After years of searching, Stoller Wine found a place in Bend to call home. The new wine bar opened in February 2021 and is located across from the Podski Food Cart Lot and next to River Pig Saloon in the Box Factory. It serves as the perfect place for Bend locals and visitors to stop in, sit down and stay awhile with a drink in hand.
“The concept behind this space is to create a bridge between the winery in Dundee Hill and Bend,” said Steven Benson, director of consumer sales at Stoller Wine Bar.
The place does just that with its keen ability to craft any experience someone may be looking for. The open-air room and patio emanate hospitality with a comfortable atmosphere and friendly prices for both wine novices and seasoned veterans alike. Children have an invite, as well. Abuzz with laughter and conversation, the space is unlike a traditional tasting room.
“We think of wine very much as part of a well-rounded lifestyle,” said Michelle Kaufmann, Stoller Wines communications director. “Whether you’ve been out hiking all day or you just hit the slopes, and you’re coming in off the mountain, [Stoller Wine Bar] is the place to stop, grab a drink and reset before you go home and make dinner or go out to dinner.”
The labels Stoller, Chehalem, Chemistry, History, and Canned Oregon are under one roof. Get a taste of the variety of the Oregon wine country when you choose from the Willamette Valley Flight or Reserve Flight, go straight for a full pour from their draft wine selection, or commit to a full bottle; you won’t be disappointed. A local’s favorite has been the Pinot Noir Rosé. If you’re not a wine drinker, you can opt-in for their beer or cider offerings or indulge in various snacks, including cheese, charcuterie and flatbreads.
Stoller Wine is the ideal place for day-drinking with friends, grabbing a beverage before dinner downtown or rounding out a perfect day in Bend. No matter your preferred time, reservations are recommended.
Every year when Central Oregon’s weather finally turns to warm temperatures full-time, taking in a refreshing beer and a mouthwatering meal feels as right as shrugging off your puffy coat in the sunshine. So many different combinations of flavors and aromas say summer. Maybe you’re looking to refuel in a big way after a day of hiking, or you’re simply craving something fresh and seasonal. Here, local chefs from breweries in Redmond, Sisters and Bend share dishes with a well-paired beer, to elevate your meal from tasty to memorable.
As owner of the new food truck Luckey’s Woodsman, Jackson Higdon has happily been juggling running his truck on Mount Bachelor while serving food in town at Silver Moon Brewing. Forged in the pandemic, the partnership made sense for both Higdon and Silver Moon.
Higdon calls his food elevated backcountry cuisine. In the lumberjack bowl, he combines “midnight brisket,” 14-hour smoked Cedar River Farms organic grain-fed steer, with forbidden rice, arugula pesto, cotija cheese, chipotle aioli, and charred Brussels sprouts and radishes.
Silver Moon’s Mango Daze, a “super sociable malty, not-so-bitter, easy-drinking pale ale,” as Higdon describes it, complements the “roastiness” of the brisket. Brewed with real mangoes and fruity Northwest hops, the beer comes in at 6 percent ABV and 25 IBU.
Initiative Brewing’s head chef Matt Anderson has creatively infused Asian, South American and European flavors into pub favorites at the Redmond brewery. One of his classics with a twist? The Hawaiian burger, a seven-ounce grass-fed beef patty from southeastern Oregon’s Roaring Springs Ranch, teriyaki ham, Tillamook swiss, lettuce, tomato and finished with a house-made pineapple jam and ginger aioli, served with salad, house-cut fries or Asian coleslaw.
Anderson and Chris Brumley, Initiative’s co-owner and brewmaster, said their Northwest style house IPA Hoppy Habits, at 7 percent ABV and 53 IBUs, is the ideal pairing, offering a tropical fruit and citrus hop profile. “It has a nice wheat and salty flavor, which the aioli kind of smooths over,” Anderson said.
At Three Creeks Brewing where Mark Perry is manager and head chef, he encourages a team atmosphere. So when kitchen staffer Sal whipped up carnitas tacos for himself, Perry ran with it.
For Sal’s carnitas tacos, pork is braised in a light beer until it’s fall-apart tender, then finished with fresh lime juice, cilantro and extra seasoning in a white corn tortilla. Cilantro rice and black beans are served on the side.
The tacos go best with Tres Arroyos Mexican lager, a seasonal beer so popular, they transitioned it to year-round. A batch of the lager takes about two months to make, Perry said, describing it as light, crisp and refreshing and coming in at an ABV of 4.5 percent.
Lots of textures and color. That’s what Worthy Brewing’s executive chef and food and beverage director Monica Kline likes on her menu, balancing pub staples with equally delicious healthy dishes. Inspired to pair Worthy’s new low-calorie Easy Day Hazy IPA series at 3.4 percent ABV, Kline used the grapefruit Easy Day to create a hazy avocado poppy seed vinaigrette for salad and bowl options (more flavors are expected to join the grapefruit and tangerine in the IPA series this summer).
The summer citrus salad tosses spring mix, grapefruit segments, quinoa, red onion and salty cheese in the dressing. For the bowl, ancient grains are warmed in the vinaigrette, then topped with carrot, avocado, cucumber, watermelon radish and yellow sweet drop peppers. Add grilled chicken, steak or steelhead to either.
Head chef Justin Goin is somewhat bashful about his name gracing Sunriver Brewing’s Goin beef enchiladas, but he’s proud to have recreated a dish he grew up eating in El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. It’s not uncommon for visitors from Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to ask to meet the chef.
Goin takes New Mexico Guajillo dry chile pods, rehydrating them, mincing and grinding them for the sauce. The enchiladas are then layered similar to lasagna, with aged white cheddar, the guajillo sauce, beef and lettuce, with a fried egg placed on top. Sunriver’s Deseo Mexican lager at 5 percent ABV is the right pairing for the spicy dish, Goin explained, as the beer helps clean the palate between each rich bite.
Monkless Belgian Ales owner Robin Clement calls their European-influenced Belgo burger a “fork and knife burger.” Executive chef Stacie Cruikshank intended it that way. “You’re going to need napkins,” Cruikshank said. “It’s decadent, fatty and delicious.”
Layered with Oregon ground chuck, butter leaf lettuce, dill pickle, a pile of caramelized onions and Muenster cheese on a buttery grilled Big Ed’s Kaiser bun, the burger is sauced with dijonnaise, which, Cruikshank said, they “do not go shy on.”
To complement the burger Cruikshank recommends their Samaritans Saison at 6.2 percent ABV, or alcohol by volume. A Belgian farmhouse style, the beer is a bit tangy, pairing well with the rich burger’s natural fats. Diners can choose frites or salad for their side.
Just over a century ago, the tiny settlement of Bend was roaring into the 1920s. It was a land of adventure and opportunity, similar to current times in many ways. The population had expanded tenfold, from 536 residents in 1910 to 5,436 a decade later. Dense pine forests fueled the economy, and the Old Mill and Box Factory areas bustled with loggers and millworkers. A new dam on the Deschutes River provided the first electric power in town, creating Mirror Pond in the process. Entrepreneurs platted out new streets for homes and neighborhoods, with the bend in the river at the center.
In the midst of this boom, a few key local leaders recognized the value in preserving outdoor space for gathering and connecting with nature. Their vision led to the creation of Bend’s first parks: Drake Park along the east bank of the Deschutes River in the heart of downtown Bend, and Shevlin Park, a natural area wrapped around Tumalo Creek, on the western edge of town. In doing so they set the stage for Bend’s ongoing culture of outdoor recreation and love of nature. These parks, both established in 1921, remain the crown jewels in Bend’s park system today.
BEFORE THERE WERE PARKS
Long before European Americans reached Central Oregon, this land was important to the ancestors of the Warm Springs, Burns Paiute and Klamath tribes. Native Americans traveled seasonally along the Deschutes River and Tumalo Creek, seeking resources like berries, basket materials, medicine, fish and game. Bend is located within the lands ceded to the United States government in 1855, as part of the Treaty with the Middle Tribes of Oregon.
In 1843, explorer John Fremont passed through Central Oregon on a mapping expedition from The Dalles to Nevada. Along with guides Kit Carson and Billy Chinook, the Fremont party camped in what is now Shevlin Park. Billy Chinook eventually returned to The Dalles and became a leader of the Wasco tribe. He served as an advocate during the 1855 treaty negotiations, and Lake Billy Chinook is named in his honor. Fremont’s maps and guidebooks identified an easily crossed stretch of the Deschutes River, opening the door to settlers and loggers. By the turn of the century, Bend was on the map.
photo Beth Dixson / Alamy Stock Photo
DRAKE PARK: AT THE HEART OF BEND
Bend’s favorite gathering space might easily have ended up a neighborhood of historic homes, if not for the Women’s Civic Improvement League and its founder, May Arnold. When the landowners drew up plans for homesites along the east bank of the Deschutes River, Arnold successfully spearheaded an effort to turn the riverside property into a city park. The women gathered 1,500 signatures from the townspeople to put a bond measure on the ballot. It passed, and the city purchased its first park for $21,000. Drake Park is named for Alexander Drake, who platted the original townsite and built Bend’s first lumber mill, irrigation canals and the hydroelectric dam that created Mirror Pond.
From the beginning, Drake Park was intended to provide a gathering place, according to Julie Brown, communications and community relations manager for the Bend Park and Recreation District. “The Women’s Civic Improvement group rallied for a town square type of park that would be at the heart of the community. Their forward-thinking vision of what this could mean for the town has had a lasting impact,” Brown said.
The first organized events established the park as the site for music and celebrations: In the summer of 1920, volunteers gathered to pull weeds, build benches and enjoy performances by the Shevlin-Hixon band. By the summer of 1921, local merchants planned Bend’s first Fourth of July celebration as a high-speed, non-stop event. As described in the Bend Bulletin on May 10, 1921, the day would start with a parade, horse races and carnival games and ended with street dancing on the new pavement, until well after midnight.
Bend’s enthusiasm for spirited celebration in Drake Park has held through the decades. The Water Pageant, an Independence Day tradition from 1933 into the 1950s, involved flotillas of lighted floats and local pageant queens atop a giant floating swan—a spectacle that brought thousands of visitors to town each year. More recently, Drake Park has served as home for the Kids’ Pole Pedal Paddle competition and the Munch & Music concert series. In between organized events, informal gatherings abound: from family picnics to slacklining teens to sports teams running drills through the park, all under the shade of the towering Ponderosa pines that were preserved a century ago.
Photos Deschutes County Historical Society
Drake Park has grown to almost a half mile of river shoreline, stretching from the Galveston Avenue bridge to the backyard of the Pine Tavern. Mirror Pond’s reflective beauty still represents the heart of Bend, but not without controversy or negative impacts. Silt from the dam is filling up Mirror Pond, as the community debates the best solution. Crowds of people erode the riverbanks and degrade riparian habitats, keeping the Bend Park and Recreation District busy with restoring the vegetation and repairing rock walls. And about those goose droppings…feeding geese bread and popcorn is not healthy—for either the birds or the park.
Trail improvements slated for this year will improve accessibility on the trails and continue the park district’s goal of connecting pathways along the river. Brown explained, “A new boardwalk will cross the river at the north end of Drake Park, at the Newport Avenue bridge. This will connect into the Deschutes River Trail system up to Sawyer Park.”
Photos Deschutes County Historical Society
SHEVLIN PARK: CONNECTING TO NATURE
While Drake Park is at the heart of Bend, Shevlin Park may well be at its soul. Just three miles west of Drake Park, Shevlin Park encompasses 900 acres of mixed conifers and volcanic rock outcroppings, with Tumalo Creek tumbling along the canyon floor. There’s no playground or bandstand—just trails, trees and water. “People come here to walk, find a bit of solitude, connect with nature and escape the busy-ness of town,” said Jeff Hagler, park steward manager.
Like many locals, Bend resident Sue Dougherty feels a special connection to Shevlin Park. “The first time I hiked these trails, after we moved here in 2003, it brought me to tears. I was so happy to belong to a community that would preserve a place like this, when it could have been logged off or developed,” Dougherty said. An avid birdwatcher and photographer, she tracks the changing seasons by what happens in the park. “For years I’d see a pair of mountain bluebirds in a certain snag, and I’d know spring was close,” she said. Birdwatchers can also spot Pygmy owls, woodpeckers and sapsuckers, an occasional great blue heron, and a number of migratory songbirds in the dense creekside willows and aspens.
Photos Deschutes County Historical Societyphoto adam mckibben
Despite its natural appearance and majestic old pines, Shevlin Park was once a working part of the timber industry. The Shevlin-Hixon Lumber company owned more than 200,000 forested acres around Bend, including Tumalo Canyon. As the logging cleared whole tracts of land around them, the company management recognized what could be lost if sections of the Cascade forests were not preserved. F. P. Hixon, Shevlin-Hixon’s president, and Tom McCann, general manager, began outlining protection for forested land around Dillon Falls and along the Dalles-California Highway (U.S. Route 97). They also designated 350 acres around Tumalo Canyon and creek to donate to the city, to be used as a park.
The park was named in honor of Thomas Shevlin, founder of the company. Shevlin was a larger-than-life Midwesterner, an athlete and entrepreneur. After building the lumber company in Bend, he traveled east to coach football at Yale, his alma mater. Shevlin contracted pneumonia and died in 1915, at age 32. The land donated in his name was donated with the stipulation that it remain a natural park for the public to enjoy, in perpetuity.
When townspeople came out to the new park, they also would visit the fish hatchery north of today’s Shevlin Road entrance. The hatchery land was added to Shevlin Park in 1929, and the Skyliner Ski Club used the pond as a skating rink for many years. Today the hatchery building is the site of Aspen Hall, and the old skating rink is home to a youth fishing pond. The pond stays stocked with rainbow trout for Bend’s kids to learn to cast and land a fish.
Shevlin Park makes it easy for people to enjoy being outside, said Hagler. “It’s such a safe place. I love that our visitors can be here without worrying, and just do their thing,” he added. Parents with strollers and kids on bikes might stick to the paved pathway; nature lovers can hike the 6-mile Loop Trail or the 2.5-mile Tumalo Creek Trail. The park also links into the Mrazek Trail for mountain biking and hiking, with a trailhead near the park entrance and a connecting trail at the south end of the park. This summer, a new trail will connect Discovery Park to Shevlin Park. The Outback Trail meanders through thirty acres of natural, undeveloped land and offers a safer, non-motorized access to Shevlin Park.
Photos Deschutes County Historical Society
LOOKING AHEAD AT BEND PARKS
In the decades since these two founding parks got their start, Bend has added eighty more, ranging from playgrounds to off-leash dog parks to community gardens—with more than seventy miles of trails. This year, the park district broke ground on its eighty-third park: the Alpenglow Community Park in SE Bend. Alpenglow Park will include a “sprayground” water feature, event pavilion and grassy lawn, an off-leash dog play area and multi-use trails. The park is expected to open in 2022.
A day trip to a gorgeous alpine lake, a stroll through charming downtown, a float through one of the West’s best wave parks, sigh, yawn. Do Bend’s best outings have you a little bored? Here we offer a collection of hidden gems to spice up your season. This roundup offers tasty tidbits from culture to adventure, places and experiences that are not exactly secrets, because we do believe that some places deserve to remain hidden. And yet we hope this smattering of off-the-beaten-path options will brighten your days and enliven your senses as summer takes hold. Have fun exploring! [Photo above at Newberry Crater, by Max Rhulen.]
Outdoor Adventure Near Bend
Paulina Plunge ▲
The Paulina Plunge is a mix of waterfalls and slippery slopes along Paulina Creek in Newberry National Volcanic Monument that offers hikers and bikers a refreshing dip on a hot summer day. It’s one of Central Oregon’s best kept secrets and was thousands of years in the making. The waterslides have natural bumps, and it’s ride as you are (no tubes, please). Paulina Hot Springs are a bit more like warm springs and are rustic with no adjacent services. A National Parks Pass or Northwest Forest Pass is required to park at the trailheads.
Distance: 6.5 miles out and back
Difficulty: Moderate, but with some challenging sections
Dog and older kid-friendly
A VOLCANIC EMERGENCE: Best known as “Newberry,” this Forest Service-managed monument stretches from Benham Falls along the Deschutes River to Paulina Peak in Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Many features in the monument bear the Paulina name, which honors a Northern Paiute chief called Paulina or Pahninee who fought to protect his homeland against settlers and the army
in the 1860s.
The heart of the monument is Newberry Volcano, named for John Strong Newberry, an American physician and geologist who served on an 1855 western railroad expedition. It’s a massive shield-shaped volcano which extends across 1,200 square miles in Central Oregon. Active for more than 500,000 years, this volcano had an eruption event that emptied an underground magma chamber and resulted in a collapse of the overarching strata some 75,000 years ago, thus creating the high-walled Newberry Caldera.
The nearly 20-square mile caldera once held a single lake, but around 6,200 years ago an eruption and lava flow within the caldera divided that lake into two: Paulina Lake and East Lake, which are fed by rain and snowmelt.
EXPERIENCE THE FLOW: Paulina Creek twists and turns down the western flank of Newberry Volcano and plunges over resilient layers of basalt and past obsidian boulders to its confluence with the Little Deschutes River. The creek’s descent is interrupted by various waterfalls, most notably Paulina Falls, with an 80-foot vertical drop, and several other water slides which, collectively, have become known as the Paulina Plunge.
BY BIKE: Cyclists can either tackle a 12-mile loop from McKay Crossing Campground up to Paulina Lake (1,650-foot elevation gain) or ride the shuttle up to the Paulina Falls Day Use Area or Paulina Lake Lodge, then jump on single track mountain bike trails for a 6-mile downhill ride back to McKay Crossing Campground. Both sides of the creek offer short, unmarked side trails down to the creek to access the waterfalls and water slides.
IN THE KNOW:
Mountain bike traffic along Paulina Creek is uphill on the north side and downhill on the south side.
Watch for Paulina Plunge Mountain Bike Waterfall Tours, a family-run business, booking tours in 2026.
ON FOOT: Hikers take the Peter Skene Ogden Trail number 50 uphill from the McKay Crossing Campground to a plunge pool about 1.5 to 2 miles along the trail. This slippery slope forms a perfect water slide into a refreshing pool. Beyond this destination, hikers reach Twin Falls and a fenced viewpoint of Paulina Falls before reaching the Paulina Lake Lodge.
Find warm waters on the 7.5-mile loop trail around Paulina Lake, accessible from multiple trailheads, that pass by a set of hot springs located along the north shoreline. These shallow pools vary in size but are a testament to the geothermal activity still brewing below the caldera. Soak in a pool while gazing across the placid waters of Paulina Lake and up to the rocky prow of Paulina Peak. Look over to the younger—at 1,300 years old—Big Obsidian Flow to enjoy all things Paulina in Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
Photo by Jill Rosell
Tumalo Rapids ▲
These waters are perfect for any river-floater looking for more adventure and privacy. With sections boasting rapids big enough to flip a tube, come prepared! The adventure begins on the corner of Cline Falls and Tumalo Road where you can park cars and put your floaties in the water, and ends when the river crosses the Twin Bridges. There are some sections of the float that are so remote and undeveloped that you get to experience the same views of the landscape that early explorers had. Wear a lifejacket, plan for a shuttle and have fun!
◄ Riley Ranch Nature Preserve
Tucked away along the northwest edge of Bend, this 184-acre nature preserve features thirty-five acres along the meandering Deschutes River and another thirty acres along jagged rimrock cliffs. Unlike most parks in and near Bend, neither dogs nor bikes are allowed here, offering a unique opportunity to soak in the landscape and look for wildlife.
Lava Cast Forest
Lava Cast Forest is a little bit difficult to understand until you’ve seen it, but basically it’s a collection of fossilized trees, or really the fossilized absence of trees. Here’s how it works—lava flowed from the northwest flank of Newberry Crater 7000 years ago around a forest of living trees. The hot lava incinerated the wood within, but hardened into a mold of what had been there. An interpretive trail winds past several tree casts, and makes for an easy and interesting family hike.
Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery
Originally constructed in 1947, this hatchery is used for incubation and rearing of fish including kokanee salmon, rainbow trout, spring chinook and summer steelhead. See the fish from a viewing platform, bring a picnic to enjoy in the park-like setting and keep an eye out for Canada goose goslings in May and June. Closed in 2020, hopes are high that the hatchery will reopen this summer.
Caving
There’s a lot going on underground. Formed by lava flows many moons ago, underground caves remain to be discovered. Tour Lava River Cave, operated by Newberry National Volcanic Monument near Lava Lands Visitor Center in the summer or book a tour with Wanderlust tours. If you go out on your own, please respect these delicate environments, home to native bats and fragile ecosystems.
Photo by Richard Bacon
Stargazing ▲
Astronomy enthusiasts are spoiled in Central Oregon; wide open spaces combined with very low levels of light pollution make most of the region perfect for stargazing. There are a few observatories in and around Bend (even in a local brewery), and even more places to park a car and gaze out into the universe. Try the top of Pilot Butte, the Sparks Lake camping area or any other place with some elevation.
Culture
Photo by Steven Addington Photography
▲The Tin Pan Theater
This sweet little theater is tucked away in an alley in downtown Bend. Seating only 26, guests can grab a snack and a beer and kick back with friends for a very intimate showing of independent films. The pandemic didn’t stop this little spot, and owners BendFilm began showing films outdoors in the alley, a fun idea that just might stick.
Photo by Prisma by Dukas Presseagentur GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
Museum at Warm Springs ▲
Head north for a visit to the 25,000-square-foot Museum at Warm Springs, the first tribal museum in Oregon. See one of the largest artifact collections of any Native American museum, with family heirlooms and tribal keepsakes from the Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute tribes on display. Discover Native American paintings, ceremonial clothes and beadwork, as well as more than 5,000 photographs dating back to the 1850s.
Downtown Murals
An award-winning collection of public art can be found throughout Bend, much of it visible downtown and in the Old Mill District. Take an exploratory tour to find colorful tunnels under the parkway, stairs and walls in the Old Mill and the Tin Pan Alley art collection. Much of the art is accompanied by artist’s statements to enrich your viewing experience.
Fun for the Family
The Madras Aquatic Center ▲
Like an oasis in the desert, the Madras Aquatic Center is the perfect place to cool off when the high desert sun is high in the sky. The beautiful facility has a lazy river, a rope swing and a 300 foot slide, all with panoramic views of the nearby Cascade Mountains. Note: The Madras Aquatic Center is temporarily closed as of summer 2025, check here for updates on a reopening date and new schedules.
Photo by Aaron Bender
◄ Hot Air Ballooning
There is nothing like the feeling of floating on air beneath a huge colorful balloon. Based out of Culver and launching near Smith Rock, Big Sky Balloon Co. books private flights for two to six people. Float gently over the high desert terrain of juniper and sage, volcanic rim rock, deep river canyons, and rural farmland. It’s dreamy.
Pond Fishing
Remember tossing your first line in a pond when you were a kid? Bend kids can get that same thrill at two local parks, each featuring ponds stocked by Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. Shevlin Park’s pond is open to youth, 17 years and under, and anglers with disabilities. At Pine Nursery Park’s pond, all ages can cast a line. Limit two fish per day. Fish on! ▼
Photo courtesy of Bend Park & Recreation District
Rockhounding
Rocks are all around us in Central Oregon, but most of the time we pay them no mind. Take the kids and go searching for thundereggs at public digging areas outside of Prineville or north of Madras. A bit further afield is the Sunstone Public Collection Area, north of Plush and the Warner Mountains in Southeast Oregon, where the Oregon sunstone is sparkling and there for the picking. Learn more about rockhouding in Central Oregon.
Elk Lake Resort Fun
There is so much fun to be had at Elk Lake. The shoreline is dotted with beaches, campgrounds, cabins, hidden coves, and stretches of quiet forest. There are pontoon boats to rent, as well as paddle boards, canoes and kayak rentals available. Elk Lake Resort also rents floating day docks for chilling with your peeps just offshore.
Whether you’re a weekend adventurer or a daily lake lover, their private slips offer convenient, secure access to the crystal-clear waters of Elk Lake throughout the boating season. With stunning mountain views, easy access to resort amenities, and a supportive lakefront community, an annual lease ensures your boat is ready whenever you are. Learn more about Elk Lake Resort marina activities in the summer.
Since 1981, Contract Furnishings Mart has been serving the Pacific Northwest in all needs related to flooring, cabinets and countertops. The company is dedicated to trade professionals who deal in wholesale. As a proud, third generation, family-operated business, it specializes in providing a personal touch to all of their business dealings.
With the largest showroom and warehouse of its kind in Central Oregon, the team at Contract Furnishings Mart is ready and excited to serve the entire region. This sentiment is echoed by Director of Marketing Garrett Anderson. “We’re eager to partner with professionals to help grow their businesses,” Anderson said about the builders, designers, remodelers and other customers who buy products wholesale from Contract Furnishings Mart. “At CFM, we provide an atmosphere and experience you won’t find anywhere else while still offering great value every day.”
The Central Oregon showroom and warehouse is run by Manager Doug Starr, who moved to Bend with his family nearly twenty-seven years ago. After witnessing Bend grow and evolve into the bustling little city it is now, Starr has an adept understanding of his industry, as well as the needs of the Central Oregon community. “I’ve had several offers to move out and leave this community, but I chose to stay every time because I knew this was the right place to raise my family,” Starr said. “The opportunity to join the CFM family and do simple business the right way is something I couldn’t pass up,” he added.
His team averages 17 years of industry experience, and all of the salespeople are commission free; their only goal is to assist the customer.
With this experience, the team at Contract Furnishings Mart is expertly equipped to ask the right questions to ensure the material a customer chooses is truly the perfect fit for their project. Customers have taken notice of this quality sales experience, and have decided to work with the business time and time again. “After years in the industry, CFM in Bend is my new go-to industry material supplier,” said Heidi Byrnes, owner and operator of Society West Design, a Bend-based interior design company. “I have worked with many suppliers over the years and the beautiful showroom, material selection, pricing and reliability which CFM provides is unmatched in Central Oregon.”
To ensure Contract Furnishings Mart has just what customers need, the staff goes to great lengths to keep their showroom up to date with the latest flooring styles. With our ever-changing industry, CFM is constantly bringing in new, fashion-forward products to meet the design needs of Central Oregon. From new and exciting trends to the tried and true classics in all types of material, expect to find the carpet, hardwood, stone, luxury vinyl, laminate and ceramic tile surfaces you need and more all under one roof.
“Everything we do as a company is designed to take care of the customer,” says Anderson. “To say we’re excited to bring this experience to Bend is an understatement.”
Contract Furnishings Mart | 350 NE Addison Ave., Bend | cfmfloors.com | 541-508-4620
Editors Note: This article was originally published in April, 2021
Before landing in Bend’s NorthWest Crossing, Jason Burge and his wife Molly Tilley lived through a tough heat spell. Tilley was stationed in Texas with the Air Force where they endured sixty continuous days of temperatures higher than 100 degrees. When she got the opportunity to interview for a new job in a town with more temperate seasons—Bend—the couple jumped at the chance. “I was so sold on moving here that I told my wife to make sure she didn’t bomb the interview the next day,” Burge recalled.
The interview went well and Tilley was hired as a nephrologist with Bend Memorial Clinic. As the new job’s start date steadily approached, it was time for the couple to find a new place to call home. They met with a realtor who drove them from house to house, and the couple soon realized that every home that excited them belonged to a certain neighborhood—NorthWest Crossing. “It was at this point when we knew where we wanted to live,” Burge said. The couple was fortunate enough to secure a house that had only been on the market for a handful of days, and the rest is history.
There are many factors that drove Burge and Tilley into NorthWest Crossing, but their two young children might have been the most important. “Our kids were pre-K and elementary level at the time, so High Lakes Elementary was a big draw for us,” Burge said. “We also enjoy being close to Compass Park where the kids always had room to run around.” The shopping and restaurant scene in NorthWest Crossing was still small when Burge and Tilley first moved in nine years ago, but it has since grown in popularity as new businesses and residents have settled in.
Having homes close to schools, parks, shops and restaurants was a matter of design for the master-planned community on the west side of Bend, a quick five-minute drive from downtown. NorthWest Crossing was developed by West Bend Property Company LLC, a partnership of two local developers—Tennant Developments, LLC and Brooks Resources Corporation. Lots for the nearly 500-acre, mixed-use development were sold in phases to a pool of builders, using a lottery system that began in 2001. Developers built a mix of custom and speculative homes over the years, attracting young families, as well as retirees who had money to spend during the economic downturn. By 2018, the last lots were spoken for and the final homes under construction.
Today, the development is comprised of 1,175 homesites, with home sales over the past six months averaging around $900,000, according to Cascade Sotheby’s realtor Lisa Connors, who has worked with buyers and sellers in the neighborhood since 2015.
Connors has watched the neighborhood develop firsthand, and even decided to purchase her own family home in an adjacent neighborhood, just to get access to the amenities of NorthWest Crossing. “Many businesses in NorthWest Crossing, whether old or new, act as gathering places for the community,” Connors said. “This not only creates a sense of community for everyone involved, it also makes local businesses very welcoming places. The businesses are within walking distance to the neighborhood, and this makes homes in the area very desirable.” Roundabout Books and Sparrow Bakery have been popular spots for book clubs, while Portello Winecafe and other restaurants bring in people through special deals that are spread by word of mouth, keeping them mostly secret to all but locals.
With a sense of community, there’s also a sense of safety, which Burge and Tilley both enjoy about their neighborhood. “Our kids can get on their bikes and bring us eggs or milk from West Coast Provisions when we run out, or even some sweet treats from Sparrow to start the morning,” Burge said.
While many gatherings have been on hold because of the pandemic, many NorthWest Crossing businesses have continued to operate as normally as possible, adapting to changing protocols over the past year. At the new Bavarian restaurant Pflüke, this means cozy, hand-built igloos available for outdoor diners. “These restaurants are really doing everything they can to provide you their service,” Connors said. “I remember seeing the owner of Pflüke building the igloos out of cinder blocks by himself, and that is reflective of the effort these businesses are putting in.”
NorthWest Crossing has some exciting developments on the horizon that might make it an even more attractive place to live. Currently under construction is The Grove, a two-story, mixed-use building that will have a public marketplace with space for food and drink vendors and shared seating. Along with retail and parking on the ground level and condominiums in the back, this new development has the potential to become yet another popular gathering place, and just another reason to move to NorthWest Crossing.
This year, enjoy the longer days and sunny afternoons with a cocktail made from a flavorful liquor handcrafted right at home. Gather up whichever fruits, chilies and spices seem the tastiest and add them to liquors to marinate. For a touch of local flavor during cocktail hour, try some fresh ingredients readily available in Central Oregon. With some time spent infusing liquors like vodka and tequila in advance, crafting the cocktails themselves becomes a simple task, with many infused liquors pairing well with a simple splash of soda water, served over ice.
photo www.crowdedkitchen.com
Fruity Vodka
Vodka is a great candidate for infusions—just scan the shelves of a liquor store to see dozens of fruity vodka combinations, including local varieties like Bendistillery’s Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso Vodka or Wild Roots Marionberry Vodka. To start, grab a mason jar or bottle with a resealable lid and wash and dry a couple of fruits. Look for fresh Oregon strawberries starting in early May and available through the summer, and pair with vanilla beans or fresh basil. Tightly seal the jar and let rest for a couple days or up to a week, before straining with a cheesecloth. The flavor will fade over time, so enjoy the infusion plain or in a cocktail in the coming days.
Sparkling Strawberry Vodka
2 oz strawberry infused vodka
4 oz soda water or sparkling seltzer
Dash of simple syrup
Add vodka, soda water and simple syrup to a glass with ice. Stir to combine and garnish with a fresh strawberry.
photo Chilipeppermadness.com
Tequila with a Kick
For a spicy libation, try infusing tequila with limes and local chilies. Choose the freshest chili peppers available and cut them in half lengthwise before adding them to a jar. Try habanero, chipotle or jalapeno for great flavors. Because peppers are a frost-sensitive crop that thrive during a long, warm growing season, there aren’t a ton of local options in Oregon. But, keep an eye out later in the summer for Oregon grown peppers, or try picking up a seedling in the spring and transplanting to the warmest place in the garden for a homegrown addition to this infusion.
Spicy Margarita
2 oz pepper infused tequila
1 oz fresh lime juice
½ oz agave nectar
Cayenne salt for rim
Add infused tequila, lime juice
and agave to a shaker with ice, and shake. Rim a glass of ice with fresh lime and cayenne salt and add strained mixture.
Homemade Gin
For a truly Central Oregon infusion, pick up some dried juniper berries to infuse gin at home. The berries are plentiful in Central Oregon, typically ripening in the fall, but with birds as competitors, the easiest way to get juniper berries is more likely purchasing them at the store. Start with plain vodka and juniper berries and infuse these together for a day or two to bring out that juniper taste and smell that gin is known for. Next, add in a mix of lemon slices, a piece of grapefruit rind, orange peel, chamomile, coriander seeds or lavender to spice up the flavors, infusing for a couple more days. Sip on this homemade gin infusion plain or pair with tonic water over ice for a flavorful gin and tonic.
Simple gin and tonic
2 oz infused gin
4 oz tonic water
Fresh lime for garnish
Fill a highball glass with ice and gin, followed by tonic water. Garnish with fresh lime.
Left to right: Sparkling Strawberry Vodka, Spicy Margarita, Simple Gin and Tonic
Houseplants can add an incredible splash of life to any room they inhabit, but keeping them happy can sometimes be tricky. Read on for tips on picking the perfect plant and keeping it alive and thriving.
Style and variety
One of the first things to consider when choosing a new plant is selecting a style of greenery that complements the space it will be kept. This means different people are going to be happier with different styles of plant, whether it’s a lush, leafy green or a dry desert variety.
Peace Lily, Spider Plant
Tropical plants often come with some of the biggest green leaves around, and can turn a room into your own lush getaway. Tropical plants vary in size, with some larger varieties able to grow up to 30 feet under the right conditions, and some requiring large amounts of water and humidity. Other, smaller varieties can liven up a bookshelf, table or plant stand without significant maintenance. Many of the common houseplants you see are tropical, including spider plants and peace lilies.
Desert plants include much more than just a basic cacti, with many more vibrant, green options to choose from. Although some desert plants can grow to monumental heights in the wild, most houseplant variants will be relatively small. Some are simple and green, while others can produce beautiful flowers in different seasons. They will typically not be as large and lush as their tropical counterparts. These plants can create a mini oasis anywhere they go, as long as they get plenty of sun and not too much water.
Within these categories, there are many different types to choose from, including succulents, air plants, flowering plants, trailing vine-types and more.
Choosing wisely
After evaluating the types of houseplants available, it’s time to determine which to bring home. This comes down to evaluating the space where the plant will be kept.
Someone with a large, warm space with tons of direct light and a lot of time to dedicate to maintenance might choose the monstera, a beautiful and tall, broad-leafed plant that has become so popular that its unique leaf shape is often featured in artwork. Have a little less space and sunlight? Consider the areca palm instead—these popular indoor palms thrive in bright, indirect sunlight. Or for something more low maintenance, opt for the calathea, a variety of plant that thrives on indirect light and limited water. All three plants can give a room a lush feel, it just comes down to what that room is able to support.
Water and Light Care
Different plants need different amounts of direct sunlight to survive. This divides most houseplants into three categories: full sun, semi-shade and shade. Full sun plants can withstand many hours of direct sunlight, while semi-shade and shade plants need some direct sunlight and no direct sunlight, respectively. Most plants will have a symbol on their tag when buying that describes their sunlight needs.
In general, plants need water when the soil is dry. Dry soil will appear at different rates with tropical and desert plants of varying sizes, so it’s a good idea to check a plant’s soil twice a day for the first week or so. After that, adjust the watering schedule based on how quickly the soil dries. As for the amount of water, start in proportion to the plant. For instance, a three-inch tall cactus sitting on a desk might get a few tablespoons of water every week, while a two-foot tall tropical plant in the corner of the room might get about half a liter of water a week, sometimes more.
In the days and weeks after bringing a plant home, be sure to check for signs of too much or too little water. Too little water will cause wilting and dead leaves, but too much water can be a little more tricky, as different plants have different tells. For example, some broad leaf plants will form brown, dry tips on their leaves when they are overwatered.
With a little practice and careful attention to the needs of each plant, from watering and sunlight to placement inside a room, houseplants of any style can grow to thrive inside a home or office.
Editors Note: This article was originally published April, 2021
More time at home these days is leading many of us to rethink our home décor, housewares and even the tech-savvy tools that make our lives easier. When shopping for new tech, let’s not forget the bathroom, a space where we often start and end each day. Technology is making a splash in today’s bathrooms, with products that improve hygiene and cleanliness, provide relaxing warmth, control ideal lighting and more. See how some of these new gadgets can make getting ready for a new day, or winding down after a long one, just a little easier.
There are now smartphones, smartwatches and according to Kohler, intelligent toilets. With a tankless design for a sleeker look, the Veil Comfort Height smart toilet offers front and rear bidet options, a self-cleaning function using UV light, a warm-air drying system and an adjustable heated seat. Motion-activated opening and closing of the seat and cover means you don’t even have to lift a finger, except maybe to tune to your preferred settings. LED lighting illuminates the base, saving the need for a nightlight.
If you’re more into baths than showers or just look forward to a relaxing weekend soak, the Conair Dual Jet Bath Spa can bump up your bath to a full-on jet spa experience. The bubbler hangs over the side of your tub to provide two jets of adjustable streams, taking water in on either side of the device to give continuous aeration action.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference when it comes to self-care. If you’ve ever bristled at trying to smooth on cold lotion after a nice warm shower or bath, the A&A Oil and Lotion Warmer may be just the thing. The lotion and oil dispenser saves you the time and trouble of warming up lotion in your hands, heating the product you choose to 140 degrees. Available in a few natural shades, the warmer offers a techy solution to your skin care regimen.
A digital shower installation is the thing luxury bathrooms are made of. Whether you’re hoping to bring the spa feel home or you miss the extravagance of an upscale hotel, Moen can transform your shower. Once installed, the device can be controlled with touch or via an app, and is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit/Siri and Google Assistant, allowing for voice control. Customize your shower day to day with just the right temperature, make your own presets or set a shower timer to ensure you stay on schedule.
Kohler’s Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror with Amazon Alexa
Smart mirrors are another item you may have enjoyed in a chic hotel that you can now make a reality at home. Byecold’s Vanity Touch Mirror provides an adjustable backlight, defogging function, clock, as well as the weather forecast made easily visible as you consider your outfit for the day. Or take things up a notch with Kohler’s Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror with Amazon Alexa. At a $1,065.35 list price, the Kohler mirror can connect to Bluetooth, take voice commands, and play music, offering you the most soothing—or exciting—way to prep for bedtime or primp for a night out.
For those interested in adding a bidet to their existing toilet, the Tushy Spa 3.0 may be the perfect choice that won’t break the bank. As toilet paper became hard to come by for some in 2020, many people began turning to bidets as an alternative, or addition, to their current setup. As the product offers an adjustable warm water spray, Tushy even argues it’s an eco-friendly choice, eliminating the need for toilet paper altogether.
Apologies to the kitchen sink. This all-important fixture in what is often a favorite room in the house has been done dirty—literally. We toss in the food scraps and pile up the dishes until it’s a mess we’d rather walk away from. It’s time for a fresh start. With a bold, efficent new basin and a beautiful faucet, the sink can shine once again as the focal point of the kitchen.
Function and style converge with multi-purpose workstation sinks, designed to simplify prep work for putting together a meal and free up valuable counter space. Tuck dirty dishes on the rack below (protecting the sink from scuffs) while chopping veggies on the cutting board and storing freshly washed ingredients in the basket, which allows water to filter through.
photo BOCCHI Forte 30in in Matte Black
Black & Bold
Matte black is trending in the kitchen, and can complement modern or traditional styles depending on the piece. Black can add character to a wood and white kitchen, or stand out against bold cabinets.
Natural Stone
These durable sinks come in a variety of styles and colors. Use the same material for countertops to acheive a uniform look and enjoy having only one type of surface to clean.
Touchless Options
U by Moen’s Sarai
A motion-activated faucet can come in handy when hands are full or dirty. Many brands now integrate with home voice assistants, and some even have commands that follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention handwashing guidelines.
Two-Tone Faucets
Kallista’s Juxtapose
Mixing faucet finishes can add subtle character to the kichen sink. This slim, minimalist faucet mixes matte black and brushed moderne brass accents for a fixture with function and style.
Copper Finishes
KV1 faucet by Vola
Warm, yellow metals are trending, so expect to see more bronze, brass and copper used for fixture finishes, as well as rose gold or champagne bronze.
From teeth brushing after breakfast to bubble baths before bedtime, a bathroom where children start and end each day should be playful, yet practical. Kids grow up fast, so before installing toddler-sized toilets and bright-colored countertops, consider ways to make effective use of your family’s space with features that can change with a child’s tastes. With an eye on safety, easy access and organization, here are some kid-friendly ideas to help you make bath time lots of fun.
