tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76985684880834015172024-02-07T17:55:32.969-08:00The Yachats GazetteHeather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-59506284457959229832020-04-30T21:58:00.000-07:002020-04-30T21:58:07.571-07:00From The Publisher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To my loyal readers and advertisers, it has certainly been a journey. What started as a kid asking questions has turned into a full publication with a long and varied history. For over eight years we have served as Yachats’ local paper, and it has been a pleasure. Together, we have journeyed through the history and life of our town, revealing its highlights for all to see.<br /><br />As the years have passed, I have changed along with the town and its people. To put it plainly, I am no longer the wide-eyed eight-year-old I was when I started this. As a 17-year-old high school graduate, and soon to be college student, I have been exposed to the world as it is, not as I want it to be. Because of this, I am no longer able to truthfully deliver the quality of content that has made the Gazette since its inception. One of the things that made the Gazette special was my total innocence and naivete, and I simply no longer possess those qualities. We were considering this conundrum for a while before now, but the corona assault has brought the matter to a head.<br /><br />As such, I hereby announce that the Gazette will not produce another issue and that the process of resolving its transactions and debts has begun. For advertisers, this will mean that anyone who has paid ahead will have their payments refunded, and while we would appreciate if those who are behind could settle their accounts, it is by no means necessary. Please only even consider it if you can afford to do so safely; I shall not be a contributing factor to the wave of business closures if I can at all help it. All outstanding payments for the issues produced in 2020 are hereby forgiven, and we shall be sending out invoices alerting people of our payment policy shall be sent out shortly, hopefully within the month.<br /><br />I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for supporting my journey through childhood and making me the person I am today. Much of my development and knowledge base, as well as my understanding of the world, is directly due to the Gazette, and I believe that it has given me a unique and special understanding of our world. To all, I wish good health, and a safe, grand 2020.<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-51309424704902008132020-03-01T00:01:00.000-08:002020-03-01T00:19:35.498-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 99, March 1, 2020<a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/vbajeexajamqf6j/20200301-YachatsGazette-99th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> F</b>or a printable version of Issue 99, click here</span></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview with Mari Irvin, Jeannine Janson, Mary Crook, and Yvonne Erickson</b></span></div>
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<br />
<i>The Yachats Gazette visited with the former owners of </i>Mari's Books And...<i>, Mari Irvin, Jeannine Janson, and Mary Wiltse (in absentia), along with the new owners (Yvonne Erickson and Mary Crook) of the bookstore, </i>Books and More<i>, that is opening March 1.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How did you gals come together?<br />Mari:</i> Well. <i>[big pause]</i><br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> You mean, the four of us?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yes.<br />Yvonne:</i> When Mari and Jeannine and Mary had us over, all the business ladies, to announce their retirement, I was the second person to show up and say, "I need to buy the bookstore." <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Who was the first person?<br />Mary:</i> I was the first person! Now, this event was on a Monday night. Tuesday morning I marched into the Presbyterian Church where Jeannine was working, and we met outside the building, and I said, "You know, I've been thinking about that bookstore. I am interested. But... I can't do it alone. So I just wanted to put it out to the universe that that was in my mind—I wanted to get that process going." And then the very next day, I guess, I get a call from Mari, and Mari says, "You know, I was approached by someone who's interested in the bookstore!" I said, "Oh! How great!" <i>[laughter]</i> And Mari asked permission to give my name to this person. And it was Yvonne! <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> I woke up with such absolute certainty that this was something I needed to do, that I was actually kind of flabbergasted when I found out I wasn't the first person! I was like, "No! I have to do this! I have to!" <i>[laughter]</i> I think it's really important to the community for the continuity, and it's important that Mari and Jeannine—and Mary [Wiltse]—retire knowing that all their hard work wasn't for naught.<br />
<i>Mari:</i> Mary had come out a couple of times in the summer and fall [of last year], and we talked about it being time, maybe. Mary's time was certainly over, because she left a year and a half earlier to go be with her grandson and his parents in South Dakota. My sons, and Jeannine, had been wondering, "How long do you want to do this?" And we had said, when we started this store, that we would do it one year and see how it went. And then we would do it only as long as it was fun. Well, it's still fun! But I think that if I were to do this much longer, it would begin to approximate work. So we decided that we would put it out there. And of course we didn't know if anybody would buy a used bookstore, because you don't make a lot of money here. In fact... you don't. So I had talked to our landlord before we announced it to the ladies Monday night, and I said "If we can find a buyer, would you be willing to talk to that person about renting to them for a bookstore?" And Jerry Clarke, who's the landlord, said "Absolutely. I want a bookstore here." So that cleared that. And then things just kind of moved along. <br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> If I may... Mary—sister Mary—she moved a year and a half ago. However this fits before she left, Mari and Mary alternated weeks. After Mary left, Mari has been doing it essentially on her own. I took over doing Sundays, but Mari's been doing the bookstore a year and a half on her own, with Tuesday and Wednesday off because we're closed then, and Sunday, when I would work. So she's been keeping it going. <br />
<i>Mari:</i> When I worked professionally, I learned by watching other people that it's a very good idea to leave your position before people say, "When is that person going to leave?" <i>[laughter]</i> And I think I've done that. [...] This is a dream come true, that Yvonne and Mary are doing this. It's just absolutely a dream come true. <br />
<i>Mary:</i> It's a dream come true for me, too, because I have wanted to own a bookstore probably all of my adult life. When I left my former job in Portland, the staff knew my dream: they gave me a sweatshirt that said "Book Woman" on it. <i>[laughter] </i>Well, it was only 26 years later that my dream came true! All in divine order. <br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> Well, so the day after we had the shop-keepers over, and Mari announced that she would be retiring, yes, Mary Crook walked right into the church. I saw her coming! For some reason I thought, "I think she's going to talk about the bookstore!" For some reason, we hadn't told anybody else yet. So she mentioned briefly that she'd dreamed of having a bookstore. Mary [Wiltse] was still here, so I said, "Why don't you come over tonight?" So she came over, and talked to the three of us, all about what her dream was. I mean, it's quite amazing! And—I always like to say this—then Yvonne—so within 72 hours of announcing retirement, we knew we had people who would love to do it. And if you don't think it wasn't hard to not [spill the beans about who was interested]... <br />
<i>Yvonne: </i>Because everybody was speculating, and asking questions, and it would be like... couldn't say anything. Because we had to make sure all our ducks were in a row before we made it public that it was us who were going to be the owners. And we managed to keep it SO secret that when we had our little get-together to do the passing of the key, it was kind of like high school. Everybody screamed and jumped around and hugged because they had no clue. And these are people we see every day!<br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> What we did was, we said, "Could you come over to the store after you close? We have an announcement!" This was after a couple of months or something. So we had some Prosecco here, and then as many people as could came, and ...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: You mean, as could fit? <br />Jeannine: [laughter] </i>As many shop-keepers as could make it that night! I said a few words, Mari said a few words, and then we had a count-down, which was pre-arranged. And we said, "We will reveal the names of the new owners in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." And when we said their names, we had the pleasure of watching absolute joy and excitement. It was such a pleasure to see it. Folks—as you said—jumping up and down.<br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> Yes!<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: That's cool! [to Yvonne:] Did you have a dream of being a bookstore owner? Or what do you think precipitated your feeling that it just had to be?<br />Yvonne: </i>I would say the very biggest percentage of it was [thinking that] we can't not have a bookstore. And I want to make sure that Mari, and Mary, and Jeannine can move on. That was the big thing. There was a little itty bit part of me that said, "And I do not want a gift store right next to me, so it had better stay a bookstore." <i>[laughter]</i> But that literally was just an afterthought. I thought, "No, I need to do this." (<i>[to us:]</i> I'm going to cry.) They have been so supportive and so inclusive of me when I came to the community that it was like, "I have to do this." And the fact that I read all the time doesn't hurt. You know? I can have all the books I could possibly read and not have to dust them every day. <br />
<i>Mary:</i> I'll get that pleasure. <i>[laughter]</i> <br />
<i>Mari:</i> I came over a few times to say, "You're sure? You're sure you want to do this?" [laughter]<br />
<i>Yvonne: </i>Absolutely positive. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Well, what's the plan for the future? In small increments—will you stay open? Or will you revamp? Or will there be painting? What's going to happen for the community? <br />Mary:</i> Well, these ladies, Mari and Jeannine, and Mary Wiltse when she was in town, have done a wonderful job of completing the inventory.<br />
<i>Mari:</i> First time in 14 years!<br />
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<i>TYG: Wow! <br />Mary:</i> So we know what's here. We want to keep it pretty much the way they're leaving it, because they have a little gold mine here. They have 14 years of successful business, and a nice, loyal local following. <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> I'm going to continue to manage Just Local<i> [the business next door to the bookstore]</i> and be the bookkeeper/that person...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: The responsible person? <br />TYG: Inventory artist? [laughter]<br />Yvonne:</i> Well... Yeah, there you go. That's my thing. I'm just a numbers person. I just love that. So I'm really happy to take all those kinds of responsibilities on. Though I do love people and visiting. But Mary's going to hold down the fort. And we'll work with each other for vacation times, or if something comes up we'll make sure that there's coverage in both locations. And no, we are not putting a hole in the wall. <i>[laughter]</i> Just FYI. <br />
<i>Mari:</i> That's the second question people ask. <br />
<i>Mary:</i> Incidentally, the bookstore is going to be named "Books and More," and the sub-title is "Something Old, Something New, Something Local." <br />
<i>Mari:</i> That's great.<br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> First time I've heard that! I knew "Books and More;" I didn't know the sub-line.<br />
<i>Mary: </i>"Something old, something new" came to me automatically because of my wedding services. "Something local" [is because] we're going to have local authors on display in here, and Yvonne may display something from her shop too. <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> Bigger art pieces on the wall type stuff. Just to make sure the walls are full.<br />
<i>Mari</i>: One of the joys of having a store for the three of us—and I'm sure that you can appreciate it too—is that we have local people who stop in, almost every day, just to say, "Hi, how's it going?" and they buy books, too! But we have a lot of people who are traveling from basically all over the world to come here. But we have regulars from Washington, Idaho, California. And the last year or so, every time they come up they say, "You're still here!" and we say, "Yes, we are!" But lately I've been saying, "We're not going to be here, but it's going to be a bookstore, and you're going to love it." <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> And those that know it's Mary and I pop into the shop, and ask the questions: "Are you going to have the same stuff? Are we still going to be able to come in and get our books when we come on vacation?" and we say, "Yep."<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So when is the transition happening officially? Do you know yet? <br />Mari:</i> We're going to close President's Day weekend. Our insurance ends February 29, so we thought that was a good closing date, and we can clean the place up for them. And then after the 29th of February, whatever...<br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> March 1st! <br />
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<i>TYG: Wow! [to Mari and Jeannine:] Are you guys moving?<br />Mari:</i> No, no—we're staying here. Jeannine's continuing to work at the church, and we'll stay here as long as it's good to stay here. <br />
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<i>TYG: Awesome! I wanted to ask you guys: What have you learned, having a bookstore in this community?</i><br />
<i>Mari:</i> Well first of all, I'd say it's an extremely literate community. I've learned more... In fact, I've got a notebook here, which I might pass on to you two [Yvonne and Mary]. When we opened the store, we had a notebook here and we asked people to write down authors that they liked. And they did! And now when I look at that notebook I think, "I don't think I knew any of these authors when we started." And it's not that they're that unusual, it's that I was not that well connected with current literature. And so I've learned a lot about books, and I've learned a lot about how to encourage people to buy books. Not just to buy a book, but to buy one that fits for them. The worst question I get is when somebody comes in and says, "Oh, I need a book—what do you recommend?" <i>[laughter]</i> And I go absolutely blank. But we'll wander around, and I'll get an idea of what they're looking for.<br />
Jeannine: One of the things we learned early on: We thought seriously that we would only be in business as long as it took us to sell the supply of books that we opened with. We never dreamed we would have to buy more books. <i>[laughter]</i> <br />
<i>Mari:</i> Unbelievable. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, how many books do you think you've bought?<br />Mari: </i>Oh, thousands. When we left San Francisco, everybody we knew had a closet full of books. So we had several trips of the car being filled with books. So our cost factor the first year was quite low. Some people come in quite regularly to order certain kinds of books; some of them are books we probably wouldn't keep in the store. But my logic has been as long as it's on Amazon—and I use that sort of as my cultural guide—then it's something that I can order for you. Even if I don't order it from Amazon. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I was going to ask if you were going to keep the ordering service going.<br />Mary:</i> Yes, definitely. <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> There isn't enough space to realistically keep everything that everybody would ever want. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Even Powell's doesn't do that! [laughter] <br />Yvonne:</i> Oh gosh... When I lived in Portland, that was my Saturday afternoon, treat myself like a queen thing, was to go to Powell's. I love that store. <br />
<i>Mary:</i> Special orders are very important. Shortly after Mari's Books And... opened, I had been regularly watching or listening to "Book TV" on C-SPAN2. It's 48 hours of non-fiction book talk. I would see an author who particularly impressed me, and I'd write down the author's name and the title, and by Sunday night I kind of knew what I was interested in. Well, Monday morning, I would come into Mari's Books And... and order a book from "Book TV"!<br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> I believe Mary Crook was the first person to order a book. You called, you gave the author, and the title, and the ISBN number! <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<i>Mari:</i> Our garage at the house has a dedicated room for the reserve and online books we sell. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wait, you guys sell online?<br />Mari:</i> Yes, we have a little online store that we're going to keep, through Amazon. It's a handy way to do it; it's not the most profitable way. And we still have boxes of books in the garage that we've not opened yet!<i> [to Mary and Yvonne:]</i> So I might be down here selling books to you! <i>[laughter] </i><br />
Yvonne: I went through my collections, and I decided I'd better be organized, because you can't come down here willy-nilly with a bunch of stuff. I started boxing by author, because some, I have entire collections. And when I got down to the miscellany, it was by alphabet. And I have 19 boxes of books that are gone through. And I still keep finding books, "Oh! I forgot about those!" <i>[claps hands]</i> <i>[laughter]</i>... and those and those and those! <br />
<i>Mari:</i> Just a little observation: I think you'll have to take a lot of the books off the shelf to get yours on there! <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> Well, that's just back-up stuff!<br />
<i>Mari:</i> Well, I think a change in genre would be very nice! <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> Okay... And I see—I've been looking—you have some Mary Higgins Clark. I have a huge box of them, and with her just passing, I'm wondering if there's going to be a huge interest, or a resurgence.<br />
<i>Mari:</i> Yes. There are certain authors that just sell, and Mary Higgins Clark is one of them. There are certain authors that we always have, because the book might have been written 20 years ago, but people still want it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I'm surprised Neal Stephenson isn't one of them.<br />Mari:</i> Yes! The problem with Stephenson's books is that they're so thick, and so costly, and it's usually in hardback. We tend not to buy too many hardback books, except as used books, because hardback books have begun to be quite expensive. $30-$40 is very, very common. But we special order them. <br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> I'm not certain when we started doing this, because we opened next door, in the small space. We were there first, in March 2006, and moved over here in 2010, after the video store. <br />
<i>Mari:</i> And then there was a collectible shop, and they had trouble. And then it was vacant for a while; Jerry Clarke came over and said, "You've got to move. You've got to get out of that small space." And I think I said to Jerry, "We can't afford to move, Jerry. Your rent will be too high." He said, "I have every confidence that you will do far better if you move." So we did, in March of 2010. And our sales went up 40 per cent that year—which was a good reason to move. <br />
<i>Jeannine:</i> I don't know whether it was after we moved here that we started best-sellers. Because [the store] is primarily used [books], but we do carry fiction and non-fiction best-sellers, the <i>New York Times</i> best-sellers. And I don't think we had local authors in the tiny shop. <br />
<i>Mari: </i>We didn't have many, if we did. <br />
<i>Jeannine: </i>We were approached by quite a few people. And they're all featured over there [by the front door]. <br />
<i>Mary: </i>The small space of their former location was very special to me, and I'll tell you why: I used to work there part-time, on an occasional basis. And I love working in a bookstore. Well, as you know, I'm also a wedding minister. Some young couple came in to see me in the small space, and they said they were going to have a big, formal wedding, but they really needed to get the documents done immediately, and [asked if] I could marry them. And I said, "Well, I'll be working here at ten tomorrow morning! You could come in at ten minutes before ten. But I'll need two witnesses." "We'll bring our parents." So we actually had a wedding in that tiny space, with a couple and two sets of parents. It was cramped. <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, as new owners, what are you most looking forward to?<br />Mary:</i> I am just looking forward to being in this space and talking to the happy people who come in. That's what I enjoy the most, is talking to people and talking books. <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> This sounds so strange, but it's not really changing my day-to-day a lot. But I just feel so blessed to be connected with such wonderful people, and this is the vehicle that it happens with. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Is there anything else you guys wanted to say?<br />Mari:</i> I was going to say that I think I can speak for all three of us, but certainly Jeannine can speak for herself, although Mary will have to be quiet. <i>[laughter]</i> It's been just a joy—and I mean that seriously—just a joy to have this store. It's brought vitality to me, kind of an eager sense of getting up in the morning and going down to the store. And at night I sometimes just go home and have dinner and go to bed, so it's just been an absolute, joyous pleasure to have this store. It's something I had wanted to have for probably 40 years. But I knew I couldn't afford it until I retired. <br />
<i>Jeannine: </i>As I already said, I only started working in the bookstore on Sundays when Mary moved. Prior to that I was the behind-the-scenes paper partner and compliance officer. While I did not work here regularly, in the sense only that Mari and Mary did, I still connected to the store. And had we not been connected to the store, we would not know the shop-keepers. Knowing them, and interacting with everybody over this 14 year period of time, that is why it was important to us to tell the shop-keepers first, before anybody else, that Mari would retire and the store was closing. These relationships, for me, have been wonderful. And they would not have occurred, I don't think—we wouldn't have had the same relationship with these folks, and Valeria <i>[of Toad Hall]</i> and Valerie <i>[of Antique Virgin]</i> if we had not had this business. <br />
<i>Mari:</i> And we don't see each other all that much—there might be months before I see Valerie. We see Judith<i> [of Judith's Kitchen Tools] </i>every day, and we see you two<i> [Yvonne and Mary]</i> usually every day, but it's not like we all get together and have coffee first thing in the morning. We just kind of come in, and check on each other. If somebody's late to work, we'll follow up and call. But it's brought energy to my life that I have needed and have highly valued. And when I'm done cleaning the garage, I'll probably come down and visit the store. <br />
<i>Yvonne:</i> Realistically-speaking, for me—and I don't mean to sound like I'm patting myself on the back—it's strictly altruistic. I just have to keep the community—as much for the community, as for me. And the fact that I get to share it with Mary is really exciting. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well, thank you so much for everything. </i><br />
<br />
<i>The Yachats Gazette was able to contact Mary Wiltse via e-mail, and this is what she had to add:</i><br />
<br />
When Mari and Jeannine first started thinking that this was a venture they wanted to start in late 2005, I was in Iowa City, maintaining vigil, so to speak, with a dear friend who was spending her last days in the hospital. So when Mari asked me to be a part of the bookstore, I just couldn’t even think about it. A while later, after Lavonne had passed, I called Mari and said that I would like to be a co-owner and I traveled to Oregon from my home in St. Paul MN, to help us get ready. We dragged together our personal collection of books, started putting prices on them, organizing into categories and placing them on the shelves…the books we opened the store with were primarily from our own personal libraries. I had a good friend in Minnesota ask me, “What are you going to do when you have sold all of your own books?” The three of us (Mari, Jeannine and I looked at each other, shrugged and smiled…we really had no clue!!) Well, we discovered garage sales, estate sales, library sales, St. Vincent de Paul, etc. Because I was living in a large metropolitan area…St. Paul MN…I was constantly buying, pricing and shipping books to the store…I was the mid-west partner and the primary book buyer. <br />
<br />
In 2008, I bought my Yachats house and started living part-time in Yachats. How I love the Oregon coast…that powerful, beautiful ocean. My involvement with the staffing of the store increased. In 2010, I became a full-time resident. At that point Mari and I shared the staffing of the store while Jeannine handled the financial responsibilities. Mari and I, being 8 years difference in ages, never spent much time together. And, we lived most of our lives half way 'cross the country. Gradually, we found that we could work together well, each finding our ‘niche’ in sharing responsibilities. At the same time, we truly became sisters and our affection and respect for each other deepened immensely. And, Jeannine, oh what a blessing to get to know Jeannine better and the love we have for each other is wonderful…she truly is a real sister to me.<br />
<br />
What a gift to have a shop in the center of the village. Locals coming in, sitting on a stool by the desk to visit. Meeting people from all over Oregon and around the world…so many visiting the store over and over…not just buyers or acquaintances...but becoming friends. I loved being a part of the Yachats business community…discovering how many of the successful business owners are women…many ‘older’ women…and as women shop-keepers we have a strong bond and friendships that remain strong over time and geographic space.<br />
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And now…for the store to be owned by two great friends, Mary Crook and Yvonne Erickson. Never, did I imagine something as wonderful as this would transpire. The heart of the store will be even stronger!<br />
<br />
After my hemorrhagic stroke a few years ago, my children asked if I could move back to the Midwest so that we could be closer. Why SD (where my son lives) and not MN (where my daughter lives)? I have a wonderful grandson…my only grandchild in SD. It is such a delight to be a very present part of his life and share his interests and talents. I love being close to both daughter Kari (Minneapolis) and son David (here in Brookings). <br />
<br />
When people asked 'why, in heaven’s name did you choose to move to SD', or even more bluntly saying, ‘you are moving to SD on purpose???’ I just smile. Brookings is a wonderful community with SDSU, where my son and daughter-in-law are professors. It does not have an ocean…but I have developed great friendships. And…I am playing Mah Jongg again!<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-38497682114157292952020-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:002020-02-01T00:09:40.771-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 98, February 1 2020<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/1ca7pp3z7v8i4re/20200301-YachatsGazette-98th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 98</a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Frankie Petrick</span></b></div>
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<i>The Yachats Gazette finally got a chance to hop over to the new fire station on Highway 101, and received a wonderful guided tour from Frankie, Yachats's Fire Chief. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjma2UhhEBNTk3nEKIc0VFnN1s6a478kayD96vGV6oU3X119ub3KsF0p9qY5whMWzb0kb_Q41QNpB85ZX-Asg51PT4gCCxGijZCojMV6INyxIlBUoYtZdRfgDzYCIsrq1WdgFIh4OeuBd4/s1600/2020-FireStation5-FB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="960" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjma2UhhEBNTk3nEKIc0VFnN1s6a478kayD96vGV6oU3X119ub3KsF0p9qY5whMWzb0kb_Q41QNpB85ZX-Asg51PT4gCCxGijZCojMV6INyxIlBUoYtZdRfgDzYCIsrq1WdgFIh4OeuBd4/s640/2020-FireStation5-FB.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new Yachats Rural Fire Protection Department's fire station</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>TYG: So, how did you guys design this place—how did you guys get the idea to build a place like this?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, Shelby and I drove around to fire stations that had been built in rural parts of the state in the last ten years. Fire stations in other parts of the United States are kind of brick, square buildings designed to fit on a city lot. We had previously built the station up-river<i> [the East station, as it's known]</i>. That's a small station, but we had some ideas. So we went around looking at what other districts had done in the last ten years: things that we liked, things we didn't like, things that they had put in that they didn't like; from some pretty small departments to a big one in Tualatin that was a huge structure designed for a lot of community use as well. So in our travels, then, we found some ideas we liked. One was two stoves in the kitchen, with a space [between them]—we went to one [place] that had two side-by-side, which made cooking hard, particularly if you were trying to do it for a large amount of people. We just started making notes about the kind of things we would like to use our station for. Some places had really large meeting rooms, which is also a training room like this. But because we're on a "conditional use" in a residential area, we can't have huge groups that are coming and renting out the station. We can have fire training-type things—events that would be relevant to a fire station. Because at the old station we had no kitchen—we had a sink, and a refrigerator, no kitchen—we wanted our kitchen to be user-friendly. We were also thinking in terms of being able to have a little bit of storage, so we have a pantry area where we can have a whole section of canned goods for something in a three-year period. The provisions we have for long-term are 25-30 years of storage so we don't have to try and rotate those through. And at the old station, there was no space where the on-duty crew could sit. So now we've got a dining-room table for them in the crew room, which means that not everybody has to be doing the same thing.<br />
<br />
We had no reception area at the old station, and actually, the door wasn't un-lockable, so we always had the bay door open. We wanted to have an area that could break the weather, but people could sit on the "porch" if you will.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: I saw that bench out there—that's a nice idea.</i><br />
<i>Frankie: </i>Yes—so there will be more plants in there and probably another couple of chairs. That area closes automatically. At the old place, they weren't ever sure whether they should come into the office. So we wanted to have that reception area. And then the upper level, the mezzanine, which was originally designed for work-out equipment, will be another office. At the old place, the desks faced each other, and we wanted to keep that open environment so that people would feel free to come in. The architect was a little reluctant about our openness, but I have just always had the feeling that we go into people's homes when they need help, [so] why should we have barricades when they come here? So we wanted to keep that openness, but we wanted a section for the crew that would be their space. So on the crew side [which we did not visit], there are four sleeping rooms, and each room has accommodations for three people. So if you're not here, you can leave stuff in your locker until your next shift. There are also two showers on that side. This means that people can come and go through the building; if the crew has a late night, they can have down time without somebody parading through. At the old station, they had to sleep in the meeting room, so if you had to go to the shop, there you went traipsing through. So the square footage is bigger, but when you consider that we couldn't even put all our apparatus in the downtown station, you had to figure that part of the square footage outside the building, and what Clark's [now C&K Market] allowed us to use. That stuff should have been under a roof.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So one thing I don't know, is how many crew you have.</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> So there are three people on a shift that are fire-fighter paramedics, and depending on the day, Shelby, I, and Yvette. Yvette's part-time, and she does office work. With the idea being that one of the crew members would be stationed up at the East station. So there would be two here, one up-river; depending on the nature of the call, that person might need to come down. Which means that they could respond a vehicle out of there directly to a fire, and the truck from here—and of course we have automatic mutual aid agreements with Central Coast and Seal Rock to come our way.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Central Coast being Waldport?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Waldport. It's in Waldport, but they're not a city department.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So, doesn't that person out east get lonely?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, the idea being, some people like being out there more than others, but there's some apparatus there, there's also an office—they've got wi-fi, and they can work. And in the summertime, there's a little bit of outside stuff to do. One of the things I wanted to do out there was clear back into the trees a little bit, put in a couple of picnic tables, and if the valley wanted to have a potluck, then it could happen there. The inside's not very large—the bed's in the kitchen—but for somebody doing a potluck, that wouldn't be a big thing: they bring everything with them, and take their dirty dishes home. And, with the idea that it wouldn't be the same person. So, the crews work two days in a row, so that one of those days, somebody would be up-river. With three people, that means you're going to do that a couple of times a month. You have the time to catch up on specific work for up there, like on the trucks, making sure that compartments are dry, clean—some of that mundane work that needs to be done. Not much truck washing has occurred up there, because our water at that station comes from the generosity of the neighbors, and so it's primarily their water, and we have overflow. Now, we have big tanks. Washing the fire truck and the ambulance is a safety thing—when washing, you discover if there's anything amiss. In the cities, they do a lot of polishing because they just do that. But it's not particularly exciting out there. My original plan was to have a couple of garden spots on the grounds around [the East station]. Either somebody could take that on as their project, or somebody up-river could use the space. It's hard, in a remote spot like that, to communicate with everybody up and down the river. My goal is that somebody up there would drive around, stop in, [ask] "How's Mrs. Jones doing today?" While they're doing that, they can check whether the roadway is wide enough for the truck, because a lot of people have smaller cars now, and getting the ambulance and the fire-truck in, or knowing places where you can't go with the big red truck—you have to take the smaller truck—[will] make them feel more a part of the community.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Yes, some of the bridges across the Yachats River wouldn't accommodate the big truck, would they?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, the one at my house, for example, is stout—it's [made of] railroad flat cars. However, railroad flat cars are narrow, and so, when the ambulance crosses the bridge at my house the wheels rub. So having a smaller piece of apparatus that can come across [will help bridge the gap] if a truck can come [to the beginning of the bridge] and you can lay a line over to a smaller piece of equipment to shoot water. Fortunately, homes [are] being better constructed nowadays, and protected I guess. When I was growing up, everybody had a coal oil stove or a wood stove. Nobody had electric heat. Well, both of those lead to flues that need cleaning, and there was no drywall, so nothing to stop fire spread. Well, we've improved on that by a bunch. Now, however, your house fire is way more toxic than it was in the 40's and 50's, because [then] wood was burning. Or your horse-hair couch. Nothing toxic about it. <i>[laughter]</i> Unpleasant, but not toxic. Now, of course, all of the things in homes are too much man-made materials. That's really changed the evolution of fire service, to not have as many fire calls, which means you have less people volunteering. In my growing up in Waldport, the fire whistle probably went off once every ten days. When I was younger, more frequently—which meant that all of the businesses locked the door and went to the fire. And on Saturday, they all showed up at whoever's house that had the fire to patch it up until it could be repaired. It made it way easier for somebody to say, "So, I think I want to be part of the fire department," because there was a visible need. We still have the need, but the problem is that it's not near as glorious-looking, and, the requirements for firefighter safety and education is huge now as opposed to what it was. And of course over the years they've discovered that there are things in homes that burn that cause cancer, and so protective gear has gotten more expensive. My dad, I think he probably had the same pair of turn-outs the entire time that I grew up. He retired in 1962, and we moved from Newport to Waldport in 1949. So, that's a long time—I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have passed any safety standards [today]. <i>[laughter]</i> But that's the way it was! Some places didn't even have any turn-outs to offer, nor did they have any SCBAs for breathing air going into a fire. Years ago, I was looking for stuff in the old minutes, and at one of the meetings the volunteers came to request that the Board buy ONE SCBA so that somebody could go in with canned air into a fire.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: What does SCBA stand for? </i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Self-contained breathing apparatus. Now, without somebody having one on, and somebody behind them, you can't send somebody in. But for years...<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: ...you kind of held your breath and went in?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, and I remember a fire south of town at one of the pull-offs quite a few years ago, it was a motor home fully involved, and three of the crew for almost a month had strained voices and bad coughs because of not using SCBAs. But it was an outside environment—things burning outside were deemed to be carried away by the breeze. Of course now we have BAs for everybody, and spares, and they're all tested regularly to make sure they're serviceable and meet all of the safety requirements. It's nice that it's safer, but it certainly makes it harder to get people interested in volunteering, where before it was all the working people, and they all lived in town, they lived close. When you got off at three thirty, and the fire siren blew, you knew you were going to the fire and then you'd just go home. Now, quite a few of our folks live out of county—our paid staff live out of county. This means that if you call them, they'd report for duty but it might be three hours before they got here. This is why they work two days in a row with four days off. Of course, if there's something happening when it's time for them to leave the next morning, they stay—but it doesn't give you the availability to call them in and have them show up in half an hour.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Maybe you need a dalmatian to help bring people in! </i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, it's interesting—one of our new employees does actually have a dalmatian!<i> [laughter]</i> I guess he has a couple of them, but one of them does really good PR. So he's talking about whether to bring him in on the days that he works. <i>[laughter]</i> And he's been raised in a firehouse, so he knows how to kennel, and knows not to wander off down the road. [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, how many volunteers would you rather have?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, it would be nice to have another half a dozen. Simply because what they're doing is supplementing. So for a fire, you want as many people as you can. We do have the automatic mutual aid agreement with Central Coast and Seal Rock, so we know people are coming, but it's almost impossible to have too many people at a fire. And like with an automobile accident, where the ambulance comes and deals with the patients, you still need firefighters to be able to manage the scene because there can also be a fire. ODOT will send soembody down, but ODOT never sends two people down, so it's always a safety concern of making sure that scene is safe. And, depending on the nature of the injuries, your three crew might need to leave with the ambulance. So having volunteers is really nice. But it's difficult if they're working a ways away, they come home, there's a family that wants to see them... When we were a logging community, everybody got off work at the same time. So there was always that "My house might be the next one that has a fire; I'm going to go." And of course now, with there being smoke detectors and a lot more safety in the home, it's not as common to see a fire. So if there's an automatic alarm—and I'm going to use the Overleaf [as an example], because they're one of those that have an alarm in-house—that would generate an "all call." So Seal Rock and Central Coast are going to be coming until we tell them to stop. But, they're subject to—when the wind blows and the power snaps—it sets off that alarm when there's probably nothing happening. However, every time you have to go as if there were something happening, because that might be the time that it is. We're fortunate that we only have a couple of places that have alarms, but they're places like the Overleaf and the Adobe, that have a lot of people and could really be impacted. So yes, another half a dozen of people who lived in our district that wanted to respond for fire and first response medical—that would be nice. That would be a nice thing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, just a question I had that I was thinking about after you said how much rarer fires in the homes are, when did having a fire extinguisher in a home become common? If it even is.</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, I would say that probably ninety per cent of the homes don't have a fire extinguisher. All of the vacation rentals are required to, under the county's ordinance and the city's requirements for licencing. And we certainly encourage people to have one at the edge of the kitchen—not over by the stove, because if the stove's on fire obviously you need to be able to get to it. But it's fairly uncommon for people to have fire extinguishers in their home. It's a very good idea. Fire extinguishers have been in garages for a while, because of Dad working in the shop kind of thing. The fire extinguishers we use are all refillable, which means they have to be hydro-tested. The ones that you can buy at Walmart or Ace Hardware or something that are one-time use and you throw it away are less cost. But they're just designed for one sitting. And having them—you know, you need to shake them every so often because the material will cake in them—<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's a good thing to know!</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Yes, you should know that! —and when the guy comes around to test ours, he has a rubber mallet to tap on them with, and it just loosens up that material. Every so often there will be a push where people will call about "What kind of fire extinguisher should I get?" And it's usually because they've seen something in the news, or something has brought it to their attention—it's not on the top of their Christmas list to get a fire extinguisher. And of course for many years, people had the idea that sprinkler systems in homes destroyed all of your stuff. Because in the movies, if one head opens, they all do; in real life, that's not the way it works. So there was quite a push—probably ten years ago, now—from some people in Medford. Medford had a terrible fire, and a whole bunch of residential areas were being built with no sprinkler system. So there was quite a push to get it to be code in a residence. Well, if you retrofit, it's expensive. But, if you do it when the home is being constructed, then the cost per residence is minimal. But people will resist it, because, like one guy said, "I don't want my wool carpet and my paintings to get wet!" I said, "Well, wool dries, paintings can be restored, but when they burn up, they're gone." Even though there's quite a coalition out there to try and encourage counties to require residential sprinklers, there's a lot of resistance from people who build sub-divisions. Because they come in, and if they're going to build a hundred homes, and if they can save one thousand dollars on every home, that's profit to them. And those are really the places [sprinklers] need to be, because they're so close together. I go into homes all the time, and there are no sprinklers, and not too many fire extinguishers. And then of course some people get one, and don't ever read the instructions, so when they use it, instead of squirting the fire extinguisher at the base of the fire, they shoot at the flame. And it's a one-time-and-now-you're-done... and you still have a fire burning. When Betty Johnston and I were doing CERT classes, we had a lot of people who said, "You know, I don't think I can help anybody!" But we said, "Well, if you can help yourself..." So if you learn how a fire extinguisher works, then that's one person we don't have to worry about. And I was surprised that we had quite a few people sign up for our classes, but none of them had ever discharged [a fire extinguisher]. So let's say somebody gets one and it expires—leave it here, and we can use it for training and then dispose of it. And one lady said, "You know, all this time I've had a fire extinguisher, but I never would have had a clue how to operate it." Because it's one thing if you want to practice—but now you don't have anything in your extinguisher.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: And of course in an emergency, you don't have time to sit there and read the fine print. </i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Fires in kitchens tend to inspire a lot of anxiety because they're usually related to the oven or something on the stove, and where you might not be able to reach through and turn the burners off, which is what you want to do first—kill the source. And people don't necessarily go look at their panel and find the one for the kitchen. Some places, particularly older homes, have them behind pictures; they're not clearly marked—especially with vacation rentals, we always encourage people: don't hide the panel, don't paint it the same color as the wall, because it needs to stand out. But a lot of people don't know what's the quickest way to turn off the power. At the top of the box is the main, but there's no required class for these things in your home—there's no book that comes with your panel. If you get a brand new home, there will be something about your toaster, and something about your stove, but nothing about the electrical panel.<i> [laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, out of interest because I'm not sure ours has a main, unless it's on the top left—there's no especially marked main, that's for sure—would it work to just flip them all off?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Yes. What happens when the power comes into your house from the electrical company, there will be one at the top that says "The Main." Flipping that breaker will kill all of the power to your house. As opposed to, say, you were going to replace the outlet in your living room, then your breakers should be marked to say "Living room Lights," "Kitchen Lights," "Garage," but the main at the top will kill the power from where it comes to your house.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, how old do you have to be to be a volunteer?</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Well, some places have a cadet program for Junior High through High School. But anybody who is 18 can be involved in learning to drive equipment. We've always done it based on the person. Some people might never make it past driving a pick-up, as opposed to the paid staff that's got to be fluent in driving every piece of apparatus. We used to have a really good cadet program, but almost all of them had a family member volunteering, and so the kids were raised up [in that environment.] We stopped seeing young people living in Yachats, which was about the time when they shut the school down [1983]. There was a dynamic change in the county for work; we had a time when if we saw anybody young on the street, that meant there was a tourist in town. And one fellow—he was so funny—we were raising money for the Yachats Youth Council—for the first skate park, way back when Blythe's mom was still here—well, he said, "Why do we want to encourage to have children in town?" <i>[laughs] </i>And I said, "Well, gosh, I don't know, maybe I'll only send my people who are over 70 to you when you need help!" And he said "Oh!" He hadn't thought about that the way you end up having generations come behind you is that you're not a 100% retirement community, like they have in some of the places in Arizona, where you have to be 60 to be there! Now, they bring three buses down [from Waldport schools]. They go up the Yachats River, but the people who live on the North Fork—that girl gets off and walks home! She only lives about a half a mile up, but...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's a lot for a six year old!</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Yes! And in the winter, it's almost dark... However, the kids who are in Kindergarten of course, if there's not somebody to get them, of course, they won't let them off the bus. Which is a good thing. But it used to be, nobody had just one person get off a stop! The Lions' Club used to build shelters, so all of the main bus stops from Yachats to Waldport, you could put six people in the bus shelter. If you were the littlest guy, you were lucky to sit on a high schooler's lap! So we have a high amount of retired people, and some of them volunteer for a lot of activities—I think our community is really good about that—but of course some of them think they're a bit old to get into the fire service business. They've come with some volunteer things they might do as related to filing and that kind of help, but yeah, somebody moving here at 65 is not apt to sign up to go to fire academy.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Is there anything else you wanted to say in the Gazette?</i><br />
<i>Frankie: </i>Well, just pass on our appreciation for passing the bond, and taking on the responsibility of the cost. For some people, that will stay on with the property long after they're gone, but certainly the building should last us for way more than the thirty years' life of the bond. We did way more than that with the old building we had, which was built in 1949. The contractor did an outstanding job for us on this building, and it was nice to have Lincoln County people working on our building. It gave attention to detail, because they know what the weather is, and were happy to share with us any changes they thought might occur, as well as cost savings. We really appreciate the community stepping up. We're helping ourselves, but it was still a financial obligation people had to take into account. Oh, and the SPIRE Grant [State Preparedness and Incident Response Equipment]! At the old building, we had a manual generator. We pushed it out the door and plugged it in, and we had lights throughout the building. No heat! So the State Emergency Preparedness offered the opportunity for a grant for a generator to power up a whole building. We knew that that was coming, so we had the building pre-wired to be able to take it. [...] We were fortunate enough to be one of the agencies that got the grant, and it wasn't a matching grant, it was an outright grant. The State of Oregon retains ownership of it, and it has to be portable so that if there's some major thing in Lincoln County, they might come and borrow that from us. We have the obligation to maintain it to their specifications, and at some point when they decide it's reached its useful life, we'll be the first people who can purchase it for a nominal fee. But that's pretty exciting! It's not an automatic system; somebody will have to activate it if there's a power outage, but that's okay—we're not a hospital. [...] It holds about 90 gallons, which is quite a bit of diesel.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yes, that should be enough for a couple of days. </i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Yes. And looking at a period of time where we might have an issue, for example, a tsunami, when you're out of diesel you're going to be out. So the crucial time is going to be those first few days while people get used to what the plan is to move forward. There will be a lot of debris around, a lot of wood, which means we'll be able to make shelters, but the highway won't open, and the way [a tsunami] would affect the entire coast, people won't be rushing here [to refill the generator]. And what will happen is that, once again, the beach will be our highway until the highway gets rebuilt.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well, thank you so much!</i><br />
<i>Frankie:</i> Yes, yes! Thank you for coming!<br />
<div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-44255851452486411672020-01-03T01:22:00.000-08:002020-01-03T12:19:52.012-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 97, January 3 2020<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/3cb9awren8d7dbr/20200103-YachatsGazette-97th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 97</a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview with Emily Crabtree of ??? </b></span></div>
<br />
<i>Help Emily Crabtree choose a name for her new record store! You can e-mail Emily with your pick at <a href="mailto:ecrabtree82@gmail.com">ecrabtree82@gmail.com</a></i><i>. She brought a list of names with her to the interview, which are as follows: Perpetua Records, Spindrift Music, Vortex Vinyl, Siren Songs Music, Wild Coast Records, Sunset Music, Tsunami Sounds, or Gem & Wave Records. Or feel free to suggest your own! </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Let's get this started!</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Alright! I'm pulling up my list. I didn't know if you'd done this before with your paper, but I was hoping you'd be up for it, to have a little contest of sorts, and to give my e-mail to people and have a list of names. I'm really struggling! I don't have a name yet, but I brought my list, and it's long. My creative writing classes are paying off, but unfortunately making it much harder to narrow down! <i>[laughs]</i> My hope is that you would be up for asking your readers to e-mail me what they think is a good name.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Absolutely! </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> So I was here <i>[at the Drift Inn] </i>maybe two months ago, brainstorming and writing down ideas, and this very lovely couple beside me were like, "What are you doing, writing in a book? Who does that anymore?" And I was like, "Well, I do. And I'm doing it because I'm opening a record store!" They gasped, and said, "Oh, did you hear? Vinyl sales are actually surpassing sales of CD's, and they've never really gone away." As someone who's been very much in the music industry on the low end, underground scene, records are always there, and tapes! In one of my old bands, if we hadn't made tapes we would have gone broke on tour. But instead, we were able to sell them, and people could hold them in their hand. There's a really sweet thing about that that makes people have more intention with their music. That's why I love the idea. So each name could be either Records, Vinyl, or Music. So I'm trying to decide which one. People love alliteration. But their suggestion was that if I use Vinyl, people these days don't know how to spell. [laughs] And I was like, "So sad!" but also, "That is true..." So, there's that.<br />
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<i>TYG: My two favorites are Perpetua Records and Spindrift Music! </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Because I want the name to be simply something that people just know as Yachats. Because I want to start the business to make our community be more vibrant. That's why I want folks to be able to weigh in if they feel like it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: So why do you want to open a record store?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Because I love music. And because I thought about if I'm just sitting in a shop, what would I want to have around me that would never be boring, that would ceaselessly be entertaining? And it's music, to me. And when you have a space that has music, you can do so much more to have live music. Or even just simple things: I'm going to have a speaker that will play out to the street—because I want people to have people be like [snaps fingers], "Oh, what is that?" and to feel a groove and feel good about their day. To me, I think that music is this beautiful kind of art that involves every other kind of art. There's the physical record that you hold in your hand, the person that made the art on the sleeve; the people that wrote that poetry; the musicians that recorded it—I just think that it's this beautiful epicenter that's all braided together to create something that we all can enjoy. And I've been on people's records, and recorded music, and been in my own bands—and that was so satisfying, a distinct feeling that I didn't get anywhere else in my life. My hope is that I can kind of cultivate that for Yachats.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Why vinyl?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Good question! <i>[laughs]</i> I guess my earliest memories were my father's vinyl collection. He had a big papa-san chair and a huge 70's headphone set, and I think I was around twelve, when I really just needed some space to myself, to not have to listen to all the noise in the world, and to really be able to just center and focus and sort of trip out. And it was sitting there for hours and having that space given to me was just ... Even the tactile [memory], the way it feels to just pull it out: it's really a good feeling! And I love records because they don't become trash, like a CD does. Even the ones that become scratched—I'm refurbishing the space, and I'm going to use those. You can make cute stuff out of them, shoot a BB gun at them... [laughs] And there's this warmth to it—it takes a little more intentionality, which I really like. You can't just... I can be somewhat ADD, so a record really makes me focus. I can get up and move around if I want, but... just let it ride. Just let it ride, you know? I like that. It just feels like something I hope other people can get back into, as well... Generationally, the music industry sort of tried to tamp down the fact that people were even still collecting records. I love people being nerdy about the thing they love. Folks have always been like that about records.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Nowadays, people have pretty much given that up, in terms of the "trying to suppress it." I mean, we bought a new record player! It's actually quite a cool piece—it's got a 4-way function: radio, tape, CD, and records. </i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>They're great! My hope is that it will help generationally bond people a little again. When I tell people I'm doing this, every age person seems to have an emotional connection to that idea. A lot of people are like, "Oh, I wish I'd never given away my record collection—it makes me think of this time in my life..." and I'm like, "Well then, come in, and let's do that again for you!" So I'll always have refurbished, vintage record players for sale. And I want people to be like, "Oh, I haven't listened to Fleetwood Mac's Tusk in forever!" and I can say, "Well, you should, because there are some hilarious jammers on there." Like where they are gets so weird—I think on that album they hired an entire marching band, and rented out a football stadium? I was like "Oh my god, you guys have too much money." I'm glad they did it, but the songs are ridiculous. I want people to have that time, I think. And especially in a world where everything is so digital, here's a moment where you don't have to be. So, we'll see! I'm definitely not getting into it to make my millions! <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So, are you thinking mostly new, or used, or...?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> So right now, I have a good friend that runs a record store in Portland—shout out to Jared! I put a call out on Facebook (of all places), and he got back to me. He owns Clinton Street Record and Stereo and has always done really well. He's a DJ, and sells refurbished audio equipment. He said he looked through all of his records for doubles, and he said, "I've got a great deal for you, I want to help your company, we've been friends for a long time and I really believe in your vision." So I bought my first big bulk amount. So up there in the space right now I have over 250 records. I have 100 45's, and 200 tapes. I like to think I have good taste in music, so I'm going through my own record collection, and I'm going to release some things that I know I couldn't live without at one point, but it's okay—I don't need to have two Nancy Sinatra records that have the same songs in different orders. I can pick the one I want, or maybe I'll sell that one, because there's a Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra record that has duets. It's one of my favorite records ever, and I'm like, I could never get rid of it. But the idea of selling it to someone who will either find it fresh and new, or someone who already loved that music and is getting to know it again, is a way to feel really good about cathartically getting rid of things I love.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It's like a way to pass it on.</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Right! Tom, my husband, asked "<i>[in a dramatically tearful tone] </i>Are you going to sell all our beautiful records? " "Yes, baby, I am." Not all of them, but maybe. It's like, maybe it was my favorite sweater for five years, but I haven't worn it in two. You can pass it on, you know. <i>[laughs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>(This portion of the interview is the continuing part from December 2019's issue.)</i><br />
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<i>Emily: </i>So I'm always looking for new inventory. Which is fun! I love going to estate sales and thrift stores, or just seeing what collections people have. It's like treasure hunting!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So where is this going to be, and when is it going to open?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Good question. It is above the guitar shop, which is exciting because Kathy and Frank are two incredible people who are new to our community—I love that I can buy my guitar strings somewhere in town! I approached them, and I was like, "You know, I would love to help you keep your shop open, and have it be fruitful, and get people in here. I have a good idea! They were just so kind and receptive to it. This is something I've been wanting to do for so long! When you see your cards laid out and you know what they are, and when you see them turn over and that things are possible, it's very exciting. So above there, inside the main shop, is a beautiful, kind of loft space with honey-colored wood. My friend Dusty is an incredible carpenter, and he just finished a gorgeous, nice, long, wide window seat, so that will be the reading nook. I'm going to sell records—it's a records, music shop—but I'm also going to sell book. I have an incredible, famous literature collection that I've already read twice! I can pass those on. And I think the beautiful thing about music is it's art, and then other media sit beside it really well. Then there's something for everyone. In a time like this, you kind of have to try to find a lot of niches and fill them all.<i> [laughs]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: I was just thinking: Earlier, you were saying that you were hopefully going to have music playing the whole time, even out to the street... You may wish to check out some videos of a mall in London called Pop Brixton. It's a very different looking space, but I think the atmosphere is already pretty similar. </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: It's this giant warren made mostly out of shipping containers. Dozens of different places to eat and to shop.</i><br />
<i>TYG: And each one of them is a full shop in a 10x20' container.</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>I see what you mean, because that whole little corner is becoming its own little beautiful entity, with Dark Water—again, incredible people...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And it has been that, previously! </i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Yes! I'm excited to do that.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And this is a particularly interesting one, because I haven't seen it before, in that it has a residence as well! So I hope all the best for that group, because that's amazing! I'm going into civil planning, and it's not something I'd considered before, but actually, thinking about it from an efficiency perspective, especially in today's somewhat minimalist society, it's an incredibly lucrative and important invention that I think we're getting to witness the very start of.</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes! It's really great that we all get to share space.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I would not be surprised if in 30, 40, 50 years, this will be what cities are built like, new areas of cities—instead of having tall apartment buildings, are low-rise, out a ways, creating new spaces, a low-rise commercial, industrial, and residential mix.</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes. I definitely like the mixture of all of us, because then we can bring each other business. To me, the whole thing about music is that it's something you can enjoy very personally, or it's something you can enjoy communally. I hope that I can help bring people through their shops. And just to have that beautiful patio, which I like to create a million ideas and see what sticks. My hope is, eventually, on Sundays with the Farmer's Market, to always have live music out there. Just to give people a space to sit and enjoy their pastry or whatever it is that they got from the Farmer's Market, to bring a little bit more of a communal, cultural experience. I think we all really deserve to have fun together.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: When are you planning to be open?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Well, that's a good question. I'm hoping this month. I'm someone who typically [finds it] hard to focus on a project if I don't see the perfect timeline, and realizing that you also have to just let things happen as they do, and to be proud of your project and stick with it no matter how it unfolds. [...] I have a friend who's building really beautiful record cases with that nice honey-wood vibe. I know where everything goes, I just have to get there. This winter I'm not at Ona [Restaurant.] I'll be back in the Spring, because I love it there, but to be able to have the opportunity to have space and time to create something of me, but for everyone, is my favorite kind of project. It's exciting to have that time. The winter is a vaguely slow time, but here at the coast I feel like it's a gestational period, to really set intentions with what we want to do. [...] Then I just get to sit and listen to music all day! <i>[laughter] </i>I'm really excited because Midtown Guitars have beautiful guitars in there, and to be around such beautiful objects, it can really create so much energy. It will be really fun. And I've worked in a lot of people's shops—when you like what you're around, you're able to help sell it and pass it on to the people that need it. I've been working with a lot of different artists from up and down the coast—I have a friend from Los Angeles who's an incredible artist, some friends in Portland, so there will be cool rock and roll art prints that are handmade and hand-printed. I have a friend who has a new, vintage rock and roll t-shirt company. So the revenue for me will be from the records that I sell, but everything else is probably going to be consignment for local artists. I want people to be able to have a space to be seen!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Are you planning to buy as well as sell records? </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes! Perhaps not right away, because there won't be enough revenue yet, but yes, eventually. And music stuff too! It's always great to do buy-sell-trade. Actually, in Portland, there's "Trade Up Music," two locations—it's my favorite place. They let you go in and play the guitars, and like when I was in my early 20's, I couldn't afford to buy that pedal I wanted, they would do lay-away. That's a really sweet place. And I like the idea of having someone need to sell this pedal because they need to make ends meet, or they want a new one... Maybe we can do that. I'll definitely always want to sell fun stuff, like even if I find a beautiful vintage camera. I'll put it in my shop, because to me, they all fit together.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Right! It's your shop, you can do what you want! </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> My own perfume line, my own sunglasses line... [lots of laughter] One of the things I hope to do with my inventory is to have a little card with each one, typed out, about the artist and why they're important in music history. Because a lot of people get a little overwhelmed at a record store, because they don't know. "What is this record? Why should I buy Lene Lovich?" And I'm like, "Oh! She's incredible!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: "Lucky Number!" </i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>"My lucky number's one..." She's so good!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: That was one of the first videos I ever saw! </i><br />
<i>Emily: [sings some more] </i>She's like a palatable Nina Hagen. [...] But my hope is that I have these little information [cards] in each record, then people can get a little idea. Like the Kingsmen Trio: "Local restauranteur Michelle's father helped produce this record in a club in Portland." You know, really fun facts that might make people [go from] "Well, I don't know!" to "Woah, that's sounds cool!" There will be a listening station in the shop as well, in a nice, cozy chair, and nice, big headphones, because that feeling I talked about, the nostalgia, the coziness of listening to records: I want to recreate that for people. It'll be fun.<br />
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<i>TYG: Alright, well thank you so very much! </i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Yes, it was really fun, I really appreciate it!<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-70517787486225376762019-12-01T22:34:00.000-08:002019-12-02T00:03:24.458-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 96, December 1 2019<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/sq9qhlh89bhm343/20191201-YachatsGazette-96th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">For a printable version of Issue 96, click here.</a></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Breadworks</span></b></div>
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<i>The Yachats Gazette spoke with Rick Cave and Annette Wojciechowski in their store, located directly behind Midtown Guitar Co. on 4th Street in Yachats.</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">Annette Wojciechowski and Rick Cave of Breadworks</i></td></tr>
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<i>TYG: So how did you guys come to Yachats?</i></div>
<i>Rick:</i> Well, I came to Yachats from outside of Park City, UT. I had sold my house, and had the opportunity to live on the Oregon Coast, something I'd wanted to do my whole life—I'm a born Oregonian. So I headed to the coast; I'd been to Florence many times, and I'm from Southern Oregon, so I'd seen all of the southern Oregon Coast. I'd probably been here when I was a kid, but didn't remember it. So I headed north from Florence, and found here! Spent a couple of days here, went to Waldport, left there, went to Newport, came back here, and the evening I came back here I was led to a property management place and ended up with a house three days later—on 3rd Street, a block away from the ocean. It was like I was told to be here—that's how I got here! <i>[laughter] </i>And I've been here seven years now.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Seems to happen to people a lot around here. </i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> I found Yachats 19 years ago, because we had friends whose parents had lived here, and who moved here. They told my husband and I, "You have to come to Yachats! You have to come to Yachats!" So we came to Yachats and we bought a property up-river 19 years ago. However, I never got a chance to live here until three years ago, when I came here to take care of the property that is now my former husband's property. So I finally got to live here after so many years! So I'm pretty happy to be here! There was always the will to get here, but it's not always so easy.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: There seem to be a lot of people who come here with weird fortuities... that's not a word! [laughter] So, how did you guys get the idea to open a bakery?</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> Well, when I was in Park City I had the opportunity to learn to be a baker. I'd been a professional stage manager for many years, and quit doing that and became a property manager. I went to work for a company that owned a hotel and a restaurant, and I got to work in the restaurant, and got offered learning to bake! And I went, "Uh, what am I, stupid? Yes!" <i>[laughter]</i> So years later, after a couple or three different companies, the last one being an artisan bakery that made twenty different kinds of bread, I moved here. And in the move here, it was, you know, "What am I going to do?" And it just wasn't kind of right, so I fixed broken houses for many years, and pretty much forgot about baking. And a couple of years ago I decided to make a Christmas dinner for my family in Eugene, and just went around and collected every kind of seafood I could find. Because I live on the coast! I start preparing this huge dinner, and ... dinner has to have bread, so I baked a bunch of breads and stuff! Couple of months later I had purchased the purple mixer under here, in Ashland—my recipes are for ten loaves or more. And so all of a sudden I'm baking in my house! And selling out of my car! I was baking pretty much every Friday, and selling bread out of my car—and it paid the rent! And I was still fixing broken houses—it was just kind of a side thing, and my back bedroom was a small, tiny little bakery. Eventually my landlady told me that you can't have a commercial thing going in a house, and I had to quit baking. That's what actually gave me the impetus to find a space. So I researched gluten-free bread for about a year, while aggressively looking for a space. Annette was a good friend of mine, and she started working with me...<br />
