Heidi Ran This Morning

The hounds slept in late today and Heidi finally woke everyone up a little past 8:30am. No, I don't feel sorry for all that traffic flying by my house on the way to their jobs.

For a change it was slightly overcast, cooler temps and heavy dew on the yard.

The grass looked like it had grown a foot just overnight. I'll be mowing at least the backyard later today. As I looked at Heidi, for some reason her skin had exploded with redness and irritation. Then I found a couple of hot spots where she had been chewing over night.

While the hounds walked around I glanced over at my neighbors house that has been sitting empty for almost two years. One of the major commercial property owners in this small rural town bought it in July 2014 and put it up for sale a week later. It's listing prices is about 30% too high.

I've mowed my yard I think 5 times this year, that yard has not been mowed yet. It's becoming a dandelion forest. He does have someone that mows all of his commercial property yards .. not sure what they are doing here, maybe it's a tax write off? I would think if I was serious about selling a house I would keep the yard looking immaculate and wash off the mold on the north side of the house ... but that's just me.

After we came back outside for our 2nd trip of the day ... Sadie and Stella went on strike ... they were not going to walk or move until I took them for their morning walk in the field. It's amazing how their energy and expressions changed as I came back outside with Heidi.

At first I thought she was not going on the walk. When I asked, she ran from the kitchen to the living room and hopped up on the couch. I did the same thing I've done since Saturday afternoon ... attach the retractable leash to her collar even while she is sitting or laying down.

By the time we hit the edge of the yard and field, I took off the leash and she was off leading the pack for the walk.

When I thought about leaving her behind like yesterday so she could walk her own pace, she came running and moved back up to the front.

They were all interested in seeing the deer they saw yesterday. A lot of exploring but couldn't come up with anything positive. They kept looking back in that direction as we walked on.

I am not sure why Heidi has these hot spots ... one on her right paw and a bad one on the back of her right front leg where she has been scratching with her rear right leg. We are on Day 4 of the dog food change to grain free Earthborn Great Plains Feast.

Could it be a reaction to the grass she has been walking and rolling in the past 3 days? I should have my new ointment tomorrow in the mail. It's anti-fungus and anti-bacterial. All the other creams, salves I've used this past year were more of a moisturizer with zinc oxide.

She had her extremely long nails trimmed yesterday and they are still long. Still she must be feeling better because she ran more today on this walk than she has ran in over a year. If we can get the skin cleared up with the Wounded Warrior Ointment and get some anti-fungus shampoo that does not have oatmeal in it ... plus add a little weight ... she will be back to where she was. I am just happy to see her outside getting some exercise and enjoying the field.

Stella checked out her normal spots ... she goes to them every walk, twice per day. I don't even call her anymore. I let her do whatever she does and know she will eventually start sprinting toward us to get caught up.

The return home was going pretty well until Heidi heard a woodpecker. That stopped all of them for a short time ... and then Sadie and Stella decided they would go back to the scene of the crime yesterday and see if that deer showed up.

With the temps down to 71° and a forecast of cloudy we will get a break from the hot sunny weather that I like so much. I need to find a maid ... I'm losing interest again in those housekeeping activities that come with being single.

I have tried something different on my photos. I do all my editing in the program that Apple changed in may 2015 from iPhoto to Photos. Sharpness has always been my complaint since that that change. Yet they look great on my Wordpress blog and on my Flickr account.

I found it last year but haven't really used it until the photos yesterday and today. Let me know if you notice any difference in the quality of the photos on this blog. I had to add a 'sharpness' to the 'adjustments' edit icon. I quit using the 'enhance' adjustment unless the photo is too dark. I never liked that bright green grass ... it looks normal now.

It's another rough day in retirement here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... the pace is a killer.

Photo Fixer

I talked about my Apple Photos issue after the latest Yosemite OS X update yesterday. Then last night I went to the MacRumors forum and read two pages on the exact issues I was having, finding more people were wanting the same thing I was.

There is not a fix for that at this time.

Around 5pm today I checked my computer and had the following article show up on my Feedly account. I am posting this now to get it out to readers that may have not seen it and need some free help in freeing up some iPhone space and can delete photographs in a group instead of one at a time.

Here is the link to the article:  Photo Fixer

That is not an affiliate link, therefore I do not make any money if you click the link or download the free app. I am passing this out as information only for those that need it. This lists a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.

From just a short few paragraphs I also found what takes place when taking pictures with my iPhone that causes duplicates and what they call "bursts". I take a lot of not all my iPhone photos using the HDR feature which results in duplicate photos.

I guess I should have read more in depth before using the new iPhone last summer ... but as usual I jump in from the start and use the phone like I have with the previous phone ... then learn things as I go or run into trouble.

So the article answers some other questions I had but it still will not do what I want, preventing photos downloaded from my camera to my computer from being automatically uploaded into my iPhone and iPad. I know how to prevent that but it also means I have to manually change settings each time when I download photos from my camera or from my iPhone to the computer.

I had a pretty busy day today and still am not finished. I may post later tonight or early tomorrow.

A Field of Yellow Across the Highway

With temperatures expected to reach in the upper 80's today, I decided whatever the hounds and I needed to do would be done before noon. The past few weeks as I look out my large kitchen window I kept seeing this field of yellow. I knew it wouldn't last long before they were plowed under for soybeans this year. I grabbed my camera and took off across the highway.

Before I get started I wanted to say for all the readers that are Mac users and may still be fighting with the new "Photos" program that Apple has forced on everyone, replacing "iPhotos" I have not found a way to fix some issues we are all having with automatic uploads, etc. I'll talk about that after my story/photos of the bridge.

