Good Life October 2012

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Contents

page 10

PHOTOGRAPHER OPENS HIS LENs TO THE WORLD

Features

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STILL FULL OF ZIP

1961 Eastmont grads take a ride on the wild side

8 RUNNING FOR FRIENDSHIP

The loneliness of long distance running doesn’t have to be that way — sometimes being in step with a friend brightens the outing

14 letting her light shine in

Carolyn Sibert didn’t have time for blindness — now she doesn’t have time to let blindness bewilder her

17 pet pix

Cancer-surviving dog participates in Relay for Life walk

18 BULLIED NO MORE

Nancy Tedeschi was shamefully bullied as a child — now the wildly successful entrepreneur is sharing some of her profits to teach school kids how to put a stop to bullying

20 sitting around the zócalo

The public square of a Mexican community brims with interesting personalities and zesty encounters

22 slow & steady builds the dream home

Bruce Hosfeld has taken five years to build his home — and longer than that in working out the details

ART SKETCHES

n Landscape painter Rob Blackaby, page 31 n Music teacher Dan Findlay, page 33 Columns & Departments 26 June Darling: Loving nature is healthy for you 28 The traveling doctor: The fat that kills 30 Bonnie Orr: Magic mushrooms 31-34 Arts & Entertainment & a Dan McConnell cartoon 36 History: Driving cattle through NCW 38 Alex Saliby: Q&A on the best wines and best times October 2012 | The Good Life

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OPENING SHOT

®

Year 6, Number 10 October 2012 The Good Life is published by NCW Good Life, LLC, dba The Good Life 10 First Street, Suite 108 Wenatchee, WA 98801 PHONE: (509) 888-6527 EMAIL: editor@ncwgoodlife.com

sales@ncwgoodlife.com ONLINE: www.ncwgoodlife.com FACEBOOK: facebook.com/pages/ The-Good-Life Editor/Publisher, Mike Cassidy Contributors, Lynette Smith, Mike Bendtsen, Lisa Bradshaw, Marlene Farrell, Mary Schramm, Donna Cassidy, Bonnie Orr, Alex Saliby, Jim Brown, June Darling, Dan McConnell, Susan Lagsdin and Rod Molzahn Advertising sales, John Hunter, Lianne Taylor and Donna Cassidy Bookkeeping and circulation, Donna Cassidy Proofing, Dianne Cornell Ad design, Rick Conant TO SUBSCRIBE: For $25, ($30 out of state address) you can have 12 issues of The Good Life mailed to you or a friend. Send payment to: The Good Life 10 First Street, Suite 108 Wenatchee, WA 98801 Phone 888-6527 Online: www.ncwgoodlife.com To subscribe/renew by email, send credit card info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com BUY A COPY of The Good Life at Hastings, Caffé Mela (Wenatchee and East Wenatchee), Walgreens (Wenatchee and East Wenatchee), the Wenatchee Food Pavilion, Mike’s Meats, Martin’s Market Place (Cashmere) and A Book for All Seasons (Leavenworth) ADVERTISING: For information about advertising in The Good Life, contact advertising at (509) 8886527, or sales@ncwgoodlife.com WRITE FOR THE GOOD LIFE: We welcome articles about people from Chelan and Douglas counties.

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

The Good Life® is a registered trademark of NCW Good Life, LLC. Copyright 2012

The little cowboy Lynette Smith received her

first camera as a gift from her parents when she was 5 years old and it taught her to see the world from a different perspective.

For her, photography is more than just taking a pretty picture.

“It’s about instinct, feel, passion and capturing the essence of your subject — capturing life in a way that not only records the image but the passion and soul of the moment and conveying that into an amazing image.”

She’s also been passionate about horses for as long as she can remember. Spending much of her life with horses has intimately acquainted her with the beauty and grace of these magnificent creatures.

An avid rider, Lynette is familiar with the cadence and rhythm of the horse’s movement and her photos demonstrate their true

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athleticism. Lynette explains, “I can count the beats and hear the hoof strikes in my mind; it helps me click the shutter at the perfect time.”

This photo was taken early spring on a ranch above the Waterville Plateau.

The sun was rising over the hill and the cowboys had just finished rounding up a herd of horses. The little boy was riding with his dad and really wanted to ride by himself, which he finally talked his dad into doing.

His dad led him up the hill as the little boy looked back to watch the other cowboys.

Based in Wenatchee, Lynette is the owner of Lynette Smith Photography, www.lynettesmithphotography.com. She also photographs weddings, senior portraits, engagements and fine art. You can see more of Lynette’s work at Two Rivers Art Gallery in Wenatchee.

Lynette teaches an online equine photography course, The Essence of Equine Photography, http://www.learningabouthors-

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es.com/photography_description.html.

In the spring of 2013, she will be teaching a series of photography classes in the Wenatchee area.

On the cover

Mike Bendtsen took this series of photos of his good friend and occasional hiking companion, Marisol Galeana, at 7,000 feet on top of Rock Mountain, which is in the Stevens Pass area.

“These pictures capture her free spirit and gives a top-of-the -world feeling that it truly was that evening. She, like myself, loves to stay on the peaks for the sunsets and then hike out using headlamps. This night was no exception.”

Marisol lives in East Wenatchee and works for the Chelan County Prosecutors office. She has two daughters, Soli, 10, and Sierra, 7.

See more of Mike’s photos beginning on page 10.

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editor’s notes

MIKE CASSIDY

Making change work for you Fresh opportunities for

change present themselves daily, but actually making the change is difficult for many of us.

That’s one of the reasons we love to feature stories in The Good Life showing local people making life-altering changes and finding new delights.

Take Mike Bendtsen for example.

A few years ago, he bought a new camera. (We’ve all purchased a camera at some point, right?)

And then he decided to take a class. Not so expensive and easy to do as it was offered off-hours at Wenatchee Valley College.

And then Mike made a commitment to shoot pictures every day for a year.

How hard is that, to shoot a few photos every day? But that commitment forced Mike to look for opportunities to photograph, which sent him up mountain trails, to beaches, to public markets… and finally half way around the world.

Nancy Tedeschi made a life-altering change to escape her past of being bullied — and to escape a past with severely restricted horizons.

Nancy is now the celebrated local inventor and entrepreneur behind SnapIt Screw, but during her school days, she was called other names that wounded.

What she learned in overcoming the traumatic effects of school days bullying paid off in her business career.

“I’m a successful business woman who started out as a stifled, bullied and broken kid.

I have had to fight the big guys in this industry to get anything

done,” Nancy now says.

Writer Lisa Bradshaw — founder of The Don’t Wait Project — shares Nancy’s story in this issue, and then talks about Nancy’s latest passion, which is fighting against bullying in schools.

Says Nancy: “Without healthy children, how can we ever expect to benefit from the ideas of healthy adults paving the way of our future? The bullying has to stop and it starts with the children.”

Change wasn’t an option for Carolyn Sibert — it came to her.

When the active wife and mom was diagnosed with encroaching blindness in 1986, she went into denial.

Then a crash — literally — forced her to accept what she could not change, and to grow into a new way of thinking.

Her vision is limited to essentially what one would see by looking through a paper towel tube. Yet, she by no means considers herself helpless.

She gardens, she travels on her own and she is the office manager of Lilac Services for the Blind in Wenatchee, where she and volunteers help others deal with vision problems.

Carolyn eagerly shares her positive outlook with others: “We all have some difficulty we are dealing with — some of it visual, some of it not — but we all need to make the best of our life and remember to dream, love and laugh.”

That change is a’coming is for sure. Make it work for you as you enjoy The Good Life.

— Mike October 2012 | The Good Life

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snapshots

’61 Eastmont grads show plenty of zip “E

veryone else had gone, and now it was my turn, but I was too scared.

“I stood there, all hooked up in my harness, but I just couldn’t go. And then, over the walkietalkie held by the young man on the platform with me, I heard the others sing the Eastmont School song. So, I jumped.”

So remembers Nelda Hart, who with five other 1961 graduates of Eastmont High, went ziplining at the Tunnel Zip Lines in early September.

“I kept telling my husband all night, ‘I can’t believe I did it, I can’t believe I did it,’” added Nelda.

The women graduates get together about once a month for lunch to talk about the past, the present, and of course, grandchildren.

One of the graduates is Diana McLean, whose grandson Nolan Johnston works at Tunnel Ziplines near Chelan as a guide.

One day, he suggested, “Grandma, let’s go on the zipline where I work.”

She said, “No thank you,” but then mentioned the offer at lunch, and two of the other graduates — Nitha Smith and Nancy Lawrence — said, “Let’s do it!”

So on Sept. 6, “We headed to Chelan to Tunnel Ziplines for a new adventure,” said Diana.

“We were all a little concerned and excited about the ride,” she added. “Tunnel Ziplines was designed and developed to provide an extreme zipline experience. They are one of the fastest ziplines in North America.”

Nitha Smith starts down the zipline, cheered on by fellow Eastmont graduates Diana McLean, Nelda Hart and Flora Lancaster. Operating the zipline is Nolan Johnston, Diana’s grandson.

The heart of Tunnel Ziplines is a run called “The Gallows,” which at a length of 880 feet, drops almost vertically down a cliff face before leveling off above a cherry orchard. Zippers hit speeds approaching 60 mph.

After climbing a winding trail to “The Gallows’” platform, Dora Dawson volunteered to go first, followed by Nitha, Nancy, Flora Lancaster and Diane. Nelda gave up the opportunity to go third, and waited until last.

“Nelda was the only one left on the other side of the gully,” remembers Diana. “She was trying to get the nerve to glide off the platform in her harness.

“We decide to coax her and break into singing our school song from the other side. That convinces her she can make it, so here she came zipping across.”

After the ziplining came —

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The zipliners pose above the Columbia River. From left are Dora Dawson, Nitha Smith, Bev Brain (who was along for moral support), Flora Lancaster, Diana McLean, Nelda Hart and Nancy Lawrence.

naturally — lunch and sharing of experiences. “We had so much fun and surprised our kids and grandkids,” said Diana.

Now, the graduates are trying

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to figure out what comes next.

“Next year, we all turn 70,” said Nelda, “so we are trying to figure out something to do then.”

WHAT TO DO see COMPLETE LISTINGs BEGINning ON PAGE 32

B

eer, boats and a very funny man named Bill are among the big draws in October as the weather starts turning our thoughts to fall.

Here’s a look at a few of the activities on the calendar: Oktoberfest — Live music, German food, arts and crafts and beer. Downtown Leavenworth. So much fun it’s spread out over the first three weekends of October.

Musicians for Mission Vista

— Four popular local bands take the stage to raise awareness and funds for Mission Vista Group Home, a private non-profit that through housing and work programs supports developmentally challenged adults. The bands are Gideon’s Daughter, The Swingin Richardsz, Mugsy’s Groove and JunkBelly. Tickets: $20. Info: musiciansformissionvista.com. Saturday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m. at the PAC. Wings and Wheels & Wine

— Car show, swap meet, radiocontrolled car meet, food and craft fair, carnival, wine garden, entertainment, aircraft displays, airplane and helicopter rides.

Fly, drive and eat at Wings and Wheels Oct. 5-7.

Eastmont Community Park and Pangborn Memorial Airport.

Info: east-wenatchee.com. Friday through Sunday, Oct. 5-7.

Mahogany & Merlot vintage boat event — On the water

boat show. Six big unlimited class hydroplanes, 20 restored smaller inboard hydroplanes and racing runabouts plus antique and classic mahogany Chris Crafts, Century’s, Gar Wood’s and other makes from bygone era on display. Chelan Waterfront Marina. Cost: free.

Info: mahoganyandmerlot.com.

Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 6-7.

