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PHOEBE |
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PHOEBE |
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This Page has been written in the first person, as Phoebe is the sole writer for this Web Site.
OKLAHOMA - THE BEGINNING
I was born in 1943, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, a
university town, to Paul F. and Winnifred P. Martin. These were the war
years and my father was
a college professor there at that time. Almost two years later my oldest
brother Paul David was also born there. About a year after that, my
parents elected to make a move to Alaska. My father had been there during
his college years on a research project and fell in love with the land.
THE ALASKA YEARS
In 1946, on a progressive basis, our family moved to Alaska, first my father
earlier that year to find us a place to live, then my mother, younger brother,
& I in September of the year. The home my father found for us was a Colony
House/Acreage (circa 1935) in the Matanuska Valley, which was, and still is the
main agricultural center of Alaska. At first this home was rather primitive,
with no running water and an outhouse. Water was drawn by a hand pump from a well. A
couple of years later we motorized the pump and actually had running water into
that house. We had electricity from the start, and later a hand crank telephone.
About the time I was 10 or 12, my folks started building a new home
several hundred yards from our original house. This one had a basement on which was built the
framework and roof for the main story in the initial phase. The outside of new
home was partially done in logs recovered from the colony barn they took down. The
fireplaces on both levels were done in native rock, which we all collected,
cracked, and cemented in place as a family project, both inside and out. The
basement was finished off, and we lived in it for some 5 years before my folks
secured a loan to finish the main story. All of the interior work and much of
the exterior work was completed by the immediate family members, including my
brother and me.
My early schooling was all accomplished in the Palmer School System. We live
some three miles from town in a rural area, and traveled to school by bus with
all grade levels on the same bus. All grade levels were in the same school
building until I was in Junior High, when a Senior High School was built. I
think our Class of 1961 was the 5th one to graduate from the new
facility. I did not go on to college, but worked that summer following
graduation in Anchorage.
About the year I was in sixth grade, my youngest brother was born - Peter L. Martin.
Since I was almost 12 years older, helping to care for him afforded a vast
amount of "schooling" in how to raise a child.
In my Junior Year of High School, I met my future husband, David Michael
Crosby, and we were married in September 1961. We started married life in a
small, basically one room newer cabin located south of Anchorage. It
did have electric heat, but no telephone, as well as no running water and an
outhouse, once again in my life! It was a cute little place, but
totally inadequate once our first son, Daniel Bruce arrived in August of 1962.
Shortly after that, we sold this place, and rented a mobile home in a small city
park for a while.
A year later we moved into a large three-story apartment complex in the
suburbs. During the 18 months we were there we changed apartments once (to
smaller one to save money), traveled to Rochester, NY late 1963 to meet my
husband's family, experienced the March 27, 1964 Earthquake (that was a rush!), and welcomed the arrival of our second son,
Steven Russell in September of 1964. With our growing family we started
our search for a modest home that we could afford. We finally found what we
wanted in the summer of 1964, a brand new home in a suburb south of
Anchorage, and were able to move in sometime soon after Steven was born. Our
last child, a daughter, Teresa Ann arrived September of 1966. Over the years we
lived there, we spent many happy hours doing creative landscaping on a highly
sloped back yard, and in the front yard area.
About the time Teresa turned 2, I found the need to
seek employment. I
started working on a part time basis, but within 6 months I found a full time
job with the State of Alaska, Department of Transportation, running the
Reproduction Section – Blueline, Photocopier, and later Offset Press printing
functions. I worked at that job until 1973, but later transferred to the
Department of Natural Resources, into a similar position. I worked there until fall of 1975.
In 1972, Dave became aware of a beautiful custom built, all log home that was
for sale back in the Matanuska Valley, about 6 miles from where I had grown up.
We sold our Anchorage home, and with this move settled into a very rural country
lifestyle. The home stood on some 5 acres, and we later acquired another 5 to keep
our seclusion intact. We still kept our jobs in Anchorage, which required a
50-mile commute twice a day in all kinds of weather. This made for long
workdays, but we felt it was worth it to have the lifestyle we preferred when we
arrived home.
A disruption in my life occurred in late 1975, which necessitated my moving
to Washington State to live with friends I had worked with for a while, who had earlier
moved from Alaska to take up Orcharding. There I spent time learning some facets
of the orchard
business, starting with harvest through winter pruning. I also spent a few weeks learning
to hand-pack apples as well. It was a personally difficult winter for me.
However, with the help of friends I met while living there, I got right with the Lord and became a
Born Again Christian. This enabled me to get back with my family again.
In February of 1976, Dave flew down to see what apple orcharding was
all about, and we drove back to Alaska in the dead of winter over the Alcan Highway.
Two months later we decided that living in Alaska had become counter productive
for us, and that maybe we should try a completely new lifestyle, in a new state
altogether. With that in mind, we put our Alaska home up for sale, and started
working on locating an orchard property to purchase. In May, Dave had me fly
down to Seattle and travel to the Wenatchee, WA area to see what could be found
at that time. During that week long trip, I found a potential property,
and also set up a bank account to receive funds from our Alaska home sale.
