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Duvall, WA ~ Overrun by giraffes, periodically an island, the greatest little city this side of the Atlantic

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Duvall Days – The Days of Duvall

May 27, 2017 by Kathryn 1 Comment

Duvall Days

Every year. First weekend in June. Duvall has its day…s. Duvall Days is next weekend! Our city celebrates its awesomeness. So, if you plan to miss it, be warned. You will live a life filled with regret and die alone.

Some years Duvall Days blows our minds and other years it’s kind of meh. However, even when it’s meh, it’s kind of amazing. We love Duvall Days. And this year looks like the best one we’ve had in many years, maybe ever.

Of course tractors will drive and horses will dance down Main Street. I pray Kathy Lambert notepads will be distributed because my supply is running low. Vendors will be all along the parade route again like last year. But, there are also a few new and exciting things happening.

Here’s a brief look at what’s in store Saturday:

Arts, crafts, and food vendors will set up shop along main street, in the Police Department parking lot, and in McCormick Park.

A mechanical bull will be bucking people off in the Duvall Tavern parking lot from 9am-4pm.

The Big Rock Car Show will be set up in the Safeway parking lot from 9am-4pm. (Stock up on groceries by Friday night because this gets to be crazy town. Fun, crazy town.)

Scavenger hunt, fun/kid/family zones (I think that’s code for bouncy houses and probably water fun), beer gardens.

Parade starts at 10:30 along Main Street.

KCLS will have a library van in the upper area of McCormick park so you can check out library books from a van… down by the river.

There will be a rock climbing wall, zip line, bubble soccer, laser tag, basketball tournament, and a frog jump contest.

You can take a nap at Duvall Co-op Prechool or get your hands duty at the petting zoo.

A photo booth will be set up near the depot building.

You can purchase cow pie bingo tickets on Saturday and watch the live streaming pie drop on Sunday from the comfort of your own home. Running of the Balls down Stewart Street sounds like a blast.

Face painting and tattoos will be administered in the Windermere parking lot. They don’t specify what kind of tattoos will be given.

Blitz, the Seahawks mascot, will make an appearance.

The historic Dougherty Farmstead will be open for tours and Cherry valley Winery will have an art show and wine tasting. Shuttles will be provided.

There will be tons of musical and dance performances and at 10 PM they will detonate things in McCormick park. #fireworks

You can even order food in the evening from local restaurants and have it delivered to you wherever you’re hanging out.

On Sunday:

Race in the REF 5K, 10K, or Kids’ Obstacle race.

Carb load with fire fighters at the pancake breakfast.

Watch the cows make pies on a giant bingo card. Or tour Cherry Valley Dairy and watch the cows make pies there.

There’s tons to do, most of it free. The weather is looking to be perfect. I can’t wait! Check out DuvallDays.org for more details.

Filed Under: Community, Cuteness of Duvall, Duvall Days, Events

What’s the Deal with the Thayer Barn?

April 20, 2017 by Kathryn 5 Comments

Save the Clock Tower

I’ll come clean here and tell you I have not paid much attention to what’s been going on with the Thayer Barn. I know where it is. I’ve seen the beautiful art around town. I know Duvall loves the Thayer Barn and citizens have donated a ton of money to hopefully restore it. Remember in Back to the Future, how people would interrupt Marty McFly making out with his girlfriend, and ask him to donate money to, “SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER”? The Thayer Barn is Duvall’s clock tower. Minus the making out. And the time travel.

Everyone talks about Thayer Barn as though we all know about it, so you feel silly asking for details.

For example, I say, “What’s the deal with the Thayer Barn?” and someone else replies, “You don’t know about the Thayer Barn? You must hate Duvall and farmers and all of rural America! And I thought I liked you…”

Photos courtesy of Duvall Foundation for the Arts

So, over the past few weeks I researched online and spoke to experts and I think I’m qualified to give a brief introduction to the project and an update on the current status. I’ve included several links in this post so you can read ALL the details of the nearly 30-year saga. I’m giving you the condensed version.

What is the Thayer Barn?

