Yard Work is Kicking My Ass

As you can see from the hat, I've been working way too hard outside in great weather. I'll get to the yard work with some photos but first since I have not posted in over a month I thought I'd write about general stuff first. I will say my time on the internet is still low. I'll read my Feedly feeds, check the sports news, over my first cup of coffee then turn off the computer or put it in the sleep mode until early evening. Every day it's been sunny outside, I've been outside 4-6 hours per day doing things, by late afternoon my body is sore (out of shape) and by early evening I'm headed to bed.

That's quite a change for me since I'm a night person by nature and spend most of my time up past midnight, sometimes till 2am or 3am. So when I am going to bed and am fast asleep by 9:30 or 10pm, that's history.

Heidi has just started her 11th week on RESPIT. I've been giving her 1ml shot per week as directed. I started with .1 and then increased it each week by .1ml until the 1ml was reached. A couple of weeks ago I saw a lot of improvement, although it is said not to expect any signs of improvement for a 140 days of treatment.

Her stomach and armpits have healed. Under her neck has healed and has white hair growing back. She continues to lick her front and rear paws, will tear off baby socks when worn to protect her feet, so those spots on the paws are healing, the skin is a lighter red and nothing raw. Her hair is trying to grow back on all the spots that were red and raw.

One of the side affects of the RESPIT, is being lethargic. She is all of that for the first 3-4 days after the shot on Wednesday. Still she is back to sprinting around the house after her first trip outside to start her day. She is also back to barking when she wants fed, so I take it she is okay.

Winston has had a little lower back/hip problem as all older bassets have on occasion and has a little trouble getting up the two steps to get into the house. I'm finding that the "buffered" aspirin helps that lower back out, although I don't give him that on a daily basis.

Sadie is normal, happy go lucky and obnoxious as always ... lately getting her aerobics in by chasing the rabbit in the yard to the back of the field into the woods ... then she returns to her yard. If it isn't a rabbit it's the squirrel that likes to torment her. She is strong pulling on the retractable leash when she locks into the scents that are more evident in the spring time.

Back in the middle of March I was doing some indoor minor repairs and general house maintenance, waiting for warmer temps outside. Then 'March Madness' started so there went most of the nights and afternoons from Thursday - Sunday. Once the college basketball champion was crowned in early April, the good weather showed up, so the yard work commenced.

After the first time of mowing the yard with my 22" push mower, on the side of a 80' hill, I found out really quick just how bad of physical shape the winter had put me in. My breathing and muscle soreness told me just how bad of shape I was. I was somewhat shocked as it felt worse than past years.

July 2014

I had more plans this spring than just cleaning the yard, picking up the fallen tree limbs from the winter and mowing weekly or around the rains. This spring I wanted to do two things. I wanted to clear out a patch of land that had been overgrown with wild bushes, some honeysuckle, vines of some sort and really just brush junk. I also wanted to clear the bank on the side of my driveway, which consisted of dead 6' horse grass and a LOT of small tree starters that had trunks of 1"-2" in diameter. I didn't clear them last summer, so I had some work to do.

First with the land in back. I really didn't know this was my property until the neighbor had the field surveyed when he bought it a couple of summers ago. Of course I'm still not sure how accurate that survey was because soon after they started they had wood markers pressed against my truck door on the south side and metal stakes with orange flags driven into my yard on the north side inside my fence, not 5' away from the house.

A few days later after returning home from work, I noticed I had gain my original property line on the south side but had gained 10' on the north side of the house along with 10' more along the back. So I decided I'd cut those bushes out, at least burn them, clear the land and make it into a "camping" spot. I would build a fire pit, sit out a couple of chairs and spend some nights out there with a fire and a sky of full of stars.

It didn't get that done last summer due to laziness, so this spring was my chance. I started with this in March. Once the snow melted and things dried out, I burned it. That took out a lot of brush but still left me with a lot of vines that had taken root. I pulled out what I could, then cut them out of the ground. There were some trees where I cut with my hand saw, down to ground level.

January 2015

I did half of the area, raked and leveled the land enough to plant grass seed. Just the bending over to pull roots out of the ground or to kneel down to cut small tree limbs put more hurt on my body than the lawn mowing did. My nights ended with me laying on tennis balls, on different pressure points on my back. Cheaper than a massage and still will point out all the bad parts of the back.

Still with each day bright and sunny, my focus on the job at hand would fade. My focus would move on to the next job outside even though I had not completed the land in back.

So last Thursday I glanced at the bank along my driveway and decided it was time to clear it. I started by cutting many of those small trees with an electric handheld saw. Since I had sold my old Chevy truck last spring, trying to downsize the auto herd, I found out the only way I could remove those 10' trees were by hand. That meant I had to take as many as each hand could hold, walk up the hill more than a few times and haul those 1" & 2" trees back into the woods behind my house.

October 2014

January 2015

That took time. That also was a workout climbing that driveway going up the hill.

With tree limbs dead from previous years, dead horse grass stems and the usual wild brush ... my urge to build fires came back to me ... so I lit the bank on fire, with the water hose turned on and nearby in case the fire wanted to go further into the woods than I had planned.

