Bob Nutt publishes book by local author Barbara Humes

||| FROM EDEE KULPER |||

Bob Nutt, local farmer, shepherd, and long-time volunteer firefighter who runs Warm Valley Orchard with his wife, Maria, has just published a book in honor of their deceased neighbor and friend, Barbara Humes. Barbara and her husband, Bill, founded and ran Warm Valley Farm across the road from Bob and Maria for over 50 years.

Sometime in the 1980s, Barbara wrote a book called Mush, You Huskies, Mush! about an 11-year-old boy whose family moved from a predictable California life to the isolated wilderness in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, where the boy learns from an old, rugged sourdough how to be a dogsled musher. The book has elements of what life was like for the Humes family when they homesteaded near a little Alaskan town called Hope after the war in the 1940s, and what it took to become nearly self-sufficient in a place far removed from the conveniences of urban life.

Barbara Hume

After Barbara died in 2012, the book manuscript sat in Bob’s shop for many years. This past January, he resurrected it, asked Edee Kulper of the Life on Orcas Island book and blog to publish it on Barbara’s behalf, and it is now available as a hardcover ($24.99), softcover ($16.99), and e-book ($4.99) on all the major online book sellers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc).

September 17th would have been Barbara’s 105^th birthday, and that was the day the book was introduced to the public at The Dragonfly Coffee House.

Copies of the book will be available at the Fall Farmers Market at the Public School cafeteria from October 4^th to November 22^nd. They are currently being considered for use in local 5^th grade classes as well. Look out for upcoming library events and book talks.