Fencing in the Backyard

We finally did it!  The dogs can now play in the backyard without having to be on leashes.  It's only been up 3 days and it feels like a world of a difference.

Stephen and I have been talking about fencing in the yard for a while, even before we got Goose.  Then it became, "We won't get another dog until we fence in the yard."  Obviously that didn't pan out, we fell in love with Goose almost a year ago.  Then it was, "After the wedding we'll fence in the yard."  And then life got in the way.

We actually had a few contractors come out to give us some price quotes back in September, but one thing lead to another and then it was the crazy holidays and it never went up.  So here we are, February, and the fence is finally up.

The team from Allied Fence, who we found through The Home Depot, finished the job in one day.  (Probably would have been a bit faster had they brought the correct cedar wood, they brought pine and we had paid for cedar.)  We couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  You can't tell from the photo above but at one point we could see 7 houses from our back deck.  Not much privacy.  Now, we can see the rooftops of a few of those houses and some of them are completely blocked from view.

The dogs don't quite get that they can be out there without us yet, but they're getting it.  Stephen and I love to stand in the backyard and watch them run around.  It's freedom and space that we were able to give to them and they're paying us back with big, tongue out of their mouths smiles.  Goose even learned to play fetch with a stick.  He's only had balls and ropes.  It is adorable to see him learn something new.  He's so proud when he gets the stick from Mabel.

Goose is worn out from running.  Mabel and Goose chase a ball.  Goose looks like he is peeing on the wall - he's actually jumping off the corner.  Mabel is running so fast she's blurry.  

You can see in these pictures that the backyard as a giant wall towards the back.  There is definitely room to go on top and up by the fence, and the dogs have loved exploring up there.  We've been tossing around the idea of adding some big planters back there.  There is lot of concrete up there, so I'm not sure much would grow in the ground anyway.

We'll also need to get some grass seed down.  We haven't really used the backyard because there wasn't a fence, now it's time to clean it up.  It's not a huge yard, but it's perfect for us.  And Mabel and Goose couldn't love it any more than they do.  (This morning Goose was hopping around the yard.  Acutally hopping.)

We've also talked about repainting that wall.  Any thoughts on colors?

Crock Pot Challenge Meal #3: Sugared Pecans & Walnuts

Day #3 of my personal Crock Pot Challenge was a little bit different from the first two nights.  The "meal" I cooked wasn't started in the morning to cook all day.  It also wasn't a dinner, it's a snack.  I thought it was important to try a variety of recipes in the crock pot, so night #3 I went with Sugared Pecans & Walnuts.

The start of the cooking process - nuts in the crock pot with melted butter

I originally found the recipe on Pinterest and it linked me to the recipe on Food.com by user Gingerbear, added in 2003.  There are only two reviews of the recipe, one was positive, so that gave me a little bit of confidence.  Based on the smell that floated through the house halfway through the slow cooking process, they were going to turn out great.

Powdered Sugar added to the crock pot

You'll notice that the recipe calls for either Pecans or Walnuts.  Since I had some walnuts on hand, I doubled the recipe and used both the Pecans and Walnuts.  (Pecans were part of my grocery list for the challenge.) Yes, I have 2 pounds of sugared nuts.  Sometimes I act like a 10-year-old boy, and that sentence makes me laugh.  Read it again, doesn't it make you laugh?

They're done!  The spices have been added and stirred to coat the nuts

The whole process from start to finish is about 3 hours.  I started after our evening run and it was done before we went to bed.  While the pecans and walnuts were cooking it gave me time to prepare for the Stuffed Green Peppers that I'll be slow cooking tomorrow.

MMMM - so delicious.  I wish you could scratch and sniff the screen so you can smell what I'm smelling

On our very official Stephen Scale, these Pecans & Walnuts are absolutely Keepers and will be shared immediately with friends and co-workers.  These would be fantastic as a hostess gift or as a snack for Thanksgiving and Christmas house guests.  We'll definitely be making these again. And again.  And again.

I had to share this picture with you.  While I'm chopping veggies in the kitchen, it doesn't matter what veggies, and to be honest, I could just make a chopping noise in the kitchen, the dogs come running and wait for me to drop something.  They don't eat human food.  The closest they have come is a bit of carrot and they've never had that IN the kitchen.  I have no idea what Goose thinks I'm doing on the counter, but he's beyond excited to see if something drops.  At this point I was taking the caps off the green peppers and removing the ribs and seeds.  Silly puppies.  This is how they travel around the house, attached at the hip.

Goose and Mabel (in red) watching me chop green peppers.  Can you tell how fast their tails are wagging from this picture?

Goose is officially 8 months old now!  He is such a good boy.  It's cute to see how tired and cuddly he gets after 9pm when he wants to go to bed.  10pm Goose is a different dog than 6pm Goose.

Puppy Update - Goose is 7 months old!

I had to take both pups to the vet for a booster shot for their K-9 Influenza shot.  (Don't get me started on all the new shots they needed this year in GA.)  I was VERY nervous about having to take both of them to the vet and get them inside alone.  Let's just say that when excited (Mabel) and scared (Goose) trying to control both of them is very difficult.

Goose and Mabel.  They'll both sit still for about 3 seconds for a treat.  I have about 20 out takes trying to get this one shot.  Mabel's smile is my all time favorite smile.

The pups are taken care of by Ark Animal Hospital on 14th Street in Midtown and we love them.  Goose lived there for a few weeks before we found him to adopt, so the staff love him there.  Mabel is happy where ever she is.

This is Sleepy Mabel.  She looks sad, but she's in her spot on the sofa between me and Stephen, she's super happy, just sleepy-face.

