The Pit of Despair

That's what I call a certain spot in our backyard. Admittedly, I stole that phrase from The Princess Bride, but that doesn't make it any less apropos.

Here's the vicious cycle I've been dealing with. Let's break this down process-map-style with some sweet SmartArt:

Leading to this exchange:

Court: "We are having chicken tacos for dinner. Can you help me get the stuff out of my car tonight since it is raining?"
Me: "That sounds delish. I love...wait did you say it's raining?"
Court: "Yeah, it poured earlier."
Me: "FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY, I JUST WASHED THE DOGS!"

I have been making a point to put off any exterior projects until we get the bulk of our interior updates done, but obviously, this one needed attention tout freakin' suite. Otherwise, I would be doing this every time it rains:

Not a big deal during the Summer, since it only rains like twice a month, but come Fall and Winter, that's just about every other day, Boudreaux. Not. Gonna. Happen.

Here is a before pic of the bane of my existence.

I obviously didn't have enough rocks. Thanks for pointing that out though, jerk. So, I had to find another economical (read: "free") option to cover the space semi-permanently. If you've read any of my previous blog entries, you know what that means...STOP! PALLET TIME!

Two pallets, fresh out of the bone yard, coming right up. Since I wanted this, um, let's call it a "yard bridge," shall we? Yes, since I wanted this yard bridge to look halfway presentable and since I didn't want it to stick up from the ground like some sort of trailer-park-Macguyver solution, I went a different route. I disassembled it and built a lower profile frame to hold all of the pallet decking (all from leftover scraps I already had).

Next, I added my pallet boards and finished it off with a coat of Minwax red mahogany stain. Here, you can see my helper. And by helper, I really mean observer.

Hey dad, hand me that brush, will you? I swear I won't put it directly into my mouth.

All-in-all, I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I know, I still need some more rocks to surround it. I'm working on it though, so LAY OFF ME. Then, I can address the fact that the nearby, ahem, flowerbed is in serious need of some mulch.

Mindblowingly frustrating update: The Pit of Despair's little brother has reared it's ugly little head by the gate entrance to the backyard. After I bang my head against the brick wall a few times, I will tackle that project. On a somewhat related note, if one were to drop off two dogs in the middle of nowhere, what would be a good place and time of day to do it? Hypothetically, of course. And not me...a guy I know.