The Good Life September 2012

being a volunteer

Why helping others is good for your health

plusCome on down

to ecuador

September 2012 Open for fun and adventure Price: $3

in PraiSe oF WoMen riDerS Y eventS CalenDar WENATCHEE VALLEY’S

nuMber oneMAGAZINE

Price: $3 www.ncwgoodlife.com

Upgrade to a ductless heating and

cooling system and you can enjoy more

than year-round comfort in your home.

You can feel good about possible savings

of 25-50% on your electric heating bill.

Get a $750 rebate from Chelan PUD. Learn more at GoingDuctless.com

chelanpud.org/ductless.html

September 2012 | The Good Life www.ncwgoodlife.com | 3

Contents>>

Features

10 seeing nature through a child’s eyesGlen Carlson was ready to hit the trail moving, but thanks to his grandson, he slowed down to take in the wonder and beauty

12 ecuador is right place For mike Ever wonder about moving to a foreign country? Mike Sager took that leap, and man, is he having a good time. Oh, and he invites you to come on down

14 in praise oF women ridersThese women pull up in horse trailers, unload, and then take to the trails for backcountry rides and free-floating conversations

16 pet pixWhy is that foul sleeping on a man’s chest?

20 liFe without bordersBrian and Barbara Gundersen prefer to give each other experiences rather than gifts

22 still Finding Fun in cartooningDan McConnell feels he’s very close to breaking through in the world of professional cartooning, and if not now, he still has time

24 new growth in an old orchardNewlyweds create their own home on the family farm

art sketchesn Fiber artist Cheryl Stewart, page 34n Singer Ruth Parsons, page 38

columns & departments29 bonnie orr: get creative with cukes30 the traveling doctor: why volunteering is healthy32 June darling: saying ‘no biggie’ when trouble strikes35-39 arts & entertainment & a dan mcconnell cartoon40 history: early whites were characters42 alex saliby: amateurs have their moments

page 7 elizabeth’s garden is a pearl in wenatchee

4 | The Good Life www.ncwgoodlife.com | September 2012

taking a plunge as summer’s light dims

wenatchee restaurant owner Mike Bendtsen is also a serious photographer, with the aim of getting people outside to enjoy nature around Wenatchee Valley.

He sent us this photo taken in mid-August with his story:

“I often hit the river at sun-set if am not out hiking and I can walk easily to some great viewpoints along the Columbia River looking up the Wenatchee Valley.

“This was just another one of

those nights to grab the camera and head down to the water.

“Often I take pictures of splashing water caused by toss-ing a rock with one hand and then quickly pulling up the camera with the other to catch the splash extending up into the colored sky.

“When I got to the beach the night of this shot these two young men showed up to take a dip so I thought perfect, I don’t have to throw a rock to catch the splash.

“Before I could ask permis-sion, this gentleman asked me if I would want to take his picture jumping in.

“This image obviously was of his take off.

“If you want to see the series of images of this jump, includ-ing the splash, you can find it by ‘liking’ McGlinn’s Public House Facebook page.

“I post images daily that are taken from throughout the Wenatchee Valley such as this to share.”

On the cOverDr. Jim Brown took this photo

of volunteer Merry Roy perform-ing for students at The Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center in Wenatchee, an organization she helped found more than 22 years ago. See Jim’s story on the health benefits of volunteering on page 30.

oPenInG sHot >>®

Year 6, Number 9 September 2012

The Good Life is published byNCW Good Life, LLC,

dba The Good Life10 First Street, Suite 108Wenatchee, WA 98801

PHONE: (509) 888-6527EMAIL: [email protected] [email protected]: www.ncwgoodlife.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/pages/The-Good-Life

Editor/Publisher, Mike CassidyContributors, Mike Bendtsen, Brooks Davenport, Glen Carlson, Mike Sager, Linda Hagen Miller, Sebastian Moraga, Alan Moen, Donna Cassidy, Bonnie Orr, Alex Saliby, Jim Brown, June Darling, Dan McConnell, Susan Lagsdin and Rod MolzahnAdvertising sales, John Hunter, Lianne Taylor and Donna CassidyBookkeeping and circulation, Donna CassidyProofing, Dianne CornellAd design, Rick Conant

TO SUBSCRIBE: For $25, ($30 out of state address) you can have 12 issues of The Good Life mailed to you or a friend. Send payment to:

The Good Life10 First Street, Suite 108Wenatchee, WA 98801

Phone 888-6527Online: www.ncwgoodlife.com

To subscribe/renew by email, send credit card info to:

[email protected]

BUY A COPY of The Good Life at Hastings, Caffé Mela (Wenatchee and East Wenatchee), Walgreens (Wenatchee and East Wenatchee), the Wenatchee Food Pavilion, Mike’s Meats, Martin’s Market Place (Cashmere) and A Book for All Seasons (Leavenworth)

ADVERTISING: For information about advertising in The Good Life, contact advertising at (509) 888-6527, or [email protected]

WRITE FOR THE GOOD LIFE: We welcome articles about people from Chelan and Douglas counties. Send your idea to Mike Cassidy at [email protected]

The Good Life® is a registered trademark of NCW Good Life, LLC.

Redwulf rocks on in easy Ecuador

edItor’s notes MIKE CASSIDY

>>


there are moments in life when a person thinks, “If I could just move to a sunny, quiet island.”

A little piece of paradise with warm winds dancing through the trees, sandy beaches, cool mountains and maybe a little tiki hut bar within view of the lapping waves.

Perhaps, like me, you think about something like this every now and then, and ponder, “Wouldn’t that be nice!” But then, like me, you return to your daily life and the thought of chasing down paradise vanishes.

But some people don’t return to the daily routine.

Some people continue to won-der “What if…?” and then take the steps necessary to make the “What if?” happen.

We have a story this month from Mike Sager, who is one of those people who found his spot in paradise — and discovers he loves it.

If you have been around Wenatchee for a few years, you may remember Mike as the friendly mail deliveryman with long flowing red hair. Or, per-haps you heard him play rock music as Redwulf at the Orondo Tavern.

Mike is now living in Ecua-dor — where he still rocks out when not riding his motorcycle through the incredible Andes, walking the beach or assisting others from the United States to find real estate in the diverse — and modern — South American nation.

“This is not a Third World country,” said Mike, in talking about the people and economy.

In an email to Mike, I fret-

ted over the usual wor-ries someone from Wenatchee (like me) might have in considering a move to Ecuador, such as not speaking Spanish and or having enough money to survive.

Here was his reply:“You can get by here with not

speaking the language... most Americans know three words — cervesa, bano, gracias — that works.

“You will learn the little bit you need like for restaurants, taxis etc... it is easy.

“The cost of living can vary to your lifestyle of course, but you truly can get by on $800 to $1,000 a month if you are sin-gle. A married couple LIVING life — not staying at home all the time — can get by on $2,000 or less. You can actually LIVE on Social Security checks here and there’s no way to do that in the States... unless you like dog food.

“Let me know ANY other questions you might have and let me know when you are ready to head this way... got beach... got beer... come on down.”

After you read Mike’s story on page 12, you can check out his website where he handles prop-erty… I mean, there’s no harm in just looking, right?

At the end of his email, just to drive the point in a little more, Mike added this suggestion: “Let the adventure begin! ...you know you want to!!!”

Life grants us more opti0ns than we usually believe. Expand your vision and enjoy The Good Life.

— Mike

“I have a 2005 Toyota Highlander with 95,000 miles on it. Brian and his staff have taken great care of our car...since I have been going to Global it has never run better! They use only top quality parts, fluids and equipment. For example, When I asked Brian why he only carries synthetic-blend motor oil, he told me that he wouldn’t service a customer’s car with any less excellence than he services his own vehicles.

After my last service I was pleasantly surprised to find my car washed and that their loaner car was free. The folks at Global are a rare breed and have earned my trust!”

Scott Wilmot, Chelan

1840 North Wenatchee Avenue www.globalcarcare.net

THE TOP 7REASONS

OUR CUSTOMERS LIKE DOING BUSINESS WITH US!

1. Preventative Maintenance Specialist (we save you money!)2. 2 year / 24,000 mile nationwide warranty3. All Technicians A.S.E. certified4. Full service facility (oil change, diagnostics, alignment, most everything!)5. Local Family owned for 19 years6. Comfortable and spacious customer area + Kids Room =)7. Mainly THEY TRUST US!

509-662-2121 SERVICEREPAIR

ALIGNMENT


WHAT TO DOsee COMPLeTe LIsTINGs BeGINNING ON PAGe 35

if you like festivals and fairs, there are plenty to choose from this month. Here are a few local options:

CHELAN COUNTY FAIR, Come for food, 4-H animals, the carni-val rides and the rodeo. Chelan County Expo Center, Cash-mere. Info: 782-3232. Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 6-9.

PIRATE FEST, Pirate cruises, pi-rate movie, dinner, music, food and fun. Downtown Chelan. Cost: free. Info: lakechelan-piratefest.com. Friday through Sunday, with parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14-16.

BLUES, BREWS & BBQ FESTI-VAL, Music by Duffy Bishop, Big Mumbo, Ty Curtis Band, Doctor Funk, Slack Daddy and more, micro and macro brews, three BBQ pit masters, cigar bar and much more. Leavenworth Fest-halle. Cost: $20 on line or $25 at the door. Info: leavenworthblues.com. Noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15.

TASTE OF HARVEST FESTIVAL, Celebrate Wenatchee’s rich agricultural heritage at this street fair, with a wine garden, a fun run, kids area, farmer’s market, food and live concerts,

and much more. The wine garden hours will be 12-6 p.m., with 15 tastes of wine plus a souvenir glass for $25. Down-town Wenatchee. Info: www.wenatcheewines.com or www.wenatcheedowntown.org. Satur-day, Sept. 15.

HARVEST OF QUILTS, Featuring

a large collection of beautiful quilts made by local quilters. There will be a merchant’s mall, a boutique, live and silent demonstrations, bed turning of antique quilts, a raffle quilt and a silent auction of small quilts made by award winning mem-bers of the guild. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $5. Info: 663-1047.

Opening 10 a.m. Friday and Sat-urday, Sept. 21-22.

AUTUmN LEAF FESTIVAL, Pret-zel tossing, pumpkin pie eating contest, grand parade and street dance. Downtown Leavenworth. Cost: free. Info: autumnleaffesti-val.com. Friday through Sunday, Sept. 28-30.

First annual Lake Chelan Pirate Fest is Sept. 14-16 weekend.

Locally made quilts will be shown at the Harvest of Quilts in the Town Toyota Center Sept. 21-22.

Feel the blues at Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival in Leavenworth Sept. 15.


stOry by dOnna cassidyphOtOs by brOOks davenpOrt

“why go anywhere when you can enjoy your own back-yard?” asked Elizabeth Nott.

Why indeed when your back-yard is a magical garden of lush flowers, rows of ripening berries and grapes, hidden sitting spots, healthy vegetables, a fountain-fed pond of hungry Koi fish and a circus tent covering a wine bar and two dugout canoes brought from Elizabeth’s home in the Marshall Islands.

}}} Continued on next page

Elizabeth’s gardenGardener Elizabeth Nott, right, harvests a head of cabbage, helped by Anna, daughter of photographer Brooks Davenport.

“I grow everything from seed, it doesn’t cost so much,” said Elizabeth about the stunning amount of flowers on the one-acre lot around her and her husband Sam’s Wenatchee home.


Next came her first pond she built that led to a grape arbor. “I make grape juice from the grapes,” said Elizabeth. “I never go to the market to buy food. I grow my own. I make apricot juice, prune juice, rhubarb and peach juice.” She said she also cans and makes jam from the surplus produce and gives a lot away.

Asked how she has the time, Elizabeth replied: “I don’t watch TV. I play tennis and I garden.”

As she walked her gardens she pointed out mounds of plants

But that’s not all… oh no not all indeed.

On a beautiful summer eve-ning, Elizabeth lead friends and visiting family members around the acre grounds surrounding the Wenatchee home she shares with her husband Sam.

First stop were the hand dug-out canoes from her home in the Marshall Islands. She puts baskets of homegrown fruits and vegetables inside the canoes and often serves outdoor dinners from them.

}}} Continued from previous page

Elizabeth’s garden

Elizabeth and Sam placed netting over the Koi pond after waking up one morning to hear heron helping themselves to the fish.


and flowers. “I love having flow-ers blooming all summer,” she said. “I grow everything from seed.”

She and Sam built a green-house on a back corner of the acre, now partially hidden by rows of grapes and harvest-time garden. The greenhouse germi-nates the seeds in spring, be-comes a sitting area in summer, and then tropical retreat with woodstove heat in winter.

Pointing to an adult-sized can-vas tent beneath tree limbs, she said: “When we feel like camp-ing we go camping,” adding the tent housed two beds. “Why leave home to camp when we can do it right in our backyard?”

Under another evergreen tree was a screened comfortable sit-ting area, trimmed with lights that can easily be switched on.

Beyond the back fence was a row of squash and pumpkins – about 50 feet long. Also by the fence are over 60 blueberry bushes, covered with nets to keep the birds at bay.

Flower beds and garden areas are surrounded by rock. “I hand-carried every rock,” said Eliza-beth. That would be 70 tons of rock and no, she said, Sam didn’t help.

their home and have two heat-ing units to keep them warm. Elizabeth also built her own fire pit. She dug a hole and put in a 50-gallon barrel below ground for cooking stews and such.

Elizabeth has been working in her yard since 2005 and said, “I made the yard for Sam and my grandbaby. Life is simple and easy and gardening is good exercise.”

