What A Strange Trip

From the title of the this post you have come here expecting to read about a possible day trip the hounds and I took yesterday ... since we didn't blog. I wish that were the case but it's not.

My mind took off on it's own trip yesterday ... a very strange one, I was just along for the ride. It happens sometimes out of nowhere. There might be some readers here that understand what I'm saying. 

It was a wasted day actually and one that I will not say anymore about. I did catch this sunset though while sitting at my kitchen table last night.

This is the view I have when I am at the kitchen table either eating or on my laptop computer. This was taken just after snapping the sunshine setting in the window, a little after 8pm. I knew then that Friday would be a better day.

Although Sadie, Stella and I were having a snack of sliced baked turkey at 1:30am, we ended up having a great night of sleep and waking up about an hour earlier this morning than we usually do. Of course that meant the field would be wetter with morning dew and the lighting would be different for the daily morning photos.

It was just a couple of minutes past 7am but Sadie didn't hesitate in going out into the wet field, while Stella did her normal thought process on whether to or not. She decided to take the path of least resistance and walk into the field along the edge where grass/weeds were shorter.

They didn't stay out long and as the norm, they went back to sleep for an hour or so while I drank coffee and did my daily morning reading on the internet.

By 8:30am, I could tell the day was going to be a great one. I need to get up on the roof today to clear some of my gutter before the next storms on Tuesday. The tornado site I follow on Twitter tells me next Tuesday could be interesting in this part of the state.

I could tell by the way the hounds moved, they were not ready to start their day. They didn't beg to take the first walk of the day. They didn't play, didn't explore. Right after the last photo, they led me back to go inside, I didn't say a word. They have been sleeping every since.

Not sure what today will bring but I know I feel a lot better today. My coffee is gone and I want more. Heidi is still sleeping on the bed where the sunshine comes through the window on the east side of the house.

Speaking of Heidi ... as usual her skin looks great first thing in the morning. Her appetite is big enough to eat a bear. The ointment is applied multiple times per day. Late last night I started reading about different recipes for cooking her meals and getting away from kibble.

Some said it would take up to 3 months before I might see any improvement. Since she had a strong yeast odor last night I saw a website that talked about a specific diet for that ... it also used and had links to the Dinovite supplement we tried in 2014.

What makes me hesitate to break away from my latest plan that was started weeks ago ... it says it would take 16 weeks for the dog food to get out of her system and for the current Earthborn no grain kibble to show improvement. It would take maybe that long to see any improvement from the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Others said it would take 7-14 days.

Since I do see signs of improvement AT TIMES, I'll stick with that plan.

A reader linked this article to her comment the other day ... it was great explaining what we have been going through. It was nice to read that what I have been feeling in trying to find a solution for Heidi over the past 20 months is normal in this situation. It was also sad to read there might never be a solution.

In more than a few websites I read last night about yeast infections in dogs ... they said her skin getting worse before it got better was part of the process of getting rid of the infection. So I will stay with the no grain kibble, no potatoes, wounded warrior ointment and see how it plays out.

It's going to be a nice day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Photo Comparison & Humorous Stories

Tonight's blog is very very long but includes some pretty good humor.

To say the hounds were affected by the weather today would be an understatement. They were out of it basically.

Heidi came outside just once and just long enough to relieve herself ... then scrambled quickly back to the door to be let in.

Stella and Sadie went outside a couple of times and only by my invitation. Sadie did nothing but stare at Stella. Stella did nothing but wander and deciding the field was too tall and too wet that she walked out of the field within two steps.

One thing about a day like this, cool temps and overcast skies ... it leads me to a lot of reading. I mean hours and hours of reading. It might be books or it might be on the internet. Today it was mostly internet searching about questions I had, finding a lot of information about those questions and then reading too many websites.

I spoke a few weeks ago about cutting the lawn. In other locations and in other houses I lived in, my yard was flat, green and nice ... I could cut it low and it would look like a golf fairway. Another house was tucked back in the pine trees so deep that my yard was nothing more than the forest floor of pine needles and never needed mowing.

I would like to cut this yard low and I have tried in past years as well as just last Thursday ... part of it anyway. Do I cut it high or low? I cut the back low (2") but when I made the first lap across the top of the front yard I stopped and raised my mower blade a notch to 3" and cut the front that tall. Here is a photo showing the difference today, 4 days after I cut it. Or did I mow it Friday? See what I mean about retirement?

After searching for my answer, Scott's Lawn care says I should cut my yard between 2-1/2" - 3". Since my mower can only do 2" or 3", then the taller grass is correct. That will keep it green during the hot July summers but longer than I like to walk through. It will keep the weeds out though.

Another blogger I follow that not only ticks me off but 1,000's of other readers with his attitude towards dogs, people, other pet owners, facebook readers, his blog readers ... was talking about a 35mm lens he wanted to buy that was going to cost him $2,000. Instead of setting up a 'gofundme' account where people could donate money toward the purchase of his lens ... he decided "this time" to come up with the $2,000 himself by trading in 4 of his lenses.

