Lake Greenwood

As I pulled into the parking lot of the marina I had an unexpected welcoming party. They totally caught me off guard as the two adults and one fawn walked slowly in front of my car. I forgot I had my glasses on. I never take photos with my glasses on. I didn't know whether to grab the iPhone or the Nikon D3200 that I had brought with me. Luckily they were not afraid of me nor were they in a hurry ... I still acted fast, too fast so I could catch them on camera before they ran away.

I grabbed the Nikon, while forgetting to roll down the passenger side window. The window was dirty but not bad photos considering I was rushing around, a little panic, excited and my ballcap bill in the way when I tried to use the viewfinder.

I wasn't able to catch the three of them with one photo but I did catch the last two.

They stood and watched as I drove slowly away to park my car in a vacant parking lot.

One last glance to see who and what I am. Stella and Heidi would have loved this. It's one reason I never bring them down to this area. These mule deer are very common at all hours of the day or night. They fear nothing.

By the time I parked my car down by the boat ramp, walked across the parking lot and up to the restrooms (locked), they were within arms reach it seemed as I glanced out from behind the building.

They finally realized I was standing there taking photos of them and took off

Some of you have seen photos of this lake before. I've taken photos here and posted pictures on my other blog in May 2015. Click here to see more photos of the lake and area in Spring.  I also came back in October 2016 to take more photos. You will have to scroll much lower in the article to see the fall colors surrounding the lake. Click here for that article.

Today all the rental boats, canoes, kayaks are put away for the winter. Offices are locked and basically I had the whole 800 acre lake to myself. It is a man-made lake, surrounded by 108 square miles of some of the prettiest land in Southern Indiana.

At 38° there were a few still around but it was totally silent, no cars, no people, no traffic, no jet noise ... nothing ... just quiet.

This is my poor attempt at a panoramic photo moving from right to left in the next four photos.

That land is full of campgrounds, mostly tent camping. There are buildings for cookouts and if you have 4-wheel or all-wheel drive you can take single track dirt/gravel roads back into those woods as deep as you want to camp.

When I was writing the post this morning I knew I was going to have to go to the grocery store for fruit and almonds if nothing else. It dawned on me that if I went a different direction not only could I shop but also visit Lake Greenwood and take some photos. I've never been down there in the month of January before.

One thing that is very nice about this facility, is that it is semi-private. Unless you have a government employee badge or a military ID card (active or retired), you will not get inside the 108 square miles. I might be wrong on that ... it changes depending what the security level is, so at times a government employee or military personnel can bring civilians on base. As far as coming alone, not going to happen without a government ID.

This government facility is the 3rd largest Naval installation in the world ... not the USA. Yet, there isn't a naval ship anchored anywhere near this land locked base. In fact, five years ago it had less than 80 active duty military personnel out of 6,000 - 8,000 employees.

Over the past 50 years it has evolved from being the largest bomb producer in the Viet Nam War, to high-tech development for all branches of service, ships or aircraft. Only government employees or government contractors work at this facility.

So you are probably asking yourself the same question I asked myself before leaving this morning ... would this facility be open during the current government shutdown? I thought the grocery store might be closed but the lake area would be accessible. I'd take that chance.

As I stopped at the gate to show my ID card, to my surprise, the security officer told me the base was not closed. In fact this facility for some reason was not affected by the government shutdown that is currently going on. I remember when I worked here in 2013 I was sent home between 10-14 days during a shutdown. (can't remember) But not now??? Interesting.

I admit I did a little editing to make the sky bluer and that automatically helped with the color of the water in the panoramic photos. Otherwise you wouldn't see much color, even with the sunshine.

I've sailed, paddled a canoe and a kayak on this lake for as far as the eye can see ... then further. The shelter is nice for cook-outs and it's always quiet due to the accessibility or lack there of, to the general public.

It was nice to get out on such a bright sunny day. No signs that Stella attempted any escapes today while I was gone. Heidi must have kept a tight leash on Stella and well under control.  :)

I felt much better when I got back. It's a nice drive to and from. Perfect weather for the month of January. While the hounds slept their afternoon away after they ate lunch, I answered some emails, replied to comments, added a border around all the images and listened to an old favorite band of mine ... Jethro Tull.  LOL ... I know.

All is good in ''the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella's Separation Anxiety Returns

Last Friday I returned from a trip to buy groceries in Bloomington, I found it a little odd that my door key was unable to move the lock so I could open the door. The door knob was installed sometime in the past year and worked perfect. I finally got it to move enough to unlock the door but it was hard. That wasn't going to be the biggest question of why, no ... the shock was when I stepped inside to see Stella sitting in the kitchen looking at me, with Heidi behind her. I had left both in the bedroom with the door closed, their normal hangout location when I am gone.

