Hounds Inactive

Not a lot going on today thus not a lot to blog about. Stella passed on the morning walk, turning around after this second photo and going back inside. Later she did take a walk after her lunch.

Heidi has not been doing anything but eating, sleeping, and moving between the large leather chair and the couch to sleep throughout the day and night.

I repaired my mower this morning, tightened one bolt on the frame, then watched it cranked over on the first pull. I mowed a few laps in front of the carport as a test for the repair with Gorilla Tape, plus the grass was needing mowed in that area.

After that ... Reds baseball game, leading me into the Final Four games tonight.

Cargo shorts and a t-shirt day today in 'the tropics of Southern Indiana.

It's Friday - Now What??

It was pitch black, completely quiet as I woke from one of the most strangest dreams I've had. Of course I could remember nothing about it as I lay there for the first few seconds. I did hear something familiar though ... that bloodhound whine just to the left side of my bed. Stella was standing next to it waking me up. How long had she been trying?

Then I heard another familiar sound ... her stomach gurgling. It was 4:13am.  :)

She returned from outside in about 5 minutes, walked in and went straight to her dog bed and went back to sleep. I was still awake but I wasn't going to get up that early and start blogging. I did that in December when I first moved my blog here on WordPress. Not today though.

Luckily the hounds let me sleep a little later than normal, just past 8:30am. The daily routine changed drastically and really, it already had at 4:13am. We took our morning walk before I made any coffee. I was active without my two cups of caffeine. That was strange.

You forget how nice things are until you don't have it, then it returns ... Warm Weather !!!

Since it rained all night, starting while I was watching the baseball game on tv, the path was pretty soft but it was not slick with mud and leaves under my boots. I could see how fast wild bushes and the grass is greening up. If the sun were to every get hot during the day, all of this would be growing much faster.

I wasn't sure what I had planed for the day but the only thing I could think of was some minor lawn mower repair. The mower old but runs great. There have been too many times of mowing wet grass, where I didn't clean it after I mowed. So here many years later I have a few small holes worn through the metal bucket. I might be buying a new mower but I want to try something I read last fall about repairing it.

An article from "Handyman" website, shows that I can sand around each of those holes, preferably to bare metal, then apply some Gorilla Tape. My choice whether to paint over it to match the color of the mower. That will be my one thing of the day to do. Then the first test to see if it works will be early next week after it stops raining.

It was good to feel that the 800mg of Ibuprofen I took right before I went to bed, sucked all of the muscle soreness out of me. I felt nothing this morning as I walked the path alone. I had let Stella go off on her own, thinking I would meet her somewhere on the way back home.

As I was on the last part of the walk home, you can barely see Stella just left of center.

No doubt she has found a fresh spot of deer scat.

She evidently was happy with the freedom I gave her this morning. She walked right over to our path when I called her name. She is only a stubborn bloodhound when she wants to be and hears me perfectly clear. She just chooses what she wants to hear.  :)

Shaking a little more of the ear cleaner out of her ears this morning. Yesterday was Hound Ears Cleaning Day. She has much cleaner ears than Heidi.

It was extremely quiet this morning has we walked. I knew it was a Friday but traffic noise from the highway sounded like a Sunday.

It looks like I missed one of my small raked piles of leaves and twigs the other day.

I haven't heard any ideas about what to do with this area along the back side of the house. Mulch, river rock or replant grass all the way up to the edge of the house? I have ground swell and I remember digging out that 'flowerbed' area about 5" deep before filling it with rock. The level was below the edge of the house.

Not only does she walk near the house when she finishes her walk but also as close as possible to the car .. every morning. As long as the rain is in the forecast for the next few days, washing the car will be on hold.

I love having the windows open again. Just barely above 50° but feels warmer. A hundred different birds are talking. Other than that it's quiet as I finish my second cup of coffee. There's that woodpecker again.

A month or so ago I read the latest book about Howard Schultz. After reading about who he was and what he was about I had a feeling that I could vote for that man if he were to run for President. Last night Fox News had a "Town Hall" with Howard Schultz. Of course I have no doubt that all attendees are screened as well as all the questions but once again after watching the show, I had a feeling I could vote for that man. I hope he chooses to run.

He has some good ideas on how to heal the country if elected. He has experience talking to world leaders as he expanded his Starbuck's business. His business was the first to give free health care to all employees, fulltime or partime. He can work with people from different backgrounds, have different colored skin, male or female.

As I sat there listening to him answer the questions fired at him, I kept wondering if it was even possible to have both sides of Congress work with him as President to finally get something done. I kind of leaned toward the word "no" ... I have no doubt the Democrats would be pissed even if he was elected because they didn't put their "chosen one" in office. I don't know who that is.

They will be very angry if he announces this summer that he is going to run. They feel that is handing another 4 years to Trump because Howard Schultz will NOT run as a Democrat. Like he said last night, "I didn't leave the demorcratic party, the party left me." He also thinks he can win those 8 states that determine who is president in every election.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out by November 2020.

