Cindi's Blog
Title: Hell's Canyon Mule Days
Date: 03/08/10
My dad loves mules. He has a mule name Charlie but we call him Ug because he is U G L Y! But, Charlie is a going outfit, and keeps my dad safe on his many summer travels, so he will always have a special place in my heart, even if he is hard on the eyes!
My daughter Sarah and I are more horse people...we like horses. But one thing we do enjoy is the Hell's Canyon Mule Days that comes around Wallowa County in September. I was looking at their website Hell's Canyon Mule Days and found this very interesting....I hope you will too!
In the Spring of 1981, local ranchers and packers met with representatives of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce and USDA Forest Service to explore the idea of putting together a new county event. As a result, the mule - tough, intelligent, individualistic, often maligned, but the mainstay of the many packers and outfitters working in Wallowa County - was elevated to center stage for the first annual Hells Canyon Mule Days celebration on September 19 - 20, 1981. Hells Canyon was an appropriate title because that area owes most of its early settlement and development to the mule which predominantly served as a major means of transportation to gain access to this rugged region of the county. Given the well-known independence of Mule Days’ long-eared star, the entertaining, action-packed event has met its initial goal - both mule skinners and spectators a like can be part of this family oriented mule show, with events and games for all ages.
Hope to see you there!
Title: Kids and Life in Wallowa County
Date: 02/19/10
Often times I write about our family and what we are doing. I do this because without you, I would not have this fantastic business that allows me to multitask and be a busy mother of 2 growing kids!
Coy came home the other day from school and told me that they are 1/2 way through school. I didn't think that could be quite right, so I pulled out the calendar, and sure enough, he was right! I know that people have told me that when the kids get older the days fly by, but I didn't really believe them.
Sarah has been keeping our family on the run this winter with her basketball schedule. She is in 5th grade now, but is playing some AAU basketball. She is about 5 ft 5 inches tall, and for a 5th grader, that is quite tall. She towers over most of the kids she plays against, and when she spreads her arms out, she looks like she is going to take off in flight. I have really enjoyed watching her play basketball, and learning the game. Their last tournament in La Grande was a lot of fun to watch...hard to sit on the bleachers and remain quiet while videotaping. From the playback when we got home, I failed miserably at this!
Now, Sarah is also doing 5th grade basketball everyday after school, so we are getting even more court time. That is ok, though, it is a short but intense season. Often, Coy gets to practice with her team if we are short girls, and it is fun to watch him develop his love of the game. I see a lot of bleacher time in our future!
We hope that you are enjoying your winter too.....hard to believe it is still Feb. with this beautifully sunny day with not a drop of snow on the ground at our home!
Until next time, Cindi
Title: New Years, already??
Date: 12/31/09
They say that as your kids age, the years go by faster, and I am beginning to firmly believe that! I can't believe that Sarah will be 11 in a week. Where does the time go?
Preparing for the 2010 year, I have been organizing, purging, prepping 2010 files, and I ran across a folder that I used to keep all my master forms in. This was a fun little trip down memory lane!
When I started the business back in 1998, I had one cabin (Unit #66) and worked another full time job. I wore all the "hats" needed to make the business operate. The next year we had Sarah so I wanted to stay home and still do the cabins as a side line business. Those first couple of years, I hand wrote all the confirmations on postcards and everything was on paper including the calendar, bookkeeping, and a website was never in my thoughts.
As time progressed, we slowly added cabins here and there. I now had 2 small children, with a brother named Coy joining sister Sarah. Adding cabins to the program slowly gave me the opportunity to still spend time with my kids and it also gave me the opportunity to see what systems worked, and what ones were just good in theory.
Just 11 short years later, we are one smooth running operation! We have a fantastic website that was the first in our business in Wallowa County to book online. We have tried and true systems to make our business run efficiently, and looking back to that master folder I see that we did it with baby steps. We grew slow enough that we were able to tweak and fix along the way. We are a bigger time operation now, but our goal will always remain the same.
We will always strive to be a great part of your vacation memories. We will always provide to you excellent and timely customer service and we will do everything we can to make your stay enjoyable!
Thank you for being a part of Wallowa Lake Vacation Rentals, and for providing me with this fantastic job that allows me to raise 2 fantastic kids, be a part of our community, and stay in the area that we love. We sincerely appreciate your business!
Cindi & Family and Staff of WLVR
Title: Snowmobiling at Salt Creek Summit
Date: 12/21/09
We had the absolutely best weekend this past weekend! Thursday Chad and I snuck away and went out to Salt Creek Summit and broke in my new-to-me snowmobile. Just the two of us. It was a fun day! Which was good because we took some heat from the kiddos that had to stay home and go to school instead of playing with us! We rode about 60 miles that day, clear out to Harl Butte, and saw wolf tracks. That was kind of a creepy feeling, but luckily never saw them.
Saturday, Chad and some friends of ours went back out to Salt Creek and spent a few more hours out there exploring and again, the kids were not pleased that they weren't able to go.
Sunday, finally!, the kiddos were able to go with us, and my parents, and we were able to go and enjoy the day. It was the first time that Sarah rode her new-to-her, first ever snowmobile and she did really well! We went all the way to Lick Creek and rode a loop by Wayside Springs and then back to the truck just before the loads of other snow worshipers hit the trails for the afternoon. All told, it was the perfect snowmobiling weekend!
I did happen across a cool map if you are ever thinking of coming up and snowmobiling. I hope you enjoy a weekend snowmobiling trip!
