Good Life May 2014

LIFE’S BIG QUESTIONS ANSWERED Y EVENTS CALENDAR

WENATCHEE VALLEY’S

NUMBER ONE MAGAZINE

May 2014

Open for fun and adventure

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my

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lessons for life to shine

Photographer shoots the world by saying ‘Yes’ 6 generations have harvested the good life

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Contents

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flying is janet liberty’s passion Features

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is it a concert at town toyota center?

Or just a big reunion with Chicago as the house band?

10 saying ‘yes’ to travel adventure Rhys Logan has been to some wild places, and he has the photographs to prove it

14 you bet it’s the good life

For six generations the Phillippi family has operated a fruit business while finding ample time to have fun

16 5 lessons for making life shine

Hoping to help his students find richer lives, this teacher went on his own journey of discovery

19 helping a school in maasai land

Rotarians see first hand that these kids really want to learn, even if it means walking 5 miles to school past herds of elephants

24 refurbished jeep with a new purpose

Jack Pusel started with a wreck of an orchard jeep and made it into a vehicle to honor family and all U.S. veterans

26 trading homes for a vacation

It’s not for everyone, but house exchanges sure cut vacation costs

31 how an architect designed own home Brad Brisbine had plenty of ideas... but he also had a budget

ART SKETCHES

n Musician and composer Ron Lodge, page 41 n Interior designer Jan Harmon, page 47 Columns & Departments 30 Pet Tales: Robbie is a great visitor 36 June Darling: Answering life’s big questions 38 The traveling doctor: Lyme disease spreading fast 40 Bonnie Orr: Let’s eat more lettuce 41-47 Arts & Entertainment & a Dan McConnell cartoon 45 The night sky: Saturn’s majestic opposition 48 History: Squatter’s rights 50 Alex Saliby: Tell me, has my wine died?

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OPENING SHOT

®

Year 8, Number 5 May 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, Lynette Smith, Greg Berdan, Cary Ordway, Rhys Logan, Chris Phillippi, Jon Magnus, Terri Bawden, Vicki Olson Carr, Kathryn Zeller, Lester C. Cooper, Brad Brisbine, 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, Leslie Vradenburg 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), Mike’s Meats at Pybus, Martin’s Market Place (Cashmere) and A Book for All Seasons (Leavenworth)

Standing lookout

By Greg Berdan

I

was born and raised in the Wenatchee Valley. I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up on Wenatchee Heights.

A couple of years after returning home from my service in the U.S. Navy, I was hired as the systems manager of the Wenatchee Heights Reclamation District.

It’s a job that has me out of the office most of the time, and allows me many great opportunities to capture rural scenes, nature, wildlife and landscapes.

After going through a tough period in my life, a friend asked me if I had any hobbies. Being a workaholic I naturally said “no.”

He told me “get one or things will never get better.”

So I returned to photography in 2009, after decades of not holding a camera. In the summer of 2012, I made the move to open my own photography business.

My wife, Lisa, and I are currently in the midst of purchasing a home up the Squilchuck canyon. I’m pretty excited, as it happens to have room in the shop for a studio.

I encountered this male

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 The Good Life® is a registered trademark of NCW Good Life, LLC.

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California quail on a late July afternoon along the Wenatchee Heights road. He was on lookout as the rest of his covey was foraging in the tall grasses below.

To see more of my work, please visit GregBerdanPhotography. com.

On the cover

The cover photo of Jon Magnus was taken by Lynette Smith of Lynette Smith Photography.

To see more of her work, visit www.lynettesmithphotography. com.

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editor’s notes

MIKE CASSIDY

U-turn

Why we were not going to run Chris Phillippi’s story… and why we are

A

s a publication, The Good Life is hungry for stories.

On a typical month, we’ll gobble up 20 or more stories from and about interesting local people.

Yet, while we are on a constant lookout for editorial copy, some suggestions just don’t fit the style of our magazine.

That’s why when Chris Phillippi sent us a press release about a new product his longtime local family business had developed — an alcohol drink like the Colonials drank called Applejack — we said thanks but no thanks.

We emailed Chris a note saying our magazine was more about local people than products, and his press release was not The Good Life material.

We helpfully suggested it might find a warmer reception at The Wenatchee Business Journal.

We thought we were done… but Chris had other ideas.

In a flash, he shot back a rejoinder saying the entire history of his six generation family in the Wenatchee area was the very epitome of people seeking the good life — and well worth featuring in the magazine.

And then he offered insights and anecdotes of family lore that made us agree. Especially nice is when you read the arc of his family’s fruit business in the Valley, you get a sense of real people trying to find good lives in an ever evolving industry — people who knew how to balance work with living.

Which is why after saying “No” to Chris we are saying “Yes.” We’re even including a bit of the original press release.

Perhaps that makes us inconsistent, but, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds,” said an early American poet, and while I’m not sure at the moment what a hobgoblin is, I don’t think I want one lurking in my mind.

Check out Chris’ story on page 14.

Blog on — Early in April, we launched our new The Good Life blog to replace our aging webpage.

And so far, it’s all fine.

The new site is prettier, friendly to users and able to be read on smart phones as well as tablets and desktop computers.

Switching to a blog allows us to more quickly update our posts. For example, we now have a page about “What to do in the Wenatchee area” that we can update daily.

We can re-post items from other local blogs (with permission, of course), and better display our incredible photography that readers like so much.

We still allow online viewers to flip through the current and past issues, plus now we are using PayPal as a payment gateway, which means you can subscribe, renew and/or purchase single past issues using a wider variety of credit cards with the comfort of knowing your information is very, very secure.

Please take a look at our new site — and perhaps the best news of all, it’s at the same old address: www.ncwgoodlife.com.

It’s OK to make the occasional U-turn. Enjoy The Good Life.

— Mike May 2014 | The Good Life

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fun stuff a full LISTING of what to do begins ON PAGE 42

No may-be about it, fun a’poppin’ in may A

pple Blossom and all of its ancillary fun activities roll at the beginning of this month, but when the floats leave town, that doesn’t mean the life has to go out of spring.

There’s plenty to do this month, both inside and — of course as the weather turns perfect — outside.

Check out these events — starting with a cool car parade in East Wenatchee — gathered from this month’s events calendar:

Run among the flowers May 10.

Classy Chassis Parade — Starts at Eastmont Community Park goes down Grant Road turns right on Valley Mall Parkway ends at 9th Street. Free to watch. Info: appleblossom.org.

Friday, May 2, 6:30 p.m.

Bull riding Blowout —

Ouch! Over 365 professional bull riders will be vying to become the champion of the weekend and win cash prizes and the buckle. Town Toyota Center.

Cost: $25 reserved, $20 general, $30 at the door. Info: Friday and Saturday, May 2/3, 7:30 p.m.

Apple Blossom Grand Parade — Starts at Triangle Park,

goes down Orondo, turns north on Wenatchee Ave. Saturday, May 3, 11 a.m.

Bird Walks — Enjoy bird walks with leader Heather Murphy, local wildlife biologist, nature journalist and artist.

Start at Sleeping Lady, Leaven-

2014 Olympic Gold Medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White expected for Stars on Ice, May 16, Town Toyota Center.

worth. Info: sleepinglady.com.

Saturday, May 3, and every first and third Saturday in May and June, 9-10:30 a.m.

Run Wenatchee-Horse Lake Trail Run — Half-mile and

5-mile run. The run will take place on a single-track, wellmaintained trail, set amid a crush of wildflower and stunning views. Cash prizes awarded. Register: runwenatchee.com.

May 10.

Stars on Ice — America’s favorite top performers such

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as two-time and The Downy Woodpecker is a regular resident of reigning U.S. Cham- north central Washington — and perhaps waiting pion Ashley Wagto be seen on a bird walk. ner and U.S. Silver Medalist Gracie Gold. Other Nut” and internationally recogheadliners could be Stars on nized wildlife expert, will speak Ice veterans, ice dancers Meryl at the Snowy Owl Theater. FriDavis and Charlie White. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyota- day through Sunday, May 15-18. center.com. Friday, May 16, 7:30 Spring Barrel Tasting — p.m.

Lake Chelan wineries offer Leavenworth Spring Bird tastes of future releases straight Fest — If you’re nuts for birds, from the barrel. Info: lakechelhere’s a three-day event in Leav- anwinevalley.com. Saturday and enworth. On Saturday, May 17, Sunday, May 17/18, 11 a.m. to 8 7 p.m. John Acorn, “The Nature p.m.

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guest column // Cary ordway

Is it a concert?

Is it a reunion?

Or is it just one big party where the band happens to be Chicago?

T

he ground probably is still shaking around the Wenatchee Valley following that rousing Wenatchee High School AllClass Reunion held recently at the Town Toyota Center.

Oh – you missed it? Maybe that’s because it was actually advertised as a Chicago concert.

But we Wenatchee area residents all know what it really was — the chance to jump and gyrate our nostalgic way back to the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s and do it among friends.

My family and I are living back in this area having just returned from a few decades living in big cities like Seattle, Honolulu and San Diego, so this small-town concert was a new experience for us.

This was not your gardenvariety rock concert — this was one big party where the band just happened to be Chicago.

Quite frankly, we’re accustomed to assuming a full defensive posture when we go to a big-city concert, recognizing that some elements of society generally turn rock concerts into a sociological petri dish of odd

Cary Ordway revisits Town Toyota Center — the site of the recent all-school musical concert/party.

behavior.

We’re cool with the various clothing aberrations, the tats, the piercings, the bling and most other forms of legal exhibitionism, but we draw the line at knives, guns and mortars.

In our younger days, Rule Number One at a big-city rock concert was to always avoid eye contact with the crazy sitting beside you and absolutely never — and I mean never — spill your beer in that crazy’s lap.

As we grew older, so did our fellow concert-goers and with

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that came a certain calming and a more favorable ratio of normals to crazies.

We especially noticed this when we started going to country concerts like Martina McBride, Vince Gill and others who seem to attract a little bit more wholesome concert-goer.

Later, the crazies started seeping back into our concert schedule, culminating in one concert spent plugging the eyes and ears of our eight-year-old who had gone with us to see Toby Keith sing about boozing and carous-

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ing while scantily-clad twentysomethings did precisely that on the lawn beside us (we had the cheap seats). The Sound of Music this was not.

So after a few decades of looking straight ahead, avoiding eye contact and later rushing out to our car as quickly as possible for fear we’d be gunned down in the city streets, this concert at Town Toyota Center came as something of a shock.

People walked in dressed absolutely normally — okay there was the occasional 55-year-old woman in hot pants, perhaps a staid banker by day, a wannabe temptress by night — and instead of going straight to their seats to hunker down and wait for the music, they started talking with other concert-goers.

There was plenty of beer and wine available in the lobby so many stopped off for a quick pop before taking their seats and then it seemed everyone ran into someone they knew.

At this point it became one big arena-sized cocktail party.

We took our seats and I was lamenting to my wife that we were new in town and that we probably were the only people who didn’t know other people — and almost at that precise moment someone I know called my name from two rows behind me.

Later I found out that another friend was just a few seats down from me in the same row. I can

}}} Continued on next page

Is it a concert?

Is it a reunion?

Hey, there’s someone we know }}} Continued from previous page only surmise that if you’d been in town longer than five minutes, you knew someone at this concert.

But what about the music, you ask?

Before I get to that, you have to understand that I’m a serious Chicago fan and that when I learned this group was coming to little Wenatchee way out here in the wilderness, I was ecstatic.

I had to get prepared and the first step was to buy a digital download of The Very Best of Chicago, which includes 40 of their best songs.

The next step was to play those songs in my car whenever my wife and I were going somewhere so that she, too, would gain the proper respect and excitement needed to take full advantage of the upcoming concert. After a few days of this, she began singing along — mission accomplished.

I then took one more step that not many fans have on their pre-concert checklist: I took my Chicago songs into surgery with me at the Confluence Health Center.

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I was having a little procedure done on my thumb with just local anesthetic and I’m thinking to myself do I really want to hear everything that’s going on in here? There are certain things you just don’t want to hear when you’re on the operating table, little phrases like “Doctor, we’re going to have to cut it off” or “Doctor, we’re losing him!”

I’d much rather listen to “Saturday, in the park, I think it was the Fourth of July…” — and be blissfully unaware as the doctors keep me from death’s doorstep.

I’m happy to report my thumb and I pulled through with flying colors and so did Chicago. Yes, there were only three original members for their Wenatchee appearance, but the music was incredibly well performed and was crystal clear through Town Toyota Center’s first-rate sound system.

The crowd was enthusiastic and appreciative, and the overall concert experience was one of the best we’ve had.

You’ll want to keep an eye out for upcoming events at the Town Toyota Center — Wenatchee is fortunate to have such a great place to hold class reunions — er, rock concerts.

Cary Ordway is president of Getaway Media Corp, which publishes travel websites and moonlights as the keyboard player for a Wenatchee rock band, the Chargers. Using a penname, Cary has written a book, Countryfied Chickens, a humorous account of his move here from the Big City, which is available at Amazon.com.

Check out these upcoming special events Bucket List Blues Band, 6-8 p.m., Friday, May 9.

S.A.I.L. (Stay Active and Independent for Life) Health Fair, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Saturday, May 10.

NCW Iris Flower Show, 8 a.m.

- 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17.

Shop locally and eat seasonally!

Great fruits and vegetables from local producers, in the coolest and most gorgeous setting — each Wednesday and Saturday starting May 10, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. only at Pybus Public Market.

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l e v a r t I y W h IN 7 PHOTOGRAPHS Story and photos by Rhys Logan

Instead what I’ve found is that mostly people simply don’t know. All they need is to be shown, and ow did I get here? really see for themselves.

This is a question I’ve wondered many, many I started believing that if I could really show as times the last few years. many people as I could what I have seen and what I Be it a conversation at a bar, an invitation after a know, they will feel the same need to tell others and film premiere, a run-in with other enthusiasts in show others, on any scale… globally or in their own the mountains, friends of friends or just encounters communities. with other adventurers, the opportunities for us to I’ve been charged by wild animals and seen more explore happen right in front of us everyday. smiles and superhuman feats than I can count. I’ve Recognizing some of these opportunities has seen wonders of the world. I’ve been to four contitaken me to some of the most extraordinary experi- nents. I’ve been lucky enough to work with and be ences in my life. inspired by pro athletes, writers, newspapers, magaMy fascination with the world started with rozines, production companies, artists, actors, mismanticized stories from my parents — my dad and sionaries, clothing companies, bloggers and book his time traveling the world in the Navy and my printers and am still not satisfied. mother’s experiences growing up during a volatile I’ve avoided avalanches, climbed mountains, sped time Northern Ireland. through New Delhi traffic on the back of a motorThey met in Puerto Rico by pure chance, then cycle, driven through angry mobs of rioters, and stayed in touch through letters before meeting up seen the tracks in the snow of my first descents in again, and have since been married for 30 years. the Himalayas.

