Tuffy's Jungle

Yesterday's window pictures inspired me to carry the camera around again today.  I didn't take all the pictures I thought about taking, and I'm not going to upload all the ones I did take into this journal right away.  But I want to show you one more window shot, plus some pictures of Tuffy in our jungle of a back yard.

The front window at home:  This is the real "front window" at home. It faces west across the street, toward the house with the two dogs that bark a lot.  You can't see any of that, of course.  The curtains you see here are a very necessary way to block some of the summer sun from the front room.


Tuffy's Jungle:  I don't go outside much, especially into the back yard.  John has trouble keeping up with the weeds, especially now that he's employed again, especially if it rains every weekend, as it did through most of February. There's nothing much for humans to do in the back yard, anyway.  John doesn't want to spend the money and time on water and chemicals and upkeep for our pool, which needs repair if it's ever to be used as a pool again.  John wanted to fill it in, but I disagree.  I'd probably agree to his new idea of turning it into a place for storage, because we certainly need that!

On the rare occasions when I do go in the back yard, Tuffy gets all excited.  She runs and jumps and licks and plays, and I encourage this.  Sometimes she gets so excited that she runs inside to her food dish.  Go figure!

Whirly-Dog: She doesn't do it often, but tonight Tuffy did the tail-chasing thing.  Here are two pictures of that.  I should probably have tried flash for this, to freeze the motion better, but you get the general idea.

Tuffy and Tootsie:  Tootie is the dog next door.  She's outside, alone, day after boring day.  When I go in the back yard, I usually try to entertain her a little bit by talking to her from the other side of the two fences, and maybe running back and forth a little.  Sometimes Tuffy picks up on this.  When she does, she either tries to monopolize my attention (jumping up on me, mostly), or makes a half-hearted attempt to play with Tootsie herself.  Tootie is all in favor of the "running back and forth" game, but neither Tuffy nor I really play the game with Tootsie as it should be played.



Tuffy and the Weeds:  Grass doesn't grow well in our back yard, because a) it's a desert in a drought, and b) Tuffy runs around in the yard so much that she beats down any small plants that get in her way.  The weeds don't seem to have a problem with this, however.  I think the mallow(?) is lush and green and kind of pretty, after the unusually good rainfall we had in January and February.  Because of that rain, Southern Arizona is supposed to have a lot of wildflowers this year.  This is not good news for allergic-to-everything Karen, and Tuffy hasn't expressed a preference.  But I do have a picture of her with back yard wildflowers from last summer.

So what do you think?  Is it worth hiring someone to try to make this yard presentable?  I mean, if we do move, yard work is rather high on the long list of things we'll have to do before selling the house.  But if we stay, should we limp along on John's occasional mowing and weeding, or do we pay someone else to make the place hospitable to humans?

Karen

Tags: Dogs, Tuffy