I always hate to see Labor Day come. It’s the end of summer and it starts the beginning of fall and cooler weather. If you didn’t know it, I love, love, love the hot weather. Growing up in Southern Indiana, it was usually warm and humid. So I’m used to that type of weather. I mean until it gets in the low 90s, then it is gets to be too much. I love the sun and getting in my garden to work. Now the 100s are an entirely different matter. A dry heat maybe, but not with a little humidity. That’s been our summer this year. You just sit inside staring out at the bright sunshine and wishing it didn’t feel like you were swimming to walk across the yard. Worse yet is getting into a hot car with leather seats and be wearing shorts! I keep a towel in the car for these occasions.
We have a couple of traditions that we have for Labor Day. For one, we attend the Renaissance Faire one last time. This is usually on the Sunday of the holiday weekend. Fewer people attend the faire that day. This year, Jim and Barb Doty met up with us and we wandered the forested town of Bristol together. It was their first time so we tried to show them the things you should do. Of course, you can’t do them all in one weekend, so you have to make multiple trips over the summer. Hopefully, they will be back next year.
Another tradition is to BBQ. Rich is legendary for his BBQ. Just ask a lot of our friends. So this means that you have to have picnic style meals. Rich did a slab of ribs and a whole chicken. They were wonderful. I put together baked beans, potato salad, cole slaw, and deviled eggs. Don’t worry, there are leftovers.
Rich bought a true smoker a couple of years back. A guy who was a dealer for Yoder smokers was changing to another dealer and was looking to sell off his own Yoder. It was a great price and just in the next town over. It beat having to drive to Texas to pick one up. It is heavy cast iron. Not being satisfied with the performance, Rich engineered up a solution with a couple of fans to keep the heat up at the temp he wanted. Now we have perfect BBQ every time! Not mention that Rich’s rub is killer. That doesn’t hurt.
The weekend was a hot one. I ended up taking Sascha out for very early morning walks when it was definitely cooler. Even at that, she would get very hot. I had to give in on Monday and fill up her pool. Now huskies are suppose to love the water, but Sascha is totally infatuated with the liquid stuff. I put a few inches into her husky pool and she stretches out on her stomach to dig and splash. She’s fun to watch. However, it takes hours for her to dry out. Just don’t stand to close when she splashes. She doesn’t care who gets wet in the process.
So it is official. We have a groundhog living under the deck. Sascha has been very insistent that something is under the deck for the last few weeks. I actually scared something off the deck a few days ago, but I didn’t catch sight of what the creature was. Today, Rich was working in the basement. He went to the back and noticed something furry lying up against the window under the deck. Tapping on the window, a groundhog turned around to check out the noise. He didn’t run away though. Must know he’s in no danger. So now we have confirmation what the creature is that Sascha wants to get to so badly.
We knew we had groundhogs in the area. We’ve seen hanging out in the yard and around the compost pile. While we were on vacation this year, the neighbor across the street reported a sighting of 9 total groundhogs in the covert. Looks like one got kicked out and has to make his own way in the world. He moved under our deck. This could be interesting with Sascha. Now she won’t know whether to go after a squirrel or the big furry guy under the deck. Decisions!
Today wasn’t Labor Day, but some people were working hard. That was Pete, our contractor guy. We had called him last week to come out and discuss the possibility of putting a detached garage in the backyard. Sally (the coupe) puts out a lot of fumes when they are working out there in the garage. I’d really love to get the smells away from the house. Not to mention that we have too many cars now. Seems like good time to talk to Pete.
Sure enough, Pete is quite willing to put in a 1 1/2 car garage out there for us. He even came with some cool ideas for what we could do. Today, we met with the architect to go over the details and show him the space. Luckily, he’s done plans for garages in our area before and dealt with the building inspector. So now we wait for Dave to come up with a drawing and get back to us. Then Pete can tell us how much this is going to hurt. But in the end, it’ll be great for us and hopefully for resale on the house.
Wouldn’t you know it, Rich wants to do the garage up right. He’s planning for a heated floor, insulation, and a comfortable work environment. It should make working on Sally much easier.
Not only did Pete have ideas for the new garage, but he gave us some ideas for some our problems around the house also. Now we have ways to resolve some issues that we’ve struggled with. And we got them for free. At least they are free until they put the garage in.
Well, that was our weekend and plus one day (today). Time to relax with a slice of cheesecake and then call it quits for this day.
