COLD START--This week is beginning rather nippy, as this Sunday morning saw temps in the mid-20s and that’s plenty cold enough for me! The blue sky and sunshine that came along with it was very nice though, and truly made the thick, white frost sparkle like crazy; very pretty. I was even happier when it warmed up and we were back to seeing green grass, as were the animals. Here’s hoping everyone made it through these first few frozen days of February without any burst pipes or other problems that these cold streaks can cause!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from Feb. 2-8 are Bailey McKinley, Kyle Gribskov, KC Garrison, Varsha Martin, Courtney Zurick, Ed Stornetta, Bob Montgomery, Nicole Emery, Annette Elfer, Pam Moore, Grant Johnson, Alyssa Montgomery, Kathy Tarabochia, Alecia Mosteller, Jessica Vik, Terry Ostling, Kenneth Zacher, Bret Hart, Tyler Havens, Ann Pedersen, Kennedy Ann Rusk, Madilyn Freeman, Troy Kyle, David A. Pedersen, Alexyss Baldwin, Aunika Taylor, Annette Miller and Scott Pedersen.

Happy Anniversary wishes go out to Mr. and Mrs. Randy Montgomery this week. I hope all of you celebrating special days this week will have an awesome day!

IT’S FEBRUARY--It’s “hearts and flowers” time as Valentine’s Day is coming right up, just 12 days from now, so I hope you’re making some plans to celebrate this big day. One of those ways would be to give Nicole Emery a ring and get some flowers ordered, and/or contact your local restaurant and set up a reservation; most are having specials of some kind. In Skamokawa you’ll be able to enjoy dinner and you might even be the lucky winner of the diamond necklace that will be given away; it’s a special treat indeed!

VALENTINE BINGO--On Saturday, Feb. 4, there will be some super fun bingo games being played in the Youth Building at our county fairgrounds. The games begin at 6 p.m., but get there early for a good seat, a little treat and all settled in to win big. Good luck!

LASAGNA DINNER--Before the bingo games at the fairgrounds, the Fair Foundation will hold their lasagna dinner fundraiser, which will begin at 1:30 and last until 4 p.m. So, here’s to the dinner and the bingo night being successful.

FLEA MARKET--The second Saturday of each month means it’s Flea Market time at the fairgrounds, so head back down here on Feb. 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and check out all the goodies they have. Some folks are selling their own things and some things are sold by the fairgrounds to help raise money for the various projects they’d like to get done. If you’d like to rent a table for $10 to sell your “overburden,” contact Patty at 360-795-3480; leave a message and she’ll get back to you. Some vendors sell new things as well. Start shopping!

SIRENS ON THURSDAY--Just in case you’re new here, be aware that all our fire districts meet on Thursday nights at 7 p.m., so if you happen to hear some sirens at that time, it’s probably just them announcing their meetings. If you’d like to help them out and join their ranks, they all would welcome some new blood to help carry the heavy load around here. They are always busy, as they are not just called out for fires but for ambulance/aid calls as well! We can’t thank them enough for their selflessness and coming to our aid whenever necessary.

CONGRATULATIONS--The Mecha-Mules had a good showing in several categories this past weekend, as they came in third in the Titanium Talons challenge, up to second place in the S.K.I.D. part and then all the way up to first place to take home the Connect Award. Congrats to the entire robotics crew!

ANOTHER HIT--The Rosburg Community Hall was wall to wall with people this past Saturday at the annual crab and oyster feed put on by the American Legion Post 111, who have now been joined by the VFW group as well. The timing was good as the rain held off so that folks could get inside while they were still dry and most got back home before the temperatures went below freezing. Once again, hats off to the group and their helpers for another great feed. Ken Elliott wanted to remind everybody that this group is getting up there in age and they’d like to retire and have some of the younger folks take over. So, here’s hoping that these crab and oyster feeds that everyone enjoys so much will continue but they’ll only happen if more, and younger volunteers step up. Here’s hoping that happens as these are great fun and have been a tradition that we would hate to lose.

EARLY CELEBRATION--What do you do when you want to celebrate your birthday in a special way? If you’re Luke Sechler, you fly back to Atlanta, Georgia to your brother Kyle's house and go on a “swim with the whale sharks” adventure! This was an amazing experience, but it will be forever memorable for Luke, as he not only swam with them, but the whale shark opted to “bump” him out of the water! That’s definitely not one of those adventures for this gal, but it’s certainly going to be an outing that Luke will never forget!

CALENDARS OUT--The Events Calendar is now out and you can check out all the events that are listed on it, which is made up and put out by the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce. However, due to a last minute change, the “Bigfoot Boogie” events are on there incorrectly, so please make a note to cross the current date out and put an arrow down to the last Saturday of each month. All other info about it is correct but just the date had to be changed. So, it is not going to be held on Feb. 11, but Feb. 25 instead.

It’s always good to double check with the folks in charge of special events before doing any major planning around them just to make sure they’ll still be happening as one never knows what could come up that would cause that event to be cancelled. Contact people and phone numbers are included on the calendar for your convenience.

GLOWING REVIEW--According to Pam Jones, a couple of local parents have yet another reason to be proud of their son, as Dave Speranza has been touring with a band called, “Railroad Earth” lately. Dave is the son of Don and Kitty Speranza here in Skamokawa and when the group needed a bassist, Dave opted to fill in and learned their vast music library and even wound up playing both acoustic and electric bass, so that’s pretty doggone impressive. At any rate, if happen to go to see this group, which includes quite a light show as well, you might want to check out Dave's talents.

NEXT MONTH--The Friends of Skamokawa want to remind you that Karl Marlantes, the author of the book, “Deep River,” will be at Redmen Hall on March 11 at 4 p.m. This is a book about the Finnish immigrants and how they settled in Washington, and of the many in Deep River. There will be a limited amount of books for sale. This is the same weekend as the Antique and Vintage Sale that they hold every year, so there’s plenty of things going on in our little town!

OUT OF THE PAST--This same week back in 1948 had the date of Feb. 2 falling on a Monday and it was really a very nice day. The Pocahontas group only had four members show up, so they came to visit Elsie Everest instead at her house and they had a nice visit, in spite of the fact that she didn’t go to the meeting in the first place because she was feeling “kind of bum!” Fast forward 24 hours and it was a terrible day with cold and snow, but that was better than the silver thaw that Portland was experiencing. The next three days were cold and clear and the only news wasn’t good with airplanes crashing, the stock market going down and bad weather everywhere. The last couple of days were very wet and cold and the last day even had some heavy hail, so it was a good time to stay in and bake bread, make a pie and put a chicken on to roast. Of course, the bad weather didn’t keep Mary Ann Risk from coming by and the Ray Bunns came with some sandwiches and ice cream so they all had a great visit. Sadly, the storm at Astoria was pretty horrific as the winds reached 70-miles per hour and multiple vessels went down and five people lost their lives. The only good news that week seemed to be that a girl from Vancouver, WA took home the gold medal in the skiing competition at the Olympics. All this according to my Grandma Elsie Everest's diary.