Great Outside Today

The local tv weather guesser stated today would be a really hot day like we have experienced recently ... then on to cooler temps.

I'm glad he was wrong in his prediction. It was nothing like the 'heat dome'. By 1pm, sitting outside and enjoying zero humidity and coolness in the air ... it was a nice change compared to yesterday.

Did I do my yard work a day too soon? I forget that I am older than I use to be and then feel those consequences the following day if not the night of my over activity. After my work outside yesterday, I was in bed before midnight and slept like a rock ... that is until my dream told me my credit card had been hacked and I was now tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

All was good though after that first cup of coffee.

There wasn't much on the agenda for today. I wanted to cut more weeds on the driveway to the ground so they die out a little. That option seems to have worked this summer instead of spraying the chemical loaded weed killer. I am still not convinced even after a 24 hour waiting period, that the weed killer is the best thing for the hounds.

For one thing, it would be almost impossible to keep the hounds off of the sprayed area for 24 straight hours. They make multiple trips outside per day. So with only a few months of summer left ... I'll put up with the weeds and spend some time cutting them to ground level ... having only to wait for my battery to recharge on the weed eater.

As you can see Stella was moving slow today and Sadie headed out to her normal spot to start her day. Although these photos were taken after 12 noon, it was not their first trip outside ... just the first trip with the camera.

As I caught Sadie in this stance I moved the camera over to the left to see Stella and before I could catch her, they had both ran toward each other greeting each other. Their play did not continue though.

It was back inside for some sleep time before their lunch. The AC was in the off position today ... nice inside with the windows opened.

Laundry was done last night so that was another thing off the list. I like to vacuum so that was not a problem today and I got a few more weeds cut down to the ground level before the battery wore out. I've never had any luck with the fuel based weed eaters ... they eventually get to the point of never starting again and I get tired of trying.

I had the urge to take a short drive in the Z4 ... so the three hounds moved to the bedroom with the door shut. That's for my sanity and their protection while I am gone. Once again I arrived about an hour later and Stella had not tore anything up attempting to escape from the room. She is on a streak of being good.

It was so relaxing today I caught myself sitting outside more than the past months since the heat wave is over, at least for now. A cool breeze and 7 acres of field for the hounds to roam. What did they do but lay beside me, each trying to get as close to my feet as possible.

It wasn't even 4pm when Sadie gave me that look that it was time for the daily walk. I knew it would not be much hotter a couple of hours later then it was now so off we went.

As usual Stella stayed behind soon after we started the walk.

By the time I got to the first turn I looked back and didn't see her. As I scanned the camera to the right I caught a glimpse of her.

I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days where Stella was on her own travel plans and anything I said would be ignored ... such as calling her name.

I was right about my feeling ... Sadie came running to catch up to me but Stella was oblivious to what was going on around her.

Here you can see Sadie and Stella on each side of the photo ... both on their own schedules.

Sadie is not like Stella though, she always runs to catch up without me calling for her.

I saw Stella start running along the edge of the field so I assumed she was following our path and I'd get some photos of her as she got closer to me.

I was wrong. She had ran outside the 'no fly zone' and I was too hot and too unmotivated to walk back just to have her ignore me. I kept walking to the house. Stella was no where in sight.

Not quite home I had decided once I got back to the house, I'd get the FJ and DRIVE that direction on the north part of the field where she went the other day ... about the time I thought that, I glanced behind me to see where Sadie was and there was Stella right behind me.

I keep thinking it might be time to go back to the retractable leash. There are times I am not real thrilled with her extended freedom she takes advantage of. Like I said the other day, those boundaries will continue to be pushed out further than what is good for her.

With a tall glass of ice tea, a cool breeze coming through the north living room window ... it's nice and quiet, no tv, no computers, nothing but silence.

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

Gnat Attack

We 'slept in' this morning. They woke me up at 5:45am and wanted to go out .. they did but breakfast was not to be served that early. I needed more sleep.