<i>Annette:</i> ... fixing broken houses! <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>And we have had a really good working relationship! And one day I was walking down the street and met Frank Male, the owner of these buildings, and kind of popped off, "Can I make one of those little shacks a bakery?" And he said, "No, they're going to be houses for people." And so I thought, "Well, that was a try!" And a couple of weeks later, I get a message saying, "Hey, why don't you look at this space, which used to be a kitchen?" So I did! Because I knew that Annette would come on board and help, I ended up making a deal with Frank and leasing the space, and literally re-doing the whole space. The ceiling was falling off, the lighting was nothing—it was a scary space. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: The whole building—when Frank came in, he made a lot of renovations! </i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Yes! So with help from a lot of friends, and Annette, and a loan from my brother who believed in my vision and in me, we were able to put this together, and look toward the future!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Certainly an awesome space!</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> We like it! It's manageable.<br />
<i>Rick: </i>It was fun to be able to take a space, and go, "We're making it a bakery," and basically design it to where it works for us.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> Well, we designed it with all of our needs in mind.<br />
<i>Rick: </i>And the constraints of the building—where the plumbing is, that kind of thing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Where's... Oh, there's the sink—I'm blind! </i><br />
<i>Annette: </i>We have a big wash sink way back there. That's the dish-washing sink.<br />
<i>Rick: </i>And then that's a hand-washing sink [by the sales window], and this is the food preparation sink [by the back door.]<br />
<i>Annette:</i> Yes—to be certified, there have to actually be three, separate areas for all of this to happen. Let alone actually making your bread!<br />
<i>TYG:</i> That makes sense!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That's a beautiful [wood] counter! But that's your only stove?</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> That is our oven. But it's a beast! <i>[laughs]</i> Yes! It's huge in there!<br />
<i>Rick:</i> I can bake 15 loaves of bread at a time!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Wow! Can we look?</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Oh yes! <i>[we open it up]</i> And it [takes] full sheet pans. And hopefully one day we'll have to get another one. We'll put it underneath it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Is this one unit? You'd have to do some redesigning to get another one in there.</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Well, they actually make some that are a double unit. When we get that big I'll just replace this one with a double unit.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Is it really insulated?</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Very. But it heats this place up. In the summer the doors have to be open. We bake the bread at 475°F.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, what does a typical baking day look like for you guys?</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> Well, Rick gets here maybe about 4 o'clock in the morning. We prep the day before. A typical baking day requires us to come in the day before and prep our different buckets depending on whether they're sourdoughs, or yeasted breads, or flavored breads. We get all those prepped so they can have a good rise. And then he's here at four in the morning throwing all the <i>boules </i>out <i>[laying out balls of dough] </i>and getting that all prepped. I come in about seven, and some of the baking is done. I'm usually making some sort of specialty item, so by that time he's now finished, and I can have the space for whatever I'm baking. Because it is a small space.<i> [they both laugh]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It's bigger than I imagined though—I didn't realize how deep it was.</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Yes! And having the table this size makes it so there's enough room for the both of us to work on most projects. Some of the projects I do take the whole table.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> And that's why the first part of a regular baking day is definitely with Rick here to begin with. And I've come in and learned that process, so I can participate. So then generally we try to have everything baked off by nine, hence our "nine-ish" hours—nine-ish to two-ish. And then we sit in the window and have a hoot! <i>[laughter]</i> It's quite fun—I really enjoy that part, the interface with the public. It's fun—but he's been up for hours by then. He stays till the end of the day, which is usually about three. We try to close around two—we're usually selling out by then. And then there's the clean-up.<br />
<i>Rick:</i> And then the prep for the next day.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: What days do you sell?</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.<br />
<i>Rick:</i> And those will be our hours through the winter. Come Spring/Summer, that is likely to change.<br />
<i>Annette: </i>We'll be adding more days.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [to Annette] So what is your background in bread cookery?</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> I have a picture of the very first cherry pie that I ever made. I was about twelve—Grandma taught me how to bake, and I'm just good at it. Actually, my passion and my reason for being in here is because I have my own agenda <i>[laughs]</i>, and I'll be offering the community sprouted beans and seeds: sprouts, micro-greens, and juices, come summertime.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I think you'll have a lot of demand for that!</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> I believe so.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, are you making sprouted breads and stuff like that?</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Yes.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> Well, we do a sprouted bulghur, and we'll do more of that as I get my ship on board, then we can combine some things. But the focus has been getting the bakery going. My piece is a little simpler to implement, but we had to have everything in place first. That's up and coming soon, actually! I was going to wait until summer, but I think the sprouted beans and seeds could go now, as we're going into the time of year when there's not much healthy to eat.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what kinds of breads do you offer?</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> We offer chocolate-chipotle-lime, a very esoteric bread that makes a phenomenal French toast and peanut butter sandwich.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: Hmm! Is it more like a Mexican type of chocolate?</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> Yes, it's a dark chocolate. It's not a sweet bread at all. It's kind of spicy—almost a bite-type chocolate. We make a cheese bread and a Kalamata olive on a regular basis, and because of repeated requests I've gone to a sourdough—I rotate between a straight roasted garlic sourdough and a roasted garlic and rosemary sourdough. We've made bulghur breads—a very hearty wheat bread, sourdough rye...<br />
<i>Annette:</i> ... and anything that's fun, like the holidays or the Celtic Festival, it's like, "Ooh, let's make some Irish soda bread." You know, it's fun to play. That's why I made the lemon poppy seed—I thought people coming to the Art Quilt Festival might enjoy that. Trying to be inspired by the events going on in town!<br />
<i>Rick:</i> And that's something we look at! What events are happening, and like Annette said for the Celtic Festival, we did two different kinds of soda bread! And people went nuts over it! And we got requests the next week! "Can you make that soda bread again?"<i> [laughs] </i>And that, to both of us, is an amazing feeling.<br />
<i>Annette: </i>Yes, that's really fun, to make something that people are like, "Oh, yesyesyesyesyes!" <i>[laughs] </i>Like his pretzels, and the stick bread.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Mmm, like German pretzels?</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> Yes! My mentor was a Swiss chef. And the way he taught me, was: on some things he'd give me a twenty minute lesson; you'd better write it down, it's on the menu next week—and I was gifted with the ability to play with it for a week. With the pretzels... That actually took almost two months, to come up with a decent pretzel. One of the things is that we were at high altitude, which makes a difference in baking. The other was him—just the general, "It has to be something spectacular." And the fact that that was the way he taught! He said, "There's a goal here. So go ahead and make it, hand it out, test it." And so I learned the ability to create recipes. That is one of the things we will be doing here, is make something, and if people like it, we'll make it more!<br />
<i>Annette:</i> Yes! I just got an opportunity to travel to Sicily, so we're thinking about making some pasta. That would be a fun thing. That's what I want to do: If I'm going to be in here, I'm going to have fun. Let's make something, try it out!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: You have such a beautiful table, you should make phyllo dough!</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> Oh, we will—and gluten-free, too. Like I said, I researched gluten-free for almost a whole year.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: And you've found a way to do it?</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Oh yes! It's rather expensive, which is why we're not doing it yet, but it's something we're looking forward to providing.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> And also some gluten-free treat type stuff, too. Maybe some sprouted crackers... I played with making home-made mustard for the pretzels, that was fun. It's kind of like, "What are we inspired by?" Because both of us, we have this baseline thing going, but for the rest of it...<br />
<i>Rick:</i> For the mushroom festival, we did chanterelle mushroom gravy and biscuits!<br />
<i>Annette: </i>We've been playing with that idea for the winter months—you know, it's all a creative process.<br />
<i>Rick:</i> And listening to our community—we have a small community!<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: And cakes? Did you say you did cakes?</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> No.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> But if you need a cake we know somebody who does beautiful cakes.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: There are a bunch of people in Yachats who do cakes, too...</i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> There's actually a new couple in town, and I think she's got that niche filled.<i> [to Rick]</i> Right? We're not going to take on cake-baking.<br />
<i>Rick:</i> Oh no.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> We've never discussed doing that.<br />
<i>Rick: </i>I trained as a pastry chef, but we're going to be more bread-centric. I really don't intend on being a French-ish bakery. Do things that other people don't.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> Our latest request... "Are you doing Thanksgiving rolls?" <i>[deliberate pause]</i> "Why yes, we are!" <i>[laughter]</i> We played with three different recipes, and we've chosen to make a potato roll. <i>[laughs]</i> By the end of the day, I'd eaten so much bread...<br />
<i>Rick:</i> Oh, and we'll be providing all the bread for the Lions' Crab Feed in January! That's going to be a lot of bread—they're ordering almost a hundred loaves, big ones. And we're making stuffing for the Ladies' Club! Cubed herb and non-herb, and we added a little bit of rye.<br />
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<i>TYG: What made you decide on this layout? Was this the only way to work with the space?</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Well, the hood vent [over the stove and oven] was in the building. And there's a grease trap behind the wall here [between the guitar store and near the south door] that is plumbed to that corner of the building. There was no sink there when we moved into the building—there was plumbing to here. But it didn't go to the grease trap, and it was a huge sink.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I guess I don't know what a grease trap really is—I've heard the term though. </i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>It's a big box that has a couple of partitions in it, and the water flows from up here to down here [as it moves across the partitions]. It lets the grease float, and the water drains from the bottom.<br />
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<i>TYG: It's a filtering system, essentially.</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Yes, and it's something that's required by the health department. So having that plumbed to over here in the corner, and that corner being the perfect space for cleaning, I was able to find a sink—after a lot of looking for the triple basin sink, which is required by law—then I modified the space and built the steel [splash-guard] that's up to the wall. I did all of that—all the curb work around it. And the big table we were originally going to put [on the opposite wall], but we'd have been looking through the stained glass window [into the guitar shop] so it just worked out better [to place it along the west wall].<i> [laughs]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: You have great outlet access on that wall too.</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>We have plenty of electricity for the smaller units, yes.<br />
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<i>TYG: I'm guessing there's 220 power in here somewhere. </i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Yes, behind the stove. And the big stove is gas. I had gas brought in so that I could specifically determine cost—what it costs for baking. If I put it as an electric one, it would be part of the bill for the whole building.<br />
<i>Annette:</i> And we really got the idea one day for a walk-up window, and it just ended up kind of working out! We talked with Frank, the land-owner, and so we designed the patio and built the awning over it.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: It's adorable, with a bench and flowers and everything! And... [looks closer] a bear! [a little figurine]</i><br />
<i>Annette: </i>It is, really!<i> [laughs]</i> Yes, somebody just left that last night, actually. We came here this morning and that was there.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: There's one question I have: What is your hardest bread to make? Or trickiest?</i><br />
<i>Rick: [under his breath] </i>The hardest one...<br />
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<i>TYG: It's probably a good thing that you don't have an immediate answer... [laughter] </i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>Honestly, I've made all of the breads that we're baking right now for a number of years, and except for small modifications because of being at sea level, they're not really hard for me...<br />
<i>Annette: </i>He's really fast at it, too! I tried to do it one day, and eventually he was like, "Okay, I've got to get this done!" <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<i>Rick: </i>There are one or two that I've made that I'm not particularly fond of, but I don't eat them anyway. A lot of the product I make I taste, but I rarely eat.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: That's better for your waist-line, I guess! [laughs] </i><br />
<i>Annette:</i> I eat a lot of it, I do. <i>[laughs]</i> I'm like, "Oh, that scone. It broke." <i>[laughter]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: Great! Thank you so very much for your time!</i><br />
<i>Rick:</i> Thanks!<br />
<i>Annette:</i> Thanks for calling on us!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Emily Crabtree of ???</span></b> </div>
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<i>Help Emily Crabtree choose a name for her new record store, which will be opening the week before Christmas above the Midtown Guitar Co. shop! You can e-mail Emily with your pick at <a href="mailto:ecrabtree82@gmail.com">ecrabtree82@gmail.com</a>. She brought a list of names with her to the interview, which are as follows: Perpetua Records, Spindrift Music, Vortex Vinyl, Siren Songs Music, Wild Coast Records, Sunset Music, Tsunami Sounds, or Gem & Wave Records. Or feel free to suggest your own! </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emily Crabtree</td></tr>
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<i>TYG: Let's get this started!</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Alright! I'm pulling up my list. I didn't know if you'd done this before with your paper, but I was hoping you'd be up for it, to have a little contest of sorts, and to give my e-mail to people and have a list of names. I'm really struggling! I don't have a name yet, but I brought my list, and it's long. My creative writing classes are paying off, but unfortunately making it much harder to narrow down! <i>[laughs]</i> My hope is that you would be up for asking your readers to e-mail me what they think is a good name.<br />
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<i>TYG: Absolutely! </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> So I was here <i>[at the Drift Inn]</i> maybe two months ago, brainstorming and writing down ideas, and this very lovely couple beside me were like, "What are you doing, writing in a book? Who does that anymore?" And I was like, "Well, I do. And I'm doing it because I'm opening a record store!" They gasped, and said, "Oh, did you hear? Vinyl sales are actually surpassing sales of CD's, and they've never really gone away." As someone who's been very much in the music industry on the low end, underground scene, records are always there, and tapes! In one of my old bands, if we hadn't made tapes we would have gone broke on tour. But instead, we were able to sell them, and people could hold them in their hand. There's a really sweet thing about that that makes people have more intention with their music. That's why I love the idea. So each name could be either Records, Vinyl, or Music. So I'm trying to decide which one. People love alliteration. But their suggestion was that if I use Vinyl, people these days don't know how to spell.<i> [laughs] </i>And I was like, "So sad!" but also, "That is true..." So, there's that.<br />
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<i>TYG: My two favorites are Perpetua Records and Spindrift Music! </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Because I want the name to be simply something that people just know as Yachats. Because I want to start the business to make our community be more vibrant. That's why I want folks to be able to weigh in if they feel like it.<br />
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<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: So why do you want to open a record store?</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Because I love music. And because I thought about if I'm just sitting in a shop, what would I want to have around me that would never be boring, that would ceaselessly be entertaining? And it's music, to me. And when you have a space that has music, you can do so much more to have live music. Or even just simple things: I'm going to have a speaker that will play out to the street—because I want people to have people be like<i> [snaps fingers]</i>, "Oh, what is that?" and to feel a groove and feel good about their day. To me, I think that music is this beautiful kind of art that involves every other kind of art. There's the physical record that you hold in your hand, the person that made the art on the sleeve; the people that wrote that poetry; the musicians that recorded it—I just think that it's this beautiful epicenter that's all braided together to create something that we all can enjoy. And I've been on people's records, and recorded music, and been in my own bands—and that was so satisfying, a distinct feeling that I didn't get anywhere else in my life. My hope is that I can kind of cultivate that for Yachats.<br />
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<i>TYG-EA: Why vinyl?</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Good question! <i>[laughs]</i> I guess my earliest memories were my father's vinyl collection. He had a big papa-san chair and a huge 70's headphone set, and I think I was around twelve, when I really just needed some space to myself, to not have to listen to all the noise in the world, and to really be able to just center and focus and sort of trip out. And it was sitting there for hours and having that space given to me was just ... Even the tactile [memory], the way it feels to just pull it out: it's really a good feeling! And I love records because they don't become trash, like a CD does. Even the ones that become scratched—I'm refurbishing the space, and I'm going to use those. You can make cute stuff out of them, shoot a BB gun at them... <i>[laughs] </i>And there's this warmth to it—it takes a little more intentionality, which I really like. You can't just... I can be somewhat ADD, so a record really makes me focus. I can get up and move around if I want, but... just let it ride. Just let it ride, you know? I like that. It just feels like something I hope other people can get back into, as well... Generationally, the music industry sort of tried to tamp down the fact that people were even still collecting records. I love people being nerdy about the thing they love. Folks have always been like that about records.<br />
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<i>TYG: Nowadays, people have pretty much given that up, in terms of the "trying to suppress it." I mean, we bought a new record player! It's actually quite a cool piece—it's got a 4-way function: radio, tape, CD, and records. </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> They're great! My hope is that it will help generationally bond people a little again. When I tell people I'm doing this, every age person seems to have an emotional connection to that idea. A lot of people are like, "Oh, I wish I'd never given away my record collection—it makes me think of this time in my life..." and I'm like, "Well then, come in, and let's do that again for you!" So I'll always have refurbished, vintage record players for sale. And I want people to be like, "Oh, I haven't listened to Fleetwood Mac's <i>Tusk </i>in forever!" and I can say, "Well, you should, because there are some hilarious jammers on there." Like where they are gets so weird—I think on that album they hired an entire marching band, and rented out a football stadium? I was like "Oh my god, you guys have too much money." I'm glad they did it, but the songs are ridiculous. I want people to have that time, I think. And especially in a world where everything is so digital, here's a moment where you don't have to be. So, we'll see! I'm definitely not getting into it to make my millions! <i>[laughs] </i><br />
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<i>TYG-EA: So, are you thinking mostly new, or used, or...?</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>So right now, I have a good friend that runs a record store in Portland—shout out to Jared! I put a call out on Facebook (of all places), and he got back to me. He owns Clinton Street Record and Stereo and has always done really well. He's a DJ, and sells refurbished audio equipment. He said he looked through all of his records for doubles, and he said, "I've got a great deal for you, I want to help your company, we've been friends for a long time and I really believe in your vision." So I bought my first big bulk amount. So up there in the space right now I have over 250 records. I have 100 45's, and 200 tapes. I like to think I have good taste in music, so I'm going through my own record collection, and I'm going to release some things that I know I couldn't live without at one point, but it's okay—I don't need to have two Nancy Sinatra records that have the same songs in different orders. I can pick the one I want, or maybe I'll sell that one, because there's a Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra record that has duets. It's one of my favorite records ever, and I'm like, I could never get rid of it. But the idea of selling it to someone who will either find it fresh and new, or someone who already loved that music and is getting to know it again, is a way to feel really good about cathartically getting rid of things I love.<br />
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<i>TYG: It's like a way to pass it on.</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Right! Tom, my husband, asked "<i>[in a dramatically tearful tone</i>] Are you going to sell all our beautiful records? " "Yes, baby, I am." Not all of them, but maybe. It's like, maybe it was my favorite sweater for five years, but I haven't worn it in two. You can pass it on, you know. <i>[laughs] [To be continued.]</i><br />
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<i>The Yachats Gazette will continue our conversation with Emily Crabtree in the 97th issue in January. Don't forget to send in your preference for a store name!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>As well as Breadworks and Emily's store, we want to remind our readers that Dark Water, the famous Yachats souvenir shop, has moved from its previous location near the Drift Inn to the front south portion of the Midtown Guitar Co. complex. Store co-owner Noah Goughenhour had just a few remarks to share: </i><br />
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"We opened on November 24, and we turn on our OPEN light 1 to 5, everyday. We are still a family business: Dave worked on fixing up the interior, Su will be doing more buying, and I will be helping customers. The space is smaller than our previous spot, so we had to select what we show, our stock will continually change. Frank and Kathy offered us a space in Midtown when we found there were no commercial buildings open for rent. There is a lot more walk-by traffic at this new location. We expect that being next to the Commons events, the farmers market and part of a complex with other shops should be a good mix and inviting to new customers."<br />
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<i>We wish every one of you a wonderful month of December, and thank you for supporting us for yet another year. Next year will bring Issues 97, 98, 99, and 100--and then it's off to college! </i><br />
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-22401163453733107292019-11-01T02:34:00.002-07:002019-11-11T20:21:34.672-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 95, November 1 2019<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/jlwvnm062t6d2rj/20191101-YachatsGazette-95th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Click here for a printable Issue 95</span></a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Marc Taylor</span></b><br />
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<i>The Yachats Gazette spoke with Marc Taylor, who has returned to Yachats from Sisters to reopen his Roadrunner Rock Shop, located right next to the Post Office.</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Roadrunner Rock Shop</td></tr>
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<i>TYG: So, for our readers, tell the tale of how you ended up selling the Sisters store.<br />Marc:</i> We put together an absolutely beautiful store in central Oregon. We were there about a year and a half, and decided that we may look at not being there anymore because I didn't much care for the area. My wife, my family, loved it, but it wasn't for me. We had some people coming in on a Sunday afternoon, saying that they were looking for a place to put a rock shop in Bend—I said you need to quit looking and just buy this one! Twenty minutes later, we shook hands, and within 30 days the deal was done. The people who bought it—we are no longer affiliated with that store anymore—have done a good job of what they do, and we are grateful to be back in Yachats doing what we do here. <br />
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<i>TYG: So, I know you rock-hounded around North America for what, 16 months?<br />Marc: </i>We traveled for 16 months, and spent about half that time in Nevada, which is our very favorite place to go rock-hunting besides here. And it was a ball. We went to mine sites all over the place, we found crystals, we found rocks, fossils, and minerals and all different kinds of things. We found a little bit of silver, we found all kinds of neat little things. As of July 1st, we decided it was time to be done traveling. We were going to set up for a month in the parking lot like we'd done the year before, however we decided this time to acquire the building, so we have a major project ahead of us, but we're very excited about it. <br />
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<i>TYG: How long was this place for sale, anyway?<br />Marc:</i> Well, different stages at different times, but it was empty a couple of times for three years at least, I think. <br />
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<i>TYG: Alder closed that long ago? Wow, time flies. It feels like last month. [They break for a customer.] So, what was your favorite part—or favorite few parts—of your... well, I'm loathe to call it a vacation...<br />Marc:</i> You know, it wasn't about rocks. It wasn't about fossils. It wasn't about minerals. It was about what happened to our family, how close we became, and how, as opposed to four individuals living in this great big house, we became one true, honest-to-goodness family forced to live in 38 feet, rain, shine, sleet, snow, whatever it was! Even through the trying times, the hard parts of it, the driving over crazy mountains and curves and all of that, we became a more cohesive unit. My children are way better people for it, and gratefully, so are my wife and I. We just became better people, I think was the best part of the trip. It was also cool to see wildlife, and open a piece of the ground that had crystals in it, to be the first person who's ever gotten to see those things—that's pretty exciting stuff. But what it did for us as a family was truly what I'm excited about. <br />
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<i>TYG: Slightly anecdotal, but I heard mention you found a small deposit of silver or something?<br />Marc: </i>Yes, we found a little bit of silver in central Nevada, but it is so expensive to process that it is absolutely not worth dealing with unless you're somebody that's going to be one of the big companies. <br />
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<i>TYG: Or unless there's a lot of it?<br />Marc:</i> Well, there was a lot of it—it just wasn't worth dealing with. It was also a place where I didn't want to be forever—it's a place that I really like to go visit and have fun, and I would have had to make some pretty major investments to get things to pan out (no pun intended). <br />
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<i>TYG: So, what made you choose this space?<br />Marc: </i>Well, Yachats is home, and it always will be. I absolutely love this area. And the Alder building—or the La Serre building, whatever you want to call it—the rock shop building, was available. There's not a lot of space here [in the town], and I saw a long-term project and a tremendous potential for growth in a community that has always treated me very well. Now I have an opportunity to show, and do, what we love, in a great place that we love. As you know, living here—this is pretty magical. I've been all over, and... I want to be here. I feel pretty fortunate to get this space. We worked out a great deal on the building, and I've got five years of work ahead of me, or more, but that's okay. It's a big project that we're going to do as a family and have fun with it. <br />
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<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: What are some of your up-coming plans for it?<br />Marc:</i> So, by Saturday, our dinosaur dig site is going to be open. We're adding a fluorescent room where the old cooler used to be. We're doing a gem-mining station that will include a water wheel and the whole thing. We're taking where the old bar was and making an extension of my living room. We're going to put in some great, big crystals, a dinosaur or two, and just a nice, quiet sitting space that we want to share with the community. <i>[Another customer break—that turns into having to come back another day.]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: So, how have you been enjoying being back so far?<br />Marc:</i> Probably one of the best decisions we've made as a family ever. When we first got back here we weren't sure how well it was going to work or not, and we took a gamble, and I think it's going to be of benefit to our community and our family. We're pretty excited about it and what we're going to be doing in the future.<br />
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<i>TYG: Sure! So, where do you get [the rocks]? I know some of them you get from your travels.<br />Marc: </i>Some of them we've collected ourselves, when we were rock hounding in the western part of the US. But we've developed relationships with mine owners all over the world over the past several years. We feel really fortunate to have good relationships with people who are both processing, and mining for themselves. By buying direct, we get to eliminate all of the middle men. So we travel and do big shows, and also, as they find it, we'll get new products. <br />
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<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Did I understand you went to South America?<br />Marc:</i> No, we haven't gone to South America yet. We have really strong relationships in South America, and Morocco. But neither place have we gone with the family yet. Morocco has one of the largest concentrations of minerals anywhere in the world, because of the Atlas Mountains. There is over 500 miles of just incredible stuff. You can find everything from 500 million year old fossils to incredible mineral specimens within a mile of each other. It's really amazing. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So it used to be a seabed, I guess?<br />Marc: </i>Yes, especially the Western Sahara. That used to all be under water. <i>[greets the first customer of the day]</i> That is a prolific area for fossils. There's an area called Kem Kem, Morocco, where probably 70% of our fossils come from. The mosasaur was a big amphibious predator, an apex sea predator, and there's a huge concentration of their fossils in that area. We deal direct with some fossil hunters who bring it to the US. So we get some pretty phenomenal stuff that way. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Wow, that's amazing! How did you make that contact?<br />Marc:</i> So, we bought a company that was already in existence and had been for many, many years. When we did that—he had developed some relationships—we morphed them into who we wanted to deal with, who were probably related to the people he dealt with. So we started there, but expanded on it and found our own people. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Wow! Do you want to go travel over there some day?<br />Marc:</i> Absolutely! And I want to do it as a family. But I want to wait a couple more years until Mikey <i>[his youngest son]</i> is a little older. And then Quentin<i> [his oldest son]</i> will be bigger and stronger and can help lift more.<i> [laughter from everyone except maybe Quentin] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I also noticed you had quite a lot of stuff from Madagascar. Is that the same system?<br />Marc: </i>Madagascar has over 4,000 different minerals on that one little tiny island. There are 54,000, approximately, documented minerals in all—so that there would be 4,000 of them in that small area is incredible. But the jaspers, the agates that come out of there, just the way that volcanic area is, produces a tremendous amount of really cool materials. And it's very pretty material. So we sell a lot of it for home decor. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And is it the malachite that comes out of there as well?<br />Marc: </i>Most of the malachite that we have comes from the Congo, in Africa. However, we do get some out of Morocco as well, and Brazil—most anywhere there's copper, you're going to be able to find malachite, azurite, copper-related minerals. And so we've got some malachite that we found ourselves in Nevada. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I've always been curious—where do you get the selenite?<br />Marc: </i>The selenite comes out of Erfoud, Morocco, and that's a fiber optic selenite that carries the light really well. We deal direct with the line that gets it, and it's one of the more beautiful minerals that we sell, but it's also fairly inexpensive.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It's also one of the most fragile! <br />Marc:</i> We carve it into all kinds of things. And you say fragile: it is, it's a 2.5 hardness, which means that it's going to be fairly soft. But it's gypsum; it's the same mineral that they make sheet rock out of. <br />
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<i>TYG: Presumably, some of your amber comes from the Baltics second-hand. <br />Marc:</i> Correct. None of our amber, except the stuff we get out of Indonesia, do we buy direct. We get a little bit out of Columbia, we get some out of Brazil, some out of Africa but very little; we get lots out of Madagascar. It has lots of great inclusions: bug, all kinds of little sweat bees and ants, gnats and stuff. The amber we get out of Indonesia is a blue amber, and it's called a Sumatran Blue. It actually fluoresces under black light. We have access to that direct, and so we're bringing in quite large quantities of it. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Why is it second-hand from the Baltics?<br />Marc:</i> Because there's no more coming out of the ground. They're not really mining much for it anymore. They'll mine the occasional pieces, but most of the Baltic amber that's on the market is all that's available. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: The Baltics were the source of amber for thousands of years. From what I understand there was an unbelievable amount there, and it's just been slowly mined out. So, do the geodes come out of Morocco and Madagascar as well?<br />Marc:</i> I don't get any geodes out of Madagascar. I do however get them from Morocco, and lots and lots from Mexico, Iowa, Idaho. They're literally all over the world. Just depends on what we're looking for as to where we get them. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Have you gotten to recognizing them yourself when you see them? How do you know?<br />Marc:</i> Oh yes. Experience, you know. On probably 80% of them, I can tell you where it came from. But there are a lot of them out there that I've never seen, or don't know how to identify. But for the most part, we've done a pretty good job of studying up where different kinds of things come from. We have three different geodes that come from Durango, Mexico, that are all from less than 20 miles apart and that are significantly different. One has an agatized shell, one has a clay shell, and the other is a rhyolite. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: What does the Yachats area offer in terms of [rock hounding]?<br />Marc:</i> Well, Yachats is unique itself, because it's got world-class agate hunting here in the winter time. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Is it really world-class?<br />Marc:</i> It is, actually. Some of the stuff that comes from here is absolutely phenomenal. The blues that we get from here are exceptional. And the fortification that you can get in some of the agates from around here... Yachats has sagenite agates, which are quite uncommon. Another one that's unique to here is called the Yachats Rose; it's like the Holy Grail of agate hunting on the beach. I actually found this one in Yachats Bay. [he shows us a white, circular, rippled formation that does indeed look like a rose; it's about 2 inches in diameter] And I'd been looking for one of these my whole life!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Wow! <br />Marc:</i> And I found one in July, when we got back here. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: And do we have any geodes?<br />Marc:</i> Yes, a few. They're quartz-filled; stuff that's going to weather out of basalt. So like a lot of the carnelian agates that you find around here, they'll have a pocket in them with a bunch of little crystals. Technically, that's a geode. There are tons of geodes in Central Oregon, like around Prineville.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So do all the fossils come from Morocco and South America as well?<br />Marc:</i> No, we bring in fossils from all over the United States, but our big, big fossils are primarily from Morocco. We have one of the largest selection of fish fossils around, and those all come from Wyoming. Like this little guy right here, this is a Diplomystus, and it's 52 to 48 million years old. They were a freshwater fish.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYqSjPZ_W1MZF-5GaF5aD3ZD7HMN73HHHVBADJ0s2ZHNTNfCUYZiWorgJ232aIMBUaFqytQOCqqIUBz8sHsZYQoAi0V-gOYMPd7FzjadKMeGCoobjmB8Rdx1bs2ZknQoxqPVZ4MoaKk0/s1600/MarcTaylor-fish2-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYqSjPZ_W1MZF-5GaF5aD3ZD7HMN73HHHVBADJ0s2ZHNTNfCUYZiWorgJ232aIMBUaFqytQOCqqIUBz8sHsZYQoAi0V-gOYMPd7FzjadKMeGCoobjmB8Rdx1bs2ZknQoxqPVZ4MoaKk0/s400/MarcTaylor-fish2-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diplomystus</td></tr>
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<i>TYG-GD: [peering] That thing looks drawn on there!<br />Marc: </i>Well, it does, but if you really get over here looking at it, you can really see the fine detail. When they fossilize, imagine it getting covered with sediment. It's still got its skin on, and then the skin kind of carbonizes over the bones, and that's what creates a lot of the black. This one is 100% natural, not touched up, but there are a lot of them that get touched up. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what's this edge here [outlining the fish]?<br />Marc: </i>So, they ground this out so that they could get to the fish, so they could make the best display. If you get a perfect split—because they're splitting layers of shale to find the fish—but if you get a perfect split, then it's going to look like that one, where there's no relief—it's literally the layer. That's a Priscacara, an extremely rare fish. <i>[another customer break]</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-1c1gbcBDqBgUpHYtBGZBY3KtY8NzRPuX2fOpIBpB1tE2uITVdw5nEbV70JqPXTzpcjtgzf4JCLPzdbp_dhrA7eHh0M6aKyv9DbgEkNMKFkIl5BYYvKFXTkc8JA3OxokUm4Dnmg6Kpk/s1600/MarcTaylor-fish1-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="600" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-1c1gbcBDqBgUpHYtBGZBY3KtY8NzRPuX2fOpIBpB1tE2uITVdw5nEbV70JqPXTzpcjtgzf4JCLPzdbp_dhrA7eHh0M6aKyv9DbgEkNMKFkIl5BYYvKFXTkc8JA3OxokUm4Dnmg6Kpk/s400/MarcTaylor-fish1-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Priscacara</td></tr>
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<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Are you going to have machines that people can use?<br />Marc:</i> So, behind this wall, we just built a dinosaur dig site. The walls are inlaid with fish, and we had all kinds of fun making it look sort of rocky. I'm putting in a fluorescent room for kids, so that they'll be able to flip a switch and long wave UV will come on, and the rock wall will turn one color; and then you can flip another switch and short wave UV will come on, and it'll turn everything even a different color. It's amazing how some of these rocks are just "dud-dy" when you look at them under regular light, and then you put the UV on them and they're phenomenal. And we have fluorescents literally from all over the world, and one of the things we have here that are super-fun, especially for kids, is we have Yooperlites that come out of the upper peninsula in Michigan. They're pretty phenomenal—super-fun. You guys want to see some fluorescents?<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Yes, that would be great! [we go to a small room in the back where he shows us shelves of non-descript rocks that glow beautifully under a black light flashlight] So, what's your favorite piece in the whole collection?<br />Marc: </i>You know, because I'm not a collector... My thing is that I like to share. So I don't have a favorite piece. My favorite thing is to share these minerals and have people walk out of here with a smile on their face. There are few things that make me happier than making other people happy. <i>[we break for another couple of customers]</i> So, we have a dinosaur dig site. The kids will have a six by six foot matrix. It'll be loaded full of shark teeth, crinoids, brachiopods, echinoderms, all kinds of cool fossils. There will also be the occasional real dinosaur tooth, whether it be from a mosasaur, an elasmosaur, or a crocodilian creature of some kind—there's going to be all kinds of neat stuff in there. And about one in ten, you're going to be able to get a spinosaurus tooth, or [one from] an Otodus obliquus, the ancestor of the Great White. There's going to be some really cool stuff you're going to be able to get. And we're going to be able to do it for seven bucks. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Nice!<br />Marc: </i>As this remodel goes—we're fixing up the place—we're going to put in a geode break station for kids. We're going to have six different varieties of geodes that we'll either be able to cut on-site for you as you wait, or you'll be able to break them on your own with a hammer, or we'll have a chain breaker as well. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: What's a chain breaker?<br />Marc:</i> It's basically a chain that wraps around the geode, and you pull a lever, and it cracks the geode.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Does that shatter it?<br />Marc:</i> Not normally. <i>[laughs]</i> <br />
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<i>TYG: I could see the hammer shattering things.<br />Marc: </i>Yes, but it's about finesse, not strength, when it comes to breaking geodes. Anyway, then we're going to put in a gem-mining site; it'll have a water-wheel with a trough that comes down, and you'll be able to pan for gemstones in there as well. And then, long-term, outside we're going to have a big sandbox out there that will have cast dinosaurs under the sand, like footprints of T. Rex and all kinds of fun stuff. The kids will be able to go out there and dig it up, and play with brushes, and do true digs. And then, where the old bar used to be, I'm making that kind of an extension of my living room. We're going to put in a few great big crystals, our dinosaur is going to be in there, and there are going to be some recliners, a few tables, and it's going to be a really nice, quiet, fun area. And hopefully we'll be able to do a thing like Crystals and Cabernet, on occasion. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And you haven't seen the photo of the dinosaur yet, have you?<br />TYG-GD: No, I haven't! [to Marc] Are you going to have a tumbler that's for rent, or something?<br />Marc: </i>We will offer cutting services for people, but I won't be tumbling for people. It's too hard to keep track of everybody's stuff. <i>[Shows us a picture of the dinosaur he's getting, on his phone]</i><br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Wow, that's impressive! How big is it—about six feet?<br />Marc:</i> No, it's 12 feet tall, 17 feet long. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Oh my goodness! Where is it coming from?<br />Marc:</i> England. <br />
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<i>TYG: That's quite a move... Well, thank you for your time!<br />Marc: </i>Thank you sir!<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I'm glad you guys are back in town.<br />Marc:</i> I am too. It's really great to be home.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN_ZG1bvzKuzu8akXihGQlnYiP4rn1lD3YVVPL_1WsV5LRadw7drw4UzEbF1OXuU4MjluJlkxV3YIgUuIHYJboKtR4zzrv70z23_UKdbgdRBptxUa_YCwePT-UAOVWWheY7niRBqpkEzs/s1600/MarcTaylor-fish3-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN_ZG1bvzKuzu8akXihGQlnYiP4rn1lD3YVVPL_1WsV5LRadw7drw4UzEbF1OXuU4MjluJlkxV3YIgUuIHYJboKtR4zzrv70z23_UKdbgdRBptxUa_YCwePT-UAOVWWheY7niRBqpkEzs/s400/MarcTaylor-fish3-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More fish and other fossils</td></tr>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-55320654052229948532019-09-30T23:34:00.001-07:002019-10-01T20:50:51.242-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 94, October 1 2019<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/5vl0x4uai663u2m/20191001-YachatsGazette-94th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Click here for a printable version of Issue 94 </span></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Andrea Scharf</span></b></div>
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<i>The Yachats Gazette spoke with Andrea Scharf, author of </i>Saving Big Creek<i>, a story about coastal residents versus modern development right in our back yard.</i><br />
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<i>TYG: So, what got you interested in the story of this incident?<br />Andrea: </i>Big Creek? Well, when I moved here in 1994, I got to meet a bunch of people who were involved with it, and the campaign was about half-way through at that point. So I heard different stories. Not much was happening. The exciting part happened at the beginning, in 1980.<br />
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<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Oh! I think we should start at the beginning!<br />Andrea: </i>You want to start at the beginning? <i>[laughs]</i> Okay! In 1980, this developer from Honolulu, who actually worked for the US Customs Service, had a wife who was from Vancouver, Washington. They drove down the coast, on vacation, looking for land. They saw a "For Sale" sign at this property in Big Creek, which is about halfway between Yachats and Florence. It's just a little creek that comes out into the ocean under one of those bridges. <br />
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<i>TYG: I know the place.<br />Andrea: </i>So he bought the property. At the same time, in 1981 when he bought the property, there was a butterfly called the Oregon Silver Spot butterfly <i>[Speyeria zerene hippolyta]</i>, and its habitat is along the salt-spray meadows. That was declared a threatened species by the Environmental Protection Agency.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyeria_zerene" target="_blank"><img alt="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyeria_zerene" border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="765" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFagi_GBmwPSTDySnJvIwm_U1-z9U-wkRwhlmyGkqjfJoPWMZachOFgil6oXE-VFSpy6qQj9zVbmkJdBHUEvt4gbUNUfc5le_hQAsf_PITfJmzixFZ8Lfcq9RmaVlycXwJV0Yne9c4ZtA/s320/Speyeria_zerene_hippolyta-ed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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TYG-GD: How big was the property?<br />
Andrea: 186 acres. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: All waterfront?<br />Andrea:</i> No, it was actually on both sides of the river, going up this way <i>[gestures east]</i>, and up this way <i>[gestures north] </i>was where he planned to build the resort.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Is there a campground there now?<br />Andrea:</i> No, there's nothing there, and there never will be. The whole idea, when it was turned over to State Parks, was that nothing could be built, except maybe a trail. At this point, nobody's doing anything. <br />
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<i>TYG: There's a road that goes through there.<br />Andrea:</i> There's a road that goes through and up to the ridge, and there are people who live further up Big Creek. It had been used by people; Native Americans had camped in this area, usually during the summer; they gathered berries and prepared for winter, and it was kind of a summer, working vacation. So there are two roads that go through the property. Settlers built property near the mouth of the river and further up, and they raised cattle—they ran cattle through this area. You've probably seen Stonefield Beach? Stonefield was the name of these brothers. There were four of them. <br />
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<i>TYG: I always thought it was just because it was a stony field—that's one of the few ones where it actually makes perfect sense!<br />Andrea:</i> Nope! <i>[laughs]</i> They moved here from Minnesota or Michigan, and the brothers claimed homesteads. George had a homestead at Ten Mile Creek, and his brother Emil had property here [at Big Creek]. So they ran the cattle back and forth along this area. So the property was inherited and passed down to different people, and so this developer, whose name was Vic (Victor) Renaghan, bought the property. It was zoned for forest and game—elk had been hunted there, and it had been logged up on the ridges. In order to build his resort, which is what he wanted to do, he had to get a zone change. <br />
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At that time, the Lane County Planning Department had a sort of subsidiary in the west part, because it was a big county. So the West Lane Planning Commission, over about three months or so, took testimony and read materials; he brought all sorts of materials in to convince them that this was a great idea. And they turned him down. Unanimously. They flat said, "No, we're not going to change the zone on this." And all the people who were working so hard to keep this natural said, "Phew! This is great! We're okay!" Well, of course, he went to the county commissioners and appealed that ruling. And, no surprise, they overturned that ruling and gave him a zone change. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Why?<br />Andrea:</i> Because the guy who was chair of the Board of County Commissioners represented the West Lane area, and it was economically distressed. The developer said this was going to bring jobs, tourists, it was going to be wonderful; people want to come here and have a place to stay and they don't want to camp, you know, it's going to be rich people! So they overturned it. So the people who were opposed to the resort filed an appeal with the Land Use Board of Appeals [LUBA]. All of this was very new, because Oregon had only passed a land use law in 1973. <br />
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<i>TYG: First test of the system! <br />Andrea:</i> It was, it was pretty early, in 1981. Eventually, this case went all the way up to the State Supreme Court, and they overturned the ruling. They said that these people did not have a chance to present their case, because when the Board of Commissioners overturned it, there was no notice in any of the coastal newspapers, and there were no posts on the property [about future use] the way they were supposed to. So when they filed the case with LUBA, the rules were very restrictive about who could file an appeal. You had to live adjacent to the property under concern, and nobody did—it was Forest Service property. People lived up the road, and they tried to make a case, but it was pretty iffy. And LUBA said, "No, you don't have standing," which is the right to file an appeal.<br />
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<i>TYG: That makes sense.<br />Andrea: </i>Well, under the rules, it did. So when it went up to the Supreme Court, they overturned that, and it opened up the process and allowed more people [to have standing]. If you attended a Planning Commission meeting, if you wrote a letter, if you indicated your interest, you had standing. So it opened up the process, even when they were writing the rules for the State Land Use Planning. That was a big debate: the League of Women Voters wanted it open; other people like Senator Atiyeh, who became the governor and was conservative, wanted it narrow. And narrow was what had won out. But this [case] opened it all up. So now when there's a land use decision, just about anybody can come in and have a say. <br />
<br />
So, while that was going through its process, the developer began doing what he wanted to do: putting together packages for financing, and that sort of thing. So every time something happened, the opponents had to kind of gather their resources and fight it. So one of the things that happened, was that the developer decided that he would get financing from the State's Industrial Development bond system. <br />
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<i>TYG: I'm surprised that falls under "Industrial"!<br />Andrea:</i> Bingo!, as people say. <i>[laughs]</i> That was true! So at that time there were five people on the Board of Commissioners, and the developer went to them and asked them to endorse his application. Peter DeFazio was one of the commissioners (he later became a congressman). He said, "This is not industrial! The intent was industry that would create good jobs for people—family wage jobs. This is just going to be people cleaning rooms, people doing yardwork. The building of it is only short-term construction." <br />
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<i>TYG: It isn't industry anyway.<br />Andrea:</i> Exactly. Well, [the way] the law is written there are certain other things you can do. So when the opponents heard about his application, they got their resources together. But they were very clever. The developer called them "just a bunch of hippies." And, it's true, they were sort of counter-culture and they came out here. Some of them had homesteads up Big Creek and around the area. They were artisans, and people like that—it's Yachats, you know, the people who moved here. But they were not just a bunch of dope-smoking hippies. They were smart, they were educated, and their sort of leader was a guy named Tom Smith. He lived right on the corner of Ten Mile Creek Road and Highway 101. He had worked for the National Wildlife Federation and Travel Unlimited, and he was a wildlife biologist. He knew stuff, and he knew how to work with government. He was a little bit older than everyone else, so he provided leadership. So when people said, "We don't know what to do about this!" he told them, "Well, now you go and meet with this person, and that person, and these are the things you do. You file petitions, and you file appeals." So they were pretty sophisticated, and they were on it all the time, and they did not let it slide. So they got some people to go in and testify against these bonds. And the developer was furious, because he got turned down, and he said, "You just cost me millions of dollars." He tried to get the lawyer who was involved to spar, and he was getting very mad. He was getting frustrated. He really felt the whole system was against him. He was an interesting person to talk to, though. So while all this was going on, and they were trying to keep the development from happening, they were also trying to find money to buy him out. And he was doing everything he could to make the property worth as much as could. He paid—I think it was $286,000—for the property. <br />
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<i>TYG: Wow, even for a 1980, that feels like nothing for 186 acres! How did that ever get assessed? I feel like that should be at least in the millions, even back then...<br />Andrea: </i>Correct! Well, it was zoned for timber, so the timber value of that property was whatever it was. Anyway, that's what he got it for. So he began doing things to create what they call a turnkey property: somebody could come in and all the permits would be done, all this stuff would be done. He didn't get a whole lot done—I think he ended up paying his lawyer to do a lot of things. But eventually, the Nature Conservancy came in and bought the property. And they paid $4,050,000.<br />
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<i>TYG: That sounds a little more fair for that property. <br />Andrea:</i> He made good money. He spent quite a bit of money on fees and permits and all of that. And of course he had to pay capital gains taxes on it. And he had some individual investors, and I believe he paid them back. So he didn't become a bazillionaire, but he did okay. The Nature Conservancy bought it in 2008. The way they buy things is that they have a revolving fund, and they have to convince their Board that this is a good project. Then they loan the individual at the Portland office the money, and get grants and thing from other agencies (the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board put in almost half the money), and then they buy the property. It was very popular—part of the reason was the butterfly, which was very appealing. And that area has no development there. So the idea of having a mega-resort there—and it kept on getting bigger and bigger [in concept]...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's what I was thinking! It seems a bit of an odd place to put a resort. I wouldn't have gone for it there.<br />Andrea: </i>Well, let me tell you why! <i>[chuckles]</i> The resorts don't make money. What makes money is the residential development around the resort. So places like Sun River, or Black Butte Ranch, which is over in eastern Oregon, are resorts, yes. There's the hotel, and restaurants, and golf courses and stuff. But then they began selling the lots to build second homes or cottages, and then gradually it becomes regular homes. And that's exactly what the state's land use laws were designed to prevent, because as is very obvious, why would you suddenly have a little residential community in the middle of nothing? It creates more traffic, it requires facilities to be put in—electric lines and all of that—and part of the reason he didn't get his industrial development bond was that people went in and said, "Look, here's the economic analysis! This resort is not going to make the kind of money that's going to justify waiving taxes." Because for industrial development bonds, people borrow money at a lower interest rate, and they get to write off whatever they gain. So if there's not enough other income being generated, it just doesn't make sense. And if people were going to work there, and live there, and have children, they need transportation like a school bus—it was just crazy.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Plus, the land around there is just awful for building anything! Even if the ground were adamant—the most stable material imaginable—the slope is awful. There's no flat pretty much, except right in the river valley.<br />Andrea: </i>Exactly. <br />
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<i>TYG: And that's where the resort would be.<br />Andrea:</i> No, the resort would be on the slope, on the north side of the road. You can't build next to the river—it's a riparian zone. And in fact, one of the things he tried to do was to carve out some lots on the hillside, on the south side of the river. If you drive by there, you'll see a little road has been bulldozed out. They were going to be view lots—you could see the whole ocean. But there was no way to get to it. You couldn't go across the riparian area, and to build another bridge would be too costly, so he built that new road in. And of course for the fire department that's not going to work. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: You need a real road.<br />Andrea: </i>You need a real road, you need a place where fire trucks can turn around. And on this side he said he was trying to build care-taker cottages. He really wanted to build a house that he could sell, then he could recoup some money, then he could build another house... When the Planning Department came to look, it was situated so it could look out at the ocean. The planner said he didn't meet the "straight face test."<i> [laughter] </i>And right where he thought he'd build this house was butterfly habitat. <br />
<br />
So, Nature Conservancy bought the property in 2008. There was a financial crash and it was really hard for them to get the money to pay back their Board. It's a revolving fund, so it can be used for somebody else. So it took them until 2013 to put together all of the grants. Do you know Paul Engelmeyer? He worked for Audubon, and he does a lot of work promoting the welfare of birds and the environment and wetlands—he's an interesting person to talk to. Anyway, he was part of the opposition to this, and he also lived up in that area. He would make sure that the people at the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land knew about this property. So when the guy who did real estate acquisitions for the Trust for Public Land was hired, the first person he was told to see was Paul Engelmeyer down on the coast. And Paul gave a tour of the property, and said, "This is our number one priority." So as things finally moved along, and other options fell through—the real estate market had changed, and finances were bad, it took them much longer than they thought it would to pay back their original loan, and they couldn't transfer the property to the State Parks until it was a clear title, until they'd paid off the loan. So, in September 2013, which where I started to start, there was a celebration at Cape Perpetua to celebrate the turning over of this property to State Parks. A lot of the people I'd been hearing stories about for years were there. And of course, when they started doing this, they were young guys. They were in their twenties, maybe thirties—they were really young. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Now they're in their sixties and seventies...<br />Andrea:</i> So I kind of looked at them, and one of them in particular was kind of frail. I'd just quit my job marketing for the City of Yachats, because I wanted to write, and I thought, "This is my story. I want to tell this story." Because if I don't, these people are going to die off. So I began interviewing people, and I began doing some document research in the archives of the county Planning Department, and I also brought in a whole lot of other stuff like the geology of the area. You kind of talked about that. It's hard to build on, but if a tsunami hits, this area is gone. And they were going to build a nuclear power plant here once.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: [stunned laughter]<br />TYG-GD: That was some other scheme, right?<br />Andrea: </i>That was a long time ago. That was the Eugene Water and Electric Board. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Even if there were no tsunami, that's a terrible place to build a power plant!<br />Andrea:</i> Well, in the 1960's, there was a big push to build nuclear power plants. Over twenty years, they were going to build twenty power plants from Eugene up to the Columbia River. That was what was going to save us all: we wouldn't have to use coal, we wouldn't have to use water power. You have to understand: Chernobyl hadn't happened, Three Mile Island hadn't happened, Fukishima hadn't happened—everybody thought this was the safest thing possible. [...] This proposal from the Eugene Water and Electric Board made people say, "Wait a minute! Let's look at this!" and EWEB said, "Oh no, it's fine, it's safe, we're just moving ahead." They got the people of Eugene to pass bonds to build this thing, and again, persistent activists in Eugene, some of whom who were professors in the physics department at the University of Oregon and had worked on the Manhattan Project building the atom bomb—they knew. They knew there was a problem with atomic power. So they got a moratorium to study this, and this [area around Ten Mile] was one of the sites that was being looked at. Finally, it was the one that EWEB chose because who cares! It's out there, and there's nobody there in 1969!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It just boggles the mind. <br />Andrea: </i>Wait, it gets better... Because you know, when you create a hydro dam, there's usually a lake that's created, and there's recreation: camping, and fishing, and it supports the community around it. They wanted to do the same thing here! So the cooling lake was going to be a beautiful place for people to fish, and boat... I mean, this is radioactive water! [laughs in disbelief] And, it's on the subduction zone. [...] The activists finally put a stop to it and it was voted down, and then the state of Oregon, two years later, voted on a moratorium: there would never be nuclear power plants. [...] So, that's what happened. The property got turned over to State Parks, and it will be protected in perpetuity, and all the people got older, maybe wiser, and that's the book I wrote! <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's awesome!<br />TYG-GD: So, in terms of your dream of writing, are you fulfilled, or are you onto your next story?<br />Andrea:</i> Well, I'm still working on marketing this. I'm doing a memoir workshop in October. But I don't know what I'm going to do next. Part of the reason I'm doing the memoir workshop is that I would like to write a book about my father, who was a compulsive gambler. But there was a secret about him in the family, something that happened when he was young. Nobody would tell me about it. I remember asking my aunt, one of his sisters, and she said she'd written a paper about him when she was getting her Master's in Education. So it had to be a juvenile thing, because she was teaching young people. And I said, "Well, can I read it?" "Oh no, you're much too young," she said. I was thirty. [laughs] So nobody would tell me. His younger brother, when I asked, he said, "Oh, there's nothing to tell. I don't want to ruin your memory of your father." Trying to get the information is really hard! If he was a juvenile, there won't even be court records if it was a crime. I have no idea! No idea what he did. So I thought about doing a fictional memoir about him. But I've got about four other novels that I've been working on, but I can't decide which one I want to pursue. This book just came out last November, so I think it's going to be around the year mark until I feel I'm done with it. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: How did you get into writing?<br />Andrea: </i>Oh gosh, I've been writing since I was five years old. When I was little, we had to go to a birthday party dressed as what you want to be when you grow up, and I had this little shirt and shorts made of newspaper print, and I had my little camera with me...<i>[laughs] [to the Publisher:]</i> See, I was going to be just like you. <br />
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<i>TYG: [laughs] Except I'm dropping this.<br />Andrea: </i>Yes? Are you? Are you going to retire?<br />
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<i>TYG: Yes, I'm dropping it at Issue 100. Because I need to go off to college! <br />Andrea:</i> Yes, you do. <br />
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<i>TYG: I'm going off to college in the fall of 2020, to OSU, engineering program. <br />Andrea: </i>Very good. Well, you've done a terrific job on this. I still remember when you first started, and you had your briefcase... it was so great! And people love it! You should try to sell it—maybe somebody else will want to take it over.<br />
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<i>TYG: I don't want to sell it! That's the thing—I want it to be done at Issue 100. That way, no one can mess up its legacy. <br />Andrea:</i> Well, you've done a great job on it. So anyway, I've been writing ever since. I had one short story published when I was in high school, I think, in <i>Ingénue Magazine</i>—it was kind of like <i>Seventeen</i>. Then I did free-lance journalism, and I wrote about the coal and oil industry, because I was living in Pennsylvania and that's kind of what there was. That was interesting—I met a lot of really interesting people. A Greek shipping magnate—I met him in New York. I don't know—I like writing about different businesses because I like talking to people. And for a while I was working for the Mid-Coast Watersheds Council and writing about salmon restoration projects. I put together a newsletter for them for a year or so. And then when I was the marketing director <i>[for Yachats]</i> I wrote blurbs, or for <i>Travel Oregon</i>—they try to make things very personal, so I would write articles as if I were a tourist, like doing birding up on the Alsea Bay in Waldport, stuff like that. It was fun! So that's what I do! <br />
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<i>TYG: Thank you very much—it's been an awesome interview!<br />Andrea:</i> Thank you!<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Andrea Scharf will lead a workshop on Memoir Writing at her home in the Yachats River Valley on Saturday October 12, 2019, from 9 to 4:30. The workshop is limited to ten people in order to provide individual guidance, and is appropriate for all ages and levels of writing ability. Lunch is included, with beverages and healthy snacks throughout the day. Cost to attend the one-day workshop is $125. Contact Andrea at 541-547-3092 or <a href="mailto:dreams@peak.org" target="_blank">dreams@peak.org</a>.</i><br />
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<b>Community Events:</b><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px;">
Now in its third year, the Yachats Banner project will hold their annual auction and artist celebration October 5, 5 PM – 7 PM in the Yachats Commons. </div>
Each spring local artists volunteer to design and paint banners. This
year's theme is “Where Edges Meet.” Banners are displayed along Hwy.