There were no problems with the fire, except the one spot that burnt my fence. That took place as my neighbor and I were discussing life in general. By Saturday afternoon I had raked all of the dead leaves, branches and anything else my rank could find, down the bank into a burn pile.

Some of the trees branches were too green and were not expected to burn but I was planning to burn as much as possible. This will now have some green wild stuff start growing to cover the bank. It will also prevent those small trees from growing taller and harder to cut down, that would disturb my clear southern sky for my Directv and Internet Satellite dishes.

With rain forecasted today and Monday, I will get a break from killing myself clearing land. On Tuesday I will be back in the back area to complete the land clearing and plant more grass seed.

The land that my house is now on plus the field behind my house use to be my great grandfather's property. As a kid, my dad use to farm this property with a team of mules. He remembers putting this roll of barbwire fence on the fence post sometime before 1944. I found the barbwire and a rusty metal fence still attached to the post after I cleared out the brush and overgrowth around the fence post and trees.

Well the rain has stopped, the sun is trying to peek out from behind the clouds and Winston is whining to go outside. I'll start blogging  more often and hopefully Heidi will be willing to have her picture taken outside, where I can post some updated shots of her.

Good Weather Makes the Mind Wander

I actually believe that winter is officially over here in the 'tropics' of Southern Indiana. It's 58° right now on a bright sunny Sunday and a forecasted high of 68°. Although in past years I have seen weather like this in mid-March and have a snow storm weeks later ... in this case I am believing the "global warming" stories and am planning that the 2015 spring is here for good.

Not a lot going on as usual. Not really a lot to blog about, so this is just a short update for the past few weeks.

About 10 days ago when the snow was so high, Heidi did what she rarely does, she peed on the concrete. That was a blessing in disguise. As I was about to pour water over the urine to get it off the concrete, I see a puddle of blood in her urine. This poor basset hound is having a rough winter.

By the next morning we were at the vet to check that out. She had a urinary tract infection and the vet said it was not surprising with all she is going through. With a weak immune system, the infection didn't surprise him. He sold me some Baytril tables that she ate like candy for the next 10 days. Within 24 hours of the first two tablets, she was back to her normal self sprinting around the house after her first trip outside in the morning. I could tell she was already feeling much better.

The vet was happy with the improvement she saw on her skin. This is not clearing up her skin as fast I want nor as the Atopica did back in November and part of December. At times she looks like she is improving and by the end of the night, she looks no better than last October when this skin rash mess started.

Very frustrating to say the least.

The weekly shots of RESPIT are increased on schedule by .1ml until we get up to the 1ml weekly injection. Basically that is an immune program that fights all allergies that are geographic location specific. It will take almost 140 days before any improvement will be noticed. Still, it is not damaging to her kidneys or liver that long term steroids would do nor the reports of what long term Atopica would do. So I guess the wait is worth it, even though that is hard to do.

We have just passed week 6 of the treatment or as of today it's day 46 days out of 140 before noticeable results.

Would her skin problem heal or be a potential problem with location changes, environmental changes, while traveling?

Temperatures are getting high enough for me to finish the last few things on my list of house 'to do'. These things on the list have been held off until the temps get warmer. There are a couple of things I will have to wait until the ground dries out. The ground is extremely saturated with the melted snow and then two days of rain this past Thursday night and all day Friday. I'm not thrilled about getting under the house to inspect, especially with a rising water table. It's not a crawl space under there but a huge dirt hole about 4' deep and I have seen it after there are heavy rains.

As every spring, improving weather generates mind cell activity. I start thinking of traveling, and it has happened every spring since 2012. Of course two of those three years I was still working, so it wasn't possible long term. Last year I was very close with the Chevy pickup truck I had bought and the search for the right trailer. I only kept that truck for a month and a half before buying what I really wanted ... the Toyota FJ Cruiser 4x4. I still love that vehicle.

I still cannot understand why it seems to be so important what I do or don't do to some readers of this blog. I've always done what I want, not what someone else tells me to do, even at work. I've never followed the path of the yellow brick road and white picket fences around the 2-car garage house... or even the plans required to move up the corporate ladder. All of my moves have been location/recreation first ... job second. That is until this last move back to Indiana in 1994, that was job related. Even then I've pretty much followed my own path.

Based on just a few past comments and emails I have received, my traveling decision seems to be more important to them than me ... I find that very strange.

So, yes I am talking and thinking of traveling again ... dogs and all. I am also seriously considering selling the house and moving west and have thought of that most of the winter. I just need to complete those 2-3 things on the 'to do' list that I've been needing warm weather to complete. Then I can turn the house over to an real estate agent. I don't need to be around to sell the house. With no mortgage payment, I can leave the house empty, put my furniture, computers and bikes in storage and hit the road. They can show and sell the house empty. That seems to be my most consistent thought.

I still think it would be a quick sell based on price, size and location. There are not a lot of good quality houses around here in the price range of the asking price. It would make a great house for a young or older couple. The area has extremely low property taxes and the house requires little maintenance but more than I am wanting to do. I'm just not into the normal house maintenance that is required with ownership.

