Spotlight: Patti1957 (Patti Peck)

By Nancy Polanski (nap) on November 29, 2010

I've seen Patti1957 in various cubits that I frequent. I like the way she thinks in the Word Association cubit. I like that she is active in the All about Cubits cubit. And I was intrigued to see she has a cubit about Hawaii when she lives in Oregon......

NP: When I asked Patti to be my next guest in the Spotlight, she had this to say. “Nancy, if you can make me sound interesting I would be ever so grateful because I have always wanted to be interesting! If nothing else people will know just how boring I am.” Well, I'm ready to take up the challenge, Patti! But let's get your background established so we all know who you are, first. Who is Patti Peck??

Patti: I was born Patti Maxine Peck in Sutherlin, Oregon on Oct. 5, 1957. My dad was a truck driver. We moved a lot when I was growing up and I suffered for it in school and socially. I had a difficult time making friends (I was very shy as a kid). Luckily I grew out of that as I got older. I am the third child; I have two older and one younger brother. I married Aug. 10 1985, but we have been together since 1976. We have two daughters, Natoshua age 31 and Jodie age 28. We have four grandkids, three girls and one boy. Ethan is eight, Paige is six, Makynlee four, Blakely is one and a half.

I have several cats, a dog named Dillon and 30 or so chickens. We live on two acres. We have lived here since 1987 and just last year got the opportunity to buy the property. I enjoy gardening, genealogy, travel, cubits and my grand-kids. I clean for a living. I am currently in the middle of a construction job cleaning a 66 unit apartment complex. I also have residential clients that I clean for. Have been doing this since 1998. Before that I was a stay at home mom, spent a lot of time taking the kids to all of their sports and school activities and I am so glad that I was able to do that.

NP: Living on two acres gives you plenty of garden room for that Salsa Garden of yours. Is that where the idea for your cubit came from? What do you grow?

Patti: Our property has a year round creek that we irrigate our gardens from. We grow a large vegetable garden every year. I had over 90 tomato plants last summer and about the same number of pepper plants. I also love to grow onions and garlic and many herbs too. So Salsa Garden sounds like it is all about salsa but it is really more about growing the ingredients that go into salsa. We just this year started selling our excess produce in a stand on our property. A main highway runs past our place and we had a lot of customers that were just passing by. We are looking forward to doing that again next year.

When I first signed on to cubits I knew that this was going to be big and I knew that I had to be a part of it so I set up my first cubit ‘Salsa Garden’ because of my passion for tomatoes and peppers. And with a husband nicknamed “Pancho”, we eat a lot of salsa around here in the summer.

(My husband, Francisco Richard Raigosa, is a native Californian Indian on his mother’s side - Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians - and of Mexican descent on his father’s side.) I love all of my cubits but if I had to pick only one it would be Salsa Garden.

I don’t usually follow a salsa recipe unless I am trying something new, but I do have some basic ingredients that I start with. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper and sugar. (I grow the first five ingredients.) My salsa never tastes the same twice. It will taste different each time because I have so many different varieties of the ingredients that can alter the taste. I try to grow as many different varieties of tomatoes as I can. I have my favorites that I grow every year and I try new ones so that I can continue to add to my favorites, added this year was a variety called, of all things, Mexico.

NP: How did you and Pancho meet, Patti?

Patti: We lived in the same neighborhood when we were young. He was the paper boy. We started dating when I was 19. I thought he was 18 but I found out much later that he was really only 16. He had graduated high school the same year as his sister and she was my age so I assumed he was maybe a year younger than me. I knew that he finished high school early but I had no idea it was two years early! He went to college for Hotel and Restaurant management and while in school he cooked in a seafood restaurant called the Thirsty Whale. He eventually dropped out of college and began working at a sawmill. He still does mill work but he is now in a plywood mill, there aren’t many sawmills around anymore.

When I was pregnant with our first daughter he would cook breakfast for me. He made me something he called chorizo and eggs. It was the best stuff! I ate it every morning for quite a while until one day when he was cooking it, I saw the package that it came in and read the ingredients (remember, I was very pregnant). You don’t want to know what is in it! I never ate the stuff again!

NP: So are you really not going to tell me what is in chorizo??

Patti: There are many kinds of chorizo, but the two that I know are the Spanish kind that uses smoked pork and the Mexican kind that uses fresh pork. Chorizo is made with parts of the pigs head such as cheeks, salivary glands or lymph nodes. YUCK!

NP: And “double yuck” because you were pregnant at the time! I hope Pancho was an understanding man! So, now that we know about your passion for growing a Salsa Garden, tell me about your passion for the subject of one of your other cubits....Maui.

Patti: I try to go to Maui every couple of years. My last trip there was Oct. 2009. I have a two week trip planned for Oct. 2011, a week in Kauai and a week in Maui. It will be my first time to Kauai and my 6th time to Maui. My mom usually goes with me as she shares my love for Hawaii. My DH has gone with me twice but he is not fond of flying so I am not sure he will go again. I am a member of WorldMark ( a timeshare) so we stay at the WorldMark in Kihei. We also book one night at the YMCA in Ke’anae which is about half way to Hana, they have two cottages they rent out. A favorite place to visit while in Maui is the Alii Kula Lavender Farm. I wrote an article about it, you can read it in my Maui cubit. From my first trip to Maui in 1993 I knew that Maui was a very special place and it has became a peaceful, spiritual place that I feel drawn to which is why I return as often as I can.

NP: I have not been to Hawaii, but it is one place I would very much love to visit. I love that we can see the current weather forecast for Hawaii on your homepage. And what about Oregon? Did you start your Oregon cubit because you were raised there?

