Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1680 - 1704 of 2504
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...
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...
here's what i think E arlier this week, The Times received an editorial column from the office of Congresswom- an Cathy McMorris Rodg- ers. As we sometimes do with contributions from politicians who represent us, we included it on our opin- ion page. It's right up there; above this one. As I read her column I could immediately re- late. Like Hayley - and like Cathy - I too worked my way through college. I didn't work at McDonalds, but among several jobs, I worked for awhile at the University of...
On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress of the 13 British colonies in North America approved a resolution to establish The United States of America as a free and independent nation. Two days later it adopted what has come to be known as "The Declaration of Independence." In honor of the Independence Day holiday, we republish the first part and the last part of that declaration. In between the Preamble and the Denunciation is a section commonly known as the Indictment - a (long) list of specific grievances. The Declaration was drafted by...
I t's not every day you meet a college sopho- more who serves burg- ers at the local McDonald's drive-thru just to put herself through college and graduate with a degree in quantitative economics. But in light of recent tuition hikes and the threat of some student loan rates doubling in less than a week, that's exactly what 18-year-old Hayley Hohman -- an Eastern Washington native and Washington State University "Cougar" -- is doing to fund her final years of college. I know what it's like to...
By the time you read this column, I will be on my way home from my vacation in Cali- fornia - and I'll be more than ready to glimpse gently rolling terrain, view the Big Dipper in its full (non- smog-covered) glory, and get a decent night's sleep. From talking to my cousin and her miscellaneous friends from the San Francisco metropolitan area, I had already gathered that Washington and California were at least as different as apples and oranges. (Or, more accurately, as different as Honeycrisps...
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Dear Editor: It is said it takes a village to raise a child. It takes the ENTIRE TOUCHET VAL- LEY and extended area, to get the Hays Family to the MAYO CLINIC.We would like to THANK all of our friends, family, business, clubs, organizations, cor- porations and everyone in between, for all you have done for our family, whether it be purchasing tickets to the benefit dinner, financial gifts, food donations, items for the silent auction, baked food for the bake sale, chain- saw carvings, quilts, cards, hugs,...
Confession time: I don't do surveys. I have never agreed to answer questions for a phone survey, never partici- pated in an internet or news media survey, and never spent time on a product survey. I never fill out res- taurant or motel surveys. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever getting a call from Gallup or Barna or any big media pollsters. They only call a few thou- sand people at a time (with an error margin of plus or minus three percent, right?), so the odds would be low anyway....
The Washington State Legislature is now in its second special session of 2013. We feel like the time has come for them to pass a budget in Olympia, and we figured we weren't the only ones. Here are some excerpts from opinion pieces published in Washington newspapers in the past few days: State lawmakers have 231 million good reasons to agree on a new two-year state budget. Revenue forecasts predict an additional $231 mil- lion in revenue during this fiscal year and over the next two years. That money, plus $90 million in savings from fewer...
Dear Editor, With the recent discus- sions of a need for Commer- cial Kitchens for cottage industries; the Waitsburg Town Hall Association would like the community to know of its recent certification of the Town Hall Kitchen as a com- mercial facility by the Walla Walla Health Department. Town Hall is a commu- nity owned event rental governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and organized as a 501C3. As of May 1, 2013, the Town Hall Board has completed all the requirements for our Commercial Kitchen. Rental rates are based on an individ- ual...
Have you ever browsed the web and come across a great DIY project, vacation rental or recipe that you’d like to access later? Sure, you could bookmark the site, but what if that one idea is all you’re really interested in? And what if you were away from your computer and wanted to share your great find? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just “clip” that tidbit and store it in a virtual folder to be accessed from any computer or mobile device? With Evernote, you absolutely can, and it’s free,...
Magazines and online book clubs and book sellers are already touting their summer reading lists, but I’m not very inspired by reviews that use words like “riveting”, “shattering”, “challenging” or “heart-wrenching”. Summer reading should be fun and colorful like one of those fruity cocktail drinks with a little umbrella on top. Beachy cocktails have silly, often sexy names and deliver hundreds of sweet empty calories to your body. But they sure taste good! My favorite “fun and fruity” boo...