Lake Chelan Crush — Visitors can take short hops between the local wineries to observe first-hand the steps involved in grape harvest and

October 2012 | The Good Life

Living the dream at Leavenworth’s Oktoberfest.

wine production, including the opportunity to interact with the growers and winemakers and sample the award-winning 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 and stomp grapes the old-fashioned way. Info: lakechelanwinevalley.com. The first two weekends of October.

Bill Cosby — Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacenter. com. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20.

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Bill Cosby, Oct. 20, at the Town Toyota Center.

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guest column // Marlene Farrell

Running into friendship Running is often solitary.

Just me, the road and my thoughts.

Some runners manage to run in groups. But running with others requires agreement akin to diplomacy (i.e. agreement on pace, distance, route and time of day). If one or more runners have specific race goals or training plans, then give-and-take is necessary.

When I’m training specifically, I find I’d rather train alone than force friends to follow the dictates of my plan.

Right now, I can happily report, that’s not the case. I’m running by desire and feel, and by how early I wake up.

And I’m also carving out opportunities to run with my friends.

The power of friendship trumps my need for specific paces or distances. The shared experience makes me eager for more. The act of running

“Super hero” Marlene Farrell (in the white mask) runs with young friends in the Peshastin-Dryden Elementary Striders running club that she started last spring.

together, moving side by side, sometimes grinding up a hill, unable to speak, or stretching it out on a straightaway, enables pretenses to drop away and meaningful conversation and understanding to rise to the surface.

It can tie together the past with the present.

My best friend Jenny lives across the country in Virginia.

We are separated by too many miles, too many time zones for easy phone calls, and divergent busy lives. When I visited recently, we got our kids together for visits to a museum and a playground.

Our families also granted us the luxury of a run, just the two of us. Our 20-year high school reunion is approaching and it’s been about that long since we ran our cross-country course at Baron Cameron Park.

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This story also appears on RunWenatchee.com — a site devoted to running in North Central Washington.

The course is incredibly haphazard. It crisscrosses some ball fields and runs the perimeter of others, takes a thousand short cut trails through the woods and twists and turns countless times. Our combined memories pieced it together that day and we retraced our steps, though not in racing spikes, and without our dads waiting by the big tree that marks the finish line.

Our times together, runs now and in high school, and backpack trips on the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail in between, are stepping stones across the deep water of our lives. Our friendship, tested and strong, disperses the particu-

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lates that can cloud perceptions.

I look into the rushing waters of Jenny’s crazy mornings, getting two little ones off to preschool and daycare before her full-time teaching job, and I can see my own reflection hovering on the surface.

I get a new view on my own life as I swap stories with Jenny.

All of this happens while we’re moving, without conscious effort, as we are caught up in the stream of running camaraderie.

I have a new friend here in Leavenworth. Running served as matchmaker to bring us together.

Carrie is new to town and at first she was just another face at the elementary school, dropping off her kids, helping in the classroom. I didn’t know her name.

But then we saw each other, early mornings, running in opposite directions, smiling and

conversation.

Mostly I run alongside them, and the weekday hour or weekend half-day of running slips by in a blur of funny stories and comfortable silence.

The act of running together, with Cascade High School athletes, Peshastin-Dryden Elementary Strider kids, my teammates on the Seattle Running Club cross-country team, and strangers that share my pace in a race, endears all of these people to me.

I want to call each and every one of them, “Friend.”

Because, by running with me, they see into my heart, and value, at least a little, something that matters a lot to me. Thank you, friends!

... running together made me trust Carrie enough to tell her the truth. offering a friendly “Good morning.”

The possibility of this woman bearing some resemblance to me, in her predawn running habit, her similarly aged children, her nearby house on the outskirts of town, made me giddy with excitement.

The next time I saw her at school I boldly asked her name and arranged a running date, meeting at the corner of Icicle and East Leavenworth roads.

We meet for runs occasionally now, coming from opposite directions and one of us pivoting around, shuttle run style, to fall in step with the other.

What has impressed me most, more than our running compatibility, is how Carrie could see into me one day when I was upset about something and trying to hide it.

Carrie is a sensitive, kind person, and she nudged the edge of my sadness like an old friend.

I would have obfuscated with many friends that I have known longer, but running together made me trust Carrie enough to tell her the truth.

Now I look forward to more opportunities to run with her and share the calm beauty of being out as the world awakens.

In town there is a tight-knit group of strong women that run at least four days a week together. They have traversed life’s peaks and valleys collectively, just as they have run up and down mountains together.

I am a sporadic addition to the group and I’m so grateful for their cheerful embracing of this interloper. Sometimes I need to be filled in on a back-story so I can keep up with the current

Marlene in a race: Training for cross country work often requires running alone.

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Marlene Farrell is a Leavenworth writer and long-distance runner who has qualified twice for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. She also helps coach the Peshastin-Dryden Striders kids running club.

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MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This was taken on top of Rock Mountain. It was another epic hike to nearly 7,000-feet with a good friend of mine, Marisol Galeana. I am rarely, if ever, in pictures and she grabbed my camera and took this shot. Loved it, which is rare for me to take a good picture but I think she caught me where I am the most happy.

First, I turned off the ‘auto’ button The development of a photographer who sees mother nature as she is story and photos By Michael Bendtsen

I

purchased my first digital SLR camera a few years ago and then took a short course from John Kelly (owner of JP Portrait Studio in East Wenatchee) at the college since I knew nothing about being a photographer.

John taught me the best lesson which was to force myself to switch to the manual button so that I would learn to change all of the settings myself. Because who’s in charge... you or the camera?

I decided to not only shoot in manual mode but also avoid any instruction via Google, other classes, etc… so that whatever I learned with my camera, it would be my way and not because someone told me it had to be a certain way.

Besides, I find that flaws in images make them much more

organic and more of a reflection in life itself.

I am just not sure Mother Nature was intended to be all dressed up in a fancy wardrobe with lots of makeup that’s possible with modern post-production technology. I’ll take her the way she is.

I have my own rule, which is 30 seconds per image to edit. I use Apple’s simple iPhoto program. If it takes more time than that I believe it becomes work and not what I enjoy, not to mention it would mean getting even less sleep.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, I made the commitment to take pictures every day for one year (Project 365), which I found a little difficult for a few months and then it became a want and a need.

I decided as a reward for accomplishing that goal, I could go anywhere in the world to take my final day’s picture.

Figuring out where to go was harder then committing to taking pictures every day.

It wasn’t until fall when I was in Bellingham at their farmer’s

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MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This image was taken from the west looking east between the saddle on Saddlerock. I went out that night with the full moon to get some silhouettes using the moon. I was maybe 200-300 yards away and saw this couple... first she stepped into the moon and walked away... then he did the same thing... and finally I got them both when they came together.

I have no idea who they are.

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MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This was taken from Riverfront trail on the East Wenatchee side looking west over the Columbia and up the Wenatchee River Valley.

I have a special connection with this photo mainly because this night was the first attempt I really had at taking lightning pics and really didn’t know what I was doing.

A few earlier strikes helped me do some adjusting and I was lucky to get this with the sunset.

The funny thing was, the one I took seven minutes later didn’t feel was as good but it was the one that gained national media attention and highlighted for a week on the Weather Channel. I would have picked this sunset photo easily over that one.

MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This is my hiking buddy, Ben, aka “BenDog” or “Beans.” He is a 13-year-old German Shorthair pointer.

When I go on a 10-mile hike, you can easily figure he has gone 50 miles.

market and saw a woman selling little cards she handmade using old National Geographic magazines. They were packed in a basket and I reached in and pulled one out that showed a sea with lots of water and an island named Lombok.

My daughter Maya was with me and I turned to her and said, “That’s it... that’s where I am going.”

She asked me where it was and I told her I had no idea but October 2012 | The Good Life

I would be there for New Year’s Eve to take my final picture for the year. I then Googled it on my phone and saw it was in Indonesia and an hour or two flight from Bali.

It was an amazing trip... the land... the people... just fantastic especially in the remote areas. I have some great memories and pictures from there.

(As a side note: I did see the woman this spring who sold me that card at the farmer’s market www.ncwgoodlife.com

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in Bellingham and told her of my story — and she was completely un-impressed.)

Also what happened along the way is that I started to hike a lot and would use images as a tool on my McGlinn’s Facebook page to try to motivate others to shut off their TVs and go outside and play.

It isn’t all about a good camera either... often I use my iPhone to take pictures and upload

}}} Continued on next page

Mike Bendtsen

MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This was taken on top of Alpine Lookout near Lake Wenatchee.

It is at nearly 7,000 feet and was taken right at the lookout.

There is a small group of goats that live up there and are very curious. If you are patient and wait they often will come close to check who is hanging out in their back yard.

MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This was taken on a trip to Indonesia the first of the year. This picture was on Lombok in a town called Mataram. It was in an old warehouse type building... dirt floors... three crammed floors... and everything from woven goods, to fresh meats, dried seafood, spices and fresh produce.

It was very dirty inside except everywhere the food was — the displays were off the charts, organized and beautiful.

Upon entering the market I could see many of the locals were surprised I was there, considering I did not look like any of them. I am sure it was a combination of things or maybe just my hair that made me stand out.

Within 5-10 minutes I could feel the atmosphere change. From first not sure about me to all of a sudden complete welcoming.

I was taking pictures — such as this one of these two beautiful women — of people whom I think rarely, if ever, had seen their picture. I took pictures of people and then would show them on my camera screen and, like these two women, they would laugh and laugh and laugh.

}}} Continued from previous page live shots. It might be from a mountaintop, along the river, or anywhere really.

On occasion, I hide McGlinn’s gift cards out on hikes as a motivational incentive to get out there. Many people, young and old, go out searching for the cards and then post pictures of themselves when they find them via their camera phones. I love that!

I think a vast majority of people don’t put in the effort to go see what Mother Nature has gifted us in this valley — it is quite simply breathtaking around every turn. Very few places on this planet offer such diversity so close.

You can go from the valley floor with few trees where cactus plants are present to high alpine areas and dense forests in minutes. It is pretty crazy.

As an example, I left Wenatchee on a recent day at 3 p.m. and by 7 p.m. had hiked

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MIKE’S PHOTO LOG: This meadow is in the basin between Lake Colchuck and Lake Stuart.

On this particular hike it started off beautiful and all of the sudden about a mile up the trail a storm hit and there was a huge downpour. The trail in parts was like a creek flowing down the mountainside.

It was warm enough that I decided to keep going. Heading up I encountered hikers racing down the mountain to avoid the storm. Big mistake!

When I got up to the meadow about three to four miles further, the sky opened up and the sun exploded all over this meadow. It warmed up immediately and was breathtaking.

to 6,000-plus feet to the Alpine Lookout on Nason Ridge and was hanging out with the mountain goats.

It’s like being on top of the world in four hours, which includes drive time.

This summer, I captured a lightening picture during one of our big storms that started the Burch Mountain fire and it made the front page of the Wenatchee World.

From there it got picked up by KING5 TV out of Seattle as well as a couple other TV stations. It

was picked as national photo of the week by The Weather Channel and was shown on national TV as well as their top story of the week on Facebook and main timeline picture for a week.

Our Facebook page had over 150,000 unique viewers that week.

The funny thing is I had taken another shot seven minutes earlier that in my opinion was by far better but it didn’t start a fire so no drama was connected to it.

A friend, Josh Tarr, knowing I thought the earlier photo was October 2012 | The Good Life

better, made a canvas print of the lightening picture that did not make the news and gave it to me.

That has been one of my biggest rewards since starting to take pictures.

I now truly believe, especially with cameras on our phones, that I will take at least a picture a day for the rest of my life.

Michael Bendtsen is the owner of McGlinn’s Public House in Wenatchee. More of his photos can be seen at www.bendtsen.smugmug. com.

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Mike Bendtsen: Lapping up the outdoors.

