It's hard scoutin' for news when one is feeling under the weather. But the beauty of our valley remains and is highlighted with great sun breaks throughout the week. Valerie Rocco is a ray of sunshine herself, bringing by some of her good-sized cloves of garlic. Sounds like winter starts are doing fine upriver. Valerie said valley residents can be looking forward to buying locally grown produce this summer with a few growers cooperating with a small stand.

Mr. Martinez and his students at Child's Way have been fortunate to take walks recently to Wildwood Falls and down the Row River Trail and over onto some old logging roads. Derek Safley and his outdoor club have had fun hiking too; no weather is stopping that bunch.

An engineer from Monaco Coach will be visiting the high school class at Child's Way this week. He will be sharing about the career of engineering and students will be building mouse trap race cars. He will be analyzing the geodesic dome greenhouse for structural strength and giving suggestions to the project members.

As I add to the "Row River Valley 50 Things" I've realized some suggestions may be better suited when roads and trails are dry. But then again they could be all the more fun for the winter courageous. 1. Take a camera along on a Sunday drive and photograph seasonal roadside waterfalls. 2. Hike around Crawfish Trail. (Get directions from www.fs.fed.us/r6/ umpqua/) 3. Look up Geocaching by zip code and go treasure huntingseveral caches in our area. (www.geocaching.com/) 4. Walk through Schwarz Park. 5. Explore local pond life along the Row River Trail (there are some good ones between Dorena and Culp Creek). 6. Write a poem about our fair valley (and send it in to Angela Kerns to be printed) 7. Dive into the refreshing waters at the Natural Dam up Sharps Creek Road. 8. Visit Bohemia Gold Mining Museum open Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 1-4 p.m. 9. Get acquainted with the fishing holes at Bake Stewart Park. 10. Satisfy a curiosity and see where the road goes"Śmeet the folks at Grove Christian Camp.