Down at the end of this path is an old steel bridge somewhere around 70 years old at least. Under that bridge is or use to be a creek that was deep enough where as a young boy, my 86 yr old dad, his brothers and friends would jump off the bridge and spend a hot summer day swimming. You will find that story hard to imagine further into this blog when you see the condition of the bridge, the low water level and the low quality of the water.

I am not sure what kind of flowers these are or if they are just weeds that bloom. Even if I were to spend time to find the names of all of the flowers/plants I see, I would not be able to remember them anyway. I just like taking pictures of them and other blooms I see in the field behind my house. You can see the corn stalks from the harvest last fall.

The field on the right side of the lane across from the field of yellow, owned by the same farmer, has already been fertilized and yesterday they put on some anhydrous ammonia. They are both small fields maintained by small tractors and farm equipment but from what I am told produce some pretty large income per acre.

I am not sure now but a few years ago those large white tanks of anhydrous ammonia were being stolen by the meth dealers throughout southern Indiana. In this area, unemployment is over 8.5%, our county is the 2nd highest county in the state for meth labs. To prevent the theft of those tanks, State Police were having the guard those tanks over night per request of the farmers. In some cases they were parking empty State Police cars next to tanks to prevent theft.

In 1970, the spring of my senior year of high school, I was living in a rural community on the west side of Indianapolis. Large flat fields. I had zero farming experiencing but did have a desire to make some great money.

A friend's dad hired me to drive a huge John Deere tractor day and night, putting on anhydrous ammonia. I knew a lot about sports but very little if anything about the dangers of anhydrous ammonia.

During one of my trips up and down those extremely large fields I noticed the hose connection from the tank to the discs/applicator had come loose and there was a leak spraying out at the connector. As I was trying to press the hoses together to get the connection to lock, due to the pressure, that anhydrous ammonia shot out and hit me in my chest, extremely cold. I told Jack (friend's dad) what had happen but didn't think anything else about it.

A week later, an older farmer had the same thing happen to him only the shot hit him in the face/nose, killing him instantly as the large amount of anhydrous ammonia flowed to his lungs. That ended up being one of many close calls I've had over the years.

I said in my post yesterday that I did not have a water shortage here so I could water my lawn, wash cars anytime I wanted. After seeing the level of this creek today and comparing it to what I remember in June 2008, I may have been incorrect saying that. The last time I came back here to look around the water level was up to the top of the dirt bank.

There was also a large amount of flowing water rushing through a large ditch that runs along the path, coming from the pictured source into the creek. Now you can tell there is only a dribble of water from that source.

If I were to continue walking across the bridge the path would take me to the road that goes to the covered bridge that I blogged about last fall, which is to the left of this bridge a mile or so.

So today was just a short trip across the highway, not really a hike.

Great weather, interesting scenery.

Here is a photo of my house from a different angle. I took this from the path next to the yellow field. Kneeling and taking the photo barely over the tall grass, you cannot tell the house sits on a pretty good size hill.

I ended my exploration today at the local landscaping establishment that sits maybe 300-400' from the house. I have three pots and the potting soil from last year, and plan to plant some new flowers to put in front of the house. I'll get them later today after the place empties out a little.

Just another typical day in retirement where you can do what you want, when you want. I am enjoying the Nikon camera I bought last fall as the temps warm up.


Apple's new Photos program

I am sure for those readers, like myself, that have updated their Yosemite OS on their laptops or iMacs, have found plenty of frustration with the new Photo system. In my case with satellite internet and paying for a fixed number of gigs per month for data, I have to really watch what is taking place while I'm on the computer so I can limit my usage. Currently I pay $87 for 15Gb per month just for my home internet connection. That amount of money isn't much higher than what I was paying in the years prior to last summer with a AT&T land line and then DSL service.

With the new Photos program, by default, I was seeing a huge increase in data usage while downloading photos from my Nikon SDHC card to my computer. That process doesn't take any data because its only going from a card to your hard drive. Still the "data sent" graph was going off the charts. I knew exactly what was taking place because I spoke of it a few days ago.

For example today, after I downloaded 33 photos from my camera to my computer, the Photos Agent 'data sent' used 208 Mb, synchronizing  photos that I don't want on my iPhone or iPad. That is 208/500Mb's that I allow myself per day to meet the 15Gb at the end of the monthly billing period.

Under the new Yosemite update, any photos from your camera downloading into your laptop or desktop in Photos, is also being uploaded into Photo Stream on your iPhones and iPads. Personally I don't want that to happen. I also found out by error yesterday that when I went into Photos on my computer and deleted those photos from Photo Stream thinking they would be deleted from my iPhone and iMac but would stay in the computer's hard drive ... that also deleted the photos out of the master library.

Luckily I could go back to my camera card and reload them into my computer since I do not delete any photos off my SD card after uploading them into the computer. Still once those photos were downloaded from the SD card to the computer, they automatically uploaded again to my iPhone and iMac.

What is the fix to this problem?

I spent a few days reading, looking on my own, trying to figure out how to prevent the automatic upload of photos into my iPhone and iPad, which was also soaking up a lot of my memory on a 16Gb iPhone.

So far, as of today I have not found the solution to stop those automatic uploads. It's too nice outside right now to do any searching, but I'll try to do that tonight after dark and will post any information I find for blog readers looking for the same solution. If you have the answer, let me know in the comments section.

I am still having good luck with my diet changes from last Friday. Two things I have noticed, no heartburn/acid reflux and no urges for the afternoon nap I was becoming addicted to. I do have periods of intense craving for the things I am trying to eliminate. Drinking water during those times, helps.