Stormy Weather

Good afternoon, my friends. Fortunately, we didn't have far to go to reach our latest stop because it was a horrible day of weather. We find ourselves in La Conner, Washington, this afternoon. We couldn't check in here until 1:00. We had just a little more than an hour's drive from Flowing Lake SP, and checkout time there was noon, so it all worked out. I had plenty of time to play my word games, and to make a little more progress on the flock. I love those sheep faces.

It was unfortunate the weather was so crappy because we passed by a lot of barns on today's drive. I managed to get a bad picture of this next one. It had a quilt block.

When shooting, I had to wait for a swipe of the windshield wipers, but my pictures often ended up with the wiper as the main part of the photo.

At times, it was raining so hard, that the windshield wipers could barely keep up. When that happened, my pictures began to look like the one below.

Okay, never mind. I gave up after that. However, we did pass by one barn that I wanted to tell you about. I couldn't get any pictures, but this one is noteworthy enough that I was able to find lots of pictures in the public domain. It was the Nakashima Heritage Barn. 

(Attribution: By Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90687858)

The Nakashima Heritage Barn is near the northern border of Snohomish County, Washington, near Arlington. Its site currently constitutes the northernmost trailhead of the Centennial Trail, a rail trail following the old line of the Seattle, Lake Shore, and Eastern (later Northern Pacific, then Burlington Northern). It lies just east of Washington State Route 9.

(Attribution: "Nakashima Heritage Barn - trailhead sign" by Joe Mabel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.)

So, what makes this barn special?  You can read an article about it's history right here. It includes a “History Quilt” with photos of the land in its various uses through the years from forest to mill site to farm. 

(Attribution: "Nakashima Heritage Barn 05" by Joe Mabel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.)

In a nutshell: Farming operations began here in the 1900s by Daniel Waldo Bass and his wife Sophie. Sophie’s grandfather was A. A. Denny, the “Father of Seattle,” who landed at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. In 1937, Bass sold the farm to Japanese-American Takeo Nakashima. The Nakashima family continued a dairy operation on the property. 

Can you guess what's coming next?

In 1942, the Nakashima family was sent to internment camps in Idaho and California and was forced to sell their farm. Over the years, the farm changed hands many times and dairying operations eventually ceased. In 1997, the Trust for Public Land purchased 89 acres of the farm including the only remaining structure, the barn, and turned it over to the county to become a park. In 2007, the barn was listed on Washington’s heritage barn register, becoming the state’s first and only one so far belonging to an Asian-American farming family.

So, it's not much, but it's all I have for you today. Except for this...I've figured out that Sadie is less interested in helping me edit my posts than she is in lying next to the laptop, where warm are exudes from the cooling fans located at the back. When I'm finished and remove the laptop from where it's sitting, it leaves a warm place. The cat wasn't born yesterday.

We're in La Conner just today and tomorrow. The weather should improve overnight, and if the forecast is to be believed, we'll have sunshine tomorrow. My plan is to visit the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum. I swiped the image below from its Facebook page.

A friend from high school recommended we stop in La Conner on this trip. It's her home town, and she gave me this bit of history about the building. Using Kathy's words:

The quilt museum in LaConner was a mansion built by a Mr. Gashes. Then it became a hospital during WWI. It later became 6 apartments. At some point after World War II my grandfather, Arthur Herrold,  purchased the building. He ran it as an apartment house for years, and he and my grandmother lived in the house next-door. They sold that house and moved into one of the apartments. In 1973 one of the tenants left a cigarette burning and the first floor and a half were burned. My grandparents lost their home. Later, a historical committee bought the building and restored it to the present “museum.”

Thanks for that, Kathy. So I'll visit the museum tomorrow. Also, I'm planning to visit a quilt shop in nearby Mt. Vernon. Mike might take the day off from this quilty sight-seeing. I think he might relish a day to himself, but that'll be up to him.

So, that's all I have for you today. We're planning dinner out tonight. There's some good seafood to be had here. Fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow. If we all cross our fingers, it might help. Just to be clear, I'm giving you permission to uncross your fingers if you want to do some sewing.