Vignettes from Vermont: The Smell of Vermont Wood and Canadian Coffee

10-inch walnut and tigerwood bowl. Buy it HERE

BENNINGTON -- Fiddlehead at Four Corners art gallery received two more pieces of timber from the Vermont Butcher Block & Board Company. One of the bowls is made of walnut and tigerwood, the other of maple. The bowls are thick and solid when you rap your knuckles on them, satisfyingly so, and you think "This is good wood."

Then you put your nose to the bowl and inhale like it's the last breath of oxygen you'll ever take and man! That smell! It's thick and solid wood with a delicious aroma of Vermont.

As for the coffee ...

... it kicks ass in a most satisfying way.

The "Kick Ass" beans arrived yesterday all the way from Invermere, British Columbia, Canada, home of Kicking Horse Coffee. "Kick Ass" is a dark roast and bills itself as "Sweet. Smoky. Audacious." In French that would be "Doux. Fume. Audacieux."

You pull off the freshness seal ...

... and the raw, oily beans emit a dank, pungent odor -- intoxicating almost -- when you inhale like it's the wood bowl above. Don't be scared off by that oil. There's a pretty good Q&A about oily coffee beans HERE.

Kicking Horse Coffee built a strong website that includes a timeline of coffee throughout the ages. The first entry reads: "Legend says coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia by a goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed his goats became frisky after munching on some unusual red cherries. He tried it himself and, well, the rest is you-know-what."

You know what happened a few centuries later in the Kicking Horse Valley?

Good thing they weren't in a haste to bury poor old James Hector, huh?

One hundred and thirty-eight years later, Kicking Horse Coffee was born this way:

"What are you two schmucks going to do with your lives? Sell coffee from your garage?" is what Elana Rosenfeld's mother asked with that all-knowing pungency of Yiddish guilt.

"And so in 1996 Leo Johnson and Elana Rosenfeld did precisely that. In the Rocky Mountain town of Invermere, B.C., Canada, they began roasting coffee in their skivvies when it was hot out, balancing babies and experimenting with different products."

Kicking Horse Coffee staff includes Elana Rosenfeld (center)
and Leo Johnson (2nd from right)

In the following years Kicking Horse Coffee went 100 percent organic and joined the fair trade movement. Read the rest of their story HERE.

Kicking Horse also built a pretty sweet cafe ...

Kicking Horse Cafe photo

Kick Ass blend has joined the pantheon of great coffee in Art Gallery Dude's book, alongside Jamaican Me Crazy (Barrie House Coffee) and Deadman's Reach (Raven's Brew).

Those Vermont Butcher Block & Board Company bowls have joined the pantheon of sweet wood pieces at Fiddlehead, alongside the 8 cheese boards ...

Here's the maple bowl ... "good wood" ...

If you want this solid piece of Vermont click HERE

Vignettes from Vermont: Of Kefauver Paintings & Presidential Politics

Will Kefauver oil paintings available HERE

BENNINGTON -- Kefauver.

"Why does that name ring a bell?" Art Gallery Dude asked.

"Estes Kefauver. He was on the ticket with Adlai Stevenson," the oil painter answered.

"I wish I could have been alive to vote for Stevenson," the gallery owner said.

Will Kefauver, who is the oil painter quoted above, attended Whittier College, where Richard Nixon graduated, and it just so happens that the Stevenson-Kefauver Democratic presidential ticket of '52 lost to the GOP ticket of Eisenhower-Nixon. And again in '56.

Cary Estes Kefauver (Wikipedia Commons)

What makes the Estes Kefauver story unique in American politics is that twice he was the overwhelming favorite to be the blue nominee for president yet twice settled for No. 2 status behind Stevenson. Read Kefauver's story HERE. 

Artist Kefauver said he is related to Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. 

Then the conversation switched to art, and Fiddlehead at Four Corners now features 8 of Will Kefauver's oils on linen panels and canvas. 

"My daughter goes to Bennington College and I've been in Fiddlehead before," he said in the video below, "and it's a great gallery to be associated with."

Besides Whittier College, Kefauver studied at the Katonah Arts Center. His instructors were Robert Speier, Milton Glaser, William P. Duffy and Jock MacRae. 

Kefauver's influences are Corot -- "I love his sense of light" -- Frank Benson for his composition and Wolf Kahn "who can find color anywhere." 

