News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 25
Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District crews, joined by Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District, were dispatched to a structure fire on Cascade Estates Drive off Highway 20, on Tuesday, June 27, just before 5 p.m. Cloverdale crews arrived to find a fire burning on the second-floor exterior of the 2,200-square-foot house and extending into the attic, fanned by strong winds. A neighbor who reported hearing an explosion noticed the fire, called 911 and tried to put out the fire... Full story
It seems like magic - more than a thousand quilts suddenly appearing on the buildings of downtown Sisters in an explosion of creativity and color on the second Saturday of July. And it is a kind of magic - but it involves a whole lot more than the waving of a wand. It's the coming together of hundreds of volunteers, hundreds of quilters and a whole lot of organization and effort. Last week the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) event office - located this year at Earthwood... Full story
Outdoor enthusiasts are loving portions of Sisters Country to death. The U.S. Forest Service is proposing a program to limit access to wilderness areas in order to preserve the wilderness experience in the face of tremendous growth in use. Under the proposal, visitors to the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington, Three Sisters, Waldo Lake and Diamond Peak wilderness areas would need to get a permit in advance. Such programs are common in California to limit crowds and the... Full story
To the Editor: The devastating June 25 motor-vehicle crash outside the Black Butte Ranch main entrance has been cruel to victims and their families. They must all be in our thoughts and prayers. The Oregon State Police and local law enforcement authorities as well as the Oregon Department of Transportation played vital roles on scene. I particularly want to commend the firefighters and paramedics from the Black Butte Ranch and Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Departments. They did an extraordinary job. We are lucky to have them.... Full story
"All the Town's a Stage" for the Sisters Folk Festival set for September 8-10. The final bookings are in place for this year's events and tickets are nearly sold out. Festival passes are $150 for adults and $50 for those 18 and under. The final artists booked represent great songwriters and bands, bringing outstanding musicianship to the 11 festival stages. Artists include singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, who is celebrating the release of his eighth studio album, "Kids... Full story
For the third year in a row, Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) is treating visitors to the library during the month of July to a special display of art quilts by the Portland-based MIX (Materials in the Xtreme) group. The quilts are too small to be displayed on the street in the regular show, so the library provides an appropriate venue. Each year these eight women create striking original fabric art designed around a common theme. Each piece, however, is as unique and... Full story
The Kiwanis Club of Sisters Food Bank has provided food to low-income Sisters-area residents for 30 years. Big changes are afoot that affect the food bank building, clients and food bank volunteers. Since the Kiwanis food bank is licensed, it is subject to policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Food Bank. The Oregon Food Bank is strongly urging food banks to adopt a "shopping style." Currently, food bank volunteers provide food boxes to the clients who... Full story
The speed and manner in which most of us communicate today - text, Instagram, Twitter - seems normal, but the access we have to one another in this fast-paced world can be a real challenge for school-aged students and their parents. Summertime might be the perfect time to address these concerns and form some new habits. Earlier this spring, the documentary "Screenagers" was shown at Sisters High School as an outreach to parents in understanding how to better guide their kids in the age of ever-present screens. Among other... Full story
Sisters High School alumnus Madison Slicker recently signed a music publishing deal in Nashville, Tennessee. Slicker was an active member of Sisters Folk Festival's Americana Project music education outreach program throughout middle school and high school, and then took Americana in her senior year at Summit High School in Bend. Slicker credits a lot of her success to the Americana Project and the teachers who helped her get so far. "I never wanted to do anything else. I'm... Full story
The fourth edition of the Great Northwest Cross Country Running Camp drew a record number of participants to the six-day training event sponsored by Sisters Park & Recreation District and directed by Josh Nordell. Seventy-five runners aged 8-17 spent the week building teamwork, rafting rivers, competing, laughing, and, of course, running. Participants from throughout Oregon, and two from Idaho, made their homes in big tents on the athletic fields at Sisters High School. They v... Full story
What mother wouldn't be delighted to have her 10-year-old son have a positive, healthy male role model? Erin Langan of Elmhurst, Illinois discovered after coming to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) last summer with her son Ben, that Ben had met such a role model while at the Quilt Show. Ben had the opportunity to meet Rob Appell at the 2016 SOQS and was so inspired by him that he decided to enter a quilt in this year's show. Rather than enter his quilt in the Next Generat... Full story
The tachinid fly is a humdinger of an insect. When a beautiful giant of the fly world came to rest on my wife, Sue's, back near the Chewucan River I whispered in her ear, "Don't move, there's a magnificent fly on your back, I need to photograph it." Swat the next fly you see, hard enough to stun it but not kill it, and slap it under a magnifying glass. The scientific order of flies is Diptera, which in Latin means, "two wings." In the world of science that's a huge "order" of... Full story
