March 9-15, 2026

Weather | 3/9, sunny, 45°, 76° | 3/10, sunny, 55°, xx° | 3/11, xx°, xx° | 3/12, xx°, xx° | 3/13, xx°, xx° | 3/14, xx°, xx° | 3/15, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 3/9: Cooper's Vet Visit
  • Wood ducks flew out of Bluegill Pond when I walked Cooper down the lane this morning.
  • We took Cooper to the vet at Petco in Quincy, IL. He was very good, but we could tell that he knew that he was in a veterinary clinic. At first, he was very weary of the vet, but after some coaxing and massive rubbing by this vet, Cooper relaxed. Overall, the vet pronounced him healthy. Cooper has a big wax build up in his ears. Dr. Andrew, as the vet calls himself, showed us an easy way to remove ear wax from a dog's ears. We're to do it each day for 10 days. We really liked this vet...Andrew Perrine. We'll use him again. We left with a NexGard Plus prescription and a bottle of ear wash. We picked up a handful of treats in the Petco store.
  • I went into Sam's Club while Mary and Cooper stayed in the pickup. It was a hot time for them, with temperatures in the 80s over the black asphalt of parking lots in Quincy. Six months of NexGard Plus costs $206.43 after a Sam's Club discount. It's expensive, but we feel it's needed. This stuff handles fleas, ticks, intestinal worms and heartworm in one medication that's simply a chewable, instead of gloopy slop smeared between shoulder blades. With a wiggle wart like Cooper, picking off ticks absolutely won't work.  
  • We also got gas at Sam's Club for $2.89 a gallon, significantly cheaper than the national average. I got a couple things at Walmart and we drove back home. The front seat of the pickup is now a dog hair mess.
  • When we got home, the inside of the house was crawling with thousands of Asian ladybugs. Mary handled chickens, then emptied about 5-6 inches of dead bugs out of the shop vac  from yesterday's bug evacuation and started sucking while I did evening chores, including playing fetch with Cooper. I took over after I was done with chores. We sucked bugs well after darkness fell. What a mess!
  • The red amaryllis is blossoming (see photos, below). It's a joy to see.

An open amaryllis blossom.

The other opening amaryllis blossoms.