Beams, Berms and Boards

 

This is the story of our lives! We have two corgis who are not content with 5.8 acres. It's boring. They chase the squirrels away, and then they have nothing to chase. Well, accept for the crows. They love chasing the crows, who dutifully fly a bit, tease the girls, who chase them again, and then the crows light in a tree just on the other side of our fence! The tortoise (more than one?) is no challenge. 

We have several burrow entrances on our property. Some appear to be abandoned, but others show signs of activity. We were witness to a tortoise doing his/her spring cleaning a few weeks ago. There was dirt flying out of the hole! 

The torti (yeah, the plural is supposed to be tortoises, but I like this more creative form!) also are not content with our acreage, and burrow under our fence. Here's one escape hatch. with my creative means of keeping the dogs in the yard. I stuck sticks in the sand to create a fence....since we have begun to put boards along the bottom of the fence where escape is possible, I propped a board up against it as well. At some point the Mister and I will install the board properly. 

Kaitlyn has perfected the sidestroke to get under the fence. She plops down on her shoulder and uses her hind legs, helped by swimming motion of the front, to sidle under the fence. When I come across a possible point of egress when I am walking the fence line (I've started doing this each day) I stuff prickly shrub cuttings into the gap. 

The original owners of our hacienda had a dressage arena of sand, outlined by long timbers, like railroad ties. Originally the Mister thought he could use the tractor to move the timbers over to the fence line and push them against the gap under the fence. Unfortunately many of the timbers are rotted out underneath and crumble as he tries to move them. However, he has placed a few here and there. 

As a temporary measure the Mister has also built up mounds of dirt (sand) at the base of the fence. Both the dogs and the torti can dig through these, however, given enough time. 

But it at least slows the dogs down a bit!

I do have tags on each dog that state:

KAITLYN

I am microchipped.

I am lost.

Call my Dad:

###-###-####

We did get a call from just outside our fence one day. A nice young man 'collared' Kaitlyn (the most likely suspect to escape) and called to tell us he was outside our gate with our dog. 

Another time our backdoor neighbor stopped me to tell me the girls had come to visit her while she was having an outdoor ladies yoga class. Unbelievably our girls would not approach the ladies for some loving. I guess they had the 'stranger danger' class in puppy school! 

It's been an adventure, and will be an ongoing challenge to keep the ladies happy.