By Jackie Deal
Weird noises. Car? Motorcycle? What time is it? 7a.m.! Stagger to window. Open shades.
And there before me—two humongous, orange pieces of scooper/scraper machinery be-bopping around.
Lunch time and an interview request with Randy Bice, Manager, and Machinery Operator:
“Five minutes?”
“Nope, gotta get back to work.”
“Aw, com’on. Five minutes?”
”Oh, Okay.”
The big boys happily playing with big boys’ toys are Randy Bice, George Boykin and James Lowe. They’re operating Timber Valley’s front end tractors and a rented excavator. Shelly Gingery drives up with load after load of dirt that’s being dumped and leveled out behind the new wall fronting Hillside. Randy estimates 40 yards of dirt have been transferred from the drainage ditches in the storage area to the wall.
Randy says, “A host of people have worked on this wall since day one. After we smooth it, the Landscape Committee will cover it with plastic for the winter and then next spring they have a plan for fixing it up.”
Afternoon found our “cowboys” relegated to hand labor as they smoothed out the clods of dirt and swept more dirt from the road. A day’s hard labor and what do they get for it? Our gratitude and our thanks. And, oh, yes, a little more money left in our wallets come Annual Maintenance Dues time. Thanks to all who have contributed their time and effort. We do appreciate you.
_____________________
And now, a few words from the Landscape Committee…
After a very busy summer full of projects for PCM, it’s time to return to the Wall Project. Randy, Shelly, George Boykin, James Lowe and others have been busy grading ground above the wall in preparation for landscaping in Spring. Penelope Hepworth has helped Dar Hoch develop a landscape plan that will soften the wall’s stark straight appearance. Plantings will snake along the mid and upper portion with spring blooming yellow forsythia, contrasting with crimson barberry, variegated green/yellow/white Euonymus and blue accents of caryopteris (bluebeard). Over the wall’s edge, cascades of color from creeping phlox and thyme will continue to soften the wall’s sharp edge.
A big THANK YOU to those who have worked to prepare and lay the groundwork for next spring’s planting.
Dar Hoch – Landscape Co-chair
Not just a blue ribbon (tho’ those are nice.) but a “Best In Division” and a “Best In Show” at the Oregon State Fair! Val Knowles explains, “My division was “hand-spun knit garment” and her beautiful vest won that. She goes on to explain, “Best In Show “included felting, spinning and weaving”; she won that also.
Our Valerie Knowles is a winner, and apparently the judges at the Oregon State Fair think so, too! Here she is with her handspun Egyptian cotton knitted vest, taking not only a First Place ribbon, but a Best of Division and BEST OF SHOW! She has won a cash prize and a basket of lovely spinning fibers and goodies from the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild, WEGO, and the Eugene Textile Center! Congratulations, Valerie!
A quiet man with a gentle smile; he reminisces about the beginnings of our Timber Valley Park. Bill Moss was born in Oklahoma in 1929. He ran an Auto Parts store in Roseburg and then retired to go into Real Estate in Sutherlin. He was on the original list of owners and also on the Land Search Committee entrusted with finding a home for Chapter Nine members. He was in Yuma when Roy Adams called and asked his help in getting money back they had put down on Oakland “flood plain” land and buying Sutherlin property instead. Bill says they looked all over and here was this wonderful place “right under our noses.” Bill went to the Sutherlin Planning Commission and helped put together 6 or 7 parcels to make up our 90 acres.
There’s music in the park! You didn’t know? You haven’t heard them? They’ll be playing again August 16 at 3 p.m. and August 23 for the Anniversary party. The five of them bring years of music experience to our park.
Bill and Cheryl Henry, are our newest members.
While I was away I had a chance to have a very nice Seattle dinner of crab cakes and salad. It was an upscale restaurant with entertainment provided. Well, not entertainment in the usual sense. When I first arrived at the place I thought there was a concert or at least a stage show about to start. Throngs of people were lined up on the sidewalk. They were standing, facing the street 6, 7, 10 deep. I entered the building and was led to my table by the window and now I could see that all of those people were waiting for one of the buses that would stop just outside my window. Along comes a big articulated bus and opens its mouth wide as dozens slip inside. The bus clamps it big jaws shut, and the signage changes to “Sorry, Bus full” and pulls away. Bus after bus pulls up, gobbles up as many humans as it can digest and pulls away. The crowd stays the same size as just as many arrive as are allowed on the buses. For awhile I fear all of Seattle is destined to be on this street corner waiting for a bus, but slowly, as I finished my dinner, the number of people and the number of buses became less. Dinner was done and rush hour was over.