Gracie and I woke up to cooler air. What a relief. Gracie was very hungry this morning. Though her eating habits are a bit strange, she isn't a reluctant eater. Eating up all she's given twice a day without stopping makes keeping her on a schedule so that she doesn't have accidents a lot easier. So she ate, and then we took a long walk. As we walked the familiar circle up into Edina and back, all the things I hadn't been doing because of the heat and because I'd been sick came bubbling up. As soon as we got back, I made a list. First on the list was garden maintenance.
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| Dog wash? I guess so! |
Vegetable gardens take daily maintenance, I think. This is my first summer with one of the size of the one I have--not huge but big enough. I hadn't realized how attached I would get to keeping it healthy until I was actually doing it. I don't think taking off for two weeks to vacation somewhere--even if it were a different summer when other places were appealing and not just as hot or otherwise afflicted--would work out very well for a vegetable garden. I'd have to find someone to fill in and would then worry if they were doing everything necessary to keep the garden from going bad. Anyway, cutting back tomato plants and adding compost and reigning in the zucchini (not like I wasn't warned about zucchini--in fact, I suspect it was zucchini that grew up and over Sleeping Beauty's castle) and then fertilizing and then watering everything took longer than I thought it would when I made the list. Not only that, but it left me dirty and little worn out. Gracie, all fluffy from being brushed, napped in the shade while I worked on the garden and was--of course I'm guessing here--a bit disappointed when we headed inside for water instead of hopping right in the car and heading for the new do-it-yourself dog wash.
"First thing tomorrow," I promised. So I redid the list: dog wash, mail package, co-op, gas. Tomorrow I will tell you all about the dog wash called Bubbly Paws--a very interesting business concept that has sprung up below the apartments that border Wolff Park in our little first ring suburb of Minneapolis. Gracie and I peeked in after the movie the other day but were on our way to have a salad at Panera Bread. We thought it looked like the way to go, though, especially since IDHI advises that dogs only have a bath every 6 to 8 weeks in order to avoid dry skin. Though she is really not terribly dirty, I'm hoping that a bath will help reduce some of the vast amounts of hair that Gracie has been shedding. Her coat challenges even the epic Furminator!
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