The Hounds Take A Day Off

It was another nice day today, with the morning walk taken in 71° weather and a slight cool breeze from the south. The big difference was, my feet were dry during and after the walk, in a field that had heavy rain-like dew in the shaded areas. How did that happen? I wore my North Face snow boots again, just like last summer. Stella was so excited about walking this morning she was the first one out the door with a big nose to nose race between her and Sadie, on who would be first outside.

With the sun reflection this morning different than yesterday's late afternoon, I had a better view of the mowed yard. I couldn't help but post this photo this morning after admiring the change a sharp blade made yesterday. July brown is the lawn color of many houses here locally. We do not have a water shortage, nor is it expense to use water but I don't see a lot of people that water their lawns like I have in the past. I have not watered my yard in years and doubt that I do this summer.

As Stella stepped into the field ahead of me I was happy I made the choice that I did in footwear. As of this morning there is no need to look for another pair of cheap rain boots that are low cut, not the ones that are knee high. The snow boots will do the job and it's only a 15 minute walk at the most. There is no other time in yard work that I get my feet wet.

Sadie was back in her routine of exploring scent during her walk instead of eating, like yesterday.

Stella was also back in her old routine of ignoring anything verbal and wandering with no specific plan in place. I wish I could be as laidback as she is. It took a lot of verbal herding of her today to finish the morning walk. There were even three separate times I had to backtrack and just the touch of her collar got her to move in our direction. Much like the mother I saw the other day in Walmart with her young child ... but there no collar was involved.

I am sure the gardening and plant experts can name this as soon as they see it. I can't. If a name or a plant is related to sports then I am pretty quick recognizing something. Otherwise my memory sucks on plant names, song names, shopping lists and what I had for breakfast yesterday.

Stella followed her path slowly angling towards Sadie and I. She seemed to be feeling pretty good today as I witnessed a little more energy from her this morning. Of course when you compare her speed this morning against 'slow motion' I guess anyone or any hound would look energized.  LOL

Sadie heard nothing, saw nothing, tasted nothing ... only smells were her focus this morning.

As soon as she gets back inside after these morning walks, she sleeps soundly all the way until lunch is served. Where was Heidi this morning on such a nice day .... stretched out on the couch snoring.

Thanks to a couple of comments yesterday, I left my camera setting at 'auto no flash' and will keep it there. Now my brain is searching the difference in distance .. this was taken at 135mm. I wonder how long these rolls of hay will stay here? Obviously they don't need the hay until this winter, but they usually have it picked up within a month of baling it. Not this year.

As we made the first turn this morning, the air was full of birds singing. No butterflies were seen and that beagle we saw yesterday was nowhere on the horizon ... I kept looking for it just in case.

I've never been able to get rid of those 'elephant skin' patches you see on Stella. Different creams have been tried, all the creams were for canines only.

Unlike yesterday, at this point of the morning walk, I had nothing in my mind for today's plan. When you are retired you really don't need a plan but what it showed me, that brief one day slap in the face motivation had vanished as fast as it appeared yesterday. Unless I want to drive to Bloomington to pick up a new turntable, I didn't get anything done besides watching the Reds game in Chicago this afternoon.

Turntable???? Did I say a turntable??? Yes I did. At 34 years old, with a new belt, that old LP vinyl record was sounding great the other day as it streamed through my brand new Yamaha receiver. Then a strange noise ...  then a screeching noise!!! I knew something major had happened. With my small camping LED flashlight I was able to find the cause. When a stylus is that old, plastic ages and breaks. The stylus needle had broken off from the cartridge.

After spending a few days online searching for a stylus replacement and then a cartridge replacement, I was finding that the replacements suggested of course were priced high, throw in some shipping cost and I was approaching the cost of a new turntable ... that was a MODERN turntable ... they now connect a USB cord to your computer so you an download songs from a vinyl LP into an MP3 file. Pretty amazing.

