Living on the Peninsula - Spring 2011

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011 1

SPRING 2011

Supplement to the Sequim Gazette and Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

Home is where the heart isCarving a niche in irondaleThe house of smallSailing homeNormandy ConquestThe castle captures Charlee Sandell

Westlands: Historical rural West End home restored to former glory

A Happy Home at Holly Hill House

Comfort in an English farmhouse

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2 LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011

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SPOTLIGHT

8 Spring Recreation Springtime? Time to hit the Spit

13 Good Gardening Permaculture 101

20 Food & Spirits Polenta Good Eating

27 Heart & Soul Looking through the “Only God Knows” windowpane

DEPARTMENTS

10 Carving a niche in irondale

17 The house of small

22 Sailing home

28 The Healing Art

40 Arts & Entertainment Artistry in craftsmanship Three Sequim men share passion for hand-making wooden instruments

54 Events Calendar

56 The Living End Of Hearts and Homes

58 Now & Then Photographic journal

On the cover: Massive oak beams form three arches in the great room of a Clallam County couple’s English country manor. Photo courtesy of Ken Hays Architect

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30 Normandy Conquest The castle captures Charlee Sandell

36 Westlands: Historical rural West End home restored to former glory

44 A Happy Home at Holly Hill House

50 Comfort in an English farmhouse

44


Contributors

Patricia Morrison Coate is the award-winning editor of Living on the Peninsula magazine. She has been a journalist since 1989 and earned degrees in Spanish from Eastern Michigan Uni-versity and Indiana University. Coate joined the Sequim Gazette in 2004 as its special sections editor and can be reached at [email protected].

Chris Cook is the editor and pub-lisher of the Forks Forum and a resident of Forks. He is the author of “Th e Kauai Movie Book” and other regional bestsell-ers in Hawaii. His book “Twilight Terri-tory: A Fan’s Guide to Forks and LaPush” was published in May 2009. Cook is a graduate of the University of Hawaii.

Michael Dashiell is editor of the Sequim Gazette. A graduate of West-ern Washington University’s journalism program, Dashiell has won numerous regional awards for photography and sportswriting. Dashiell can be reached at [email protected].

Design:Melanie Reed is the award-winning lead designer for Living on the Peninsula. She has been a graphic de-signer for the Sequim Gazette since May 2004. She earned a bachelor’s degree in drawing from Western Washington Uni-versity and also enjoys painting.

Karen Frank received her mas-ter’s degree in transforming spirituality from Seattle University. She is a writer and spiritual director in Port Townsend. Reach her at [email protected] or www.yourlifeassacredstory.org.

Beverly Hoffman writes a gardening column for the Sequim Ga-zette that appears once a month. She is an enthusiastic longtime gardener. She can be reached via e-mail at columnists@sequim gazette.com.

Elizabeth Kelly has lived on the Olympic Peninsula nearly a dozen years. She has worked for three news-papers as reporter and freelance writer. She also wrote as a technical writer. She has traveled to all seven continents and continues to be curious about the world around her.

Jerry Kraft is a playwright, poet and theater critic. He reviews Seattle theater productions for SeattleActor.com and the national theater website AisleSay.com. In addition to his writing and photography, he teaches memoir writing at the YMCA in Port Angeles where he lives with his wife, Bridgett Bell Kraft , and their daugh-ters McKenna and Luxie.

Vol. 7, Number 1, Living on the Peninsula is a quarterly publication. © 2011 Sequim Gazette © 2011 Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

Contact us:

Viviann Kuehl has been a land-owner and resident of Quilcene since 1982, although her family ties go back to homesteading in Jeff erson County in 1905. She has written about the Quilcene community and Jeff erson County over the past 20 years.

Kelly McKillip has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Marylhurst Col-lege in Oregon, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Hayward State University in California. She works as a nurse at Olympic Medical Center and volunteers at Th e Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic.

Ashley Miller is a former Sequim Gazette reporter and now is a freelance writer with a journalism degree from Washington State University. She’s a stay-at-home mother of two energetic young boys, ages 1 and 3. Contact her at [email protected].

P.O. Box 1750, Sequim, WA 98382 360-683-3311

Patricia Morrison Coate: [email protected]

226 Adams St., Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-385-2900

Fred Obee: [email protected]

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Spring RECREATION

L ike many other Olympic Peninsula residents, I’m one of those hikers easily fooled into thinking I fully appreciate

all the region has to off er.About a half-hour outside of Western Wash-

ington slaps me back into reality.Th at’s why I fi nd it so dumbfounding and

humbling each time I revisit the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, home to bald eagles, harlequin ducks, harbor seals and upwards of 250 species of birds, more than 40 land mam-mals and marine life aplenty.

Th e three-eighths-mile trail to the spit — at 1.2 million square meters, the longest natural sand spit in the United States — and the 5.5-mile long spit itself is just part of the refuge. Th e site off ers camping (66 sites), horseback riding, fi sh-ing and shell fi shing, jogging (in certain areas) and more.

For a nice day hike or tromping around by horse, start at parking entrances/trailheads just off Lotzgesell Road or a quarter mile into the refuge on Voice of America Road. Foot trails to the northwest take hikers along the bluff s toward gorgeous views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and North Olympic Peninsula coastline toward Port Angeles. Equine and foot trails to the northwest meander through the grassy meadow and into densely thickened woods. Or one can use both as a large loop, good for a day hike with varying terrain.

I prefer the beach hike, depending on the temperatures and wind. Gusts can get downright blustery on the spit, so make sure you layer properly.

Park use is $3 per group — reasonable fare, considering the cost of movies these days — and is payable to park rangers at the refuge’s north-ernmost parking lot. Youths 15 and younger are free and annual passes are available.

Most of the trail toward the water is easy-level grade with plenty of shade and several resting spots — not that most folks will need them. An overlook structure with a free telescope gives views of the lighthouse, nice for those visit-ing and not interested in making the 11-mile round trip by foot to the New Dungeness Light Station.

Th e trail gets steep abruptly and then levels out at the spit itself.

To the southwest, a little less than a mile of beach is open for hikers, wildlife watchers and, by reservation, horseback riders.

Along the Dungeness Spit to the northeast, about fi ve miles of beach is open to hikers and walkers, but only on the north (Strait of Juan de Fuca) side. To the Dungeness Harbor and Graveyard Spit side, the spit is closed to all public access to protect wildlife.

Minus a chilly spring breeze, the spit is a great spot to stretch the legs or take some out-of-town visitors. On one spring aft ernoon, my wife,

Springtime? Time to hit the Spit

Hiking Dungeness Spit and Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

How long: 11 miles (spit, round-trip to lighthouse); other trails vary in length

How hard: Easy to moderate

How to get there: From U.S. Highway 101, turn north on Kitchen-Dick Road and follow it for three miles. Soon after it doglegs east, it turns into Lotzgesell Road. On the left is the entrance to the Dungeness Recreation Area and Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. Leashed pets are welcome in the recreation area but are not allowed in the refuge or on the spit.

Above: Rock-stacking is a popular activity on the

Dungeness Spit.

Top right: The beach to the south/southwest of the spit trailhead offers a majestic

view of the Olympic Mountains.

Photos by Michael Dashiell

By Michael

Dashiell

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Spring RECREATION

338 W. First St. Port Angeles(360) 457-8527

E-mail: [email protected]

Get to know your Port... the Port of Port Angeles

338 W. First St. Port Angeles(360) 457-8527

E-mail: [email protected]

Question: What is the Port doing at the

Airport Industrial Park?

Answer: Financing and development are

underway for the composite manufacturing campus which

will occupy 6.5 aces of the 123-acre industrial park. The

composite manufacturing campus has the potential

for three 25,000 square foot buildings and two 20,000 square foot buildings to

support the Port’s existing composite manufacturing

tenants and attract new jobs to Clallam County.

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Refuge area renovationsPlans are under way for the renovation of the main entrance kiosk

and the rehabilitation of the pedestrian trail at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. Work began on Feb. 2 and is expected to be fi nished by the end of March. A new covered kiosk structure will be built with educational signage and an expanded trailhead area. Portions of the pedestrian trail are slated to be resurfaced and regraded to prevent erosion and increase longevity. During this time hikers will be rerouted to the equestrian trail in order to access the spit and horses temporarily will be prohibited from using the trail within the refuge. Th is will not aff ect the usage of the equestrian trail on the adjacent Dungeness County Recreation Area.

Patsene, and I ambled down to the sandy shores for a quick hike. Despite it being mid-aft ernoon on a school day, the beach was packed with visitors of all ages, many of them doing what we had planned: teetering on the drift wood, taking pictures of impudent seagulls, sharing a picnic and making rock stacks. (Th at rock-stacking thing seemed to be quite a fad a few years back, showing up along U.S. Highway 101. Wonder why it stopped?)

Knowing full well we weren’t going to make the full trek to the lighthouse, we had to be con-tent with views from afar.

Th e refuge is open from sunrise to sunset.For the most part, the spit is look, but don’t

touch. Visitors are asked not to remove any plants, animals, drift wood or other items from the spit. Th at includes the occasional decaying marine animal carcass, of which we saw more than a few.

For the most part, despite the crowd, Patsene and I felt like we were alone as we watched waves lap up against the rock-strewn beach, jockeyed around the sun-bleached logs and had a staring contest with our winged seagull hosts.

Not a bad day to spend a couple of hours. And here, right in our backyard!

Michael Dashiell is editor of the Sequim Ga-zette. He continually forgets to unroll his pants aft er hikes like these and therefore dumps sand all over his living room each time he returns. Reach him at [email protected].

Above: I know of worse places to catch an afternoon nap. Top right: The Dungeness Spit stretches out about fi ve miles to the north/northeast.

Photo by Michael Dashiell


Carving a niche in Irondale

10

The home of carver Mike Ryan, 63, and his wife, Mary Fran, sits on a quiet corner in Irondale,

tucked among some pines. At fi rst glance, it seems like just another ordinary house, but then you start to notice all the details behind the picket fence: the carvings, the artful birdbath, the bottles in the wall, the totems, the glow of the

back fence.“I always wanted a cabin in the pines,” said Ryan.

“I had to plant the damn trees myself, from little starts, but I got it.”

Th e back fence he made from stacked bottles in masses of color, creating privacy and letting in light

to the couple’s garden.Ryan’s creative energy has been steadily transforming

the place since he bought it in the 1970s. Originally Irondale’s general store, the house had been a residence for two diff erent families when he bought it.

At $11,000, it was cheaper than a rental for his family with fi ve small children and he didn’t expect to stay for more than a year, he explained.

“Everything was cheap in those days,” recalled Ryan. “It was just a shack, really.”

About a month aft er they moved in, a fi re nearly burned the place down. Th e babysitter got all the children out and a lot of reconstruction followed.

Ryan divorced and raised two boys as he worked in the construction trades. He made improvements to his home with left over job materials and continued to do the wood-carving that he learned from his father as a boy. A couple of life-sized forest gnomes he carved became part of the family.

Ryan, who likes to keep busy, has kept at his carving through other jobs and in the 1980s he even made carving his own business until he got a job as a fi refi ghter. Now retired with a disability, he has found a way to work around his bad back enough to put in some carving time every day.

“I can’t work, but I hate not having a project,” he said. He has accumulated about 100 pieces of carving. Some of

his work is in public spaces, such as a dragon at the Jeff erson County Library, the seals carved from logs on the beach in

Story and photos

by Viviann Kuehl

Carver Mike Ryan’s masterpiece, “Adventure,” is a carousel horse made of more than 100 pieces of basswood.

Photo by Mary Fran Ryan

MIke Ryan stands in front

of the house he’s shaped over the past 40 years in

Irondale.


Port Townsend, and a bear and a cougar on a crumbling maple log at H.J. Carroll Park in Chimacum.

“I’ve done my share of bears and eagles,” he said.Ryan keeps track of his carvings by numbering them

and he has just completed No. 508, working about three hours a day over the past year. Its name is “Adventure,” a carousel horse of striking detail, made of basswood, or to be more precise, of more than 100 pieces of basswood. It’s constructed using a coffi n technique that allows for strong construction with all the smooth grain to be on the outside of the work, explains Ryan.

“Th at way, the carver is always working with the grain,” said Ryan, “and basswood’s the easiest wood I ever carved.”

Still, it challenged his woodworking skills, said Ryan. What began as a pile of planks 16 inches wide, 2 feet thick and 20 feet long is now a hollow piece weighing 135 pounds.

“I had to work from a center line and everything had to be symmetrical. I had to do things I’ve never done before.”

