facts without the author’s showing a bias. In this article of 773 words, the last 234 words, plus some 80 words in the middle, give big space to supporters of Rossi without equal comments by supporters of Gregoire.

I call that advertising, not reporting.

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Recently, with a little time on my hands I decided to explore the practicality of CNG as an alternative to gasoline.  Turns out I am impressed.  The limitation is that a retro-fit will not work for all cars on the road because of fuel tank requirements.   The good news is that the sooner we get started the sooner we can send a message to the rest of the world that we are not the same United States of yesteryear.  Many makes and models can handle an affordable retro fit of the engine and if the build of the specific automobile is strong enough to support the required tank.

A very short term downside is that it may take a few years to get the economies of scale down to where a lot of the real benefit is going to be realized by most of us.  If you live in an area that is served by a natural gas connection and have a few thousand dollars ($3,500.⁰⁰) to invest in a home fueling connection you could really save some money.  Here are some quick figures that I discovered in my quest for information.

The general fill at a CNG fueling station will provide a range of approximately 250 miles.  In equivalent terms, they used a large metropolitan area to compare prices.  In this Northeastern Metro area gas prices were at about $3.60/gallon when the article was researched.  The CNG fill at a regular fueling stop worked out to about $3.00/gallon; a savings of $.60 per gallon.  The better story was that for those who could afford the $3,500.00 for the home fueling connection into their natural gas line would pay at that point in time approximately $1.40/gallon; a savings over gasoline of approximately $2.20/gallon.

The other interesting benefit of the home fueling setup was that with an overnight refueling that system could pack more fuel into the tank than you could in a few minutes at a commercial site.  This would give you an increased benefit in terms of the car’s range with a full tank.  At this time only one automobile manufacturer, Honda U.S.A., produces a CNG compatible automobile for the U.S. market.  The Honda Civic GX is costly, around $25,000 per unit and was tested at around 32 mpg fuel economy.  However, as production picks up across the board, the price will decline as increased economies of scale drive the prices lower.  With savings that amounts to between $.60 and $2.20 per gallon the recovery costs could come even more quickly.

The great news is that in large metropolitan areas we have a chance to get up to speed quickly and begin our journey to keep those valuable petro dollars at home.  With the increased consumption of CNG the available supplies will increase geometrically as the large energy companies have the additional dollars to explore domestically and bring to the market the quantities demanded.  The other upside component is that the OPEC countries will need to cut supply and that never seems to work.  None of those countries is willing to reduce their dollar exports that significantly.  In that respect the price of a barrel of oil should then begin a very precipitous drop in a relatively short time.  If Congress could muster some initiative and provide some prudent tax incentives we could begin to experience the beginning of the revolution sooner rather than later.  In our state we don’t have Senators who are recognized for either their leadership nor their initiative.  This could slow the process initially.  Hopefully, the talkers will sit down and let the doers take charge of such an initiative to get us off the line quickly.

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 We currently have County Commissioners who make allowances for housing development on property grades making it dangerous for snowplows or emergency vehicles to service. Could it be that increased tax revenue is driving decisions rather than safety or our future landscape? 

Our County Commissioners didn’t appear to have any interest in making allowances for the development of a replacement for the 9^thStreet Trailer park. Could it be that the lack of tax revenue from trailer parks and the lack of political influence from the residents affected their decision?  

The current County Commissioners saw no need to establish regulations for vacation home rentals which allow large numbers of people to rent homes within residential zones in the county.   

The lack of action from the County Commissioners results in situations like the one I live next to. We have lived in our home on E. Leavenworth Road for 25 years. Several years ago our neighbors opened two vacation home rentals. Those two homes when fully occupied allow up to 32 people to be in residence.  

The septic system may be legal for the number of bedrooms but doesn’t function safely for 32 people. We have had sewage effluent surfacing in our garden, and odor definitely increases when the two homes are fully occupied. The State only regulates motels if they have more than three units. Three units, potentially housing eight people are regulated. Vacation home rentals housing potentially 32 people in two homes are not regulated.  

County Commissioners and their decisions do have impacts on our lives in Chelan County. I intend to cast my vote for Chuck Largent on November 4. I urge you to do likewise.

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“Eagle Eye” — the nation’s #1 movie — glides on the tired Hollywood myth that we’re all under constant, inescapable surveillance by governments, hackers, villains, and 7-Eleven clerks. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, one of those creepy wall-mounted video cameras will film you doing it.

Nevermind that I can think of several dozen public places right here in Wenatchee where you could take off your pants and not get caught. (And when I say you, I don’t mean me.)

Myth aside, this stylish, fast-paced flick (Spielberg is executive producer) plays on our techno-paranoia that gizmos are getting the upper hand to control our lives. Cell phones are the main culprits, but so are iPods, digital watches, electronic reader boards, and just about anything with chips for brains.

Our hero Jerry Shaw, played ably if dimly by Shia LaBeouf, is one of those brilliant slackers waiting for Fate to open the door that’ll give him direction — even if that direction is over a cliff, off a skyscraper, into a sewer hole, under a train … well, you get the picture. He’s told to make these leaps of faith — or else — at the urging of an unknown female who keeps calling, calling, calling to make crazy threats and give him crazier commands.

All this works great when he and his gal pal (Michelle Monaghan) dash cross-country just ahead — and I mean like seconds ahead — of utter disaster. Everything’s crashing and toppling and blowing up, and it’s all good for viewers content to sit back and soak up the mayhem.

But all good things come to an end, and that happens in “Eagle Eye” when movie-makers try to explain just what the heck is going on. I won’t spoil the ending, but know that you’ll be completely underwhelmed by an outcome we’ve seen a dozen times before. (B-)

Details: “Eagle Eye” is playing now at the Liberty Cinema in Wenatchee, at the Mirage Theater in Omak, and the Fairchild Cinema in Moses Lake.  

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