On Saturday August 16th, 2025
​We celebrated the end of another season for the market!  It was a blast!

We're sandboxing the recordings.  The food was so yummy.  I don't know what happened with my goat family!  The secret stash of Duvall Books tshirts is smaller.  We're still working on the Carnation Hardware gear.  Deacon Raleigh St James Band is closing out the market season with a performance at the last day of the market, in the last two hours August 26th from 5-7 pm!  Come see us.  The Tolt Life art guitar is spoken for.  The Givebutter campaign is still open until the end of the market season.  If you couldn't make the party, make a donation to keep the market rolling through the off season when there's still lots to do.  Push the button below. 

Playground for the kids!

Local Bands making a live recording onstage!  2025 forever captured.

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Buddy Do Wrong & the Ne'er-Do-Wells performed their acoustic earthy covers reinterpreting the soundtracks to our lives.
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The Deacon Raleigh St James band is now developing our recording from the event thanks to Tom Bain.
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A group of nincompoops who rock hard since highschool daze.

Slim Pickens came around after the sound system was being put away to hang out and perform around the fire pit!  We love you Tony and Lexi!

Sno-Valley local Tom Bain volunteered sound engineering skills for the night, a PA system, and recording equipment! The recording project is in the works! Listen to some of his work here...

LOCAL LUNCHBOX was onsite w/ delish food made fresh
CARNATION FARMERS MARKET VENDOR
Check out their Instagram below...


The schedule of events

5:30-6:15 pm Kid friendly jam!  Take the stage for a talent show; try out the guitars the amps and the mics.  Bang a drum and rock out.  Parents too!

6:30 pm Buddy-Do-Wrong & the Ne'er Do Wells are locals who do adventurous acoustic covers from many genres with guitar, cello, multiple vocalists and percussion.  

7:30 pm The Deacon Raleigh St James Band is an all original rock band with Teacher Raleigh at the helm on rhythm guitar and vocals, a 2nd vocalist, bass, drums, lead guitarist.
  
9:00 pm Roughneck is another homegrown product of Cedarcrest HS full of construction workers and original rock.

UPDATE Slim Pickin's (two piece with former member of Amber Lanterns) is coming through after the bands to do some acoustic grooves around the firepit! (jams likely)

$20 minimum suggested donation per person $50 for a family see (givebutter link) for gear packages and ways to support the market on a continuing basis are here. 

Parking is angle head-in along the field on 55th.  Carpool or ride/walk/bike in if you can.  Please be respectful of neighbors.

Bring something to sit on. 

Bring your own food & drink or support a market vendor/food truck available for purchase.   Watch for updates about who will be on-site.

Thanks to my brother-in-law Bob Rigsby for the use of his flatbed, my nephew Royce for helping me get it roadworthy.  Thanks to Morgan Henley for help thinking this whole project through.  Thanks also to Ryan McClune at Tolt Records for his collaboration and advice.  See Tolt Records link below.

About Carnation Farmers Market   https://carnationfarmersmarket.org/about/​
Nourishing the community since 2004-Independently operated since 2020
In the heart of the fertile Snoqualmie Valley, Carnation Farmers Market (CFM) is an important community hub that connects local eaters with local farmers, and also serves an enriching menu of homegrown music, fun and educational activities, and other cultural & community programming.  It runs on volunteers, grants, and community support!

Learn more about the market and how you could be involved here.  

About the house... 
 
We moved here in 2001.  The house was built in 1921 by Jack Bird.  We discovered his name written on one of the old trim boards during the kitchen restoration.  This board, as a smaller and finer piece of clear old growth fir, was probably on top of the lumber pile when it was prepared for shipment by train.  The house was likely a "spec" or "magazine" design which you could order and have the lumber package delivered to build yourself.  This was very common and part of the "Craftsman" movement.  The railroad line ran just a block away where the Sno-Valley trail is now.  They probably stopped and unloaded it trackside, then made wagon trips to the site.

Jack Bird platted most of the town of Tolt and moved here from the first house he built for himself near Carnation Elementary.  Bird Street is named for him.  His wife was a botanist and gave talks occasionally at the little school in Seattle called UW.  She was interested in Anemones (flowers) and developed hybrids and varieties which pleased her.  During renovations we discovered a small envelope in the walls labeled "Bird Gardens" with the name of the flower it may have contained.  Anemones grow tall with showy flowers from very small button-like tubers which would have fit in the envelope. 

The early residents (perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Bird) rented rooms to teachers who were employed nearby at the old schoolhouse just South on Tolt-Duvall road.  It was considered a respectable place for single women lodgers.  Isabel Jones (neighbor) told me during one of our many conversations about the place that her Sunday School teacher lived here.  (I think she said it was Mrs. Forsburg)  The house was a frequent site of social gatherings in the community and many young couples safely "courted" in it's gardens and within it's walls.  One of the Whittakers family of brothers lived here for awhile.  They were a mountaineering family who were instrumental in founding REI.

Over the years the house has suffered many attempts to "update" it.  Both the bathrooms and the kitchen have been returned to what we like to call "historic eclectic".  This means that the house looks like it's been cherished and is mostly original with some modern conveniences added.  Don't be fooled.  There was an 80s bathroom, and a 70s kitchen that we took down to the studs. The large covered porch had been demolished after rotting at some point and replaced with a tiny shed roof over concrete stairs.  We replaced that with a large covered porch which looks very close to what's shown in the black and white pictures in the archives.  Matching and sourcing the shingle style siding was tricky but we found a large reserve of salvage shingles in Gig Harbor and used them to keep the old wood look.  We used this stock to remove and replace about half of all the shingles on the house recently, weaving them in where they had nearly withered away in the sun.  

We have endeavored to return it to a look and feel that would have been much more recognizable to the ghosts which roam at night. It didn't have indoor plumbing of course in 1921 and likely didn't have electricity for awhile yet either.  It was originally heated with coal from the basement but hard times shortly after construction had them heating it with wood in the large fireplace.  Of course there was also a kitchen chimney and stove.  There was also a stove at the top of the stairs which ran into the main chimney. We had to remove the orphaned chimney over the kitchen when the roof was replaced not long ago.  Thanks Joe Klaiber for the referral on the roof guys and for the concrete work. 

It had a barn which is included in the tax assessment archive pictures as well.  The first floor of the old barn is now the outbuilding on the North side of the lot although the original Gambrel style roofline was cut down and knitted together into a regular slope roof.

We call the place Fernsgrove after my firstborn daughter's best friend Fern.  Fern was a huge black lab who followed her around the yard listening to her tell stories to herself when she was a little.  A silent yet faithful audience. Many cats, dogs, chickens, lizards, rats, possibly a horse, are buried here.  Maybe human bones if we go back far enough?

Being in sight of the Carnation Cemetary might give some folks pause, but we have found the energies which are present in the house to be a little annoying at times, sometimes comforting, only occasionally creepy.  We have all compared notes and named them over the years.  

The people of the Moon (Snoqualmie Tribe) are acknowledged here as the original inhabitants of this area.  We thank them for their stewardship in the past and their support in our communities today.  They run the community transport buses, donate to local nonprofits, and continue to be a vital and helpful part of the place we love; Tolt/Carnation.  

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