A Late Start But A Productive Day Pulling Weeds

I almost talked myself out of any kind of weed pulling today. I couldn't sleep last night so all that means is after I let the hounds out around 6:30am every morning, they come back inside and I go back to sleep. Consequently the idea of getting started on outside work early in the morning has very little chance.

I've always been a night person .. never a morning person.

About the time I had talked myself into taking a day off and giving my back and hamstrings an additional day to recuperate ... I was outside, ball cap on, gloves on and grabbing the 32gl trash can. Starting the stopwatch on the iPhone it said it was already past 3pm. How much can you really get done at that time of day?

I decided I'd pull weeds for an hour and see how I felt and how much progress I had made.

It moved fairly fast. The only hazard today was working along parts that were pretty steep and with the years of gravel packed ground, the ground wasn't the softest for pulling them out easy. After an hour and seven minutes for my first water break I could see myself possibly finishing the left side like I had planned.

Last Week

Today's Starting Point

Today's Stopping Point

It was hot, a little muggy, and I was tired, so I stopped with just a little more to do on the left side. How can pulling weeds be that much of a work out? It's bad enough that I am even blogging about it, let alone having this project show me how bad of shape I'm in.

So I filled a couple of trash cans. A lot of these weeds were a lot wider than the ones pulled the previous 4 days. I put in a little over 3 hours.

Two Packed Down Cans Full

Looking at rain tomorrow starting sometime around 1am and continuing all day. Most of the percentages show a 50% to 60% chance of rain. So I might get my "day off", and with a good amount of rain the ground should be good and soft for pulling weeds during the final part on the right side of the driveway.

Time Today:   3:05
Total Time: ~16:35

The Pulling of Weeds Continues on Day 4

Outside Is Not An Option When There's Lightning

For those late to joining this weird topic party ... I have NOT been pulling weeds 8 hours per day for 4 straight days. A few hours here and there but today was the longest with 5 hours in the afternoon. The only reason I went that long was because I wanted to the get top of the drive finished. It was also the hardest weeds to pull because they were shorter and a lot of short small grass type sprouts buried in between the smashed gravel.

It wasn't long after I started that the upper half of my left index finger started bothering me. I'm left handed and that index finger is the major player for pulling weeds. I do some right handed but not the majority of time. It started out pretty fast with the taller crabgrass and spaced out roots. I could see that would not last long.

Rain was predicted for 3 straight days but in Indiana weather can change in an instant. Before I came outside the radar showed there wasn't any storms west of me. I was actually hoping for some rain to cool the temps a little bit, plus make the ground a little softer for easier pulling.

It was a little over an hour later I am on my hands and knees pulling the grass type sprouts between driveway grade gravel, I hear large amounts of thunder south of me. Winds are picking up and after that first lightning strike I decided it was time for a short break ... inside.

Wind From The South

Looking Northeast

The weather radar showed it wouldn't last long so it was a chance for me to drink some ice cold water, sit down and relax. I was not really hot today, around 82° ... but after I stepped outside after the rain that blew through the temps had dropped about 10° and cool air made the weed pulling a lot nicer. It actually felt a little cold and at times there were large cold raindrops coming down through the trees.

It rained lightly off and on for the rest of the afternoon, with the sun coming out that last hour of work.

Today's Starting Point

Today's Finish

More Hours Less Amount - A Lot Of Small Grass Sprouts

I hope to get an early start tomorrow and move down along the fence to the bottom of the drive. Since those weeds are big and taller in loose gravel, it should be a pretty easy job. Hopefully I can finish that left side fairly quickly so I can start up the right side of the drive ... the final piece of the job.

Plan For Tomorrow - Down The Left Side

It's amazing how tired and sore you feel after doing nothing more than pulling weeds on your hands and knees. I was starting to think today that renting a goat might be the better option in the future.

Pulling weeds gives you a lot of time to think of different things and my brain was on overdrive again today. The end result was nothing exciting and somewhat disappointing.

Yet, I no longer have major dental pain, I'm still losing weight into the 4th month of my modified Paleo diet and all the hounds seemed to be pretty happy with their daily routines.

