News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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After some time off, we’re back with our usual Q&A about rental properties and housing. But first, let’s start with a look at some major market trends. 2024 is shaping up to be a different sort of real estate season in Sisters. After several years of bidding wars, new Covid-fueled residents, cheap money, and massive price increases, things are finally settling down. Let’s take a look at a few trends driving the local real estate market. 1. End of the ZoomTown BoomTown This cute phrase was coined to describe quaint, quiet... Full story
The featured constellation for December is Eridanus, the celestial river. It is the sixth largest, and second longest, constellation in the entire sky. Beginning with the star Cursa, near the left foot of Orion, the river flows westward to the eastern border of Cetus. From here the flow turns eastward before plunging deep into the celestial southern hemisphere, ending at Achemar, the constellation's brightest star. This month Eridanus lies in the southeastern sky at about 9... Full story
Life in Sisters Country brings us closer to the rhythms of our planet. For example, our seasons don't follow the calendar. I was reminded of this last weekend, when I drove the 50-odd miles from Sisters to the Crooked River just below Bowman Dam. Low clouds skidded across the sky as I entered the Crooked River Canyon, and little bursts of rain spattered on the truck windshield. It looked like a good day for a blue-wing olive mayfly hatch. These tiny mayflies hatch out all... Full story
The legend behind the development of the Scottish Terrier breed is that an English lord, living in Scotland in the 1800s, evaluated his new breed of dogs by saying, “These dogs act just like the people I live around here in Scotland. They are tough, smart, and stubborn as the devil himself. We’ll call them Scottish Terriers.” Well, they are all of that, especially stubborn! Like any particularly smart child, the Scotties want to be able to make choices for themselves. And,... Full story
When you sit with patients long enough, you start picking up on patterns. Individual wellness is often connected to the collective, and with our digitalized world becoming smaller, that collective is more interconnected than ever. Feelings and sentiments are more palpable and like a contagion, can spread. While we may not ourselves have experienced a particular trauma or loss, we have immediate access to those who have, creating a breeding ground for secondary anxiety, fear, s... Full story
Hate reminds me of a thistle: once it invades the mind it quickly propagates, showing up everywhere, and choking out other, more wholesome mental states. Once established, hate is difficult to uproot. When I practice daily mindfulness meditation, I try to water the seeds of loving-kindness, compassion, happiness and joy, hope, and inner peace. Once germinated, these seeds have the capacity to transform the garden of my mind, creating a beautiful dwelling place. But I also water the seed of hate because, I tell myself, the... Full story
The wild turkey [Meleagris Gallopavo] is not a native species in Oregon. Introduced in 1961 by ODFW, they are now well-established in the pine forests around the Metolius Basin. The subspecies Rio Grande has had the most successful natural expansion, although the Merriam's also has a steady population. Females lay 10-14 beige mottled eggs which hatch in approximately 28 days, and within 24 hours of hatching the poults have left the nest. Insects, berries, seeds, and all... Full story
Shipworms, if you didn’t know, were the bane of mariners for many centuries. Shipworms are mollusks that make a living by burrowing into wood immersed in saltwater. These “termites of the sea” can chew a wooden ship into pieces in a relatively short amount of time. There is even some evidence to suggest, in the writings of Bernal Diaz del Castillo and other contemporaries, that Cortez didn’t burn his ships because he wanted to trap conquistadors in Mexico, but because they we... Full story
The Killdeer [Charadrius vociferus], is the largest of the ringed plovers, and the only plover with a double breast band. In flight, the Killdeer's long, pointed, slender wings have conspicuous white wing stripes. Killdeer frequent a variety of open habitats such as fields, meadows, gravel bars, and mudflats throughout the United States and most of Canada. Their diet includes snails, grasshoppers, worms, beetles, and other invertebrates. They can often be seen in fall in... Full story
Have you heard the phrase “Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses?” It’s a phrase we might not use to describe many people these days. But what it represents is a perspective, a worldview. This worldview shapes the way we view reality and ultimately our behavior, even the experience of our behavior as we interact with our world. I wonder, how often do we critically think about what has shaped our perspective? Historically, people often developed their worldview based... Full story
I just don’t get those self-driving cars. I, myself, love to drive and can’t imagine the fun of sitting in the driver’s seat with “somebody” else making the decisions, and steering, and pedaling. Talking cars, one thing I like about old cars is that they have wing windows. When Jack and Reese were little kids, we were coming back from getting ice cream in Sisters and I asked one of them to crack the wing window. They thought that was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. Come to find out I actually do have standards w... Full story
“Another fall, another turned page…” —Wallace Stegner With frosty nights, some rain, and a wee bit of snow, we have indeed turned the page on another fire season; one marked by a paucity of dry lightning storms, quick detections, and aggressive initial attack. For the 2023 fire season, the Sisters Ranger District had 22 fires for a total of 2.8 acres burned, with only one of those fires caused by lightning. Of those human-caused fires, 13 were related to camp or bon/par... Full story
