Good Life January 2014

A VISIT TO VIETNAM Y EVENTS CALENDAR

WENATCHEE VALLEY’S

NUMBER ONE MAGAZINE

January 2014

Open for fun and adventure

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Catching up with people from past stories — Whew! Have they been busy!

THE DARING DOZEN

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Contents

We offer a high level of care.

page 18

A VISIT TO VIETNAM WHERE DAD SERVED

Features

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the daring dozen

A look back at past stories finds people living in Ecuador, hiking across England, planning a cross-America tour with a granddaughter, playing music of the ’60s and more

21 horses as medicine Riding center and volunteers offer therapy for people with physical, mental and emotional disabilities

24 blended home

Dave Simmons and his fiancée artfully dodged a relationshipwrecking bullet to build a smart house

And even higher level of caring.

As the years accumulate, so do the challenges of age. Illness. Memory loss.

Depression. But there is hope. Because there is Highgate Senior Living. Our team of clinical professionals is trained to handle almost anything, even severe cognitive impairment and complex medical issues. Our services include: › Diabetic care › Oxygen management › Wound care › Tube feeding › Catheter monitoring

ART SKETCHES

n Catching up with five artists from past years, page 34 Columns & Departments 28 Pet Tales: A real find at the shelter 29 Bonnie Orr: Eating well in Namibia 30 June Darling: The real way to make resolutions 32 The traveling doctor: Early childhood education 34-38 Arts & Entertainment & a Dan McConnell cartoon 39 The night sky: The King looms large 40 History: Three killing winters 42 Alex Saliby: What wine to pair with soups?

January 2014 | The Good Life

› Ostomy management › Injectable medications › Two-person transfers › Hospital recovery › Hospice care

Why choose an unappealing facility or pay for expensive daily outside assistance? Highgate at Wenatchee offers this high level of care seven days a week, in a lovely, homelike environment in which each resident is supported in living each day to the fullest. Call or email us to schedule a tour of our Assisted Living or Memory Care community. email: wenatchee@highgateseniorliving.com phone: 509-665-6695 web: HighgateSeniorLiving.com

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OPENING SHOT

®

Year 8, Number 1 January 2014 The Good Life is published by NCW Good Life, LLC, dba The Good Life 10 First Street, Suite 108 Wenatchee, WA 98801 PHONE: (509) 888-6527 EMAIL: editor@ncwgoodlife.com

sales@ncwgoodlife.com ONLINE: www.ncwgoodlife.com FACEBOOK: facebook.com/pages/ The-Good-Life Editor/Publisher, Mike Cassidy Contributors, Candice Reed, Barbara Gundersen, Dawn Clark, Jane Davis, Laurie Dawson, Lief Carlsen, Linda Congdon, Mike Sager, Morgan Fraser, William Robertson, Terry Sloan, Cary Ordway, Steve Bishop, Donna Cassidy, Bonnie Orr, Alex Saliby, Jim Brown, June Darling, Dan McConnell, Susan Lagsdin, Peter Lind and Rod Molzahn Advertising manager, Terry Smith Advertising sales, Lianne Taylor and Donna Cassidy Bookkeeping and circulation, Donna Cassidy Proofing, Dianne Cornell Ad design, Rick Conant TO SUBSCRIBE: For $25, ($30 out of state address) you can have 12 issues of The Good Life mailed to you or a friend. Send payment to: The Good Life 10 First Street, Suite 108 Wenatchee, WA 98801 Phone 888-6527 Online: www.ncwgoodlife.com To subscribe/renew by email, send credit card info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com BUY A COPY of The Good Life at Hastings, Caffé Mela, Walgreens (Wenatchee and East Wenatchee), the Wenatchee Food Pavilion, Mike’s Meats, LA Market by Pybus, Martin’s Market Place (Cashmere) and A Book for All Seasons (Leavenworth)

Brunch at the seed block Donna Cassidy took this

photo from her bay window of a Ring-necked Pheasant rooster and his mate taking a leisurely brunch at a bird seed block Donna put on her back lawn.

“This is the first time we have seen a male pheasant in our yard,” said Donna, who has lived at her Wenatchee house for the past 13 years.

“The pair showed up around Thanksgiving, pecking around on our ivy and under the grape

arbor. Then, after we put this seed block out, they have been coming back every day.

“First, the male will appear and chase all of the other birds away from the block — including the couple of dozen quail that engulf the block. Then, after he struts around for a few minutes, the female pheasant comes out and begins eating.

“So far this fall, we have seen a rabbit, plenty of quail, deer and raccoons in our yard.

“And except for the rabbit and raccoons, the other creatures so attack the seed block that it barely lasts a week.”

ADVERTISING: For information about advertising in The Good Life, contact advertising at (509) 8886527, or sales@ncwgoodlife.com WRITE FOR THE GOOD LIFE: We welcome articles about people from Chelan and Douglas counties.

Send your idea to Mike Cassidy at editor@ncwgoodlife.com

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| January 2014

On the cover

John Clark took this photo of his wife, Dawn, as she pauses before ascending the stone steps just before Lining Crag, in the Lakes District between Rosthwaite and Patterdale on the Clarks’ walk across England this past spring.

“It was just like climbing stairs albeit somewhat uneven and steep!” said Dawn The Clarks — who have moved to Redmond since their story about walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimages trail — are part of the updates on people from past The Good Life issues, beginning on page 7.

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editor’s notes

MIKE CASSIDY

Living in Wonderland “My life is pretty much

one of those fairy tale stories we all hope for,” wrote Mike Sager when I asked him via email how his life in Ecuador was going.

We did a story on Mike a while back. Eight years ago, the redhaired former Wenatchee mailman and rock musician moved his guitar to Ecuador — and has never looked back.

We include Mike’s story in a collection of updates we are running this month.

January is a traditional time magazines look back at past newsmakers — and it’s also a traditional time we personally look ahead.

Mike’s email was one of those that smacks a person alongside the head and makes you wonder: “Why can’t I be living a fairy tale life?”

Have you been thinking this is the year you quit living a humdrum, just-getting-by life? That 2014 is going to be your personal Big Year?

But… you say, it’s hard to know how to begin.

Try Mike’s advice: Lift up your eyes. Perhaps paradise really is just over that next mountain.

But, you don’t necessarily have to go some place exotic to find new thrills in your life. Laurie Dawson has taken in a new puppy … what especially warms her heart is the work this puppy may do in the future for a person in need.

Check out the inspiring updates starting on page 7.

Looking back for ideas on how to go forward is pretty much the theme of this issue.

Steve Bishop tells of his and his sister’s visit to Vietnam, a country that deeply affected

their family, both during the war years and after. Steve said he didn’t know what to expect or how American visitors would be greeted, but once on the ground, found a warm and friendly people.

And, he heard stories that amazed him, like one that had its roots in a major battle a few decades ago that generated national headlines at the time.

“I met a young man in Da Nang,” said Steve, “who had quietly taken an American he met in a coffee shop into the area of that battle. They were detained by a Vietnamese military patrol.

When the senior military officer came in to interrogate them he looked at the American that this young man had brought with him and said, ‘You were there weren’t you?’

“Turned out both the American and the Vietnamese officer were combatants in the battle.

The senior army officer dismissed the other Vietnamese soldiers and for two hours the young man who was relating the story to me translated for both of them. He was drawn into the story as he listened to them walk through the battle reliving another time they both had strong memories of.

“The two old soldiers have become good friends and now the American comes back and contacts this young man and they go meet with the Vietnamese counterpart.”

See Steve’s story of Vietnam revisited on page 18.

Don’t give up on your own fairy tale. Enjoy The Good Life.

— Mike January 2014 | The Good Life

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fun stuff to do suggestions from the wenatchee valley chamber of commerce

January — turn down the lights and watch the dancers Ah January.

Just when you think you have made it past New Year’s Eve you just might want to get dressed up again and see Dancing with the Wenatchee Stars Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.

This show brings the Utah Ballroom Dance Company to Wenatchee to pair them with six prominent community members tasked with learning a ballroom dance in a week.

There will be beautiful costumes, video highlights, a judging panel and the audience controls the winner of the mirrored ball trophy.

This event has some potential “legs” as most of the seats at the Performing Arts Center, in the center middle section at least, are sold out.

Check pacwen.org for more information and tickets, but hurry.

The Mission Creek Players are presenting God of Carnage Jan. 17 and 18, 24 and 25 and Feb. 1 at the Riverside Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. each night.

The play is set in an up-scaled section of Brooklyn where two couples meet to sort out a playground fight between their two sons.

At first, niceties are observed but as the evening progresses and the rum flows, the gloves

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| The Good Life

Two bridal shows will feature fashion, food and flower ideas this month in Wenatchee. Photo from the NCW Bridal Premier Facebook site

come off and the night becomes a side-splitting-free-for-all.

Tickets are available through pacwen.org. $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

When I think of white I first think of snow and then, being female, I think of it as a traditional bridal gown color as well.

We have two bridal shows locally in January.

The 26th annual NCW Bridal Premier 2014 will be held at the Town Toyota Center on Jan. 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is free. General information is on their facebook

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page: www.facebook.com/ncw. bridal.premiere.

The other event is NCW Weddings Show or Bella Sera’s Platinum Bridal Show with “A Beautiful Evening” on Saturday, Jan. 11 at the Performing Arts Center from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Both feature fashion, food and flower information as well as information on venue choices and I think there is a dad’s booth offering elopement information.

(Just kidding, dad.)

— Compiled by Jerri Barkley, Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce

updates

The daring dozen

Follow-up stories of people from past issues who are pushing on to new adventures

1. A couple who is not afraid to pack up, move on & leave baggage behind

carried back from Paris and many of my beloved cooking supplies. I gave our children mementos from their grandmothers upon request. We kept the family photos, our Christmas ornaments, and two bar stools. In the end everything we owned fit in our two cars.

To say it was freeing is an understatement. I don’t find myself missing anything at all. I’ve started to collect new art and the house we live in is fully furnished. A cousin who is downsizing gave us bedroom furniture and an almost-new bed. She also gave us beach bike cruisers that had been sitting in her garage for 10 years gathering dust.

Now we spend our days working – I write for publications and Ralph works on the house. In the late afternoons we ride our bikes to the beach and cruise along the boardwalk watching the surfers and dolphins ride the waves as we hatch our plans for 2014.

What more do we need?

The backstory: Candice Reed wrote previously about how she and her husband, Ralph, gave up their California home to move to Chelan. Then in March 2013, she continued their story, saying they found themselves packing up again because, well, “why the hell not?”

Quote: Friends often look at us like we’re crazy because we no longer have a house to call a home, but we’re deliriously happy we don’t have a 30-year mortgage staring us in the face every month.

By Candice Reed

We really didn’t unpack until Halloween, not that there was much to unpack.

When my husband Ralph and I moved from California to Chelan in 2009 we brought everything we had collected, accumulated and inherited since the late ’70s.

We had never moved out of San Diego before, so our two rental homes in Chelan were decorated much in the same way as our house in San Diego. It was familiar. It was home.

But in 2013 we made a huge change. We got rid of it all and in the process freed ourselves from more than a little baggage.

Last February we moved from Chelan to Orcas Island to caretake my mother’s home while she wintered in San Diego. Ralph managed to fit all of our belongings into a 10-foot by 30-foot storage unit in Chelan and we began making payments on our 34-year-old furniture.

When spring came to Orcas we left for another caretaking opportunity in Bellevue, overlooking Lake Washington and the downtown Seattle skyline.

Before he retired, Ralph managed large grocery stores, many with small storage spaces. His organizational skills, along with his athletic vitality made him perfect for cleaning and organizing the home so it could be sold. The owner was attached

From Chelan to the California Coast. One couple’s endless summer — Candice and Ralph Reed go barefoot in the sand.

2. 50 below in Siberia, where the people are warm and fun loving

to so many items from her past that she couldn’t let go. So we did it for her.

By late summer we were back in Chelan for a few weeks housesitting and wondering what to bring to our next gig; a oneyear caretaking position a few miles from the beach in Southern California.

Part of the job was to again rid the owner of 40 years of possessions so she could eventually sell the home.

We looked at our storage unit and asked ourselves hard questions; what did we really need with all that stuff at our age?

Did we want to pay thousands of dollars — again — to ship it to California? Did we want to leave it up to our children to have to save it or trash it when we were gone?

We easily made the decision to unload it all.

It took two days to sell Ralph’s grandmother’s china cabinet, the art I had January 2014 | The Good Life

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The backstory: In a September 2012 story, Brian and Barb Gundersen reported they have lost track of how many countries they have traveled to, but do know where they are going next: an 18-month stint in Siberia.

Quote: We don’t give each other birthday presents we give each other adventures.

By Barbara Gundersen

We survived our first Siberian winter here, which we understand was one of the coldest in the past 50 years, with temperatures dropping to 50 degrees below zero

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}}} Continued from previous page Fahrenheit.

The temperatures are not the hard part. It is walking on ice for five months a year that is tricky.

When we go out, we lock arms for more stability. We normally walk about four miles a day.

We arrived here in Novosibirsk, Russia on Sept. 16, 2012 to begin an 18-month mission for our church. We’ll be returning to our home in Wenatchee on Feb. 12, 2014.

When mid-November rolled around, the temperatures dropped below freezing. It stayed cold and the snow didn’t melt until March.

But no matter how cold it is or what the weather conditions are, mothers and fathers are walking their babies in the outdoors.

