I took Joey over to LSU at a dog doctor ("Dr. Pichau") working on Joey's terrible issues all over his body.  His whole body was a mess -- his hair was messy - places of it taken off, and his next in front was terrible pinkish!    And his ears were also just awful.  They sure were messy and he constantly shaked his head so his ears were probably itching and it obviously felt wrong to him.  Poor guy.  And his neck was also awful - his hair there on his neck was gone and his next was just bright pink.  Not good!   

But now he's just SO much better.  It took more than three years when they fixed him up.  And I still have to give him SO many pills -- 7 in the morning, and 5 more in the evening.  I guess I have to keep giving him all those pills for almost another month.  But he is SO much better these days. 

And soon Gigi's birthday will be coming -- over on December 13, 2017 she will be 4 years old.  (As a Cane Corso she was born back in December 13, 2013 -- we bought her in January 2014 -- but I'm not sure how old she will actually be.)

I don't know when Gigi (Cane Corso) and Joey (Staffordshire) will be living how long.  But since I'm only 73, I'm pretty sure I can live long enough to take care of both of them!   

Oh - by the way, I also just got my back fixed up last week so I can behave now just as I always did previously.  What a relief! 

We had horses for years . ..

but all three of our horses are now gone.  Both Mark and I weren't able to ride over the past few years, and it had gotten to be a real problem about going out there to the barn and dealing with them.  

But I'm really glad we didn't just sell them to people we didn't know.  Instead now Shadow, my really gorgeous horse, is living at our best friends, Janet and Mike.  They had five horses already, but when I let her know that we had to remove OUR horses, Janet said she'd really like to take Shadow.  Shadow is younger and much taller that our other horses, so she hauled her up to their place and she's just fine up there now.   I love seeing her when we visit them often.

There is Shadow back behind one of their other horses -
but she was watching us visiting there then!

And the other two horses - Duke and Arthur - are now over at the place just across the road where they get people to come practice riding on all their horses -- they have something like 20 or so horses over there.  People who come ride can eventually let those folks buy a horse from them if they're good enough to handle a horse. But since there's less than a mile away, we can go over there occasionally and watch folks riding those horses we sent over to them.  For instance, here's a very young little girl who was about to ride Duke.  

Here's that little girl who's about to ride Duke out in the large property.

And here she goes out to the big area where she can get up on him.

When we go over there, we can pet our horses, but if someone eventually decides to buy Duke or Arthur we probably wouldn't be able to visit with those horses any more. But it is much better to have them over there than we would have been able to sell them to anyone ourselves because we can watch anyone riding who might want one of our horses. And they don't let anyone buy one untill they ride over there so those folks can be sure they'd be able to handle them correctly.  So eventually at least when those folks who have them selling them, at least that would be folks who would have been good about dealing with them.  They would have been riding them there so they could check them out.  So those folks never sell a horse unless those people are good at handling them.  

Anyway -- two previous horses are over there now.  But Arthur has a bit of a problem in one of his feet so no one was able to ride him when we were over there last weekend.  But there's taking good care of him and keeping him inside so his feet will be getting better.

As for us, we've been doing SO much about changing out the barn and all since the horses are gone.  I guess I'll show you when we're doing over there later on - but I haven't taken any photos about that at the moment.

Well, I'll try and remember to fill out this "Life as We Know It" blogger sooner because I've let SO much time gone before filling this up again today.  Sigh.

Hey - I'm finally BACK!

I lost my computer -- who knows why . . . I turned it off over night, but when I turned it on in the morning again like usual over SO many years it simply wasn't working after all those years!  Good grief!  So I bought a new computer, but I wasn't able to get it working as the old one was. We got a company that would come to our home and fix that computer for me but that wasn't possible yet.  So I took that computer over to Computer Heaven over on Oak Villa Blvd, just off of Florida Blvd just past Airline Highway.  And they repaired that old computer, but then I had to let the other guy at the house get it working again as it did previously. 

Since the guy who came to the house couldn't do what needed to be done, but those guys over there at Computer Heaven replaced all the things that weren't working and I got it back again just a few days later.  But then the guy who came to the house came back and fixed everything up from both that replaced computer AND the new one that I had gotten as well.  So now I have TWO functional computers.  I feel much better because if either one goes out like that one did a month or two ago, I'll still have another one that I can get online daily while someone works on the one that goes down.  So I feel a lot better because I use the computer EVERY day . . . generally two or three times a day!  

