Tally-ho and Away We Go

by Melissa Labberton on May 10, 2013

Which came first, the horse or the carriage?

In the case of Jacki Cacchiotti and Teresa Bron, two avid participants in the sport of “carriage driving,” the answer would definitely be the horse.

Teresa and her husband, Will, own Bron Dairy in Granger, and have bred Friesian horses for many years. Will grew up in Friesland, in the Netherlands, where the impressive black horses originated.

“I always rode horses,” Teresa said, “but my husband kept talking about carriage driving. We got into it because he wanted to.”

The Friesian breed of horse can stand as tall as 17 hands high, approximately 5 1/2 feet at the horse’s shoulders. Perfect for pulling a carriage, these big, sturdy animals are also beautiful, with glossy black coats and flowing manes and tails.

Jacki, who also grew up riding horses in Yakima, became acquainted with the Barons through their mutual interest. It was Teresa and Will who drew her into carriage driving.

“I met Teresa through the Friesian World Show Horse Association, and we have been friends ever since,” she said. Since Teresa is a retired dental hygenist and Jacki’s husband, Lawrence, is a local orthodontist, the two had a lot in common. “Teresa talked me into carriage driving and I got hooked.”

A carriage driving competition (combined driving events or CDE) consists of three elements: Dressage, marathon and cones.

Dressage, the first event, showcases the appearance of the horse, driver and carriage.

“We have a presentation carriage just for this event,” Teresa said. “Drivers wear a suit, high boots, scarf, gloves and a waist-to-ankle driving apron made of wool.”

While male drivers wear a traditional top hat, the women tend to find their own version and embellish it with feathers and other ornaments to get the spectators’ attention.

“It’s all about the hats,” Jacki said.

While appearance is important, drivers also must take their horse through a prescribed set of movements and are judged on their command of the horse.

The marathon event requires teams to drive over a 4-12 kilometer course with multiple obstacles, including knee-deep water. The driver steers the horse, while a navigator standing on the back throws his weight from side to side, counterbalancing the sharp turns.

Both Teresa and Jacki have sturdy, four-wheeled marathon carriages from Poland, a country known for its carriage makers. The marathon event offers fast-paced action for spectators and sometimes hazardous conditions that can test the skill of the carriage team and the fitness and stamina of the horse.

The cne competition requires precision driving through cones that challenges the agility and fitness of the horse and the ability of the driver.

Carriage driving competitions are popular all over the country, especially on the East coast, as well as Europe. In fact, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Phillip, helped create the sport of carriage driving and was an avid participant until a few years ago. Teresa, Will and Jacki recently competed in a CDE trial at an arena in Terrace Heights. Competitors from the Lower Valley, Yakima, Ellensburg and a few from the west side of the state participated.

Behind every CDE, there’s a lot of hard work.

Teresa and Will breed, raise and train Friesians on their Lower Valley farm.

“I train five days a week in an arena we built on our farm,” Teresa said. “My Bouvier dog rides on the back of the carriage like a navigator, the Australian Shepherd runs alongside, while our Dutch Staby dog jumps on and off. ”Training a horse to pull a carriage takes several years, Teresa said.

“You start a Freisian like a regular horse, doing a little bit and letting it be with the herd. When it’s 3, I train him for riding.”

Later, the horse learns to pull or drag a tire in order to get used to the sounds and feel of a weight, before it can be hitched to a carriage. Besides her own horses, Teresa trains other owners’ horses, and is currently training a horse for a woman in California.

Jacki’s own horse is named Gretchen.

“I love my horse. She’s part of my family,” Jacki said with a smile. “Everyone loves Gretchen. She has a wonderful spirit and is really quiet.”

She works at least two hours a day with Gretchen and often takes her down to the Brons’ farm to join Teresa in training for the next CDE event. Jacki is excited about the arrival of a yearling Friesian to her barn later this spring.

Teresa competes with several different horses, including the one pictured, named Line (pronounced lee nah).

These women do not take their sport or horses for granted and admit that even the best equestrians can have accidents.

