Master Landscaping
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Power, strength and danger. Retired logger Michael Maras sees all these qualities in the larger-than-life bronze figures recently installed at the new Logging Legacy Memorial Park in downtown Enumclaw. A drover with his goad stick and a pair of oxen joined by a yoke are all bent forward, their backs and their shoulders straining atop a huge slab of sandstone.

Hooves and hobnail boots push forward as one.

Still to be installed is a 20-foot long, 5-foot- diameter bronze log that will connect to the oxen by bronze chain. A Tacoma foundry is putting the log pieces together.

“I think it is a great thing,” Maras said of the memorial taking shape in his hometown.

“For some of us, growing up with those men – dads and stuff – they were our heroes,” said Maras, 61. “They need to be remembered. The military has its memorials.”

The park will pay tribute to the more than 8,000 dead and 65,000 injured in the logging industry in the state in the last 100 years, according to Tom Poe, president of the Logging Legacy Memorial Park Foundation. It has raised close to $550,000 since 2002.

Maras, who grew up in a logging family and worked in the industry for nearly 26 years until his knees gave out, knows the toll the woods can take on bodies and lives.

He was injured a couple of times. He also remembers a hot July afternoon in 1984 when his best friend died in his arms on a hillside in the woods after being run over by a log skidder tractor.

Poe is a jeweler, not a logger, but he has a deep sense of community and the history of Enumclaw. He also had the vision for a memorial.

Enumclaw isn’t the logging community it once was, especially with the closure of Weyerhaeuser’s White River Mill in 2003. But Poe said there’s still a footprint of logging in the surrounding woods.

He took his idea for a memorial to Enumclaw sculptor Dan Snider. The artist came back with the stylized oxen and drover dragging a log, the same kind of logging that cleared the plateau in the 1860s.

“I started carrying around a small mock-up in bronze,” Poe said.

The nonprofit foundation was formed and the fundraising began.

The city donated parkland in front of the Enumclaw Library. Poe said it took eight or nine meetings with city committees and commissions to get the go-ahead.

“It wasn’t without opposition,” he said. “It’s different, a little larger than life and meant to be striking, enduring and tell the story for a long time.”

Donations came primarily from private individuals, close to 300 of them, he said. There also were corporate donors, including Weyerhaeuser, Mutual of Enumclaw and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

Chuck Nelson from the Wilkeson Sandstone Quarry donated the 136,000 pounds of sandstone base for the bronzes as well as for the benches, rocks and pavers in the park.

Nelson’s huge mobile crane lifted the heavy pieces into place.

Poe said that if he had to bid out the project today, it would cost $2 million.

“Both the artist and the foundry felt it would be a signature piece and they were willing to work more for exposure,” he said.

Poe said that for him the work epitomizes “the resolve and toughness these loggers had. This was the spirit of the Northwest. It was tough and rough.”

Kevin Keating of The Bronze Works in Tacoma is rushing to cast and assemble the bronze log in time for the June 14 dedication. The log is made up of 84 pieces that must be welded together. Each of the oxen had 65 pieces.

The entire sculpture will use 15,000 pounds of bronze, Keating said. The foundry has been working on it for 18 months.

“It’s pretty much the largest overall project we have ever done,” he said.

Keating said those involved were proud to be part of a local project of such magnitude.

“So many of our bronze pieces go outside the area,” he said. “We don’t get to brag about them.”

The oxen drew immediate attention when they were installed. A plan to cover the sculpture until dedication day was scrapped.

“They look so powerful,” Carol Smith said as she and her husband, Brit, strolled around the memorial last week. Landscapers were hard at work.

“There is such a rich history here,” she said. “I think it’s sad there is no real logging presence anymore.”

Allan Magstadt of Enumclaw Landscaping also liked what he saw.

