When it comes to space, we don’t always have as much as we might like. Do you live in a tight housing development, condo, apartment or ADU and yearn for outdoor space of your own? Whether your dwelling includes a backyard, balcony, deck, patio or front porch, a few simple steps can transform your outdoor space into a well-loved, go-to place imprinted with your own DNA.
First ask yourself, what do you hope to achieve? A place for chilling? Entertaining guests or barbecues with the family? A play area for the kids?
Once you’ve established the purpose, you’ll want a plan. Decide whether you’ll need the help of a design professional or prefer a DIY approach by gathering ideas from sites on the internet like Houzz or Pinterest, going on home tours or seeing how others have created their own outdoor living space. You’ll discover that good design ideas are surprisingly similar whether your space is large or small. It’s a matter of scale.
Steal Ideas from the Indoors
One enduring idea is to replicate your favorite indoor room, whether it’s the living room, dining room or even the bedroom. Consider traffic patterns and arrange furniture on an outdoor area rug around a patio coffee table or facing a firepit or artwork. Or set up an eating bar with stools and a buffet for food and drinks, cutlery and serving platters. If your space is a covered porch, why not consider a futon for both sleeping and enjoying your morning coffee upon waking?
If your space doesn’t allow for a grouping of furniture, a bench or a couple of chairs and a small side table will suffice. Add a freestanding umbrella or hang a colorful sunshade overhead for protection against the elements. Other space-saving outdoor escapes include gazebos and leafy arbors.
In any arrangement, remember to incorporate lighting—candles, LED light strings, non-breakable lamps and even hardwired sconces and overhead fixtures. Think about storage for brooms, step ladders, garden tools and other things you’d like to have handy. Seek out furniture that can double as storage.
Plan for Mother Nature’s whims
The obvious difference between inside and outside living is weather. On Central Oregon’s high desert, think of your outdoor space in terms of three seasons. Spend time learning about durable materials for our climate. Wrought iron and aluminum are safe bets for tables, synthetic woven wicker for chairs. Teak and cedar are traditional choices for outdoor furniture but require more upkeep. One relative newcomer to the outdoor furniture scene is recycled plastic—look for Adirondack and smaller chairs in vibrant colors that never fade, are strong and last for decades with minimal care. For temperature swings, buy portable or overhead fans for hot weather and heat lamps for cooler days and nights.
Pleasure in the Details
Once your basics are in place, consider the many options for enhancing enjoyment.
Incorporate greenery
If you have ground space, even a small patch of lawn is a good choice for the kids and dogs, plus it keeps dust at bay and your outdoor space green. The downside is it requires upkeep.
If you have a blank wall or a place to add a screen, consider a vertical living wall. Here’s one place it’s worth the expense to hire a professional. Plants in a vertical garden should be selected with care—they need a water source but can become a favorite feature throughout the seasons.
Planter boxes and pots add a pop of color to Central Oregon’s earthy palette. Put them on wheels and place them out of the way in corners. Incorporate shrubs, trees, perennials and herb gardens as space allows.
Birds, bees, windchimes and gurgling water
Get hours of enjoyment from watching hummingbirds chase each other around a feeder or install a bird bath and watch them flick water off their feathers. When the wind blows, as it often does in Central Oregon, chimes create music for the soul. Plant a butterfly garden or perennials that attract big beautiful bumble bees.
One of the most calming aspects of your outdoor space can be a water feature. The types of features available for home gardens are nearly limitless, from waterfalls that spill over a permanent rock formation to a portable yet elegant ceramic fountain.
Find the fire
Firepits have become insanely popular—they create warmth, light and a place to gather. Portable firepits the size of a carry-on bag can cast a long glow over the tiniest space. A table-top firepit can double as an eating area. And don’t dismiss the possibility of a fireplace. You can find a custom or prefabricated version to fit a small space that will throw off living room-like warmth and atmosphere.
Remember the art
Enhance your retreat with art. Consider free-standing sculpture or wall art, traditional or abstract, in metal, glass or other materials. Let your imagination roll and infuse your private place with your own aesthetic.
With the housing world trending toward compact living and smaller homes, expand that space into the outdoors we all crave.
Matt Hand started his career in 1994 at BendBroadband, where he built COTV BendBroadband Channel 11. Ten years later, he established his own company, Hand in Hand Productions—the name stemming from his own surname as well as his skills at working hand in hand to help clients and organizations with their video production needs. Today, his company creates story videos, produces content, live-streams meetings and handles all things audio-visual. Here, Hand answers questions about the power of video, compelling storytelling and our pivoting tech-life during COVID-19.
Your Facebook page refers to you as a “card-carrying AV geek.” Tell us about your love of all things AV and how it came to be.
My third-grade teacher was the person I can credit with beginning this journey. We made a class film. Yes, it was film as it was shot on super 8 film. This process created a passion for visual storytelling and the way that audiovisual can combine to become a better way to tell stories. All through junior and high school I always knew that I loved working on videos and as time progressed, I just got more and more into it.
You’re a Bend native, right? What’s it been like to be in this town for so many years, and grow a business here?
While I am not a true native, I moved here when I was 3 and have lived here ever since. It has been truly interesting watching this town grow into a city. Advances in technology have allowed me to stay here in Bend and give back to the community I grew up in.
You’ve worked on some big deal events around town over the years, including TEDxBend, Bend Venture Conference, Bend Design, EDCO’s Pub Talk and EDCO’s Annual Lunch, to name a few. How do you handle the pressure?
Interesting question, really. I build great teams around me. I have been incredibly fortunate to find some very talented people in the community. I allow them to help me sort things out. My brain seems to be wired to continually strive for improvement which allows me to see my way out of some complex situations.
COVID-19 made AV capability suddenly crucial to a lot more people. Tell us what changed for you and your business during this time and how you responded.
I had been specializing a lot on story videos and on-location production. When the lockdowns started, I suddenly became unemployed. I had been working on a podcast with Broken Top Candle Company’s CEO and Founder Affton Coffelt. We decided to just start doing programming for businesses. In the process of building the shows she and I were working on, the doors opened up to more and more clients that needed high-production for virtual events. Affton pivoted her business and fortunately got busy—she occasionally still joins me. My biggest focus now is directing virtual events that engage people from around the nation and, for a couple of projects, from around the world. It is so enjoyable to be able to help provide better production in this time of chaos.
Behind the scenes at a live production
What do you love most about your work? What is your biggest challenge?
I love the stories that I get to tell and share through the interviews, events and videos I help create, manage and produce. The biggest challenge is the daily grind of constant improvement in technology and being able to offer our clients these improvements.
Got any good AV disaster stories?
No comment! Seriously, I have been pretty fortunate over the years. The projects I have learned the most from were those in which I pushed to do something bigger and ran out of time to make it as big as I wanted. However, failure is an event, not a person, as Zig Ziglar once said. We pick up the pieces and move on with a greater amount of knowledge.
Anything else you’d like us to know?
I launched the local interview podcast, “Show Up Central Oregon,” right at the start of the COVID-19 quarantine. I have been incredibly moved by all of the stories of compassion that have revealed themselves. It is such a privilege to be doing regular interviews with community and thought leaders including State Representative Cheri Helt, Business Oregon’s Tom Schnell, Mayor of Bend Sally Russell and Affton Coffelt from Broken Top Candle Company. I truly feel blessed to live in this community. You can find more information about Show Up Central Oregon atfacebook.com/showupcentraloregon.
This spring, COVID-19 shuttered downtown galleries. While many of these businesses are reopening this summer, the warm season is also the perfect time to appreciate just how very many pieces of art are around us outdoors every day. Grab a map from VisitBend and take a lap around downtown to experience the abundance of public, outdoor art.
The back alleys may be the most artistic part of downtown Bend. Or maybe they aren’t. If you don’t mind the view of the back side of businesses with recycling and trash cans lining the street, a treat awaits your eyes. Between Oregon and Franklin Avenues, art flourishes in the form of murals, weather-proof paintings and multimedia pieces.
Plaques tell about each piece in the the Tin Pan Alley Art Collection. Local photographer Carol Sternkopf presents a blue owl in a storybook page format. She pulls together photographic collage, vinyl, paint, twigs, wood, metal and salvaged home décor to engage viewers with, “What’s this owl up to, anyway?”
Bend pioneer and ski legend Emil Nordeen got a 21st century brushing by contemporary Bend artist Sheila Dunn, known for large vibrant portraits and figure paintings. Nordeen was a Swedish immigrant who moved to Bend in 1920 along with other Scandinavian mill workers. To commemorate his cross-country ski races between Fort Klamath and Crater Lake and other accomplishments, the Nordeen Shelter was named for him.
Experience two pieces in the covered walkway between Wall and Brooks Streets. A painting by Bend’s first creative laureate, Jason Graham, aka MOsley WOtta, explores “the four seasons in relation to the four directions in relation to the four core archetypes: warrior, teacher, healer, visionary.”
In contrast with the intensity of MOWO’s piece, Bend’s Sweet Pea Cole portrays a girl and dog frolicking in a landscape filled with bubbles. The girl in the painting is opening her pocket, “letting loose her innermost ideas and feelings…letting them mingle with the world around her,” the plaque states. This quirky piece is part of a large collection of Cole’s graphic design and illustration body of work.
At the east end of Minnesota Avenue is a fountain and the sculpture of two large bronze cranes, “Dancing for Flossie,” by Danae Bennett Miller, installed in 2003. With a home studio in Tumalo, she takes inspiration from farm animals and wildlife. Her bronze sculptures pepper the Central Oregon landscape in roundabouts and other public and private places.
Wander through the city’s iconic Drake Park where you’ll find a large, abstract sculpture on the south end near the take-out spot for river floaters. The 1991 stainless-steel sculpture, “Cascade Landscape,” by Portland artist Bruce West was originally installed at Kenwood School but roundabout construction required its removal and relocation to a new home. One local calls it “cocktail ice without scotch.”
Bend’s iconic and most photographed sculpture is probably “Art,” the nickname given the man seated on a bench staring into his empty wallet. The life-size cast-aluminum sculpture was created by Seattle artist Richard Beyer and placed at the corner of Wall Street and Franklin in 1982. He’s rarely alone. In addition to the ducks who keep him eternal company, Art loves posing with people who sit with him, stuff all manner of things into his wallet, wrap their arms around his shoulders or dress him in everything from Santa hats to lingerie.
