What? You don't vacuum your grass?

This afternoon (Wednesday, as I type this) I was outside vacuuming my grass and the dogs started barking.  I looked up and my neighbor, Paul, was looking over the wall at me.  I turned off the vacuum and said "Yes?"  And, he said "WHAT are you doing??"

It is a bit of a story.

See the little round things in the grass in this photo:

They are figs from Paul's huge, beautiful fig tree.

And there are THOUSANDS of them all over the grass on the side of our yard where we enjoy the lovely shade from the tree.

When Bonnie stayed with us this time last year after Erika's wedding, I noticed her eating them (our old dogs never touched them.)  Of course, I Googled them right away last year and found that they are, indeed, edible, just not very palatable--not to humans, anyway.  Bonnie the pig-dog apparently thinks they are just dandy! In fact, she can't get enough.  (Darby eats a few then loses interest. )

So, yesterday evening, as I picked up EASILY 10 times the poop I normally pick up after these dogs who eat high quality dog food, it occurred to me that if Bonnie continued to tank up on figs, she would be in a world of hurt on Friday while flying for 8 hours across the US with no "bathroom privileges."   I saw the headlines "Corgi explodes over Oklahoma!"

When she proceeded to poop at least FOUR more well-formed, normal-volume poops within an hour or so, I knew I had to pick up the figs she hadn't eaten yet. So I did the only thing I could think of--I dragged out Glenn's shop-vac and about 35 pounds of orange extension cord.

 

When I fired up the shop vac, Darby retreated a few feet, but the roar didn't deter Bonnie one bit!  In fact, I think it made her panic as she realized her snacks were rapidly disappearing!

It took me nearly 45 minutes to suck up all the figs, and while I didn't open the canister, Glenn says it was nearly full!

So today, I came home from work and did it again.  That's when my neighbor caught me!

I hope the figs Bonnie has already eaten and those she will manage to get tomorrow as they fall off the tree during the day, work their way through her system by the time we leave the house on Friday morning.

But, just in case they don't, I asked Erika to bring lots of towels and wipe-ups when she meets us at the airport.