Play it safe
Before fun themes or color schemes, bathroom design should always start with safety first to protect children from common hazards such as slipping, scalding and everyday curiosity. Prevent trips and falls with floor fixes such as bath mats, decals or anti-slip tile treatments. Cover sharp faucets with spout guards and install removable grab bars to help little ones in and out of the tub.
Also, kids love to test everything—from water temps to electric hairdryers—so you should, too. Inspect each part of the room for potential danger zones; check that shelving is secure, appliances are unplugged, and the water heater is set to no more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Most importantly, make certain breakable glass, chemicals and medicines are removed or kept out of reach by adding childproof locks to cabinets or drawers.
photo Dan Cutrona Photography
On their level
As children learn self-care routines, it is important to ensure that everyday tasks are accessible. Help kids reach new heights with a small step stool (or two) that allows them to climb up to the sink without adult help. A stool should be sturdy, but still easy to carry so it can travel from countertop to toilet and tub throughout the day.
Another way to achieve a child-sized setup? Think short. When little hands need washing or want to grab a towel, make things easier by stocking appropriate supplies at their height; set folded towels in a nearby basket or beneath the vanity, and keep toilet paper in an easy to reach drawer. Install an adjustable hand shower to simplify bathing small children (and shower cleanup!) and assist older kids’ transition from baths to showers.
photo Jeff Herr Photography
Fun in store
Small kids make big bathroom messes—from towels tossed on the floor to drawers overflowing with toothpaste and toys—so “storage before style” is a good rule of thumb to reduce clutter. Arranging items effectively and creating easy cleanup habits can encourage kids to get on board with an organized bathroom that they can keep tidy (mostly) on their own.
For starters, select a bathroom vanity with both counter and cabinet space, or outfit an existing pedestal sink with shelving units. Second, opt for extra hooks (anchored or over-the door) that can hang more towels than traditional racks and allow kids to skip folding without looking sloppy. Minimize the rest of the mess by designating water-resistant storage bins to drain and contain bath toys as well as a hamper to keep dirty clothes under control.
Fair and share
Sharing a bathroom with siblings or occasional guests calls for a smart, squabble-free layout that creates extra elbow room for all. Speed up morning routines and cut back on kids’ clashes by adding double vanity stations or a farmhouse sink with multiple faucets if the room is short on space. Another way to encourage kids to keep things nice and neat is to provide personal storage—separate drawers or different colored caddies can help children visualize and organize their toiletries.
In the end, a family bathroom should be functional for everyone, but also fun. Sprinkle in small details kids will remember— a few playful prints on the wall, animal hooks or a colorful shower curtain add a special touch that can turn bath time into playtime and let delight bubble over.
From spice blends to sourdough starters and air fryers to instant pots, cooking essentials have taken over our kitchens. Home cooking grew exponentially over the past year, both as a diversion and out of necessity. This trend means we’re keeping more food and more appliances on hand. Where do we put it all?
In the quest for efficient storage, savvy home chefs are taking a fresh look at their pantries. Once a black hole of outdated canned goods, crammed with chip bags and dust pans, today’s pantry is transforming into an inviting extension of the kitchen space. A pantry space, large or small, can keep the meal prep humming along in any home.
All it takes is a bit of planning, a few modifications and some really cute baskets.
Photo NEAT Method Pittsburgh
Designing the space
Unless you’re remodeling or designing a new home, upgrading the pantry means working with what you’ve got. Makeover the current pantry, reclaim an underused broom closet or repurpose a vintage armoire. Even a wall along the basement stairs or mud room can serve as pantry space.
First, plan shelving to fit your needs: large, bulky items go on low shelves, where pullout drawers are a plus. Seasonal items like turkey roasters go up high. Everyday items go in-between, on shelves about ten inches deep. For individuals with food sensitivities, avoid cross-contamination with dedicated shelf space for gluten-free or special foods.
To max out the pantry, make your door do more. Sliding doors save space, but traditional doors offer valuable storage territory. Bat-wing door shelves hold spices and small jars. A coat of chalkboard paint turns the door into the family notepad for grocery lists and reminders.
The butler’s pantry, reimagined
Actual butlers are not required to tap into the elements of an old-fashioned butler’s pantry. Installing a countertop between upper and lower shelves adds workspace for a multitude of purposes, like out-of-sight preparations during dinner parties. With electrical outlets, the counter becomes home to the coffeemaker, toaster or microwave, keeping kitchen counters clutter-free.
Busy families use pantry countertops to manage calendars, charge phones and plan meals. Even four-legged family members can claim some pantry space, with a food bowl station tucked into a low slide-out.
Wine lovers might tuck a modular wine rack or fridge below the counter and hang wine glasses on stemware racks above. When your hands are full, motion-sensor switches for LED task and track lighting makes pantry use even easier.
Tip #1: Not every home has a dedicated pantry space, so work with what’s available. Repurpose a closet or armoire or squeeze a narrow cabinet into the space beside the refrigerator.
Photo Andrea Rugg Photography
Hold it! Baskets and containers
When it comes to elevating pantry style, clear containers win the prize. From cereal to baking powder, decanting dry goods into see-through tubs creates a clean apothecary vibe. Whether you choose simple mason jars or a contemporary set, keeping quantities visible means you’re less likely to run out. Look for lids that are easy to remove but air-tight to keep staples fresh.
Clear containers are meant to be seen, but what about pantry items best kept out of sight? Baskets are the unsung hero of the pantry, corralling a mishmash of packaging into low maintenance, easy-to-use boxes. Woven seagrass, wooden crates, canvas, or metal—they snug into shelving and present a uniform, attractive front. Give each basket a theme: one for kids’ anytime snacks, one for grab-and-go breakfasts, one for spur-of-the-moment entertaining supplies. They’re not just for corralling food—baskets work well for art supplies and paper goods.
Pantries are no place for mysteries—every container needs a label. If you’ve got a steady hand, use oil-based metallic sharpies to write directly on the surface or on sticker labels. For those ready for next-level label making, a hand-held label maker may be a worthy investment.
Once the contents of the pantry are in order and labeled, keep organized by putting things away after cooking and carefully restocking after shopping trips.
Tip #2: Keep dry goods organized and easy to find by using clear containers, baskets and even turntables, which offer convenient access to items. Use sharpies, stickers or a hand-held label maker to keep track of what’s in every container.
Photo John Ellis Photo
Craving color
Pantries can be a great place to add colorful accents to liven up an otherwise neutral kitchen and dining area in the home. Try painting the pantry door a vibrant color such as a bold blue or green. If the door has a window to see inside or will be open most of the time, consider the colors of containers, foot stools, small appliances and other items on display inside the room, too.
Wallpaper is once again a popular way to add color and fun designs onto the walls of a room. Choose from a growing number of peel-and-stick varieties to quickly change the look and feel of the pantry. This type of wallpaper is renter-friendly and a great way to test out new décor without a significant commitment.
With a little planning and organization, some labels and a touch of color, the pantry can be a functional and fun addition to any kitchen.
Tip #3: Consider ways to add a pop of color to the pantry, which can liven up an otherwise neutral kitchen area. Try painting the pantry door a bold color or adding peel and stick wallpaper to a pantry wall.
Spring in the high desert is a tenuous affair. Crazy temperature shifts, snacking wildlife and low rainfall make gardening a task that requires constant vigilance. With so many uncontrollable factors, garden specialist Joel King of High Desert Ranch and Home suggested starting this spring with something you can change: the soil.
Chem 101
Although there are general characteristics of soil in Central Oregon—alkalinity, for instance—knowing particular deficiencies makes treating soil appropriately much simpler. Test kits are easy to find at any garden supply store, and most are user-friendly.
Opt Organic
Central Oregon’s soil lacks nutrients left behind by decomposing organic matter. “In the valley, they have about five percent organic matter in any given sample. Here we have .5 percent to none,” said King. To compensate, King recommended finding compost with food waste included. One option is “EcoScraps,” an Oregon-based compost brand. Look for “food-based” or “food-added” products, which will be full of beneficial micro-organisms.
Root Problems
It’s easy to forget that Central Oregon really is a desert. “Because we don’t get much rain,” said King, “the soil here tends to be alkaline. We also have ‘volcanic flour,’ which can get compacted and restrict both water and air movement.” Water-hold products, such as coco fibers, can help make the soil more porous. Adding a symbiotic fungus called mycorrhizae around plant roots helps them absorb nutrients. This is because the fungus produces its own hairs-breadth tendrils that can reach water, minerals and vitamins that would elude thicker roots.
Ground Control
Treat specific deficiencies found in the soil test. If your garden lacks magnesium or calcium, lime will help. Sulphur and iron add acidity. Pay attention to the NPK (nitrogen-phosphate-potassium) value in fertilizer, which should be 3:1:2 in this area. Nitrogen ensures above-ground growth, phosphate improves stem, bloom and root health and potassium aids the passage of water through cell walls in a dry climate.
Plan Ahead
It pays to put thought into plant protection and garden design long term. “One big challenge here is the way temperature fluctuates,” said King. Protective measures will depend on your yard. Windbreaks, rock beds, raised beds, greenhouses and cold frames could all be important. Many gardeners also keep thermal protectors on hands, so if they see a cold night projected in April, or August, they can cover their plants to survive the freeze.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in March, 2018.
When Jim Norman graduated college, his mom presented him with a couple of men’s business suits, an appropriate gift for a future junior executive who had just earned a degree in business finance. The suits were of no interest to Norman, who quickly decided a summer spent working construction for his uncle in Montana sounded more appealing.Earning $4 an hour, he started to learn the building industry, and soon enough he was eager to start a business of his own.
Norman and his wife arrived in Bend in 1977, and started talking to banks about building speculative homes in their new city. “We found Bend, and we fell in love with it,” Norman said. “There were only 15,000 people at the time, and it was a whole different place.”
Slowly the new business, Norman Building & Design, left behind spec home construction in favor of custom projects, with the quality and finishes getting more complex and finer over time.More than four decades later, Norman Building & Design has evolved into one of the region’s most highly regarded custom home builders, sought after by current and prospective residents looking to build their dream homes. The company’s solid foundation and core values, created in those early years by Norman, are poised to carry on as his son-in-law, Brian Murphy, takes the torch and the company looks towards a bright future in Central Oregon.
Building the Business
The Norman Building team has developed over the years, but family remains an integral part of the company. Jim Norman’s brother Ron Norman and nephew David Norman are project managers, and Jim’s son-in-law, Murphy, was named president in 2018. They’re some of about thirty employees total that provide a range of skills, from general labor and carpentry to interior design, cabinetry, doors and furniture and office staff.
Bringing so many artisans in-house is a strategy Norman Building & Design has used to make the construction process more efficient and higher in quality. In the early days, Norman learned how to be a general contractor and home designer, managing home builds and taking on many roles, while working with other professionals who specialized in things like cabinets or doors. As time went on, there was a realization that the more the company could do in-house, the better. Rather than coordinating with an outside cabinet builder, they hired their own to be a permanent staff member. The same was done with interior design, doors and furniture. The setup allows for stronger collaboration between each craftsperson, and simpler communication between builder and homeowner. “Our philosophy is to honor the voice of the client at every step of the process from floor plan design to the hand off of keys and beyond” Murphy said.
Trusting the Process
Another strategy of Norman Building & Design is the company’s commitment to transparency, building trust with homeowners through an open communication process, contracts with fixed prices and a top-notch warranty once the home is done. “When you move in, you’ll tell your friends you had an awesome time building your dream home,” Murphy said. That start-to-finish process of helping someone create their dream home is what attracted Murphy to the industry, he said. After meeting Jim Norman’s daughter Jenny in college, he spent a summer in Bend working as a general laborer at age 19. He returned years later, after graduating with a degree in math and economics, to join the Norman family business. “I think the most fun part for me is building a relationship with our clients based on a mutual desire to turn a slice of Central Oregon into a dream home they will be proud of for years to come,” Murphy said. Once a home is completed, the builders stay in touch with the homeowners for years to come, backing up their work through a warranty. Now that the business has been around for so long, they’re also getting more requests for small or large remodeling projects, refreshing Norman Building homes (and other high-quality builds) ready for a fresh look or design.
A New Generation of Norman
In the four decades since Norman first landed in Bend, he’s watched the community change and grow, and his company do the same. “It’s been incredible,” Norman said. “And it’s amazing the reputation of our company has grown so much.” When picturing what Norman Building & Design would become in the future, Norman said it was time to pass the company along to his son-in-law, who in 2021 will have been with the company fourteen years. “I’m really fortunate to have somebody like Brian, who has the same moral values and wants to do the right thing for the client,” said Norman, who along with Murphy expresses a genuine passion for creating dream homes for their clients. “It’s more about doing what’s right for the client, and doing something very creative and having fun with it,” Norman said. Murphy is poised to apply his fresh perspectives to the company in the future, while also acknowledging Norman’s role in building the business from the ground up. “What he’s created is really special—it’s a unique business model with a solid reputation and many years of success,” Murphy said. “I feel ready and excited to be handed the keys to something like that and take it to the next level.”
Looking Ahead
Central Oregonians familiar with Norman Building can likely pick out one of the company’s homes for its distinctive look, sturdy craftsmanship and fine finishes.While some characteristics of the “Classic Norman Design,” like an open concept with a great outdoor living space won’t change, Murphy is also excited to push the boundaries of what the company has been known for in the past. “Moving into other styles and going in new directions, we are at a very good place as a company, and the team we have assembled here is capable of amazing things,” Murphy said.
While exploring new styles, Murphy said he remains committed as president to carrying on the company’s strong values of high-quality work, innovation and growth, teamwork and having a fun, family-like work environment. These values are also what Andrew Bloo, the company’s new director of sales and marketing, plans to reinforce throughout the Central Oregon community. Together Murphy and Bloo are helping to reimagine the future of the company, including efforts to explore new styles of architectural and interior design, as well as bringing a heightened level of sophistication to the business. “What we want to do is really take that culture of quality that Norman has built his business on, and that commitment to client satisfaction, and really accentuate that culture while reimagining the tools and solutions we employ to achieve that goal,” Bloo said. “It’s taking the spirit of what we’ve done for forty-three years, and looking at new ways of meeting client expectations and achieving that same goal for the next forty-three years.” Bloo joins the Norman team with nearly thirty years of sales and marketing experience in high-tech markets and more than a decade of experience assisting companies navigate strategic pivots and management transitions. “I really believe in this group of talented and motivated people, but more importantly, I believe in Brian’s vision for where he sees this team taking Norman,” Bloo said.
Brian Murphy, Jim Norman and Andrew Bloo
Murphy said that in the earlier years of the company, as a joke Norman had a four-billed hat with different job titles like “project manager” and “accountant” on each side, representing his need to wear many hats and dabble in all facets of the growing business. Today, Norman Building & Design employs many of their own experts, with the skills and passion to push the company forward. Norman is one of those experts, though he sticks to strictly designing new homes these days. “My philosophy is really based on teamwork—my whole goal is building a strong team of trusted experts and surrounding myself with them,” Murphy said. “I’m not going to be the one wearing four hats the way Jim had to, I’m going to build the strong team around me and make sure they don’t have anything blocking them from providing our clients with an exceptional experience.”
Norman Building & Design | 1016 SW Emkay Drive, Bend | normanbuilding.com | 541-389-4245 | CCB#149151
With social distancing guidelines in effect and a limited capacity for all social gatherings, Oregonians are opting to spend more time in nature. Central Oregonians are widely known as a nature loving bunch, but this sudden uptick of usage of our national and state parks and public lands has created some concerns about littering and land management for locals.
These concerns however are shared across the nation, and even the world. International news outlets like the BBC are reporting that littering and general waste management have both become growing issues in places that have seen increased traffic due to COVID-19. Plus, the U.S Forest Service has reported that they are seeing an increase in land abuse related to off-roading and the destruction of natural habitat in the Deschutes National Forest and other nearby areas.
To many Oregonians, news like this creates concern that our natural bounty of parks and forests are not being taken care of or respected. To keep educated and accountable while frequenting public lands, consider following the ideas behind Travel Oregon’s new Take Care Out There campaign.
The campaign runs on three main tenets: prepare, care, and connect.
To prepare, the campaign recommends a boy scout like attitude: plan ahead for varying scenarios that could include anything from extreme weather conditions and injury, to the park bathroom being not stocked or open, which is actually the case in many parks now. Don’t forget to tell someone at home where you are going, and try to keep some extra cash in your pocket to pay for park fees that help keep our land pristine.
To care for our parks, you should stay on marked trails, keep a distance from wildlife for your own safety and theirs, and please only take with you what you brought on the trip. This includes trash, and the campaign emphasizes this point: always take all of the trash that you create, and keep our natural land natural. Not only will this maintain the cleanliness of our parks, but it will also decrease the likelihood of human-caused forest fires.
Lastly, try to connect with yourself, the land, and the people who keep it clean. Follow the rules, but remember to enjoy yourself and to appreciate the incredible natural beauty that we all share. Be polite and greet fellow adventurers and the park staff, but remember to keep a mask handy for any interactions. Always remember to spread goodwill and support your local community. Tell people about the good time you had, and help others create relationships with nature and the rest of their community.
It’s on all of our shoulders to preserve our natural land, our community and our history. By following these guidelines, we can all work together and keep Oregon amazing. Click here to learn more about the Take Care Out There campaign and how you can help.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in September, 2020.
Lindsey Provost was first given Ember, her pet bunny, as an Easter gift six years ago. She quickly realized that bunnies take much more care and maintenance than most people expect. “Bunnies are considered high maintenance pets,” Provost said. “Most people don’t really realize that when they give them out as gifts, because they neglect to do the proper research prior to purchase.”
Bunnies can prove to be a challenge to take care of if pet owners don’t have the time and resources required to care for them. Because of this, the House Rabbit Society estimates that over 35,000 bunnies are given away and abandoned by their owners each year in the U.S alone, and even more suffer from neglect in households that don’t understand how to fully care for them.
That is where Ember’s Wildflower Animal Sanctuary and Bunny Rescue comes in. Provost, the founder and director of the sanctuary, started Ember’s in the beginning of 2019 to address the issue of abandoned bunnies, rabbits and other animals in Central Oregon. “Ember’s is the only sanctuary in Central Oregon that will accept bunnies. While we try to take in any animal in need, our focus is on abandoned bunnies, including those with special needs,” Provost said.
A bunny with special needs often requires special attention, catered to their individual condition. In general, a bunny with special needs can be one with an injury or amputation, as well as elderly bunnies requiring extra care and bunnies born with any kind of medical condition that would render them reliant on human care. “Bunnies with special needs are euthanized too often, and I believe everyone deserves a chance at life,” Provost said.
Since their doors opened, Ember’s has taken in 170 bunnies in Central Oregon. Most of their operations revolve around getting these bunnies ready for their forever-homes, and as a result Ember’s has spayed or neutered 126 bunnies. Out of those, they’ve managed to adopt out over 100 bunnies to caring, educated homes.
“Education is key. We really try to educate every person coming in wanting to adopt a bunny on how high-maintenance they are when cared for properly, and we also provided some adequate supplies for new owners,” Provost said.
Ember’s sanctuary is capable of holding thirty to forty bunnies at a single time, due to a new twenty-six pen bunny barn built earlier this year. They have been able to switch to a waitlist system instead of turning bunnies away due to full capacity.
On Easter weekend, a celebration will commemorate the completion of the barn. This COVID-19-friendly event will allow families to go on an Easter egg hunt featuring real Easter bunnies. Better yet, guests will be able to interact with some of the bunnies and even learn a thing or two about how to care for these animals, should they choose to adopt one.
Omitting lifts entirely, more and more skiers are preferring to travel uphill under their own duress before enjoying a downhill plunge into powder. For many reasons, exploring what lies beyond the out-of-bounds signs of developed ski resorts by backcountry skiing is a popular way to recreate in Central Oregon.
Photo Brandon Nixon
First and foremost, the appeal of escaping crowds motivates many to push into the backcountry. Rather than waiting in lift and parking lines with the masses, skiers are eager to find untracked caches of snow, even at a higher aerobic cost. The harder to reach, the more likely the slopes will be untouched.
For Allison Miles, local avalanche educator and Central Oregon Avalanche Center board member, backcountry skiing reflects a lust to go where no one has gone before. Miles relishes the opportunity to see terrain in its winter coat. “The mountain landscape looks really different during the winter,” Miles said.
Appreciating what motivates a person to venture into the backcountry is one thing. Understanding the gear is another world entirely. Backcountry skiing starts with a piece of fabric, akin to carpet, which is affixed to the bottom of the skis. This “skin” only allows movement in one direction—uphill. Specialized backcountry skis are also equipped with heel lifts which help reduce leg strain during what can be hundreds to thousands of feet ascending.
Photo Brandon Nixon
These features are also present on splitboards—the snowboarder’s version of winter backcountry equipment. For both backcountry skiing and snowboarding, when it’s time to cruise down slope from the top of the hill, skins are removed, heels are lowered and a split board is transformed back to a single plank.
Other requisite gear (besides that which you’d bring on the lifts or for a winter hike) includes a backcountry specific pack, avalanche beacon, probe and shovel. More on this in the safety section.
Wintertime solitude, scouting fresh tracks and touring the seemingly uncharted acres are just a few cherries on the summit Sundays calling many a snow enthusiast into the backcountry.
Top Destinations
The Cone
Adjacent to Mt. Bachelor’s West Village parking lot, the Cone is the best place to start for beginners and a tried-and-true escape for quick sunrise or sunset sessions. With a descent of just more than 700 feet and a friendly gradient, this is a welcoming destination to those just getting their feet wet, or for those in a time crunch. Mt. Bachelor has guidelines on uphill traffic routes. Check the website for best practices. New this year: Reserve a free parking pass to enter the parking lot.
Tumalo Mountain
East of Mount Bachelor, across the saddle of the Cascade Lakes Highway, Tumalo Mountain beckons. While Tumalo can also be skied on a time crunch, the ascent is 1,900 feet over a three-mile cross section and conditions can vary. Access can be found from Dutchman Sno-Park. To ensure parking, a pre-sunrise departure is recommended as snowmobilers and Elk Lake Lodge visitors also utilize this modest lot. Routes up vary and are all up the west face. Once at the top, some choose to descend the same route traversed for summiting, while more experienced enthusiasts may choose to drop down the steeper east face. The route out after the east face descent circumnavigates the shaded, often icy, north face of Tumalo.
Photo Brandon Nixon
Broken Top Bowl
Shaped like a massive concave jagged bowl, Broken Top is located to the northeast side of Mount Bachelor. The seven-mile approach to the south face can be accessed by a thirty-minute snowmobile ride from Dutchman Sno-Park to the wilderness boundary near Todd Lake, with miles of hiking to follow. Many decent lines can be chosen from the summit ridge of Broken Top, all corresponding and named in reference to a clock face. This adventure can be accomplished in one day or some make it an overnighter. Because of the endurance and distance, consider contacting Oregon Ski Guides and enlist the services of a professional guide.
Photo Adam McKibben
Safety & Avalanches
‘Know before you go’ is a quintessential phrase for the backcountry. This includes having proper equipment like an avalanche beacon, receiving knowledgeable instruction on how to use it and learning how to read snow conditions. Backcountry certifications are given in the form of American Institute of Avalanche Research and Education course levels 1-3. Trip check and conditions report tools include Central Oregon Avalanche Center and Northwest Avalanche Center. Be sure to adhere to leave no trace ethics while exploring. Be kind to the land and the people, and mind parking and trail etiquette.
Hire a guide
Oregon Ski Guides & Timberline Mountain Guides
For glacier skiing at Mount Hood, a Broken Top bowl tour, a guide for a day tour or an educational intro to backcountry skiing or riding, contact these professional guides.
Three Sisters Backcountry
Need avalanche training? Want to check out Tam McArthur Rim or travel hut to hut, yurt to yurt? Then these are the knowledgeable guides you are looking for.
Growing up 56 miles east of Prineville on a cattle ranch along Beaver Creek, artist Greg Congleton learned to never throw anything away. “You just never knew what might be useful one day,” he said. Back then, a scrap pile was an important resource to keep ranch equipment running; today, a scrap pile represents creative potential for Congleton. Rusted axe blades, dilapidated gears and worn-out springs are piled outside his workspace—items that could be mistaken for junk, but instead are the raw material from which he draws out magnificent beasts, regal personages, and scenes redolent of Central Oregon’s frontier past.
Congleton got his start at the age of 16 through an art correspondence school. He studied this way for a few years until the rigors of college forced him to focus on his bachelor’s degree. For twenty-eight years, Greg ran a Bend-based construction business while raising his family. After his children had grown, Congleton turned his focus to his art. In 2001, he took a weeklong sculpting workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona. He initially started with bronze, then moved toward sculpting in steel with found objects. It was partly thrift, but Congleton was also motivated by the joy and raw creativity he found in making a unique and valuable work of art from something that had been cast away.
Congleton’s talents in both carpentry and drawing have a place in his art. He builds the foundation of his sculptures much as he would frame a home. Every line is measured, and every angle is exact. The endoskeletons, as he calls the interior support structures, are perfectly engineered to bear the weight of the hundreds of pounds of steel they must hold. He draws sketch after sketch and studies structural models of humans and animals before he ever starts piecing together the rusted metal flotsam that eventually becomes a horse, or a buffalo or a rodeo rider.
In 2019, Greg was selected by the city of Prineville to create a sculpture for a newly built roundabout. The city had a theme in mind—a high-spirited rodeo horse named War Paint who threw off nearly every rider. There’s a bit of Prineville in this story. There’s grit, determination and a sense of identity. There’s the will to hang on, even when things get tough. This town was built by people like this. People like Congleton’s granddad, Charles, who established a cattle ranch in the early 1900s. People like Congleton’s parents, Lowell and Florence, who met as shipyard welders during WWII. And people like Congleton himself, who built homes and businesses around Central Oregon to make a life for himself and his family.
Once Greg has a solid sculpture armature, it’s time to choose the layers that will differentiate this sculpture from any other. The selection is deliberate. Humor and storytelling play a large role. Four-inch wood screws and nuts create the cowboy’s head and forks are bent into eyebrows and hair. Two manure forks become a rib cage with an oil pan for a chest. The cowboy’s chaps are made from metal grating, lending the rider a subtle sense of movement. A conveyor chain represents the horse’s backbone that bucked so many hopeful riders. Inside War Paint’s head is an iron level, no doubt an apt choice for this stubborn bronc. Two antique rifles are situated in the horse’s belly along with an iron sign letting the viewer know that “we don’t call 911.” This whole process takes more than six months.
Greg’s unique sculptures have captivated collectors and museums alike. There are several of his sculptures in prominent places around Central Oregon, including pieces in bronze, new steel and found object steel. Each piece tells a story. For War Paint, it’s the story of Prineville’s rugged, pioneering past. The story of holding onto things you might need. It’s the story of building something new from the past. It’s the perfect full circle for an artist who grew from this land and has now left his indelible mark, creating something beautiful from a pile of old parts.
Take your own Greg Congleton tour
Bend
Two Bits, Farewell Bend Park (Found object steel sculpture of a horse pulling logs)
Spires, The Pavilion (Steel sculpture celebrating the athletic attributes of aspire, perspire and inspire)
Redmond
Air Traffic Control, Western ‘Y’ on the road to Sisters (Heroic-sized bronze sculpture of an eagle)
Western Swing, Northern ‘Y’ where 5th and 6th Streets converge (Heroic-sized bronze sculpture of a “cutting” horse, a cowboy and a yearling calf)
Papoose, Redmond Chamber of Commerce (Found object steel sculpture of a Native American woman with a baby)
Prineville
Maverick, Prineville City Hall (Heroic-sized bronze sculpture of a cowboy and two horses)
War Paint is currently on display at the Prineville Courthouse through April. It will be installed permanently in the Tom McCall roundabout on Highway 26 before the grade descending into Prineville.
In some ways, Placed: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon is exactly what it sounds like. Locals who pick up a copy will recognize some of the topics right away—Pandora moths, Sparrow Bakery ocean rolls, wildfire, juniper trees and the specific way our red-tinged volcanic dust smells.
But really, Placed is much more. The anthology, released last fall, takes care to go beyond the typical Central Oregon grist and delve deeper. Edited and privately funded by Ellen Santasiero and Irene Cooper, Placed is organized into an encyclopedia format, an A-to-Z of all things high desert.
Initially, five women came together to work on the encyclopedia after getting the idea from former Oregon poet laureate Kim Stafford. “It was really with a wink and a nod, you know? Here’s this thing, go do it,” Cooper said. The group got started, then hit a big snag—a global pandemic. Santasiero and Cooper decided to press on and complete the project.
The result is a broad look at Central Oregon in all its diversity, and lack thereof. Placed doesn’t read like a practice in creative nonfiction. There are poems, expository writing, even a work of fiction. And its voices are not typical, either. Small regions like Central Oregon tend to have insular communities of writers, and this book goes beyond that cadre of the usual suspects, grabbing work from professional writers and newbies.
Cooper said the group started by asking people they knew from their writing network to submit two pieces, each under 800 words. Then the group talked about what topics they knew they’d want included, for example a piece on the local food scene. Turns out, one of Santasiero’s neighbors worked for High Desert Food & Farm Alliance, and while she wouldn’t call herself a writer, she had written a piece about her work for friends.
At times, the book can feel a bit disjointed, jumping around the landscape and from idea to idea. But that approach becomes part of the charm. This motley band of writers reveled in Central Oregon’s natural beauty, and then added its own twists. “We didn’t talk about it,” Santasiero said of the variety of styles and ideas featured in the book. “It wasn’t an overt thing. We just feel like writing is writing, and a different genre can reveal the optics or subject in a different way. We just left the doors wide open and were excited to see what we got.”
Those who pick up the book may notice it’s labeled as volume 1. There’s no funding for another volume, said Santasiero, but she is hopeful Placed will garner attention and lead to a second edition. “It’s this sort of glimmer in our eye right now because this was a labor of love. I have faith, but it’s just going to be an organic process.”
Cooper, for her part, believes there are plenty of topics that haven’t been touched yet. “There’s more to say about how people have navigated lockdown and quarantine. There’s more to say about what relationships and what community looks like in the past year,” she said. “I think one of the things I’m fairly impassioned about is avoiding the socioeconomic homogeneity that has affected so many towns in the West. That’s always been a concern of mine—hearing from people whose voices are fairly soft in the community. If we were to cast our net again, I think we’d be pleasantly surprised by what we’d find.”
“I would call it my love letter to Central Oregon,” Santasiero said. “I moved here thirty-one years ago, and I’ve made a really good life in Central Oregon. I think of it that way, it’s something I feel like, personally, is giving back to the community that has supported me.”
Pick up Placed in Bend at Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, Roundabout Books, the Bend Store or The Workhouse, or order through your favorite bookseller.
Photo of Courtney Drewsen at Smith Rock by Paul Nelson
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in 2018
Time to lace up sneakers, skip the treadmill and hit the trails.
Summer and fall bring ample opportunities for trail running in Central Oregon. Spring, however, is a different story, as higher elevation trails can still be snowed in. Here, three local runners share their favorite trails for running in Central Oregon in the spring.
Kari Strang
“For getting in some hills early spring I like to run the Summit Loop and Misery Ridge out at Smith Rock, and once snow starts to melt off more, Tumalo Falls up to to Happy Valley. Earlier in the spring I like to run the Deschutes River Trail, Horse Butte and Horse Ridge (out east), and Peterson Ridge (in Sisters). Running along the Metolius out past Sisters is also nice that time of year. And of course, Shevlin Park is always beautiful and easy to access for a nice spring run.”
Trails
Misery Ridge | About 1-mile, but entirely uphill Tumalo Falls to Happy Valley | 10 miles Deschutes River Trail | Old Mill Loop is about 6 miles Horse Butte | 10 miles Horse Ridge | 30 miles of trails to choose from Peterson Ridge | 16 miles of trails to choose from
Lucas Alberg
Photo of Lucas Alberg by Nate Wyeth
“An area developed by the Deschutes Land Trust, the Whychus Canyon Preserve has canyon views, mountain views and in the springtime, plenty of wildflowers to view as well. Classic high desert flora such as balsamroot and lupine litter the steep canyonsides and provide some nice color as you run up and down nature’s version of a stair workout.
The Tam-a-láu Trail is one of those hidden gems in plain sight. Most Central Oregonians have probably never heard of it, let alone run on it, but certainly know where it is. Situated atop the high plateau above the confluence of the Deschutes, Crooked and Metolius Rivers at the Cove Palisades State Park, the trail is a perfect springtime run. Summer crowds—and heat—have yet to come, and you’ll most likely have all the views to yourself.
The springtime wildflowers on Lookout Mountain in the Ochocos are likely to be out by late May or early June. One of my favorite loop runs, this classic 7-mile loop highlights some of the region’s best, including balsamroot, lupine, shooting star, mountain bluebell, Indian paintbrush, larkspur, and columbine.”
Trails
Whychus Canyon Preserve | 7 miles Tam-a-láu Trail | 7 miles Lookout Mountain | 7 miles
Courtney Drewsen
“Springtime I like to run at Smith Rock because the wildflowers are beautiful along the trails and the temperatures are not too hot like they can be in the summer out there. Also, the Deschutes River Trail between Meadow Picnic Area and Benham Falls is very scenic. The colors in the flowers and trees come out with great contrast against the lava rocks.”
Trails
Smith Rock | Lots of different trails to choose from, easy to moderate routes Meadow Picnic Area to Benham Falls | 6.5 miles Shevlin Park | A lot of trails to choose from with varying lengths
On all these great local trails, be sure to keep a mask handy and to maintain your distance from other people and groups on the trail. Please mask up when passing other groups, or when keeping six feet away is impossible. Let someone know where you’re going before you take off, stick to the trail and have fun!
We may think our lives today are drastically different than those who lived 100 years ago. But one spot in West Bend has remained true to its origins in many ways, reminding us life might not be quite as different today versus yesterday as we might think.
Today in operation as the cafe-style restaurant Jackson’s Corner, the building at 845 NW Delaware Avenue was long known to locals as Delaware Grocery. Constructed just outside what used to be the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Mill, the originally Dutch Colonial-style building is estimated to have been built between 1921 and 1923, receiving major renovations about fifteen years ago, according to records at the Deschutes Historical Museum.
Jackson’s Corner owners Aaron Christenson and Parker Vaughan
Aaron Christenson, co-owner of Jackson’s Corner, said from the restaurant’s opening in 2008, the founders wanted it to maintain the feeling of a neighborhood grocery. They created a market-cafe ambiance and style, including the sale of some groceries such as bread and pasta made onsite, plus beer, wine, milk and eggs, explained Christenson, who was a manager of the restaurant at the time it opened.
The restaurant leases the building, yet the building largely defines the restaurant. “The building is a huge part of who we are, so we have to reflect back on who we are, and carrying that legacy,” Christenson said. Beyond selling groceries and hosting tenants in apartments upstairs, the old building’s purpose has been maintained in the community feel of the operation, he explained.
At its start, the neighborhood provided housing for mill workers and their families, as evidenced by the many charming 100-year-old homes that remain today. Sometimes referred to as the oldest grocery store in Bend, Delaware Grocery benefited from its primo location just outside the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Mill gate. In one year during the 1920s, the business did $96,000 in gross sales, with $90,000 as the cost of the goods, according to The Bend Bulletin. In the 1920s, $6,000 was a sizable profit, considering for example that 10 pounds of sugar could cost just 85 cents, according to one 1924 ad for the store.
Deleware Grocery during renovation in 2005
The original grocery store was built for brothers and Bulgarian immigrants Mike and John Todoroff in the early 1920s. The men had arrived in La Pine in 1911. The brothers would later sell the building to Nick and Lillian Peterson in 1926. Born Nicklos Panagiotous, in Cletchos, Furnas, Greece, Peterson and his brother arrived in the United States as teenagers and worked their way west. Peterson filed for a homestead near Brothers in 1910, later receiving many medals for his service in World War I from April 1918 to May 1919 in France. After returning to Bend and working for the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Mill until 1926, he bought the grocery building with the apartments above.
Peterson and his wife Lillian enlarged the grocery and shepherded the business through decades, before passing it on to their son George Peterson in 1971. All in all, the Peterson family would own the local grocery for more than seventy-five years, and at times, live above the store among other tenants. Bonnie Peterson, daughter-in-law of Nick and Lillian Peterson, worked to get the building a historical landmark designation in the late 1980s.
In addition to serving as a neighborhood grocery and an easy spot for mill workers to stop in on their walk home, Delaware Grocery was also an ice house from 1936 to 2004. Before refrigeration was commonplace, ice was needed for perishables, including to stock ice boxes in people’s homes. Even after refrigerators became more prolific, Delaware Grocery adapted to provide ice for personal coolers, wholesale and commercial use, and blocks for ice sculptures.
The store shows up in The Bend Bulletin archives over the years, most of the time in its print ads. But the grocery store address also showed up in a regular hospital ins and outs column by St. Charles, which announced not only when people entered and exited the hospital but also printed the patient’s home address right along with it. Some of the Peterson family birth announcements were made in this fashion.
Jackson’s Corner, present day
A series of ads in the 1920s also promoted grocery delivery. Featuring a cartoon of a crank phone’s handpiece holding a picnic basket, the ad suggested “send the phone for groceries.” Christenson was intrigued to hear how Delaware Grocery had pushed for grocery delivery, as the restaurant is encouraging phone orders for pick-up today. As Jackson’s Corner adapted its service model in 2020 to focus on takeout, it bumped up some grocery item offerings again, too.
If the occasional challenges of operating a modern-day restaurant in a century-old building, from decades-old brick walls to the occasional drafts to contend with, weren’t enough to remind Christenson of 845 NW Delaware’s roots, there are always those little loops like those that remind the Jackson’s Corner crew that they were, and are, an anchor in the neighborhood. While today, it’s pizza and pasta being sold instead of 100-pound bags of potatoes, the business is still a “neighborhood-first place.”
“People could view it as a con but I would view it as a pro—we have to hold ourselves accountable to being the next door neighbor,” Christenson said.
On a summer day in Bend, between the chaos of tubers navigating the rushing rapids and swirling eddies, a series of bobbing snorkels emerge from the river’s surface. These likely belong to some of Bend’s aGood Samaritan treasure hunters, better known as the group, Loot the Deschutes (LTD).
About eight years ago, Lled Smith and his friends started diving to clean up a growing amount of trash near the Bend Whitewater Park where they surfed. Smith began finding items that river goers had lost and created a Loot the Deschutes group Instagram page to reunite the goods with their owners.
LTD is more “organic than organized,” said Smith, and today the group is made up of about 12 volunteers who are motivated by a similar mission: to leave the river better than they found it. Two of these volunteers, Radley “Rad” Clothier and Lutra Wong, are regular divers who join Smith in what they describe as the thrill of river scavenging.This pull of the unknown—the uncovering of forgotten relics and the hunt for sentimental possessions—calls to them. To this crew, it’s more than just a pastime; it’s a unifying connection that showcases the inherent good of people who love Bend and call it home.
“It certainly has an addictive nature,” Clothier described. “It’s the rush of finding something that you can tell has a story behind it, and then figuring out that story.” Their finds capture snapshots of tragedy and awe, sentiment and utility, and sometimes even comedy. “We find so many socks,” shared Clothier. “I mean, who is wearing socks at the river?” he exclaimed incredulously. “And the left shoe. Always just the left shoe,” Wong chimed in. The divers have inside jokes about the excitement of finding a marble, their growing collection of mismatched Crocs, and occasionally items from decades past, such as vintage tools, Model T tires and antique glass jars.
Wong, a purist who has been free diving without a wetsuit for 14 years, dives almost every summer day while her husband floats on a paddleboard next to her, gathering the items she recovers. She shared a story about one dive that led to a literal treasure chest, found about 25 feet below the Mirror Pond bridge. Inside was a grandmother’s collection of costume jewelry that had been missing for seven years.
Most days, it is fins, clothing and items accidentally dropped overboard. Scavenging has spun off to create an unexpected hobby for Clothier, as he uses his sewing skills to make loot bags out of the discarded netting from inner tube bottoms, which the divers have affectionately named “Rad bags.” These come in handy especially on holiday weekends, when they will pick up around 50 aluminum cans an hour, along with countless numbers of sunglasses, phones, Bluetooth speakers, a few Apple watches and a discouraging recent uptick of discarded vapes.
Although there has been a noticeable reduction of trash in the riverbed since they started, the growing popularity of Bend’s water activities keep LTD’s volunteers busy. Due to the volume of loot, Smith has a dedicated pick-up box at his house for those who reach out to him in search of a specific lost item. Two of the original divers, Miranda and Kea Eubank, have created a Loot the Deschutes museum at their residence showcasing the most unusual river finds—a mosaic of loss and wonder.
Lled Smith added, “There is always something to be uncovered.” See what other treasures have been uncovered in the Deschutes River by following Loot the Deschutes on Instagram.
