Back to Square One: Finding Land for Ellen's Rainbow House

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“Are we going to start building my rainbow house today?” Ellen asked me as we ate breakfast.

            “We’re working on it, Bub,” I answered trying to figure out what I was going to do that day to truly be “working on it.”

            Ellen had no understanding of permafrost, had no idea why clay was going to be difficult and expensive to build on, didn’t know the cost of gravel.  In her mind, houses were built on the ground with wood… clay counted as ground, and we had some pallets made out of wood up at our lot.

            Considering I thought people in Alaska lived in igloos when I was three, Ellen is lightyears ahead of me on the developmental scale.  However, she does hold my feet to the fire in a way that can make for a stressful life at home.

            “Hey dad,” she asked as I pushed her on the swing later that day, “do you have my rainbow house figured out yet?”

            “Not yet, Bub,” the swing squeaked as I pushed out and away.

            “Well, how about my pool then,” she asked about the other back burner project I have begun researching, “are you working on that today?”

            “I’m working on it, Bub,” I said as my brain went to the hurdles that stood before me on that project.

            “Okay.”

            Back in the house, I began calling around, “Hi, I heard you had a lot you were thinking about selling…”

            “Yes, I have a lot up on the hill I would sell,” the voice responded.

            “How much were you wanting for it?”

            The other end answered and I choked on my gum.

            “How much?”

            “What was the asking price,” Myra asked when I got off the phone.

            I whispered it in her ear.

            “Oh my,” she stepped back and stared at me with wide eyes, “well, I guess that one is off the table.”

            We called around some more.  Answers ranged from I decided to keep it to I have decided to give it to my grand-daughter.  Property does not really sell in western Alaska.  Multiple generations traditionally live under one roof, and when it comes time for a new owner, the house or lot gets handed down.  Though Myra grew up in Unalakleet, in a way, we are both kind of transplants there, which makes getting property tough.

            I sent a private message via the modern-day vhf- Facebook, and heard back from another property owner with a negative answer, but more thought bubbles followed showing he was still typing.

            “Try Leonard Brown, he is a heck of a guy, will do right by you, and has property for sale.”

            Leonard Brown is 87 and does not do social media or email.  I tracked down his phone number and it went right to voicemail.

            His grand-daughter does social media and email and so I reached out to her with a private message via Facebook.  She told me when I should call… 87-year-old men have nap schedules she jokingly typed.  Now was an okay time, and so I called him only to go right to his voicemail.

            “Should I text him?” I asked in our chat.

            “Oh, please, no…”

            I chased Leonard around for a couple of days before catching up with him.  He was puttering around his yard getting it ready to plant gardens.  We drove up with him to where he was planning on selling some land and he pointed it out from the road.

            “It is this area here.  I have several acres that I am ready to let go, and could sell you a couple right here if you like.”

            There were spruce and willow and signs of much better buildable soils.

            We came to a tentative agreement and because you cannot go away without shaking hands at the end of a deal when working with a man of his generation, Leonard and I shook on it… pandemic or no pandemic.

            A battle with a borrowed earth auger later that involved replacing a throttle cable with a bike brake cable, and then dragging it out to our test site, Myra earnestly stated, “You’re going to have to find somebody to run this with you.”

            “I have found somebody to run this thing with me,” I smiled as I nodded toward her.

            “Oh, okay.”

            And so, Myra and I danced around a hole while trying to get the hang of a large drill connected to a Honda lawnmower engine.  Down we went to the end of the auger to the point where we were pretty much sitting down on the ground holding the handles.  We pulled it out and I shoved my arm down as far as it would go into the hole and came back with a piece of gravel the size of a golf ball.

            “Good sign,” I smiled.

            We drilled another hole with the same effect.

            “I think we can make this spot work,” Myra and I agreed.

View of the ocean and Besboro Island from our new lot.

            Back at Leonard’s, Ellen ran around the house playing with his great-grand-daughters.

            “You want to pay a third today?” he asked as he put pen to paper.

            “We’ll pay it all today,” we said, completely decided on what we were setting out to do.

            “Oh, oh,” he smiled, “I’ll need to get a new piece of paper.”

            He came back with a new agreement showing us paying in full, “It will make you a good home up there,” he said.

            Leonard is a wealth of historical information and we sat talking airplanes and flying and traplines and land and work.  Given enough coffee and time, we could have talked for hours.

            Later his grand-daughter expressed her gratitude, “Thank you for your patience in working with my grandfather.  We have a saying around here, ‘Leonard’s way is the only way.’”

            “Oh, I think we have a new friend,” I assured her.

            It was hard to get Bub to leave her new buddies.

            “Can’t we stay a little longer?” she whined.

            “We have to go start your rainbow house,” Myra answered.

            Amazingly, getting to the car was not a problem after that.

Bub and Harper, our two grizzly bear cubs, foraging for last year's cranberries up at our new lot.  The willows and spruce are back where the house and garage will be.