A while ago … last spring, a friend of Aunt Ruth’s who is a local journalist asked if she might interview me for a little magazine that is published here in North Central Washington. I was honored, but not surprised, as Ruth told me she had made the suggestion. I feel less than qualified for being the subject of any news story, but I did follow up the questions she sent me with answers. The summer passed, and nothing came of it – but just recently the photographer for that same magazine has asked if he could come over to take some pictures. Oh no! I made my garden sound so much better than it is. especially this year! The plants are in decline, the weeds have taken over, and I spent too much time playing around when I should have been working!! Anyway, it is happening and I will make a mad dash to clean up before the photos are taken. In the meanwhile, I thought I would post the Q and A’s from last spring here. I will post one question and answer at a time.
QUESTIONS:
-Could you tell me a little about yourself (professional background, lifestyle, etc…Ruth shared with me a bit about your house remodel, composting, and greenhouse projects but I’d love to hear more about these!)
I have lived in Entiat, WA for a little over 30 years. We moved here from Oregon where I met my husband, Gary while we were both students at Oregon State University. I was studying Forestry and he was enrolled in the Engineering department. Circumstances intervened, and our lives strayed from the paths we may have taken if we had continued in our chosen majors. I am now the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 4 little ones. I have worked for North Central Regional Library for almost 24 years and have been the librarian for the Entiat Branch for the last 20. Gary is a 30 plus year Union Carpenter and Construction Superintendent. We have much in common including a love of the outdoors, a zest for adventure, and a fondness of working with our hands. We both see value in saving and restoring salvageable materials. We have confidence in our ability to make changes to seemingly hopeless projects with a commitment to hard work and time. I am a self- taught home cook, food canner, soymilk and tofu maker, pickler, sauerkraut maker, fish and pepper smoker, breadmaker, kombucha and most recently beer brewer .
In respect to our home projects, we live in a house that has been through many transformations. It may be interesting note that this house was moved at least once, if not twice to its current location. It was one of those homes that traveled up the hill during the time that Entiat was relocated when Rocky Reach Dam was built. Prior to when they placed it in its current location, a basement foundation was poured. The quality of that foundation was one of the impressive features that Gary liked about the home. A person would have needed special vision to appreciate much else about the house. Dillapidated as it was , since it was big and affordable, and we had four children, we made the commitment to purchase and renovate. During the years that we have lived here, every wall, window, door, floor has been replaced. The remodeled house design was dictated by practicality , which I feel has turned out to be beautiful. Many of the windows, and doors are salvaged discards from construction jobs, as well as many of the cabinets and carpets. The feature I most love is the hardwood maple flooring throughout the front room and main floor bedrooms. It is the old gym floor that was removed from the Entiat School during its remodel back in the mid-90’s.. I like to think of the many basketball games played on these boards, some of which we attended when my own kids were little.
The majority of the structure of our greenhouse is also salvage material. The windows are from the demolition on a Chelan school building project. They sat in our yard for years prior to when we found the time and resources to put them to good use. Now the greenhouse has allowed me to start almost all of my plants for the garden early in the season, to grow extra plants for friends and other family members and to overwinter potted plants. In the last few years we discovered that the intense heat and protected environment of the greenhouse serves as a perfect fruit dehydrator.
Probably the most exciting thing happening currently ( other than being fairly recent grandparents ) in our lives is our project on a cabin and piece of property we now own 11 ½ miles up the Entiat River Road. We purchased this place about 10 years ago. It was love at first sight, despite the gargantuan effort that it would and is taking to clean up and bring our vision to fruition. But that is another story and it is ongoing.
Secrets from Granny 