How Vermont sand dunes get made - a lot of sand, ( low water level exposing lots of sand), beach devoid of grass and other vegetation, no snow, and lots of wind. The process has been going on for thousands of years.

The dog wants out. The gate opens this way.

 

She brings in reinforcements.

 

It is a daunting task. How to clear the gate, in a way that will last the summer, without ruining the dune building process. Two Robert Frost poems come to mind:

Reluctance

"... Ah, when to the heart of man 
Was it ever less than a treason         
To go with the drift of things, 
To yield with a grace to reason, 
And bow and accept the end 
Of a love or a season?"

... or a path?

There Are Roughly Zones

"... What comes over a man, is it soul or mind---
That to no limits and bounds he can stay confined?
You would say his ambition was to extend the reach
Clear to the Arctic of every living kind.
Why is his nature forever so hard to teach
That though there is no fixed line between wrong and right,
There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed?"

Perhaps it is time to acknowledge the greater force and find a better route!

It will take time to find a better route as long as the dog still needs a fence, but we the shovelers, are persuaded. We have just bought ourselves a week or a month or perhaps a summer. August visitors be forewarned!