He used a bag of sand to fi ll in around carved shapes

so they’d withstand clamping, and made a few new tools. He started with a life-size drawing, using it to cut the blocks, but then researched exact details by checking out a neighbor’s mule as she rode by, visiting a tack store to see how saddles

fi t and watching horses wherever he found them on his daily bike rides.

“Adventure” is carved all the way around; even her belly has a latigo with a buckle. She carries a pair of squirrels behind the saddle.

“By tradition, carousel hors-es carry something dead, but I don’t like dead things. I decided to put a pair of live squirrels going along for the ride,” said Ryan.

Now Ryan’s masterpiece stands in the living room on a little cart, waiting for her adven-ture to continue.

Ryan, who describes himself as color challenged, is looking for a special painter to fi nish it, painting over the carefully carved wood with colorful de-tailing.

“It’s too nice a piece not to

share and it needs to be out there,” said Ryan. Sometimes he eavesdrops near his seal carvings in Port

Townsend and enjoys the intimacy that people express near his work.

“Th at’s the greatest success an artist can get,” he said.As he waits for his “Adventure” to be complete, he is

working on his next project, a small eagle in wood so hard, it doesn’t make shavings, it sends shrapnel, said Ryan.

Carving is satisfying no matter what, he said.“I like everything about it,” said Ryan. “It’s a challenge

to bring out whatever’s in the wood. I never heard of any famous carvers. It’s just a good thing for people to do.”

Ryan is proud of all his carving and the house he’s worked on with Mary Fran.

“I feel like I’m on vacation all the time. I’ve got the beach right over there, good neighbors, the garden, everything is close. I cycle, snorkel and carve.”

Th eir home is an expression of all that and they are used to people coming around to take pictures.

Mike Ryan steps back to give a critical eye to his

carving of a carousel horse. Photo by Mary Fran Ryan

Left: Mary Fran and Mike Ryan pose with one of Mike’s carvings at their home in Irondale.

Above: The sunshine through the bottle wall in Mike and Mary Fran Ryan’s yard. The blue bottles are saved from a Japanese restaurant’s rice wine.

12 LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011�� ALL THE THINGSALL THE THINGS

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GOOD Gardening

C ertain concepts or defi nitions can be learned and fully understood in a minute. Other ideas, however, need more time and eff ort to grasp.

One way to tackle a complex subject is through a series of questions, much like Socrates’ method of educating his students. Permaculture is one of those big ideas and I fi nd myself continually playing with what it is and what its applications imply. Permaculture has such fl exibility that it can contract and give direction to something very small, such as organizing a closet, or it can expand to its entire set of principles and can then organize a city … or even the world.

So, with your permission, we’ll use aspects of Socratic questioning to get to the heart of a word used quite oft en in gardening, farming, agriculture, architecture and world-vision circles.

What exactly is permaculture? Permaculture is a contraction of two words: perma-

nent and (agri)culture. It was coined by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, in 1978. Th e concept mimics nature, places credence in its ability, over time, to have constantly adapted to provide sources of food and water to our planet. Permaculture centers its main focus on land use. As sup-port, it is a community building movement to integrate all resources — people, homes, plants, water, animals, microclimates — to create a harmonious setting.

How does this relate to Clallam County in the 21st century?

Th e ethics of permaculture, while simple, have broad applications to our situation, as well as setting up guide-

lines that will help us fi nd ways to produce food, water and energy to our area.

Th ere are three tenets when designing:1. Take care of the planet. When we perform any

task, we either restore, sustain or degenerate our earth. Permaculture’s eff orts work toward restoration. Simply by reducing our consumption of “stuff ” we reduce our impact on the environment.

2. Take care of the people. Psychology professor Abraham Maslow said that if we care for people’s needs, they can then care for the planet. We begin with ourselves and then extend outward to our family, neighbors and the larger world.

3. Take care of the process. Much of permaculture’s strength lies in the way each of us works, even on the smallest scale, in self-regulation. Th e process is long-term. It challenges us to be patient with failure and to con-stantly readjust as we proceed.

Could you give an example or two?

Permaculture works on both a simple and a grand scale. A simple example is that many of us buy groceries at Costco. We look at a supersize package of mustard — two quart-size jars. We have no place to store the second one nor will we go through two quarts that quickly. Th e ethics of permaculture suggests we might share the surplus — take one jar to the food bank. Another small example is turning out

our lights when we’re not in the room or turning off our computers at night.

An example on a grander scale: how we discard our refuse. I heard on NPR radio the other day that paper takes up half of our landfi ll. If we all would simply recycle our paper, landfi ll usage would not be crippled. Further, we can ask ourselves if we are doing the most possible in the recyclng eff ort. Both Jeff erson County and Clallam have recycling stations that are easy to use. (Look in your 2010 Dex phone book, pages 18-19 for a wealth of information.) Also, recyclables can be picked up by the trash company. And what about your table scraps? Th ey can be composted and used in the garden to restore its natural pH balance rather than using expensive fertilizers.

Can we break down the defi nition into smaller parts?

Twelve principles:1. Consider the location of things. Most

of us understand this implicitly because we keep a television remote by our recliner

rather than in the kitchen! If we want to use herbs in our cooking, then it makes sense to

Permaculture

Left: The Bullocks have about 10 interns

each season to help on the farm as well as to study

permaculture. One of the interns had his master’s degree in genetics and

loved experimenting with different grafts,

providing a bit of natural art in his craft.

Below: The Bullocks grow all of their vegeta-bles and use their beds as a means of continual

experimentation.

Right: Three brothers — Doug, Sam and Joe — live on the 10-acre

Bullock Farm on Orcas Island with their fami-

lies. They teach classes on permaculture.


By Beverly Hoffman

Photos by Bruce Von Borstel


GOOD Gardening

have that garden nearby the kitchen, preferably just outside it or to have pots of herbs on our kitchen windowsill. Wood piles should be near the back door, close to the wood-burning stove, rather than in a distant shed. Th e more oft en we need to use something determines how close it should be to us. We need to observe our habits/needs and then arrange objects so they support our tasks.

2. Elements should have many functions. Most of us want attractive gardens. Among the perennials, we can plant edibles. Th ink of the frilly parsley or the red-stemmed chard. Our gardens can be shared with our neighbors, giving away our surplus as well as adding beauty to our neighborhood. When we cut fl owers and bring them inside, we are decorating using natural elements. As we compost and turn dirt into healthy soil, we also are feeding all the microbes that live there, and they, in return, burrow, oxygenat-ing the soil to a fuller health.

3. Functions are supported by many elements. Even though this principle seems a bit abstract, it simply means to do everything we can think of to keep the process, or plant, alive. In planting a tree, read the needs of the plant rather than imposing our set of what-it-must-do-for-me standards. Water it well the fi rst week and then taper off as its roots begin to grow. Mulch around the perimeter so it retains water. Don’t weed whack close to it, where bark could be damaged, which then opens the possibility of disease or decay.

Th e same holds true for a process. Work together to keep communication open and agree on defi nitions and the next steps to reach the goal. Integrate ideas than work-ing in a segregated way.

4. Be effi cient with your own energy. Th ink of your space — a closet, a kitchen, a garden, a piece of property — in zones. Observe actual usage/need. Zones radiate out to the areas farthest from reach. Th en, obviously, the fi rst zone should be nearest to us and should have the items we use the most. Again, I’ll use an example that most of us can relate to: the man cave. Picture a recliner, the TV remote near it, the little refrigerator to the left that’s stocked with beer. Th at is Zone 1, where his most urgent needs are met. In the most distant area, say a Zone 5, he might store the stamp collection that he has meant to organize for 10 years.

5. Use biological resources as nature does. Value hu-man work more than technology. Remember the time we all sighed because our children had no idea how to give change because computers did their thinking. We can manually weed (which whittles down the waist and keeps us fl exible) rather than dousing plants with pesticides that seep into our water tables.

6. Begin on a small scale. Start with an herb garden on the porch rather than a huge garden of herbs. If it fails, the dollar amount lost is insignifi cant. We easily can get overwhelmed with a huge project and then are ready to

ditch the whole idea. Again, we can apply this to clean-ing out a storeroom. Rather than tackling the whole area, start with the top drawer. Th en move to another. It’s easier to think of cleaning out a drawer than it is to clean out a storeroom.

7. Accelerate a succession and evolution. Expect mistakes. Dream bigger than you have before. Rather than simply planting rhododendrons around the perimeter of your house and barking heavily, can you set up a habitat for birds and butterfl ies?

8. Diversify in a dynamic stability. Th e communal is more eff ective than the individual. Rather than dictatori-ally designing an outcome, solicit input and let an outcome fl ow from the rich diversity of the group. Find a natural pattern — like a spider web or a nautilus shell — and utilize its design.

9. Maximize the edges. Edges can be boundaries or opportunities. Where a pond meets land, there is an edge, a unique area where only cattails grow. Every edge off ers a new possibility. A friend of mine uses the drainage ditch between her road and her garden to scatter wildfl ower seeds. Even in meditation, there is an edge in breathing, that moment between the out breath and the in breath … where a perfect peace can be felt. How do you treat the edge between a berm and your lawn? Between your property and the road?

10. Create problem solving. Expect things to go wrong and use those moments as opportunities rather than set-backs. When the shed roof collapses under a heavy snow, do you need a new roof or should the shed be moved to a diff erent location to better serve tasks at hand?

11. Consider the yield. What do you have aft er you’ve worked … whether it is a garden or a process to create a relationship? Consider a lawn versus a compost pile. With a lawn, there is a lot of work and little yield. With a compost

pile, there is little work and a big payback. Th ink of both short-term and long-term yield.

12. Leave no waste. Th is is a biggie. It is both an attitude and a task. We always must be asking what we can do so that we leave as little waste as possible. We can buy in bulk at Sunny Farms rather than buying items that need lots of packaging. We can shred paper and use it in the compost. We can save water when we brush our teeth by turning on the spigot only when we need to rinse. Vegetable water can be used to water plants.

What is another way of looking at permaculture?

Permaculture has a spiritual element to it — be stewards of the earth. Treat it as kindly as it has sustained you. It has an intellectual component — constant problem solving. It is a continual analysis of all working systems. It has a sociological mandate — to live in a frugal way so that we can help those who need help. It also organizes in a way that every voice can be heard —no dictatorial mandates. When we honor people, bonding on a deep level occurs. And, of course, there is the philosophical: what happens if we hoard and covet in this era? What is our role in keeping the earth healthy?

What are its weaknesses and strengths?

It takes eff ort to set up a harmonious structure. It’s slow. It can be frustrating when things go wrong.

Its strength is that it awakens a mindfulness in us. It is a hopeful philosophy that draws the best constructs possible so that life in the future can be sustained and honored. It is a holy way of living.

How can I look into this subject in different ways?A few books: “Gaia’s Garden: A guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” by Toby Hemenway “How to Make a Forest Garden” by Patrick Whitefi eld A few websites: www.permacultureportal.com www.seattletilth.org www.Permaculturenow.com

How does this affect me? Quite simply. You are a person on this planet. Every-

thing you do aff ects it. Everything I do aff ects you.

Right: This unusual colored broom adds a bit of brightness and shares

space with hydrangeas.

Below: Even though this hugel kulter looks messy, it is a working

greenhouse. It is really a compost bin with an additional 6-8 inches of soil on top. As the compost heats up, it allows earlier germination of seeds.



LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2010

1

SPRING 2010

Supplement to the Sequim Gazette and Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

SCIENCE...The Science of Forensics:Tracking Offi cer Anita HicklinQuilcene National Fish

Hatchery heritageBoosting biomass on the West EndThe science of forestry Whale Camp inspires learning

TThe ScTracking Offi cTracking Offic

QQuilceHatcheBoostinon the

TThe sci Wh lWWhale

Pg.12

Pg.17

Pg.24

Pg.30

Pg.36

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is an award-winning, quarterly lifestyle magazine spotlighting the Olympic Peninsula’s true treasures – its people, places, climate and culture.

Living on the Peninsula has unrivaled circulation and is delivered to all Sequim Gazette and Port Townsend Leader subscribers, direct mailed to Port Angeles and available in the West End.

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Come see our store in the Sequim Village Center• Vitamins • Herbal Remedies • Homeopathy • Skin & Nail Care

• Natural Cosmetics • Largest Selection of Domestic & Imported Organic WinesMonday-Saturday 9am - 6pm • (360) 683-6056

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UNIQUE MERCANTILE • Gifts & Greeting Cards • Kitchen Supply

FARM STORE • Animal Feeds • Hay & Straw • Pet Supplies • Birdseed

NURSERY • Fruit & Veggie Starts • Ornaments • Flowers • Natural Fertilizers & Soils • Potted & Bare-Root Trees


Fairchild Airport, just off US-101, Port Angeles, Tel. 360.452.6371

• Four round-trip flights daily• 35 mins. from Seattle, 55 from Sea-Tac

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The house of smallThe importance of living with and being a part of

nature is prominent in the life of Sequim resi-dent Patricia Earnest. Her home epitomizes her minimalist way of living, as her personal philosophy of life is evident in her surroundings.