The Thayer Barn, now largely dismantled, rests on Highway 203 diagonally across from the Starbucks complex. It was a kit barn, built in the 1930s by the Thayer Family for their dairy cows. Kit barns are cool. They were ordered by catalog and assembled onsite. This one came from Sears and Roebuck a year before they stopped selling them.

Photos courtesy of Duvall Foundation for the Arts

People in Duvall love this barn. As of 2002 it was the last dairy barn still standing within the Duvall City Limits. At that point, the Duvall Arts Commission* had already been dreaming and planning for 10 years to convert the old girl into a community art center.

**Update from Patricia Chapman – “Our red barn was built in 1906. It was a dairy barn for decades, and is still standing. We are in the city limits of Duvall. The big yellow barn is the only dairy barn with the gambel style roof in the city limits. It was a work of art in the day.”**

To the people of Duvall, the barn represents our heritage as an agricultural community and it connects us to our past. It’s a gorgeous reminder of our roots and people are passionate about preserving it.

What Will the Thayer Barn Become?

Duvall Foundation for the Arts is currently working to convert the Thayer Barn into a community art center. This process officially began in 2000 when the developer who owned the land signed an agreement with the City of Duvall, stating that they would donate the building and a parcel of land to create a city art center/parks department in the middle of their new development.

They had 10 years to make it happen.

The city agreed to put up $200,000 toward the project and in just 4 months DFA raised the $100,000 they had committed to contribute.

Then for the next several years, the developer was on-again/off-again about moving forward with the project. All this time, the barn continued to decay. Time was of the essence and the project took a lot of it.

Photos courtesy of Duvall Foundation for the Arts

As the development plans fell apart, the project stalled indefinitely. Since the project had taken so long to get off the ground, some of those early donors requested their money back, but all the remaining funds are still set aside for the project.

The Saga Continues

Then, in late 2013 a new developer planned to purchase the property, and Duvall Foundation for the Arts picked up the torch and again began talks with the city and the new developer (Westcott Homes) to restart the community art center project.

And it’s happening. It’s just really slow because there are so many steps that need to happen all in the right order.

In order for DFA to apply for additional grant money to build the center, they need to own the land. In order for Westcott homes to deed the land to DFA/The City of Duvall, they have to separate the land into parcels. They can’t separate the land into parcels until they have water/sewer/other infrastructure in place. In order for Westcott to get the infrastructure built, they need the City of Duvall to approve the plans for their development.

Project Manager Elizabeth Hill hopes the city will approve the plans so they can begin installing the infrastructure this summer because there is a small window when this kind of work can be done successfully. If they don’t get the plans approved in time to do it this summer, they’ll likely have to wait until the summer of 2018.

Fingers crossed, City of Duvall!

But It’s Falling Down!

You may have driven by the barn recently and noticed… it’s not standing anymore. You’re right. The barn continued to decay and in 2015 it had to be dismantled.

“So, how can they turn it into a community art center?” you might ask. Good question. It’s not going to be turned into a community art center so much as it’s going to be honored and partially preserved in a community art center. Plans are currently in place to preserve what remains of the Thayer Barn and pieces of it will be used in the interior structure of the new community art center, which will be built in a similar style.

Specifically, they hope to install the north face of the barn in the upstairs interior of the new building.

DFA Wants to Hear From You

Here’s a link to the preliminary plans. They’re currently seeking community input about how to design the interior of the building to meet the artistic needs of the community. Meetings are from 11-1 most Saturdays at Match Coffee and Wine Bar. You can email DFA with questions or input.

Personally, I’m excited to see a beautiful location for local theater and dance productions and a gallery space for local artists.

To preserve what remains of the barn, plans are moving forward to install a massive cover. The cover needs a moveable ecology block foundation to be built to hold it in place and it will be installed by Dan Cook, the same contractor who disassembled the barn and preserved the north face. When the foundation’s in place, the cover supplier will install the cover.

It’s just a ton of work and I’m amazed at how well it’s all coming together. What a persistent team of volunteers and what an awesome legacy they’re building!

The designs have been created with the developer who’s building the condo development. When it’s completed, the city will own the utilities, road, sidewalks, and parking lot. Duvall Foundation for the Arts will own the land and the building.

