Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1667 - 1691 of 2504
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,...
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...
This week we celebrate the beginning of another harvest season in the Touchet Valley. It's been a unique year, weather-wise (as they all are, of course), with a warm spell in March, a cooling spell in May and a rainy spell in June. Dan Groom, in his front-page story this week, got a wide variety of reactions to our weather patterns from three dif- ferent local farmers. The weather varies greatly, even within our region, which makes the farmers' jobs even more of a challenge. It has also been a u...
Last Saturday - July 13th - was National French Fry Day. It also happened to be National Embrace Your Geekiness Day. Therefore, if I ever get my own holiday, I will re- quest that it be celebrated on July 13th, because anyone who knows me knows that if there's one thing I love more than French fries, it's embracing my geekiness. You can bet that I (along with my cousin, who is still visiting and is also a proud geek) celebrated with all our might. We swung by the Burger Hut in Milton- Freewater...
"I 've been in the leg- islature four years now," Representa- tive Terry Nealey told me last week, "and in that time we've had nine extra ses- sions." Nealey, a Dayton Re- publican, pointed out that he prefers to call the those stints when Washington state legislators are called back into session beyond what was originally sched- uled, "extra" rather than "special." At a rate of nine in four years, I agree that they don't seem very special. In Washington, the leg- islature is scheduled to meet...
One of the great things about Palouse Falls State Park is that it's easy to take a spectacular photo. Even a photographic neophyte can do it (see Page 7). One of the not-so-great things about Palouse Falls State Park - along with Lewis and Clark Trail State Park and the rest of Washington's state parks - is that it's a bit spendy to get in now. Day use at a state park requires a Discover Pass, which costs $10 for a one-day visit or $30 for an annual pass. In 2011 the Washington State legislature...
My grandmother, like many in her generation, occasionally waxes nostalgic about the "old home". Until rather recently, this place was a rather vague and mysterious location known as "up home" or "the farm". It was near something called Castle Rock, she told me, and occasionally she and her siblings would ride their horses to it. The Farm was located near St. John and Pine City. In any case, she assured me, it was one of the most beautiful places on earth. I didn't actually visit the Farm until...
I had just filled up the tires on the used mountain bike I bought at auction, and climbed aboard for my maiden voyage on its frame. Visions of zipping along my country road with the wind sweeping across my face pleasantly played through my mind. The voyage lasted just fifty yards of my long driveway at Lamar. Thinking nothing of cutting the corner by the tree, I spun across some low spreading weeds, after which I began to hear a clickety-click sound as if I was driving with studded tires....
Late on June 30, the Washington State Legislature passed a compromise budget that came, litereally, at the last minute. Washington state government was facing a potential shutdown if the budget was delayed further. Both state representatives from our 16th district voted for the budget compromise, which passed the house 82-11. Negotiators in the state house and senate agreed to a total budget of $33.6 billion. The final budget added $1 billion to the state's education budget and included enough money so that public university tuition could...
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...
Dropbox L ast month I shared about Evernote, a note storing and syncing application that can be used in a variety of ways. This month I'll be talking about DropBox which, while similar in many respects, has some distinct differences. Like Evernote, DropBox also offers cloud-based stor- age. For those of you who don't know what "cloud- based" means, don't feel bad. The first time I heard the term I was referred to as a "little cloud girl" by a co-worker. From the tone, I took it to be a...
Michael Pollan Collection T his time of year most of my free time is devoted to tending the family gardens. The veg- etable garden covers roughly a half acre while a 12 foot wide by 300 feet long band of asparagus defines the edge of our yard. Raspber- ries hide the ugly retaining wall be- hind the house and six "trial" blueberry bushes will yield fruit for snacking soon. It seems my fingernails are never completely free of dirt during the summer months but growing a portion of the food we eat...
A soft morning mist floats just above the waterline as the sun begins to paint ridge tops with blending hues of orange and yellow, highlighting cliff swallow nests: pin-dot shadows in stark relief upon the dun features of the bluff. The smell of the river is clean, earthy, moist, alive. The hiss and burble of water flowing among rock and root fills the senses with wonder at the beauty of the morning. A thick white line floats on the surface of the river, bending with the current, wending its...
