A Clean Fourth of July

We are trying to get though this holiday weekend with bangs, booms, whistles and pops all around the town.  Although Chilton does not have a city sponsored fireworks display, there sure are plenty of people in this town shooting off fireworks!  We just have ONE more night to get through here.

"WHEN ARE THOSE BOOMS GOING TO STOP???"

Fortunately, our dogs are not too scared of the fireworks.  It makes them nervous, yes, and they kinda cling close.  But not the awful shaking/panting/shuddering/drooling like our old collie Duchess used to do.  We did let the dogs up on our bed to lie close to us, until about 1 am when things finally quieted down.

The person I REALLY feel sorry for is my friend Lisa.  She runs Stockbridge Critter Sitters grooming and dog daycare boarding facilities.  Unfortunately, she is located just a stone's throw from a fireworks merchant who is blasting off the stuff in his busiest season.  And she is also very close to rows of cottages along the lake, all firing off their own displays.  With 49 dogs in her boarding facility over the weekend, she had to be really on top of the situation.  Scared dogs needing special coddling, nervous dogs peeing or pooping in the house because they were too scared to go outside, and ones that just are terrified completely at the sounds going on.  She is really an angel to supply a safe haven for dogs during this noisy holiday.  I can not imagine what the war veterans are going through.

We will see how many fireworks go off tonight.  I hope with it being a work day tomorrow, the late night revelers will have toned it down.  Or spent all their big bucks on fireworks that fired off Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights!

~~~~~~~

Speaking of work days.....   today we did some helpful projects for Steve's Dad.  Since losing both my Dad and StepDad this year, it's kinda nice to still have a Dad around to hang with.

He needed some pressure washing done on the tall north wall of his house.  We popped on over to his house after picking up something he wanted on the way.  It's good to help out.

Dangnabbit... the pressure washer was not operating correctly so Steve fiddled and futzed with that.  Pa Pfundtner supervised and his dog Millie was the superintendent on duty!

Millie is adopted from a breed rescue up in Wausau area, 

and has fit in so well in Paul's life. 

She is great company and recently completed her training and certification to be a service dog and a nursing home visitor as a therapy dog.  In August she will be approved for hospital visits too.  Very gentle, sweet and well behaved.


Soon Steve had the pressure washer fixed and was able to get to the side of the house. It didn't take long to do the actual work.  He did the patio area too.

In the meantime I did some internet research to locate a particular replacement tray for his motorhome microwave.  I also hauled along a bit of knitting to work on. Sitting out on the patio overlooking the meadow was very pleasant.  Now... who knits winter hats on the fourth of July???  Oh well, I am building up stock for my Etsy store this upcoming winter!

Pa Pfundtner is retired now and is also an artist.... he enjoys painting and decided he needed a new rolling cabinet for his tubes of paint and brushes.  It was an all wood cabinet but had to be assembled.  Sweet Millie was keeping an eye on his work, but she soon decided he was doing good enough and she could nap on the job.  heh heh

After all the work was done, he decided that he needed to take us out for a nice lunch.  It was a quiet place with good service, great food and a friendly waitress who made our meal enjoyable.

~~~~~~~

We came back home for a long nap, and grilled out for supper.  Sticking close to home is our plan, and we are loading up a few things in the motorhome for tomorrow.  Early in the morning we have to drive it up to Appleton to get both windshields replaced!

With all the chips and repairs we have done over the years, I think we are up to numbers 8 and 9...  Safelite came to repair it from a semi truck blowing a tire in front of us. He suggested that the integrity of the windshield is in question and recommended that we have both panels of the windshield changed as soon as we could.  It's covered under the insurance minus a hefty deductible of course.  Safelite searched for the proper sizes and it took since mid-May to locate them and get them shipped to a nearby service center.   Amazingly, it's the same company that our son works for!   He is at the Green Bay plant and we are going to the Appleton one to get the installation done.

They do not want it moved for 24 hours so it can cure.  We do not like leaving our rig unattended at any service center. Too many problems leaving a vehicle alone.

Some fellow bloggers just had their motorhome stolen while waiting for AC repairs, and found it three days later ransacked, destroyed and they are devastated over the idiot thieves dumping out the family urns of remains all over inside their rig! https://awesomesauceadventure.com

We never leave our coach to get worked on..... we learned the hard way---

1. Our Winnebago motorhome was stolen from a dealership lot and took 3 months to recover it.

2. Our Coachmen motorhome was having engine work done at a local mechanic. We left it there, trusting it would be taken care of. Instead, it was left unlocked with wide open doors in the vacant parking lot for an entire weekend!  It was not even inside the building. I mean doors open wide, not just unlocked.  Wide open for any varmint, human or otherwise to walk in and have a free hand at all of our belongings!  We drove by about 8 pm on Friday and saw it and secured it ourselves. Plus the workmen left greasy oil footprints all over the carpeting and greasy handprints on the walls.  Not to mention the manifold work was done wrong and we had to have it towed back 50 miles later!

3. Our Safari motorhome had a mechanic, in a hurry, take off our turbo intake and leave it exposed wide open to dust and dirt in a gravel parking lot (it was going to be left that way for three-four days!~)  but because we were there, we were able to block it off until the new parts came five days later!  The tiniest bit of dirt and sand could destroy our diesel engine!  Try proving that in court? No thanks.  Glad we were on hand to supervise and correct his mistake.


Soooooo this glass company has already been told that we will be staying IN the rig for the 24 hours it needs to cure... (and of course I name dropped that our son works for their Green Bay office!)

They said no problem at all!  I will need to leave the rig while the actual work is being done, but the rest of the time we are welcome to stay in the rig in the lot.  I am going to insist on an electrical hookup because it's going to be hot and humid. Steve will go to work as usual and I am going to be in the rig with the dogs.  I don't want to be running the generator for hours on end to keep cool.  So they better have a nice strong power hookup to let me run at least one roof air.

I will take pics and post tomorrow how it goes.


It's dark now, and the booms are starting again.  Stay safe little doggies.  Too many notices on social media of dogs bolting and escaping on this one holiday of the year.  Much too hard on them.  Oh, and some dummy in Chicago blew off his hand, but a dog who lived 250 yards away found it when he was let out to go potty.  Go figure!

 http://abc7chicago.com/news/barbers-hand-blown-off-in-fireworks-accident-retrieved-by-dog/1410459/