Sweet Lorane Community News – August 11, 2016

August 11, 2016Newspaper ColumnsBubbling Up, Chicken 'n Pickin, Crow Grange, Groundwaters, Groundwaters 2016 Anthology, Lorane Community Potluck, Lorane Ice Cream Socialpaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
August 11, 2016
By Pat Edwards

By the time you read this, the 2016 Lorane Picnic and Ice Cream Social will be in the books. I’m hoping that it continues to grow and be a popular event in our community for years to come.

I was not able to make the Crow Grange’s Chicken ‘n Pickin’ event again this year… in fact, for some reason it always falls on a weekend when we have other plans and I’ve never been to it. It’s one of the things on my list of things I really want to do, but have not yet. It sounds like so much fun with good food and good music.

Life would be so boring without our occasional “life adventures!” We hosted a quadruple birthday bash last Saturday night (August 6) for a daughter, 2 granddaughters and our grandson-in-law. That afternoon, I went out to water the flowers after putting most of the finishing touches on the house before beginning the dinner preparations. I was just finishing watering when the hose began dribbling… and then stopped. No water. I thought, surely, it will come back on again once it recovers, so we went forward with the dinner for the 20 of us. In hindsight, I should have used paper plates and plasticware, but we didn’t. Fortunately, I had stashed away about 8 or 9 five-gallon plastic containers of water with bleach added for emergency use. I’m so glad I did. The next morning, it took me awhile, but I finished washing and drying the humongous stack of dishes and pots and pans covering my counter tops and brushed my teeth and cooked with the bottled water on hand. Because many seemed to be having similar problems, help wasn’t available until Tuesday when it was determined that thankfully, our pump had given out on us and it wasn’t because our well had gone dry. We were able to get a partial fill-up of our 1,500 gallon holding tank that afternoon so we could once again have water. On Wednesday, the crew from Rainbow Pump was able to pull the old pump and 177′ of line out through the hole Jim had to open in the roof of our shed where it resides, and a new pump was installed, much to the relief of my flowers and garden beds… and my dishpan hands. You know, though… life would indeed be boring if everything always went smoothly!

I thought I’d update you on the planned 2016 Groundwaters annual issue/anthology book that will be published in October. Our deadline for submissions has been set to August 15 and as August 12, 46 local writers and poets have sent 135 submissions with at least 4 more reserving space for pieces they are still working on. Jen Chambers and I want to thank everyone for their participation and hope that those of you who enjoy good writing will put these on your Christmas lists. We can be so proud of the talent we have in this area.

One thing we are in short supply of for this year are submissions by our young writers. Summer is always a hard time to get things from our “Bubbling Up” talent, but we will extend our deadline until September 1 for stories and poetry sent in by young writers who are under 18 years of age. Please encourage your children and grandchildren to send us their work. It will be printed in a paperback book. Artwork is also accepted. Our guidelines for submitting are the same as for the adults and can be found on our website at http://www.groundwaterspublishing.com/Submissions.html

Sweet Lorane Community News – August 4, 2016

August 4, 2016Newspaper Columnsanthology, Groundwaters, Lorane Community Potluck, Lorane Family Store, Lorane Fire Department, Lorane Grange, Lorane Growers' Market, Lorane Ice Cream Social, Motorhome, Rescue Horsepaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
August 4, 2016
By Pat Edwards

The Lorane Grower’s Market, located at the Lorane Family Store, is off and running. It appears that quite a few apples are coming in as well as zucchini, other summer squash, asparagus and plums, according to Jim, but there could be a lot of other items being brought in that I haven’t spotted yet, too. Jim says that “the good stuff” doesn’t last long and is usually gone within a short time after its left.

Last year, several people were collecting windfall apples, regardless of condition, to be used in making horse treats for rescue horse groups. If you have any, contact Robin Rene at 541-521-1023, who is doing it for sure this year.

This must be a good year for apples. My little tree, which has 3 different varieties grafted on it, is so loaded that one of the branches broke. I’ll need to pick some off soon to take down to the Growers Market as the Gravensteins are about ready to eat. The Fujis and Honey Crisp are not far behind.

These past few weeks have been a time of transition for Jim and me. We took the plunge and purchased a nice used motorhome – much bigger than I had envisioned or planned for – but Jim fell in love with it. He’s the one that will be doing most of the driving and since he’s never been a ‘camper’ or ‘RVer’ before, I didn’t want to discourage him now that he seems to have ‘the bug.’