Tags: deep sense, drover, foot diameter, footprint, hooves, landscape, landscaper, landscapers, Landscaping, larger than life, log skidder, logging community, logging industry, maras, memorial park, pair of oxen, park foundation, poe, sculptor, taking shape, weyerhaeuser, yoke
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Arts outdoors - five top summer events In Review’Asuccessful garden is one that has a sense of place,” begins Arne Maynard.

I believe him because, in garden design circles, he is God. So even if he scarcely utters a word today, some of the magic from his own creation at the end of a single-track lane near Usk is bound to rub off.

But Maynard, 43, a genial man with a ready smile, runs at full throttle, which surely comes as a relief to we dozen students of the soil paying ï¿¡180 each to learn about “The Main Plant Players - Designing Structure with Plants“.

Maynard’s one and two-day courses, running from March to November, are now in their second year and the venue is his own newly created garden at his 15th-century hall house in Monmouthshire.

Whether you want to design kitchen gardens, build earthworks, mazes and knots or learn how to make the most of topiary, summer perennials and winter woodlands, these educational days feature seasonal themes and well-made lunches.

The garden - a redundant farmyard of grassy banks and orchards with a stream and an ancient track running through it - is a beguiling open-air classroom.

As we stand in the approach to Maynard’s house, which is planted with an emerging tapestry of Angelica sylvestris ‘Vicar’s Mead’ and Geranium phaeum ‘Lily Lovell’, he explains his naturalistic approach to structure: “The garden melts into the landscape so that it roots into its setting.”

Maynard achieves a gentle transition from woods to garden with a 30-year-old topiary beech standing beside the track.

“It’s saying ‘This is the way’, it almost draws you in,” he says, as the track takes us across a bridge over the stream where thistles (Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’) grow.

Beech, yew, box and Ilex crenata are among Maynard’s main players, and he clips them into free-flowing topiary. As he wanted his garden to look good quickly, his trees are mature and wildly expensive - the beech was a stupefying ï¿¡4,500 from a specialist nursery in Holland.

“The Dutch and the Belgians have always moved large trees - the secret is to keep moving them and cutting the roots to create a tight root ball. Our culture is different - we like growing from seed and taking cuttings,” he continues.

His planting is robust. “I don’t want a garden that’s too precious,” he says.

“It’s about connecting the landscape with the garden - it will appear completely seamless but will get very intense around the house with a mad jumble of topiary.”

Weaving between huge yews, a swirling contemporary earthwork is planted with a spiral of copper beech at different heights.

At the rear of his house, a boundary fence has blurred into the landscape; more earthworks planted with bush apple trees allow the garden to merge with the pastoral amphitheatre behind, where the line of an old drovers’ road cuts through the middle distance.

After lunch, in the loft of a barn, Maynard discusses design. There is no glass in the wooden mullions. “I so like the connection with outside,” he says, flinging back the shutters.

He explains how he trims, tames, pollards and pleaches, how he half-annihilates an ancient yew hedge to spectacular effect, how he sinks a drive to lose it in the landscape and how he despises parked cars.

We students scribble in notebooks. “Apart from a few trees, my garden is non-existent. I’ve never done anything like this before; I’ve come to listen to one of my gardening heroes,” whispers Louise Brook, who wants to transform her garden in Italy.

Emma Mills from West Sussex, also intends to try what she has picked up on the course.

“What attracted me to Arne is his idea that you bring the landscape into the garden and look to nature for inspiration. I like his holistic approach,” she says.

Archie Scott from Whitchurch concurs: “I’m a professional gardener specialising in hard landscaping but on a smaller scale - a day like this is where I get new ideas.”

Tags: amp, angelica sylvestris, apple trees, arne maynard, century hall, dozen students, drover, educational days, farmyard, fence, gentle transition, geranium phaeum, grass, grassy banks, kitchen gardens, landscape, Landscaping, lovell, mazes, monmouthshire, naturalistic approach, perennials, plants, ready smile, seasonal themes, sense of place, soil, specialist nursery, summer perennials, thistles, yew
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CARSON CITY, Nev. – Land Rover North America and the Nevada Commission on Tourism announced today that this year’s Nevada Passage will serve as the national selection event for the 2008/2009 Land Rover G4 Challenge.

