A Heidi Semi-Update & Many Hound Photos

I would have posted this sooner but like usual, I get distracted in the middle of something and end up going a different direction. In this case it was downloading only a couple of photos from my iPhone when I noticed just how little memory I had left in my 16Gb iPhone 5S.

I don't watch movies or play games on my iPhone so I never really considered buying one with more memory and will probably not upgrade next year from this iPhone 5S. It does everything I need, even with only 16Gb.

So after seeing just a few Gb's left of memory, I've spent the past couple of hours playing around in iTunes deleting apps, deleting all of my photos since they are backed up on my iMac plus an external hard drive and then synching the phone with the computer backup.

So this may end up being a pretty long post as I am in kind of a "rambling" mood. I have a lot of photos from today's walk and a few from Heidi's latest skin condition which seems to be getting better since her bath a few days ago with a different shampoo.

We will get to Heidi first. As you can see from the photos there seems to be some healing going on. There is also hair growing back in places where a vet told me in March not to expect it. It's hard to tell when a basset hound is energetic but she has been doing something different than the past 7-9 months of not feeling so well. A lot of these spots were red and raw just last month. These photos were taken after her bath on Sunday.

That starts with her going outside in the morning between 6 - 6:30am with Winston and Sadie. She has done that the past three days. She also goes outside with them mid day and has been laying in the sun in the backyard. I've been checking her skin after that to see if the grass is the cause of her skin rashes, so far it isn't. Her appetite has never been a problem.

With the change of shampoo and over 30 days of eating the Earthborn No Grain Great Plains Feast I have seen a change in the texture of her skin, less redness now 3 days in a row and she seems to less inclined to chew at her paws and rear legs. Since I wanted to check just these two options of the shampoo and food, I have not applied any kind of K9 Klear Up cream, no liquid Zinc Oxide from the vet, no diaper rash cream with zinc oxide that babies love, no benadryl spray ... just nothing but bare skin.

As of Wednesday night as I write this she does not need a bath since her last bath 3 days ago. Nails were trimmed back a lot or as far as possible without having them bleed. Winston rolled on his back to have his toenails done. Sadie and I are still in negotiations about cutting her nails but at least she getting her aerobics in by sprinting around inside the house just at the sight of those nail clippers.

After this bag of Plains Feast is finished, I am changing to a different Earthborn blend with Lamb Meal as the #1 ingredient instead of Bison. I am also making a dog food change for Winston and Sadie. In the past I have always fed the "large breed" blend of foods the whole time. I decided to move to a Senior Blend by Fromm. This has great ingredients with less fat and less protein.

Sadie needs to lose more weight which will be better for her joints as she gets older. Winston is in good shape weight wise but I wanted to treat him to some different protein sources in his older years as he moves to 12 years old next May. It will have Duck as the #1 ingredient, with chicken and chicken meal, some lamb lower down the list along with menhaden fish meal at #6.

Heidi barked yesterday when I asked if she wanted to go for a walk. She led the pack but I didn't have my camera with me. Today when I asked if she wanted to go on the walk, she thumped her tail in the curled up position saying she was going to take a siesta. I had the camera on the walk today as both hounds were off the leash the whole time. I did carry their retractable leashes just in case they wanted to run off on me.

Winston goes at his own pace. At times will fall way behind and then will come charging in a short burst of speed to catch up with us. It might be a game to him, I'm not sure. I'll list the photos with some captions.

On a side note for the past few weeks, 3-4 weeks in fact, I've been fighting off one of my demons .... rescuing dogs.

Shocked eh? Why on earth would I need or want a 4th hound. Especially since it would have been a large bloodhound. I will not go into the story why she is available but she looks just like Sadie and is a couple of years younger. I did a LOT of thinking on that, plus had a few sleepless nights. A few weeks ago it was a 6 month old male bloodhound that I wanted to help. A few weeks ago I was thinking of a basset hound from the GABR that is listed in the upper left of this blog.

I never know why I get into these moods to get another hound. I've been reminded more than once that "you cannot help every dog in need". I also knew or was pretty sure that if a 4th hound would be added, the chances of traveling would be decreased. I wouldn't want to travel with 4 hounds. It would be doable like anything else but very very hard to manage. Even at home it would be hard to manage.

This past weekend it was a 5yr fixed red female bloodhound. I have no doubt that her and Sadie would have made a great pair. But then again, Sadie knows she is the leader of the current pack so it might have been a problem with an additional bloodhound. So I went from telling the owner I was on the way to pick her up the next day, to having a sleepless night and a lot of 2nd thoughts the next morning .. so I knew it was not a good move. I let them know that I would not be taking their bloodhound off their hands.

