She's A Naughty Little Pet

I felt bad leaving Trixie in her kennel while I'm at work, and I've been "experimenting" to try and find the best thing to do with her during my absence. I have tried leaving her in the laundry room, outside, and in the kennel and then coming home at lunch to let her out. Today I shut all the doors to the bedrooms and let her have free run of the house. I THOUGHT I had put everything away that she could demolish, but when I came home this is what I found!

We won't be giving her this option again!

That is the end of my copy of "Book of a Thousand Days"--an abomination!

Peach Days

One of my favorite things about September is PEACHES! Our local orchards are selling out in two hours. I had to show up at 8:00 AM just to buy a bushel of Elbertas. I have been a canning fool for the last two days. Monday night everyone pitched in after FHE peeling and filling jars. We got 14 quarts. Then on Tuesday I put up 7 more jars and made 8 half-pints of freezer jam. Today I am making peach syrup from the peelings. Though somewhat tedious, it is worth the work to be able to enjoy opening a jar of golden sunshine in February. Buying canned peaches are probably cheaper, but home-canned are infinitely better tasting!

It was hard to keep Danika's grubby hands off the produce! She literally drinks the jam I made.










The fruits of our labors!

School Days, a Birthday, and Harvest Time

School started Aug. 25th (3 weeks ago--I'm a bit slow) and I snapped a shot of Brooke getting on the bus for her first day of Jr. High. She was so nervous, but now she's cool with it. Danika is in 9th this year, but not technically a freshman because 9th grade is in Jr. High here. It's hard to see, but they are walking with a friend right in front of the bus.

Brooke also turned 12 on the 2nd, and is SO glad to be in Young Women's now.

By the way, Brooke will be singing in the Primary choir in the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference if you want to look for her (they snagged her before she turned 12, and we encouraged her to do it even though she would be in YW by then). She got an iPod for her birthday, and can now be heard singing songs from "Wicked" throughout the house!Megan is now in 3rd grade at Snow Horse Elementary and loving it. If you are wondering about the name of her school, you can read about it here http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/schools/snowhorse/files/2A749AFD5EEC4FD6A463B3ED2D9E4E14.pdf

I am keeping busy with work at Megan's school, and canning all the fresh produce we are enjoying right now. So far I have picked and canned our beets, made and canned salsa from our own tomatoes and peppers, made raspberry and lemon-nectarine-blueberry freezer jam, and as I type this there is a bushel of peaches and 5 lbs of pears sitting on my table waiting to be canned. Just call me Martha . . .

Wild Alaska-Day 7

Before flying back to Missouri, we had to have one last "Alaska" experience. Paul took us to the Chena river which runs right through the middle of town so we could kayak. Mike, Tammy, and I had never kayaked before, so Dallin came along to show us the ropes and make sure we didn't end up in the river. (Thanks for your patience with us Dal!) Thankfully it was a very calm, smooth river and we all had a great time.

Then it was back to the house to pack and enjoy one last meal of Elisabeth's wonderful cooking. Can you guess what we ate? SALMON, of course, in chowder form--oh so delicious! (I still need the recipe Elisabeth). And Uncle Mike and Andrew eked in a quick game of airsoft before heading off to the airport.

It was a great trip. Tiring, but great! Thanks for being such awesome hosts you guys!

Wild Alaska-Day 6

On Monday Mike and Paul went for a hike to Chena Hot Springs. Elisabeth went to work, and I went with the boys and Tammy to the Ice Museum downtown. Every March Fairbanks hosts an Ice Festival. Artist come from all over the world to participate. It is amazing what they can do to the ice to create such beautiful, intricate sculptures. And then it just melts.

After lunch Elisabeth picked us up and we drove out to meet the guys at Chena Hot Springs. It is a hot springs "resort," not exactly Marriott accomodations, but still relaxing and fun. When we got finished soaking, we waited for Paul and Elisabeth to go get the truck from the trailhead. We got attacked by gnats and mosquitos!

On the drive home we saw 11 moose on the side of the highway!!!

We arrived back in Fairbanks just before dark, and it was starting to rain. Elisabeth stopped off at a viewing area for the AK Pipeline so we could check it out up close. Pretty awesome piece of engineeering, I'd say.

Wild Alaska-Day 4 & 5

When we were in college our favorite TV show was "Northern Exposure." (You can hear the theme song on my playlist if you want.) It was a really quirky show about Joel Fleishman, a New York doctor who is contractually bound to practice in remote Cicely, AK (a fictional town) for 4 years to repay his school loan from the state. The show's plot was centered on the differences between Joel's urban neuroses and the eccentricities of the residents of Cicely. I often wondered if Alaska was really like that. From what I could gather, life in Alaska is unique in and of itself. But Fairbanks (and I'm sure Anchorage) is pretty much like any town in the lower 48--Wal Mart, Old Navy, KFC, Taco Bell. However, our visit to Chitina (pronounced Chit-na) confirmed that there really are places like Cicely from "Northern Exposure!" Here are some shots of the local "color."

This building was actually occupied!


