The Hounds And Dog Look For Answers

Just wanted to let you know that something weird is going on with Blogger today and possibly longer. While working with another blogger on the issue, we are having the same issues with blogs we follow on our sidebars. Some blogs have disappeared and others you cannot open their website. I just added six blogs to the follow list and only three of them work like they should.

Hot Muggy & Busy

We have had a lot of rain lately here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana but so has Sierra Vista AZ. I miss those open sky light shows I use to see over the Huachuca Mts and the Mule Mts to the left. A Facebook photographer took this the other day. You can see his name in the lower left corner, Arizonan Yeti.

When it's not raining here, it has been hot and muggy, a typical summer in Indiana. I try to squeeze in the yard mowing in between rains which at times is not a lot of time to finish. With it hot the hounds, dog and I have been camping out inside most of the time enjoying the cold air conditioned air. So not a lot of blogable events to write about and just a few photos.

Stella Has Changed Routines

After Sadie was gone in September 2018 I always wondered if Stella wanted to walk in the field because she wanted to or because I wanted to. There were too many times I would have to practically beg her to join me on the morning and afternoon walks, causing me to wonder. She is always changing her routine but recently the change has been huge. This is her response 99.9% of the time when I ask her "you wanna go for a walk" and there's her answer.

Where she use to whine around 9am just months ago to take the walk through the wet field, only canceled by rain, anymore she is sound to sleep at 9am and will join Heidi in sleeping right up until lunch is served. With the hot afternoons I try to walk early evening but it doesn't matter to her. Here it is late morning and the response is the same. "I'm not going anywhere no matter how many times you say let's go"

With lunch served, if it's not raining she spends about an hour sunbathing. I can't help but think those warm stones make her hips feel better or her back.

Heidi enjoys her bed now being right next to the central air vent. With the temps in the 80's now, she will spend most of her afternoons here, next to the cold air. I have not caught her on camera but she still likes to go outside on her own every afternoon, do a little wandering and then lay under the sunshine if it isn't too hot. Otherwise ... right there on her dog bed.

I decided to watch Stella's walk one day. I was even prepared to follow her next door if that is where she wanted to go. I'd even go as far as two houses down if she wanted to check out the water temps for the neighbor's pool. So I stood and watched to see what she would do.

It turned out to be nothing more than the "new normal", her afternoon walk and only walk of the day for so long that I can't remember when it started to be this way.

Yes, the hay is that tall again, where you can barely see her tail. All the rain has been good for the hay growth but the fields across the highway are still not planted and it's raining again as I type this. About the time it dries out enough to get tractors and plows in the field, it rains.

While I was giving her the chance to go anywhere, she walked from the previous photo over to our return path and came home without a word of any kind coming from my mouth. She does that day after day and goes no further than she has to, to relieve herself.

She likes to shake off all the hay seeds and yellow pollen before she comes back inside.

And the "official" end of the walk by walking along the side of the house.

Sometimes her walks are not even what you have seen. They are not any longer than a quick search on the driveway and back to the house. A few times I attached the 25' retractable leash to her thinking that might lead her to the field ... she sits there and makes sure her 85 lbs are as low as possible so there is no way I can move her. Similar to a heavy rock you are trying to move.

Along with her changes to routine, I have seen and felt changes with me and blogging. I admit I love having the extra time to enjoy the day and I seem to get a lot more done around here without taking the time to put a blog together. I take daily photos but not nearly as many as I did in full blogging mode. Nothing official to announce but a post or some hound photos here and there are about all I can come up with.

Both hounds will be 10 years old this summer. Is that the reason for a slower pace summer this year? I think Heidi may be 10 years old since her age is really an estimate. When I picked her up 8 years ago from GABR they estimated she was around 1-1/2 years old but no way to tell. She shows no signs of older age except some graying on her nose and around her eyes.

Stella is so laid back in personality that there isn't a gray hair anywhere on her. I have noticed more crud around her eyes this summer than usual, from the pollen in the air. She still gets the hip/joint supplements 2x per day but there are times she looks like her hips are bothering her as she tries to lay down. No yelping of any kind but she takes it slow and easy to lay down.

