I was raised as a Wyoming cowgirl, by parents who faced unbelievable hardships and taught me that you can do anything you set your mind to. With only one arm, dad was able to manage horses and cattle, farming equipment, and kept an outfitting business going during the lean times after WWII, handling a pack string of horses and taking wealthy easterners to the mountains to hunt deer, antelope, elk, and bear. In spite of being crippled by polio with only one normal leg, mom played a very active part in managing the ranch. My dad was often away for days at a time at the hunting camps. We had to be self-sufficient, 22 miles from the nearest town. From mom, I learned music appreciation. She had a guitar and played by ear. And I learned to love photography because one of her joys was an old box camera that she used to capture memories of stages in our lives. I learned to read early and much of my education was from time spent in libraries. When I had the opportunity to pursue higher education, it seemed natural for me develop educational materials for others. As I grew older, I focused on developing skills in those areas, which have proven consistently valuable throughout my academic career and during 23 years as an instructional system designer with Intel corporation. As I developed Gail‘s learning center to help myself and others with healthy natural aging, I was fortunate to come across a school building In Brush Prairie, Washington that was perfect for my purposes. Since 2017, I have used the building and the grounds for learning, teaching and sharing by connecting community resources and delivering workshops. As I am officially retiring from the business world, I have put that property on the market. In the process, I researched the history of the property and found, to my amazement, that the Red School house I have used as a home and a business for more than 7 years, really was an official school with district records dating back to 1863. It appears to be one of the rare school/church buildings to have been consistently maintained and upgraded since that time, never left empty or unused!!
