In cooperation with a number of other organizations in the Coquille Valley area, the Coquille Valley Elks Lodge will be handing out some Christmas food baskets to needy families before Christmas. Food collected by the high school, middle school, and elementary school in Coquille, along with the high school in Myrtle Point, was picked up recently to be sorted and gotten ready to fill boxes. Each family will also receive a $15 gift certificate to purchase turkey, ham or food of their choice.

These pictures show Elk members loading food into the pickups at the Lincoln Elementary School, which had over 1200 pounds for us. This is a program that we do every year at this time, and we certainly appreciate the involvement we get from the schools.¤

Coquille High School held their winter blood drive on Monday December 14th.
Students in the National Honor Society organized the drive and worked with
the Red Cross staff on the day of the drive. The drive was a great success, with
a total of 41 units of blood collected. All of the donors were high school students.
As the Red Cross reminds us, giving blood saves lives.¤

by Lowell Thomas

The sidewalk planters in the core area are looking a bit sad after our recent cold snap. The pansies are beginning to come back, and a few of the geraniums may come back from their roots. Seiya Nishi says the ideal plants for surviving the cold would be primroses. However, the wholesale growers of the hybrid primroses that would do so well in our winters don’t have them available in late summer when we need them. A few years ago Seyia had some left over in his stock that had survived the summer in a very shady spot.

He put them in the planters that year, and they did great all winter. The past few years he hasn’t had any leftovers (Coquille residents bought all of his stock and have them in their own yards). He said that to have primroses in the planters next winter would require “summering over” about 100 plants next year. This is possible, but the flower project would have to raise more funds earlier in the year to purchase these plants when they are available in the spring. This reminds us that it is time to start making donations to support next summer’s hanging flower baskets as well. Donations received by December 31 can be used as tax deductions for 2009 tax returns. Donations postmarked by that date and mailed to Operation Coquille, PO Box 225, Coquille, OR, 97423, will be receipted as 2009 donations. This project costs between $2,000 and $3,000 each year and is entirely supported by public donations. The new light posts adjacent to the site of the new McKay’s store have hangers for two flower baskets on each pole. The baskets and their flowers are estimated to cost about $100 for each pole.

This will be the first expansion of the hanging flower baskets in several years. The project committee hopes that the public will be generous in supporting this extension of the project into the former GP mill site this coming year. These poles have builtin watering hoses, so the new baskets will not increase the hand watering labors of the volunteers who take care of the existing basket locations during the summer.

Several of the faithful volunteers in this project are not going to be able to continue next summer, so some new volunteers will be needed next summer. Persons interested in helping in this project can sign up at the Coquille Garden Shop on Central (between Curves and the Motel) with Seyia Nishi. One of the objectives of Operation Coquille is to foster and encourage the redevelopment of Coquille’s core area to restore it to its former position as the cultural and commercial center of southwestern Oregon. Operation Coquille would like to remind the folks looking at various sites for a modernized community library that phase 3 of the community center development project contains a much expanded space for the library and ought not to be forgotten during the decision making processes. That phase provides for a retractable cover for the pool, and expanded library and a new visitors center. Folks interested in supporting or being involved in these efforts are encouraged to become Operation Coquille members. Membership forms are available in The Sentinel office on First Street in downtown Coquille.

Operation Coquille provides a tax exempt umbrella for many projects aimed at enhancing the quality of life in our community. Those having project ideas can apply for inclusion under this umbrella to enable them to offer tax deductibility to their project supporters and to obtain help in fundraising. Member dues and, sometimes, a small portion of earnings from investing project funds cover the expense of overhead functions so that all funds donated for projects are used to accomplish them.

Photographing in the Cold

Photographing here at the South pole can be quite a grueling endeavor. With temperatures that range between -80 and -9 degrees F the photographer runs into many problems. Everything from cameras freezing up to frostbite

The cameras down here seem to last about an hour to two hours before the actual shutter mechanisms begin to freeze up and stick open in the case of my film cameras or begin to make a horrible screeching noise in the case of the digital cameras.

