Waiting for cooler weather

The work on all our projects is nearly done. It's been just too darn hot and humid to work outside. When I sweated through my shorts and top deadheading daisies in the shade at 9 am, I knew it was too much for me and retreated indoors. It was an awful July. The average dewpoint, at close to 65, was higher than the historical average low of 64! That means we were rarely at or below our average low, and thus it was terribly hard to sleep at night without the a/c on. So far this summer, we've had 98 hours of dewpoints above 75. Our average is a mere 18. I apologize to my Florida friends, but I really don't want to put up with your summers in Minnesota. Personally, I think we deserve a long, lovely fall. First we had that endless, snowy winter, then the cold, wet "spring," then right into heat and humidity. Enough already!

OK, enough grousing.

We gave up on the pergola we ordered. We knew it was backordered and were willing to wait until the end of June. But its backorder date came and went with no word from the store. I wrote - they said it should arrive in their warehouse July 6. I wrote again - it still wasn't there and they had no further info from the manufacturer. We decided enough was enough and went looking for alternatives. We walked into Lowe's, and saw an 11 foot offset umbrella. So it sits off the edge of the patio, and can be rotated all the way around its pole, plus tilted to 5 different angles. We can get shade pretty much where and when we want it! We were sold. They were down to the floor model, so we even got a discount. You're supposed to weigh it down with either water or sand poured into the bladder at the base, but Lowe's had it with tubes of sand instead. We thought that was a great idea. It's still 240 pounds, but it's way less messy and easier to move than if we filled the bladder. So here we are - all set.

We added the lights to give a bit of a festive air. Now the one disadvantage of the umbrella, as opposed to the pergola, is that we can't permanently attach mosquito netting to it, since we fold it up whenever we're not out there. But we're thinking of stringing a cord from the shed to the umbrella pole, across to another pole or the back of the house and back to the other end of the shed and simply clipping netting to the cord. From what I've read, mosquitos fly in a straight line to whatever or whoever they're trying to bite. They're not smart enough to fly around obstacles. So, in theory, the netting should discourage the vast majority of them. We'll see. Poor Joe is such a mosquito magnet he's miserable as soon as it's dark enough for them to emerge.

We still need to seal the patio - but that heat, plus our schedules, have kept that from happening so far, as well as kept us from either reseeding or laying a bit of sod. It'll happen, but I hate the weeds filling in the blank spots right now.









We both like our little fountain. It burbles pleasantly, without being too loud.







We also added these little solar lights for a bit of atmosphere. They're not worth much for actual lighting, but they're nice.






So go back to the beginning of the year - and see how far we've come. It almost seems impossible!