Good Life October 2011 by The Good Life

WENATCHEE VALLEY’S #1 MAGAZINE

A H t

om e

Fr for esh id the eas ho me IN

SIDE

October 2011

Cover price: $3

Rope ’em cowboy Rodeo sport was love at first toss

plus Teaching in a village of smiles Wedding in Prague

OPENING SHOT ®

Year 5, Number 10 October 2011 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 Editor/Publisher, Mike Cassidy Contributors, Charles Hallsted, Jessica Creel, Stacia Davis, Lee Fehrenbacher, Jim Johnson, Joann Anderson, Jimmy McGregor, Donna Cassidy, Bonnie Orr, Alex Saliby, Jim Brown, June Darling, Dan McConnell, Susan Lagsdin and Christine Humphreys Advertising sales, John Hunter and Donna Cassidy Bookkeeping and circulation, Donna Cassidy Proofing, Joyce Pittsinger Ad design, Rick Conant

Colors along a quiet river Is it too early to remember

how beautiful fall can be? Here is a picture of turning leaves, taken by Charles Hallsted, of College Place when he was traveling through. “My passion for photography began decades ago using a darkroom and has evolved into full digital processing as the best way to create my fine art images,” he said.

“There is nothing more breathtaking for me than autumn colors reflecting on a river, and I took this image of the Wenatchee River one brisk morning in mid-October as I was traveling on Highway 2 a few miles west of Leavenworth.” For more of his photos, visit his online galleries at www. charleshallsted.com.

On the cover

Editor Mike Cassidy took this photo of Jim Johnson practicing his roping skills.

Jim discovered his passion for the rodeo event years ago and has deep respect for the practitioners in all rodeo events. “These guys aren’t like those in the weenie sports of professional football, basketball or baseball,” said Jim, leaning down from his horse to speak to a guest at his arena. “In rodeo, only the winners earn a paycheck. The other guys have to go home and find a different job. “They live their lives balanced on the head of a pin.” See Jim’s story on page 10.

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 (Wenatchee and East Wenatchee), Eastmont Pharmacy, Martin’s Market Place (Cashmere), A Book for All Seasons (Leavenworth) and the Food Pavilions in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee ADVERTISING: For information about advertising in The Good Life, contact advertising at (509) 8886527, or sales@ncwgoodlife.com WRITE FOR THE GOOD LIFE: We welcome articles about people from Chelan and Douglas counties. Send your idea to Mike Cassidy at editor@ncwgoodlife.com

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Contents

editor’s notes

MIKE CASSIDY

This is no time to be a pessimist I was at a family reunion

page 14

teaching children in a village of smiles

Features

5 CLIMBING MOUNT RAINIER

The second time up the tall, tall mountain a climber knows the hurting that lies ahead

8 FINDING TREASURES AROUND THE HOME

Jimmy McGregor was a little short of cash, so he started looking around at his former toys, and thought, “Hummm... wonder if I could sell these?” The answer was, “Yes!”

10 rootin’, tootin’ roper Jim Johnson joined the volunteers who were rebuilding a small town’s rodeo grounds — and found a passion for the arena that is lasting a lifetime

12 WEDDING IN PRAGUE

Where’s the perfect location for a princess to be married? Why in the charming Old World city of Prague

18 At Home

with

The Good Life

• A well-preserved Victorian • Good stuff — dropping by Out on a Whim

Columns & Departments 17 Bonnie Orr: Beets are good eats 24 The traveling doctor: Food allergies 25 June Darling: Get more treats in life 26 Alex Saliby: Pinot Noir — Queen of the reds 27-31 Events, The Art Life & a Dan McConnell cartoon 32 History: The wild Idlewild saga 34 Fun Stuff: 5 activities to check out

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recently when someone opined: “These are the last days of America — we are falling just like the Roman Empire.” A few others in our immediate circle muttered words of agreement, but not me. Sure, we are going through a recession now and you may or may not agree with the policies of the politicians in office, but I think it’s a stretch to think these are America’s worst times. When I was a child, we were locked in a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union — I remember reading a well-reasoned article that bluntly stated, “Every arms race in the history of the world has ended in war.” Wow, now that was a scary time. In those decades, Japan Inc. was on the cover of every business magazine, eating our economic lunch. When my dad was young, he quit his senior year of high school to join the Army as the U.S. was engaged in a world war on two fronts against wellarmed, seemingly invincible enemies. A few years before, the U.S. had been attacked by a mighty Pacific power and our fleet was sunk in Hawaii. When my grandmother was young, the newly invented machine gun was mowing down a generation in Europe, and a flu pandemic swept the planet, killing 50 million people. “We thought we would all die from the flu,” she told me once. Further back was the Civil War, and if you think politics and name-calling are bad now, at least we haven’t taken up arms against each other. Those were the years when, to

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steal a quote, life for the common man was nasty, brutish and short. Imagine how much worse it was for minorities, women and children with few rights and sketchy health care. I’m certainly not here to talk politics, and really, who knows what will happen in the future. Maybe my relative will be right that it will all end badly. But in looking at the stories we have run over the years in The Good Life, I see people creating their own present and future, if not living their dreams, at least living a dream. Perhaps we have matured a bit since the ’80s and ’90s when we could say, “I want it all!” and expect to get it. Now we have seen limits and we occasionally have to make painful choices. Yet, we still have the opportunity to pick a dream to chase, to check off an item on our personal bucket list, to pack up and move in search of something better. We make history through actions — take a look this month at some of the actions our story tellers are taking: Lee Fehrenbacher climbing a mountain, Jim Johnson pursuing his cowboy passion for steer roping, Stacia Davis leaving for Thailand with little more than a yearning of doing something with her life. These are people who aren’t giving in to life, but getting something from life. We have choices: we can grouse, or we can, as the bumper sticker I recently saw said: “Live life.” Make your own history — enjoy The Good Life. — Mike

It’s a long, steep way to the top

TOP LEFT: At about 5,000 feet, the view of Mount Rainier from the Paradise parking lot – the beginning of the climb – can be a daunting image to behold. ABOVE: The party’s camp at about 10,000 feet on the morning of their descent down the mountain. On the horizon, Mount Adams appears to float on a cloud bank that rolled in during the night.

the starlit sky faded away into a deep ocean blue. This was where the climb to the summit of Mount Rainier got hard and it was The sunrise at 11,000 feet on the side of a important not to let your focus drift too far glacier is a force to be reckoned with. away. With ice picks in hand and separated by Left clomp … right clomp … ice pick … 15-foot lengths of rope, our four-person breathe, went the sound of my walk. climbing team stopped simultaneously and We had been running from the sun since gazed out to where a hot white ball of pain the day began. was exploding like a nuclear bomb on the As its radioactive heat cooked the snow horizon. throughout the day, things like icefalls and In the thin air, just below Mount Rainier’s stepping over deep crevasses became inDisappointment Cleaver, the sun’s heat shot like a laser on our faces and gravity suddenly creasingly treacherous. Most parties left for the summit between midnight and 1 a.m. We seemed a bit heavier. didn’t start until 3 a.m. and were seriously “There she blows,” I said, clicking off my pushing our luck for the hike back down. headlamp, and squinting at the intensely I vaguely recalled my alarm clock going beautiful and ominous spectacle. For the past hour, the rock walls surround- off. It rang just long enough for me to peek ing us had smoldered in a fiery neon glow as

By Lee Fehrenbacher

October 2011 | The Good Life

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out of my cozy cocoon and snooze it permanently. The long, five-mile, 5,000-foot slog to Camp Muir the day before had definitely taken its toll, and I wasn’t really eager to pull my boots back on. I knew the hurt that lay ahead. I had summited Rainier once before a couple years back, and my memory, stuck on one scene in particular — lungs gasping to fill themselves with icy winds devoid of breathable air, quads screaming for respite, body inch-worming itself up an endless snowfield — seemed to be rejecting the notion that I repeat the experience. But soon the familiar sound of tent zippers opening and snow crunching underfoot signaled it was time to go, and I too unzipped the flap of our tent into the night. After

}}} Continued on next page

LEFT: Lee Fehrenbacher, Scott Sanders, Josh Diede and Jim Swanson ham it up for the camera with a couple celebratory beers on the Rainier summit. At 14,411 feet, and in freezing cold winds, most of the beer either foamed up or froze – but it’s the thought that counts.

In the distance, Rainier’s presence seemed alive — like a massive ship sailing through space, bearing down upon us.

BELOW LEFT: Josh Diede, a forestry student at Wenatchee Valley College and lab technician at the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, displays a gnarly blister on his right heel and the duct tape that failed to prevent it. Diede acquired the potentially game-stopping blisters on both his heels early on in the climb but still powered through to the summit.

}}} Continued from previous page melting some snow for a quick bowl of oatmeal and tightening the spikes on our feet, we were on our way. Outside, the crisp air was like a shot of caffeine and everywhere the snow glowed with a phosphorescent hue under the full moon. In the distance, Rainier’s presence seemed alive — like a massive ship sailing through space, bearing down upon us. It was no wonder it had been such a pivotal beacon for our species. Archeological records of humans on Rainier dated back more than 8,000 years, but the first documented successful ascent was in 1870 by Gen. Hazard Stevens and P.B. Van Trump. The story goes that the two pioneers contracted an Indian named Sluiskin to guide them to the summit. Halfway up, Sluiskin became unnerved and warned the duo of a demon that lived in a fiery lake at the top and of their imminent deaths if they proceeded.

Stevens and Van Trump ignored his warnings and summited anyway and were greeted like ghosts by the Indian upon their return. I had no desire to be a ghost

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but knew the way to the top was hazardous. The reminders were all around us. “Careful not to fall here,” said Scott Sanders, one of our team members, beaming his lamp down a gravely slope to the wide mouth of a crevasse I had been oblivious to. “You won’t be able to self- arrest.” Pock-marked with deep crevasses, crags, rock slides and avalanches, the looming 14,411foot silhouette was etched in danger and desire.