After my exciting morning, Goose's leash did slip out of my hands for a quick second and he ran to the car and sat right by the door (God bless), I decided it would be a fun time for a dog update.  Nothing has really changed much with Mable, she's the sweetest, smartest, most mischievous dog I know.  Her muzzle is getting a little bit more grey, but I'll blame her baby brother for that one.  She's the best big sister, always making sure Goose is doing what he should be doing.  She's even started licking his face which he seems to love.

Goose continues to grow, everyday.  There are times when we come home from work and he looks bitter than he did that morning.  I had them weigh him at the vet's office today, he's a solid 54 lbs.  He's a big boy! When we got him he was less than 35 lbs, Mabel's weight.  He may be a big boy, but he's 100% still puppy. He's a total goof and loves to play.  The minute the sun comes up it's play time.  He's started barking at people walking past the house and he sounds pretty scary.  That is until someone looks at him or walks directly in front of the front staircase  - then he takes off running for the back of the house.  He's pretty much a big, puppy wuss.

Look at those beautiful puppy eyes.

Goose is bigger than Mabel now and loves to play with her.  He's also learning to play fetch and how to catch a ball.  He's super quick and very smart.  I'm so proud of my baby boy.

Sitting so pretty.  When Goose wants something he knows he has to sit.  Sometimes we find him just sitting by the water bowl.

Or we find him sitting on the couch to get our attention.  Just before I took this picture he was looking right at me, waiting for a hug.  He loves to hug.

Goose also loves his toys.  All of them, at once.  Mabel must have had the ball, so Goose hoarded the other ones.

 I love my little babies.  Stephen has been out of town for 4 nights and they have loved all the extra room in the bed.  Typically, one of them gets a spot on the bed and the other takes his/her spot on the dog bed in the room.  Sometimes we wake up and their both squished into the bed with us.  They are helping my case for a king size bed.

Baked Shrimp Scampi

When we're on our honeymoon we need to make sure our dogs are well taken care of.  We could board them at the vet's office like we did when we went to Boston for my cousin's wedding but Goose is so much bigger than he was in May (which means more expensive) and it would be for 6 nights.  That seems like a long time to be stuck in a crate in a vet's office.  A co-worker of mine offered to take the two dogs to her house so they could play with her two dogs, but they didn't get along as well as we had hoped.  Two dogs (one being Mabel) thought they were the Alpha dogs and in just 30 minutes together there was a tiny scuffle and I would worry the entire week we were gone that something more serious could happen.

When I thought we didn't have another option, one of our friends, who we call Danger, offered to stay at our house for the week to watch the dogs.  Miracle!  It was perfect.  We promised him that in addition to payment with liquor we'd have food for him for the entire week.  I started working on a freezer meal menu and of course I headed to Pinterest.  I found this awesome dish that I wanted to try for me and Stephen and it sounded perfect to freeze.

Baked Shrimp Scampi from the blog What's Cookin Chicago?

Since I followed the recipe exactly this time around (shocker!) please go to the original website for the full details.  It's a pretty expensive dish if the shrimp aren't on sale, but in reality we can get 6 servings out of it, so it's not too bad.  When it was time to put the shrimp in baking dishes, I used one 8x8 dish for the portion that Stephen and I would eat that night and I used a disposable 8x8 dish that I put in the freezer for Danger.  Our dish I put right in the oven and Danger's dish I double covered in foil, wrote the instructions on the top and stuck it in the freezer.

It is such a great meal!  Because we butterfly the shrimp it was so tender.  I'll definitely keep that trick in mind for other shrimp dishes.  For our side we wanted to be a little healthy so we went with Quinoa instead of rice or pasta.  It was delicious.  It's a little salty for me, but I had a lovely glass of milk with dinner and I couldn't have been happier.  I also plan on making some manicotti tonight and doing the same thing - half for us and half into the freezer.  The last meal that I'll make ahead for Danger is a chicken dish with individual serving sizes that go right into a freezer bag.  I used to make it a lot when I was single.  That should be enough food to feed one person for five nights.  If not, we also have a frozen pizza hanging out just in case.

I've never really considered making meals ahead of time and freezing them.  I know there are a TON of people out there who make a month's worth of meals in one day, but I've never seen the need.  Some of my favorite evenings are in the kitchen with Stephen.  However, now that I've seen how easy it is just to split off a dish into two more reasonable servings it might be something I tackle moving forward.

And just because I love this picture so much, here is a picture of the dogs at the dog park this weekend. There were a ton of other dogs and humans at the park this trip so we decided to keep ours in the small dog section.  We didn't want anyone to piss off Mabel.  They loved it.  In a short 10 minutes our dogs were in the grass in the shade, spent.

Goose is finally figuring out how to stay still long enough for me to take a picture of him! Mama is so happy.  He's also been spoiled and allowed to fall asleep in the bed with me a few nights before Stephen comes to bed and then he's put in the crate.  He loves it.  But it's 100% obvious that two humans and two dogs will not be able to sleep in the bed.  It's a good thing he loves his crate.

Bonus Post - Puppy Pictures!

I'm one of those crazy dog parents.  I talk to the dogs like they're human.  I take pictures of them every possible chance I get and I think everything they do is adorable.  (Unless Goose is having a puppy accident in the house - not cute.)

Last night Stephen was working in the backyard and I opened the bedroom windows so the dogs could see him.  Aren't they cute!

They also love falling asleep in the bed with us.  Goose is still about 4 months old and he's already as big as Mabel who is full grown at 37 lbs.  Pretty soon there won't be room in the bed for the two of us humans.  Once we can trust Goose not to have an accident in the bedroom we'll buy the two of them a giant doggie bed for under the window where they can sleep so we can claim the bed.