The temperatures are just right this time of year. Cool at night, mid 70's during the day and no humidity to mention. It's a period of time where it's nice living in 'the tropics'. All three hounds came outside around 8:30am but they didn't do much and didn't stay long. That is becoming the routine more and more recently.

It seems to coincide with finishing my morning coffee and internet reading that they wake up and want to have their morning walk. Today Heidi got off the couch on her own when I asked if she wanted to go. She didn't walk but did stay outside while we did.

It was nice while it lasted ... walks without gnats, bugs etc. It started a week or so ago but in two distinct spots along the walk, the gnats attack me. The type of attack where they swarm and get in your eyes and/or up your nose. No chance of escape. Takes a nice morning walk and makes it miserable.

That didn't stop Sadie and Stella though. They run or trot to their favorite spots. The field is growing but still has spots where it's think and doesn't come up to my knees. The majority of time it is taller than the bloodhounds, which puts it around 30" tall. It will be a couple of months before they cut it.

Sadie decided she was going to stay next to me most of the time. It's hard to take photos of her that way since I usually travel with the 55mm-200mm lens.

While Sadie stood and enjoyed the sounds of birds, plus a woodpecker in the woods .. the breeze ... Stella took off sprinting for her favorite corner remembering what she had found yesterday and wouldn't leave. Today was much of the same, except I never called her name.

Sadie and I had already made the final turn towards home when I glanced and saw Stella starting her sprint to us. She takes the short cut through the field now instead of following our path like she use to.

On two different occasions she was running full speed into the back of Sadie. Sadie yelped the first time it happened. Not really sure what that was all about.

I was somewhat alarmed when we got back and I saw Heidi this far down the driveway. She has never been close to the highway and she may have not been that far today ... but it's a warning to keep my eye on her. She will not be left alone again while we walk for this reason.

Even with her bath yesterday afternoon, her skin is inflamed this morning and if I didn't know any better her rear legs seem to be sore by the way she was walking. I know what all the articles say but it is still very very frustrating to see her skin look great when she wakes up and is red and raw a few hours later. The wounded warrior ointment is still being used.

The hounds are fast asleep so I am not sure they will be supervising my car wash this morning, nor the weed cutting. I'm beginning to think it's time to apply the weed killer. I am not going to pull them by hand this year and I hate seeing weeds growing in a driveway. That's just me.

It's a great start to a weekend in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Car Washing Day

This past few days I've been staying up after letting the hounds outside for their first time of the day. That is usually between 6:15-7:00 am. This morning was cool with a light fog and the high temps today were not going to get out of the 70's. That will soon change with the local weather predicting normal August weather to return this weekend with the temps coming back to the high 80's and of course possibly some rain since I washed both vehicles today.

If I need rain ... I just have to wash a car.

Since I missed doing it yesterday, I wanted to get both vehicles washed and vacuumed today. They now both look clean enough to put up for sale. That won't happen, I like both vehicles and they are breaking records for time of possession. For example last year I only had the Kia Sorrento for 4 months before selling it. I was never planning on keeping the car when I traded the H3 Hummer in but that is a long story that I'll not get into. It is an interesting story though.

The Mini Cooper S is pretty easy to clean because the hounds never ride in it. It is rare that it is driven in bad weather unless a storm blows in unexpectedly while I am out driving it somewhere. The Toyota FJ was a different story.

The FJ had all the dirt, dog hair, dog nose candy on the inside of the windows, dropped cup of coffee by me and one large DQ Blizzard that melted before I could get home, only 3 miles away. So I knew from the beginning the FJ would take a little longer. My side mirrors and the front of the FJ had a ton of bugs covering each of them. All of these things were from the trip in June we took to Colorado and Utah, except the ice cream which dripped into and down the side of the console.

I was going to just leave the FJ as it was since it would be our traveling vehicle and it will get messed up again. Yet, there is just something I like about a clean vehicle. The Toyota paint job is great quality and really shined up after the wash, no waxing was involved. There are a few dog hairs still attached to the seats or the material in between them but it's not bad since there are just a few of them.

