A little outdoor time

I've been very busy with work this week and haven't had time for much else. Today, however, we got outside for a while at two points during the day. One of the birch trees lost a couple of large limbs in the recent wind storm. They didn't come all the way down, just broke off and remained hanging. One of them was blocking the entrance to Daneland so we went out to address that this morning. I climbed a ladder just far enough to cut off the leafed out branches that were blocking the gate. The rest of the woody part of the limb will have to just hang there until it comes down on its own because I'm not climbing a tree with a chainsaw and that's what it would take to get it down.

The dogs enjoyed the activity of course. We took Maya and Lucky out to Daneland for some off leash time while we were around to watch them. I stopped work briefly to take a phone call from some people who are interested in Lucky. It sounds like they might be a good fit for her so it was definitely worth the time. They will come down to meet her when the current gas crisis is over. 

Later in the day we went out to the pasture and worked on hauling more of the poison ivy tree down to the brush pile. That's the Leyland cypress that had come down last winter. I had cut up a good portion of it on a prior occasion but ended up with a really nasty outbreak from poison ivy that was growing up the tree. I tried to be more careful this time and showered afterwards. We got a lot of the downed tree removed down to the brush pile but probably have two more sessions at least before it will be completely gone. I need to make killing poison ivy a priority outdoor goal for this summer. The container garden is all planted and I'm pleased with it, but we need some warmer weather than what we've had this week to really make things grow.

Max, Griffin, and Callie in the pasture

Della and Serena under a beautiful blue sky.

Max is carrying one of those red jolly balls with the rope through it.

Serena wants it.

Serena won't fight him for it, but she will take it away.

Max knows that if Serena wants the ball, she will get it.

She's not interested in grabbing the rope and playing tug with him; 

she wants the ball and she gets it, although she will drop it moments later.

Della and Max

Callie, running off some of her boundless energy.

Griff and Max

Griff and Callie

Della initiating Dane play with Serena

When the head on the back isn't enough, Della just climbs on up.

Here's Serena inspecting some of the tree trimming operation.

Della and Serena sharing a crate for a nap after outdoor time.