She’s not blind to the joys of the world

By Susan Lagsdin

C

arolyn Sibert wasn’t quite satisfied with the flower garden weeding job she and her husband George tackled together last summer.

“He hadn’t done a very good job on his section,” she recalled, “so I got down on my hands and knees, and I pulled out all the leftover weeds.”

The fact that they were actually his treasured slow-growing boysenberry plants still makes her grin, as she relates just one more flub for which she was forgiven.

Carolyn, 57, is blind, and with the independence she’s struggled to gain and maintain comes the certainty that occasionally — but more rarely than you’d think — she’s bound to goof up.

However, life these days is full and fast for Carolyn. She supervises the clinic/ office of Lilac Services for the Blind of

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Carolyn Sibert enjoys a moment in her manicured backyard with Scooter: “I grew up in a Dutch family — lawn, flowers, gardens are very important to me.”

Wenatchee, which offers technology, tools and specific real-world tactics not only for the blind but for the sighted people in their lives.

She’s there two days a week and engages support for its work through speaking engagements, maintains the family home, entertains friends and family, enjoys the outdoors, attends church and the Lions club and travels freely.

Carolyn’s sight has diminished to only a short, narrow cone of vision straight ahead, which she likens to looking through a paper towel tube — a moment’s fun for a kid playing pirate, but really tough for daily life. And even that narrow degree of vision is devoid of color and contrast without perfect light-

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ing.

Knowing her condition will worsen, Carolyn is prepared with skills, tools and technology, ready to cope. She also carries with her an extraordinary amount of positive attitude.

She wasn’t always so upbeat.

Quite the contrary. After a diagnosis in 1986 of retinitis pigmentosis (an inherited trait she shares with her older brother) Carolyn was first in deep denial.

After all, with a new marriage and a Marysville home, she was an active mom hauling her blended family of five kids to activities and commuting to her full time accounting job.

But every day she was losing more periph-

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Fifteen years of growth after that bitter time helped create Carolyn’s present positive energy and good humor. eral vision. Crashing her car into a cement light pole at the mall 13 years later meant the end of driving and what seemed like the death of spontaneity and independence. And that brought anger and depression.

Carolyn needed help with being blind.

But for her, “blind” still meant looking bewildered or stupid on the street, so hanging onto her husband’s arm or staying home were her choices, and “help” meant giving up and giving in.

It took a couple kinds of courage to move away from her fam-

30 TELEVISION INTERNET TELEPHONE

Need help with low vision problems?

L

ilac Services for the Blind of Spokane (a non-profit group that typically aids people age 55 and older) maintains a satellite office in Wenatchee.

But locally, people of any age with any vision impairment have access to even more help because of volunteer efforts and donations from local businesses and groups. That includes private, personal education on the use of an array of assistive technology from canes to magnifiers to audio computers.

Optometrist Dr. Milton Herman offers low-vision consultation, and Vision Impossible welcomes anyone to weekly meetings at the DC Café to socialize, receive support and solve mutual problems.

Lilac Services for the Blind Wenatchee office manager Carolyn Sibert encourages blind peo-

ple in this area to increase their independence and confidence.

“So many people with low vision or blindness keep themselves home bound because they can’t see. And a lot of them are also afraid of being seen.”

Lilac Services can help the blind make positive life changes.

The local office is open Monday and Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 4 Kittitas Street, Suite 203 in Wenatchee. For info, call 888-7597.

For information on Vision Impossible, a support group for the visually impaired, contact Linda Carveth at 884-6192 or Rick Barnard at 884-1021.

To learn how a donation can help a blind person better enjoy each day, email Carolyn Sibert at carolyn@lilacblind.org or go to wwwlilacblind.org.

ily to an occupational training program in downtown Seattle for six months, admit that a cane and other aids were mandatory, immerse herself in blind culture, and get on with her life.

Fifteen years of growth after that bitter time helped create Carolyn’s present positive energy and good humor.

But she’s humble about her own role in making the best of a very bad deal. She attributes her Dutch heritage, strict loving parents, a rock-solid family and strong religious faith for her turnaround.

And she’s grabbed another lifeline, meeting regularly with a support group of other blind people in the community.

Carolyn wants people to understand her own struggle and success. She’s adamant that blind people should reach out for life-sustaining independence.

“It is such a shame — there are so many blind people even

}}} Continued on next page

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“I can’t see the (fishing) line or bobber, but I can sure tell if I’ve got something!” }}} Continued from previous page in this town still sitting at home, afraid to be seen, terrified of the world outside their door.”

To that end, as office manager of Lilac Services, in eight months she has enlisted volunteers and turned the new clinic into a homey meeting place with a smorgasbord of easy-to-access low vision technology to try out.

She has a growing clientele, but estimates at least 1,000 people in the region could use Lilac’s services right now.

There is a world of important information about blindness Carolyn wants people to know.

First, being blind — a term which is inoffensive (and easier

to say than “visually impaired”) — does not necessarily mean living in an endless pitch-black void.

Anyone’s blindness is just one point on a large spectrum of potential impairment. Blindness can be degenerative or not, congenital or late developing, hereditary or a result of aging or trauma. It might mean a degree of fuzziness, tunnel vision, or lack of depth perception. Causes are many, conditions are highly individual.

Carolyn advises not to assume that every person with a white cane is helpless — usually it’s quite the opposite.

Assisting a blind person (with their permission) may be as simple as saying, “It’s just two blocks north.” Or it may mean closing a cupboard left hanging open or describing the lineup of silverware at a banquet.

Once Carolyn made her peace with using a white cane, using assistive technology and navigating city streets, her confi-

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dence grew exponentially. She was surprised at how willing her colleagues and loved ones were to adjust to her disability.

A year ago, Carolyn and George, with all their children grown and settled, decided it was time to return to the sunny side of the state where she once lived and worked. On a Wenatchee lot they’d purchased years before, they were finally able to build their big yellow picket-fenced house.

Carolyn memorized its many parts and deliberately chose not to use her cane at home. She explained, “I needed this to be my safety zone where I can be myself and just relax.”

The care taken with lighting and furniture placement is precise but absolutely inconspicuous.

Keeping her spacious countrychic house orderly and spotless is another kind of challenge. “I can’t see the dust, but I know it’s there. You just learn to dust everything… and cooking meals

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| October 2012

works out fine, but I have to be careful about cleaning up.

It’s pretty hard to get all the crumbs,” she says.

Walking casually through her house from the living room to the back porch, elbows slightly out, one forearm gracefully extended, Carolyn quipped, “I move with ‘wings’ — it keeps me from bumping into the walls!”

There’s no dashing for the phone, but she can get to it in a timely manner. Her daily makeup, hairdo and color-coordinated outfits take time and careful organization but are attractively achieved.

She rarely trips on the dog Scooter, a floor-model darling, or his many toys. In fact, with his alert bark at the ring of a doorbell the peppy little guy helps with another important aspect of her challenging life.

Genetically related to Carolyn’s low vision is her profound deafness, which was diagnosed in early childhood. But thanks to, “three grand’s worth of digital technology in my ears,” as she calls her hearing aids, as well as early and apt speech therapy, that’s solved for now.

(She’s not at all dismissive of her hearing loss, but it’s not her biggest problem.)

Carolyn’s low vision means gardening, running and hiking have been slightly curtailed, but other interests still bring full scale pleasure: the rush of wind and fragrances from the backseat of George’s Harley motorcycle, fishing local lakes (“I can’t see the line or bobber, but I can sure tell if I’ve got something!” she says), reading her Kindle, serious wine tasting tours in their RV, traveling solo to Seattle to visit grandchildren.

Yes, solo to Seattle: Carolyn is a public transportation expert, so planes, trains, boats and buses are a breeze.

She’s relearned enough about the complexity of the sighted world to be savvy and confident, playing well the hand she’s been dealt. Her dream is to help a lot of other people feel that way too.

PET PIX

Submit pet & owner pictures to: editor@ncwgoodlife.com

Here are two of the cutest pumpkins I know.

I have two Golden retrievers who are

six years old and biological sisters.

The first part of March my one girl, Kami, developed a lump on her right front paw. I took her to Cascade Vet and was told it was a cancerous tumor, that they could do surgery to remove, and she would also require radiation treatments at WSU — 18 treatments over four weeks.

When I picked her up from WSU, she had on a, “I am a Cancer Survivor” hospital scarf. It was so cool to see that.

As she recovered, I decided to take her to the Relay for Life cancer walk in June. She did three laps with her scarf on.

A week after Kami’s first surgery in March, her sister, Blondie, ruptured her ACL in her left hind leg and had to have a plate and screws put in by Dr. Edward Womack.

The good news is, both dogs are doing great now, fully recovered and hopefully will live a long happy life. They mean the world to me, they are my girls.

— Jan Kaiser

October 2012 | The Good Life

This is Brock and Hannah taken last Oct. 31, 2011.

Now almost a year later they are the best of friends. They chase each other, give kisses and Brock loves to give Hannah treats.

Hannah is a frequent word out of Brock’s mouth, and often his first word upon rising. It is so fun watching these two interact and I look forward to watching them grow up together.

Brock is my first grandchild and Hannah is my loyal walking partner.

— Lori Lewis

THE GOOD LIFE PET DIRECTORY

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BULLIED NO MORE

By Lisa Bradshaw

N

ancy Tedeschi knows about childhood bullying.

“I was horribly bullied for having buck teeth and being skinny and was called names like Bucky Beaver and Boney,” Nancy recalls. “My teeth were so bad I had to wear braces for eight years.”

In this country at least 17 percent of school-age children suffer at the hands of bullies a minimum of two to three times per month, according to a recent Clemson University Study. As new technology crops up seemingly every day, bullies are finding new and clever ways to torment their victims through Facebook, Twitter, text messages and other social media.

Nancy well knows that bullies have been creating a hostile world for the unlucky children who caught their attention long before the Internet existed. For Nancy, the bullying didn’t just stop with the comments, but seriously damaged her own selfesteem.

Feeling a lack of confidence,

she tested below average on an IQ test, and then her teachers reinforced Nancy’s low self-esteem by telling her parents that she was not a bright child and may have a learning disability.

She barely graduated from high school and was only allowed into community college years later when she agreed to take remedial courses. While working on her education with tutors and her mental health with a therapist, Nancy discovered there was nothing at all wrong with her.

She was stifled as a student and could have been lost as an adult after being emotionally bullied in a brutal classroom setting. Instead, she received a 4.0 in college, set her sights on a career in business, and was retested with an IQ

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Nancy Tedeschi now and as a child: A childhood of bullying left her stifled and broken. Now she is working to reduce bullying in schools.

of 146 — well above average.

After college, Nancy had a brief career in television working with NFL Films, then became a mortgage broker and owner of her own title insurance company in New York, doing millions of dollars in business a year.

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| October 2012

As the economy turned, particularly in the real estate industry, Nancy was again faced with her own sense of failure, losing her home and millions of dollars. She had to start over.

The next professional phase of her life was least expected. She went from a real estate mogul to an inventor when Nancy’s mother, Peggy, was volunteering in Nicaragua and broke her eyeglasses.

Peggy came up with a quick fix by slipping an earring into the hole where the screw was lost when the glasses broke. When she returned from her travels, she suggested to Nancy that she pursue the eyeglass ornament business because Peggy had received so many compliments on what she called eyeglass charms.

Nancy’s first patent was for eyeglass charms but as she was working on the charms she had to constantly contend with the little screw in the eyeglasses that was nearly impossible to

“I spent years recovering from the damage that was done by the bullies ...” maneuver. So one day she had an “aha” moment and designed a screw that made it easy to repair eyeglasses with a guide that allowed the screw to snap off at the bottom.

This idea—the SnapIt Screw™—would one day prove the key to helping her fight her way back.