Published on March 2021, written by Noah Nelson
When the Bend Whitewater Park opened in 2015, avid surfers descended on the place, including husband and wife Kea and Miranda Eubank, and their friend Lled Smith, who they met on the banks of the Deschutes during the wave park’s early days. But the trio soon discovered two key issues with the new park; it was often too crowded for them to enjoy, and people were leaving behind a lot of their belongings at the bottom of the river.
“You would get to the park and find it too crowded to use, but think to yourself, ‘I still want to get in the water,’” Miranda Eubank said. Already wet-suited up, the crew sometimes went diving as an alternative to surfing in those early days, a choice that eventually led to the creation of Loot the Deschutes, an informal organization dedicated to diving the Deschutes River and reconnecting people with lost items.
According to Miranda Eubank, Smith was one of the first people to ever dive the new section. “You could walk across the walkway, look down and see things shining down there,” Smith said, “I would come up with handfuls of sunglasses.”
The Loot the Deschutes team finds all sorts of things in the river, from license plates to lighters to insulin pumps
As their diving jaunts became more purposeful, whether what the trio found was trash or valuable, they picked it up and stored it in an innertube they pulled along behind them. All of their diving is done without any breathing equipment. So far, they have pulled up nearly 5,000 pounds of trash.
But their finds are definitely not all trash. On one of his dives, Smith recovered a 96-carat diamond ring, glittering at the bottom of the river, and made a Craigslist post to see if the rightful owner would contact him. Six months later, a woman in Texas contacted Smith and told him the story of how she lost it.
“It turns out that the ring was gifted to the woman on her 30th wedding anniversary from her late husband,” Smith said. “She even remembered the moment that a rope caught her finger and just slipped the ring right off.”
Smith shipped the ring back to Texas to be reunited with its owner. After this successful return, Smith created an Instagram page to post pictures of lost items, and Loot the Deschutes was officially born. Since then, the trio have been diving the Deschutes, pulling up anything they can find, and posting on their page to help connect lost items with their owners.
Kea and Miranda Eubank and Lled Smith near the outlet of the Bend Whitewater Park, in a rare moment of rest between dives into the Deschutes
Outside of returning valuables to river goers, the trio also discovered the historical value to their newfound hobby. The Deschutes is the lifeline of Bend, and played a key role in the foundation of the town. Through all of our history, the Deschutes has slowly collected an archival collection that could rival a museum, guarded in its murky depths.
Don’t forget to pay the meter!
Among keys and rings sit relics that remind us of bygone eras: early 20th century longshoreman hooks used at the lumber mill, WWI dog tags (eventually returned to the soldier’s granddaughter), century-old revolvers, and vials of Wild West era medicine fit for a snake oil salesman. All historical recoveries have been kept in a growing collection. Through these relics, we glimpse the lives of people who came before us: the lumber mill worker whose labor helped found the town, the travelling salesman whose life is a reminder of the freedom and lawlessness brought on by the Old West, and the soldier who sacrificed his youth to fight violent nationalism.
With a sudden responsibility to both return lost items and document the past, the trio now find themselves looking to the future. For now, they just want to go with the flow. The plan for Loot the Deschutes is to keep reconnecting people with their lost items, recovering history and having fun.
For any divers looking to loot their own treasure in this river, the trio at Loot the Deschutes has some advice: be careful. Smith was electrocuted when he nearly grabbed an exposed wire underwater, while the Eubanks have had their own close calls. “We see a lot of young people follow in our steps, and we want them to have fun, but the last thing we want is someone to get hurt because they wanted to be like us,” Kea Eubank said.
If you do go diving and find an item that you would like to return to its rightful owner, contact Loot the Deschutes via their Instagram page @lootthedeschutes.
Like buying a car, sometimes you have to test drive a few homes before settling on just the right one. Since visiting Central Oregon in the early 2000s and then moving to the area permanently in 2008, Lisa and Darren Pleasance have owned a vacation cabin and later a house on the Sunriver airport. “It was a pilot’s dream,” said Darren, who flew himself weekly to the Bay Area for his job at Google.
Photo brandon nixon
When they enrolled their two kids at Seven Peaks School, they moved to The Parks at Broken Top in Bend. Darren said he started missing a view, which they’d had in Sunriver. In 2014, a friend gave the couple a lead on 40 acres in Tumalo, with only an abandoned pink single-wide trailer. They got in touch with the owner who told them the property wasn’t for sale. The Pleasances made several offers over the next three years. With hope dimming, they bought a lot with a spectacular view by The Rim in Tetherow and hired an architect to design a home.
And that’s when the owner of the Tumalo 40 acres finally said yes to their offer.
More than a country home
Photo Central Oregon Real Estate Photography
With the Tumalo land now in their possession, the couple made a ten-year plan for the property which would include an equestrian center. While the whole family enjoys riding, Lisa competes at the highest level in the “AA-rated” Hunter and Jumper circuit. Having her own show horses out the back door and a place for others to board, train and rehab their horses was a long-held dream.
Photo Central Oregon Real Estate Photography
For their residence, the couple decided to adapt the Northwest lodge style home intended for Tetherow to the more spacious country site. “We took those plans which included a two-level design and stretched them out into a single floor,” Lisa said.
Capturing the unobstructed views of the Cascade Mountains from Bachelor to Jefferson became the number one priority. “The house was designed to honor the site and maximize the views while maintaining privacy from the equestrian center buildings and clients,” said builder Scott Knox, owner of Madrone Construction. He noted that the “big beautiful front door has spectacular views to the mountains.”
The layout of the 4,400-square-foot residence spreads across a north-south axis, placing the kitchen, dining and living rooms in the middle with wings on either side.
The home is faithful to the lodge style with soaring ceilings, exposed wood inside and out, stone and forged metal accents and arching roof lines. And while the common central area has traditional lodge pieces such as an authentic antler chandelier and a rustic fireplace, the style isn’t overdone. “(Architect John Muir) scaled the home well,” Knox said. He points to the dropped ceilings in the dining room and a slightly different elevation in the kitchen to add human scale.
In the Details
Interior designer Sunny Maxwell added, “while we wanted a ranch-y, comfortable feeling, we tried to avoid the cliché and focused on classic, timeless touches.”
Among the standout features are the hand-scraped, textured hickory floors tough enough to withstand dogs and dirt tracked in from the ranch, a farm kitchen sink made of solid granite and custom fireplace doors, countertops and stove hood forged from zinc by Ponderosa Forge in Sisters. One of the couple’s favorite places is the great room with the view of South Sister and the drink bar and up-lit cabinet that displays spirit and wine bottles for entertaining and for pouring out a glass of wine to enjoy around the outdoor firepit after a long day on the farm.
The master wing includes the Pleasance’s bedroom with a rare feature—views of both the sunrise and sunset from bed. Darren’s office is conveniently located nearby. He now runs the Global Sales Strategy and Operations Teams for the high-tech firm Cisco and has worked from home during the pandemic. “His office was well thought out with a fireplace, providing a nice background for video calls,” Maxwell said.
Photo Central Oregon Real Estate PhotographyPhoto Central Oregon Real Estate PhotographyPhoto Central Oregon Real Estate Photography
One of Lisa’s favorite places is a special purpose mudroom off the master suite. It offers convenient access to and from the horse barn and a place to hang her riding clothes and drop muddy boots before heading straight into the shower or soaking tub.
The other wing consists of their two children’s bedrooms and a combined bunkroom and media room. The large laundry and mudroom off the four-car garage has cubbies and hooks for outdoor gear, and a spacious dog wash for the three Golden Retrievers who cohabitate with the family.
An equestrian center from the ground up
Concurrent with starting the building permit process on the home, the Pleasances began with infrastructure for the equestrian center, which they would call Meridian Peaks Farm. “They’re extremely high touch and knew what they wanted to accomplish,” Knox said. He said they chose to do much of the work themselves when they could easily have outsourced it. For example, Darren rented an excavator, and a friend showed him how to use it to dig a trench for electricity and water lines. Along with contractors, they fenced the entire property, dug a well and installed irrigation to grow hay for horse grazing.
Photo brandon nixon
They finished the first barn in 2018 and within eighteen months added another barn. It contains an outdoor riding arena, a pond stocked with fish, a meandering riding path around the property, a large equipment storage shed and finally an indoor riding arena suitable for competition.
Photo brandon nixonphoto brandon nixon
A lifelong friend and Hunter and Jumper competitor of Lisa’s, Simone Starnes of Starnes Equestrian, runs the training business and manages the clients and their horses while Lisa oversees the day-to-day operations of the entire facility which has grown since its opening in 2018. Another handful of employees help both Lisa and Starnes with chores related to the care of about twenty-five horses on the property. Still, Lisa retains responsibility for feeding and tucking in all the horses each night.
Starnes said the indoor arena is a dream, “built like an upper-class facility with high-end touches but homey and oriented to horses and their riders.” It was built with steel-framing so it could be bigger than wood-framed arenas and to withstand heavy snow loads. Lisa admits her horses are “super spoiled” with heated waterers and their own private turnouts during the day.
With a finished home in the rear-view mirror and a lifestyle complete with show horses, ponies, chickens and dogs, the former Bay Area residents are fully immersed in their new country lifestyle. Neither can imagine living anywhere else.
Amystery fox with a white-tipped tail in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains was recently identified through luck and scientific sleuthing. Spoiler alert: the “suspect” is the Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) a rare subspecies of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes).
Before 2012, sightings of this secretive fox outside of its home range in the Sierra Nevada were few or attributed to another subspecies, the Cascade red fox (V. v. cascadensis). Nevertheless, the fox had been spotted roaming in and around the Three Sisters Wilderness more and more frequently.
To determine the identity, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and partners conducted a research project from 2012 to 2014 utilizing baited camera stations equipped with trail cameras and hair snagging devices. University of California at Davis conducted DNA analysis on the collected hair samples, and the wily fox’s identity was confirmed.
To gain additional information, ODFW live trapped foxes in 2017 and affixed GPS collars to them. “We trapped a total of seventeen unique individual foxes,” said Jamie Bowles, ODFW assistant wildlife biologist. “The goals of our study were to assess the fox’s home range, habitat use and den site requirements.” Along with the GPS data, Bowles and volunteers spent many hours on the ground tracking and observing collared foxes.
Some results? These montane foxes range at elevations from 4,900 to 6,500 feet in mountain hemlock and white bark pine habitats in the Cascades. Their fur-lined feet act like snowshoes enabling the animals to easily move across the snow. Adults usually weigh from eight to ten pounds, and their pelage, or fur, color phases are red, silver, black or “cross” (silver with black across the shoulders and down the back). Prey includes rodents, birds, ground squirrels, snowshoe hares, pika and pine martens.
“We discovered that the foxes have large home ranges for their size, about sixty square miles,” Bowles said. In addition to the forested habitats, the foxes also inhabit high elevation lava flows for hunting prey and denning. Some dens are close to areas of high human use such as Mt. Bachelor parking lots or area sno-parks, which is a concern.
“The number one mortality that I could determine for the foxes during this study was vehicle strikes,” Bowles said. Also, numerous observations indicate the foxes are using ski and snowmobile trails to access warming shelters, perhaps scavenging for food scraps.
If you spot a fox while you’re out recreating, count yourself supremely lucky, but return the favor to nature by not disturbing the foxes or their den, and picking up after yourself and keeping a clean camp when you are out in nature. Welcome the new fox to our region by protecting the “wild” in wildlife.
On a frosty February morning in Bend, the Deschutes River drifts into town, as ducks and geese move about on flat mud banks, exposed by lower winter flows. With temperatures in the 20s, it’s hard to picture the same stretch of river in warmer weather, crowded with innertubes and paddleboards, water flowing a bit faster and higher. By the time the water reaches the Old Mill District, the seasonal highs and lows are hard to spot to the untrained eye, and many would think the river is thriving and healthy. The Deschutes River is the lifeblood of Central Oregon after all—an economic driver, recreation hub, source of irrigation, habitat for fish and wildlife and scenic beauty. The river is dear to many.
Take a closer look at the beloved Deschutes, and it becomes the story of a hardworking river, stretched thin—simply not enough water for everyone hoping to get a bucketful, especially during an ongoing drought. The challenges of overseeing water in the Deschutes River Basin aren’t new, and most agree there are no simple fixes. But, a new Habitat Conservation Plan twelve years in the making provides a glimmer of hope and stability for the future of the river, promising more consistent flows and protections for Central Oregon’s fish and wildlife.
A voluntary effort by Central Oregon’s irrigation districts and the city of Prineville, working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, the plan proposes that irrigators find ways to conserve water and stabilize seasonal flows in the river, and is part of an incidental take permit that will protect the applicants from endangered species litigation in the future. Irrigation districts agree the plan isn’t a comprehensive fix for the river, but believe it’s a great start, taking into account the needs of farmers, fish and wildlife, anglers, conservation groups and the public.
Central Oregon’s water woes are a product of historical practices that haven’t necessarily aged well. In the late 1800s, Congress passed the Carey Act, allowing irrigation companies to set up shop and sell water across the arid west, which a handful did in Central Oregon by 1904. Settlers were offered land in exchange for the cost of water, and irrigation districts followed the state water policy of “first dibs” that remains the foundation for water rights today. Those first irrigation districts established priority dates from 1899 to 1916, which dictate when and if their patrons receive water today. The process is straightforward but antiquated, without built-in protections for fish and wildlife and with no consideration for where farmers or other types of water users end up on the food chain.
In Central Oregon, many commercial farmers end up having the least amount of water, because their location is within a district with lesser rights. “We’re at the bottom of the list,” explained Mike Britton, the manager of today’s North Unit Irrigation District, which provides water to more than 950 patrons across 58,000 acres in Jefferson County. Depending on how the 2021 water year shapes up, farmers in Britton’s district may only receive 1 or 1.25 acre feet of water this summer. Those in the nearby Central Oregon Irrigation District have more senior rights, and are likely to receive triple or quadruple the amount, even though they engage in less farming and many patrons use the water less efficiently.
When Michael Kirsch returned to the farm in Madras ten years after leaving for college and exploring other careers, his dad was there to guide him in operating the 2,000-acre family business. With about thirty-five employees to lead, crop rotations to consider and a budget to manage, Kirsch’s father told him the biggest focus would be on water. “He said the most important thing you’re going to do on this farm is irrigation management,” Kirsch said. This year, the budget calls for letting a third of the farm’s acres go fallow, sitting idle because of an anticipated lack of water for irrigation. It’s an increase from last year’s 28 percent, and a huge hit to the farm, which grows grass and carrot seed, peppermint for oil and seed potatoes, among other crops.
Like others in the North Unit Irrigation District, Kirsch has doubled down on water conservation at Madras Farms. “We implement drip irrigation practices, we have converted flood irrigation farms to sprinkler irrigation and we’ve installed ponds to catch runoff from one farm that is downstream from another,” he said. Kirsch sits on the North Unit board, and agrees with manager Britton that the district is among the most efficient in the state. “North Unit farmers have really been forced to be more efficient with the water they have, simply because they have less of it,” Britton said.
While farmers in the North Unit pride themselves on efficient water use, other landowners like those in the Central Oregon Irrigation District don’t feel the same pressure to use their allocated water so efficiently. If they use less water after all, they’re subject to the state’s “use it or lose it” water policy, so they’re encouraged to understand beneficial uses and use the water in appropriate ways each year. Part of Central Oregon Irrigation District manager Craig Horrell’s work is educating landowners about water policy, understanding beneficial uses, exploring conservation projects and sharing options for landowners who no longer want or need the water rights they have. One option is putting water back into the river with in-stream leasing. “We’re sometimes seen as a waste of water, but we’re making great strides and changes,” Horrell said. “We educate how to use water appropriately.”
photo toby nolan
With a limited amount of water flowing through the Upper Deschutes River each year, irrigation districts work to monitor reservoir water storage, control flows and ensure the water is divided properly among patrons. Water rights call for eighty-six percent of water from the Upper Deschutes to be diverted for irrigation, twelve percent to remain in-stream and two percent for municipal city use (think drinking water, laundry and showers). And while there are many important uses for water diverted, the Deschutes itself must retain some water for fish and wildlife habitats and community use, like fishing and recreation.
The Deschutes River was once called the “peculiar river” for its notably consistent flows throughout the year. But flows have been dramatically altered for the sake of seasonal irrigation, causing damage to riverbanks, according to Kate Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Deschutes River Conservancy. In the winter, water is stored in reservoirs to prepare for spring irrigation, leading to lower flows on the Deschutes. In the spring and summer, the flows are ramped way up for irrigation. “The flow regime of low flows in the winter and high flows in the summer has absolutely devastated the Upper Deschutes River,” Fitzpatrick said.
Seasonal swings were so significant in the early 2010s that flows in the Deschutes were as low as 20 cubic feet per second in the winter and as high as 1,800 cfs in the summer, dictated by climate conditions, dams and water storage practices and irrigation needs. During low flows, fish habitats like those for redband trout are degraded, riverbanks eroded and silt deposited into the river. High flows widen the riverbanks, wash away fish eggs and cause further habitat damage. For the Oregon spotted frog, low river flows have resulted in the loss of many of the once-common frog’s river side-channel habitats. “They’re just hanging on in a few places, where they would have been distributed throughout the river abundantly,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
For fish, erratic highs and lows in river flows affect survival of fish species, and lessen opportunities for recreational fishing. “We need clean, cold water to sustain trout, and if you lower the river enough it’s not as clean and it’s not as cold,” said Tim Quinton, president of Central Oregon Flyfishers, a nonprofit group that promotes catch-and-release fly-fishing, river restoration projects and youth outreach. Quinton recalled a fishing trip to the Crooked River in the winter of 2015-16 when the winter flows had gotten so low, portions of the river were ice from top to bottom. “Obviously fish can’t live in ice,” he said.
The Deschutes River Conservancy and other conservation groups pushed for years to collaborate with irrigation districts in an effort to stabilize seasonal flows, but concrete change never came. In 2007, an effort to re-introduce threatened steelhead in the Upper Deschutes Basin kicked off a process to create the new Habitat Conservation Plan, which aims to ensure irrigation needs on the Upper Deschutes are balanced with fish and wildlife and river health. In recent years, it was the spotted frog that became the impetus of a lawsuit brought on by environmental groups, who argued that irrigation districts in Central Oregon and the Bureau of Reclamation had violated the Endangered Species Act through irrigation practices that harmed the frog’s habitat, and failed to consult with relevant agencies.
A settlement in 2016 required winter flows to be at least 100 cfs for the time being, with hopes the Habitat Conservation Plan would spell out a long-term solution. While better than flows of 20 cfs in the winter, running the Deschutes at 100 cfs still impacts the spotted frog, which biologists have said needs flows of at least 600 cfs to survive.
In December 2020, twelve years after work on the Habitat Conservation Plan first began, a final draft was released, gaining approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The plan puts forth a thirty-year roadmap for stabilizing flows in the Upper Deschutes to lessen such dramatic highs and lows in the river, improving conditions for the spotted frog and various fish species.
Irrigation district leaders are optimistic about the plan, as it lessens the possibility of litigation bringing forth sudden changes in water supply for their patrons, and offers for the first time a real commitment to the future of the river. “There’s accountability,” Horrell said. “I think that’s the big thing. We finally signed on the line and have accountability to put water back in the river and do these projects.”
To accomplish the goals set forth in the Habitat Conservation Plan, irrigation districts must find ways to conserve water, one of which is through large-scale piping projects to modernize delivery systems and prevent water loss. In the Central Oregon Irrigation District, as much as fifty percent of water is lost to seepage through porous lava rock canals, so piping can improve efficiency in the district and free up water for other uses or a return to the river. It’s costly, however. The district plans to undertake as much as $100 million in piping projects over the next ten years, starting with a 7.9-mile stretch of pipeline between Redmond and Smith Rock. That $33 million project is estimated to put 33 cubic feet a second of water back into the Deschutes.
Federal grant money to help pay for piping is attractive to irrigation districts, but shouldn’t be their only focus, according to river advocates like Tod Heisler, rivers conservation director for Central Oregon LandWatch and former executive director of the Deschutes River Conservancy. Heisler would like to see irrigation districts focus more on true conservation of the water—teaching landowners to irrigate more efficiently and offering incentives to do so, or further developing a water market, where patrons with water rights can lease their allocation to farmers in need or send it back into the river. “It’s very evident that most of their time and effort and focus has been spent on designing and working on this big modernization plan and piping their district,” Heisler said. “But they should still set higher standards—you can’t pipe your way out of a problem for a species that you helped create a threat for.”
Horrell said the district is focusing on more than just piping, with efforts to increase in-stream leasing and encourage on-farm efficiencies. But large piping projects are important too, he said and will give the district a solid infrastructure for the future. “In order to make a change for a long time, we have to invest in the district,” he said.
As of early February, the Habitat Conservation Plan was still under review by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a final cooperating agency that will weigh in on the plan for improvements in the Deschutes River Basin. The more consistent flows that will be achieved as part of the plan are a notable improvement from current river conditions, yet environmental groups worry that the process is taking too long, and that the Habitat Conservation Plan doesn’t spell out exactly how the goals will be achieved. “From our perspective, we have a lot of concerns,” Greenwald said. “Our primary concern is we’re going to get to year eight, and they’re going to say ‘we can’t do this.’”
While the plan doesn’t require higher winter flows on the Deschutes until 2028, a more gradual increase in flows as conservation progress is made is possible, too. “I’m an optimist and I see this as an incredibly positive thing for the Deschutes River, with accountability that’s never been there before,” said Horrell, who has lived and worked in Bend for twenty-three years, the last seven leading the Central Oregon Irrigation District. “Growing up in Oregon and coming to Central Oregon all my life, I’m so excited to see this change in the health of the river.”
Although the plan wasn’t created to address drought conditions, it offers a sense of stability to farmers like Kirsch, who hopes to continue his family farm for decades to come. He’s hopeful that through the steps outlined in the plan, and ongoing conservation efforts across the region, his farm will have a stable source of water, and hopefully more of it, in the future. “It’s never going to be perfect for the farmers, or the recreational group or the fisherman—but we’re all in this together and we need to find ways to make this work,” said Kirsch, who also fishes and enjoys rafting. “As you get older, you learn to really appreciate the river and how it does affect so many people. The water is for everybody, as long as it’s maximized to its fullest potential.”
Over One hundred years ago, the Oregon State Parks Commission was formed. In 1921, road trips as recreation were taking off, and the state commission was tasked with creating state parks for drivers on Oregon’s brand-new highway system to visit for rest, relaxation and exploration.
Photo Sean Bagshaw
Today, Oregon State Parks number more than 250. Nearly a dozen of these are in Central Oregon, where the likes of Smith Rock State Park draws visitors from around the world and Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint delivers 360-degree views in the heart of Bend. But the region’s parks go far beyond those frequently visited favorites. Here are three state parks ripe for exploration—all within an easy day’s drive of Bend and all worth exploring.
George Ostertag / Alamy Stock Photo
La Pine State Park
Just a fifteen-minute drive northwest of La Pine, LaPine State Park teems with outdoor opportunities all year long, but it’s in spring that visitors can quietly explore the park’s ponderosa pine forest ahead of the summer crowds.
A stitched-together network of multi-use trails, totaling roughly 15 miles in all, links together the park’s fun attractions, including “Big Tree”—at about 500 years old and 162 feet tall, the state’s largest ponderosa pine.
The mostly flat paths flank both sides of the Deschutes River, generally remain in the park’s shady forest, and give visitors plenty to see without demanding much effort. “The trail system at LaPine is underappreciated,” said Chris Havel, associate director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. “For people who have generally looked no farther south than Bachelor for outdoor fun, give LaPine a serious look.”
Fort Rock State Natural Area
Tetra Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Fort Rock is a towering near-circle of rock—technically, a tuff ring—roughly a one-hour fifteen-minute drive southeast of Bend in the Fort Rock Basin. In prehistoric times, it sat in the middle of what was once an expansive sea; today, the citadel-like rock formation sits surrounded by a vast, arid region and hosts several easy hiking trails begging for further exploration.
For his part, Havel said Fort Rock sees far fewer visitors than most of the region’s other parks, but that it also hosts colorful springtime wildflower displays and makes a fine gateway to the nearby Christmas Valley region.
White River Falls State Park
Jordan Fox / Alamy Stock Photo
In a sense, one could see all there is to see at White River Falls State Park in just five minutes: White River Falls tumbles ninety feet over a basalt shelf, its plume especially rich in spring, the result of winter runoff.
But Havel said a quick, in-and-out visit doesn’t do the scene justice. “I think you’ll have a hard time leaving the park after you get there,” he said. “It’s so mesmerizing—and the thunderous experience of a fully engaged waterfall coming off the Cascades, you just can’t look away.” The park sits in the Tygh Valley, an hour drive north of Madras, at the site of a decommissioned hydroelectric power plant. Today, a small overlook offers impressive views of White River Falls, and a short hiking trail heads to its base.
Add These to Your Future Road Trip Planner
Here are a few more regional state parks, and why you should visit soon.
Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint: Just a half-hour drive north of Bend, the viewpoint honoring the early fur trader and explorer makes a worthy stop on your way to or from some of the region’s other state parks. The rest area includes a stunning overlook that peers into the Crooked River canyon.
Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site: The one-time Chinese apothecary dates back to 1865 and offers a fascinating look at life in the late 1800s and early 1900s for Chinese immigrants in the community of John Day. “Put it on your ‘life list’ of experiences,” Havel recommends.
The Cove Palisades State Park: Roughly twenty minutes southwest of Madras, the park hosts two seasonal campgrounds, two swimming areas and boat ramps, and several miles of hiking trails, all centered around the manmade Lake Billy Chinook, where the Metolius, Crooked and Deschutes rivers meet.
The Hotel Sisters was built in 1912 and is arguably the most iconic building on the town’s main drag—one of the original old West buildings that inspired an entire Western-themed town. It’s been home to the Sisters Saloon and Ranch Grill since 2016, properly restored to its vintage charm, and continues on as a favorite watering hole of locals and tourists alike.
Head to the patio on the west side of the building, a well-protected space with plenty of tables and heaters. Order an Elmer the Mule to drink—it’s the bar’s version of a Moscow Mule named for Elmer, the Rocky Mountain elk head, who, for years, has kept watch from the saloon’s wall. The local Cascade Street potato vodka gives good earthy character under the spice of the ginger beer and the sweet berry Humm Kombucha. Easy to suck down a few mules under the warm spring sun.
For food, the wonderfully crispy brussels sprouts are charred and tossed with a sharp, tangy balsamic reduction you’ll want to put on everything. Sirloin steak bites are marinated tender, grilled and served with a cool horseradish dip. And the roasted beet and goat cheese salad builds flavors and textures with rich red and golden beets, creamy goat cheese, crunchy slivered almonds and apples, and a light, sweet orange vinaigrette.
Elmer the Mule
1.5 oz. Cascade Street potato vodka
Splash of fruity Humm Kombucha
Ginger beer
Lime wedge
Fill a copper mug with ice. Add vodka and splash of kombucha. Fill the mug to the top with ginger beer. Stir and garnish with a lime wedge.
Henry David Thoreau once said: “Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” In the case of fly fishing, most anglers know exactly what they are after. The allure of fly fishing is one that has been deeply romanticized, so much so that it has been canonized in modern books, movies and TV shows as a sport so spiritual and pure that it is near godly. In fact, the opening line of Norman McLean’s classic book “A River Runs Through It” reads: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.”
Photo by Ryan Cleary
For many, the sport provides an opportunity for a deep connection to nature—to be a part of something greater and be one with it. In today’s technological world, it can also be a way to escape the rigors of a busy and stressful life, and to exist on a more simple and natural scale while in harmony with the surroundings.
“There’s a lot in the sport of fly fishing that takes you away from reality,” said Scott Cook, owner of Fly & Field Outfitters in Bend. “When you’re out there on the water and you’re in a beautiful spot, fly fishing can separate you from all the stresses that are going on in the world.”
This connection to nature, combined with the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, has helped boost the popularity of the sport to record levels. According to the 2020 Outdoor Industry Association report on fishing, a record seven million Americans went fly fishing in 2019.
Central Oregon fly and outfitter shops have seen the demand. “2020 was a record year for us despite being partially closed for six weeks,” said Paul Snowbeck, store manager of Fin & Fire in Redmond. “More people are spending time in the outdoors than ever before and fly fishing takes you to some incredible settings. Trout don’t live in ugly places.”
Photo by Trevor Lyden
Snowbeck said that social media has broadened the sport’s appeal to younger audiences. “Fly fishing is not just an old man’s sport,” he said. “There’s been a massive uptick in female and youth participation.”
This new audience has also injected a much needed energy into the sport, according to Kim Brannock, Bend-based fly fishing apparel and soft goods designer who has worked with brands such as Simms, Patagonia and Redington. “It’s so important for it to feel fun for people,” she said. “The old mentality of it needing to be a ‘gentleman’s sport’ is outdated.”
As a longtime angler, Brannock welcomes the changing of the guard. “When I started fly fishing, it wasn’t cool. There were no girls at all,” she said. “But in the last five years it’s been exponential. Social media has flipped it on its side.”
Both Brannock and Snowbeck caution against getting into the sport solely due to social media, however. “It’s a lot harder to catch the big fish than what you see on your phone,” said Snowbeck. “Unless you’re being taken out with a guide, chances are good you won’t be catching anything all that impressive.”
Brannock said “fishing for likes” has not only created some misperceptions of what fly fishing could be, but also can lead to some bad habits for newcomers. “When people are just starting out, they may not have received the best education on fish practices, such as handling fish or when not to fish, such as during a spawn.” To bridge that gap, Brannock recommends visiting a local fly shop, many of which have free classes and educational events.
Once you’re properly educated, the road of fly fishing can be a long, fulfilling one. “I’ve been fly fishing for over thirty years and I’m still absolutely obsessed,” Snowbeck said. “I do this for a living. And I still do it on my days off. That’s really all you can ask for.”
Getting Your Feet Wet
Photo by Toby Nolan
If you’re just getting into fly fishing, it can be an intimidating sport—the gear, the lingo and the mechanics are just a few areas where one can quickly get in over ones’ head. For instance, a quick search through the beginner’s fly-fishing dictionary on both Orvis and Redington websites yield more than 200 fly fishing terms apiece.
According to Fly & Field’s Cook, the sport doesn’t have to be overwhelming. “It can be as basic as you want it to be, or as complex,” he said. To help break it down, Cook suggests first visiting a local shop. “Find a fly shop you’re comfortable with and look to spend your money there. Learn to cast, get a guide, and go out and experience a day or half day of fishing,” he said. “Test drive it and see if you like it. If you do, then start to build your core knowledge and frequent that shop to build your education.”
Once you get the basics of how and where to fish, practice, practice, practice. “Enjoy the process first—because it’s a process—and the results will eventually come,” said Fin & Fire’s Snowbeck. “There’s always room to grow and evolve. I am still continually learning new things.”
Jesse Armstrong, a Redmond high school teacher originally from Madras, has been fly fishing in Central Oregon since his teens. He notes that the progression of fly fishing is part of the appeal.
“It can be a defeating sport, but you have to know that you’ll learn eventually and when you do, it opens up more possibility and in turn more appreciation.”
Fly fishing begins with learning to cast and tying knots, both activities that can be practiced at home or in a park to help expedite the process. On the river, noticing when a fish has shown interest is usually the next step, followed by learning to set the hook. After, one can focus in on reeling in and landing the fish. Beyond this, there’s a whole separate world to learn around entomology and the feeding habits of fish, along with reading the water and the environment.
In other words, the depth of the sport provides a continual opportunity to learn, which can last a lifetime. And for some like Armstrong, this is the draw. “There’s a reason why anglers are anglers,” he said. “It’s a lifestyle that goes beyond hobby or activity. This is because of the depth—because of the learning, the ability to continue to learn. And on top of it, because it can put you in the most beautiful places in the world.”
Armstrong said he’s begun teaching his two young daughters to fly fish in hopes that the sport will provide them an avenue to appreciate nature in the way it has for himself. “The sport and the connection to the environment you can take with you your whole life,” he said. “You can do it by yourself or with others and go nearly anywhere in the world. It’s a lifetime of learning and connection.”
Central Oregonians are fortunate enough to have some of the nation’s top fly fishing right in our backyard. Cook said the area is a perfect place for new and experienced anglers alike because it provides a rich geographic diversity with some of the best opportunities within close proximity.
“You put an hour radius around our fly shop and you have about twenty-five different locations you can fish,” Cook said. “From higher elevation lakes and streams to lower elevation rivers, we’re surrounded by a diversity of environments and species.”
Fin & Fire’s Paul Snowbeck notes the Crooked and Fall rivers as two great places to start, no matter what your experience. “Both are approachable,” he said. “The Crooked holds several thousand trout per mile so there are a lot more targets—it’s great for beginners and advanced alike.”
Other popular locations to fish are the Upper and Lower Deschutes (the latter of which is known for its steelhead and salmon), the Metolius (known as one of the most difficult rivers to fish) and along the Cascade Lakes Highway, Davis and Hosmer lakes.
Long time locals such as Brannock also point out that there are many locations beyond the popular ones. “People tend to put their focus on a few small areas and there are so many other places to explore,” she said. “I’ve been fishing here nearly a decade and I’m still finding new spots.”
A sport that keeps you learning and exploring beautiful Central Oregon makes fly fishing worthy of your devotion. Fish on!
Photo by Toby Nolan
Fly-Fishing Consists of Five Main Styles:
1. The most commonly known style, Dry Fly Fishing, uses artificial flies that imitate food sources on the surface of the water. Popular in summer months during various hatches.
2. Nymphing is sub-surface fishing mimicking the aquatic insects in their juvenile or larval state. Close to 95 percent of a trout’s diet is below the surface, which makes this an important style to learn for catching fish!
3. Originating in Japan, Tenkara fly fishing is a simple, lightweight approach that uses a rod but no reel. Great for backpackers and hikers who want to fish alpine lakes and streams.
4. Spey Rod Fishing uses a longer, heavier two-handed rod and is used primarily for catching fish such as salmon and steelhead in larger rivers like the lower Deschutes.
5. Saltwater Fly Fishing, the only style not readily accessible in Central Oregon, uses streamer (bait) fishing techniques to catch saltwater fish, mostly in the Americas and tropics.
Fly fishing gear can quickly add up, both in quantity and in price. Snowbeck said it doesn’t have to be an expensive sport to start, however. “Let the employees at your fly shop know your budget, and they’ll work with you,” he said. “There are some great rod and reel combos for under $200 which will get someone out the door fishing comfortably.”
If line management seems overwhelming, Brannock recommends beginning with a Tenkara rod, a simpler form of fly fishing popularized in Japan that uses no reel at all. “The Tenkara rod is a gateway drug to fly fishing,” she said. “It’s got a low barrier to entry from a cost standpoint and it’s something you can take with you hiking or mountain biking, which is perfect for around here.” Brannock said when it comes down to it, you can be fishing with three items. “A Tenkara rod, a spool of flies and a bit of tippet is all you need to start. From there, you can get into other things and build out.”
Editors Note: This article was originally published February, 2021
It’s a brave new world for Bend artist Kristine Cooper, who quit jobs in retail management and the building industry to support herself as a full-time artist. “I realized this summer that I was no longer being fulfilled in my 9-to-5 job and decided to move toward creating something from my soul,” she said.
The young artist—just 26—wanted to be a full-time creative professional after graduating from Seattle Pacific University’s studio fine arts program in 2016, but she had little encouragement from those around her. “I tried working full time while pursuing my art on the side but ended up exhausted and unfulfilled,” she said.
“Since COVID slowed life down, I had time to be intentional and process what I was doing with my life,” Cooper said. She was making money selling her artwork on the side and decided that devoting her whole being to art would open new doors. Quitting her jobs and starting her own business was the scariest thing she’s ever done, but she said, “The universe takes care of you when you’re doing what you’re really meant to do.”
Cooper creates a visual diary of her life through abstract and playful canvases, murals and textiles in vibrant colors and bold shapes. Some are energetic with swirling patterns and dripping paint; others hint at representational subjects such as people and landscapes. Her medium is primarily acrylic paint but often incorporates mixed media such as pencils, charcoal and oil pastels. She builds texture with thick and thin layers of paint and adds specks of gold “to create visual interest across the canvas.”
“I create what’s been in my head for weeks or days, such as a shape that occurs while hiking,” she said. “I don’t try to evoke any particular feeling, but [my] art can bring out a sense of joy, playfulness or a light feeling.”
When working from her home studio, she sets up an easel, listens to music “to make my brain think in different ways,” and loses herself in the process, working in long segments. When she wants to draw inspiration from the desert and her environment, she does plein air painting.
Like many new transplants, Cooper moved to Bend for the outdoor lifestyle. “I can get on a trail in 20 minutes instead of being in Seattle traffic for hours,” she said, adding she’s found her artistic voice in Bend since arriving in 2017. Cooper regularly shows her work in cafés and retail spaces, such as Thump Coffee, Revolvr, Velvet, The Commons and Nancy P’s Café & Bakery. Her work has also been exhibited at Franklin Crossing, Cascade Sotheby’s, the Oxford Hotel and Sunriver Lodge.
These shows are sources of sales, as are her website and others such as Etsy—from which the president of DreamWorks once bought a large-scale abstract called “Second Chances.” “It was an eye opener to have a client like that buy a piece,” she said. “I’ve seen continued momentum—you never know who is going to buy or who you’ll meet.”
Other avenues she’s exploring are commissioned murals in homes and businesses. Anna Spengler of Bend chose Cooper to do a mural in her living room after seeing her website and the joyful mood of her art. “Her work really speaks to me, especially her magical mountain scenes,” Spengler said. “She uses vibrant, fun colors and has an eclectic and bold style. Her mural brings my living room to life, and the colors inspire creativity.”
Cooper has also begun attracting clients who want help with their home’s interior styles, such as how to blend vintage or antique furniture with modern elements. This includes repurposing people’s treasures in a creative way that brings them new life. “I want to help people make their space unique and bring art into a home for a cohesive design,” she said.
Since starting Cooper Art and Abode, she no longer holds herself back. “I can fully dedicate my time toward my work and create boldly,” Cooper said. “I’m trusting the process and the gifts I’m meant to share.”
To see Cooper’s artwork, visit Fix & Repeat, a restaurant in the Box Factory, in January. See more at cooperartandabode.com.
Nothing goes better with brisk nights than a bowl of flavor-rich soup, freshly made in the comfort of your kitchen at home. Try incorporating a dash of Pacific Northwest flavor into these soups, whether it’s with a local craft brew to liven up beer cheese soup or fresh Oregon potatoes or onions in a savory veggie stew or French onion soup. Slurp a spoonful of Oregon and warm right up.
Oregon Beer Cheese
At first blush, mixing beer and cheese might sound a bit odd, but it’s truly a winning combination and classic comfort food when done right. While the roots of beer soup go back to medieval Europe, it’s the state of Wisconsin known for popularizing the cheesy variety, typically made with a classic medium or sharp cheddar cheese. And while Wisconsin may have the strongest cheese game, we’ll take full advantage of Central Oregon’s numerous breweries for options to round out the beer portion of this soup. Save the hoppy IPAs for drinking though, as beers with subtle flavors, like a wheat beer or a pilsner, are good options to complement the tangy cheese.
Vegetable soups are a failsafe option for warming up our bellies on a cool winter night, and they are as simple to create as sautéing vegetables, adding spices and broth and cooking to perfection. Whip up a colorful soup by mixing carrots, bell peppers, diced tomatoes, green beans and celery. Make a more filling medley by incorporating potatoes. These root vegetables are grown plentifully in Oregon, with 45,000 acres of potatoes harvested in 2020 alone. Let the potatoes soften up with the soup’s flavors through a long simmer and then top each bowl with fresh kale or parsley for an added pop of greenery.
If you are craving veggies, check out this recipe.
French Onion
photo Love and Lemons, loveandlemons.com
Often a popular menu item at restaurants, preparing French onion soup at home is easier than it may seem. Spices, beef broth and caramelized onions, of course, mix together to create a salty, cozy soup, best served with (or inside) bread for soaking up the flavors. Here in Central Oregon, we’re practically neighbors with many of the country’s onion growers, who harvest the crop in early fall across eastern Oregon and southwest Idaho. Volcanic soils and dry climate lead to some of the best tasting onions out there, with desirable mild flavors and large sizes. Top off this fragrant soup with croutons and a generous sprinkle of cheese, and dive in.
With some extra time on our hands, some of us have taken up old hobbies again, or challenged ourselves to try a DIY project. If you haven’t already, now’s the time to take a crack at some of the home wishlist to-dos you’ve been eyeing for some months, or maybe years. These are the home projects we’ve dreamed up that really are within reach—if only we made the time.
Each of the projects outlined here can be done for around $150 or less and completed between the span of an afternoon and a weekend, depending on how many breaks you take. Find inspiration in these ideas, then make them your own.
