Landscaping

[one project done]

After a year of talking about it, we finally replaced the rock wall in front of the house, between the front door and the garage.

This is what it looked like before:



Terrible, huh? I never really liked it because I thought it was too low, and it looked really amateurish and not well done. Then Jordan started pulling some of the rocks off the top and it just went downhill from there.

Last night Steven knocked out the rest of the rocks and broke off the cement and Christie and Jordan hauled the rocks to the north side of the house where we will store them for awhile. We hope to do something with them.



After the rocks were all removed:



This morning the crew showed up and the first things they did were to remove the concrete that the old rock wall had been on top of and to dig the trenches. The first picture shows the pile of concrete that was dug out.





After the trenches were dug, they were filled with gravel.



The first few rows of stone.



A wet saw was used to cut the stones to make the corner.



Front view.



Side view showing the wall in relation to the house.



The dirt that was dug out to make the trenches filled the bed pretty well. We will probably add a few more inches of topsoil later. Now I need to research plants and make a plan for that flower bed. We probably will wait to plant til early fall so the summer heat doesn't kill the plants.

Next project is to replace the rocks on the other side of the front of the house with curbing. I hope to get that project done within the next week.

Day 3: Ketchikan

We arrived in Ketchikan Monday morning.

Facts about Ketchikan: It's the southernmost sizable city in Alaska. It has an estimated population of about 7,368, making it the 5th most populous city in Alaska. It is known as the "Salmon Fishing Capital of the World". It has the world's largest collection of standing totem poles. It gets an average of 152 inches of rain a year and an average of 37 inches of snow.

Side note: Through NCL, cruise passengers can book "shore excursions" in each town the ship docks at. K&S booked a trip for the whole family in another town. Steven and I decided we would explore Ketchikan on our own.

There's not much land between the water and the mountains so we got off the ship and the town was right there.

The Norwegian Star, looking at the back.



View of Ketchikan from the dock.



The sign welcoming visitors to the "Salmon Fishing Capital of the World".



We stopped at the visitors office and got maps of a walking tour. We went with 3 other siblings and spouses.

Ketchikan has quite a collection of totem poles. I learned some interesting things about totem poles. They were carved to honor deceased ancestors, record history, social events and oral tradition. They were never worshipped as religious objects.



The picture above shows the Chief Kyan totem pole. According to the sign next to it, the figures represent the Crane, the Thunderbird and the Brown Bear.

We saw totem poles all over Ketchikan and there's a Totem Heritage Center in town that houses a display of original totem poles.

This next picture shows a salmon ladder. It is a concrete structure that was built to help the salmon on their way up the creek to their spawning grounds.



This is a view of the Thomas Basin Boat Harbor from Stedman Street. The ships are docked just to the left of the harbor. There's a wooden street in front o fthe buildings to the right.



Creek Street. Ketchikan Creek runs through the middle and the buildings are built on pilings that overhang the creek. This was the "red light district" of Ketchikan.



Dolly Arthur was Ketchikan's most famous madam. This was her house.



Ketchikan Creek. See all the green moss on the rocks--this area gets over 100 inches annually of rainfall. The area is very lush and green.



Another view of Ketchikan from the docks near the ships.



Ketchikan is very hilly and some streets are actually built of wooden staircases. These are called staircase streets.




This is a view of Newtown (which is located west of the historic district) from the ship. You can see that there is very little land between the mountains and the water. We saw this in each town we visited. You can also see how the mountains are solidly covered with evergreen trees. We also saw this everywhere we went.

4th of july dessert

We usually have a BBQ to celebrate the 4th of July. This year I found a great deal on raspberries, strawberries and blueberries so I made this great shortcake dessert.



The recipe:

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar

SHORTCAKE:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dash salt
1/4 cup cold butter
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
Whipped cream, optional

In a small bowl, combine the strawberries, blueberries and 2 tablespoons sugar; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Combine milk and sour cream; stir into crumb mixture just until moistened.

Spread batter into a greased 9-in. pie plate (batter will be thick). Sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake at 350° for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes; cut into six wedges.

Split each wedge in half horizontally. Serve warm with berry mixture; garnish with whipped cream if desired. Serves: 6

canning season has started

[ cherries ]

On Sunday (7/5), a ward member told Steven about a farm in Utah County where you could pick your own cherries. These type of farms are called U-pick or pick-your-own farms. The farm was charging .65/lb of cherries, which was quite a good price so I got a friend to watch the children and went there to pick cherries. I got about 25 lbs and today (7/7) I canned them.



This was my first experience canning cherries. I've done peaches, pears, apricots and applesauce before. Cherries are definitely one of the easier fruits to do, I think, because there's not much prep work to do. All we did was pull off the stems, wash them, and put them in jars with light syrup. We didn't bother pitting them.



Those 25 lbs of cherries gave me 16 quarts. I would have had 17 but I dropped the last jar as I was bringing it in from the outside stove. Glass jar + tile floor = one big mess to clean up. Ugh! I was mad that I lost that jar!




I would love to go back and get another 25 lbs but I have lots of other canning I plan to do so I need to think about my storage space and how many jars I have. But now that I know about that farm, I will definitely go back next year!