Sadie Finds The New Bird Nest

It didn't take the hounds long to find out today's weather was going to be different today and their temporary confinement inside was going to end ... no rain for six more days, IF that forecast holds.

Without my thermometer not hanging on the wall, I took an early morning glance online at WeatherUnderground to see what the temp was outside a little after 7am. That is when I saw the lack of rain forecasted for the next week. It was still sweatshirt and shorts weather but still much nicer than hearing rain for another day.

Slight interruption ... there is a surprise photo below.

With that change, the hounds did their first quick trip outside and back waiting at the door for their breakfast. While they are outside I am pouring kibble inside. Now they go right back outside after eating for a searching mission, one they use to do first thing in the morning. A few months back, once they found out they were getting two meals per day ... they changed their routine to eat the fastest way possible. All three of them love to eat.

After I stepped back inside to pour a cup of coffee, the hounds had more than a few minutes to disappear. I was happy to come outside to see both of them still around and in their field searching mode. Although it was in a different area than their normal patrol.

After the time when Stella took off in the direction behind her in this photo, over to a drainage ditch that is between my neighbor's yard and the field between us ... I am always leery when she is on that side of the yard ... but she came when called today with no problem.

I wonder if there is any 4-leaf clover in my yard?

A little after 9am, After their short nap of an hour or so, they both came to get me and drink the last of their water which sits besides my computer desk. They were wanting to go outside again. With the sun trying to come out, but still wet grounds ... no walk was taken yet but they had time to search their yard. Sadie found something surprising and I may have not noticed it until she sat below it with her nose pointing upward.

I'm not sure I would have caught 'the surprise' if I had not seen Sadie sitting beside me and staring up at the new bird nest. Yes, the birds have been busy and quite determined, since I took down the carport thermometer on Sunday. They tried the the corner ledge in the carport but it was too small for their nest to stick.

It looks like they decided to move outside under the overhang. I'll have more photos about what goes on there. When you think about it, that is just an amazing amount of work building that nest. This is a place I don't mind having a bird nest.

Stella in the meantime is not into bird chasing or watching like Sadie is ... she continued to collect data on scents on top and underneath 'her' yard.

Stella is checking to see if the field is still too wet to venture out into and possibly requesting a walk.

That's Sadie's "look", asking me if we can go for a walk now. Due to the saturated ground and wet grass, the first walk may not happen until after their lunch today. I need some sunshine to dry out the muddy grounds in the field.

Stella continues her yard exploration and data collection all the way back to the house.

Heidi had an afternoon bath yesterday with the shampoo. It cleaned her skin up really well and by last night the skin below her ears and down her neck was soft and I could see healing taking place. Her other red spots were also soft, supple and she showed no pain when I touched them.

The water and vinegar applications seem to be working.

I keep catching myself glancing up where the thermometer was for the 19 years that I've lived here. It was installed before I moved into this house. How long? I'm not sure. I decided this morning, for a day or two, I'd prop it up over by my trash can. The trash can upside down is the one  I use to collect leaves, sticks or anything else when cleaning the yard. The five gallon bucket seemed like the perfect holder for the thermometer.

Over the next few days am going to decide if I want to hang the thermometer on the wall it is now sitting in front of. I am thinking during nest building seasons (like now) I could take it down and sit it like this. Then during the "off season" it could hang on the wall, which is just left of the shed where it was before.

The hounds are back to their normal sleep time until they eat lunch. I don't have a lot planned today except to spend time outside, even if it's doing nothing but sitting in a chair. The grass is cut, the driveway weeds are under control with my regular use of the weed eater on them.

I am going to have to pull out the debit card to get some cash ... I need to air the tires up on my Mini Cooper. Sound strange? Well the oldest gas station in town (over 50 years old), closed recently and I no longer have a place to get "free air" to air my tires up. All the other local gas stations have air machines that want a lot of my quarters. I can't say I am happy about that.

Yet, with the change in the weather, all is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Nikkor 55-200 Lens Now Working

With rain predicted tonight, I heard the rumbling sound of farm equipment and assumed the field across the highway was being plowed. It was the next field over, where they had plowed a few weeks ago. One tractor was spraying fertilizer with another following with a new round of disking.

It wasn't long before a 3rd tractor shows up with planters on the back. Of course my Nikon D3200 decided it didn't want to work again. It's been on the blink now for the year it's been back from repair. I don't think I'll be buying another Nikon in the future.

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It looks like a case of user error ... a long article but it's the answer to all my frustration with this camera ... dslr-autofocus-modes-explained.

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The hounds went out for an early scout of the yard. Neither was too enthused about starting the week, although Stella entered the field on the far corner again where the grass is not as high. She tried to sneak out along the edge of the brush line.

It was about this time while I was trying different things to get the Nikkor 55-200 lens to work. For the past several months when turned to the 55mm mark the lens would not retract flush like it should. I found a fix for that on the Nikon D3200 forum months ago. It said to turn the focus ring counter clockwise and the lens would retract to the correct position. When doing that I always felt resistance and hear a slight plastic clicking sound. I figured that was normal since it was being turned counter clockwise. Today when I tried that on the 55-200, it was smooth as butter. There wasn't any kind of resistance nor sound.

When I tried taking photos with the 200mm zoom, the lens auto-focused with the lens moving in and out very smooth without any kind of sounds. Was that my problem with focus in the past? I had not been able to take a zoomed photo higher than the 135mm setting on the camera for quite a while.

