News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A buttercup blooms long before the recent snow, found by reporter Jacob Wagner above Crescent Lake Feb. 4. Jacob Wagner photo...
So, you filled your shopping cart and gardens with lots of new shrubs, flowers, and vegetables. Now what? Keep your plants looking their best with minimal effort so you can enjoy them and your summer even more. Watering is one task where I find even experienced gardeners struggle. Proper watering is key. Too much or not enough water can result in yellow, wilting and even death of plants. Check container plantings daily. Stick your finger into the soil and water whenever the top few inches of soil is starting to dry. Water thoroughly so the exce...
(Family Features) While it is widely known that starting your day with a balanced, nutritious breakfast can have a positive impact on overall health, it may be difficult for some people to make it a priority. Whether you generally run low on time in the mornings or have little ones to keep on track before heading out the door, it simply isn't always an option to piece together a grandiose morning meal. Rather than overhauling your lifestyle, consider some simpler ways to incorporate breakfast...
OLYMPIA – March 7, 2017 – Washington State Parks turns 105 years old on Monday, March 19, and visitors are invited to help celebrate by enjoying a state park for free that day. With the 2018 spring and summer seasons just around the corner, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission reminds the public that recreation opportunities abound in more than 100 parks and recreation sites and on park trails statewide. March 19 is the third of 12 State Parks “free days” in 2018, when visitors are not required to display the Discover Pass for d...
Catching up after the holidays, our photos taken from 12-22-15 to 1-5-16 are online. Here's a presentation and link: http://coulee.photoshelter.com/gallery/1-6-16-Star/G0000BnqmGDxBbNA...
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You soon can run your wheeled ATVs on Electric City streets. The city council passed an ordinance last week to allow all-terrain vehicles on city streets, and one permitting golf carts will soon follow. The council, in passing the ATV ordinance, instructed city Clerk Jackie Perman to draw up a corresponding ordinance allowing golf carts the same privilege. The ATV ordinance restricts speed to 35 miles per hour and to streets that don’t have a higher speed limit. It also requires that the driver wear a helmet unless the ATV has a roll bar. O...
Hot indeed, July was, to quote Yoda. I’ve been looking over the records for the month of July at the “official weather station” here in the Grand Coulee area (Coulee Dam 1 SW [451767]). As expected, there are fluctuations from year to year. Some examples: From 1935-41 July had maximum temperatures over the 100°F mark. The next such run of years for July was 1944-47 and then 1958-62 and so on. Well, you get the picture; it varies. The most recent grouping of years for July with maximum temper...
Yard sale mania: You can find treasures here in the coulee For many families, the dog days of summer have arrived. And as time flies by, as it always seems to when the month of August is here, now come a few weeks for getting ready, getting organized, getting your acts together, or, as a corny saying spied on a T-shirt spouts, “Get Er Done.” What is this column’s rant about? Getting ready for the yearly back-to-school event, that’s what. Going through the back-to-school process is a big deal for some families or students and this early fall ev...
In last weeks C’est La Vie column, I reported on the great bargain hunting opportunities at a couple of antique sales, both featuring unique items, retro household stuff and some honest-to-goodness antiques and collectibles, some more than 40 years old. The Victorian-era cheese platter, with the country of England its origin, made its way to a new home in the Coulee. I liked seeing an everyday household dish used in the early 1900s for sale right here in the Coulee. The 1997 Wildlife Restaurant Plate, as pictured in that article, had a full col...
Reviewing the past five June’s, June 2014 comes in as the driest. Here at the home weather station we only measured 0.59 inches, while the mean for June is 1.04 inches. Here’s how that ranks going back to 2009: 2013- 1.51 inches, 2012- 3.35 inches, 2011- 0.60 inches, 2010- 2.33 inches, and 2009- 0.93 inches. Temperatures were comparable, though, to these past years. We had a high of 88.1°F (June 23) and a low of 43.7°F (June 16). Only once in the past five years did we break into a high tempe...
Get ready for a fantastic Fourth of July weekend in the Coulee. The annual Festival of America, coming up at the park below the Visitor’s Center in Coulee Dam on July 4-5, will be an entertaining event with foot-stomping live music both evenings, plus the fireworks display off the top of Grand Coulee, starting at 10:30 p.m., on Friday night, July 4. And, once again, opening at 11 a.m. each day, the event features artisans and craftspersons and their special wares and foodies; take note, some of our favorite food vendors will be in the park t...
What’s on your agenda for the weekend? If you are staying close to home, and you have a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket, and you are looking for a short-time diversion, look no further because it’s yard sale season in the Coulee. Here’s the menu. For starters, there are a half dozen sales advertised in The Star this week and more than likely, other sales will “piggy back” on these sales, offering up more chances, choices, and challenges so you can make some of those hard earned dollars work for you, on the cheap. But first, you have to...
Let’s start off with a wander down the Prairie Look trail, and in your mind’s eye, you can take your choice: either walk along that dusty trail on foot or try sitting up high on horseback or in a wagon. Imagine your family’s wagon, lumbering along in the ruts made by the hundreds of wagons and campers (prairie schooners) groaning under the weight of cargo, which, in the 1800s might have included wooden wedding chests filled with linens, clothing, and memorabilia from life before the trek across the plains and prairies. An old journal entry...