I've looked at willow.com, realty.com and houses.org for houses in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah recently. Once again I can't really make a decision where to go until I could get there and check the areas out. I am also not sure I want to be a homeowner once my house would sell. I'll decide that later.

I had a friend wanting to buy my Mini Cooper and all was looking good until she couldn't find someone to give her a loan. That seemed strange to me because she works where I did and is paid well. Two income family with two kids and a house. After she later told me that she had just had transferred $20,000 of credit card debt to a loan, the answer was pretty obvious.

The Mini Cooper will sell quick after I detail it, get the winter grime off of it, park it down by the highway for all to see with a for sale sign on it. I will also list it on Craig's List. Over the past few months of my blogging vacation and reduced computer time, things have getting downsized again, some detailed inch by inch house cleaning, and some minor repairs fixed.

Computer time has still stayed low. I survived the winter using little heat as possible, thus heading for a big refund in May for overpayment of my utility bills. I pay a fixed amount every month and then settle up every May. My vehicle license plates are due in April as well as my property taxes ... so basically all of the small stuff will be taken care of for the year before I hit the road.

Before next spring I would expect that my legal residence would change. With my military retirement health plan, TriCare, luckily ObamaCare is not an issue for me. With that not being a factor I can still have about any state I want as a legal residence for full time traveling.

All I know is I am tired and have been of the daily routine living where I do and the responsibilities of home ownership.

Yes There Was a Post That Disappeared

Last week I posted that I was back to blogging. Even Greg made a comment on that post ... so it was there on the blog at one time. A few hours later, I deleted it. I can only guess I deleted it because I didn't want to start blogging again. I've enjoyed my time off the computer. After 3 years on this blog I still wonder about the reasons to continue since I am not traveling right now, nor did I buy an RV.

I should have left that post up I guess because I can't remember much of what I had written. I see a few blogs I follow, their authors are either taking a blog vacation, writing less frequently and a few have even disappeared without a trace. Since people still email me asking about Heidi's condition, how are the hounds, etc ... I feel an obligation to keep blogging. Yes, I've discussed this here a few years ago and came up with the same answers.

I really do enjoy writing and posting photographs.

So, here's an update ... with possible duplicated information from last week's post that I deleted.

All the hounds are great. Heidi is slowly improving with weekly injections of RESPIT, 40 days of Ivomec and a "no grain" diet. She does not get her normal morning treat of a "Milk Bone. Her treat now in the morning is a hand full of her 'no grain' dog food, while Winston and Sadie continue to eat their "Milk Bone" treats without any skin issues. All of them are eating Taste of the Wild dog food.

Contrary to the rest of the country north of me and to the northeastern coast, my winter has been pretty mild. Temperatures became really cold just a couple of weeks ago. We had our first major snow dump of about 4" a couple of weeks ago, followed up with 3"-4" more a few days later. That is not a lot of snow, unless you are a basset hound and your legs are shorter than the depth of the snow ... then it could be a problem.




By the end of the week more snow came, so it was higher than Winston's legs. I pulled the snow shovel out and cleared out a path for him and Heidi.

Since Heidi doesn't like temperatures lower than 55° and if the ground is wet with rain or snow ... that is not an option ... she follows the dry mulch under the overhang and around the bushes for her bathroom duties. She is out just long enough to get the tanks dumped then sprints back to the door to be let in the house. A nap soon follows.

We tried the baby socks to keep her from licking off the zinc oxide lotion .. didn't work. She had the socks off within 30 minutes of me putting them on. Constant battle that she eventually won. Luckily the vet gave me liquid zinc oxide to use and it's working out much better. I will post later about her change in treatment in January and February.

Sadie in the meantime could stay outside in that snow and single digit temps forever. I have to call her or go out to get her back in the house. Her latest hobby is chasing birds that came back to Indiana a few weeks too early, expecting spring time weather. I do remember a few years ago it was t-shirts and shorts weather the first week of March but I really doubt that will happen this year ... in fact, not a chance of it happening.

As I said before, during my blog vacation I got a lot of things inside the house finished that were on my "to do" list. I have a couple of more things to do once the weather warms up. I've read a lot of books, took some afternoon siesta's, played some Mahjong and watched a few movies ... all with the computer off. The majority of time was spent doing more downsizing, cleaning every inch of the house inside, rearranging what was left and trips to the recycling center.

I'll have more photos to post as the weather becomes warmer. I'm not really an outside person when the temps are below 20°. Basically the hounds would rather sleep most of the time when it's freezing outside.

Oil Comes Within Smell Range

January 22, 2015 I stepped outside on a clear sunny afternoon to the distinct strong smell of petroleum. I will not write what my first thoughts were. Later glancing at the local small town paper online, there must of been other residents with the same thoughts as I ... because they had printed a short story on what that smell was. It was only three oil well STARTUPs and the smell should go away in a couple of weeks, no danger to the public.

