Hounds Ready For The Weekend

It might be Friday the 13th but we are off to a good start for the weekend. As you see to the left, the sunshine is back and that is always a good thing here in 'the tropics'.

The grass is still really wet with heavy dew and even with Sadie giving me the stare wanting to go for the 1st walk of the day, she is going to have to wait a few hours. It's their morning nap time anyway so a few hours will not hurt.


It could be close but it looks like the yard could be mowed again this afternoon, after just mowing it three days ago. With all the rain, that is how fast it is growing. Besides the normal hound morning routine, all of us have already made a drive to the post office and a swing by the Dairy Queen drive thru.

While I ate my bacon, egg and cheese biscuit at home, Sadie, Stella and Heidi had bully sticks. They were more than happy with that.

The hay was too wet for Stella but not Sadie. As you can see it's getting over 30" tall and in some places where they have dumped their tanks all winter, the hay is as tall as my chest. Out in some parts of the field it doesn't reach my knees.

Stella found something that she was trying to dig out of the ground with her nose ... not sure what that was but there was nothing hanging from her mouth as she raised her head. So whatever it was she did not eat it.

As you can tell she is pretty motivated to get her day started.

After the Dairy Queen breakfast, their bully sticks and a fresh application of water/vinegar sprayed on Heidi ... all of them decided it was time to go outside. I mentioned the other day that when we came back from our walk that Heidi was walking up the driveway almost past her boundary. I did not know how close to the road she had gone while we were gone. She has never gone down by the highway.

Today I found out where she had been. I moved out of sight just to see where she was going. She normally poops up by the top of the yard but today and in a couple of times prior, by the evidence, she has decided she likes the middle of the yard right now. She had just walked straight out from the yard to the driveway when I took this photo.

Of course Sadie was concerned and watched her all the way. She knows that is too far than the allowed boundary. She touched noses with Heidi at the corner of the carport just to remind her of the rules.

I am going to resist posting any photos of Heidi's skin until next week. I will say after just a few days of the water, vinegar mixture I am seeing improvement. The amount of vinegar amounts to 40% of the water weight. So in the batch I made, 48oz of water equaled 3.2oz of vinegar.

The spray bottle works much better and faster than applying it with cotton balls. After spraying an area I dab it with a dry cloth to keep it from dripping ... but the skin is still saturated with the mixture.

How can I tell it's improving? Her skin color is staying normal color up to nighttime instead of turning red by noon. She is itching a lot less. The yeast infected skin is falling off in large portions. She is more active and her tail is wagging more than it has. This morning when I asked if she wanted to go for a ride in the car, she jumped off the bed and headed to the FJ.

For the time being I want to keep her from doing the daily walk, just in case the tall grass, hay or wild plants activates her allergies. I want to give this water/vinegar mix a chance to work.

I've never had problems with Fridays that have dates of the 13th ... most of my self inflicted injuries over the years have occurred on or around cinco de mayo weekends.

It's a beautiful morning here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Friday?? Really??

First of all if you glance left, you will see that I have decided to track the number of ticks I pull of me and the hounds. I won last years contest by a landslide and am off to a fast start in 2016.

Having the house and yard so close to the field, it doesn't matter if I spray the backyard. Plus I don't follow all of the tick laws. I don't tuck my jeans in my socks ... how would that help my waistline or neck? I do wear a hat though and as the temps get higher I also wear cargo shorts as we take our walks through the field and I know that is against the rules. So anyway, out of curiosity I am counting ticks this year, all the way to December 31, 2106.

I really didn't have any idea it was Friday when I started my day. That is a common theme while retired, losing track of days. In the fall it is easier to keep track of the days due to my addiction for college and pro football ... even though anymore you can see a football game almost any day/night of the week.

Warning - It's Friday and that means a LOT of photos and a LOT of rambling. Click any photo for a better/bigger view, scroll through them to the bottom, or grab something to drink as you read along.

