'K' Let Me

If you don't already know, I love Australian Shepherds.  Our Buster crossed the Rainbow Bridge 3 years ago.  Not real sure about the time frame.  Ever since I always stop when I see one.  We were looking for another when we finally decided if we weren't able to travel like we wanted to we would get another dog.  So we started searching shelters and rescues.  We stuck out a number of times.  But we found Snickers and have been set since.  

During that time I subscribed to an email 'Adopt a Pet.'  You could put in what you were looking for and they would send you an email notice with any that became available, whether a shelter or a rehome.  Passed on several when I just couldn't pull the trigger since we now had Snickers.  That is until Saturday evening.  A mini-Aussie female became available from someone that was too busy to care for her.  I applied and we heard back Sunday and went to meet them to see if it was a good fit that afternoon.  So meet Abby:

The proper breed is an American Shepherd.  They started calling them that instead of a mini Australian Shepherd.  I think there was some controversy about what constituted an Australian Shepherd and a mini Aussie.  Doesn't really matter to me.  She is a tiny thing, 11.5 lbs at her last vet visit in January.  She is a lot of fur.  She is pretty quiet so far.  It's been hard on her being with people she doesn't know in a completely strange place.  She pretty much shut down.  She has gotten a little better.  Looks to me for comfort and will come to me occasionally when I call her.  Finally has started eating and drinking after 36 hours or so.  She prefers to go in Snickers crate, which is fine.  We will be patient and let her come to us.  This will take a long time according to experts, 4-6 months to see her true personality.  I've got time.  We won't change her name since she is 3 years old and knows her name.  

Snickers is being very patient but is curious but gives her her space.  

Speaking of Snickers, we had a little guy come out to visit him while we were walking the other day.  

Just a friendly puppy, but they could be brothers.  I wanted to take him home lol.

More in a day or two.  

Happy Trails

Uvalde, Memorial Day and Rain Finally

I may not post next week.  I 'usually' post on Monday but we will be having all the kids over for hot dogs and games.  They are all off and that will allow everyone to attend.  A post later next week is always a possibility, but I have gotten very lazy over the last few years with posting regular.  So who knows.

I don't want to ignore what has happened in Uvalde.  I knew quite a few people there back in the day.  Most all were work related friends and acquaintances.  Most all very good small town folks.  I hate what happened there with the senseless loss of life.  I won't bore you with my thoughts, there are enough people doing that all over the world.  The only thing I will say is that those that use this tragedy to advance a political agenda are reprehensible.  If you look a little you will find enough stupidity with all the other opinions.  I won't add to that.  

Harvested the first 1/2 dozen tomatoes from the garden this past week.  Also some loss due to an animal getting there and ruining a few tomatoes.  They don't even eat them except and attempt on one and others on broken limbs just lying on the ground.  I will try a couple other pieces of chicken wire, but I think these may be squirrels and I doubt that will deter them.  

We finally got a little rain.  0.9 of an inch.  Was much needed and perked everything up quickly but we need much much more.  I was able to skip my watering day.  The deer have returned to the yard.  Not as much as before.  We have water out for them and I saw them use it.  I was also able to feed them some carrots.  A few took them right from my hand.  But when one gets close enough, they dominate the carrots and keep the others away lol.  

I am very mindful of the upcoming Memorial Day.  Those that have given their lives for our liberty should warrant our thoughts and thanks and not just a hot dog cook out or mattress sale.  Take a moment, say a prayer of thanks for their sacrifice and that of their families.  

Happy Trails

Set Back?

The eye check up didn't go very well.  It appears there is possibly something off kilter with one of my eyes.  While testing my vision for a new prescription they determined I am seeing worse than the previous test a month ago.  So they did some more testing and scanning.  They couldn't really detect anything wrong with the lens placement nor any inflammation, swelling or infection.  The lens did not appear to have been moved from me rubbing my eyes.  So the surgeon will take another look at another appointment.  The follow ups have been with the optometrists.  It may well be when I go back everything is fine and nothing will be needed.  Other options would be to tweak it with laser or even replace the lens.  They tell me it just doesn't meet their high standards and they want to get to the bottom of it.  It could be just the eye was too dry or I was dehydrated which happens pretty often with me being diabetic.  I trust this surgeon, I have been going to him twice a year for 15 years.  

