Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Summer is finally winding down. With mere weeks until school’s back in session, it’s time for me to start panicking and finish up all my break-time projects before I’m saddled with classwork again. At the end of every summer, I like to take stock of all the little things I’ve learned, if only to reassure myself that I haven’t entirely blown my vast expanse of free time. The (partial) list is as follows: • If you attempt to make divinity candy on a humid day, even if the weather looks perfe...
...to err: human. A hundred years from now, scholars and anthropolo- gists who dig through the archives of The Times (and why wouldn't they?) will think that most of the content in last week's issue was published on July 18, rather than August 15. All of the proofreading that was brought to bear last week didn't catch the fact that the date listed at the top of each page - except Page 1 - contained the incorrect date. One thing we love about newspaper publishing is its per- manence. While we regret our error last week, we promise it won't be...
The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris S ydney J. Harris wasn't anybody particularly important (he was a newspapermanhellip;in Chicago) but he was well-known for his pithy quotes. We like this one. Over the next couple of weeks, nearly 1,000 students in the Touchet Valley will be back on campuses in Waitsburg, Dayton, Prescott, Starbuck and at Jubilee Academy. And for many local students recently graduated, they'll be back on campuses throughout the country. Hopefully many mirrors will be converted. For...
We want to thank all the volunteers that helped put out the lightning fires that hap- pened Saturday night. From the McCaw Group...
MILTON-FREEWATER - The 33rd Muddy Frogwater Country Classic Festival and Corn Roast in Milton-Free- water, Oregon will take place on August 16-18 at Yantis Park. This old-fashioned family event includes every- thing from a Kid Zone to an art show. There are activities, events, contests and games for all. Two local bands will rock the bandshell at Yantis Park. Bring your own lawn chair or claim a bale of straw and enjoy Shank's Pony on Fri- day night and Backroads on Saturday. Admission is free. A local talent show competi- tion rounds out the...
Whenever I see a clump of clover in the middle of a lawn, I habitually stoop down and examine it, look- ing for a four-leaved speci- men. I've done this ever since I found out that these actually exist in the wild, rare genetic mutations of the workaday three-leaved variety. Well, this weekend, while on a kayaking trip, I actually found one on the banks of the Snake River. It wasn't all pretty and perfect like the bizarrely symmetrical versions that rear their plasticine heads ev- ery Saint Patr...
Fair season is just around the corner, and so is the Pendleton Roundup: Sept. 11 - 14. Around here, that annual event within easy driving distance needs little introduction, but it's worth re- membering how the first Roundup more than 100 years ago was billed: "A frontier exhibition of picturesque pastimes, Indian and military spectacles, cow- boy racing and bronco bust- ing for the championship of the Northwest." Why? Well, we here in the Touchet Valley may want to zero in on one aspect of the...
When Dale Polla was hired last fall as CEO of the Columbia County Health System, we at The Times, along with most other community mem- bers, breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that finally a long stretch of turmoil at our local healthcare provider had ended. Apparently it hadn't. On August 1, Polla agreed to resign during the regular Columbia County Health System Board of Director's meet- ing. In interviews given after the resignation, board chair Lisa Naylor indicated that the board was...
We're about a month out from the first day of school. I'm excited, but I'm apparently alone in my ex- citement, because every time I make some wistful com- ment about wishing school were back in session I get the death stare from my little brother. I recently read an article about "Summer Learning Loss," a phenomenon in which children forget a good deal of the past year's learn- ing over the summer. "Well, hey," I thought, "that can't be a problem for me. People are always telling me how great...
Luthier: Someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. From the French word "luth" (lute). I f you haven't met them yet, I hope you will soon: Joe Patrick and Gail Gwin. This week and next, we'll be introducing them to you through two feature stories. Mine about Gail's print- making art runs this week in the Touchet Valley Life section (see page 7). Larry Davidson's piece about Joe's instrument shop will be in the Times next week, but I couldn't resist giving you a preview....
