Stories

Dear Friends, I didn’t intend for my snowy picture of Yellowstone to be a sign of the week to come in Oregon. I made the long drive up here last Monday. Tuesday morning, Heather and I walked the hill. 5 hours later there was snow falling. By mid afternoon, I encouraged the team to go…

Dear Friends, Three years ago this weekend, for my 50th birthday, I went on a National Geographic Photography Expedition in Yellowstone. It was a photographer’s heaven. We are supposed to get snow in the Willamette Valley this week. It is not quite the same as this but gets me in the mood for snow! I…

Dear Friends, Good morning from Cambria, CA. January 17th is a special day for our family. My husband, David, and my son, Ryan, share the same birthday! They will be surprised when they get up to see that the Streamer Fairy, who puts streamers on the door of the bedroom, has found her way to…

Dear Friends, As we all have experienced, COVID has upset businesses and lives across the world. Brooks was greatly impacted too, but thanks to your support of buying wine and visiting us, we have pulled through to take 2021 head-on. One of the greatest lessons I learned last year was how fragile revenue sources can…

Dear Friends, I hope you all had a restful and safe holiday season. While the year on the calendar has changed, we continue to fight the spread of the virus, our front line workers are working harder than ever and so many more people are being diagnosed with COVID. And now, the new strain of…

Dear Friends, I hope that you are enjoying the holiday season. We sure are. It was so nice to have my son home. It was great for all of us and fun to see him and his sister enjoying each other’s company. He left at 5 am this morning to return to school tomorrow. Last…

Dear Friends, I hope this finds you all healthy, safe, and enjoying the holiday season. I love this point in the holidays. We are almost out of time to shop for anything that needs to be shipped. My menu for the week is done as well as the grocery list. One more trip to the…

Dear Friends, I hope this finds you all healthy and safe. It was another busy work week. I would be afraid to clock my work hours during this time. My weeks used to be filled with the distraction of travel. My distraction now seems to be virtual events. And boy, am I on cloud nine…

Dear Friends, I hope this finds you all healthy and safe. We were able to reopen outdoors this week. Oregon has come up with a formula-driven classification system applied to each county that determines how businesses can operate. At this time, most counties, including ours, is in the “extreme” risk category. The primary measure to…

Dear Friends, I hope this finds you all healthy and safe. Looking back at last week when I wrote my email, I was still feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under me. My focus was narrow and it was on the business and our team. A week has gone by and I…

Dear Friends, I hope this finds you all healthy and safe. I have spent a wonderful three weeks in “my happy place”. It has been incredible to think of all I have done and how much time I spent with my team and our guests. I feel truly blessed. Today I will drive the long…

Dear Friends, I hope this finds you all healthy and safe. It was a very busy week with lots of meetings with the team. A highlight for sure was the Harvest Dinner Friday night. So proud of the execution of the event by the team as well as Chef Norma’s amazing food! Yesteday, I was…