News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1377 - 1401 of 29663
Walking through central Oregon’s ponderosa forests, the twittering and chirping one is most likely to hear is the Pygmy Nuthatch, feeding on insects while climbing all over the ponderosa and lodgepole pines. The Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea), chatters its high-pitch staccato call year-round, gleaning insects and seeds as it forages the entire tree from trunk to needles. This tiny bird, 3.75 to 4.5 inches, is monogamous, bonding year-round with its mate. Both male and f... Full story
Austin Jenckes always knew that music was going to be a part of his life. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, in a small town in Washington state called Duval, Jenckes played music throughout his life. He started playing guitar as a boy because his dad also played, and he picked it up one day and knew that he wanted to pursue it further. Jenckes grew up playing music at church on the worship music team, and in his young adult days, he played in rock n’ roll bands in high s... Full story
About 60 hearty folks spent a hot evening last Thursday on the Seed to Table (S2T) farm, with thunderheads rumbling overhead. Participants from little ones to senior citizens listened to representatives from The Environmental Center (TEC) and S2T share their organizations’ focus on sustainability. TEC coordinates networking events called “Green Drinks” that focus on their three pillars of sustainability: a healthy environment, economic vitality, and social equity. TEC began... Full story
Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) and Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival have partnered to present “An Evening with the Blues” concert on Thursday, August 11 at 7 p.m. at Sisters Art Works, 204 W. Adams Ave., Sisters. Grammy-nominated blues, country and gospel artists Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Jontavious Willis, and Southern Avenue will perform for a special evening celebrating the conclusion of the Summer Concerts at Sisters Art Works and kicking off the 2022 Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival. The event will mark the first collabo... Full story
Have you ever wondered who are and what are inside the six cottages on the perimeter of the Forest Service’s Sisters District station? Three are bunkhouses, one is storage space, and the other two are for fire-related management. In the three unairconditioned bunkhouses with full kitchens, are nine seasonal workers and two interns. The seasonal hires perform a myriad of forest management work assignments that are not accessible when the snows are deep. They work for periods of... Full story
My parents could not have been more different (one a short, funny, emotional, liberal, feminist, elementary educator, and the other a tall, stern, thoughtful, conservative, paternalistic, civil engineer), and they didn’t agree on a lot of things. However, one thing that they both ardently agreed upon, despite many long-running discussions and arguments about things as disparate as parenting style and politics, was that evidence for your position is absolutely vital, and, when strong enough, evidence provides an excellent r... Full story
Vaccine Safety To the Editor: A new vaccine is promised for the fall that targets recent, highly transmissible Omnicron variants, warranting a frank discussion of vaccine safety. But recent submissions to The Nugget by Dr. Wayne B. Schmotzer and Charles Stephens, meant to convince readers that COVID-19 vaccines are not only unsafe, but will make them sicker, perhaps even kill them, have added little of value to the discussion. Dr. Wayne Schmotzer, DVM in his letter to the editor (July 22) cited a study whose results, he... Full story
Three Sisters Irrigation District serves 129 farms on 7,572 irrigated acres. The 130-year-old district delivers water from Whychus Creek to farmers and ranchers through over 62 miles of canals, laterals and pipelines. Ninety-three percent of those conveyances have been converted to pressurized pipe. The results, 25 years in the making, are measurable. Losses to seepage or evaporation are now negligible. Water delivery has been improved in times of drought by 25 percent. The Di... Full story
Mike Alayon a.k.a. (“Hawaiian Mike”) refers to his medical journey as a rollercoaster, full of twists and turns to hell and back. After 52 days in the hospital, though, he’s now a free man and back home with his family in Sisters. Shuffling out of the hospital with a walker on the morning of July 29, he says the world looked anew. “I’m still on cloud nine,” he said, recalling the moment. Hawaiian Mike isn’t out of the woods yet, but his journey to recovery continues to... Full story
The proposed roundabout at Locust Street and Highway 20, adjacent to Sisters Elementary School, is closer to reality, according to Bob Townsend of Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Region 4. Townsend told City Council at their July 27 workshop that Sisters has been selected to receive $5 million from the “Enhance” portion of the 2024-27 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Projects in this category are aimed at improving safety and redirecting con... Full story
With the arrival of August, the constellations of mid-summer are on full display. The group of stars we are highlighting this month has a feature that makes it truly unique among the modern constellations. Serpens, the Serpent, consists of two non-contiguous parts, known as Serpens Caput (the serpent’s head) and Serpens Cauda (its tail). To understand why the serpent is separated into two parts in the sky, it is necessary to introduce another celestial figure, namely O... Full story
Despite the grueling temperatures last week, members of the Sisters Country Pickleball Club (SCPC) came home with medals from the Pacific Northwest Pickleball Classic tournament played over five days at the Pine Nursery courts in Bend. Temperatures every day were well above the 100-degree mark. The court asphalt surface on Friday was measured at 154 degrees. Jim Kane, SCPC, and Stephen Turner, Bend PC, won gold in the men’s doubles for 55-plus, 3.5 level. Tracey Nichols, S... Full story