So yesterday morning, or was it Friday morning ? ... I started going through all of my vinyl records to see how many were duplicated when I bought a CD years ago. I wanted to double check on whether I really needed a turntable or not.  Luckily I did not have to go through the whole collection. Halfway through the first handful of albums, almost every album I looked at was not on cassette tape nor CD ... "case closed" I'll get a new turntable. Those LPs that I did see I wanted to play again. {By late afternoon I had almost decided to not buy a turntable but to take that same money and purchase those albums that were only on vinyl, electronically or on a CD. I may rethink that option whether to spend money on something that may not be used a lot.}

It was about this same spot yesterday that I saw a glimpse of something up ahead by the edge of the field, not knowing if it was a rabbit or a small dog. I double checked this morning to see if the beagle had come back but not really expecting to see it. I had a feeling it was just visiting neighborhood yesterday.

I am not sure how many of you have dogs. Nor do I know if you take your dogs for walks off leash, giving them total freedom, but this is a fine example of a bloodhound being stubborn, just as their AKC description states. It is also shows it was one of three times I had to walk back to 'start' to grab her collar to get her to move in our direction. Some times Stella was start walking our direction once she sees me walking towards her. Sadie is standing right behind me when I took this photo ... also waiting.

I like this view of the field ... it is a good way to show what kind of day to expect ... minus high temperature readings. It won't be long before all those green leaves will be different colors.

Looking at the treeline of the Mahogany trees behind the house as I walked back home, I noticed a section that did not have leaves this year. I wonder why? That is just not one Mahogany tree like my friend thought it was a few years ago but a group of small ones. As I type this I am following that leafless tree limb down toward the bottom of the photo and know it's a single limb a few feet away from the others ... and I remember it was like this last summer also. It looks healthy.

This section is to the north of the front yard on the field side of the property line. I know why these trees look like they do. It was a couple of years ago when I decided to burn all the dead leaves and brush that had collected over many years between the saplings on the north side of the yard. The flames were high enough to shoot up into those trees and was so big that a car passing by on the highway decided they would call the fire department for me. He didn't know that I had things under control. It didn't take long for the local volunteer fire department to put my fire out. Like the bank on the opposite side, the bare ground from burning brought back that same wild growth 3x as thick.

I have said it before but I need a chair up in this area. To me this is the best part of the yard. A good 10° cooler even in the hottest days of summer. That single tree in the center of the photo is the tree that has no leaves. It is not a problem mowing and trimming the grass around it but maybe I should cut it down to ground level.

With the mower raised back up one notch to a 3" cut I will be able to miss a week in my mowing schedule. We are looking at a couple of days it might rain but in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, those forecasts can change within 5 minutes.

The afternoon turned out to be a pretty lazy day. I watched the Reds game until 5:15pm when Sadie couldn't wait any longer for her her afternoon walk. A little too hot for me but we took off anyway as the Reds game looked like it was going into extra innings.

I had planned for some afternoon photos but the hounds had other ideas. While they were outside after lunch I was pouring a new 40lb bag of dog food into the sealed storage container. I grabbed the camera expecting that Heidi might be sunbathing in the front yard while the bloodhounds roamed the field.

How wrong I was ... all three were standing at the door wanting back inside. Within 5 minutes ... all three hounds had chosen their afternoon napping spots and were sound asleep. So with a little free time until the baseball game I installed Firefox Quantum on my laptop, imported all the current bookmarks and did the latest updates to Firefox. Now that I have blocked autoplay for videos, I really like using that browser. It has the security of Safari and the features of Google Chrome.

The suns reflection told me the Z4 needs washed. With the rain no longer in the 5 day forecast I'll wash it in the morning and then do a little weed pulling in front.

It turned out to be a pretty lazy Sunday, not really a surprise after all the work I did outside yesterday. I have a tape of the IndyCar race today in Iowa and the 2nd Stage of the Tour de France to watch tonight.

Otherwise the weather was beautiful again today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I Was Confused What Day It Was - But Turned Out Okay

After the hound walk late afternoon yesterday, I hung my soaked ballcap up outside on the nail knowing there was little chance of drying out overnight with the humidity. It was better than leaving it hung up on the door hinge inside, it's normal place. So it was not a shock to put a soaked ballcap on for our morning walk this morning ... it was 20° cooler at 8:46am but it didn't feel like it.

I tried something different this morning taking photos ... all at 35mm or 50mm, except three of the last four.

Stella continued her path of success and I am in disbelief that she has not changed this routine and all out ignored me so she can head north to the neighbor's woods and backyard. She takes her own path with little verbal herding and meets Sadie and I right before we reach the corner of the field, or our first turn.