Many people find out the hard and sad way that bloodhounds are great as small puppies. During their growth periods they get more funny (obnoxious), stronger than ever, and can out eat a horse. Then they want to get rid of them. I guess it's like any other breed though ... thousands all over the country needing a new home.

So anyway ... 3 hounds is what I have and will stay with. It's temping to help a hound out but in my case you can say a 100 rescued hounds is not enough and 4 of them is too many.

Here are photos from our walk today.

A Slow Steady Pace

Waiting For Winston

A Slower Pace

Waiting For Winston AGAIN!!

No Doubt A Deer Sleeping Spot

Just Cruzin'

Out Front On Her Own

Not Half Way Yet And Getting Slower

No Worries - I Caught Ya

Hold It - Something's Been Here

Go Ahead I'll Meet You Later

Full Out Basset Sprint - Ears Up All The Way

Sprint Is Over

Another Daily Walk Comes To An End

Here are a few photos of the trees starting to change color only in August.

I thought this photo was neat because with all the green, that orange highway warning sign to stop ahead stood out from a distance. They are rebuilding a bridge just south of that sign.

Another day of great weather is ending here in "the tropics".

After my dental appointment on Monday for full X-rays and cleaning where I had a report of no cavities ... I treated myself to one of these at 5guys Burgers.

A Lazy Weekend

With the winds between 15-20mph from the west, Winston decided the best sleeping spot of the day was outside behind the Mini Cooper. That is one of his favorite spots and one he uses when he is waiting for me to let him inside. He also likes to sit in the sun on that corner and watch the highway traffic.

He looks about the way the weekend felt. Not a lot going on. I've watched some NFL preseason football but never a full game yet. My Reds have finally dropped to last place in the Central Division as expected with a starting pitching rotation of all rookies now. Plus with trades or injuries they are playing 4-5 position players off the bench.

Today though I added the IRL Pocono500 to my viewing pleasure. So as you see it's been pretty anti-climatic once all those weeds were pulled last week. I have had a few sprouts start to come back. So far I can pull any new weed starts as I walk to and from the mailbox down the driveway. The ones like the one pictured have been pulled at the flat top of the drive while the dogs are outside and I am outside to get some fresh air and some sunshine. Whether I can keep up with those new wanna be weeds is yet to be seen.

For Heidi's bath yesterday I decided to pull an old shampoo off the shelf, bought from the vet last fall. It not only has Aloe Vera in it, but oatmeal. So why shampoo her with "grain" if I am not going to feed her grains in her dog food? That's a good question. I've read in some places that Oatmeal in dog food or in this case shampoo may help in spreading a yeast infection ... if that is what she has.

I just wanted a shampoo that was less intense compared to the medicated shampoo that seems to increase her skin rash after it's applied. Surprisingly today, after the bath on Saturday, her skin really looks good. There is softness to it instead of hard crusty and/or red and raw. There is little to no redness anywhere on her skin today. She chewed and itched her skin today a lot less than she normally does. I am going to wait a few days to see  if there continues to be improvement before I post any photos ... but I am encouraged by what I saw today.

Something I should have done a long time ago since I have a spreadsheet for everything else, I made one up for her. I listed the date, skin condition on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the best and dog food name with ingredients. I've gone back through photos and vet bills to fill in past activity onto the sheet.

I also found out this all started in July 2014, not October as I thought. I found an old Word Doc that I had started as her health journal in July 2014 when I started using the food supplement named Dinovite. This sheet will give me and the vet some sort of reference for future trips to the vet. I had taken notes before or made a point of remembering thing in my head but this spreadsheet will be much better to see when needed.

While I was sitting outside with Sadie, I noticed along the wall of tall trees there was a patch of leaves very high that had already turned yellow. They stood out among all the green colors. You might be able to tell from looking at the leaves that the wind is a strong wind.

The yellow leaves I speak about are towards the upper right corner, halfway between Sadie and the right edge of the photo.

Yellow leaves toward the upper right hand corner

Just barely left of center ... Bad editing by the photographer

As usual in late August things get pretty comfortable here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana. The temperatures start falling, the humidity decreases to levels that are livable and the thought of travel starts disappearing ... until ... you read a blog or blogs where people have broke camp and are heading for a different location or some people are making plans to head to their winter locations. It's readings like that make the fire still glow in the pit of my stomach.

The inner urge to wander takes over. The spreadsheet of options is opened again to look at the pros and cons. The thought process moves in between living comfortable or make and adapt to changes. Yet it's also hard to think of moving 3 hounds when you see them sleeping in their favorite spots on a floor, couch or bed that doesn't include dirt or sand.

Yet the urge to shut everything down and hit the road increases the excitement level ... more than staying comfortable watching football (my addiction), which starts in a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure what will happen.

