Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
It’s Memorial Day weekend, time for the annual Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, four days of live music, dance, and art. It kicked off yesterday. We love that you can get front row seats if you arrive early and hear music until your ears get full. We’ve heard great local and regional groups in addition to bigger names from further afield. Four days of virtually nonstop entertainment.
The Shook Twins from Portland, a terrific act with great music.
This is a chimney stack at the former PenPly facility in Port Angeles. It was part of a plywood-making operation that went out of business after a 70-year presence on the Olympic Peninsula. Multiple generations of some families worked there. The mill was closed in late 2011 and the site was cleared. . .except for the stack. The stack met its end yesterday, but not without a fight.
Business took us to Port Angeles yesterday and afterwards we decided we’d go take a look. We got to a good vantage point an hour and a quarter early. After all, how often do you get to see a 175-foot chimney stack taken down? Turns out, for us, never so far. As the 3:30 appointed hour approached, the crowd around us grew. This was a big deal in the community and lots of people wanted to see it.
If you look at the bottom of the stack there’s a cloud of dust billowing out from 20 holes filled with explosives. As the explosives detonated, a cable pulled the stack to the left, in the direction it was intended to fall. It seemed to lean ever so slightly left but it didn’t fall. The cable either broke or released and the resilient stack returned to its locked and upright position. The dust cleared. A group of men in hard hats approached carefully, gingerly, then began to work around it with increasing resolution.
By the time we left, an hour later, it was still standing. The local paper reported yesterday evening that workers pulled out a big electrical saw and torches to sever stuborn steel rebar that insisted on doing its job of keeping the stack standing. It finally tilted and fell around 6:15, after most of us had give up and gone home.
Happy new year! Here we are in 2013 and 2012 is now a memory. That was quick!
I’m going to take a look back at 2012 for a few days and post some of my favorites in no particular order.
This is a shot from the Clallam County Rodeo last summer. The fellow in the middle was finishing his ride on the bucking bronco and looked like he was sharing a laugh with the two cowboys who were helping him off his mount. I love the lines and power of the horses and the action of the shot.
Here’s a view of the Clallam County Courthouse, located in Port Angeles. It’s a beautiful old building, with a newer wing housing many of our county services. Built in 1914, it is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The bell tower, which chimed while I was shooting, contains a bell that was shipped around Cape Horn from Boston. In a nod to more modern concerns, the building contains 126 solar panels, installed in 1979, which produce an estimated 20% of the electrical power used in the building.
Sunday afternoon, 5 o’clock. This says it all.
The county fair is an opportunity for kids to strut their stuff and 4H clubs throughout the U.S. give them the tools and leadership skills to succeed. I love that we’re in a community that fosters active 4H involvement. The young exhibitors at the Clallam County Fair did a spectacular job showing their animals and projects.
They start ’em young. Having been a city kid for much of my life I’m impressed that children this size are perfectly at ease with critters bigger than they are.
The Fair is a chance for some fun, too. The kids costumed goats, above, and dogs and horses. The animals showed remarkable patience but it’s clear they’re also showered with love and care.
Bull riding! My back hurts just watching these guys. This is another one of those rodeo events where a cowboy climbs on an unwilling ride. . .in this case a 3,000 pound steer that isn’t happy about the turn of events.
And here’s another example of testosterone meets resistance. There’s money to win at rodeos, but from my perspective a few of life’s bumps and injuries have taught me not to go looking for more.
I usually don’t fuss much with my photos but couldn’t do much about the background here. What do you think of this effect?