Slowly Getting Warmer

We have finally broken the code for freezing weather this morning. Temps are heading slowly back to our normal mild winter temperatures. In ten days they tell me it will be up to 56°. With it being 32° right now a lot of this snow will start melting. It already has since that photo is from January 26th.

The single digit temps have not bothered the dogs and hounds at all. I try to get them back inside within 10 minutes if they are not at the door when the temps are below 20. Watson refuses to come inside most of the time and his paws will get so cold that he automatically raises them in the air. The only problem with that is if he were to refuse to move there is no way I can pick him up and carry him back to the house like I did with Stella many years ago.

Cletus moves extremely slow ... like Bloodhound slow whether it is 9° or 95°. That is his pace and he is sticking to it. The reason being, anytime and anywhere he walks his nose is to the ground searching the area ... inside or outside. Most likely for some kind of food. 

The tracks in the snow give me a good idea just how much of the grass is walked on during good weather and how much more wear and tear it gets than the past yard I had when I lived north of here. Most of their walking or playing up there was out in the field. This is from a week ago ... you will see this morning's photos that the whole backyard has been walked on.

Ava simply loves being outside. To the point I have wondered if I should take the offer from my friend for their big doghouse they now have with no dogs. I cannot picture her staying outside because all of my dogs and hounds for the past 38 years have been inside dogs. She sprints to the patio door anytime I call her. Yet, she loves the snow and loves being outside.

Unlike when he was younger, Walter never hesitates now when going outside. It used to be if the weather was not perfect he would take a step outside and turn back around to go inside. Not now. He also has his nose to the ground most of the time that he is outside. 

I am going to wait and see how much the sunshine melts this area before I shovel it out. With a 65% chance of rain tomorrow a lot of this might disappear. You can barely see the buried water bowl on the right side of the photo. 

I did not take a photo but I walked out by the fence the other day to make sure all of my vents on the roof were not covered or blocked in snow. Everything is good up there. Looks like job number one this spring is to hand wash the gutters. They were not that bad last fall. Maybe the camera makes them look worse than they do in person. Either way, I will hand wash them this spring. 

You can start to see how much traffic they make in the yard. 

Walter has been having some problems with this rear leg lately. I checked his paw and everything is good there. About the time I think of a vet trip, he is running around the house on all four legs playing with Henry and Ava. I think he lifts his leg mostly after waking up, which tells me possibly some arthritis is giving him problem.

It is a common thing with english bulldogs. I decided to try this for a month and see what happens. It had 5-star reviews anywhere I looked. Plus I could drive to the store and pick it up. What I wanted to buy and gave Stella years ago would have to come from Amazon and I haven't seen a truck from USPS, UPS or FedEx drive through the neighborhood in over a week. They are normal passing by two to three times per day. I just saw my first mail truck about the time I was posting this. 

If I knew I could get this delivered I would by this.

I did have a sealed bag in the cabinet but the expiration date was March 2023. 

At the time I thought it was hip issues that was causing Stella to limp and this seemed to have helped based on how she walked and how she ran. Not until the day I had euthanized her, I found out from x-rays that she had clean hips. It was the large tumor she had that was causing her to walk at times gingerly or even hesitant stepping off the patio.

So I sit here this morning with temperatures not quite cold enough to freeze and no sunshine to help melt the snow. But as you can see, where I shoveled last week to get to the side yard is pretty clear. Interesting prints in the snow that are not my boot prints heading to the right and around the corner.

When I decided I needed to get to the store to buy Walter the Cosequin, I drove the FJ back and forth on the far side of the driveway to mash down the snow for easier melting when the time comes. The concrete you see is where the neighbor's two cars were parked during the snow storm and where they had dug snow out away from their cars.

Not much will be done again today. I am waiting for my tax return. No plans for that since for some strange reason I have lost the urge to buy anything at Best Buy or on Amazon. I use to look for ways to spend money but that impulsive spending seems to have disappeared this past year or so.

Hard to believe that rain is in tomorrow's forecast but that just means my wish to get out of single digit temps is coming true and we are getting one day closer to spring. 

Things are good here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.