Such Help!

  It's a beautiful, early, spring day!  After a couple days of rain and clouds, it's been sunny and warm.  It's also made us see all the chores that need to be done in the kennel after the winter!
  We still need to cut up and haul the remainder of the wood left over from taking down the trees in the fall.  David couldn't get the chain saw to start--after a winter of hard use, it must need a service treatment!  So instead of cutting wood, we worked on the vines and weeds that have already started growing around the one play yard.
  Even though the ground is pretty saturated, everyone's out in the yards today.  The warm sunshine made their energy levels spike!  We worked next to the yard that the five puppies (Jackson, Treasure, Ref, Bijou and Gemma) were in.  In between bouts of wrestling, the puppies were very helpful with our chores!  As we clipped the vines from the fence, they were right there, inspecting our work, pulling the vines and pointing out spots we had missed!   Treasure, who is quite vocal, frequently had an opinion on the quality of the work, along with her displeasure of her siblings taking naps.  Jackson was very good natured about being the chew toy of choice for his cousins, as well as being the chief vine puller.  Gemma was more of a supervisor than a laborer and spent much of her time chewing on the water bucket and making it roll across the slope of the yard.  Ref thought the best place for him to be was right where we were working--despite the snips of clippers and debris falling from the tree above him!  Bijou found the whole project exhausting--she slept so soundly that she didn't even rouse from being poked by the other pups.
  The seniors slept most of the day in the wonderful sunshine.  A day like this brings out a lot of foot traffic on our road, plus more cars on the way to the neighborhood winery. The rest of the dogs spent their time notifying us of the increased traffic and discovering the toys that had been neglected during their absence from the play yard.  I don't think Dixie knew what to do first--play with her frisbee or race with Sadie!
  This upcoming week promises more days for play.  I know the dogs will appreciate it!