The Considerate Farmer

The field behind my house is owned by my neighbor a couple of houses north of me. He's retired, does a little farming but nothing to this property where my hounds roam. He does let a local farmer come in and bale the hay twice a summer if it's a good year and at least once if it's been too dry.

I met him the first time a couple of years ago and showed him where I had a metal livestock stake pounded into the ground where the climbing rope is attached to hook Sadie up to at the edge of my house. That way if we come out some morning or evening and their happens to be deer in the field, I can hopefully get her on that rope before she takes off. Also, I can let her outside and let her roam 80' diameter without taking a chance of her taking off after an animal and ending up on the road 100' away.

The farmer didn't find any problem with it. That was much different than the previous farmer that use to bale the field. He was mad a the world most of the time. I told him I can usually guess about the time they will be baling the hay based on how tall it is and what the weather is like. I use to roll the rope up to the metal stake and then hide both of them under a rubber trash can that I turned upside down. It was tall enough for anyone to see from their tractor seat. I did this to make sure that metal stake would not tear up one of their blades when cutting the hay and also not do any damage to their ranking machine. Of course the side benefit of saving me from paying my cash for damages but it also protected the take.

This does not get pulled out of the ground. I've tried and ended up one year pulling it out of the ground with the cable tied to my truck bumper and I backed up the truck. That is to show you have much effort goes into getting that stake out.

The previous farmer that baled the field for the 14 years of the 17 years I've lived here didn't get along with anyone but I never had a problem with him. One year I came home from work and found not only the hay field cut right up to my yard, but my trash can I had turned upside down was thrown about 20' the opposite direction. He had pulled the stake out with his tractor and I could tell the way it landed, he had thrown the stake and rope as far as he could into my driveway. It was obvious he was mad.

This is the same mad at the world farmer that got his tractor stuck in mud on the edge of my yard one year, trying to fit it around my parked VW bus when I had a total of 4 vehicles. I didn't say a word about that, but I didn't forget. I could tell he had that tractor of his buried in my soft slanted backyard on the south border.

Thankfully there was a sale of the land a few years ago. That is where this considerate farmer comes in. Below are photos from today, where the farmer starts cutting hay before I was even awake. I did not have the trash can out there to mark it, nor had I pulled up my rope. I didn't expect him today because of the forecast of rain. The photos will show how considerate he was without him saying a word.

He moved his cutting blade that was out to the side of his tractor, around the spot that had the metal anchor and up to the edge of my yard. Not tearing up anyones property in doing so.

So like prior years I will go out with my metal blade weed eater and and cut what you see standing...then rake that out into the field so he can rake it up to bale into large rolls, without having to get close the metal rope anchor.

Sorry for the long narrative, I just wanted to show how considerate this farmer was cutting the hay around the metal anchor for Sadie. These photos show a good example of someone going out of their way to be considerate of others on a very hot and very muggy day. He will be rewarded when he comes back to rake and bale the hay into the big round rolls.

This was taken just a few days ago...needs cut.

After he cut the hay today. I will cut what is standing with my metal blade weed eater

My metal anchor is down inside this hay...the blue rope is attached at the bottom

This is what I saw when I heard the rumble of the tractor as I walked outside this morning. He has started by cutting away from the metal anchor, then moved a little closer each time.

The following photos show how he came back and cut a little closer yet did not disturb the metal anchor that he knows is in that hay somewhere.

Still a little bit more trimming around my rope anchor. I will cut all that is standing tomorrow. To the left of the cut is my property that I normally cut in July.

I was on my way back from the internet provider outdoor lunch today as the skies turned black and the winds increased speeds that were curling huge trees. By the time I arrived at my local feed store to buy 40 more pounds of dog food for the hounds ... the skies opened up. The last photo shows he got every cut before the rains came. A few days to let it dry out, then the raked hay will turn into huge round rolls. 

The best things about this ... the farmer gets his much needed hay and the hounds get "their" field back to do their daily walks. I in the meantime will have new territory right outside my back door to ride the mountain bike I bought a few weeks ago. 

Life is good.

