A Beautiful Saturday

 

The temps increased from 29° early in the morning to 47° by early afternoon. That mean a lot of backyard hound play and walks for all three of them. I tried but Walter has zero interest in going out to walk, although without a leash he will walk with me to the mailbox. He waits on the driveway while I walk across the street to get my mail. Nothing but photos after this. IU game at 5pm but I will be out on the patio enjoying this weather as long as I can.

Hounds Started Early

 

You can tell by the tone of the photos it was early, like 7:30am and it was overcast with rain in the forecast. The made no difference to the hounds as they were outside early chasing each other, wrestling until the light rain showed up. I had to yell'' "milk bone" to get the three of them inside. Walter is included in that treat even though he was inside staying dry.

Morning Play Session

Their morning play session about 7:30am at 19° ... believe it or not, Google put the photos in order. I'll post a video in tonights post.

I Knew Watson Would Change

Just a short quick post to show that Watson finally decided Samson was good this morning. Just like Sadie did with Stella in August 2015. They all ate this morning without a dog fight over food. They drink out of the same water bowl. The larger one from outside has been brought inside to the mudroom. I had just walked to the patio door to check on them outside and they were sprinting on the slick icy yard .. by the time I got my camera they had moved over to the side yard to wrestle.

Nothing but photos. Samson in the choker collar, Watson has his black collar and of course you are already know Henry. 25° Walter is inside where it's warm.

We Changed Our Mind

It wasn't two hours ago that I posted "Not Interested" when I mentioned anything about walking in the snow, shoveling snow, watching the snow ... anything with snow. Yet when you live in "5 minute windows" like I do anything is possible. So .... Stella and Sadie were THRILLED that I changed my mind about going outside for a hound walk in the deep (deeper than we thought) snow.

I was not to the field yet and the snow was up to the top of my boots. They are built for this so I had no doubt that my feet would stay dry and stay warm ... onward ... the hounds were already in the back of the field knowing we were going to go on a walk.

The longer I walked, the deeper the snow got. I could tell watching the hounds it was much deeper than forecasted or what I thought it was by adding 2" to the 2" to 3" we already had. The snow was almost up to the elbows of each bloodhound.

Stella was more interested in the wooded area and the gully rather than the field. I had to yell loud for her to change her mind and her direction.

She was having fun running through the snow around the field from the wooded area to the middle of the lower field. In past years I have seen and walked through this field when the snow was up to the bottom of Sadie's stomach and higher than Winston's back ... but today's snowfall although not as deep as that was deeper than we have had in recent years.

First I couldn't believe I was seeing sparrows on the ground up ahead. If you remember, Sadie LOVES chasing birds in the heat of the summer if she finds birds at ground level in the field or yard ... she was going to get some sprints in today.

As I looked down at my buried boots ... Sadie took off.

I caught her over by the woods behind the neighbor's house but she came sprinting when I called her name.

Of course today was one of those days where one hounds is in the opposite direction than the other. Once Stella realizes that is happening, then it's her chance to escape. By the time I found Stella all I saw were her two rear legs and her butt ... she was about to go down into the gully.

Yelling her name with a stern tone and saying "get out of there", she turned around and ran toward me through deep snow, thorny bush stems and anything else in her way. She does not run, trot or walk around anything ... including me ... when something is in her way.

Sadie ??? Well one of "her birds" had escaped and had flown back across the field back to the area on my right side just ahead of Stella. I had to do a little convincing to break her focus otherwise her chase could lead her to parts unknown if that bird had gone airborne.

I decided to turn around before the back of the field. I thought but was wrong, I had seen Stella raise her paw slightly signifying that she was cold ... but she had other ideas.

They too live in "5 minute windows" so their focus soon changed to the neighbor across the highway that was brushing the snow off of his windshield. Only mom gets to park in the garage.

I could measure the distance from the ground to Sadie's elbow or I could go outside and drop a tape measure into the snow to get the depth ... but she would never stand that still, assuming I was about to cut her toenails ... and ... I've had enough fun in the snow this afternoon. So I'll just say the snow is deep and leave it at that.

Stella was ready ... I only said "let's go home" and she ran over to the path we had made and took off.

Sadie had to explore more on the way home.

Their time in the snow with a walk and some wrestling was satisfying enough to them that they ran to the door to go back inside ... but I had some work to do.

Doesn't look like much snow but it is sitting under the roof, plus I needed to clean up what I could in the carport before those rain showers show up later this afternoon and tonight, then turn to ice.

I only shoveled the area of the carport I spoke of early today ... but when you get distracted like I do outside, I decided I needed to clear out the required space around my mailbox that is requested by the post office to get the mail delivered ... 99.9% junk mail anymore.