That was what the newspaper said. I had my doubts.

This is nothing new to the 'tropics' of southern Indiana, its common to see them scattered throughout the farm country, just not within range of my house.

So just last week, I step outside on a bright sunny day with the temps hovering around 12°, when I have that familiar smell again. I go back to my local paper online to find a new updated short story dated February 25, 2015 ... a couple of paragraphs ... a spokesman from Citizens Energy Group states: "they expect the odor to dissipate in the coming weeks as the well start-up process concludes".

That was the same thing he said in January. It looked like the article was cut and pasted with only the publishing date changed.

My curiosity got the best of me. Saturday morning, even with winter storm warnings for later that day were announced, I poured a cup of coffee in my travel mug, picked up my camera and went to find the location of oil wells. Based on looking at the map, it was within a 3 mile radius of my house, SW of me.

I drove over to Hwy 57 and headed south, keeping my eye out for the county road sign 275S and after turning left I was going to be watching for 275W but I didn't need to do that. Before I even made a turn onto 275S I could already see the small oil operation that was set up. Last month the paper said they were setting up 3 wells. Just last week they said they were setting up 3 new wells and that was the reason for the smell. I stopped the FJ, rolled down the window and counted 10 of them within eyesight. I guess they are turning  them up 3 at a time??

I didn't have a wide angle lens to capture all of them I could see, but I could see they went as far as the eyes could see ... more than 6 of them that the newspaper mentioned. I took a photo of a couple of them to show the distance between them. All the wells photo'd were pumping.

I have googled for more information on oil drilling in general. I am asking friends and blog readers that might know about the oil drilling process, how often can I expect that strong smell of petroleum (sulfur) whipping through my neighborhood in future months. A few local friends have said this is a "no brainer", they would move if they smelled it for just one day.

The problem I have is not only the smell but between the months of April to November, I have my windows open every day/night at the house. I hate to think that out of the blue I will have to put up with that strong petroleum smell during a beautiful summer day and evening.

Is this the point I put the "House For Sale" sign up and leave it up?

On Blog Vacation

I'm not on a traveling vacation but one with less computer time and no blogging. Everything is fine. Enjoying life away from a computer. I am not sure when I will return to blog. Thanks for following, and reading.

Thanks For All the Comments

In my last post I asked for comments and ideas concerning pets that are left behind while you might have a medical emergency. Here is my post asking the question, followed by a lot of comments and great ideas.

In the meantime, Al over at The Bayfield Bunch talked about my post on Tuesday and had even more readers suggesting ideas. I think between the both blogs a lot of good ideas have been made, can be implemented, and maybe help some others besides just me.

I've spent the past few weeks looking at the low and high temperatures of different areas out west. I have to say the whole USA is pretty cold lately. Unless you head down to Mexico, Baja, Southern California or Southern Arizona ... there are not a lot of daytime high temperatures. So there is a small pocket of warmth down in the SW corner of Arizona.

I track all of those temps on my iPhone, so at a glance I can tell what it's like, and what's it going to be like for the next few days. After having temperatures in the low teens here in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana, it may reach 50° here on Saturday and mid 40's at a minimum ... that will be a nice change of pace but short lived.

I just wanted to post something short today and thank everyone that commented here and on Al & Kelly's Blog giving some great suggestions.

A lot of simple answers that I could not see.

This morning the temperature had increased to 22° at the time I took these photos, the ground was hard as rock but the hounds still knew they could still smell any visitors that may have came into their yard last night. As usual in cold weather, Heidi was indecisive whether to join the other two. She didn't. Right after her photo, she spun and sprinted for the door to go back inside where it's warmer.

I had my 18-55m lens on the camera and by the time I ran inside to get the 70-210mm, the deer had already sprinted away.

The deer fled when they saw their picture was being taken

Nose always goes to the ground

She never likes cold temperatures

The analyzer

There Has Always Been an Elephant Sitting in the Room

I guess I have kind of touched on this in the past when discussing RVing with dogs. I haven't really said the exact question about what lingers in back of my mind ... it's the "big elephant" that sits in the corner of my mind. The elephant sits there observing thoughts, conversations on the blog or with friends by email. Maybe it wears a slight smile as it listens.

Through the few emails I have discussed this quetion, no one really seems to have an answer.

I'd like to get as many comments on this question as possible, good or bad ... maybe I'll see something I haven't thought of.

This HUGE question I feel has been my roadblock in making a decision:

I would be traveling solo, mostly boondocking. The home away from home could range from a tent, cargo trailer, Casita, Escape, an Older Class A, or a B+.

In the case of me having a medical emergency while on the road, solo traveling ...

What would happen to my three hounds if something were to happen during my medical emergency?

Zero Temperatures Makes My Mind Wander

Long time readers, blog followers know that when my mind starts to wander, things could get interesting. -2° was the high temperature yesterday. What the news calls the "polar vortex" I just call it a normal Midwestern winter. It happens every year. The difference is the tv news has to sell advertising and when they can create a crisis, and can try to scare the public with something like "a polar vortex" that will sell more advertising, more groceries ... still it's just winter and has happened annually for hundreds of years.