During my childhood, my family took many road trips to destinations including, Southern California, where we had lots of family, the Redwoods, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, among others, and we frequently had a travel trailer which we towed. My grandparents always accompanied us with their own car and trailer and the sweet memories that we made have stayed with me my whole life. I’d like Jim to experience a little of what we had then. We plan to do some traveling with my sister and brother-in-law whenever we can, and on our own to visit our daughter Kelly and to see other areas of the U.S. that we haven’t seen yet. We’re not planning to be gone for long periods of time or become “snowbirds”… home is too important to us both… but, we do need and want to spend some leisure time, seeing and experiencing new things while we can.

I’m going to cut this a bit short this week, but I do want to remind everyone about next weekend’s Lorane Community Potluck, held at the Grange, and the Lorane Ice Cream Social, to be held in front of the fire station and church. The lunch begins at 12:30 (bring something to share) and the Social begins at 1:00 p.m. Both are popular events and we hope to see our friends and neighbors there. It’s a fun time for the whole community!

One other quick reminder for any of you who like to write – stories, poetry, memoirs, essays, etc. The deadline for the Groundwaters 2016 anthology is August 15. Please get your materials to us or at least reserve space in it by that date. We already have many wonderful entries and we expect it to be even better than last year’s.

Sweet Lorane Community News – July 28, 2016

July 28, 2016Newspaper ColumnsApplegate Regional Theater, ART Inc., Central School, Chicken 'n Pickin, Crow Car Show, Crow Grange, Crow Middle/High Booster Club, Fire, Knee Deep Cattle Co., Lorane Community Potluck, Lorane Fire Department, Lorane Ice Cream Social, Michele Kau, Poodle Creek Pickers, RAC, Rural Art Center, Summer movie camppaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
July 28, 2016
By Pat Edwards

The Lorane/Crow area had a scare this past week. Our hotter temperatures have increased our levels of fire danger dramatically and a small logging operation located in the hills behind the Knee Deep Ranch on Lorane Highway caused a wildfire to erupt. We saw the smoke across the ridges as we were going home from Lorane last Tuesday afternoon. Within an hour or so, helicopters towing water buckets began flying over our house on the way to extinguish the fire. In addition, we were told that bulldozers from the Crow side of those hills were dispatched to begin building a fire line. Thanks to the efforts and quick response of so many, the fire was completely contained by Tuesday evening after burning 13 to 16 acres. It was a close call… too close for those of us who remember the devastating wildfire we experienced last year, much closer to Lorane. Thank you to all of those who responded to this emergency. It could have been much worse.

On Saturday, August 6th at 4:00 p.m., plan to attend the Crow Grange’s 8th annual Chicken n Pickin BBQ. They will serve their legendary BBQ chicken, fresh corn on the cob, baked beans, rolls, lemonade, coffee and ice cream. In addition to the good food, you will be entertained by the Poodle Creek Pickers, a local old-time fiddlers group. The price for all of it is $10.00/person. If you have any questions, contact Connie Suing at 541-556-2609.

Then, on Sunday, August 14, it’s Lorane’s turn to celebrate our annual Lorane Community Potluck and Ice Cream Social. The potluck, held annually at the Lorane Grange, begins at 12:30 p.m. The doors open at about 10:30 a.m. for those who want to drop off food or come early and visit with their neighbors. It’s a great way to connect with neighbors and friends and you’ll be ready to head out afterwards for more dessert and entertainment at the Lorane Ice Cream Social, sponsored by the Lorane Fire Department. It runs from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. As I said in last week’s column, expect to find yummy homemade pies and ice cream and lots of fun activities for children and adults alike.

Just a reminder… The Rural Art Center has planned another exciting Summer Film Camp that will be held in the Art Room at Applegate Elementary. People of all ages are encouraged to join in this fun, FREE camp which will include the making of a movie. The first week of camp is scheduled for August 8-11, Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. until noon. It continues into the following week, August 15-18 at the same time. Contact Alyssa Shepherd at malyssa2@yahoo.com or call 541-556-8151 if you want to enroll yourself or your children.

For those of you who are interested in acting, last weekend the Applegate Regional Theater at the former Central School north of Crow held open auditions of community members (including any in the Lorane and Crow areas) who are interested in becoming cast members or backstage workers (props, costumes, lighting, set design, stage management, ushering, concessions, etc.). If you missed those open auditions, you are still encouraged to contact them at art-inc@hotmail.com or 541-935-3636.

Michele Kau sent out a plea this week… The Crow Middle/High Booster Club is desperately in need of volunteers to help with their annual car show to be held September 10th at the high school. They are so low on help at this point that they are dangerously close to having to cancel it. This car show has been going for well over 10 years and has become one of the biggest money makers that our Booster Club has. The money raised goes to support many kids in our community through sports and academic programs. If you can help with set-up, concessions, or if you are knowledgeable about cars and can help judge the entries, your participation would be GREATLY appreciated. Contact info: Michele Edwards Kau at michele.kau@gmail.com or send her a personal message on Facebook.