“We are all one and our actions impact others,” Earnest began. “I live an eclectic life that pleases me. I don’t try to live for others,” she continued.

Approaching her home, one sees a quaint little pathway lined with short bamboo stakes leading from the driveway to the porch. Th e fi rst thing you notice when you enter Earnest’s small 720-square-foot home is her handmade fi replace consisting of an energy-effi cient space heater that operates with a 40-watt light bulb. Earnest has built a mantle from a used window frame topped with a piece of scrap polished granite. She calls it “shabby chic.” Th e small heater has the appearance of burning coals and even has a pattern of fl ames ascending from them, but the only heat being emitted is from the light bulb. “A fan blows the heat from the bulb out to my living room area and keeps it warm,” she said, adding that she had her fi rst utility bill over $100 in December 2010.

Having lived in her well-organized, compact home for only four years, Earnest is not a newcomer to the Olympic Peninsula. She fi rst lived in Sequim in the late 1970s and worked for the Jimmy Come Lately Gazette (renamed the Sequim Gazette in 1990) as a garden columnist.

Before moving again to Sequim, she lived on a farm in Maine for many years, Earnest said. She explained that she became aware of environmental issues when she was about 25 and has tried to live her life as an ecologically conscious citizen ever since. One of the ways she does this is by actively promoting an awareness of organic farming.

Story and photos

by Elizabeth Kelly

Top right: Patricia Earnest on the

porch of her small home.

Below: Earnest stays snug and cozy inside her

720-square-foot home.

Right: A fi replace crafted from a

space heater and a window frame gives warmth to

Earnest’s living room.



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She is on the board of the Sequim Open

Aire Market and actively supports the organization. “It

creates community and encourages people to buy locally grown foods,” she

said. She also sits on the board of COGS (Com-munity Organic Gardens of Sequim)

and enjoys that role because “everyone has a common goal.”

On her Maine farm, Earnest had 50 acres of “mixed wood and fi elds” and raised goats, pigs, chickens and Jersey cows, she said. “We also had bees,” she added. “I had a struggle with the Central Maine Power Company who were spraying to keep the foliage down around their power poles,” she remembered. She believed the toxic spray was harmful to her bees as well as the whole environment and adamantly marched into the offi ce of CMP one day with her two small children. She explained her situation and said she was determined to stay there until they agreed to stop spraying. Th e story had a happy ending. “Th ey honored by wishes and put up NO SPRAYING signs around my property.” Even the

voice of one can make a diff erence.“It’s really a disconnect with nature that leads to a

sense of loss in our lives,” Earnest continued. “We expect it will never end and it will.” What society calls consum-ing, she calls “devouring.”

To live up to her own standards, Earnest leaves a very small ecological footprint on the ecosystems of the Earth.

(One defi nition of an ecological footprint is to compare the usage of one’s available resources with the Earth’s capacity to regenerate them.) She turns off and unplugs all appliances when not using them; she grows many of her own vegetables in raised beds in her small yard; she recycles everything, saving all dry refuse to take to the landfi ll three times a year and composting the rest in her garden; and she reuses everything as much as possible. “I’m aware of what I buy when I shop and always

carry my own shopping bag,” she smiled.A native of England, Earnest said that all plastic bags

have been banned there. “People are expected to bring their own bags,” she said.

Concluding, Earnest smiled and said, “I am a Capri-corn. I use my resources wisely and I like structure.”

A pathway lined with

short bamboo stakes leads from

the driveway to the porch.

EARNEST

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Lemon Grass and Goat Cheese Polenta Cakesfrom Lipperts’ in Sequim

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Enjoy World-ClassEnjoy World-Class Asian CuisineAsian CuisineRight HereRight Here on the Olympic Peninsula! on the Olympic Peninsula!

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V O T E DB E S T CHINESE FOOD 2004-20099999

Th e following recipe is a creation of Chef Brian Lippert of Lipperts’ at 134 S. Second St. in Sequim. As a master chef, Lippert enjoys creating unique dishes. He is the recipient of multiple culinary awards, includ-ing Armed Forces Chef of the year. Lipperts’ serves a bistro-style lunch from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Saturday and off ers casual fi ne dining from 4:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Lemon Grass and Goat Cheese Polenta CakesIngredients6 cups unsalted vegetable stock2 stalks lemon grass1 small white onion, fi nely diced1/2 cup medium-grind polenta1/2 cup dry white wine1 tablespoon butter3/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

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DirectionsBring lemon grass, onion, vegetable stock and

white wine to a boil. Boil 5-7 minutes and remove lemon grass. Gradually add polenta while stirring over medium heat with a wire whip. Add water if it gets thicker than cream of wheat and whip until all lumps are gone. Whip 4-6 minutes. When tasted, it should be creamy and have no lumps. Finish with butter and place half of polenta mixture in a greased non-stick loaf pan, top with crumbled goat cheese and the rest of the polenta.

Chill three hours covered at minimum. Remove and slice to desired thickness (ap-proximately 3/4-inch). Sear on both sides in a non-stick pan with light oil and fi nish in the oven. Th e dish should be crispy and golden on the outside, light and creamy in the center and ribboned with melted goat cheese.

Makes six servings.

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Polenta Good Eating&FOOD Spirits

22 LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011

Right: Bill and Kristen Larson have led amazing lives of wide-ranging

adventure and experience and they’ve brought it all back to their

Port Angeles home.

Above: Their Zen meditation practice is enhanced by many objects in their yard, where fellow meditators gather

for weekly sittings.


Sailing homeStory and photos by Jerry Kraft

Even when fi rst walking up to the door of Murre Cottage, on the bluff overlooking Port Angeles Harbor, one is immediately aware that this is a

special and distinctive home. Th e opposite of grand real estate, what makes this modest house so compelling is the intimacy, the personality and unique detail of every object in the house and yard. Nothing is arbitrary or con-ventional; everything has been selected for its meaning to the inhabitants and that gives each thing a spiritual nature that transcends being a simple possession.

Th e character of all this embodies the lives of the couple, Bill and Kristen Larson, who live in it and who have made it their safe harbor, their refuge and sanctu-ary. Th e inside presents a long, narrow room leading to windows overlooking the harbor and out to Vancouver Island and Mount Baker. It feels almost like the long, nar-row hull of a ship, and like everything else, that is far from coincidental.

“We came to this house from the harbor,” says Kristen Larson, a bright and energetic woman. “We were living in the harbor on our boat. We lived on the boat, in this harbor for seven years, from 1992 to 1997.” Prior to that they had been sailing up and down the Pacifi c Coast, from Mexico to Alaska. “It was a 47-foot , square topsail ketch named Scrimshaw,” Kristen says. “Th e best boat I ever sailed,” Bill adds.

“I’ve always been a sea captain,” Bill Larson added, “since I got my Master Seaman rating when I was 18.”

With that, the fi rst hints of the extraordinary life of this man and the shared adventures of these two begin to emerge. In addition to that early introduction to the life of the sea, Bill had a full career in the Army as a infantry offi cer and also a later career as a university professor in California and at the University of Washington. It was while he was teaching that he met Kristen, who was a

Right: The labyrinth they’ve built on a terrace in their yard is used for “walking meditation” and has special meaning to the Larsons.

The Scrimshaw was their home for years as

they traveled up and down the Pacifi c Coast,

as well as living aboard while they

were moored in Port Angeles

Harbor.


they managed to get a signal and what was being broadcast was a program on labyrinths which included a particular design for meditation which they’d fi rst found in San Fran-cisco. Th at is the design which now covers a terrace just outside their house and overlooks the harbor.

Th eir most recent construction in the yard is a sand garden built in a corner on a stone terrace, with large, carefully selected stones, benches and walls. When the proper sand is installed it will be fi nished and the decora-tive raking of fi ne sand will become another contempla-tive practice. Statues of the Buddha, bells and other subtle ornamentation also are carefully placed around the exte-rior of the house.

Inside, there are objects, books and pictures every-where, but nowhere is there any sense of clutter.

“When we fi rst moved in we didn’t really have any furniture, coming from the Scrimshaw, and the people we bought the house from sold us much of theirs very inexpensively. Th ey were moving from this house into a travel trailer, so the exchange was very natural.”

Because they both have been academics, books play a very prominent role in the home’s decor. “One of the fi rst things we did in moving in was to make sure we had good chairs and good places for reading,” Bill said. Kristen’s parents had been actors and she spent much of her youth backstage, and ultimately performing herself. In addition to their mutual interest in theater and the arts, Bill has a deep passion for history and has researched this piece of land and this particular house in depth. Th e land goes back to the earliest settlement of the town,” Bills says, “and the actual house has been in place since 1920. Prior to that, in

1917, there was a tent here.” Bill and Kristen can tell you the history of

every single object in their home. If not the history of it in the world, then

at least the history of it in their lives. Everything is deliberate

and signifi cant. Take their bedroom.

Above: The bathroom included a leaded-glass window which they admired for years, and which was purchased for

them by their Zen sitting group as a gift.

Left: The Murre Cottage was named after “The Ghost and Mrs.

Muir,” a favorite story of the Larsons.

Murre Cottage ... does not so much display many items from the world as it creates a world

to contain all these items

graduate student and a widow at the time. She also was a woman willing to set sail on the

high seas to explore the world and also to explore the richness of Zen Buddhism. Now a teacher, Kristen and Bill have shaped their home into a spiritual center for a devoted group called No Sang Ha, which has been meeting there on a weekly basis for meditation in a room they have built for sitting meditation, and in the yard where they have created a labyrinth for “walk-ing meditation.” Again, nothing by accident.

“When we fi rst moved into this house we could only occasionally get a television signal if the cloud layer was just right to bounce it to us,” the Larsons said. On the night before they were going to take over the house


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“When we fi rst moved in, Bill promised me a real bed of my choosing. Of course, on the Scrimshaw we really only had a bunk, very narrow, so the idea of a bed was very appealing,” Kristen said, “I think this room is very special, and the same for our bathroom, which was quite a luxury. Th at leaded glass window has quite a story of its own. We had loved and admired it in a studio downtown for years, but the woman who made it (a friend of ours) said she would never sell it, and priced it so that she could be sure it would never sell. Well, to make a long story short, our sitting group managed to get it from her and presented it to us as a gift .”

One more detail, one more specifi c that contains a wealth of information, experience and personal meaning. More than anything else, what makes Murre Cottage so amazing as a home is that it does not so much display many items from the world as it creates a world to contain all these items, to reinforce their importance to the Larsons. And as for that name?

“Both Bill and I have always had a very special place in our hearts for “Th e Ghost and Mrs. Muir” which was a wonderful, early 20th-century novel about a widow who falls in love with the ghost of a sea captain, who inhabits a house overlooking the sea,” Kristen explains. While Bill and Kristen actually performed a stage adaptation of that novel, which Kristen edited and prepared for them, perhaps the very best adaptation is this remarkable home in which they contemplate, display and defi ne their lives and experience.

A bed was a major purchase when the Larsons moved from their boat to their home overlooking

Port Angeles Harbor.

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Olympic BirdFest 2011April 8-10, 2011 • Sequim

“Come Bird With Us”

Olympic Peninsula Audubon SocietyTh e Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society promotes birding,

conservation of habitat, and biological diversity on the Olympic Peninsula through our education and conservation eff orts.

Why choose Aspire?We have the most experienced instructors on the Olympic Peninsula and have offered Zumba® since March, 2008. We also have Professional Sprung Dance Floors that absorb the shock of your movements. They help protect your hips, knees, ankles and back and they reduce fatigue. We offer Zumba® 6 days a week!

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&HEART Soul

W hen I was in theology school, my advisor drew a visual image for us that illustrates our knowledge of self, others and the world

around us. Th e Johari window is divided into four panes. In the upper left hand corner is the public arena in which I have information about myself and you have the same information. In the lower left hand corner is the façade in which I possess information about myself that I can either hide from you or share. In the top right hand corner is the blind spot — the place where you can see things about me that I am not aware of.

And the lower right hand corner is the unknown, the place where knowledge is hidden from me and from you.

It’s the “only God knows” windowpane.

Th e history of most religions is a history of schisms and truth claims. An initial transcendent experience leads to the founda-tion of a religion or a sect. Over time hardening of the spiritual arteries leads to a closed heart and certainty that the individual or group possesses Th e Truth.