The coffee and ice cream all came off easy as did the dog nose candy from the windows and dash. It's amazing the places you find dried bloodhound drool after a week of traveling. The rear cargo area mat and the two front floor mats were taken out, scrubbed and hosed off. Of course I had to have my two on site inspectors look at them, sniff them and walk on them, just to make sure I had cleaned them up to their standards. There was no advance notice they were going to do this.

After that, there wasn't much more I wanted to do. Heidi has been having an 'off' day today, so she had slept most of the day. The other two hounds gave me the look that they wanted to get back inside for their daily siesta. They were fast asleep within minutes of getting inside the house.

The Look To Go Inside

Life's Rough

Excuse Me? ... A Photo While I'm Trying to Sleep????

I mentioned above I've been staying up this week after letting the hounds outside to start the day. One reason is I've been getting a full night of solid sleep. A minor change to my nightly routine has made all the difference in the world.

What changed? No matter what time I go to bed, it's usually after midnight ... I'll turn off the computer. Instead of heading to bed and then tossing and turning trying to get to sleep, I've been reading a book that I pulled off my shelf. It's called Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. This is a scientific view of the dog species and will hopefully give me a new perspective on what my hounds really see, smell and know. I'll keep you posted on any information that is different than what most dog owners think is happening.

By reading that book late at night, it makes me sleepy, thus a good night of sleep. I had been reading books during the day and that also led to taking siestas.

Although I kind of fell off the diet wagon last Monday with the trip to 5Guys Burgers, I am still losing weight, losing fat and still not having any acid reflux issues like I did last spring. I do all my measurements the 1st of each month. I did glance at my weight today out of curiosity and I've lost 20 pounds since May 1.

I hope to lose a lot more than that but I am right on schedule.

A little side note about blog traffic during the 5 days of writing about my weed pulling project. I find it interesting that two different sites show my traffic was almost double those 5 days compared to normal posting like tonight and this past week. The subject for that 100% increase in traffic was WEEDS!!!!

I'm not sure how to take that ... I am laughing as I type this last sentence.

The Weed Pulling Project Has Been Completed

That's A Lot of Weeds - Pile Over 3' Tall

Before I get started writing about the project today, I was up at 6:10am to let the dogs outside, while Heidi continued to sleep as usual ... that's way too early for her to get up by her rules. The sun was perfect for some picture taking so I went back inside to grab the camera. You know the one, the Nikon D3200 that I just had repaired a couple of months ago????

Well once again, I press the shutter button ... no auto focus. It tells me "lens is not attached". Okay, I can play that game, so I took that lens off and with my computer lint free cloth wiped the silver edge that connects or rubs against the back of the lens when it is connected and attached a different lens.

Same result ... "lens not attached".

Now I know I have claimed to be a night person, that I am not a fan of getting up early .... and not having any coffee in my system yet, I must admit I could feel my blood pressure rising at a rapid rate ... I had a split second visual of throwing that camera as far as I could ... which wouldn't be far with a bad shoulder for pitching. Add on the fact that I am not a fan of a camera that doesn't work again. Let's just say that I wasn't real happy at 6:15am, and leave it political correct.

I decided as I slowly twisted the lens off the camera, that first thing on Friday morning I would take the camera back in to Best Buy so they could send it to the Nikon service center for warranty work again. I had a feeling of calmness come over me with that thought. Just to make sure, I put the 18mm-55mm lens back on the camera and tried it one more time ....

It worked perfect and has continued to work perfect since then. Blood pressure immediately dropped.

Well after close to 20 hours of labor, spread over 5 days, the project of pulling weeds is over. The rain last night and during the morning before sunrise, worked out perfect for a final day of pulling weeds. Without that rain I am not sure I could have finished due to the right side of the driveway having a foundation of hard packed old driveway gravel. It would've been hard pulling weeds out of that hard packed soil.

Starting Point of Thursday

Finishing Point of Thursday

The difference today was getting some sleep last night. I was in bed before midnight and pulling my first weed of today at 9:30am. Email, sports news and a few blogs were read by then and topped off with two cups of coffee.