Twenty athletes from around the nation will travel throughout Nevada competing in driving and outdoor adventure activities designed to test teamwork and skills such as 4×4 driving, navigating, trail running, mountain biking and kayaking. The top two two-person teams from the national competition advance to the international selection event in early 2009, where one team will be selected to represent the United States in the final challenge in Asia.

“When we launched the Nevada Passage in 2005, our goal was to further establish Nevada as an outdoor hotspot,” Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, Nevada Commission on Tourism chair, said. “Land Rover, a brand renowned for outdoors and adventure, has selected Nevada as the nation’s lone location for this prolific, global competition, further solidifying this premier destination for adventurers, explorers and outdoors enthusiasts.”

Recognized as the one of the world’s top off-road driving and adventure events, the Land Rover G4 Challenge is held every two years with national selection events taking place in 18 countries around the world. This year marks only the second time the United States has participated in the global competition since the inaugural event in 2003. The new Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage will take place in May 2008.

For the first time in the event’s history, the Land Rover G4 Challenge will raise funds for two world-class charity organizations: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The competition will culminate with the donation of a Land Rover on behalf of the winning team to their country’s national Red Cross or Red Crescent Society.

“Land Rover’s brand is synonymous with history and adventure, so it’s truly fitting for us to participate in the challenge,” Chris Marchand, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Land Rover North America, said. “We saw the Nevada Passage and Nevada’s array of adventure sports activities and driving terrains as the most desirable location for this exciting landmark competition.”

The Nevada Passage, first held in 2005, is the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s one-of-kind, annual made-for-TV event that is designed to highlight Nevada’s unique topography and showcase the vast array of adventure sports opportunities found throughout the state.

“We’re looking forward to taking the fourth Nevada Passage TV program to the next level and making it the national setting for this global event,” Tim Maland, director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, said. “To partner with such a highly visible and respected brand as Land Rover will provide us with a greater platform to showcase our state’s incredible outdoor recreation opportunities.”

The competition is syndicated on national networks throughout the country and the hour-long show is seen by more than 2 million viewers each year. Past competitions have included events such as back-country skiing in the Sierra Nevada mountains, sand boarding near Fallon, kayaking on the Truckee River in downtown Reno and rock climbing in Red Rock Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas.

For more information on the Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage, or to apply to be a competitor, visit www.landroverG4challenge.com For highlights and information on previous Nevada Passage competitions, visit www.nevadapassage.com

###

Fact Sheet

The 18 participating nations:

· Australia

· China

· Netherlands

· Turkey

· Austria

· France

· Norway/Sweden

· UK

· Belgium/Luxemburg

· Germany

· Russia

· USA

· Brazil

· Ireland

· South Africa

· Canada

· Italy

· Spain

Land Rover G4 Challenge

Land Rover has a lasting heritage of adventure, with one of the best known expeditions

run in 1970 when two Range Rovers became the first vehicles to complete a land crossing of the Darien Gap swamplands that divide North America from South America. The Land Rover G4 Challenge was inaugurated in 2003, when Belgian fighter pilot Rudi

Thoelen emerged victorious from a cliff hanging finale in Moab, Utah. The next Challenge, in 2006, went deep into rugged, remote locations in Thailand, Laos, Brazil and Bolivia, coming to an end at an altitude of over 13,000 feet with South African Martin Dreyer emerging victorious.

The Nevada Commission on Tourism

The Nevada Commission on Tourism is the marketing agency for the state of Nevada. It developed the Nevada Passage in 2005 to showcase the state’s outdoor activities to the world. Viewers can now watch the previous episodes at www.nevadapassage.com or download it to a video iPod® or other portable video player. The 2007 episode is expected to be available online after syndication closes in February 2008.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. It comprises 186 member Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, seven regional zone offices, more than 60 delegations and a secretariat in Geneva. Working in partnership with communities, the International Federation aims to reduce the impact of disasters, diseases and public health emergencies, to make communities stronger and more resilient, and to promote respect for diversity and human dignity.

