After digging up the cardboard left by the deck crew... the dogs found other places where there is cardboard. Sigh.
Went out today and bought chicken wire and stakes. Tomorrow I'm going to chicken wire the entire area under the deck, put a thin layer of dirt over it, and if they find a way to dig the cardboard out... then they can freakin have it.
This is just a general rant of sorts now. What bonehead designed the shuttle? Is this thing made of styrofoam or something? A window cover falls off and breaks it, foam insulation falls on it at lift off and they thing crumbles, and what the hell are high tech astronauts doing toting CAULK GUNS around in space to repair this thing? I'm just guessing that someone from NASA didn't run out to home depot and buy one, I'm sure they're "special" caulk guns that cost my ass a zillion dollars in taxes.
TWO YEARS they studied, plotted, and planned and still crap falls off that thing, not to mention fuel gauges not working. Good lord people! What about a little duct tape next? Gorilla Glue claims to be the strongest, send the astronauts up with a tube or two of that stuff.
I'm also getting sick of stupid excuses for stupid people. Some woman boots her 4 year old out of the car on 495 and leaves him (hitting him as he tried to get back in), later gets into an accident (because she was tired), and someone actually tried to excuse that behavior. "oh, she was driving all the way from New Jersey, so she must have just have been tired"... TIRED? You boot your kid out on a freakin highway because you're tired? Seems logical to me, and totally excusable. Let her go, give her back her kid and let her get tired and kill some people later on, I'm sure she'll have a better excuse for that.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
We Survive the BBQ
The next time we have a barbecue, I think we'll start around 5pm, because at 3pm it's really hot and sunny on the deck.
After doing some last minute running around for some last minute stuff we forget, we got home in time to do the prep work. Everyone that was invited showed up, everyone seemed to have a good time despite the heat, and the gate at the bottom of the deck stairs held just fine and the dogs didn't race up for some chaos and husky greetings.
There were about 6 kids there, 2 of which were babies. I was worried that the older kids would be bored, but they entertained themselves by trying to pet the dogs, who were a little angry that they couldn't join the festivities. The older kids kept wanting to get in the yard to play with the dogs, but I kept an eye on them and told them not to. Yeah, the pups are all cute and fluffy behind a gate, but it would be like 60lb pirahnas had that gate opened. Fur flying, jumping and kissing going on, small children knocked to the ground for a flurry of husky love. No thanks.
I felt somewhat bad that my house is not child friendly, advising a parent that they really should sterilize the furry pacifier that fell to the floor. We also really don't have any place to lay a child down on where fur wouldn't be an issue in the whole diaper changing process.
But then again, since I rarely have kids in the house, there's no reason for me to maintain a "sterile" room. The closest would be the guest room, but that's only when someone we expect is coming. It doesn't stay "sterile" very long.
So, overall it was a good time (hopefully had by all), but I'm glad its over with.
After doing some last minute running around for some last minute stuff we forget, we got home in time to do the prep work. Everyone that was invited showed up, everyone seemed to have a good time despite the heat, and the gate at the bottom of the deck stairs held just fine and the dogs didn't race up for some chaos and husky greetings.
There were about 6 kids there, 2 of which were babies. I was worried that the older kids would be bored, but they entertained themselves by trying to pet the dogs, who were a little angry that they couldn't join the festivities. The older kids kept wanting to get in the yard to play with the dogs, but I kept an eye on them and told them not to. Yeah, the pups are all cute and fluffy behind a gate, but it would be like 60lb pirahnas had that gate opened. Fur flying, jumping and kissing going on, small children knocked to the ground for a flurry of husky love. No thanks.
I felt somewhat bad that my house is not child friendly, advising a parent that they really should sterilize the furry pacifier that fell to the floor. We also really don't have any place to lay a child down on where fur wouldn't be an issue in the whole diaper changing process.
But then again, since I rarely have kids in the house, there's no reason for me to maintain a "sterile" room. The closest would be the guest room, but that's only when someone we expect is coming. It doesn't stay "sterile" very long.
So, overall it was a good time (hopefully had by all), but I'm glad its over with.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
The Battle Continues
I really wish I had told the deck people to pull up those stupid concrete molds they stuck in the ground to keep the holes from collapsing on those first set of holes they dug.
I mean, come on, who would have thought that the dogs would actually sniff them through the dirt, dig down to them and actually EAT the soggy, nasty cardboard? They're slowling degrading (as they should) but in the meantime, the dogs are going after them like its a delicacy or something.
There are about 4 spots where those things are. During the great drainage pipe dig (ok digs, there were multiple digs) hubby and I ripped through a few of them and tore out as much as we could, but a lot of them remain, and the dogs just keep trying to dig them up.
They hover in that area, waiting for me to turn away or get distracted, then go to town trying to dig down to them. I chase them off, but they migrate back. "I'm not doing anything, I'm just slowly walking around in this area".
Today I went to Lowes and got 6 paver stones, the big ones. They're pretty cheap actually, but heavy. Toted them home and placed them over the tasty concrete spots.
The dogs came out, sniffed a bit, pawed a bit (with me reminding them not to paw), then seemed to give up. I'm not stupid, I know they're just pretending that I've beaten them. They're trying to let me think that their little treats are now beyond their reach and I'll stop watching them like a hawk. The moment my back is turned, there's going to be some digging going on, even if they have to tunnel to the area.
I mean, come on, who would have thought that the dogs would actually sniff them through the dirt, dig down to them and actually EAT the soggy, nasty cardboard? They're slowling degrading (as they should) but in the meantime, the dogs are going after them like its a delicacy or something.
There are about 4 spots where those things are. During the great drainage pipe dig (ok digs, there were multiple digs) hubby and I ripped through a few of them and tore out as much as we could, but a lot of them remain, and the dogs just keep trying to dig them up.
They hover in that area, waiting for me to turn away or get distracted, then go to town trying to dig down to them. I chase them off, but they migrate back. "I'm not doing anything, I'm just slowly walking around in this area".
Today I went to Lowes and got 6 paver stones, the big ones. They're pretty cheap actually, but heavy. Toted them home and placed them over the tasty concrete spots.
The dogs came out, sniffed a bit, pawed a bit (with me reminding them not to paw), then seemed to give up. I'm not stupid, I know they're just pretending that I've beaten them. They're trying to let me think that their little treats are now beyond their reach and I'll stop watching them like a hawk. The moment my back is turned, there's going to be some digging going on, even if they have to tunnel to the area.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Purging, purging, purging
Today is purge day. So far we've moved a very old, very tiny computer desk on the porch for a freecycle person to pick up. I also cleaned off the junk that was on two very junky bookshelves (we got them when we first got married, they're rejects from an office move we did when we worked part time for a moving company), put them down in the back room for now, they'll go in the trash later. I would freecycle them, but they're really pieces of crap.
