Webmaster
11-11-2007, 10:32 AM
Wow what a delight!! The event consisted of a social hour and a dinner. There was enough food to feed 100 people. And there was enough dessert to feed another 100 people! About 50 turned out and each brought several beautifully prepared dishes of food. Some were first time attendees to this event, as was the case for my Other and myself, and others have been coming to the event for a long time. We met some neighbors who have lived in the area for 40 years, and had a delightful conversation about the origins of Crystal Mountain and the growth in the community. We met some other neighbors who bought a house in the area last fall and had a great conversation with them about the care and feeding of houses and they also recounted a horror story about a friend of theirs who doesn’t live in Greenwater, but due to the massive flooding last November lost not only their house, but the property their house used to sit on is now part of the river basin! Of course, no insurance I know of will reimburse a home owner for the loss of their land to a river. With many in the area living within eye sight of the sometimes voracious White and Greenwater rivers, the comment brought a pause.
We had several conversations with a members of the local Fire Department. One lives with her family at Camp Shepard, where they help the Scouting troops and also volunteer full time for the local Fire Department. Another conversation was a about the fact that about 70 percent of all fire departments are operated by volunteers! Not just in Washington State, but across the nation.
Another conversation mentioned the recent increase in Cougar sightings in and near residential areas, and that traditional techniques to hunt the big cats were decided by a past vote of the people to be illegal.
We spoke with another person about some really nice and rarely used bike ride worthy roads that run parallel to USFS-74, spoke with another about the new Northway chair lift at Crystal Mountain which is nearing completion. The person was sharing with me how they dial in the alignment of the lift towers so that they make perfect alignment to within a tiny fraction of an inch with the lift cable. The towers carry huge amounts of weight and have to be invincible even when subjected to high winds, widely variable loads and, of course sustained, temperatures to well below freezing, plus relentless snow and ice accumulations as well as rain (which only happens during the off season, of course). Depending on the tower’s placement, a specific tower may need to be aligned with the angle of the hillside as opposed to straight up and down. Add to this that the tower footings and all other parts of construction were made with an absolute minimum of impact on the fragile terrain and it amounts to a large number of crucial engineering feats! The average skier and snow boarder is blissfully unaware of most or all of this, and it is a very high credit to the designers, installers, and those who maintain these lifts that it all works so well.
There were countless other stores shared. The above sampling is only a small fraction of a number of lively conversations
There was a wide range of superbly prepared food for the dinner. It was like having about 50 of your favorite home cooked meals, including in part penne pasta, venison and several other stews, chili, salmon mousse, and smoked salmon, several kinds of casseroles, curried chicken, smoked chicken, vegetarian lasagna, rice, buttermilk corn bread, biscuits, flaky rolls, breads, green salad, Caesar salad, mixed vegetables, and more crock pots than one could shake a ladle at.
Desserts included, in a small part, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie, lemon meringue pie, “better than sex cake,” berry topped angle food cake, chocolate fudge brownies pumpkin pie, pound bread, rolled pastry, a dozen or more different types of cookies, including in part, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate. There were probably a dozen different kinds of chocolates. It was literally way more than twice what everyone could eat.
There was a judging competition and fund fundraiser for the desserts. There were 2 categories: Pies and non pies. The judges had the most enviable duty of the evening and got to have first tastes of all the desserts they wanted. The lemon meringue pie and berry topped angel food cake were declared the winners. But really, all were outstanding. Any omission of foods brought but not mentioned above is the result of a less than perfect memory. I should have brought a camera!
As an idea to support the Community Center, perhaps all the excellent cooks would be willing to contribute recipes so that we can compile them and make a Greenwater Cook Book, to be sold to raise money for future events? Of course we will need to have other dinners so that we can properly photograph the meals for the cook book!
On behalf of everyone, many thanks for the countless hours of hard work to prepare all that went into the making of this scrumptious feast! This includes the folks who attended, the many chefs, those who made and distributed the flyers, those who set up and decorated the tables, those who stayed to clean up, and of course the Community Council who made the event a reality. I hope that future events will enjoy an equal or larger number of participants!