See - two huge computers!  And I got a new monitor that I'm using on my repaired computer so the previous monitor is over at that new computer there on the left.  But the new one is 32 inches wide so I can get two things at a time. Of course the previous monitor there on the left that's just 24 inches wide can also put in two things at a time as well but the right one needs to be narrower.  But hey - SURE glad to have them both!

See - here's the new computer and that new white printer.  That table there is the table that I took to work over at Taylor, Porter where I worked with a computer there for years and years and years.  When I retired, I returned that table and the chair so I'm happy to have that new computer and printer on that table.  Feels like my previous work!  

So here's that computer that I got repaired last month - and that nice new 32 inch wide monitor.  This is the area I was using that computer for years and years.  SO I'm sure glad to have it working again - happy to have it working back! 

Haven't written anything since the computer broke way back when.  So I hope I'll be able to return what all is happening here these days eventually.   I'm working on all the things on the computers at the moment, but I WILL let you know what's happening around our place eventually. 

Good Grief!

My computer that was perfectly fine for about the last 10 years was suddenly not working.  So I finally got a new computer -- but this one isn't working the way the old one did.  It's a real problem!  

I hope I'll get it working eventually - and then I'll let you know what all we've done here at the property.  

But at the moment -- I'm afraid I'm having to work on this computer again at the moment!  

So I sure hope this computer eventually works well - as the old one did.  And if it works well I'll fill up this Blogger "Life as We Know It" again soon.  Sure hope so!  (Wish someone I know would know more about computers and come help me!) 

So much has been done finally!

Someone came by a couple weeks back to let us know that they were about to install both of our driveways coming in from the road across that huge drainage ditch running along the front, and all the way across the front of our large property eventually.  And they also come to install some driveways in front of that four acres right next door where are relatives are going to build their homes eventually.  

Our relatives bought that acreage a couple years back, but both couples are about to build their houses as soon as they retire from their businesses far away from Louisiana. Mark's sister Vicki and her husband John currently live just outside of Washington DC (DC is where her husband currently works for the federal government).  And the other couple currently live over in Mississippi since they're both working for the Veterins Administration over there.  But since they both used to live here in Louisiana, both couples will be building their houses right next door as soon as they retire -- and they'll both be back in Baton Rouge (well - St. Gabriel, actually).  Anyway, they needed driveways installed across that drainage ditch in front of THEIR properties so that they could drive in and especially that the guys who build their houses will also be able to drive in!  So we were all very happy to have them installing those things last week!

There were three or four trucks plus all kinds of machines going to work on installing those containers to make driveways available across that drainage ditch there in front.

Those containers are much larger than the older one was in our front driveway because they want all that water to move through that area over to the water line along the side of our property.  And we sure are glad about that since we really don't want water raising up into our house ever!  It didn't happen last summer, but the water raised up very near the front porch that's about two feet higher than the property.

 Here was a photo I took when I woke up and saw that the water was coming up to the house last August!  (But thankfully if didn't make it all the way up into our house.)

But that water was even higher out in the back pasture!

So our horses raced up to their barn and they just stayed there on their porch where they only had about 3 or 4 inches of water on that porch -- WAY less than out in the pasture!

Anyway, those guys did remove the cement from out of our driveway last week and installed a much larger container under the driveway.  And they installed it all the way over the water line on the side finally - about 120 feet wide!   But the guy who's going to put back the cement will eventually be here maybe next month. 

 

Then we'll be having him add concrete from that entry over to the existing driveway so it'll be possible to drive in and just go around and drive out the new driveway that was just installed without turning the car around.  Looking forward to that!

Well, a week or two ago we finally got that new bedroom installed in what WAS the back porch previously. I thought that would be all we only needed to deal with.  And now that exterior bedroom IS a great place these days.  That Jenkins Tile & Marble company finally came by last month (after I requesting them back in November of LAST year!) and installed the marble walls and all those marble window sills as well.  

That marble wall and marble window sill runs all the way around in that room!   And they gave me that marble "wood" piece along the floor so that I can put electric down and it won't be visible.  Oh - and I got that air conditioner installed as well since that room isn't getting the heat and cooling inside the house.  But hey - it's just a good as the other bedrooms now.  Nice.