Land Rover North America is part of Ford Motor Company’s Premier Automotive Group with headquarters in Irvine, California. Land Rover established operations in the U.S. in 1986, and now imports and distributes Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, LR3 and LR2 vehicles manufactured by Land Rover in Solihull and Halewood, England. Land Rover’s worldwide operations are wholly owned by Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan. For information about the Land Rover retailer nearest you, call 800-FIND-4WD or log on to www.LandRoverusa.com

Vehicle specifications and features are subject to change. For the latest Land Rover pricing and product information, contact Land Rover North America Product Communications at (949) 341-5800. Land Rover-related press releases and electronic photos of the company’s products are available on-line in the Land Rover section of Ford Motor Company’s news media website (media.landrover.com).

Tags: advent, amp, drover, rta, second time, showcase
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Canterburys Chris Redmond and Welshman John Burge were just two people among thousands at the Crank-Up site at the weekend.
But they were more excited about the dozens of tractors on show than most, with the event doubling as a celebration of 50 years of Massey Ferguson.
Mr Redmond owns more than 40 old tractors on his Canterbury property and and Mr Burge has seven old tractors in Wales.
They first met in 1995 when Mr Redmond was visiting Mr Burges workplace in Coventry, England — a Massey Ferguson manufacturing plant. They started talking tractors and have been friends ever since.
Mr Burge, now retired, flew from Wales for the Edendale Crank-Up for the third time in three years at the weekend, catching up with Mr Redmond and his wife Rachel at their Canterbury home.
%26quot;Theres always a bit of tractor talk, it keeps us out of mischief,%26quot; Mr Burge said.
Mr Redmond has been buying old tractors and restoring them for 15 years, gaining great satisfaction from making a run-down tractor look nice again, he said.
%26quot;I use them on the farm so they earn their keep,%26quot; he said.
Mrs Redmond said a couple of her husbands 40 tractors had crept onto the lawn and he also had model tractors in the house.
Mr Burge said tractors had been his life.
Forty years working at Coventrys tractor plant had allowed him to forge many friendships in the industry.
He catches up with many of those old mates when travelling to different parts of the world to view shows such as Crank-Up.
The Crank-Up event, in its 21st year, also included Model T Fords, traction engines, landrovers, motorbike stunts, country music, chaff cutting and childrens entertainment.

Tags: drover, rta, third time
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You don’t want roses; he doesn’t want whatever it is you think he wants.

Rock Band

Whether he fronted a band in college or can’t even play the kazoo, every guy secretly dreams of being a rock star. Unfortunately, the pursuit of that dream would almost certainly result in financial ruin and total humiliation…for both of you. So buy him the video game Rock Band, which lets him be a guitarist, singer, drummer, or — if he has serious self-esteem issues — bassist in his very own virtual band. And don’t forget, he’ll be looking for a groupie after he finishes the encore. ($170, rockbandstore.com)

Silence

Contrary to popular belief, the thing married men miss most about their bachelorhood isn’t the opportunity to go out and chase women — it’s the opportunity to stay home and be alone. That’s not to say they’d rather live in a cave; they just like to pretend they do now and again, even if they do it while wrapped up in your Laura Ashley comforter. So agree to schedule nights where he can rule the remote and eat chicken-fried bacon pizza while you go out with friends or work in your home office with the door closed. You’ll be surprised how quickly it’ll recharge his emotional batteries.

Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card

Hey, we all make mistakes. And unless those mistakes involve illicitly procured human organs, Interpol, or a second familia in Honduras, there’s no better gift you can bestow than unconditional amnesty. Simply tell him that he can redeem this card after a mild-to-moderate screw-up in the coming year. In return, you’ll forget it ever happened — no questions asked. He’ll be grateful for your understanding, and you’ll be assured that he didn’t lie in order to escape your wrath.