The Weed Pulling Project Has Been Completed

That's A Lot of Weeds - Pile Over 3' Tall

Before I get started writing about the project today, I was up at 6:10am to let the dogs outside, while Heidi continued to sleep as usual ... that's way too early for her to get up by her rules. The sun was perfect for some picture taking so I went back inside to grab the camera. You know the one, the Nikon D3200 that I just had repaired a couple of months ago????

Well once again, I press the shutter button ... no auto focus. It tells me "lens is not attached". Okay, I can play that game, so I took that lens off and with my computer lint free cloth wiped the silver edge that connects or rubs against the back of the lens when it is connected and attached a different lens.

Same result ... "lens not attached".

Now I know I have claimed to be a night person, that I am not a fan of getting up early .... and not having any coffee in my system yet, I must admit I could feel my blood pressure rising at a rapid rate ... I had a split second visual of throwing that camera as far as I could ... which wouldn't be far with a bad shoulder for pitching. Add on the fact that I am not a fan of a camera that doesn't work again. Let's just say that I wasn't real happy at 6:15am, and leave it political correct.

I decided as I slowly twisted the lens off the camera, that first thing on Friday morning I would take the camera back in to Best Buy so they could send it to the Nikon service center for warranty work again. I had a feeling of calmness come over me with that thought. Just to make sure, I put the 18mm-55mm lens back on the camera and tried it one more time ....

It worked perfect and has continued to work perfect since then. Blood pressure immediately dropped.

Well after close to 20 hours of labor, spread over 5 days, the project of pulling weeds is over. The rain last night and during the morning before sunrise, worked out perfect for a final day of pulling weeds. Without that rain I am not sure I could have finished due to the right side of the driveway having a foundation of hard packed old driveway gravel. It would've been hard pulling weeds out of that hard packed soil.

Starting Point of Thursday

Finishing Point of Thursday

The difference today was getting some sleep last night. I was in bed before midnight and pulling my first weed of today at 9:30am. Email, sports news and a few blogs were read by then and topped off with two cups of coffee.

With the rains last night the highest temp today was 74° so I spent most of my day pulling weeds in temperatures below 70°. Even though it was easier pulling most of the time, I still wondered at times if this project was a lot like painting the Golden Gate Bridge ... by the time you finish it's time to start over ...

I had noticed walking around today on the drive there were new sprouts of grass, crabgrass etc. What I don't want is this to turn into is a daily thing ... but I have a slight obsession now. Even when the hounds were outside after I finished the driveway, I walked where I pulled weeds a few days ago and found new sprouts.

I have a Plan B for the future though. Twenty hours was okay, gave me something to do and it certainly looks much better than when I started last Friday ... but I'm not sure it is something I want to do on a regular basis. Mowing the yard close to every week is enough fun when it comes to yard work.

In the meantime the house next door that is for sale after 13 months of being on the market, had their yard crew of one person riding along the edge of their property on a ATV with their weed killer on the back and the spray nozzle in hand. She said my work looked great, she noticed the progress each day as she drove by ... but said ... "they will always come back, you need to spray".

So maybe tonight or tomorrow morning over coffee, I will be searching on Google for "chemical free weed killer". Feel free to leave comments if you have something that works.

The last part of the project was that section of gravel in back of the driveway, where I use to park my 1994 Chevy truck. I didn't think it would take long, it didn't. So I went inside and asked Heidi and Winston if they wanted to come outside ... they both ran for the door, while Sadie stayed outside as the Project Supervisor.

Before

After

I was happy to see Heidi laying the sun. Winston of course took only a minute to lay on the warm concrete and was snoring soon after. I have a feeling that warm concrete makes his old back feel good. He sleeps in the sun a lot out there and at times refuses to come inside if the sun is out.

Always On The Prowl

Legs Look Bad Today But At Least She Stayed Outside With Us

Nothing Bothers Him ... Nothing

The trash can that is from just from the driveway below. I had that completed a little after noon.

Thursday's Catch of The Day

With the next ten days of sunshine ... I think I'll only mow the backyard on Friday but before I do that, I can wait for the grass to dry from the morning dew by washing the Mini Cooper S.

I don't know the exact date for the renewal of my domain name, I'll have to check because I think it is in September. Reason being I am not sure I am going to renew the domain name this year. It's not the cost, it's the name. "rvs".

When I think of "RV", I only picture Class A or Class C's .. I do not picture travel trailers or 5th wheels. The largest number of searches are a result of people looking for information on the Lil Snoozy Trailer that I almost bought in September 2013. When I started this blog in October 2011 I thought at that time I was going to buy a Class A, then it moved to a Class C ... then starting last year in 2014 I lost the urge to buy either and wanted to buy a trailer.

