It Was Wet But We Walked Anyway

When we went outside I didn't feel any rain although cars passing the house had their wipers on. I didn't think it would be anything more than a little time outside for them to snoop around the backyard and for me to take some photos.

It looked bad toward the west but the radar showed most of the rain was south of us and it had been looking that way most of the day anyway. After a couple of minutes I told Sadie and Stella "lets go" and headed out. My shoes and socks are in the drier (huge embarrassment) dryer as I type this ...

I decided for this afternoons photos I wouldn't do any kind of editing at all. I glanced through all of them but didn't crop, sharpen or enhance with more color ... I went with what the camera caught.

This is NE as we walk toward the first corner. I won't know how to walk once they cut this field in a couple of months. I'm thinking the hounds probably like moving through the tall grass more than they do a field that is cut at ground level.

I let Stella go today ... her pace ... whatever she wanted to do.

By they way there were both acting I was sure we would see one of those large birds (turkey's??) take off from ground level and gain altitude, even some small birds that might be nesting on the ground ... but there was nothing but a lot of scents for them.

I don't recall ever seeing the gully so overgrown and green as this year.

Stella was all over the place today going from one scent to another. Plus she didn't want Sadie to find something if it didn't include her.

I caught Sadie chowing down on something as fast as she could and before Stella came over to meet her. I am not sure what it was because I turned my head so I would not have to see it ... it must have been good as she is licking her lips as she ran to catch up to me.

Stella was back in her favorite spot today and stayed there even after Sadie and I had made the turn to go home. I called her name a few times and she would look up at me, then keep looking around. Finally she decided she might want to catch up with us.

It did not rain, didn't drizzle but my feet/shoes were soaked and so were their stomachs and ears ... still it was a great afternoon walk.

I just checked Heidi's skin a few minutes before posting this and also rubbed on more water vinegar mixture. It does look better today, less red and more skin has started to dry out and start to flake off when she itches. I will not skip a day again that's for sure. It makes a big difference to keep rubbing the mixture on her a few times per day.

The call from the Toyota salesman last Monday kind of got me thinking of trading the Mini Cooper again. Even though for the past couple of years I've lost the urge to buy anything different. I looked through different dealerships locally and on cars.com but didn't find anything I really wanted.

My friend has a very nice 2003 Z4, 6-speed manual on his car lot this week. It has low miles and a good price. I doubt it will last long but it was tempting to call him to hold it for me and then trade in the Mini Cooper and go back to a Z4 ... they are fun to drive.

By last night I had not found anything on my internet searches that I wanted to trade for. Even with my short trip to town this morning to buy dog food, I felt like keeping what I had. It drives great and is fast when I want it to be. The feed store is a place the local old farmers hang out, especially on bad weather days ... putting that 40# of dog food in my Mini Cooper trunk was their humor for the day. It looks pretty small parked among all of their pickup trucks.

The bloodhounds are snoring so it's all good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi's Spends Time Outside - A Good Sign

So much for that forecast of 6 days of sunshine. I am not sure this field pictured on the left is ever going to get plowed and planted.

About the time it's dry enough to get the equipment in there, it rains. As you can see from the sky this morning, rain is on the way today plus we'll have more on Saturday.

Yesterday afternoon after my post things turned out to be interesting. Heidi did the unexpected and I really don't have an answer for it. Actually two things happened. First of all she went to the door wanting outside in in the middle of the day, not her usual time. She then spent over an hour outside by herself and I can't remember the last time she did that. Her and Winston use to do that on occasion.

She spent a lot of time enjoying the late afternoon sun while sitting on the driveway. The photo I took from inside the house of her laying down did not come out well, too blurry.

I didn't want to disturb her by taking photos because I knew she would get up and go back to the house if I went outside ... but she then went to the backyard and sat in the sun for quite a while. Later moving to the shade.

I kept the bloodhounds inside during that time so there was no chance for her to feel that she had to get up and move. She stayed outside over a hour and a half.