However, much like her childhood, Nancy’s road to becoming a successful inventor was littered with hurdles and stumbling blocks. Predatory companies throughout the innovation process preyed on Nancy’s naiveté as a first-time inventor, promising skyrocketing sales results in return for hefty up front investments and never delivering. She suffered rejection after rejection as potential retailers of her product would not return her calls, but Nancy still persisted.

Just as she trudged through her trials as a child, Nancy continued contacting retailers until she found receptive stores; eventually landing deals with major retailers throughout the country and bringing her product to the global market. Nancy fought back and found her own avenues for producing a successful infomercial that resonated with consumers.

Finally, sales started rolling in.

With the success of the SnapIt Screw™, Nancy — now living in Wenatchee half of the year to be near her sister — has the resources to combat the bullying that once threatened to hold her back from achieving her dreams.

She donates 10 percent of SnapIt Screw™ Walmart online profits to Jaylen’s Challenge, an organization dedicated to ending childhood bullying. She is also dedicated to helping other

inventors avoid the predatory traps and industry pitfalls that almost blocked the successful SnapIt Screw™ from reaching retail shelves.

I met Nancy when she shared her story as an inventor during a guest spot on The Life with Lisa Show, my former radio program in Wenatchee. As an entrepreneur and young widowed mother, I liked to let people tell their stories about how they overcame struggles to find success.

Days after the radio interview, Nancy and I met for lunch and quickly figured out we could use the platform I founded, The DON’T WAIT Project®, which is a non profit organization I launched last September to inspire people to overcome hurdles and not wait to strive for their own dreams.

Together, we have launched the DON’T WAIT® to Stop Bullying campaign, which is part of the How To UnMake A Bully Public Service Announcement (PSA) series.

Our program involves going into schools and educating fourth and fifth grade students about bullying behavior and giving them the tools they need to write, produce, direct, act in, and film their own PSA about bullying. The overall theme of the production is teaching the kids their own strength in numbers when doing the right thing and standing up to bullying.

Statistics say that a bully will retreat within 10 seconds when being confronted — not violent-

October 2012 | The Good Life

ly confronted — just stood up to in a way that makes it uncool to bully.

For example, one of the PSAs produced by a fourth grade class was the story of a student getting on the bus and a bully covering up the nearby seats with backpacks and saying there were no seats left. Then, two students near the back of the bus stood up and said, “You can sit by us.”

The bully retreated because two students did the right thing.

Instantly, the bully loses power because when there is no audience, there is no show.

Our program does not focus on school policy or trying to remedy what may be broken in a child who is bullying. Our program is about giving the power back to the students and teaching them that if they are not standing up to bullying then they are contributing to it.

“I spent years recovering from the damage that was done by the bullies who got satisfaction from making me suffer, and I felt like there was no one who cared enough to help me,” Nancy said.

“The letters we are receiving from kids who are participating in the program proves to me that most kids want to do the right thing but just aren’t sure how to do it. We are teaching them how.”

To learn more about the DON’T WAIT® to Stop Bullying campaign and help bring it to our community, visit www.dontwaitproject.org and read about the indiegogo campaign.

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A night at the Zócalo Sitting in the town square of Oaxaca, where life is a flurry of color, sight and sounds

By Mary Schramm

T

here is a lovely colonial town 300 miles south of Mexico City that has become our vacation destination for the past 17 years.

There are no beaches and not many tourists. Neither are there drugs raids or earthquakes. We love the area.

The town is Oaxaca (wahha’-ka), the capital of the state of Oaxaca, home to 400,000 Mexican people, some who have migrated to the Leavenworth area in the past years.

Many hours of our time in Oaxaca are spent in the Zócalo (zo’-co-lo), the town square, typical of many Mexican villages.

Huge Amate trees provide shade and the central bandstand elevates the brass ensembles

Even a relaxing moment at a cafe table on the edge of the Zócalo offers views of venders and the huge Amate trees.

that often perform. Low cement block walls decorated with beautiful red poinsettias invite a variety of activity.

There is nothing comparable in the U.S. where families gather nightly, where community develops, children are entertained, shoes are shined and food is provided in outdoor restaurants differentiated only by the color and design of the tablecloths.

Demonstrations occur here, too.

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On the south side groups of compasions protest the injustices they feel. We have seen school children dressed as animals marching in an earth day parade. At night, teachers walk around the Zócalo with candles and chant, calling attention to the lack of adequate educational funds.

Magicians delight all ages and mimes, painted in gold, stand unblinking like statues.

Balloon men struggle to keep

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| October 2012

the strings separated and accessible to customers. Talented musicians hammer xylophones or play guitars and pan flutes simultaneously.

It was not a festival week when we visited, but the energy flowing between performers and the grateful audience makes each day a celebration of life. Everyone belongs here. It’s a destination point.

Vender means “to sell” in Spanish and the crafts the ven-

Alta Gracia has grown very old and thin in the 16 years we have known her. She has only one tooth left in her bottom gum... dors are selling are enticing but always a disruption to a meal in the Zócalo.

As we drank our beer and munched on the peanuts we heard, “Alto Juan!” Alto can mean tall, halt or counter tenor.

Since this is Alta Gracia yelling we know she has spotted tall John, my husband. She shuffles over to give him a hug. Hand woven table runners are draped over her shoulders, and she remembers that ano pasoda (last year) we purchased several from her.

Alta Gracia has grown very old and thin in the 16 years we have known her. She has only one tooth left in her bottom gum, her hair is pulled back and streaked with grey, but as always her smile is as wide as her face.

In our broken Spanish we inquire about her health (not good) her family (good) her business (not good unless you quit asking me these questions and buy some table runners).

The U.S. recession has reached into Mexico and all of the

vendors shake their heads and tell us the sales business is muy malo.

“Cuanto cuesta?” I ask, feeling proud that I can inquire about the price of the table runners in her language. She writes on her hand, 140 pesos, knowing that numbers in Spanish are my downfall.

I raise my eyebrows and say, “One hundred forty pesos?

Wow!” That “wow” can mean anything but she assumes I think the price is too high.

“Para mis amigos, 120 pesos.”

I smile and say bueno, and the deal is made. She drapes an orange and pink runner over my shoulder and I have no clue to where it will fit into my house.

Then come children with small baskets of spoons, bookmarks and combs all made from Amate wood. Two girls and a little boy trail behind their mother, finding it hard to smile.

The youngest child usually sells Chicklets and my pesos disappear quickly from my pocket.

Besides the table runner and Chicklets I purchase something else. I’m not sure what to call it but the vendor identifies it as a head massager. He puts it onto my scalp and begins to massage.

“Better than sex,” he smiles. He was right! I bought four of them.

Jewelry vendors are the most prolific.

Hand-made, the necklaces differ from one another only in the color and length. Chevala, with one gold tooth, a broad smile, and arms draped with jewelry,

October 2012 | The Good Life

greets us as her long lost family.

There was a time when vendors couldn’t conduct business in the Zovolo itself, so making a purchase was like a drug deal, eyeing, nodding, slipping out to find Chevala waiting in a door way nearby. This ordinance is no longer enforced, so the vendors circulate around like red corpuscles.

At the Zócalo restaurants, beggars are discouraged by the waiters but still they wander in and out between the tables while we are eating, knowing they have a captive audience.

We tried giving a saucer of peanuts or a slice of bread (“butter it,” one man said) but they shake their heads and say “Pesos, por favor.” It is difficult to chew, swallow, drink or cut into a piece of chicken with one of these fellows standing next to your table.

My favorite Zócalo persona is the toothless, ancient man in a ragged coat — the same one he has worn for 10 years — his shoes ripped back exposing dirty toes.

He makes his way around the Zocola with a guitar and several CDs to sell. The plastic has worn off the CDs and one can barely make out the word “Oaxaca.”

He sings the same track, strumming on the two or three strings remaining on his guitar: “Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Oaxaca.”

Over and over. The words never change nor does the melody.

The Zócalo would not be the same without this troubadour.

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He is there and we are glad.

Slow

and steady builds the house

Story by Susan Lagsdin Photos by Donna Cassidy Bruce and Roni Hosfeld’s house grew slowly over the course of five years, fed with conventional construction techniques and the sweat of bartered labor, unwavering vision and a big dose of ingenuity.

Some aspects (its steep site, just-in-time financing and long tedious evolution from dug out to done) might be a footnote in a “what not to do” homebuilding primer.

But this two-level view home on a rural East Wenatchee street — with its beauty, comfort, flexibility and utility — is ultimately a good old-fashioned success story.

Bruce and Roni, both 49, both born in Wenatchee and together for 18 years, know their hard work has paid off.

Home design has fascinated Bruce since childhood (a junior high A-frame model is still displayed at his mom’s house), and though this project was five years in the making, it was even more years in the dreaming.

In 2004, Bruce sketched out each detail of its ceiling height, window placement, room size and traffic flow — plus a lot of extra features that others might leave to chance.

The big central room in the one-bedroom upper level hosts family frequently — with the wide, curved granite island often loaded with gourmet goodies.

Bruce had previously spent 15 years in the best of times buying and refurbishing no-down, low-cost houses. He learned to

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build while renovating them for rentals, supplementing his firefighting income and saving for his and Roni’s dream home.

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In 2006 the time was right and the lot was bought (from a close acquaintance), but just at the start of construction the

recession brought slowdown and scrimping. The Hosfelds waited through cutbacks and job changes, maxing out credit cards, and, finally, found friendly financing at a local bank.

Then for one year he helped build the house of his co-worker and friend Dave Noble. It paused the progress, but it was an excellent investment of time and a testimony to trust. As agreed, Bruce then got the full year’s work returned in trade. “I couldn’t have done this without him… he was a good friend, and he paid all the time back.”

Transforming Bruce’s plan into reality also took an understanding fellow perfectionist, a builder who did much of the final work. Bruce said, “Working with Tod Cordell was great — he saw how I really wanted things done… and he spent the last year just coming back over and over to finish this thing.”

By 2009 the 3,800-squarefoot home was just about completed inside and out. But the back yard was still dangerously steep, and landscaping it looked impossible.

Bruce worked fast. “I begged and borrowed fill dirt from everyone! I’d actually follow dump trucks to find out where they were hauling to — and I finally got 6,000 yards of free dirt, so the backyard was done before we moved in.”

Bruce’s early design anticipated the life in the home: An arched and recessed sitting area

ABOVE: Light fills the great room, with three sliding glass doors opening to the big deck. Even the fireplace is see-through, insulated for indoor or outdoor use.

AT LEFT: Roni and Bruce enjoy dining alfresco all season long — the sliding glass doors behind them are an effective windbreak and open to another deck.

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Behind the house, two llamas pose regally for a photo. An RV pad and a ground floor plumbed and powered for multi-use give the Hosfelds lots of options, while the main level deck offers views of orchards and mountains.

}}} Continued from previous page in the front foyer was built “just for sitting down to take off your shoes.” Downstairs bedrooms cluster around a communal double sink, but the bath and toilet each have privacy doors, because he figured, “Some other owner someday may have three or four kids down here.”

He wanted the ability to totally open his office wall to the great room at will, so he installed three window-sized sliding wood panels, which have a traditional library look when

they’re closed.

Wind protection for the outdoor BBQ and dining deck comes from a panel of sliding glass doors (perpendicular to the house) that connect to a second deck off the master bedroom. No light or view is lost, and the space is calm.

The two-level kitchen island, the heart of the house, was crucial. Roni had seen one like it on a TV food show and wanted the depth, “So I could actually set the whole bar like a formal dining table.”

The motif of the glass block window positioned above the tub and the shape of glass block shower were ideas that came early.

Bruce explained, “I wanted to get it just right, so I made a cardboard mock-up at our other house, and had Roni walk around like she was fixing a meal.”