More than three years ago, we wrote an editorial reminding Dayton residents to watch what they flush down the toilet or the kitchen sink. The crew at the waste water treatment plant had a problem keeping out items that do not decompose or are toxic enough to make the fish in the Touchet River sick. The facility on the edge of town that processes sanitary waste can handle organic matter that it breaks down with bacteria that eat it. It's a lot like a septic system that way. But when it comes to items such as diapers, tampons, applicators,...
Techno- Savings While we all know that computers, smartphones and app purchases cost us money, I wonder how many of us take advantage of the ways they can save us mon- ey. If you become familiar with a few good resources and are willing to spend an extra couple of minutes prior to making a purchase, your computer or smartphone can nearly always save you some cash. At the very least, it can let you rest assured that you're getting a good deal. Retailmenot.com is a website that I visit frequently...
This month's book re- views are provided by Amy Rosenberg, manager of the Dayton Memorial Library. Northanger Abbey It seems to me that when most people discuss Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice gets all the attention. Every other summer or so, I like to revisit my pal Jane and I reread all six of her published books. P & P has a well-deserved place in the literary cannon. It's arguably the first modern novel. Every formulaic rom-com you've ever seen has Pride and Prej- udice to thank, because...
I 've been depressed on and off for the past week or so. Blame it on the stir-crazies, a lack of social exposure, or the fact that I haven't taken ad- vantage of all this great sun we've been getting, but I've been feeling down lately. It reached a fever pitch on Sunday. Don't ask me why, don't ask me how. But it was bad, folks. Real bad. I had a bad feeling about the trip we were taking Sun- day afternoon - to Bennington Lake in order to use our newly-purchased kayaks. Besides the fact that I...
It's not too often that we have dinner with a guest from our Seven Porches Guest House. But the traveler who stayed with us this weekend happened to wander into the Whoop Em Up Hollow Cafe so we invited him to pull up a chair and join us for a glass of rose and a bite to eat. I've always liked that about the Whoop and eater- ies like that. Patrons greet, chat and co-mingle inside or on the terrace: evening sun, company and good food - what's not to like? When Scott Fisher made the booking on the...
I f you didn't expect fire season to start until well into August, take note. It's here and it could get bad. But the good news is that some fires are preventable and some are containable. One of the biggest challenges for farming communities on the drier side of the state is that harvest, one of the busi- est times of year out in the fields, is also the riskiest when it comes to fire danger. We visited with local fire specialists, Chief Jim Callahan and Captain Brian Callahan, to go over some...
The driver of the combine in last week's cover shot was Bruce Abbey. Bruce was also shown in a photograph on page five....
Dear Editor: The following is a clarification of news reported regarding the Lyons Ferry Accessible Walkway and Fishing Pad in The Times, last Thursday. Volunteers from around the region contributed time and materials to the project: • Port of Columbia; Project idea and administrative support • Corps of Engineers; Ad- ministrative support and authorizations • Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; Project funding • Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation: Support and authorizations • Premier Excavation, contractor who const...
By the time you read this, Mule Mania will have come and gone. It was great. I especially enjoyed a timed competition called the "Saturday Social". I won't go into logistics. Let's just say it involved watermelon, a wilting palm tree, and coconut bras. Crazier things have hap- pened there. Trust mehellip; It was last year. I was serving for the first time on the Columbia County Fair Court along with three other girls my age. The four of us were clustered beneath a blue pop-up pavilion near a...
When I interviewed Jack McCaw re- cently about the construction of the new 4MC shop off Highway 124, he spoke about the need for more sophisticated equipment to repair today's combines and other farm vehicles. "You don't fix it with haywire and sticky tape any- more," he observed. Then he went off on a tan- gent about the increasing use of technology in wheat farm- ing itself and explained how growers now use the signals from satellites to guide their work in the field. I was im- mediately...
I t's been really, really hot lately. Hotter than I can remember it being at any point last summer. And humid, too. The quarter-mile trek from my house to my grandparents' farm has become nearly unbearable. The freshly widened (read: less shady) West Seventh Street is about as hot as your aver- age kitchen range. Of course, this isn't the first summer I've struggled with temperatures. Previ- ously though, I've been able to make this commute on my bike, which both mini- mizes my time in the sun...
