Yesterday afternoon my husband and I spent several hours at the Bite of the Rogue Valley, a fundraiser for the local Boys & Girls Clubs. Because the Rogue Valley encompasses several towns and cities (Medford and Grants Pass being the largest of these) and a lot of territory in between, we were a bit disappointed that there were not more businesses represented. As it was, more than a dozen restaurants, a couple of outfitters and lodges (the Rogue is known for great fly fishing), two breweries and seven wineries were on hand to offer up tastes and pours of their best. One of our local favorites, the Rogue Creamery, was on hand with samples of some of their incredible artisan cheeses. Three of the creamery’s cheeses (Echo Mountain Goat Cheese, Crater Lake Blue Cheese and Rogue River Blue) were recently named to Wine Spectator‘s 2008 list of 100 Great Cheeses–and we certainly wouldn’t argue with that assessment! For a portion of the afternoon we watched an Iron Chef-like competition among local chefs (a feature that seems to have become a standard at virtually every food event in the last few years), but we were really drawn in to the other featured contest of the day: the ice carving competition. We watched in fascination for more than an hour as four men each worked on his own huge block of ice, vieing for the $500 first prize. My husband remarked that he thought it unusual that there were no women in the competition, considering the artistic talent required. I pointed out that since the tools of the trade were large POWER tools, I was not the least surprised that the field was dominated by men.  Indeed, in addition to a variety of chain saws, we saw electric grinders, sanders, drills and a blow torch in use. A metal tray heated by a common household iron was used to rapidly and evenly thaw the surface of a large slab of ice, and dry ice grated over two adjoining blocks served as “solder” to link them. We also noted that each of the artists was wearing what certainly must be essential safety equipment when working with power equipment in puddles of icemelt: rubber-soled boots. Gradually there emerged from the ice a butterfly, a large smiling sun, a tropical fish floating above a coral bed and an eagle swooping low. Our favorites, the eagle and the fish, won the top two prizes. The detail their creators managed to bring out of such a (literally) fluid medium with such seemingly crude and cumbersome tools was impressive. I will certainly look upon ice sculptures in the future with a new respect for the work which goes into their creation.  Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader