A Beautiful Saturday That Starts Out Strange

For some reason last night I was wide awake until 3am. I shut everything off and attempted to get some sleep but no luck. I was back up at the refrigerator drinking a lot of ice cold water. I was still wide awake but finally tried to get some sleep at 5am.

That sleep lasted until 6:15am when Winston started his hound dog howling letting me know he needed to go out ASAP, if not immediately. I was wide awake and even took a few photos at 6:15am ... but a little mystified why I didn't feel tired after no sleep?

The morning even had a strange look to it as you can see by the first two photos taken at 6:15am.

I also had zero pain last night, so teeth and jaw pain was not the reason for lack of sleep.

I felt so good even after an hour of sleep, that I decided to head about 20 miles south for a Breakfast Buffet ... bad tooth and all. No problems in the pain area, was able to keep the meal on the right side of my mouth and have a few plates of food without injury.

I knew eventually I'd need some sleep sometime, after all the first NFL pre-season game of the year is on tonight at 8pm .. The Hall of Fame game. I know it's only a pre-season game and the regular starters will play about 1 series of downs that could be no more than 3 plays ... but when you are a football addict ... football in August is like Christmas morning.

Yes ... I even watch the Canadian Pro Football League that is on tv now. I like some of their different rules and styles of play.

So with the cool temps and the sun breaking through the early morning fog ... I was able to get some quality sleep from 8:30am till 1pm. I felt so good when I woke up I got some house cleaning finished and was able to take the hounds outside mid afternoon to enjoy the weather and take some photos.

Heidi once again refused to go outside and instead chose to take perfectly folded washed blankets on the floor and make a pile of them to sleep on in the nice cool air conditioned living room. She was going to get a bath and manicure this morning but my schedule changed a little. So her bath has been moved to Sunday morning, and the kind of shampoo to use is still being determined. Her nails will be cut back as much as possible and those ears will be smelling like baby wipes after I am done.

So the two hounds that love to go outside whenever I ask decided to check some smells out. Winston has found something in the grass/weed area that he likes to eat, so he had a meal of that. He eats there every morning. Sadie was pretty sure something had been around her house recently and was curious enough to press her nose into the side of the house to further investigate the potential intruder.

When I was snapping photos of trees, the sky, weeds and things other than hounds ... the two hounds decided they would stroll down the driveway in a direction they are not allowed to go. Due to the highway at the bottom of the hill, they are not allowed past the front of the house and they follow that rule 99.9% of the time ... sometimes they just get adventurous.

Of course when I yelled their names, since they are hound dogs, they ignored me the first time like they are suppose to do, it's in their DNA. After a couple of more times of yelling their names, they acknowledged they had been caught and started their slow stroll back up the driveway towards me, looking at me as if they were innocent and had never left the backyard.

They are a funny pair and a good pair of hounds.

As you see as a result of the record amount of rain in the month of June, everything is green and all those weeds in the driveway and along the bank that I had killed with expensive weed killer last month ... grew back 4x as fast and 4x as tall. I have something else planned for their elimination but I'll have to go to a farm store to buy it.

As you see that clear and burned off fence line in April is over 6' tall in growth. Even those green tall stalks where Winston was eating was burned to the ground in April. There is one thing consistent with everyone of them. Hopefully some readers that have landscaping experience can chime in some helpful suggestions.

When those 6' plants were small I took a leaf of theirs inside and searched on google images to see what I was dealing with. I'm serious when I say everything you see is the same plant/tree sapling. My best guess from the type of leaf, the one pictured below .. they are all Sassafras saplings.

Now the thing is I don't mind that the are filing in the fence line and I don't care that they are trees. I use to have a fence line full of trees until the straight line wind damage in 2008, that blew them down or tore them out of the ground. I burned everything in April to get rid of a lot weeds, horse grass and while berry bushes.

Still, I don't want to have any trees in a spot that is about 2/3 of the way down the drive because they would eventually grow tall enough where they would be a problem for the reception from my DirecTv and Exede Satellite Internet dishes. Due to my house location I have no other choices for tv and an internet provider, plus I like both services as they have worked out fantastic.

I have had DirecTv since the late 90's when they bought out a company called Prime Star that was my tv service provider back then. As far as using Verizon here at home like people do on the road .. price is about the same but no comparison in "speed". Plus I get 15Gb per month but the difference from other companies, between midnight and 5am I get free unlimited data.

So let the trees grow but I will be cutting them next spring in that one spot to keep my satellite dishes receiving good reception from space. If anyone knows or thinks they know what is growing based on those photos, let me know.

Since we are talking plants, trees, green etc .. this next photo is interesting. You might think that I have taken this photo out in the hay field in back but I am disappointed to say it was taken in my backyard. It's disappointing because of all the time and money spent .. buying and applying grass fertilizer, some Scott's Weed & Feed, extra watering before the rains came in June .. only to see a photo of this one section of yard that has very little grass, some clover, some weeds and a lot of nothing when it comes to a yard.

That is the spot where all the grass was killed last year due to the Class C Coachmen that was parked their from September to March 2014. It was reseeded with grass and even more grass seed was added this year. Compared to Winston's photo up above where you can see he is in a yard of good green grass and no weeds, this spot is pretty different.

I gave up on the war against yard moles years ago when I found nothing worked. I tried everything over the 18 years I've been here. I was even desperate enough one year to actually buy those electronic sensors that took about 3 D cell batteries, that would send out different unheard tones to keep the moles away. Luckily I used my 90 day return policy at Walmart and got a refund. The most fun I've ever had fighting the war against yard moles ... was digging out their holes just a little for more access, pouring gasoline into the mole track and following that with a lit match.

People were calling me Bill Murray from his movie Caddie Shack.