Accent Voila
Accent walls have come a long way from the randomly painted purple or lime green wall you may picture when you hear the phrase. Today’s accent walls can add something different than a burst of color—they can bring texture, character and depth to a room that may otherwise feature a big blank wall. Board and batten, shiplap and paneling offer a classic touch and are all versatile options. Go traditional with all white or show your style is au courant with a moody color like a deep blue or dark green. You’ll just have to do some measuring and math, and for supplies you’ll need to pick up MDF or wood, nails, adhesive, sandpaper and paint. Wallpaper also makes for an eye-catching statement and stays affordable when you’re only covering one wall. Temporary wallpaper is another fun, affordable option that’s easier to undo for a space like a child’s room that needs to grow with them. Plus, temporary wallpapers offer mural options too, that go beyond just a flat print.
Vinyl Revamp
photo courtesy of ACHIM IMPORTING COMPANY
Want to try out a new flooring style without a high price tag or big time commitment? Vinyl stickers just might be your new best friend. Available in a huge variety of colors and patterns, peel-and-stick vinyl tiles can mimic real tiles or a variety of common flooring options, and can be used to freshen up kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms or even a dated backsplash. Depending on the product you choose, peel-and-stick vinyl can be easily removed and even rental home friendly. Try a bold black and white pattern, mix together colors for a one-of-a-kind design or keep it classic with a solid color that complements a room’s existing look.
Kitchen Cabinet Refresh
Sometimes all it takes is a small tweak to have a big impact on a space. Kitchen cabinets really set the tone of a kitchen—which is why something as simple as hardware can make a difference. Consider changing out your dated pulls with a cleaner new style that still complements the colors and finishes in your space. Nickel continues to be a frontrunner for kitchen hardware, while soft gold and matte black have made a name for themselves in recent years. Count up the number of cabinets and drawers you’ll need pulls for, calculate the most you’d like to spend per pull, consider the existing holes your pulls will leave behind (depending on the width of a handle, for example), and get to shopping. All you’ll need is a screwdriver and some patience for installation.
Porch Perfect
Repainting your front door can be as simple as wiping it down and giving it a sanding and coat of primer before transforming it with a new color. Choose a go-to pop like a deep red, a classic yet trendy choice like true black or lighten things up with a shade of light blue or yellow that suits your home year-round. If you’re willing to put in the extra time, swatch a couple of samples and take a peek throughout the day as the light changes to know you’ll love your new front door in the sunshine, with cloud cover and under the porch light come night.
Whichever idea makes your DIY heart skip, it’s not too late to check off a project or two in your own home that you haven’t gotten to yet. In addition to these projects helping pass the time and sharpen your Bob Villa or Martha Stewart skills. There is something to be said for putting some thoughtful energy into the places we spend so much time.
When Bayard Fox went looking for a sleek concrete firepit for his Bend home in 2007, what he instead found was a segment of the home design industry in need of transformation. As Fox was exploring concrete products, such as kitchen countertops, he learned it was common for them to crack and stain over time. Not to mention the material was heavy, and it’s a little intimidating to have cement poured right inside your home. As someone already familiar with the construction industry, Fox decided to pursue a new venture. He purchased a cement design startup company in Bend, taking over the name and hiring the two existing employees.
Thirteen years later, Cement Elegance continues to call Bend home, but has grown to a company with fourteen employees (including those first two) and over 40 retailers, working out of a custom designed and built 16,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and design space in northeast Bend. What has allowed the company to thrive is its focus on producing a type of concrete that doesn’t crack, doesn’t stain and takes into account weight and price. “What we’ve done is focus on the latest in technology so that we can put out the best product possible with this medium,” Fox said.
The products at Cement Elegance are just that—elegant, as well as sturdy and aesthetically pleasing. In addition to perfecting concrete countertops to be crack-free and stain-free, the company also offers sinks, firepits, fireplace features, shower surrounds and many custom designed one-off products. Oxide pigments that are mixed in integrally are used to achieve a variety of colors, and with finishing, sealing and sanding options, the products take on multiple different styles. “There’s an aesthetic you can’t get with other products,” Fox said. “It’s less busy, there’s more natural character and there’s a certain handmade quality.”
Fox said that while architects and home designers have liked the look of concrete features for some time, in the past they would be hesitant to recommend them because they didn’t feel confident in a dependable and reliable source. Years ago, the concrete that would be put in place for a kitchen counter wasn’t much different from what was used on a sidewalk. Today, Cement Elegance’s products are more lightweight—using a proprietary core material that makes the product lighter, and less likely to crack. A square foot slab of the company’s concrete weighs about twelve pounds, compared to granite which is about nineteen pounds.
The revamped concrete products have helped propel the use of concrete forward. Architects are more likely to recommend concrete features, and the company’s commercial client base is growing, too. Cement Elegance has manufactured bathroom vanities for offices at companies like Microsoft, Google and Expedia, and locally at many restaurants including 10 Barrel, 900 Wall, and Crux to name a few. Drive down Galveston Avenue and you’ll notice the firepit of the Boss Rambler Beer Club, another Cement Elegance creation.
All of the products are pre-cast, manufactured at their Bend facility and then shipped or installed directly into their permanent homes. This process is quicker and more efficient than pouring concrete on site. The Bend headquarters is also a showroom, open for drop-in visitors or by appointment. Outside the area, they work with businesses and dealers to display and sell their products, which are primarily made on-demand. In any given week, the production team is hard at work preparing as many as ten to fifteen new pieces, including classy, durable firepits like the one Fox dreamed of for his Bend home more than a decade ago. It took three years after starting the business before Fox and the team designed their first high-quality firepit feature, and it remains in his backyard today.
Step inside this Juniper Preserve custom home and the first thing that catches your eye is a massive slab of rock mounted on the entry wall. The cross section of onyx is alive with browns, yellows and golds that twist and turn in a beautifully natural pattern. The piece is hung as a work of art and is the ideal introduction to the design concept of this home—merging the outdoors with the indoors in simple elegance.
You could spend hours just studying the onyx, but there is much more to see in this fine custom home, completed July 2020. Follow the reverse living plan up to find one fine feature after the next, from an elevator to a floating interior staircase to a remarkable outdoor spiral staircase, culminating with the pièce de résistance—a rooftop patio with stunning 360-degree views.
The homeowners were drawn to this remote lot in Juniper Preserve, a golf resort and residential neighborhood northeast of Bend in the sagebrush and juniper desert, for its privacy and easy access to two terrific golf courses. Avid golfers and longtime lovers of the Central Oregon landscape, the homeowners’ goal was to bring the outside, in. The lot itself sits at a low point in the topography, surrounded by lava rock and stunning old-growth juniper trees, some hundreds of years old. However, thirty feet up, through the use of a drone, the 360-degree views were confirmed—revealing the Cascades to the west, the Ochocos to the east, Smith Rock to the north, and Paulina Peak and Pilot Butte to the south.
Bend’s Madrone Construction was hired to build the home, and the plan was to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by all possible living levels. The first floor of the home includes an office, a workout room, another office with a Murphy bed, and a spacious guest suite complete with kitchenette, a cozy den and separate entry. Three outdoor living spaces overlook lit trees and rock landscaping, each used at different times of the year, depending on weather, sunlight and temperature. The lower level is representative of a camping experience, while the two upper levels are modern simplicity, each with their own fireplaces.
Upstairs, an expansive living room and kitchen are made for entertaining. The kitchen is well-planned with a pantry and workspace tucked out of view, and attractive accents such as wood countertops made from eucalyptus and 60-year-old Oregon black walnut. A wall of windows takes in the greens, greys and blues of the outdoors. A master bedroom overlooks the golf course. Outside, an eight-seat table allows for gatherings. Tucked around the corner is the spiral staircase, which climbs from the lower-level straight up into the sky—or nearly so.
The spiral staircase is an “engineering marvel and a piece of art,” said the homeowner. The metalwork in stainless steel was done by a local metalworker, Carson Janssen, who also constructed the interior stairwell, deck railings and other accent pieces around the house, including a large planter in the home’s entryway. The homeowners tried to use as many local artisans as possible.
A table and chairs anchor the rooftop patio, which takes in what could be some of the best views in Central Oregon. In fact, there is no vista in the home that doesn’t envelop something beautiful, even from the interior. Art is minimal; the entire home exudes a sense of elegance and simplicity. “What’s through the windows is the art,” said the homeowner, who gives plenty of credit to Scott Knox of Madrone Construction. “Scott did a wonderful job. We thought it had the potential to be a pretty cool place. It’s turned out to be better than we ever could’ve imagined.”
The home won three categories in the 2020 Central Oregon Tour of Homes, including Best Outdoor Living space. The homeowners got exactly what they wanted—a gorgeous home, with plenty of solitude, and easy access to the golf course. “We can golf ten or eleven months of the year here,” they said. “This house is truly a homecoming.”
It’s a wonder how Haven Home Style is able to fly under the radar from many in Bend, despite having a 6,000-square-foot showroom right in the heart of downtown. “Every day, people come in the store and say they didn’t know we were here,” said Rick, who co-owns the business with his wife, Jackie. The home décor, furniture and accessories store sits at the corner of Minnesota Avenue and Bond Street, and it is packed full of exclusive lines of high-quality pieces not found elsewhere in Bend.
Rick and Jackie previously both worked in the office furniture industry—Rick in sales, marketing and business development. While on business in Bend, Rick remembers seeing a summer concert at the Les Schwab Amphitheater. He called Jackie afterward to tell her he’d found their new home. After moving to town in 2008, Jackie took a job as store manager at Haven Home Style. “This is definitely where she belongs,” Rick said. “She really loves furniture and interacting with customers.”
Co-owners, Jackie and Rick
When the previous owners were ready to sell in 2013, the couple stepped in, and as the business has grown, it’s become a full-time venture for them both.
Inside the well-appointed showroom, visitors will find dozens of staged displays of living room furniture, wall décor, lighting, dining areas and more, with unique products meant to appeal to a variety of style preferences. The store is continually restocked with new and seasonal merchandise, pulled from Haven Home Style’s warehouse, shipping and receiving space on the south side of town. The store embodies a “transitional” design style, or one that falls somewhere between traditional and modern, and appeals to homeowners with any of those styles. The products work well with neutral color palettes, with bits of color infused throughout.
The back walls of the showroom are packed with fabric swatches, which customers can use to build a custom chair, sofa or pillows using upholstery of different weights, textures and colors. A selection of cushions lets shoppers feel the difference in comfort between options. The store carries product lines from a trio of companies out of North Carolina and one in Texas, and works with customers to purchase custom furniture, or select pieces directly from the showroom. Once items arrive, they’re inspected and delivered to customers’ homes with white glove delivery service.
The staff at Haven Home Style all have varying backgrounds in interior design, and while eager to help showroom visitors select or create the perfect pieces, none work on commission. “Customer service is everything to us, but we never want people to feel pressured,” Rick said. In addition to the collaboration that happens between staff and customers inside the store, Haven Home Style also offers in-home design consultations to assess spaces and design aesthetics before shopping, if desired. Staff also visit homes when furniture and other items arrive, to ensure every detail is considered. “Getting all new furniture can be a little overwhelming sometimes,” Rick said. “They’re there for delivery and to help with the placement of items.”
These days, the showroom is attracting more younger couples and families who are eager to modernize and refresh their homes with stylish new accessories, furniture and more. “We strive to stay ahead of industry trends and work to continually update displays,” Rick said. He encourages anyone looking for fresh décor to stop in, chat with the design-savvy staff and see what inspires you.
It’s time to rethink the humble laundry room, where, let’s face it—we spend more time with our washers and dryers than we like to admit. American families do, on average, 300 or more loads of laundry each year. With our seemingly unending washing chore at hand, it’s never too late to design a new laundry room or do a remodel. Going from drab and boring to dynamic and bold in a utilitarian room can perhaps bring some joy to our usually thankless chore.
Plan first, launder later
When examining your laundry room, think what you need and want it to be. Is the laundry room also part of a mud room, or the dog’s room? If your laundry room serves more than one purpose, remember it doesn’t have to be a catch all for piles of shoes or dog toys. Organized storage will be key, especially if your laundry room is a multi-purpose area.
There is no standard room size or layout for a laundry room. Some laundry areas in homes are relegated to closet spaces, basements or even garages. But no matter the space, when revamping the laundry area, ask yourself how often you do laundry—is it once a week, or every day? Do you want your laundry room to be a place where you also fold and iron your clothes? Some things to consider in revamping your laundry room include deciding whether you need counterspace, a rod for hanging clothes on hangers, drying racks or a built-in ironing cabinet.
Designer Veronica Solomon, Casa Vilora Interiors, Photographer Colleen Scott
Consider the space
In a survey by the National Association of Home Builders, ninety-one percent of buyers said they want a dedicated laundry room. Within that laundry room, most home buyers say they want a deep sink, shelving, cupboards and counterspace.
If your laundry area is limited in space, front-loading washer and dryer sets that can be stacked are useful. Front-loading washers can also allow a counter space to be built over the top, whereas a top-loading washer won’t have that option.
Should you decide to add countertops or you’re changing existing ones, remember that durability is key. Look for a countertop material that won’t be damaged if detergents or bleach is spilled on it.
Light and bright
If a large laundry room is out of your budget, don’t despair, designers say simply adding pops of color in your humble washing room can go a long way. You can draw inspiration for your laundry room with a bright coat of paint, or wallpaper that comes in a variety of patterns from whimsical floral designs to sophisticated stripes.
Why not think out of the box, and put a small crystal chandelier in your laundry room? There are no hard and fast rules here; if it makes you smile and feel good about doing a chore, then it’s a “yes.” Get creative and show your personality.
Ideally, natural light is always a plus for a utilitarian room, but if you have fluorescent bulbs in your laundry space, take them down now, and find some nice light fixtures that give plenty of soft light to your working area. It will make a big difference not only in your mood, but also give your workspace a more calming feel, something everyone needs when doing a load of laundry.
Less is more
Photo everthinedesigns.com
Because the laundry room is often the smallest room in the house, it’s essential to declutter it. Clutter will only make the space look and feel smaller. Something as simple as having your laundry soap pods or liquids in clear glass containers or attractive bottles instead of original store-bought packaging can keep your supplies close at hand, while looking nice, neat and organized.
Just a few cosmetic changes in the laundry room can bring a whole new look and style to even the tiniest spaces. Creating workspaces that are hardworking, but still attractive may change your whole attitude about doing laundry.
Dewayne Hornbeak launched Epoch Ascent in 2015, bringing his background as a U.S. Marine and his work with the State Department in high-threat protection to creating a sport-specific training facility. Today, Hornbeak trains competitive athletes, tactical athletes such as firefighters and law enforcement professionals and “everyday folks” who just like to push hard. Bend Magazine sat down with him to learn more about elite training, adaptation in the COVID-era and the “mad scientist” part of his work.
What led you to create Epoch Ascent?
My biggest inspiration has been Gym Jones out of Salt Lake City, Utah, founded by former alpinist Mark Twight, who trained the actors for the 2007 movie “300”. After reading about Twight’s climbing exploits, I developed my own interest in starting a gym with the understanding that it’s not just for people who want to go and do aimless workouts. I wanted to build a facility and training model that was purposeful, planned and sport-specific minus anything that was accidental, random or unnecessary. I set out to develop a training methodology where preparation for outside performance was paramount and closely mirrored various aspects of real life (hardship, integrity, courage, adaptation, failure and perseverance).
Who is your typical client athlete?
The common thread binding my clients is a want; they all want to be immersed in a “no social hour” culture of hard work, calculated stress and consistent adaptation. One of my main wheelhouses is mountain athletics which includes local and visiting climbers, skiers, downhill riders, backcountry hunters and endurance athletes. Another is “tactical athletes,” which includes fire/rescue, law enforcement, mountain/ski rescue, and individuals wanting to prepare for military special operations. Not everyone who wants to train here has to be an accomplished mountain sports or tactical athlete. They do have to be willing to commit, to go the distance and push hard alongside their peers who have a similar understanding.
What are your strengths as a trainer and as a motivator?
I feel that I’m good at being an enabler that understands there are many different paths for each individual to reach that next level. One thing I’ve learned in twenty years as a coach, mentor and team-builder is the significance of helping others progress and with that I constantly strive to offer the greatest training to each member I take on. I accomplish this through teaching, succeeding (and sometimes falling short), experimentation, listening, being restlessly ambitious, leading by example and by constantly expanding my base of knowledge.
What do you love about the work you do?
I love the “mad scientist” aspect of what I do. Similar to my experiences as a father, I’m afforded opportunities to be a motivator, myth buster, educator and a psychic mind reader all in the same day, and sometimes even within the same hour-long training session. Every time someone walks into my gym I know they are going to present me with another puzzle that we get to work through, whether I have four weeks to get them ready, or a year. It’s not like we can adjust one piece of that puzzle and all is well, oh no. We not only have to work on the physiological aspect of training, but also their foundational nutrition, their post workout recovery and their mental toughness.
What is the biggest challenge you face in your work?
I often meet athletes (mainly on the mountain and field sports side of the house) that make the mistake of training for their sport by only doing their sport. This works to some degree for a while, and then things like injuries, boredom and an overall lack of “adequate stimuli” leads to stagnation in their progress. The challenge I face is altering the preconceived notion that training in the gym space only leads to being heavier and as a result, less capable. On the contrary, appropriate programming and training in the gym increases an athlete’s power output, resistance to fatigue, and a durability making them far less likely to get injured and reduces down time if they are.
Can you share a recent satisfying success story or two?
One of my athletes that I’d consider a “success story” is Janessa Bork, a local Mt. Bachelor athlete and owner of ViVi Designs Co. She’s been training with me for a couple of years now and placed first at the Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge against some very tough competition. She also won the Women’s Masters Division, and has won a number of the local banked slalom contests. Another of my athletes is Aaron Tiegs, one of the head instructors at Clarks University here in Bend and an up and coming top competitor on the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene. He won his last two UFC fight pass fights quickly and confidently.
How have you had to adapt to COVID-19?
It’s been an endurance challenge for the mind, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the impact has been anything less than significant. We saw a drop of about 50 percent of the members within the first couple of months alone. The shutdowns had me moving quickly to implement new plans in order to stay afloat despite not receiving a loan, a grant or having any of my business expenses like rent waived.
I turned to remote programming in order to keep the members I still had supplied with training they could do from home. Everyone was caught off guard, so very few had any chance to stock up on home training equipment before everything started selling out. As a solution, much of the remote programming was written so that members could train with items on-hand or no equipment at all.
When we were able to return to in-gym training not much changed as far as 1-to-1 training goes. I already maintain “social distance” as a professional courtesy, even before COVID, and the need to go hands-on with a client or athlete is pretty rare.
What’s next?
As a part of Epoch’s post-COVID contingency plan, we now have an online library with just over fifty programs with the intention of adding a few hundred more. This library covers training for those interested in mountain sports, tactical and general fitness preparation. Epoch’s programs are also purpose built for a whole spectrum of individuals from those with access to a commercial gym to those that have little to no training equipment.
Why is Bend, Oregon your choice location?
It’s beautiful here with plenty of mountains to climb and backcountry to get lost in. I’ve lived in big complex cities like Vancouver, Canada, Osaka, Japan, and more recently Seattle, and found the simplicity of Bend to be good change of pace and safe place to start a family. No frills here, just plenty of trails, mountains and desert for outside activities.
Only in the darkness can you see the light. Such is the thinking behind the International Dark Sky Places program, which educates communities about responsibly curbing light pollution to protect and preserve the night sky. The program was created by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), which recently recognized its first two certified Dark Sky Places in Oregon. Luckily enough, both just happen to be right outside of Bend.
But whether certified or not, Central Oregon has ample opportunity for any Bendite to find their spot. So, bundle up, mark your calendars for the next meteor shower (hint: the Quadrantids peak in early January) and read on for four of our favorite spots to catch a glimpse of the stars this winter.
Oregon Observatory, photo courtesy of Sunriver Nature Center and Conservancy
Guided Astronomy by the Experts
Designated as the state’s first International Dark Sky Place by IDA, the Oregon Observatory in Sunriver boasts the largest fleet of publicly accessible telescopes in the country. Visitors can attend one-hour viewing sessions throughout the week with staff astronomers who are ready to assist and educate. $20 per person; reservations required. For a full schedule and details, see snco.org/events.
Prineville Reservoir State Park, photo by Dawn Davis
DIY Stargazing
Prineville Reservoir State Park was named Oregon’s second Dark Sky Place and the first Oregon state park to receive the title in Spring 2021. To earn the designation, park staff replaced harsh outdoor lighting with softer yellow and red lights to minimize light pollution around facilities. Those in the know can bring their own gear to day-use or overnight camping locations and simply point their eyes up to be amazed. Find information at stateparks.oregon.gov.
Worthy Hopservatory, photo by Richard Bacon
IPAs and the Milky Way
Aptly named the Hopservatory, the Worthy Garden Club Observatory aims to inspire visitors to take care of the planet by showcasing its beauty. Conveniently located inside the brewery, the Hopservatory allows astronomy buffs to grab dinner and beers beforehand and see the stars through a telecsope for a nightcap. A $5 donation is suggested to enter. Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. on a first-come basis. No reservations are required (and no beer allowed near the telescopes). Learn more at worthygardenclub.com/hopservatory.
Stars while on the Move
For those who simply can’t sit still long enough to look at the stars, why not do it while moving? Some of the best winter stargazing happens away from it all in the wilderness. Grab the skinny skis and cross-country your way through the national forest at one of several sno-parks along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway. Mainstays such as Virginia Meissner Sno-Park can be busy during daylight hours but thin to a fraction of the crowd at night. As a bonus, between star-filled laps, you can warm yourself by the fire in one of the wood-stocked warming huts. Free. See meissnernordic.org.
Winter, spring, summer or fall—a simple wreath says a lot. Wreaths announce the changing of seasons, celebrate everyday occasions and connect us to nature as well as each other.
A custom deeply rooted in history, from ancient crowns to advent, these classic decorations convey an ongoing spirit of hope and welcome that is not limited to Christmastime. You don’t need a holiday to hang a wreath on your door—or fancy materials for that matter. Though traditional designs consist of evergreen boughs, wreaths can be crafted from just about anything. Whether foraged, dried or freshly planted, here is our round-up of wreath inspirations to help you keep the welcome coming.
Gather Round
In contrast to modern throwaway culture, wreaths were born out of not throwing things away; gathering nearby natural materials to make your own wreath is easier than you might think and the fun is in the finding. Cuttings from a recent pruning project or pinecones foraged from a family hike are all you need to make personalized pieces and add elegance to your home.
To get started, research DIY wreath instructions online or at a local garden center, then let the gathering begin. For boughs, Central Oregon boasts evergreen options galore including cedar, fir, juniper, pine and spruce. Next, search out accents such as cones and sprigs of mountain ash, wax currant, snowberry or whatever is in season. At home, clip excess branches from your backyard or rework a holiday wreath by adding new trimmings. When hiking, Deschutes National Forest offers a free use permit which allows harvesting small quantities of common plants for personal use.
Photo Jillian Guyette
Dried and True
Want to get away from the “holiday” look? Try going dried. Weatherproof with a farmhouse feel, wreaths made from dried or preserved plants allow for a variety of year-round flora, transition easily between seasons and can even be reused year after year. Discover non-native varieties like dried eucalyptus and magnolia leaves in décor stores as well as online or plan ahead to pick and preserve your own.
In spring and summer, save blooms gleaned from your garden or favorite farmers market—from grasses and aromatic herbs like sage or lavender to flowers and naturals such as moss and tumbleweed. Come colder months, try collecting fall leaves, Indian corn or stems of brightly colored winter berries that pop against bare branches. Save space for your collections by creating a simple drying rack out of dowels or screens hung from the ceiling.
Photo by Stamp and Co. Photography at Erie Way Flowers for Rochester Brainery, Rachel Hermansen Celebrate Succulents
Fill in a soil or moss-based living wreath form with plants, grow on a flat surface for one to two weeks, then position or hang in a properly lit place.
Circle of Life
For a truly fresh take, grow a new tradition with a living wreath. A miniature garden without the groundwork, living wreaths are long-lasting and surprisingly simple to assemble. What’s more, they change over time, becoming more beautiful as plants mature.
Liven up your wreath game by planting annuals like kitchen herbs, pansies, impatiens and ivies, or try out the easy and ever-popular succulent wreath. Pretty and perfect for Bend’s high desert climate, succulents love sunshine, are slow growing and require only periodic watering—many varieties can even withstand snowy temperatures. If you’re not sure what to plant, ask the experts; your local florist or nursery staff can help you make smart selections based on the sunlight and watering needs of plants and how different species hold up over time.
Editors Note: This article was originally published January, 2021
On blustery Sunday evenings from November through February, most folks tuck into their cozy homes to wind down the weekend. That’s not the case for Bend locals Shawn and Joe Anzaldo. They’ll be bundling up and heading out to the Pavilion, Bend’s sole ice rink, to join a group of hardy souls with brooms over their shoulders, grippy-soled shoes on their feet and huge smiles on their faces. These are the curlers, and Sunday evening is league night.
“Yep, it’s cold. Freezing, literally. Sometimes the games go late, and the scoring is complicated. But it’s so dang fun—and I love being part of this team,” Shawn said.
What draws people to this sport? It’s accessible—anyone can play. The slo-mo glide of the rock across the ice is mesmerizing, and the final scoring is unpredictable until the last push. And on dark, cold winter nights, curling league at the Pavilion can be the hottest spot in town.
The game has been refined since its origins in Scotland hundreds of years ago—think woolen tweeds swapped for puffy jackets and frozen ponds for covered ice rinks—but its heart remains the same: a team sport that is simple to learn but difficult to master, a serious competition with room for laughs and silliness, and a way to actively gather with friends and embrace the cold dark winter.
Curling is a 500-year-old Scottish pastime that can be described as a winter version of shuffleboard. History suggests it began in the 16th century when a Scottish monk and his cousin began sliding stones across a frozen pond. That friendly competition grew into a team sport that spread across winter-loving cultures from the Netherlands and Scandinavia to Canada. Since the Pavilion opened five years ago, it’s taken hold in Bend, as well.
Modern curling involves two teams of four players who take turns sending stones, carved from Scottish granite, down a narrow sheet of ice, 146 feet in length. One player delivers the stone with a graceful, lunging push, sending it gliding toward the target. Two players then use specialized brooms to furiously scrub the ice ahead of the moving stone, to guide its path. The skip, or team caption, stands behind the target calling out instructions for the sweeper: “Scrub hard! Let it curl! Off!” The strategy lies in guiding the stone to land within the target—and to knock opponents’ stones out of play. All points go to the team with the stone closest to the button, the center of the target.
As outdoor temperatures drop in early November, the Bend Park and Recreation District begins preparing the Pavilion’s ice for skating, hockey and curling. Four permanent curling lanes stretch the length of the rink, with concentric rings (the “house”) embedded in the ice at the lanes’ ends. Meanwhile, hopeful curlers wait for the park district’s curling league registration to begin.
“Registration for teams opened at 8 a.m. this year, and we had twenty teams signed up by 8:05,” said Joel Lee, program coordinator at the Pavilion. Forty teams can participate in the Sunday evening league. The district has added a Wednesday brunch league and drop-in “Learn to Curl” clinics on Friday mornings. All gear for league games is provided—stones, brooms, grippers and sliders (see sidebar).
Lee credits the welcoming, laid-back atmosphere for the sport’s popularity in Bend. “Curling is not like most team sports because it’s new for almost everyone. Experienced players love to help, and people learn quickly that it’s just as fun as it looks,” Lee said.
The Anzaldos have played for several years on the Miller Lumber Legs team, with skip Charlie Miller. The camaraderie keeps this tight-knit crew coming back for another season. Each player goes by a nickname, and Miller keeps them entertained and connected with game recaps that highlight moments big and small. All the teams find ways to keep it fun—some wear matching hats or outfits. “We see a lot of plaid and wigs,” said Lee and laughed.
On Saturday evenings throughout the winter, the Bend Curling Club takes over the Pavilion. This group of curling enthusiasts works with the district to support the sport. They arrive early to set up equipment and spray water droplets on the lanes to pebble the surface. The sessions begin with instructions for newcomers, covering everything from how to avoid falling to proper lunging form. And then the games begin, with a bit more intensity and competitive strategies than seen in the Sunday leagues.
Many club members have past experience with curling. Instructor Janice Robbins remembers curling as a child in New England. “We didn’t have real stones. We filled tea kettles with water to push across frozen ponds all winter,” she said. Another curling club member, Roma Larsson, joined soon after relocating to Bend from Canada. “I played quite a bit in Canada, so I was thrilled to find a curling group here in Bend,” she said. Some members, like Jason Burge, just fell in love with the game and the community that surrounds it.
Burge serves as the curling chairperson for Bend Ice, the community organization for ice sports in Bend. His love of curling began as a spectator, watching the Olympic games and learning the strategies that give curling it’s nickname, “chess on ice.” As a player, he’s drawn to the social side as much as the competitions. “It’s a gentleperson’s sport. We all help each other, even if we risk losing an advantage,” Burge said. “Plus, there’s broomstacking (a post-game gathering) after the games—winners buy the beer!” he added. Bend Curling Club members also travel to regional competitions, often in Portland and Salt Lake City.
The Bend Park and Recreation District and Bend Curling Club have adapted the curling rules as needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Curling is one sport that is particularly suited for COVID-prevention guidelines. This year, teams use one sweeper at a time instead of two. Players stand apart, and the four lanes start the games on alternate ends. The open walls of the Pavilion keep fresh air circulating, and as Burge noted, “It’s not so bad wearing a mask when we’re playing in cold temperatures anyway.”
Bend Curling Club has doubled its roster to sixty members since its inception in 2016. They plan to keep reaching out to local athletes of all ages and abilities and generating support for additional ice space in Bend. Learn more about the club at bendice.org or the Bend Ice Curling Facebook page, and check out BPRD curling opportunities at bendparksandrec.org. Then get your rock, your broom and go for it!
Two dollars was all it took to create one of the most enduring legacies in Bend’s ski history. Paul Hosmer, the newsletter editor for Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company, claimed the cash prize after suggesting the winning name—Skyliners. Founded in 1927, the club and its name still carry weight in the community.
The founding of Skyliners harkens back to the late twenties. “Friluftsliv,” or outdoor living, was one of the cornerstones of Skyliners’ mission. The founders of the ski club were new arrivals to the U.S.; Norwegians Kris Kostol, Nels Skjersaa and Nils Wulfsberg, and the lone Swede, Emil Nordeen, were brought up in societies which valued the outdoor lifestyle.
The ski club grew out of a rescue mission in the Three Sisters mountain range after a devastating Labor Day snowstorm stranded two young mountain climbers in the area. The four Scandinavians joined other rescue organizations and made several high-profile climbs on the North and Middle Sister in blinding snowstorms in search of the lost youths.
During the cold nights at the Frog Lake staging area, the mountaineers retreated to campfires. They discussed how to create rescue organizations with skilled outdoor enthusiasts. Energized, Wulfsberg, Kostol, Skjersaa and Nordeen returned to Bend with an idea.
Wulfsberg was a recent Oslo University graduate, whereas his colleagues Kostol, Skjersaa and Nordeen had basic educations, albeit a lot of street smarts. As one of Wulfsberg’s friends described his impact, “He flashed through Bend like a meteorite and influenced the town.”
Beyond the rescue part of the club’s mission, Wulfsberg realized a ski club would extend the tourist season into winter and bring money into the local economy.
Eloquently (and prophetically) describing his vision, Wulfsberg said, “If Bend becomes a center for winter sports, with annual ski carnivals, with contests attracting attention over all Oregon and neighboring states, with winter resorts in the close neighborhood, it will mean that the name of Bend will be brought before large crowds on the days of contests and before tourists throughout the winter.”
The Four Musketeers of the Cascade Mountains: Chris Kostol, Nels Skjersaa, Nils Wulfsberg, and Emil Nordeen.
It was sweet music to the members of the Bend Chamber of Commerce, and they willingly signed on to the idea.
In line with the Scandinavian tradition of using winter sports to promote healthy living, Wulfsberg continued, “Nothing is more invigorating than fresh, cold winter air—air which brings the blood into circulation, stimulating energy, courage and initiative.”
By December 1927, the club had a name. It was time to build a winter headquarters. The club decided on a spot on the Old McKenzie Pass, eight miles from Sisters, just east of the current snow gate.
The Skyliners became a force to be reckoned within the up-and-coming Pacific Northwest ski community. Nordeen won the famed Klamath race, a 42-mile cross-country race from Fort Klamath to Crater Lake and back; Skjersaa was named on the all-American cross-country ski team when the National Ski Association published its ranking for 1931; and Kostol became a sought-after ski official. Unfortunately, Wulfsberg died shortly after leaving Bend in 1928.
At the end of January 1930, Skyliners announced plans to hold a ski tournament at their McKenzie Pass headquarters, the first such event in Central Oregon. The day of the carnival, 2,000 spectators crowded the winter playground. Skyliners had held up their end of the bargain with area merchants.
But Skyliners was much more than just a ski club. It ended up being an important social gathering place for the mill workers—a place to blow off steam after a Monday through Saturday work week at the Brooks-Scanlon or Shevlin-Hixon mills. In the socially stratified Bend, Skyliners was an outlier. The club was decidedly a social leveler. Mill workers, mill officials, and Bend businessmen could be seen skiing and ski jumping together.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Skyliners athletes competed against skiing greats such as Ole Tverdahl, Henry Sotvedt and Leif Flak of the Seattle Ski Club; Hjalmar Hvam and John Elvrum of Cascade Ski Club in Portland; and Nordahl Kahldahl, Tom Mobraaten and Hermod Bakke of Leavenworth Ski Club. The Central Oregon ski club held their own against the big city athletes.
After the McKenzie Pass headquarters proved too limited for the club, the Skyliners built a new winter sports complex at Tumalo Creek, inaugurated in early 1938. It offered all the amenities needed for large competitions and featured classic Nordic skiing facilities—two large ski jumps as well as expansive cross-country trails. Adapting to changing trends, Skyliners included areas for both downhill and slalom.
Members of Skyliners at their winter headquarters at McKenzie Pass. The original lodge was expanded several times to make room for an expanding membership.
The ski club weathered the Great Depression. Ahead of its ten-year anniversary and the first competition at Skyliners’ new playground, Nordeen wrote a letter to the editor of The Bend Bulletin, published in December 1937.
“Ten years have now elapsed since the cornerstones were laid. The club often seemed on a none too solid foundation. It teetered and swayed dangerously; an impending crash often loomed in the background. But now the Skyliners playground is about to be completed.”
By then, the founding members had largely stopped racing and a new cadre of skiers and ski jumpers took their place. Olaf Skjersaa, Bert Hagen, Sam and Phil Peoples, Tom Larson, Cliff Blann and Gene Gillis carried on the tradition of Skyliners.
World War II put the ski club on hiatus when the younger generation was called into service. When Bill Healy decided to build a new ski area in 1958, the members of the Skyliners knew the best place around—Bachelor Butte, a place which we now know as Mount Bachelor. Skyliners made their final move.
Under the tutelage of Head Ski Coach Frank Cammack, the club developed a new generation of skiers. Kiki Cutter, Karen Skjersaa, Sherry Blann, Mark Ford and Mike Lafferty competed at national and international tournaments.
Skyliners finally merged with Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation in 1986. But the club left an indelible mark on skiing in Central Oregon. The annual Skyliners Ski Swap introduces the name to future skiers and the Great Nordeen Ski Race in early January or February, depending on the snowpack, took its name from one of the founders of the ski club.
And don’t be surprised if you meet a skier who proudly announces he or she is a former member of Skyliners. There are still plenty of them around in Bend.
From the top of the Hodag Chair, the Cascade peaks and alpine forests roll to the north, catching the last light of day in shades of pink. Your skis are lined up and you’re ready to go. It’s the last run of the day, so you better make it count, but it helps to know the fun is far from over. Just down the hill is the little cabin in the woods you rented to stay in tonight with your friends. Fire, food, conversation, a great night’s sleep under dark and starry skies, followed by another full day of skiing to look forward to tomorrow.
There is something about a weekend getaway that requires less than an hour’s drive that feels like getting away with something. You’re away from home and all of its responsibilities, but you’ve been spared the onerous travel of a longer drive or air travel. The trip goes by in a blink of an eye and the weekend starts earlier. Maybe, if you’ve planned well, your overnight destination puts you that much closer to the fun and adventure you seek.
That’s the case with a retreat to the Sisters/Camp Sherman area for a ski weekend at Hoodoo. There are a number of terrific lodging options here in the woods at the base of the Cascades, and the snowy slopes and speedy lifts are just up the hill.
Hoodoo is one of Oregon’s oldest ski areas, dating back to 1938. Perched atop Hoodoo Butte, a volcanic cinder cone on the top of the Santiam Pass, Hoodoo’s five ski lifts sit on the northeast and northwest sides of the butte. Eight hundred acres of terrain, thirty-four runs and a terrain park with rails, tabletops and jumps provide plenty of options for skiers and boarders.
Hoodoo has the reputation of being a bit more family friendly, and affordable, than some of its Oregon ski area cousins—“cheaper, deeper and steeper,” they like to say. The ski slopes are on a big, rounded butte, with lots of wide-open terrain. The backside of the hill boasts deep and challenging powder, the front side offers finely groomed runs. A major draw is the night skiing. Wednesday through Sunday nights, zoom down twenty-three lit runs until 9 p.m. There’s nothing quite like skiing under a starry sky and a rising moon—another perk that’s not available at every ski area in the West.
Not a skier? The Autobahn Tubing Park on adjacent Hayrick Butte will keep you speeding downhill all day. Hoodoo has plenty of Nordic skiing trails, too. There’s no lodging here, though you can RV camp in the parking lot. Or, stay at one of these lodging destinations located just to the east.
Black Butte Ranch
photo kate thomas keown
Fifty years old last year, Black Butte Ranch is a beloved year-round vacation destination for Pacific Northwest families. Come winter, it’s a great basecamp for Hoodoo ski adventures. Located west of Sisters, BBR is a mere 13 miles from Hoodoo. Choose a ski lodging package wherein you stay two nights in a full-service accommodation and receive two lift tickets for free. Black Butte offers a wide array of lodging options from condos to large houses, several restaurants on site, and a spa and recreation center with a spacious hot tub for those post-ski soaks.
FivePine Lodge
photo courtesy five pine lodge
Sisters’ luxury lodging getaway offers romantic cabins tucked in the forest, on a campus including a brewery, athletic club, movie theater, spa and restaurant. Stay at FivePine Lodge this winter two consecutive nights midweek (Sunday – Thursday) in any cabin or upper lodge suite and receive two adult lift tickets to Hoodoo. Twenty-two miles from Hoodoo, FivePine offers proximity to the slopes as well as all of the amenities of the town of Sisters, including dining, shopping and the chance to hit the famous Sisters Bakery before your day on the slopes.
Suttle Lodge
photo buddy mays
Suttle Lodge sits on scenic Suttle Lake at the base of the Cascade Range. The resort offers both deluxe and rustic cabin retreat experiences as well as dining and a bar onsite. Overnight ski and stay packages start at $99 and include one adult ski pass and one house-beverage voucher at their Skip Bar. Suttle Lake is just nine miles from Hoodoo—rise with the sun and reach the slopes first from this classic lodging destination.
photo Austin Shepard
Lake Creek Lodge
Lake Creek Lodge is a collection of cabins on a meandering creek under a canopy of trees in one of Oregon’s coziest, old-time communities, Camp Sherman. Dine just a few minutes away in Camp Sherman or bring a feast to cook up in your own cabin, as each has a full kitchen. Located sixteen miles from Hoodoo, Lake Creek Lodge is a peaceful and quiet retreat after your day of skiing. Don’t miss a game of foosball or pool in the lodge.
Oregon Adaptive Sports was born twenty-three years ago, when members of the Central Oregon skiing community sought to create opportunities for members of the community with disabilities. Today, OAS, led by Executive Director Pat Addabbo, carries on that legacy by providing opportunities to people with disabilities in both summer and winter sports, such as skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing and others.
In an outdoor mecca like Bend, there are boundless ways to enjoy nature. It just makes sense that OAS would focus on sharing Bend’s natural bounty, because there is so much to share. Through OAS, athletes can rent the adaptive equipment they need for a huge discount, and they get to train with a volunteer in their respective sport.
The mission to bring a love of sports and the outdoors to people with disabilities is one that is driven by passion and personal experience. Addabbo’s first experience with adaptive sports happened when he was in college. He recalls a ropes course that was accessible to people with varying disabilities, partly because people with disabilities were included in the planning process. This experience showed Addabbo that with effort, inclusion was not just a vague possibility, but an achievable reality.
This mindset drives Addabbo to this day. “When you approach things with the right mindset, access to the outdoors can be the key to a healthy and thriving life,” Addabbo said.
Julie Hackbarth and George Hamilton on the snow.
