Doggie Jail!

Bill brought home 22' of 4' tall chain link fence on Monday. And we promptly attached it to the posts we installed several days ago. We only had to go to Lowe's once yesterday, for the special U-shaped nails Bill needed to attach the fence to the posts. He made a top rail of round wooden posts and we also made a partial bottom rail out of the same round posts, to hold the bottom of the fence down since Frasier is smart enough to try to get out underneath the fence. The entire time, Frasier parked himself out in the yard and watched us. Intently. He knew exactly what we were doing and he was not happy about it. Unlike the Magginator, who thinks that everything is fun. She ran in and out of the gate while we were working, and she frequently had her head between Bill's hammer and the nails! After we got finished, I called them to me and Frasier took his sweet time. But once we got them in, I shut the gate and we went inside. Frasier followed us, but he ignored us for a couple of hours - even when we had a snack of peanuts (which he loves). Not Maggie, she was right there begging for peanuts while her big brother was pouting. We will start opening up the gate and giving them access to the entire yard at night, but we left the gate shut last night. Eventually, we also might have to electrify the new fence. It depends entirely on Fraiser!

Today when we get home from work, we're going to see about dirt to fill in at least some of those holes. Some of them are pretty deep. Bill's going to get the wheelbarrow and a shovel, and head outside of the yard to the field area behind us that will eventually be built up with houses. I told him I'd help him with the dirt work, I might regret saying that later on! The back yard needs to be mowed already, but until we get it smoothed out some it's not a good idea. There are so many holes and they are so deep, plus a lot of them are actually trenches because the dogs were following mole trails. It would probably be impossible to mow the yard like it is. But we are getting it back into shape. The area where the dog run is has not had much mole activity, or at least we haven't seen any evidence there. But I'm sure that they'll dig some, they are dogs and digging comes naturally. But I'm not too concerned about it, they have plenty of toys to play with and all the firewood they want to eat! Not really, but Frasier does like to drag the logs around and sometimes chew on them.

(OK, it's later now!)

I first started this post in the morning before work. But now it's early evening and we've just come in from getting dirty. Playing in the dirt so the doggies won't have to! We filled in a few holes, we've started with the really big ones and the first thing I actually did was repair my rock garden. It's probably a good thing that I don't know for sure which dog was digging over there, because I would have had sudden need for a taxidermist! But the rock garden is repaired, although there are a few spots outside of it that we'll get to soon. Otter's trellis where she always plants climbing Black-eyed Susans needs a little attention, and it will be the first thing we work on the next time we get out there. Which might be tomorrow, but it might not actually be until Sunday. She needs to get her seeds planted soon.

This is what the Black-eyed Susan vine looks like. Otter really likes it, she's had it on her trellis ever since Bill built it for her.

I think I've changed my mind about moving my fountain and using it as a planter. I think I'm just going to leave it where it is, in the middle of the rock garden. It might still become a planter, though. That is to be determined later! It suddenly seems like too much work to move it.

Bill's baptism went well on Sunday, he was the last of three that were dunked, as Mom used to call it. I told him that now he has no excuses left, he has to be a good boy! But I don't think he listened very well...

We had a nice Easter, we spent the day with Don and Darlene and it was a lot of fun. Otter enjoyed playing the Wii. Imagine that, a teenager that enjoyed a video game! We had a nice visit and the meal was wonderful, although we did eat too much. We brought leftovers home so I didn't have to cook last night. The ham bone is in the freezer, I'll use it the next time I make beans. Which probably won't be right away, but I'll be sure to send you some, Don!