Owners Tim and Dorene McCarthy, and painter John Milbert, on roof, pose at the newly painted “Hunter house” on Starr Lane. - The Observer/CHRIS BAXTER

The house was built by Jason Smith Hunter, a prosperous landowner/farmer at the height of the Victorian era. This home was recently bedecked in dazzling jewel-tone accents akin to the Painted Ladies of San Francisco.

traveling light: Matthew Baxter, left, and Alex Weaver carried 25-30 pounds of gear in the panniers of their fixed-gear bikes. Submitted photo

Take Matthew Baxter and and Alex Weaver. They made their minds up a couple of years ago they would ride bikes 1,800 miles across Alaska and Canada via the fabled Al-Can Highway.

They did it this summer. It was a feat that took courage, stamina and a willingness to suffer through hardship.

he barn serves as a gathering place for Robert Sheehy’s extended family. His mother, Dona, says there are at least 60 of her direct descendants in Northeast Oregon and 100 when everyone is present.

On the outskirts of town, several dusty miles down a winding gravel road called High Valley sets an aged barn filled with memories from Robert Sheehy’s boyhood.

TALKING WITH EDGAR: Doug Romer, executive director of patient care services at Grande Ronde Hospital, demonstrates the real-time streaming capabilities of EDGAR, the hospital’s remote-presence robot. Onscreen is Yair Lurie, a representative of InTouch, the company that manufactures the unit. - The Observer/CHRIS BAXTER

But EDGAR, as the unit is called, is making big waves: encouraging cooperation between big, metropolitan medical centers and rural hospitals, changing state laws and doing its best to eliminate geography as an obstacle to receiving medical treatment.

Bill Oberteuffer and his first wife Margaret, who died in 2000, during their early years, resting on a summit. - Photos from ‘Gazing Down From The Mountain’

Today, two years after his death, Oberteuffer is teaching again.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING: Spc Christopher McKaig, a soldier from La Grande, fought in the Battle of Wanat in Afghanistan July 13. Above, he displays a news account and photos of the fight that attracted world-wide media attention. - The Observer/TED KRAMER

He remembers fire, smoke, noise and the adrenaline rush that helped him stay alive and go on fighting. He remembers fear, too, a fear like nothing he’d experienced before, a feeling he describes as “fear to the core.”

More than that, he remembers the bravery and valor of men who were battered, bloodied but never beaten in a desperate fight that made the world look anew at the conflict in Afghanistan.

collector and decorator: Stanna Rysdam, pictured here in one of the rooms of her bunkhouse, has been collecting second-hand and antique items for 28 years, and using them to decorate her home. - Photos/Bill Rautenstrauch

It’s a little guessing game Stanna Rysdam likes to play with people who visit her one-of-a-kind home just outside town. It’s a fun game at that. Though the refrigerator stands against the wall in plain sight, it is indeed hard to find.

Here to Help: The core members of the Underground Oasis addiction support group include Bertie Harris, Jim Harris, Steve Fund, Kirk Shea and Dale Johnston (standing); and John Shepherd (with daughter Malia), Ricia Kallunki and Jerra Woods (kneeling). Not pictured is Oasis co-founder Leo Bristol. - Bill Rautenstrauch, The Observer

People with addictions, people at the end of their ropes, people feeling lost, alone and friendless, walk one flight down with hopes of recovering their sense of direction and reason for living.

Smoke billows from the fire at Hot Lake Sanatorium on May 7, 1934. - Photo from “The Hot Lake Story”

He was Dr. William T. Phy, a physician who died in 1931 yet remains, in the eyes of many, the face of Hot Lake. A man whose tale is among those featured in a new book by Richard R. Roth — “The Hot Lake Story: An Illustrated History from Pre-discovery to 1974.”