another weekend :-)

Good morning.
Saturday ended early, and with the nice 78 sunny weather, we went over to Reno's outdoor patio for a late lunch. We split a 12 inch meat lovers pizza. Delish!
Also ran into one of our stylists and her husband, also enjoying the weather. Chatted a bit,  and enjoyed the sunshine.
Back home, I started the long task of cutting back the flower beds, preparing them for another long Michigan winter. Managed to get most of the bed along the pond cut back.
We have rain moving in this morning, so I expect I'll do indoor stuff today.
But now, I'm off to clean the Salon.

this and that and bugs

Good morning.
Sorry for the lack of posts, as I just haven't been in the mood to sit down and type.
And it's been very busy, The Salon is very busy this week, we've been doing a lot of running around, and working in the yard.
I've got the mo-ho cleaned up for what will be our last trip of the season in a few weeks.  :-(
And we're patiently waiting for the 17 bait traps to work against the termite infestation.
It's been a week and a half since they were installed, and although there seems to be a little less activity, until they check the traps and confirm activity there, I won't know if it's the bait reducing the activity, or if there's no more wood in the area for them to eat.  :-\    I hate this not knowing.
But here's a few pics of the 'active' sites.....

Sorry for the blotchy pics.  I apparently need to clean the camera lens. These 2 are on the top corners of two different windows.

Oh, and look, the little buggers are building a mud tube down my living room wall!

And I'm not suppose to clean these up until they know whether or not the bait has been hit. That way I can monitor them.
Anyway, I just have to be patient, and wait for them to find the bait.
But now, time to get ready for work.

Yep! Another RV trip

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon.
That's right, we were on another RV weekend trip.
This one took us about an hours drive west to Yankee Springs State Park. 
While there, we took in Art prize in Grand Rapids, MI.
This is becoming a national event with over 1500 entries this year, and $560,000.00 in prizes.
And the art is all over the city. In public building, parks, restaurants, museums, and even in the river...

There was something for everyone....

Even a fire breathing dragon!

For more pics, click on the Art Prize link above.
We didn't see all the art, not even half of it. It would takes several days wandering the city to  see it all. And it's become so popular, it was crazy crowded.
But it was enjoyable, and we got to see more of Grand rapids than we had before.
And here's our campsite....

And a morning and evening view of Gun lake from our site.

It was a good trip. Now I've gotta run, but I'll post more later.

how to clean a grill.

Good morning.
A couple people asked how I get my portable grill of 8 years still looking so good.
First off, it's heavy steel construction.

Also, since I only use it when we're camping, it's not exactly getting a lot of use. And i try to clean it a couple of times during the season.
But anyway, first off, I get a tub.

This is a heavy plastic tub used for mixing concrete in. You can get one at any home improvement store.
Fill a large pail with hot soapy water, pour it into the tub.

Here's the filthy grill.

Take out the rack,the upper rack, and the heat shield and put then in the tub to soak.

Then i used a putty knife to scrape the build up off the bottom.

Then, with a plastic mesh covered sponge, I scrub the inside with the soapy water.

After soaking for about half an hour, I use the putty knife on the heat shield, and the sponge on the rest.

 Rinse everything with the hose, and reassemble.

And it looks almost good as new!
Have a great weekend!

bug update

Good morning.
Well, we finally had a decent day yesterday. Sunny and mild. Near 63.
Monday, was cloudy and cold, but Craig managed to get the yard mowed, while I cleaned up around the foundation of the house in preparation for the Tuesday installation of the Sentricon system for those little bastard termites.

Tuesday morning the tech from Rose Pest Solutions arrived at 9:30am and installed these...

We now have 17 of these around the perimeter of the house. They are baited with a product termites supposedly love.  They have been placed 8-10 feet around the entire house. Apparently, even though they have my entire house to eat, the constantly send out scouts looking for new food sources and will eventually find these. How long depends on numerous factors, too long to say, but lets just hope they find these sooner than later.
Also Tuesday, I washed all 3 cars while Craig cleaned the windows.
Now, it's back to work!

cold weather, yummy eating, and those damn termites

Afternoon.
It's been a chilly, wet, fall day here in Lansing, with the temps only in the upper 50's. Fall sure has moved in and settled in.   :-(

It's been raining nearly nonstop all day.
Soooo, I've been pretty much on the puter a-l-l day.  :-)
Today was our usual day, me cleaning then Salon this morning, Craig doing laundry and paperwork this afternoon.
Craig did make a new dinner dish for Saturday evening, Mexican Pizza.

I have to say it was yummy!
Of course, for those interested, the recipe is here.
And we were told Friday, the tech coming out to install the  sentricon termite system won't be out until Tuesday morning. I guess another day won't matter since it may take weeks to months for the bait to be found by the termites.
I'm having a hard time dealing with this termite issue. When I usually have an issue, I analyze the problem, make a decision, and take action. Even though I've taken action, this issue won't be resolved. At least not right away, and that bothers me. The termites continue on their endless quest to devour my home. They tell me that termite damage is v-e-r-y slow and the time it takes for the sentricon system to work, won't add much in damage. Easy for them to say since it's not their home.  :-\
They tell me I have  a less than a year infestation. I don't know how they know that without tearing out drywall, but I guess I should trust them.
But I just have to trust the 'professionals', and hope their right.
Anyway, the sooner they get this installed, the better.
And that's all I got for now.......

winding down

Good morning.
It's been a busy week in the Salon.
They came out to the house yesterday morning and marked the utilities, and The exterminating company is coming out Monday to install the termite system.  The sooner the better.  :-\
And although the flowering season is rapidly winding down, I have a few late bloomers....

