Green Dog House
So phase one of the backyard reclamation is done: The garbage has been bagged (lots of it!), the weeds have been pulled, cardboard and a layer of mulch cover the whole thing to keep the weeds down and make a surface that we can comfortably use, and the clothes line has been strung.
Just in time because it turns out that Willow was getting too neurotic to be left alone inside: she gets a huge bout of separation anxiety and tries to claw her way to wherever we are, not that she knows where we are, just that she doesn't want to be left alone. So far she has wrecked the molding by the front doors and has ripped the wallpaper. A crate is simply not an option. We have one for her, she broke it and punctured her lip in the process. It doesn't matter how long we leave her. Her anxiety is at its peak for the first 20 minutes that we're gone, so she's just as worried if we leave for half and hour or if we leave for half a day. It's not every day either, but maybe once a week. If there was a pattern we could work with it, but none that we can tell.
Anyway, she seems to like the backyard just fine, and I get to build a dog house. But not just any doghouse, a green site-specific doghouse. I was laughing about it with
hypersteve, how I can design it with a green roof, a water filtration/collection area, maybe even some solar to panels to power some sort of warming pad for the winter. Then my friend Elle tipped me off to a company that's already doing it, but charging upwards of $1000 for the extra-small. Yikes! I was kind of joking about it before, but the more I think about it, the more I don't want to give up any of my teeny tiny real estate to a dog house and the better the place will be for her - cooler on hot days, warmer in the winter. Green roof = more gardening space.
I'll have to let this idea ferment a bit. I found a building materials salvage center where I can get some materials. While I probably can't apply for LEED certification, at least I can use recycled materials. I'll have to do a little more research and it would be good to incorporate some of the plants whose fragrance keep away the biting creatures.
Plus I need to get my mad designer lab coat ready. Mwah ha ha ha . . .
Just in time because it turns out that Willow was getting too neurotic to be left alone inside: she gets a huge bout of separation anxiety and tries to claw her way to wherever we are, not that she knows where we are, just that she doesn't want to be left alone. So far she has wrecked the molding by the front doors and has ripped the wallpaper. A crate is simply not an option. We have one for her, she broke it and punctured her lip in the process. It doesn't matter how long we leave her. Her anxiety is at its peak for the first 20 minutes that we're gone, so she's just as worried if we leave for half and hour or if we leave for half a day. It's not every day either, but maybe once a week. If there was a pattern we could work with it, but none that we can tell.
Anyway, she seems to like the backyard just fine, and I get to build a dog house. But not just any doghouse, a green site-specific doghouse. I was laughing about it with
hypersteve, how I can design it with a green roof, a water filtration/collection area, maybe even some solar to panels to power some sort of warming pad for the winter. Then my friend Elle tipped me off to a company that's already doing it, but charging upwards of $1000 for the extra-small. Yikes! I was kind of joking about it before, but the more I think about it, the more I don't want to give up any of my teeny tiny real estate to a dog house and the better the place will be for her - cooler on hot days, warmer in the winter. Green roof = more gardening space.
I'll have to let this idea ferment a bit. I found a building materials salvage center where I can get some materials. While I probably can't apply for LEED certification, at least I can use recycled materials. I'll have to do a little more research and it would be good to incorporate some of the plants whose fragrance keep away the biting creatures.
Plus I need to get my mad designer lab coat ready. Mwah ha ha ha . . .