Someway somehow Stella was able to open the bedroom door. It has a round door handle. She has tried to open that door in the past, and obviously many times, before she could figure out just how to jiggle it enough to pull it open. I had seen signs that she had been biting the bedroom door knob hard enough to put dents in it. Before I leave I always check to make sure the door is latched and cannot be pulled open by her.

This past Monday I had a problem. I set up "Plan B" to keep her from getting out into the house, with a baby gate adjusted to it's tightest position and just for good measure I put a kitchen chair behind that gate ... at least if she jumped over the game (I've never see that happen) she would have to really be good to clear the chair. If she was able to shove the gate open maybe that chair would stop the gate.

After a trip to the recycling center only 12 miles away, a trip that took me only 25 minutes total, I return home to see the bedroom door open and Stella is trying to dig a hole to get under the gate. Luckily she did not scratch my hardwood floor in the bedroom nor tear a corner piece of carpet ... but she was digging fast and hard enough to do that.

So just like that Stella and I have returned to the first week she was here in September 2015. Her separation anxiety has returned after a 17 month vacation. Why was she doing this? What do I do next? I spent a little time thinking about both questions but not constantly.

Her next big test will be today when I go to the library and a short stop at the store for dog food.

We still take our two walks per day, in snow flurries sometimes but we will cancel them if it's raining or has rained. Believe it or not this morning was one of our "brightest" days lately. No sunshine but a much brighter overcast.

I have to admit that after almost three months I have still not gotten use to doing this walk without Sadie. Some of the time it really bothers me and the joy of taking this walk is lost. I think about her different times of the day and night and I find it very hard at times to crawl out of the past. She played a big role living in 'the tropics'.

Facing the woods to the north Stella has to be catching the sent of deer. There is nothing else in that direction that would cause this much interest.

Maybe I am not the only one that gets bored with this walk or taking the same photos ... I did have to wake her up this morning to take the daily morning walk. Sadie would have always been giving me the stare to get me started. I have found out that Sadie helped herding Stella on these walks more than I realized. Anymore it's almost like work trying to keep Stella moving in the direction of the path. She never falls back and runs to catch up. I always have to go get her.

After three weeks using the GlycoFlex Plus for her hips and joints I have seen slight improvement. She has never ran full speed like she use to but seems to be more active with occasional turn around hops and then short bursts of speed while we are walking.

A possible downside to this glucose and MSM supplement, she seems to be scratching herself a lot more than before as if there is something she is allergic to in the supplement. That is a hard thing to figure out as I did all that research into Heidi's skin allergies a few years ago.

Back to her anxiety when I am gone. In the past when she destroyed something while I was gone I'd take photos of it and then date them in my Apple Photo program, filing them in their own folder. So from those photos I know she went 17 months without tearing up anything in the bedroom while I was gone. Some of those times I was gone for 7 hours if I was visiting a friend out of town.

I first thought she might be trying to find Sadie, thus getting out of the bedroom and trying to open the kitchen door to get out of the house. Based on all of her nose and jowl prints on my clean window in the kitchen and the smaller window on the kitchen door I thought maybe someone had been at the door ringing the doorbell while I was gone. It was obvious she wanted outside.

Yet a few weeks ago when I had someone ring the door bell when I was home, both Heidi and Stella sat in the kitchen facing the door and not moving. They didn't bark and did not stand up to look out the window to see who was there. Sadie would have been standing at the large window in her attack mode.

I have not seen any stray dogs or cats come through the yard during the daytime in years, nor have I seen any deer in the field in the past year based on dated photos.

So who knows ... I hope to come home today with no surprises.

I have a couple of options to keeping the bedroom door closed no matter how hard she tries to open it. If I buy a new knob with a key lock, she will only bite into the new knob. With it being hard last Friday to turn my key when she bit into the kitchen door knob, it would be possible that it would not open if she bit into the locked knob hard enough.

From what I have found on my internet searches, the best solution seems to be some sort of lock from outside the door in the hallway that would keep the door closed and in no way could she get to those latches or locks.

She is a big funny dog that has kept me on my toes since the day I brought her home. Stephanie warned me she was an 'expert' in escaping, even from a large indoor kennel. Maybe she thought I needed some new things to add to my 'to do' list for the winter.

Heidi in the meantime is doing very good and is only active after her lunch where she goes outside then does a few laps of running around the living room upon her return.