And as you can see - it's easy to see the horses out in the pasture OR over in the barn.  I love that.

Of course this blogger hasn't been installed for quite a while since I've been working on things at the house, then just resting!  But I'll try and remember to add something to this blog much sooner again.

Nice new bedroom!

Yesterday we got that rug installed out there in that new bedroom on the old porch, but once that floor was complete, today we put the bed and chairs and tables out there, too!  Of course we still don't have those marble window sills and walls, but hey -- it feels pretty good out there already anyway!

It's really nice to me to lay down there on  that bed and watch the horses right outside that window!  I love that.

Of course, we haven't put that heating/air conditioner in there yet so it isn't perfect temperature just yet, but that's going to happen very soon as well.    

And I also plan to put some pictures up on the walls and put in some plants as well.  But hey -- it won't take all that long now for me to do that these days.    

So it's nice now that in the next year or so when our relatives come back down to Louisiana (one couple lives in Mississippi, and the other in Washington, DC currently) so they can build their new homes in the acreages right next door.   Thus they can live here with us in our house while they build those houses.  Since we have FIVE bedrooms now that we got that one built out on the old porch it'll be perfectly fine for them to hang out here while they build.  Looking forward to getting them down here soon.  We'll be SO glad to have them living next door eventually instead of living SO far away currently.

And hey -- any of you friends and relatives in other states can come down to visit anytime now as well.  Looking forward to seeing you all!

It's sure getting better around here!

We've been doing SO many things around this place over the last few months, but we're finally getting there.  Whew! 

As for me at the moment, I'm listening on YouTube on the computer to the wonderful Al Stewart music I like so much. One of my favorite songs is "The Year of the Cat" . . .  you could hear that if you like at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqZc7ZQURMs            

And for that matter, you could also hear All Stewart's "Time Passages" song, too, at 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm6TsYypBpY

When I'm working on my desk and not adding anything on the computer, that computer turns itself off, but if I put music on YouTube the computer WON'T turn off so I like that.

Anyway, this weekend we pulled out the plants that got ruined over the winter and we put in new Azaleas and some other similar plants out in front of the front porch:

And we obviously cut down all those tall trees in there as well --
hope they get installed again come spring.

But it IS finally much better so far this spring anyway.

AND we've gotten the back porch room cleaned up.  As I noted previously, Gigi really screwed up that area big time -- here are the photos of that yukky porch last fall:

But Gigi now is over on the other end of the porch and will not get into that room anymore!

But see below -- we have it SO much better now.  But we still need to put in all the furniture and it'll be still another month until Jenkins Tile & Marble come over and install all those marble window sills and walls below ALL those windows. Can't wait!  But in the meantime, we cleaned up all those walls and added wood over the floor boards, then added a rug over top of that!  And I got ALL those curtains that are only the length of the actual windows.   And although we installed just two actual windows, the rest of those windows are just glass.  Love it! 

Those yukky walls below the windows got messed up when the dog was in there, but once Jenkins get over here, they will be putting in marble walls all the way around.  It'll look much better by then.

I'm going to put in a bed over there at the right around the corner.  It'll be nice to be able to lay there and watch the horses right outside those windows.  At night, they hang out there at the barn where they have lots of hay and water over there.  And if it's raining, they have a giant roof on their outside porches, too.

Oh, and we also put in roofing out in the back yard AND added a 12 foot building.  I can keep things inside that little building that won't get wet out there anymore.  

That big white roofing thing is huge --  probably about 30 feet or more wide in BOTH dog yards so that when it rains they can both get out there without getting wet!

Fortunately, you don't actually see that thing from inside the house.  And if it serioiusly storms someday and it gets ruined, we'll still have that building down there below it.  It's been fastened on to the cement so no matter how much storm comes that building won't ever move at all.  Unfortunately, the dogs won't get to come out without getting wet if that big white thing ever  gets ruined.  But I guess we only had that bad serious storm only ever 10 or 12 years so I hope it'll hang out for a long time!  

That room on the back porch is getting there!

Hey, although that room on the porch isn't QUITE done yet it'll sure be done before TOO long!  

