North Fork Humor & Artistry ~ Ep #1

Enjoy this production from our talented locals. Share this video and this blog post with your friends.

© Copyright 2012 North Fork News

Happy Baby McKee Update

Anastina & Odie

I am happy to report that little Anastina Linkhart McKee, is out of the hospital and back home in Guam with her very happy and grateful Mom & Dad.

Mom Miira with Anastina


Anastina was born 4 months ago and weighs 5lb 6oz now. She is finally graduating from syringe feedings to being bottle fed, which has made her parents very, very happy.

Her family is adjusting to having a very special newborn baby in the house and learning about all of the usual things that go with that adventure. Like lack of sleep and lots of new chores. They definitely are learning to "sleep when the baby sleeps"!


Dad & Baby fast asleep

The family of three has attended church together and ventured out to dinner at a local restaurant now that Anastina has portable oxygen available to make travel easier.

Good times out at the restaurant

Baby Anastina is the granddaughter of Bob McKee (Hardware Bob) and great-granddaughter of Loretta & Bob McKee Sr, all of North Fork.

Again, we thank all of you who have given your support, prayers and well wishes over the past few months since her birth. Your help has truly made a positive difference in her young life.

© Copyright 2010 North Fork News

Anastina McKee Update

Favorite Sleeping Position ~ Little Froggy Style





Very Aware of her Surroundings ~ Big Brown Eyes



Smiling While Sleeping?


Anastina weighs 1790 grams now (3.94 lbs). She is being fed breast milk and handling it well. Her doctors seem a bit surprised she's thriving and gaining weight so quickly, but how could she not thrive with all of the love and support she is receiving from her family and friends.

She still has a long way to go (and grow!) before she is truly out of danger, but she is improving daily at this point.

We just wanted you all to know how's she's doing.

For more info and updates, please click on the special Facebook group link below:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127194360640696

As always, thank you all for your concern, your prayers and your generous donations to help Anastina and her family.

Donation information, as well as links to news stories about our little Anastina, can be found in our June 13th North Fork News Blog post

© Copyright 2010 North Fork News

Curtis Kirk Memorial Gathering

Above graphic borrowed from The Buckhorn Saloon website

Our friend, fellow business owner and active community member, Curtis Kirk, passed away 2 weeks ago on August 1st. His life and business partner of 25 years, Alice, is a strong and capable woman and she is holding up well as far as we have heard, but I am sure she could use, and would greatly appreciate the support of our small town community at this difficult time in her life.


Alice & Curtis in happier times ~
photo adapted from the Buckhorn Saloon website

Curtis’s heart was bigger than the sky, and we will miss being welcomed at the Buckhorn by the tall lanky man with the cowboy hat. Always a smile on his face. Curtis was a generous and caring citizen of our little town of North Fork. We will miss him. He will always be a part of North Fork and the Buckhorn.

Our hearts are with you Alice. Your community is here for you.

Alice is holding a memorial potluck for Curtis on Saturday August 23rd starting at Noon. For more information about this or The Buckhorn Saloon in general, please visit The Buckhorn Saloon Website.

© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

First Annual Stone Fruit Festival in Clovis

Stone Fruit Festival Orchard Setting


Comfortable Paths and Benches were available


Way back last month the day after the Summer Solstice, we attended the first annual Organic Stone Fruit Festival/Jubilee held in Clovis at the Mokichi Okada Association orchards. We learned of it by invitation and advertisement from Kern Family Farm, our own local organic farmers right here in North Fork. They were there running the children's activity booth.


Hansel Kern and Friends


Creating Pine Cone Bird Feeders at the Kids Booth


Finished Pine Cone Bird Feeders


Cute Bunnies, also at the Kids Booth

At the festival there were about a dozen local organic stone fruit farmers represented. Each had a table and tent canopy nestled amongst the orchard trees and along a nice walking path. Our modest entry fee of $5 allowed us to sample fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, pluots and apricots) from each farm. Most farmers also had their fruit for sale at the big fruit stand in the front of the event.


