Productive Monday & Rain Tuesday

As you can tell by Stella napping in the yard on Monday afternoon it was a really productive day. I have a 5"x8" notebook in front of my keyboard where I write notes about everything from computer codes, troubleshooting notes, shopping lists, data stats ... basically everything but not every day. So for the first time on Sunday night I wrote down some things I wanted to get done on Monday. I was leaving the electric world of reminders on my iPhone for a good old fashion written list. With the help of Stella's and Sadie's supervision I got everything done on the list except one thing.

Last Sunday night I received an email from the company where I bought all the BMW OEM parts to repair the damage to the Z4 grille and plastic plates under the car, that not only had my order not been shipped on time but there was a delay in shipping from their vendor. I remained nice and calm and replied to the email as they requested for confirmation.

I would like to get this job finished so I can drive the car on the dry weather days but really no rush. What did bother me was when I placed the order, EVERY PART said on their website that the part was in stock and would ship immediately. As soon as I closed the website shopping cart and paid for everything, it gave me a shipping notice of going out their door in two days and would be at my door two days after that. It's now Wednesday when they were suppose to arrive LAST Friday and now will not ship until THIS Friday.

Amazon was the better purchase. They don't mess around and that little blue can sucking the oil out of my Z4 engine up through the dipstick tube, was at my doorstep two days after I placed the order. I have had a string of good purchases lately and the TopSlider Oil Extraction system is one of those three. I cannot believe I didn't find out about this sooner than I did.

Why do I continue to change my own oil when its fast and easy to have it done at the dealership or one of those QuickChange places. I have a history of those places screwing up even the simplest of jobs. At least this way I can assure myself the job is done right plus I am saving a ton of money. For two vehicles oil changes can be expensive over the year based on the current prices of labor at ~$65 per hour.

That extraction system cost me $54. It's a familiar tool to all that have motor boats. For the first time ever after and during the oil changing job I did not have a drip of oil anywhere. Shall I go through he process? To start you clamp that white clip down tight closing off any passage of air through the clear tubing. You pump that handle 30-40 times to build up pressure and then slide that clear tube down the dipstick tube until it hits bottom, wiggle and try for 3" deeper.

As soon as you release that white clip, oil is immediately being sucked out of your engine just like that. It took about 15 minutes to drain 6.5 quarts of oil. I put that small hose through the Z4 hood clamp running straight down into the blue can to clear out the hose for storage. You unscrew the pump, put the other lid on. You take off the hose with the smaller drain hose fitting it into the metal piece making it very easy to store. Then close off that opening with another lid that came with it.

Take the can of old oil to your local auto shop or recycling center and it's easy to dispose of, and again I didn't have a drip of oil anywhere to clean up. I'll admit though, I wasn't happy with the dark color of the used oil. That just told me the dealer I bought the car from did not change the oil before they put it on the lot to sell it.

While the oil was draining my curiosity got the best of me. I laid on that cool concrete floor to get a better look under the Z4 at the damage. With one air duct piece missing on the driver side, I was able to slide the damaged grille out that opening. Not only did it have silver paint over spray from the previous owner's repair but I found a piece of masking tape still on the grille.  Those small holes must be for venting because there is nothing inside the bumper to screw anything into, nor insert any kind of plug.

With the Z4 moved over into the large parking space, I was pretty sure the FJ would fit in the smaller space. You have to remember that in the summer of 1975 my great aunt and great uncle plus the Menonite house builders didn't plan to use this smaller space for parking. It's actually very nice as a porch but when you have 2-3 vehicles at one time, parking space is at a premium up here on the hill.

You'll notice I have just enough room to clear the passenger side mirror as well as the driver's side mirror. If needed I could have folded both mirror inward to give me more room. I should be able to squeeze the FJ into this space as the Z4 is being repaired.

Either my head is permanently crooked when I take photos or the lens is out of adjustment. I now see I forgot to straighten this one and my FJ looks like it is leaning to the right just like that pole next to it.

With all of this activity going on, Sadie was stymied. She didn't know what to do. Cars were being backed out then moved around and pulled back in different parking spots. At the same time the bloodhounds thought they were going to get to ride somewhere but we never left the driveway.

I can go look for one bloodhound but I can't let two of them get away from me. I knew from experience that Sadie would wander off into the field while I was working outside and a lot of times outside the range of my own eyes. So Stella was chosen to be tethered. She doesn't mind. She can walk all the way out to the edge of the field and then into the back yard.