Summer is always about packing in as much as possible. From sun up to sun down, adventure, fun, food and entertainment abound, and the test is to see how much you can do before fall. This year more than ever, we’re beyond ready to soak up every summer experience we can. Here’s our round up of some of the very best, tried-and-true, don’t-miss experiences to be had in Central Oregon during the sunny summer season.
photo pete alport, models Madison Funtanellas and Avery Snavely
Listen
Some said this would be the summer the music died. COVID-19 took a huge toll on the music and performance scene this spring, and it’s still true that this summer, we will not be lining up to get the perfect spot at Les Schwab Amphitheater for what once looked like a pretty awesome concert season.
But music, it turns out, is way too important to our hearts and souls to stay down long. Many local venues and musicians created music to share digitally throughout the spring, and many are beginning to dip their toes into delivering live music—safely, with social distancing, and adhering to state requirements—this summer.
Here are a few options that were popping up at press time to get you your music fix this summer.
River’s Place Taphouse and Food Cart Yard plans to host regular live music from its small outdoor stage a couple of times a week.
The Tower Theatre has considered many creative options, including a drive-up movie night or a local musician’s showcase. Watch the website.
Sisters Folk Festival debuted The Bandwagon, a flatbed trailer on which bands play for small socially distanced crowds, while touring neighborhoods. Stay tuned for more events like this.
Volcanic Theatre Pub opened their doors in early June after months of closure, with small events planned throughout the summer.
photo adam mckibben
Surf or Float
Build a surfing wave in the middle of town? Five years ago, Bend Parks and Rec said, sure, why not. Now the Bend Whitewater Park in McKay Park near the Colorado Bridge is the place to be on a hot summer day. The sandy beach or the footbridge are great places to watch the action (mind Parks and Rec guidance for social distancing). Surfers line up to hop on the wave, catching a ride for as long as they are able before splashing out into the current.
Maybe you’re one of those surfers—in that case, bring your board, your wetsuit, your patienceand your courage and get in line. For just a taste of the whitewater, rent or buy a floatie, follow the rules of the river and float your way from the Old Mill District to downtown. The mellower rolling rapid for floating courses right by the wave park, giving you a close-up view of the surfers of Bend.
photo austin white
Camp
A tried and true Oregon tradition, a summer without camping is like a campfire without s’mores. When some campgrounds reopened in late May, outdoor lovers rejoiced. Try these three camping spots for tent, RV or car-top tent camping this season.
Camp Sherman, a mere 45-minutes from Bend, is a reliably peaceful getaway for its old-timey feel and cell-service free airwaves. A series of small campgrounds run by the US Forest Service front the scenic Metolius River. Make reservations in advance and fish and relax under a canopy of trees.
La Pine State Park fronts the Deschutes River under ponderosa and lodgepole pine. Plenty of sites and small crowds make this place popular. Bring your mountain bike and hit one of the nearby trails.
Tumalo State Park is tucked under rimrock along the Deschutes River northwest of town. Plan ahead and score one of seven yurts onsite, or bring a tent or RV.
photo tyler roemer
Fish
Desert rivers were made for trout fishing. Tour these four awesome fishing rivers around Central Oregon and see how many trout you can catch this summer.
The Crooked River winds through a sagebrush desert under stunning rimrock between Prineville Reservoir and Prineville. Stay upstream towards the dam for the best luck at catching this river’s fine desert rainbows.
The Deschutes River is Central Oregon’s main attraction, and offers plenty of places to fish along its banks and in its waters. Choose a spot along Cascade Lakes Highway to try your fly, or head north to the lower Deschutes for lots of action. Between Trout Creek and Maupin you’ll find some big water and even bigger rainbow trout.
The Metolius River winds past Camp Sherman and is as beautiful as it is tricky to fish. Here you’ll find bull trout and some rainbow trout, as well as a narrow and brushy river with super clear, cold and flat water. The trout here are really great at hiding from you, so if you catch one, your bragging rights are well-earned.
The Fall River is one of the lesser known in the area, though it boasts a fish hatchery that makes its rainbow trout count plentiful. There are plenty of quiet, lovely places to cast your line here, under giant ponderosa pines.
Visit Central Oregon/Steve Heinrichs
Tour
Sometimes you just want to let someone else show you the sights and thrills. If that’s the case, there are plenty of tour operators ready to take the wheel and show off what Central Oregon has to offer.
Guides with Bend’s Wanderlust Tours offer guided hiking trips or can take you on the water somewhere new. Check out the Brews & Views canoe tour, where a naturalist will show you around a pristine mountain lake and you’ll get to sample brews from Cascade Lakes Brewing Company.
For a high desert rambling experience, book an ATV tour with Bend’s Outriders Northwest. Tour operators will guide as you drive through old lava flows and show you where to spot wildlife near Bend, Sunriver and the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
For a tour with less adrenaline, The Bend Tour Company offers walking or open-air electric car tours of downtown and the Old Mill District, with guides full of knowledge about the city’s history, arts and culture—even a local will learn a thing or two they didn’t know before.
Also in town, several companies offer tours of the local brewery scene, including Cyclepub, which offers the fun experience of pedaling through town from one tasting to another.
photo alex jordan
Hike
For a short but steep hikewith a payoff of amazing 360-degree views of the Cascade Range, make the climb up Black Butte. Find the trailhead west of Sisters and power up the 1.9-mile trek to the summit, gaining 1,600 feet of elevation along the way. It’s not an easy hike, but it’s worth it. Travel through ponderosa pine and wildflowers and peer down to the golf courses of Black Butte Ranch below as you get higher, eventually arriving near the base of a fire lookout actively used today. Complete the full loop for a 3.6 mile hike.
For a hike on a trail along rushing waters, follow Century Drive out of town to the Meadow Camp picnic area, which is a good starting point for the Upper Deschutes River Trail. Take the full 8.5 mile trail to Benham Falls, or opt for just a section from Meadow Camp to Lava Island, Lava Island to Dillon Falls or Dillon Falls to Benham Falls for shorter hikes. All the options have lots of shade and parallel the river.
For great views within Bend, follow the road or trail that spirals around Pilot Butte. At the top, informational signs point out the mountains of the Cascade Range and all of Bend can be seen in the foreground. To the east, see the Paulinas and the Ochocos. Take a break on a bench and enjoy the breeze before heading back down to complete the 1.8 mile out-and-back hike.
photo tyler roemer
Ride
There’s a reason Bend is often named among the best mountain biking cities in the country, and hitting the trail should be a must on the summer to-do list. Grab a helmet, dust off your bike or pick up a rental and find a new trail to explore.
Set out on an all-day adventure riding from Paulina Peak down the Newberry Crater Rim Trail, through lava flows and thick forest. Or head out to Smith Rock State Park to power over hard-packed clay and sand and among towering rock formations.
Stay tame with a relatively flat trek along the Deschutes River Trail as it winds south out of Bend, or ride into the Phil’s Trail network, southwest of town, for endless combinations of riding on hundreds of miles of trails.
Go big with downhill biking at Mt. Bachelor Ski Area, where lifts will drop you at the top of about a dozen miles of trails to explore, including the resort’s new advanced jump line trail, Redline, a flowy track full of berm jumps, rollers and table tops under the Red Chair lift.
photo nate wyeth
Splash
When it’s hot it’s good and when it’s cold it’s…good. What’s summer without a dip in a chilly alpine lake? These five lakes are the best for swimming.
Elk Lake’s South Beach is a perennial Bend favorite, which means it can also be busy. Get there early and stake your claim on a little piece of beachfront paradise, Central Oregon style. The flatwater means paddling as well as swimming is easy here.
Suttle Lake’s beach hugs the lake all around its eastern end, offering a view down the length of this oblong-shaped body of water. Wade out quite a ways before it gets deep, or kick your inner tube out a little deeper.
South Twin Lake is great for kids. It’s shallow, warm and small. Rent a pedal boat and some life jackets and keep your offspring entertained and happy. Grab a burger at the restaurant after.
Scout Lake is another hidden gem that’s great for families. Also small and shallow, the kids can practically walk the whole thing later in the summer when the water gets low. Set them loose with a float ring and relax on shore.
Lake Billy Chinook holds the biggest water around, so here’s where you go to jump in and dive deep. This lake is known for motor boating, boat houses and leaping in for the biggest splash of the day.
Sip
Drinking craft beverages outdoors in Bend is a well-honed artform, and not all patios are created equal. Here are some of our favorite places for grabbing a drink outside.
West Bend’s GoodLife Brewing is tucked away in a small development off Fourteenth Street, but behind the tall fence is a huge yard, with ample room for food trucks, a fire pit with adirondack chairs, lawn games and space for spreading out with friends, kids, dogs and of course, with a good beer in your hand.
Enjoy beers and great food at 10 Barrel Brewing Co., a modestly-sized brewery on Galveston Avenue. In the summer, bartenders flip back and forth between serving the indoor bar and open bar window outside.
Bring your own blanket or plan to snag a picnic table on the lawn at Crux Fermentation Project, where you can sample a variety of brews, Crux cider or the latest barrel-aged varieties on tap. Order from the food trucks alongside the lawn, or from Crux’s own menu of sandwiches, pizza, salads or a pretzel.
Monkless Brewing offers tasty Belgian beer flights or specialty cocktails with a fun view. Grab a spot on the back patio, up above the Deschutes River near the Box Factory and Old Mill District. Peer over the balcony to see tubers prepare to splash down the rapids and enjoy tasty eats like bratwurst or a schnitzel sando.
Downtown’s Bend Brewing Co. pops up a tent outside in the summer for serving a few of their signature brews, or you can stop inside for the full selection. Claim a picnic table on the lawn for a big group, park yourself at the high top open seating along the building’s outside wall or be seated on the back patio for full restaurant service.
When Tyler and Adrianne Baumann started making cider in 2015, the husband-and-wife team was admittedly nervous about public reaction. After all, neither had made cider before—Tyler’s only industry experience came as a bartender—and both were intimidated by big-name competitors throughout the Pacific Northwest.