Roni chose the look of the interior, with creative help from Material Things and the women at Claret, a local design firm.

“They were really wonderful

NCW Home Professionals

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| October 2012

to work with, but — oh, yes, I knew exactly what I wanted!”

Her color choices are muted but elegant. Most walls are a deep dove gray, and Bruce remembers, “I first thought it looked like mud. Way too dark.”

It does not, and it is not.

Southern light from big glass doors and transom windows keeps the ambience upbeat, and contrast comes from white paint on meticulously handcrafted moldings and darker colors (chocolate and taupe) in the main fireplace and master bed recesses.

Roni’s design choices also show in the living room’s distinctive high octagonal window, which evolved from a full height picture window. Their one dominant artwork, a scenic beach photo, glows with tropical sunset above the fireplace. Spare décor and furnishings match the simple color palette.

Bruce knows he tends to obsess about detail and is driven to add just a bit more. “Roni has to scale me back every once in

a while,” he admitted, and she laughed and added, “I really have to say no. He’d have us covered in gold leaf all over the place.”

On a walkabout of the house, Bruce eagerly points out this year’s final projects: rock facing to complete the deck fireplace, a flat fountain (plumbed already) to cascade down the inside staircase wall, a full scale sewing and craft corner for Roni in the utility room.

The largest item on his to-do list could help minimize the mortgage. Tucked away in the walk-in basement will hopefully be a single nightly rental unit — a low-impact, “do it yourself ” B&B with private patio, parking and garden privileges. There would still be a separate space downstairs for the Hosfeld’s own family and guests.

Though its accoutrements and architecture are sophisticated, this isn’t a city house. Rural pleasures and space between neighbors matter to the couple, as well as their unencumbered view far across the river to the Heights and Malaga.

The full acre on Eighth Street includes pasture and barn for the pack llamas that carry Bruce’s hunting gear into the mountains. Big three-season vegetable and herb gardens provide ingredients for Roni’s cooking, gourmet delights for the two of them or frequent meals with drop-in kids and grandkids.

And the small chicken house down in the back? Well, eggs are the obvious benefit, but it’s also a good example of Bruce’s creativity.

He needed an easy way to let the hens out in the morning and in again at night, so he invented a simple pulley system: now a long cable stretches from a wooden door flap on the chicken house and runs high up across the back lawn all the way to a hook on a pillar of the elegant dining deck.

Ingenuity and vision triumph once more.

Classically styled columns accent the dining space with its deeply coved ceiling. The plan had been for arched openings, but clean straight lines won out.

NCW Home Professionals

October 2012 | AT HOME WITH The Good Life

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>>

column moving up to the good life

june darling

Have an eye-opening, awesome October Grammy’s eyes are closed,

but she’s awake.

She’s just had a bad bout with pneumonia. She seems to be feeling better now. The antibiotics have helped; her immune system has responded. Though weak, her appreciative spirit remains strong.

“Grammy” is my mother-inlaw. She’s on her way to 101 years old this December.

Yes, you read that right. She’s over 100 years old.

And for as long as I’ve known her, she’s been in love with nature, especially trees.

Some of us can feel a warm bubble of pleasure when we see a nice sunset.

Once I even heard a respectable-looking lady gasp, “undamn

real” after seeing the magnificence of the Grand Canyon.

More often we take our natural beauty for granted. We get used to it.

Nice mountains, cool river, bright sun… yeah, yeah.

Grammy has never taken nature for granted. Her love of trees has almost become a joke in the family. “Yes, Grammy, that IS a beautiful tree.” Winks all around.

Grammy not only loves the beauty of nature, but also poetry about nature.

The English romantic poets are her favorites especially Percy Bysshe Shelley who seemed to have had a mystical connection with it all. (She’s so crazy about Shelley she even told me she was rooting for Great Britain instead

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of the United States during the Olympics held this year in London.)

While Grammy was recuperating in bed one day, I read several pages of Shelley. A few sentences like these from The Cloud make her nod approvingly.

“I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noon-day dreams.”

Some of the more lengthy, sophisticated poetry is difficult for me to grasp, but I can take it in better when I’m with Gram.

“What do you think of this one, Grammy?” I ask after reading what seemed like a hundred pages of Mont Blanc.

“Oh, I love it.” Grammy whis-

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pers.

Amazing, a little spine-tingling. I can only imagine what she’s feeling.

“Gram, can you recite your favorite poem?”

“Not now, I don’t think so,” she replies until my husband, her son, John, begins the first line.

“I think that I shall never see…”

John says.

Gram picks it up, “A poem as lovely as a tree.”

With slightly more gusto and a faraway-mystical look Gram continues with her own rendition of Joyce Kilmer’s poem, “A tree that may in summer wear, a nest of robins in her hair. A tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray.”

She’s lost many of her faculties, friends and family, but this bliss around nature cannot be taken away.

I’m busy trying to capture with my phone video what feels like a sacred moment. I’m observing someone totally enraptured.

Gram may forget many things, but the neurons for that poem have fired together so many times, they are permanently wired.

Grammy’s love for nature and the images brought to her by the poetry remain vivid despite the fact that she’s over 100 years old, lying in bed with oxygen tubes in both nostrils, and doubly frail from fighting off a nasty illness.

As I look at Grammy, I see her joy. She’s lost many of her faculties, friends and family, but this bliss around nature cannot be taken away.

I’m reminded of a quotation from the famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow. “The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy.”

Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Christopher Peterson, who have >> RANDOM QUOTE

“Setting a good example for children takes all the fun out of middle age.”

The Good Life U promises night of fun and inspiration We have an enjoyable, easy, plan for moving you closer to The Good Life — it’s called The Good Life U. Beginning on Oct. 11, at Town Toyota Center VIP lounge, you’ll be able to meet and talk to people who read, write and who are written about in the pages of The Good Life magazine.

It will be a “happy hour” beginning at 4 p.m. Cost is $7 per person. A no-host bar is available (you will also receive light appetizers).

This October The Good Life U invites you to come meet wild, free, happy Joe Anderson who lives creatively; Paige Balling who moved to her dream job at age 62, and Mr. Bullet-proof, Don Senn.

Space is limited to 25 fun-loving readers of The Good Life.

Stay tuned for more Good Life

U opportunities. We promise you a happy hour of fun, growth and inspiration.

Contact June Darling, drjunedarling@aol.com, if you would like to attend the historic rollout of The Good Life U.

surveyed thousands of people and studied 54 cultures around the world throughout history, have suggested that a person’s ability to appreciate beauty and excellence is one of the top strengths that allows one to live a truly good life.

If you would like to enhance your ability to appreciate nature and experience pleasure, wonder, perhaps even a bit of ecstasy, it helps to hang around with people who openly express their

appreciation of beauty.

Second, take a couple of breaks each day to look out the window; even better, go outside and feast on the sights, sounds and feel of nature.

You might even read a poem

by Shelley and see if your spirits are lifted.

October is the perfect month to ramp up your appreciative spirit in readiness for Thanksgiving. Here in the Wenatchee Valley, there’s plenty of open,

From top clockwise: Joe Anderson with his wife, Cyndi, Paige Balling and Don Senn.

free, inspiring natural beauty.

Just notice it.

How might you build appreciation for nature’s beauty and move up to The Good Life?

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.

You rest. We’ll clean.

• Proud partner with Clean for a Reason Foundation to help women undergoing cancer treatment • Meticulous screening process, hiring and training with each employee

William Feather

• Cleaning homes in the Valley since 2001 • Voted Best in 2011 and 2012 October 2012 | The Good Life

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Oct. special FRIDGE CLEANING 50% OFF

>>

column THE TRAVELing DOCTOR

jim brown, m.d.

The fat that kills Most Americans are proud

of our country and our accomplishments, our ingenuity, and our position as the world’s most powerful nation.

Unfortunately, the USA is also the world’s leader with our obesity rate of 36 percent. And according to a recent global study, we are also the most physically inactive country in the world with over 40 percent of our populace engaging little in the way of physical activity.

Our obesity rate has doubled since 1960.

Obesity is directly associated with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, depression, dementia, some cancers and osteoarthritis to name a few.

In 2005 more than 2.5 million Americans died. It was estimated that 2 million of those deaths were due to preventable health risks or were related to lifestyle issues.

The vast majority were related to what we eat, drink or smoke as well as our physical inactivity.

A significant amount of the projected future health care costs will be attributable to obesity. A study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found by 2030, 42 percent of U.S. adults could be obese, adding $550 billion to healthcare costs over that period.

Despite the political controversies over health care costs, no politician is mentioning the impact of this obesity epidemic on these future health costs.

Losing weight requires only two things: eating less and exercising more. We all know this, but it seems so hard to do.

On average Americans eat 500 calories a day more than in 1970.

Why are 36 percent of Americans obese while the rate of our Canadian neighbors is 14 percent, the French 9 percent, the Italians 8 percent and the Japanese only 4 percent?

The main reasons have to do with our easy access to tempting foods day and night plus our overall inactivity.

The snack food business in the country is a $27 billion a year industry.

One company, the Herr Corporation in Pennsylvania, started making potato chips in 1947.

They now produce Tasty junk food such as hamburgers fills the belly six tons of snack with bad fat, creating a look of pregnancy. foods per hour — and they are not even one of the average 300 calories each and larger snack food companies in are deep fried) and potato chips the US. (which are generally deep fried The largest four companies in oxidized oil that is reused for — Frito Lay, Kraft, Conagra and weeks at a time).

General Mills — account for Acrylimide, which is a 60 percent of our snack foods. cancer-causing chemical that These snack foods include poalso causes nerve damage, is a tato chips, corn chips, pretzels, by-product of cooking at high popcorn and similar snacks but temperatures, particularly in do not include, cookies, crackfrying. ers, cereal and granola bars.

These top 10 foods can be very It is estimated that 24 percent tasty and appealing, but they of energy calories consumed have little nutritional value and

by Americans now come from add on the pounds. snack foods.

What I call “killer fat” is reUnfortunately America’s top lated to abdominal obesity.

10 favorite foods are hamburgThere are two kinds of abdomers, hot dogs, French fries, Oreo inal obesity. cookies (loaded with sugar), pizn Subcutaneous fat is what za, soda drinks, chicken tenders you can see and pinch and ac(typically made from unusable cumulates under the skin on the chicken parts, heavily breaded abdominal muscles, hips and and deep fried), ice cream (high thighs. in fat and sugar), donuts (which n Visceral or central abdomi-

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| October 2012

nal fat lies underneath the abdominal muscles and is an accumulation of fat that surrounds the abdominal organs deep inside the abdomen. You can’t pinch this fat.

People with visceral abdominal fat do not always look “obese” except for their very large belly. They often have thin lower extremities, smallish buttocks and thin upper bodies but have a belly that looks like they are seven to nine months pregnant. Their huge belly is filled with bad fat.

When I was younger and less knowledgeable, we called this a “beer gut,” but it is not particularly related to alcohol intake.

As midlife approaches waists seem to also expand.

More than 50 percent of men and women over age 50 have waist sizes that fit the definition of abdominal obesity.

There are several ways to determine if you have visceral or abdominal obesity. You can stand in front of a mirror without clothes on and look at yourself from the side, or you can ask your spouse.

Maybe a bit less humiliating, you can also measure your waist at the naval level, and if it is over 40 inches for males or 35 inches for females, it meets the criteria for abdominal obesity.

Even more accurate is to measure the waist to hip ratio which should be less than 0.85 for women and 0.90 for men. To see if you meet the criteria for being over weight or obese in general, you can easily measure your BMI (body mass index) at www. nhlisupport.com/bmi/.

There is a direct correlation between a large waist and a

... ask yourself if you want to have a debilitating disease as you grow older. higher risk of death even if that person is not “over weight” by BMI measurement.