I'll get to last night's story later but I will say that I ignored all the warnings to stay inside and not travel anywhere last night as the temps dropped to -7° as I was driving. I know what I can do and can't do in bad weather, no need for the local news to throw out all of these warnings and try to scare me into staying locked up inside the house.

For those interested in my house heating experiment that I wrote about a few posts ago, it's turning out to be very successful in decreasing my "utility footprint", saving me some money and still able to keep fairly warm. In December 2013 with 12" of snow the 2nd week and single digit temps I used 1,495 kilowatts during that month and that was with me at work 5 days per week and gone 8-10 hours per day. During those times away I would turn the heat down or off.

This December, we didn't have the snow but it was just as cold. Actually it was pretty mild, with temperatures in the 30's to 40's range with the temperatures dropping below the 20s the last few days of the month. Even at those temperatures I needed to run the electric baseboard heat at times. My total usage for the the month was 873 kilowatts. A little over half of what I used last December, and only a $20 dent into the $301 credit I have built up after 7 months of billing. (May to May).

With the temperature at 6° outside at 11am, I just turned on my heat for the first time today around 1:30pm. Since this house holds that heat pretty efficiently, I'll turn off the heat when it gets to 65° inside. The house stays pretty comfortable at 60° with the older storm windows taking the brunt of the frozen weather.

During these temps in the teens and single digits I've only allowed the hounds out just long enough for them to dump their tanks, otherwise they would stay outside to the point of freezing their paws and then they would not be able to walk.

After a little over a week of changing Heidi's treatment and getting her off of the Atopica, I would have to say her condition on her paws and rear hucks as being stable. There was a slight decrease of improvement at the start. but I applied some diaper rash cream, more like a paste that has 13% zinc oxide to the red areas where she was starting to lick and chew again. That showed improvement.

I am trying to use that paste as little as possible because I want to see if the change in dog food to a no-grain, all pork diet from Merrick will show any visible signs of improvement. She isn't in any pain, has gained a lot of her energy back since being off the medication and just one paw shows where she has licked it a lot.

So, what about this "mind wandering"?

I wasn't going to complain this year about the cold weather ... and I haven't. It's part of the winter for the place I live, so this year I decided I would live with it and not focus on it.

It took one conversation with a local friend of mine that grew up in San Diego and Hawaii that started me house hunting ... in places that are warm. It's not like I had a lot to do outside in zero temperatures, so I had plenty of time to look on realtor dot com and zillow.

Still, it got me thinking again. Why not finally relocate to somewhere warmer and be able to enjoy outdoor activities year round instead of being locked inside the house during the three months of winter trying to keep warm?

The five main towns I focused on were Casa Grande AZ, Arizona City AZ, Eloy AZ, Alamogordo NM and Las Cruces NM. One area was on a suggestion because a friend had a relative that had moved there and really like it. The NM locations were past interests of mine. Needless to say I have all of those towns plus a few more, added to my iPhone weather app that comes with the phone so I can see and compare the weather of each place.

Between the two realty sites I was able to save different houses of interest. I had made up my mind that I would sell the one I live in and make a complete move west. I even considered moving as soon as I had the house packed up and cleaned, leaving an empty house for sale with a realtor. As usual, the thought of being a home owner raised it's ugly head and it was something I told myself I didn't want if I were to ever move again. I've never been a fan of house repairs or maintenance and cheap enough that I would rather do any of that work myself instead of hiring it out.

So that thought lingered as I scrolled through houses that were mostly trash when comparing them to what I had now, in the same price range. I knew I'd have to spend more to get the same quality I had now. I also knew even with a more expensive house or a newer house ... repair and maintenance ... were and always will be part of home ownership.

The thought of sunshine 300+ days per year and temperatures higher than 30° during the day also sounded great. During this time it was 2° where I was. I factored that in when analyzing my thought process. I remembered how much I liked living here last spring and summer and wrote about those feelings.

Still, maybe it is time to have a change of scenery. I've been retired now for eight months. Things have settled down, a retirement routine has been developed which is nothing different than what I did on weekends or paid holidays off from work. I never see the people I worked with, rarely hear from them so most of the time its the hounds and I.

A list of things to do once spring arrives as far as house upkeep keeps getting longer, just like every year. Winters are hard on houses and maintenance must be done before the next winter if you want to keep your house in good shape. It's like fighting against mother nature as she tries to drag the house away with her. Plus it's time consuming and always seems to be never ending.

The dreaded thought of home ownership was popping up at times while looking at all the houses under sunny skies ... it's something I have said I would not do if I decided to move. What about the hounds? I know from personal experience in my house renting days how hard it was to rent a house with just two hounds that weighed more than the "pet allowance" of 25 pounds. I have a little over 200 pounds of hounds walking around. I don't think condos would like us and even some houses that allows renting with pets ... just smaller than then ones I have.

After a call late afternoon from my old college roommate and friend for forty years, I tell the hounds I'm going on a road trip through dangerous sub-zero weather and I'll be back later ... don't stay up waiting on me ... I take off for a late dinner at Nick's, with a salad, a 12" strom and a few pale ale's.