By this point in time I had already been on the roof clearing my gutters full of leaves. It was going to rain today so I wanted to have clear gutters before that took place. I had put my ladder away and she had been outside long enough it was past her nap time. I could tell she was tired.

Sadie was checking me out to see what my next project would be and if she would be able to escape again. I had to yell for her three different times by now as she was nowhere near the house in the field ... in fact she was nowhere to be seen.

With the Z4 maintenance finished, the FJ moved, the gutters cleaned out, it was time to rake as many leaves as possible because the rains would start after midnight. Stella has to have her afternoon nap.

While I was raking the north side yard and bringing a 32gl trash can full of leaves to the burn pile one can at a time ... Sadie was out in the field giving me the final glance before her escape.

For temps in the mid-50's I had overdressed so the jacket hung on the fence while I raked. That lower part of the yard was solid leaves.

I then made a nice long row of leaves all the way down the house. It was a combination of leaves tossed over the sides of the gutter by me and all the leaves that had collected near the house by the strong winds. All I wanted to do at that time was clean up and burn that row of leaves. Then I thought I'l do the same thing on the other side of the yard where the leaves were caught by the taller grass in the field. Stella continued to sleep and Sadie is nowhere around.

I still felt pretty good so I decided I'd start raking the backyard from the north edge. You can see the section of yard I did rake before stopping. By this point I was exhausted. I had not eaten, the morning coffee was way out of my system ... and I had to go find Sadie. I yelled her name over and over .. no Sadie. As I turned to go get the FJ to drive out through the field to look for her, I see her running into he field from the woods directly behind the house about half way to the first turn we make on our walk. She had been down in the gully of the woods !!!

I was glad she came running. I didn't mind her being gone in that direction since its opposite of the highway. Yet, I was extremely tired. I really don't care about the number of steps I do each day but the Garmin vivoSmart watch does. It's a little annoying at times, telling me to move and vibrating on my wrist to let me know it wants me to look at the message being sent. By mid afternoon it is telling me I am having a lot more activity than my normal Tuesday.  (who cares) As I stumbled and staggered inside to the fridge for an ice cold 7up, it vibrated on my wrist again to let me know I had taken over 15,000 steps.

I didn't care about the steps at that time. I needed something cold to drink with some sugar in it to help my energy level and I decided I'd take some Ibuprofen before taking my shower instead of waiting ... I already knew I was going to be sore. Yet, I had done almost everything I had listed.

Even my Sacramento State ball cap got a good workout in 50° weather.

Being outside all afternoon is tough work if you are a bloodhound. When you miss your afternoon naps right after lunch inside ... that even makes that day harder, to the point Stella was exhausted last night by 6pm. In this position she not only sleeps but does yoga at the same time. Yes, her rear legs are pulled up straight all the way to her nose.

The 2nd of 3 good purchases I have made was my new $10 rake that has all it's teeth. It is one of those wide leaf rakes and I have found that when a rake has all of its teeth instead of 2/3 of them, raking leaves goes much faster.

I never have any luck with power tools. I am tired of running a 100' to 150' of extension cord to use my two different kind of leaf blowers and/or vacuums, depending on their setting. Those small 2-cycle gas engines are the devil too me. They might work a few times after I have wasted my money buying them but stop soon after never to start again.

When my small gas powered leaf blower wouldn't start yesterday I did what I have done in the past when it finally worked. I swore at it and threw it into the backyard while standing on my roof. That flight and hard landing usually makes it come to it's senses and start right up ... not yesterday. So I was on my hands and knees crawling along the gutter/roof line grabbing wet and dry leaves out of the gutter and dropping them over the side.

What has worked has been anything Black and Decker with a 20v battery or 32v battery. So why not spend some bucks on a smaller, lighter leaf blower that uses one of those 20v batteries because I have two more of the same batteries on the charger for my trimmers. The batteries would not only be interchangeable but the leaf blower it self would be light enough for me to take to the roof when I blow leaves out of the gutters.

So today I retired the gas powered leaf blower and the two larger electric cored powered leaf blowers and bought a new one powered by a 20v battery. It may have been raining here all day today but with my large overhangs I had a few dry leaves along the edge of the house so I could test out my new toy when I got home. I find out it also has enough power to blow wet leaves from the driveway.

The 3rd good purchase lately out of 3.

Did I mention rain?