With the rains last night the highest temp today was 74° so I spent most of my day pulling weeds in temperatures below 70°. Even though it was easier pulling most of the time, I still wondered at times if this project was a lot like painting the Golden Gate Bridge ... by the time you finish it's time to start over ...

I had noticed walking around today on the drive there were new sprouts of grass, crabgrass etc. What I don't want is this to turn into is a daily thing ... but I have a slight obsession now. Even when the hounds were outside after I finished the driveway, I walked where I pulled weeds a few days ago and found new sprouts.

I have a Plan B for the future though. Twenty hours was okay, gave me something to do and it certainly looks much better than when I started last Friday ... but I'm not sure it is something I want to do on a regular basis. Mowing the yard close to every week is enough fun when it comes to yard work.

In the meantime the house next door that is for sale after 13 months of being on the market, had their yard crew of one person riding along the edge of their property on a ATV with their weed killer on the back and the spray nozzle in hand. She said my work looked great, she noticed the progress each day as she drove by ... but said ... "they will always come back, you need to spray".

So maybe tonight or tomorrow morning over coffee, I will be searching on Google for "chemical free weed killer". Feel free to leave comments if you have something that works.

The last part of the project was that section of gravel in back of the driveway, where I use to park my 1994 Chevy truck. I didn't think it would take long, it didn't. So I went inside and asked Heidi and Winston if they wanted to come outside ... they both ran for the door, while Sadie stayed outside as the Project Supervisor.

Before

After

I was happy to see Heidi laying the sun. Winston of course took only a minute to lay on the warm concrete and was snoring soon after. I have a feeling that warm concrete makes his old back feel good. He sleeps in the sun a lot out there and at times refuses to come inside if the sun is out.

Always On The Prowl

Legs Look Bad Today But At Least She Stayed Outside With Us

Nothing Bothers Him ... Nothing

The trash can that is from just from the driveway below. I had that completed a little after noon.

Thursday's Catch of The Day

With the next ten days of sunshine ... I think I'll only mow the backyard on Friday but before I do that, I can wait for the grass to dry from the morning dew by washing the Mini Cooper S.

I don't know the exact date for the renewal of my domain name, I'll have to check because I think it is in September. Reason being I am not sure I am going to renew the domain name this year. It's not the cost, it's the name. "rvs".

When I think of "RV", I only picture Class A or Class C's .. I do not picture travel trailers or 5th wheels. The largest number of searches are a result of people looking for information on the Lil Snoozy Trailer that I almost bought in September 2013. When I started this blog in October 2011 I thought at that time I was going to buy a Class A, then it moved to a Class C ... then starting last year in 2014 I lost the urge to buy either and wanted to buy a trailer.

So over time, I am not sure the domain name of "houndsandrvs dot com" is accurate for the direction of this blog. It is very likely I will just go back to the Blogspot name that I had when I signed up to blog on Blogger.

You might want to bookmark this site with www.bhounds.blogspot dot com. (don't use spaces, those are to keep the spiders away).

I will have time to think more about that change. IF I do decided to make that change I will remind all the readers 5-10 posts before the change is made.

Once again as it has proven most every late summer to early fall ... I become quite content at the house. The weather is great, one of the best times to live in Indiana. Yet by December and January I am wanting to get somewhere warm. We will see what happens but if I were to travel I don't believe I will be going anywhere until November.

I still don't know what to try to fix Heidi's skin problems. Today was one of her worst days. I have always noticed though when she wakes up for the first time of the day, her skin looks really good, nothing red, nothing raw. She gets a couple of handfuls of dog food, grain free, as her treat for the day.  In the morning she will go outside for a couple of minutes but only on the driveway gravel. By noon she is back to chewing again, no matter what cream, liquid zinc, K9 cream or just plain warm water is applied.

We will keep trying to keep her skin clean, keep applying K9 cream and wipe her with warm water after she comes back inside. Of course if the allergens are in the carpet, maybe her blankets, or the air ... then all bets are off on it being an outside environmental cause.

No matter what ... it's a beautiful day here in "the tropics".