Their drastically different life experiences always I travel for the sake of just to go. To be, and to live inspired me to really examine how so many people life and encounter the things that make the world in the world go through life so differently, yet we what it is: An experience. are all still connected through our natural human I travel to remain in the pursuit of capturing the experiences with one another. human experience. To try and see and understand I cherish growing up in Waterville. I was given a what makes us, us. To try and help other undersense of adventure I believe because of the safety stand, because more and more I feel I know less and of being able to ride our bikes as far as we could, less. explore the sagelands and Pine Canyon, follow endEvery opportunity has revolved around saying yes. less roads on Badger Mountain and camp and fish at Even in the knowledge that it will be difficult. It Douglas Creek. will be frightening, uncomfortable and it might be a During college I had spent time on a mission trip risk. It might be hard to explain to others why I go, in Costa Rica and ended up contracting images from but in my own experience, no regret has ever come that trip to Latin American Mission; making me from going. realize that my images could be used for something I am able to travel because I choose to. The only better, something bigger than me. true warning to be offered on traveling is that if you Images I had made could make a difference for try it, you might find you won’t be able to stop. someone else and all I had to do was make sure I Here are a few of my favorite photographs from was there to tell their story. the world. I hope you enjoy them and the stories I started researching for opportunities and causes behind them. and realized the sheer amount of need the world has More of Rhy’s work can be seen at rhyslogan.com and upwill always drive the necessity for good images and to-date projects can be seen at his blog rhyslogan.com/ story telling to inform people how they can help too. rhys-logan-photography-blog/. He has been published on I have learned the problem is not that people don’t Nationalgeographic.com, JPG Magazine, Freehub Magacare; very few people are as cold or indifferent to see zine, PDN, various newspapers, SeattleMet, Climbing.com and Bombflow Magazine. suffering or poverty or severe need and say, “I don’t care about that.”

H

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JOURNALING Inside a mosquito net In east Africa there is the bush and then there is the bush bush.

This photo was taken in my little quarters in a small compound built by faces4hope in the bush bush, near the Bomas of the Maasai people of Engikaret village.

I wanted to make this image for my own personal collection to remind myself of the thoughts, stories and information I was trying to retain.

I was writing in my journal here, which has been a complete necessity for me while traveling. Revisiting it to relive the emotions and thought processes I was going through during editing work has proven invaluable.

Maasai Sunset A lone Maasai man walks through the desert toward a small base built by the nonprofit (local to East Wenatchee) faces4hope.

Based out of Arusha, Tanzania, faces4hope works closely with communities there and has built schools, community and water sources out in Maasai-land to help and support the people struggling there.

I saw the idea for this image days before it actually happened. The setting African sun over the dry and arid Savannah was an experience I will never forget, it was beautiful in different ways every single night. The sun seemed much larger near the equator and as it approached the horizon the dusty haze brought a myriad of colors before disappearing in seconds.

This image to me represented the starkness of Maasai culture; figures in the desolate heat, with the sun setting perhaps on their entire culture and way of life as they struggle to survive droughts, dwindling rights and land usage and loss of culture.Â

Woman on Dal Lake Dal Lake was one of the strangest, most hauntingly beautiful and most enchanting places I’ve ever been in my life.

On the eastern edge of the city of Srinigar in Kashmir, India, its old lavish style houseboats and floating markets were as beautiful as they were strange.

Large flat-bottom skiffs and huge clove-shaped oars were the best mode of transport.

This image to me represents the dream-like stage I was entering at the end of a three-week filming project. The calm lapping black waters, snowy mountains rising out of the mist and oppressing silence shattered by the daily call to prayer are some of the most reverent experiences of my life.

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I y h W l e v a r t

IN 7 PHOTOGRAPHS

Starlight in Baja With waves lapping just out of the bottom left of the frame, I made this image during a three week road trip that took us from Seattle to Cabo San Lucas.

Part of a surf trip with a clothing company Northwest Riders, we surfed the length of the entire Baja Peninsula; an open rugged desert known for its harsh beauty and amazing coastlines.

I have always been completely in awe of the cosmos and astrophotography. Viewing the stars from extremely remote places yields some of the best experiences especially, due to the lack of light pollution. We camped at this particular spot for about three days, around 700 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border.

Blue nights in Bishop I made this image during a frigid 9 degree Fahrenheit night outside Bishop, California.

Bishop is one of the premiere destinations in the world for bouldering; climbing unsupported without ropes on shorter more technical routes usually on (you guessed it) boulders, large erratics or rock outcroppings scattered over the desert.

Every evening it seemed someone new would join the ever growing group of people who make up the small community of “dirt bags” living out of tents, cars and campers for sometimes months at time, just to work on finishing difficult routes and climbs.

This particular evening we were the new members, and were greeted with brews, smiles and a great fire to watch the stars emerge from the blue dusk sky, above the Sierra Nevadas.

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Srinigar, Kashmir India In a city torn apart by unrest and war, the life seemed to be sucked out of it, especially in winter.

Bright lights of beauty and of hope exist in the people there, though —splashes of life and color in a dreary grey and snowy landscape.

This woman was walking near the main road and caught my attention immediately.

It was hard to miss her beauty and bright red Punjabi, even as we were racing by to avoid trouble. I made two frames but regretted not being able to ask her story.

After a three-week journey as part of a film crew for a ski film in the renowned Gulmarg ski area of the Himalayas we were headed back through the dangerous city to fly out.

Mama Sonja Culturally in East Africa many women are referred to as the mother of their first-born child.

This Maasai mother, Helena, whose daughter was Sonja, was called “Mama Sonja.”

Part of the Sangiki Group, she learned seamstressing and was a faces4hope community leader among her people.

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‘Tell me that’s not the Good Life!’ for 6 generations, the phillippis have combined family business with making time to pursue activities they enjoy Editor’s note: This story was created from rejection. Local businessman Chris Phillippi originally submitted a press release about his family company’s new distilled alcoholic drink — Applejack — but was told such new product announcements didn’t fit with the theme of The Good Life.

Instead, it was suggested to Chris he should send his press release to The Wenatchee Business Journal. Here is his reply.

By Chris Phillippi

I understand why that press

release isn’t a Good Life piece, but I think it just needs to be a bit broader.

From my perspective, my family has been living the NCW Good Life for six generations spanning more than a century, and one of the keys to that lifestyle is our livelihood — agriculture.

I would argue that we helped invent the NCW Good Life, and this new venture is our latest incarnation of living the good life.

Let me tell you what I mean.

When my great-greatChris Phillippi and his son, Gus, take time away from skiing and biking last month to show off the family’s latest project, Twin Peaks Distillery. AT LEFT: Skiing is a tradition that has been passed through five generations of the Phillippi family, beginning here with Howard Phillippi.

great grandparents settled on the banks of the Columbia River just north of the confluence with the Wenatchee around the year 1900, I believe they were in search of the Good Life.

Family lore holds that Leon and his son Arthur B. were brick masons by trade, and helped construct many of

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Wenatchee’s first buildings and streets, but they didn’t move here to be brick masons; they wanted something more. So they started planting fruit trees and grew vegetables in between the rows.

Arthur B. built his house to be able to store the apple crop in the basement, and they had a roadside fruit and vegetable stand down on Euclid. The

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surplus was loaded on the trains that also ran through the property.

My great-grandfather Howard was born on that land in 1902, and I remember him telling about being able to watch the paddle wheelers on the Columbia from his upstairs bedroom window, that they would catch salmon and sturgeon from the river, and all this with the Cascades looming in the west. Tell me that’s not the Good Life!

Howard was married to my great-grandma Eva for 69 years, and for 67 of those years they lived and farmed 15 acres on Washington Street in Wenatchee.

A brief run-down of his version of the Good Life was pruning the orchard in the late winter, fishing much of the spring and summer while he tended his crop, 30 days or so of harvesting and packing in the fall, hauling the boxes down to a storage facility in town for shipment and sales, shutting the place down in time for deer and elk season, enjoying Christmas at home, then packing his wife and son up and heading to southern California for two months in a rental before returning to start pruning again.

He didn’t need an orchard foreman, or an office, and was able to do much of the work himself while having lots of time to pursue things he enjoyed, and still generating enough income to die at 88 with a healthy bank account. Talk about the Good Life!

My grandfather Arthur E. lived in similar times, but things were getting bigger.

By the 1950s, he and my grandma had enough acreage to generate more disposable

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Applejack — that’s the spirit

BELOW: Effie Phillippi boats with sons Greg and Dave in 1962 in front of the cabin the family still enjoys at Lake Chelan.

income, but still plenty of time to enjoy it.

They picked out a small plot of land on a section of deserted lakeshore backed by orchards and built a 30-by-40 Pan-abode cabin and a dock.

My family continues to enjoy that cabin to this day, though a bigger kitchen and a second bathroom were added in 1979, and we replaced the dock five years ago.

Now that cabin is dwarfed by the fir trees he planted for shade, and it is also dwarfed by the multi-million dollar “cabins” that surround it. It’s on the north shore of Lake Chelan, a few miles before Manson.

Arthur E. died in 1968 in a plane crash on his way to look at a fishing camp for sale in the San Juans. You could say he died living the good life, and in pursuit of it. He was 48.

By the time of my father and uncle, the fruit industry was moving more quickly to what it has become today: a year-round transition between harvesting, packing and shipping different crops, with large tracts of orchard needed to generate similar levels of income, and requiring more work more of the year.

Many of the old families have sold out or moved on. Many of those who have not disappeared from the scene have gone big time, and have stretched agriculture into a year-round job.

Not to say that hasn’t benefited our valley, but I think we’ve lost something along the way...

Wenatchee Pioneer Leon Phillippi (seated left), son Arthur B. Phillippi (seated right), grandson Howard Phillippi (standing), and great-grandson Arthur E Phillippi (front) circa 1925. Four generations of the Phillippi family continue to call Wenatchee home, including Arthur E.’s wife Effie, who turned 92 last winter.

the lifestyle that you showcase in your magazine as the Good Life was just life for many of the folks around here.

My dream with opening this cider house and distillery isn’t to make the business journal. It is to re-create something along the lines of my predecessors, where it doesn’t take a huge tract to sustain a family, and where emphasis is placed on lifestyle as much, or more, than income.

Fortunately, I think the time may be right.

With an increased emphasis placed on local food, with tourism an ever increasing part of our local economy, with the craft beverage revolution now going on 30 years, and with an understanding that bigger is not always better, an orchard May 2014 | The Good Life

and packing shed that looked obsolete 10 years ago now look like a fresh opportunity.

Nonetheless, we’re the first ones to try this, so maybe we are crazy. I don’t know if we’ll succeed, but our goal is a sustainable operation for our family to continue working and playing together while we raise the seventh generation and hopefully generations to come.

Seen that way, this venture is the latest means

It’s still hard to beat a road trip with friends. Howard Phillippi in the front seat circa 1919. Future wife Eva and identical twin sister Edith on the hood. www.ncwgoodlife.com

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Twin Peaks Distillery has released its inaugural batch of Applejack, a spirit distilled from apples.

Applejack was the most popular strong alcohol in colonial America and was originally made through the process of freeze distillation, or jacking. Twin Peaks Distillery uses a traditional pot still to create its spirits, which captures the fresh apple overtones and fiery nature of this American spirit.

Twin Peaks Applejack is 40 percent alcohol by volume (80 proof), and has been finished with oak to achieve its characteristic flavor and golden hue.

Twin Peaks Distillery is run by the fifth and sixth generations of the Wenatchee branch of the Phillippi family.

Tastings and individual sales of Applejack are available at the distillery’s tasting room located at 1921 Fifth Street in Wenatchee. to living the Good Life for my family.

I’ve skied around 40 days so far this winter, and I’ll likely spend that many days at Lake Chelan in the summer. I go to work each day with my sister, my mom, my dad, my uncle, and my five year old (two days a week). At least as far as I’m concerned, I’m living the Good Life.

So don’t banish us to the business journal just yet because we helped define the good life around these parts, and that’s what continues to motivate us today.

Sorry if I got a little long winded, but I’m so passionate about all of this that the closure label on our applejack reads: “Fruit — Family — Friends — Fun.”

5 lessons for life

to shine In hopes of turning on the light for students, teacher went on his own journey of discovery

By Jon Magnus

S

ince graduating from high school, I have worked at a major American corporation, washed dishes in a Parisian restaurant, painted houses, built fences and translated/interpreted for celebrities and the French government.

I am thankful for them all, the stepping stones that led me to the doors of Wenatchee High School when in 2000, I left behind the business world and embarked on a new adventure.

The field of education opened an irresistible door for me to teach French in our beautiful valley. With encouragement from veteran educators like Dan Jackson and Jennifer Burke, I took the leap.

From office to classroom, my world transformed dramatically.

I joined the ranks of countless teachers for whom education is a vocation, a calling that cannot be ignored.

Teaching French is not a job; it

is my passion. I live for the light bulb moments. Actively engaging students as they acquire and master knowledge exhilarates and inspires me. Yet, like many of my esteemed colleagues, I teach more than one subject. In addition to French, I teach life.

Fourteen years ago, I stepped into the classroom fully unaware of the demands upon 21st Century educators. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I envisioned a school experience similar to my own.

It was a rude awakening.

Before long, the hidden problems that plagued many of my students began to bubble to the surface. As trust developed, they spoke to me with surprising candor. They shared their personal stories. Some hailed from broken homes with feuding parents. Others had endured physical or sexual abuse. Many struggled with issues stemming from racism, addiction, poverty, suicide, depression and peer pressure.

Jon Magnus: Teaching life, along with French. Photo by Lynette Smith Photography

Lacking direction, they were coasting through life in semisurvival mode.

In June 2002, I traveled to Europe with students. Following their return to the United States with another teacher, I visited

a friend in southern France.

Initially a client when I was a translator, the renowned author and television producer Jacques Antoine had become a personal friend and mentor.

A formidable communicator, Jacques enjoyed discussing a broad range of topics. Politics, religion and philosophy generally dominated our verbal exchanges.

One morning we walked to the village of Mougins for a cup of coffee and some conversation.

Jacques began with a question.

“How do like being a teacher?” he asked. “I love it,” I replied. “It is both rewarding and challenging.”

“How so?” he probed. I shared with him the joys and difficulties of working in public education. I spoke to him of one particular assignment that had been a turning point for students that year.

As a prompt for a writing assignment, I had asked my students: “Who is the person in

At Highgate, we encourage a variety of social activities as part of our holistic approach to both Assisted Living and Memory Care. Come see for yourself the many ways our residents are supported in staying actively engaged in life. email: wenatchee@highgateseniorliving.com phone: 509-665-6695 web: HighgateSeniorLiving.com

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“Who is the person in your life who has challenged you or inspired you to be a better human being?” your life who has challenged you or inspired you to be a better human being?”

To my great surprise, many students were stumped. They had never been asked to look into their family, their community or beyond to identify positive role models. We spent the following days discussing who these people are and how to identify them. It was a revealing activity.

As Jacques and I finished our coffee, I voiced a concern. “Many of my students lack positive role models. They face multiple obstacles on the road to happiness and self-fulfillment. They don’t know where to turn. I am somewhat frustrated to work with only 140 students per year when so many others are in need of guidance and direction.”

“What could you do to change that?” Jacques asked.

I shared an idea that had been germinating in the back of my mind. The concept was simple: n Draw up a list of life questions. n Seek out people considered to be positive role models by

Choose happiness, choose to shine In September of 2009, a

debilitating disease struck me like lightning.