Another nice sunset in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

Pulling Weeds Is Very Relaxing

Weeded Around The Center 

I had one answer to my question a few posts back, asking if anyone knew what those tall green plants/trees were growing along the fence. I had used google in the past and thought they were Sassafras saplings .... well they are Giant Ragweed .. I think that is better than Sassafras trees.

Before I bore you with details, I did a search on Google for blogs that talked about pulling weeds. While pulling weeds today I thought a blog just about my pulling weeds would spare you the details of my new hobby but also might lead to some affiliate income later on. (joke)

After seeing there were 902,000 blogs just about pulling weeds .. I decided the market was too saturated and I ran back to "Hounds RVs and Retirement Living" to post about weeds.

I knew before I started this project that it could be dangerous. There is absolutely nothing I can do outside the house, away from excel spreadsheets, from changing oil in my car to even mowing the yard ... that doesn't have some "Murphy's Law" involved. Something seems to always happen that is totally unexpected. But I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ... even without power tools.

Well today was that day.

I woke up a little sore and really stiff. I couldn't bend over to pick up the water dishes for the hounds to refill or give them fresh water for the day. I thought before I made any decisions for the day, like pull or don't pull weeds, I'd have my normal two cups of coffee and see how I felt.

For the past week I have been taking 1,000 to 3,000 mg of MSM, an anti-flammatory that is not as harsh as ibuprofen ... so with all of my stiffness this morning I took the three 1,000 mg capsules and waited a while. At 1pm I was watching the Colts first preseason game when I realized I really wanted to go outside and pull weeds.  How weird is that for a self proclaimed football addict?

After a short period of time I grew tired of watching 2nd and 3rd stringers trying to make the team, that missed tackles and lacked in pass coverage. I turned off the tv and headed outside. With my gloves, the ballcap, the hand tool and my 32gl trash can, I started by finishing that section where I ended on Saturday.

Before

After

After finishing that section I wanted to stay in the shade so that eliminated going down the sides of the driveway. For a change of pace I decided to walk around the drive and pull anything that was tall, any weed that was isolated. That included going all the way over to the fence, down equal to the front of the house. (I just can't stop anywhere ... there has to be a marker)

I had heavy growth around the grounding cable of that utility pole and also around the AT&T land line telephone transfer box ... it's the home of about 15 phone lines that my neighbors still have for landline phones. I started removing the weeds around that utility pole but when I got to the AT&T telephone junction box that is where things get exciting.

Before

After

Over the months of the winter, spring and then the summer rains .. the ground had moved up along that transfer box and cracked the cover open. As I cleaned around that box, I moved the level of the dirt below the box. I could now take off the cover, then slide it back in place all the way and tighten it down.

Now .... this is where the danger of pulling weeds raised it's ugly head. As I lifted off the cover of that junction box I did not know there were at least 20 wasps in formation with their engines running, ready to attack the person that opens that box (ME). And attack they did. I tossed the cover into the air and took off sprinting for the house while getting stung a few times. Right before getting to the door I glanced behind me to see how many were following.

In my very short glance I saw more than 5 in my line of sight. Slamming the door, I headed to the medicine cabinet for some first aid. I did not see any wasps had made it into the house, but knew that I had made them mad ... so I would have to move my trash can, pick up the cover and start pulling weeds in a different section of the driveway.

Sorry, due to the high speed actions and my urge for survival ... no photos were taken during or after the wasp attack.

I used the last of my wasp spray standing 5ft away. I knocked their nest out from the inside of the box and tossed it over the bank. I knew the rest of the afternoon I would have to keep an eye out for any wasps doing 'fly bys" over my head or around my shoulders.

I decided to head over to the utility grounding cable. It wasn't soon after I started that I ran into my 2nd problem ... ANTS ... the kind that bite ... hundreds of them!

Before

After

They were easy to get rid of after they covered my lower legs and ankles. I then decided to start at those 6 red tiles (Sadie's Patio) and work my way toward the utility pole. I then continued to swat wasps as they flew by me.

At times I would walk over to the junction box and kill as many as I could. I didn't feel any guilt about it nor could I remember any good things a wasp does on a daily basis but sting people. I'll google about them later, still the least amount of wasps around the house, the better.

By the end of my 3 hours I had completed the outlying area around the top of the drive. So now I have only the center that is left and the section of gravel that use to be the parking space of my 1994 Chevy Truck (should have never sold it).