Things are good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Move Into Summer

We have been very busy as we move into June. The weather has been great overall and these few photos will show you the hounds have not been doing much at all. That painting you see was sent to me by Chewy.com It was quite a surprise as I opened up the unexpected mail package yesterday. I had sent them a photo of Stella a month or so ago while I was talking to a customer service rep about my auto-shipment of her supplement.

With record amounts of rain, it has been hard to dry out the fields enough to get farming equipment into them to plow and plant this year. I just saw some equipment turn the corner down the single path but I didn't catch if it was towing plows or weed killer for the field of yellow next to this one. We are schedule to get rain around 5pm today.

Due to the rains, they are a few days short of being a month behind of getting that field planted.

After lunch everyday ... it's not much more than this for activity. They turn and head back inside for their afternoon siesta. Depending how warm or hot it is, Stella likes to spend some time sleeping in the sunshine. Heidi spends a lot of time going outside on her own to lay, roll and sleep in the backyard grass most afternoons when it's not raining.

I called for grooming appointments for both of them and after calling three different local groomers ... they can't schedule me until AUGUST !!!! I give Heidi a bath in the tub with no problem but Stella wants nothing to do with bathing inside the tub or outside in the sunshine.

She has cancelled the morning walk and we haven't walked first thing in the morning in so long I can't remember the last time we did that. She is always ready for an afternoon walk where she returns with no ticks on her and by that time I am pulling 5-7 very very small ones off of me. The field is taller than my shoulders near the house in the lowest part of the field and much taller than Stella in the rest of the field.

With the warmer than normal winter this year, I have never seen it worse for ticks as it has been this spring in the 21 years I've been here. They are always on me any time of day or night. In past years I have sprayed my yard for ticks and fleas. Living as close to that field as I do ... the spray didn't help. One year I emptied the rooms and sprayed inside, that did not help.

The only thing that helps is the NexGuard the hounds take one time each year in April or May and that keeps them "tick free" for the rest of the summer. I suffer in the meantime.

Heidi was pretty active today after lunch. She barked, spun in circles and wanted to play.

As I walked up the hill from the mailbox ... she looked as if she wondered if Stella still had a pulse.

There has been a lot of "classified" activity going on around here and even some redactions on paperwork being exchanged. I have no idea what is going on in the world because I have been busy enough to keep the tv off except for the Cincinnati Reds games. My computer time is down almost 66% based on data used ... busy busy busy times.

The windows are open, the birds are chirping and a nice cool breeze from the south/southwest today. The hounds are both in a deep sleep for the rest of the afternoon here at 12:47pm.

It's been great lately in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Boycotts Morning Walk

This is Stella's new morning routine. She will whine that she wants to take the walk in the morning but that has turned out to let me know she just wants to go outside. Again on Wednesday morning she wasn't going anywhere. Afternoon walks are also in question, some days yes, some days no. It's funny how she comes up with these changes.

A few minutes before 6am this morning I glanced outside and there was a light fog hovering over the top of the hay. I headed outside as fast as possible to take a picture while the hounds were chowing down on their morning kibble. (It's raining again at 7pm)

This morning she stood there doing nothing and it was about the time I started walking back to the house when she started slowly walking to the field. Only to eat wet grass.

I thought the Azalea was dead but some signs of life. The other three are growing like gangbusters and are the same position under the roof overhang.

Heidi came out right after lunch but she wasn't going anywhere either. Although she ended up spending most of the afternoon outside alone, wandering, taking a walk in the grass and then sleeping in the backyard under the sunshine.

Once Stella saw that I was walking away in the field she decided a Thursday morning walk might be a good idea.

She was running so fast she ran right past the camera.

The race was on to see who would get into the house first

When I didn't see Heidi for an hour or so outside I started walking to the field and there she was. She was just returning from her own walk and exploration.

I am getting a lot done. I am very tired by the time I finish and the nights are not long enough. All is good though in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.