The 2015 Leaf Management Team

2015 Leaf Management Team

Over coffee this morning it was decided I needed some additional motivation to finish raking the yard. Since Winston and Heidi chose to sleep it off this afternoon, Stella and Sadie were 2/3 of the leaf management team. Winston opted out at the last minute and chose the couch instead of the yard for his afternoon nap.

The morning started with the usual recon of the perimeter, no bloodhound playing and a camera that is once again not working on a consistent basis. The Nikon D3200 has the same issues as before, so in less than a year I have had this urge to see just how far a Nikon D3200 can fly. After the 55-200mm lens started working, the flight was canceled.

Stella was in the back of the field near the woods locked into a deer scent. At the time I was not sure if she would come because of the way she was running around out of control with her nose to the ground. Surprisingly when I yelled "Stella", she looked up and started her slow decent back to the yard, although she was not happy about being interrupted and being told to get back to the yard.

As usual, Sadie met her at the edge of the yard and to escort her back to the safety of the backyard.

All of us went back inside. I needed that 2nd cup of coffee, they needed a morning treat and a short nap. It was before their lunch we decided to go back outside and check out the weather, check to see if the morning dew had evaporated and what the plan of attack would be to bring every leaf in the backyard to its final destination for 2015.

Yet, the more The 2015 Leaf Management Team thought about it, the less motivated they became and for a short period of time I actually thought I'd get the day off and they would move the leaf raking project to tomorrow. Afterall, when you are retired, you can do that.

They kept analyzing the situation, kept thinking about what to do. It was a beautiful day to finish the leaf raking project but I am always up for a day off so I was willing to do whatever they decided. My day was up to them.

Finally Sadie and Stella decided "lets do it".

We started a little before noon, temps at 76°, no wind and it wasn't soon after I picked up all the fallen tree limbs that Sadie and Stella took their places to observe and manage my work for the afternoon.

As you can see from the picture above, Stella turned it over to Sadie while she napped in the sunshine.  Sadie stood over her trying to get her to wake up but Stella never moved. They later moved in a place to monitor what I had finished and to report if there as any backflash of leaves blowing back into the raked area.

After an hour, Stella decided the pace was more than she could handle and dozed off again. I raked around her, touched her feet with my rake and she never moved. That sunshine must have felt good.

By 2:30pm, they both had enough of the management job. They didn't care if I raked all the leaves or left some behind. All they really wanted was to finish their nap and then go back inside for some ice cold filtered water.

Once the sleeping basset hounds heard the refrigerator door open, the were wide awake from their naps. They were probably a little disappointed that I was taking out water and not food, but water was good for them too.

We went back outside for a final inspection, put the rake away and make sure all the side fires were out along the bank. Heidi had plenty of flies to chase, their had to be 100's of them camped out on the ceiling this morning when we went outside.

  

Stella walked the edge of the yard and then picked her spot in the yard ... giving her final approval for the job I did.

While I was inside editing photos of the day, I heard the local pilot flying in the area but this time he sounded very close to my house. By the time I grabbed the camera and headed outside, he had already skimmed the property at tree top level and was flying off into the sunset.

I have just the side of the driveway to do. I'll bring out the leaf blower tomorrow and blow the leaves over the side of the bank. Then I'll get on the roof, turn the lever of the leaf blower to the vacuum option and suck all the leaves from the gutters. I have a couple of more days of sunshine before it rains on Friday.

All members of the 2015 Leaf Management Team announced, due to their fear of heights, they will not be joining me on the roof of the house tomorrow. They believe their job is finished for the fall of 2015.

It was another great day in "the tropics" of southern Indiana.

Front Yard Leaves Raked For Last Time

The hounds were not real active earlier today but Heidi decided to come outside on two separate occasions so the weather must have been pretty nice for that to happen. I guess staying up past midnight  or (1am time last week), to finish watching a great World Series game, made them tired this morning. They let me sleep this morning and did not wake me up at 6:30am to go out.



