Busy summer--and it's almost gone!

Tomorrow is August 1. 30 days and we'll be hitting September and what, to my mind, is fall. I've taken a look at my to-do list and my still half-painted house, and in a fit of determination (I almost typed "desperation") I have taken a day off every week through September, to try and get things done before snow flies.

One thing I must do immediately is go out with the loppers and cut down the burdock scattered around the property, before it stops being pretty, and starts being a nuisance.

I did not get a garden planted this year, technically. I started some seedlings...too early, as always. I tucked them into my flower garden instead of the back veggie garden, so I could keep an eye on them. I've been eating grilled zucchini and zucchini bread, and I surely wish my tomatoes would do more than flower!

I had been waiting for my zinnias to blossom in great anticipation. They were supposed to be purple. Well, they ain't. They are pink. Perhaps the soil wasn't right to bring out the blue.

My mother upgraded her sewing machine, and made a present to me of her old one. I have two kicking around here that are old, and have been jammed since our work party a few years ago. It's wonderful to have a sewing machine that's not older than I am!

The sun beating in the front windows of the cat facility is an issue I've been meaning to deal with. I need curtains, and store-bought ones won't do. So I ran out to Joann Fabrics a week or so ago and picked up some bright fleece to help cut the sun, and also hold back the cold this winter. Fleece is the most cat-proof fabric available, and my lazy self also liked the fact that you really don't need to hem it because it doesn't unravel.

However, when I was making the curtains (and I'm no seamstress) I told myself it was time to put my big-girl pants on and do something right for a change, rather than half-assed. So I did sew the seams on all four sides of the curtains, and maybe they'll look a little better and last a little longer.

My swallows have been dive-bombing me for the better part of two months now, without a single baby-beak peeking out of the new nest they built on my pole saw in the barn. I was beginning to believe it was going to be a bad year for the swallows (perhaps insects were killing the fledglings) when I notice little heads peering out at me the other day. Bear is now banned from the outdoors until they have joined their parents in the sky.

It wouldn't feel like summer without a whole line of swallows sitting on the phone line outside.

Beautiful weather. Long to-do list!

With the arrival of hot and humid weather comes some of the "uck" that goes with cat rescue. Molds and fungus grow, maggots breed, cats shed profusely. Wet food can't be left out. I have become friendly with bleach again, both in the cat facility and my home. Currently I'm giving my kitchen floor it's ten-minute wait under bleach and water. After do the some cat laundry tonight, the bathroom will get the same treatment. Iget complacent over the winter when everything is chilly and bone-dry. It's easy to put off mopping and satisfy yourself with sweeping. But once the furnace or heaters are off the the humidity begins to climb, it's time to stock up on my friend Clorox. All of us in the animal welfare profession keep waiting for that magical day when someone discovers something else that works so well. So far, we are still waiting.

Some people can't abide the smell of bleach and luckily I'm using it in well-ventilated areas, so the smell has dissipated in 24 hours after a serious cleaning, and within an hour or so after a wipe-down. Gone as well are the hundred or so other little sordid smells that we did not notice until they were gone. "Wow, it smells CLEAN in here."

I have been using a small pump-style pesticide/fertilizer sprayer in the cat facility to spray bleach and disinfectant, and it works so well I purchased one for in the house. No more hand-cramps from trying to use a re-purposed glass cleaner bottle. In the cat facility, I can bleach down the falls without a fuss, and then pass over them the next day with a spray of hot water. It means mopping up the floor afterward, but a little more bleach and water never hurt a floor.

The cats are PO'd because I have to restrict their wandering until everything is dried off. Currently poor Tyler is shut out in the cat enclosure because I didn't realize he was out there when I closed the window to cut down on cat traffic.

Trash has to get emptied more often (discarded cat food and summer heat are not compatible), and the trash must be taken to the solid waste facility each and every week.

When I start cleaning floors, I have to cast a critical eyes on what's ON the floors, and whether it's anything worth keeping. I thump-thump-thumped old cat furniture down the stairs to the bottom of the barn. I've re-wrapped the sisel rope on them enough that it's time to say goodbye. Old cat toys---outta here. Old cat beds--also history. The best of them are going through the laundry twice with bleach to be bagged up, awaiting winter again. The cats in the facility prefer stretching out flat on towels, or sleeping in their slings, when the weather is warm.

So that is my July 4 weekend. Tomorrow, the 4th of July holiday, I'm working as a hostess at a lake party, flipping veggie burgers and keeping things picked up. Then Tuesday it's back to work!

Three-day weekends go fast.