In a way, though, Adrianne Baumann said that outsider mindset gave them free rein to take a different approach. “We were looking at the cider market with a fresh perspective,” she said. “We didn’t go to school for this or come from a long line of brewers. We’re just looking at it with fresh eyes and creating something new.”
Clearly, the Baumanns are onto something. In August 2019, the co-owners of Legend Cider Company opened a taproom in La Pine—beating a brewery to the city, a rare occurrence in beer-crazy Central Oregon—and have since earned a loyal following for their tap list of balanced, yet fruity flavors.
Adrianne believes that acclaim reflects the cidery’s continued desire to do things differently. For instance: Legend uses beer yeast, rather than cider yeast, to create more complex flavors. “People can kind of pick up on it,” she said. “It has that more mellow finish.”
Legend also abstains from artificial sweeteners, flavors, or fruit concentrate—using only 100 percent fruit juice in a move that Adrianne said creates a cleaner, crisper, juicier finish. “A lot of people are surprised when they try our cider,” she said. “They take their first sip and say, ‘This tastes like juice.’ And that’s because it is juice.”
Those flavors show up in Legend’s lineup of fruit-forward beverages—like the PCT (Pineapple, Coconut, and Tiki) Punch, a tropical, piña colada-like cider, and the Columbia Gorge Grape cider. “That’s like a grape juice box, but all grown-up, and with all-natural ingredients,” Adrianne said. “People get the real grape taste and are like, ‘This is really good!’”
Legend Cider Company | 52670 US-97, La Pine | Legendcider.com
Bend’s artistic heft got weightier this year with the addition of John Bell to the community. The internationally renowned concept artist brings decades of experience in the movie industry, television, video games and advertising.
A chance encounter with a former colleague from DreamWorks eventually led him to leave his home in the Bay Area and relocate to Bend. “Last summer I was on LinkedIn and saw that she was working at Bend Studio,” he recalled. “I dropped her a line, asking if the studio was looking for concept artists.” She responded the next day, and by January, Bell was working at the Bend-based video game developer, a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment America.
Bell created concept art and storyboards for blockbuster movies like Jurassic Park, Star Trek IV, Back to the Future II, ANTZ and Oscar-winning Revenant, and for the likes of filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. His body of work represents a prodigious cross section of Americana that spans a quarter century, including images of the Grinch, Starship Trooper and the hover boards from Back to the Future II, Fat Tire beer labels, Nike Airwalk shoes and logos for Hammer Motorcycles. He and other team members received the top award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and an Oscar nomination for special effects in Back to the Future II.
As a concept artist at Bend Studio, he’s part of a team that brings new video games to players worldwide. “I enjoy what I’m doing, but in my spare time, I like to focus more on my personal art,” he said. He hopes to stay at Bend Studio “as long as they’ll have me,” while building a portfolio of paintings in his spare time.
Photoshop in a painter’s shop?
Bell’s style of painting draws from his years as a concept artist while revealing a softer, more abstract side. Of his paintings, he said the older forms were more intricate and detailed, the newer ones more simplified.
The current pieces explore shape, texture and color with a mid-century modern aesthetic. The new paintings invite viewers into a landscape populated by cactus- and human-like shapes and orbs, or at least that’s the impression of some people. Others, including Bell, see car shapes and bones. “I leave it up to people to interpret their meaning,” he said.
Bell starts with a thumbnail sketch of forms within a square and then scans the drawing into a computer to begin color mockups on Photoshop. Once he’s satisfied with the color mockup, he transfers it onto a wood panel of either mahogany or birch by hand painting the surface with oil paint. “The natural wood as a background has a very graphic quality,” he said.
The individual pieces in the series he started last year, “Planet Life,” were small—10-by-10 inches—but have gotten larger over time. He has a 20-by-20-inch work on his easel now and has finished a line drawing for a 55-by-20-inch rectangular piece in the same series.
He draws inspiration from painters Ed Mell of Phoenix and the late Brazilian, Roberto Burle Marx. After reading a book about Mell’s art, Bell wrote him a fan letter. “Ed Mell calls me, and we talked for hours,” Bell recalled. According to both artists, they became friends, and Mell eventually invited Bell to send paintings to his gallery for a group show this past November.
“John has a very impressive resume, and a good design sense,” Mell said. “His pieces have a mid-century modern influence that caught on with the crowd. We sold all of them.” As a testament to his friend’s future in fine arts, he’s added some of Bell’s work to his own website.
A resident of Central Oregon for only a short while, Bell has yet to show his work in galleries or other exhibit venues. But given his reputation in the art world, we can expect to see more of his paintings around town. To see his work, go to johnbell.studio.
Each summer, many Central Oregonians plant and tend to butterfly gardens to attract beautiful butterflies to their yards. Yet there’s another backyard insect that, while often misunderstood, also can provide countless hours of entertainment in addition to helping pollinate plants.
These are the bees, which often receive a bad rap, because they can sting. But Oregon State University Assistant Professor Andony Melathopoulos, a bee pollination expert, said most bees are not at all aggressive. And, he said bees could really use a helping hand from backyard gardeners to help them survive.
Bee hotels lend themselves to design elements like these circular shapes layered with color and texture, adding decor to your home exterior or other outdoor structure.photo the online Garden Planner, GrowVeg.com
One way everyday gardeners can do their part is to create a hotel—that is, a bee hotel.
“We have at least 900 bee species in the Pacific Northwest, with about 500 species native to Oregon,” said Melathopoulos. “Honeybees, which live in hives, are just one species. But 90 percent of bees live in hotels, which can be structures as simple as hollowed out reeds, or holes in the ground or an old log.”
These bee hotel spaces are typically found in nature, but as mankind encroaches and builds on more wild lands, bees are being displaced. Many are exposed to viruses and parasites that can wipe out whole bee populations.
Melathopoulos says we need to care about the fate of bees, because all bees are vital as pollinators—one out of every three pieces of food we eat is dependent on these pollinators.
Building a bee hotel is simple and can be as easy as using scrap wood or getting some old branches and drilling hotels in them. “The reason the bees need little holes or ‘rooms,’ is because each egg the female lays will be put into a separate cavity and then sealed with mud, resin or leaves, depending on the type of bee,” explained Melathopoulos, who said the mother bee will die off before she sees her offspring. “The bee will emerge from the hotel room or this cocoon in about a month, and the cycle starts all over again. People will be astounded when they slow down and pay attention to these bees in their hotels.”
Bees aren’t too picky, and all sorts of different materials can be used to make a bee hotel. Try straw, hay, dead woods, dry sticks, bricks, roof tiles, clay drainage tubes, upside down plant pots and more.
In one bee hotel, backyard gardeners may find several varieties of bee species. The bees all get along, taking rooms that are vacant and going about their business. Melathopoulos does caution that after the bees hatch or emerge from their rooms, you may want to clean the rooms or start new hotel rooms because viruses and parasites left behind in the rooms might endanger the next generation of bees.
Worried about inviting bees to share your backyard? Don’t be, Melathopoulos said. He points to several examples of bee hotels on the Oregon State University campus, and stresses the bees are very docile and don’t swarm or sting visitors to campus.
Bee populations have been declining globally. The United Nations National Assembly declared May 20 as World Bee Day to raise awareness of how important bees are for the world’s food supply. By its estimation, bees and other pollinating insects have a global economic value of about $150 billion.
Interestingly, scientists have found the recent world-wide shutdown because of COVID-19 has resulted in a beneficial environmental impact for bees, including a reduction in air pollution and degradation on natural bee hotels and habitat. As the world begins opening up, bee conservationists, like Melathopoulos, say helping our bees survive will be critical.
Being a green thumb in the garden used to mean possessing a talent for cultivating plants, built through experience or natural aptitude. But in tech-savvy 2020, anyone can become a modern green thumb, aided by a variety of gadgets, apps and electronics to support your outdoor plots.
Worried you might forget to cover your plants during a late-season Central Oregon frost? There’s an app to prevent that. Not sure if your plants are being appropriately watered during a rainy summer in Bend? There’s a tool that can help you check. Want to know whether it was a deer or a rock chuck scurrying through the yard last night? There’s a garden camera for that.
While nothing can decisively replace your intuition or trusty copy of Farmers’ Almanac, there are dozens of high-tech gardening tools out there to help. Here are few we recommend for fine-tuning your green thumb.
PictureThis
Plant identification apps
While you can probably remember the names of most of the plants you have in your garden, plant identification smartphone apps like PictureThis and PlantSnap also can do this with a quick photograph. The apps can identify a beautiful flower you see in a neighbor’s yard, a plant at the park or foliage you see on an out of town vacation. And the apps are good for more than telling you the name of greenery. Snap photos of brown, dry or diseased leaves and the app automatically identifies what the problem is. Not sure how to care for some of your plant’s unique needs? Learn care tips, network with horticulture specialists and build your own collection of plants within the app.
PlantSnap
Eyes on the garden
While there’s no shortage of home security camera options out there today, garden-specific cameras can offer tools like night-vision to spy overnight visitors, activity alerts and time-lapse video to literally watch the garden grow. When choosing the camera that’s right for you, consider the best spot to position it—likely somewhere with a wide view of the garden—and then consider whether a camera that runs on WiFi or cellular data makes sense for the location. Once your options are narrowed down, pick a camera that fits into your budget and get recording. Most cameras use an app to connect to your phone, so you can view your garden from just about anywhere.
Sensing trouble
Ever wish your plants could just text you and tell you what they need to stay healthy? Well they can, sort of. Insert a smart plant sensor into the soil near a plant you want to hear from, and soon you’ll be getting digital alerts on your phone with suggestions about sunlight amounts, water moisture and more. For inside, a Parrot Pot has the same technology tucked under the soil, to help busy people with indoor plants.
Netatmo
Alert: Frost on the way
After a particularly balmy spring week in the high desert, frosty winter mornings might seem a distant memory. But just like that, you’re caught off guard by a sudden chilly night and your newly sprouted garden is in danger of being ruined—it happens to the best of us. But with the ColdSnap! app, users can receive alerts for upcoming temperature drops, so you’re never surprised and can protect your plants from the elements before the frost settles in. For more weather insights, a smart weather station like Netatmo can provide indoor and outdoor weather insights, including temperatures, humidity, air quality and barometric pressure.
