March 2015 good life

HUNTING WITH TED NUGENT Y EVENTS CALENDAR

WENATCHEE VALLEY’S

NUMBER ONE MAGAZINE

March 2015

n

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THESE ARE THE

GOOD OLD DAYS FISHING FOR LOCAL

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Contents

page 16

living at belize speed

Features

7

this senior discount makes you smarter

Charlene Woodward takes advantage of a discount to return to college... ouch, says the brain

8 hunting with ted nugent

Joe Hinkle was cruising the Internet late one night when he saw an offer he just couldn’t refuse

11 respect for women veterans

When Dee Anne De Angelo was ignored in a parade, the U.S. Air Force veteran started a vets group for local women. Now, they are marching with pride

12 the golden age of local fishing

Fishing expert Dave Graybill says thanks to many preservation efforts, these are wonderful days to be a local angler

14 gained in the translation

Leavenworth resident Laurie Peek has found a rich life in building bridges between people and their needs

18 family moves to costa rica

Local doctor who loves to move around relocates his family to Central America — while he continues to work in Wenatchee

21 a feel for building

Contractor Mike Roberts knows when to deviate from the blueprints to create a better home for people

ART SKETCHES

n Landscape painter Jerry Kinney, page 30 n Musician Sherry Krebs, page 35 Columns & Departments 24 June Darling: Get lucky by looking for silver linings 26 Bonnie Orr: Leeks for spring 27 Pet Tales: Brandy and Alyssa 28 The traveling doctor: Why don’t we live longer?

30-35 Arts & Entertainment & a Dan McConnell cartoon 33 The night sky: Moons of Jupiter at play 36 History: The founding of Chelan 38 Alex Saliby: A few favorite Rieslings March 2015 | The Good Life

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OPENING SHOT

®

Year 9, Number 3 March 2015 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: https://www. facebook.com/NCWGoodLife Editor/Publisher, Mike Cassidy Contributors, Greg Berdan, Charlene Woodward, Joe Hinkle, Dave Graybill, Marlene and Kevin Farrell, Jessica Creel, Geoff Barry, Donna Cassidy, Bonnie Orr, Alex Saliby, Jim Brown, June Darling, Dan McConnell, Susan Lagsdin, Peter Lind and Rod Molzahn Advertising manager, Terry Smith Advertising sales, Lianne Taylor and Donna Cassidy Bookkeeping and circulation, Donna Cassidy Proofing, Dianne Cornell Ad design, Rick Conant TO SUBSCRIBE: For $25, ($30 out of state address) you can have 12 issues of The Good Life mailed to you or a friend. Send payment to: The Good Life 10 First Street, Suite 108 Wenatchee, WA 98801 For circulation questions, email: donna@ncwgoodlife.com BUY A COPY of The Good Life at Hastings, Safeway stores, Walgreens, Mike’s Meats at Pybus, Rhubarb Market, 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 2015

by NCW Good Life, LLC.

The Straggler by Greg Berdan.

Read the manual and practice, practice, practice

By Greg Berdan

W

hen people ask me what they should do to get better photos with their camera, my first two suggestions are, “Read the manual,” and practice with all the settings until they know them well.

The shot above was taken in 2011, a few months into my return to photography. I was still using my trusty Pentax Optio W90 point and shoot camera.

This is close to one of my last shots taken with that little camera, before I decided to stick with photography and move on up to a larger body camera.

During these last couple months with my trusty little camera, I had mastered the limits of its performance and even discovered techniques that allowed me to rival shots of my peers with more professional

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camera setups in the online photography groups in which I was participating.

If I had not taken the time to read the manual from cover to cover and practiced repeatedly with the different modes and limited manual settings, this shot and several others from that period would not have been worth showing to others.

“It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer,” might be a cliché in many forums, but it is mostly true. The great shots come not only from having “an eye” for the shot, but also from truly knowing the tools you have available to you at that moment.

Tools with limits require more work and planning.

Thinking back on what I had to do for this shot: scrolling through the menus, holding this button and that button, recomposing, release the shutter. All as my subject was approaching the spot I hoped he would be when I was ready.

With my current camera body, I could have made these changes in a second or two. All luxuries I now enjoy as my camera now is almost permanently in manual

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March 2015

mode with plenty of dials and buttons just a finger tip away.

Again, I have read the manual and practiced with all of the settings and modes. I know this tool is better, but it is still just a tool. They aren’t much use if you don’t learn to use them.

Greg Berdan of Wenatchee is the owner of Greg Berdan Photography, more of his work can be seen at www. gregberdanphotography.com.

On the cover

Eric Granstrom took the top photo of Dave Graybill reeling in a kokanee at Lake Chelan.

The kokanee fishing has become particularly attractive to anglers in recent years due to their abundance and large size, with the Lake Chelan fishery going strong by March of each year.

On the lower left, is Bob Stroup of the Icicle Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited helping a young angler catch his first fish at one of their free Kids Fishing Days in Leavenworth.

On lower right, steelhead fishing on the Wenatchee River typically opens in October, just when the fall colors are coming on.

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editor’s notes

MIKE CASSIDY

These are the days to hook a big one In our pre-children days,

my wife and I were vagabonds, rambling to some exotic places in the world.

But no matter where we might land — Bali, Nepal, Goa — some person would say, “Ah yes, it’s nice today, but you should have been here 5, 10, 20 years ago, that’s when it was truly wonderful.”

At first, I was haunted by this statement — thinking: “Darn, we missed it!” — but then I came to realize the present was pretty fantastic, and that humans have a tendency to wrap the past in colors more bright than true.

So it was no surprise when Fishing Magician Dave Graybill dropped in The Good Life offices recently to say hello, and then — chatting about fishing, naturally — said, “People want to talk about how great the fishing used to be, but really, these are the good old days of local fishing.”

And thus, a headline and a story were born.

Check out Dave’s article on page 12.

As a postscript, Dave also sent along a real-life “fishing is fine now” anecdote. Here is Dave’s story: I organized a night of seminars on steelhead fishing that took place in Pateros earlier this winter. A friend of mine who had come along on one of our trips to Belize, heard about it on the radio in Seattle and sent me an e-mail saying that he planned to come over.

So I told him to bring some warm clothes and we would fish for steelhead the morning after the seminars. He

was excited.

He had fished for steelhead with his father as a youngster, but had never caught anything.

The morning we fished near Pateros was cold but clear, and we didn’t have to go far to get to the fishing grounds.

We fished an area known as The Rocks, where he got his first steelhead ever. Then we crossed the river where I got one that we released. as it was a wild fish.

On the next pass we both hooked steelhead at the same time. Mine ran under the boat and got tangled with his line. I told him to be patient and we would slowly bring our fish to the surface.

At one point I looked over the side of the boat and I could see our two fish. Mine was a nice steelhead, but his was huge! Now I was really nervous. Somehow I managed to get both fish into the net at the same time, and they were both hatchery fish, meaning we could keep them.

We took the three fish we were allowed to keep to the gas station in Pateros to have them measured, as there was a prize for the longest fish landed that day. His fish was 31-and-a-half inches long and won.

It was a day that we will both always remember. He got his first limit of steelhead and even won a derby with his big one.

Don’t always believe those fish tales from the past. Land your own adventure today and enjoy The Good Life.

— Mike March 2015 | The Good Life

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Y0034_15_27679

fun stuff a full LISTING of what to do begins ON PAGE 31

It’s spring, it’s spring, it’s spring!

One block long at the corner of Orondo and Mission Street.

7-ish, Tuesday, March 17.

St. Patrick’s Day Music, 3/17,

All Strings Considered will perform Irish and Scottish ballads featuring the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and hammered dulcimer.

Pybus Public Market. Cost: free.

5 – 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 17.

S

pring officially begins later this month, but already, it feels as if there’s energy and lightness in the air.

And taking a look at this month’s calendar shows plenty of reason to get out and be doing.

Check out these events found in our monthly listings: NCW Kid Connect family expo —Meet your favorite super-

hero and your favorite princesses, reptile and reptile zoo, Philip and Henry: the amazing magicians, L-Bow the Clown, giveaways, workshop, inflatables, games activities and more.

Wenatchee High School gym.

Bring canned food for local food banks and win prizes. Cost: $4 adults, $3 kids 2-17. Info: ncwkidconnect.com. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Saturday, March 7, Mud Bay Jugglers, 3/7, Jug-

gling, physical comedy, dance, and music. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $21-$29.

Info: numericapac.org. 6:30 p.m.

My girlfriend’s closet —Junior Service League of

L-Bow the Clown will be goofing around at the NCW Kid Connect Family Expo, Saturday, March. 7.

The Overnighters, men looking for hope in the North Dakota oil boom, March 22, Snowy Owl Theater.

Saturday, March 7.

GWATA Innovator Awards Luncheon, 3/17, noon. Win-

KPQ Home and Garden Show

— Town Toyota Center. Cost: free. Info: towntoyotacenter. com. Friday through Sunday, March 13-15.

Spring Fest — A benefit for Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market. Light hors d’oeuvres, desserts, no-host bar, silent and live auction with dozens of items, raffles and drawings. Gil Sparks will m/c the event. Pybus Public Market. Cost: $25. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. 6 – 9 p.m.

Saturday, March 14.

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ners of entrepreneur of the year, tech savvy business of the year, future technology leader k-12, future technology leader postsecondary and innovative use of technology in the classroom will be announced. Dr. Robb Akridge, PhD will be the keynote speaker. He is known for inventing the Clarisonic product and lead developer of SonicCare.

Info: gwata.org. Noon Tuesday, March 17.

St. Patrick’s Day parade —

The shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade Route in the world.

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March 2015

Wenatchee presents their fundraiser. Gently used clothing, jewelry, shoes and handbags for sale. 212 Fifth Street #9, Mission Village between Mission St and Chelan Ave. Info: facebook. com/mygirlriendsclosetbyJSLW. Friday through Sunday, March 20-22.

Vox Docs Film Festival — A showcase of the year’s best documentaries, with engrossing life stories and extraordinary personal journeys, including a chilling first-hand account of the Edward Snowden saga and a look at the broken, desperate men chasing their dreams and running from their demons amidst the North Dakota oil boom. Snowy Owl Theater, $10 advance or $13 at the door, $45 for all five films. Info: vocdoc. org. Saturday and Sunday, March 20-21.

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My world // Charlene Woodward

The ‘senior discount’ that makes you smarter Turning 60 qualifies you to

get smarter than ever for next to nothing by auditing classes at community colleges for $5 a class.

I’d been meaning to do this for the past few years but work, travel and sloth allowed me to put this off until this quarter.

Now I’m a newly minted student at Wenatchee Valley College and having so much fun.

I graduated from the University of Washington In 1974 with a BA in Sociology. I’ve spent my working life self-employed in the book business as a retailer and publisher and I’ve been a community volunteer.

As I get (ahem) more mature, I realize there is so much more to learn in life. Taking college classes is a great way to fill in gaps in my knowledge as well as embrace new information.

Walking onto the WVC campus as a student for the first time this January brought back so many memories. At college you are surrounded by people who have similar values and goals — people who are there to learn, to make more of their lives, to improve themselves.

You feel like you are part of something important just by being there.

I confess that I feared a community college would be only slightly different from high school. You know, lots of chatter, good-natured pushing and shoving and just plain youthful exuberance and I might feel out

Charlene Woodward, right, stands with art appreciation teacher Maria Sadel in front of Here, Not There by Howard and Lorraine Barlow in the Music and Arts Center at Wenatchee Valley College. “Believe it or not, theories about the origins of the artistic impulse in humankind and the importance of art and beauty in our lives has changed in the 40 years since I took an Art History class,” said Charlene.

of place.

I was instantly impressed with the quietness of the campus and the focus of my fellow students.

I felt energized just because I was there.

At first, changes in higher

March 2015 | The Good Life

education intimidated me.

Even though I was attending classes in person, I found out that much of the learning would be a hybrid of lectures and online activities along with reading and research. With your

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student ID you get access to online course materials, discussion forums, library resources and grading policies.

Even though I was auditing the classes, I wanted to act like a “real” student and do all the assignments to find out if I could keep up. That meant getting comfortable with these new ways of learning.

So how am I doing?

Let’s just say that I’m managing. I hadn’t anticipated the time it would take to get comfortable with the technology and make use of it as is required in today’s classroom. Even though I use computers all day in my job, it’s not the same way you use them for these classes.

Luckily I’ve found my fellow (much younger) students to be very willing to help me out. I call them my “tech support” and they’ve been very good-natured about answering my questions.

