A Traditional State of Mind

The Stevenson Ranch

Story by Kris Jones, Photos submitted by the Stevenson Family

Think back to a time when lunch was still a meal to be served at the family table and random acts of kindness were a way of life. Neighbors still come together for socials and generosity came from the heart, not a foundation. Imagine a place where hard work is still a daily practice, and families still barter a few bushels of wheat for farm fresh eggs…

In this day and age, does this place exist or is it a thing of the past? In the hustle and bustle of our current world, where one can send an email to the East Coast faster than pick up the phone to call a neighbor, one might wonder if this traditional lifestyle is a relic of the past. However, the answer is no. It is still alive and well in the rolling farmland stretching across the plains north of Madras.

Nestled in the shadow of Mt. Jefferson, one family farm still operates by the traditional values that have been passed down through the generations. Although the crops and farming methods have changed over the years at Stevenson Farms, one thing is certain, down home hospitality hasn’t. For David and Kathy Stevenson, getting back to the basics is a state of mind.

Where did this way of life stem from? To understand the kindness and generosity which has been born and bred into the Stevenson family, a person must go back to one of the coldest winters on record when both of their families migrated to Central Oregon.

Although from vastly different regions and lifestyles prior to this time, it was farming that brought both of their families to Central Oregon’s agricultural oasis and enticed them to stay even after the brutal winter of 1950.

For David, his family moved from the Wilder, Idaho area to take advantage of the newly irrigated farmland which had recently been developed with the creation of the North Unit Irrigation District. Previously farmed as a dry land crop area, the irrigation access allowed farmers to greatly diversify their crops, thus enticing many from Idaho to settle in this new Mecca.

Like many families of that era, David’s father, Roy, was one of 13 children growing up in Idaho. When it came time to start out on his own, the bountiful water of the newly developed irrigation program enticed him to move his young family to the area to start his own farm. As David recalls, “Each farmer was initially limited to purchase only 160 acres.”

At the time of the move, David, one of four brothers, was only three and a half years old. However, it wasn’t long before he learned the true meaning of hard work and the golden rule that everyone pitches in to help out around the farm. As he noted, “we had to clean and level the land,” to prepare it for farming. For David and his brothers this initially meant a great deal of picking rocks and clearing sagebrush. At twenty-five cents per hour, the brothers worked diligently to help prepare the land for cultivation.

The initial crop his family chose to raise was ladino clover. As a kid, David recalled having to pitch the clover by hand into a stationary threshing machine. He also said that his dad donated some of their first crops to Oregon State University to test the clover chaff for nutritional value as a livestock feed. He reminisced as he described his father loading up the family truck to make the long drive to Corvallis.

Born and raised into hard work, David is the first to admit that while in high school, farming was the furthest thing from his mind. Along with the backbreaking work on the farm, David also tried raising pigs, and after losing money at that venture, decided livestock was not his calling either. For David, much of his life revolved around his family and their involvement in the United Methodist Church in Madras.

Kathy’s family also chose to move to Central Oregon in 1950, during which the region experienced one of the worst cold spells in history. Originally from Pasadena, California the family chose to settle in the Tumalo area. At 18 months old, Kathy doesn’t recall much about the first winter, but she related the stories her mother told her about staying up around the clock to stoke the fire in -28°F weather which went on for weeks. Her parents decided to move north to live off the land, while her father worked as a millwright for the Brooks-Scanlon Mill in Bend. At home, her mom tended to the family, milked cows and gathered eggs.

Kathy recalls her mom collecting the eggs, milk and cream to sell to the Bend Dairy to supplement the family’s income. The family usually milked between five to seven cows by hand. She related how her mother used a “hay cellar” to keep the milk cold between the twice weekly trips to town. This was done by storing it in 10-gallon cans buried under the straw in the barn.

Like David, Kathy grew up learning how to work hard. A typical day included many chores, with the care of the animals being the top priority. As Kathy noted, “the animals were fed before us.” She affectionately recalled one of her favorite childhood memories explaining how her mom always had a homemade treat waiting for her after school. Her mom reasoned that by eating dessert right after school Kathy would easily work off the excess calories as she tended to her chores before dinner. In addition, dinner was often times late because of all the family chores, thus giving Kathy
the energy to tide herself over for the late meal.

As the family truly learned to live off the land, they nurtured a big garden. This is where Kathy learned to perfect her canning and food preservation techniques. Still today, she spends much of her summers harvesting and preserving the vegetables from her garden and is known throughout the community for her flavorful canned goods and sharing her bountiful harvest.

