From tea parties to video game designers, the Valley’s rich with stories

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series looking back at memorable features published in the Frontiersman in 2011.

MAT-SU - From emotionally moving events like the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, to a 30-year Valley auctioneer to the Palmer man who raises carnivorous plants in his basement, features give any good community newspaper a personal, hometown flavor.

These are people many of us know and their stories can be surprising, humorous and uplifting. Some are off-the-wall while others may bring you to tears. In 2011, we published features on dozens of local folks and organizations. As the year closes, the Frontiersman takes a look back at some of the more memorable Valley Life and people features published in 2011.

Garden party a fairy tale way to spend an afternoon (July 10)

PALMER - It may not have been served up by the Mad Hatter or delicately sipped by a golden-haired girl named Alice, but Saturday's Children's Garden Tea Party was every bit the fairy tale experience. Dozens of young girls, their parents and grandparents gathered on the deep green lawn at the Palmer Museum and Visitor Center to taste some tea, eat finger sandwiches and listen to a live string quartet.

It was the second annual tea party as part of the Mid-Summer Garden and Art Faire in downtown Palmer, a fundraiser for the Special Santa program. While much of the event featured a variety of food, booths and demonstrations, the tea party was a slice of high society.

"We have tea parties at home all the time," Palmer resident Sierra Sierra said about her 3-year-old daughter, Kora. "She loves to have tea parties with all her dolls. She's very much a girly girl and she loves them. And really, her papa does the best tea parties."

Get hammered (July 24)

PALMER - A cello in the hands of Yo-Yo Ma becomes a vehicle for art that can transcend the instrument's craftsmanship and the performer's technical skill. A hammer in the hands of Brian Brazeal can have the same effect on iron and steel. While not a musician, Brazeal wields his five-pound rounding hammer with a finesse befitting the world-class cellist, evoking art from the most basic of elements - fire and metal.

"I've liked blacksmithing from the first day I did it a little over 30 years ago," the Mississippi blacksmith said. "You basically take a piece of hot metal, hit it with a hammer and make something. If you ever hit a piece of metal, you'll get what I'm talking about."

He's spending the weekend talking about blacksmithing and techniques he's learned over decades practicing his art. Brazeal is teaching 11 people blacksmithing techniques. It's part of a "hammering"- a gathering of blacksmiths - held at the home of Palmer metal artist Pat Garley as a function of the Association of Alaskan Blacksmiths.

"People consider me an artist," Brazeal said Saturday during a break in the class. "I consider myself a technician. But my art does come from the technique, like that horse I made. It's all about the technique, like it is with a painter where it's all about brush strokes."

Hatcher Pass ideal for National Guard training (Aug 14)

HATCHER PASS - Sgt. Jim Blyler may have pretended to be Superman as a kid, but it's as an adult that he's getting a taste of what it's like to have super powers.

Blyler was one of more than 20 Alaska National Guard reconnaissance and surveillance troop members training Saturday at Hatcher Pass. Along with practicing techniques for recovering stuck or broken-down Humvees, the soldiers erected a field expedient antenna and practiced using $500,000 state-of-the-art optics.

The LRAS3 long-range surveillance system "is about as close to having vision like Superman as you can," Blyler said. "It's pretty cool. You can't really see through walls, but they display in both white and black hot, thermal and have an amazing range. It's better than what Superman has."

Tears over time: Sept. 11, 2001, remembered (Sept. 13)

PALMER - For Shannon Moody, remembering the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks came abruptly and a day early. That's when her 7-year-old daughter, Lia, asked her why all the flags weren't at the tops of their poles.

"She said, ‘Mommy, why isn't the flag at the top?'" said Moody, who, along with Lia, were among a small gathering at the Veterans Wall of Honor Sunday to mark the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 in New York, the Pentagon and on Flight 93.

"I had to explain to her, I had to show her videos and I wanted to bring her here. I still remember everything from that day. I told her (the flags were at half-mast) because tomorrow is a really sad day for our country. She's like, ‘Why?' So, and it was the hardest thing to have to do, but we looked on YouTube for videos of the crash and I explained to her about all the people who died and that's why her uncle John was stationed in Texas and why he has been to Afghanistan and Iraq."

Tongue-tied: Webb auction still strong after 30 years (Oct. 9)

MEADOW LAKES - "I got three-and-a-half, three-and-a-half, who'll give me three-seventy-five? Sold!"

Brad Webb's distinctive voice booms through the chilly morning air Saturday for Webb Auction and Appraisal's annual fall auction. A crowd of more than 250 bidders has already gathered in the industrial yard just south of the intersection of the Parks Highway and Pittman Road. There cars, trucks, furniture, appliances construction equipment and even a bright red outhouse with a moon cut in the door surrounded them.

"Here's a whole coffee can of silverware!" Webb bellows. "This is a lady deal here."

Wayne's world (Nov. 6)

PALMER - The landscape seems like the backdrop for a classic science fiction space adventure. Colorful foliage branching out of the soil seems uniquely beautiful - until the plant turns and, with a quick snap, eats the last of the landing party.

While such scenes are usually the product of Hollywood special effects artists, it's easy to see how Wayne Jenski can get lost in his own warped reality that's more science than fiction. The 30-year-old Palmer resident spends much of his free time in the basement of his 1949-era home cultivating and attending to hundreds of some of the world's rarest carnivorous plants.

Just how many?

"Well, counting the ones in the fridge, probably a couple hundred," Jenski said. He spent part of Saturday morning explaining the varieties of carnivorous plants in his terrariums. Because it's winter and it's the dormant season, some are stored in a refrigerator. "A lot of these are incredibly rare and really hard to get hold of. I don't sell them, but I'll sometimes trade them with friends or other growers."

There's a nepenthes, several sarracenias and droseras, a small sci-fi forest of heliamphora and his personal favorite, cephalotus. The most recognizable carnivorous plant, a collection of various sizes of dionaea (aka Venus flytrap) are carefully stored in plastic bags in the fridge.

Rave reviews launch video game (Nov. 20)

PALMER - "For centuries, humans wondered whether Earth was unique in the universe. Though telescopes had detected over a thousand extrasolar planets, none were believed to be habitable ... until now."

That's the introduction that's hooking sci-fi fans around the gaming world. It's the beginning of the video trailer for Lifeless Planet, a new independently produced video game expected to be out next year and the imaginative brainchild of Palmer resident and entrepreneur David Board.

As a partner in Palmer-based Stage2 Studios, Board uses his talents and imagination to create interactive websites, Flash games, and video projects and commercials for nonprofits and businesses. Does that make Board a nerd?

"Oh, absolutely, I'm a geek," he said. "I'm a triple-geek threat: I'm an artist ... and also a science nerd and a computer geek, so there's no hope for me."

Photo finish (Dec. 25)

BUTTE - A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but for a local family, the message of one particular photograph comes through with a single word - "inspiring."

That's how 9-year-old Skyler Covel describes the feeling he has when looking at the photograph of his mother, an Army combat medic, high-fiving a young Afghan boy. The image captured by Reuters photographer Umit Bektas shows Covel's mother, 30-year-old Sgt. Jessica Ceown, sharing a high-five with a young Afghan boy while on patrol in the town of Pul-e Alam in eastern Afghanistan.

The photograph made its way around the world when it was featured on Yahoo! and was included on the online site BuzzFeed, which named it No. 45 on its list of "The 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011."