One of my classes has especially difficult reading material that requires intense focus, rereading, often with only minimal comprehension. It makes my brain hurt!

Sometimes I whine about how hard it is... but that’s why I’m doing it. I wanted the challenge and I’m loving it.

Charlene Woodward has lived in Wenatchee for the past 22 years.

When not studying she enjoys stand up paddle boarding, reading true crime stories and crocheting potholders.

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BUCKET LIST

HUNTING BEAR with

ROCKER TED NUGENT CHOSEN TO GO ON A HUNT WITH A WILDMAN ROCKER, JOE HINKLE LEARNS ABOUT THE DOWN-TO-EARTH MAN BEHIND THE FAME

By Joe Hinkle

When I was a teenager in

the mid-1970s, I listened to Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever song numerous times.

As a hunter, I recognized that he was also a hunter. Even back then I always wondered if I would ever meet someone like him or any other movie star or artist.

As the years passed, I mentioned to my wife that someday I was going to go hunting with Ted Nugent and would mark that hunt off my bucket list.

Of course, she laughed it off.

Then about three years ago I was up late one night surfing the web and chatting with my cousin on Facebook. I checked

Ted Nugent, left, and Joe Hinkle, after a day return from a day of scouting for bear in Canada.

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At first I thought the guys at work were pulling a prank on me since I had mentioned to them earlier that I had sent in my request to hunt with Ted. out Ted Nugent’s site — which I had friended earlier — and saw that he was selecting one person to hunt with him in Quebec for black bear.

All applicants had to do was explain why they should be the person to hunt with Ted that week.

Without thinking too much about the application and considering that thousands upon thousands of people were also going to fill out the same re-

“This photograph is my favorite,” said Joe, as it shows Ted chatting with a young hunter. “I have been around Ted on three separate hunts. Each time I see him he is the same. What you see is what you get. Very respectful...”

quest I went ahead and wrote back with why I should be considered.

Then I forgot about it.

Three or four days later I was sitting in the kitchen having

lunch. My cell phone rang and the person on the phone asked if I was Joe Hinkle. The person introduced himself as Paul Wilson with Sunrize Safaris.

I acknowledged that I was Joe. At the same time I looked at my cell phone and wrote down the telephone number from the caller ID. I then started typing the phone number into the computer and my eyes lit up when it showed that the phone number for Paul Wilson was indeed for Sunrize Safaris (Ted Nugent’s Sunrize Safaris).

At first I thought the guys at work were pulling a prank on me since I had mentioned to them earlier that I had sent in my request to hunt with Ted. Paul and I talked on the telephone for 15 minutes and he told me that I had been selected to hunt with Ted on the Quebec black bear hunt this year.

Wow! To say the least I was elated and thought this could not be true.

}}} Continued on next page

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Hunting with Ted Nugent }}} Continued from previous page Paul reassured me that the spot was mine since I was law enforcement and Ted has the utmost respect for law enforcement officers and the military.

When my wife got home that night I puffed out my chest and said that I was going hunting with the “Nuge” in Canada.

She thought I was delusional until I told her about the phone call I got from Sunrize Safaris.

That late spring I flew to Malartic, Quebec, where I was picked up by Ted’s son, Toby Nugent. From there we stopped by the local hardware store and I picked up my bear tag.

It was a little funny. Malartic was a little town the size of Cashmere or Leavenworth and isolated. Most people spoke French and it was hit and miss to talk to someone who spoke English. Luckily for me the hardware store employee spoke English.

Later that afternoon, Ted arrived. After taking his gear to his cabin, he walked out and introduced himself to me. I tell this story to everyone — not for the fact that he introduced himself to me first but that he walked right up to the group of us guys and said to me, “You must be Joe, glad to meet you.”

Of course, me being me, I said, “Don’t I know you?” to which Ted smiled and began to talk to us.

The other story I tell everyone, and probably the most difficult to explain in words, happened on the second or third night in camp with Ted. The group had returned to the lodge after an evening hunt and had dinner, then the guys were sitting around either playing cards, watching TV or just conversing.

My sleep schedule was already screwed up from working graveyard to now being on eastern time zone. I had gone outside and was leaning over a truck

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bed and was talking to my wife on the satellite phone.

After hanging up, I was still leaning over the bed of the truck just looking up into the night giving thanks for what I had in life when the lodge door swung open and Ted came out. Ted looked at me as he was walking out of the lodge and said, “Good night, Joe” and I said, “Good night Ted.” To me what Ted said was not scripted, it was just a friendly gesture as we ended the day.

As for my bear hunt in Quebec Canada, I got my bear but Ted did not.

Subsequently I was invited to his ranch in Michigan and hunted there. The only out-of-pocket expense I had on the hunt was my airfare. Just a touch of how generous Ted and his employees are.

In November of 2014, I returned to Ted’s ranch in Michigan on a law enforcement hunt where I, as lodge president of the NCW Fraternal Order of Police, presented Ted with a framed document authored by one other lodge member and me two years ago. The document reflected the Fraternal Order of Police support of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

It was a gesture thanking Ted for his continued support of the same amendment.

I’ve been with Ted on three separate hunts. Each time I see him he is the same — very respectful and a down-to-earth person. As for his fame, he says that he is just a guitar player.

I have the utmost respect for Ted and his family. I have been around Ted enough now to know he is the real deal — down to earth and someone you could have over for dinner tonight and not think he is a famous person.

Joe Hinkle is married to Jane Hinkle and they have three grown children, Stephanie, Nikki and Eric. He has been a law enforcement officer for over 25 years.

Looking for a little respect frustrated by lack of recognition for females who served in the military, woman vet forms a local group

By Donna Cassidy

A

ir Force veteran Dee Anne De Angelo, 47, East Wenatchee, rode in a golf cart in the 2014 Apple Blossom Parade, and noticed “people were looking past me and thanking the male veteran sitting next to me, assuming because I was a women I wasn’t a veteran.”

Dee Anne said that it upset her so that she has formed the Washington Female Veterans of Wenatchee group along with veteran Katherine Degel (USMC). The first meeting was May of 2014 and five women attended. And now there are 20 active members and another 20 members in surrounding communities.

Dee Anne enlisted in the Air Force in 1987 at the age of 19 as an Airlift Aircraft Maintenance Specialist. She had graduated from Meadowdale High School in Edmonds, and attended Edmonds Community College before joining the Air Force.

“I wanted to be a police officer.

After some thought I decided I wanted to join the CIA. You have to be 21 to do that so I needed to do something until then that gave me good experience,” said Dee Anne.

“A friend talked me into speaking with the Air Force recruiters. I was tested and I tested really high in the mechanic section, which was uncommon for girls. I was told being a mechanic would give me good experience for things like planting microphones. So I left a

week later for basic training.”

Dee Anne was stationed in Tacoma for three years. “I got out and for eight months worked for BF Goodrich and then volunteered to be reactivated for Desert Shield/Storm in 1990 for a year, earning my E-5 grade.

I finished my service with five more years in the Air Force Reserves. I have traveled all around the USA with my plane, a C-141.

I have also been to Tokyo, Japan, and Guam.

“My favorite part of the military was all the amazing people that I met and some I still call family.”

Dee Anne and her husband and two children moved to Wenatchee when he got a job here six years ago.

Now she is working at the East Wenatchee VFW Bingo on Friday nights as a cashier. “I love it. The patrons and my coworkers really make my job fun.

I often see my co-workers out in the community volunteering.

The Wenatchee Valley is a small community with a big heart and that’s one of the things I love about it.”

Dee Anne says she suffers from MST (Military Sexual Trauma) and PTSD from her time in the military.

She said it took her 15 years to realize that she is indeed a veteran. “I thought veterans were old and had seen combat. And maybe even lost a leg or something.

“I was frustrated when I started this group because I had given so much of myself for my March 2015 | The Good Life

Dee Anne De Angelo has learned to be proud of her time in uniform.

“I was frustrated when I started this group because I had given so much of myself for my country and people were not recognizing me for it.” country and people were not recognizing me for it,” she said.

“It has taken me 20 years — and six years of counseling — to learn to be proud of my time in the Air Force and to remember the good times instead of the bad times.

“I felt betrayed and isolated myself. Now that I am ready, I want to shout it to the world.

“I was hoping I was not the only one feeling this way. What I have found is an amazing group of women who have time and dedication that they want to put into their community. What the WFV-Wen has given us is an avenue to do that.

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conversations that were painful and healing,” she said. Dee Anne said that the age range is 27 to 70 years old.

In addition, the female veterans volunteer at the Free Clinic in East Wenatchee and team with similar agencies and groups — such as the Red Cross, The Bunker, Wenatchee Valley College, WorkSource, Skillsource, The American Legion and The VFW — on community projects.

“Our two main goals are to support each other and to be a source of volunteers for all of these groups who are helping improve the community as well as spread the word to the people in the community in need.”

The women also take the opportunity to show the flag — literally.

“We marched proudly in the 2014 Veterans Day Parade and had 20 strong women veterans marching with our WFV banner,” said Dee Anne.

The Washington Female Veterans Group of Wenatchee will be marching in the Apple Blossom parade this spring.

To learn more about WFV-Wen, contact Dee Anne De Angelo at kizmitjean@aol.com. Or, visit the Washington Female Veterans website: wafemaleveterans.com

These are the Good Old Days for local fishing A popular activity in the late summer and fall is watching the salmon frolicking in the spillway of the Tumwater Dam on the Wenatchee River.

By Dave Graybill

Fishing in Eastern Washington is a year-round activity, but each year there is a March 1 opener of many lakes in the Quincy area that is the unofficial starting gun for the season. The trout fishing in our region is just one of the many popular fisheries that anglers enjoy with increasing success.

For info on the March 7 Quincy Trout Derby, see: quincyvalleytourism.org

We’ve all heard the phrase:

“Yeah, but in the good old days we really had it good.”

It usually is spoken by someone who misses what they once had. An abundance of something that just isn’t as available any more.

Well, you don’t hear that from anglers here in our area. The simple fact is that the fishing here in Central Washington has never been better. If you aren’t participating in sport fishing, you are missing something great.

This is the result of a combined effort of federal, state, tribal and local fisheries-related agencies focused on the recovery of our salmon and steelhead runs.

Ocean conditions have been in our favor and fish-friendly adjustments to the dam structures and timing of water releases

have also been major contributors to the increased returns of fish to our region.

Millions if not billions of dollars have been spent by these agencies to restore the runs that

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are of traditional and economic importance in Central Washington.

Interest in sport fishing waned in the ’70s and ’80s as fish were scarce and some, like steelhead,

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March 2015

were added to the Endangered Species List. When the fish responded to the efforts to bring them back, anglers’ interest returned as well.

Nowadays it is not unusual to see fleets of boats from Lake Wenatchee to the Brewster Pool fishing for summer-run king salmon and sockeye. Record numbers of every species of salmon and steelhead have been recorded in the upper Columbia in recent years.

I remember following my Dad around when I was a youngster as he fished for salmon on the Columbia River and steelhead on the Wenatchee River. He never got a fish.

I did see a steelhead once. It passed by me close to shore and the image of that fish is still etched in my memory.

This year, a return of over 70,000 Chinook salmon is forecast to return to our area this summer, and thousands will

From 2008 to 2013 sport fishing has contributed over $12 million to the businesses here in the Greater Wenatchee Valley. be caught. As for steelhead, my friend Rollie Schmitten and I are in our fifth season of fishing for steelhead without getting skunked.

One of the fisheries that is most prized by anglers here is for sockeye on Lake Wenatchee.

It used to be that we would be able to have a season for sockeye maybe once every four years.

We have had an open season for sockeye, even with bonus limits of up to six fish per day, five out of the last six years.

Last year over 100,000 sockeye reached Lake Wenatchee and the return is forecast to be almost as strong this year. It is a wonderful site to see three or four generations of a family fishing on the lake. It is one of the most scenic spots to fish anywhere.

The spring salmon season on the Icicle River has also been one of the most consistent fisheries in our area as well. Floating the Icicle among snow-capped peaks with deer coming down to the river’s edge to watch you is part of the experience of doing battle with spring salmon is very special.

The rebound of sport fishing has been a boon to our local economy, too.

Sales of boats and tackle have skyrocketed. While most sectors of the economy suffered through the recession years, sport anglers continued to spend. Some local retailers had record years during this period.

