Busy Summer

In the summer Holden goes from a staff of around fifty to a staff of 150. Guests no longer straggle in three days a week but come in bus loads each and every day. Above is a picture of a typical dinner outside. We often have a village of over 500 people in the summer. All of this means that my time for blogging and even quiet time is rare. Managing this many people is a huge responsibility for the village. Staff is often young an in experienced with the responsibility. Narnia, our summer children's program had over 90 kids under ten last week alone. Luckily the trails are open and the weather has been great and so far everyone is loving Holden Village

What Happened to Art's Plants??

Art is the gardener in the family and even at Holden he attempted to grow a few things. He thought that our porch would be a safe place to try a few nasturtiums. We were not at home, so these photos came from our neighbor, Paul Haines who caught the action with his camera.

4th of July Parade

Every 4th of July, Holden Village puts on a day of fun, food and frolic. We began with a huge brunch out on the green, followed by poems, speeches and tom foolery on the arc. As soon as the guests arriving today settled in we had a huge parade. Above are just a few of the entries. Not the wonderful man offering "repairs in any season". That would be Art, my hubby. Isn't he cute?

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.