For once the weather experts were right as well as the Weather Underground. Sometime during the night I heard the roof being pounded with rain. In my mind half awake, I could see a river of water flowing through those clean gutters from Monday afternoon's work. It was still raining when the hounds went outside for the first time. It continued to rain through two cups of coffee. It rained the 4 hours I was gone shopping for 'toy's plus a pizza at Mother Bear's, now located on the west side of Bloomington.  Great pizza btw.

It rained all the way home ... and when I walked into the house ... I caught Heidi barely awake in the same position I left her on the couch. Her eye is okay, that's just a normal basset hound eye when they are partially asleep or when they just wake up.

While driving home in the rain I kept flashing back to our trip in June 2015 to Colorado and Utah. Stella was not here yet, she arrived two months later. So on this week trip it was Sadie, Heidi and Winston. I figured at this point of the trip the traffic was light enough that the hounds could be fed a late lunch. They did not start having lunch at noon until Stella arrived.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos. I had all three tethered to the FJ while I set up the tent. Temps were in the 90's. Moab was packed full of people, 4x4's and ATVs. We were somewhere in-between Green River and Moab Utah and 35 square miles of total silence.

I had not even installed the full coverage fly over the tent and Winston had already crawled inside to sleep. All three hounds were great travelers on that trip, a little over 3,000 miles in 6 days.

What was the one thing I didn't get done on the list??  Since I didn't get my shipment of Z4 parts, I didn't have the tool to take off the oil filter cap. Those that I looked at in auto parts stores did not seem to look like they would fit nor work on the one the Z4 has. I wanted to play it safe and use the correct tool. After all the car isn't going anywhere until the new parts are installed.

Well the rains have finally stopped late this afternoon but it's too wet to walk and with all the activity the last two days I am thinking I need a nice siesta before my ballgame tonight on tv.

Retirement is a tough job in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana but someone has to do it.

Severe Weather Is Headed Our Way

As I sit here this morning the windows are open with it a degree below 70°. Strong winds are blowing from the southwest (normal direction) and I can hear wet pavement from the cars passing by on the highway. The traffic noise has never bothered me but it probably would for those of you that live away from a busy highway. For some reason there is an 'eerie' feel to today. Severe storms are forecasted for later today and tonight.

With those strong winds coming from behind the photographer I am hoping all of these leaves blow away from the house and out of the yard. It has happened in the past but not a lot. I can dream I guess. The naturalist say to let the leaves lay where they are, don't rake them. One friend tells me to mulch them with the mower. My neighbor vacuums the leaves from his yard, towing it with his riding mower.

I like to rake them. It's not that I like the time it takes to rake but my muscles tell me the next day I had a pretty good workout. Plus the yard looks clean after they are all raked. I am hoping this storm tonight will blow a lot of the leaves off the trees, maybe all of them.

Stella came with a warning in August 2015. The previous owner told me she "freaks out during storms". I saw nothing that severe the first few storms we experienced together. After reassuring her that things were okay when those storms took place, she eventually got over her fear of them. Now, she will sleep through storms unless I have something to eat ... then she thinks I've brought out the food for her.

I'm not a fan to the Daylight Savings time change. For many years Indiana did not change time. If I am not mistaken I think only Arizona and Hawaii have maintained their sanity and don't change time. It's slight I know and I use to love the fall change when working for that extra hour of sleep but it doesn't apply anymore being retired.

I can feel the change though. Luckily all the computers, my Garmin watch, the Directv DVR change the time automatically. Only my microwave in the kitchen keeps staring at me to correct it's clock. Both of my cars will be waiting for me to manually change their clocks the next time I get in.

Time change doesn't affect the hounds. They want to be fed the same times although the clocks show something different. Sadie wants to walk any time of day or night and this morning she took off like she was on a mission, not waiting for neither Stella or I.

Deer scent seemed strong this morning. Both hounds were pretty active during the first part of the walk. I was back to wearing my cargo shorts with a t-shirt. Only today I slipped on a light rain jacket in case the rain showed up a little early. There was nothing on the weather radar showing anything was close to us, hundreds of miles away and only spotty. Yet, I could hear rolls of thunder as we walked.

At the first corner both hounds stopped immediately and I was sure that Sadie was heading inside the woods and down over the steep hill. I didn't like why she stopped but glad she did. I reminded them of why we were out here ... to walk. They agreed and reluctantly moved on.

By moving on, I mean ... about 25' before they found another highly interesting spot.