And science is the same, claiming to possess Th e Truth. Scientifi c fundamentalism leads to closed minds.

But no religion or scientifi c theory can guarantee that its view of reality is full and accu-rate. And neither can answer the questions I had for my minister when I was 12 years old. Where did the universe come from? What was before God? Now I would ask scientists, What created the cosmic egg and led to the Big Bang? How did so many somethings come from nothing?

Only God knows.Th ere are a lot of 50-50 situations in life, where I’m

indecisive, not sure about the best answer. For example, we’ve been trying to decide whether to encourage my partner Dana’s aunt, at 95, to move from Port Angeles to Port Townsend to be closer to us. We’d like to visit more oft en and provide better support. It’s easier to connect with her frequently if we just have to drive a few blocks. In any emergency, we can be right there to help out.

On the other hand, we wonder whether it’s better for her to stay in Port Angeles where she has lived for most of her life and where she has several friends her own age. (It’s only when you’re around a 95-year-old that you start to feel like a young whippersnapper even into your 50s and 60s).

She visits friends weekly for sewing, knitting, coff ee

and conversation and plays pinochle once a month with her buddies. She cherishes her independence and likes to think of herself as one of the “tough” Norwegians. But she’s dizzy a lot and weak, and we worry.

We’ve left the decision up to her because we don’t know what’s best for her. But, I’m not sure whether she knows what the right choice is either. Is it a comfort to have family nearby or more life-giving to stay close to long-time friends? To me, it’s one of those “only God knows” situations.

I can be as belligerently dogmatic as anyone. I’m sure that my politics are correct. I’m equally certain that there is a Presence infusing every tree and person and grain of sand with a plus-factor that is indefi nable, a wordless music of the spheres that constantly thrums life and joy and love. Th at’s my vision.

I also see a parade of other men and women through the centuries who had diff erent transformative revelations and shared them with others.

Male and female shamans back from vision quests. Confucius with his orderly system for living an ethical life. Julian of Norwich, the nun locked in her tiny cell who brought forth a theology of compassion and joy. Buddha, Muhammad, Black Elk, Margery Kempe and Rosemary Ruether all show us their pieces of the puzzle.

Or, as Robert Frost put it:

We dance round in a ring and suppose. But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

I’ll never forget the 80-year-old Congregationalist minister who was in my Ecumenism class during the fi rst Gulf War. He had been a conscientious objector during World War II, believing that all life is sacred and that the injunction “Th ou Shalt Not Kill” applied to him in every situation.

Yet, while the professor and I fulminated about the disgraceful slaughter of Iraqi soldiers and the way in which the war was fought and described like a video game, he remained silent.

Finally he commented. “Who knows, maybe the people who decided to go to war made the right decision.”

First we gaped at him, stunned and silenced. Th en we challenged him: How could he think that?

Comfortable with his views, he replied “I don’t know what God’s plan is. I could be wrong.”

It was the ultimate in open-mindedness, a position I haven’t reached. He had the strength and the integrity to take his pacifi st stance to the limit during World War II when it must have been even harder to be a consci-entious objector. Yet he also had gained the humility to consider that he could be all wrong about the intentions of a Higher Power who remains a great mystery to us despite all our doctrines.

I’m reading a novel in which a medical researcher tries to prove that near-death-experiences — in which people report seeing angels and relatives — are not evidence of life aft er death but merely brain processes. His subjects report on their experiences during simulated near-death-experiences, but anything they report which does not fi t with his theory angers him and is dismissed. Another investigator in the same hospital tries to prove that these experiences are assurance that bliss awaits people aft er death. He leads people into giving him the answers that support his theory.

But at the end of the book, as in life, only God knows.

Karen Frank, M.T.S. is a spiritual director, writer and photographer in Port Townsend. Her photographs are cur-rently on view at Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jeff erson St. in Port Townsend. If you want to contact her, e-mail [email protected] or go to her website at www.yourlifeassacredstory.org.

Looking through the ‘Only God Knows’ windowpane

By Karen Frank


The Healing

Art

serves as “a focal point, a distraction for people,” she says.In the OB unit at Olympic Medical Center, they have an

ingenious way of using art to provide a distraction, too. A sliding panel with an image on it covers the lines for the gas-ses and other equipment that hospital staff might need for patients. Patients don’t have to look at the technical stuff , but it is easily accessed by staff .

Donna Davison, administrative director at OMC, believes that generally “artwork can be soothing and we can keep a calm environment that contributes to healing.” Besides its permanent collection of photographs by Port Townsend’s Keith Lazelle and Sequim’s Ross Hamilton, which is in public areas, such as main lobbies and corridors, OMC is putting up new directional signs that continue a Northwest nature theme by including a small picture from the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce at the top of the sign.

“It all contributes to patients and visitors feeling better when they are here,” Davison notes.

Academic research supports her. It shows that patients who view art, particularly nature images, are less stressed, more pain tolerant and likely to heal faster. Even their blood pressure is lower than patients in barren environments. Col-ors also aff ect both staff and patients: blue promotes calm, while green calls forth compassion.

Not all art is equal, however. Jeff erson Healthcare does not use abstract art or art with disturbing themes or colors. OMC only uses Northwest nature images. Some art styles can have a negative impact on patient recovery. According to Roger Ulrich’s research at Texas A&M University, abstract art actually makes patients more anxious with its chaotic imagery.

Given these facts, the selection process is important. “Th e fi rst selection is by the artist because they have the

criteria for hospital art,” White notes. “When people bring their work, I turn some down because I already have too many pieces or because the work is just inappropriate for the hospital.”

Once she hangs the pieces, the only reason they might be replaced is if Suzy White, executive assistant to CEO Mike Glenn at Jeff erson Healthcare, decides they aren’t suitable or gets complaints from patients or staff . Generally she either

B Y K A R E N F R A N K

Every six months, Ginger White sends out a call to a select group of artists from the Port Townsend area.

“I need new art for the hospital,” she e-mails. Th e response comes back from watercolorists and

oil painters and photographers telling her how many works they can contribute. With the help of Laurie Perrett, White takes down the old art from Jeff erson Healthcare’s rotating collection and puts up new selections. Approximately 60 new pieces of art are mounted on the walls of patient rooms, therapy rooms and corridors at Jeff erson Healthcare in May and November.

Patients on the Olympic Peninsula are lucky — they get good medical care that includes attention to beauty at area hospitals. Each of the peninsula’s three facilities has a slightly diff erent system for selecting art, but similar rationales.

As Camille Scott, CEO at Forks Community Hospital notes, “Th e art plays a very positive role. It fi lls the space and gives people something to look at — staff , patients and the people who wait for them.”

She mentioned the emergency room and the maternity wing as places where individuals are highly stressed. Art

Clockwise from top left: “Up the Calawah” by Jeanette Gilmore, watercolor

“Hull Pottery” by June Bowlbey

“Ruby Beach Evening” by Jeanette Gilmore


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will try to replace the piece, fi nd a blank wall or switch pieces. Neither Ginger White nor Suzy White seeks to impose her own artistic taste arbitrarily, but the focus is on the contribution art can make to the hospital’s goal.

For Suzy White, “healing is the arts’ primary purpose. We choose soothing, inspirational pieces for patients, public and staff .”

She mentioned that she believes that the art is uplift ing and helps people feel hopeful. Much of the permanent collec-tion — which includes many works by local artists — already was there before she was hired.

Th e original impetus for Jeff erson Healthcare’s pro-gram was the Planetree organization and philosophy. It is a patient-centered approach that emphasizes addressing body, mind and spirit during the healing process. Th e Planetree philosophy has been recognized by many pub-lications, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Prevention magazine and Health Facilities Management.

Its founder, Angelica Th erriot, started the organization aft er a hospital stay where she spent many hours staring at cold blank walls in her hospital room. She took the name of the group from the tree where Hippocrates — founder of modern Western medicine — sat and taught his students.

Now Planetree is an international organization focused on patient-centered care, which includes design, art on the walls and art programs for patients.

Ginger White says that some of the staff of Jeff erson Healthcare attended Planetree training many years ago. “Aft er training, Dana Michelson and a few others started an art program.”

At OMC, there is a committee that looks at all furnish-ings for the various facilities when there is new construc-tion with an eye toward promoting healing. Sometimes a designer works with the architect, but it is the committee that makes fi nal decisions on aesthetics.

Decisions were made to hang Lazelle’s photography at the main hospital in Port Angeles as well as the Olympic

Medical Physical Th erapy Center, the Olympic Medical Cancer Center and the Medical Services Building, all in Sequim. Hamilton’s photography is in the Olympic Medical Physical Th erapy Center in Port Angeles

All the hospitals feature local artists. At OMC, the focus also is on photography depicting the local environment, including pictures of Olympic National Park, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and wildlife and forest scenes.

Th e artists themselves are inspired by their contribution.

In Forks, members of the Far West Art League select and hang their prints. Th eir fi rst motivation is altruism. Although they periodically sell prints to members of the community, their primary goal is to “make something for people to look at when they’re in the hospital,” Jeannette Gilmore said. “People come up to us and tell us that they enjoyed seeing the work when they were in the hospital. Sometimes people who are waiting walk the halls and just look at the art.”

“It’s a mutually benefi cial arrangement,” Scott said. “It’s a good venue for artists if they want to have exposure for their work and it helps me and helps the community. I’m very grateful to the Far West Art League for doing it.”

“Our Past: This Side of Quinault” by Elaine Norbisrath

Normandy Conquest

The castle captures Charlee Sandell

Story and photos by Kelly McKillip

Top: George and Mildred Godfrey built a French Normandy-style house in 1936. This photo was taken before the 1945 remodel.

Photographer unknown

Charlee Sandell says her family’s home of over two decades has its own personality.

The“Th e house has its own personality,” declares Charlee Sandell of her family’s home for

more than two decades. “… and it’s had many incarnations … and there are lots of stories.”

She named the French Normandy-style house Mustard Seed because of the faith and willingness it took to save the edifi ce from ruin and restore it to its former glory. Th e house did its part, too, reaching 3,000 miles across the country to an individual with the tenacity to take on such a Herculean task.

Th e Sandells made quite a stir in Sequim during their house restoration as did the Godfreys when they built the place. Personal accounts, clippings from the Gazette in Sequim and information from the Museum and Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley (MAC) reveal a fascinating story about a remarkable house where faith, family, community and a bit of mystery play the leading roles.

1936: A showplace on Maple Street

In 1936, prominent local hardware merchant George Godfrey and his wife, Mildred, built a grand and unique house on the edge of town. Long-time resident and MAC volunteer, Zella Speece, remembers well the spec-tacular brick showplace with fi gurine statues and a

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011 3130 LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011


Below: The fl owering mustard plant, designed by Charlee Sandell is depicted in the small stained glass entryway window.

swimming pool in the backyard. Mildred later would write that people came from miles around just to get a glimpse of the house and pool.

Hard times fell on everyone in those days as they struggled through the Great Depression. George joined the Navy, serving throughout World War II while Mildred did her best to make ends meet at home. Th e family moved to Farragut

Naval Station in Idaho for a time aft er the war, but oth-erwise the couple and their four children lived on Maple Street until 1950, adding a western extension to the house in 1945.

Few people remember that distinguished educator and grade school principal, Helen Haller, and her hus-band, Walter, bought the Maple Street house in 1951, using their farm as part of the payment. It’s been reported

that Mrs. Haller never felt at ease in the house and aft er her husband’s death in 1953, she exchanged residences with the Brevik family who were living on Bell Street.

Th e Breviks’ home became a favorite of the neighbor-hood children who played tag and hide and seek in the

many nooks and crannies and seven bedrooms of the house. Tom Boyd belonged to the Sequim Presbyterian Church and remembers his youth group meetings in the very cool house with lots of rooms upstairs. Another

neighborhood child said the best part was the swimming pool that the fi re department would come and fi ll at the beginning of each summer.

In 1962, the Breviks left the area, eventually selling the house to the Sequim Bible Church

which had just been started by a few former parishioners of the Sequim Presbyterian

Church. To create a house of worship, modifi cations to

the place in the late 1960s included opening up the liv-ing and dining areas and closing off the swimming pool. Caroline Baumunk has fond memories of services in the impressive house with the choir singing on the steps during Christmas programs.

In the early 1970s, the house took on a new role as the Bay View Boys Home, which continued at the location into the early 1980s. Aft er that, stories abound about the role of the house. Some say it was a boarding house or retirement home and possibly a funeral parlor. One fact is sure: Th e house fell into disuse and became more dilapidated with each passing year.

