Sort of like the Great Wall of China...

... this is the wall that never ends. I've lost track of what days we did what. But I do know the order. First we set the poles:

Then my dad and Travis built the concrete brick wall.


We have been working on this wall every single day since I can remember. Will it never end? It took them 24 hours of labor over the course of 3 days to complete the brick wall.

Right now, we can see just over this brick wall (see the following photo). But we are making it taller with wood from here. This portion of the wall, which will surround the grill, will be about 8' tall. There is a short portion of 5'-wall that will be on either side of this tall wall. The rest of it will only be about 4' tall. This tall brick wall will give Travis some privacy while he stands at the grill. We didn't want to do the entire wall really high because we still want to see the neighbor's trees and it would be nice to maintain a breeze within the yard. If we go too high, the wind won't be able to reach us.

I'm sure the preceding paragraph does not do our plan justice. I will post photos later so you can see what I mean.

After completing the brick wall, Travis started on the wooden, 4'-wall. He had it framed and half of it covered in plywood in one afternoon (Sunday).

We made a giant size Jenga game out of the post leftovers.

My dad has offered to take Callaway home with him. He knows how much all the animals have been stressing me out lately and I think he has secretely wanted another dog ever since his elderly dog passed a little over a year ago. Cody was a black lab mix who was about 30 pounds lighter than Callaway. I think that Callaway would be a good match for my dad. Callaway is needy and my dad needs someone to take care of now that all his kids are out of the house.

I am not sure if we will be sending Callaway home with my dad yet. Callaway is Travis' dog and he gets to make the decision. I know he doesn't want to give up his dog, but at the same time, we have had some serious issues with him lately and I've run out of ideas on how to handle it. We found out this weekend that our creepy neighbor two doors down has been shooting his pellet gun in his backyard. Callaway goes absolutely bezerk, inside or outside, when that gun starts going off. And I swear, Creeper goes out 20 times a day. Sometimes he just opens his back door and stands inside, with the gun hanging out the door, just to pop off a few rounds. I don't get it. It's annoying, but not illegal, so there is nothing we can do about it. We could go over as nice little neighbors, but I'm worried that will just make it worse.

This is probably why Callaway so frantically escaped his kennel a few weeks ago, and destroyed all the plants on my back porch, and escapes from the yard EVERY OTHER DAY. Last week he escaped from the yard and it took an hour of searching to find and catch him. My only other option would be to buy a metal frame kennel to keep Callaway in on the inside of the house. If we leave him loose in the house, he'll go nuts every time that guy shoots the gun. I feel bad for Callaway. I know there could always be something that might scare him, but right now this one is in our face.

My dad is planning to head back home Wednesday, which means Travis has until tonight to make his choice. This could be very sad...