His work has been juried into shows across the country and he won awards from the National Society of Artists, the Lake Wales Arts Council, the Art Director's Club, the American Institute of Graphic Arts and The One Show. His work has been featured in Art Direction, the North County News, Advertising Techniques and Idea magazines. 

His framed plein air landscapes feature bales of hay and flowing water of the Housatonic, sheds in a field and stones and barns, soft green trees and cotton balls in a blue sky. Three other counter-sized pieces are joined to a black wood base with 2 wires ...

"Ashlawn Farm"

"Lieutenant River"

"Reed Pond"

Will Kefauver's paintings are available HERE. And here is a 2-minute video ...

Vignettes from Vermont: Ode to Steve Williams and the Little Girl from Banner Elk, North Carolina

Full Moon Rising mug by Steve Williams,
available at www.getartbehappy.com

"The place you just can't stay away from."

BENNINGTON -- After zero public comment, Banner Elk Mayor Brenda Lyerly stood before town council on the night of January 14 and reported on two items. The first item was about two Christmas cards she and the town staff received from Lees-McRae College, signed by Barry and Deb. A little girl was responsible for the second item.

Indeed, according to the minutes, Lyerly "shared with everyone a letter she received from a creative young girl who attends Rankin Elementary School in Mt. Holly. The girl wrote about places of interest in and around Banner Elk, designed a bumper sticker and created a new slogan for Banner Elk 'the place you just can’t stay away from.' "

That makes a lot of sense when you consider where Banner Elk sits ...

Google Maps

Google Maps

... up in Appalachia, those Blue Ridge Mountains in the corner of North Cackalackee, just south of Virginny and just east of the Tennessee-Kentucky sammich.

Banner Elk, North Carolina, 1.2 square miles, population 1,028 in 2010, up from 811 in 2000 when the breakdown was 90.26 percent white (732), 3.95 percent black (32), .62 percent Native American (5), 1.23 percent Asian (10) and other races (10), .25 percent Pacific Islander (2), 2.47 percent mixed (20) and 1.85 percent Hispanic or Latino (15).

According to Wiki, Indians inhabited the land near Elk River though "no evidence is found" to support that theory. Martin Banner arrived in 1848 and years later when the Banner clan hit 55-strong, the land was named Banner's Elk, shortened to Banner Elk in 1911.

You'll find these sights in and around Banner Elk ...

Bridge that fords the Shawneehaw Creek (Wikipedia Commons)

Mill Pond, where the Shawneehaw Creek and Elk River merge (Wikipedia)

... Banner Elk is home to the Woolly Worm Festival every year, and the surroundings offer an outdoor enthusiast's paradise because of Watauga Lake and Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain and Grandfather Mountain and Pisgah and Cherokee National Forest and Hawks' Nest -- the largest all-tubing mountain on the east coast.

As mentioned, Banner Elk is home to Lees-McRae College, a private 4-year school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Lees-McRae sits 4,000 feet above sea level, making it the highest college east of the Mississippi. The school sells its location in the "undeveloped forests" of North Carolina, and the mission of Lees-McRae's Outdoor Programs ...

LMU.edu

... "is to offer students opportunities for participation in outdoor educational experiences that will develop the mind, body, and soul of the student while developing essential leadership and developmental skills vital to success in life. This program will challenge students to be active participants in their environment and in their own lives."

Lees-McRae's cycling team is ranked No. 3 in the nation, but the men's hoops team is struggling (2-21 overall) after a 10-point loss Wednesday in Due West, South Carolina ...

LMC.edu

Banner Elk is seeking a new police chief to oversee a $662,000 operating budget. Depending on experience, the top cop will make between $52,974 to $79,460. To apply click HERE.

For all of that information, Art Gallery Dude goes back to that little girl at Rankin Elementary and the slogan she brainstormed for Banner Elk ...

"The place you just can't stay away from"

... and there's a truth and wisdom about that when it comes to a Banner Elk artist by the name of Steve Williams because Fiddlehead at Four Corners art gallery sells his pottery wares and customers just can't stay away from it. 

It's fair to say Steve is the most popular pottery artist at Fiddlehead.

Steve's theme is full moon rising "over the North Carolina mountains he calls home", and his mugs and bowls and platters and cream and sugar sets and sushi plates fly off the shelves. And to think, mom wanted son to be a doctor.

"My poor mother's dreams of my becoming a physician ended when I took an elective pottery class at Appalachian State University," Steve writes on his website. "I soon changed from a biology major to industrial arts and technical education.

