The Hounds Were Lazy

From the start, all three hounds declared the afternoon was going to be more than just the normal slow pace. We started with weed eating as much of the drive as possible, along the north fence before the battery wore down. With clouds rolling in and rain looking probable, the car wash was cancelled.

Instead Heidi decided it was time to join us on a trip to the local Dairy Queen for a large Blizzard. We had to turn down the offer of a "pup cup" because that would be too much sugar and possibly affect her yeast infection ... by the way her skin looked all day today, we should have taken the ice cream when it was offered.

Stella moved her nap inside to outside. She put some serious thought into it and one photo catches her with her head up and her eyes closed. Can you see it?

Of course Sadie rarely lays down like that and always has to be on the move. With Stella sleeping and Sadie out in the field ... I moved inside to play with the blog template and change it ... I was bored, I needed something different and more tweaking may be involved.

It might be my eyes but the photos do look sharper to me in this template due to the dark background. Is it just me or can you see it also? Let me know if there is anything the new colors do that make it harder for you to read the blog. I am not sure if I like the color of the links on each sidebar.

It rained for less than a minute today ... huge drops of rain. Also another day of not finding any ticks on any of the hounds. Heidi has spent a lot of the afternoon rolling on the carpet, growling at herself ... and scratching.

I think I am feeling a quiet Saturday night here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Gnat Attack

We 'slept in' this morning. They woke me up at 5:45am and wanted to go out .. they did but breakfast was not to be served that early. I needed more sleep.

The temperatures are just right this time of year. Cool at night, mid 70's during the day and no humidity to mention. It's a period of time where it's nice living in 'the tropics'. All three hounds came outside around 8:30am but they didn't do much and didn't stay long. That is becoming the routine more and more recently.

It seems to coincide with finishing my morning coffee and internet reading that they wake up and want to have their morning walk. Today Heidi got off the couch on her own when I asked if she wanted to go. She didn't walk but did stay outside while we did.

It was nice while it lasted ... walks without gnats, bugs etc. It started a week or so ago but in two distinct spots along the walk, the gnats attack me. The type of attack where they swarm and get in your eyes and/or up your nose. No chance of escape. Takes a nice morning walk and makes it miserable.

That didn't stop Sadie and Stella though. They run or trot to their favorite spots. The field is growing but still has spots where it's think and doesn't come up to my knees. The majority of time it is taller than the bloodhounds, which puts it around 30" tall. It will be a couple of months before they cut it.

Sadie decided she was going to stay next to me most of the time. It's hard to take photos of her that way since I usually travel with the 55mm-200mm lens.

While Sadie stood and enjoyed the sounds of birds, plus a woodpecker in the woods .. the breeze ... Stella took off sprinting for her favorite corner remembering what she had found yesterday and wouldn't leave. Today was much of the same, except I never called her name.

Sadie and I had already made the final turn towards home when I glanced and saw Stella starting her sprint to us. She takes the short cut through the field now instead of following our path like she use to.

On two different occasions she was running full speed into the back of Sadie. Sadie yelped the first time it happened. Not really sure what that was all about.

I was somewhat alarmed when we got back and I saw Heidi this far down the driveway. She has never been close to the highway and she may have not been that far today ... but it's a warning to keep my eye on her. She will not be left alone again while we walk for this reason.

Even with her bath yesterday afternoon, her skin is inflamed this morning and if I didn't know any better her rear legs seem to be sore by the way she was walking. I know what all the articles say but it is still very very frustrating to see her skin look great when she wakes up and is red and raw a few hours later. The wounded warrior ointment is still being used.

The hounds are fast asleep so I am not sure they will be supervising my car wash this morning, nor the weed cutting. I'm beginning to think it's time to apply the weed killer. I am not going to pull them by hand this year and I hate seeing weeds growing in a driveway. That's just me.

It's a great start to a weekend in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

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.