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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2019)
2019 Wallowa Photo Contest Enterprise, Oregon Wallowa.com 134th Year, No. 46 Wednesday, March 6, 2019 $1 A strong start for the 2019 Wallowa Photo Contest The 2019 Wallowa Photo Contest is underway and off to a good start. The twelfth annual photo contest is sponsored by the Wallowa County Chieftain and the Wallowa Valley Photo Club and is open to amateur photographers who either reside in or have visited Wallowa County. The contest saw eight submissions in the fi rst three days of the con- test. With more to come, check out the year’s submitted photos, which have been posted on the contest’s website. Typically the contest is held in January, rather than March, but the time frame hasn’t seemed to slow things down. The contest hosts two divisions. One for adults and a second for stu- dents. “It’s a great opportunity to share your experiences with the com- munity, and all photos are welcome,” said David Bridges of the Wallowa Valley Photo Club. “With the two contest divisions of Adult and Student, all ages are invited to participate. Maybe the younger members of the family have some pictures the rest of us would enjoy seeing. And a smart phone is TOP OF PAGE “Ready and Willing” was taken by Carl Sanders and submitted to the Wallowa Photo just as good as a camera.” Contest in 2012. ABOVE Adam Sims submitted “Eastern Oregon Barn” in 2012. See Photo Contest, Page A10 Saddle and ride SPRING FORWARD By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain Daylight saving time starts on Sunday at 2 a.m. when clocks are turned to 3 a.m. Sunrise and sunset will be about one hour later than the day before, which means there will be more light in the evening. A picnic table at the Country Inn in Enterprise waits for Spring, while holding some precious low-elevation snowpack in reserve. DON’T PUT THE DOWN JACKETS AWAY YET! Snowpack exceeds 100 percent, cold March in store By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain We can thank an El Niño and some associated atmo- spheric shenanigans for this bounty of water. “We’re in a weak El Niño,” said NOAA mete- orologist Tom Di Liberto. “The warm ocean compo- nent of El Niño started in the Fall. But it wasn’t until Feb- ruary that the atmospheric part of El Niño switched on.” El Niño’s tend to bring wet weather to the US West coast. But this year, Di Lib- erto noted, there were extra complications that were hard to predict. “The polar vor- tex allowed cold air to drop out of the Arctic, effecting Pacifi c Northwest tempera- tures,” Di Liberto said. What about March? “There’s no clear signal as to whether we will have greater or less than normal precipi- tation. 40 percent for above, 60 percent below,” Di Lib- erto said. “But the 30-day See Snowpack, Page A10 Everyone loves the smell of leather, and that’s what you get when you walk into the Sharp Saddles storefront at W.C. Marketplace, 203 N. Main St. unit 2 in Joseph. The shop’s moniker is taken from proprietors Clay and Robin Sharp, who moved to its W.C. Market- place location in October of 2018. The couple have been together for 25 years. Clay Sharp, who grew up in a remote part of British Columbia, started building saddles about 25 years ago. “I grew up on a ranch in Canada, so I’ve been around horses and cows my whole life,” he said. He also worked for an Arabian ranch in Sisters and attended far- rier school. Sharp also met his wife in Sisters and made some life changes. “We wanted to do some- thing where we would work together and do something different than a 9-5,” he said. “I also didn’t want to be shoeing horses at 50.” They knew they wanted something to do with horses. The subject of saddlemak- ing came up, which set the couple on their path. The couple moved to Idaho, found jobs and bought new saddle mak- Steve Tool/Chieftain Saddlemaker Clay Sharp stands near one of his custom Wade saddles with an inlaid memory foam seat. He and his wife, Robin Sharp, recently opened Sharp Saddles in the W.C. Marketplace in Joseph at 203 N. Main St. unit 2. ing tools each payday. They eventually went to Parowan, Utah to work for saddle- maker Bob Ray. Sharp started by building saddle trees, even though it didn’t interest him at the time. He agreed to the position only if allowed to watch Ray build saddles on occasion. Ray agreed. “Building trees was a fabulous foundation,” Robin Sharp said. The Sharps don’t build their trees at the moment, but they order them from Francis Bowden, a builder in Texas who formerly worked for Enterprise Sad- dle Tree Company in the 1970s. See Saddlemaker, Page A10