Tag: Lorane Directory

Sweet Lorane Community News – December 29, 2016

December 29, 2016Newspaper Columns, , , , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
December 29, 2016
By Pat Edwards

The Lorane Directory Facebook page is adding a file for people to list their comments and feedback on various services they have used in the area. The first entry is one provided by Chris Nwk Blanchard. His family on Lorane Highway had been out of electricity for 10 days following the ice storm. They thought that Lane Electric would fix it, but didn’t realize that they would need to have a licensed electrician come to their home to repair some damage there before LEC could hook them back up to the main line. It was two days before Christmas and Chris put out a plea on the Lorane Facebook page to electrical contractors in the area who might be willing to do a last-minute job for them so that their electricity could be restored in time for Christmas. An angel in the guise of Chris Leturno of Superior Electric who lives in the Crow area immediately responded and had the work done in time to allow Lane Electric to get the family’s power restored. Not only was their best Christmas gift a warm house and restored electrical power for the Blanchard family, but, in addition, there was no charge from Superior Electric to do it. This is what holiday and community spirit are all about… neighbors helping neighbors. Thank you Chris Leturno for your kindness and goodwill. It will live on in the Lorane Directory as a recommendation for your services. I hope residents will post their recommendations for other local services they want to share, as well.

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy New Year. Our house is always pretty quiet, as Jim and I usually stay home and spend a relatively normal evening… and this year was no different. I guess that we earned the title of “party-poopers” quite some time ago.

School for the Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District will be back in session on Monday, January 2, but Friday, January 6, is the first half-day scheduled to prepare student progress reports. During the scheduled half days, the Rural Art Center has a great program in place for students who want to stay and attend three hours of creativity with professional artists and a healthy snack. A suggested donation of $10/afternoon is requested, but there are scholarships available if this is a hardship. If your child is interested in attending these, contact Michael at 541-844-0543 or ruralartcenter@gmail.com for more information. There is no bus service afterwards, however, so children must be picked up promptly at 3:00 p.m.

The program for Friday, January 6 is “Baskets.” Donna Crispin, a fiber artist, will show those attending how to weave a basket with a wooden base using reeds and yarn to create a lovely, small and unique basket.

The program on Friday, February 10 will be on “Rope and Cordage.” Students will make their own jump rope with yarn and then learn how to make cord out of dried leaves. A full schedule of the RAC half-days of art activities can be found in the most recent “District Buzz” newsletter at http://www.cal.k12.or.us/district/news/12-7-16.pdf.

Shortie and I went for a walk up Easy Acres today and met a Lane County road maintenance crew cleaning up the broken branches and limbs littering the sides of the road. It’s been a huge job for them, but I really appreciate the things that they do to make our roads better and nicer to travel. I asked one of the crew members to pass on my thanks to one of his colleagues, in particular, who does such a great job of mowing the sides of the roads along Lorane Highway, especially, each summer and fall. He certainly puts a lot of TLC into the work he does.

Again, Happy New Year to all of you. Let’s hope it’s a much better one than 2016.

Sweet Lorane Community News – October 27, 2016

October 27, 2016Newspaper Columns, , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
October 27, 2016
By Pat Edwards

As I write this, I have just returned from a wonderful day attending and participating in the TEDxVeneta event held at the Applegate Regional Theater on Central Road. I am sure that Sandy Larson will have a nice article on it, so I won’t go into much detail, but it was very well-organized by my friend and co-editor of Groundwaters, Jennifer Chambers. Some time ago, she invited me to be one of the speakers. She asked me to talk about the changes that have occurred throughout my life and, although I accepted, I was not sure what I had gotten myself into. I’m not a trained speaker and, as I mentioned at the end of my talk, “Writing is my passion, but speaking is especially hard for me. I’ve found throughout my life that the words flow much easier from my fingers and hands than vocally, but I feel that facing this particular challenge is another difficult source of change and growth for me that I must embrace.”

Lorane was well-represented in today’s talks. Beth Robinson of Lorane and my “up-the-hill-neighbor, Evelyn Searles Hess, were also featured speakers and it was fun working with them and the others who had such varied and interesting presentations.

Thank you, Jen, for believing in me. Despite all of the stress I felt in being out of my comfort zone, the experience was a very positive one. If you didn’t get to make it to this year’s event, be sure to mark your calendars for next year, because I understand that Jen hopes to continue these TEDxVeneta events.

