Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Florida for my uncle's 90th birthday. As usual, at the drop of the word party, our family convened from all over. A few of us stayed at a hotel with a huge courtyard and pool, and we invited everyone for a swim after Sunday's birthday brunch. It was great to spend time with my family poolside. The two to ten–year–olds were loaded with every pool toy imaginable. The 20 to 40-year-olds had fancy water bottles and an abundance of patience to exhaust the you...
WAITSBURG — Due to increasing print production costs, I am transitioning “The Times” from a print to an exclusively online publication beginning February 6, 2025. The transition will allow the paper to continue covering local news and support businesses, non-profits, schools, and healthcare systems in the Touchet Valley. “The Times” is committed to providing accurate, fair, and relevant information to its readers and community. I purchased the paper at the end of 2018 when the previous owners planned to close the publication after they coul...
While the fires in Los Angeles were raging, I texted my friends who had visited me last fall to let them know Walla Walla was sending some firefighters to the inferno that Los Angeles had become. Thanking me, they asked if I would throw some bottles of wine in the firetruck for them. Unfortunately, that was not an option. Knowing that they enjoyed our wine-tasting adventures when they visited, I sent each of them a bottle of wine to help them cope with their smokey, evacuation yoyo life. Of...
Recently, friends invited me to join them at a snowshoe event hosted by the Blue Mountain Land Trust at the Horseshoe Prairie Nordic Ski Area near Tollgate, Oregon. I've never snowshoed before. The event organizers said they would provide snowshoes and snacks. They had me at snacks. My friends are two of the most active and well-traveled people I know. This year marked their record of visiting all seven continents. I'm impressed and a little jealous. They always find adventure on their trips;...
I am heartbroken watching the fires burn in Los Angeles. I don’t have one friend or family member who has not been affected, from those who have lost their homes to those who have been on edge from evacuation orders in place, which were rescinded and then ordered again. Some have evacuated, others have their cars packed and ready. The house we owned is in a hole at the center of the fires, like the eye of a hurricane. The Palisades and Malibu fires are to the west, the Kenneth fire to the north,...
Six years and counting. I think I’m a bit of an outlier; I am not a big Wicked fan. But a lyric keeps playing in my head, “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” And that is how I feel about my move here. I happily say, “I have no regrets.” That being said, I recently drove to Tri-cities to have heels put on two pairs of shoes. When I lived in Los Angeles, this was a five-minute walk to my neighborhood shoemaker. I never paid...
First, after making twenty typos typing the title and first sentence, I am thankful for spell check. My fingers are stiff from the cold weather, and although I can spell, my fingers are less than agile. I am thankful for our wonderful neighbors who invited Daniel and me to spend Thanksgiving with them. We had planned on dining alone on Cornish game hens, with Mugsy waiting under my chair for a spill or leftovers. Instead, eight friends gathered, ate great food and had a lot of laughs and great...
I thought tennis was frustrating, but I think knitting is beginning to frustrate me more. Last week, I dug through bags within bags looking for my knitting needles. I opened the storage ottoman and unleashed a tangled mess of yarn skeins. It was a cacophony of colors and textures. I gave up all the overly ambitious patterns and dumped random knitting tools that have no function from what I can tell. The guest room bed is covered with yarn organized by color, needles, crochet hooks, and a...
Song lyrics often provide an accurate mood determinant for me. The lyric running through my head now, “Seasons change and so did I,” from the song “No Time” by the band The Guess Who. Fall is quickly turning to winter, and I am feeling (and maybe dreading) the changes, some of which could be good. But mostly, I keep asking, is it spring yet? The roads will soon be treacherous, with fog rolling in and snow, ice, and icy fog following. Driving to tennis games in Walla Walla and Costco runs wi...
My friends scheduled to visit a few months ago finally made it-no more COVID-19 or work delays. To say we hit the ground running is an understatement. We may have surpassed Henry VIII in gluttony and alcohol consumption over the weekend. They booked the brutal 7 a.m. flight out of Burbank (California,), so obviously, they were bleary-eyed when they boarded for Seattle. While in the Seattle airport connecting to Walla Walla, John ran into a shop, and his phone's magnetic wallet became detached....
We are family, and we have the hats to prove it. In a former column, I wrote about our blended family, which is rapidly expanding, with babies and significant others. Our family's philosophy is "the more the merrier," which makes our family reunions more fun but more than a little confusing for the newbies to figure out the family tree. It's been great to meet new babies and the new serious relationships that appear promising. We're not pressuring you, but we did spend time discussing movies...
Last spring, when Daniel was working as a private chef in Europe, I defied his command and purchased a new lawn mower. I went with a battery-operated model, then gave away our smelly, hard-to-pull-start gas mower. Along with the mower, I was sucked into the “package deal,” which included a weed whacker, and an extra battery for the mower, fortuitously a stroke of luck. For some unknown reason, one of the batteries was faulty, and it died. Or so I thought. My maintenance philosophy drives Dan...