Merry Christmas! Cindi & Crew
Title: Christmas
Date: 12/02/09
So, who is ready for Christmas?? I know it seems like this year has just flown by. It always does seem like that, but I do believe it has gotten "faster" as the kids get older.
We are staying home this Christmas and I am really looking forward to being home for the holiday.
I asked the kids the other day what their favorite Aschenbrenner holiday tradition was and they both agreed that driving around looking at everyone's lights is their favorite thing we do as a family. Personally, I am looking forward to decorating the house and spending some time snowmobiling if we ever get snow! I hear that there is some snow out at Salt Creek Summit, so we might have to go out and check it out Sunday and get our tree!
Have a good December!
CindiTitle: Veteran's Day
Date: 11/12/09
We hope you enjoyed your Veteran's Day holiday. Ours was pretty fun. We spent the morning being lazy and making cinnamon rolls. Then, we went to the indoor arena and had a horse riding lesson for our daughter, Sarah. And, it snowed! Just couldn't get any better of a day, I don't think!
The evening was spent studying for Sarah's 5th grade Social Studies test and discussing the true meaning of Veteran's Day. We hoped that others were taking the time to discuss that Veteran's Day is not about the great sales, no school, no bank, and no mail, etc., with their kids. We hoped that people were explaining to their kids about sacrifice, loss, war, and freedom.
Our kids "get" war. Their grandfather served in Vietnam and was wounded. Their great grandfather served in World War II. Numerous uncles have also gone to war. Friends of ours have gone to war, and their kids are off to war currently. War, while sometimes necessary, is ugly. Our kids get that and know it first hand.
In honor of all Veteran's, I would like to share a little story with you.
You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded , and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out , you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient , Ed Freeman , died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul.....
THANK YOU VETERAN'S FOR ALL YOU DID AND CONTINUE TO DO FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
Title: Snow on the ground
Date: 10/27/09
There was snow on the ground this morning. Doesn't surprise me since the wind was howling last night. It wasn't the first skiff of snow for the 2009 winter, but it feels like the first true day of Fall.
We have received the signed contracts back for 2010 so if you have an existing reservation, we will be in contact with you making sure we have the right dates and cabin for your stay and accepting your deposit for 2010.
If you don't have a reservation yet, might want to sit down with a calendar and pen and get something on the books! With the reservations that are coming in already, many of our most popular homes are starting to fill up!
Happy Halloween! Cindi & Crew @ WLVR
Title: Could it be?
Date: 09/30/09
Could that really be white stuff on the mountains? I love this time of the year! The weather is cooler, trees are starting to change their colors and dropping their leaves. The nights are cold, and each morning we eagerly wake up to see if there is snow on the mountains! It is so pretty up here this time of the year.....you really should come and enjoy it!
Title: Our Before School Starts Day!
Date: 09/02/09
Every year the kids and I do something fun, just the 3 of us, for our last summer hoorrrahhh before school starts. This year, the kids and I went up the Wallowa Lake Tramway. It was the first time they had ever been up there, and I hadn't been up there since I worked there in high school. (which has been a day or two ago!).
We had so much fun! It was a beautiful day, a little on the warm side, and for a Monday, the Wallowa Lake Tramway was pretty packed!
My Grandfather, Keith Taylor, was the first president of High Wallowas, Inc., who was the first owner of the Tramway. They built the Tramway back in the late 60's. The Tramway was built by those that owned stock in the company. I worked for the Wallowa Lake Tramway for a summer in high school, as did my husband Chad. Sarah thinks that she wants to work there too, but she wants to ride the tram everyday, so wants to work at the top. Coy wants to catch the cars at the bottom. When we were coming down the mountain, it stopped moving for just a few minutes, but that quickly changed their minds of ever having to work there when I told them we used to practice rappelling out incase of emergency. At the end of the day, we decided we needed ice cream at Video Buff's in Enterprise. Best ice cream in our opinions!
Some useful stats for you: It takes 15 minutes to go up the Tramway. It takes 15 minutes back down too (we were often asked if down was faster). It is just 1.83 miles for distance traveled. It has 9650 feet of cable one way. You travel 690 feet per minute. There are 25 towers, tallest is at 74 feet, lowest is at 7 - 10 feet.Next year will be a little hard to top that experience....but we will try. The most important part to all of us is just getting the day together.
ps--we posted some more of our pics on the photo gallery page if you want to see whatelse we were up to!
Title: Wallowa County Fair
Date: 07/29/09
The Wallowa County Fair is next week. I remember the Wallowa County Fair from when I was a kid. I showed my horse Murphy Green and also took sheep as a livestock project. Now, my daughter Sarah, who is 10 and is a first year junior is going to show at the same fair I did when I was a kid. That is kind of special to me.
The Wallowa County Fair isn't like most county fairs. It doesn't have a carnival, there aren't any street type vendors, no food vendors, etc. But, what the Wallowa County Fair does offer is an opportunity for the kids to show their animals with the full support of their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and the support of their community.
I am excited for next week when Sarah shows her horse Kat that we purchased from Kari Frolander who owns Ruby Peak Quarter Horses in Enterprise, Oregon. Kari took Sarah under her wings and gave her some instruction and found her the perfect 4H horse. Kat is smart and makes Sarah work for it, but Kat is willing to give Sarah what she asks IF she asks for it correctly. That has been the biggest learning curve for her--asking for it correctly!
If you are vacationing here next week at beautiful Wallowa Lake, come into Enterprise Monday thru Thursday and see what the Wallowa County kids have been up to this summer. Come and experience our low key, but full of heart, Wallowa County Fair!
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