Busy, 3 inches, dog deck
Saturday morning we once again found ourselves crawling out of bed at 4am to time another race. The turnout for the race was light so Ali had the idea on Friday that maybe she could run the race with our friend Michelle. So Ali put entries into the system until about 15 minutes before race time and then I took over. I had to scramble a bit to get from the registration area to the starting line which was pretty far away.
The timing of the race was a piece of cake. At this point I have most bugs worked out of the 
new system, it just works and I love it. Ali finished the race at just around a 10 minute mile pace which was way better than she expected. This was her first outdoor 5k since she did the Irongirl 2 years ago. I was proud of her as she came across the line all full of smiles.
We were cleaned up and out of there by 9am and home about a half hour later. Ali laid down and took a nap while I worked on getting the race results out on the website.
Saturday afternoon we knocked out our outside chores and then headed out to Lowe’s. We are heading into our prime planting season so we wanted to get the garden ready. We needed a bunch of soil to bring certain areas up in elevation. We also bought some plants for the garden as well as wood for the dog deck project which I will cover later.
Before we brought the dirt back I wanted to till the existing soil to turn it over and aerate things as well. The tiller we have was given to us by our former neighbors, it is called the “Mantis”. Well the Mantis is rather old, it’s old enough that the gas primer bulb was dry rotted. I had just ordered a new bulb for our one weed whacker. I decided to pull it out of the whacker and use it in the tiller instead, luckily they both used the same size bulb.
The Mantis does a real nice job once you get it running. The problem is getting it running. I have blisters on 4 different spots on my right hand as testament to this difficulty. I pulled on that thing no less than 50 times trying to get it started using various choke and gas positions along the way. It’s ALWAYS been a pain in the ass to get started. I probably spent 45 minutes dicking with it until it finally roared to life. I tilled the dirt as deep as I could, we are hoping to avoid mutant carrots this year due to compacted soil.
When I was loading up the truck with the dirt and wood I used the bungee cords I carry in the bed to secure the lumber. I wound up pulling on one cord in a manner that I shouldn’t have. As I did I was instantly blasted square in the forehead with one of the hooks. It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to flinch. Instantly the pain floods my body followed by INTENSE anger. Ali quickly asked if I wanted her to look at it, not knowing if the injury was bad or not. I just blurted out something angrily that meant NO.
In those moments right after the impact I feel incredible rage. I’m not sure whom the anger is directed at but for a few seconds I felt compelled to just smash something. In the past I’ve acted on this rage doing silly things like putting my fist through a door, punching light poles and various other inanimate objects. I managed to not hit anything this time and instead just pressed on the area on my head that got hit. As I pulled my hand away Ali said I was bleeding. It wasn’t a gusher but enough to draw attention. I also had a nice knot on my head. I thought to myself that if the hook hit a few inches down it could have easily taken out an eye, sheesh.
So we got back and I dumped the dirt around the garden and then pulled on the tiller another 25 times or so to get it started again. I mixed the new dirt with the old dirt. We planted the eggplant, tomatoes, and lettuce we bought. Ali also started carrot, beets and corn seeds. We are crossing our fingers that we have similar success as we did last year.
On Sunday morning after Ali went to spinning we headed over to mom’s place. Mom’s friend that lives in the same development was giving mom her old couch. Ali and I were there to help move it. Mom was surprised we brought the van, she thought we would bring the truck to throw the sofa in the back. Instead we brought the van and my hand dolly. We brought the dogs with which is why the van was preferred.
The sofa was big but not brutally heavy, Ali and I were able to carry it out the front door without much issue. Once we were out the door I balanced it on the dolly while mom and Ali balanced the ends. We wheeled it up to mom’s place and took in through the back sliding door. It’s pink, a big change from the nondescript sofa it replaced. Mom was happy to have it in there. Now she is looking for a recliner to round out her seating arrangements.
On the way home we had to stop at Home Depot for me to get a couple more boards. I made some miscalculations when I started on the dog deck Sunday morning and cut some boards too short. The dog deck is something I had laid out in my head for awhile. The dogs, especially Nicki really likes to lay on tile, I think she likes the way it feels cool to the touch. I had a bunch of left over tile from the bathroom, I thought it would be cool if I built a small dog size deck that used tile for a top. Making it small meant I could move it around as needed. I came up with six 16 x 16 tiles laid out in a 2 x 3 shape as a good size. It was big enough that Nicki could stretch out on it but small enough that Ali and I could move it easily.
I handled this project the same way I do most projects, in my head only. I figured how big the platform had to be to accommodate the tiles. I then used a piece of decking to give me consistent spacing between the legs and the support frame to create the lip the tile would rest on.
It might have taken me an hour or two of futzing around until I had the frame built. The tiles fit in well but not too snug to allow easy removal. I called Ali out to see my latest masterpiece. She thought it was great and helped me carry it out to the back yard. We set it up and put the tiles in place. We called the dogs over to check out their new deck. As expected they didn’t quite know what to make of it. they sniffed around a bit but didn’t go up on it.
Later as I sat on the edge of the deck I coaxed Sadie up onto it, she stood there for a bit and then got off. I’m hoping the dogs warm up to the canine platform. It would suck to go through the effort and not have them use it.
Location is key as the deck needs to be in an area that is shaded for a good portion of the day. Depending on the time of year those areas change so we will be moving the deck around from time to time. You can see the small collage of pictures here. If the dogs don’t use it I suppose it would make a nice plant stand.