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Fun Fishing Opportunities In Central Washington this Year

March 7 Tagged Trout Derby in Quincy — For the fourth year the Quincy Valley Tourism Association is planting tagged trout in Burke Lake. One fish is worth $2,000, another $1,000 and there are other trout and prizes that bring the total to $5,000.

The event is fun for the whole family.

May-June spring salmon on the Icicle River — Anglers can float the river in drift boats or fish from shore for these highly prized salmon that are returning to the National Fish Hatchery in Leavenworth. Some of the springers exceed 30 pounds.

July-August summer-run salmon and sockeye on the Columbia River — Tens of thousands of king salmon and sockeye make their way up the Columbia River, and anglers can catch them from Wenatchee to Brewster. Boaters troll for them I took a look at what sport fishing means to our local economies, starting back in 2008, when we were first allowed to fish for sockeye, and the numbers surprised me. From 2008 to 2013 sport fishing has contributed over $12 million to the businesses here in the Greater Wenatchee Valley.

Something that many anglers may not be aware of is the contribution that the Colville Confederated Tribes and others across the border in Canada are making to improve our fishing.

With the funding provided by the Bonneville Power Administration and Chelan and Grant County PUDs, a $16 million hatchery has been constructed just below Chief Joseph Dam. This facility will be releasing 3 March 2015 | The Good Life

and bank anglers cast for them.

Over 73,000 kings and 394,000 sockeye are expected to return in 2015.

August return of sockeye to Lake Wenatchee — Over 100,000 sockeye are forecast to reach Lake Wenatchee this year and the fishing can be fantastic.

Last year anglers were allowed to keep six of these delicious fish per day. It’s a fishing party.

October-March steelhead season on Columbia River and tributaries — Steelhead are known for their acrobatic battles and they are available on the Columbia River and its tributaries above Priest Rapids Dam in very good numbers. Last year there were close to 20,000 of them and anglers catch them from boats and from shore — using a bobber and jig. Catching a steelhead is an experience that people never forget. million salmon smolts each year, including summer-run, spring and fall salmon.

Also, near Penticton, B.C., a recently completed hatchery for sockeye salmon by the Okanagan Nation Alliance will be releasing as many 5 million smolts every year.

Sockeye are hugely popular with anglers, and record numbers of them are anticipated to be returning to the upper Columbia in the near future.

To take advantage of the salmon and steelhead fisheries in our region doesn’t require a huge investment.

Although you will see boats that cost tens of thousands of dollars out on the water, those who fish from shore for salmon and steelhead enjoy great sucwww.ncwgoodlife.com

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cess. The number of steelhead taken from the bank certainly rivals the numbers taken from boats. There are anglers that land amazing numbers of salmon from shore.

Anglers who enjoy fishing our many lakes aren’t left out of the excitement of the improved fishing.

A survey conducted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife resulted in a major change in the policy for planting trout in our area lakes.

Of little surprise to anglers, the Department learned that people wanted to catch bigger trout, even if that meant fewer.

The change in policy to plant larger trout in our area lakes has been well received. Trout fishing is a much more satisfying experience for the families that live here or travel from the west side to take advantage of spending time in the outdoors under sunny skies.

Fishermen are living the “good old days” right now in Central Washington. What is right now very good is going to get even better for certain species of salmon.

Nothing lasts forever, though.

No one can predict what will happen in the ocean that we are dependent upon for feeding our fish. What I do know is if you aren’t participating in the wonderful outdoor sport of fishing right now, you are really missing out on something special.

Don’t hesitate. Get out there and get after them while the getting is good.

Dave Graybill is known as the Fishing Magician throughout Eastern Washington. He provides regular reports on the fishing in the region for radio and newspapers. He also serves on the Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement Board and the Citizens Committee on the Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Board. You can learn more about Dave by visiting his web site at FishingMagician.com.

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

‘A beautiful bridge’ whether helping new arrivals with english or local families put food on the table, laurie peek has made an enriching life through volunteering

By Marlene Farrell

I

t’s a Tuesday evening, and Laurie Peek sits with Javier Lopez and Elena Rodriguez at a table in the Peshastin Dryden Elementary library.

Javier and Elena know this school, because their children attended here in the past. But tonight they are the students, and Laurie is the teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL).

Although they could all be home with their families, they have chosen to take an hour and a half to converse in English.

They go over a worksheet that has pictures of various hobbies.

Javier and Elena practice the dialogue, inserting swim, swam, or swum at the right spot. They speak words like “probably” and “difficult” perfectly, because they are similar to the Spanish words probablemente and difficil. Contractions like “I’ve” and “isn’t” are more challenging. Laurie reminds them of the correct pronunciation from time to time.

It’s a lesson, but they chat in a relaxed way like friends. Laurie asks what would it be like to surf or figure skate, and the conversation flows, with little pauses when Elena or Javier searches for the right word.

This is the way Laurie lives her life, in a patient, thoughtful way, helping others.

When not at home with her daughter and three grandkids, she is busy in one of her many

work and volunteer roles, including interpreter with the school district and at the free medical clinic, assistant manager at both Jubilee, a non-profit fair trade store, and at the Community Cupboard non-profit thrift store and food bank, and teacher of ESL and citizenship classes.

Language brought Laurie to Leavenworth 40 years ago, and language has been one of the main reasons she’s stayed. But that first language was French, for which she was hired to teach at Peshastin High School. She did that for two years.

The school then asked her if she could start a Spanish program, which would be useful given the growing Latino population in central Washington.

“I feel so grateful that they asked me,” Laurie said. It set her life on a new trajectory.

She agreed even though she didn’t know Spanish herself.

Undaunted, she spent a summer in intensive Spanish classes at University of Washington, and her background in French made fluency in Spanish come more quickly.

While she didn’t stay at the high school for long, Spanish opened many doors for Laurie.

“Teaching Spanish is fun,” she said. She has taught at a former alternative school in Wenatchee but also informally in summer camps and for adults through a continuing education program.

These days she teaches ESL

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Laurie Peek helps make up more than 250 monthly food boxes at Community Cupboard. Photos by Kevin Farrell

much more often than Spanish.

A working knowledge of Spanish is not critical for ESL teachers.

However, if a student knows little English, he needs a teacher like Laurie.

Spanish-speaking families with school-aged children also get to know Laurie. Interpreter is a limited description of her role for the past 20 years with Cascade School District.

Tim Lawless, the district’s Special Services director and a former principal, said, “Laurie is like a beautiful bridge between

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the school district and the second language learners. She is compassionate and professional.

She has the trust of the Latino families.”

She interprets, but also visits families in their homes, building decade-long relationships as the children move through the school system.

Laurie is drawn to help where the need is greatest.

At the Community Cupboard she enjoys helping make up the over 250 monthly food boxes for local families. She smiles and

talks with the customers, listening to their needs.

“New people come into the Cupboard all the time,” she said, for food or other items. The regular customers know Laurie, just like the families she works with at the schools. The growing network of people who rely on Laurie is due to her years of service and respected reputation.

“Trust is not gained instantly,” she said. “I’ve known some people for many years before they told me their story, about how they got here and the sacrifices they have had to make.”

Laurie’s Spanish helped lead her to her other main passion, going to Guatemala, like a second home to her, and helping an ever widening circle of friends there.

She got to know Guatemala when she lived there for six months in 1999, volunteering at an afterschool program and at an orphanage.

The standard of living is low as the country is still in recovery from a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.

Laurie said, “Guatemalans are generous and hopeful and value education as a way to improve the lives of their children.”

One friend of Laurie’s, Maria Tulia, first learned to read by scratching letters in the dirt.

To cover the costs of room and board at her convent-run middle school, Maria Tulia worked 12hour days and studied at night to keep up with her peers.

Only after the war’s end did she get to finish high school and go to college.

Her tenacity inspired Laurie.

When Laurie found out that Maria Tulia had a niece and nephew who could not afford the tuition of private school (and given the poor state of public schools where teachers don’t show up because their pay is minimal), she helped link the children to sponsors in the U.S. to cover the tuition.

Those children, now grown, are succeeding. The niece is a registered nurse working toward

Laurie teaches students in an English as a second language class.

her master’s degree, and the nephew has finished a teaching degree.

Laurie realized the immediate and positive impact of these connections and has since set up many. She coordinates the sponsorships with assistants in Guatemala to get the needed funds to the families. Laurie said, “It’s probably more than 50 children that have been helped over 15 years.”

Every January Laurie returns to Guatemala, loaded down with two suitcases jammed full of clothes, shoes, medicine, toys, art supplies and books.

By the end of her trip the suitcases have been emptied into needy hands and then refilled with artisan craft goods that can be sold at Jubilee.

Laurie explained, “I usually have a list of about 90 people that I try to bring things for.”

She goes to see the children, but she likes to give them something they could use but not necessarily afford.

Laurie admits that her life isn’t very balanced. Time for herself is found in slivers, in the early March 2015 | The Good Life

mornings before her grandkids wake up, or when she goes for walks.

“My jobs and commitments are not stressful, so I look forward to them as a respite from the activity at home.” As for compensation, she said, “I don’t distinguish between paid work and volunteering. If you like what you’re doing and the people you’re interacting with, then it has value.”

There are hundreds of people in the upper valley and hundreds more in Guatemala who have been touched by Laurie’s efforts. She inspires others who work on these issues.

Alex Schmidt, who teaches ESL and citizenship classes with Laurie, said, “Her passion and compassion for those of our neighbors whom we perceive as “different” is commendable and life giving.”

But Laurie focuses on her own gratitude. “I have learned so much about immigration issues through my work. And it has opened my world up to friends and cultures that have enriched my life.” www.ncwgoodlife.com

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dipping a toe into Belize

The Caye Caulker, Belize aqua waters serve as a sort of Olympic-sized pool for Braden Draggoo.

slow walking on a central American hiatus

By Jessica Creel

S

ome place easy to get to, English speaking with beautiful beaches I think was the original conversation.

Hawaii is usually a first thought, but we decided we wanted something less familiar, something different, something unique. It was that impulse that led us to Belize, the Central American country just below Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

We would trade the beautiful snow capped mountains, gray skies and 30-degree weather of Wenatchee in December for a tropical month of ocean, 80-degree weather and jungle.

The idea for this trip was to cleanse, a sort of health hiatus.

Main objective: relax, eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, drink water, unplug, recharge and get a daily jog in.

My boyfriend, Braden Draggoo, and I, arrived at the Belize City International Airport, before long we were on a small water taxi boat, full of supplies,

A visitor ponders the Mayan ruins at Tikal, an ancient city found in a rainforest in Guatemala.

sitting next to a jungle medicine man who spoke mostly Creole and enough English we could understand.

On our 45-minute boat ride out to the islands, he pointed out an entire island that an American man had cut down

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the mangrove trees and turned into a golf course; he was very upset and let us know. It made sense, why he was upset and by the end of the boat ride we felt like we had a lesson in ecology and jungle survival.

He gave us tips to keep the

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March 2015

sand flies away as we said our goodbyes. Sand flies? Can’t wait.

We debarked from the water taxi at the island named, Caye (pronounced “key”) Caulker.

We quickly realized this was a very small island measuring five miles long. There are no

A hand-painted sign pretty much sums up the rules of the cayes in Belize.

cars on this island, so instead of patrolling car speed, the locals like to patrol walking speed. If they see someone walking too fast they make sure to let you know you need to slow down and relax. I received a walking speeding ticket, so to speak, my first day.

The locals claimed to be able to pick a New Yorker right off the dock. “They are always checking their watches, and speed walking to make sure they get to the beach on time,” one local told us.

A friendly bird drops by.

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We spent the next week exploring The Great Big Blue Hole and the highlight had to be snorkeling with nurse sharks, stingrays and conches.

Free swimming with no cage in the open waters as nurse sharks surround you is an adrenaline rush. The motor of the boat acts like a dinner bell. Once the boat stops, and you slide into the water, you’re smack in the middle of 30 or so, seven-foot-long sharks, waiting for fishy treats to be thrown off the side of the boat.

Oh, but don’t worry, the guides assured us, the sharks have terrible eyesight and we would be fine if we stayed toward their tail ends.

After a week or so we decided to take the water taxi to a nearby neighboring island named, San Pedro; a bit larger of an island, with golf carts as the preferred way of transportation.

We walked the island and spent time paddle boarding above magnificent spotted Eagle Rays.

The local basketball coach, Mr. Danny, made friends with Braden and challenged him to a one on one game, luring him in with the line; “I have never been beat at one-on-one on my island.”

They had a local basketball tournament, the event of the season, and we decided it would be silly not to stay for it, so we did and we were glad we stayed and had a fun time watching local life.

