Wilson Adventures: A Visit with the Ferre's in Northeastern Oregon

Geothermal energy. Solar energy. Guest apartment. Open living space. Small bedrooms. Energy saving lights…that are cute. Motion-sensing faucet in the guest bathroom. Water-saving toilet (flushing #1 or #2). In-floor heating. Convection ovens. Induction stove. Large pantry. Root cellar. Garden. Orchard. Barn. Giant underground rainwater cisterns. Chicken coop. Workshop. Bunkhouse. Horses. Pigs. Chickens. Sheep. Six hundred seventy acres.

Our dream property is right now located in Wallowa, Oregon. And it’s not for sale. We visited our friends who live there, the Ferre’s. Peter Ferre´ owns Legacy Service, LLC, which is how Travis got involved in Family Heritage. For seven years Peter was Travis’ boss. Travis has visited the Ferre´ Ranch and tried to describe the complex to me. It’s something you just have to experience to understand. We took the rare opportunity to do so, and I’m very glad we did.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon just in time to help Peter with ranch chores. I didn’t know Peter as a rancher. I only knew him as a businessman. Wednesday he wore Carhartt trousers, Patagonia vest and coat, Danner Pronghorn workboots, NorthFace winter hat, and Carhartt work gloves. He had tousled hair, a 5 o’clock shadow, and no beer gut. At the young age of 47, while living in Nashville, Tennessee, Peter sold the labor-intensive portions of his Legacy business to five capable, willing directors (Travis being one of them) and started a new chapter in his life. While living in Nashville Peter designed, what I’ll call, a green home. It is arguably one of the most energy efficient homes in the nation. He hired as many Wallowa County builders and contractors and purchased as many local building materials as possible. Construction began in 2009. From 2009 to 2011 Peter and his family lived in a cute little bunkhouse built on the south side of the property or in their Nashville home. In 2011 Peter sold most of his Legacy business and his home in Nashville then moved to a completed home in Wallowa, Oregon. Now he and his three children live there. Peter is literally living his dream.

The intention wasn’t to be self-sustained. It was to be as environmentally responsible as possible. The property is located high in the mountains on a dirt road eight miles off the pavement in Wallowa, Oregon (a recommendation from his knowledgeable brother). It takes at least 20 minutes to get into town, and the town is small. The population of the entire county is 7,000. It’s about an hour to LaGrande where you’d find the nearest Wal-Mart, movie theater, and natural food store. The nearest major airport is 3 and a half hours away.

Peter and his kids have made friends all over the county. Friday night the Ferre’s hosted a dinner party with some local friends. Kory and Dave are ranchers. Mary is a farmer (I don’t actually know the difference between ranchers and farmers – they both planted gardens and raised animals, right?). Cam was a writer and fisherman/fishing guide. David and Jessie owned a logging mill. All of them were independent entrepreneurs. Peter is a perfect addition to this county. His attitude is not ‘what can the county do for me,’ rather, ‘now that this is home, is there anything we can do to help the county?’ His creative business mind is in full force. With a desire to have a restaurant with good food closer to them, he’s purchased a rundown tavern in the next town over and partnered with capable restaurant-businesspeople to make that happen. He’s invested local friends' business to help improve profit margins. He participates in a non-profit organization called Slow Food (instead of fast food) by donating, hosting events, and brainstorming ideas.

Peter has also donated building materials to Fergi, the local ski hill. As we drove up Sunday to Fergi the girls, Jordan and Riley, said, “…and there’s the wood Dad donated to repair the ski rental shop.” In Minnesota we had a fair amount of snow before we left and our friends, the Lewison’s, invited all our kids to ski with them at Buckhill (the local ski slopes). Amy and Steve are great teachers and gave the kids skiing and snowboarding lessons. All the kids loved it. Travis and I are not – and should not be – ski instructors. Jim (Travis’ dad) told us the story about their family ski trips. They nicknamed Travis “Kamikaze” because of his dive-bombs down the mountainsides. I, on the other hand, have spent even less time than Travis on ski slopes over the last 10 years – and most of it has been on the bunny hill.

The view from the bunny hill

Fergi was a great place for our family. It was small. Taite knows how to ski better than I do and was confident enough to go off on his own. A few times I spotted him at the bottom of the hill, only to find him on the T-bar headed back to the top. He loved it. Calla and Lincoln liked it too. They spent the majority of their time between the two smaller runs. They figured out how to use the T-bar and the tow rope (or as they call it in Oregon - the rope tow). Lincoln had no fear and got right back up every time after falling. He just kept going. I think if Amy or Steve would have been with us, they would have had Lincoln skiing the black diamond hill before the end of the day. Calla is a very good skier. She made her pizza slice and weaved back and forth on the hills. She was hesitant and almost never fell (which I’m glad about because there was a bit too much drama when she did fall).