Blog Plan & Internet Addiction

Blogging is such an interesting thing. I stopped one of my blogs this week after two years of posting, getting followers, having comments and a long blog role that was full of information and photos. I decided, instead of changing the blog title and writing about other topics entirely, I would leave that blog 'actively' closed to be used as a reference when people found it on internet searches. Instead I would start this new blog.

In the past month I've seen two people announce they were giving up blogging after a few years of daily writing. I've seen many others recently, myself included, that talked about giving up blogging all together, yet continue. One of those bloggers did what I did, left his older blog open as a reference and went to a new blog with different topics ... such as everyday living, similar to a journal. The other is on the side bar of this blog where he announced today that his blogging will definitely slow down and unsure of any future plans after his trip this summer.

Blogging can be addicting, whether you are writing one or reading a lot of them every day.

Even after a few short days I have caught myself thinking of what to write for my readers, where I may not have that many readers if any at all on this blog. I have a few from the comments I've received and a couple of people added my blog to follow. That is a common problem with people that blog. Most start one to record their own journal, or keep their family and friends updated with what they are doing. Others do it for business, by building a following and making income with affiliate links or advertising. This one is more of a journal for me.

This blog is not going to be about building an audience and I stated that in the very first post. This is more of a personal journal that I can look back on, instead of doing this in Microsoft Word or iMac Keynote.

So, the blog is pretty plain and simple and I think after a starting it this week, it is serving its purpose ... a place for me to write. If someone finds it enjoyable enough to read, then I'm fine with that and enjoy the following. I'm not a big fan of Google+, so I deleted the 2nd account I ad for this blog. Of course by doing that, it also doesn't give people an option to follow this blog using their Google+ accounts.

For those readers that want to follow this blog, you can follow by email (upper right corner), join with your old blogger profile (Google Follower) or use the free program that will give you notice when I update this blog and that program is called Feedly, at http://feedly.com.

It's going to be another hot day here in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana. I woke up later than normal this morning after getting up early to let the hounds out. I heard a familiar "rumble" sound outside and was happy to hear it. The field behind my house is owned by my neighbor a couple of houses down, but he leases it out to another farmer to bale hay. The "rumbling" I heard was their tractor cutting the hay. That's a big deal because now the daily dog walks can start again. The hay gets 4'-5' tall and thick enough in most places where the bassets are not interested in doing any recon missions, Sadie could care less as she will walk anytime, anywhere, in any temps.

I will show photos tomorrow of a "considerate farmer", in comparison to the last man that baled it who seemed to be angry at the world every time I talked to him.

I decided to start doing some different backups for my computer. That might include a trip to Best Buy in Bloomington to pick up a new external hard drive. The one I have currently I bought when I bought a new iMac, 4 years ago this October, and that is almost filled up. I use that hard drive for Apple's Time Machine, which will backup your files every hour and it has done that without a hitch. What that does not do is back up your hard drive system files and updates. That is what the other hard drive will be for, like a startup drive when needed.

I could buy a larger external drive, then partition it off where I can do both, Time Machine and backing up the HD system files. Since I already have the one external drive now, I'll reformat that and use it for the system backup and use the new external for the Time Machine.

I must say after a little less than 4 years of using my first Mac, I've had zero problems. (knock on wood). Whereas the ~15 years of a PC, I had more issues than I wanted to contend with. Due to needing the ability of linking a cell to another spreadsheet, I ended up buying Microsoft Office for Mac so I could use Excel, for that purpose. Open Systems and Mac's "Numbers"  in 2010 did not do that feature in their software. That was 4 years ago so maybe they have changed and if they have, I still will not convert all of my spreadsheets to those two programs, simply because I don't want to mess up the format of those spreadsheets that have the linked cells. Those Excel spreadsheets go back a lot of years and I don't want to take the chance of messing them up.

Well I need to get off of here and do something. I've noticed recently that I am falling more and more into a rut of not really getting anything done, nor doing anything. The days go by extremely fast but too much computer time. I am a true computer/internet addict. I do a lot of reading on the internet, some research, check on blogs and forums ... but really too much seat time in front of the computer. My internet provider is having a little customer appreciation day that will be from 11-1 today. They have a drawing that I hope to win, 6 free months of internet service. That would be a $240 savings for service that recently has been intermittent more than it has in the 6 years of service. They are still a good local company, family owned and will do anything to get your issued repaired as soon as possible. They have a number you can call and get a response 24/7.