101 from June through September. On the first Saturday of October, they
are auctioned off to support arts programs and fund the project for the
following year. This year’s auction will be held on October 5th from 5
until 7 in the Commons Building in Yachats. Visit the banner auction and
view the banners up close. You just may find yourself bidding for one
of these beauties. For more information visit <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.pollyplumb.org&source=gmail&ust=1569997588065000&usg=AFQjCNG56BKSG1L45jeQ2C5BqFpmmtg3Ug" href="http://www.pollyplumb.org/" target="_blank">www.pollyplumb.org</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-35338498210691590812019-08-31T23:12:00.003-07:002019-08-31T23:12:55.220-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 93, September 1 2019<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/6f9676t388cd4iz/20190901-YachatsGazette-93rd-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Click here for a printable copy of Issue 93</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview with Frank Male and Kathy McCulloch of Midtown Guitar Company</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> </b></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfB1SbZ3aXxOkoidkIquB-fbcrYTFPd7vVmCuGySsx8abfctOCOEufaBtqsOCmIs9qLa0FwmYTgDJ7Uqbp69oLIuwZwdvOES9IfT5UespyXxDfC0qSGqYHfUeBzZMCjgSdLbtE5xpR3ec/s1600/MidtownGuitarCo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfB1SbZ3aXxOkoidkIquB-fbcrYTFPd7vVmCuGySsx8abfctOCOEufaBtqsOCmIs9qLa0FwmYTgDJ7Uqbp69oLIuwZwdvOES9IfT5UespyXxDfC0qSGqYHfUeBzZMCjgSdLbtE5xpR3ec/s400/MidtownGuitarCo1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>TYG: So, how did you guys come to Yachats?<br />Frank: </i>Well, we were in the Bay Area and we'd been looking for a place to retire. We were originally looking in Nye Beach. We discovered Yachats, and we decided to retire here and bring in a music store. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: So what got you guys into guitars?<br />Frank:</i> I've been playing music most of my life, so it kind of goes from there...<br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: How did you end up getting a store and an inventory like this? There are beautiful pieces in here. <br />Frank:</i> Well, the inventory you just buy. But yeah, I like to buy guitars, and I had a number of guitars at home, and an opportunity to start a store in Aptos, California. We were fairly successful from the day we opened, and we did that for five or six years. We then opened one in Santa Cruz, and had an opportunity to dispose of that one, so we sold our property that we had there and came up here. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: Do you still have the shop in Aptos?<br />Frank:</i> No, that's closed as well. <br /><i>Kathy:</i> We had that one for four years, and then one in Santa Cruz for two. And then we took all the best stuff, that we liked the best, from the one in Santa Cruz that we had moved to, and we brought it up here. And we sold that one in Santa Cruz. Then we got a 16-foot truck, got everything in there, including the neon [signs], and we brought ourselves and the guitars up here, where we had bought a house two years prior and vacation-rentalled it. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: How did you find this little corner of the world? It's not a major feature on most maps... <br />Kathy: </i>Our realtor! In Nye Beach we kept getting our houses bought out from under us, so he told us he liked Yachats, and every time he came down here, everybody was always happy down here. He grew up in Waldport. So we came down here, and we got lucky! We got a house.<br /><i>Frank:</i> Yachats is actually quite well known.<br /><i>Kathy:</i> Yeah! In Europe, in the subway, they have a moving sign—his son saw it!<br /><i>Frank:</i> In Heathrow Airport! <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: In England? That's amazing! Considering it got onto Frommer's top ten travel destinations, surpassing London and Paris! <br />TYG-EA: Well, Paris was on there, but London didn't make the cut.</i><br /><i>Frank:</i> They have their great histories and all that, but they've turned into big cities. <br /><i>Kathy:</i> I like it that you can walk everywhere.<br /><i>Frank:</i> I don't know how long it will last, but we have a community with no police department, no stop light, no bank, no gas station for eight miles, and I don't like any of those things. We have no traffic, but it's giving me a place. It's one of those few places in the world that's kind of on the way up, and it seems like everywhere else is on the way down. So we're lucky; we're able to do what we're doing, and we plan to just make this into a kind of destination with music—I don't know how many guitars we'll sell here. Most people are tourists and just want to look at them. Most of our business has gone online through a site called Reverb. So if I actually get serious about selling guitars, most of the guitars will go on a UPS truck out of here. <br /><i>Kathy:</i> Which we did down in Santa Cruz too. It's pretty exciting to come in in the morning and some $3,500 or $2,500 guitar has sold.<br /><i>Frank:</i> Most of the money is spent shipping it out.<br /><i>Kathy:</i> Yes! So once you ship it out you get the money. It has its ups and downs.<br /><i>Frank:</i> But the business model, to me, is lifeless. There's no music in it; the guitars come in a box, and they go out in a box. <br /><i>Kathy:</i> And [the customers] want them untouched.<br /><i>Frank:</i> Yeah, you don't get to hang out with them or whatever. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: This is a place where things are personal. <br />Frank:</i> Yes, you can pick one up, and we enjoy the people. We've sold a few instruments.<br /><i>Kathy:</i> We sold a PRS.<br /><i>Frank:</i> Nobody knows who PRS is.<br /><i>Kathy:</i> So, Paul Reed Smith has just started making acoustic guitars. A local person, who was really waiting for us to open, we had it because our rep had just been in. So we showed him some other stuff, and then that guitar, and he bought it. Same day. And that same day we sold three ukuleles, too. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: What drew you to this location, this store I mean?<br />Kathy:</i> Well, this property became open. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: I hear it's been a lot of work.<br />Frank:</i> It has—we've been here for a year. <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: I remember this place when it was still a wine shop, but it certainly didn't look like this.<br />Frank: </i>There was a lot of stuff that was pretty rotten that we fixed up. <br /><i>Kathy: </i>We had to replace the roof. <br /><i>Frank:</i> It's been a good project.<br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: You guys did the work yourselves? <br />Frank: </i>Well, we had some people help us along the way. It's had its moments. It's pretty good now that most of the work is done. <br /><i>Kathy:</i> He was going back and forth by train a lot, and I was running the store in Santa Cruz. At one point, when there was snow this past winter, he got stuck on the train—I don't know if you heard that story.<br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: You were on that train! Oh! <br />Kathy:</i> It got turned around. It was upsetting—they didn't have food. <br /><i>Frank: </i>It was bad. But anyway, we got the building, we fixed it up, and now we're open.<br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: What's to become of the two little buildings?<br />Kathy:</i> They're rented. <br /><i>Frank:</i> So, we'll have an amphitheater out here, and there will be music, and I think it's going to be a cool place! Eventually we're going to put a caboose out in back.<br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: A railroad caboose?<br />Frank:</i> Yes! <br /><i> </i><br />
<i>TYG: That'll be cool!<br />Frank</i>: Alright guys, thank you so much!<br />TYG: Thanks for your time!<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-29694197891280879792019-08-01T04:12:00.000-07:002019-08-01T14:15:12.297-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 92, August 1 2019<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/8pczawdbykm2ucn/20190801-YachatsGazette-92nd-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Click here for a printable version of Issue 92</span></a><br />
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b>Interview With Lama Phurbu Tashi Rinpoche</b></h2>
<i>The Yachats Gazette was invited to interview the Lama Phurbu Tashi at the beginning of July; he was a speaker at the Little Log Church in Yachats.</i><br />
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<i>TYG: Can we get your full name for the record?<br />LPTR:</i> Oh yes, my personal name is Phurbu Tashi. Some people call me Lama, and Rinpoche is kind of a title, so Lama Phurbu Tashi Rinpoche becomes kind of long. Sometimes people call me Lama Phurbu. Sometimes I make it easier for people: LPTR. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
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<i>TYG-Graphic Design: What part is your family name—is it Phurbu?<br />LPTR:</i> No, there is no family name.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Did you change names when you were growing up?<br />LPTR:</i> No, I did not. Phurbu Tashi was given by my mother. I was born on Thursday—Phurbu is Thursday. Tashi is "auspicious." So "Auspicious Thursday." <br />
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<i>TYG: So, to begin with... how did you feel when you discovered you were the reincarnation [of Tsatsa Khenpo Thubten]? <br />LPTR:</i> Oh! At that time, I was very young, compared to now! <i>[laughs]</i> At age 12 or 13 I went to a monastery. Some senior monks came to my home, and they were talking to my parents. I had some strange and curious thoughts in my head, before they recognized me as a reincarnation. I was wondering about questions like, "How am I here?" and "Who am I?"—those thoughts were in my head. And then they told my parents that I was a reincarnation of someone. So I became really interested to find out, and so I got interested to study Buddhist philosophy. I'm not a reincarnation of a very important or high-[ranking], highly respected sort of person. I myself have had no remembering of previous lives or anything like that. But when I was little, one thing that makes a little bit of sense to me is that when I went to regular school, I had quite a lot of difficulties with the studies. But when I was switched to the monastery, I almost felt like I was familiar with these studies. And I always got first prize. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: What kind of things did you study in regular school? Did you grow up in Tibet?<br />LPTR: </i>Yes. In regular school, we learned Chinese language, mathematics, history, and things like that. And in the monastery, they teach Buddhist philosophy and the Tibetan language. We also memorized a lot of the philosophical texts—and it was easy for me. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Allen, have you done much memorizing in school?<br />TYG: Not as much as I really should! <br />LPTR: </i>Yes, study is endless, it's never enough...<i> [laughter]</i> <br />
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<i>TYG: Fortunately we now have calculators to circumvent a lot of it!<br />LPTR: </i>Right—and we don't have to practice hand-writing, right? Using computers, perhaps many people don't know how to write! <i>[laughs]</i> <br />
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<i>TYG: I think people still know how to write, here. I'm not sure if I have kids, though, what it will be like then. Because it is changing. I sincerely hope so! I've done a little calligraphy, and I love it.<br />LPTR:</i> When we were children, we had to practice how to write. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: With a paintbrush, or a pen?<br />LPTR:</i> A different kind of pen, yes. Bamboo, and then you cut it this way and this way, and then ink. <br />
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<i>TYG: So how did you end up in Annapolis? <br />LPTR: </i>I was in India for a long time, and from India I got invited to visit some US people in New York. Then I decided to go visit some other places, and I went to Maryland. I didn't know anything about any parts of the US, but I thought I would choose some names of places in the States, and "Maryland" sound[ed] like a really nice place. [laughter] And also it was not too far, it was close to New York. So I went to Maryland, and then I met some people—the same like here, it's my first day in Yachats, the first time I'm visiting here, and already I've met many nice people! <i>[laughs] </i>So the same thing happened in Annapolis; people asked me to teach meditation. I went back to New York, but they asked me to come back, so I went back. I did some regular teaching to a group of psychologists and counselors, and [I still do]. I realized it had been 11 years! I didn't really plan it that way! <i>[laughs]</i> <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So, can you tell us more about how you moved from Tibet to India?<br />LPTR:</i> Oh! About 50, 60 years ago, there was a Chinese communist revolution, and many of the graduate teachers escaped and ran away from that crisis, and went to India. So they stayed in India, and when I was a child, I heard that in India was a great place to study the teachings of the Buddha, and lots of great teachers had stayed there. So, for that reason, when I was a child, it was very difficult to travel from China to any other country, and especially if you were Tibetan, it was more difficult—there are more restrictions on monks, for political reasons. So I had to escape through the Himalayan mountains; I walked to Nepal. It took 15 days. <br />
<br />
TYG-GD: Wow! By yourself?<br />
LPTR: With a group of people. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Wow. And how old were you when you did that?<br />LPTR:</i> 18. I went to India to study, for personal reasons—I didn't have any problem with the government. I just went there for studies, and I did not have to ask for permission from my parents or the monastery—I just went. Took off by myself. <i>[laughs] </i>I didn't even tell them—I thought they would worry about me. I only told them when I was already in India. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So how long did you stay in India?<br />LPTR:</i> I think about 17 or 18 years. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Wow... So how many more languages did you speak after India?<br />LPTR:</i> I speak mainly my first language, which is Tibetan, and then I studied English in India. And then I speak a little bit of Hindi, Nepali, and a little bit of Mandarin Chinese. But those languages are not because I'm smart, but because they were necessary. People don't understand my language, so I have to speak theirs. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I'm from Switzerland, and I grew up in the French-speaking part, but Switzerland has four national languages. <br />LPTR: </i>Yes, I know very well over there! Actually, the first Western country I visited was Switzerland! Around 1996 or so—a long time ago. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow, where did you go?<br />LPTR</i>: Lausanne! <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I'm from Nyon, which is between Genève and Lausanne...<br />LPTR: </i>Oh, this is such a nice place, wow! A few years ago I went there, and we took a boat to the other side... Evian.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Evian! Was it a paddle-wheel boat?<br />LPTR: </i>Yes! And the famous water comes from there. Oh, Lausanne... I went to visit at least five times, the Geneva-Lausanne area. This is a very nice place, beautiful.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I agree. <br />TYG: So, how come Switzerland first?<br />LPTR: </i>Well, when I was in the monastery—the monastery usually provides education, and food, but there is also some money from supporters, or sponsors. When I was in the monastery, I got a sponsor from Switzerland—somebody found a sponsor for me to continue my monastery studies, and a little bit of money that I could use for buying soap, a toothbrush, things like that, necessary things. So this Swiss couple, Jean and Céline, they sponsored me for several years in the monastery college. And then one time they invited me to visit them. That's why I went to Switzerland. Until now they were very close, and I went to visit them quite often. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Do you speak French with them?<br />LPTR: [laughs] </i>No, we speak in English! I went to France a couple of times for teaching. The French people, sometimes they say that the Swiss people speak slowly, and drive slowly... <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Switzerland is "the South." If you put it in terms of the United States, Switzerland is like the South of the United States: it's where the farmers are, and they're all less educated—which is not true! But that's what they say. [laughs] </i><br />
<i>TYG: That's the thing about stereotypes!<br />LPTR: [laughs]</i> I noticed something about French people, the way they speak, the way they drive: fast! They drive fast, they speak fast... the Swiss are a little more slow! [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, you went to India... was it from your monastery in India that you came to the United States, or did you go through some more steps?<br />LPTR:</i> I came here by myself, not through the monastery. I came for a visit, then I stayed here—longer than a visit. <i>[laughter]</i> <br />
<br />
TYG-GD: Did you have to get a visa for it?<br />
LPTR: Yes, yes! There was quite a lot of paperwork. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Are you glad you stayed?<br />LPTR: </i>Yes, I think so. <i>[laughs] </i>You know, in life we always have choices. We choose one, and then we should be glad, happy about what we choose, right? But if we didn't choose this one, what would have happened? <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: It's cost-benefit analysis.<br />LPTR:</i> If I hadn't stayed, I don't know what would have happened. I would be somewhere else, maybe doing something else... <i>[laughs]</i> Could be better, or worse. After I finished my studies and my training in India, I traveled—I went to Switzerland, France, for teaching. I tried to help people by sharing my studies and practices. And then in Indonesia, I had some followers there. I quite often went to visit there, for teaching. So half of the year I'm in Annapolis, and every six months I'm in Indonesia (Jakarta).<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So what's Indonesia like?<br />LPTR:</i> Indonesia is a tropical country, it's very hot. It's beautiful there, with lots of islands, and clean, like Bali. A wonderful beach with big waves and a clean ocean. Lots of tourists. And a majority of people there practice Islam. But they also have Christians, Hinduism, Buddhists, and Confuscianism.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, you teach meditation?<br />LPTR: </i>Yes, I teach Buddhist philosophy and meditation. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: How does that work?<br />LPTR: </i>So, in order to practice meditation, they have to have some kind of a goal to achieve, and some kind of method, or technique how to practice, or how to meditate. All that comes from the teachings of Buddha, that's why I call it Buddhist philosophy. So they're taught methods, and the way to practice meditation, and why you practice meditation, and how to practice meditation, and how it works. And all this is based on the teachings of Buddha. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So why did Buddha meditate?<br />LPTR:</i> So, uhm...<i> [laughs]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I'm sorry, was that too big a question? [laughs]<br />TYG: Talk about the edges of philosophy, and all of a sudden cannon ball right into the middle... [laughter]<br />LPTR:</i> They made a good movie in India about Buddha's life; it's called "Buddha: Rajaon ka Raja," and it's on Netflix. It explains the basics, but it's really long, like 50 episodes. It's quite interesting, but anyway, in the show the answer for your question is, according to Buddha, this life is not our only lifetime. We have a physical aspect, but also a mental aspect. So the physical aspect, when we die, goes back to the "mother" element. It doesn't become nothing. So the physical elements dissolve. But the mind is also there, and it cannot become nothing, but it cannot [either] become a permanent [object]. So its existence as a "mind stream" continues, and it's then another life. It gets reborn as another life. And it came from previous lifetimes. But your own mind, everybody's mind, has an ultimate, true nature; it's not that it was created, but it is primordially pure. It has enlightenment nature, it has lasting happiness and peace, and great qualities; it doesn't have to be suffering and confused and things like that. Its nature is enlightenment. But we fail to recognize our own, true, ultimate nature, and then we fall into duality, into illusion. Then we experience getting born, getting old, and dying, and then reborn again, and going through lots of suffering. So in order to be free from that kind of suffering, then you not only meditate, but do good things: be virtuous, doing kindness, being loving, compassionate, being pure morally, being generous, and so on, doing good things. And meditate. Through meditation you recognize your immanent true nature. Only then can you become an enlightened one, or become a Buddha. You've reached lasting happiness and you never go through the suffering of being born and getting old again. Never again. That's why you meditate.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: But why is the mind attracted to being born again? I would think the mind would just be pure by itself. Why does it bother coming back? <br />LPTR:</i> Oh, that's an interesting, good question. Oh, okay, how to make it easier? So the mind that is ignorant, or deluded, doesn't purify by itself. It goes on and on. A previous lifetime is just like yesterday. This lifetime is like today. What we are tomorrow is kind of similar to what we are today. Tonight, there's no big change. It's kind of continuous. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Okay, I see. It's a gradual refinement.<br />LPTR: </i>It's kind of like a river. That's why they call the mind a "stream." Usually we think that the mind is one, substantial, thing. But it's not one thing—it's a continuation. So it's called a mind stream, and it's like a river. So that "right now" is deluded, and when we die, it's impossible to just suddenly be pure and free. So that's why we continue and have to gradually purify. But if we don't do anything, it's still continuous. Anybody has the possibility to get enlightened, anybody, including all sentient beings. But that doesn't mean that they will become enlightened spontaneously. There has to be an effort to make it happen.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [...] How does Buddhism incorporate modern scientific discoveries?<br />LPTR:</i> I think that modern scientific discoveries make Buddhist teachings easier to understand. Without modern science, it's very difficult to describe Buddhist concepts. Psychologists and quantum physics are theories that make it much easier to understand Buddhist teachings. My understanding is that Buddhist teachings go way beyond where science still is. Science is physics, and physics is still understanding based on measurements at the physical level. But Buddhist teachings go beyond the physical level. And the mind [perception] is also based on the physical level. The brain creates the mind, right? In Buddhism, the essence of the physical is the mind. Like a dream. You fall asleep and you dream, and then everything you observe and you see: your friends, your neighbors, your house, your planet Earth—all that is just in your dream, and that dream is created by your mind. There are some differences, but in short, I think modern science makes Buddhist teachings a lot easier to study. Like when Buddha explains the sky, and space, which is infinite; and there are infinite beings, and infinite realms—I think a thousand years ago, people were confused about what we were talking about.<i> [laughter]</i> And also when Buddha explains about the mind, and how there are many levels, and how to cultivate or train your mind; it's easier now when there is a culture of psychology. I don't think it's the same, but it makes it easier to understand Buddhist teachings. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I wonder what aspect of it causes things like autism? I'm mildly autistic, and I wonder how these things get added to the mix of the souls—I don't know whether that's the correct term. <br />LPTR:</i> Buddhism also talks about the law of causes and conditions, how in life there are actions that cause conditions. But that doesn't mean something that cannot change. The causes that karma brought can be improved and changed. In Buddha's teaching, for any kind of life-form there's no perfect or really satisfied life. The life-forms are brought by karma, which means cause and effect. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what you did in your last life, you pay for in this life?<br />LPTR: </i>I don't think it's "pay," or not some kind of punishment. If I touch my finger to the fire, it will burn. It's not that I'm paying, or being punished; it's cause and what happens, fire and burn. So karma is the law of cause and effect, similar to gravity; it's not that people can believe or not believe—it's just a strong law that naturally applies. If people don't believe gravity, I don't think gravity cares! <i>[laughter]</i> So in Tibetan tradition, if we have good things, then we appreciate good karma, and are also encouraged to do more good karma. And if we have difficulties, then we are not discouraged, but we also recognize it. So we have probably done bad karma, so then we do good things to try and purify, to get better and improve. That is a tradition. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That sounds like a tradition that a lot of people try for. I think most people try to do better in their life...<br />LPTR:</i> But according to Buddhist teachings, if we want to have a meaningful or lasting happiness, a satisfying happiness, we have to achieve enlightenment. There is no other way; there is no perfect life-form. There are always problems: poor people have problems, rich people have problems, old people have problems, young people have problems, men have problems, women have problems. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: But if you're perfect, then you are no longer attached to the flesh?<br />LPTR:</i> No, even perfect people have problems! <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yes, that's what I was going to say! Perfect people have loads of problems—there's nothing left to strive for, for one thing! "Perfect" is the classic thing that you reach for, and you think "Oh, it's going to be so amazing!" and then once you're perfect, you think, "Wait a minute! There's nothing left for me to do!" Should I then make myself not perfect to be able to go back to perfect, or what? [laughter]<br />LPTR:</i> Okay, thank you for your interview!<br />
<i>TYG: Thank you very much Sir, it was very interesting! </i><div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-25765741014306082202019-05-01T20:56:00.001-07:002019-05-02T12:31:42.746-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 91, May 1 2019<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/12i9whwp3h55zhp/20190501-YachatsGazette-91st-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">For a printable version of Issue 91, please click here</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with the Beach Street Kitchen</span></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>The Yachats Gazette spoke with Daniel Cooper, Brian Hoberg, and Thomas Arndt, who have just opened up their new restaurant, the Beach Street Kitchen, located across from the Post Office at 84 Beach Street.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So, what brought you guys to Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> Mainly this place, I would say.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes—we've been working in restaurants in Newport, most recently [and] other places before then. Finally, over the last year, we decided to really go 100% into doing our own restaurant. It's kind of an idea that we've thrown around over the years.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yes, for the most part there's not a whole lot of business real estate or restaurant-specific, capable buildings on the coast.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: There just aren't that many buildings... Especially around here. [general agreement]</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> If they're available, they're run-down or really old—or they're really expensive. So yeah, we were kind of in the market for a place, just generally looking. This place popped onto our radar, and it was kind of too good an opportunity to pass up.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Certainly a beautiful spot with a long history.</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> A beautiful location, awesome little town.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: This place has been well-loved.</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> We were overjoyed. Heidi is terrific.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: There was a restaurant here before Heidi's, right?</i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: When we first moved here 12 years ago, it was a restaurant called Grand Occasions. It was Heidi and a partner who later left that partnership. At the time it was mostly a lunch place. And it evolved into essentially a dinner place. </i><br />
<i>TYG: Yes, after two separate fires! </i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> There was definitely at least one.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Yes, I know there was a big one that was threatening to catch the neighboring businesses on fire. And destroyed this one, pretty much. Probably useful for you guys, because you got a relatively new frame.</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yes, all the drywall.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> And the electronics—the electrical, the wiring...so it was updated.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>It gives us a bit more leeway to try out new things.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Do you guys jointly own the business?</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> Yes, we're partners in the business, but we rent the space.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> John May is the landlord, and he's just another one of the several, really good signs that this is going to maybe work out kind of thing.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Yes, we had one of those stories. After talking to a whole bunch of other people, it feels like Yachats is one of those places where things tend to line up. </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: Serendipities. </i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>That's interesting!<br />
<i>Dan:</i> We were looking at another space, and it was a restaurant, it could have worked for us but we would have had to buy the building. It wasn't in any sort of good condition, and we were getting closer and closer to really pour on it, and then we found out from the City Planner that due to parking, there was no way that that building could be a restaurant.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>Yeah, they had changed the zoning after the restaurant was established.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> So while the restaurant was running, they had a non-conforming use permit, but when we checked with the City Planner, he said they'd lost their non-conforming use permit, so you'd have to add X amount of parking per square foot.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> And there was not enough room on the property. So then we'd have to buy the next property.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> Which is owned by the state. So yes, there's no way you're getting any of that property. It was the new parking lot at Agate Beach, the Lucky Gap Trail head parking lot right by the lighthouse. So they had just built that huge parking lot that fits 100 cars, and then they were telling us that we'd have to add 7-10 parking spots in addition to that. And it just ended up being a deal-breaker. There was no way we could afford it.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>And basically, the next day, a realtor that we had talked to was like, "Hey, this place came up, I know it's a little far away, but it seems kind of right up your alley. Small place, easy to get into, and... location."<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: It's certainly got the view!</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>Oh, yes, my gosh... Just watching the ocean, even if it's the worst day, it's still amazing.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>Never dull.<br />
Brian: This is really a good size for us, too.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: For three people, it's about right: admin, then one or two kitchen people.</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>Yup. I'm definitely admin. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yes, it's a good first step into ownership. It's not too overwhelming of a size, but it's not too underwhelming either.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So where do you guys hail from?</i><br />
<i>Tom & Dan:</i> We're both from Colorado.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>I'm from Modesto, California. But we've all lived in Oregon for a number of years now.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: How did you guys all meet?</i><br />
<i>Brian: [to Dan & Tom]</i> You guys met a long time ago, and then came out here at separate times to Newport, but you weren't too far off...<br />
<i>Dan:</i> A year apart, or a little less.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>And then I was playing music with Daniel's brother Sam, in Portland.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> You would come out to the coast and gig, and then crash at the house.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> And then my wife happened to get a job in Toledo—she's a teacher at Toledo Elementary School. And then we were like, "Well, do you want to move out to the coast? You've got a job right now, so that's a good thing!" <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<i>Dan: </i>Especially as a teacher.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> Exactly, especially as a teacher! At that time, everything was just kind of shifting—now, it's a lot easier to find teaching job, I think. [...] She was waiting for a long time kind of for the baby boomer retiring phase to create a vacuum of teaching jobs. Now it's seems like that's happening. But at that time it was really tough. So I started working at Cafe Mundo, mainly because Dan and Tom were already there. So we started working together, and then also just hanging out and stuff. They do cool stuff, and I like being around people who do cool stuff. They're very industrious.<br />
<i>Tom: [laughs] </i>Yes, like music, shooting bows and arrows at each other...<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: [laughs] Hopefully Nerf arrows!</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Yeah, foam tips. They're 30-pound bows, so they're real, but they're on the low end.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> And we wear masks, also, to protect our eyes.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: That sounds fun. </i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>But, we haven't done that in a while. I don't know why, we've been too busy... [laughter]<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So, how long was the process of pulling this together, once you identified the spot?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Oh, it was a month and a half of crunching the numbers, making the offer on it, and that was in January. So it was a four-month process of turning it from what it was into this.<br />
<i>Dan: </i>We got the keys on the 7th of January.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> I don't think we ended up doing much here until February, because the first three weeks were hand-planing these things [motions to the matching live-edge wooden table-tops].<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So did you guys do all the wood-work yourselves?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>We did, yes.<br />
<i>TYG: I could learn a few things from you guys!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Who's got all the tools?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Mostly Tom.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> I have a little bit, but mostly Tom. I brought a sander, and a circular saw.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: [to Tom] So, are you a pretty serious wood-worker?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> I wouldn't say "serious," but I enjoy it. I love working with wood, because it's soft. I like working with metal, too, but every time I work with metal I end up with cuts all over my hands, and burns... it's black and dirty and sooty. I mean, it's fun to play with molten metal and high amounts of electricity, but it's much more relaxing to work with wood.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Is there an awesome story about harvesting all the wood, or did you just have to buy it?</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> The slabs is pretty cool...<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yeah—we were looking for slabs, and we found—on the internet—this guy Mark. He has <a href="http://www.saelwood.com/" target="_blank">Saelwood Coastal Milling</a>. He was having a sale, just one Monday, and we went to see his warehouse. We really liked what we saw, and he said he had another warehouse with more items. So we went with him really quickly to the other warehouse, which just happened to be 500 feet from our wood shop. <i>[general laughter] </i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> It's all in Aquarium Village.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> We carried them by hand! We picked through the stack and said, "These are definitely the ones we want!"<br />
<i>Dan: </i>I think he ended up selling the rest not long after. So all four slabs are from one tree, a Sitka Spruce from Otter Crest.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes, just north of Newport. We were so happy. Mark really cares about the process—it was so nice.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> These three tables all line up, as you can see, and those four over there.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So all the tables are from one tree?</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> All the tables, and then the two counters.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Was it finished at all when you got it?</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> No, it was chain-saw rough.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> They just held onto it for years...<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Oh, perfect! So it was all perfectly seasoned...</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>We also found from them a round of black walnut that is a couple of years in the drying—6 inches thick, and hasn't cracked yet. So that's going to be a table at some point.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> That's the fun part about working with wood—it just gets more and more beautiful every day.<br />
Tom: Every step of the way, it just gets more refined. These guys poured all the epoxy onto it, then we had a friend finish them up. He does surfboards, so he has lots of experience with epoxy.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>Yeah, about a week from our target opening, we were like, "We're going to have to call a friend in!"<i> [laughter] </i>Yes, we really respect people who work with epoxy, because it's hard! You just get one shot...<br />
<i>Tom:</i> You have to start from scratch, and getting back to scratch takes a long time!<br />
<i>Brian:</i> You pour it, you mix it, and you have 35 minutes before you can't do anything else to it. Anyway, we learned a lot. <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>We made some mistakes... <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Yes, don't do a whole slab at once!</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Or three slabs at once! That was the first mistake we made... <i>[laughter]</i> Because you do a seal coat at first, to make sure the wood's not going to absorb too much. So we thought, "It's going to be just like painting!"<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: I feel like even with painting, if you have three huge slabs...</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Well... like we said, it was a huge learning curve.<br />
<i>Brian: [miming]</i> Running around like aaaaagh... <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> We did have rollers, and we had squeegees.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> We got close, but we did not get all of the surfaces on the first pass.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>We learned some things.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Every problem...<br />
<i>Brian: [laughing] </i>is just an opportunity for growth!<br />
<i>Dan:</i> Right! So then we thought we'd just ask a friend to do the last touches. He was able to do a better job in less time.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> We were very lucky. That's another kind of [serendipity]: that we had so many friends able to<i> </i>help us and be part of this business too. The mugs are done by a friend; she has a shop just across from our in the Aquarium Village.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> She threw all of the mugs within 50 feet of our wood shop. Ellie Workman: she does the Saturday and Farmer's Markets<i> [<a href="http://workmanpottery.com/">workmanpottery.com</a>]</i>.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> She's fantastic and really worked with us...<br />
<i>Dan:</i> She totally customized exactly what we wanted.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> She had this great idea of just stamping our logo into it; she quickly whipped up a stamp for us in three different sizes.<br />
<i>Dan: </i>"Quickly whipped up" by designing on a computer and then 3D printing.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Oh, you have printing?</i><br />
<i>Dan: </i>Tom's into 3D printing.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Is it as good as it all sounds?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>It's pretty awesome. I mean, I just got a $200 3D printer, and it was exactly what I needed to begin with. Any more, and it would have been too much, too many capabilities. I would have been totally lost.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So, you say, you 3D printed a stamp?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Yes, the logo where it's embossed. The clay is kind of like a leather hardness, and she goes in and just presses it into the clay.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So it's like a chop?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Yes, exactly. Eventually I want to make a little sterling silver chop, to like seal gift cards with sealing wax. It's just the little touches.<br />
<i>Dan: [laughing]</i> Every credit card slip needs... our seal of approval!<br />
<i>Brian: </i>"One moment, folks..." <i>[general laughter]</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Sounds like you guys are pretty happy with how things have been going.</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes. <i>[general agreement]</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> It's been pretty fortuitous. It's like the path of least resistance has been pretty much what we wanted.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>Still a great undertaking.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> An incredible amount of work!<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So how long have you guys been thinking about doing something like this?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Well, I think it's been years—anybody who works in restaurants has ideas about "Well, if I had my own place, this is how I'd do it!"<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Do you guys want to talk about how you developed the menu items and figured out what to serve?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>It's gone through so many iterations and revisions. It's expanded and contracted... The original idea was breakfast and lunch, then it started moving toward lunch and dinner, then back to breakfast and lunch. As we were getting closer, we came up with this extensive menu, and then we realized that we really just needed to pare it back to something that we could do without falling on our face.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> Just build our foundation.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yes. I think a lot of the intent has been offering something for all different dietary preferences. A lot of the things we do are vegetarian as they are, but very easy to add things to.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> Or even vegan.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Yes, you can just add a piece of bacon if someone wants meat.</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Or go the other way, and just go vegan. It's very personal.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Modular things are very useful. </i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Exactly.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> And on the coast, you see a lot of the same types of food around, so we knew we didn't want to do a fish and chips kind of thing. So we asked: What are we missing? So that's a lot of the stuff we're exploring. Every time I say "we" in the food sense, it's mostly Tom, because he's definitely the main, master chef, and master of so many other things in this business as well. He could do much better without us. <i>[talking to Dan] </i>What could we do? We could have like a broken bagel shop or something... <i>[laughter]</i> Maybe espresso.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So what do you guys [Brian and Dan] bring to it?</i><br />
<i>Brian: [small silence]</i> Nothing? <i>[laughter]</i> Social butterfly...<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Designated extrovert?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Well, we all like to talk to people and take turns. I just got to know some people in town from when I was a manager at Cafe Mundo—that helped. But yes, what do we bring? Daniel likes a lot of fun stuff. He likes to surf, work with wood... and espresso! <i>[to Daniel] </i><br />
<i>Dan: </i>Yes, coffee, tea...<br />
<i>Brian:</i> Daniel's the reason we have a killer espresso machine.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> Which was actually the reason that I wanted to own a restaurant. For the espresso machine. <i>[laughter]</i> It makes incredible coffee, and we have these beautiful mugs.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>They're really good drinks.<br />
<i>Dan: </i>And we also get our coffee from our friend in Newport who roasts it, Brendan from Surf Town. So it's like everything coming together. Fair trade, women's coop, shade-grown coffee. He supports really good farmers, then he does a great job roasting it. And he's just an extremely positive, cheery person, and a pleasure to work with.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yeah, the roast we use is "Stay Positive." It just makes for a beautiful experience.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> Even the espresso machine is US built, and local (out of Washington).<br />
<i>Tom:</i> We're trying to keep as much as we can local and sustainable wherever possible.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> That was another thing: we didn't know we could do all of those things together, and the fact that it was some of our friends was just amazing.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>When we can, they're either Oregon, or Northwest, or West Coast. I think the furthest away is that we get a couple of things from southern California. But as far as the produce, it's through an organically-grown company that sources a lot from the Northwest: apples are from Washington, greens are from the Willamette Valley. We have Tillamook cheese. We're starting to have conversations with some of the local farmers just up river here to get a lot of the produce: carrots, broccoli, all sorts of interesting things.<br />
<i>Dan: </i>We just got a source today for local mushrooms, too, for foraged mushrooms.<br />
<i>TYG: Oh yes! We're good at mushrooms here. </i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes, we need to take advantage of that here.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> The goal is to shift as much as possible over to entirely local. The more conversations we have with locals and people around here, the more we find out that, "Oh, we can talk to them for mushrooms, for greens, for eggs." Like we can get our eggs and our chicken from Emerald Hills Farms up in Logsden.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>It's just trying to find it as we are able to source it. So what we've been saying since the beginning of the food thing is: Okay, we're setting up some of these contingency plans, so we can get things from a little further than we'd like, but then, ideally, we know there are a lot of wonderful farms and we've met a lot of people already, and we're really excited; we definitely want to be as local as possible. There are products that might be organic, but if they're from so far away, well that doesn't really help anything.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> There's a balance between local and organic, so that even if it's organic, but it's being shipped halfway across the country, it kind of defeats the purpose. So we can try going local but maybe not organic—so trying to find this balance of what is most sustainable.<br />
<i>Brian: </i>So we want to do the best that we can do for the people and the planet, and always hunting for better ways, and not giving up.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>Yes, I think that's the same with the menu, too—as we find new ingredients, new sources for things, we're able to modify the menu to reflect some of these new, exciting, or local things. What's in season, what's not in season—it's just constantly in flux.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So how's business been going so far?</i><br />
<i>Dan:</i> Great! It's been exactly what we wanted.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> It's been really perfect. On the first day, we just took down the closed sign, that was the only indicator we were open. We didn't do anything beyond that. We didn't advertise, no open sign, and we had total strangers coming in the door. It was just enough to realized that we had forgotten to program a big section of the computer... <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Oh! That's why it's good to do a beta test...</i><br />
<i>Dan: </i>Yeah, so we're doing a very soft, prolonged opening...<br />
<i>Tom:</i> It's building steam. We're able to move along with it, and just gain the practice that we need to keep up with the pace.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> And provide a consistent, high-quality experience. We really want to have a consistent experience here so people know what they're getting themselves into.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: So, at the present, is there a separate breakfast menu and a lunch menu? </i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Our goal is that if it's on the menu, then it's available. There are a number of things that we get frustrated by when going to restaurants, and one of those things is cut-offs for the menu, because I'll arrive at a breakfast place at 11:30, wanting breakfast, [and find out they stopped serving five minutes ago]. So we wanted to avoid situations that are frustrating like that, so we're just trying to make it very simple and say if it's on the menu, it's available.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> We've all spent a number of years being servers and stuff, so we've dealt with a lot of those questions or frustrations on both sides—as customers and as employees.<br />
<i>Dan:</i> As a server, it's always like, I don't see why we can't do breakfast all day... but the kitchen is saying no. So we just wanted to avoid any of those frustrating or disappointed circumstances. [...]<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Anything else you wanted to say at the moment?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>We're extremely excited to be here. This is just a dream come true: the location and the community. Everything about this is feeling great. We're happy to be here.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> It's so nice that our views are appreciated and shared by a lot of people; again, in hunting for everything, we're trying to find things that have less packaging, or less plastic. I hold on to the idea that if we are looking for it, eventually there will be some option for it.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: And in Yachats, that tends to be the case.</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>But everyone has been excited about things we're excited about, like reusable containers or things.<br />
<i>Dan: </i>We're very appreciative of all the support and interest, and good will.<br />
<i>Brian:</i> Everybody has been very supportive; the residents, but also the other restaurants.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> We've felt very welcomed.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Thank you guys so much!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-22242596031360314682019-03-31T23:57:00.003-07:002019-04-01T15:42:17.673-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 90, April 1 2019<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/pw43p5c6e31ydo5/20190401-YachatsGazette-90th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">For a printable copy of Issue 90, please click here</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Interview with Amy Anderson and Greg Holland:</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Proposed Alsea Bay Center For The Arts</span></b></div>
<br />
<i>The Yachats Gazette spoke with Amy, artist and secretary for the Waldport Arts Group, and Greg, Waldport councilor, about the forming of an Alsea Bay Center for the Arts based in Waldport, Oregon.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Can you go start us from the beginning and explain what the process is, what is happening, the story around the Center?</i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> Basically, when I moved here from Los Angeles, I got on the city council in Waldport. I was bugging the Mayor, and I said, "Why isn't there any art activity in Waldport? You need public art." And I kept bugging the mayor, and she said, "Well, if you want public art, why don't you do something about it?" So I said, "Okay, fine! I'll form the Waldport Arts Group." So I founded it, and found great people like Amy, and other good people to form a board. We've been talking for the last two years about finding a building, because we thought that if we found a building, they would come to us: the artists, the community. A building has become available: the Umpqua Bank. The people have moved out, they've turned the building over to the city, and the city is going to have a request for proposals from all types of groups in the City of Waldport.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Everybody is invited to submit a proposal, so we're not the only ones in line for this building. But we're working really hard to make ours the best proposal.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: When is the RFP due?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> We don't have any idea. They haven't even started writing it.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> We're trying to get a head start.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> We're trying to get ramped up so when that RFP comes out, we're going to nail it. <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> We want the community enthused and supporting the project already.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> So that's what started ramping us up, is that we found out that the Umpqua Bank building was going to be available. The minute we found that out, we started contacting local and state government, businesses, artists, youth, and everybody, every stakeholder we could think of in the community. We're trying to reach out to everybody and saying, "Let's come together and make this something great for all of us."<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Have you contacted Jessica Treon?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Yes, Jessie's aware—she's very, very busy right now, but she's definitely shown her interest.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Because it's currently in a church, out of the way a bit, up in Toledo.</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Wow. Well see, that's something that would be really great. We are planning for the Alsea Bay Center for the Arts [ABCA] to serve all of South County. I want to make that really clear up front.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> It's Seal Rock, all the way to Yachats.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Does Toledo count in that? </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Not really. I mean, if they want to play ball, or they want to partner with us at some point...<br />
<i>Greg:</i> Sure.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Yes—we wouldn't leave them out. But geographically...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: South of Newport?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> We don't want to be exclusive of anybody. But we do want to focus on South County, because especially in the Waldport area, we have so very, very little in the way of cultural assets and support for the arts. So we're sort of looking at Waldport as the geographic center of the Center, and then it will resonate out from there.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> Especially when you have things like [Crestview Heights] taking away the art teacher at the Elementary School next year.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Were you aware of that?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: No! Why are they doing that?</i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> They're bringing in a choir teacher instead.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Oh, so they can only support so many people.</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Yes. It's a pretty contentious situation; there are a lot of parent and kids that are pretty sad about the art program going away.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> So the Center for the Arts will bring in classes for the kids. We'd [like to] substitute a lot of things that the art teacher would have done with an art center.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> And the art teacher, Missy Alberti-Araujo is very much involved in helping us to create this portion. We're at the very, very beginning of the planning process, so there's a lot of room for input, there's a lot of room for volunteering, there's a lot of room for helping to shape who we're going to become.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I'm guessing you've already talked to YYFAP [Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program] then?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Not yet. Let me back up: we're working on contacting everybody. Every day I contact 10 or more businesses, so they're on the list. I'm glad you mentioned them so we can bring them on board.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Because I can certainly see a lot of the kids there benefitting from an arts program. </i><br />
<i>Greg: </i>We want a partnership with a lot of different groups—we want to keep the place open and going as often as we can. We don't want a closed building—we want it open, open all the time.<br />
<i>TYG: Yes, when you start closing the building you start losing people. </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Are you going to have a permanent art exhibit?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Yes. Our intention is to have gallery space, so there will always be art. Mostly local artists. There are so many things we want to do! We want to have juried art shows. Part of our mission is to bring tourists to Waldport and give them a really high-quality experience here, so that they'll stay in the area and shop. That is part of our mission. Our mission is sort of three-fold: that's one part, is to develop a tourist base. Another part is to support local art and artists; the other part is support for the community in the way of supporting youth, seniors—whatever the community defines as support, we want to be able to do that.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> But we also want to do music; we want to do drama and have performances going on, like theater.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It would be nice to have a more permanent theater space. </i><br />
<i>Greg: </i>It'll have to be small theater, but...<br />
<i>Amy:</i> And my dream is to create this really strong corps of volunteers that are set to hone our skills, so that when an opportunity comes along we can jump on it, write a grant, and go for it. The Umpqua Bank building is not big enough for all of our dreams. But it's a great start. The core of the Waldport Arts Group is putting together a team of people who will be able to guide the project, write the grants and proposals, and be trained up to really handle the resource in the best possible way for the community.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So can you tell us a little more about the building itself, the parameters, etc.?</i><br />
<i>Greg: </i>It's basically a 3,000 square foot building with a huge lobby. It's got some interesting parts, such as a vault—we thought it would be so interesting to have a vault gallery space.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Art in the Vault.<br />
<i>Greg: [laughs] </i>And it has a long wall where the drive-through is, which is going to be a great space for a gallery too. In the huge lobby we'll be able to move in mobile walls for gallery space, and the lighting is going to be great because it has a huge skylight. It has an attic with a huge storage room, where we were thinking of putting in an artist co-op which would have a framing shop and a printing space.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [chortles] Oh yes.</i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>Because that's the biggest need in South County.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: No kidding, especially after Office Solutions closed down. </i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> And that could make us a little bit of money, too.<br />
Amy: And bring artists together, which is the core of what we're doing. It's all about bringing people together and making connections. Even for people who profess they have no interest in art, no appreciation, and no interest in doing it, this kind of center tends to bring people together with events and happenings. And once we get to where we can work together as a team, where we can learn how to work together and create this solid core, we can hit other areas too. You know, if there's a natural disaster for example, we all know how to work together, we know each other's minds, we know how to work together. So these are some of the far-reaching implications of having a center like this in town and making these connections.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It won't be for that building, of course—it's on the Waldport flats. [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>Well, for that particular disaster, yes. But to that point, the Center for the Arts will be much more than just a building—and if the city decides that there's a better use for that building, we're still committed to creating an arts center. We already have, literally, dozens of people contacting us, and helping out, and personally, I haven't seen this kind of excitement over a project in Waldport since I moved here seven years ago. And I've talked to people who have been here for 20 years, who say that they've never seen this kind of excitement. We've even got the county commissioner Claire Hall pledging to cover our first 18-24 months of utilities.<br />
<br />
Greg and I attended a grant-writing seminar that Meredith Howell put on up in Lincoln City. At the break during her workshop, we had several people approach us with the business card for their foundation saying, "You really need to write a grant. We want to support you." And what we're hearing from the cultural charity community is that they're looking for ways to invest in South County, and specifically Waldport, because we need to bring Waldport up to speed in the arts, and make Seal Rock, Waldport, and Yachats one big destination.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I was thinking of the fabric shop in Waldport, Family Fabrics—I bet she's real keen on this too. </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> She's really excited, yes. We've talked about it a couple of times, and as a matter of fact, the second weekend in February, there's a quilt run—the Coastal Quilt Run—and I told Ruth, "Wouldn't that be great if we could have a quilt show at the art center too?" So yes, there's just so much we can do. I know there's a local writers' group, and it would be nice to invite them to meet in our space. Some of the artists that we've invited and are already on our board—Terry Hill is one of them—he talks about wanting to do a song workshop.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: We could be the other Sitka!</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Sitka South, yes... <i>[laughs]</i> I'd really love to see that.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> The nice thing is, there's not going to be a rent charge because it's a free building. But we do have to maintain it. So operating expenses are going to be low.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Basically just utilities and supplies. </i><br />
<i>Greg: </i>And insurance.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Basically, I feel like it's going to be really attractive to agencies like the Ford Family Foundation, because we should be able to prove that we'll be able to manage that building and the expenses, and hopefully they can help us with a grant to retrofit the bank into an arts center.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> And the building is in excellent shape.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what possessed the bank to actually just give up the building?</i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> We think that because they wanted to keep the ATM in there, they couldn't really sell the building.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> And it's a write-off for them. They actually have a charitable foundation.<br />
<br />
TYG-GD: And what kind of governing structure are you thinking of in terms of participation and membership, those kinds of things?<br />
<i>Amy: </i>Well, the Waldport Arts Group forms the board that is going to be overseeing it.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> Because it has to be a community-based organization.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> And we'll be putting in a half-time executive director, and from there it's going to depend on the programs and what we can do grant-wise to bring money in. Basically, once we get up and running and figure out how to smoothly pull in money and spend it properly and everything, I feel like the sky's the limit. If we want a program, we'll get together and talk about it, we'll write up a grant, we'll figure out how to make it sustainable, and boom.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Are you going to have any studio space for rent? </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Not in the Umpqua Bank building.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> It's not quite big enough.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Maybe we could build like little shacks on the outside? An arts favela?</i><br />
<i>Amy: [laughter]</i> Right!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: You've probably already thought of this, but how about a place for community young adults to come together with a set of art supplies?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Yes!<br />