For seven weeks, I lingered in the hospital enduring agonizing pain that culminated in a near-death experience. Out of options, doctors were forced to perform a life-changing operation that left me with a permanent colostomy.

Devastated by this brutal change to my body, I spent months pondering how to put my life back together.

I did not have to look far.

Within the answers of the people I had interviewed, I discovered the steps of S.H.I.N.E. They quickly enabled me to accept my new reality, choose happiness and rediscover my zest for life.

Everyone has choice, yet too many people are passive observers of their own existence.

Through my book, I want to inspire and empower others to live more intentional and fulfilling lives.

From an educator’s perspective, S.H.I.N.E. is a lesson plan for successful living. I sincerely hope to broaden the walls of my classroom by spreading the message far and wide, sharing the book and societal standards. n Ask them all the same questions. n Analyze their responses to determine what they have in common. n Share this wisdom with others.

“Do it!” he said. “Do it now!”

That evening, friends of Jacques arrived from Switzer-

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spending more time doing inspirational speaking.

In S.H.I.N.E. – Life Lessons Revealed, I gather their wisdom of 14 everyday heroes I interviewed into five universal life lessons that readers can use to chart the course of their lives: S — See Your Own True Potential H — Have a Heart for Others I — Identify and Meet Pressing Needs N — Navigate the Course of Change E — Expect Success Through short, compelling lessons, practical exercises, and the inspiring life stories of these role models, I encourage readers to make positive changes in their own lives.

Taken as a whole, S.H.I.N.E. – Life Lessons Revealed will teach readers to listen to the lives of others, to learn from them, and to become the best at being themselves.

A book signing is planned May 22 at the Pybus Public Market. I will be available to answer questions from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. At 6 p.m., local heroes Daniel Garcia and Dora Trevino will join me for a short presentation about the origins of the book and the life lessons they shared.

S.H.I.N.E. – Life Lessons Revealed will be available at A Book for All Seasons in Leavenworth and on Amazon.com at the end of May. — by Jon Magnus

land. As we sat on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Jacques shared my idea with the friends, Mona and Alain.

Both of them concurred: Do it, and do it now.

“Who would you like to meet in France?” Mona asked.

Without hesitation, I spoke the first name that came to mind. “Abbé Pierre.”

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As founder of the worldwide humanitarian organization Emmaus International, and a living legend, Abbé Pierre had been inspiring me since I was 20 years old.

“How interesting,” she said. “I run his shelter for battered and abused women in Geneva. He is a close personal friend and I

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5 lessons for life

to shine

}}} Continued from previous page believe he will be interested in your project.”

And then I knew. Mona’s response confirmed my mission to discover the common bonds of positive role models.

Six months later, I met with Abbé Pierre in a quiet hotel room in Geneva, where he generously shared his wisdom. Love and compassion radiated from his eyes.

It was the first of 14 interviews.

From Paris, France, to Long Beach, California, from the shores of the Mississippi River to the banks of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, and beyond, I traveled to meet extraordinary people.

Nancy Brinker (Founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure), Nobel Prize winner Dr. Leland

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Hartwell, CNN 2013 Hero of the Year Chad Pregracke, local Wenatchee business owner Daniel Garcia, inspiring crusader Dora Trevino and others kindly gave of their time to answer my questions.

My new book, S.H.I.N.E. – Life Lessons Revealed is the culmination of 12 years of research. It highlights the common threads of those who teach by example.

It is a collection of engaging and encouraging stories woven together by my own personal journey.

While writing this book, I discovered five lessons for successful living that are clearly universal. They effectively transcend cultural, political and social boundaries. The insights, anecdotes and advice of these extraordinary people have changed my own life.

Ultimately, by sharing them, I hope to teach life to students and adults as they discover the lessons these inspirational role models revealed.

Helping a school in Maasai land Where kids can walk 5 miles to school... when the road is not blocked by elephants

By Lester C. Cooper

T

here is a school in Africa where the thirst for education cannot be quenched — The Nkoilale Primary School in Narok County, Kenya.

Recently, I was one of seven Rotarians, three each from Lake Chelan and Leavenworth and one from Wenatchee Downtown club, who spent 12 days in Kenya and Tanzania.

The highlight of our odyssey was not the animals or the scenery, but the people of Kenya and Tanzania. In particular the Maasai people who live and work as they have done from time immemorial.

They are herders of cattle, goats and sheep.

The Maasai do not hunt the wild animals of Kenya and Tanzania — they live in harmony with them. They dress in traditional costume and in most cases live in small primitive homes built from mud, straw and sticks just as it always has been done.

Coming from the Western world it takes a while to appreciate that these peoples are as happy or happier than we are. Their tradi-

Lester Cooper checks on what the boys are studying at the Nkoilale Primary School in Kenya.

tions are their way of life.

During my career I had the opportunity to spend time in South Africa and Namibia and became aware of the difficulties that some of the native people face on a day to day basis.

I hoped that one day I would be able make a small difference.

I met Hillary Kosen, a Maasai now living in Wenatchee, when he made a presentation to our Lake Chelan Rotary Club during which he explained how he wanted to give back to the people of Kenya, specifically where he was born and grew up before leaving to come to the USA. He told us about the animals of Maasai Mara and the Nkoilale Primary School.

I and the local Rotarians decided that we should go on a photographic safari through Hillary’s company, Kosen Safaris, and take the time to visit the school, not sure what we would find or how we might help.

Through Hillary, we met Namunyak (also

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known as Grace for non-Maasai speakers).

She is a primary school teacher at the Nkoilale Primary School in a remote village in the Maasai Mara.

We had the opportunity to visit Grace’s school and the village of Nkoilale.

The Nkoilale Primary School has 773 students between the ages of seven and 14. Two hundred of the students live at the school with the rest walking to school each day.

Being dropped off at school by a parent in an air-conditioned car is not an option. Some students walk up to five miles to school and five miles to get home again.

A few days before we arrived a number of students were late arriving for school. Elephants had blocked their path. This sounded like a valid excuse to me.

The headmaster of the school explained that losing students during the year to animal attacks was not unusual. He also

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Helping a school in Maasai land }}} Continued from previous page explained that far more students remain at home than go to school.

In addition, it was explained to us that families are quite large and it is not unusual for students to go to school for three days a week and stay at home to herd the animals the other two days while brothers and/or sisters go to school in their place.

Classrooms hold as many as 103 students who sit four to a desk. The desks often look like they have been made from wood bought from the local lumberyard.

I spoke to some of the students in one classroom and they explained that this was a biology class and they were learning about platelets and how they work in the body.

All of the students speak English, Kiswahili and their local language fluently. The academic expectation in the school is high. The school has won a number of awards for academic achievement and music.

As Rotarians, we wanted to visit the Nkoilale Primary School to see firsthand how we might be able to help the school and the local village and to establish a local contact. In addition, we wanted to leave something useful at the school.

To this end, 23 students received new uniforms, nine students received boarding scholarships and nine houses in the village now have solar powered lighting.

For the Nkoilale village and primary school and many rural places in Kenya this is a drop in the bucket. Much more is needed.

The most immediate needs of the Nkoilale Primary school are: n Additional latrines and bathrooms. In a village where there are neither bathrooms nor latrines, this has a very high priority. It is an issue that affects

How one girl’s story turned out Lucky My Maasai name is Namu-

nyak and this is my story.

My name means “Lucky,” and I consider myself lucky in many ways.

I was lucky to have been taken to school while other girls stayed at home looking after the cattle waiting to be married off. I was the only girl from my village going to school amongst many boys.

Their insults did not make me change my mind.

When I completed primary school, my luck was put to the test.

A brother to my dad came back from exile and demanded that I should drop out of school to be married to a man who had two other wives.

He made this demand because my dad had sold their younger sister in the absence of his elder brother. So I was to be sold to pay for what my dad had taken.

I consulted my grandmother who was still alive then. She was against the deal and told me not to give in to his demands. My dad was against it too but he had no option but to pay back the debt.

I used my grandmother to force my elder dad to let me go to high school with a promise that as soon as I completed high school

the health of children and the adults in the village. n Two additional classrooms would provide local employment in their construction, and the opportunity for the Nkoilale School to provide education to 100 additional students. n Classroom furniture (desks, tables, chairs), mattresses for students and pre-school play equipment are also needed. n A school library would greatly help literacy. It would help students in reading on their own, providing a place to do homework and providing the resources to do research. Con-

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I would get married to whomever he wanted.

He agreed and started negotiations with the man who was to marry me. He was given what he asked and told to wait for four years for me to complete high school.

I never showed any signs that I might change my mind and this gave my elder dad confidence that I would not let him down. I did my high school national exam and did very well.

Now it was time to fulfill my promise.

My grandmother was still alive so I went to her for advice. She advised me not to allow my dad to force me to the old man.

The only option left Lucky: Education instead of forced marriage. was for me to elope with anyone else to run away from this through, maybe I would not have suffered the way I did. old man. I did.

It is so heartbreaking to see I may have taken the wrong deyoung girls being married off cision at that particular moment but later had good results. I went at this tender age. Their stories make me cry every time I hear to college after three years and them. It brings back memories became the teacher I am today. that I do not want to remember.

My desire to help young girls I would like to extend my “luck” comes from my story. If I had to them. someone to tell what I was going

struction of a library would be easy if funds were available. n Additional student dormitories would ease overcrowding for the students who live at the school and additional teacher housing would also be a big help. The government and local authorities welcome support and help from outside donors. n The school gets its water from a protected spring that is shared with the villagers. The water is clean for drinking, although not enough is available for both the village and the school.

Expanding the water supply

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would help the villagers and the school and is probably the key to improving health and sanitation, and developing the overall economy of the area. n Solar powered lighting for the homes in the village would be very useful. Most of the students who do not live at the school have nowhere to do their homework after dark. Solar lighting in a home would enable them to read and do their homework at home at night.

In addition, light in a home would help the women to do their bead work in the evening as they are busy doing other jobs

Maasai have far more than we can appreciate.

They live in an environment and have a lifestyle most of us would find very difficult. We should appreciate their way of life and not try to change it, but we can help them with things they feel are important to them.

Education is clearly at the top of the list.

For additional information on the efforts to help the Nkoilale Primary School, contact Lester Cooper at lester.cooper@chelanrotary.org.

Students in class: The school day begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. School uniforms are mandatory but are only worn during lesson times, which begin at 8 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. As soon as lessons are over the children change into “play” clothes or the clothes they came to school in.

during the day including looking after the animals and fetching water.

We met and learned about three students of extraordinary courage.

At 12 and 13 years old they had run away from home to go to school.

Seiyio is a young girl of 12 who was to be sold to an older man to be one of his wives — the price: 10 cows or 100 goats — she chose an education.

Nickson Taki is a young man also 12 who had never been to school. He had to decide to either work as a herder tending the family cattle or go to school — he chose an education.

Kitipa Yenko is a young man of 13 who was left to live with an older sister when his parents died. Unfortunately, when his sister died, he was completely alone and left to live with one of

Expanding the water supply would help the villagers and the school and is probably the key to improving health and sanitation... his father’s wives — he chose an education.

Kitipa, Nickson and Seiyo now live at the school full time.

Sitting in the idyllic setting of a safari camp or in my hometown of beautiful Chelan, it is easy to think of all the things the Maasai people do not have when viewed from a Westerner’s perspective.

However, the reality is the May 2014 | The Good Life

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Donations are being accepted via Lake Chelan Community and International Fund, PO Box 601, Chelan WA 98816. This fund is a 501(c)3 and therefore donation can be tax deductible under IRS rules.

Lester C. Cooper is a past president of Lake Chelan Rotary, president of the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce and president of the Lake Chelan Hospital Foundation. He retired from a career with General Electric and now spends much of his time volunteering in support of a variety of community activities. For more information on Hillary Kosen, visit www.kosensafaris.com.

Flying is her passion

by Vicki Olson Carr

J

anet Liberty’s peaceful home and gardens sit high on a knoll overlooking the Columbia River and Lake Chelan Airport to the north. Bighorn sheep and other critters wander through her property, which has a bird’s eye view of weather conditions.

Janet can also watch planes come and go at the airfield where her hangar houses a red-and-gray 1955 Cessna 180, a tail-dragger named Her Liberty Ship. She loves this view because flying is her passion.

Janet retired from teaching high school business classes for the Bellevue School District and returned to her hometown in 1999. “The weather is better here for flying,” she explained.

(Returning to Lake Chelan is a common pattern for retiring local graduates.)

An interest in aviation began at age six on a spin over Manson orchards in a crop duster with pioneer aviator A.J. Platt. A commercial flight as a young military wife back to the U.S. from Germany came next.

She remembers later flying over Spokane with her brother Les, a commercial pilot who subsequently has spent three decades as a bush pilot in northwest Alaska.

After son Michael graduated from high school and left home, Janet began looking around for

After her son graduated from high school and left home, Janet Liberty decided she needed a change in her life — and from there a continuing love of flying has elevated her life.

something to do. “I needed a change in lifestyle,” she remembers.

On a flight to Stehekin with well-known pilot Ernie Gibson in his Beaver, Janet realized what she should do. “Here we were, five of us in the plane, and I was the only one that was not a pilot. I just decided I wanted to keep up with my friends.

“My friend Gayle had become a pilot, so I took an introductory flight in Renton… and I was hooked.”

Nine months later she had completed all the requirements for a private pilot’s license, including 20 hours flying solo.

Janet remembers that date, July 15, 1984.

On July 22, one week later, she had the courage to fly over the Cascade Mountains to Chelan in a rented plane.

“There is something so liberating about flying,” Janet muses with a far away look in her eyes.

“Now you’re very busy when

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“When you’re in the air the scenery is always changing, the shapes, the colors, the distances. It’s the splendor of God’s earth, really.” you’re flying, scanning the sky for other air traffic, constantly checking your instruments and so on. But there is always a thrill to being in control of a machine that can fly.

“You know, this is a great country. I had the freedom to decide to become a pilot. I had the means and the opportunity to do it. Now I have the camaraderie to enjoy flying with others who are in aviation.

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“When you’re in the air the scenery is always changing, the shapes, the colors, the distances,” Janet adds, then laughs.

“It’s the splendor of God’s earth, really.”

Janet bought her first plane in 1984 — a 1952 Cessna 170B. As she flew toward Lake Chelan the next summer, the plane’s engine lost power. She followed safety procedures and quickly radioed Wenatchee to let them know her position and her intentions to head for the Lake Wenatchee airport. Her engine went silent and she saw her propeller stop turning just as she cleared the last of the trees to touch down safely on the strip.

As one might imagine, she has been extra diligent in the maintenance of her craft since.

In 1990, Janet bought a 1955 Cessna 180 in Florida, flying it west to Snohomish over a threeday weekend (24 hours actual air time). Her logbooks show

100 planes, some classics, expected for fly-in After missing the last two years, organizers for a “fly-in” at the Chelan Airport are expecting up to 100 planes, including some classics from the 1950s and earlier at the June 7 event.

“Invitations have gone out to owners and pilots of Golden Age (’30s), Warbirds (’40s), Classics (’50s and newer), and assuredly a good mix will come,” according to local pilot Janet Liberty.

“The replica of Pangborn’s Miss Veedol has always been a hit and this year a biplane will be

she has acquired a total of 3,000 hours of flight in her two planes.

