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Theradiostationwas playing the Johnny Cash song "How High Is The Water, Mama?" Very ap- propriate on Thursday morning, Dec. 11 when I emptied 3.3 inches of rainwater in ten hours, with rain starting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Had another 1.5 inches by noon-time, but the flood waters were easing away at my place later in after- noon. Cathy Tobin had 3 inches in her rain gauge at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, the 11th and Thomes Creek was bank full. West of Red Bluff seemed to be getting the rain this time, since someone posted the rushing water of Reeds Creek at Aloha Street on Facebook. The Daily News re- ported the airport had 2.95 inches and yet many of the west side creeks are flooding the roads like Te- hama, Gyle, Flores. Donna Bushnell posted pictures of Sacramento River at the Bend Bridge Park. River looked like the old days, when it would flood Kaer Avenue in An- telope. My horse pasture was a lake, and there was wa- ter covering the lawn. The sloughs and creeks had not been cleaned since the floods of previous week. I hope you saw Salt Creek overflow, and no- ticed all the trash the highway department had piled on the west bank in- cluding the large plastic pipe I had mentioned last week. It probably washed away in the latest flood. I had mentioned 2.3 inches in rain gauge while Walt Brown had 3.25. Learned that Shirley Da- vis had 4.5 inches at her Manton ranch, Steve Zane had 5 inches at his Paynes Creek Ranch, while Dick O'Sullivan at his ranch above Lyonsville had over 7 inches. This was in the December 3rd storm. Haven't heard for the 11th. By 2:30 p.m. on the 11th, the slough in my horse pasture was back within its banks, and no longer flooding the lawn. Heard on the radio about I-5 being flooded near Flores Road, south of Red Bluff. 99-E being flooded near Meridian Road, north of Chico, and sev- eral places near Los Moli- nos, Dairyville, Tehama. I was going to go to town at 2:30, but there was water across Hogs- back road, and the or- chard was flooded. Mike and Kendra's lane was flooded again, while Salt Creek and the overflow were flooding McHie sub- division and 36-E at Pet- ticoat Junction. Decided I really didn't need to go to town, and turned around at Antelope School. Glad I didn't go to Red bluff because at 4 p.m. 99E was closed at 36E, heard on the radio. Flood- ing Steve Joiner's Two Bud's BBQ again. Heard that they had 2.5 feet in first flood and have been closed all week. A Pine- apple Express is a warm rain, but plentiful mois- ture. It would have been more welcome if the ground had had a chance to dry out a couple of weeks, instead of still be- ing saturated from last week. Wikipedia mentioned the flood of 1862, "Early in 1862, extreme storms riding the Pineapple Ex- press battered the west coast for 45 days. In ad- dition to a sudden snow melt, some places received an estimated 8.5 feet of rain leading to the worst flooding in recorded his- tory of California, Oregon or Nevada. Known as the great flood of 1862, both the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys flooded and there was extreme flooding and mudslides throughout the region." Also mentioned were the 1952 Pineapple Ex- press when the storms brought a blizzard to Si- erra Nevada mountains, stranding the streamliner City of San Francisco on January 13th. In 1955 Yuba City flooded. Cotton Rosser named a couple of his bucking horses flood names after they swam to safety. 63rdannualWinter Dinner Presale tickets for the 63rd annual Winter Din- ner and 12th Ag-Schol- arship Fundraiser are now available for $25 at The Loft, Hawes Ranch & Farm Supply, Animal Health International, Red Bluff Bull and Geld- ing Sale, Crossroads Feed, Farm Credit, and Rabo- bank in Red Bluff; Shasta Farm & Equipment in Cottonwood; and Rabo- bank in Corning. Vic Woolery and crew will be serving a prime rib dinner at 6 p.m. Jan- uary 10th at the Tehama District Fairground au- ditorium. There will be wine tasting, olive oil tasting and Red Bluff Elks Lodge will handle the bar. Tehama County Cat- tlemen and CattleWomen have gathered some excit- ing silent and live auction items to benefit the 12th scholarship auction. Red Bluff Yamaha has given a $50 gift