Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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As you all probably know, I’m a city girl. Born In New York (Brooklyn), we then moved to Queens, and eventually to the suburbs of Long Island. We grew nothing in New York, except for one crab apple tree and a pear tree, that never bore fruit. Our vegetables didn’t come from the ground; they lived in little white boxes in the freezer. My mother would boil salted water, drop in the frozen vegetables, then cook the life out of them. We eventually moved to Tucson, Arizona, because my father’s arthr...
When I’m not in the mood to watch one of the binge-worthy shows on Netflix or Prime, I turn to TCM and watch old movies, some of which are art to me. Recently, I watched a movie that I hadn’t seen in years, called The Egg and I with Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. The movie is very old, in fact, it was released before I was born. It’s the story of newlyweds; Fred MacMurray (the groom), has just announced that he has purchased a ramshackle old farm, and they are going into the busin...
I don't know when Dad purchased the gun or from whom or where, but one of its few outings captured on film was in 1977. My brother was a toddler and dad had hunted a gray squirrel on his parent's farm in what used to be the middle-of-nowhere Appalachia. The Herrington and Richardson Topper Model 158 (H&R) was the shotgun built for everyone. An ordinary, functional firearm built for the budget-minded. Overly simplistic yet wholly reliable described the H&R firearms line from 1871 to 1986 under th...
A conversation with Julia Mead When Julia Mead graduated from high school at the age of 17 and started college, she decided her motto would be, "I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way." She finished nurse's training in Walla Walla in 1982. A year later, she met her first and only blind date, Charles "Skip" Mead IV. When asked, "Who is Julia Mead?" her answer is, "A transplant to Columbia County who sank her roots down." Two sons, six grandchildren, and 37 harvests later, she hasn't...
A slug could slime its way across the country faster than it will take to complete our kitchen remodel. The cabinets need different trim than they anticipated. Evidently, the walls and ceiling were even more crooked than initially thought. The wrong doors have to be replaced with the right doors and glass panels, three drawers still do not have facing or knobs, need I go on? Like dominos, Daniel can’t finish his part (moldings, trim, painting, pantry door paint, and doorknob), or install the dis...
"Home", 2020. That's Waitsburg this morning from Cell Tower Hill. My house is behind the big tree circled in blue and labelled "HOME." "Downtown" is right there in the center of the photo, and Ten Ton Coffee is right in the middle of it (another story). The dark hills in the distance are the Blue Mountains. The sky in the image is rather dull because of the smoke from the Oregon wildfires. It got worse as the day and the atmosphere evolved. Of all the small wheat towns in Eastern Washington that...
There are so many ways to appreciate the beauty of the wheat harvest. Each is a function of who you are-maybe a member of a farming family, perhaps a local person who respects what goes into the hard work of growing wheat, maybe an artist attempting to capture the beautiful landscape. Or maybe just a visitor stunned by the incredible views of fields and hills of our region at different times of the day. Maybe a bit of all those things. Although it may never quite get the kind of admiration the...
DAYTON–When Levi David Sowerby was 17 years old, a physician told him that a spinal injury he suffered during a gymnastics competition, was so severe it would result in paralysis. He would never walk again. Despite having been raised in a profoundly religious family where authority was not questioned, Sowerby knew at that moment that he could not accept that diagnosis. Though he continued to experience pain related to the injury, he was still walking. From that day to this, Sowerby's journey h...
I understand that half a loaf of bread is better than none, and half-baked ideas may be better than no idea, but half a kitchen is just frustrating. As scheduled, the cabinet installers showed up Tuesday morning, and I was ecstatic, to say the least. The installer was the dourest man I have ever encountered, and obviously, he did not appreciate my excitement. I was like the entire town in The Music Man, singing and dancing enthusiastically at the arrival of the Wells Fargo Wagon. He just...
Smoke from the Seaman Road and Lewis Peak Fire, which was approximately 1.0 mile west of Lewis Peak Road between Seaman Rd to the south and Mud Creek Rd to the north. A Level 1 Evacuation Order (be ready to evacuate) was put in place Saturday, August 15th, and lifted Sunday morning. The fire was contained Saturday evening; however, residents were warned that there would still be smoke as the fire is still burning in places. Firefighters remained on the scene through Sunday to monitor conditions...
DAYTON-Regina Weldert, of Dayton, has been many things in her life, including a goat farmer, sheepherder, and factory worker. She went back to school later in life and became a fish biologist. I've known her as a coffee roaster and coffee shop owner. To her fans, she is the finest roaster in Southeast Washington. For four years, she has owned and operated her coffee shop, Rey's Roast, on Main Street in Dayton. The COVID-19 pandemic has now altered her course, but it hasn't stopped her from...
It’s almost scary to write about our kitchen remodel because it is moving along at breakneck speed and with fewer snags than anticipated. I don’t want to jinx the amazing progress we’ve made and still need to make. To date, we have a level floor, and we have light. Daniel has been busy; he demolished the kitchen. He worked with our contractor, Gary, to level the floor, lay down the new floor, complete drywall repair, add sockets, fix broken sockets, change the refrigerator socket to the new sub-...