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It was hard to pinpoint just what was so appealing about the summit, but part of it had to do with sharing in something great — a view of the world from the top of a giant. “It’s kind of like God’s country,” Scott said later of the endless string of valleys and mountains visible from the top. Scott owns a floor covering business in Wenatchee and had climbed Rainier several times. As such, he was the resident expert for our hodgepodge team of mountaineers that included a carpenter, cable guy, forestry student and writer — all of us striving, for a brief moment, to be something greater than our titles. It was a rewarding experience capped by the fact not everyone could do it. Of the 10,000-odd people who

At one point I made the mistake of asking a descending climber if we weren’t getting close. He looked at me sadly. attempted to climb the mountain every year, only 50 percent made it to the top. We had already passed a couple parties in the dark that had turned back prematurely. Now, with the sun melting the glossy screen from my face, I questioned whether I, too, had it in me. “We had been climbing for nearly seven hours. One of our crew had acquired 50-cent-sized raw blisters on each of his heels and we were moving slowly. The rest of us were also not in the best of shape, and consequently, we were only at about 13,000 feet – roughly halfway up the Emmons Glacier – when most of the guided outfits were coming back down.” Named for S.F. Emmons, who made the second successful ascent in 1870, the Emmons Glacier was a tortuously long and steep stretch of ice that extended nearly 3,000 feet to the summit. Its network of countless switchbacks created the impression of false summits and had pretty much driven me crazy during my first ascent. It was also the stretch that had plagued my memory the night before. But today the sun was shining and we nodded cheerfully at the teams returning from the summit, stepping aside to let their long, brightly clothed trains pass by. At one point I made the mistake of asking a descending climber if we weren’t getting close. He looked at me sadly. I cursed myself. Climbing Rainier was as much

a mental endeavor as it was a physical one and focusing on the top was a big no, no. Mainly because it made you realize how far you had to go, which in turn made you concentrate on the pain and how much longer you had to endure it. I began to wonder why I was there at all. Soon all the negative thoughts swimming in the corners of my brain began bubbling to the surface. I started having conversations with old girlfriends, bosses — anyone and everyone who had ever wronged me was suddenly riding in my pack. “I think you have quite a ways to go man,” the climber said. I smiled and thanked him. Focus on being present, Lee! I thought to myself and suddenly remembered the sound of my march: Left clomp … right clomp … ice pick … breathe. Left clomp … right clomp … ice pick … breathe. For all its adventure, much of mountain climbing was also

October 2011 | The Good Life

incredibly boring and the icecrunching rhythm of my step became a therapeutic mantra as we pushed on. Hours passed. When at last we turned the final switchback, and the familiar lip of the summit crater was in sight, I took over control from the autopilot and let myself be anxious. We still had a long slog ahead of us to get back down the mountain, and in the afternoon slush, it would be tough. But for now, we were within a snowball’s toss of the very top of a very tall mountain. My own two legs had carried me here, and soon I would share a view of the world that only a very few people and a millionyear-old sleeping giant had seen. Left clomp … right clomp … ice pick … breathe. Lee Fehrenbacher lives in Wenatchee with his dog Huckleberry. When he isn’t scampering up mountains he works as a reporter for the Wenatchee Business Journal.

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guest column // JIMMY McGREGOR

Going on a treasure hunt right at home When someone says “trea-

sure,” many thoughts come to mind. One may contemplate Black Beard, Solomon’s Mine or even King Tut’s Tomb; not me, the first thing I think of is my house. “What? My house?” That is right — my house, more explicitly, something hidden in my house. Sometimes this treasure can be found in a box, long lost in storage in some dark closet. Other times I find this treasure collecting dust, displayed for all to see. It is estimated that every home in the United States has between $2,000 and $6,000 in baubles. These trinkets range

from a small figurine on a living room shelf to a long-lost first edition book from a famous author. All of these items are of value and sometimes more value than you know. From time to time I have found I need more money to make ends meet. There are many ways to do this; however, the most rewarding way I have found is to sell my excess belongings. The first time I ever sold something online — 13 years ago — I was quite skeptical. “Would the item sell?” I thought to myself. My second and most guarded thought was, “Will it sell for enough money to make me happy?”

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Even items like a Lucky Japanese Kitten and a doll of a TV hero may have value, if you have the heart to sell them.

I took the leap into the great unknown of selling on eBay, and my venture lit a fire in my heart that continues burning today. It all started with a toy. Shortly after my divorce, I found myself buying things that I had always wanted but could never afford. One day while walking through Wal-Mart, I found myself in the clearance section looking at some Star Wars Legos. Being 34 years old at the time, most would think I should not be interested in Star Wars Legos; however, I am a kid at heart. I placed five Lego sets in my cart and quickly made my way to the cashier. After spending $100 I exited the store and quickly drove home. Over the years my daughter and I built the sets, enjoying them as much as we could. Then one day, I looked up the sets on eBay. I found the one I had paid $10 for was now worth $25 in its used condition. In addition one of the sets that I paid $15 for was extremely rare,

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valued at $65. The last item, the biggest I had paid $60 for, was valued at $125. All of these items were only three years old and were worth more than double what I paid for them. This was the price without boxes. If they were still in sealed boxes, they would be worth a great deal. In the end I sold them. (Don’t cry for my kids — they have moved on to Justin Bieber, Xbox 360 and CSI.) Once all of your extra treasures have been sold, you must seek other people’s extra items. Recently, I made a purchase of someone else’s treasure at a yard sale. This particular purchase set me back 50¢. This item was a media kit that was originally sent to a business as a promotion for a television show Battlestar Galactica, before its debut. In most cases this item would have been thrown away; however, this person kept this item in storage and decided to unload it at their yard sale. After doing some research, I was unable to locate this item or even a similar item anywhere online. I took a chance and listed the item in an online auction, and received a final selling price of $56. For anyone interested in selling treasures lying around the house — or reselling someone else’s treasures — here a few simple guidelines: The first step is to find items that you are willing to let go of. One thing I also do is gather items that I “might” be willing to sell. After finding how valuable the item is, I then decide if the gain is going to be worth the pain of letting it go. The next step is to find a place to sell your items; these options range from local consignment shops to websites like eBay. I do a little of both. The best way to find a good place to consign

items is to ask your friends. One of them might just have a booth or case at one of the local antique malls. As far as eBay, the best place to start is at www. eBay.com. The first step to registering on eBay is to obtain an email address. I recommend creating a new address that you will use only for eBay and other online sales related mail. This email address will be required for registration on eBay, Paypal (which at some point you will want to do) and USPS.com, where you can get free boxes for shipping. Upon reaching eBay, you must register. After hitting the registration button, simply following the directions. Don’t speed through them, read, and be a thorough as you fill you need to be. After you are finished with the eBay registration, I recommend registering an account with www.Paypal.com. This is the account you will use to receive your money. In addition, you will be able to use this account to make purchases. This account will also be attached to your eBay account. I also recommend using this account to purchase shipping for your items sold. All of this sounds complex, some of it is and will take time to become an expert. Most of it will be very straight forward. The best way to start is to start with only one or two items. Go through the whole process, determine what works best for you, and work through any issues. In the end, you will make some money, find a new hobby — that you may come to love as I do — and enjoy sharing your baubles with others. Jimmy McGregor is a native of the Wenatchee Valley and is currently employed as a paraeducator. Jimmy has worn many hats in life — from an avid rock hound to a collector books, he has many interests and hobbies which he often transfers to the written page. If you are interested in learning more, you may contact him at jimmymcgre@gmail.com. October 2011 | The Good Life

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The way of the rope An old rope, a steer head stuck on a bale of hay, a few minutes of instructions and I was hooked for life By Jim Johnson

The first time

I took up a rope I had no idea the road I

would be led down or the impact it would have on me.

I had started a general medical practice in a small town in Western Washington. I heard the town had decided to rebuild its rodeo grounds and resume having a rodeo, years after it had been discontinued. It was a volunteer project and I decided to get involved. After working on the grounds, I went to the rodeo. It was: Love at first sight. Afterwards, I called a man in town who I heard participated in a rodeo sport called team roping. I told him I wanted to start team roping. He said, “Come on over, I’ll show you some things.” He didn’t say he would give me a passion that can be lifelong, that would lead me to interesting people and deep friendships or would offer an endless challenge. He just said to come over. I clearly remember the details of that visit today. He gave me an old rope he had laying around, stuck a dummy steer’s head on a bale of hay and gave me a few instructions. It took 15 minutes. I went home, nailed a board on an orange crate to represent horns and started practicing. I didn’t have any of the details thought out (like the fact that you need a horse and need to know how to ride a horse; that’s besides knowing how to rope). I had no idea how technical and complex team roping is. (Today I liken it to golf — if the ball and hole are alive and you

Jim Johnson, left, and his partner, Sonny Faultner, a horse trainer from Cashmere., practice team roping in Jim’s 240foot by 140-foot arena at his East Wenatchee area home.

needed a partner to help you swing). But that didn’t matter. I could work that out later. Right now I was learning how to rope. I developed a plan to solve the horse riding thing. I lived in the country. My neighbor had a horse that had been standing in his pasture for years. I’d never seen anyone ride it so figured he wouldn’t mind if I did. I went over and asked. He assured me he would be happy to have me ride it. I could even keep it at my house. He caught the horse, strapped on an old saddle and put a big old iron bit in his mouth. I climbed on. He lived on the same road as I did about a quarter of a mile away. A railroad track lay between our places that formed a big hump in the road. I decided to make my first ride

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I especially enjoyed a truly unique subpopulation of the American culture, the cowboy. a walk down to my house and then back. It was a tribute to the horse that the first part of our journey went smoothly despite my gross ignorance. In fact, I proudly displayed my skills to my wife and two small children who happened to be in our front yard. My kids were amazed and thrilled to see me on horseback. They were even more amazed when I turned him for the re-

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turn trip. He had a much more enthusiastic response to being ridden toward home and hay, as opposed to away from it. He started to run. Since I had no concept how to tell a horse to “slow up,” I held on with my legs as tightly as I could in order to keep from falling off. The harder I squeezed the faster he went. My wife recounted to me later that as I disappeared over the railroad track hump, my kids looked at each other, then her, and asked, “Is Dad gone?” And I think they meant that in the final sense. I guess the fact my first ride didn’t kill or maim me, despite the high probabilities, encouraged me. I went on relentlessly. I learned to ride and rope. I learned to compete. I enjoyed the challenges, the horseman-

A five-year-old girl asked, “Mother, do cowboys eat grass?” “Why no,” her mother reassured her, “They’re half human.” ship and the sportsmanship. But I especially enjoyed a truly unique subpopulation of the American culture, the cowboy. It doesn’t make sense to try to talk about cowboys with normal language. It just doesn’t work. Telling stories helps, and sometimes poems, but nothing else seems to say anything that has any value. Probably the most accurate description of cowboys I ever heard was from someone who knew nothing about them. This was from a woman from back East who was visiting a rodeo when her five-year-old daughter asked, “Mother, do cowboys eat grass?” “Why no,” her mother reassured her, “They’re half human.” Part of being “half human,” as compared to normal people, seems to be the ability to tolerate an unstructured life. It’s almost a demand of rodeo life. Cowboys can go with the flow. I remember being at a team roping years ago. The secretary

Job on the range became a sport Team roping, the rodeo sport, developed from a practice

that cowboys used to doctor cattle on the open range. They needed to subdue, in an area without fences or corrals, a large animal, who didn’t agree with the basic premise that doctoring it was a good thing. They devised the process of one cowboy on horseback slowing it down by roping the horns so another could rope the back feet and thus obtain some level of control. Of course, human nature would dictate that soon it became a source of pride as to who could accomplish this most efficiently. When cowboy contests, called rodeos, started it also became a source of competition and “most efficiently” became fastest with the fewest mistakes. Since then, like everything, it has become more and more refined. The horses are better, the gear is better and the understanding of the essence of the sport is better. It has developed to the point where there have been rounds at the National Finals Rodeo where a four-second run didn’t place. — by Jim Johnson had made the mistake of setting up her office to take entries at a table in the arena. This was a mistake because it allowed cowboys three sides from which to approach her. This was a mistake because it meant there were cowboys clustered on the three sides, all talking at once. “Put me in with Bill, Tom and his brother-in-law.” “Draw me out with Sam, his wife was inconsiderate enough to go into labor this morning.” “What are my team numbers?” “Did you put me in with Ellis?” The hubbub made her job impossible, besides being deafening. Her frustration began to grow as she struggled to keep things straight. It burst out suddenly and dramatically as a

October 2011 | The Good Life

general accusation that included everyone within hearing distance. Exploding out of her chair she screamed at the top of her voice, “Don’t you cowboys know anything?” The effect of this behavior was dramatic. It instantly struck the crowd both dumb and immobile. There was absolute silence and nothing moved. So sudden was the secretary’s action and so accurate the accusation that the effect went on for what felt like a remarkable period of time, probably more than a minute. Apparently everyone was seriously considering the question. The stalemate was finally broken when Billy Eggleson’s

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squeaky voice stated the obvious from the back of the crowd. “We’re all geniuses, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.” Everyone laughed, the secretary relaxed, the tension was broken, and the process resumed as before. Cowboys also have a respect for toughness that is unusual today. I had a cowboy friend, Buck, who spent his life riding horses and poking cows. He ranched when it was hard work, when you did it on horseback and you made your own horses. He rodeo’ed when the steers and calves were big and rank. We wore cotton gloves when roping to avoid rope burns. Buck roped with a bare hand. I asked him one day, “Buck, why don’t your wear a glove when you rope?” Before he could answer, his friend responded with a nod to his toughness, “Hell, if Buck wore a glove he’d wear it out from the inside!” Looking back, a lot of steers have run out of the chute since I first picked up a rope. I’ve made a lot of friends and met acquaintances that stretch from coast to coast. I’ve won and lost in the arena, but I’ve won in life. And since I’ve made the decision to live to be 120 years old, I’m expecting to rope until I’m 110. After that, I’ll just teach. Jim Johnson, MD., is the chief executive officer of AnovaWorks, an occupational medicine company.

