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Show Cube Page A5 iime9-3nut- f Thursday, December 12, 2002 pendent Many Trails by Ad r it' a Ta lur F. be toe theme here. She found it at one ot toe craft fairs. I toougnt d done a pretty toorougn inventory of the goods at both fairs, but missed these. Will use them for soap? Probably not But theytt loo pretty mce up on toe bathroom shelf. have collected naiivity many years no sets, to the point where cuuun t possitxy put them all Out Bat it s tun to fet them revolve through the display phase, and then stole jvay tor a while. This collection started with a nativity that has a music bo adorned with angeis paying instruments. Bought somewhere aiounJ 967 or 1968 at the old Miller s Super Market it has graced the hreplace every year since then, until now The music bo even survived intact through three sons and a daughter but did not survive the grandsons It is now reined Our son Jed has also picked up the love of nativity sets, and his latest acquisition features snowmen m toe holy tamily wise men and angels Whimsy has a place every piace Family members and friends have brouyht me nativity sets, ornaments and decorations tor years now. so that toe t'ee features quite a tew that don t go into the official count of how many there are And Im not recounting just now added a charming little set from Peru this year, so some of toe others won t get out ot their boes The evening of the Electric Light Parade, Sena told me she had left a gift to open before Christ mas tn the car Yes. it was another nativity set Think whimsy again thought it was made of wax (I do have one made of salt1), but she said it s or angels" has got to soap. Bathe with kings Foe I I I I aft we always enjoy getting out toe subject big nativity set that goes into the office window in December This set was made by residents ot toe then Utah State Training School when Jed was a resident there. Now the school has a new name 1 On toe Euphemisms creep in. This set is too big tor most homes, or particularly tor my home, so it s good to have a place where it can be put on display and shared. aft interesting to note that a nativity set includes some pretty specific players. It can be as few as Mary, Joseph and toe Baby it real crowd. It could even Jesus, or can be a Keillor s three wise men who include Garrison from Wisdom come the Department of an Eastern University. But for a nativity scene to be called by the French word creche, it must include the manger or crib in which toe baby was laid. Thus, a depiction with Mary holding toe infant is not technically a creche Picky, picky. Its a I I bit of trivia, but Idle Thoughts from Mt. Waas k by Ollie Harris The Wolf Panel Community Comments by Sam Taylor by ttie Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency Board to a site tor a new storage tank on toe flanks of Johnson s Up On-ToThe decision has been delayed far too long, due to protests by nine valley residents, including the City of Moab Moab City s concern is valid It needs to protect its existing water sources, and has retained an engineering firm to study protection issues. The latest concern has delayed the transfer decision, and surrounds a request that a new monitoring well be drilled between the City's water wells near the Moab golf course and the Water District's new wells a mile and a half away to see what the impact might be on the level of the aquifer. That's all well and good, but unless those new wells are being pumped, how can an impact be measured? The Spanish Valley District is now on dangerous ground It cannot provide water of sufficient pressure for fire protection in the upper part of the valley It may have to place a moratorium on p more water hookups come spring if the It issue is not resolved operates with only one storage tank, while the City of Moab has three. That one tank is twenty years old. Should some problem occur there, the residents of all of Spanish Valley might be left dry Tanks dont last forever They must be maintained At the present time, the District couldnt even drain, clean, inspect and repaint the tank without cutting service to its customers. That impact could be disastrous to a whole lot of valley residents who thought creation of a culinary water system in the valley would end their water woes forever. The District must be allowed to build its new. higher elevation tank, filled with water from wells y A the past couple of years, but to do it to be allowed to transfer water rights so, needs it already owns from other sources. As stated, the City of Moabs concerns are valid. If the new wells, when m operation, do impact the water sources, those concerns will have to Citys be mitigated But unless they are in operation, there is no way to know what that impact might be Most of the concerns voiced from protesters are simply no growth" concerns. Lets be honest about it. It reminds me of an old comment heard years ago. Im going to become an environmentalist just as soon as finish my summer cabin." One of the most vocal critics of water system expansion who attends almost every meeting of the District board, happens to live on an estate near the Moab golf course, where he irrigates his fields, not for livestock, but for the benefit of wildlife in the area. He even has a big duck pond. I dont know whether the