Anybody who shares their lives and homes with outdoor dogs will know that this time of the year signals that annual event…..The Battle of the Back door. Yes, as Autumn brings colder days and the heating gets switched back on we get used to the shouts of ‘Can somebody close the back door?’ and ‘Do you have to lay out in the rain?’

Now when I say outdoor dogs I mean the ones that love to be out there day and night whatever the weather, and then like nothing more than to come in and share the collected weather with their hoomans. Having two Newfies you’d think they were both the same but while Cookie would move outdoors permanently Monty doesn’t like the rain and prefers to lie on his back in the hall warming his feet on the radiator.

Don’t get me wrong he loves to lie outdoors in the cold but just doesn’t like getting wet, so when the rain starts he’s in and leaves the water collecting to his big mop of a sister.

So the reason I haven’t been on much recently is because I have finally decided to try and do something about this yearly event and give them, and us, an area we can spend time in all of the year round. We have had a selection of material-made gazebos over the years but the trouble with living next to a lake is that wind tears across there on stormy days and our lovely decorative shelters end up looking like something from the costume department of the Walking Dead.

I wanted something more permanent and after getting some quotes for wooden pergolas I decided that rather than take out another mortgage I’d build something myself. So 30 YouTube videos later the timber was delivered and taking advantage of a dry warm week I began. Now the wrong side of sixty and with my days of manual labour consigned to - That’ll be funny in the autobiography - I am not ashamed to say it was heavy going.

I don’t know what I’d have done without Monty and Cookies help. Well actually I do, I’d have finished three days earlier. Monty seemed to know exactly where the step ladder would be going next and decided that was a nice place to sleep while Cookie was collecting sawdust with even more skill than she harvests rainwater.

She did move once after I drilled through a 4x4 post to add a bolt. The wood was smoking and the bits that came out as the drill emerged got her usual inquisitive attention only to make her jump as the warm shavings obviously ticked her nose. It didn’t stop her though and she managed to always be in the way whenever more timber was brought through, benches had to be set up or levels needed to be attained. Monty just confined his activity to step ladder obstruction and it turns out he’s pretty good at it.

Eventually though the main construction was finished and though the roof is on, it’s leaking in a few places, which is the next job on the list. Then we’re going to clad the one side and add some blinds to the roof. I know Cookie will continue to lay in the open areas and so I decided to also add a canopy over the back door just to give them (her) some more drier areas.

Here are some pictures and though it’s almost there it’s definetly a work in progress…..but then you could say that about Monty and Cookie too…..