When my Grandfather moved to Alaska in the 40s, he needed to find a house big enough to hold his wife and seven children, and pronto. The Matanuska Valley had been colonized in the 30s as part of the New Deal. My Grandfather bought a nice little Colony House on a hefty bit of acreage from a family that just wasn’t able to cut it as colonists (nothing against that poor family, but winters in Alaska were probably a bit more than they had bargained for).
Then he set about expanding the house to make it big enough to fit his kids.
It turned out plenty big.
McKinley Farm
The picture above shows my Grandparents and mom with her brothers and sister. Notice the airplane out the window to the left. Grandpa was a dentist and he used that to commute to work in Anchorage. He would also fly out to the bush villages to treat the villagers, often for free.
The fireplace was built with river rocks. The second floor windows on either side of the chimney (below) were close enough to reach out and get a good toe hold on the chimney, yet far enough away that falling was a very real possibility. Of course, I know nothing of this because I would never consider sneaking out of the house.
The lower roof, right above the ground on the picture above, covered the cold room. Aside from being a dentist and a politician, my grandfather was also a very skillful butcher (that’s how he worked his way through college.) We didn’t just have a cooler for keeping meat, we had an entire 400+ square foot cold room. We didn’t mess around when it came to meat.
In my mind, the crowing jewel of this home was the swing set.
It was the reason my friends came to play at my house. And on hot summer days, we would drag a water hose to the top of the slide and turn it in to a water slide.
(That’s me in front with the braids)
My Dad took the following pictures from the top of the slide, then pasted them together. The two little buildings behind the van were very important as well. The white building was the chicken coop and the little log building beyond that was the pig pen.
I lived in that house for most of my childhood. It was a pain to clean, we lived in the delta between two glacier fed rivers so the fine dust of glacier silt was always passing through the walls. Vacuuming and dusting were never ending chores. As was mowing the lawn.
And lest you think it was a mansion of some kind, I want to be clear that the bedroom walls were plywood, and we woke up many times to find frost on the inside of our bedroom walls. Oh, and the roof leaked so much when it rained or the snow melted that walking down the hall was an obstacle course of buckets and drips. I miss that house.
My family sold the house a few years back and since then it has fallen into disrepair. It looks so sad now.
I will be posting more information on my friend Janece from noordinarymoment.com later this week, but for the moment, stop by her etsy shop and check out her gorgeous paintings.
Click on the picture to go directly to her site for more information on the painting.
And do check out her blog for some of the most ethereal pictures of the Pacific Northwest and a glimpse at the life of an artist and her family. _________________________________________
Whidbey Island Writers Association hosts an open house the first Tuesday of every month at the Rockhopper in Clinton. This Tuesday I hopped on a ferry to Whidbey Island to attend the meeting. I’m so glad I did.
The focus of the July meeting was Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers that is located on Whidbey Island. A thousand women from around the world have been hosted for residencies of two weeks to two months. The retreat can host six women at a time, each in one of six cabins. A seventh cabin hosts an established writer in residence. Gloria Steinem is the most recent writer in the seventh cabin.
The tagline at Hedgebrook is Women Authoring Change.
Gitana Garafalo, Director of Alumnae Relations at Hedgebrook, was the speaker Tuesday night. An engaging speaker, Garafalo was passionate about Hedgebrook and as an alumna herself, she is particularly knowledgeable.
I had the best of intentions to take wonderful notes on all the Hedgebrook details, but upon reviewing my notes I discovered I had, through the course of the meeting, written 4 pages of story ideas and outlined a couple projects. Just sitting in that room full of writers inspired me in my own writing.
To the aspiring writers in the crowd: Have you ever gone out of your way to put yourself in a (real world, not online) room full of writers? If not, I highly recommend you give it a try.
Both Hedgebrook and Whidbey Island Writers Association offer numerous literary events throughout the year. Stop by their websites to see if they offer something that might ring your bell.
Come on, there has to be at least one instance in all your life when you wanted some dessert but couldn’t bear the thought of another bite of that Alaskan-sized sheet-cake.
Ok, well that’s the situation I found myself in this week.
We had another graduation party for Aaron tonight, and I was on deck to bring the dessert. We had plenty of sheet cake left from parties earlier in the week. I couldn’t bear to eat another bite of cake, but it just seemed too wasteful to throw it all away.
lightbulb!
I sliced up a couple pounds of strawberries that needed to be eaten up anyways. Instead of putting sugar on them, I doused them liberally with Godiva liqueur (mom calls this “medicine,” we both make sure to have a bottle handy in case of emergencies).
While I let the strawberries soak in their chocolate hooch, I whipped up a pint of whipping cream with yet a little more Godiva Liqueur – again no sugar, it wasn’t necessary.
Quantities? I have no idea. Just added till I felt like it might be enough.
Then I took a bowl and made a deep layer of leftover cake, topped it with a layer of drunk strawberries and then topped that with a layer of drunk whipped cream and repeated until everything was gone.
Oh my goodness, I think I’ve got a buzz. Not sure if its a sugar buzz or from all the booze, but I think I’ll wait a while before dribing home.
So next time I have leftover Costco cake from any kind of event, I know what I’m going to do with it. But next time I think I’ll remove a lot of the frosting, that just got in the way.
CoffeeJitters is an affiliate to a number of sites and services. I do not endorse products I don't love. I may receive compensation if you purchase items from links on this website.