Two people who have benefited greatly from OAS and their services are George Hamilton and Julie Hackbarth. Hamilton spent 20 years with the Air Force before retiring and picking up skiing. Hackbarth is a winter volunteer who works with Hamilton and skis with him on a tether system. This means that when Hamilton uses his sit down bi-ski, Hackbarth is tethered behind him to help control his speed.
Hamilton has a brain injury that makes him a wheelchair user as well as impairing his hearing and eyesight. He recalls his time before OAS when the mountain seemed less accessible. “I was the world’s biggest lodge-sitter, and I simply did not want to sit anymore,” he said.
Hackbarth’s passion for adaptive sports comes from high school where she was part of a program that paired her with students who had disabilities to help them around campus. Her teacher gave her a list of things that her partner could and could not do, and that did not sit well with her. “People with disabilities can do a lot more than what most people expect of them,” she said.
Together, Hamilton and Hackbarth have created an incredible bond through years of skiing together. Hamilton even claims the only time his wife won’t worry about him is when he’s with Hackbarth.
The adaptive part of OAS is so much more than just finding the right piece of equipment for an affordable rate. Volunteers constantly adapt their coaching style to best fit the needs of their athlete. “I have so much confidence when I’m out with Julie, and I’m grateful because it has truly changed and improved me,” Hamilton said. “There is nothing I could tell you about what we do together that isn’t special.”
Speaking to Hackbarth, Hamilton said, “You have empowered me, and OAS was a huge part of it. Your encouragement has helped me reach out and go after more than I thought was possible.”
To Hackbarth, the joy of volunteering for OAS comes from seeing someone achieve something they worked so hard for; something they may have previously thought impossible. “You go out there and want to give back, but the experience makes you so happy that you feel like you got just as much out of it as they did,” Hackbarth said.
The work OAS does is made possible by the community. Generous donors as well as more than 250 annual volunteers make life changing experiences like Hamilton’s come to life. OAS continues to support the Bend community by providing these opportunities and increasing accessibility to this outdoor paradise, one person at a time.
In a span of just ten days, Blackstrap Industries owner Abe Shehadeh pivoted his business from making facemasks, headwear and neck gaiters for the ski, snow and action sports industry to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic head-on with the manufacture of facemasks for public safety. Like most business decisions, it wasn’t an easy one at first.
“It started with employees suggesting we make masks, but I didn’t want to capitalize on the pandemic,” Shehadeh said. “But we kept getting more and more requests because nobody anywhere had them. Then we started seeing the disposable surgical masks everywhere—on the streets, sidewalks, in trash cans; that’s when we decided to pivot.”
Shehadeh and Blackstrap saw an opportunity to cut down on the waste of disposable masks by producing facemasks that could be washed and reused. This endeavor paired nicely with the company’s existing Waste-Zero program, the goal of which is to upcycle fabric scraps into new gear for consumers. “We were able to push our own green initiatives while providing good quality masks for people who needed them,” Shehadeh said. “With our Civil Mask program, we’ve saved roughly 77,000 pounds of fabric from going into a landfill. It’s truly a win-win all around.”
Another mandatory for Blackstrap was the implementation of a giveback program associated with the facemasks. With every mask sold, the company would give one to someone in need. “Close to 65,000 masks were donated and delivered, which is just shy of $1 million MSRP,” said Jim Sanco, brand manager at Blackstrap. “As a facemask company, it was the right thing to do. We needed to be able to walk the talk.”
Owner Abe Shehadeh
The list of beneficiaries is a long one at more than 300 businesses around the country, with nearly one-third of them located in Central Oregon. Businesses range from medical facilities like the St. Charles hospital system and Mosaic Medical to city government including the Bend Police Department and Bend Park and Recreation. In addition to donations, the company also offered larger quantities at or below wholesale costs to benefit existing programs designed to keep the community safe.
One such program was the Masks for Children Project, a partnership between Central Oregon Pediatric Associates, PacificSource and the Central Oregon Health Council. Designed to help reduce the spread of disease in hopes of getting kids back in school, parents back to work, and the community back to thriving, 15,000 masks are being distributed free to children during COPA visits, as well as through a number of local nonprofit organizations. “The Blackstrap masks are terrific, and kids love them, so they’re more likely to keep them on,” said COPA CEO Wade Miller.
Blackstrap, whose corporate office is headquartered in Bend, manufactures entirely in the United States with its factories in Los Angeles. It was this domestic production that allowed the company to move so quickly. “We’ve been in the industry for ten years,” Shehadeh said. “We know fabrics, we know quality and we’re 100 percent American made so we knew we could pull it off in a rapid timeline.”
The colorful and fun patterns were a hit with the public and the Civil Mask sales skyrocketed. More machines were bought and factory production more than tripled in size. Staffing was ramped up and employees more than doubled to fifty people between the Bend and Los Angeles locations. “When everyone was closing doors and laying off employees we were hiring,” Shehadeh said. “I’m happy that in a town with a strong service industry, we were able to hire people who had recently lost their jobs due to COVID. That’s something we’re all very proud of.”
At the height of summer, public safety mask production comprised nearly 80 percent of Blackstrap’s business. In a six month period, the company was producing between 25,000 and 50,000 units per day, distributing throughout Central Oregon and across the country. Additionally, these new products opened doors for the businesses that were previously closed.
Blackstrap masks in use at Bend Rock Gym
“Through the pandemic, we went from being in fifty REI stores around the country to all stores, as well as into all 862 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores,” Shehadeh said. “The Civil Masks have allowed these retailers to see the value of our brand and what we can bring to this category, which has translated into additional SKUs in additional doors.”
That also translated to sales. In the second half of 2020, sales grew over 700 percent from the previous six months, shattering records along the way. Now with the manufacturing expansion and operations infrastructure solidly in place, Blackstrap is once again focused on its prime business season. “We’re 90 percent back to our normal production schedule and ready for winter,” Shehadeh said.
The company plans to keep producing masks for public safety as long as they’re needed, though hopes the demand will lessen as more and more people keep wearing them. “We started out making these for people in need,” Shehadeh said. “But the ultimate goal is to be part of the solution and contribute to stopping the spread of this so that eventually, we’ll no longer need to wear masks.”
Until then, Blackstrap facemasks are available online at bsbrand.com and at retailers around Central Oregon.
Courtney Equall was walking her boxer Rudy on their regular stroll through their Three Rivers neighborhood two years ago this spring, when she spotted a rare “for sale” sign. While her own home was only a few hundred yards away, the listed property was right on the Deschutes River, and she was intrigued. She called her husband Nate Equall with a kind of crazy idea, and he immediately started running the numbers to see if they might be able to buy it. “We called the realtor, and I think we looked at it the next morning,” Nate said.
It took a few months to close the deal, because the couple had to sell their current home to get the next, but by late summer the property was theirs. It was “a real fixer” Courtney said, and hardly move-in ready—a 1984 build with mostly original features, old worn carpet and a dark, cramped kitchen right off the entrance. The couple would have their work cut out for them. But a project like this wasn’t intimidating for the Equalls. In fact, it would be their third go-around fixing up a house themselves, and this time they’d have their largest audience yet. Because as the couple planned to renovate their new 1,400-square-foot home into a bright, open, space, they’d have their 136,000 Instagram followers watching along the way.
Growing a following
It had all started when the Equalls moved from Portland to Texas in 2014 for Nate’s job in advertising. As they started working on DIY home projects, family back home encouraged Courtney to start a blog to share their progress. She set up girlandgrey.com to post photos and updates. “Girl” was for their daughter, Nolan, now 11, and Grey is their first son, now 9. They’ve since had a second son, Urban, now 4.
In 2017, the couple moved home to Oregon, this time to the Three Rivers area, and continued to share their DIY projects on the blog and Instagram account. They were amassing followers along the way and attracting the interest of companies such as The Home Depot and Sherwin Williams that wanted to collaborate and connect with the @girlandgrey audience. When it came time to move into house number three on the Deschutes River, they had a captive and eager following ready to cheer them on.
One Room Challenge
If not for their online friends, things may not have moved as quickly in the new home after the Equalls got the keys. But, they had signed on with Better Homes and Gardens to be a featured participant in the One Room Challenge, a six-week project to renovate one room in your home. The couple chose the kitchen as their project space, and started tearing things apart days after moving in. They would have to balance the renovation work with their regular lives—Nate working remotely as the director of advertising for an investment research firm and Courtney, who holds a master’s in education, helping raise the couple’s three kids. As they had in their first Three Rivers house, they enlisted the help of Courtney’s father, Jeff Price, who taught Nate most of what he knows about carpentry over the years. They ripped out dated cupboards from the 1980s to open up the space, removed the drop ceiling and swapped one small window for three large black-framed windows that look out onto the street. They added sage-green cupboards, a countertop-to-ceiling white tile backsplash behind the oven and fresh new hardwood floors, which extend throughout the main floor. “We just wanted it to be bright and open, with Northwest vibes,” Courtney said. It was a close call, but the couple completed the kitchen project in the six weeks of allotted time for the One Room Challenge.
Day by day DIY
As the chaos of the kitchen project faded away, the Equalls were on to the next thing, and then the next. They transformed their downstairs bathroom, adding sleek black and white tile on the floors, an all-white tiled shower-bath combo and a new sink and vanity. The resulting space is clean and modern, but still incorporates Courtney’s boho-inspired style with hanging plants, and one of her many repurposed art pieces thrifted from Goodwill on the shelves above the toilet. After the bathroom came the entryway, followed by a backyard firepit and then a refresh of the laundry room, complete with new open shelving and fun polka dot wallpaper behind the appliances.
Between all the smaller projects, Nate was busy outside on something much bigger—repainting the entire exterior of the house and swapping windows and the front door. Thanks to the @girlandgrey following, the couple collaborated with Sherwin Williams to get paint in exchange for documenting the process. While they initially thought they had a shade of black in mind, it was actually the Instagram audience who ultimately chose another called “Tricorn Black.” “I take a lot of polls when I’m choosing something like tile or color, and everyone loved that color,” Courtney said.
Perpetual projects
While the Equall’s Three Rivers home looks like a finished product in many of the photos they post today, experienced DIY-ers like them are always looking to what’s next. They have an upstairs bathroom that still exudes vintage vibes, and there’s a house addition they hope to tear down and rebuild in a couple of years. As they go, the couple will turn to their online following for support and feedback. “I feel like it’s my biggest passion,” said Courtney of her love of design and sharing it with others. “It’s the most fun thing in the world. It’s like this whole group of people out there that feel like my buddies.”
While six years ago in Texas, big renovation projects sounded like scary undertakings, the couple say they’ve gotten more confident with every project. “Anyone can do it. You learn a lot as you go,” Courtney said. “I think if it’s something you want to do, go for it.”
For fans of Italian cuisine, biting into a forkful of pasta cooked, sauced and paired to perfection is one of life’s simple joys.
Bend and Central Oregon are spoiled for choice when it comes to downright delicious pasta dishes by local restaurateurs. Winter is the perfect time to indulge in a plate of pasta cooked by the experts when you need a break after a week of cooking or to make your date night that much more special. Local chefs and restaurant owners show off their favorites here—dishes that entice newcomers and keep locals coming back again and again for more. Dine in or take out—it’s noodle time!
Trattoria Sbandati
Asked to choose a favorite dish to share, Trattoria Sbandati’s chef Juri Sbandati said the decision would come down to “sharing the memory of a landscape or the memory of a person, both nostalgic and intimate.” Sbandati chose pappardelle alla chiantigiana, highlighting the memory of the Tuscan landscape.
“I close my eyes and I see happy pigs roaming in the Tuscan countryside, rolling hills, red wine flowing through a land that was made what it is today by the hard work of stubborn people,” said Sbandati, who was born in Florence, Italy.
To make the dish a “small, humble tribute to that land, terra,” and his fellow Tuscans, Sbandati said, the pappardelle, a wide, ribbon-like pasta, must be made by hand. To start, Sbandati stir fries together extra virgin olive oil and chopped leeks, then adds sausage from Primal Cuts Market, fennel and plenty of Chianti wine. In the end, paired with the pappardelle, the result is a spicy, shiny tomato sauce with pieces of sausage, topped with parmigiano reggiano cheese.
Brickhouse
As executive chef at Brickhouse’s locations in both Bend and Redmond, Sharon Fabiana has honed the restaurant’s seafood pasta featuring an alfredo sauce over years’ time. The fettuccine dish includes jumbo prawns, fresh sea scallops, Alaskan-caught salmon and halibut when it’s in season (from about the middle or end of February all the way to around the second week of November), sourcing West Coast seafood whenever possible. Serving fresh seafood with cheese isn’t classic in Italian cuisine, Fabiana explained, but because of just the right balance of cheese used in the dish—it includes an eight-month aged parmigiano reggiano—it’s been a hit at Brickhouse.
“I wanted to do something a little different. I thought something more rich and powerful would work well,” Fabiana said. “Sometimes I like to step outside the box. That’s what makes a chef a chef—anyone can probably make a recipe, it’s about choosing to infuse flavors.”
The pasta is highly popular and often requested on what are Brickhouse’s busiest nights of the year: New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day.
Marcello’s Cucina Italiana
Though the kitchen’s recipe has surely been tweaked over time, linguini puttanesca has been served at Marcello’s Cucina Italiana in Sunriver since it opened forty years ago, according to Thad Lodge, owner, who has been part of the ownership for the past fifteen years. When guests order the savory seafood dish, they may ask after the flavors it features or which wine it pairs best with. The interesting bit that doesn’t always come up? The origins of the dish’s name.
“Puttanesca” in Italian is said to roughly translate to “lady of the night”—or what we might more bluntly call “prostitute.” Lodge tells it like this: “at the establishments where men would frequent in the past, they would often have a seafood stew cooking.” Over time, the stew and the term for the ladies who often served it became one in the same.
In most cases, puttanesca dishes use a red sauce, often with anchovy, but at Marcello’s it’s a little different, as they’ve added their own spin to the Italian classic, Lodge said. They toss linguini in a light basil pesto white wine sauce with jumbo prawns, sea scallops, wild salmon, artichoke, mushrooms, capers and diced tomatoes.
She was going to stab her doctor, but she wrote a book instead: that’s the hook for Prozac Monologues: A voice from the edge, a memoir released last fall from Sisters author Willa Goodfellow and She Writes Press.
Prozac Monologues is really two books. One is the raw stream-of-consciousness monologues Goodfellow wrote over the course of three weeks in Costa Rica in 2005 after she decided to quit taking Prozac. The second part, acting as a sort of epilogue after each monologue, provides the medical history and context for Goodfellow’s state, and offers resources for those who may be struggling with bipolar disorder. The result is something completely original.
According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, 2.8 percent of the population is diagnosed with bipolar disorder; 83 percent of those cases are classified as severe. Bipolar disorder is often misdiagnosed as depression, and for years Goodfellow, an Episcopal priest, tried a slew of medications that offered some relief, but mostly dangerous side effects. “Bipolar disorder is not diagnosed and not treated appropriately for an average of 7.5 years,” according to a 2006 study cited in the book.
Goodfellow manages to strike the right balance in a tone that is serious and moving in nature but also comedic and witty, which makes the difficult moments of the book easier to swallow. One irony is that in the manic writing episodes there are snippets of great writing and clever insights. For example, “In short, it’s hard to know whether depression is a problem of distorted thinking or the consequence of clarity.” Or while recounting a hike in Costa Rica, “Forget your camera. You can’t capture an experience on film. While you are trying to preserve the moment, inevitably you fail to experience part of the moment.” And, “Depression is so depressing. And you can’t get help unless you talk about it. And if you talk about it, you get more depressed.” Each essay gains in clarity, direction and coherent thoughts as the Prozac works its way out of Goodfellow’s system.
Goodfellow was raised as a Roman Catholic but became an Episcopalian in college. She graduated from Reed College and has a master’s degree from the Yale Divinity School. She has a blog where she offers reflections on mental illness and critiques contemporary writing about mental health. Though she never had formal ambitions to write professionally, being a priest and writing sermons and her blog each week honed her writing skills, creating a form that feels conversational and friendly while offering important insights into mental health.
“When I first was writing this, all the memoirs of depression were so depressing,” she said. “Humor is a communication strategy. I can go as dark as I want. When I turn [my experience] into a joke, non-suicidal people don’t dial 911, and suicidal people hear me. They know that I see them and they see me.”
For some, the monologues may be difficult to parse. But read closely and see a thread that’s one of the most illuminating parts of the book. In the editing process, the bulk of the monologues were kept intact, to let the writing speak for itself. “I didn’t want to lose the hypomanic sense of it,” Goodfellow said. “That’s one of things that people with bipolar can do. We can find connections in things that don’t look connected.”
While her book tour has been moved online, Goodfellow continues to work on new writing projects. These days—when anxieties are high from COVID-19, climate change and political instability—Goodfellow said she is grateful to have meaningful work to do.
“In any circumstance, we need to find the thing that gives our life meaning. Putting together puzzles fills the time if it’s going to be short term. Over the long term, what is it that I can do that matters? So this is what I’m doing.”
Prozac Monologues can be purchased online at local bookstores and indiebound.org. Find more of Goodfellow’s writing at prozacmonologues.com.
There is an old adage, “If you can walk, you can snowshoe.” This bodes well for a popular winter activity that, truly, the whole family can share. Entry into the world of snowshoeing requires little more than some general fitness, minimal equipment and a desire to explore Central Oregon’s winter wonderland. “If you’re asking, how can I get outside on the snow, inexpensively, safely and easily, snowshoeing is the answer,” said Henry Abel, of the Pine Mountain Sports community outreach staff.
Brief History of the Shoe
Thousands of years ago our Neolithic ancestors traversed across snowy landscapes in search of game or shelter. Tired of post-holing through the snow, some archaic individual came up with the idea of binding slabs of wood or thick bark to his or her feet with leather. The oldest known snowshoe was found by an Italian cartographer in 2003 while mapping the Gurgler Eisjoch glacier at an elevation of 10,280 feet in the Dolomites. The oval-shaped, birch wood frame still had pieces of natural cordage attached and carbon-dating placed the snowshoe’s age at around 5,800 years old.
From there, snowshoe evolution has led us to ergonomic ‘shoes made of lightweight materials such as tubular aluminum frames, neoprene or plastic decking, and easy-to-use bindings. Heck, you can even get snowshoes sporting a Michelin tire tread.
So, if you’re thinking about taking down those vintage wooden Alaskan snowshoes with the rawhide webbing hanging above the fireplace mantle, don’t do it. They are cumbersome and challenging to wear—great for the historic Alaskans, maybe, but these days we can do a lot better.
What to Wear
Similar to hiking, snowshoeing offers an outdoor aerobic workout. “I tell my beginner groups that on a good day, snowshoeing is twice as hard as hiking,” said Leslie Olsen, outdoor recreation leader for Bend Park & Recreation District. “It’s a great way to get in a workout while seeing a beautiful landscape.” As with any outdoor activity, Olsen encourages folks to be prepared and know their limits. “Being prepared is like wearing a seat belt. You’re glad to have it on the one time you need it.” Dress in layers to add or subtract clothes and utilize microfleece and non-cotton clothing for its insulating value and comfort. Waterproof boots, pants and a shell also offer protection from the elements.
“You’re probably going to start out cold then warm up quickly,” added Abel of Pine Mountain, so having a daypack to stuff extra clothes into, along with some water and snacks, is a good idea.
There is an old adage, “If you can walk, you can snowshoe.” This bodes well for a popular winter activity that, truly, the whole family can share. Entry into the world of snowshoeing requires little more than some general fitness, minimal equipment and a desire to explore Central Oregon’s winter wonderland. “If you’re asking, how can I get outside on the snow, inexpensively, safely and easily, snowshoeing is the answer,” said Henry Abel, of the Pine Mountain Sports community outreach staff.
photo Alex Jordan
I’m In. Where do I begin?
The beauty of snowshoeing is that as long as there is enough snow, you can literally go anywhere: city parks, neighborhoods or up to the mountains.
We can all thank Jim Davis (1926-2014), a doctor who retired in Bend, for establishing snowshoe trails at sno-parks along the Cascade Lakes Highway starting in the early 2000s. “In the winter, Jim would take his map and compass to avoid snowshoeing on the ski trails,” said Fred DeCook, retired Bend resident who, along with others, helped Davis set up the initial trails. “He started to find that people were following his tracks, so Jim went to the Forest Service and asked if he could put in some dedicated snowshoe trails.” With the Forest Service’s OK, Davis and his group of volunteers flagged routes that the Forest Service would then vet and approve as a trail. After approval, the crew installed trail markers—blue diamonds with a snowshoer icon—with aluminum nails. Today, Central Oregon Nordic Club volunteers provide stewardship along 23.5 miles of snowshoe trails in cooperation with the Forest Service.
Virginia Meissner Sno–Park
photo Richard Bacon
Located 15 miles from Bend along the Cascades Lake Highway, this sno-park was named in honor of Virginia Meissner, a long-time Central Oregon resident who taught cross-country skiing and introduced many people to the outdoor wonders of the area. Originally known as the Tangent area, this is the first sno-park winter enthusiasts encounter on the road to Mount Bachelor.
The Ponderosa Loop is 3 miles long and follows the rolling terrain through ponderosa and grand fir forests to the Meissner warming shelter, which is a perfect spot to enjoy a snack or lunch or to howl at the full moon.
Swampy Lakes Sno-Park
A few miles above Meissner Sno-Park is Swampy Lakes Sno-Park. Often less crowded than Meissner, this area offers two great snowshoe destinations: Swampy Lakes Shelter and the Nordeen Shelter, named after local legendary ski pioneer Emil Nordeen (1890-1986).
The Swampy Lakes loop starts at the trailhead sign and travels west towards Swampy Lakes. This trail has rolling terrain, passes through mixed conifers, and leads to the new Swampy Shelter which was built in 2016 (the old one was leaning too far left, seriously). The Porcupine Loop is 3.5 miles long, and if you’re up for a cardio burn, take the Telemark Butte alternate route on your return trip for a 4.25-mile-long loop.
The Nordeen Shelter trail also begins at the trailhead and heads east through lodgepole pine stands and open meadows before ending at the shelter. Part out-and-back, part loop, the 4.75-mile-long trail is relatively level most of the way. There are views of the rocky face of Paulina Peak in Newberry Volcanic National Monument from the shelter.
Edison Sno-Park
photo Alex Jordan
This sno-park includes some “electric” routes such as the Direct Current Trail, Tesla Trail, Light Bulb Loop and High Voltage Trail. “The Edison area is my favorite because dogs are allowed and there are a lot of rock formations the trail winds around,” DeCook said. Located along U.S. Forest Road 45, there are several options to tie trails together to visit both the Edison and AC/DC Shelter (for alternating and direct current, not the band). The longer Tesla Loop to the Edison Shelter is 5 miles and the Short Loop to the Edison Shelter is 3 miles long.
Tumalo Falls / photo Richard Bacon
Todd Lake
Two trailheads lead to Todd Lake. Many snowshoers prefer starting at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center and, after obtaining a free corridor pass, ‘shoeing down the Common Corridor instead of parking at the Dutchman Flat Sno-Park and navigating through snowmobile traffic. The trail to Todd Lake traverses through a magnificent old growth mountain hemlock forest. After a fresh snow, some of the younger trees sport headdresses of snow which give them a gnome-like appearance. After descending to Todd Meadow, the trail winds along the outlet for Todd Lake which, depending upon snow depth, may have a fluted appearance as the creek becomes entrenched within walls of snow. Expect visiting Canada jays to swoop in on any unprotected sandwich or snack. Loop is 3.75 miles.
Skyliner Sno–Park
This sno-park is located 19 miles from Bend along Skyliner Road and offers a couple of options to reach Tumalo Falls. To make the 6.0-mile loop, follow the Tumalo Creek trail to the falls and return via the closed road or just snowshoe out and back on the closed Tumalo Falls Road. The 100-foot-high Tumalo Falls may be framed by ice as it plunges over a basalt ledge.
photo Brad Bailey
Pro Tips
• A sno-park permit is required November 1 to April 30 for parking at a sno-park. Annual or day pass options are available, and the pass helps support plowing and restrooms.
• Sno-parks on the north side of the Cascade Lakes Highway are closed to dogs but sno-parks on the south side are open to dogs.
• Obtain a free corridor trail pass at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center for the Common Corridor and remember to stay off the groomed trails.
• Be prepared. Bring the ten essentials, extra batteries for your headlamp if snowshoeing at night, and always let someone know where you are headed.
• Zip your cellphone pocket closed before creating a snow angel.
• Phone batteries may lose charge in the cold, so consider bringing the waterproof/tearproof Bend Area Trails map by Adventure Maps as a backup, or as a primary for us old schoolers out there.
The Pine Tavern is one of the oldest restaurants in Bend, and a favorite during the winter holidays. After a morning of shopping downtown, I always take my niece there for lunch—just like my mom took me, and her mom took her. The wood-paneled walls are decked in festive greenery and sparkly white lights, families dress up a little bit more than Bend casual, and in the dining room you can stare at the old Ponderosa pine trees growing up through the roof and classic Bend photos on the wall and remember those who came before you who stared at those trees and photos, too. It’s a special place.
I asked bar manager Lucas Neff what people like to order on cold winter days and his answer was simple—the Pine Tavern Hot Toddy. “When people come in during the winter, they want to warm up,” he said. So he created a twist on the whiskey toddy—using green chartreuse liquor to give it more of an herbaceous note than medicinal. Green chartreuse is made from hundreds of herbs, plants and flowers by French monks who have been making the liqueur since 1737. “The herbal flavor really works with the citrus and sweetness of both the honey and orgeat,” Neff said. Add spicy bourbon, hot water and a cinnamon stick, and you can bring a little of that Pine Tavern magic home. – Sara Freedman
Pine Tavern Hot Toddy
1.75 ounces of Easy Rider bourbon (Hood River Distillers)
1 teaspoon green chartreuse
.5 ounce lemon juice
1 Tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons orgeat
Add all ingredients to glass, add hot water and stir. Garnish with lemon wheel, cinnamon stick and star anise.
Local businesses and shops sell a variety of goods made by artisan makers from the region and beyond. When you’re holiday shopping this year, skip the big box stores and give the gift of Central Oregon. Whether you’re looking for local spirits, the latest gear for adventure-hounds or handmade sweet treats, these gifts will delight everyone on your list.
Yozamp in front of his mural at Miyagi Ramen. Wardrobe courtesy of Revival Vintage Bend, pants belong to artist, necklace courtesy of Planet Homeslice.
Richard James Yozamp pours another layer of house paint over a dead tree limb embedded in a concrete bucket in his garage studio. When finished, the sculpture will be part of his collection of “Bucket Trees” that he will place around town for people to enjoy and take home for free. “Everyone understands twigs,” said the Bend native, who recently returned to Central Oregon after immersing himself in street art in Southern California and apprenticing with masters in silk-screen T-shirts and pop-art prints.
The 2007 Summit High School graduate headed to Montana State University planning to major in art, but disliked the art school and switched instead to a business and marketing degree. He didn’t give up his dream of becoming an artist, though. “I painted abstracts by pouring paint onto a canvas in the party room of my fraternity,” he recalled. “I had eight large paintings and recruited eight sorority sisters to use their hair dryers to finish them in time for the student art show. I priced them cheap. They sold out quickly.”
After college, he moved to Ocean Beach, California, in 2012, surfing every day and working at James Gang T-shirt shop learning silk screening, color theory, photoshop and design. While there, he heard that Shane Bowden, a neo expressionist pop artist, was looking for an assistant. The Australian’s bold, vibrant and often provocative prints reminiscent of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg had a following in the art world. At one point, Bowden owned galleries in the United States, Canada and Asia.
“I went to meet him at his La Jolla gallery, and he told me, ‘You’re starting Monday morning. You’d better be ready,’” Yozamp recalled.
“I get there, and he tells me to make a four-by-four-foot silk screen of a Chanel (perfume) bottle. That’s an industrial size. I worked for him for four years, pumping out art, as many as 136 silk-screen paintings in one day. Until then, I didn’t know you could make a living doing art.
“He mentored me, and after a year of hardcore boot camp, I was painting forty to fifty hours a week,” he said. “I started selling my own work in galleries as a ‘ghost painter’ under his name and brand. At 25, I was making really good money and managing his whole operation and opened up eight galleries for him.”
When Bowden went to Italy in 2017 and didn’t return, Yozamp locked up the galleries. “I looked for work for several months, sold my own work and did small gigs,” he said. “I was directionless, but with the foundation Shane gave me, I was ready to become my own artist.”
Getting Started
His dad, Jim Yozamp, found him a job in marketing and sales in Bend in 2018. The younger Yozamp gave corporate life his full attention until he realized it wasn’t for him. “I was ready to get back into the studio and get creative,” he said. “The art followed me to Bend, and I got an order from Krave and Kulture, a high-end fashion and curated pop-art business in Palm Springs, for sixty paintings under my own signature.”
In addition to the Bucket Tree sculptures of dried bushes and dead branches, his studio had several large canvases ready for painting, made of heavy material he buys at Joann fabric store. “I love going to Joann’s and using my 50 percent off coupons,” he said and laughed. Although he’s mostly done silk-screened paintings in the past, he’s more focused now on hand painting his subject matter, which often includes mountains or trails he hikes in Central Oregon.
Yozamp also brought home a love of contemporary street art and mural painting. “I ran around San Diego at 2 a.m., zip tying cardboard cutouts to different parts of buildings, fences and street signs—about 100 different pieces at a time and a new series every week or two,” he said. “The subject matter included babies doing adult things, like reading the LA Times, drinking Starbucks or texting and driving a child’s Mercedes SUV electric toy car.”
Since returning to Bend, he’s painted murals at Bo’s Falafel Bar and Miyagi Ramen, and is in talks for other commissioned, large-scale public murals around Bend in 2021. He’s also had shows at Outside In equipment store, Dump City Dumplings and Revolvr Menswear.
Yozamp in front of the Bo’s Falafel Bar mural he painted
At 31, Yozamp is a fresh face on the local art scene. Expect to see more of his work around town. Visit him by searching @yozamp on Instagram. Yozamp’s newest exhibit, including classic views of Central Oregon Cascade lakes and mountains in natural fibers, will hang at Found Natural Goods opening December 4 and running through the month.
The best tasting meal you serve at home might be something you create personally in your own kitchen. Or it might be fixed by professionals who have worked at the Food Network or cooked alongside Jacques Pépin and Bobby Flay. With a call to Bend’s Ingredient Studio, either is possible.
Candy Argondizza and Marite Acosta
Ingredient Studio is the culinary brainchild of Candy Argondizza and Marité Acosta, an accomplished pair of female chefs who moved to Bend from New York City in 2017, after years of visiting Central Oregon. Together the couple offers in (your) home cooking lessons, cooking parties and private chef services, guaranteeing delicious meals served at your own table whenever you book them, or gift their services to a friend or family member.
“When we moved here, we saw an opportunity to do what we love,” Argondizza said. “I’ve been cooking for years and teaching, and to combine the two into our own business was exciting.” Ingredient Studio’s services are tailored to each customer and can cover specific cuisine or skill building for chefs with varying abilities. “We really like to cater it to each person’s experiences or interests, and that I think makes it unique,” Acosta said. “The education goes beyond just the cooking. The idea really is to tailor it, and give them skills beyond the stove.”
Perfect chicken
Both Argondizza and Acosta have a lifelong passion for cooking, and their own paths converged more than twenty-three years ago in New York City, long before they’d ever visited Central Oregon. Both culinary professionals at the time, they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance—their gym trainer. After meeting, they continued to live the city life and build upon their impressive resumes in the culinary world.
Acosta spent her time working at the Food Network and Cooking Channel, where she focused on recipe testing and development, often helping with important behind-the-scenes decision making and information gathering. “On Iron Chef America I was stationed in a control room that looked down over the set and would call out anything that was going on using any number of the unique ingredients that the chefs were working with,” she said. “The producers then feed that information to the host, Alton Brown, who would immediately incorporate the ingredient and some details or history about it to the audience.”
Meanwhile, Argondizza was busy leading kitchens in highly regarded New York restaurants, working alongside some of the industry’s best chefs, including Bobby Flay, Jacques Pépin, Alice Waters, Dan Barber and David Chang. In 2000, she took a role teaching at the International Culinary Center, where she served as Vice President of Culinary & Pastry Arts for seventeen years. She was named Culinary Teacher of the Year by the prestigious International Association of Culinary Professionals and has mentored students and instructors alike.
“Our world was all culinary all day back in New York,” said Acosta, who explained that after years of coming from New York to Central Oregon to visit friends, the couple had fallen in love with the area, and by 2017 were ready for a cross-country move to make it their home. “We loved our lives in New York City, but we were ready for another chapter and a better work-life balance,” Argondizza said.
Candy teaches a lesson in gnocchi making
After moving, they quickly got to work launching Ingredient Studio, with plans to offer lessons, personal chef services and a hybrid option, where customers participate in a portion of the cooking and then let the chefs take over. The services are personalized, and after a lesson, Argondizza and Acosta make themselves available in the future to answer cooking questions. “We let them know they now have access to asking us any question any time, going forward,” Acosta said.
Business has been steady over the past three years, and although things slowed down with the pandemic, the duo hopes to keep busy through the holidays with private chef services and small lessons. They also have plans to again offer larger cooking parties in the future. Ingredient Studio also offers gift certificates, and Argondizza and Acosta said a lesson or series of lessons makes a great gift for the chef in someone’s life. “It’s an experience, but it’s also a life skill,” Acosta said. The lessons are appropriate for just about anyone, from parents and children to aspiring chefs, to those just looking to improve technique or perfect a certain type of cuisine. There’s really no downside to gifting someone the experience of becoming a better cook. Because, as Argondizza said, “it’s the gift that keeps on giving.”
The owner of Bend’s whimsical new plant shop, Somewhere That’s Green, has had a passion for plants blossoming since he was a child growing up in Philomath, a small town near Corvallis. In elementary school, John Kish planted seeds and brought his own crosspollinated plants in for show and tell. In high school, he bonded with a plant science teacher and dove headfirst into a project restoring the region’s prairie ecosystem. And in college at Oregon State University, he worked on a project fighting the gall virus from harming grapevines while studying sustainable and ecological horticulture.
By the time he was 21, Kish’s love of plants was playing out in New York City, where he was busy keeping 5,000 holiday poinsettia plants thriving at Rockefeller Center. “I was the interior landscaper, there to install and maintain the plants,” Kish said. But it wasn’t plant life that brought Kish to the city—he was part of a demanding Broadway conservatory nurturing another passion, theater. When his 18-hour days with instructors and classmates were done, he would hurry over to Rockefeller Plaza to begin tending to the plants. Long days balancing horticulture and theater until 1 a.m. didn’t last, and soon Kish was working at bars and coffee shops, with horticulture as only a hobby.
After a few years in the city, Kish traveled to Ecuador with a group called Dramatic Adventure Theater. He would get to see the Amazon, while visiting an impoverished village, running a theater production during the visit and re-awakening his love of nature. “Seeing the Amazon was always a dream of mine,” Kish said.” After the trip, he was ready to return to Oregon.
Kish bounced between Bend and Portland over the next few years, getting involved in theater, including at Cascades Theatrical Company in Bend and by starting his own production company, Topsoil Theatrics. Meanwhile, a dream of someday opening his own plant business was quickly becoming more vivid. Things started modestly—he acquired plants and sold them at pop-up shops within other stores, starting at Revolvr during a First Friday in late 2018, and expanding with markets and coffee shops. By last summer he had moved into Bend’s DIYcave makerspace with the budding business, Somewhere That’s Green, a name from a song in Little Shop of Horrors. Kish’s Topsoil Theatrics had a production of the musical slated for May, but the pandemic shut things down two weeks into rehearsals.
With theater on hold, Kish focused on selling plants, and amid COVID-19 his customer base was quickly expanding. He launched a plant gifting program called “Purposeful Plants” allowing customers to gift plants for delivery to others in town, and planned a fun drag-queen-themed live class on repotting plants, acting as his alter-ego, Fertile Liza. This summer, with the plant business outgrowing DIYcave, Kish took an opportunity to move into a space on Powerhouse Drive in the Old Mill District. In a ten-day span, Kish along with Matt Marson (Kish’s fiancé and new co-owner), Kish’s father and others quickly revamped the space, building shelves for pottery and moving in more than 500 species of plants. By early July, they were open for business in the new location.
The new shop is cozy and imaginative, packed with plants large and small and a wall of pottery from local ceramicists, including Cook’s Pottery in La Pine. Tote bags bear Kish’s favorite plant, the giant rhubarb, which he also sports a tattoo of on his left forearm. The shop stocks four main plant varieties: topicals, arids including succulents and cactus, aquatics and air plants (no soil).
From left to right Matt, John and Dan of Somewhere thats Green share a joke in the shop. The shop has 4 employees making the comraderie strong and the laughs plenty.
When customers purchase a new plant from Somewhere That’s Green, they’re also buying insight from Kish, Marson and two other staff members, Daniel Young and Jonathan Stockman. Staff will help repot plants into ceramic containers, drill drainage holes and offer to help in the future if the plant ever struggles. “We want you to be successful,” Kish said. In addition to selling plants, Kish is a plant consultant of sorts, making in-home visits to assess lighting and space, and offering recommendations for which plants would thrive in Central Oregon homes.
As new customers trickle in daily, Kish is feeling grateful for the shop’s word-of-mouth success and the future. Ongoing workshops are planned (only some are taught in drag), as well as plant swaps and the possibility of other events aimed at bringing people together around their passion for plants. “Plants bring peace and growth,” said Kish, who is quick to tout the benefits of getting your hands dirty and tending to a plant, watching it grow. “There’s something really rewarding about it.”
Friday, Nov. 13 marks this year’s World Kindness Day. This day is meant to remind people to choose kindness whenever possible, and in the end, make the world a happier place. Middle school students from the Bend-La Pine School District have taken the reins of leadership in the campaign to spread kindness to their community.
“Kindness is a wonderful and inclusive thing and we hope to see that grow in our community,” said Nikolette, an eighth-grader from Cascade Middle School. “I want to be part of this positivity, to live in a community that is filled with kindness and that has the courage to be kind.”
This message is echoed by Nikolette’s classmates, as well as other students across several schools who are all spearheading this year’s kindness campaign. Many local organizations are participating in the campaign, including the Bend Park and Recreation District, Central Oregon Community College, St. Charles Health System and Oregon State University-Cascades.
The city of Bend itself is taking part in the campaign, with Mayor Sally Russell speaking on the importance of spreading kindness in the community.
“A little gesture of kindness—warm words of support or gratitude—might just help others in our community who are having a tough day feel like someone cares,” Russell said. “As a caring community we can get through these unprecedented times together. We can show support for each other by making kindness a priority. A little kindness goes a long way.”
A little kindness does in fact go a long way, and that statement is backed up by the U.S. Department of Education, which claims that “students who learn in positive learning environments that are safe, supportive and engaging are more likely to improve academically, participate more fully in the classroom and develop skills that will help them be successful in school and in life.”
Organizers suggest that the next time you get the chance, celebrate this holiday by spreading some cheer. Consider bringing someone coffee in the morning, or maybe break the ice in an online meeting and help the new people feel comfortable and welcome. On Nov. 13 in particular, organizers are encouraging others to wear a cardigan to represent the kindness spread by the late Mr. Rogers.
However you choose to be kind, consider documenting the act and posting to social media accounts with #ChooseKindnessCO, so anyone who sees it might be encouraged to spread kindness in their own life, too.
Learn more about the Choose Kindness campaign here.
In the new 50th anniversary book Black Butte Ranch: There is a Place, author Kathryn Graves Yoder’s love for the resort located north of Sisters spills over to readers. Through essays about the ranch’s history, natural beauty, residents and the people who’ve kept the ranch running, Yoder’s affection extends into a reverence for the land Black Butte Ranch was built on, which of course has a history far older than the resort’s 1970 opening date.
In the eighty-eight-page coffee table book, rich photos accompany the essays to portray Black Butte Ranch as the people who hold it close know it. There is a constant nod to legacy within the book, as many homes, experiences and memories are passed down between generations at Black Butte Ranch. And yet the book, like the ranch, welcomes newcomers to explore, too.
Yoder, a Sisters resident, herself holds tight ties to the ranch’s beginning. Her father, the late Robert “Bob” Muir Graves, a landscape architect who specialized in golf courses, designed Big Meadow at Black Butte Ranch, which is why Yoder’s mother, Mimi Graves, wrote the book’s introduction. “I was able to, from the time I was a little kid, watch the ranch evolve,” Yoder said. “A large portion of it was considered a swamp, which the Brooks Resources folks very thoughtfully transformed.”
Within the book, Yoder highlights how the Brooks Resources Corporation, which acquired and developed the area into Black Butte Ranch, was in many ways ahead of its time in its approach to construction. Tying into the book’s legacy motif are themes of stewardship, land management and a deep appreciation for nature.