After returning and having sold our home, we
packed up a 16' furniture truck we purchased, with everything we owned and headed south
on the Alcan at the end of June 1976. So ended nearly 30 years of continuous residency in
Alaska for me.
THE WASHINGTON YEARS
We arrived in Washington State on July 4, with no definite destination as yet,
though we felt that we would like to live in the Wenatchee Valley somewhere. At
first we spent some time with my mother who owned a home in Fall City at the
time. Shortly
after arriving we met again with a realtor friend my mother had located, to look at
the potential orchard property
in the Wenatchee Valley (an area located near the center of Washington State). We could not come
to terms with the seller, so thought that this might be a good time for us to
drive back East, to see our New York and New England relatives and friends. With
our worldly goods safely packed and stored in the furniture truck now parked on a
friend’s property, we felt certain we secure in making this trip, while waiting for some
other orchard property to come on the market.
On the night before we left mother’s for points east, our realtor called to
ask us to stop again in Wenatchee on our way through, to view another orchard
prospect. We did so, and before leaving for New York the next day, put down
earnest money on what would become our home two months later. From that point we
spent two great months relaxing and getting reacquainted with family and
friends. Oddly enough, this would be one of the few real vacations we would take
as a family.
With the Labor Day weekend, we arrived back in Wenatchee to begin our new
life, moved onto the orchard property, unpacked our furnishings, and got our
children settled in the East Wenatchee/Eastmont School System. Since we were not actually going
to take over the actual orchard operation until after harvest, we worked along
side the former owner, asking lots of questions and soaking up information like
a sponge. With the final signing of papers, we got right to work learning the
business and working the Ranch.
From 1976 to 1999, we ran our orchard with a fair amount of success. We
raised our children on the good farm work ethics and got them launched into
adulthood.
Over the years I personally learned and performed many of the orchard
operational functions, with the exception of the speed sprayer operation, and
often acted as my husband’s steady man. I also did all the bookkeeping and
business management functions for the Ranch during these years. I also did work off
the Ranch during the fall and winter months for much of the decade of the ‘80’s
at a nearby packing shed, hand packing apples.
On a personal basis, I tried my hand at raising a number of farm related
animals, mostly horses and sheep in the hopes of making a go of something
besides our apples. We raised the sheep for their fleece crop mostly for
personal us, as well as for butcher lamb sales. I particularly enjoyed working
with the Miniature Horses, which I owned for several years most recently,
breeding and showing them. Unfortunately none of these animal enterprises really
paid their own way, and we subsequently fazed them out in turn.
In addition to our animal ventures, we have tried several non-animal business
enterprises in an attempt to supplement what was becoming a sagging fruit
economy. I worked to developed the Original Web Site with my son, Dan’s help,
in order to help promote my horse sales, my Art From The Orchard Business
(mainly my Spun Yarn activities, and our daughter Teresa’s Artwork), and the
later custom orchard equipment sales. However, our timing apparently was off and
nothing seemed to do very well.
We spent much of the decade of the ‘90’s, developing and attempting to
market several custom orchard equipment items conceived by my husband Dave, and
later developed and expanded upon by other family members. These included the
Branch Bender, the ATC Mini Bin Trailer, and the Easy On Bin Covers. Our
children formed a loose partnership for a while to manufacture and market the
Branch Bender, but gave that up the business when sales fell off. Steve
fabricated the ATC Mini Bin Trailers for us, and I put together the Easy On Bin
Covers.
As the 20th Century came to a close, it became increasingly
apparent that a recession was overtaking the fruit industry. In addition to
the lower returns for our Apples, our Ranch was hit with a natural disaster in
June 1998, a severe hailstorm that devastated over 40% of our crop, which
severely impacted our financial picture.
The year 1999 was the last year we actively ran our Orchard. Apple Returns
were again far below the cost of production for the third year in a row, and we
were subsequently refused working capital by all available lending institutions
for the 2000 crop year. We rented our orchard for that year to a knowledgeable
grower family, just to keep it in
good shape. The Renters apparently had a very successful crop year in terms of
quantity and quality of fruit. Hopefully they also faired well financially.
We then rented for the years 2001 through 2003 to a neighbor, who ran the
orchard successfully until we were forced to leave the Ranch.
During much of the year 2000 through 2002, I held various part time jobs, many in the
fruit industry, trying to help keep us afloat financially. During the summer of
2003, after a succession of short lived jobs, and finally my inability to find any
other gainful employment, I remained at home and focused on growing the biggest
and best garden we ever had, some 2500 sq. ft. in size. It was so successful that
we gave away huge amounts of vegetables!
In the Fall of 2000, my husband Dave was able
to find good part time work to supplement his Social Security income obtained
that spring. This
was good as I was unable to find anything in the way of quality work, even
though I looked and interviewed several times. It was quickly becoming
evident, that if and when we lost the Orchard, we would have to move elsewhere
as we could not possibly remain in the Wenatchee Valley, or could we make it
anywhere else in Washington without my working as well.
With the spring of 2003, we were told that the
Lender was going to foreclose on the Orchard Note. We had tried for the
past 3 years to negotiate our way out of this possibility without success.
