I have the smartest dog ever!

I really think I do have the smartest dog ever.  lol  This week I started training sessions with Dexter outside.  I'm not exactly sure what I am doing, but I'm trying..  The first day we worked on him not pulling on the leash.  Today we worked on the same thing and he never pulled once.  I'm sure it had to do with the bag of shredded cheese I was holding, but still.  Then we worked on Lay Down from a sit position and by the end he was doing it!  I am so proud of him!   As long as I am holding food, we should be just fine!

Earlier this week I went to the garden center and bought way too many plants.  I thought I had measured right, but I must have been thinking only of the length and not the width.  It will all work out in the end, because I have a very large yard...lol.  It looks a little bare right now, but the Daisy Bushes I have in the back will eventually grow quite large and the pips of Lily of the Valley I bought will grow and flower (hopefully).  It will all fill in, in other words.  I would much rather prefer paying less and looking a little bare for a season or two.

Here is a picture of before.  It was half pulled apart by this time.  JR had removed the pond the evening before and we had filled the hole with some of the pond gunk.

After many hours of busting my ass, this is what we ended up with.  I extended it, dug up all the weeds and grass, added compost and rabbit dirt, switched out bricks for cleaner ones and planted. 

As long as we're talking accomplishments, look at the size of these asparagus!  They are HUGE!  We have had quite a few meals with asparagus already.  I'm not sure if I'll freeze it or not, but so far we're keeping up with the eating part. 

We also ate strawberries from my side garden this week.  I should have waited another day or two, but they were still good.  The plants are loaded!!!  I have been eying the next few that are turning a deep red for breakfast tomorrow.

I need to clean out the front flower bed and plant the blue plumbago and white impatiens I bought soon.  I had considered it today, but just haven't gotten to it.  Some days I just don't have the desire to dig in dirt.  Not many, but some.  I received the book I ordered titled The Edible Front Yard, so all sorts of new ideas should be spewing forth any day now.  :)

I am trying to find ideas to build a privacy fence between my neighbors and us.  They suck.  Well, he sucks, she's OK.  They adopted this Golden Retriever about a year ago to add to their other Golden Retriever and they bark incessantly at us.  We can't even go in our backyard when the dog is out, especially the newer one, because he just barks and barks and it is enough to drive anyone insane.  So I wrote the neighbors an email and I asked them to please keep their dog in from 8:30-9am in the morning, so we could walk our dogs and feed the rabbits in peace.  We were both gone every day all day during this and I thought it was a reasonable request.  I was very nice about it, but the jackass kept letting his dog out while we were out there. 

So I would yell at the dog to Shut Up and sometimes when I was out feeding the rabbits, he would let the dogs out and I would flip them the bird.  Not to their face, but in their general direction of their sliding glass door.  I TRIED not saying anything, I really did, but it was like a volcano erupting in me.  Slowly, slowly, all of a sudden I couldn't stand it anymore and would say, "SHUT UP!!!"  or worse...

All winter they are hermits.  I'm not sure where the dogs go pee, but they are never out, so we have a nice reprieve.  Now that the weather is nicer, and they are smokers, they go outside every 15 minutes when they are home with their dogs and we get to hear the damn barking again.  BUT, I have noticed they have been working during the day lately and are gone from about 10-5pm.  So I was thinking, because it is what I do best, I could offer to let out the damn dog and she would get used to me and stop barking at me all the time.

Last night I let out our dogs and of course, their stupid dogs start barking and I walked over near the chain link fence and I said, "Ernie?"  He said, "Yah."  All ugly sounding.  I said, "I noticed you two have been working lately, would you like me to let out your dogs while you are at work?"  He said, in a VERY nasty voice, "NO!  I DO NOT!" and walked away.  I almost started laughing.  But I didn't say anything and came inside.

I need a privacy fence, privacy bushes, privacy from my neighbors.  They are irritating the hell out of me.    

I had a good workout with Cathe Friedrich this morning.  65 minutes of total body toning.  JR and I were discussing how it is better to be happy and not be so obsessive about working out and what we eat.  As long as you are consistent and watch what you eat most of the time, it's OK to eat some things you shouldn't.  Let's face it.  I love food.  I will probably always have a tummy because I like to eat food.  Who cares?  As long as I have stress relief, that's the important part, right?  lol

And this is this and that is that and now it is time to shower.
Pam