bring on the night

last night was the first not unbearably hot evening we've had here in quite a while so we attempted to enjoy some peace & quiet on the patio...

sometimes our ideas do not at all intersect with the dogs' ideas.

the no victory garden

at first glance having a garden seems like a no-brainer for us and seems to jive quite well with our lifestyle.  we try our best at being environmentally friendly and the thought of living off the land is quite an attractive idea.   we started a small garden two years ago and dear gravy was i overwhelmed even though (if i’m being honest) i should note that dave was doing most (insert “all” here) of the work…it was apparently more the idea of the responsibility than the actual responsibility dragging me down.  to be fair it could have been a little bit due to my illness but in any case i was glad to bid the garden adieu at the end of the season.

the first year of the garden started off on a good foot – we started a raised bed and put a small fence around that the dogs respected (with the exception of tomatoes that grew through the fence which watson really enjoyed).  toward the end of the season something wild started taking our watermelons (which were not fenced) which prompted some bickering between dave & i.  dave wanted to fence them but my feeling was that any animals were welcome to “my” watermelons (dave doesn’t even like them) – after all i can go to the store and purchase said item whenever i want but the animals don’t have that luxury (no shoes, no shirt, no service).  the argument was settled by the season coming to an end.

last year’s garden started off much in the same way, albeit with fencing around the melons, but then things took a turn for the worse.  it started with finding jewel on the wrong side of the fence and it all went downhill after that.  everyone knows a crowd draws a crowd and when you have a crowd of dogs this is the law of the land.  jewel and watson ate the tomatoes, indi just walked all over the garden and flanagan fell in love with the cucumbers.  before we had a chance to harvest a single item it was all gone but for one single cucumber which while i triumphantly walked toward the house bearing was quickly ripped from my clutches by the cucumber thief himself.  at this point i gleefully announced an end to gardening forever which dave surprisingly was in agreement with…we've got enough living things we're responsible for here.

it is also my duty to let you know that violet is still accepting applications for her forever family...could you be the lucky one?

barking up the wrong tree

i haven't posted about benny in a while through no fault of his own - i've got a ton of video that i need to get edited so stay tuned for that.  he continues to be an amazing little man.  this is just a quick clip illustrating that regardless of how adorable he is indi is still not interested in his antics (and that he can be clumsy).

back in the saddle

fortunately for me nature provided some inspiration with which to ease back into blogging.  last weekend we had the largest snowstorm we've seen in nashville in the 15 years we've been here.  it was a fantastic weekend of being snowed in together and that along with the beautiful white blanket over everything (along with the silence) did my heart good.  here are a few snippets for your enjoyment:

indi relished being covered in snow

we got a good bit of snow but the tail end was sleet so we ended up with a thick layer of ice on top.  carly quickly figured out the way to make the most of was to ingest it.

white trash cardboard sledding was ultimately unsuccessful

we often refer to murray as the ice road trucker because of his very slow yet steady gait (and admittedly probably also his chunky body type) - this weather gave him a chance to show his mettle.  it also illustrates the small amount of square footage we all took up in this weekend of togetherness.

in a fantastic twist of fate we happened to have started building a natural pool the week that nashville happened to see its largest snowstorm so we happened to have a bobcat with which to plow our asses out.  were it not for the available large machinery i'm pretty sure we would have been stranded here for quite a few days.   

plenty of muscle power for all our plowing needs

i am still shocked by the amount of snow - the likes of which we've never seen here