"I took every pottery class ASU offered and made up several more under independent study. Teaching high school was not for me. I did my student teaching and promptly decided to open a pottery business. That was 24 years ago. It was a pivotal decision and I have not regretted making the decision to be a potter. A person could study pottery making for many lifetimes and still not learn everything about the subject."

Fiddlehead received 34 pieces yesterday: 6 fluted soup bowls, 6 large dinner plates, 6 salad-dessert plates, 6 16-ounce mugs, 2 cream and sugar sets, a large fluted serving bowl, a large platter, a chip and dip set, a large square tray and 2 sushi trays. Everything is safe for the microwave, oven and dishwasher -- and, Steve said, "it is lead-free."

Large fluted serving bowl $65

Sushi tray 5x12 (2 available) $24

12x12 Square Tray ($64)

6 Fluted Soup Bowls ($18)

6-inch Salad/Dessert Plate ($17)

Chips and Dip Set ($62)

11-inch Dinner Plate (6 available) $35

Cream and Sugar Set $44

16-ounce Mug (6 available) $22

Vignettes from Vermont: Eat Your Heart Out, Latke

Natasha Garder Littrell,
owner of Crazy Russian Girls bakery,
Main Street in downtown Bennington

BENNINGTON -- Hey, mom, you'll be glad to know that the Crazy Russian Girl did not ruin your recipe and sully my mouth with awful latkes.

It began Friday during an exchange of messages on Facebook after she made a post announcing that this week would be Jewish/Israeli food week as part of the bakery's international cuisine series:

"Joey from Fiddlehead here. So, I'm Jewish and I take my latkes seriously. Done wrong they're awful. I've only ever used my mom's recipe, which was her mom's recipe and so on. I pass it on to you, with love, because latkes need to be made the right way with the right ingredients so using anything other than Matzo Meal ... would be a sham."

POTATO LATKES

3 white potatoes

half an onion

piece of carrot

Matzo Meal

2 eggs

salt and fresh pepper

Peel potatoes, skin the onion,

clean the carrot, shred the stuff,

squirt of lemon juice

Crack the eggs and beat them

then pour into the potato mixture

maybe third to half cup of Matzo Meal

season and fry in peanut oil

Art Gallery Dude and the Crazy Russian Girl traded a few more messages about matzo ball soup and blintzes and and rugelach and other Jewish delicacies on the menu this week, which coincides with the Jewish festival of Purim -- GROGGER! GROGGER! GROGGER! Purim is the story of deliverance featuring Mordechai, Queen Esther, King Ahasuerus and Hamen the Dickhead. Just when Hamen is ready to slaughter Mordechai and the rest of the Jews, Mordechai, Esther and a bout of the king's amnesia reverse things and lead to Hamen's death -- and 75,000 of his closest Jew-hating friends. It's pretty much a commandment for Jews to get drunk during Purim. During the reading of the story, Jews boo and hiss and spin the grager (grogger) every time Hamen's name is mentioned.

The most traditional Jewish food during Purim is hamentashen. Basically, we eat the soul of the idea of Hamen. Made to represent Hamen's 3-sided hat, hamentashen are triangular pastries filled with jams and marmalades, sometimes chocolate, possibly cinnamon. The Crazy Russian Girls are using Jennifer McGettian's recipe to make hamentashen galore. If you forgot who Jennifer McGettigan is, click HERE. (Hint: she got married at the hot dog cart.)

That being said, what's wrong with serving Hanukkah's main treat -- latkes -- a few months later. There's never a bad time to eat latkes. And, well, it's Jewish/Israeli Week.

"Cool," AGD wrote during the Facebook exchange. "Let me know, and thanks for the latkes. Looking forward to them. If they stack up I'll something about them. If not, I'll forget I ever sullied my mouth with them. Ha."

"Oh the pressure, the pressure," she wrote. "You sound as bad as my mom."

They say the way to a man's heart is through his belly and at 8 o'clock this morning Natasha Garder Littrell, who has owned and operated Crazy Russian Girls bakery on Main Street since 2009, used his mom's time-tested latke recipe to win Art Gallery Dude's heart. She did good. This was the taste of latkes AGD remembers from a long time ago in Long Beach, California. This is the way latkes should taste, forevermore.