INVITATION TO PRAGUE Former apple blossom princess is married in a city sparkling with fairy tale architecture By Joann Anderson

ate in 2010, friends and family of Michaela Choman and Brian Draggoo received postcards hand-stamped from London, each with a beautiful photograph of Prague. No two were alike. “Save the date, August 21, 2011, for our wedding in Prague, Czech Republic. /s/ Mikki and Brian” Michaela Choman, Apple Blossom Princess in 2003, graduated from the University of Washington with bachelor’s degrees in English and journalism in 2006. Her mother, Susan, teaches science at Pioneer Middle School and her father, Michael, teaches at Wenatchee Valley Community College. Mikki now leads the internal communication department at City and Guilds of London. Brian Draggoo graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2004. He earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Oxford University in 2008 as the youngest student to ever be admitted to the Oxford graduate program in business. His mother, Terri DraggooPiper, and sister, Kristen, live in East Wenatchee. His father, Ron Draggoo, lives in Wenatchee and works for Douglas County. Brian leads the marketing team at Viagogo in London. Once their wedding date was announced, guests’ travel plans were launched. Details kept telephones and the Internet

busy across the Atlantic through the spring of 2011 when formal invitations were sent as a small purple and gold booklet of 10 pages, reflecting Mikki’s chosen colors for her wedding: purple, gold and a splash of red. One of their wedding rules was “No gifts.” Four days before the wedding, 68 friends and family members poured into the city of red tile roofs and 100 spires. They came from London, Seattle, Wenatchee, Hawaii, San Francisco, New York City, Indiana and Oxford. Since Prague escaped all World War II bombings, the Old Town and Little Town buildings are in excellent condition, many dating back to the Ninth Century. Ancient monastic breweries throughout the city are reminders that lager was first created near Prague in the 1700s. That first evening after the early arrivals, Brian and Mikki hosted a “Welcome to Prague” cocktail party in a hall two flights of circular stairs beneath the lobby of the boutique hotel where the bridal party stayed. The hotel overlooked the famous Charles Bridge across the Vitava River. Although the ambient inside temperature was cool in the vaulted below-ground room, there was no ice for cocktails. All drinks, including water, are served at room temperature in the Czech Republic. Mikki’s father, Mike, searched the city of Prague for three hours to find ice before returning to their hotel empty handed. As a last resort, he asked the

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Mikki and Brian Draggoo embrace in front of the Prague Palace.

hotel manager about ice and was shown a miniature ice machine and was told: “Use all you want.” Mike finally had a small bag of ice that lasted for the hour and a half before dinner. The next two days were for sightseeing. Prague has four regions: Little Town, where the Prague Castle and wedding took place, Old Town, Josephov (Jewish Quarter), and New Town from the 40-year Communist reign that ended in 1989. The Astronomical Clock in the Little Town Square is a popular attraction. The 4 p.m. wedding ceremony was held in the private Vrtborska Gardens on the Prague Palace grounds in Little Town.

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| October 2011

The bride’s dress was a slender pale gold 1930s formal from London. Following Mikki’s request, her friend’s mother, Cathie Lewis, created an elegant hat of silk tulle and lace. Mikki’s sparkly gold heels with red soles were her one indulgence. Brian’s indulgence was a black Saville Row suit. All five bridesmaids wore short satin purple dresses styled to blend with the 1930s theme. Their hairpieces of purple feathers and net, a bouquet of red dahlias, and gold shoes made quite a picture. Since Prague has no supermarkets or department stores, finding small things such as ribbon or black marking pens to

He also broke a plate on the ground outside the restaurant and watched while Mikki and Brian cleaned it up as a married couple to “practice” teamwork make place cards for the reception dinner meant finding the exact shop that sold them as well as learning the exact Czech words for them. When they planned their wedding, Brian and Mikki chose to be respectful of the customs of Prague and the Czech Republic. One of these traditions was ending the ceremony with a Bohemian Sekt (sparkling wine) toast of gratitude and appreciation to their entire wedding party. Afterwards, another Czech tradition they observed was to serve hot soup as part of their dinner menu. The manager of the restaurant where they celebrated told them it could not be a wedding without soup. He also broke a plate on the ground outside the restaurant and watched while Mikki and Brian cleaned it up as a married couple to “practice” teamwork and harmony in marriage. And last, Czech folk dancers,

A street scene from Prague, the city of red tile roofs and 100 spires.

dressed in traditional costumes, performed throughout the evening. Mikki’s hat stayed in place no matter how many times she was whirled around the floor. Several guests wrote treasured notes to Brian and Mikki on the back of their paper placemats telling where and how they met

October 2011 | The Good Life

the bride and groom and wishing them well. The happy couple spent their two-week honeymoon in Eastern Europe before returning to London. Why did they choose Prague? Mikki’s reply was, “It’s our favorite place in the world.”

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Bem and Duh in traditional tribal clothing celebrate Children’s Day at the school. Photos by Stacia Davis

Bo, a sixth grade girl, looks over Stacia Davis’ shoulder as she plans her English lesson for the next day’s class.

Four years in the village of smiles Leavenworth woman finds her passion teaching among the hill tribe people of Thailand by Jessica Creel

I was introduced to Leav-

enworth local Stacia Davis last New Year’s Eve when she sent off sky lanterns she had brought back from Thailand into the icy cold night. As they floated through the night sky like a pack of jellyfish, I began to unpack Stacia’s beautiful journey into the culture of northern Thailand. Many of us may think of mak-

ing a long-term excursion to a far away place but moving to a foreign country is not something that everyone can hack. It takes a certain type of outlook to survive outside your element. Before Stacia made the decision to make her first trip to Thailand, she yearned to do something remarkable with her life. This desire led her to sell off all her belongings and set off in her mid-30s to Thailand with her little more than a one-way ticket in her pocket.

| The Good Life

Four years later, she continues to take annul trips to Thailand to take care of and teach the children who so easily won over her heart. Stacia has chosen to live only part time in Leavenworth. She uses her Leavenworth time to gather a new perspective, regroup, and work so she can bring back new supplies and funds to help with the projects there. The first trip that led her to the place she now calls her second home started in Bang-

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| October 2011

kok and then on north, into the mountains of northern Thailand and to the beautiful city of Chiang Mai. After arriving in Chiang Mai, she contacted non-profit organizations seeking schools needing a volunteer English teacher. After sending out over a dozen emails, she heard back from a Swedish man named Jan. He told her about the hill tribe people who had migrated from Laos, China and Cambodia over the past hundreds of years,

Boys from the school rinsing mud off after collecting catfish from the school fish farm to send to market. The sale of these fish helps to fund school lunches.

settling in the northern part of Thailand. Jan told Stacia of a small school in a very remote village, high in the mountains in desperate need of assistance. He had visited this school just the week before and told her if she wanted to go there, he could arrange it. Although Jan warned of the rugged conditions of life there, Stacia felt drawn to the village and that afternoon he called the school director to arrange her transportation for the next day. The next morning, Stacia waited on a designated street corner where she was picked up in an old pickup truck, driven an hour an a half up into the mountains where a tribesman came to pick her up and take her the rest of the way. Despite Jan’s warnings, the school was run down beyond anything she had seen before. (Coming from Stacia this means something because this is a girl who had spent part of her life living as a gypsy.) Not a single native person spoke English. With her one bag in tow, they led her into “the barn” that would become her

home for the next 14 months. When they opened the doors, there were spider webs everywhere — and they were giving her the nicest room in the village. The room made of bamboo with milk cartoons smashed in between to make a wall couldn’t keep out the sound of rats scampering through the night. Over the next couple weeks, she began to get to know the children of the school and the people of the village. As she surveyed the school, she became overwhelmed by the lack of school supplies, lack of teachers and lack of hygiene in the cooking area and toilets. There was so much to be done,

October 2011 | The Good Life

Sawalot cozies up to one of her family’s calfs. Every Sunday each family in the village takes turns slaughtering a cow, which everyone in the village will then eat the meat for the next week.

yet the school seemed to thrive off her energy and it seemed like all that was needed was a little push from her to make some improvements with their structures and school organization. Stacia said prior to living with these hill people called the Karen, she didn’t really truly understand the importance of community; being in a place where everyone takes care of everyone and everyone’s kids. One day, while teaching an English lesson on family members, she asked the children who their grandpa was. Their answers surprised her as they began to list almost 20 men’s names. They said, “We have 17

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grandpas,” or, “I have 23 brothers,” because everyone is family in the village. It was this sense of community that Stacia had never experienced before that made her fall in love with the village. That love kept her there trying to do everything she possibly could to help the school and get them more established: hours of sorting through piles of paper that could be reused and sharpening pencils with x-acto knives. After a month of getting to know the kids, Stacia could speak enough Thai that she could converse with them and understand and tell stories.

