Do It Yourself

Because I am feeling starved for coming up with original content on my own these days (not a good thing, what with NaBloPoMo coming up and all. And with no theme to boot!), I checked in with the daily meme site I referred to once before, and chose the one called Mind Hump – today’s question is to tell about your proudest “do it yourself” moment. Hey, I think that’s a great topic for any day!

Some moments that spring to mind:

• Doing my own taxes, every year
• My last move, where I used PODS instead of a moving company, saving me $8,000 (technically I had lots of help from friends, but I still consider this something I did myself)
• Painting (I hate it and I’m not very good at it, but it feels good when it’s done)
• Lawn care and snow removal

I suppose the most recent one that comes to mind happened just two weeks ago. As many of you know, we recently got a new puppy. She is great! We love her so much. She is so smart. The house training thing, which I had never actually done before, was way more time consuming than I anticipated, but it is so crucial. If you skimp on time or effort on house training you will pay for it later – my advice is to suck it up and do it!

Anyway, we’ve had her a month now (she is 14 weeks old at this writing), and I dare say she is house trained. She rings the bells whenever she needs to go out, and she actually “goes” every time. It is amazing and awesome. I am very proud of her for being so smart, and frankly I’m proud of myself for being consistent and following through. Of course due to her age she still can’t go more than about 3-4 hours (except for overnight) without needing a trip outside, but she is consistent about letting me know when she needs to go out.

And I guess I could include that as a “do it yourself” moment. And while it’s related, it’s not the one I wanted to share with you!

Two weeks ago our friends visited. We had 6 women in the house – 2 adults in our 40’s and 4 kids under 7. Plus our two puppies. We had a great time. We also tackled this project.

Imaging if you will – two middle-aged women (I use that term very loosely!), with four rambunctious children in tow, perusing the Lawn and Garden Center at Lowe’s. No one was around to help. No matter. We examined the picket fencing first. It was by far the more attractive option, but after a quick phone consultation with Susie’s husband, we determined it would be way more work than we were willing to sign up for. A short walk away we found the “chain link” fencing. I put it in quotes because I would not describe it that way, but nonetheless, that is what it’s called. I’d already done the measuring and knew how much we needed. It came in rolls big enough that we’d only need one roll, which gave us lots left over. Susie suggested going with the green fencing over the metal colored (silver? grey?) and I have to agree this was the best choice – so unobtrusive!

After adding 10 posts, some wire, a mallet, wire cutters, stakes, nails and plastic “chicken wire” (don’t remember what they called this, but it was for enclosing the underside of my deck), we were ready to roll! (Some of these items were later returned as we didn’t end up needing them.)

We made up a batch of frozen mango margaritas to grease our fence-putter-upper muscles, and set to work! I pounded the posts into the ground with the wrong type of mallett (eh, who cares – it worked!) while Susie held them in place, and then we secured the wire of the fencing in the little hooks on the posts. The post by the house had to be placed further away than I would have liked since apparently there is a large rock or possibly the foundation preventing anything from being hammered into the ground there!

We also had to create a makeshift gate for access to the yard. I’ll have to give this some more thought possibly next summer, but for now it’s just hooked on a cup hook I screwed into the decking.

We put the “chicken wire” under the deck, so Tessie can’t escape by running under it and out into the yard, and it was when we started this part of the project that we realized we should have picked up a staple gun. Drats! Susie said, “How about a neighbor?” and so I ran across the street and waited, and waited, and waited for the neighbor to find it. When he did he said, “Sorry it took so long – I hid this from the kids and hid it so well I forgot where I put it! Just let me know if you need more staples.” A quick thank you and back to the project I was (I was gone so long Susie sucked down the rest of her margarita – I need to catch up!). No more than 10 staples later we were on empty and I had to run back for more.

Two weeks post fence installation and I can honeslty say my life has changed. I am so completely tickled to have a fenced in yard for my dog to do her business, and even more pleased that I did it myself!

Isn’t she adorable?? And getting so big! Too big! But that’s another post.

What about you? Do you have a proud “do it yourself” moment?