My friend is also recently retired. His wife chooses to work until she is 70, so traveling is limited for him. He is the hiker that had a tent camping background but all during his younger premarried days.

Our conversation moves to the houses I've been looking at, the locations I am considering, while some of those areas nearby he has hiked many many years ago. Then he said something similar to what I've been say in this post about "home ownership". His house to him was one big albatross. He said if he was single, he would sell it immediately, buy an Airstream type trailer and park it somewhere. Now, he has not done any research on boondocking, state laws for boondocking, nor does he read any rv blogs but he said no matter what he would sell his house and buy a trailer to live in ... something smaller and a way to be more mobile.

He had no idea where he would park it but it would be out west somewhere. That led us to discussing the pros and cons of home ownership, even with ours being paid off, low property taxes and a low cost of living where we live. He lives in a town of of 120,000 people, one small college and a small university, not like me being outside a town of 2,500. By the time it was midnight and we were the only one's at Nicks because the students haven't returned to campus yet, I had decided once again that home ownership is not something I was looking for when changing my location.

As I made the 30 minute drive home watching my outside temperature gauge show -7°, then a -11° by the time I pulled into the driveway ... I thought about houses, the house I have, how everything is comfortable, yet I have the urge to make changes. I wasn't really interested in going through the new procedures (hassle) of purchasing a house by the time I went to bed.

Halfway through my coffee this morning, my mind was going a different direction where houses were not part of the formula. Of course the hounds were but not houses.

I think we've been down this road before.

Changing Heidi's Treatment

Before we get into the reasons why Heidi's treatment is changing direction, I thought I'd post a picture of Winston and Sadie outside on Christmas day with very unusual weather ... like high 40's.

Since they know the weather should be colder, all three hounds have done their annual migration to the leather couch. Luckily when I want to sit there to watch a game, a movie, or read a book ... one of them will move to another chair or spot on the floor.

Like I was saying, Christmas Day did not feel like the typical Midwestern winter day. It was just a few years ago we had over 24" of snow and I was clearing driveways a couple of different times due to the non-stop snowing. Not this year.

I think you will agree this next picture looks like a cool November day in the Midwest.

Christmas Day 2014

Sadie doesn't like the iPhone camera but loves posing in front of the Nikon D3200

I made a mistake in my last post when I wrote about Heidi's Atopica dose. I had put 500mg per day but it was 100mg per day, I've corrected the previous post. Huge difference. That comes in a very large capsule. Since it has to be given 1 hour before her meal or 2 hours after her meal, hiding the capsule in cheese or peanut butter was not an option.

I am not even sure if that would have worked, since she is very good at separating what she doesn't like to eat. Luckily she is a very good dog when I open her mouth and I can slide the large capsule down the back of her throat without her trying to bite me or fighting it.

With the daily dose of Atopica I was seeing improvement like I wrote about the last post. Our goal was a gradual decrease in dosage from daily to hopefully 1 per week or 2 per month.

December 12, as per the vet's instructions I decreased the dosage to every other day. Within a few days I started seeing her itch more, and she was back to chewing her feet. Her spots were not nearly as bad as they were October 28 when we took the initial trip to the vet but her rear hocks were still hairless and red as well as her armpits. 

I had mentioned the armpit issue in my last vet visit November 29 but was told due to the excess skin a basset hound has it was having a hard time drying out and healing after the medicated shampoos. That seemed strange to me because her armpits have never been a problem until October. I can't say I was thrilled with that answer at the time but nodded my head and moved on.

When she recently started itching again, chewing herself again after 8 weeks of treatment ... I decided to read more about Atopica. Back in October I had read about any possible side effects Heidi might have taking Atopica plus what the long term effects were. All the information I read in October seemed to show it was the drug to use for allergies without using steroids. It had been used in people for years but not dogs and cats until 2003.

Someway in that initial research I missed the long term effect  that Atopica had.

Last week I did an internet search for "Is Atopica safe for dogs".  A lot of links showed up, some dog forums where dog owners were discussing their results and of course places to buy it online. The majority of people on the forums and customer reviews said Atopica was great, they had used it for years and they had given their dog a better quality of life by controlling their allergies. All said their dogs lived to be 9 years or older.

Like any medication for dogs, unless it's something out of the ordinary, if a dog lives a healthy life while on the medication and dies at the age or 9 or older, who can say the medication had anything to do with failing kidneys, or a bad heart?

These are the two articles that made me ask myself if I was giving her the right medication. They made me reconsider different options for treating her allergies. I decided a different direction in her treatment might be best:

Atopica: A Dangerous Path - click here 

Is Atopica Safe? - click here

Also the websites you find in searches, I'm using DuckDuckGo instead of Google now, how many of those sites discussing the reasons why you should not use that specific drug are really trying to steer you to buy their recommended dog food or products? As an example when I bought Dinovite last summer, a food supplement that did not work ... all of their email replies were telling me to stop all dog food and use their raw food formula along with their other supplements.