You Can Still Donate

If you’d like to contribute to the project, you can do so from their website and, since they’re a 501c3, they’re eligible for corporate matching. They also have a few of these beautiful giclee prints of a painting by Vicki Perry available for $50 each (unframed) or $250 (framed). Anyone interested should contact Deanna.

Reproduced from the Original Painting by Vicki Perry with Permission

Currently the best place to go for project updates is this page, last updated in March of 2017.  Elizabeth says future updates will be uploaded there.

Here is an excellent explanation of the DFA and the Art Center history

Art Center FAQ

*An explanation of the difference between the Arts Commission, the Cultural Commission, and DFA From Elizabeth Hill

“The Duvall Arts Commission was formed when the barn project was first imagined by Sunny Ruthchild. The idea of the Arts Commission was to support the development of an arts center and the arts in general. I was appointed along with others to that first Art Commission.

Relatively quickly after that it became clear that what we really needed was an Art Foundation because the Commission was not a non-profit and therefore could not give potential donors receipts for tax deductions. Also, the commission was associated with the City and could not actively fundraise for the art center. We looked around to see what other communities had done to address these challenges and then developed Duvall Foundation of the Arts. It was Huston Barclay who did the work to establish DFA as a 501C3 to raise money for the arts center/barn project and for the arts in general.

“Later the City morphed the Arts Commission into the Cultural Commission.

DFA continues to work on the art center project, DFA puts on Sandblast every year as a gift to the community. DFA also puts on Art in Bloom and provides scholarships for people to pursue art and music educational opportunities. The vision we had as a community of having a non-profit foundation for the arts all those years ago has paid off and has contributed to Duvall’s thriving art community.”

As always, if you find any inaccuracies in this post, please tell me in the comments. I love learning about our town.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means, I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase something from a link I post. Don’t worry, it costs you nothing. Thank you for supporting my website!

Filed Under: Arts, Community, History, Mysteries of Duvall

March of the Vegetables

April 1, 2017 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

I had to go. How could I not? You had me at “people dressed up as vegetables.” You had me. At. “People dressed up as vegetables.”

If you ask anyone who knows me well, they will tell you that my single favorite exhibitor in any valley parade for the last ten years was a man dressed up as a stalk of corn at the Carnation 4th of July Parade. I became obsessed with seeing him again. Obsessed.

And last year’s Duvall Days heralded the first human corn in several years. It cheered my heart.

So, when I heard about March of the Vegetables, I was stoked. It’s a parade focused on art and agriculture and community, celebrating creativity and the return of the growing season for local farms and gardeners.

I’ve been following news and announcements for the past couple of months leading up to Saturday’s March of the Vegetables. I knew people were making art. I knew people were planning to march. I had no idea there would be a band of musical vegetables playing “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.”

That was just icing.

Over a hundred people in handcrafted costumes marched down 1st Avenue smiling, waving, cheering, showing off their art and celebrating their favorite vegetables.

Some costumes were cute.

Others beautiful.

They were all creative.

One woman handed out hand-colored packets of beet seeds she’d saved from her own garden. Could these be cuter? No. The answer is no.

And I love that we’re glorifying growth and community and nutritious foods. It was seriously magical and odd and endearing in a way only Duvall could pull off.

I hope they do it again next year. I may be forced to join in on the fun.

Filed Under: Community, Cuteness of Duvall, Events, March of the Vegetables

The Funny Thing About Softball

April 28, 2016 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

I’m in the process of copying over posts from my personal blogs that share a little of our small town Duvall charm. They were all originally published on either DropsofAwesome.com or DaringYoungMom.com. This is one of those posts. It’s about coaching softball in Duvall.

When I agreed to coach Wanda’s itty bitty softball team, I had no idea what I was in for. I signed up under duress and with serious stress and doubts about my ability to pull it off.

6tag_210416-201114

It turns out that all you need to be a softball coach at this age is patience, a bit of organizational ability, and love for the girls. And dang. They are so lovable. I’m a bit blown away by how much I’m enjoying managing this team. It doesn’t hurt that the parents are great and jump in and cover for me where I’m weak… like in anything that relates to doing the sportings.