Justin Chu was raised in a Bend restaurant family, but owning his own Central Oregon dining establishment wasn’t always in the plan. The owner of NorthWest Crossing’s 2-year-old poke restaurant Poke Row, Chu was born in Bend and graduated from Mountain View High School. His mother, Lilian Chu, co-owns downtown Bend’s renowned 5 Fusion & Sushi Bar, and she had another local Asian restaurant many years ago.
But Justin had gone his own way, settling in Los Angeles after college and launching his own company, an outdoor advertising firm called OutWerks. Still, perhaps the restaurant business was always waiting for Chu, even if he didn’t know he was waiting for it. “Poke Row was never planned,” he said. “It just came together as an opportunity.”
Owner Justin Chu
While the NorthWest Crossing residential and retail building Fremont Row was under construction three years ago, the developers approached Lilian Chu about opening a second 5 Fusion in the signature restaurant space. At the same time, Justin was considering a move back to Bend from Southern California. He and his wife had young twins, and were looking to be closer to his parents, in a more family-friendly community than Los Angeles.
Lilian wasn’t interested in a second 5 Fusion, but the query got the wheels turning for the Chu family. “We’d traveled to Hawaii a lot and had been introduced to true authentic poke,” recalled Justin. Poke means “to slice” in Hawaiian, and began hundreds of years ago as fishermen’s simple snack—take the cut-offs from your catch, season them, pop ‘em in your mouth. Modern poke is diced raw fish, usually ahi, sometimes octopus, flavored with a variety of sauces, tossed with toppings, sometimes served with rice.
On the Hawaiian islands, poke is easy to find. The average deli or grocery store will typically have several fresh varieties on hand. It was just a matter of time until the food trend hit the mainland. “Poke restaurants were starting to turn up in Los Angeles right before we moved back to Oregon. My wife and I love sushi, but going out for a full sushi meal can be an expensive prospect,” Chu said. “Poke is basically deconstructed sushi. It’s healthy and fresh, and gives you that sushi fix without the $100 price tag.”
Even though Poke Row and 5 Fusion are separate entities, Poke Row benefited greatly from the 5 Fusion team’s expertise. Chef Joe Kim and his cohorts masterminded the sauces, ingredients and recipes for Poke Row. By the time the business opened in August 2018 in a “small, simple space” in Fremont Row, the poke dishes were tried and true.
The menu allows for creativity, with the build-your-own-bowl as the most popular option. “We also offer signature bowls, created by the chefs.” Chu’s favorite of the signature bowls is the Tyler Bowl—spicy tuna, salmon, tuna, cucumber, edamame, carrots, mango, sweet onions, sesame soy, spicy mayo, seaweed salad, tobiko, ginger, furikake, fried onion and avocado. “It’s a nice balance of all the ingredients,” he said. Bowls come with greens, rice or both.
Hawaiian shave ice
The menu also offers miso soup, and, for dessert, the delicious treat of Hawaiian shave ice—soft serve ice cream topped with shaved ice and your choice of flavored syrup, including pineapple and coconut. Beer, wine, sake and kombucha are available in the casual space, which has a few tables inside and out, but does mainly take-out.
Two years into his own restaurant adventure, Chu has faced no shortage of challenges, from juggling life with twin 4-year-olds, continuing to run his advertising business and navigating the COVID-19 complications. “We stayed open for take-out through the spring,” he said. “I’m so appreciative of our customers. The great feedback they give us and their repeat business are the biggest rewards so far of Poke Row.”
“We’re considering a second location down the road,” Chu said. “My simple hope is to continue to serve the community.”
Craft: to make or manufacture with skill and careful attention to detail. When Deschutes Brewery launched in Bend over thirty years ago, it set a precedent for the more than thirty craft breweries that now reside in Central Oregon. But in recent years, distilleries have popped up across Bend and northern Deschutes County. From the abundance of western juniper to copious Cascade mountain water, the region possesses great characteristics for spirit distillation.
This spring, with many bars and restaurants closed, craft cocktail enthusiasts tapped into their inner mixologists, concocting at-home happy hour libations and late-night aperitifs. Liquor stores and distilleries offered curbside pickup, and in the case of Crater Lake Spirits, home drop-off delivery services. Many facilities produced hand sanitizer, so it’s not uncommon to receive a complimentary two-ounce bottle of sanitizing solution with a liquor purchase these days.
Whatever summer brings, we can continue to hone our at-home skills to prefect our favorite craft drink. Here are a few recipes to get you started.
Cascade Street Distillery
Siblings Katie and Nick Beasley started Cascade Street Distillery in 2015 in Sisters. The company, which is now owned by Wild Roots Spirits, makes award-winning products derived from pristine local ingredients such as Sisters water, Central Oregon juniper berries, high desert sage and ponderosa pine pods. The South Sister Gin is used for a cocktail that pays homage to Buck Norris, the 10-year-old buck infamous for his residence in Bend and Central Oregon over the years. What some may know as a Tom Collins is served at their downtown Sisters tasting room on Cascade Avenue.
Crater Lake Spirits
Crater Lake Spirits is a distilling pioneer of Bend. They launched in 1996 and relocated production to their now twenty-four-acre farm in Tumalo. There, find them roasting their own hatch chiles sourced from a single farm in New Mexico, to infuse their spicy Hatch Chile Vodka. Year-round, they source juniper berries from the Central Oregon high desert and Cascade mountain water for gin. Lava rock is used to filter all of their spirits, including the Hazelnut Espresso vodka made using Sisters Coffee (which is now available on most Alaska Airlines flights). Try this refreshing summertime cocktail.
New Basin Distilling Company
On a chilly evening in 2012, Rick Molitor and four of his friends were gathered around a campfire with their drink of choice: a glass of whiskey. Together, they decided that they should turn their love for the dark liquor into a side hustle. The five Madras natives launched New Basin Distilling Company and bottled their first vodka, gin and whiskey in 2015. Molitor co-owns and operates the business daily, sourcing grains from two of the co-owners who work full-time as farmers. Molitor made New Basin his full-time career in 2017 when the total solar eclipse brought heaps of visitors to Madras. Their Madras Mule is a huge hit amongst whiskey lovers and New Basin’s staff.
Oregon Spirit Distillers
Brad and Kathy Irwin founded Oregon Spirit Distillers in 2009. The brand was launched to distill American whiskey but has since expanded to include the production of gin, vodka and absinthe. During these expansions, they’ve grown their team from two to over twenty full-time employees, distributing products nationwide. Their unassuming distillery just east of downtown Bend offers “full service” spirit tastings, which include distillery tours mini cocktails and an authentic absinthe experience—all of which can be enjoyed on their outdoor patio when the weather permits.
It was a couple weeks before much of Central Oregon would shut down and days before toilet paper would become strangely in-demand. But talks of staying at home were looming, and Pastor Morgan Schmidt of First Presbyterian in Bend was brainstorming with other pastors about how to stay connected while staying home.
“We were discussing, how do we stay in touch, stay connected and keep caring for our community in the midst of whatever this was going to turn into,” Schmidt said.
At 35 and a female, Schmidt isn’t your typical pastor—she runs the teen group at First Presbyterian and hosts Tap, a Sunday evening church service with beer and kombucha. So it’s only fitting that Schmidt had a modern idea for staying connected during the pandemic—a Facebook group. It would be a digital bulletin board where people could seek out items and information, and others could reply and provide what was needed.
Within the first six hours after Schmidt created the group, named “Pandemic Partners-Bend,” it had grown to 3,000 members. “All I did was invite my friends, and they invited their friends,” she said. “A lot of it was kind of the timing of people who were panicking a little bit, and facing the unknown.”
Pastor Morgan Schmidt
The group became wildly popular overnight, with dozens of posts from residents seeking information, food and supplies and others looking to help. Someone nervous to leave the house was seeking lemons and honey. Another was offering up their unused meal kit. There were lots of trips to The Giving Plate, offers to go grocery shopping, and porch pickups and drop-offs of necessities. “The way the community responded was incredibly humbling,” Schmidt said.
The group grew to more than 11,000. Schmidt connected with local nonprofits to help ensure residents were finding the best resources, and brought on about fifteen other people to help moderate the conversations, no small task. A phone helpline was launched to take requests from people who weren’t able to use Facebook.
Soon, Schmidt was helping people in other communities start their own Pandemic Partners groups, with dozens of new chapters launching.
She watched as community members connected with people they may never have otherwise. “Someone from Awbrey Butte was taking propane to someone camping off the grid in China Hat,” Schmidt said. “Neighbors are seeing each other in different ways, as human beings.”
As the impacts of the pandemic lessen, Schmidt isn’t sure what the future of the group holds, but she hopes the kindness practiced will continue in the community. “There will only be a new normal, and we get to have a part in writing that story and deciding what the new normal looks like,” Schmidt said. “I think probably the energy will change, but I think there is always room for kindness.”
Warnings everywhere to wash hands. Fever monitoring. Quarantine. Events cancelled, theaters closed and a massive push for a vaccine. It may sound like the stuff of 2020, but it played out across America before, and not all that long ago. 1952 was the peak of the country’s polio epidemic, which resulted in decades of crippling and deaths for thousands.
Like coronavirus, the first major outbreak of polio in the U.S. struck in New York, in 1916. The scourge spread west, gripping the country with fear along its trajectory. Polio didn’t spare its wrath in Central Oregon, a small, tight-knit timber town with a fraction of the population it has today.
“We were like the entire country,” said Kelly Cannon-Miller, executive director of the Deschutes County Historical Society. “From 1915 to 1955, every summer was polio season. Every summer, parents were afraid. Boomers now in their 70s and 80s remember their parents checking them for fever, intestinal discomfort, any sign that their arm, leg or neck was not moving right.”
During polio season, health officials employed many of the same tactics as those used to flatten the curve of COVID-19. The two viruses also share the insidiousness of ability to spread by people who have no symptoms of the illness, but who carry and transmit it.
Panic around polio began in the late 1940s, as outbreaks in the United States grew, mainly targeting children, although perhaps the disease’s most famous victim was an adult, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The epidemic reached a crescendo in 1952, when about 58,000 contracted the disease and more than 3,000 died.