Since winter is such a major part of the Siberian culture, it affects everything they do.

Around the first of the year, you can find incredible ice sculptures. You also find a lot of ice slides. The children have round plastic discs with handles that they sit on and slide down these slides. The slides range in size from a few meters for the small children, to 40 meters for the teenagers. Fun to watch!

There are small lakes and the Ob River running through the middle of the city, much like the Columbia, except that they all freeze solid. You find many people ice fishing on the frozen ice.

The people are so amazing.

On the streets they seem very solemn.

Yet they are very kind, helpful and respectful of the elderly, often giving up their seats on the buses and the metro (subway).

Once you get to know them, they are fun-loving and generous. Because of the vastness of Siberia (our mission is the size of the United States and Canada combined) they think nothing of traveling on a train for 12 hours just to come to an activity for the day and then getting back on the train for another 12 hours to return home.

We helped with a youth conference in Yekaterinburg for about 300 youth and young adults ranging in age from 14 to 30. Some of them traveled for two days by plane and by train to get to the conference.

We were on the train for 23 hours to get there.

Christmas is not that big a celebration over here.

Ded Moroz, or Father Frost, comes accompanied by Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, his granddaughter, to put gifts under the New Year’s tree.

What we miss are the beautiful Christmas decorations and Christmas music like we are used to back home.

But come New Year’s, they celebrate for a week with absolutely incredible fireworks.

Outside our apartment in our courtyard are amazing fireworks that are bigger than Wenatchee’s fireworks on the fourth of July.

And you will hear them going off all night long and for the rest of the week.

Our purpose over here is to be a role model for our members and those we come in contact with. They love seeing pictures of our family and want to know what we do as a family. Many of the youth do not know what it is like to have a good family relationship.

Living in Siberia has been an incredible experience that we will never forget. We feel so blessed to have been able to live here for a year and a half. In no other way can you really get to know people and their culture, than to live with and serve them.

3. The couple who went for a walk and transversed the country of England The backstory: A story in the February 2012 issue told how John and Dawn Clark walked 100 miles of the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain over the course of eight days.

Quote: There was something special about being on a centuries old path walked by millions of others since the 10th century.

It was also significant to have met the physical challenge.

By Dawn Clark

As far as long walks or hikes are concerned, we have been on a couple more since we did 100 miles of the Camino.

In the spring of 2012 we walked Hadrian’s Wall — mostly following the defensive wall built by the Romans on the northern border of their empire in England — and

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updates

did a week of hiking in Northumberland in northern England.

This last spring was the biggest endeavor of all — walking across England — from the Irish Sea to the North Sea. It was a 192mile plus journey.

First of all it is a great physical challenge.

We wanted to see if we could do it.

We trained hard so we knew each day seemed doable but the thought of doing it day after day for three weeks was still daunting. It was manageable because one had nothing else to think about, just put one foot in front of the other (and don’t step in a bog!).

There were a couple of days when 3 p.m. rolled around and we still had a couple of miles to go that were trying.

We were on our own so there were no conferences to be held to make group decisions, nor energy leaks due to extraneous thinking.

We did meet many very friendly fellow walkers. There is a great camaraderie among the walkers, many of whom we would meet again in the evening at the B&B or in a pub.

This is said to be the most popular long distance walk in England, principally due to the magnificent scenery.

Not high elevations so much as quite a bit of relief. I think the highest point was just a bit over 2,500 feet but there was a total ascent of 25,000 feet (according to my calculations) in the whole trip.

The trail through the Lakes District was rough in places, sometimes very steep, sometimes rocky but always scenic.

Dawn Clark, rear, and other walkers climb Loft Beck in the Lakes District in their walk across England this past spring. “This was the first really steep pitch we had come to and that was after about 10 miles on the trail that day,” said Dawn.

After the Lakes District, the track was through sheep pastures and along country lanes, very peaceful. England has a great tradition of public access across private land so long as you close the gates and don’t spook the sheep.

Next came the North York moors, rolling hills covered with heather and finally the North Sea coast.

We spent each night in bed & breakfast places, usually in a small charming village although at times a mile or so from the

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nearest pub where we got supper.

The solitude and bucolic surroundings made for lots of self-reflection and relief from the normal stresses of life. Things were very simple: Get up, hit the trail and make it to the next stop.

Our accommodations and baggage transfer were very competently handled by a company called Packhorse. We had planned our trip using a couple of guide books (Martin Wainwright’s The Coast to Coast Walk and Henry Stedman’s Coast

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updates

}}} Continued from previous page to Coast Path) and wanted a rest day after four or five walking days.

Packhorse made some good suggestions as to more interesting towns to stop for a day. These rest days were a welcome relief.

English maps are superb, showing every house, fence and track. Stedman’s book included over 140 GPS waypoints, essential in bad weather as some of the tracks are not always well defined except by stone cairns.

Jane Davis and 10 girls from Daraja who participated in the 21km Amazing Maasai this year.

4. Ultra marathon run leads to a marathon move to a girls school in Kenya The backstory: Jane Davis wrote in the November 2012 issue how she traveled to Kenya to run 75km course in one day at the base of Mount Kenya to help raise money for the education of girls from the Maasai tribe.

Quote: As I ran along the desolate winding roads I passed through villages and at times plenty of elephant dung, which put me on high alert that elephants must be close by.

By Jane Davis

We wake each morning to the sounds of birds and the pale sunlight breaking through the curtains of our small Banda.

My six-year-old daughter Jayna and I are spending the fall in rural Kenya volunteering at Daraja Academy an all-girls boarding school just outside Nanyuki at the base of

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Mount Kenya.

Kenya is a tapestry of beauty from its high mountain peaks to its tropical coast line, over 42 different ethnic groups steeped in tradition and an outstanding variety of natural habitats it definitely lives up to its name of God’s Country.

After participating in the Amazing Maasai Ultramarathon in 2012 (I participated again this year, this time in the 21km with a group of 10 girls from Daraja) I felt compelled to return to this beautiful country and do my part in regards to the empowerment of young girls.

Of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls.

Thinking of my own daughter I find this statistic startling and unacceptable.

Daraja (which means bridge in Swahili) is a school for Kenyan girls with top academic

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scores and exceptional leadership skills, but no means to continue their education.

Many of these girls are orphans, victims of AIDS, domestic and/or sexual abuse.

The 104 girls that call Daraja home represent the beautiful patchwork of Kenya on behalf of 30 tribes and multiple religious back-

grounds.

Kenya has a history of tribal violence and the founders of Daraja felt it important to create connections and friendships celebrating differences through amity and understanding.

On that note my role at Daraja has been to assist with a program called WISH or Women of Integrity, Strength and Hope.

More specifically the development of the Conflict Resolution and Women Peacemaker curriculum that Form 3 (juniors) students learn about during the third term.

With the recent terrorist attack in Nairobi and riots in Mombasa the timing could not have been more appropriate.

Our time at Daraja and with these exceptional girls has been engaging, thought provoking and extremely pivotal. The world is definitely a better place when we educate a girl.

As Jayna and I prepare to return home at the end of the year, we will carry with us the spirit of Kenya and memories that will last us our lifetime.

| January 2014

updates

not only passed his final exam, but that he had been matched with a blind person and would graduate in two weeks.

To say I was elated is an understatement!

It then hit me — I would see Rebel again at his graduation — I was rejoicing!

On Saturday, Oct. 12, I made my way over to Seattle with a friend. This would be the first ever GDB graduation held at the Museum of Flight and Rebel was one of six graduating guide dogs that day.

All the raisers who attended were permitted to see “their” puppy again and meet their puppy’s new companion. I couldn’t wait to see Rebel. When the moment arrived and he spotted me, he was ecstatic!

It thrilled my heart and the tears of joy began to flow.

After a few moments, Rebel settled down and I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting and visiting for a while with Rebel’s new companion, Bill.

The graduation ceremony was heartwarming, emotional and final — it is what Rebel and I worked toward for over a year.

He was now the eyes for Bill but, just as importantly, he was a companion for him… the new bond of friendship and respect had begun.

The goal was achieved — this was one of the best days of my life!

So, what am I doing now?

I have been raising Viggo since July and enjoying, once again, the companionship

5. Rebel is on the job, now it’s time to guide a new puppy toward a career The backstory: Laurie Dawson wrote in the June 2013 issue about raising Rebel, a very special black lab puppy, as a guide dog puppy in training.

Quote: You are not only blessed by the opportunity to do something special for another human being, you are also blessed by the experience of spending quality time with a wonderful dog.

By Laurie Dawson

In June, I received word that Rebel was ready to head to college.

On Sunday, July 14, I dropped him off at the Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) Oregon campus to begin his formal training.

It was both a sad and happy occasion.

Sad, because I was saying goodbye to “my baby;” happy, because we had worked hard to get to this day and it was finally here.

Although tears were shed, I knew in my heart I would see Rebel again.

Four days later, Viggo entered my home.

I was starting over with this adorable black lab three-month-old male puppy. Now I had one in college and a “toddler” at home!

I was refocused now with a goal to get Viggo to college when he is 15 months old… there was much work to do.

I thought about Rebel every day. How was he doing? Was he adjusting to kennel life? Did he miss me? I looked forward to Thursdays, the day that his weekly prog-

Rebel at his graduation ceremony: Laurie (in rear) turned over the guide dog to his new companion.

ress report was posted.

Puppies start in Phase 0 and work their way to Phase 8, before they have their final exam and a determination is made as to whether they will graduate… assuming if they make it that far.

So, I watched with anticipation each week to see if he would progress to the next phase. This went on for three months.

Then, finally, the day I had been waiting and watching for, arrived. I received the wonderful phone call that Rebel had

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}}} Continued from previous page and love of a wonderful puppy. We have much work ahead of us, but we’re keeping our eye on the goal — to attend Viggo’s graduation ceremony where he will begin his career as a guide and companion for a very special blind person.

College is our first target — July 2014, here we come!

If you question just how much of a difference a guide dog makes in the life of a blind person, visit www.guidedogs.com and read some of the inspiring stories. If you are interested in learning more about being a puppy raiser or other volunteer opportunities, contact the local Guide Dogs for the Blind Puppy Raising club, Pups 4 Partners, at 670-7098.

6. Giving up handlebars for a hammer — helping son build a home The backstory: In the November and December 2012 issues, Lief and Mary Carlsen told how they pedaled from their Chelan home to Florida on a tandem bike.

Quote: Despite the hardships, 10 to 15 mph is the best way to see the country. It’s slow enough to see things up close and fast enough that you don’t get bored.

By Lief Carlsen

Mary and I have pretty much taken a hiatus from bicycle touring this last year.

I did manage to squeeze in a mere 500mile ride from Wenatchee to Crater Lake during September but that’s about it for bicycling.

It is Halloween as I write. Since late September Mary and I have been camped out (in our 5th wheel trailer) on our son Nicholas’ two acres in the Virginia hills where we are helping him construct a three-story house.

The two acres is a beautiful piece of land just a mile or two from where the Battle of Bull Run took place during the Civil War. It’s about an hour’s drive from D.C. where Nicholas works as an intelligence analyst for the FBI. The house will overlook a slope covered by enormous oak, maple and beech trees,

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which at the moment are alive with fall color. A small, clear stream forms the northern boundary.

It would be hard to exaggerate how much I have been captivated by this project.

For the last five weeks I have hurried down the gravel driveway from our trailer to the job site at first light and worked alongside Nick through the day laying block, framing walls and finishing concrete.

I even managed to build a span of stone wall from the abundant field stone that litters the forest floor.

I won’t deny that much of the spring is absent from my step by day’s end but that is from sheer exhaustion, not lack of enthusiasm.

I have to admire Nick’s guts in taking on a project of this magnitude. We are doing all the work and neither of us is a professional builder.

But then I remember that I built the house Mary and I live in when I was a young man and the sum total of my building experience at that time had been some boyhood “forts” built from scrap lumber and recycled nails.

I suppose most people would not consider construction work fun and I’m not at all sure that I fully understand the genuine satisfaction this “vacation” has afforded me.

I never fail to admire the tangible progress we have made at the end of each day.

That’s a big part of it. I like the idea that I can contribute to a home for one of my children. And I’m really excited about the design and location that Nick and Hyekyung have chosen.

I’m thrilled to be a part of this project.

Although Nick assured me that October is the most pleasant season in Virginia, we had to endure a week-long heat spell when we first arrived followed by a week of heavy rain which turned the orange clay soil hereabout into a shoe-sucking quagmire.

Nevertheless, we endured and we have had crisp fall weather since. | The Good Life

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We’re working at treetop level now and whenever possible I admire the view of the blue sky above, the creek below, and the red oak leaves spiraling to earth whenever a gust of wind passes through the surrounding trees.

For all those Good Life readers who have been expecting another article about an epic bicycle tour I can only offer this: Mary and I are talking about possibly bicycling through France and Germany next summer.

Then again, I may spend next summer building a house with my daughter, Rachel, in Wenatchee.

7. Coconut ice cream in Cambodia is nice, grandkids are wonderful!

The backstory: Finding herself in Cambodia where her husband had taken a position with the World Wildlife Fund, Linda Congdon looked around for what she could do, and — as she wrote in the April 2013 issue — determined she could teach a local couple how to have a business making coconut ice cream.

Quote: In summary of my experiences in Cambodia, I can now confidently say, “If life gives you coconuts, make coconut ice cream.”

