The following posts are just a few pictures we failed to post over the last several months.

I Made an Apple Pie!!!

Balloon Fiesta

Mike and Melissa (my older brother and his wife) came to Albuquerque in October to spend a few days and to attend Balloon Fiesta. You can see M&Ms post about their trip here. Check out a few of our pics that we never posted...

More Alaska Pics

Our Lawn

We've been through a lot this Spring and Summer with our back lawn. I'll give you the short version of the story...

Once upon a time Bobily bought their first house and they loved it! If you don't believe me, just look at this post. Pay particular attention to the last 3 pictures on the post. Well, from the time we moved into the house until Spring of this year we tried to maintain and improve our green lawn.

Enter an unnamed utility company that was given the job of doing underground work in our neighborhood. Here's what they helped us do:

1. They dug a trench down the center of our lawn (we didn't know this was going to happen) which contributed to the our new grass seeds' stunted growth--at least in the area where the trench was.

2. They broke a sprinkler line.

3. They didn't tell us about the line break.

4. They buried the line break so we couldn't see the problem.

After a while we noticed that our grass was dying. By the time we discovered the problem it was already too late. When the sprinkler line broke it caused the whole sprinkler line on one side of our lawn to loose pressure so that most of the lawn didn't get any water.

Here's what it looked like

We spoke to the unnamed utility company numerous times and here's what they did (or didn't do):

5. They came out and fixed the sprinkler line.

6. They refused to compensate us for the dead grass even though them not telling us our line was broken was pretty much the cause of the dead grass.

Anyway, I spent a good chunk of my Labor Day reseeding. I tilled, added soil & compost, seeded, covered the seed with peat moss. Here's what it looks like so far (less than 3 weeks later):

The Post Compost Post

I thought I'd write a quick post to update our readers on how the composting went over the Summer. It actually went pretty well. We have been trying to revive our lawn after a very rough Spring (long story) and we used our "home-grown" compost the help us out. We didn't use any manure in our compost or gardening over the Summer, but maybe next time. On second thought, maybe not. Here are a few pictures of our composted compost--remember while looking at the pics that if composting is done correctly it shouldn't be stinky. In fact, if you compost pile stinks it's an indication that something is a little out of whack and needs to be fixed.

August 2nd and 3rd

Sunday we took it slow. We went to church and then did some service cleaning up at one of Mutti's friend's house that is out of town. We watched "P.S. I Love You" that night and if you haven't seen it you need to.

Monday was full of fun. It was Mutti's birthday and we packed it full. First we drove up to the Knotty Shop which is a great little store just outside of Fairbanks. I got a cute sign made out of wood that said "My goal in life is to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am" and a couple birthday/Christmas presents.
Next, we went to Santa house in North Pole, Alaska. Unfortunately, Santa was off for the day and left a little note telling us when he would be back.
I got to sit in Santa's sled and there were even a few reindeer that were hanging outside. I think the one in the picture was Prancer.The whole town was decorated with candy canes and Christmas decorations even though it was only August. Even the Wendys was getting in on the North Pole bit. Then we left and went to have tea at Phillis'. She is a friend of Muttis and it was a really nice visit with yummy treats.

August 1st

Today we got up and went to the local farmers market. There was a ton of pretty jewelry, good food and fun booths. I bought some yummy soaps made out of goats milk and really had fun looking around at everything. We also went to check out an artwork display that one of Mutti's friends was doing. In the evening we went to the Great Alaska Salmon Bake. Yes, it was as wonderful as it sounds. It was all you can eat salmon, halibut, cod and prime rib as well as an amazing salad bar, dessert bar and drinks. YUMMY! I was in heaven.

July 31st

This morning we went to do one of my favorite things: Raspberry Picking! One of Mutti's (my mother-in-law) friends had a bunch of bushes by her house and we spent the morning avoiding the bees as we picked. There are a lot of bees because of the gorgeous flowers but they didn't mind sharing.

(Raspberry bushes)

We also went to a couple local shops. The Alaska Bowl company and the Alaska raw fur company. They had the softest teddy bear made out of beaver fur. I'm serious, I have never felt anything so soft. I didn't even know there could be something so soft. I couldn't stop petting it and it would have come home with me but I wasn't willing to pay $80 for a stuffed animal- All though I had to admit that I was seriously considering it.


I have also been enjoying the local fire weed that grows wild all over Fairbanks.