Summertime, Summertime, Sum Sum, Summertime

I know everyone is as tired of the heat as I am and these damn hot flashes are just making things worse.  It seems like I'm constantly pushing or pulling my wet hair off my neck and face or swiping at the sweat running down my face or fanning myself with whatever is within my reach....if I make it thru this summer without losing my mind it'll be a miracle.   I have always been the person that didn't sweat but that has changed and I feel just miserable 99% of the time.  I feel sorry for Mark because our roles have completely swapped and he's staying bundled up trying to get warm while I'm pulling off whatever clothing is optional.  Please tell me this will stop soon!!!!!!!

We had visitors again and while I was so excited to see them the fact that they completely felt comfortable around us worries me a bit.  Clarice and I watched them for quite awhile before Mark even got home from work then we all watched them together.  Keep in mind they were walking around from the back yard to the front while Mark was driving down the driveway, opening the garage, ect.......they weren't scared at all.  Crazy!!!!

So we decided that maybe my cat containment system might need a little more work to keep them off the porch.  You may recall that I designed it while Mark was out of town and while it worked it wasn't really a permanent or even nice looking solution. 

So we built this over the 4th holiday and I'm pretty happy with the results.  The previous owners had this piece of ironwork hung on the rafters of the porch and I planned on removing it at some point.  It just wasn't quite my style even though it's perfect for this house and location so I designed ....ahem ok Mark designed it after I tried explaining my latest hare brain idea.  Now it just needs to be painted but according to the guys at the paint store it needs to weather in place for 5 to 6 months before I do it.  I don't think I'll be able to wait that long but I may be able to wait a few more weeks  ;)  Mark is just happy that I didn't drag home some old door, shutter or garden gate him to use instead of "normal" building materials.  LOL

We also finally bought a grill or rather I should say I bought a grill and all Mark had to do was pick it up at the store.  It was even assembled and thank goodness the previous owners had a gas line run out on the porch already so all we had to do was hook it up.  We have been without one basically since we went to Germany in 2012 so I was missing it a lot.  I just hate heating up the house in the summer and I enjoy grilling a lot....less mess to clean up so cleaner kitchen is a win for me as well.   Now I just have to keep the bears from trying to eat the grill so I've been very diligent in cleaning it. 

And this afternoon I also got an answer to the age old question "Does a bear shit in the woods" and that answer is "No it shits on my driveway".   Just another reason why this gal should wear shoes when she goes outside to cut flowers for the house.  Yuck!