Many physicians say that waist size is a greater predictor of disease than BMI. The risk of cardiovascular death was 2.75 times higher and the risk of death from all cases was 2.08 times in the abdominal obese group compared with subjects with a normal BMI and normal waist size according to a recent Mayo Clinic study.

The risk of Alzheimer’s in postmenopausal abdominal obesity is double that of women with normal waist size.

After menopause women have the same incidence of heart disease as men, particularly in those women with abdominal obesity. Abdominal obesity in females can also cause an increase risk of uterine and post menopausal breast cancer.

Researchers now state that visceral fat is an active organ in itself. Visceral fat secretes hormones, lipids and free fatty acids. These are released directly into the blood stream, travel directly to the liver, pancreas and heart and can trigger inflammation causing heart disease or non-alcoholic fatty damage to the liver and the pancreas causing diabetes.

Despite the gloominess of this condition, there is hope.

Recent studies show it might be easier to lose visceral fat than it is to lose subcutaneous fat.

Our bodies run on energy supplied by the food we eat. When we eat too much, the excess calories are stored as fat.

There are hundreds of diets out there that come and go, as well as other techniques recommended including hypnosis. Other than gastric bypass

surgery or laparoscopic stomach banding, none of these methods have been proven to produce long-term weight loss in a majority of users.

Drug companies spend millions of dollars trying to develop the “magic pill” that will curb appetite and lead to weight loss in order to reap the billions of dollars that such an invention would produce.

To date there has been no magic bullet, although a new diet pill was recently approved by the FDA. Fitness gyms, health clubs and exercise studios crop up all the time. For some this becomes a healthy lifestyle, but the majority of users get discouraged, burn out or lose interest in continuing.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

First, you will need to seriously ask yourself if you want to have a debilitating disease as you grow older.

Then you can take a few relatively easy steps. Although there might be several weeks that are hard as you break the body’s craving for foods that are harmful for you.

Read labels on all the food you buy. Avoid trans fat at all costs.

The worst offender is margarine, where trans fat is added to keep it solid. Avoid foods fried in trans fat and other deep fried foods including French fries, seeds and nuts roasted in fat, microwave popcorn which is convenient but unhealthy, prepared meats such as sausages or hot dogs, and basically anything deep fried in fat even vegetables.

Avoid sugar as much as possible. When you read the labels, if you see in the first eight ingredients anything ending in “ose” like fructose, dextrose, maltose, sucrose, all of these are sugars.

Sodas should be avoided completely. Each can of soda contains on average 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar and should be called “liquid candy.”

All fruit juices, even though October 2012 | The Good Life

they might contain only “natural” sugar, have the same amount of sugar as sodas. A small glass of OJ with breakfast is not harmful, but drinking fruit juices though out the day is the same as eating sugar.

If you drink sodas, at least limit it to sugar-free “diet” soft drinks. Tap water is still the healthiest drink you can drink, and it is cheap and readily available.

Avoid processed foods including processed soy products, which have increased fat. If you “need” a snack, limit your intake or eat an apple instead.

Eat only whole wheat breads and pastas. Multigrain is not as healthy as it sounds and has more additives and sugar than most whole-wheat products.

Avoid or rarely eat foods on America’s top 10 favorite food lists.

WHAT ABOUT EXERCISE?

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 40 percent of adult Americans meet the recommended 2.5 hours per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes a week of vigorous intensity exercise a week.

Many with good intentions join fitness or health clubs but get discouraged and don’t stick with the program.

The most important thing is to find an easy, inexpensive and practical exercise that is sustainable.

We all know how to walk and do not need to join a club to do it year round, especially in our area. The most important thing for most people is to develop a walking group of three to five friends who will commit to walking on a regular basis, preferably three days a week. These peer groups will help you keep going.

It is important to walk briskly for at least 50 minutes three times a week.

When we exercise we feel refreshed, more alert and less www.ncwgoodlife.com

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stressed.

Regular exercise also reduces our risk of dementia as we age.

When you first start walking as a regular exercise, you should see how long it takes to walk a mile.

In a recent Stanford study titled, “Walk Off Weight,” after eight weeks all the participants reduced their time walking a mile by two minutes.

When walking you should walk upright and not hunched over or leaning backward.

Your arms should be held at a 90-degree angle at the elbows and move back and forth like a pendulum. Shorter quicker steps are more important than long strides.

Walkers are “athletes.” You can train while walking and feel much better in the process.

I know this works.

My weight had gradually risen to 180 pounds after I retired.

I didn’t like my paunch but really didn’t see what I could do to change it. I was always active physically, playing tennis three times a week and walking frequently.

My food intake was the cause.

I started getting serious, and reduced my meal portions.

I love salty snacks, but found as I limited my intake of snack foods, sugar, sodas and processed foods, I began to lose weight.

My wife and I nearly always split our entrees when we eat out. We infrequently get dessert, and if we do, we share it.

In a relatively short time, I have lost 10 pounds and feel great.

Do what you must to “scare” yourself into doing it.

I guarantee you will not only look better, but you will feel better, and you will lower your risk for heart disease, dementia, stroke, diabetes and other problems.

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

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column GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

bonnie orr

Magic mushrooms — going wild for them frost the base, add the dairy, and with some warm bread, you will feast.

For me, the magic of mush-

rooms is the variety.

As a young woman, I was fortunate to learn to identify wild mushrooms from an expert.

This is the season for hunting chanterelle mushrooms.

Years ago, my friend Ruth Allan and I were shown a “secret” spot, and each fall we gather the treasures, take them home to clean, cook and preserve by either freezing or drying.

The recipes below can be made with any type of fungi.

During the seasons, fresh, wild mushrooms are often available at the Farmer’s Market or at Farmhouse Table. They add a savory, rich flavor to any dish prepared with purchased white button or cremini mushrooms.

Do not be put off by the very strong odor of dried mushrooms; it dissipates when they are cooked.

Reconstitute dried mushrooms in enough hot water to cover.

Let them sit for 30 minutes, and then wring them out.

Sometimes people use the liquid in soups; I find it too strong, and it can have sediment. Cut up the mushrooms, which will still be tough, and add them to the recipe you are cooking.

Some ingredients combine perfectly with mushrooms.

I prefer dairy products with mushrooms, especially aged Parmesan. Another natural pairing is with garlic, leeks or shallots.

Nearly any mushroom recipe calls for parsley since the two earthy flavors meld.

I think mushrooms enhance rice dishes. Combining the ingredients named in two previous paragraphs would make an instant entré!

Usually, mushroom stems are deleted from recipes because

Cream of mushroom soup: Can be made with either gathered and purchased mushrooms for a delicious cold day treat.

they can be tough. Sometimes, I cook up the stems and puree them then add the puree to soup or stew.

Large stuffed button mushrooms are a delightful party food.

Or you can add bread as a little tray for a delectable mushroom dish. That is how my friend and great cook, Anne McClendon, served the following hors d’oeuvre at a gathering at her house. They were good both warm and cold.

An Aioli is a Mediterranean sauce that features lusty garlic.

Bread with Mushrooms & Aioli 1 pound mushroom caps, thinly

sliced 2 tbsp. olive oil 1/4 tsp. sea salt 1 tbsp. sherry

Aioli ingredients: 3/4 cup mayonnaise 3 cloves garlic minced

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2 1/2 tsp. lemon juice 3/4 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. black pepper 1 baguette French bread, sliced crosswise into crostini rounds

Heat oil; add mushrooms, salt, pepper and sherry.

Cover and lower heat.

Cook till liquid is released from mushrooms.

Drain mushrooms.

Lightly toast bread slices.

Mix all the aioli ingredients in a small bowl.

Spread bread slices with aioli and top with mushrooms.

Place topped breads on a baking sheet.

Broil about 1 minute until aioli bubbles.

The Real Cream of Mushroom Soup

After you make this recipe, you will never again buy a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup.

This can be made ahead of time without the half and half and frozen as a soup base. On a cold, gray day, dewww.ncwgoodlife.com

| October 2012

1 cup chopped fresh, wild mushrooms or 3 oz dried, wild mushrooms such as boletus, morels or chanterelles.

(Shitakes are too black and will create a gray soup.)

1 pound button or cremini mushrooms sliced.

3 Tablespoons butter 4 shallots or 2 medium-sized onions chopped fine 1 large clove garlic minced 4 cups chicken stock – homemade has more flavor 1/2 cup Marsala wine or sherry White pepper and salt 1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves – no stems 2 tablespoons flour 1 pint half and half 2 teaspoons fresh thyme very finely chopped Sauté all the fresh mushrooms in the butter in a large saucepan.

Add the shallots/onion and garlic and cook the mushrooms until all the ingredients have a golden glow.

If using dried wild mushrooms, drain and add to pan.

Add the chicken stock and Marsala and parsley, salt and pepper Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes. If you use dried mushrooms, you may have to check for tenderness.

Puree 2/3 of the soup. Stir the flour into the remainder of the soup and continue to heat.

Pour the puree back into the saucepan. Add the half and half.

Heat gently.

Serve and garnish with thyme.

Enjoy with warm bread.

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

Know of someone stepping off the beaten path in the search for fun and excitement? E-mail us at editor@ncwgoodlife.com

South Shore Flora, by Rob Blackaby.

Ladies of the Lake: “I paint light and water,” said Rob.

Leaving aeronautics for alpines: journey brings artist home

a relevant background for his fine art.

The good eye and skill are evident in both, though the contrast is clear: delineated realism gave way to a much more free form, impressionistic style.

His return home to north central Washington in 2000 was the big turning point.

Rob dropped old habits and developed new ones. Before, he used opaque watercolor with eeking new perspectives on unknown places, oil painter Rob Blackaby freely roams extreme precision to market aerospace products; later he began interpreting the local north central Washington from his present home in Selah: to Wenatchee and close rela- terrain in bold color blocks (it’s a relief. He said, “Now I can push and shove oils around tives, to the home of his youth in Manson and Chelan where he’s still considered a lo- on canvas like a Neanderthal!”)

But, he explained, “One big advantage of cal artist, and to all the canyons and mounstarting in commercial art was that I learned tain roads in between and beyond. discipline — how to sit down and focus and Cowiche Creek Canyon, Blewett Pass and the Chewuch River in the Methow Valley al- get the job done, no matter what. No waiting ways yield unexpected side roads and hiking for ‘the Muse’ to speak to me.”

That assignment-driven work ethic, along trails, and he keeps his waders and hiking with assertively presenting himself and his boots handy for spontaneous treks to the projects to publishers, has made the move perfect viewpoint, the untapped treasure.

Rob, 56, knows what landscapes he’s seek- from the strictly commercial to the “feast or famine” world of professional landscape ing: “I paint light and water.” painting less harrowing than it might have He travels with a camera, not a paint been. box like plein air artists, preferring to take Rob has enjoyed mentoring high school art a good photograph back to the studio for students over the last decade and together further reflection rather than compete with they’ve completed 10 of 15 publicly commisthe elements of wind, temperature and the sioned murals on the walls of Chelan busiconstantly changing light. nesses.

Commercial art education and training He wistfully remembered, “I would have shaped his early career, and Rob’s work with Martin Marietta Aeronautics until 1988 was been in heaven to be on a project like that in

S

October 2012 | The Good Life

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Rob Blackaby finds inspiration in the outdoors and uses his commercial art training and background to create free-form landscapes.

high school.”

He sees his art every time he drives back to his hometown, but he’s proudest of the huge mountain goats looming (very tall) on the front of the high school.

When he works with students now, youth or adult, he remembers his own earliest classes — “They never said why we were drawing that bent up old bicycle!” — and is adamant about making his art lessons transparent. “I focus on why we’re doing each

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Rob Blackaby: ‘This is not painting by numbers’ }}} Continued from previous page

Join Us For A Happy Hour of Fun, Growth and Inspiration We’ve just made it easier and more fun to move up To The Good Life.