Wenatchee photographer and graphic designer Brooks Davenport said that during a dinner party at

Elizabeth and Sam Nott’s house, he and his family were invited back the

next day to pick some vegetables from Elizabeth’s garden. He took

along a camera and these photos are the result.

Some of the rock came from family property up Number 2 Canyon. “I go and take the truck and pick out rocks,” said Eliza-beth. Some of the rock making up the fountain for the Koi pond she split with a chisel to get flat stones.

The pond houses more than 50 Koi fish and has a waterfall. The pond had to be netted since the couple had lost fish to herons.

“We enjoy our yard year around,” said Elizabeth.

She and Sam built a covered eating area off the back of

ABOVE: Under the shade of trees, is a nice screened sitting area.

LEFT: Elizabeth talks with guests under a huge tent. She puts baskets of homegrown vegetables in dugout canoes she brought from her home on the Marshall Islands, and often serves outdoor dinner from them. Photo by Mike Cassidy

ABOVE: This is the greenhouse that Sam and Elizabeth built. A clear, insulated roof lets in the sun, and there’s a woodstove for wintertime.

LEFT: In summer, the greenhouse functions as another comfort-able sitting area. Stone tile laid on the ground without grout al-lows spilled water or dirt to seep through the cracks.


a grandfather takes his grandsOn camping, and relearns a few lessOns abOut appreciating nature

by glen carlsOn

once I was blind...Well, maybe not blind. I saw but didn’t see. My lack of vision is more a

matter of conditioning than a condition.

It’s like the billboards on my way to work. No matter how colossal, clever, or colorful they are, their messages soon melt away into the mix of everyday exposure.

I am not even aware of the moment when my eyes narrow, glaze over and ignore what is in plain sight.

During a camping trip to the Icicle River on a recent weekend, I was reminded that it’s not only clutter that gets erased.

The vibrancy of rich personal experiences can also dim in the shadow of routine.

My hiking outlook needed a new set of eyes. I found them twinkling in the grinning face of my 8-year old grandson, Taden. Our third companion would be Noble the wonder dog.

I picked the Rock Island Campground on the upper Icicle River as our getaway for two reasons.

It sits high in the valley, which means cooler temperatures than the 100-degree readings in Wenatchee.

I also thoroughly enjoy the Icicle Gorge River Trail. It loops the river in a delightful mean-der conducive to young legs and

frequent stops. This trip was not about power

hiking; it was about a young boy and a black dog walking in the wonder of life that lives out-doors.

We were fortunate, on a late Friday afternoon, to secure a great campsite overlooking the rock of Rock Island. Here is where the Icicle splits, bends and dips, merrily sluicing froth as it goes.

Camp was made in a whirr of efficiency and boots laced for an evening stroll of exploration.

The temperatures were indeed cooler, but the mountain sky also darker and a bit threatening when we set out.

Across the river and into the woods we followed a network of trails.

My normal inclination is to cover ground, Taden’s is to pause and ponder. If we were horses, he’d be jerking back on my reins and I’d be tapping his flanks with my heels.

Truth is, I soon went from can-ter to walk. When I did, I began to see what Taden saw.

Seeing naturethrough a child’s eyes

Kids, such as Taden, see the world with fresh perspective and from different viewpoints.


Spider webs I normally walk through became objects to behold and detour around. Tiny caterpillars and large black ants called us to our knees for more detailed inspections.

Bark beetle tunnels in decay-ing trees had to be probed and poked. Small hills must be run down. Logs stumbled across.

When thunder spoke and rain splattered it was time to strike for Angel, the name I have given our camper.

The splatter gathered into showers that we sat and watched from Angel’s cozy cabin.

The squall passed and we shifted equal measures of at-tention from the books in our hands to the steamy mist lifted from the river by sturdy beams of setting sun.

Twilight found both of us bed-ded down for the night.

After a cool morning, a hot snack and some reading, we set out on the Icicle Gorge River Trail.

This is a popular destination for day hikers of all ages. There’s many good reasons why.

It is a loop trail with access points from both Chatter Creek and Rock Island campgrounds. Midway between the two is another trailhead with ample parking.

The Icicle Gorge View Trail also connects with the river route. It offers an extended option of two-plus miles with generous hillside views of the valley.

Maps measure the river trail loop at four miles, but my GPS told me it was closer to five. The extra mileage no doubt a result of Taden and Nobel’s back and forth ways!

The 2,800-foot elevation var-

ies little. Variety comes from the land.

The south bank of the trail, just across the Rock Island Bridge, opens up to timbered meadows and mountain vistas before dropping back down to skirt the river’s edge.

Woodlands and water cross-ings came next. There was a swamp, a cedar grove and a short climb to a river lookout, all this before we recrossed the Icicle at the Chatter Creek Bridge.

Taden counted 13 bridges along the entire loop.

On the north bank, a high path winds pleasantly through Lodgepole Pine thickets, dense foliage, creek and stream cross-ings, and river views.

Thundering in the background is the constant music played by

smile as the one he be-gan the hike with.

Back at camp, we ate again and gave ourselves over to recap and cel-ebrate our session in the sun together.

We packed up and headed out by mid-day.

As I navigated Angel down valley, I glanced back and saw curls of dog and boy wrapped in sleep. Up front, I was left to consider the goodness of this outing and to replay all the sights seen with fresh eyes.

For a short trek long on beauty, The Icicle Gorge River Trail pro-vides a perfect path

for new and old hikers alike to discover common ground.

Glen Carlson is a Wenatchee resident who strives to strike the proper bal-

ance between marketing for Cascade Autocenter and making memories

outdoors.

Taden pauses to watch the fast flowing Icicle River as he crosses another bridge.

A nap on the way home is the natural conclusion to a day of exploring.

high water running hard and fast. The trail itself felt like a thick carpet with a deep pad.

Even so, Taden’s pace slack-ened as the miles mounted. That said, he never complained and ended the loop with as wide a

tiny caterpillars and large black ants called us to our knees for more detailed inspections.

Imagine the fun you could haveSubscribe to The Good Life

for yourself or a friend.

______________________________Name______________________________Address______________________________City / State / Zip

q 12 months for $25 in Washington, $30 out of stateq 24 months for $50 in Washington, $60 out of state v m

10 First Street, Suite 108Wenatchee, WA 98801

888-6527 • [email protected]


Letter from Ecuador

‘It seems I finally ended up in the Right Place at the Right Time’

by mike sager

so if you have been around long enough in the Wenatchee area, you just might re-member the long-haired mailman or if you enjoyed dancing, the guy that wore spandex for the first time in the Orondo Tavern play-ing with Redwulf

Yeah, that be me... Mike Sager. So where did I end up on this great big

blue marble called earth since those days? Ecuador.

It’s a pretty crazy story, but one that was actually well planned out. In fact it was 15 years in the planning from beginning to landing on the beach in Ecuador.

I had grown up in Huntington Beach, CA., ... so I have been a beach boy from the start and just wanted someplace to plant my toes in the sand and call “my own.”

Well, that left California out, since both the post office and the music career didn’t provide me with millions of dollars to do so.

That started the search for a place that I

COULD own and play in the waves... you know... relive my youth.

Well, I have been told to grow up lots of times, but guess that “just ain’t gonna hap-pen.”

I love living on the beach in Ecuador and the people around me. So I guess you could say I am “living the dream” and that would pretty much be true.

My only mistake was thinking I would “dabble” in real estate while retired here. Oh my gosh, I have never been so busy in all my life.

In 2006 I launched EcuadorProperties.com and there hasn’t been a quiet moment since. It seems I finally ended up in the Right Place at the Right Time.

I didn’t really plan on another career, but

it just sort of snowballed (even though we have no snow on the beach) and has become an incredible adventure. Okay, enough on work... let’s get back to the fun stuff.

Besides working long days I am still hooked on my “drug of choice”... motorcy-cles. I have been riding since I was 15, so that makes it 45 years of doing just about every-thing you can on a motorcycle.

I have been fortunate to be able to ride my Dream Bike down here, a BMW R1200GS... PERFECT motorcycle for Ecuador. I can go from the volcanoes of Quito to the beach (from an elevation of 21,000 feet to sea level) in just 10 hours riding time.

The Andes are breathtaking, literally. There is one pass I go over that is 14,000 feet and I have to say I do get lightheaded at

Mike and his lifelong friend Bobby Jones play guitar in Mike’s front room. Bobby is on the left and Mike, with plenty of hair, is on the right.


the top. Not good when you are trying to dodge llamas that are around about every other corner or a BIG BUS coming at you… in your lane at times.

My other free time is spent again reliving my youth.

I have accumulated a FEW guitars over the years and still LOVE to Rock On!

What’s fun is these people think I am really good... so glad they are not exposed to a lot of guitarists. Seems the Ecuador-ians LOVE Rock and Roll from the ’60s through the ’80s... hum that is right up my alley.

They are wonderful folks to play for and really do enjoy something other than Salsa or Cumbia music.

One of the things that blew me away and at the same time made me smile is that in ALL the BIG malls in Ecuador (and there are some incredible malls here... this is NOT a Third World country) they play Classic Rock and Roll from artists like Journey, the Stones, the Beat-les, Bachman Turner Overdrive (you remember “Takin’ Care of Business” right?), the Doors and more... love to go shoppin’ in that kind of environment.

So I have been here over six years now and still LOVE my decision to call Ecuador home. Do I miss the states... not really, but I do miss my friends and

family there.So any of you who are curious

and might want to come visit me on the beach in Olon can drop me a line. My contact info is at the bottom of this story if you wish to put a little adventure in your life.

If you love seafood, sunny

long (uncrowded) beaches, 1,400 miles of coastal highway (again... NOT crammed with traffic) or just wishing to experi-ence something extraordinary, drop me a line.

Oh… almost forgot. While here I found the Ultimate Stress Relief System and it is just $12.

It is called a hammock. I have a couple here waiting on the beach.

Life is good in Ecuador.

Want to take Mike up on his offer? Contact him at [email protected] or visit his website, EcuadorProper-

ties.com.

“I wake up to this view out my bedroom window every morning,” said Mike. Mike’s home on the beach in Olon, Ecuador... at a cost of $50,000.

WENATCHEE VALLEY MEDICALCENTER

N. C

helan Ave.

S. M

iller S

t.

Cherry St.

Russell St.

Oro

ndo

Ave.

Fifth St.

Ninth St.

S. Mission St.

Conditions seen at the

Urgent Care Center:

Sprains, strainsInsect BitesSimple rashesFlu or cold symptoms

Sore throatEaracheSkin injuriesMinor injuries and illnesses

OPEN 8 AM - 8 PM

7 days a week

820 N. CHELAN AVE.(509) 663-8711

URGENT CARE CENTERnow open

Our Urgent Care Center provides convenient, high quality, low cost family health care when you need prompt medical attention for non-emergencies.


by susan lagsdin

we rumbled up to the trailhead in four-wheel-drive trucks, maneuvering our long stock trailers around the grav-eled lot so the doors had clear-ance for unloading horses and tack and we could catch shade beneath the tall pines on the perimeter.

Out we stepped, snugged into Carhartt canvas and Wranglers, roper boots, snap front vests and broad-brimmed hats. Soon there were fringed chaps, spurs that jingle, neckerchiefs and leather gloves.

In the valley, the day might be warm, but our trail ride would be at a high altitude and mostly in timber.

We greeted each other, shared a little banter, and then readied ourselves for a companionable four hour trek that promised some varied terrain up vacated logging roads and switchbacks, through an old burn site, along-side a creek.

We had no task or pinpoint destination, no agenda — just a walk in the woods. On horse-back.

We offloaded and tied up stomping half-ton horses, and then tacked up: neoprene saddle

pad, Navajo, saddle, back cinch, crupper, breast collar… then headstall, mecate, halter and rope. Hornbag and cantlebag, water bottle and compass, fold-up saw, Leatherman and slicker.

Within a quarter hour, we were off up the trail — horses doing an early-morning dance before uphill sweat calmed them, riders stretching boots into stirrups, settling down into

the saddle.These are the girls. Ladies,

females, women. You know — the kind who cuddle babies and foster kittens, volunteer to bake desserts, price-compare curtain swatches, sing in church and tend flowerbeds.

But there’s a tough-as-nails component, too within these women. When we ride the trails with our friends, our husbands

and mates are out of sight, out of mind, and out of range for any equine or equipment emergency that may arise.

And it will.And it will be solved. You

can bet on it, because there’s one thing women trail riders have in common, besides a love of horses and an independent streak three miles wide — a deep appreciation and need for each other’s wisdom.

It’s a rule of the trail that we look out for one another and keep our wits about us, knowing that every action by one of our horses could have an equal and opposite reaction on the next horse in line.

For almost 35 years, when I rode my horse I most often went solo, in Twisp and then in Vancouver: no trailer, no horse friends, no yen for distant trails (and no whining).

But since I moved back to north central Washington in 2006 I’ve gradually logged hundreds of hours of trail riding in about 30 different sites, with the help of a treasure trove of women who ride.

Most of them are members of Back Country Horsemen of Washington. (Some of them are political and actually help main-tain the trails we ride on, while some are simply theoretically supportive.)

There are dozens more women I can’t even know riding all over this part of the state. These are just a few Methow Valley riding friends:

Carolyn Bronson rotates among three good horses, loy-ally trekking them where each works best; Terry Dixon knows every coyote den, hidden trail and tree on her close-by ranch ride; diminutive Patti Zutter

In PRaISE of womEn RIdERS

Heading out, sporting authentic cowboy chaps and tooled saddlebags. Photo by Jan Ford


soothes her 17 hand tall Tennes-see Walker over the scariest of bridges; Betty Wagoner, always game for new trails, is a veteran elder and mentor; Bo Ryan has trained and tuned her Mustang mare to be a dependable trail companion.

