First Steps

As you know, Art and I live above a family of 3, Trevor, Angela and Aubry. Aubry is almost ten months old and has been very close to walking for some time now. So close, that we had a lottery to see who could guess the day she would take 5 steps or more. Tonight when I came home from vespers, Aubry decided she wanted to crawl up stairs for a visit.

I was munching on pretzels and she wanted some so she took her first steps to me. I was so excited!! I had several people come up to watch as we put her through the drill time and time again, until she had it with us all and decided it was bed time.

Angela, Aubry's mom, glowed at her daughter's new skills. We think that Aubry is exceptional and early in most developmental stages. What a gift it has been to have this miracle downstairs.

Poppies

First there was one.

Then a few more.

Now they are everywhere. I have always loved Holden's poppies.

Pack Llamas

Trail work is a big part of the activity in the North Cascades. So many avalanches came down this January that the Forest Service decided to bring in llama to carry in the needed equipment for the crews doing the work.


The pack owners have raised and trained these llamas to work hard and be gentle. While they are in the village they allow the children to lead them around. The kids thought this was wonderful.

Here I am with a very gentle and tired llama.I caught these animals as they were coming out of the mountains and heading back home.

They are all done with their work and headed for the lake and the barge to take them home.

Outdoor Movie - The Sound of Music

Have you ever thought that it might be fun to sit outside with 200 other people and watch an old movie? Well, our utilities department thought that this would be a blast and so they set up an outdoor movie theater at the top of Chalet Hill. The Sound of Music was chosen as the movie to watch. The words to the music were displayed on the bottom of the screen so we could all sing along. The movie began at 9pm and lasted until midnight. We began with yard blankets on the grass and progressed to jackets and down comforters. A few even spent the night.

We all entered via a red carpet and a gate. As we went through we were given a ticket with a number for a chance to win a door prize. Our Utilities department really does a bang up job.

As time drew near people began to come up the hill to find their spot.

Nancy, Mark and Lee (the utilities people) made announcements in style.

The screen was a huge tarp drawn up between two buildings. The picture quality was awful but the sound was fine. We could read the words to sing along and most of us stayed till the end. We all had a wonderful time.

A Year of ...

Art and I leave Holden Village two months from today. In many ways this year has gone by very fast and in a few ways, very slowly. After completing ten months, I am beginning to take stock of what we expected and what we are leaving with. I hope this to be the first of a few inter-spaced posts on our experience.

A year of:

• Sleep - It might be the mountain air or the lack of sunlight in the winter or possibly the fact that everything here is uphill; even the downhill, but we sleep a lot here. I get eight to nine hours of sleep every night. Oh sure, there have been a few sleepless nights but mostly it has been lights out by ten and awake at seven.


• Good Food - Warm fresh bread baked every day, fresh cookies or brownies a couple of times a week, seafood pasta or buckets of freshly made soup; what can I say? My thoughts of losing weight and dieting went down the drain very quickly.


• Water - Holden's water comes right out of Copper Basin; pure and fresh. Water is served at each meal in pitchers and I must drink 3 or 4 glasses a meal. In addition I grab a glass most of the time I venture through the dinning hall. They say that it takes five years to totally refresh the water in your body, well I have added a high quality 20% this year.
• Exercise - As I said before everything here is uphill. Life in the mountains means a lot of work and walking. Days off mean a hike and now that summer is here evening walks are in order most nights. We spend a lot of time outdoors. We eat outside if we can, we take coffee outside and since we have no cars, we walk everywhere. All year I have helped unload the bus each day as it comes up from the lake carrying luggage and food for all of us. I am stronger than I have ever been before. I do hope that I can carry this health into my life back in Ellensburg.
• Small Spaces - Art and I live in a two room apartment upstairs in Chalet #14, 14 up as we call it. We find that this is more than enough space for the two of us. We have a very small two burner stove / sink / refrigerator combo. The washer and dryer (and larger kitchen if we needed it) are downstairs. We honestly don't spend a lot of time here because we are so busy with other activities. When we move back we hope to look a bit closer at our physical space and needs and cut back the clutter.
• Worship - Daily worship, oh I mean twice daily worship. Matins is a very brief time for any of us to share thoughts, poems, experiences or simply read a bible verse. I have done many of these this year and have found this sharing of my thoughts to be very rewarding and makes for some good conversation. Each evening we have a 30 minute Vespers service as well. We all gather for songs, hymns, prayers, reading and almost any other thing that can be formatted into a worship service. Vespers is a great way for all of us to stop and check in with each other at the end of the day.
  
• Less Utilities - Holden generates its own power from Copper Creek. In the summer we have power to burn and can run dryers, lights, take long hot showers and even use and electric heater on chilly days, but in the winter we do with a lot less. Often Art and I would sit in the evening reading with 2 lights on, one for me and one for him. Our living space was usually about 60 degrees and this did not bother us at all. I was surprised to discover that my body acclimated to the colder weather and I suffered very little. We had a wood stove in the basement that we would light early in the morning but we never had a fire at night, our down comforter was all we needed.

Chalk Walk

Today the weather was chilly and to keep warm I headed out with my camera. I was barely down the hill before these 3 young ladies grabbed me to show off their sidewalk art or a "chalk walk" as they called it. First we have Isabelle who lived her two years ago and is back for a two week visit. She is very proud of her popcorn art. Next, Anna, who was her a month this winter, show off her drawings of the chalets.