We are set to break another record for heat here today.  Five days in a row.  Along with the drought and the harsh winter my grass in the yard has suffered badly and it shows.  Now with water restrictions and record heat I will probably lose some.  I have several bare patches already.  Today is my water day and I will be trying to get everything watered during my allotted time frame, 7AM to 11AM and 7PM to 11 PM.  It won't all get watered unfortunately and I am looking at a $200+ water bill this month.  That won't fly for the rest of the Summer.  One month maybe, but being that high all Summer?  The grass will just have to die or go dormant.  Most will die.  I have a lot of native grass that will come back thankfully.  I will keep the garden alive regardless.

Time to go set up my sprinklers.

Happy Trails

Another Hot One

This past weekend we broke some heat records for this time of year.  Triple digits are pretty rare here in May.  But we have done it several times now.  The mornings have included high humidity, we have had in the 80%, but it will get down into the 20% when the heat is on.  May is usually a pretty humid month and so is June.  The low humidity is a blessing with the higher temps.  Maybe my garden won't have as many ill effects due to the higher temps.  More heat is predicted for this week.

I am up to 33 straight days of doing my walking early in the mornings.  That doesn't count Sundays when I don't walk.  I hope to break last years number of I think is 82 days, I'll have to look it up.  I get earlier each passing week trying to be the heat.  It's not a lot but at least it's something.  I will be trying a longer route in the coming week.  But it will require me to use a street that has more vehicles heading to work.  And they don't always drive safely.  We don't have shoulders to move onto just the rough uneven ground.  Maybe I could increase my pace instead.  

Not much else going on around here as usual.  Head in to let the eye doc take another look at my post surgery eyes and get a prescription for readers.  I am getting more used to the changes cataract surgery has brought.  Things are still a little strange at times but it's getting better.  Time will tell.

Question to ponder.  If we didn't have social media or even the internet and a corrupt media, would things seem as bad as they do now?  As a perspective compare that to the great depression and WW2 era.

Happy Trails

The Heat Is On

I hope all the Mothers out there had a great Mothers Day yesterday.  Y'all deserve it for sure, and more.  I know that I am blessed to still have my Mother, and then there is my amazing bride 'K' that deserves more than I can give her.  We had a very quiet Mothers Day.  'K' came down with a clod Saturday evening and I started feeling it Sunday morning.  So we stayed in from church and watched their broadcast on You Tube.  We let the kids know not to come over as planned as to avoid catching anything.  By Sunday evening we were mostly back to normal and this morning just a minor scratchy throat.  I made enchiladas and all the trimmings 'K' wanted anyway and she seemed to enjoy them. 

It was very hot here the last two days.  102 Saturday and 101 Sunday.  Both days started out very humid and turned drier by the peak thankfully.  We hid inside most of that time.  I watered the garden a little heavier and all the new plants.  I fear the early heat will set my tomato plants back.  When it gets too hot, they quit setting fruit.  I haven't had to deal with it this early before.  In June yes but early May?  I was already disappointed with the current production.  Very few green tomatoes and few new blooms.  I have been very diligent with pruning the suckers and feeding regularly.  I had hoped for good things this year.  The tons of foliage even stoked those hopes.  I used things I learned from utube to increase my yield and things aren't looking good for the expected yield.  Head scratching for sure.  More research is in order.  We are in for 97 today, better but still too hot this early.

