Things Moving Smoothly

My friend tells me these are Tiger Lillies, but Grok tells me they are Daffodils, what I called them. I do know you cannot kill them. They grow back fast. The give the boring landscape in front some color.

I knew they would grow back and bloom last fall, but I cut them all back to ground level. My cutting got rid of all the dead looking but only dormant stems and leaves. It looks like I will have more blooms this year than last year. As you can tell by the start of this blog post, not a lot has been going on since my last one. Normal routines for the hounds and dogs, and for me. 

As a test I put new mulch over that small black rock, left of the plant, that covers the front flowerbed. The rock is like concrete and would be too much trouble to dig up and throw in new mulch, so this is a test to see if my shortcut idea will work ... just putting a thin layer of mulch over the small black landscaping rock that has been there forever.

Before I buy a new fridge I will do everything possible to see if I can fix the problem. I pulled this out to vacuum and thought it would be full of dog hair and dust but it wasn't bad. I still vacuumed between all those wires and pieces but there was no dust covering the small wide vent not shown. Plus when I plugged it in to check the fan .. it worked.

Of course I had the finest supervision. If you look to the left of Ava you can see where I have taken up the broken trim strip between the laminate floor and tile floor. I have a new piece to install but will need to make some modifications to the past cut to make it a little better fit. 

The problem is, not really a problem, ... that new piece was close in color to the old but not quite. So for my mind to agree with the replacement ... I will need to replace all the trim strips throughout the house in each door entry so they all match. Another fun thing added to the "to do" list.

The problem with the fridge, the ice forms at the bottom of the freezer. I take a wide putty knife to lift it off the bottom and this large piece of ice slides out from under the drawers onto the towel I have laid on the floor. The ice machine was shut off months ago after the strange noises I heard coming from it. I did shut off the water source from the sink to that ice maker at that time to see if it would prevent a slab of ice like this ... it didn't.

It is hard to see but the water leaking is below those vents The ice maker is on the left. To replace that I would still need to take off the freezer door and slide out the two freezer drawers. I have found the exact same ice maker that goes with the fridge. I also might have to unscrew the racks that hold the freezer drawers. A major project in my eyes. 

Ice forms on that small ledge just below those vents. But where does all the water come from to form that big piece of ice under the drawers? From what I have read, the defrost hose is either frozen or plugged up. I will need to take that back wall inside the fridge off to get to that defrost hose. that hose is behind that wall where you see the vents. While I have the fridge tore apart I will replace the ice maker. I am not looking forward to that project.

 

My doctor prescribed this for my cough. The small print instructions said to wait 21 days to see the full benefits but I witnessed them within 24 hours. Less coughing less mucus build up. Nasal spray one time a day and after 9 days there was noticeable improvement. 15 days later my coughing is almost non-existent.

In fact so noticeable that friends have told me they notice I am no longer coughing. One told me on a long distance phone call that my voice was not raspy from coughing all the time and I had not coughed while talking to her on the phone like I used to.

For the first time in more than a year I can lay on my stomach or back, take a full deep breath without having to cough due to mucus build up. It was hard to lay on my back every day as three hounds and two dogs tried to get all the attention by climbing all over me.

We do that daily inside the bike room. I couldn't do that without coughing most of the time. Even when Henry at 90 pounds stood on my chest, I was able to breath deep without having to cough. 

It took over three years but after the last rain the other day I just noticed all the topsoil and grass seed I had used finally hides the spot where the Bradford Pear Tree was in January 2022. I have added enough topsoil every spring since the tree was cut down, that the riding mower feels solid ground when I mow over it. The tree cutters had filled the tree hole back up with the ground tree trunk shavings. So that area felt spongy for years.

I plan on leveling the porch. A low spot where that dark rain dirt residue is. 

They left the yard extremely clean when they were finished, including the driveway and the street where they had their trucks. That photo show how the trees and grass comeback once it warms up in March and has a lot of April and May rain. As of May 24th, we have had 26.2" of rain this year. That does not include melting snow in January.

Believe it or not after a week I can see Cletus is gaining some weight by the few ribs I see when he is standing. He has two issues right now. Allergies, where he has scratched so much there is a bare sport forming by his year. For that I bought some chews to prevent the scratching, help with his digestive balance with probiotics.

