They fill critical role in students’ development When Methow Valley Elementary School (MVE) faculty and staff waved the final student out of the building on the last day of school, they also said a temporary farewell to some of the people who play critical roles in enhancing the school experience for students and staff alike: […]
My Turn – A community comes together to support a friend
It was a hot spring day in early June when the pickup trucks pulled up, one by one, and people began unloading tools. A folding table was set out with assembly instructions, below it, a box of bottled water was tucked away in the shade. Dogs roamed around as neighbors talked over the plan and […]
The rancher’s life: branding cows, bringing community together
If you’ve been out driving along Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road recently you may have heard the loud mooing of cows or seen folks on horseback escorting herds into various corrals for the annual ritual of spring branding. It’s a special time of year, and a special part of this valley, that I have come to cherish. […]
Valley Life: Winthrop
Many a mystery has been unscrambled on the back pages of this publication. I hope that the great Malaga missing newspaper saga will be the next one. “Ah, Málaga!” you are thinking: Spain, Pablo Picasso, Guernica, Costa del Sol. I regret to inform you that the town involved in what my editor calls “the Malaga […]
COVID-19 response challenges The Cove’s resources
Food bank in Twisp sees surge in need If there is one thing that keeps Glenn Schmekel up at night during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the thought of people in the Methow Valley fearing that they will not have enough to eat. Of course, Schmekel is also worried about the virus spreading and infecting […]
Forest management lessons from Carlton Complex Fire
Research: thinning, prescribed burning can make a difference It was several years after the Carlton Complex fire before Susan Prichard felt she could begin asking scientific questions about how the fire behaved. “I was honestly so devastated for our community I wouldn’t touch it … and I also honestly didn’t want to be perceived as […]
Lots of motivation behind new yoga studio
Bree Dillon describes the experience of opening a yoga studio in Winthrop as riding a rising tide: “We are on the surfboards and someone is pushing us — the set is coming in — and we just happen to be here with the willingness.” Dillon is the owner of Motive Yoga, which currently offers classes at the Mazama Country […]
Bluebird Grain wins national award
Einka & French Lentil Blend tops taste test Brooke and Sam Lucy, co-owners of Bluebird Grain Farms outside of Winthrop, headed to San Francisco earlier this month to receive a national award from the Good Food Foundation for their organic Einka & French Lentil Blend. The awards honored 207 winners from 37 states, Washington D.C., […]
Recovering the Rendezvous
Burned area susceptible to invasive species The scorched hillside from last summer’s Rendezvous Fire looms above the Rendezvous neighborhood north of Winthrop. About 175 acres of shrub-steppe — a mix of sagebrush, bitterbrush, bunch grass and other native forbes — burned when a fire that started on private property spread into Washington Department of Fish […]
New horse camp opens at Loup Loup Pass
Years of effort behind North Summit facility The Methow Valley Back Country Horsemen (MVBCH) celebrated the grand opening of the North Summit Horse Camp at Loup Loup Pass on Oct. 5. Mary Pat Bauman first had the idea for a horse camp at the Loup when she was a ski patroller for the Loup Loup […]