}}} Continued on next page

Teaching in a village of smiles }}} Continued from previous page She soon realized improving the school wasn’t going to happen quickly. She then secured a one-year volunteer work visa so she could stay in the village, teaching English and doing whatever else she could to help the school. The Thai government doesn’t have enough funding to put a school in every village, so it will put a central school in an area and kids from all directions hike in, sometimes up to eight miles, on Monday morning and stay in the dormitory for the week and then walk home for the weekend. As the rainy season approached, she was in the office working up lesson plans when a torrential downpour hit. On her return home to “the barn,” she heard the sound of little girls crying as she walked past the dormitory. She went to the door and saw all eight girls huddled together in a corner, shivering and trying to keep dry as the mud floor had flooded. Raindrops fell from the ceiling, dropping water onto the loosely hanging electrical wires before hitting the giant puddle on the floor. This sight broke her heart. She gathered all the shivering

Chii accidently sprayed himself in the face with a bottle of baby powder.

kids out of the dormitory and brought them into the dry barn with her. Although the floor of the barn was concrete, at least it would be dry for the children to sleep on. She heated water to make tea for them to drink and warm them up. Afterwards, the children cuddled together under what dry blankets she had to give them, and she watched them sleep peacefully. For the first time since arriving in the village, she had a clear sense of where to start with helping grow this school — she would raise money to build a new dormitory for the children. The next day she took her

| The Good Life

point-and-shoot camera, switched it to video mode and made a video of the unsanitary kitchen and bathroom and the recently flooded dormitory. She posted it on YouTube with a plea for help. She then sent a link to the video to everyone in her email address book and then sat back to wait, wondering if anyone would even notice. This one little video was reposted and reposted on sites all over the world, reaching radio stations, non-profit organizations, schools and other volunteer organizations around the globe. In the end, Stacia received donations from people in nine countries, had several school groups actually come out to help with the construction and ended up raising enough to rebuild not only the dormitory and bathrooms, but the entire kitchen and canteen area, and even had enough left over to buy bunk beds, sheets and pillows for the dormitory and a new full-size refrigerator and all the necessary kitchen utensils to stock the kitchen. I asked Stacia if she feels like she is contaminating a pure vil-

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| October 2011

lage with our modern day standards of learning and living. She replied, “If I could build a glass bubble around their village to protect them I would. However, the merging of the modern world with pure village life is inevitable. They are receiving more and more influence from the city and it is important to give them the tools necessary to survive in the world that will eventually reach them, regardless of how much we may want to protect them from that world.” Coming and going between Thailand to Leavenworth has given Stacia the realization that while she is teaching the village kids how to survive in the modern world, she has really learned so much more about life, love and the things that are really important. “The children in Thailand love to smile!” said Stacia. “I’ll admit I am a naturally happy person but sometime’s through some of the monsoons and hard times a person can start to feel defeated. The strength I saw in the people of the village came partly from their smiling; it is contagious, when someone is smiling they brighten up the area, change the mood, make things happier. “A smiling person brings happiness with them and that is the one of the biggest gifts they gave me.” Of her time there, Stacia said: “Thailand taught me lessons that have been simple and very practical to apply to my life here in Washington: Pause, breathe and create.” Stacia’s latest project for the school is to raise money to rebuild its playground. Not only does the playground equipment at the Kewsua School not live up to Western safety standards, it is downright dangerous. Jagged, rusted edges and broken pieces of metal are all that is left of this old, outdated play yard. To find out more about the playground project as well as to stay in touch and check out her inspirational stories and maybe even see the world from a different perspective, visit: www.facebook.com/allgodsbeautifulchildren.

column GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

bonnie orr

Eating beets on burgers and in a cake ncwgoodlife. com/_blog/ Garden_of_ Delights.)

To be or not to be a beet-

lover. That is the question. It seems you is or you ain’t; however, beets are worthy eats. Beets are in the goosefoot family. Its cousins are lamb’s quarters (a garden weed that can be added to salads), spinach, Swiss chard and amaranths such as quinoa. Sugar beets have been grown in this area for sugar and animal feed. The dried root is used as a coloring agent in processed foods. These lovely red globes are a spring and a fall crop. In August, I planted beets, and will mulch them heavily this month to prevent the ground from freezing; I can dig them all winter. With a tall stake, I mark the row to be visible in the snowy landscape. I confess that I have always liked beets. Because I am of that certain age, I remember when Harvard beets — the veggie in a sweet and sour sauce — was wildly popular in the middle of the last century. (Does that sound like a long time ago?) When I lived in Australia, I was delighted when I found that hamburgers were served with a patty, the regular condiments, plus a large slice of canned beet and a fried egg. Great cooks work out with me at the water aerobics class at the YWCA Eastmont pool. Rana Wilcox suggests chopping raw leaves and cooked beet and layering with sour cream in a large, flat saucepan. Simmer until the leaves are wilted, and the beets are warmed through. As we vigorously simulate Bonnie Orr gardens and cooks in East Wenatchee.

Stir-fried beets with citrus

Can chocolate make beets more fun to eat?

Beet Chocolate Cake For my birthday, My friend Anne McClendon from Cashmere made a moist, sweet and delicious cake. I recommend it, especially to beet-shy eaters. This can be made with purchased canned beets or cooked beets from the garden. Ingredients

3 oz unsweetened chocolate 1-1/2 cups cooked beets pureed 3 eggs 1-1/2 cups sugar 1 cup corn oil 1 teaspoon vanilla 1-3/4 cups flour 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup chocolate chips - optional

cross-country skiing in the water, Val Sabina related that her teenaged sons loved beet burgers. These patties are made with grated beets, onions, carrots, Cheddar cheese, garlic, and sesame and sunflower seeds October 2011 | The Good Life

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Grease a 9/13 baking pan Melt the chocolate in a double boiler Blend the beets, eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla in a food processor Stir melted chocolate into the above. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the processor and blend lightly. Pour the batter into the baking dish Bake for 35 minutes Serve as is, or with a dusting of powdered sugar. Or smooth ¾ cup of chocolate chips onto the top of the cake when it first comes out of the oven.

blended together with eggs and a bit of flour and soy sauce. Mix to a thick consistency, make into patties and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. (The complete recipe is located on The Good Life’s web site, www. www.ncwgoodlife.com

2 cups grated raw beets 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice 3 Mandarin oranges peeled and broken into sections Salt and pepper 3 tablespoons chopped dill or parsley for garnish. Put the beets, salt and pepper and juice in a pan, stir, cover and let steam for 8 minutes. If the juice is absorbed too rapidly, add water to the pan. The beets should be slightly crisp. Add the orange sections and cook one more minute. Serve and garnish — easy huh? It seems everyone has a pickled beet recipe. I have collected dozens of them written on scraps of paper and the back of napkins. The pickles will keep in the refrigerator for months, or preserve by canning, so you can give them for Christmas presents. Here is my favorite.

Pickled Beets

Boil 4 cups small beets until just tender and then peel them. Pickling liquid: 2 cups water, vinegar and sugar. Heat this to boiling in a separate pan. For each pint of beets add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1 tablespoon horseradish Put beets in a jar, pour in the pickling liquid, secure a top and put the jars in the refrigerator until you want a summer treat in the cold winter.

The four-story house with its shady parklike front yard is an eye-catching treat on a drive up Castlerock Avenue. Fishscale upper siding and periodcorrect colors are two of the many features that contribute to the “historic home” designation.

A well-preserved Victorian Story by Susan Lagsdin Photos by Donna Cassidy

The wide curved expanse

of white concrete driveway is brand new, welcomed after 24

years of gradually disintegrating gravel and too much weeding. “You bet I’m putting in more improvements. I’m going to stay here as long as I can,” said Joyce O’Neal in her soft Arkansas drawl. Recently retired from her

| AT HOME WITH The Good Life

Mirrors, mirrors everywhere -- their light and height reflects the tall windows at the other end of the long parlor room.

counseling career and about to turn 70, declares she has no intention of leaving her dream house at 1230 Castlerock Avenue.

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| October 2011

She found it by sweet coincidence, she lived 20 happy years in it with her late husband Sonny, and she’s got definite designs on her future with it.

Joyce O’Neal outside: There’s always a place to rest in shade or sun — every corner and niche around the outside of the house seems to have a chair or a visual focal point.

Her beloved home, completed in 1903 in a restrained late Victorian style, is in the National Register of Historic Homes. Deeply set on its lot and exquisitely landscaped, it’s a neighborhood treasure and a visual

delight for people driving by. It once housed the France family, and local historian Vernon France carved a little childhood love note into the bark of one of the big trees he may have climbed.

When they purchased the four-level home in 1987, the O’Neals chose to preserve the original structure as much as possible. Joyce admires some of the previous owners’ choices, like the ochre and cream exteri-

or paint and retaining the cedar siding, fish scale detailing and carved window shutters. No owner has refinished the basement, where the original rough sawn support timbers still

}}} Continued on next page

Ask the energy experts Whether you’re adding insulation*, upgrading your heating system or making other energy-efficiency improvements to your home, call us first: (509) 661-8008. We can help you make cost-effective decisions based on local rates and climate. Mark Wiser Conservation adviser

*Rebates are available for adding insulation and replacing windows. Learn more at www.chelanpud.org. October 2011 | AT HOME WITH The Good Life

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1936

D for ge nera

ti o

Visit our website for tips on choosing products and services that work best for you.

2011

www.chelanpud.org | 19

Sconces and chandeliers throughout — some draped with glass beads, some more austere, lend a distinctly Victorian ambience. }}} Continued from previous page show. But the tile-edged swimming pool is relatively new, and a major overhaul, actually more convenient now, was reconfiguring one long, steep stairwell into a two-entrance open stair with a landing. Joyce, using her interior design experience, made a few respectful changes of her own. Early on, one large wall of deep closets directly facing the

Family and friends over the years have delighted in the comfort and color coordination of the sitting area and its Victorian details.

front door entrance was deemed not original and was removed, opening the first floor living area into a parlor and a formal dining room. Joyce gestured to the wide central area between them: “This is right where we put the

Christmas tree every year. It reaches to the ceiling — people can see the lights when they drive by.” She added a narrow glasspaned door in the playroom. It leads around to a diminutive balcony area over the stairs,

NCW Home Professionals

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| October 2011

where scaled-down furniture attracts grandchildren. “They actually put on plays there — we all sit on the stairs and they perform on the balcony above us.” Replacement windows, including those in a glass front hutch and in the garage doors, were carefully chosen for their leaded and beveled period look. Replicas of ornate doorknobs and doorplates were found. Sconces and chandeliers throughout — some draped with glass beads, some more austere, lend a distinctly Victorian ambience. But it’s the décor — the ornamentation, window and wall treatments and careful positioned artifacts of another age — that creates the look of the house. Walls of variously framed portraits (mostly family, some antique store finds) evoke the past. Period glassware, china and curios fill tabletops and shelves. Delicate white and cream lace drapes the windows, watered silk-look wall paper reaches to the ceilings. And almost every feature throughout the house is done in the signature peach and turquoise that you’d find in Joyce’s color-coordinated walk-in closet. Joyce is refreshingly candid about her sources. She’s not an antique hound, a provenance snob. “Some of these pieces are valuable, but I pick things up in junk stores, from Goodwill, from Ross, second hand discount stores — anywhere I find them.” She’s confident about the ambience she wants to create, and fully enjoys decorating and re-decorating, but smiles as she admits, “The house is full. I really have to stop collecting things.” The biggest structural change to their home included a master bedroom suite in a 750-squarefoot addition completed just in time for Joyce and her husband to enjoy it together — a sensible, easy-access, main-floor response to aging, but with the slightly

Finding the house 24 years ago was a serendipitous story Joyce retells with the clarity of a last week event. decadent air of a more luxurious era. Tucked away at back of the house, the spacious room looks on to pool and patio and the landscaped yard swathed in shade. Pale with light from high lace-covered windows, the space is silky and elegant. Modern conveniences were part of the addition, too. Two full walls of walk-in closet open into a large bathroom. Joyce had automatic shades (up and down with a remote) installed, and insisted on a big open pantry and laundry space inside the new side entrance door. Finding the house 24 years ago was a serendipitous story Joyce retells with the clarity of a last week event. Passing by the house with the realtor, Joyce had an immediate heartthrob reaction to the Southern look, the pine tree motif on the shutters (her husband was a forester), and the yard. But she kept silent — it wasn’t for sale. Meanwhile, her son was admonishing her not to settle, to look for the dream house. She recalls, “Finally I mentioned the ‘House of Dreams’ request and the agent drove me right to this house! We parked in the driveway. I was in tears.” It was indeed for sale. For the last quarter of its life, this old house has raised children, entertained friends, gathered extended family, hosted bible study, comforted counseling clients and delighted the many local people who see it every day.