There were enough out of control underground explosions that I had to stop since I was becoming concerned about my house foundation and any underground water pipes. So a few years ago I let the moles know they had won and if 1/2 of my back yard feels like walking on a sponge while I mow ... then so be it.

As you can tell it was a pretty lazy Saturday here in "the tropics" ... but someone has to do it. Isn't that what retirement is all about? For those thinking they might retire and might get bored ... I can say as an ex workaholic ... retirement is beautiful and I have loved every day of it ... you can do anything you want, when you want.

What's a meeting? It was great to escape all of those.

Now, the big test will be with football season around the corner ... will I stay on my diet of no grain, no Pepsi, no chips ... all that food normally consumed while watching football games hour after hour?

My experience says no ... but we will see.

Another Week In The Tropics Of Southern Indiana

Well I am feeling better at least this morning, I feel like writing, so this might be fairly long blog post covering a lot of different things. I'll explain later but I have not been to the dentist yet, I do have an appointment for Monday morning. The pain has ranged from zero to extreme, not every day. I'll explain after the hound photos why it took so long for an appointment.

But first before I get started, you might like the 'visitor' we had the other day in back eating the green grass that is growing back in the hay field. I had let the dogs out and had just finished hooking Sadie up to her 80' anchored rope. Glancing up I saw something out in the field but couldn't tell what it was without my glasses on.

I ran back inside to not only get my camera but swap out lenses to the 55-200mm. I took a lot more than those posted  here but these have the best focus, my arms must have been shaking when I didn't know it. I was surprised she was by herself but she was having a good time.

How did my hound do? You know the one with the best nose of all canine's? Sadie didn't even know about the deer, smell or glanced at the 'visitor'.  In the past when deer have been in the field she has taken off in a sprint for a long long aerobic exercise, and coming back home a very happy and proud bloodhound. Winston? All he did was lay in the grass and enjoy the sunshine.

Just another day in the life of a basset hound

Here's our visitor on Wednesday taken with my 200mm lens.

Since we are talking about hounds, I am a little surprised in the food change for Heidi. It's been two weeks tomorrow and her skin issues have gotten worse this week. With improvement in her coat and stools, I think her skin issues are due to environmental allergies. I do not think the change in Heidi's skin is due to the new dog food. I like the Earthborn food and will probably continue to feed it to her. Her coat has always been soft and shiny but the new food has made it softer and shinier. That tells me the ingredients are being used. Her stools are normal now. I THINK I can feel some fat (bulk) coming back in a possible weight gain but will not know until I use the vet scales this weekend.

What is disappointing are her skin issues but I know that it will take almost 4 months before there is any possible changes to her skin, after making a change in her dog food. Regular blog readers will remember this quest for a skin rash solution started last October. Her last steroid shot for allergies lasted only a week before the next hot spot showed up from her chewing her feet in September 2014. Since last October 2014 we have tried the following:

• 2 different vet offices, 2 different ideas, treatments ... no solutions
• October thru December - first new vet. Tried Atopica pills. After more reading, found the side effects to be too much. She was constantly lethargic. Had the best improvement. Once the pills were cut from daily to every other day ... skin condition went back to bad.
• January - changed to Merricks no grain food .. pork and sweet potato. Tried a baby diaper cream with zinc oxide.
• February - a new vet where based on his studies felt it was more of environmental allergies instead of food allergies. Still he suggested no grain food as duck, sweet potato or venison, sweet potato as the next choice. He gave me a bottle of Zinc Oxide liquid with a couple of his own additions.
• February thru April - Weekly shots of RESPIT, developed based on your specific location and environmental allergies. Slight improvement, then Heidi would have a flare up to go back to the original bad condition.
• May - stopped all medications, shots and no grain food. I went back to food with one protein source basic formula. Improved skin but was continuing to lose weight and had an UTI.
• June - One week of traveling, skin rash about the same but no raw spots. Digestive system having problems, loose stools. Had lost 13 pounds since September 2014 and 7 of those 13 pounds were lost from April to middle of June, after the trip.
• July - blood in stool. Changed food by vet recommendation back to no grain food. The vet and Fromm Dog Food had found that chicken and grains to be the leading causes of dog food allergies. Currently eating Earthborn Great Plains Feast with bison and lamb meal ... no potatoes.

As of yesterday her skin issues are no different than last October when I took her to a new vet. There has been improvement since March where hair is growing back in places the 3rd vet said the skin was so damaged that hair would not come back. He was surprised and happy to see that hair was growing in those spots in June.

New hair continues to grow back but as of Wednesday these are her latest photos of her problem areas. The only thing that has changed in her environment is the hay field in back was cut and baled plus any summertime pollens. She went on 3 different walks through that field for the first time in many many months.

So like I have asked myself before ... is it a food allergy or an environmental allergy?

These are photos from last Wednesday. Her skin was showing improvement but this flared up in just one day. Looking back through her photo file "Heidi's Skin", where photos are dated as their title ... there is very little difference from October 2014.

A few weeks ago I finally found an old friend I had looked for off and on for the past 20 years. I found out later he had been doing the same, looking for me. I found him by searching on Facebook and since he has an uncommon last name, plus spelled differently than others with that last name, he showed up on Facebook on my first search. I don't know why it took me so long to decide to use Facebook as a search.

Anyway he knew I was a fan of hounds and always had a basset since 1987, he asked "how many hounds to you have now" ... Long story short, he has a Mastiff from a rescue service that had skin problems much like Heidi's. He sent me a small tub of K9 Klear Up to try. He said it worked great for his Mastiff's skin problems. Yesterday was day one of the trial.

Here is what we are trying for Heidi ... K9 Klear UP

In the meantime the temps have dropped to the mid 80's, sunny every day except a day full of rain yesterday. It doesn't matter ... Winston continues to sleep his day away, he has always been a hog of the couch and won't move.