Two weeks on the cayes and we had island fever. It was time to water taxi back to Belize City and get on a bus to Flores, Guatemala.

A five-hour bus ride would put us in a whole new world, a new country.

We had choices on buses we quickly learned; a luxury bus or chicken bus. The chicken bus was described very colorfully and the luxury seemed comfortable. So for $10 more making it $20 a person we took the luxury bus.

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... don’t worry, the guides assured us, the sharks have terrible eyesight and we would be fine if we stayed toward their tail ends. the contrast from the ocean we were looking for. Sunrise hikes through dense tropical jungle into the Tikal Mayan ruins, gazing down straight sheer stone walls covered in vines.

We explored the ruins and were greeted by wildlife. A group of Howler monkeys would often swing in the trees around the ruins. We also discovered turkey and king vultures with handsome feathers.

We were especially impressed with the food in Flores, made with all fresh ingredients. Many of the chairs and tables are of handcrafted mahogany, since it is the common wood there, and the roads in Flores are made of stone.

The finale week of the trip looped us back to Placencia, Belize, a small southern fishing town.

Here’s where we had a moment of surprise. Had they always been around and we were just now noticing? And what are they? On an evening walk we notice not one, not two but many fairly large gray animals camouflaged as we walked the streets and beaches. Turns out they are not scary but very stoic silver foxes.

And yes, keeping with custom, they were walking slow.

Jessica Creel was raised in apple country. She enjoys traveling and reading and writing travel stories.

When she’s not touring the globe or running around with her handsome dog, Shamu, she is giving violin lessons and enriching young minds at a local bilingual Montessori School.

Wanting an amazing family adventure Family moves to Costa Rica; physician father will commute to work in Wenatchee

Geoff Barry, his wife, Celeste, and their two children, Graham and Amara, stop for a photo while exploring their new surroundings at Rio Celeste in Costa Rica.

By Geoff Barry

I

have had a dream for some time now, maybe 20 years.

I suppose it first became a plan 10 years ago when my wife and I were dating. I asked if she would be willing to move to Latin America with me for two years.

In the original vision, the main reason that I completed a rural family medicine residency was that I would work there as a physician.

This dream is something that lingered in our seemingly distant plans for what felt to be a very long time.

We had decided that our ideal time to begin this adventure would be when our children Amara and Graham (currently 8 and 7 years old respectively) were in mid-grade school. Our

hope was that we would each come away from the experience greatly enriched culturally and linguistically, and that our family would share an amazing adventure to be treasured forever.

I don’t highly value stability.

I love change and new experiences. I’ve lived in San Diego, Malibu, London, Charleston SC, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Palmer, Alaska, and Wenatchee among other places. I’ve traveled extensively in nearly 30 countries.

The cumulative time of my life spent outside of the U.S. is probably close to two years.

To provide balance, it is fortunate for both me and my family that I married Celeste, a woman who values stability over change. One of her goals is that Wenatchee remain our main

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home throughout our lives. We are fortunate in that our appreciation for Wenatchee is mutual.

Needless to say, satisfying both of our needs in this sense has been a challenge.

Knowing what the future held for us, we made several decisions early on.

We lived frugally to save money so that we would be prepared not to have an income for two years (which turned out not to be entirely necessary as I will explain). I discussed my plans with my superiors even before I was hired in 2010 as a hospitalist at Confluence Health. We rented rather than bought a house when we moved to Wenatchee.

We made a decision to drive past the wealthiest elementary in Wenatchee to go to one of the poorest, where they could

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receive dual language education.

Lewis and Clark Elementary has been a wonderfully-enriching experience where our children have been ably prepared to thrive right from the get-go in Costa Rica.

A year ago, it became clear that the time was upon us. Our children were ready. It was time to start planning.

We needed to solidify where we were going to go, how we were going to get there, and what we were going to do there.

Social instability ruled out some of my favorite countries: Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

Another unexpected factor ruled out South America.

The factor was this: I have enjoyed my work here in Wenatchee even more than

We lived frugally to save money so that we would be prepared not to have an income for two years, which turned out not to be entirely necessary... anticipated. My team is amazing: competent, hard working, team oriented, self-sacrificing, good-humored and just fun. The work is challenging and satisfying. After five years I still learn every day.

As I got to know the organization, I felt increasingly proud of who we are, but even more of who we are striving to become.

The pace of improvement is fast at Confluence Health, and I love it.

I sat down one day with my team lead and we began discussing how this transition — of my moving to Latin America — was going to take place.

For a multitude of reasons, it became increasingly clear to both of us that my continued participation on the team was in both of our interests.

The solution: I will fly back from Costa Rica every month to work 10 days in a row doing exactly the same job as a hospitalist that I have been doing for the last five years.

If I were going to be coming back to Wenatchee on any sort of regular basis, South America became logistically more difficult.

That left Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Without exploring either of the other two options we chose Costa Rica because it has the best infrastructure and has remained the most stable country in Latin America over generations.

If I was going to be leaving my family in a foreign country, I

Graham and Amara walk the beach with their new dog, Bruno.

needed to know they were going to be safe.

Celeste began in earnest

exploring places in Costa Rica. I wanted to be on the west coast where I could surf (my favorite

pastime as an adolescent.)

Since we are going to eventually raise the kids in Wenatchee, a surf town would likely be my only opportunity to introduce the kids to the water. She found an article in National Geographic about the best 10 surf towns in the world, and it turned out one of them was in Costa Rica: Nosara.

Celeste investigated and found that although it was a tiny town, it had an international bilingual school. By the time she had done her research, there were two perspective towns, Nosara and Tamarindo.

Celeste and I went down by ourselves to explore this past April.

The communities were very different. Tamarindo

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What is Ekso™?

Introducing a new step in the future of our Rehabilitation Department, the Ekso™ Exoskeleton

Ekso™ is a wearable bionic suit which enables individuals with any amount of lower extremity weakness to stand up and walk over ground with a natural, full weight bearing, stride.*

Edward Farrar, MD Walking in the Ekso™

Who is Ekso™ for?

People with lower extremity weakness or paralysis due to neurological disease or injury such as: • Spinal Cord Injuries • Stroke • Multiple Sclerosis • Parkinson’s Disease • Guillain Barre Syndrome

For more information, ask your doctor if this is a treatment option for you.

Photo and text(*) credit: Ekso Bionics™

March 2015 | The Good Life

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Wanting an amazing family adventure }}} Continued from previous page was larger, had easier access to everything, had an incredible school that we both loved.

Nosara was remote with inconvenient access to everything plus had lousy dirt roads. It also had a wonderful community, stellar beaches and a great school. We worked through much pain and a general difference of opinion to finally choose Nosara.

Once we knew where we were going, we enrolled the kids in school, we shipped our Honda Pilot down from Seattle full of everything we thought we might need including clothes, boogie boards, bikes, a computer and snorkel gear.

We leased a house in Nosara sight unseen for a year. We decided to continue to rent our house in Wenatchee and sublease part of the house. (We did this because I plan to fly back to Wenatchee each month to work 10 shifts at the hospital.) Then we waited for January, our start date.

We arrived in Nosara on Jan. 3.

The first week was a crazy whirlwind, moving into our furnished house on Jan. 4. The kids started school on the 5th.

Our first 10 days were con-

sumed by the seemingly daunting exercise of settling in. There were many time-consuming tasks such as getting our cell phones onto Costa Rican networks.

Celeste is attending intensive Spanish classes and is feeling increasingly more comfortable with the language.

There remains so much to learn about operating in our new environment. How do you find a phone number, with no phone books, no white pages iPhone app. How do you pay? Few accept credit cards or checks.

We can’t even open a bank account yet.

We are busy learning to navigate the basics of our new world.

The dependable answer so far is that everything seems to be by word of mouth. We observe that people rely much more on each other.

People are much more apt to take the time to help. For example, Celeste and the kids went snorkeling about 40 minutes out of town. When they tried to come back, the car wouldn’t start.

One phone call and someone she barely knew drove out to jump the battery.

Another example, I asked a stranger how to take the bus to the airport. I was shocked that he took 20 minutes of his time to describe in great detail each step of the four-hour journey.

I have had numerous occasions where I met somebody new and spent over an hour

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Costa Rica hosts 133 species of frogs and toads — and Graham finds one during a jungle walk.

with them in conversation.

That would never happen in the States. Somehow, interaction with others here is different, slower, more genuine, more attached.

On the other hand, Costa Rican conception of time is much more relaxed than ours. If someone agrees to meet at 3 p.m. and arrives at 4 p.m., they don’t necessarily consider themselves late. Adjusting to Costa Rican time will no doubt prove testing.

Personally, I am in heaven.

I can see my surf spot from my bedroom window. I wake up in the morning and check out the surf before I make my way down to the beach. The waves seem to justify Costa Rica’s reputation.

My goal is to get in the water

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every day, and I’m not far off.

The house is spacious and beautiful, having a balcony on each floor that overlooks the ocean.

From the first day, both kids loved school. They are thriving there. The Montessori method has been an easy adjustment.

After school we frequently go together to swim in the surf. The kids are fascinated by their new surroundings. Graham loves scorpion hunts at night with black lights. Amara loves the monkeys and coatis she often sees and hears from the house.

Celeste is relaxed and is doing well largely because she sees the kids thriving. The transition has been easier for the family than I expected.

Granted, we are barely starting this adventure. So far, it is every bit the adventure of my dreams.

Geoff Barry is a hospitalist physician with Confluence Health at Central Washington hospital. He is married to Celeste (Carlson) Barry who is a native of Cashmere. He has two children currently ages 7 and 8.

This two-level Sunnyslope home will have starter landscaping provided all around, with plenty of opportunity later on for a variety of low-to-high maintenance family choices.

What feels right Experienced builder knows when to depart from the blueprint Story by Susan Lagsdin Photos by Donna Cassidy

T

his 90 percent completed house, looking good already, is perched way up on a sloping east shoulder of Sunnyslope, and it

Mike Roberts continues the family business with solid construction techniques, dependable longtime subcontractors and creative problem solving from siting to paint color.

has a few features that its new owners might not even notice.

The chic amenities, the quality goods and the contemporary Craftsman feel are all there, of course — that’s a neighborhood standard for a $500,000-plus home.

But siting the house for the best views and most privacy presented a challenge.

Dealing with those variables comes second nature to East Wenatchee builder Mike Roberts, who brings years of know-how to each new project in this 11-home subdivision.

He explained, “Unobstructed views and plenty of privacy — that’s what everyone wants, and sometimes it’s tough to deliver in a development.”

After years of working closely with Ryan Kelso of Complete Design, when Mike builds

March 2015 | The Good Life

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a “spec home” like this (one he’ll market and sell on completion) he can walk in with almost a full picture in mind, and they will work out something together.

In this case, Mike needed plans for a family-sized house with two levels in a contemporary Craftsman style.

“A blueprint” is an understatement these days — the result of their meeting was a 20page table-sized book with different levels of designs.

The foundation plan, for its height and the amount of rebar, is used early on. The rest range from artists renderings of the four sides of the house as well as individual room plans with wall height and window sizes (both called elevations) to multiple

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Change order }}} Continued from previous page floor plans with walls, ducting, plumbing and electrical circuitry.

With trusted sub-contractors, Mike and his team can build a house in four to six months, which frequently fall between March and September. “Fall’s a little crazy; we’re finishing up houses so people can get in them, and usually getting something ready for the Tour of Homes,” said Mike.

With a fall start, if they can get a house “dried in” (roofed), they can work through most

winter weather. This 3,600-square-foot house was started in October and should be completed

by April 1.

If the lot is very steep, a soil engineer joins the team to suggest amendments and assure stability. This one has a flat, secure base, but its position on the hill posed some interesting challenges. The lot is .60 acres, with close neighbors, and it’s below grade with a straight 100-foot driveway.

Because it’s intended as a family home — with three bedrooms and two baths in the walk-out This spacious tiled and doorless walk-in shower is a result of reading buyer preferbasement and a masences — fewer people opt for huge bathtubs these days, but they love their walkabout ter on the main floor showers.

— Mike made sure to provide plenty of backyard room for play yard and pets, maybe even a pool.

To provide easy access down the steeper side, he built a retaining wall to hold garden space above, a walkway below.

Now for the “views and privacy” issue. A (equally-nice) neighboring home faces what would ordinarily be a big back wall of living room windows. Another home on a slight rise looks down

on the house from the left.

Mike angled the home’s footprint to provide maximum mountain views to the north and west, and solved the privacy problem when it came time to frame the house.

