A Little Bit Of Back Yard Gardening

When my household reached six dogs, including a 135 pound Poodle and two active, trouble-making Papillon puppies, I mostly gave up on keeping any form of garden in my back yard. I dug up my many Rose Mallows and gave them away. I mowed over my herb garden. Indeed, the dogs have pretty much overrun the back yard, endangering most plants. But I will not give up my summer tomatoes. Toward that end, I've worked cow manure into a small patch of soil and planted four hybrid tomatoes (I've not been pleased with the heritage varieties I've tried) and placed a small garden fence around them:

It won't surprise you to learn that the dogs find this fenced-off area with the lovely aroma of cow manure a magnetic attraction. I am trying now to teach them to stay the heck OUT of there. In this photo, you can also see the concrete turtle planter with the miniature roses I posted about recently:

And speaking of miniature roses, they're doing just fine - blooming profusely and filling in the pot at a rapid pace:

And the dogs have not been able to hurt my three Kiwi vines, which I've dug up and brought with me for several moves now:

These vines are dioecious, so individual vines are either male or female. I seem to have at least two, if not three females. They produce white and green leaves. The males are supposed to produce white, green and shocking pink leaves. Well, I'll just have to be content with green and white:

My vines are right now producing pink buds which open into white flowers. And later on, they produce small, hard green fruits, not at all like the fuzzy super market fruits:

Will I try to transplant these vines to the farm some day? I may, though the neighbors will miss the shade they provide:

Driving Home Through The Adirondack Mountains

Another visit to the farm with all six of my dogs was over and we were driving through the Adirondacks on our way back to Albany. I made it a point to stop at the Hayes Brook Horse Trail for a rest area to see if the road was still blocked by a fallen tree. The tree had been cleared, but only by being pushed a bit to the side, giving me the idea that an ambitious traveler had done it, not a State employee. But the road was passable and I drove all the way into the forest and around the bend to Mountain Pond where the dogs got out to run. You can see in the shoreline behind Winky that the lake was still flooded:

But the scenery was as spectacular as always and we had the whole lake to ourselves:

The dogs are now quite used to these brief run/sniff/poop/pee breaks and their enthusiasm is remarkable:

After taking a break at Mountain Pond, we continued southward to the town of Brighton where a former hay field was being converted to a housing development. I turned up the construction road to take a look:

The views were fantastic, but I couldn't help but lament the loss of a hay field for expensive housing:

The utilities were in place, the lots were marked and some had already been sold. I suspect that building will be in progress by the next time I drive up to the farm:

And houses with views like this will surely not be cheap:

We continued on our way back toward Albany. When I saw that the little lakeside park along the Cascade Chain was free of snow and the steep access road passable, I turned in to give both the dogs and myself another rest stop. There was a mountain waterfall there to which I hoped to hike. You can see it in this picture if you click to enlarge it. I discovered the woods too muddy, however, so we never did climb up there:

We all jumped out of the car and headed into the woods. There were other people there also, but I managed to keep the dogs away and in the woods:

We walked across a small bridge toward the very nearby mountainside:

The time quickly arrived for us all to resume our journey southward, so I collected the dogs and once again made extra sure that all six were in the car with me (I've seen too many sitcoms of parents leaving a child behind at a gas station). I snapped one last photo and we were on our way back home: