The Houdini Containment System

In an effort to never, EVER go through another hour like we did last week, when the bratty houdinis ran free all over freakin' town (OK, it was only a few neighborhoods, but STILL), we decided to upgrade from this:

















to this.....















and then this.....
















arriving finally today at this!















Patrick helped with the flowerboxes, running the power drill once I had gotten it started (I held it steady for him). He actually made it most of the way through the project before he wandered off, too, maybe an hour or so.

Yes, I *DID* go into the foreclosure yard next door and cut down that crappy decorative grass! It was so big and thick that we had to use the chainsaw!!! It's sharp, we're allergic to it, and it's always in our yard. I'm going to go back over there and dig the roots up, too. Oh, I'll sprinkle some grass seed, or maybe throw down some mulch to make it look like a planned area (that whole part of the yard is overgrown landscaping, anyway), but I'm tired of it always ending up in our yard, so I'm going to make sure it never comes back! We also took out the little lilac bush that was in the far corner, which I was sorry to see go since it smells so good in the spring, but I have to admit that it looks way better with it gone.

Our only problem now is what to do with the brick patio. Stuff is always growing up through it, and it's lumpy. One idea is to frame it in, make a gravel base, and pour tinted concrete (or have someone else do it, more likely, 'cause, hello, I'm not into cement). Another would be to tear it all up and put in grass. Any ideas? I bought stuff to spray on the grass, but that's not really something I want to do all the time, and I'm not sure the pet-safe stuff I bought will really work, anyway.

We still have one more area to work on, along the rest of the pathway to the gate - you can barely see it to the left of the green garage side door in the last photo. I may do it this weekend, since I bought enough lumber today to do it, too. We'll see what the weather is like, because today was so humid I thought a rainforest was going to spring up.