Fly Geyser

The first time I saw a picture of Fly Geyser in the Black Rock Desert I was absolutely spellbound. I couldn’t believe it was real. That was about 20 years ago. Since then I have spoke to many people that were lucky enough to see it before the owners of Fly Ranch fenced it off. There are stories of asking ‘some guy in some bar in Gerlach, he might get you in', Rick and I even considered doing that but when I read that Burning Man had purchased the property I thought the dream was dead. NOT true! Burning Man is allowing Friends of Black Rock High Rock to give tours in small groups of 18-20! We bought (donation) tickets just as fast as my little fingers could fly! Get it… FLY.
                        

On the day of our tour Rick and I decided to take the back way through Wendel. It’s almost all (well maintained) gravel road but WATCH OUT FOR TRAINS! You’ll cross tracks a couple of times with no gates or lights, these trains are flat hauling and there have been accidents. Wendel road takes less than 2 hours to get to Gerlach, GPS said the highway would take close to 3 1/2. Plus it was GORgeous! Wild burro, antelope and those skies…unbelievable.

Once we arrived we were given some history of Fly Ranch/Geyser, Burning Man and FBRHR and what their hopes for the future are. Then off to the ranch. At the fence line you could see the geyser in the distance. It brought tears to my eyes, I had waited 20 years. The day was rainy and cloudy but it was still perfect to me. On the walking tour FBRHR ask that you not bring cameras or phones, just be present in the moment, don’t worry they’ll give you plenty of time at the end. Hot springs fill huge ponds everywhere, smaller geysers and tufa dot the landscape and when you get the main attraction you can get as close as you like! There is even a platform! Rick took fabulous shots and I’m happy to report all the colors are real. Now I’ve just gotta see it on a clear day too!


I’ve already bought more tickets for June in hopes of blue skies. I highly recommend this, the longer I live here the more I love the high desert! Here is the website if you’re interested in the tour https://blackrockdesert.ticketleap.com/fly-ranch-nature-walks-2018/

LoCaL Dads~

A few weeks ago a bunch of local Dads let their daughters shine at the Ties and Tiaras Father Daughter dance put on by our Susanville Police Explorers. Isn’t that just like dads? Always willing to sit back and let the rest of the family take the spotlight.


Susanville Police Officer Terra Avilla moved here from Reno 5 years ago. She noticed we didn’t have any such event and thought it would be a great fundraiser for the Explorers. Since it was the first year they chose a small venue, the Senior Center, hoping to sell 50 tickets. And they did. In the first day!


Terra said she pictured the little girls dancing in the middle of the room and the dads on the sidelines. But these dads showed up, dressed up, bought corsages, hula hooped, danced and most even took their little dates to dinner first.

                
The Explorers are a great bunch of kids learning all about law enforcement and our local dads set a strong example at this event. They plan on holding a Mother Son dance in the Fall and Father Daughter will definitely be back in the Spring! I urge you to go view the videos on the Explorers Facebook page, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face!

              




Some of the pictures are a little blurry but the joy expressed is crystal clear. Happy Father’s Day!


Photos taken from Susanville Police Explorers Post Facebook page and Jackie Johnston photography.

Recycle!

I wouldn’t touch a controversial subject with a 10 foot pole, much like I wouldn’t want to dig through everyone’s trash. Pole or no pole. This is exactly what the good folks at C&S Waste have been forced to do. Recently the rules on recycle have changed and the stickers on our blue bins are no longer correct. C&S has somewhere around 6000 bins to re-sticker. Can you imagine? BUT you can easily take a look at their website or Facebook page to see all the new info! Plus on Facebook they have videos and quizzes to help you stay in compliance.
                        

One change is that only type 1 and 2 plastic containers are eligible. I took a look at some items here at the market to see if we were helping you stay ‘green’. I am very happy to report that all of our new Fresh Cut items in Produce are in recyclable containers. Then I moved to Deli/Bakery, turns out a whole lot of our packaging is a 1 or 2! YAY! So when you’re done having your SuPeR healthy snack (or gotta have treat) just rinse it out and toss it in the blue bin. BAM. You are helping.
                          

Now about the crew at C&S. One day I didn’t get my trash to the curb, I spotted the truck on a side road and hoped maybe they hadn’t done my street. Evidently they saw me running down the drive with both cans behind and came back down my road just to do my pick up. Nice customer service. And don’t get me started about the dump. it’s maybe weird but I love going to the dump. There is something cathartic about dumping my green waste or large items. Everything has a specific place. As everything should :). Plus the scale is always run by friendly people we know.
                                         

Kristin Volberg commented about recycling "it’s our job to care for our planet.” A job we can all be proud of. 

Here is something you can do that will absolutely help out our local crew and keep our landfill right here at home smaller!


