After Saturday's fire, Jackie Plog, a new resident to Imnaha, stands in her burnt yard holding a "Fire Sale" sign made for her by Linda Banks.

Right when I think there is no news to write about, my kind friends and neighbors do something interesting.

Ken Stein, who has been in the news quite often this summer and has already used up more than a few of his nine lives, went to the aid of his neighbor, Jackie Plog. Jackie is a newcomer and she lives six or seven miles downriver, across the road from Ron Boedigheimer. She was having electrical problems last Saturday, and Ken, being our resident Good Samaritan, went to help her out. He flipped a breaker in the electrical box and the 220 exploded, catching the woodpile on fire and then the grass. Ken raced home and got his fire engine and returned with sirens blowing full blast. All the neighbors turned out in short order with shovels and began to attack the fire, which was sweeping through the grass.

Jackie said it was the most beautiful thing she ever saw in her life; all her neighbors standing shoulder to shoulder sweating and shoveling and working to put the fire out. Jackie moved here from the coast where there are more people but fewer neighbors. Fortunately the ground had been dozed in front of her cabin for a pad where her new house will soon be built, and it stopped the fire from reaching her cabin. Jackie is the owner of two tankers with the capacity to hold 5,000 gallons of water each sitting in her yard but ironically they were both empty. Fortunately the fire was stopped a few feet from the trucks which are for sale.

I should have said all the neighbors showed up but one. Ron Boedigheimer, who lives the closest to Jackie, was completely oblivious, (like most men over 40, he’s deafer than a doorpost) and didn’t hear the sirens or commotion going on next door. He blithely got into his rig and started out for town when he noticed things were not exactly right and stopped to see what was going on. The party was over by then and Ron will probably never hear the last of it!

The neighbors, who still have their hearing faculties (or at least wives that do) and appeared on the scene were Ken and Pat Stein, Dave and Tina Piland, Larry Willis, Fred and Anna May Warnock, Sandy Vidan, Doug Witherrite, Jerry and Myrna Witherrite, Doug Carriger, Jim Fields, James Kirkpatrick, Gary Stubblefield and his friend. Forest Service and State Forestry both showed up to take care of the last embers. Jackie thanks you one and all. Ken says the only thing he learned from the experience is, don’t help the neighbors! He’s an addicted neighbor-helper so we don’t have to worry about that one!

We haven’t had a big fire this summer but we seem to be making up for it with a few small ones. Monday, two electrical wires touched and caught a pole on fire by Brown, which put the electricity out for a couple of hours downriver. Leon Lee and Ken Stein both promptly showed up at the scene with their fire trucks and took care of the situation. You couldn’t ask for a better fire department than ours! Ron, did you hear the sirens blowing this time?

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ray Wilson will be selling his leather works at the Wallowa Valley County Market at the Courthouse Square in Enterprise on August 31st. He makes beautiful saddles, chaps and other things.

Ron Boedigheimer has wonderful canning tomatoes for sale. His number is 577-3281.

Correction: My apologies to Cass Botts, the maker of the beautiful quilt. She is from Joseph, not Enterprise. The problem is, we can’t tell the difference. When we leave the canyon, it’s to go to TOWN, which means anywhere in the valley.

LIBRARY

Our local librarian, Donna Wilson, tells me the new library hours are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2:15 to 4:50 p.m. She says she has lots of new adult fiction including Jonathan Kellerman, “Flesh and Blood”; Stuart Harrison, “The Snow Falcon”; Lucia St. Clair Robson, “Ghost Warrior”; Elizabeth Lowell, Running Scared; and much more, including a cookbook called “Delicious Ways To Control Diabetes.”

TO AND FRO

Our dear friends and former residents, Brian and Tanyia Baquette were here for a visit with Ray and Donna Wilson and Tanyia’s family. Brian and Tanyia now live in Joseph Plains out of Cottonwood, Idaho on a wonderful ranch.

Shari, BoDean and B.J. Warnock, Randi and Billie Guthrie and visitors, Nettie Granger of Pennsylvania and her sister, Ginger of Kansas made a school clothes-buying trip to Tri-Cities. B.J., a typical male type, had his clothes picked out in 15 minutes and was ready to go home while, Billi and BoDean took a couple of days to pick out one skirt. Then Thursday, Shari and Randi went over to Prineville to help their Grandma and Grandpa, Ray and Rowena Barton, who have been having some medical problems. Bill Moore has been over there for a couple of weeks helping them.