The hounds will be staying home on this trip.  It's way to hot for them to stay in the FJ while I mingle at the luncheon and they would prefer to lay next to the floor vents where the A/C comes from and sleep all day. After all, dinner isn't served until 3:30-4:00pm every day, that gives them plenty of time for an all day siesta.

The Fire Still Simmers

I am finding it hard to stay away from the blog and others. Sadie turned 6 years old today.

Sadie The Bloodhound is 6 Years Old Today

My bloodhound is 6 years old today and in a way I am surprised she has lived that long. Why? She will eat anything. At times she has broken into the container of dog food and helped herself to a lot of pounds of dog food, which could lead to bloating. That is a death call in large breeds.

Other than being the most obnoxious hound I have ever had, she also is one with the greatest personality and the funniest. I would have thought by now she would have grown out of some of her puppy habits. She has stopped some of them but on occasion will remind me what she use to do.

She was bought locally at the age of 13 weeks. I didn't pick her at first out of a litter of 8 puppies, but she was going to be a Red and that was what I was wanting instead of a Black and Tan. I took my basset hound who was 4 years old at the time, out to see the litter and Sadie was the only puppy that followed him everywhere he walked. So I changed my pick to her. I found out later from a different breeder, I may have thought that was nice she was following Winston but what that really meant was she was strong in tracking. That trait of a strong tracker is what makes her bored, especially when I use to be away from home during the day. A bored bloodhound will find something to do and in her case it was chewing. Just like the picture.

Now in that picture she is chewing a stick. Her thing is not to eat the stick but chew them off into 1" lengths and spit them out. Similar to one of her past favorite things of breaking into my closet and chewing off just one plastic tip on the shoestring ... per shoe. Should wouldn't chew the shoes, nor both shoestrings ... just one shoestring tip per shoe and spit that out on the floor.

Needless to say as a puppy she was destructive and there was nothing I could lock her out of. I was amazed at what she could get into and with her strong nose, it was amazing the things she could find around the house that I had lost and couldn't find.

She is a great hound though. Always has been a house dog. Kennel trained at first and then slowly migrated to a dog bed on the floor in the bedroom. While in her kennel one day while I was at work, she actually bent the strong black steel rods that I couldn't bend back with a pair of pliers. Her kennel were the ones you see that are black and the largest size. With her jaws had squeezed two of those black rods almost together, trying to break out.

She doesn't like change, of any kind. Don't raise her food or water bowl, they must be on the floor and they must be in the same spots or she will not eat nor drink. She is not aggressive, has never gotten into any dog fights with my other two basset hounds ... but will growl and drink water at the same time if one of the bassets wants to share her water bowl. She and the basset's have their own water bowls.

So at the age of 6 today, June 19, she is still the big old clumsy puppy. Who else could come running for her food, clip the edge of the water bowl with those big paws and see 5 quarts of water and the bowl flipping airborne? LOL

She really has only one bad habit that she still does and it consistently happens when I am in the shower. Some way she can remove two 20# dumbbells that sit on the food container lid at each corner to keep her out. Ill see the dumbbells on the floor, the lid tore off and a nice container that holds up to 40#'s of dry food available for her to scarf ... until the shower water is turned off. By that time she has snuck into the bedroom and is laying on her dog bed as if nothing has happened.

It's funny but in her case dangerous because of the chance for bloating if she eats a large amount of dry food. Yes, I have put the container inside the closet and she will slide the doors open to get to the food. I have tried a baby gate to keep the doors shut and she will get that out of the way someway, slide the doors open to get to get to the food.

Otherwise she is a great bloodhound. She is in great shape, has never been sick and still has the energy of a puppy.

Happy Birthday Sadie

Retirement Life Observations

On April 8, 2014 I decided to take vacation days up to my corporate exit interview two weeks later, so I guess my retirement really started then because every morning after I would wake up with my own schedule. It's been a little over two months since I have retired. Some things in my lifestyle such as my diet have changed considerably while other changes have been subtle if they have changed at all.