Janet flew Her Liberty Ship to Cody, WY in 2012 for a convention of Cessna 180 and 185 pilots.

In 2013 she flew to Bozeman for a large meeting of 99s living in eight states in the Northwest.

(The 99s are an association of women pilots founded by Amelia Earhart when the famed flyer was denied entry into an air race in 1929 because she was a female. The “99” refers to the number of charter members in the club, which has now grown to 4,500.)

The head of Lake Chelan has been Janet’s destination every spring since 1986, where she coordinates work parties to get the Stehekin airstrip ready for summer traffic. Flying the narrow Lake Chelan Valley can be a challenge, but she flies up the lake anyway.

Remote summer campouts (known to pilots as “camping under a wing”) are another reason Janet loves flying. Many a summer she has piloted to Sullivan Lake near Metalline Falls in northeast Washington to help maintain the airport.

The most remote fly-in camping she has ever done was in 2012 when she co-piloted a three-week trip to Canada’s far north. “The Cessna 185 was

featured,” she added.

The event will be hosted by the local Aeronauts Club, and a breakfast will be served by the Manson Kiwanis Club, whose president, Dale England, is a helicopter pilot.

“I imagine the mystery and intrigue of flight still exists and we will see a large enthusiastic crowd from the community,” said Janet.

The event is free. The Chelan Airport is west of Chelan, on the road to Highway 97.

equipped with wheels and floats to land on both airports and rivers all over Canada’s beautiful Yukon and Northwest Territories,” she said.

Janet and her pilot friend meticulously gathered the necessary safety and survival equipment, plus food and water for the duration of their adventure.

The time and distance to the next fuel supply and comfortable camping had to be carefully planned.

Janet’s tent, sleeping bag, clothes for all kinds of weather, and personal items weighed a mere 25 pounds.

This trip gave Janet what she calls “a truly fantastic wilderness flying experience.” Flying above the South Nehanni River in Northwest Territory’s Nehanni National Park northwest

May 2014 | The Good Life

of Fort Simpson, the pair of pilots came upon Virginia Falls.

The river falls 315 feet, twice the height of Niagara Falls. “It was breath-taking,” she said, “and we had to have a reservation to use the dock after landing a mile above the falls — it’s such a popular spot, but there is no beach.”

Janet is amused that fly-in campers see moose at the Fish Lake airstrip near the Montana border east of Lewiston, but fishing is superb at Moose Creek campsite about 30 miles south as the crow — or Cessna 180 — flies. These are just two of the many back country turf airports Janet enjoys flying to for camping with other aviators.

Janet Liberty cannot discuss flying long without bringing up female aviation pioneers.

This year is the 50th anniversary of Jerrie Mock’s famous solo flight around the world. Jerrie Mock of Quincy, FL was the first woman to circumnavigate the Earth, and she did it in a singleengine Cessna 180, almost identical to Janet’s.

“I’ve drawn courage and inspiration from her, and am thrilled and honored to have known her and given her flights,” said Janet, who is another woman with a passion for flying.

Vicki Olson Carr is a retired Alaska secondary teacher and athletic coach who has returned to the Lake Chelan Valley where she is enjoying The Good Life. Life is especially sweet to her because she has survived two brain aneurysms.

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Jeep of honor Monitor man gives a ‘57 Willys jeep a new life in respect to family and others who served U.S.

By Kathryn Zeller

G

rowing up, my father, Jack Charles Pusel of Monitor, spent a great deal of time teaching me about my family and its history.

He also made sure to educate me about what it means to be an American and the importance of honoring all the men and women who came before me, especially those who fought to make our country great. That is why it was no surprise to me when my father first told me about his plans to restore a 1957 Willys jeep.

Dale Kelly, a life-long resident of Monitor, bought the jeep in 1959 to use in his orchards. The jeep had a M38A1 military body and looked much like the jeeps in the television show, MASH. The jeep was used for about 10 years in Dale’s orchards before being passed on to his brother, Rex Kelly, also of Monitor. Both Dale and Rex Kelly had served in the military. Dale Kelly has served in the Army where he earned a bronze star and a Purple Heart at Normandy. Rex Kelly was a Radioman First Class and instructor in San Francisco for the Navy.

When Rex Kelly passed away

Jack Pusel poses in his Navy whites in front of the refurbished 1957 Willys jeep. At right, the jeep was in poor condition when he started the project, including having a gas tank with so many holes that gas would pour out faster than Jack could pour it in.

in the early 1980s, his wife, Fern, held on to the jeep, but eventually the jeep fell into disrepair.

By 2004, the jeep had become a true project, so it was passed on to Jack Crothers, Fern Kelly’s brother living in Naches. Jack had been a Machine’s Mate First Class on a destroyer in the Bering Sea during World War II. At the time, Jack was suffering from cancer in the back, and Fern believed that if her brother had a project to work on, he might forget about the pain from the cancer.

When Jack died a short time later, his wife, Ruby Crothers, decided to hand the project over

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to my father, Jack, so he could continue with the restoration — honoring the family members that had served.

I remember my father saying that when he went to pick up the jeep with his friend, Mike Cawood, he realized that he had a real disaster before him.

“The wheel cylinders were frozen up. The master cylinder was also frozen. The battery was gone. The windshield was broken and the windshield frame looked like a tree had been dropped on it. The gas tank had so many holes in it that I could not pour gas in it as fast as it would leak out, the radiator was

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shot,” wrote my father in one email to me.

I remember him telling me that it was difficult to simply get the jeep loaded since he and Mike had to squirt gas into the carburetor and continue squirting it in just to keep the jeep running long enough to load it onto the trailer. Once it was on the trailer, he had to block the wheels because there were no brakes.

Of course, my father was not dissuaded nor discouraged. To him, this project was a labor of love and an act of honor.

The first thing he did was to purchase a hydraulic porta power to start pushing out the many dents in the body. Then he removed the wheels and installed new wheel cylinders and a new master cylinder.

He had to pressure wash everything inside and out only

to find that the tool box under the passenger seat along with the floor boards were rusted out.

This meant he found himself welding a ton of new metal and fiberglass.

As he put it, there was “lots of sanding, pounding, pushing and pulling to finally get the jeep in good enough shape to paint.”

Being a mechanic and not a painter caused him some problems, but eventually he got the body repainted. The electrical system was largely a redo. Then there was a new carburetor, new electric windshield wipers to take the place of the old hand cranked ones, and new military tires.

After many dollars and many, many hours, the jeep was running and ready to be shown to the world.

Its first appearance was in the Naches Sportsman Days where Jack honored his family’s history by having Ruby Crothers and his aunt Betty Bryan (whose husband had been in Australia during World War II) be his first passengers. The jeep then went on to be in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom parade (2008), the Omak Stampede, the Leavenworth Autumn Leaves Parade, the Cashmere Founder’s Day Parade.

The jeep has also been in many local Veteran’s Day parades.

In addition to having the jeep in parades, my father took the jeep to Sprague Hay Day’s event to raise funds for the Inland Northwest Honor Flight that is located in Spokane. The Inland Northwest Honor Flight’s goal is to provide World War II vets a chance to go to Washington, D.C. (free of charge) to see the memorials built in their honor.

Jack also took the jeep last fall to the Chelan County Fair, where it caught the attention of Wenatchee High School Ag/ FFA teacher, Dan Ellwood.

After speaking to Jack, Ellwood wanted to do something with his students to help honor veterans. Soon, the Wenatchee High

School Ag class went into full swing collecting over $4,000 to send to Inland Northwest Honor Flight.

Each time the jeep has been in a parade or been shown at an event, my father has had an honored vet sitting beside him in the passenger seat.

To my dad, this jeep represents all of those who have served. It honors the many family members who have served including his father who was a Marine from 1929-1935 and his nine uncles and eight cousins that served from 1929 through Vietnam. It also honors the many friends my father had who served in Vietnam.

This old 1957 jeep is a way to educate others about what we can all do to honor those who have died to make our country great and it’s a way to communicate his love for those he has lost.

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Kathryn Zeller is a middle school teacher in Nebraska and the daughter of Jack and Nadine Pusel of Monitor.

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At Confluence Health our physicians and staff are committed to providing excellent care and recovery when you or someone you know has suffered from a stroke.

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Wenatchee Valley Hospital & Clinics 820 N. Chelan Ave. | 509.663.8711 Confluence Health is an affiliation between Central Washington Hospital & Wenatchee Valley Medical Center

May 2014 | The Good Life

Know the signs and symptoms of a stroke and act...

FACE

ARM

SPEECH

TIME

Look for an uneven smile.

Check if one arm is weak.

Listen for slurred speech.

Call 911 at the first sign.

The sooner you call 911, the better the chance of recovery. www.ncwgoodlife.com

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From the deck of this home exchange house in Costa Rica, Terri and Dave Bawden watched unusual birds and creatures parade across the yard every evening.

Pros & cons of home exchange Home exchange isn’t for everyone, but it sure has worked out well for them

By Terri Bawden

S

ince writing in The Good Life about our first home exchange in Spain almost five years ago, we’ve had five more exchanges in Australia, New Zealand and Costa Rica.

By allowing us to live in someone else’s home for an extended period of time, we can live like a local and save about half the cost of our entire trip. Perhaps the most rewarding part, however, has been making new friends around the world.

The most common question we get is, “Are you comfortable letting someone else live in your home?”

That’s a very personal decision, and it’s probably the number one obstacle that prevents people from trying this option.

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You need to remember that they are nervous about you living in their home too.

Put away valuables and things that are irreplaceable. If your house is not suitable for young children, you might want to limit your exchanges to families with older children or seniors only. Sometimes a car is also exchanged, and that may be another difficult decision, but it’s all up to you. You are in control of the entire process.

Another question is, “Would anyone want to come here?”

The reality is that certain locations are going to be much more appealing than others. If you have a condo in Hawaii or a cabin on the lake or in the woods, consider using it as your trade.

This also gives you flexibility in arranging non-simultaneous exchanges.

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| May 2014

However, if you live in a rural area, don’t despair. Our place on New Zealand’s south island was a small town known for its fruit orchards. It reminded us of the area between Chelan and Brewster. We enjoyed riding bicycles along the riverfront and watching boats zoom around pulling water-skiers (sounds like Wenatchee, right?).

We have noticed that people in big cities tend to trade with other people in big cities. We have not had any luck in downtown Paris, Sydney or Barcelona.

However, we were able to find exchanges in surrounding areas and found them delightful.

Our place in Spain was a town called Villafranca, about the size of Wenatchee, located in the vineyards about 50 minutes away from downtown Barcelona. In Australia we were in a

... the most rewarding part has been meeting wonderful people along the way. lovely seaside community called Cronulla, again about 50 minutes by train from downtown Sydney. In both cases we didn’t have to worry about driving or parking in the big city.

In Costa Rica we were surrounded by jungle about three miles from a very small village on the coast. We had to drive on a washboard dirt road and across some narrow bridges to get there, but it was a beautiful respite from city life.

From their deck — also known as the living room — we watched unusual birds and creatures parade across the yard

every evening.

You don’t necessarily need to be in well-known tourist places to experience absolute beauty and tranquility.

Probably the most rewarding part of this whole experience has been meeting wonderful people along the way.

So far, we have been able to meet all of our exchangers.

Sometimes we are coming while they are going, and other times we have actually stayed with them for a day or two.

We have become very close friends in a short amount of time because we share a common love of travel (and let’s face it, we are all rather frugal).

Next summer we plan to exchange in France and Switzerland. While there, we will meet our dear friends from a New Zealand exchange who will be house-swapping in southern France.

We can’t wait to see them again.

Thinking of a home swap?

Some advice Here are some tips if you decide to explore this further: n Go online and look at home exchange websites. You can browse for free, but if you want to contact a homeowner, you need to pay the annual fee, which is less than one night in a motel. We use www.homeforexchange.com. n Study the pictures and descriptions to see what appeals to you so you can replicate that in your own home advertisement.

Take good pictures of your home and spend time on your description and biography. Let them know what’s special about your home, your town and the surrounding area. We tend not to contact people with very limited

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information and photos. n Do your homework. Look closely at the home you are considering. Where is it located and is there local transportation?

How close are the amenities?

Does it look well-maintained?

Can you imagine yourself living there for the duration? What will the climate be like during your stay? n Be realistic. As you enter the home you might be thinking, “Gee, it looked a lot bigger in the pictures.”

Sometimes you must settle for a less-than-desirable home (i.e., tiny apartment, rustic cabin) if it’s in the right location. But other times you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is.

Remember, you won’t be spending all your time at home. n Be prepared to replace or repair anything that is damaged or broken during your stay. If

}}} Continued on next page

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Terri, left, and Dave Bawden near Cronulla, Australia with Wenatchee friend, Myrna Jensen.

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}}} Continued from previous page

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you exchange cars, be very clear about the deductible on your vehicle in case repairs are needed. n Put yourself in the place of an exchanger and walk through your home as if you are entering it for the first time. Make sure everything is clean and orderly.

Now is the time to buy new dishcloths and bathroom towels.

After all, you are saving a lot of money. Make room in the pantry for their food items and make some space in your closets and drawers for them to move in and feel at home. We usually leave a nice bottle of local wine and a welcome note. n Write up a detailed description of your home including how to use electronics and appliances.

We leave a folder with our owners’ manuals. We also provide contact numbers of friends, neighbors and relatives.

Our exchangers love knowing our favorite restaurants, places to go and things to do. Send this in advance so they can study it and respond with questions.

Most likely there will be dozens of things to do that they never would have experienced by reading the tour books (and vise-versa). Your local visitors center is a good place to get brochures and maps.

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n Find out where they shop for groceries and if there’s a farmer’s market. We spend about the same on food as we would at home since we prefer to do most of our own cooking, but we always treat ourselves to the good restaurants they recommend. n Most of all, relax and live like the locals do. Get to know the neighbors. Shop in the local stores and get a sense of day-today life.

It is expected that you leave a home like you found it, so you may spend your last day cleaning and doing laundry. If this doesn’t appeal to you, then home exchange might not work for you.

You will also spend a lot of time online searching for the right match, only to get a polite rejection, or no response at all.

If you don’t have the time and patience, home exchange might not be a good option for you.

But if you are willing to share your home with others and give them the experience of living in your wonderful town, you will be greatly rewarded with amazing adventures and many new friends.

— by Terri Bawden Terri and Dave Bawden lived in Wenatchee for 20 years and taught in the Wenatchee schools. They moved to Anacortes in 2011 to be closer to their sailboat.

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The Kingfisher Restaurant & Wine Bar offers gourmet meals crafted with superb local ingredients, amid a truly inspiring setting. To enjoy the freshest cuisine in Chelan County, reserve your table for our Mother’s Day Brunch at SleepingLady.com or 509.548.6344.

May 2014 | The Good Life

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PET tales

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

A

nn McKinley of Rock Island was enjoying Riverfront Park with her two dogs, Trevor, 3 and Flinn, 2 on a windy but sunny Tuesday afternoon in April.

Ann said Trevor was from Ohio and Flinn from Minnesota.

She didn’t have to drive to get them, both dogs were flown to her. “Full-grown collies are no longer popular anymore since Lassie in the ’50s, probably because of their long hair,” said Ann, who seemed to be having a good time with these two.

