Stamp Cache: Sale! August 20th, 2009
I received this as an email this morning from Linda Pendergrass, owner of the Stamp Cache in the Koslosky Center of downtown Palmer.
Stamp Cache 2nd Anniversary Celebration Continues!
Thursday through Saturday ALL Great Impressions, Penny Black, AMUSE, Magenta, and Northwoods stamps currently in stock will be an additional 10% off.
Thursday only ALL cardstock and pattern paper will be an additional 10% off.
Friday only ALL Tim Holtz and Ranger products will be an additional 10% off.
Friday and Saturday only there will be grab bags: $5, $6 and $7 each.
Slack’s Sugar Shack August 14th, 2009
Slack’s Sugar Shack on Evergreen St has been in business forever.
Slack’s isn’t like a boring box-store bakery. They use the recipes your grandma used and fry the donuts in peanut oil. After all, don’t fix what ain’t broke, right? Every delicious product is made right there from scratch. You can find old-fashioned donuts, pastries, cookies, breads, pies, cakes, coffee and other beverages, and can order anything on the menu a day in advance. They don’t offer espresso drinks, but you can get them right next door at the locally owned Purple Moose Espresso. 
“We’re definitely locally supported,” says Heather Reed, who’s been working at Slack’s for the last three and a half years. There’s a local lunch crowd besides the morning donut and coffee people. Soups in homemade breadbowls draw in people of all ages. Chili, clam chowder and vegetable soup are just some of the delicious options. You can order cakes for special occasions for any theme, including weddings. Ms. Slack will trace photos out by hand with frosting, instead of making an ‘edible image’ out of rice paper. 
During the holidays, you can purchase tasty gift baskets, cookie trays and pies, as well as seasonal breads.
Slack’s Sugar Shack’s hours are 6AM-3PM, Tuesday through Saturday. To call in an order, dial (907) 745-4777, or fax it to (907) 746-3668.
Farming in Palmer August 11th, 2009
As mid-August looms in the near future, farmers around Palmer are extremely busy!
You can find fresh produce at the Friday Flings, Farmers Market at “The Store” in the Butte every day from 1-6, and some right off the farms.
People are working hard to grow that giant produce the Matanuska Susitna Valley is famous for! I helped some relatives of mine with their garden recently and noticed they have a huge cabbage surrounded by a couple layers of fencing. It just might prove to be some competition in the Giant Cabbage Weighoff at the Alaska State Fair in a couple weeks!
I drove around the outskirts of Palmer today and took some photos and ‘watched the grass grow’. Here’s what I saw.
The Czar of Guitars: a BIG passion for music! July 30th, 2009
You can find anything you need for your acoustic or electric guitar right here in downtown Palmer. The Czar of Guitars, owned by 
Rob
Czarnezki, is located on the corner of Alaska St and Arctic Ave, by the Mad Matters. The Czar attended Atlanta Guitar Works School of Building and Repair and received a Luthier Certificate. He also attended the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair and completed the Journeyman Program in guitar repair and construction.
Why visit Czar of Guitars? Czarnezki offers professional guitar repair, to walk-ins and appointments and he gives lessons to beginners on up. Not only can you purchase new and used guitars, but the Czar also buys and trades them. To top it all off, you can find a full line of accessories, from straps and strings to amps and effects.
To contact the Czar of Guitars for guitar repair needs or more information, call (907) 745-5550 or email czarofguitars@gmail.com. The Czar of Guitars currently has a MySpace page, at http://www.myspace.com/czarofguitars on which you can find more interesting details on Rob Czarnezki’s education background and experience and more about the shop.
Summer Hours:
Tues-Thurs: 12-8 PM
Fri and Sat: 12-6
This article sponsored by Valley Market Real Estate.
Underground Palmer July 24th, 2009
Are they utilidors? Are they bomb shelters? Are they underground hallways to avoid snow?
Janet Kincaid, a longtime Palmeranian and owner of the Colony Inn and Cafe knows about the tunnels because the building that she owns is a terminus of the tunnels. She was going to meet me there but we had a scheduling mixup. So as I waited for Janet, Mike Fisher jovially volunteered to share what he knew.
“What many people don’t know about the Colony Inn”, Mike Fisher told me, “is that there’s just about as much of the building below ground as there is above!”. The apparently 2 story building has two floors below ground as well. He took me down two flights of stairs behind the “Employees Only” door and we came out into a large open room, almost two stories high.
The walls were cement, as was the floor. But what caught my eye was the hugest boiler I’ve ever seen. It was easily 7 ft tall and 10 ft long. I was told that the tunnels under Palmer were built in the 1930’s, along with the rest of the main buildings like the high school (borough building), Trading Post (The Red Beet) and Creamery and Warehouse (old Matanuska Maid building). The tunnels had pipes that were used to heat the many buildings all at once from two huge boilers. One boiler was at Matanuska Maid and I stood directly in front of the other one. 
Mike showed me into a dark room adjacent to the boiler room and told me it was the coal room. The ceiling was just as high but at the very top of the west facing wall was an opening. He said colonists would back trucks up to the opening and shovel coal down into the room as fuel for the boilers.
Many of the tunnels have since been caved in for road safety,
If you talk to some of the more adventurous junior high school students from a couple years ago, you can probably find people who’ve been down in the tunnels. One of the known accesses is fenced off and is illegal to enter, but that hasn’t stopped a few of my acqaintances. I’ve been told that certain buildings have been severely damaged by fires started down in tunnels by careless youth.
Have more information on this topic? Please contact me and share your knowledge! If any of the stated facts are incorrect, again, please let me know. This is by no means the end of my research on this interesting part of Palmer’s history.
*The first photo is of the large boiler. The second is of the coal room, note the opening near the top of the photo.
- Categories
- Find us on Facebook!