There are several people in Lorane needing dry firewood. If you have any on hand… and especially if you deliver, you might check out the requests on the Lorane, Oregon Facebook page or post information about your firewood on the Lorane Directory page.

Our Groundwaters LIVE! event held last Sunday afternoon to introduce our 2016 edition of the Groundwaters anthology was, in our opinion, a huge success. We had a good turnout, the Applegate Regional Theater was a welcoming and impressive venue, the readings were entertaining and got great reviews, and the support that Jen and I felt from everyone was amazing. The only “problem” we experienced was that we sold all 100 books that we ordered and some people had to return home without theirs. I have made arrangements, however, to deliver books to those who didn’t get them as soon as the new shipment arrives next week.

When I get the new order, they will be at the Lorane Family Store and we will try to get them into local bookstores, too. If other local businesses want to take them in on consignment, that can be arranged as well. Just let me know at edwards@groundwaterspublishing.com. We will, of course, leave a copy at the Fern Ridge Library sometime next week for those of you who are waiting to check it out. There are 63 local authors, poets and artists represented in this year’s anthology. Go to our website at http://groundwaterspublishing.com/anthologies for more information.

Jim and I became great-grandparents again on October 21. Not-so-little Hayden Rae Furlong was born in Roseburg, weighing in at a hefty 10 lbs. 5 oz. We were not able to see her for several days afterwards as we were in Portland at the time with our son while he underwent a heart procedure. Hayden is doing great, as is Rob, so we are very thankful for both.

I hope your Halloween was a fun one. We had some exciting events last weekend to enjoy. I wasn’t able to make it to the barn dance, the Lorane Trunk or Treat, or the Crow-Applegate-Lorane Halloween Carnival this year, but they were all generating a lot of interest within the community. The Applegate Community Theater was also hosting a Halloween celebration. There were lots of fun things to do and I hope that each received a good turnout.

Sweet Lorane Community News – June 9, 2016

June 9, 2016Newspaper Columns, , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
June 9, 2016
By Pat Edwards

Welcome to a classic beginning to an Oregon summer! Last week, a few brave hay farmers were able to get their fields cut, raked, baled and picked up before the change in weather. Some, however, held their breaths, hoping that the cooler temps and “chances of showers” were not going to ruin the hay that was cut but not yet dry enough to bale.

I am so glad that Jim has finally dismounted from his tractor, given up the fields he has tended for so long and is looking closer to home for his projects. For the first time in 52 years of marriage, I’m able to hand over the lawn mowing duties and share the yardwork with him. Wow! What a gift!

The new Lorane Directory, which has been set up on Facebook, is getting some use, it appears. Thank you to Chris Starfire for setting it up and to Marissa McNutt Cooper and Patrick Dearth for helping to administrate it. It gives members a chance to list for sale items in the area so that our regular Lorane, Oregon Facebook page can be kept for community discussions, concerns and announcements. The Lorane Directory is also meant to provide community members information on resources within the community. In looking through the actual directory list, however, I notice that several of our service organizations and activity and interest groups have not added their listings yet. If this is going to be a truly helpful resource, they need to be added, but the information must come from the organizations themselves… i.e services provided, meeting times and places, need for new memberships, contact information, etc.

I had a request the other day from an AmeriCorps volunteer who is working on a food systems assessment for Southern Lane County. She needed to find out how to get in touch with those who are running the Lorane Bread Basket food pantry. I was able to track down the information for her and she got in touch with one of the organizers, but this is one of the reasons why we need to have info on our service organizations posted (Bread Basket, Senior Lunches, Grange, Rebekahs, Theta Rho, Boy Scouts, Fire Department, Church, Community Association, Growers Market, etc.). The most important reason, however, is for those new to the community to learn what services are available to them and how they can participate as volunteers or make use of the services they provide. I was told that some of the food has to be thrown out because there are not enough requests for it during the year. I’m sure that families in the area who are struggling could use it if they knew it was available.

Let’s all encourage the community members who offer a skill or product and organizations that offer services to make sure that they are listed on the Lorane Directory so that it can truly be a useful tool for all of us. The directory file can be found at https://www.facebook.com/notes/999281663489459/Lorane%20Directory/999298380154454 or just type in “Lorane Directory” in the Facebook search box. Go to “Files” and select the Lorane Directory file.