<i>Greg:</i> Sure!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: They could come together once a week to see if they can work together and develop their own artistic talents.</i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>That's something that when I was talking to Jacquee Christnot about it and getting her opinion, she said, "I would love to see very low-cost, or free, art supplies that an emerging artist can come in and say 'Hey! I would really like to try oil painting, but I don't to spend $500 to $700 to get my first little [starter set]." I mean, you know what it takes to get a medium up and running.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Especially with oils. With certain others it's not so bad. </i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>Even a thing like alcohol inks, which is something I work a lot in... you can get a kit for about $45.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Really? I would have thought that would be even more expensive than oils. </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> But some people don't have that. And if you have the supplies—once you've got them, it doesn't cost very much to keep it up.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Especially with alcohol inks. Alcohol inks are nice in that regard, because it's just refills.</i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>Right, you would just have refills. I started with probably $60 of alcohol inks. I now have 4 different sets, and seven different substrates... <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Talk to Mom, because Mom is the Queen of alcohol inks! [NB: I'm touched by the Publisher's words, but actually, Amy Anderson is really the Queen of alcohol inks.]</i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> Oh really?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: But I work with the markers. I use the refills as background, and then I work with the markers. </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Do you use Copic?<br />
<i>TYG: Yes. </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, I have every single color...</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> I have almost every single one.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And that's out of thousands!</i><br />
<i>Amy: [laughs] </i>Well, out of hundreds, anyway.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: The thing is that somebody with a lot more money than I have was intending to use them. She used them for a while, but then she discovered she just wasn't really that in love with them, and [hushed tones] she gave them all to me. [exclamations] So I ended up with a bunch of duplicates. And when I first started out I was working for another organization online, and they all got together and bought me a 150 set or something.</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> That's amazing!<br />
<i>Greg: </i>Wow!<br />
<i>Amy: </i>There's some crazy stuff going on in the alcohol ink community right now. It's such an accessible medium, I find, and it's so easy for people, even for people who don't really think they're an artist. I think I like teaching it almost more than I like doing it. I taught somebody who, reluctantly, came to the class because she just wanted to hang out. And she told me, "Well, my kindergarten teacher told me I was making mud, and I've never really tried [art] since then." And she's a woman my age, in her 50s. So I put a tile in front of her and three colors, and she made something absolutely beautiful, and I followed through and resined it for her, and she can't wait to do it again.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That is great! Any teacher goes for that...</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> I had another professional artist take my class, and she said it was life-changing. She's an illustrator, and very, very specific.<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [laugh] </i>Yes, this medium will get you to loosen up!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yes, that's something I've seen in Mom's work—it's not the most precise in the world. But that's just how it is.</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: Yes! So I very often do a base layer that's covered with pigment inks and mica [powders] and all kinds of stuff, and then I draw on top of it with the Copics. And because the Copics are so transparent, the bottom [layer] shows through. It gives it a whole, uncontrollable, different layer. </i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>I have some paper for you to try! It's a paper that this artist and chemical engineering student in Australia created specifically for alcohol ink. It's called Ceramic Tile Paper. She has a mentor in the paper industry in Australia, and she and her grandmother are really into alcohol ink. So I just bought a roll of it, and there are only about 30 people in the world that have it right now. <i>[laughter and exclamations]</i> So now there will be 31!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow, that's awesome! Is it really expensive?</i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>It's about the price of Yupo paper, or maybe even a little cheaper. And uh, well, just wait till you see it. Just wait. I'm actually cutting up the roll and selling half of it to try and help her distribute it, because she doesn't have a distribution channel in the United States.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Did you give any to Jo [Beaudreaux] down in Florence, <a href="https://www.beauxartsfineart.com/" target="_blank">at her Beaux-Arts shop</a> next to St. Vinnie's? Because she carries Copics too. </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Not yet! It's going to go like hot cakes... But what's just happened here has been happening with almost every discussion we've had about the Alsea Bay Center for the Arts, because people are coming together: "Oh, you're a glass artist?" "Oh, you're a metal artist?" "I've always wanted to do..." I have heard conversations like this everywhere and it is so exciting.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> It's so exciting to get the artists out of their studios. So it's nice to have them all coming together.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Well Greg, I think you should speak on not being an artist, and how much you're enjoying working on this project.<br />
<i>Greg: </i>Yes! I'm not an artist, I just collect art, that's all I do. But I feel this creativity all around me now, and I'm enjoying that, just seeing it come together and being a part of it.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> And we're looking for people with all sorts of talents to help us out. Right now I'm really hoping to find a CPA who can help us with the financial aspects, and keeping us on the straight and narrow.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Greg: </i>So, we're doing this big launch party on April 9, and it's going to be at the Interpretive Center in Waldport.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> It's the building right by the bridge [on the West side], right by Ruth's Fabrics. Core Fitness, Ruth's, and the Subway are in the strip mall building, and right next to that in the same parking lot is the Interpretive Center. It's really a cool place to visit: they have some historical exhibits. So that's where we're going to have our launch party: April 9th at 5:30 PM. We're going to have a short program at 6 PM; we're going to lay out what we're hoping to do, what we need from the community. We're going to have food and soft drinks.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> And door prizes!<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Right! We have some great door prizes: so far we have a $50 gift certificate for Ona, several artists are donating some really great art, Chubby's is giving us a gift certificate, and we have a Ruth's Fabric Store gift certificate. Yes! So come out and hear about this wonderful new thing that's happening in South County, and you might walk away with a prize, too! And we'll feed you!<i> [laughs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So is there any time scale available from the city of Waldport?</i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> No yet. We'll certainly let people know as soon as it is available.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> I'd be happy to help them write the RFP. <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<i>Greg:</i> But like I said, we just want the community to get ready to start thinking, be creative.<br />
<i>Amy</i>: The other thing is that even before the bank building—or whatever building—comes along, we're starting to get the kind of interest where we can start to pull things together. For example, the Yachats Arts Guild doesn't have a building. They meet at the Presbyterian Church, and they do a lot of stuff at the Commons, and they're starting to develop this wonderful workshop program. We could be looking at the same thing; we could be looking at supporting the school, even before the building goes up. Our biggest focus right now is going to be trying to get the building, because that's what we've got right in front of us right now.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I presume you're talking with Polly Plumb Productions as well?</i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>I've had a couple of meetings with Meredith Howell, plus I took her workshop; she's been a wonderful mentor and I'm hoping very much that she wants to continue in that vein, because she's fabulous. She's expressed, as has just about every other person in the community that we've talked to, the willingness and the need to partner. That's the overriding theme of all of this: the coast needs to come together and partner. We've got a lot of money, and a lot of people come in. It's inevitable; the tipping point is here. If we don't get together and partner and learn how to manage that, it's going to be chaotic and crazy and we will lose control of our culture. And I'm seeing people and businesses partner in ways that I've never seen before.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: That's very positive!</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Yes! That is the overriding feeling that I've had since we started talking about it is that the energy is insanely positive. I just wake up every morning "Zippety do da!"<i> [laughter]</i> Let's go! And I'm putting in pretty much a full-time schedule.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> We're having work sessions every week, and then we've got team meetings in between the work sessions.<br />
<i>Amy:</i> Well, you know that Heather, since you're helping us with our logo, which we totally appreciate.<br />
<i>Greg: </i>Absolutely.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I was thinking, another cool idea would be in a little different direction: a modeler's program. </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Modeler? Like, creating models? Oh, yes!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Like the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society: they would know a lot about modeling. Obviously it's a railroad society, so they'd know more about train modeling, but it might be a good way to start.</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> There's another partnership. That's exactly what I was talking about! See, I hear that every time I talk to somebody, and it gets me giddy! I'm like, look at all these connections we can make! Look how much we can strengthen our community and find commonality, in days where things feel like we don't have much in common. Building on that, and learning how to appreciate each other for what we have in common is going to keep us strong, today and in the future.<br />
<i>Greg:</i> The building has a wonderful conference room, so anybody in the community who just needs a place to meet—I hope we'll have an online scheduling system, just like the Commons.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: <a href="http://youcanbook.me/">YouCanBook.Me</a> ! Have you guys heard of that? That's a great system for that kind of thing. </i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> So, while you're at it, do you have any recommendations for software to run the organization? <i>[laughter]</i> I just thought I'd ask, you never know... My background is in IT, so I've been looking at non-profit software, so my brain is [suggesting we] build it right, from the ground up.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I wish we'd done that for the Gazette!</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> But how old were you, eight?<br />
<i>TYG: Yes, but just a year ago we got a billing system... We'd literally been doing it in Word.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: There's an online conferencing system too, <a href="http://slack.com/">slack.com</a>. </i><br />
<i>Amy: </i>My son knows one too. He's an IT director up in Seattle, and I actually watched him have a conference online once. But we're open for any kind of system. I'm kind of the keeper of the records for the moment since I'm the Secretary of the Waldport Arts Group and since I have an affinity for keeping all that sort of thing together.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Alright! Well, was there anything else you wanted to say?</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Just to let people know that if they are interested in getting in touch with us, we're looking for volunteers, we're looking for donations—we are a 501(c)(3). Any way that people feel that they'd like to support the project, we'd like to hear from them. You can e-mail <a href="mailto:wag@waldportartsgroup.com" target="_blank">wag@waldportartsgroup.com</a>, or go to the Facebook page [<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/WaldportArtsGroup/" target="_blank">Waldport Art Group</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/AlseaBayCenterForTheArts/" target="_blank">Alsea Bay Center for the Arts</a>]. We have strategic planning sessions every Tuesday at 1 PM. When available, we are meeting at Enough (140 NW Hwy 101, Waldport). We have a lot of work to do: writing a business plan, a proposal, grants, and publicity materials. We'd love to have your help! And don't forget the launch party <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">scheduled for April 9th at 5:30 PM at the Waldport Interpretive Center. A short program at 6:00 PM will introduce the community to project. There will be food, soft drinks and door prizes.</span></span><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well, thank you so much for everything!</i><br />
<i>Amy:</i> Thank you!<br />
<i>Greg:</i> Thank you! We appreciate the opportunity.<br />
<div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-11842276440102897042019-02-01T12:09:00.003-08:002019-02-01T12:09:35.437-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 89, February 1 2019<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/4t8o0mk92d27jam/20190201-YachatsGazette-89th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of the Yachats Gazette.</a></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Patti Johnson <br />About the Oregon Coast <br />Honey Lovers' Festival</span></b></div>
<br />
<i>The Yachats Gazette was very lucky to land an unplanned interview with the organizer of this year's Oregon Coast Honey Lovers' Festival, which is scheduled to take place at the Commons in Yachats on February 9, from 10-4 (with a mead tasting and hoedown scheduled into the evening).</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So what is the Honey Festival all about?</i><br />
<i>Patti: </i>Well, the Honey Festival actually started last year. It kind of came about in an odd way. We have Mary Crook, over at the Little Log Church, and she had done an animal blessing. She blessed my kitties, and I told her about my bees, so she did a bee blessing. So one morning I get this call, and Mary said, "You know, I've been having some coffee and some toast and honey, and I think we ought to have a honey festival, and I think it ought to be in February when we do the vow renewals on Valentine's Day." And at first, she said, "I think it should be called 'Honey, I love you,' something like that."<i> [laughter]</i> Well, it grew very quickly, and it kind of worked into the Oregon Coast Honey Lovers Festival, because we wanted to get a community kind of event; not just for bee-keepers, but really the community, and teach and share about pollinators. As you probably well know, pollinators are having a horrible time at this stage. So we thought if we could get some good speakers, get some good vendors, and just really involve children and families, plus the bee-keepers and bee clubs, and get people understanding about pollinators, understanding about honey, how wonderful local honeys are. We wanted to have a honey-tasting that was somewhat more formalized, but not [too formal]. So we have a person coming, Jeffrey Warren, and five different honeys, light to dark, so people can learn about honey. And then we're doing the same with mead, so people can learn about that.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: What is mead, exactly? </i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Mead is a beer made with fermented honey. It's different than honey beer, in which they use honey, but [also] grains for the fermentation.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So this has no grain alcohol, correct?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Right. But oh, it gets strong!<i> [laughs]</i> So we just wanted to do education and this is for families, so we had a puppeteer come in for the children, who did a fantastic job of actually educating the adults, too. This year our line-up [includes] the puppeteer too—she is so good, and people loved her so much we're going to have her twice.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Oh wow! Where does she live?</i><br />
<i>Patti: </i>Portland area. So in our line-up are two honey tastings; we have Dr. Sarah Kincaid, who is an entomologist and pollinator specialist from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. She'll be speaking about interesting bees and what they do, and have clips of them. Her talk is called "Weird and Wonderful Bees of Oregon." And we have "Designing a Pollinator Garden." Shonnard's Nursery in Corvallis is our main sponsor for this event. They've been in business for 35 years. Last year, Fred Selby from Shonnard's talked about bees; this year he's going to be doing a talk on the medicinal aspects of honey. We also have Dr. Ramesh Sagili, from the Oregon State University Bee Lab, who does a lot of work with bee-keepers and Oregon State, with the apiary and research. He's also going to be talking about different aspects of bees and interesting kinds of things, trying to keep it more for community versus too specialized.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I didn't even know there was a bee lab! I wonder what they do there?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Yes, there is. They do all sorts of things! It's amazing... [They study] all of the diseases, nutrition, queen rearing; they work with commercial growers—when I say commercial growers, I mean the bee-keepers who have more three or four hundred hives, up to fifteen, twenty thousand hives. That's what they do: they move their trucks around the different areas for pollination.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So it's like pollinators for hire?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Yes. I also asked [Dr. Sagili] to talk a little bit about Africanized bees, just for interest. So he'll probably do a little bit on that. That isn't anything around here, but people have heard the word and they get a little scared.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what is that about?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> The Africanized bees are actually from Africa; they're a very aggressive bee and you've seen things on the news about bees going after people. One of the things that I really want to emphasize to people is [that] honeybees are not aggressive. They're basically vegetarians. When I talk to kids I talk about "sweet bees" and "bully bees." But bully bees are the yellow-jackets, the wasps, the hornets who attack. I've worked with the elementary schools a little bit and done some presentations—the little tiny kids, all they can think about is being stung. So we're trying to help children and adults understand that honeybees are not really aggressive. They're aggressive if you get into their home, their hive; they're more aggressive at times when it's dry, and they don't have forage or food; but you know, they're busy. And they're vegetarian—they don't want meat.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: And they die when they sting you! So that's the last resort...</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Exactly. Whereas the other bees, it's sort of like fun for them to pick on you. [laughs]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Well, a wasp... It's not even a bee, right? It's a whole other species.</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Right.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Often it's grouped together, unfortunately. Is the difference between a bee and other things is that it's a "one-sting"? Or is there a different definition?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> No, actually, it's more about body types and a whole bunch of stuff. I'll be honest—I'm pretty new at bee-keeping. I started about four and a half years ago, and when I started I didn't know anything about bee-keeping. I'd never even seen a hive. And I started it more for pollinators. I like to garden. Then I got hooked on thinking, "Well, maybe I could be a bee-keeper." I lived in Eugene, and it was pretty shady and cool. I went to a Lane County bee-keeper's meeting, and just really got interested in it. A gentleman helped me—he was a mentor—and I went through bee school there. I actually went through bee school twice—it's just a day—because there's so much to learn initially before you can even start.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Do you have to have a license?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> No, it's just that you have to know everything at once, pretty much, to just get through the season. Then it repeats and it repeats and it repeats. So I thought, "You know what? I need to learn more, and I'd probably get twice as much information if I went through it again." So I did.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, when did you move to Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Permanently, about two years ago. But we've had a place here since 1988, a vacation home, and we decided to downsize. I was concerned whether I could keep my bees in our little house here, and at about the time we moved over here, I saw a little poster about the Central Coast Bee Keepers starting a club. So it all worked out. I also went through the Oregon State Master bee-keeping classes. An apprentice is assigned a bee-keeper. It's a really good class, and you work through all of the seasons with someone that has been through the classes, and then you move onto journey, and that's the program I'm in. I've also helped mentor other, younger bee-keepers. Bee-keeping has changed since probably twenty-five, thirty years ago. We first got the varroa mite in the 60s—which is the reason we have so many problems with our bees. You used to be able to put in a hive, basically, and not have to do too much to it. Now, it's quite a process to keep your back-yard bees. Agriculture changes: commercial bee-keepers go out into thousands of acres of the same kind of forage, and that would be like you eating only bread every day, and nothing else.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I imagine that's not really healthy for the bees.</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Right. The bees need pollen—that's protein. So they need a variety of different kinds of pollen to keep healthy. Nectar is their carbohydrate, and that's what they make into their honey. Nectar from the flowers is a sugary, watery liquid, and they bring it to the hive. Bees have a couple of stomachs, the one in which they carry the nectar is separate, a container. They come back [to the hive] and they regurgitate it. It's kind of interesting: they will fan the liquid until it's just the perfect consistency and concentration, with 15 to 18 per cent water.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: When do they eat the pollen? I know they have "pollen baskets," but I don't know anything about how they eat it. </i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> They bring it [to the hive] and they have mandibles and chew it—now this is getting a little beyond my level—and they use the pollen to make "bee bread" for the babies. They will use some of their own chemicals in their saliva, and they [combine] it with some of the honey to make this food that has both the nectar and the pollen.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So the adults don't eat the protein? Or they ingest some while they're making their loaf, or something?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> The protein is usually for the larvae. If you think about a bee, they only live about 21 days.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how has your bee-keeping been going?</i><br />
<i>Patti: [sighs]</i> You know, it was going very well until this year. I had three hives, and I lost all three this year. The first time I've ever lost my hives. And it wasn't just me—there are some bee-keepers that lost thirty to forty per cent of their hives.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what's going around?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> There's a lot of varroa; I think the weather pattern was different. Varroa is kind of like a tick; they don't kill the bee, they weaken the bee so that it gets viruses, it gets sick, it can't fly. And if you don't take care of the mite, they will overrun the hive. What they've found is that varroa can be spread from hive to hive, when bees go robbing; they're finding that it can be picked up from a flower. A phoretic female <i>[the females use the bees to hitch-hike from place to place]</i> can smell exactly when the bees have laid eggs, and she can go into the cell and lay her eggs, and so [the mite] spreads and spreads. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Do you have to burn the hives?</i><br />
<i>Patti: </i>No, basically you're treating, and there are all kinds of different treatments you can use. Back to the OSU labs and things: all through California and the Carolinas, there are labs, and they're working on ways to medicate, or at least cut varroa down. The Africanized bee does not have an issue with varroa. So they're working on [finding out] why this is.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I think more in the public eye has been the impact of pesticides. How is that entering the life-cycle of the mite, or influencing its spread? Or is there any connection there, or is it a totally different issue on top of everything?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> On top of everything. [Pesticides] weaken the hives, then there's the varroa mite, the forage—it's just a whole bunch of things. And genetics, too! Because the queens are all basically sisters.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: A fairly limited gene pool.</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Yes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Is climate change influencing the mite population in any way? </i><br />
<i>Patti: </i>Yes, with the longer seasons. But to get back to the festival: we have a wonderful time, and it's a fun activity for the family, and this year we're adding to it. The festival itself is February 9 from 10 till 4, and then from 6 to 9, we're having a honey hoedown. We have Red Diesel coming in, which is a foot-stomping band. If you look it up online, they have a Red Diesel in Russia, and it's this crazy, psychedelic band! [laughs] But that isn't the same one. But the Farm Store is going to be doing pork sliders and a few things, and we'll have a bonfire, and it'll be a good thing! And during this, we do the honey tasting! We wanted to have people understand the differences of the honey, and not just go through and take a toothpick and dip some out!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Do you have to swish and spit? </i><br />
<i>Patti: [laughter] </i>No.<br />
<br />
<i>At this point, Jeff Warren joins in the conversation. Jeff is the expert who is going to lead the honey tasting.</i><br />
<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> I don't mean to cut in on your last question and answer, but you asked about climate change possibly having an effect. I just saw a post this morning on Facebook—looks like the snow pack is down in Washington State. If that's true, then the Spring crops could be slow or nonexistent. Bees need flowers; they need food. And it's either there or it's not. A super-rainy Spring for us out here in the Northwest is going to affect the flowers: the nectar's going to be different. And if it's super-dry, also. It's all connected. But if the flowers aren't growing, we're not going to have very much honey. There was a source of some really gnarly, black honey that came out of Washington, that had been coming. We got zero last year, and if this is true, there will be zero again. The folks in the lowland valleys and the rural farmers, the actual commercial operations, they will have their crops because they have water, so it's a different ball game for them. But the natural stuff up in the mountains, in the higher elevations—there may not be as much of that. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I have a friend in the Philippines, and she is now selling blue honey. Have you heard of that? </i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> I've heard the term, but I don't know anything about it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: It looks beautiful!</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Different areas have different kinds of honey; Jeff is the one to be talking about that!<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> Does it have a blue hue to it? Really blue?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Oh, it has a blue hue to it! It's beautiful!</i><br />
<i>Jeff:</i> And the flower source is...?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: The Mindanao valley in the Philippines.</i><br />
<i>Jeff:</i> A naturally-occurring thing. That's crazy! People will buy it just because it's blue!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I know! [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Jeff is the honey man! He does a wonderful job of helping people understand the intricacies of honey and the subtleties of what you're tasting, and how.<i> [To Jeff]</i> You're in the food and wine industry?<br />
<i>Jeff: </i>Yes, years and years and years of food business; not just dry bins, but it was actually nice food, restaurants. We had to know a lot of stuff and describe it at the table, and to the servers and everybody—we had to be on the edge. Then I ended up in the wine business, and that's where you either sink or swim. You know how to tell people about little things they know nothing about. You're not telling them anything that's not true, but you hear them, "What is that I'm tasting? What am I tasting right now?" You have to tell them what they're tasting. You've got to help connect those dots. So now being a honey salesman, and even maple syrup, and all these things, I'm helping connect those dots, make that connection. It's consumer-level, street-level. I'm going to help them get confidence, so they're going to want to go learn more. It only gets more interesting. We all know about simple jars in every store, in every jar that says "Clover" on the front, or just "Honey." These days, it probably isn't honey, and it certainly isn't raw, it's not alive, there's nothing beneficial to it—it's just sweet stuff on a shelf. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: How is raw honey alive? I presume by "raw" you mean non-pasteurized?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Of course what I do is screen out the impurities...<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> Wings! Wax! Pieces parts! We don't want that in our jar.<br />
<i>Patti</i>: For local, backyard bee-keepers, it's not heated or pasteurized. GloryBee would heat their honey because of the big tanks. So there are some differences that way. But I think the United States imports 70 per cent of its honey.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow! From where?</i><br />
<i>Patti: </i>China, I think...<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> And Brazil. But [we can't be sure it's honey.] What are they feeding those bees? What's the regimen?<br />
<i>Patti:</i> And there's corn syrup in there. So there's more testing being done, so that as we import, we can tell whether it's truly a raw honey, or how much they've added corn syrup, or other additives.<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> [...] The systems to catch [fraud in honey] are getting better, but they're not perfect.<br />
<i>Patti:</i> And then there are certain specialty honeys, like the mānuka honey for wound care—honey has extremely medicinal properties. Mānuka is from New Zealand, and that's a plant variety. It's very good raw honey, but we happen to have about a zillion great, cool varieties right here in our Northwest. And we can go meet the bee-keeper and go look him in the eye. [laughs] But that too, in the mānuka industry—there's some criminal stuff going on there, and it's pretty vicious.<br />
Patti: So it gets pretty interesting!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: The politics of honey—I'd never heard of it!</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> Well, it's all about the dollar. And I think it's probably going to get worse as we lose more and more pollinators. Domestically, with our honeybees, we can do a little bit more. They're the only insect, agriculturally, that's under the Department of Agriculture, like cattle. But we don't know how many pollinators we've lost; there's some fear that's we've lost more than 70 per cent of our insect population. And I was reading an article about drones, tiny drones that can pollinate. But how many would you need? And in Japan, they have people do it in greenhouses, actually pollinating.<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> Nobody wants to talk like that, but it's not going in the right direction.<br />
<i>Patti:</i> And that comes back to community education. In helping people understand that bees and pollinators are important, and that bee-keepers... Well, I was so naive that I didn't even realize that there was an issue between people who are trying to help natural pollinators versus bee-keepers. To me, we should all be working together—I think that's happening more. So at our Honey Festival last year, we probably talked more about pollinators more than about actual bee-keeping.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It's all part of the same thing.</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> And the reason there's this bit of a clash is because if you put a concentrated bunch of honeybees in one area, they will take over and pollinate certain flowers. There's a certain concept, flower fidelity—bees will stick to one flower at a time with the pollen, otherwise it wouldn't work very well, so they stick with that flower until they're done. Well sometimes, that changes the flower diversity of an area, where it could damage a bit of your natural pollinator's forage. But to me, as a bee-keeper... If we're trying to plant a diversity of plants, have water, we're not spraying, and there's forage, that's got to be better than nothing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Well, this is terrific information! Is there anything that you wanted to add specific to the festival?</i><br />
<i>Patti:</i> There is a cost of $5, and children under 12 are free. There will be two puppet shows, one from 11:30 to 12:30, and the second is from 2 PM to 2:45.<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> It's an opportunity to learn. Some people will get to taste honey. And there will be vendors showing off and selling their stuff. And maybe someone will bring their bees—did someone do that last year?<br />
<i>Patti:</i> We hope to have an observation hive. February is not the best month for bees.<br />
<i>Jeff:</i> But mostly it's an opportunity to learn!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well thank you so much!</i><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-35339127631784262602018-12-31T22:56:00.003-08:002018-12-31T22:56:53.122-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 88, January 1 2019<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/8wkpnd7clhywl4s/20190101-YachatsGazette-88th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 88.</a></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview: Kim McLaughlin and Gary Manos of the Laughing Crab Gallery</b></span></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>The Yachats Gazette was pleased to visit with the owners of this new gallery located at 2334 Hwy 101 N (at the bottom of Forest Hill Rd.) and their cat Squid. Gary Manos is also a steel artist who sells his works in-house.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I was just noticing earlier... I've been through three, four iterations of this gallery in various forms—this space. It's amazing how much it changes each time. [...] Last time, all of the back was open. It was all shop space—it was just the upstairs that was closed off. </i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> We are going to be expanding into the back space in the spring, and we'll have a grand opening then. We're also going to do an outdoor garden courtyard on the side, and that's going to be fenced in with little tables, and we'll be serving coffees and teas and having wine tastings. I think it should be fun! We're also going to be having the vino painting parties—I think that will be a hit here.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: How did you come up with the name [The Laughing Crab Gallery]?</i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> I don't know, it just came to me one day. I just thought it was kind of funny...<br />
<i>Gary:</i> It's an oxymoron! You know, the crab is always associated with being... crabby! She hit me with that, she goes, "What do you think of Laughing Crab?" "I love it!"<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I feel like a lot of stuff happens like that on the coast.</i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> I have this Etsy account called "The Driftwood Mermaid" and I thought something kind of whimsical and fun, you know. Something that would make people feel, "That's a comfortable place to go to see art." You don't feel intimidated by the name.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yeah, not something like [intones] "The Yachats Metropolitan Art Gallery." </i><br />
<i>Kim: [laughter] </i>Our mission is to have an eclectic, fun, comfortable space for people to come in, so that kids, families, people who just want a small gift, to people who are actually collectors, so that everybody would feel comfortable coming in here. We just didn't want people to come into a gallery and have to tiptoe around.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: This is beautiful. I really like the open space. </i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> We will be putting up some display walls [...], but thank you. I think openness helps, that's for sure.<br />
<i>Kim: </i>And, we wanted to be affordable. We want people to be able to take something home with them that is special and unique, whether it's something that reminds them of the coast, or something that reminds them of where they've traveled—whatever resonates with them, but they're able to afford it and take it home. Hitting every price point is kind of important to us. And we think that art isn't just something that you put on the wall. It's something you wear, or jewelry, or a trinket that you can have in your pocket. So that's what the eclectic part means.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I was just noticing that [driftwood] mirror behind you—I like that.</i><br />
<i>Kim: [laughing]</i> Thank you! I made that!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Wow! Nice!</i><br />
<i>Kim: </i>Thank you! [...] So Gary does actual metal work, and some photography, and driftwood art, and some painting, and that<i> [pointing] </i>is a rubbing from a fossil—we're trying to have different mediums.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That one [the fossil rubbing] I really like.</i><br />
<i>Gary: </i>Thank you. I would have to get on the internet and look it up, as to how old they really are, but it's between Newport and Otter Rock, after Beverly Beach. There's this area where there are thousands of them. It's a bit of a walk, but there are thousands of these rocks with the fossil shells. So I took some pictures and did a charcoal rub [of that one].<br />
<i>Kim: </i>Our goal is to be someplace where you can sit down and really appreciate what you're going to buy, and feeling really strong about what [you] purchase. [You're] going to take it home and go "Yes. I made the right decision." That's important to us. [...] Not just an at-whim purchase, immediate gratification—and then you're like, "What did I do!" <i>[laughter] </i>[...] A lot of the things in here are one-of-a-kind, and you're not ever going to be able to find them anywhere else. And Gary's metal work... he does custom design work as well.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Is that what some of this is? It's beautiful—I love your style!</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> Thank you.<br />
<i>Kim:</i> What's interesting about Gary's metal work is that he uses a hand-held plasma cutter, whereas a majority of the metal artists out there are using large CNC [computer numerical control] machines that [use] a computer pattern, and the machine cuts it out. Whereas he is able to draw on the metal, and cut it out with a hand-held cutter—that's what's really unique.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Are they really heavy?</i><br />
<i>Gary: </i>They're not. For me, it's a nice weight.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Oh, I meant the plasma cutter, not the art...</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> Oh, the plasma cutter is very heavy, yes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I was just wondering how it is to make it wiggle and wobble like that, to go around the edges!</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> Oh! The hand-held part is nice and light.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Is it kind of like an air brush system?</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> Almost, because it does use compressed air. It uses positive and negative, electricity. The electricity super-heats the point that it's coming out of, and the compressed air flows through that super-heated area.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Where does the [cut material] go? Does it just spatter underneath?</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> Yes, like super-fine metal dust all over the place.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So make sure you have a very good mask and glasses.</i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> And a respirator—a very big mask. And a helmet.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Oh man. It would be very hard to do art with a big mask on. </i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> It takes some getting used to, to be honest, it really did. It's strange. And there are times when you get that feeling, "I want this thing off!"<br />
<i>Kim:</i> Especially when we lived in Eugene—it gets pretty hot there. So it'll be nice here on the summer days, because it won't be as hot. And there's not really air conditioning in the shop.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So how do you get the colors on the metal?</i><br />
<i>Gary: </i>That's with a torch, with heat.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: Hmm! So is it a question of time or temperature that makes the color?</i><br />
<i>Gary: </i>Both.<br />
<i>Kim: </i>He always says that I'm welcome to learn, but when I watch him... it's a little tricky! He knows right when to pull the flame back, or put it closer, and that's how he creates different colors.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [...] So how did you learn to do all this?</i><br />
<i>Gary: </i>Honestly, I saw it in a restaurant in Sisters. I was with my kids—they were young. I think the restaurant's name, literally, was The Gallery. And the dividers up above your head were like trout in a stream, and whatnot. And I just thought, "I think I can do that." The metal really appealed to me. I had a little boat and a Yamaha Banshee quad, and I sold them both, bought all the tools and equipment, and... You know, the first stuff... my Mom was my biggest fan. <i>[laughter]</i> You laugh, but it wasn't even high school art...<br />
<i>Kim: </i>But you took a lot of art classes when you were younger.<br />
<i>Gary:</i> When I was younger, I had virtually every art class you can think of. And shop, so I had some welding experience.<br />
<i>Kim:</i> And he works on cars—he's a car guy. He's a Mr. Fix-It kind of guy. And how long have you been doing it?<br />
<i>Gary:</i> Probably about fifteen years, now.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: And what kind of career did you have before?</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> I was with AT&T Wireless. I started out installing when it was cool to have a phone in your car. So first installation, then phone technician, then inside sales, then outside sales support, outside sales, then my final position was called indirect. So if Fred Meyer's was selling cellphones, I would go into Fred Meyer's, train those people—that kind of thing. That was my final position, which was great, because from Salem all the way to Medford, over here to the coast, that was my territory. My boss and whatnot was in Portland, and he never came down, so long as your numbers were where they needed to be, you were left alone. So I think it was a nice segue into self-employment, because I was pretty self-sufficient. And the outside sales. Because I hated it—I truly hated it—but I did a year of it, and if I learned anything, it was [how to handle rejection.] If I were to go down this street, and, you know, "Hey, anybody need cellphones?" "Nah, get out of here." But somewhere down the road, somebody wanted five. Four or five more noes. Then somebody wanted 10. And it was the same thing when I'd approach galleries. "No, this is not our style at all." So the rejection didn't hurt. Or at least as much. But, same thing—I knew sooner or later some gallery was going to take a few pieces.<br />
<i>Kim:</i> And you were advancing in your own, personal style at that point.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So you had some paid time to transition over to art full time. </i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> When I left, Cingular had bought out AT&T (now of course it's AT&T again. Don't even get me going on that). But anyway, they said, "We can find a place for you, or we can make you go away." So I got the six-month severance package for going away. So I had a nice, six month launching ramp to get it going.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: [...] So, when did you first get the idea to have this gallery?</i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> I would say that we'd come over often. We were in Eugene, so we'd go Florence, and then we've got a small sailboat at the embarcadero in Newport. And I mean very small: a little 21-footer where you're basically camping on the water. But that's just the route we would take, because it's nice, coastal, scenic. And one day we just drove by, and I saw the "For Lease" sign, and I said, "Did you see that?" And we turned around, came back, and started playing with the idea. We must have come back five more times—and each time we'd come in, get a feel... I would stand there, arms folded, just watch the traffic zooming by, and think, "Okay, on one hand lots of traffic, on the other hand, 55 mph..." That was certainly a concern. Anyway, we just kept mulling it over, mulling it over...<br />
<i>Kim:</i> I think it's always something we kept tucked in the back of our minds... "Wouldn't it be great if we lived on the coast?" And then we saw this... But we had to really vision it—and I think it's going to be great!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Did you have a job that you gave up to come here?</i><br />
<i>Kim: </i>I owned a childcare center in Eugene that I sold. I had a small in-home day care for 16 years, and then I expanded into a larger childcare center over the last five years, so for 21 years I've run a childcare center in Eugene. And I was just kind of tired of working that hard. I mean, not that we're not going to be working that hard here, but it feels a little bit different.<br />
<i>Gary:</i> 56 kids, 20 employees...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Good employee to kid ratio, though!</i><br />
<i>Kim: </i>They didn't all work full-time. And then of course we had a cook, a van driver, a book-keeper. And then life circumstances that make you go, "Hey, I need a lifestyle change!" So health, and family, and just knowing that we wanted to be closer to the ocean that we were always coming to anyway... <i>[laughs]</i> [...] We've got a lot of work to do, and I think it's going to be a great evolution to see us grow. We hope that by the Spring we have the rest of this space kind of figured out.<br />
<i>Gary: </i>I think it's safe to say that we'll definitely expand into a second show room.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [...] Where are you guys from originally?</i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> He grew up in this area.<br />
Gary: I was actually born in California and lived there until I was five or six, three months of summer in Lincoln City, then one year in Washington, then Salem, Oregon, from then on out. Then Newport—my kids were old enough, they were out—and my mom had passed away, so I thought, "What have I always wanted to do?" So I bought a boat. 30-foot sailboat: bought it in Portland, then brought it down to Newport. It was a $2,500 sailboat, but it was a step above camping on the water.<i> [laughs] </i>So three years in Newport, then five and a half, six years in Eugene with [Kim].<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So where are you from, Kim?</i><br />
<i>Kim: </i>Well, I grew up on the eastern shore of Maryland and Delaware. I spent my younger years in Maryland.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So crabbing is kind of endemic to your upbringing!</i><br />
<i>Kim: [laughs]</i> Yes, and I have "laugh" in my name! [...] I moved to Eugene when I was 21.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Why did you move to Eugene?</i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> Oh, I had some friends that lived there and really loved it—young, hippie friends. [laughs] The East Coast is a good place to live, but Oregon people are just so incredibly friendly. I just felt like I'd found my people, you know. It clicked—Eugene worked for who I was. I ended up going back to school at the University of Oregon and finishing my degree there. Interestingly enough, I first went to college in Delaware at Wellesley College, and my first degree was a retail marketing degree. That was my associate's degree. Then I took some time out to find myself, and then moved to Eugene and discovered the role of childcare, and went back to school and got my sociology degree and education degree. So now I'm full circle here, and I get to do the retail part. I had a lot of experience, but it's been many years; but it feels natural.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Is there anything else you wanted to add to the interview? </i><br />
<i>Gary:</i> Our winter hours for right now are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; noon to five Friday, ten to five Saturday and Sunday.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Thank you so much!</i><br />
<i>Kim:</i> Thank you!<br />
<i>Gary:</i> Thank you!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Layne Morrill of <br />Our Coastal Village</span></b></div>
<br />
<i>The Yachats Gazette interviewed Mr. Morrill by e-mail about the new buildings on Diversity Drive.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What is Our Coastal Village Inc.?</i><br />
<i>Layne:</i> Our Coastal Village, Inc., is an Oregon public benefit corporation that qualifies as tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code and as a public charity under section 170 of the code. It was formed in 2009 to provide relief to the poor, distressed, and disadvantaged in the Yachats area, primarily through affordable housing. Our first project was the 7-unit Townhome project known as Aqua Vista Square which was completed in 2013, for households earning 80% or less of area median income. Three of the units have been sold to our former tenants on a basis that makes them permanently affordable; four units are still being leased to eligible tenants.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How are the new housing developments coming along?</i><br />
<i>Layne: </i>Our new development is Fisterra Gardens Townhomes, [which] consists of 21 affordable-rental units for Yachats working families. This project will provide safe, decent, affordable housing to 21 local working families near their jobs. Completion is expected May 2019. All 21 units are set aside for households earning at or under 60% of area median income. Those limits are currently $22,980 for a one-person household, $26,280 for a two-person household, $29,580 for a three-person household, and $32,820 for a four-person household. The Project has preferences for families with children residing in zip code 97498 and for households where at least one person is employed in zip code 97498.<br />
<br />
Fisterra Gardens Townhomes includes 6 studio units, 3 one-bedroom units, 10 two-bedroom units, and 2 three-bedroom units. Amenities include range, oven, refrigerator, microwave, and washer/dryer in each unit. Five units have garages; 26 surface spaces provide the balance of the parking. Outdoor common areas include a covered pavilion with barbecues and picnic tables and nearby lawn area, raised beds for gardening, a storage shed/greenhouse to facilitate gardening and landscaping, and location adjacent to the trail head of the beautiful Ya’Xaik trail, part of the City of Yachats public trail system.<br />
<br />
Construction is progressing on schedule.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What inspired you to found this project?</i><br />
<i>Layne:</i> This project is really at the heart of the mission of Our Coastal Village, Inc, to provide affordable housing for lower income households. Yachats simply has no housing that is safe, decent, and affordable for folks earning at or below 60% of area median income. This project has a "preference" for local workers (employed in zip code 97498) especially families with children.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How are the potential inhabitants reacting?</i><br />
<i>Layne:</i> We have received 36 Expression of Interest forms from local people based solely on word of mouth. Advertising is now beginning and I'm sure more people will respond to the advertising. Unfortunately, the demand far outstrips the 21 units that are being constructed.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: When will the project be ready for inhabitation?</i><br />
<i>Layne:</i> All 21 units should be completed by April 1, 2019. Several units will be completed and occupied earlier than that. Rents will be approximately $492 for a studio, $532 for a one-bedroom, $640 for a two-bedroom, and $737 for a three-bedroom. Water, sewer, and trash removal are included in the rents. Tenants pay their own electric.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What sort of architectural styles and theme will the project be going for?</i><br />
<i>Layne:</i> Because we are building housing that will be affordable, our construction has to be as inexpensive as possible, consistent with quality construction. So we are not striving to achieve any fancy architectural style or theme. The town homes will look like other two story cottages in the area and will be finished in earth tone colors. But they will be new, clean, safe, and affordable to the local workers and their families.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Who is managing the project at the different levels?</i><br />
<i>Layne: </i>The Project is owned by Fisterra Gardens Townhomes Limited Partnership. Our Coastal Village, Inc., is the general partner of that limited partnership and will provide general management services. The rentals of the units as well as maintenance and repairs will be handled by our independent third party manager, Cascade Management, Inc. There is a rental office at the Project and it will be staffed about half-time by an employee of Cascade Management, Inc.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Where are the materials for the project coming from?</i><br />
<i>Layne: </i>The concrete and rock required for the project are sourced locally. Most of the lumber comes from Eugene, much of it from the sawmills located there. Local subcontractors are doing the excavation, plumbing, and electrical. Most of the other subcontractors are from the Valley, as is our General Contractor, Meili Construction, of Eugene.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What sort of grants is the government providing to help with the project?</i><br />
<i>Layne:</i> Our Coastal Village, Inc. has invested over $2,000,000 in the Project, funded mostly by grants from: Lincoln County Economic Development ($10,000); Oregon-based Meyer Memorial Trust ($250,000) and The Collins Foundation ($150,000); and Arizona-based The DLW Foundation ($825,000) and The Norton Foundation ($250,000). Investors with ties to the local community purchased OCV’s 30-year, 2.5% Series FGT Project Notes in the aggregate amount of $422,500 to help fund the Project’s construction. Alliant Capital Ltd has committed to invest $2,097,000 in low-income housing tax credit equity.<br />
<br />
Oregon Housing and Community Services provided a $797,979 30-year zero interest LIFT loan for the Project. The Legislative Assembly created the LIFT program specifically to fund new housing units in rural communities like Yachats. OHCS also issued short-term tax exempt conduit bonds for construction ($2,175,000) and long-term tax exempt conduit bonds for permanent financing ($850,000). Washington Federal, National Association, will purchase and hold the bonds and administer the construction loan.<br />
<br />
The City of Yachats has agreed to allow installment payment of $46,459 in system development fees over 30 years at 3% interest out of a total SDC charge of $98,000.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What sorts of plans do you have for the future?</i><br />
<i>Layne</i>: We have no specific plans for the future. Those will be formulated after construction of the current Project is completed. But we would definitely like to help encourage the development of more housing in Yachats for the families who work in our local motels, restaurants, and shops. There are some measures we would like to see the City Council adopt that would be a benefit to affordable housing. These include a construction excise tax which would help fund some of the cost of affordable housing; and revising our system development charges so they are lower for small homes and higher for large homes, rather than the same for every single family lot developed regardless of the size of the home.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Yachats Gazette </b><br />wishes all its readers and advertisers a wonderful 2019!</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Thank you all for your patronage.</span></i></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-61989568845391613912018-12-01T23:59:00.001-08:002018-12-02T00:07:48.419-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 87, December 1 2018<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/yomy3pat1o19xxv/20181201-YachatsGazette-87th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A printable version of Issue 87 may be downloaded here.</span> </a></div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b>Interview with Lauralee Svendsgaard and Jesse Beers</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Yachats Gazette met with Lauralee (former Yachats resident) and Jesse (Culture Director of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw) to discuss the annual Yachats Peace Hike. This will take place on Tuesday, January 1, 2019.</span></i></div>
<br />
<i>TYG: [to Lauralee] So, I understand you're one of the main people behind the project. Did you start it, or did you join it when it was already going?<br />Lauralee: </i>I started it, and it came about as a result of the dedication of the Amanda Trail several years ago. It was, in very many ways, an important time for us in Yachats. At the end of the dedication, [we thought] people were going to be heading to the Commons for the potluck that we'd planned and promoted, [but] we learned that the Elders with the Confederated Tribes had brought a wreath, and they wanted an appropriate place to place that wreath. We realized that we could get them close enough to the Amanda statue that they could place the wreath there. Unbeknownst to us, there were so many people touched by their experience at the dedication that instead of going to the Commons, they hiked to the statue in the Amanda grotto. So when Joanne Kittel and I and the Elders arrived there, we found that at least 50 other people had already come to that space. Doc Slyter, the tribal flutist, was playing his flute in the grotto there, and Joanne and I gathered on the bridge. It was a miracle that in its decrepit state—even though we were assured that it was in good condition—that with so many people on that bridge, it didn't come down. But it was standing [between] Joanne and Caroline (Doc Slyter's mother, who just recently passed away)... She asked Doc if he'd play Amazing Grace. And with that, there were no dry eyes in that area. And standing where I was, I realized that it didn't matter what your heritage was. We had all come there with deep remorse for what had happened, and with that, the seeds of an opportunity—because this was the first time, officially, that the Tribe had been back to Yachats in 150 years, that it also signified the hope that we need to give strength to, that we could all recognize the wrongs of the past, and make a commitment to be strong in doing better in the future. What happened to the Native Americans in that area was happening to them all over the nation, and that that kind of treatment of other people has not stopped in the US and throughout the world. That's where I realized: we need to commemorate this moment and this feeling and bring ourselves back to a rememberance every year. I had some experience with New Year's Day hikes, and thought that that would be a wonderful way to start the new year, especially in Yachats. <i>[To Jesse] </i>So I wonder what your recollection of that day is?<br />
<br />
<i>Jesse: </i>Well, my memory is not very good, but I will say though that the Tribes had actually been placing wreaths, not at the Amanda Trail, but annually when I was younger. They would go over kind of just in the brush, over next to the Alsea River, and just drop a wreath there. It wasn't ever a positive thing though like it is today; but for a number of years, after some folks passed on that kind of stuff happening. Then this happened, and I think that's why some folks brought a wreath, because other tribal members that are no longer with us used to do that. So like Lauralee said, it just kind of evolved into something that it was probably always meant to be, unbeknownst to everyone who was trying to plan things. <i>[laughs]</i> Ever since then, the community of Yachats, like Doc Slyter says: there's something either in the water here, or there's something not in the water here, because of the amount that the community just goes out of their way to try to, if you want, right the wrong, or heal that hurt, or however you want to word it—to educate the public on what happened here and assist tribal membership in coming back and healing for that. It used to be something where my wife used to make fun of me, because there are a lot of nice-looking places in Yachats, and she's always like, "Let's pull over here!" or whatever, because her folks live up in McMinnville. And I always avoided it like the plague. Because it's like, Great-grandma said this: "You don't stop here, lots of bad stuff happened—just drive through." <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: McMinnville, or Yachats?<br />Lauralee:</i> Yachats.<br />
<br />
<i>Jesse:</i> Oh, sorry, Yachats. So after all this, though, it's somewhere that not only do I feel comfortable, and other tribal members, other elders feel comfortable coming, but it's actually somewhere where we come on non-work days! <i>[laughs]</i> Or people like to come up for something casual, like this, or whatever. <br />
<br />
<i>Lauralee: </i>So Allen, do you know the Amanda story?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I know the basics, but you should probably recount it for those who don't. <br />Jesse: </i>I will share a story too: Our chief now, but years ago Chief Warren Brainard stopped by the little library that was here, and he asked for some books on the Native people that were held here. They told him that there were no Native people here at any time! [laughs] He's like, "Well, I beg to differ..." So that tells you how far the community has really come in such a short span of time. <br />
<br />
So the Amanda story is just one of many [other] stories that didn't get written down. The lucky part about Amanda's story is that it was written down by one of the soldiers that was marching with the people up here. The whole story is a long story. [sighs] But the basic story of the Amanda part is that at the time, people were escaping from here, from the reservation, because it was not federally-funded by treaty or anything. People [who lived here] were passing at a high rate—over 50% of the people living here were starving to death and dying of disease. So many people would leave, or try to leave. And regiments would be sent after them in the Coos Bay area to go round them up and bring them back up north. At that time there were also people who were kind of hold-outs in different areas, hiding from the government, trying not to lose their lands. Amanda was one of those people. At the time, if a White man would marry a Native woman, they wouldn't have to go up the reservation. But for some reason, her partner, who she had a child with, wouldn't marry her. So she was taken from her daughter at the time and marched up here. She was described as being blind; we don't know if that meant legally blind or blind-blind—we don't know the exact medical diagnosis of that. But she was described as being blind; and over pretty ragged rocks, once you get up North of Florence, over Heceta Head and all that good stuff, over the ragged rocks she tore her feet pretty badly, and the soldiers described her as being able to be easily tracked from the amount of blood she was leaving behind. She did make it up to the reservation because she was in the rolls here, but past that we really don't know what happened to her. The statue of Amanda in the grotto there represent[s] not only her, but also all the other people that passed during that time, or had to make that march—there were hundreds of people that had to make that march. The Reservation was here from 1859 to 1876. It was much bigger, at one point. In 1859, when [the Coast reservation] was originally created by executive order, it was from 10 miles north of the Umpqua River and then clear up to Yaquina Head, and then east to the coastal mountain range. It was a huge area of land by modern standards and was called the Great Coast Reservation. In 1865, it was split into half because people from Corvallis wanted an outlet railroad into the new port, so that southern part became Alsea Sub-agency, and housed the Alsea, the Lower Umpqua, the Coos people, and the Siuslaw on the southern end—we're still kind of within our ancestral lands. Then they created the Siletz reservation to the north, which we still know of—it's just a lot smaller now. Then in 1875 it was decided that the Tribes weren't utilizing their lands here and the populations had gotten much smaller for some reason.<i> [laughs sadly] </i>So at that point the United States government decided they wanted to close the Alsea Sub-agency, but in the law it said they had to get all 19 headmen to sign off on the closure of that Alsea Sub-agency reservation being here at Yachats and the surrounding area. Not one of them actually conceded to that. In the minutes it notes that they all say no, and it's pretty inspiring to read their words, because for a lot of them, English wasn't their first language and a lot of them were translated; but just their thoughtful words are pretty powerful. But it was told to DC that they did in fact approve the closure of their reservation, and so it was shut down in 1876. From there the people were told that they needed to go up to Siletz, and some did. Actually, we're meeting with one of our cousins from up there, a Siuslaw tribal member that's up in the Siletz reservation. But many didn't—they traveled back south to their homelands to find out that other people were living there, because a good place to live is a good place to live. And all the villages were gone and burnt down, so they became kind of refugees in their own land, landless people in their own land. So a lot of people took up residence on the north fork of the Siuslaw; Ka'aich is the name of the village site that used to be there. It became kind of a Native farm community, and was actually called Indian Town by the residents of Florence because there were so many Natives there, and there was a big dance house there (until that was burned down). A lot of [the refugees] did take up residence with the people of the Coos, and a lot of them also went down to the South Slough and Coos Bay area and kind of just eked by as much as possible. Then we get into more modern history, with our government actually forming in 1919, Termination 54, where Native people were told they weren't Native people anymore, and then our restoration in 1984. And there are the boarding schools, there's all kinds of good fun stuff during that time also. But the Amanda Trail really comes from that reservation period from the 1850's through 1875. Long story short.<i> [pained laugh]</i><br />
