July 2, 2009
So here we are in Ellensburg. Looks like downtown is not a very happening place. I went into a yarn/tea shop and it was very quiet. Partly that’s because summer and 90 degree heat is not the time to work with wonderful mohair and wool yarns. And the shop didn’t really have any thread or anything that would be the kind of thing that might be more likely to sell in the summer. The workers were eating lunch and didn’t seem very interested in starting a conversation, so I chatted a bit and let it go.
We stopped into the museum so Bill could ask where he might buy a postcard and the woman looked at him like he was from Mars. “You mean a like, picture postcard?” she asked with wonder in her voice. When he said yes, that’s what he meant, she was clearly very puzzled, but she directed him to the Chamber of Commerce. There were no visitors to the free museum, either. Possibly the fact that it is Thursday has something to do with that. There does seem to be a big issue about downtown and how the town will develop. This seems quite like Klamath Falls and other areas that are trying to save their downtown areas while the box stores keep on coming in. And I am sorry to say that we contributed to the problem. We needed some groceries and there was Fred Meyer, big as life and easily accessible. We could have--and maybe should have--tried to find a locally owned store that we could shop at. But we did not. We were all hot, the truck is full of stuff, and we didn’t want to drive around looking for someplace that may or may not exist. In any case, they have a Farmer’s Market on Saturdays downtown, so that probably helps get people down here. One thing that I am finding very interesting is how food keeps coming up as an issue. We don’t often think of all the roles it plays, but here and elsewhere farmer’s markets are being used as a tool to help revitalize the downtown area.
In The Dalles, our hosts told us about how they are using their own yard and the vacant lot next door to grow food themselves and also to let other people come in and plant vegetables for themselves. Then they share it with other people in the neighborhood. And sometimes people bring their kids along to help plant. Then there is the CSA (community supported agriculture) movement. Ellen and Brigg have joined such a thing in their area. Brigg does grow some food in the yard and they have cherries and raspberries, which Ellen processes. Because their growing season is so long, she can grow cool weather crops in the spring and fall and use those while not doing any gardening in the summer when it is hot and she has other things she wants to do. The CSA arrangement works well for everyone. She gets fresh, locally grown veggies and gets to sample things she never even heard of while not having to sacrifice her summer to food processing and gardening when it’s too hot for her. This is good for Ellen and Brigg because they are getting a variety of high quality, organic, locally grown produce. It’s good for the environment for the same reasons. It’s good for the young woman farmer who gets to have a sustainable farming operation. And it’s good for the local economy because the dollars are staying within the community. I think we may see many more kinds of small-scale, local solutions to problems as we move forward and food may well be at the center of many of them.
The campground is kind of interesting. I am not sure which came first--the tent sites or the overpass, but it is not exactly a relaxing experience to hear the cars whizzing just over your head at night. When we got here yesterday, Bill went in to register. We went to our tent site and I was not sure whether to laugh or cry. Every other tent site in the place had some shade where you could set up the tent, except the one we were assigned to. No trees, no shade, just relentless sun beating down with temperatures in the miserable 90s. Bill went and asked for a different site and we were able to move. Crazy! Bill decided that he had to take a photo. He chuckled about that for several hours.
We’re in the library at the moment. It seems like a nice little place. They are fielding calls about when they will be closed for the holiday--reminds me of when I used to work at Klamath County Library--we got the same thing. But we would probably only have been closed on the holiday itself. These people get Friday and Saturday off! YIPPEE for them!
