Mud Season; On Going

Tuloon on her "raft"

Aagh! Mud!

Wahya runs through the layers of straw that were strewn all over the main dog yard to soak up the mud.

The dog yard in early spring

Rotten ice getting ready to give way

I went out the back door to retrieve Tuloon from her makeshift pen for the evening. I say "makeshift" pen because Neil recently installed it just prior to the time McKenzie and Wahya were to arrive for a week and a half stay so their humans could go on spring break. Topa appeared to be going into heat and we needed to make certain we had enough room if we did need to remove her from her small pack. This makeshift pen is not equip for mud season yet. Its base if black dirt and grass. Worse case scenario, we would have strewn a thick layer of straw as a base to keep Topa out of the mud for the short term. Since, however, Topa is not yet going into heat, the pen isn't really needed at the moment.

I had placed Tuloon in the pen for feeding and planned to retrieve her so she could spend the evening with us in the house. So she could be comfortable and out of the mud, I turned over a wooden shade fence that she could use as a "raft", placed a dog house and water bowl next to it so she wouldn't have to get her feet dirty getting to them. She doesn't like to do that. Or so I thought. So, as I was saying, I went out the back door to retrieve Tuloon from her makeshift kennel for the evening to find her perfectly clean except for her nose. It was covered in thick black oozing mud. Sorry, Tuloon, you're staying out tonight! She had apparently buried her bone in a corner of the pen and tried to cover it up with her nose.

I did remedy the mud issue in the main kennel yard for the time being. It took five bales of straw to help soak up the moisture. Now I'll have the job of removing those five bales of straw when it appears that the frost has completely surfaced. There is an end in sight!

The ice on the lake is rotten and menacing in appearance. Any day now, it will break up and the Canadian Geese, Sandhill Cranes and Trumpeter Swans that have been circling the area for over a week will have a place to fish. I saw the arrival of the first Red Winged Black Bird last week as well. That is a sure sign that spring is near!