I might need to break my No Summer Projects Vow. For real.
I'll politely pause for just a minute here to give y'all time to laugh and get over it before I continue...I hear y'all guffawing...and a couple of folks high-fiving each other...and you, I heard you snort when you laughed. I did.
Feel better now? Okay. Because I propose that this project is an emergency repair. And because it's an emergency repair, it shouldn't count against my No Summer Projects Vow. Uh-huh. I hear y'all snickering. But hear me out.
Yesterday I let Liberty outside to play in the back yard. She did one lap around the yard, picked up her squeaky toy, and disappeared. Gone just like that. Both gates were closed, so I knew she squeezed through the fence somehow. I found the squeaky toy in the middle of the alley about 50 feet from the house. I found the dog three houses away—in the opposite direction of the squeaky toy—stretched out on someone's front porch. After I carried her home and put her safely in the house I looked at the fence and found the place where she'd broken through. The fence is in very bad shape. The hog panel is rusted and some of the posts are rotted completely through. I really think the thing's only held together by the honeysuckle vines growing all over it. And there are all these trees growing up through it...I have lopped them off monthly every spring and summer, sprayed Round-Up and brush killer and even diesel fuel on them (not at the same time) and still they come back, bigger and bushier than before. I have better things to do with my time.
Like maybe tearing down the fence, getting rid of those trees, and putting up a nice new fence. Teaching Libbi to use the litterbox and to be happy with never going outdoors except on a leash doesn't seem like a reasonable alternative. Neither does setting the whole darn mess on fire, which the wonderful Floyd suggested. Clearly, this is an emergency situation. It is. Right? Because I don't take my vow lightly. I wouldn't break it for just any ole project. And because I made this vow to all of you, you're the ones who rightly should release me from it. Or not. So let's hear it: Should I break my vow and replace the fence before the end of summer? Or should I keep my promise and live with the holey fence and the brushy trees until September?