<br />
<i>Lauralee: </i>But it's important, I think. And it's why it's so important to me that the New Year's Day Peace Hike continue, because it brings that close to home. And for those who join us, it gives an opportunity for us to commemorate an important time, but also to recognize that we have a responsibility to do better. It doesn't matter who you are or what your heritage is: we all know that what was done was wrong. But we need the strength of conviction in those little and big times, when you have to stand for the integrity that is you. Last year, I started introducing, as part of the set-up before we go down into the ravine where the ceremony takes place, don't just be thinking about how good peace is—peace marches, and the peace sign, and the fun kind of kitschy things. Think in terms of what it felt to be a young man your age <i>[to the Publisher] </i>and torn away from all that you had known; not be allowed to use your language; not be allowed to use your customs, your ways of life; to be forced into an area that you don't know and be told to farm there. They were expected to farm on the coast. And to ask mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters: put yourself in the place of those people, a hundred and fifty years ago, and imagine what it's like. You can understand, with it still happening other places in the world, it becomes a more serious cause, and not something that's just the fun, psychedelic, bright colors. It's something that we really need to commit ourselves to, and be stronger in voicing our opposition, whether it's to bullying, or derogatory names being used. There are all kinds of levels—keep your integrity. Just think about what your integrity is, and from this day forth, from New Year's Day through the rest of the year, commit yourself to live each day with integrity. <br />
<br />
<i>Jesse: </i>For us, it's really a remembrance about being thankful for the people that did survive, because while over half the people passed, not everybody did, and a lot of people who survived those really bad reservation years and travelled back home were the most important informants for the culture that we live today. There were people that travelled up here when they were Jaida's age [Jaida is Jesse's daughter and was in the room for the interview]—seven, eight years old—and marching up here. When they were kicked off here, some had families and some didn't have families anymore; and when they came back home they were older people, and they were able to share what they witnessed as a really young person: what their elders were doing, and language, and village sites, and all these different things. And that really built the base for our government that we know today, our Tribal government; that really built the base for our language programs—all those survivors. Because not too many people were able to stay behind and not be found. Down there—it used to be called Squaw Island, it's called Qochyax Island now, kind of off the Gregory Point area, Qochyax means Women's and Children's Island. There was a cave on the back side of that that they used to hide in with the small babies, because the sound of the ocean would actually muffle the cries of the babies so that the soldiers wouldn't be able to hear [them]. So, there were people that were able to hold out, and there were people also that married in, like my family actually was one of the ones that decided to marry their native counterpart, and so that's where my line comes from. They didn't have to go to the reservation, although they were inside it. They did also participate in some of the negotiations afterwards. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Designer: Can you also remind us who built the statue?<br />Jesse: [to Lauralee] </i>You know more about that than I do.<br />
Lauralee: It's a local artist, Sy Meadow—he lives just near Angell Job Corps. He's a cement artist, but also has other mediums.<i> [NB: From a post to the Facebook Yachats Community on May 4, 2016 by Joanne Kittel: "Originally commissioned by Joan Wikler and Beth Cook, Sy Meadow created two for Joan and Beth. Sy created a third one and gave the statue to his friend, George Copage. In 2003, George donated his statue to the Amanda Trail. Beth and Joan have generously and graciously donated one of theirs to the Trail" after the landslide buried the first statue.]</i> [...] So, depending on your perception, there's another Amanda there. In my mind, I keep thinking that Amanda got tired, and decided to pass her task on, and that it's Julia that's there now. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Who's Julia?<br />Jesse:</i> [Amanda's] daughter.<br />
<br />
<i>Lauralee:</i> That's her daughter that she had to leave behind. It's the child's spirit that is now there and guiding us. But that's my own [feeling].<br />
<br />
<i>Jesse: </i>A lot of people were really upset when the landslide came through [in December 2015] and destroyed all that. I tried to console a few people by telling them about [...] a traditional ceremony. A lot of people give gifts to Amanda, but a lot of people give a lot of weight to Amanda, also. They really kind of unload sometimes, down there at the grotto. So we have a ceremony where you take grandfather rock, because he's a lot older than us, he's a lot stronger than us. This can be done with a rock, but usually it's on a big, large stone or something like that. It's a place where you kind of do that, where you unload your weight and discuss and talk, and sometimes tears come with that. Water is healing, and usually it's in a place where the water will rise over that rock and wash the rock. Then it's healed and ready for the next year of unloading. We do that with our youth at camps, but with hand-held rocks where we do a circle, then wash the rock down at the creek or in the ocean or wherever we are. So the thought being that she was Grandmother Rock in this case, and she had had enough, so the earth was taking her down to the water to be washed. So that's another way to look at it. People get through it by thinking about it in whatever way makes sense to them. But there are definite hold-outs, who say that we'll still find her. If we do, yay, but if not, there are other ways to cope. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: It's amazing that there were replicas to be had! <br />Lauralee: </i>Yes, and they're all a little different. They're not perfect replicas, which is nice. [...] <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: How do you see this moving forward in the future?<br />Jesse: </i>I see it probably just continuing the way it is... It's a great way to start out the year, for sure. For a lot of people it probably keeps you a little healthier on New Year's Eve because you have to get up early and do something [laughter], and then also on the first it's just a great way to start out your year, whether it be healing for you, or sometimes kind of sad, or whatever you take from it or bring to it, it's a good way to kind of set your pace for the year. So I really enjoy it. We do also have separate—just Tribal—hikes that we take on the Amanda Trail with our camps, with our youth, with adults and stuff. Some of us during those choose to do it barefoot, to feel a hint of what she felt. Because [the trail] is very nice, now—it's dirt, and a path, and all that stuff.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It's not the best up at the top.<br />Jesse:</i> Well, yes. There are places on the original trail that were known for losing horses and stuff. We didn't have horses here, traditionally. They didn't make it over this far because they're just not that usable on the Oregon Coast. The foot trails were pretty gnarly, and some places just weren't traveled. You would travel around these places with canoes, not travel by foot on these places. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Like Heceta Head, right?<br />Jesse:</i> Yes. There are just grooves carved out of stone where people would put their feet, and sometimes [the government soldiers] lost people. They didn't really care a whole lot at the time if they made it or not. So it was pretty gnarly back in the day. So some of us try to do that [barefoot], just to try and feel some of that [pain]. <br />
<br />
So Lauralee's moving away. She's the one that started it, but the community of Yachats is a strong Community, and I'm sure it will continue in the future. And now we're involved also, the Tribes are involved; Doc Slyter, Tribal member, council member now, really wants to keep it going as well. There are many other tribal members, including myself, who want to keep it going. <br />
<br />
<i>Lauralee: </i>And I have thought about that question just the last several months. We're now living in Medford, and I'm involved in a lot of projects, doing a lot of trail things. But in my mind, this is the most important thing I do. There isn't anything that touches as deeply a connection to people and to setting the tone for the year as this. [...] I'm committed to continuing this as long as I possibly can. We had our first (and only) planning meeting two or three weeks ago now. Usually I get six people coming and I feel that okay, we're good, it's a good start—because I know a lot of other people are interested; they're just wanting marching orders. But this last meeting, we had over twenty people come. To me, that was really inspiring. So I've been thinking, "What's the next phase?" Because we're limited in space here, and I don't want this to become a superficial, kind of token [event]. It has to be small enough to have the meaning. But I know we get people coming from all over for this hike, and it occurs to me that there are a number of other communities throughout Oregon that sincerely want to make the effort to begin building the bridges and joining together in hopes of reconciliation and commemorating. I think it's important that we recognize the atrocities, but commit [ourselves] to doing better. It's occurring to me to talk to people in other communities and their Tribes, and see about getting more New Year's Day hikes taking place throughout Oregon. I think we're ready for it. [...] I feel strongly that [White] folks that came during the settlement period and after—I feel that a lot of them, and in particular the younger generations, recognize that there are some things that need to be atoned for. We need to be showing some stronger respect and stronger support for what Tribal people are struggling to achieve, whatever that is for them. [...] We want this [Peace Hike] be a recognition, but also we want to walk away from this feeling that we have done something, on this first day of the year, that has touched our hearts in a warming way, in a positive way, in order to commit us to take each step in the next year with peace in our heart and the strength to fight for that. <br />
<br />
<i>Jesse: </i>Yes, that's a great point. People are coming to this from all over the place; a lot of people from Eugene, especially. [Other hikes are] interesting to think about. There were Kalapuya people that were there [in Eugene], and they were driven to the Grande Ronde. So there could be something happening over that way too. This is three tribes here on the coast: this is their march, their hike; talking about their history. But where is Indian Country? It's the Americas, right? This kind of thing happened all over the United States, Canada, South America—it's still happening in South Central America and in the southern area of the United States today. So that's a good point, and something to bring up.<br />
<br />
<i>Lauralee:</i> So what were you wanting for this article?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: This kind of important discussion and history: this is exactly what we wanted. </i><br />
<i>Lauralee: </i>Let me make certain that we do share with you that there will be a Peace Hike this New Year's Day, barring inclement weather. Everybody who does the hike needs to check in at the Commons Kitchen: we'll be running check-in from 9:15 am to 10:15 am. From 9:30 am until 10:00 am, at the Little Log Church, Doc Slyter and Jesse will be telling the Amanda story, and immediately after that the candlelight vigil will start in the Little Log Church. Not everybody can or wants to hike on a cold, freezing New Year's Day morning, but the Little Log Church will be open. We create an altar to Amanda there, and people are invited to come between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm to light a candle and meditate for peace on their own. At about 12:30 pm, Doc Slyter and some of the other Tribal musicians will be at the Church for the last half hour for some music. At 11:15 am, in Joanne Kittel's driveway, is where the peace ceremony begins. <i>[The driveway is located at 1356 Highway 101 south. No parking will be allowed at the end of the driveway that morning and early afternoon of the Peace Hike.]</i> Wake and Kinlen Wheeler guide that ceremony; they're locals from Yachats. Then once we are in our place of peace, all of us walk in silence down to the grotto, and that's where the fire ceremony takes place. When you check in at the Kitchen, one of the things you're given is a sprig of cedar, and you carry that with you [on the hike]. You're putting your hopes and prayers for peace in that sprig, and when you come down to the grotto there's a fire, and you put your sprig in the fire. That smoke then goes up into the universe, and circulates around the planet; the thinking being that your hopes will spread around the Earth. [...] Everything is planned to end at 1 o'clock. The hike will be cancelled if there are heavy rains, or winds exceeding 25 miles per hour predicted for New Year's Day. [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Thank you so much for your time!</i><br />
<br />
<i>NB: Some useful links:</i><br />
OregonHikers.org: <a href="https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Amanda%27s_Trail_Hike" target="_blank">Amanda's Trail Hike</a><i> </i><br />
YachatsOregon.org: <a href="https://yachatsoregon.org/Documents/Download/The_Amanda_Trail_Story.pdf" target="_blank">The Amanda Trail Story</a><br />
<a href="https://ctclusi.org/" target="_blank">Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siletz </a><br />
TrailKeepersOfOregon: <a href="https://www.trailkeepersoforegon.org/amandas-trail-forced-relocation-oregon-peoples/" target="_blank">Amanda's Trail</a><br />
<div class="blog-entry__title">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.trailkeepersoforegon.org/amandas-trail-forced-relocation-oregon-peoples/" target="_blank">Amanda’s Trail and the Forced Relocation of Oregon Peoples</a> by John Sparks, March 14 2018</span></span></div>
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-14540002369046764482018-10-25T23:16:00.002-07:002018-10-25T23:38:36.009-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 86, October 26 2018 (November Issue)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/6az6267t0fr88ix/20181101-YachatsGazette-86th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">Click here for a printable copy of Issue 86.</a> Because we had a very specific format in order to present the mayoral candidates side-by-side, we've decided to upload images of each page to the blog. However, that may be kind of hard to read depending on what kind of device you've chosen; please download and print, or as usual, you can find hard copies at the Post Office, Green Salmon, or Mari's Books and... . You should just be able to click on the first image to get a larger size, then scroll through the images as you read, though. Do vote!</div>
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-30412345445289127382018-10-01T21:58:00.000-07:002018-10-01T21:58:34.775-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 85, October 1 2018<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/i5hawmfc5qzu3u5/20181001-YachatsGazette-85th-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 85 (.pdf)</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview with Gretchen Hetzler</b></span></div>
<br />
<i>The Yachats Gazette met with Gretchen to discuss the construction and changes on the Drift Inn properties.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyFySZMFMANyfQbSDJs7SkxWGVDte9zNCeKVNgUZSePrGJvK3JrNUEeI4XMrDziaggsr-eoGVcFEHM-nyaIsb7Gd8k4wCb3ZGRU_5Rrh9UMrnsrkPMOwzyCuHhLISdJ_zNVqaSSveJO8U/s1600/DriftInn3-color-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyFySZMFMANyfQbSDJs7SkxWGVDte9zNCeKVNgUZSePrGJvK3JrNUEeI4XMrDziaggsr-eoGVcFEHM-nyaIsb7Gd8k4wCb3ZGRU_5Rrh9UMrnsrkPMOwzyCuHhLISdJ_zNVqaSSveJO8U/s400/DriftInn3-color-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new Drift Inn building, location of the former laundromat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Gretchen:</i> So, [we have a] new building, which used to be the old laundromat. We decided it wasn't going to be very cost-effective to run a laundromat, because the water costs in Yachats are very high. So upstairs will be four rooms, four individual and unique rooms. Each place has its own bathroom. I think there will be two rooms with a king bed and two rooms with queen beds, and each has a tiled shower and sink. Downstairs, the front entry will be sort of a hang-out space. This is technically a lodging house, so there will be a hang-out space/check-in for guests.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Are there stairs inside?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> There are not stairs inside. It's separate levels. Everything is accessed from the sky bridge for the upper levels. So the downstairs will be this sort of hang-out area with cool art, and couches maybe, and a check-in space. The next room back is a kitchen/laundry facility.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: So the kitchen will be for the guests?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Yes. It might just be a food storage area/kitchenette place, not a full place to cook. It mostly serves as a laundry space, but it will be a kitchen space as well. And then the closest room to us <i>[TYG were sitting in the courtyard off the side of the Drift Inn]</i> is going to be a game room.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Ooh!</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> [It will be] for guests and customers alike: we're going to have shuffleboard, foosball, and whatever kind of cool games we can fit in there that make sense and that you can play with.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Probably too small to have a pool table.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Yes. It is a little too small for a pool table. But we have thought about it, because you know Lester used to have a pool table in here, before we had the place.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: What about a boxing ring?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> No, I think that might be a little pushing it. <i>[laughter]</i> There may be some liability.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: It would be very authentic.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen: </i>And nostalgic, yes. So the back room will be a game room. Currently it's storage for the Mercantile, but we're sussing out some other storage options out back for the Mercantile, because they definitely need it. So we'll have the four rooms, the kind of hang-out area/check-in, laundry/kitchen, and then the game room. And I believe the game room is going to be open to everyone, diners as well as hotel guests. So it's more of a B&B/lodge that we're trying to create, more than like a hotel, because we don't want it to be so impersonal.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And there are so many hotels in Yachats already. </i><br />
<i>Gretchen: </i>We just don't want to create that feeling—we want it to be more of an oasis, a getaway, family-oriented.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What kind of length do people stay if they're living here?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> You know, we've had people stay months at a time. It's not necessarily the most affordable option, but there is that opportunity to do it. We had a gentleman named Art who stayed with us for a long time, over a month and a half, and a woman stay here for over two months, I believe.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's awesome!</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Yes! It's definitely some people's prerogative to do that. But it's not cheap. <i>[laughs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: This is not a place where people would normally stay long-term, or they would rent a house.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Right, but like our "Pedal Out" rooms are $50 a night. It is affordable for some people to do that because it's minimal: you have small rooms, and you don't need a lot. So if you don't need a lot and can manage that, it's not too bad. So all in all, when all's said and done, we'll have twenty rooms.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Wow! </i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Five of those are the hostel-style rooms, the "Pedal Out" rooms. The rest of them vary between more of a typical hotel room to fully-furnished two-bedroom apartments. Like the one above here is called "Eagle's Nest," and it's a fully-furnished two-bedroom apartment. So we have a variety of stuff going on.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And then of course there is also the sky bridge system itself, which is still pretty new.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> I know! It's really cool. The plan is, I believe, [to install] a dumbwaiter or some sort of elevator to get house-keeping supplies up and down and whatever else we deem worthy, I suppose, like house-keeping carts and supplies.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3tnFPTLwIlJy8Crpby9JDM1KfKYzOBgrM9EivPs_96ayYsCRW_pePuEEfH6abyZAdwc3g_mbOn7udIMrP-GYa2Gr_aW_01Dy_T-kVz_ASWFsCymwWkuYaO-VmVv-_GCk0t5aPv9Ig7s/s1600/DriftInn1-color-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3tnFPTLwIlJy8Crpby9JDM1KfKYzOBgrM9EivPs_96ayYsCRW_pePuEEfH6abyZAdwc3g_mbOn7udIMrP-GYa2Gr_aW_01Dy_T-kVz_ASWFsCymwWkuYaO-VmVv-_GCk0t5aPv9Ig7s/s400/DriftInn1-color-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The roof over the Drift Inn patio, as well as a view of the sky bridge.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>TYG: Wow, so a big elevator then!</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Well, big enough to haul a person and/or things. It's probably going to be electronic. Because I can't imagine a hand-hauled dumbwaiter for that kind of thing. Although if you have enough pulleys, it distributes the work and you don't need it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Or a counterweight.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Right.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's harder under load, though.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Multiple pulleys would make a little more sense, right. So that's what's going on! We're always working on changing, moving things around.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Awesome! I'm glad to see you got a safety feature for the fireplace. </i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Yes. More than anything, though: It directs the smoke up.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYdOPuiDDZk7XN7iUDkBUQPrYYr5c1XJImo0m2gHX53q93QxPzFiJ0s2ZFHW1k2dyUpJJ7_rzvyjPNy9q0Qa7kAKzho4qw9G1Fn8C0LRojh4J-QpXlvZS8Zij8_Lkr8u-hLrYLukJplU/s1600/DriftInn6-color-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYdOPuiDDZk7XN7iUDkBUQPrYYr5c1XJImo0m2gHX53q93QxPzFiJ0s2ZFHW1k2dyUpJJ7_rzvyjPNy9q0Qa7kAKzho4qw9G1Fn8C0LRojh4J-QpXlvZS8Zij8_Lkr8u-hLrYLukJplU/s400/DriftInn6-color-web.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fireplace with its new hood. In the background, the wood chute.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>TYG: I was also quite worried during the summer about having that thing catch fire. It's not so bad now.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen: </i>Well, the fire department approved our little fire pit. It works out pretty well. We regularly water our plants, so everything's pretty moist. And we've got the driftwood/redwood tables, and they're actually selling pretty well. They're big slabs, and people are actually ordering them. We have extra ones for sale.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So, this whole patio area, with all the pathways and elevated structures, reminds me of a model railroad layout. </i><br />
<i>Gretchen: [laughs] </i>Yes?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So how did it come about, to turn this into this wonderful multi-level, multi-function sort of Tinker-Toy space?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen: </i>That's really just a combination of Tom, my step-dad, and my mom's sort of creative mind-workings<i> [Linda Hetzler is Gretchen's mother]</i>. We saw a necessity for handicap accessibility, because so many of our hotel rooms weren't accessible from a wheelchair. So they decided to create this sky way [from the rear parking area to the main upper level of the Drift Inn]. We knew if we did that, a lot more of our rooms would be more easily accessed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVLia4ZJnQr5E_5LUErN0xT6F5FdBB84bILRiUyoS3xveDlL1UKzY8oBUV1T9vpLVC48Hz4OBx9r_LqMEnrwQAluSYQYVO1Ojf5Z52fi6o-Qii8Lm4xLRdKdoLcVdBpUSujk01yM0Fjg/s1600/DriftInn0-color-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="777" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVLia4ZJnQr5E_5LUErN0xT6F5FdBB84bILRiUyoS3xveDlL1UKzY8oBUV1T9vpLVC48Hz4OBx9r_LqMEnrwQAluSYQYVO1Ojf5Z52fi6o-Qii8Lm4xLRdKdoLcVdBpUSujk01yM0Fjg/s400/DriftInn0-color-web.jpg" width="323" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of the Drift Inn patio, with the Drift Inn on the left, and the new building on the right.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>TYG: To be fair, if I remember right, it was a little bit arduous to get up there because of the steep staircase. </i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> And that staircase fell apart, so it just moved the process along.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So was there an early master plan?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> No, it's just been a slow evolution. "Okay, this is what we think we want to do next, let's give it a shot and see how it works out." Then the other structure, the one that goes along the back side of the old laundromat building, is metal fabricated at Halco Welding, up in South Beach.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I can't be the only one to have observed this, but it used to be that the [pipe serving as a wood chute] used to lead directly on top of the wood pile, which meant that any water would run straight under.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> However, there are holes drilled into the pipe so that the water goes down a little bit, but it really just goes through, and waters the garden. Tom's very smart like that. He built it then went, "Wait! This is going to need holes."<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: At what point did you decide to make this a covered patio?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> We had actually thought about it years ago. The shed that's out in the parking lot now, next to the Mercantile, was essentially where that redwood table is now. It's a pretty big shed. So that had to be moved, and a new deck had to be built in order for the deck to be covered, and make it work for the space. We had always intended to do it, but we weren't really sure how we could do it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I like how you have all the pieces mixed together—it works really well. As much as you have the pieces slightly not in alignment, it works. </i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> So all of the redwood slabs and all of the wood except for this pressure-treated wood up here was bought from a local artist wood cabinetry/wood worker guy, who had kept the wood for a long time. He was going to build a pergola, but he just never did. So he sold that to us, then all of the slabs—he had quite a few of those. So it's kind of cool that we—not necessarily recycled, but used wood that was existing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And then you've got this, which I've never seen before.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> It's a banana tree! And it's thrived since we put it in the pond and moved it a little bit—it's really gone wild. It's really neat. I run into it a lot.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I've seen banana trees full-grown, or close to it...</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Some varieties get very tall, and others don't—we're just going to have to see.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXDHOz9wY2uZHuqEp3b2defKyCG8tOema2FD-2qY3kDuRFR944ypkrIbwihQmiEVXcToUCR7PeX2hu7BEXBqrRbryCgXpaDcXKukfisG_KctawXI8M1LBp35X9PJdHGD1tWyLKt6ECRmA/s1600/DriftInn5-color-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="662" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXDHOz9wY2uZHuqEp3b2defKyCG8tOema2FD-2qY3kDuRFR944ypkrIbwihQmiEVXcToUCR7PeX2hu7BEXBqrRbryCgXpaDcXKukfisG_KctawXI8M1LBp35X9PJdHGD1tWyLKt6ECRmA/s400/DriftInn5-color-web.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Publisher and his side-kick. Banana tree is on the right.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>TYG: I always wanted to build a house in the woods and leave at least one tree standing in the middle of the living room, and also have an actual stream running through it.</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Yes! My husband really wants to build tree houses. I think he'll do that someday. He really has a lot of ideas about tree houses.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: When do you expect this to be done?</i><br />
<i>Gretchen: </i>Thanksgiving, probably? That would be our ultimate goal, but you never know. Originally we had hoped the outside of the building would be done in August, but then it took a whole other extra month. So now it's mostly just interior work, which is good timing for the weather. So painting, sheetrock, wiring the satellite... We're hoping by Thanksgiving. Alright, I have to get back to work...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Thank you so much for your time!</i><br />
<i>Gretchen:</i> Yes! Happy to do it.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-71492599167327502542018-09-01T15:30:00.002-07:002018-09-01T18:20:54.512-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 84, September 1 2018<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/t6pdr7h9v4vdi1y/20180901-YachatsGazette-84th-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 84 (.pdf)</a></span></div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b>INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE BOSCH, D.O. </b></h2>
<i>Dr. Stephanie Bosch is a family practice physician. She recently finished her residency in Corvallis, Oregon, and has joined the medical staff full-time at the Samaritan Waldport Clinic.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So what brought you into medicine?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> I have written essays about that question at least five times in my life, and yet every time I'm asked it, I always have to review the entire story in my head to remember, and really be able to articulate why.<i> [pause] </i>So, as I remember it—my Dad will tell a different story—I decided to go into medicine in the tenth grade, because what I would watch after school on the television when my homework was done, was re-runs of <i>M*A*S*H*</i>...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I'm afraid I don't know that show.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>I don't know if this makes sense, if you don't know what <i>M*A*S*H*</i> is. <i>M*A*S*H*</i> is a show from the 70's, and it takes place during the Korean War, but it was filmed during the Vietnam War. So a lot of the show is honestly commentary on the Vietnam War. It takes place in Korea at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH). So it's a hospital unit of the army that is generally stationed for a long period in one-ish place, and gets wounded soldiers, and there are doctors there that fix them up real quick and try to get them to a safer place. One of the several main characters was Benjamin Franklin Pierce, who goes by "Hawkeye." I think he was a cardiothoracic surgeon from somewhere in New England. And he, like most of the male cast, was drafted into the army to serve in the war, and he was really bitter about it. [...] In general he's a pacifist, so throughout the show he [wonders], "Why is this war going on? This is a hellish place we're in. All these people are being killed. There's very little I can do for my patients here, because they come to me busted up and dying, and I have to try and put band-aids on them to keep them alive enough to get them to a higher level of care that can take care of them." You could say he's the main character. And so a lot of the show is dealing with his mental / emotional / moral struggles of being a physician during the Korean War.<br />
<br />
So, the point of all of this: I'm in tenth grade, for the most part I've finished my homework at school or I don't have much, and I'm watching television because that's what I do, and I'm watching one to two hours of <i>M*A*S*H*</i> re-runs every day. <i>[laughs] </i>So what I'm seeing is this character that is in a terrible situation, someplace he doesn't want to be, doing what he views is this kind of bastardization of what he thought his job was—he didn't go into medicine to try and perform what he called "meatball surgery," he went into medicine to actually make a difference in people's lives. And there are other characters in that show—they had their own reasons for going into medicine; some of them were drafted, some of them were career Army, many of them physician characters.<br />
<br />
But throughout all this complaining about the terrible situation he's in, he's always the very first one that, if something's going wrong [and somebody else suggests], "Okay, we should give up on this person, they're just going to die anyway;" or, "Hey, there's this enemy soldier over here that's in poor health, but they're an enemy soldier, let's just let them die;" or "There are some Korean citizens over here, and they may not be enemy soldiers, but we're here to help the Army kids, not any of them" kind of thing—he's always the first one to be like, "No! That person's a human being. I am here to help them." And there are multiple instances throughout the show where he's like, "We're in this monstrous situation and I hate it here," but he never lets that dampen his compassion and his humanity.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Quite the doctor!</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Yes! And so at a time when I was like, "I don't know what the heck I want to do with my life," I was really interested in the sciences, I was just getting into social justice movements through my church at the time, I'm watching this guy on television in a less-than-ideal situation, not letting it stop him from being a very compassionate human being. So essentially, it's my recollection that at that point I decided, "Hey, maybe medicine would be pretty cool. That's the person I want to be, that's who I want to emulate." So... yeah. That's what brought me into medicine. <i>[laughs] </i>So I decided to go into it, and I spent the next decade working toward it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yes, it's not a short career path.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> No. So part of that drive, as I said, was wanting to emulate that fiercely compassionate character, and I alternated on what I wanted to be in medicine various times. I was set on doctor, but what specialty? At one point I wanted to go into infectious disease, because I'd read The Hot Zone and I was like, "Man, I want to work for the CDC and do a bunch of research."<i> [laughs]</i> At one point, I wanted to be a pulmonologist, because my grandmother was dying because of complications due to emphysema. But when it came time to actually choose what I wanted to go into, which happens the third or fourth year of medical school—and in part the design of medical rotations is to help with this, to get a flavoring of what different specialties and practices are like—I realized that though the TV characters that inspired me are generally surgeons, the kind of medicine I want to practice is really embodied best by family practice. He may have been a surgeon, but Hawkeye would have been a phenomenal family doc. [...]<br />
<br />
And then the other one...<i> [laughs ruefully] </i>This one is actually harder for me to leave in the conversation. It's actually two television characters that inspired me to go into medicine. And this was the absolute hardest part of writing medical school essays... "Man, they're going to really turn their nose up at the fact that I watched so much television as a child!" But that's where I drew inspiration from. Though it's not actually the TV version. It was Dr. Leonard H. McCoy from Star Trek.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Oh! But that makes sense! [laughs] </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> They're very similar characters. McCoy is not necessarily in a constantly awful situation, but he is often in terrible situations where he has to make hard medical decisions and the very first thing he lets guide his medical decision-making, is, "What is the most compassionate thing to do? How can I save as many people as possible in the best way possible?" I've never really watched much of the original series, because when I try to watch it it's kind of boring. It pains me to admit that—I love the movies, but I hate the TV series—I don't hate it, but... <i>[ensues a long conversation on the merits of various Star Trek series and spin-offs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, what brought you to this area? </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> I moved to Oregon for residency, having gone to high school and medical school in Texas. I really liked Oregon. I decided, once I was here, that I didn't want to leave. So then it was a matter of, "Hey, how where can I find a job that fits my needs that's still in Oregon?" Preferably in the western half, because I'm not really fond of it when white stuff falls from the sky and it gets too cold. So yes—after residency I was looking for a job where I could see a variety of age groups, not just adults but also kids. I wanted a practice where I could do a variety of procedures. And then this one popped up! I'd done residency with Samaritan, so I already knew how Samaritan worked, and when I was looking at jobs in the Samaritan system, the one in Waldport was the one that fit me best. Living by the ocean is pretty sweet. I do like that the weather is not in the 90s right now, and my understanding is that it doesn't get in the 20s, either.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I've never heard of it going [that low]. We've gotten some snow a few times, though!</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Well that happens everywhere. I've lived in a desert in California and we've gotten snow a couple of times. [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: So what do you like about Oregon?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> A number of things. I like that it's a blue state, and I like that it's a green state. I like that within a relatively short time you can be in a variety of different climates. I grew up in California, and that's one of the things I missed about California. Living in Bakersfield...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: [winces] Ooh.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> The great thing about being from Bakersfield is that you're no longer there. But, you are an hour and a half from the coast, an hour and a half from some nice places in the mountains, and an hour and a half from some gorgeous desert. [...] And now, Bend is maybe five hours from here? I want to say three-ish from where I was in Albany. Having lived a significant amount of time in Texas, that's nothing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It's a beautiful drive, as well!</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> It's a lovely drive. Whereas in Texas, it would be a hideous drive. So yes—[Oregon] is a gorgeous state that has people who are genuinely friendly and don't take themselves too seriously, as frequent friends of socks and sandals have shown.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Very informal culture.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Which I like! [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How has the job been going so far?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> It's going well. We're still working out some kinks. I'm not able yet to do all the procedures I'd like, because we don't have the materials. I have a particular interest in women's health; I'm able to place long-acting, reversible contraception, and we just don't have that available in the clinic yet. But once it's there, which we're working on, I'll be able to do that. Which is actually one of the things that drew me to the clinic, because I understand that there's a lack of it there. I thought, "Hey, I get to do it!" Other than that, it's going really well. We have a great group there. People allow me to make jokes. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I'm so happy that docs like you are finally starting to move in. My dad's worked at the clinic for a long time. And for so long it's been so under-staffed and under-tech-ed, so having this is so nice. Finally now, thank goodness, the Samaritan residency program is starting to come on-line. So it's finally allowing a lot of places like Waldport and Newport to get the people they need.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Totally. <i>[everybody knocks on wood]</i> Our residency program, I want to say—I'd have to look it up to be sure—I think this is currently their tenth year. And the vast majority of residents that have graduated have stayed in the state of Oregon, which was one of the main purposes—to keep them in the area. And quite a number of them have stayed with Samaritan in its various locations. So I think it's doing a pretty good job.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: How did you come to choose the residency program in Oregon?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> This is kind of harkening back to an earlier question. So I decided "family practice," and then I said, "Okay, where do I want to do my family practice residency?" The very first criterion, the most important, was that it was not in Texas. I had a number two and three that were pretty important, but I can't remember at this point. Oh, I guess I didn't want it to be in a giant city. Having lived in a number of major metropolitan areas, I'm not particularly fond of it. First I started looking on the West Coast—as I said, I grew up in California. I'm a D.O., so [...] I decided to apply just to D.O. programs, and ones that were "dual accredited," so accredited by both [M.D. and D.O. agencies]. In California, most of those programs are around major cities, so like in the L.A. metroplex or others, and I just had no interest in living near L.A. So I ended up spreading out along the West Coast: California, Washington, Oregon. Wyoming sounded like a nice place, Colorado, Montana. And then I was like, "Sure, I'll try the East Coast as well." Technically I was born on the East Coast, but I don't remember anything about Virginia. So I [thought] I'd try in the New England area, because they're pretty blue. So I ended up interviewing at places in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, a whole bunch of places in New York state, New Hampshire, and Maine. My top two programs, the two that I was [choosing between, were] the program in Corvallis, and the one in Bangor, Maine—so, opposite sides of the country. [Maine] still does sound like a phenomenal state, and I'd love to visit again. They had a phenomenal program, but I'm really glad I ranked Corvallis number one and made it into [the program]. So, I think the question was, "Why the Corvallis program?" It was a phenomenal program with phenomenal people. When I interviewed there, everyone seemed like a big, supportive family. Considering my closest relatives are in southern California, [that] was really important to me. [And it was] in a beautiful state, that wasn't Texas.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: What made, or makes it, a phenomenal program?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Part of it is the sort of family-like feel that we have. The entire program was, and remained, and continues to be, run sort of with the idea that the residents are in one of the best positions to find what the weaknesses are in the program, so "Hey, let's listen to them about what these weaknesses are." And then residents and faculty all work as a team to fix it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That's especially nice if it works.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Oh, it does! I thought the program was really great going into it, and by the time I graduated, I [thought it] was an even better program, and it's going to be even better within the next three to five years, once we see how it's going to improve and offer even better education for its residents. So you have this supportive environment to learn in, which is the best kind of learning environment; you have a hospital that gets a variety of patients and that is decently large without being so enormous that you can get entirely overwhelmed by patient load. You can still get overwhelmed, but it's not like the weight of a state hospital system is resting on your shoulders kind of thing. When I was going into it, I was looking at the availability of [obstetrics] training as a plus, because I was considering doing OB as part of family practice, which I eventually decided not to. At that point, you could use electives and get a decent amount of OB experience. I think those things: a variety of electives, the ability to take a variety of electives, so you could identify your own weaknesses and fill those; as opposed to a lot of programs where you have very few electives so you don't get a lot of that flexibility of education. I was one of the first residents that started out from the onset in our three separate continuity clinic locations; the Corvallis residency is centered in Corvallis, so that's where your residency is, but we have "continuity clinics" that the residents do there, [which means] seeing your own patients as part of your residency, and "your clinic" as opposed to going to somebody else's clinic and watching, or helping them do their thing. Mine was in Albany; there's another one in Lebanon. I was excited about the opportunity to help start that, and blossom that for the program. Because there had been residents that were brought into those clinics, in their second and third years, but I was one of the ones that started out there first year and was there all three.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So how does it feel to be completely out of the nest?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>There are some things that are like, "Yeah, this is awesome!" For example, when I can just sign an order and I don't have to co-sign it with anyone, or I don't have to co-sign my notes with anyone—I just do things without having to go through the rigmarole of double-checking things, particularly when I already know the answer and I know I can just do this thing. But then it's also terrifying in that I don't have anyone double-checking all my work! <i>[laughs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: That is one of the reassuring things about being a PA; I'm required to have my supervising physician sign off on at least ten per cent of my chart notes, so I make it a point to send him all of the notes about situations that are a little weird, or a little bit touchy, or a little bit risky—I make sure that somebody else is taking a look at these less-than-ideal situations. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Which is another thing that I kind of really like about our clinic, which is that I have multiple times now just peeked my head into people's office doors or banged on the office doors and like "Hey! There's this weird thing! Tell me if the decision I made sounds legit to you, or if it was shady!" <i>[laughs]</i> So there's the reassurance of, "No, no, that sounds pretty reasonable."<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: It's been a very supportive environment. How much of that is our particular group versus Samaritan, I don't know, not having worked in primary care for other Samaritan [offices]. But there's a very nice tone there. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>And having only ever worked in resident groups as part of Samaritan, once again, having chosen the residency based on that kind of support, I like to think it's a Samaritan culture kind of thing. Partially because, not even in primary care, but working with specialists, just how interested and involved they are in teaching residents, that you have to have some kind of openness to questions and support in order to be able to do that effectively.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: There isn't a hazing culture.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> No.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: I've experienced that elsewhere during my training, and I certainly see products of it elsewhere, with providers who grew up in that hazing culture, and seeing how that behavior continues. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> "I went through this, so you have to go through this too."<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Right. [...] So, I'd be interested to hear why you chose not to do obstetrics in family practice, and also the things that you are doing that may be a little special. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>In the end, I chose not to do obstetrics partially because it takes a lot of effort and a lot of time, and I already don't sleep very well.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: You'd probably get a lot of calls in the middle of the night.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Yes. A lot of calls in the middle of the night. And it's not just a simple answer, or a simple "Let's go and evaluate the patient." Obstetrics is you stay with the patient, and you continually evaluate them, for hours. It's very stressful and overwhelming. Is it a phenomenal feeling to catch a baby? Yes. Is it a phenomenal feeling to be able to go with a mother or a set of parents on this journey of their little fetus-nugget growing, and they get to hit all these benchmarks even <i>in utero</i> and learn all these new things even if it's their third or fourth or whatever child? Yes... but I really like sleeping. <i>[laughs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: I suppose if obstetrics is most of what you do, you can schedule things around your call day. But if you're trying to do that...</i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>In addition to family practice...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Right.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> It's a lot harder to juggle in family practice than when you're primarily an obstetrician.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Two different kinds of work, with two completely different schedule types. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> As for the second part of your question, I did mention earlier that I have a particular interest in women's health, and that includes things like cervical cancer screening, making sure women are up-to-date on breast cancer screening, and also just contraception management, because there's a wide variety. In this country, in this modern world, if a woman does not want to get pregnant, she does not have to get pregnant—it is preventable. I particularly enjoy opening people's eyes to the variety of ways that you can plan pregnancy for when it's convenient to you, or not have one if it's never convenient to you.<br />
<br />
So what I was talking about earlier, the LARCs—the long-acting reversible contraceptives, which are things like Nexplanon and inter-uterine devices. Essentially, these are forms of contraception that are one way or another put in a woman's body, and they provide anywhere from three to five years, depending on the type, of really reliable birth control. You don't have to remember to take a pill, you don't have to remember to put on a patch, or remember to get a shot every three months, or anything like that. It's like it's there for this period of time, it offers extremely reliable—and I'm talking about 98-99.5%—effectivity. And the other thing is that it's long-acting, but also reversible. So the Nexplanon, for example, is the little rod thing that goes in a woman's arm. Say a woman has it in there for a year and a half, and says, "Well, I'm ready to get pregnant now." Well, we just take it out and she can get pregnant pretty darn quickly after that!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Simple enough... </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Yes! Same thing with the IUDs. The Mirena is the five year hormonal IUD. Say she has it in for three years, and is like, "Man, I want to get pregnant. I'm ready now, we're planning this." We can just take it out and she can get pregnant pretty quickly afterward. Totally reversible. So yes—they're super-effective, generally really safe, long-acting, reversible forms of birth control. I'm just a big proponent of it because of all those reasons. I'll be the only one in our clinic doing those. It's my understanding that you previously had to be referred to the women's clinic in Newport. And it's my understanding that Nickki [Dorr, FNP] wants to learn how to do the Nexplanon and the IUDs as well, so hopefully, eventually we'll have two of us who can do that. Just makes it easier for the women in the Waldport area, who find it difficult to get up to Newport—it makes it more accessible for them.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So, outside of the office, what do you really enjoy?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> I like reading—mainly fiction, but as you can see, also some non-fiction, mainly along the revolutionary war era; histories, but not like the super-dry textbook history, but the "I wrote it kind of in the form of a story" type history.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: David McCullough! Fantastic for that sort of thing. He's written loads of histories about that period, like big, 600-page histories—fascinating. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Not like "date," and then "this done on this date"...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: No, not at all. </i><br />
<i>TYG-EA: Great biography of John Adams. </i><br />
<i>TYG: And George Washington as well.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>I watch a large amount of Netflix as well.<i> [laughs] </i>Videogames. I'm a very casual gamer. Some casual gamers will say, "You seem more hard-core than me!" But I'm comparing myself to my three brothers, who are steeped above their heads in videogame culture.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I definitely call myself a casual gamer. I know a few tricks. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> I play a game, off and on, every once in a while, for ages, until I get bored with it, and then I'll start a second game. Whereas all my brothers seem to be playing in-depth, super-intense, five games at once. I'm like, "I don't understand how you have time for this!"<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well, they might have the time because they don't do anything else.</i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> Exactly. Let's see... I collect unicorn-themed items. What you see is the smallest modicum of my unicorn collection—most of it is still packed away. [laughs] And tea. Tea is a hobby of mine. I have a collection of teas. I have a collection of tea cups, a collection of tea pots, a collection of tea-making things; a lot of tea-related paraphernalia.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Have you been to the Green Salmon in Yachats? </i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>I have not!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Probably the best tea place around. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie:</i> It's a tea place? I thought it was a restaurant!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: It's also a coffee place. It's also a bakery. </i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>There's also a place in Seal Rock—La Faye Art Studios.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?</i><br />
<i>Stephanie: </i>It's super worthwhile to adopt a senior dog, because they're cute and calm and generally already trained.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Thank you so much for your time!</i><br />
<br />
<h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS: </b></div>
<b><div style="text-align: center;">
<b>DRIVE ELECTRIC YACHATS </b> </div>
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<i>September 9, 2018</i></div>
Drive Electric Yachats is a one-day free event, Sunday Sept. 9, starting 10 AM at the Yachats Commons Picnic Shelter. This year’s event includes a free showing of the movie <i>Revenge of the Electric Car</i>.<br />
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Drive Electric Yachats is part of National Drive Electric Week, September 8–16, 2018, a nationwide celebration to heighten awareness of today's widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and highlight the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more.<br />
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From 10 AM to 3 PM you can visit and speak with local electric vehicle owners. Look under the hood. You will be surprised. Try a test drive and learn more about this new rapidly changing technology. Electric vehicles are fun to drive, are less expensive and more convenient to fuel than gasoline vehicles. EV’s are better for the environment, promote jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Are you considering going electric? Come talk to owners who have successfully done so.<br />
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2:30 PM FREE MOVIE and POPCORN at the Commons: <i>REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR</i><br />
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As part of their 75th anniversary celebrations, Central Lincoln PUD is sponsoring a free showing of the highly praised, 88 minute film <i>Revenge of the Electric Car</i>. <i>Revenge</i> follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 through the end of 2010 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market in the midst of the 2008 global recession. The documentary premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day, April 22, 2011.<br />
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We are still looking for EV owners who are willing to let a novice explore their car. It is your decision what you allow guests do with your electric vehicle: look at it, sit in it, ride in it, or drive it.<br />
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If you are an EV owner and wish to sign up and show off and share your EV, please sign up at: <a href="https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1281">https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1281</a> . National Drive Electric Week is presented by Plug In America, Sierra Club, and Electric Auto Association. Drive Electric Yachats is produced by Polly Plumb Productions, and sponsored by the Drift Inn Hotel and Restaurant, the Yachats Chamber of Commerce, and Central Lincoln PUD.<br />
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For more information call 541-968-6089, or contact <a href="mailto:perfect@peak.org">perfect@peak.org</a><br />
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Find us on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ThinkYachats/" target="_blank">Drive Electric Yachats</a><br />
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YACHATS CELTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL</h2>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/459847624206028/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="464" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEyrl_dZ3Ovd8IC51K-yXfzbRCw0trZlobYr603-DGEUw2aDwc9uAGxt3Spp6o3KbklK3o0SidMdfPNQT5SX_4MOpZjpybiVQitXmRusUPeBZXfN2dRu04gTMAMxLv3nd5ridUpN7PE0/s320/20180801-YachatsCelticMusicFestival-color.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
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Get your tickets now for the 18th Yachats Celtic Music Festival, Friday through Sunday, November 9-11, at the Yachats Commons and other venues around town. Plans include day and night time events including concerts, dances, stories, talks, whiskey tasting, workshops, vendors, the sunset “Piper on the Point,” plus surprises, with a variety of free and paid activities scheduled.<br />
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The early Friday noon opening was very popular last year, and that is planned again. This creates an opportunity to enjoy live music and have a Celtic inspired snack or beverage before the afternoon concerts begin. All ages are welcome at most events.<br />
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-40136792082707432192018-08-01T18:19:00.000-07:002018-08-01T22:46:30.116-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 83, August 1 2018<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/67t7z757gqhu6am/20180801-YachatsGazette-83rd-Issue.pdf/file" target="_blank">For a printable version of Issue 83, click here.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Laura Rains, LCSW</span> </div>
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<i>Laura Rains is a new provider with the Yachats Health Care clinic on Beach Street.</i></div>
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<i>TYG: So, how did you learn about Yachats Health Care?</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Good question! You know... There's always a story within a story, and so I've walked by here. I remember when this used to be the store where Max the Dog was, back when the store used to be Raindogs. But then, when I moved here almost three years ago, I started thinking about wanting to start practice here [in Yachats]. It was just sort of one of those things that just happens. I won't say a light shone down from the sky [laughs] but it was almost like that. I'm walking by, and it's like, "Ohhh, Yachats Health Care! Hmm. What's that about?" And so then I contacted Jai [Tomlin], the chiropractor here [and owner]. Then we went out for dinner, and talked about what it would be like to practice here. It worked out—I almost couldn't believe it, because it's right here in town, across from the Post Office.<br />
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<i>TYG: We've had a couple of those moments as well, just various things... So, what services do you intend to bring to the program?</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>I'm a psychotherapist. What I get to do, is that I get to be with people at a time when they're changing, or they have questions. You know how in life people will be going down a path, and you get stuck in a pattern. It's not so much that the pattern is bad, but that it limits your ability to see other ways of going down that path. So I provide therapy for elders—I love working with older people. I love finding out about how they got to these different transitions in their life. Whether it's in later life, or toward the end of their life... that transition isn't the sum of everything that's happened with them: it's just something that's happening right now. So I like working with elderly people, and couples. In my job—I work a couple of days a week in Eugene—and at home, I work with parents and families. So what I'm going to do is work here one day a week and see what happens—I'm just going to be available to work with people.<br />
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<i>TYG: So you just found out about this program by walking by, right?</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> Yes, absolutely. Yachats Health Care has several different workers here: Jai does chiropractic work, then there are two other practitioners that do bodywork. There's a naturopath, and it just seemed like a great place to bring something else! I'm in private practice here, as are all the other practitioners. At the open house it was kind of fun, because someone said, "All you need is someone who does podiatry, because then you would have head-to-foot!" <i>[laughs] </i><br />
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<i>TYG: We certainly need psychotherapists around here—everyone seems to be swamped. The whole system is swamped!</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>That's a perfect way of saying it, yes.<br />
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<i>TYG: How did you come to Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> Probably other people have this same experience, but I've been pointing in this direction for 25 years. I'm 56, and 25 years ago I started coming out to Yachats. Some years I would come every single weekend. I always had a dog with me, and I'd stay somewhere. And maybe 10 years ago I thought, "Wow, I'd love to live here!" Then three years ago I was working at home, and I thought, "Boy, if home could be anywhere, where would I want it to be?" And I just knew it would be Yachats. I was here for a Yoga retreat and was talking to somebody on the beach who said they'd just had a great experience with a certain realtor. So I met Paul Cohen, and the very first place he showed me, I went in and I said, "Well, I like this and I like that..." The very first place just took my breath away. I kind of laughed out loud, like "Ha ha ha, I can't really live here." And then I came back the next weekend, and spent the weekend in the place, and thought, "Why not?" And then it was a super-easy process to move here from Eugene. It's almost three years, and I still have the "pinch me" moments—there's something that feels so special and comfortable. It's sort of like "Hawai'i time" in a way.<br />
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<i>TYG: "Hawai'i time," but more intellectual and a lot cooler.</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>A lot cooler, for sure! <i>[laughter]</i><br />
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<i>TYG-Graphic Design: So do you still have your home in Eugene since you are still working there, or do you now commute from Yachats to Eugene?</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> That's exactly right, I switched directions. I used to have a small house in Eugene, but a couple of months after moving here I sold it, and so I live here now, although I don't really feel like I've left Eugene because I go back every week for a day or two, and I spend the night. But [while in Eugene] I'm thinking about coming back while I am driving away from here [Yachats]. And when I drive home, I can feel myself driving a little bit faster, leaning towards getting back here.<br />
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<i>TYG: It's an amazing community. We've lived here for ten years and we still have those pinch-me moments. </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Do you?<br />
<i>TYG: Yeah.</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: Actually it's been eleven years now. </i><br />
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<i>TYG: So what brought you into psychotherapy?</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Again, there is always a story within a story. So [at the time] I was working as a reporter, which is why I was so excited when I reached out to put an ad in the paper. I was like, "You are such a good reporter! I love your stories!" So I was a newspaper reporter and then an editor, which is why I moved up to Eugene to go to U of O. So I was in the graduate program for journalism, health education and sociology.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: That was one program? </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Yes, I did an interdisciplinary Master's program. As a reporter I always loved stories that had a human interest angle, but especially those that involved health and change, where people are helping others. So I was working on my degree, and I got a job at the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), and I was also volunteering at what is now called HIV Alliance, but at the time it was known as Shanti <i>[a Sanskrit word for peace]</i>. Since this was the late 90s, Shanti was really more of a hospice organization, and so I was an emotional support volunteer; and it was life changing. I learned so much about how in normal society, compliments are just brushed off; oh no, it wasn't me, I didn't really do it...<br />
