Deer Sighting

The weather forecasts were correct, it was 60° this morning as we started our morning walk. As I write this a little before 10am, it's 64° and hard to believe for August weather in this location. It will take all day to get up to 79° but that is still cool enough for the hounds to get 3 walks in today ... hopefully Heidi was join us.

Same routine, same path most of the time ... only this morning Stella and Sadie strolled together for most of the walk.

I am finding there isn't really much to say about this morning's walk. I could have started a couple of hours earlier and then lead into my 'to do' list but I still have a lot of time to get a lot of things done today. This cooler weather has motivated me today.

It's good to see that Stella's tail is in the upright position ... it's a good sign she is feeling good again.

I didn't know it at the time I took this picture, but Sadie had picked up deer scent. She did not take off, nor did Stella to chase them. She was looking in the right direction.

As I made the final turn, I looked over to my right along the wooded area and 4-6 deer were scattering and sprinting from the field to the woods. I only caught these two. Many more were further to their left.

Stella stopped and looked, sniffed in that direction, she was in a postion staring that direction I was certain she was going to take off running in that direction. When I told her "you're too late, they are gone" ... she turned and walked my direction.

Deer in the area that they did not see did not seem to be a big deal to them. They had other stuff they wanted to check out before I caught up to them. They took off running way ahead of me.

It took some coaxing but I was able to get both of them moving in my direction home.

Sadie acted as if we should keep walking somewhere, as she was not ready to come inside. It was a great walk with no humidity, no mosquitoes, and was cool t-shirt weather. It should be a great day to get a lot of low priority stuff done today. The AC is turned off and all the windows are open, with a good chance of that happening for the next 10 days.

I was so happy with the performance of the 'beta' version of Apple's new macOS High Sierra on my laptop computer, that yesterday afternoon I installed it on my iMac. Here is a preview of the improvements, macOS.

A few of the things I have noticed is a faster Safari browser, really faster. I've made it my default browser again and put Google Chrome back on the shelf in the Apps Folder, out of sight. The editing features in the Photo program are much more detailed, some professional settings that I will probably never use.

Of course with any OS change I've had to make some adjustments. I mentioned the other day my 2011 version of Microsoft Office for Mac would not work on the new OS after October. Microsoft was no longer going to support that with updates. They are wanting everyone to buy their 2016 version. For the 'basic' stuff I do in Excel I didn't need a new Office package.

I did a lot of searching, reading and testing Apple Numbers that came free with my computer. By the end of Tuesday I had converted all of my Excel spreadsheets to Numbers with no issues. I also converted all of my Word Docs to Pages.

I finally found out how to link cells between spreadsheets. I didn't find it in my 100's of internet searches or reading the forum full of Mac geeks. I even posted my question on that forum and didn't get an answer on how to link cells from different spreadsheets. I did not find my answer in Apple Support ... I found it on my spreadsheet after it was converted to Apple Numbers. By highlighting the cell I wanted to link to, it showed me the formula.

So all is good migrating from Microsoft Office to Apple iWork programs and they are free.

On a closing note, all of the plants I planted a few weeks ago are too far under the roof overhang to get rained on. After our night of rain on Monday night, I could tell the next morning what plants got watered by the rain and which ones did not ... none of them were touched by the rain. The Yews were like that but I never had to water them after they matured.

It's fantastic weather today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Takes A Break

It was perfect sleeping weather with the windows open and the temps in the low 60's. What that led to was me putting on a sweatshirt for our morning walk. The old thermometer needle in the carport was barely touching 60°, so I decided the worst that could happen would be that I'd get to hot on the walk. I found out it was needed.

I didn't get a second post in yesterday, based on our afternoon activity. Heidi did nothing but this after lunch and then headed back to one of her three spots to sleep. Two field walks in back to back days takes a toll evidently -- so she changed her workout strategy yesterday, getting exercise only when she walked to a different place to sleep. Corner of living room -- couch -- Sadie's big leather chair.

Sadie checked yesterday afternoon but didn't move much further than this. She wanted to sleep and headed back inside without complaint when I said "come on". She was asleep within minutes inside.

This morning was different. As usual Sadie was off and running to track scent. All the butterflies that she saw Monday morning were not there this morning. She was strictly into deer scent this morning.

Stella was trotting along with Sadie so that was a good sign. I see I am a little confused today. I can't remember if I put the comments about the photo before/above it or below the photo I am talking about. At least today I am putting them below the photos. Sorry for any confusion.

By this time, even though we had just started our walk, I was happy I put on a sweatshirt. The cargo shorts were okay and of course with the heavy dew I was still wearing the North Face snow boots.

Here is Stella showing some early morning energy. I hope it means that her hips are feeling better. Yet, she did not want to jump in back of the FJ yesterday as I unloaded groceries.

She seemed pretty happy this morning. She always loves her breakfast and howls loud enough it would wake up neighbors if I had any nearby. Then she takes a short nap until our first walk.

While Sadie was trying to figure out all the noise a cow as making, Stella trotted up the path like she had a plan to go somewhere.

Suddenly she turned a sharp right and was going to join Sadie, heading in the direction of the field. Since I knew the cow was not in her normal area and most likely just on the other side of the fence, I decided to call the hounds back to me to prevent any possible out of control excitement. I am not sure how motivated they would be chasing a cow.

With the two magic words "over here", the both came back to the path to continue our walk.

It didn't matter to Sadie. If she has any kind of scent to track, she's happy.

Sadie and Stella took off running, getting pretty far away from me. I could tell they were scheming a plan for a possible escape before I could catch them. I had to use 200mm zoom to even get a picture of them.

The closer I got to that area, the faster they trotted north toward the woods. When I yelled "hey", Sadie stopped to think about what she was really doing ... Stella kept her pace and kept trotting away from me.

In the past I have let them take off in that direction. The last time it happened they were in the woods and out of sight before I could run that far. It took me a while to find them and a lot of calling their names. After that I knew I had to keep them from doing that.

Again, when I yelled "over here", Stella turned and headed my direction.

But not before giving me her normal grumpy look for being told to go a different direction than her nose leads her.

They gradually headed in the right direction, although very very slow.

It was Sadie this morning that didn't want to come home or inside. Normally that is Stella but today they traded places. Even in the way they came home.

At first I thought Sadie had found a butterfly or deer scat.

Following her path I realized that it was the scent of the field cat she had locked into.

While Stella walked next to me into the yard, Sadie took Stella's normal route ... just inside the north property line pole.

Sadie still did not want to come in ... that field cat scent must have been strong. She is one that I can let out on her own. She might end up pretty far away in the field but always within view from the house. Stella on the other hand would be next door in a matter of minutes.

We did do a second walk yesterday but without the camera. Stella had 25' of freedom with the retractable leash attached to her collar. Most of the time she is never much further than that from me but the leash kinda helps keeps her focused on direction.

With the food pantry re-stocked and a new 40# of dog food (every 17 days) ready for their Wednesday breakfast ... I didn't have many other places to go. With a lot of highway construction locally and now tearing apart the major intersection downtown for rebuilding it into a larger one, the Z4 will have to head south this afternoon for our drive.

Thanks for all the positive feedback by making a comment or sending me an email, about the 'new' blog. I like the change also and am happy I finally decided on a design I liked.

I wonder what the weeks ahead will bring with some fantastic weather on the August forecast and temps blow normal averages.

It's another great, sunny day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Cool Morning To Walk

While Heidi slept in her new favorite spot, curled up in the corner of the living room, the bloodhounds and I took off for our morning walk with the temperature at 67°. Nice.