A lightning storm passed through Central Oregon Sunday and ignited multiple new fires, with several clustered on the Sisters Ranger District. The largest fire at this point is the Fly Creek Fire near Balancing Rock along the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook, north of the Three Rivers subdivision. The fire is estimated at 30 acres and is uncontained. The fast-moving blaze grew quickly in grass, brush and juniper. Firefighters responded along with three heavy air tankers that were able to drop several loads of retardant on... Full story
Sisters Country will see temperatures soar back into the high 90s this week, with a prediction of 100 degrees on Thursday. With high temperatures comes increased risks for heat-related illness, for people and animals. The Oregon Humane Society (OHS) works to get the word out on how dangerous high heat can be for pets — and how quickly the effects can become dire. The best place for your pet to be during the heat of the day is inside with you, keeping cool, OHS... Full story
Writing workshops are an important phenomenon to writers and culture nerds. We hear about how [insert name of writer here] got their start at [insert name of workshop here]. It’s like reading about Paris in the 1920s. We go: Dang, why couldn’t I have been there? Well, it turns out an amazing workshop did indeed happen near here, from 1984 to 2000 — as a new book explains. I was too young for those early years, but maybe I could’ve joined in a later workshop. It was j... Full story
The popular campgrounds within the Three Creek Lake area of the Sisters Ranger District are going from reservable camping sites to sites being available only as first come first served. Due to staffing challenges, Three Creek Lake, Driftwood, and Three Creek Meadows campgrounds within the Three Creek Lake area will be closed to reservation camping until a campground host can be found for the sites, the Forest Service reports. Campers who previously made reservations for the sites will receive cancellation notices and a full... Full story
Jeff and Shanyn Swales bought XPress Printing from founder Tony Meyer in September of last year. The company opened its doors in Sisters in 1989 and offers a myriad of services, including commercial printing and mailing-to-marketing services, design and layout, and graphic design. Swales who’s been the general manager of the shop for many years, was excited to finally take ownership of the business. Jeff Swales joined XPress in 2007, after acquiring extensive knowledge in t... Full story
Parker Bennett knows growing up in Sisters was full of opportunities and blessings. He also realized it would do him good to live in other cultures and get a fresh perspective on his place in the world. Bennett graduated from Sisters High School in 2010. He took up running in middle school and continued competing in high school. “Sisters High School had really good, competitive sports teams. About 80 percent of students were part of the sport culture,” he said. “That small... Full story
Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) wrapped up their recreation programming needs assessment in June and the District is working on implementing program changes that will be begin this fall. In May this year, SPRD hired 3J Consulting to conduct an impartial needs assessment, which included hosting four focus groups. This approach allowed for meaningful conversations on current and future programming needs. SPRD’s board of directors received the final report at their June business meeting, which highlighted key f... Full story
Forest neighbors To the Editor: Your feature story covering homeless people around Sisters was both an eye opener and first-class local journalism (“The neighbors in the forest,” The Nugget, June 29, page 1). Many of us see the encampments daily. It’s easy to dehumanize; it can be much harder to take the time to understand the true circumstances and outlook of our neighbors. Thank you! Winston Saunders Sisters has two labyrinths It would be sad if the Community Labyrinth doesn’t survive the new plans for the Transpo... Full story
- Age Friendly Sisters Country (AFSC) is grateful to The Roundhouse Foundation, Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, St. Charles, and C4C/Vision Team for their generous support of Sisters Transportation and Ride Share in 2022. Sisters Transportation and Ride Share (STARS) volunteers provide free rides to non-emergency medical appointments in Sisters, Bend, and Redmond, and the service is available to any Sisters Country resident. STARS is an Age Friendly Sisters Country action... Full story
True or false? People read more in the summer. True, according to a 2021 OnePoll survey of 2,000 respondents. Fifty-six percent admitted to reading at least one “serious” book in the summer to look smarter. Thirty-six percent use the summer months to brush up on their knowledge of history, while two in five read more mysteries during vacation months than they do at any other time of the year. More than half of those polled (53 percent) look forward to romantic reads on their h... Full story
The outside thermometer has launched into the red zone. We know that heat can have concerning health impacts, but not just for us upright two-leggeds. Everyone suffers in extreme heat — insects, mammals, and birds, as well as those with roots holding them in one place, plants. The animals and plants of Central Oregon are adapted to some heat extremes. But last year, we beat all records when we catapulted up into the triple digits of 115 degrees. And here we are again in... Full story
Fr. Sibi Poulose, priest at St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church in Sisters, told The Nugget, “I don’t usually talk about myself.” The good Father much prefers to talk about the work his “Boss” has given him to do. For a man of only 41 years, he has accomplished much for God, and, in another 18 months, he will be returning to northern India to continue the work by establishing a behavioral health mission dedicated to offering housing, support, and services for residents deali... Full story
Mitchell Luftig’s commentary piece in the July 13 Nugget, “Inoculating children against conspiracy theories,” was most disheartening. For someone like me, who has spent most of his working lifetime collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data to inform public policy, Mr. Luftig’s interpretations of reality seem to come from some parallel universe, where life’s story is composed of mainstream media narratives. It’s been decades since the mainstream media has delivered much more than societal disinformation, propaganda,... Full story