Only The Center Remains

Old Parking Spot For Truck - A Place To Park A Trailer ??

Finding it was easy and fast to pull weeds along the fence line in the shade .. I decide that I will pull weeds along the fence line all the way to the bottom of the driveway. Rain is schedule for Monday - Wednesday so we will see how that works out. Based on what I have done so far after a total of 8-1/2 hours of work, I don't think I am that far from completing the weed pulling job.

Should Be Easy Down The Fence Line

Sunday - My 3rd Container of Weeds

I find that pulling weeds is relaxing to me. Similar to painting a house inside or outside, something that I really enjoy doing .. painting that is. Plus at the end of the day you can see progress, something that looks better than when you started. Once I am finished and during the times of the year that I am living here, I think it will be easy to maintain the "no weed" policy by pulling them as I see them. You can pull a lot of new weeds in only 30 minutes.

Also another factor ... there are NO CHEMICALS involved, which can't be a bad thing.

No photos were taken of the hounds today. Winston and Heidi stayed inside enjoying the air conditioning while sleeping all day. Sadie spent most of the time outside with me and finally becoming bored being the supervisor, she took a long nap in the shade under the Toyota FJ. By the time I ran inside to get my camera to take a picture of her, she was awake and standing at the door.

Something was said today about Heidi that makes more sense than any other reasons for her wanting to be inside all the time. She will always go to the door when she needs to go outside but returns almost immediately to be let inside after she is done dumping her tanks. While the other two will roam the field sniffing every inch of ground as long as I leave them outside.

I don't know a lot about Heidi's first 3 years of her life. All I was told by the foster mom when I bought her from GABR, that she had been in and out of shelters most of her life. I was told she did and would run away a lot if not on a leash at all times. That she had allergies that required shots.

I found out soon after that she would NOT run away off leash. She goes outside without a leash and without me going outside with her. When she does the daily walks, she walks off leash and has never ran away.

I was told today that she may not like staying outside a lot because in those first 3 years she may have been left outside tied up in all kinds of weather. A reason that she would escape and take off running, then end up in the animal shelter. That's a possible reason why she only goes outside long enough to pee and has never liked "hanging out" outside in the sun with me and the other hounds.

A reasonable idea or thought.

I sit here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana away from any weather danger since it's not tornado season ... watching and reading about all the fires out west and up in Canada. It is just unbelievable from this distance how long they have been going on, how those fire fighters (Undermanned) have spent 7 days a week, 24 hours per day fighting them with occasional naps... while they may go on for another couple of months. How much damage will there be when they are finally put out? I would hate having to leave everything behind to evacuate, some have left on foot.

Also for those traveling to the SW this winter. From what I read about the powerful El Nino predicted this winter ... those Soutwestern states are due to be cooler and wetter than normal. More snow in the Pacific Northwest and colder than normal temps here in "the tropics".

I have to decide for this winter do I want to be freezing and dry ... or warmer and wet.

The Ballcap For All Kinds of Yardwork

A Rare Three Hound Photo Outside

It's been over a year since the three hounds were all in the backyard together. Heidi rarely goes in the backyard. When she goes outside she hits the corner of the front yard and then she might wander along the side of the fence line .. but for some reason she rarely heads to the back.

Maybe she is feeling better, although by her skin rash, there isn't a difference from the past weeks. I see a shinier coat, it's softer with the change to Earthborn Holistic No Grain, the Plains Feast blend. I haven't made the trip to the vet to use their scales but I swear I can feel some muscle coming back around her neck and shoulders. One of the photos from today looks like she is gaining some weight, I hope so.

I wanted her to lay in the sun for a while thinking that might help her skin rash ... then again, laying in the grass may activate her allergies and make them worse. I'll check her later tonight. She didn't stay outside long. It was 82° but the iPhone weather said it felt like 89°, all three of the hounds prefer air conditioning and went running for the door after the 5 minute photo shoot.

The dental work I had last Monday seems to have worked out this week. It was nice to get back to normal, get some sleep and also not having to tolerate any pain. The week was so slow I am really not sure what I did. Looking back on the past four days, I didn't take any siestas, I didn't waste all day on the internet but I did do a lot of book reading.