The race for a vaccine was on, led by the March of Dimes, which recruited millions of volunteers who collected dimes in cans and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the cause. By 1954, with the grassroots movement funding the research of Dr. Jonas Salk, nearly two million school children participated in the vaccine’s field trial. Starting on April 26 of that year in Virginia, it was the largest medical experiment in history.
Polio plays out in Bend
Across the country a few weeks later, George Ray was celebrating Father’s Day in Bend with his wife, Shirley, and their 2-year-old daughter, Myrna. George, 27, had been promoted to a sales job at one of Bend’s major timber firms, Leonard Lundgren Lumber Company. He’d worked his way up from jobs in the woods and on the “green chain,” pulling boards out of the sawmill, and now had the chance to leverage his degree from Oregon State University.
The highly infectious virus polio could paralyze the lungs as well as the limbs. The iron lung, invented in the 1920s, was a mechanical respirator that helped polio sufferers to breath. Here, George Ray reclines in an iron lung in Portland in 1954.
Shirley told him to treat himself to some fishing with a buddy that Father’s Day, and that night they went to the drive-in to catch The Moon Is Blue, starring William Holden. The next day, George told Shirley he was feeling achy. By Tuesday it was worse. By Wednesday he was in St. Charles Hospital and quickly transferred to Portland, where doctors were more experienced in treating polio. Paralysis struck his legs, arms and respiratory system. Doctors slid him on a cot into an “iron lung,” a long metal tank respirator, the precursor of the modern ventilator.
By fall, Ray was able to breathe on his own and return to Bend. Undaunted by his paralyzed legs and left arm, he returned to work. His new sales job was done mostly by phone and he had enough strength in his right arm to use one. He couldn’t push himself in his wheelchair, but after reading a magazine article about the latest electric model, he eventually found one, said his daughter, Myrna Ray Klupenger, who now lives in Florence, Oregon.
George Ray at a family gathering in 1981, seven years before his death at the age of 61 from cancer.
Polio may have stolen her father’s mobility, but not his entrepreneurial skills or the dedication of friends—making possible his civic involvement and philanthropy which reverberates through the community to this day. One of those friends was Norbert “Blackie” Schaedler, a mechanic at the Lundgren mill.
“He designed Dad’s little red car,” Klupenger said. The electric, three-wheeled vehicle, inspired by a golf cart, was level to the curb so Ray could roll his wheelchair onto it. The steering wheel was like a boat tiller which he could operate single-handedly.
“It was amazing,” Klupenger said. “It was completely open to the weather—Mom would bundle him up. It had a strap kind of seat belt and he went off to work on his own. There was a seat in back for me and Mom. People all over town knew him and that little red car and he went to all the football, basketball and sporting events.”
Schaedler also devised a lift with straps that could carry his friend from his wheelchair to the family station wagon, his bed and bath. Ray became an independent lumber broker and partnered with another friend from the mill in opening a lumber yard. Shirley worked full time, managing The Pine Tavern restaurant, co-founded by her aunt, Maren Gribskov. “They decided to live on one income and save the rest, and Dad liked the stock market,” Klupenger said. “They were wise investors and not spendthrift.”
The Rays supported St. Charles Hospital and Shirley organized local fundraisers for the March of Dimes. After George died of pancreatic cancer in 1988 at age 61, Shirley continued supporting local nonprofits including the Central Oregon Community College Foundation, Cascade Culinary Institute and OSU-Cascades before she died in 2018 at age 91.
“Shirley Ray’s philanthropy is becoming legendary now, but they were very quiet about it,” said Cannon-Miller.
Cannon-Miller reflected on the era before vaccines eradicated so many diseases. “We have lost our use and practice of quarantine as a first line of defense,” she said. “Modern medicine has made that largely unnecessary for humans for several decades now. It’s harder for us to accept and understand what’s happening because we’re out of practice. We haven’t had to do this for a very, very, very long time.”
You remember them. The ponies that would wait anchored at the door of the grocery store to delight children. A spare quarter brought a land of imagination, a few moments locked in an unwinnable race with the neighboring child and pony. These halcyon throwbacks of childhood have all but disappeared, but long forgotten moments have a way of bubbling back to the surface in the most unexpected ways.
Last fall, local artist Shelli Walters was asked to use her beautiful collage talents to re-imagine one of those mechanical ponies, pulled from storage and unused for decades. Walters is the only artist from Central Oregon chosen to join a team from across the country to participate in the Pony Up Quarter Horse Project. When complete, a collection of thirty “quarter horses” will travel throughout the United States before they are auctioned as pieces of art. Proceeds from the project will support a nonprofit called Wade’s House, which provides a peaceful sanctuary on the Oregon Coast for free to grieving families who have lost children.
Walters had an instant connection to the project. Aside from a lifelong love of horses and nature, her family knows the loss of children. Two of her older sisters tragically passed away young. For Walters, there was no question about getting involved.
When her pony arrived, it was completely white, a blank slate waiting for a new story. The Grateful Dead song “Cassidy” came to Walters’ mind right away. Her older sister Rhonda was a huge fan, so the song’s musings about the cycle of life seemed to fit. The notion of how when something ends, something else begins, resonated. Walters noticed the copyright date on the bottom of the horse was the same year her sister was born, and on a whim, she added up the individual digits of the patent number to find that sum equaled the age Rhonda was when she had died.
“It felt like an invitation from the universe to play. I would layer thoughts, memories, experiences and part of myself in this piece to create something new while honoring my sisters,” Walters said.
Initially challenged by Cassidy’s plastic saddle, an unwanted tether to a former life, Walters decided to build up the pony’s body with paper mache. “I wondered how I could free her from this encumbrance,” Walters said. “I thought about how we must move on from the trappings of our past in order to find our true paths. How could Cassidy start fresh? The smooth new lines created by the paper mache set her out on her new life with a robust body to hold a big heart and an even bigger spirit.”
From that point on, Walters said, “working with Cassidy was like butter. The project flowed that easily.” Walters thought about all the children who had climbed on Cassidy’s back. All the adventures the pony had through those young and free imaginations. The new coat of Cassidy would be a storybook of these adventures—wild places to explore in the mind through mountains, rivers and untamed landscapes.
ìThe smooth new lines created by the paper mache set her out on her new life with a robust body to hold a big heart and an even bigger spirit.î
Walters describes her artistic process as getting into a flow state where she is no longer thinking, she is just doing. As she layers paint, torn pieces of sheet music, painted paper, handwriting and scraps of topographical map, organic shapes begin to form. After a while, Walters could clearly see the shape of a bird in flight amongst the layers of collage. This fit. The theme of being wild and free kept coming up, inspiring the addition of a whimsical bird perched on Cassidy’s back. Both animals are rooted in earthy browns and rusts, creamy whites and natural grays and blues. The color palette feels like an abstract nod to the patchy look of a painted pony.
Walters is exuberant about the final product. “I feel honored to have been given the delightful opportunity to create a new life for Cassidy,” she said. “I wanted to set her free, back into nature with a big heart and a joyful spirit. I love how the paper mache gave her a bold new shape and the arrival of her feathered friend means that she will never be alone.”
Cassidy, along with Walters’ other works of art, give the viewer an opportunity to look deeply into the image of a landscape or animal. Each person sees something a little different, drawing from their own memories and experiences. As her website describes, Walters’ pieces come from moments when she has been “awake with nature and tapped into its incredible spiritual energy and infinite beauty.”
To enjoy more of Walters’ art, stop by Tumalo Art Company and visit her online at shelliwaltersstudio.com.
To learn more about Wade’s House, see silverherongallery.com/programs.wadeshouse.cfm
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many people are staying close to home. Some might be feeling restless and wanting a sense of change. One thing Central Oregon has is unique rental homes or resorts people can try out for a close-to-home staycation. If you’re dreaming of getting out of the house and trying something different, here are four unique nightly rentals worth checking out.
DOME HOUSE
A unique experience that people can delight in is the dome house in Bend right off of Century Drive. It provides guests two bedrooms, one bathroom and a sofa bed. The house is near the Deschutes River Trail and the Old Mill, so guests can either go on a hike, bike, shop, eat and more. Noted for being peaceful since it sits on a private lot surrounded by trees. Denise Gorman, one of the hosts, highlighted the windows of the dome. “The view takes on a spherical aspect. The fact that it looks like it’s about to roll off the cliff is pretty cool also,” Gorman said. One thing that is cool about the dome is that the old entrance is underneath the dome. Guests have access to wifi, television, a kitchen, a fireplace and patio seating. Find more information here.
THE CAMP
Right in the heart of Bend’s midtown is a place where people can rent out vintage trailers for the night. Stay in a vintage trailer that suits your taste while enjoying the magnificent sight of Mount Bachelor and the Three Sisters. Owner Lucas Nelson, started The Camp in Bend after noticing the small selection of experiential lodging here. “We believed the people traveling to Bend would embrace it. We were right, they love it,” Nelson said. Guests can rent out vintage trailers which each have their own theme. Some features are beds, kitchens, TV’s, bathrooms and more. Guests can also reserve RV Pads which is when people can bring their own RV. Guests also have access to tables, BBQ grills and a fire pit. If people do not want to stay in the park for the day or night, take part in the activities or night life that Bend provides. Nelson said that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are buying RVs in an effort to travel local and have their own lodging unit. “The Camp has been super busy since the pandemic, because it provides separate and safe spaces where people don’t have to share,” Nelson said. For more information go to thecampbend.com.
THE SILVER BETTY
Hop into a 2017 Airstream Sport travel trailer named “The Silver Betty” and let your sense of adventure kick in. The trailer is a perfect opportunity for guests to travel and experience the beauty and many wonders of Oregon. Maximum number of guests are four. Prices start at $150 a night and additional prices if renters want to add any services that are optional, like bikes, paddle boards or a BBQ with a cooler. The Silver Betty comes with a fully stocked kitchen, a bathroom, bedding and entertainment. Find more information at bendairstreamadventures.com.
