Fourth of July Weekend

   A stay-at-home Fourth to accomplish some long awaited chores. I bought this power washer a while ago and finally got it out to start cleaning EVERYTHING. 

  I started with the black, slimy brick walks that I'm sure have never been cleaned, and Bob thought I was having so much fun he wanted to try and I couldn't get my power washer back!
 

So that's how you get a guy to clean!! Buy them equipment! 
 

I couldn't believe how great the bricks looked without any soap. We may do round two, but right now the first round includes brick walks, the brick courtyard, brick walls, then the painted walls, skylight windows, then down to the farmhouse to wash the whole place, even the porch floor before we oil it. I got the power washer because my friend Cher told me instead of scraping the peeling paint on the ceiling a power washer would take it off, and she was right. I did a test yesterday. Even Persia is looking at the bricks and is impressed.

At this point I gave up on the garden with the high heat for weeks and no rain. No amount of watering is the same as a good drenching rain, and things look awful, but I do have a few tomatoes.

And a few cucumbers.

And sunflowers.

We also finally put up the iron decorative corners I found at the antiques mall down at the farmhouse. 

AND introducing "Hucky" (he came with the name Huckleberry, not a name I would have given him). After losing Geisha and Timber in May, the PLAN was to take some time off from having dogs and travel in Canada for a few weeks. I had been working on that trip for quite sometime. I was to meet my friend Deb in Pittsburgh and go to Falling Waters, stay at the Industrialist Hotel while Bob shopped for books, then go to Niagra Falls and just go from town to town from Niagra on the Lake to Quebec and back.  Nothing ever goes as planned.

AND introducing "Persia". Since we now had 8 month old Hucky, he needed a playmate, and Fabby asked me to foster Persia who was in a KY shelter. We thought she was just scared at the shelter, but she is unsocialized and it's been three weeks and I am just starting to make friends with her. She is still not with Hucky and I am hiring a behaviorist to work with them and get them together. Hucky is going to Noble Dog Doggy Daycare to learn how to play nice with others. He was there today, I can watch him on the cam and so far he is doing well there with other dogs. He only had one timeout today for pestering a three-legged dog he wanted to play with and she wasn't having it and he would not leave her alone. So now with two dogs, the trip was going to be more difficult. My passport was ordered over a month ago, and I got a letter this week the agent at the post office didn't sign it, so I have to do the process all over again. Another glitch as it takes 6-8 weeks to get your passport. And today Bob was at a neurosurgeon talking about surgery. So I don't think it was in the cards to travel this September, but we WILL do that trip eventually!

All in all a good Fourth of July despite the heat!!!