My back door

No - this is not a cryptic post about my behind - its literally about my back door. I want to tell you about my back door.

It has been the bane of my existence since we moved in here.

I had a five year plan (you know, like Stalin) for developing the yard. We started out with flat prairie and we've ended up after our fifth summer with a beautiful yard in its youth. Each year, another part of the plan was put into place - trees, grass, flower beds, garden. Developed and then maintained while another area gets attention.

In all these years - the back door has been sorely neglected.

I had decided originally when there was no shelter from the wind and only dirt in the yard that the dog pen would go best in this spot which is somewhat sheltered by the house. So, when guests came - and they always walk around to the back door, even though the front door is lovely and easily accessible - they came tromping through the mud and the crap and the garbage pulled apart by the dogs.

And of course - there was the dog's pen; my husband's nemesis. He is a very handy man but building fences and keeping animals inside them is really not his forte. There are lots of escaped animal stories to tell - but as for the dog's pen its as simple as this: he never bothered to do it the right way the first time.

The dogs dig. They dig really, really big holes. They escape.

Dh fills them in. They dig more holes. They escape again. They irritate the neighbours. I flip out and tell him to fix the pen already!

Dh hides things in the holes. Plastic milk crates, wire spools, metal bowls, big, big rocks, logs. The dogs dig bigger and bigger holes. They escape. They get their picture taken by a photographer and end up in the paper. We deny everything.

The dogs were winning. There was no way to keep them in. And this continued for years. It was a mess. Holes and hidden treasure and years worth of crud piled up inside the pen. They were notorious too for tearing apart any plastic bowl left in their pen. Add to it that as much as I love them, my dogs smell. And the smell of dog pen wafting at you while you sit on the patio is a bit of a turnoff.

This spring I determined would be the spring of the back door.

Early spring we moved the pen. Now, a quick story about the actual pen. It's a family heirloom. It belonged to my childhood dog and it was probably bought used even then so its more than thirty years old. Its withstood the test of time even though it does need a little love occasionally. So, we took it apart and put it back together on a wooden box built beside the chicken coop. We lined it with wire and covered it with gravel to thwart their digging and when we placed the pen walls, we wired every weak spot we could find. We mind-melded with the escapee dogs.

The door finally swung open instead of having to be hammered open. The dog house was placed and the water bucket set in the corner. Now...for the dogs.

We put the two of them in and I declared that if it was worthy of holding them, we'd know within the hour. The dogs tried digging and upon discovering a small wire square, they'd move on and try again. Another wire square - what the? Try again. Another? Again. Another. Again. Another. Ah - screw it. And they laid down and enjoyed the sun.

We'd won! We'd finally won...victory is sweet.

And then - to the mess we'd left behind.

The lumps of crap and crud and mud and buried treasure were embarassing and frustrating. And then, a week or so ago, a buddy of dh's came over with his blessed Bobcat and spread a truck full of gravel in the albatross of our home. Oh - it looked so nice. I could park car there and not be embarassed and people could use the back door without seeing the dirty little secret we kept there.

I had no idea I could be even happier.

Now, ideally we would like to have concrete laid there but considering we are in the midst of building two new rooms in the house, the cost for that is not in the budget this year (and I have no peasants to steal from like Stalin). So yesterday my dear dh came home with sidewalk blocks and we laid them into a landing off the patio and two sidewalks.

I am so overjoyed at my sidewalks and my clean back door, I can barely express it. I can't wait to have someone over.

Please - come to the back door!! And - did you notice my sidewalk? Isn't it lovely??

Please ignore the big steaming pile of donkey crap laying there. The donkeys escaped this morning and paid us a visit to our back door.

It is neverending...