However, Lauren Carlton makes it look so dang easy.

“Ms. Carlton,” as my daughter and her friends call her, will forever hold a very special place in our Avilla family.

My daughter may have only met Ms. Carlton this year, but I have the privilege of saying I remember her when she was in High School. (Yes, I officially feel old, so thank you for that – Little Miss Lauren!)

She was never in trouble, but I remember that beautiful smile, and of course that same sweetness when she walked the halls of Lassen High School. I was very excited to find out that she would be teaching my daughter. Peach has absolutely loved all of her teachers, but she fawns over Ms. Carlton in a very unique way.

Ms. Carlton is funny, and sweet, and smart, and as Peach says – “dresses cool!” Nothing makes Peach happier than when she sees her out and about in the community, because Ms. Carlton not only dresses cool – Ms. Carlton is in fact, very… very cool.

Lauren is a beautiful dancer and has lent her talent to many events throughout the County, both as a performer and also as a choreographer.

Lauren, on her own free time, put together a second-grade dance team to perform at several assemblies. Yes, she chose to spend more time with her students to help teach them something she loved. And I’ll tell you – watching them perform, they loved it too. It’s hard to not like something when your instructor is just so dang good.

But that’s not all Ms. Carlton does. I cannot count the number of extracurricular activities where she shows up to support her students. Best of Broadway? Yep. She was there to see her kiddos. Downstairs all of her students were gleaming with pride! “Ms. Carlton is here! Ms. Carlton is right up front!” They squealed to each other.

“Hey, Peach your family from out of state is also here!”- to which Peach immediately replied, “Yeah… but Ms. Carlton waived to me!”

Soccer games, softball games, basketball games – she made the rounds. Always so genuinely happy to be there to watch her kids shine. Oh, how lucky for them to have a teacher who genuinely loves them so much. She is exactly who I want to be my daughter’s role model and I am so thankful, Ms. Carlton stepped into that role.

No matter where she goes in her career I know she will be successful, because of her work ethic. I hope she continues to work with children because she has such a natural talent to connect with them and make them feel so special. I wish that ‘thank you’ was enough for all that she has done for my daughter this year. It is a debt I can never repay to her. So, for now, a thank you for being one of the reasons I love where we live, will have to do.

A CalTrans Hazmat team deals with mitigation of the early morning spill

“Mr. Colon contacted CHP Susanville Dispatch to report that he had swerved for a deer, and the load he was transporting shifted and spilled an unknown quantity of corrosive liquid,” explains CHP Public Information Officer Bruce Thuelchassaigne. “Colon pulled into the nearest available turn-out and awaited assistance.”

CHP and Caltrans set up a hard closure on the highway for several hours, until hazmat teams could render the area safe.

No injuries were reported. Alcohol and or drugs do not appear to be a factor in this crash.

“We hope this will be a good way to get people engaged in the everyday science that the BLM and our partners undertake to improve public lands and natural resources,” said Craig Drake, manager of the BLM Applegate Field Office based in Alturas.

The following chronolog sites are active on public lands managed by the BLM Applegate Field Office:

Prescribed Fire: This site is along the Barrel Springs Backcountry Byway about 10 miles northeast of Fort Bidwell, Calif. (coordinates: 119°57’31.006″W, 41°53’43.719″N). The BLM and University of Utah are studying fire effects on an edible plant called yampah, or epos, important to native people.

Spring Restoration: The monitoring site is a half-mile south of the Buckhorn Backcountry Byway south of Cedarville, Calif. near the California-Nevada state line (coordinates: 119°55’38.923″W, 40°52’37.243″N). At this location, the BLM is studying the effects of a riparian fence enclosure, native plant seeding, and removing encroaching juniper trees to improve water quality and quantity from the spring.

Meadow Restoration: The chronolog site is at Fitzhugh Creek Meadows, about 11 miles south of Alturas, Calif. in an area known as the Likely Tablelands (coordinates: 119°55’38.923″W, 40°52’37.243″N). It will be active starting June 14. The best access is from Modoc National Forest Road 5. A high clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle is recommended.

Here, the BLM and CalTrout have installed beaver dam analogs that mimic the function of beaver dams to improve the meadow’s hydraulic functions such as water retention.

The BLM recommends checking conditions before heading out to any of the sites. Information is available from the BLM Surprise Field Station, 530-279-6101.

Chronolog is a tool used by organizations to create crowd sourced time lapse videos to monitor the environment and engage communities in science. More information, including a map of sites, is available here: www.chronolog.io.

Mt. Lassen’s new crater in August 1914 after a summer of eruptions. ~National Park Service Photo~

Mt. Lassen is True Volcano in Eruption

Eye-Witness of Titanic Action Sends Account to the Gazette

Four Susanville Men Visit the New Crater

One Party is Lowered Over the Brink but Cannot Tell Depth

June 7, 1914

A party consisting of J. L. Brambilla, Justin Feher, Alexander Sifford, George Olson and Harry Kaul, has just returned to Susanville from Drake’s Springs, seven miles southeast of Mt. Lassen, from which point they went direct to the active crater of Mt. Lassen, leaving here Sunday afternoon at 3:30 o’clock.

After going through the violent thunder and lightning storms they arrived at Chester at 8:30 p.m. at 8:05 of the morning of June 1, the second eruption took place. This they witnessed and photographed from Chester.

They left immediately for Drake’s Springs arriving at one o’clock that afternoon. They visited Devil’s Kitchen and Boiling Lake, fining the usual activity there. Boiling Lake is only one of its kind known, it being a lake of boiling water. Devil’s Kitchen is a mass of geysers, boiling mud and springs.

The morning of June 2, they left Drake’s Springs at five o’clock and started for Mt. Lassen, 10,640 feet high and seven miles northwest, arriving there at 10 o’clock. This trip was over snow that sometimes attained a depth of 15 feet and was made on horseback and on foot until the foot of the summit was reached, at which point the horses were abandoned.

The party spent three hours and a half taking photographs and noting conditions in general.

The crater is about 325 feet in length and 75 feet in width. Its depth unknown.

J. L Brambilla was held over the edge of the crater by other members of the party while observations were made and photographs taken, this being very difficult owing to the gases, steam and dust at the crater’s edge.

The edge is cracked for some distance outward. Volcanic mud, ashes and boulders, which range in size from those weighing a few ounces to tons, cover an area of over 1,000 acres, this area extending more to the northeast.

The ascent consumed some two hours, while the descent was made in 35 minutes, members of the party sliding down the snow from the summit to the point where the horses were tied.

The return journey was then commenced, arriving at Drake’s Springs at 4:30 in the afternoon and leaving there this morning at five o’clock for Susanville. The party has valuable photographs as they are the first ones actually to visit the crater since the eruption.