We've Been Very Busy

You better sit down and grab your drink ... A LOT HAS BEEN GOING ON since our last post five days ago. We have been very busy. I will let the photos catch you up. Wednesday morning I was on my hands and knees pulling out weeds, and grass that had grown up through the weed preventive sheets. The south flowerbed had not been touched in years. By noon the humidity was killing me ... at at noon 88° 63% humidity I went inside to drink ice cold gatorade, took a shower and then a nap. That photo shows just how far I had gotten ... where the new dark brown mulch is, with a lot more to go.

By 1pm Thursday I was finished ... repeated what I did the day before inside.

I had seen a vehicle that I actually was going to buy the exact VIN number back in May 2019 right before I moved to Arizona. In 2019 I passed on it to take the dark Metallic Gray. Well that silver 2019 4Runner TRD OR Premium for sale again on the local Toyota Dealer. I went out to look last Monday, analyzed, heavy duty thinking and by Friday morning I was making a deal. Two cars for one and a check in my hand for the difference. 

This FJ was a bad purchase. Two weeks after I bought it, the check engine light and anti-skid lights come on. I knew what it was most likely. O2 sensor and catalytic converters, just like the very first 2007 blue FJ I had. I had AutoZone use their code reader to confirm what I thought it was. The kid behind the counter suggested I buy a $26 jug of Cata Cleaner and ran that for a tank of gas ... lights were off within 24 hours and never came back. But that was not the big problem. The lever to go from High 4WD to Low 4WD did not move, didn't wiggle, didn't give you a feeling it would ever move. I started thinking.

This beautiful Mini had served it's purpose. It took Stella, Henry, Walter and I cross country from Sierra Vista to Evansville, averaging 85mph and 31mpg,  1720 miles 15 minute past 24 hours. It was low enough in back for me to get Stella in the back for her last trip to the vet. A reason I bought the car. It was also very very fast ... I never felt I was going to crash but I KNEW I was going to get a speeding ticket because I couldn't keep my foot off the gas. When two cars have a trade in value for more than the sales price of the vehicle you want ... you can usually break even at least after the fees but a good chance to have a few dollars extra in your pocket. I got rid of Premium 93 octane at $3.409 per gallon for the Mini to Regular 87 octane at $2.95 per gallon for the 4Runner. Don't forget the savings of almost $100 per month in insurance. That buys a lot of dog food. Watson LOVES to eat. LOL

By 1:30pm Friday, a little more than 3 hours after I started, the deal was complete and this 2019 4Runner TRD OR Premium in the driveway. So you are asking ... how will I get Watson in the back of this when he is full grown when I said I could not get Stella up that high ...  well he likes ramps ... Stella was terrified of ramps.

So by Friday night I am feeling pretty good. The new car yes, but there was much more exciting news. Thursday I get a call from Mr. Fence telling me they had some good news. Due to material and scheduling, they could INSTALL MY FENCE TODAY THE 19TH INSTEAD OF 4 WEEKS FROM LAST THURSDAY !!!! Their foreman came out and walked off the area, painted grass, took pictures, took notes Friday afternoon just after my car deal. ... I was on the schedule for Monday July 19 at 7:30am.

Sitting on the patio Friday night after three great days to end the week ... I start thinking again. Never good, always dangerous when I start thinking ... but you'll like this I think. By Saturday night after the rains stopped I call my friend Ralph asking if he has a saw to cut a pole down. He did not but had not only an axe, he was experienced. I had turned the light off at the fuse box a week or so ago, confirmed it was not part of my electric dusk to dawn light. I cut the wires, split them, capped them and buried them. Ralph had that light pole down with ease ... I use to hate seeing that standing in my backyard. Now it was gone.

Since I am a pyro at heart, as long time readers know from my leaves and brush burning years ago at the old house up north, to me there was no better way to get that post below ground level than to burn it. Let it burn all night. It had just rained buckets so that green stuff was safe from fire, plus it would be a small flame inside the post by the time I went to bed.

Sunday morning it looked good, just as I planned. Below ground level and easy to cover in dirt for new grass seed.

As you see, the hounds and the dog were over the moon excited about all the action taking place ... but not as excited as they would by around 2:30pm Monday afternoon. (today)

By 7:15am Mr Fence shows up with everything they need to build my fence. He told me if they did not run into problems they would be finished this afternoon. That sounded good to me. The hounds and the dog would get most of their backyard back, a 5' tall fence would keep a full-grown bloodhound in the yard and nosy neighbors out ... two gates both locked with keys.  :)

They didn't waste any time firing up that generator powered auger digging precise 28" holes. After the holes were dug they put a pole in each hole while the man behind them started putting the fence together 6' sections at a time.

I needed a gate at the south end for two reasons. Convenience for me and a way for the septic tank man to get his hose in back to clean my septic tank in 3-4 years.

I started flush with the garage on the north side. The whole fence was well inside my property line and easement in back yet gave the hounds and the dog plenty of yard to run, play, sleep, eat dirt, eat leaves, drink water and still see all the scenery around them. The sections of fence were going up fast. 

By the time Watson and I got back from his 12 week old (3 months) vet appointment and shots .. they were starting on the back wall. By the way ... he clicked in at 36 pounds as he sat calmly on the scale.

I have a gate to the right up a couple of sections of fence so I can get my mower out or any 48" riding mower out to mow outside the fence. The more fence they put up the more I liked it. 

They did something really different with the concrete. Each post is in 28" of concrete. They found out on a trip to Australia if you pour in the dry concrete into the hole, tamper it down and put the dirt back on top of the it, the underground moisture will not only dry the cement it will make it even more stable than mixing the concrete with water. It will cure within a day and a half but it was ok if one of the hounds or the dog would crash into a pole running or leaning against a pole because they were tired. 

When I heard that I knew my temporary fence was coming down. Once the second gate was installed I opened the first section of my temporary fence to let the hounds and the dog out into their "new" yard. The hounds went right into the inspection mode.

You see I have not started taking down my fence yet, on the left side, but Walter was already running and playing more than I had seen him do in months.

Watson has all the dirt he wants to eat.

So does Henry .. I mean you cannot inspect the grounds well unless you have your nose to the ground.

This picture was worth every dollar spent on the fence. A hound not tethered, sleeping in the cool shade and tired from all the running he had done.

Watson is just one laidback hound and Walter was having so much fun he would not even go inside where the AC was. Walter would run from one end to the other and back to the patio, never stopping.

Notice the marigolds are up high now, out of reach from the mouth's of the hounds and the dog. Thanks to those that let me know they were not good for dogs. I admit I really like the looks of the fence.

With the light pole gone it looks even better along the back parallel to the berm.

The mailman and my friends say the fence looks great from the street, when they passed by.

I took out my friends fence posts ... cleaned them and got them ready to deliver back to his house when he returns home next week.

The metal fence was easier to roll up straight than I thought it would be. It is being donated to the local Habitat for Humanity. The rolls are held by three zip ties .. on the ends and one in the middle.

The vet said that Watson has trouble with his eyelids. They are folding inward instead of outward. He would have surgery not to cut his eyelids but to stitch them outward so the eyelid would be trained to grow that direction, like it should for a hound dog. Otherwise it will irritate his eye with his eye lashes folded inside. Stella had a similar issue but New Frontier vet wanted to cut her eyelids and I wouldn't agree to that. He loves laying down in the grass and sleep. 

So that is about all that has been going on here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana.