Stefanie Pettit

With major news events happening rapid-fire and assaulting our brains daily, it’s hard to keep track of what went on even a few days ago, no less a few weeks ago. With that said, what I’m about to mention may seem of lesser importance in light of everything that’s transpired since, but I still think it needs airing.

The Elmer and Hester Hutsinpiller House at 3 W. 27th Ave. has the distinction of having been home to three generations of a single family. It also became the house that current owners Carol and Dennis Anderson decided they wanted to live in, even though it wasn’t for sale when they began looking for a new home.

I’ve been a little blue lately, which is why I’m so glad May has rolled around – not for the weather or the longer and sunnier days, but for the high school kids I get to meet.

Sometime between 1879, when William H. Stoneman began homesteading on Peone Prairie, and 1898, he built three barns on his property, one of which still stands today. The red broken-gable barn, listed on the Washington State Heritage Barn Register, has a plaque on its west side giving its construction date as 1898.

We used to call it genetics, and, for most of us, it didn’t get more complicated than maybe learning a little about Gregor Mendel’s study of peas in science class and how hereditary traits could be predicted. But mostly it was about contemplating the likelihood our children would inherit Mom’s blue eyes or Grandpa’s big ears.

When Lafayette Dart walked to Spokane Falls from Walla Walla in 1879, he met up with his brother Herb, who had preceded him, and the two went to work at the Frederick Post flour mill in the young city. Before long the enterprising pair built their own mill on the north bank of Little Spokane River, just a half-mile downstream from what is now the Wandemere Golf Course on the far north side of Spokane.

Normal people don’t really care about the proper deployment of commas, but there are those of us who are not so normal, people who spend way too much time thinking about such things and, when given the opportunity, are compelled to share whatever mutant views we have on the subject with those who are similarly afflicted.

Within Riverside Memorial Park are several large and elegant mausoleums containing the remains of some noted individuals and families from the region’s early development, including Louis Davenport and the August Paulsen family. But also, not far from Riverside’s main entry, is a smaller, unassuming and easy-to-overlook structure – the cinerarium.

Stefanie Pettit is looking for new ways to stop robin’s siege at her house.

John W. Binkley could well be the least known of Spokane’s pioneers – surprising, considering all he accomplished in the region’s early days.

Everywhere I go I hear comments that this is the longest winter ever, that people are just sick of it and that they’ll never spend another winter here if at all possible. But not in my house.

Set among a group of historic single-family homes built between 1907 and 1940 in the Cannon Hill Park neighborhood on Spokane’s South Hill is the Judge Henry and Alice Canfield House, a Craftsman-style home in the Arts and Crafts tradition that stands out for not just its design but also because of its striking colors.

I don’t know about you, but I get a whole bunch of unwanted phone calls. They are a scourge, though some have a certain black humor to them.

A 7-foot-tall polished granite monolith standing out in the countryside would be an interesting thing to view, if only it could be seen through the thick expanse of trees and brush surrounding it. Thanks to some judicious logging and care by the Hillyard Evergreen Cemetery Association, just such a tall monument is now again visible at Resthaven Cemetery.

I am always attracted to interesting words and anticipate at year’s end the annual listing of the words of the year. Not so much this time around.

The tall red barn out on Pleasant Prairie can easily be seen from a distance, not just because of its sharp contrast to the snow on the ground but also because it stands atop a rise and serves as a visible landmark for those driving along Bigelow Gulch Road. The Koch Barn, on the Spokane County Heritage Barn Register, was constructed in 1892, two years after the large farm house just north of it was built. The 400-acre property on which the barn sits was originally railroad property.

I don’t know how to rescue a bird precisely, but I do know how to get one to places where they can be saved. I am happy to provide transport.

Chocolate and dogs don’t mix.

And so the new year has begun. After the tumultuous year that was 2016, I think a good start to 2017 would be to look to the positive and focus on the happy – namely, chickens.

There was just something in her voice that moved me to want to meet her. We were talking on the phone about another story I was working on when I asked if we could talk further in person. I wanted to write about her as well.

The grave marker of Spokane native Roy Shiosaki at Greenwood Memorial Terrace reflects the military service of which he was so proud.

I have a lot to be grateful for, and I know it. But I’m still surprisingly stuck in my sorrow over the election of a month ago. Never before has any election left me feeling the way this one has, depressed. I’ve been on the losing side of plenty of elections – I mean, being my age, that’s inevitable – but this one feels different, and the ability to just accept and move on eludes me.

I wish I had it in me to believe that this Thanksgiving will turn out to be what we all hope for – a big joyous meal shared with family and friends, nourished by laughter, warmth and good tidings. But unless you and your companions are ideologically in sync, that Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving isn’t happening this day.

Have you ever noticed that there’s an inevitable cascading effect from one simple action? Clean out one drawer in your house and you wind up cleaning out every drawer, not to mention closets and nearly everything else.