It was relatively simple and intuitive.

The original floor plan had a lovely stone-fronted gas fireplace just where the best views should be. That meant the biggest windows were — you guessed it — facing both neighbors. All it took was shifting the fireplace to the back corner of the living room (blocking the view of the uphill neighbor) and suddenly two big perpendicular windows can share the front corner of the

NCW Home Professionals

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Neither a conventional view window, nor conventional placement for a fireplace, but it creates a surprisingly welcoming spot...

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per se anymore for Mike. He stressed the importance of clear communication during the process. And meeting deadlines. He said, “You’ve always got to be aware of what’s happening next, when each step has to be finished. “ What he likes best is that he can be constantly creative, whether that means physically constructing something or choosing the interior amenities.

Amenities like Just a couple of feet makes all the difference. Mike moved this fireplace from the center of the this home’s Italian living area to the south end, creating a more solid wall on the street side and adding views at porcelain tile, acathe corner. cia wood floors, room and look out toward the Vaults, coves and crown mold- dark fawn wall colors, plush mountains, minimizing glass ing in the ceiling, patio, pantry carpeting — and a very cleverly facing the back neighbor. size, balcony access, doorway repositioned fireplace.

Neither a conventional view width, paint color (he uses his window, nor conventional own special blends) — all these placement for a fireplace, but it things were up for grabs when creates a surprisingly welcoming he builds a house. spot for couches.

That’s when the house is his Much as an experienced oil until it’s sold. “Of course, when painter easily amends a paintyou’re custom building it’s difing, or an actor improvises a ferent — there’s got to be agreescene, Mike makes many fast ment about changing anything adjustments as he’s building. that doesn’t seem right. Some “I’ve done this so much it comes people get very involved in the automatically — I have no prob- details, but some just say to me, lem changing a design when it ‘Go ahead and do what’s best.’” doesn’t feel quite right.”

The toughest thing about He realized when the kitchen building houses? island was going in that it It isn’t the actual construction obstructed the traffic flow and created a big unwieldy walking space in the kitchen. He tucked it in closer, made it smaller, and now it feels normal — and the someday homeowner will unconsciously appreciate it.

He enlarged considerably the size of the master bedroom shower and slimmed down the tub. He said “These days only two out of 10 buyers even ask for a bathtub when it’s custom built… they realize they just don’t use them.”

March 2015 | The Good Life

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2014-15 Wenatchee Valley Environmental Film Series March 17, 2015 7:00 pm Wenatchee Valley Museum 127 S Mission, Wenatchee

Birders: The Central Park Effect reveals the array of wild birds who grace Manhattan’s celebrated patch of green and the equally colorful New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the migration. The film reveals that the park acts as a magnet for the millions of birds migrating along the Eastern Seaboard twice a year.

Desperate for a rest-stop, the tiny birds funnel in to this oasis amid a sea of steel and concrete – a phenomenon known as the “Central Park Effect.”

Movie sponsored by

Series presented by

The event is free ($5 suggested donation).

509-888-6240 | www.wvmcc.org

>>

column moving up to the good life

june darling

Getting lucky — You can make it happen Some people have all the

luck. Could that really be true?

The answer is “yes” and you can be one of them.

No rabbit foots or four leaf clovers are involved.

Instead, if you want to improve your luck, you must learn to think in a different way. It seems like magic, but it actually makes sense. In fact, according to researchers, luck is a science that can be learned.

To help you adopt the thinking that leads to good fortune, adopt the old cliché of: Look for the silver lining.

The idea of finding the good in the bad supposedly appears in nearly every culture. It is not a new idea.

But how does finding the good

“Well really you know there’s a silver lining to everything that goes wrong, you just have to think about it.” in the bad work to make us more lucky?

When we are looking for silver linings, we often see opportunities and possibilities, things we are grateful for, in the midst of defeats, failures, setbacks, irritations, mistakes and disappointments. This has the effect of comforting us and helping us bounce back quickly.

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When we practice looking for silver linings, we stay alert for openings. We expect them. We are hopeful rather than becoming stuck, depressed, or worried.

We function better.

Let me illustrate the concept through my seven-year-old granddaughter, Sierra.

Sierra is a lovely little girl, full of hopes and dreams. Her current big dream is to be an Olympic figure-skater. She was pretty devastated recently when she was not selected to move up to a more advanced group of skaters.

Sierra’s mother, Alanna, comforted Sierra, letting her know that she, too, had experienced a devastating disappointment in her own life.

She had wanted to be a cheerleader at UCLA, but was not selected. She felt horrible at first, but then she found the silver lining. She would have much more time to study and get a scholarship for law school.

Sierra seemed to understand the concept. Together they brainstormed some possible good outcomes from what appeared to be a setback for Sierra.

When I quizzed Sierra later she said, “Well really you know there’s a silver lining to everything that goes wrong, you just

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March 2015

have to think about it.

“Let’s suppose you go to the bookstore to buy your favorite book, but when you get there, they don’t have it.

“Well, look for a silver lining.

You might find another book that you would never have seen and learn something new. Or it might be that you save your money and then you find something later that you wanted even more.

“Or say your mom forgets to put pretzels in your lunch box for a treat. Look at the silver lining, pretzels are not all that healthy for you anyway.”

That’s exactly how finding silver linings and becoming luckier works — you expect opportunities to be there. You search around and find them.

Finding the good in the bad usually does not happen automatically just because you understand the rationale.

Sometimes you have to practice seeing opportunities by using good questions to nudge your thinking.

It might be enough to ask yourself, “What is the silver lining?”

For me, however, I find the

“Yeah, I lost a lot of money in that deal but I learned a good lesson.” question I use the most to help me see the silver lining, bounce back, and get lucky is: “How will this difficulty help me grow (become more resourceful, more competent, more resilient, more creative, or more compassion-

ate)?”

In a few situations, two other questions help me. The first is: “What am I grateful for, or what can I appreciate about this situation?”

For example, in December I hurt my knee right before skiing season. What I’m grateful for is that I didn’t break my neck.

The last question that I sometimes use and find that others do too to turn their attention toward the good in the bad situation (or person) goes something like: “What did I learn through this situation?”

March 2015 | The Good Life

A lucky person will say something like, “Yeah, I lost a lot of money in that deal but I learned a good lesson. Thank goodness it was only $200 and not $2,000.”

Remember that over 10 years of scientific study suggests that people make their own good fortune.

And good fortune is no little thing. It can make the difference in life or death, reward or ruin, happiness or misery, bouncing back or staying down.

It’s still hard sometimes when you’ve just been dealt a bad blow. You may want to kick a

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chair or cry for a while first.

Eventually, though, when you are ready, it helps to consider the silver lining.

Others can help, especially seven-year-olds.

How might you get lucky and move up to The Good Life by looking for silver linings?

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

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column GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

bonnie orr

Springtime is the time to eat leeks In the north of England, I ate

leeks for the first time.

It had been a cold, damp spring day, and I was chilled to the bone. The B&B hostess served velvety, leeks braised in chicken stock dabbed with a bit of butter. It was love at first taste.

Springtime is the time to eat leeks. These lilies, which are a member of the onion family, are some of the first plants to leap into green in the spring.

Did you grow up with a milk cow? I remember that April’s milk tasted of the wild garlic and onions that sprouted in the meadows.

Ramps are a wild leek that sprouts in meadows east of the Mississippi River and in Europe.

If only we could be so lucky. The leaves are much larger than our native garlic and wild onion, and milder as well, but I imagine they still flavor milk.

Leeks can be grown here; seeds are planted in the spring and grow for a year before being harvested. You can plant the root end with a half-inch of stem from a purchased leek and create a new plant.

This tasty onion is always available at the grocery store.

People tell me how expensive they are. They cost more, but you use less leek than onion in any given dish.

Leeks should be the main attraction rather than mulled up into a stew. Use the thick, tough green leaves when you cook your chicken stock.

in from a cool spring morning walk. The better the bread, the more delicious this dish will be. The leek sauce can be made ahead of time and heated in the microwave and then poured onto the slices of toast.

Serves 6; 15 minutes preparation

Leeks make a delicious, fragrant tart for lunch or dinner.

Leek Tart

Leeks go beautifully with mild cheeses.

If you like quiche, you will love this pie. It can be a main dish for either dinner or lunch. The leek’s taste is so subtle and sweet.

Serves 4 20 minutes preparation; 30 minutes baking

Pastry shell of your choice.

3 medium leeks 2 tablespoons butter 4 large eggs 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon capers drained 3/4 cup sour cream 3/4 cup small curd low fat cottage cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese Salt/white pepper

1. Cut off and discard the green leaves. Slice the whitish and pale green leeks in one-quarter inch circles.

2. Swish the circles in a bowl of water to remove any grit. Drain well.

3. Heat the butter in a large flat pan, add the leek slices and cook gently until soft. Cool slightly.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

5. With a whisk, mix the eggs and the sour cream, cottage cheese, flour, capers, salt and pepper.

6. Pour the mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Spread leeks on top of the mixture.

7. Top with Parmesan cheese.

8. Bake until firm and golden about 30 minutes.

Leek and Cheese Toast

This is a tasty lunch after coming

6 slices of bread toasted 2 large leeks 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 pound shredded Swiss cheese 1/4 cup blue cheese (optional) 1/2 cup cream Salt and white pepper 1. Cut the white part and the light green part of the leeks into 1-inch spears. Rinse in a large bowl of water to remove any grit. Drain well.

2. Cook the leeks in the melted butter until they are soft.

3. Pour in the cream and heat gently.

4. Stir in the salt and pepper and cheeses.

5. Heat until the cheese is melted.

6. Put each piece of toast on a warmed plate and ladle the cheese and leek sauce on it. Wait a minute.

The bread will absorb the extra moisture. Eat with a knife and fork.

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

To subscribe: Send $25 ($30 out of state) to: The Good Life 10 First Street, # 108, Wenatchee, WA 98801 Or: e-mail: donna@ncwgoodlife.com

visit: www.ncwgoodlife.com

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March 2015

PET tales

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

W

At age 3 I got my first puppy

and named her Brandy. We grew up together.

Brandy was such a loving family dog and loved boating and camping. She enjoyed going everywhere with me especially

in the car. She was my companion on long walks and kept me warm at night.

She has passed away but I will always hold a special place in my heart of her forever.

— Alyssa Lenicka

March 2015 | The Good Life

enatchee Humane Society volunteer Kathie Teeley took this photo of a local family adopting the two dogs on the left on Valentine’s Day. “Our family includes Inku (my husband), our four daughters (Sylvia, Alexa, Virginia and Andria) and our four dogs (Chardonnay “Chardy,” Pepper, Baymax “Max” and Grace,” said mother Michele Sandberg.

“We all love being dog owners and like many pet owners, consider our dogs as family members. God blesses us, so we just want to share our home with other sweet dogs needing a home.”

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>>

column THE TRAVELing DOCTOR

jim brown, m.d.

Considering how much we spend on health care

Why don’t we live longer?

Having been involved with

health care for 50 years, I have often wondered about why this nation has such abysmal life expectancy statistics compared to the rest of the industrial world.

The United States currently ranks 26th in life expectancy, right behind Slovenia.

In the 1970s Americans typically lived longer than residents in most other countries. Even though on average we now live eight years longer than we did in the ’70s, other industrialized countries have increased their life expectancy, too, and most of them have now surpassed us.

How and why did that happen?

The U.S spends more on health care than any other country, yet we “appear” to be getting less for our investment than most other countries.

We lead the world in medical technology of all kinds. We do more screening, testing and scanning than elsewhere, yet the average American sees a physician fewer times than is the case in most other counties.

Many analysts put the blame

on what they think is a failed health care system.

In my view, we in the U.S. have the best health care, hospitals, medical schools and providers in the world, but not everyone has access to it.

Many explanations have been suggested for our lower gains in life expectancy, including the fragmented nature of our system with relatively few resources devoted to public health and primary care.

In addition we still have large numbers of uninsured people.

In 2013 the U.S. had the highest rate of uninsured of the 41 countries studied by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. We were even behind Mexico and Estonia.

The Affordable Care Act is helping these numbers to improve. However, there are many other factors that help explain the life expectancy downturn since the 1970s.

One is demographic.

In the past 50 years the U.S. population has grown from 150 million to 304 million. We have become a much more diverse country than ever.

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It does not seem fair to me to compare our statistics to countries like Norway and Finland who have a very homogenous population and little poverty.

Since 1970, our Hispanic population increased six times to 53 million. Our African American population is about 45 million.