Calla's snowplow

Lincoln weaves along the slope

The rope tow takes Calla up

The chalet was just as shabby-chic as the rental shop

Parker skied the bunny hill three times and was done. (Sigh.) That was when I was most pleased with Fergi. She could sit outside the small chalet at a picnic table and watch all of us. I could see her from anywhere as I continued to ski with Calla and Lincoln.

Riley

Sunday was the perfect day for us to ski Fergi. We originally planned to ski Saturday, but the morning weather wouldn’t have it. Lincoln requested we wait until Sunday anyway. “Let’s go Sunday 'cause then Riley can go with us.” Riley, the 12-year-old middle child and second daughter, was arguably Lincoln’s favorite person in the house. Lincoln and Riley met Wednesday night when Riley returned from basketball practice. She is athletic, studious, and beautiful. She is charismatic and loves animals – especially horses. Lincoln was drawn to her.

Jordan

Parker shadowed big sister Jordan. She is the oldest daughter and at 14-years-old, Jordan takes great care of her dad and siblings. She is also studious and beautiful (she probably has the best hair I've ever seen!). Parker loved following Jordan around the house and the grounds outdoors. Jordan loves the outdoors. She takes on lots of agricultural responsibilities. She enjoys participating in FFA (Future Farmers of America). She loves to backpack and travel as well.

Traveling is in abundant supply at the Ferre´ house. Peter loves to travel and loves to provide experiences for and with his family. One thing Peter did with Jordan (and will do with the other kids) is take them on a special 13^th birthday trip. Peter pays for it. The 13-year-old chooses where to go and navigates the trip. Jordan chose a two-week tour of Greece and Turkey. She is very interested in Greek mythology. Peter and Jordan traveled their hearts out together last year. Talk about creating memories!

Next month the Ferre’s are traveling to Costa Rica…for the entire month. Of course they’ll get to practice their Spanish-speaking skills. As of right now, their plan is to arrive and get traveling suggestions from the locals. The only solid plan they have is to participate in a surfing school for the first week. Peter, Jordan, and Riley will particpate in the surfing school. Mason says the farthest he will go into the Pacific Ocean is 10 feet. His plan is to sit on the beach and watch. He has no intentions of letting a shark get him. Ha!

Mason

Mason, the 10-year-old is the youngest of the three kids. He says he has a fear of snakes and sharks…as everyone should. He is also a comedian. We all went to cheer for Riley as she played in two basketball games Thursday night. Afterward we went to La Leguna – a Mexican restaurant in Enterprise (a neighboring small town). Last time Mason ate there he got free fried ice cream for dancing in the middle of the restaurant. This time he made his best attempt at singing Feliz Navidad and La Cucaracha. When the lacking renditions didn’t cut it for the restaurant owner, he did a headstand. He is a very confident kid and kept us laughing almost the entire time. Mason loves basketball and is constantly spitting out NBA stats and history. He even challenged Travis to a heated game of basketball. Taite helped Mason shovel the ice and snow off the driveway one evening so they could play basketball outside. When the ice was too thick and he couldn’t complete the task, Mason returned to his dad and asked for a blowtorch. Commitment. Skiing, surfing, horseback riding…not for Mason. He’ll stick with basketball.

Daisy and Parker smile for the picture

She is too stinkin' cute

Horseback riding might not have been for Mason, but everyone else was fired up for it! Wallowa schools are only in session Monday through Thursday. Friday morning Jordan and Riley treated our whole family to some arena riding. We all helped bring the horses to the tack house, brush them, saddle and bridle them, and walk them to the outdoor riding arena. The dynamics of the horses was interesting. They were like children. One of them, Rodeo, was slower than the rest. The other horses usually chose not to hang out with Rodeo. Daisy and Brownie always had to be near each other. Lily didn’t like to be left out. I trotted her in the arena one time. When she turned and saw the other horses on the other side of the arena she bolted for them. Lily also doesn’t like Zeus – the hundred-pound yellow Labrador Retriever/Great Pyrenees mix. As Lily and I made our way back to the tack house we had to walk by Zeus. Lily freaked out and nearly bucked me off. I felt a little like I was on a mechanical bull. An English saddle doesn’t have much to grip. I stayed upright. The Ferre girls asked me if I ride a lot. I'm feeling pretty confident since I stayed on a horse who practically dumped me twice. ;-)

Parker and Rodeo

Lincoln patiently waited for his turn on rodeo

Me and Lily

Taite rides Brownie while Calla rides Daisy

Calla starts on Brownie

Calla wasn’t so fortunate. Daisy decided Calla wasn’t sitting correctly in the saddle and bucked her off. Once Calla landed Daisy stepped on Calla’s leg. The benefits of horseback riding in snow are: 1) snow breaks your fall, and 2) your leg can sink a little firther in the snow if a horse tries to step on it. She didn’t get injured, just scared. It took a few minutes, but Calla got back on Daisy – that horse that bucked her off – and continued to ride.