certifi- cate. Western Crop Insur- ance will have a $100 gift basket. Jackie Baker has made a hand crocheted lap robe. Stromer Realty, Linda and Tom McCay, donated a cowboy boot wool rug. Les Schwab gave a Hi Lift Jack. Stromer Realty also gave one cord of oak fire- wood. A Stay and Play pack- age for four at Rolling Hills Casino with Din- ner at Timbers, a round of golf, and overnight. Some- thing to think about for the Cattlemen's Field Day in March, since I hear they plan to include golf as well as horses and cat- tle in 2015. Ranchers will enjoy the I-5 Tire Cooper pickup tires valued at $1,000. TCCA-TCCW member Ten Point Ranch has given a golf package for 3 at the Olympic Club, and tick- ets for 4 to either a Giants or Oakland A's game with parking; I am not sure which ball park it is. Ron Humphrey Con- struction donated 8 hours, including travel time, grading within Te- hama County. The Humphrey Ranch, Flournoy, with Ron- ald, daughters Nicki and Cheyenne donated 8 hours, including travel time, of dozer work with D5 M bulldozer within Te- hama Co. Too bad permits are so hard to get to clean a creek or slough, because this would be a fought over item. Linda Borror, newly installed President Te- hama County Cattle- Women will make a Lemon Meringue pie. Thanksgiving time, she made only one to go with the pumpkin and apple pies. Son Bryce was very vocal about wanting two pies, so there would be some left after the eve- ning feeding of the cat- tle. General chairman of the evening, Cathy Tobin asked Ellington Peek if Shasta Livestock Auction would supply an auction- eer for the evening. Peek replied, if she would make it rain he would get her an auctioneer. Cathy, let's ease up for a week or so on the rain. Justin Niesen will be our auctioneer, and that was after last week's rain. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbar- ton2013@gmail.com. JEANBARTON Howhighisthewater,mama? COURTESYPHOTO Mike and Kendra McCluskey's lane, 13700Lyman Lane, with flood water from Salt Creek. Four feet deep again. By Elaine Kurtenbach The Associated Press TOKYO When Japanese pose for pictures, instead of saying "Cheese!" some say "Butter!" These days, but- ter is more likely cause for frowning, since it is ration- ing that comes to mind. As the Christmas Eve cake rush approaches, gro- cery stores are limiting customers to a maximum of two packages of butter each. Last week the gov- ernment announced its lat- est plan for "emergency im- ports" to ease shortages of the spread. The butter shortfall stems from several factors including stressed out dairy cows, aging farmers, rising costs and trade and price restrictions. The official reason for short supplies of milk used to make butter is lower output due to unusu- ally hot weather last sum- mer in the northern is- land of Hokkaido, Japan's dairy basket. Fresh milk sells for more per ton than butter, so dairy producers are said to be giving but- ter short shrift and butter sections are often bare on shelves crammed with var- ious margarines and other spreads. But the worsening shortages are also a symp- tom of industry protec- tions that limit farm im- ports and of deeply en- trenched resistance to a market-opening overhaul. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be struggling to deliver on reform prom- ises even if his party wins a stronger mandate for his "Abenomics" policies in an election Sunday. Apart from overworked cows and difficulties grow- ing enough forage to feed them, dairying is among many Japanese agricultural industries in decline. Farmers are retiring without heirs willing to take over their farms and prices for feed and fuel have surged, cutting into profits. Japan had 417,600 dairy farms in 1963. As of Febru- ary, it had 18,600 despite heavy government subsi- dies. Japanese farmers, like those in the U.S. and many other countries, tradition- ally have been protected from foreign competition, both to ensure a degree of food self-sufficiency for this resource-scarce island na- tion and for political rea- sons. Despite Abe's vows to modernize farming and "drill deep" through the country's bedrock of bu- reaucracy and vested inter- ests, his government has made little headway apart from tinkering with land reforms. Tariffs on imports of farm produce average 23 percent. Overall, the