He must have finally felt guilty from his last request of his blog readers, although he would never ever admit feeling that way ... this lens is to go with his brand new Cannon that shoots monochrome black and white photos ... nothing else. Based on recommendations from other photographers he settled on on that cost $3,000 instead of $15,000. He is a blogger, not a professional photographer.

He didn't have the $3,000 to buy the camera so it worked before on his previous camera that he just had to have, that he set up a 'gofundme' account and let his blog readers donate the money for him.

Evidently he raised a lot more than $3,000, which he can legally keep ... because he now has enough money to have his old farm house scrapped and sanded, repair the wooden slats if needed and then paint the whole thing. I can't think of any other way he could afford a house painter in today's costs since he just declared bankruptcy this past fall/winter.

Personally I don't think it's right to raise money for causes like that. So I sent him an email that surprised me that he not only read my email but replied.

I explained to him that I was not an author like he is, I've never written a book or books nor am I a professional photographer like he thinks he is. I AM like him in that I spend time blogging every day, taking hundred's of photos and then the time it takes to edit them. I also put my photos on the blog for readers to uses as they see fit ... just like he does. So I asked him:

"So does that mean I can also ask my readers to pay me for my work and sign up to pay me a subscription to read my blog and also donate money so I can buy a better camera because of the time I spend blogging with photos?" ... like he says "be paid for my work".

He didn't say hardly anything in his reply except that decision would be up to me.

LOL ... don't worry, I will never ask readers of my blog to donate money for anything. About once a month when he wants to raise the number of subscriptions he will repeat his old story of how publishing has changed, how much time he spends blogging and posting photos, the blog will remain free to those that don't wish to donate but he should be paid for his time .... guilting many into donating anywhere from $5 on up on a monthly basis. His blog claims to get a million views per month.

You do get my point though don't you?

So today I was reading his blog about his new $2,000 35mm lens or was it $3,000 ... anyway he traded in 4 of his lenses to get it. They told him the lens was great for portraits, landscapes and scenes. So here are a few that I shot today at the 35mm setting on my basic beginner Nikon D3200 camera and the stock 18mm-55mm lens.

Landscapes (my verison)

Portrait

The photos of the cut grass and Sadie above were shot with the lens set at 55mm.

While I was playing around with that, I got a shot of Heidi's rear hock on her back leg as she was walking in the house but at 55mm. That had me once again going back through her photos in the folder "Heidi's Skin" ... all dated so I can compare. Over 18 months worth of these "skin" photos, it ebbs and flows like that tide ... from good to bad, stable but not normal ... just messed up skin.

So here are three photos for you to compare just by looking at the photo. I don't want you to click on the photo to see the file names because they are all numbered in sequence by the camera  ... just look at the photos and tell me which one is the best looking skin or is there any difference at all. One, Two or Three.

These 3 cover 33 days and some with the new ointment and some without.

#1

#2

#3

I think these photos show why sometimes you can hear in the background of me beating my head against the wall ... LOL

Getting back to the cleared area from the photo's on this morning's photos ... there was another reason that was overgrown for the longest time. Not an excuse but a reason why it got that way in the first place ....

Property Lines

See the pole a little to the right of center in the photo? Now see the fence on the left?  Well that left to right property boundary is different on two different surveys'. 

So almost all of the brush that was not mowed I was told belonged to owner of the field. Based on the survey that came with with my paperwork when I bought the house in 1997, my property only goes not even to the fence and not all the way back to that pole.

A few years ago the new owner of the field and neighbor had the field surveyed during the purchasing process. I came home from work one day and had wood stakes with bright orange flags pressing up against the side of my house on this fence side in the photos and then on the opposite side, they were right up against my old Chevy truck that I use to park by the utility pole. I couldn't open the door to the truck to move it.

I was pretty sure that something was wrong but didn't say anything. They also had driven in steel stakes with those orange flags in my front yard on the north side or left side facing the house.

A couple of day's later the stakes are moved away from my truck and a corner property pole is located on top of the bank and off to the right of my stick/limb burn pile. They moved the stakes out of my front yard and off the side of my house and made the corner property pole where you see it, right of center.

Based on my survey ... it's still wrong. Luckily the new owner doesn't make a big deal out of it.

The old neighbor but younger in age, that owned the house on bank side of the driveway almost caused a 'civil war' over a stupid property line. After I showed him a copy of my survey and pointed the line out to him ... he let me know "in this county I can pay $500 and they will make this property line anything I want .. including your driveway"

Nice eh? He was very very lucky that I have a good ability of recognizing stupidity when I see it or even hear it.  :)

That is the same guy that I am told got into an argument that almost came to a fist fight with the guys surveying the field property, OVER the corner stake they put in on top of the bank along his property line.