The second thing that happened wasn't a good sign. After her skin was really looking much better Thursday morning, it became bright red on her stomach, legs and paws. The hair that was trying to grow back had disappeared taken over by inflamed red spots. There was only one thing I did different that could have caused that.

I gave her the skin of my baked salmon as a treat. I didn't find anywhere in my other blog or spreadsheet that salmon had caused this type of reaction before. At the time of this writing, her skin is still red, irritate.

With the skies overcast and it being the end of another hectic week for the hounds ... Sadie and Stella are not showing much motivation today and even their walks are slow. I'm not sure what will happen today for us, except I'll be buying a new bag of dog food for Sadie and Stella.

I want the sunshine to come back ... I'm tired of rain.

It's Friday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Goes Outside On Her Own

I know today's blog post title doesn't look like it means much but it's been a rare time these past 20 months, that Heidi jumps down from her chair and runs to the door when asked "do you want to go for a walk?"

The few times she has done that I have always taken that as a sign she is feeling either good or better, during her skin issues. Today was one of those days and a little unexpected. Of course she did not chose to go on the walk with us but wanted to wander around the yard while the bloodhounds and I took off for an early afternoon walk.

She has picked out one of the best parts of the yard today, waiting for our return. That previous photo caught her doing what she does a lot of ... scratching. She's been doing that for so many months I am not sure if it's a habit or something actually itches. Looking where she itches, there is zero skin irritation.

As we walked into the yard from our walk, Sadie and Stella must have forgot that Heidi was outside because they immediately went running toward her to see if someone was in 'their' yard. Although there are no loose dogs running in the neighborhood, they have to make sure their yard had not been invaded.

After they verified her ID, she was okay to them, they were more interested in getting back inside for their afternoon siesta that they take after every walk they go on.

I did something different today when applying the water/vinegar mix. I started last week with cotton balls, then went to a spray bottle and dabbing with a washcloth to keep it from running. Today I soaked the wash cloth with the mixture, squeezed out some of the mixture but still damp enough to spread the mixture on her.

I liked that way the best. It seemed to cover her skin better and she rolled on her back to have it done instead of trying to escape the spray bottle application.

I've decide to not expect any drastic changes to her skin until next fall. It might take that many months to kill the yeast infection or whatever has been tearing her skin up. Also we are moving into allergy season which may be a factor. As long as her skin does not get worse and I continue to see healing I'll be happy with that.

It's been a long time fighting this skin issue after having very little if any improvement at all. Today there is no redness yet a lot of "elephant skin" along her neck and each side of her face but it looks like it's healing. Her feet and legs are not red with no inflammation. All of her skin is soft.

Sadie and Stella were bothering me non-stop to go for a walk. It's been a beautiful day so I decided to take them out mid-afternoon instead of waiting until later. It was perfect weather ... slight breeze, sunny but not hot and for some reason no gnats!!

Here is Sadie giving me her stare to see if we really are going on a walk. Stella had already taken off on the path to get the walk started.

It's a little boring at times writing about the same thing every day but to them every walk is different. I change back and forth on the photos with a 55-200mm zoom and sometimes I walk with the 18-50mm lens. They don't seem to care either way.

Again today I decided I was going to call Stella to follow us instead of letting her roam in the right corner of the field. I didn't want to leave her behind or let her go at her pace I guess. She turned my direction every time I called her and she was still able to go at her pace as she explored.

It's hard to tell Sadie and Stella apart, but this is Sadie in between two photos of Stella.

The recent rains helped this grow in the middle of our path. I have no idea what the name of it is.

Stella wasn't into much running today ... she was just happy to trot along enjoying the walk and the sunshine.

Her is a second look at the new bird nest. I wonder where they found the moss type of building material?

It's really hard to believe this week is almost over. Time moves so fast when you are retired. It is also different this year in that I don't have a list of 13-15 things "to do" on the house like I did last spring. I still have some ideas for some future blogging but have not had the urge to start that yet.