CRESCENT LAKE YURTS
Located next to Crescent Lake, the campground provides a unique experience with camping in yurts. Yurts are equipped with a bunk bed, futon, table, chairs and a wood stove. Be sure when renting a yurt to bring your own bedding, lighting (no electricity, here!) and food for the evening. In addition to the beautiful Crescent Lake, the area is forested and offers views of the Cascade Mountain Range and chances to spot deer, birds and fish. Plan a trip and have fun fishing, hiking, boating, swimming or biking. For those that want to explore, take off on some of the hundreds of miles of national forest trails in the area. Find more information at recreation.gov.
For twins Julie Hakala and Janet Powers, something just felt right about starting a business together after twenty-five years of living in different places. The duo had been working together from afar, both selling rustic barnwood for a Colorado company—Hakala out of a showroom in Tumalo and Powers back in the mountains of Colorado. Aspiring to do something different, the twins dreamed up their new venture, a company specializing in custom, interior accent walls made of finished woods and metal. “We wanted to do something local and bring something new to market,” Hakala said. After Powers made the move from Colorado to Bend last summer, they got to work in her garage dreaming up the products for accent walls at their new company, blended. “After months of experimenting, we have fifteen custom colors of wood planks and tiles with five colors of metal inserts and planks to create endless possibilities for custom designs,” Powers said.
Blended products are smooth, clean, custom-stained woods in colors like “Mt. Bachelor Frost’’ and “Deschutes River,” exclusively meant for inside spaces. The current colors are named after Central Oregon locales and come in a base shade or a metallic finish for a unique, subtle shine. Customers are invited to build their own accent wall in the blended showroom at 9th Street and Wilson Avenue in east Bend. They can play with two-foot planks of wood in a variety of colors, and two sizes of metal planks and inserts in brass, bronze, silver, black or pewter. Each item in the showroom has magnets attached, allowing for mixing and matching on large magnetic, DIY Design Walls. “We want to inspire people to get creative in a fun, comfortable environment,” Hakala said. This spring, the sisters started producing square and rectangle tiles, which also can be configured in a variety of arrangements to build a design. Every step of the blended wood finishing process is completed by the twins in their production facility attached to the showroom.For those who prefer a more rustic look, blended offers rough, naturally-aged wood planks locally sourced and finished off-site. Powers added, “It’s amazing how great the modern woods and metals look combined with the rustic woods. Everything we have in our showroom is meant to work together—that’s how we came up with the name ‘blended.’ Notice the bold letters in our logo spell Bend, as everything is made in Bend and we are proud of that.”
In addition to the hands-on studio, Hakala and Powers are also available for free design consultations, during which they visit a home or business and work with the client to design their dream wall or accent piece. The accent walls range in price from $7-10 per square foot, depending on the materials chosen. “It’s a great way to create art on your wall without a huge commitment,” Powers said. Once a design is selected, the materials are delivered to a customer’s home, or can be picked up from the showroom. Nationwide orders can be placed online and customers from other states can receive free virtual design consultations and free shipping.
Powers and Hakala have enjoyed the opportunity to work together on the new business, and said they’ve applied skills they learned as children, growing up working at their family’s hotel in Colorado. “We’ve really been influenced by our family,” Powers said, explaining that the twins are among five sisters, who all worked together when they were younger. “We learned about hard work, the value of family time, keeping life fun and the importance of making customer service a priority,” Hakala said. One sister, Sarah Lickfett, is selling for blended in the Reno, Nevada, region. The duo also draws inspiration from their faith, and displays this in the showroom with the letters “DV,” meaning Deo Volente, or “God willing,” in Latin.
Since starting blended metal and wood in the fall and opening their showroom in January, the duo said their typical customer base is a mix of architects, designers, builders and DIY-ers. To see a recent install at a location near the showroom, stop by the Luderman Crossing model home by Pahlisch Homes, and then visit Powers and Hakala to try a blend on the DIY design walls. The sisters are excited to grow their business here in Central Oregon and to assist new customers with unique designs of any size and for any budget. With lead times of only one to two weeks, customers can have finished projects by mid-summer.
blended metal and wood | blendedmetalandwood.com | 541-668-4708
As Bend continues its rapid growth and urban development collides with wild land, one neighborhood offers an example of how to do it right. The Tree Farm sits just outside of Bend’s city limits on the west side. Bordered by Shevlin Park and U.S. Forest Service land, the neighborhood is known for its stunning architecture and the kind of view that can stop a person in their tracks.
Bill Miller, of Miller Lumber, purchased the property in 1955. It was one of the first pieces of land to be logged in the area and remains a working tree farm today, although it hasn’t been logged since the 1990s.
“My father was an environmentalist before it was trendy to be an environmentalist,” said Bill’s son Charley Miller. “When he died in 2001, we continued to manage the Tree Farm the way our parents would have.”
Land use planning began in 2014 when the Millers partnered with Brooks Resources and West Bend Property Company. The 500-acre property was limited to fifty two-acre lots.
“Our family’s desire was to cluster the lots,” Miller said. “The idea was that the remainder of the land could be enjoyed by the rest of the community as well.” That’s why the public can still access the Shevlin Park trails and views of the property that the Miller family has loved for decades. “It’s turned out just how we envisioned thanks to the help of our partners.”
The development faced initial opposition by groups like Central Oregon LandWatch during the land use approval process. Concerns arose over safety and destruction over wildfire potential in the area, among other issues. The Bulletin wrote in a February 3, 2016 article that “Central Oregon LandWatch cited potential wildfire hazards and concerns about maintaining wildlife habitat in its prior opposition to the idea.” The neighborhood is also visible on the upper trails of Shevlin Park, a popular walking and biking area that had provided a secluded atmosphere from the city.
photo mike houska
What could have been an ugly battle instead turned into an important conversation about sustainable and ethical future development that is inevitable for Central Oregon.
“It worked out great actually, sitting down with Central Oregon LandWatch,” said Brooks Resources VP of Marketing Romy Mortenson. “We learned what their concerns were, and worked together to make a better plan than what we had originally.”
The Tree Farm was the first neighborhood development in Deschutes County to integrate guidelines from the National Fire Protection Association into the planning before any development took place, setting a precedent for inevitable future development and growth along Central Oregon’s wildland-urban interface.
“There was a huge demand and interest in that kind of a property,” said Linda Schmitz, a principal broker for Brooks Resources and the sales manager for the initial release of properties. “We reached out to the brokerage community and gave tours while the infrastructure phase of the project was still under construction.”
It’s not surprising that the gentle slope of sagebrush, wildflowers, evergreen trees, mountain vistas and Shevlin Park in the backyard drew enough interest to sell out the properties by October 2017.
The properties were initially sold between $370,000 to $907,000. Over the last year, only three homesites re-sold, with an average sales price of $591,250. There are currently eighteen completed homes, twelve under construction, and four designs in review, which all homes must go through to ensure continuity and meet the neighborhood’s guidelines. The 328 remaining acres of the Tree Farm were transferred to Bend Park & Recreation District to expand Shevlin Park in 2018.
Charley Miller now lives on one of the lots in a house designed by Neil Huston that was completed in the summer of 2019. Miller said that his family wanted the neighborhood to have a diversity of architecture, similar to the range of styles in houses in downtown Bend where they grew up. There are guidelines and a review team to ensure continuity, but already there are a range of styles from mid-century to craftsman to lodge.
The location—“you feel out of town, but you’re in town”—along with the park in the backyard and lack of light pollution have made it a great place to live.
Mortenson said that she doesn’t expect much turnover in the neighborhood. Of the eighteen completed homes, none have changed ownership—a sign of a healthy neighborhood and people willing to stake roots in the land.
When John and Heather Cashman launched their furniture and design company over a decade ago, for many years, it was just the two of them at the helm. Over time, their passion for helping clients create beautiful spaces with high quality furnishings grew stronger. Today, Bend Furniture and Design has grown to a team of seven that provides seasoned, personal interior design skills and quality, North American crafted furniture to an ever-growing list of clients.
The success of the business rests upon superior products alongside excellent service, including comprehensive interior design services. While furniture has long been the most visible part of Bend Furniture and Design, design services have always been an integral part of the approach. “Buying furniture is a big decision and a process which requires skill and attention to detail. We work with clients one-on-one to fully envision their spaces,” said Heather. The team uses computer aided design and story boards to help homeowners “see” the rooms of their home, with specific furniture in place. “Clients find these tools incredibly helpful with their decision making,” said John.
The design process begins by meeting with the client. “It is here, we discover their lifestyle, interests, and their vision,” said Heather. A questionnaire helps guide this: are they active; do they have kids or pets; do they love to entertain? Next comes a conceptual process that includes what Bend Furniture and Design likes to call a “story board.” “The story board is an inspiration board, and a study in color, textures and finishes. You can see the exact piece of furniture layered in with imagery of the finishes and fabrics of the space,” said Heather.
Once decisions are made, the client relationship doesn’t end. The furniture is shipped to Bend Furniture and Design’s warehouse, where their own professional delivery team inspects the products, ensuring that each piece will meet clients’ expectations. ‘White Glove Delivery’ and expert assistance placing every piece in its perfect spot is the final step.
“We offer individual service and attention, whether you’re looking for a single piece of furnitureor furnishing an entire home,” said Heather. Between them, the team of seven has decades of home furnishing experience. “We collaborate, as a team along with the client, because the more creative synergy there is, the better the outcome for the client.”
The lovely showroom on Galveston Avenue in Bend features all North American made furniture, including lines from several Oregon manufacturers. “The reward for sourcing this way is lasting quality and environmentally healthier and more sustainable furniture,” said Heather. Over the years, the Cashmans have developed relationships with some of the top furniture manufacturers in the United States, including Copeland, Charleston Forge and American Leather.
While high quality and top-notch service can be equated with expense, the Cashmans say they often hear from clients that they are pleasantly surprised at how affordable Bend Furniture and Design is. “We offer an array of pricing options and along with the advantages of buying local and receiving personalized service, it is an exceptional value,” said John.
Clients continue to seek out the Bend Furniture and Design team for personal, experienced advice when it comes to beautifying their homes. “More than ever, people are reinvesting in their homes,” said John. “They are focused on making their dwelling a comfortable and beautiful place of refuge.”
“We’re interior designers as well as furniture experts,” explained Heather. “Our passion is building lasting relationships and enduring interiors.”