Back in the 1940's before they dug it up, there was a railroad that came from across the highway where that wooden frame for a sign is in my daily morning photo. That railroad ran along the base of the bank on the other side of my fence. My survey paperwork and two previous owners of my house say, my property line runs to the base of the bank.

Or if you want to be specific, I took a tape measure with me one day while reading the survey and found it to be 13.5' past the fence. Two owners ago, the lady that had the fence installed told me and the stupid neighbor the fence was put in at the top of the bank because the land was always wet at the base of the bank ... to this day there is standing water in some places.

So the fence builder recommended to install the fence at the top of the bank to prolong the life of the fence. Back to that survey .. it says my property line and the neighbor's run to the centerline of the railroad right of way ... with an empty house instead of the neighbor, that battle is at least temporarily on hold.

See what bad weather does ... makes me read and write. If you made it this far, more power to you ... now, leave a comment.  :)

No worries ... all is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Skin Update & A Lazy Friday

I realize this post is pretty late, at least for those not on the west coast. When you are a night person, with a hour siesta in the late afternoon, you end up wide awake at 10:33pm and wanting to write a blog post. Before I start my rambling I'll go straight to an update about Heidi's skin.

These photos were taken today after her lunch. I think you can see a change in the color of skin, it's not as red and irritated like it usually is on those rear hocks. The skin all over is soft and supple and it's starting to hang like normal basset hound skin, only a lot of it doesn't have hair. That hair may not grow back.

Last spring vet #3 he didn't think any hair would grow back on her rear legs, rear paws or rear shoulders. It has but not quite normal thickness. What is improving is the softness of that bare skin and the color.

She does not resist or flinch when I put on the ointment. She didn't when she was getting her bath yesterday and I was trying to lightly scrub off the dead skin in the folds of her skin. Her nails are cut back as close as possible without making them bleed. Looking at the end of the nails the quick blood vessel fills the nail.

The ointment directions doesn't give an exact number of doses to do per day but just says multiple times per day. I've only been doing two applications per day. I think you can see in this next photo, the skin on the rear hock is finally hanging down like normal skin would for her breed instead of stiff and inflamed like it was in the past. Same as the skin on her chest.

The friend that told me about the Wounded Warrior Ointment and shipped two tubes of it to me, said something interesting tonight that I did not know and none of the four vets over the last eighteen months mentioned. She said it takes bacteria seven days to kill, but a fungus can take nine months to a year to kill.

Why do I think it is a fungus? Her skin looks best first thing in the morning. Even now with the skin looking better, it will look it really red after the times she has been sleeping curled up ... all of of that skin is under her and not exposed to the air ... thus becomes moist, at times sweaty depending on the air temperature ... and the reddest of the day.

Fungus needs moisture. So the ointment will continue but I will be increasing the number of applications per day. The grain free food will continue and I will make sure no potatoes will be in the food just in case there is some yeast infection going on. From what I have read today and in the past it could take up to 16 weeks (4 mos) before the new food overtakes the old food in her system.

This is a photo I took of her Thursday afternoon after she was completely dry after her bath. I think if you look back though some posts here you will see there is a lot less redness. Today was only the 8th day of applying the ointment.

The other two partners in crime only had one walk today ... a little after their lunch. They were just as lazy as I was most of the day. They never came to me howling or staring me down wanting to walk. The times they went outside they stood there most of the time .. they never roamed the field like they usually do.

It's the same path every day. Similar stopping points. Stella is always trying to expand her boundary and will even look back to see if I am watching her but will come when I call her. Still they love their time on the walk, it's good exercise for them also ... and their noses.

Stella was pretty far off in that right hand corner of the field she likes. I was expecting to get some great shots of her running toward us ... my camera wouldn't work!!!! By the time I took the lens off and reattached it, then hearing it focus, she had sprinted and ran past Sadie and I.

There is never a day goes by where she doesn't glance over to the area where the deer was a week or so ago. She also might have been smelling her other favorite thing ... food. Sometimes bbq's fill the air in the middle of the day with retired neighbors.

Sadie led the way home and both were sound to sleep within minutes after going back inside the house.

I spent a lot of time reading today. I wanted to find out more about the pop up screen that told me my computer was messed up this morning. I went to a Mac forum called MacRumors and saw that other users had ran into the exact same error message but the pop up screens and phone numbers to call were all different but had the same results.

Some were saying I needed to completely wipe my hard drive and reinstall the operating system. I'm not sure I need to go that far ... I guess I'll find out. Just as a precaution I changed the master password to my Last Pass program I use to encrypt all the passwords I use online. I changed the login passwords to both my iMac and MacBook. I changed passwords to my bank accounts.

I believe that will be enough. Some said that when they reopened their browser the pop up error kept coming back but it has not for me. I tried Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome and at no time did that pop up show up. I also read that it is not specific to PC or Mac and not to a specific browser ... all are potential candidates in that game.

Contrary to popular belief, I did step away from the computer numerous times today and tonight. I like to cook on occasion. I also finished up the final touches of my house cleaning duties.

It was a good day 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.