As an avid 4-H member, Kathy mentioned that many of her fondest memories came from her involve-ment with the organization that she still holds very dear to her heart. In fact, she attributes much of her early success to her extension agent Lynn Breese and her first 4-H leader Mary Ellen Davis. As Kathy noted, 4-H made an easy fit as “animals were always my first love” and “there were no sports or FFA for girls, so 4-H was a big thing.”

The 4-H program also offered Kathy the luxury of travel and a social life. With farm chores taking up so much of the family’s time, excursions and gatherings were a very limited commodity, but it was through 4-H that Kathy was able to experience life outside her community. The OSU 4-H Summer School also afforded her a week off from the chores. She also adored the 4-H exchanges she participated in and has especially fond memories of her first trip to the ocean on an exchange with the Lincoln County 4-H program.

Still an avid supporter of her own county fair, Kathy recalled her favorite time of the year was when she attended the annual Deschutes County Fair at the old fairgrounds. She commented that the
highlight for the week was staying in the dorms, while she participated in a variety of project areas ranging from home economics to her beloved livestock.

After high school, both Kathy and David decided to attend Central Oregon Community College in Bend. By this time David had graduated from Madras High School and was living in Bend, while
Kathy had graduated from Redmond High School and was commuting to COCC from her home in Tumalo. Kathy recalled that their first chance encounter was during a tennis class at school when she accidentally hit David in the head with a tennis ball. Without much thought to the occurrence, both were surprised to see each other again when David arrived to drop off his 1953 Chevy which he had just sold to Kathy’s boyfriend. David took a chance and asked her out on a date, as Kathy’s boyfriend was out of town for a while. When she relented, the two became fast friends and an instant spark ignited between them.

Kathy still remembers their first date, which took place at an ice cream shop next to the Piggly Wiggly store near the old hospital in downtown Bend. As she noted, David stopped by to pick her up in his new Chevy Super Sport and it was love from the beginning. She pointed out that the couple announced their engagement on the weekend of the Deschutes County Fair the following summer and were married in November of 1967 at the United Methodist Church in Bend.

Although it was a joyous time in the young couple’s life, turbulence faced them in the form of the draft and the Vietnam War. As it would happen, David would receive his draft notice shortly after their wedding day. With little time to prepare for the changes ahead, David opted for a 120-day delay to get his affairs in order. Kathy said that after boot camp, the couple “packed up and went to San Diego.” Kathy continued to live in San Diego with David until he was shipped overseas to Vietnam. At that point she moved home to live on the farm with David’s parents, Roy and Freda.

While Kathy was at home during 1969, David was busy serving on a six-man Swift boat crew in Vietnam. While patrolling the rivers, David’s boat was hit and sunk, then towed back to a military base. He later returned to San Diego for a short time and then shipped out again for another six-month tour on a destroyer. Luckily for the couple, the war was almost over.

By Christmas of 1971, David was back on the farm in Madras with his family. By this time the farm had diversified and David’s dad was raising a variety of crops, ranging from grass seed to potatoes and grains. In addition, the Stevenson’s remembered that peppermint was just starting to take off in the area.

The couple’s daughter, Karen, was born the following Christmas and Kathy fondly remembered how the elder Stevenson couple gave the new young family a Christmas bonus to help with the extra
hospital bills, as it had been a banner potato crop that year. By the summer of 1975, they welcomed their son, Dan, to the family. As Kathy relates, it was during the middle of the grass seed harvest and she moved in with her in-laws for a short time. It was that same summer when Roy had a heart attack and consequently had bi-pass surgery, which prompted David and Kathy to take over the primary farming duties.

As the years flew by and Karen and Dan grew, they followed in their parents’ footsteps. Both kids became heavily involved in 4-H, FFA and their church youth group. At this point, Kathy took the reins of local 4-H Livestock Club. As one of the oldest clubs in the region, the Mecca 4-H club was steeped in history and had served many of the farm kids for years.

Kathy was a perfect fit to carry on the many traditions of the club and is perhaps best known around the region for the many selfless hours she dedicated to the kids who have passed through the program. At home, her children were focused on raising their own livestock.

For Karen, she enjoyed raising sheep and settled on registered Dorsets. Like her mother, Karen utilized 4-H and FFA as an opportunity to meet people and spent much of her time as a teenager traveling to shows helping renowned breeders throughout Oregon show their sheep.