Now, the only thing in the upstairs living room is a desk. When we save up, we'll be adding furniture, a big flat screen tv, and making that our living room, since we hardly ever go downstairs anymore.
It's kinda nice to have the minimalist thing going on up there. We could play handball up there if we wanted.
BTW: have I mentioned just how freakin HOT it is around here? It's FREAKIN HOT!!!!! I sweat just looking outside. Even the dogs don't want to go outside. Hubby LOVES it. He's been lounging on the deck (which we re-organized to make room for our two matching little tables and some extra chairs), lounging in the heat. I've been avoiding the heat.
Ok, I'm rambling now, I'll shut up
Now, the only thing in the upstairs living room is a desk. When we save up, we'll be adding furniture, a big flat screen tv, and making that our living room, since we hardly ever go downstairs anymore.
It's kinda nice to have the minimalist thing going on up there. We could play handball up there if we wanted.
BTW: have I mentioned just how freakin HOT it is around here? It's FREAKIN HOT!!!!! I sweat just looking outside. Even the dogs don't want to go outside. Hubby LOVES it. He's been lounging on the deck (which we re-organized to make room for our two matching little tables and some extra chairs), lounging in the heat. I've been avoiding the heat.
Ok, I'm rambling now, I'll shut up
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Enough of the storms already!
We're on our third major storm of the day/night.
We cancelled our barbecue bash because of the crappy weather, had a HUGE downpour that lasted about an hour and made the yard into mud (can't wait for grass to grow). Then we had another one that knocked our power out for a few seconds, causing us to do the "shut down the computer dash" throughout the house.
Around 3pm (the time we were going to have the barbecue) we took off for Costco and (as usual) spent waaaay too much on more stuff to grill. Stopped for the obligatory latte, then got home to find... no power. None at all, and from the UPS lack of beeping, it had been off probably about the time we walked out the door two hours ago. Lovely
As we were carrying the food inside, the power came back on (thankfully), but then we got hit by another major storm.
7pm rolls around, the sun comes out, QUICK fire up the grill! We had 24 brats to cook because we had thawed them for the barbecue and if we didn't bad brats, BAAAAD brats.
I made potato salad, we satueed some saurkraut and onions in beer, grilled 24 brats and around 9pm, we each had a brat... 22 to go.
So, it's getting late, we're both tired, and what happens... another storm. Lightening and thunder up the ying, rain, blah, blah, blah, and the moment we try to go to sleep, Meeshka will want us to get out of bed because of the thunder... sigh.
We cancelled our barbecue bash because of the crappy weather, had a HUGE downpour that lasted about an hour and made the yard into mud (can't wait for grass to grow). Then we had another one that knocked our power out for a few seconds, causing us to do the "shut down the computer dash" throughout the house.
Around 3pm (the time we were going to have the barbecue) we took off for Costco and (as usual) spent waaaay too much on more stuff to grill. Stopped for the obligatory latte, then got home to find... no power. None at all, and from the UPS lack of beeping, it had been off probably about the time we walked out the door two hours ago. Lovely
As we were carrying the food inside, the power came back on (thankfully), but then we got hit by another major storm.
7pm rolls around, the sun comes out, QUICK fire up the grill! We had 24 brats to cook because we had thawed them for the barbecue and if we didn't bad brats, BAAAAD brats.
I made potato salad, we satueed some saurkraut and onions in beer, grilled 24 brats and around 9pm, we each had a brat... 22 to go.
So, it's getting late, we're both tired, and what happens... another storm. Lightening and thunder up the ying, rain, blah, blah, blah, and the moment we try to go to sleep, Meeshka will want us to get out of bed because of the thunder... sigh.
BBQ Postponed
As we were out mowing the lawn and cleaning up the back yard, it started lightening and thundering. Yes, it's still early and this could pass, but we checked out weather.com and found a lovely line of storms coming our way, and its suppose to start raining until sometime Sunday.
Since the yard is a catastrophe, and we're not doing so good anyway with the yard being a catastrophe, and what with it pouring rain right now, its just going to get worse, we took the cowards way out and decided to postpone it for next weekend.
Guess we'll have to eat 24 brats now... the horror :)
Since the yard is a catastrophe, and we're not doing so good anyway with the yard being a catastrophe, and what with it pouring rain right now, its just going to get worse, we took the cowards way out and decided to postpone it for next weekend.
Guess we'll have to eat 24 brats now... the horror :)
Drainage Woes Continue
50 bags of drainage rock later, hubby and I dug the pit, carefully filled the pit and the trench with drainage rock, stepped back to admire our work and sunk ankle deep in quicksand.
Apparently the T pipe part is still leaking or SOMETHING, we don't quite know what at this point. Either the sand/crap that we used to fill the T pipe part wasn't packed down enough and in the other day's downpour it turned into goo, or the T pipe part is leaking and we have a problem.
I swear, I'm about to rip the downspout out of the front and just lay a pipe into the street and do the same for the back and leave it like that.
At least the dogs don't have a huge hole to play and lounge in any more, even though they're still on the hunt for nasty wet cardboard bits. Sam has found a spot where one of the holes had been, and is in the process of trying to dig to China to get the stuff.
Some of the "home improvement" books we got say if you have a wet spot in your yard, plant water thirsty plants there. Um, our spot happens to be right in front of the gate, which defeats the entire purpose of having a gate, therefore... NO. I guess we could plant these water hungry plants and bushes near the gate entrance and hope they suck the water from the front of the gate entrance (I doubt that).
In general, our yard is a mud pit at this point, from all the rain we've had, then we thought we turned the sprinkler off (didn't), all the digging and wheelbarrowing... it's a mess. Perhaps we're just destined to have a mooshy side yard. I would think that grass would grow nicely in that spot now, what with all the water. Maybe that will help, but for a bit... we give up. We'll need to level that part to help water run off, and from there, save up money and have a professional come out and deal with it. sigh.
Time to mow the yard for the barbecue we're having today (woohoo).
Apparently the T pipe part is still leaking or SOMETHING, we don't quite know what at this point. Either the sand/crap that we used to fill the T pipe part wasn't packed down enough and in the other day's downpour it turned into goo, or the T pipe part is leaking and we have a problem.
I swear, I'm about to rip the downspout out of the front and just lay a pipe into the street and do the same for the back and leave it like that.
At least the dogs don't have a huge hole to play and lounge in any more, even though they're still on the hunt for nasty wet cardboard bits. Sam has found a spot where one of the holes had been, and is in the process of trying to dig to China to get the stuff.