Unfortunately, African Americans have an obesity rate that is 51 percent higher than whites.

Hispanics are 21 percent higher.

Obesity is a well-known health risk particularly for diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

African Americans and Hispanics also have higher infant mortality rates for many reasons.

When I was at the Northwestern University medical school in Chicago all seniors spent two weeks at the Chicago Maternity Center in south Chicago. All we did was go out and do home deliveries. Each of us delivered between 10 -12 babies.

All the mothers were poor and most had had no prenatal care.

Poverty is also a contributor to health problems that impact longevity. Currently the poverty rate in our country is 14.5

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March 2015

percent, (49 million people), even though we are the wealthiest country in the world. This group has more heath issues and less access to health care.

People in the highest income groups can expect to live on average 6.5 years longer than those in lower groups.

In addition, we have a rapidly aging population reflected by an increasing proportion of persons over age 65. However, the aging population does not affect our statistics as much as you might think.

Some researchers suggest that we are actually becoming more vulnerable to diseases. I do not have an answer for that, but there seems to be something going on in our bodies or our environment.

Allergies, such as the peanut allergy, are on the rise. Now peanuts and peanut butter are banned in many school lunches.

On a recent flight I heard an announcement that asked people not to eat the peanuts handed out in snacks since there was someone on the plane with a severe peanut allergy. That

Industrial processes put 80,000 chemicals into our environment in the air and water even though only about 200 have been assessed for safety as of 2010. seemed a bit drastic to me.

Autism, considered rare a generation ago, now supposedly affects one out of 68 children.

I wonder if it is actually more common now or was it just not diagnosed more readily than in prior generations. I can’t recall seeing anyone with that diagnosis in medical school in the ‘60s, but possibly they might not end up in a medical school environment.

Autoimmune diseases affect 8 percent of our population, and are a leading cause of death in young and middle-aged women.

Again, many of those conditions were infrequently diagnosed a generation ago.

So what has changed, if anything?

It can’t be genetic, as we don’t evolve in a single generation.

Some experts suspect environmental causes. When I was a resident at the Mayo Clinic, one of my professors thought many of the leukemias and lymphomas he was seeing in agricultural workers were related to pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. He might have been way ahead of his time.

In 2010 The President’s Cancer Panel said there was a “growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer.”

Industrial processes put 80,000 chemicals into our environment in the air and water even though only about 200 have been assessed for safety as

of 2010.

Our current system places the burden on the government to prove that a chemical is unsafe before it can be removed from the market. In Europe many governments judge all chemicals to be guilty until they are proven innocent.

There is one major factor that affects our country’s life expectancy statistics the most, and that is the death rate in our country in people under the age of 50.

One article suggested if you are under the age of 50 in the United States it is a risk to your health.

U.S men rank last and women under age 50 rank next to last in a study of 17 industrialized nations showing they die earlier here and live in poorer health than those of similar age in other developed countries.

In this age group we have far greater rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to recent

analysis of health and longevity in the U.S. The leading cause of death in black males ages 15-34 is murder.

Deaths that occur before the age 50 account for nearly twothirds of the difference between the U.S. and other countries’ life expectancy data for males and one-third the difference for females.

The bottom line is that if one only compares life expectancy here to other developed nations, there are many factors involved. We can’t just assume we have more deaths from socalled natural causes or that our healthcare system is some how flawed and failing.

If you have already reached age 50, you have a pretty good chance of living out a normal life expectancy, at least statistically.

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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Jerry Kinney likes to paint landscapes in his home studio from photos he took while on the road.

Top left: Methow Birch Group was photographed on vacation near Sun Mountain Lodge.

Oil and retirement do mix for landscape painter

Left: Trees on a Pond from an image taken while on an Elderhostel trip in France.

Opposite page: Along the Volga was photographed while on a Volga River cruise in Russia.

By Susan Lagsdin

“I

wish I’d started about 30 or 40 years earlier — I’d probably be able to draw better.” Jerry Kinney, 84 this year and a prolific and primarily self-taught landscape painter, says that’s his only regret.

“But with the painting… I’ve studied hundreds of art books, gone to dozens of museums. In a college class, your professor can critique your painting. But I guess I’ve just critiqued my own over the years.” He’s also had notably fine mentors: local artists Bill Reese and Walter Graham, (each now deceased) as well as Rod Weagant, have inspired and encouraged him Oil painting was not a first love.

Jerry tried it as a teenager after his mother

30

gave him a “pochade,” a lightweight, fold-up painting box meant for plein air artists. But painting on canvas was of little interest to him.

Instead, starting at age 17 his creative outlet until recently was designing, and building to scale, miniscule realistic environments — railroad villages, for which he has received two national awards.

After Jerry’s childhood in Cashmere, the family moved frequently. “That was hard on my schooling,” he recalled. Shortly after high school he joined the Army, saw action in Korea and upon his discharge returned to the Wenatchee area. There he stepped into a job that grew and changed and which he en| The Good Life

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joyed for decades at the Tree Fruit Research Center.

“I’ve had a good life, a really good life,” Jerry declared as he related some high points. Both of his careers have been long and satisfying: his daily job to support the family (33 years) and then his oil painting (24 years and counting).

Jerry and his wife Barbara used his postretirement years well. After 1982 they traveled extensively overseas, but one trip to New England in 1990 dramatically changed his life. They visited several art galleries.

He can’t recall why exactly, but some of the particular paintings made him say, “I think I’d like to do this again.” As he describes it,

March 2015

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WHAT TO DO

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

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

NCW Blues Jam, every second and fourth Monday, 7:30 – 11 p.m. Columbia Valley Brewery, 538 Riverside Dr, Wenatchee. Info: facebook. com/NCWBluesJam. Live Music, every Monday night, 7 – 9 p.m. Vino Prost Wine Bar, Leavenworth. Cost: free. Info: vinoprost. com.

“I just started up again, for the first time.”

He tried painting nature scenes on site, but he tired of the hauling of gear, the constant changing of the light (and therefore color), and the sensory overload of visual detail with no compositional boundaries.

Copying a photo, trying to realistically replicate the camera’s capture with precise brushstrokes, didn’t suit him either.

He found a middle ground; he’ll take a photograph of a scene as he travels, whether it’s serendipitous or sought-out, and keep it close as a reminder while he paints.

These years he’s gone high tech and honed his system by routing his digital photos through a TV monitor on his worktable. “It gives me a lot of choices,” he said. “With the remote I can adjust the tint, the color, the contrast, the brightness of the picture any way I want to, and improvise from there.” His impressionistic landscapes scenes are true to life — as he sees it.

Jerry showed a tally of the paintings he’s sold in the last 10 years from galleries all over the region as well as Wenatchee, where he’s currently with Two Rivers Art Gallery. He sells on average 10 a year, enough to keep him at his easel, or as he

said, “A reason to keep breathing.”

He figures he’s completed around 400 paintings in this second-wind career, mostly of places he loves, with some still life studies. He uses only oils.

He won’t allow prints to be made; he’ll never sell the same scene twice. It’s a generational work ethic and perspective on originality, and he steadfastly maintains it.

The Kinneys moved from a 4,000-square-foot home in Sunnyslope to an efficiency apartment on Cherry Street two years ago, meaning a drastic reduction in Jerry’s studio space, which formerly filled an entire basement floor. With less work area and storage available, his paintings are necessarily smaller, done at a compact easel with all his tidily-arranged oil paints and tools close by.

The window-lighted corner of the second bedroom makes a fine studio, though. Its shelves are filled with the best of his once-extensive collection of art books (“We had to get rid of dozens of them — boxes of them,” said Jerry) and the walls are hung with reminders of favorite scenic spots, softly rolling hills and trees in summer plumage.

They are painted by the resident artist, of course.

March 2015 | The Good Life

Live Music, every Friday night, 6 – 9 p.m. Wednesday nights 7 – 9 p.m. Leisure nights, every Tuesday for fun and games. Icicle Brewing Company. Cost: free. Info: iciclebrewing.com.

Live Music, every Friday and Saturday nights, 7 p.m. Baren Haus, Leavenworth. Cost: free.

Karaoke and Dance party, every Friday and Saturday nights, 9 p.m.

Cost: free. Ducks and Drakes, Leavenworth. Info: ducksandddrakesrestaurant.com.

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Weekend Wine Flights from Around the World, every weekend, 4 p.m. Taste three different wines from around the world. Vino Prost Wine Bar, Leavenworth. Cost: $10. Info: vinoprost.com.

2 Left Feet, every Thursday, 7 – 9 p.m. 2 Left Feet is a loose organization of local dance enthusiasts who would like to see more dancing in the Wenatchee Valley. Beginner lesson at the top of the hour followed by carefree social dancing. No partner necessary to join in the fun.

Dance style will be 1940s swing with a bit of salsa, blues, waltz or tango thrown in. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.

A Healthy Diet: It’s Not About the food, 3/3, 7 p.m. Instructor Kari Lyons Price will focus on the three psycho-spiritual keys for a healthy relationship to your food.

Explore the reasons diets fail and the powerful influence of our bodymind connection. Pybus Public Market. Sign up: pybuspublicmarket.org.

Camp Fire Girls and Boys Luncheon, 3/4, noon. Keynote speaker

}}} Continued on next page

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WHAT TO DO

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

}}} Continued from previous page will be Kory Kalahar, principal at Wenatchee Westside High School.

Wenatchee Convention Center.

Cost: free with proceeds benefiting Camp Fire’s youth programs in Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Grant and Adams counties. RSVP: 6631609. Donations: Camp Fire NCW Council, PO Box 1734, Wenatchee, WA 98801-1734.

Empty Bowls Artist Bowl Auction, 3/5, 8:20 – 9:20 a.m., 17, 18, 8 a.m. – 9 a.m. 22 bowls crafted by local artists will be auctioned off.

All proceeds are used to purchase food for the Leavenworth Community Cupboard food bank and to support small grants for youth art programs. Info: uvmend.org.

Wenatchee Valley chamber banquet, 3/5, 5:30 – 9 p.m. Lavishly decorated tables, silent auction and dinner. Info: wenatchee. org.

Film Series: Treasure Island, 3/5, 7 p.m. Snowy Owl Theater.

Cost: $10 advance, $13 at the door.

Info: icicle.org.

Wenatchee First Fridays ArtsWalk, 3/6, 5 - 8 p.m. Check out Wenatchee’s arts scene. Venues and exhibits change monthly.

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

The following businesses participate: • Two Rivers Art Gallery, 3/6, 5 – 8 p.m. Featuring acrylic painter Marti Lyttle. Music by jazz pianist Patrick Thompson. Wines by Jones of Washington and complimentary refreshments. 102 N Columbia, Wenatchee. Cost: free. Info: 2riversgallery.com.

• Merriment Party Goods, 3/6, 5 – 8 p.m. Featuring Sweet Bobbins - items for women and children.

Snacks and beverages. 23, S Wenatchee Ave. Cost: free. Info: facebook.com/merrimentpartygoods.

• Tumbleweed Bead Co., 3/6, 5-7 p.m. Sarah Sims will show her Third Eye Design line. She uses 100% recycled Sterling silver wire and semi precious stones to create one of a

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

• Small Artworks Gallery, 3/6, 5 p.m. Local artists works will be on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Info: wvmcc.org.

Erin McNamee, 3/6, 7 p.m. Erin sings mostly folk music and multigenre: opera, classical, chant, cabaret, jazz standards, music-theater, blues, roots, country, bluegrass, rock, Irish trad, Sean-Nos, Celtic and original music. Her song repertoire consists of somewhere above 400 songs. Live performance. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.

Overton Berry Trio, 3/6, 7 p.m.

Live performance by pianist Overton Berry. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $20 advance or $24 at the door.

Info: icicle.org.

Quincy Fishing Derby, 3/7, 7 a.m.

– 1:30 p.m. Lots of prizes including a tagged fish worth $3,000. Burke Lake in Quincy. Cost: $25 adult, $10 youth. Info: quincyvalleytourism. org.

Lego Building Competition, 3/7-8, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Build your own Lego creation and compete in special Lego building events. Some Legos provided, bring your own if you have them. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free.

NCW Kid Connect family expo, 3/7, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Meet your favorite superhero and your favorite princesses, reptile and reptile zoo, Philip and Henry: the amazing magicians, giveaways, workshop, inflatables, games activities and more. Wenatchee High School.

Bring canned food for local food banks and win prizes. Cost: $4 adults, $3 kids 2-17. Info: ncwkidconnect.com.

