We're Alive And Well

 Hard to believe it has been 15 days since my last post but that is what happens when cold weather hits, in addition to "March Madness" and then this afternoon the first of three to four days of rain. Can you believe they have predicted 4"-5" of the liquid by Friday??? We might have to get a wave maker for the backyard if that prediction happens, so we can surf in the backyard. That photo above covers multiple times per day for the last 15 days, one photo does it all.

Stella Starts Her Day Earlier Than Normal

While I was taking this second photo from the corner of the house like I do every morning, Stella was already starting her walk without me. Not only was she starting on her own but today she was sitting at the entry to the computer room, wagging her tail and whining to go on her walk ... an hour early. It was barely past 8am and my second cup of coffee wasn't halfway finished. I set the camera to 'auto flash' and I think that may have made a difference today in this morning's photos.

The way she was taking off I thought she might really be on a scent and I would spend most of my walk running to catch her. I hadn't seen this quick action with her nose to the ground. I think she is changing her personality on these walks. I do know she is starting to tell me more often what she wants during the day. Whereas before, Sadie basically decided the 'what, when and where'.

I guess without wind, the 33° temperature hasn't bothered me yet on these walks. I keep looking at the iPhone Weather 10-day forecast and I don't see any high temperatures for each day over 58°. That is way below the normal average for this time of year. I told my friend in Phoenix yesterday that the hounds and I were thinking about a winter road trip this year to warmer temps.

Here is where it got a little interesting. Bloodhounds and Basset Hounds are NOT problem solvers like some dogs are. Their pain threshold is high so they don't feel sharp thorns when they get trapped in wild vines. They just keep charging ahead through them if they get hung up in the vines. One year Sadie did that as a puppy and a thorn cut the inside of her ear lengthwise like a razor blade. Off to the vet we went. That did not happen to Stella today ... but she wasn't happy about being tied up in vines.

It was disappointing to see the camera did not catch here raising her head through the vines and hopping upward slightly to get untangled. A step after this photo she was tangled up.

This is after she hopped out of the wild growing vines with sharp thorns ... like nothing happened.

That is facing north to northeast with the sun just barely above the horizon.

No verbal commands for her today ... she was on her own.

I've always like looking at the cloud patterns while on this walk.

As you can see with me 50mm away ... she is in a world of her own.

Amazing to see just how different the morning is outside an hour earlier than our normal time for walking but the same time we use to walk this past summer.

Ed told me in past years why the leaves were more colorful than other years, or lack thereof. I'll have to get on the internet and find out why because I cannot remember the reason he told me. I'll also look at last years fall photos to see when the leaves really started to look colorful. I might be mistaken that I should be seeing some leaves changing by now.

Just like all the other times on this walk, about the time I almost catch up to her while she is eating deer scat, she will trot away from me like nothing is going on. Notice her right ear is flipped up as she trots away.

I couldn't make up my mind where to put the focus, either the frosted stems or the bud ... consequently I ended up taking a poor photo.

Not only did she slow down in front of me but she stopped almost immediately in front of me. I couldn't resist taking an overhead photo of her.

Once she figured out that I was standing right there she took off trotting again ... but with a different way than her normal return home.

She veered left parallel to the older path we use to always take. I could tell by the frozen grass there had been some fresh 'traffic' overnight or early this morning and she was walking right in the middle of those.

She might look like she is wrapping up her morning walk ... but there is always something to distract her.

Heidi was where she normally is this time of day and in this kind of weather. She was very energetic thought when she woke up a little before 7am in the dark ... wanting breakfast.

I thought I might get something done this afternoon but all I did was finish reading Fear by Bob Woodward. I led the hounds outside after their lunch with with cool temps and a cold breeze. They were not much more interested than I was about staying outside to take some photos.

Stella didn't move from that spot until I headed toward the door right after that photo. Heidi was going to do her lap around the house but I was too cold without a jacket to follow her ... "too cold" and it's only October 19th.

It felt like snow was on the way instead of the rain we are suppose to get tonight. All of those bright skies this morning were gone for good, maybe for the weekend too.

With the cold weather and a poor start to blooming, I am surprised the red mums bloomed out to this.

I'm not sure but the hounds and I may take a short break from blogging for a few days or maybe change from a daily blog to 3-4 days per week. Or just photos and only a paragraph of content. I am finding it hard again to blog with a lot of photos and still get things done inside the house that I want to get finished. Throw in 2-3 hound walks during the day, a meal or two and there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day unless I hit the projects running by 9am.

We will see what happens but that is the way I am leaning this afternoon.

60° inside the house today. Colder outside, makes me wonder if I will seek warmer weather this winter with just two hounds to ride along with. Although the day I took both of them to the vet a few weeks ago and got them out of the car each on separate 6' leashes ... Stella wrapped her leash around my legs right below the knee and Heidi circled around to put her leash above my ankles. I was trapped and laughing.