Every time I ride with these women, in duos or in combina-tion, and with several more, I learn from them.

OK, granted, it is usually more of a hen party than a horseman-ship clinic.

The lessons from simply watching good riders work their horses come easy, and so the conversation on the trail ranges wide and far.

We have solved what to-wear-to-the-reunion problems. We have found where to buy deck-ing material. We have advised a job change, an intervention, an MRI. We have learned how to make salsa.

We have also discussed the boomeranging of adult children, the plausibility of UFOs, books and movies we’ve loved and hated, frequent flyer benefits, carpal tunnel syndrome, new dogs and old houses, Medicare and hospice care, sports bras and dream vacations.

The voices of women riders on the trail — punctuated by enough long silences to satisfy nature-loving purists — make a

melodic and comforting sound.It’s a quilting bee on horse-

back, as bonding as a barnrais-ing. We don’t gossip, though we do speak of people’s troubles when we know them and equally celebrate good news.

In the six years since I’ve joined these trail riders, gaited horses with their smooth walks have started to edge out other breeds.

Rides are no longer dawn to dusk ordeals up mountainsides; they’re more likely to be mid-day forays into beautiful rolling ranchlands. There’s less bush-whacking through timber and more sticking to the trails,

More safety helmets than straw hats are now in evidence, more sunscreen on the neck and arms, more walkabout breaks to loosen up stiff knees, healthier snacks and chilled water bottles, stretchier riding pants.

We say we’re all getting smart-er; could be we’re just getting older. Same thing, right?

The sense of community within this seasoned group of women riders is tangible from the moment they alight from their rigs, all the way up the trail and back and until the last truck pulls out of the lot toward home.

Any one of them would stay until dark to help trailer a stub-born horse. Any one of these women, I know, would gallop

downhill to fetch an ambulance or catch a runaway. Any one of them would wrestle barbed wire barehanded to free a friend.

But until the bad times come — and those are blessedly rare, we just talk and laugh and learn from each other.

The last half-mile of the trail ride is a surprisingly swift walk. (I swear my horse smells the metal of her own trailer waiting in the lot.)

At the end of the ride, there are apple-flavored horse treats

all around, maybe a half-a-beer shared from a cooler, a re-apply of lip gloss, hugs goodbye and quick plans for the next ride.

My friends load up horses and gear, climb into their big rigs and head back to the daily domesticity of jobs and house-holds, and most to the comfort of spouses.

At home they are loving grandmothers and wives, but today they were also tough, trailwise, wonderful western women.

Susan Lagsdin, in a sensible helmet, gazes at the open countryside. Photo by Betty Wagoner


TH

E G

OO

D L

IFE

PE

T D

IRE

CTO

RY

Pet PIXSubmit pet & owner pictures to:

[email protected]

June 16, 2003, was a special day at our place. Our mare foaled her second colt. We named him Doc.

This photo was taken the next day at the end of his second im-printing session. One of the things we do during imprinting is sim-ply “contain him” with our arms while he tries to escape. It teaches him that we (humans) are stronger than he is.

He remembers that lesson all his life so he doesn’t pull away if we are trying to get him to do something later in life.

In this case he started fighting to escape. His kicks were so strong (those little hard hoofs hurt when they make contact with shins!) that I was afraid he was going to escape from my grasp. Escape would have taught him the wrong message — that he was stronger than I and could escape confinement.

I chose to subdue him by simply lying down on my back as I held him close to me. He fell asleep the moment my back hit the ground.

Mom (Missy) simply watched to make sure I didn’t hurt her baby. She knew I had no intention of harming him and I knew she had no intention of harming me.

We still have Doc and hope to keep him his whole life. And, no, he has never tried to escape from us no matter what “scary things” we have exposed him to.

— Dave Wagner

i found Sifl about six years ago while I was in col-lege.

I call him “my retired old man-cat.” He no longer prowls at night. Instead he rises with the morning sun, beating me to the first sun-spot of the day.

I painted Sifl to be a part of the Two Rivers Gallery’s next event called Fur, Feath-ers, & Scales opening with a reception on First Friday, Sept. 7.

— Erin Tuss


Come see thesefeatured homes

thursdaY throuGh suNdaY, sePt. 20 to 23

H & H Construction NW, LLC 2754 N Breckenridge

House Description: If the easy life is for you, this is the place to call home. This home may only be a 2,295 square footprint, but don’t let size fool you! Once you enter into the spacious entry, you feel right at home.

Built with an open floor plan for entertaining in mind, the dining room, kitchen, and living room lay open under the 15 foot cathedral ceilings. The home has been designed to immediately make your guests feel welcome, while keeping you in mind with easy clean-up. Featuring: Canyon Creek shaker cabinets, under cabinet lighting, granite countertops, oak hardwood flooring throughout, stone fireplace with a large dark stained mantel, and warm inviting color tones. Once the evening is over the clean-up begins. That’s the easy part; you only have 2,295 square feet to worry about. Leaving you with the most valuable thing of all, time. Time to spend playing in the yard or more importantly, with your friends and family.

Builder Bio: Travis Hofstetter started out 15 years ago as a local framer, building homes for the good old local contractors, as well as framing large develop-ments throughout the state. Through those years, Tra-

vis built up his business to building spec and custom homes through hard work, high standards, and his on the job knowledge of understanding how to build a solid home from the plans to the finished product.

H & H prides themselves for the quality of home their team builds at a fair price that their clients can afford. When you walk into an H & H Construction Home, you know it’s quality craftsmanship with a designer’s touch.

House Features• Large Kitchen

• Dark Canyon Creek Cabinets Throughout• Beautiful Granite Countertops

• Travertine Backsplash• Oak Hardwood Flooring

• Entertainment Glass Shelving Insets w/ Lights• Large Fireplace Mantel Surround w/ Tile Inlay

• Ivory Toned Painted Millwork w/ Black Hardware• Beautiful Master Bath Granite & Tile Finish

• GE Appliances• Warm Inviting Paint Colors & Accents

• Landscaped Front & Back• Covered Back Deck

• Views of Wenatchee’s Surrounding Mtns.• Easy Maintenance Open Floor Plan

• New Reputable Subdivision in Breckenridge# 6 on map, see page 19

Chavolla RoofingPhone: (509) 663-3248Cell (509) 264-3540

Thorson Construction

ServicesServing NCW

(509) 421-6667

Ashbrooks Window Action

Licensed Bonded

(509) 679-8105

Visit our showroom(by appt.)

DOOR-TECHGARAGE-DOOR SYSTEMS

Since 1995

665-0870WENATCHEE

See you on the Home Tour.

Sept. 20 to

Sept. 23.

®


Lexar Homes 136 Sun Valley Drive, Wenatchee

House Description: When we say Home, we mean it!Open the front door to this well balanced 3 bedroom, 2 ½ bath, 1,826

square-foot modern rambler.Coffee on your covered front porch will start the mornings off right!

BBQ’s on the back patio will leave your family and friends begging for more.

Our pampered Chef kitchen with tile backsplash and staggered maple cabinets opens to the dining and living room areas. With incred-ible views from every window, your guests will enjoy every seat in the house! Our spacious Master Suite has room for king size furniture and includes a large walk-in closet and 5-piece bathroom.

Cozy Comfort Heating & Air Conditioning

(509) 665-6859

Chavolla RoofingPhone: (509) 663-3248Cell (509) 264-3540

Visit our showroom(by appt.)

Lexar Homes is changing the industry, allowing our home owners to build their dream home, on time, under budget and healthier for the little feet that mean the most!

House Features• Master Suite with Spa• Large Walk-In Closet

• Covered Front & Back Porches• Entertainers Kitchen

• Gem-Loc Countertops• Staggered Maple Cabinets

• Tile Backsplash• Views Through Every Window

# 3 on map, see page 19

H & H Construction 2106 Yarrow, Wenatchee

House Description: If unique and fun is what you’re looking for in a home then you’ll want to see the interior design of this 2,116 sq. ft. rambler. The challenge, combine cool and warm tones together to create a sleek clean concept without losing the warm inviting feeling that H & H homes are known for.

While building the home people were unsure of the blue walls, but designer Tina Hofstetter kept say-ing, “Just wait until you see the finished product!” Not your usual spec home finish design but a show case of the diverse building H & H Construction NW, LLC can perform. Please come see for yourself and tell us what you think. Be bold and use color in your home for a new exciting look.

House Features• Unique Interior Finish You Want to See• Blue & Brown Color Tones Throughout

• Canyon Creek Shaker Style Cabinets• Granite Kitchen Countertops • Stone Fireplace

• GE Appliances • Tile Flooring Throughout• Dark Painted Shaker Style Millwork

• Beautiful Master Bath w/ Tile & Granite• Hardie Siding • Stamped Concrete

# 2 on map, see page 19

NChBa home tour & remodeling expo sept. 20 - 23

Thorson Construction

ServicesServing NCW

(509) 421-6667

Ashbrooks Window Action

Licensed Bonded

(509) 679-8105


NChBa home tour & remodeling expo sept. 20 - 23

3

62


by linda hagen miller

“you’re going where? For how long?” is the incredulous response when people learn that Barb and Brian Gundersen are headed for an 18-month stint in Siberia.

Friends and family are used to the Gundersen’s world trav-els and their zest for out-of-the-ordinary experiences, but spending over a year in one of the world’s most inhospitable places takes nearly everyone by surprise.

Wenatchee has been the couple’s home and travel base since 1995 when they moved here from Anaheim, California. As a CPA, Brian worked for Blue Bird, Inc. as an accountant and retired five years ago. Barb was a full-time mom, raising seven children, who now have families of their own, giving the Gunder-sen’s 22 grandchildren.

While most retirees spend their well-earned leisure years swinging a golf club or tooling around the states in an RV, the Gundersens would rather plunge

outside their mental, physical and social comfort zone. Siberia promises to challenge them on all levels.

In many ways, Barb and Brian, both 65, have been in training for this adventure their entire lives. They’ve lost track of how many countries they’ve been to, but a map in their basement is studded with pins that span the globe from the Middle East to the South Pacific to Africa and Europe. In order to obtain Rus-sian visas, they had to list the countries they’d been to in the last 10 years. They came up with an astonishing 21 nations.

“We don’t give each other birthday presents,” Brian said with a smile, “we give each other adventures.”

Brian first experienced life in another culture as a 19-year-old Mormon missionary in Germa-ny. He learned German, navi-gated the rigid society, made friends and fulfilled his mission for the church.

Over the years, the two trav-eled frequently with their chil-dren and also made it a habit to

visit their kids as they finished up schooling or their own Latter Day Saint’s missions in Fiji, Bra-

zil, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Norway and Denmark.

Barb’s first volunteer travel ex-

Life without borders‘we dOn’t give each Other birthday presents, we give each Other adventures’

Barb Gundersen amuses school kids in a small village in Kenya by carrying a bundle on her head. Photos by Pat Stimpson


perience was in 2007 on a dental mission to Western Samoa with their son, Wenatchee dentist Tyler Gundersen. She loved the mellow, cheerful Samoans and the opportunity to give back.

“I also learned how little I need to take with me on a trip like this,” she said.

“My luggage didn’t arrive with us and since there’s only one flight a week, I borrowed some scrubs, bought a lava lava (a wrap-around fabric) and a couple of t-shirts, wore flip flops the whole time. It made every-thing much simpler.”

Last year Brian and Barb took their first volunteer trip togeth-er. Their son Tyler introduced them to Partnering for Progress (P4P), a Spokane-based organi-zation that sends medical/edu-cation teams to a remote clinic in Kopanga, a small village in the southwest corner of Kenya.

The Kopanga clinic treats an average of 900 to 1,000 people per month who are pregnant or suffer from malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS.

When Barb and Brian arrived with the team of 15 people, they found a bare bones clinic with-out running water or electricity.

Word had spread that the medical team was coming, and hundreds of people showed up at the clinic every day, some walking as much as 20 miles one way.

Brian worked with Sospeter, the clinic administrator, on ac-counting practices, inventory control and setting up a book-keeping program on the clinic’s

single laptop computer.“My job wasn’t well defined

initially,” Brian said, “but as the week progressed and Sospeter was so busy with running the clinic, I realized there wasn’t near enough time to get every-thing done.”

According to P4P’s organizers, there is never enough time to

finish the work in Kopanga, but Bri-an accomplished much more than they expected.

Barb’s ability to go with the flow served her well as she taught health and hygiene to groups of patients waiting to be seen by the medical staff.

“I followed the script but realized pretty quickly that I’d have to modify it,” Barb said. “I told them to be sure to dry bath towels outside so the sun can kill the germs, then I realized they don’t have bath towels. Limit your soda pop sounds pretty silly to people who only drink one or two a year.

“Don’t draw drinking or cook-

ing water from a dirty pond, I’d say. Then I saw their only water source. Everything happens there — animals drink from it, mothers wash their babies, they do laundry and draw drinking water from the same muddy pond.”

As the Gundersen’s prepare for their next big adventure, they’re

studying Russian, which both say is very difficult.

“There are 33 characters in the alphabet, and many sounds that don’t exist in our language,” Brian said.

“It’s hard, but it’s fun,” Barb insisted, “at our age, to learn a new language. It just shows you are never too old for something new.”

They’ll live in an apartment in Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia and Russia’s third largest city, population of 1.4 million. In winter, the sun shines four hours a day and temperatures can plunge to 30 degrees below zero.