Jerry comes by every weekend to clear out the horse barn and pasture, but he repainted all those porch walls and even the sides of those windows as well as both doors!  So that area is looking much better now -- but of course the windows and all that marble on the window sills and all the walls below the windows -- even the new floor out there  -- haven't been installed just yet.  

But we ARE about to put in all those windows soon.  The glass company is coming over this Friday to confirm the sizes (we told them the size of what we needed installed, but they insist on checking it out themselves before they bring that glass over here).  We've bought LOTS of those PVC white quarter round sticks to place around the windows to keep that glass in place.  So we'll be installing those on the outside edge of the windows.  Then when the glass company places those glass up against those quarter round sticks, then we'll just place additional quarter round sticks on the inside of the glass as well.  Then that'll hold all that glass in place completely.  
  

And we'll also be getting two actual installation windows  as well (instead of plain glass) so that if we will want to open windows we'll have two of the 11 windows that we will be able to open.  Also, since we have a heating/air conditioner it has to go out through a window so we knew we HAD to have a window there next to it, not just glass.

And John Schexnaildre, the guy from that garage floor experts store over in Port Allen, will be coming over next week and putting in that really good flooring over top of those old porch floor boards.   It'll be pretty much white!  Nice. 

Our porch floor will look good like this - but he sent several photos of possible colors.  
I'm not sure what this is - a garage or a basement or whatever, but it's be fine on our porch.   

I saw that flooring over in the LSU Veterinary hospital when I took Gigi a couple months ago so I called a guy to come check it out over here on the porch.  And John came and said he'd be glad to put it in there.  But he has to go work on installing something for five days over in California this week so he can't come do it until the NEXT week! I was really happy to have him come by here from close by over in Port Allen, but apparently folks want that company to work for them all over the country, not just close by!  Gees! 

Anyway, I haven't taken many pictures currently, but I sure will post lots of new pictures here once we get everything done out there.  Looking forward to it.

Oh - and Jerry and Mark replaced that tent top cover out in the back yard. It ended up being larger than it needed to be, but it sure looks pretty good now.  Then we'll be adding covers on the sides as well, but we haven't gotten around to those just yet. 

I'll tell you what -- once weve retired we sure have been working on all kinds of things here at the house these days! Sure hope we get it done soon.  We sure need to just relax around here eventually! 

Our work around here has been way-less-than-appropriate lately . . .

Everything we wanted done generally GOT done whenever we decided on doing it previously.  But hey, everything we needed done recently just hasn't gotten done at all lately! NOT good!

We decided to repair that back porch and turn that part of it into an interior room -- the porch that I just noted in this post previously.  So we asked Jenkins Tile & Marble to install the marble window sills and possibly install marble walls below all those windows as well. 

So one of the Jenkins Tile & Marble store guys came out and checked it out and determined that they could install all those things I wanted.  I was pleased about that because he would be installing all those marble window sills AND placing marble walls below all of those windows as well!  BUT I found he wouldn't be able to come install all that stuff for THREE months from then!!  Good grief!  That Jenkins company is working on SO many houses that got flooded back in August so we have to wait until they're done repairing ALL those houses that they got requested back in August.  I thought they could do ours sooner since it would probably take way less time to complete our porch as opposed to all those house repairs.  But they just put us on the list next after all those others.  Sigh.  But since I really want them to fix all those things for us, I'm having to actually wait until probably MARCH!  And they made me pay $1900 dollars before putting us on that list!  Then I'll complete the rest of the payment after they finish installing all that marble.  Well, I sure can't find someone else to install it sooner since they got ALL that money.  Sigh.     

Well that porch is still a mess even though Gigi has been moved over to the other side of the porch (and the other end of the property outside!)

 

We removed all those white metal things things that kept the dogs from breaking the screens.  But those screens are going to remain out there until glass windows get installed anyway.  Jenkins is going to remove those yukky window sills up there in that picture that the dog chewed on and THEN replace them with those marble window sills and put in those marble walls below all those windows as well. Those grubby curtains then will get pitched out and nice new ones be replaced.   But those gruppy ones can keep the porch private and generally keep rain out at the moment anyway.  Then once the marble window sills and walls are installed, Capital Glass will come and install thick glass windows.  That'll make it a regular interior room out there then.  And then we'll also have someone come put in regular flooring like inside as well. 

