Barbara McAdams was born on September 17, 1920, in Palmdale, California, 40 miles north of Los Angeles as a crow flies. After graduating from high school, she completed two years of art school, then did inking and coloring for Walt Disney. In between her work for Disney, she went to school to learn how to model and became a sports garment model and a high-end fashion model. Barbara met and married William Humes and the two moved to North Carolina for his flight training just before Bill shipped out to fly for the US Army Air Forces during World War II. He did 50 missions out of North Africa as a second lieutenant on a B-17 called Yankee Doodle. After the war, Barbara and Bill spent a short time in California and then, after hearing that veterans had special rights to obtain homesteads, they decided to move to Alaska to begin a new life. Their homestead was three miles outside of the town of Hope, in the Kenai Peninsula. Two children - Larry and Shereen - many stories, and several years later, Barb and Bill moved south, settling a few miles outside of Littleton, Colorado, in the early 1950s. It was there that they welcomed their third child, Dale, into the world. As more neighbors moved into the area, they started feeling overcrowded, so on the recommendation of one of Bill's WWII flight crew, they packed everything up and moved to Anacortes, Washington. On a whim, they bought ferry tickets to Friday Harbor, but when they got to Orcas Island, they pulled out of line and got off the ferry. Barb and Bill drove around the island and on the way back to the ferry, they saw a small for-sale sign on a 78-acre property that was half forest and half cleared pasture. They signed a purchase agreement that day, moved to Orcas Island in 1962, and began Warm Valley Farm. Barb and Bill remained on the island for over 50 years. At the age of 91, after having been married to Bill for over 67 years, Barbara died on May 10, 2012. During her life, Barbara wrote articles for a prominent gardening magazine and published two books: Judy, First Essene High Priestess and Easy Knit Family Patterns for Your Homespuns. Her neighbor and good friend, Bob Nutt, published Mush, You Huskies, Mush! in order to honor her manuscript posthumously.
