New dog, new project

The new dog is a five year old male German Shepherd Dog named Nemo. He's unneutered and was living in a yurt with another unneutered male dog. They didn't get along. Duh. This guy reportedly has severe thunderstorm anxiety but otherwise is problem free according to the former owner, other than the unneutered male dog thing. Supposedly he is house trained, or yurt trained at least. 

Well, we will see. I'm not sure how much if anything to believe, but Nemo does seem to be a nice, friendly dog. He wasn't prepared to give me the time of day at first, but later on he greeted me with a toy in his mouth and we even played ball for a while. I have had him out in Daneland since he came home today, and I closed the partition so I could put another dog or dogs on the other side for slow and easy introductions. He's found a bed in the puppy shed and seems content there so I'm not sure if I'll bring him in the house tonight or not. 

Nemo has an appointment to be neutered on Monday. He's a dark sable, really a good looking dog.

I might be adding "build a yurt" to my list of projects, but it's going to be a ways down on the list. My new project today involved laying large pieces of slate in the space between the boxwoods. That's where I have my row of fountains and water features, some of which are to be acquired in the future. But I need something for the surface of the ground. I killed most of the weeds and grass, and I wanted something more permanent and maintenance-free than mulch. I bought a pallet of slate, quarried from down in Buckingham, which I learned is one of the premier sources of blue slate in the country. 

The pieces vary in size and shape so putting them together is sort of like working a jigsaw puzzle with very large and heavy pieces. I had initially been wanting just one large piece that I could use as a base or a pedestal for the concrete dog fountain. But I couldn't find a single piece and then I hit on the idea of using it to cover the surface, so I bought a pallet of it. 

I started by placing a piece under the fountain and then worked outward from there. I haven't got too far yet, but I'm not in a rush. I went to Lowe's later in the afternoon and bought many bags of sand that I'll use to help level the pieces. I think it will be nice.

Max hung out with me and supervised for a while.

This garden spot is looking really good right now.

Here's the start of this project, just four pieces laid.

Della and Arby shared supervisory duties with Max.

Della found my project boring. 

But at least it was outside.

This is about as far as I got today. 

The container garden in the circular bed in the driveway was underperforming. I moved the containers with shade-loving plants to the hosta bed and the sun-loving containers were moved out here. That's partly what pushed needing a new cover for the ground surface to the top of my project list. I will need something to grow in the empty spaces still. I'm not sure how much of this area my pallet of slate will cover. We will see.