Cool weather finally has returned to the Northwoods, with temps in the 70s and humidity in the 40s.  That sure was a relief!  Work has progressed at an incredibly slow pace while it's been hot.  My energy and stamina decrease as the heat and humidity rise, so getting the old milk house torn down could have probably been accomplished more efficiently by a passing glacier.  But most of the old rough-sawn wood siding is off now. 

 If you have a house that's over 60 years old and wonder what your insulation looks like, click on this next picture and check out the magnified image:

How embarrassing--our insulation is down around our ankles

Then, there's the hideous finding of several billion dead ladybugs.  If you want a visual on the national debt, substitute a dollar for each bug:

Eww.

There is still so much that needs to be done to make the barnyard safe for the animals; there are piles of crap everywhere just begging for a horse to run in and break or sever something:

And all those tires!  I still find this hard to believe, but there actually is no public access landfill in Price county, and none of the trash services here accept used tires.  There are more than 30 of them littering the property.  Most of the locals suggest burying them but I'm not equipped to dig such a large hole (we just got a quote for $450 to have that hole dug and the leftover dirt graded around the barn to drain rain water away from the foundation.  That isn't happening anytime soon.) and don't like the idea anyhow.   Oh, well.  I'll just concentrate on getting the milk house down and that particular mess cleaned up and see what kind of time I have left after that.  As for the animals, they seem to be ignoring the mountains of dangerous stuff so far.  With horses, you're always just a few minutes away from a major accident--they're incredibly good at injuring themselves--but ours seem to have some unusual sense (or luck).  So far.  We may not be able to get the milk house rebuilt before winter sets in but at least it won't fall on some unsuspecting 4-legged (or 2-legged!) creature.  I do hope, though, to have a new building up and a pump in the well before the cold season sets in so I don't have to drag jugs of water across the yard all winter again.

With limited physical resources, as I've said before, things happen painfully slowly.  But they do happen.  I just have to hang on to that thought.  For now, I think I'll have a beer.