It is with pleasure that I am renewing my subscription to “The Times,” and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Lane on her quality publication. We are all aware of the severe challenges faced by both small and large newspapers across the country, and I am so grateful that she is managing to continue her craft. There is much that I appreciate each week besides the quality local news coverage. Brad Trumbo shares his love of bird hunting, nature, and life on a farm (where I spent many hours in my youth) with a remarkably poetic writing...
I wrote a column a few months ago about recognizing the seasons by the bugs that show up, but in retrospect, I’m not sure that is the best determinant. I’ve seen my share of bees and hoverflies this summer, but not like the swarms of past summers. It also seems that ladybugs are in short supply this year. I did need to thwart a minor invasion of squash bugs using an organic spray and marigolds planted throughout the garden. Thankfully, we haven’t had a bumper crop of summer squash, aka zucch...
I went to a garden party, and to my surprise, I saw a face that was familiar but out of context. Then it hit me, "I know you from tennis." First, I thought, "What are you doing here," but asked more politely, "How do you know this group?" It turns out that her husband is a guitarist in the host's band, and they are long-time friends. It was another connection in this cool web of the Waitsburg, Walla Walla, Dayton small-town labyrinth of friends. And, not that I would have anything bad to say,...
Yes, we had visitors, just not the visitors we expected. At the last minute, a friend in the group that was going to visit last week came down with COVID-19, and their trip had to be rescheduled. The Zoom meeting to coordinate a new time also had to be delayed. Evidently, he had a Paxlovid rebound and was still not feeling great. That’s when we had a fortuitous switcheroo. Daniel got a call from friends from Los Angeles who were heading to Walla Walla with their friends from Vancouver, W...
I’m so excited. My friends, former clients, visited me and Daniel in Waitsburg last week. A few weeks ago, we had an extended laugh-a-thon Zoom meeting trying to figure out their flights and other travel logistics. The arrival time hadn’t sunk in for Vicki (yes, another Vicki) because she sent a text the night before the flight saying, “OMG, what were we thinking, getting to the airport at 6 a.m.?” The good news was that the early flight meant they didn’t have to fight traffic to the airport—u...
During the last few springs and summers, I dedicated much time and energy to our garden. I was also happy to have bought into the co-op garden in Walla Walla for tomatoes, corn, and peppers, but most of the time, we ate a good amount of produce from our garden. This year, I spent more time and energy on my tennis game than the garden, and now the consequences. My initial strategy for planting was the "random, no plan" method. I planted things helter-skelter with no rhyme or reason, except for my...
Three and Done (for now). I recently completed my third week of tennis camp. Exhausted doesn’t begin to describe how I ache. But persevere, I have, and I’m sure the makers of Advil are celebrating my stubbornness and my dependence on their miracle drug. With all that time and money spent, you’d think I’d be scouted to play at Wimbledon, but nope. I am relegated to my usual but fun, regular games. And I am grateful that I can still play, have friends to play with, and have not been sidelin...
I just completed my first tennis camp session, and I'm not as fit as I thought (or hoped) I was. The camp started at one o'clock on Thursday afternoon, and I, being overly ambitious, decided to play a two-hour singles game before camp. I began camp a little "used up," but luckily, there was a break with snacks for a little energy boost. After camp ended in the afternoon, I met a friend for a quick dinner and went on to the tennis league games that started at six. To say I slept well that night...
No, this is not the start of a cell phone commercial, but recently, my tennis partner shouted, “It’s out,” as the ball flew over his head (meaning it will be out of bounds). I heard him but didn’t listen because it looked to me like the ball was in, and it was. Unfortunately, I still missed making the point, but it brought back memories of hearing versus listening. When I was about eight or nine years old, my mother took me to our pediatrician because she was concerned that I had a hearing...
I miss my mother. I especially miss her wicked sense of humor, her snarky remarks, and even her unsolicited wisdom, which was usually right and on point. As I matured, I learned that my mother was usually right, even if I didn’t always admit it to myself or to her. Since my mother has passed away and I don’t have any children, Mother’s Day has become “just another day” to me, except as it applies to Waitsburg gardening. I previously wrote that I didn’t understand a seemingly arbitrary g...
Restraint has several meanings, but commonly, it is defined as the act of holding something back. Never one to restrain my competitiveness or need to accomplish things, I am beginning to learn that sometimes restraint may be worth consideration. When I don’t, there has been a good chance of regrets and injury. For example, when I don’t restrain my appetite, I usually feel worse for wear afterwords. If I don’t restrain my need to win the point on the tennis court, I break bones. I need to work...
It’s a strange phenomenon when I am the one planting late. I was patient after I lost everything by impatiently planting too early. Now, I may be behind the eight ball, having waited too long. After planting early-season veggies, including onions, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, no low-fiber diets for us, I stopped my planting. I was sure it was too early to plant the rest. But after visiting some friends who had already planted sugar snaps and pretty much everything else, I am w...
After much anticipation, it's a heady feeling to confidently take off the snow tires and be able to drive with the top down. We have turned on the sprinklers, and to make sure they work, I scheduled them to run last night. Success, we are ready for spring. We even had dinner outside on the deck last night. Though the last two days of sunny weather may not be more than just that: two great days, cooler temps are coming. But I'm sure the snow and sub-zero temperature are over for now, so it's...
