Here is a rare moment of harmony. Left to Right: Lizzie, Tom Cruze, Betty Page

John asked how Tom Cruze was doing, so here’s an update.

Once Tom got rehydrated and got some food in him he was most definitely energized! He’s been climbing and exploring the house. The vet said it best, “He’s a feisty one!”

He doesn’t seem to mind that the dogs out weigh him about 10lbs to 1lb; he gives as much as he gets. Lizzy in particular loves to wrestle with him. She is as gentle as she can be (she’s sort of a lunkhead, so she isn’t all that gentle). Still, the two of them seem to enjoy playing.

The dogs are not fans when Tom tries to nurse. That’s about the only time they will growl at him.

They don’t mind napping together (why do we have such monochromatic animals?):

The girls hovering over Tom is the usual state of affairs:

Wrestling is another favorite, though mostly it is Tom and Lizzie wrestling (Betty Page mostly just wants to lick him):

The month of July was going to be work-on-jeep month. Instead, after Ann launched her painting of the guest house, it became work-on-the guest-house-exterior month. Oh well, such is life.

One project on the house, led to another, rippling farther and farther …. First, I jumped into painting the exterior so that could get finished (Ann had to halt painting, as she began to have migraines and auras). But, that led to pulling up the deck to replace the plywood decking, which led to the realization that the whole deck needed rebuilding, which led to the opportunity to regrade around the east and north side of the place, which led to adding a French drain for the deck’s gutter.

Though redoing all this had been the plan, I hadn’t planned on doing this right now. My hope is to finish up the deck today, as we have 110 degree+ temps arriving in a couple days for a few days.

This pic shows the deck frame on temporary supports as I get everything squared up.