Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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During National FFA week, February 19-26, Waitsburg members had dress-up days, Ag Olympics, a trap shoot meet, and the Harvest Ball. Monday, President's Day, the students did not have school. On Tuesday, it was pajama day and Wednesday was hat day. There wasn't a dress-up day on Thursday and Friday was flannel day. Friday afternoon was also the Ag Olympics. One girl and one boy from each class was selected to compete for Harvest Ball King and Queen. Freshmen, Alyssa Hollingworth and Jack Karl;...
WAITSBURG-Three Waitsburg kindergarteners are playing in the Walla Walla indoor soccer league at Blue Ridge Elementary. Coach Chelsie Abel also has one player from Dayton and five from Walla Walla on her team. The team practices once a week and plays games on Saturdays. They started January 22 and their last game is on March 5th. In her first year as an indoor soccer coach, Abel stated "It is so much fun!"...
The day before we left for Los Angeles, we enjoyed lunch with our friend Eric on our backyard deck. Eric declared, "I'm calling it, Spring is here." Right! Heard that before. While in LA, I received a text from one of my Waitsburg friends with a picture of crocus springing up in her yard. She also wanted me to know that Spring had arrived. I texted back, "Yeah, I remember last year when we had two feet of snow the last two weeks of February." I have a picture of a vase of my daffodils sitting...
Ten Years Ago February 23, 2012 Dayton High School students don’t have to wait for the new skills center to be built at Walla Walla Community College to gain employable skills before they graduate. They can, and many do, enroll in the high school’s welding class to satisfy credit requirements and learn a trade they can use as a career or as part-time work to pay for other education. Steve McLean has been teaching welding at Dayton High School for 33 years. His uniform is dirty blue cov...
Since moving to Waitsburg, we have been slowly remodeling our older home one room at a time. Finally, the end is in sight with the biggest project, a planned complete overhaul of our kitchen, scheduled for later this year. In anticipation of this, we have been getting by with the aging components of our current kitchen, making piecemeal repairs to buy us time until we eventually replace everything. Lately, it seems that as soon as we fix one problem the next one pops up. First, it was the...
Waitsburg's young people are staying fit by engaging in a variety of sports and activities. Parents, grandparents, and fans of our youth are volunteering to coach, chauffeuring players, and cheering at events. Whether it's indoor soccer, basketball, wrestling, skiing, or competing in the Kids Heart Challenge, players are learning new skills, competing with intensity, and building team spirit. Skiing, a lifelong sport, is offered to the fifth-grade students at Waitsburg. Due to COVID, the...
The hazy sky, parking meter-lined streets, and a baby pink Tesla in front of me, blinded by the sun reflecting off impeccably clean, shiny cars, with not a pick-up truck in sight. Yep, we're back in Los Angeles for our Doctors and Dentist tour. Daniel had hernia surgery, and for me, it was mammogram time (or smash & dash, as my friends call it). We landed in Los Angeles and sat on the tarmac for forty minutes, waiting for a gate to open, then another forty-five minutes in line to pick up our...
Ten Years Ago February 16, 2012 Recalling the grace-under-pressure composure WP Cardinals Quarterback Zach Bartlow displayed in his team’s climb to the title game last football season, it seems hard to believe that he was afraid of being a football player at one time. It was back in fifth grade. He was just a few days too old to stay with the Little Giants, the team he’d played for since third grade. So, he became one of the youngest and smallest players on the Big Giants. “I was scare...
On a recent sunny walk around town, I spotted the first early spring crocus of the season, and on Main Street, the dirty giant mountains of old plowed snow have finally melted away. Even so, the cold dark nights and frosty mornings of late winter continue. Yes, despite our yearnings for spring, it is still most definitely sweater and casserole weather. This week, I turned to ground turkey to create an unexpected twist on an old favorite recipe, Shepherd's Pie. Filling the house with tempting...
DAYTON—Columbia County Health Systems (CCHS) is proud to announce a new program for 2022 called Partners Improving Patient Health (PIPH). This program came out of a multi-year grant awarded to CCHS by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to help evolve the way we care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive health failure (CHF), and cardiovascular disease (CVD), including difficult to control hypertension (high blood pressure, HTN) and those who have had myocardial infarctions (h...
Last weekend, Terry Lawhead and I ventured down to Halfway, Oregon to gather winter photographs and impressions of the area for Volume 6 of "The Blues". This will be the latest in the series of books published by the Blue Mountain Land Trust. Taking the long way, through Tollgate, Imbler, Cove, Medical Springs, Keating, and Richland, Oregon, we were amazed at the substantial difference in snow depths along the way, which increased at lower elevations. My best guess is that the difference in...
Local artist Margaret Terry painted a portrait of Mack, a two year old German Wirehaired Pointer owned by Beka Compton. Mack was more than happy with his first painting!...