In the mean time I will go back to watching my Cincinnat Reds, who are playing much better baseball this summer but still have a 1-5 reccored because they cannot score runs and cannot hit a baseball. Last year it was just the opposite they couldn't pitch but could hit. They started last year 1-13. It's a long season, the bats will warm up but it's never good digging yourself in a hole at the start of a season.

Of course they are ONLY YELLING a lot in Cincinnat with the poor record, a new manager with analytics but they are not JUMPING OFF BRIDGES like they are in Chicago because the Cubs are also 1-5, but they are suppose to win the World Series and not suffer through another bad season.

A perfect overcast day this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Burn Pile Is Gone

With great weather, little wind and rain in the forecast tonight, I knew this morning was the perfect time to burn the high stack of tree limbs collected over the past year. I did not burn them last fall like I usually do, so the stack was a little higher than normal but possibly dryer. I also add my one small waste basket of paper files or those padded mailing envelopes that you cannot recycle. First, I had to buy a 50' hose to add to the one I already have.

It looks like the deer traffic last night was pretty close to the house, which is normal. This print was about 5' in the field, as I started my walk.

I like having a water hose nearby when I burn for safety. This pile is surrounded by dead leaves along the bank, the woods behind it and to the side of it is part of the field. My last hose mysteriously had a hole in it, so that was the reason for the delay. I kept forgetting to buy the hose last fall.

Stella and I took off this morning with the air full of the sounds of birds. No jacket was needed, no gloves nor sock hat .... spring has arrived.

I am not sure why but for most of the walk, Stella walked right behind me, out of camera range.

Once I mentioned that I was going grocery shopping right after our walk, she picked up the pace and very little verbal herding was needed. Maybe she has figured out what the word groceries means and thinks there will be some food for her. She is always interested in food.

I was heading down the old path home but she wasn't going to take that way today. She followed the one we normal take and didn't even look over to see if I was coming or not. She was 'marching' for the yard.

When she glanced over to the left and didn't see me, she stopped and glanced along the horizon, then it dawned on her that I might be following her.

I had the hose and the rake out near the burn pile but I was really unprepared for this years burning. I had forgotten to bring the camera with me to take a before and after photo. By the time I walked in and back outside with the camera, the large pile of tree limbs was almost gone.

If I don't keep Stella on the tether while we are outside, she will wander off and end up next door. Yet the past two days that she has been on the tether while I have worked in the yard, she lays down and sleeps near the house. If I unhook her, she wanders off.  LOL

Heidi spent most of her time wandering around the yard, even up in the northern part checking out the trees. We were not outside longer than an hour though. In fact that tall pile of limbs was gone in less than 30 minutes.

I glanced over once at Stella and didn't see Heidi. I didn't see Heidi anywhere in the backyard nor the field. She was evidently inspecting the job I did yesterday, picking up every size of stem or limb out of the  front yard. You can tell up in the shaded area the grass is growing fast and will need to be mowed by next week.

As the pile gets smaller, I rake everything to the center.

I think you can tell by the pictures of the hounds just how nice the weather was this morning. I am glad that spring and warmer temps are here. The possibility of rain does not bother me.

Almost completely burned down and ready for another year of tree limb collection.

The first time I looked at the time after putting everything away like the hose, the rake, my ladder and after I cleaned up ... I was shocked that it was only 11:30am. It felt like mid-afternoon. Like I do every year at this time, I see that if I don't move into action right after Stella and I get back from our morning walk ... there is a chance things will not get done.

When I leave or start a job outside as soon as we return, I get a lot of 'to do' stuff done and most of the time I am finished with what I need to do for the day by noon. So I'll be posting my first blog post of the day, and mostly likely the only blog post of the day in the afternoon or early evening from now on.

I can tell that I am a little out of shape. With only twisting and bending over many times to pick up sticks in the yard yesterday, I woke up this morning with some sore lower back muscles and sore hamstrings. That's a good sign. By the time I mow the whole yard for the first time I should be in better shape.

After inspecting my roof this morning it looks like it made it through another midwestern winter with no issues. It's old and on its last years, so it's always good to see no wear and tear or any kind of buckling due to the ice or extreme changes in temperature. I am going to get every last dollar out of that roof before I replace it.

I am still trying to decide what to do along the back side of the house. I am pretty sure all of that river rock is coming out of there. I might replace it with the same cyprus mulch I have in front, then add potted plants along area. Before I do anything like that, I have to dig along the edge of the yard and rock, pull out my old drainage system and install a new one.

Too much flooding during heavy rains this winter tells me it's plugged up with mud. So I'll install a brand new drain. That's a lot of manual labor, a lot of shoveling. I can't say I am looking forward to that job.

Still, it's been another great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.