Happy Thanksgiving

Heidi checked out the early morning weather and decided it wasn't for her. But with fresh deer tracks where their hoofs were just a few hours old, the bloodhounds spent plenty of time collecting all the information they could.

Three Beautiful Basset Hounds Up For Adoption

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.

Bloodhounds Are 15 Hours Late

I knew that once the hounds walked through the area that I saw the two deer last night around 6pm, they would be more than curious. They were more excited than the pictures capture and acted like the deer had been their just minutes prior instead of 15 hours.

The Hounds Battle Frost This Morning

With my iPhone weather telling me it was 30° outside I decided to try something different with my North Face jacket that is for warmer temps ... I wore a down vest under it, keeping me warm and freeing my arms to move more than if I had worn my ski parka. With the combination of frost and heavy dew I did not hear the grass and leaves crunching under my boots. Stella enjoyed some frozen green grass before she started her walk this morning.

Also for the first time I turned the heat on low last night while we slept. I keep my house temps pretty cool but I knew it would drop below our threshold since it was going to drop below freezing while we slept.

Contessa made a comment on yesterday's post that none of the hound walks were routine, that each was different. I forget that sometimes since we walk the same path in the same field and seems to be the central point of this blog anymore. I guess I need to get out and drive the local area more, taking photos of that.

This walk was started off entirely different than recent walks. From the start Stella headed north while Sadie and I walked out into the field due east. For some reason I didn't want to let Stella head that direction on her own today. I found out the reason until I came back at the end of the walk.

On the way back, taking the alternate path to the corner of the north property line, both hounds stopped and stared next door and was almost starting to run after the neighbor. He had backed his pickup truck down the driveway to pick up his trash cans by the highway and bring them back to his house. Sadie and Stella thought he might need help.

I had to yell "No" to keep them with me and herd them back toward the house. If I had left Stella on her own I have no doubt that now only would she have been next door but down by the highway once she saw the neighbor step out of his truck.

So I walked over to the middle of the lower field and told Stella she needed to come my direction. After a few steps with me back toward the path, she took off running to catch Sadie and both of them were off due to what their noses had picked up.

I had not made the first turn yet when I glanced down and my hiking boots were completely soaked. It looked like some of that dew had froze just a little. My feet were still warm and dry.

When I see a look like this from Sadie it's time to be aware of what might be in our area and I might have to take off running.

Then I see Stella in this pose and I am almost certain I am going to have to run after them this morning when I am really not in the mood to jog. I only jog to and from the fridge during a close game on tv and it's a short 30 second timeout. I only jog in this field when I am desperate in catching the hounds.

We must have missed the deer by minutes or just an hour. It didn't matter by the way the hounds acted. As far as they were concerned, deer were just ahead of them and reachable if they ran fast enough.

Consequently they were way ahead of me.

About the time I convinced myself that I would be jogging, then running along the back edge of the field heading north ... both hounds made an abrupt right turn into the far right corner where the deer scent was stronger. That was good for me as that part of the field would do the 'herding' for me.

It was at this point of the walk with them picking up their pace that I yelled "Hey" ... getting both of them to stop and let me catch up. Otherwise they were gone.

We were back in the 'walking' mode and the chase for potential deer was over. Their pace slowed to a walk, I did not have to jog or run and we were back to a leisure morning stroll in the cold air.

Stella's nose and ears were telling her there was still something within reach ... luckily she decided whatever it was it was not important enough to take off running after it. I saw nothing on the north horizon.

I have declared my Mahogany tree, a series of 3-4 trees making it look as one (red) ... the 2017 Fall Color Champion. I don't see the other trees making a comeback before their leaves fall off.

With the excitement of tracking deer scent over it was time to head back home. By the way my face felt I was sure the wet noses of the hounds were cold also. That doesn't even phase them though as they are built for cold freezing weather.

I wasn't sure how my photos of the frost were going to look on the blog as I took them, so I took a few different ones and posted them.

The hounds seem to be making the 'alternate' path the normal morning path back to the house. My Garmin VivoSmart watch tells me there is no difference in distance compared to taking the normal route.

More frost examples.

The plan was to mow the yard, mulching the grass and leaves later this afternoon when the temps are above 60°. The front yard grass needs mowing, it's tall enough but this picture made me second guess my decision. I might just rake the small amount of leaves and burn them on the burn pile, leaving the length of the yard as is.

That's the type of tough decisions you have when you are retired and doing nothing.

Could be scent from cats, squirrels, rabbits or even that ugly opossum I saw the other night across the highway as I pulled into my driveway. Whatever it was the hounds tracked it right to the end of the walk.
 

I have had no issues and good results in data use the past two days using Firefox as my browser. For someone that likes changing their mind a lot it's nice to have different browsers, different cars, and different jackets to choose from. My total data use yesterday and last night was less than 500Mb which is good to stay within my 20gigs per month.

The AT&T mail flyer told me they would pay up to $650 for me to switch from Verizon. They would let me upgrade from a iPhone 6s to the new 8's for very little money. I would then have unlimited data for my internet and streaming via DirecTv.

I had seen and heard of AT&T offers like that and already had been told in the past they did not have that service in my area in small town USA ... even with that tower you see photo'd in our walks at times being AT&T. Also, my neighbor told me his AT&T service paid for by his company that he works for, did not work well in this area but works great SW of Lubbock TX.

So I had to call them.

Same results ... they do not service my area with all of that unlimited data on internet, and streaming tv.

I am sure their internet service would never match HughesGen 5 speeds I have. It tested at 47Mbps yesterday afternoon. It's been that fast 99% of the time since I made the change 2.5 years ago.

I've done nothing to the Z4, so I can drive it to the body shop a mile away for an estimate and have them fix the damage I had the last week of September. It's all plastic under the front with a grill and air shields that need to be replaced. I just need to either take the broke pieces off or tape them with duct tap so they can see what the damage is.

A night off from the World Series will give me the chance to watch Stanford at Oregon State at 9pm. I am telling a few friends I am predicting by the end of the season Mike Riley will be fired at Nebraska and will go back home and take the Oregon State job (its open now) for his 3rd different time in his coaching career.

Sadie wants lunch but it's too early, even with her stare down right now. Heidi will come up for air from under her blankets around lunch time. Stella is not ready.

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