With it working I started taking photos from different lengths of zoom. I saw where the birds tried building a new nest in a different part of the carport last night. The problem with this area, that ledge they were trying to build on is only 1/2" wide and not enough surface to hold a nest.

In the meantime as I was trying to get photos of the farming across the highway, Stella decided she would quietly sneak away. I am going to have to start watching her and calling her back before she gets into the wooded area. She has been creeping past her boundary lately.

Sadie decided she would hang back and try to talk me into the first walk of the day but it's way too wet for that right now. It might take a few more hours for the field to dry out from the heavy dew.

Stella starts her escape.

I was only able to get this one photo of the farming going on this morning with a 55mm setting, then I cropped it. When I turned around I couldn't see Stella so I yelled her name pretty loud for her to get back to the yard.

She wasn't happy being caught but did start her slow trek back to the house.

With the camera battery low, I stopped attempting to take more photos, happy that the lens was now working again. I still don't know if it's my eyes but the photos don't look nearly as sharp to me as they did when I first got the camera.

One difference is when I first bought the camera I was shooting NEF Raw quality then but changed that this past year to JPEG Fine due to the large file size of the raw images. With limited data per month I could not afford to upload as many photos to the blog as I do with each photo being 6-7Mb's in size with the raw quality setting, unless I did my blog posts after midnight. Between midnight and 5am I get unlimited data that is not counted as part of my monthly usage.

I've been going over the camera owners manual over and over, reading the Nikon forums in trying to solve the different issues I've had with this camera. Years ago I used a Cannon Manual camera and various lenses without any trouble.

Heidi is headed for a bath after this and a fresh application of the water, vinegar mix. This morning is the typical "two steps forward and one step back" in the process. I'll let you guess which direction she is going this morning.

I'll try to add some more photos to this post after the battery is charged up.

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Here are some photos taken after the battery charged up. The lens is still moving smoothly and retracting to the correct position. It will be interesting to see how long it works.

Sadie and Stella take in a meal of grass chewing. Looking back on the blog a year ago and I see that the field this year is much taller than last. I had not got Stella yet and Sadie was still being tethered while she roamed the field.

Heidi's skin looked almost the same as this year and Winston spent a lot of time just laying in the yard.

Overcast skies and another day of cool temps here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I Really Didn't Like The Bird Nest Block

The more I looked at that new piece of stainless steel over the thermometer, the less I liked it. I didn't even like it when I visualized it painted the same color as the wall. So to get a better idea I decided I'd sleep on it ... like a mid-afternoon siesta. (Can I say the word siesta and still be politically correct or is that offensive?) j/k?

The siesta didn't last longer than a hour or so because I was restless ... a sure sign that something was going to happen and it was going to happen today ... whatever it was.

I had my answer!!!  Turning my email on I see a reader named Cat M has made a comment ".... just probably taken the thermometer down ...".

Why didn't I think of that? I guess that is one disadvantage in being single, you never get the 2nd opinion that might be a good idea. The hounds try but they are really only interested in food, sleep and walks. I looked at the official temps online ... 57°. That is warm enough to paint. The breeze will dry the paint even faster ... but I got to move.

The cost of that sheet metal was a little more than the large Dairy Queen Blizzard I would have bought today, plus you never know when you might need it again to ... block a bird nest project.

Taking out the two screws on the bottom brackets that were hidden under 30 years of different paint jobs, were actually easy and the thermometer lifted up and over the screw at the top.

I plugged the screw holes with some exterior caulk, took a putty knife to take off the rough edges of worn paint. I found some sand paper in my drawer of paint supplies and sanded the surface down to a fine smooth painting surface. It was time for the primer.

I needed to let this dry so by the time I cleaned the paint brush, put my tools away along with the brand new bent sheet metal ... Stella decided she would help me with the drying process. You may be wondering how would she do that???

Well let's sneak off out of sight and refuse to come when I am called ... for starters. Sadie and I looked everywhere. I walked out into the field next to me and down to the drainage ditch she visited months ago ... it had overgrown and she wasn't there.

I picked up a tree limb and was walking to the burn pile while calling her name. I don't see her next door, nor in the field anywhere. Sadie and I will follow the dog walk path hoping to find her on the way. But ......

Just as I turned from the burn pile I see Stella standing at the kitchen door looking inside. I have no idea where she was. She wasn't out front when I checked but it was nice to see her at the door instead of out in the woods.

To celebrate .. the hounds and I took off for a walk.

Even with cool temps and a steady breeze, it was still a beautiful day. I liked how blue the sky was. I didn't edit the photo of the sky. I also liked the clouds today.

Sadie spends most of her time near me when walking lately. There are still scents in the air that interest her.

Stella decided she had better run since she was being left behind. Since she knew she was already on "double secret probation" from her disappearance, she ran a little faster today.

With all the green I thought the Voodoo Blue really stood out in this photo.

By the time we hunted for Stella, did a hound walk and put up the tools, the primer had dried for me to put a coat of house paint on the missing thermometer.

It's still drying when these were taken but I like the look of not having it on the wall. Thanks to Cat M for the suggestion.

Still drying and the camera needed part of the FJ to have something to focus on. With the weird reflections from the setting sun, it looks almost like I need to paint the whole wall again.

Quite a bit accomplished in 24 hours -- such is life in the world of retirement.

No snow but cold tonight in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.