 My understanding is that this is due mostly to freezing lubricants. My lenses and tripod head become very stiff as well. Outside, the photographer has to deal with the cold while being able to operate a camera. This often means that some of your ECW (extreme cold weather) gear has to be removed. I have found this to be brutal on the fingers and face. In fact the tip of my nose and a spot right above my eyebrow is constantly raw or scarred from the skin touching my camera body and freezing to it. Fingers become cold because of wearing thin gloves so I can manipulate camera controls. This is on top of simply trying to stay warm while standing still to take photos.

When I can no longer photograph, I take a short break before coming inside to place my camera gear inside a plastic bag that I twist shut. This keeps the cold metal and glass cameras from having condensation form on and in them. It is the same effect as pouring a glass of ice water in a warm room. Not so bad on a glass of water or beer but horrible for electronics!

While photographing outside here at the pole has its difficulties, it is an incredible opportunity to make photos of the frontier station and the scientific work being performed

Take Care, Ryan

The Coquille Community Garden is now accepting applications for 2010 bed rentals. Forms are available at the garden (plastic “realty” box on left side of entrance) and at The Sentinel office. With the combined efforts of garden volunteers and eight community service teens, the Coquille Community Garden beds are now amended for the winter. Decayed plant matter has been turned into the soil or added to the compost pile, and a sprinkling of organic nutrient granules and several inches of cow manure have topped off each bed.

The work party concluded with a “smashing of the pumpkins.” With pitchforks, shovels, and the unbridled energy of youth, our autumn squash, which was previously donated by our local grocers, was reduced to orange pulp and added to the compost heap. Why did we add soil nutrients in addition to top-dressing the beds with manure? Because although unprocessed livestock manure is rich in three key plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), the manure we purchased from Scolari Dairy is first mixed with water and strained to make a “manure tea.” The resulting liquid fertilizer, which is high in those three key nutrients, is then used to enrich the farmers’ grass-growing fields, and the dry, “dairy solids” (with lower amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) are available for garden use.

Despite its lesser nutritive value, the manure remains beneficial to the garden because it improves the physical condition and structure of the soil (the tilth). This environmentally sound practice reduces hazardous run-off, which could end up in our watersheds, so hats off to the Scolari Dairy! This is a great example of our community re-purposing an unwanted product (the rinsed manure) and selling it to local residents, who can benefit from that product. The farmer profits by receiving not only a small fee for his product, but he has also found a way to get his spent manure removed from his property at no expense to himself.

This is creative environmentalism at its best, and it shows ingenuity and respect towards our planet. If we all thought about it for a moment, we might find that we have our own excess of something, an abundance we could share with one of our own neighbors. How can we engage more within our community? Do you have an ability or talent you can share with others? Do you have materials that are of no use to you that could be parted with or traded off for something more useful? During the growing season, do you have excesses of prolific fruits, vegetables or nuts that could be shared with needful community members? How can we better network together and pair our excesses with another neighbor's shortages? Let’s invest in our community for the betterment of our fair hamlet.

The City of Coquille is a wonderful place to live, and small changes in the way we think can make it even better. Share your thoughts online with dawn@webnet.com. The garden is located at 180 N. Baxter, between the Pioneer Methodist Church and the Auto Clinic. Please contact Darlene at 404-7519 for more information, or visit our website at “CoquilleCommunityGarden.VPweb.com/.” Also, if you would like to buy dairy solids from the Scolari Dairy, they can be reached by calling Bob at 396-3242.¤

The Coquille Community Food Bank is sponsored by the ministerial association and staffed by volunteers from nine churches, the VFW and the Rebekah Lodge. The food bank is located at the Catholic Church, 50 S. Dean St., and open on Mondays and Fridays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm for food distribution.

Because of the generous donations, food bank recipients can use the services once a month and will receive enough food for their family for 3 full days. Sharon Roberts, church coordinator for the food bank, said the food bank has served 465 families this year, plus 75 Thanksgiving bags. She stressed that right now there is a definite need for the services, for instance on a recent Friday the food bank gave out 117 bags of food and the following Monday gave out 76 bags. The Coquille Community Food Bank invites and encourages all local churches and organizations to participate.