Some of the "home improvement" books we got say if you have a wet spot in your yard, plant water thirsty plants there. Um, our spot happens to be right in front of the gate, which defeats the entire purpose of having a gate, therefore... NO. I guess we could plant these water hungry plants and bushes near the gate entrance and hope they suck the water from the front of the gate entrance (I doubt that).
In general, our yard is a mud pit at this point, from all the rain we've had, then we thought we turned the sprinkler off (didn't), all the digging and wheelbarrowing... it's a mess. Perhaps we're just destined to have a mooshy side yard. I would think that grass would grow nicely in that spot now, what with all the water. Maybe that will help, but for a bit... we give up. We'll need to level that part to help water run off, and from there, save up money and have a professional come out and deal with it. sigh.
Time to mow the yard for the barbecue we're having today (woohoo).
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Here's a banking rant
Ok, so hubby and I have a joint checking account at a credit union. The only problem with that is that its a credit union, and in credit union rules, even though I'm a joint owner of the account, I have no privileges. When it came time for me to direct deposit my paychecks into the account, they said "oh no, you can't do that, you aren't the primary member, you have to open up your own checking account, then we can transfer the money into hubby's checking account".
Huh? That's stupid, but they weren't budging, so I had to open a checking and savings account, then fill out paperwork to have my checks deposited into my account, then transferred into hubby's (our) account.
Everything is fine, until we decide to use my worthless checking account for e-bay and paypal. We input the routing number and checking account number in, and it doesn't go through. So I try to log into home banking, but I don't have a PIN for that. I GO (physically GO) to the bank and tell them I need a password, and they tell me to call the customer service number. Um, I'm here, help me now. No, you have to call the customer service number.
I read the instructions for getting my PIN reset. It says that AFTER I prove I am who I am (on the phone), they will reset my PIN to my phone banking PIN.... EXCEPT I NEVER GOT A PHONE BANKING PIN!!!! They mention that if I don't remember my phone banking PIN, that maybe (MAYBE) the rep can help me out.
A.) I WAS STANDING IN THE BANK WITH ID, and they tell me to call and PROVE who I am over the phone?
B.) I can just see this conversation now, they asking me a bunch of questions that I don't know, or was never given the answers to when I opened the account, they cancel my account because they think I'm some identity thief and my paychecks go boing, boing.
Such a pain, on top of everything else.
Oh, it's thundering, guess who won't get any sleep tonight thanks to stressed out Meeshka!
Huh? That's stupid, but they weren't budging, so I had to open a checking and savings account, then fill out paperwork to have my checks deposited into my account, then transferred into hubby's (our) account.
Everything is fine, until we decide to use my worthless checking account for e-bay and paypal. We input the routing number and checking account number in, and it doesn't go through. So I try to log into home banking, but I don't have a PIN for that. I GO (physically GO) to the bank and tell them I need a password, and they tell me to call the customer service number. Um, I'm here, help me now. No, you have to call the customer service number.
I read the instructions for getting my PIN reset. It says that AFTER I prove I am who I am (on the phone), they will reset my PIN to my phone banking PIN.... EXCEPT I NEVER GOT A PHONE BANKING PIN!!!! They mention that if I don't remember my phone banking PIN, that maybe (MAYBE) the rep can help me out.
A.) I WAS STANDING IN THE BANK WITH ID, and they tell me to call and PROVE who I am over the phone?
B.) I can just see this conversation now, they asking me a bunch of questions that I don't know, or was never given the answers to when I opened the account, they cancel my account because they think I'm some identity thief and my paychecks go boing, boing.
Such a pain, on top of everything else.
Oh, it's thundering, guess who won't get any sleep tonight thanks to stressed out Meeshka!
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Weird Day
I was sitting in an all day ghastly meeting today, had a chance to check my gmail and found one from my friend V. She had been listening to the "Don and Mike" show on monday and it was announced that Don's wife, Freda, was killed in an automobile crash over the weekend. She said her preggers hormones made her cry like a baby.
I don't have preggers hormones, but felt the exact same way. Hubby and I have listened to Don and Mike forever, especially when we commuted down to VA for our jobs. She seemed like a friend, listening to their son Bart grow up, listening to them argue. I saw her picture for the first time today, nothing like I expected at all. One of the things you could tell about them, no matter how hard they argued, was how much they loved each other. This is devastating, in that it was so unexpected, and such a stupid way for her to die.
On top of my brain melting in the all day meeting, and feeling horrible about Freda's death, I get home and Sam and Loki had a quick, usual tiff about who was going to smell the fence since the neighbor dog was on the other side. A quick yapping, whirling dervish moment (like many others), and then Loki comes slinking over to me. Great, I think, Sam has nailed him again and we'll have to trot off to the Vet ER again. Oh no... this time Loki nabbed Sam right in the ear. He was slinking to me with that "really, I didn't mean to do that, the ear got into my mouth somehow, I didn't mean to bite down". Sam is totally oblivious and happy, came trotting over to me, ear bleeding.
Took him inside, it's a pretty nasty ear gash, but as ears go, not much you can do for it. They typically don't stitch up ears, they're too flimsy, just flaps of skin over cartlege, so I stopped the bleeding (ears bleed a lot too), "glued" the parts together with some neosporin (which Loki tries to lick off in apology) and we'll just keep an eye on it. He seems no worse for wear, totally oblivious to it, so I'm hoping he'll heal just nicely and we can go about our business as normal.
I'll be stuck in another meeting half a day tomorrow, then I'll come home and be with them. I really need to get them back into a routine again. They've all been terribly cranky what with the deck build, then the drain incident, then the 2nd drain incident. I'm sure they just want their yard back and their routine back again.
It doesn't help that Saturday we're having a BBQ and people are bringing (good lord) children to our house. I want this saturady to be over right now. The poor pups are getting locked up because I think that's a lot more fair than trying to keep them from jumping on kids, or worse yet, have some moron let them out by mistake.
Poor confused pups.
I don't have preggers hormones, but felt the exact same way. Hubby and I have listened to Don and Mike forever, especially when we commuted down to VA for our jobs. She seemed like a friend, listening to their son Bart grow up, listening to them argue. I saw her picture for the first time today, nothing like I expected at all. One of the things you could tell about them, no matter how hard they argued, was how much they loved each other. This is devastating, in that it was so unexpected, and such a stupid way for her to die.
