NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
A7
Newcomer opens ranching school
By TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
TERREBONNE — Mark
Gross knows he fits the
stereotypes.
He grew up in New York,
then spent much of his suc-
cessful career making good
money in the Bay Area. He is
a progressive, left-wing Jew-
ish man who touched down
in Central Oregon just two
years ago.
He and his wife snapped
up 10 acres outside Terre-
bonne that offer stunning
views of the Cascades. On
clear days, you can see all
the way to Mount Hood.
“I know we’re lucky,” he
said. “I definitely know it.”
Before he moved to the
property, Gross had never
used a chain saw. He had
never attached a plow to an
ATV and cleared a snowy
driveway. And he’d never
had to fix that ATV on a
cold, dark morning when the
driveway really needed to
be cleared. You know — the
basic requirements of owning
property in Central Oregon.
“I quickly discovered
if you don’t know how to
learn to do it yourself, you’re
going to kill yourself,” he
said.
In an attempt to improve
safety and knowledge of
home and land improve-
ments among new residents
of Central Oregon, Gross is
starting the School of Ranch.
He describes it as a casual,
social group that he hopes
can be a place where new
landowners can talk about
problems they’ve encoun-
tered and skills they’d like
to learn.
He also hopes that long-
time residents who hope to
pass along their priorities and
knowledge show up, as well.
The goal, he says, is to
pull together a solutions-fo-
cused group made up of both
rural newbies and folks who
know the Central Oregon
landscape like the back of
their hands.
Tim Trainor/The Spokesman
Mark Gross drives his ATV on his 10-acre property outside Terrebonne. He is hoping to connect
new landowners with old hands who know how to care for rural homes and ranchlands.
merable and overwhelming.
“The biggest yard I’ve
ever had was an eighth of
acre. The only question was
where to put the plant,” he
laughed. “Now I have 80
of those (eighth acres) —
it’s more about terraform-
ing and caring for the land
than putting in one plant.
What’s one plant going
to do?”
The old hand
Tim Trainor/The Spokesman
Mark Gross throws away an old chain saw blade while laboring
outside his Terrebonne home.
Urban upbringing
Gross is a fast learner
who has picked up a number
of different skills through-
out his varied career. He was
a professional poker player
for a spell, then became
a high school teacher and
later created an educational
software system that made
its way into classrooms
nationwide.
But learning how to care
for of a piece of the High
Desert, and become self-suf-
ficient on land outside city
services, has been an entirely
new challenge.
“In my life it has always
been a software problem,” he
said. “Out here, it’s a hard-
ware problem.”
The problems — and pos-
sible solutions — were innu-
Bob Baker, 74, has a lot
more experience on a lot
more land.
The Redmond resident
grew up on his grandfather’s
cattle, horse and sheep ranch
near Bakersfield, California.
The ranch, older than Califor-
nia itself, sprawled over more
than 2,000 acres.
“My riches are all my
memories growing up down
there,” he said. “I’d take a
horse and go out riding and
ride all day and never leave
the place.”
Baker was drafted and
served a year in Vietnam.
After he got out of the Army,
he took a job as a telegra-
pher for the Southern Pacific
Railway.
“The telegraph was rapidly
disappearing to make way for
the telephone,” he said. “But I
learned the old way.”
His wife at the time was
from Central Oregon, so he
lived here for a while. Then
he went to train dispatch
school and was sent to sta-
tions throughout the West, dis-
patching and scheduling trains
from the Canadian border all
the way down to Mexico. He
retired in 2008 and bought 5
acres of land between Sisters
and Redmond.
He says he hates to see
all the subdivisions going up
around Redmond, and watch-
ing the rural character of the
area disappear.
“I don’t know why you’d
move to an area and want to
make it look like the same
septic tank you came from,”
he said.
A partnership
Despite their many differ-
ences, Baker and Gross have
become friends. Gross said
he consults Baker about how
best to treat his property and
what kind of equipment to
buy. Baker, in turn, has pro-
vided advice and technical
know-how.
Baker said he is happy to
pass along his knowledge and
ideas “if somebody is inter-
ested in living off the land
without scarring the land for
eternity.”
He said for most peo-
ple, his advice is to do noth-
ing. The High Desert is not
made for lawns and dec-
orative ponds. Mostly, he
wishes people new to the
area would learn to love the
sage and juniper they bought
— instead of trying to turn it
into the suburban properties
they are often more familiar
with.
Those are lessons he
has imparted on Gross,
who hopes to impart simi-
lar ideas on new neighbors
who recently bought the lot
across the street from him.
“Man, I hope they don’t
put in a lawn,” Gross said.
This
neighbor-help-
Something powerful and beautiful is rising from the ashes across our
state. Our communal hardship has rekindled in us one of our greatest
and most unifying strengths — kindness. So elemental, yet so brave.
Awakened by an urgent need for connection and compassion. Kindness
has inspired us to listen. To learn. To lend a hand. To take care of each
other. Now we have the opportunity to keep it lit. Let's not let it smolder.
Let's fan the embers in our hearts. Let's keep kindness at the forefront
of our lives, and live as open examples of it. Kindness inspires kindness.
And here, in our Oregon, that is what makes us —
NeighbORly
[ INSPIRING KINDNESS ACROSS OREGON ]
L E A R N | CO N N EC T | D O N AT E | G E T I N S P I R E D
O R E G O N C F.O R G /N E I G H B O R LY
ing-neighbor approach has
long been a staple of rural
life. But as the culture of
Central Oregon changes,
Gross said it has become
more difficult for people
from different backgrounds
to get together, find common
ground and work together.
“It’s a lot easier to look
across some of our differ-
ences if we’re all in the same
spot, working toward the
same end,” he said.
Get together
The group’s first gather-
ing is set for Saturday, May
14 at noon. Get informa-
tion and register to attend
at this link: meetup.com/
school-of-ranch.
Gross is calling the first
meeting “BBQ and Chain-
saws” because he’ll provide
some food and attendees can
bond over their experience
— or total lack thereof — of
dropping trees and prepping
firewood.
“(Chain saws are) a good
first step and a step not every-
one has taken yet,” he said.
If all goes well, Gross
hopes the group can learn
and
practice
maintain-
ing gravel roads, managing
wells and irrigation, build-
ing fences, raising chick-
ens, acquiring the right tools
and more. He said that if the
group gets large enough,
they may be able negotiate
deals with local retailers and
service providers.
Baker said he doesn’t
want more people to move
to Central Oregon. But he
is interested in groups like
these, where people who
grew up on the land can
influence what the next gen-
eration does with it. He
says it is necessary to stop
the deterioration of the area
and to conserve the region’s
water supply.
He tells most new-
comers the same thing:
“Don’t destroy what you
live in. Nourish it so it
will be there after you’re
gone.”