Dan preferred raising purebred Hereford cattle and served as president of the Oregon Junior Hereford Breeders Association. In 1991, he reached a highpoint in his show career after exhibiting the Champion Market Steer at the Oregon State Fair and later at the Northern International Livestock Exposition in Montana.

Although not living back on the farm, both children are very successful and attribute much of their success to growing up in the agriculture industry. Karen graduated from high school and went on to major in Soils at Cal Poly, obtaining most of her education through scholarships. She now lives in York, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. She works as a consultant to townships assisting in enforcing sewer management programs.

Throughout high school Dan had a passion for welding and with the assistance of his mentor Guff Thorpe, owner of the local Green Spot Welders, Dan chose to attend Tulsa Welding School. At that time, he liquidated his herd of cows to pay for his tuition and moved to Tulsa to attend school. Dan is currently working as a pipeline welder on a 48-inch natural gas line heading west across the United States.

As the kids stretched their wings, Kathy chose to stay on as the Mecca 4-H leader, thus touching a number of people’s lives in the process. She also chose to keep the sheep flock Karen had started to develop. Over the years Kathy has transitioned the flock to supply local 4-H and FFA members with blackface market lambs. As 4-H families havemoved away, her market has grown to cover many other counties in Oregon and several in Washington. In addition, she has built up a loyal clientele of locker lamb enthusiasts.

Although the sheep and farm play a core role in the Stevenson’s lives, perhaps what they are best known for are the relationships they develop with people and the lives they have touched over the years. David has done this through the church and Kathy through 4-H.

Always on the go, the couple has a knack for having old fashioned fun. It turns out kids like this type of stuff, and over the years they have attracted their share of extended family members. As David pointed out, he and Kathy would take a group of kids to Hood River every year to pick apples. The group would bring bins of apples back to press into cider. Kathy then said the kids would give the juice to the 4-H buyers and other supporters in the community.

Other fun activities centered on Kathy’s sheep. One of the events Kathy is most famous for is the yearly President’s Day weekend sleepover. As a way to educate the youngsters about sheep and provide some camaraderie amongst the group, Kathy developed a long weekend where the kids took part in helping lamb out the ewes. This grand event usually occurred when David was out of town ferrying another group of youngsters to a church youth group retreat held annually in Eastern Oregon.

One of the benefactors of the couple’s attention was past 4-H member and family friend Rebecca Leutwiler Glaspie. Now a Process ImprovementEngineer, working with Eastman Chemical Company in Tennessee, Glaspie, was quick to agree with the impact that the Stevenson couple has had on kids throughout the community. As she noted, “They have been wonderful.” She also recalled that, “Kathy and Dave were a second set of parents if I needed one. They were always there for me.”

Although Kathy has retired from the position of full-time 4-H leader, she still serves as a resource leader in the community. In addition, she has recently written a grant to provide youngsters with nutritional information on annual outings to her house during lambing season. She sees this as a wonderful opportunity to “expose kids to the farm.”

In addition to raising her sheep and helping manage the farm business, Kathy has also taken on a position with the Oregon Department of Agriculture as a crop inspector and she spends much of her time during the spring and summer months in fields and warehouses sampling seed.

Although recently semi-retired from farming, the couple has not slowed their schedule. David is still active in the United Methodist Church and Kathy’s enthusiasm for educating people about agriculture is endless. However, the couple has taken time to travel more over the past couple years and David now spends more of his time fishing at Sherar’s Bridge on the Deschutes River. David jokingly pointed out his latest doctor’s visit included a prescription to “buy one fishing license per year.”

One of their favorite trips is always to see their daughter Karen and the grandchildren in Pennsylvania. They also have attended David’s Swift boat reunion and made a trip to Florida. In between visits east, the couple fills their lives with many offspring brought for visits by former neighbors or 4-H kids. As Kathy pointed out, “Christmas time is great, as all of the kids come back to visit.”

Over the years David and Kathy have touched many lives in the Jefferson County community. They have done it through their selfless actions and enthusiasm for life. Their legacy will live on in the lives of the youngsters who have learned to find solace in the basic things life has to offer. They have found that fun does not always have to come in a big package or expensive wrapper. It just has to come from the heart. As Kathy and David have proved time and time again, it really just takes family and friends coming together to have a great time.

The next time you are driving along Highway 26 west of Madras, take a moment to savor the view of Mt. Jefferson in the distance and think back to a time when life was simpler. For a moment, you can reflect back on an era when people were cherished through the years and sharing with your neighbor was commonplace. Lay down your cell phone for a minute and realize getting back to the basics isn’t an act. It is a state of mind.