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!