“An accident or any mishap teaches us to be a better driver,” said Teresa. “To really train a horse well, it takes a long time.”

Both women are looking forward to competition season, which started in the spring. They plan to attend two big CDE events — one in Chehalis and the other in Corvalis, Ore. They also plan to compete at four or five smaller CDE trials closer to home.

Though carriage driving is not for everyone, the spectacle of the event makes it a delightfully unique spectator sport that everyone can enjoy.

 

 

 

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A Home for the Sake of Art

by Melissa Labberton on May 10, 2013

For Laurie Kanyer, living with art is like breathing fresh air. Her mother, artist Lucy Valderhaug, surrounded her children with it, so it’s no wonder that Laurie became an artist herself. She also teaches local parenting classes and has authored a book on parenting. Laurie’s husband, Doug, general manager for Glacier Sales, has become a silent, but very involved partner in this shared love. Together they’ve filled their new home with original pieces that celebrate the artists of Eastern Washington.

Two years ago, and with their growing art collection in mind, Laurie, 53, and Doug, 55, moved from a smaller home near Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital to a 4,100 square-foot, ‘70s-era house on Yakima’s west side. “I love being surrounded by all of that art,” said Doug, who collects sculptures by Yakima’s Timm Wauzynski in particular. “I do love all of the sculpture.”

It took several years of looking to find their perfect new place. The couple, who has three grown children, enjoys visiting Palm Springs and had originally wanted a 1960s “mid-century modern” style. But none of the examples of this architectural style quite fit the Kanyers’ requirements.

“I finally said I need more space, with tall ceilings and a view,” Doug remembered. Laurie wanted a backyard pool and limited yardwork. After an extensive search, they found a custom-built, Frank Fitterer brick residence, featuring  all of the couple’s prerequisites: high cathedral ceilings, southern-facing Valley view windows, a large pool and deck — and most important of all — plenty of square footage to accommodate their burgeoning collection.

“I didn’t want to take the ‘70s out,” Laurie explained. Instead, they updated the original design elements by painting walls and kitchen cabinets with a contemporary shade of beige. To provide a pop of color to the décor, they asked their painter, Ashley Hunter, to incorporate the color turquoise to unlikely places such as the back wall of bookshelves.

When it came to furniture, Laurie stuck firmly to Elle Décor magazine’s philosophy: “Furnishings don’t have to be expensive, but just have great design.” Laurie has become a master at treasure hunting at unlikely places like Goodwill, estate and yard sales and second-hand furniture stores, where she’s found the “perfect piece” in the midst of what most would deem junk.

The Kanyers’ spacious sunken living room showcases Laurie’s creative design aesthetic. The majority of the furnishings are previously owned, like the antique Chinese armoire she found at the Shopkeeper, or the leopard upholstered chairs bought at an estate sale. She cleverly arranges them with a neutral sofa, two Pier I slipper chairs and two distressed Asian side tables from Attic Clutter. She likes to say her furnishings are “locally acquired with an international feel.” Laurie  admits that she loves the room. “I read in there every day with my dog Sparkle.”

The adjacent dining room features a long dining room table with matching chairs and china cupboard. But it’s the dramatic Bella Luna brown glass chandelier that adds pizazz to this space.  Likewise, a surprise of blown glass is incorporated in her English cottage-style kitchen in the form of a colorful Schonbeck Bohemian chandelier above the sink.

Comfortable, plush leather sofas face the indigenous, locally-quarried rock fireplace in the couple’s family room, or what they like to call, “The Kiva,” or gathering place. With the room’s tall, beamed ceiling, built-in bar and easy access to the kitchen, it’s no wonder it’s a favorite place to entertain family and friends.

The private side of the house features a large en-suite master bedroom, three second-floor guest bedrooms, prayer room, “man cave” and a well-appointed art studio waiting for Laurie’s latest creative inspiration. She recently took an intensive nine-day iconography class, and her first rendering sits on her drawing board waiting for completion.

