I always do.
Like today: Ol' Bootsy and Spot do NOT get along! Boots is full of fast and bouncy play and would LOVE for ancient Spot to play with her. When Boots plays with her sister, the loose rules are fight and bite and chase and bark and tumble, but Spot in human years is nearly 112! And she is in no mood for a sporting romp with a puppy who wants to bite and bark at her, even in play!! And on top of this, Boots can escape THRU the fence slats or UNDER the gate into Spot's beloved sanctuary of peace and potty time (aka the garden), even at night, so we've been closing them up in the inside pen by closing the doggy door to the outside, but DS lets them out in the early morning. However even if the gate to the garden area is closed, right up underneath wriggles Boots. I'm afraid that if Spot is out there, she may really hurt Boots. She's aggressive with milder Mittens, too, but only like a sharp snarl and warning. With Boots, she's on top of her, teeth bared next to her throat! Not good. Not good at all!
SO...WHAT TO DO? Fix the fence so Boots can't get out. PERIOD. So I placed these smooth, round and very heavy river rocks I have UNDER the gate, plus the thru the slats routine didn't work for her b/c I think she grew just enough to fix that. So now Spot can go outside without the threat of being bombarded with an overly enthusiastic playful pup! And I can weed eat the yard in peace and safety. I'll let them back in when I plant or refurbish the soil in the pots, or even just sit down for a quick pet with them (although that doesn't last long since they're so squiggly! That's a combo of squirmy and wiggly!!!) - but their favorite task to "help" me with is getting the old weeds out of each large pot. I have this new savagely sharp Japanese "plow" sort of thing, both a long handled one and a short hand held one. They work GREAT, but I have to be careful with the two puppies. They see it as play (as they do EVERYTHING!!! ), but if I loosen the weeds up, some of which are deep in there pretty good, the girls will jump at the unearthed weeds and dig, dig, dig, then shake them like they would a rat, and toss them to the side. Talk about Yard Dogs!
Since the weather here is already in the mid-80s and soon hitting the low 90s, it's time to PLANT. That's why I'm getting all the weeds out and putting in additional potting soil, fertilizer, worm castings, micronutrients, compost and so on.
===================(Monday)
SUCCESS! Left the doggy door open all night to the dog's yard with the gate to the garden (and my WOW) CLOSED and NO escape from Boots-dini over to the garden side through the fence slats or under the garden gate! I didn't put a potty pad in the inside pen, but apparently they used the doggy door to potty outside now. HALLELUJAH!! Also no barking at the neighbors at 1am either which was a BIG problem with our neighbors 15 yrs. ago with the other puppies (Ms. T, et al)! (I was awake and listened this time!) So...SUCCESS!
I also ordered two new cheap plastic outdoors chairs for the backyard (my old one is like 100 yrs. old, very weathered, and the plastic is getting weaker!) AND a couple of sweet bell pepper plants and one Early Girl tomato, all from Home Depot. DS picked them up for me on his way home from working a graveyard shift. Works for me! But I stayed up all night again and need my beauty sleep now. I've got to stop doing those "up all night, sleep all day" routines every time DS works graveyard since the 100ºF+ hot weather will be upon us before we know it and I'm going to need to be working in the garden in the morning "cool" (of 85ºF+) rather than the blistering HOT afternoons! But I can do that change of sleeping patterns...with effort. The incentive is certainly there! And the silly, rollicking pups romping around at my feet are even more incentive than the heat that's coming. But for today...SLEEP! I'll do the huge amount of planting, transferring, and planning in the dark tonight in the Hobby Room. That I don't mind in the slightest. And mornings out in the garden is fine, too.
OH! And I purchased some $20 "Mega Movers" over on the HSN - SO WE CAN MOVE THAT DARNED ROLL TOP DESK FINALLY and I can begin to clear out the Storage Room!!! I firmly believe that just DS and I can do the task by ourselves.
=======================(Monday late night)
Did I say SUCCESS?? Well, I shouldn't have! Bootsy managed to S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E through the tiny gap in the slats right next to the house. So I let her sit out in the garden area missing her sister to the point of yapping tearfully and then howling. My poor neighbors! I put her back to bed in the inside pen, but with the doggy door open, meaning she could still have come back into the garden area if she chose to. But she did NOT. Tomorrow I will patch that up with stronger stuff than DS could come up with tonight. That is one stubborn dog!!
OMG, it's after 11pm AGAIN, but this time I'm off to bed so I can get out there and work in the yard and play with both of my pups as well. They get the run of the entire yard including the garden during the daytime. Life in the backyard amazes them every day. It's all so new to them, every leaf, every bone, everything is a toy! But I need to weedeat everything first. Wow.
Off to bed...
Honeybera