Pia Hallenberg

For many equestrians, the height of horsey delight is a trail ride. Horse and rider enjoy expansive views, and the gentle plodding transports them far away from the daily training grind. The rider reflects on how trail riding is what it’s all about. Birds chirp, the horse is relaxing, stretching his neck, looking around and, oh dear, what is that? Someone is shaking out a blue tarp in front of a tent just off the trail. The horse stiffens, stops, turns and bolts, going from shuffle to breakneck gallop in a split second. Nerves completely frazzled, the two hopefully manage to end the trail ride together.

A typical farm museum is home to a collection of diesel-burning, gas-steaming and horse-powered pieces of farm equipment in various stages of working condition. Sometimes a few farm animals are part of the collection, and often visitors will find peculiar looking hand tools – no batteries required – from a couple generations ago. What most people don’t expect is a huge collection of ironstone china, a heavy-duty variety of dishware, painted in classic, beautiful patterns of thistle, morning glories and tea leaves, but that’s what can be found at the North Spokane Farm Museum.

When it comes to cool jobs in Spokane, Peter Jantz pretty much has it made: He takes care of the Camp Sekani mountain bike park at the bottom of Beacon Hill, just off Upriver Drive. What could be more perfect for someone who loves to ride his mountain bike? “It’s pretty nice out here,” Jantz said, straddling his bike outside the little house where he lives. “Most people are very nice and there’s really not a lot of trouble here.”

The water quality in Manito Park’s beloved duck pond had deteriorated to a point where Parks and Recreation Department staff had no choice but to round up some of the resident ducks and put them up for adoption. In February of last year, 40 ducks found new homes, and signs went up asking visitors to please not feed the birds. Park visitors were feeding the ducks lots of bread – not an ideal duck diet. It also turned the water quite foul.

The granite house with the broad front porch and the spiked turret was built in Spokane’s Logan neighborhood in 1901. It’s a funky blend of architectural styles, and like so many other older homes in the area, it’s had some so-called improvements done over the years. One of these was aluminum siding, and in April, Spokane Preservation Advocates got a group of volunteers together to help remove the siding. The owners of the house would like to nominate it for the historic register, and in order to do so it must be brought back to its original splendor.

Rena Perez is furious: She has just about had it with a particular speeder in her neighborhood. Over the past month, she said she has watched the same late model Corvette fly down the southwest Spokane Valley residential street she lives on, oblivious to children playing and families hanging out in their front yards.

More than 6,000 people live in assisted living communities, nursing homes or adult family homes in the Inland Northwest and Linda Petrie, who’s the regional long-term care ombudsman, is running out of volunteers to keep in contact with them all. “I cover five counties including Spokane, and 6,100 is the number of beds we have available,” said Petrie, of the Washington State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. “Right now we have about 35 volunteers, so yes, we absolutely need some more people.”

The first thing Marge McFaul, 84, will say about her fiddling skills is that she’s the least of the gifted. True, she has won her share of trophies at Idaho’s famous Weiser Fiddle Festival, and yes, she’s played violin since she was a child, but she’s very humble. “I just have a love of music. Getting in the top five at a contest doesn’t mean you are good fiddler,” McFaul said, sitting in her condo with a sweeping view of Spokane. “It depends on the judges; it depends on who else is competing. It depends on so many things.”

Alright, so it got a little silly, but it was all for a good cause. Trinity Catholic School and Educare Principal Sandra Nokes was swiftly and effectively covered in Silly String when students surpassed a fundraising goal for a recent Scholastic Book Fair.

The clack of balls on pool tables is audible from a couple of bars on Market Street, even amid the sound of heavy equipment rumbling down the crater that used to be the street. Trucks on Friday morning haul out gravel, front-end loaders move dirt back and forth, and a giant steamroller smooths things out. State and city funding is paying for the complete revamping of North Market Street, and shop owners are looking forward to street trees, new sidewalks and a much more pedestrian-friendly environment.

The new YMCA facility on Newport Highway is bustling with people working out, but it doesn’t smell like a gym at all. It smells like fresh paint and wood chips, and there’s not even a tinge of chlorine in the air – the pools are just being finished up. The opening on Sept. 12 is the second grand opening the YMCA of the Inland Northwest has celebrated this year.

It’s been a hot summer in Spokane, and since the pools were closed for renovation at the end of the swim season last year, there weren’t many places to take a cool dip when the heat struck. Then, on July 6, a new Shadle Park Pool and a renovated A.M. Cannon Pool were the first to open their gates and invite swimmers to dive, swim and splash.

The Sons of the American Revolution Spokane Chapter No. 1 gave its annual commendation medal to Spokane Valley firefighter Dave Griffiths on Friday. Griffiths is the firefighter who was lowered through a hole cut in the Barker Street Bridge to rescue a woman who was stranded there, holding on to the bridge after her raft capsized.

Come for the food, the music or the piñatas, everything Hispanic will be celebrated this Saturday at the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Harmon Park. “This is a very family-friendly event, there is nonstop entertainment all day,” said Cynthia Vigil, who is a member of the sponsoring organization the Spokane Hispanic Business Professional Association and of this year’s planning committee. “It’s the third year we are having the festival, but my first on the planning committee.”

It’s a bit ironic that Tanya Goodall Smith connected with Russ Haan on Twitter – the social media network that lets users send short electronic messages about what they are doing out into the world. After all, Smith makes greeting cards by hand for her Spokane Valley home-based business Wimzie Prints, and Haan was in the middle of launching a campaign to get people to hand-write cards to one another. “I just found him on Twitter. He promotes greeting cards and that’s how I found out about his mission,” said Smith, who sells her greeting cards mostly from the Web site wimzieprints.com.

When Hutton Settlement on Upriver Drive was built in 1919, it was built to be self-sufficient. The fields surrounding the settlement were farmed, and on the grounds were not only houses for children, but a huge dairy barn with cows and other livestock that provided food for the children’s home. Today, the barn stands empty, a bit back on the property, waiting for a new purpose, but that doesn’t mean it’s not well taken care of.

Usually people share blankets and lawn chairs, but this year umbrellas and big blue tarps were in high demand, too, as picnickers claimed their spots at the Spokane Symphony’s traditional Labor Day concert in Comstock Park. Showers came and went all afternoon, but the sun broke through around 5 p.m.

Imagine a safari jeep. Now, leave the windshield in but take out all the side windows and replace them with plastic curtains that can be rolled up. Then, pick a handful of bright colors and paint the doors and panels. Finally, add lots of chrome, and you have a Philippine jeepney. On Sunday, a sparkling new jeepney was parked in front of St. Augustine Parish Hall on West 19th Avenue while the Filipino American Association of the Inland Empire was holding a fundraising Merienda Cena, a traditional mid-afternoon tea party.

It appears that 1909 was an extra-busy year on Green Bluff. In March of that year, the Green Bluff Community United Methodist Church was built, and soon after the Green Bluff Grange went up, just across the road.