Bend Furniture and Design | 1346 NW Galveston, Bend | bendfurnitureanddesign.com | 541-633-7250
Long before the ski lifts, the wave park and the mountain bike trails, Central Oregon’s rolling grass meadows and forest wilderness were home to cattle ranches. This region, with air fragrant with sage under pure blue skies, is a perfect setting for raising beef.
As we fire up our grills this season, we’ll want to bring local beef goodness, sizzling and juicy, straight to our plates. Take our advice—make a beeline (or go online) to local ranchers who toil year-round to deliver terroir to your palate.
We talked to a few local ranchers and beef purveyors about everything from how their practices affect the quality of their products, to the best cuts for grilling and direct-from-the range cooking tips.
Black Angus in Paulina
Blue Mountain Ranch
Just outside the tiny town of Paulina, where the deer and antelope graze, so do the red and black Angus cows of Sarah and Allen Teskey of Blue Mountain Ranch. Their herd roams about 100,000 acres, feasting on grass meadows in spring and forest wilderness all summer.
At “the Blue,” the Teskeys focus on using regenerative, holistic practices to improve the soil, and grow better grasses, which means superb-tasting beef. A Teskey family favorite is the tenderloin, including the cut-with-a-fork filet mignon. Another is the T-bone, with the bone imparting flavor that cowboys once called “prairie butter.”
Allen and Sarah Teskey on the ranch with their sons
“The best tip I can give for grilling is to not overcook the meat,” said Sarah Teskey. “I understand not everyone likes their steaks medium rare, but it is better to pull the meat off the grill and let it rest a little longer, which will allow it to continue to cook internally while keeping the juices intact, instead of leaving it on the heat. The meat will tend to dry out.”
For a quick and easy dish, her go-to is carne asada, for fajitas, salads and tacos. She marinates their thinly sliced skirt steak with a citrusy sauce, grills it for ten seconds on each side and it’s done.
“The boys (sons, Lucas, 15, and Todd, 12) enjoy the steak, but hands down they love the burger,” she said, adding that grass-fed beef tastes earthier than sweeter, grain-fed beef. “When I eat it, I feel healthy knowing where it comes from and where it was raised,” she said.
On 140 acres in Tumalo, a small herd of cows graze on grass and hay made nutrient-dense by the altitude, cold nights, strong sun and volcanic soil. With nary an ATV, drone, or corralling horse in sight, they live out their days in bucolic calm.
Renee and Brian Bouma
This is a main tenet of 2Sisters Ranch—to raise the full-blooded wagyu cows just as farmers do in Japan, where the breed originated. Low stress promotes wagyu’s off-the-chart marbling and rich flavor which is revered worldwide, said Renee Bouma, who owns the ranch with her family.
The most important thing to remember when grilling wagyu is to preserve that fat content, essential to its taste and tenderness, said Bouma. With the exception of their wagyu hot dogs, exposing their meat directly to flame could melt away that highly prized marbled fat. It’s possible to grill it quickly on high heat, though, turning it frequently, she said.
She suggests using a cast iron pan on the grill or cooking it sous vide (vacuum-sealed in a BPA-free bag in temperature-controlled water), then quickly searing it. “The biggest recommendation, whether it’s on the grill or in cast iron, is attentiveness,” she said. “Set a timer and flip it every thirty seconds to keep the juices in. A one-and-half-inch thick piece should take about eight minutes to be medium rare.”
Then savor the umami, what the Japanese call the fifth taste after sweet, sour, salty and bitter. The explosive, robust savoriness, Bouma said, is the hallmark of her beef, because it is certified, full blooded wagyu—not cross-bred.
Evan Moran has hit on a flavor trifecta: beer, booze and beef. The pharmacist-turned-rancher laces his pasture with local brewery byproducts such as barley and yeast and Bendistillery’s spent grains, giving his cows what he calls a “beer and whiskey finish.”
The sugars of his distinctly Bend concoction amp up the marbling and tenderness of the meat from his sixty cows that also graze on his thirty-acre pasture between Bend and Sisters. His method also matters, Moran said. His “extended finish,” of feeding the grains to the cows over nine months, rather than the standard grain finish of three months, helps the intramuscular fat, the marbling, develop. “You can tell there’s a big difference. I figured out it’s something you can’t really rush,” he said.
Amanda and Evan Moran – photo emily johnson
When it comes to grilling, he takes a simple, straightforward approach that lets the meat speak for itself. He favors a juicy ribeye, coated in extra virgin olive oil, and dredged in coarse ground salt and pepper or a dry rub, preferably one loaded with garlic, and quickly seared. “Meat absolutely has to have salt,” said Moran. “It just brings out the flavor.”
He takes the same approach with burgers, sprinkling a generous layer of salt on each side and letting them rest in that palate-pleasing, natural crystalline mineral for a half hour before setting them on a hot grill.
Available at Pioneer Ranch’s Tumalo store at 64702 Cook Ave., Primal Cuts, West Coast Provisions, Newport Market, Sunriver Country Store, Sunriver Marketplace and pioneerranch.com.
It’s hard to imagine a home more perfectly aligned with a family’s narrative than the Jayson and Megan Bowerman home located on the Deschutes River between the Bend Whitewater Park and Drake Park. The renovated residence blends a historic Craftsman bungalow with a contemporary addition for a home befitting their love of the river and the eclectic neighborhood of “Whiskey Flats” in the heart of Bend.
“I literally grew up in the bottom of a canoe,” said Bowerman, who was raised in Sunriver. “The Deschutes River has been my teacher my entire life, as well as my training grounds when I was a competitive whitewater kayaker as a young man.” As a member of the Bend Paddle Trail Alliance, he helped raise community support and funding to build the whitewater park before its completion in 2015.
Megan and Jayson met while Jayson was living near Tumalo, from which he felt “enslaved to my steering wheel while driving to Bend all the time.” Meg was living only blocks from where they currently reside, and Jayson realized that he had a “deep need” to be back in the heart of the community.
The couple bought the home in 2013, believed to have been built by Bend ski pioneer Nels Skjersaa in 1917. They loved the location and the structure’s historic roots, despite the dilapidated kitchen and the cottage’s small size (1,040 square feet). In 2016, with their first child on the way, they hired longtime friend and home designer, John Jordan, to envision a remodel that would preserve the original house as much as possible, while integrating a new two-story addition.
Jayson Bowerman/photo Jill Rosell
The Challenge Begins
Creating enough space for a growing family would hardly be a straightforward task since the footprint of the dwelling would be tightly constrained by the small lot size and a forty-foot riparian setback from the river’s steep, diagonal bank, as required by Bend city code.
The first major decision was what to do with a beloved detached “boathouse” near the water’s edge. In 2015, the boathouse had flooded, and Jordan suggested that if they demolished the structure, new design opportunities would open up. The Bowermans decided to tear it down.
The next big decision was what do with the century-old house—demolish it too, and start anew, or preserve the old? The structure wasn’t square to the property lines, it had been sitting on soggy, water-table soil and a new roof installed in the 1990s was underbuilt. The builder they chose, Dean Edleston of Monolithic Builders, faced many logistical challenges, including finding a drop site for materials and tools, parking for subcontractors and bringing crane to the site multiple times to supply the addition.
But the character, history and appearance of the home were important to the Bowermans, and consistent with the neighborhood, so they decided to build an addition that would straddle a second story over the original craftsman and create new space extending off the backside.
Jayson said they spent two years developing plans and let the architectural vocabulary of the early craftsman—from gables and molding to door styles—dictate overall design. To tie the two structures together, the design would match roof pitch, siding and windows and copy bracing and other features of the original home but in a larger, more contemporary format throughout the addition.
In 2018, with permits in hand, they demolished the master bedroom, kitchen and sunroom. They removed some of the original lath and plaster walls and parts of the hand-stacked foundation to incorporate structural steel framing to support the second story. “It was a big job,” Edleston said, adding that Bend Welding spent a couple days bolting the steel supports to the foundation.
The remodeled home would end up with 2,700 square feet of combined space encompassing four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, laundry and mud room, with river views from nearly every room, as well as two covered decks.
Exterior colors—aspen bark and red clay for trim and sage green for the body—create a seamless impression from front to back. “The plan was to make the new and old look like they’ve always been there,” Edleston said. “Kudos to John and Jayson who spent a lot of time on the initial designs.”
The final layout retained the front porch and front door, which lead to a “pick-n-parlor” music room. Jayson completed a luthier apprenticeship with Kim Breedlove in the mid-1990s and after fifteen years at Breedlove Guitar Co. went on to form Bowerman Guitars. Today he handcrafts custom guitars, mandolins and other string instruments for musicians worldwide.
The historic first floor also includes a guest bedroom, bath, mechanical room, and utility and laundry room. A hallway ushers guests out of the traditional bungalow into a contemporary craftsman structure with 21st century amenities and upgrades. The wood-beamed great room is cozy yet open. The panoramic four-panel glass (yes, glass) door opens wide to extend the living room outside to the covered deck in warm weather. A mudroom with lockers for each family member is conveniently accessed from the kitchen and leads to the garage and backyard. The second story, which overlaps part of the original structure, contains three bedrooms and a deck off the master.
Infusing Architecture with Personality
The Bowermans’ personal touch and stories permeate the remodel. The window, door, baseboard and box-beam trim came from reclaimed fir bleacher boards which Jayson found in Seattle and hauled back to Bend in a trailer during the “snowpocalypse” of 2018. “We spent days scraping miles of bubblegum off the wood,” Edleston said with a laugh. He estimates that they plugged about 1,500 bolt holes, but the result is trim that “looks historic and will age beautifully.”
The couple retained the original front door, including its skeleton key lock. And instead of ripping out the old fir floors, they stripped the fir and chose a compatible narrow-plank white oak for the new section.
“Those guys have really good taste,” Edleston said. The family searched out vintage fixtures for the old house, including a cast-iron enamel laundry sink from the historic Dalles Hotel, and rejuvenated the plaster walls with age-appropriate push button light switches.
The couple built the fireplace mantel and kitchen pantry shelving from a windfall maple salvaged from the farm of Bill and Barbara Bowerman, Jayson’s grandparents. The two decks are wide-plank Port Orford Cedar, a durable Oregon timber that Jayson says never splinters and remains soft to bare feet.
