Day 2 at the Fair History Booth yielded some delightful interviews for Don Wick and me...starting with a return visit from Finn, one of the very first interviews we did at last year's fair. We also spoke with Connie, who shared her memories of competing in the annual Fair Parade (she and her sister took home the first place trophy three years in a row!). We spoke with Dwight and Tom about being bringing light to people's lives through a motorcycle ministry, and Jill told us about her organization's ministry to bring better health to our Magic Skagit community. We also interviewed the 2023 Tulip Ambassador, Carter, about what it took to earn his title, and we ended the day with a precocious 8 year old name Bryson.

We love the Fair!

On Day 1 of the 2023 Skagit County Fair, Don Wick and I talk to some young fair goers about the things that bring them joy. For "cousins" Charlotte and Cassidy, it's fair food (especially deep fried Oreos); for Liberty Brooks, it's raising and showing Holland Lop bunnies; for Maddy Durkin, it's being the Sedro-Woolley Rodeo Queen; and for mother and daughter Genevieve and Emma, it's the pleasures and challenges of small family farming and 4-H. You're going to feel better about the world after giving our first broadcast from the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth a listen.

For years, the driving force behind the organization of the annual Skagit County Fair has been Fair Manager Aric Gaither. In the time that I've worked with Aric, I've never stopped marveling at his energy and dedication to making the fair a cherished venue for bringing together friends and neighbors from all over the Magic Skagit. What few people appreciate about Aric's accomplishments is the fact that he has overseen the transition of the fair into a self-sustaining enterprise. This year, Aric was able to hire an assistant manager -- one whose credentials go all the way back to her high school years in Future Farmers of America (FFA) and showing animals at the Santa Clara County Fair in California, where she went on to become part of its staff doing educational outreach.

Meet Frances Negranza.

In this TMS podcast episode you'll learn about Frances' background and experience in fair management, and her philosophy about the role that county fairs play in educating children on the importance of agriculture while providing a memorable entertainment experience for families from all walks of life. I think you'll agree that short of cloning himself, it would be hard to imagine Aric Gaither recruiting a more energetic and able cohort than Ms. Negranza. The future of the Skagit County Fair looks bright indeed.

For one home on Mount Vernon's Cleveland Street, you might say that the Skagit County Fair has been a "moving" experience. In this Tales of the Magic Skagit podcast episode, we'll hear from two of the four owners of the home that sits next to the Sherman Anderson Ballpark, but was for decades situated within the fairgrounds. So what's it like having the Skagit County Fair as your neighbor? If you're Mark Pearson or Ayla Finnegan, it's no small part of your home's appeal -- and the ultimate ambient soundtrack of summer.

Hiatus = a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process

Our nation is losing OVER 40 veterans a day to suicide and over 700 first responders to suicide. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death for post-9/11 veterans with the highest percentage between 55 and 74 years old.

Hiatus Ranch of Idaho offers hiatus retreats for combat military veterans, local first responders, and active military who need to take a break from life to regroup, reenergize, and reset.

To break the path to suicide, a veteran, active duty service member or first responder needs to find something to connect with that drives a desire to work through each new day and builds hope.

This is the core of the Hiatus Ranch mission.

Today's podcast interview takes us more than 600 miles from the Magic Skagit, all the way to Shoshone, Idaho in the middle of the Snake River Plain. You'll meet Josh Burnside, who nearly became a suicide statistic himself after leaving the U.S. Army with the rank of sergeant and two tours in Iraq behind him. The healing power of animals and ranch life far from his Tennessee home is what Josh credits with saving his life -- and which led to the creation of Hiatus Ranch.

Although far removed from the Skagit Valley, Hiatus Ranch is a resource for vets and first responders throughout America, so please share this with anyone you know who might benefit from the subject of this TMS podcast episode. I think you're going to enjoy hearing Josh Burnside's story. It will leave you feeling a little better about the world for having listened.

Keep it magic, y'all!

July 15 & 16, 2023 will mark the 19th annual Skagit Valley studio tour known as Northwest Art Beat. Presented by Skagit Artists (www.skagitartists.com), a non-profit organization that promotes the visual arts by developing economic and networking opportunities in Skagit County, the event that takes place on the third weekend of July.

This year, NW Art Beat (www.nwartbeat.com) is featuring 15 Skagit Valley art studios, showcasing 19 artists from Skagit, Snohomish, and Whatcom counties. These studio venues will showcase a wide variety of artwork, including ceramic, glass, jewelry, stone, metalwork, woodwork, photography, acrylic, watercolor, oil, mixed media, and woodcut print making.

In this Tales of the Magic Skagit podcast episode, we’ll hear from two of the artists whose studios are on the tour map for 2023: Maria Wickwire and Sarah Dalton. We’ll talk about the NW Art Beat event, the mission of Skagit Artists, and the personal artistic journeys that Maria and Sarah followed to become part of the organization and the artistic mission it embraces.

A map of the 2023 studio tour locations is available online at www.nwartbeat.com/map.html

Maggie Telford is the Collections Intern at the Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner, WA. Her work at the museum has been funded by a Diversity in Local History Grant, and the task she has taken on is nothing less than the inventorying and reinterpretation of the museum's entire collection of Native American artifacts in order to re-tell its story of the First Peoples of the Skagit Valley. In this Beaver Tales podcast episode I'm joined by Michelle Calvin and Tony Cladoosby to talk with Maggie about her work and its significance.

We'll all get an opportunity to appreciate Maggie's efforts when the Skagit County Historical Museum re-opens its Native American exhibit on June 8. This Beaver Tales' episode will give you a sense of just what those efforts have been over a period of many months. Tony Cladoosby also reflects on how an intergenerational lifestyle informed his knowledge of his tribal identity and the way of life of the first Skagitonians.

We know it today as the Penn Cove Water Festival, an annual event that brings canoe racers to Coupeville on beautiful Whidbey Island to celebrate an important cultural intersection between tribal and non-tribal communities: life on the waters of the Puget Sound and Salish Sea. The event began in 1930 as a bit of local hucksterism that was billed as the "Indian Water Carnival." In this Beaver Tales podcast episode, I talk with the executive director of the Island County Historical Museum in Coupeville about the event's evolution into so much more than a racing competition, and about how it was that two Coast Salish chiefs once donned war bonnets to call attention to the plight of their tribal communities. We also honor the memory of a native artist and teacher whose creations gave the Penn Cove Water Festival a graphic identity: Roger Purdue.

In July 1993, a collection of stories, essays, and poems was published about the life of Vi Hilbert. Edited by the Seattle-based author Janet Yoder, the collection was a celebration of Vi's 75th birthday. As Janet describes it in her foreword, "The stories weave together like cedar bark to create a picture of this marvelous woman" who was "a language teacher, a storyteller, a translator, a researcher and a traditional elder" from the Skagit and Upper Skagit tribes.

In this Beaver Tales episode, I read from a story that Vi Hilbert tells about herself -- a story that begins with her birth in 1918 into a world very different than the one she found herself in at the time of its telling, nearly three-quarters of a century later.