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March 2015

Mud Bay JuggleRs, 3/7, 6:30 p.m.

Juggling, physical comedy, dance, and music. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $21-$29. Info: numericapac.org.

Classical Music Series: Simple Measures, 3/7, 7 p.m. Icicle Creek for the Arts perform. Canyon Wren Recital Hall. Cost: $20 advance or $24 at the door. Info: icicle.org.

Family Art Night, 3/10, 7 p.m.

Artist Terry Valdez with a team of fellow artists explore an assortment of watercolor techniques. All materials provided. Pybus Public Market. Sign up: pybusmarket.org.

Tashi and the Monk, 3/11, 7 p.m.

The award-winning film Tashi and the Monk highlights the work and mission of Jhamtse Gatsal who rescued orphaned and neglected children and provided them with educational opportunities in the foothills of the Himalayas. Donations will be accepted to support Jhamtse Gatsal. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free.

WVC Almost Spring Concert, 3/12, 7 p.m. The WVC Chamber Singers celebrate the arrival of spring. The Grove Recital Hall at WV College. Cost: $5, $10 family.

KPQ Home and Garden Show, 3/13-15. Town Toyota Center. Cost: free. Info: towntoyotacenter.com.

Forest Beutel, 3/13, 7 – 9 p.m. Live music. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.

Opera Series: La Donna del Lago (The Met: Live in HD), 3/14, 9:30 a.m. Bel canto superstars Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez join forces for this Rossini showcase of vocal virtuosity, set in the medieval Scottish highlands and based on a beloved novel by Sir Walter Scott. Snowy Owl Theater.

Info: icicle.org.

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WHAT TO DO

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

Quincy Leprechaun Chase, 3/14.

5k and 2k start at Lauzier Park in Quincy. Info: qtownrec.us.

5k Fun Run, 3/14, 10 – 11 a.m. Run starts at Pybus and will be marked but not timed. Runners will be greeted with goodies from Pearl Izumi Run (PI) including t-shirts, stickers and a chance to win free raffle prizes. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.

St Patrick’s Day Dinner and Dessert Dash, 3/14, 5:30 - 9 p.m.

Dinner catered by The Ivy Wild.

A lively delectable dessert auction. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Kuykendall Hall. Cost: $35. Info: ccyakima.org.

Spring Fest, 3/14, 6 – 9 p.m. A benefit for Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market. Light hors d’oeuvres, desserts, no-host bar, silent and live auction with dozens of items, raffles and drawings. Gil Sparks will m/c the event. Pybus Public Market. Cost: $25. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.

NU-BLU, 03/14, 7:30 p.m. Cashmere Community Concerts. Nu-Blu brings its lively version of Americana-bluegrass across the nation; innovative and daring enough to bring a fresh sparkle to contemporary acoustic music that lands them squarely in the forefront of bands blazing the trail in acoustic entertainment. CCC at Cashmere Riverside Center. Cost: $3 at the door and pass the hat. Info: cashmereconcerts.com.

GWATA Innovator Awards Luncheon, 3/17, noon. Winners of entrepreneur of the year, tech savvy business of the year, future technology leader k-12, future technology leader post-secondary and innovative use of technology in the classroom will be announced.

Dr. Robb Akridge, PhD will be the keynote speaker. He is known for inventing the Clarisonic product and lead developer of SonicCare.

Info: gwata.org.

St. Patrick’s Day parade, 3/17, 7ish. The shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade Route in the world. One block long at the corner of Orondo and Mission Street.

St. Patrick’s Day Music, 3/17, 5 – 7 p.m. All Strings Considered will perform Irish and Scottish ballads

}}} Continued on next page

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column the night sky this month

Peter Lind

The moons of Jupiter at play Spring returns to the

Wenatchee Valley in March and with it several bright planets. March also brings a total eclipse.

As March begins, Venus and Mars hang near each other in the western sky as evening darkness falls. Venus, the brighter of the two shows up about 20 minutes after the sun sets. Mars is less than half as bright as its neighbor and the sky needs to darken for it to appear.

For those on the east side of the river, both appear above the western horizon after 7 p.m., Venus being brighter and Mars just below. A good pair of binoculars will give a spectacular view of the planetary pair.

The two planets will pull apart throughout the month, with Mars sliding behind the sun from our viewpoint and Venus continues to move away from the sun.

During the third week of the month the crescent moon joins the pair, first sliding just to the south of Mars, and the next night, just below Venus. Hiding in the background stars of the pair is the ice giant Uranus.

On the fourth of the month Uranus is just below Mars, and is easily seen through a good pair of binoculars.

As Venus and Mars are dancing in the western sky at sunset, Jupiter is doing the same in the east.

Although Jupiter reached opposition and peak visibility in February, it still is a great view all through March. The king of the planets climbs high in early evening, is easily spotted, and makes a great target for binoculars and telescopes.

Particularly interesting are the four major moons and their March 2015 | The Good Life

dance around the planet. If you view the planet over the course of an evening you can watch the moons move in their orbits around Jupiter.

Jupiter regularly provides exciting events to watch through a decent telescope. On the night of March 5, astronomers in North America will have four events happening with three of the moons.

At 7:19 p.m., the moon Io partially hides Europa for two minutes. In North America the two moons appear to merge.

Less than an hour later Europa passes through Io’s shadow. Europa dims noticeably during this eclipse which lasts about four minutes.

About one half hour after the eclipse ends, Europa disappears behind Jupiter’s western edge.

Later that night Io again hides Ganymede. This event lasts about eight minutes and Io’s disk completely disappears.

Saturn sits in Scorpius the scorpion throughout March.

The gas giant pulls above the southeastern horizon around 1 a.m. on the first of the month and two hours earlier by the end of the month. Saturn is at its highest at about dawn.

As with Jupiter, the higher altitude means sharper and clearer views. Even a small telescope will show the rings of Saturn, which are almost at their full tilt from our view. Small telescopes will even show the dark Cassini Division that separates outer ring A from its neighbor B ring.

The solar systems two other planets stayed hidden throughout March. Both Mercury and Neptune rise in the sun’s twilight, but will become visible later in the spring.

March’s biggest event occurs in daylight hours. www.ncwgoodlife.com

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On the 20th, the moon passes in front of the sun and creates a total solar eclipse along a path that is south and east of Iceland. Unfortunately most of the path lies in open water.

It will be visible over several islands between Iceland and Norway. At maximum eclipse the moon blocks the sun for 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

I came across a story the other day about 500 cool things about space, so I thought I would share just a few of them with you. n The boomerang nebula in the constellation Centarus is the coldest natural place in the universe, with a temperature one Kelvin above absolute zero. n To escape earth’s gravity, the spacecraft must travel 25,008 mph, or near Mach 33. n In 1967, John Dobson created a simple and inexpensive altazimuth mounting for Newtonian reflector telescopes that came to be known as the Dobsonian mount. It is one of the most used mounts of today’s telescopes. n The largest star found so far, UY Skuti, has a diameter 1,700 times that of our own sun. n This one is hard for me to wrap my head around but with the help of the Hubble space telescope, astronomers have estimated that about 125 billion galaxies populate the visible universe.

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

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WHAT TO DO

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

}}} Continued from previous page featuring the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and hammered dulcimer.

Wear green! Pybus Public Market.

Cost: free.

Environmental Film Series: Birders: The Central Park Effect, 3/17, 7 p.m. The wildlife footage captures the changing seasons, reveals Central Park acts as a magnet for the millions of birds migrating along the Eastern Seaboard twice every year. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.

Cost: $5 suggested donation. Info: wvcc.org.

Free To Be you & me, 3/18-21, 7 p.m., 2 p.m. Saturday. WHS Choral Department performs a fun children’s musical created by Marlo Thomas and directed by Paul Atwood about whether a boy or a girl, one can achieve anything. WHS auditorium. Cost: $10 adults, $5 students. Tickets: 888-0780.

How the West was Won, 3/19, 6:30 p.m. Monthly movie starring Gregory Peck and Debbie Reynolds.

Numerica Performing Arts Center.

Cost: $5. Info: numericapac.org.

My girlfriend’s closet, 3/2022. Junior Service League of Wenatchee presents their fundraiser. Gently used clothing, jewelry, shoes and handbags for sale. 212 Fifth Street #9, Mission Village between Mission St and Chelan Ave. Info: facebook.com/mygirlriendsclosetbyJSLW. Vox Docs Film Festival, 3/20, 7 p.m. Keep On Keepin’ on. Captured with heart and soul, the rare musical mentorship of a music legend, Clark Terry and his gifted student,

Justin Kauflin. Justin will be the special guest for the evening. 3/21, noon. Point and Shoot, An American man’s remarkable quest to find himself, leading him on an extraordinary journey, including fighting in the Libyan Revolution. Life Itself, 2 p.m. The engrossing life story of Roger Ebert and one of the most decorated documentaries of 2104.

Citizen Four, 5 p.m. The Chilling first hand account of the Edward Snowden saga that plays out like a modern day spy thriller. The Overnighters, 7:30 p.m. Broken, desperate men chase their dreams and run from their demons amidst the North Dakota oil boom. Local Pastor Jay Reinke risks everything to help them. Jay Reinke will be the special guest of the evening. Snowy Owl Theater, $10 advance or $13 at the door, $45 for all five films. Info: vocdoc.org.

Rocklyn Road Band, 3/20, 7 – 9 p.m. Danika Nolton and Gary Johnstad perform live with a mix of classic rock, country and rockabilly.

Pybus Public Market. Cost: free.

Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.

The Rites of String, 3/21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fifth Annual Entiat Kite Festival, Kiwanis Park along Highway 97A is sponsored by the Entiat Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Bring your own kite or 150 kites will be free to kids. Stunt kite team to be on hand to demonstrate, plus food and vendors. Free.

Caveman Roar and Pour 5k Trail Run and Wine tasting event, 3/21, 11 a.m. Runners and walkers experience Eastern Washington terrain along the Cave B vineyards, rolling hills, over the sage dotted desert plateau and by the cliffs with breath taking views of the Columbia River Gorge. Cave B Estate Winery. Info: active.com/quincy-wa/ running/races/caveman-roar-andpour-5k-trail-fun-run-2015?int=.

Imagine the fun you could have Subscribe to The Good Life for yourself or a friend.

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Winetasia, Puttin on the glitz, 3/21, 5:30 p.m. A benefit dinner hosted by the WVC Foundation.

Come back to 1939 and experience the glitz and glamour of the period.

Period dress is encouraged so dress to impress. Photo booth, gift box, live auction, wine and food stations. All proceeds benefit student scholarships. Wenatchee Golf and Country Club. Cost: $100. Info: wvc. edu/anniversary/default.asp.

Recycled Percussion, 3/21, 7:30 p.m. America’s Got Talent junk rock high-energy band making music with buckets, power tools and miscellaneous junk. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $25 & $29.

Info: numerciapac.org.

Pack Walks, 3/22, 4/26, 3 p.m.

Bring your friends and dogs on leashes and walk the riverfront trail. Meet on the loop behind Pybus Market at the boat launch. Info: wenatcheefido.org.

Film Series: Virunga, 3/26, 7 p.m.

In the forested depths of eastern Congo lies Virunga National Park, one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth and home to the planet’s last remaining mountain gorillas.

In this wild, but enchanted environment, a small and embattled team of park rangers - including Know of someone stepping off the beaten path in the search for fun and excitement? E-mail us at editor@ncwgoodlife.com

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March 2015

an ex-child soldier turned ranger, a caretaker of orphan gorillas and a dedicated conservationist who’s a member of the Belgian royal family - protect this UNESCO world heritage site from armed militia, poachers and the dark forces struggling to control Congo’s rich natural resources. Snowy Owl Theater.

Cost: $10 advance or $13 at the door. Info: icicle.org.

Lecture Series: Mara Liasson, 3/27, 7 p.m. Mara is the national political correspondent for NPR. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $20 advance or $24 at the door. Info: icicle.org.

Just Us Band, 3/27, 7 – 9 p.m.

Kyle Flick (guitar), Brad Blackburn (drums), Mark Sele (bass), Heather Houtz (vocals) and Bonnie McClaine (vocals). Enjoy a spring night of Blues, classic rock and pop.

Pybus Public Market. Cost: free.

Appleaires Greatest Hits, 3/28, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $18. Info: numerciapac.org.

Spring Break Classes, 3/30-4/2, 9 a.m. – noon. Third through 5th grade kids will explore robotics with walking field trips, art lessons and science experiments.

Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $20 per day or $70 for the week for members, $25 per day and $85 per week for non-members.