The mean precipitation for May is 1.10 inches, and this year, like 2013 and 2012, we only received a portion of that. We measured 0.63 inches here at the home weather station (compared to the same in 2013 and just 0.27 inches in 2012). The mean temperature was 60.0°F was 1.6°F higher than mean (all-time mean is 58.4°F). The high for the month was 84.7°F and the low was 38.0°F. The all-time high was 100°F back in 1986, and the all-time low was 21°F in 2002. There has been discussion about El Nino...
Previously, this column wandered along a trail on the lone prairie, searching for the new decorating sensation, the Prairie Look, including a drive by the wheat fields bordering highway 2 between Grand Coulee and Airway Heights. No prairie schooners were sighted, except for the old buckboard wagon situated on the main street of Wilbur. Somehow that wagon with the geese riding high on the seat didn’t cut the mustard for getting the Prairie Look on. However, there was a modern-day prairie schooner sighting in Coulee Dam this past Saturday a...
When I was younger, a cemetery brought visions of ghosts and creepy monsters. Not to mention a music video by Michael Jackson that made all the ghouls dance in unison. It was a place you did not want to go and always felt a little uncomfortable. As a kid it also brought back visions of death and that can make it all the scarier for a child. But as we grow and mature, we learn and experience, and the cemetery becomes something else. For me, it is a place of memories. If you think about it for a moment, like I did this weekend, it’s kind of a s...
What comes to mind when you see the word “prairie” on a cover of a magazine devoted entirely to decorating? Probably not too much, unless you enjoy this avenue of creative outlay. I don’t know about you all but I really think decorating is a rewarding experience, especially decorating on the cheap. Anyway, let’s explore the Prairie Look and what we have to do to become a Prairie Styler. First, is the Prairie Look brand new? Or is it just a different name for a hybrid or a combination of decorating styles we’ve been using forever, such as: Adiro...
Are you ready for the SEASON? Come wind, rain or shine, it’s a go. You know the drill, wear a hoodie, bring along a wind breaker, a hat, sunglasses just in case we get some rays in the Coulee, and put on a pair of comfortable shoes. And don’t leave home without some coins. But wait, if you need a pair of cheaters, like me, here’s a tip. Bring an extra pair (this is the voice of experience speaking here) so when one pair gets accidentally knocked off of your face, or dropped and stepped on, or disappears into the abyss where all lost pairs...
There were a few hyper-milers (snail drivers) in the Coulee last week-end, starting on Thursday afternoon with a few more driving in slow motion on some of the streets in Grand Coulee and Electric City on Friday and again on Saturday morning, on the hunt for a moving sale and another sale, advertised as in a garage but actually outdoors. And yes, slowing down to a snail’s pace makes a difference when there’s foot traffic on the streets and drivers “putting on the brakes,” sometimes with only inches to spare, thus avoiding a rear ender. I witne...
One of my most trusted readers and a small friend of mine, (even though she tells me to Shut Up every time she sees me) wanted me to do my column about the Easter Bunny. So since I don’t want to make one of my most valued readers angry, I will write a column about the furry little guy that hopefully delivered you a basket full of goodies last Sunday. If you got a look at the middle school field last week, you might have got a peek at the thousands of eggs the Easter Bunny and the Lions Club s...
Have you figured out what a hyper-miler is? Here’s a clue. If you consider yourself a driver, you could be a hyper-miler without knowing you are but that is highly unlikely. Why? Because most of us drive in the Coulee as quickly as we can, and, as we all know, it’s sometimes difficult to keep that foot off the gas pedal, to snail along in our vehicles where designated speed limits range from 20 to 40 mph. Some drivers might holler that those limits just get in the way. Do you get the drift? We’ve established that hyper-miling has to do with...
Perennial ground covers are low growing plants usually only 1-3 inches high that spread along the ground and come back year after year. Perennial ground covers serve to help retain soil moisture, fill in empty spaces to help reduce weeds, and provide habitat for beneficial insects and small animals. The addition of perennial ground covers to a garden enhance the look and feel of the garden for years. They come in a variety of types. Some are fast spreading, making them valuable to prevent erosion on steep banks or to cover large open areas....
Hello again. Or, Hi y’all! Yes, it’s me, Frankie Delano, back at The Star after a hiatus of about six months with no shopping and junking news to crow about and a very long stretch without any yard or garage sales in the Coulee, except for a pre-holiday sale in the former Grand Coulee Liquor Store; and in January, I happened upon an indoor/outdoor unadvertised sale at a downriver home near Elmer City. For some reason, Black Beauty, the Delano pickup truck, refused to drive past that January sale, probably because the driver, I, caught a gli...
We decided to visit my family in North Dakota over spring break. We had never done this in all these (almost 20) years of being together. Mom and Sis were excited to have us, as was Gage (turning 6 during our visit) and Kash, who was just born in December. We soon found out why we have never visited. A landslide on one of the passes and a blizzard on another left us going about 25-40 MPH for a big chunk of driving, and leaving us 200 miles short of our first night’s destination and searching f...