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission voted January 27 to permanently close access to potentially dangerous areas at the park after four deaths in recent years. The closure includes the Castle Rock formation not far from the top of the falls. It attracts hikers and rock climbers creating a significant safety hazard. The park has been unsuccessful in keeping visitors from leaving the trail leading to the permanent closure....
While some people study great philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, my current frame of reference are more Broadway Musicals and popular songs. Lerner & Lowe’s clever lyrics, “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” from their show My Fair Lady have been playing through my head daily. Just reversing the genders. The song laments that women are temperamental, flighty, vain, and generally self-centered spoiled creatures, unlike men who have none of those pesky traits. Well, wake up...
Happy Valentines Day to all our wonderful readers and advertisers!...
Ten Years Ago February 9, 2012 A generous gift from the family of the late Dale Hutchens means the staff members of the Booker Rest Home will have new equipment to make their work easier and more efficient. Hutchens, a former member of the board of directors for the Columbia County Health System from 1974 to 1987, passed away after spending more than 4 years at the Booker Rest Home. On his behalf, his family provided Booker with nearly $8,000. Twenty-Five Years Ago February 13, 1997 The...
In preparation for Valentine's Day, my attention naturally turns to food. The kitchen has always been an extension of my heart; cooking is an act of love. While flowers and little trinkets are lovely, in my mind it is homemade edible gifts that have the most meaning. Among the list of romantic bites, sweet treats, and supposed aphrodisiacs, the ingredient most associated with this annual celebration of romance is chocolate. Foiled boxes of dark chocolate truffles, rich chocolate tortes, and...
What better way to enjoy the great outdoors than a day drive to the Tucannon Lakes or to Palouse Falls State Park. On a drive at the end of January, the Tucannon hills were covered in a dusting of snow. A few deer and a huge herd of elk could be seen grazing. Spring Lake was partially covered in ice and a family was out trying their luck at fishing at Blue Lake. At Rainbow Lake you could see a beautiful reflection of the snowy hillside in the water and it's also a nice place for a walk. The...
Although winter is starting to melt away, remnant drifts remind us of our recent big snow and decorate the hills with elegant accents. Driving back from "town" via Spring Creek on Monday was a feast for the photographer's eyes. This scene was shot from Ferris Road near its intersection with Middle Waitsburg Road - which someday may actually reopen for through traffic!...
Ali and I had been looking forward to our winter vacation since we booked the flights in October. Heading south for a week of good food and scenic beaches ranks high among the options for properly ringing in the new year. But Mother Nature had bigger plans, as she often does. Airlines were strained by the volume of holiday travelers and our beloved COVID "Omicron" variant sweeping through flight crews. Hence, it was no surprise that our flights were canceled with no opportunity to rebook as...
WAITSBURG-Grab a glass of wine at the Royal Block and join local author Charles Potts for a benefit book reading on February 17, 2022. The Walla Walla based, award-winning author will share his newest book, The Fifth Convulsion: The Structure of American History and his 1993 book, How the South Finally Won the Civil War. He has been writing and publishing since he was a teenager. Potts said that during his youth, he was reading and writing all of the time, and at one point, was living in his...
Ten Years Ago February 2, 2012 To say the City of Waitsburg is stumped by the future of the collapsed bunk house east of the McGregor plant is putting it mildly. No one came forward to put in a salvage bid for its materials. The fire district doesn't want to burn it as part of a training exercise because it contains hazardous materials. And now it appears the city is in violation of its own code by just letting it sit there. "It's been a worrisome issue," said Mayor Walt Gobel. "We may need to b...
As we trudge through the gloomy cold days of late winter, my kitchen has been keeping us warm with a steady rotation of favorite soup recipes. With these simmering pots of comfort, I am always looking for the perfect thing to serve on the side for dipping, dunking, and sopping. Homemade fluffy focaccia, crusty bread, cornbread, and biscuits have all been tried. Naan, a flatbread from India, is a leavened option that is relatively quick to produce and cooks beautifully on the stovetop. Finished w...
Columbia County and Walla Walla County voters will have the chance to support area schools, including those in Prescott, Waitsburg and Dixie in the February special election. Districts are asking voters for new or renewed levies that pay for programs not funded by the state. Please vote and return your ballot by Feb. 8....
Pullman FFA hosted the first trap shoot of the season on Saturday, January 22 in Colton. Six Waitsburg FFA students participated and finished third out of six teams. FFA instructor, Nicole Abel, stated "It was a really good shoot to start with as we have a lot of novice shooters on the team. They were able to see how the trap shoot works and not to be in a hurry or overwhelmed." Pullman FFA Alumni donated items, including beanies, shotgun shells, hats and other items and each shooter's name was...