The Art Life

// SKETCHES OF LOCAL ARTISTS

When work feels like play, then life is sweet music

“Being a symphonic percussionist means you’re either making the hall come alive or waiting backstage ’til it’s time to play again.”

By Susan Lagsdin

“I

have been surrounded by the kindest, most gracious people in the world…” Sherry Krebs can’t talk about her life in music without alluding to 40 years of friends and colleagues.

Sherry is humble about her art. “I’m not the best musician around, but I’m really good at organizing music and making it fun for people.” From her early days just out of college playing the recorder and guitar to conducting musical theater(s) and performing with the Symphony — plus a polka band, the Bach fest, a British Brass band, and more — she’s been all over the local music scene.

That means years of rehearsals and evening concerts, and, she pointed out, years of hauling cumbersome drum sets from storage to vehicle to stage door.

(She admitted, “That’s why I love the Symphony’s new schedule — they pack all the rehearsing into a solid week, so no more lugging instruments through the mud every week.”)

All that while raising a family and teaching in the public schools.

For all this labor of love, Sherry’s been publicly recognized, most notably with the Stanley Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Again, she deflects honor back to her friends: “People ask me ‘How can you do so much?’ I tell them — when you’re doing something you love with people you love, it’s all good.”

Talking downstairs in the Nu-

Sherry Krebs: “People ask me ‘How can you do so much?’ I tell them — when you’re doing something you love with people you love, it’s all good.”

merica Performing Arts Center lobby early in the month, we watched jazz workshop middle schoolers troop by noisily after their time on the PAC stage.

“Ms. Krebs!! Ms. Krebs!! Hi!” One after another they broke ranks to greet their former teacher. She returned the greeting with open arms and a huge smile, a little tear in her eye.

“What a wonderful thing — to see my students who’ve gone on in music.” Much as Sherry loved teaching children (and she did: P.E. for eight years and elementary music for 24 before retiring in 2013) she also quipped, “Now I’ll do just about anything if it doesn’t involve a ‘mission statement’ and ‘learning targets.’”

At 63, this much-applauded and constantly-involved teacher and musician is ready to do things at her own pace. And her own pace sometimes depends on the weather.

On a chilly dark day Sherry is indoors knitting, weaving, March 2015 | The Good Life

quilting or doing needlepoint — other artful devotions — while watching, she says, “Every British mystery series ever produced.”

A secret? “Being a symphonic percussionist means you’re either making the hall come alive or waiting backstage ‘til it’s time to play again.” Sherry said nowadays people fill up the downtime by playing with their iPhones, “But that’s where I learned to do needlepoint.”

If the weather’s fine, she’ll enjoy a day of hiking or skiing.

For an extended indulgence, she might weekend at a local forest living out of her little teardrop camper; soon, with her (somewhat) freed-up schedule, she’s hoping in the future to visit most of the national parks.

After serving as music director and conducting the orchestra for a dozen All-District Musicals (Shrek was her finale), she’s handed over that baton. She’ll keep conducting with Music Theater of Wenatchee, where a www.ncwgoodlife.com

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few small acting roles and playing in the orchestra have taught her well. She said, “I finally knew what it was like to be both on the stage and in the pit — I learned what each one needs.”

She’ll continue playing her guitar with All Strings Considered, a trio of good friends who’ve performed Celtic music together for eight years. With traditional fiddle, mandolin, guitar and hammered dulcimer music, they delight themselves and enliven local events in the area.

And, be assured she will still play with the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra. It’s been 25 years since she first pinch-hit as a percussionist, which turned into a permanent position. That means bells, cymbals, bass drum and her favorite: timpani.

“Just think the opening of Masterpiece Theatre, or the Olympics theme — that’s timpani,” she described helpfully. “I love them. You get to move around a lot — it’s like ‘dancing with drums.’”

It’s very possible that Sherry Krebs will never run out of energy. Certainly she will never lack for enthusiasm.

“At my college job at Lakeland Village (for the developmentally disabled), I learned their philosophy and led my life that way: ‘we work for eight hours, we sleep for eight hours, we play for eight hours.’ And when your work feels likes play, well, that’s just more of a good thing.”

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column those were the days

rod molzahn

The founding of Chelan Chief Moses didn’t get the

reservation he had hoped for in his negotiations with the Department of the Interior in Washington.

On April 19, 1879 Moses settled, instead, for the land north of the Methow River to the Canadian border and from the crest of the Cascades east to the Okanogan River.

By March of the next year some of the reservation had been removed for railroad use.

Moses was compensated for that by the extension of the reservation south from the Methow River to the south shore of Lake Chelan.

Moses and his people never moved on to the reservation but the U.S. Army had a brief stay there.

In the summer of 1879, partly due to the prevailing belief that Moses was a bad fellow, the Army decided to establish a post at the lower end of Lake Chelan to keep the peace and oversee the new reservation. The Army

sent Lt. Thomas Symons, corps of engineers, and Lt. Col. H.C. Merrian to find the best location for the fort.

Chelan Chief In-na-mo-seecha took the men halfway up the lake in his dug-out canoe. Merriam and Symons were delighted to find abundant timber growing to the lakeshore that could be cut and rafted down lake to the building site for the fort.

They had chosen the flat north of the Chelan River where the city of Chelan now sits.

A temporary camp was established at the mouth of Foster Creek at the present location of Bridgeport.

The soldiers — two companies transferred from Fort Colville — spent the winter there constructing barracks and other buildings as well as building a road from the plateau down to the Columbia and a second road from the west shore of the Columbia up to Lake Chelan.

In November a disassembled, steam powered lumber mill began a slow journey to Foster

Creek then on to Lake Chelan.

In April of the following year, 1880, the temporary camp at Foster Creek was de-constructed and, along with the mill boiler, loaded on a ferry for the trip down the Columbia from Foster Creek to the mouth of the Chelan River.

There the makings of the new fort were loaded back on wagons and hauled by mule teams up the steep grade to the lake level.

Sometime in the spring or early summer Lt. Col. Merriam’s wife and three young children arrived from the East. Their stay was short-lived.

By late summer the Army had determined that there were significant communication, supply and strategic problems with the new, barely completed, fort.

The Army commander at Fort Vancouver ordered Fort Chelan moved to a new location one mile up the Spokane River from its mouth.

On Sept.28, Lt. Col. Merriam reported that the mill and boiler were dismantled and ready to

go by ox team down the steep grade they had gone up only five months before. On Oct. 2 the troops left for the new fort and Camp Chelan was officially discontinued.

Six years passed before the next white people called the lake home.

Judge Ignatius A. Navarre and his wife claimed land in 1886, about the time the Moses Reservation was opened for homesteading, and built a fine home two-and-one-half miles up the south shore from the foot of the lake. Navarre’s brother Charles had settled land a mile up from the mouth of the coulee that bears his name in 1884.

That same year Ignatius Navarre surveyed the area for the government and fell in love with Lake Chelan.

Billy Sanders and Henry Domke could also claim the title of first white settlers at Lake Chelan.

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March 2015

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... their pack horse, Prince, fell to his death into the gorge where the creek bearing his name runs.

At the same time that the Navarres claimed their 160 acres, Sanders and Domke worked their way from the Methow Valley over difficult terrain to a high ridge overlooking Lake Chelan.

As they negotiated their way

down cliffs and ledges their pack horse, Prince, fell to his death into the gorge where the creek bearing his name runs. The two men nearly died floating down lake on a log raft. Both men claimed homesteads along the lake.

Other settlers followed including John and Elizabeth Stevenson in 1888, the first to settle at First Creek on the south shore near the current state park. That same year, in the spring, Captain Charles Johnson, civil war veteran, came from Nebraska and settled on the lake. He was an early Okanogan County commissioner. Until 1900 Okanogan

County included Chelan and reached south to the north bank of the Wenatchee River.

In 1889, a Judge Ballard laid out and platted the town-site of Chelan where Camp Chelan had been and by 1892 close to a thousand town lots, at $5.75 each, had been sold.

The town of Chelan Falls, along the Columbia, was homesteaded in 1891 by Judge Joseph Snow and his wife, Sarah. The town-site was soon purchased

by Laughlin (or Lachlan) MacLean, a real estate developer from Spokane who sold lots and invested in the town’s infrastructure.

The area’s first real claim to fame was as a popular and bustling outfitter for the growing number of miners heading for diggings in the mountains above Stehekin and north to the Methow and Okanogan where the northern strip of the Moses Reservation had been opened to mining.

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

A few of my favorite local Rieslings unfortunately, it’s Washington, so the alcohol by volume will be higher than if we were in the Mosel.

Martin-Scott Winery — This one approaches a Beerenauslese in both its residual sugar and its alcohol by volume, but that’s not the real important point, the wine is beautifully balanced with sugars and acids, a genuine complement to the Rieslings of the Mosel. Now, on this one, I’d suggest you drop the temperature to well below 40 degrees before serving it after dinner with some dried apricots over vanilla ice cream topped with chopped, roasted walnut pieces.

I

’ve been a fan of Riesling ever since we drove up the highway along the Mosel River road from Trier to Koblenz in Germany.

When I win the Power Ball or the Mega Millions, I want to return to the region, only this time, I want to spend a few months, not a week.

Three things I truly loved about the drive, apart from the wines and the scenery, were the people, and the foods, but mostly, I loved the variety of wines.

In America, I’d had Riesling.

It was too often uninteresting, often a bit flabby and lacking structure, but too, it was almost always a kind of sugared water, not wine.

Along the Mosel, all the wines were bright, acidic, with complex aroma profiles. Also, we had options for the wines: when were the grapes harvested; how much sweetness did we desire in the wine; were we interested in Riesling blends, Riesling/MullerThurgau? Did we desire to taste the red wine?

The Germans label their Rieslings, and for that matter, perhaps their other grapes, by the time of the season in which they were harvested. Early harvested Rieslings are Kabinetts, when the grapes are still not very sweet, so the wines will show acids more than sugars, and the alcohol by volume in the bottle will be low, in some cases as low as 9 percent.

The last of the harvested grapes are Trokenbeerenauslese, or as we call it, Ice Wine.

I like that system, because it helps identify from the label the sweetness aspect of the wine.

In case you’ve forgotten, the riper the grapes, the higher

How sweet it is: Chateau Ste. Michelle tells all on the label.

the sugar in the juice, and the higher the sugar in the juice, potentially, the higher either the alcohol or the sugar in the wine, so late harvest will be either sweeter or higher alcohol wine.

We don’t do that in the rest of the world, and perhaps, that’s just as well, but I’d be happier if by reading the label on a bottle of American Riesling, I could tell if the wine were sweet or dry.

Enough of that Mosel stuff and on to the Rieslings available to us all in NCW. Thankfully, American Riesling has matured and American winemakers are producing wines true to the characteristic of the grape variety.

We’re lucky in Washington because we have a growing season the Riesling grape seems to enjoy. Our Rieslings are indeed world class, and we’ve enough of them to please a very broad audience.

Again, as you might have suspected, I have some local favorites.

Mellisoni Vineyards — I’m

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a major fan of this winery’s Riesling for two reasons. First, they create their Riesling in the dry, Alsace style, which I favor for its food pairing versatility.

Second, I just like the stuff. This one works as a sipping beverage or to complement your meal of ham or chicken with roasted vegetables.

Atam Winery — I’m guessing here, but I think, if Denis Atam, the owner and winemaker at Atam Winery, were labeling a German Riesling, he’d label this wine of his a Spatlese (late harvest). The wine has a crisp acidity and a beautifully balanced sweetness that creates a delicious, well-rounded wine.

This one most assuredly will pair beautifully with a Thai red curry meal.

Okanogan Estates & Vineyards — I’m a fan of Okanogan’s wine in general and I could go on here about other wines on their list but this is a Riesling article, so… this one is, by my taste buds, classic Kabinett style, early harvest, good acids,

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March 2015

And, I know this is somewhat inappropriate, but, I want all you readers to forgive me my transgressions here, it’s just, I am unhappy with the wine labels here in the USA. I want to be able to tell from the label on the Riesling how sweet the wine is. For success in this department, I tip my hat to the folks at Chateau Ste. Michelle for including on their Riesling’s back label the IRF’s (International Riesling Foundation) sweetness scale.

I know they aren’t a local, NCW winery, but they are a Washington winery. I wish I could have photographed the back label of a local, NCW Riesling, but to the best of my knowledge, none of our local wineries print the IRF’s scale on their wines. They should, for the sake of their wine buyers.

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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