As far as driving around the local area for photos ... the past two times, Heidi has acted like she was car sick and the bloodhounds did their share of whining before laying down in the back ... maybe the excitement of riding is over for them.

I received an email this morning telling me that I had posted "Hounds Demand a Walk" .... the problem is the time between I actually posted and received this email was almost 24 hours difference. Google's feed burner program is a little off.

The ticks have seemed to disappeared recently since I have not be pulling off the same high number of them from me after a walk through the field. I only had two of them on me today whereas last month I was finding 4-5 per walk on me.

I might post again later today, not sure. The hounds are sleeping but I have a feeling they will want an early evening walk later today. I think this place needs a couple of chairs, maybe a small table to hold a book and/or beverage.

The weather is fantastic today her in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Bloodhounds Demand A Walk

With most of the day overcast, the hounds slept until lunch. If I forget what time it is, all three hounds are going to let me know it's time to eat. While Heidi was outside she had a fresh application of the water vinegar. She was looking a lot better than this but I missed a day and that proved to be costly in the improvement department.

Heidi wasn't going to go on the walk but Sadie, Stella and I gave it a shot. About ten feet into the field water came up over the edges of my shoes. That is how saturated the field was with the recent rains. The thing is, if it is that wet "down here", it will be worse the further we get from the house, even walking uphill.

Stella couldn't believe her ears when she heard me say "come on" as I walked back toward the house. Sadie was giving me her look of "you have to be kidding me".

We needed more time, more sunshine but that didn't mean the hounds were happy. Throughout the afternoon while I read or played Mahjong, they wanted to go outside. Once they got outside, they would stand and stare at me so I knew for sure they were only wanting to go for a walk and nothing else. We spent the afternoon doing that more times than I wanted to count.

Finally a little after 5pm I could feel it was warmer, the sun was out and the propped up thermometer in the carport corner said it was close to 70° ... that translates to the real temp of 65°.

Sadie and Stella were thrilled with the decision and took off trotting way ahead of me.

When I saw two pairs of ears flapping in the wind I thought they had found something to chase. Sadie got deep into the edge of the gully to check out the latest deer scent. Stella almost took off for the corner but turned around and came running when I called her name. I didn't feel like going her pace today since the gnats were out in force.

They both explored the edge of the field before we made the final turn for home.

It was Sadie today who wanted to get some running in. Stella never ran and basically took her slow time coming back. Was she protesting for not getting her way?

I gave the bloodhounds NexGard on April 24 for the first time after the amount of ticks was just out of control. Since that time I have not pulled off more than 2 or 3 ticks total. The stuff does work but I am never too keen giving my hounds chemicals to prevent that. I've been reading and have some websites that have natural meds to prevent fleas and ticks. I plan to change to that after the 24th of May if the ticks attack the hounds again.

The camera continues to work so I am not sure what happened for it to change it's mind. I do realize it will not autofocus if there is not enough light or the camera cannot tell enough difference in contrast between the hounds and the field. I've given up on my sharpness research since I had enough blog readers tell me the photos look fine. It has to be my eyes.

My MLB team, the Reds told me and all their other fans they were going to start rebuilding their team this year with a three year plan. I've seen better played baseball in high school. The last time I checked a few years ago the MLB Minimum wage was $450,000 per season ... I might be old but with a little work to get in shape I think I can still throw the ball over the plate.

Let just say my nightly viewing of the Reds has decreased at a rapid rate, where the interest has moved to watching movies if I have the tv turned on at all.

I almost forgot ... I did find a place that let me air my tires for free. One of the local garages that has done some maintenance work for me in the past let me use their air hose. I think I might take Bethers suggestion of buying a small tire pump to use here at home to keep the tires inflated at the correct psi.

The hounds are happy and sleeping again, I am happy because it's warmer ... things are great in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.