1988: The castle captures Charlee

In 1988, Kurt and Charlee Sandell were a sensible, young couple contentedly raising their three children, Hadley, Cody and Harasyn Ruth (Roo) in Stratford, Conn., when a package arrived from Kurt’s mother in Union. Although the item in the parcel is long forgotten, Charlee has a vivid memory of a sheet of packing paper that had been ripped from a magazine of historical homes. She gazed at the side view of a featured Sequim house that was reminiscent of a medieval castle. Never having seen the house or been anywhere near Sequim, she nonetheless said to her husband: “I know this house and we’re supposed to live in it.”

Charlee promptly dispatched her mother-in-law to the Sequim property to assess and report back. Completely aghast at the wreck she found, her mother-in-law advised Charlee that the place was unliv-able, nasty and deplorable.

that Mrs. Hher husband’with the Brev

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Above: This newel post and railing came from the Yale Law School library.

The kitchen in the background was completely remodeled.

Top inset: This fi xture’s previous life was spent hanging in a

Maine lighthouse.

SPRING | MARCH 2011


Above: A marble angel from Tuscany watches and protects the house. Charlee Sandell named her house Mustard Seed because of the faith and willingness it took to restore it.

Aw

CMw

Undaunted by the negative account, Charlee made her own trek across coun-try, arriving in Sequim in the midst of the May Irrigation Festival Parade.

“Th is is a strange place,” she told her husband on the phone. “All the busi-nesses are closed, there’s a large crab rolling down the middle of the street and they seem to worship irrigation ditches … but I like it.” Th e house was everything that her mother-in-law had described — which seemed all the more reason to do something to save it.

An architectural review was commis-sioned which relayed a stunning list of problems in the house but ended with the comment that there also might be real value. Th at was good enough for Charlee.

By that time, the property was owned by the Mary Black Wells estate. Knowing that it would take a small fortune to re-store the house, the Sandells off ered a low bid and initially were rejected. It became apparent that demolishing the house would be far more costly than selling and a price was agreed upon.

Kurt had complete faith in his wife’s decision and although he had never seen the house, he quit his job, packed up their belongings and moved the family west. Placing most of their possessions in storage, they set up a temporary household in a ramshackle hovel down the road. Th e weeds were as tall as the roof, skunks had moved in, the pipes froze and the place caught fi re. Also, Kurt was dealing with a diagnosis of lung cancer. Somehow, they still managed to have fun.

Th e next task was to fi nd a contractor willing to tackle the impossible restoration. Phil Roberts remembers walking up to the house and feeling very reluctant to go inside. Supporting timbers had been removed during the church phase and the upper fl oor was about to cave in. He also thought the initial framing must have been completed when supplies were limited during the Depres-sion as small segments of lumber had been used to make up the supports.

Roberts accepted the challenge, stripping the house down to the framing, jacking up the foundation and adding steel beams to beef it up. Th ere were additional problems such as 18 inches of water in the basement. Sidewalks had been built up around the house over the years, causing water to drain inside. Th ey also were un-aware that a swimming pool was in the backyard until a tractor drove over it and sank to the bottom. Th e tractor was pulled out, the pool fi lled with concrete and made into a basketball court. Charlee wondered about the kitchen

which was completely unusable with a refrigerator at the far end. She received an answer from Mildred Godfrey Fox who was living in Sunland at the time. Th e Godfreys went out for meals.

Th ere were good surprises as well. Th e house boasted beautiful woodwork and built-ins and Roberts was able to fi nd well-matched boards to replace and complete the fi nish work. Under the many layers of carpeting were wonderful fi r and oak fl oors. To add further character, carved doors from a burned house in Connecticut were found as was an East Coast chandelier. A bookcase, newel post and railing were acquired from the Yale Law Library. Glass door knobs from the demolished Sequim Presbyte-

rian Church were installed. A lighthouse fi xture from Maine was hung in the entryway.

It was imperative to the Sandells to keep the house true to the original spirit and also make the envi-

rons as ecofriendly and non-toxic as possible. No vinyl, laminate, pressboard, wall-to-wall carpeting or anything with off -gassing was installed. Fift y-three windows were replaced with double-paned glass.

Kurt felt pretty good most of the time and took a job as the economic development director for Clallam County. Charlee says the house was a great project for the family be-cause everyone could focus on something other than Kurt’s illness. Roberts agrees that it was a fun and interesting job and the Sandells were a great pleasure to work with.

Although the house wasn’t completely fi nished, they moved in on May 15, 1989. Sadly, Kurt Sandell died two days later.


Wood carver Gene Davis had just expanded his

repertoire to include marble carving when he

created this Madonna for the Sandell Mustard Seed home in 1990.

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The castle reveals its personality

Aft er they had been in the house awhile, Charlee put up curtains because she would find strangers with their faces pressed against the windows peering inside. Th en they started to hear stories about the history of the place and supernatural events. Oc-casionally the children would get lost in the

convoluted rooms upstairs. Th ey noticed strange noises and oft en heard footsteps sans feet. A remote control car scurried around without an operator. Overnight visitors would ask about the woman in the white gown with long hair who walked around the house between midnight and 6 a.m.

Despite the odd goings-on, the Sandell children always wanted to be home. Th ey felt safe and accepted even when the house expressed its displeasure. Such a time was when Charlee hung a photo of an unknown but interesting looking family member from the 1950s. At midnight the picture crashed to the fl oor, breaking the glass. Charlee replaced the glass and hung the picture again. Two days later as she and the children were gathered on her bed talk-ing, the picture fell off the wall breaking the frame. A new frame was added and once again placed on the wall. Th e picture was found awhile later across the room smashed against the fi replace. She didn’t hang it again.

Another time, the children were upstairs in the toy room bickering over what TV program to watch. Char-lee called them all down to lunch and while eating they heard a crash upstairs. Th e family ran up to discover the TV across the room, broken and face down on the fl oor. “Well,” son Cody remarked, “they fi xed it for us — no more arguing.”

With all the unusual activity, Charlee decided a pro-tective spirit in the yard would be a good idea. Wood carver Gene Davis recently had expanded his repertoire

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to include marble and made her a lovely Madonna relief carving. It was too small to leave outside, so she asked for something bigger and received a whitewashed carved wooden angel that stood higher than the eves of the house. Vandals eventually destroyed the work and she replaced it with a marble angel from Tuscany.

In an interview in a December 1988 Gazette, Mildred Godfrey Fox dismissed the idea of ghosts ever being in the house. Th e next month the former director of the Bay View Boys Home, Dennis Blank, wrote a letter to the editor expressing his delight that the elegant home was being remodeled. He also commented that the boys oft en would speak of a friendly ghost and although he did not subscribe to the haunted theory, he and his wife and the staff frequently heard footsteps on the stairs and jiggling keys when no one else was there.

2011: no regretsCharlee has never regretted her decision. Except for

the death of her husband, there always has been much joy and laughter in her castle. She started an All American Sports Exchange business to support her family and spent many happy hours as a soccer coach. Th e house always has been fi lled with fam-ily and friends and she can remember coming home at times to find 15 cars parked around the house. She currently works as a consulting nutritionist and is busy making dresses for her daughter’s wedding.

Over the years, Charlee Sandell has discovered that people generally fall into two camps about her historical home. She says: “Th ey either feel aff ection for the place or they don’t. Like I said … the house has its own personality.”

This carved teak door was salvaged from a burned

home in Connecticut and the glass door knobs from the old Sequim Presbyterian Church that was located at

Third Avenue and Washington Street.

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A few fi nishing touches are all

that are needed to complete the renovation and restoration of the landmark,

Connecticut four-square-style Rixon

House located in Sappho on the West End, north of Forks.

A home offi ce with a view. A back porch

was converted into a sun room/home offi ce

with a view of hills and pasture in this

Sol Duc River valley.


Westlands is once again an elegant, three-story home set in the wilderness of a Sol Duc River valley in Sappho, a former booming logging

camp town about 11 miles west of Forks.Th e home, owned by John and Michelle Simpson,

burned almost to the ground on March 21, 2009. Firefi ght-ers from Beaver and other Clallam Fire District stations battled the blaze for seven hours.

John says in the aft ermath of their disaster, the couple

were given the choice of building a new, modern home on the site, taking a cash insurance payment, but chose to rebuild the historical home along its original lines, the most diffi cult path to go down.

“It took a lot of time to make it look a lot like the original house,” John says. “Th ere were a lot of older homes lost to fi re in the West End; this may be the only restoration aft er a fi re.”

Work began in June 2009 and the Simpsons were able to move back in during the spring of 2010.

Today the home restoration is fi nished. John, knowl-edgeable about fi ne woodworking and quality lumber selection, chose Port Angeles-based woodworkers Ben Simmons and Curtis Hansen for the framing and fi nish carpentry. Th e Smith side of John’s family, pioneers of Port Angeles, are noted for his grandfather Chet Smith’s dona-tion of strait-front land now used as a park at Freshwater Beach and for the striking “cord houses” the family built on Place Road using short, 16-inch-long logs placed out-wards, as compared to a log cabin with long logs extending the length of a building.

To utilize local products for rebuilding the house, the fi ne, straight, vertical-grained fi r for the interior wood-

work came from the mill of McLanahan Lumber south of Forks.

Sequim cabinet maker Jesse Bay craft ed the Douglas-fi r cabinets and milled the beautiful interior woodwork. Mason Pete Bliven of Blitz Masonry in Sequim replicated Westlands’ original river-rock fi replace and chimney by copying details found in old photos of the home.

Th e history of the home travels back through several eras of West End history.

One owner was the timber company of Ted Spoelstra and his brother of Forks. Spoelstra, still active in his 90s, is the noted West End collector of antique vehicles and a multitude of vintage objects. John said Spoelstra, in the post-World War II era, once planned to demolish the home and use the Westlands parcel for its plentiful sup-ply of gravel.

Spoelstra described the home to the couple as a four-square, a practical and comfortable-living architectural style that predates the fi ne woodworking Craft sman era of the 1910s and 1920s, while moving away in styling from the fancy Victorian homes found in Port Angeles and Port Townsend.

When fi rst built, Westlands had an outhouse and

Westlands Historical rural West End home restored to former glory

Top left: The West End Historical Society paid a visit to the restored circa 1913 Rixon

home in early February, hosted by homeowner Michelle Simpson. Here the group poses

in the home’s dining room, which features a boxed framed ceiling, period replica

wall paper and casement windows.

Top right: The living room of the Rixon House is tastefully decorated with furnishings that recall the rustic, yet stylish, lifestyle of its

owner and timberlands manager Teddy Rixon and his family. The river-rock fi replace was

completely rebuilt following the fi re that devastated the home in 2009.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS COOK


a kitchen building out back. Today, 21st-century kitchen appliances and bathroom fi xtures are in place, part of the Simpsons’ plan to retain the original look and feel of Westlands while adding modern touches for safety and enhancing the livability of the home.

The Rixons Westlands’ colorful past is refl ected in its other sobri-

quet, the Rixon House.Th eodore “Teddy” Rixon, an English gentleman, was

hired to survey lumber for the Clallam Lumber Company. He moved into the home with his wife, Caroline “Carrie” Jones Rixon, a woman whom West End-born authors Gary Peterson and Glynda Schaad headline as a “Frontier Fire-brand” in their book “Women to Reckon With: Untamed Women of the Olympic Wilderness.”

Rixon fi rst came to the West End where he played a key role in launching the timber/logging industry on the Olym-pic Peninsula. Peterson and Schaad detail his three-year, rugged wilderness exploration for the U.S. Geological Survey that showed the immense potential for timber sales, estimating that 2,882 square miles of harvestable timber stood in the dense western Washington forest, with only 16 square miles logged in 1900.

Rixon later met and married his wife, who then lived in a rough-hewn, cedar-shingled cabin on the western shore of Lake Crescent at a place she called Fairholme. Caroline Rixon was immortalized when an Olympic Mountains peak towering south of Fairholme was named Mount Carrie.

Th e Rixon home fi rst served as a headquarters in the West End forest for the Clallam Lumber Company, a lumber conglomerate with offi ces in Seattle and Chicago.

Th e Simpsons’ fi les contain a set of letters, provided by Jacilee Wray from the National Park Service, detail-ing the construction and purpose of the home, which is 46 miles from downtown Port Angeles.

By the spring of 1914, let-ters requesting items like brass corner plates for interior stairs and furniture orders were be-ing sent.

Not long aft er the Rixons moved in (about 1920), even-tually replacing the Clallam Lumber Com-pany officials they shared the home with, they gave the estate the name Westlands and adopted an 8-year-old daughter they named

Gertrude, “Bunny” to the family. Th e house had a garden and lily ponds stocked with fish. A scaled-down version of the main house was created in the backyard for use as a playhouse by Bunny. During the time the Rixons lived at Westlands, the home almost burned down but was saved when a crew of road workers camping at the river, formed a bucket brigade, dousing the fl ames with water from the Sol Duc River and nearby Beaver Creek. Repairs were made and the home lived on.