Bernard Cornwell has a very interesting life story that got him to the point of writing several fictional series. He was born in England in 1944 and adopted when he was six weeks old. His new parents were members of a strict fundamentalist sect called the Peculiar People, who forbade just about everything kids and young adults were interested in. Cornwell definitely expressed his rebellion toward all those restrictions when he started to write historical novels about war, realistic wartime relationships, and fighting. He... Full story
You may have read articles recently implying that hunters own the entire forest this time of year because they paid for a hunting permit. You may have gotten the impression that the responsibility for keeping people (and non-targeted animals) safe during hunting season lies entirely on non-hunters. People who like to take walks and meander along streams. People who camp and dance and listen to songbirds and write poetry in the woods, which is to say, people like me. I think hu... Full story
If you look into the southeastern sky on a clear November evening, you can see the Greek sea monster Cetus. This is a big constellation, fourth largest, in fact, by area. Its neighboring constellations are Aquarius, Aries, Eridanus, Fornax, Pisces, Sculptor, and Taurus. The creature's head is located about 25 degrees west and 10 degrees south of the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus. During the late fall and winter season, Cetus can be seen by observers from the South Pole to a... Full story
I love college football season. I'm a University of Oregon grad, and I love my Ducks. I root for the Beavers when they're not playing the Ducks. I never, ever root for the Huskies. I love the packed, noisy stadiums, the tailgating, seeing old friends - and the thrills of the game. But my favorite thing about college football season is the lack of anglers on our Sisters Country rivers and lakes. So many people are home watching the games or traveling to games! I mostly love... Full story
When my cell phone rang one morning a while ago, the caller ID said, “unknown caller.” Usually I simply ignore calls like that, and delete them. I hadn’t heard from my younger son in another town for a while and he had been on my mind, so I answered the call, figuring maybe he had lost his phone again. Over the years, I have received many distressing phone calls regarding my youngest, who is often living on the edge. The voice on the other end confirmed my worst fears. Thoug... Full story
For the second time in the last few months I found myself, unwillingly, digging a grave in the woods behind our house. I picked a spot in a clearing between the trees and began to dig, which is never an easy task in the mostly volcanic rock and compressed ash that passes for soil in Central Oregon. A single raven landed on a limb nearby and squawked, which made an almost medieval echo in the wintery gray light of the forest. I looked up at him. Of course, I thought, of course... Full story
I’ve lived all my life with cats and dogs. If you read this column regularly, you know I love dogs. I like cats. Some I’ve lived with were truly wonderful. Smoki, who became the Magical Cat in my six-book children’s series, “Harry and Lola Adventures,” was sweet, intelligent, and just plain wonderful. Which is why he became a magical hero in the book series. Smoki was an exception to what I’m about to say. It has been observed that attitude is the major difference between cat... Full story
When did the choices get so hard with so much more at stake? Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste. Scared to run out of time. — “Nick of Time,” Bonnie Raitt My wife was waiting in the Pine Marten lift line at Mt. Bachelor, watching a beautiful skiier glide effortlessly down the mountain. He rode up the chairlift with her, giving my wife the opportunity to ask him whether the 90+ patch on the shoulder of his ski jacket signaled a new clothing company? No, he replied proudly, he was 93-years old, with da... Full story
It feels good to have a scapegoat sometimes. The perception that we ourselves are free from blame, and that our challenges are the fault of circumstance or others, is an alluring reprieve from our own culpability. In our attempts to bypass blame, we also put our scapegoats on a pedestal, holding the power to hijack our sense of agency and joy. We live in a shame- and blame-based culture, too frequently practicing outdated beliefs that shaming and punishment are prerequisites... Full story
Each fall I throw together my saddle, bedroll, and bridles, and make a pilgrimage down to Lake County for the fall works - gathering, sorting, and shipping cattle - in the herculean effort to feed America. I do it to help my friends, but the rewards are mostly selfish. I get to cover the country horseback, in a way most folks don't anymore, and work with people whose shared sensibilities and sense of purpose are a balm against the industrial levels of friction found almost... Full story
The Cooper's Hawk [Accipiter cooperii], was named after naturalist William Cooper of the New York Museum, and inhabits woodland areas, where their diet consists of birds (95 percent) and small mammals (25 percent). This of course varies depending on the season and area hunted. These mid-sized hawks at maturity are 14-17 inches tall and weigh 16-24 ounces. The females are 1/3 larger than the males. They are referred to as "chicken hawks" "blue darter," or "swift hawk"," and... Full story
I was looking forward to seeing “Golda,” a film about the Yom Kippur War that played a large part in my own life. Now I wonder if my memories are skewed or if writers and directors took liberties with history I did not anticipate. Golda Meir was prime minister of Israel when the Yom Kippur War broke out on October 6, 1973. As the title suggests, the movie is all about Golda, her agonies and anguish during the war. I was on a freighter between Brindisi, Italy and Patras, Gre... Full story
Jack Lake to Round Lake or Santiam Pass: It's all about options on this stunning Three Finger Jack-area hike. This is a one-way jaunt, mostly downhill, necessitating a car shuttle to one of two possible ends. Why go? This great hike has it all: spectacular views on a moderate route, with flowers, swimming lakes, and frequently wildlife. It's great from the end of spring (however with more downed trees and colder lakes ) right on into early fall (with more likely wildlife... Full story