Patti: I love Oregon and started my Oregon cubit hoping that fellow Oregonians would take an interest so that we could show and tell our state to others, I would love people from all over to visit Oregon, through my cubit or in person, so that they will know why I love it here.

Southwest Oregon is known for its mild climate. The summers can be very hot. Our average annual precipitation is almost 30 inches. We have snow but it doesn’t accumulate much where we are. We have four distinctive seasons here. With our warm summers and mild climate, it is an excellent place to garden. The Rogue Valley is known as “pear country” and you will see many orchards around the valley. In recent years wineries and vineyards have sprung up. Apparently the climate is right for growing grapes too. Another passion of mine is Lighthouses. I have a Database on the Lighthouses along the Oregon coast in my Oregon cubit. I have also started a Database on the covered bridges in Oregon, which I am also interested in.

We like to travel to the Oregon and Northern California coast a few times a year and there is a WorldMark at the Running Y, which is just an hour east of us near Klamath Falls, Oregon. It is a nice convenient getaway. I have a Chalet booked for spring break and will spend the week with the grand-kids, my mom and brother.

NP: You have another cubit which I'm not familiar with. Tell me about that, Patti.

Patti: The Seed Cellar cubit came about when Dave started the e-commerce discussions. A fellow seed saver (dirtdiggin) and I decided to try our hand at selling seeds. We have a few seeds listed and are adding more daily. Between us we hope to offer many different varieties of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables and herbs. We also have plans to offer flower seeds and garlic, and we plan to sell plants and cuttings. It is just a matter of getting things organized and added to the store.

NP: I have a few standard questions I like to ask which I always hope will show us the real person behind the avatar. First, who in your life has been an inspiration to you?

Patti: My grandmother was a huge influence on me. She lost her mother at the age of 14 but persevered and went on to marry and have seven children, my mother being the oldest. She was a very resourceful woman and could make something out of nothing, and did so often throughout her life. Whether it was food, clothing or a simple rag doll for a granddaughter (ME). She could whip up something out of whatever she had on hand, which was usually not much. She passed away in her home in Drain, Oregon, on January 25, 2005 at the age of 90. She was a simple, strong woman and I miss her everyday.

NP: And if you could meet and chat with anyone in the world, who would it be?

Patti: I would love to meet Cher. I love her music and she is another strong woman who has overcome some hard things in her life. I would also like to talk to my grandfather – my mom’s dad. He came here from Germany, married my grandmother (mentioned above) and disappeared in 1950 leaving his wife and six children, my mother was 13 years old. He was never to be heard from again. I found him in 2006 doing a search online of the California death index. He had died in 1969, his death certificate said he died of lung cancer and that he wasn’t married. I would love to ask him why he left and never contacted any of his kids again.

NP: Oh dear. My heart goes out to you and I completely understand your feelings, Patti.

Patti: My mom lived 3 hours away from him at the time of his death. The not knowing why he left is very hard.

NP: Do you have any free time? If so, what do you like to do with it? Are you a TV watcher? A movie goer? A crafter? A reader?

Patti: I am hooked on reality TV! Survivor is my favorite but I also love Amazing Race, Big Brother, The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars and others. I also watch the Food Network channel, I love Iron Chef!

I spend a lot of time on cubits and I also do a lot of research on tomato and pepper varieties that I want to add to my grow list. So with my free time I would say that I am either on the computer, watching TV or gardening, I bring in a lot of my plants that won’t survive the winter outside here, so I have a room dedicated to gardening in the winter.

NP: What might be the wildest thing you ever did?

Patti: When I was 18, I lived for six months in a cabin in the mountains that didn’t have electricity, running water or an inside bathroom. I had to haul water from a spring, used kerosene lamps and an outhouse. I had a gas operated 1914 Maytag ringer washing machine, an Ashley wood stove and a propane refrigerator and stove. It was a challenge and I loved it. I also had a garden that I carried water to. It was a very rewarding experience and I have always been glad that I did it.

NP: What is it that makes you truly happy? What puts joy into your heart?

Patti: Taking pictures of my plants and flowers puts joy in my heart. And I love the feeling I get when the last tomato plant is planted and I am looking over the garden with the excitement and anticipation (like the ketchup commercial) of waiting to see which variety will give me the first ripe tomato and what will become my next favorite.

NP: And have you any thoughts you'd like to end our conversation with, Patti?

Patti: Like many, I came to cubits from Dave's Garden. I really didn't know many of those people personally, just recognized names here and there. But I got the Cubits bug big time and now I have five cubits! I have met so many wonderful people here. I have learned so much and am so thankful to Trish and Dave for this once in a lifetime opportunity to create these cubits that I have come to love so much. I don't know what I would do without this amazing universe that Dave has literally handed us all. It is so much a part of my life now. I can't imagine being without it.

NP: Thank you very much for being a part of Who's Who Spotlight, Patti! I had a wonderful time getting to know you. I think you are much more interesting than you are willing to give yourself credit for. You're someone I think I would like to chat with again.

And readers, you may chat with Patti too, in the threads section following this article. Come back and see us next week to see who Sharon will be talking with in our next Spotlight interview.

Related articles:
biography, Hawaii, interview, spotlight, tomatoes

About Nancy Polanski
My husband and I live in Buffalo NY with our cats Daisy and Lucy. I love Western New York and all it has to offer. Some fabulous people live here. Photography, gardening and Cubits are my favorite hobbies.

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Comments and discussion:

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Loved this Spotlight valleylynn Dec 8, 2010 7:17 AM 47

What a great read! weeds Nov 30, 2010 10:22 PM 2

Blue tomatoes? Lance Nov 30, 2010 8:23 PM 9