Thank you C&S Waste for helping to keep us all green!

Tommy Tucker Cave

There is a great road bike ride along the Skedaddle Mountains out to the Nevada state line. Years ago riding along the range Jim Chapman pointed out the Tommy Tucker cave. This came back to me when I was looking for a Memorial Day subject to write about. Tommy Tucker was a Maidu, as a young man he was gifted in music and athletics, he also excelled in his studies. He enlisted for service in World War I and was killed in action in France. He was the first Susanville resident to die in WWI. I still have no idea what his connection was with the cave that is named for him. if anyone out there knows give me a call 257-5136, I’ll do a follow up.


I asked LoCaL Historian, Tim Purdy, how to get there. Our bookkeeper and my new best climbing buddy, Heather, lives out that way so she agreed to be my guide. Trust me when I tell you this IS a climb and not for anyone who’s afraid of heights. Though we saw the trail from the road we totally missed it on the way up and made our way up the rock draw. When we reached the area where we thought the cave should be we found the trail. Sure, now we find it.
                      

Guess what? There were 2 people there. And not just anybody but an Archaeologist from BLM, Marilla Martin and an Archaeologist that specializes in rock conservation, Jannie Loubser. The pictograph at the entrance to the cave had been vandalized with spray paint, which we had heard about BUT they had just finished the removal and restoration. THANK YOU to everyone involved in this project. *These caves are sacred to the local Native American tribes, vandalizing them is no different than vandalizing a church.
                       

We were so lucky (blessed) to see the pictograph with these archaeologists. Jannie Loubser showed us the pictograph on his phone using an app that enhances the image. According to BLM “Native American people used pigment derived from minerals to paint the pictographs onto the cave walls within the last 500 years. They are the only known pictographs in the region where petroglyphs, images pecked into rock surfaces, are the more common form of Native American rock art." What an amazing experience.
                        

It’s up to us to protect these historical sites for future generations. Please be mindful of their delicate nature.
                                  

Thank you to Tommy Tucker and all for past and present service to our Country on this Memorial Day!

SuPeRhero Fun!

Transitional Kindergarden Teacher Maria Mankins comes in frequently in the morning. Kind and friendly, always quick with a smile and a greeting. One day I noticed her buying lunch for the high school kid in line behind her, just a pay it forward thing. I absolutely love that. So it wasn’t surprising to me at all to see that she participated in the last Superhero fun run to benefit child abuse victims through CASA. She is a LoCaL Superhero for sure!


We certainly have a lot of heroes in our town and many of them volunteer with CASA. CASA is a Lassen Family Services program that provides children who are victims of abuse a court appointed advocate. These are people from our community who go through a training program, commit show up in court as an advocate and in addition spend at least 8 hours a month with a child in need of CASA’s services. One volunteer even took the child chosen for them to swim lessons CASA paid for in our brand new pool! They really go above and beyond. The Superhero Fun Run honors those deserving volunteers and helps raise always needed funds. What a SuPeR fun way to help!


         

So grab your cape, don a mask and give us your best SuPeRHeRO pose! Who knows, maybe you even have what it takes to be one of these INCREDIBLE volunteer advocates!

Moms

Our store staff is very much like a family. In that family we have been honored to have some of the finest ‘Moms’ anywhere. Women who watched out for us, guided us and cared for others. A few that spring to mind from early days are:

Nancy Madigan, always looking out for others before herself.
Carla Reddin, small in stature but HUGE in character, teaching was her specialty.
Carol Heil, quick with a joke whenever we needed it most.


Some (by no means all) of today's ‘Moms’ we count on:

Debbie Oschner~organized and caring. A woman you can count on.
Hope Browning~ making sure her crew has everything they need to be successful including making sure they eat and stay hydrated during busy days. Hope has been known to deliver soup to co-workers when they were home sick.
Kailie Shoemaker~ a nurturer through and through. Accepts others as they are and loves them.
Sherry Perry~ puts her head down and works to make sure no one ever has to pick up slack in the Bakery.
Toni Iba~ kind and giving, if a fellow IGAer doesn’t have a place to go on a Holiday they will find a seat at Toni’s table.
Jessica Eid~ capable and caring. This is the woman to get to call if we need just about anything done.


Recently Rick reminded me of a certain Mom that used to work for us several years ago, Kim Hay, and how giving she has always been. One day a little boy in the neighborhood came in, as he frequently did, he would ride his bike to the store and shop for his mom. After going through Kim’s check stand he left but a couple of minutes later he was back and very upset. Someone stole his bike. In the days following Kim took it upon herself to start a collection among the employees and the next time he came in she presented him with a brand new bike.