By Linda Congdon

Since returning in March from a fouryear stay in Cambodia, I have spent my time getting caught up with my grandchildren, family and friends.

I greatly missed being with my grandchildren while we were away, but have had the joy these past months of hiking, biking, swimming and celebrating birthdays and holidays with each of them.

Our seventh grandchild, Joy, was just born in September, so I have been happily grand mothering!

The two most frequent questions I’ve been asked since returning are, “What are you doing now and what will you be doing next?”

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My answer is usually, “We are recovering, resting, reconnecting and playing.”

One night recently, as I was drifting off to sleep, Gordon asked me, “Linda, what would you think about going to Fiji?”

My reply? “Sure, but not now!”

Since I am married to a wonderful man who just happens to have a passion to visit remote parts of the world, I never know what adventure might be next. But for now, I am relishing being at home and having lots of free time to spend with family and friends.

I do stay in contact with my friend Tona and his wife Sok Ni, who I helped to start a small business, making and selling coconut ice cream.

And yes, they are enthusiastically continuing this business in their hometown of Kratie.

In September, they had to suspend making ice cream due to several weeks of high flooding, but after the waters receded, were able to produce ice cream again.

I came home feeling like those athletes who run and jump over hurdles — only my hurdles were of the emotional kind.

Over those four years, I learned how to leap over the hurdle of being “the foreigner” (one who feels displaced and doesn’t fit), and discovered how to fit in and work and help in this new place.

Learning the new skill of teaching adults English as a second language and loving it, following a desire through to fruition and helping a family start a small business have left me with a new confidence that shouts, yes, I can!

And that new confidence will go with me throughout life, wherever I am!

Linda Congdon holds her tiny, new granddaughter, Joy.

Although living in Cambodia for four years was challenging, I think my life was enriched in a variety of ways.

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Our Services:* An affiliation between Central Washington Hospital and Wenatchee Valley Medical Center that includes two hospitals, multi-specialty care in over 30 service lines and primary care in ten communities across North Central Washington. With over 225 physicians and 100 advanced practice clinicians, we serve an area of approximately 12,000 square miles, and cover nearly every corner of this region through specialty outreach.

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*This list is not exclusive, for a complete list of our services please visit our website confluencehealth.org.

confluencehealth.org January 2014 | The Good Life

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updates

8. Sweet, stressfree Ecuador — ‘sooooooo glad this is now my home!’

The backstory: Mike Sager wrote in the September 2012 issue how after years of living as a postman in Wenatchee, he made the move to live fulltime in Ecuador where he founded a real estate business just as North Americans began moving to that Central America country.

Quote: It seems I finally ended up in the Right Place at the Right Time.

By Mike Sager

Eight years have passed since I moved to Ecuador in 2005 and I am still in love with the place.

I have to pinch myself just about everyday thinking: “Hey, this is real and I am living the dream.”

So many people “want this” but they just don’t seem to take that first step to see if it will work for them. I am soooooooooo glad I came to Ecuador and now make it my home.

From a business standpoint, it has been the most incredible experience in my life.

Nothing comes close as to the things I had done in the past back in the States.

I have a business here that tends to cater to gringos! We literally have folks coming down all the time looking for their “Piece of Paradise.”

My day usually consists of two to three hours on the computer responding to folks

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Mike Sager and his five-year-old son bob in the waves of Ecuador.

wishing to set up time once they are here to see properties. The rest of the day is out on the road with people viewing all the coastal properties we have listed on our website. It can make for a long day, but it is fun.

The folks coming down here are typically fun loving, adventurous and wishing for a less stressful life... we have that in aces!!

The fun part of my life is playing guitar, riding my motorcycle, spending time at the beach with my family and just kickin’ back in the hammock at sunset.

I think I have shared this with everyone —I have found the Ultimate Stress Relief System — it is called a “hammock!” Sunset, cold drink, hammock — all is good!

I am constantly reminded by folks up north how bad things are for most folks.

That’s when I am most thankful for making the decision over eight years ago to

| The Good Life

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“dismiss” myself from what was painfully inevitable for most of the U.S. Best decision I have ever made in my life.

I keep telling people: “Hey, it is worth the risk to see if exploring other possibilities could make a difference in your quality and LENGTH of life. You don’t hear of Ecuadorians dying from stress-related diseases/issues.

Well... I hear a wave calling my name.... gonna grab a boogie board and boogie on down the beach! Cheers!

9. Came to Panama to find a writing space, found a community to belong to The backstory: Morgan Fraser told in the April 2013 issue how she boarded a plane and headed to Panama early in February 2013, and eventually discovered her own place at the end of a rainbow.

Quote: Although I am still searching for the perfect living situation that will fit my need for somewhere quiet, cheap and inspirational, I have found a place that feels a lot like a home, at least for now.

By Morgan Fraser

In February 2013, I got off a plane in Panama with two backpacks and enough savings to last me six months.

I was looking for a cheap, quiet and in-

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spirational place to write a book, and what I found instead was beyond my wildest dreams.

It took a couple of tries to find the place I was looking for: first I tried caretaking a private island property in the Caribbean; second I spent some time as a volunteer at a closed hotel that unsuccessfully tried to reopen as a retreat center. The Caribbean property left me feeling isolated; the retreat center took up all the time I wanted to be writing.

Third and last I landed in Boquete, a coffee-growing region in the mountains near the Costa Rican border. It is a small town with a large expatriate community, meaning I have access to specialty items, and also people whom I culturally identify with.

Although more expensive than other parts of Panama, it’s also a cheap place to live. My casita on its own lot costs me $400 a month; a massage or acupuncture appointment is about $30 an hour; filet mignon costs $3.50 a pound and I buy all my organic produce for about $30 a week.

It was everything I was looking for: quiet, cheap and inspirational. Boquete is known as the land of eternal spring; even in the rainy season the temperature never dropped below about 65, and even if it rained every afternoon, there was still sunshine in the morning.

Not only did I find a writing sanctuary here, I also found a community I could belong to: I have acted in two productions at the local English-language theater, one

Morgan Fraser at an abandoned castle in the mountains above the town of Boquete, Panama. The owner of the castle died during its construction and his family is currently fighting over who gets to take ownership. In the meantime, it has fallen into disrepair and become an eerie stop for tourists on their way to and from some of the area’s best-known and most beautiful hiking trails.Â

of which we took on the road to other nearby English-speaking com-

Not long after arriving, I got a job doing search engine optimization for a local business: essentially, optimizing their website so it shows up better in Google search results. Because I have a background in this type of work and also know how to write, edit, make changes to websites and cook, I have managed to find my niche here by doing a little bit of everything.

Best of all, I have now built up a base of clients from all over the world; the money I make from this work pays well enough for me to live on. Most of my work is done from home between taking walks in the

munities.

I have made many friends of different ages, nationalities and walks of life. I have a group of friends near my age; the majority of the men play online poker for a living, and live here because it is illegal to do so in the U.S. We go on beach trips, have potlucks, dress up for Halloween and had a huge Thanksgiving dinner together. I have also explored many a hiking trail, coffee roast, and beach on the Pacific Ocean an hour away.

January 2014 | The Good Life

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}}} Continued from previous page sunshine and writing.

I canceled my return ticket, and have no plans to move back to the States anytime soon.

My book – a memoir about the things I have learned in the last 3-4 years of my life –has taken me longer than I originally expected, but the time spent settling into my new space and life has been worth the time away from it. I am currently in the editing stage and expect to publish Fumbling Toward Enlightenment in early 2014.

10. Vespa man intends to take granddaughter touring on a Harley

William Robertson is preparing his ride for a cross-country trip he hopes to take his granddaughter, Liz, on in the spring.

The backstory: William Robertson wrote in the August 2012 issue about riding his Vespa scooter across America.

Quote: Riding a scooter allowed me the time to smell the wild flowers as well as the feedlots of Kansas, the freshly plowed fields of Illinois and Indiana, the cut grass of Kentucky and the damp of the eastern forest.

By William Robertson

The youngest of our grandchildren has always been promised a tour of the East Coast.

This all started when Liz’s older sister was 10 and came home with reports of things seen and “far away lands” visited.

She had been too young to go along on that trip so we promised to take her along the “next” time, then her two cousins got a grand tour trip for high school graduation and again she was left home.

So last year after my cross country trip on the Vespa (The Good Life August 2012 issue) there was no excuse good enough to abstain from her dream of seeing the historic sites of the East Coast.

My first choice for a “ride” would have been my Vespa, small, light, easy on fuel.

But for some reason that grandpas are not privy to, teenage young ladies like to carry a lot of “stuff” and need a little more comfort.

A Honda Goldwing with large sidecar was chosen and then rigged with all the

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“must have” power outlets for the MP3, laptop, cell phone and whatever else is packed in handbags today.

The adventure will begin on or about the third week in May when I ride across the country to Jacksonville, Florida, stopping at times to see old service buddies.

Then after school lets out, my wife, Janet, and granddaughter, Liz, will fly to Jacksonville to visit with family.

After a brief stay the three of us will ride up the East Coast to Washington, D.C., stopping at all the tourist traps along the way.

From there my wife will fly home, and granddaughter and I will ride back across the country, all the while doing the tourist thing.

11. See you on the flip side: Boy bands and fans rock out to the ’60s again The backstory: In the June 2013 issue, Cary Ordway wrote about how he and other local musicians had revived a semifamous 1960s rock ’n’ roll band and were playing local venues again.

Quote: Now here we are, rocking local clubs with ’60s music when we should be sitting at home watching Lawrence Welk. | The Good Life

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By Cary Ordway

Our ’60s band, The Chargers, had this one event last summer that stood out above all the rest – the “christening” of the new music venue at the Alpenhorn Café across the highway from Lake Chelan State Park.

The owners of the Café – who also own Watson’s Resort – built an impressive new stage (complete with professional lighting) as well as a new refreshment building on a gorgeous tree-lined piece of property perfect for outdoor concerts.

Ours was the very first of what will become regular summer concerts at Lake Chelan.

The Chelan concert reminded us of the days back in the late 1960s when The Chargers were playing dances on the tennis courts in Chelan – a mecca for Wenatchee kids who would pile into cars and drive up to spend their summer Saturday nights cruising Woodin Avenue in Chelan.

The cool kids were all there and sometimes The Chargers were playing the music, although the venue attracted top Northwest groups from the “coast” (Seattle, in Wenatchee-speak).

It was during that time that The Chargers released their first songs on Julian Records and, interestingly, those songs were scheduled to be re-released in November 2013. An East Coast record label named Get Hip decided there was enough demand to release I’m So Alone, Taxi and two other songs in a new attractive sleeve and on colored vinyl.

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where many people come out who remember the group from its days playing proms at Wenatchee High School.

While a lot of the music we play still includes old favorites from the ’60s, the band has expanded its list to include a variety of classic rock from other periods.

The Chargers show no signs of letting up. For upcoming dates, check our website at www.reverbnation.com/thechargersrecharged.

The league lost almost half their skaters. Many women found that it was too rough a sport as many experienced injury, or they found that practice and volunteer obligations were too difficult to manage with work and family.

The national rules changed and the leadership for Apple City changed as well.

Sandi Bammer is the current president of Apple City Roller Derby. The three teams are now one.

However, I did find my skater replacement.

I teach at Rock Island Elementary and one of the second grade teachers, Stephanie Collett, saw The Good Life article with my picture. She told me that she’d been interested in the sport, but it was seeing my picture that really motivated her to get involved.

She has since gone through the “Fresh Meat” program, passed her tests (which are more difficult now) and just had her first scrimmage (in which she broke one of her ribs).

But she is LOVING skating. Also, my husband is an official at bouts and scrimmages. When I was in the thick of practices and other skating activities, he figured he’d better join me… so he still officiates when called.

I am envious of the girls who are still skating. Even at the limited level that I was able to skate, it was the most fun and freeing exercise I’ve ever experienced.

There is a quote by Bonnie D. Stroir: “Most seem to find roller derby in transitional periods… We ruin our bodies to save our souls, and for some reason that makes perfect sense.”

I guess I was transitioning from being “young” to being a little bit older. From thinking I could do anything, to realizing the limitations of my physical abilities.

But I had a wonderful experience in my transition and will always be grateful.

12. Roller Derby may have been tough on the body but was food for the soul

The Aztecs are back in circulation: Record from this ’60s Waterville band has been reissued.

Since I am the keyboard player for The Chargers it’s coincidental that my own band from the ’60s – The Aztecs, from Waterville – also had a big re-release: World of Woe and Why Can’t You Tell Me, on Sundazed Records in November. Both The Chargers and Aztecs records are available on Amazon and on dozens of other music websites.

Vinyl releases, by the way, are the New Thing and have been growing in popularity for several years. Many of the top recording artists in the country are re-releasing their hits on vinyl, often because they maintain that the format provides more clarity than a digitally compressed format such as a CD. Several companies are now producing turntables to play these new vinyl records on.

The Chargers continue to play lots of local gigs in North Central Washington

The backstory: Terry Sloan wrote in the March 2012 issue how she became a roller derby skater.

Quote: When my husband sent a picture of me in my derby gear to my youngest daughter, she joked, “I don’t know whether to be proud or embarrassed!”

By Terry Sloan

I’ve transitioned from skating in Roller Derby but still support the Apple City Roller Derby League.

I continued to skate through August 2012. I passed all my tests and was “bout” ready under the criteria at the time. I was especially proud of skating 25 laps in under five minutes!