It reminded me of the time I was at the Rest Area on I-70 in the middle with the interstate on each side of us, west of St Louis in 2013. I was heading to Arkansas to pick up a Lil Snoozy Trailer, that I backed out of the deal 12 hours later ... I didn't have Stella then but Heidi went one way, Winston another and Sadie took off for the pet area .... I couldn't move and could see I had a full table of people laughing as I stood behind the H3 Hummer. I knew then traveling with three hounds was not going to happen.

A road trip is still on the table for analysis before winter arrives.

Stella slept through her 2pm walk. She might not want an afternoon walk today with the weather the way it is. Once Heidi had lunch all she wanted was a warm leather couch and a blanket over the top of her to stay warm while she slept. With strong winds predicted for tomorrow from the WNW ... I am feeling cooler temps than today. Inside watching college football all day and night Saturday will keep me from freezing.

There is never a bad day in retirement so all was good today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I Woke The Hounds Up Early

Is this the new norm ? Blogging earlier ? No, the weather, is this the new norm. April is 2/3 of the way over and my iPhone weather tells me it "feels like" 28° as we take our morning walk a few minutes before 8am. The Farmer Almanac last fall predicted this winter, spring and summer to be wetter than normal and so far we have had more rain than normal. It did NOT say anything about "colder than normal" .... but again, after today we have 10 more days of close to normal temperature average ... high 60's.

Some have asked about Heidi and the lack of photos. She is well and in fact looks better than ever when she is awake. It's just not 70° every day, which is her threshold to be outside enjoying the weather. If it's overcast then it's questionable if she does anything outside her normal winter routine. She does get outside a few times per day and once at night to relieve herself. The bloodhounds have never cared about weather ... they just want to walk unless they feel rain on their backs.

The only thing different today was we started our walk about an hour earlier than normal because I woke the hounds up about 2 hours before they normally wake me up. That is what happens when you fall asleep a little after 7pm and get 10-11 hours of solid sleep for the first time in a very long time ... you wake up earlier.

They followed their normal morning routine though, of eating breakfast and all of them going back to sleep while I drink coffee and read the internet. Sadie then sits at my computer room doorway letting me know when it's time to walk.

I must say that I feel so much better than I did 24 hours ago. I will never eat another frozen pizza again ... ever. With my new reader called Flipboard, where you can join for free and then pick the subjects you want to follow, I read an article where they had rated all the frozen pizzas and even claimed they tasted as good as a carry out or one that you would eat at the restaurant. My curiosity got the best of me ... I had to try their highly recommended one.

To protect myself from a lawsuit I will keep the pizza I had nameless. All I know sometime around 3:30am after I had the pizza for dinner, I thought I was going to die. I didn't feel much better until right before we took the only walk of the day yesterday around 2pm. Yet this morning I feel great.

Stella had a bounce to her step again this morning and trotted a little faster than her normal pace to catch up with Sadie. No verbal herding was needed this morning as she was on her own. She made the complete walk with a lot of tracking instead of eating. Maybe spring really is right around the corner. This is Sadie leading the way.

For some reason I had a hard time keeping Stella in focus even while hearing the camera beep telling me it was in focus.

Luckily no wind to make it feel colder. I was wearing layered jackets, wool ski cap and gloves again and was more than warm. I guess it is a good thing I took the 30 minutes yesterday afternoon to mow the parts of the yard that needed it. I am mowing it higher again so the root system can develop in advance of the hot summer months.

Stella decided it was time to catch up just after we passed the first corner. Sadie was way up ahead waiting for her.

After she tapped Stella's nose with hers, they both took off for the back of the field to track the deer path.

As I made the final turn home I always tell them "let's go home" and they will run past me from the back of the field and choose one of the two different paths we take home.

You can see the portion of the backyard that I have mowed twice this year. This back half of the field toward the north has not grown enough to mow. In fact some of the wild flowers from years past when it was like the field and overgrown, are sprouting up.

The difference is, one half of the yard has had winter hound fertilizer and the other half has not.

Their tracking changes from the deer path to the path of the field cat that is rarely seen.

Then it's back inside for a mid-morning nap until lunch and afternoon walk. BTW, Heidi has not moved from that first photo and it's been almost an hour since that photo was taken.

My Bob Vila newsletter this morning listed some annuals and perennials that will do well year after year just by dropping their seeds onto the ground. That is what I am going to do to the bank around the old fence post and the bank along the driveway. Here are the ones he listed. I hope I can find these seeds at the local landscaping place within view of the house.

Sweet alyssum, gazania, bachelor's buttons, California poppy, cosmos, bellflowers, bleeding heart and butterfly weed.

Nothing planned today except to enjoy another day of retirement. That never gets old, no matter what happens. Freedom each day and good health are worth more than anything.

A cool morning here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.