So I had to work on the Fourth of July, and Tom decided to go camping with an old buddy of his. Sounds innocent enough? Well, this left our dogs home alone, one of which is terrified of loud sounds- thunder, gun shots and , of course, fireworks. If we had been more responsible and proactive, we would have put in a reservation for the “Hound-dog Hilton” but by the time we figured out our plans, the Hilton was booked. I felt horrible leaving her that morning. So when I came home this morning, the front door looked fine. But then I went to the back door. It’s tore all to h***. I did not appreciate it at first, but there’s a large horizontal split in the siding of the house. So how did she get onto the latched back porch to tear up the back door, you ask?
By ripping the latch clear off the gate. Tom is not going to be happy when he gets home. I will try to remind him of our lapsed responsibility in all of this. We hadalready decided not to fix the door trim while Mopar (the offending dog) is still around. But now the damage is to the point we need to affect some repairs. At least the damage is under the cover of the porch. (By the way, in the above photo is one of our good dogs, Vanessa, who had no part in this wanton destruction.)
So after finding the damage I had to get down to farm business. Denise came to pick up her new lambs this morning. She has been wanting sheep for a while and has been taking classes and building fences until finally her dream has come true. She picked up her first two lambs from John and Tina three weeks ago, and today picked up three from us. (Love their new names!) As she is an accomplished fiber artist, it is an honor and a privilege that she chose three of our lambs. After we got the lambs safely crated in the back of their truck she presented me with this:
It is a neck cowl she spun and knitted up from her unauthorized fleece acquisition from our Huey (payment for helping us with shearing). She calls the cowl a “tip”. Pretty nice tip, huh?
So after the events of the morning and doing animals chores, I decided it was time to put up the bean poles that the sheep, goats and llama had kindly trimmed up for me. A little trimming off of branches with the machete, and we were in business. Now I have 20+ foot poles in our garden for 6 inch tall bean plants. I think I am overly ambitious about how well our pole beans are going to do after this cold spring. Maybe I want to replay Jack and the Beanstalk?
sorry to hear about Mopar’s 4th of july adventure. Some dogs do get awfully worked up over fireworks- thankfully our one remaining dog is pretty much deaf, so I don’t think he even noticed!
Chone, Edgar and Griff seem to be settling in just fine- and I’m sure they’ll be fast friends with Franklin and Felix before long-
Love those beanpoles. Go beans, go!
Thanks Denise. Glad to hear they are settling in. Today so far looks like good bean growing weather.
I had no idea that dogs would chew wood like that.
Denise sent me a small bit of Huey’s combed fleece and it is a wonderful colour. Your cowl is lovely!
I did not either until I met Mo. Isn’t his color pretty! And the lambs are not half-polled, they are just wethered.
So sorry about the dog/door issue. I have a front door like that, but now it doesn’t really latch, so he can actually open the door and let himself in. That has saved the one screen he hadn’t torn out during thunderstorms. It’s all staying that way until he is gone.
Teresa, it sounds like you have a similar situation. Here’s to dog clawed doors!
Wow, sorry about the damaged door. We had a dog that freaked out over fireworks, thunder, gunshots etc. We came home once to an open gate and a missing dog during 4th of July. He showed back up 3 days later, trying to “dig” his way in through the front door at 5:00 in the am. I didn’t care about the door at that point, I was so glad to see him.
Jackie
Well that is one good thing, at least Mo doesn’t run away!
Yup. We have a door like that, too. It’s thanks to our now departed German Shepherd Dog, Lonie. She had huge, strong claws and was an escape artist. Actually, she usually was “escaping” to find Dave. If she was with him the world was okay.
I have an old step ladder to use for the bean pole – if I ever get the beans in the ground, that is!!!
There a lots of dog decorated doors it seems.
A ladder is a great idea. With this heat the beans are actually heading up my poles quite quickly.