dustbowl lifestyle

I don't want to shortchange one of the most devastating ecological and agricultural events in our country's history, but I'm starting to feel Ma Joad's pain.

Allow me to elaborate: one of the side effects of doing major housework is that you end up digging a lot of holes. Not just your basic, mostly superficial holes, but seriously major holes. Kinda like this one:

so happy this moment is being documented!

These are quite necessary holes, I know. I am quite partial to having indoor plumbing. But the dust, the dust, THE DUST. We're perched on top of the mouth of Horse Creek and at the very end of Sawmill Bay, so wind just blows all of the way down the bay, until it has enough force to consistently blow dust into people's faces the upon their arrival. It generally goes something like this:

"Hi, so-and-so! So glad you could find us!"

"Yeah, you're right. We really ARE the only house in the entire region with house wrap on it. So it makes finding the place pretty easy, huh. Maxwell, please stop bothering them."

"Seriously, pets, go play somewhere else."

"Your eyes are bothering you? Your teeth are feeling gritty? Your allergies are already acting up? Oh I'm so sorry! Let's go inside away from the terrible, terrible outdoors. Just please take your dusty shoes off at the top of the stairs*."

Anyhow, I had sort of resigned myself to this plight for the summer. What kind of crazy person decides to seed an entire yard in the middle of July?

Well apparently, RJ. After all of our house guests left last week, that was the second thing on his mind. (First was the recycling. Holy cow that man likes his recycling.) So Monday after work, there he was, grading and leveling and raking and seeding and haying. Gosh, I love him. And I am really, really excited to get rid of the dust.

hallelujah 

*oh wait we never actually do this ourselves and certainly don't ask people do this because the floors are sort of dusty already and therefore gets more dirty from people/pets running around on them. Self-fulfilling prophesy, what?