water for the fields or pond come from springs, wells, or from the Spanish Valley system. It doesn't matter much. Its all comwe ing from the aquifer. Down on our dont irrigate much any more, except tor the lawn. That doesn't seem to bother the herds of deer which still seem to get plenty of fun from our it The Utah Division ot Water Rights should waste no time in transferring existing water rights owned has drilled to I I mini-far- now-fallo- fields. Let's get on with it. We could no more stop growth in Spanish Valley by keeping it dry, as we could stop increasing tourism by lying down in the road at Crescent Junction to stop the flow of time. have been very helpful and even cheerful. I kind of look forward to doing business there. I suspect that it can be hard to find good people for a job handling other peoples refuse and people who are going to stick with the job. I dont know the names of the guys who work there, but theyve all been there for quite a while. Good job. Thanks. Submitted by a shy contributor ) ISSN (UPS) Entered as S&cond class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Act Second class postage paid at Moab, Utah 84532. Official City and County Newspaper. Published each Thursday at: 35 East Center Street, Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 address 435-259-75- Member of March 3, 1897. to: The Times or FAX -- Independent, P.O. Box 129, Moab, UT 84532 435-259-77- ATIONAl NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION and PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Adrien F. Taylor, Editor Sadie Warner, Assistant Editor UTAH V 1538-183- 8 address: editormoabtlmes.com of four-wheele- four-wheel- straight and true. I have no way of knowing who shot at the petroglyph panel. It does no good to speculate. There are some things I can surmise, though. The shooter was disrespectful, perhaps none too bright. He may have been suffering from poor anger control, or poor impulse control, or just plain boredom. Who knows? One thing I do know is that Ive got to come to terms with this thing of always being embarrassed or feeling guilty about the behavior of others. It is pointless, and a bit surprising, too, because I really am a sort of person. I dont feel that of my way doing things is necessarily any better than anyone else's. But, I do know stupidity when I see it, and it still bothers me. live-an- d let-liv- e High Country News Writers on the Range by Linda M. Ilasselstrom friend from Nevada, an environmentalist, wrote me recently to say she's been reading the minutes of the Nevada Wildlife Commission, which is using M i ls to kill coyotes in cases of livestock preA (Elje (Himes '3htbcpmfrmt Ftostmaster: Send changes For example. I am a husband and father. Any I hear of a husband abusing his wife or of a father abusing his children, I feel a 6ense of guilt about it. I have occupied positions of public trust. Whenever I hear of someone in such a position of trust who violates that trust, who misleads, betrays or manipulates those who trust him, here comes that r. feeling of embarrassment again. I ride's Id like to think that I am responsible about tracks where it, too, but whenever 1 see they ought not be, 1 feel guilty about it. I've heard the story of the highway construction w orker w ho used a piece of heavy equipment to de time stroy the name of a pioneer that was carved into the rock where the highway crosses not far from the Wolf Panel. His behavior doesn't embarrass me, probably because I am not a part of the group of men who operate heavy equipment. So, w hy do 1 feel this uneasiness about the bullet holes in the petroglyph panel? You see. Im a gunner, a shooter. It is part of w ho 1 arm I have always gleaned pleasure from firing my rifles, pistols and shotguns. 1 pride myself in using good judgment. I go a bit overboard with issues of gun safety. 1 do not go hunting or shooting with people who behave unsafely. 1 don't even know anyone w ho would commit vandalism with a firearm. Still, when anyone behaves in an antisocial way with a gun, it embarrasses me. I was fumbling for words, trying to explain my uneasiness to Lem and Kay while we were at the Wolf Panel. Lem said, Well, in the first place, we wouldn't do it, and in the second, wed hit what we were aiming at." Then he pointed out that the shooter was a very poor shot. It is true. The bullet marks are scattered all over the place. Some bullets actually hit individual petroglyphs, but none were Some lessons about coyotes stick in your mind Accolades and Admonishment with regard to issues in our community 6309-2000- d part. the new monitoring well. Transfer those water rights. Build that new higher elevation tank. The continued wrangling is not going to address real problems which could cave in on us at any Brick Bats and Bouquets r. pock-marke- Drill Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year. As you all know, we publish on Wednesday, but carry a Thursday dateline Thus the issue carrying greetings ads will be next week, December 19, and the issue the following week will be dated December 26. We ask for your help in getting material for next week's paper to us by Friday, December 13 if possible. home-owne- Ie traffic. Note to our Readers and Advertisers: Yesterday, I dropped off a load of used lumber at the landfill transfer station. In