Eli, who has lived all year with me and is one of my favorites, drew many long lines on the brick but I liked her "Welcome to Holden" the best. Summer time at Holden has fully arrived with guests, families and kids everywhere. I was touched that these three honored me with their afternoon artwork.

Iris

Good friends of ours, Nancy and Marvin Johnson, gave us a gift the last time they were at Holden Village. They had lived in our apartment the year before we moved up. They have moved home to Minneapolis and know how important it is to take a piece of Holden home to remember the experience.

Marvin made this beautiful iris for us to remember the gardens at Holden.

Holden gardens quickly rise up out of the snow and make up for the late start. Daffodills come first and then the Iris. Next the Poppies will bloom.

New Life - Part Two

It seems that our new mother deer is very very comfortable with the village and the people here. Early this morning, this new fawn was spotted on our luggage loading dock.

I did not take these pictures nor did I see this fawn until later, but I was so impressed by the trust that this mother showed that I had to post. These photographs were taken by Daniel Roberts, our head maverick.

New Life

Art and I went out of the village for five days this past week. We had a very special wedding to attend and had a chance to meet our son's fiancée’s family as well. We also spent three much needed nights at home in Ellensburg. Our dog and cat still love us, our garden and lawn looked very good (thanks to our boys). We are down to our last two and a half months here at Holden. I begin working at the Ellensburg library again September 1st.

Today has been a day of seeing lots of new life in the woods. First of all, on the trip up Lake Chelan today the boat pulled over to let us see some mountain goats with some fairly new kids. Unfortunately for my camera all of these pictures do a poor job of showing off these new forest babies. They all are very well camouflaged.

After dinner, Art spied two mother deer with their new fawns. These sweet things blend right into the trees and shrubs. The first mother had twins that were about a week old.

The second mother had given birth only a few hours before and had placed this wobbly fawn in some low bushes while she went out to graze. I was lucky to get in a shot or two before she came back.

This last picture is just one taken from the Lady of the Lake of Domke Falls. The boat rarely goes in close to the falls but today they put the nose right into the falling water. Quite a lovely day to end our time out with. Tomorrow it is back to work.

Hike to Hart Lake - The Trail

Hiking is more than a destination for me. I have a deep love for trails; just looking at trails and the beauty that surrounds them. These are pictures that I took yesterday on our hike to Hart Lake.

The spring flowers are out in full bloom in the mountains. Everywhere we looked there was something beautiful growing

Even the deepest and darkly wooded trails fascinate me. Years ago we saw a bear in this section and ever since I get a scary foreboding when I am in this deeply shady section.

Trillium grew everywhere but I had never seen purple Trillium until yesterday.

Even in the higher elevations we found flowers tucked into crevices and rocky areas. I really don't need a destination to enjoy a hike, just give me a beautiful trail.

Hike to Hart Lake - The Views

Art and I took our first hike to Hart Lake today. The warm May weather has cleared many of the trails, giving us access to places usually not accessible in early June.

The avalanche that came down in early January is now just a huge pile of rubble, with full trees, rocks and dirt strewn all over the area.

As we hiked along the beaver ponds just east of the lake were so green and beautiful. I happened to catch a butterfly in this photo as it swooped towards me.

The warm weather has brought on a huge melt of upper elevation snow. Waterfalls were cascading down the mountains everywhere we looked.

At one point we took a look down Railroad Creek valley toward Holden. You can just barely see the Honeymoon Heights tailing pile in this photo.

Hart Lake Falls was rushing with more water than I have ever seen before.

When we finally crested the trail near past the falls the view of Hart Lake and Crown Point Falls in the distance was fantastic. We had a great day and a hike together.

School Play - Really Rosie

Holden's elementary school ended its year tonight with a musical, "Really Rosie and the Nutshell Kids", based on Maurice Sendak books. All five of the students were in the play, even Olaf who is in kindergarten. Eli was Rosie and can that girl sing. Her parents are in for a ride with this talented kid.

Here is Olaf singing the A, B, C song with Eli poking him and whispering the letters he for as he went along.

Jordyn is singing "One is Johnny" as the others chime in for the chorus. School is over now and next week the Chelan district school will become "Narnia" a program for kids here at Holden that gives parents a chance to relax each morning.

Winston - The Old Miner's Village

As you know, Holden Village began in 1937 as a copper mine owned by the Howe Sound Mining Company. Many homes were constructed and despite the isolation, a full thriving community began its life high in the Cascade mountains. Dormitories, a gymnasium, bowling alley, a mess hall, a K-12 school and a hospital were built for the miners and their families.

West of the Holden a group of small houses, named Winston, were constructed for families to live. Holden still hosts a miner's family reunion every so often. In 1957 price of copper spiraled downward and the mine was closed in a day. Families picked up their belongings and took the next boat out, seeking work in other mines. After everyone was gone, the Forest Service burned Winston to the ground to allow it to go back to it's natural state. The foundations and stairs to a life once lived are all that remains today.

Art and I took a walk yesterday evening to explore Winston and to see if any of the spring flowers had come up. Much of Winston is open for walking but the top most tier is covered with brush and a tangle of branches. This is where we headed last night.

We walked and discovered lilacs and daffodils coming up in the long abandoned gardens. We found an old cement garage and small streams cascading down through what once was terraced gardens.

Our walk came to a sudden end when this guy poked his head out of the bushes. His ruffled back told us that he now lived here and we should be gone.