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R

obbie, an absolute favorite of the staff and volunteers at Wenatchee Valley Humane Society, finally found his forever home with George and Sara Broome of Wenatchee. When George and Sara heard Robbie’s story they knew there was a place for him in their hearts and home.

When Robbie was in foster care living with Tom and Jan Short they would often take Robbie to visit “The Bunker” where veterans congregate and work together to support local vets with needs.

Here he is with “Gunney,” a Marine Corps veteran who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Like some of those vets, Robbie has been through some hard times. During his visits to the Bunker, Robbie would pass from hand to hand, making sure everyone was recognized.

www.ncwgoodlife.com

| May 2014

How an

ARCHITECT designed his own

HOME

May 2014 | The Good Life

By Brad Brisbine

A

fter designing homes for others, I was living every architect’s dream: designing his own house.

My wife Jill served as “client” in the sense that I accommodated her principal wishes, but this

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A living room large enough to accommodate Jill’s baby grand was a design determinate. Corner windows allow for a 180-degree view.

was a pretty clean slate.

Custom design involves tailoring the occupant’s room needs to the specific site. Both are unique.

}}} Continued on next page

This evening photo of the exterior shows how aerodynamic hip roofs can portray a sophisticated look, as opposed to gable roofs. Gable roofs, when used in the popular craftsman style, have a more informal, hand-made appearance.

Architect designs his own home }}} Continued from previous page Standing on the property, we sketched a “bubble” diagram of simple circles representing rooms, listening to what the site was telling us. We laid out rooms based on view, sun, wind, access orientation and other physical characteristics.

For example, we wanted the morning sun to stream into the breakfast area.

The adjacency of rooms, and how they interface is of utmost importance.

As the rudimentary plan takes shape, the most fun part begins:

There are so many choices and things I’ve always wanted to do in a house design, but it is important to avoid a montage of styles... exploring the three-dimensional implications. Keeping the plan malleable allows for directing the exterior the way we want. I

The inexpensive kitchen has semi-custom cabinets and basic appliances. A multi-stepped soffit at seven foot brings lighting closer to upper cabinets for interior illumination. A skylight in vaulted ceiling provides plenty of daylight on the side away from windows.

prefer designing with felt marker and roll of tracing paper I can see through. Multiple iterations are made, with each new overlay retaining what worked, and modifying what didn’t.

There are so many choices and things I’ve always wanted to do in a house design, but it is important to avoid a montage of styles, so I had to place certain limitations on myself to achieve unity.

Certain desires I held onto with a tight grip, like corner windows and a living room large enough for Jill’s baby grand, but others I had to give up, either due to budget or incompatibility with my main design path.

NCW Home Professionals

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| May 2014

Where to build?

All humans have biologically hardwired preference for wideopen landscapes due to our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Humans spent more time in this developmental stage than any other, and we still prefer the environment that helped survival. We have inherited their defense and self-calming instincts.

The ideal site would encompass both “prospect and refuge.”

Prospect is portrayed by access to a view. Best is a high spot with falling ground; to keep an eye on approaching hazards.

Refuge emerges in the view if shelter is seen. Shelter will need to protect from animals and people, as well as storms.

Incidentally, artwork showing both prospect and refuge has been proven most effective in calming jittery nerves in hospitals, resulting in faster patient recovery times.

A good choice for art for a home would include open pastoral scenes with scattered trees and meadows, that are rimmed with a forest, tended gardens and placid water.

These are the scenes I have chosen for my home... and in my case, I have painted many of the works myself.

So, I get the benefit twice: once while creating this restful art, and then again in the viewing.

— by Brad Brisbine See Brad’s paintings at www. bradbrisbine.com.

An overriding design theme was a living room conceived as a lightweight glass box exposed to nature, cantilevered over a stout and sturdy brick base.

We chose this property in Sunnyslope so our main view was south; the direction the

}}} Continued on next page May 2014 | The Good Life

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Cantilevered living room with four-foot roof overhang — 7,500 pounds of buried concrete on the backside prevents the house from tipping over.

Architect designs his own home }}} Continued from previous page sun was coming from. This is the textbook direction for passive solar designs. A broad roof overhang shields the high-angle summer sun from entering and

overheating the room, but allows the low-angle winter sun in to warm the room.

Other rooms jutted out on either side of this living room, stepping back so the living room

Brad paints on his deck. “Jill wanted it to feel like a treehouse, so we let the willow tree provide a complete canopy, and we trim an opening on the south side toward town,” said Brad.

could have corner windows taking in the Enchantments and Ohme Gardens — a 180-degree view.

Parking and garage were located behind the house so as to not clutter the foreground view.

Kitchen and dining room were located on one end; master suite on the other.

A guest room and library loft is upstairs, while painting studio, office and another bedroom are in the daylight basement (a no-brainer on a hillside lot).

Wide hallways with wallwasher “can” lights add to the gallery space, lovingly filled with paintings either from favorite artists, or my own of a favorite place.

Every home designer or client directing the designer has the

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| May 2014

task of deciding where to allocate costs. For example, I chose to put more emphasis on form and massing, including paying for the structural gymnastics to make it happen.

As a result, I had to cut back on interior finishes to balance the budget.

My thought was you can’t readily change the overall shape of your house, but you can always add granite countertops and put rich wood trim over the sheetrock later when budget allows.

My budget required that I serve as general contractor in addition to my day job; a decision that made for little sleep during construction. The many jogs and vaulted ceiling weren’t based on ease of construc-

A basement studio accommodates Brad’s oil painting hobby. Each room has a different feel; some bright and airy, others more introverted and reflective.

tion. My nephew, friend and brother-in-law helped us with foundation and carpentry, and a brother did electrical. Subs were hired for plumbing, HVAC and finishes.

As much as this design was thought out, I would still change a few things that living with the house has taught us, for example including a significant mud/ storage room off the garage.

Every omission or design decision based on misplaced priorities will affect us for the next 30 years. I like Winston Churchill’s quote: “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.”

I’ve had several visitors tell me: “I know you take this view for granted, but we really like it.”

I conceal my shock, but no, neither Jill nor I have ever felt that way.

With a lot of glass, we’re more in tune to and appreciative of the subtle changes in the shadow pattern on the Wenatchee hills though the four seasons, and enjoy cloud formations and migrating birds. We’re living the good life.

graphing the many exotic high lakes of the Cascades. Brad is project architect at MJ Neal Associates, and Jill is office manager at Wenatchee Anesthesia Associates. See more at bradbrisbine.com.

A large fireplace is at the end of the sunken living room, giving more separation and intimacy.

Brad and Jill live with three cats, and board Jill’s horse a quarter-mile away. He enjoys skiing and photoMay 2014 | The Good Life

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>>

column moving up to the good life

june darling

Life’s big questions: Answered Human beings have long

held big, important, but often abstractly worded questions about living the good life.

Even if the questions are clarified, the answers offered by others are often in the form of lengthy, jargon-filled research, tedious techniques, or unfounded folklore.

People can often feel stuck and hopeless.

In the interest of getting you outside enjoying the merry month of May, allow me to share what I consider the big questions along with their short answers.

Let’s start with THE big question since most of the others are connected to it.

What can I do to be happy?

Develop your strengths and interests. Learn to effectively manage yourself. Live in accordance with what’s important to you. Be confident. Make friends.

But who am I? Do this short exercise. When you feel relaxed and calm, make a list of those things you would like to be, e.g., compassionate, kind, loyal. This is you.

Why do I sometimes act in ways I don’t like?

This is a function of a part of your brain that you probably can’t easily change. This part of the brain functions a lot like animals’ brains. You can think of it as the chimp part of your brain. The good news is you can learn to better manage it.

How do I manage the part

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of me (the chimp) that gets in my way of being my best self and being happy?

Figure out how to appease or calm the chimp without compromising your values.

Example: If the chimp doesn’t like to exercise and you believe that it’s important to exercise, help the chimp. Make sure to go to bed early, wake up with some fun music that pleases the chimp. Go to a fun place to work out with a friend. Tell the chimp you will give her a special treat, a reward, (for example, a day at the spa or fishing) if she cooperates all week. Pat her on the head when she does well (celebrate progress).

Most of all do not get frustrated with yourself. You are trying to manage a chimp!

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| May 2014

What do I care about?

Do this quick exercise. Pretend that you are 100 years old and you have one minute to live.

Your great-great-grandchild asks you, “Before you die, tell me what I should do with my life?”

You have one minute to answer.

You answer is what you most care about and is advice to yourself about how to live your life.

How can I manage my worrying?

Practice moving your attention away from rigidly focusing on threats.

For example, switch your attention to what’s happening in present moment — the sights,

One of my acquaintances, a philosopher, psychologist and writer ... insists that we don’t need to do anything to be happy, but be happy. sounds, and smells. Consider those things you are grateful for.

Stretch your lips and turn the corners up, this is a fake smile.

Even fake smiles nudge the body to release feel good neuropeptides, which counteract worry.

Genuine smiles are even better.

Make a plan to address those issues that are within your control. Keep taking steps forward.

How can I be more confident?

Decide what actions you can take to do your best (for example: practice, plan, get infor-

mation, visualize, do calming breaths).

Practice power posing (try the Wonder Woman or Superman pose with hands on hips, feed spread apart, head lifted) for two minutes. This typically boosts testosterone by 20 percent and lowers cortisol by 25 percent, which makes you feel more confident and in control.

How do I get along, make friends, and work well with others?

First of all, learn to manage your own chimp, which was mentioned earlier. Remember your little chimp acts better if not tired, hungry, or attentionstarved.

Act in ways that keep others’ chimps easy to manage. Others’ little chimps are not going to be nice or friendly if you are perceived negatively. Notice your actions. Are you acting in ways that may be perceived as unkind, disrespectful, uncaring, uninterested, dismissive, inattentive, unsharing or defy-

ing the implicit rules of fairness (that is, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you if you were them in their situation)?

What one thing can I do right now to be happier?

One of my acquaintances, a philosopher, psychologist and writer of the Joy Workbook, Frank Mosca, insists that we don’t need to do anything to be happy, but be happy. The sun doesn’t have to shining, we don’t have to all our bills paid, we don’t even need to have abs of steel.

Pretty liberating short answer.

How do I use what I have read here to move up to The Good Life?

Take a look back over the article. Which questions and answers are more relevant to you?

Select one or more, tell a friend what you are going to do, get into action, and report back. (If you don’t find your big question and short answer here, feel free to email me and suggest other

Chimp training I wrote a book for my granddaughter that illustrates the concept of choosing to be happy as well as managing our chimp.

The book can be read for free by clicking on the icon and turning the pages.

Take a look on Amazon. com by searching my name, “June Darling” or by the book title, The Very Good, Delicioso, Exactly-Right Day. — June Darling questions for future articles.)

How might you find your big question, select your short answer, swing into action, and move up to The Good Life?

June Darling, Ph.D. can be contacted at drjunedarling1@gmail. com; website: www.summitgroupresources.com. Her books, including 7 Giant Steps To The Good Life, can be bought or read for free at Amazon. com.

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4/11/2014 9:19:53 AM

>>

column THE TRAVELing DOCTOR

jim brown, m.d.

Tick-borne Lyme disease spreading fast When my daugh-

ter-in-law called me some time ago and told me that our grandson, Tim, had been diagnosed with Lyme disease, I was somewhat skeptical.

I thought this disease, caused by deer ticks, primarily occurred in northern Midwestern and Northeastern states. How could Tim get this disease when he lived in the San Francisco bay area?

The town they live in is wooded and has plenty of deer, but still, in my mind it was not an endemic area for Lyme disease.

But since Tim was diagnosed at the Stanford Medical Center, who was I, a gastroenterologist, to argue with that?

I asked Tim what symptoms led to this diagnosis, and he told me that his main symptoms had been fairly severe joint and back pain. After a series of tests at Stanford, he was sent to a Lyme disease specialist.

Tim said the Lyme disease clinic was somewhat intimidating as several patients were in wheelchairs and appeared quite ill. He was treated with antibiotics and has completely recovered. In fact, he is now running varsity track in his high school, both cross-country in the fall and the 800 and 1,600-meter races in the spring.

So what is this disease that goes by the unusual name of Lyme?

The name comes from the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut, where several cases were first identified in 1975.

The actual cause, however, was not discovered until 1981. It is an infectious disease caused

ABOVE: A deer tick.

RIGHT: An estimated 70 percent to 80 percent of persons infected with Lyme disease get a rash of some sort, which may or may not appear as a bull’s-eye.

by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorfrei, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks.

Lyme is actually the most common tick-borne illness in the northern hemisphere. Some 95 percent of the cases occur in the northern states from Minnesota to Maine, however, it has been reported in 45 states as well as in large areas of Europe and Asia.

In the East Coast area, the white-footed mouse is the main carrier, and in the west the culprit is the western grey squirrel.

From these carriers the infected ticks can spread and be carried by deer.

The infected ticks generally live in woody areas, grasslands and seashores. Reportedly up to 90 percent of all ticks are infected with this bacterium.

The months April though October are considered “tick season.”

I spoke with Dr. Brent Barber, M.D., infectious disease specialist at Confluence Health. Dr.

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Some 95 percent of the cases occur in the northern states from Minnesota to Maine, however, it has been reported in 45 states...

Barber has been practicing in this area for over 20 years at the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center and Central Washington Hospital..

He said that he has never seen a case of confirmed Lyme disease that was acquired in this area. The cases he has seen and treated had been acquired primarily in the Northeastern states.

He recently treated a man for Lyme disease that had resulted from tick bites while mountain biking in Europe. Dr. Barber

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| May 2014

said that Lyme disease is quite prevalent in Europe.

There is a screening blood test for the Lyme disease antibody that is not specific but if positive is suggestive of Lyme disease. In those cases, a more specific blood test known as the western blot test is then done.

He mentioned that the most common tick-born illness in our area is known as “relapsing fever,” which is caused by a different Borrelia species. He recently diagnosed it in a man who lived in Stehekin who did high mountain hiking.

He mentioned that another common tick caused illness, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, does not occur in our area.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme Disease is rapidly growing.

Last summer the CDC reported that 300,000 Americans contract Lyme disease annually, a rate 10 times higher than previously reported. These new numbers suggest that Lyme is not well diagnosed or that it is under reported.

A recent Stanford Study published in 2014 in the journal Emerging Infectious Disease describes another species of Borrelia bacterium that was found in ticks sampled throughout the San Francisco area. The researchers were surprised to find infected ticks in every public park they examined.

Whether this species of Borrelia also causes disease has not yet been determined. Dr. Barber did tell me that Northern California is the “hotbed” of Lyme disease on the West Coast.

What are the symptoms of this infectious disease?

Do not grab the tick around its swollen belly.

You could push infected fluid from the tick into your body if you squeeze it.

It can affect almost all of our organ systems. At the bite site most victims get a localized red rash sometimes appearing like a “bull’s-eye” that can be small or up to 12 inches across.

Several days after the rash the infection comes on, and it can last hours to weeks. It may disappear and then return several weeks later.

Several weeks after the bite, the patient usually has symptoms that seem similar to those of the common flu. This may include headache, aches and pains in the muscles and joints, low-grade fever and chills, fatigue, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes.

