Interlude: Banned!

it rained last night, washing away the last bits of the big snow. the back yard has been a mudpit for a few weeks now, thanks to riley the Wild Boy. he likes to do what we call puppy spurts--running at top speed in figure 8s around and around the yard. he loops around the tree, and then zooms across the yard and loops around the other tree. it's fun to watch, but it's hard on the lawn. once the ground began to thaw, it wasn't long before he had worn that old springtime groove into the dirt.

this is our annual spring battle. we gave up on half the battle years ago, putting woodchips down on half the yard. but i still want grass on the other half, and grass and riley just aren't compatible.

so this morning, a little earlier in the season than usual, we put up the wire fence. this keeps him off the grass until we have a chance to haul in new dirt, fill in the grooves, put down grass seed, and watch it slowly green up. it's usually on its way to being a thick normal lawn by july or so, which is about the time that doug starts feeling sorry for riley having limited running space, and takes the fence down.

the groove is always back within minutes.

but every spring we try again.

i do not like it. i dooooo not like it like that! it's not good!