So Far, So Good

Thank You, Fellow Bloggers

Gray Horse Matters suggested Stud Muffins to get Toby to eat his pill.  So far, so good. He has twice taken his meds stuffed in a muffin. I give him a "pillless" one first and then the pill.  I don't know how long this will work, but so far, so good.

I'm not sure I see any difference in his attitude since he started on the pergolide, but he does seem a bit more interested in things and has been "asking" for his feed more than in the last month. Then again, we have also had a number of cooler mornings and evenings, so perhaps that might also be a factor.

At any rate, I have all the rest of your suggestions to follow should the muffins fail, so I thank you all for the good advice.

I mowed the lawn yesterday and today, I used my DR Trimmer to trim at least part of the front bank and the weeds along the other side of the driveway.  The sun came out midway through the effort and I was dripping with sweat by the time I finished. Despite a shower this morning, it is supposed to be another super hot day.

I took a cool shower when I came back inside, as much to cool myself off as to soap off any possible poison ivy residue from the trimming. I noticed, a bit too late, that I was mowing right into a patch of the noxious weed.  The DR is more like a hand mower and doesn't quite through up weed residue like the hand string trimmer does, but there were still bits of weeds on me and my clothes when I came in.  Hopefully the shower and good soap will keep me from any issues.

Just so you all know, if you are exposed to poison ivy, you need to wash off with cold water, not hot. The hot water actually makes the urushiol, the irritant in poison ivy, get absorbed into your pores.  My Grandmother used to make her own "brown soap" that she used every time she came back in from a walk in the woods and she swore by it as a way of avoiding a poison ivy rash.  There are washes on the market, one by Technu, that supposedly clean the urishiol off your skin.  


Hopefully, my precautions will save me a week or so of rash and itching.  I've managed to kill most of the poison ivy on my property with a brushkiller, but I never thought to look in this particular patch of weeds. And, as some of you may know, poison ivy is a hardy, determined invader that will simply take over if left to grow on its own. 


I've been keeping up on my swimming regimen, managing a half hour to forty minutes of laps every day the pool is open. I have, however, missed a few days during the last week due to the threat of thunderstorms which causes the pool to close.


Hope I get my swim in today. I need it.