Yoder’s first essay details the history of the ranch and the land, from its geologic beginnings, to the first people who called it home, the Northern Paiute nation. It was important to Yoder to tell the history of the land going back to its first inhabitants. In the book we hear from Wilson Wewa, a leading authority on Northern Paiute oral history, a Warm Springs elder and great-great grandson of Chief Paulina, for whom Paulina Springs and other local landmarks are named. “It’s a history that needs to be acknowledged and respected,” Yoder said.
In its modern history, Black Butte Ranch was often regarded as a hidden gem. Yoder spoke with the Brooks Resources team who started the ranch including Bob Harrison, Mike Hollern and Bill Smith, uncovering how the ranch’s first marketing campaign led by Smith took advantage of that “hidden gem” idea. Instead of focusing their spending on big advertising campaigns, the corporation invested in the ranch and relied a lot on word of mouth.
“The phrase Bill used is that ‘we just focused on celebrating the generosity of place,’” Yoder said. “The place just speaks for itself. There’s such a generosity of beauty.”
There’s a significant generosity of the ranch within the larger community, too, Yoder said. In addition to being the City of Sisters’ largest employer, Black Butte Ranch makes donations to organizations like Sisters School District each year. “Everybody that I interviewed had such a deep connection to the place, and they do a lot of volunteering to keep it clean and healthy and accessible for everyone,” Yoder said. “It’s a place that’s very welcoming.”
On the day of Yoder’s interview with Bend Magazine, she was heading to the ranch later that day, in honor of what would have been her father’s 90th birthday. She and her family planned to lunch at Robert’s Pub, named for her dad.
“It’s very … I still catch my breath when I turn around and look at Black Butte and the Cascade Range there,” Yoder said.
The essence of what makes Black Butte Ranch special, as captured within the book, will appeal not only to ranch residents but to history enthusiasts, nature lovers and explorers searching for a vacation destination. This coffee table book is a wonderful holiday gift.
Black Butte Ranch: There is a Place, essays by Kathryn Graves Yoder, is available for sale at Paulina Springs Books, Black Butte Ranch and online at blackbutteranchstore.com
As the holidays roll around, even those who live in contemporary dwellings may be dreaming of a Dickens Christmas with pine boughs on a wood fireplace mantle and a Santa’s sleigh and eight not-so-tiny reindeer in the front yard.
In Bend’s historic downtown neighborhood, it’s easy to imagine celebrating an old-fashioned holiday in homes constructed by the city’s elite between 1910 and 1954 in Craftsman bungalow, Colonial, English cottage and Tudor styles. With Drake Park and the Deschutes River as a communal gathering spot, the old section of town was and remains a center stage for holiday festivities like the Bend Christmas Parade and Jingle Bell Run (both canceled this year due to the coronavirus) and the community tree lighting ceremony.
Since Charlene and Ned Dempsey became residents of the Drake Park Neighborhood Historic District, they’ve created their own holiday traditions in the English Tudor home they bought in 1995 on Riverside Boulevard. One of a few Tudors in the city, it was built in 1926 by Bend’s first eye doctor, Fred Lieuallen, and remained in his family for the next seventy years. The home embodied typical Tudor features such as two stories under steeply pitched roofs, a light-colored stucco exterior with dark trim and windows with small panes of glass; the interior included arched doorways and lathe and plaster walls.
Ned and Charlene Dempsey
“We had been hoping to find something along the river, especially near the pond,” Ned said. “We felt fortunate to acquire the older Tudor even though we would be looking at much needed TLC and upgrades.”
Acquiring a local treasure
Both Dempseys possessed skills necessary to restore and upgrade the original structure. Ned is a civil and environmental engineer who moved to Central Oregon in 1973, designing infrastructure on Black Butte Ranch and later Bend’s first wastewater system. In 1974, he founded Century West Engineering and built it into a regional engineering company with offices in Washington, Idaho, Nevada and California. He sold the company to the employees in 2014.
Charlene worked in the hospitality industry as a corporate travel planner and traveled extensively throughout the Pacific Rim and East Coast of the United States. She left that job to obtain a degree in interior design from the Art Institute of Portland and worked for years helping clients re-do their own homes, and was also the lead designer on the 2004 Tower Theatre renovation.
Until they bought the Tudor, the couple, who married in 1984, split time between Bend’s Awbrey Butte and Portland’s Marine Drive where they had a houseboat, and navigated the Columbia River in Charlene’s classic 1949 Chris Craft 19-foot wood runabout. “Moving away from the water to live in the desert was a real challenge,” Charlene recalled. “I was always looking for something on the river.”
And the makeover began
The couple moved into the 2,400-square-foot Tudor a few months after they purchased it. “We loved it despite its having had no renovations or repairs since it was built,” Charlene said. “We especially loved the Moorish-style four-center arch doorways throughout.”
The renovation focused on maintaining the style and integrity of the house. They kept the floor plan largely intact, including individual rooms instead of opening the kitchen, dining and living rooms into one large space. “We find that company like to roam into the various rooms, especially the wine cellar. The individual rooms also allow space for eclectic collections from our travel,” she said referring to the forty-eight countries they’ve visited over the years.
They began the makeover with the arduous task of cleaning and stripping away years of neglect. “We were somewhat dazed,” Charlene remembered. “We removed curtains and carpets that had absorbed years of cigarette smoke.” They faced weeks of scraping many layers of oil-painted wallpaper from every wall in the house. With his engineering background, Ned spearheaded upgrades in electrical wiring, heating systems, plumbing and insulation.
A holiday table in the wine cellar staged by Donner Flower and including the Dempsey’s favorite red holiday dishes.
They removed a useless Model A garage and built a retaining wall off the alley to stem water seepage into the basement from the sloped lot. A wrought-iron gate welcomes visitors to a private courtyard filled with heirloom roses from the original owner and a riot of perennials and seasonal flowers lovingly tended by Charlene.
They added a sunroom (aka greenhouse) where the former garage stood and cut a wall in the stucco to make a doorway to the kitchen. The exterior wall of the sunroom incorporates a keepsake stone that Ned salvaged from the Pilot Butte Inn after its demolition in 1973. The glass-sided sunroom also opens into the garden sanctuary with high ivy-covered walls, the couple’s favorite space. Charlene has a particular affinity for Italy and says the carefree style of the garden is more Italian than English.
Other changes included removal of a breakfast nook to create a powder room downstairs and enlarging the size of the master bedroom and bath upstairs by taking out a child’s nursery.
A bonus they hadn’t planned when they bought the home: the two-foot thick stone foundation walls could double as a wine cellar, with a constant temperature perfect for storing their favorite Oregon pinot noir and pinot gris, and Italian reds. “The addition of the wine room in the basement has its own special draw for occasional entertaining,” Ned noted. They converted a Moorish-style door into a table for setting out hors d’oeuvres and sometimes a light holiday meal.
Now in their twenty-fifth year in the home, the Dempseys love walking to nearby restaurants and shops, and through the neighborhood. “I like the energy of downtown,” Ned said.
At the holidays, they cook a turkey and set a table complete with Waterford crystal goblets brought back from trips to Ireland and cherished Christmas dishes. And in the afterglow of an evening well spent, the reflection of twinkling holiday lights on the Deschutes River are the perfect nightcap.
Missing in action, or MIA. It’s a military designation many of us know in meaning but may have never considered in impact. The reality is that for families and friends of service members missing in action, there’s often no closure to provide solace about the lost loved one.
Of the 81,900 Americans missing in action, more than 72,000 are missing from World War II. As this year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, many of the spouses, siblings and friends of those MIA service members are now gone.
But that grief—and the hope for resolution—are often carried on from generation to generation, explained Derek Abbey, a Bend resident and president and CEO of Project Recover. Project Recover is a nonprofit dedicated to finding and repatriating Americans missing in action since World War II.
Project Recover seeks to provide what many family members and loved ones of Americans MIA need most: answers. “It starts with research,” Abbey said. “We do continuous research year-round, and we’ve established a database. We have more than 500 cases associated with about 3,000 Americans.”
Oregon still has 977 service members missing in action, including sixteen individuals from Bend alone. Central Oregon has contributed greatly to the military, said Abbey, who himself served twenty-three years in the United States Marine Corps. Project Recover has conducted missions from World War II to Desert Storm, in eighteen different countries around the world.
Derek Abbey, Project Recover CEO
Each year, Project Recover decides which missions to carry out. A lead historian on staff with Project Recover is the catalyst for the organization’s work. By analyzing historical records, reports and more, he can begin identifying potential missions, many of which take place underwater.
Project Recover often tries to focus on regions associated with multiple MIAs to increase the likelihood of success, but sometimes its missions focus on one person. Once Project Recover identifies a site for a mission, they thoroughly document the area with archaeologists, Abbey said. “We gather anything and everything we can, any report, any witness statement,” Abbey said. “We really develop a relationship with the person who we’re searching for.”
When remains are recovered, they’re repatriated to the United States, usually first to Hawaii or Nebraska where the U.S. Department of Defense’s labs are located to identify found remains and artifacts. “When you witness the repatriation of the MIA to these families, it’s indescribable,” Abbey said.
In American culture, it’s common to hold a memorial or funeral to honor a lost loved one. When someone is MIA, their family is left without that. Instead they’re stuck waiting, and wondering, and there are even often stories passed down about how a loved one missing in action went on living somewhere out there, Abbey explained.
There is a sense of resolution for loved ones once the details of the MIA, sometimes shrouded in myth, are laid to rest. Questions are answered. “People may think they can’t have an impact, I used to think that way, but they can,” Abbey said. “We are having a tangible impact on returning missing Americans home.”
Since its start as a small grassroots effort in 1993, Project Recover has located more than 150 MIAs. “Ultimately it has a healing impact on us as a nation, as we participated in these wars as a collective,” Abbey said. “These individuals sacrificed when they fought and lost their lives. It’s amazing to see the impact it has on these communities for them to be returned home. It’s exactly what our nation needs right now. Something to come together over.”
Two months and a thousand miles from Oregon, Travis Ehrenstrom and his wife Courtney Bruguier leaned against the front grill of their RV and stared at the dark green bushes contrasting the bright red rocks of Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. As the wind blew steadily out of the canyon and through the vista parking area, the weary travelers came to a realization: the RV life was more than just driving lonely highways, hiking far off trails and drinking craft beers. Though this epiphany had snuck up on them, the pair had officially accepted a road warrior lifestyle in tune with those who traveled alongside them and, in this case, the ancestral pueblo people who had walked this very place 4,000 years before them. “Learning about the history of our country and the land before we were even a country was extremely fulfilling,” explained a nostalgic Ehrenstrom. “Each day’s new experiences made each month seem like a year.”
Ehrenstrom near Silverton, Colorado
In April of 2019, Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter Ehrenstrom left the comfortable confines of his Bend, Oregon, life to find the common attributes of all Americans and translate those discoveries through song. Though he enjoyed crafting his Americana sound with his eponymous band back home, he couldn’t escape the desire of truly knowing what it meant to be an American. So, he and his wife traded their home for Rosie, a 2014 Winnebago Trend RV, and boarded their five-ton future with two small dogs and a cat.
Their trip was decidedly the envy of most of his friends, but it was not without a few bumps in the road. The pair had recently turned 30, sold their northeast Bend home, and made up their minds to downsize their belongings to fit in their silver and black embodiment of freedom—the motorhome which Ehrenstrom forgot to plug in to charge the night before they left.
At Capital Reef National Park with Rosie, the RV
Once on the road, life became a little less rocky. Armed with a Cannon OM guitar, a Breedlove mandolin, a 12-key midi keyboard and small recording workstation, Ehrenstrom got to work in chronicling the country through writing a song for each visited state, or “Our Creative States,” as the project is known.
“As the journey progressed, I became aware that these songs were evolving into not only snapshots of other people in other lands, but reflections of myself in these places,” Ehrenstrom said.
By criss-crossing the country, Ehrenstrom absorbed America’s stories and weaved them into his songs’ lyrics and melodies. While traversing up and down California’s Pacific coastline, he wrote in the song “Bombay Beach Club,” “freedom is a funny thing, the more you lose the more you gain.”
Some experiences—such as pickin’ bluegrass mandolin on a North Carolina hillside or late-night Louisiana creole lessons—strengthened Ehrenstrom’s musicianship, while others gave him a deeper understanding of our country’s history that is sure to surface in his songwriting for years to come. His journey found him debating immigration policies with folks in West Texas and visiting with the ghosts of blues pioneer Robert Johnson and civil rights icon Medgar Evers in Mississippi.
Ehrenstrom and Bruguier at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee
While walking the hallowed grounds of South Carolina’s Fort Sumter, battle site of the American Civil War’s beginning, Ehrenstrom wrote in “Beginning of the Day,” “in the last of the storm that stands before me, when the scars from a war begin to fade, the only direction isn’t forward, but you know even then it’s to change.”
“Where we are from and where we go shapes us,” explained Ehrenstrom. “Seeing people’s connection to their surroundings reminded me of my own appreciation of Central Oregon’s mountains, lakes and rivers. The journey through this vast country is one that I will be forever grateful to have as a memory.”
After a year on the road, Ehrenstrom and Bruguier cut their travels short to welcome their first child into their family, but plan on visiting the twelve states they missed once the country welcomes travel again. Until then, Ehrenstrom is slowly releasing his songs through his Patreon website and recently created a magazine of song lyrics and photos from the first part of their trip. You can catch the Travis Ehrenstrom Band as well as Ehrenstrom performing solo throughout the Pacific Northwest as live music slowly becomes mainstream again.
In Oregon, no two hot springs are truly alike. Some sit surrounded by old-growth forests, like something from a fairytale, while others are the cornerstones of rural resorts in the far reaches of the state. Millions of years of geothermal activity under our state’s surface made our beloved hot springs possible, and those steaming pools are today a destination for visitors looking to rest and refresh. With winter on the way, here are four of our favorite hot spring adventures for stripping down and warming up within a morning’s drive of Bend.
Terwilliger (Cougar) Hot Springs
Perhaps the most popular hot springs in all of Oregon, Terwilliger Hot Springs sits just shy of two hours west of Bend in the heart of the Cascade Range nestled in a secluded canyon of Willamette National Forest. A quick, quarter-mile-long trail cuts through an old-growth forest before arriving at the magical site. Six pools are arranged in a step ladder-like fashion, with temperatures ranging from 85°F in the lowest pool to 112°F in the topmost pool. The temperature variance and the number of pools make Terwilliger a popular stop for groups of all sizes.
Also known as Cougar Hot Springs, the pools at Terwilliger are a cascade of geothermal pools where time slows and relaxation is key. The natural pools are just a short stroll from the trailhead and are regularly maintained by volunteers. The top pool is the warmest, and the others gradually cool. Bring a towel and bathing suit (or go au naturel). After a soak, explore the surrounding Willamette Valley’s hiking trails, waterfalls and trails. Note: Nudity is not permitted within eyesight of nearby Forest Road 19 (Aufderheide Drive). The pools are only open from sunrise to sunset, and are closed 8 a.m. to noon on Thursdays for cleaning. Forest Road 19 is not maintained in winter and may be covered in snow and ice after inclement weather.
If You Go: Forest Road 19, Rainbow | 541-822-3381 | fs.usda.gov
Photo by Nate Wyeth
Umpqua Hot Springs
Oregon’s most Instagrammed hot springs? That title likely goes to Umpqua Hot Springs, perched 150 feet above the North Umpqua River roughly two hours southwest of Bend. Soakers must endure a steep 0.3-mile-long hike before arriving at the popular pools, which jut out from a rock face and are supplied with water that ranges from 100ºF to 115ºF. If you are not bothered by nudity, these pools along the North Umpqua River are the place to soak. A short quarter-mile hike from the trailhead through dense forest leads to several geothermal pools nestled on a cliffside above the river. Unlike many springs short of space, the Umpqua hot springs have multiple pools that allow visitors some privacy and a range of soaking temperatures. Relax in a pool under a small shelter at the top or make your way down the cliffside. You can claim one of two smaller pools halfway down the cliff or climb all the way down to the river where a medium-size pool beneath bat caves awaits. If you get too hot soaking in this pool, cool off in this shallow stretch of the river or cross to the other side to reach natural springs and cascading falls. On the way back to the main highway, stop off at Toketee Falls, an 113-foot falls that plunges into a deep blue pool.
The springs are open sunrise to sunset daily. The gate to Umpqua Hot Springs is frequently closed in winter which may add an additional 1.5 miles of hiking in each direction; the U.S. Forest Service can offer updates on whether the gate is open or closed at any given time.
If You Go: Driving time from Bend: 2 hours 15 minutes | Forest Road 3401, Roseburg | 541-498-2531 | fs.usda.gov
Belknap Hot Springs
The soothing pools at Belknap Hot Springs aren’t technically hot springs; rather, they’re spring-fed pools of hot mineral water. But the healing atmosphere and relaxed nature of the pools nevertheless offer an escape from the modern world without sacrificing modern amenities.
Photo Greg Vaughn / Alamy Stock Photo
Belknap sits along the McKenzie River and hosts two pools—one reserved for overnight guests, the other open to walk-in visitors. (Bathing suits are required in both pools.) Beyond the pools, Belknap offers well-manicured gardens and overnight accommodations including lodge rooms, cabins, RV sites, and tent sites, all just one-and-a-half hours west of Bend.
If You Go: 59296 N. Belknap Hot Springs Road, McKenzie Bridge | 541-822-3512 | belknaphotsprings.com
Southeastern Oregon Hot Springs
A trio of developed hot springs sit in southeastern Oregon. The first, two-and-a-half hours southeast of Bend, is Crane Hot Springs. The resort hosts ten cabins, a few houses, and tent and RV sites for rent in the sagebrush sea of Oregon’s high desert. There, guests can soak in a cedar-enclosed bathhouse (fed with a natural hot water tap that accommodates desired temperature) and in a seven-foot-deep, open-air pond that runs roughly 101ºF. The newest building boasts a private patio with private soaking tub. Day-use is not permitted; guests must stay at least two nights to use the resorts’ facilities.
Alvord Hot Springs | Photo by Nate Wyeth
If You Go: Crane Hot Springs: 59315 Highway 78, Burns | 541-493-2312 | cranehotsprings.com.
Farther south sits Alvord Hot Springs at the edge of the Alvord Desert. The privately owned outfit hosts two concrete pools fed by water that comes out of the ground at 170ºF—and which is, naturally, cooled when mixed into the soaking pools. The experience is soothing at all times but is especially majestic under the starry night skies endemic to the region. Alvord Hot Springs hosts several bunkhouses and campsites; overnight guests can use the hot springs 24 hours per day, while day-use soakers are welcome during normal business hours.
If You Go: Alvord Hot Springs: Fields-Denio Road, Princeton | 541-589-2282, alvordhotsprings.com
Just two hours south of Bend is Summer Lake Hot Springs, with a collection of classic and new cabins, camping and RV sites for soakers. Three outdoor pools are at varying temperatures; the indoor pool is just right for family swims.
If You Go: Summer Lake Hot Springs: Highway 31, Paisley | 541-943-3931 | summerlakehotsprings.com
Know Before You Go
Soaking demands a bit more planning than “which bathing suit to pack.” Keep these tips in mind for a safe, enjoyable soaking experience.
Check road and trail conditions: Many hot springs are in remote areas where snow and ice can close roads all winter long, and downed trees can impede travel in fall and spring. Visit tripcheck.com for information on road conditions, and check with the appropriate land manager (such as the U.S. Forest Service) on the status of trails to hot springs on undeveloped land.
Leave the soap at home: Soap doesn’t break down on its own and can pollute water systems—even biodegradable soap.
Go easy on the booze: By their very nature, hot springs dehydrate the body—which only exacerbates the impacts of alcohol. To stay safe and healthy, save that IPA for after your soak. Besides, alcohol isn’t actually allowed at undeveloped sites. (And leave the glass bottles back in the car.)
Pack out what you pack in:Many of Oregon’s hot springs are in undeveloped, forested areas. Help preserve the natural beauty by packing out whatever you pack in, trash and all.
Time your trip well: Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons are among the busiest times at hot springs—and may lead to longer wait times or a wilder scene. If possible, try for an off-peak time—like weekday afternoons or midweek evenings—for a quieter experience.
The winter holidays are ripe with tradition. While some are better forgotten (a certain aunt’s fruitcake, perhaps?), others elicit that warm glow and special memory that makes this time of year a cherished one.
For my family, cutting down a Christmas tree is our beloved holiday tradition. Loading up the family truck, plowing through snow on a forest road and searching for that ever-elusive, perfect tree is something we look forward to each year. Though the tree may be the end goal, it’s just one part of what makes this tradition worth repeating. The outing itself is the real present, as well as the memories made while tromping around in snowy woods.
If you’re new to cutting down your own tree, Central Oregon is a great place to start. National forests surround us, making it accessible and easy. With a simple permit purchase and a little planning, you could be adding a new tradition to your family.
Before the hunt begins, spend some time preparing to ensure success. This is key, especially if you have little ones in tow. Dress warmly, bring layers, and have a few extras in the car just in case—you never know when you might need them. Warm drinks for the journey are a must (hot cocoa and spiked apple cider is our go-to) and hot food for the return, such as a hearty soup or chili. Scope out some locations on your map beforehand so you’re not aimlessly wandering snowy forest roads, and be sure to bring an actual printed map since cell service can be spotty in areas. As always, it’s also a good idea to have emergency supplies in the car as a safeguard.
Having an idea of what type of tree you’re looking for will help point you in the right direction. Douglas fir, white fir, incense cedar, lodgepole pine and ponderosa pine are all tucked away if you know where to look. According to the National Forest Service, pine trees are prevalent around lower elevations near Bend and Sisters and on south and western-facing slopes around Prineville, while the thicker, full-bodied fir trees and cedars can be found at higher elevations in Bend and Sisters or on northern and eastern slopes near Prineville.
Grab a $5 tree permit from any Forest Service office in Central Oregon or from a number of retail locations (such as any Central Oregon Bi-Mart store). Permits are good for one tree only, and trees should only be cut down on national forest lands. When grabbing a permit, ask for an accompanying tree map that provides some clues as to where to look for the various types of trees and remember to choose a tree at least 200 feet from main roads or 300 feet from any body of water. Before departing, grab everything you need to both take the tree down properly (handsaw or hatchet) as well as transport it home (tarp, rope or tie-down straps).
When you arrive and set out on your quest, keep in mind it takes time to find a tree that’s just the right height (trees should be under twelve feet tall) and symmetrical. Each year we think we’ve spotted the perfect conifer only to discover a sizable gap or thin branches on the other side. Don’t get discouraged—the most important part is having fun. Pepper in a snowball fight or two, make a snowman with a funny face for the next family to discover, or simply stand as still as you can and take in the pristine, beautiful quiet of a winter’s day in the woods.
Whether your perfect tree is worthy of a Hallmark card or more in line with Charlie Brown, it’s about the fun and experience—because that’s what makes a tradition worth repeating.
dishes prepared by kelly alexander, heather renee wong, kailey fisicaro
The Dutch oven has been around since the 1700s, but the classic cooking vessel has exploded in popularity in recent years. Look around and Dutch ovens will catch your eye everywhere. You’ll see them recommended in recipes, staged on stovetops in stylish kitchens in Instagram posts, and viewed as a must-have registry item by couples who love to cook.
Click photo for recipe
For cooks who love the “low and slow” method, a Dutch oven evokes a sense of well-insulated, evenly cooked joy. These old-fashioned lidded cooking pots are usually made of cast iron, offering the benefits of temperature control and of long, slow cooking.
Click photo for recipe
One of the most enticing features of Dutch ovens is their versatility. They’re amazing for recipes that use a combination of cooking methods, so that you can proceed through sautéing garlic until just fragrant, to browning meat, adding sauce and pasta, bringing to a boil and layering on cheese to finish cooking in the oven.
The renewed interest in these centuries-old kitchen accessories comes at a time when many Americans are trying to slow down cooking again. For decades now, we’ve been in a hurry in the kitchen, feeling the need to make things quick, easy, disposable and shelf-stable. While a can of sauce or store-bought stew may be nice to have in a pinch, there’s something to be said for recipes that are still quite simple, but fresh and truly homemade. That’s the line of thinking for Matt Perry, owner of Bend’s Savory Spice Shop franchise.
“A slow cooker or Crock-Pot is basically the newer version of the Dutch oven,” Perry said. “You can leave it without leaving fire on in your house.”
But with so many people staying in and working from home through the pandemic, he added, more people are comfortable turning back to slow cooking in a Dutch oven because they can keep an eye on things.
Click photo for recipe–For cooks who love the “low and slow” method, a Dutch oven evokes a sense of well-insulated, evenly cooked joy. These old-fashioned lidded cooking pots are usually made of cast iron, offering the benefits of temperature control and of long, slow cooking.
Dutch ovens are a great vehicle for some delicious recipes on the stovetop, in the oven or even over a campfire. In addition to the versatility mentioned above, they’re a kitchen item to be treasured, as they can last a lifetime. A blender you get in your twenties might not see you through college, but a well-cared-for Dutch oven can take you through decades of holiday brunches and dinners.
Perry has had a Le Creuset Dutch oven for about ten years and uses it often to make a Savory Spice Shop pot roast recipe, Thai coconut curry soup, chili and other foods. Le Creuset Dutch ovens are one of the brands lauded for their ability to last generations. And there’s just something about using a Dutch oven that makes cooking that much more special.
If you’re already the proud owner of a Dutch oven, you’re well aware of just how rewarding it is to cook with one.
“It’s just a nice way to cook that has pretty simple steps where the result makes you feel like you’re a really good cook,” Perry said.
During the holidays, in addition to braising roasts or other meats as a main course, Perry said he’s sure to make mulled cider in his Le Creuset every year. Part of what makes cooking with Dutch ovens feel so impressive is the way delicious scents are sure to emanate from them.
“It’s a great way to take a piece of meat or vegetables, and you can put so many flavors in and let it meld it together for hours,” Perry said. “That’s ideal for flavor. You think about historically the types of food we love from different cultures, like curries or Mexican moles, or chili from around here, it’s all about low and slow pots with liquid, meat and vegetables, and the longer they cook the better those flavors get.”
At Savory Spice Shop they offer a spice set called “one pot wonders” that works well for low and slow cooking—whether that’s in a Dutch oven or an electric slow cooker.
As the public’s recent obsession with bread-baking has shown us, Dutch ovens are also an amazing conveyor for homemade no-knead or sourdough loaves. According to the King Arthur Baking Company, the secret is the steam that the insulated, lidded Dutch oven traps inside. Steam is key to a wonderful bread crust, and what makes cinnamon rolls made in a Dutch oven an absolute delight, especially as a holiday morning treat for a full house.
Dutch ovens offer us a time-tested way to complete many of the cooking traditions we love around the holidays: taking our time making a meal, filling the house with the smell of rich savory or sweet flavors and having the ability to feed a crowd with something warm and made with heart.
It’s unanimous—2020 has been a doozy. There isn’t one among us who hasn’t felt the weight of hardship, helplessness and despair once or twice this year. What helps? Helping. That’s a proven fact. When we give back, help out, and do good, we feel more positive. Better yet, the more each of us helps, the stronger our community grows. Giving is a self-fulfilling prophecy of goodness.
There are hundreds of worthy causes all around us. What’s yours? Start big, start small, do what you can, when you can—but in the new year, vow to get involved and be one of the helpers as we move forward into 2021. Central Oregon, we’re better together.
A stock photo of a Hospice Nurse visiting an Elderly male patient who is receiving hospice/palliative care.
How to Choose a Cause
With so many worthy causes to support, making a decision about where to get involved can be overwhelming. How do I choose just one? And what if I choose wrong? Shelley Irwin of Volunteer Central Oregon suggests starting with your “why.” She said, “What are you hoping to achieve? Are you wanting to share your expertise or are you looking for something new? Do you wish to build experience for a resume, or are you freshly retired and wanting to keep busy?” Here are a few more tips to help you decide where to put your time, energy and dollars in the nonprofit landscape.
What pulls at your heartstrings? Find your nonprofit passion category. When you read something in the news about an important issue or cause, what grabs your attention the most? Children? Animals? Veterans? The environment? Food insecurity? Homelessness? Follow your heart to determine the cause that you can take personally.
Find a personal connection. Talk to your friends, coworkers or people you admire who do give-back work. Find out what they do and how. Is there someone in your circle doing work in your passion area? Sometimes a personal introduction to an organization can make the work you might do there instantly more meaningful.
Do some research. First, find out what organizations are doing work in your passion area. Then, take some time to delve into the nitty gritty. Not all nonprofits are created equally. How much of the annual budget actually goes to the cause? What are the true impacts of the work being done? You’ll feel better in the long run if you invest in an organization that puts its money where its mouth is.
Consider staying local. There are millions of meaningful causes to support around the globe, but consider choosing a cause close to home. In some cases, the bigger the nonprofit, the less you see your money at work. Sticking with local organizations tackling local problems can not only make a more significant difference, it puts you in a better position to see the impact of your efforts up close—right down to face to face encounters with the people you help.
Don’t seize up.Still not sure what to support? Just choose a cause and start small. Donate a few dollars or a few hours and see how it feels. Supporting worthy causes is your choice—you can change your mind at any point. Be open to the winding path approach—you never know where it’s going to lead or who you might meet along the way.
Volunteer Central Oregon
One-Stop Shopping for Volunteerism
What if you could visit one website, with a searchable database, to discover volunteer opportunities around you and sort for what interests you? That’s exactly what Volunteer Central Oregon is. Operated under the umbrella of the nonprofit Better Together, Volunteer Central Oregon connects volunteers with opportunities in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, as well as the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. “We host the regional volunteer database volunteercentraloregon.org, which includes more than 200 local organizations and nearly 400 opportunities,” explained project manager Shelley Irwin. “These opportunities accommodate wide-ranging interests and are searchable in our database. Our site connects volunteers with both one-time and ongoing opportunities to serve in the community, so it really is a one-stop shop for exploring community service.”
Irwin’s position gives her unique perspective on the overall volunteer landscape in Central Oregon. The good news? Around here, we’re involved. “I’m going to sound like a cheerleader here, but Central Oregon’s devotion to serving the community is so inspiring. The efforts that volunteers go to in order to ensure that our community is supported is amazing. Other communities may have more flashy volunteer campaigns, but here in Central Oregon, we just get down to do the good work.”
There are as many motivations to get involved as there are people, she said. “Maybe they want to be a part of the solution to problems in our community, they want to help and give back, they want to feel like they are contributing to a better world.”
Even with a vigorous volunteer community, the need is still strong, especially in the era of COVID-19. “There is so much need for support out there,” Irwin said. “In looking at our data, the top categories are children and youth followed by the environment and then in third place, animals. Mentorship of young people stands out to me, and I think of organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, Central Oregon Partnerships for Youth, Heart of Oregon Corps, Camp Fire and Aspire programs at high schools, just to name a few.”
In the past twelve months, the Volunteer Central Oregon website received over 70,000 views—many of which led to people helping people. In Irwin’s perfect world, every single Central Oregonian who is able would be involved in our community. “Figure out the type of volunteering that will make your heart sing, and make it a priority in your life,” she said. “We are all busy, and making space for the needs of others honestly gives us more space for ourselves.” See volunteercentraloregon.org.
Local Heroes
We rounded up the leaders of some of Central Oregon’s nonprofit organizations to ask them their needs, challenges, successes and the impact of 2020 on them and those they serve.
Marlene Carlson
Partners In Care
Marlene Carlson, Director of Development & Communications
Partners In Care is an independent, local healthcare organization best known for hospice care delivered in private homes, care facilities and at Hospice House. With nearly 200 staff and more than 150 specially trained volunteers, PIC also has a Home Health program, a non-medical Transitions program, palliative care and grief support services.
What is your impact and on what population?
People living within a 10,000 square mile region of Central Oregon—men, women, children, veterans, rich and poor, insured or not. Partners In Care is certified by Medicare and Medicaid and private insurance covers nearly all expenses.
What are people surprised to learn about Partners In Care?
We care for people well before there is a terminal diagnosis, as they recover from illness at home, and all the way through to the end of their lives, as well as provide grief support for a year or more following a death. Another surprising fact is that Hospice House is one of only three such hospice inpatient facilities in the state of Oregon, and the only one east of the Cascade mountains.
Melissa Butterfield
YouthLine
Melissa Butterfield, Assistant Director of YouthLine – Central Oregon Satellite
YouthLine is a free, confidential, teen-to-teen crisis, help and support line. Youth volunteers answer calls, texts, online chats and emails seven days a week—no crisis is too big or too small.
What would people be surprised to know about your organization?
Teens are actually answering the contacts and supporting peers their own age. These amazing young people do a level of work that is often comparable to licensed clinicians. They are hard-working, caring, articulate, empathic and passionate about mental health and changing the narrative around suicide.
Tell us about a recent accomplishment that you are proud of.
A viral TikTok was posted by a teen who suggested us as a resource. In under 24 hours our volume of contacts rose exponentially, bringing us to our new record of texts received and teens reached at once. Watching the positive impact of social media happen in real time and our teen volunteers rising to the challenge was amazing to see.
Ron Nelson
Deschutes River Conservancy
Ron Nelson, Executive Director
Founded in 1996 as a collaborative, multi-stakeholder organization, the Deschutes River Conservancy exists to restore streamflow and improve water quality in the Deschutes basin.
What is your organization’s impact and on what population?
The DRC was founded twenty-five years ago with the sole purpose of achieving collaboration and consensus across social and economic lines within the entire basin. We’re here to improve the water quality and link the river with the community, and our impact is on everyone who has an interest in the river, whether for beauty or recreation, farming or other economic benefit.
What is the most significant impact COVID-19 has had on your organization?
The pandemic has kept us from getting together personally with our local partners and funders. We have good, strong relationships within our basin community, but we have not been able to find an adequate replacement for in-person collaboration.
Brad Porterfield
Latino Community Association
Brad Porterfield, Executive Director
LCA exists to empower Latino and immigrant families to thrive, creating opportunities for advancement and building bridges that unite and strengthen us all. By advocating, interpreting and providing services, more than 10,000 Central Oregon Latinos benefited from a whole-family service model last year.
Tell us about a recent accomplishment that you are proud of.
We are very proud that we were able to adjust quickly to the safety requirements of COVID-19 and specifically to address the financial needs of immigrant workers and their families who were excluded from unemployment benefits and CARES Act stimulus payments. We have been able to help distribute nearly $1.5 million to our immigrant families in Central Oregon who would have otherwise been completely left out of relief efforts.
What are your key volunteer opportunities?
One of the best opportunities to volunteer with LCA is tutoring English. The main barrier to advancement for immigrants in the U.S. is language. Other ways to volunteer include translation and office help, especially if you’re bilingual, and community outreach.
Sabrina Slusser
Humane Society of
Central Oregon
Sabrina Slusser, Executive Director
HSCO strengthens the human-animal bond by advocating and compassionately caring for animals, through a variety of programs and services including sheltering and providing medical care for vulnerable animals, spaying and neutering, and feeding pets.
What is your organization’s impact and on what population?
I don’t think there is a segment of the population we don’t have an impact on unless it is someone who just isn’t into animals. The joy and comfort of owning a pet, especially during COVID times, definitely has its benefits as research is showing.
What are your key volunteer opportunities?
We are really down volunteer hours at the Thrift Store. These volunteers tend to be older and a higher risk population. We are recruiting “family pods” to come in and work together helping sort, clean and test things from clothes to electronics and sporting goods.
Ray Solley
The Tower Theatre
Ray Solley, Executive Director
The Tower Theatre is a historic building anchoring downtown that houses Central Oregon’s leading performing arts organization, providing cultural and educational programs that make essential contributions to the region’s lifestyle and strength of community.
What is the most significant impact COVID-19 has had on your organization?
For a group that is used to entertaining 60,000 people a year, to come to stop is a shock to the system. Our challenge has been to find creative ways to work within restrictions and requirements. If we are in the creative services business and can’t find a way to work creatively, then maybe we weren’t as creative as we thought we were.
Tell us about a recent accomplishment that you are proud of.
Being a small town and small theater allowed us to try new things, small things. After COVID closures, we first used our marquee to celebrate local graduating classes to provide a sense of community. Eventually we opened up for the weekend showcases, slowly and safely accommodating forty to eighty people to see a show and have an evening out.
What do you need most at this time?
People who share the belief that the performing arts can transform community and can bring issues and education to the forefront in ways that no other art form can. Performance is one of the easiest ways to share issues like diversity that strike deep in people’s emotions. Theater turns this into an experience and a memory.
Amy Ward
Deschutes Children’s Foundation
Amy Ward, Executive Director
Deschutes Children’s Foundation provides its partners—all nonprofits that serve children—with free facility management and drastically reduced-rate classroom and office space, relieving them of the burden of facility overhead and allowing them to focus on caring for more than 20,000 of our community’s most vulnerable citizens
each year.
What would people be surprised to know about your organization?
We started in 1990 with the Rosie Bareis campus in Bend, but now we are county-wide with four different locations in Bend, Redmond and La Pine. We save $800,000 a year for our partners by allowing them to work from one of our locations.
Tell us about a recent accomplishment that you are proud of.
We created a totally new fundraiser to adapt to COVID-19, called Riddles: Creative Community Problem Solving. Donors received a meal delivered to their home by a volunteer. With the meal came one of six different puzzles created by a local artist, which revealed a clue. Participants shared the clues via social media to discover more clues, to solve a riddle together. The event supported local restaurants and nonprofits, while encouraging problem solving as a community.
Elaine Knobbs-Seasholtz
Mosaic Medical
Elaine Knobbs-Seasholtz, Director – Strategy and Development
Mosaic Medical is a nonprofit community health center that serves Central Oregonians regardless of life circumstances. Integrated health services are offered and never influenced by how much money patients make, what language they speak or the status of their insurance coverage.
What would people be surprised to know about your organization?
Mosaic was founded in Prineville in 2002 by a group of concerned citizens who saw the need for a clinic that would serve anyone. We’re a nonprofit and have been since day one, but we do bill insurance companies and receive federal monies. We have 375 staff members and serve 27,000 people a year.
What is your organization’s biggest challenge?
Currently, our challenge is providing continued support for patients’ ongoing health needs while there is still societal hesitancy to access medical visits. Foregoing immunizations for children, flu vaccines, diabetes check-ups, etc., will make individual and community health worse in the future, both for COVID risk and general health risk.
Cassi MacQueen
Saving Grace
Cassi MacQueen, Executive Director
Saving Grace offers safety, hope and healing to survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault and engages Central Oregon to build life free from violence.
What is the most significant impact COVID-19 has had on your organization?
Over the past five months we’ve really seen how the pandemic has intensified needs of those we serve. The impacts of isolating at home, school closures and financial pressures have led to a spike in domestic violence. Our emergency shelter has increased in volume and we’ve managed to stay open throughout the pandemic.
What would people be surprised to know about your organization?
We’ve been serving Central Oregon for 40 years. Saving Grace’s shelter opened in 1990 and was one of the first six shelters in the U.S. for domestic violence and sexual assault. One in four women will experience intimate partner violence or sexual assault. But we serve a wide range of those affected by intimate partner violence—men, women, people of all ages. Domestic violence does not discriminate and neither do we.
Dan Anderson
The Shield
Dan Anderson, Co-Founder
The Shield protects the mental health of Central Oregon Veterans and First Responders by making specialized counseling services easily available to this unique population. We eliminate the five key barriers: awareness, availability, timeliness,
confidentiality, cost.
What is your organization’s impact and on what population?
There are more than 20,000 veterans and first responders in Central Oregon, and research indicates that approximately 40 percent of these important members of our community are currently in need or will someday need mental health support.
What is the most significant impact COVID-19 has had on your organization?
Like everyone, our clients are affected by the financial impact of the pandemic to their families, concerns about family members becoming ill, and the isolation that comes with quarantine and social distancing measures. Unlike everyone else, our first responder clients are impacted by continuing to serve the public, which puts them at higher risk for infection, and by being exposed to the public when many individuals in our community are not at their best due to additional stressors from COVID-19. Consequently, the demand for our services has increased significantly.
What is your organization’s biggest challenge?
Mental health is a difficult topic for some people which can make increasing community awareness challenging. What many fail to recognize is that engaging in counseling services on a pro-active, preventative basis can keep individuals healthy and prevent serious problems down the road.
Look for the Happy, Healthy Helpers
The power of helping isn’t just for those you help
“If I sit around, I cry, so I decided to get off my butt and go help today.” So said Oregon resident Tim Thoren in the first days of the devastating fires that tore through Oregon this September. Thoren spent many days at the evacuee site in Springfield, helping those displaced by the Holiday Farm Fire along the McKenzie River.
His thoughts speak to his own personal motivation, but also get at the heart of a deeper truth that psychologists have long understood—helping others helps us, too. Giving time or money can invoke feelings of gratitude and happiness. Scientists believe that altruistic behavior releases endorphins in the brain, producing the positive feeling known as the “helper’s high.” The National Institutes of Health have found that when people give to charities, it activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection and trust, creating a “warm glow” effect.