Tasting Booths & Tasters



My favorite Sweet & Juicy Peaches



More Tasters Wait Their Turn


We tasted and sampled until we were almost completely full! We then each purchased a bag of organic fruit to take home. All the fruit was priced at $3/lb.


The Fruit Stand


Beautiful Apricots

There were delicious flaky pastries and sweet & tangy paletas (Mexican popsicles) for sale both made from the same organic fruit. The pastries were provided by La Boulangerie de France. The paletas were made by La Reina de Michoacan. We ate some of each even after filling up on all of that fresh fruit. The peach pastry and the plum paleta that I personally snarfed down, were magnificent!


Flaky, Juicy Peach Pastries ~Don't they look good?



Peach, Apricot, Nectarine and Plum Pastries

It was a fun and interesting event. I look forward to attending again next year.





© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

Memorial Day

About this photo

Today is Memorial Day.

Various events are scheduled for today all across our country. From solumn remembrance ceremonies conducted in cemetaries, to fun family cookouts in the local park or our own backyard.

Today is a day to remember and honor those loved ones who are no longer with us in body, even though they are still with us in spirit. Take a moment of silence sometime today to remember those dear to you who touched your heart. Remember those who died fighting a war, in an accident, from a disease or by natural causes. All of our loved ones served to make us better people in their own way. Their spirit deserves to be remembered.


© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

Dance & Sing While the Music is Still Playing

Video by Josh at TenTortoise.com

© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

For Love of the World

Beach at Carmel, CA

In my previous post last Monday telling about the memorial celebration of Cynthia Loweburg's life, I mentioned that people spoke and read poetry and that there was a memory table with photos and a poem on it. You can see the memory table in the photo at the top of my March 31st post, but you cannot see the words of the illustrated poem on the right hand side of the table.

One of Cynthia's close friends found this poem in a "hippie catalog" that her daughter showed her and she felt it spoke of Cynthia so well that she purchased the poster with the poem on it, had it rush shipped to her and then framed it to read and present it to Cynthia's family at the memorial gathering last Sunday. I really like what the poem says, believe it does apply to Cynthia and other women that I have known, and would aspire to be like the woman in this poem.

The author is Charlotte Tall Mountain. I looked her up on the internet to find that she died in 2006 of cancer at the age of 64. She apparently was a very active, strong and passionate woman as well. You can read more about her and her poetry here.

Here's the beautiful poem:


For Love of the World
by Charlotte Tall Mountain

For the love of a tree,
she went out on a limb.

For the love of the sea,
she rocked the boat.

For the love of the earth,
she dug deeper.

For the love of community,
she mended fences.

For the love of the stars,
she let her light shine.

For the love of spirit,
she nurtured her soul.

For the love of a good time,
she sowed seeds of happiness.

For the love of the Goddess,
she drew down the moon.

For the love of nature,
she made compost.

For the love of a good meal,
she gave thanks.

For the love of family,
she reconciled differences.

For the love of creativity,
she entertained new possibilities.

For the love of her enemies,
she suspended judgment.

For the love of herself,
she acknowledged her worth.

And the world was richer for her.



© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

Remembering Cynthia

Memory Table

Yesterday's gathering to celebrate Cynthia Loweburg's life was very well attended. Town Hall was filled with people greeting each other, hugging, talking and eating the varied and abundant potluck dishes. Everyone was sharing memories of Cynthia and how she touched their lives. Many stories brought tears and also joy and laughter. Don and his family led the hall in a wonderful chorus of Row Row Row Your Boat that rolled through the crowd and lingered on the air like mist on the ocean. Their strength and love was an inspiration to all of us. Josh Freeman's video and slideshow presentation captured some of the most beautiful glimpses of Cynthia's life. Many people contributed photos for that presentation. Good work everyone. Love and light filled the room, and Cynthia's spirit was definitely with us.

