Going Rogue: An American Life (34 page)

•

•

SARAH

PALIN

Alaska’s NBC affiliate, KTUU, sent its main anchor, Maria Downey-one of myoid bosses from sportscasting days-to record our homecoming. It was the first time in years that little kids had lived in the mansion.

Bristol, Willow, and Piper bounded upstairs, eager to see the rest of the home and stake claims to their bedrooms. The girls had never lived in a home wirh an attic, so it frightened Piper when Bristol tugged on a door in the ceiling and watched as the attic stairs “fell down.” Bristol and Willow climbed up to take a peek. Maria recorded Piper, standing below, scolding the girls, “I’m gonna tell
Mom!”

The first night in our new home, I tried to light a nice, cozy fire for the kids in one of the eight fireplaces. Problem was, it hadn’t been used in years. I didn’t know the dampers were closed, so the house filled with smoke and alarms summoned the local fire department. Next some revelers “welcomed” the First Family on our lawn, and our neighbors had call the police department. It

was nice to meet Juneau’s first responders.

We got the house in order by the next day, JUSt in time for Juneau’s annual cookies-and-cider open house. We couldn’t have done it without our patient and kind house manager, Erika Fagerstrom, and her fun family full of teenagers, who would become friends of the Palin kids. And after thousands of people came through the mansion for Juneau’s annual event, staff member Diane Diekman and her helpers turned the formal house back into a home.

Later, after Trig was born, the staff became even more like family. They’d come to work early and we’d all congregate in the kitchen and have a cup of coffee together before our official workdays would begin. Before friends would arrive to help take care of Trig, and I headed off to the Capitol, the staff would kiss Piper goodbye and send her on her way to school.

•

13 2

•

Going Rogue

We had a lot to do to get settled in: enroll the. kids in new schools, sign up fot spoces and music-and serve this huge state. The chef, the staff, the security-.-it was all exciting and kind of ftln; but whete some saw luxuties, I saw budget cuts. It was all a bit too much. I had asked my department heads to trim their budgets, so it was only fait to trim the mansion budget too. The place came with a personal chef, but I unbudgeted the position. When we hosted meals and receptions at the mansion, I figured I could have them catered. The chef seemed so darn bored because the kids didn’t want anything fancy to eat, and I didn’t want them thinking life entitled them to have paid staff cooking for them. I nevet pretended to have a huge culinary repertoire, and thankfully, the kids weren’t picky and loved my specialty, moose chili. So they wouldn’t starve. But they also realized that Grandma Sally had some kind of magic kitchen mojo that I didn’t.

One day when Track was little, he looked up at me from his bowl of chili, the third one that week, and said, “Even the fruit tastes better at Grandma’s house.”

I also trimmed the state food budget by keeping our home’s fteezer stocked with the wild seafuod we caught ourselves, as well as otganic protein sources hunted by friends and family. We kept an intetesting variety offood that way. Ifany vegans caine over for dinner, I could whip them up a salad, then explain my philosophy on being a carnivore:
If God not intended for us to eat animals,

come He

them out ofmeat?

As governor, though, hunting

an issue. I would face

sure from Hollywond to halt hunting, ban guns, and end our state’s wildlife management practices, such as controlling predators. I said no to all of that nonsense: gun bans would destroy the Second Amendment, and as alifelong member of the NRA (Alaska has the highest NRA membership per capita in the •

•