gov- ernment pays a subsidy to dairy farmers of 12.8 yen (11 cents) per kilogram for butter and 15.41 yen (13 cents) per kilogram for cheese. Dairy farmers like Shin- jiro Ishibashi, who is rais- ing about 300 head of cattle on his farm in Chiba, east of Tokyo, count on the sup- port. Japan's farm lobby re- mains a stronghold for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which while talking up sweeping reforms is also reassuring farmers it will continue to look after their interests. "Mr. Abe says he will pre- serve our 'beautiful Japan,' and I expect him to do it," said Ishibashi, alluding to Abe's constant praise for Japan's traditional farm- ing lifestyle. Japan's farm protection policies are one reason the 12 nations negotiating a U.S.-led trans-Pacific trade pact have been unable to reach an agreement. Nego- tiators meeting in Washing- ton this week look likely to end another year without a consensus. Among the countries ne- gotiating the trade pact, Ja- pan has the second largest food market after the U.S. and foreign dairy and other farmers are eager for more access. But "sacred territory" is- sues such as pickup trucks for the Americans and beef, pork, dairy, sugar and rice in Japan have frustrated ef- forts to reach an overarch- ing agreement. A Japanese government study estimated that open- ing farm markets under the trade pact could reduce do- mestic farm output by about 2.7 trillion yen ($22.5 billion), or over 40 percent of total farm, fisheries and forestry production. WORLD Ja pa n ru ns s ho rt of butter as dairy farms dwindle By Wilson Ring The Associated Press MONTPELIER, VT. A folk artist who became a folk hero to some after picking a fight with fast-food gi- ant Chick-fil-A over use of the phrase "eat more kale" — similar to their trade- marked "eat mor chikin" — has won his legal battle. Bo Mu ller-Moore thanked his supporters Friday and said outside the Vermont Statehouse that the U.S. Patent and Trade- mark Office granted his application to trademark "eat more kale," a phrase he says promotes local ag- riculture. He silk-screens the phrase on T-shirts and sweatshirts and prints it on bumper stickers that are common in Vermont and beyond. When asked Thurs- day what he felt caused the trademark office to approve his application, Muller-Moore, of Montpe- lier, said, "Your guess is as good as mine." The news was posted on the office's website Tuesday. "I'd like to think that maybe some persistence and polite defiance, you know, and proving to them that we were in it for the long haul," he said. "If it took us a decade, we're go- ing to fight for a decade." Chick-fil-A uses the phrase in images that in- clude cows holding signs with the misspelled phrase "eat mor chikin" because, as Chick-fil-A spokes- woman Carrie Kurlander put it, "when people eat chicken, they do not eat cows." Her response to the kale decision: "Cows love kale, too." Muller-Moore started using the phrase in 2001 after a farmer friend who grows the leafy vegetable that is known for its nutri- tional value asked him to make three T-shirts for his family for $10 each. The phrase caught on and, with the approval of the farmer, Muller-Moore began putting it on cloth- ing and bumper stickers. In the summer of 2011, Muller-Moore sought to trademark the phrase. It was a short time later that Chick-fil-A sent Muller- Moore a letter telling him to stop using the phrase because the company felt it could be confused with "eat mor chikin." In the let- ter, Chick-fil-A cited 30 ex- amples of others who had tried to use the "eat more" phrase and withdrew it af- ter the company objected. But Muller-Moore re- fused. "In our case, we said we're not going to cease and desist until a federal judge tells us to and as far as the trademark goes, I never wavered from the idea that I deserved protec- tion from copycat artists," Muller-Moore said. His public fight drew the support of Shumlin and a team of pro-bono lawyers, including law students from the University of New Hampshire legal clinic. "The message is out: Don't mess with Vermont. And don't mess with Bo," Shumlin said in a state- ment. NATION Man celebrates his new 'eat more kale' trademark RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. 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