On top of my brain melting in the all day meeting, and feeling horrible about Freda's death, I get home and Sam and Loki had a quick, usual tiff about who was going to smell the fence since the neighbor dog was on the other side. A quick yapping, whirling dervish moment (like many others), and then Loki comes slinking over to me. Great, I think, Sam has nailed him again and we'll have to trot off to the Vet ER again. Oh no... this time Loki nabbed Sam right in the ear. He was slinking to me with that "really, I didn't mean to do that, the ear got into my mouth somehow, I didn't mean to bite down". Sam is totally oblivious and happy, came trotting over to me, ear bleeding.
Took him inside, it's a pretty nasty ear gash, but as ears go, not much you can do for it. They typically don't stitch up ears, they're too flimsy, just flaps of skin over cartlege, so I stopped the bleeding (ears bleed a lot too), "glued" the parts together with some neosporin (which Loki tries to lick off in apology) and we'll just keep an eye on it. He seems no worse for wear, totally oblivious to it, so I'm hoping he'll heal just nicely and we can go about our business as normal.
I'll be stuck in another meeting half a day tomorrow, then I'll come home and be with them. I really need to get them back into a routine again. They've all been terribly cranky what with the deck build, then the drain incident, then the 2nd drain incident. I'm sure they just want their yard back and their routine back again.
It doesn't help that Saturday we're having a BBQ and people are bringing (good lord) children to our house. I want this saturady to be over right now. The poor pups are getting locked up because I think that's a lot more fair than trying to keep them from jumping on kids, or worse yet, have some moron let them out by mistake.
Poor confused pups.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Drain Repair
During the heavy rains we had with Cindy, I noticed that our downspout drain was leaking (yes, the one we just put in).
It was very odd, as if water was flowing from the front yard into the back yard. Very odd.
So on Saturday I started to dig, and found that the morons that did the original drainage ditch had sunk a pipe from the front downspout into the back yard, connected the back downspout to it and continued the drainage pipe all the way into the back yard. This was, of course, the pipe the deck crew had cut into when they dug the footer to the deck.
Lovely! No wonder the back side of the yard is a swamp. When I dug up the T junk, water started pouring out of it. Even lovelier.
So, this weekend, hubby and I dug up the pipe we installed two weeks ago, redug a new trench for the new pipe, got a new T connector, and redid the whole thing.
We also found that instead of digging a pit they way you're suppose to, they just put a loooooong bunch of plastic at the end of the pipe... nice, another reason why that part of the yard was always a swamp.
Around 6pm today we finally filled in the pipe part, but have to order rocks and stuff for the pit. We barriered that part off from the dogs, and of course, Meeshka found her way in quickly and gave us the finger as she snorfled the mud.
The other pups are fighting over the cardboard forms that the deck people just left in the holes and filled in. Apparently as they decay, they are quite tasty, as the pups spend a lot of time digging for bits, eating them, or fighting over them. Lovely.
It's been a lovely weekend, and this week will be a lovely week at work, what with 800 meetings and junk to do.
BTW: Anne's Dairy Cream, although we've been told serve the BEST hot dogs in Maryland... yeah, it sucks, I'm sorry, those deep fried bologna rolls are not hot dogs.
It was very odd, as if water was flowing from the front yard into the back yard. Very odd.
So on Saturday I started to dig, and found that the morons that did the original drainage ditch had sunk a pipe from the front downspout into the back yard, connected the back downspout to it and continued the drainage pipe all the way into the back yard. This was, of course, the pipe the deck crew had cut into when they dug the footer to the deck.
Lovely! No wonder the back side of the yard is a swamp. When I dug up the T junk, water started pouring out of it. Even lovelier.
So, this weekend, hubby and I dug up the pipe we installed two weeks ago, redug a new trench for the new pipe, got a new T connector, and redid the whole thing.
We also found that instead of digging a pit they way you're suppose to, they just put a loooooong bunch of plastic at the end of the pipe... nice, another reason why that part of the yard was always a swamp.
Around 6pm today we finally filled in the pipe part, but have to order rocks and stuff for the pit. We barriered that part off from the dogs, and of course, Meeshka found her way in quickly and gave us the finger as she snorfled the mud.
The other pups are fighting over the cardboard forms that the deck people just left in the holes and filled in. Apparently as they decay, they are quite tasty, as the pups spend a lot of time digging for bits, eating them, or fighting over them. Lovely.
It's been a lovely weekend, and this week will be a lovely week at work, what with 800 meetings and junk to do.
BTW: Anne's Dairy Cream, although we've been told serve the BEST hot dogs in Maryland... yeah, it sucks, I'm sorry, those deep fried bologna rolls are not hot dogs.
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Full Night's Sleep Tonight?
Last night we had thunderstorms. No big deal to us, but to Meeshka, a CATASTROPHE!!!!
I have no clue where or how she's developed this storm phobia thing, but thunder just sends her into a panic. She doesn't freak out and hide, oh no, she feels compelled to claw you. She claws and claws and claws until you go downstairs, turn on all of the lights and sit on the couch. Those are her rules.
I think it may have been a rough storm year during her formative puppy years. Typically if we had a bad storm, we'd go downstairs and sit in case it got really nasty. Since we don't have a basement, the downstairs is the lowest part of the house, and frankly its easier to sit on the couch and kiss your ass good-bye than in any other part of the house.
Apparently we must have trained her to such a point that whenever it thunders, we must go downstairs.
During hurricane Isabel, we thought we'd have to sedate her. There's just no way she'd be able to function, and no way that we would have any skin left through an all night storm like that.
Isabel came, lights went out, every dog fell asleep. Plopped on couches, they lay like lumps while we bailed out the sump hole all night. Once or twice they got up wanting to go out, we took them out on leashes, they got to the door and said "yeah, screw that I'll pee in the house".
So, last night as we're both dozing off, we hear the thunder. We looked at each other, and like clockwork, Meeshka jumped on the bed panting and clawing. UGH!
Having had my share of sleeping downstairs on the couch with the lights on, I said screw it and herded her into the guestroom (which is very dark with the lights off), told her to stop being an ass, turned the lights off and curled up on the bed.
She huffed and puffed and panted and paced, then curled up at my feet. Ten minutes later, she stuck her cold nose on my face, I told her to stop being an ass, she got off the bed and lay in front of the door and huffed at me. I was breaking her rule by not going downstairs, but apparently just being in a different room than the bedroom was good enough, and she went to sleep.
Of course, I slept like crap. We bought a crappy guest room bed for a reason (people won't stay long) and I hadn't changed the sheets in a while so that was a bit nasty (note to self, change those sheets before September's in-law visit... or not), but overall, I got enough sleep.
Hubby didn't apparently, it got pretty bad so he was up shutting down computers and eating leftovers out of the fridge, but hey, at least he wasn't doing that and getting clawed.
