Dog days of summer

Just to be redundant - IT'S HOT! Last night was a broiling sweatlodge-vision kind of a night in the tiny house. I almost ordered bamboo shades for our windows last week and I'm glad I didn't because it will be fall soon enough and we need the money for more pressing projects, but DANG, IT'S HOT! Due to the 100°+ temps during the day, we've spent the better part of the last week sequestered in my parents' house (yay, air conditioning!!) and make our way out to the sweatlodge tiny house after 8 p.m. when it's cooled down to an almost-comfortable 95° or so.

And we haven't made any more progress on the "lav." AHEM. Not that we haven't been nagging talking about it, oh we have!So, what have we been doing, other than trying not to bake to death?

Plenty of swimming at the river with the dogs. Well, Lazlo swims and Mia wades in to her stomach only when properly persuaded with the temptation of getting to fetch a stick. Lazlo swims in circles and circles and it's great exercise for him (no stress on his joints, at his age it's a good thing) and Mia travels up and down the rock beach looking for surprises to eat. Don't ask, don't tell is our policy on the beach buffet.

On our last visit to the river I took an underwater disposable camera I'd bought for Keith's fishing gear a couple years ago and used it up on swim time, so we'll see how those turn out...  I tend not to take my DSLR because it's one more thing to worry about and the river is a place where we go specifically NOT TO WORRY.

This is what happens when you give a baseball to a pit bull. It gets peeled in no time at all.

We've been trying to cook some of the things coming out of the garden. This weekend I expanded my limited culinary knowledge by successfully adapting a recipe into a delicious frittata. Shown above are Hungarian wax and jalapeno peppers from the garden with some garlic and red onion that eventually joined some zucchini, artichoke hearts, romano cheese, and EIGHT eggs and we ate every bite (some left over for brekkie!).

 We met some friends visiting from Portland (pictured above with one of the last shots of my PX600 pack from pow-wow) at a nearby beach Thursday afternoon and almost didn't want to leave. They're expecting a baby in February and we haven't seen them for almost a year, so it was nice to catch up and relax at the same time!

Found this neat praying mantis when I was raking up cut grass from our fender planters and moved it to the pear tree.

In lieu of actual progress on the lav (formerly known as the THAUDCTSSR), I started making a Project List and an Inventory List of Items We Already Have On Hand that can go toward finishing some of those projects (i.e. barn wood, medicine cabinet, mirrors, wire crates, wooden crates). And sending Keith emails about the sizable Pinterest board I've collected for Possible Future Projects.

So summer is drawing to a close, calendar-wise, and we have a lot of projects still in the hopper that need to be completed for a comfortable existence in the tiny house this fall and winter. Taking bets on what percentage of those projects actually get finished! Nothing like a looooooming deadline to give us that kick in the butt we need!

PS. It's hot!!!!

NPR's Picture Show blog

Crowing about this everywhere else, might as well here. Fleeting attention is what the internet is all about!
A Polaroid I took of a HS classmate of mine at the pow-wow this weekend was chosen for NPR's Picutre Show blog today! I was disappointed it didn't turn out darker, but I just have to go with what this film does best, which is unpredictability. Don't expect, don't be disappointed.

Here's the rest that were anything worth scanning. (Two others turned out too light to even bother with.)

teen girls' fancy shawl and jingle dance contest

intertribal dance

Darrell Wheeler, emcee at Chief Lookingglass Pow-wow

The Happiness Project: Idaho-style

Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project, was recently among my cracked bedside books and it's providing me with a lot of much-needed inspiration.  I find myself trying to impart some of my newly realized wisdom to Keith, whether he likes it or not. It's contagious. When I finished reading it, I passed it to a co-worker. My new mantra for dealing with a very difficult customer at work, and let's face it: any time I get annoyed lately, is one of her commandments, "There is only love."

Keith fishing in Lolo Creek last weekend, only some tiny fishes were caught but it was fun

Swimmin' dog! @ Lolo Creek last weekend

sunset over Lolo Creek last Wednesday night (about 45 min. from where we live)

dad and Nanner (who just got her Master's in Education this year, w00t!) washing camping dishes

The Chief Lookingglass Pow-wow is this weekend I am stoked to have a pack of b/w Impossible Project film to run through my SX-70. One of my HS classmates is a dancer and I've asked him to pose for me. He said he could round up 7 more people (only 8 shots in a pack of film, booo). Very excited to see how that turns out.

chasing a camping spot

Saturday Keith and I rode with my parents on the looooooongest wild goose chase ever to find a camping spot somewhere on the St. Joe River. Unfortunately at the end of a 10-hour drive we had nothing to show for it (everything we saw was private property!). However, we did drive through some towns I'd never been to before, and some I'd like to return to for photo ops.

See: Bovill

So many businesses for sale and plenty of abandoned buildings and great old signs... definitely will go back to do a more thorough job getting the details.

It's that late July/early August slump where it becomes unbearably hot in the tiny house from about 3-11 p.m.

Our thermal efficiency obviously leaves something to be desired. I have these blinds saved on my pinterest board for the tiny house (where I keep track of things for it). BUT--I can't justify that kind of purchase when we're about 2% into the THAUDCTSSR. Our mantra this summer is: toilet first!

 

I've been taking summer so seriously that I am feeling slug-like. Today I started C25K over again and logged 2.5 miles. My body feels like running is a whole new activity for it (slog, slog), but I am looking forward to the point where it comes more easily.

My awesome co-worker made this grilled cheese cake for me in honor of my third work anniversary. We take just about any semi-noteworthy occasion as an excuse for dessert and as a team we sit down for a take-out lunch the last week of the month. Being a vegetarian, I find it hard to order appealing non-meat meals from the local restaurants and usually default to a grilled cheese. And it's always disappointing. But this time I got to pick the restaurant and we had Chinese, but my co-worker decided I should have a grilled cheese, too. It was sweet, not savory, and she definitely nailed the color of processed cheese with that frosting.

 Another co-worker quit without notice last Tuesday morning so I have two jobs until we get a new one hired. Keith's been helping someone frame a house in the next town over, so not much progress has been made in any toilet-related way. The garden, however, needs little attention. It just does its own thing.