New West Network

My Page: Joseph Friedrichs

Is that guano we smell?

For the past several days a walnut-sized lump has been throbbing on the top of my skull. This morning when I attempted to shampoo my hair, the scrubbing motion nearly brought me to tears. I can’t wear my blue baseball hat without feeling pain.

The cause of the hideous and horribly painful lump on this writer’s noggin? It came from a sharp-ass rock in a dark-ass cave.

A lava cave, to be precise.

And despite the injury, I encourage everyone to go check out the lava caves in central and eastern Oregon for themselves. Just try not to be an idiot and get hurt yourself hurt, okay?

Alternative Energy

A Central Oregon geothermal project many years in the making continues to heat up following a recent announcement that nearly $30 million will go toward work near Newberry Crater.

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced the Energy Department grants would be coming through for seven Oregon projects. An estimated $25 million will be designated to power-producing technology involving water injected into the earth and about $4.5 million on technology to locate geothermal reservoirs at Newberry, according to Wyden.

“This funding will literally help to bring Oregon’s geothermal energy potential to the surface,” Wyden stated in a released statement. “It will create and sustain jobs improving alternative energy technology to better tap into Oregon’s unique set of renewable energy resources.”

We’ve been covering this story on NewWest.Net for several years, and this is by far the biggest advancement in the project.

Angry citizens left without bikes

Seth Naylor isn’t upset his bicycle was stolen this summer.

“I didn’t have a lock, no,” he said. “It wasn’t that a great of bike, is the funny thing.”

Naylor is among many Central Oregonians who lost their ride this summer. Some of the bikes were worth a lot of money, others had memories and were prized personal possessions. Other bikes were total junkers.

All the same, not everyone is as accepting of the thefts as Naylor.

“It’s just not cool,” said Audra Buamhover, another local resident who lost her bike this summer.

According to Bend city officials and local law enforcement, a “rash” of bike thefts have occurred during the past few months.

Bullet Sourced

NewWest.Net columnist Joseph Friedrichs has spent the past year of his life living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. His time there was a combination of chaos and education. He was arrested. He crafted some decent articles and exposed some news that needed exposing.

And now he is back to Oregon.

This is his story.

Restaurant Chain Gives Brewery Six Months To Change Title

Wildfire Brewery, Bend’s youngest beer-producing company, recently received notification that the business’s name violates copyright laws and therefore must change its title or head to the courtroom.

Wildfire restaurants - a chain of eateries with locations in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia and Georgia - sent a letter earlier this month to the owners of Wildfire Brewery informing them that they were in violation of a trademarked title. The letter strongly suggested that the brewery changes its name within six months, said Paul Cook, a co-owner and brewer for Wildfire.

Rather than take the issue to court, Cook said the Bend suds producer opted to change their business name.

“We’re a young company so we decided to raise the white flag,” Cook said. [more]

The People We Meet

As you read this, there’s a young man who is carrying a large, wooden cross toward Missoula. Today, he’s likely somewhere near Bend, wondering if he should cut east to Burns or head north toward Hood River and up to Walla Walla, as I suggested he should do.

This young man’s name is Jake, and he is what he described himself to be as a “traveling believer.”

Jake’s lugging this cross on a small wheel to Missoula because “God provides for you when you’re on foot.”

I asked Jake if it was possible that he was carrying this cross to Missoula because it gives people a reason to approach him, and when in available situations provide him with food.

Jake didn’t go for the notion. [more]

From Boring To Zigzag

As the pioneers trudged west all though years ago they used up city names from Missouri to New Mexico. Eventually the travelers arrived to Oregon where the established settlements and cities. Naturally they had to give these locations names. And some of the names they dubbed are nothing short of great comedy.

The collection is quite profound, these Oregon city names.

And after some serious investigation here’s the list of the ten best city names in Oregon. [more]

This Is Reality, Dear Reader

If you were to ask Kale if he would ever steal a bicycle he’d likely tell you that he wouldn’t. But if you offered him $1,000 in cash he’d probably do it. Who wouldn’t, you know?

Nonetheless, people keep stealing Kale’s bicycles. Kale, 16, is an employee at Newport Market. He does the grunt work there and they pay him for it. During our interview he was picking up bits of dried tangerines and crumpled cigarette butts.

The last time someone stole Kale’s bike they had to rip down a tree with their bare hands. It was a small tree that showed serious potential on this planet.

“That was my transportation,” Kale told me, and he was serious.
[more]

Drunken Loser Or New-Age Prophet?

MISSOULA -- After a hard day of hitchhiking (with a touring bicycle no less) from Glacier National Park to this fine city on the banks of the Clarkfork River, I would have liked nothing better than a calm evening, a cold glass of buttermilk, and perhaps a little acoustic music. But my friend and your provider of news and “insight” to all things Bend, Mr. Joseph Friedrichs, had other ideas.

“Your assignment is to document the evening,” he said. Apparently, some big shindig to knock the collective socks off Missoulians was in the pipeline, and my job was, as the squarest friend Joe has, to be an astute and impartial observer of his drunken meanderings, and those of his closest friends in one of Montana’s largest cities.

I should back up here. First, this statement from Joe comes only occasionally, and usually at the start of something frightfully interesting. The last time he wanted everything documented, we were about to embark on a three day tour of Arcata, Calif., which was without power and in danger of being flooded into nothingness by a torrential New Year’s Eve storm. By the end of the weekend, we had dodged flying branches in the streets while navigating a car through unregulated intersections, been nearly hauled off by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department for a crime we were eventually able to prove we didn’t commit, and I had fallen in love with a noxious weeds expert. [more]

Man Strikes Dogs With Club

Just when you thought it was safe to soak in some rays in the nude, reports of a naked sunbather being harassed by vicious Chihuahuas comes out of Oregon.

The incident occurred near at Sand Island at Rooster Rock State Park. Portions of the island are designated as clothing optional.

How it all went down is very simple: Portland resident Josh Meiller landed his raft, four children and two Chihuahuas at a spot he thought was several hundred feet from the nudist area. When the dogs charged 74-year-old nude sunbather Donald Kenney, of Vancouver, Wash., Kenney beat them and their owner with a collapsible police baton. [more]