Stefanie Pettit

Time to update the doings in Miss Chicken’s world.

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve finally gotten a smartphone and am learning how to drive it.

Not far from the southeast corner of the Spokane County Courthouse sits a little pier made of white bricks, rather small as monuments go – but, as it turns out, significant to the exploration and mapping of the Northwest.

On a Saturday toward the end of August I sat on a dock at Priest Lake as my husband was doing a job at a lake home nearby. I had gone along with him that day, well, just because.

Even mermaids can’t escape racism.

Cindy Hval and I take turns writing the Front Porch column. Last week Cindy wrote about being inundated by the zucchini she’s growing. I don’t grow my own zucchini, but I am the happy recipient of other people’s labors in that regard. And that (plus other items of produce) is what I wrote about for this week, in advance, because of travel and waves of summer visitors. And here I am with no time to start anew, but I wanted to let you know that you are not being presented Cindy’s quite funny column a second time.

Just north of Deer Park stands the Swallow’s Nest Barn, the pride, joy and delight of owners Monte and Kathlene Moore.

I’m just about on board with getting a smart phone and have been researching what to buy ... And then came the car.

As Craftsman-style bungalows go, the Ernest and Anna Chamberlin House in the West Central District of Spokane has two unique and distinctive features – one dominant and obvious and the other an artistic flourish expressed on both the exterior and inside.

This is a milestone month for Bruce and me. It was in July 50 years ago that we said “I do” to one another on a very hot day in Miami.

When the Transport Truck Company of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, opened its Northwest Transport Truck Co. in Spokane in 1921, it did so in a newly constructed building designed with a showroom, parts room, offices and service shop, all described in a newspaper article as “one of the finest homes in the northwest to be used for the sale and service of trucks.”

Today – June 29 – is the date in 2007 that Apple released its first generation iPhone – and, boy, have it and other smartphones exploded since.

The 14-acre Evergreen Cemetery in Hillyard has been restored to a functioning state today. Platted in 1910 by the Hillyard Masonic Lodge, it was abandoned after a few owners. In 1989, George and Lea Kokstis discovered a veterans memorial in the cemetery and began a save-the-cemetery effort that enlisted the help of the Hillyard Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1474, and even a Boy Scout troop. Today some of the old grave stones have been replaced and unmarked graves identified and designated, and the cemetery is open for business.

There’s nothing that Thomas Stark likes better than exploring the woods of North Idaho - camping, hunting, fishing and just seeing what is out there to see and discover.

I have come late to the delights of gardening, as my friends know. And I think that some of them, including a Master Gardener or two, are kindly amused at my discoveries and expressions of wonder at what I keep learning. At my advanced age.

The Henry Allice Barn, built in 1900, is on the Washington State Heritage Register.

Lake City High School’s Gavin Kariotis is a young man with many musical talents and a variety of interests that keep his feet both on the ground – and off.

Michaela Rosenthal is easy to spot as she walks down the halls at Freeman High School. She’s the one carrying a cooler and a gallon jug of water everywhere she goes.

Lakeland’s Maggie Mayer has five older brothers, and when she came along “I was treated like one of the guys. No special treatment. Just ‘toughen up buttercup.’ ”

Coeur d’Alene High School senior found his home in music.

There’s nothing that Thomas Stark likes better than exploring the woods of North Idaho – camping, hunting, fishing and just seeing what is out there to see and discover.

Rachael Arthur received a lot from her parents: a love of golf, self-motivation, a strong set of values and the importance of staying active in her tribe.

Mikayla Melchert, president of the student body at Post Falls High School, figured out some time ago what she wanted to accomplish and part of her goal was assuring others were helped along the way.

It has been through his experiences with robotics and the great outdoors that St. George’s School’s Kyle Luiten, 18, has learned a lot about the world and its cultures – and about himself.