Creston News

Rev. Craig Blankenship brought the Easter message at the Burning Springs M. E. Church.  The Elizabeth church had a sunrise service.

Spring is proceeding normally in & around Creston with baby kittens, whip-poor-wills, trilliums, phlox, anemone and the invasive garlic mustard that needs to be pulled up by the roots.  This invasive pest puts toxic chemicals in the soil, just like the Japanese stilt grass that inhibits native plants.  Along I-79 south of Sutton the red bud is spectacular, almost worth a trip to see it.  On can stop by at Flatwoods and pick up some Fiesta ware --West Virginia made plates, cups, saucers, pitchers if one cannot get to the factory in Newell.

One local fellow, on Friday, visited two alignment specialists, in the morning it was Galen's and then in the afternoon it was a call on Dr. Bill Johnson.  Now both chariot & driver are back in line.

A big crowd was on hand for the Creston food pantry.  Easter hams were provided.

Several Creston folks utilized modern technology to watch the Thursday evening meeting of the Calhoun County Commission.  The events brought to mind the following historical event.  The Medes & the Persians had laid siege to Babylon but Belshazzar proclaimed a great feast in the palace and then a hand wrote upon the wall and the king was frightened and none of the soothsayers, astrologers & wise men could read it. "Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."  On the advice of the queen,  Daniel was called & he read and explained the writing to the king and told him that his kingdom was at an end, he was weighed and found lacking & that the kingdom would be given to his enemies. " In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain."

The spring Creston ATV poker run is set for Saturday, April 30.  One fellow who lives somewhere beyond Detroit called.  He plans to spend Friday night at Mineral Wells.  He had called to get details on just how the event happens.  He asked if there were gas stations along the route and then decided to bring along an extra gallon of fuel.

On Saturday, May 7 the Creston Neighborhood Watch will have an Adopt a Highway event starting at 9 at the Creston Community Building.  Afterwards there will be goodies for the workers.  All able bodied folks are asked to come help with the cleanup.

There will be no auction in Creston this month because of a death in the auctioneer's family.  That event should resume in June.

Bird flu has been causing havoc in midwestern states with millions of hens having to be killed to prevent spread of the virus.  The price of eggs has gone up and those who know suggest that folks have on hand a 90 day supply of food in the event of serious problems.  In Shanghai China 26 million were confined to their homes, often with no food, to prevent virus transmission.  Starvation -- not the problem of dictator Xi.  The worrisome thing is that Dr. Fauci opined that the Chinese way was "very effective".  It is clear that the nation's ruling class could not care less about "the great unwashed".  New studies continue to come out about the virus and the vaccine.  It has been suggested that this thing works like cobra venom.  An interesting thing seems that the venom attaches to the same receptors in the brain as does nicotine and thus smokers had less cases of virus as opposed to non-smokers.  Dr. Fauci then said that "now is a good time to stop smoking".  One might conclude that he understood why the risk of the smokers was less.

There have been several gardens worked up and potatoes planted.

Because of bad energy decisions, bad management and the Ukraine war which some want to make into WW III, there is a shortage of fertilizer and the prices are "unreal".  Nitrogen went from $200/ton to $1,000, Potassium & phosphorus went from $200 & $250 respectively to $700 which means that all food prices will be much, much higher.  If W. Va. had any leadership [which obviously it does not] there would be ammonia & urea plants now producing product from the plentiful natural gas that is produced in West Virginia.

A new report just came out showing just how big West Virginia's (& surrounding states) Marcellus & Utica gas & oil fields really are.  The #1 field on the planet is the South Pars/North Dome gas field in Qatar & Iran.  No. 2 is the Marcellus & No.3 is the Utica.  However, the two combined skunk all the rest.  The Utica underlies the Marcellus and in Calhoun County the Utica is more than 1100 feet thick.  Marcellus reserves are calculated at perhaps 998 TCF [trillion cubic feet] & the Utica has perhaps 834 TCF. With such a world class resource West Virginia should be receiving a 25% royalty [gross] but legislators act to force citizens to receive `12 1/2% net royalties and make sure that the actual volumes are secret so as to short royalties and county and state taxes.  One might draw conclusions.

EQT, the Pittsburgh based firm that has large numbers of horizontal wells, announced that they will be partnering with Element US Rare Earth Minerals to produce the valuable rare earth minerals [check the periodic table or ask a high school chemistry student].  Many years back some of the Rockefeller leases included "all minerals, known & unknown" but there was to be no royalty on those items.  Coal mine waste is said to have significant amounts of the valuable elements that presently come from China.  The new company is called ASCEND. Some while back it was noted that the southern W .Va. counties that presently have economic woes are rich in the rare earths.  Earth to the Mouth of the Elk, "Anybody home?"

The green weenies continue to demand that we stop using petroleum and go entirely to wind & solar.  An average size wind field requires 12,000 gallons of specialty oil/year and now there is a problem of what to do with worn out windmill blades.  They cannot be recycled and must be buried in special landfills.

The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude rose to $105.95/bbl. with condensate fetching $91.95/bbl. while Marcellus & Utica light brought $96.95 & medium $105.95/bbl.  On the NYMEX, Henry Hub (Louisiana) natural gas rose to $7/mmbtu., the highest in a long time.  Time to lay in fire wood for next winter if Occasional Cortex and the green weenies allow one to use wood to heat & cook.  Several years ago they made folks who heated & cooked with coal to stop