From the time he was huddled with his litter mates, to riding on the VW Bus bench seat in front, laying on a blanket or laying on the couch ... he HAS to be in the CENTER of it when laying down to sleep.

Center Of The Basket

Center of the Couch

Center in The Winter

Not Left or Right of The Rope ... Center

Center Of The Carport

Center Of The Tent

Center Of The Tent II

As you all know I am addicted to Excel spreadsheets. I lived with them for my job but I also had many of them for life outside of work. They range from dog food analysis, electric usage, tracking every penny I spend and where it goes, even one comparing trailers. Really anytime I have a problem or am trying to make a decision it usually ends up with a spreadsheet. I can see all the information in front of me, a better visual of facts.

So after blogging last Saturday a few things happened concerning my dental problem. I finally made contact with my old friend from college who is the semi-retired dentist. A friend stopped by with some great books and ideas to help with the pain in my jaw ... both of them explained why that pain was occurring and what I could do when it flared up. The 3rd thing that happened "paintracker.xlsx" was made.

After implementing some things my friend gave me ... UNrefined Salt mixed in water 2x per day, and the pressure technique to the jaw vortex to relieve that muscle spasm ... I spent 4 straight days with little to no pain. I DID find out the culprit. By accident I bit down on a baby carrot on that lower left molar ... the carrot was suppose to be on the right side of my mouth ... how it got to the left side I don't know but I had pain like a knife blade, where you feel yourself elevating through the roof of your house, not just your mouth.

The next night by accident I bit down on a soft fresh cherry ... on that tooth again, same result. Monday night I decided to test that tooth. I intentionally placed some crab meat on that tooth and bit down slowly ... same intense paint, instantly like a knife. After the pain went away I spent the rest of the night sleeping without interruption. Yet, I can brush my teeth on top and each side of that tooth with no pain. When I swish mouth wash afterward in that area, no pain.

Those days and nights of no pain continued until Wednesday at 1am ... when I woke up with severe pain in my jaw and lower teeth. After some ibuprofen, some Orajel and an ice pack to my jaw ... the pain subsided and I slept the rest of the night with no pain.

I had little to no pain, unless it was self inflicted, Saturday thru Tuesday.

By Wednesday at 9am ... that no pain theory disappeared and severe pain blew in with a fury ... I spent the next 24 hours in what I called "severe jaw and teeth pain". No meds, no pressure points, no ice packs, no warm packs ... nothing worked.  I finally get to sleep around 3am on Thursday, spent all day and night yesterday with no pain but some soreness in my jaw.

I sit here this morning after two cups of hot coffee with zero pain ... go figure.

When I talked to my friend, the dentist, on Saturday .. I told him everything that had gone on, everything that I had either taken or done to relieve the pain. Now remember he is doing this diagnosis as a friend over the phone ... nothing official. He did say he would like to see the xray later on. He told me no matter what an xray would be needed before the dentist would go to the next step. He also said it will not be a quick fix as they might have to do the same process I am doing, "process by elimination".

Still, by my description, he feels I might have a "vertical partial fracture". It will not show up on a normal xray. Also, it will not cause more damage than what is already there and I could live with this for 4-6 months if I needed to ... but I can't handle this for 4-6 months.

He said he had the exact same thing but due to his circumstances at the time he could not fix his for almost 4 months. He also said a good dentist will be able to figure out that it is a vertical fracture and will probably put on a crown instead of an easier root canal.

I have a good dentist ... one that I do not want to leave. The problem is, when I retired I bought my own dental insurance where my dentist was listed AT THAT TIME .. this past week he was not listed. So while my pain subsided earlier in the week ... not only did I look at all of the different dental plans for people that didn't have a plan through their employer ... but I also READ THE FINE PRINT this time.

I was amazed what that fine print would not pay for. I'll not go into it but basically if my issue is what my friend described, most insurance companies will not pay for the type of crown material he suggested. Some companies will not even pay for a porcelain crown. I realized the fine print was the reason I spent months and months fighting over the phone with Delta Dental in 2008 trying to get my dentist bill paid after an emergency on that 2008 Saturday morning.

Luckily his office was only blocks from the IU football stadium, he was not only a season ticket holder and wanted to see the game I was on the way to see ... but he is also the team dentist for the university athletic teams and coaching staff. It was actually my best experience ever in a dental chair. That is the reason I do not want to change dentist. I'll change insurance first.

That leads to a "waiting period" that most insurance companies have for major dental work. They do that so when people like me sign up needing immediate major dental work done, will cancel their policy after the insurance company pays for only part of the bill. So, some companies will have a 6-12 month waiting period before they cover major dental work. Yes, some will waive that waiting period but I had missed the cut off date to use a waiver.

What did that lead to ???  LOL ... you're right ... if you have read this far ... the "DentalPlanAnalysis.xlsx spreadsheet. I listed many different companies, sorted them by total cost which included deductibles, all the different kinds of dental work for a total cost. After that I did an estimate of the type of work my friend thinks might take place, plus the exam, xrays and cleaning.

The sad thing is ... unless you have constant, like annual MAJOR dental work, the premiums paid are either the same or more than what it would cost to do a one time major dental procedure. In some cases the "free" preventive maintenance like exams, xays, cleanings and fillings would cost less than the premium they would require. Like the insurance companies I have had to work with the past 5 years ... they LOVE your premium payments but HATE paying your bills when needed.

Anyway .. in summary. I have a dental appointment on Monday morning. I can decide at their office what kind of insurance I want if I change my mind and sign up on their iPad before I sit in the dental chair. I still do not have any pain to deal with today but I know it can rise up at a moments notice. When it happens, thanks to my friends, I know the causes and what to do to relieve the pain.

