May 06, 2016

Hounds Supervise Some House Maintenance

When Sadie and Stella saw me pull the FJ out into the drive, they came sprinting from the field thinking we were going somewhere. We did but not until later. They have become addicted to riding in the FJ, the distance does not matter. 


Heidi went to the door a little early today wanting outside. She will do that when she has to relieve herself but today she just wanted to wander around the yard. Her rear hocks looked fairly good today, stomach was a little red and her neck was a mess. She got a bath later in the afternoon.


I needed to do two things for a little house maintenance before the next storms blow in, forecast says on Tuesday. While on the roof I wanted to inspect because of the hail storm we had last month. This roof is on it's last legs so to speak and has been through a lot of storms, wind, snow and ice. I also needed to clean out any leaves and sticks that was blocking the flow of water in the gutters.

Stella took her normal supervisory position. Since she was in charge, Sadie decided the field was all hers.



My roof isn't really high nor steep. You do have to pay attention though. I love the views from being on the roof. The hounds look a long was off from that rooftop angle.



I saw some hail damage to the shingles. Nothing major but more than I had last year at this time. The wind had tore a couple of pieces off in the last storm. I have a package of shingles left over from the repair in 2008 after the tree top feel on the corner of the house. I got to the point of replacing a sheet (3 shingles) but couldn't find my roofing nails.

So the hounds got their FJ ride for the day. Total mileage was two miles round trip. I grabbed just a small handful and knew they were priced by the pound. The scale showed an 1/8 of a pound. Here is when the fun started. It's one of those @$&%$^ moments.

The cashier didn't know how to enter 1/8 of a pound into the register. She was talking to herself that she knew how to enter a 1/4 pound (.25). So I suggested her to try .125 or .12 ... that got her mumbling even more. So I offered to go back and get more nails to make it a 1/4 pound so it would be easy for her. She didn't want me to do that.

She yelled at the manager asking for help. I was pretty sure that .12 would work. The manager and I were on the same page and it's what my receipt shows also. It does make you wonder though what's being taught in schools anymore ... or maybe math just came easy for me.

Once the house maintenance was finished and all the tools were put up ... the hounds needed a walk. They slept this morning so there was only one walk this afternoon.




When they took off I was preparing myself that they would be chasing something and would be out of sight by the time I made the turn around that first corner.


They both sprinted for Stella's corner and no doubt there were fresh deer scent by the way they acted. It was also a day where Stella was going to ignore any calls that had her name and would come running only when SHE was ready to.




I like the color of these next to photos hidden in 7 acres of green.








Even though it was warm outside but not really hot, Sadie still was in a hurry to get back inside the house. It was shaded and cool inside, just the perfect temperature for her afternoon siesta. All of them have been sleeping all afternoon.



I joke to friends that I only do one thing a day but today I did two ... repaired the shingles and cleared the leaves and sticks out of the gutter so they will work as designed. I clean them out every fall after all the leaves have fallen off the trees. It never fails they come from somewhere over the winter months.

I hope to wash the Mini Cooper tomorrow. I want to get it nice and shinny before it rains.

It was a good day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today. No ticks on either dog ... NexGard works very well.

What A Strange Trip

From the title of the this post you have come here expecting to read about a possible day trip the hounds and I took yesterday ... since we didn't blog. I wish that were the case but it's not.

My mind took off on it's own trip yesterday ... a very strange one, I was just along for the ride. It happens sometimes out of nowhere. There might be some readers here that understand what I'm saying. 

It was a wasted day actually and one that I will not say anymore about. I did catch this sunset though while sitting at my kitchen table last night.


This is the view I have when I am at the kitchen table either eating or on my laptop computer. This was taken just after snapping the sunshine setting in the window, a little after 8pm. I knew then that Friday would be a better day.


Although Sadie, Stella and I were having a snack of sliced baked turkey at 1:30am, we ended up having a great night of sleep and waking up about an hour earlier this morning than we usually do. Of course that meant the field would be wetter with morning dew and the lighting would be different for the daily morning photos.


