News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 734
In this day and age of wrangling in just about all areas of U.S. Government - especially the continual bickering in Congress - what a refreshing day a group of monarch conservationists had recently while visiting a cooperative nursery in Wasco County. Who'd think, right behind the historical Clarno Grange, on the west side of the bridge over the John Day River you'd find a wonderful area of river-front acreage dedicated to not only monarch butterfly habitat, but to... Full story
Back in 1953, while camping at Big Lava Lake one night with Lily and Dean Hollinshead in their big tent, playing five-handed pinochle with the Rosebrooks, a sudden loud and grating "scree-haw, scree-haw" shattered the night, accompanied by something sliding down the outside of the canvas walls. "What in the..." I muttered, dropping my cards on the card table and heading for the entrance of the tent. "Be careful, Jimmy!" Dean shouted, "Don't hit the lantern, it'll ruin our game... Full story
You'd think, with all the hoopla we hear about caring for our forests and being careful with fire, people either living in and/or visiting Sisters Country would be more in line with the Conservation Ethic. Not so! Last Memorial Day weekend some idiotic ATV-user tore down the rail fence set up to protect Prairie Farm meadow from mud-boggers and ran an ATV all over the meadow - that was healing from past mud-bogger damage - leaving more ruts and torn-up toad, frog, salamander,... Full story
That alligator lizard in the picture was serious about living up to its name. It and my son Caleb's finger met while we were exploring the Lava Beds National Monument back in the 1980s. They had come upon each other while my wife, Sue, and the rest of our kids were pursuing and tagging monarch butterflies on the northern part of the monument. It did eventually spit out Caleb's finger, but little did we know how aggressive that beautiful, ambitious lizard could be. The alligato... Full story
Working with golden eagles over these past 50-plus years has been - and continues to be - an adventure, most times glorious, and other times shocking. Eagles are and always will be a high point of my naturalist experiences, as they have been long before I rolled into Oregon on my Harley in 1951. Back in the mid-'50s I discovered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had a gang of trappers who were using a lethal poison known as 1080 to kill predators. It was also killing... Full story
If you talk to Greg and Kim Zadow of Sisters about coyotes and dogs, you'd best be sympathetic; the other day they and their dachshund/beagle mix, Rudi, had an incident with a coyote that they didn't expect - or need. The Zadow's home is up against the Deschutes Land Trust's Indian Ford Meadow Preserve, and when Kim went out to pull weeds, as usual her two canine pals Rudi and Pepper came out to help her. When Kim went to shut off the irrigation to stay dry in her... Full story
It's spring- the Cascades still have plenty of snow for summer, trees are blossoming in Sisters, and the 47-voice Sisters High Desert Chorale's Spring Concert is scheduled at Sisters Community Church, Friday April, 29, at 7 p.m., and again Sunday, May 1 at 2:30 p.m., same venue. The chorale will present a wonderful variety of tunes from gospel, contemporary, spirituals, musical theater and classical origins. The Sisters Children's Choir - with 10 sweet voices singing, giggling and being kids - will perform after... Full story
A swarm of bees can mean many things to many people. To the uninitiated they can be sheer terror. "What!" Screams Auntie Em, "We have a swarm of bees in the backyard! Call the police!" I actually heard that statement from a terror-stricken person in Portland years back. The fear of "The Swarm" is perhaps one of the most overblown old wive's tales still going around today. Springtime is the season for swarms to appear. Please think of them as FreeBees for the taking, and no threat to life or limb. That said, climate change... Full story
Sisters Country is blessed with people who are always ready to pitch in, and get the job done. That's why the free cam streaming the life and times of a golden eagle nest is up and running again this year. To view it, visit www.GoldenEagleCam.com. As anyone who has set up this kind of system will tell you, it isn't easy, and it does cost money. The money part is being taken care of by the East Cascade Audubon Society (ECAS), based in Bend. President of ECAS, Ken Hashagen,... Full story
The "Spring Fling" book sale at FOSL's Book Corner will take place on Saturday, April 2, in the Sisters Library from 1 to 3 p.m. To make sure everyone attending the sale will have the opportunity to find the book(s) they want, the sale will be held in the Book Corner on the north end of the library and at the same time in the community room on the south end. This will be a special event, according to Book Corner manager Lynne Wood. The library has donated several boxes of books to FOSL after their quarterly "house cleaning,"... Full story
One of the things I love about writing this column is all the help I get from friends who enjoy the wild things around us as much as I do. Which is also exactly how I feel when friends like Steve and Susie Allely call, text or email with news of what the wild things are up to in Sisters Country. They sent me this email recently: "I spoke with you at Bi-Mart some time back about the turkey vultures (TV) and their return every year. Believe it or not I spotted a big mature TV... Full story
Back in 2005, when a sparkling new Sisters Library was completed, a serious oversight occurred: There was no U.S. flag displayed in the public building. Then, this past fall Central Oregon Community College was searching for a speaker to talk about his/her military experiences on Veterans Day, November 11. Earl Schroeder, an Air Force veteran and present commander of the Sisters VFW Post 8138 was selected to be the guest speaker. He specified that an American flag be near the... Full story