Above is a photo of the memory table. Below are a few more snapshots. It was too crowded in there to really take many photos. Besides, I was too busy being present in the moment to worry about using my camera.

Some of the many who attended


Just some of the flowers ~ there were many bouquets

Photo Collage

We love you Cynthia. We know you are still here in the mountains.

© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

Cynthia Loweburg Celebration of Life

Everyone is invited to attend the memorial gathering for Cynthia Loweburg this Sunday, March 30th at Town Hall. It is a potluck lunch event that will include music, dancing, sharing and remembering.

Where: North Fork Town Hall

When: Sunday, March 30th, 1pm

Bring: Potluck Food, Photos of Cynthia, Musical Instruments, Memories, Love

For More Info: Call 877-4196 or 877-2129 or 877-3061

See Cynthia's Memorial Website for more info, photos & sharing

© Copyright 2008 North Fork News

She Was Loved, She Will Be Missed

Cynthia Loweburg

Occasionally during a lifetime you might be lucky to encounter a special person that lights your world up when they enter a room, or when you meet them on the street exchanging a friendly hello. They have that special quality to make you feel important, like they really care about you, what you are saying, and how you are doing.

Cynthia Loweburg was that kind of person, and she departed for the light this week doing what she likes best in her back yard. I have known Cynthia for years as a loyal customer, a fellow Chamber officer, and recently a yoga classmate.

We always seemed to run into each other, the annual Intermountain Nursery craft fairs, meetings and events of the Squirrel Cage Theatre group and other civic events in our small town community. Then there was the occasional email informing her that a package had been left off at my hardware store because the UPS driver would not deliver down the dirt road where they lived. I often chuckled at her occasional dyslexic and brief responses, e.g. “thanx cyntiha”.

Cynthia was the star of our yoga class. She was such an inspiration for us. We looked to her all the time to see how to do the proper form of the positions we were attempting to do. It felt weird not having her physically in class with us this week. Our yoga instructor brought in a small table and set up an altar covered with a purple yoga blanket. She had candles and two huge white quartz crystals and a big hunk of amethyst displayed there as well. She had the candles lit throughout our session. We laid out Cynthia’s yoga mat, blanket and blocks for her spirit to join us in class as usual.

We were instructed to think of Cynthia’s love light and bring her energy into our heart space. She asked us to do that for ourselves as well as to help Cynthia on her journey into the light.

The instructor was quite matter of fact about Cynthia’s passing, I personally was thinking about Cynthia during the quiet rest times. Memories of how proud she was having just purchased a new shiny Toyota RAV. And, then there was the kidding I gave her about not taking care of her new “baby” when mud and dust covered the car from her trip down the mountain from home.

I looked across the room at people wiping tears away as we were singing the yoga invocation chants. We could hear Cynthia’s voice singing with us.

It was a good class, but Cynthia was very much missed. A fitting soft remembrance to her though. She was our yoga hero. We affectionately called her “Gumby” because she was so flexible. Now we don’t know who to look to so that we can get the yoga poses right. A small thing, but she touched our lives in that way recently and in other ways over the years.

As far as the physical body dying, (transitioning, leaving the planet) goes, I guess for her it was a good way to do it. Quick, probably painless and outdoors in her own yard. It’s just really hard for all of those she left behind, because there was no real warning and it’s really hard to accept it mentally when it happens so fast and unexpectedly. Our yoga instructor told us that just this past week Cynthia had been really up and happy about her life, expressing that she was “getting it all together”. Some things are still mysterious to us. Perhaps the Universe does that on purpose.

On earth, Cynthia was always such a free spirit, following her own music, a butterfly flying on the breeze. Now she flies wild, high and free. Can you hear her music on the wind?

See more about Cynthia at her memorial website.

© Copyright 2008 North Fork News