The Hounds Talked Me Into Walking

I was tired but with Sadie giving me the stare down and Stella howling ... I put on my shoes, grabbed the camera and headed out for the early evening walk. I was tired from mowing the yard as usual, add in some pasta for dinner and I was thinking more of siesta before watching the NFL Draft tonight instead of walking and blogging.

As I mentioned this morning, Heidi had a bath to wash off some ointment residue on her chest and neck. Plus I needed to clean off some dead flaking skin and clean between her skin folds on her legs.

By 12:30 she was looking pretty good and by 2pm her skin color was the normal tone. By 4pm her rear hocks were red and she had chewed a small spot on the edge of her rear shoulder. Overall I think I can see some progress.

While I was walking slow, the bloodhound that was doing all the howling to go ... took an early lead and moved way ahead of Sadie and I. No matter what I was going to maintain my pace, a little faster than Heidi's but not by much. I was tired.

With all the rain and sunshine, the hayfield is growing fast but the tallest and greenest of all is near the house where the hounds have dumped their tanks all winter.

I'm starting to see a little 'waistline' on Sadie so that shows me she is losing some weight like we planned. Less weight will be easier on her hips as she grows older.

Stella has gotten bigger since she arrived last August but is still trim around the midsection. She would eat the whole bag of food if I poured it out.

Both of them seemed to have been in a hurry tonight. Yet on the way back after making the final turn - they slowed down. I think they hope to see that deer again.

Looking in the direction of where the deer was a last week.

I guess that is all they wanted ... just a walk. They were sound asleep 5 minutes after going back inside.

I didn't make any edits to these photos tonight ... can you tell the difference?

Almost forgot, not one tick found on either hound after the walk but I did have two on me.

Another beautiful night here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Are Back In Action

I should never go to bed before midnight. I'm a night person and am usually up until 2am most nights. Last night the urge hit me to sleep before midnight which turned out to be one of the most restless nights of sleep I've had in a while.

By 3am I was awake and couldn't get back to sleep because Sadie was snoring so loud over in the corner of the room. She was stretched out half on the floor and her other half on the dog bed. I stepped around her to open the window since the rains had stopped. Of course she wanted to go outside before daybreak, along with Stella. I think they wanted breakfast more than they wanted or needed to pee.

With dark skies and a feel of rain in the air, Sadie was the only hound to venture out into the tall wet grass this morning. Stella wasn't moving and Heidi was already back to sleep on the couch.

What looked bad around 8am looked much better close to 11am. I decided it didn't matter how wet my feet would get, I knew the hounds would like to take a walk.

Even Stella moved through the tall wet grass after refusing to get out of the yard the past couple days due to the wet field.

Very very early in the walk, my shoes were soaked and feet squishing with each step. The ground wasn't much better as it had standing water in some places.

Sadie confirmed she is back to normal with a firm stool today. Also, since the NexGard application I have taken off only one DEAD tick on her shoulder. I have not found any ticks since on Stella. NexGard works!!

I thought Stella was going to run away but she stopped when she heard her name ... just once.

They were excited to get back to their field as you can see ... lots of new stuff to smell.

I caught Stella between bites of grass on this photo.

Heading to her favorite spot in the field ... besides the "no fly zone".

Sadie joined her today, then took off along the edge of the field.

Stella is still trying to find the deer from last week. She knows it has been around, but where is the deer?

I asked Sadie on the way home "where's Heidi"? ... this is the look I got.

She knew Heidi had to be at the house like previous walks but both hounds had forgot that Heidi didn't come outside for this one. She was on the couch as they tried to figure out where she was.

Speaking of Heidi ... it's been a week since we started using the Wounded Warrior Ointment. When comparing the photos from April 21st I don't see much difference. Maybe improvement will not be evident until after two weeks, so I will continue to apply the ointment. It is not hurting her in anyway.

