How do you wash windows that are 15 feet off the ground? We've been asking ourselves that question for the last 3 years or so. Especially after some messy birds moved into the eaves and their..leavings were...left all over those windows. Finally, this month my dad rented a boom (I think that's what it's called). He made a few trips in the basket and then turned it over to Cliff, who washed all those windows and then took the kids for rides.
Our poor trampoline's life has been very difficult since we moved to the country. It gets blown apart in the winter and bakes in the sun all summer. When Chase and Allegra pulled it out of storage and put it back together this month, it didn't survive the operation. After a long and valiant performance as our most fun toy, our trampoline has retired. 
Chase and Isaiah and Cliff spent hours this month rebuilding the cages around the photinia bushes. The old cages were constricting those poor little babies and they seem much bigger now that they're free. And the deer won't be able to nip off those little branches of new growth that have been sneaking out of the smaller enclosures.
My father has been waging a war on these sticky, tenacious weeds since we got here. Isaiah is being paid well to pull or dig them out, a hot, sweaty, unpleasant job that he has been working on for days. Go Isaiah!Death to weeds!
Meanwhile, indoors, Cliff has been refinishing bookcases. I love books. I have a lot of books. For many years I have been unable to house all those books. They have been in boxes, then later unpacked onto shelves in a few garages, and finally, on shelves in our "dungeon" (the big, windowless storage area at the front of our house). I have really disliked having them in all these places. I prefer to have my books places where I can see them. It's just a thing I have.
This summer my sweet Cliff spent many hours sanding, rebuilding, adding trim, staining, and finishing my 3 big bookshelves from the dungeon so they would look nice enough to move into the piano room. FINALLY I have been able to move all my books into the house. Of course, I had to give away a third of my mysteries, but that was no sacrifice, since I kept the ones I like best and that I thought I might reread (you know you read too many mysteries when you forget enough to be able to read some of them again and still be surprised at the endings!). I am grateful for such a handy husband! Now my job is to acquire more books s...l...o...w...l...y so I don't run out of bookshelf space. I've got bookshelves in every room now (well, not the kitchen or the bathrooms) and I need to wait until I gain an empty bedroom that I can turn into a library before I can expand my book collection, I think. And that's still some years in the future. :) 
Another indoor project: we adopted 3 kittens named Walter, Tiki and Lily. They are VERY cute and very full of mischief. These kitties are destined to join our outside cats, Tangerine and Cherry, as hunters. We're dreaming of a 5 cat rodent killing team out there. Meanwhile, we get the pleasure and exasperation of 3 little kitties in the house. They've poked holes in my drapes, chewed up my houseplants, knocked over any stray waterglasses, left little paw prints all over my piano... and climbed onto my lap purring while I'm reading, spent hours entertaining Isaiah and Allegra, put up with manhandling from my neices and nephews, given us all little kitty kisses, and have given me the pleasure of hearing my husband talk baby talk while he's petting Walter, who threads in and out of his ankles while Cliff is cooking. I'm eager for them to get outside and do what they were born to do, but they're still too little live out there yet. And to be truthful, I am really enjoying them around the house. Next blog entry: Chase leaves us for the MTC.
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