Obviously this large home has plenty of room and wall space for the Kanyer’s extensive art collection. “I’m a consumer and appreciator,” says Doug. In total, the couple owns well over 200 works created by artists from the Yakima Valley and Eastern Washington. Artwork by Charles Smith, Leo Adams, Dixie Fairbanks, Penn Shelton, Stan Day and many more cover the Kanyer’s walls and most available surfaces. The pieces range from oil paintings and water colors to prints, sculptures and beaded-creations.

“For a number of my friends, this is how they earn their living,” Laurie explained. “We try to buy art to help keep local artists in business.” The couple’s mission to promote their friends’ creative endeavors is clearly evident throughout their gracious home, but their passion doesn’t stop there. They are also invested — financially and emotionally, through many hours of work — in the Yakima Light Project. The Light Project began several years ago, with the goal of enriching Yakima’s core with artistic uses of light, one of Yakima’s best characteristics. The Light Project also envisions a future downtown art center and museum, featuring Eastern Washington’s talented visual artists.

Whether for public display or their own private joy, visual art remains at the center of life for this truly artistic Yakima couple.

 

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Delma Tayer: A woman of all seasons

by Melissa Labberton on May 10, 2013

 

 

“Stay on your feet and keep moving,” says 89-year-old local artist Delma Tayer. She claims the key to a long life is that simple.

If her successful career — including 50 years of creating multi-media art, 500 college credits earned and countless lives inspired — is any indication, this is one octogenarian who hasn’t spent much time sitting down.

“I was raised on a sheep ranch and never remember about seeing art on the wall,” the artist reminisces. She does remember her aunt’s pretty wallpaper, from which she would make paper dolls with the scraps.
At Central Washington University, then Central Washington State College, Tayer studied English literature, art and philosophy. She earned her bachelor’s in English education and philosophy in 1962. then her master’s in English in 1970. Her passion for education led her to take not only all of the English classes CWU offered, but the art classes, too. Central’s art professors taught abstract impressionism.

“They’d give us a big brush and a bunch of oil paint,” she says. “I liked painting large canvases in a free expressionist manner.”

Her need to create art grabbed hold in the 1960s and hasn’t let go yet.

She taught English at Yakima Valley Community College for 20 years, then joined the administration and served as dean of Arts and Sciences for five. Starting in the mid-1970s, she was also responsible for the Larson Gallery until her retirement in 1990. In spite of her heavy work schedule, Tayer still found time for her husband, Harold, a Selah dentist and Selah’s mayor for a time, and son Stephen, who have both passed away.

And she made time for art, of course.

Tayer has worked to promote the arts, both performing and visual, too. She served as president of the Board of Trustees of Humanities Washington, earned a Ford Foundation Scholar award, and received the Allied Arts Council Award for contribution to the excellence in arts. She was also recognized with the YWCA’s Woman of Achievement Award, the Washington Community College Humanities Association’s John N. Terrey Award, the Humanties Washington Heather C. Frank award and the Larson Gallery’s 2000 Woman of the Year award.

Instead of slowing down and relaxing when she retired, Tayer had a burst of creative energy.

“I’ve never stopped painting,” she says, “When I retired, I needed something to occupy my time. You never want to be bored.”

She began spending more time in the studio behind her house and laboring in her beautiful Japanese garden. Working with oil, she continued to paint large abstract canvases, portraits of friends and landscapes of iconic regional sites, like her sweeping depiction of Washington’s Dry Falls near Coulee City.

In the 1980s, her son worked for Northwest Airlines, and Tayer had the opportunity to fly with him to Asia on several occasions. She fell in love with the culture and brought back rolls of Oriental papers that led her to explore the art of collage. Mixing Japanese paper with paint and the gold backdrop of an old Japanese screen, Tayer brings a new take to this ancient Asian art form. A stunning example can be found in the Japanese-inspired collaged screen triptych that dominates the wall of her dining room.

“I use all kinds of materials,” Tayer explains. “I just love materials and enjoy the process of creating more than the finished product.”