I hear Tropical whatever Cindy is heading our way tomorrow. LOVELY. Not only will we get clawed, but we'll get to find out if our drainage pipe work will keep the water from flooding our house. WOOHOO.
I have no clue where or how she's developed this storm phobia thing, but thunder just sends her into a panic. She doesn't freak out and hide, oh no, she feels compelled to claw you. She claws and claws and claws until you go downstairs, turn on all of the lights and sit on the couch. Those are her rules.
I think it may have been a rough storm year during her formative puppy years. Typically if we had a bad storm, we'd go downstairs and sit in case it got really nasty. Since we don't have a basement, the downstairs is the lowest part of the house, and frankly its easier to sit on the couch and kiss your ass good-bye than in any other part of the house.
Apparently we must have trained her to such a point that whenever it thunders, we must go downstairs.
During hurricane Isabel, we thought we'd have to sedate her. There's just no way she'd be able to function, and no way that we would have any skin left through an all night storm like that.
Isabel came, lights went out, every dog fell asleep. Plopped on couches, they lay like lumps while we bailed out the sump hole all night. Once or twice they got up wanting to go out, we took them out on leashes, they got to the door and said "yeah, screw that I'll pee in the house".
So, last night as we're both dozing off, we hear the thunder. We looked at each other, and like clockwork, Meeshka jumped on the bed panting and clawing. UGH!
Having had my share of sleeping downstairs on the couch with the lights on, I said screw it and herded her into the guestroom (which is very dark with the lights off), told her to stop being an ass, turned the lights off and curled up on the bed.
She huffed and puffed and panted and paced, then curled up at my feet. Ten minutes later, she stuck her cold nose on my face, I told her to stop being an ass, she got off the bed and lay in front of the door and huffed at me. I was breaking her rule by not going downstairs, but apparently just being in a different room than the bedroom was good enough, and she went to sleep.
Of course, I slept like crap. We bought a crappy guest room bed for a reason (people won't stay long) and I hadn't changed the sheets in a while so that was a bit nasty (note to self, change those sheets before September's in-law visit... or not), but overall, I got enough sleep.
Hubby didn't apparently, it got pretty bad so he was up shutting down computers and eating leftovers out of the fridge, but hey, at least he wasn't doing that and getting clawed.
I hear Tropical whatever Cindy is heading our way tomorrow. LOVELY. Not only will we get clawed, but we'll get to find out if our drainage pipe work will keep the water from flooding our house. WOOHOO.
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Just Because She Can
After working all weekend to get the next level of back yard done (hauling 10 yards of top soil into the back yard, raking it smooth, squishing it with the roller, and planting grass seed), we put up the barrier to keep the dogs from digging, playing, cavorting, and pretty much trashing all the work we did.
Meeshka made it priority one to find a way into the barrier. It was there keeping her out, so she must get in there to see what it was we were keeping from her.
It took her all of 5 seconds to figure out a way to get in. She sauntered around, looking all puffy and proud. She taunted the other dogs "look at me, I'm where I'm not suppose to be". She raised a middle toe at us "Try to keep me out".
She made herself at home. I made the mistake of showing her the board entrance I put up when I let her back out. After that, she would just simply swipe the board away and saunter back in whenever she wanted.
The boys (Sam and Loki) respected the barrier (peed on it to show their disgust) until Meeshka showed them the way in. After that, it was a free for all in the barrier.
When they all began leaping over the barrier, hubby had enough. "Take it down before they impale themselves".
So, they won, down it went. Now they want nothing to do with that area.
Huskies 1, Humans 0
Meeshka made it priority one to find a way into the barrier. It was there keeping her out, so she must get in there to see what it was we were keeping from her.
It took her all of 5 seconds to figure out a way to get in. She sauntered around, looking all puffy and proud. She taunted the other dogs "look at me, I'm where I'm not suppose to be". She raised a middle toe at us "Try to keep me out".
She made herself at home. I made the mistake of showing her the board entrance I put up when I let her back out. After that, she would just simply swipe the board away and saunter back in whenever she wanted.
The boys (Sam and Loki) respected the barrier (peed on it to show their disgust) until Meeshka showed them the way in. After that, it was a free for all in the barrier.
When they all began leaping over the barrier, hubby had enough. "Take it down before they impale themselves".
So, they won, down it went. Now they want nothing to do with that area.
Huskies 1, Humans 0
Sunday, July 3, 2005
It Figures
July 3rd. We've spent all day hauling top soil into our back yard. We wanted grilled burgers... the propane ran out.
DRAT!!!!
So tomorrow (the 4th of July) we'll have to go in search of a place that's open and sells propane. If not, guess we'll have to call our friend and tell him not to come over unless he brings a tank of propane.
This throws our entire schedule off for tomorrow. We have half of a pile of top soil left to haul into the backyard (and frankly, we're not too sure where we want to put it at this point), then we have to go in search of propane.
It means an early morning of work for us because I'm not hauling top soil after work this week.
BTW: burgers cooked on the stove suck after grilling for almost a month.
DRAT!!!!
So tomorrow (the 4th of July) we'll have to go in search of a place that's open and sells propane. If not, guess we'll have to call our friend and tell him not to come over unless he brings a tank of propane.
This throws our entire schedule off for tomorrow. We have half of a pile of top soil left to haul into the backyard (and frankly, we're not too sure where we want to put it at this point), then we have to go in search of propane.
It means an early morning of work for us because I'm not hauling top soil after work this week.
BTW: burgers cooked on the stove suck after grilling for almost a month.
My Review of "War of the Worlds"
Please note, there are "spoilers", which is kinda funny since the movie is a remake, of a remake, of a remake.
Hubby and I went to see War of the Worlds last night. I have to admit, the last two movies we've seen in a theater, I've actually fallen asleep in, but I managed to stay awake for this one (so I guess that says something for it).
The previews of upcoming movies: King Kong (done to death), The Transporter II (good lord), and two that were so bad, I've forgot about what they were the moment the preview as over.
The movie starts out by a voice over from Morgan Freeman and showing us microbes. Since everyone already knows the story: aliens come, aliens kill, aliens croak from the common cold, the voice over was all cryptic and probably went over about 95% of the audience's head.
We're quickly introduced to Tom "I know psychiatry because I've read a book" Cruise's character, and immediately hate him. His two kids, a brooding teenage boy that's taller than Cruise and slightly unbelievable that Cruise and his now remarried and preggers ex-wife could have had a kid so old, and the daughter, a much younger bad dresser who appears to have the brain of 20 year old.
After the obligatory "this is why they don't get along" scene with the teenager, Cruise gets mad and goes to bed, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.