Come to the VIP Lounge, Town Toyota Center, Oct. 11, 4 p.m. (cost $7).

Meet featured personalities from the pages of The Good Life. No host bar, fruit and cheese appetizer. email

drjunedarling@aol.com

Limited to 25 people.

exercise, what effect we’re really after.”

First sketching out big blocks of a composition, for instance, then coding them for application of basic background paint colors — a commercial art and muralist’s technique that can also serve impressionistic landscapes.

He laughs at the obvious allusion: “No, this is not paint-bynumbers.”

Beyond the murals and classes, Rob’s made his appearance on the fine arts scene with commissions and local exposure (Chelan’s Vogue Coffee House) prestigious invitations (Coeur d’Alene’s Art On The Green festival) and a local art printer (Black Dog Frame Shop).

Though he has figurative and still life paintings in his repertoire, he’s busy these days depicting our home territory from his personal perspective — scenes that are sometimes hard won with treks into the back of beyond.

To see Rob’s original paintings and to order collector quality prints from Black Dog go to Robblackaby.com

— by Susan Lagsdin

>>

WHAT TO DO

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

Wenatchee Farmer’s Market, Wednesdays 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Columbia St.; Thursdays 3 – 7 p.m.

Methow Park; Saturdays, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Columbia St. Local produce, fruit, flowers, eatery wine tasting and entertainment.

Underground Blues Jam, 10/1, 7:30 p.m. Every first Monday of the month. 10 Below, 29 N Columbia St. side B. Info: Joe Guimond 6644077.

Improv/Acting Workshop, 10/2, 7 p.m. Every Tuesday night with theater games for novice and experienced players. Fun, causal and free. Riverside Playhouse. Cost: free. Info: mtow.org.

Chelan Evening Farmer’s Market, 10/4, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. and every Thursday through 11/29. Corner of S. Emerson and Wapato Streets, between the Riverwalk Inn and Riverwalk Park. Info: chelanfarmersmarket.org.

Book Event, 10/5, 3-5 p.m. Dr. Bill Dienst will present Freedom Sailors, which describes the true life action thriller about the historic breach of the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip by non-violent citizen activists from around the world. Hastings, 315 9th St. Wenatchee. Info: freedomsailors.com.

Bubbles and Heels, 10/5, 5 p.m.

Sip wine, chat with new and old friends while wearing your favorite shoes. One Wine, Chelan. Cost: $10.

Info: onewinesinc.com.

Wenatchee First Fridays, 10/5, 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. Walk downtown for art, music, dining and entertainment. Downtown Wenatchee.

2 Rivers Art Gallery, 10/5, 5 – 8

Corrections A story about Cheryl Stewart

by Alan Moen in the September issue of The Good Life contained a number of errors. n Cheryl is actually not a “weaver” (she doesn’t use a loom), as the headline says, but a spinner and knitter instead. n Her husband’s name is Craig, not Brian. And Cheryl can’t really tell colors by touch, although she identifies some spices that way.

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| The Good Life

n We mixed up the results of the carding and combing processes as well.

Carding produces batts for woolen spinning and combing produces “roving” for worsted spinning. n And we had the wrong name for the North Central Washington Spinners and Weavers Guild, which is actually the Alpine Meadows Spinners and Weavers.

www.ncwgoodlife.com

| October 2012

p.m. Featuring plus over 40 local and regional artists. Wines, refreshments and live music. 102 N Columbia, Wenatchee. Cost: free.

Tumbleweed, 10/5, 5 p.m. Sherry Trammel-Schauls will showcase her Balsamroot Ranch Jewelry.

The jewelry offers a combination of natural and unique materials including sterling silver, copper, leather, pearls and even buttons.

105 Palouse, Wenatchee. Cost: free.

Info: tumbleweedbeadco.com.

Oktoberfest, 10/5-6, 10/12-13, 10/19-20. Live music, German food, arts and crafts and beer. Downtown Leavenworth.

Wings and Wheels & Wine, 10/5, 6 & 7. Car show, swap meet, radio controlled car meet, food and craft fair, carnival, wine garden, entertainment, aircraft displays, airplane and helicopter rides. Eastmont Community Park and Pangborn Memorial Airport. Info: eastwenatchee.com.

Buckner Orchard Harvest Fest, 10/6, 10 a.m. Pick apples, make cider, have a potluck and enjoy the music. Chili, coffee, juice, plates, utensils and cups provided. Please bring potluck dish, lawn chairs and cider containers.

Buckner Orchard in Stehekin. Info: bucknerhomestead.org.

Shellfish Festival, 10/6, 11 a.m.

Three types of oysters, mussels, clams, sausage and a chef. Live music. White Heron Cellars, Quincy.

Cost: $10 for the musicians and shellfish available for purchase.

Musicians for Mission Vista, 10/6, 7 p.m. Four popular local bands take the stage to raise awareness and funds for Mission Vista Group Home, a private nonprofit that through housing and work programs supports developmentally challenged adults. The bands are Gideon’s Daughter, The Swingin Richardsz, Mugsy’s Groove and JunkBelly. At the PAC. Tickets: $20. Info: musiciansformissionvista.com.

Mahogany & Merlot vintage boat event, 10/6-7. On the water boat show. Six big unlimited class hydroplanes, 20 restored smaller inboard hydroplanes and racing runabouts plus antique and classic mahogany Chris Crafts, Century’s, Gar Wood’s and other makes from bygone era on display. Chelan Waterfront Marina. Cost: free. Info: mahoganyandmerlot.com.

Cider Fest, 10/6, Orondo Cider Works. Bin train orchard tours,

>>

WHAT TO DO

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

cider pressing, fresh cider doughnuts, cider tasting, pumpkin patch, live music, kids activities and more.

Cost: free. Info: 679-1481.

Cashmere Art and Activity Center, 10/6, 10 a.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, 9:30 a.m. weekdays. Second Saturday celebrations, meet the artists, and enjoy food and drink, musical entertainment by Kirk Lewellen.

Lake Chelan Crush, 10/6-7 & 10/13-14. Visitors can take short hops between the 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 award-winning 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.

NCW Innovation Showcase, 10/9, noon – 7 p.m. This event will highlight the Quincy area’s top innovators showcasing emergent technology in green data centers, cold train and agriculture. Afterwards on to Beaumont Cellars to network and socialize. Info: 6622116.

Alzheimer’s Café, 10/9, 2:30 p.m.

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

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

Craft Fair, 10/12-13. Blewett Pass junction at Leavenworth Christian Fellowship. Cost: free.

Leavenworth Ski Swap, 10/13, 9 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Sell your gently used winter gear or score great deals. Retailers will bring new discounted gear as well. Cascade High School.

YWCA SOUP contest, 10/13, 11a.m.

-5 p.m. Get a t-shirt, samples of

}}} Continued on next page

The Art Life

// SKETCHES OF LOCAL ARTISTS

‘I never feel any pain when I’m playing music’ When the 9-year-old boy’s

family had to move from the area, the student wept through most of his last guitar session with Wenatchee music teacher Dan Findlay.

Dan said, “I appreciate that for many students, their one weekly lesson may be the bright spot in their lives — it helps them cope with home, school and work.”

He knows he’s on to something when a teenager can hardly wait for his Tuesday afternoon class.

Growing up literally in the womb of music (his jazz singer mother sang until two weeks before delivery) Dan found music came naturally to him. “I even learned to sing before I could talk, listening to my mother practice lyrics for hours.”

But he understands that making music isn’t easy for many people.

For Dan, teaching is a serious art form. He uses his creativity to make concepts clearer. He is alert to students’ problem points and especially loves their big questions (like “Why is a minor chord sad?”) because they prompt research and jolt his own imagination.

Stringed instruments like banjo, bass, ukulele, mandolin, and especially guitar were a learning playground for him in his youth, and then he brought that expertise to dozens of groups and venues in Seattle. He soaked up what he could from the masters and their heroes: Eric Clapton, Chet Atkins, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers.

Dan, 30, explained the big transition in his life. “I needed October 2012 | The Good Life

Dan Findlay strums and talks in his studio, surrounded by racks of music CDs and albums, and his guitar heroes.

to make a career choice. I thought ‘Gee, I love music, but I also love education.’ Duh!” he laughed, “I finally put them together: ‘I can teach music!’”

Six years ago, after moving back to Wenatchee and testing the waters teaching at Avalon Music, he cleared space for his own small studio off Pear Street.

He has taught over 100 students ages 6 to 81. (His oldest, a new uke player, is a retired surgeon who just wanted to stay vigorous in his elder years.)

Dan applauds the therapeutic effects of music. A chronic condition of his own makes movement difficult and sitting uncomfortable, but “It’s amazing — I never feel any pain when I’m playing music.”

He’s explored music therapy, and knows that stutterers and stroke victims, or people with breathing disorders, can be helped by singing.

For him, even talking and answering questions is easier when he’s strumming the guitar, “It’s nothing,” he demurred when asked the name of the piece he was playing. ”I’m just noodling www.ncwgoodlife.com

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around. It helps me stay on track.”

Dan’s love of music infuses his life. He referred to his “OCD knowledge of music” and he believes, “Music is connected to everything. It’s the one thing that every single civilization on the planet, through all time, has had in common.”

He’s intrigued with the math and science of music. He’s cached 50,000 songs on his hard drive, owns tall shelved stacks of CDs, and displays his finely wrought instruments close at hand in the studio, where he’s crafting some guitar tunes of his own.

He hopes to form a group, which is a tricky business, he knows, in this far-flung region with many good musicians living miles apart.

Meanwhile, he’ll play guitar to his heart’s content, listen to learn, and pass on some of the love and skill to the eager students that knock on his door every week.

Find out more about Dan at http:// wenatcheeguitarandbasslessons. webstarts.com.

— by Susan Lagsdin

>>

WHAT TO DO

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

}}} Continued from previous page each soup, bowl of your favorite soup, bottle water or cup of coffee.

Memorial Park. Cost: $15. Top three voted soups will be featured at YWCA Café AZ’s.

Wenatchee Symphony: Russia, 10/13, 7 p.m. Young artist competition winner Jenaesha Iwaasa will be featured in movements I and IV of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor.

Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture will also be performed. Performing Arts Center.

Experience Curling, 10/14, 5 - 7 p.m. Learn how to curl. Bring a friend for a buy 1 get 1 free. Preregistration required. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $15. Info: wenatcheecurlingclub.com.

Compassionate Friends Meeting, 10/15, 7 p.m. Grace Lutheran Church. Anyone who has had a child die is invited to attend. Info: Carol 665-9987.

BPW Woman of the year lun-

cheon, 10/17, noon. Guest speaker Nancy Tedeschi. Confluence Technology Center. Cost: $25. Info: wenatchee.org.

Man of La Mancha, 10/18,19,25,26,27 & 11/1,2,3. 7:30 p.m. 10/20, 2 p.m. The story of the mad knight, Don Quixote, as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. Riverside Playhouse.

Info: mtow.org.

Vienna Boys Choir, 10/19, 7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center. Info: pacwen.org.

Annual Dinner, 10/19. Chelan/ Douglas Land Trust annual dinner at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 625 S Elliott. Info: cdlandtrust.org.

Chelan Chase, 10/20. 5K through Chelan. Help chase breast cancer away forever with proceeds benefiting the Lake Chelan Community Hospital Mammography Department and Chelan Douglas Relay for Life/American Cancer Society. Pre register: chelanchase.com.

Bill Cosby, 10/20, 7:30 p.m. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacenter.com.

HalloWINE, 10/20, noon – 4 p.m.

Enjoy a crisp autumn afternoon sipping wine and a harvest buffet lunch from Mike’s Meat and Cashmere Cider Mill’s chocolate/ cabernet/syrah gelato. Passport allows you to visit 11 tasting rooms.