They will work with young people from 18 to 30, teaching how the LDS church functions and helping them understand how they can facilitate church operations.

“Sure we’re a little scared, but we’re really excited,” they both say.

“We have been given so much” Barb said with a wave of her hand that seems to encompass their family, their hillside home and their community.

“I believe our purpose for being here is to help those who don’t have as much as we do. Not just in terms of material things, but also to help others find their purpose in life.”

Linda Hagen Miller is a freelance writer whose personal motto is

“Life is short, pack light.” She’s been traveling and writing about her

experiences in national and regional magazines for over 20 years.

Brian Gundersen found his volunteer assignment in Kenya was a little undefined, which gave him time to find work on his own, such as sweeping up.

“it’s hard, but it’s fun... at our age, to learn a new language. it just shows you are never too old for something new.”

22 | AT hoMe WiTh The Good Life www.ncwgoodlife.com | September 2012

dan mccOnnell feels he’s edging up On that big breakthrOugh

by sebastian mOraga

surrounded by comic book racks and posters, Dan McCon-nell waits in his Dryden studio for the day his art gets the same recognition given to some of the legends on his walls and shelves.

A cartoonist for more than three decades, Dan’s work has appeared in magazines and newspapers across central Washington but has almost gone unnoticed beyond the Pa-cific Northwest.

The tide may be turning for 64-year-old Dan, with some of his cartoon ideas appearing in nationally-syndicated strips like Bizarro and Rhymes With Orange this year.

The cartoons getting the recognition include one of a shipwreck survivor on an island playing hide-and-seek with a gi-raffe. Such themes may confuse those who best know Dan as a political cartoonist.

Truth is, Dan’s humor and his drawing prowess predate his political bent. He remembers himself drawing cowboys bat-tling Indians on butcher paper as early as grade school.

Not long after, he tried a political theme. His subject was then-Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev.

“I showed it to my mom, and she said, ‘Who’s that?’” Dan said laughing. “I thought it looked pretty good.”

What followed were years of learning and teaching the trade, from comic book classes, to a comic strip named Apple Andy to political cartoons in local

newspapers, including a memo-rable one of a cow falling from a Manson cliff in 2007.

A shy man who tends to stare straight down when talking, Dan finds his comfort zone much quicker when handed pencil and paper. Asked to draw his answers, he takes to the task with gusto.

Who will win the 2012 presi-dential election? A smiling black man with big ears and an American flag lapel pin.

What would you do for a living if not cartooning? A man clack-ing away at a typewriter, with the thought bubble “It was a dark and stormy night” above his head.

What advice do you have for future cartoonists? A man head down with his nose on a grind-stone.

“I’m more of a visual guy,” he said. “(Drawing) fills my need for communication.”

That’s not unusual among cartoonists. Stars like Argentin-ean artist Quino, or Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson are notorious introverts. Dan Piraro, the author of Bizarro also fits that description, Dan said.

Dan met Piraro at a cartoon-ists’ convention in Las Vegas.

“After a couple of days of so-cializing and stuff, he was ready to go home, he couldn’t take it anymore,” Dan said. “A lot of

the guys felt that way. There’s a sense that what we do happens in isolation.”

Cartooning is fun but it’s also a lot of work, and that surprises people sometimes, he said.

As an art form, Dan said, car-tooning is overlooked.

“Maybe if they got to know a cartoonist,” he wrote in an email after the interview, “And see what kind of background he or she has and the experiences they have gone through to get to that point of being able to be a freelance artist, then maybe they would have more respect and admiration for the work.”

When not drawing giraffes hiding atop palm trees, Dan expands into other art forms. He writes screenplays and is sculpt-ing a jackrabbit for a high school in Quincy.

Still cartooning after all these years

The David and Goliath image from a Bible cards project.

ABOVE: This is a Sunday episode of a cartoon strip Dan submitted to the syndicates two years ago entitled Shrub. It’s about an alien with a cloak of invisibility that is only visible to a little boy.... or... is it all in the imagi-nation of the boy?

September 2012 | AT hoMe WiTh The Good Life www.ncwgoodlife.com | 23

Still, this Quincy High School alum sees himself as a cartoon-ist .

“That’s what I want to do to make a living,” he said.

His words sound like they belong to an up-and-comer hop-ing to make it somewhere after graduating college. Instead, they come from a gray-haired man with grown children and an orchard.

That’s the way the business is, asking pros with 30 years’ expe-rience like Dan to prove them-selves worthy of the holy grail of national syndication, and requiring of them 10 cartoons a

week.“That’s what you do if you

want to do the New Yorker,” he said. “They say that if you send 10 a week for a year, they will kind of know you’re serious about cartoons.”

He paused, chuckled, and said, “There’s an oxymoron.”

To stay creative and sharp, Dan draws inspiration from sources like the Bible.

“It keeps me on the straight road as a truth-seeker and justice seeker with my political cartoons,” he said.

He often peruses political cartoonists from left and right.

Cartoons on the right, he said, don’t paint a full picture, just the picture that makes President Obama look the worst.

“I’m sure they would say I was doing the same against Bush,” he said laughing.

Still, he said, his left-of-center views and his reluctance to have his cartoons edited have strained his relationship with some local media.

(Although Dan’s original cartoon, Then & Now, have been running in The Good Life since the first issue in June 2007.

Like an undrafted athlete, Dan waits to be discovered. Unlike that athlete, Dan can do this for another decade or so if he stays healthy. That, and his family history, allow him to stay pa-tient.

“My aunt lived to be 105 and my dad was 97,” he said. “I think I can probably still be effective in my 90s.”

As long as he can lift a pencil, odds are Dan will draw. Espe-cially now that the elusive big break seems at times almost imminent.

Last January, a drawing of a cartoon showing CSI investiga-tors digging into the melting death of Frosty The Snowman earned Dan a New Yorker re-jection slip and a comment by cartoonist Matthew Diffee at the Las Vegas convention.

“He said, ‘they should be look-ing at your stuff at the New York-er,’” Dan said. “‘It’s good enough for them to look at.’”

Then, Dan was told Piraro (author of Bizarro) had accepted one of his cartoons.

Syndicated cartoonists often buy cartoon ideas from lesser-known colleagues, reproducing the drawing in their own style.

Dan asked Piraro if he could send some. Piraro said yes.

“The first couple of ’em, he said ‘No, but I like the twist of your mind,’” Dan said. Then, in February of this year, Dan sent again and Piraro kept two.

The collaboration continues and Dan likes the free rein Piraro gives his contributors: Do what you want, send it over and let me pick.

Dan’s passion for cartooning continues. He said he is doing what he likes to do and his best days lie ahead, even at an age when most folks count the days until retirement.

“One way or the other, I’m going to get in there,” he said. “Whether it’s by flying under the radar like I have been, or by getting syndicated or published in the New Yorker.”

Sebastian Moraga is the education and features reporter for the SnoVal-

ley Star in Snoqualmie. He lives in Shoreline and Cashmere.

Dan has been sending ideas — such as the dog doctor in the left panel — to his Facebook friend Dan Piraro who transforms them into his own distinctive style for his syndicated comic strip, Bizarro.

Dan McConnell at work: Cartooning is overlooked as an artform.


stOry by susan lagsdinphOtOs by dOnna cassidy

kevin Van Reenen wanted to come home.

After seven satisfying years of work in Seattle, the lure of loved

ones and familiarity won out, sweetened by the assurance of a place to call his very own on 100 year-old orchard property that had nurtured good fruit and a large family.

A half-acre home site be-

came his for the building at the former orchard on 11th Street in East Wenatchee (first owned by Kevin’s great grandfather Gussman and then grandfather Neigel).

First, Kevin convinced his employers at Boeing he’d be productive long-distance, on-line. Then by February 2011, he recalled, “I had a basic design for

the house scribbled on a nap-kin.”

By last October, when he offi-cially proposed to his girlfriend, he’d already gathered some of her astute design ideas for the home on which he’d already bro-ken ground.

And by April 2012, when the house was move-in ready and Kevin and Stephanie’s June wed-

A hammock swings just outside the master bedroom, held securely in place by double-tressed deck roofing.

Clean lines, cool colors and spare décor characterize the whole house. An ad-ditional bedroom/bath wing for future family is already designed.

a new nest in the family orchard


ding two months away there was just enough lead time to landscape and level the spacious back yard for their guests.

Architect Ryan Kelso of Com-plete Designs and builder Rob Olson of Olson’s Construction knew they were working with a focused and exacting business-man and engineer who, at 28, was very sure of what he wanted

Every detail in the 1,846 square foot house, Kevin

emphasized, is intentional. Changes came early to ensure uninterrupted construction — for instance, a patio became a guest room, a pantry became countertops, a shop extended the bermed garage. The look and sensible flow of the home, as well as room plans already sketched for a future addition, bear the stamp of personality and preference.

Kevin and Stephanie brought strong individual tastes to the project. They have each traveled

in Europe; she returned with a love of France, he with a love of Italy. They’ve melded their favorite images so their flat-roofed, earth-toned house, with its distinctive balconies, wide curved steps, rockwork, and deep eaves evokes a traditional European countryside estate.

The home’s position, slanted slightly southwest on a hillside above urban bustle, gives it di-rect long views of Mission Ridge and Saddlerock.

Its uphill close neighbor is the

house built by Kevin’s grandfa-ther, in which his mother was born and lives now. Careful calculations from foundation to roofline in the son’s house were a gift to his mother: assurance of the same views high across the Columbia that she’s enjoyed all her life.

Outdoors, the familiar and the sophisticated blend naturally: street side cedar fencing near the pergola buffers traffic noise but allows greetings with walk-


Stone veneer adds texture to the dining room, which opens straight onto the deck’s dining area, easily allowing ex-tended table seating for 10.


ing neighbors, the lawn is big enough for impromptu soccer, and a grove of pear trees Kevin tended as a youngster edges the lush lawn on its north side.

And tucked under the terraced back yard in a private patio area

is a luxurious lap pool/hot tub combination, where luminaries in Romanesque urns light the pool after dark.

The interior of the house is deceptively simple, and no space is wasted. Windows are big squares with minimal coverings.

The living and kitchen areas are contiguous, a contemporary convention, but by opening the dining area’s French doors to a west-facing deck this couple can situate three tables in a row for banquet seating.

The master bedroom and of-fice, smaller than typical, both catch equal views, sun and breeze.

The ground floor living area, down a curved open stairway, is a pleasure palace of sorts. At the base is the cozy media space, which abuts a bath and guest room and opens to the driveway/garage level.

It’s the “other room” that’s a delight for the senses. First, a space with temperature con-trolled wine storage welcomes guests to a tiny tasting table and bench seats.

Then comes Kevin’s pride and joy: a cigar room (“Hey, if I didn’t have this I’d be outside in all weather,” he joked). It fea-tures a soundproof glass door,


Corner counters and cabinetry took the place of a small walk-in pantry in the original design, a choice that opens up the compact kitchen.

Greeting visitors at the front door is a statuette of St. Francis, protected by a triangular box that was crafted by Kevin’s grandfather.

a new nest

NCW Home Professionals


special ventilation, soft lounge chairs and backlit shelving dis-playing a vast collection of shot glasses. A room not for ciga-rettes, he insisted. Cigars only.

Travertine tile and Egyptian limestone, cool and pale, floor much of the house, and subtle paint colors, skip-troweled sage green, palest lavender-tint and creamy gray keep the rooms light.

El Dorado stone, a rock-look veneer, adds texture and con-tinuity to the entry and dining area and will eventually wrap the balconies’ pillars.

The couple, with help from his siblings, chose materials and products from a variety of sources. They have created on that ancestral land a place that is, as Stephanie said, “Our ‘for-ever house’ — we wanted it to be the only place we’d ever live in, so we were really careful to build the best house we could.”

The house is compact and ser-viceable, just right for a young

married couple. However, close by the master suite, a door cur-rently leading to the backyard is actually a door to the family’s future. In few years, perhaps, it will be a hallway to the chil-dren’s quarters.

East Wenatchee’s hillsides of fruit have inexorably given way to residences, but on land that 100 years ago was newly planted orchard, one more branch of Kevin Van Reenen’s old family tree will grow.

This shady patio with its pergola is a favorite outdoor spot, barely visible from the street and only a lawn’s length away from the older family home.

Stephanie and Kevin, new to the home and new to marriage, together made well-considered choices in their expandable “forever” house.

The geometric lines and latte-colored finish, terraced walkways and balconies lend a distinctive new look to the old familiar neighborhood.

NCW Home Professionals

“our ‘forever house’ — we wanted it to be the only place we’d ever live...”


cucumbers are more than dainty sandwiches or dill pick-les.

Now, I love sun warm cucum-ber sandwiches made with fresh, homemade bread and lots of butter, and what is a hamburger without dill pickles? Oh yes, and slices can be added to a glass of cold water for a clean flavor, or placed over your eyes after a long, long day.

They can be sliced and stir-fried in butter for a quick veggie dish, as well. Most importantly, this fruit is a great base for sauc-es, and they come in a variety of shapes and styles.

My favorite cucumbers are the lemon cucumber, picked imma-ture before the seeds ripen and the Armenian cucumber with long ribs and solid flesh.

Pickling cucumbers are small and crisp and can be used in any dish if they are peeled. Most of my gardening friends grow the seedless cucumbers because they are seedless and they are mild.

Because each seed has a “husk” that is not mouth friendly, the mature seeds are a nuisance. Remove the seed with a small spoon run the length of the fruit.

To peel or not to peel? If the fruit is young, the skin is most likely tender. Older cucumbers and those grown in hot weather will have tougher skins. If you purchased your cucumbers, the skin may be waxed, and com-mercial fruit has a tougher skin to protect it during shipping — so peel those.