After several months, if untreated, arthritis-like symptoms may develop including painful swollen joints.

At this point, Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose as the symptoms mimic several other conditions. It is usually clinically diagnosed by its symptoms, by a history of tick bite, and by ruling out other possible illnesses.

Your physician or an infectious disease specialist can determine the treatment.

Generally, it is treated with antibiotics for an extended period of time. If left untreated, complications including joint disease, neurologic disease, or inflammation of the heart, may occur.

It can be a serious condition.

The concept of “chronic” Lyme disease is controversial amongst infectious disease specialists.

How is Lyme disease prevented?

In 1998, the FDA approved a

vaccine against Lyme disease called LYMErix. It was not very effective and has subsequently been withdrawn from the market.

Generally, the following is recommended: when in an area where there might be ticks, wear light colored clothing, long sleeve shirts, socks and closed shoes, and long pants with legs tucked into socks.

This seems to me to be a bit impractical as the Lyme season is in the summer months when most hiking and other outdoor activities are carried out in t-shirts and short pants. Insect repellents can actually repel but not kill ticks. When hiking, stay in the middle of tails and avoid brush, woodpiles and logs.

Tick bites are often painless and can have no symptoms but can result in itching, burning and pain.

It is very important to check frequently for ticks, particularly in parts of the body that bend like the knees, between fingers and toes, and armpits. In addition, look behind ears, the navel, the hairline and the top of the head and anywhere that clothing presses against the skin like at the waistline.

It is wise to shower after outdoor activities. If a tick is found, remove it carefully. If ticks are removed within 24 hours, the risk of infection is significantly reduced.

You might wonder what is the best way to remove a tick from the skin.

Use fine-tipped tweezers to remove a tick. If you don’t have tweezers, put on gloves or cover your hands with tissue paper, then use your fingers. Do not handle the tick with bare hands.

Grab the tick with the tweezers as close to its mouth (the part that is stuck in your skin) as you can. The body of the tick will be above the skin.

Do not grab the tick around its swollen belly. You could push infected fluid from the tick into your body if you squeeze it.

Gently pull the tick straight May 2014 | The Good Life

out until its mouth lets go of your skin. Do not twist the tick.

This may break off the tick’s body and leave the head in your skin.

Put the tick in a dry jar or zip lock bag and save it in the freezer for later identification if necessary.

After the tick has been removed, wash the area of the tick bite with warm water and soap.

A mild dish washing soap works well. Be sure to wash your hands well with soap and water also.

Parents should always check their children and their pets.

The key areas to check on dogs include the head, neck and ears.

If you develop fevers, headache, unusual fatigue or rash after recently hiking outdoors, be sure to see a physician knowledgeable about Lyme disease.

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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column GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

bonnie orr

Lettuce eat more greens this spring M

ay is salad time.

The first lettuce leaves British recipes are ready to often call for the be harvested; addition of fresh the garlic peas. scapes are curling; the herbs are getting ready to bloom; the peas are filling the pods — great eating from Serves 4; 20 the garden minutes or a farmer’s market.

8 cups of any letLettuce is tuce leaves the foundaYes, you can make soup from lettuce, and a few other ingredients including green onions, garlic, mint and cheese.

1/2 cup chopped tion of great green onions 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger salads with so many possibilisalads a day?” Don’t worry; try 1 tablespoon light olive oil 1 cup chicken stock ties. cooking lettuce.

2 cups buttermilk Nichols Garden Nursery, my One of my garden treats in 2 cups chicken stock Wash the leaves and bend the favorite garden catalog, adverlate May is fresh, shelled green 1 teaspoon minced garlic stems (ribs) gently to make the leaves 1 tablespoon corn starch tises 35 different lettuce seeds: peas steamed with leaf lettuces. flexible. salt crisphead, butterhead, loose Add dash of butter if you are Drain and rinse the water chestnuts.

White pepper leaf, romaine, and mesclun feeling decadent. Go sit in the Chop the green onions. Use both 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint mixes with red, purple or green spring sunshine and enjoy while the white and green parts. leaves leaves. listening to a bird song.

Heat the oil in a large flat pan.

(Grated Parmesan) Add the chicken, garlic, green onMost gardeners plant new leaf Chinese cooks use hardy letions, ginger and water chestnuts. lettuce seeds every two weeks to tuce such as romaine or iceberg Coarsely chop the lettuce.

Stir and cook long enough to heat insure a steady supply of young, to make wraps filled with meat, Heat the oil in a large, flat pan. the ingredients through. salad greens. A planting in mid- and steamed or simmered in a Add the lettuce and green onion Remove the mixture from the pan.

August will provide greens that light chicken-based broth. They and cover the pan.

Add the chicken stock to the pan on do not get bitter until a heavy can be eaten hot or cold and can Steam until the lettuce is wilted.low heat. frost. be taken on a picnic as a finger about 3 minutes.

Divide the chicken mixture into 8 Pour in the chicken stock, and garlic.

How much salad can you eat? food. portions.

Heat to a simmer for five minutes.

A standard serving of salad Roll each portion into a sausage Add the buttermilk, corn starch, salt is one-cup. My bowl is large shape and place it in the thick end of and pepper. Bring back to a simmer to enough to hold 3 cups. the each leaf. thicken.

Do not overcook.

Fresh lettuce mixed with a few Roll and secure with a toothpick.

Serves 4; 20 minutes Serve in bowls and garnish with Place in simmering stock until the herbs has enough flavor that mint. leaves are tender — about 5 minutes. salad dressing is unnecessary. If 8 Large lettuce leaves- either roServe hot. you do like salad dressing, select maine or iceberg You can heat the soup again and something very light for the 1 eight oz. can chopped water serve it hot, and garnish it with the The rolls can be dipped in soy sauce fragile, fresh leaves. A few drops chestnuts grated cheese. Or you can store the or Chinese hot sauce. of lemon juice are often enough.

1 tablespoon sesame oil soup in the refrigerator to serve it How often can you eat salad?

2 cups cooked, finely chopped chilled.

A lettuce soup is generally If you grow lettuce or get bags of chicken breast a chilled soup. And there are Bonnie Orr — the dirt diva — cooks 4 green onions (scallions) it at the markets, you sometimes and gardens in East Wenatchee. many recipes.

1 small clove garlic minced think, “Do we have to eat two

Spring Is Here: Lettuce Soup

‘Spring’ Lettuce Rolls

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| May 2014

Making lovely music from ancestor’s poems Understandably, Ron Lodge never met

his great-great-grandfather Nathaniel Baker Paine, the flamboyant founder of Eagle Grove, Iowa, but the man’s small town sensibilities and flair with words are with Ron always.

Over 70 years of Paine’s adult life he wrote hundreds of poems, almost all of them in traditional iambic pentameter with alternating rhyming lines, which his family published in 1926 as Pioneer Poems. They are simple but eloquent, pastoral stories of farm life and romantic tributes to his wife.

Ron, a lifetime Wenatchee pianist, drew upon his relative’s talents just in time for Columbia Chorale’s American music concert in 2007. As the group’s longtime accompanist, he’d promised to compose a piece for them to sing and realized what a treasure he had in the family’s book.

Lyrics were already written — all he had to do was set them to music. But choosing the very best words was a challenge: the book has no page numbers and no table of contents (self-publishers take note). Ron needed a cohesive set of poems to work with, and he finally found the right match.

The result of his work was three short choral selections, musically and thematically linked, that did double-duty in the honors department. Nathaniel Paine had a moment of fame, and Ron was able to surprise his mother, the poet’s great-granddaughter, by formally dedicating the piece to her that night.

Ron played one of the ‘07 pieces on his

Ron Lodge fills his life — and his home — with music.

living room piano, his voice full, heading toward a little teary, as he sang one of the love poems Nathaniel wrote for his wife: “We are rowing up the river and have a jolly row…

The honey moon shines just as bright as ’twas 20 years ago.”

When he’s composing music (as he did again this year, adapting three more of the poems for the Chorale’s February concert), he said he starts and stops, inventing and discarding, plunking away at the piano as composers have always done.

The difference is, he’s not pencil-scribbling notes on standard manuscript paper; he reaches over to his laptop (and a program called “Finale”) to record with a mouse his

May 2014 | The Good Life

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chords, eighth notes and half rests. Ron explained “It’s not quite piano keyboard soft wear, but it’s a lot better than trying to remember, or writing it down.” Another distinction is that he generally creates a tune to fit the natural flow of the lyrics, not the other way around. Some composers, he explained, have a musical piece in mind and squeeze the words into it.

Words and music, music and words. Ron, 59, is intimately acquainted with them in all their permutations. He arranges music, taking a composed piece and re-setting it for different instruments, including the human voice. He composes original music, some-

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Ron was raised in a musical family, he married into a musical family, and he created a musical family. }}} Continued from previous page times with his original lyrics, sometimes with pre-written words (as from his Iowan ancestor), he sings as a soloist and in a group.

But Ron knows he has a special talent for supportive piano playing, rather than concert performances, and his main musical focus these years is accompanying singers.

That too is full of variation.

“When I accompany an experienced soloist, I tend to follow.

When a student singer needs guidance in practice or in a recital, I tend to lead. In a choral situation, I follow the conductor.”

He has stories of important musical events where he’s had to do some tricky foot work, or rather, finger-work, to adjust to early or late voices, but believes that — as in acting — staying the course and seamlessly compensating for an error happens more than we know, and is rarely audible to the listener.

He’s also pleased to say that, “In 13 years of accompanying the Columbia Chorale, there hasn’t been one train wreck.”

From age 6, accompanying his own first grade class as they sang The Hokey Pokey to years with Columbia Chorale, Eastmont Presbyterian Church, and

most recently with Cascade High School and Icicle River Middle School, Ron has added his talents to the communal experience of making music.

How does a master accompanist react to the piano off to the side when he’s on center stage? When Ron sings, as he does with the Confluence Vocal Octet, he can’t concern himself with the accompaniment and admits that any method works, “as long as we all stay together and get to the end together.”

Music fills his life as well as his home on Idaho Street.

Ron was raised in a musical family, he married into a musical family, and he created a musical family. Coupled with about 13 years of piano lessons and plenty of accompanying experiences, as a young man he also took over a share of the family business and grew it into present day Keyhole Security. (“But I haven’t had to make a house call in 15 years,” he explained).

He showed a few photos of himself practicing piano as a second grader and again as a teenager — with the same posture, the same intensity and focus you’d see today. Making beautiful music so others can make beautiful music — it’s been a good gig.

— by Susan Lagsdin

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WHAT TO DO

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

are displayed daily with a reception each second Saturday from 5 - 8 p.m.. During May we will feature youth art. 782-2415.

Ride the miniature train, through 5/3, 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Wenatchee Riverfront Park. Cost: $3 adults, $2 children.

NCW Blues Jam, every second and fourth Monday, 7:30 – 11 p.m. Clearwater Steakhouse, East Wenatchee.

Info: facebook.com/NCWBluesJam.

Food Fair through 5/4, 11 a.m. daily.

Memorial Park.

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.

Entertainment in the Park, through 5/4, noon daily. Memorial Park.

Funtastic Shows Carnival, through 5/4, daily. Wenatchee Riverfront Park.

Arts and Craft fair, through 5/4, daily Memorial Park.

Slam poetry night, every Tuesday, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Clearwater Steakhouse and Saloon.

Confluence Jazz Band, every Thursday night, 6-8 p.m. Chateau Faire Le Pont.

Village Art in the Park, every weekend until 10/20. Downtown Leavenworth. Info: Leavenworth. org.

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

Lake Chelan Winery Tour, every Friday and Saturday until 11/14/14, 2-3 p.m. Visit vineyard, crush pad, production facility and taste award winning wines. Lake Chelan Winery.

Cost: free. Info: lakechelanwinery. com.

Cashmere Senior Center and Art Gallery, S.A.I.L. exercise class at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Meals are available during the week, call the day before. Wenatchee valley artists

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| May 2014

Apple blossom Golf Tournament, 5/1, 9:30 a.m. Awards, raffles and more. Highland Golf Course. Cost: $120. Info: appleblossom.org.

Confluence Film Series – Damnation, 5/1, 7 -9 p.m. Snowy Owl Theater, Leavenworth. Info: icicle. org.

Wenatchee AppleSox Competition, 5/1, 8 p.m. Pitch hit and run competition for 7 to 14 year olds.

Paul Thomas Sr. Field at Wenatchee Valley College. Info: applesox.com.

Children of Eden, 5/1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 7:30 p.m. Matinee 5/4, 10, 11, 2 p.m. This heart-warming musical is a retelling of the Bible from creation through the end of the great flood. Riverside Playhouse.

Info: mtow.org.

Taste of Chelan Restaurant walk, 5/2, 5-7 p.m. Enjoy eight tastes from Campbell’s Pub and Veranda, Maki Sushi, Tin Lilly, The Vogue, Sojourners, Bear Foods Creperie, Local Myth Pizza and Lake Chelan Artisan Bakery. Chelan.

Cost: $25. Info: lakechelan.com.

Wenatchee First Fridays ArtsWalk, 5/2, 5 - 8 p.m. Check out Wenatchee’s arts scene. Venues and exhibits change monthly.

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WHAT TO DO

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Self-guided. WVC Campus and Historic District. Cost: art-walk free, after-events may have admission fees. Monthly info: wenatcheefirstfridaysartswalk.tumblr.com.

Two Rivers Art Gallery, 5/2, 5 – 8 p.m. The gallery will be exhibiting a whole new show of over 50 local and regional artists. Featured artist Lynn Wright Brown’s pastels. Introducing wines by Wedge Mountain Winery, guitarist Brian Ohme and complimentary refreshments. 102 N Columbia, Wenatchee. Cost: free.

Info: 2riversgallery.com.

Tumbleweed Bead Co., 5/2, 5-8 p.m. Filtered art by Emma Rose.

Emma makes coffee filter flowers, mason jar centerpieces, garlands, frames, barn wood signs, twine with flower and clothespins to hang photos and so much more.

Refreshments served. 105 Palouse St. Cost: free. Info: tumbleweedbeadco.com.

Small Artworks Gallery, 5/2, 5 p.m. 13 local artists works will be on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wvmcc.org.

Bull riding Blowout, 5/2-3, 7:30 p.m. Over 365 professional bull riders will be vying to become the champion of the weekend and win cash prizes and the buckle. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $25 reserved, $20 general, $30 at the door. Info: appleblossom.org.

Classy Chassis Parade, 5/2, 6:30 p.m. Starts at Eastmont Community Park goes down Grant Road turns right on Valley Mall Parkway ends at 9th Street. Free to watch, $25 for participants, $75 for commercial. Info: appleblossom.org.

Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast, 5/3, 6:30 – 10:30 a.m. All you can eat pancakes, eggs, juice, milk and coffee. Triangle Park. Cost: $5 and a chance to win $500 gas giveaway.

Info: appleblossom.org.

Apple Blossom Run, 5/3, 8 a.m.

Runners have a choice of four events: 1 mile kids run; 5k run; 10k run and 5k walk. Start at Apple Bowl. Cost: $12 pre-registered, $15 day of race. Info: appleblossom.org.