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<i>TYG: Well I certainly fit into that category. [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>If someone's dying, sometimes the only thing they have to give you is their gratitude; and so you don't want to brush that away. And so we had this exercise with another person, where all we would do, for about five minutes, the other person would give you a compliment [rotating after each exchange], and the only thing the other person could say was: "Thank you, that is very true of me." And so this created a process that went on and on; and it just touched me so deeply. Here I am, I have been a journalist, I want to be a better journalist, but I started thinking, "You know I think I want to do something else." But I still completed the program, and then started doing some work at OSLC, which was learning how to do group therapy. Then the whole thing just sort of fell in my lap, and I started learning, and then I said "Okay, this is what I want to do. That was really great, I got that degree, but I want to do something different." So then I went and got a Master's in social work. Then I started working with families, and then elderly, and people who have long-term disability. Then I started working where my job is in Eugene and at home, where we train therapists. So therapists have already been trained, but we train them in our model. We'll train cities, or states, or countries. Right now we're training across the five boroughs in New York City. We've done the state of Kansas, State of Michigan, and then Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: And what kind of training is this?</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>It's training therapists. The model is called GenerationPMTO and it's an evidence-based parenting program designed to support parents, strengthen families, and promote healthy child development. It's based on 50 years of research in Oregon, the U.S., and abroad, and it promotes social skills and prevents, reduces and reverses the development of moderate to severe conduct problems in children and youth. Our workshops train and certify therapists to deliver the GenerationPMTO model to parents and families; we then train in roles such as coaching, training and fidelity monitoring so that systems of care in cities, states and countries have stand-alone implementation sites. The interesting thing is that it started happening mostly in European countries. It's hard to get in the US, because it's hard to get everybody on the same page and say that prevention for families makes sense. In the model it says that parents are their children's best teachers. They're the ones who are with them the most. I could sit with a kiddo only for an hour each week, but it's the family—that's the environment that really needs support and really believe in parents. So the European countries bought into this model. Norway did 20 years ago, and said, "We have this problem where kids are sort of languishing in foster care and we want to do something about it." So we went over there and trained some 30 therapists. 20 years later, they have now trained over 1,000 therapists and are serving over 20,000 families.<br />
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<i>TYG: That's fantastic.</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Yes! And it's really amazing to have it happen in mostly European countries: the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. They have governments who said they wanted to put their money where there was going to be positive change. So that's what I do. I work from home because I'll coach therapists or do trainings—that's where these postcards are from <i>[about a dozen postcards are being addressed on an adjacent table]</i>, because I was just in Brooklyn. We had this activity during this week-long workshop where each of the therapists had a card. They wrote their name and address on them, and then at different times during the workshop we passed the card around, and their colleagues would say something that they noticed about them. The cards have stamps on them that are Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Angie [Bagby, at the Post Office] helped me with that, because [the class] was in Brooklyn, and they're like, "Where's Oregon?" <i>[laughter]</i> So I told them, "Well, you know, like in the 60s, there were a lot of VW vans that were on their way north to Canada, and they kinda got stuck..." <i>[laughter] </i>So I went to Angie and I said, "What do we have that represents Oregon, like hippy..." and she said, "Oh! These would be great stamps." So, that was a long way around to your question. But can I also say this: Along the way, I started doing animal-assisted therapy. I had this big Newfie-Lab, whose name was Clifford. So we had to go through a training program where he got trained up as a therapy dog. The test was that people would brush him backwards, drop objects nearby, they'd walk with loud walkers. After they said, "Clifford did great, he's certified—but you, you need to slow down!" <i>[She shows us a picture of a happy dog.]</i> He was such a leaner, and he was so good! I have a small dog now—Clifford passed away, sadly—that my bonus daughter saw at the shelter. She said, "Oh, can we play with this little dog?" And I said, "Sure! Let's fluff him up, get him ready for his forever family." We were there for two hours, and then we left—the shelter said he was getting adopted. And I called the next day, and asked whether I could come by and say good-bye to him, because we'd spent so much time with him, and they said, "Oh, his adoption fell through." And I said, "Hold that dog!!!"<i> [laughter]</i> So now I have this little, small... he's called a party poodle, which cracks me up, because I've only had Clifford, the Newfie-Lab, and a German Shepherd, all big dogs. And still, five years later, I look down and say to him, "What are you doing all the way down there?" <i>[laughter]</i> But I'm thinking about getting a big dog so he'll have a big buddy.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: You mentioned a "bonus daughter." May I ask what a bonus daughter is? I presume she's a gift, but...</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> She is. That's a term that we came up with. I was doing respite foster care, and she was one of the first kiddos I met. She was five. Then I started doing respite care for just her. And at about thirteen or fourteen, I said, "You know, I don't like to tell your story about being in foster care every time. What can we come up with?" I had some friends in Denmark that I'd been working with, and they mentioned they had a bonus grand-daughter. So I said to her, "What do you think about "bonus daughter" and "bonus mom"?" And she said, "Yeah, that sounds good." Since then she was returned to her Mom, and her Mom loves her dearly, but she was really good about letting us [visit]. I became part of their family a little bit and I see her regularly. She just got a job in a fast food restaurant—I'm so proud of her!<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So, what are your plans for integration into the clinic? Are you just going to stay at one day? </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>I still work full-time for my other job, so Monday afternoons are my time [here.] I'm just going to start there. There's so much that goes into private practice: there's getting on panels, and right now I'm going through the process with Medicare. Some of the people can't use their insurance to pay for coming in. I've always worked as part of a clinic, so they took care of everything [insurance-related]. There's a lot to do to get set up. So I'm going to start seeing people on Mondays, but if it needs to be another time, I'll work it out so it's most convenient. And we'll just see what happens! I'm just really excited to do it! I just think it's such a gift when people say, "Yeah, let's do some therapy together." I love seeing people make change and work things out. I learn so much from other people. And I love groups, too—I'd like to see what kind of interest there is in some kind of process group.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: How does group therapy work?</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> There is something about when you have a group together, especially if it's a psycho-educational group—there's a focus.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: What does that mean?</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Thanks, I appreciate those clarifying questions. You can have a support group: people are there, and maybe there's a general theme, so it could be a grief support group, or a new mom support group, or a cancer support group. What I really like is the psycho-educational component: people come together, and let's say... well, the groups that I do in my other job are parenting groups. Parents come together, and we have a curriculum. But it's not like we say, "Hey, here is this big curriculum, go learn it." It's like, "Hey, everybody gets together, we've got some tools, let's try these out." We do a lot of role play. So we'll get up and practice things, and do a "wrong way" example with an off the wall wrong way. People are laughing and saying "Oh my gosh, I've done that at home!" and then say, "What can we do to make that better?" And then we do a "right way" example and people practice it. They interact with each other. I feel like there's wisdom in the room, and my job as a facilitator is just to connect wisdom, and to help shore up people who need support and tools. The idea is then to go home and try it out, and come back and debrief, and say, "What happened? What worked? What didn't work?" with the group. It feels like magic can happen when people learn from each other. My job is really to facilitate—it's not like, "Hey, I'm an expert!" I'm not! [They] are all the experts.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So it's kind of like a parenting class, but not quite.</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Yes. It's definitely a parenting class, but it doesn't feel like one.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I'm involved with the Yachats Youth organization in town, and we do offer parenting classes. The dynamic of the group is very much about incorporating our own stories and let's figure out [a solution]. But it's amazing how so many of the materials are dated, which is a shame. </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Our parenting group model is based on 50 years of research. I know that right now to say that you're scientifically-based is sort of out of favor, but we are evidence-based. That's where the psycho-educational piece comes in. There are tools that we know work with families like ours, so we say, "Here are tools that we know work; now, let's tailor it so that it works for your family."<br />
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<i>TYG: So was there anything else you wanted to talk about?</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> I think that's all—but you know, as a former reporter it was fun to say, "Okay, I'm going to be on the other side of this, and see what this is like!" <i>[laughs] </i><br />
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<i>TYG: I've done that a couple of times; it is really good fun. </i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> I'll tell you what I like about it, but first, tell me what you like. How's that been for you?<br />
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<i>TYG: It opens me up to see the other side. And I feel like my interviews are always better afterwards. </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Yes, absolutely! You know what's similar for me? So when I coach a therapist, and even if it's in another language, so if I'm watching a Dutch therapy session and I have a transcript so I know what they're actually saying, afterwards, when I go into a therapy session, I feel like I'm better because of that. That makes perfect sense. Before I was going to meet you, I was thinking "What are the things that led me here?" So I pulled out my Master's thesis. This was in the early 90s, and I did a content analysis of four major newspapers, like the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times, and a fourth paper. And I was looking at right when Magic Johnson, who was a basketball player with the Lakers, said he had HIV. So I looked at news coverage a week before he announced, and news coverage a week after he announced. What I was really curious about was, does news coverage change because it's event-based, or because it's an issue? And I looked at seven other celebrities and how they were treated by the media before and after. So thank you for asking me to do this interview, because I hadn't looked at that thesis for a lot of years. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: What did you discover?</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Well, that coverage did change after he announced. One of the things that changed was, that rather than only getting information from the "official sources" about HIV, people who had HIV now had a voice. Part of it was also that he was a heterosexual man who came out and said he got HIV. That was very different from, say, Freddie Mercury, who was the lead singer of Queen. Everything was attributed to his flamboyant nature. Also, I was a big Queen fan, so this was a way to do some private research on him. <i>[laughter]</i> One of the other things I was interested in was, "Do news outlets provide mobilizing information?" Other than just saying, "Hey, here's what happened, this is a health crisis folks!" So I was looking at whether they included any type of resource so people could learn more. And that sort of varied. <i>[To the Publisher]</i> So, can you just tell me? I'm just curious—how did you start doing this?<br />
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<i>TYG: So for me—I used to be a real idea factory. [Brief protest from the TYG-GD about the use of the past tense.] Well, I still have them—I just don't say them as much anymore. I used to just spew out stuff, constantly. And I was with Dad, coming home after a walk, and I said, "When I grow up, I'm going to start a newspaper in the town. It's going to be called The Yachats Gazette." And Dad goes, "Wait a minute." And within a few days, maybe a week, we had the first issue out. </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Wow. That's awesome.<br />
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<i>TYG: We just went into the supermarket plaza, and we just talked to business owners there. They were our first advertisers, along with Toad Hall, and it just grew from there. So we're up to eleven years, and Issue 83. </i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>That's amazing. I love that you said you were an idea factory.<br />
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<i>TYG: That's just how I roll. </i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> But then you also became an action figure, because you made it happen.<br />
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<i>TYG: My parents were, honestly, the bigger part of that. It's amusing, because that brings us back to the compliment thing. </i><br />
<i>Laura: [laughter] </i>That's funny! Look what just happened! I give you a compliment, and you're like, deflect!<i> [laughter]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: Yep! That's me! [more laughter]</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> Let's try it again. Let's try it with me. So I'm going to say, "Wow, that's so cool! You're an idea factory, but you're also an action figure!"<br />
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<i>TYG: Mm. Well, I am an idea factory. That much is very much true. I'm not sure about the action figure.</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> You did make things happen.<br />
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<i>TYG: Sort of. [laughs]</i><br />
<i>Laura: </i>Yeah. You just say, "That's true of me."<br />
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<i>TYG: I guess. [laughter] That's true of me, fine! [more laughter]</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> That's really cool. I love that.<br />
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<i>TYG: Well, it was great fun meeting you!</i><br />
<i>Laura:</i> It was a great way to spend the early part of the afternoon. Thank you!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>STORIES OF WEST AFRICA</b></span></div>
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<i>Art Quilt Show, Yachats Commons, August 25-26</i></div>
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Photo "Mother and Child" </div>
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Art Quilt by Hollis Chatelain</div>
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“Stories of West Africa” is a collection of art quilts created by internationally renowned award-winning artist Hollis Chatelain. This show will be on display in the Yachats Commons, August 25, & 26, 10 AM – 4 PM. Admission is a suggested $7.00 donation.<br />
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Hollis Chatelain employs a dynamic and characteristic style, marked by dreamlike imagery, elaborate use of color, and intricate thread detail. Hollis creates unique compositions that address challenging social, environmental, and political themes. Her work is found in public and private collections around the world. Her website is hollisart.com. Check it out and discover the process she uses to create her fabric.<br />
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The Yachats Commons is located at 441 N. Hwy 101. For more information please visit<br />
<a href="http://www.pollyplumb.org/">www.pollyplumb.org</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>DRIVE ELECTRIC YACHATS </b></span> </div>
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<i>September 9, 2018</i></div>
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Drive Electric Yachats is a one-day free event, Sunday Sept. 9, starting 10 AM at the Yachats Commons Picnic Shelter. This year’s event includes a free showing of the movie “Revenge of the Electric Car."<br />
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Drive Electric Yachats is part of National Drive Electric Week, September 8–16, 2018, a nationwide celebration to heighten awareness of today's widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and highlight the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more. "National Drive Electric Week is presented by Plug In America, Sierra Club, and Electric Auto Association". Drive Electric Yachats is produced by Polly Plumb Productions, and sponsored by the Drift Inn Hotel and Restaurant, the Yachats Chamber of Commerce, and Central Lincoln PUD.<br />
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From 10 AM to 3 PM you can visit and speak with local electric vehicle owners. Look under the hood. You will be surprised. Try a test drive and learn more about this new rapidly changing technology. Electric vehicles are fun to drive, are less expensive and more convenient to fuel than gasoline vehicles,. EV’s are better for the environment, promote jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Are you considering going electric? Come talk to owners who have successfully done so.<br />
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FREE MOVIE and POPCORN at the Commons </div>
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2:30 PM “REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR”</div>
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As part of their 75th anniversary celebrations, Central Lincoln PUD is sponsoring a free showing of the highly praised, 88 minute film “Revenge of the Electric Car”. Revenge follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 through the end of 2010 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market in the midst of the 2008 global recession. The documentary premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day, April 22, 2011.<br />
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ABC news wrote "As much as you expect it to be a story about technology, it's really a tale about people. ... [The four entrepreneurs'] stories are skillfully woven together, each presented in their own voice." USA Today wrote, "Revenge is a must-see movie for anyone interested in cars." The Guardian noted that the film "is more than just a snapshot of the gamesmanship behind the creation of mass-market vehicles. Revenge offers a look inside the minds of business leaders struggling through one of the most troubled periods of recent economic history. ... [It] captures rich natural tension as it unfolds." Free admission, popcorn and surprises are planned.<br />
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We are still looking for EV owners who are willing to let a novice explore their car. It is your decision what you allow guests do with your electric vehicle: look at it, sit in it, ride in it, or drive it.<br />
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If you are an EV owner and wish to sign up and show off and share your EV, please sign up at:<br />
<a href="https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1281">https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1281</a><br />
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For more information call 541-968-6089, or contact <a href="mailto:perfect@peak.org" target="_blank">perfect@peak.org</a><br />
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Find us on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1026819647455870/" target="_blank">Drive Electric Yachats</a><br />
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-76796426632130319742018-07-01T01:41:00.000-07:002018-07-01T02:17:29.373-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 82, July 1 2018<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/av56yd55jyw23hb/20180701-YachatsGazette-82nd-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 82</a>.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Phi </span></b></div>
<i>Phi is one of our newer Yachatians.</i><br />
<i><br />
TYG: Can we get your name?</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>I go by Phi today, like the Greek letter. My parents were from Northern Maine, and they spoke French. I grew up on the east coast and lived on the east coast all my life until 2011, coming out here to Oregon for the first time.<br />
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<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Why did you come out?</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Well, somebody I was with at the time had grown up here, and her mother was living here. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I bought an old church in Toledo and turned it into a house and a studio. It was fun for a while, until it wasn’t anymore. I went through a pretty serious battle with cancer. Just had my four-year anniversary of beating that; I nearly died, and it was a pretty serious battle. But I kind of had a miraculous healing—I came out of it very rapidly. I was down to like 150 pounds, I had massive tumors on me—you know, I was going. I was starting chemo, and I don’t think anyone else thought I was going to make it through. I had an almost miraculous healing—within a week of my first treatment, my tumors were gone; I started to feel better.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Wow! Maybe the cancer was just strong enough to keep going, but once you had chemo...</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Well, I started something just before the chemo, and I think it had a lot to do with it. I—along with my partner at the time—said, “Why don’t we visualize the chemo going to the cancer, and nothing else. Let thought drive this.” Just prior to moving to Oregon, I had just finished a novel. I thought I was coming to Oregon to be a writer. I didn’t actually go in that direction—I was riding the wave <i>[going with the flow of events]</i>. The novel was kind of a science fiction thriller kind of thing: an MIT Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Theoretical Physics. The story starts with him in Tibet for the summer, meditating and looking inward for answers to what happens in the quantum world. And he kind of has a breakthrough. So I’ve always been intrigued with this mind over matter kind of thing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I feel that we just know so little about quantum; I feel like we can’t rule out any sort of evidence at this point—all should be treated with skepticism, but none should be ignored.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Absolutely! We don’t really understand the nature of consciousness—how even this bag of protoplasm is able to do anything, frankly. I think a thought to raise my hand [raises his hand]. How did that happen? Really? How do all those atoms and molecules do that, just with a thought? So that connection is there, within, and we use it all the time. I think it’s truly quite powerful, and we can reshape things within the body and our health. I’ll tell you, I was chronically ill my entire life up to that point—I had all kinds of problems. And from that point on, from the day that I knew I was going to be better, I have been tremendously healthy. Like startlingly healthy, and getting healthier all the time. My body was pretty crapped up from it [the cancer]—I had a lot of atrophy and a lot of other stuff, and I was in quite a lot of pain—but it all seems to be kind of melting away, and I’m finding myself in this tremendously healthy state.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So how many years was this ago?</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Four years in April. Most people wouldn’t even know! After that, I made a practice of getting better, really seeking vitality within and bringing that out. You can raise that energy and vitality within, because that’s the only thing that’s going to heal you. You have to get the body to come back, restore your energy, restore your immune system.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That will really help, but it’s still not a magic cure.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Right. Well, we see this placebo effect, too. We know it’s real. There’s something, in the consciousness, that can manipulate the physical world. That’s of great interest to me—it always has been. So, I’m trying to manifest a billion dollars to come to me, but... <i>[laughter]</i> I’m going to keep practicing though!<br />
<br />
But I’ve always been creative, all my life. <i>[To the publisher]</i> I think we probably share the same kind of creativity. I think I’ve always been an architect. From the very beginning, I was always designing things, inventing things, all through my youth. I can’t imagine what I would have done with computers, if I’d had them when I was young, particularly the internet as a resource.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: The one great breakthrough my generation has is being able to come in from the very start with decent computers.</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Absolutely. So, when I was in seventh grade, I had an art teacher who started to show us how to draw perspective drawings. [laughs] I felt like the whole world had opened up to me! This magic secret had been revealed: how to capture the world around you in an accurate way, through geometry, through mathematics, essentially. I was just fascinated with it. Everyone else in my class was drawing a house, or whatever, and I drew an entire cityscape with an amusement park! <i>[laughs] </i>I think you can probably understand the enthusiasm I was experiencing. I felt like I was not limited—[I could draw] whatever my imagination was capable of bringing out! It wasn’t about just capturing the physical world. I could think of things that didn’t exist yet, and that was really empowering. My art teacher said, “You should become an architect!” And I was like, “Okay!” I didn’t know anything about doing that. I didn’t have parents that helped shape that, so I continued along, thinking that the best skill I needed to apply as an architect was probably drafting. So I spent a lot of time in drafting classes—didn’t spend any time in art or design or any of those kinds of things, and I would have really benefitted from having some of that experience. But I went to college for architecture, at Syracuse University. Started there, then graduated the New York Institute of Technology. I was a partner in a small firm for a number of years in Connecticut, and I was involved with architecture for about 13 years. Then in the mid-90’s, I brought computers into our office. It was very technical—I just love technical things. Especially automation, the idea of automation. So, I’m looking at these CAD systems, what you’re experiencing with SketchUp [a 3D modeling software] right now, and I thought, “Oh! I can make components!” This was the very early days [before libraries of components had been created]. Or, “I can create a little script that would automatically create a window that is exactly the dimensions of the one in the catalog!” Or whatever—and I just built these models, and I was totally taken away. I started getting into other graphics software, like the predecessors to Photoshop or Illustrator—the Adobe suite.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: There’s a really good alternative for that stuff by the way is called GIMP—GNU Image Manipulation Program. I’m guessing you’ve heard of it.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Uh huh. <i>[nods]</i> I’ve tried to become Adobe-free. I’m not quite there yet.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I don’t like the Adobe stuff too much—especially with their new payment model. It’s terrible.</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Well, it used to be a lot of money if you wanted the whole suite.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: But at least it was yours.</i><br />
<i>TYG: It’s not yours anymore.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> No, you’ve got to rent it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I refuse. I’m still working on CS5...</i><br />
<i>Phi: [laughs]</i> I’ve been maintaining that thing for a while, but I’m finding alternatives. And I’ll tell you: I am moving almost entirely to the core of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for doing all layout, all design. I want to get all these other tools out of the way—just get right to the core, develop mastery around the core. I’m finding a lot more expression, a lot more re-usability. Once you develop a style sheet around a particular purpose, it becomes very useful for a lot of things! So, anyway, I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself again.<br />
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So mid-90s, the web was coming around. You had Windows 95 all of a sudden, it had a browser in it.<br />
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<i>TYG: Was that the first browser?</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Netscape was the first real big browser.<br />
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<i>TYG: And that just crashed, for some reason.</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>I’m not sure what happened to the dynamics of all that. Browser wars, early on—it was quite an interesting time. I think it’s played out pretty well, though. Chrome and Firefox are excellent tools; they have really done amazing things on the back end, too, for developers. There’s almost a whole development suite inside the browsers today. You can actually write code and execute it right there.<br />
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<i>TYG: Yes, you can right-click, examine code, and have everything right there at every level.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> So, mid-90’s was kind of a difficult time in the building industry in Connecticut where I was, and I was kind of looking at what I would do, but I had these new skills that seemed to be important. I easily could design HTML pages and JavaScript and all that. I just said, “I’m going to go with this and never look back.” I got a job as a webmaster, and then I got a job with a software company. They hired me as a designer, and within about four months I was the VP of software development. <i>[laughs]</i> “You can understand the code? Then we’re going to put you in charge.” [...] I think there are a lot of people who think that you have to have certain degrees and jump through certain hoops, but all you need is ingenuity, and the desire to really spend the time on practice. It takes practice. You’ve got to know your stuff. You’ve got to put your ten thousand hours in if you really want to be great, so that you have an innate understanding that goes way beyond the average person that’s looking at it. I want to be conversant in these languages, where I can think in them and think of expressions that can lead to some kind of rendering on the page. So that’s been a fascination of mine from the very beginning. This company was a small software company that was creating that was creating training information for sales forces and that kind of thing. They started by creating CD-ROMs. They had this great idea, that was very progressive at the time, in the late 90’s, to deliver this stuff online. We were kind of creating a cloud-based training solution—we didn’t even really understand that’s what it was at the time. I learned how to code in Java, led an entire team of developers coding in Java, built the databases, all the interfaces and stuff for that. So that’s when I really got hooked on software architecture, and started to see a lot of parallels between the two. What architects do is they take a set of requirements, and they find a solution for that set of requirements. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s for a house, or a business process, or some kind of data structure. Usually, you gather the requirements, then develop a set of tools and skills around you that can do something. So I kind of went on this trajectory of developing software, and the next thing I know, I’m at Microsoft. I did a number of other things before that—9/11 was a big one. I was on Long Island at the time working for a software company doing some really fun work—I think if 9/11 hadn’t happened, I think we would have been really successful and I’d probably still be there today. But that happened, and all the work dried up, and found myself unemployed after about a year.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: Why did the work dry up after 9/11?</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Everything just stopped in New York. All the clients we had were dropping their projects, no new work was coming in. [...] But it loosened me up! I then found myself down in the DC area, and got a job with Microsoft, and that’s when the real fun started. I was working in the federal district for Microsoft supporting federal agencies, and also some of the big system integrators like Lockheed Martin. So I suddenly was thrust into this world of really huge projects and really big budget stuff and spooky stuff. One of the first things they did when I got to Microsoft was put me through the process for Top Secret clearance, TSSI clearance, so I was working in these agencies at high levels talking to their brass around all kinds of different strategies—it was a really exciting time.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: What do you think about Google employees refusing to work on federal projects these days?</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> So, I started at Microsoft in 2003, so it was less than two years [after 9/11]. I was actually really proud at the time to be involved in something where I felt I could be contributing to the situation that was going on in a really positive way, but I’ll tell you, it really didn’t take long before I got jaded by the whole thing. Seeing the truth of what’s going on, the real nature of these big organizations... We think we’re run by representative government, but we’re really run by these corporate-like government institutions that really have a mind of their own, and that really have almost no accountability around what’s happening. There’s a culture of things that really kind of surprised me. And it just kind of wore me out. We’re definitely in a different time today, and the power, technology, the use of it puts us into a whole different realm. Some of the projects I was working on... gave me pause around the nature of what I was doing. <i>[laughs]</i> I started to move away from it all. And then, that was just kind of unraveling me and my personal life as well; the pressure of it, and everything. It was a very intense position that I was in, and towards the end I was the technical architect for the Lockheed Martin account team. Lockheed is huge, and the kinds of things that they were doing... I was working across their four businesses on all kinds of topics, giving presentations on Microsoft technologies to people who were making decisions on things like satellites, and other stuff. It was pretty fascinating! My favorite project was working on a model for the ground stations for the GPS satellites, actually doing the visualization of where the satellites were, and the planet, and just my introduction to the whole science of satellites and how they work and how they actually determine the position of things, and how the GPS satellites work. Do you have any idea how they work?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Yes—they use the speed of light as a constant, and they use that to determine position, based on the bounce-back times and the quandrangulation from four satellites.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> So my understanding is that each satellite is broadcasting a signal, and it’s a random stream of zeros and ones that’s known in advance.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s a unique code from each satellite.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Right. And where you are in that as it’s broadcasting has a time signature associated with it. So you have all of these signals that are coming in, and the receiver gets that, and then somehow it can know the position of the satellite—because they’re always moving, too—that’s what really surprised me. I thought they would have been geostationary, because then you could easily triangulate. But there's a lot more complicated algorithm with all these satellites that are moving, and you’re getting positioning.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Then you just determine the delay. Because you have a stationary time stamp, which is the time it was sent out from the satellite, then that gets transferred into the phone. [...]</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> So I’ve had a chance to work on a lot of interesting projects, but then in 2010, 2011, I met someone new, and she was from Oregon. I came out here for a visit, and I fell in love with Oregon, and I just said, “I need to find my way out here.” I was really ready to break from all that rat race and all the chaos of it and get to a simpler, more creative life, get back to doing some design work and all of that. I ended up with the rug pulled out from underneath me in the course of it, but I’m getting back on track now. [...] As an architect, I’m interested in the architecture of all that is. I’m fascinated by how everything fits together. From the quantum scale, to the atomic scale, to the cellular scale within us... I’m fascinated by the idea that we have fifty trillion cells in our body, all with independent life cycles. If you started counting every cell in your body at one second, you don’t have enough time in your life to actually account for yourself. Isn’t that something? And each cell has some fifty to a hundred trillion atoms that make it up, that are all just as weird and complex. There’s a whole world happening in each cell that is just as diverse as this back yard. How is that all possible? How is it that we are capable of understanding it? How is it that consciousness can come into being within the physical form of our bodies? How is it that we can have true insight?<br />
<br />
My real passion right now, if I had enough resources, if I had that billion dollars, I would be spending it all looking into the golden ratio. I believe it is kind of the Rosetta Stone of showing us some underlying structure of all of reality. That’s why it just pops up in so many different places. What I love about it is not only does it show up in nature—we can measure it in nature and we see its occurrence in a lot of things—but it is a formidable principle in just mathematics.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: What is the golden ratio? How does that relate to you?</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> As an architect! I have this wonderful book from an architect named Francis D.K. Ching. It’s called <i>Architecture: Form, Space, & Order</i>. I think every architect should have it. So this book has these amazing drawings in it, architecture from all around the world, principles of design, all kinds of things hand-drawn, and there are several pages towards the end that are just about the golden ratio, kind of demonstrating how it had been used as an ordering principle in architecture. Architects are lining up things within plans or elevations using golden ratios.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: What is the golden ratio?</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> It’s a ratio of two numbers, two unequal values, a and b; a is the shorter or smaller, b is the longer or larger value. Two numbers are “in the golden ratio” if they meet the following criteria: a is related to b, as b is related to the sum of a+b. So the lesser is to the greater as the greater is to the sum of the lesser and greater. So if you have two numbers that satisfy that condition, then those numbers are in the golden ratio.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And there’s also some empirical way to do it, which is 1.6 something.</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>So, if you take that ratio, a/b = b/a+b, and you replace the a with a 1, and the b with an x, now we’ve got an algebraic formula that we can start to solve. We can look at that same expression as 1⁄ₓ = x/1+x. When you do that and start moving the parts around, you end up with a quadratic formula, x<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>2</sup></span>-x-1=0. So you can solve that now, and run that through a quadratic equation. And what you get is (<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c0e25; font-family: "u2000"; text-align: center;">√</span>5 <span style="background-color: white; color: #2c0e25; font-family: "u0000"; text-align: center;">±</span> 1)/2. And that, if you run that out, equals 1.618 or negative 1.618—the two factors of the quadratic solution. So, it's interesting that they are two [units] apart, but that number has these really amazing properties: the square of that number equals 1 plus the number. And I can kind of go on all day long with these different algebraic relationships, these identities; and it's the only number that does that. It seems to find itself in this place between arithmetic and geometry, in one-dimensional thinking and two-dimensional thinking; it's this balance point between the two when you start to look at different relationships. So I've always just been curious about it. You've probably heard of Fibonacci numbers, right? You start with this sequence: 0, and 1, and then you add the two numbers that just came to get the third, so 0+1 = 1...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Which is very similar to the golden ratio.</i><br />
<i>Phi</i>: Right! You keep going down this line, and you get 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, you just keep going. And the further out you go, you take any of those two consecutive numbers and divide them by one another, you start to approach the golden ratio. As you get larger and larger, it keeps getting closer and closer. And there are other amazing kind of things that I'm not really prepared to talk about today, but I'd love to spend more time.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: I don't know if we have the typesetting to handle it! [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> I do, actually, so that will lead me to what I'm doing with illumiphi, and the tools that I've built to actually explore this. I built a contact development system that could explore this, that could handle the math, that could handle all the research that I've been pulling together, that can do the graphics. So I've built a graphical engine that creates vector diagrams all through an algorithm, basically, exploring geometric relationships of the golden ratio, and discovering them within a geometrical field.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow! That's fun!</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> I'd love to demonstrate it to you another time. [...] I want to talk about this stuff, but I haven't really put it all out there yet. I want to have a little bit more of a professional view of my work, even if it's thin, and I'm not quite there. I own <a href="http://geometor.com/">geometor.com</a>, and that's where all my geometry and golden ratio research is going. I'm also quite interested in pi, and I think there's some kind of hidden relationship between these principles. But over the winter, I really kind of hunkered down and said, "I'm going to get serious about this." But, maybe I should back up a little bit. After the cancer, my interest in the golden ratio started to re-emerge. It had gone back to my architectural days, and I'd always been kind of intrigued. And I said, "Well, let me look into it a bit more! Let me make some drawings! With a straight edge and a compass, how would I draw some of these golden ratio forms? Can I do them from memory? How would I draw a pentagon from memory?" And I just started going down this road—actually, let me find my sketch-book. [...] So I just started keeping a sketchbook, and making different drawings. I started seeing all these things, and I've got my favorite tool, my golden ratio calipers <i>[pictured]</i>. I just started investigating by hand. I was making these drawings, and using these calipers, and going around and trying to find instances of the golden ratio. And I found that once you set up a certain proportional system—like this one is based on a right triangle with a base of one and a height of two, and that diagonal—what would that diagonal be?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It would be Pythagorean, it would be the square root of ... five, and that's the end of the golden ratio!</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Right! What did I say about that number that we were looking for? So what we're doing here... this all started with two points. This entire construction was derived out of that with just a compass and a straight edge. So if we take the measure between these two points as one, then we can say that half of that would be one half minus the square root of five, over two, so you start to see geometrically how you're arriving at that quadratic solution that came out of just a ratio of numbers.<br />
<br />
<i>[Continues through the sketchbook]</i> This one is really interesting: Circumscribe an equilateral triangle, and... <i>[points with his golden ratio caliper as below]</i><br />
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<i>TYG: That's the golden ratio!</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>It's everywhere. I started to discover! I'm going through, making drawings like a madman, and I'm finding it everywhere, <i>[flips a page]</i> and everywhere, <i>[flips a page]</i> and everywhere... And I'm like, "Okay, I need to formalize my thinking here. I need to go back and teach myself algebra, because I didn't remember anything." <i>[laughs]</i> And geometry, and everything! I felt like I was starting fresh, but I felt, "Well great! I can just erase all bad ideas that I ever had about any of this stuff, and start from the beginning." I've really been interested in creating a foundation of thinking, essentially, of logic, that can help me to explore this. I found a tool called <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoGebra" target="_blank">GeoGebra</a></i>. If you haven't found <i>GeoGebra</i> yet, it's a free software online, and it allows you to actually make geometric constructions with the algebra being done for you on the side. And that was when I really started to learn some of these relationships. It was showing me if I had the golden ratio, but only in a decimal representation. But I wanted to keep it all symbolic. So I'm keeping the symbols of the square root as an entity, just as if you were doing the algebra by hand.<br />
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<i>TYG: Right! So it's <span style="background-color: white; color: #2c0e25; font-family: "u0000"; text-align: center;">π</span>, not 1.416...</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Right, not some approximation. Because then, if you're only looking at the decimal equivalent, you're missing the patterns.<br />
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<i>TYG: And you lose stuff each set.</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>You're losing the specificity, you're losing the proportional relationships that are happening.<br />
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<i>TYG: Because once you get into stuff like this, so often, probably 90% of the numbers you're working with, even the basic stuff I do, so many of the numbers are infinite. So if you cut it off at anything except for the very final answer, you could be off by a factor of some very significant portion of the number.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Right. So in my research, I'm watching various You Tube videos, and I come across this guy named <a href="https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-norman-j-wildberger" target="_blank">Norman J. Wildberger</a>. He's at the University of New South Wales in Australia; he's created over 900 videos on mathematics—he's one of the most dedicated people I've ever witnessed in my life! He's just constantly pumping out these videos! He really got to me on that topic. So I knew that building this from the ground up, it had to be algebraic, symbolically algebraic. But I was like, "Okay, how am I going to do that? I'm not going to do all these calculations by hand; I'm going to need to find some way to develop it."<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So did you make the automation?</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> I created the Geometor Explorer! It runs entirely in a browser; it is written in javascript and uses a javascript library to do the computer algebra solving for me (CAS), and I use some other libraries for rendering .svg's (scaleable vector graphics) in the browser, some animation libraries that actually make the drawings.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I love the animations—although it could just be a tad faster.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Well, this is very much a work in progress! I was just happy to have it calculate correctly. <i>[laughs] </i>I thought that was a huge achievement. I've gone back and actually recast all of the calculation engine so that it works with fully generalized equations for both lines and circles. So the whole thing can be developed as a matrix. And my goal is, number one, to create geometric diagrams, and then have the computer find the instances of the golden ratio. So Explorer is doing that today. When you run it today, it's finding almost all the instances—I still have some kind of fringe things to figure out. But I think that the work that I've done with this new solver and generalizing the equations is maybe going to take care of some of those discrepancies I was having. I haven't gotten fully out there yet. I'd love to have some intern working with me over the summer though... [looks at the publisher and grins] Because it's kind of a big puzzle. For me, it's almost like a game! I began to realize that the choices that I made, like when I took two points and whether I was going to make a circle or a line between them—there's a choice there. And it almost becomes chess-like in the exploration of the field. Each choice that I make is going to lead to another choice to another choice to possibilities... but only in a certain set, right? And I've been really trying to figure out: are there certain paths to go down that are going to lead to more gold? So I'm very interested to take this to the next level. Each instance of the golden ratio that I find in this field is scaled. And I really want to kind of create a database for all these instances and look for the pattern in them. If they'll scale, I think that's going to start to tell me something.<br />
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<i>TYG: Yes, I'm wondering if the scales will be golden ratios in themselves. </i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Well, what I've seen so far and from what the Explorer is showing me is that prime numbers are showing up. The square roots of prime numbers. But maybe that's just what would happen anyway. I don't know. <i>[laughs]</i> But in some of the instances where I'm seeing the golden ratio, I think I may be the first to see some of these. I've done a lot of research and I've read a lot of books—one of the best reference books has about sixteen ways of constructing the golden ratio with a straight edge and compass. I probably have hundreds at this point, with all of the models that I've created and the different approaches and relationships that I've found. The reason I have hundreds is because I've realized there's almost a resonance that begins to happen. Once it happens once, it's like those elements are going to cut every other element and it's always going to create the golden ratio! So I would really like to take it fully and put it out there in the world! I think a lot of people would be quite interested in what it has to show. [...] I know that if I put it out there in a big way it will create a lot of interest. So, I've got tons of research, I've got the Geometor Explorer that I can begin to explain, and I want to put up a You Tube channel, essentially, that's going to just go deep into these concepts. I'm going to try to attract other like-minded individuals around it, and make kind of an open-source project around it. This is a really key aspect of this: I don't see any of the work that I'm developing as proprietary. I want it to be out there in the world; I want other smart people to gather around me and help me in development so that we might find something. The golden ratio clearly has something to do with the ordering principles of the universe. I think it's a mystery that needs to have some attention.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I wonder what a human golden ratio might look like.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Well, for example, your finger...<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I know about the construction of the human, but I meant in terms of human groups, what it might look like.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> Oh! Interesting. <i>[pause] </i>Aristotle referred to the golden ratio as the perfect balance between indulgence and denial. <i>[laughter]</i> And if you think about it as an ordering principle for the universe, and growth in the universe, it's perfect. It's perfectly balanced. The next generation is never too big, never too small: it's just right. And if you folllow Fibonacci, and you keep progressing in that way, you're always going to have this natural balance of things that is always going to end up there.<br />
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<i>TYG: And for me, at least, the golden ratio has this sort of clarity that it gives the human eye; it's naturally pleasing. </i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> [...] I think it's true! Nature uses it. That's why we find it pleasing. That kind of segmented growth is just a part of what we expect. There's not always a perfect golden ratio in things in nature, but I'm surprised at where it shows up. It's just incredible. And not only in the distance of things, but in the rotation as well. Like in plants—are you familiar with the term phylotaxis? That's the study of the geometric organization of plants. Branching on almost all plants occurs where the radial angles that happen of the next branch that's going up is going to be a golden ratio proportion of the entire circle. But it's the way nature gets a leaf to appear and not have it cover the other ones. It all makes sense.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Even the nautilus shell too, right?</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>The nautilus shell is actually a logarithmic spiral, not a perfect golden spiral. That kind of progressive growth is just something that's built-in. People attribute the golden ratio to a lot of things where it's not really there. So I'm always kind of skeptical when people are putting up memes about the golden ratio. If the math isn't behind it, it's not there. But scientists are finding its presence at the atomic scale, in all kinds of molecular relationships, they're finding it within the cellular level—all kinds of places. Even the spacing of the humps of the DNA, the way the spirals come out—that's the golden ratio.<br />
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<i>TYG: Yes, because it's not a perfect double helix. It's off-set.</i><br />
<i>Phi:</i> It's not a perfect double helix! It's shifted by the golden ratio. So right down to the fundamentals of our architecture, it's showing up there.<br />
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<i>TYG: Something that I just thought of, that's probably not true at all, but because you were talking about the atomic scale and the golden ratio: what about the energy levels of the electrons? </i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>I would love, love love love, to spend some time better understanding electron fields and the geometric forms of the fields. When I was growing up and in school, I don't think we had the same notions, and really just talked about concentric shells. But now there are all these kinds of ideas about fields, and probability fields, and I wonder about that a lot. [...]<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Is there anything else you wanted to say to Yachats, while we're at it?</i><br />
<i>Phi: </i>Well, with this interest in the golden ratio I started building a set of tools for communicating. And then in the winter my daughter called me. She'd just moved to New York (she's an artist), and she was working as an assistant to a well-known artist in New York, and she said, "She needs a website—would you be interested?" I really just wanted to do the geometry stuff, find my way through it, and maybe make a living at it. But then I was like, "Well, maybe I should think about getting some work." So I said I'd take on the project. That really got me going to say, "Well, I might as well start a consulting business using these tools and my experience as a designer, and somebody who can write, and just helping people with their content." In all my experiences with helping people with design and with the web, where things start to fall apart is in developing the disciplines around content. So putting practices in place where they're creating stuff on a regular basis. You guys know what it takes to put something out on a regular basis, right? It's a lot of hours, a lot of discipline. Most people have ideas where they say, "Well, I want to have a website, I want to do all this stuff." But they don't realize that they have to get geared up and have processes in place. You have to take care of your work! Before you know it you're going to have a massive amount of content; you need to put that in a place where it's protected, make sure you have it backed up, you can roll back—do all those things that are really necessary. So I started kind of testing the waters, thinking about a number of different things. I got involved with the Port [of Alsea] over the bond referendum, and that started a relationship there. Now they're a customer, and I'm helping them with their website and developing content around their website, and really kind of bringing order to the management of the Port and the documents that they need and all that, making that easy. I'm back working with Michelle <i>[Korgan, at Ona Restaurant & Lounge]</i> and helping with Ona and the <i>[Heceta]</i> Lighthouse. The Lighthouse thing could be very interesting too. Over this next year, they're going to be preparing to put the original wings onto the back of the residence. Michelle's been saving money through the Forestry Service to get this project going. One of the things I'm going to look to do is create a 3D model of the lightkeeper's residence, very accurate, and create some 3D printed models of it that we might sell to raise money for the lighthouse. So I started modelling that in SketchUp, including the Fresnel lens. It was a bit of a puzzle to figure out how to do it, how to create the shapes in SketchUp and make an eight-sided Fresnel lens. <i>[<a href="http://illumiphi.com/">Illumiphi.com</a> is where Phi offers all these services.] </i><br />
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<i>TYG: Thank you so much!</i><div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-86016921048048268032018-06-05T01:20:00.001-07:002018-06-05T01:48:32.005-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 81, June 6 2018<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/56i7av28l6ir555/20180606-YachatsGazette-81st-Issue.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">For a printable version of Issue 81, please click here</span></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview with Adrian Beatty and <br />Vanessa Millard <br />of the Green Salmon</b></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhag2WeeYiUUh9U2Z6Pnr4scp1hrai8BZZEAv-amnCradEd96ft9fBMsYdAs2fNoHjT23LokyzcfJt4d7Oe8kI_4p76ABAHgOVqspquaXyB_fOxhh4noNbYmXkVAk4QkkFchdT9haNscIM/s1600/GreenSalmon2-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="960" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhag2WeeYiUUh9U2Z6Pnr4scp1hrai8BZZEAv-amnCradEd96ft9fBMsYdAs2fNoHjT23LokyzcfJt4d7Oe8kI_4p76ABAHgOVqspquaXyB_fOxhh4noNbYmXkVAk4QkkFchdT9haNscIM/s400/GreenSalmon2-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The interior of the Green Salmon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Adrian and Vanessa both work at the Green Salmon. Adrian is the current coffee roaster, and Vanessa is one of the baristas.</i><br />
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<i>TYG: So, when was the Green Salmon founded?<br />Adrian:</i> Thirteen years ago, the 7th of June. <br />
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<i>TYG: What was it named after?<br />Adrian: </i>Green Salmon is named after the Green Dragon, a coffee house in Boston. Since we are in the middle of salmon nation, [they called it The Green Salmon. But it also has eco-friendly overtones.] The co-owner at the time, Dave, had random things like a wind-powered cash register.<br />
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<i>TYG: I remember that! There were solar cells on that front deck, or something.<br />Adrian: </i>Yep—this is before I even started working here. <br />
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<i>TYG-Graphic Design: And he was trapping water in a barrel, wasn’t he?<br />Adrian:</i> He was. He was catching rain water. <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> We still try to practice green.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> All the time. He was also roasting coffee either in the oven, or on the north end of the building, outside, in a homemade contraption.<br />
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<i>TYG: That sounds dangerous!<br />Adrian:</i> No, it was built the way it should have been—it’s just how we go from that to what we have now, our eight pound roaster. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I sure remember when that eight pound roaster came in! “They’re taking room away from the dining! I can’t believe it!” [laughs] Oh, and it was that mess with the fencing, that was so industrial!<br />Adrian:</i> So the fencing is there because of fire requirements. It’s kind of a pain in the butt, because being the roaster, all of my work is very condensed, and I have to pack every single time. It takes upwards of an hour to do all of that, plus the setup. Which is alright—it’s good for you. <br />
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<i>TYG: What’s amazing to me is that you have all these sacks...<br />Adrian:</i> But there’s a lot of space. You have about shoulder width between those and the pallets, where all the coffee’s strapped down. And the vents in the back also have a distance of at least a foot.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So it’s all within fire regulations.<br />Adrian: </i>Yes. <br />
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<i>TYG: So how did you guys get involved?<br />Vanessa:</i> I actually grew up here in Yachats, went to Waldport schools. Never actually got to come into the Green Salmon as a kid. I graduated from high school and moved away for a while, but I found myself back at home in Yachats. I was actually working at the Luna Sea across the street—I had the breakfast shift. [...] I’d actually been a barista for three years prior, and I thought, “You know, I’m going to go over there and get a cup of coffee.” <i>[laughs]</i> So I walked in, and... oh my gosh. So that’s how I came. I was just like, “I’ve got to be over here, back in the coffee life.”<i> [to Adrian]</i> How about you?<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> So I came here looking for a job one day. I’d done mid-tray type serving...<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: “Mid-tray”? <br />Adrian:</i> Mid-tray is like your Mom and Pop establishments where your requirements are pretty relaxed but you still have some formality to it, and then you’ve got your family diner type status. There are more or less random tiers. Like I said before, I’ve done the “penguin” thing, nail checks every night, cuticle checks every night...<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: That wasn’t here in Yachats was it?<br />Adrian:</i> No, just really stupid stuff. I had an accident, and because of that accident I wasn’t able to do that kind of work any more, so I was looking for something that was a little more mellow, and there was a sign here in the window, and on the door, and on the other door, and in the other window, that said “hey, we’re looking for a barista.” I thought, “Well, I’ve worked in kitchens, that should be easy. I’m just making drinks, that should be super easy!” So I was making drinks for three days a week for the entire summer. Then it turned into a full time job, things happened, and changed, and new people came in like Vanessa, and I helped her get at least solid, and then she took off like a bat out of hell; her drinks are amazing, she’s always got amazing art. Then I started working up front, so, I’m not working in the back so much anymore. Dealing with people is a lot of fun. You get a lot of customers that come in with the same order every time, or they have a fixed set of options. One customer for example has six options, and based on what they drink and eat, there are six different options to choose from. Usually though, you can just feel it out and hit it on the dot every time. <br />
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<i>TYG: Or it is like me, cookie and bagels every time.<br />Adrian:</i> With cream cheese, right?<br />
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<i>TYG: Yeah.<br />Vanessa:</i> The two of us compete as well some times: “Oh what’s that lady’s name?” and “What does she get?” <br />
<i>Adrian:</i> I try to remember everyone’s names, because I think that’s important: it makes people feel recognized and important when you come here, especially over and over again. Well, they are spending all this money to help pay us so that we can stay here and live here; but they are also spending money at a local business and helping it develop; and people really like it. They really like that fact. We have name games a lot of times, and I’ll just type in smiley faces, a lot of times just because I am drawing a blank, and [Vanessa] is always here and always says, “Oh, it’s so-and-so;” and it’s like, yeah that’s right! Or I’ll get it after I sent the ticket out and I just wait for her response and I think: “Bingo, we’re on it!” So, we have a lot of fun that way. I started roasting coffee because the coffee roaster at the time was changing jobs to drive a truck, and have a little more of a relaxing job where you’re not having to put in the nights, because [roasting] is a long process. And I’ve been doing that for three years. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So can you take us through a night? What does a night of roasting look like? <br />Adrian:</i> So, after you break down and clean the machine...<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Well what time do you start, first? <br />Adrian:</i> Oh, so, in the summer time, I start at about 1:00 or 1:30 am. So I get up between 12:30 and 12:45 am. Sometimes I don’t get up till 1:00 am, and that’s just me being lazy. But I try to get about a five hour roast each time, because in that time I can go anywhere from 128 pounds to 140-something pounds, and I then bag it, and prepare for the next roast which is another five hours. So about two to three times a week I do a five hour roast. I spend about an extra hour the night before just because that way, you can come in groggy and get straight to work.<br />
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<i>TYG: What time must you go to bed?<br />Adrian:</i> Heh, so I typically sleep about three hours a night, sometimes four; again because of the accident. But, that’s all I get, so I just make use of that when I go to work; and I only go to work a few days a week, but I maximize the time that I’m at work by putting in about two shifts a day, three days a week. <br />
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<i>TYG: [to TYG-GD] That’s like what you used to do.<br />TYG-GD: I know!<br />Adrian:</i> And it’s fun, it’s a challenge.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Do you blast the music or is the roaster too loud? <br />Adrian: </i>Actually no, I have a kid’s Kindle Fire and a blue tooth speaker and so I watch movies. Sometimes I watch the Cheddar, or Newsy or CNN, just for background noise. And towards the end of my roast I am usually watching “Trevor Noah: The Daily Show,” or Oliver on “Last Week Tonight”... <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I only saw it once at my mom’s two weeks ago. <br />Adrian:</i> It’s super amazing. And if I’m already caught up on all of those then I find a science documentary to watch. I kind of just play it by ear. Sometimes I watch history. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Cool, yeah. <br />Adrian:</i> Boring stuff, you know.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Oh I don’t think so! [To Vanessa] Do you work more normal hours than all that?<br />Vanessa:</i> Yeah, about 7:30 to 3:30, a little later in the summer time. <br />