You can't really see it, but this truck had a bunch of antlers across the top rack--if you're in the market for Alaska Antler Art, call this guy.

Everyone must REALLY be into coffee in AK, because there are espresso stands everywhere (kinda like Snow Shacks or Rainbo Snow). This van was like an ice cream truck for coffee fanatics. It drove around our campsite several times a day.

My personal favorite . . . as you can see there is a lot of civic pride in this town.

The collapsed building in the background has a ghost painted on it. Dallin said some kids painted ghosts on a lot of the buildings back in the 70s as a practical joke, and many of them are still there. I guess this building hasn't seen a new coat of paint in a while!

This beaut was for rent. I was a little skeptical since the front grill was being held on with bungee cords--upside down.

We headed back to Paul's house on the 4th day (a six hour drive). Tammy was flying in that day at 4:00 pm and Andrew was getting home from Scout camp. What a sight for sore eyes. Civilization! Flush toilets! Running water (if we didn't run out)!

Here is Paul and Elisabeth's home. That big blue cube is one of the tanks they use to haul water to the house. Yep, you read that right. They have to put the tank in the truck, drive to the Water Wagon and fill it up. Then they drive home and pump the water into their holding tank downstairs.

Their place is practically a farm. They sit on 3 acres, have 4 dogs, a gaggle of geese, ducks, chickens and a huge garden.

We hung out on Saturday and went to church on Sunday. After church some of their friends came over for dinner, and we celebrated Andrew's 13th birthday with blueberry-rhubarb pie (and Elisabeth made Dallin a chocolate mousse pie too). Oh, and salmon dip--we just couldn't get enough of that fresh salmon.

Wild Alaska-Day 3

On our third day, I went out fishing with Paul and Mike. This was adventurous . . . for me, anyway. It's typical for Paul. But this was not your normal, sissy Alaskan tourist activity. Now, when I see a sign that says "This area is unstable, and any use of this area could cause serious injury or DEATH," I would normally avoid such a place. However, when in Alaska, do as the Alaskans do. So, the three of us got on Paul's ATV and rode 8 miles down river on a trail that was mountain on one side and river on the other.

It was washed out in places, and in others there were landslides. I was sure I would die. Some places I just got off and walked. Paul said there used to be railway that went through there, and we saw evidence of that in an abandoned trestle and tunnel that we rode through.

Check out this video of part of our ATV ride.

Paul found a spot, and we hiked down a cliff to some rocks that sloped down right to the river. A lot of the people we saw along our ATV ride were tied off to trees in case they fell in. It was huge, fast, and if you fell in there ain't no gettin' out. But did we tie off? Phish--no way! (Elisabeth, you did not just read that).

So Paul put his net in. (By the way, we learned that you dipnet at this river because it is so silty the fish can't see lures or bait.) And we waited and waited and waited . . . and waited. Neither one of the two guys on the sides of us were catching anything either. After a while Mike said, "Paul, I hope we catch something. I just said a little prayer that we'd get something." And Paul said, "You mean like this?!" and his net was wiggling all over. He pulled out this HUGE king salmon--no lie. And we were all whooping it up as Paul was dragging this beastly salmon up onto the rocks. Mike clubbed it on the head (eww!) and it finally stopped flopping around. WOW, that is quite a fish story, but 100% true. Even though we didn't catch much, at least we were able to experience the thrill of seeing Paul net a king. You are only allowed to catch and keep one king every year, so that was pretty cool to witness. BTW, if you are wondering why Mike and I weren't fishing, it is because only residents are allowed to dipnet. If all the tourists fished that way it would deplete the salmon population too much. But it was still fun just to be there and experience Alaska how locals do.

Fresh salmon for dinner again. Sweet!

Wild Alaska-Day 2

Wow am I behind! I have started a new job, and even though it is only part-time I am trying to adjust to not having as many hours at home to do whatever I want! I hope this job will help me use my time more wisely (yeah right). Since I had so much time to myself, I didn't make the best use of it. Now I have to prioritize what's most important--and scrapbooking is not as high on the list as I would like! Reading isn't as high either, but I still have been doing a bit of both. Gotta keep chipping away... ;) I have discovered that I STILL don't like making dinner, and working just makes it worse. I am so bad at avoidance behavior--like sitting here blogging instead of figuring out what to make my family for dinner.

Here are some more pages from our Alaska trip. The second day we finally arrived at Chitina, set up camp, and Mike and Paul did some fishing. It's really cool that you can be out doing stuff at midnight and not have it be dark. It was a little different not having fireworks on the Fourth though.

You can see the big bluff where the Chitina and Copper Rivers merge. We camped just to the left of that. The wind was crazy there, and that bluff is made of sand and silt, so you can imagine how gritty everything was. Mike and Paul were filthy after fishing in the wind and the ATV ride. I hiked to the tip of that bluff with my nephew Dallin. It was pretty awesome, except the wind and sand wrecked havoc on my contacts!

Mike's goal for our trip was to learn how to gut fish--he'd never really done it before. Well, he got his lesson, as you can see.

Fresh salmon for dinner!