Th e Rixons later moved to Port Angeles and Bunny attended an elite private school in Victo-ria, British Columbia. Bunny Rixon returned home, too, aft er marry-ing Ted Rixon’s nephew. They built vacation rentals along the nearby

Sol Duc and years later, the McStott family lived and worked at Westlands.

Michelle has taken a cutting of the Virginia creeper that can be seen in Rixon-era photos growing up the chimney and brought the woody vine back to life, preserving a tie to the original home.

‘Twilight’ ties

West End “Twilight” followers, who link locations mentioned in author Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling series of books and fi lms, point to the home as the author’s model for the home of the Cullen family of vampires. During the time Meyer was writing the fi rst book in the four-book “saga,” Westlands was for sale and photos were posted on the website of local Real-tor Carrol Lunsford’s Lunsford & Associates company in Forks.

“Twilight” fans and those seeking a quiet getaway with a fantastic West End landscape as a backdrop, can book from the Simpsons a vacation rental cabin. Th e couple have constructed and furnished the two cabins now available (two larger, two-story cabins are under construction) and designed and furnished with all the care they put into their restored Westlands home. Studio cabins with gas fi replaces and private decks are located right along the banks of the Sol Duc River. Check out the cabins at Beaver Creek vacation rentals at www.thecabinsatbeavercreek.com.

The chimney of the home is a close replica of the original, with a red-brick top and river-rock base. Wooden shakes refl ect the century-plus-old West End shake and shingle mill industry.

Master carpenters Ben Simmons and Curtis Hansen of Port Angeles left behind this wooden surfer as a reminder of who rebuilt the historical

home and of the love of surfi ng they base their annual work schedule around.

rate with offi ces in Seattle anandd

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Below: Fine woodwork-ing is apparent in the pocket doors, door trim, wainscoting, wood fl oor and front door of the Rixon House.


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Artistry in craftsmanshipThree Sequim men share passion for hand-making wooden instruments Story and photos by Ashley Miller

Music is an important part of American history, pres-ent and future. Songs are written every day about current events. Musicians regularly inspire the

country’s youth. Th e sound of music continues to bring people together.

What about the people who make the instruments? Who are they and what are their hopes and dreams, trials and tribulations?

It should come as no surprise that Sequim — a well-known haven for talented people from all over the world — is home to several instrument makers, a few of whom are will-ing to share their stories.

Welcome to the fl ute shop

By day, Dave Toman is in charge of campus security for the Sequim School District.

Students refer to him as “Mr. T” and go to great lengths — un-successfully — to make him smile. He’s tall, serious and has large, powerful hands.

But at night, Toman retreats into his fl ute shop where his strong hands delicately carve woodland fl utes. When he fi nishes one, Toman brings the wooden instrument to his lips and, with a soft exhale, breathes

the sound of music.Because they’re hand-carved, every fl ute

is one-of-a-kind. They’re traditional, not concert-style, and are designed for people to play and enjoy.

“I don’t know what a fl ute will sound like until it’s done,” Toman said. “When a person gets their fl ute they breathe life into it.”

How does someone make a fl ute with their hands? It’s easy, Toman said.

First, you cut the wood to length and then in half. “Mark out” the chambers and holes and

then carve with a straight gouge and carving knife. Drill the holes, sand the chamber and then glue the pieces together.

Rigth: Dave Toman marks each of his fl utes with his Yeti Flutes design and the number of the instrument it is that he’s made.

Left: Among the tools Dave Toman uses to make hand-carved fl utes is a real deer antler, used to burnish the wood.

Far left: Dave Toman has made 179 hand-carved wooden fl utes. He refers to the instruments as “love fl utes.”

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It’s not a home project he recommends, Burt said, but was the starting point for where he is today.

A few years down the road, Burt was on his way to work — running late — and cursing the weather. He ducked inside what he thought was a men’s apparel store to catch a break from the Oregon rain and was pleasantly surprised to see it was a new violin shop. Soon aft er, Burt was hired as the owner’s apprentice.

“I took one smell of the wood and the varnish and that was that,” he said. “I was hooked.”

Following in his leader’s footsteps, Burt has built modern and baroque violins, violas, cellos, viols d’amore, viols da gamba, guitars, a stand-up electric bass and man-dolins, and has repaired nearly every type of instrument

with strings.Burt’s interest in mandolins came about recently aft er

an unusual ailment involving his left hand that prevented him from playing his usual instruments with ease.

“Suddenly I couldn’t play the fi ddle or violin anymore and I was really depressed,” he said.

Until Burt saw one of his friends playing the mandolin and asked to give it a try.

“I have more than 100 fi ddle tunes in my fi ngers and spent years playing the guitar,” he said. “Within 30 minutes I was playing dance tunes and even some Bach.”

During construction, Burt uses only high quality and well-aged woods. Each piece of wood is stored for at least one year at 40-50 percent relative humidity. Using

Toman burnishes the wood using a real deer antler and then coats it with beeswax. Using a wood planer and hand sander, he cuts the grooves for the channel.

With the exception of cutting the wood into planks and drilling the holes, everything is done by hand.

“I try to keep the process as close to traditional as pos-sible,” he said.

Working on fl ute No. 180, Toman takes pride in his craft .

“I don’t want these to sit on the shelf and collect dust,” he said. “I want people to play them. When you’re watching TV and it’s a commercial break, hit the mute button; pick up a fl ute and just play.”

According to Toman, any-body can learn to play the fl ute.

“Don’t tell me you can’t play one of these,” he said. “If you can breathe, you can play.”

Toman has his own collec-tion of six songs, “Echoes of the Spirit,” recorded live at multiple Olympic Peninsula locations.

“Th e songs you hear were inspired by the surroundings and what I was feeling at that moment,” Toman said. “A great fl ute player once said, ‘You have to search your soul to fi nd your own song,’ and that is what I have done.”

For more information about Yeti Flutes, send a note to Toman at PO Box 951, Carlsborg, WA 98324.

Violins, violas and mandolins, oh my!Chris Burt claims to live in his own little world conjur-

ing up wood, metal, shell, glue and varnish into amazing marriages of dreams, sculptures, history and music.

He makes wooden instruments using hand tools, spe-cializing in violins, violas and mandolins.

Burt’s interest in building instruments began at just 16 aft er attending the concert of a well-known acoustic guitarist who said that sanding the lacquer from the face of a guitar and fi nishing the exposed wood with linseed oil would improve the instrument’s tone.

Opposite left to right: Dave Toman plays a song on one of his hand-carved wooden fl utes.

Chris Burt plays a tune on a mandolin he made the color of red wine from the bookshelves of his favorite uncle.

John Pete Barthell holds an almost-fi nished guitar.

Clockwise from right: A variety of handmade instruments hang from the ceiling in Chris Burt’s shop.

Chris Burt uses a variety of tools to make wooden instruments.

Chris Burt builds violins, violas and mandolins for a living and as a passion.

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makes and sells guitars with a boyish passion. He works alone and makes every as-pect of the instrument except the tuners and strings.

If you ask Barthell, build-ing guitars from scratch isn’t an extraordinary feat.

“I also mow my own lawn,” he said in good hu-mor.

With all joking aside, Barthell swears he’s “just an ordi-nary guy dedicated to building fi ne instruments.”

Th e quality of his work, however, speaks for itself and outshines his modesty.

Using Indian rosewood or sometimes curly walnut, Peruvian walnut or mahogany, Barthell relies on a straight-forward seven-strut fan system for building the “guts” of each guitar. A transverse support is located just below the sound hole, as to aff ord the sound board maxi-mum vibration freedom, and the rosette is reinforced at all 360 degrees.

Most of his instruments are made using a single-

side slab of wood with no joints or internal reinforcing blocks.

Th e heel cap is extended down the length of the guitar for support. If the body color contrasts nicely with ebony, then that’s what he uses, otherwise he sticks with the same color of wood as the body and adds a few decorative ac-cent lines.

Each guitar has a unique rosette design, one of Bar-thell’s favorite parts about building guitars. First he con-structs the design on graph paper and then constructs it on the guitar.

As a fi nishing touch, Barthell pastes a label on the inside of the guitar reading, “In the hands of the wind I sighed; At the hands of the woodsman I died; By the hands of the luthier I came alive; And now, in your hands, I sing.”

Barthell makes and sells six to eight guitars a year. He works from a little bit aft er lunchtime until just before dinner most days. Making guitars has become such an in-grained part of who he is that it’s more a hobby than work and not something he foresees giving up anytime soon.

For more information, go online to www.barthellguitars.com.

Clockwise from left:John Pete Barthell

started making guitars as a young man and

continues to do so at 83 years of age.

John Pete Barthell

follows careful instructions that he’s

perfected over the years when building guitars.

The rosette is original and different on every

guitar John Pete Barthell makes.

When John Pete Barthell moved to Sequim 20

years ago, he designed a home shop especially for

making guitars, a huge step up from building

instruments in his basement in Chicago.

only instrument-grade glues and his own concoction of varnish, Burt brings slabs of wood to life in the form of instruments.

“It’s a great life,” he said.For more information about Sunny Skies Mandolin

Company, go online to www.chrisburt.com.

Barthell GuitarsJohn Peter Barthell aka “Pete” spent his career as an

engineer in the northern suburbs of Chicago.In 1976, he found relief from the everyday stress of life

in his home shop building classical guitars. At 83, he still


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A Happy Home atHolly Hill House Story and photos by

Viviann Kuehl

Left: Holly Hill House is a historical Victorian bed and breakfast in Port Townsend.

Below: Nina Dortch shows off a plate of her famous Mama Nina Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies.


A couch and a dream got Holly Hill House and its proprietors, Greg and Nina Dortch, together nine years ago.

In 2002, the Dortches fi nally had quit their jobs to start their own restaurant, but the deal fell through at the last moment.

“Aft er that, I was laying despondent on the couch,” recalled Nina. Even the off er of her old job back didn’t get her off the couch.

“I had a travel/sales/marketing/management job, but aft er six years I was tired of travelling. I didn’t like the traveling,” recalled Nina.

Greg suggested they pursue their other dream, a bed and breakfast, and brought home stacks of listings. Th at got Nina off the couch.

Th ey wanted a Victorian, somewhere on the coast or near water, and couldn’t aff ord California. Th ey narrowed their search to Washington and Oregon.

When Greg brought home a listing for the Holly Hill House, Nina remembered taking a day trip to Port Townsend years ago, and intuiting, “I’m going to live here someday.”

Th ey came Th anksgiving week, looked at and rejected a couple places in Sequim, then spent four days at Holly Hill. It had a comfortable feel, like coming home, recalled Nina.

Grandly modest, Holly Hill House was built in 1872 by J.J. Hunt, but got its name from its fi rst occupants, R.C.

and Elizabeth Hill and their four boys, who moved in dur-ing 1882, and from the 23 holly trees surrounding it. Th e classic Victorian woodwork, including a picket fence lined with 88 rose bushes, emphasizes the proportions of house and garden. It was just what they wanted.

Soon the Dortches sold their house and by Jan. 28, 2003, they were owners.

“Not a door closed on us the whole way,” said Nina. “It was like destiny.”

Th e fi rst weekend in February they were on their own and it was a baptism by fi re, said Nina. Th e previ-ous owners had a guest system set up and the Dortches walked into it with just that to go on.

“It was fun, but a whole lot of work,” said Nina. It still is, with just the two of them to do everything,

explained Nina. From May to October they don’t get a day off . Every day there’s cleaning, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, menu planning, yard work and maintenance and irregular hours. Still, aft er nine years they are going strong.

“Last year was the best year we ever had,” said Nina.

Th ey get a lot of repeat business. People come for a rest, to get away, with no TV, no phone. Guests read, sleep, walk, go to the movies, she said. If they fall asleep on the couch, she covers them with a blanket.

“When people are comfortable, it

makes me feel good,” said Nina. “When someone has a great experience, it makes it all worthwhile.”

A nurturing attitude, perhaps from her nursing back-ground, helps her guests feel comfortable and her cooking skills add to the experience.

“In the fi rst month I used a menu book, but when I had a guest say he was hungry aft er breakfast, that was the end of that,” said Nina.

Most requested by guests are her Poached Pears, Crusted French Toast, Ooey Gooey Brownies and

her Mama Nina Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, which also have been sold in Aldrich’s Market.

