August 26- Buck farm

Saint (?) read: 

While the men worked on the boats, Powell spent most of his time exploring.  Dazzled by the views from the canyon rims, he felt little of his men’s frenzy to get under way.  Instead, like Marco Polo gazing in awe at wonders that his homebound audiences never dreamt of, Powell found himself trying to come to terms with the strange new landscape before him.  He began by emphasizing what the canyon lands were NOT.  Nothings in the teeming cities of the East or the rolling farmlands of the Midwest prepared the eye for this desert landscape. 

Both the scenery itself, and that scenery’s epic scale, were utterly unfamiliar.  “We must not conceive of piles of boulders, or heaps of fragments, but a whole land of naked rock,” Powell cautioned his readers, “with giant forms carved on it:  cathedral shaped buttes, towering hundred or thousands of feet; cliffs that cannot be scaled, and canyon walls that shrink the river into insignificance, with vast, hollow domes, and tall pinnacles, and shafts set on the verge overhead and all highly colored----buff, gray, red, brown, and chocolate;  never lichened; never moss-covered; but bare and often polished.” 

“Then we try the rocks around to the right, and discover a narrow shelf, nearly half a mile long.  In some places, this is so wide that we pass along with ease; in others, it is so narrow and sloping that we are compelled to lie down and crawl.”  They continued along, stopping occasionally to peek down over the shelf’s rim to the rolling river eight hundred feet below.  “We determine to attempt a passage by a crevice and select one which we think is wide enough to admit of the passage of our bodies, and yet narrow enough to climb out by pressing our hands and feet against the walls.  So we climb as men would out of a well.  Bradley climbs first; I hand him the barometer, then climb over his head, and hands me the barometer.  So we pass each other alternately” – Powell doing all this, it went without saying, with one hand – “until we emerge from the fissure, out on the summit of a rock.  And what a world of grandeur is spread before us.”

What a day!

Water at Vasey's Paradise.

Climb to see the fossils at Nautiloid Canyon

Lunch and music at Redwall

 (Red Wall Cavern and the music by Jen, Kristian and Kenny….Jay played the bucket!  Later, Jay sang Mariah and it resonated through the canyons.  What a powerful voice and he knew ALL the words!  Lower Buck Farm is home for Night #3.  Our beach front lot was right above the water!)

Chicken and Corn Summer Chowder (dinner 3) served with goat cheese, black bean, corn, roasted red pepper quesadillas
2 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion chopped
3 T flour
1 lb potatoes, peeled and chopped
6 c. chicken broth
4 c. shredded, cooked chicken
kernels cut from 3 ears of corn
1/4 c.-1/2 c. cream
Salt and pepper to taste
 

In large pot over med-hi heat, cook bacon. Add onion, reduce heat and cook until soft. Add flour and cook for about 3 minutes. Add potatoes and broth and bring to boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cook until potatoes are barely tender. Add chicken and corn and cook until heated through. Reduce heat to low and add cream. Garnish with tomatoes, avocado, squeeze of lime juice, monterey jack cheese, and/or cilantro.

Chocolate Macadamia Cheese Pie:

Crust:

1c graham cracker crumbs

3T sugar

2T cocoa powder

3T melted butter

Mix and press into greased pie pan

Filling:

1/3 c sugar

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 c chocolate chips-melted

1/3 c sour cream

1 egg

1/2 c macadamia nuts chopped

Beat cream cheese. Add melted chocolate chips and sugar. Beat. Beat in egg and sour cream. Stir in nuts. Pour into crust. Bake at 375 about 20 min. til almost firm. Top with whipped cream and garnish with more nuts