the past, Ive unloaded old appliances, construction leftovers and just plain garbage. Ive done this both as part of my job and as a Every time, the gentlemen who work at the transfer station was recently taken to sec the Wolf Panel with its exquisite petroghphs It is a panel 1 had never seen before, e en though 1 once hiked w lthin a stone's throw of it in the canyon dow nstream 1 love southbeen here for eastern Utah for this very reason. most of my life and there are many such treasures yet to be seen. In a little while Ill get my old map and add a squiggly red line delineating the route to the Wolf Panel My map is criss crossed with hundreds of miles of red lines showing w here Ive been. It is always fun to add another. There is something very disturbing to me about with bulthe Wolf Panel, though. It is let holes. Apparently, someone fired several times at those beautiful figures from across the canyon. I am not easily upset I've accumulated enough years and seen enough of lifes tragedies to have learned to roll w ith the punches. The thing about those bullet holes in the petruglyph panel is that 1 feel such a sense of embarrassment. I know it doesnt make any sense that I should feel embarrassed at someone elses behavior. It is the familiar sort of feeling 1 get when I hear of any aberrant behavior committed by someone from any group of which I am a I dation." The commission is now talking about whether to allow the cyanide guns in cases of game predation, otherwise known as doing what comes naturally, and Texas authorities are considering similar measures to kill coyotes. She asked what I thought of the idea. Thirty years ago, when I first heard about I asked a neighbor, a longtime South Dakota rancher, what the devices were and what he thought of them. The conversation stuck in my mind. It's really a cyanide-explosiv- e gun, he said, and the government used to set them to kill coyotes Matter of fact, and cats. Called them coyote-getterI read the other day theyre starting to use them again in Wyoming; sheepmen claim they can't get along without them. He Bnorted. Sheepmen always need some kind of help from the government. bis stubby Anyway, its a kind of cylinder" with a firthumb and forefinger formed a circle ing pin underneath that shoots cyanide into their mouth. They put the whole thing inside a piece of meat and w hen the coyote pulls up on the cylinder, see, it fires and the cyanide paralyzes the muscles of their throats so they cant breathe." He demonstrated by clutching his throat so hard he choked. They all said it was a great way to kill coyotes, because they dont suffer much. Like if you catch a foot in a trap, you can just chew it off and go on your way with three feet, meaner than hell and awful smart about traps. But they said the cyanide gun would kill them fast and without much pain. Guess they never bit on one themselves, though I read about some guy jerked one apart in Wyoming he was hunting and didn't know what it was and put up quite an interesting struggle before he finally died. Well, they found out that it'll kill coyotes all right, because a coyote is like a dog he puts his mouth straight over the cylinder and pulls straight back That firpa it. rivht down his throat. s, No good for bobcats and mountain lions, because cats don't bite like that, as you know if youve watched one eat for even a minute. They bite sideways. So theyd set these things out and the cats would come up and sort of chew bobcats and lions around on the meat. Of course, a cats pretty smart, and some of them went around jerking the cylinders out sideways. Pretty nervy cat. Cats got more guts than a dog, any day." He chuckled and spoke more softly. The last time I ever used a Coyote-gette- r and it will be the last one I ever let on my place was about five years ago. I had an old dog I wanted to get rid of, but since it was her pet" he gestured toward the kitchen where his wife was cleaning up after supper I didnt want to just go out and shoot it. So there was a dead porcupine down by the creek that I knew hed been visiting at night." He looked down. I was so damn smart." He ahook his head. I took a coyote-gette- r down there and set it. I thought he'd fire the thing and go off in the hills and die quick, like a decent mutt." The kitchen was quiet, and he lowered his voice almost to a whisper. "But the darn dog came back here in the middle of the night and came in that hole in the screen door I havent fixed yet and laid down right here on the porch. And he choked and groaned and howled and carried on. I dont know how he ever walked this far if he was that bad off. He rolled around and coughed and knocked stuff over. Finally I had to get up and come out and hit him over the head to finish him off. He sure punished me plenty for that. She wouldnt speak to me for a week, and I had to drag him over the hill and bury him anyway." So this is what I think about coyote-getterThey dont belong on the range. Every dog owner and hunter ought to protest the use of these explosive devices, whether in Nevada or any other West- ern state. Linda Hasselstrom it a contributor to Writer on the Range, a service of High Country Newt in Paonia, Colorado (hcn.org). She it a writer and rancher who commutes between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Hermosa, South Dakota. pool |