BTW ... my spreadsheet showed that my intense pain took place most of the time between 1am-4am fop the past 6 days. Only Wednesday is when I had severe pain all day and night ... I rarely had any pain after 12 noon on those other 5 days. I was able to mow the yard this week, no pain. I was able to drink coffee every morning except Monday and Wednesday mornings. I was able to sleep thru the night uninterrupted 3 out of the last 6 nights.

I know this may be a weird topic (dental) to blog about but it's just "another week in the tropics of southern Indiana".

Another Reason Also Prevented Travel .. Me

There was another reason why I couldn't travel besides waiting to see how Heidi would improve the next 30 days after her vet trip. During the week I was waiting for the blood work to come back from the vet, I woke up one morning with some intense pain in my lower left jaw. At first I just thought I had slept in a bad position but I soon found the pain was coming from a tooth.

That should be an easy quick fix. Most likely an old filling was in need of repair or replacement. The problem was as the day moved on, the pain increased and moved up to my cheekbone and below my chin along the side of my neck.

I will say from the start that I do not go to doctors unless I am barely surviving. Luckily I have had very few health problems in my life that led me to a doctor, I've been lucky. As far as dentists, I go annually to get a checkup and cleaning and that is about all it amounts to.

I can usually find the solution or a fix by researching on the internet and I can say that 99.9% of the time, what I read about does fix the health issue. For example, the issue I had with acid reflux almost had me going to the doctor and even suspecting possible heart issues with a family history to make it a concern.

I found out by changing my diet, which I am still following and starting my 4th month today, fixed the acid reflux problem ... I haven't had any, zip, nada since that time. Plus no trip to the doctor to be told what the cause was.

So when I felt the pain move to a different part of my head, I thought it might be more than just a possible cavity or a filling that needed replaced. From my past accidents I realized it could be not dental at all but more of a muscle or joint problem.

I actually thought and I still think it might be, a problem I had from a car wreck in my 1963 VW Bus I had at the time in 1979. Friends and I use to spend a lot of weekends at the Rosarita Beach Hotel in Baja. Cervezas and Tequila were consumed in large portions and sad to say, driving did take place.

To make a very long story short, since that wreck in 1979, dental x-rays have always picked up an object that looked like a cavity, with it being in my cheek area and not on a tooth. It confused them until I would tell them the reason for that "spec" looking similar to a cavity on x-rays. Over the years that piece had moved down my jaw to just above my left upper tooth line from the corner of my left eye.

The dental techs or dentists were always freaked out when they saw the x-rays and would ask for the history of my head. I'd then tell them the story on what that was and how it got there. They were not concerned about any future damage. That accident like many other past accidents happened on a full-moon.

As I write this I have another tooth for the first time in the past few weeks now feels like it's the culprit of my pain. (Referral pain??) I know it's not, but the pain has moved today. I am also trying to sip a cup of coffee that I am craving due to my lack of caffeine and lack of sleep these past weeks, hoping that drinking that will not send me through the ceiling if that hot liquid happens to touch my lower left jaw area.

So where was I ... oh, the different pains. Some are intense, at all hours of the day or night. Until last night I have been sleeping in 45-60 minute intervals depending on when the pain wakes me up. Yes, I've been living on ibuprofen, aspirin, cold presses, hot damp wash cloths, face massages, "icy hot" cream on my cheek ... and starting this past Thursday morning I started using Orajel.

The meds not at the same time of course. Some times they work very well as all the other things I use, some times they seem like they are not there.

About the time I decide to go to a dentist or a doctor, on two separate occasions I have woke up after a couple of hours of solid sleep and there is zero amount of pain ... like it never happened. I've gone as long as 3 days straight feeling normal and out of nowhere the pain comes back ... always on the left side, lower jaw area and at times along the left side of my throat.

Through all of this I can brush my teeth over those same teeth suspected of giving me the problem, without any pain reflex. I can floss between those teeth that are painful with no problems. I would think if I had a cavity needed fixed or a filling needing replaced that brushing and flossing would let me know from the pain that is where the problem is.

So since mid-July sometime, after the vet trip for Heidi, I've been living with what I have described. Some times at 2am or 4am walking around the house in pain I have told myself there was no way I could be traveling right now and camping with my 3 hounds.

I have been playing phone tag with my old friend of 45 years that is a semi-retired dentist, hoping he can shed some light on the situation about what it could possibly be. Of course I imagine he will say I should have been in a dentist office weeks ago.

I mentioned heart issues in this blog. I don't have those but I did double check all the information I could find on the signs of cardiac problems with pain in the left jaw as a warning sign. From all the information I have read on medical sites, I don't find this being a cardiac warning.

So to end all of the rambling ... yesterday afternoon I was hit with the pain strike intense enough that it almost had me in on the floor on my hands and knees. Sadie took that as a sign that I wanted to play with her and she started by running and chest bumping me from the side ... lol

By midnight last night there was zero pain ... NONE whatsoever!!! Yet, ten minutes after laying down to sleep, intense pain. I get up and fall asleep sitting up in a big comfortable chair in the living room and sleep for a solid 4 hours. At 6:15am I get up to let the dogs out.

At that time the pain feels like it does AFTER you get work done at the dentist and the Novocain is wearing off. I go back to sleep for another 5 hours of solid sleep ... waking up with only a slight numb feeling in my jaw.

I just finished a cup of hot coffee and there was no change in the pain level.

So ... I was also a reason that traveling had been put on hold.

In the meantime some photos of the hounds. Winston is finding out that he likes air conditioning as much as he does the heaters in the winter ... thus this is his favorite position ... when not eating.