For those that are retired maybe we can compare our changes in lifestyle since retired while those that are considering retirement may see something they can consider in making their decision.

In my case I didn't feel there would be a lot of change because I've always lived a pretty simple lifestyle being single. There isn't a lot of drama in my life. My health is good, I'm active and have a few interests such as cycling, my hounds and reading. There have been some notable changes though even in the two months being home.

One thing I have noticed is the number of people I am around. I never socialized a lot in my non-work hours when I had a job because most of the people I worked with lived in other towns in opposite directions than where I live. Another reason is most of them have families and they are busy with all of their kid's activities with sports and school. So less people is not a surprise for me. I actually like the solitude that comes with being single.

Another, is my diet changed drastically and with that change I have lost 16 pounds since I walked out of the office on April 7, 2014. These changes were basic. I was no longer around Pepsi machines at work, no longer around the daily pastry that would be brought into work by different co-workers and no junk food available that I ate a lot of. Now, I think a lot of the junk food intake and my addiction of Pepsi Cola were job stress related. My diet now consists of a lot of fresh veggies and fruits...a lot. I occasionally have fish with rice and a vegetable or black bean burritos. I supplement beans into my salads for a little extra protein.

I am riding my bikes more than before but not as much as I want. I want to ride more and with the heavy humidity and high temps, my riding is going to take place early in the mornings until fall. It will be just like the old days when I was doing a little racing and all of our training rides were very early in the morning with a possible afternoon ride. Once I start a regular regiment of riding 5x/week, even more pounds will disappear. My 45 minutes of mowing my yard with a push mower is good exercise because of the heat but also my front yard is on an 80' incline. So I get some good leg and cardio workout while mowing.

Years ago I started an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to track all of my income (different sources) and expenditures to get control of my money and my spending. I categorized each expenditure and then formulated a monthly average. As years passed I link those previous year's monthly averages so I can see where I might be spending more in different categories or where some prices are increasing since last year because I am buying the same amounts.

This spreadsheet was a key factor in deciding if I could retire or not and if I could survive financially.

Besides that spreadsheet on income and expenditures, when I thought of retiring I made a different spreadsheet just for retiring options. I listed all income and expenses buy the current monthly averages.

I will make a separate blog post just on this spreadsheet, because it showed me all the different options whether to retire or not and options if I were to retire and what the financial bottom line would be. It was quite shocking what some of those options showed once it was seen laid out on paper.

I do not plan on giving "expert" financial advice on this blog but maybe some basic things that all people can use. One would be the spreadsheet to track income and expenditures and two, a spreadsheet showing before and after retirement options with the incomes different due to your change in income sources once you retire.

I will say that since retired I am spending less and not making an intentional effort to do so. Sure, I made some adjustments. I sold my old Chevy Pickup that was never driven more than 300 miles per year and put that money in the savings. I sold my Kia Sorento that was never driven and decreased a car payment and insurance reduction. I sold a Class C RV that I was not going to use, that also eliminated a payment and insurance reduction. I got my 'herd' of vehicles down to two. A Mini Cooper for great gas mileage and local driving and my Toyota FJ 4x4 for winter driving, camping trips, dog trips to the vet and any other trips where I would have to haul something from a store.

I started downsizing my possessions two years ago more than I would with the annual spring cleaning because I was planning on changing my lifestyle to RV living and possibly full-time. So I downsized a lot of things. Sold a little of it, gave a lot away to goodwill and the local library. When I had the thought of selling my house and hitting the RV road, I continued this downsizing to the point of getting down to possessions that I did not want to get rid of. I knew then it was time to stop as I was in my "downsizing comfort zone".

I am not living in a skeleton house of things but I will say my house is not stuffed with anything that is not used, read or worn. For instance my table place setting was reduced to 4. Thats only 4 forks, knives, small spoons and large spoons, 4 plates, 4 bowls. I could probably even reduce that to only 2 and may do that. My suit and ties and dress shoes were all given away last year when I saw I no longer had to wear them at work and I had not worn them in years.

