Handymen are us....

Due to the lack of handymen up here who actually show up and work (I can name only one at the moment but he has a full-time job now and only works here occasionally) my husband and I re-stained the two-tier deck in the backyard. The afore-mentioned handyman stained it last Spring, but the Thompson’s product barely made it thru last winter. My husband got a refund from that company and purchased a stain made by Behr, which seems to be better. I have determined, however, that if this product does not last thru the Texas heat, then the gods-that-be just do not want the wood deck to be stained. I have hung up my outdoor paintbrush for the last time.

The gray cat is still making himself at home on our porch and in our barn. I am surprised that he has not yet gifted me with a dead mouse, but I am most thankful that he hasn’t.  I have not seen any field mice around the yard, so my guess is that Buddy-Kitty is doing a good job of keeping them away. That name Buddy-Kitty.... I nearly changed his name because he reminds me so much of Gatsby, a large gray cat that we found here the year we moved in.  Gatsby was a gentleman cat, so much so that we named him The Gray Gatsby. He has since gone to that green kitty-light in the sky, but memories of Gatsby gave me the idea of naming this gray cat F. Scott Fitzkitten, with apologies to Fitzgerald. But Buddy-Kitty will have to make do with that name.... he already answers to that when I call him, and with an outside cat, one never knows how long he will stay here.

In the middle of June already.... and the temperatures feel like August out there. Day after day of relentless heat and sun... and to think we were out there on the deck with paint brushes and even a spray-thing. Nuts. We are completely nuts. It’s even too blessed hot to sit on the deck, much less paint the dang thing.