While Nina cooks every day, Greg keeps busy with maintenance. Th e holly

trees, now more than 100 years old, reportedly were made into trees by a Chinese gardener who trimmed the trunks. Th ey were all overgrown when the Dortches arrived. Greg

paid $1,400 to have them trimmed and watched every move the arborist made.

“I swore I’d never pay that again,” he recalled. “Now I do all the trimming myself.

It’s easy to get to them. Th ey are so thick, I can just walk

were on their na. Th e previ-the Dortches

said Nina. do everything,ey don’t

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er had,” said

ople TV,

to n the

Crusted French Toast, Oher Mama Nina Chocowhich also have been

While Nina cookbusy with

trees, nold, retreeswhoTh eythe

patrm

a

Iare

Nina and Greg Dortch are happy to be off

the couch, now in the parlor, and enjoying their ninth year as proprietors of Holly

Hill House B&B.


across the tops to all 14 in front.”Greg also tries to get at least two sides of the house

painted each year. Th ey both enjoy decorating and collecting items origi-

nal to the house. Lizetta Richardson married one of the Hill brothers and lived in the house from her marriage in 1924 until 1967, living alone aft er her husband’s death in 1938. She enjoyed painting on china as well as making pictures for the walls, and some of her work is in the house, along with a few pieces of the heavy furniture that fi lled the house when she lived there.

Greg also is a World War II aviation buff and has paint-ings of planes and other memorabilia in the parlor. Th ere also are Victorian hats to wear and three cats to pet. Still, routinely having guests in your home can be taxing, said Nina.

“You always hope they’ll be really nice and 90 to 95 percent of the time they are,” she said.

Th ey have learned to read people better and sometimes refuse people, said Nina. Only once did they have to call the police for guests who simply wouldn’t leave.

Nina gets excited when guests come back and enjoys annual events that have become traditions.

“It’s kind of fun when groups take the whole house and I get to cater dinner.”

She also off ers a 10-percent discount for local residents who need a place for visiting relatives and friends to stay.

Of the 10 B & Bs in town, seven are networked in an informal support system and that really helps, too, said Nina.

“Th e hard part is the limitations on your life,” said Nina. “You’re tied to it, from early in the morning to night. Checkout time is 10:30; check-in is from 3 to 6; and you

have to get everything ready by 3. We can’t go to dinner if people are coming, sometimes we just sit down and then someone comes. Th e majority of festivals I miss out on, but I do get to see all the parades.”

You can’t call in sick and you can’t leave when it’s your business, explained Nina.

“Hospitality is a state of mind you have to choose to be in. You have to think that it pays the bills and it allows me to live here.”

Still, in spite of the challenges, the Dortches are happy with their life.

“No, I don’t have any regrets,” said Nina. “I’m glad the restaurant didn’t happen. I’d much rather be doing this than working for somebody else.”

Left: Nina and Greg

Dortch share a laugh

near a personalized

version of a favorite

movie poster at their

Holly Hill House B&B.

Right: Nina Dortch

stands by one of the

original fi replaces in

her Holly Hill House

Bed and Breakfast. The

plate on the mantel’s

right was painted by

one of the home’s early

occupants.


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Top: Kay, Carl and their friends and family gather often in the English farmhouse kitchen. At left is the imported AGA stored-heat stove and cooker and in the foreground is a copper pan rack designed by architect Ken Hays.

Above: Between two of the arches’ columns was a perfect place to position a wrought iron bench.

A curved stone-faced stairway leads to a home offi ce and several bedrooms. At right are pastoral murals of the English and Irish countryside. Kay, who’s of Irish heritage, asked for them to be tucked in nooks and crannies as an unexpected design element.


Editor’s note: Due to privacy concerns, the homeowners asked to be called Kay and Carl.

W hen seasoned Sequim architect Ken Hays met a couple who wanted to remodel their 10-year-old house into an English-inspired home, he got ex-

cited. “We took a very simple structure without much character and reshaped the space and redid the surfaces,” Hays said.

“Kay and Carl wanted to create a modest country manor house because they entertain a lot and it was important the space was appropriate for that,” Hays said. “Th ey really recognized the importance of giving me as a designer full control over the process. Th e building is really well-detailed which keeps it from being overdone — it’s the continuity of details that I fi nd most exciting.”

“I wanted an English farmhouse because I’ve traveled in Europe and I loved the warmth of them,” Kay said. “I

liked putting together that style and from our discussions with Ken and our ‘wish’ portfolio, we have turned it into the house we love today.” To Carl, the style “looked good, it looked bold and it’s got a lot of character lines.”

Th e couple loved the idea of featuring natural and repurposed materials in their home because it was remi-niscent of how English farmers gathered stones and wood from their fi elds and forests to build cottages and manors. Th ey and Hays decided on a set of certain materials, among

them natural cedar siding and shingles, plus tumbled and broken-surface stone outdoors with Honduran mahoga-ny, antique reclaimed chestnut, black walnut, soapstone, copper and wrought iron indoors.

“Everything is authentic in the house — there are no faux materials,” Carl said, noting Sequim mason Peter Bliven and a crew from Richerts Marble & Granite set some 60 tons of rock inside and out.

One of the myriad things he, Kay and Carl talked

about was what the English valued in the 18th and 19th centuries — and that was space and proportion, plus a fascination with the Orient. Hays designed the master bath with a strong Asian infl uence, incorporating a deep square soaking tub for serenity and hundreds of small stones as a tactile wall and fl oor covering.

In the original house, there had been a bridge or catwalk joining the two halves of the upper story and above it a scissor truss stretching from one side to the other, which

Hays didn’t like because it didn’t shape or defi ne the spaces. In his design, he pushed out the walls and reshaped the ceiling planes, adding a trussed vault over the living and dining area and an entry canopy inside the redefi ned foyer. He also allowed for a wrought iron bench, creating a nook in the center of the bridge overlooking the airy, but warm great room. Allform Welding of Sequim fashioned all the wrought iron.

“Th e columns of the bridge add weight, strengthen

Story by Pa t r i c i a Mor r i son Coa te • Pho tos cour tesy o f Ken Hays Arch i tec t , Sequ im

“It’s a terrible thing to live in an ordinary home.” — Ken Hays, architect

Comfort in an English farmhouse

Architect Ken Hays of Sequim designed every detail for this English country manor in Clallam County. The homeowners wanted the charm of an Old World farmhouse with natural materials.


the axes of circulation, cueing people for movement through the home,” Hays said.

For the trussed vault, Carl said they found oak trees that had been downed 10 years ago by storms. Hays sent a CAD drawing to a mill in Wisconsin to cut the beams to within a one-eighth-inch tolerance.

“Five or six guys put three sets of arches together in one day with pegs and bolts for the arched beam ceiling,” Carl said. “Th ey started at the top and worked their way down.”

Th e theme for the great room was the warmth of copper and wood. Kay and Carl searched for two years to fi nd the antique chestnut planks from an old New England barn for its fl oor. Th e trim around the win-dows, doors, cabinets and fl oor-to-ceiling bookshelves is Honduran mahogany, meticulously constructed by fi nish carpenter Chas Bridge of Sequim.

“I think we bought every piece of Honduran ma-hogany in the state, which Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend facilitated,” said Hays.

Aft er the magnifi cent arches, the two other dominat-ing features are the mammoth dining room table and stone-faced Rumford fi replace craft ed by mason Peter Bliven with a copper shroud that soars like a piece of sculpture. Hays designed it as well as a copper pan rack in the kitchen. Th e copper theme continues in the cop-ing, fl ashing and downspouts outside. Th e amber bowl lamps were hand-craft ed and add to the feeling of an airy but not overwhelming space. Th e matched-center black walnut table was repurposed from an 88-year-old tree that fell in a storm six years ago. Carl said Urban Hardwoods of Seattle reclaimed the wood and turned it into a rich, earthy centerpiece, complete with .22 and .38 caliber bullets still embedded from target practice aft er the fi rst third of its life. It seats up to 16.

Of the 5,500-square-feet in the four-bedroom man-or, Kay and Carl’s favorite room is the farmhouse-style kitchen/dining area, with Hays’ hand very evident in its design, from the routered drain area in the green-ish black soapstone counters to the locally milled bead board, hand-painted for texture.

“My favorite is the kitchen because we have company quite oft en and there’s a sense of community coming together,” Kay said.

“Th e kitchen and family area are driven by the enameled monolithic AGA cast-iron stored-heat stove and cooker and all the cabinets, by Endless Eff orts in Sequim, that are fl ush inset face frames,” Hays said. Th e couple had seen AGAs in English farmhouses and liked that they can heat the house.

“We were visiting Europe,” Carl said, “and it’s been a common way for cooking and heating for 100-plus years. It heats with propane, weighs two tons and took

This great room view is from the Rumford fi replace looking toward a stunning black walnut table reclaimed from an 88-year-old tree.

The great room’s fl oor is antique reclaimed chestnut. 52


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two people about four days to put it together. It required a special foundation and had to be level.” Carl explained it has four burners, a plate warming tray, 700-degree hot plates and four ovens, each with its own set temperature. If you need to cook something at 450 degrees, you put it in that oven.

“Th e house is meticulous as far as its lines and that’s all Kenny’s doing,” Carl said. “Th ere’s an enormous amount of balance from every side.”

“Th e fun thing about this project was how involved they were,” Hays said. “Th ey and I and all the tradespeople were totally involved and we all ate lunch together and discussed details. It was an exciting dynamic with all the cooperative in-teraction. Th is is a great example of how exciting a project can be, involving the architect, contractor and owners in all phases of the project. Kay and Carl’s house is not meant to be an icon but part of a working organic farm. It’s just great to have them in the community.”

Hays designed the master bath with a strong Asian infl uence, incorporating a deep square soaking tub for serenity and hundreds of small stones as a tactile wall and fl oor.


ECEvents CALENDAR


Port Townsend

to Forks

Port Townsend

Sequim

Port Angeles

March 18-20 • Victorian Heritage Days, Port Town-send, sponsored by Victorian Society in America — Northwest Chapter, victori-anfestival.org. Bus and walking tours of historical Port Townsend, presentations by preservation expert; quilting display and workshops; Victorian Tea and the Grand Ball.

March 19• Midnight in Paris. Dinner and auction — 5:30-8 p.m. C’est Si Bon, 23 Cedar Park Drive, Port Angeles. $80 per person, First Step Family Support Center fundraiser. 457-8355 or www.fi rststepfamily.org.

March 19-20• 13th Annual Soroptimist Gala Garden Show — 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Sequim Boys & Girls Club, 400 W. Fir St., Sequim. Products and professional services of horticul-tural and garden-related businesses, a speaker’s series providing educational and inspirational information for gar-deners of all levels, garden displays, hands-on classes, raffl es and a cafe serving homemade soups, sandwiches and other delicacies. [email protected] or www.sequimgardenshow.com.

March 20• Jeffco Community Garage Sale — 9 a.m., Jeff erson County Fairgrounds, 4907 Landes St., Port Townsend. 360-385-1013.

March 20-21• Wordplay 2011 — 2:30 p.m. March 20, 7 p.m. March 21. Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend. $10. keycitypublictheatre.org.

March 23-25• Peninsula Community Wooden Kayak Project — 6 p.m. Northwest Maritime

April 2• Port Townsend Farmers Market open-ing day in Uptown Port Townsend — Continues each Saturday through December. 360-379-9098. • “Autobiographies of the Rich and Fa-mous: You Can’t Make Stuff Like Th is Up!” PT Shorts — 7:30 p.m. Pope Marine Building. keycitypublictheatre.org.

April 8-10 • Olympic BirdFest 2011 — all day around Port Angeles and Sequim. Guid-ed fi eld trips, boat cruises in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and a salmon banquet with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. 360-681-4076 or www.olympicbirdfest.org.

April 9, May 14 • Washington Old Time Fiddlers — All players jam, noon-1:30 p.m., perfor-mance 1:30-3:30 p.m. Sequim Prairie Grange, 290 Macleay Road, Sequim. Free, donations support fi ddler scholarships. http://d15.wotfa.org

April 14- 17• Centrum presents a hands-on four-day workshop for musicians on Brazilian Choro music at Fort Worden in Port Townsend. Call 360-385-3102 or go to centrum.org.

April 15-17 •11th Annual Kayak Symposium — 1-5 p.m. April 15, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. April 16, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. Port Angeles City Pier, Port Angeles. 888-452-1443 or paks@raft andkayak.com.

April 15• “A River Between: Improvisations of Music and Physical Th eater” — 7 p.m. Madrona MindBody Institute. keycity publictheatre.org.

April 15-17 • RainFest 2011 — 9 a.m., various locations in Forks. Community event including the Fabric of the Forest Quilt Show in Forks High School. [email protected].

