One thing is for sure, everybody loves talking about the weather.
To give people something to talk about, a Coupeville business owner and amateur meteorologist has a weather station that puts local weather stats on the Internet for everybody to see.
What started as a way to pay for college while providing a local source of beef for Whidbey Island residents has slowly grown over the course of 13 years.
If all goes as planned South Whidbey residents looking for a rifle or handgun won’t have to go to Oak Harbor or the mainland.
Whidbey Arms is opening at Ken’s Korner Mall under the ownership of Freeland resident Jim Childers.
“We’ll be opening Wednesday or Thursday,” he said as workers pieced together display cases, furniture and the security system.
What started as a way to pay for college while providing a local source of beef for Whidbey Island residents has slowly grown over the course of 13 years.
The North Whidbey company, 3 Sisters Beef, completed its latest expansion recently by opening a market in San de Fuca that will give people another place to purchase locally grown products.
The Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce has gotten a makeover, of sorts.
The chamber shared a logo with the City of Oak Harbor for several years, a useful endeavor that helped “brand” the Oak Harbor area. However, chamber officials feel the time has come to do a little branding of its own.
“The old logo has served its purpose very well, but there has always been a certain level of confusion that goes along with having the same logo as the city,” Kathy Reed, Oak Harbor Chamber’s executive director, said.
As leaders for the Port of Coupeville continue to sort out how Greenbank Farm will operate, another entity is looking at whether to establish a presence at the publicly owned farm.
Officials from Washington State University’s Extension are talking with port officials about ways to expand the education program’s satellite facility in Mount Vernon.
Tim Lawrence, director for WSU Extension in Island County, stressed that no decisions have been made yet, but any possible work at the farm could be a benefit for small farms and small farm agriculture.
The commissioners for the Port of Coupeville are in need for a new director.
The contract for Executive Director Jim Patton expires at the end of the year and he said he has no intention of asking for a renewal.
He has been running the small port district for eight years.
A star-studded crowd gathered at Bakerview Restaurant on Ault Field Road in Oak Harbor Saturday, Feb. 23 for an award ceremony honoring the best in local business.
The “OHscars,” as the annual awards banquet for the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce was dubbed this year, were presented in several categories, including customer service, employer of the year and business of the year.
Greenbank Farm Management Group hired a new farmer trainer straight from corn country.
The management group named Jessica Babcock as the training director of the Organic Farm School, which has been breaking in new farmer for the past several years. She replaces Sabastian Aguilar, who will help administer the farm on a contract basis. Aguilar moved to Oregon to start a farm.
Babcock comes to the Greenbank Farm from Decorah, Iowa, where she worked for the Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit organization striving to preserve heirloom seeds. She said the exchange is the largest non-governmental seed bank in the United States.
A wooden carving of an eagle came to life in front of motorists driving Saturday on State Highway 20 through Oak Harbor.
“Buzzsaw” Bob Halverson, a Whidbey-based woodcarver, fired up his chainsaw to carve an eagle from a piece of red cedar.
He worked underneath a tent located at the edge of the parking lot at Skagit Farmers Supply in Oak Harbor, within view of motorists, pedestrians and shoppers at the store.
A Central Whidbey farmer trainer center needed a new teacher and the Greenbank Farm Management Group tapped someone from corn country for the job.
Amid dealing with thousands of tourists, persistent goose and funding problems, Deception Pass State Park staff have been busy completing several projects at a venerable retreat center.
Park staff showed off their latest accomplishment Thursday night by inviting folks to see the Cornet Bay Retreat Center’s recreation hall, which provides valuable meeting space for the groups that enjoy the retreat center.
Jack Hartt, manager of Deception Pass State Park, said workers spent the better part of a year replacing the walls, roof and floor of the recreation hall and installed a porch.
Vendor applications for the 2013 Bayview Farmers Market are now available online at the market website, www.bayviewfarmersmarket.com.
The opening bell for the island’s biggest farmers market will ring at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 27.