Next morning, the shit hits the fan, as the girl is flipping channels, we get to hear snippets of wacky news reports of lightening storms knocking out power to different continents. The girl announces to Cruise that the brother has taken off in his car, he goes to look for the kid and gets distracted by everyone looking at some funky storm approaching.
Soon, HUGE bolts of lightening start hitting the ground, Cruise and girl take cover in the house until it passes, when they discover that nothing electronic, not even his watch, works now. This takes him a good 10 minutes of trying everything electronic.
He leaves the girl in the house and ventures out to find out what happened. He amazingly enough, bumps into the teenage son and tells him to go home.
This is when the aliens come in. A crowd gathers around the big ol hole that is left where the lightening hits, and soon big cracks begin to appear around the hole, people back up, things start flying, buildings collapse, and someone starts shooting the action with a camcorder. Wait... a camcorder? Everything electronic is dead but this one camcorder? Amazing. Well, the camcorder has to work because we're shown through the camcorder how the alien space ship bursts from the hole, rises up, bleats out some tone, then starts frying people. The owner of the camcorder is crisped, which means we get to view the carnage from the camcorder screen now laying on the ground.
People scatter, get fried, Cruise makes it to safety (as people near him are getting vaporized), so he goes back to his house, gathers his kids and decides to go to Boston, where his ex-wife is.
They grab the ONLY vehicle that works (because he told the mechanic how to fix it earlier), and he and the kids hightail it out of the city.
Drive, drive, drive, kid interaction, screaming girl, teenage son bitching. During this time, Cruise is trying to "save" his daughter from knowing what is going on, that is until she has to pee, they stop, she sees a river, then thousands of dead bodies floating downstream in it.
The military appears and for some reason, Mr. Goth anti-establishment teenage son feels compelled to join the military, which Cruise tells him no.
The end up at the ex-wife's house, which is unscathed and they end up sleeping in the basement. In the middle of the night there are more of the lightening strikes and some kind of huge explosion, which they manage to survive. In the morning, Cruise goes out and finds a big honking passenger jet has squished the neighborhood, and meets a tv crew who explain to him and show him footage of all the alien craft attacking. They also explain to him (and the idiot audience) that the space craft have been HERE all this time, buried under the ground, waiting. The lightening bolts are the method the aliens have used to get the "pilots" into the space craft. Ok, whatever.
More driving, until they end up at some town where zillions of people are gathered and freaking out. Their van gets stolen so now we're walking, we're walking.
They end up on a ferry, which is turned over by aliens, and we see people getting plucked out of the water and stuffed into the alien ships. Cruise and kids swim ashore and continue to watch people getting plucked up, and walk through the "shower" of clothing that keeps falling from the alien ships. HMMM.
The military converges, tanks and airplanes are bombarding the aliens over a hill (you can't see what's going on, just explosions), and the brooding, anti-establishment teen decides that he wants to watch what's going on. Argument with Cruise, teen feels compelled, demands to go, yadda yadda, so Cruise lets him go, grabs girl and runs, only to see that just over the hill where the teen goes, there's mondo destruction and teen has surely croaked.
Cruise and girl somehow end up in a basement with Tim Robbins, who turns out to be a whack job. The aliens decide to camp out right over that house for the night, so we're treated to the roving alien eye hide and seek thing, then get to see the alien's coming in to look around while the three hide.
Tim Robbins eventually goes full tilt bozo, and Cruise is forced to kill him... not really sure why, since right after that, the girl goes nuts and runs out of the house, Cruise follows and runs around yelling for her for a good 5 minutes before they are both captured by an alien ship and plopped into a cage under the ship.
Apparently, the ships run on humans, since we get to see a person sucked into the ship, then the ship sprays out blood and parts. Cruise is snagged for refueling, but the people pull him out and he's able to plant some grenades (conveniently) into the ship, it explodes, they all escape.
More walking, more walking. They end up in Boston, where Cruise notices that the gunky vines being "planted" by the alien ship is dying. We also see one of the ships plopped into a building and on fire. Apparently they are all dying of something (gee, what could it be). The military shoots down another ship, and we get the obligatory alien slithering down a hatch, croaking scene.
We're walking, we're walking to a nice neighborhood in Boston, where apparently nothing much has happened because the row houses are all pristine and untouched.
The ex-wife, all clean and groomed wearing gap, her new husband, and her parents all come out on the porch, see Cruise and the girl and have a tearful reunion. Amazingly enough, the brooding teenage boy has not only lived through the fire inferno of the alien battle, but has somehow found his way to Boston, the ex-wive's parent's house BEFORE Cruise, so there's that tearful reunion.
Then its back to the microbes, where Morgan Freeman explains (for those too stupid to realize) that man has been on earth lo these many years and has built up an immunity (which apparently we've "earned") to stuff, and these pompous aliens hadn't, therefore we deserve to live on earth and the aliens don't.
Hubby and I looked at each other and said "mmm, ok then".
Questions:
1.) if the aliens were using us as fuel/food, then why the whole vaporizing scene at the beginning?
2.) iIf the aliens were using us as fuel/food and sucking our blood out, wouldn't they obtain our immunization from our blood, much like babies do during the whole pregnancy thing?
3.) I realize that the whole Tim Robbins thing was to show Cruise going from hapless moron who could care less about his kids, to a father fighting to the death for the life of his kid... but did it have to be so freakin long, and it seems to me that he could have left at any time anyway.
4.) Did the little girl have to scream so freakin much? Up until they were stuck in the basement with Tim Robbins (which is a valid reason to scream), she really didn't see all that much because Cruise was always shielding her from seeing stuff. I also hate 8 year olds that talk like they're 40.
5.) Gigantic alien ships in the ground, the first one buried right under a street in a big city, and NOBODY found them? "Hey, we can't put the subway here, there's a big honking alien ship"
Overall, good special effects, stupid story, predictable ending (it's a remake... duh), unbelievable happy ending, la la la, the world will rebuild and learn nothing from the experience, 100 bucks (16 for tickets, the rest for stale popcorn and a soda) down the drain, 2 hours of my life wasted.
Hubby and I went to see War of the Worlds last night. I have to admit, the last two movies we've seen in a theater, I've actually fallen asleep in, but I managed to stay awake for this one (so I guess that says something for it).
The previews of upcoming movies: King Kong (done to death), The Transporter II (good lord), and two that were so bad, I've forgot about what they were the moment the preview as over.
The movie starts out by a voice over from Morgan Freeman and showing us microbes. Since everyone already knows the story: aliens come, aliens kill, aliens croak from the common cold, the voice over was all cryptic and probably went over about 95% of the audience's head.