It's like a Catch-22. Which should you believe?

I decided the plan I chose at the vet October 28 was not working as well as I expected. Yes, she did give me 3 choices  to TRY to treat the allergies and I chose the Atopica plan. She also wrote in her notes to call her if Heidi's condition worsened or failed to improve.

"failed to improve" ... While on a daily dose, it did improve but not everything I expected. If Atopica was to help stop the itching and chewing, why was I having to continue Benadryl to stop the itching and chewing?  Like I said, her rear hocks were red and hairless and her armpits were hairless and at times red. 

So I decided that after 8 weeks of treatment, $300 worth of Atopica, plus Benadryl every 8-12 hours to prevent itching ... the current plan was not working.

The Benadryl was suppose to be used up until the time there was improvement yet the itching never stopped after 8 weeks.

I told my problem to a friend of mine that rescues dogs and cats. Some of her dogs have had medical problems and with her medical background she is very informed about different medications. She replied later with a long detailed email describing what Heidi was doing or really what her weak immune system was doing ... along with what Atopica was doing.

She agreed with my idea of changing treatment plans. Instead of just putting a "band aid" on the problem, try and strengthen Heidi's immune system through a diet change and possibly adding pro-biotics to her food. As I said in a different blog post, Heidi had these allergies when I bought her from the Basset Rescue. She was under regular medication, which was later changed by my vet to a different pill, then finally steroid shots after the pills were no longer working more than a week or two.

I spent days reading all I could about Atopica, visited forums that were linked in these articles and also looked again at the dog foods I had fed her over the past three years. I found some interesting things on a forum of Scottish Terrier owners where Atopica was discussed. That is where I read where many owners were happy giving their dogs Atopica, with good results.

There were 3 other owners that stood out. 

They stopped Atopica due to the same problems Heidi was still having. They changed their dog food with some great results. None of them worked for the dog food company, nor were affiliates. All three thought it would take months before they might see improvement but they were shocked how fast they saw change. One of the three said she even saw improvement after two weeks of feeding Merrick's Pork and Sweet Potato blend.

Pork is one ingredient I have never considered in a dog food. I've always fed good quality dog food to my hounds, or at least those that are highly rated by Dog Food Adviser. I've gone back and forth between grain free and regular food as long as it did not include wheat, corn or by-products. Most of those dog foods were Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice blend. Most had fruits and vegetables added to the ingredients.

After years of researching dog food ingredients, even filling out a spreadsheet of their first 5 ingredients so I could compare foods at a glance ... there was one thing I didn't consider with Heidi ... maybe she has a chicken allergy.

Was she allergic to Chicken or chicken products? Or was the Canola Oil I found in the Taste of the Wild no grain food causing problems. I normally feed the Diamond Naturals Large Breed with Chicken and Rice or Fromm Chicken and Rice. When I decided at different times to go to a grain free food, thinking that might be Heidi's problem I buy Taste of the Wild .. not paying any attention to Canola Oil that was in the Salmon blend.

Last week I didn't like what I read in either of these two articles about Canola Oil now being added to dog food. Taste of the Wild has added Canola Oil to a lot of their different blends of dog food.

Canola article No.1 - click here

Canola article No.2 - click here

So the search for a new dog food was on. I hate the thought on how much dog food costs now, as they raise prices while reducing the size of the bag but I decided I would go with grain free, no chicken an no lamb. Since three of those people had results with a specific kind of dog food I decided to go with Merrick's Grain Free Real Pork and Sweet Potato. This blend also has Salmon Meal and Salmon Oil.

Yes, all of her allergies could be environmental and probably are but the issue is what I am doing now isn't working. When I combine what my friend told me about allergies and immune systems with the three people that got results using this specific food, I have to try it.

So to finally end this longer than planned post, I started the new treatment this past Saturday by giving her the medicated shampoo bath. I am mixing the old and new food 50/50 while gradually changing to 100% new food over 3-4 days. As far as ingredients such as Canola Oil, or Rice, etc...you might think those are small amounts and may or may not have an effect. I asked my vet the first visit if the Wheat in the Milk Bone brand bone would have an effect on her, the vet replied that even if the dog licked the bone, it was enough to be absorbed and be a potential problem. So, that is the way I look at individual dog food ingredients.

After 8 weeks and 60 Atopica Capsules, this is what Heidi looked like on Saturday:

Rear Hock

Armpit

Atopica did improve her paws and neck area. So that improvement that made me consider that still being an option. Yet, treating her without harsh drugs is my first choice. I do not expect instant results and not even the two week results where those forum owners spoke about. All dogs are different as well as treatments. I plan do this food combination for months before I decide if any changes are needed.

I have started the Merrick grain free pork and sweat potato dog food and for relief of any skin rashes I will be using Baby Spa Shea Butter Diaper Cream based on my friends recommendation for dog skin care.

Below are the before and after pictures.

October 28

December 27

October 28

December 27

Checking In - Not a Lot to Write About

Since it has been a few days since my last post, I thought I'd stop by and write a post. Nothing has really gone one since my last post and as you see I've not posted any photos here like I have promised. Sorry about that.