Helping can even boost your health. One reason giving may improve physical health and longevity is that it helps decrease stress, which is associated with a variety of health problems. Last but not least, giving brings us together, promoting cooperation and social connection. When we step in and help, we remember that we are part of a larger community, and others are encouraged to do so as well. That was Thoren’s experience at the evacuee center in September. “It was a heartwarming and heartbreaking day,” he said. “I got to see the power of my community and lead other volunteers, which was amazing.”
Five Ways to Help Today
Worried that making a difference will take more time, energy or resources than you have? Not true. Here are a handful of ways to make an impact before next weekend.
Get Informed
Sign up for a monthly newsletter from your favorite organization, follow their social media channels, or read up on their latest accomplishments.
Give Money
Find the “donate” link on an organization’s website and use it. Know that unrestricted dollars help an organization more than project-based dollars. Sign up for small monthly donations, an annual membership or a multi-year pledge. All financial donations to certified nonprofit organizations are tax-deductible.
Spread the Word
Often, an organization’s biggest hurdle is just letting people know they exist. Share a social media post, video or website link about a worthy cause, talk about its actions with friends, and think of ways to help link the organization with the people it serves. Simple communication can have impact.
Donate Goods
Many organizations have wish lists for specific donated items. A few nonprofits run their own thrift stores. Seek out needs and make a special shopping trip or gather gently used items of your own to pass along.
Volunteer
Take the first step to donate time to a local organization. Call or check the website for volunteer opportunities. Not up for a long-term commitment? Often organizations need volunteers for one-day events, like fundraisers, or one-time projects, like painting their building. Find something that works for you and your schedule.
Share Skills
Perhaps you are a skilled copywriter or web developer. Maybe you can share expertise with contracts or legal documents. Do you take amazing photographs? Love to create social media posts? Most nonprofits need all of these services from time to time. Sharing your talents as in-kind services saves them money.
Occasionally we have the pleasure of meeting someone whose lifelong passion has carried them to the pinnacle of their profession. Jan Daggett, owner of The Jewel in Sisters, is one of those people. In an era of computer-aided design and reproducible jewelry, she has devoted her life to hand-sculpting one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. For decades, she has also mined her own stones, selling to museums, art galleries and worldwide collectors.
Her story begins in the 1970s when Daggett, in her teens, moved from California to a rustic cabin in Cascadia and attended high school in nearby Sweet Home. At the time, timber tax supported a well-endowed crafts program where she chose jewelry making for all her elective classes. A friend took her to the Quant Rock Shop in Prineville where she encountered Priday plume agate, a rare thunderegg dug north of Madras from the 1920s to the 1960s. “I was hooked immediately,” she recalled. “It was visual ecstasy, and I started searching out old collections.”
She especially liked scenic agates with “inclusions” resembling flowers, thistles, moss and ferns encased in clear agate. “Just as I was experiencing my very first fall colors, I saw Priday plume whose flowerlike inclusions came in all the shades I was seeing,” she said.
After high school, she found mentors to teach her the art of stone cutting and diamond setting and soon created her first line of sculptural silver and agate jewelry. On a road trip at 17, she found consignment galleries in Brentwood and Malibu, California, and wholesaled her first collection on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Soon after, she began working in gold and added accounts in Aspen and Kapa’a, Hawaii.
With a growing love for rare Oregon materials, she and a partner spent the next several years digging on public lands for materials thought to be extinct, like Freida thundereggs on the Deschutes River, jasper from Biggs Junction and pink dendritic limb cases out of Prineville. For years, they focused attention on McDermitt petrified wood on the Oregon and Nevada border, digging for two weeks at a time with pick and shovel 12 to 25 feet deep. After cutting and polishing, they sold their wares at shows, primarily to European dealers and collectors attending the largest international gem and mineral show in Tucson, Arizona.
In 1980, the partners bought the Dryhead Agate Mine in a desolate, arid region of Montana, named for its piles of ancient skulls left from a nearby buffalo jump. Here they could finally dig with heavy machinery. Dryhead, a rare agate nodule highly prized for its vivid color and sharp concentric bandings, rapidly gained worldwide attention. In 1981, the Smithsonian Museum bought a collection for its Hall of Minerals.
By 1985, Daggett was mining solo, having bought out her partner. When she wasn’t mining, she was in Cascadia, filling mail orders for agates, Dryhead beads and making gold jewelry. In 1990, she sold the mine and turned the proceeds into The Jewel, in Sisters.
The Jewel – dazzling Sisters for 30 years
Daggett opened a jewelry store in a small tourist town for two reasons. “I wanted to do a more exquisite job of displaying my jewelry and the specimens I love and to hire and collaborate with formally trained master jewelers to produce my designs,” Daggett said.
14k citrine, quartz drusy and Chinese turquoise pendant
A significant part of her goal has always been to simply introduce people to the variety of stones and gems that the earth presents. “My goal is to expose people to rare and unusual materials and exceptionally beautiful gemstones,” she said. “Even in fine faceted gems—like diamonds and sapphires, cut to refract light—I buy one of a kind. In some designs, a single major gem may stand alone, but I love combining more humble translucent materials with sparkly faceted ones. I still adore agates but combine them with gemstones and karat gold to create valuable wearable art.”
When she opened The Jewel, she included space for a tiny non-profit museum, but the idea was “a bit too ambitious back in 1991.” A self-described hoarder of fine agates, crystals, rocks and gemstones, Daggett is now ready to bring her sizeable collection out of storage and share it with people in a destination museum somewhere in Central Oregon. “I want people to walk into the space and feel not only the usual educational aspect, but an overwhelming sense of beauty,” she said.
A half-century after seeing those rare Priday agates, it’s fitting that Daggett wants to shine a light on some of Oregon’s buried treasure.
Dr. Sara Vice, left, and Dr. Jason Richards of Bend Anxiety Clinic.
Everyone experiences some everyday worries and fears, but when those thoughts overtake our minds or lead to a panic attack, it can be a sign of something bigger.
When it comes to treating those more impactful fears and anxieties, psychologists like Bend’s Dr. Jason Richards and Dr. Sara Vice are well equipped. Richards opened Bend Anxiety Clinic in 2017, where he specializes in treating a variety of anxiety issues, using evidence based practices such as cognitive behavioral and exposure therapy to help his clients better understand and face whatever causes them anxiety.
Richards said the anxiety people struggle with is a combination of their natural biological predisposition, their personal reactions to things, the circumstances they grew up around and the environment they live in.
“Some people are predisposed to have a harder time with anxiety but end up doing just fine by being taught to face their fears, and some people become sensitive to anxiety due to overwhelming circumstances, and need both support and the tools necessary to overcome their fear,” Richards said.
This October, the psychologists are hoping to raise awareness for the issues they treat, as part of the International OCD Awareness Week, taking place October 11 to 17. The week’s signature phrase is #FaceYourFear, and the efforts are part of a growing awareness for OCD and other anxiety-related conditions.
Many of the practice’s client anxieties are based around the discomfort generated by fear and the ambiguity and uncertainty inherent in life., Richards’ exposure-based treatment approach involves helping a person to realize that their fears aren’t worth the discomfort they are causing, by facing them. This approach can include Richards coming along with a person to a space or a situation that would normally cause them anxiety. By getting more comfortable with a situation that causes anxiety, a person’s brain is retrained to realize that the situation isn’t a dangerous one, after all. Continuing to avoid anxiety-inducing situations can have a negative impact on a person and causes the fear and anxiety to increase over time, he said.
At the Bend Anxiety Clinic, Richards and Vice treat issues including obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, as well as panic disorders, body dysmorphia, post-traumatic stress, hoarding and all other anxiety-related conditions.
Vice specializes in treating conditions in children under 14, including general anxiety, school-related issues, social anxiety, specific phobias or anxiety related to experiencing a traumatic event. Sometimes, this anxiety is first noticed in a school environment, if a student is overly anxious about taking a test or in social situations. “Usually a little anxiety is manageable and goes away, but in some cases the child is worrying more often than not,” Vice said. Another warning sign of anxiety might be a child who often has trouble sleeping.
Between sessions with Vice, a child’s parents or caregivers become a crucial part of the treatment. “I teach the kids a lot during the session, and then I’m wanting them to implement it during the week,” she said. “It’s important for parents to reinforce what is learned.
For anxiety disorders and for OCD specifically, the psychologists said symptoms are often noticed by friends or family members first, so knowing the signs are important. These can include compulsive behaviors, like overly excessive hand washing or participating in a variety of rituals to prevent something like germs or contamination.
If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of anxiety, visiting Bend Anxiety Clinic, or calling to have a conversation with a psychologist there is a great first step to improving symptoms, Richards said. He said in most cases, anxiety treatment is covered by insurance, and he said the clinic has a 90 percent success rate with clients.
For more information about Bend Anxiety Clinic, visit bendanxietyclinic.com or call 541-668-6015.
Sitting west of Bend, three wedges unite into a winning 3,900-square-foot home that blurs the lines between inside and out. Dubbed the “Pod House,” by architect Karen Smuland, the genesis for the arrangement of three house sections as pods was rooted in the owners’ wish for specifically designated private, common and guest spaces that would be separated by useful outdoor spaces and tied together by glass hallways.
“The owners have frequent guests and are very sports and outdoor oriented,” said Smuland, “so they wanted separation but also a very strong connection between inside and the outdoors.”
Each pod is angled toward a different mountain view: the master bedroom pod captures Mt. Bachelor; the center living pod, which encompasses the kitchen and living and dining areas, looks out beyond a bocce ball court to Broken Top; and the guest pod, which includes two guest suites, a rec room with bunks for additional guests and the mudroom/laundry connection to the garage, is focused on the northern Cascades.
While the views and purpose of each section differ, all pods share exterior designs and materials. Each has a tall ceiling, windows allowing natural light from multiple directions and a standing-seam aluminum shed roof angled to showcase the views, and they are clad with tongue-and-groove cedar siding. Gray composite panels on non-pod areas complement the wood, and stonework grounds the structure to its site.
Many of the same materials are woven into the house as well. This is especially true in the construction of the living pod, which is bisected by a continuous cantilevered roof that extends outside from the front porch, runs inside over the dining area and then continues out over the patio on the west side of the home. The cantilevered construction precludes the necessity of view-obscuring support columns, and the same cedar is used on the ceilings of the porches and interior to provide a seamless blend of in and out. The expansive effect is augmented by large accordion doors at the western porch that open the house to the whole outdoors. To provide extended usability of the Cascade-facing west side porch, heaters were recessed into the underside of the roof, and to provide a feature unique to the owners and the site, a compass rose was installed in the pavers of the patio.
On the inside of the home, Smuland worked with Bend-based interior designer Kirsti Wolfe with whom she had successfully collaborated in the past.
Taking her cues from Smuland’s design, Wolfe brought the colors and textures of the surrounding landscape inside. In the living pod for example, stone on the outside of the home was brought in to surround the offset fireplace. And the spectacular cedar ceiling has the counter point of a large live edge walnut dining table below and alder wood cabinetry in the kitchen. Elsewhere in the kitchen, Wolfe used fusion quartzite as the counter on the large island. Known for its stunning combination of colors, the counter shows white to symbolize the mountains, green to represent the surrounding trees and waves of blue in a nod to the Deschutes.
“I love designing interiors that complement the architecture of the home,” said Wolfe.
Slight angles used throughout the home to provide architectural interest and pivot views toward the mountains are repeated in the bathroom shower tiles and the shape of the kitchen island. Colors and finishes are subdued and neutral to reflect the outdoor palette and to ensure there are no distractions when looking out one of the home’s twenty-nine windows.
Both Smuland and Wolfe married aesthetics with the practical. Counters and other features are constructed of natural and low maintenance materials to address the owners’ wish for a house that is easy to care for. In the end, the architect and interior designer incorporated the owners’ wish list and love of Central Oregon to create a home that is beautiful to look at, welcoming to visit and easy to live in.
Is there anything original to say about Sisters anymore? The views are stunning. The food scene is producing some of the most delicious bites on this side of the Cascades (check some of them out in our online dining guide). There are seemingly infinite trails and lakes to explore within a half-hour drive of town. With the addition of Laird Superfoods’ headquarters and manufacturing, the town is building a local economy that can withstand tourism boom and busts. So why don’t we all live there already?
Judging by the real estate market this year, it seems we might all be trying to.
Since bottoming out in 2011, the real estate values in Sisters have continued to climb at a rate on pace with the rest of Central Oregon. In 2015, the median home value was around $300,000. Today, it’s almost $500,000, according to Zillow. Real estate broker Jennifer McCrystal described the current Sisters real estate scene as “very active.”
She answered a few questions over the phone while she was attending a home inspection in Pine Meadow Village, a planned community in Sisters.
Photo by John Trax / Alamy Stock Photo
“Houses are going so fast,” she said. A townhome that was listed at just under $300,000 and a home in the Village at Cold Springs valued at $360,000 both had immediate offers over asking price. The rush for home buyers in Sisters wasn’t anything new before COVID-19, but the urge to find a home with more space, potentially an office, and a smaller town with more outdoor recreation led a lot of buyers to the town more recently.
“What I’m finding is, I have a lot of clients who are wanting to retire in the next few years, and instead have made the decision to do so now,” she said. “They’re coming from the [Willamette] Valley, San Francisco and Portland.”
Some may recognize McCrystal as the former owner of the Cottonwood Cafe (previously known as Jen’s Garden). She recently sold the café and transitioned full-time to real estate.
“When I moved here fourteen years ago it was a retirement community,” she said. “Now, it’s much more developed. Neighborhoods are filling in. Now there are kids around town … It’s definitely changing the face of Sisters.”
All those changes are good news for the town, with a population climbing toward 3,000. Annual events like the Sisters Rodeo, Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and Sisters Folk Festival have kept a steady stream of tourists visiting town, but with more people calling it home year-round, local businesses don’t have to rely on the summer months to make their income.
photo Greg Vaughn / Alamy Stock Photo
Ken Merrill is one of the small business owners in Sisters that has seen the growth firsthand. His studio and storefront, Canyon Creek Pottery, is located off of the main highway that cuts through downtown Sisters. He’s been a resident since 1998 and opened his pottery business in 2002. “For the most part it’s all been pretty good change,” Merrill said. “New businesses, new buildings. It seems like the city has progressed with the growth pretty well.”
The growth also brought better trail maintenance, more restaurants and more foot traffic to his store. “We’re getting more families coming here,” he said. “It’s a cool mix of people. There’s lots of stuff going on all the time.”
One of the new businesses, Laird Superfoods, has based its manufacturing in Sisters, and is poised for even more growth. In April, the plant-based superfood creator received $10 million in venture capital to increase its operations. The company employs more than 100 people.
The locally owned businesses, the new restaurants and the growing neighborhoods are all well and good, but there’s still really one factor that pulls people in and makes them want to settle down here.
“It’s just the beauty of Sisters,” Merrill said. “We’re located in a place with views of the mountains and the trails and the creeks and the lakes. I see it in my gallery—everyone is talking about wanting to live here. They come here and they’re like, ‘I really want to move here.’ We feel fortunate to live here, especially in the times we’re in.”
Chris Herrick and John Coltman moved to Bend thirteen years ago and built a custom home in NorthWest Crossing. In the past few years, they’d been looking for a change, but couldn’t quite find the right place to build another new home. The pair wanted to stay near the amenities and trails that they’d so enjoyed in NorthWest Crossing, but they also wanted to design and build a home that would be better for their long-term future. “We’ve been waiting for a lot big enough to build a one-story house,” Herrick said. “We found it in Discovery West.”
photo mike houska
Discovery West is the latest development of NWX2 LLC, the developers of the wildly popular Bend neighborhood NorthWest Crossing. Located on the westside of Bend, tucked into the land between NorthWest Crossing and the Tree Farm, and near Summit High School and Discovery Park, the 245-acre neighborhood will ultimately be built out in seventeen phases and include 650 residences. Discovery West residents will have access to forty acres of parks, miles of trails, and all of the amenities of NorthWest Crossing, including restaurants, shops, services and schools.
photo mike houska
“Discovery” is more than just a name in this promising new development. “Our goal is to create a neighborhood that celebrates little, everyday discoveries, from neighborhood artwork to the street names that are named after women who have made great discoveries in history,” said Valerie Yost, director of marketing for Brooks Resources. Take a stroll down Mayer Place and ponder Maria Goeppert Mayer, one of only three women to win the Nobel Prize for Physics. Nearby is NW Singleton Place, named for Theresa Singleton, one of the foremost archeologists studying slavery in the Americas. Seventeen more Discovery West streets are named for women who have made significant discoveries in the fields of medicine, technology, science, space and geography.
Public art throughout the neighborhood celebrates these amazing women and additional themes of discovery. In the underpass of the newly constructed bridge that serves as entryway to the neighborhood, layered stencil portraits, murals and mosaics created by local artists depict the women of discovery.
As a retired attorney who was admitted to the bar in the 1970s before women were widely attending law school, Herrick said, “I am thrilled that streets in Discovery West are being named after female explorers and scientists. I am sure I faced some of the same challenges that they did.” Herrick and Coltman chose a lot above the NorthWest Crossing community garden, near the underpass and its art, a location that also boasts access to a large trail network. “Eventually the neighborhood will be linked up by the most wonderful trails,” she said. “I walk a lot and look forward to a seven-mile loop to Shevlin Park, the Tree Farm and back from our home.”
The bridge that leads to Discovery West includes an underpass and footpath with public outdoor art and murals representing the neighborhood’s themes.
Central to the trail network is another major outdoor amenity for the neighborhood, Discovery Park. The already existing park, on the western border of NorthWest Crossing, will be extended, to feature pedestrian paths and an eventual neighborhood park.“As the Discovery West neighborhood builds out, we are excited to work with NWX2 LLC to ensure the preservation of open space in the development, plus provide additional neighborhood park amenity features and connect the trail system,” said Michelle Healy, deputy executive director of Bend Park and Recreation District. “The trail connections are especially exciting as they will link the Discovery West neighborhood to and from Discovery Park, Shevlin Park, new neighborhood parks and the national forest.”
To construct the neighborhood’s residences, Discovery West’s developers assembled a Guild Builder program, based on the success they had with the same type of system in NorthWest Crossing. Lynnanne Hayes, owner of Visionary Homes, is one of the nineteen guild builders selected for the project. As each phase of Discovery West releases, guild builders purchase lots by lottery, and then build spec homes to put on the market later, or team up with a homebuyer to create a custom home. Hayes is excited to be a part of the development. “This is going to be an easy, friendly neighborhood,” she said. “The group of quality builders bring a sense of variety and selection.” As the only female builder in the guild, in a neighborhood that celebrates female leaders, Hayes is excited to be on board and said she has felt welcomed. “The guild is like a big family.”
Hayes is underway with construction on a modern-farmhouse-style single-family spec home in Phase One of Discovery West, which released lots mid-2020. Phase 2 lots will be available to Guild Builders this fall. Discovery West’s master plan calls for a variety of mixed housing in addition to single-family homes, such as cottages similar to those in NorthWest Crossing, townhomes, and more. “The Urban Growth Boundary expansion of 2016 came with a comprehensive plan requiring certain density parameters for residential construction in new development, which encouraged us to be creative and diverse with design and planning,” said Kirk Schueler, president and CEO of Brooks Resources.
The Discovery Pod is home to sales and marketing for Discovery West.
The neighborhood is planned around a central core, including eventual commercial development. “The master planned mixed housing district will surround a hardscape plaza,” Schueler said. Discovery West is being developed under the “transect” concept of urbanism, where density decreases the farther you get from the urban core, which helps to mitigate negative impacts on wildlife and the threat of wildfire spread. Denser at its center, the neighborhood will include single-family homes, attached live-work townhomes, cottages, detached and attached single-family residences, and multifamily residences. Estate lots for custom homesites on the western boundary will be up to one acre in size. Discovery West has plans for affordable housing in its development as well. “We have a goal to create a mixed-income multifamily dwelling. We’re seeking the right developer for that project, which we intend for Phase Five,” Schueler said.
The long-term project will come with gradual improvements in terms of the parks, trails and infrastructure of the greater area surrounding Discovery West. A new roundabout and the eventual connection of Skyline Ranch Road as a north-south corridor are just some of the transportation improvements included in the Discovery West master plan.
Those seeking a new neighborhood on Bend’s west side, steeped in nature, close to amenities, with beautiful architecture and celebrating all things discovery will love Discovery West.
For more information, visit the Discovery Pod, a tiny house on wheels custom-built to serve as the neighborhood’s on-site sales center. To reach the Discovery Pod from NorthWest Crossing, head west on NW Crossing Drive. From the intersection of Skyline Ranch Road and NW Crossing Drive (behind Summit High School), head NW on Skyline Ranch Road over the new bridge into the neighborhood. See discoverywestbend.com.
As high-quality metal roofing continues to grow in popularity in Central Oregon, you’re likely to see a new company cutting and preparing the materials at job sites around the region.
Caliber Metal Manufacturing and Supply is the newest venture from husband and wife team Scott and Stacy Rightmire, who have owned and operated Scott’s Roofing in the area for the past seenteen years. Caliber Metal began operation in early September, using a portable metal machine to make roof-ready metal cuts on the job site, something unique in the world of metal roofing.
Scott and Stacy Rightmire
“We just decided it was needed here in Central Oregon,” said Stacy Rightmire. The couple has noticed the rising popularity of metal fabricated roofs, which are higher quality and last longer than more common composite roofing. Metal roofs used to look less sophisticated and weren’t as popular, Rightmire said, but materials and design have improved over the years. While demand has gone up, in most cases the metal roofing is cut off-site and delivered to projects, creating a transportation challenge and the possibility of issues with the roofing panels, both problems that Caliber Metal won’t have to worry about. “It’s a clean cut right on site,” Stacy said. “You don’t damage the metal because you’re not delivering it, and if the roof is long or steep, it’s a great benefit as that can be hard to transport when it’s pre-cut.”
Scott demonstrates how to use the metal forming machine
Caliber Metal will not install the metal roofs themselves, but will work with existing roofing companies, including Scott’s Roofing, general contractors and homeowners who are installing roofing themselves. In addition to the portable metal cutting machine, the company also has the necessary equipment for all the trim pieces, essentially being able to hand off a ready-to-go roofing kit to the installer.
Both Central Oregonians since they were young children, the Rightmires have watched as the local construction industry has ebbed and flowed, getting busy in recent years as the population booms. Their children have pitched in at Scott’s Roofing over the years, and today the company employs twenty-eight people in the region. They’ve hired a couple new employees to help run Caliber Metal, and they are eager to see what the future has in store.
Caliber Metal Manufacturing and Supply | 1020 SE Paiute Way, suite 110, Bend | calibermetalmanufacturingandsupply.com | 541-668-0062
A year ago, most families spent their days away from home: in classrooms, gyms and offices. Designing spaces for kids meant choosing fun bedroom colors and décor, and homes were more of a refuge to enjoy after the school and workday finished. The COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home guidelines have brought a new normal to how families live in their homes. These days, busy families need to incorporate work, school, play and fitness into their home life, and seek spaces that flex to accommodate more activities—especially for kids.
photo Virginia Harold
Design for the younger generation now involves much more than choosing paint and bedding. From toddlers to teens, kids need quiet spaces to study and read, loud spaces to move and blow off steam, creativity stations for messy art projects, and ways to connect virtually with friends. Their parents need room, too, for home offices and exercise. How can one household do it all while keeping kids organized, happy and productive?
photo courtesy of nestingwithgrace.com
CREATING FLEXIBLE KID SPACES
Designers suggest the first step is a fresh look at underutilized spaces. Attics, basements, even that nook under the stairs can be reimagined into kid zones. Cluttered closets can transform into study spaces (AKA a cloffice, or closet-office) with a countertop desk backed with corkboards or whiteboards. An empty wall can become a climbing gym, studded with rock wall hand and footholds. And that nook under the stairs? Perfect for a cozy reading hideaway.
Sometimes the best way to find extra space is to look up. Lofted platforms double the usable space. Small lofts create play areas with storage below, or loft the whole bed. Keep it low for little ones with easy access steps and a slide, or raise it up college dorm-style for teens, with an inviting study area or a hammock hung below. Even the ceiling can come into play, with monkey bars or hanging rings.
Make the most of your home’s nooks and crannies, like this play room tucked under a stairwell.
Creative use of partition walls makes dividing shared spaces easier. Whether used to split a bedroom for two kids, or separate a playroom into quiet and active sides, partitions offer extra wall space for hanging dress-up costumes, displaying artwork, or creating a felt or magnet board. Free-standing bookshelves make effective partitions, with catch-all baskets to scoop up everything from Legos to laundry. Extending desktops from the middle shelves on both sides of the bookshelf makes matching work areas for kids who share the space.
DESIGNED FOR LEARNING
When kids learn at home full-time, their study area matters more than when they just did homework. Blending academics with home décor means even the walls can inspire curiosity and learning: try a chalkpaint wall for everything from spelling lists to Venn diagrams, or a world map mural for future globe-trotters.
Choosing furniture to fit each child starts with considering individual needs. Is one child extra fidgety? Choose a wobble stool or a balance ball for their desk. Got a budding artist in the house? Set up an art table with easy-to-clean hard surfaces, and a pegboard to corral art supplies. How about the child who needs some alone time? An indoor teepee works well as a designated quiet spot, equipped with a weighted blanket and comfortable cushions.
photo pencilleddaydream.com
Size matters when it comes to chairs and desks: feet should reach the floor easily, and the table edge should meet their lower ribs. Look for chairs with adjustable height that can grow with the child—and consider adding a second one for mom or dad to pop in and help with lessons. Lighting matters too—desk time is easier on the eyes with proper task lighting from a 40- to 60-watt bulb aimed at the work surface, plus softer ambient lighting.
Managing kids’ digital lives should be part of the design plan too—for both learning and socializing. As social distancing keeps kids apart from friends, multi-player video games let them stay connected. Kids appreciate a gaming space with low comfy recliners, and dimmable lighting. Mounting old skateboards as shelving in the game area serves two purposes: they’re just the right width for controllers, headphones, and game boxes, and they’re a subtle reminder to head outside for some fresh air and exercise.
As days grow shorter, autumn ushers us indoors and causes us to rethink our concept of space, including form, function—and furniture. When it comes to crafting the perfect home, the right furnishings simultaneously reveal the purpose of each room as well as your personal style.
If you’re searching for a theme in current furniture trends, simply look out a window, where elements from the outdoors are inspiring the way we live and work. An increased interest in sustainability, for example, has led to the renewed popularity of vintage and antique pieces. Other trends, like furnishings with natural fibers and organic lines seem to point toward a collective desire to make more meaningful connections with the natural world. From cane furniture and curvy couches, to tracking down your own Antiques Roadshow-worthy find, here are some top furniture looks to hone in on this fall.
Rise of Rattan
While the word “wicker” may evoke memories from the 1970s, rattan is enjoying a renaissance that looks very different from your grandparents’ back porch. Originally crafted from palm stems (rattan refers to the material, wicker is a type of weave), rattan has the warm color and casual look of wood, without the weight. Durable and pliable, it can be woven into playful shapes and patterns that fit with any style and space.
When buying rattan, limit the look—less cane can be more. Choose an accent table or armchair to make a room pop, then balance textures by mixing with other natural materials such as stone, wood and iron. Also, consider where each piece will be used; natural rattan lasts better indoors while synthetic versions made from resin or intercepted ocean plastics are more weather-friendly and best suited for outdoor use.
Embrace the Bend
When it comes to furniture design, certain styles circle back around. Unconventional yet inviting, curved shapes in sofas, side tables, chairs and rugs introduce a retro, relaxed feel that fits perfectly in a laid back town like Bend. Organic lines can soften the sharp, right angles of modular styles, while contoured edges and rounded backs make any seating situation a little more comfy.
Ready to round out a room? Start small with a practical pouf or spherical lighting for a more subtle look. To make a statement, try a curved sofa (also called a conversational or crescent sofa) paired with a round or oval coffee table to complement the curvature. With no corners, round tables work great in tight spaces, and pedestal tables offer even more leg room. Finally, create a more intimate setting—and fit in more guests—by floating sectionals and tables in the center of the room, away from the walls.
Secondhand Sustainability
Want to save the planet? Go antique shopping. As environmental concerns change public attitudes toward consumption, one of the simplest ways to stop furniture from going to the landfill is to shop vintage for your home. The rising popularity of antiques indicates a return to traditional décor that is well-crafted, unique and sometimes even a steal of a deal. From your family’s attic to local stores and online marketplaces, options for sourcing pre-owned pieces are everywhere.
When styling secondhand, feel free to experiment with different styles and periods. Seasoned brown furniture doesn’t have to date your home; grandma’s mahogany chest may liven up the most modern room. Also, look for opportunities to upcycle slightly worn items; a fresh coat of paint or reupholstery can revive many a thrift store find. Most importantly, choose pieces that tell a story or fit your personality, regardless of brand or historical significance. If you love it, it’s a home run.
As summer fades to autumn, Central Oregon becomes a golfer’s paradise perfect for a restful fall staycation. With stunning landscapes and top-notch courses, these resorts offer more than just golf – think amazing dining, relaxing spas and access to outdoor adventures. Close to Bend, these five unique destinations promise a luxurious and tranquil escape in the heart of nature.
A golf development set on 700 acres in west Bend, Tetherow’s sprawling new homes can be spotted on the right as you drive south on Century Drive toward Mount Bachelor. The highlight of Tetherow is the 18-hole links-inspired course by award-winning course architect David McLay Kidd, who seamlessly fit 18 holes into a landscape previously ravaged by wildfire. For lodging, Tetherow offers a 50-room luxury hotel and vacation rentals.
In recent years, Black Butte Ranch homeowners invested in the resort’s transformation, supporting a nearly $4 million remodel of the Glaze Meadow course. That, paired with a new brand-new main lodge, which opened in May 2023, positioned Black Butte Ranch to thrive as a golfing community and getaway destination for years to come.
Since golfing at Brasada Ranch is open only to residents, their visitors and lodging guests, a staycation of sorts would be in order to experience Brasada Canyons, an 18-hole oasis of greenery among the high desert landscape in Powell Butte, northeast of Bend. The 1,800-acre resort offers both hotel suites and vacation rentals. Settle in for a stay and enjoy a private round on the course, where no two holes run parallel.
For lively, family-friendly resort vibes, head to Sunriver Resort. The community south of Bend is known for its many activities, in addition to the resort’s four courses—Crosswater, Meadows, Woodlands and Caldera Links, together offering a wide variety of holes for a mix of challenge and playability.
Ample vacation rentals in Sunriver mean you can finish a day of golf (or fishing or floating) with a beer around the firepit among family or a group of friends.
Nestled into an area of undeveloped high desert sand north of Bend is a 640-acre area that’s been transformed into Juniper Preserve. Juniper Preserve boasts two 18-hole courses, opened in 2004 and 2006 among lava rock ridges and outcroppings. The resort recently opened the 104-room Huntington Lodge, and there are a variety of stay-and-play packages offered for visitors this fall. Looking for a lesson? The resort’s Director of Instruction Jeff Ritter is also a regular on the Golf Channel, where he’s lead coach for the Golf Academy program. Golf Digest has also ranked him the No. 1 coach in Oregon.
The devastation Oregon is facing each year from wildfires around our state is unimaginable, scary and heartbreaking. It’s hard to just sit back and watch as communities and wild lands are destroyed. If you’re like us, you want to do something to help. Let’s continue to stick together and support one another through all these unpredictable challenges.
Thanks to our friend, Garrett Hampton, for starting this helpful compilation of information and sharing with us.
Whether it’s sipping wine while glimpsing life at a sprawling vineyard, feeding an alpaca and feeling its fleece, or hunting for the perfect pumpkin at a scenic ranch,agritourism introduces visitors to ranching and farming, while also serving as an integral part of many farms’ business plans. When done right, inviting tourists onto your land can be educational, entertaining and profitable.
photo justin bailie
It’s a model that’s thriving in Oregon. In 2017, farms participating in agritourism brought in an average of $33,470 in revenue from it, up from $18,557 in 2012, according to the most recent data from Travel Oregon’s Oregon Agritourism Network.
Here in Central Oregon, the High Desert Food & Farm Alliance works with local farmers and ranchers year-round to support local food. Of its sixty-two partner farmers and ranchers, thirty-three offer agritourism. The organization said it’s working with Visit Bend to secure a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help local agritourism grow.
“Agritourism offers a terrific opportunity for growers to engage directly with their consumers,” said Hilary Sager, product development coordinator for Oregon Agritourism Network. “When a guest comes to a farm, the host has an opportunity to tell their story and share their products in a way that is dynamic and meaningful. By combining aspects of tourism and agriculture, there are larger financial, educational and social benefit to tourists, producers, and communities.”
Here’s a look at how three local farms count on this mix to make it all pencil out.
Faith Hope & Charity Vineyard
When Cindy and Roger Grossmann bought a 312-acre ranch in Terrebonne in 2001, their vision for Faith Hope & Charity Vineyard was to create robust guest experiences in addition to pursuing their dreams of winemaking. After years of nurturing high desert-hardy grapes and securing land-use approvals, that plan is on track.
By late fall the Grossmanns expect to have completed a new event center for 200 visitors, with business and educational meeting spaces, a tasting room, kitchen, two-and-a-half-acre trout pond, and by spring, an outdoor amphitheater. In the meantime, music, wood-fired pizza, bocce and visits from neighboring alpacas keep it family friendly and widen the draw.
The business reopened in May after the coronavirus shutdown in March. The extensive grounds allow socially distanced dining by reservation and six-foot-long tables are ten feet apart, so the area can accommodate 250 guests, Cindy Grossman said. It all supports the main revenue stream. “The core of our business is the grapes—they run the world for us,” she said. “We have events not because they’re easy, but because they sell wine. At my music events, for three hours long we’re exposing those people to our wine and they always come back.”
The same is true for weddings. She estimates that 75 percent of each wedding’s 150 guests return, and that’s how the business built its customer base and wine club, which offers chef dinners and wine tasting trips. “We want to get people out of the city and to come and enjoy the wide-open spaces and agricultural land and learn about it,” Grossman said. Her long-range plan includes a five-suite guest lodge, five cottages and guest programs around culinary and beauty products made from the ranch’s lavender. “It all feeds on true agritourism—continually teaching conservation of water and soil, while being good stewards of land and very conscious of the environment,” she said.
crescent moon ranch
For more than a decade, Scott and Debbie Miller traveled the country promoting the breeding qualities of their alpacas, but by 2014, they wanted to spend more time at their 42-acre Crescent Moon Ranch in Terrebonne. They’re not alone. All year, visitors stop to see the long-necked, pony-sized, camel-like creatures with endearing eyes and luxurious fleece.
In peak season, they see hundreds of visitors per day, Scott Miller said. The Millers count on their positive experiences with the alpacas to prompt guests to browse their boutique, where they sell sweaters, hats, gloves, coats, blankets, socks, mittens and yarn from the fine, lustrous fiber. These sales generate about 60 percent of the ranch’s annual revenue. The Millers also yearly sell twenty to forty-five alpacas, at a cost of $5,000 to $40,000 each, depending on the quality of their lineage, he said.
One recent morning, visitors watched as Scott’s wife, Debbie, delivered a baby alpaca, that will join the herd of nearly 200. “We invite people to experience what we do, and learn about the alpacas. When they have questions, we stop what we’re doing to answer them,” he said.
In this line of work, Scott said, more’s at stake than the bottom line. “What’s most satisfying is that we get to work for ourselves, live and die by our own decisions, not someone else’s, and we get to be outside, at home.”
dd ranch
More people are buying locally raised meat since the coronavirus pandemic began, which is good news for the owners of DD Ranch in Terrebonne. But social distancing restrictions and school closures could affect revenue at the ranch, where field trips and the annual Pumpkin Patch celebration help sustain sales of grass-fed beef and lamb, heritage pork, eggs from free-range hens and raw honey from bees raised on 200 acres in Terrebonne. Linda Anspach, who runs the ranch with her husband, Jeff, said agritourism accounts for 15 to 25 percent of annual revenue.
Every October nearly 2,000 children visit to learn about the importance of honey pollinators, planting, harvesting and raising sheep, hogs and cows. Anspach is unsure whether those trips will happen or how Pumpkin Patch activities—petting zoo, hay rides, pony rides, BB gun range and archery—might be affected. Though the Pumpkin Patch is free (activities cost $2.50 to $7.50), the ranch reaps about a third of its annual revenue in October with visitors accounting for a spike in the sale of farm products. “The whole goal of agritourism is to endear people to agricultural products through entertainment. Harvest time is a celebration that also encourages people to look at farm life and consider it as a potential job.”
Raise your beer steins and dust off your lederhosen because it’s time to celebrate Oktoberfest in Central Oregon! Even if rowdy singalongs in crowded pubs aren’t up your alley, there are plenty of other (more chill) ways to celebrate German culture. In this DIY guide, find recommendations on where to indulge in traditional German cuisine and of course, plenty of frothy brews. Prost!
Drinks to Imbibe During Oktoberfest in Central Oregon
With a quick pub-hop—or should we say biergarten crawl—around Bend, it’s easy to find a handful of beers paying homage to traditional German brews. Whether you stay for a pint, pick up a growler to go or grab a six-pack from the store, there are plenty of options to kick off an Oktoberfest evening.
Bavarian lager at GoodLife
This German Telles-style lager is a crisp and refreshing beer combining clean American bittering hops and some German Czech Saaz hops—it’s light and drinkable and tastes great in the GoodLife bierhall tasting room or biergarden, off 14th Avenue in west Bend. It’s also available in a growler to-go.
Crux Pilz
Try this unfiltered German pilsner from Crux, featuring noble German hop bitterness. Crux Pilz is available from Crux Fermentation Project tucked away in an industrial area near Highway 97 in the center of Bend, and the Pilz is canned and available for purchase from retailers throughout Central Oregon.
Worthy Tenmile Dry Hopped Lager
Described by brewmaster Dustin Kellner as a “German lager that IPA lovers will adore,” the Tenmile Lager by Worthy is a dry-hopped German lager with Strata hops and fruity flavors. Some proceeds from sales of this beer support the brewery’s Worthy Garden Club campaign, Operation Appleseed. The goal of the campaign is to plant one million trees in Oregon, beginning with an old clear-cut parcel on Tenmile Creek, an area in the Siuslaw National Forest near the Pacific Ocean, just south of Yachats, Oregon.
Main Dishes to Enjoy During Oktoberfest in Central Oregon
Bangers and Brews
Banger’s and Brews’ German bratwurst with chimichurri | Photo mighty creature co
This unassuming counter-service joint in west Bend has ranked among Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S. for the past three years, actually topping the list (yes, #1) last year. To keep it strictly German you’d have to pass on the fan-favorite bangers and mash, but no need to be disappointed—the traditional German bratwurst (with the twist of chimichurri) is sure to satisfy, as is the pretzel and cheese.
We’re the Wurst
We’re the Wurst bratwurst served at Monkless Belgian Ales | photo Mighty Creature Co
Grill up an Oktoberfest feast right in your backyard using a variety of sausages from Bend’s We’re the Wurst, including the signature German bratwurst. There’s no way to go wrong cooking up these meaty treats, often served with mustard and sauerkraut. Find We’re the Wurst at grocery stores around Central Oregon and toss it on the grill at home, or hire We’re the Wurst chef Matthew Fidler to cater a private Oktoberfest meal. For a meal with a view, try the bratwurst with house-made aioli off the menu at Monkless Belgian Ales, near the Box Factory and overlooking the Deschutes River.
FortyEighter Carolina Rib Blüm Böx | photo mighty creature co
Desert
Photo courtesy market of choice
Let’s not forget the icing on the cake of an Oktoberfest meal—the dessert. While traditional German desserts like Bienenstich (also known as bee sting cake) are hard to come by in the high desert, finding mouth-watering German chocolate is still on the table. Place a custom order from Market of Choice for a German chocolate cream pie with dark chocolate custard and coconut flakes inside a buttery crust coated with chocolate ganache. It’s the perfect ending to a build-your-own Oktoberfest feast.
Waterfalls are an intrinsic part of the Northwest landscape. We are drawn to them not only for their natural beauty but perhaps for more primal and instinctive reasons as well. They visually and auditorily announce a water source, along with a potential gathering place for fish and game. Take it a step further, and you can bring the mood-enhancing negative ions they produce into the discussion.
Whatever their particular pull might be for you, there’s a ton of waterfalls here, and we’re lucky for that. Beyond Tumalo, Central Oregon happens to be blessed with some prime regional specimens. Cast a broader net into day-trip range, and you can enjoy an exceptionally diverse array of waterfall hikes on both sides of the Cascades. Here are some highlights that include Instagram all-stars, as well as some that might have escaped your attention up to this point.
McDowell Creek Park is a family-friendly paradise that flies way beneath the recreational radar of most waterfall fans. It is, however, a stunner of a hike highlighted by a pair of impressive waterfalls, some legitimate old-growth forest and a grotto reminiscent of an Ewok village.