For those that are considering downsizing, I will tell you that there is nothing that I have missed not having. That includes the trucks and cars I have sold, even the RV. I still have things I want to sell, some things I will give away but I am pretty close to be downsized to just the things I need. Even the hounds were involved as I got rid of all their extra bones, kong balls etc that they no longer chewed on...threw some away and gave the kong balls to other friends with dogs.

So ... after two months of retirement I can say I am thrilled with my decision and that I had the guts to go through with it. I knew I would miss the income I was making but I would not miss the drama at work and constant changes for the worse. They had made it almost impossible to do your job by the time I left. My schedule if there is one, is wide open and I love that freedom.

One last thing, that constant heartburn I lived with thinking it was diet related and some of it was, is gone.

Good luck if you decide to retire and good luck to those that have.

Comments

{Editors Note} It looks like the comments link showed up with this post and should work.

It looks like I have a bug in the comment settings. My first post a few days ago shows the link for you to make comments. My post from yesterday does not show that link. My settings show that anyone can make comments without word verification nor approval by me. It also shows in settings that all comments made will be sent to my email.

Last night a comment was made under the tab "Contact" but I did not receive any email notification. They also could not find a way to make a comment under the post.

This post is to let you know I am working on it and it will also show me if there is a link for comments.

I was having internet connection problems yesterday and again it is perfect this morning. It is possible when I was setting up this blog yesterday that something may have been hung up in the blogger system during the times I lost internet connection.

Thanks for stopping by.

Summer Has Arrived in Indiana

After a great spring and an early summer of cool temps and low humidity, summer arrived yesterday in the form of 'sticky' humidity and high temps. I don't mind the high temperatures but the humidity is a killer. I don't like it, the hounds don't like it. I've decided this summer all yard work will take place in the am before noon. That will be easier this year since I am now retired and not at a job all day during the week.

I'll also have to get any of my bike riding in early in the morning if not doing the once per week yard work.

I've thought of leaving the area for a few months to escape the humidity and do a little camping along the way but I hate paying the high prices for mowing my yard while I'm gone. I only have 3 neighbors around me with only 1 of them having a teenage son, that doesn't mow. Plus I have an older basset, Winston, that is a little gimpy with a bad lower back. It comes with the breed and at 10 years old it will only get worse. He is having a hard time getting up the two steps into the house right now. I can't imagine being lifted in and out of a Toyota FJ 4x4 would help his situation much. I have to ask myself sometimes of those two reasons alone are enough to keep me and my three hounds from traveling to some states with cooler temps and lower humidity.

It's times like these I miss those mild summers up at Whidbey Island, WA northwest of Seattle. I remember playing golf some days in July wearing a sweater. I read the other day in the Whidbey Times the problem with theft has now moved to stealing mail from mailboxes which leads to identity theft. Last winter the theft epidemic was people having things stolen from their barns and separate garages. Times have changed a lot from the time I lived out there between 1984-1994. It's still a beautiful place and one I consider at times of making a move back to the area.

With that location, besides the great fresh seafood, great roads to bicycle on I would have the ability to fly 'standby' for all flights out of NAS Whidbey. I haven't checked the current cost since I do not have that ability from my location in Indiana but it use to be $10 and show your retired ID card. It was an easy way to fly to San Diego for the weekend, Las Vegas or even up to Alaska.

Along with that Indiana heat, my internet connection has been acting up. I am not sure if it is heat related. Due to my location I am only able to get two types of connection. DSL through a local provider that uses AT&T phone lines. (What I use). The would would be Hughes Net with their satellite pointing to the southern sky like my DirecTv dish. I have great reception with DirecTv even through the thunderstorms and winter snow. I am not sure that Hughes Net would be that reliable and it comes with a 2 year commitment once they install their equipment.

So internet connection problems are ongoing. I put a call in last week with plans of the AT&T repairman to check the lines. Of course when he came this morning everything was working perfectly and the internet signal was quite strong. He checked all the wiring anyway and came to the same conclusion.

About 5pm tonight it started disconnecting just like it has since June 9th.

I'm am kinda lost starting this blog. I've been blogging for the past 2+ years on a different topic and years before that when I was running my online sports memorabilia business. I have to remember from what I said in my first post, this blog is mostly a personal journal which has other people reading it. A little strange.