I have found it very hard to take a lot of pictures when the temperatures are in the 30's. That's just me. I've never been a fan of really cold weather to hangout out outside, unless it was skiing in Colorado and Washington. Even though this winter in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana has been pretty mild so far. The weather experts are predicting a little snow this week, but weather is always changing here, so who knows.

Heidi is looking the best she has in a while. I know, I need to take some new photos and post them here with a before and after shot. By the vets direction last visit, I am now giving her 100mg of Atopica every other day instead of daily with plans of reducing her doses as much as possible.

Her recommended dog bath with medicated shampoo every 3-4 days ... I have failed miserably. It's such a hassle giving hounds a bath, even when they don't mind it. She is getting one this morning though.

I am still in my book reading mode, can't seem to stop. It must be the cooler temps outside that keep me reading books inside. Maybe I have traded my yard work in the good weather for book reading in bad weather.

A lot of college basketball on the television and I must say that I am thrilled with Indiana beating Butler yesterday. The college football bowl games are just starting, but I only watch the ones where I like the team match-ups. There are really too many football bowl games but as usual in sports it's all influenced by money. Even though many of the games are not attended well, I guess those few that do attend do bring enough income to the host city to make it worth it. Cities still want to host some kind of college football bowl game. You would think they are about to run out of sponsor names for those bowls.

Some colleges that are selected to play in those bowl games end up losing money for the trip. Yet at the same time a bowl for a college team gives them extra practices, a boost to their recruiting and an increase in alumni donations to their college.

For those following my house heating experiment, I have had to turn on the electric heat since the outside temperatures dropped to the 20's and 30's. A few times it was cold enough inside the house that I didn't see any need to be cold just to save a few dollars. Since I can see my kilowatt usage every day on the utility company website, I can tell from the usage, how to use my 1975 baseboard electric heat in an economical way. I am still spending below my budgeted amount.

This past week I was asked by a different people what kind of dog food I feed the hounds. It was kind of funny because these questions came from people that didn't know each other, were from different parts of the country, was asked via different ways of communication and all about the same time ... within a couple of days of each other.

Looking back at my list of dog food purchases, it looks like I have changed the food a lot, but it's all been good dog food. Some was 'no grain', some wasn't. The reason for the changes were the allergies that Heidi had ... I wanted to see if it was the food or was environmental.

A few years ago you might remember me taking photos of the cart full of eight 40# bags of Nature's Domain bought at Costco. That food is made by Diamond dog food, with the ingredients very very similar to Taste of the Wild, which is also made by Diamond dog.

With a 200 mile round trip to get to my closest Costco, last year I stopped making that trip and started buying dog food locally. At that time it was Diamond Naturals 60+, now called Diamond Naturals for Large Breeds. Recently they changed not only their packaging but also the list of ingredients. They have more fruit and vegetables added but still had 'grain' but has never had corn, wheat or soy. I can buy that at the local farm feed store, 40# bag costs me $33 including tax, cash or check, no credit or debit cards....yes, it's an old fashion feed store.

With Heidi's skin allergies, which she had when I bought her from Guardian Angel Basset Rescue in July 2011, she had those same allergies, and they were noted on my paperwork along with all of her medical records. In trying to find a possible source, I tried different dog foods, some of them were 'grain free'. A raw diet was never tried and 90 days of a Dinovite supplement did nothing for improvement.

Hoping I could solve her allergies with 'no grain' dog food, I tried Taste of the Wild and Fromm dog foods. Fromm is a family owned business in Wisconsin that deals in only manufacturing dog food. They are one of three dog food manufacturers in the USA, that only deal with dog foods. It's really a great dog food.

Well over a couple of years of trying the no grain food, then switching back and forth to the Diamond Natural for Large Breeds ... I didn't find that Heidi's allergies were dog food related. Her skin rashes did not improve by feeding her 'grain free' food. All three hounds have the softest coats and vets have told me multiple times they have never felt a basset hound coat feel so soft.

So the food I am feeding them is good, since the hair would be the last part of a dog using the ingredients of the dog food that is used.

Yes, for people that laugh (in a good way) about all of my Excel spreadsheets, I do have one that lists the top five ingredients of each dog food I have either bought or were interested in, along with the percentages for calories, fat, water etc. I can look at them side by side and compare them.

I have a different Excel spreadsheet I did a few years ago tracking the "true cost" of a bag of different dog foods, by adding using the miles driven to buy the food, fuel cost estimate and frequency of trips to come up with a cost per pound.

Even though it is a 200 mile round trip to my local Costco, that was the cheapest dog food per pound. Although it would increase the amount of fuel used for the month.

Am I crazy with all the analysis I do?  LOL ... at times I think I am slightly insane ... or maybe it's nothing more than curiosity.

Some have said you have to be a little crazy to keep from going insane.

I have deactivated my Facebook account, again. 

In case I don't make it back to blog until after the holidays ... Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's to all that read this blog .. A Happy New Year!