Never one to stick with a single medium, she also has an enormous pottery kiln installed in her studio. When Tayer studied for her MFA at Central, a professor and friend of hers, Richard Fairbanks, asked Tayer to take his advanced pottery class. Fairbanks is a renowned potter, so Tayer enrolled without any prior experience — she didn’t even know how to use a potter’s wheel. She began by  using the slab method for her clay pieces and eventually turned them on a wheel to fashion her ceramic work.

Today you can find Tayer working in her studio almost every day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with only a 40-year-old television for company. If she’s not at her easel, she may be reading from her huge collection of art books or magazines.

“If I get stuck on a painting, I look at a book and it gives me an idea.” she says, “That’s my joy. I love to look.”

Her creative process never stops, and she thinks nothing of making a change to a painting that has been in her studio for several years.

Tayer has shown her artwork throughout the state of Washington. At the time of this interview she was preparing for an art show in Prosser.

“I’ve discovered that an artist doesn’t necessarily have to retire,” she said in her “artist’s statement” from the Larson Gallery Retrospective Exhibition in 2004. “So, I don’t plan to ever retire from this, my latest career. It truly is my raison d’etre!”

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A Home to Share

by Melissa Labberton on Apr 5, 2013

When Al and Pat DeAtley built their jaw-dropping 27,000-square-foot house on Scenic Drive 13 years ago, they didn’t plan to hide away behind the mansion’s gates. Instead, the couple carved the Latin motto Non Nobis Solum (Not for ourselves alone) above the front door and have graciously opened their grand estate for many fundraisers benefiting the Yakima Valley.

Al, 79, is the former owner and chief executive officer of Superior Asphalt and has been active in many professional and community boards over the years. While Al has a wonderfully “bigger than life” presence, Pat, 78, complements that nature with a warm and welcoming personality.

Obviously grand, the home sits on top of Scenic with a large guest house to the east. The main house features two sides. Like the country estate Highclere on the popular PBS drama, Downton Abbey, the DeAtley home has both public rooms and more private areas reserved for family and close friends.

“One side of the house is formal and the other side is for fun,” Al explained with a chuckle. “We have eight or nine fundraisers a year, and it takes a lot to open your home. But when a charity comes knocking we always say yes. It’s our contribution to the community.”

In past summers their grand terrace and expansive manicured lawn have provided a popular venue for many large galas, including fundraisers benefiting Washington’s wine industry, an industry in which Al was involved for many years. Al and Pat have also personally invested in Eastern Washington wineries, so these events were especially dear to their hearts.

This past December, the couple hosted their 13th annual Christmas party with 180 guests, including Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital’s Florence Wight Guild, in the home’s luxurious living room. The grand scale of the space, with its 37-foot ceiling, make the room a perfect place for an elegant evening. The room is bookended with huge matching marble fireplaces, topped with pastoral murals by Hollywood artist Diane Mastel, along with six-foot classical statues of the Four Seasons and custom-made 18th century style Baker furnishings. Joe Simon and Ed Maske, former partners in Yakima’s Shopkeeper, helped the couple acquire the furnishings, the marble mantel pieces that came from China and the extensive original artwork that appears throughout the house. Joe continues to decorate the home’s public spaces for Christmas, which make the holiday even more magical.

The formal dining room next door appears much more intimate in comparison, even with a stunning custom-built, 14-foot-long Baker dining table as its centerpiece. But what truly captures diners’ attention are the room’s two muscular Greek statues that hold up the ceiling from their perch on the fireplace mantel.

When the incredibly heavy pieces of marble for the fireplace arrived from China, it became apparent to the builder that they would crash through the dining room floor if they weren’t reinforced. “Then Pat had an argument over the Greek guys (statues),” Al recalled. Their exposed private parts were on public display and Pat didn’t want to look at them while eating dinner. After much discussion the problem was settled: Today, Pat always sits on the other side of the table, facing away from the offending mythical men.