An Outfit Worn for Him

Your guy knows that you usually dress to impress other women, not to attract him. So when you do wear something that’s solely for his benefit, he’s extremely appreciative — and can’t wait to tear it off you. It needn’t be an over-the-top Catholic schoolgirl outfit or a black patent leather zipper-crotch bodysuit…unless you’re into that sort of thing. Instead, don a shirt with a plunging neckline, fishnets, or a skirt that’s an inch shorter than anything else in your closet. Feel self-conscious? You won’t once you see him ogling you.

Less Makeup

A little eyeliner and lipstick are great. But unless you’re a newscaster or an octogenarian, there’s no reason to cake your face with goopy foundation and — sorry, but you’re not really fooling anyone — patchy zit-hider. Up close, subtle makeup is always more attractive. Besides, guys appreciate women who look good au naturel. Take racecar driver Danica Patrick; when all made up for talk shows, she’s unremarkable. But when she’s at the track in her jumpsuit with her hair tied up in a ponytail, she’s the hottest thing on four wheels. He clearly thinks you’re cute — so why conceal it under a bunch of, er, concealer?

Gift Ideas — For You

If you’re reading this, you know how difficult it is to find the right present for your spouse. So what better way to say you love him than to spare him from aimlessly wandering around a crowded mall until he buys you a woefully ill-advised gift at Hot Topic? If catching on to subtle hints isn’t his specialty, have a friend brief him on what you might like this year. He’ll feel like a genius, you’ll get exactly what you want, and you’ll both eliminate awkward trips to the store to buy, and then secretly return, crappy presents.

Driving School

Most males love to drive. But unfortunately, the kind of driving your guy typically does — commuting through rage-inducing traffic or weekend runs to Bed Bath %26 Beyond — isn’t enjoyable. So help remind him that he can have fun in a car by sending him to one of dozens of different driving schools held all over the country. Better yet, go with him to one like The Land Rover Experience at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. He can test the amazing SUV’s off-roading limits on the 8,000-acre property; you can explore the 250-room mansion, winery, and four-star hotel. Everybody wins! ($200-$800, landrover.com)

Binoculars

The best gift is unexpected, something he wouldn’t buy for himself, or is able to elicit an emotional response. Believe it or not, a pair of binoculars is all three: It’s an unusual present, and unless he’s a private detective, weird birdwatcher, or total pervert, chances are he doesn’t own a pair. Plus, they’ll remind him of the first time he was fascinated by binoculars as a little boy. (All boys are.) For maximum versatility, buy him a rugged pair of travel binoculars like Nikon’s 8×42 Monarch ATBs, which are waterproof, shockproof, and, most importantly, cool lookin’. ($290, binoculars.com)

Booze

Sure, his occasional intake of alcohol has indirectly led to an argument or two. But it’s a gift you can be sure he’ll use and enjoy. Rather than buying him a case of the beer he guzzles with buddies on Sundays, introduce him to something he may not have tried before. India Pale Ales (so named because the British sent the hoppier, more alcoholic beer to colonial soldiers in India), like Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, are becoming more and more popular. If he’s a spirits man, buy him an Irish whiskey — a subtler cousin of Scotch — like Bushmills 16 Year Single Malt. It’s so good, he’ll gladly stay home to go drinking.

Fantasy Sex

Sure, it seems like a no-brainer, but first you have to do some detective work. Was he particularly attentive during the refrigerator scene when you rented 9 { Weeks? Then bring some strawberries to bed. Have you ever caught him perusing an, ahem, erotic website? Well, take a look at what goes on there. Or, if all else fails, casually ask him outside the bedroom, then surprise him in it later. If you help make a fantasy of his come true, he’ll remember it long after he loses that pair of Isotoners you bought him.

Tags: biltmore estate, drover, rta
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