December 02, 2008 03:22 pm
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 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 North of La Grande and east of the Mount Glen area, down the lane called Starr, sets a home erected in the fledgling years of Union County.
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.
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November 08, 2008 11:59 am
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 traveling light: Matthew Baxter, left, and Alex Weaver carried 25-30 pounds of gear in the panniers of their fixed-gear bikes. Submitted photo There’s a lot to be said for being young, strong, footloose and fancy free. You can just dream yourself up an adventure, and go.
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.
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October 14, 2008 03:39 pm
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 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. UNION — Harvest time in Northeast Oregon is alive with the din of huge machines moving tons of hay and crops. Livestock are being transported to wintering grounds. For many, the bales and bulls and amber fields symbolize the riches of our agricultural heritage. We are blessed with abundant bounty. Autumn’s aura reminds us of childhood, apple cider, caramel apples and corn stalks, bonfires and hayrides. And for one Union native, an enchanting barn.
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.
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September 27, 2008 12:16 pm
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 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 The robot roaming the corridors and treatment wards of Grande Ronde Hospital is a little over 5 feet tall, and moves at a very modest crawl.
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.
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September 13, 2008 11:31 am
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 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’ Whether scaling mountains, serving as a big brother to his sister or running the Smilin’ O Ranch, Bill Oberteuffer was a dedicated educator.
Today, two years after his death, Oberteuffer is teaching again.
His lessons are shared in a new biography by Berkeley Carnine, “Gazing Down From The Mountain, The Story of William H. Oberteuffer.’’
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September 02, 2008 03:42 pm
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 Scott and Debra Stevens - Photos/TONI BURTON “Even though we ain’t got money, I’m so in love with you honey”… Loggins and Messina.
When a man loves a woman, dreams are possibilities waiting for an outlet. Such is the story of Scott and Debra Stevens of Island City. In the beginning, the Stevenses lived in a single-wide mobile home so close to the freeway that the curtains would quake with each passing truck. Debra shared her dream to have a sturdy brick house some day, a dream Scott hid away in his heart and determined to fulfill one used brick at a time.
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August 30, 2008 11:46 am
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 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
The memory is nearly two months old now, but it hasn’t faded and likely won’t for a long time. Spc. Christopher McKaig, U.S. Army airborne infantryman from La Grande, can’t get the Battle of Wanat out of his mind.
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.
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August 26, 2008 04:32 pm
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 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 ELGIN — “Here’s my kitchen. Tell me if you can find the refrigerator.”
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.
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August 16, 2008 12:19 pm
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 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 On Adams Avenue in downtown La Grande, there’s a place where people go underground to see the light.
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.
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August 02, 2008 01:51 pm
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 Smoke billows from the fire at Hot Lake Sanatorium on May 7, 1934. - Photo from “The Hot Lake Story” He was as skilled as he was compassionate, a physician as flamboyant as he was determined to bring cutting edge medical care to his patients at Hot Lake Sanatorium.
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.”
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