However, the level of skill and endurance required to bout was far more than I could physically do. I had a small injury on my ankle that required surgery.

My father was ill and required my support. He ultimately passed away in March of 2013.

And so, I helped Apple City through its first year of transitions by being the treasurer for a short time until someone was found and by helping plan their first annual retreat to decide their future and set an annual bout schedule. Under Barb Andre’s presidency, the 2012-2013 season scheduled bouts once a month with Apple City’s three local teams as well as a travel team that played out-of-town teams.

Since then Apple City has made a lot of changes.

January 2014 | The Good Life

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The first 2014 Roller Derby bout is Jan. 11: Columbia Basin Roller Derby (Moses Lake) v. Apple City Roller Derby at the Wenatchee Valley Sportsplex (base of Fifth Street in Wenatchee). For info, visit: applecityrollerderby.com. |

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A visit to

vietnam Brother and sister retrace their father’s footsteps and find A people who have mostly left the war behind

By Steve Bishop In February 1972, my Dad — Chief Warrant Officer Leroy Bishop — was medevaced out of Tan Son Nhat airport in Saigon.

Forty years later on Father’s Day, June 16, 2013, my sister Mary Croston and I landed in that same airport.

A great deal about Vietnam had changed, but to walk the places my Dad served was as much about the present as it was about the past.

Dad passed away 12 years ago in 2001 from a rare type of cancer linked to Agent Orange exposure.

For us the two tours he served in Vietnam represented more than time away from our family but in a very real way the seeds of an even greater sacrifice he would make for his country.

My journey began six months earlier while visiting the National Military Cemetery on Oahu, Hawaii. Rows and rows of graves in spotless manicured grounds surround several large murals commemorating the different Pacific theaters Americans have fought and died in.

There in the center of the map of Vietnam was the insignia of the First Cavalry Airmobile Division, the gold shield with the black diagonal and the black horse head — a connection with my Dad I remembered well and the pride he had in what the First Cav represented.

I knew at that moment I needed to walk the places my Dad served in Vietnam.

A little research and con-

versations with Mom, pouring through old letters and maps, conversation with our travel agent, Becky Tessier, and we had an itinerary. My sister Mary Croston, a former military officer, a world trekker with an adventuresome spirit and now a fifth grade teacher at Fairchild Air Force Base, agreed to go with me.

Our journey began on the streets of Saigon — now known as Ho Chi Minh City.

We would travel by private car and airplane most of our journey, horse cart, sampan, dugout canoes through the Mekong Delta, bicycles, fishing boats, round basket boats, and even rode a water buffalo in the rice paddies and waterways around Da Nang and finally ended up walking the halls of the infamous Hoa Lo prison… known by American POW’s as the Hanoi Hilton.

The hospitality of the Vietnamese people is extraordinary but measured. There is active censorship and there are things they can say and things they cannot say.

Even at that we were fortunate to have several people share with us personal stories of how the Vietnam War or as they called it the “American War” impacted them. Stories of standing in front of the American Embassy in 1975 watching the helicopter lift off the roof during the fall of Saigon in that now famous picture, and the sense of feeling so alone and then the years in the “reeducation” camps.

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Volunteering time at a Saigon orphanage was something Chief Warrant Officer Leroy Bishop, middle, encouraged his men to do.

Round bottom boats made from reeds and cured cow dung were incredibly stable. The Viet Cong used these in the swampy waterways around Da Nang.

Steve and Mary engaged an eco-tour and were able to try them out.

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| January 2014

Starbucks in Ho Chi Minh City (with Steve and Mary seated at far left). “The former Saigon is a busy cosmopolitan city.. with the biggest challenge crossing the street,” said Steve.

American airplanes and other equipment is displayed at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

Others quietly came up to us and, after learning our purpose of commemorating our Dad’s service, telling us thank you for not only coming but for the sacrifice of our family.

I know my Dad served in sev-

eral different locations throughout the Republic of South Vietnam, most of which he could not or would not write home about.

One that was particularly impacting for him was not in the context of a battle or conflict but January 2014 | The Good Life

rather in an orphanage in the Saigon area.

Dad had a number of men under his supervision and as he often told the junior officers he trained and oriented: “In country, you have two primary missions; 1) to go home when this is done, 2) take as many of your men as you can with you.”

Dad found that many of the men who served with him were also dads and one of the best things he could do was keep them focused on objective number one.

Connecting them with the “world” and kids in some way was a great way to do that. His unit adopted a Catholic orphanage in the Saigon area. They built playground equipment, refurbished buildings, provided medical support for the kids and took time when they had leave to spend time with the kids.

Mom collected donations from schools and Campfire groups in www.ncwgoodlife.com

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the Moses Lake/Ephrata area and forwarded them to my Dad and he made sure they were delivered to the orphanage.

One of the reasons we particularly wanted to start in the Saigon area was to visit that orphanage. Unfortunately the government is suppressing Christian activity in Vietnam and has “recalled” many of the church properties including this particular orphanage and so access is limited for outside visitors.

Even at that, as we walked the streets of Saigon I wondered if any of the 40 and 50 years olds I saw would have known my Dad? There were a number of moments we spent walking the now empty tarmacs of old military installations overgrown with vegetation and through rubber plantations. Hearing second hand accounts of Hamburger Hill made famous by the movie “When We Were Soldiers” and walking the sands of China Beach, we felt the legacy of heroes who had given their best in those places.

We met widows, children and grandchildren of Vietnamese soldiers who had served on both sides and remember the words of the lovely young lady who shared with us her grandfather’s words who had served among the Viet Cong that we must learn to forgive, “no one was left unscarred by the war.”

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A visit to

vietnam }}} Continued from previous page As the son of a military officer serving in the Vietnam conflict, I remember the general response of the American public toward the returning Vietnam vets and, yes, their families sometimes as well.

I remember on more than one occasion being confronted when I was with my Dad in uniform by people who wanted him to know their opinion of “The War” and how anyone would have allowed themselves to be sucked in to the conflict.

More than once I was ridiculed by teachers and others for speaking out in support of the military members and their service in southeast Asia.

I remember asking Dad his thoughts and how he maintained his patience and decorum, and he would quote

Voltaire, “I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Dad told me that duty and honor mattered and when he put on the uniform and took the oath he took it seriously, it wasn’t conditioned on public opinion.

Dad very much appreciated the ordinary Vietnamese citizens as well as his nation- Steve and Mary pose on a lookout over a river basin on their way to Vinh Phuc, one of the al counterparts in installations their dad served out of. In the background is a bridge built by Americans, which the Vietnamese was destroyed during the Khmer Rouge incursion into Vietnam. army. He saw the dedication of the the street waiting to get visas and in the distance we heard the Catholic Sisters to their charges to legally immigrate or visit the refrain from the song by Stevie in the orphanage and admired United States.

Wonder, “We are the world, we all of their commitment in the He looked at me and stated are the children.” face of tough times and war. the obvious, “So, what you think This trip was truly a journey I was told on our visit that Vietnam people think about and I am not sure we will ever 70 percent of the Vietnamese America?” arrive at a destination — that population is under the age of There is a vibrant sense of en- place where we can have total 30. The war 40 years ago is part trepreneurship in the economy understanding and peace about of history that for most is past. and in places the grip of socialmy Dad’s sacrifice and the sacEnglish is compulsory in most ism/communism has been light- rifices of so many who wore the schools and is perceived as the ened because of the economic uniforms of the United States of language of opportunity. One stagnation it created.

America. young man who was a student of There was a rhythm unique But what we know is what we international economics shared to each city we visited blendcan see — that time has moved with me that, “Americans make ing ethnic cultures (Vietnam on and healing is taking place. much better friends than enhas over 40 minority groups), There will always be an empty emies.” dreams and a sense of the big place in our lives where my Dad When I asked one person I picture of a country in catharsis. would have been — as with so met in Saigon, “What do the During one of the lunar many families who lost loved Vietnamese people think of festivals we were in the ancient ones in and after Southeast America today” he told me to merchant city of Hoi An on the Asia and the other wars of our get in his car and he would show China Sea on the east coast of generation. me.

Vietnam. The city was teeming We celebrate the 28 additional We drove by the Russian with people of many Oriental years we had with him and Embassy and he asked me, “So, countries, plus Russians, Gerhonor the memory of his service what you see?” I replied, “A semans, Australians and several and the principles of faith in cured compound with walls and other nations along with at least God, love of family and loyalty guard posts.” two Americans we knew of. to country by which he lived.

He then took me by the GerIt was a magical moment at Steve Bishop feels privileged to live in man Embassy and repeated the dusk along the beautiful Thu Wenatchee. He is married to Cheryl, question, “So, what you see?” My Bon River. As the day receded has three children —Cathy, Nate answer was the same. people throughout the town and Joy — eight grandchildren, is Then he drove me by the began to light brightly colored an ordained associate pastor and a local Realtor. “I saw Wenatchee for American Embassy, which aplanterns. Lotus shaped pink luthe first time when I was 16, and said, peared much the same from the minaries were placed floating in ‘I’m coming back,’” said Steve. outside except for one thing: the waterways. The soft glow of The line of people going down candles complemented the stars

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It’s not magic, it’s good medicine riding center & volunteers offer therapy for people with physical, mental and emotional disabilities

By Susan Lagsdin

W

hen a young man who is blind, deaf and mute stretches his arms along the length of a sturdy mare on first meeting and presses his ear against her side for a full ten minutes, is that bliss?

When an angry, traumatized teenager, habitually hunched and glowering with pain, starts to walk a little taller when she leads a horse and even chances a smile now and then, is that freedom?

When a 50-something lifelong trail rider, diminished by a stroke into silence and unable to walk unaided, sits in the saddle like the pro he was and reins his horse at a trot, is that the essence of hope?

Nancy Grette and the dozens of volunteers at her Alatheia Riding Center would shout “Yes!” For two and a half years, Nancy, who had been a teacher, and her husband Glenn have offered the docility and warmth of their Norwegian Fjord horses to bring bliss, freedom and hope to people who’ve been born or burdened with very little of any of those.

It’s not magic; it’s medicine.

Equine therapy is a long-recognized treatment that uses the multi-sensory motion of the horse to improve balance, strength and coordination, but certified riding centers like Alatheia, which treat a variety of disorders, are rare in the Northwest.

Nancy and Glenn have been avid riders themselves for years,

Using a lifetime of muscle memory, John Minardi independently maneuvers his horse Frid to the right while Nancy Grette watches. Bit by bit, John’s balance and strength, as well as his optimism, are returning with every ride.

John, recovering from a July 2012 stroke, mounts his horse with help from Nancy on the left and his wife Marty on the right. Volunteers Susan Martin, in the back, and Stacy Fowler, holding the horse, will assist on the ride.

January 2014 | The Good Life

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but after they had raised their family and found their sturdy trail horses in need of new jobs, they immersed themselves in research and Nancy studied at similar operations in Woodinville and Ellensburg. Spurred by a desire to be used well and to help others, they formed their nonprofit therapeutic riding center in 2011.

Their home place, a few acres high above the Wenatchee River, expanded from a barn and round pen to include a big outdoor ring with mounting ramps, and now features an all-weather indoor arena.

Their 12 clients have grown to 50, helped by a mostly volunteer staff: rotating crews of volunteers, two physical therapists and two occupational therapists.

Nancy oversees a grueling

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Not magic, it’s medicine }}} Continued from previous page

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schedule. From early morning until evening, nine months a year, people with a wide range of physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, from mitochondrial disease to autism spectrum disorders, commune with horses in their own way for their own growth.

She dispelled a fallacy, “It’s not just ‘pony rides.’ This is a real riding school, so some of our clients aren’t just getting therapy; they are learning the basics of a life long sport.”

Every person who rides is safe in the constant company of one or more volunteers. Some are held upright on both sides at a slow walk. Others may work for weeks learning to hold on to the thick single rein and find within a year that they can guide a half-ton horse using their own

Riding double in the saddle, Nancy happily holds in her arms Alex, who has cerebral palsy. The little girl’s glee makes all the work worthwhile.

muscles.

Most are young. “These kids have such amazing families,” Nancy said. ”They are absolutely dedicated to giving them the best life they can have.” Many of the children will go on to other pursuits or even more advanced riding when they become able.

Some may spend the remainder of their lives anticipating their weekly hour of sensual pleasure with a horse.

Understandably, a lot of teenagers eagerly sign up to volunteer. Nancy said, “Most of them think ‘O boy! I get to work with horses!’ They don’t realize what they’ll learn from working with the riders. They are so moved, so proud to be helping — and a lot of them gain a new appreciation

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for what they have, what they take for granted.”

Alatheia board members Susan Martyn and Stacy Fowler were both assisting on a chilly December afternoon when The Good Life ventured up to the center for photos and a story.

Their enthusiasm and good humor made it clear there was no better place to be than helping John Minardi, today’s sole rider.

His wife Marty Whiteman was, as always, in helpful proximity.

John and Marty, who live up Brender Canyon in Cashmere, have a special story.

Meeting in middle age, they had dated for a little over a year before their 2012 wedding. But a week after their honeymoon, John suffered a debilitating

He loves being on Frid, the big mare on whom he’s relearned his body’s rhythms. And he knows that Frid is his ticket to freedom. stroke that left him wheelchair bound, nonverbal and angry.