Upstairs bedrooms are adorned with a variation on the pale fabrics, furniture and wall treatments Joyce favors for the main rooms of the house.

Its basement, with stairs almost too steep to negotiate, is still useful. Its roomy attic, walls unfinished, is a reverent place with Sonny O’Neal’s many Forest Service accolades displayed. “And we do use this place up here,”

Joyce says, “We gather around here for fun… we’ll dance, we sing a lot.” But the two main floors of the home are pure Joyce O’Neal — practical and well-used, full of lively color and distinctive charm.

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good STUFF // Ideas for the home

What’s old is new again Heidi Huber and

Kara Velazquez are high school friends from long ago who kept bumping into each other around town where they would talk about opening a retail shop together. “Wouldn’t it be fun to have a space where you could just roll up the door?” said Kara — who formerly had owned Inspirations at Home in downtown Wenatchee. “I know a place like that,” responded Heidi. And in March of this year, the pair opened Out On A Whim in the refurbished Wenatchee Radiator Shop building at 107 Fifth Street in Wenatchee. The roll-up door that once lead to service bays in the radiator shop now leads shoppers to a diverse collection of objects for the home — some new, some used and some re-purposed. “We sometimes find stuff that people are throwing away, sand it, refinish and sell it,” said Heidi, who believes it would be better to find new uses for old items, rather than throwing them away. “Those doors,” she said, pointing to a pair of wooden white doors staged against a wall, “were

Kara Velazquez, left, and Heidi Huber sit at the door of their shop, Out On A Whim, looked over by Kara’s grandson, Duncan.

from a house being remodeled. I took them — with permission — out of a dumpster.” Stories flow around the store — over there is a leather saddle re-purposed into a bar stool, against another wall is a metal CD rack just perfect for hanging sideways in a bathroom to use for storing rolled-up towels, dangling from a ceiling are lights made from old wooden pulleys, Mason jars and barnyard rope. “We must not have played house enough when we were young,” said Heidi with a smile, “because we love decorating.”

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| October 2011

Refurbished table, re-used saddle, a light from barnyard toss-offs, well-used boxing gloves â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all have a place as home decorations.

Special person wanted to sell special projects for The Good Life. The best candidate for this part-time position is a self-directed person who has experience with outside sales. Can work from home or our offices. Commission-based pay. Please email: Mike Cassidy, publisher editor@ncwgoodlife.com October 2011 |

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column THE TRAVELing DOCTOR

jim brown, m.d.

Food allergy can appear at any age

Imagine that you are driving

home from a church potluck and your eight-year-old child suddenly complains about having a stomachache. His face is turning red and he seems to be having trouble breathing. Could this be a food allergy? Do food allergies suddenly appear like this? When we were on an airplane recently, a stewardess announced that there was a child on board with a severe peanut allergy, and she asked that all passengers refrain from eating foods containing peanuts. No more mini snacks on this trip. Was this an over-reaction? An allergy to certain foods is a significant medical issue with potentially serious results. Although the exact prevalence of food allergy is not known, it is estimated that 10 million to 12 million Americans are affected. Children and adults who experience adverse reactions to food are often taken to emergency rooms or urgent care centers. The latest data reveal that every year there are over 200,000 visits to emergency rooms for acute food-related allergic reactions. Food allergy often affects young, otherwise healthy individuals. The first episode can occur at any age. Fewer than half of the patients coming to the ER with an acute food-induced allergic reaction had a prior history of an allergic reaction to the food causing the reaction. It is unclear why, but food allergy in our country is on the rise. In December 2010, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released its food allergy guidelines. These guidelines resulted from a review of 12,000 scientific papers

on this subject. Unfortunately, there are a number of other diseases with symptoms similar to food allergy, making it more likely to be over-diagnosed. Food allergies are more common in children and young adults. In about 80 percent of cases, children outgrow their food allergies to milk, eggs, wheat, and soy. Allergies to other foods, including peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish, are typically not outgrown and can be more serious. When an adult develops a food allergy, these allergies tend to persist. The panel also concluded that food allergies in children are not related to the diet of their pregnant mother, so avoiding certain foods while pregnant does not prevent food allergies in the child. Food allergies can appear as skin rashes, hives or facial flushing. It may appear acutely as an asthma attack with wheezing and shortness of breath. Gastrointestinal symptoms with acute abdominal pain, trouble swallowing, vomiting and diarrhea may come on within two hours after eating. This most serious result of food allergy is a severe reaction frequently associated with low blood pressure or shock. The likelihood of the reaction occurring is increased if the patient reports an exposure to a known allergen or has had a previous anaphylactic reaction. Typically the reaction is sudden, often accompanied by itching and hives, shortness of breath, as well as cramping abdominal pain and vomiting. The most common causes of this severe reaction are allergies to peanuts, tree nuts fish,

| The Good Life

shellfish, cow’s milk, soy, eggs or sesame seeds. In susceptible people a complicated allergic process and inflammatory reaction produces clinical symptoms in target organs including the skin, mucous membranes, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract and the cardiovascular system. Food allergy anaphylaxis is much more common than bee sting or latex anaphylaxis. It is potentially fatal if not recognized and managed promptly. The most important emergency treatment is an injection of epinephrine. Typically intravenous fluids are also started. How are food allergies accurately diagnosed? The clinical history is helpful in guiding the evaluation but cannot in itself make the diagnosis. Many allergists do tests such as pinprick skin tests, which can be helpful in identifying potential foods that could be causing the problem, but they are not adequate for a specific diagnosis. There are blood tests measuring levels of what are known as immunoglobulin E that can be useful in identifying potential food allergens. An elimination diet is also useful in helping make a diagnosis. However, the only direct way to make a definitive diagnosis is called the “oral challenge test.” The patient actually eats the suspected food in a closely monitored situation. The oral challenge test does have a number of advantages. It has a definitive outcome. The patient either will or will not tolerate the specific food being tested. This information is valuable to the family and will enhance

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| October 2011

the patient’s quality of life as well. The drawback of this testing is that it needs to be done in a controlled setting with proper equipment and trained personnel. These typically are boardcertified allergists who are experienced in assessing and treating anaphylaxis and who are comfortable performing the procedure. If performed by providers poorly equipped to handle potential reactions, life- threatening outcomes can occur. People who have experienced anaphylaxis need to carry an EpiPen® or EpiPen Jr® AutoInjector for emergency treatment of severe allergic reactions. They need to be instructed in its use and be referred to an allergy specialist, particularly one versed in food allergy. Food allergy seems to be increasing in our society. It is a serious and potentially life threatening condition. Patients suspected of having a food allergy need to be evaluated by a specialist who is familiar with the condition. One test alone will not make the diagnosis. The oral food challenge test, although labor intensive, is the most definitive way to confirm the diagnosis. The stewardess making the announcement on our plane may have been overreacting, but it is best not to take a chance when a food allergy is involved. Jim Brown, M.D., is a semi-retired gastroenterologist who has practiced for 38 years in the Wenatchee area. He is a former CEO of the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center.

column moving up to the good life

june darling

How to get more treats and fewer tricks A

re you getting too many tricks and not enough treats? Never fear, you can turn your tricks into treats — your bad experiences into good. In order to turn tricks into treats, we must first grasp that our minds can perceive the same situation in distinctly different ways — the glass as half empty or half full. It is our perception of experiences and people rather than the actual event or behavior that causes much pain, fear, anger, or joy. Whether we perceive life as tricking us or treating us, according to psychologists, depends on how we look at it — how we “frame” it. Here’s an example from my world of how framing creates a trick or a treat. My husband is a dentist. Many people avoid going to dentists. The way they frame it is that dentists give you shots in your mouth. They grind, drill, or pull out your teeth while you’re hogtied in a chair. Others frame going to the dentist differently. They get a “pinch” that may sometimes cause discomfort as their smile is enhanced and their oral health improved. They relax, kick back in a comfy chair, and listen to music or watch a video. Framing casts an event as either a stressful trauma or spa experience. Here are some situations to consider. You got fired. Will you frame that as a major trauma, a challenge, or a vacation? Your spouse talks a lot. Your child didn’t make the basketball team. You argued with your brother. Are they tricks or treats? It all depends on how you frame it.

Okay, fine, but what do you do about changing how you frame things? Let’s suppose that you realize you’re stressing over something that seems awful and you can’t seem to change how you view it. You’re stuck in one nasty, debilitating perspective. How can you slap your mind around into a more useful, even enchanting frame? “Reframing” is a technique you can use to change the way you look at something and, thus, change your experience of it. Two good questions based on the work of famous psychologist Virginia Satir and psychiatrist Milton Erickson operate like magic to create new frames. The first question redirects our attention to a different, more opportunistic angle: “How might this (experience, behavior, belief, trait) have value?” Example: I’ve lost my job. Magic Question: How might this have value? Enchanting Reframe: I finally have an opportunity to start my own business. The second question allows us to reconsider our limited, often negative, interpretations: What

else could this (event, behavior) mean — in what way could this be useful or a resource? Example: My wife doesn’t trust me to make good decisions for our future. Magic Question: What else could this mean — in what way could this be useful or a resource? Enchanting Reframe: My wife can be a strong partner in good decision-making. The alchemy of transforming tricks into treats, changing a bad life into a better one, boils down to first being aware that attention can be moved around. Secondly, good questions are like magic. They can redirect attention and open new vistas. If you want more treats in your life, practice using the two

ADVERTISE IN THE MARKETPLACE Reach the adventurous readers of

who are willing to try something new. Please contact

Donna Cassidy donna@ncwgoodlife.com John Hunter (509) 699-0123 October 2011 | The Good Life

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magic questions this October. Over time, you may find yourself knocking down the door to see your dentist (who will definitely want to see you after you’ve eaten all that candy you bought for Halloween). How might you move up to the good life by learning the technique of reframing tricks into treats? June Darling, Ph.D., is an executive coach who consults with businesses and individuals to achieve goals and increase happiness. She can be reached at drjunedarling@aol.com, or drjunedarling.blogspot.com or at her twitter address: twitter.com/ drjunedarling. Her website is www. summitgroupresources.com.

