Julien's Journal March 2016 (Volume 41, Number 3) | Page 40

estyle

LOCALLY

grown

by Barbara Sue Schubert

The Tale of
Plumery Tails

Barbara Sue Schubert is a freelance writer,
graphic designer, and marketing consultant. She resides in rural Shullsburg, WI,
where she nurtures her own homegrown
genre of well-being and compliments her
lifestyle by working for Galena Cellars
Winery and Vineyard.

I

f there is an Alaskan malamute heaven
on earth, Plumery Tails in Galena is
obviously it. It’s also amazing that there
are not numerous traffic jams or car pile
ups outside 700 Spring St., aka Highway 20,
where eight incredibly mesmerizing giant
Alaskan malamutes literally stop traffic
with their visual presence inside the confines of their spacious front yard. Owner
B.J. Schwartz affectionately refers to it as
“canine paradise.”
The gigantic malamutes are the showstoppers and virtual billboard for Plumery Tails
as it advertises the unique opportunity to
interact with the fluffy, friendly dog pack.
“When people ask me how I got here, I usually tell them they don’t have enough time
to hear the whole story,” B.J. says.
And B.J. isn’t kidding. With a long and colorful history of growing up in St. Paul, MN,
he talks freely and at length about his life
experiences – good, bad, and some very
ugly – that have brought him to where he is
38  ❖  Julien’s Journal ❖ March 2016

today: writing poetry, children’s books, and
raising malamutes. Even B.J. appears to be
surprised to see how far he has come from
his dysfunctional childhood, troublesome
young adulthood, and tough job experiences before he started writing in 2010. He
also gives his fiancé, Kim Eastman, a great
deal of credit for his refocusing, having met
her in 2003.

messages for children using Max always as
the hero. B.J. said he had been writing poetry intermittently throughout his life, but
when Max started accompanying him on
his landscaping jobs, storylines started to
unfold as Max instinctively interacted with
wildlife and the many children they’d meet.
“The books are about things that children
are faced with – their happenstances in

“My life really turned around when I met
Kim,” he said. “The reality was that I wasn’t
going to have many more chances in life
to do that, and she was everything I ever
wanted in a person.”
The couple moved around the country as
they sought work, ending up in Davenport,
IA in 2007 when Kim landed a management
job at J.C. Penny. B.J. then started his own
successful landscaping business.
At this point, the couple were starting to lay
down some roots and B.J. thought it would
be nice to get Kim a cat friend. However,
instead of going to the Davenport Animal
Shelter in search of a kit