Lots of women are out there Mom-ing so hard, we honor and thank all of you! Happy Mother’s Day!

Tamale Casserole without the guilt~

Confession. I still crave the food of the 70s. All those calorie laden casseroles, so much cheese, cream, butter, even lard. Yum. Don’t judge. And these old recipes were not about convenience, they were a lot of work. I don’t eat that way now, darn it. Plus who wants to spends even more time in the kitchen? Not me. And I like to cook.


Fortunately you can now find updates on old favorites easily. Take classic Tamale Pie, dicing, simmering, cooking the corn meal until smooth, then baking, probably 1 1/2 hours all together. I have 1 hour tops on a weeknight. I've found versions that use cornbread mix, and chicken, lighter and faster. YAY. Sounds good. Right? Probably half the calories of the original too! Cooking Light had my top version but I still added a couple of tweaks ~


1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
15 oz Del Monte can cream corn
4.5 oz Ortega green chiles
1 cup Tillamook Mexican 4 cheese shred
1 egg white
1/3 cup fat free milk
10 oz enchilada sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne ( I like it kinda spicy, you can dial this back if you don’t )
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
2 of Hope’s most FABulous baked chicken breasts, deboned, skinned and shredded.
3 sliced green onions
Optional, fat free sour cream and John’s FrEsH house made Pico de Gallo which has quite a cult following!


Oven 400*
In a medium bowl combine cornbread mix, corn, egg, chiles, milk, 1/2 cup cheese, spices. Mix well. Spray a 13x9 pan with Pam for baking. Pour mix in pan. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven, poke holes all over cornbread, pour enchilada sauce over, top with chicken, cheese and onions. Return to oven for 15 minutes or until completely set.


Serve with pico and sour cream. Rick tops his with Chipotle Tabasco, it adds a nice smokiness.




Have a HaPpY, Healthy, Hometown Cinco de Mayo!

Team Uni-Crohns

Thanksgiving of 2014 was terrifying. Our youngest granddaughter, Nikki, was exhausted and seemed like she had a bad virus, by Christmas she could barely get off the couch. Food was scary for her, it caused so much pain in her belly. She was taken to doctors and on occasion emergency rooms. As we watched her condition deteriorate and doctors ran test after test all we could do was hope. Hope it would just pass or that help was right around the corner. Truly terrifying. Especially for our kids.


Come January, I could not believe how thin and weak this usually vivacious, active, athletic 8 (yes, only 8) year old had become. You could see all her little ribs. Nik now had a Gastroenterologist, Dr Peterson, and he scheduled a colonoscopy and endoscopy. After the tests he showed all of us how her large intestine was riddled with ulcers. She was diagnosed with Crohns disease. I didn’t even understand what that was at the time but it was clear our daughter, Cyndi, did.


Dr Peterson placed Nikki in the hospital that day. Our family made sure someone was in the room with her 24/7, usually right in the bed with her snuggling. Recovery has been a long road. Nik says it was about 6 months before she started feeling good again. Every 6 weeks she checks into the hospital for several hours to get an infusion. Thankfully it works. But what we really need is a cure.


I believe a cure is on the horizon and thanks to all our LoCaL Hometown Heroes for the support you always give us as we fight! Our Team Uni-Crohns will once walk to raise funds and awareness for digestive diseases led by our hero Nik! You have raised over $700 at this writing!! Thank you!!!! xoxox


We hope you will all continue to fight with us!
Here is our Team Uni-Crohns link if you'd like to join, share or donate!
http://online.ccfa.org/site/TR/TakeSteps/Chapter-NorthernCalifornia?team_id=202514&pg=team&fr_id=7421

Winners!!!

Winner, winner Chicken Dinner! Or whatever Mike Trumbull wants to buy with his prize of free groceries for 10 weeks! His wife took the call and told Jessica “bless your heart” through some happy tears!
Ken Benner couldn’t believe he won the Webber Grill!
Scott and Toni Merrill are ready for some outdoor fun with their new Yeti!
Heath Chaffin took home the colorful and cool Monster helmet!
Connie Thompson will be high desert surfing on her new iPad!
PLUS SO MANY grocery give aways; bread, milk, eggs, Halo oranges and ice cream!! However, you know who the biggest winner was? Us of course! The support we received from our community, including our customers, friends, family, vendors, suppliers, Lassen County Times, the Chamber and all the local dignitaries made this Grand Opening the best ever! Thank you all so much.
Special Susanville Super thanks to all that sponsored this event~


C&S Wholesale
Foster Farms Dairy
Flowers Bakery
Bimbo Bakery
NuCal Eggs
General Produce
Frozen Gourmet


Your prizes created such energy and excitement!


Hometown Proud thanks to all for our Susanville SUPERmarket Grand Opening!!