A retired police officer, he’d been a runner, a black belt Martyal artist and a horseman, a backcountry trail rider.

Marty first heard about Alatheia soon after the stroke and admits her reaction was, “That’s never gonna happen.” But soon

she realized equine therapy was the key to John’s recovery — it was the horses that could bring John back to his previous good life, or very close.

Now, John walks carefully with a cane, arranges himself in the saddle with considerable help, and smiles and nods when words don’t serve him. He loves

being on Frid, the big mare on whom he’s relearned his body’s rhythms.

And he knows that Frid is his ticket to freedom. Marty and John are both convinced that the quarter-mile trail rides around Alatheia are a prelude to years of packing again into the mountains, both horseback, both strong and able.

On that cold afternoon one man helped by four good women mounted his horse, took a short trail ride, trotted her around the arena, fed her a few treats, and sat smiling in the sun after-

J

oin us for the first annual Pybus Market New Year’s celebration — featuring a concert by acclaimed Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha.

Door prizes, a photo booth, and the first annual New Year’s Apple Drop. Mirroring the Times Square ball-drop, a custommade lighted apple will descend inside Pybus Market until it reaches a large “2014” that lights up at midnight.

Tickets: $25 advance, $35 at the door, $50 VIP (21 +, advance only).

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wards. One giant step for John.

And that’s just one hour of hundreds that can make Nancy Grette smile and sometimes cry.

She loves telling the stories of her students’ successes. She’s created at Alatheia Riding Center a place where she and Glenn have fulfilled a personal spiritual mission, her volunteers are learning about love and optimism, and her riders are ecstatic about their precious time with the horses.

For more information about Nancy and the riding center, visit www. alatheiaridingcenter.com.

This view from the south indicates the engineering and earth moving that positioned this house ideally on its steep lot. The vertical corrugated siding offers weather protection.

Blended home Dave Simmons and his fiancée artfully dodged a relationship-wrecking bullet to come up with a smart, individualized house

By Susan Lagsdin

There’s a myth about mar-

riage that says working on a building project together can be a relationship disaster, that there’s often a need for couple

counseling in the wake of a remodel.

If that’s true then Dave Simmons and his fiancée Secrett (pronounced “secret”) — both brand new to the area — were in a high risk situation for one very intensive year from June 2012

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to June 2013. During that time they collaborated daily, often working side by side, on the ground-up construction of their new 4,000-square-foot home in Highland Estates.

But their wedding this past October indicates they dodged

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| January 2014

that home-wrecking bullet.

Their blended family (once his son, her son) settled in, they showed the home successfully in the September Tour of Homes and they refocused on their day jobs: she’s a nurse at Central Washington Hospital, and Dave

ABOVE: Tucked away on the east hill side, the home’s front entrance offers both privacy and a grand welcome. To the right, the oversize garage and a dog kennel form a protective “L” shape.

LEFT: Pillars, windows and a cozy carpet define the living room area. The stone fireplace is flanked by lighted nooks that allow tall display cases or bookshelves.

Dave said, “When you walk through the house and see how it’s meant to function, you understand the dimensions better.” The great room’s height was trimmed from 13 down to nine-foot ceilings, using trusses instead of structural beams (a move that theoretically saved

makes houses for a living. He is Simmons Construction, right now commuting daily to projects in Cle Elum while lining up some local starts.

His years of construction experience, mostly in Kittitas County, translated into a huge savings in cost and a good use of all his accumulated construction skills. “We broke ground in September 2012 and started framing in December. It was totally done in six months. I was working 1420 hours, seven days a week a lot of that time,” said Dave, but he applauds the whole project as a team effort.

Secrett and their teenage sons Kyle and Colton did their fair share, Dave hired out some specific jobs like plumbing, electric and drywall and “lots and lots of good friends” pitched in when a

few skilled hands were needed.

One day their crew of four poured an unprecedented 90 cubic yards of concrete, the base of both the shop and the house.

Translation? Typical daily output on a construction site is a crew of five pouring 30 yards.

The overall structure and look of this house has equally collaborative origins.

Just after working on a custom home in Suncadia, Cle Elum’s high-end resort development, Dave talked with local architects, hoping to design a home for his two-acre lot in East Wenatchee. Nothing clicked, so he decided to modify for his future family’s needs the much larger but sensibly shaped Suncadia home he’d just completed.

Some alterations were based solely on square footage.

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about $35,000 in time and materials) and a third floor bedroom wing and staircase were eliminated.

A few other changes made sense for the family’s use and their budget: open space now in lieu of future built-in cabi-

}}} Continued on next page

ABOVE: The big open views of Jump Off Ridge and Stemilt Hill fill the master bedroom, with its private deck shielded from the weather.

AT RIGHT: Rustic finishes on the cabinets warm the kitchen, and the one-piece marble island was rotated from a typical horizontal position to provide optimum cooking and seating space.

Blended home }}} Continued from previous page netry, a single interior office door instead of original doubles and their matching doors to the deck, an El Dorado stone fireplace instead of slate. A hall powder room easily became a full bath, eliminating a dedicated guest bathroom.

Dave pointed out other small adaptations an owner/builder can do freely, like his wooden pedestals in the laundry room (usually a high priced addition

to laundry sets), a high horizontal window in the master bedroom, an unconventional positioning of the kitchen island, a dog shower.

A benefit of the structural belt-tightening was the couple could indulge in some wellthought out custom detailing that individualize the house.

One prominent feature is the rough-hewn rustic flooring.

Raw Douglas fir planks, already installed as a final surface, with

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deep grain and saw marks intact, were stained black in place and then re-scraped.

The result is a dark, irregularly textured but easily cleaned surface that’s impervious to wear and tear.

Downstairs, the walk-out basement — level, carpeted and spacious — has bedrooms, storage and a full-windowed family room plumbed for a kitchen. It also holds the nerve center of the house. There are three distinct HVAC or energy zones, and a closet that’s still a mass of wire

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and computer components.

“Anticipate the technology,” Dave said. “A new house has got to be ready for whatever’s coming up. When this system is complete, we should be able to run a lot of functions — garage door, heat, lights, from an iPad.” Secrett, who had traded a fine arts education for her medical career, made the major interior design choices.

“It was easy,” Dave smiled. “I’d say, ‘What do you want here?’

She’d tell me, and I’d say, ‘OK, you got it.” It always worked out

Oversize tiles chosen for their rustic look and proportions cover the heated floor of the master bathroom and line the stroll-in shower.

fine.”

She manipulated 13 colors of wall and ceiling paint, mostly in a palette ranging from dark chocolate to fawn grey, but punctuated with jazzy splashes of bold red. Lights. Fixtures. Appliances. Carpeting. Secrett did her research, followed her good eye, and created a home inside the house.

The Simmons knew they wanted their home to be wellused and easy to maneuver in, so the rooms are big, the halls are broad, the windows are tall and the many closets are deep.

And just a stroll down the drive is the “man cave” — more of a man cavern — a 3,000 square foot structure that garages recreational and work vehicles side by side (earthmover, fifth wheel, panel trailer, snowmobile hauler, boat, jeep…) with storage and work space on the perimeter.

What the Simmons family has created on their property is a space that flows, allows knockout views across the Columbia from most of the rooms, and

happily accommodates the varied gear, tackle and trim and constant traffic of two teenag-

ers, two boisterous hunting dogs and two working parents.

And, the owner/builder would

agree, the fact that it looks super from the road is not just a happy coincidence.

NCW Home Professionals

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PET tales

Tells us a story about your pet. Submit pet & owner pictures to: editor@ncwgoodlife.com

T

J Minnehan and Cassie (Holland) Minnehan discovered Portuguese Pointer Hank at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society shelter.

They were very excited to adopt Hank and wanted to learn more about the breed because they are so rare. TJ was able to call a breeder back East and the breeder was floored that TJ actually found a purebred Portuguese Pointer at the pound. The guy told him that these puppies are sold for $2,000 to $3,000.

So TJ and Cassie got a pretty good deal at WVHS — Hank was $150 which included the neuter, micro chip and all his vaccinations.

Left to right are: TJ, Hank, Cassie and Chloe (their 10-year-old poodle).

T

his is one of my rescued dogs Peanut, who is a pit bull. In this photo we are out trekking around Waterville looking at old homesteads that are still standing.

Pit bulls are the most misunderstood breed.

They are pictured as mean and scary, and people who own them often get criticized left and right and even ridiculed.

Many people simply don’t know enough about this breed. Besides being a perfectly built, beautiful and muscular dog, pit bulls are actually the biggest snuggles in the world!

They appear tough and strong on the outside and they are, but on the inside they are the most dependable and emotional creatures ever. No matter what, they will love you, guaranteed.

— Joanne Renteria

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>>

column GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

bonnie orr

Eating surprisingly well in Namibia O

ne of the reasons I like to travel is that I like to eat (but not at an all-you-can-eat buffet on a cruise ship).

I appreciate the variety of food served in different climates and cultures.

I ate well during my recent trip to the northern part of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia in south-western Africa.

Namibia’s number one industry is tourism. The county is spotlessly clean, the accommodations geared to Europeans and Americans, and the food is primarily Western.

I did have an opportunity to sample some of the local foods.

I seldom saw beef on the menu, but every exotic “antelope” was featured — you know those animals whose names are called for in crossword puzzles: Oryx, Eland, Kudu, Impala, Springbok, etc.

Every culture eats grain. In the U.S. we eat rice and corn and wheat. In Namibia, the people eat corn and sorghum.

Since I lived briefly in the American South, I eat grits, the morning cereal made from hominy, the ground corn that has been soaked in lye. (Doesn’t that sound appetizing?)

For a power breakfast, I make a big bowl of grits mixed with grated cheese and bacon — this treat keeps me going for hours.

In Namibia, I was pleased to be served Pap or Nsima for lunches and dinner.

This form of grits is very finely ground and cooked like polenta.

It is served mounded on the plate or cut into squares and is usually flavored with herbs such as oregano.

The complement at every meal was spinach — or silver beet. This is the vegetable we

Bring the chicken stock to a boil.

Add the celery and chard.

Simmer for about 4 minutes.

Add salt and pepper. Serve in small bowls.

Nsima Serves 4, 20 minutes Quaker Oats markets Quick Grits.

This recipe will not Nsima is a traditional grain dish in Namibia, and is often accompanied with silverbeet. work with packets of instant breakfast seed meal is cooked either as a grits. I ground some grits into a finer call Swiss Chard. The leaves consistency in my coffee grinder. The porridge (which is essentially are roughly cut and boiled with grits became velvety smooth. what polenta is) or is formed celery.

I think they add a nice change from into little cakes or squares called In the U.S., we would have potatoes, rice, pasta or polenta for a Mabelle. added onions to the mix, but winter’s evening meal.

I found this to be the most

I never saw onions served as a vegetable.

The other grain was sorghum.

I read that sorghum is the most often eaten grain on the continent of Africa because it is drought tolerant and requires very little water.

Interestingly, sorghum is rising in popularity in the U.S. As the climate becomes drier, we need to grow less thirsty crops.

High in protein, sorghum is used currently to feed beef in the U.S. If you fill a bird feeder, you probably purchase milo, which is sorghum seed. It is the hard, reddish-orange seed in wild birdseed mixes. It is a nuisance in our region since we have very few birds that can crack the milo’s hard shell, so the seed is just wasted in piles on the ground.

In Namibia, the finely ground

January 2014 | The Good Life

interesting dish because it has no aroma. It was a bit on the gray-side and pretty inert. Mixing it on the plate with the juices of game meat or goat meat is the favorite way to eat the grain paste. I found the combination very tasty.

“Spinach,” as well, is served with Mabelle.

The delicious Namibian meals were very simple with few ingredients. The meat was merely barbecued. There were few sauces or imported herbs and spices.

Silverbeet

Serves 4, 10 minutes

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1 cup finely ground quick grits 3 cups boiling water 1 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon finely chopped oregano 1 teaspoon white pepper Bring the water to a boil. Add the salt.

Stir in the grits. Turn down the heat.

Continue stirring until a thick porridge forms.

Add the oregano and white pepper.

Then, either serve it hot with the consistency of mashed potatoes – or pour into a flat container to cool.

Cut it into squares and reheat in the microwave.

These basic recipes are a nice change from our overly complex dishes.

Bonnie Orr — the dirt diva — cooks and gardens in East Wenatchee.

>>

column moving up to the good life

june darling

How to REALLY make your resolutions Let a dream fire your passion when thinking about 2014 and beyond

D

ream question: “If everything worked out pretty much perfectly in your life, what would you be doing in three years?”

The dream question asks us to consider what really matters to us. It activates our brain in such a way as to open us to new possibilities. Our reward circuitry and areas for good feelings are tapped. We become inspired.

Now here’s another type of question. This question is the type that, though commonly used, can take you totally off course, especially if you ask it

first: “What about yourself or your life do you need to fix so that you are able to accomplish your goals this year?”

Research psychologists like Dr. Richard Boyatzis, tell us that the second type of “what do you need to fix” question closes us down and activates different areas of the brain. The areas in the brain that become more operational are those that generate anxiety, mental conflict and sadness.

We have difficulty accomplishing much when this question is the foundation for our goalsetting.

Unfortunately most of us commonly first focus on our own and others’ weaknesses (also known as “opportunities for

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improvement”) and performance mistakes. We are overly eager to get at what’s wrong. Taking that “fix it” approach first saps motivation before we even get started.

