8:42 AM

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A rendition of "Christmas for Cowboys" by former poet-laureate of Colorado John Denver, from Rocky Mountain Christmas (1975, RCA)

(photo: My grandpa, Don Woodfin, Ellensburg, WA, 1968)

Toward the End of Factory Farming

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Awhile back there was a short article in The New York Times Magazine about a mobile slaughterhouse in the Hudson Valley – pictured above are two of its owner-operators, fourth-generation organic dairy farmers Bill and Jim Eklund. These types of operations – the very first of which went into operation on Lopez Island here in Washington State – allow small farmers to humanely and healthily raise and kill cattle at or near their own farms, rather than going through the grossly inorganic and costly process of dealing with the behemoth beef processing industry. In short, mobile slaughterhouses make "small farmer" a viable profession, and "100% local" a designation consumers can actually trust. Visit nytimes.com to read more about it in "A Movable Beast," Christine Muhlke's article on the Eklund's mobile slaughterhouse.
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While we're at it with the beef, let me take this opportunity to wholeheartedly recommend a new butcher in our neighborhood, Rain Shadow Meats.

It feels like a major luxury to have such a great butcher in our neighborhood. Read an interview with founder Russ Flint at The Stranger and visit Rain Shadow Meats, on Melrose between Pike and Pine, for all of your Independence Day grilling needs.

[Photography David La Spina for the New York Times; Rain Shadow Meats Illustration by Graham Baba Architects. Both of those links are worth following to see more of their respective work.]

A Giant in the Mental

Yesterday was my Grandpa Don's birthday. He died in 2004 but it doesn't seem long ago – I think of him very often. Here's his obituary from the Whidbey News Times, written by my Uncle Perry:

Woodfin, Donald Wednesday, 08 Sep 2004

Donald A. Woodfin, 84, with his family by his side, died peacefully at his home in Rolling Hills Sept. 8, 2004.

He was born Jan. 26, 1920 in Palouse where the Woodfin family had homesteaded when Washington was still a territory. Don’s mother died when he was eight and his father passed away when he was 13. Orphaned during the Depression, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and at 15, lied about his age and joined the Marines. Stationed in Shanghai, China, in 1936, Don became an American Embassy guard and was the first American to sight and report the Japanese invasion of China. He was also a distinguished and decorated rifle and pistol marksman.

Out of the Marines, Don traveled to Sitka, Alaska, and worked on a halibut boat, and as an apprentice carpenter. He married Jeanne Perry and with the need for expert carpenter skills during World War II, joined the Navy SeaBees and helped build air runways at Sitka and Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

Moving to Vashon Island, and with a growing family, Don purchased a berry and fruit farm. With his interest in agriculture broadening, he eventually built up the largest chicken farm in the Greater Seattle area. During this time he met and became a good friend of Betty McDonald. She wrote the famous novel “The Egg and I” that produced the lovable characters, Ma and Pa Kettle. Betty paid tribute to Don in her book Onions In the Stew as “...the unforgettable Marine.” The barn, chicken house, and caretaker house he built Betty and her family are now recognized National Historical Landmarks and Don is well known to the Betty McDonald International Fan Club.

Divorced in 1954, Don moved to Moses Lake, which was experiencing a boom. He married Jananne (Nan) Goltz and began a long and successful career as a custom builder. But his interest in agriculture did not leave him, and in the early 1960s he moved his family to Ellensburg and began ranching in addition to building. The Limousin breed of cattle captured his attention and by the 1970s he had earned a respected niche in the cattle industry throughout the Pacific Northwest, when in 1976, his wife Nan unexpectedly died.

In 1978 Don married Joyce Hofelter and they moved to Whidbey Island and began what was to be a 26-year marriage. Together, Don and Joyce became a major force in Limousin cattle with Don becoming known as “the Grandfather of Limousin” across the western United States. He became the president of both the NW and Washington Limousin Associations and with Joyce, started and developed the Limousin Bull Test. Many ranchers in the West attribute their start in Limousin cattle to Don.

Don had a passionate love of life which included golf (even a few holes-in-one), the stock market, and family. He fought a courageous battle with cancer for over 30 years. This battle defied odds and statistics due to his love of life, in addition to his excellent physical conditioning. He lifted weights and exercised every morning of his life, even up to one week before he passed away. On occasion, when in hospitals, he would be performing push-ups on his bed when nurses would enter his room and be startled by his unusual vigor. This zest for life included story-telling, and as everyone knew, he loved to tell a good joke.

Don is survived by his wife, Joyce Woodfin; his son, Perry Scott Woodfin of San de Fuca and his daughters, Donna Woodfin Stahl and Margaret Lee Woodfin of Seattle; his stepson, Gary Lyle Goltz and wife Bernatta of Coupeville; his stepdaughter, Roxanne Cole and partner Jim Anderson of Snohomish; his stepsons, Bill Hofelter and wife Cheryl of Phoenix, and Rex Hofelter and wife Jacqueline of Orange County, California. There are 12 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.

To his family, he was not a particularly tall man, but he was a giant.

I think I mentioned awhile back that I was going to start posting some photos of my Grandpa, as there are a lot of great ones (he was kind of a show-off). They're all packed away though, so this is that rare thing on Pacific Standard, a post with no images. My Grandpa Don was a great person – he had so many stories, we would beg to hear them all the time – and they were all things he had lived or seen…crazy stuff you don't hear anymore. I'm really proud to have known him.

Crosstown Beef

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The first thing we did when we got to Detroit last night was leave town. There's a bar in Dearborn that is widely considered, among people who track such things, to have one of the best burgers in the world. Once again, we were lucky to have the place almost entirely to ourselves, and owner/bartender Mark Miller schooled us on local history, the bar business, and most importantly, the ethos of his long-time burger outfit.

These really were some of the best, if not the very best, burgers we've ever had—Emily and I both agreed. (And as I told Mark, my grandfather was a cattle rancher, so I've had a few.) I ordered this one rare, and it actually was rare, and that was great, because Miller gets his beef directly from Detroit's Eastern Market, and knows where it walked around before that. Paired with some McDonald's-level-delicious fries (don't front) and a couple High Lifes (no relation to the bar, though their Miller distributor used to work there) it was just about heaven.