August Update

I feel badly that I haven't been writing much. I hate to deny the world access to my deepest inner thoughts. It just isn't fair, I realize.

Our trip to Reno and the ensuing debacles (the skunk episode and Sally's week-long excursion through central Washington) left both of us drained. We did have a nice weekend, and are getting back into gear. On Sunday we laid down a new layer of plywood subflooring, which readies us to install the cement backerboard and then the tile.

Thanks to Erin we learned about an INCREDIBLE product, Tecnu (weblink here), which utterly removed the skunk smell from the dogs' fur. The only remnants of odor are on their faces where we were reluctant to use the product. If you didn't know we'd been skunked, you wouldn't notice the odor in the house at all. Tecnu is sold at Winco Foods, and is in the section with sunburn and insect bite treatments.

In retrospect, Crater Lake and the Lava Beds National Monument were really worth seeing. You have to get off of the interstate to see them, but we're glad we did.

The apricots are ripe on one of the family trees, and are getting ripe on the others. We seem to have a good crop of plums, pears and apples, so this late summer will feature lots of canning and juicing in the kitchen, assuming I quit sitting at this computer and get on with remodeling!