Ex-Kaiser Worker Able To Branch Out During Retirement

Thirty feet above the forest floor, back pressed against the rough bark of the tree trunk, Don Deife holds his breath as the cougar approaches. Today, he’s ready for it.

Equipped with camcorder and portable tree stand, Deife enjoys guilt-free, all-season hunting. Elk, deer, moose, bobcat, bear … there’s hardly an animal in the forest he hasn’t shot.

“I knew I had to retire early enough to enjoy myself,” says Deife, 56, a former machine operator for Kaiser Aluminum. “I had to be young enough to be in the woods and do what I’m doing.”

When the weather drives him indoors, Deife parks his trailer in Kellogg. But that doesn’t constitute much of the year.

“It takes months to get the kind of footage I’ve gotten,” he says. “The animals don’t just walk up and say hi, take my picture. You have to wait for them.”

There’s nothing Deife would rather be doing. After his early retirement in 1992, he spent a year just watching wildlife before it occurred to him to purchase a camera. He also keeps a journal and a daily log - even writes poetry when some event inspires him.

The fact that domestic cats like to play with balls gave him the idea of rigging up this game for the cougar. The ball is large, designed for dogs. It’s suspended on a string that runs through an eye hook, so he can reel it up and down.

The cougar is intrigued. It watches it descend, then takes a swing. Deife yanks it out of reach. When he lowers it once more, the cougar swings again.

Direct hit. The ball swings out, then back toward the cougar. Startled, it wheels and lopes away.

But the entire game has been captured by Deife’s telephoto lens.

Deife said he’s rarely afraid in the forest, though his blood did race the time he had a stare-down at 20 feet with an 8-foot-tall brown bear. And he’s not entirely comfortable climbing out of the tree with the cougar nearby.

“I knew she was looking for something to eat, and I sure didn’t want to be part of it,” he says.

Luckily, an elk solves the problem by wandering past at the right moment. Judging the cougar’s position by the elk’s barking, Deife decides he can safely head back to camp.

“Me and the animals are friends. Sure, when they’re alarmed they can be dangerous. But nine times out of 10, there’s no problem. If you stay hidden and don’t move, they’ll walk away.”

Any ceiling saints?

Sylvia Sjogren is taking some flak for the new nosmoking rule at the Steelworker’s Union Hall in Kellogg. But if anyone deserves to take charge there, Sylvia and her husband, Gus, do.

They already have.

Two years ago, the building had fallen into such disrepair that its only tenant, Idaho Workers Opportunity Network, was threatening to move. The Steelworkers put the hall up for sale.

Then Gus, a longtime loyal union man, stepped in.

“He asked, if he could make the hall pay for itself would they take it off the market? They said ‘OK,”’ Sjogren recalled.

She and Gus bought some used bingo equipment from the Kellogg Elks, and began using the proceeds from Wednesday night bingo for upkeep and repairs.

Donations and volunteers are always needed, said Sjogren, both for bingo night and for improvement projects. Call MaryAnn McGillivray at 783-5701 for details.

But the scheme is working. Last year, the building’s exterior received a coat of paint. This spring a new ceiling is scheduled to go up. Meetings and weddings take place in the big central room. The program for the unemployed is still a tenant, and the county’s literacy program enjoys a rent-free office space in the hall.

“We wanted to keep it for the working people,” said Sjogren. “The upper echelon has the Elks, but there’s nowhere else to go for a reasonable price.”

Smokers take heart: once the ceiling is intact, the air circulation system may be improved to the point that smoking can be allowed once more. The ceiling may go up any day now.

You know where to volunteer.

MEMO: Bekka Rauve, a freelance writer, has lived in the Silver Valley since 1989. Panhandle Pieces appears every Saturday. The column is shared among four North Idaho writers.