Ava Recovered & Weeds Are Gone

Tomorrow will be 10 days from her spay surgery. That was how long she was suppose to wear the cone, all walks by a leash, contained if not confined. The cone went off a day or two after she got home. She did drag the leash around if I wasn't walking her for about a week. She would lay down and show me her scar without me asking every day. That has healed completely with another five days of antibiotics. She has been "rough housing" with Watson and Henry for the past couple of days. You will notice her left leg where the cut was, has healed also without any swelling. She should be good to go now for the next 10-15 years.

I know myself well enough to know that when I feel motivated to do things, I HAVE to do them and take advantage of my sudden burst of energy and focus. In the past I had only pulled those green weeds, maybe flowers, with some roots coming out or just the tops. Today though I never wanted to see them again. When I didn't see roots when I pulled, I spread the landscape rock a little so I could see the root ball and then pull from there. I might have missed a couple across the front of the house but most of them should NOT come back. 

This was my starting point today. A little past 9am, temps were only in the 70's and hazy skies. It did not rain last night as predicted so I was not going to have some extra moist ground for easy weed pulling. Still they came out pretty good. Still things didn't look right. Didn't look finished.

I am not a landscape expert by any means. I am not real knowledgable on when the best month is to trim or cut back azaleas or rose bushes ... I just know when I am motivated to do it. Over 24 years that I have followed that policy, all those bushes I have trimmed or cut back when I wanted to or had the time ... have always grown back. After pulling weeds what didn't look right was overgrown azaleas and a couple of small rose bushes. Out came the 100' electrical cord and my trimmers ... 

I did a different process today in collecting and hauling away all the cut stems and it worked out well. A garden rake to get most of the big stuff off the black rock. Raked into a pile, then a leaf blower to all the flowerbeds to get the small stuff out on the sidewalk or in the grass.

A neighbor told me today that bush under the first set of double windows, my "bike room" is a Burning Bush and should not be that close to the house. She told me they get really big if I let it go but I had always trimmed it away from the house in back and only as high as the bottom of the window. 

That is a real small ivy bush to its left and then I shaped up the yellow bush on the corner. ALL of this landscaping on the front and the left side of the house was done by two or three previous house owners. Each had a different idea on what they liked. I don't want to spend the money it would take to have a company pull all that out and install new landscaping. 

What do you thin of this idea? I paint those address numbers 1420, crimson the same color as the shutters. 

From the time I grabbed my 5 gallon Home Depot bucket and my pad to kneel on, until I cleaned up the sidewalk and put all the tools back in their place ... 2 hours 10 minutes. Tonight I will search again on the internet "how to kill zoysia grass" ... like that patch in front of the bush on the corner.

With the temps hovering around 80° most of the day the dogs and hounds spent most of the day sleeping. We all took a long siesta, played some Block Blast on the phone and iPad then decided to move outside and enjoy a few minutes before the humidity ran all of us back inside. That is all of us except Walter.

Once again he faked me out. Ran down the hallway like he was going outside with me then a sudden stop, turned around and headed back to the computer room, HIS computer room that he lets me use.

With cold air blowing across that floor, Henry had found the prime spot for the air conditioning.

Ava ALWAYS likes going outside.

No call from Astound Internet about their low cable. My neighbor suggested I call Channel 14 where they investigate stuff like this and put the report on tv. I am not sure I want the fame ... LOL ... I told her I'll pass on that idea. She told me that low hanging cable would drive her insane.

As the three of us were outside ... nobody joined us.

Watson made a short appearance but turned around and went back inside. If you notice I had been playing around with different kinds of focus on the Nikon. I like that focus there with the background blurred.

I am not bragging, or at least don't want to ... But Ava is one pretty German Shepherd.

Well I guess the next thing on my list might be painting the front door on the outside along with the door jam ... but we are back in the 90's starting next Tuesday. That is after possible rain this weekend. I'll move that down on the list. 

There is something about spending some time getting your hands dirty pulling weeds and cleaning things up. I wear shoes when I do yard work but as soon as I am cleaned up, I am back to bare feet most of the day ... I also clean the yard after the dogs and hounds eat ... walking through the yard barefoot.

It's been a good week here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana ... Reds baseball tonight.