Spring Gardening

I've come to the conclusion that the dogs love digging at the beach so much because they can actually dig in the sand. The dirt in our yard is, for lack of a nicer word, special. It has a high clay content and when it is wet, it sticks to everything. I have literally had to throw shoes away because I walked in the yard when it was wet and couldn't get the inches thick caked on mud off again. When it is dry, it is like concrete. Maybe I should just let the dogs dig all they want. Then their nails would be filed down naturally and I wouldn't have to clip them...
In the summer time, our soil shrinks as it dries up and big cracks form. It hasn't rained in a week or two, and our yard already looks like this:

The dirt at the base of our grapefruit tree

I can't really say that I'm looking forward to summer if the yard is already starting to crack...

So today, to change things up, we worked a little in the yard instead of going to the beach. We are trying to get our raised beds ready for the spring garden. The puppies think the raised beds are their own personal sand boxes and are always eager to help pull out weeds (and any other plant that happens to be growing there already).

Mr. M helping

Miss B decided that gardening was boring and convinced everyone else that they should play with her instead. Of course, it doesn't take much to convince our puppies to run around the yard at top speed.

The boys racing through the yard

A brief pause to catch their breath

Not everyone was happy with the decision to play outside.

Ok. I'll just wait here in the toy box. All by myself. Nobody paying attention to me anymore... Guys?