We're quickly introduced to Tom "I know psychiatry because I've read a book" Cruise's character, and immediately hate him. His two kids, a brooding teenage boy that's taller than Cruise and slightly unbelievable that Cruise and his now remarried and preggers ex-wife could have had a kid so old, and the daughter, a much younger bad dresser who appears to have the brain of 20 year old.
After the obligatory "this is why they don't get along" scene with the teenager, Cruise gets mad and goes to bed, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.
Next morning, the shit hits the fan, as the girl is flipping channels, we get to hear snippets of wacky news reports of lightening storms knocking out power to different continents. The girl announces to Cruise that the brother has taken off in his car, he goes to look for the kid and gets distracted by everyone looking at some funky storm approaching.
Soon, HUGE bolts of lightening start hitting the ground, Cruise and girl take cover in the house until it passes, when they discover that nothing electronic, not even his watch, works now. This takes him a good 10 minutes of trying everything electronic.
He leaves the girl in the house and ventures out to find out what happened. He amazingly enough, bumps into the teenage son and tells him to go home.
This is when the aliens come in. A crowd gathers around the big ol hole that is left where the lightening hits, and soon big cracks begin to appear around the hole, people back up, things start flying, buildings collapse, and someone starts shooting the action with a camcorder. Wait... a camcorder? Everything electronic is dead but this one camcorder? Amazing. Well, the camcorder has to work because we're shown through the camcorder how the alien space ship bursts from the hole, rises up, bleats out some tone, then starts frying people. The owner of the camcorder is crisped, which means we get to view the carnage from the camcorder screen now laying on the ground.
People scatter, get fried, Cruise makes it to safety (as people near him are getting vaporized), so he goes back to his house, gathers his kids and decides to go to Boston, where his ex-wife is.
They grab the ONLY vehicle that works (because he told the mechanic how to fix it earlier), and he and the kids hightail it out of the city.
Drive, drive, drive, kid interaction, screaming girl, teenage son bitching. During this time, Cruise is trying to "save" his daughter from knowing what is going on, that is until she has to pee, they stop, she sees a river, then thousands of dead bodies floating downstream in it.
The military appears and for some reason, Mr. Goth anti-establishment teenage son feels compelled to join the military, which Cruise tells him no.
The end up at the ex-wife's house, which is unscathed and they end up sleeping in the basement. In the middle of the night there are more of the lightening strikes and some kind of huge explosion, which they manage to survive. In the morning, Cruise goes out and finds a big honking passenger jet has squished the neighborhood, and meets a tv crew who explain to him and show him footage of all the alien craft attacking. They also explain to him (and the idiot audience) that the space craft have been HERE all this time, buried under the ground, waiting. The lightening bolts are the method the aliens have used to get the "pilots" into the space craft. Ok, whatever.
More driving, until they end up at some town where zillions of people are gathered and freaking out. Their van gets stolen so now we're walking, we're walking.
They end up on a ferry, which is turned over by aliens, and we see people getting plucked out of the water and stuffed into the alien ships. Cruise and kids swim ashore and continue to watch people getting plucked up, and walk through the "shower" of clothing that keeps falling from the alien ships. HMMM.
The military converges, tanks and airplanes are bombarding the aliens over a hill (you can't see what's going on, just explosions), and the brooding, anti-establishment teen decides that he wants to watch what's going on. Argument with Cruise, teen feels compelled, demands to go, yadda yadda, so Cruise lets him go, grabs girl and runs, only to see that just over the hill where the teen goes, there's mondo destruction and teen has surely croaked.
Cruise and girl somehow end up in a basement with Tim Robbins, who turns out to be a whack job. The aliens decide to camp out right over that house for the night, so we're treated to the roving alien eye hide and seek thing, then get to see the alien's coming in to look around while the three hide.
Tim Robbins eventually goes full tilt bozo, and Cruise is forced to kill him... not really sure why, since right after that, the girl goes nuts and runs out of the house, Cruise follows and runs around yelling for her for a good 5 minutes before they are both captured by an alien ship and plopped into a cage under the ship.
Apparently, the ships run on humans, since we get to see a person sucked into the ship, then the ship sprays out blood and parts. Cruise is snagged for refueling, but the people pull him out and he's able to plant some grenades (conveniently) into the ship, it explodes, they all escape.
More walking, more walking. They end up in Boston, where Cruise notices that the gunky vines being "planted" by the alien ship is dying. We also see one of the ships plopped into a building and on fire. Apparently they are all dying of something (gee, what could it be). The military shoots down another ship, and we get the obligatory alien slithering down a hatch, croaking scene.
We're walking, we're walking to a nice neighborhood in Boston, where apparently nothing much has happened because the row houses are all pristine and untouched.
The ex-wife, all clean and groomed wearing gap, her new husband, and her parents all come out on the porch, see Cruise and the girl and have a tearful reunion. Amazingly enough, the brooding teenage boy has not only lived through the fire inferno of the alien battle, but has somehow found his way to Boston, the ex-wive's parent's house BEFORE Cruise, so there's that tearful reunion.
Then its back to the microbes, where Morgan Freeman explains (for those too stupid to realize) that man has been on earth lo these many years and has built up an immunity (which apparently we've "earned") to stuff, and these pompous aliens hadn't, therefore we deserve to live on earth and the aliens don't.
Hubby and I looked at each other and said "mmm, ok then".
Questions:
1.) if the aliens were using us as fuel/food, then why the whole vaporizing scene at the beginning?
2.) iIf the aliens were using us as fuel/food and sucking our blood out, wouldn't they obtain our immunization from our blood, much like babies do during the whole pregnancy thing?
3.) I realize that the whole Tim Robbins thing was to show Cruise going from hapless moron who could care less about his kids, to a father fighting to the death for the life of his kid... but did it have to be so freakin long, and it seems to me that he could have left at any time anyway.
4.) Did the little girl have to scream so freakin much? Up until they were stuck in the basement with Tim Robbins (which is a valid reason to scream), she really didn't see all that much because Cruise was always shielding her from seeing stuff. I also hate 8 year olds that talk like they're 40.
5.) Gigantic alien ships in the ground, the first one buried right under a street in a big city, and NOBODY found them? "Hey, we can't put the subway here, there's a big honking alien ship"
Overall, good special effects, stupid story, predictable ending (it's a remake... duh), unbelievable happy ending, la la la, the world will rebuild and learn nothing from the experience, 100 bucks (16 for tickets, the rest for stale popcorn and a soda) down the drain, 2 hours of my life wasted.
Saturday, July 2, 2005
Saturday (3:06pm) ugh
We're done for the day. We both feel like crap, so we managed to dig the trench for the drain pipe, dig a hole for the drain pipe to drain to, fill the hole with rocks, and bury the drain pipe.
