Heidi may have cutback on her outside activity today but that didn't mean she didn't get outside to wander a bit. Just after lunch all of us went outside. While I went down the hill to the mailbox the hounds didn't even move out into the field. That's different.
Stella let me know they have called a meeting ... I was to pay attention ... they had demands.
With a 3-0 unanimous and soon to be 4-0 vote, even with fantastic weather outside but only a little over 5 hours of sleep last night ... we all voted on taking a siesta. They marched to the bedroom as soon as they were inside, each to their nighttime sleeping spots and it was lights out just a little after 1pm.
As you may have noticed the story and descriptions are below the photo they are talking about. That might be different from the old blog but here it will be the norm from here on out. Why?? I like opening the post to see a picture first, before any written content.
I wasn't two steps into the field just after 4pm where I saw so many butterflies flying in groups of 3-4, that I couldn't get my camera setting adjusted fast enough. I have found over time using this camera the AF-area mode "Auto-area AF" is better for butterflies and "Single-point AF" brings the hounds into better focus. I have to manual change that setting each time.
This afternoon was so active with butterflies and hounds ... some of the hounds ended up a little less sharp due to being in "Auto-area AF". This leads me to believe the possibility of me using manual settings is not going to work with my type of photographs during a walk, where you do not know what will happen or what will show up next.
As we approached that bright orange flower I saw at least 4 butterflies having dinner. Would Sadie chase them off, trying to catch them?
No .... she trotted right by them without any of them flying away.
I am going to have to start putting up a list of butterfly and flower names on my 2nd monitor to use while I type a post or a website that could be a quick reference for their names. My memory for names like this is terrible. But if you asked me about a ballgame played 50 years ago, I can tell you what happened in a nano-second.
With all the butterflies in the field this afternoon I let the hounds roam where they wanted. I never called them once. All the photos you see of the hounds in this post show them following their noses and desires.
I could tell we had slept through a perfect afternoon. The 74° was nice, no mosquitoes and I couldn't feel any sticky humidity. Sadie and Stella were on a slow meandering stroll while Heidi was stretched out on the dog bed in the bedroom deep in sleep.
I bought that dog bed for her the day I picked her up from GABR. By the 2nd night, Sadie applied the Bloodhound Laws and took ownership. Heidi didn't mind, she moved to the bed for the last 6 years. Something gave me the idea that was where she slept in her first couple of years before I knew her.
I have to admit that I was a little surprised that Stella was moving along with us and not heading over to the woods behind the neighbor's house.
I kept waiting for it to open its wings ... but never did.
Then just as I started to walk away, it started to open them. Once it heard the beep of my auto-focus it flew away. I then stopped and turned to the beep setting to off.
Chasing butterflies was not Sadie's interest today nor did Stella want to eat anything. Sadie wanted to sniff the whole field, Stella just wanted to get the walk over as soon as possible ... it was too hot for her based on what her tongue was telling me.
This butterfly cooperated and opened it's wings about the time I took the picture.
While I continued my butterfly search along the back edge of the field, the hounds explored behind me. Those power lines run for over a 100 miles south of me and even more than a 100 miles north of me.
The butterflies seemed to be much smaller in back of the field compared to those at the start of the walk.
Stella must be in disbelief that I have not called her name or said "come here" or even "over here". She was looking to see where I was and what I was doing. With this photo zoomed in, we are pretty far apart from each other.
Sadie had already started her slow march back to me.
Stella followed her lead from a different area.
When Stella's tongue is hanging out that way she has only one thing on her mind ... get home as soon as possible.
A little after 4:15pm on a sunny day here in 'the tropics" of Southern Indiana.
You'll notice Sadie over on the left edge of the picture just starting her sprint to catch me. She never fails to do that, no matter how far back she stays. Stella would have never moved by then.
9 year old bloodhound speed ... same motion has a race horse sprinting down the homestretch.
Only she can get her ears flying ... very few other species can.
She then slows her speed to brush by my knee close enough to touch it and let me know she is back.
Sadie was in the studious mode today ... not chasing.
If I only knew their names.
I knew from my internet data spreadsheet that I was using data faster than my daily plan. Finally as I was writing this post, at 4:48pm HughesNet Gen5 let me know I was at 0 and my internet speeds would slow down.
For the first time and with my curiosity, I pulled out my $9 bill and bought 3Gigs of data. That is much cheaper than Exede Satellite service charged, plus any of that 3Gb I don't use in the next 2 days 7 hours and 14 minutes, will be carried through to the next month if I need it. My download speeds went back to the range of 45Mbps - 48Mbps. I've been very happy with my switch to HughesNet Gen5 this past April.
Once again I find myself searching for that one thing I was going to write about ... but can't remember. Honestly that really bugs me and it's most likely about the time I click the "publish" button ... I'll remember what it was.
The weather is so nice we will probably spend time back outside as the sun goes down. There will not be anymore posts tonight but there might be some new pictures from tonight on tomorrow's post.
With a total of 8 hours of sleep since midnight in two sections ... I feel good. Any of you Apple computer users playing around with the new "beta" version of their Mac OS ??
It was another fine day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.
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