Conservatory in Cashmere. Cost: $39. Info: 669-5808 or wenatcheewines.com.

Veggie Tales, 10/21, 6 p.m. God made you special. Town Toyota Center. Info: towntoyotacenter.com.

Fall Fundraiser for Memorial Project, 10/24, 5 p.m. A night of good food and auction prizes with host John Curley. Enzian Inn. Cost: $35 advance tickets or $40 at the door. All proceeds benefit Memorial Patio Project to honor avalanche victims Johnny Brennan, Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph and Dan Zimmermann.

Book signing, 10/26, 7 p.m. Christine and Jeffrey Smith found the David B tucked behind a breakwater on Lopez Island. The tired old wooden boat, built in 1929, was showing her age. Without much income, they pinned their hopes and sheer will on rebuilding the dying boat. What they thought would be a two-year project, became an eight-year tug-of-war between time and money as they raced to finish rebuilding the David B. Barn Beach Reserve, Leavenworth. On 10/27, 1 – 3 p.m. at A Book For All Seasons.

Book Buzz, 10/27, 1 – 3 p.m. Carter Sickels’ portrayal of West Virginia’s modern-day struggles in The Evening Hour; Christine Smith’s memoir More Faster Backwards; Daniel

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O’Rourke’s short stories Unknown Roads; and Kenny Knight’s autobiography, Unknown Rock Star will be on hand at A Book For All Seasons, Leavenworth.

Iron Mountain, 10/27, 6 p.m. Body building, fitness, figure, bikini and physique championships. Performing Arts Center. Cost: $35. Info: pacwen.org.

Michael Powers, 10/27, 7 p.m.

Live music. River Haus in the Pines B & B. Cost: $35. Info: riverhausinthepines.com.

Greg Ruby Quartet in Concert, 10/27, 7:30 p.m. Swing and stylish Gypsy jazz live concert. Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, Canyon Wren Recital Hall, Leavenworth. Info: icicle.org.

Pumpkin Run, 10/27, 10 a.m. Costume contest for all ages with 1k, 2k and 6k races. Leavenworth Ski Hill. Cost: $20 adults, $5 kids. Info: skileavenworth.com Dan Crary & Thunderation, 10/27, 7:30 p.m. Live Bluegrass music. Cashmere Community Coffeehouse. Info: cashmerecoffeehouse. com.

Trick or Treat, 10/31, 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Downtown Chelan.

Ride the Miniature Train, 10/31, 5 – 8 p.m. Riverfront Park. Cost: $3 adults, $2 kids. Info: wvmcc.org.

Trick or Treat on the Avenue, 10/31, 3 – 5 p.m. Safe and fun trick-or-treating in downtown Wenatchee.

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column those were the days

rod molzahn

Git along little doggies, driving cattle in NCW Gold brought the first cattle

to the Wenatchee Valley but they were only passing through.

Gold strikes on the Fraser River and the Cariboo country in British Columbia brought thousands of men to the area by the end of the 1850s and they had to be fed. At a time of no railroads and only few wagon roads, food that could walk itself to market and fetch $100 to $125 a head was a money maker.

In the spring of 1860 John Jeffries and a crew of cowboys drove a herd of cattle from The Dalles in Oregon up, what would come to be called, the Cariboo Trail to the hungry miners along the Fraser River. Jeffries was the first of what quickly became an-

This photo of cattle crossing the Okanogan River was taken by Frank Matsura in about 1907, probably early spring. The location is near where Okanogan’s Oak Street bridge is today. Photo from the Okanogan County Historical Society

nual drives totaling thousands of head that would follow the trail for years.

The Cariboo Trail passed through 600 miles of wild land inhabited only by Indians — some hostile. A drive could take 40 days. The trail offered two routes. Both brought the cattle past the Wenatchee/Columbia confluence.

One route crossed Colockum Pass then followed the west bank of the Columbia, forded

the Wenatchee River and the Entiat, hung to the sides of Ribbon Cliff, then forded the lower end of Lake Chelan and the Methow and Okanogan Rivers before crossing into Canada.

The other route also crossed Colockum Pass then crossed the Columbia near Wenatchee and followed a trail up the east side of the Columbia before crossing back a mile north of the Okanogan River and joining the other route into Canada.

The drives to the Cariboo country continued until 1868. By then cattle were being raised closer to the mines and in numbers that met the needs of the miners.

That same year 200 cattle were driven from the Yakima Valley over Nah-Cheez Pass to the Puget Sound area establishing a market for eastern Washington beef that remained strong for over 30 years.

Snoqualmie Pass became the favored route for drives beginning in the Kittitas Valley. The drives ended when the railroad reached Ellensburg and cattle could be shipped to Seattle.

The years on the Cariboo Trail had introduced the cattlemen to the prime grazing lands of the Okanogan and Methow Valleys.

As settlement in the Kittitas and Yakima Valleys reduced available grazing land the cattlemen turned to the unsettled north.

The Phelps & Wadleigh Cattle Company, headquartered in Yakima, was one of the first to embrace the Okanogan and by 1880 had herds in the region totaling 9,000 head.

Frank Streamer, intrepid wanderer of north central Wash-

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Splawn tells of 20 degrees below zero temperatures with fierce storms that froze the men’s hair to the ground while they slept. ington, told of their large hay meadows near Osoyoos and the five-room house they kept for their cowboys near present day Loomis.

The cattle were driven from the Okanogan to the railroad in Ellensburg for shipment to Seattle. They all passed through the nascent Wenatchee, not yet a town in June of 1873 when Sam Miller noted in his ledger for the Miller/Freer Trading Post that Ed Phelps had bought $15 worth of goods and paid with a steer.

Frank Streamer’s 1880 account of a Phelps & Wadleigh drive to Ellensburg describes in fine detail swimming 440 steers across the Columbia River: “The men and Indians commenced swimming the cattle across the river

at 11 o’clock. They are taking them in bunches of about 30 at a time, then surrounding them with horsemen, move them to the river in V-shape, hurry them into deep water… by punching the unruly ones, splashing the water, yelling like an Italian opera at the steers and making a more hellish noise than a Methodist camp meeting…

“It is certainly a thrilling scene to witness the white men and Indians maneuvering the cattle in the wide, deep, swift and surging waters of the Columbia River. It requires very superior skill and ingenuity on the part of the Indian to manage his canoe among the swimming, sullen steers, and at the same time, keep in his canoe.

“Many times the crafts are upset and Indians and steers swim together… So the steer swims for the striving Siwash and the Siwash strides the steer or else his upset canoe and paddles his way out from the midst of the snorting and cavorting beasts, in a little less time than it takes to tell this.

“Sometimes the Indians make a line guard with their canoes, by the Indian at the stern of one canoe locking hands with the person at the bow of the next canoe, then tightening grip, and

drawing all canoes in broomstick style around the swimming herd, thus preventing their return to the shore from whence they started.”

The harsh winter of 1880/81 killed a third to a half of all the cattle in north central Washington putting Phelps & Wadleigh along with many other cattlemen out of business, but others took their place.

The Seattle market was still strong and the drives continued to pass through Wenatchee until 1892 when the Great Northern Railroad arrived. The cattle could now be shipped to market from Wenatchee, eliminating the difficult trip over Colockum Pass to Ellensburg.

The glory days of cattle in north central Washington were over by the middle of the 1890s, victim of the “cattle-killing” winter of 1889/90 and increasing white settlement.

Smaller drives from the Okanogan and Methow valleys to the railroad at Wenatchee continued for a time. A.J. Splawn drove herds from the Canadian border every fall. His last drive was in November of 1886.

Splawn tells of 20 degrees below zero temperatures with fierce storms that froze the men’s hair to the ground while

they slept.

They forded the icy waters of the Columbia, the Methow, the Okanogan, Entiat and Wenatchee rivers before finally turning the 550 cattle “into Sam Miller’s pasture near Wenatchee where they were fed, and we took shelter in a shed which seemed a palace.”

The following year the Wenatchee city council fired Marshall James Ferguson for not enforcing the city ordinance against cattle roaming the town streets.

Splawn had worked his first cattle drive 35 years earlier in 1861 when he was 16 years of age.

He had seen the cattle business flourish and decline. Now it was disappearing.

Mining and settlement in the Okanogan took away stock watering sources and, as had already happened in the Kittitas and Yakima valleys, brought fences and the end to a way of life.

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

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column ALEX ON WINE

ALEX SALIBY

Right mood makes good wine memorable I was looking back over my

email files and discovered I have several questions I need to answer, so this issue is likely to be a hodge-podge of topics.

Question: Do you have a favorite winery?

Answer: No, I don’t. That would mean a singular, one and only choice. I have many favorites in many parts of the world.

There are just too many great wines available to me as the consumer to focus on one and only one winery’s products.

Question: Do you have a favorite NCW winery?

Answer: No, I don’t. Again, as with wineries in the world in general, wineries here in NCW are producing quality wines worthy of my time and effort to seek them out and enjoy them.

And, if you don’t know, the local wineries are all open to the public for tasting. I advise you to get out and find out for yourself if you have a favorite.

Question: What’s your favorite wine?

Answer: This one is difficult to grapple with, and after having consumed two glasses of wine attempting to answer the question, I’ve concluded I can’t answer it in the direct manner I think it deserves because condi-

tions and circumstances of time and place that affect the answer.

Question: If you could choose the only two wines to be left in the world, a red and a white, which would you choose?

Answer: Ouch… only two? I’d love to expand that to a dozen.

If I must choose, I’d say for the white I’d opt for a southern Rhone-style blend, and I’d favor Grenache blanc, Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne in the blend.

For the red — and this one really hurts because I’m a big fan of Zin and Pinot Noir, and I love Grenache — I’d choose the Bordeaux blend, with the five grape blend of Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot. But I really dislike this question… thank you very much.

Question: What’s the best wine you’ve ever had?

Answer: Oh my, where to go on this one?

A few issues back I remember paraphrasing a comment from Karen MacNeil and the comment went something like this: If experience has taught us anything it is that the right mood is probably at least as important as the right wine and food.

I’ve kept those words with me since having first read them

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as reminders that maybe that nondescript wine wasn’t as poor as I thought it was; maybe the fault lay with me and the circumstances.

Time, place and circumstance play a critical role in our attitudes and perceptions.

In 1984, while living in a small apartment in Bridgeport, Conn., waiting to finish building our house, we first discovered Portuguese wines. Bridgeport, like much of the seacoast in New England from the Boston harbor down to New York City, is a multi-cultural place with a large population of Portuguese people.

For a quiet meal at home after a hectic day for both of us, my personal chef brought out a Bacalhoa and a Perequita from a wine shop she had just discovered. These were our first Portuguese wines, and I can still remember how I felt having tasted them. We are still fans of the wines of Portugal because of that evening.

Other special occasions come to mind: drinking a Riesling chilled in a mountain stream while picnicking on the banks of that stream in the Austrian countryside; savoring our first Cain Five Bordeaux styled blend with our San Francisco friends

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| October 2012

and wine enthusiasts Greg and Debrah at their home while Greg prepared the rabbit dish to accompany the intended 1986 Kistler Chardonnay; the Hesse Collection ’92 at Greystone, over a quiet lunch celebrating a successful business meeting.

Then, the never-to-be-forgotten 1964 Lafite Rothschild on an autumn evening in Georgia, when we and other neighbors commiserated with a friend over her recent divorce as we drank her ex-husband’s collection of fine wines.

Yes, time and place and circumstance play a big role in determining a favorite wine. We’ve found several here in Washington, some right here at home in north central Washington, and some…. right here at the recent NCW Wine Awards.

Thanks for reading; I hope I’ve satisfactorily answered your questions.

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.

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