Dr. Martin Seligman, one of the most noteworthy psychologists alive today, says that, “We are not pushed by the past so much as we are pulled by the future.” Emile Coue, popular French psychologist who died in 1926, maintained that our imagination is more important than willpower in achieving our goals — as long as what we imagine seems within the sphere of possibility.

So, there you have the argument for why you need to ensure your approach to goal-setting is

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| January 2014

fueled first by positive imagination rather than depleted by focusing on mistakes.

Now to address your concerns.

Dreaming just seems wrong to a lot of people. Perhaps it doesn’t sound focused and tough. We may fear that this “dream first” approach takes us away from the needed strategizing and discipline required to accomplish great things.

Consider, instead, that a “dream first” conversation can naturally lead us to thinking about and specifying concrete goals as well as identifying needed resources and skills.

Some may be concerned that

Before you start dreaming and getting your brain all geared up to comply, you’d better make sure that those dreams would actually make you happy. dreaming doesn’t get to the heart of the matter around achievement, which is hard work, determination and deliberate practice. However, the sort of tenacity required to keep going and succeed comes from passion. That passion comes from a dream, a vision.

All that being said, positive imagining — that is, dreaming — can go wrong if you aren’t aware of how to properly use it.

Problem number one is that we are not very good at forecasting what will actually make us happy.

Before you start dreaming and getting your brain all geared up to comply, you’d better make sure that those dreams would actually make you happy.

Researchers like Dr. Daniel Gilbert say the best idea is simply to talk to people who are doing (or have done) what we are dreaming about doing. For example, if you are dreaming about living on a boat, talk to people who have lived on a boat and see how it went for them.

The second problem is how much time we spend thinking about the future.

Positive imagining can turn into an on-going fantasy that actually drains our motivation.

Researchers say what happens is that our brains start to believe we have already accomplished the goal and we lose interest.

The suggestion is to spend a short amount of time dreaming and then get right down to strategizing.

Now that you know how to avoid positive imagining pitfalls, go ahead and dream expansively. To start dreaming, try answering questions like these: If everything worked out pretty much perfectly in your life in the next three years, where would you be living and what would you be living in? Who would be your friends? What would you be learning? How would you be eating and exercising? What would you be doing for fun? How would you be contributing to the community? What would you have accomplished?

This January, spend some fun time discussing or writing down your dreams. Think of your dreams as a way to supercharge your goals. Consider what skills you want to develop and what resources you need to tap.

To bolster your motivation, here’s the gist of an email I received from an acquaintance: “Last year I used the If everything worked out perfectly question and started dreaming (with a five year focus rather than a three year focus). Halfway through the year I realized I had already accomplished most of the five-year goals! I’m smiling.”

How might you “dream first” this year and move up To The Good Life?

Together, We’re Better.

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June Darling, Ph.D. can be contacted at drjunedarling1@gmail.com; website: www.summitgroupresources. com. Her book - 7 Giant Steps To The Good Life can be bought or read for free at: http://www.bookemon.com/ book-profile/giant-steps-to-the-goodlife/285095

>> RANDOM QUOTE

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt January 2014 | The Good Life

HMO PLAN WITH

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>>

column THE TRAVELing DOCTOR

jim brown, m.d.

Early child education promotes better health I

have always been a proponent of education and early child education and their effects on mental and physical health.

When the government sequestration cuts kicked in this year with a reduction of Head Start funding, resulting in 57,000 children losing their opportunity for early education, my first thoughts were that a huge, shortsighted mistake was being made at the expense of these children and their parents.

Many children from low-income homes often have parents or single parents with minimum wage jobs who cannot otherwise afford to pay for preschool. In early childhood we learn almost everything that we know and do by imitating the behavior and values of those around us.

We know that not every child is raised in a nurturing or safe environment.

I have become concerned about the overall impact of this funding cut.

The first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a child’s development, especially for the development of the brain. By age 3 the brain has grown dramatically by producing billions of cells and hundreds of trillions of connections or synapses between these cells. Parents and caregivers can help children get a good start, establishing healthy patterns for life long learning.

If children are not getting this at home, where else other than daycare or preschool will they get it?

Early childhood education programs can have a significant impact on the health of these children and that impact persists into adulthood. Children attending quality early educa-

Lunch time at the Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center: A nutritious meal in a caring, learning environment. Photo by Jim Brown

tion programs make cognitive, social and emotional gains that are associated with improved health when they become adults.

Every study I have seen shows that children living in poverty, with a lack of early education, face serious health risks. Good health includes cognitive ability, mental stability, a lower likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, as well as fewer illnesses. Physically and mentally healthy individuals with a positive outlook are less likely to engage in crime, violence or become single teenage parents.

There are naysayers who are against any taxation that might provide any type of government subsidies for the poor and uneducated in our country, including Head Start.

To me this seems too short sighted.

A study by Columbia University’s school of public health has shown the long-term benefits of early childhood education. Their randomized control study which followed a group of children from infancy to age 21, showed

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the health benefit of early education. They found the infants enrolled in this study who had early education had higher IQ’s by age 3 and had higher reading and math achievement by 15 years of age than those in the control group.

They also showed lower rates of teen depression and a greater likelihood of college enrollment compared with the control group.

The principal investigator, Dr. Muenning said, “The health benefits were quite dramatic.

Our study provides evidence that early education also improves future income, reduces crime, and even enhances the global competitiveness of the American workforces. These interventions may be more cost effective than many traditional medical and public health approaches to improving population health.”

How does the United States compare with other nations in early child education?

According to a recent report, the U.S. (at 69 percent of enrollees) ranks 28th out of 38

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countries for the number of 4-yearolds enrolled in pre-primary education programs.

That compares with the 95 percent enrollment rates in France, the Netherlands, Spain and even Mexico. In Singapore all children are enrolled in preschool, in Hong Kong it is 90 percent of 3-6 year

olds.

European studies show that every year of preschool reduces the likelihood of school failure later in life, especially for the children of the most disadvantaged homes.

The United States invests significantly less public money in early childhood programs than its counterparts in the G-20, which includes 19 countries and the European union. Only 45 percent of U.S. preschool age children were enrolled in publicly supported programs compared with 84 percent in the other countries studied.

Unfortunately our short sightedness will cause a greater financial burden to our country in the long run.

This seems to be changing regionally if not on the federal level.

Seattle is considering daycare for all 3- and 4-year-olds starting in 2015 if voters approve the funding in 2014. This is particularly important in Washington State as our state currently ranks in the lower one-third

I am proud of the job the (Mustard Seed) center does for these children in our area. of all states nationally in graduation rates from high school and college.

Boston and San Francisco have created universal preschool programs. The states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and 31 of New Jersey’s school districts have government funded preschool programs open to all children.

The reason government funded programs are so critical is that private preschools and daycare are generally too expensive for low income families, the ones that need it most.

I have been interested in early childhood education first as a parent but also through my wife’s and my involvement for over 20 years in the Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center here in Wenatchee.

Over 23 years ago Merry Roy, current chairperson of the center, my wife Lynn and three other women who are now deceased founded the Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center to provide infant care, preschool, daycare and after school programs in South Wenatchee.

At that time they were all members of the Brethren Baptist Church in south Wenatchee.

They felt called to do something for the church’s neighborhood.

They all went door to door interviewing mothers to assess what their greatest needs were.

Overwhelmingly, the answers were for affordable preschool and daycare.

These five women put together a board of directors, achieved non-profit status, raised money and acquired land at 1007 Malaga Street near Lincoln School.

After three years in rented facilities the center moved into its

new 3,000-square-foot facility in April 1993.

In my view, the Mustard Seed Neighborhood Center has been a resounding success.

They have a staff of nine people, five of whom have worked there for over three years. The lead teachers have had Early Childhood Training and two of the preschool teachers have bachelor degrees in elementary education.

A majority of the children come from low income families, 48 percent are from single parent homes, 45 percent from two parent homes and 7 percent are being raised by their grandparents.

Many of these parents are now able to work, knowing that their children are being educated, fed and taken care of in a loving caring environment.

Every year the center struggles financially.

They rely on 30 percent of their budget from donations and fundraisers.

They do receive some state subsidies for daycare for lowincome families, however these subsidies continue to decline as the costs of salaries, food and supplies steadily rise.

This results in an annual need of fundraising including donations from individuals, organizations, an annual golf tournament and at times grants from the United Way and the NCW Community foundation.

I am proud of the job the center does for these children in our area.

If you have the desire to be part of the solution to these needs of our community, donations can be made to the Mustard Seed Special Fund at the NCW Community Foundation.

For information, visit: www. cfncw.org.

Jim Brown, M.D., is a retired gastroenterologist who has practiced for 38 years in the Wenatchee area. He is a former CEO of the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center.

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updates

Artists finding new energy

By Susan Lagsdin

I

t’s always a pleasure talking with artists about their projects, but it’s especially nice to check in after a few years and hear about continuing growth and new directions.

The current professional lives of these five, profiled in The Good Life in 2010 and 2011, remind us that successfully making art in the Wenatchee Valley area takes a combination of love, labor, luck and a whole lot of creative talent.

Nancy Zahn

(From our first interview: “We were singing two-part harmony in the car when I was two!” With vocal and instrumental lessons through childhood, Nancy was 13 when she first heard Ella Fitzgerald “and I knew that smoky, emotional, seductive, athletic voice was the exact way I wanted to sing.”)

Local chanteuse Nancy Zahn has enjoyed singing for three years at Caffe Mela’s Live Jazz night, expanding beyond her classic jazz repertoire.

She appreciates the “mega talents” that join in, and said, “There are some nights when I realize — this group could play anywhere in the world!”

Last summer, she had a role in Rocky Horror Picture Show at

Nancy Zahn: Bringing her own brand of blues-y jazz to every performance, like this one at the Holiday Spice concert.

the PAC, and had a great time working with talented producer/ directors Jamie Donegan and Don Fox. “It was certainly the most exciting theater experience of my life,” she said, “and fulfilled a craving for a certain freedom on stage … Now I want more!”

When Rocky closed, Nancy took on her new role as director of the Holiday Spice Show, the grand opener of the PAC’s Numerica Festival of Trees. This year, there were 147 performers, with, she said, “the absolute finest voices in north central Washington.”

She’s already planning next year’s production, hoping again for another sold-out show.

When Nancy returned to singing in 2002 after a hiatus, her first venture out was a performance at the Merc Playhouse in Twisp, her original hometown venue. The Merc holds a special place in her heart, she said, so she’s planning another concert there soon.

Charley Voorhis

(From our first interview: Leavenworth filmmaker Charley Voorhis knows that art is sometimes discovery, not invention.

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“My favorite moment is when I finally say I GOT IT! — when something I’ve envisioned, planned and plotted comes to life through my lens. OR even better, when a magic moment happens that I didn’t plan on.”)

Charley Voorhis was busy coaching his students at the Technology Center to win national videography competitions when he was last interviewed.

This June he left that teaching job to pursue fulltime production with his own company, Voortex Productions.

That big step lead to hiring four team members to assist him, as well as a move from his home studio to a space above Arlberg Sports in the Grand Central Building in downtown Wenatchee.

It’s been a busy season with recent videos created for Wine Yakima Valley, Centricity Software and Alatheia Riding Center. A Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce piece will be completed in March. Charley said, “I feel lucky and blessed to be able to do what I love.”

And here’s an enviable birthday present. This September Charley celebrated his 30th

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Charley Voorhis: Now running his own video production company.

birthday in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons; while he was there he shot a film for himself called Primordial.

He describes a surprisingly rapid claim to fame for the personal project: “It has since been awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick, been posted to over 200 blogs and viewed almost 100,000 times. Also the Discovery Channels show The Daily Planet soon will be highlighting it in one of their episodes.”

Luke Boyce

(From our first interview: Unabashedly, he admitted, “I love making other people happy,

and seeing their faces . . . and the laughter. And, maybe I like the attention.” He smiled quizzically, with a shrug — a subtle gesture that could carry to the back of an auditorium but suits an easy chair just as well.)

Luke Boyce (aka L-Bow the Clown) has been booked with events and parties weekly from March to October; last July, he did 17 shows in two weeks. Luke said, “At Colfax County libraries (all in one day) I did 10, 1, 3 and 7 shows. Leading up to that day, I was a bit scared that I might die since my 50 minute show is non-stop action and takes a lot of energy.”

With so many shows in a row, Luke found new motivation to stay healthy. After talking with musicians The Wicks at another summer event this year at the PAC, he adopted a new health regimen that helped him drop 25 pounds, and he said he feels as good as he did in high school, 15 years ago.

The Wenatchee Wild hockey games at Town Toyota Center have been a satisfying venue for him and his high-energy clown act during the winter months.

He does the birthday and anniversary announcements, and will perform his “fire show” during intermissions this year.

Luke entertains (energetically!) at private parties but is also looking forward to a busy schedule putting on summer shows at libraries in Yakima, King, Pierce, Kitsap and Snohomish Counties in 2014.

Scott Bailey

(From our first interview: As many artists find, the rigors of the day job and the call of creative work vie for his time and energy, but, using summers to the maximum, he consistently produces his art. He says, “I’ve made that a priority — ‘getting better’ at making art every year, moving forward.”)

Scott Bailey, head of the art

Luke Boyce: Healthier for a busier entertaining schedule.

department at Wenatchee Valley College, said in the last few years he has devoted “a tremendous amount of time and energy to the building of WVC’s new Music and Art Center. I was given a fantastic opportunity to work with INTEGRUS architects to design the building.”