Bitterness in cucumbers is the result of hot weather and too little water. Some people say you can peel the bitter cucumber, seed it, salt the flesh and let it

sit in the refrigerator over night to sweeten the fruit. That helps some.

Some people think that cu-cumbers are too wet and salt them to drain out the excess moisture; I don’t cook any reci-pes that call for dry cucumbers.

Green SmoothieThis goes well with fish or pork. It

makes about one cup.

1 small shallot chopped1 clove garlic chopped1 tablespoon olive oil2 tablespoons lime juice1 avocado, pitted and peeled1 medium cucumber peeled and

seededSalt and pepper

1. Saute the shallot and garlic in the olive oil.

2. Blend all the ingredients together to make a smooth sauce. Serve room temperature or chilled.

Czcik, Tzatziki, Khiyar bi lben are the Middle Eastern names for this cucumber, garlic and yogurt sauce.

I found a dried mix for the

tzatziki in Istanbul at the spice souk. I had wandered in this aromatic wonderland for hours from booth to squatted piles of spices to cooking pans.

I had taken a “shopping list” generated by the recipes in Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. It took me hours and dozens of questions to the merchants, and I found all 14 spices that I was looking for.

This sauce is inspired by Wolf-ert’s recipe, but I like my ver-sion that is more piquant. The sauce is so versatile. I use it as a salad dressing on a cucumber or spinach salad, poured over rice or bulgur, or as a sauce over any eggplant dish.

Tzatziki20 minutesMakes 2 cups of sauce

2 large cucumbers2 cups plain yogurt2 tablespoons vinegar1 tablespoon olive oil2 large garlic cloves1 Tablespoon dried mint or 2 teaspoons fresh, minced pep-

permint leavesSalt/pepper

Remove half the peel from only half of the cucumber. Seed all the cucumber.

Grate the cucum-ber very coarsely or dice very finely.

Mix the yogurt, vinegar and olive oil until smooth.

Stir in the garlic and the cucumber and the salt and pepper.

Add the mint – fresh is far superior if you have it.

If you have the time, let this dish sit overnight in the refrig-erator, or just let it sit and meld its flavors as you make the rest of your meal.

Fried Green Cucumbers

30 minutesServes 4

1 large cucumbers 1 tablespoon butter¼ cup half and half1 teaspoon horseradish sauce1 tablespoon mustard1/2 cup toasted bread crumbs

Seed the fruit and dice it.Saute the cucumber in the butter

until limp and barely brown.Stir in the half and half and the

spices.Top with toasted bread crumbs and

cover the pan for two minutes.Serve.

Bonnie Orr — the dirt diva — cooks and gardens in East Wenatchee.

So many ways to love a good cuke

column GArden oF deLIGHtsbonnIE orr

>>

Cucumbers beg to be blended into a number of interesting tastes such as a Green Smoothie, which incorporates an avocado, or a classic Tzatziki.


want tO stay healthier? these peOple dO it by helping Others

gandhi once said “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

I have been impressed by the large number of our local citi-zens who volunteer on a regular basis in various capacities in our valley.

I googled “nonprofit organiza-tions” in our community and found over 250 of them, many of which are churches. Among the non-church organizations are dozens that rely on volunteers for their day-to-day missions and even their survival.

One of the better-known ben-efits of volunteerism is the im-pact on the community. Unpaid volunteers have been described as the “glue that holds a commu-nity together.”

Volunteering is good for the volunteer as well as meeting the needs of others.

There are many health ben-efits attributed to volunteering.

Volunteering can increase one’s confidence, self-esteem and life satisfaction by provid-ing a sense of accomplishment. Volunteerism has been shown to help combat depression.

A key risk factor in depression is social isolation. Volunteering keeps one in contact with others and helps some volunteers in developing their own support system, which in itself is very beneficial.

Volunteering is helpful at any age but has been shown to be particularly so for older adults. Volunteers have been shown to have a lower mortality rate

compared to other people their same age.

Helping others takes your mind off yourself and your own personal issues, and in so doing, reduces symptoms of chronic pain and heart disease.

Edward Robinson said, “There are two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we have received and the larger kind we feel when we give.”

Many volunteers I know do their personal missions anony-mously, preferring to keep it quiet.

Some spend a few hours a week sitting with persons with Alzheimer dementia allowing the spouse a few precious hours every week for themselves.

Others regularly visit patients in hospitals, jails and nursing homes. These visits are often the highlight of the recipient’s day.

Others volunteer regularly for organizations teaching English as a second language to immi-grants. Some help newcomers to our country in their process to become citizens.

I know Rotarians who are “lunch buddies” and meet

weekly with an elementary stu-dent for lunch and discussion to let them know there is someone who cares about them.

Many people cook meals for the homeless. Others collect and sort food from local grocery stores to be distributed to food banks. Still others collect and sort donated clothes for distri-bution to those less fortunate than themselves.

The more I looked into this subject, the more

I became aware of all the won-derful volunteers we have in this valley and in our country as well. People do care about people. Someone once said, “No act of kindness, now matter how small, is ever wasted.”

There are so many wonderful people in this valley who volun-teer to help others it is hard to single out any particular indi-viduals or organizations. But to give examples here are a few I interviewed regarding this sub-ject to see what motivates them.

Ann McIntosh, a recently retired attorney, is volunteering for the second time serving on the board of directors for the Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center.

Ann has done this for 10 years. Ann said she has met a lot of

wonderful people and that she believes in the mission of the

Volunteering: Great for you & the community

column tHe trAVeLInG doCtorjIM brown, M.D.

>>

Dr. Robert Ogburn, now semi-retired, has long volunteered at the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust partially because he’s passionate about preserving land for all citizens to use into the future.

helping others takes your mind off yourself and your own personal issues, and in so doing, has been shown to reduce symptoms of chronic pain and heart disease.


Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center, which helps at-risk chil-dren and provides day care in a safe and caring environment.

Ann also has volunteered on the board of the Community Action Center. Before law school at the University of Washington, she was a social worker, an expe-rience I think has motivated her through life.

Merry Roy, retired Orondo school teacher, was one of the founders of the Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center over 22 years ago. She is the chairperson of the board and a weekly volun-teer there as well.

When asked why she volun-teers so much, she said, “I think God gave me certain abilities and when I see a need I want to use them to be of help, especial-ly where it involves children.”

Dr. Carl Kjobech was the founder of the Wellness Place 10 years ago with a mission to provide help for cancer patients in our area.

As a cancer doctor and a cancer survivor himself, Carl has had a lifelong interest and motivation to continue in this arena after his retirement from the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center.

The program Carl started expanded far beyond cancer care and now provides exercise programs for over 400 seniors to prevent falls plus programs for patients to help them deal with Parkinson’s disease.

In addition, the Wellness Place helps with transportation for patients from outside our valley who are coming here for chemo-therapy. As most nonprofits, the Wellness Place depends totally on donations and volunteers.

Katie Kavanaugh Pauly has served on the board of trustees of the Community Foundation of NCW. She has volunteered in several other capacities in our valley.

What motivates her? I think it must have started

in 1982-1985 when she was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. She made up her mind then to try to make every community she would live in a better place.

Dr. Robert Ogburn, now semi-retired, has been involved in the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust for several years. He has been serv-ing on its board of directors for the past five years.

Passionate about the goal of the CDLT to preserve land for all our citizens to use and enjoy now as well as into the future, he can’t think of a greater legacy to leave to the generations who follow.

Jim and Karen Russell moved to our valley 11 years ago and have made a significant impact in that short period of time.

Jim has been motivated to help make the communities he has lived in be places he can be proud of.

He has been involved in Ro-tary, which places “service above self ’ as a fundraiser, organizer and a lunch buddy to middle school boys.

He has served on the board of the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust and helped immigrants in their quest to become citizens.

His wife, Karen, has been involved in the Performing Arts Center in part due to her love for the arts, especially music and dance. She also spends countless hours as a respite volunteer for Hospice, staying with patients so their caregivers might have a

break. She enjoys working with peo-

ple of all walks of life and said “I get out a lot more than I give” and “I meet the most amazing people along the way.”

Barb Braley, RN, has been volunteering for over three years at the Lighthouse Soup Kitchen cooking and coordinating United Methodist Church volun-teers who provide two Saturday breakfasts a month as a local mission project.

She has worked for Central Washington Hospital for 13 years in the internal medicine depart-ment.

She was motivated to service by her father who told her that wherever she is in the world, it should be a better place because of her presence.

She also feels that the fellow-ship and interaction around the meal table should be an impor-tant part of everyone’s life. And in preparing meals at the Light-house she enjoys seeing folks enjoying a meal together.

On many Saturday mornings you can find Mike and Alicia McCrae helping provide break-fast for up to 50 men and women at the Lighthouse Soup Kitchen on south Wenatchee Avenue.

Their motivation is that they just enjoy doing this for others who are needy.

Their careers also are reflec-tive of their willingness to serve others.

Mike works in juvenile deten-tion and Alicia has worked for the Housing Authority for over 20 years helping people find af-fordable houses or helping them with rent subsidies.

Another Lighthouse volunteer said, “When I grew up we didn’t have much. My parents had not been able to go to college and sacrificed so that I could. I saw and marveled at their giving to the less fortunate their entire lives. I really feel an identity in a way with these folks who come to the Lighthouse. After helping

provide them with a good meal, I leave feeling that this was a good day.”

Another anonymous volunteer said, “It gives me a good feeling to be doing something that gives my life meaning and to feel I make a difference in some small way.”

A friend of mine, who pre-ferred not to have his name used, said that before he and his wife moved here a few years ago they could never figure out why people would volunteer.

He said that after they moved here, they started going to church and became Christians.

Since that time they felt called to serve others and have been very involved in Serve Wenatchee and Mobile Meals which deliver between 60 to 80 meals a day.

They are truly enjoying help-ing others.

I do not think Wenatchee is unusual.

Cities throughout our country are better places because of the people who are putting — as Rotary urges — “service above self.”

If my interviews are a reflec-tion of what most volunteers feel, they seem unanimous in agreeing that through volun-teering to help others, they are getting more than they give.

Francis of Assisi said, “Re-member when you leave this earth, you take with you noth-ing that you have received, only what you have given.”

Gandhi said, “If you want to change the world, be that change.”

Jim Brown, M.D., is a retired gas-troenterologist who has practiced for 38 years in the Wenatchee area. He is a former CEO of the Wenatchee Val-ley Medical Center.

Volunteer: ‘I meet the most amazing people...’“it gives me a good feeling to be doing something that gives my life meaning and to feel i make a difference in some small way.”

Know of someone stepping off the beaten path in the search for fun and excitement? E-mail us at

[email protected]


how would you like to be psychologically “bullet-proof” so that no matter what tough stuff comes your way, you’d be able to successfully cope with it — and see it as “no biggie?”

If you could do that with a huge, sincere smile, you’d be a lot like Don Senn.

Don, a longtime Wenatchee resident, has taken a number of slugs, especially of the medical variety. He has had prostate can-cer, chronic lymphatic leukemia, skin cancer, double pneumonia and Barrett’s esophagus, just to name the heavies. His response to all these is: “No biggie.”

It really does seem as if Don is happy and thriving despite it all. He might even say because of it all. He considers himself as a very, very lucky guy.

What makes Don so dang tough?

Perhaps that grittiness Don has is in his DNA, or perhaps it was his training at the Air Force Academy.

Although that’s not what Don thinks.

As Don considers the ques-tion, he recalls the good role models of resilience his parents and grandparents were.

For example his mother survived uterine cancer, breast

cancer, and a tragic car accident to live to 90 when she died after fighting colon cancer for two years. She focused on mentor-ing others, never complaining or asking, “Why me?”

Don also thinks his wife, other family members and friends have buoyed him up. “My wife, Diane, has always been there for me… and she always will be. My

friends let me mow their lawns and shovel their snow. They know I like to do it. It lets me be normal and maintain my self-worth.

“I also work on Habitat for Humanity with Grace Lutheran Church members and do things with Lions club.”

Don worked for Washington State Department of Transporta-

tion for 42 years, so keeping busy doing work for friends and com-munity fills a void he appreciates.

Wenatchee, according to Don, is a wonderful community to help build resil-ience, not only because of be-ing able to make good friends, but also because of the outstanding medical commu-nity.

“Here when you have a medi-cal problem, you don’t go down a black hole. We

have top-notch people right here. The doctors and the nurses are tremendously positive. They have you up and back into your community of friends as soon as possible.”

Some of Don’s conversation reflects these 10 resilience-build-ing recommendations from the American Psychological Asso-ciation.

How to say ‘no biggie’ when trouble strikes

column moVInG uP to tHe Good LIFejunE DArlIng

>>

Don Senn in a rare moment of relaxing: Staying useful and building a support community are keys to being psychologically bullet-proof.


n Maintain good relationships with close family members, friends and others.

n Avoid seeing crises or stress-ful events as unbearable prob-lems.

n Accept circumstances that cannot be changed.

n Develop realistic goals and move towards them.

n Take decisive actions in adverse situations (rather than think problems will just go away).

n Look for opportunities of self-discovery after a struggle with loss.

n Develop self-confidence.n Keep a long-term perspec-

tive and consider the stressful event in a broader context.

n Maintain a hopeful outlook, expecting good things and visu-alizing what is wished.

n Take care of one’s mind and body, exercising regularly, pay-ing attention to one’s own needs and feelings and engaging in re-laxing activities that one enjoys.

