The Weed Pulling Project Has Been Completed

That's A Lot of Weeds - Pile Over 3' Tall

Before I get started writing about the project today, I was up at 6:10am to let the dogs outside, while Heidi continued to sleep as usual ... that's way too early for her to get up by her rules. The sun was perfect for some picture taking so I went back inside to grab the camera. You know the one, the Nikon D3200 that I just had repaired a couple of months ago????

Well once again, I press the shutter button ... no auto focus. It tells me "lens is not attached". Okay, I can play that game, so I took that lens off and with my computer lint free cloth wiped the silver edge that connects or rubs against the back of the lens when it is connected and attached a different lens.

Same result ... "lens not attached".

Now I know I have claimed to be a night person, that I am not a fan of getting up early .... and not having any coffee in my system yet, I must admit I could feel my blood pressure rising at a rapid rate ... I had a split second visual of throwing that camera as far as I could ... which wouldn't be far with a bad shoulder for pitching. Add on the fact that I am not a fan of a camera that doesn't work again. Let's just say that I wasn't real happy at 6:15am, and leave it political correct.

I decided as I slowly twisted the lens off the camera, that first thing on Friday morning I would take the camera back in to Best Buy so they could send it to the Nikon service center for warranty work again. I had a feeling of calmness come over me with that thought. Just to make sure, I put the 18mm-55mm lens back on the camera and tried it one more time ....

It worked perfect and has continued to work perfect since then. Blood pressure immediately dropped.

Well after close to 20 hours of labor, spread over 5 days, the project of pulling weeds is over. The rain last night and during the morning before sunrise, worked out perfect for a final day of pulling weeds. Without that rain I am not sure I could have finished due to the right side of the driveway having a foundation of hard packed old driveway gravel. It would've been hard pulling weeds out of that hard packed soil.

Starting Point of Thursday

Finishing Point of Thursday

The difference today was getting some sleep last night. I was in bed before midnight and pulling my first weed of today at 9:30am. Email, sports news and a few blogs were read by then and topped off with two cups of coffee.

With the rains last night the highest temp today was 74° so I spent most of my day pulling weeds in temperatures below 70°. Even though it was easier pulling most of the time, I still wondered at times if this project was a lot like painting the Golden Gate Bridge ... by the time you finish it's time to start over ...

I had noticed walking around today on the drive there were new sprouts of grass, crabgrass etc. What I don't want is this to turn into is a daily thing ... but I have a slight obsession now. Even when the hounds were outside after I finished the driveway, I walked where I pulled weeds a few days ago and found new sprouts.

I have a Plan B for the future though. Twenty hours was okay, gave me something to do and it certainly looks much better than when I started last Friday ... but I'm not sure it is something I want to do on a regular basis. Mowing the yard close to every week is enough fun when it comes to yard work.

In the meantime the house next door that is for sale after 13 months of being on the market, had their yard crew of one person riding along the edge of their property on a ATV with their weed killer on the back and the spray nozzle in hand. She said my work looked great, she noticed the progress each day as she drove by ... but said ... "they will always come back, you need to spray".

So maybe tonight or tomorrow morning over coffee, I will be searching on Google for "chemical free weed killer". Feel free to leave comments if you have something that works.

The last part of the project was that section of gravel in back of the driveway, where I use to park my 1994 Chevy truck. I didn't think it would take long, it didn't. So I went inside and asked Heidi and Winston if they wanted to come outside ... they both ran for the door, while Sadie stayed outside as the Project Supervisor.

Before

After

I was happy to see Heidi laying the sun. Winston of course took only a minute to lay on the warm concrete and was snoring soon after. I have a feeling that warm concrete makes his old back feel good. He sleeps in the sun a lot out there and at times refuses to come inside if the sun is out.

Always On The Prowl

Legs Look Bad Today But At Least She Stayed Outside With Us

Nothing Bothers Him ... Nothing

The trash can that is from just from the driveway below. I had that completed a little after noon.

Thursday's Catch of The Day

With the next ten days of sunshine ... I think I'll only mow the backyard on Friday but before I do that, I can wait for the grass to dry from the morning dew by washing the Mini Cooper S.

I don't know the exact date for the renewal of my domain name, I'll have to check because I think it is in September. Reason being I am not sure I am going to renew the domain name this year. It's not the cost, it's the name. "rvs".

When I think of "RV", I only picture Class A or Class C's .. I do not picture travel trailers or 5th wheels. The largest number of searches are a result of people looking for information on the Lil Snoozy Trailer that I almost bought in September 2013. When I started this blog in October 2011 I thought at that time I was going to buy a Class A, then it moved to a Class C ... then starting last year in 2014 I lost the urge to buy either and wanted to buy a trailer.