In the meantime, we're going to repaint all the walls and doors that the dog got screwed up.  Then in fact maybe we'll just get someone to install that epoxy floor then instead of after March!  

Anyway, that porch will be turned into an actual household INTERIOR room eventually.  But it's just taking SOOOO long to have it all done.  Sigh.  

Fortunately THIS door doesn't need painted since we replaced it after the dog moved out of here.  But the door from this end of the porch into the other side of it is a MESS from the dog who was in there previously,.  And the door from this room into the house also needs to be repainted.

So as a result, we have removed everything from out there so that once the windows are done, a company will come and install new epoxy flooring.  But as a result so many things that we removed from the porch got set into the living room.  And that stuff is all going to have to stay in there until that room gets finished up in March.  NOT good!

And then we also had a problem OUTSIDE.  We set up a tarp to keep rain off that part of the yard to our other dog, Joey, could go to his botty outside in the rain.  He won't go out in the rain and instead he pees on the porch.  NOT good. So we set up that huge tarp over at the side of the back porch so that when it would rain Joey could go out there instead of messing up the porch.

But hey -- it was up only a couple days when it got windy and it broke down!  Good grief!  We apparently should have gotten much thicker tarp.  So Mark took that thing back down and he and Jerry went back out to that building out in the back pasture and hauled up a huge tarp-covered tent that we had installed for the horses before we got the them here in our own property.  They couldn't fit into the barn where we were renting (enormous horses there!), so we set up that tarp tent so that the horses could go inside and eat hay etc. during storms.  Then when we brought them over to OUR house they could just come up to the porch outside their barn or go into their paddocks if they wanted to in their barn as well, so they didn't need that tent.  So when it rains they ALL just run up to the barn and hang out on the big outside porch or in their own rooms.  So that previous tent wasn't in use any longer -- it was just stuck down in the building out in the pasture.  Well, when that tarp we had on the porch got screwed up, we decided to put that big tent that we had for the horses previously in our back yard. That way it will not only let Joey go out when it's raining, it will also keep all our things out on the back concrete area nice and dry as well! 

It's pretty large, but two of those boards were broken -- that's why some of that roofing is pulled down on the end.  So we've ordered a new roof AND some side tarps that we can roll up or down whenever as well.  But although that roof has a couple of little holes near the center, it really does keep most of the rain away currently anyway.

And now we're getting Affordable Gutters to come install gutters across the BACK porch.  (They've already installed them on the front of the house AND on the barn as well.)

You might also view that behind that tarp in the photos above is a new fence that keeps Gigi out of the main back yard. You can actually see her there beyond that tarp in both photos above. She really likes that area of the property more than the place where she used to go out.  She likes all those giant trees over there.  They're Live Oak trees so the trees remain lovely ALL year -- the leaves don't even come off during the winter.  And she can view the horses more over there AND she can contact the dogs next door as well now.  (That's what she's doing in those photos -- she's viewing those dogs from the side fence.)

Anyway, for the next couple months I guess we'll see what we can do about repainting those walls in that porch room, and we'll get that heater/air conditioner that we received a while back and figure out where to install a new electrical portion for that thing.  (The only single electric now would be over behind a bed that'll be put in there, so the heater should NOT be right next to the bed!)  

But hey -- since I've been sick over the last few weeks I guess I won't be spending time to do things out there until it gets MUCH nicer out there than what it is now -- it's about 30 degrees during the way!  NOT good down here.  But it's supposed to be up in the high 70's by the end of this coming week.  SURE hope so!

Well, SO many things have happened lately - and even MORE will be happening !

For one thing, I went over to the Orthopaedic Clinic over there on Bluebonnet Blvd. last week where they did my back injection for a third time!   My back doctor, Henry Eiserloh, has been really great ever since I had serious back pain decades ago.

The second time they did that back injection was back in 2011 and I felt perfectly fine until just a few weeks ago. But after that injection last week, I felt just fine again from the very next day! . . . sure love that doctor!  

So next we're dealing with a guy who's going to renovate our back porch!  That guy named Ricky Wilson (Home Repair Baton Rouge) came by last week and he is going to be fixing up a number of places here - not even just that porch. 

Ricky Wilson is currently fixing up some of those houses that got ruined in the flood last August, but he'll be dealing soon with our porch and some other things Mark wants done as well.  We're looking forward to him!

