Asparagus! And CCC history in my backyard.

Hello everyone, happy May 3!

To begin: Look at my scarlet flax flower! I planted these on January 17th, I believe. Scarlet flax is like Lewis's (blue) flax that is common around SE Idaho--but it's red! How cool. I've got white flax that is coming back for the second year outside, as well. But, on to Asparagus!

The first asparagus sighting is a very exciting day in the Goodman-O'Connell household. Not that we get very good asparagus... Asparagus grows wild along creekbeds all around here--people go to these coveted spots with garbage bags to pick asparagus that is growing wild. John was once on a float trip on the Snake river, and people found wild asparagus and cooked it for dinner--yum! In other words, asparagus likes lots and lots and lots of water! Way more than we can ever provide, but we do love our asparagus when it comes up. Someday we'll have a good crop...

But, on to the interesting stuff. About a month ago, I was exploring the gully behind my house and came upon this:

Concrete steps!! In the gully behind my house. These steps were hiding underneath brush, dead sage, tall grass--and the bottom step was under about 3" of dirt. Now my husband and I disagree on the origins of these steps, and we really need an expert to help us decide! John thinks these steps and the found objects in the following photos are from local landscaping, or left by a hobo that is rumored to have lived back in the gully. But I think they are from something else altogether. Although neither one of us know for sure.

See, Pocatello, Southeast Idaho, and Jackson Hole/Yellowstone were very common sites for FDR's New Deal programs--in particular the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). I had the great opportunity a few years ago to interview Eddy Kase, now in his mid-90's, who came to Pocatello during the depression as part of the CCC program. The CCC barracks were around where Century High School is today. Kase worked on projects around Mink Creek in the Caribou National Forest (just south of Pocatello), but a more commonly known CCC project in Pocatello are the ridges cut into all the hillsides around town. Like these:


Can you see them? And can you see Osa's cute butt in the lower left-hand corner? This is the gully behind my house, covered in CCC ridges. The ridges were cut as an attempt to hold water up on the hillsides--both, I would imagine, to improve irrigation on the benches, and to reduce the flooding that occurred in the Portneuf river that runs through the middle of town. That obviously failed, since the ultimate Portneuf river flooding solution was to encase the river that flowed through the main part of town in a concrete canal. Pretty. I had the great opportunity to be a "Portneuf River Water Nymph" during Riverfest a few years ago with my friend Kate Humphrey. We had to put on chest waders , and then climb into the pretty cement-encased river to pull out numbered milk bottles that had been "racing" down the river as part of the Portneuf Greenway Foundation's annual fundraising event. But I digress.


Here's another photo of the ridges, sort of. The red brick building used to be a telephone switch-house that got deeded to my property somehow--we use it for storage. Someday, perhaps, it will be a guest room or something cool like that. Until then it is a five-brick thick, razor-wired storage shed.



As further evidence of the CCC's, or some other man-like project, here is Osa posing next to what appears to be a stone wall that was built at some point.



And here is the corner of my new garden spot for pumpkins. When I started digging into this spot with a rototiller, I dug up these tin cans. They were close to two feet under, some were standing upright. My first thought was "treasure!!", but they ended up just being tin cans filled with dirt. But tin cans left by whom? Is this CCC government issue rations? The CCC's were working back here digging these trenches--surely they ate here as well, is my guess. I can't wait to get back here with a metal detector. Not that I'll find gold coins seeing as how it was the depression and all, but I'd have to think things were left behind?

I also found a Budweiser pull-tab beer can and part of a glass electrical thing from a nearby utility pole--they were used to wrap wire around. I've heard they date back to the 40s/50s?



The recent concrete stairs find, and the fact that the CCC's were back here possibly explains this huge wheel thing that was here when I bought the house. Tractor? Bulldozer? I'd love to know!

Of course, my husband could be right about all of this.

Regardless, I think the New Deal programs were amazing. I have no idea about the criticism of those programs and don't really care, for now. The programs put people to work during hard times. These young men (and women?) worked hard to provide for their families, and were able to do so thanks to these programs. What do we have today? Why are we spending so much money on bailing out these archaic industries instead of using that money to put the victims of that unchecked, narcissistic, greedy arrogance back to work in something that will benefit the United States? I'm just saying. Onward!