Bonnie Mark’s brother and wife, Dick and Hazel Bondurant of Hermiston, arrived Friday afternoon at Bonnie and Donnie’s and spent the weekend. Dick finished the remodeling of Bonnie’s kitchen. She now has new flooring, cupboards and counters. The rest of us have kitchens that could use a little work so we are going to take turns adopting Dick. Everyone needs a brother like that!

Jay Jones of Columbia City and his friend, Barry Woolstenhulme of St. Helens arrived at Don and Bonnie Marks last weekend to hunt bear. Patty Jones and son, Nathan, also of Columbia City also came to spend a week. So far they have snagged one bear.

Nancy Johnson came home for a week from her job in La Grande working the fires. She’s back at NOIDC for an undetermined time.

Grant Warnock left last Wednesday to spend a few days fishing with Barb’s brothers, nephews and friends on the coast. He returned Saturday with no fish but he had a good time. Barb Warnock went to visit her sis, Dot Hinton and husband Tom in Milton-Freewater. She also visited another sister, Bev Hall in Hermiston.

LOCAL GOSSIP

I had a Pampered Chef party last Tuesday. (That has to be an oxymoron. All the Chefs I know are the wives and the Pampered ones are the husbands!) Sherry Chambers of Wallowa, the dealer in this area, came down and entertained us with her fabulous goods. The only problem is that there are too many neat things in the catalog!

I went to the hospital in Enterprise to meet her on her lunch hour and met the nicest people. Donna Butterfield introduced me to her son and daughter-in-law and I met a couple from Troy, Richard and Renee Challis who were there with Richard’s remarkable mother, Esther Waterhouse.

Esther lives in the nursing home part of the hospital and says the care there is wonderful. That’s what happens in small towns; you have wonderful neighbors and you don’t end up on CNN in a story about nursing home abuse or some such. Richard says he and his mother have something in common; his mom is 97 and Richard’s IQ is 97. I told Richard we have a lot of empty houses in the canyon and he sounds like he would fit right in down here! (Not because his I.Q. is right in there with his temperature, but because he is funny!)

There seems to be a rash of broken shoulders in the canyon. Joe Wells broke his riding in the Redneck Rodeo out at Enterprise a couple of weeks ago. Pat Stein stopped at the store the other night, and tripped and fell and broke her shoulder. She told the doctor that people usually fall going out of the tavern, not going in! Just for the record, Pat doesn’t drink and our store is only 5% tavern, and 95% store, community center, coffee house, and general meeting place.

For the first time in his life, Ken Stein has loaded a dishwasher and put clothes in the dryer. Congrats, Ken! It doesn’t mean he is useless around the house though. He cooks wonderful prime ribs and other things!

The tomatoes have been slow to ripen at Ron Boedigheimer’s place but all of a sudden he has a bunch. He and Dave and Tina Piland picked 1,650 pounds in one picking last weekend. His peaches are starting to ripen and it won’t be long and he will have corn.

THIS AND THAT

I ran into a friend of mine at the Safeway Pharmacy who was going in for one of those preferred methods of torture for people over 50; y’all know what I’m talking about, the colonoscopy or whatever it’s called. Anyway, things have improved; you don’t have to do those Fleet enemas now (is it O.K. to say enema in public?); instead you get to drink something.

I remember when my dearly beloved had to have one of those a few years ago up at Seattle. We came out to the waiting room and he said to me loud and clear, “I have to have a Fleet enema at 8:00 in the morning.” I noticed everyone was looking at us strangely and I wondered why he wanted to talk about such a personal thing in front of a room full of people. When we got back to the motel room, he brought up the subject again. “Be sure to remind me to drink this thing at eight in the morning!” he says. I looked at him tenderly. “You know,” I said, “I hate to be the one to break this to you, dear, but you don’t get to drink this thing!”

How on earth does a person get past 50 and not know what an enema is? After my dearly beloved reads the paper this week, I may get to find out what divorce is!

And that’s the news from Imnaha Canyon, where if you hear some yelling, I may be learning I can’t say “enema” in public!