Center Boatshop (Chandler Building). Port Townsend’s new Northwest Mari-time Center and Redfi sh Custom Kayaks invite the public to participate in the con-struction of a cedar-strip wooden kayak. www.redfi shkayak.com.

March 26, April 23, May 28• Washington Old Time Fiddlers — All players jam, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., per-formance 1:30-3:30 p.m. Tri-Area Com-munity Center, 10 West Valley Road, Chi-macum. Free, donations support fi ddler scholarships. http://d15.wotfa.org

March 27• Old Time Fiddlers Spring Show. 2 p.m. Sequim High School auditorium, 601 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim. Free, donations accepted.

March 25-27 • 29th Annual Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference — Fort Worden State Park. kitemakers.org.•Nate Crippen Memorial Basketball Tournament — 9 a.m. Forks High School gym. Tournament fee $300. 360-374-7532.

March 26 • Irrigation Festival Kick-off Dinner — 5 p.m. Club Seven at 7 Cedars Casino, Blyn. 360-683-3408 or www.Irrigation Festival.com.

March 31• Ron Stubbs Hypnosis Show. Comedy Night — 8 p.m. Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend. $15. keycitypublictheatre.org.

April-June • Spring White Cap Series on Port Townsend Bay — sponsored by Port Townsend Sailing Association, ptsail.org.

April 16• Symphony Concert 5. Sibelius, Tchai-kovsky, Anderson, and Schumann — 10 a.m. dress rehearsal, 7 p.m. con-cert. Port Angeles High School, 304 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles. portangelessymphony.org or [email protected], 457-5579.• Celebrate Earth Day Fort Worden, Port Townsend — Green Living Expo on Littlefi eld Green, 10 a.m. -4 p.m.; Shift ed Paradigm Celebration in the McCurdy Pavilion, 7-11 p.m. www.L2020.org. April 21-May 15• Preview of “Th e Soup is Served,” 7 p.m. April 21, show continues April 22-24, 28-30, May 1, 5-8, 12-15. 7 p.m. Th urs-days, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend. keycity-publictheatre.org.

April 23 • Port Townsend Community Orchestra Spring Concert — 6:45 p.m. pre-concert chat with Maestro Dewey Ehling, 7:30 p.m. concert. Chimacum High School auditorium, 91 West Valley Road, Chi-macum. porttownsendorchestra.org.• Annual JeffCo Expo — Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 4907 Landes St., Port Townsend. 360-385-1013, jeffco fairgrounds.com, or jeff [email protected].

April 26• Passover Concert with Judith-Kate Friedman. 7 p.m. keycitypublictheatre.org.

April 30• 14th Annual AAUW Kitchen Tour — 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Hospitality Center at First Presbyterian Church, 1111 Franklin St., Port Townsend. Opens at 9:30 a.m. for tickets, seminars, raffl es, refreshments. Eight kitchens, including new and re-modeled rooms. Advance tickets avail-able beginning in March. 360-385-2224 or aauwpt.org/kitchen_tour.htm.

May 1• 19th Annual Rhody Bike Tour, metric and half-metric century sponsored by Port Townsend Bicycle Association, ptbikes.org.


ECEvents CALENDAR


May 1-2 •North Olympic Mustang 28th Annual Participants’ Choice Show n’ Shine — 9 a.m. Port Angeles Gateway Transpor-tation Center. 360-683-7908 or northolympicmustangs.com.

May 6-15•116th Sequim Irrigation Festival — Times vary based on event, downtown Sequim. Juried, handcraft ed arts and craft s, Grand Parade on May 14 at noon, royalty, logging show, strongman com-petition, 10K run and car show. 360-683-3408 or www.irrigationfestival.com.

May 6-7, 13-14, 20-21• Port Townsend High School presents the musical comedy, “Batboy.” 8 p.m. Port Townsend High School auditorium. Admission is $10 for adults; $5 for se-niors and PTSD students without ASB card; and $3 for children under 12 and students with an ASB. Th is show is not recommended for young children. 360-379-4520 or [email protected].

May 7-8•Jeff Co HomeShow — 10 a.m. at Jeff er-

son County Fairgrounds, Port Townsend. Th e Jeff Co HomeShow has a building, remodeling and landscaping focus. Ven-dor booths and demonstrations will off er inspiration for new construction and home improvement plans. 360-385-1087 or www.Jeff CoHomeShow.com.

May 14-15• Rhododendron Arts and Craft s Fair — 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Downtown Port Townsend. 360-379-3813, www.port townsendartsguild.org or [email protected].

May 16-21 • 76th Rhododendron Festival, Port Townsend. Sponsored by Rhododendron Festival Association, rhodyfestival.org.

May 21• Rhody Festival Grand Parade, up-town and downtown Port Townsend, rhodyfestival.org.• Acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke — 7:30 p.m. McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Presented by Upwest Arts and Centrum. centrum.org or 800-746-1982.

May 22 • Rhody Run XXXIII, a 12K race be-ginning and ending at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Sponsored by Port Townsend Marathon Association, rhodyrun.com.• Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby — Time to be announced. Ediz Hook, Port Angeles. Fundraiser for Olympic Medical Center. 360-417-7144 or [email protected].

May 27-31 •Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts — Memorial Day weekend festival features music, dance, art, craft s and food. $40 through April 30, $50 May 1-26, $55 at the gate/$45 for Juan de Fuca Festival mem-bers. 360-457-5411 or www.jff a.org.

May 28-29 • Brinnon ShrimpFest — seafood festival includes food booths, belt sander races, exhibits, live music and children’s activi-ties. Sponsored by Emerald Towns Alli-ance, 360-796-0550 or emeraldtowns.org/shrimpfest.

•11th Annual Halibut Derby — daylight to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Port An-geles Harbor, Port Angeles. A two-day event with $20,000 in cash prizes. $5,000 fi rst prize, $2,500 for second, $1,500 in third. Cash payout for 30th prize at $135. Tickets are available at Swain’s Gen-eral Store, Port Angeles. 360-452-2357 or www.swainsinc.com. • Olympic Art Festival — 10 a.m. at Olympic Art Gallery, 40 Washington St., Quilcene. Dozens of Northwest artists have artwork for sale.

June 3-5 • 28th Classic Mariners’ Regatta spon-sored by Wooden Boat Foundation, 360-316-9370, woodenboat.org.

June 5 •North Olympic Discovery Marathon — all day, start at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim, ends in Port Angeles. 360-417-1301 or nodm.com.


THE Living END

By the time I was 6, I knew what the best houses in the world looked like: two- and three-story grand dames built of brick the color

of faded rouge between 1850-1880 in Boonville, Mo. On my way to school or downtown, I walked past them: Georgian, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Classic and Tudor Revival. Th ey all had personality and character, with their towers, columns, verandas, oversized architrave windows framed deep with wood or limestone.

I ached to live in my own one day, especially a house with a turret, but my desire has been unrequited so far. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gotten my degree in historical architecture, instead of Spanish and history.

As I sat down to weave threads of nostalgia in this col-umn, I took an inventory of all the places I’ve lived — 28 in all. By the time I graduated at 17, I’d lived in seven houses and attended two elementaries, two middle schools and two high schools.

Th e houses have ranged from a 1950s Airstream trailer on the naval base at Great Lakes, Ill., where my 6-foot 4-inch dad had to open a ceiling vent and pop out his head to take a shower, to my 600-square-foot cottage north of Sequim. None of them have been grand, some of them even have been dilapidated like the Florida cracker (note: not crack!) house where, when I opened the cabinets under the kitchen sink, I could see the ground and sometimes a heft y black snake.

One of my two favorites has to be a large frame Victorian with a wraparound porch and bay window built in 1880. It suff ered through some of my teenage angst when I’d bound up the 18 steps and slam my bedroom door, releasing a cas-cade of plaster within the walls. As a couple of 15-year-olds,

my friend and I decided it had been on the Underground Railroad — did we know our history or what? — and tried to prove it by undermining the rock foundation to “fi nd a secret room.” Th e house still is standing so I guess we didn’t do too much damage. It also was the home where my harried mom would have my energetic younger sister run around it fi ve or six times to achieve some tranquility.

When we got transferred again at ages 16, 13 and 10, my sisters and I pitched a collective fi t — we loved the above 515 Benton Ave. East — but we lost and moved in 1968 to a 1914 four-square with oak beams, columns and woodwork. I have many good memories of living on Elm Street: sitting on the dryer in the kitchen and having warm conversations with my mom about life at school while she made supper, Dad giving me special dispensation to stay up and watch “Th e Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” with him. Big family holiday gatherings and my mom and aunt telling childhood stories on each other, tickling themselves so much, they laughed until they cried — and we did, too.

Some years aft er we all graduated, Mom and Dad said they were selling the four-square because it was too much work and again we pitched a collective fi t — we’d had prac-tice. So they moved into a comfortable ranch-style and all the ways of being with each other transferred to it. Th e same warmth, love, camaraderie, silliness, tastes and smells were there when I went back to visit my mom last summer.

A little over a month ago my 84-year-old aunt died and 10 of us came from Washington and Iowa to pay our respects to her at her rural home. She was an involved member of her tiny community in central Missouri for some 65 years, a fact that is unfathomable to me. Th e one constant in my 58 years has been that I’ve moved nearly 30 times, putting down only shallow roots.

Being at my aunt’s house, one I have known well since my childhood, felt like being home again. It’s the house that my Aunt Ann and Uncle Junior built when my cousin was 10 and I was 7. I remember running wildly from end to end on the subfl oor before the framing was done and feeling like it was a huge, wide-open space.

During summer visits in the 1950s and 1960s, Ann and June’s house still loomed large as I watched the adults play cards, drink a little beer and laugh a lot in the expansive kitchen. Or the many times my aunt, cousin, sisters and I chatted as we snapped beans in it for what seemed like hours on end. I remember the smells of Texas Jack and fried chicken and the kitchen counter accommodating one to wash and two or three to dry. And the caboose-sized bathroom, where I sat on a milelong counter while my mom and aunt fi ercely scrubbed rock out of my forehead, hands, elbows and knees before dousing me with merthio-late when I was 10 and where my aunt would put our hair in such tight ponytails we felt our eyes were going to pop out … and many other warm memories.

But when we drove up the lane in February, the house had changed. My aunt and uncle’s bedroom seemed as if it had been lopped off the right side of the house. Inside, there must have been some major remodeling done in the intervening years because the living room and kitchen were about half their size. Th e bathroom counter had con-tracted to a mere dozen feet. Oddly enough, my 24-year-old nephew also noted the house had shrunk from the size it had been during his childhood. We all shared memories spanning a half-century of visiting Ann and June’s house — it hadn’t been our home but it was where we always felt welcome. So, goodbye Ann, June and your little yellow house and thank you for all the good times.

the time I wwas 66 II knew what the best houses my friend and I decided it had been on the Underground Being at my aun

Of Homes and HeartsOf Homes and Hearts Story and photo by

Patricia Morrison Coate


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58 LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 201158 LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | SPRING | MARCH 2011

The Portage Canal Bridge

In 1952, big cranes lift ed the center section of the Portage Canal Bridge into place, connecting Indian Island to the mainland. Indian Island and Marrowstone Island form the southern

edge of Port Townsend Bay and both initially were connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land. In 1913, a canal was constructed to allow a shortcut out of Port Townsend Bay to the south. Th e United States Navy fi nished the job when it established Naval Magazine Indian Island, a naval facility that stores munitions and loads ships. Today, the bridge continues to serve traffi c go-ing to and from Indian and Marrowstone Islands. In the bridge’s shadow is a 142-acre waterfront park with picnic tables and trails that follow the waterfront under a canopy of madrona trees.

&NOW Then

Parading downWashington St.

A military marching band parades on Washington Street in Sequim on a postcard postmarked 1918. Th ey and their comrades many blocks down the street may be

celebrating Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1918, commemorating the cessation of hostilities in World War I.

Today, marching down Washington Street bearing the fl ag is a tradition of the Jack Grennan Post 62 American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary from Sequim during the annual Irrigation Festival in May. Th is year’s theme is “One Hundred Sweet Sixteen” and the festival runs from May 6-15. Th e grand parade begins at noon Sat-urday, May 14.

yyyyovovovvv. . 1111111 , , 191919191918181818181 , , ,, cococoocommmmmmmmmemememmororororoooratatatatininining g g thththhtt e e eWaWaWaWaWaWWar rrrr I.II.II

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Above photo courtesy of the Museum and Arts Center of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley

Today’s photo by Patricia Morrison Coate

Above photo from the collection of the Jefferson County Historical Society

Today’s photo by Fred Obee


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Living on the Peninsula - Spring 2011

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