Crazy Russian Girls became a reality after heavy persuasion from her fans, which included the powers that be in from the Better Bennington Corporation. Until that point Natasha made her baked goods at home and sold them in a vending cart on Main Street.

"I didn't think I had enough experience to open a bakery," she said this morning during the 21-minute video in which she makes AGD his latkes.

She took the leap of faith because "I just wanted to do it."

Natasha Garder Littrell's ancestry is tied to Russia, Switzerland, Germany and France. She's half-Russian and half-Swiss, raised Russian Orthodox before converting to Catholicism. She's pretty sure her mom's great-grandfather was Jewish while religion on her dad's side "is a big mystery." She was the first one from her family born in the United States, and while she calls herself a "true-blood American" she quickly says that "There's no greater patriot than my babooshka, who risked her life and my dad's life to get here."

Irene Garder and her son, Leonid, walked out of Russia during World War II and wound up in Germany, then Paris, before the Tolstoy Foundation brought them to America.

"We grew up with this appreciation for the wonderful gifts that having freedom gives you," Natasha said, "but also the generations of brainwashing of don't throw food away, you don't know what it's like to be hungry, treat people the way you would want to be treated and finally be strong -- my babooshka always had a thing about women being tough, and strong, so it was a good background."

That background also gave her ideas about cuisine far and wide, aided in part by Leonid, who grew up spending summers in France. Years later he fed his family octopus one day and artichokes and snails the next. "In the back of my head I had a dream that if I opened my own place I would mimic how I ate growing up."

The Crazy Russian Girl has is taking that idea around the world, and back.

Natasha was pleased with her jerk chicken during Jamaica Week thanks to a woman who is married to a Jamaican and "sat in a chair next to me and supervised me." You can count the number Vietnamese Benningtonians on one hand yet Crazy Russian Girls celebrated the culture a few weeks ago: "A Vietnamese woman showed up and demanded to inspect the pork. She gave me her own cookbook with annotations, so I learned how to make Pho and spring rolls." Last week was New Orleans Week.

Today, to make sure the Jewish/Israeli menu featured world-class latkes, Art Gallery Dude showed up to make sure Natasha didn't ruin his mom's simple recipe that dates back to her great-grandmother's days in Odessa, Russia.

For future batches of latkes, AGD told Natasha to let the shredded potatoes drain on paper towels for 30 minutes or so. But for this demonstration he told her to expedite the process. Bottom line is that the mother of five used the right ingredients and fried the latkes till they were golden and crispy on the outside and perfect on the inside.

A dollop of sour cream on top, and what a treat for breakfast! Latkes just like mom's.

Now, as this "latke smackdown" took place in the Crazy Russian Girls kitchen at 8 o'clock on a Tuesday morning in downtown Bennington, Vermont, the heavily pierced Chris LaFountain was in the middle of browning schmaltz and diced onions in a pan, and that concoction will flavor matzo balls for the homemade matzo ball soup. Schmaltz is that stuff -- rendered chicken fat -- that settles at the top after chicken stock has cooled in the fridge overnight ...

... so if you make matzo balls without the schmaltz, you're doing it all wrong, Bubbeleh.

According to the Crazy Russian Girls Facebook page, today's menu of Jewish/Israeli food features chicken and matzo ball soup, marak kubbeh adom (red vegetable soup with bulgar and beef meatballs) and latkes with sour cream and apple sauce. The rest of the week features homemade pita, hummus, fattoush (Israeli salad), falafel and Yemeni stew.

And being Purim, there will be hamantaschen galore in the bakery. Even the ghost of Hamen would enjoy the Crazy Russian Girl's flair for Jewish cuisine. Poor Hamen.

Natasha wrote this on the CRG Facebook page today re: global cuisines:

"Whenever I'm researching new recipes, I always choose the ones that have an interesting story or a great anecdote attached. I want recipes that speak to me, that are linked to memories of their childhood and family, recipes that come from adventures in interesting places, recipes with stories that excite me and make me curious, and stories that make me laugh. I don't want to just cook a recipe from another country out of a book. I want to know and feel and taste something of the people that prepare that dish in their homes. I want to understand a little bit about their traditions and why they cook their food in that particular way with those particular ingredients. I guess the best gift my parents gave me was a relentless curiosity about food from all over the world. I've been sharing some of those dishes with you and I guess I should be sharing a bit of the story or the anecdote that made that recipe pop out of the book and make me just have to cook it. Some of those stories are going to come from all of you because so many of you have been sharing recipes, giving me advice, and bringing me hard to find ingredients. That's my favorite part of the Global Specials. I'm having great conversations with customers and fans about the food and dishes that excite them and mean the most to them."