"I don't care about global warming ... I can sleep anywhere, anytime"

Of course Sadie doesn't care about how cold or hot it is, she likes it outside. With being a bloodhound and its hot temps along with sticky humidity ... that produces more drool ... lol

"Don't worry ... my owner will wipe it off"

Usually around 7:30 we head out just to sit outside or take a walk through the field. Sometimes Sadie lets me know by her look that sitting is not good enough, that she wants the daily walk ... whereas Winston is more than happy to sit in the shade in "his" soft grass.

"Lets go for a walk"

"It's great ... I'm not going anywhere"

As you can see, my project in April of digging up wild bushes, vine roots and cleaning out the area before I planted grass seems to be looking pretty good for a non-professional job after 3 months. Add in a historic month of rain in June breaking all rain records since 1865 in Indiana, I have a good amount of grass.

On a closing note ... before I could finish this post my dentist friend called me back about my jaw/tooth issue. I'll not go into it in detail but it will not be a quick fix. Once an dental x-ray is taken, there could be many steps in finding the source of the problem by dentists, endodontist or oral surgeons.

It was good to hear from him, what I have been doing with my self-treatment is good stuff.

I hope the issues Heidi and I are having will be fixed by the cooler temps of September where we can head west. That is the plan anyway.

Heidi Is On Medical Leave From Blogging and Traveling

As you can see, Heidi is as thin as the picture. As I mentioned before she was down 13 pounds from last September and 7 of those 13 pounds were lost since late March. A few posts back I wrote about taking her to the vet after we returned from our June trip to Utah. Her stools were too soft for too long, she was skin and bones ... although she had escaped any seasonal allergies for the first time that I can remember.

After a week of the vet recommended dose of Pepsin AC, then few a few days of pumpkin added to her kibble, I did not see any positive changes. The vet had ruled out parasites as the reason for her weight loss. He had no answers on why she had lost so much weight. She still had and has a huge appetite, normal basset hound energy but wasn't showing the normal amount of irritated skin this summer due to her allergies.

I had almost decided it was the food that I had changed to a couple of months ago, feeding it to her a month before our June 8 trip. She never had car sickness on that 3,000 mile trip. She seemed normal the week we were gone. She likes to rid in the car, always has. Still the vet and a few friends thought it might be stress from traveling based on her past history before I bought her through a rescue service.

I thought time would take care of itself plus a change in food would help her digestion problem. Since it was hot outside, I stayed inside and continued to look at our next trip possibilities. I was looking for places that were cooler than the Midwest temps and high humidity, and wasn't on fire. There were not many places west of the Mississippi River that fit that criteria.

Like always, things in life can change in an instant, even with the best plans sketched out. I had l just let the hounds out on a Sunday morning, the 19th, (correction ... it was the 12th) before I was heading up to REI in Indianapolis to pick up a Yakima Roof Top Storage Box. Both Winston and Sadie like to dump their tanks in the field but never Heidi. Since day one it's always been on the gravel driveway or a small corner in the front yard.

That requires me to operate a pooper scooper in quick fashion right after she is done. Only on this morning it was different. Bright red blood was showing up in her stool. Out of my 3 local vets in the area of this small town, only one was open for office visits on a Sunday. She happened to be Heidi's original vet from the time I bought her years ago until last October, when I went looking for other opinions on her skin issues.

For some reason this vet also did not want to see a stool sample to check for parasites. Both vets in the past few weeks had squeezed her stomach and intestinal areas and found no issues. Both said she did not have parasites. I thought it was strange they wouldn't check the stool but I'm not a vet.

By the time we arrived at the vet office and the vet had checked her out, it had been over 24 hours since Heidi had eaten anything so a blood sample was taken and sent off for analysis. I would get the results back the following week. I was pretty sure that blood work would answer all the questions we have had for the past few months.

That put our travel plans on hold. Yes, I was close to leaving for another trip. My house to-do list was complete and the urge to travel was too much ... so we were heading out.

Heidi's blood work results came back the following Thursday and everything was normal !!! How can that be after losing 28% of her weight when she wasn't overweight to begin with at 46 pounds? Why the digestive problems that had flared up in the past month of so? What about the UTI she had in May? But yes, the results of the blood work showed her red cell count was within the normal range, no liver or kidney issues as they seemed to be working normal. The tests did not show anything out of the ordinary. I still find that hard to believe.

The vet asked about her past activity, what food was she eating, basically a past history since last October, when I wanted to move away from steroid shots for her allergies. She suggested that stress might be an issue and yes, she may have been stressed out from traveling. You can tell by the photos I took of those trips, she never looked stressed out when traveling ... so I really didn't think that was the issue.

She suggested we go back to a no grain food, although from the photos I showed her on my iPhone, she could see the improvement in her skin after I had changed from a no grain food to a chicken and rice formula. She recommended something different on the no grain food.

She wanted me to make sure there was no chicken or chicken meal in the ingredients and also no potatoes. She did not recommend a brand. She also recommended keeping her at home for the next 30 days to see if she would start gaining weight with a different food high in protein and high in fat. During that time I could also watch for any other changes in Heidi. We set up a followup appointment for August 19.

I spent the rest of the day and night looking at different no grain dog food again. Something I had done in the past but I wanted the latest news of any changes. Only a day later did I find out that Merrick, a food we had used in January, had been bought by Nestle-Purina. It will be interesting to see if any of Merrick's dog food blends change due to the take over. As it were, Merrick was no longer an option ... no matter what.

I asked some friends for suggestions. There is a lot of no grain food but a large percentage of those foods have potato, or sweet potato as a carbohydrate source. I also found that even if Bison, lamb or fish  might be the first ingredient, further down the list you would find chicken meal in some of the different brands.

I also emailed Fromm Pet Food customer service asking about what they would recommend, since I was feeding their chicken and rice formula at the time. They replied with two interesting comments about what they have found in dog allergies. I'll not go into detail but essentially they found that chicken and grains were the first and second culprits of dog allergies.

