Our town Dufur

Here is a tour of our town Dufur...

When you drive south on HWY 197 from The Dalles heading towards Bend you will find yourself nestled between rolling hills of amber waves of grain or depending on the season green grassy hills a few cows and just miles and miles of sky. 13 miles it takes from The Dalles to get to our town Dufur and at first glance it is...well run down and small but I have to admit I love it and I will show you why.

1st as you get off the HWY you will find a sign that welcomes you to Dufur.

then you come across the Barlow Ranger Station.

If you stay on Main street you will pass the home of the Dufur Rangers K-12th school. Yes the high school, middle and elementary are all under one roof. This is where Paige goes to 1st grade and her class has 17 including her. In Salem she had 30 kids in her class. Most likely all 16 kids will continue all through high school together strange when I think how large my graduating class was


Wait there's more we have a library! It may be part of the schools library but heck we've got a library.

So we are on Main street and if you just stay on it, it will take you through the whole town so as we continue on our way we come across Sharon's hair salon. We haven't ventured here yet but I've seen a few elderly laddies getting perms inside. There is also a hardware store for the men accross the street.

Next is the main part of town which is totally run down. No one has taken care of it, yet as you walk down the street you wonder what it might have been like back in the day. There is a grocery store called Kramer's. Someone purchased it since we left and is in the process of remodeling it and it isn't done yet but it looks sooooo good. It closes at 5pm and costs an arm and a leg to buy anything there but we've got ourselves a grocery store.

Across the street is the post office and it is tiny. I like to walk to the post office and pick up my mail and the post office manager knows who I am and will actually talk to me. Actually if anyone else is getting their mail they will talk to you too. Just about anyone you come across in this town even passing cars will wave a hello and ask how are you? It is the friendliest place in the world. It makes me sad to think outside of this small town if you walk down the street not a soul will look your way let alone wave hi as they drive by.

Next is our little town Museum and site of the Annual Threshing Bee. Every August the town gets together and uses an old Threshing Bee which at one time was used to make hay bales.

Then comes the Past Time Saloon restraunt. Haven't been yet.

Then we have the Balch Hotel which was purchased and totally remodeled and made into a cute hotel. This has made a few people want to fix Dufur up a bit. We will see what happens.

If you turn down the street going past the hotel you will come to the Dufur Park/ Camping Grounds/swimming pool/baseball field. Every summer swim lessons are held for different age groups and every kid in the surrounding area comes to take these lessons as well as my kids. The park is great and you actually get people camping here.

This is Dufur in a nut shell.

The scenery is just beautiful, weather is good

The people are friendly and our neighbor is the best darn neighbor we could have ever asked for. Then in these small towns you get those really interesting homes you know the ones who have the bright colored bubble gum pink or cotton candy blue paint. I suppose some might not like all those things and I was one of those people but I fell in love with little dusty old Dufur.

Man it is so good to be back!

MOVING BACK!!!

So as a few of you know we have been living in my in-laws house while they are away in China (no not on a mission and yes it is through the church). Well our orignal plan was to stay the whole time they were away but...we decided it was time to go back to the Gorge! As a matter of fact we are moving back to the very house we came from so I am sorry I haven't updated in so long and I am sorry I don't have any real good pictures but I do have one of Paul in his old garden at the house we are moving back too. He was rotatilling it to plant stuff in. Any way we are leaving April 9th back to Dufur and no that isn't a disease it's the name of the VERY small town we will be living in and yes if you blink you will miss it! I will get back and blogging in no time I promise!

-JS