The setting crated an occasion where the food, camaraderie, and stories transformed the group to be more like an extended family than a gathering of individuals. The event was more akin to a Thanksgiving event than a Harvest event as we were all happy for the opportunity to spend time with our neighbors and be thankful for our good fortune and the time spent together in the small town of Greenwater.
As icing on the cake, Greenwater received a nice dusting of snow overnight.
Last but not least, the next Community Council meeting is this coming Monday (11-12-07) at 7:30 PM. Please attend, and bring ideas for future gatherings.
We had several conversations with a members of the local Fire Department. One lives with her family at Camp Shepard, where they help the Scouting troops and also volunteer full time for the local Fire Department. Another conversation was a about the fact that about 70 percent of all fire departments are operated by volunteers! Not just in Washington State, but across the nation.
Another conversation mentioned the recent increase in Cougar sightings in and near residential areas, and that traditional techniques to hunt the big cats were decided by a past vote of the people to be illegal.
We spoke with another person about some really nice and rarely used bike ride worthy roads that run parallel to USFS-74, spoke with another about the new Northway chair lift at Crystal Mountain which is nearing completion. The person was sharing with me how they dial in the alignment of the lift towers so that they make perfect alignment to within a tiny fraction of an inch with the lift cable. The towers carry huge amounts of weight and have to be invincible even when subjected to high winds, widely variable loads and, of course sustained, temperatures to well below freezing, plus relentless snow and ice accumulations as well as rain (which only happens during the off season, of course). Depending on the tower’s placement, a specific tower may need to be aligned with the angle of the hillside as opposed to straight up and down. Add to this that the tower footings and all other parts of construction were made with an absolute minimum of impact on the fragile terrain and it amounts to a large number of crucial engineering feats! The average skier and snow boarder is blissfully unaware of most or all of this, and it is a very high credit to the designers, installers, and those who maintain these lifts that it all works so well.
There were countless other stores shared. The above sampling is only a small fraction of a number of lively conversations
There was a wide range of superbly prepared food for the dinner. It was like having about 50 of your favorite home cooked meals, including in part penne pasta, venison and several other stews, chili, salmon mousse, and smoked salmon, several kinds of casseroles, curried chicken, smoked chicken, vegetarian lasagna, rice, buttermilk corn bread, biscuits, flaky rolls, breads, green salad, Caesar salad, mixed vegetables, and more crock pots than one could shake a ladle at.
Desserts included, in a small part, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie, lemon meringue pie, “better than sex cake,” berry topped angle food cake, chocolate fudge brownies pumpkin pie, pound bread, rolled pastry, a dozen or more different types of cookies, including in part, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate. There were probably a dozen different kinds of chocolates. It was literally way more than twice what everyone could eat.
There was a judging competition and fund fundraiser for the desserts. There were 2 categories: Pies and non pies. The judges had the most enviable duty of the evening and got to have first tastes of all the desserts they wanted. The lemon meringue pie and berry topped angel food cake were declared the winners. But really, all were outstanding. Any omission of foods brought but not mentioned above is the result of a less than perfect memory. I should have brought a camera!
As an idea to support the Community Center, perhaps all the excellent cooks would be willing to contribute recipes so that we can compile them and make a Greenwater Cook Book, to be sold to raise money for future events? Of course we will need to have other dinners so that we can properly photograph the meals for the cook book!
On behalf of everyone, many thanks for the countless hours of hard work to prepare all that went into the making of this scrumptious feast! This includes the folks who attended, the many chefs, those who made and distributed the flyers, those who set up and decorated the tables, those who stayed to clean up, and of course the Community Council who made the event a reality. I hope that future events will enjoy an equal or larger number of participants!
The setting crated an occasion where the food, camaraderie, and stories transformed the group to be more like an extended family than a gathering of individuals. The event was more akin to a Thanksgiving event than a Harvest event as we were all happy for the opportunity to spend time with our neighbors and be thankful for our good fortune and the time spent together in the small town of Greenwater.
As icing on the cake, Greenwater received a nice dusting of snow overnight.
Last but not least, the next Community Council meeting is this coming Monday (11-12-07) at 7:30 PM. Please attend, and bring ideas for future gatherings.