column ALEX ON WINE

ALEX SALIBY

Pinot Noir: Queen of red wines I like Pinot Noir wines, but it

wasn’t always that way. I remember reading Hugh Johnson’s works decades ago and wondering why that bon vivant seemed to be carrying on a love affair with the red wines of Burgundy. Of course, back then I was really ignorant of wine. I mean, the good stuff for me came in gallon jugs by Carlo Rossi or Gallo. We even took two cases of gallon jugs of Inglenook Burgundy with us when we moved from San Jose, CA to Roswell, GA in 1974. One of those cases was dropped off the moving van and went smashing down onto the driveway of our new Georgia home. All four gallons were lost in that accident. But I digress. Those early “Burgundy” beverages were far from what they claimed to be. For the most part, those jug wines were blends of a variety of grapes and rarely had any real Pinot Noir juice in the mix. I didn’t know back then the wines were not named for the grape for just that reason. Call a bottle of wine Pinot Noir, and 75 percent of the juice from which the wine had been made must have been squeezed from Pinot Noir grapes. By calling the wine “Hearty Burgundy” and suggesting the presence of the principal red wine grape of Burgundy, which is Pinot Noir, Gallo was free to blend juice from any kind of grape into the wine. Carignan, Zinfandel, Grenache, Petit Sirah: wines from all those grapes got mixed into a variety of specially named wines that attempted to conjure images of the delightful beverages of Burgundy. Thankfully, times have

sometimes even strawberry fruits. n Lighter in weight than the reds of Bordeaux or the Rhone regions. n Lower in alcohol level than many other red wines. This is true of a real Burgundy-grown wine where the growing season is shorter and cooler. There are some winemaker tricks that hot climate wineries can employ to lower the alcohol. Reverse osmosis or spinning cone treatments can be used, or they can simply add back some water to the wine, reducing the alcohol by volume level to the desired point. n Flexible in food pairing. Pinot Noir pairs Pinot Noir from Crayelle Cellars in Cashmere. beautifully with an array of foods, including those changed. Wine makers here at often reserved exclusively for home, from California, Oregon white wines. One food writer and Washington, recognize I read recently suggested pairthere’s a market for good, solidly ing Pinot Noir with scallops, made Pinot Noir wine. or black cod or tuna, as well as Pinot Noir is not a hearty with the ever-popular salmon. wine, as the name Hearty BurAnd Pinot Noir is said to pair gundy suggests. On the conbrilliantly with Camembert and trary, most Pinot Noir, properly Gruyere cheeses. made, is delicate and lighter Over a decade ago I was in a in color and body than wines meeting where both Steve Kludt made from many other red wine and Bob Christopher were presgrapes. ent, and the talk was about the Pinot is: possibility of seeing the Lake n Light in color, not deep and Chelan area develop into a predark like plum or blackberry. mium wine-growing region. Pinot Noir grapes have less Both men were among sevpigment in the skins than most eral in that area who were early other red wines, so the wine in planters of grapes and early your glass will seem more trans- believers in the region’s quality parent. potential. One of Steve’s comn Complex in aromatics and ments has stayed with me all flavors, so search for cloves and these years as we have seen his cinnamon, violets and mint, and vision materialize. He predicted, look for mushrooms and loam “I think you’ll see the day when on the nose and often espresso Lake Chelan will be a renowned and licorice on the palate, as Pinot Noir growing region.” well as the cherry, raspberry and As it turned out, Steve was

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correct: the Lake Chelan AVA region has some outstanding Pinot Noir wines being made from Lake Chelan AVA grown grapes, but he was a bit short of being really clairvoyant because he missed forecasting the importance of the greater NCW growing area as a haven for the grape. We now know that quality Pinot Noir wines are being made from estate grapes as far north in Washington as the upper Okanogan Valley and as far south as Mattawa, where Milbrandt’s Evergreen Vineyard is also producing quality Pinot Noir fruit. Here’s a short list of the North Central Washington wineries with award-winning Pinot Noir wines on their list: • Benson Vineyards Estate Winery • Chateau Faire le Pont • Chelan Estate Cellars • Esther Bricques Winery • Hard Row to Hoe Winery • Karma Vineyards • Lake Chelan Winery • Okanogan Estate Cellars • Tunnel Hill Winery • Ventimiglia Cellars • Wapato Point Cellars And sometime soon, possibly mid to late October, Craig Mitrakul will be releasing his new Crayelle Cellars Evergreen Vineyards Pinot Noir. I can hardly wait to taste it. The grape has arrived in style in this region. 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.

WHAT TO DO

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

Wings, Wheels & Wine, 10/1 – 2. Breakfast in the park, car show, swap meet, airplane rides, aircraft displays, kids’ activities, food and craft fair, carnival rides and entertainment On Saturday, noon – 4 p.m. join Wenatchee Wine Country at the Wenatchee Jet Center for 12 tastes of wine in a souvenir glass for $20. A free shuttle runs guests from Douglas County Park to the wine garden/Airport. Info: www. wenatcheewines.com, or 6695808.

Apple Days, 10/1- 2, Two days of family fun. Cashmere Museum and Pioneer Village. Pumpkin Cannon Firing, 10/1 – 30. Did you know that pumpkins could fly? Every Sunday in October at 2 p.m. the pumpkin cannon fires real pumpkins at Stutzman Ranch. Visit the pumpkin patch, fruit stand and more. Stutzman Ranch, 2226 Easy St. Wenatchee. Info: wenatcheevalley.org. Air Force vs. Simon Frazier Division 1 Hockey, 10/1, 5:30 p.m. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $10. Info: towntoyotacenter1.com. Fall Harvest, 10/1, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

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Grape stomping, apple picking, cider press, sample over 12 varieties of apples, pick out a pumpkin, visit the corn maze, food, hummus and chicken wraps, Fausta’s Oaxacan specialties, Deb’s Delights cake lollipops and cheesecake on a stick. Wine from Tunnel Hill Winery. Sunshine Farm, Chelan. Cost: $6. Info: lakechelan.com. Mahogany & Merlot Vintage Boat Event, 10/1 – 2. On the water boat show featuring the Vintage Unlimited Hydroplanes from the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Seattle, along with restored vintage inboard limited class hydroplanes, and antique and

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classic mahogany runabouts from the golden era of pleasure boating. Beer and wine garden plus food vendors. Chelan Waterfront Marina. Cost: free. Info: lakechelan.com. R/C Unlimiteds, 10/1 – 2. Watch 35 to 45 of the fastest 1/8 scale unlimited hydroplanes race at Riverwalk Park in Chelan. Info: lakechelan. com. Bridge to a Cure, 10/2 through October. Some 420 bras are needed to cover both sides of the Pedestrian Bridge at the bottom of First Street in Wenatchee. Decorate your bra with $5 or more attached to

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WHAT TO DO

}}} Continued from previous page them, $20 or more for businesses to Drop Dead Fabulous. Money raised will go to the Wellness Place. Info: 667-9300 or email ddfab@ nwi.net. Lake Chelan Crush at the Wineries, 10/1 – 2 & 10/8-9. Take short hops between local wineries to observe first-hand the steps involved in grape harvest and wine production, including the opportunity to interact with the growers and winemakers and sample the awardwinning wines of the region. Local restaurants will feature specialty food items paired with distinctive local wines and there will be places for visitors to kick off their shoes to stomp grapes the old-fashioned way. Info: lakechelanwinevalley. com. CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT, 10/1-2. The American Civil War visits Plain with battle re-enactments done by the group Washington Civil War Association. The event marks the 100th birthday of Plain and the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. There will be four battle re-enactments, spaced between chances to tour the authentic Union and Confederate camps. Talk

to soldiers and civilians about camp life and learn about the significant role of women in the war effort. Oktoberfest, 10/1 and every weekend through October. Authentic German food, beer, music and dancing. Downtown Leavenworth. Info: leavenworthoktoberfest.com. Wenatchee River Salmon Festival, 10/1, 10 a.m., 10/2, 5 p.m. A natural resource education event celebrating the return of the salmon to the Wenatchee River. Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. Info: salmonfest.org. Octoberfest Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament, 10/1-2. Women and men’s double tournament – round robin. Wenatchee Racquet and Athletic Club. Info: Charl Grobler 662-3544. Echo Valley Run, 10/1. 10k, onehalf marathon, 50k and 50m. Echo Valley has long been a mecca for hiking, running, cross-country skiing, and mountain biking, so the first annual trail run will take you through some of the most spectacular scenery in Chelan so get those running shoes and cameras ready. Prizes, cookies, chips, bagels, fruit and juice at the finish line. Info:

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evergreentrailruns.com/oct-1-echovalley-run. NCW Innovation Showcase, 10/6, 1 – 5 p.m. Join GWATA as the organization highlights the region’s top innovators showcasing technology, healthcare, education tools, energy, transportation and agriculture. Touch some of the hottest products and learn from experts in the field. Confluence Technology Center. Howl at the Moon, 10/1, 7 p.m. Dance the night away to live country music by the popular local western band Standing Room Only at this fundraiser for The Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. Silent auction, door prizes and seasonal hors d’oeuvres. Wenatchee Golf & Country Club. Cost: $50. Info: 662-9577, or www. wenatcheehumane.org. Mission: Improv, 10/6, 7 p.m. & every Thursday. Free open workshop, theater games for novice and experienced players. Fun and casual. Riverside Playhouse. Info: www.mtow.org. Wenatchee Blues Jam, 10/6, 8 p.m. Open blues jam every first Thursday of the month. Grizzly

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Lounge in the Red Lion Hotel, 1225 N. Wen. Ave. Info: Tomasz Cibicki 669-8200. Beauty of Bronze Photos, 10/7, 5 – 8 p.m. Photographs by Kathryn Stevens capture the magic of local children experiencing the beauty of bronze. Items used were gathered from nature to create an outdoor sculpture in Riverfront Park. Children also create their own wax sculptures. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wenatcheewa.gov. Wenatchee First Fridays, 10/7, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Walk downtown for art, music, dining and entertainment. Downtown Wenatchee. Whimsical Art, 10/7, 5 – 8 p.m. Lupe Base’s clay objects invades Gallery 4 South and runs until 10/29. Meet the artist 10/7. Harmony Field, 10/7, 6 p.m. & 8 p.m. View a new film by local director Charley Voorhis, starring James McLaughlin. A metaphysical interpretation of what it’s like to cope with loss and to unveil a purpose to proceed in life. Barn Beach Reserve, 347 Division St. Leavenworth. Info: barnbeachreserve.org. Winemakers’ Dinner & Cellar

WHAT TO DO

Christening, 10/7, 6 p.m. Join winemaker Guy Evans and chefs Erik Cannella and Adrianne Young of Café Manson for a special fivecourse winemaker’s dinner to christen Tunnel Hill’s new cellar. Dinner will feature produce grown at The Sunshine Farm in its certified organic market garden. Limited seating, reservations required. Tunnel Hill Winery, Chelan. Cost: $70/person plus gratuity and tax. Info: 682-3243 for reservations or reserve online at www.tunnelhillwinery.com. Quilt Show, 10/ 7 – 8, Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacenter1. com. Ruth Couraud Mattson, 10/7, 5 – 8 p.m. Ruth’s paintings will be on exhibit along with over 40 other local artists’ works. The wood sculptures of nationally acclaimed artist Milo Mirabelli are also featured. Live music by hammered dulcimer performer Connie Celustka. Wine and complimentary refreshments. Two Rivers Gallery. Exhibit ongoing through October, WednesdaySaturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sunday 1 – 4 p.m. Fridays until 7 p.m. Info: 2riversgallery.com. Crab Feed, 10/8, 6 p.m. Wenatchee Valley Senior Center. Info: wenatcheevalley.org. Fire Ecology in Action, 10/8, 9:30 a.m. Take a hike with renowned photographer John Marshal and research ecologist Paul Hessburg on a tour of the Rat Creek fire area. John Marshall has been using photography to document dynamic changes in the landscape there since the 1994 fire. Paul Hessburg is an expert in landscape disturbance and fire ecology. The tour will visit sites that are still recovering and discuss how plants, animals, and landscape changes after a major fire. Info: cdlandtrust. org. Family ArtVentures: Recycled Puppets, 10/8, 10 a.m. - noon. Bryan and Anna Smith will work with family members in creating unique puppets from discarded materials such as cans, bottles, plastic bags and old silverware. Students are encouraged to bring their own recycled components to integrate into their puppet’s design. Other materials are provided. Pre-register at 888-6240. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wenatcheewa.gov. Buckner Orchard Harvest Fest, 10/8, 10 a.m. Pick apples,