A friend suggested a no grain food made right here in Indiana. It was rated not only 5-stars by Dog Food Advisor but was also listed as 1 of only 125 blends of dog food after a thorough analysis by an independent reviewer.

This food is Earthborn Holistic. After looking  at a list of no grain foods I had made at one of the local stores I buy dog food, I found that this food was about $10-$15 cheaper with it's competitors. The store owner thought the price difference was due to shipping, since we were only 75 miles from Earthborn's Plant.

I must say that just after a week, I could see a change in Heidi's skin. She had some places where she was chewing again before changing the food.  It only took two days to see a normal firm stool. The first serving I cut her old and new food 50/50 but noticed the next morning of a much different stool. That afternoon I fed her 100% of the new food on her 2nd day. From that day forward she has had nothing but normal stools.

Her hair continues to grow back in all the leg, stomach and neck areas that looked destroyed back in February and March. Her skin condition was so bad at the time the vet said in March there was no chance of hair coming back to those areas. He was surprised when he saw new hair growing in the June.

I did take some "before" photos of her at the time I changed her food. I will take weekly photos of those same areas to track the results and post them in future posts.

She must be feeling better on this new food Earthborn Holistic Great Plains Feast. She now is barking daily at the time she wants to eat, huge difference. Plus for the first time in many many months she has gone on the daily dog walks in the early evenings. Over the 7 months she never went on walks when I asked. Yes, the hay field has been baled for the summer, so we are back to walking early in the morning or early evening when the sun is setting behind the trees.

Sadie and Winston making sure it's cut right

Monday morning

Otherwise nothing that is blog notable is going on. We are beating the heat, drinking lots of water, reading, and doing a lot of what Winston and Sadie do during the day ... photo below.

Winston on the couch ... Sadie under the table

It's Good To Have Options

I know I keep photographing the corn field across the highway and posting it here ... but it's just amazing how tall that corn is ten days into July.

An old friend of mine that was raised in flat northern Indiana was amazed when she saw the photo and how green everything is ... as she begs me for water via email and texts from Sacramento California.

So that farmer had options whether to work or take a day off (they never do). He decided not only to put fertilizer on his field before planting this year, he got it all in about an hour before it started raining.

Where a different farmer that bales the hay field behind my house, has not had the chance to cut and bale anything ... it's more than hay ... I'd say its mostly weeds now. Still, when the weather was nice and dry, it was not tall enough to cut. Once it was tall enough to cut, it doesn't stop raining long enough to dry the ground out where he can get his tractor and baler in the field. So his options are few.





Sometime after my blog post on Saturday I went full speed ahead on planning our next trip by looking at maps, roads, weather, camping spots, campgrounds and found about 100 different ways to get to my destination.

It's been mentioned here before by some readers, maybe the "planning" is the high I get instead of arriving. Or the driving, since I love to drive long miles without stopping. Of course with the warning of the local tv weatherman on Saturday night, that summer temps will finally arrive any hour in "the tropics", my thought was to get north as fast as possible, to cooler weather.

It didn't really matter.

When I plugged a town name, that was 988 miles north of me, into Wunderground weather for a current and 10 day forecast, I found out it is hot everywhere. Now for those that have a RV in any class and those with trailers that have generators, 30/50 amp systems, or solar panels ... hot weather may not be that much of a factor since you can run the AC at your leisure.

When you don't have an RV or a trailer ... a Toyota FJ and a tent, it makes hot weather a little different factor. Add in the built in "drooling" of a basset or bloodhound breed, especially in hot weather as they pant to cool off ... at times those strings of drool get longer and more dangerous.

So ... the hot weather is a factor in my trip planning. Not only for me but for the hounds as well. High temps definitely affect my hounds ... otherwise in the currently hot and muggy weather here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana (@10:28pm it "feels" like 98°) ... they would stay outside longer than just to use the bathroom. They sprint for the house and don't stay a second longer than needed to dump their tanks.

"that has to be a mole"

"is that a mole"

It does bring up an interesting question. At what temperature would it be too hot to travel with hounds in the car?

Sure the AC would be on when driving ... but while buying gas, making a run to the restroom, or going inside for a cup of needed coffee would leave them in the FJ with the windows down just enough where they couldn't jump out or couldn't get stolen and still get some kind of fresh air.

The more I looked at different routes and different towns on Wunderground, it was amazing just how hot it is all over the country. I have a few of these towns always loaded into my iPhone weather app that comes with the phone and it's easy to see at one glance what is taking place, temperature wise.

Some other factors I have while planning ... as we all know boondocking on BLM land is few and far between in the Midwest. So it's campgrounds or a Walmart parking lot unless I find a motel without bedbugs that allows drooling hounds .. for sleeping.

No ... I'm not miserable ... I just look that way

When I thought of sleeping in my FJ with the windows down in hot and muggy Midwest, I remembered our trip to pick up the Lil Snoozy trailer in Arkansas in September 2013 ... it was in the 90's that day. I had an H3 Hummer then and sometime around 2am, with two hounds panting and hanging drool from their jowls because it was too hot to sleep in the H3 ... we had no choice but to turn the H3 on and flip the AC switch to "on".

The third hound, Heidi, was sound asleep because that is what she does well ... she sleeps ... anywhere ... anytime.

I remembered what I thought of that hot and muggy night after midnight when I was trying to sleep without any success. I remembered feeling miserable. So basically it could be either a campground in a tent or a motel room with no bedbugs ... or drive straight through to the destination to bypass the heat.

Remember I said in my last post that I would not be driving straight through anywhere, so sleeping, setting up camp is going to be taking place a lot more than my last trip. I found a lot of good highways, with towns few and far between ... so the sleep question came up ... where?

