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Show Page 12 The Ogden Valley news Volume XV Issue XIII June 15, 2008 Calling All REAL Men and Patience Conquers Field Bindweed— Or why morning glory isn’t so glorious Restaurants: YCC Presents Annual use the concentrated form of Roundup as the By Karen Bastow REAL Men Can Cook Event already-diluted solutions aren’t strong enough Field bindweed is the correct and much to do much good. It’s important to protect more descriptive name for the invasive weed desirable plants growing close to the bindweed commonly called morning glory. There is when using an herbicide. Roundup can be nothing glorious about this creeping, inter- carefully applied with a small paintbrush to twining, perennial menace too often found in the leaves of bindweed so not to harm any lawns, gardens, and flowerbeds. Newcomers surrounding plants. If spraying an herbicide, to the west often wonder at the don’t do it on a breezy day or disgust typically shown when wind drift will occur carrying it the words “morning glory” are to other plants. Some gardenmentioned because they think ers will even let a season go by of the beautiful annual vine that without planting anything in a eastern gardeners actually cultibed in order to more aggresvate and grow on purpose. sively attack bindweed without The first step in controlling anything else being in the way. field bindweed is to understand Field bindweed can be Use of weed barrier cloth with how it grows. It has under- controlled with persistence. bark or mulch on the top will ground stems called rhizomes also deter the growth of bindweed. that can spread great distances underground. If the bindweed is growing in a lawn, a Shoots can grow from each node sending lit- broadleaf weed killer such as 2, 4-D can be erally hundreds of plants to the surface. The used for control. Also, developing a healthy roots of field bindweed can grow over 15 feet lawn will go far in choking out bindweed after deep making it impossible to pull or dig out. two or three years. Follow the directions on Even small fragments of the root can sprout the label when using any herbicide. and grow forming new plants. An even worse Field bindweed is on the state’s noxious scenario is that the seeds from the plant can lie weed list and legal action could be taken dormant in the soil for up to 50 years just wait- against someone who has it growing unconing to germinate. This is enough to give gar- trollably throughout their yard. But, wait a deners horrific nightmares for years to come. minute, that might be a good idea. Perhaps the But, all is not lost! There are ways to county weed board would need to come and control field bindweed if not completely elimi- gather all the “evidence” thus eliminating all nate it. To do so requires patience and time the bindweed. Someone, report me please! spent over two or three seasons attacking While we are on the topic of noxious weeds, the problem. In order to weaken the plant, a now is the time to also eliminate all dyer’s woad combination of herbicides can be used as well from the Valley before it goes to seed. It’s even as cultural practices such as pulling, hoeing, more invasive than field bindweed. or digging. The key is consistency until the It would be glorious not to deal with noxbattle is won. ious weeds at all; with patience and consisThe best time to use an herbicide is in the tency, this can become a reality. spring when the plant is vigorously growing If you have ideas to share, or know a neighbor and then again in the fall when the plant is whoNote: does, please contact Karen Bastow at 745-4127, taking up and storing energy in the root sys- or e-mail <gardenofliberty@yahoo.com> and those tem getting ready for winter. Roundup is the gardeners, ideas, and suggestions will be featured in herbicide most commonly used. It’s best to future articles. of anything else. SKAARUP cont. from page 11 Many years later, Ren’s brother-in-law, popping under part of the adobe wall that had George (Pegleg) Rollo, was on a drinking fallen in. They moved the adobe bricks and party in the canyon and made some startling there found the charred body of Skaarup. One statements when he began to get a little drunk. leg was burned off, and both hands, one at the He said, “I got rid of an old SOB that used to wrist and the other at the elbow. A hole was drink all the time. One time he burned our burned in his skull. If the wall hadn’t fallen haystack when he was drunk and we got even on his body, it would have been completely with him, my brother-in-law and me.” Kristie consumed. It was difficult to determine what Harrop Hill (daughter of Christine) heard him had happened, but family members felt that make the statement and questioned him as to there had been foul play. Ren Olsen who who it was, and he said, “It was that damn lived across the street acted suspicious. He Skaarup Wangsgaard, we got his money and didn’t come over to help, but stood and peeked burned his place and him with it.” The whole around his barn door. group at the party heard him and asked how Skaarup’s sister Christine Harrop was they did it. He said, “We poured coal oil all sure that Ren had killed her brother. . . She around inside and set it afire.” went to the places where Skaarup sold his A nephew, George Wangsgard remembered hay and found that they had given him the the funeral and said: “Uncle Skaarup’s funeral money. He had turned down all drinks the was held in the front room of Uncle Christian’s day he was in Ogden. She talked to Deputy house. Adam Petersen did the talking and he Peterson who went to Huntsville to check also sang a song. That was about the extent of it out. Suddenly Ren left town and didn’t his funeral. I don’t remember who gave the come back for three months. prayer. Adam may have also conducted the Skaarup’s brother Jim was also convinced funeral. There was only the immediate famthat he had been killed, because there was three ily there. They didn’t have a viewing of the hundred dollars in twenty dollar gold pieces body because it was all burned. He was just that couldn’t be found. They