One of my favorite things about coaching is watching the girls learn and process this new sport. Here are a few of the highlights from last week’s games:

They’re learning to bat a live ball for the first time and they’re hitting more than I expected but it’s still very new and often when they do it looks like they hit more by accident than on purpose.

Last week one of my cute girls was up there swinging the bat, and when the ball hit her bat, she was so shocked she didn’t even run. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes got huge, and when we finally convinced her to run to first, she ran all the way there with biggest smile on her face and then covered her mouth both hands. Total shock and awe.

The way the game works at this age, every girl gets to bat every inning until she hits the ball. Then we retire the inning. So, while most girls are only allowed to advance one base per hit, the last batter gets to circle the bases for a home run every time. On the last batter, the defensive players are supposed to throw the ball to home and then the catcher can tag everyone out as the empty the bases.

We’d never practiced with a catcher before our first game so the concept of catching the ball at home and then tagging girls out is totally new and each girl, as she takes her turn as catcher seems highly confused by this.

When Wanda got her first turn as catcher, our pitcher threw her the ball after the last batter. Wanda looked around for it, which is hard in all that gear, picked up the ball, dropped it in the ball bucket and went back to her position behind the plate to chillax. All the parents are yelling, “Tag her Wanda! Tag her with the ball,” and Wanda’s looking at us like we’ve lost our minds.

Another cute player figure out that she needed to tag the girls out but the girls did not want to be tagged, so they ended up running in zig-zags and circles back and forth over the baseline and around home plate in a crazy game of tag.

My absolute favorite catcher play came, however, when one little girl got impatient for her outfielders to retrieve the ball that was hit.

“Tag em with a ball?” she thought, “Hmm. Why wait for that specific ball when I’ve got a whole bucket full of balls right next to me.” Like any good problem solver, she just grabbed a new ball and started tagging girls out with it. This reminds me of my mom keeping an extra spoon in her chair when we played spoons and pulling it out when she needed to. Genius.

Now, after one game Wanda proudly informed me that she had learned how to eat sunflower seeds at the games. I was surprised by this pronouncement because sunflower seed eating is actually a pretty advanced skill. Nope. Wanda has it nailed. Video evidence below.

Filed Under: Community, Sports

Concert Despair

November 20, 2015 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

I’m in the process of copying over posts from my personal blogs that share a little of our small town Duvall charm. They were all originally published on either DropsofAwesome.com or DaringYoungMom.com. This is one of those posts. It’s about middle school band concerts.

concert-despair2Do you ever feel sad, angry, or bored when forced to sit through a middle school band concert? When the music starts, do you instantly feel thirsty or need a restroom break? Do your counting skills become weak when faced with the overwhelming task of counting down songs on a musical program, causing you to ask your mom over and over again, “Just one more, right?” only to have her respond that there are still seven songs left, as she told you at the beginning of this song and please stop talking because we’re at a concert?

concert-despair3

This is called Concert Despair and it can happen to anyone. Usually more pronounced in young children, CD can also be experienced by teens and even adults. Adults whose uterine-fruit are not currently performing are especially vulnerable, as is frequently the case with parents of eighth graders while the sixth grade band is performing or the parents of non-jazz-band members when the jazz band plays and gives ten-measure solos to Every. Single. Child. in the band.

concert-despair

Symptoms include hunger, thirst, loud whining, bad posture, limp noodle disorder, numb bum, insatiable desire to use electronic devices, inability to count down from ten, and sudden brain flashes to all the things remaining on your to-do list.

If you or someone you love is experiencing Concert Despair, there is hope. From the creators of The Universe and Your Body, comes the cure for CD. It’s called Time.

Time is a fast acting (depending on your perspective), proven pain reliever. In fact, 100% of CD sufferers experienced elimination of all symptoms with Time. Time is available to everyone, usually found in one minute doses. With just sixty minutes of Time, you can conquer your Concert Despair.

Common side effects of Time include aging, changes in perspective, and weight gain. Do not take Time if the building is on fire or if you really REALLY need to pee.

Filed Under: Community, Events, Riverview School District

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