I found plenty of camping and campground symbols on my McNally ... then I'd cross that information with a DeLorme map of that state. Throw in some Mapquest analysis and the options were tenfold ... hundreds to choose from.

But that one word ... HOT ... was still a factor.

After spending a lot of hours going over possible routes ... stuff that I love to do, I decided to research stuff after I would get to my destination. My friend that is a blogger and traveler with dogs, offered an itinerary ... I took my friend up on that offer and soon after I received a one page email of where to go. It was detailed enough to tell me where to camp, where to park, what to see and how many days to stay in each spot.

It was great information.

Along with that came even more options ... a lot of them. Now when it comes to options, I like them, at times I like a lot of them. Even though I have downsized a lot over the past few years .. I still like having three different browsers to choose from to move around the internet, two different cars to drive, different t-shirts to wear ... even three different hounds to talk to and pet.

So options are good for me.

I was so enthused about all of this research I couldn't stop. Why? Well one reason it's pretty obvious I get a thrill or a "rush" from analyzing ... always have. I like planning a route and possible places to stay but I don't put a day and time to it. It happens when it happens. The last trip I wanted to get to Moab before it rained, I did, but that meant I had gone against my normal planning and basically drove straight to Rifle Colorado before getting a night of sleep.

When I glanced at the clock on my monitor in the upper right corner, it was way after midnight by this time, and I was still wide awake from adrenaline and basically I had to force myself to turn off the computer, put the maps away, the highlighter, the red pens and try to get some sleep.

Only after one more thing. ... that one page email had a ton of places to see and I was curious enough to stay up a little longer. I had an idea that I had to try out just for my own curiosity otherwise I would not be able to sleep.

How long was it going to take in days, how many hours of driving time and how many miles .... all minimum numbers

So it was a matter of plugging in all the routes, even the short ones that got me from Point A to Point B, into Mapquest for time and distance. I listed all of those on my spiral 5x8 notebook. After that I read through the one page email from my friend, adding the days that were suggested to stay, and added the day(s) based on driving time.

So if I were to arrive at a campground and stay two nights .. that equated to three days.

When I finished, it's going to be a 27 day trip, give or take a few days ... 79 hours and 35 minutes of driving time, covering 4,550 miles. With the knowledge that a change in weather could be a factor in moving from one place to another sooner than listed .. such as smoke from forest fires.

After 5-6 hours of analysis ... a list of destinations ... and almost a month of travel ... there was still one word that was a factor ...

HOT

A New Trip Is Being Planned

As the title says, something is being planned and before long the hounds and I will be heading west again with plans to stay longer than we did in June. Cutting that trip short turned out to be a good thing. I was able to make some adjustments to my storage area so Winston and Sadie will have more "leg room" on the next trip. Heidi has recovered from her indigestion.

The biggest thing that was accomplished so it will not be lingering in the back of my mind on this next trip ... I finished all but one thing on my house "to do" list. That list bugged the heck out of me during our 3,000 mile trip. As I kept marking off more and more things on the "to do" list as being completed these past few weeks since being back, I was coming up to a point of making a decision.

The urge to travel was taking over again, as I planned when I returned. Also the thought of packing up and moving west did occur to me enough for me to make a list of things to do in case I did decide to leave the area for good. As my adviser has suggested over the years, I need to get more "road miles" under me and the hounds before deciding whether to make a life altering change, such has selling my house and moving. I agree with that ... even though at times I have problems being patient when my brain locks onto some idea, such as having the urge to sell everything and move west.

So plans for the next trip are being made or kinda being made. Since retirement I've never had a schedule, nothing planned like from point A to point B ... so I find it hard to plan out a trip with scheduled stops. I was in such of a hurry on my June trip to see Colorado again, where I had lived in 1993-1994 and Utah ... that we drove straight through from Indiana to get to those two states as soon as possible. In previous years I had always sped through Utah when driving from Washington to Indiana, so it would be a first for me to see some of Utah up close.

That won't happen again.

This next trip I have an idea where I want to go but I'm not sure I want to take the shortest route. In fact I am not sure I want to start heading out in the direction toward that destination, but I am pretty sure what highway (no freeway/interstate) I want to begin with. I'll get into those plans in a later post.

Currently I am writing this in the middle of the day because I am waiting for the grass to dry enough to where I can mow the lawn before the next rain this afternoon. As you can see in the photo at the top ... from the green and taller than normal corn for this time of year, the rain in the "tropics" of southern Indiana has made everything green. My lawn has never looked better near the second week of July. Yet, that means a weekly mow in and around the rain.

The field behind my house is still not mowed and baled simply because there has not been enough time between rains to dry it out enough to have heavy farm equipment mowing the field ... so Sadie has decided it is a place she can hide from me. She thinks she is hiding not knowing or wishing I can't see her. She will stand still at different parts of the field and act like she cannot hear me call her name .. while looking right at me.

This morning Winston is relaxing on "his patio", enjoying the cool temps and preparing for his afternoon nap as I mow the lawn. Heidi is MIA for the photo op ... of course ... because she is inside sleeping in her big leather chair. She gets outside but never stays long ... she is not curious about the yard or field.

Daily dog walks through the field have been put on hold due to the problem with ticks. Walks through the field will commence once the field is cut, if we are here for that. I am guessing our departure time will be fairly soon for another trip west.

As far as blogging on the trip ... internet wifi connections will determine if and when I blog. I don't see the need to pay for internet service while traveling if my trip is going to be only for a couple of weeks to a month. So photos and blogs may be few and far between during our travel time. I found last trip I had little urge to blog. By the time camp was set up, the hounds were fed, walked and I could just sit in a chair enjoying the scenery ... computers were the last thing on my mind.

