Tree Mayhem

Remember the maples I planted a couple weeks ago? Well, Tebow has taken one out - just like the real Tebow takes out defensive tackles.

Here's the damage. He actually managed to chew the tree into two parts. This is what was left in the ground. In the last week, he's managed to pull this part up also.




The culprit on the right.


This is the rest of the damage. He's chewed up some of the cushions on our patio furniture (granted it was old, but we did sit on it). And, pulled out the pots that were in storage under the porch. My yard is currently a mess!


Last night, as we were eating dinner and watching him play in the back yard, my sister realized that he was playing with a green plum tomato! From my garden! As we were watching, he swallowed it and then went and retrieved another one of off a plant.

This morning, Kaity's eating breakfast and screaming that there's a squash in the yard. Sure enough, he'd gotten a rather large squash off of a vine and it was laying in the yard as a chew toy. He has plenty of his own chew toys (mostly bones), but those won't do.

As we're leaving this morning, I realized he's got one of Kaity's sandals! It was the sandal from last summer, but she could still wear them and often would to the sandbox in the back yard. I guess she left them out there last time and he's eaten them into little, pink pieces. I told her she could pretend that her jellies were sandals (which they really are, but not to her).

Everyone keeps telling me this phase will pass. He's such a good dog, but, boy, is he destructive!

Native Maples

Maples are a common sight around the farm. They grow very easily here in north central Florida and make great trees. My mother-in-law digs them up when they're small trees and pots them. This way, we can use them in our yards. Last year, she "rescued" probably 8 or 10 of them. They've been in the pots way too long and have rooted into the ground. We finally got around to planting a few. Joh dug up four of them - three for me and one for his mom. We got ours planted on the porch side of the house. They're all about 6 feet tall. I put two on the inside of the fence and one on the outside. I'm hoping to create a garden on both sides of the fence. The one on the far right isn't doing so well now. The leaves have all turned brown and Tebow has stripped some of the bark off. Imagine that. The others are doing okay. They're suffering a little shock from the transplant, but not too much.


This is the one on the outside of the fence away from Tebow. We're propping it up a little bit right now, but it's doing well. I sprayed a big area around it this weekend, so we can start turning it into a flower bed.