So about a month ago Karen and I were almost on this reality TV show where they do a bunch of work on your backyard. It sounded really cool and we were excited until she asked us what our budget was… Um, budget? So we respectfully declined – I thought those TV shows did the work for free! Anyway, during the interview in our backyard the producer asked us what sort of work we might want to do, and even suggested a bench on the deck. Say no more!

Karen and I had the same idea for where it should go, on the South side of the deck, and we were both keen on maybe making a nice corner out of it. Only trouble was, a bench from scratch was looking like a fairly complicated project, let alone all the hassle of a corner..

Luckily my internet searching lead me to the promised land – cool plastic bench brackets made just for the edge of a deck: "Just add lumber!" (see the lumber above, the brackets installed left)

Since they’re going to be well off the ground and mostly angled, I opted to not get pressure treated lumber — lots and lots of chemicals, even if they’ve cut out the arsenic since ’04. I also looked briefly at some of the composite wood/plastic blends they have preshaped for decks, and while they ‘re super cool and never need maintenance, they’re also way expensive and didn’t really match our existing deck at all. In the end I went with nice cedar, and it looks great so far.

Of course the "quick afternoon project" started to extend into the evening, pushed further back as I realized I didn’t have the socket I needed to put in the million hex screws and bolts. (On the list of "required tools" they only list a crescent wrench, but I would have shot myself in the head after one bracket if that’s all I had. Much nicer with the socket wrench.)

Alas, night has fallen on an unfished deck bench, but enough is completed to start to convince me it’s going to look super sweet. The deck always seemed a bit "unfinished" to me — nice, and I wouldn’t trade it, but missing something on the edges. I think this might be it.

The rain garden has more blooms! This awesome red "something" flower (Karen knows the name) has been rocking out for a few days, and yesterday I snapped a few pictures. We’re pleasantly surprised to see so much growth and blooming out of these brand new plants, hopefully that means they’re established and healthy for years to come…

Brown Dog found a big stick on his walk yesterday and has been enjoying some quality time with it.

The garden continues its rampage. (compare to this) I took that picture this morning, and unfortunately by this afternoon the combined heat and lack of water (I was trying to hold out for the forecasted rain) wreaked a bit of havoc on the tomatoes – now that their fruit is so big it’s getting really heavy and a few of the taller stems collapsed. I noticed it sagging as soon as I got home and gave it some veggie first aid, I’m confident most of them will pull through.

Sick and tired of the cluttered destructo-zone in our kitchen closet, I rigged up a tiered bag holder for our recycling. It looks super ghetto but I justify it by looking at you, sneering, and saying "It’s for recycling. It’s made out of things I had lying around — and cardboard. Get it??" Then you feel embarrassed for pointing it out and I go get a drink from the kegerator. Best of all, the vacuum fits under the rack, much nicer than hanging out in the office.

I helped nature do its dirty work on this female blossom this morning. I don’t care what you say, we’re getting a pumpkin out of this mess.

Finally, today was the last day on the job for my super awesome co-worker, Eric, who’s off to bigger and better things in NY, NY. Wah. The Walker won’t be the same without him.

Road trip up the north shore. Bruno navigates.

A blog was born.

So, you know how sometimes you’ll be like "ow, my arm hurts, hey, what’s this lumpy thing? That can’t be right! Oh, wait, there’s one on the other side, too. It must be ok." That happened to me today, only with my eye. My contact had been bugging me all day, just wouldn’t sit right and it felt like something had scratched my eye. I took it out to clean it and my eye still hurt, so I peeled back the lid to see if anything was under it and "holy crap there’s a freaking lump under my eyelid!!" Two hours of panicking later, researching symptoms on the internets, wearing my crappy old prescription glasses, trying to call around to see who can make me new glasses at 7 on a Friday (turns out a contact prescription is not enough to get you glasses), I finally moseyed back into the bathroom to, you know, check the other eye. Sure enough, same lump. It must be a duct or a callous from my contacts, gross either way, but at least there’s symmetry! Which obviously means it’s OK!

Since I couldn’t focus on it in the mirror during the initial investigation, I took a few digital pictures for reference. Enjoy.

Oh! Drama! Last night I noticed that the topmost female pre-blossom was nearly ready to bloom, and this morning it opened spectacularly. I hunted around for a matching male flower, but unfortunately all but one were old and wilting. I think the plant is just getting in the swing of things and will sync up better later in the season – but who has time to wait?? I was all set to go grab a q-tip or paintbrush and do nature’s dirty work by hand, but as I tried to peek closer to see the stigma I noticed several small beetles milling around! No bees, but these little guys could do the job…

So I opted to let this first one go on its own – if it doesn’t pollinate, I’ll step in for the next few and see if I can help out. My biggest worry is that the male flowers are so low on the plant, and partially hidden by the leaves – will the beetles find them? And will they find them first, before they fly up to check out the female flower? I suspect I’m overthinking this, but on the other hand I really want some pumpkins!

Thought I should post a quick update since not everyone saw the one I made in the comments on the original post — Bruno’s doing great. My only concern is potential long-term complications, some articles I read made it seem like he may be more likely to get arthritis later after reacting like that, but for now he’s back to his crazy Kong-chasing self. Last Thursday I took him to the dog park to run off some energy, and he loved it. It’s so funny, what often happens is one dog will fixate on another, that dog will want to play with a different one, who in turn just likes to run – so you end up with big conga line of dogs tearing around the park! Much better than when they all just clump up in the middle and sniff butts… I brought you here to wear you out, now get running! :)

Not sure if you can see it in the picture, but that’s Bruno in the middle near the water dishes, and there’s actually a Spaniel-kind-of-dog laying in one of the big bowls. Crazy monkeys.

[Dear readers: remember when Karen used to post? I do. Those were good days, all right. Good days.]

Our garden is blowing up. Almost overnight our tomatoes have gone from unassuming seedlings to gigantor Audrey II-like monsters. I’m scared to go back there. But they really need some pruning, so if you don’t hear from me for a while…

At left is our amazing pumpkin. It’s weird, I know I grew up around all these veggies, but I obviously didn’t pay attention to how they grew – or how big. I’ve already extended the trellis, about doubling the height, and since that picture was taken I tied up that vine at left so it’s read to start attacking the next level.

And that’s just the main vine, there are several secondary ones lower down. (should I prune those??) On the right is our rhubarb and raspberries, both making huge progress. I just read that we shouldn’t harvest any of the rhubarb this year (its first) since it needs all those huge leaves to make energy for building a strong root system. Then next year we can harvest "some", and finally go crazy in the third year. Whoa. Some good raspberries starting too, looks like we’ll get some fruit from them.

Next is the dill and cilantro, also doing well. The dill is almost weed-like in its propensity to spread, and the cilantro has recovered from a shaky start where it all got knocked down and bent. Looking forward to chilled carrot dill soup…

I grew so much cilantro hoping to use the coriander seeds to make ultra-fresh Witbier, but now I’m reading that Indian coriander has a nicer flavor and aroma. This one may be a touch "vegetal" or celery-like. Ah well, if I get any coriander it’s going in the beer! Finally the cukes (at right) – just today I found the first flower! I didn’t check if it was a male or female blossom, but since they’re not self-pollinating like our tomatoes I’m thinking we maybe should do it by hand? (I know, dirty…)

To finish the photo spread, a few fun shots of the tomatoes-in-progress. Cool!