What a beautiful weekend. Hard to believe it’s the end of October. On Saturday, the temp was upper 60s to low 70s. On Sunday, the temp was mid 60s. Both days had plenty of sunshine. I even opened up the windows on Saturday to air out the house.
Saturday morning, I kind of got up on my own. Sascha was waiting, but she was communicating a great need to me at that point. I put her out and made coffee. The house was quiet as I read the paper. The guys stirred a while later. Rick and I made waffles and bacon for lunch. Rich got his own omelet. Then it was off to get haircuts.
Sascha had been digging in the yard and flowerbeds while we were gone on our last trip. It seems like she always digs the most in the fall. Maybe this was a denning effort on her part to prepare for the season. Rich and I had discussed if a doghouse would stop her. Maybe she just needed somewhere of her own to crawl into and hide away. Today, we went shopping for a doghouse. At Petsmart, they had only a couple of styles. Man, they were expensive.
While we were looking, Rich turns around and says he can make a doghouse for Sascha. I thought he was kidding. We decide to wait and see what Blain’s Farm and Fleet has in the way of doghouses. I got online when we returned home. Nope, they have the same thing everyone else has. Rich decided to try and make her one first. Maybe she didn’t even want a doghouse. OK, he’s on.
After getting a plan from the Internet, he sorted through his wood stock and set up the sawhorses. I guess this really is on. After about an hour, there was a base on the driveway. I helped Rich get 2x4s from the attic for the walls. Pretty soon, there was a structure out there without a top.
Rick thought he would be funny and climb into for fit. Sascha just couldn’t handle that. She came running over and up onto the base. There was no way that Rick was laying claim to this. It was definitely her doghouse. I guess she did want a doghouse to hide in.
I set Rick to cooking steaks for dinner. Rich was still working and Rick needs to practice his grilling skills. With the new grill, there was the searing grate that added a new step to grilling. Rich insisted on it. Sascha was hanging out by the grill hoping that something was dropped. These are steaks. Not a one of those guys is going to drop something that important to them. She would just have to wait until dinner was done.
Yeah, after dinner. Rick carved off what was left on his steak and prepared the bits for her. She watched so intently. It’s a good thing she doesn’t have lasers for eyes. It might just feel like that at times. Rick got up to walk to her dish and Sascha started in with the happy dance. She walks on her back feet, jumps around, and twirls a lot during the happy dance. She can barely contain herself. With the release click, she dives into her dish and doesn’t come for air until everything is gone and the dish is licked clean.
Saturday was pretty quiet. We just hung around and watched TV. But Sunday morning, I woke up to the sound of chewing. Sascha was chewing her toenails! As soon as she thought I was even a little bit awake, she jumps up and starts dancing around. Now, you would think this is because she wants out to take care of business. Nope, she just wants to go out and check out the wildlife. I know this from experience. I try to go back to sleep, without any luck.
So I get up and get dressed. Sascha is doing her happy dance in anticipation of getting outside. I put her out and she runs to the deck to see if the woodchuck is out. At least I hope it’s the woodchuck. On Thursday, I put Sascha out at around 6:00 AM, like usual. I didn’t even look out in the yard. She went tearing out of the garage with such a force, I was scared. Then I saw it. There was a skunk in the yard! Oh my god! Luckily, the skunk took off and didn’t spray on his way! I grabbed the dog and hauled her back into the house before anything else happened. After it was daylight, we tried again with more success.
Since it was quieter this morning, I was able to get coffee and start on the Sunday paper. Pretty soon, Rich was up and looking for the comics. Sascha came in from outside and demanded to sit in my lap. Really? Didn’t Aunt Rose tell you that you aren’t a lap dog? There was no denying her this morning. She crawls in my lap and seems so happy.
Luckily, she decides to transfer her love to Rich and goes over to hop up in the big red chair with him. We read for another hour before it’s time to get dressed and go out for some breakfast. We are still deciding where to go as we drive out of the neighborhood. By the time we get to River Road, we decide on Brunch as our destination. It’s early enough. Brunch is a fair sized place, but it gets a lot of traffic. We arrive and find no one standing outside. That’s a good sign. Inside, the wait is about 10 minutes. Pretty soon, we get our table and order. Everything here is fresh and the food is pretty good. It’ll be a good start to our day.
After breakfast, we head home and back to work. Rich gets ready to finish off the doghouse. I go out to work in the yard. I really need to spray for the box elder bugs. They are all over the front of house and coming into the house. That has to stop. No more bugs! Rick hooks up the water hose and I spray down the front of house to kill the bugs and put down a barrier for any others that might come along.
Finally, the roof is ready to install on the doghouse. It really looks good. Rich put an extra support in the center to hold more weight, if needed. It probably will be needed since I can see Sascha jumping up there. I saw pictures of her on top of the doghouse at the rescue back in the day. She could repeat this habit.
I did a walk around the yard to look at what was left of my flowers. The dahlias and the zinnias are still in bloom. They aren’t looking their best, but they are still out there and being very colorful. I expect them to continue until we have a really hard frost. The couple of frosts to this point haven’t been that hard. I was able to get some pictures. The jump ups on the deck still looked good. I even had a bunch that managed to transfer themselves over to an empty spot and come up on their own. I miss the color and beauty as they perish.
For dinner, Rich put on a fest chicken and set the rotisserie on grill to cook it. Fest chicken is Rich’s version of the chicken that he remembers in Germany. It is garlic, butter, and parley stuffed inside a chicken. The seasoned chicken is grilled on a rotisserie. It is wonderful. It is one of Rick’s favorite meals. The weather is perfect for this meal. Sascha loves the smells.
After dinner, we took Sascha for a walk around the neighborhood. It was still nice out and you didn’t really need a coat. Rick even joined us. We got around by the lake and we saw a couple of deer. We thought we could get by them before Sascha noticed. Nope, her ears went up and she was all attention. She barked and they took off into the tall grasses around the lake.
So it was the close of another perfect day and a great weekend. I know winter is coming soon, but we had late summer just one more time.