Tamra Dumolt made her first quilt in 1993 while expecting her first child. "I taught myself from a book. And the quilt was a crib-sized Around the World design, with puffy polyester batting and hand-tied with yarn," Dumolt told The Nugget. Dumolt's love for sewing began when she was 12 years old after learning the basics in home-economics class. Her mother inspired her by providing increasingly difficult clothing patterns that challenged her skills. She also participated in... Full story
Anybody who has worked as a barista has seen things they know would make for great satire. Emily and Nathan Woodworth have the background - and the acting and writing chops - to mine that rich comedic vein. The brother-sister team filmed the second installment in their series of comedy vignettes, The Barista Times, last week at Palate a Coffee Bar in Bend. Everybody who has stood in line at a coffee bar has got stuck behind "that person" - the one who takes forever to... Full story
Chances are, if you've been to Sisters any time in the past three decades, you've walked through the doors of Your Store. The shop at 121 W. Cascade Ave. is a go-to spot for a T-shirt or sweatshirt commemorating the area and for Outlaw logo wear. This summer marks Your Store's 30th year in business. The store was originally founded in Redmond by Bonnie Jacobs-Halosek and Neal Halosek with the unique selling point of having all of its inventory priced at $10 or below. The... Full story
Anyone who looked could have found (social) gambling at an establishment in Sisters. They probably wouldn't have even been shocked. It was, however, technically not allowed. Last week, the Sisters City Council shuffled the deck and dealt again on that issue, approving an ordinance granting businesses the right to run social gaming in their establishments and for patrons to participate in the gaming. In the 1940s, Sisters had a social gaming ordinance but, when the Oregon... Full story
It appears that the possibility of having a senior-living facility in Sisters came one step closer to reality last week when Sisters resident Peter Hoover brought the City a check for $323,378.72, to cover the System Development Charges of $245,473.95 and a remaining balance on permit fees of $77,904.77 for the project known as the Sisters Lodge. The permits were to be ready to be picked up this week. The property on which the facility will be built is bounded by Camp Polk... Full story
The inspiration came from Rancho la Puerta, a resort spa in Tecate, Mexico. Bill and Zoe Willitts thought they could create something special on a 15-acre property at the east end of Sisters that would emulate the qualities of that legendary retreat. "You disconnect from the world and you reconnect with yourself or your partner," Zoe reflected. "The concept was a quiet place to find yourself - that was it." That concept became a reality called FivePine - a campus centered... Full story
Earlier this month, on a tour with Steve Lent of Prineville's Bowman Museum, I took a step back in time to the development of railroads in Central Oregon. The battle between two railroad giants, James J. Hill and Edward H. Harriman, to complete the first rail line from the Columbia River to Bend, resulted in a duplication of effort, time, and materials, with two separate rail lines, one on either side of the Deschutes River. The tour focused mainly on the route of the Oregon... Full story
Can the people you associate with the most subconsciously determine how you behave? Do you have a friend who is always encouraging and inspiring others to move and challenge themselves? Perhaps someone reading this belongs to a social networking site which helps promote healthy behavior? The company you keep or the social messages you're exposed to play a direct role in exercise habits, according to psychological studies. We are exposed to hundreds of influential social messages per day. Some quite obvious, like advertising,... Full story
In the never-ending quest to enjoy outdoor activities while waiting for the snowed-in high country to open up, an email from a friend prompted this little adventure. The email contained three photos of Fish Lake, a peculiar body of water near Clear Lake that doesn't even exist for part of the year. It was time to break out the kayaks. When it's early in the season, as it is now, water is abundant and Fish Lake overflows into Fish Lake Creek, which flows into Clear Lake. By summer's end, however, both Fish Lake and the creek... Full story
Here on the Figure 8, it is the summer of women. I admit to difficulties in the transition. For lengthy seasons in this life I have operated altogether outside the influence of women, marooned entirely alone on the desert, for instance, or crammed into warships with a battalion of humorless leathernecks. And if anywhere there truly is a man's world, look no further than the Marine Corps berthing spaces on-board naval shipping: It is like living in a bobbing jar full of angry hornets. But this summer my daughter is here. An... Full story
"Gahndi recommended that everybody spin for an hour a day," Teresa Simons said as her feet rhythmically worked a treadle on a small spinning wheel set up in MacKenzie Creek Mercantile on Sunday. "Not just for wool production, but for meditation." Simons, who hails from Mountain Shadow Ranch in Cottage Grove, was spinning wool from a Cotswold Sheep. Simply watching the process had a calming effect on spectators. "It's relaxing, she said. "You can fall asleep doing it. I'm... Full story
When you're ready to hit the road this summer for some much-needed vacation time, you can bring your furry friend along for the ride. Many popular human escapes are places both pet parents and their dogs can enjoy together, especially here in Central Oregon. So, when you're packing for your weekend away, don't leave Rover's bag behind. Getting out with your dog is a great opportunity to be active and have fun. Whether you're just driving down to the dog park, heading out to the coast, or taking that weekend trip to camp by... Full story
This spring, I read Willa Cather's novel "Death Comes for the Archbishop." I first read it in college and loved her writing, but the subject matter and message didn't hit home the way it does now. When I chose that book many months ago, I had no idea how relevant the title would be in my life. I didn't make the connection until 3:33 a.m. in the morning, when I woke up and had to write about this often-avoided topic. Willa Cather describes the lives of several characters, the blessings they gave and the pain they caused. Some... Full story
