Monday, April 19, 2010

Scenes from the SPCA K9-3K

This past weekend, Ak, Flame and I participated in the K9-3K, a fundraiser for the Wake County SPCA. There was something like 1,500 dogs and 3,200 people there. In a word, insanity, but for a good cause -- the walk raised over $214,000!

Flame with teammates Riley and Roxie.


A whole mess of dogs waiting for the walk to start.


Once we were actually walking, Flame started to find the whole excursion tolerable.


Lots and lots of dogs!


Team Beck!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Garden Project

What a gorgeous spring day! Ak and I both had the day off, so we decided to spend it working on a new project -- our first ever vegetable garden!

After visiting Wal-Mart, Ace Hardware (twice), Page Road Garden Center and Gunters Greenhouse, we were ready to get started.


The first project was an easy one -- a mini herb garden that can be brought into the house over the winter (assuming that we figure out a cat-proof solution -- the attic maybe?). We planted thyme, oregano and two basil plants for lots of lots of pesto!


Then we moved onto the fun part. Fortunately, we moved into a house that already has several spacious raised beds. Unfortunately, they hadn't been maintained. Here's a picture of what we started with:



One hour and one snake later, we had the large, L-shaped bed cleared and ready to plant.



This little bucket contains what we hope will be the secret ingredient to our garden -- compost. For almost a year, we've been dutifully composting all manner of fruits and veggies, not to mention egg shells and coffee grinds. This was my first peek at the result, and I'm quite proud of our beautiful black compost. Go us!


Finally, the finished product. We planted two varieties of tomatoes (Big Boy and cherry), cucumbers, green peppers, okra, zucchini and yellow squash. Now we just sit back and hope things grow!