We let the dogs loose after that. They found some of the nasty cardboard from the 1st set of deck holes that were dug and line with. Sam decided it was such a tasty treat that he wasn't going to give it to us. He also found what looks suspiciously like a human femur bone. That was difficult getting out of his mouth.
Had some posturing between him and Loki for a bit, but they're inside now being buttheads.
After we stop sweating, we're going to go out to eat (too exhausted to grill tonight), then go see War of the Worlds (hopefully my hatred for Tom Cruise won't ruin the flick).
Tomorrow we start on the fill dirt... woohoo.
We let the dogs loose after that. They found some of the nasty cardboard from the 1st set of deck holes that were dug and line with. Sam decided it was such a tasty treat that he wasn't going to give it to us. He also found what looks suspiciously like a human femur bone. That was difficult getting out of his mouth.
Had some posturing between him and Loki for a bit, but they're inside now being buttheads.
After we stop sweating, we're going to go out to eat (too exhausted to grill tonight), then go see War of the Worlds (hopefully my hatred for Tom Cruise won't ruin the flick).
Tomorrow we start on the fill dirt... woohoo.
Saturday (11:00 am)
We still haven't started yet. I've made a list of stuff we need to go out and buy, found the recipe for the sauteed mushrooms they make at Outback Steakhouse (yummy), cruised the internet, dried our work clothes, and am now eating oatmeal.
Hubby woke up, now he's watching tv.
We're apparently HIGHLY motivated to start work today.
Hubby woke up, now he's watching tv.
We're apparently HIGHLY motivated to start work today.
Saturday, So Far (9:45am)
Not only did I forget to tell Meeshka that today was saturday before bed last night, but I also forgot to turn off the dreaded alarm.
Dutifully at 5:30am, she tries to rake me out of bed. Hubby took them out, then instead of jumping up and fixing their breakfast as I normally do, I went back to sleep. They are so mad at me right now.
Our "early" start isn't happening. It's almost 10am, I'm on my second cup of coffee and hubby is still sound asleep (despite my reminders). Apparently pollen is high, since I sneeze every 5 minutes and can't breath out of my nose. This might be a blessing, since today we'll be finishing up the stinky dig and bury of the drain pipe, then moving on to the pile of dirt (which looks much bigger than past piles of dirt).
Dutifully at 5:30am, she tries to rake me out of bed. Hubby took them out, then instead of jumping up and fixing their breakfast as I normally do, I went back to sleep. They are so mad at me right now.
Our "early" start isn't happening. It's almost 10am, I'm on my second cup of coffee and hubby is still sound asleep (despite my reminders). Apparently pollen is high, since I sneeze every 5 minutes and can't breath out of my nose. This might be a blessing, since today we'll be finishing up the stinky dig and bury of the drain pipe, then moving on to the pile of dirt (which looks much bigger than past piles of dirt).
Friday, July 1, 2005
The Crap in our Yard
This weekend we're celebrating the 4th of July by hauling more topsoil into the back yard. Before we do that, we needed to bury the drain pipe from our downspout. You may recall that in the digging of the footers for the deck (the wrong holes) they cut through our downspout drain pipe.
We got a late start, having to go to Lowes for more drainage rock, more lumber, more grass seed, and more other things. We grilled Salmon patties (interesting... in a strange sort of way), then dragged all the materials into the back yard and started digging.
First off, we aren't entirely sure where the old pipe was going. It appeared to follow the gate line, but then got too close the one of the poles so we said screw that and cut through it to dig away from the gateline. Apparently it had been clogged with mung for a while, and some very nasty stuff came out of it.
We started digging toward the back of the yard. The smell of sewage keeps getting worse and worse. All of our sewer lines go through the front of the house, so we have no earthly clue as to why it would smell this bad back here, unless it is because that area is always so wet that anything in the ground is just festering yuck.
We found, what appears to be, half of a skull of something. Perhaps Jimmy Hoffa, we aren't sure, nor do we really want to know. We found a long metal solid bar... no idea what that's from. We found more stinky sewage gunk. The more we dug, the stinkier it got. It's downright nasty. I now understand why the dogs loved to dig in this area. It's stinky, it's nasty, and that's what they like to eat and roll in.
We conveniently found two of the concrete hole fillers that the deck people left in the holes when they buried them to dig the new holes. Those are fun to break through.
Around 9pm, we said screw it and quit. We erected the plastic gate barrier around the nasty gunk pile so that the dogs wouldn't get into it. I'm not about to try to wash that out of their thick multi layer fur.
Tomorrow we'll continue with the stench-fest, put the drain pipe in the hole, pour water into it to make sure it drains correctly, then cover it up. We plan on laying more fill dirt over that to hopefully hide the stench and then get grass to grow over it. I'm hoping as we dig the rest we don't unearth the Exxon Valdez, a container that says "property of Love Canal", or even better; a "Welcome to Chernobyl" sign.
We got a late start, having to go to Lowes for more drainage rock, more lumber, more grass seed, and more other things. We grilled Salmon patties (interesting... in a strange sort of way), then dragged all the materials into the back yard and started digging.
First off, we aren't entirely sure where the old pipe was going. It appeared to follow the gate line, but then got too close the one of the poles so we said screw that and cut through it to dig away from the gateline. Apparently it had been clogged with mung for a while, and some very nasty stuff came out of it.
We started digging toward the back of the yard. The smell of sewage keeps getting worse and worse. All of our sewer lines go through the front of the house, so we have no earthly clue as to why it would smell this bad back here, unless it is because that area is always so wet that anything in the ground is just festering yuck.
We found, what appears to be, half of a skull of something. Perhaps Jimmy Hoffa, we aren't sure, nor do we really want to know. We found a long metal solid bar... no idea what that's from. We found more stinky sewage gunk. The more we dug, the stinkier it got. It's downright nasty. I now understand why the dogs loved to dig in this area. It's stinky, it's nasty, and that's what they like to eat and roll in.
We conveniently found two of the concrete hole fillers that the deck people left in the holes when they buried them to dig the new holes. Those are fun to break through.
Around 9pm, we said screw it and quit. We erected the plastic gate barrier around the nasty gunk pile so that the dogs wouldn't get into it. I'm not about to try to wash that out of their thick multi layer fur.
Tomorrow we'll continue with the stench-fest, put the drain pipe in the hole, pour water into it to make sure it drains correctly, then cover it up. We plan on laying more fill dirt over that to hopefully hide the stench and then get grass to grow over it. I'm hoping as we dig the rest we don't unearth the Exxon Valdez, a container that says "property of Love Canal", or even better; a "Welcome to Chernobyl" sign.
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