Unlike the growth in the field this spring and early summer, where it was almost all grass, it is now filling up with food for bees and places to land for larger butterflies. Like last summer I think they will let it grow until next June. That's fine since the hounds will still be visible on our walks or when I sit outside and let them wander the field.

Sadie was showing signs there was a lot of deer or rabbit, maybe both, activity while we slept. She was intense in her exploring this morning.

When she is in this mode, she hears nothing, sees nothing and moves quick in different directions. The camera cannot pick all her moves up in time.

For over two weeks now, Stella has followed her same path starting north then slowly angling toward the corner to meet us. We meet up in about the same area of the field every morning. Maybe it's her old pink collar that is making her so controlled?

By this time in the walk, what I consider the first 25% of it, the humidity is thick yet a low percentage on the weather app. Since it took me a while to realize this is Friday morning and not Saturday morning (does it make a difference retired?) I had to alter my plans to buy dog food this morning. The chicken blend usually sells out on Friday.

Stella was more active than she had been in a while. What I mean by that is, she wasn't trotting but walking faster, more receptive to what she was smelling and the shocker ... she wasn't eating deer scat.

She looks at me as if I am crazy when I talk to her ... who knows? Maybe I am.

As I walk through the field I am wondering what all of these 'normal' photos are going to look like shot at 50mm instead of 70mm-200mm? Will they be sharper, more clear? Will I have to crop any? We'll see when they are sent through the editing process.

I didn't call Sadie's name or say anything ... but as I was tracking her with the camera held to my eye ... she looked right at me. Still intense and walking at a fast pace. Scents were all over the field for her today.

It didn't surprise me. I expected it. When I turned from Sadie to see what Stella was doing ... she was looking at that 'far right corner', even taking a few steps in that direction ....

When I called her name ... she turned and came right toward me. What's up with her? I am not use to all of this obedience from a bloodhound. Honestly I am shocked how nice she has been the past few weeks on these walks.

With all the rain and sun this spring/summer ... everything is nice and green. This stood out in seven acres of greenness.

The back of the field always has a lot of deer traffic, in any season.

I am surprised how many photos I am catching with 50mm setting. I may have overlooked this for the past year or two. I am liking what I see as I downloaded them from my camera to my computer.

I am noticing with bright sunshine and the setting of 'landscape' some of the images are too dark when I am shooting back towards the sun.

From this angle it looks like Stella has gained her weight back from her loss from 15 months ago. At other angles she still looks thin but eats like a horse.

We might be close to finishing the walk but that does not mean that Stella is going to follow Sadie and I. She would love to turn right toward those woods but walked parallel to Sadie and I, to within three feet of the yard ... then turned toward us.

The only animal that would stand that tall next to the pole to draw so much interest from Stella ... is deer. I've seen them walk by that pole and took pictures of it last year (can't remember the month) ... so deer is my only guess for what she seems to be smelling.

Those last three photos were taken at 200mm

As you can probably tell, I lowered my lawn mower blade one notch yesterday ... I have a lot of grass to rake up before my next mowing next week sometime. Any grass collected will be added to the burn pile for this fall. Stella actually broke into a little trot in that photo ...

It was really nice today with temps in the mid 80's. Yet the hounds were not interested in any kind of walking or soaking up the rays after their lunch. They came out, sniffed a little and all headed toward the door to be let inside. I tried a couple of different formula's of vinegar and water mixtures to see if that will kill the weeds. Three hours after I sprayed a 50/50, a 75/25 and 100% vinegar ... I saw no signs of wilting.

I am afraid that Stella has become addicted to the air conditioning. That is as far as she got today after her lunch. She didn't move until Heidi and Sadie headed for the door to go back inside. I was almost ready to pull out my weed trimmer but decided I would do all of it tonight after 7pm when the temperature is suppose to drop to 78°. With the Reds playing in Chicago at 2:20pm I was able to cut weeds and rake grass after 7pm.

To confirm in my mind, I have looked at past pictures of this driveway in the same months for each year going back to 2010. That year I spent a week on my hands and knees pulling out every weed by it's roots with my hands ... I even blogged about it since it was so exciting .... well that only MULTIPLIED them the following summer and they have never stopped multiplying. I haven't had this many weeds in the driveway since I moved in March 1998.

