It didn't seem like it would be this hot today by the way we started with cool temps, fog and heavy dew.
Sadie and Stella did their short trips out to start the day and I was back inside for some coffee from a brand new bag of McDonald's coffee. It's surprising that I would like this after drinking strong Starbucks and Seattle's Best Coffee for years. I keep buying a new bag of McDonald's coffee each time I am out.
Sadie's typical quick trip to the field and back. She starts every morning like this.
I decided while I waited for the grass to dry out enough to mow and the morning dew to get off of the yews in front of the house, that I would take the Z4 out for it's 40 mile loop. A nice drive through the country and a stretch of nice two lane highway to pick up enough high speed to blow the cobwebs out. It doesn't get driven a lot but it's nice when it does. It's also nice to come home and find that Stella did not destroy anything while I was gone.
When I got back from the drive I had the urge to at least rake out the mulch that had been moved around by the heavy rains a few days ago. Those three empty blocks normally hold a flower pot each ... but after last summer's heat that killed my flowers I didn't put any flowers out this year.
I must admit the flower bed looks better, raked out and somewhat level.
Heidi made her appearance after her lunch as usual. I still have not made it over to the vet, 11 miles away, to get her weighed but I am pretty sure she has gained a substantial amount of weight this summer. No meds and she has been eating chicken / rice kibble since April.
I glanced at the yews and wondered if I might be able to trim them back today, while the lawn dried enough to mow. It's like everything else I do ... I start with one task and end up doing more than planned.
I like having these trimmed even with the lawn edgers in the front and away from the house about a foot in back of them.
As far as the height, I liked keeping them trimmed to the bottom of the living room windows. It's nice that they are now starting to hide the DirecTV dish a little without blocking the line of site to the satellite.
This summer I let the yews on the right side of the porch grow more than I normally do. I wanted to see if I preferred their height to be to the bottom of the kitchen window or cut shorter and the same height as the yews on the left side of the porch. I chose to cut them the same height as the ones on the left.
The "after" shots. I know it's best to cut them with hand trimmers but they didn't seem to mind that I used the electric trimmers last year. They grew more this past year more than the other 5-6 years that I had them.
I'm the first owner of the house that had any kind of bushes in front of the house. It use to be grass right up to the foundation of the house.
That might be my mistake though because after more review of some old handwritten notes in pencil, I find that the yews on the right side under the kitchen window are right on top of my septic tank, which was installed in 1975.
I was told when I bought the house in 1997, that the septic tank was over in front of the carport and further away from the house. The question is, should I move yews this fall due to the roots of the yews and the septic tank? I've called 4 different landscaping companies and have had 4 different opinions on whether to move them or not.
Another optical illusion is the height looks uneven because the right side is taller than the left but it's because the ground slants downward. I think I'd rather cut them straight across the top instead of a lower angle to follow the ground surface.
Not a bad trim job ... for an amateur landscaper.
After cleaning up the yard after cutting the yews, I needed a break. I went inside loaded up on 32oz of cold water in preparation to mow the lawn. I didn't have enough gas for the mower so that meant Sadie, Stella and I had to make a quick trip to town for a few gallons of gas.
The sun broke through the overcast clouds by that time and it was hot!!! Stella kept her record in tact for destroying or getting into something inside the house while I am mowing. Each time I set more stuff up higher than she can get to and every time she finds something new to get into while I am outside.
Some of the "child proofing" I do for her, is put the window blinds up half way in the living room windows. I shut all windows in living room and bedroom to prevent any chance of her climbing out of the windows. I put my glasses, billfold, any paperback books, regular size books on top of the refrigerator. The large bowl of fruit now goes on top of the refrigerator. Laptop and camera are put in the bathroom with the door shut.
Today she got into my recycling bin that is in my computer room and pulled out that folded, empty bag of dog food that I bought them yesterday. There must have been a piece or two of kibble left in the bag.
Needless to say, you can see after I finished mowing the yard and a short break with some ice tea ... we took a walk without any leashes.
It did not take long for BOTH hounds to be out of view and pretty far in back of me. They are nowhere to be seen in this next photo.
About the time I turned back around to take a possible photo of them running toward me ... they were already running and blew past me and headed around that first turn.
Today I wanted to keep Stella in view and fairly close, since she went way outside the 'no fly zone' last week. Once we were nearing the back of the field I let her go for her favorite spot in the far right corner.
It did not take long for her and Sadie to find things of interest. I did not attempt to call them. I kept walking the path. I knew that Sadie would definitely catch up with me ... Stella I wasn't so sure about.
Here's Sadie just like I predicted.
About the time I thought I might have to go back to the 25' retractable leash for Stella in future walks ... she took off, galloping toward me, taking a direct short cut instead of following our path.
I don't have any photos of it but we had a surprise visitor on the walk and I was almost sure that Stella was going to take off after it. My neighbor's grandson was out in the field behind their house (it's their field) on an ATV riding around. Luckily Stella stood and watched him and came when I called her. She was very interested in what she was watching though.
They both decided it was time to head back to the house for some water and ice cold air.
As usual, no matter how hot, when I went back outside to do some weed eating and then putting the mower and all the other equipment back in the shed ... both hounds had to go back outside with me. Sadie spent all of her time in the field, even after her walk ... Stella decided it was too hot and the shaded cool concrete felt like a great place to take nap while I trimmed some weeds on the driveway.
You of course noticed a slight change to the blog color ... the background color. Last night a little after midnight it was time to play with templates. I like the blog design, the crimson fonts but needed a little color behind it to give it some depth. I did have to use a different template but everything is pretty much the same design as before. I like the changes I made.
There are not a lot of choices in Blogger for templates. Now Wordpress is a different story ... they have hundreds of free templates to choose from.
Well the sun is back out, everything is done outside for the weekend ... I'm going to make another pitcher of ice tea and try not to wake up the hounds as they sleep soundly after a day of heavy activity for them. Supervising my yard work is a pretty 'rough' life ... lol
Cooler temps predicted for next week in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.
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