The only problem with that is ... as the plow moves further out to the edge of the asphalt with each high speed pass, what I have shoveled around the mailbox will be covered with salty, sandy, slush ... that will freeze over tonight with the lower temps. It will be a disaster tomorrow when the mail carrier returns to work after a holiday off.

Before going back inside I kicked my boots hard and often against the concrete steps to get as much snow off of them as possible. My feet were dry and warm inside them.

Since we have had our unexpected walk, the carport is shoveled, a 2nd blog post within hours there is nothing more planned outside for today. It will be some reading, a few games of Mahjong, and maybe a game, movie or two transferred from my DVR to DVDs.

The hardest part of today will be explaining to Sadie why she cannot have any of my Oreo Golden Double Stuf Cookies. (THEY only use one 'F'). When you have to go out late at night, snowing hard enough that you cannot see when you drive to buy some kind of 'snack' food ... you know that you have fallen off of your diet wagon head first.

Enjoy the photos, there are 40 of them ... hope this didn't soak up too much data for those readers with data limits.

Waiting for those late afternoon, early evening "snow showers" here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Are WILD After A Day Off

Though no fault of their own, all the hounds had a 'day off' yesterday. I'll not go into great detail but around midnight Friday night I started getting really sick. That led to a sleepless night where I seriously considered a trip to the emergency room 12 miles away. I staggered to the couch around noon on Saturday because there was no way I missing the best weekend of college football games this season. It was finally around 5pm Saturday I felt some improvement thanks to some hot peppermint tea and some rice for food.

Combined with 25° temps that I did NOT mind this morning and a Saturday where Sadie and Stella got only half of a walk ... to say they were wild and out of control this morning would be an understatement. I let loose of the reigns and let them go, taking photos as I walked.

Sadie is so happy to take a walk again and so fast that she almost did a forward somersault passing Stella.

I would hate to think it was the Marie Callender's pumpkin pie with a crunched brown sugar/pecans topping is what did me in. I watched my portions on all the food I ate Thursday and Friday but I had the same reactions months ago after having their dutch apple pie.

With both hounds running uncontrollably I was a little concerned as I approached the first turn and didn't see any signs of a hound.

There is Stella but where did Sadie run off to?

Once I called her name she came running out from the brush/gully area on the right side.

By the time I got even with the hounds enjoying their frozen treats they turned and took off sprinting for the back of the field. At the pace they were going I was positive I'd be heading north to get them out of the woods that now has a large ATV path for them to follow.

When I saw Sadie's head looking this direction with her ears perked up and head in a locked position, I looked over into the field and saw 10 or more deer standing far away looking back in our direction. As they turned to take off sprinting, Sadie turned around ran past Stella and headed home. The picture I tried to take of the deer was too blurry to post.

Their plan this morning seemed to be to stay as far in front of me as possible. They did that from the time I walked into the field to start the walk.

This gives you some idea how far ahead they are, taking the photo with the lens at 50mm.

Stella is busy as expected. But I couldn't see Sadie anywhere.

Then to the far left I can barely see her after she blended in with the tall dormant hay.

I always wonder what has walked through the yard while we sleep at night. I guess I need to mount a camera to one of these large trees or to the fence post to get my answer

You would think by now this Sunday morning walk would be over. It's freezing. The hounds have done about all they can do on their walk ... at least I thought so. But when you have some pent up energy from a forced day off ... nothing is finished until they say so.

Stella faked Sadie into a team search but within seconds did the first move of attacking her to get in some wrestling.

Since she is outside, Sadie took the defensive position to fight off Stella's strong maneuvers.

As Stella did her patented spin move to come back with another attack, Sadie did her sitting still move ... to let Stella believe the play was over.

Then she jumped into Stella with a strong chest bump and trying to win the battle.

Yet, with Stella regaining her weight and strength over the summer and fall ... she was able to pin Sadie to the ground to win the match.

The match wasn't over though to Sadie ... she got up as if she was going to walk back to the door but stopped, stood still and then attacked again trying to get the advantage on Stella.

Like I have said before, there is never any growling going on during this. Nor have they ever lost their temper and turned this into a serious dog fight. They just enjoy having another hound as big and strong as they are to play with.

When they both stopped, each of them doing their 'fake' move I said "that's all" and they headed for the door ... only to run inside and continue playing. That is what excess energy does to bloodhounds. I'll not get sick again.

I'm going to take it easy on my food intake today. I know for sure it was not food poisoning. After my first and only serving of food on Thursday I put the extra food in the fridge even while it was hot. I did the same thing on Friday mid-afternoon for an early dinner. I will not be buying another pie to test and see if that was it.

Hope all survived the holiday ... the next one isn't that far away.

A sunny freezing morning here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.