Since discovering tenkara fly-fishing a few years ago, I don't travel much without a tenkara rod. Tenkara rods are telescopic, collapsing down to about eighteen inches and only require a fly line, leader, and a handful of your favorite flies. Minimal gear and super simple. Absolutely unfettering after years of lugging a minimum of four fly boxes, two reels to accommodate floating and sinking fly line, fly line sink tips, split-shot and strike indicators for nymphs, a variety of leaders and...
At some point, I imagine most of us say, "never again." I have had to "eat my words" one too many times, so I try not to say, "never will I..." When the last of my dogs had to be put down about six months before I moved here, I vowed, no more dogs! No more coaxing and dragging prissy dogs out in the rain waiting for them to "do their business" while I got drenched in the process. No more trying to retrain my lab, who couldn't wait to go out in the rain, because what lab doesn't love water....
By the time you read this, I’ll be back in South Bend, Indiana. The temperature will be in the seventies. So will the humidity. I will be fanning myself with my new lease agreement and yearning for the three-digit temperatures of home, which at least had the courtesy to be a dry heat. My apartment things will come out of storage, smelling like the inside of a plastic bag. I’ll shake them out and dust them off and put them in their old places. I’ll buy a couple of air fresheners, so the entire ap...
On my first trip to Waitsburg to officially meet with contractors to discuss my home renovation, (or tear down), I arrived early and fortuitously wandered in to Ten Ton Coffee. After some introductions, I owned up to the fact that, yes, I was the owner of the wreck of a house on Orchard. The information whirlwind began. I received an encyclopedia of unsolicited advice, which I rapidly turned into solicited advice. Everyone encouraged me to renovate the house, their suggestions and contacts gave...
As the summer of 2020 winds down, a generation of students casts wary eyes upon the dawn of a new school year. With it will come many familiar bugaboos—homework, early mornings, regular bedtimes —as well as any number of new challenges related to the present pandemic. More specifically, for many students from the sixth grade on up, at least some of the new school year will take place online. (And when I say “sixth grade on up,” I mean all the way on up – Whitman is moving wholly online th...
Fair warning: I’m not going to be very funny this week. I’ll try, as appropriate, to give you a giggle or two, but there’re certain things you can’t and shouldn’t make a joke out of. I’m really sorry, but I can’t think of anything else to write – I’m having a hard time thinking of anything else, period. (Believe me, if I could, I would.) A relative is sick. It might be COVID. I’ll go ahead and answer some of your questions right now: Circumstances are such that I’m not worried about my own...
I would bet money that even Alan Turing couldn't solve the mystery of my Waitsburg garden. To say the least, this year has been an interesting experience trying to decode what grows, and why and where it grows. It will probably always remain an enigma to me. I planted eggplant from seed in a separate planter this year. I had three sprouts spring up and over the course of a week, one just wasn't making it, so I pulled it and let the other two flourish. We now have 2 very full and prolific zucchin...
So, you folks remember that writing contest thing at the law school I entered a couple months ago? Against all odds, I did well enough that I’ve got a new writing gig—Staff Editor at the Notre Dame Journal of Legislation. Don’t be too impressed. First of all, when I say against all odds, I mean against all odds. Really. I cried for about an hour straight after I turned in my finished product, finally calming myself down with the thought that my essay was bad enough to add some much-needed comic...
Climbing the mountainside, the temperature began to drop with the elevation gain. A welcomed change from the 90-plus degree heat in the Walla Walla Valley. In the truck bed lay my frame pack, stuffed to the gills with my pack tent, sleeping bag, spotting scope, and scant provisions for an overnight in the wilderness. Glassing elk and locating a suitable fall campsite were the main drivers for the trip, yet these were ancillary opportunities. A July wilderness pack trip provides an incredible sen...
We have started the kitchen remodel. The discordant sound of drills, hammers, compressors, and cursing is ongoing. The cabinets have been ordered, we need to fix our ski slope floor, the appliances have been here for a year. Big news—the dishwasher is out of its box and is installed! It’s in a temporary place, waiting for the new cabinets, but it works! In anticipation of the new cabinets, I figured we could start to make a little progress. The first manageable task, installing electrical out...
So, you might ask, what have I been doing these past four weeks besides trying and failing to turn a two-day trip to South Bend into an unauthorized Indiana Jones sequel? Nothing earth-shattering, I’m afraid. Some crochet, a few tentative excursions into town, an eye appointment, a decent amount of creative writing, and a lot of reading (mainly court filings). I started a remote job a couple weeks ago and am having way too much fun with it, but I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to tell you a...
I needed to get out of town for a while last Saturday morning, so pointed my old RAV4 northward, with no particular place to go (thank you, Chuck Berry). My friend Leslie Cain called it "noodling," which is what I now call what Renny Russell (of On The Loose fame, Google it)) and Bill Wayne taught me to call "ramblin'" when I hung out with them during Spring Break in Penasco, New Mexico in 1969. Either way, noodling or ramblin' around the gravel roads surrounding Waitsburg never gets old for me,...
My household is extremely lucky in that it hasn’t felt much of an economic impact from this whole mess. My mom is teleworking overtime, my brother’s job at a ski shop wasn’t going to be netting him very many hours in April under the best of circumstances, and I’m still an unemployed bum. But I know that many workers—indeed, industries—haven’t been as fortunate. To my readers who have taken an economic hit from COVID-19, know that you are in my thoughts and prayers, and please don’t hesitate to g...
