A Little Holiday

My mother, Lillian, in her canoe in 1953 on her little lake at the homestead.

Women didn't want diamonds back then...just a boat and a lake ;-)

Because we have been more aware of unnecessary spending, my husband was able to treat me to a sentimental holiday for a few days, to a place where I once had an adventure. I am to walk the path to the hill between two lakes where my parents first homesteaded. It is over 50 years later, but it will be approximately the same day in September. This was the place where we learned to be so resourceful and innovative. In spite of the fact that the Big House is not there, and the land has returned to the wilderness state, it will be good to just breathe the air. The man who now owns the land is deliberately keeping it in its natural state, in memory of our family. I will be happy to be in the land of the midnight sun, once again.


I will imagine what it was like for them, seeing it for the first time, as a young couple in their early 20's, and I will be thinking of them living in a tent with three children under the age of 3, while the log home was being built. I hope to phone my parents from the little lake and see if they can hear anything from the nature. I am not good at sitting still for very long, as I like to be busy, so I hope I don't drive my friends crazy by trying to wash every dish in the sink.

I may be posting a few times before I leave, and I may even get time to post from my homeland.

One of the highlights will be a visit to Norman and Libby Smith

who homesteaded there and who have a gallery of Norman's Alaskan art. He paints under the name of Norman Lowell. I knew him as an art teacher, and attended some of his classes when I was a girl.

Another highlight will be meeting a childhood friend, Carol McGahan who was a neighboring homesteader (as neighbors in those days were anyone you could drive a car to visit) from a family very much like my own.

I am also looking forward to my stay with a family that took so many pictures to help me put my book together about the homestead.


I have been scurrying around trying to get the home in shape, and get myself ready, too. I don't like to leave the house a shambles when I go anywhere. I've learned that it makes it too gloomy when it is time to come home.

Everyone has seen this picture many times, taken around 1955. I hope the water looks blue like this when I next see it. This is what we did when we were little...our Dad took us for rowboat rides. It was better than Disneyland. It has been made into a U.S. postage stamp, available at Zazzle.I used it on letters several times, and it actually takes the letter where it is supposed to go.