She raised Icelandic poppies for seed, painstakingly harvesting them by hand and packing them in custom-made envelopes with daughter Leslie's tiny handprint on the front. Ileen showed her versatility during those years in the Matanuska Valley by helping her family operate Knik Supply in Palmer. She started packaging garden seed under the Knikgro label. It was in 1980 the Hollembaeks bought state land near Delta Junction. Their property near Palmer wasn't big enough to support both the senior Hollembaeks and their son Scott and his family.
Farmers always build the barn first.
They lived in a mobile home for several years before building the combination duplex-work building that serves as the home Ileen shares with her son Eric. From a box in her dining room, she pulled out a picture of her and Barney taken in 1992. Her husband, she said, was an agricultural pioneer in Alaska. He believed in progressive agriculture. He brought the first combine and grain dryer to the state.