As Don examined the APA list,

he endorsed all of the recom-mendations. He says it’s particu-larly imperative to avoid seeing crises or stressful events as unbearable problems.

Don says that confidence is es-sential and connected to staying hopeful.

“I know I can always figure out a way to deal with things — take my meds, find out more about my issues, take care of myself, get out and walk, ask for help from my family and friends, and especially see my glass as half-full, never half-empty.”

Don says it’s important for him to respond “always good” when anyone asks how he’s doing. “It gives me a chance to verbalize the positive way I do feel and I want to project that.”

Don circles back to the impor-tance of community. Of all the APA recommendations, he says maintaining good relationships with close family members and friends is the most important.

As Don reflects appreciatively on his own support, his eyes

water. “We’ve got to be there, be role-models, mentors and encourage each other. Let each other know that we can cope. We can feed off each other.”

More than likely at some point we will all face at least one hardship, but by building our resilience, particularly our sup-port community, we can become hardier.

With practice, we can become more psychologically bullet-proof and learn to view tough stuff as Don does, as a “No big-gie” but rather an opportunity to grow and become our best.

How might you build your sup-port community, become more resilient, and move up to The Good Life?

June Darling, Ph.D., is an executive coach who consults with businesses

and individuals to achieve goals and increase happiness. She can be reached at [email protected],

or drjunedarling.blogspot.com or at her twitter address: twitter.com/drjunedarling. Her website is www.

summitgroupresources.com.

Join Us ForA Happy Hourof Fun, Growthand Inspiration

We’ve just made it easier and more fun to move up To

The Good Life.

Come to the VIP Lounge, Town

Toyota Center, Oct. 11, 4 p.m. (cost $7).

Meet featured

personalities from the pages of The

Good Life. No host bar, fruit and

cheese appetizer.

[email protected]

Limited to25 people.


aRT of daRknESS:Cheryl Stewart, Entiat’s blind weaver

by alan mOen

north Central Washington has its share of hand spinners, knitters and weavers. But Cheryl Stewart of Entiat won’t be pull-ing wool over your eyes when she says she’s a bit different from the rest: Cheryl is almost com-pletely blind.

Cheryl, 50, grew up in Walla Walla, and wanted to be an art-ist. She started knitting when she was nine years old, but pre-ferred drawing instead.

“I never had full vision, so I never knew what good sight was,” she said. Her mother and father discovered that she had Rod-cone Dystrophy, a degen-erative eye disease.

They didn’t tell Cheryl that she was going blind, but school became difficult for her as her eyesight began to fail. When she was 12, they sent her to the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver. By the time she was 16, Cheryl had lost everything visual but the per-ception of light.

“Part of the training when you

lose your sight is shop class,” she recalled. “They make you learn how to use power tools and build something. That really builds in your confidence to go on with your life without see-ing.”

Unable to draw any longer, Cheryl took up knitting again. “It was like learning a new lan-guage. You have to speak it and make mistakes,” she says. “But it’s a mathematical process. I do all kinds of intricate knitting now based on patterns of count-ing stitches.”

“I’m an artist, not a ‘knitter,’” Cheryl said. “I design most of my own things. Visual concepts have never left me — I can see my work in my mind when I’m doing it.”

Cheryl met her husband Brian

at a Bible college in Seattle. They moved to Wenatchee when he got a job as a computer repairman in 1987, and later as a computer technician with the Wenatchee School District in 1994. The couple lived in East Wenatchee and on Badger Mountain before coming to En-tiat in 2009.

Brian’s expertise in technol-ogy has been a real help to her, Cheryl said. She stores her knit-ting patterns on a Note Taker Braille device that can also talk to her, as can her phone.

But not content to merely knit, Cheryl wanted to do the whole thing from start to finish.

“I don’t raise my own sheep,” she said, “but I wash and pro-cess the fleece, comb or card it, and spin my own yarn, too.” She

even has created multi-colored yarns from different fleeces of sheep and alpacas.

Although her daughter Han-nah does the actual dyeing of yarn, Cheryl can literally tell col-or by touch. “I know the colors of spices, so it’s kind of the same thing,” she said.

I watched Cheryl make yarn in her home workshop, starting with wool she had washed from a Southdown Babydoll sheep. After the wool is skirted (dirt and larger debris is cut away), she puts it in very hot water with Dawn dish soap, which extracts lanolin and other natural oils that would make the yarn sticky and hard to spin.

“It’s pH neutral, so it doesn’t harm the fleece,” Cheryl said. After a two-hour soak, she lets

Examples of Cheryl’s work: “I’m an artist, not a knitter,” she says.

Cheryl Stewart feeds pieces of cleaned fleece into a drum carder. The two drums covered in dozens of tiny spikes force the fibers to align mostly in one direction, a step needed prior to spinning to create yarn.


WHAt to do >>We want to know of fun and

interesting local events. Send info to: [email protected]

the fiber drain and repeats the process.

The final rinse of 15-20 min-utes is done with water of the same temperature, and Cheryl adds a normal shampooing conditioner to it. “I don’t really have to do that, but it makes the wool soft and easier to comb,” she said. Then the fleece goes outside to dry, which normally takes about six hours.

When the fleece is completely dry, it’s ready for carding or combing. For the carding pro-cess, Cheryl uses a drum carder consisting of two rollers covered with dozens of small spikes. Feeding pieces of the fleece in to the rollers causes the fibers to open up and forces them to go mostly in one direction, a pro-cess called roving. This is used for woolen spinning.

To make “worsted” yarn, Cheryl uses steel combs with very sharp spikes to also form the fibers in one direction. She handles the wool gently, pulling it between the combs until it is soft and consistent. Wool from these processes is then formed into a kind of rectangular shape called a batt.

Cheryl then takes the wool batt to her spinning wheel and begins to form it into yarn. By running the wool through in

different directions, like making rope, she can create yarns with multiple plies. Four-ply yarn is usually the heaviest she uses in knitting.

Cheryl showed me the prod-ucts she has made from hand-spun yarns — everything from wine cozies to gloves, scarves and sweaters, with a variety of stitching patterns, colors and textures.

She has also collaborated with a local soap maker to produce a popular felted soap, in which a wool felt cover is put over the soap, making it look a bit like a soft stone.

With her daughter and hus-band, Cheryl began a business in 2011 called SF Designs (for Stewart Family Designs,) and now sells from her home web-site and at local farmer’s mar-kets. She’s also a member of the North Central Washington Spinners and Weavers Guild and the NCW Knitters Guild.

Cheryl hopes that her artwork will be an inspiration to others. “A lot of people have all their faculties but don’t really use them,” she said.

“I hope that seeing what I do will make them do more with what they have.”

Cheryl’s work, as well as that of other local weavers, spinners and knitters, will be on display at the “Wool Work for Wine” tasting at Snowgrass Winery in Entiat on Sept. 30.

Alan Moen raises sheep in the Entiat Valley, but is careful not to let any-

one pull the wool over his eyes.

WENATCHEE FARmER’S mAR-kET, Wednesdays 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Columbia St.; Thursdays 3 – 7 p.m. Methow Park; Saturdays, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Columbia St. Local produce, fruit, flowers, eatery, wine tasting and entertainment.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, 9/1, 8 p.m. Leavenworth Summer Theater. Info: leavenworthsummertheater.org.

mUGSY’S GROOVE, 9/1, 6 – 9 p.m. Live music at Munchen Haus Bavar-ian Grill and Beer Garden, Leaven-worth. Info: munchenhaus.com.

RIDE THE mINIATURE TRAIN, 9/1, 1 – 5 p.m. Riverfront Park. Cost: $3 adults, $2 kids. Info: Wenatchee.org.

SEVENS REVENGE, 9/1, 5 p.m. Live music. Vin du Lac Winery, Chelan. Info: vindulac.com.

TINGSTAD AND RUmBEL, 9/1, 7 p.m. Live music. River Haus in the Pines, Leavenworth. Cost: $30. Info: river-hausinthepines.com.

PEARL DjANGO, 9/1, 7 p.m. Gypsy

swing jazz. Indulge in an evening of champagne, chocolate and wine while listening to the music that floats out - a lively, jazzy romp. Featuring: Michael Gray, violin; Rick Leppanen, double bass; David Lange, accordion; Ryan Hoffman, guitar and Troy Chapman, guitar. Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leaven-worth. Cost: $25 (includes choco-late buffet and champagne). Info: icicle.org.

T SOAk, 9/2, 5 p.m. Live music. Vin du Lac Winery, Chelan. Info: vindu-lac.com.

jOE WALSH, 9/2, 7 p.m. Live perfor-mance. Deep Water Amphitheater, Manson. Info: lakechelan.com.

SOUND OF mUSIC, 9/2, 8 p.m. Leavenworth Summer Theater. Info: leavenworthsummertheater.org.

CHAPTER 5, 9/2, 9:30 p.m. Live music. Mill Bay Casino. Info: lake-chelan.com.

CHELAN PARkFIT, 9/3, 7:30 a.m. every Monday and Wednesday through 9/12. Outdoor fitness class includes general warm up, cardiovascular activities, muscular

“i can see my work in my mind when i’m doing it.”



resistance and endurance train-ing with elastic tubing, flexibility exercises and stretching. Meet at the flagpole in Riverwalk Park in Chelan. Cost: $10.

UNDERGROUND BLUES jAm, 9/3, 7:30 p.m. Every first Monday of the month. 10 Below, 29 N Columbia St. side B. Info: Joe Guimond 664-4077.

FUN IN THE SUN, 9/3, noon – 5 p.m. Enjoy a day at Slidewaters while supporting local ski hill, Echo Val-ley. Live music by the LakeBoys. Door prizes (need not be present to win) Slidewaters Chelan. Cost: $12 pp or 10 tickets for $100. Pre-sale tickets only. Purchase at Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce, Columbia Furniture, Lake Chelan Sports or Allison’s in Manson. Info: lakechelan.com.

ImPROV/ACTING WORkSHOP, 9/4, 7 p.m. Every Tuesday night with theater games for novice and experienced players. Fun, casual and free. Riverside Playhouse. Cost: free. Info: mtow.org.

TUNNEL HILL VINEYARD TOUR, 9/4 and every Tuesday through Sep-tember. Guided tour of the vine-yards with breathtaking lake views. Wine 101 seminar every Tuesday also. Info: tunnelhillwinery.com.

CHELAN EVENING FARmER’S mAR-kET, 9/6, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. and every Thursday through 11/29. Corner of S. Emerson and Wapato Streets, between the Riverwalk Inn and Riverwalk Park. Info: chelanfarmer-smarket.org.

SUmmER CONCERT SERIES, 9/6,12,20 & 27. Live music. Benson Vineyards Estate Winery. Info: ben-sonvineyards.com.

BIRDS AT jACOBSON, 9/6, 9 -11 a.m. Learn a new hike in the foothills while Dr. Stephens talks about birds found at the preserve. As many as 38 different bird species have been identified on this property. Dr. Stephens offers insight on their behaviors and habitat. Bring water, snacks and sturdy shoes. Park at WRAC, meet Jacobson Trailhead. Cost: free. Info: 667-9708.

CHELAN COUNTY FAIR, 9/6-9. Come for food, 4-H animals, the carnival rides and the rodeo. Chelan County Expo Center, Cashmere. Info: 782-3232.

PERFECT PARING WINE AND CHEESE, 9/6 and every Thursday, 5 – 7 p.m. Three wines with three cheeses. The Blending Room, 222 E. Wapato Way, Manson. Cost: $7. Info: winegirlwines.com.

WENATCHEE FIRST FRIDAY, 9/7, 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. Walk downtown for art, music, dining and entertain-ment. Downtown Wenatchee.

2 RIVERS ART GALLERY, 9/7, 5 – 8 p.m. A public reception will feature “Fur, Feathers & Scales” a theme show. Two Rivers Art Gallery begins a whole new exhibit of the works of its professional & emerging artists. Music by harpist Suzanne Grassell, wines by White Heron Cellars, African Amber beer by Mac & Jacks Brewery. 102 N. Columbia, Wenatchee. Cost: free.

TUmBLEWEED BEAD CO., 9/7, 5 p.m. Karen Dawn Dean and Keri Carlton will be exhibiting their work. Karen will showcase her pottery and Keri will have an array of her Lotic Stone collection. 105 Palouse, Wenatchee. Cost: free. Info: tumbleweedbead-co.com.

LIVE mUSIC, 9/7, 7 – 9 p.m. and ev-ery Friday night at Campbell’s 2nd floor pub and veranda Chelan.

CHEF ExTRAVAGANzA, 9/7, 6 p.m. In conjunction with Farmer Con-sumer Awareness Day we gather large piles of foodstuff from within 10 miles of the winery. Three chefs come in, look at the piles, and go to work creating whatever their imaginations conjure. Bring danc-ing shoes to work off the extra pounds with the live band. White Heron Cellar, 10035 Stuhlmiller Rd, Quincy. Cost: $25 per person for all you can eat. Info: 797-9463.

CASHmERE ART AND ACTIVITY CENTER, 9/8, 10 a.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, 9:30 a.m. week-days. Second Saturday celebra-tions, meet the artists, enjoy food and drink, musical entertainment by Kirk Lewellen. Featured artist for September will be Walter Graham, a well-known western artist. Spot-lighted artist will be Connie Rober-son, a local painter. During August and September come and “Name That Painting.” Prizes awarded.

mARkET DAY, 9/8, 10 a.m. Local vendors of metalwork, pottery, stonework, leather goods, jewelry, garden plants, organic skin care and baked goods. Pak-it-Rite corner of Second and Wenatchee Ave. Cost: free.

