It was a dark and stormy…
… morning!
But, by late afternoon, it was clear.
And we had another happy time outside.
But, as I write this – at close to 7:30 p.m., thunder is rumbling and the sky is dark.
It looks like we will end the day as we started: dark and stormy.
It has cooled. We’ve had some rain. It is suddenly very pleasant outside.
Late afternoon on Thursday…
All of us outside.
Exploring.
Chasing bugs, butterflies and grasshoppers.
Airborne!
Happy Day.
The “dog” bed is 42 inches across…
Bear is fine, but we did have an unplanned trip to the vet.
Bear was running toward me and suddenly did a kind of half somersault, half roll and came up shaking his head violently.
Foxtails are everywhere and I check both Bear and Auggie’s ears as it is easy to get them out of the outer part…
By noon, Bear was still obviously uncomfortable and I couldn’t see anything so off we went.
It WAS a foxtail and it was so far in, they had to sedate Bear to get it out.
Between the heat (90F), anxiety and the sedative, Bear was done by the time we got home.
Auggie went out but he’s not a heat guy either and he was soon back in. He flops down just inside the door like he is so tired and hot that he just cannot go further.
Despite the hard day, Bear got up to check on Auggie.
That porcelain…it is nice and cool – that’s the next place Auggie goes to cool off.
I succumbed to a glass of wine or 2 and an early night!
Saturday was wonderfully cool, clear and beautiful…
BUT.
At the construction site to our East there was grading and ??? and hauling of dirt.
It was noisy outside.
Bear, Auggie and I stayed mostly inside.
It was warm enough to close the house and run the A/C and so have none of the heavy equipment noise.
And early Saturday morning, I prepped a mix of swiss chard/onion/garlic and other spices, a ricotta-egg-parmesan mix and cooked some jumbo pasta shells.
Auggie had his usual.
But I had stuffed shells.
With Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce. (tomatoes, butter, salt and an onion…slow simmered for 45 minutes, then remove the onion – HEAVEN!)
Jumbo pasta shells filled with the ricotta-chard mix, nestled on a bit of the tomato sauce, drizzled with the tomato sauce, baked and then under the broiler with some fresh grated parmesan.
Major deliciousness!
Meanwhile, some progress on the plumbing issue – washing machine drain – a temporary solution is in place with a permanent solution to be determined before Winter.
And I uncovered a bit of firewood that is ready to be split – it has been covered for 2 years and I was a little leery about what else might be living under the tarp… nothing scary and the wood looks good!
After 3 or maybe 4 weeks of procrastinating, I took up all of the little rugs, dust mopped, vacuumed and EVEN damp mopped the floors. And I dusted. It is relatively clean in the house!
…Speaking of Winter. We are now half-way through Summer. In Montana, that is getting close to Fall: another 7-10 days and the visitor traffic will diminish substantially. It might still get warm-hot but daylight is decreasing/dark time is increasing…it gets more and more difficult to be uncomfortably hot for more than a short bit of the afternoon. The light at the end of the summer tunnel is in sight. Hoo..I say HOO-RAH!
The work week evaporated…
Saying goodbye to new friends,
Getting back to our “normal” routine,
Plumbing issues!!
A slow levelling jack on Wild Thing!
Hot, hazy & smoky weather-wise.
By today, Friday, we were DONE…
Done.
A hot, hazy, smoky week – done.