For once it wasn't raining, snowing or windy, and eagles were soaring by all day at the Oregon State Park's 2016 Eagle Watch event held last Saturday and Sunday at PGE's Round Butte Overlook Park near Culver. Both golden and bald eagles passed by the observation areas where spotting scopes were set up, causing people to exclaim, "Oh, look, you can see the white head of that bald eagle!" and, "Wow! See how the gold shows on that adult golden eagle..." More than 800 people from... Full story
If you enjoy the sounds of the Sisters High Desert Chorale, you may want to mark April 29 and May 1 on your calendar. Those are the dates of the first 2016 performance of the chorale at Sisters Community Church. Rehearsals for the chorale are held each Monday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, 386 N. Fir St., and if you enjoy singing and want to give yourself and the chorale a boost, come on down. There are singers who have missed a... Full story
Every once in a while - and often enough that it leaves me feeling like a dunce - I meet up with something in the world of nature I didn't even have a clue existed. Like that click beetle with headlights. It came about it in the late '70s thanks to a high school kid in Sierra Vista High School in southeast Arizona, when I was manager of Ramsey Canyon Preserve. The Preserve was then the "Hummingbird Capitol of the World," nestled in the Huachuca (Wah-choo-kah) Mountains just... Full story
Oregon passed its 157th birthday last Sunday as a member of the Union- albeit pretty quietly. I didn't see any fireworks, nor did I hear bells ringing or cannons going off. It was just a quiet time without a tremor. In 1957, however, it was a different thing. I was living in Bend making a living logging with Bob Couch and a bunch of his crew converting the old Brooks-Scanlon railroad right-of-way between Sisters and Bend into a logging road, making it safe for those hefty... Full story
It was the winter 1963 that I decided to go on my first "Official Eagle Count." National Audubon was starting counts to establish trends in populations. Eagles occupied my life like never before when I was issued my federal banding permit in 1962. I became more aware of eagles because of banding, finding them shot, trapped, killed by motor vehicles and poisoned by coyote bait stations. Long before that, in the 1930s, I was a kid on the farm, and eagles - especially golden... Full story
On a recent Monday morning - when the Sisters Library was closed - the Community Room was the scene of a continual flow of artists, spouses of artists, and even small children of artists. They were all involved in delivering pieces of art for the annual Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) Art Exhibit, which will be on display throughout the library for the rest of January and most of February. Paintings, pastels, landscape and wildlife photographs, sculptures, pottery,... Full story
After three years of studying - taking exhaustive exams, conducting field research on Peck's penstamon in the Trout Creek Conservation Area, carrying out intensive scientific investigations in the Amazon and Costa Rica, hundreds of hours teaching ecological principles to her Sisters High School science students - Rima Givot now holds a Master of Arts Degree in Zoology from Miami University through Project Dragonfly's Global Field Program (GFP). The GFP masters degree is... Full story
Don't feed deer. The deer don't need the help; they will become so pestiferous you won't be able to stand it - and if you keep it up long enough you'll have cougars running all over your place. Birds, however, are another matter entirely. Feeding birds and going to the post office are fun projects for me. There's a lot of just plain good times that take place in the Sisters post office. Really, the times I have gone there and haven't been stopped by someone for a bird... Full story
Just about everywhere you go in Sisters Country during the Christmas season you hear residents talking to each other in glowing terms about the recent performance of Irene Liden's Sisters High Desert Chorale. Hal and Jennifer Boley gave this review: "We attended the concert this past Friday evening (December 18) and have decided to make it our new Oregon Christmas tradition! "My husband and I have lived in Sisters less than two years and were excited to learn of the Christmas... Full story
Out there in that nice big woodpile you're consuming this winter there are any number of insects, spiders and other six- and eight-legged creatures sleeping away the winter. (What a rude awakening it must be when they suddenly find themselves in the consuming breath of summer!) When you walk across the grass in your front yard, please don't stomp your feet; there are hundreds of other creatures down there, sleeping away the winter. While out in the hayfields hundreds of... Full story
At this point of my 87 years living on this beautiful old Earth I'm so used to the phone ringing at 11 p.m., nothing surprises me anymore. I can remember when it rang at quarter to midnight when my son Caleb was beginning to show his prowess and intense sense of adventure during his early driving years. I picked it up and asked, "Is there any blood?" "No blood, dad," Caleb responded, "but the front-end of the Volvo doesn't look too good." So, last week when it rang at about... Full story
While you were in the teeth-rattling -10 temperatures last week, Sue and I were basking in the balmy warmth of Las Vegas, Nevada. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving time with my son Ross, his wife Doni, grandson, Connor, our daughter, Miriam and her family, and friends of Ross and Doni's, the McDonald family from Phoenix. Their daughter Stephanie with her violin and mom, Sherrie with her flute performed beautiful Christmas music. My grandson, Connor, also entertained us with his... Full story
For the past eight years, retired mezzo soprano Irene Liden has been waving her hands directing the talents of the assorted sopranos, altos, tenors and basses who make up the 50+ voices of the Sisters High Desert Chorale - and they love it! Tenor Mel Miles began practicing with the Sisters Community Choir for its 1995 Christmas concert under the direction of Forrest Daniel, who had just retired as head of COCC's vocal music studies. Looking back, he had this to say: "The... Full story
