Well, our guests packed up and left early this morning (just when the dogs were starting to get used to them, too), and it’s very, very quiet here this morning. Despite the noise, it was a lot of fun to have everybody here (kinda like summer camp – not that I actually went to summer camp). The little ones spent a lot of time in the pool (even on a couple of days when it was definitely too damn cold for me to go in).

We only had a fire on one night, and even that was tough to get going. With all the rain we’ve had lately, the wood I’d cut and split was pretty damp. After a lot of smoke (which at least kept the bugs away) and with the help of the kids (who were on stick patrol), we managed to finally get a decent one going.

Now I need to catch up on my sleep (and on my chores – the grass is getting pretty long). I did find some time to sit on the tractor and grab some dirt from the woods to fill in a couple of the larger holes the dogs have dug. Not that they won’t dig it all back up again, I’m sure. I also nabbed a fair amount of firewood (finally decided to wise up and cover it), so we should be good to go for the next couple of fires.

And so today is the last day of my vacation (I don’t count weekends), and, sadly, it’s back to work on Monday. Looks like it’ll take me all day just to read through my e-mail, which I’ve been avoiding looking at.

You’d think these people could leave me alone for a week, ferchrissakes.