The Orondo Ave Experience, 5/3, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Races from 2:30 - 6 p.m. Pro races 7 p.m. Live entertainment. Info: appleblossom. org.

Bird Walks, 5/3, 17, and every first and third Saturday in June and September, 9-10:30 a.m. Enjoy bird walks with leader Heather Murphy, local wildlife biologist, nature journalist and artist. Start at Sleeping Lady, Leavenworth. Info: sleepinglady.com.

Friends of the Library Book Sale, 5/3, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Wenatchee Library.

Apple Blossom Fun Fly, 5/3 – 4, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Aircraft of all shapes and sizes from electric to glo-fuel powered to gas and kerosene power models. Wenatchee Red Flyers Club, East Wenatchee. Cost: free to watch. Info: appleblossom.org.

Apple Blossom Grand Parade, 5/3, 11 a.m. Starts at Triangle Park, goes down Orondo, turns north on Wenatchee Ave. Lake Chelan Duck Race, 5/3, 1- 4 p.m. The rubber ducks will be released into the river off the Woodin Ave. bridge. Winning duck receives $3,500 Lake Chelan Vacation Package. Activities, food and music while the ducks make their way down river. Riverwalk Park. Cost: $5 per duck. Info: lakechelan.com.

Antique Car Club Display, 5/3, 1 – 4 p.m. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: appleblossom.org.

Apple Pie and Dessert Bake-Off, 5/4, 10 – 11 a.m. Apple Blossom Festival Office. Info: appleblossom.org.

Corey McDougall Memorial Golf Tournament, 5/4, 1 p.m. All proceeds are used to offset tuition costs for Mission Ridge Ski Team athletes in honor of alumni athlete Corey McDougall. Highlander Golf Course. Cost: $125 pp or $450 team. Includes golf carts, soft drinks, water, dinner, silent auction, raffle and hole in one, awards and putting contests. Info: appleblossom.org.

Bird Drawing and sculpture, 5/6, 13, 20, and 27. Youth classes 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Adult beginner class 6:30 p.m. Cordi Bradburn will teach drawing and sculpting techniques of our local birds. Icicle Arts Gallery at Barn Beach Reserve, 347 Division St, Leavenworth. Cost: $52 members or $65 non members for four classes or individual class, $15 members or $18 non members.

Info: iciclearts.org.

Children’s Home Society’s SweetHearts luncheon, 5/7, noon. Wenatchee Convention Center. Info: sweethearts2014.kintera. org.

Trail Ride, 5/7, 5:15 p.m. Join Adam Vognild, Land Trust supporter and co-owner of The Inner Circle Gym, on a mountain bike ride at the Horse Lake property. Explore the area, learn some tips, and meet fellow riders. Meet at Inner Circle Gym to car pool to Horse Lake. Info: cdlandtrust.org.

Masked Marvels and Wondertales, 5/8, 6:30 p.m. Michael Cooper creates a world where dogs wear hats, wild stallions are

Enjoy high tea at historic Wells House Saturday, May 31, 2014

• 1:00 pm •

$20/person

This kick-off fundraising event will support the creation of a bride’s room at Wells House.

• Presentation and sampling of teas • Guided tours of Wells House • Exhibit of vintage bridal gowns • Spring-themed door prizes Purchase tickets at the Wenatchee Valley Museum, 127 S Mission, Wenatchee, or by phone with credit card.

Call 509-888-6240 for details.

Limited seating. Reservations required.

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tamed, giant noses sneeze and fish bait candy to catch children in a pond. It is an unforgettable experience referencing his childhood, and captivating his audience with tales of thrilling adventure, silly antics and outlandish possibilities recommended for ages 4 and older. Performing Arts Center. Info: pacwen.org.

Rabbit Hole, 5/8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 7 p.m. A dramatic play that explores a tragedy that can affect any family performed by Icicle Creek Center for the Arts. Snowy Owl Theater.

Info: icicle.org.

Pybus Public Market, 5/9, 6 – 8 p.m. Bucket List Blues band will perform.

Manson Apple Blossom Festival, 5/10-11. Kiwanis breakfast 6:30 – 10 a.m. Saturday in the basement of the grange. Run breakfast off at the Pig Jig at 8:30 a.m. followed by the Parade at 11 a.m.

Visit the quilt show at the Grange.

Street fair along Main Street. Info: facebook.com/mansonappleblossom.

Leavenworth Lion’s Community Breakfast – White Cane Day, 5/10, 7 – 11 a.m. Enjoy breakfast in Lion’s Club Park with family and friends. Breakfast includes eggs, sausage, pancakes coffee and milk. Cost: $6 adults, kids $3, 2 and under free. Info: leavenworthlions. com NCW Dahlia Society’s tuber sale, 5/10 and 17, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Over 1,000 tubers available representing every color and form of the dahlia. Pybus Public Market. Cost: $3 per tuber, $1 per unidentified variety. Info: ncwdahlias.org.

Maifest, 5/10-11. Celebrate spring in Bavaria all day. Downtown Leavenworth. Info: Leavenworth.org.

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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 S.A.I.L. HEALTH FAIR, 5/10, 9 a.m.

– 3 p.m. Stay active and independent for life. Set your sights on a healthier lifestyle. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free.

La Cenerentola (The Met: Live in HD), 5/10, 9:30 a.m. and 5/13, 9:30 p.m. Gioachino Rossini’s operatic take on the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. Snowy Owl Theater. Info: icicle.org.

Touch a truck, 5/10, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Junior Service League of Wenatchee’s fundraising event where kids and adults can see, touch and interact with, and learn about dozens of cool vehicles, including fire trucks, police cars, garbage trucks, race cars, helicopters and more. Local mascots, face painting, games and other fun activities. Town Toyota Center.

Cost: $5 adults, $2 kids and under 2 free. Bring a food donation and get $1 off. Info: 630-0650.

Mother’s Day Wine Walk,

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.

5/10, noon – 5 p.m. Downtown Wenatchee.

Run Wenatchee-Horse Lake Trail Run, 5/10, .5 mile and 5-mile run. The run will take place on a single-track, well-maintained trail, set amid a crush of wildflowers and stunning views. Cash prize awarded. Register: runwenatchee. com.

Wenatchee Apollo Club Spring Concert, 5/10, 7 p.m. Performing Arts Center. Info: pacwen.org.

Art Lovers, 5/11, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. meet and watch over 20 regional artists in action as they demonstrate their craft. Pybus Public Market.

37th Annual Clark Kernney Kid Day fishing party, 5/11, 2 – 4 p.m. Open to kids 1 to 14. Five fish limit with prizes. Bring fishing gear and power bait. No treble hooks.

Kids must be accompanied by an adult and will need a container to take fish home. Lake Chelan Golf Course Pond. Cost: free. Info: lakechelan.com Alzheimer’s Café, 5/12, 2:30 p.m.

– 4 p.m. Mountain Meadows Senior Living Campus hosts a cafe the

Birding at Mountain Home, 5/14, 7 a.m. – noon. Join Neal Hedges for a reconnaissance birding trip on the Mountain Home property.

Info: cdlandtrust.org.

Tea, “School Days”, 5/14, 1 – 4 p.m. Style show by Sandy from Temptations Boutique. The Select Choir from Cascade High School.

Two speakers will talk about their school days. A variety of teas with homemade scones and other goodies will be served. Upper Valley Museum in Leavenworth. Cost: $30.

Info: uppervalleymuseum.org.

Landscape Trees - An In-depth look, 5/15, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. An all day seminar presented by Paul Dinius, Urban Horticulturist, WSU Chelan County Extension, ISA certified arborist. Learn how to choose and manage trees that are suited

Children’s Home Society of Washington’s

SweetHearts

for Kids

Benefit Luncheon Wednesday, May 7, 2014 Noon to 1 p.m.

Doors open at 11 a.m.

Wenatchee Convention Center 121 N. Wenatchee Avenue Luncheon is $25 per person* To register, visit: http://sweethearts2014.kintera.org/wenatchee For more information, call (509) 663-0034 or email SweetHearts@chs-wa.org *Note: Your ticket purchase covers the cost of lunch and is not a tax-deductible donation. Please consider making an additional contribution that will help CHSW in Wenatchee support local children and families.

Presenting Sponsors:

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| May 2014

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WHAT TO DO

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for areas East of the Cascades.

Tree species-species pest and disease problems will be discussed along with management strategies including non-chemical, chemical and biological as applicable. Rocky Reach Park and Visitor Center. Cost: $10. Info: 667-6540.

Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest, 5/15-18, all day long. On 5/17, 7 p.m.

John Acorn, “The Nature Nut” and internationally recognized wildlife expert will speak at the Snowy Owl Theater.

Writers’ Conference: Sharpen your character development, 5/16-18, 9:30 a.m. Write On The River’s annual writers conference brings a full weekend of workshops. Keynote speaker is Jess Walters, author of Beautiful Ruins.

One workshop is Dr. Frankenstein’s Character Laboratory, presented by writer and professional actor Craig English. Wenatchee Valley College.

Info: writetontheriver.org.

Lake Chelan Lion’s Club Golf Tournament, 5/16. Bear Mountain. Cost: $100 includes 18 holes, golf cart, lunch and two beverage tickets. Info: lakechelan.com.

Stars on Ice, 5/16, 7:30 p.m.

America’s favorite top performers such as two-time and reigning U.S. Champion Ashley Wagner and U.S. Silver Medalist Gracie Gold. Other headliners could be Stars on Ice veterans, Ice Dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacenter.com.

Bugs, blooms and butterflies, 5/17, 9 a.m. – noon. Join Phil Archibald for an exploration of full-blown spring glory on Stormy Creek Pre-

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column the night sky this month

Peter Lind

Saturn’s majestic opposition Three planets provide excep-

tional views in May. Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will all show themselves beautifully, and will be easy to find after dark.

We first look to the west in late evening as darkness falls.

There we can find Jupiter high above the horizon after dark, just above the Orion constellation and sitting in the middle of Gemini the Twins. The view should be perfect from the east side of the river looking west as Jupiter’s slips to the horizon.

Looking at Jupiter through a decent pair of binoculars, all four of its Galilean moons, named for their discoverer Galileo Galilei, are visible orbiting the planet.

Our next planet to view is Mars, which reached opposition last month but is still up all night.

Mars is high in the south eastern sky as darkness falls in early May. It resides in the constellation Virgo, the maiden.

For anyone with a small telescope, Mars has two features that are visible from earth. The easiest feature to see on most nights is the north polar ice cap.

The north pole tilts towards the earth and the sun’s reflection makes its ice cap very bright.

The other visible feature is

May 2014 | The Good Life

Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system, standing about 14 miles high, approximately three times the height of Mount Everest above sea level.

Saturn is the third bright planet that deserves a look. Saturn lies among the background stars of Libra the Balance, one constellation east of Mars, current home in Virgo.

The ringed planet reaches opposition on May 10, which means that the earth is directly between Saturn and the sun; the sun, the earth and Saturn form a straight line at opposition.

Saturn will be visible all night long, rising in the east in the evening and setting in the west as morning breaks. Saturn also has several moons that show up through small telescopes. A four-inch telescope is all it takes to see the major moons.

Saturn’s moons are numerous ranging from tiny “moonlets” less than one kilometer across to enormous Titan which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has 62 moons in all, although only 13 have diameters larger than 25 kilometers.

Venus rises about an hour and a half before the sun this month.

I have always found it worthwhile to get up early and look east for the morning planets.

If you find the location of

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Venus before it gets light, keep track of its location and you will be able to see the planet well after daylight breaks, almost until the sun peaks over the eastern horizon.

Two meteor shows will grace our skies this month. The first is the well known Eta Aquarid shower that peaks on May 6 and could show up to 40 meteors an hour under good conditions. The best time to watch is around 1:30 a.m. local time.

A new shower could outdo the Eta Aquarids this year. Astronomers predict that earth will pass through debris from Comet LINEAR the night of May 24.

This new shower could produce 100 meteors per hour or more. It will radiate from the north near Ursa Major.

In the coming months, I will be writing about the 12 major constellations or better known as the zodiac constellation. All of the zodiac constellations are located along the galactic equator, the plane in which the majority of a disk-shaped galaxy’s mass lies, much like Earth’s equator.

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

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The Art Life

WHAT TO DO

// SKETCHES

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

Jan Harmon

}}} Continued from previous page serve. Info: cdlandtrust.org.

High Art: Full circle, 5/17, 7:30 p.m. Pendulum Aerial Arts brings an aerialist performance through dance, acrobatics, theatre, storytelling and circus arts. Cost: $19-35.

Performing Arts Center. Info: pacwen.org.

Little girl’s playful chalk drawings grew into life’s designing work

Columbia Basin Iris society show and rhizome sale, 5/17, 8 a.m. – 4 pm. Iris society members will have a large selection of colorful iris varieties on display.

View, choose and then place your order for the rhizomes of these low maintenance locally grown iris. A limited number of bouquets will also be available for sale. Pybus Public Market.

Columbia Valley Community Health’s Girls on the Run Superhero, 5/17, 9 – 11 a.m. 5k fun run. Pybus Public Market.

Tomatoes, Tools and Techniques, 5/17, 10 a.m. - noon. This kicks off the 3rd Saturdays in the Garden events for the Master Gardners at the Community Education Garden, 1100 N. Western Ave., Wenatchee. Featured on 5/17: Growing Great Tomatoes (by The Good Life columnist Bonnie Orr) and Companion Planting: Friend or Foe? Free.

Spring Barrel Tasting, 5/1718, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Taste future releases straight from the barrel.

Lake Chelan. Info: lakechelanwinevalley.com.

Keyboard Capers, 5/18, 4 p.m.

Featuring the faculty of the adult piano retreat John Pickett and Lisa

The bucket list Have you recently crossed out an item on your bucket list — that list of goals you want to reach before you kick the bucket?

Send us an e-mail — with pictures if possible — to: editor@ncwgoodlife.

Picture this: one little girl

Bergman, duo pianists will perform at Snowy Owl Theater. Info: icicle. org.

Nonprofit summit, 5/19, 4 p.m.

This summit is a day of professional development for nonprofit board, staff, and volunteers on the various facets of nonprofit work. Topics ranging from fundraising, strategic planning, board governance, accounting, marketing, and more are covered by experts in their field.

Campbell’s Resort, Chelan. Cost: $15 includes lunch. Info: cfncw.org/ niannualsummit.

Compassionate Friends, 5/19, 7 p.m. A grief support group to assist families toward a positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age and to provide information to help others be supportive. Grace Lutheran Church, 14089 Washington St. Cost: free.

Info: 860-3620.

Trail Run, 5/21, 5:15 p.m. Join Adam Vognild on a trail run at Horse Lake. Info: cdlandtrust.org.

Jon Magnus, book signing, 5/22, 5-8 p.m. Wenatchee high school teacher Jon Magnus will be on hand with his new book S.H.I.N.E.: Life Lessons Revealed. Pybus Public Market.

Chelan Valley Memorial Day PARAde, 5/26, 7- 7:30 p.m. Honoring soldiers and police offers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Downtown Chelan.

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Timeless: Songs Exploring the beauty of life, 5/30, 7 p.m.

Amedee Royer, soprano will sing and Wilson Alvarez will accompany on piano. St. Joseph Church. Cost: $20 adult, $10 children at the door.