So over time, I am not sure the domain name of "houndsandrvs dot com" is accurate for the direction of this blog. It is very likely I will just go back to the Blogspot name that I had when I signed up to blog on Blogger.

You might want to bookmark this site with www.bhounds.blogspot dot com. (don't use spaces, those are to keep the spiders away).

I will have time to think more about that change. IF I do decided to make that change I will remind all the readers 5-10 posts before the change is made.

Once again as it has proven most every late summer to early fall ... I become quite content at the house. The weather is great, one of the best times to live in Indiana. Yet by December and January I am wanting to get somewhere warm. We will see what happens but if I were to travel I don't believe I will be going anywhere until November.

I still don't know what to try to fix Heidi's skin problems. Today was one of her worst days. I have always noticed though when she wakes up for the first time of the day, her skin looks really good, nothing red, nothing raw. She gets a couple of handfuls of dog food, grain free, as her treat for the day.  In the morning she will go outside for a couple of minutes but only on the driveway gravel. By noon she is back to chewing again, no matter what cream, liquid zinc, K9 cream or just plain warm water is applied.

We will keep trying to keep her skin clean, keep applying K9 cream and wipe her with warm water after she comes back inside. Of course if the allergens are in the carpet, maybe her blankets, or the air ... then all bets are off on it being an outside environmental cause.

No matter what ... it's a beautiful day here in "the tropics".

Day Off From Pulling Weeds Today

Well it took longer than the weather forecast but the rain finally shows up a little after 8pm tonight. It was suppose to start last night at 1am and radar showed major storms to the west that looked as if we had no chance of missing them.

The two storms moved around us. By the time I hit the road this morning around 10am headed to Bloomington, it was blue skies and sun, with thunderstorms predicted at 2:30pm.

Those thunderstorms didn't happen, those storms on radar moved around us again.

Since I had another sleepless night I decided I'd take my first siesta in a while after putting the groceries away and feeding the hounds. Besides, I had declared the day off from pulling weeds.

Based on the fact the weeds that are left are in compacted, hard gravel mixed with dirt instead of just rooted in dirt ... that was my excuse to wait for the rains. Hoping the rains would soften the ground a little bit. Plus I needed to restock my groceries and use Heidi's $3 off coupon for her new Earthborn grain free food.

I had a surprise when I handed the cashier the coupon ... she handed me another coupon to be filled out and used immediately so I had $6 off on a 5-star rated food. In the meantime Earthborn has already emailed me a $3 off coupon for September.

Since Heidi is the only hound eating this food, she has quite a bit food left of her 28 pound bag. I will continue to buy a bag per month and stock up. I am really happy with the improvement of her coat. Still, about the time I am starting to see some improvement on her skin rashes either from the change in food or the K9 cream I've been applying, I check and she has chewed skin back to red and raw just a few minutes ago.

I'm at a loss for ideas on this. I am seriously considering an offer from a person that commented a few posts ago and take her to a vet a couple of hours away in Illinois where the vet's specialty is dermatology. She works for this vet and has witnessed some pretty amazing results the time she has worked there.

I am still positive it's an environmental allergy and not food related.

Anyway after buying her dog food, I drove down the block to Lucky's Market. It's fairly new in town, has very few stores across the USA but has great prices on fruit and produce with sales on Wednesdays plus additional ones on Friday. A lot selection of organic that is priced reasonable.

While weeding the other day I was thinking about going back to a basic phone from my iPhone 5S. Not sure why but I was serious enough about it to call Verizon and talk to them about my options. I felt I could use a basic phone for calls and emergencies on the road while using the iPad Mini for my data for weather, maps, campground searches ... things I do on the iPhone.

Of course I found out from my trip in June, Wifi spots are few and far between where I was. So I would need to buy a data package from Verizon. After looking at the different packages and the $35 package for a basic phone. After adding the costs I would need to use the basic phone/iPad Mini combo, it would be more expensive than what I have now.

Then I thought of everything I use the phone for when I am away from my home computer. What about all the photos taken when not traveling with my Nikon? All good features and well worth the single line package I have from Verizon.

As you see I am grasping for things to write about tonight, so I am going to close for the day and leave you with a few photos from the past or from my file that may not have been blogged before.

For starters when I starting thinking I am getting tired of hot weather ... weather that I like, I think of this photo from March 2014, last spring.

When I think it would be great to buy and travel in an older RV like a Class A or Class C ... I think of this photo that took place about a week or two after I bought the Class C Coachmen in September 2013.

This was taken last September 2014. It looks about the same as today, only the field has not grown back as high yet.

Pulling weeds for sure tomorrow. Mid 70's, some sun and close to finishing the job.

Day: 0 hours
Total Hours Pulling Weeds:  16.5 hours

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