Occasionally for smaller events, the DeAtleys invite guests into their mini-movie palace. Complete with plush red velvet seats and gold-trimmed theater curtains, Pat and Al enjoy showing movies and often invite some of Yakima’s best local talent to perform on the stage as an after-dinner treat. Post show, guests can entertain themselves with a game of pool or mingle at the well-stocked bar.

But the house also has a fun side reserved just for family. Using an open-concept design, the large, modern kitchen and casual dining space flow easily into a family room with plush, overstuffed couches and an attractive bar. Decorated with comfortable, informal décor, it’s no wonder they spend hours of family time in this light-filled great room. In fact, Pat claims her favorite spot in the whole house is in the kitchen sitting on an old wooden stool next to a butcher block stand, while sipping her favorite beverage and watching television. Her sunny solarium, where she cultivates a veritable jungle of  tropical plants, takes a close second. Both Pat and Al have their own private offices as well. It comes as no surprise that after a long business career, Al enjoys spending most of his time in this handsome, wood-paneled sanctuary.

An invitation to explore the DeAtleys’ 800-bottle wine cellar comes as a rare treat.  Down a flight of stairs and through a worm-wood, castle-like door, guests can explore an amazing collection of wine, carefully stored in a temperature controlled, circular room with a hand-painted dome. Catalogued according to variety, the wine comes from around the world, but most is from Washington state. In spite of Al’s involvement in the wine industry over the years, when asked about his favorite, he replied with a twinkle in his eye, “I don’t drink wine … Beefeaters!”

Pat, though, is partial to Chateau St. Michelle’s Chardonnay. The oldest bottle they’ve had in their cellar was a 1904 port, gifted to them by their late neighbor, Dr. Michael Murphy, a wine aficionado. Ironically, the date of the bottle coincided with the year Al’s mother was born, so it was only fitting that they drank the port on her 90th birthday.

Happily married for 59 years, and living in their palatial mansion for 13, Al and Pat have invited the Yakima Valley to share their house, living up to their motto, “Not for Ourselves Alone.”

Al DeAtley’s interest in the Washington wine industry became personal 10 years ago, when he began leading a consortium called Washington Wine Country. The nonprofit aimed to put a spotlight on the Yakima, Columbia and Walla Walla valleys to push wine tourism to this area. His daughter, Janet Le Duc, lead the non-profit for many years, before the ownership and management was turned over to the Yakima Valley and Tri-Cities visitor and convention bureaus last year.

Six years ago, Deatley invested in  the Walla Walla winery, Long Shadow Vintners, and later a vineyard on the Wahluke Slope east of the town of Mattawa near the Columbia River.

“I liked Shoup’s ideas and how he was putting the winery together,” DeAtley said. Allen Shoup, former CEO of Chateau Ste. Michelle and its affiliate wineries, possessed a dream of bringing winemakers from across the globe to come to Washington and create world-class wine from the region’s top vineyards. DeAtley said he knew wine would be “a hot item in the future.” Additionally, his investment seemed secure knowing that Shoup’s close friend was Robert G. Mondavi, of the successful California wine dynasty.

Today, Long Shadow Vintners features vintages created  by winemakers from Italy, France, Germany, Australia and Napa.

DeAtley’s subsequent investment in a vineyard on Wahluke Slope near the Columbia River turned out to be an excellent venture. “Sitting on a slope, there’s a 700-foot difference in elevation,” DeAtley said. The steep hillside allows for cultivation of different grape varieties. The spot also boasts one of Washington’s warmest growing areas. According to the publication Wines Northwest, the Wahluke Slope “produces 20 percent of the entire Washington State harvest each year.”

DeAtley has recently transferred his investment in Long Shadow Vintners and the Wahluke Slope vineyard to his daughter, who lives in Seattle. Whatever the ownership, the DeAtleys’ passion for the Washington state wine industry remains strong and enduring.

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Open Concept Living

by Melissa Labberton on Mar 1, 2013

When Jim Morford, a Lower Valley farmer, built his 1,800-square-foot ranch style home in 1983, he probably didn’t consider that he and his wife, Tish, would eventually be facing an empty nest. But beginning last year, the couple’s children had begun flying off to their own life’s adventures, and the Morfords felt this was the time to make some changes themselves. They completely remodeled the main living space of their ranch house to make a modern and functional kitchen/great room, where their growing extended family could gather.