It was just a couple of minutes past 7am but Sadie didn't hesitate in going out into the wet field, while Stella did her normal thought process on whether to or not. She decided to take the path of least resistance and walk into the field along the edge where grass/weeds were shorter.




They didn't stay out long and as the norm, they went back to sleep for an hour or so while I drank coffee and did my daily morning reading on the internet.

By 8:30am, I could tell the day was going to be a great one. I need to get up on the roof today to clear some of my gutter before the next storms on Tuesday. The tornado site I follow on Twitter tells me next Tuesday could be interesting in this part of the state.


I could tell by the way the hounds moved, they were not ready to start their day. They didn't beg to take the first walk of the day. They didn't play, didn't explore. Right after the last photo, they led me back to go inside, I didn't say a word. They have been sleeping every since.




Not sure what today will bring but I know I feel a lot better today. My coffee is gone and I want more. Heidi is still sleeping on the bed where the sunshine comes through the window on the east side of the house.

Speaking of Heidi ... as usual her skin looks great first thing in the morning. Her appetite is big enough to eat a bear. The ointment is applied multiple times per day. Late last night I started reading about different recipes for cooking her meals and getting away from kibble.

Some said it would take up to 3 months before I might see any improvement. Since she had a strong yeast odor last night I saw a website that talked about a specific diet for that ... it also used and had links to the Dinovite supplement we tried in 2014.

What makes me hesitate to break away from my latest plan that was started weeks ago ... it says it would take 16 weeks for the dog food to get out of her system and for the current Earthborn no grain kibble to show improvement. It would take maybe that long to see any improvement from the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Others said it would take 7-14 days.

Since I do see signs of improvement AT TIMES, I'll stick with that plan.

A reader linked this article to her comment the other day ... it was great explaining what we have been going through. It was nice to read that what I have been feeling in trying to find a solution for Heidi over the past 20 months is normal in this situation. It was also sad to read there might never be a solution.

In more than a few websites I read last night about yeast infections in dogs ... they said her skin getting worse before it got better was part of the process of getting rid of the infection. So I will stay with the no grain kibble, no potatoes, wounded warrior ointment and see how it plays out.

It's going to be a nice day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

May 04, 2016

Spoof Site - Tim Horton's Coffee - RVs

I'm not sure but early this morning, last night to me, I had three tabs open with my blog, facebook and twitter. I refreshed my blog website and my monitor fills up with a screen from my internet provider Exede!!

Strange ... too strange.

It was welcoming me to their internet service and had a button to click labeled 'activate service'. I've been using the service since June 2014 and practically live on the internet daily. My account was already active.

So I called the Exede customer service rep. I am not sure but I swear they work from home and the few times I've called them it sounds like I have woke them up in the middle of the night. Is that possible? They are really some of the best customer service people I have talked to.

She checked things out on her side of the desk and said all was fine. The url I gave her proved to be something that was not an Exede website. I noticed in my traffic reports this morning I had a huge number of visits from everybody's favorite country ... Russia.

It would seem they would keep focused buzzing US Navy ships instead of trying to break into a computer in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. So just to make sure I ran a deep scan on all my computer files with Bitfinder Anti-Virus and Malware scan. The computer was clean.

The hounds were nice enough to let me sleep until 7:55am this morning. I remember shutting down my computer around 3:20am so I had a good night of sleep. We woke up to the sound of rain. Rain that was forecasted to start this afternoon. It's good that I mowed the yard yesterday instead of waiting until this morning.


Of coarse that meant Stella would not go in the yard and decided to "hold it" until the rain stopped and she was awake. Heidi scrambled behind the Yews and Sadie tiptoed out into the yard.


To say the least it was a pretty slow morning but nothing outside the norm of our retirement. I am beginning to think my lifestyle is turning into that of the hounds ... I'm not sure I can keep up this pace.