So over time, I am not sure the domain name of "houndsandrvs dot com" is accurate for the direction of this blog. It is very likely I will just go back to the Blogspot name that I had when I signed up to blog on Blogger.

You might want to bookmark this site with www.bhounds.blogspot dot com. (don't use spaces, those are to keep the spiders away).

I will have time to think more about that change. IF I do decided to make that change I will remind all the readers 5-10 posts before the change is made.

Once again as it has proven most every late summer to early fall ... I become quite content at the house. The weather is great, one of the best times to live in Indiana. Yet by December and January I am wanting to get somewhere warm. We will see what happens but if I were to travel I don't believe I will be going anywhere until November.

I still don't know what to try to fix Heidi's skin problems. Today was one of her worst days. I have always noticed though when she wakes up for the first time of the day, her skin looks really good, nothing red, nothing raw. She gets a couple of handfuls of dog food, grain free, as her treat for the day.  In the morning she will go outside for a couple of minutes but only on the driveway gravel. By noon she is back to chewing again, no matter what cream, liquid zinc, K9 cream or just plain warm water is applied.

We will keep trying to keep her skin clean, keep applying K9 cream and wipe her with warm water after she comes back inside. Of course if the allergens are in the carpet, maybe her blankets, or the air ... then all bets are off on it being an outside environmental cause.

No matter what ... it's a beautiful day here in "the tropics".

Day Off From Pulling Weeds Today

Well it took longer than the weather forecast but the rain finally shows up a little after 8pm tonight. It was suppose to start last night at 1am and radar showed major storms to the west that looked as if we had no chance of missing them.

The two storms moved around us. By the time I hit the road this morning around 10am headed to Bloomington, it was blue skies and sun, with thunderstorms predicted at 2:30pm.

Those thunderstorms didn't happen, those storms on radar moved around us again.

Since I had another sleepless night I decided I'd take my first siesta in a while after putting the groceries away and feeding the hounds. Besides, I had declared the day off from pulling weeds.

Based on the fact the weeds that are left are in compacted, hard gravel mixed with dirt instead of just rooted in dirt ... that was my excuse to wait for the rains. Hoping the rains would soften the ground a little bit. Plus I needed to restock my groceries and use Heidi's $3 off coupon for her new Earthborn grain free food.

I had a surprise when I handed the cashier the coupon ... she handed me another coupon to be filled out and used immediately so I had $6 off on a 5-star rated food. In the meantime Earthborn has already emailed me a $3 off coupon for September.

Since Heidi is the only hound eating this food, she has quite a bit food left of her 28 pound bag. I will continue to buy a bag per month and stock up. I am really happy with the improvement of her coat. Still, about the time I am starting to see some improvement on her skin rashes either from the change in food or the K9 cream I've been applying, I check and she has chewed skin back to red and raw just a few minutes ago.

I'm at a loss for ideas on this. I am seriously considering an offer from a person that commented a few posts ago and take her to a vet a couple of hours away in Illinois where the vet's specialty is dermatology. She works for this vet and has witnessed some pretty amazing results the time she has worked there.

I am still positive it's an environmental allergy and not food related.

Anyway after buying her dog food, I drove down the block to Lucky's Market. It's fairly new in town, has very few stores across the USA but has great prices on fruit and produce with sales on Wednesdays plus additional ones on Friday. A lot selection of organic that is priced reasonable.

While weeding the other day I was thinking about going back to a basic phone from my iPhone 5S. Not sure why but I was serious enough about it to call Verizon and talk to them about my options. I felt I could use a basic phone for calls and emergencies on the road while using the iPad Mini for my data for weather, maps, campground searches ... things I do on the iPhone.

Of course I found out from my trip in June, Wifi spots are few and far between where I was. So I would need to buy a data package from Verizon. After looking at the different packages and the $35 package for a basic phone. After adding the costs I would need to use the basic phone/iPad Mini combo, it would be more expensive than what I have now.

Then I thought of everything I use the phone for when I am away from my home computer. What about all the photos taken when not traveling with my Nikon? All good features and well worth the single line package I have from Verizon.

As you see I am grasping for things to write about tonight, so I am going to close for the day and leave you with a few photos from the past or from my file that may not have been blogged before.

For starters when I starting thinking I am getting tired of hot weather ... weather that I like, I think of this photo from March 2014, last spring.

