Doggy Pathways

trail blazing my yard

photo credit barb miller

Without any effort from me, my yard keeps changing. Or I should say in spite of efforts from me. Though I mow what I mowed last week more or less, a bigger mower can’t go all the paces a small one did.

Only a fifth of an ace is fenced in for the dogs, but it now includesa small cat cemetery. The dogs let these graves alone and so do I. Can’t run the bigger mower around the whole outside fence or between some trees.

The swing is still there and the table and chair near the spring house. The plants are all still there only bigger, much bigger. Thanks to the deer for pruning the holly bushes, now trees. The pines have lost their lower limbs so there is a nice shadow garden there with vinca vines and pachsandra plants given to me 50 years ago by a then neighbor in Yukon.

The burning bushes have always been here, but they grow rapidly and reseed enthusiastically. The walnut trees spring up everywhere because the squirrels bury the nuts. That’s why we plant tomatoes in tubs. Otherwise the walnut roots kill them. Raspberries vines are spreading with my encouragement since we look forward to this harvest. They will move across the yard seeking better soil and sun.

Therein lies the problem of keeping pathways open not just for me but for the dogs, specifically the blind dog. He is thwarted even if the grass gets too high since nothing seems familiar. Even if I can’t mow the whole yard I have to mow or weed whack paths for him to find his way to the front door or to the back door.

He needs a path to the spring below the spring house as well. Considering all the things wrong with him Rowlf still enjoys the yard and wandering his pathways. When I get the tractor out he follows it because his is getting short grass pathways immediately.

I can no longer wander the pathways of the whole farm, but the pathways in the yard are enough for us now.