Tim and Christopher came to visit while attending a friend's wedding in the area. While they were here, we celebrated Tim's 42nd birthday. Tim was able to work up an ample amount of hot air to quickly extinguish his many candles.

Eleanor Douglass, who lives in Traverse City, spent the day visiting Grasshopper Ranch. It was fun catching up on family gossip.

After putting off the distasteful task of staining the fascia, we finally faced up to our responsibilities and completed the task with the help of our new 38 foot ladder.

Harlene continued putting the finishing touches on trim and mouldings for the interior.

Harlene's longtime camping buddy, Jack, came to visit after their backpacking trip to Montana. Jack couldn't resist looking for Petoskey stones in the treasure trove of rocks that were delivered by a contractor.

In July, we experimented with stripping the bark from a couple of freshly cut pine tree logs. Our intention was to clean and dry the logs to be used for architectural decorations inside the house. We had varying degrees of success after a couple of attempts. Keeping the wood free of dark marks left by mold during the drying process was a challenge.

Our friends Chuck Hall and Rosie at Mott High School in Waterford designed a beautiful sign that was engraved using a CNC router. We have placed it near the entrance where it can be easily seen.

Roxanne and her friend, Mary, visited us for a summer weekend. Mary's pet beagle helped out by cleaning up a few extra rodents that were around the property.

The general concensus among the property owners was that the road name should be changed. After several attempts, we agreed on the name "Whitetail Woods". The County obliged by promptly installing a new sign.

At the insistence of Paul and Matt, our builder, I had to burn all the clothes I had worn to do any staining. Shirt, pants, and even my shoes had to go!

These clothes used for staining had to go. We were afraid that the Environmental Protection Agency would be visiting us soon because of the smell.