When I think it would be great to buy and travel in an older RV like a Class A or Class C ... I think of this photo that took place about a week or two after I bought the Class C Coachmen in September 2013.

This was taken last September 2014. It looks about the same as today, only the field has not grown back as high yet.

Pulling weeds for sure tomorrow. Mid 70's, some sun and close to finishing the job.

Day: 0 hours
Total Hours Pulling Weeds:  16.5 hours

A Late Start But A Productive Day Pulling Weeds

I almost talked myself out of any kind of weed pulling today. I couldn't sleep last night so all that means is after I let the hounds out around 6:30am every morning, they come back inside and I go back to sleep. Consequently the idea of getting started on outside work early in the morning has very little chance.

I've always been a night person .. never a morning person.

About the time I had talked myself into taking a day off and giving my back and hamstrings an additional day to recuperate ... I was outside, ball cap on, gloves on and grabbing the 32gl trash can. Starting the stopwatch on the iPhone it said it was already past 3pm. How much can you really get done at that time of day?

I decided I'd pull weeds for an hour and see how I felt and how much progress I had made.

It moved fairly fast. The only hazard today was working along parts that were pretty steep and with the years of gravel packed ground, the ground wasn't the softest for pulling them out easy. After an hour and seven minutes for my first water break I could see myself possibly finishing the left side like I had planned.

Last Week

Today's Starting Point

Today's Stopping Point

It was hot, a little muggy, and I was tired, so I stopped with just a little more to do on the left side. How can pulling weeds be that much of a work out? It's bad enough that I am even blogging about it, let alone having this project show me how bad of shape I'm in.

So I filled a couple of trash cans. A lot of these weeds were a lot wider than the ones pulled the previous 4 days. I put in a little over 3 hours.

Two Packed Down Cans Full

Looking at rain tomorrow starting sometime around 1am and continuing all day. Most of the percentages show a 50% to 60% chance of rain. So I might get my "day off", and with a good amount of rain the ground should be good and soft for pulling weeds during the final part on the right side of the driveway.

Time Today:   3:05
Total Time: ~16:35

The Pulling of Weeds Continues on Day 4

Outside Is Not An Option When There's Lightning

For those late to joining this weird topic party ... I have NOT been pulling weeds 8 hours per day for 4 straight days. A few hours here and there but today was the longest with 5 hours in the afternoon. The only reason I went that long was because I wanted to the get top of the drive finished. It was also the hardest weeds to pull because they were shorter and a lot of short small grass type sprouts buried in between the smashed gravel.

It wasn't long after I started that the upper half of my left index finger started bothering me. I'm left handed and that index finger is the major player for pulling weeds. I do some right handed but not the majority of time. It started out pretty fast with the taller crabgrass and spaced out roots. I could see that would not last long.

Rain was predicted for 3 straight days but in Indiana weather can change in an instant. Before I came outside the radar showed there wasn't any storms west of me. I was actually hoping for some rain to cool the temps a little bit, plus make the ground a little softer for easier pulling.

It was a little over an hour later I am on my hands and knees pulling the grass type sprouts between driveway grade gravel, I hear large amounts of thunder south of me. Winds are picking up and after that first lightning strike I decided it was time for a short break ... inside.

Wind From The South

Looking Northeast

The weather radar showed it wouldn't last long so it was a chance for me to drink some ice cold water, sit down and relax. I was not really hot today, around 82° ... but after I stepped outside after the rain that blew through the temps had dropped about 10° and cool air made the weed pulling a lot nicer. It actually felt a little cold and at times there were large cold raindrops coming down through the trees.

It rained lightly off and on for the rest of the afternoon, with the sun coming out that last hour of work.

Today's Starting Point

Today's Finish

More Hours Less Amount - A Lot Of Small Grass Sprouts

I hope to get an early start tomorrow and move down along the fence to the bottom of the drive. Since those weeds are big and taller in loose gravel, it should be a pretty easy job. Hopefully I can finish that left side fairly quickly so I can start up the right side of the drive ... the final piece of the job.

Plan For Tomorrow - Down The Left Side

It's amazing how tired and sore you feel after doing nothing more than pulling weeds on your hands and knees. I was starting to think today that renting a goat might be the better option in the future.

Pulling weeds gives you a lot of time to think of different things and my brain was on overdrive again today. The end result was nothing exciting and somewhat disappointing.

Yet, I no longer have major dental pain, I'm still losing weight into the 4th month of my modified Paleo diet and all the hounds seemed to be pretty happy with their daily routines.

Another nice sunset in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.