The MAC opened Sept. 13, and Scott applauds it as “not only appropriate for the disciplines we teach, but also a beautiful and inspiring space for learning.”

Even though he had to trade off some time from his personal studio work, Scott has continued to make and exhibit art, most recently in the building’s own gallery, which showcases faculty, student, and community artists’ work, and also has been part of group shows in Yakima and Ellensburg.

The predominant theme of his paintings is still humankind’s relationship to nature, and the way it’s enhanced and corrupted by technology. He explained that he’s been experimenting with a civil engineering material called Concrete Canvas to create 3-dimensional surfaces that accept paint.

Scott continues to use computer modeling software and real-life elevation data to create the “terrain meshes” that characterize his art. You can see his most current work at www. sbailey.us January 2014 | The Good Life

Scott Bailey: Humankind’s relation to nature when technology is involved.

Kathryn Stevens: Taking a “bow and arrow” approach to shooting.

Kathryn Stevens

(From our earlier interview: She can set up formally posed studio shots, but said, ”I think people are much more relaxed and natural in their own environment.”

Kathryn’s working premise is that “everyone has their own special beauty — everyone. I want to find and capture that.”)

Kathryn has had a few years to hone her portrait craft, a direction she chose after a first career

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in photojournalism.

She said, “My goal is to create images that reflect a greater humanity. I want not only my client to cherish the memory the image invokes, but any casual observer to see something in that image that stirs an emotion, and gets people to think in a new way.”

That’s a tall order for an artist who’s committed to photographing only weddings. The romantic in her finds infinite moments to just observe and notice when she works with about-to-beweds, and so she’ll concentrate on those occasions exclusively in 2014.

Another resolution concerns her camera equipment, generally not a huge priority for her, but this choice connects nicely to her overall artistic vision.

She’s been working with a medium-format film camera, which she refers to as “the bow and arrow approach” vs. the machine gun rapidity of digital photos.

The pace is slower, and the darkroom-developed film portraits have a distinctive quality.

She said, “The best images I create are done when my subjects relax, and it is a great way to do that naturally. It’s quiet and lovely in so many respects.”

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WHAT TO DO

We want to know of fun and interesting local events. Send info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com

January-February: Write On The River’s sixth annual writers competition, sponsored by ALCOA. $1,200 in cash awards for previously unpublished fiction or non-fiction, 1,000 word limit. Submission date is Feb. 21. For more information and entry forms see www.writeontheriver.org or call 293.9215.

Pybus Public Market, every Thursday night is locals night, 5 – 8 p.m. Live music, cooking demonstrations and local vendors.

Bubbles & Heels, every first Friday of the month. What could be better than sipping bubbly, chatting with new and old friends and wearing your favorite shoes? One Wines, Inc. 526 E Woodin Ave, Chelan.

Cost: $10 per glass. Info: onewinesinc.com.

Cashmere Art and Activity Center, needle art every second Tuesday, 1 p.m. Pinochle every fourth Tuesday, 1 p.m. Hat Group every Thursday, 1:30 – 3 p.m., knitters, crocheters and loom artists welcome. Info: 782-2415.

NCW Blues Jam, every second and fourth Monday, 7:30 – 11 p.m. Clear-

water Steakhouse, East Wenatchee.

Info: facebook.com/NCWBluesJam. Improv/Acting Workshop, 7 p.m.

Every Tuesday night with theater games for novice and experienced players. Fun, casual and free. Riverside Playhouse. Cost: free. Info: mtow.org.

Run Wenatchee, 1/2, check in time 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Sign in at a table next to Saddle Rock Pub and Brewery. Info: runwenatchee.com.

Wenatchee First Fridays ArtsWalk, 1/3, 5 - 8 p.m. Check out Wenatchee’s arts scene. Venues and exhibits change monthly.

Self-guided. WVC Campus and His-

from garden to gourmet The Kingfisher Restaurant & Wine Bar offers gourmet meals crafted with superb local ingredients, many from our 2-acre organic garden. To enjoy the freshest cuisine in Chelan County, reserve your table today at SleepingLady.com or call 800.574.2123.

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| January 2014

toric District. Cost: art-walk free, after-events may have admission fees. Monthly info: wenatcheefirstfridaysartswalk.tumblr.com.

Two Rivers Art Gallery, 1/3, 5 – 8 p.m. The gallery will be exhibiting a whole new show of over 40 local and regional artists. Featuring the artworks of Wenatchee’s most prolific artist, Walter Graham. Live music by All Strings Considered.

Wines by Crayelle Cellars and complimentary refreshments. 102 N Columbia, Wenatchee. Cost: free.

Info: 2riversgallery.com.

Tumbleweed, 1/3, 5 - 7 p.m. Part of First Friday Artwalk. Shelby Jo

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WHAT TO DO

We want to know of fun and interesting local events. Send info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com

Skirennen Citizens Race, 1/18, 9:30 a.m. 10k, 5k and 2k races.

Leavenworth Golf Course. Info: skileavenworth.com.

Campbell will be the featured artist. Her preferred style is watercolor, gouache and collage. Refreshments served. 105 Palouse. Info: tumbleweedbeadco.com.

Bavarian Ice Fest, 1/18 – 19, all day. A weekend grab bag of invigorating outdoor events includes snow sculpture, tug o’ war, an ice cube scramble for kids six and under, the great Frisbee sweep, fireworks, live ice carving, ice fishing pond and Leavenworth’s famous Smooshing Contest: a unique race peculiar to the Great Bavarian Ice Fest. The Smooshing contest is held on Front Street, with teams of four - their toes strapped to 8-foot long boards - trying to maneuver and glide down the street tandem-style.

A wonderful thing about Ice Fest is that you can cheer from the sidelines or jump right in and compete for prizes. Downtown Leavenworth.

Info: Leavenworth.org.

Small Artworks Gallery, 1/3, 5 p.m. 13 local artists works will be on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wvmcc.org.

Ski for Health, 1/5 and every Sunday throughout January, noon to 3 p.m. Learn to ski for free with mini ski lessons in classic or skating techniques. Refreshments.

Icicle River Trail, Leavenworth. Info: skileavenworth.com.

Coal, 1/9, 7 p.m. A monthly documentary film series promoting critical thinking and moral deliberation on the issues of the day. Snowy Owl Theater. Info: icicle.org.

Winterfest Fire and Ice Festival, 1/10-12 & 1/17-19. Ice sculptures, live music, beach bonfires, polar bear splash and fireworks.

Soupfest, Winter feast, Artisan Alley and Winterfest Wine Walk. Info: lakechelanwinterfest.com.

Dancing with the Wenatchee Stars, 1/10, 7 p.m. Six prominent community members are paired up with one of Utah Ballroom Dance Company’s professional dancers to learn ballroom dance routine over one week and then will dance at a public performance. Performing Arts Center. Cost: $19-$29. Info: pacwen.org.

Timbrr Winter Music Festival, 1/10-11. Outdoor music festival and winter fun. Downtown Leavenworth.

NCW Juried Art Show, 1/11, 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wvmcc.org.

Bavarian Cup, 1/11 & 1/12, 9 a.m.

– 7:45 p.m. The Bavarian Cup is a two-day Nordic race event in classic and skate techniques. Ski Hill, Leavenworth. Cost: $10. Info: skileavenworth.com.

Mickey’s Music Festival, 1/11, 1 p.m. & 4 p.m. Live Disney music festival. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $22-47. Info: towntoyotacenter. com.

BELLA SERA’S 2014 PLATINUM BRIDAL SHOW, 1/11, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Vendors, prizes, local cater-

The Riverview Kiwanis presenting a showing this movie about a daring raid to rescue over 500 allied survivors of the Bataan Death March from a Japanese prison camp. A leader of this raid later became a successful fruit broker in Wenatchee. Jan. 30, 7 p.m. at the Gateway Theater.

Cost: $15. Tickets available from any Kiwanis member or at the door. ers, cake artists, plus a fashion show at 3 p.m. on the PAC stage.

Wenatchee Center. Cost: free.

Alzheimer’s Café, 1/14, 2:30 p.m.

– 4 p.m. Mountain Meadows Senior Living Campus hosts a cafe the second Tuesday of every month.

This is a casual setting for folks with Alzheimer’s, dementia, their loved ones and caregivers. Desserts and beverages will be served free of charge. Entertainment and activities for those wishing to participate. Join us to meet new friends and share experiences. Located at 320 Park Avenue, Leavenworth. Info: 548-4076.

NCW Bridal Premier 2014, 1/18, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fashions, food and other wedding info. Town Toyota Center. Free. Info: facebook.com/ ncw.bridal.premiere.

Compassionate Friends, 1/20, 7 - 8:30 p.m. A grief support group that assists families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age and provides information to help others be supportive. The focus of this meeting will be this New Year and what it means to each of us. Grace Lutheran Church, 1408 Washington St. Info: 665-9987.

Environmental Film Series – Chasing Ice, 1/21, 7 p.m. The story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of climate change. Using time-lapse cameras, these videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking

Larry the Cable Guy, 1/15, 7:30 p.m. Town Toyota Center.

Info:towntoyotacenter.com.

God of Carnage, 1/17, 18, 24, 25, 31, 2/1, 7:30 p.m. The Mission Creek Players will perform a play set in an up-scaled section of Brooklyn, where two married couples meet to sort out a playground fight between their sons. At first, niceties are observed but as the evening progresses and the rum flows, the gloves come off and the night becomes a sidesplitting free-for-all.

Riverside Playhouse. Cost: $15 or $20 at the door. Info: mtow.org.

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rate. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wvmcc. org.

Bundle-Up Run 5k and 1k at Winterfest, 1/25. The 1k kids’ race is 11:30 a.m., the 5k beings at noon. The first 200 paid registrants will receive a pair of commemorative gloves. Costume contest with prizes. Start at Stanley Civic Center, downtown Wenatchee. Cost: $11.54. Info: runwenatchee.com.

Winter Wine Gala, 1/25, 6 – 9 p.m. Award winning wines, food, live music, fine art and raffle.

Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $40. Info: wvmcc.org.

The Great Raid, 1/30, 7 p.m. A movie about Robert Prince, a local fruit broker. The Great Raid is about his daring and successful mission to liberate over 500 allied survivors of the Bataan Death March from a Japanese prison camp on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. This is a fundraiser for the Riverview Kiwanis for the Washington Park Shelter Project dedicated to the memory of Captain Robert Prince. Gateway Theater. Cost: $15.

Tickets from any Kiwanis member or at the door.

Golden Dragon Acrobats: Cirque Ziva, 1/30, 7:30 p.m.

Acrobatics, traditional dance, spectacular costumes, ancient and contemporary music and theatrical techniques. Performing Arts Center.

Info: pacwen.org.

Winter Ice Gala, 1/31, 6 p.m.

Olympic Bronze Medalist “Jumpin’ Joe” will perform an ice show. Over 200 guests will enjoy some of the best food, wine, and see star athletes and musicians around. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $100. Info: towntoyotacenter.com.

}}} Continued on next page

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WHAT TO DO

We want to know of fun and interesting local events. Send info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com

}}} Continued from previous page BNCW Home Show, 2/7-9. All-new layout of vendors... everything you would want to see for remodeling to building a new home. There is something for everyone at this show. Bring the kids and check out the bigger and better Kid Zone.

Do-it-yourself workshops going on all weekend will range from placing new tile, landscaping tips and other great DIY projects. Cost (with $1 off coupon) is $5 and $4 for seniors.

Kids 12 and under are free. Info: BuildingNCW.org or 293-5840.

Town Toyota Center.

Rusalka, 2/8, 9:55 a.m. Dvorak’s soulful fairy-tale opera features a lovelorn mermaid yearning for her handsome prince. Snowy Owl Theater. Info: icicle.org.

Authors Event, 2/8, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Meet and visit with 15 local writers, have them autograph their books and learn what it takes to be a published author. Pybus Public Market. Info: pybuspublicmarket. org.

Sweetheart Soiree, 2/8, 7 p.m.

Celebrate with your sweetheart at the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra’s Valentine-themed musical soiree featuring symphony soloists and ensembles, wine tasting, hors d’oeuvres and desserts.

Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $35. Info: pacwen.org.

Red wine and chocolate, 2/8-10, 2/14-16. Lake Chelan Wine Valley.

Info: lakechelan.com.

Eastmont Chamber Choir’s Bella Notte Fundraiser and Auction, 2/11, 5:30 - 9 p.m. Pybus Public Market. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.

Garry Krinsky: Toying with Science, 2/13, 6:30 p.m. Garry Krinsky resembles a living cartoon with his animated movement and non-stop energy. Combining circus skills, mime, original music, and audience involvement, Garry and his audience investigate basic scientific information and delve into the imaginations of scientists who explore our world. During the program, Garry brings his science toys to life with motion, music, humor and insight. He turns audi-

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ence members into stars as he playfully shares the stage, juggling, balancing and welcoming them into his colorful world. He performs

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| January 2014

original up-beat songs that explore fulcrums, levers and basic mechanics. Performing Arts Center. Cost: $12-$25. Info: pacwen.org.

>>

HISTORY

column the night sky this month

Peter Lind

The King is up all night This is the month the King

of the night sky reigns.

Jupiter is up all night and along with a few other events, January promises an interesting month, full of things to see. A meteor shower and Mercury are also in the picture.

