I Dig The Mother of All Holes

It's been a busy week, gang. Lots of work to do, excavating and moving dirt. I have to say my schedule is about as full as it's ever been. Good thing I like my job, because there's just no end to the holes that need to be dug around here. I dig so much, sometimes I forget where I put a hole. That happened the other morning when I was bunny-hopping backwards in front of My Boy and did a one-legger down a deep one. Lost my balance and ended up-side down for a moment. Made My Boy laugh...a lot longer than I thought was necessary, but who cares? We like to have fun together.

Now, remember the rock wall that Somebody built awhile back? The one that tee-totally ruined a perfectly good hole I was working on? Yeah, that's right, the one with the water garden and sweetpea flowers? That sure did set me back, but I jumped in there this week and finished what I started, rocks and all. Yep, I caved in that rock wall and dug all around it, uprooted the flowers, and may have bowed the fence just a bit, too. I was mighty proud of the destruction, because those old fireplace rocks weigh more than I do.

Glynn is always sure to stand back when the dirt goes flinging. She says a hard hat messes up her 'do too much, so she stays in the safety zone whilst I work.

This one is even big enough to go down into, turn around, and come back out again. Quite a masterpiece.

My Boy was pretty speechless, I tell ya, when he saw how much I had accomplished in just one week. Took his breath away, I'm thinkin'. Shook his head in awe. What can I say? I'm pretty pleased myself. Well, enough about holes for now. I see My Boy heading this way with a shovel and wheelbarrow. I wonder what new game this will be? Can't wait to find out...

~Tell

What Happened to My Hole?

Well, would you look at what someone did to my hole?

Not only did my hole get filled in with a tractor-bucket full of fireplace rocks, but somebody actually build a rock wall along the fence. And planted flowers!

Look at this, Cap. A water garden. And floating sweetpea petals. Whose idea was this?

I'm here to tell you, I'm mighty miffed. This is going to put me behind schedule, cleaning this mess up. This is not at all what I had planned for landscaping. Not one bit. Wasn't on the blueprint. Not in the budget. I wasn't consulted.

At least Glynn seems to like the sweetpea blossoms.

All my hard work, for naught. What's a dog to do? I believe I will have to sit and ponder...

~Tell

Beggars

Okay, first I have to apologize for Mom's Far Side sense of humor in reference to Ruby Tuesday's future. No, Ruby will not end up a medium rare special on the menu. The Vet has confirmed that she will have a calf in the spring after the last show, and she will be living the good life on Uncle P's farm. All she has to look forward to is eating well, filling out and being a mama cow. Good Moos for her.

As for me, my day started out pretty well. I finished the hole I was excavating ahead of schedule, so I started on a new hole in the corner of the yard. Things were going well, and I was just thinking how much faster I could dig with a little Kubota backhoe. I believe I could do some serious damage with one of those. I will talk to My Boy about our budget and see if we can get one. Anyway, my hole was coming along quite well when suddenly I found myself on the other side of the backyard fence! Well, it was time for lunch break anyhow, so I decided to put in a little time exploring. Never turn down an opportunity to sniff out new things.

I hadn't been out long when The Family came home and discovered me loafing about my job. They weren't too happy about the shape I was in, either. I went into some pretty rough brush, and brought a few burrs home with me. These are very tiny burrs called hitchhikers, beggar-lice, beggar-ticks, sticktights, tick clover, or as I sometimes call them, ohshucks stickum tightus. They were thickly embedded, thousands of them, all over me.

There was no getting out of it. I got put straight on the grooming table. This was going to take a lot of brushing to set things right.

You might say I led with the nose.

It took over an hour of brushing to get them all out. Yeah, I lost some hair over this adventure. Then I had to endure a bath, more brushing and fluffing and buffing before I was pronouced clean. Mom says I'm an exasperating pup to live with. What can I say? It's a gift.

Man, I can't wait to get back to work!

~Tell

I Regret Nothing

As most of you know, I love to dig. It's good exercise, it aerates the dirt, and improves the general landscape of the yard. It's one of my favorite pastimes. Cap says I will dig a hole to China. Someday I will test that theory. I just enjoy the smell of dirt and feel of it under my toes.

Today I was digging over by the edge of the yard, and I must say I had quite an impressive trench going. Suddenly, my head popped up on the other side of the fence. It only took a second for me to realize I had engineered my own escape tunnel, and I was good to go. With a wiggle and a twist, I was outa there!

First I checked out the barn for vermin. Apparently the cats keep the mice away, so I treed all the cats. I then inspected the chicken pen. Good sturdy fence there, so no fox in the henhouse on my watch. Leo and Cedric were too busy munching grass to play, so I moved on from the goats' area. I patrolled the entire farm, which drove Glynn bonkers. She wanted to come with me so much, but all she and Cap could do was watch from the yard.

As I checked out the lower meadow, I found the most wonderful, intoxicating and rancid thing to roll in. I'm telling ya, this was really ripe! I spent some quality time roaching it in real good. Then I went to the creek for a drink and had fun bobbing for fish. I returned to the smelly spot to roll some more in case I had washed some eau de rotten off while I was wading in the water. I marked the spot in case I want to visit it again.

Finally, I heard a pickup in the driveway. It was Mom coming home from work. When she saw me, she stopped, honked the horn and opened the door. Well, you don't have to invite me twice to go riding in the pickup. I hopped right up into her lap and gave her a big nuzzle hello.

Oh-wet-stinky-dog-rotten-bad-gag-gag-gag...I heard all the way to the house. At least Glynn appreciated my new smell. Cap just muttered something about young whippersnappers and shook his head. Mom hooked one finger in my collar and crab-walked me at arm's length straight to the bathtub. What? Another bath so soon? But it's not Saturday yet...

Oh well, it was totally worth it!

~Tell