The Hounds Move Into Summer

We have been very busy as we move into June. The weather has been great overall and these few photos will show you the hounds have not been doing much at all. That painting you see was sent to me by Chewy.com It was quite a surprise as I opened up the unexpected mail package yesterday. I had sent them a photo of Stella a month or so ago while I was talking to a customer service rep about my auto-shipment of her supplement.

With record amounts of rain, it has been hard to dry out the fields enough to get farming equipment into them to plow and plant this year. I just saw some equipment turn the corner down the single path but I didn't catch if it was towing plows or weed killer for the field of yellow next to this one. We are schedule to get rain around 5pm today.

Due to the rains, they are a few days short of being a month behind of getting that field planted.

After lunch everyday ... it's not much more than this for activity. They turn and head back inside for their afternoon siesta. Depending how warm or hot it is, Stella likes to spend some time sleeping in the sunshine. Heidi spends a lot of time going outside on her own to lay, roll and sleep in the backyard grass most afternoons when it's not raining.

I called for grooming appointments for both of them and after calling three different local groomers ... they can't schedule me until AUGUST !!!! I give Heidi a bath in the tub with no problem but Stella wants nothing to do with bathing inside the tub or outside in the sunshine.

She has cancelled the morning walk and we haven't walked first thing in the morning in so long I can't remember the last time we did that. She is always ready for an afternoon walk where she returns with no ticks on her and by that time I am pulling 5-7 very very small ones off of me. The field is taller than my shoulders near the house in the lowest part of the field and much taller than Stella in the rest of the field.

With the warmer than normal winter this year, I have never seen it worse for ticks as it has been this spring in the 21 years I've been here. They are always on me any time of day or night. In past years I have sprayed my yard for ticks and fleas. Living as close to that field as I do ... the spray didn't help. One year I emptied the rooms and sprayed inside, that did not help.

The only thing that helps is the NexGuard the hounds take one time each year in April or May and that keeps them "tick free" for the rest of the summer. I suffer in the meantime.

Heidi was pretty active today after lunch. She barked, spun in circles and wanted to play.

As I walked up the hill from the mailbox ... she looked as if she wondered if Stella still had a pulse.

There has been a lot of "classified" activity going on around here and even some redactions on paperwork being exchanged. I have no idea what is going on in the world because I have been busy enough to keep the tv off except for the Cincinnati Reds games. My computer time is down almost 66% based on data used ... busy busy busy times.

The windows are open, the birds are chirping and a nice cool breeze from the south/southwest today. The hounds are both in a deep sleep for the rest of the afternoon here at 12:47pm.

It's been great lately in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.