Four Fabulous Fridays, 6/6, 7/4, 8/1, 9/5. Music, entertainment, food and free activities for kids.

Downtown Chelan. Cost: free.

Apple Century Bike Ride, 6/7, 8 a.m. Bike ride starts and ends at Walla Walla Park going to Cashmere, Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee and back. Three ride options: 100 mile, 50 mile and 25 mile. Ride includes sag wagon support, pit stops, post-ride fest.

Supports scholarships for local students. Info: applebikeride.com or 679-6136.

Wenatchee River Bluegrass Festival, 6/20-22, all day events.

Headline performers: The Boxcars, Della Mae, Prairie Flyer and Green Mountain Bluegrass Band. Chelan County Expos Center, Cashmere.

Info: cashmerecoffeehouse.com.

Walk to Remember, 6/28, 10 a.m.

– 2 p.m. Two-mile walk in remembering children who have died too soon. Open to families, friends and colleagues. Cost: $20 pp or $26 per family includes t-shirt, race style bib, balloon release, remembrance board lunch, raffle and music. Walla Walla Point Park. Info: 860-3620 or registration form 663-6727.

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| May 2014

in a neighborhood of all boys, staking claim to the big concrete slab that was once the floor of an outbuilding on her family’s property.

It’s not Capture the Flag or King of the Hill they’re playing.

They are playing house, as in “functional living space.”

The little girl, the slab’s de facto architect and designer, has drawn the outline of each room (chalk-changeable at her whim) and has strict rules about respecting the imaginary boundaries. “It used to make me so mad,” Jan Harmon said. “They’d walk right through the walls as if they weren’t even there.”

From tracing chalk lines on a concrete slab, she’s turned her favorite art into a life work and successful business, Concepts Kitchen and Bath Design.

Interior design is a career choice she remembers making at an early age, and she’s stayed with it. “Even at home, I’d be the one to sneak in when my mother wasn’t there and clean up the kitchen, re-arrange things, make it better.”

It wasn’t just houses that intrigued her; it was all things artistic that used her hands.

Throughout her life she’s delved into oil and watercolor painting, floral design, cross stitch, quilting and more.

The love of stitchery came to

S OF LOCAL ARTISTS

Jan Harmon designed this wine-tasting area in the Concepts showroom as a room design sampler.

her by age three, and Jan vividly remembers how it started. “My grandmother would give me needle and thread and let me spend hours stringing buttons together and tying them off. I never realized that when I left she’d clip the thread so I could do it again.”

The little Wenatchee girl grew up to be a designing woman, going coastal for a degree from Bellevue Community College in a business-oriented program that also gave her hours of hands-on work drawing and drafting, pre-CAD, on graph paper. Jan recalls the rigor. “It was really good — the UW had just closed its interior design program and so we got all the best professors.”

Now, with over 30 years of experience in all phases of home design, Jan at 66 is also a CKD (Certified Kitchen Designer) and certified with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). She

“It absolutely changed his life, to be able to take a shower alone in his house. In all my years, that is my very favorite job.” and Tom Harmon first opened their store in a corner of a carpet shop in 1987, moving it once into a rental space and then to its present Kittitas Street building.

Over the years clients have become friends, and she is sometimes asked back to work on the same homes, in a new decade.

Or, she said, “I get calls like ‘It’s been 27 years, and my hinges need replacing.’”

Some of her favorite jobs are the problem-solving ones.

May 2014 | The Good Life

A friend who despaired over the clunkiness of her old kitchen found just installing new countertops and moving a door gave it a whole new look that also matched the vintage home.

“I’m really careful to let people make their own choices. I guide them and give them realistic options, but it’s never ‘my kitchen’ or ‘my bathroom’ when it’s done.”

A whole view, from the front door on, is important to Jan when she first meets a house and its owners. Then she listens to their concerns and asks about their use of the space. She takes measurements and pictures, and starts researching and choosing vendors so she can submit a plan.

“It’s not an ‘estimate.’ It’s really a ‘proposal,’ which can be changed. People hate surprises, especially about money.”

The fun part, the artistry that involves the perfect blend www.ncwgoodlife.com

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of colors and textures, and the choice of appliances, backsplash, flooring, lighting, counters, cabinetry — all that becomes a team effort.

One of the jobs Jan is proudest of is relatively recent.

A wheelchair-bound client came to her with a very specific problem. He had never been able to bathe unaided; for much of his adult life he’d been squeezing into his home’s tiny bathroom with its unworkable tub and been bathed by someone else.

Jan’s design removed the tub, lowered the floor and created a zero-curb, roll-in, doorless shower. That’s it. Seems simple.

But Jan said, “It absolutely changed his life, to be able to take a shower alone in his house.

In all my years, that is my very favorite job.”

She admitted her concern for her own impending arthritis has made her more sensitive to designing for disabilities, and she’s become a strong proponent of prolonging independence in the home. The Harmons deliberately chose an easy-access one level house for themselves, too.

Jan’s not through with her long career.

After the sale of the business, she’s been able to plan her time judiciously (“I want to be as busy as I want to be now.”) and definitely enjoys her mornings in the Concepts office and the occasional new project.

And she still devotes time to her own personal art — at this phase of her life it’s mostly creating copper and silver jewelry.

“I discovered I love to pound on stuff,” she said.

She and her husband have side-by-side garage spaces, still working together after all these years, where on any given day she makes jewelry at her counter as he reconstructs a ’52 pickup.

“We’re really using the same tools — mine are just more petite,” she noted.

— by Susan Lagsdin

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column those were the days

rod molzahn

‘Squatter’s rights’ could weave a tangled web Congress made several ef-

forts in the late 1850s to pass homesteading legislation to encourage settlement of the West.

All those attempts failed because the southern states strongly opposed any plan that would people the West with individual and small family farms that did not lend themselves to slave holding. When the southern states seceded in 1861 to start the Civil War, Congress quickly took the issue up again and, in 1862, passed the Homestead Act. The law provided that, for $14 in filing and application fees, a single person over the age of 21 could claim 160 acres of “public land open for entry.” A married couple could claim 360 acres.

The homesteader had to live on the land for five years and make certain improvements.

A house on the land had to be at least 10 feet by 12 feet with a minimum of one window and some small percentage of the land had to be cleared and culti-

vated. When these things were done the settler had “proved up” and, after paying a $4 final proof fee, was given title to the land.

In order to be “open for entry” the public land had to be government surveyed.

It was common for homesteaders to reach new lands before the surveyors did. For most, the solution was simple.

They claimed their chosen land and assumed that, in time, the government surveys would catch up.

They were called Squatters and their “Squatters Rights” were generally respected by those coming later and, in time, upheld by the government Land Office Agents.

That was the case in the Wenatchee Valley where government surveying didn’t begin until 1884.

The first two white men to claim squatters rights to land in the Wenatchee Valley were Dutch John Galler and John McBride in 1868 or ’69. It’s not clear which one was the first.

The 60-year-old Galler took land along the Columbia River near Three Lakes and Malaga.

He built a house, dug a ditch from a nearby spring to irrigate his garden and vineyard, married a young P’Squose girl and had eight or nine children.

The Galler family lived on the land until Mary Galler had passed away and the children were grown when Dutch John moved to a son’s home on the Colville Reservation. He was very old, between 105 and 108, when he died.

John McBride, it seems, made claims on two separate pieces of valley land. He took 160 acres below Saddlerock including the Millerdale area and the high school location.

Using Indian labor he began an irrigation ditch from Squilchuck Creek to his land. In 1870, with the ditch unfinished, he sold the land and small cabin to a Mr. and Mrs. Perkins. They lasted only a year or so before selling out in 1871 to Philip Miller.

The selling of a claim before it was proved up was called a “relinquishment.” These sales were common throughout the West though they were illegal. The government wanted to encourage settlement and farming, not land speculation.

Philip Miller was no speculator. He came to farm and in 1877 he filed a Desert Claim on 640 acres that adjoined the 160 he had purchased. A Desert Claim could only be made on dry land where nothing of use grew. To prove it up the claimant had to bring irrigation to the land.

John McBride claimed other land in the valley as well on the confluence south of the Wenatchee River where, along with Jack Ingram, he operated a trading post.

In August of 1872 the Miller/ Freer Company purchased the trading post business and on July 3, 1873 Sam Miller’s store journal shows that the

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Five days later, after crossing Colockum Pass, they got to the land George had chosen and found that John Camphor had built a rough house on it.

Miller/Freer Co. purchased the “McBride Ranch” for $200. Since the purchase was by the partnership and not any of the three individual partners it’s likely that the “McBride Ranch” is the property identified in Alfred Downing’s 1881 map of the confluence area as the “Miller ranch and store.”

There were other Squatters in the valley as well by 1873 and after.

Jack Ingram paid his bill to the Miller/Freer trading post in August of 1872 with potatoes, rutabagas, beets, a keg of pickles and six chickens. He had to have had cleared and cultivated land at least as early as 1871.

Pete Butler also paid his September, 1872 bill with root vegetables. The majority of his bills over the next five years were paid off with logs and lumber and some work around the trading post.

Mr. Axiom was in the valley from early 1873 until May of 1883 when he paid his final bill with $330 worth of cattle.

Doc Battoe arrived in the valley in June of 1873 and left in August of 1885. He bought normal living and household supplies; food, clothes and tools as well as ammunition supplies. He paid mostly with cash but once with a cow and calf.

Tom Doak showed up in the summer of 1879. His last entry in Miller’s ledger was March of 1887 when he paid off his substantial bill entirely with credit for work done. That was close to the time when Miller closed

the trading post and a new store opened to the south along the Columbia.

Doak may well have stayed on in the valley. Mamie Blair recalled that when she and her family arrived in 1883 Tom Doak, a bachelor, was living at the foot of Fifth Street near the river.

The Blair family’s own experience as Squatters shows some of the difficulties faced trying to claim land in the pre-survey Wenatchee Valley.

George Blair came to look the valley over in October of 1883.

He chose land with a water sup-

ply (overflow from Philip Miller’s ditch) near the present intersection of Miller and Orondo streets then headed back to Ellensburg to get his family.

Five days later, after crossing Colockum Pass, they got to the land George had chosen and found that John Camphor had built a rough house on it.

George Blair respected Camphor’s “Squatter’s Rights” and moved on to another piece of land lying between present Fifth Street and Orchard Avenue. He built a small house and the family settled in for the winter.

In the spring when George

Blair went to Ellensburg to file his Squatter’s claim he discovered that a Mrs. Thomas had filed a Desert Claim on the land.

It took six years, an expensive $80-dollar Ellensburg lawyer and multiple court actions before George Blair’s “Squatter’s Rights” were finally upheld by the government Land Agent.

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 ALEX ON WINE

ALEX SALIBY

Tell me, Dr. Alex, has my wine died?

W

hile we were on the road having fun in March, other people were worried about their wine.

I received a few interesting emails with a common theme.

All the writers wondered if the wines in their possession had died unnatural deaths because of storage issues.

One email dealt directly with short-term storage regarding storage while on a road trip, but she too wondered if her wine purchased out of state was now dead.

Once home I got a few phone calls and emails; again, the issue was the March column (“Chill, man, that red needs to cool down”).

Questions varied; however there was a recurring theme having to do again with wine storage and with drinking temperatures.

Hopefully, this column will answer all the questions and perhaps provide a little more guidance on storage and serving temperatures.

Let me begin with the broad question, “Is this wine dead?”

The direct answer to the question is there’s only one way to know for certain if the wine is dead. You have to drink it, or at least pour it into a glass and attempt to drink it.

Wine in the glass is the only way to prove the wine died. The truly abused bottles will let you know almost immediately because of the aromas. Remember, we’ve had this talk before when I told you: Good wine does not smell bad.

Wine is best cellared at 55 degrees F in a dark place with humidity control. Most of us don’t have a dark, humidity controlled space where we keep the temperature at 55F.

Drinking temperatures

We’ve had this conversation before but from the questions in emails, I can tell I’ve failed to make my point clearly.

Here’s an abbreviated and slightly modified temperature serving guide I hope helps with this subject.

The wine: Serve it at this temperature n Full bodied red ................ 62 – 64 F (Syrah, Tannat, Petite Sirah) n Medium bodied reds...... 60 – 62 F (Most Bordeaux & Burgundy) n Light bodied reds............................ 55 – 57 F (Beaujolais, Gamay) n Full bodied whites..........53 – 55 F (Chardonnay, some Viogniers) n Medium bodied whites........... 50 – 52 F (Pinot Blanc, Marsanne) n Light whites and Rosé ...............46 – 48 F (Sauv Blanc, Rieslings) Bottom line: if you pull a wine, red or white from the closet floor in your guest bedroom, no matter which of the above wines it is, do this: Refrigerate the wine at least three hours before you intend to pull the cork.

That 45 degree, refrigerated wine will warm quickly when opened, and remember, too, the glass into which you will pour it is already at room temperature, so the wine will warm quickly in there.

The question is then: what does it cost you if you lose some or all of these ideal conditions?

Humidity: Most of us don’t have to worry about humidity control because our wines won’t be in the storage long enough to really matter.

We might, however, encounter a dried-out cork every now and then. The result here is splintered or broken corks when you try to pull the cork from the bottle.

In all probability, the wine in that bottle is still good and drinkable. Simply do your best to remove as much of the cork from the bottle as possible. For this task, you’ll need a real corkscrew, not one of those batterypowered units.

When the cork is out, you’ll want to remove the bits of cork that have fallen into the bottle.

Pour the wine through some kind of screen device into a decanter. I have a small wine

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What does it cost you if you lose some or all of these ideal conditions? screen for the job, but a reasonably fine screen kitchen strainer will do the job. The wine should still be perfectly drinkable.

Dark places: What the experts are really saying here people is please don’t store your wine on the sun porch or in any space where natural sunlight shines on the bottles. Sunlight is warming, and what you are really doing here is raising the temperature of the wine in the bottle. Don’t do that.

Temperature: This one gets a little tricky so I’ll start with the easy problem, cold.

It is true that your wine can get too cold and despite the fact that there’s alcohol in the stuff,

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| May 2014

it can freeze.

That’s a bad thing obviously, however, freezing does not necessarily mean the wine will be undrinkable if you thaw it and consume it fairly soon. If there are lots of bottles frozen, have a party. Those frozen uncorked wines won’t last long, freezing opened them, so simply enjoy them.

Heat on the other hand is a little more difficult to explain.

There is still a lot of chemistry going on inside those sealed bottles of wine. Those chemical changes are part of the reasons why really great wines improve with time in the bottle. Heat speeds up the processes of those changes so the wines in a warm place age more rapidly.

The higher the temperature, the faster the wine will over age and actually begin deteriorating.

The worst temperature infractions are the very high temperature storage errors, not only have you speeded up the aging, you’ve also, possibly cooked the wines turning them into really badly made, undrinkable Sherry.

I should clarify here, I mean undrinkable to me, not necessarily to humankind in general.

Also, the wines if they have been so oxidized and cooked in the bottle may still be of use as cooking wine for making sauces and stews.

Julia Childs would not want them used in her coq au vin or beef Burgundy, but then she was buying Burgundy when it was under $2 a bottle.

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.