Dog kennel decluttered of topsoil left in the rain after post-holes were dug, plus a lot more Sadie was kind enough to dig up for me. Said bonus topsoil (for spring container gardening) is now all in their shed, where it will lie till spring underneath some re-used shipping pallets.
A forgotten surplus camping pad found in the attic (where I had gone to swap a pair of sheets fort the upcoming FC) will go over top of the pallets, which will first get a layer of leftover, unusable fencing to keep doggies from falling thru the slats of the pallet. It's the lightweight, cheap woven-wire fencing that used to hold the one dog we had-- small Ruby. Now we're doing HEAVY, tall fencing. Sadie is, for all practical purposes, a small pony. :~)
After the camping pad is stapled over the stapled-fencing layer, an old chenille bedspread-- ancient and oft-bleached with only shreds and tatters left-- will sit on the pallets next to the discarded chair which the dogs let me use when I go out there to sit and play with them. As it gets cold, if they have not chewed it up the cushion-seat from it will go onto a pallet, and the chair (minus seat-cushion) will make a nice, snug, off-floor dogbed above the draft line of the door. I hope Faulkner will nab it. He's gotten a tad creaky and Big Sadie oozes out from over the chair.
Work begins on the next phase-- rebuilding and expanding the existing dogyard-- tomorrow. Gotta hurry- snow may only be a few weeks off in these mountainy environs. Gravel is due Tuesday or Wednesday, but we will start digging post-holes and setting posts tomorrow ahead of the impending freeze-up of the ground. The dog yard will include a gravel-free digging pit for Big Sadie's entertainment (we can bury pooper-scooper results in each pit she converts to gardening soil for me.)
The whole dogyard design (Dog World or doggie heaven) has been made roll-up-and-go "portable"-- we rent, and the gas exploration/drilling along our road is starting to remind me of some of Kytrad's recent memories. :~) (I'm understating. It's rape.)
All this is causing a LOT of very enjoyable and sunny fresh air and exercise-- a Secret Garden without walls.