hunted his field, wrapped up in a blanket and put in a box for searched his well, scraped through the ashes. burial in the Huntsville cemetery. In the ashes his brother ”C.C” found some gold pieces, a twenty, a ten, and a five, but not trace Gentlemen, start your ovens! Your Community Connection (YCC) is looking for cooks and restaurants to participate in this year’s REAL Men Can Cook fundraiser. The annual REAL Men Can Cook will be held Friday, September 19, 2008 at historic Union Station in Ogden. All professional to novice cooks and restaurants are encouraged to help participate in this community-building event that helps promote positive male role models. Anyone interested in participating should contact Raquel Lee at 689-1706 or email rlee@yccogden.org to request an application form. 2nd AMENDMENT cont. from page 3 antor of the rights and liberties of citizens. All three purposes are grounded in a form of self-defense. The first deals with defending one’s self, one’s property, and one’s family against criminals. The second combined self-defense with the common defense against an external invasion by a foreign power. The third, also combined self-defense with the common defense, but against internal threats to liberty, including the Republic itself. The citizens might keep weapons not only to defend the government, but to defend themselves against the government if it were to ever become tyrannical or abusive of our rights to such an extent that the courts do not deliver justice when redress of grievances, by the citizenry, is made. The founders knew full well that where there is no justice, there is no liberty and liberty must then be reclaimed by force of arms; as so stated in the Declaration of Independence. If anything, the Founders of the American Republic placed an even greater emphasis on the importance of the right to have arms as a deterrent to tyranny. Thomas Paine wrote, “…arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well as property (The Writings of Thomas Paine 56).” Throughout the period leading up to the American Revolution, the aggrieved colonists were acutely aware of their rights as Englishmen. Much of the Declaration of Independence consists of a list of complaints about royal violations of those rights. And, while the American Constitution did not, as originally submitted, contain a Bill of Rights, its authors clearly assumed that American citizens enjoyed the traditional rights of Englishmen, including the right to have arms. In fact, partisans on both sides of this debate over adoption of the Bill of Rights assumed that with or without the Bill of Rights, Americans would retain their right to keep and bear arms. This assumption played a significant role in the Constitution’s ratification. The revolutionary experience had shown the need for professional armed forces, and experience under the Articles of Confederation had shown the need for a stronger and more effective national government; but the Constitution’s provision for a federal government with power to create a standing army raised serious apprehensions among the founders. James Madison himself considered the federal government’s threat to the states as remote. He did not consider the right to keep and bear arms as the first line of defense, as the federal government had very little power (my how this has changed!). He did however, clearly appreciate the right to keep arms as a deterrent effect. Utterly absent from the historical record, however, is any indication that these early “gun nuts” intended the right to keep and bear arms merely to protect recreational pursuits. Hunting was tremendously important in both England and America—to the prosperous for sport, to the poor for subsistence. As a young boy, living and growing up in Alaska, I would hunt and fish every fall with my father to help feed the family through the winter as my father was a construction worker and in the winter months he was out of work. Those who drafted the Second Amendment made no utterance of the right to keep and bear arms being based upon hunting or sport. The amendment found its place among the others first, to vouchsafe the other amendments and secondly, to secure a free state. Arms were obviously necessary for selfdefense in frontier America, where government-provided law enforcement did not exist. Arms were also useful to the common defense – such as a militia. But arms were absolutely vital to the defense of liberty itself. The founders knew all too well that liberty once lost, was regained only by the shedding of blood. They wished to avoid this. Alexander Hamilton wrote that “…if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens little, if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights, and those of their fellow citizens.” I have noted three purposes of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms; selfdefense, the common defense, and the defense of liberty. Obviously, circumstances have changed substantially since these justifications gave rise to the right’s formal recognition in the Constitution. Law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal level are charged with deterring crime and arresting its perpetrators. A permanent and professional federal military establishment, supplemented by state national guards, is responsible for the common defense. And more than two centuries after its inception, America’s federal government remains subject to popular control/law. The change in circumstances, however, has not changed the need for the right to bear arms. The original reasons for recognizing the right remain valid. If you still want to feel the warm breath of freedom on your neck…if you want to touch the pulse of liberty that beat within our founding fathers, you may do so through the majesty of the Second Amendment. To those who say the Second Amendment doesn’t mean what it says, remember, the entire Bill of Rights was a means of protecting the People from the state. Most of the thirteen States would not ratify the Constitution until the bill of Rights was added. We need the Second Amendment to vouchsafe all the others. |