New gate = Done. Dog = Not happy about it.

Since we moved into our house 4.5 years ago, we've been chipping away at various projects. Because our previous house was a total renovation from the ground up that we completed in 1.5 years and sold the minute it was done, we've taken our time and chosen our projects carefully. One project that kept getting pushed to the back burner was removing, re-aligning along the property line, and re-building a new fence to enclose our back yard. It kept slipping down the list because we have a very well-behaved dog who rarely leaves the yard (see exception below) and even when we... ahem... forget and leave him outside he just sits patiently by the door until one of us jumps up and races to the door upon remembering that he is outside. He is a very good boy!

Recently we found scat in the yard that closely resembled coyote scat and because we know there are several coyotes living in the 300+ acres of conservation land across from our house, it's not unreasonable to think that they have been in our yard. Brody has occasionally both barked at the window and cowered away from it - another sure sign that something scary is out there.

So... with the intention of keeping frightening four-legged predators OUT of our yard, it was time to get on with the next phase of enclosing the back yard.

In the first push to replace the old fence (brought to the top of the list by the huge pine tree that knocked down a huge section of it) we installed ~110' of brand spanking new stockade fence between our yard and our neighbors to the south west. We also added new wire fence to attach the stockade fence to the house and close off the front yard except for the gate which has been an open gap for 4.5 years.

Brody has an addiction. Brian. The neighbor.

Brian lives in the house across the new section of fence and when he pulls into the driveway at night, if Brody is out, Brian hears "Incoming!" as Brody barrels across the yard and jumps into his lap in his van in search of the treat that he knows Brian buys just for him.

I got the marble idea from a Pinterest.com post

Enter the new gate.

Today we finished building the new gate. It's a lovely piece of art that we are very proud of! I got part of the idea for the design from a posting that I saw on Pinterest.com (we all have our addictions...). Yesterday I spent several hours staining the pieces for the gate a beautiful deep sea blue. Today we assembled it and added the artistic touches.

We live on Cape Cod so waves seemed natural and as we created it we realized that it also reminded us of one of our favorite stops (the Alaska Paddle Inn) on our trip to Alaska last summer. Then (this is part I got from Pinterest.com) we drilled holes in the upper part of the gate and inserted ~35 marbles that my step-son happily donated to the project (he's 18 and has outgrown marbles as you can't eat 'em, shoot 'em, or drive 'em).

While we were very pleased with the outcome, Brody made his displeasure known as he sat with me while I put the finishing touches on the new art gate. Every time I swung the gate open, he tip-toed out (Yes, our dog tip-toes. Don't believe me? Come visit when he's supposed to stay downstairs while my husband is sleeping upstairs - he waits for me to stop paying attention and tip-toes up the stairs to sneak on the bed for a snuggle) and sat defiantly regally about 10 feet away gazing at the children playing with a puppy in the yard across the street. He looked back at me often as if to say "WHY do we need a gate?!? SEE how GOOD I am?!?!" Then he would get bored and go to the back yard to play with his red ball in the dirt near the burn pile that my husband was tending.

At about 6pm, Brian was due home. Brody can set his watch by this and soon he was seated next to me at the gate staring wistfully through the wire fence as Brian backed his van into place. He looked from me to Brian to the closed gate back to me and back to Brian. How sad. I opened the gate and shouted "Incoming!" as Brian opened the door. I returned to my painting as Brody and Brian went through their evening ritual only to hear "Oh... I see... I don't have any treats so you turn your back on me?"

Poor Brod had endured the humiliation of having to wait to be let out of the gate only to find that his crack cookie dealer was out of stock. He stood sulking and enduring Brian's pleas for forgiveness for a few minutes and then lumbered back to the back yard to play with his red ball again - his only joy now that his freedom has been restricted and his best pal ran out of treats.

Not to worry. He's snuggled on the couch now and seems none the worse for wear and the new gate looks great!