Extra super busy tiring weekend!

   I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, and then did about 10x what I had actually planned... on Saturday I ran errands (clothes shopping, kayak-accessory-shopping, grocery shopping, and sushi lunch) and was out for several hours. Then I came home and mowed the lawn (enjoying the gorgeous weather!) while I did a load of laundry, then attached my kayak rack to the Rav4, and loaded the kayak just to make sure it worked. I invited Kelly over for a homemade pizza dinner, baked up a storm, and then we watched Anthony Bourdain's new Kansas City episode that aired earlier this week. (He visited Oklahoma Joe's, Stroud's, The Savoy Grill, Cigar Box, Town Topic, Rosedale BBQ, BB's Lawnside, Woodyard BBQ, Dirt Green Farms, tailgated at the Chiefs Game, and saw the Hair Museum in Independence.)
   Today I started working in the yard at 8 am (before I'd even had my coffee!), made a quick trip to the hardware store, planted coleus, weed-whacked the back yard, ate lunch on the front steps and talked to Loren & Champ, and then kept working right up until 1:15, when I had to quickly change and head to Swanson's for Aki's agility class. We spent a couple hours there running like crazy.

   On the way home, we stopped at the hardware store for another load of dirt, and then I worked in the yard for 3 more hours. The dogs sat out on the deck and observed, while chewing a couple of the big "dinosaur" bones (aka beef femur) I had bought for them. I went inside & out, checking on Gypsy and doing 3 more loads of laundry.
   By the end of the evening, I had watered, fertilized, and applied weed killer to the whole lawn, put down 19 bags of top soil to level out the grade (19 x 40 lbs. = 760 lbs.... a LOT to buy, load, lift, carry to the backyard, and dump. But apropos for Earth Day, I moved a lot of earth!). I cut and laid chicken wire over the new dirt, pounding large staples to hold it down—which I HOPE will finally keep Aki from digging, so that grass can grow again. She has been focused on one 4' x 4' spot for a few years, ever since she dug down and discovered an old credit yard. She seems convinced that there's more to find there...

   I weeded the flower beds. Moved some rock. Bought a bunch of perennials and planted them in my flower beds and containers. Mulched. Watered. Thanks to the head start Mom gave me, my yard might actually shape up okay this season!

Happy to be outside:

   After all that, I picked up, put the tools away, and came inside to give Gyp her treatment, give her another new food, feed the dogs, shower, run to McDonald's to get a Filet-o-Fish sandwich for Gyp (she only took 2 tiny bites, so I ate it), finish laundry, read the paper, have a glass of wine, blog, and crash!

Shiba-proof fence?

Shibas: 9, Jen: 0

   So far all of my efforts to keep the brats from dining on raw compost have been outsmarted. The dogs have removed the clips from the back of the bin, removed the rear panel and door, pried apart the chicken wire fence and/or burrowed under it, and this week, pulled up the fence stakes meant to seal the doors. Taylor is staying fat on corn cobs and husks, vegetable peelings, banana peels, egg shells, and coffee grounds. When I mentioned this to my vet, he warned me that he has removed a couple of large corn cobs from dogs' stomachs, and to be careful. So I'm at Home Depot preparing to break out the big guns: a wrought-iron fence. It concerns me a little that it says "decorative" and not "completely f***ing impossible to conquer", but I'm going with it...

Homeward Bound

Renee and Joe enjoy torturing their little food-hound 

   We enjoyed a Continental breakfast this morning (thanks again, Renee!), packed up our campsites, and headed our separate ways. I came home, unpacked all my gear & put it all away, started to tackle the mountain of laundry(5 loads!), bathed the dogs and put them in the back yard to continue enjoying the freakishly-warm (75+ degree!) weather & dry off I ran to Home Depot to buy a Shiba-proof fence for the compost bin. Phew!