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At one point in my horticultural career, I found myself cleaning out a particularly weedy bed. After pulling for a while, I decided to use a shovel to speed things up. However, the shovel wouldn't go in more than a few inches. The culprit? It was a layer of landscape fabric that had been covered with mulch and was now overgrown with weeds, even though the fabric was supposed to have prevented them from coming up in the first place.

Moscow Food Co-op Farmers' Market – "Hot off the Grill" on Tuesdays, 5-7 p.m. Outdoor event with grilled dinner specials and music by Dan Maher. 5-7 p.m., 121 E. Fifth St., Moscow. (208) 882-3489. Tuesday Growers' Market - Tuesdays, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Moscow Food Co-op parking lot, Fifth and Washington streets.

Whether your cats are hiding under the bed to find cooler air, enjoying the shade of an outdoor enclosure, lapping up cool fresh water, or sleeping from dawn to dusk, cats are champs at escaping summer's heat. Here are top tips gathered from leading veterinarians to keep your cats cool during the dog days of summer.

Dear Collector, I'm not sure if these refrigerator dishes are from the 1940s; what are they worth?

Driving to work on Friday, I passed 27 hand-lettered signs advertising garage sales, yard sales and a few estate sales. The summer months are prime time for such sales, and there are plenty out there for anyone who loves to shop them.

I was quite sure that it was in one of your columns recently that I read about a pest that lives in the ground around the roots of roses during the day and then emerges at night to chew the poor leaves down to nothing. I didn't save the column, and now I'm sure I have the little rascals. They attack my more tender roses, not the hardy old roses. Jayce Keeling

When Shannon and Louis Flores moved to Spokane in 2004, they had a big idea. That notion was to restore the 1899 Browne's Addition Queen Anne style home of early Spokane Mayor Edward Louis Powell and turn it into a showplace bed and breakfast. Now, well into the transformation, the pair have replaced the roof, removing 105-year-old cedar shingles in the process, replaced original cast iron pipes and outdated knob and post wiring, and added insulation.

Is there life without air conditioning? The longest day of the year is fast upon us and – once the rain stops – the hottest will surely soon follow. When the inevitable 100-plus week arrives, it's time to test the truth of that oh so-Spokane statement: You really don't need air conditioning around here.

Garden Newport Naturals Iris and Alpaca Farm - This farm features dwarf and miniature irises, and more. Fridays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 200 N. Quail Ave., Newport, Wash. (888) 725-2079.

Last Thursday, I took a road trip. I joined the Antique Collectors Club, a group of women who get together monthly to talk about antiques and collectibles, at Apple Annie Antique Mall in Cashmere, Wash.

A dog's ear canals are much longer and more L-shaped than humans. Much like the plumbing elbow underneath the kitchen sink, doggy ears are the perfect place for debris and microbes to gather. Ear canals are often wet and warm, and when filled with microbes — be they bacteria, fungi, ear mites or yeast — they are the perfect environments for infection. How do you know if your dog has an ear infection?

Moscow Food Co-op Farmers' Market – "Hot off the Grill," Tuesdays, 5-7 p.m. Outdoor event with grilled dinner specials and music by Tom Drake. 121 E. Fifth St. (208) 882-3489. Tuesday Growers' Market - Tuesdays, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Moscow Food Co-op parking lot, Fifth and Washington streets, Moscow, Idaho.