Each time I looked out the kitchen window or took the hounds outside, I'd see my garden of weeds along the driveway. They were almost overtaking the driveway, like I stated in my last post. I couldn't come to grips with paying more money for weedkiller, since it never lasts as long as they say it will. In fact it seems to me, the weeds grow back stronger and faster than ever after they turn brown.

So much for that black plastic material that is buried 6" below the mulch to keep the weeds from invading your flower beds. Does anything work the way it's suppose to anymore or is that just an advertizing dream?

Weeds Up Through The Black Weed Block

It's happened that was every summer I've been here, all 18 of them. You'd think I'd come up with a different plan by now. So I asked a friend that spends a lot of time working with her yard, flowers, plants, etc. She said she pulled her weeds. Of course her long driveway is asphalt, whereas mine is gravel ... so I knew my job of pulling weeds might take a little bit longer. It was something I'd have to think about.

I know that no matter what I do, spray or pull them, the weeds will always grow back ... but maybe I can control them. Besides, the idea of pulling weeds was making me very curious ... curious enough to pull a couple of the easy crabgrass weeds out of the gravel driveway. They came out of the ground, through the gravel easy. I decided to get my gloves and the 32 gallon trash can that I use only to gather leaves, sticks and now weeds.

These gloves remind me constantly that I am the boss.

Perfect Gloves For Pulling Weeds

So Friday around 1:30pm I decided why not? Let's see if weed pulling is all it is made out to be. Of course I had wasted the best part of the day with the cooler temps in the morning. It was already after 1pm, one of those sunny 84° days that feels like 90° ... but I like sun and I like heat, so I started at the top of the driveway. I was thinking about doing only the center of the drive .. but my thought process is never like that. Everything has to be even. So I would move down the center of the driveway a little way, then to each side.

Only after an hour of work, I had this much done on the driveway and my trash can was about 3/4 of the way full. With the sun is heading toward the front yard since my house faces west, It was getting extremely hot. I decided not to quit and just move my efforts to the shady side of the house ... in back. This took no more than 30 minutes.

Pulled one weed at a time, anything from large crabgrass to small sprouts of new grass.

Before

After

Not Quite 32 Gallons Of Packed Down Weeds

I had seen and felt enough so I emptied the trash can full of weeds on my burn pile for next spring and headed to the shower ... I was tired but encouraged by how much was done in less than two hours.

I had decided to start earlier this morning but due to a sleepless night and up until 4am ... I didn't get my 8am start on the weed pulling. I did start at 11:30, moving all the way down the center of the drive ... then toward the left to pull weeds over the culvert where the weeds covered my stone I installed a few summers ago. By the time I was about to move up the side of the driveway I decided it was just too hot at 1:30.

Add caption

I took a nice hour break inside drinking a lot of ice cold water. Stopping any kind of work outside is bad for me, because I lose my momentum, or I get distracted and end up doing something else. I wanted to do just a little bit more.  So I began where I started yesterday working towards the backyard. I was only going to get to where I was even with the front of the house and stop . I kept going longer.

I wasn't in the mood to wash the Mini Cooper, so I decided to go along the front of the carport, double arms length. I would have finished what was left, all the way to the yard but in the last 15 minutes of working, the bugs, and gnats decided to come out to bother me ... so I called it a day. I was still amazed how much I was getting done in a short period of time.

Before

After Saturday

Granted, it would be much faster to walk around spraying chemicals to kill the weeds but this week I am not in the mood to waste money. Maybe paying the dental bill put me in shock, i don't know ... but I don't feel like spending ... unless I go to Dairy Queen.

So tomorrow I plan on continuing my weed pulling. I'll finish up the end of the section I was working on, but I also want to finish each side of the driveway ... I'll do that first before the sun moves over the tops of the trees making that front side very hot. Once this end of the top section is finished and both sides of the driveway, I'll decide from there if I want to keep working or move to the top of the driveway on Monday.

I am pulling out by the roots, anything that is green .. large or small. In fact I doubt that I have missed very many small sprouts. So far I have 5-1/2 hours of labor. This little tool I found in a drawer this morning made things easier on Saturday. It was mouse tested, with some signs of chewing on the handle.