Early on it looked like rain but nothing was planned on the two weather stations I follow online. Sadie and Stella didn't stay out long on their first trip. Heidi has gone outside every time the bloodhounds have gone ... that's a nice change.

A little after 10am, she made her next trip outside. Where I had clouds to the west but blue skies to the NE, I decided it was time for a walk. My long sleeves were off and it was t-shirt weather even at 60°.

Just past that edge where you see green under the fallen tree ... goes straight down.

Looking left I caught something in a tree, not sure what it was since I was not wearing my glasses. You can see the zoomed photos here. I wasn't sure what it was, nor did I know it had "landed" until Stella took off in a very fast sprint. By the time Sadie arrived I saw the hawk (?) taking off from the ground, kind of running into the woods.

When I got back to the house, I checked google images to see what it might be. I am not a 'birder' so if any one knows please comment below and let me and the other readers what kind of bird that was. The best I could come up with was some kind of hawk.

In the past I have seen them fly up out of the ground, hawks do that. I have also see skeletons of them in the field. So I think it is safe to add the hawk scent to many spots in the field that the bloodhounds are too interested in, besides just the deer.

Both, Sadie and Stella, were not into the running mood this morning, the were mostly slow paced besides the sprint to the hawk. Sadie spent most of her time walking next to me on the way back to the house.

A different type of photo than I normally take, but thought the leaf was an interesting shot for this time of year. Not a lot of weeds growing in the field this spring like I remembered last year, so they should get some pretty good hay in July.

I guess since it's Friday, Stella deserves to be a little low key after another fast paced week as a bloodhound.

Heidi stayed near the house outside as the bloodhounds and I walked this morning. Once inside she was wagging her trail and trotting under and around the bloodhounds to growl to herself and scratch each side of her mouth. She seems more active today, so the Epsom Salt soak must have helped. I'll give her another one this weekend instead of waiting for her skin to become irritated.

The biggest decision of the day was trying to decide how high to grow the lawn. In the past out west where I never saw a yard mole, I could cut the grass down to the ground and have it look like a fairway at Augusta. Here due to the bumpy surface, small dirt piles or rises from mole traffic plus hotter summers, I've had to cut the lawn taller.

I think I have it about the right length for this area but I haven't really measured it ... some say to let it grow to 3". If so, I need to raise my mower blade another notch higher. I may try that just for a change of pace ... kinda like driving the Mini Cooper instead of the FJ or using Firefox instead of Google Chrome.

Or like today I decided to list ALL the labels I have used the past 5+ years instead of just the 200 or so of the ones I edited. I had plenty of room to run over 500 of them down the right side ... does anyone click them to go to a specific topic?  I have no idea.

At least we don't have to schedule a meeting to decide those things ... that is all I remember about my working career ... meetings and power point presentations. Did I ever tell you how much I hate Microsoft Office Power Point?  LOL

It wasn't too long after their lunch, the three hounds decided I needed to mow the yard today. Before that, we hopped in to the FJ and took a trip downtown to the local feed store. An establishment that opened in 1938 and is still owned by the same family. The times I've gone in to buy dog food, I noticed they had bully sticks.

It's either cash or check there, so I robbed my trash fund and left $2 for my next trash run. The balance of $6 was going to the hound's bully sticks. I bought 3 of them at a $1.86 each ... $6 with tax. They were long and cost less than the once I bought yesterday but didn't last as long.

Not to worry, I have used only half of 1 stick, while I was out mowing the yard. Once again Heidi, grabbed her portion and with her tail wagging, trotted off for the far corner of the living room which is another favorite stop of hers.

I'm really out of shape but know my wind will improve the more I work outside. Today instead of mowing back and forth across the hill in the front yard I wanted to mow a different direction ... that meant pushing the mower up my hill every other turn. It was too soon in the "mowing season" to be doing something as strenuous as that.

Each time I mow, the hounds like to come outside and inspect my work. The inspection didn't even get started today ... Stella found a nice spot to take a nap ... she seemed to have lost interest as an inspector.

