Ivy: hide-n'-seek GENIUS and the new dog hotel

The other day Ivy had disappeared. Oh no, not outside... INSIDE the cabin. And for anyone who has been here, you may know there are not a lot of hiding places for dogs. I was looking inside, then outside, but I was sure I saw her come in. Then I came back in and heard a little rustling in the cupboard-thingy...

Looks kinda guilty eh?

She was lured under there because that's where I store some corn oil. They often get this stuff in their food and totally love it. She was sneakily hiding under there licking the oil remnants off the jug.

Little brat. But isn't she friggin' adorable!??!

In other new, and er, EXCITING goings-on around here...

The doghouse-that-has-turned-into-a-dog-condo building went well yesterday. This fully insulated bad-boy is going to keep some certain dogs toasty warm this winter.


Sage approved. Do you know how hard it is to do some work with 8 loose dogs running around you, jumping on everything, playing on top of your wood, stealing your hammer and gnawing on it, attempting to run off with mouthfuls of insulation, and oh! A box of screws... can we eat that too??!! What the heck, let's try!! Yes... they certainly tried my patience during this endeavour, but I prevailed!! Three hours of work and yelling at dogs to "give that back!" and "leave that alone!" and "get off the wood!" and "stop eating insulation!" and I was spent.

Ok, so the front isn't all that pretty. But, keep in mind that it's not quite done yet. I ran out of plywood and want to make a nice door, and add yes, a PORCH onto it!! I've noticed in the brief time it's been up, the dogs like it, but wanted to see what was going on outside. They just kind of stood right outside of it for awhile. So I'm gonna add some pallets on the ground and then a lovely awning. Oh, and all that exposed insulation had to be covered up, because as I'm slowly realizing, anything "new" in the yard is edible.

So I've got a little "wall" on the inside you can see - but in the back they can go to either side. It's pretty cozy in there. I know this because I spent quite a bit of time in there unintentionally. It turns out when 8 dogs follow you in, getting out through the dog barricade isn't easy.

The view from the back. Not too shabby. It doesn't even look too horrid. Slap a coat of paint on it in the summer, and it'll be the new thing in custom doghouses, you just wait and see.