Another 30+ gallons of packed down weeds on Day 2.

Day 2

If you made it reading this far I'm surprised, it just shows you how slow life is sometimes in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana. I don't lead a thrilling life ... I mean this week after the dental work, pulling these weeds have been the highlight of the week. I have watched a couple of NFL preseason games on Thursday and Friday night ... will watch some more tonight. Then I flip back to the Cincinnati Reds - LA Dodger game in Los Angeles during the football game commercials or vice versa. The Reds games don't start until 10pm local time.

The hounds and I hang out mostly and take each day as it comes. I find it interesting that this is what I am blogging about publicly ... so I guess it was this topic or another day of no posting. At least there were some new photos of the hounds.

I will say I was amazed how sore my hamstrings were this morning after only an hour and a half of bending over to pull the weeds out of the ground.

I may fall off my diet wagon for an hour ... I have a strong strong urge for a Hawaiian Blizzard from Dairy Queen. That isn't all bad is it?? It has pineapple and coconut in it ... LOL

No Hound Photos But A Dental Update

There will not be any hound photos in this post, this is just an update to my dental situation. I hope to take some new photos of all the hounds later this afternoon since I am finally feeling much better today, with just a little soreness in my jaw.

I am sitting here Tuesday after two cups of coffee and only a sore jaw away from being painless after approximately 25 days. I slide into the dental chair about 11:10am anxious to find out what my problem was and what would be required for a cure.

Was it a vertical fracture, an abscess, just a cavity or a problem with an old old filling? The dental assistant started the analysis and even gave me a prognosis. About the time I am wondering what's going on and if the dental assistant was the one to determine my future ... she said "I'll get the dentist to check my work and diagnosis".

I was hesitant and told her so, when she had a small thin piece of something to slide in between my teeth that was a nerve away from flying through the ceiling if I bit down ... she was asking me to bite down ... but I did bite down enough for her to see if I had a vertical fracture or not.

I did not have that. It was a different problem. She was predicting a root canal and crown were needed. My friend that is a semi-retired dentist predicted the same thing after talking to him over the weekend .. after he heard I had 24 hours of intense pain on Wednesday. At first he had predicted a possible vertical fracture but after he heard what I had on Wednesday, he changed his estimate ... that a root canal would be needed.

I found out that I had a cavity in the back of the tooth, below the old large filling. A root canal was needed to remove the dying nerve and the tooth needed to be replaced. An antibiotic script was written and I was expecting a couple of weeks delay in fitting into his schedule.

Right before getting out of the chair, the assistant checked the schedules on the monitor behind my chair and said "we have a 2 hour slot available today at 3pm if you want to do everything today.

My mind instantly flashed to "pain or no pain" by the end of the afternoon. Although my friend had always suggested a second opinion from an endodontist and having them do the root canal work. I trusted my dentist though based on his emergency work in 2006 when I had a tooth/filing fall apart one Saturday morning while brushing my teeth.

So with a few hours between appointments to think of my options and what my friend was telling me, I had time to make a firm decision. I found a couple of people that had root canals done by him. I also talked to the dentist with new questions before any work was started ... I decided to bite the bullet and have him do the root canal and new crown in the same 2-1/2 hour setting. The assistant said one time I had actually fallen asleep and they had to wake me.

I heard a lot, saw very little, and felt zero pain through the process. Of course my left jaw is sore today from being open for 2-1/2 hours, thanks to the help of that great invention, a curved plastic piece slide between my teeth on the opposite side of the dental work. Also it's normal soreness after that area is the point of receiving all the pain killer shots.

Some payment discounts were negotiated but it was still a hit to my budget, more than I expected. I had not planned on the root canal when I did my cost estimate. At least the problem is fixed and in a few days I should be feeling normal again after 25 days of feeling bad at times.

Before I go ... an interesting dog story. In between appointments I stopped in to see a friend that has the car dealership where I have bought a lot of vehicles the past 5 years. He had a 8 month old pup running around wanting me to play fetch. He looked like a bulldog but had the wrong color for an English Bulldog.

The pup was a hybrid breed ... an English Bulldog and Beagle mix. Sorry I didn't get a picture nor can I remember the name of the breed. The dog was bought from a beagle breeder.