To give Winston and Sadie more "leg room" in the back of the FJ, most everything packed in the back last trip will be moved to the roof. I'll be picking up my roof storage tomorrow at REI and having it installed.

This 

And This (Except Water Jug)

Will Move to This

Yakima Website Photo

So as the July temps finally arrive in "the tropics" of Indiana ... we hope to miss them as the hounds and I start our next journey west.

I've never thought of taking photos of every barn in my rural area ... but Al over at the Bayfield Bunch has put up a new Flicker album of photos he has taken in his neighborhood ... you can see a great collection of barn photos clicking here.

Time for me to go out and check the grass again to see if it is dry.

Where Did All This Motivation Come From?

I believe you can see from the picture on the left that my camera has been fixed and returned in record time. If not, look closer at the center of the photo.

The Geek Squad at Best Buy, where I bought the camera, shipped the camera to the Nikon service the following morning and it arrived at the repair facility two days later. Along the way the notified me by email where the camera was.

While I was sitting at the kitchen table yesterday on July 6 I noticed the UPS truck stopping in front of the drive. With the long July 4th weekend, my camera shows up a week after I turned it in. Until I used it, I forgot how nice it was to see an automatic focus at any distance and with either lens. More photos to follow in the days ahead.

For one reason for more photos, I'll have more time again during the day to go out and take photos. During the last 8 days I've been working most days outside on my "to do" list. Plus the lawn mowing around the days of rain. It's been nonstop and on occasion I've done things I didn't have listed but noticed as I worked. It's just the way my brain works at times.

I believe in my last post over a week ago I mentioned a list of "to do's" for my house. Some of the things listed were things I've been wanting/needing to do for YEARS!! A lot of these things are not an annual thing. It was amazing to find out that when I actually started the repair just how little time it took. I've completed 11 of 13 items that were listed. I am down to my last two tasks and one I have no urge to do.

I have a crawl space that looks like a moon crater. I am able to walk around and will have to bend over at most of the time but it's not like I have to crawl on the ground under my house. So it should be ok and the hardest part might be getting to the entry window, which is now hidden behind the Yews I planted a few years ago.

You may be asking what kind of things am I talking about. Is it things that all homeowners have to go through? I'm not sure but I think I had a couple or a few things unique to my house. It ranged from washing windows inside and out around the 1970's style storm windows. (time consuming). Or with the RV washing brush with the extended handle, I was able to wash my house's siding, plus the overhang in less than one hour.

I missed a small spot that I didn't see until everything had dried, but it was good to see just how clean my house siding was after the siding was washed. When you live 80' from a busy highway and surrounded by fields of corn, soybeans, or hay ... dust/dirt tends to accumulate. Also in this area there tends to be more cobwebs attaching to different parts of the house, plus a couple of wasp nests.

It's common from the severe winter temps, but I had a few places on the overhang and the trim around my old windows, where paint had peeled. Those spots were scrapped, sanded, painted with primer and then trim paint. After a few days and the paint had completely dried, you could not tell where those spots were. The paint's color blended well even after 5 years.

I still had time on Sunday, forgetting what day of the week it was, to mow the lawn and trim the hedges. Since the Yews have grown into the desired height, it will be pretty easy to keep them trimmed from now on. I thought the traffic pattern on the highway was different but thought it might be from the holiday weekend. It wasn't until later that night when looking at my iPhone where I noticed it was Sunday ... LOL.

On the day it rained during the week, I worked inside and hand washed every inch of every wall inside the house. I won't go into details but the results showed it was time to do that task. It was shocking to say the least.

Of course as I have stated before, as I am doing things I find other stuff to do and in some cases will do them immediately. That's never a good thing. For example, while I was walking around painting the trim color over the spots I had repaired, I noticed the insides of the two doors on my shed were still white from the original paint job 15 years ago. So I end up painting both doors the same color as my current trim color.

That right there added a couple of hours to my day and away from something else ... but at least it looks good. There are also "hazards" of getting things done and looking good. I pressure washed my carport concrete floor Sunday morning after washing the house siding. Today it rained so much and so hard all day, that water that had flooded into the carport and flooded a lot of that clean concrete floor ... add in the number of times that Sadie ran back and forth through the standing water, it's back to a normal concrete floor.

As I was working inside I realized that at least one room needs to be painted. I like painting so it should not be much of a problem. It will take longer to move computers, bicycles, and desks out of the room or to the center of the room so I can walk around and paint the walls.

Heidi continues to improve. It's a slow process but hair is growing back to those spots that were raw months ago. Her stomach and armpits are back to normal skin texture. She would eat non-stop of I would keep giving her food, so hopefully that will lead to an increase in weight.

Winston is just Winston ... everyday is a laidback holiday to him. I have noticed a little stiffness in his back legs, lower back ... so I have started giving him buffered aspirin.

Sadie was doing some surprising things this past week. She wanted to stay outside while I worked. So I let her roam off leash, as I worked outside. Unlike a bloodhound breed, where some say they always need to be on a leash, there were different times where Sadie laid down in the grass and watched whatever I was doing. Since Winston kept wandering off, he had to go back inside the house.

I may have found out why I never got anything done in past years in the month of July. The Tour de France started July 4 and is on tv live every morning at 8am. Some of those races are 3-4 hours long, so that would take up most mornings. Three weeks later it would be too hot to work outside which leads into football season. Therefore a lot of the thing on that house list were never started.

Now, I check the internet while I drink my cup of coffee, shut off the computer, work outside during the day then watched the TOF at night at 8pm. That seems to work pretty well. It keeps me under my internet data for the month, I complete things that need to be done and I still see the day's race at night.

There is only one photo above that was taken with my repaired Nikon D3200, the others were taken with my iPhone 5S.

After my crawl space task ... the only things left to do on my list are things as if I were moving.

We'll see.