Here are Natasha and Art Gallery Dude talking life and latkes. In case you're wondering about "Crazy Russian Girls" you'll just have to watch the entire video. It's a sweet story.

Vignettes from Vermont: Come at the Dude with Deadman's Reach, You Best Not Miss

BENNINGTON -- To make the comparison between coffee and art because it seems like the natural thing to do, or maybe not but who cares, Deadman's Reach is gritty like McNulty and strong like Barksdale, muscular like Stringer Bell and dank like Omar, raw like Bubbles yet robust like Daniels. In other words, it's devastating and sublime like characters from The Wire. Both come at you with fire and fury and make you want to mainline it.

Art Gallery Dude is way down in the hole of intense viewing because he missed The Wire when the show dropped in 2002. But 23 discs comprising all 5 seasons arrived last week, and here we go, bubba. Episode 10 of season 1, with Officer Greggs clinging to life after getting shot, was playing when the coffee arrived today. And thank god because Deadman's Reach is the perfect antidote to the coffee AGD drank last week ...

... it's billed as "the most expensive coffee in the world" at 75 bucks a pound. Thing is, expensive does not mean best taste. It's OK, but floral? Lemony? If you want floral and lemon notes in your coffee, sugar, why didn't you just order a cup of tea? 

Not to mention, it doesn't really give you a good coffee buzz.

Deadman's Reach does ...

Fresh, moist beans

Fresh, moist beans that grind nicely

... buzzy and torquey but without an edge. This is world-class coffee, from Alaska. As an aside, "Raven's Brew" equates to Poe, who's from Baltimore, which is the locale for The Wire, and there's another beautiful coincidence, bubba.

AGD drank 2 cups at 2 o'clock just before the gallery became Grand Central Station over the next 160 minutes -- when at least 50 customers came and went -- and he:

* told the story of the old marble bank turned art gallery at least 10 times.

* told the Brian Hewitt "cerveza, surfing, senorita" Dominican retirement story 5 times.

* talked to a tennis-loving writer from New York City about two of his projects -- "Red Confetti" and "The Plagiarists" -- for longer than should be allowed by law.

The torque from this new coffee helped AGD buzz right along.

Raven's Brew has a strong website that includes a page dedicated to Deadman's Reach. On that page you'll find fiction and poetry and history and mystery and art and animation and photography and just so much other cool shit.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm wired from great coffee and jonesing to go way back down that hole to see how Season 1 of this socio-economic cop drama ends.

Vignettes from Vermont: Stoneware Way Up There in White Man Indian Land

Cascadia Stoneware gold spiral serving bowl

BENNINGTON -- Two big boxes traveled a long way this week, from Deming, Washington, to Bennington, Vermont ...

... a journey of 2,999.7 miles.

Inside the boxes were 39 pieces of handmade stoneware, from baker's bowls to cereal bowls to platters to olive oil cruets to cream and sugar sets to mugs and steins to double condiment servers to more serving bowls to lotion bottles to soap dishes. Their glazes have names such as "goldstone" and "midnight blue" and "galaxy" and "lavender sunset" and "gold spiral" and "cascade blue" -- and customers at Fiddlehead at Four Corners art gallery in downtown Bennington eat it up like candy.

Which is why Fiddlehead owner and curator Joel Lentzner ordered 39 more pieces from Cascadia Stoneware USA, owned by Jeff and Natalie McDougall of Deming, Washington. One of the first things you see at Cascadia's website is Jeff's artist statement:

"Raised on a small farm in the rainy Pacific Northwest, I spent a great deal of time playing in the mud. However, it wasn't until I was an undergrad at Western Washington University that I discovered the potters' wheel and that I could make beautiful yet practical things with clay. I started my first pottery business in my parent's barn, and began making a living as a potter while finishing my degree in ceramics. I then became the primary potter at Mud In Your Eye Pottery in Bellingham, WA. The Mud In Your Eye store is closed however we are still making many of the same pieces along with our own unique work at Cascadia Stoneware.

"I love the rich and ancient history of pottery and am inspired by the connection I feel to the earth while working with clay. My goal is to combine traditional, functional shapes with vibrant glazes, to create pottery that is both useful and beautiful.