You can tell by her mouth that she was getting warm in the sun. Her jowls were wet and she was panting. Sadie looked over and knew she was staying near the shade where I was.

It wasn't long before Stella woke up and moved to the shade but the spot wasn't as comfortable as the one she had. She didn't lay there long either.

In fact she decided the best option was going back inside the house with a cool breeze coming through the open windows and taking a siesta.

That is what all three hounds have been doing since I came back inside. Since mowing the yard, my sinuses have been going crazy. I think that might be the cause of some of Heidi's skin allergies becoming active that would lead to more chewing and itching.

I have already had my Dairy Queen Blizzard for the day, so it looks like the rest of the night is water and some baseball on tv.

I still cannot believe it's Friday night, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Is a Happy Hound Again

FINALLY -- Heidi returned to being a happy basset hound yesterday, like her old basset hound self.

Where has that been after months and months of little activity and more hours of sleeping than I care to count? No, it's not the food change. I did give her a portion last night when I got home for her 3rd feeding of the day. She had the new Earthborn Great Plains Feast for breakfast this morning. It's WAAAAY to soon to show any kind of changes in her due to food.

It might be the Epsom Salts soak she had on Wednesday. That usually takes a couple of days after the soak for her skin to really calm down. Since that soak she has spent a lot of time in her old favorite spots in the living room instead of hiding out in the bedroom. Her spots in the living room are usually where the sunshine hits the floor or couch, while shining through the window.

It started when we got home yesterday from our 60 mile round trip where we bought the Earthborn dog food. She didn't want to ride in the FJ, plus the last couple of local trips she has acted car sick although she never got sick. So she stayed at home while Stella, Sadie and I headed to T&T Feeds in Bloomington Indiana.

To keep the bloodhounds occupied on the return trip I also picked up a couple of slim bully sticks, 2 feet long. I thought they would probably be gone by the time we returned home. As I opened the back of the FJ, Stella took off to the backyard with about 6" left in her mouth.

Sadie headed for the house with nothing. Since she had spent most of the return trip standing and looking out the window I had a sneaky suspicion that only one of those bully sticks were chewed and the other was somewhere in the FJ.

I was right. One of the two had fallen down inside between the front seats and the folded down back seats. So I cut the remaining one in half and gave each piece, about a foot long, to Heidi and Sadie. Heidi started wagging her tail as I handed it to her, trotting off to one of her spots on the floor. She never stopped chewing until the bully stick was gone.

I was only able to get a few photos plus every time I thought I had a good shot she would move, so these are the only ones I could come up with.

Afterwords she takes off sprinting in around the house, barking, going from room to room wanting me or Sadie to chase her. We did, without my camera in hand. Stella in the meantime had finished her bully stick and was standing outside the screen door wondering what all the excitement was about.

By the time she had wore me and Sadie out, she nose dived into the living room floor, wiping each side of her jaws of any left over drool from chewing the bully stick. She was growling to herself while cleaning the sides of her mouth.

While barking she rolled over on her back for a good long scratch, barking and growling at herself .... finished ... hopped up on the couch in the sunshine and thumped her tail against the back of the leather couch.

I am thinking her lack of activity was a combination of not feeling good and boredom. Even though there a LOT of balls and different bones to chew on ... she never uses them. She might feel those belong to Sadie and Stella. Yet she rarely played with them after her first few months of arriving in July 2011.

She obviously liked the slim bully stick and maybe that helped getting her out of any bored feelings she may have had. She has been going outside these past few days more and more, snooping around ... so hopefully she was just feeling the "winter blues" these past few months.

It was great to see her finally acting like she felt good and being the basset hound I remember before her skin issues started to get really bad. Maybe it's the warmer weather like I predicted a month or so ago ... that she likes it when the temps get above 70°. Hopefully we are close to where she will join us in the daily walks that she use to like so much.

An order for a bigger quantity of bully sticks will be placed this morning from Chewy.

We will see but I can tell from her activity yesterday she was feeling good, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.