I never know if the stuff is going to work when I have bought meds online for Heidi, Stella and now Cletus. The Pet Lab Company claims to have over 3 million customers and over 25,000 positive reviews on their products. With the size of Cletus he needs 3 jars of this for a 30 day supply. Should I expect to see results in 30 days? I would think so, but after receiving them and reading the small print of their literature, it said it might take up to 90 days before I see results. By that time summer is over and so are the allergies.

I found out three days after it was delivered, I had bought the wrong stuff and not what I intended to buy. I wanted their Allergery & Immune chews. I called, they gave me a $50 refund that I should see in 7-10 business days. They gave me a great offer of 50% off for a 3 month supply of the correct chews ... but something bothered me about that product ... 

I just noticed the jar said Itch Relief, when I thought I was buying Allergy Relief ... a difference? Don't know. When I called them, there is a difference of course. 

It looks like someway I bought the wrong stuff. This is what I wanted but later Wednesday afternoon I canceled their replacement order. Even with millions of customers it bothered me that their ingredients were not scientifically tested. 

I ended up buying this Thursday morning even though reviews said it did not have nearly enough probiotics to work. It did stop the allergy itching though, from customer reviews.

A little after lunch nap for Henry and Cletus but as usual, not Ava. She is constantly looking for someone to play with during the day. She is waiting for them to wake up. She also knows there is something with Cletus not right and she has been trying to help him move around the house.

While I watch Reds baseball most nights on tv, this is the normal seating arrangements for these three. Walter is usually sleeping in the computer room or in the crate. Cletus is back on the dog bed in the dark bedroom while the game is going on. There are times these three will switch seats.

His daily after breakfast nap. I have never seen a bloodhound so limber and with so much excess folding skin. It might be allergies or so much skin falling over his eyes that he is having trouble seeing the past fee days. Looking at recent photos of him compared to when I got him in November, his eyes are almost completely hidden from excess skin.

CLETUS HAS PINK EYE.

Years ago I had a basset hound that went blind so I know the signs a hound is going blind. Max lived his last 7 years blind and never missed a beat in his daily routines. The past few days Cletus has been showing the same signs. I called my current vet 27 miles away and the other 19 vets in Evansville. Only one of those 19 vets were taking new patients. That is the way it has been the past 4 years I have lived here.

The other night I was able to use two hands to get his closed eye to open, the reason he cannot see well. I saw nothing at first until I pulled his lower eye lid down further and there in the deep corner was a small bright red ball. He did sat there and let me open his eyes without any resistance. 

My current vet cannot see him until June 9th. I do have the emergency vet downtown available if he starts showing some discomfort. So far he has not shown anything besides finding his way not all the time but some times. He was still running in the backyard yesterday with all the others.

webMD for pets suggested a warm compress for 2-3 minutes. He liked that as his tail tapped the couch while I held the warm damp micro fiber cloth on his eye. Then I did a gentle massage towards his nose. They say that gland can go back in in some cases.  I have caught this early, so it is possible for it to fix itself before June 9th.

I found a cause that is interesting that ties in with his allergies and the reason I bought the chews. Allergies can cause pink eye in dogs.  The allergens can cause the immune system to break down and that leads to an increase in cells in the gland. The gland slips from the cell and that cause it to bulge from the eye.

As you can see I did my semi-annual weed pulling the other day. Most of them were the blue violets that grow like crazy plus they have some deep strong roots.

After four years I am beginning to think I am going to need something better than this to get those roots and the weeds out. Obviously I will always have weeds to pull. I have tried pulling them out by the roots, Roundup weed killer, home solution weed killer and what I call my "flame thrower" ... the same weeds in the same place have always returned. 

I plan to let the shrub on the corner to grow taller. I will trim the shrub/tree in front of the window down to the bottom of the window level. A neighbor told me that tree is too close to the house and should have never been planted there due to their root system damaging the foundation. I am guessing that has been there for over 20 years.

I have not had any of those episodes with shortness of breath since I started taking the prescribed nasal spray for my cough and those natural products to reduce mucus build up. In fact I rarely cough anymore and it's only been about two weeks since I started the meds.

Dog walks are fine now. Over an hour yard work with walking a push mower or lifting heavy bags of mulch or topsoil, with no episodes and no need to take a break. I still see the cardiologist about my echocardiogram next week.

So as you see from the lack of hound and dog photos ... not much going one but still pretty busy at the same time.

The sun is rising over the trees here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.