The Art Life

// SKETCHES OF LOCAL ARTISTS

Creating Grounded art from a sky high viewpoint W

enatchee artist Scott Bailey admits it was “kind of a reverse culture shock” when he moved here after studying art in Italy, teaching English in Kagoshima, Japan for five years, writing for a London-based arts journal, traveling in 50 countries and heading the art department in Cairo, Egypt (a city of 18 million) for another five years. When he and his Japanese wife and young twin sons moved here in 2003, the multicultural household found they needed frequent westside runs for language immersion and favorite foods, as well as for the urban art buzz. But he’s not complaining — he’s actually back in his element, which is, quite simply, the elements. Raised in Grand Coulee, Scott had early aptitude for both art and science. Now, a fascination with geologic landforms drives his work thematically, and a recent sabbatical year allowed him to experiment with US Geologic Surveys, DGI (digital information models) and CGI (computer generated imagery) to share those ideals. Always a painter but also fully engaged in technology, Scott has developed a hybrid body of work manipulating photo-realistic virtual landscapes of the region, often transforming them with oil on canvas into painterly landscapes with a glow of 19th century romanticism. Blending the cutting edge and the traditional stretches him and engenders lively discussions about the meaning and the

Through a process of controlled accidents involving countless splatters of transparent drops of cyan, magenta and yellow acrylic paint, artist Scott Bailey created the canvas behind him expressing the night views from space of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan.

making of art. There’s fertile ground for those conversations. Scott, 43, teaches at Wenatchee Valley College and directs the art department. As many artists find, the rigors of the day job and the call of creative work vie for his time and energy, but, using summers to the maximum, he consistently produces his art. He says, “I’ve made that a priority — ‘getting better’ at making art every year, moving forward.” And in the past 15 years he has exhibited one solo show per year of new pieces at sites like university galleries and the elite Lawrimore Project in Seattle. Each of his major moves in the world, he says, has meant “looking for an artistic process that is true to my changing experiences.” But his personal aesthetic and philosophy is strongly shaped by Japanese culture — the reverence for nature, even with the vast overlay of human development, the sensuality of sumi-e ink painting, where the actual

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movement of the brush is celebrated, the deliberate sparseness of line and design. He’s an evolving artist — not currently constrained by the marketing of his art, he can do his own work in his own way, which creates a unique tension. He realizes, “When I’m working on a project, I’m rarely at peace with what I’m doing, but when I am not working, I don’t feel right either!” Scott has found what he needs for his family and for his own creative future in Wenatchee, near the geographic center of the state. “I always thought I would live in a big city and take my vacations to a quieter part of the country — I guess it turned out to be the other way around.” He could tell you, and even more dramatically show you, that his chosen home town is 780 feet above sea level at 47°25’24”N 120°19’31”W. See a new and different artistic perspective on our region at Scott’s website www.sbailey.us. — by Susan Lagsdin

WHAT TO DO

}}} Continued from previous page make cider, enjoy a community potluck and music. Bring potluck dish, lawn chairs and containers for cider. Chili, plates, utensils, cups, napkins, coffee and juice will be provided. Buckner Orchard, Stehekin. Info: bucknerhomestead.org. The Kevin Jones Duo, 10/8, 2 – 4 p.m. Live music, great wine in a waterfall garden setting. Tunnel Hill Winery, Chelan. Vineyard and cellar tour at noon, wine tasting seminar at 1 p.m. Info: tunnelhillwinery.com. Salmon Naturalist Walk 10/9. Join biologist Phil Archibald for a hike along the Entiat River during salmon spawning and learn about their incredible journey from the Pacific to the Entiat. The salmon return to the Stillwaters section of this river each year and are visible from the riverbank as they spawn and guard their eggs. The hike will travel through the Land Trust’s Stormy Creek Preserve and also cover the plants, birds, and wildlife that live in and use the area for shelter and forage. RSVP. Info: cdlandtrust.org. Wait Until Dark, 10/13 – 15, 10/20-22 & 10/27-29, 7:30 p.m. A

Music Theatre of Wenatchee production. Riverside Playhouse. Info: mtow.org. Chelan Chase, 10/15. A 5K race, run and walk (3.1 miles). All proceeds equally benefiting the Lake Chelan Community Hospital Mammography Department, Chelan Douglas Relay For Life/American Cancer Society and The Wellness Place. Riverwalk Park, Downtown Chelan. Pre-race starts at 9:45 a.m. with the start time at 10 a.m. on the Old Bridge. The event is open to all racers, runners, walkers, wheelchairs and strollers. Info and registration: www.Chelanchase. com. Leavenworth Oktoberfest Marathon, 10/15, 9 a.m. Marathon, half marathon and marathon relay distances. Info: Ian Crossland 860-5863. Ice Age Adventures: Baby Behemoth, 10/15, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Baby Ems, a three-foot-long replica of a baby woolly mammoth skeleton discovered in Siberia in the late 1990s, highlights the museum’s Ice Age Adventures program. This family activity day focuses on geology, Ice Age mammals and the Clovis people who inhabited our region

11,500 years ago. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wenatcheewa.gov. Venerable Variations, 10/15, 7 p.m. Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra. Performing Arts Center. Info: pacwen.org. Alan Munde & Adam Granger, 10/15, 7:30 p.m. Alan Munde considered one of bluegrass’ most influential and innovative banjo pickers and Adam Granger author of Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar, the largest collection of fiddle tunes for guitar tablature in the world, at Cashmere Community Coffeehouse. Cost: $3 plus pass the hat. Info: cashmerecoffeehouse. com. Geology and Roslyn Cemetery, 10/16, 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. Bus tour. Travel along Blewett Pass with geologist Brent Cunderla and discover the interesting geology and history of the area plus a guided tour of the historic Roslyn Cemetery, which reflects the rich ethnic mix of people living in Roslyn and working in its coal mines in the early 1900s. Meet at Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $27. Info: Pauline Sweeney 888-6241. Enviro film: Truck Farm, 10/18, 7 – 9 p.m. The Wenatchee Valley Environmental Film Series presents the 55-minute film Truck Farm, an entertaining look at urban agriculture from the eyes of two young Brooklyn men. They create a mobile community garden in a bed of a 1986 Dodge pickup, showing that just about anybody can grow tomatoes, broccoli and herbs in the shadow of their apartment building

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or condo. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $5 suggested. Info: wenatcheewa.gov. Woman of the Year Luncheon, 10/19, 11:45 a.m. Business and Professional Women is hosting the annual WOY luncheon. Laura Herrera will be the inspirational guest speaker. Red Lion Hotel. Cost: $27. Info: Laura Camarillo 421-0199. History of Baseball in Wenatchee, 10/20, 2 – 3 p.m. Chris King, voice of the Wenatchee AppleSox, will trace the history of baseball in the Wenatchee Valley. His PowerPoint slide show will include highlights from general baseball history in America and the story of the semi-pro Wenatchee Chiefs, who entertained local fans from 1939 to 1965. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wenatcheewa.gov. Piccadilly Circus, 10/21, 4:30 & 7:30 p.m. Has everything you’d expect to see at a circus; elephant extravaganza, motorcycle madness, Mongolian angels, white tiger spectacular and a boxing kangaroo. Town Toyota Center. Info: thefuncircus.com. Doktor Kaboom, 10/21 6:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center. Info: pacwen.org. Book Buzz, 10/22, 1 p.m. Four authors for book signing. Enjoy Low Hanging Fruit, Susan Johnson’s intimate coming-of-age story set in Leavenworth. Father Koltzenburg shares The Secret Code of Monks, a scholarly and devout exploration of lives of the saints. In Year of the Angels, historical novelist

WHAT TO DO

Erika Madden, whose own childhood unfolded in Hitler’s Germany, evokes how children create magic and hope during wartime. And New York Times best-selling thriller author Kevin O’Brien, master of the blood-curdling and page-turning, shares his latest horribly wonderful Disturbed. A Book For All Seasons, Leavenworth. Cost: free. Make A Difference Day, 10/22. What will you do for Make A Difference Day? Info: Laurel Helton 6636662, http://www.wenatcheemkdd. com. Health & Wellness Fair, 10/22. Browse vendors, participate in screenings, learn about local fitness opportunities, enjoy healthy foods and listen to a panel of local athletes as they share their personal stories of fitness. Chelan High School Commons area. Info: lakechelan.com. HalloWine, 10/22, noon – 4 p.m. Enjoy a crisp autumn afternoon sipping wine, having a BBQ picnic and enjoying harvest time in the vineyard. Chateau Faire le Pont. Cost: $35 includes wine and food. Info: www.wenatcheewines.com. Michael Powers, 10/22, 7 p.m. Live music. River Haus in the Pines, Leavenworth. Cost: $35. Info: riverhausinthepines.com. Sankusem’s African Music Festival: African/Classical Fusion Concert, 10/28, 7 p.m. Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leavenworth. Cost: $20. African Traditional Drum and Dance Concert, 10/29, 7 p.m. Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leavenworth. Cost: $25. African Choral Concert, 10/30, 3 p.m. Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leavenworth. Cost: $15. Tickets: icicle.org or 1-800-838-3006. Info: sankusem. org. I Remember Mama, 10/ 28, 8 p.m., 10/29, 5 p.m. Cascade High School drama will perform in the high school auditorium. Info: iciclearts. org. The Magic of Bruce Meyers, 10/28 – 29, 8 p.m. Halloween magic show extravaganza. Barn Beach Reserve, Leavenworth. Cost: $10, 3 and under free. Info: iciclearts.org. Iron Mountain Body Building, Figure, Fitness, Bikini and Physique Championships, 10/29, 10 a.m. Performing Arts Center. Cost: $20-$30. Info: irongodproductions.com. Wenatchee Riverfront Railway, 10/30 – 31, 5 – 8 p.m. The

The Art Life

// SKETCHES OF LOCAL ARTISTS

The music woman — Listening for the long silence If you hand Leavenworth

pianist Susan Wagner a sheet of any music that’s been written, classical to pop to folk, she can read it and play it. Call her for a wedding or funeral and she’s there with the right songs for the occasion. Sit her down to share a favorite, and she’ll likely give you Scott Joplin’s The Maple Leaf Rag. But hum the tune to “I am sixteen going on seventeen. . .” or “Edelweiss, Edelweiss, every morning you greet me. . .” and she may smile politely and metaphorically cover her ears. It’s September 2011 and Leavenworth Summer Theater’s 18th season is completed. The Sound of Music, its perennial headliner and crowd-pleasing, world-recognized favorite has, for a few brief seasons, been laid to rest. But for many reasons Susan continues to love that music, and that musical. In 1994 she and her husband John bravely started a new semi-professional musical theater company in Leavenworth, with Hansel and Gretel as their premier show. Forest fires raged in the hills, the cramped middle school auditorium was hot, and “most nights there were more people on stage than in the audience,” she recalls. Financial disaster. The second year, on the Leavenworth Fish Hatchery stage, the couple produced The Sound of Music, and the rest is very happy history, with full houses and visitors clambering for miniature train in Riverfront Park runs on a figure-8 course of rails, bridges and trestles along the Columbia River. Rides are fun for all ages. Riverfront Park at 155 N. Worthen St. Info: wenatcheevalley. October 2011 | The Good Life

Susan Wagner and the empty stage as another summer season ends.

more. She said about the first good years, “Having to run over to the party store to rent more chairs at the last minute was a very nice problem to have.” Now LST venues swell with a Christmas show and two additional musicals every season, and Susan plays the role of music director. Though some jobs are parceled out, she coaches solo vocalists and small ensembles, she gathers and contracts each summer’s orchestra, and she’s at the theater most nights playing piano for the full run of any two of the shows. For years, before LST was even a dream, Susan (while also raising three children) played piano anywhere she could — not only teaching dozens of piano students but building an impressive resume as vocal director, as accompanist, and as rehearsal, show, and recital pianist in Idaho, California and finally Washington. She is less likely these busy days to do singleoccasion gigs, but realizes it’s a very marketable skill. “If you live here and you play piano — org. Trick or Treat on the Ave., 10/31, Kids are welcome downtown to trick-or-treat at businesses on Wenatchee Avenue. Info: wenatcheevalley.org.