Although Jim built the original structure, he and Tish were wise enough to know that blowing out a large part of the home without the help of professionals could have caused a disaster of huge proportions. Hiring an experienced architectural draftsman, contractor and interior designer, the Morfords saved not only headaches, but time — and probably even money.

Before knocking down walls or tearing out cupboards, they employed Marty Schoolcraft, a Yakima architectural draftsman, to draw up the plans for the great room.

“The Morfords had some idea of what they wanted,” Schoolcraft said. “They wanted to open up the space, but didn’t know how to do it.”

Before creating the preliminary design, Schoolcraft studied the home’s structure. He kept in mind what his clients envisioned, while considering the integrity of the original house. When the Morfords saw Schoolcraft’s drawings, they couldn’t believe how he’d merged the old with the new.

Since Tish and Jim had hired Eric Clark of Clark Custom Remodeling several years earlier for a bedroom suite addition, they were confident that he and his crew could easily handle the second, much more complicated project. To create an open concept floor plan from the original rabbit warren of rooms with partitions dividing them, Clark removed a fireplace on a central wall that took up most of the living room. Ceiling beams, pantry, sunken floor, breezeway, laminate counter tops and white cabinet doors all bit the dust as well.

As the construction phase roared into gear, the homeowners suddenly realized that they’d need to start making important décor decisions, including what flooring, paint, lighting and furnishings to use. Tish admitted she was a bit overwhelmed.

“I was having a panic attack,” she said. But an Internet search led her to local interior designer Tanna Barnecut, and Tish hired her to help.

She and Jim were especially thrilled to find a decorator who specializes in space design. Coming onboard mid-construction, Barnecut reassured her clients that what appeared as a cold, cavernous barn, could indeed become a contemporary, open concept room, including many functional areas within the larger space.

Four months later, the remodel was finished and the Morfords love the results.

The home now encompasses about 3,200 square feet, with a kitchen Clark updated with custom alder cabinetry, granite countertops, neutral tile floors and stainless steel appliances. His crew also enlarged the kitchen’s island and created a bay window kitchen nook with a built-in bench. Tish is pleased with her new pantry cabinets that she’s filled with her home-canned peaches and tomatoes. The two tractor seat stools at the kitchen island have become a favorite of their grandchildren and are subtle reminders that this sophisticated home is on a working farm.

To separate the centrally located dining area, Barnecut suggested a custom-made area rug with a dark brown border, made to fit Tish’s grandmother’s antique dining table and matching chairs. Clark’s master carpenter, Leon Aussink, built the adjacent granite-topped buffet, with its two tall ripple-glass fronted cabinets that display the family’s china. Three fruit paintings by local artist Marcia Blevins hang between the cabinets, pulling all of the design elements together and making this space perfect for family celebrations.

The living room probably best showcases Barnecut’s design expertise. The Morfords made it clear that they wanted a spot to relax that was warm and inviting. The bisque wall-to-wall carpet helps delineate the area. Barnecut created a neutral palate with gray rustic stones for the floor-to-ceiling gas fireplace, alder woodwork and brown-toned furnishings. But Barnecut also convinced Tish that the room needed a signature piece to make the décor “pop.”

“Tanna found a large cross-section piece of broadleaf maple wood in Seattle,” Tish said. Then Barnecut collaborated with Yakima artisan furniture maker Nate Sabari to make it into a fabulous coffee table. Although it took three men to haul the heavy table into the house, it makes an amazing focal piece for the room. Tish gave the living room her personal touch by hanging a fun montage of framed family photos all taken from the back. No matter how perfect a home’s decor, if it doesn’t include an element of the owner’s passion for the life they live, it’s just a room without a heart.

With the help of the professionals who listened to what their clients really wanted, Tish and Jim Morford have beautifully reimagined their home, making room for a very happy future.

 

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