The Pioneer Bar and Bamboo Room will celebrate 60 years of family ownership with a party starting 7 p.m. Sept. 27. Owner Christy Tengs Fowler is organizing the event. The PBR and Skagway’s HillBillie Jean will provide music. The party will include a song-writing contest of tunes based on the bar and restaurant. Christy recently came across the banner used for the business’ 40th anniversary. Pioneer-themed outfits are encouraged. Christy’s mother Helen Tengs will be celebrating her 88th birthday that evening as well.
June Miller is reading books written by visitor and newlywed J.K. Laumar of Mill Creek, Wash., after a chance meeting in May at the Sheldon Museum, where Miller was working at the front desk. The books blend fiction with actual events, including a couple meeting on a ferry. Laumar and his wife met on the Alaska Marine Highway. He asked Miller to review the books, which are titled “The Hug” and “The Kiss.”
Toni and Jack Smith are seeing a record harvest from two Norkent apple trees in their yard on FAA Road. The trees are so weighted down by red and yellow apples, the Smiths are using sticks to support branches. There are a few hundred pounds of apples on the trees, guarded by an electric fence. The couple recently canned two cases of applesauce from windfall. They’ll use a loader to pick the trees next week, when fruit should be at its peak ripeness. Toni said they’ll be making apple juice, sauce, pie, fruit leather, and maybe spiced apple jelly. The Norkent is a crisp, sweet variety with a flavor akin to Golden Delicious. The Smiths planted the trees as saplings around 1998. They plan to offer apple products through their website at http://www.whiterockalaska.com. Call 766-2544.
The cake for Helen Alten and Tim Huber’s 20th anniversary party Sunday at their house gave the couple a blast from the past. It was made by Kristine Harder, who also made the cake for the couple’s 1994 wedding in Juneau. Sunday’s cake was white with a cream and raspberry center. The party was also a housewarming for the couple’s new home on Chestnut Drive. Children Aurora and Brandt Alten-Huber were in attendance, as was Kristine. Other guests included Jan Hill, Mike Wilson, Blythe Carter, Daphne Ormerod, Anastasia Wiley, Donna Cattoti, CJ Jones and Evelyna Vignola. David and Tracey Sosa, recently celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, also were on hand.
A film crew from the Travel Channel was in town last weekend filming a segment at the Sheldon Museum for the series “Mysteries at the Museum.” The crew was gathering footage for a segment to include in its seventh season. Museum director Helen Alten said the crew focused on the Clara Nevada shipwreck at Eldred Rock in 1898. In addition to filming the museum’s artifacts from the wreck, the crew interviewed local expert Pam Randles. After leaving Haines Monday, the crew was to interview author Steven C. Levi of Anchorage, who wrote the book “The Clara Nevada: Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska’s Inside Passage.”
Tammy Lynn Hotch is aiming to start a sign language club, and is looking for a teacher and students. Tammy said she wants to start the program because it would be a good group learning opportunity. She home-schools her three children, and is always on the lookout for new subjects. The children are learning Tlingit, and she heard that learning sign language at the same time could make things easier. Tammy describes herself as a sign language beginner. She’d like to have late afternoon or evening meetings, once or twice a week at a location such as the library. Call her at 303-6012 if you’re interested.
About 50 friends and family members attended Hazel Englund’s 98th birthday party Saturday at the Pioneer Bar, said daughter Emily Zimbrich. Singer and guitarist Jeff Alvine sang for her. Guests enjoyed finger foods and ordered off the menu. They also feasted on a chocolate and vanilla, cream cheese frosting birthday cake, decorated like a garden, made by Becky Gonce. Becky also made cupcakes, which were popular, Emily said. Emily thanks restaurant owner Christy Tengs Fowler and the staff.
Tim June and Sue Nelson attended the 38th annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival Sept. 5-7 at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, Wash. The trip was a last-minute decision that coincided with Sue’s birthday.The event featured hundreds of wooden boats, and included demonstrations and presentations. The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Wash. is a sponsor of the festival. The school’s alumni include Ian Seward, Ben Feldman, Bruce Blake, Joey Jacobson, and Heron Scott.
Chloe Ann Ferrin was born 5:44 a.m. Sept. 9 at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau to parents Tyler and Nicole Ferrin of Juneau. She weighed 7 pounds and measured 19.75 inches. Grandparents are Anna Mulyca of Delanson, N.Y., Tim Hannon, Eric and Julie Ferrin, and great-grandfather Harold Hannon. Anna was present for the birth.