My mom survived the Good Friday Earthquake. Our family has a bit of lore about this event; though likely not as much as other families. It is poignant for us.
On the evening of 27 March my mother was playing in the dining room with a toy electric mixer. When she turned it on, her mother's china started falling off the wall. She turned off the mixer, thinking for a nano-second that she had cause the plates' demise, then realizing it was an earthquake.
A month later, on the morning of 27 April, my mother asked her father to not fly that day. She had dreamed that he would die, but her parents shrugged it off thinking of it as merely being a child that wanted daddy to stay home to play. He flew delegates out to Valdez to survey the quake damage and, according to the family lore, those delegates watched helplessly as the plane took off from Valdez and crashed about a mile out to sea. Bodies were never located, and only a few scraps of the plane were found. This was the second husband with an empty grave for my grandmother--her first husband was lost over Sicily during WWII (they never found him or his plane).
According to wiki: On 27 April 1964—barely a month after the quake—an Alaska Air National Guard C-123 plunged into the ocean shortly after takeoff from the Valdez airport. Killed was the plane’s three-man crew, including the pilot, Lt. Col. Thomas Norris Sr.; the co-pilot, Maj. James Rowe (who, circling Anchorage in a C-123 a month earlier, had served as the eyes and ears of the world in the aftermath of the earthquake); and the flight engineer, TSgt. Kenneth Ayers. Also dead was Maj. Gen. Thomas Carroll, the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard.
We had this event marked on our calendar, but we did nothing about it. I'm not sure how to handle this particular day of importance. It's not a holiday. There isn't a celebration. But it is an important date in our family lore. One that I want my children to somehow connect with--but how do accomplish that when you live far away from the location? If we were in Anchorage we would visit Earthquake Park, take a picnic drive to view the trees standing naked at the end of the inlet where they were killed by the salt water of the tsunami. Maybe an outing to Valdez next month and a visit to the memorial headstone for my grandfather? But alas, we live some six time zones away. How do you commemorate the second largest earthquake since 1900?
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Farm-to-Table: Farmer Boy
We've been reading Farmer Boy as part of our Farm-to-Table study this spring. After reading chapter twelve we hit Google to see why Nick Brown accepted rags for his tinware.
What did we find? A fascinating blog entry about rag paper! I'm looking forward to reading more of Nancy Cleveland's blog, As a Laura Ingalls Wilder Researcher Thinks.
Before finding that, we found this. I hear a roadtrip beckoning me!
What did we find? A fascinating blog entry about rag paper! I'm looking forward to reading more of Nancy Cleveland's blog, As a Laura Ingalls Wilder Researcher Thinks.
Before finding that, we found this. I hear a roadtrip beckoning me!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Farm-to-Table: Flock Swap
We attended a flock swap as part of our farm-to-table studies for this season. It was pretty nifty. There was an easily walkable variety of critters and folks, and we believe we have determined which chicken varieties we want to attempt.
We're planning to pursue Brahmas, Delawares, and Orpingtons. Tis a real pity we don't have our coop set up yet because I would have come home with these beauties!
The boys were enamored with the baby rabbits that were available as well, but I hold the same philosophy as a friend of mine who stated: Our animals need to provide a functional service, we all have to work for our food. I don't have the mental constitution for skinning and eating rabbits at this time. Too much of a city girl.
We're planning to pursue Brahmas, Delawares, and Orpingtons. Tis a real pity we don't have our coop set up yet because I would have come home with these beauties!
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| Dark Brahma Standard pairs |
The boys were enamored with the baby rabbits that were available as well, but I hold the same philosophy as a friend of mine who stated: Our animals need to provide a functional service, we all have to work for our food. I don't have the mental constitution for skinning and eating rabbits at this time. Too much of a city girl.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Great-uncle Jack's Christmas Dinner
Today we found out about the traditional Christmas Dinner that happened at my great-uncle Jack's house.
He and Aunt Catherine had six children (which I'm sure chaffed my grandmother's zero-population growth sensibilities). They would enjoy tacos for their holiday dinner. It required so much prep work (browning, dicing, grating...) that they wouldn't have tacos very often, so it was a special meal for a special occasion in their household.
At least that's how the family lore tells it.
He and Aunt Catherine had six children (which I'm sure chaffed my grandmother's zero-population growth sensibilities). They would enjoy tacos for their holiday dinner. It required so much prep work (browning, dicing, grating...) that they wouldn't have tacos very often, so it was a special meal for a special occasion in their household.
At least that's how the family lore tells it.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Advent, Maybe
We're behind.
Things have been a bit hectic with Cub Scouts, Grandma's move, and life in general. We managed to get the tree up this weekend...and mostly decorated. We found suitable white candles for our advent wreath we started assembling in 2006 (and have yet to use)--we're still in search of an adequate purple pillar to use with it. The Jesse Tree ornaments I cross-stitched before Wee-one was born are MIA--hopefully we'll find them in time to use this spring.
We have not managed to integrate any of the Danish traditions we were wanting to explore this season.
We found our stack of Advent cards and finally utilized them today. No credit or copyright is designated on them and I don't recall where we got them from. They've been puttering about in our collection of holiday paraphernalia but we kept forgetting to do them. We're starting where we are, instead of trying to catch up on the ones we missed. We intend to do them at bedtime--read the blurb, read the scripture, play the hymn from our hymnbook discs, and go to bed with visions of our Savior dancing through our head.
Things have been a bit hectic with Cub Scouts, Grandma's move, and life in general. We managed to get the tree up this weekend...and mostly decorated. We found suitable white candles for our advent wreath we started assembling in 2006 (and have yet to use)--we're still in search of an adequate purple pillar to use with it. The Jesse Tree ornaments I cross-stitched before Wee-one was born are MIA--hopefully we'll find them in time to use this spring.
We have not managed to integrate any of the Danish traditions we were wanting to explore this season.
We found our stack of Advent cards and finally utilized them today. No credit or copyright is designated on them and I don't recall where we got them from. They've been puttering about in our collection of holiday paraphernalia but we kept forgetting to do them. We're starting where we are, instead of trying to catch up on the ones we missed. We intend to do them at bedtime--read the blurb, read the scripture, play the hymn from our hymnbook discs, and go to bed with visions of our Savior dancing through our head.
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