Of course it probably won't be until next month or so since he's redoing some of those houses that got covered with water last August.  But that porch has been miserable for several years so what's another month or two, huh?  No problem. But I'm really looking forward to the replacement of that BACK porch -- well, just half of it actually -- over just behind our master bedroom.  Well, it was even fairly nice previously. See, here are photos showing how it USED to look:

This was that original back porch with screens - and with those white metal things that kept the dogs from jumping onto those screens.

And I originally had a twin bed out there.

And here was the dog at the time - what a sweetie!

Those photos above were taken to begin with -- and with a dog even before we got Joey some years back.  But there was a  further change another few years later.  And here's that area of the porch that was updated and was certainly pretty nice -- way better than it is at the moment, that's for sure -- but it WAS just filled with screens so it wasn't all that great during super-hot summer or during the late winter.  Also those metal panels there at the bottom of the screens were on there to keep the dogs from pushing against the screens. But now soon when we redo that porch, those windows will contain entire thick GLASS -- NO screens.  So we won't need those metal panels in front anymore either so it'll be really nice to be able to look out those windows and see those entire back pastures and all those horses all the time.  Nice.  And we'll be able to go out ALL year since we've got a heating / air conditioner machine for there.  So with no open windows, it'll be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, just like inside!  

Here was that OLD portion of the back porch at least 6 years ago when we got Joey (he's sleeping there on that bigger bed) BEFORE we got Gigi.
See, looking out the back shows the entire pasture -- and there looking out the side you can obviously see the barn!

In fact, I had added a QUEEN bed (instead of that earlier twin one) -
so both my Joey puppy AND I could sleep on there together!

Then at night I used to close all those curtains to keep air from blowing in too much.
But that sure won't happen once we get the porch redone since it'll be clear GLASS all over on that whole porch instead of those screens!

But when we got the baby Cane Corso, Gigi, back in 2014 she ended up REALLY screwing up that porch!  Good grief!

We ended up sticking these things there to keep Gigi away from a lot of those things there behind that panel and gate

But look at all that messy flooring and window sills  and even those curtains!
And once we replace those screens with glass we'll be able to remove those white iron things that kept the dogs away from the screens.

Gigi would jump up on the wall and it got really really messy!  But since it's actually brick, it'll be easy to clean that up.  Then we'll probably cover it with some sort of panel that can be washed much more easily if it gets messy again.

And even the dog gate was a MESS -- we actually had to change that one out eventually!

  Of course, now that Gig's in her late 2 years old, she's gotten a lot better about this horrendous mess, but she's still quite difficult for us to handle her.  So once we repair that portion of the porch, we'll be setting her up over on the OTHER end of the porch - but this time with a metal fence line covering the wall over on that side so she can't chew up the wall over there anymore either.  We thought about selling her, but I need to be sure that whoever buys her would be really nice to her, since she really IS a fine girl these days.    

Anyway, as I said, when we get that porch redone, instead of those screens we have on that entire portion of that back porch, we're going to install solid GLASS instead of any screen in that entire portion of the porch right outside our master bedroom and the livingroom. And as I said, we just got a heating/air conditioner (it has arrived - but it'll be a month or two before we get that porch redone).

Oh, and we're also going to install marble window sills and marble walls below the windows all the way down to the floor so the walls will stay just fine indefinitely as well.  I'm going to put Gigi crate out there so she can sleep in her crate at night out there in the heat and air conditioning and she won't need to come inside the house.

Anyway -- we're getting that marble over at "Jenkins Tile and Marble" over on Industriplex Blvd -- they have all sorts of of FINE marble things.  

Jenkins Tile and Marble really doesn't look like a store, but it sure is FULL of  marble and various flooring inside in that big building.

If YOU have any interest in that sort of thing, you could check them out on Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/Jenkins-Tile-Company-113058415399303/

So anyway that porch -- well it'll become a "room" rather than a porch -- will have all those nice clear glass windows so we can see the entire back pasture AND the horse barn.  I'm going to LOVE sitting out there!  And I think I'll even put a bed out there again the way I used to have!   

Well, it's going to be a while, but I'll post the renewed porch AND the changes in the back yard when we get around to it. I'll show you later!