"With 10 years of experience as a studio potter, I'm happy to be working now with my wife, Natalie. Natalie brings fresh artistic talent to Cascadia and together we make awesome pottery! We start from scratch using raw clay and finish with our own unique hand-mixed glazes. Our stoneware is fired to cone 12, (2,400 degrees), making it durable and more resistant to chipping and scratching than low-fire earthenware pottery.

"We derive a great deal of pleasure knowing we are making pottery for you to enjoy and use."

The website includes a photo essay to show how Cascadia makes its stoneware.

Cool stuff.

***

BUT WHAT SPARKED Art Gallery Dude's imagination more than Cascadia's stoneware was where it came from -- "Deming, Washington" -- and his first thought was "What is life like in Deming, Washington?"

At an elevation of 210 feet above sea level in Whatcom County, 15 miles east of Bellingham and 12 miles south of the Canadian border, with the Nooksack River and timber and mountains as its backdrop, Deming, Washington, is a 5.23-square-mile tale of two dynamics: white man's land named after its first postmaster, George Deming, and land that for thousands of years belonged to the tribe of Nooksack Indians.

If you were to go by the recent data numbers, Deming is tiny with 353 residents -- and that's up 68 percent from 2000. Comprising that population were 324 whites, 12 Hispanics, 7 Indians, 4 with two or more races, 3 Blacks and 3 Asians. The European effect is 46.7 percent German, 21 percent Dutch, 6.7 percent English and 4.8 percent Irish.

A chart displays the most common first name among the deceased and their average lifespan: William (12 of them, 73.9 years), John (11, 61.2), Robert (9, 72.8), Mary (9, 76.3), James (9, 77.2), Donald (7, 73.1), Joseph (7.83.3), Walter (6, 82.1), Albert (6, 78.7) and Gerald (68.3).

Two Demingites -- Daniel Pry, Kent Schroder -- have applied for patents.

Deming has one hotel (Glacier Creek Lodge); one church (Catholics are the largest religious group at 27 percent); one cemetery; two creeks; and a one-runway airport. Unemployement was 5.2 percent in 2008 then spiked to 8.5 percent in '09 and 8.9 percent in '10 before falling to 8.1 and 7.7 the next two years. Eighty-eight percent of the men in Deming work manufacturing jobs, and the other 12 percent work in retail, meaning none work in forestry, fishing, hunting, mining, quarrying, oil or gas extraction, construction, wholesale trade or transportation and warehousing.

The nearest cities are Kendall, Nooksack, Acme and Peaceful Valley. The nearest city with 200,000 or more residents is Seattle at 83.4 miles south. The nearest city with 1 million population is L.A. at 1,038 miles south. Vancouver is only 65 miles north if you're up for a Canucks game or grade-A weed, or both, although you can spark grade-A weed in Washington State now, so who needs the Canucks?

But anyway. No movie stars or famous singers or pro athletes have emerged from Deming, but the town does feature North Fork Brewery -- or "The Beer Shrine" ...

North Fork Brewery ... for more click HERE

It's where you go to eat pizza, drink beer and, on a good day, watch someone get married. But lovers must adhere to these guidelines to get married there:

***

NOW, ANOTHER SET OF DATA at www.nooksackindiantribe.org makes you wonder how they came up with the "7 Indians" because ...

"We are a Tribe of approximately 2,000 members, located in our ancestral homeland in the northwest corner of Washington State. Our name comes from a place name in our language and translates to “always bracken fern roots,” which illustrates our close ties to our land and the resources that continue to give strength to our people.

"Our Tribe is located in Deming, Washington, just 15 miles east of Bellingham, 12 miles south of the Canadian Border, nestled amongst majestic mountains, lush forest, and the meandering and dynamic Nooksack River.

"Here in this scenic locale, we maintain a Tribal Council and Tribal Government. Both our Council and Government work to create a better future for every Nooksack and ensure our Tribe’s sovereignty."

So, indeed, it's a tale of two lands.

If you sniff around the Nooksack website long enough you'll stumble upon a 24-page Nooksack Indian Tribe Strategic Plan 2012-2022:

***

Whether Deming, Washington, has 353 residents or 2,353 residents, two of them are Jeff and Natalie McDougall, who create beautiful stoneware. Here are some of their works for sale at Fiddlehead and its website www.getartbehappy.com ... click to embiggen.

Addendum: Check out the Nooksack River Casino HERE.