Due to dried ointment residue on her chest and neck, she had a bath before we took the walk this morning. I am going to let her skin get completely dry before I apply the ointment later this afternoon. She still chews a lot, scratches a lot and has a lot of skin falling off during that time. Is that from the ointment working and healing her skin?

I will do a separate post and new photos of her later today.

I decided this morning to make a career decision and change my brand of coffee. Life is rough retired. No meetings are needed to make decisions. The only person to disagree with my decision is that tiny voice in my head. So as I sat down with my first cup of Starbuck's Original Blend coffee, I logged into my Amazon account and searched Tim Horton Coffee.

Al over at The Bayfield Bunch is always talking about grabbing a cup of Tim Horton's at his local drive-thru before he and Pheebs head out for their daily local drive. Over the years of reading Al's blog I finally decided no matter what, I had to taste some Tim Horton's coffee.

My nearest location to buy a cup is too far to drive, is way out of the way and not a direct route. So the shortest trip for me was to order it on Amazon. I am also going to try some Arbuckle Coffee that Ed Frey mentions when he talks about coffee. It will be a nice change to get away from the two coffee companies in Seattle.

The forecast looks like a couple of days with no rain. It should give me time to mow the yard again before I have to bring in a hay baler since it's growing so fast.

Of coarse after their walk, the hounds are satisfied and sleeping soundly until lunch - they have a pretty rough life. I am happy not having them mauled by ticks after the walks now. Let's see how long the NexGard works this month.

It's a good day today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Afternoon Was Cancelled

For some unknown reason our afternoon was cancelled. Had some of that NexGard gotten into my food supply and I was starting to feel some of the possible side effects? I am noticing Stella being a little lethargic after 24 hours since her first/last bite of the tick repellent ... maybe me also.

Or was it that trip through the Dairy Queen drive-thru for lunch that did it?

The hounds are becoming quite popular at the Dairy Queen. To keep them from getting their own ice cream addiction, they can look at my large Blizzard but don't touch. While waiting for my small order, Stella hopped into the front passenger seat, sat up straight with that same pose from this morning's photo ... where she wanted something.

I think about every girl behind the counter came over to the window to be introduced. Sadie shocked them by popping her head out the driver window just behind my head. Maybe we can work their popularity into some discounted prices this summer ... although I doubt that will happen.

We all felt like Stella did ... so why fight it ... I head to bed for a nice afternoon siesta with a gentle breeze blowing through the windows, to prepare for the thunderstorms later tonight. Stella will require a babysitter during those.

While we slept the farmer worked ... all my favorite "yellow weeds" were plowed under before we could come back to reality. He must have known it was raining tonight and not later this week.

I better get this posted. I hear thunder and the radar on intellicast.com doesn't look nice west of us. The weatherman is now changing his tune to thunderstorms "but not severe" ... I'll take that as we should expect loss of electrical power, loss of internet satellite signal and take cover.

Stella isn't a fan of thunder so tonight should be fun with her.

It cannot be sunny all the time here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Great Day In The Tropics

As you can tell on the left photo, we were up bright and early for us ... before 7am. It was a good. Sadie did not wake me up last night at 3am like she had the past few nights. She also went back to sleep when I told her to because it was too early to get up.

Based on her actions, I can say she is back to her normal self. She must have had a little flu pass through her system. There was nothing out of the ordinary for Stella nor Heidi.

It felt strange to see the time in the upper right corner of my monitor telling me it wasn't 8am yet and I had finished all of my internet reading for the morning.

Overnight the "yellow weeds" increased in the field across the highway. They will be plowed under for soy beans or corn sometime in May. I guess not. A tractor with discs just pulled into that road and will probably plow the two fields today before it rains later this week.

That will change my plans of washing the Mini Cooper this afternoon since the air will be full of dust/dirt. I can hear him right now but can't find him through the lens ... I'll get some photos to post at the bottom.