Above,  Ligularia dentata 'Othello', and below, Hibiscus 'Copper King'.

Below, Sedum 'Vera Jameson', and in the back left, Black eyed Susan.

And now, back to work.

You've got to be kidding me

Good morning.
Late last week, Craig spotted this on the top of one of the bedroom windows....

After goggling it on the internet, I made a call to Rose Pest Solutions. They sent a guy out yesterday, and confirmed. We have termites.  :-(
Although the tech confirmed they were termites, he was a bit puzzled we had them. We have a brick home on a cement slab. He has never seen a home like that infested. It's not easy for termites to find a way into a brick home. Lucky us! And he was unable to find any access point. He could only speculate that they must have gotten in through a crack in the slab.
Anyway, we have purchased the recommended treatment. After miss dig marks the house for utilities, they will send out a tech to drill holes around the entire house and install bait traps. He claims they have a 100% success rate in eliminating the entire colony and protecting from future infestations.He also said it was a fairly new infestation, so there should be no structural damage. He estimated it at less than a year old.
And so, as life would have it, it's always something! The last thing I thought I'd ever have to worry about was termites!
Oh well, deal with it and move on as I say.

a sidewalk to here?

Good morning.
Remember that new walkway I posted about a couple of weeks ago that goes from the library,  over to a nearby neighborhood? Well, here's where it comes out of the woods to the street.

Now you'll notice, there are no sidewalks on this side of the street, so it ends at the edge of the road.
Well, not really. If you look across the road to the other side, this is what you'll see...

Now there are no sidewalks on the other side of the street either, but for some unknown reason, they decided to pave a big square and put curbs around it, straight across from where the other sidewalk meets the road. It doesn't appear to serve any purpose I can see, but who knows.
Anyway, it's been a very busy week in the Salon and today is another one, so time to get going.
Have a great weekend!

a weekend trip

Good morning.
Well, my long labor day weekend is over, and now it's time to get back to work.
I don't know if my 2 prewritten  published posts fooled anyone, but we were gone for the long weekend.   :-)
We went to one of our favorite campgrounds, Maumee Bay State Park, just east of Toledo on Lake Erie.
We arrived late afternoon on Friday, and got settled into our site. There was a chance for thunderstorms that night, so I decided to roll up the awning before retiring. I could have used tie-downs and de-flappers, but I knew if storms hit, Craig would be up and down all night checking on the awning.
Besides, as long as I don't put lights up, it's a snap to open and close it.
I'm glad I did as very strong storms developed during the night. It must have rained for 3 hours!
On my early morning walk, I noticed 4 travel trailers, 3 pop-ups, and one mo-ho had awnings ripped off or damaged. I also counted 7 tents, completely collapsed or partial collapsed. And that was just in the 3 spokes I walked. There are 8 spokes in the campground.
After Craig got up, we went for are morning coffee walk, had a light breakfast, and headed into town. Toledo has a very nice farmers market, right downtown. We picked up some fresh zucchini and corn for our dinners at the mo-ho. Went for our power walk along their river, and stopped into Tony Packo's for a couple of their delish Hungarian Chilli Dogs.   Yum!
Then back to the campground where we took a little bike ride.
As a special treat for the holiday weekend, we had t-bone steaks on the grill. Um-mm good!
Since there was another chance of thunderstorms, I rolled up the awning once again. We were fortunate, the rain came only at night, and the days were dry and hot.
Sunday morning, our coffee walk, light breakfast, and off we were again. This time, over to the Hollywood Casino, on the south side of Toledo. And what seems to be a broken record, I left $40 up, but Craig was $30 down. I really need to leave him home.   :-)
Since we were close, we headed over to one of their big outdoor malls. Did some window shopping but spent no cash.  :-)
Then we headed back downtown, to the Docks. A complex of restaurants across the river from downtown. We ate at the outdoor patio at Forrester’s on the River. A beautiful day, and good food.
Then back to the campground for another power walk, and relaxing with the Sunday paper.
After chicken thighs on the grill for dinner, and another evening walk, we broke down camp as much as we could for an early morning departure. This campground has 260 sites, and on holiday weekends, they all leave on Monday, so if you wait until mid morning to leave, the line to the dump station could be nearly an hour long. Of course, we could always bypass that and dump when we get home, but Craig likes to pre-dump, and put ice in the tank and re-dump back at home.
I don't care, as I'm an early riser anyway. So i got Craig up at 6:45, and we were ready to leave at 7:15. Got to the dump station and one of the 2 site were open. By time I finished dumping, there were 3 in line already!
Anyway, we arrived back in Lansing, with no mishaps, and another good trip!
And now, I gotta get going!

look what I saw.

Good morning.
We have 3 huge clumps of Joe-pye Weed in the yard. The large kind of fuzzy looking flower heads attract dozens of bees. Itty-bitty ones to Bumbles.

-

But I haven't seen many of these. A Monarch.
I even leave a large group of milkweed growing over by the creek to help attract them, but there seems to be fewer each year, so I was happy to see this one.
Anyway, it's been a nice weekend so far, and I'll tell you more later.