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Nick Varney

Life

Unhinged Alaska: Backtracking rusted memories

It’s amazing how something as innocuous as a simple phone call can set one trekking down their own…

The bark (or barque) called the Agate, which carried members of the Kings County Mining Company from Brooklyn, New York, to Cook Inlet, was probably similar to this three-masted barque featured on Wikipedia.

Life

Mary Penney and her 1898 Alaska adventure — Part 3

The Brooklyn investors in the mining venture ran into trouble from the beginning.

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Life

Minister’s Message: Noticing the gorilla

Where we turn our attention determines what we can and cannot see.

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Life

Minister’s Message: Experience the abundant life Jesus has for you

Life of all forms is definitely abundant in most parts of the world.

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)

Life

Life in the Pedestrian Lane: Survival skills

We compensate all our lives for one thing or another.

Mary L. Penney, one of only two women known to have joined the Kings County Mining Company’s 1898 expedition to the gold fields of Alaska. (Photo courtesy of the Penney Family Collection)

Life

Mary Penney and her 1898 Alaska adventure — Part 2

When Mary was 14, she found herself in the company of a “young matron” who was about to…

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Life

Christ is risen — He is risen, indeed!

This proclamation celebrated on Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is a defining call and response made by followers of…

Drew O’Brien explores the ruins of the Kings County Mining Company’s cabin near Skilak Lake, circa 1999, about a century after it was constructed alongside a then-unnamed stream. (Photo by Clark Fair)

Life

Mary Penney and her 1898 Alaska adventure — Part 1

I have been chasing the facts of this adventure for 35 years.

This takeout favorite is deceptively easy and comes together faster than it can be delivered. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)

Life

A sweet and sour dinner for 3

I really wanted some sweet and sour takeout this weekend, but all my favorite restaurants are far outside…

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Life

Minister’s Message: Palm Sunday — ‘Hosanna in the highest!’

The fact that Jesus came back to Jerusalem for Passover was an intentional decision of Jesus.

Cecil Miller took leave from Akron (Ohio) Police Department to join the U.S. Navy Seabees during World War II. When he returned to the force after his military service, he was featured in an October 1945 article in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Life

The Man Called ‘Greasy’ — Part 2

Two distinct versions of Cecil “Greasy” Miller received the most publicity during his brief tenure on the southern…

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Life

Minister’s Message: Unexpected joy

This seems to be the way of life, undeniable joy holding hands with unavoidable sorrow.

Poopdeck Platt fishes with friends in this undated photograph. (Photo courtesy of Ken Moore)

Life

Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 7

By the late 1970s, Poopdeck was already investing in stocks and bonds.

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Life

Minister’s Message: Finding love in the pits

Navigate your way out of the mire of life with the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)

Life

Life in the Pedestrian Lane: Turn the radio on

Radio had something for everyone.

Nick Varney

Life

Unhinged Alaska: It can’t be break-up ‘cause there was no winter

I meditate a lot. Sometimes up to several seconds at once.

Clarence Hiram “Poopdeck” Platt sits atop a recent moose kill. (Photo from In Those Days: Alaska Pioneers of the Lower Kenai Peninsula, Vol. II)

Life

Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 6

Poopdeck Platt was nearly 80 when he decided to retire from commercial fishing.

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Life

Minister’s Message: Run and not grow weary

If we place our trust in God, He will provide the strength we need to keep going.

After Red Cleaver, in 1959, helped Poopdeck Platt add 30 inches to the stern of his fishing vessel, the Bernice M, Platt took his boat out onto the waters of Kachemak Bay. (Photo courtesy of Ken Moore)

Life

Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 5

Clarence Hiram “Poopdeck” Platt had already experienced two bad years in a row, when misfortune struck again in…

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Life

Minster’s Message: Will all things really work for your good?

Most of us have experienced having a door of opportunity or a door of happiness closed.