The 1.6-mile-loop hike first visits Royal Terrace Falls, where water flows like lacey ribbons over 119 feet and three tiers. Next up, the invitingly named Crystal Pool and its small but attractive namesake waterfall are a nice opening act for what comes next. Just a few hundred feet beyond the Crystal Pool, the trail enters a verdant, thickly mossed mini–box canyon. An elevated wooden walkway crosses the creek and delivers you to a viewing platform of Majestic Falls. Not the tallest cascade in the world, but the setting is in fact, quite majestic.
Directions: From Sisters, take Highway 20 west for 73.7 miles and make a right onto Quartzville Road. Follow signs for another 7 miles to McDowell Creek Falls County Park.
Rating: Easy
Tips: This is perhaps the most family-friendly of the bunch, with ample restrooms and picnic tables, but bring water. Also, geology buffs should note that the substrate around these falls is different from the lava flows responsible for most cascades around the state. These pour over layers of volcanic breccia, sandstone and diabase.
Restrooms and Regulations: Restrooms at trailheads, no applicable fees.
Chush Falls
Whychus Creek
At a thundering 67 feet high and 80 feet wide, Chush Falls is a uniquely powerful cascade worthy of your time. On top of that, an unmaintained but easily navigable trail leads a short distance beyond the Chush viewpoint to a middle and comparably scenic upper falls. The area that the trail traverses now bears the scars of the Pole Creek Fire, which also permanently re-routed and lengthened the hike to a five-mile out and back. However, a visit now provides a firsthand look at a post-wildfire forest in active rebirth.
Photo by Cavan Images / Alamy Stock Photo
The gentle ascent to Chush intermittently affords views of Broken Top, the Three Sisters, and the wild canyon holding Whychus Creek—vistas that may have actually been improved as a result of the recent fires. Whether or not that is straining hard for a silver lining, the fact is that this place has a striking beauty all its own. It should also be pointed out, however, that the view of the falls from the official end of the trail isn’t exactly unobscured. The vantage you see in photos is only earned after a steepish, 250-foot scramble down the side of the canyon to the creek below. It’s well-worn though, and there are a number of sturdy handholds. So if you’re up to it, walk to the right of the “Trail Ends Here” sign and pick up the boot path leading down to the base of the falls. Take a breather and some photos, you earned them.
Directions: From the town of Sisters, head south on Elm Street/NF-16 and drive for 7.4 miles and turn right onto gravel road NF-1514. Drive 4.7 miles on the occasionally rough road, staying right at a fork around the 2.8-mile mark. Just before a bridge crossing Whychus Creek, make a left on the easy to miss FR-600 and slowly drive the final 0.9-mile of very bumpy road to its end at the trailhead.
Rating: Easy to moderate, depending on if you choose to include the scramble to the base of the upper falls.
Tips: Sunscreen and water are a must. There are a few sections of the trail that offer no shade.
Restrooms and Regulations: No restrooms, so go in Sisters! A free, self-issue day-use Wilderness Permit needs to be filled out for each party at the trailhead from Memorial Day – October 31. A valid recreation pass is also required.
Spirit/Moon/Pinard Falls
Umpqua National Forest
Pinard Falls | photo adam mckibben
This trio of photogenic waterfalls are all within a handful of miles of one another in the Umpqua National Forest. If you have the time, you should really hit all three in the same go. All of them offer up a strong potentiality for solitude, and foolproof signage combined with excellent gravel roads help to make these remote falls a joy to visit. The first of the three is Spirit Falls.
Alex Creek tumbles over a 40-foot cliff as Spirit Falls. The area that extends out from the base of the cascade invites relaxed contemplation. That and a well-placed picnic bench make it a place where you can spend a considerable amount of quality time. The falls themselves, like many, take on a wildly different appearance based on time of year and water flow. For Spirit Falls, all are appealing, with its late summer presentation being more that of a Zen water wall than a waterfall. Please note that this watershed is what provides Cottage Grove with its water supply, so no camping or swimming is allowed.
The same creek that produces Spirit Falls downstream produces the striking Moon Falls—spreading out and veiling across a broad wall of basalt for nearly 100 feet. It then collects itself and plunges in side-by-side falls, crashing into boulders below and becoming Alex Creek again. And just like Spirit Falls, Moon Falls is a great spot for a picnic break.
Pinard Falls drops through a narrow slot before broadening slightly and falling gracefully over 100 feet to a semi-hidden pool below. Flanked by moss-covered rocks and drooping cedars, it might not be a good spot for a swim or a picnic, but it’s framed nicely for photos.
Directions: From I-5 south of Eugene, take exit 174 east toward Dorena Lake. At 18.5 miles from I-5, make a slight left onto FR 17 (also known as Layng Creek Road). Drive 8.7 miles to where the pavement ends and turn right onto gravel FR 1790. All three falls are accessed from this point.
Rating: Easy, all three hikes total around three miles of hiking.
Tips: If you don’t bring your own picnic, hit Jack Sprats or Big Stuff BBQ in Cottage Grove.
Restrooms and Regulations: No restrooms and no fees.
Koosah/Sahalie Falls
McKenzie River
This 2.8-mile-loop hike is very popular, but for very good reasons. It visits two massive, high-volume waterfalls, a quintessentially clean, cold, and rushing Northwest river, and viewpoint after viewpoint. Please note that at this location (as well as a growing number of hikes around the state), off-trail foot traffic has caused governing agencies to put up fencing or signage with the expressed objective of keeping people back and allowing the landscape to recover. Please abide by any and all posted signs or regulations at the trailhead.
Koosah Falls | photo richard bacon
From the parking area, walk a couple of hundred feet down to the lower viewpoint of Sahalie Falls. Continue downriver to the left. The water here runs swiftly, but occasionally swirls into deep, unimaginably vibrant pools of blue and green. After 0.5-mile you’ll pass the equally impressive Koosah Falls. The words Sahalie and Koosah both mean “high” or “heaven” in Northwest Chinook jargon—fitting descriptions for both. The loop eventually crosses the river and comes back up via the McKenzie River Trail, providing distractingly gorgeous viewpoints of the falls as well as the river along the way.
Directions: From Sisters, take Highway 20 west for 29 miles and make a left onto Highway 126 east, then an immediate left onto 126 west. Proceed 5.2 miles to the Sahalie Falls parking area on the right.
Rating: Easy
Tips: If you want to extend the outing, continue north or south on the McKenzie River Trail as long as you like before doubling back. Also, this place becomes the Central Oregon version of Multnomah Falls during the summer—especially on weekends. Parking is relatively limited at the trailhead, and parking on the shoulder of the highway is dangerous and not recommended. Go on a weekday and go early, if possible.
Restrooms and Regulations: There are restrooms, but no potable water sources. No parking or day-use fees apply.
photo adam sawyer
Strawberry Falls
Strawberry Mountain Wilderness
Strawberry Falls is perhaps the only notable waterfall accessible by maintained trail residing in the heart of eastern Oregon. In addition to the 50-foot cascade, this 6.5-mile out and back hike into the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness also visits a pair of very swimmable lakes and the opportunity for further backcountry explorations. Along the way, you’ll be treated to views of exposed craggy ridgelines, summer wildflowers and huckleberries by the thousands.
In addition to the aforementioned, an attractive dry climate forest comprised of grand fir, Ponderosa and lodgepole pine, along with western larch, make it easy to understand why the hike to Strawberry Lake and Little Strawberry Lake is so popular. That said, if you covet the trail less traveled and the word “popular” sends you moving onto the next hike, fear not. It’s popular by eastern Oregon standards. This is not the Gorge. If you show up on a weekday morning, even in the summer, there’s still a chance you’ll be making this trek without too many more souls.
Directions: From Prairie City, head south on Bridge Street, following signs for Strawberry Lake. Continue 11 miles to the end of the road and the day-use Strawberry Basin Trailhead, across from the campground. Along the way, the paved road will transition into a broad, very driveable gravel Country Road 60, and then a narrow, very bumpy FR-6001 best handled by high-clearance vehicles, but technically passable in passenger vehicles.
Rating: Moderate
Tips: Feel free to bring or hike in a swimsuit, if you are so inclined. There are some excellent beach areas along Strawberry Lake.
Restrooms and Regulations: There are restrooms at the trailhead. A free, self-issue day-use Wilderness Permit needs to be filled out for each party at the trailhead.
Editor’s Note: Be aware of occasional closures to natural areas around waterfalls, for habitat restoration, trail maintenance or public safety. Always respect “area closed” signage.
As Pat Mullens set out on a fat-tire bike tour last February, she expected some adventure. What she didn’t expect was to be saved by a search and rescue unit.
The morning was cold and clear when Mullens, 60, and her friend Siobhan McNulty set out to ride the loop from Skyliner Sno-park to Tumalo Falls, returning via the Skyliner trail. Both women are experienced in backcountry adventures and were fully prepared with emergency supplies. “Several inches of fresh snow had fallen, so we were working hard, but having a great time…until we came to a narrow wooden bridge that was mounded high with packed snow,”Mullens said.
As she carefully walked her bike across the bridge, Mullens’ foot slipped off the snowpack. She fell six feet into the creek and landed sandwiched between a boulder and her bike. The fall had broken her pelvis and she couldn’t stand. Mullens inched out of the water and wrapped herself in a space blanket, while McNulty rushed down the trail until she found cell service. Frantically, she called the people she knew could help: Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.
Snapshot from the scene of the rescue of Pat Mullens last year, after the fat-tire bike she was riding slipped from a bridge and she broke her pelvis. | photo Bonnie Phippen
At the Heart of Bend’s Outdoor Culture
Every county in Oregon provides search and rescue activities as part of the Sheriff’s Office special services. In Deschutes County, Lieutenant Bryan Husband leads the SAR unit, along with four full-time deputies. According to Husband, it’s the volunteers that place Deschutes County’s SAR among the most capable in the Pacific Northwest. More than 130 trained local volunteers participate in an average of 140 rescue missions annually, in environments that range from river rapids to steep-angle cliffs to backcountry mountain terrain.
“Central Oregon’s wealth of extreme outdoor recreation creates greater demand for SAR help,” Husband said. “Fortunately, our volunteers have such expertise in their fields and are passionate about this work. We couldn’t do this without them.”
Mary van Hilten has been a SAR volunteer for over fifteen years.
SAR is no small commitment: in 2019, volunteers averaged more than 200 hours of SAR training and mission time. All volunteers train for general rescue missions, and many specialize to work in swift water, deep water diving, tracking by horseback, rock climbing, aerial searches by drone and helicopter—and winter rescues like Pat Mullens’.
When McNulty called for rescue on that winter afternoon, every SAR volunteer certified for winter rescue received an alert on their phone. Those available jumped into action, as Husband’s team planned how they would get to Mullens. The team snowshoed in from Tumalo Falls with a sled litter, thermal blanket and medical backpack. They shoveled the bridge flat, packed Mullens in the litter and pulled her back up the trail. At the falls, they transferred her to the “Smurf”—an enclosed snowmobile trailer that delivered her to a waiting ambulance.
Mullens has since healed from her injuries and is back on her bike. “The hardest part was getting back across that bridge. This could have had a very different outcome if not for the SAR folks. I’m so grateful,” she said.
The Volunteer Experience
There’s nothing like the feeling after a successful mission, according to SAR volunteer Mary van Hilten. Van Hilten joined the SAR medical team soon after she moved to Bend in 2006. “Some nights, after a rescue, I can hardly sleep from all the adrenaline,” she said. Van Hilten, 55, has been a hospital nurse for several decades, but SAR emergency medicine is her passion.
On the way to a rescue, her sole focus is handling the medical issues at the scene. “I’m thinking through what I know about the person—their injury, their age and condition. What am I dealing with? We can’t heal people in the field, so how will we stabilize this person and package them for transport—will it be Airlink or an ambulance?” she explained. Medical volunteers bring a Basic Life Support pack equipped to address any medical emergency, from airway and breathing support to splints and bandages. Most injuries don’t ruffle van Hilten’s feathers. “But tell me there is a head injury, and I’m concerned.”
The responsibility feels heavy at times, but van Hilten never feels alone. “I’ve got an excellent team and I can talk with the ER if needed. Most of all, I rely on the deputies—they are tremendous. We follow their chain of command, and they make smart decisions,” she said.
The work gets under her skin, permeating her personal life at times. “I’ve become more cautious, for sure. I might be hiking to a beautiful summit, but I hardly notice the view. Instead I’m planning how I’d get someone out of the ravine or evaluating other hikers for potential heart attacks. I can’t turn off the SAR instinct,” she said.
But for van Hilten, the rewards outweigh the worries. “When I’m out on a cold winter night rescue, on the back of a snowmobile, I’ll look up at this beautiful starry sky, and I think ‘how cool is this? I get to go save a life! How did I get so lucky to be doing this?’ SAR is really in my blood. These are my people and I can’t get enough.”
Employing High-Tech Tools and Low-Tech Habits
Dan Dawson flying a drone over the high desert.
Over the past decade, SAR activity has shifted towards more rescues and fewer searches. Smartphones and GPS technology allow backcountry explorers to know their routes and get lost less often. “It also means more people venture farther out, so more people get injured or stuck,” Husband said. Often, SAR can pinpoint locations by cell phone, and even guide lost hikers back to the trail by phone.
Drone technology is changing SAR operations as well. Dan Dawson, SAR volunteer, serves as the Air Operations Coordinator. His team of thirty-eight volunteers began training with drones in 2017. Their fleet includes a Mavik Pro and a Mavic 2 Enterprise, for scouting landscapes and routing search teams in real time. Their most advanced aircraft, the Matrice 210, uses thermal imaging to spot warm bodies at night. Dawson appreciates the new ways to apply the technology. “We can drop supplies with the drone, like water or a radio, or give instructions through the speaker. We’re working on delivering life preservers during swift water rescues.”
New rescue technology is impressive, but SAR experts agree the best strategy is to practice low-tech, common sense habits to stay safe in the wilderness. Do research before setting out: check the weather, plan the route and share it with a friend. Pack the ten essentials (see sidebar). Learn to use a paper topo map and compass for the inevitable moment when batteries fade. Stay clear-headed in the backcountry, because over-indulging leads to poor decisions. Most of all, trust your gut. If conditions feel risky, consider a different plan.
Husband encourages people to contact SAR by calling 911 as soon as they realize they need help. SAR does not charge a fee for their rescues, even when a person’s own behavior has caused the problem. “No sheriff’s office would want a person to hesitate calling us because they fear a ticket or a fine,” Husband said. Waiting until dark, or until the situation becomes dire, makes the mission far more dangerous for the volunteers as well as for the person, he explained, and keeping the teams safe is a top priority.
Lieutenant Bryan Husband leads Deschutes County SAR along with four full-time deputies.
The Sar Community
Central Oregon culture revolves around outdoor recreation, with search and rescue at the hub. The most memorable adventures ride a fine line between pushing limits and managing risk. In the same way, SAR volunteers blend passion for their activity with helping others survive when the balance tips toward danger. Along the way they become a second family, a tightknit community with a singular focus.
“There’s no room for egos here, no heroes. Every rescue is a team effort.”
Deschutes County SAR recruits new volunteers each November. The application process typically kicks off at the Powder Hound film festival, a long-standing community event which raises funds for equipment and training, through the Deschutes County SAR Foundation.
The selection process is competitive: only twenty-five applicants are accepted each year to train at the SAR academy in the spring. Beyond physical abilities and specific skills, Husband seeks team players. “There’s no room for egos here, no heroes. Every rescue is a team effort,” he said.
No individual heroes, perhaps, but surely a collective one.
If the Big Bad Wolf came upon the Beth and David Lawrence’s house, he could huff and puff, but he’d never blow this house down. Its massive wood beams, lava rock fireplaces, stone columns and timber trusses convey a sense of strength and permanence.
The recently completed home hits the mark for a classic Northwest lodge style, from its soaring 20-foot cedar ceilings to its solid wood plank floors. Its builder, Chris Christianson of Sunrise Construction of Oregon, said lodge homes went by the wayside in the past decade with the rise in popularity of modern styles, but “the Northwest lodge style really coincides with the Central Oregon landscape and is a timeless design.”
The Lawrences moved to Bend in 2018 from Orange County where they’d planned to build a craftsman home to be near their children and grandchildren. “The kids said they didn’t know how long they’d be in California, so we decided to do something for ourselves,” Beth said. Thus began their search for a new place to call home.
The lava rock walls and fireplaces won Best Feature awards at the COBA Tour of Homes.
“We love the mountains and hate the heat, which eliminated Nevada, Arizona, Texas and the Southwest,” Beth said. “Our focus became Coeur d’Alene, Boise, a couple places in Colorado and Bend.”
David and Beth Lawrence
David said they had never been to Central Oregon before. “We got to Bend and were here a couple of days, and Beth asked me if I liked it. I told her I really did,” David recalled. “We decided we didn’t need to visit any place else.”
The Tree Farm outside Bend’s city limits on the west side appealed to them. It borders on the Deschutes National Forest and Shevlin Park. “We’ve always been outdoor forest-y people,” Beth said. They found a building lot in the forest and retained Joey Shaw of Homeland Design to render their vision.
“They didn’t come with a lot of preconceived ideas,” Shaw noted. “They wanted angles, a great room, a single-story house that sat well on the lot and a shape that gave them privacy.”
Building a Best of Show home in a pandemic
Converting plans into a lasting home would be builder Christianson’s job, albeit it a challenging one. His crew broke ground in September 2019 on the 4,600-square-foot home, and were working steadily toward completion for the July 2020 COBA Tour of Homes, when COVID-19 hit.
These three bronze bird sculptures by artist Dan Chen were selected just to fit these art nooks.
“We encountered numerous delays due to COVID and lost about three weeks of production in the spring,” Christianson said. A limit of ten contractors could be on the job site, and they had to observe stringent distancing and sanitation protocols. They also experienced delays in getting building materials and other items due to factory shutdowns across the country.
Nevertheless, the crew finished just in time for the COBA tour, ultimately winning numerous awards, including Best Feature for its lava rock walls and fireplaces, Best Kitchen, Best Master Suite and Best of Show in its category.
While the award-winning features are many, one design element stands out—consistency in everything from materials and warm earthy colors to large-scale structures like the exposed, arched beams that carry over from the entrance through the great room and out to the covered back patio. Countertops throughout the home are double-thick granite and quartzite with hand-honed drop-chisel edges.
Three natural stone fireplaces, one made of Oregon lava rock and two from Montana Mossy rock, create warmth and focal points in the master bedroom, living room and family media room. Sunrise Construction’s design team, including interior designer Dani Bearup, added a lava wall in the powder room and a lava rock wall between the kitchen and dining room.
At 7-by-12-feet, the granite kitchen island is a stunning and substantial design feature.
The kitchen is a cherished part of the home. The 7-by-12-foot island can seat eight humans or Goldilocks and three hungry bears. The kitchen also contains a built-in seating nook where Beth can enjoy her morning coffee. The wall behind the stove features a chiseled silver travertine with a granite inset niche that creates an elegant, Old World feel. There’s a butler’s pantry where the Lawrences can stash appliances out of sight and where David, who says he’s an ice snob, can have a special icemaker.
Some of the dwelling’s charm reveals itself in small details. The keystone, a favorite shape of Beth’s, was inserted into the rock walls above fireplaces, three art niches in the dining room and other “hidden” places. The builder used chains, nails, rocks and adze tools to “distress” the heavy beams. The long hallway leading to the master suite, mudroom and garage has tile between the wood planks and mitered square “Xs” at corners.
The master bath has a stand-alone bathtub for her, a urinal (not pictured) for him.
The master suite’s bathroom has a rarely seen fixture: a urinal, which is recessed into a wall. “For me, the urinal is kind of cool,” David said. There’s also a stand-alone bathtub set on mosaic tile with a chandelier overhead and a hand-forged bronze backsplash above the sinks and countertop.
Patios, fire and water features
“I love the outside of the house—its curved beams that soften the home’s straight angles, the way you can walk up the front steps and see straight out to the trees in back,” David said. “There are no ugly sides; the back and sides are as attractive as the front.”
Beth enjoys the five patios where she can follow the sun around the house or avoid it when the day heats up. The large covered back patio is a peaceful place to enjoy a gurgling low-to-the-ground water feature, a firepit and BBQ set into lava rock.
Coming from California where wildland fire poses a constant threat, the couple appreciates the Tree Farm’s Firewise Community codes, even though they had to remove thirty percent of the trees. The house also has interior fire sprinklers, a nonflammable roof, a fire moat around the structure and fire-resistant landscaping.
“The designers and builders—Joey, Chris and Dani—have made our vision come true,” David said. “It has been much more than just building out a set of plans. So much of what we love is a result of this team’s visions and their execution on those visions.”
The couple looks forward to hiking the many trails within a few yards of their home and observing wildlife as it crosses their property. And when the grandkids come for a visit and wander through the forest, they’ll warn them to run from the woodland creature with big ears, big eyes and big teeth, back to the sanctuary their grandparents built.
Resources: Designer: Joey Shaw, Homeland Design | Builder: Chris Christianson, Sunrise Construction of Oregon | Interior: Dani Bearup, Sunrise Construction of Oregon | Landscape: Becky Shaw, Homeland Design
Lori and Todd Sensenbach bought the Bend business Mariposa after selling Home Instead, a company that helped seniors in Central Oregon remain in their own homes as they aged. “It has always been important to us to combine what we do professionally as business owners with the ability to impact our community for the better,” Lori said. At Mariposa, a post-mastectomy boutique, they fit clients for prosthetics, wigs and compression products. Bend Magazine sat down with Lori and Todd to learn more about Mariposa’s post-mastectomy services.
What does prosthetic fitting mean and why is it necessary?
Technically, a prosthetic is a manufactured part of the body which replaces a person’s missing body part. Most often people think of limbs lost to some type of accident or injury. The prostheses we work with are breast prostheses for women who have had a mastectomy, which is a surgery removing part or all of one or both breasts. While the surgery alters a woman significantly in a physical way, the emotional effect is often as great or greater than the physical effect. Physically, women’s bodies are made to carry the weight of breasts. Removing that weight from the chest wall can cause posture issues that eventually become pain issues if not addressed. A breast prosthesis adds this weight back. Emotionally, breasts speak to reproductive capacity but are also an obvious part of a woman’s appearance. As much as we try not to worry about what other people think of our appearance, many women are still self-conscious, which is okay. By fitting someone with a breast prosthesis, hopefully we help them with that self-consciousness.
Where do your clients come from? How many people do you serve each year?
Most of our clients come from the three counties of Central Oregon, but also from John Day, Burns, Klamath Falls, etc. We see over a thousand people a year.
What is does an average day in your business look like?
We see a variety of people every day. Some for post-mastectomy fittings, some for wig fittings and others for compression products fittings. The common factor is that each person is experiencing some sort of health challenge that has led them to our door.
What is it like to work with a group of people who may be facing health challenges and the array of emotions that come with that?
It is incredibly rewarding. Our goal is to: “Be Love, See Life, and Shine Light.” If we can turn a negative emotion into a positive emotion, then we feel that we are being love. If we honor this person’s life in the brief time they are with us in our boutique, then we are seeing life. And if we can give them hope in their current health situation, then we are shining light. Each person we meet is so unique, and they are allowing us into a very intimate part of their life. We honor them where they are, physically and emotionally.
What sort of special considerations might we not know about that must be made for women in terms of appearance post-mastectomy?
For a Mastectomy Fitter, our primary goal is to create an appearance of both balance and symmetry. It can be easy with some women and difficult with others, mainly depending on their body type, but sometimes also because of the cancer and what the surgeon was challenged with to restore them to health. Our other goal is for the woman to be comfortable in the products we fit her in. I can think that she looks great, but if she is completely uncomfortable, she will not wear the products, obviously impacting her appearance. I cannot tell you how rewarding it is to finish a fitting and have a woman look at herself in the mirror and say, “I look like myself again,” usually with tears in her eyes.
Are your services expensive?
There is no fee for a fitting. And because of the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998, insurance plans are required to provide coverage for post-mastectomy products. Deductibles and co-insurance do apply, but most of the expense is typically covered by the plan. Prices for mastectomy bras are equivalent to non-mastectomy bras. Prices for silicon prostheses start at over $300 each. But again, the insurance plan covers most of this expense.
As for compression, we carry high-end brands that are more expensive than what you might find at a chain store. Compression can be difficult to put on, especially for people who have decreased strength or other challenges like arthritis. We try to pick products made of fabrics that will make it possible for the person to apply them. We also want the product to fit correctly, and we have found that the high-end products meet this requirement.
What else do you want us to know?
Medicare does not currently provide coverage for compression products. This is the most common challenge we deal with when people come into our boutique because so many of those who need compression are of Medicare age. Thankfully, there is proposed legislation, the Lymphedema Treatment Act, to change this. Medicare also will not provide coverage for custom breast prostheses. This is the only body part that they will not cover a custom product for. For some women we simply cannot achieve balance and symmetry with traditional off the shelf products. Again, there are proposed bills in both the U.S. House and the Senate to get this changed. We would love to see this passed, as I can think of specific patients who would have their lives changed by a custom prosthesis.
From the summit of Paulina Peak, nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, you can peer into the heart of the Newberry Caldera, home to the Big Obsidian Flow, East Lake and Paulina Lake. On a clear day, you can see iconic Cascade peaks, like Mount Bachelor and Mount Jefferson, in the distance. And if you squint, you can spy the sagebrush sea of the Fort Rock Basin to the south.
It’s one of the most remarkable views in all of Central Oregon. And in a region literally shaped by its volcanic past, the rocky peak atop Newberry Volcano offers a glimpse, not just of that surrounding beauty, but at a half-million years of explosive history.
The broader Newberry National Volcanic Monument celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this fall, so there’s never been a better time to get acquainted with its formation, evolution and geology—all of which continue to awe and inspire in equal measure.
The view from the top of Paulina Peak takes in the enormity of the crater, including East and Paulina lakes and the Big Obsidian Flow, with the Cascades in the distance. | Photo Kelly vanDellen / Alamy Stock Photo
It’s Bigger Than you Think
When most of us imagine Newberry Volcano, we instinctively see that rounded, shield-like shape rising above Bend to the south. (That shape is why it’s officially dubbed a shield volcano.) Maybe we picture the glistening Big Obsidian Flow in our mind’s eye. Or we focus on Paulina or East lakes, shimmering in the heart of the 4-by-5-mile-wide caldera at Newberry’s summit.
But as impressive as these features are, each is just one small part of a vast complex that unfolds across Central Oregon like a wrinkled blanket. In all, Newberry Volcano comprises 1,200 square miles—roughly the size of Rhode Island—making it the largest volcano, by volume, in the Cascade Range. Roughly 400 cinder cone volcanoes and vents cover Newberry’s pockmarked surface, and its lava flows have rerouted the Deschutes River, reached Lake Billy Chinook, and run under downtown Bend. Scott McBride, monument manager and recreation team leader for the Deschutes National Forest’s Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District, said, “Newberry tends to be so large, you can’t see it—because you’re on it.”
One good place for seeing that expanse comes from atop Lava Butte at the Lava Lands Visitor Center‚ a quick, 15-minute drive south of Bend. The cinder cone rises 500 feet above the visitor center, and a locator inside the working fire lookout atop Lava Butte helps identify the many peaks and natural features throughout the monument. Take a look around and see how Newberry sits at a peculiar place in the broader landscape of Central Oregon volcanoes. For another similar view, drive to the top of Paulina Peak, and peer into and around the caldera itself.
Paulina Falls, Newberry’s most magnificent water feature, is easily accessed. | photo alex jordan
Eruptions Shape Newberry’s History
Newberry is at the intersection of two volcanic features, according to Scott Burns, professor emeritus of engineering geology at Portland State University. The first, and most obvious, of the volcanic features is the Cascade Range. The second, and less well-known, is the High Lava Plains—a chain of volcanoes running east-west between Bend and Burns. At nearly 10 million years old, the oldest volcanic features along the High Lava Plains are in the Burns area—while the youngest, at less than a half-million years old, are what we know today as Newberry Volcano.
Roughly 400,000 years ago, a series of magma flows sent molten material miles in every direction and gave Newberry a rounded shape. That’s about when the first of Newberry’s many lava flows started oozing down its slopes, setting in motion a chain of events that, in a sense, continues even now.
Over the next 325,000 years, lava flows seeped toward Smith Rock, onto the modern-day Oregon Badlands Wilderness, as far west as Sunriver, and almost as far south as Fort Rock. And then about 75,000 years ago, a series of more violent eruptions started more or less hollowing out the onetime summit of Newberry. As lava flowed into the surrounding region, Newberry’s highest walls collapsed, leaving behind the bowl-shaped caldera visible from Paulina Peak.
Even as Newberry evolved into the volcano we recognize today, it remained active. Between the end of the last Ice Age (some 12,000 years ago) and the eruption of Mount Mazama (roughly 7,700 years ago), Newberry erupted a dozen or so times. Those events deposited lava flows both inside and outside the caldera—and the most recent of Newberry’s eruptions, which occurred 1,300 years ago, created the Big Obsidian Flow.
Today, a one-mile interpretive trail cuts through the pumice plain and piles of volcanic rock in the heart of the Big Obsidian Flow. The rocky path delivers wide-open views of the jagged, yet shimmering obsidian flow, along with background information on how it all happened. At Lava Lands Visitor Center, walk the paved trail through a jagged flow and see the lava close up. At the underground Lava River Cave, walk into the belly of a mile-long lava tube. At the 60-foot Paulina Falls, watch water tumble down the flanks of the volcano.
Photo Greg Vaughn / VWPics / Alamy Stock Photo
An Active Volcano Remains
Newberry remains a literal hotbed of geothermal activity; both Paulina and East lakes are home to bubbling hot springs, for instance. McBride said a push for Newberry to be recognized as a national monument or national park started as far back as the early 1900s; those calls went unheeded, and talk of possible development around that geothermal activity persisted into the 1980s. Faced with the threat of development, locals came together to advocate for protection—and Congress responded in November 1990, formally establishing the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
Thirty years later, there are few better ways to understand the sheer size of the volcano than from on (or around) Paulina Lake and East Lake—both residing in the heart of the caldera. A seven-mile hiking trail forms a loop around the Paulina Lake shore, six campgrounds offer lakeside camping and both lakes are popular with boaters, kayakers, stand-up paddlers and anglers fishing for rainbow and brown trout.
And Paulina Peak, the highest point in the monument, stands over it all. Burns said the exhibition of natural features visible from Paulina Peak collide here like almost nowhere else on Earth. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “The diverse geological history, it just doesn’t happen, except in Oregon and a few places around the world.”
The weeks they’d spent training with outrigger canoes in the Old Mill District seemed to be paying off. It was September 2019, and Bendites Jason Magness, Stephen Thompson and Dan Staudigel, along with teammate Mel Coombes of Spokane, had cleared the jungle river and were now muscling their wooden boat into the South Pacific off Viti Levu, Fiji’s largest island. Bear Grylls, the British soldier and star of television shows like Running Wild, circled overhead in a helicopter watching them.
Bear Grylls, center, and Mark Burnett, right, pose with a very clean field of adventure racers in Fiji at the start of “the world’s toughest race,” the Eco Challenge.
“Veteran adventure racers Oregon’s Bend Racing are out to an early lead,” Grylls said into a headset as a cameraman filmed him. “Are they burning it out too early? Or can they keep it going? I don’t know.”
The answer to that is complicated, which makes for awesome reality television. These were the early moments in the remaking of Eco Challenge, a show that ran from 1995 to 2002 and put adventure racing on the map. The reboot nearly two decades later lands as a ten-part series that opened on Amazon Prime August 14. Then, like now, camera crews follow teams of four as they hike, bike and argue their way for hundreds of miles across the unforgiving, wild contours of the map with only a compass to point the way. “People think, Fiji, ah, it’s just a beautiful Pacific island,” Grylls told me back in Suva, the capital, before the race began. “But it’s got extreme mountains, extreme jungle, rivers, ocean and swamps.”
Magness and crew were part of a massive Hollywood production that included 330 athletes from thirty countries tackling what’s billed as “the world’s toughest race,” an 11-day sufferfest that traces a punishing 471-mile line across Viti Levu. Along the way they’d build rafts to float green rivers, mountain bike into chain-caking mud and punch their way through canyons filled with tumbling waterfalls. The reboot isn’t just “bigger and badder by a long shot,” as Grylls said. It also puts some of Bend’s most talented adventurers in the international limelight like never before.
Team Bend Racing from left to right: Jason Magness, Stephen Thompson, Darren Steinbach (assistant crew), Mel Coombes and Dan Staudigel.
Team captain Magness, who is 44 with a shock of curly hair, is no newcomer to the sport. He began adventure racing after watching the original Eco Challenge and got hooked on the physical and mental endurance, the unknowns and the teamwork needed to move toward a goal through gorgeous landscapes, efficiently. Magness met Staudigel while Magness was a high school physics teacher in San Diego, and the two would go on runs during lunch period to practice eating while moving. Eventually, Magness and his wife, Chelsea, who is also an elite adventure racer, moved to Bend’s Old Farm District so they could train year-round. Staudigel soon followed suit. “It worked pretty darn well,” Magness said, adding they’ve ranked as high as 7th on the world circuit.
Staudigel and the Magnesses form the core of Team Bend Racing, or Team Yogaslackers, as they’re often called, and when they’re not training or organizing their own races around Oregon, you can find them teaching yoga and acrobatics internationally or at Tula Movement Arts in NorthWest Crossing. When applications opened for the Eco Challenge, the team was almost a shoo-in given their competitive chops. Amazon gave each of the sixty-six teams selected $50,000 to get to Fiji and do the race. The winner would get $100,000. “You’d think there would be cameramen in your face asking you to go back and say something again, but that wasn’t the case at all,” Magness said. “When the race started, it was a race—an incredibly well-run race.”
The Eco Challenge is the latest mega-million-dollar gamble by legendary producer Mark Burnett, a former racer himself, who produced the original Eco Challenge before other hits like Survivor and The Apprentice. As with many of his shows, it’s the stories and backstories of perseverance that give the Eco Challenge its universal viewing appeal. Magness once had to be carried out of a 600-mile-long adventure race in Patagonia with a destroyed hip, which he had fixed through an experimental procedure in India. Not long after, he and Chelsea lost one of their unborn twins, a beautiful still-born boy they named Spirit B. Broken but not beaten, the team returned to Patagonia the next year to win that race, during which time Chelsea revealed she was pregnant again. Their youngest son, Revel Wilder, was born just three weeks before the Eco Challenge began, so Coombes subbed for Chelsea.
Team Bend Racing paddles a jungle stream at the start of the race.
People think, Fiji, ah, itís just a beautiful Pacific island, but itís got extreme mountains, extreme jungle, rivers, ocean and swamps.
Back in Fiji, things go south for Bend Racing fast. On assignment for Outside magazine, I watched as they maintained the lead paddling to a remote island. I met them again a few hours later on another island, Ovalau, where they marched off on a steamy jungle hike. There the team runs into trouble and suffers for days until Grylls gives them a pep talk that keeps them in the game. “He’s actually a really great guy,” Staudigel said.
Nearly a year after filming, back at my home in midtown, I met some of the team for a sneak peek viewing party of the first few episodes that Amazon sent me. We talked about what happened in the jungle that day, and what happens next. No one can say much. We all signed non-disclosure agreements, but the show is also fun and addicting, if not a bit hokey in spots, and I want no spoilers.
Even so, Magness offered some clues to how the series will unfold: “I think you’ll be seeing more of us.”
World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji released with 10 episodes August 14 on Amazon Prime. Watch to see how the Bend team fared and who took home the prize!
Master Gardeners across the state were recognized in July for their volunteer efforts as part of the OSU Extension Master Gardener program’s annual awards. In Central Oregon, the “Master Gardener of the Year” award winner was Kathleen Geary of Bend.
When it comes to the awards, winners are recognized for their commitment, time and impact.
“They’re nominated by fellow Master Gardeners, and selected by their local chapter associations with input solicited with their local OSU Extension horticulturist and Master Gardener program coordinator,” said LeAnn Locher, OSU Master Gardener outreach program coordinator. “The awards for Master Gardener of the year recognizes an individual’s leadership, impact and support of the mission of the program: garden education,” Locher said. Statewide, the program had nearly 3,000 volunteers in Oregon last year, who together contributed more than 221,000 volunteer hours—valued at $5.6 million.
Geary said that she first earned her certification as a Master Gardener in 2015. “Since then, I actively participate in community-based projects that include recording for the KPOV radio segment, ‘Gardening: Get Good at It.’ that airs on the Tuesday morning program and The Point,” Geary said. Her favorite area of volunteer work is at plant clinics, where she helps people receive answers about their gardening questions.
Geary first started gardening at an early age when she used to tend to herbs, vegetables and flowers in her mother’s garden. “I grew to understand the growing cycle of plants, and was captivated by the importance of the bees and insects that pollinated the garden that produced my mother’s endless bounty,” Geary said. She became interested in gardening due to growing up in the era of the Silent Spring. Geary grew concerned about the environment, changing climates, food security and how to feed her family.
Geary is involved with the Central Oregon Master Gardener Association, where she acts as a volunteer, educating others about gardening. She also teaches gardening classes. Other OSU Master Gardener community programs she is involved in are Discovery Park Community Gardening and The Point. Geary said she’s been excited to see how gardening has played a role in helping the community with food security during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are fortunate in Bend to have a community that cares for one another. Precarious times call for strength in numbers and gardeners have it all. We grow gardens of vegetables, fruits and flowers for ourselves, and we grow our gardens to share with others,” Geary said.
Outside of gardening, Geary enjoys hiking, kayaking, fly fishing and skiing. She also loves to entertain guests with cocktails and food and can be found in her library reading up on gardening. For more information on Central Oregon Master Gardeners, click here.
During a time when many theater productions have been stalled or cancelled, Bend’s Musical Impressions Studios has taken a unique approach that’s allowed the production of a musical with a local cast of performers. This will give the community a unique opportunity to enjoy not only one, but two performances.
Musical Impressions Studios is presenting a social distancing drive-in musical at 7:30 p.m. Friday, August 14. The musical, “Songs for a New World” will be performed live and on a stage in the parking lot at New Hope Church in Bend. This will be Bend’s first drive-in theater performance of its kind since the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting the area. Another showing will be followed on August 21 at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.
Co-director Craig Brauner notes the production will be the first theatrical performance on the stage at Les Schwab.
“We are ecstatic that our cast and team of local talent will have the opportunity to grace this landmark stage in our community with this special show,” Brauner said.
“Songs for a New World” is a musical written and composed by Jason Robert Brown, and there are no set characters, narratives or even an overall plot. SInce there is not a lot of dialogue in the musical, the songs and incorporated dances make up and tell the story.
The arts, as many theatre performers believe, have the powerful ability to connect and heal people. Brauner and co-director Angelina Anello-Dennee picked “Songs for a New World” because of its message of hope and its theme of connection in a time of disconnection.
“We recognize that our world and local community is in a time of unprecedented change and defining moment after defining moment. As creators and passionate community members, we believe a message of hope in the form of theatrical entertainment is worth gifting to our community,” Anello-Dennee and Brauner said.
When it comes to rehearsing before the big night, there have been many differences that have challenged the production of the musical. Actors and the creative team must wear masks, sanitize their hands before rehearsals and can only take off their masks if singing. A chair and microphone are given to each actor for only them to use, and the cast members keep six feet apart.
The biggest challenge for the team has come down to following social distancing guidelines. Brauner said theatre is intimate in that lovers typically physically embrace, and dance and other forms of contact take place.
“Whenever I find myself stuck, I refer to Jason Robert Brown’s advice to directors staging the show, saying it is ‘most powerful when the audience can feel and see those journeys take place,’” Brauner said. Both directors were shocked with how adding in the social distancing guidelines strengthened and deepened the story. Brauner credits the musical performers for bringing in that change.
Anello-Dennee and Brauner said that they are fortunate to have the opportunity to stage a production during COVID-19, while also getting the chance to show their appreciation through the musical for anyone that has supported them. The duo said they recognize that many artists and creators do not have this chance and are struggling with unemployment, not knowing if or when they will work again.
“With this in mind, the cast and creative team politely ask that those who love and support the arts continue doing so by supporting community artists, like us, and to consider a donation of any amount to the following artistic support funds: Oregon Cultural Trust, The Actors Fund and Americans for the Arts,” Brauner said.
Audience members planning to attend the drive-in show will be guided in their car to a parking spot when they arrive. They have the choice when the show starts on whether to roll down the windows or to listen to the show on the radio.The audience can bring lawn chairs but must follow social distancing guidelines.
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
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
Lee credits the welcoming, laid-back atmosphere for the sport’s popularity in Bend. “Curling is not like most team sports because it’s new for almost everyone. Experienced players love to help, and people learn quickly that it’s just as fun as it looks,” Lee said.
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. 
