Crash Test Dummy

Last Sunday the 66 John Deere mowed our whole lawn for the first time ever (it has never ever run right). It was almost like the thing knew it was going to die soon. As an afterthought I decided to make a couple of quick passes in the swatch of grass between our deck and garage because the push mower is not working. Not my best move. Not my best move because we have a 15 foot drop off behind our house, the grass was wet and the tires on the tractor are really worn. Oh yeah and there is that one big tree, the dead one we were going to cut down this spring.


The last photo shows the view from the clearing behind our house, it is quite a drop. Even though I bailed halfway, riding the mower just 10 feet down the hill was by far scarier than any rollercoaster I have ever been on. Minus that one tree we would be laughing but I am pretty sure Ben shed a tear when he viewed the aftermath.

Not a Girlscout you say?

Summer is here and moving dang fast. For those of you have not started your summer activities you better get a move on. My mom visited for a long weekend and we took her on her very first camping expedition. We chose a really cool hike-in spot downeast that overlooks the ocean. It's a little bit of a hike in and my mom is 60, which she reminded us many times. She did great although she about sweated through her pants and the bugs were pretty bad. We made it to camp and the woman who claimed she was going to die scavenged enough wood for a 2 day fire. Hmm you are that tired huh?

Woof on the other hand acted like he was not well. It was his first day wearing his new pack and the longest hike of the year but still he had me worried. We were setting up tents and he just plopped down right were the tent was going and layed there breathing all weird. Eventually he did snap out of it but he gave us a little scare.

Once the sun set the bugs went away and we had a nice evening by the fire. We were able to see 3 lighthouses which doesn't happen everyday and had a nice bit of moonshine to look at.

We packed up and made it out in record time and set off for Campabello Island Canada. We had crossed the border with no problems other than a couple of unsigned passports. There is an old light house that can be visitied at low tide and luckily we planned accordingly to be able to do just that. Woof came with and did very well until we got to the light house and he started acting like a dead dog again. Here we are waiting for him to snap out of it. The East Quoddy Head light house is pretty neat and is in the process of being restored by a bunch of really old people from the island. They were out working the day we visited and they were not the ablest bunch. One old lady offloaded most of her gear onto Ben including a bucket of paint and her BRAND new camera. He must look trustworthy or something? But not 100 feet later he about wiped on some slippery seaweed. That would have been cool huh? That crazy old canuck would have probably kicked his butt.
The rest of the weekend we put my mom to work. We planted our garden, planted grass, planted flowers and transplanted all kinds of stuff, she was like our little migrant worker.

She talks like a migrant worker too. We played alot of Wii bowling and the one time I beat her she called me a s**thead. What is up with that? I deserve better especially from my mother...

Finito!

Ah, life is good again. We finished the bathroom remodel on Tuesday, what a relief. We are both quite pleased with the results, in fact we are starting to wonder if the room really even fits into our century old home, it is way too nice.(check out the old bathroom here, not so nice) Although I was the instigator and designer of the new pooper room, Ben was the one that made it happen, way to go Mr. Anderson. Take a gander at the photos, there are a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears in this 6' by 10' room.



We are pumped that the bathroom is done but bummed to find out Woof has Lymes. Although he may never show any signs of the disease he is on preventive antiobiotics which means 8 giant horsepills a day. He doesn't mind though, he eats poo so pills are no problemo.

Now getting him to drink water, that is a whole different story. Woof doesn't drink water unless it is in the white bowl in the house, the bowl in his kennel goes untouched even if we leave him all day. I am attempting to break him of this habit but am having little luck. Monday he ran errands with me and it got real hot, real fast and he was panting like crazy in the back of the wagon. I rushed home to get him to his water and the sucker would not drink a drop. I decided to show him and locked him in his kennel until he drank. Well he showed me and dug a giant hole and didn't touch his water. At this point it was about 90 and he was breathing like a dragon. I showed him who is boss by putting him on a leash and spraying him off with the hose. He HATES the hose but he just stood there like a statue and would not look at me. It is on Woof, you better watch your back!

Mechanically Challenged

Ben has a way with machines. First it was our lawn tractor which doesn't run long enough to mow our yard or blow the driveway. Ben brought it in to a small engine place and $200 later was told there was really nothing that could be done for it, it is 35 years old and needs a new motor. It does still run and here I just rode it all the way around the yard and it never overheated once. Nice huh?

Then Ben transferred his awesome luck onto to the Camry. That too works when it wants to but is not really reliable. Last Saturday I was at a conference for school and Ben called for a ride. He was in the turn lane to go to Home Depot in the the pouring rain when it quit. Later that day it started right up and we drove it home. We haven't tried to get it fixed because what do you say when you bring it in, "it runs perfect and then it just quits?" We will wait until it never works and in the meantime Ben rides his bike to work and we get by with one vehicle.

Speaking of riding their bike to work, I picked Ben up from work last Tuesday to go to our softball game. We threw the bike up on the car, went to our game and drove home together. When we got home Woof's kennel door was open and Ben was a little preoccupied with the missing dog and drove right into the garage. We heard a horrific crunch and both knew instantly what had happened. We jumped out of the car and all we could see was the bike hanging off the driver side of the car by a cable. After surveying the damage the only serious problem we could find was the bike shock which was seperated into 2 pieces. No scratches, no broken roof rack, nothing!

Until his bike is fixed Ben is riding my bike to work. Please be careful MAN, I really like me bike!

And now the curse of death has hit our push mower. The thing starts but will not run, last night Ben finished a portion of the lawn with the weed whipper. Cripes...