When the FJ is moved out away from the small shed, it's a day full of plans while the weather is good. We took an early walk over frosted grass, so I am waiting a little bit for the sun to warm up the roof, give me fewer chances of sliding on slick shingles and possibly falling. It's days like these where I have a hard time deciding when to blog or not to blog. So I'll post what I have but it's really too early to have much action here in 'the tropics'.
I knew with the deer appearance last night around 6pm, the bloodhounds would be pretty excited on the walk this morning. Besides the normal deer traffic at night while we sleep, it wouldn't get really interesting until the end of the walk where the deer actually were. That didn't matter though, Stella took off sprinting with her nose to the ground like she had found something.
Sadie normally leads us on the walk but today she hesitated just enough for Stella to get away. All of these photos today did not capture the times the bloodhounds were really excited about what they were tracking. With the winter parka on the weather was not bad while it might get up to the 50's later this afternoon.
This is the only two in the field of 7 acres.
Feeling for sometime that this whole field and my backyard was sliding toward the south bank, I found out last night it is a little at the south end of the yard but not what is directly behind the house. I see signs of 'ground swell' near the house and I have a plan for that next spring. I still had the feeling that the land was sliding toward the house besides the south end of the yard.
Last night I was looking at some old photos of my hounds of 15-18 years ago. The backyard was in pretty rough shape but the lay of the land was not much different than it was now as far as erosion toward the house. That was a relief to see.
I gave both bloodhounds their total freedom today, with my eyes on them as we walked. I didn't care where they roamed as long as they stayed in the field and not take off into the woods. That is easy for them to do now since the heavy brush has now thinned out due to the winter.
They took off so fast you might think they were chasing deer ... but that was not the case. They just wanted to get to their favorite spot of the week before I got there.
Sadie was still more interested in scent than eating. Too bad the photo doesn't pick up the sound of her jowls that I could hear while snapping the shutter.
A pet sitter years ago told me that she had never heard a sound like that before with all the dogs she had taken care of over the years. I was traveling on business at the time and found someone locally to visit the hounds twice per day while I was gone a week. Now, I have checked with the four local vets and they know no one that will either pet sit or stop by to feed them plus let them outside a few times per day. I also need to find a point of contact for the hounds in case of emergency since the friend I had to do that has moved out of state.
As you can tell, the ATV path that goes across the back of the field, down into the deep gully, also comes back up to the power tower and then back down into the gully and woods to the right of my backyard or behind the burn pile. I saw Christopher riding his ATV as high as possible up the large wet hill behind the burn pile over the weekend. That land is also part of the field owned by my neighbor.
I knew as we took the alternate path, the closer we got to the house the more excited the bloodhounds would be ... because last night that is where the visitors were, about 15ft from the backyard. They were sure the deer were just minutes ahead of them instead of 15 hours. LOL
Yes, they were standing there too and walking right past that area toward the property pole.
Yes, they both headed that direction when I yelled at them to see if they would move.
Stella, that is about where they were standing looking at me ... maybe a few feet ahead.
They both gave up dejected and headed for the yard this morning.
Speaking again of that sloping land I was taking about. It's a long story that I will not get into but this area has sunk for close to 50 years or more. My dad and cousin have told me the story about it. Just a few years ago the FJ would have been level parked there. That is where I use to park my 1994 Chevy truck (wish I had not sold it) and it would sit level.
Did the black wheels look better than the stock wheels that are on their now? You can see leaves that are blocking the gutter downspout.
Sorry I waited so long to get to the three beautiful basset hounds that I made the blog post title about. I didn't think of it until after I started writing the post.
Anyway, Kim is the basset hound breeder for Winston, who I bought in 2004. You can read about him at the top of the blog, where his page is listed. In the past few years she was not only breeding basset hounds but also english mastiffs. She just announced on her Facebook page that she was moving strictly to mastiffs and would be putting three of her basset hounds up for adoption. They are beautiful basset hounds, with championship bloodlines. I do know they will have the temperament that Winston had, which was a little more laidback and relaxed than normal. Great personalities.
For those of you that have a Facebook account, her page is at Old Country Bassets & English Mastiffs. Plug that into the Facebook search and it will come right up. She can answer any questions you might have. If you don't have a Facebook account and are interested, make a comment or send me an email and I'll put you in touch with her.
Just to show everyone how nice these basset hounds look I'll include their pictures here.
CH Morningwoods Beatrice
Marble Anne
Zeus
I cannot look at these photos too long because it is so tempting to take one. I do know based on the 11+ years that I had Winston, you will love these hounds if you choose one. A reminder that none of these three are related in anyway to Winston's bloodline but I do know what kind of hounds Kim breeds and they are top of the line.
Well I need to hit the road. The sunshine is bright and my roof is waiting for me to climb up to blow out the leaves from the gutter one more time before it rains tomorrow. First, Heidi and I will make a quick trip to the recycling center to get rid of my cardboard, plastic and glass.
A beautiful and warmer day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.