Happy Trails

Just More Honey Do's

This week looks to be more Honey Do's like the last couple.  That's fine with me, keeps me busy and somewhat out of trouble with the management.  More yard work picking up the unusual number of oak leaves from this Spring's shedding.  WE have paid our youngest grandson to help in the past.  He wants no part of it this year.  Can't really blame him.  The tassels have finally stopped.  Will pull some maintenance on the riding lawnmower, change a spark plug and the oil along with cleaning the air filter.  It's well past time for that.  A trip to Home Depot for some items, grout for the shower, spray paint for our steel french doors in the back and decorative fence in the front, and a couple other things I don't remember at the moment.  AC guys will be out today for a tune up.  All of those things along with the regular mundane day to day chores is all that is going on here.  Exciting huh?  

Our family tree photo wall is finally taking shape.  It would have been finished but we ran out of ink for our printer.  So we weren't able to get some of the photos finished.  Others, after we put them up needed to be reoriented, from vertical to horizontal and others cropped a little more or a little less.  We are pretty much finished with the still living souls.  And we are running out of room.  We will finish those up and start on the older generations and go until we have no room.  I will try to get pics once it's done.  It's encouraging that 'K' has finally bought into my idea and is taking and big interest and her touch is making it sooo much better.  I can't wait to see what the kids think of it.

We woke up to fresh leaves and a few small limbs laying around and to very heavy patio chairs over turned.  Storms rolled through the area last night but all we got was the wind and apparently lots of it.  The day so far has remained very windy.  I know I have mentioned it before but this year/Spring so far has been as windy as any I remember if not more.  I have heard others mention it also.  At least it's not like South Dakota.

The garden is growing very fast.  Every tomato plant has tomatoes hanging.  The Potato plants have a ton of foliage.  I may have put them in the wrong spot, too close to the tomatoes and may shield them too much from the sun.  The West side of the garden may have been better to shield them from the hotter part of the day.  'K' is so impressed with the potatoes she wants more bags to raise even more.  This was just a trial to see how they did here.  But the bags are pretty economical so that may be what I do.  Have a look:

Well I've got things to do.

Happy Trails

Helpful Tip-Headlight Restoration

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to share something with you that I found that works great for me.  It's part of what kept me busy last week.  

Now that car manufacturers have been making headlights with plastic lenses/covers, if you keep your car long enough they will eventually become cloudy or yellowed.  The results are a significantly dimmed headlight.  It is very noticeable out here where we have next to zero streetlights.  We really need good lights with all the deer and the folks that walk at night with dark clothes.  I am being kind by calling them 'folks.'  

About 3 years ago we noticed 'K's CRV lights were really dimmed.  Headed over to Utube and tried a couple of those remedies with NO luck.  Then I headed to Amazon to see what they had in kits for this issue.  I tried this one: Meguiars-Two-Step Headlight Restoration .  No, I'm not being paid to post this.  I just know this works and wanted to share.  Yes, it takes a little elbow grease and I did it about 3-4 times each headlight.  3-4 times for one step of it, the polishing part.  Tip-it will still look cloudy after you do all your rubbing.  But when you apply the spray, it's like magic.  It gets very clear.  Be sure you follow the directions closely.  It won't be prefect but it is so much better than it was, there are spots I wasn't able to affect but they are insignificant..  Not sure how that works but the spray is the key.  It's like another coat filling in all the bad spots or something like that.  So don't get discouraged after polishing a bunch and it's still cloudy.  I was getting that way and then the spray fixed that.  Drawback?  Yes, you will have to do it again in about a year.  I just did 'K's again for the third time.  But that's a lot better than buying a new one.  Those things are crazy expensive.  There are other kits on Amazon that probably work just as well or better, I know this one worked for me.  

BTW, it occurs to me that none of my other FORD vehicles ever had this issue and I kept those longer than this one of 'K's.  Luck?  Maybe, but I don't think so.  I have had almost nothing but FORD's.  My Ranger I had 14 years.  Hopefully you won't have to do it at all or have someone do it.  But I'm mostly a DIY guy.  

Happy Trails