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there’s always a job waiting for you.” Music theory and structure are definitely Susan’s forte. “Tempos are a big thing with me,” she understates, knowing how diligently some musicians have labored to meet her standards. She says she’d like to be more creative with music, not solely interpretive — to compose and arrange, to improvise on the spot and play jazz, but, she wryly admits, “I’m really a left-brain musician.” Perhaps — but she’s an indispensable left-brain musician who, season after season, helps others bring the music and the words together on stage. And Susan fully understands the effect of her efforts: “Sometimes, right when a song ends, there’s this huge long silence. Not immediate applause… it’s at that completely quiet moment when I know we’ve moved the audience.” See more about LST at www. leavenworthsummertheater. com. — by Susan Lagsdin 19th Annual Halloween Women’s Fly-in, 10/29 – 30. Pilots in some amazing costumes will launch from Chelan Butte and land in the Chelan Falls soccer field park. Info: lakechelan.com.

THE WILD IDLEWILD SAGA

it all started with a silent movie that needed a cabin in the woods for a prop Editor’s note: Historian Rod Molzahn is taking some time off from writing his monthly history column to work on his book. He’ll be back with a new column in the November issue. In his place this month is the colorful history of Idlewild by a Fish Lake resident.

By Christine Humphreys

Within the serene little

community of Idlewild on Fish Lake off Highway 2, in the Wenatchee forest there’s an ongoing story of lore and legend. It reads like a script out of Hollywood. In fact, a movie company literally got the log rolling when they built a cabin there in the woods in the summer of 1925. After shooting their silent film, they left the log cabin prop for another list of colorful characters to act out their various dreams. The Famous Players/Laskey entourage arrived in Leavenworth by the Number 4 train on July 27 to a depot packed with hundreds of spectators. The “super production”, The Ancient Highway starring Jack Holt and Billie Dove, was a tale of love and sabotage in a logging operation. The talk of the valley, it staged mob scenes with locals from rival lumber companies Great Northern and Rider. Hollywood hinted that the fights were more thrilling than usual because some long-standing grudges were settled “legally” under the command of megaphone man, director Irvin Willat. Even Leavenworth’s town marshal, the legendary Dude Brown, got into some hand-tojaw combat in one action scene and suffered a black eye. Hero and camera crew risked their lives in and around icy whitewater, even canoeing over

A still from the now lost silent film, The Ancient Highway.

A restored cabin at Idlewild overlooks docks and peaceful Fish Lake.

rapids. The heroine came especially close to disaster running across and falling under slippery moving logs in swift water. Six loggers went into the river after her but she pulled herself to safety. The principal players dodged shrapnel in the powder explosion of a log jam and were happy to escape with their lives. Years after the movie hoopla ended, Hollywood’s little cabin prop was purchased by a Welshman who had a passion for flyfishing, William H. Humphreys. As the proprietor/director of

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his Idlewild fishing resort he, too, carried a megaphone. When rough winds began to blow, Bill used it to call in his rental boats. Grandson John T. Humphreys, 21 years in Hollywood and 41 speaking into microphones, now at KOHO radio remembers Idlewild fondly — as a fouryear-old the ice water Coke machine held an Orange Crush that he had to lovingly wind around through a cool maze of glass bottles after Granddad handed him a dime. Granddad Humphreys, who was appointed a national Aide

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| October 2011

to the Commander-in-chief as a Spanish American War veteran, and who also served twice as chief of police in Wenatchee, grew up in Trinidad, Colo., when Wyatt Earp was dealing faro there at marshal Bat Masterson’s saloon. He recalled a time when his fearless uncle, known as “Kid Clark,” naively insulted a notorious outlaw at that bar — and lived. Those were the days of Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Gang and frightful gunslingers like Black Jack Ketchem. Because Bill’s dad had a cigar store on a prominent corner, Bill served them all, good guys and bad, as a clerk. He met rowdies showman Wild Bill Cody and Calamity Jane while working as a printer’s devil at the Denver Post. Here he became best friends with Damon Runyon, a young sportswriter who later worked for the New York Times and whose short stories were the inspiration for the Broadway play Guys and Dolls. The future owner of Idlewild made and kept lifelong friends in baseball with Honus Wagner, and in Hollywood with comedian Max Swain and writer Will Fowler. When he was about 30, Bill followed his uncle, W.T. Clark to Wenatchee to help him construct the Highline Canal and the first bridge across the Columbia River. Uncle W.T., who might have been Bat Masterson’s young friend “Kid Clark” in Colorado, also had an alias given him by the Wenatchee World: “the father of the Wenatchee Valley.” His home was the stone “castle” now known as the Wells House on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College. (This A.Z. Wells played baseball with Bill for the 1920 Fruit Shippers team.) Granddad Humphreys and

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Inside one of the cabins: A restored showpiece.

his sons built Idlewild into a rustic fishing resort, but when he passed away it reverted back to its movie days and became a bustling logging camp again. This time it wasn’t make believe. Jim Hawkins and his brother bought the property to house their Snohomish crew when they logged up Devil Club Creek. The Hawkins’ restored five of the Humphreys’ log cabins for their men and tore down one to build a shop. They drilled three wells with good water and put in a bathhouse with two big showers for the workers. The old Hollywood set had succumbed to age but another solid log home mushroomed up from its spores. Dave Neir took the Idlewild dream to another level when he bought the property from Jim and Grace Hawkins in 1993. One of Microsoft’s first C.P.A.s, Dave, with his wife Suzanne carved out a niche for the property that defines their gracious touch and their love for the history of our area. Overlooking sweeping gardens and lawns, docks and grassy quay, and little boats ready to explore the beautiful lake, a high swing waits for grandchildren between two tall curved tree trunks. Dave and Suzanne have made Idlewild into a showpiece of lovely hospitality for

friends and family. The enormous 350-year-old fir that neighbor John T. Humphreys admired as a child had to come down, but Dave preserved its memory by having a chainsaw artist work the stump into a standing black bear with a fish in its mouth. The logging crew’s shower house is now a refined mosaic tiled spa. Suzanne has restored the cabins impeccably. The Neirs redesigned Hawkins’ shop into a theater reminiscent of the Idlewild “Hollywood” year, complete with black and white “movie star” décor. Although the celluloid is lost, The Ancient Highway lives on in something Dave found — a little piece of memorabilia from the film. It’s a piece of stained art glass that the projector backlit onto the screen that served as a color poster of the stars with the name of the movie. Today Idlewild is not open to the public but Good Life readers, be they loggers, fishermen, or movie stars, can take a left down Humphreys Lane or glide by on a boat to catch a glimpse of the black bear with a fish in his mouth and dream about the old days. Christine Humphreys and her husband, radio personality John T., occupy themselves with writing projects, music and do-it-yourself home building at Fish Lake. October 2011 | The Good Life

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FUN STUFF // check out these activities

5 reasonS to venture out October should be the be-

ginning a long, beautiful — and did we mention long? — fall that should see many wonderful days for us to enjoy the outdoors, but be glad to occasionally duck in for a little warmth. October is also a time to listen to college football games on the radio while driving between fun activities. Here are just a few of the events you may wish to drive to this month:

Civil War —

The American Civil War visits Plain on Oct. 1 and 2 with Civil War re-enactments done by the group Washington Civil War Association. The event marks the 100th birthday of Plain and the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Over the weekend there will be four battle reenactments, spaced between chances to tour the authentic

the history of baseball in the Wenatchee Valley with a PowerPoint slide show showing highlights from general baseball history in America and the story of the semi-pro Wenatchee Chiefs, who entertained local fans from 1939 to 1965. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wenatcheewa.gov. Thursday, Oct. 20 at 2 p.m.

Union and Confederate camps. Talk to soldiers and civilians about camp life and learn about the significant role of women in the war effort. Battles at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. both days.

Salmon spotting — Join biologist Phil Archi-

bald for a hike along the Entiat River during salmon spawning and learn about their incredible journey from the Pacific to the Entiat. The salmon return to the Stillwaters section of this river each year and are visible from the riverbank as they spawn and guard their eggs. The hike will travel through the Land Trust’s Stormy Creek Preserve and also cover the plants, birds, and wildlife that live in and use the area for shelter and forage. RSVP. Info: cdlandtrust.org. Sunday, Oct. 9.

Photo from Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center

Cool fun — If you

have kids — or grandkids — in the house, here’s an educational opportunity that could be tons of fun. The Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center is putting on Ice Age Adventures: Baby Behemoth, which features Baby Ems, a three-foot-long replica of a baby woolly mammoth skeleton discovered in Siberia in the late 1990s. This family activity day focuses on geology, Ice Age mammals and the Clovis people who inhabited our region 11,500 years ago. Hands-on activities include walking along a model of the Ice Age Floods, starting a rock collection, and digging for archaeological treasures. Info: wenatcheewa. gov. Saturday, Oct. 15, 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

Play ball! —

Chris King, voice of the Wenatchee AppleSox, will trace

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| October 2011

Make a Difference Day — “See

a need, do a good deed” is the motto of this fine local event that sees thousands of your friends and neighbors turn to spruce up the local community and give a hand to local residents. Projects — too many to list here — range from cleaning up garbage, pine cones and dead weeds on Walla Walla Avenue to helping sew costumes for the Vale Elementary annual dance extravaganza to joining in a diaper collection drive organized by the Junior Service League of Wenatchee. To learn more, visit www.wenatcheemkdd.com. But you need not limit yourself to officially listed events — go pull weeds for an elderly neighbor, pick up the litter on your street, drop a can of food into a collection bin. If you are always wondering why don’t “they” do something, well, here is your chance to step up. Sunday, Oct. 22.