In May the Judgment was passed in the Lender's favor, and in September the
property was auctioned off in a Sheriff's Sale. We as farmers, by law had one year
left before moving was inevitable. In December the Lender/Buyer offered us an
option to vacate the property ahead of the one year mark, and we could thus
avoid any further judgments against us. We agreed to this via negotiation,
with the stipulation that we not vacate the property until March 31, 2004.
Since making a trip down to Jacksonville, FL
at the invitation of our oldest son in December of 2003, we felt that perhaps this might be the area
for us to settle in. With that in mind, Dave quite his job in mid January
2004, and flew down to find
work and a home for us to move to. I in turn set to work buying a cargo
trailer, then packing our possessions and holding yard sales to reduce what we
wanted to take in order for it to fit in the purchased trailer, and in the back of our
big Dodge pickup. All through the month of January, now that we
really were facing
the Great Unknown. I, along with my husband, stood on the Will of the Lord
for our future, as we prepared to leave our home area of some 28 years.
We can surely testify that the Lord does
provided! Out of the blue, while Dave was unsuccessfully
looking for a home and work in Jacksonville, a friend from our Alaska Days,
Rebecca (Woolcot) Polizzotto, who knew of our plight up and contacted us with a very
interesting proposal. It seems that she and her husband Jeff were about to
leave Conyers, GA for a new home and business venture in Juneau, AK. Her
problem was that her sister, Barbara Woolcot, lived in the down stairs half of
their home, and Becky needed renters she could trust to occupy the upstairs of
the home. We thought this sounded fine, but we still needed work for
Dave. Becky said that was not a problem, as she was still the Conyers City
Manager and could help him get a job with the City. Dave went up to
Conyers to view the home and job possibilities. Satisfied that the move to
Conyers was feasible, he flew back to Wenatchee in early March to help me
finish packing. On March 31, at 5 p.m., we drove out of the Wenatchee
Valley, on our way to
Conyers, GA and yet another new beginning.
THE GEORGIA YEARS
After leaving Washington State, we arrived Georgia
in some 10 days later having made a couple of stops in between for visits
during this cross country trip. It actually was some weeks before we finally were able to settle into the rental
home we were to occupy. Becky and her
husband Jeff could not leave Conyers at the same time we were due to arrive, so
they sent us up into North Carolina
to do caretaker work on Jeff’s mountain home in the Bostic area. We parked our loaded cargo trailer on the
back of the Conyers property and drove up to the mountain home. We spent the next six weeks clearing brush
and debris, generally sprucing the grounds up to improve its sale potential,
while enjoying a much needed rest from the previous months of frustration. The home sold while we were there, helping to
clear the way for us to return to Conyers.
We finally were able to return to Conyers in late May and
begin an unknown period of time living and working there. After unpacking and settling into our rented
home, we next located a church body we could call “home” and went about serving
the Lord there. Over the years we made
many good friends there, in church and otherwise.
In the first week of June, Dave started his job with the City of
Conyers. After working only 7 months he had to quite this job due to medical
problems. In April and July he had major
surgeries to correct both this problems (see his profile). He recovered enough to return to the work
force in January 2006, but had to finally retire for good in April. Try as he might things seem to get
progressively worse in minor ways health wise. He did his best to keep up the yard and the house somewhat as I
continued working.
In July of 2004 I too found work, with Becky’s brother
Sid Woolcot and his wife, as part of their New Home Cleaning Crew. I started out as a window cleaner, but over a
period of time added Finally Cleaning abilities throughout the entire
house. Work for me proved satisfying,
but at times was somewhat uncomfortable. New homes often did not have heat (winter) or cooling (summer), and
frequently had no electricity available except via drop cords from outside
construction meters, making working conditions difficult at times. We had a huge scare about 1 ½ years after I
started with the company when our boss/crew chief, Sid experienced a major
heart attach on the job site! Sid never
recovered enough to return to work with us full time. Fortunately the crew was reliable enough to
carry on with the work assignments on our own. I continued to work at this job
until July 2006, when the intense summer heat and age finally caught up with me,
forcing me to retire fully as well. I
had started my early Social Security benefits a year earlier, so at least we
maintained adequate incomes for the time being.
Shortly after I quite work, Becky found it necessary to put the Conyers
home we had been renting up for sale, and prepare to move her sister Barbara
north to Juneau to live with her. With that ended our reason for remaining in this area.
We immediately set to work researching just where we
would like to go next, in what we hoped would be the last move for us. After much searching on the Internet, we
narrowed the locale for our next home to somewhere in the northwestern section
of North Carolina. By October we had secured a realtor from the Hickory area, and towards
the end of the month after a couple of trips up to view properties within a 30
mile radius or there, we settled on a home 5 miles east of the Lenoir. Closing date was set for December 12, and our
projected move planned for mid January 2007. Plans finalized, packing once again started in earnest.
This time we elected to make our move with a
commercial moving company. Dave and I were
getting just too old to do self-moves.
THE NORTH CAROLINA YEARS
The afternoon of January 16th arrived and it
was now time to leave. We had said our goodbyes to all our Friends in Conyers, the
moving truck was packed, and we were off to our new home in Lenoir, NC.
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