Let’s start the tour with Venus on the first of the month.

Venus shines as a brilliant jewel about 10°, or about a fist’s width above the southwestern horizon 30 minutes after sunset.

Folks in Wenatchee will have to cross the river to get a good view of Venus.

Our moon sets just 45 minutes after the sun. And from North America, the moon is then just 15 hours past its new phase. If you scan the area to the lower right of Venus and just above the horizon with binoculars, you may catch a glimpse of a brand new crescent moon.

At inferior conjunction (when a planet lines up directly between earth and the sun) on Jan. 11, Venus switches from the evening sky to the morning sky.

By the middle of the month, the planet comes up in the southeast a full hour before the sun, and by the 31st, it will be two hours.

Mercury doesn’t come into view until mid-January, and will climb above the western horizon throughout the rest of the month after sunset.

As twilight come to these cold January nights, you easily can spot Jupiter climbing from the eastern horizon.

The giant planet reaches opposition and peak visibility Jan. 5 in central Gemini. Opposition is when Jupiter is highest in the sky and the sun is directly opposite from the earth. It then rises at sunset and passes nearly

... 60 meteors per hour under ideal conditions and can easily be twice that many. overhead around midnight local time for observers at mid-northern latitudes.

Jupiter is incredibly brilliant, that makes it the brightest point of light in the sky whenever Venus is out of sight.

Around opposition, Jupiter remains above the horizon for at least 12 hours — two hours longer than its own rotation period. During this time you will be able to see the red spot and cloud features through a small telescope.

Jupiter’s four bright moons provide plenty of action to fill the cold nights. On the night of opposition, all four appear as points of light arrayed on either side of the planet, a rare sight to see. As a bonus, they appear in order of their distance from Jupiter, with Io closest, followed by Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

January’s meteor fame is the annual Quadrantid shower.

Although activity varies from year to year, the rate usually peaks to at least 60 meteors per hour under ideal conditions and can easily be twice that many.

The meteors appear to radiate from a point in northern Boötes, the Herdsman, easily found on any star chart.

The Quadrantids reach their peak in the early hours of Jan. 3.

With new moon on Jan. 1, conditions should be excellent. For the best views, find an observing location far from city lights.

As of this writing NASA anJanuary 2014 | The Good Life

nounced that comet ISON, what we all hoped would be the “comet of the century,” did not survive its trip around the sun and burned up in the atmosphere.

There is a story my wife told me a while ago, about a song called Follow the Drinking Gourd.

She thought it might be a good thing to mention because the third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Anyway, this song, as the story goes, was taught in the south during the days of slavery around Mobile, Alabama.

The story tells of a slave that moved around as a contract laborer from plantation to plantation. As he did, he taught other slaves the drinking gourd song which held words to help them escape slavery and gave direction on how to travel up the Tombigbee River, to the Ohio River to the Ohio Valley and freedom.

Of course the drinking gourd was the Big Dipper and its two front stars point to Polaris, the Pole Star, and north, the way to freedom.

The words to the song are easily found on the Internet.

The Big Dipper is not a constellation, it is an asterism. An asterism is a group of stars that are not a constellation but are well recognized in the night sky.

Peter Lind is a local amateur astronomer. He can be reached at ppjl@ juno.com.

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-40 degrees as blizzards rage on }}} Continued from page 41 an ox over the entire country.”

On Christmas day, 1889, a Mr. Caruthers froze to death trying to snowshoe 20 miles from Waterville to his farm.

Men flailed and dug through the crust to reach stalks of bunch grass. They stuffed 40-pound sacks and carried them back to their dying cattle and horses. Dead animals were butchered, salted and fed to the living animals along with pancakes and biscuits the women made when flour was available.

Men snowshoed over Colockum Pass to Ellensburg to carry back sacks of flour. George Brown and Jim Weythman at Monitor kept their last milk cow alive feeding it straw from their mattresses.

Snow stayed on the ground until April. Thousands of cattle and horses, estimated at 90 percent of the herds across the Wenatchee Valley and the Waterville Plateau, died.

Even the worst of winters have an end.

Benedick Gubser, at Conconully, noted in his diary that he heard frogs croaking March 18 and saw the first Robin on the 19, threw a rock at the first grouse on March 24, saw the first squirrel and first grasshopper on the 25 and on March 26 was buzzed by the first mosquito.

Historian, actor and teacher Rod Molzahn can be reached at shake.speak@frontier.com. His third history CD, Legends & Legacies Vol. III - Stories of Wenatchee and North Central Washington, is now available at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center and at other locations throughout the area.

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column those were the days

rod molzahn

Killing winters left pioneers sad & cold Three severe winters gripped

eastern Washington during the second half of the 1800s.

Settlers who arrived after 1880 shivered through the “Hard Winter” of 1889/90. They called it the worst ever.

A smaller number had been through the winter of 1880/81 and they weren’t sure which of the two had been the hardest.

Jack Splawn, who experienced all three winters, was one of a handful of white men in the newly budding eastern Washington cattle business in 1861.

He had no doubt which winter had been the worst.

All three earned the name “cow killing winter” and were remembered for their longevity, deep snows and sub-zero temperatures, but Splawn called the winter of 1861/62 “the longest and coldest ever known before or since, during which 80 percent of the stock of eastern Oregon and Washington perished.”

Eighteen inches of snow fell in December then temperatures warmed for a few days before

freezing up again “leaving the whole country a glare of ice over which stock could not travel without cutting their legs.”

The conditions were just as hard on Indian horses. They were used to pawing through light snow cover to reach grass but “could not stand the icy crust which cut them whenever they moved their legs. They simply stood stupefied and died in their tracks.”

Sixteen-year-old Jack Splawn spent the winter tending a herd of Major Thorp’s cattle along Cache Creek in southern British Columbia where it “froze up early in the fall and remained so until nearly spring.”

His cattle suffered from cold and lack of food and finally became so weak they refused to move, staying put and trying to survive eating brush.

Splawn recalled, “I was terribly blue and discouraged.

Still I went every day to see them. They seemed to expect me and would look up at me so reproachfully that tears came to my eyes. I was only a boy. I

(The Indian horses) simply stood stupefied and died in their tracks.” should have been brokenhearted if one had died.”

A Chinook wind in early April saved them.

By the winter of 1880/81 there were many thousands more cattle in eastern Washington then there had been in 1861.

Stock losses were huge.

Ed Phelps and Washington Irving Wadleigh ran the largest cattle herds in the Okanogan.

John Rinehart, one of their cowboys, recounted that in the fall of 1881, 2,800 calves had been branded for the firm. By spring the vast majority were dead along with most of the herd’s cows and steers. They lost 8,500 animals to the winter. The remaining 1,000 were sold off and the losses forced the company

out of business.

In central Washington conditions were just as dire.

By the first of December the Columbia River was solidly frozen over. Snow began falling a little before Christmas and there were 15 inches on the ground by New Year. A Chinook reduced it to 12 wet inches then a deep freeze turned it to a thick crust.

More snow fell in mid-January followed by another Chinook and freeze “leaving the whole country covered with snow and ice to a depth of from 18 to 30 inches.” The cold lasted another two months.

The snow was red stained with blood wherever cattle and horses had cut their legs trying to move in it. The animals stood still and “perished in their tracks.”

Hundreds of dead and dying cattle were piled in heaps at Willow Springs in the Yakima Valley and along the Moxee Coulee, “as if seeking companionship in the hour of death.”

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Funeral Services

George Brown and Jim Weythman at Monitor kept their last milk cow alive feeding it straw from their mattresses.

In the Rattlesnake Hills and canyons the cattle were “piled up by the thousands.” It was the midst of the Snipes and Allen range. “They had, before the

winter set in, fully 40,000 head.”

By spring less than 10,000 were left alive.

Like the two earlier severe winters, the “Hard Winter” of 1889/90 came as a surprise.

Most of the settlers had arrived after 1880 and had known only mild winters in eastern Washington. The summer of 1889 had been especially warm with, an almost prophetic, plague of crickets and yellow Jackets. It rained most of the fall. The mild weather continued through Christmas.

About New Year the trouble began with, according to Mrs. Virginia Herrmann, “a fall of

two or three feet.”

Thomas Roberts was moving cattle and horses to winter range when the storm struck.

“The snow storm and wind were getting so strong that the cattle would not face it… By that time I could not see the road.

The grade was drifted full and my saddle horse could not get through so I went ahead and broke the road for him… The storm lasted three days then I went back to look for the cattle and found one cow standing with her twin calves by her side, frozen stiff.”

The snowfall was followed by a Chinook then another severe

freeze that left everything under an impenetrable crust. The temperature dropped to minus 40 with 13 days of successive blizzards.

On the night of Feb. 19, 1890, 19 inches of fresh snow fell across the Okanogan. It stayed into late spring.

In the Wenatchee Valley and across the Waterville Plateau the winter began with a twofoot snowfall in November and temperatures dropping into the teens. After a succession of thaws and hard freezes Mike Horan declared, “There was a crust of snow that would bear up

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column ALEX ON WINE

ALEX SALIBY

Ummm, hot soup... but what wine to serve?

T

he best thing about January is the food.

January is winter; winter is cold weather time in much of the country, and cold weather time is soup time. Nothing is better than sitting down to a hot bowl of a hearty soup on a cold winter evening.

Soup, though, can present wine pairing problems. Keep in mind there are no hard and fast rules for pairing wine with foods; however, there can be no denying the truth that some wines will enhance the flavors of your bowl of soup far better than other wines.

Part of the trick in learning is experimentation. Try different wines yourself and find out what pleases you. Meanwhile, here are some thoughts that might please your palate, and all the wines are available right here in NCW. Chicken tortilla soup: There are several variations of this soup, all available on the Internet. I like the one listed on food. com.

Here at our home, we prefer dark meat in our chicken and turkey soups, but chicken breast works well, too. I suggest the Tempranillo from Tildeo Cellars in Manson, or the Grenache from Milbrandt Cellars. Either wine should stand up to the soups slightly acid tones, but if you’d prefer a white, this soup needs a wine that complements the acids in the broth, not the elements of the body of the soup.

If you like spice in your soup, a slightly sweet white works well.

Corn, leek and potato chowder: I learned how to make this from friends who had a restaurant years ago in Kansas City, MO. It’s a simple soup, and again, there are recipes all over

Winter begs for a bowl of hot soup... but deciding which wine to pair with the collection of tastes in the warm meal can be a challenge.

the Internet.

The principal variation that seems to make a difference to us is too many of the recipes call for using canned, creamed corn. We don’t use canned corn, either creamed or whole kernel.

Best results in our versions come when we use fresh, Quincy corn just cut from the cob. (We freeze fresh corn in late summer just to have the home-frozen produce on hand for the off-season.)

In our house, we echo the creamy texture that comes from using the creamed corn cream by using a little real cream in the soup. We also get some of that texture from the russet potatoes cooked to the point of totally falling apart.

All that creamy texture shouts for a creamy wine, specifically a Chardonnay, barrel aged, which has undergone complete MLF in the barrel. (MLF: without getting too technical is a secondary fermentation some winemakers prefer to introduce to some of their wines. In a simple explanation, the grape’s principal acid,

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malic acid, is converted to lactic acid. The change affects both the wine’s viscosity and its perceived acidity).

With this soup, I recommend two local Chardonnay wines: Charlie McKee’s French oak barrel aged 2012 Wedge Mountain Chardonnay or the 2012 Lake Chelan Winery Chardonnay.

Shrimp and sausage gumbo: The best gumbo I’ve ever had the joy of dining on in my life was made in November by Tim Putnam at his center in the Mission District of Cashmere.

I can also tell you that once again, the web is rich with recipes. Simply google the word gumbo, and you’ll see more recipes than you can handle in a year of creation.

Gumbo is one of those interesting anomalies in the seafood category. It’s a seafood thing that’s not really a seafood thing.

Seafood, for the most part, calls for white wines. Great gumbo, with its spicy Andouille sausage, pairs better with a red with some character that goes beyond

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| January 2014

just being a red wine.

Tim Putnam’s gumbo demands a world-class Pinot Noir.

We have several great Pinot Noir wines in our area, for this gumbo. I favor two Pinot Noir creations for this meal: Chelan Estates Pinot Noir and the Chateau Faire le Pont Pinot Noir.

Both these wines are available at the wineries.

And, if neither of these is available near you, try to get your hands on the Lake Chelan Winery’s Pinot Noir. It too will handle this gumbo nicely.

Thai shrimp and vegetable soup: This is a favorite soup in our home, especially when the weather is very chilly.

With this one we prefer a Riesling, an off-dry to dry wine, if the soup is mildly spicy.

We recommend a sweeter one if you like your soup really hot and spicy. We like the dry Crayelle Cellars when it’s available. Karma, Tsillan Cellars, Nefarious Rieslings will also work as a dry to off-dry.

Our region has a plethora of delicious dry ones and sweet ones such as the Ryan-Patrick Ryan’s Riesling to name just one of the sweets. We particularly like Ryan’s Riesling from Ryan Patrick Vineyards for the spicy hot version.

I hope your holidays were both pleasant and memorable. In this post-holiday time, let’s remember that the food banks will still be in need of supplies to get them through the next frigid months.

Alex Saliby is a wine lover who spends far too much time reading about the grapes, the process of making wine and the wines themselves.

He can be contacted at alex39@msn. com.