Another local advocate of dark skies is Wofford Heights resident Donn Matlack. He gets incensed about people who move up from the city and install “security lights” that glare all night long.

“Why do people who install these ‘insecurity lights’ always mount them on their homes pointing off their property?” he asks.

He wishes his neighbors would install inexpensive shields.

A lot of light pollution can be decreased or even eliminated very easily and inexpensively,

The increases in recreation fees at Isabella Lake proposed by the Forest Service in March are scheduled to take effect next month.

Starting in September, the Sequoia National Forest will increase the daily recreation fees from $5 to $10 at three lakeshore recreation sites at the lake – Auxiliary Dam, Old Isabella Road, and the South Fork Recreation Area.

The Forest Service says a $50 annual pass will also soon be available.  

The Forest Service is also making the fees required year rou

When it’s hot I find myself thinking about what we used to do when we were kids and summer had turned the temperature way up.

The biggest memory was waiting for the ice man. For those of you who don't know, there was a time long ago when there were no refrigerators and we used ice in an ice box to keep food from spoiling.

The ice was in 25-pound blocks and was placed in a metal canister on the top of a wooden cabinet.  As it melted, the cool air would seep down into the inside of

Samvel Guzalyan caught a couple of beautiful trout in Kernville near the power plant.

Crappie fishing is on and off again. Catching two or three a day between one and two pounds is a lucky day.

A few reports of nice trout being caught in the flume have come in. A Kastmaste

I was just reading an article about change.  Not the stuff you get back from a greenback, but “what is different now than it was then” kind of change.

Change is not always a good thing.

We all see how the price of gasoline has affected our spendable income.  Have you driven down to Ridgecrest or Bakersfield just to go to a movie lately?

Hospitals are having a tough go of it as well.  With the rise in the cost of petroleum, the typical-sized American hospital is spending

The Kern River Valley Community Emergency Response Team (KRV CERT) will be holding training every Saturday in September from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 3701 Suhre St. in Lake Isabella.

Sept 5 – CERT Re-certification Class. For all CERT members who want or need to re-certify.  Please bring your manuals with you. Please contact Tom Klein for registration.

Sept 13, 9 am to 5 pm – For all new volunteers, basic training classes. Module One..Disaster Preparedness, Mod

I’m enjoying a marvelous summer read, “Miriam’s Kitchen.”

The book reminds me of when I was 19 and just out of the Army. I was falling in love with the Lower East Side of New York. My third floor apartment on Essex Street was a walkup.  All the stairs creaked and groaned.

A friend, Peggy, invited me to dinner at her Greenwich Village place. Jean was there, a vivacious brunette. It was the beginning of an intense but ultimately unrewarding relationship.

I should have p

Your region could be featured on the next Federal Recreational Lands Pass! All outdoor enthusiasts, amateur shutterbugs, wildlife lovers or history buffs are invited to submit up to three photos in the 2008 “Share the Experience” Photo Contest – www.sharetheexperience.org.

Contestants enter their favorite photos of visits to America’s Federal Recreation Lands (managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, or Fish and Wildlife Servic

Last week I harped on the new real estate and banking legislation that has now been signed into law and starts taking effect in October. The legislation is absolutely sweeping for the industry and will affect almost every aspect of real estate for both buyers and sellers. FHA and VA guidelines have been extensively changed and conforming loan limits are much higher, which is the single biggest change that will immediately impact the market (for the better). So what is different for buyers and se

Once when our three children were all of school age and were playing outside, I went to our front yard to call them home. I could see them as I called. There was a pause for just an instant. Then they seemed to not hear me.

I went back into the house and asked Darlene to step outside with me. I was about 10 feet from her and raised my voice just enough for her to hear easily saying, “It is too bad the kids did not hear me.

I want to take them for ice cream.”

They came running. We wen

The accompanying diagram depicts the effects of man desiring more and more water to supply the sociological needs of the ever increasing population in Urban California.

This solidly illustrates the taking of the water from the areas of most rainfall and "plumbing" it into the more arid areas of the state.

Some call this "Water Resource Exploit-ation" and others do not!

I believe that man must seek alternate means and technology to replenish the water that the earth has suppli

James V. Andreas Sr.    1930-2008

Mah Inyanas! = Hello Indians!

My stepfather, James V. Andreas, Sr., born 08/18/1930, passed away 07/30/2008 on the Miranda Indian Rancheria in Weldon, Services will be August 9th, 2008, this Saturday, at 10:00 am at Sierra Mortuary and Funeral Home, 6416 Lake Isabella Blvd., Lake Isabella, next to the OVCDC Tribal TANF Office, and across the street from the Lake Isabella Post Office. Then from there we  will be going to the Cottage Grove Ceme

Bob Steele/Special to the Kern River Courier

(Editor’s note: the date has been changed from the 2004 column to reflect this year’s celebration Aug. 9.)

Kern River C