99.9% of my mailbox down by the highway is a receiver of junk mail. The general consensus is I am close to death and if I return a card the state of Indiana will help pay for my funeral. I also have been getting weekly offers for the past two years for government funded hearing aids or a price discount IF I come in for an exam. Some time this past spring those offers have changed to them confirming my examination appointment ... one that I have never made.

They don't give up.

By the time I finished watching the Reds beat the Cubs 3-2 in Chicago, then taking our 2nd hound walk of the day, I had changed my mind about raking dead grass in the yard. It might be a real possibility Saturday morning but things change rapidly in retirement so we'll see

Another fine day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Are Back After A Day Off

That glimmer of sunshine this morning proved to me that yesterday's post was missing not because of writer's block but overcast skies. It has been hard to come up with words lately, so yesterday after I deleted what I has written and saved, I just thought it was because of lack of words. It was the sunshine or lack thereof.

Neither type of sky bothers any of the hounds. Sadie is always ready to go for a walk, no matter what time of day or night. She hears that word and she immediately starts hopping up and down and making a noise somewhere in between a bark and a pant.

Stella's nose is nudging the round door knob trying to get it to open while Heidi is buried deep inside her winter sleeping bag. Why a sleeping bag?  I've noticed she doesn't have any kind of skin rash sleeping on the sleeping bag compared to wool blankets.

Unlike yesterday where I let Stella hang back, this morning she ran past me to catch up with Sadie. Maybe the sunshine makes her feel different also.

There is still enough stuff to investigate whether you stay behind or lead the walk.

Again it's nice there is no wind. That makes the temps much warmer, tolerable and the only thing different in the walks from six months ago is the amount of clothing worn.

No signs of deer in quite a while but Sadie always seems to sprint around the first turn as if there were.

If I can get Stella to this point in the walk, it is usually safe to assume that she will not disappear into the wooded area. It is just past what I call the 'first turn'.

Looking back through my photo library for the past year looking for one particular photo that was not coming up in my search, it's neat to see what the weather was like this time last year. We had already had our first light snow and it was much colder than this year. If the weather of the past few weeks is going to be our winter this year, I'm all for it.

I heard the thundering sound of Sadie running up behind me as I walked along the back of the field. She has been faster than the camera this week. Which reminds me, this morning I adjusted my auto focus setting to 'single point' from 'auto area'. I did that because it seemed to me a lot of my photos lately were burred when I would try to focus in on the hounds.

When Sadie has her left paw raised while standing that usually means she is even more focused processing information her nose has found, than she normally does.

I need some help from the camera or photography 'experts'. I left this photo as is, with the tower leaning to the right. When I looked through my view finder, this tower was lined up straight with he vertical markings inside the view finder ... but came out leaning around 2°. I've seen this in my other photos the past month or so.

Is my camera or lens out of adjustment for some strange reason or is it an 'old thing', much like feeling your ball cap is on straight but the mirror shows it's on your head crooked?

I was shocked to see that Stella had made it 10'-20' feet past the first turn and was within view. That meant I would not have to send out the search teams for her.

When I told Sadie "we're going home", she was all for it and started running immediately toward the path.

Stella of course acted like she didn't hear a word but was at least headed in the right direction.

Once she saw that Sadie was getting away and might find things before she would ... she took off sprinting.

This photo is one that I adjusted 2° to show the highway that I know is level, was level in the photo instead of going downhill to the right.

From Stella's tail I am sure one of her parents was a 'black and tan' bloodhound. It's also the reason her original owner named her 'Dipstick'. Changing her name was one of the first things I did when I brought her home in August 2015.

With my flashlight finding the cat eyes in the dark this past week, we now know that is the scent the hounds pick up in the yard. With the sun out today it might be the right time to bring 32gl can with me and pickup tree limbs laying in the yard from the recent high winds we have been having at night.

Here are some highlights from yesterday morning's walk. I did post a few pictures on my Wordpress blog yesterday but only a short intro for content. The rest of the photos were taken in overcast skies and an auto focus setting of 'auto area'.

Only three photos were taken after yesterday's lunch. With the cold wind blowing all of the hounds were not out longer than a few minutes.

Hard to believe it's Friday already. For doing nothing everyday the week sure flew. The recycling bin is loaded in the FJ so I'm headed to the recycling center right after I post this. I'll take a few photos along the way and post them later today or add them to tomorrow's post.

It's a cool and sunny day this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.