Summertime, Summertime ... Or Is It? (posted by Lani)

Sometimes I wonder. These pictures were taken on July 29th.













In non-wintery-summer-weather news, walking around the house to the deck by the kitchen has always been an interesting proposition, and walking down the side of the house to get to the back even more so. Plus, our house had no character. It was just plopped down on the lot and there it sat. I wanted rock walls. Paths. Walkways. Something a little more civilized, where I didn't feel like I needed a machete to cut through the undergrowth or ropes to rappel down the slope. So, Jim and Steve and I hauled a bunch (a BUNCH) of rocks up from the back of the property, and I turned Jim and Handyman Steve loose on the projects. (Have you noticed an issue with Too Many Steves in my life? My Steve, Nephew Steve, Neighbor Steve, Handyman Steve ... it does get confusing.) Anyway.
We're not done yet, and there are many many more rocks to haul, but I'm very happy with what's done thus far. Clickie to enlarge the pics for more details; the stone path on the kitchen side of the house will curve around and join up with the deck by the kitchen door, the stepped trail down the master bedroom side comes allll the way down and around and meets the back patio near the lower level back door, and the rock wall along the front walk let us fill in some of the steep slope down to that walk and level it out a bit.

Let's see, what else. B'rer Bear has been back several times. My Steve and Jim shot him in the butt with rubber buckshot last week when he got into the trash dumpster at the Eldora Lodge and dragged some of their trash down into Margie's yard. Margie and Tiffany got a couple of blurry pictures; one day one of us will manage better!
Mr. Bear didn't like the rubber buckshot, at any rate, and he made a rapid exit sans trash. Unfortunately since then he's been back, turned that same dumpster over and ripped the lid in half (did I mention Large Bear?), so he didn't dislike it quite enough. We haven't gotten another good shot at him, sad to say, but the shotgun is loaded with more rubber buck just in hopes that we do. He does seem to be staying away from our house for the moment; maybe the combination of being pepper sprayed in the face by me and shot at by Neighbor Tom last time he visited me has served as some deterrent. I certainly hope so.

And, finally. We lost Onyx in early June, and it's been too painful for me to post about. Himari grieved unbelievably, and finally I gave in and got her a friend.

Meet Chenault; he and Himari are damned near inseparable, she's a happy kitty again, and he's helping to put a patch over the hole in my heart that Onyx left. Even the two older cats don't mind him; I think they're just happy that he's calmed Himari down. Sometimes life hurts, but rescuing this little guy has been, if not a cure, at least a bandaid.