Although it was nice outside around 8:30, I had to tell Stella that we were not going for a walk that early. It's just too wet for me. I don't enjoy walking with wet feet. You have to admit though, that is a pretty good face for trying to convince me that she wants something.

Heidi made her 2nd trip of the day outside a little after 10am. She was anxious to get outside but it wasn't because she wanted to go on the walk. She does look like she is gaining weight to me. It'd be nice if she could gain about half of the weight she lost by the end of the summer.

I only took this photo because I liked the way the yellow shined through all the green. I guess it's good I took the photo because they are plowing a little early this year.

Stella was pretty hot on this scent she had picked up. She flew right past Sadie and I. Once Sadie saw that she thought there must be something pretty important so off she went to catch up with Stella.

Sadie later found it that it was a false alarm ... no birds, no deer, just Stella fooling her into an early morning run. When I asked her "where's Heidi", she stopped and looked back toward the house. Who says that hounds don't understand what we are saying to them?

On the way back, Stella wandered over to the scene of last week's crime ... the deer. She seems to feel it is there somewhere, if she could only pick up the deer scent ... she would be off sprinting.

If only the hounds would talk, I would have a better idea what she is thinking right now.

I moved my tick count to a spreadsheet the other day. Then saved in on 'the cloud'. Last night while on my laptop, when I opened it to log in the latest count it gave me a choice which version to open because the system had not synchronized correctly. Of course somewhere in all of that, even the latest version was not the most recent. I had lost my accurate count!!!!

Since I am not washing the Mini Cooper until after they finish plowing the field ... I'll go in the "Time Machine" where my computer is backed up every hour and find the file from yesterday afternoon and bring it back to life.

I have had Apple computers since 2010 without any problems but I must admit that new Microsoft Surface is a pretty neat machine. Still it's almost as much as my MacBook Air was.

Ticks???  Well after this mornings walk I have yet to find a tick on either Sadie or Stella. That's an interesting change since it has not been quite 24 hours since I gave each their NexGard chew.

I just took these photos before posting. I'll take more later as he progresses cutting down my favorite weeds. I could hear him but couldn't find him ... then he came into view.

I was going crop all the signs out ofthe photos but decided to let the photo ride as it was. A few months ago, the rental property that was a couple of duplexes was sold and then redesigned as a child care ... definitely rural child care. I've noticed that business is good and it's welcome change to 'the hood'.

This next photo you will find interesting along with a very interesting story. One that I am still not sure what to do. I put those Yews in about 3-4 years ago. Before that nothing had been planted in front of the house. If fact when I moved in 1997, I found a brick sidewalk barely under the grass. It went from the driveway to the front steps.

I dug up all the bricks and used them different places around the house. I was told my septic tank was in front of the carport, about 10' from the house. So I always kept that location in my mind. Here is where it gets interesting and why that photo plays a part in this "puzzle".

Based on my research, a formula I found about usage, and confirmed by local sepetic businesses ... one person would use about 100 gallons per year. Based on the formula I would be good for ten years before I need to have the tank cleaned. I am at year 19 but have had no problems showing up.

One company even told me as a single person living in the house that even at 19 years, plus a septic system working as it should I would still be okay and may not need it cleaned at all. They suggested using RidX monthly, which I have always done.

There have been some recent possible symptoms ... then I'm not sure. I went through my folder of paperwork that came with the house and found a handwritten diagram and the phone number of my local plumber, who still does work for me on occasion.  He verified that the drawing was correct.

It's NOT in front of my carport ... my septic tank is in front of those yews ... actually part of the tank is UNDER those yews. Based on the measurements, the area the septic company would need to insert their hose is about 6" in front of that red landscaping brick. Meaning I would need to dig up some of that bed of bark and maybe even move one yew to get to the opening they need.

Since it is an older system, the drawing and plumber confirmed the tank is 3' underground ... not like 1-1/2' of today's systems.  

So do I start digging or let the system continue to work properly and don't have it cleaned?

No matter what that answer is ... it's a beautiful day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.