Stella as usual, is not sure if she really wants to get that wet by going in the field. She decided she didn't have to poop that bad.




Sadie is a lot like Winston was ... nothing bothers her too much. A little rain, but she still gets in the field and will even stay out in the rain on occasion. She was anxious to get back inside the house when I turned to leave.


Stella loves it when it is sunny ... doesn't care for rainy days.





It was at least sunny after their lunch. Heidi made her only appearance of the day. Those red spots have been licked on and chewed on a lot the past two days. I am not sure why since she has only be eating dry kibble. I am almost to the point of fixing her the meat and veggies I buy for myself and taking her off dry dog food. At least that would be one more thing to check off the list of possible causes ... dry dog food additives.



Stella and Sadie came out for only a short time after their lunch but had no interest in going anywhere. With the sunshine out I thought maybe by the afternoon the grounds would be dry enough to take an afternoon walk.



Around 12:45pm the hounds woke up from their nap and rushed to the large window barking. A rare visitor was coming up the driveway. It was the mailman which meant only one thing ... my first bag of Tim Horton's Coffee had arrived.

By 12:55pm I was sipping my first hot cup of the infamous Canadian Coffee. I liked the taste of it and now wish I had a Tim Horton's Cafe and Bake Shop nearby. Having it shipped will have to do.


I didn't tell you what I did while enjoying those two cups of coffee ... For the first time in a very long time I went to Craig's List and other websites that had RVs for sale and looked at what was available. I know most of the crowd that visits my blog these days does not know about my obsession a few years back.

All those posts are from May 2015 on back, about 4 years worth of photos, back and forth thinking, and a lot of different options discussed.

Where I thought it was possible to travel with one bloodhound and two basset hounds last year, I am not sure it is possible with two bloodhounds and one basset hound this year. Both bloodhounds immediately jump out the back when the FJ door is open, plus they take up more room and I wouldn't have room to sleep in bad weather days if I were still tent camping.

The two times I let Stella outside and walked her close to the place we buy dog food, she was skittish, hyper, a little afraid of the traffic noise. That noise would have been no different than a gas stop or a stop at a Rest Area when traveling. She acted like she would bolt if she had the chance.

I am not getting rid of the Toyota FJ so there is not a lot of options as far as trailers. I've gone through all of those options in the past over and over so I will not bore you with the details.

There is just something about this time of year ... every year ... that I have thoughts of hitting the road. It was nice to look though different kinds of trailers and RVs with the same thoughts as I've always had.

Since it was still too wet to walk the field, Heidi refused but the Sadie and Stella were just as excited to go for a ride as they are to eat. So they jumped in the back of the FJ and I grabbed my camera. There was only one problem I found after getting a few miles from home. The camera battery was too low to take photos.

We still took a ride out to the country then finished by driving some streets in town I had never been on since living here so many years. I saw some pretty nice neighborhoods that I never knew existed.

After spending most of the day looking at RVs and Trailers, reading news and sports ... before I knew it the time was past 3:30pm and the hounds were restless. I decided unless water came over the top of my shoes ... we were going on a walk. The sky was beautiful and that morning forecast of thunderstorms by 3:15pm today looked like a totally missed prediction.



Whey they both took off this fast I was sure there must be deer up around that corner. I was already preparing myself for the long walk to find them.



When they both look like this it seems almost certain deer is in the area but today that wasn't the case. They searched, sniffed the air but came up empty today for any deer to chase.



Stella had just stepped into the wooded area when I yelled her name ... she came running. She has always been pretty good coming when called.






Their noses always keep my on my toes, not knowing if they have locked into something they are going to chase. If I were traveling with these two they would be on leashes at all times. For some reason I don't feel that is fair to them.



Well I am heading back to look at RV sites, and I may even visit some forums which I have not done in many many months. Maybe a short day trip is in our future.

The rain is gone and was beautiful here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.