Soon after that Sadie took off and was heading for the 'far right corner', Stella was dragging her paws behind me with every step she took. A sure sign she was pouting and not happy about not being able to lag behind.

When I heard another roll of thunder I decided to cut the walk short and made a left turn on the ATV path that parallels the back edge of the field. This is Stella's favorite path ... can't you tell by her excitement?

As Sadie and I continued on I didn't realize that Stella decided to make the walk even shorter. She was cutting across the field to meet us on the return path home. I was a little surprised to see some nice leaf color today.

Stella met Sadie and I on the path home. She was walking at a pace we normally see in her afternoon walks with two speeds ... slow and slower. That is, until a roll of thunder was louder than the other two I heard. She decided it was time to get back to the house and came trotting toward me and ran right around me.

I was going to give her the shortest route possible by taking the 'alternate' path but both hounds had other ideas. They decided to ignore where I was going and started heading for the neighbors side of the field.

I stood at the corner of the yard calling them. The winds were picking up, the skies seemed to be getting darker even with nothing scheduled until later today. I have no idea why but both hounds made a quick left turn toward me, got back on the path and came running into the yard.

They didn't stop running until they hit the backyard next to the old trees and the 70 year old wire fence stretched out between them. The wind was blowing in my face as I took this picture and again I am hoping a lot of these leaves disappear by tomorrow morning.

My small side yard on the north side of the house is the "leaf collector". It's easy to rake them up right there and transport them to the burn pile while making numerous trips with filled 32gl trash containers packed with leaves. One year I burned them right there after I raked them into a pile. A terrible decision and maybe one of my Top 10 Worst Decisions ever.

Actually I can clean up that side yard in less than 30 minutes.

I use to really like 'severe storms'. I still do in a way and with the experiences I've had in this old house up on a hill during high winds, I know what it can take ... it's quite a bit. That all changed though one afternoon in June 2008. It was a week after three different small tornadoes had touched down with a 15 miles radius. I was working at home then and as I spent time on my computer working I thought it was nothing more than a thunderstorm outside.

I was shocked to see the damage as my neighbor was pounding on the door to see if I was okay.

Yes, this is the same view from the carport step to the fields across the highway. That's a 125' Sycamore tree laying across the front yard.

The 80' Poplar tree was not 10' in front of the house. Luckily it fell parallel to the house taking out part of the fence on the north side.

With the loud explosion of the electric transformer box on the pole in the driveway, and Winston letting out a louder than normal howl, I found out later that lightning had struck the top of the Sycamore tree still standing today. The top 45' of that tree fell onto the corner of my house damaging the corner of the carport.

This is a different angle of the Poplar tree ... doesn't look like it had much of a root system.

Another picture of the Sycamore tree. That isn't Sadie checking things out but Bertha only a couple of months before I bought Sadie as a 12 week old puppy.

Another view of that same Sycamore tree blocking the driveway and tearing out 16' of fence.  You can barely see Winston in the lower right inspecting the damage. Notice the tree top leaning against the corner of the roof.

This shows obvious reason why I had the Directv Tech mount the dish to the house after he came to repair my system. With the 100' bank full of tall trees before the storm, the only location to get a southern reception for my tv satellite dish was to put it on a pole further down the front yard. As you can see, the dish is not properly aligned with the 'southern sky' after the storm.  LOL

When it finally occurred to me that afternoon it was more than a thunderstorm, I was trying to herd Bertha and Winston to the small bathroom because it was in the center of the house with no windows. About the time I picked up Winston in the living room ... the winds stopped immediately and I mean immediately ... just like that.

So since that time when I see severe winds, damaging winds with possible hail forecasted I admit I feel a little anxious. Yet later today the hounds and I will "button down the hatches", sliding the storm window screens up and sliding the windows down. That 70° weather will be gone, replaced by low 50's.

With the wider than normal overhangs, I like to keep the small screened window open in my computer room so I can stand and watch for any problems in the woods behind me plus listen to the sound. I'll probably have the local tv weather station on as long as we have power.

I have found that during these severe storms my satellite for tv and the internet is pretty good. It does not lose it's signal nearly as often as they did when they first come onto the market 20 years ago.

I'll take some photos after the storms, if they show up. Many times they will move south and north of us and we miss all the bad ones. I hope I'll not be taking photos like the ones I showed you from June 2008. Of course there are not many more trees left to do this type of damage since I did not replace them.

It's only 10:44am and Sadie is giving me her 'stare down' for lunch here 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.