Hope you like picture stories :)

The temperature outside is screaming that it is spring... therefore I must get on this and update the universe on what is going on in the world of Big Dave. When we last talked it was after the Christmas Holidays and now Easter is gone and my dear ol Brothers Birthday was yesterday! Happy Birthday Bro! This post is for you! :) Miss ya man.

 To start things off, here is the link to Youtube to the Auto Connection commercial I had the privilege on helping out on. I have to say, I think our commercial WAS one of the best ones during the Superbowl and I was stoked and got a few text messages when it first came on TV! Without further ado....

 <iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8oSOcGj2luo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't think it is letting me embed it today... Ill try again soon... but here is a direct link... I promise it's not spam!

With Spring here I wanted to turn this blog into more of a growers journal from my ridiculously small veggie garden in my backyard. I am challenging myself to see how much I can cram into a small area, while still leaving places for the dog to do her business and have some places for entertaining/grilling also... so we shall see what blossoms and fruits from the garden.  Speaking about cramming things in small places, check out this project I did while bored durring the colder days of the winter! (Time to read Picture captions!!!)

You know me, always taking a picture half way through a project! But this is a new planter box that I am making to go behind my AC units in my back yard... trying to utilize every space! :)

The four posts were saw-off scraps from the fence post's Farmer and I created for the commercial... you can see the white wash we used to paint them white!

As usual I fast forward to the finished product all assembled and nestled behind my AC units!

I got some lettuce variety, some mustard greens and some broccoli to cram into this box!

Finished box, with two shelves. Dirt is in.. but still a little too cold to plant... days away!

All planted in, fit 2 mustard's, four lettuces, 3 broccoli's, and then a 1 foot long seed strip of carrot and a 1 foot long seed strip of lettuce up front

About a week later... look!! My lettuce is starting to pop out!

More close up of my new little tiny lettuce buddies coming out of the soil!

The other half of the garden. I put green bean seeds around the edges of the round tub, and threw two corn seeds in the middle to see if I could get the beans to grow up the corn stalks and the wire cage I have for it! We shall see.

Just this morning, I walked out and saw this beauty of a bean sprout!

And since I started writing this post... I had another pop out! I have two beans coming up already! Wahhoo!

A few months ago, my Grandma got really sick and I went down to Florida to be with her and Grandpa for a bit. She is feeling much better now! While I was down there though, I did a little driving around.

Found a bunch of tomato plants while I was there... since we drove, I picked up a few... 4 regular basic tomato's, 1 patio variety, and 1 cherry! I hope they are going to do well!

After growing the tomato's indoors for a few months I started getting a few ripe ones... and I might add, I think I might have had the first tomato of 2013 in Virginia Beach! (maybe) and it was good.

While down in Florida I stopped by the Natural Florida Orange Juice Welcome center and spied my favorite flower, "Bird of Paradise"

I would love to see my backyard look like this... Birds of paradise flowers everywhere and fruit trees in the background! Can't go wrong with that!

 Alright.... now its time for Poochy pictures and adventures! Cheyenne doing what Cheyenne does best.. being my best friend and most adorable, awesome companion... she even inspired me this year to do something different... Ill tell ya about that after her section!

Giving me a kiss. (ok I had a treat in my lips... a givetreatlove treat!)

One of Cheyennes many new friends. But my buddy Chris got a doggy, meet Lucy!

I love it when she smiles

"Give me a treat!"

On the first day of spring! We had to go outside and play allll day long!

Patriotic Poochy

"Four Score and seven years ago..." No seriously, I would Vote for Cheyenne, at least my dog has Common Sense

And she still loves fetch!

Lucy is so darn ugly, she is cute again... its like a ugly circle, starts of ugly, but somehow is cute. Weird I know.

Almost $300 later! She split her nail up the middle! HOW?! I dunno, but man, that and her updated shots and stuff about broke my bank!

OK, so what did Cheyenne inspire me to do?... Well, we all know you can't massage forever, most massage therapists only last five years on average before "retiring" either due to injury, or whatever their circumstance is. This October I reach my 5 years as a massage therapist, and I am still going strong. However, I do feel it in my hands and shoulders and know if I continue doing deep tissue massage eventually I will probably get a repetitive stress injury and I can't have that... I do EVERYTHING in my life with my hands. Currently, my hands are my career, I play guitar regularly, I love to garden, I love to build, I want to farm and raise livestock... hey guess what... all these things include the use of my arms and hands.

So where does Cheyenne fit into this... well, I was sitting there one night thinking about future career options and one thing I wanted from the get-go was a career that can involve my dog.  I noticed how my dog is a heavy dog and thought, maybe I could make homemade dog food, it would benefit my dog, and also I could make some money on the side selling it to friends and see if it grew. I started to get really interested in it, then I looked at the industry and the regulations. WOW... it is easier to make and sell human food than it is for dog food when it comes to permit and regulations. While talking to some of my friends about it and the craziness of the regulations of the pet industry, somehow we got on the topic of making dog treats instead. Dog treats it turns out are still heavily regulated, but seemed possible to follow. Then we were tasked with how to make our treat different than the millions of different dog treats available on the market today. 2 months of table talk later... GiveTreatLove was born!

yeah, I know, cool logo... cool tag line... cool company... I'm just cool dude.

Little preview of what the Pumpkin-Apple Treat looks like

A look at our table from our very first event at Old Beach Farmers Market!

GiveTreatLove, Give your Dog a Treat, Love a Dog in Need. I came up with the name as a clever spinoff from Eat Pray Love.. I wont lie, it's catchy.. and it has meaning! My company makes home baked Organic meat and dairy free Dog Treats. And for every five bags of dog treats we sell, we donate 1 bag to a local animal rescue! So all our furry friends that don't have forever homes yet get delicious treats too! My company is all about giving back and also I am trying to make it as green as possible. Our product bags are recycled, even the plastic window is a PLA corn based polymer that breaks down in a compost bin in a matter of weeks! All of our marketing is online and when we do use paper, it is recycled. Even our shipping boxes come from 40% recycled products and are again recyclable!

Check us out on Facebook.. just search Give Treat Love and we pop right up!

Check us out on the Web to at www.GiveTreatLove.com

Every day I wake up and my world revolves around the pet industry now and that is awesome, Cheyenne is the main mascot for Givetreatlove and I plan on having all my friends dogs become a mascot for the different flavors of treats we will have eventually. We will be at everyone of the Old Beach Farmers Markets in Croc's parking lot at the beach this summer, and will also be at Y-Not Wednesday farmers market at Town Center of Virginia Beach, our treat is being put into a few different local business's too so who knows! It might really take off! We have had 2 events so far and they have been true success's so I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Speaking about whats coming up. I am leaving May 15th - June 2nd to go to Israel with my Dad to help uncover the ancient Iron 1 period city/forte of AI... don't know AI?!?! What? Lick up Joshua chapters 7-8 in the bible and it will tell you all about it! Basically it is the second city Joshua defeated after bringing the Walls of Jericho down! Crazy cool, and I am excited to become and official OVERSEAS archaeologist (since I was one a long time ago at "Sun Watch" in Ohio). Anyway many many pictures from that trip I sure will be put on here when I get back.

So, yeah, to recap- I am still here in Virginia Beach, been truly crazy busy starting up a new business, got sunburned yesterday from the first "real" day of spring. I am excited to see what 2013 brings, in my business, my plants and veggies,  my archaeology trip to Israel, my ladies, and in my personal life! Ill try to keep ya posted! Got the hard one out of the way, now just gotta keep it updated.. and the plants growing will help me stay motivated on this thing!

Brother!! Hope you had a good Birthday, we all miss and love you!