Sadie and Stella didn't have that some amount of energy they had this past weekend. No playing today.

Winston didn't have much motivation but did find a nice spot in the sun. About the time he was asleep Stella decided to walk over and on him, woke him up of coarse ... she steps on my feet all the time when she walks by. After that Winston was ready to head inside.

Like I said earlier it must have been nice weather because Heidi came outside twice and stayed outside while the other hounds did.

By 3pm today I was totally exhausted. Amazing how much of a workout raking leaves for a few hours can be once you are older. When it came time to burn the first pile of leaves, I couldn't find the box of "green" matches. They were not in the normal place inside a drawer. I checked the yard, outdoor chair, FJ bumper, side of the steps ... everywhere ... couldn't find them.

I drove down to the local hardware store and picked up another box of matches and started burning a couple of small piles of leaves. While raking the north side yard what do I find laying by the fence??? My box of matches from last week. They survived the heavy dew every day, a little rain but lit up the first time I struck them along the side of the box. So now I have enough matches, based on my past usage ... for about ten years.

Since I was working in the front yard and some time by the highway, I put all the hounds in their room with the door shut so they could hopefully sleep while I raked. I did hear that new bloodhound howl that is becoming more active as days go by ... Stella has a great howl. I'll try to post a recording of it on this blog in the next few days.

They all came out for the afternoon while I burned the big pile of leaves on the burn pile that included tree limbs and my 4' pile of weeds that I pulled a few months ago. Flames were about 15' high, it was my kind of fire. I was so tired that all I could do was sit in a chair drinking ice water, watching the fire with my water hose next to me in case the fire got out of hand and headed for the woods or the neighbors yard. Nothing spread.

The plan for tomorrow is to rake the back yard for the last time this fall. The bloodhounds will help manage the job of me raking since they don't wander off like the basset hounds do. So Heidi and Winston will stay inside and sleep tomorrow while Stella, Sadie and I rake ... I'll try to get some action shots of that happening.

For November 2nd it was pretty nice in the tropics today. Looking through photos from last November, there was a light snow on November 17 ... so we will see what happens this month.

Great Weather Today - Hounds Relaxed

After some cool temps yesterday, the Daylight Savings time gave us another hour of sleep. Does it really matter when you're retired? Not really but for some reason my body feels better on the time it has returned to.

The first rude awakening was starting the daily routine by letting the hounds outside while I make coffee. I was OUT of coffee ... pure panic. So it was a quick 25 mile roundtrip to the nearest store that had good coffee ... that happens to be a Super Walmart. I wasn't happy about making the trip but I knew I couldn't function without coffee.

Afterall, my last college game didn't start until 11pm local time last night so that put me in the 2:30am range before the Washington Huskies were finished destroying the Wildcats of Arizona. Well worth staying up for all of that game.

As usual the hounds slept through most of the college games yesterday, the World Series game and the late night college games. They changed locations a few times but they know by now if you leave your seat you will lose your seat. They can hold out longer than I can.

They didn't do much Saturday for their breaks of going outside. They stretched a little, sat and sniffed the air but they were more interested in going back inside to sleep.

Sunday when I got back from the run to buy coffee, the time change had kicked in and all four hounds were standing as close to me as they could, letting me know they wanted to eat. So ... until next spring it looks like their new dinner time will be noon every day and will change to 1pm next spring and summer.

Before their meal they needed to burn off some energy. Sadie and Stella played for a short time, Winston sniffed the area and even Heidi came outside but only to dump her tanks. Her skin has stabilized with a little improvement after 6 weeks with the probiotics supplement added to her food.

Shaking the the ears loose

Since I have held off on the Epsom Salt soaks to check for any improvement just by giving her the probiotics, she will get a Epsom 20 minute soak today.

Great weather today, temps in the 60's ... windows open ... and NFL football on the tv.