The day was really nice besides the weather. That was fantastic and still is the sunshine has not dropped behind the fields and trees yet. I'll get to the local drive photos but I wanted to talk about Heidi joining our daily walk today for the first time since October 7th, 2015.
This is her last October on that same day. ... skin looking the same.
Sorry that I don't have any photos of today's walk .. I used a retractable leash for her for only one reason. It was the only way I could get her off the couch and no longer not wanting to go.
NO force was used.
In fact as I slipped her collar on, and connected the leash right there where she was sitting on the couch, she stood up, wagged her tail, jumped off and trotted to the door like she wanted to go.
She made it the whole walk ... we went at her speed. Sadie and Stella did their own thing but then Sadie would come back at different times and touch noses .. where Heidi would take off trotting. The time walking, her tail was up and curled like a hound on a scent ... instead of lowered like many of her photos show.
So there is a new plan that hopefully get her back to her old self ... doing what I she use to like to do. She showed no signs of discomfort nor any weakness while walking.
Earlier this afternoon when I asked if she wanted to go in the car .. she walked over to the drivers door for me to lift her inside, while the bloodhounds stood in the back waiting for me to open 'their' door.
We took off on a road I have always wanted to take just to see what was out there. I use to see cars coming out or turning off the highway to take this road as I went to and from work. We stayed on paved roads all afternoon, when there were plenty of gravel roads branching off this road to take.
Al over at TheBayfieldBunch has motivated me to the point of taking these local trips. He doesn't know that. My photos are not as good as his, but it was really my first time where the plan was to take all the photos on the move. I followed his process by taking the 18-55mm, setting it at 18mm and shooting out the windows while driving.
Excuse the dirty windshield.
We covered about a 45 mile loop. We started in land of small hills, some steep hills, to land that was extremely flat and where the farms were bigger. I came back with 126 photos. Many were bad ones but I grabbed a few good ones. I think with more practice, the photos will improve.
(I just pulled off a tick crawling on me from our early evening walk. That is tick #17 for me since March 15.)
In the immediate vicinity of my house the majority of farms are small, old and fields are where ever you can fit a tractor, planter and combine, no matter how hilly the land might be.
Heidi spends most of the drive in the sitting position with just enough room to see out the window. She is collecting a lot of different scents.
All of these photos were taken while driving .. like Al, just holding the camera up in the general direction and editing the photos later, while keeping my eyes on the road. There is not one photo where I stopped and stood outside to take the photo.
This is the same power line that the hounds and I walk under but probably around 15 miles away from our house.
If you notice we have gone from hills to flat land. Of course the fields are bigger and those power lines keep going the further we drive.
This field will be corn or soybeans by this summer.
I did not notice the owner of this property mowing his yard until I was editing the photo. It took a lot of chopping to delete my side mirror, window frame ... I wonder what he thought of a weird looking foreign SUV, driving by with a camera pointed in his direction. They only drive Fords and Chevy's out here.
Heidi still enjoying the drive.
I wanted to get more photos of this property. This was the last one in a long line of 20 or more tractors and pieces of farm equipment, this age. I would have stopped but the family was having a large mid-day picnic with a great fire going, enjoying the outdoors on a 76° Saturday.
This land goes for a long way to the left. It is nothing but fenced in grass for cows to graze before being loaded and shipped to market. It was like a temporary holding area before the semi's would show up at night and take them away. I'd see a field full of cows when I came home from work and by the next morning, they were gone. There use to be a really nice tiny home to the left of the barn. The property is for sale thus less cows and a barn empty of large rolls of hay.
The hounds were happy with their trip and happy to get home, as always. All three of them like riding and Heidi did not look like she was car sick today. She looked out the window the whole way, enjoying the drive.
I read after we returned from the drive about dogs that are depressed. That article gave me the idea to "help" Heidi to do the things she use to enjoy ... thus, sliding the collar on her, attaching the leash and taking her on our walk. She may not have wanted to when I asked her but by the time she walked out the door heading to the field on her own ... I could tell she wanted to go on the walk ... for the 1st time since last fall on October 7th.
A fine day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.
No comments:
Post a Comment