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<i>TYG: Not so bad, then.<br />Vanessa:</i> Yeah.<br />
<i>Adrian: </i>Sometimes you just have to train yourself, and sometimes it is just a developed thing. You know, “Oh, I have to roast this much coffee, do I want to do it at the end of the day when I just got finished talking to close to a thousand people, answering questions and trying to think for other people, giving change in nickels, and just generally so burnt out?” I want to put good effort into my work, so sometimes, you just have to do that. <br />
<i>[Vanessa leaves to go pick up the phone]</i><br />
<i>Adrian: </i>We do a lot of retail too, and a lot of our calls come in after hours, which is cool because a lot of times Deb’s here or I’m here, or Vanessa’s here. For example, today: We take phone orders for retail coffee, retail tea, lost and found. We keep a lost and found going for about 90 days, sometimes in the winter time we will keep it for a little bit longer. Sometimes people don’t correlate the fact that “Oh, I was here when I last had that...”<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So when you say retail coffee, what does that entail?<br />Adrian:</i> So, for retail coffee, we sell it by the pound.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So you actually sell your beans to other businesses?<br />Adrian:</i> We sell it here and then we have wholesale accounts with Ona or Heceta Head Bed and Breakfast that feature our coffees; and they feature Colombian, and then they also have the same decaf that we have, which is Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. That is all Swiss water processed.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> We also mail coffee all over the country, all the time.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> We do. We mail coffee all over the country, all over the place.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> To people in Texas, Florida, New York...<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> We actually have “coffee contracts” so to speak, where we are sending out coffee at a scheduled date every month. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Oh, like Gevalia! <br />Adrian:</i> Yeah, well I just sent this guy in Chicago like three pounds of the house coffee! He loves it and he keeps getting it. The first of every month is when he wants it shipped out.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: That’s awesome! <br />Adrian: </i>Then I’ve got people in Texas, like Vanessa said. She gets the same thing: four pounds of dark Sumatra whole bean, every single month. Once in a while she makes a trip to Oregon, and then we get to see her, but other than that, four pounds of coffee.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: It’s like my family! Every time I go back [East], I buy stuff, and at Christmas...<br />TYG: Yes, usually some of our gifts are you guys’ coffee!<br />Adrian:</i> Yes, your dad comes in and buys a lot...<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: And you guys have a huge tea array, right?<br />Adrian:</i> My gosh. We have so many teas... so many organic teas, I should say. We have high grade teas from China, Pu’ehr, anything, everything!<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Who does the shopping for that?<br />Adrian: </i>Deb [Gisetto, the owner of Green Salmon.] She’s like the maestro. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Is that her specialty?<br />Adrian: [laughs]</i> I would say everything here is her specialty. <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Yes, she’s the one who does the shopping for the whole store.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> She’s the visionary...<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> The backbone...<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> The drive behind the force... and the inspiration. <br />
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<i>TYG: Wow! Pretty impressive!<br />Adrian: </i>Yes. So many crazy teas, and a lot of them we blend. Like the Silent Lucidity: that was a blend that she came up with.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Do you have a lot of tea shoppers here?<br />Adrian:</i> Oh my goodness. On an average week, we probably sell 83 or 84 pounds of tea a week. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Still, less than the coffee.<br />Adrian: </i>Still a lot. It takes a while to weigh out all the tea, and package it—to get it set up that way, it’s pretty time-consuming. There are some times when some people will just bring a basket and buy the entire basket. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Do people browse the teas for medicinal purposes?<br />Adrian:</i> All the time. A lot of the time we get asked about tummy aids, or at one point we had stuff for blood-enriching tonic—that was a tea blend we had. We get a lot for sleeping—the lavender/chamomile blend that we have. Digestion: we have the Chaga Chai; we have caffeine-free blends as well. [...] We also have the Persian Mint [Blend], which is like spearmint, peppermint, ginger, and dried orange. It’s super-amazing—that’s one of my favorite teas. And then there’s the cold and flu blend, which has...<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Chamomile, elder flower, ginger, and spearmint.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> It’s really good iced.<br />
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<i>TYG: So how has work been here? Everything going well with you guys?<br />Vanessa:</i> Yeah! It’s really steady work. We always have a job.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> It’s getting way busier. <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Yes, I feel like this was probably the busiest winter I’ve worked here. And I feel like every summer it just gets busier and busier. [...] We’re trying to keep up—if you know anybody who’s looking for a job... We’re hiring!<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: How old should an applicant be?<br />Adrian:</i> Well, we’re looking for someone to work the counter, for the moment, a couple or a few days a week. Since you don’t have to handle anything hot, but you have to be personable and quick, and able to tolerate all the satire that we throw at you<i> [laughter]</i> ... 16, 17, 18? Get a food handler’s card—that’s super-easy to get. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what’s the difference between the front and the back? I mean, I know you wash dishes back there...<br />Adrian:</i> Okay, so front of the house is basically the counter—everything counter-side, menu-side, table-side. Anything that needs attention: tables wiped, water [filled]—that’s all “front of house.” And then you have the back, which incorporates the kitchen, and the barista area.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> We’ll have a line out the door, and a line of tickets in the back, of things to make.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> And three years ago we started with this really neat point-of-sale system. And this point-of-sale system lets me scream through the line like nobody’s business. Partially because I designed [the implementation of] the interface, the menu parts and where everything is. So to me it’s mostly auto-pilot. But over the last couple of years, we’ve been changing it, and condensing it, and making it more refined so it’s a little more speedy. Because of that, we have this thing now where people who work up front are supposed to be a little more mindful about how many tickets they’re throwing in. So we kind of have this range where if there are so many tickets hanging on the kitchen side, [we have to] slow down just a few seconds, come out, wipe a few tables, take a bus tub back, do something, because in thirty seconds you can do a lot of things. You can make four drinks, you can set up plates for so many tickets, you can do this, that, or the other. But thirty seconds is an honest-to-god amazing breather sometimes. Having been on the barista side, and in the production of all that, thirty seconds is amazing when you’re just being hammered by tickets! But before, when we had the cash register, you had to know the PLU. And if you don’t have the PLUs memorized, you have to stop and look at the sheet, and it slows things down. <br />
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<i>TYG: What is a PLU?<br />Adrian: </i>It’s just like a little code.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> For the old-school cash registers, where you have the little numbers on one side. <i>[NB: PLU stands for “price look-up.”]</i><br />
<i>Adrian:</i> And we’d use these as sub-headings for certain things, like if you have a small coffee, and you want room for cream, it was 313. You’d hit the PLU button, and then it would put that text onto the ticket. We’d have to print out two tickets; one would go to the kitchen, one to the barista area. Then we got this point-of-sale system. It took me a long time to set it up, between roasting coffee and whatever. The longest part of it was programming the menu and going from the PLU sheet. I just threw everything in there, and over the last few years I’ve been working through this and weeding things out that we don’t use anymore, don’t serve, don’t have. This year I just decided that it was time for a change. It’s been two and a half months that I’ve mapped out all the mocha drinks, the coffee drinks, lattes...<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Right. It’s going to make this summer with a line out the door way easier.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> Condensing the menu, like [going] from two or three scrolls on an iPad to one and a half. It’s a huge endeavor, but it’s necessary, because we’re just getting too busy. I think that it will make it easier, especially for new people coming in, to be able to identify what they see; it’s just simple. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I’m guessing the way it works now is that it’s a basic touchscreen with info on each one of the panels. <br />Vanessa:</i> Yep. <br />
<i>Adrian:</i> Yes. Everything has a “button,” if you want to think of it like that, and within that button, there’s a little pop-out, and it gives you a list of options. [...]<br />
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<i>TYG: Especially because your menu is huge, so there are plenty of options!<br />Adrian:</i> And it expands, too! And it’s always changing. And because it’s always changing, you have to take things into account. For example, I’ve never had anybody ask for an ALT [avocado, lettuce, and tomato] with eggs on it until two months ago. So that gets me thinking: why not have that as an option? Because I’m bound to get that again. I have another gal who comes in, and she gets a Caesar salad with no cheese—but she gets scrambled eggs on top of it, with half of an avocado. <br />
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<i>TYG: You guys are so cool to offer all of that. <br />Vanessa: </i>I’ve never worked at a place where the menu is so flexible. And I’ve had a dozen different jobs. This is the only place where we’re like, “Yes, I guess we can do that!” [...]<br />
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<i>TYG: So how has the Salmon changed over the years?<br />Adrian:</i> So, [starting] a few years back, Deb has incorporated more vegan pastry options into the line-up of fresh-baked goods. <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Yes, more vegan pastries, and the food line-up is almost all vegan and vegetarian, which is different from when I started four years ago. <br />
<i>Adrian: </i>Yeah, we used to have the New Yorker, which was a turkey pastrami and Swiss.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Tuna, turkey sausage, kielbasa—I’d say that’s the biggest thing. And I’d also say that it’s made taking orders a lot easier, because the menu’s a lot more comprehensive, I guess. It’s pretty straight-forward and vegetarian. <br />
<i>Adrian:</i> A lot of people do get tripped up on our “chicken,” and they don’t understand that there’s an asterisk [...] that says it’s Gardein brand veggie chicken.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> There’s no real meat for lunch anymore, so that’s why as a cashier it’s been easier to explain. <br />
<i>Adrian:</i> We do have the cold smoked salmon, though. People do [ask] for it on salads or on ALTs once in a while. That comes out of Eugene, from the Eugene Lox Company, I believe. Our tea, latte, and cocoa menu has also changed over the years. A lot of drinks that were around in the beginning that were just really long to [make] have either evolved, or been replaced by amazing alternatives. Now we’re also incorporating more alternative milks into the base of the drink, instead of just letting people order it with cow’s milk [as a default]. But you can’t get a Coconut Crack-Out without coconut milk! A Café Oregonian is not going to be a Café Oregonian if you get it with hemp milk! That would be just a café au lait with hemp milk. So our cocoa menu has hemp milk, rice milk; tea lattes have rice milk, oat milk; oat milk is earthy and sweet, so it tends to provide a good complement to what is going on with the cocoa. Like a SuperShroom Cocoa: if you don’t specify the milk, they’re automatically going to make it with oat milk: it brings out the flavors, and it’s a complement between the hand-mixed Ecuadorian chocolate and the mushrooms and the oat milk. <br />
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<i>TYG: How do you make oat milk?<br />Vanessa:</i> Squeeze the oat real hard!<i> [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Adrian:</i> If you make oatmeal with just water, it’s a similar process. Or if you look up how to make almond milk or cashew milk, it’s the same thing. <br />
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<i>TYG: Okay, so it’s pressed, and add water, then. Soy milk, I think, is actually using fluid from inside, not just ground.<br />Adrian:</i> Well, some of it is also that you saturate it overnight for 24 hours, so then it’s drawing flavor and properties out of [the ingredient] and then strained with cheesecloth. It’s pretty cool.<br />
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<i>TYG: So where do you see the Green Salmon in five years’ time?<br />Adrian:</i> Being amazing, being a voice in promoting world causes, like bat conservation; and things like Oregon Wild.<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Yes, Deb’s been donating a lot of money to things like that.<br />
<i>Adrian: </i>The Farm Sanctuary, things that are opening up the minds of other people. We have [books] like <i>What the Health</i>, and <i>Forks Over Knives</i>, and <i>Cowspiracy</i>. Just trying to show people that there’s a different way of going about your daily life. You don’t have to put this huge carbon footprint out, and you can be more mindful of what you’re doing, whether it’s not helping to sustain a puppy mill, for example, or helping other farm animals instead of just having them be put down. Why not put them in a place where they can just live out their days, just doing their thing like Nature intended them to do? <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: So, still being very green. <br />Adrian:</i> Green, more sustainable, promoting healthy alternative ways of eating instead of just your fast food normal. We don’t serve anything here that’s fried. <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> We don’t have a microwave. <br />
<i>Adrian:</i> So none of our pastries are going to be nuked—they’ll just be put back in the oven and gently warmed. <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> We also have the website that we’re working on, and that’s going to be huge for the Salmon. We’ll be selling coffee and tea online, retail. That’s going to be huge in the next year or so. <i>[<a href="http://www.thegreensalmon.com/">http://www.thegreensalmon.com/</a>]</i><br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Is that with Lisa Gray? <br />Adrian:</i> Yes, Lisa Gray. And she is pretty darn close to finalizing that project. Fingers crossed, we’re going to be going live close to, or at, our thirteenth anniversary. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Remind us when that is?<br />Adrian:</i> That’ll be the seventh of June. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Are there any plans for that?<br />Adrian:</i> Uhm... <i>[laughs]</i> Other than being amazing or awesome?<br />
<i>Vanessa: [laughing] </i>Maybe a drink special...<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> We can’t quite tell people, that would be just giving it away.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Oh! [laughs] Would you briefly like to mention some other things that the Green Salmon is involved in after hours?<br />Adrian:</i> Yes! We do open mike every third Sunday. I believe it’s at 7 PM. Sometimes we have random things happening in our parking lot, but those are never really planned, they just kind of happen. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: I do remember, with a certain fondness, the Community Thanksgiving that used to be here. <br />Vanessa: </i>We’ve done one the last couple of years. And we’ll also do art projects. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Oh, yes! And Deb is the artist, right? Who does all the drawings [on the T-shirts and coffee labels]?<br />Adrian:</i> Yes, she does all the drawings, like for our new CBD menu, we have this amazing little snail, with all kinds of beautiful information.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Did you want to talk about that menu?<br />Adrian: </i>It is taking off like a rocket. It is crazy. We have this CBD oil that’s grown in Oregon, processed in Oregon, and sold in Oregon, called Oregon Fusion. It’s a hemp CBD oil.<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: And CBD stands for <a href="https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/cannabidiol" target="_blank">cannabidiol</a>, right?<br />Adrian:</i> Yes. You’re not going to get stoned, you’re not going to be macraméd into your couch, and having forty, fifty munchies in your pocket. [CBD] is the more beneficial and therapeutic side of [marijuana]. It’s calming, it gives you less anxiety and less stress. It also helps for relieving tension. Some studies have put it at helping fighting certain types of cancer, or keeping certain types of cancer at bay, taken in high doses. There are all kinds of benefits [for] arthritis, just... everything. And it’s not an opioid. It lines [up] with a system that’s already in your body, which is an endocannabinoid system. There are receptors in your brain that are built-in for this, whereas if you take opiates, within roughly eight days your brain is transformed, because you’ve been taking these opiates. They can be soft opiates too—what they call the exotics—dilaudid and things like that. But they just wreck you. At least with this, you can function. You’re going to be in better spirits because you’re feeling less miserable, less achy, you’re not going to be doing this [pops various joints] all day long. [...] The drinks are all measured out; we purchase specially-designed droppers that have the milligrams actually labeled out.<br />
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<i>TYG: To ensure the right dosage happens, and that there’s no addiction?<br />Adrian:</i> Well, this is not habit-forming—that’s the thing. There is nothing about [CBD] that is habit-forming. You’re not going to go to your aunt’s house and take her stereo and put it in a pawn shop to pay for this, because it’s not like that. In terms of a youngster like you, think of it more in terms of being a super-aspirin without the damage to the liver or to the stomach lining that aspirin tends to do. You can take a lot of CBD, and all that you’re going to feel is more relaxed, you might sleep better; stress levels, anxiety [improve]; sometimes [you get] just a little bit more focus if you’ve had it with a caffeinated beverage. [Our] French Press and Get Toasted are really good. You can also get it in any other beverage. You can get a dab of CBD in your cocoa. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Is there an age limit for this? Is it federally regulated at all?<br />Adrian:</i> So, it meets the federal requirement of [less than] 0.3% of total THC. You can’t be higher than that. And you would have to consume the entire [500 milligram] bottle to get the amount of THC that’s contained in [the equivalent of what you would get by] going to the local dispensary, spending $18 to $22 with tax, on five milligram edibles, and just eating a bunch of those. But you’re not going to get stoned—that’s the thing. There are so many CBD’s in this that it negates that whole effect and doesn’t allow for that limited amount of THC to actually bother you. You’re not going to get high. [...] I probably spend about an hour each day explaining this to people. [...]<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> My mom likes it. She has arthritis and high blood pressure, and it helps for both. Good stuff!<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> As far as age, because it is just hemp, and because it’s made from the whole plant, [I don’t think there are any restrictions.]<br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Does hemp milk contain any CBDs?<br />Adrian:</i> I think that’s from the seeds, and I think that you’d have to consume quite a bit or have it really highly processed. The hemp milk that we have does not contain any CBDs. <br />
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<i>TYG: Are you okay to drive [with CBDs]?<br />Adrian:</i> Again, it’s like taking a super-aspirin. It’s not like marijuana. [...] We do actually get quite a few of our locals that come in on a regular basis, and they get it added to every drink. We also have quite a few of our locals that are elderly, and not only do they get the drinks, but they’ve also purchased the bottle or have inquired about more information to help make a better assessment as to how they want to incorporate it into their daily life. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Do you get any parents with small kids who worry about it?<br />Adrian:</i> I’ve actually had two parents that have asked me about it, and I usually keep my phone handy so I can just blast out with my phone and give people a quick look, because again, there’s no THC, so you’re not getting any psychoactives, and it should be very much kid-friendly. <br />
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<i>TYG-GD: Well, I just wondered if they were worried there was residue in the coffee cups or something.</i><br />
<i>Adrian:</i> Nope! <br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Actually, I had a lady come in a few weeks ago, who was saying that her friend’s son had ADHD, and he hated his medication while he was in school. But in the summertime, his mother would give him just a little cup of coffee in the morning, and it would work better than his medication. [...] <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: [CBD oil] doesn’t change your personality at all, either?<br />Adrian:</i> Nope! Not at all. Doesn’t make you any different, it’s not like consuming two or three mixed beverages, or smoking a joint, or ingesting a marijuana edible, or taking oxycodone or things like that. Those things will impact your behavior or your mood.<br />
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<i>TYG: All good stuff to know! <br />TYG-GD: Anything else you wanted to tell our readers?<br />Adrian:</i> Let’s see—we have over 18 countries in coffee!<br />
<i>Vanessa:</i> Coffees from all over the world, always organic, always fair trade, always home-roasted.<br />
<i>Adrian:</i> Our Congo [coffee] does come from a women’s co-op. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well thank you so much for sitting with us!<br />Vanessa:</i> Thank you so much for having us.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Yachats Events of Note:</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">WHAT: An Art Show</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> “BEing in Nature”</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> featuring new works</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> by local artists</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">WHO: Jay Chambers & Eileen Lighthawk</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">WHEN: <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1001629717" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">June 23rd</span></span> & 24th</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Meet the artists</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Saturday and Sunday</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1001629718" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Noon</span></span> to 3</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">WHERE: Toad Hall</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 237 West 3 rd Street</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Yachats</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">WHY: Because Art is Fun!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Enjoy an array of inspired small works in several mediums.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Contact: Jay or Eileen at 541-547-4833</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Or email: <a href="mailto:jayvchambers@gmail.com" target="_blank">jayvchambers@gmail.com</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Yoga Classes with Altruh Dominion </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Classes are offered at the Commons in Yachats (either in the Gym or in Room 8. Please call Altruh at </i><i>541-547-4138 for more information.</i><b> </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Therapeutic Yoga -</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tuesdays - GYM - <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1001629719" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">9:30-11am</span></span> and Fridays - GYM - <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1001629720" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">8:00- 9:30am</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bikram-Ease -</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tuesdays - Room 8 - <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1001629721" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">4:15-6pm</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vinyasa Flow (Beg-Intermed)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thursdays - Room 8 - <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1001629722" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">3:00- 4:30pm</span></span></span></span></div>
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This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-41674512688558365412018-04-30T22:46:00.000-07:002018-04-30T22:46:05.706-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 80, May 1 2018<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/mskjb0uxj31x9uq/20180501-YachatsGazette-80th-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 80.</a></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Joe Smolen</span></b></div>
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<i>Joe Smolen is the Chair of the Friends of the Port of Alsea, and volunteered to speak to us to clarify the Bond Measure 21-182 in the May 15th election. The Gazette was unsuccessful at finding someone who would speak with us with arguments against this issue.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, how did you get involved with this project, and what are your qualifications for doing all this?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Well, it goes back! We first bought a house in Waldport in 1999, and in 2007 I found myself on the Port Commission, because it’s all volunteer. They needed somebody, and somebody had left the position. They appointed me, and then I got elected for another term, for a total of five years. During that time, it was realized that the strategic plan for the Port was over ten years old. “Oh, better do something about that! We don’t have any money though.” So I said I’d go ahead and start writing that, and I basically wrote an amateurish strategic plan for the Port district. But during that time, I got conversant with what’s called the <i>Ports 2010</i>, which is something that Business Oregon developed. It makes it kind of standard for the ports all over the state, how all the strategic plans look so the legislature can figure out the apples and oranges.<i> [laughs]</i> Most of my life has been around the water. 22 years in the Navy. I worked for NOAA before it was called NOAA!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What was it called before NOAA?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>US Coast and Geodetic Survey. At the time I was based on <i>Surveyor</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Were you based out of Seattle, then? I remember when they used to be on Lake Union.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Right, that’s where it was! All the ships were there.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: [My parents] showed me where it was. Oooh, it was cramped! I think probably this transfer to Newport has been for the best. It’s been amazing for the community as well. </i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Right!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: You shouldn’t have to go through five or six locks to get to the ocean.</i><br />
<i>Joe: [laughs]</i> There was an advantage to that—it kept the bottoms of the ships a lot cleaner. Of course now, with the invasive species deal, trying to control that... One other aspect of “qualification”—I’m simply a volunteer. All of the Port Commissioners are volunteers.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, you said you’re a former Port Commissioner—are you still involved with them in any official capacity?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Official, no, unless they came to me and said, “Would you help us with this.” You have another question down here about how the winter storm of 2015 affected all this. That really made the Port go, “Holy smokes!” In that freshet, over that winter, two of the pilings broke off. They just folded over. So they thought, “Oh my gosh. We don’t have any money to do this. We don’t want to go to the voters for a bond, but we’ve got to! Otherwise we’re just not going to survive.” So Rob Bishop, the chair of the Port Commission, went looking for somebody to help. When the time came to actually put a political action committee together, I went to a Port Commission meeting about this, and they said, “Oh, by the way, you’re going to be the chair of the political action committee.” <i>[laughter]</i> So that’s my connection. It’s kind of unofficial, but it’s volunteering. It’s like Yachats! Practically everybody in city government is a volunteer.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So what exactly is the role of Port Commissioner? And also, what is a strategic plan?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> It’s a business plan.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, it’s how the organization supports itself, then.</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Yes. Basically, how it supports itself if it can. The Port district budget is about $110,000 a year. It gets about $40,000 from taxes, the 3.3% per $1,000 [dollars of property tax] that it gets now. The rest of it comes from leases on the properties it has; revenues from the boat ramp; a few thousand dollars from selling licenses to commercial shrimpers on the bay and commercial crabbers. Their budget now is such a balancing act—the revenue is almost exactly what the expenses are.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, I had a question about the 2015 storm and the pilings. In the newspaper article that I read in the Newport Times, it said that [the Port] had gotten state grants to replace the pilings. But then further down in the article, it said something about the pilings now being destroyed and rusted. So I’m a little confused as to whether they’ve already rusted since 2015, or if they didn’t get replaced, or if there are more pilings, or what the deal is with that. </i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> There are kind of two clumps of piling issues. Let me show you a picture: This little mailer went out last fall. This line here <i>[points to the right of the Port structure]</i> is a series of pilings called a debris boom. This is where they lost the pilings, in the debris boom.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgysHgDO7uxLTUbNWIulS2BB2LgSCcoaqCItMUzAuzG3uxiVgoo8oYNdgXHkU-TpYATy-UgSh-JP35UVP2M6EDoMTRWHhJkgqYk7KRky0Qt_oOqpRMUr9a4iU_XomdIskt4X3EIXtrMgGQ/s1600/ConceptualPortPlan-Sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="960" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgysHgDO7uxLTUbNWIulS2BB2LgSCcoaqCItMUzAuzG3uxiVgoo8oYNdgXHkU-TpYATy-UgSh-JP35UVP2M6EDoMTRWHhJkgqYk7KRky0Qt_oOqpRMUr9a4iU_XomdIskt4X3EIXtrMgGQ/s640/ConceptualPortPlan-Sm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So all the sediment and stuff would come down [and hit the boom], and that impacts the pilings.</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Maybe a boat house... <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Have you had that?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Oh, maybe 15 years since I saw that! I happened to be looking out there, and see a boat house going under the bridge! <i>[laughter] </i>It went down into the Jaws and broke up. That must have been a pretty extreme situation.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So all the [little bars] are pilings?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Yes. And one of your questions was, can anybody view the plans. This is a little tiny copy; it’s always available for viewing at the Port.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So the boom [the white diagonal along the right of the plan] was the part that was replaced?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Yes. They got a grant. I keep on talking about the capital projects that have gotten done over the past three years. One of them was to replace all these pilings here <i>[along the debris boom]</i> with a grant from Oregon State Marine Board, on the order of $300,000. These pilings here<i> [points to the ones along the main pier]</i> [also need replacing]. An engineer went into the water, and he said at least half of the pilings in this area are rusted, 80 per cent gone. He could poke a screwdriver through them. [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, I understand there is a bond for a total of 2.66 million dollars over the next 25 years to essentially rebuild the whole thing, according to these plans?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Yes, and the port is interested in what everybody has to say about it. This illustration is not hard and fast, but it’s the basic plan.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: I certainly thought the kayak launch was a fantastic idea.</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>There is one down here <i>[bottom right]</i>, but the only problem with it, really, is that you have to walk out this gangway, [which] is real steep and narrow, and it’s not real convenient to use. The kayak platform they have right there now, they’ll move somewhere else.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: So, who are the stakeholders in this project—who would this affect?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>You’re saying stakeholders—in my mind, it’s converting to tax-payers. The Port District is a pretty good-sized area, a big rectangle: Marsh Street on the north—Marsh Street is about three miles north of Waldport—go straight east to the Benton County line, then [south] down the Benton County line all the way to the Lane county line.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So that includes Yachats, then.</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Yes, Yachats down to the Lane County line. So there’s on the order of 3,500 voting households in that area. That’s a pretty good size. It comes from the statutes of 1911. That’s when the Port was founded. Almost all of the little coastal ports were formed at that time.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: That’s even before the highway was there!</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Right! In fact, the Port of Alsea, in the 20s, they ran a little car ferry, a toll car ferry.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://oregondigital.org/sets/lchsa/oregondigital:df65vq849" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="680" height="441" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdKV6ZvLnpzw_X4e4ES1ZM6vRUu09lriRfTc6kQfEfRSDt2R9u2xgr6f5ZInCka7pgonfhd82KbawPXOKs4XIu2WDpS9d7cBJoektEZIapyvCYwH4N60Lo0J_thH68bVlmzpkH8UeTwjc/s640/1921-carferry-alsea.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Car Ferry across the Alsea, Waldport OR (courtesy of the Lincoln Co. Historical Society and <a href="https://oregondigital.org/sets/lchsa/oregondigital:df65vq849" target="_blank">OSU's Oregon Online</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wasn’t there also a lumber mill out in the bay?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> There were a bunch of mills, a bunch of canneries; the Port managed a dock for Standard Oil—they used to have diesel schooners there, 100-footers. A couple of them wrecked there on the bay! But, you know what... in 1936, when the highway 101 was completed, that meant that there was no more ocean commerce—it pretty much stopped, because that had been pretty much how everything got in and out of the area. And then in 1957, all the commercial fishing on the bay went away.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: What happened in 1957?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Well, gill netting got outlawed in 1948, and in 1957 it just went away. You know, everybody argues for years and years about whether something should be done, and then in 1957 they decided commercial fishing on the Alsea was done. Now there’s recreation, and a little bit of commercial, but almost everything the Port of Alsea does is for recreational users, and also for stewardship of the bay when it comes to somebody that interfaces directly with the state government about water quality and things that impact the estuary. The City of Waldport has its own estuary management plan that partly governs what goes on, what happens to the water and the environment in the bay. So the Port of Alsea has a three-punch impact: a little bit commercial, almost all recreational, and then stewardship of the bay.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So would the new marina look any different, either on land or on the water? I can see there’s going to be a new dock going out. But aside from that, would there be building changes? There was something about upgrading the public rest rooms. </i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> In terms of looking different, there’s going to be a twenty-five foot square that’s going to house the fire department’s on-the-water rescue equipment; they have a good-sized boat and a jet-ski. So all they have to do is go down there and jump in their gear.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: It’s good that they’re finally getting that!</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: So they tow down their equipment every time, now?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Yes, they’re towing it. You know, when there are a lot of people on the water, and 911 has to get out there—it’s a mess for them to get the boat in the water! And once they get their equipment in the water and they’re deployed, they stop everything else with the boat ramp and that doesn’t work too well. Some people get upset.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: This way you can shut down only one of the ramps. [The improvements] say “dual boat ramps.”</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Yeah, at this point the plan is just going to be a slightly wider ramp, and a pier with a finger down the middle of it so there can be two lanes.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: If I remember correctly, it’s real wide right now for just one boat.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> It’s wide enough for double usage, but people aren’t comfortable with it.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So, how would the change impact surrounding businesses?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> It won’t really change the port, exactly. It’s going to be the same facility, maybe just a little larger. Maybe part of the answer to the question is how the Port currently affects surrounding businesses. If you look at <i>Ports 2010</i>, it says right in there, it’s the State level talking: they tell us through different surveys that they accessed—there was one that the Army Corps of Engineers did in 2003, and one recently done by Business Oregon in 2014, and the semi-formal one I did myself in 2011 when I was working on the strategic plan—it’s all like a choir: they tell you that the reason people come to this area is the Yachats appeal, access to the Bay, and the natural beauty of the area. But all of the businesses here—well, almost all of them—the peak is the thing. They starve in the winter, and then May through October, that’s where they make their money, so they survive the winter. The Port of Alsea and access to the Bay is one of the three major components for why tourists come here. And also, because of the total package, the property values here are very much affected. One of the statements in the <i>Ports 2010</i> is that one in six Oregon jobs comes from whatever goes on in the 23 ports in the state.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: Wow, that’s impressive!</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>That’s a lot of value. [...] The survey in ‘03 stated that over a million dollars came either directly or indirectly from within 10 miles of the Port of Alsea. The one from Business Oregon in ‘14 said it was over six million dollars. Even if it was exaggerating by fifty per cent, you can still see the value coming into the area because of the Port facilities.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: No doubt a lot of it is incidental tourism, like those RV places, other people who might come and stay at hotels, I guess, grocery shopping for your boat trip, and whatever!</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Oh yes! The one the Army Corps of Engineers did—they went into great detail. One of the facts that I remember that they had on the cover, they said that a tourist that comes through the area, let’s say they spend fifty dollars. If they stay overnight, it’s four times that! So lodging in the general area is a huge deal.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So when would be the time frame for this project? I know the bond itself is for 25 years.</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>It’s got to get done in the winter of 2019-2020. November-December, January-February—that’s the in-water work period. You can’t work in the water outside of that time. The reason that period is there is because all the things that live in the water are spawning, and the young are getting going [after that].<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Who would be in charge of the project?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Bergeson Construction, if they end up doing it. But also [...] Roxie Cuellar, the Port Manager. It’s going to have to be a cooperative effort. It’s like anything that you have built: you hire somebody to do it, you watch what they’re doing, and sometimes you go, “Wait a minute! That’s not right!” <i>[laughter]</i> So the Port will be paying close attention the whole time. <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After the Bond passes, and the Port District knows it can go ahead, the Port District is required to put the project out for bid.</span></span><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: How would this re-build combat future sand abrasion and storm wear?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>One of the big reasons that the floating docks are in the state they are is because, probably starting right about the year 2000, somebody was watching a minus tide and saw that these docks were sitting on the bottom out there. These are rigid, concrete, floating docks, and of course the bottom curves. So that tortured them, and had a lot to do with the condition they’re in.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So they weren’t free, they were locked in.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> So they were sitting on the bottom, and there’s a lot of strain there. The dredging got done—you know, another big project in the last couple of years—it got done around 2016-2017, and now at the lowest tide, the docks are six feet above the bottom. Also, the new docks are going to have some kind of new grates in the middle that are made of high-density polyethylene—that stuff is indifferent to this climate. So the effect of the sand is not going to be an issue. Also, the new pilings are going to be galvanized instead of mild steel. I understand that’s a steel that melts at relatively low temperatures.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: I just don’t know how un-galvanized steel ever got approved for underwater.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> You know, it’s just the times, the methods and the materials [didn’t have enough study data on them].<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: What are the requirements for an ADA-accessible crabbing platform? </i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Specifically for a crabbing platform, I don’t know, but I worked for TriMet for 24 years, in Portland, and the accessibility for disabled people is a big issue. What the ADA said to us, was that, for instance, if you’re coming onto a bus, you don’t want people to have to go up anything steep; or getting off the bus, you don’t want the going down to get steep, or have a precipice off the edge of it. So you make it like it is now, basically: level, easily accessible, and there’s no way [...] to go off the edge.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: So there are going to be railings off the dock and ramps?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Yes.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Perfect! I think that’s ADA, and also just clumsy people. [laughter] I know I would just fall off unless there were serious safety measures, just because I’m that kind of guy. So, what sort of refinancing of loans and properties would be involved with this bond measure?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>The way I understand that question is, is money going to be borrowed against property? Something like that, you’re thinking?<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: There was mention in the ballot of a loan that currently ate up like 30 per cent of the Port’s income, and they could get that way down.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> About seven per cent, actually. That’s a piece of property that the district bought about five years ago, something like that. They got a loan from the infrastructure finance authority of Business Oregon for that, a really low percentage loan. That loan has about $100,000 outstanding on it, and we’d pay that off. They’re paying about nine thousand dollars a year against that loan, which is going to start going into a bank account. The big issue with grants, is that, “Well, we’ll give you $100,000 in grants, but you have to come up with $25,000 in matching funds.” The way the Port is now, on a razor’s edge budget, they don’t have the money for matching funds. So they have to get a lot farther into the black. So paying off that loan will allow the Port to begin that.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Begin to build up a stockpile.</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Yes. They’ll have some money so they can do their part in a grant application.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: What sort of land holdings need to be discussed in order for this project to go through?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> There’s [nothing] new—the Port doesn’t have to acquire any property.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Does [boat traffic] just stay in the bay, or does it go up river?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Just in the bay. There are a couple of places way upstream, just before Tidewater, where you can launch. I’ve been with guys on a couple of occasions who have gone up as far as the Highway 34 bridge, like six or seven miles up. That’s probably the limit. Seven miles up, or down to the Jaws. Sometimes, under the right conditions, you can go right out into the ocean, but that’s risky. The bar changes real fast. The bar right now is only about six feet or so. So if the tide drops down that can be real rough.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: I was wondering, because [earlier] you were talking about the tall ships coming into the bay—it must have been different. </i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> It was a lot different.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Maybe they just did more dredging.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> There was never any dredging down there. As I understand it, in 1875 Waldport opted out of having jetties.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: What, if any, changes would you like to see made to this bill?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>You know, I haven’t been involved in the planning of it, and as far as I can tell, it’s a good idea. You know, one of the things is that it’s well thought-out; the planning goes back a long ways. Starting with when they decided that they needed to get going on a new strategic plan, all the way back to 2011, 2012. I think that the fact that it’s going to be a little bit larger is going to be of benefit. It’s going to take some pressure off the boat ramp, and also it’s going to have people who are mooring boats for longer during the year—that will help the revenue stream for the district.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: How many boats are moored there currently year-long? Does this allow for that?</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Yes. In fact, that would be ideal. In <i>Ports 2010</i>, the ideal situation is all year long, 75 per cent full. <i>[laughs ruefully]</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: So does this increase how many boats can be moored there?</i><br />
<i>Joe: </i>Yes.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: It looks like it would triple it, almost.</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> Well, <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the moorage will increase from 35 to 48 spaces.</span></span><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well, thank you so much for your time and patience!</i><br />
<i>Joe:</i> You’re welcome. There is a website that the political action committee has, called <a href="http://www.friendsoftheportofalsea.org/">http://www.friendsoftheportofalsea.org/</a>. They have maps and will have some other information there pretty soon.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Great! Thank you so much!</i><div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-39780035615346910522018-04-01T21:22:00.003-07:002018-04-01T21:33:09.372-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 79, April 1 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/mhyjm1218f21gfl/20180401-YachatsGazette-79th-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 79.</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Emily Crabtree and Tom Beare</span></b></div>
<br />
<i>Emily and Tom are artists who have recently settled in town.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how did you guys get to Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Hmm. You’re going to start with that one.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yeah. I graduated from Portland State University, and I had friends living on a farm up-river. Next to Lester’s old property—100 acres. They were renting it, and it was beautiful. I went out there and did some work in their garden, and ended up staying for two years. <i>[laughter]</i> I’d just graduated, and I didn’t have any job prospects, and I didn’t really care to start working right away.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: What did you major in?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Economics.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Good field!</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yeah! Good field. It didn’t lead me to a career, but I enjoyed learning it. <i>[laughter]</i> Became a staunch communist for four years, and then I graduated, and it was welcome to the real world.<i> [lots of laughter]</i> But I lived there, moved back to Portland, and when Emily and I started dating, three weeks in or something, I brought her out here, and she immediately said, “This is where I want to be.”<br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yeah. I was like, “I know we just started dating, but I’m going to move there.” And he’s like, “But that’s where I’m going to move!” And I’m like, “Well then, I guess we’re going to do that thing that people say don’t do right away!” <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> We did it for a year and a half before we moved here.<br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yeah, it was like a year and a half before we were able to find a place to live. You know, the housing issues here are so much. I was ready to come back to the country; I grew up in rural Virginia, and really missed living in the country. I’d been living in Portland for the last—I’m bad at numbers—13 years? A while. I was just ready to come back to Mother Nature. Portland was getting really hard to live in, too. When I first moved there, it was kind of hard to find a job, but you could also find rent for not too expensive, and there was a lot of underground art. There’s still underground art, but then it was all free. <i>[laughs]</i> By the end of it, it was like, oh my gosh, six women, one bathroom, really nice Craftsman home, but still... but it was really kind of nice timing that we both met when we were ready to move to another stage in our lives.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Perfect timing when I got evicted, and then a house opened up here! <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Why did you get evicted?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Oh, it was kind of the thing that’s been happening in Portland a lot. Landlords buy a house cheap, rent it for a few years, the prices are going up, and sell it for dear. And so I got evicted just because they were selling their house.<br />
<i>Emily:</i> So nothing bad. They kind of have to go through this process. This is happening really rapidly to a lot of us.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That’s terrible!</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Yeah, all the artists, all the people, most of them are being displaced. And it’s something [that repeats]: we move out to another neighborhood, then that gets cool, and... I also think there is going to be more of a move back to the country with a lot of folks around our age. It seems like everyone’s really talking about wanting to do that.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Where did you grow up in rural Virginia?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley, on the Shenandoah River. It’s very beautiful—Appalachian, which is gorgeous, but also a lot of the ideals just really didn’t match up with my family’s. [They]’re very liberal, and open-minded...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Yes, that is weird.</i><br />
<i>Emily: [laughter]</i> I’m like, “Why did you guys move there?” So I moved out of there—I put myself in boarding school in tenth grade. And I was a good kid! Well, kind of good. I didn’t get caught, so I guess that doesn’t count.<i> [laughter] </i>So I moved out early to see more of the world, and then I got to the west coast from high school. College was in Santa Fe, and then I went and moved with one of my best friends to Olympia, Washington. Unseen, because I was really ready to get out of Santa Fe, and Olympia has really cool record labels.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Were you into music?</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Yes, yes. More as a spectator. My family are all musical, and my Dad says I was too strong-willed to teach. <i>[laughter] </i>But moving there was really interesting. I got to start performing, and meeting with other like-minded people. I was only there for a year, and then I moved to Portland. Olympia and Portland are like little feeder cities for each other—[there are] a lot of the same people. Musicians and artists kind of bop back and forth—a natural progression, sort of.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, what kind of musician are you? </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> I sing, write music, guest on a lot of tracks. I have a friend who’s an electronic musician. He doesn’t sing, so if he has certain tracks that he wants vocals on, he’ll ask me. I’ve done that for a metal band as well, which was sort of interesting and fun. Then I’ve had my own groups. My friend Andrea, who moved here, she’s been in three of my bands with me. And then since I’ve moved here, I bought myself a really nice semi-hollow body electric guitar, and a bunch of guitar pedals, and I’m trying to teach myself how to play guitar, which is a steep learning curve, so if you know anyone I could take lessons from... I just need someone I can be accountable to. That’s mostly what it is. I just don’t practice enough. I think for me, music is this beautiful epicenter to be surrounded in every other aspect of art. When you’re in a band, you have to know Photoshop to make your pictures look good. You have to be creative for your album cover art. So it’s a fun way to encompass mixed media stuff. That was really fun. Plus, it was a way to soothe my social anxiety, because I really liked going to shows, but it would make me [blows up her head gesture] sometimes. So if I have a reason that I’m here, I’m allowed that because I’m playing, so that would give me a reason to be somewhere, to feel involved.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Certainly, to me, going to these shows where it’s body to body, completely packed... I’d kind of just rather listen to records or recordings.</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> I feel you! I went to a show in Portland a month ago, and I was like, “I’m too grown up for this front row!” <i>[laughter]</i> “I’m going to go up in the balcony and calm down, and just enjoy myself...” Yeah—there’s a time and a place. It’s funny how that mood can change.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: [To Tom]</i> So, I know you’re an artist, because I’ve seen your paintings! <i>[Tom has a couple of paintings on display in the back room at Ona Restaurant and Lounge.]</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yeah! I paint, a bit; do print making, a little bit of collage...<br />
<i>Emily:</i> He writes, as well.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> I write a bit. I run the gamut. We just moved into a new place, and I have a nice, big painting studio. So this winter I’ve got to buckle down. I’m making prints of local dogs. That’s my new thing. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Really? That’s awesome!</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Woodblock and linoleum prints of our friends’ dogs.<br />
<i>Emily:</i> They’re pretty great!<br />
<i>Tom:</i> It’s kind of crafty, but yes, it’s fun.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I don’t know, I did linoleum stuff and I really liked it! </i><br />
<i>TYG: And you did [rubber] stamps for years!</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: That’s true! </i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yeah! I enjoy it a lot. Doing a few different layers, or just one.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Have you talked to Mike Guerriero?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Oh, he’s a print maker—did he have a show at Ona?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Yes!</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> He did the big fish.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> And the big landscapes... his work is beautiful! I’ve talked to him in the restaurant. But I haven’t hooked up artistically.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So how does your economics fit in to your art?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Ooh! <i>[laughter]</i> I paint a lot of patterns. I like them as a design concept. Conceptually, I think—it was my third year in college, I started imagining a work of art describing visually a planned economy, or a volatile capitalistic economy. I think patterns sort of emerged. We have a bunch of similar commodities going one direction, and they’re processed in this way—and the outcome, visually, is patterning.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That’s a cool way to think about it!</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> I see it in the things you choose—the sort of architectural imagery you pick to represent this stuff.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Definitely. Right on!<i> [laughter]</i> I’ve strayed pretty far from economic thinking in my life... <i>[laughs]</i> I think that aspect of my personality comes out more in game playing.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Oh, you play games?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Big time.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>I play a lot of games, yes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Computer games, or...?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Chess, right now. My favorite game for years was Magic, the Gathering. I was on the Magic, the Gathering pro tour, in Valencia, Spain. I got to go—it was fun.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Nice!</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> I was like, “Wait a minute! There’s a game that will fly you to Europe?”<i> [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Yep! [...] It was five years of my life, and I was just obsessed with it. Then I got to the pro tour, then I was like, “Okay! I can probably calm down now.” <i>[laughter] [to Emily]</i> I was actually in Spain when I saw your dating profile!<br />
<i>Emily:</i> That’s not how we met!<br />
<i>Tom: </i>It’s not how we met! It is how we recognized each other.<br />
<i>Emily:</i> I didn’t. You did. I was like, “What are you looking at?” <i>[in a growly voice]</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Heavy metal show in North Portland.<br />
<i>Emily: [laughter] </i>He kept walking by, and I was in a bad mood. “What are you looking at?” And he’s like, “We’re talking.” And I’m like, “No we’re not.” <i>[laughs again] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: How’d you get her out of the bad mood?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Beer...<br />
<i>Tom:</i> A couple of drinks, yeah...<i> [laughter]</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Portland rent is really expensive, so if someone wants to buy you a drink, you say yes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: [to Emily] So, what kind of art do you do?</i><br />
<i>Emily</i>: I do a lot of different kinds. I started doing photography in high school, and I’ve always really loved that. And on and off over the years, depending on whether I could afford film, or to get it developed. But I’ve always done it. And I bought myself a medium format camera—the film is bigger, and the grain is really small, so if you blow the photo up, you can make it really, really large and it still has all the clarity.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Nice. So that’s like a professional film camera.</i><br />
<i>Emily</i>: Yes. This one is a Yashica—it’s really cool, you open it up and look down in it, and it’s multiple mirrors. It’s really cool looking. And that camera is from the ‘60s. Then I have a bunch of other cameras too, but that’s my favorite one. So actually in our new house, Tom’s going to help me build my own dark room.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow! You still have film? </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes—so much. I have bags of undeveloped film.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: And it hasn’t gone bad?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Who knows if it has or not—I mean, the light flares can be weird, but sometimes that gives you really beautiful, strange stuff that happens, that you can’t plan.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Sure, absolutely. </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> So I do photography, and I do collage art as well. Right now I’m working on a collage that’s commenting on how American culture sort of eroticizes hyper-masculinity that’s found in the Army, the Navy, as this kind of way to sell it to young men. Which I find really kind of horrifying.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s immature, but it’s like, “We need recruits!” </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yeah, so I’m working on a collage of that. I’ve always wanted to figure out how to make them bigger, in a way that’s not just blowing them up. Now what I’m doing is cutting the pieces, organizing them, and I’m going to scan them, and print each piece large and put them back together, so it’s still actually collage. Because every time that I’ve just enlarged them from a photo or a scan, it loses the texture of the collage.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And also, that’s going to make it feel like it’s much closer to a memory. Because instead of having just one, clear image, you have smaller images, but they’re still separate, so they’re more like what the human eye remembers and sees. </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> I’m excited about it—I think it should be fun. Sometimes it’s slow-going—I have bursts where “Oh! I’m almost done!” and then like, “Well, I’m not almost done.”<i> [laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So when you say “big,” how big are you talking about?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Um, I don’t know, four feet by four feet, maybe? A lot of times I work in a square format, because I use old record sleeves. I collect vinyl records, sometimes from thrift stores, where the record will get messed up but the sleeve is there. It’s just a really nice, heavy weight cardboard to work on. So a lot of times they end up being square. So yeah! I do collage stuff, photography—I write, as well. Since moving here I write a lot of poetry about the ocean. Not sure how great it is, but usually right after, when I read it to myself, it seems amazing. [...] I also do micro-stories—really short stories. Maybe a page, or something. That’s been fun. My great-uncle—my grandfather’s brother—passed away two years ago, and I really got into researching who he was, and I got some good short stories out of that, going through his memories and stuff. I haven’t had a big flush like that for a little while. I think it’s coming soon, now that we both have our own art studio! It’s so awesome!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, now that you have your nice, big house and studios, do you have any big projects planned? You said you were going to work on some new paintings?</i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> Ah! I have the dog prints that I’m still working on... I do have a big project planned! I built a four foot by three foot light table for tracing. I’m tracing these images from this print series—I can’t remember who put it out—about Napoleon’s adventures, Napoleonic history. So these really cool old prints of famous works of art, or any work of art relating to Napoleon. Lots of French soldiers in lines, lots of coronations. So I’m using pieces of those images, those reproductions—because someone made a reproduction of them—pieces of those images, sort of putting them together into a pattern over a five foot by three foot sheet of paper. So creating almost like a piece of wallpaper, but politics and history and war, using or stealing these other images. And then I’m trying to figure out how to interject sort of a little bit of humor, or guiding principles into the pattern, with disparate objects that aren’t from Napoleonic history, like plumbing diagrams, parking lots, things like that <i>[laughter]</i> ... if that makes any sense.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: No, it makes perfect sense! It’s like straight plumbing, straight plumbing, [makes a dropping noise and motions downward]—that’s when he invades Russia. [laughter] </i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> There you go! [...] So that’s my big [project]. It’s long-term.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So you’re tracing these things... are you reproducing them just by moving the pattern underneath?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>Yeah! So I’m sort of learning the process—the big pieces haven’t really started coming out yet. But yes, so you have one piece of this image—I can copy it a couple times if I want, using the light table or just drawing it, or tracing paper—and then I can sort of play around before I actually commit to the pattern, like where everything is going to be placed. I can move it around under the light table and see how it’s going to come out. So that’s why I built the light table. It’s pretty fun. You get to really work it out before having to put it to paper.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow, that’s pretty wild. What about you? [to Emily]</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Me, let’s see. My big thing is this summer, I really want to save up and get myself a really nice digital camera, because as much as I do love working in film, it’s really nice to be able to do both. But I love to take photos, and then sort of digitally keep—on my phone, there’s a program where if you keep on over-editing, the program gets confused. And in ways you may not anticipate, it sort of degrades the image, but in this way that I find really, really interesting. I call them over-edits, and then layering of images I think is really fun. I do a lot of self-portraits, mostly because I’m around myself all the time. <i>[laughter]</i>. It’s easy to do, and convenient. And then I have bigger photo project ideas that I’m going to need help with—we have a lot of willing friends. And I recently had someone who’s like my god-brother give me a really beautiful computer, so that’s very exciting. So when I can get it together I can have something to edit with. Which is really great. Now I have a place to record my music, a place to edit my photos... I think that with being an artist out here, it’s just so nice to remind yourself that you have time, and not to measure the success of your own inertia. You do it just because of how therapeutic it is to do it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, you recently went to England, and you have lots of artsy friends there too! </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes! It was really fun. One of my best friends I grew up with in Virginia—her name is Nikki Kvarnes—she’s incredible. She’s a musician, she was in a very successful band called Those Darlings, and she was able to have that be her job. She comes from a line of musicians and painters—she is also a painter, an oil painter. She just now, actually, has announced that she’s having a show in a gallery in London. I’m really excited—the stuff I’ve seen is incredible. She does really beautiful portraits of people, and she also does fruit that’s in half decay, flowers that are falling apart—it’s just really beautiful stuff.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That sounds incredibly hard to capture.</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes! I can show you guys sometime—it looks like you can touch it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So where do you guys think you’ll be in five years? You guys did get married, right?</i><br />