With the help of interior designer Kelly Warner, the couple chose slabs of quartzite that mimic the river. Edleston said it’s “the most beautiful quartzite I’ve seen in my life.” The kitchen also has a unique window cabinet through which the outside shines through.
The couple is grateful to its team of designers and builders who persisted through various challenges. “We have an addition that is both beautiful and functional while meeting our design goal of being a modern home which received its architectural bloodlines very clearly from the old mill house,” Jayson said.
In late 2019, the Bowerman family, which now includes their second child, moved into the home. They look forward to daily canoe paddles with their two young boys. And anyone who knows Jayson suspects it won’t be long before his kids are riding the waves with him.
Resources:
Designer: John Jordan, Evolution Home Design Builder: Dean Edleston, Monolithic Builders Interior: Kelly Warner, Kelly Warner Interior Design Landscape: Chris Hart-Henderson, Heart Springs Landscape Design
If Ellen Waterston had her way, the title of her new book would be “High Centered.” Like a truck stuck on a hardened mound of mud on a desert backroad, sometimes we must push ourselves back and forth on both sides of an issue to figure out how to move forward.
Photo by Marina Koslow
Waterston, an Oregon poet and author with a long history of writing about the high desert, likes a metaphor. But her publisher, University of Washington Press, decided on something more straightforward. Walking the High Desert: Encounters with Rural America on the Oregon Desert Trail was published June 17. The literary nonfiction book chronicles her journey on the 750-mile Oregon Desert Trail, documenting the people, places and issues that she encounters along the way.
This is Waterston’s seventh book and the most journalistic endeavor of her published titles. Her earlier books are memoirs or poetry collections. But land and place and the meaning of it all is a common theme throughout her writing. For Waterston, any person, especially a writer, cannot escape the nuances, details and meanings of where they plant roots. Of tackling this book, a travel memoir that also reckons with Oregon’s divided politics, she said, “It just wouldn’t go away. I just needed to do it.”
Waterston came from New England, then found ranching in the eastern part of the state. Now living in Bend, she works as an advocate for emerging writers, Oregon’s literary world and for Oregon’s public land. She started the Writing Ranch in 2000, a series of workshops in remote locations designed to pull out everyone’s inner writer. She was the executive director of PLAYA at Summer Lake and is an instructor with Fishtrap, a writing conference in Joseph, Oregon. She has an honorary Ph.D. in humane letters from Oregon State University Cascades, is a two-time WILLA Award Winner in Poetry and the winner of the Obsidian Prize in Poetry. She founded the literary nonprofit Nature of Words, and six years ago, founded the Waterston Desert Writing Prize.
She’s also supporter of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, although she doesn’t agree on all their points. But that connection drove her to the idea to hike the ODT and write about it. “In the simplest sense, I have a background as a rancher and a ‘townie,’” she said. “I am sensitive to both the perspective of those who live and work the land versus those who are more consumers and also environmental perspectives.”
For Waterston, the place that has shaped her the most, that has called her onto its trails and into its small towns and beside its people, is the Oregon east of the Cascades. “It’s the sequence of the places we live that make up the chapters in our biography of place,” writes Waterston in her newest book. “The high desert is, without question, my longest chapter.”
Readers of Oregon’s local history, advocates of the environment and high desert dwellers on the left and right side of the aisle will connect with this book. In Waterston’s classic voice that imparts her immense research while speaking to readers like a friend, Walking the High Desert is an important addition to Oregon’s literature about place. She paints rural life without patronizing it, and earnestly fights for preservation without sacrificing the realities of rural subsistence.
In the end, she may not have gotten the title she wanted, but she said that the book overall, “has been a wonderful experience for me as a writer.” Though, she still thinks it should have been called “High Centered.” “I think it’s apt because when we see things truly, it’s hard to take sides,” she said.
When Phil Geiger moved to Central Oregon in the late 1990s to snowboard, he held a few different jobs before signing on to be a driver for a small restaurant takeout delivery business. But before he even got comfortable in the new position, the company’s owner told Geiger he was behind on payments to restaurants and planned to declare bankruptcy.
In an effort to keep the business running, Geiger bought the company for $1 from the owner (who had initially acquired the business from a previous, original owner), agreeing to slowly pay the restaurants back if they would continue working with him. “I went to every restaurant we delivered for, and said that I would take on his debt,” Geiger said. All of the restaurants—about a dozen—agreed, and just like that, Bend TakeOut had a chance at survival, and success.
In those early days, Geiger was busy building the company’s first website on dial-up internet, uploading copies of menus from the restaurants they worked with. It was years before a company like GrubHub would make its way to Central Oregon and a decade before DoorDash was even conceived, so not everyone really got what Geiger’s company was all about.
“People didn’t understand what we were doing—they would think they were calling the restaurant, even though it was our number on the site,” he said.
Staff spent a lot of time on the phone, describing menu items to customers, placing orders and then using walkie talkies to relay directions to drivers. Drivers then used map books to navigate around town. Geiger remembers instructing his employees to “stand in a certain spot, and hold the radio above your head to get better reception.”
Angie Bove and Phil Geiger
To keep busy and continue growing their customer base, the company rarely said no to requests, even those that were a bit off the wall. “We’d never say no,” Geiger said. “I was just trying to keep drivers as busy as possible.”
Co-owner Angie Bove, who started with Bend TakeOut about ten years ago as a driver, said she remembers drivers stopping by the store to pick up extra things for customers on their way to deliver orders. Bove recalled one regular customer who loved ranch dressing and had requested it from a restaurant that was all out. “I remember the driver actually stopping at the store and getting a bottle of ranch for the customer,” Bove said.
Over the years, the company has grown to serve more restaurants around the region, and technology, including tablets for restaurants and an app for customers, has evolved to make the process of ordering and delivering simpler. The company also launched its takeout delivery service in Redmond. “We’ve been in town fifteen years now, and we have a big customer base,” said Bove, who worked her way up from a driver, to dispatcher, to account manager and part owner over the years.
Both Bove and Geiger agreed that when companies like GrubHub, DoorDash and UberEats started serving Central Oregon, they worried it might impact their business. But the company is local and does things a bit differently, Bove said. “We all have different models of business,” she said. “And we think there is enough delivery business for everyone.”
For one thing, Bend TakeOut works with a courier service to ensure someone is always on staff to deliver, unlike some of the apps that allow drivers to set their own schedules, risking having no one available on a busy night. Bend TakeOut also has a minimum order amount and sets delivery fees based on the distance between a restaurant and delivery address—an amount that goes directly to a driver.
This spring, business was busy, but different, at Bend TakeOut, as restaurants navigated the impacts of COVID-19. The company started working with new restaurants and receiving more individual orders, but less big office orders, Bove said. Today, the company works with about fifty restaurants, many of whom also work with other delivery services, offering customers more options.
And while that competition keeps the takeout delivery space more competitive in Central Oregon, the owners say what sets Bend TakeOut apart from its competitors is that the company is local. “We’ve lived in Bend for a long time, and we love it here,” Geiger said. “And if you have a problem, you can always pick up the phone and talk to someone.”
When most of us look to the night sky, we see pulsing planets and satellites skittering across the stars. If we’re lucky, we might catch a meteoroid burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
But when Bob Grossfeld looks into the night sky above Central Oregon, he sees multiple galaxies and millions of years into the past—literally. Grossfeld, observatory manager at the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory, said the closest neighboring galaxy sits roughly 2.5 million light-years away from our Milky Way. So, when he peers into a telescope to spy the Andromeda Galaxy, Grossfeld sees what it looked like more than 2 million years ago (since that’s how long it took light to travel that distance). “If you think about it, you’re looking back in time every time you look through a telescope,” he said.
Here in Central Oregon, very little light pollution dampens the nighttime glow, and the Cascades break up most storms before they arrive in the region—leading to clearer skies with fewer clouds. Even better is that starry night skies are free for all to enjoy. All you have to do is step outside.
If you’d like to try stargazing this summer, here’s what to know for getting started—and what you might see on a given night. You’ll have millions of years’ worth of galactic wonders to keep you busy.
How to Get Started as an Amateur Astronomer
Photo by Austin White
Most telescopes—the kind you find at big-box stores—do some things well, but nothing well enough to justify the investment, according to Grossfeld. Instead, he recommends a decent pair of binoculars. “Usually, binoculars are more usable than the telescope would have been,” he said.
Grossfeld also suggests downloading a mobile app—Star Chart and Sky Guide, to name two—for basic details, such as stars, planets and constellations. The apps use augmented reality to identify visible features in the night sky—requiring only that users point their phone or tablet skyward to identify what they’re currently viewing.
For a deeper dive, Grossfeld recommends reading Astronomy Magazine for star charts and in-depth information about what you may see in a given week—such as satellites, comets, and more.
Where to Go Stargazing
The most important piece of equipment isn’t a telescope or binoculars; it’s the dark night sky, Grossfeld said. “You just need to be able to get away from city lights as much as possible,” he said. Nearby mountain highways and the endless high desert alike offer ample opportunities for easy, yet rewarding stargazing.
One idea is to visit the sno-parks surrounding Mount Bachelor—like Dutchman Sno-Park. You’re at a high enough elevation and far enough away from the city to enjoy dark night skies, he said, and the iconic peak makes a nice backdrop as the stars come out. East of Bend, try the Oregon Badlands Wilderness and small communities, such as Brothers. You’ll find almost no light pollution between Bend and Burns, leading to darker, more dramatic skies.
Photo by Tim Lyden
What can you see in Central Oregon’s starry night skies?
Dark skies over Central Oregon mean an embarrassment of astronomical riches for even first-time astronomers. For instance, nearly a dozen major meteor showers can be seen this summer—including the famous Perseid meteor shower, taking place between mid-July and mid-August.
Stargazers can also spy Jupiter and Saturn—which Grossfeld calls “the two best planets to look at in the sky.” Jupiter’s moons can be seen with a pair of binoculars, as can Saturn’s iconic rings. To the south, the Milky Way can be seen on moonless nights—specifically, the area of the Milky Way where new stars are formed.
Grossfeld said, “With a pair of binoculars, you can see most of the cool features in the center of the galaxy.