AUTOmATIC THEORY, 9/8, 5 p.m. Live music. Vin du Lac Winery &

Bistro Chelan. Info: vindulac.com.

CAR SHOW AND CRUISE, 9/8. River-walk Park Chelan. Info: lakechelan.com.

SHORE-TO-SHORE mARATHON, 9/8. Marathon, half marathon and 10K run. Course begins at Field’s Point on Chelan’s South Shore Road. Run-ners pass through Chelan on Hwy 97A to Manson. Info: lakechelan-marathon.com.

THE STORmS OF DENALI, 9/8, 7 p.m. In Nicholas O’Connell’s novel of adventure, adversity and ambition, four men set out to conquer Mount Denali. Free slide show. Canyon Wren Recital Hall Leavenworth. Info: icicle.org.

SAILING REGATTA, 9/8-9. All sail-boats welcome. Lake Chelan. Info: lakechelan.com.

HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL, 9/8-9, 4:30 p.m. Food vendors, beer and wine garden, Elvis and fireworks. At dusk the balloons will light up for a tethered nightglow to illumi-nate the nighttime sky. Parties on the Green, Quincy. Info: parties-onthegreen.com.

ALL VALLEY WORSHIP, 9/9, 6 p.m. Special speakers, Pastor Jerry Beebe of First Assembly, Pastor Steve Brewer of Eastmont Baptist, Gretchen Milnes of SWV Ministries. Music by Community Wide Music Team. Offerings to support SWV Ministries. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacenter.com.

ALzHEImER’S CAFé, 9/11, 2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. Mountain Meadows Senior Living Campus hosts a cafe the second Tuesday of every month. This is a casual setting for folks with Alzheimer’s, Dementia, there loved ones and caregivers. Des-serts and beverages will be served free of charge. Entertainment and activities for those wishing to participate. Join us to meet new friends and share experiences. Lo-cated at 320 Park Avenue, Leaven-worth. Info: 548-4076.

RADICAL REELS FILm FESTIVAL, 9/11, 7 p.m. All.I.Can: Perseverance puts the focus on high energy big mountain skiing and steep lines. Featuring Travis Rice and a cast of snowboarders, The Art of Flight is chock-full of action and mind-blow-ing stunts captured in stunning high-definition. Shot and edited in only seven days, Cat Skiing, is a fresh and funny ski and snowboard short. Concrete Dreams introduces bobtrack downhill skateboard-ing — a sport that didn’t exist until filmmaker and star Danny Strasser

began his tour of Europe’s tracks. From The Inside Out is a free ride mountain biking film from the athletes themselves. From Mexico to Iceland, Frontier features huge waterfalls, remote areas, breath-taking scenery, and some of the most challenging whitewater ever paddled. Here We Go Again show-cases DH Production’s DIY style, blue collar work ethic, and belief that it’s all about having fun on the bike. The Jackson Hole backcoun-try is the spectacular site for some amazing ski BASE jumps in Miller’s Thriller. In just four minutes, the short film Narsicame answers the question, “is there hope for the headcam addicted?” Reel Rock: Race For The Nose invites viewers to witness the wildest competition known to man – the speed record on the Nose route of El Capitan. In Whitewater Grand Prix, some of the world’s best kayakers come to-gether for a six stage competition on spectacular whitewater. Leav-enworth Festhalle. Info. And tickets: skileavenworth.com.

GEOLOGY AT SADDLE ROCk, 9/12, 5 p.m. Learn all about how the rocks were created on a hike around the natural area with geologist Kel-say Stanton. Bring water, snacks and sturdy shoes. Meet at park-ing area the end of Circle Street. Wenatchee. Cost: free. Info: 667-9703.

COmmUNITY CPR BLITz, 9/13, 4 - 8 p.m. Free CPR training event. Two sessions in English and two sessions in Spanish. Participants receive CPR Anytime Kit to take home and further train friends and family. Wenatchee Valley College gym. Info: ncecc.net/ai1ec_event/community-cpr-blitz/?instance_id=2415.

ALL ABOUT LAVENDER, 9/14, 7 p.m. Presentation about growing and marketing lavender by Susan Harrington and Labyrinth Hill. Barn Beach Reserve, Leavenworth. Cost: donations will benefit the E. Lorene Young Community Garden. Info: 548-7584.

PIRATE FEST, 9/14-16. On 9/15, parade 10 a.m. Pirate cruises, pirate movie, dinner, music, food and fun. Downtown Chelan. Cost: free. Info: lakechelanpiratefest.com.

BLUES, BREWS & BBQ FESTIVAL, 9/15, noon -11 p.m. Music by Duffy Bishop, Big Mumbo, Ty Curtis Band, Doctor Funk, Slack Daddy and more, micro and macro brews, three BBQ pit masters, cigar bar and much more. Leavenworth Festhalle. Cost: $20 on line or $25

WHAt to do >>


We want to know of fun and interesting local events. Send

info to: [email protected]




at the door. Info: leavenworthblues.com.

TASTE OF HARVEST FESTIVAL, 9/15. Celebrate Wenatchee’s rich agricultural heritage at this street fair, with a wine garden, a fun run, kids area, farmer’s market, food and live concerts, and much more. The wine garden hours will be 12-6 p.m., with 15 tastes of wine plus a souvenir glass for $25. Downtown Wenatchee. Info: www.wenatcheewines.com or www.wenatcheedowntown.org.

RIVER RUN, 9/15, 10 a.m., half-marathon, 10K and 5K, along a paved trail on the shores of the Columbia River, held in conjunc-tion with the Taste of the Harvest Festival in downtown Wenatchee, runwenatchee.com.

OUT OF THE DARkNESS WALk, 9/15, 10 a.m. Help the Suicide Prevention Coalition of NCW raise awareness and stop the suicide increase in our valley. Walla Walla Point Park Shelter 1. Info: Kim Robertson 449-0195 or afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=1934.

BOOk BUzz, 9/15, 1 p.m. The afterlife via computer science in Good-bye for Now by Laurie Frankel; a misplaced genius and a daughter’s love for her imperfect mother in Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Ma-ria Simple; Jon Wulf’s ever-evolving take on love in Lady Who Loves the Whisper; and Mary Valby’s The Quotable Zodiac. A Book For All Seasons, Leavenworth. Cost: free. Info: abookforallseasons.com

ADULT PIANO RETREAT, 9/15 & 10/13, 7:30 p.m. Retreat is designed to include private practice, optional participation in master classes, lec-

WHAt to do >>tures, special activities, social time, great food and a faculty concert. Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leaven-worth. Info: icicle.org.

HOmE TOUR, 9/15. Hosted by Guild B, tour homes in Chelan and Man-son. Cost: $20. Info: lakechelan.com.

kENNEL CLUB DOG SHOW, 9/15-16. All breed dog show. Chelan County Fairgrounds, Cashmere. Info: wenatcheekennelclub.com.

FIESTAS mExICANA CULTURAL EVENT, 9/15-16, 6 p.m. Live music by Los Flacos. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $10.

GUANO ROCkS RACE AND TOUR, 9/15, 9 a.m. This event is held at Lincoln Rock State Park north of East Wenatchee. The race por-tion is from the park and out and around Guano Rocks and back. The tour will take participants around the Turtle Rock Island and back to the park.

COmPASSIONATE FRIENDS mEET-ING, 9/17, 7 p.m. Grace Lutheran Church. For anyone who has had a child die is invited to attend. Info: Carol 665-9987.

THE LAkEBOYS, 9/19, 6 p.m. Live performance at Tsillan Cellars. Info: tsillancellars.com.

AUSTRALIA’S THUNDER FROm DOWN UNDER, 9/19, 7 p.m. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacen-ter.com.

BOOk SIGNING & PRESENTATION, 9/20, 7 p.m. Wenatchee Library, 9/21, 7 p.m. Leavenworth Library, 9/22, 1 p.m. A Book for All Sea-sons. The Secret Keeper, a novel of Kateryn Parr by Sandra Byrd. Cost: free. Info: abookforallseasons.com.

NCHBA HOmE TOUR, 9/20-23. Seven new homes and a Remodeling

Expo at Sangster Motors. Cost: $11 adult, $5 children. $1 off for online sales. Info: nchba.cc.

WENATCHEE RIVER SALmON FESTI-VAL, 9/20-24. Connect your family to nature in a fun and entertaining way. Soak up the beauty under a canopy of beautiful fall colors and evergreens. Enjoy learning about our natural resources and the environment in which we live. Leavenworth Fish Hatchery, 12796 Fish Hatchery Rd. Cost: free. Info: salmonfest.org.

38 SPECIAL, 9/21, 7 p.m. Live perfor-mance. Deepwater Amphitheater Manson. Info: lakechelan.com.

WHAT DOES NATURE THINk?, 9/21, 7 p.m. Wenatchee River Institute hosts the 10th anniversary reunion of prominent artists who partici-pated in the Watershed Art project in 2002. Events include work-shops with several of the artists, a program about watershed art with environmental educator, sculptor and author Tony Angell that will include a slide show presentation on his new book Gifts of the Crow, as well as an open house and book-signing for several artists. Sleeping Lady Retreat, Leavenworth. Info:

abookforallseasons.com.

HARVEST OF QUILTS, 9/21-22, 10 a.m. Featuring a large collection of beautiful quilts made by local quilters. There will be a merchant’s mall, a boutique, live and silent demonstrations, bed turning of antique quilts, a raffle quilt and a silent auction of small quilts made by award winning members of the guild. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $5. Info: 663-1047.

mASQUERADE IN THE mEADOW, 9/22, 4 p.m. Wine tasting and silent auction, dinner at sunset and con-cert under the stars. Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leavenworth. Info: icicle.org.

NORTH COUNTRY, 9/22, 7:30 p.m. Live bluegrass music. Cashmere Community Coffeehouse. Cost: $3 plus pass the hat.

BOOk SIGNING, 9/22, 3 p.m. Gifts of the Crow by Tony Angell. Cost: free. E. Lorene Young Audubon House, 250 12th St. Leavenworth. Info: abookforallseasons.com.

WATERSHED ART COLLECTION: OPEN HOUSE, 9/22, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Meet the artists. E. Lorene

}}} Continued on page 39


The art Life // SKETCHES oF loCAl ArTISTS

a return tO music and beautiful sOngsa warm morning breeze

stirred the wind chimes in her backyard garden as Ruth Par-sons raised her clear mezzo soprano voice to sing an aria from Saint-Saens’s Samson and Delilah, “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix.”

Its translated title is “My heart opens at your voice,” an apt choice for a woman whose ca-reer and musical avocation both depend on reaching out and helping to change people.

As a clinical social worker counseling children at Columbia Valley Community Health and as a hypnotherapist in private practice, Ruth’s ability to shape sound has a purpose beyond the concert stage. She said, “My cli-ents have told me that my voice is very peaceful, that the sound of it really helps them.”

Local audiences have en-joyed hearing her sing classical, cabaret and jazz tunes with the Confluence Vocal Octet, and at Chelan’s Bach Fest, Colum-bia Chorale, Music Theater of Wenatchee, Leavenworth Sum-mer Theater and The One Act Wonder Opera Company.

Other venues include The Upper Eastside Coffee House and Grace Lutheran Church, the sites of some late summer performances.

For Ruth, singing is a whole body, whole mind phenomenon. She explained, “It’s a very physi-cal experience — all vibrations and energy.”

And music can induce trance-like states. “People are some-times moved to tears, or just

Ruth Parsons sings an aria about love in her green and lush backyard.

emotionally charged by the passion of the music.”

Especially with the older pieces, she says, “I feel like I’m channeling someone else’s mes-sage from a long time ago — sometimes I really feel the soul of the composer.”

Ruth, now 58, was exposed to a world of music as a child growing up in the Midwest. Vis-iting an uncle bedridden with quadriplegia, she often listened to radio performances of the Metropolitan Opera, which left an indelible love of the genre.

She learned piano at age five from her grandmother and at 16 sang folk songs with guitar, per-forming for audiences through high school and into college. Then school, family, job, other interests (notably windsurfing and organic farming) took pre-cedence for 30 years.

In 2002 a huge transition (and resulting epiphany) occurred when her talented and much praised son Sam, while appre-ciating his own fine baritone voice, decided not to pursue a music career.

It was then Ruth realized it was she herself who wanted to stretch, to excel, to move on. So Ruth began taking opera lessons from local mentor and muse Leslie McEwen; Sam bowed out.

For the past 10 years of inten-sive learning, Ruth has honed her voice and her repertoire with performances of operatic arias and art songs (by composers like Berlioz, Strauss and Schumann) within the Wenatchee Valley. The rural reality of North Cen-tral Washington isn’t a problem — she’s genuinely pleased that

TWO mEzzOS SING ARIAS, ART SONGS AND jAzz

A joint recital by Ruth Parsons and Mary Resk, Grace Lutheran Church, 1408 Washington St., Wenatchee, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. Dona-tion suggested. Info: 670-6191

Ruth plays the character of “Ruth,” the nanny to young Frederic, with whom she sings in this photo from the Leavenworth Summer Theater production of Pirate’s of Penzance.


WHAt to do >>

}}} Continued from page 37



“my clients have told me that my voice is very peaceful, that the sound of it really helps them.”

“there are many people in the area who love a beautiful song!”

Operatic singing may not be as arcane and unachievable as some assume.

Ruth, respectful of all styles, said, “Once you master the me-chanics of breathing and using the diaphragm, and the differ-ent kinds of resonance, you can learn to sing any kind of music.”

She added, “Of course, you need to know how to access your chest voice and your head voice… and use your whole body to project sound…” Not easy. But attainable.

