Pamela Haney’s newest venture is spinning gourmet cotton candy, but her business story starts in 2011.

That’s when the Durkee woman was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes the immune system to attack part of the peripheral nervous system, which carries signals from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Haney’s feet and hands went numb.

“I lost the use of my hands,” she said.

There is no cure, but physical therapy helps with recovery.

When symptoms were severe, she couldn’t be home alone so joined her husband, Jim, who ran a trap line.

“One day he picked up an antler,” she said.

She looked at that antler occasionally over the next year, until an idea sparked to use antlers for jewelry.

She started with an antler slice she smoothed with sandpaper.

“It was part of learning to grip things, hold things,” Haney said. “I was still learning to touch and hold and feel things.”

After treatment, she still had residual effects from the syndrome for about two years. But she kept at her new venture of creating jewelry from “antler, stone and bone.”

“I’m a rock hound,” she said.

She uses a wire wrapping technique for her pieces — something she couldn’t fathom when her hands were numb.

“To me, it’s pretty amazing that I can intricately wire wrap,” Haney said.

She sells necklaces and earrings at bazaars and flea markets under the name Sagebrush and Beyond.

Change came in 2022 when her sales declined — but she noticed vendors with food had steady customers.

“I watched the consumables emptying out,” she said. “People weren’t buying luxury items.”

She expanded her inventory with homemade wax melts and car air fresheners, then her husband suggested she sell shaved ice.

Aside from the hassle of keeping ice frozen, she said that idea melted because she and Jim both have restrictions on lifting heavy items.

“I talked him into cotton candy,” Haney said with a smile.

After lots of research, and buying a machine and assorted flavors, Haney debuted her gourmet cotton candy at the Labor Day weekend flea market in Sumpter. She sells it under the name Mountain Jim’s Cotton Candy.

She next offered the sweet treat during Taste of Baker on Oct. 5 in Baker City.

“We weren’t even open yet and we had a line,” she said.

The most popular flavors are blue (blue razzberry) and pink (pink vanilla).

But she wanted to expand beyond those basics.

“I wanted to do gourmet flavors,” she said.

Huckleberry is her newest creation, but Haney also makes pumpkin spice, maple, apple cider, champagne and watermelon. Next she’ll try some sour flavors.

For now, she’s ordering the gourmet flavors, but it’s expensive to ship sugar so she’s experimenting with her own mixes.

“I’m working on making those inhouse,” she said.

Haney lives in Durkee, and her gourmet cotton candy is sold in Baker City at Ruffled Feathers Boutique, 2007 First St., while the pink and blue varieties are sold at Birds on a Wire Mercantile, 2345 11th St.

Also, cotton candy will join her other inventory at the Fall Vendor Market on Oct. 25-26 at the Baker County Event Center, and the 4-H Christmas Bazaar during the first weekend of December at the Baker County fairgrounds.

This month, she’ll spin fresh cotton candy on Fridays and Saturdays during the Churchill Haunted Studio tour from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Churchill School, 3451 Broadway St.

“Maybe someday I’ll spin at parties, weddings, anniversaries,” she said with a smile.  “It’s fun — I love to see the smiles.”

For information, visit sagebrushandbeyond.com or mountainjimscandy.com. She also has pages on Facebook and Instagram.