In this issue

Helping with website to bring Wenatchee Together during pandemic one of the most fulfilling projects of a lifetime • Kids 8 and 9 climb Washington’s volcanoes • From bad brakes to good bikes to donate to kids • In search of local waterfalls • These humans gave a hoot and saved owlets • Touring Leavenworth show gardens • Poetry is hot here • The beautiful Western Tanager • How old is old? It’s more than a number • Play more to live better

Nita Paine

‘I love that we provide an outlet to people to express themselves, to find out who they are’

4 mins

Looking at life from a different angle now

Bout with cancer, plus pandemic made couple wonder: Why wait to really live?

4 mins

Keeping family ties strong

Twelve months of COVID makes for a long year away from kids and grandkids

4 mins

It's a kick to be a zebra — or a canary

When making the call is your calling

5 mins

Saved family letters tell of war horrors, peacetime hopes and dreams

Loving letters from long ago

3 mins

Varied Thrush: Making a bold statement

Globally, the thrush family contains 169 viable species; three other thrush species are now extinct.

2 mins

Clean shots

For real estate photographer, the art is in the uncluttered details

4 mins

Visiting the glory years of our parents

Obituaries – They’re really NOT for the dead

7 mins

Going deep with Dan Feil

Warm crystal clear water, incredible fish, spectacular scenery, why not jump off a boat in the tropics?

4 mins

Bringing a glow to the night

Who says outside lights are just for Christmas time? Drivers on Maple Street in Wenatchee will now see lights year-round.

1 min

LONG-TIME COMING

Peshastin home is a promise fulfilled, and filled with promise

5 mins

Welding a career, polishing a life

Bronze artist starts fresh in Wenatchee

4 mins

One person's junk is Lynn Palmer's Scrap metal yard art

Lynn Palmer likes to work with her hands. Gardening, cooking and — welding.

3 mins

Jim and Carolyn Phillips — Don't stop being active

Jim and Carolyn Phillips are local legends.

7 mins

First time ‘in charge'

You would expect some lessons were to be learned on extended trailer trip

10+ mins

American Dipper: a swimming and singing songbird

If you walk along a mountain stream almost anywhere in the western United States, you may see a uniformly gray bird standing on a rock near a riffle or rapid in the middle of the river.

2 mins

A DIABETES CALLED LADA

HER JOURNEY IN DISCOVERING A DISEASE HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

5 mins

Solitude & skiing

Even in the ‘empty nester’ years, it’s fun to strap on skis or snowshoes for a trek in the snowy wonderland

4 mins

Upgrading by downsizing

Builder believes tiny homes have large variety of uses

4 mins

Chocolatier follows her heart

A long and winding road to doing what she loves:

5 mins

Taking an off-grid break during the pandemic

As the owners of Ravenous Catering located in Monitor, Valarie Gilmour and Dave Toal are usually very busy people, but in 2020 the lack of weddings and large gatherings gave them time to indulge their wanderlust.

5 mins

Our stories continue: Filling a heart with joy

MY BEST DAY 2020

2 mins

Joy for both dogs and humans in walking

PET TALES

5 mins

It's the BEST Day because I live here & I live now

What makes the best day for me? Any day at all that I wake up in the USA.

1 min

Hair-raising resolutions for the New Year

New Year’s Eve traditions

3 mins

Catching up with 4 artists and their creations

It’s always a pleasure talking with artists about their projects, but it’s especially nice to check in after a few years and hear about continuing growth and new directions.

7 mins

Grandparents answer the School Bell

The pandemic has thrust some families together, with parents working from home and kids learning remotely, using a dining room or kitchen nook as a makeshift classroom.

5 mins

ZOOMING IN ON EAGLES

‘Armed with a Nikon 5600 camera, plus two lenses — a wide-angle and a zoom — I was down at the eagle’s nest for hours at a time. Waiting for the eggs to hatch, watching the parents bring in food.’

4 mins

White-crowned sparrows appear here in wintertime

When you see a mature White-crowned Sparrow, there is little doubt about how it got its name.

2 mins

Spring break in the COVID fall

Travels with the grandson

4 mins

Read all stories from The Good Life

The Good Life Magazine Description:

The Good Life magazine is a monthly lifestyle print publication primarily circulating in Wenatchee and the Chelan and Douglas counties area of Washington founded upon the idea the world is a big, beautiful place — we like to find people who are stepping off the usual path in one way or another to find adventure in their lives.

One of our guidelines is that we only report on local people — folks from Chelan and Douglas counties. Our idea is this: other media can go all around the world and come back with stories on war, famine, earthquakes, crime and the like.

We go right down the street and find our neighbors who are doing something extraordinary that maybe, might inspire you to take your own adventure. The variety of our stories never ceases to surprise us: People have shared their adventures of going to some of the most inhospitable places on earth — such as north of the Arctic Circle — to the most hospitable — such as floating down the canals in the French countryside.

Most of our stories, though, take part locally, in the most beautiful area of Washington State, as readers and contributors find adventure close to home. We love the “chapter two” stories where people show us how they have rebounded one of life’s bruises to find new joy in living.