There was one problem though.
Stella is 'gun shy'. I hadn't had but two sips of hot freshly brewed coffee when I hear a gun shot in the distance. Sadie was out in the field and turned to look at me ... but Stella had different plans.
Before she could even get to the field, as she sniffed the southern border of the yard, she turned and immediately trotted for the door with her ears back in an unusual position. All of us headed inside. Stella ran for her hiding spot in the bedroom closet.
It then turned into the normal 'inside' routine with me reading sports online, some emails, some texts from friends and drinking my daily two cups of coffee. Stella later came out to lay and sleep beside my desk chair with Sadie sleeping just a few feet away.
Once Sadie was up, she begged and begged to go out for a walk. She does that in two different ways. One way she will sit and stare at me, if that doesn't work she will walk over and nudge my arm with her nose, while I am on the computer. By 11:30am it was time for our first of two walks for the day.
With the temps barely touching the 60° mark, and the first 1/3 of the walk in a shaded area. I knew my feet were going to get wet and it was going to be cold but we continued. As you can see the first part of our walk is in the shade and that means heavy dew and very wet feet.
Stella immediately headed the wrong direction to check out that one specific spot in the field that has caught her attention this past week. I thought I might have to call her but once she saw Sadie had found something, she took off and ran toward Sadie, moving into the correct direction as far as I was concern.
I used a few "come on" to keep her moving as I didn't want her to lag behind today. Last night during the halftime of the Washington / Oregon football game I connected the 25' retractable leash on her. She doesn't mind it and I never have to pull on it to get her to move. She seems to know to keep moving when she is wearing the leash.
They were both anxious to turn that first corner and get to their favorite spots of the field ... on the right side in tall grass, beaten down by deer traffic during the nighttime hours. I was too actually because it would be in the sun.
By the time I made the first turn, my New Balance mesh shoes were soaked, socks were soaked and my feet were freezing. It was good to get into the sunshine and it made a big difference.
Stella was pretty good in her exploring, she kept moving and didn't stay in any one spot too long.
As I glanced to the left of me, I realized this field that looks so flat from a distance really has a good size incline in the back end of the field. The field as a whole all heads towards the SE corner of my backyard to drain all of that underground water. I do see a little difference in elevation in the yard when I look back at photos from ten years ago.
Stella headed back to the right corner of the field. She had not been up there in a while. I walked over to check out the wooded area, too see if there was a drop off or was it fenced. She has not gone into the woods but likes to check out the edge of that wooded area. I might change the path to include that corner into our daily walk.
A couple of photos of the wooded area behind Stella.
Out of nowhere, Stella took off in a sprint to catch up with Sadie. This is along the back edge of the field, bordering another corn field that stands between us and a turkey farm.
As you can see, the deer traffic must have been heavy last night as they both rarely took their noses off the ground.
From year to year I try to keep the same path. Right after the field is cut it is hard at times to see the worn path. It is finally coming into view today on the way back. At no time is the path worn down to dirt.
Stella heads back to that same spot she went to when the walk started.
Until April 2015, this part of the yard up to just past the trees on the right side was nothing more than overgrown bushes, tall saplings, wild rose bushes that never bloomed, and thick under brush.
Once the neighbor surveyed the field after he bought it, planted that metal pole to show the corner of the property, is when I decided to clear out the brush and plant grass. I consider this area around the trees the best part of the yard and is much cooler in the summer. My survey in 2000 does NOT show that area as being part of my property.
The typical fall Sunday afternoon is planned ... different food within my changed diet mixed with NFL football. The hounds seem okay with that schedule ... Sadie is snoring loudly as I type this.
With the temps below that 70° threshold that Heidi has, she has declared it winter and is wrapped up in her sleeping bag while she sleeps on my bed ... that is basically her bed that I borrow on a nightly basis.
Wunderground is showing a good 10 day forecast for 'the tropics' ... I have a few plans this week and one of those is washing and thoroughly cleaning the two tons of dog hair out of the FJ. All of the dried hound drool will clean off easy from the plastic dash but I might have to put some effort in getting those hound nose smudges off of the windows.
Another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.
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