And Finally a Fence

We've finally gotten to a place with the house where we no longer feel like we're camping. Now when we select home improvement projects, we gravitate towards the ones that show results immediately. We've toyed around with the idea of getting a fence ever since we moved in here. Our two dogs have been very reliable with the boundary, but every now and then they take off after a coyote or some moving bush. And even though they primarily stay in the yard, we can't control what comes into the yard. Also, we swap a lot of dog sitting duties with other folks. It's a always a bit of a pain to leash up the visitor dogs and then take them out. It also doesn't help that Scamp is a bully breed.

While Bob was in Australia, I called a couple of fence company's to give us quotes. We decided on All Arbor Custom Fence. Richard, from All Arbor Fence, was incredibly patient with all our questions, let us change our minds a million times, and in the end he and his team installed our very own awesome fence.

We decided to go with a 5' fence, cedar in the front and chain link along the sides and back.

The posts go in.

The beginnings of the gate.

From the front of the house.

The finished product.

Off the master bedroom

Side View

From the front

One of the 6 gates.

Pepper already enjoying her new found freedom.

With the shiny chain link and the gravel pit style back yard, we kind of look like a state penitentiary. But the shine will wear off in the coming months, and once we get some grass and other plants, it should start to look like home again.

Temperatures are dropping

As it's been getting colder these two guys have been cuddling closer at night. We don't really mind because happiness is two puppies warming your feet.

It's also time for Scamp's sweater season. Before we send him off to daycare or outside, he sits patiently as we put his Fido Fleece on. The cool kids at daycare may make fun of him but he needs it. This seems to be the most ideal coats for Scamp because of the almost full belly coverage it gives. Although Scamp has fur, he's almost bald on his belly and gets cold very quickly. Sometimes we become lazy and leave the fleece on. He loves to lounge in it.

Trees

I love trees. I love jewelry with trees, picture frames with trees, and the trees in my backyard. As much as I love the trees, I hate bugs. And at the Pitt we have female box elder trees, which means I get to suffer through these guys, in the late summer and fall. It's disgusting. The entire side of our house will be covered in these little red suckers. They don't bite, the don't hurt the tree, they are just there. And once it starts getting colder, they creep into your house.

This year was exceptionally bad for box elders, so we made a big decision to cut out all the female box elders in our yard. 4 big beautiful trees. Since we were having those cut, we also had an apple and huge Siberian elm cut down as well. The apple tree was in a really bad place, and the elm was in danger of falling on our house.

One of the large box elder trees was very close to our property line and I being the good neighbor decided to talk to the neighbors about the tree. This is how the interaction went: 

Orsi proceeds to house with KEEP OUT signs

Neighbor: Are you my neighbor?
Orsi: Yes. I came to talk by about this tree...box elder problem...
Neighbor: I don't care what you do. I hate tree's. I'd cut down every tree in my yard if my wife let me.
Orsi: Ummmm. Great. I really like trees and would miss them if they were gone.

So I guess we don't have to ask the neighbors about future trees and I was happy they were cool with it. So the trees are gone and the yard is pretty bare. With the geo and missing trees, we look pretty rough out there.