Taite, who seems to always be naturally good at anything sports-related, rode multiple horses and enjoyed every minute. He even trotted Brownie and Daisy with no problems.

Lincoln and Parker took turns on Rodeo. Parker started and Travis led Rodeo around the arena in line with the other horses. Then it was Lincoln’s turn. “I want to do it by myself.” He didn’t want anyone to lead his horse. He wanted to ride like the big kids. Well, he was on Rodeo.

“Ok.” I let him do it. Rodeo was a perfect horse for an novice 5-year-old rider to try by himself. One thing we’ve learned about our kids is if one does it, they all want to do it. So, of course, when it was Parker’s turn again, she wanted to ride by herself. Rodeo is the perfect horse for my little ones. After a couple of hours we returned the horses to their corral and threw down some hay flakes from the hayloft. From there we all walked up to the house.

Travis and I lagged behind. “Should we round up the sheep?” he asked me. We arrived Wednesday just in time to help Peter move a ram from the trailer to the pen next to the horses. The goal was to breed the ram with the two ewes. We watched Peter, Jordan, and Riley unsuccessfully attempt to wrangle the ewes previous day. Jordan tried to bribe one of them with treats in an attempt to put a halter on it. Riley had a rope to lasso the second sheep. Now Travis was asking me to assist him to do the same.

“Um, I think I’m the wrong person to help you with that,” I responded, baffled that he’d ask me to perform that task. I’m all about lending a helping hand, but I don’t want to be messing with unfamiliar animals whose owners can’t even wrangle them. Travis has a lot more ranching confidence than I do.

We continued to walk up the hill. The ram saw us and shouted out to us…as if to say, “Hey! I’m here! Remember me!” We didn’t know what to say – we didn’t even know the ram’s name. He didn’t have a name. At dinner Saturday night I was informed that the ram didn’t have a name because we hadn’t yet name it. “Yeah. The Wilson’s are supposed to name it,” confirmed Jordan. Really. I went around and asked each of the kids what we should name him. Everyone was stumped until…

“I think we should name it Lincoln,” said Lincoln. We laughed about it. Peter suggested the shortened version of “Linc.” We continued to eat our delicious dinner of locally-raised chicken, Ferre-garden-fresh potatoes, and salad.

“Lincoln, eat your salad, please,” I requested. Lincoln picked up one lettuce leaf at a time and started from the bottom, chewing it into his mouth. Like a sheep…or a ram…named Linc. Unbeknownst to him, Lincoln sealed the deal. The Ferre ram is now named Linc. (Or maybe Link.)

There are a couple more things forever changed at the Ferre´ ranch because of our stay. Travis helped Peter put up some fencing Thursday and Saturday we all went out in the back woods to do some tree thinning. Taite, Lincoln, and Calla all had saws and worked hard. (They’ll be great farm hands!) Parker’s feet got wet and she became the self-appointed supervisor about ten minutes into the event. It was a beautiful afternoon and the snow was melting. Everything was wet – including all of our feet. We have snow boots, not slop boots. We all could use some Bogs and SmartWool socks. I see a wise purchase in our near future.

Parker eats the snow

Lincoln saws and moves trees

Calla saws trees. Taite's in the background cutting them down.

With 670 acres, the small patch of thinned trees and the small amount of fencing our family helped with are barely noticeable. The Wilson’s may not have made much of an impression on the Ferre´ ranch, but our time at the Ferre´ ranch has greatly impacted us.

Sunday night we said our goodbyes to Jordan, Riley, and Mason. They had school the next morning. I brought our kids up to our guest apartment to read the day’s devotion. More tears. Our kids had so much fun they didn’t want to leave. There hadn’t been enough time to skeet shoot or horseback ride again. “I would like to live here,” said Taite.

“Really, Taite,” said a surprised Travis. “Would you rather be here or in California?”

“Here.”

In a previous conversation we told the kids about the Ferre’s upcoming Costa Rica trip. “Wouldn't that be great?! To get to travel Costa Rica for an entire month?!” I asked the kids. Sounds like a dream to me. (Maybe next winter?...)

“No. I’d rather be here,” Taite replied with certainty. Personally, I don’t think he knows what he’s missing. But I’m glad he enjoyed the ranch so much. I think he’ll enjoy a Minnesota farm just as much.

Our family has been impacted forever because of our experience at the Ferre´ Ranch. Thank you, Ferre’s, for the invitation!