And how does one faithfully project meaning in an unfamil-iar language?

Ruth explained that opera professionals often spend years in language study, but she relies on her high school French and a flair for romance languages, as well as careful analysis of Eng-lish translations. She memorizes the passages and has respect-fully brought works to life in French, Italian and Latin. (She admitted, “German is a little harder!”)

Fruit trees, native plants and flowers surround the home in Western Heights that Ruth and her husband Scott moved into 20 years ago. With a view of all that beauty from her down-stairs studio, Ruth can practice her vocal skills with focus and discipline, readying for perfor-mances.

But, she says with a smile, “When I come home from work I usually hear myself singing to relax around the house. It just feels good to sing!”

— by Susan Lagsdin

Young Audubon House, 250 12th St Leavenworth. Cost: free. Info: abookforallseasons.com.

HYDROFEST, 9/22-23. Two full days of inboard race boats featuring eight different classes of hydro-plane and racing runabouts. Chelan Waterfront Marina. Cost: free. Info: lakechelan.com.

LYNYRD SkYNYRD, 9/26, 7 p.m. Con-cert with Shooter Jennings. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacen-ter.com.

40TH ANNIVERSARY OF COLUmBIA VALLEY COmmUNITY HEALTH, 9/27, 5:30 p.m. Columbia Val-ley Community Health will cel-ebrate its 40th anniversary at the Wenatchee Convention Center with music, dinner, silent auction. Cost: $45. All proceeds will benefit the Columbia Valley Community Health Helping Hands Fund, which assists the neediest patients by paying for healthcare and other medical services. Info: Sarah Wilkins, 662-6000 ext. 1028.

CHAmBER mUSIC mADNESS, 9/27-30. A weekend of adults making music with other amateur musi-cians while raising funds for Cham-ber Music Madness. Bring your ensemble or come as an individual player for an intensive experience led by Tim Betts, artistic director and violist with the Kairos Quartet. Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, Leavenworth. Info: icicle.org.

R/C UNLImITEDS, 9/28 –30, 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. Watch 35 to 45 of the fastest 1/8 scale unlimited hydro-planes from all over the northwest compete in the last of 14 races of the year. Riverwalk Park Loop Trail, Chelan. Info: rcunlimiteds.org.

AUTUmN LEAF FESTIVAL, 9/28-30. Pretzel tossing, pumpkin pie eating contest, grand parade and street dance. Downtown Leavenworth. Cost: free. Info: autumnleaffestival.com.

GEORGE WINSTON, 9/28, 7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center. Cost: $35 adults, $30 senior/students. Info: pacwen.org.

BOOk SIGNING AND PRESENTA-TION, 9/28, 7 p.m. Barn Beach Reserve, Leavenworth, 9/29, 2 p.m. A Book For All Seasons. Co-author John de Graaf tackles 13 economic issues, emphasizing powerful

American ideals, setting forth a simple goal for any economic system: The greatest good for the greatest number over the longest run. Drawing from history and cur-rent enterprises, we see how the good life is achieved when people and markets work together with an active government to create a more perfect economy - one that works for everyone. Stop Chasing Growth and Start Pursuing Happiness by John de Graaf and David K. Batker. Cost: free. Info: abookforallseasons.com.

WALk TO REmEmBER, 9/29, 9:45. Two mile walk to remember children who have died. Fund-raiser for Compassionate Friends. Walla Walla Point Park. Cost: $20 lunch included. Info: 663-6727 or [email protected].

WELLNESS PLACE SURVIVOR WALk AND CELEBRATION, 9/29, 10 a.m. Meet at Memorial Park and walk to Colonial Vista camps. To honor cancer survivors in your lives. Live music, BBQ, family activities. Info: wellnessplacewenatchee.org.

TROY BOYD GOLF TOURNAmENT AND AUCTION, 9/29, 8:30 shotgun. Three Lakes Golf Course. Auction at Willie’s Bar and Grill in East Wenatchee after the tournament. Fundraiser for Carla Monnot who was diagnosed with H-4 colon cancer. Info: willies sports bar face-book page.

WOOL WORk FOR WINE, 9/30, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. A celebration of fiber art and fine wine. Snowgrass Winery, 6701 Entiat River Rd, Entiat. Info: 784-5101.


first whites who stayed were charactersFor nearly 60 years from 1811

to the late 1860s fur hunters, gold seekers, cattle drovers and soldiers were a constant pres-ence along the upper Columbia and its tributaries.

They came but then they left. They didn’t claim land or build houses.

The first two white men who did settle and do business in the Wenatchee Valley were described by cattleman, A.J. Splawn, who knew them, as, “Two ruffians — scoundrels who, for pure cussedness, could not be excelled anywhere on the border.”

Little is known about Jack Ingraham and John McBride. Sometime in the late 1860s they established a trading post in

a tent near present day Rock Island. Their customers were

Indians, miners (both white and Chinese) and cattlemen driving herds to Canada.

By 1869, according to Splawn, they had moved the trading post to a location just south of the Wenatchee/Columbia conflu-ence. It’s not clear if they built a log structure at that time or con-tinued to operate from the tent.

They had a handyman work-ing for them that year named Mr. Warren.

In 1870 D.C. Linsley crossed the Cascades at Indian Pass in search of a rail route. He fol-lowed the Little Wenatchee drainage down to Lake Wenatchee then through the Tumwater Canyon and down to the Columbia where he reported borrowing a horse from Jack Ingraham at the trading post.

After moving the trading post, John McBride took a squatters claim to 160 acres below and northeast of Saddle Rock. It’s possible that he began an irriga-tion ditch to bring water from Squilchuck Creek but never settled on the land.

About the same time, most

likely 1869 or ’70, another white man arrived. “Dutch John” Galler crossed Colockum Pass from Ellensburg.

Galler was born in Baden, Ger-many about 1813. He was unclear about the actual date, claiming only that he had been born the year the Black Sea froze over.

Galler had settled first in the Ellensburg area in 1868. He soon explored north across the Wenatchee Mountains to hunt and trap. He found the Wenatchee Valley more to his liking than the Kittitas and told a friend that the next spring he would return to the Wenatchee country, marry an Indian wife, “plant grapes, make wine and live like a king.”

He settled on land in Malaga, married 16-year-old Semultalks, planted an irrigated vineyard, fathered nine children, made wine and died at the age of somewhere between 103 and 108.

The first white couple, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, came to the valley sometime in 1870 or ’71 making Mrs. Blanche Perkins the first white woman to live in the area. They bought John McBride’s squatter’s claim below Saddle Rock and worked to extend the irrigation ditch.

By then the “scoundrels,” Ingraham and McBride, were in trouble in a Yakima court. Their old handyman, Mr. Warren, fu-eled by a grudge, was testifying about the trader’s sizable busi-ness selling liquor to Indians.

They got off, according to A.J. Splawn, by bribing the prosecu-tor. Ingraham and McBride re-turned to Wenatchee after their acquittal and resumed the liquor business.

Sometime in late 1871 or early 1872 Samuel C. Miller, along

column tHose Were tHe dAysroD MolzAHn

>>

David Freer, left, and his brother, Franklin Freer, came to the Wenatchee Val-ley in 1871 or 1872 with Samuel C. Miller from Walla Walla where they had operated a 100-mule pack train. Photos from Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, #78-214-94 and 78-214-26


with brothers David and Frank-lin Freer, found their way to the valley from Walla Walla where they had spent eight years operating a 100-mule pack train hauling freight to mines in Idaho.

Business was good until the army widened the trail to a wagon road and put an end to the pack train. The men sold off their assets and headed up the Columbia looking for new op-portunity.

They found it at the Wenatchee/Columbia conflu-ence where Ingraham and McBride were facing legal trouble again over liquor and were anxious to get out of the business. They were eventu-ally tried again in Walla Walla, with Mr. Warren testifying once more. They were convicted and each one served a year in the penitentiary.

The Miller-Freer Trading Post was in business by the sum-mer of 1872 with Sam Miller in charge of daily operations and keeping the books. He home-steaded where the old Horan house now stands, planted some peaches, raised some cattle and lived out his life in the valley.

The year 1872 brought another Miller to the valley.

Philip Miller (not related to Sam) had been born in Germany in 1835. After serving with the Missouri Home Guards in the Civil War he worked gold fields in Montana then homesteaded near Ellensburg in 1870.

Miller wasn’t satisfied there and started exploring up the Co-lumbia. He found his promised

land in the Wenatchee Valley. He bought the 160-acre Perkins property below Saddle Rock and set about finishing the irrigation ditch and building a small cabin.

The Miller farm grew and soon became the showplace of the valley with 200 acres under irrigation and another 200 in alfalfa.

Mr. and Mrs. Perkins left the valley and settled at White Bluffs, along the Columbia be-low Priest Rapids.

Five years later on July 9, 1877 Mr. Perkins and his pregnant wife set off to visit her mother in Yakima City.

They crossed the Columbia and stopped along the trail at Rattlesnake Springs where they were shot and killed by renegade Indians from the Yakima Reser-vation. The Indians were tried, convicted and hung.

Historian, actor and teacher Rod Molzahn can be reached at

[email protected]. His third history CD, Legends & Legacies Vol. III - Stories of Wenatchee and North

Central Washington, is now available at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and

Cultural Center and at other loca-tions throughout the area.

Marketplace

Insurance

Clothing Boutique

Fresh Local Eats

Magazines

Extra copies

Hastings, Caffe Mela, Martin’s Market Place, A Book for All Seasons,

Wenatchee Food Pavilion, Walgreens & Mike’s Meats

Books... ingraham and mcbride were facing legal trouble again over liquor and were anxious to get out of the business.

Advertising

ADVERTISE IN THE MARKETPLACE

Reach the adventurous readers of

who are willing to try something new.

Please contactLianne Taylor

[email protected] Hunter

(509) 699-0123

Sam Miller came to buy a trading post and stayed to plant peaches, raise cattle and live out his life in Wenatchee. Photo from Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center


this September will mark the fifth anniversary of the re-turn of the amateur wine mak-ing competition at the Chelan County Fair.

Judging goes on the day before the Fair exhibits are put on display. Unlike the movie State Fair in which the judges put on a bit of a performance for the audience, judging wines isn’t an entertaining activity for the onlookers.

Judges know nothing about who made the wines when they are evaluating the wines.

Wine bottles are covered in brown paper sacks and the judges are handed a score sheet. Each judge assigns a numeric value ranging from 0 to 20 points. The individual judge scores are averaged and that av-erage determines if a winemaker will go home with a ribbon.

Judging is a difficult time for the judges because they are charged with two missions: first they are to evaluate the wines and then impart knowledge to the winemaker about what he or she might do to improve future wines.

We all know from reading the papers and paying attention to the TV news that wine is now a major economic aspect of Wash-ington’s agri-business complex. Washington has grown from the humble beginnings of three early wineries to over 700 winer-ies in the state today.

We’re all familiar with com-mercial wines and wineries, but a part of the wine world you may not be aware of is the world of the amateur, or home wine maker.

Here in our Chelan County area some locals have either been for some time or have just

begun to make their own wines. John Butler and Glenn Liner

have been making wine together since the 2007 harvest, but both men had winemaking skills/ex-perience prior to that harvest.

John for example started mak-ing wine in California decades ago after his wife suggested it as a hobby. I’m guessing here, but I think Rose was just suggesting things to keep him out of her kitchen.

Glenn, a former member of the board of directors at the Wenatchee Enological Society, spent almost five years at the then emerging Boudreaux Cel-lars up Icicle Canyon.

He was a construction grunt helping Rob Newsom build the winery, but he also helped make the wines in the garage in those 2000 – 2004 vintages.

John and Glenn produce blue ribbon-winning Chateau Grenz wines in John’s garage on Grenz Street in Wenatchee. Recently

they conducted the Amateur Winemaking class through the Wenatchee Valley College Ex-tension program.

Others in the valley also make wine for themselves.

We have had as many as 18 winemakers enter their wines for judging at the Fair.

This year a new name may appear on the list of Fair en-trants as a partner in a team. It is a familiar one here in the Wenatchee Valley, as for-mer State representative and Wenatchee attorney Dale Fore-man has joined with his old college roommate, James Porter, and is now himself an amateur winemaker.

Jim Porter is the actual expe-rienced winemaking partner in the team, for he has completed the WSU viticulture and enol-ogy programs, having gotten se-rious about his amateur hobby.

His desire to not only make wine, but make wine as good as

or better than he can purchase, led him to enter these programs.

The partnership is in the early stages of winemaking, so as of this writing, there’s no com-mitment from Jim and Dale that their wines were ready to enter into the competition, but I’m hoping it is. I’ve had the pleasure of drinking a Jim Porter wine and I

can attest to its quality.

Sometimes a winemaker will take the big step and seek to get licensed as a commercial winery.

Voila!, a winning winery located in Cashmere from last year’s competition, just did this.

That’s not the case for John and Glenn. They both say they are content doing what they do for pleasure. They have a motto they print on their labels: “We make the wines we like; we like the wines we make.”

If you’re an amateur wine-maker reading this piece, you’ll have to wait until next year to enter the Amateur Winemaker competition. We look forward to meeting you there.

See you at the Fair. This should be a terrific competition this year.

Alex Saliby is a wine lover who spends far too much time reading

about the grapes, the process of mak-ing wine and the wines themselves.

He can be contacted at [email protected].

Raise a glass to the amateurs

column ALeX on WIneAlEX SAlIbY

>>

Dale Foreman, left, and Jim Porter have teamed to become serious amateur winemakes.

The Good Life September 2012

Documents

Transcript of The Good Life September 2012