<i>Emily: </i>Yes!<br />
<i>Tom:</i> We’ll still be married.<i> [laughter]</i> We’ll have five acres up river...<br />
<i>Emily:</i> There we go. Dream big, baby. <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<i>Tom:</i> ... a barn...<br />
<i>Emily:</i> Ooh yes, big barn, big studio, where I can do huge art. Maybe a sculpture or something.<br />
<i>Tom:</i> Hopefully we’ll have started paying for our own house. Separate out-buildings for our own projects. I’d like to still be here. We fantasize about moving back to the city, but...<br />
<i>Emily:</i> I think if we moved to the city, it would be what we’ve fantasized about becoming ESL teachers and going to live in Thailand. We hope to go back maybe next year. But all my friends keep on getting married, so we put off our trips! <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So you’ve been to Thailand before? </i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> Yes! Not last winter, but the winter before.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Wow, so what was that like?</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> It was incredible. We loved it.<br />
<i>Tom: </i>Stunning. We stayed for a month; we traveled sort of up and down from the Island of Ko Tao, up through Bangkok, the ancient city of Ayuttayah—just as tourists, stayed each place about a week, got settled in, enjoyed the food, the temples...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Did you know any Thai?</i><br />
<i>Tom: </i>We learned [a couple of phrases]. If we go back, we’d like to take like three weeks of language classes so we can start getting the hang of it.<br />
<i>Emily:</i> Because we really appreciated that country—I think we need to do our due diligence the second time, to show that. It was really, really beautiful. The people are just... everyone is stunning. We got into watching Muay Thai boxers. Typically boxers ... but these boxers were beautiful. I was like, “Are these models going to fight?” <i>[laughs]</i> There’s really a lot of Buddhist mysticism, which was really neat. Everyone was just so gentle and kind.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, is there anything else you’d like to share with the community of Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Emily</i>: Oh, I do, yes! I’m on the Yachats Annual Pride Planning Committee, and [Pride] is June 1, 2, and 3. It’s going to be really fun. It’s not only been great to just hang out with folks in the community and plan something, but we’re getting a lot of artists from outside and inside the community. To come, there’s going to be, on Friday night, a cabaret show. It’s going to have some of my friends in Portland. I brought this friend who does a pet psychic drag act; it’s totally weird and out there. My friend who’s coming is a DJ, and there’s going to be a good dance party. On Saturday there’s a trans tea party, which will be for folks in the community to just come and ask questions and be educated on trans issues and all that stuff. What’s really sweet is that the Lions is donating their hall for that. After that, Cris [Williamson], who’s a very influential, lesbian folk musician—she has quite a following—she’s coming. Last year she was really popular. And then after that there’s going to be dinner and Bingo in the Commons, with acts in between. For Bingo, my friends’ band <i>HURTUR</i> is going to play—they’re kind of a synthwave dance band, emotive, and there’s a light show. They’re really fabulous friends of mine and they work really hard to create a whole experience. And there will be food trucks, and a beer garden. And Sunday there’s going to be a hike in the morning, just up the 804 trail, and there will be a person to talk about plant life. After that, there’s a picnic in the Commons picnic shelter. It’s a potluck, but also lots of stuff is going to be provided. And then there’s an open mike with some music, and then a Puppy Parade—dress up your dogs and bring them. <i>[“Aw”s abound] [laughter]</i> You don’t have to dress up—it can be just you and your puppy. And after that there’s a seminar about navigating consent in relationships. My friend Cassie, who’s a teacher at Waldport High and runs their LGBTQ club, she’s getting a lot of the kids involved in volunteering, and they might do some acts too.<br />
<br />
TYG-GD: This sounds very awesome!<br />
Emily: It’s going to be fun!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That is going to be so cool.</i><br />
<i>Emily:</i> So, that’s the biggest thing I have!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well, thank you so much!</i><br />
<i>Emily and Tom:</i> Thank you!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-47367960814292298712018-03-01T19:30:00.000-08:002018-03-01T19:30:17.046-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 78, March 1 2018<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/7khwxkjw498hazu/20180301-YachatsGazette-78th-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">For a printable issue of Issue 78, click here.</a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Interview with Debi Dazzo</b></span></div>
<br />
<i>Debi Dazzo is the new Store Manager of the Yachats Dollar General.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: So how did you come to Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Debi: [laughs] </i>Well, I came with the store. I’ve been with Dollar General for about a year now. I’d kind of been waiting for a store in the area that I wanted to open, and when I heard that they were building one in Yachats, I put in for this store.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Cool! </i><br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: What area were you in?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> I originally started in Shady Grove, which is outside of Medford. I had a small business there, a coffee shop and art gallery. I come from that kind of background—shabby chic. Shabby chic furniture, and I paint.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: How did Dollar General get the idea to come to Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> They choose a lot of small towns—that seems to be their thing. I can’t necessarily speak for them because I’m not them, but usually we open in small towns that need some local stuff. So that people don’t have to drive to the nearest [department store]. I can tell you why I like them. In the town that I was in, I owned a small business. It was really hard for me to leave and go in [to the big city] to get supplies that I needed for my business, and at home. My time is short; I worked seven days a week. So I liked [Dollar General], because I found I could run over and get stuff cheaper than at our local grocery store. Instead of making my one day, my day off or my partial day off running into Walmart so I could save money and do a bunch of shopping, I found I could go right across the street—it was right across the street from my house.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That’s useful!</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> And then, I noticed after about two and half months, that I wasn’t going in to Medford anymore. I was shopping my toiletries and my stuff here [at Dollar General], and getting this and that and the groceries that I needed here, and when I needed some other stuff, I went to my local grocery store. And I realized I was staying local! I wasn’t going into town. So I liked it. And when I found myself suddenly out of a job because the retention pond in my town failed...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: The retention pond?</i><br />
<i>Debi: </i>They had built a retention pond after they had built a suburb up on the hill, and the drainage wasn’t effective, so the City hired an engineering company to build a retention pond. They pretty much dug a hole like a sandbox in the back yard, and dug a trench along the school, out to the river. It failed.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what happened then?</i><br />
<i>Debi: </i>The water ran down, and my business, which was a little bit lower than everybody else’s, and all the water flooded into my business and it was knee-deep inside.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Oh no!! </i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> I only rented the building, so they wanted to wait and use the City’s insurance to make any repairs. Realizing that that could take six to eight months, there was no way that I could be out of business for six to eight months. It wasn’t going to happen. And then a friend of mine offered to buy the building—he wanted to do a barbecue in it. I was good friends with the owners, and him, and you know, I’d been wanting to move out the coast for three years, but I couldn’t leave my business...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That took care of that.</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> That took care of that! I was just going to move out here—I had money in the savings, I was just going to make a go for it. Then my District Manager for Dollar General said, “Do you want to transfer?” I said yes, and so the company transferred me. They had kind of an interesting position for me for a couple of months until this store opened, and then I became the Store Manager of this store!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how has business been going so far?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Good! Really good, actually. It’s a good community—they’ve been really nice and receptive. Before we opened I’d heard that maybe we wouldn’t get a warm reception, but we did. People have come in here and really thanked us for coming. They were probably the same people driving to Newport or Waldport. Now they don’t have to drive.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Useful! Good for the environment as well. </i><br />
<i>Debi: [pause]</i> Well, saving on gas, I guess.<i> [laughs]</i> I don’t know—is anything that we do good for the environment anymore? I guess not driving is good for the environment. Well, honestly, you know—when I would do my own, big grocery trip, I found that I would also go out to lunch there, I’d go shopping there, and then I’m done. I’ve spent my money, I’ve spent my budget. And it wasn’t in my town. I wasn’t going to flower shop there, I wasn’t going to other little businesses there. There was my business, and my big trip, and that was all I had time for. For three years.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: How far away was Medford for you?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> It was 25 minutes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Oh, so like from here to Newport.</i><br />
<i>Debi</i>: Yes!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So not too bad, at least.</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> No, but you know, I drive a truck. I re-did furniture, so I had to have something to transport it in. So that’s my vehicle, you know. I wish I had a small car to take to town, but I can’t afford both. So I noticed that I was spending more time in town, more time going to the local Mexican restaurant on the river, and spending time with my friends, all locally.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So do you control the products you sell? </i><br />
<i>Debi: </i>No. There are people who do a lot of research—the people who run these companies definitely do their demographics, they do their research; they are not not-savvy business people. And they’re run so that when you go to any town, you pretty much know where your product is, and you know it’s going to be carried in there. They’re pretty much to plan. This is my tenth store I’ve been in.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Wow!</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> I pretty much know every single item that we carry. If you asked me if we carried it, I could tell you yes, I could tell you where, and I could almost do that in every store, even though there are three or four different floor plans.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That’s amazing, wow! I was just interested to see that you guys were selling iPhone cases instead of like Samsung or something. </i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> iPhone products, they’re everywhere. They just kind of have the jump on that. We carry the chargers and everything else for Samsung, and I’m pretty sure that if Samsung wanted to get with Dollar General and put their products in here, they’d carry them. We have about three different side-wings that we carry cell-phone products on. I don’t think it would be a big deal to carry different products.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, is your child of school age?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Yes, he’s 12! I have a 12-year old and a 23-year old. The 23-year old is married and going to school—she’s graduating this semester with a bio in medicine.<br />
<br />
TYG: Nice!<br />
Debi: Yes, she’s a smart cookie. She wants to be a surgeon.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: And does your 12-year old go to Waldport?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Nope, he goes to Florence! He’s absolutely in love with that school. He loves it. I talked about moving closer, and he asked me if I would not. He’s a very shy kid.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: I did’t realize you were down there in that direction.</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Yep! I had a friend there, and I kept coming over and visiting, so I ended up down there, and in between, I was working at the Lakeside store for about three months, because we have one down in Lakeside too. The Waldport one was not open yet, and this one was not open, but I knew they were in the plan. And then we had the Bandon store as well. I knew we were opening on the coast, so I kind of took a gamble, and I’m a hard worker.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So you have the most beautiful drive in the world, every day.</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> I have the most beautiful drive. I’m also known to have the most beautiful store, because of the view. And even though I can’t see it, I can see it on my break. But I get teased about having the best store because I have the best view as well. [laughs]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s certainly a lot safer than the Waldport one.</i><br />
<i>Debi</i>: Safer? Why would it be safer?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Because the Waldport one could be flooded instantly. </i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Oh!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: But that’s the case for every business in Waldport. </i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> I don’t know! Sometimes hearing the wind, here... I’m like, “Are we going to blow down?” I feel a little adventurous sometimes, taking my drive sometimes at night, when I close.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: After seeing the inside though—you guys have big, strong beams in here. So you should be fine.</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Well yes, and again, they do their demographics and their homework, so... They’ve been a pretty good company to me. Again, they didn’t have to transfer me, they didn’t have to give me my own store, and they really have.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That’s very nice of them! </i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> When I applied for this store, Florence was not on the list and was not even a thought, but Florence is actually now a thought...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: You might have to choose!</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Well, even though I’d be leaving my manager’s district, and he doesn’t want to see me go... he says he’s not going to let me go (it’s a joke), I may put in for that store just because it would be closer to my home.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Right! And if you’re working 50 hours a week, plus a huge commute—now is not bad, but in the summer, with the tourist traffic...</i><br />
<i>Debi: </i>Summer... and as a manager, I only have to close twice a week, and I do have a roommate. But I like being closer to home.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Sure! Summer is quite the ordeal, here.</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> And I love that. I grew up in Alaska, so... Born in Oregon, grew up in Alaska, and I love tourism—I’m used to it. It’s what I’ve worked since I was 13-years old.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-GD: Where did you live in Alaska?</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Sitka. And I also lived in Anchorage, and Kenai, and Juneau. And Wasilla. And Eagle River. <i>[laughs] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That’s an adventurous life!</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> Yes! I was also married military for ten years. So I’ve also lived in Hawaii and North Carolina. Yes. It’s been quite the roller coaster. It’s kind of funny, because my Mom does a Christmas letter every year. She’s been writing them for 30 years, and she just sent us this year the thirty years of Christmas letters. And in each one she does a section about each one of us six kids. And I was just buzzing through mine really quick, and it brought a tear to my eyes a couple of times... Like this Christmas, they were coming to see my new baby—it took me five years to have my son, so—it was quite the battle. Brought a little tear to my eye that they were coming and were super-excited... finally, finally I was having another one.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Well, thank you so much for your time!</i><br />
<i>Debi:</i> You’re welcome!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Local Event: Saturday March 3, 2018 at Toad Hall:</span></b></div>
<br />
RESQCATS founder, Jeffyne Telson, launches her first book: <i>Cat Tails: Heart-Warming</i><br />
<i>Stories about the Cats and Kittens of RESQCATS</i><br />
<br />
Yachats, Oregon. Saturday, March 3, 2018.<br />
12 pm to 2 pm<br />
Book signing at Toad Hall,<br />
237 W. 3 rd St.,<br />
Yachats Oregon 97498<br />
(541)547-4044<br />
<br />
In 1997, Jeffyne Telson founded RESQCATS, Inc, as a non-profit organization dedicated<br />
to the rescue, care and adoption of stray and abandoned cats and kittens. In the ensuing 20 years, with the help of a small group of dedicated volunteers, Jeffyne has grown RESQCATS well beyond her dreams, into a highly respected rescue organization that has placed more than 2800 cats and kittens with qualified families and individuals. And now, she has written a book about her journey of creating a cat rescue, the challenges and opportunities she has faced, and most important of all, the valuable life lessons the cats and kittens have taught her.<br />
<br />
RESQCATS is a non-profit, tax-deductible sanctuary dedicated to the rescue, care and<br />
adoption of stray and abandoned cats and kittens. 100% of the proceeds from the book<br />
go directly to the cats and kittens. Visit the website: <a href="http://www.resqcats.org/">www.RESQCATS.org</a>.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-15199026503975982012018-02-01T19:29:00.002-08:002018-04-01T23:26:32.946-07:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 77, February 1 2018<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/qn32l5dva6u0o32/20180201-YachatsGazette-77th-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 77</a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Brian Dimiceli, </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Manager of the Sea Note Lounge</span></b></div>
<br />
<i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/goodtimes.net/" target="_blank">The Sea Note Lounge</a> is a new bar that also serves food and has live music, on the corner of 3rd Street and Highway 101 in Yachats.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how did you get the idea to open this place?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> It was actually my mother’s idea. She talked me into it. I was ready to retire. She talked me into doing the business here. She was looking at this building for quite a while, and we actually put it together.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s an awesome-looking building. How’s business been going?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> It’s actually a little bit slow right now. I mean, a lot of people don’t know that we’re actually open. The word’s getting around and business is slowly picking up. It’s holding its own.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How long have you guys actually been open?</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>Since December 13th.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I really like the decor of this place. How did you get the design for it?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Well actually, it was between my mother and I, and my wife—we sat down and picked out color schemes. I actually got the carpet for the place and picked out the colors for the walls. Most of the tables that are done in here, my mom did.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: They’re beautiful.</i><br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: She made them?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> These here (in the sun room) we bought. But all the tables that are in [the bar], the bigger ones, she made all those.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: She must be quite the woodworker! </i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>I don’t know if you know this, but she owns the Salty Dawg Bar & Grill also, in Waldport.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: And what’s her name? </i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Rosetta Dimiceli. She’s got all homemade tables in her bar, too. She used to do expoxy pourings—it’s really neat. And then we got one of the local gentlemen, Steve Oldham, he did the bar, which he did an excellent job on.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Everything here is beautiful!</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> He did a really nice job.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, what did you use to do before you almost retired?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> I worked in Chicago for a wholesale grocery co-op for twenty-five years. It kind of worked out pretty well, because they went out of business. They were in business for a hundred years.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s always such a shame when that happens. </i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: So how does your experience from that bear on this business?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> I was a supervisor, so I managed a lot of people. And I was also in the restaurant field many years ago, when I first actually started working. I was a fry cook, then I went to broiler man, then I was getting trained to be a sous chef and I decided to get out of it. [laughs] But I also had a bar 35 years ago, in Chicago, so that’s another reason why I got into the business.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How did you find this little town?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> My mom had always ranted and raved about this town—how nice it was, and the tourism that it brings in the spring and the summer. As I was working on the building last summer, watching everything get done, watching all the people walking around, all the business across the street, all the business down the street—it’s a lively town in the spring and the summer!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So you actually did the construction yourself?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> No, I didn’t do it myself—I overlooked it. I did do some of the work in the parking lot—the excavation part of it. But as far as the work on the building, there was Cavanaugh Construction that did the carpentry, A1 Electric did the electric, obviously, Newport Plumbing did all the plumbing work, and a guy named Dale [Rekow] did all the drywall. He did all the designs on the ceiling, he sprayed all the orange peel on the walls—did a really nice job.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I’m really glad to see this place in business again, because for a long time this place was just sort of sitting there. Nobody knew what was happening with it. </i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> I guess it’s been sitting here for 25 years. The gentleman that had it before us, he would do some work on it, then he’d run out of money, or he’d change his mind, and just couldn’t get it together.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s kind of impressive that this building stood up un-maintained for that long!</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes. It’s got good bones. We had to redo the whole front and south side of the building, because it was all rotted. We had to take a lot of the sheeting off, and we took the cedar shake off. A lot of plywood underneath was rotten, so we had to tear that all out and put all new plywood on, and all new wrap on it, and re-side it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: But still, how did this place survive! It must have some serious beams in it.</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>It does! You can see them inside there—these are all solid beams, and there are more in the walls back there. And then we had to reinforce all these beams underneath the building with pylons. A lot of work went into this building.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It looks great!</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what’s your favorite thing about being a bar owner?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Just being around people, talking with them, getting to know people and different cultures that exist in Oregon. Like I said, I’m from Chicago. When I moved here, it was like culture shock for me. Chicago’s like, fast fast fast fast fast, you know. Rush rush rush rush rush. Here it’s the exact opposite, like slowwwww and easy-going... [laughs]. But it’s good for me, because my blood pressure is normal now, I lost about 35 pounds since I’ve been here. So it’s been good for me, and my wife loves it. She’s a nurse at Samaritan Hospital.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: That’s terrific! Do you guys have any kids?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Yes, we have five. Three from my first marriage, and she’s got two from her first marriage. My youngest is 24, my oldest is 30; her oldest is 34 and her youngest is 31.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: What do they think about Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>The only one who’s been here so far is my middle daughter. I haven’t even been here a year yet. She loved it! [...]<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Have you seen the 4th of July stuff yet?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Oh yes!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I really don’t know how this town can find the budget to have a fireworks show like that!</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>I guess there are a lot of people here who are well-to-do, and they probably pitch in to the community, which is a good thing. [...] Before I moved here, last year, my wife and I came out here and visited. It was right at 4th of July. My mom brought us down to—I guess you’d call it the spit—in Waldport, and we watched the fireworks. They were okay, and my mom came up to me and said, “What did you think of the fireworks?” and I said, “Well, they’re okay for a small town...” and she goes, “Oh, these are some of the best fireworks...” and I said, “You gotta remember, I come from Chicago.” [laughter] And actually, the town that I lived in, for years, they had the largest fireworks display in the state. They would run fireworks for like 40 minutes. It was about $75,000. It was really ridiculous. But Waldport, and Yachats, being as small as they are, they put on a really good show. [...] I haven’t seen Yachats yet, but I’ll definitely see it this year.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Ohhh, Yachats is amazing. </i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: But the parade is most of the fun. </i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>So do they parade down 101, or is it the back street over here?<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: It’s been going down 7th, and then they curve around Marine Drive. But then everybody ends up at the Post Office, and spills over into downtown, so after it’s done is when you’ll get a bunch of business. During that time nobody will show up, though. [laughs] But it’s really great, because it’s called La De Da, and it really does not take itself seriously. There are so many funny costumes.</i><br />
<i>TYG: Like the drill team of umbrella dancers!</i><br />
<i>Brian: [laughs]</i> I guess this year I’ll be experiencing that.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So yes, the fireworks: find yourself a good spot.</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what do you see as your place in the community? How do you see your business fitting in?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Well, I know there’s a lot of tourism here. We want to give to the community: we’ve got a nice, clean place with a good atmosphere, we serve good food, and everything is reasonably priced. We just want to make people happy! I make a lot of homemade dishes [like] sausage; my chef makes a lot of homemade dishes; I’m thinking about maybe introducing a small, personalized pan pizza... <i>[sounds of appreciation from the interviewer]</i> A lot of ideas are still in the works, because we’re still new. We’re trying to find out what people want and like, and trying to cater to that. [...] We’re looking into getting a slicer to make fresh sandwiches, and slices or chunks of cheese, stuff like that. We’re still a work in progress. I haven’t had any complaints. We were serving frozen cod, but we got rid of it.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: There’s so much good stuff in the area!</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>Yeah! I mean, I could go to the grocery store and buy fish sticks. So we got rid of that, and we got IQC cod loins, 6 ouncers, and we cut it into three pieces, tempura batter it and panko it ourselves, fresh, and we sell it like that—it’s really, really good. There are people coming in and requesting gluten-free stuff, so we put hummus on the menu. We make a nice, big house salad for people who are vegetarian, and have an ahi tuna salad. Sometimes we’ll special-make a flatbread with just vegetables on it for vegetarians. We’re trying to cater to the people that have certain needs.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Plus, in the wintertime, it’s going to be a lot of locals...</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Exactly. We have to make the locals happy! Like you said, in the wintertime there’s not a lot of tourism here, and that’s what we depend on, is the business from the locals.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Well, is there anything else you wanted to talk about?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> Not really... I love the town, it’s really beautiful—especially driving on that back road near the ocean there, then you come around to where the bay is... and in here, you can just sit and look at—that’s not part of Cape Perpetua, that hill there, but... nice.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Just one other question: Do you miss the snow from Chicago?</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> No. Absolutely not. <i>[laughter]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: The wind, maybe...</i><br />
<i>Brian:</i> They don’t call it The Windy City for nothing! There’s plenty of wind here to remind me of Chicago—that’s the only thing I need to remember from there!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Thank you for giving us your time today!</i><br />
<i>Brian: </i>No problem! No problem! Nice meeting you.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Shelly and Chris Crespi </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">at The Silver Surf Motel</span></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Shelly and Chris are caretakers and chefs for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Silver-Surf-Motel-328943200208/" target="_blank">the Silver Surf Motel</a> just north of Yachats, at 3775 Highway 101. Their Bistro is accessed from the front desk of the motel.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzXNlmto5pTiVbibrgLVPmdctD-jnxQqlSnAFyCeF2hq6SFh1IyixKlNfbk7MIllR4iebFqGlAVP8yOvP5diCZLmowz1zAJCKAZP7vlg3MGaxNBI_YEkYhDY53CeReYcxhwKbtVscIqA/s1600/SilverSurf2-color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzXNlmto5pTiVbibrgLVPmdctD-jnxQqlSnAFyCeF2hq6SFh1IyixKlNfbk7MIllR4iebFqGlAVP8yOvP5diCZLmowz1zAJCKAZP7vlg3MGaxNBI_YEkYhDY53CeReYcxhwKbtVscIqA/s1600/SilverSurf2-color.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bistro at the Silver Surf Motel in Yachats, OR</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<i>TYG: How long has this place been in operation?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> The hotel was built in 1970 and opened for occupancy in 1971. The pool was built in ‘71. The original four cottages were built in 1948—the hotel came later.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Wow! You’ve done a great job maintaining them!</i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>They’ve gotten a lot of TLC over the years. And then the Bistro opened in June. We started construction on that last January.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I like what you’ve done with the roofs, just connecting them like that. </i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>In the beginning, they were four little individual places. They did that about 12, 13 years ago when they had to replace the roofing. They did that and made them into covered carports.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how long have you been involved with this place? </i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> We’re on our fifth year.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How did you find Yachats? </i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>We used to visit Yachats, before we took this job at the Silver Surf. We used to visit Yachats, and stay over here, and when the job came open we were in the area. So we were familiar with Yachats well before we came here for this job.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: What did you do before this?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> We’ve done quite a bit of things! We’ve been in restaurants, and bed and breakfasts, in hospitality; we used to own our own event and catering business, kind of a wedding industry—we did that for years. And we both grew up in family businesses.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: How has business been going for this place?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> It’s been going really well. This is probably the busiest January we’ve seen in the five years we’ve been here.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I wonder what makes it busier! Maybe just the weather, or..?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Additional amenities, things that might be going on in Yachats that the town does to promote travel... It’s more so what has to do with occupancy being down. You’ll see declines in the years where there’s an election; you’ll see declines based on the outcome of that; you’ll see declines during a recession. You’ll start to see incline in occupancy based on when re-fi’s are available on homes. People re-finance their homes, they save money, they have more money for travel funding—things like that. There are different reasons for what determines occupancy fluctuating up and down. A lot of different factors.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I can see some of those things, but why would politics have an impact on occupancy?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Politics and election years—it scares people. Just like they hold tight onto their money during tax season, or when their property taxes are due; you’ll also see it in the beginning of an election year, until people find out what the results are going to be, and before they make decisions about their investments or their funds.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Okay, just sort of ride out the storm. </i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>Right! People like to know the outcome of things. If there’s something major going on in a year, and people are glued to whatever that topic is, they like to follow it through and see the outcome before they make decisions about luxury. They stick to the basics and the necessities.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And then of course there’s the standard sway between winter and summer.</i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>Right. Huge difference. We run about 35 to 45 percent occupancy in the winter, and we run 98.5 per cent from May through September. It’s rare that we have maybe ten available rooms in an entire month in the summer.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So always make sure to pre-register in the summer!</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Yes! <i>[laughs]</i> And that’s also a difference—the hotels in Yachats are a destination. For example, your Motel 6 or Quality Inn or something like that are more of an app while you’re traveling—the cheapest place you can stay, whereas the hotels in Yachats are more of a destination and people reserve far in advance.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> Further and further in advance, too! We’re booked for most of the summer right now.<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Yes, especially the weekends. The weekends, and pet rooms first. And then too, the weather is a big factor in the off-season. It comes and goes. And like with the eclipse, how the media tend to over-hype. So the same thing, kind of-ish, happened last week when the media did the whole tsunami watch thing. Everybody was calling the coast and cancelling reservations.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> To be fair, we don’t have many of our steps left.<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Right! Our railings, our steps snapped.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> Yes, the water came up into our grass!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: But that was the storm, not the tsunami, right?</i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>Right.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: The tsunami turned out to be nothing.</i><br />
<i>Chris:</i> Although it’s better to be safe than sorry, with something like that.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: True. [...] </i><br />
<i>TYG-Graphic Design: Can we talk about the restaurant some more? How it started, that kind of stuff?</i><br />
<i>Shelly: </i>Absolutely! We started with lunch last June, beginning of June, and that lasted about three weeks. We had to close it. Because of the size of the employment pool in the area, and as busy as the hotel is in the summer, the hotel guests have to come first. You can’t start a new venture and move onto something if you’re not taking care of the original. You have to step in and clean rooms and do laundry, take care of the front desk, so lunch didn’t work. So we moved on to dinner, and that definitely is our calling.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> It was... instant. We were slammed instantly. And it’s only gotten progressively more.<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Right. So we were doing six nights a week, and in the wintertime we cut down to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, where we’ll be until March. We will be open for Valentine’s though, on Wednesday—any special occasions like that. We had really wanted to move into a lunch once we got things in place. But this is our fifth year, and if I’m being honest... it’s a vicious circle! [laughs] Trying to get things into place, for staffing—there’s so much turn-over! Lunch, we’re going to reserve for private events. We have ladies’ groups that come in—Red Hat Ladies, Soroptomist, etc. It can be a private meeting for places that want to have seminars or get together during the day. They’re booked in advance, we know when they’re coming, and we can staff it. And then we can focus on our five nights a week for dinner in here and on the patio when the weather is good, and focus on the hotel during the day. And that’s what’s going to work for us.<br />
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<i>TYG: Nice! </i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: Do you have a special chef?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> We’re both chefs! So we run the kitchen. We don’t have any staff in the kitchen—we have a server out here. We’ll be adding another in Spring, when the weather’s good, on the patio. We have six more tables that we put outside.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So do you guys ever get to sleep?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> No, not really! <i>[laughter]</i> We love it. It’s just right. We’ve gotten to meet a lot of great people that come in, and we get to talk to people—when you’re just doing the hotel, you get to see all tourists. Opening this has allowed us to meet a lot of locals.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: Did you already have the kitchen here?</i><br />
<i>Chris: </i>No, we did everything ourselves.<br />
<i>Shelly: </i>Well, we had some help from Cavanaugh Construction and Oldham on the exterior and the siding, and adjoining the two buildings together. The interior remodel took us longer, because we did do a lot of it between other tasks.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I love that the wood just goes up into the ceiling! It’s a very unusual style.</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> These are the original joists—there were eight of these across, and we took out the middle ones and doubled them up so it would open [the space] up more.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: It’s beautiful in here. I really like it.</i><br />
<i>TYG-GD: So, how do you decide your menu?</i><br />
<i>Chris:</i> We switch around all the time—every week it’s different.<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> We have a really tiny kitchen, so we have to do half stove, half oven. That’s a deciding factor. We don’t deep-fry anything. We try to do healthy cooking, so a lot of our protein selections are oven: baked, broiled, in that manner. The guests kind of determine what we’re going to do a lot—what they like. We get their feedback. We have a lot of people who call and [ask], “Are you going to have this on the menu this weekend?” “Sure!” [laughter] and then we put that on the menu. We were changing it around a lot in the beginning, but guests have found favorites. And they get frustrated if they come in and we don’t have it. Like the Osso Buco. The Osso Buco is big.<br />
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<i>TYG: What is Osso Buco?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> It’s a pork shank.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> Over a bed of mashed potatoes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: An Italian dish, normally with veal. </i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> So, we’ll have some people call and say, “Well, I thought you changed the menu! This is on there all the time.” And then we’ll have some people say, “Well, if that’s not on there, I’m not coming.” They say that if you’re pleasing every single person, you’re doing something wrong! <i>[laughs] </i>So the Osso Buco stays on the menu, because when we don’t have it people get upset. It’s a very high-demand item.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> So is the halibut.<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> Yes, the halibut, the Cioppino...<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: What is that again?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> It’s a tomato-based seafood stew. And we’ve done some truffled baked Brie, with raspberry sauce, truffled mac and cheese, and we made some truffle olive oil <i>[with some truffles a local diner brought them]</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-GD: So what else would you like the community to know about?</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> I guess one of the things is that we decided to move forward with an emphasis on wines, also. So we have nearly 40 selections of wine, Italian prosecco, bubbly. We have the wines in here, and another wine wall [in the gift shop]. And we have two licenses! We have an on-site permit, where we can pour in the designated OLCC areas that they registered; and then we have an off-site, off-premise license also. This allows our guests, or anybody in the community, to come in and purchase bottles, and take them away. And they are very affordable! They’re not wine shop prices. We primarily have Oregon wines, and then we do have some Walla Walla, some California—Napa—because when you’re in a hotel, you have a lot of tourists, and a lot of tourists know their Napa Cabernet. We also have a few Italian wines, and New Zealand ones. So, most of the basics.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> We have a very cool selection of micro-beers too, in 22 oz. bottles.<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> And those are all Oregon craft beers.<br />
<i>Chris:</i> Well, not all—there’s one from England, one from Cali...<br />
<i>Shelly:</i> And then we just brought in a couple of beers on tap, from Depoe Bay Brewing, which a new brewery up north. So I just want people to know that they can come in and have a nice selection of wines—we pour 14 wines by the glass. So 14 of those wines, they can sample before they purchase. And then we also have the gift shop that they can stroll through. We have a lot of beach-themed giftware and novelty things.<br />
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<i>TYG: Well this has been great—thank you so much for your time!</i><br />
<i>Shelly:</i> You’re welcome! Thank you!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOq_MPoFIZjmTQjugEbrq0kr1DxftK09cy3qNQzLQGGktqSditPA7n42_ZDes6AsnIJJ19kRfkNF2tVHZA5TE4qk19RoU4vUiKYQBI5j6_CoPxWu_yLp4xoZtz7UJw2Uf4CdeLsq6zkuY/s1600/SilverSurf-color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOq_MPoFIZjmTQjugEbrq0kr1DxftK09cy3qNQzLQGGktqSditPA7n42_ZDes6AsnIJJ19kRfkNF2tVHZA5TE4qk19RoU4vUiKYQBI5j6_CoPxWu_yLp4xoZtz7UJw2Uf4CdeLsq6zkuY/s1600/SilverSurf-color.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gift Shop and Wine Wall at the Silver Surf Motel in Yachats, OR</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Local Events: Quilt Show</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIIcDXt60QyWDfMfpeSZareMePz2nd95awoN2Dx20iKWY-jlbyd0_O9YV3CKafKFKm-LO9BWfjR1ZIZgbo2IoyovnGIaYKvNZYDvAZlFtaoVaQ9yYfUA_b1QFvRi61ug6iRYWHLvaSH5s/s1600/Mesa+Verde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIIcDXt60QyWDfMfpeSZareMePz2nd95awoN2Dx20iKWY-jlbyd0_O9YV3CKafKFKm-LO9BWfjR1ZIZgbo2IoyovnGIaYKvNZYDvAZlFtaoVaQ9yYfUA_b1QFvRi61ug6iRYWHLvaSH5s/s1600/Mesa+Verde.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mesa Verde, by local quilt artist Ruth Bass</td></tr>
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A display of the 2016 International Challenge Art Quilt Show will be at the Yachats Commons, Feb 24 and 25, 2018. The theme is World Heritage Sites.</div>
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Quilters in each of three nations, the USA, Japan, and South Korea, were given a list of 30 World Heritage Sites. 30 quilters from each nation represented one of the heritage sites in a piece of fiber art. The result is 90 small quilts, hung vertically on panels for each World Heritage Site, so you may compare the work of one nation to the next.<br />
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The show is a benefit for the Yachats Library Move Project. The city library is moving into the 501 Building, adjacent to the Commons. The quilts will be on display Saturday and Sunday Feb. 24 and 25. From 10 AM till 4 PM. Admission is a suggested donation of $5.00. High Tea and refreshments will be available for purchase. An additional exhibit of art quilts created by local artists will be also be on display and for sale.<br />
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This wonderful, colorful event is brought to you by Polly Plumb Productions, and the community of Yachats Oregon. Please visit <a href="https://pollyplumb.org/">https://pollyplumb.org</a> and on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/459847624206028/about/" target="_blank">Polly Plumb</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7698568488083401517.post-3408540012409312442018-01-01T01:05:00.003-08:002018-01-01T01:05:34.163-08:00The Yachats Gazette, Issue 76, January 1 2018<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/jd16okcn436j7ma/20180101-YachatsGazette-76th-Issue.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for a printable version of Issue 76</a></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Interview with Shannon Beaucaire</span></b></div>
<i>Shannon Beaucaire is Yachats’s new City Administrator.</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how did you find Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> I saw the job description, and I was intrigued. I had been looking for about two years to come back to the Pacific Northwest, and when I read the job description it was about volunteerism, about improving community engagement, and about a welcoming community. It really felt very comfortable. I wanted to come back, and I wanted to apply! That’s how I heard about Yachats. I had gotten as far as Newport before, but I hadn’t quite made it to Yachats when I was here previously, doing law school in Portland, Oregon.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Hmm. It is a bit out of the way, isn’t it. [laughs]</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Well, it isn’t too far! If I’d just kept on going south out of Newport it would have been okay!<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So what is your background in law, for those who don’t know?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> My background in law is actually a funny story. I actually have a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology. And when I was graduating from Michigan State (who’s playing in the Holiday Bowl tonight) I saw a disconnect between the Department of Natural Resources and the citizens they were serving. They were trying to put policies in place to help the wildlife, but the citizens didn’t quite understand why those policies were being put in place. So it caused a lot of angst and a lot of discontentment among the citizens, and so I was looking for a communication bridge at the time, and somebody mentioned environmental law. At the time, Lewis & Clark was the number one environmental law school; they often traded between that and Vermont. I wanted to go west rather than east, and so I applied for Lewis & Clark. At the time my communication bridge did not have a name, but at the end of my first year a professor talked about alternative dispute resolution. This incorporates mediation, facilitation, arbitration—a whole, wide scope of entities. My communication bridge had a name—and I was hooked. That was my dual major: alternative dispute resolution and environmental law. Then I went to the City of Albuquerque and managed their alternative dispute resolution programs, which were land use, employee, and community programs. [I also participated in] some special projects that didn’t quite fit into those categories. Then I went to the State of New Mexico and helped the Supreme Court build a foundation to do the same type of programs for all of their courts around the entire state.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Get all the bureaucracy and all the red tape set up?</i><br />
<i>Shannon: [laughs] </i>Yes! You could say that. But it also gave them a strong foundation so they could build their own individual programs that met the needs of their citizens in the particular area. Because the people who were in rural southwest New Mexico were very different from the people in Albuquerque. It allowed them to have a foundation that set up a structure that allowed for consistency, but after that consistency and foundation were met, they could customize the program to meet the needs of their clients.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: A very wise program! </i><br />
<i>TYG-Editorial Assistant: Can you give any specifics about that? I’m curious.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Specifics such as...?<br />
<br />
TYG-EA: What are some of the ways that resolutions were reached on contentious issues?<br />
Shannon: Throughout the court system?<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG-EA: Yes, what are some of the things you worked on.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> My [position] was administrative, setting up the foundation for the program. But some of the issues, if you were looking for some of the ways programs might help in different areas of the state: in Albuquerque, they had guardianship issues for elderly individuals. They would have abuse and neglect for children, youth, and family services. For children that were in abusive situations, they would have mediation programs to try to re-unify parents and children. And in some of the rural counties, you may have some of the abuse and neglect type situations, but you might also have issues regarding water rights or ranch land. So some of those might be more customizable depending on the area.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: So social, as well as environmental issues.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Oh yes. Absolutely. <br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Ranching always seems to be a very hard subject, just because it’s kind of a strange practice, and it’s certainly one of the more invasive practices that we as humans use.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> And usually the land has a lot of history. And that’s the same with water rights. There’s usually a lot of history, and that tends to make things more complicated.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, what is your vision for Yachats?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> My vision is to create an opening, welcoming sense, so that the community itself can develop its own vision. I certainly have ideas that I want to share with the community, but it is really the community [that will determine] what they want Yachats to be. And that’s what I really want to engage. And I want to encourage people to decide what they want Yachats to be in a year, five years, ten, twenty.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: And to ask all the hard questions that you need to be asked.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Yes.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: You strike me certainly as somebody who has plenty of ideas of her own to bring to the table. I wonder what you might want to share about that. </i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Oh! I would love to have community engagement to beautify our poles, our new light poles up and down the street. We have a very talented group of individuals in this community—I understand there were banners made last year. So I’d love to get more ideas about how we can incorporate that more year-round. Do we celebrate different festivals, and we have hand-made banners for that? Or do we intermix other artistic points, items that we can incorporate on the light poles? I want a walkable community where citizens and tourists alike feel comfortable walking down the street, shopping at our businesses, eating at our restaurants, that they feel safe and it’s an easy place to do that. I want the citizens to really feel that they’re regaining their community, and that this is a village that is entirely welcoming. I have ideas—but I would really want to hear from the community.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So, I understand that the library is moving over to the [ex-]bank building. How’s that project going?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> It’s going very well. We have a great group of dedicated volunteers, and they’ve done a lot of community engagement and got a lot of ideas about what everybody wants their dream library to be like. They are putting that vision onto paper right now, and they’re hoping to do another community engagement forum soon, so that people can give more of their ideas and see what work has been done so far. So it’s going very well.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So what other current projects are in the works? Like how is the medical [clinic] project going, and other such things?</i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>The medical project is still in discussions. The south tank project—which is the water tank south of the bridge that is going in—that’s in construction right now. We have the library project, as you’re aware of. Then there are always little projects that are going on, like at Public Works—and they’re not so little. But it’s making sure that the drainage ditches are clear so that they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s making sure that our water lines are functioning properly, and that the water plant is operating as it should, and that the wastewater plant is operating as it should and the sewer lines are proper.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So maintenance work, in other words.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Maintenance; and we have a budget, and we have state and federal requirements we have to meet. They’re little things, but they’re big things as well.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Can you tell us a little more about the south water tank project? That’s something I’ve never heard of, anyway.</i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>The south water tank is a very large tank that’s going up to store water, and that will be used whenever we need it. It’s something to help the people south of the bridge, and it’s in process right now. There’s a retaining wall that is going up and it’s a very interesting process. There’s something they have to use called “soil nails” to hold the retaining wall in place. There are going to be five rows of nails. It sounds very simple, but it’s a very complex engineering feat, where they actually have to put the nail into the side of the dirt wall, and then they have to test it to make sure it will actually hold. There’s an independent engineer that tests it to make sure it will hold at a certain level of pounds per square inch.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Interesting! Can you give us a rough idea of the cubic area of the tank, or how much it will hold, generally?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> I’d have to go look that up.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I’m guessing it would be enough to supply the town for a couple of months, at least.</i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>Well, we have several of these around town. It’s specifically to address [south of the bridge].<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So that’s how we keep our water going during the dry months?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Sometimes! Sometimes, if needed.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Makes sense, so we don’t have to just bleed the river dry.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Absolutely. We would not want to do that.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: About the worst thing we could do.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Yes. The fish would not be happy with us. <i>[laughs]</i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG: So how did you get into environmental studies, in general? What brought you into that field?</i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>Ever since I was five years old I wanted to be a veterinarian. And then in my first large animal class, I saw them cutting the tails off of lambs without any anaesthesia or hugs or anything soft. So that really threw a loop into what I thought veterinarians did. So I had to kind of rethink what I really wanted to do, and was I willing to go through classes like that, in order to get that type of education. Ultimately I decided not to; I decided to pursue wildlife biology. But I always had a love for natural resources. I grew up on the Great Lakes of Michigan. My grandparents both had river- and lake-front property, and I’ve always been a hiker, into the outdoors; I’ve always loved animals and always wanted to do preservation of wildlife and natural resources.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Something I’ve always been curious about: especially up river, how are the boundaries for where farming land stops [established]? How does the zoning work?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> So, the City boundaries only go so far up Yachats River Road. I actually have a map inside if you want to take a look at it. But that would probably be where the farming is allowed.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: How has your arrival been, in terms of being what you expected—or not?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Any new job always has its ups and its downs, and its learning curve. I certainly have had some days that have been rougher than others, but for the most part—I’d say 90 per cent of it—I love what I do. I have the best job in the whole wide world. I really do. This is something that I wanted to take my career into for a long time; this was a deliberate decision. I’m really excited about this.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: It seems like it’s a little out of the focusing on law, and more into the—how did you put it [in a separate interview]? Indulging your love of budgets? </i><br />
<i>Shannon: [laughs]</i> As far as law goes, because I was looking for a communication bridge, I was never fully geared towards pursuing the legal field in the traditional sense. I actually had no desire to be in a courtroom at all. I’m interested in alternative dispute resolution, I’m into alternative types of work, and so this was something that was deliberate for me about where I wanted to take this stage of my career, after working under some great city managers and county managers.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: I imagine it’s been quite a challenge working with our very, very small income. </i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> No. Every government perceives that they have not enough resources. I think when I was interviewing, the recruiter said, “It’s just a matter of zeros, and how many zeros you have.” But you still have a fixed pie to work from every year. Whether you’re Albuquerque or Yachats or New York City. There’s a fixed pie. And it’s just how you best utilize those resources in alignment with the priorities of the community, and where it wants to be, and where it wants to go.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Do you have any ideas about what steps can be taken to help the homeless people around town?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> You know, that is something people are working on quite diligently. I’ve been meeting with other coastal city managers, like Newport, Waldport, Lincoln City, getting ideas of what they have been doing, challenges that they are facing, successes that they have. I also went to a specific session at the International City Managers’ Association conference, about three cities that have taken different approaches to the homelessness issue. Two were out of Colorado; one happened to be Eugene, Oregon.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: They’re focusing more on the shelter aspect, is that correct?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> They’re focusing on multi-dimensional aspects. They have some of the shelters, but they’re also working toward things like temporary housing. So, if they have a parking lot that they can use to have trailers just for an overnight, if needed, if it’s very cold—something like that. So they’re working on multiple approaches. They also have tiny homes that they’re working on, I believe, and they’re also working on ways to help individuals get out of homelessness.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: That’s of course what needs to happen in the end—not just putting them in shelters, but actually helping them get income. </i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Getting income, and they were very frank at the conference that some people can get on their own fully, but there is a segment of the homeless population that will always need some sort of a subsidy.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Probably true: those who are lame, just people who have gotten unlucky—they rolled the one instead of the six.</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Some. Some have mental health challenges will always need some extra support and resources. Some have other addiction challenges, whether they’re alcohol or drug abuse. They might always need some extra support and assistance. But the ones that have fallen on hard times: they can sometimes get back on their own fully and completely. But they actually said there are even issues where sometimes people have been homeless for so long that they need help re-learning how to fill out an application for an apartment. Lots of challenges.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: This is an idea I’ve always had: One of the issues with a tourist-based economy like this is that for those who are educated, there are great resources. You have quite a few jobs [available] in the sense that you can start your own business, or you can do artwork, and stuff like that. However, if you were unlucky enough to not have that education, often there are very few jobs that are for that less-educated segment. That’s what I’ve observed, anyway. I was wondering if there were any plans, if there was any possibility of having something like that, maybe out of the way, something more industrial or heavy commercial? </i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>As far as attracting businesses here?<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>TYG: Yes. And in terms of just providing work for these less-educated segments. </i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>Interestingly, that’s a great point. That’s not been the emphasis of some of the talks that I’ve experienced so far. I will definitely raise that at our next meeting.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Was there anything else you wanted to talk about particularly?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> No, this is your interview—anything you want. <i>[laughter] </i><br />
<br />
<i>TYG-EA: What’s been the most fun thing for you so far?</i><br />
<i>Shannon:</i> Every single day, it’s always new, it’s always exciting. I never quite believed any city or county manager when they said that no day is ever the same. I believe them now.<i> [laughs]</i> And that makes it exciting.<br />
<br />
<i>TYG: Well thank you so much for your time!</i><br />
<i>Shannon: </i>Thank you! It was a pleasure!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">---
This material by Allen Taylor, Yachats Gazette</div>Heather T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17672152029629522423noreply@blogger.com0