Fun times in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Just Missed Deer

As forecasted the sunshine disappeared yesterday to make room for light rain that started after midnight. That same light rain started again last night. It was still happening this morning as the hounds and I could wait no longer for a walk. With my North Face snow boots on I was able to keep my feet dry and a light rain jacket over a fleece jacket kept me warm and dry during the walk. The rain was more of a mist than sprinkle ... the hounds didn't care.

Sunday turned out to be a very productive day with some stray small twigs taken off the roof and out of the gutter. Within a hour and a half I had the FJ and Z4 washed and hand dried. By the time I did the short high speed run in the Z4 the convertible top was completely dry as I tucked it under the car cover with rain on the way.

This photo here pretty much describes what type of day we are looking at today. Unless the rains are harder, we will get another walk in this afternoon since both walks were cancelled on Monday. At least it is warm and that's all I care about.

With a lot of time spent inside yesterday, Heidi continues her sleeping marathon today, I continue to look at houses on realtor.com out of curiosity and brain cell exercise. I clicked off a few games of Mahjong yesterday under 3 minutes. I am still trying to get all 160 games of Mahjong completed under 3 minutes but there are a couple that I doubt that will ever happen.

MSN money had an article today on the best towns to live on in every state if you are on a fixed income of social security and a pension. It was good to see that a few of them listed were towns I had looked at in my search the past few years, but not the one I'd like to move to. I might take a closer look at one of them listed.

With the hounds having their noses to the ground for the start of the walk I wasn't thinking about any surprises today. That is their normal activity and we had not seen any deer in person since last November yet there has been a lot of fresh hoof prints seen on our recent walks.

For some reason Stella is in the exploration mode lately (weeks) rather than eating additional natural protein. That a good thing and what I like to see. I noticed on RVsue's latest post yesterday, a dog a the dog park she was visiting had an owner trying to break their dogs habit of eating foul stuff by putting an electronic collar on their dog.

I would never try that on Stella since I don't like any kind of 'shock' training for any kind of dog. Besides what I have read years ago on electronic fences, bloodhounds pain threshold is so strong that they didn't feel the electronic shock to keep them  inside the fence. I am glad we have the land around the house that the hounds can enjoy naturally.

Since I was not expecting any surprises, by the time I turned away from taking the above photo, realizing what my eyes were seeing, getting my camera in the shooting position and focused ... the two deer were about to disappear in the wooded area in the 'far right hand corner'. You will have to look close for their bright white tails.

I was sure that Sadie would lock onto their scent and take off toward or into that wooded area. i was prepared to run after her if I needed to.

She surprised me by showing no interest in heading that direction.

Of coarse Stella was in her own little world oblivious to anything around her.

She gradually joined up with Stella and I at the halfway point of the walk.

Sadie was more intent on exploring the back edge of the field like she does every morning. Deer was the furthest thing from her mind ... and her nose.

It's always hard to tell what Stella is thinking but she certainly has the look as a 'deep thinker' most of the time ... even when she sleeps.

The mist never got heavier, there was very little wind and the hounds had a relaxed slow pace walk. With them back inside and sleeping until their lunch, mostly likely it will be another quiet day inside while it rains lightly outside.

It might take a while but eventually they head back to the yard.  The last 1/4 of the walk may be the slowest of the walk we take on a daily basis.

Somewhat hard to believe that April is almost over. We are way ahead of our average rainfall 4 months into the year.

Not much going on today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Deer - Deer - Deer

It was just before 6pm and much darker than any of these photos show. In fact I could barely make out what it was with my eyes. I had just started to step away from the computer, and was about to close the blinds, when I noticed a dark shadow that looked bigger than dead ragweed in the field. So I tip toed to my camera while Sadie and Stella were sleeping. Not until I zoomed in on that shadow at 200mm did I see this ....

Not wanting to startle the deer, I kept my blinds lowered but open. I shot this through the mini blinds, and two windows. You can see how close she is to the yard over by the corner property pole.

She didn't mind me taking pictures from the inside as she stayed there eating for a few minutes, slowly moving toward the corner of the yard. Stella was still sleeping at my feet. In fact I had to step over her to get a better angle out the window.

By this time as she slowly walked past the corner of the yard and actually in the exact area that Stella has been checking out lately right before she steps inside the property pole at the end of her walks ... I saw a 2nd one following her.

What would Sadie and Stella do if they knew there was a deer this close to their yard?

By this time I had quietly and slowly raised the mini blinds so the lens was only shooting out the inside window then the storm window. It was much darker than the picture shows.

I decided it was time to take a chance and walk outside. Of course when I headed toward the door, both bloodhounds woke up thinking they were going outside too. I whisper to them to stay inside, shut the screen door quietly and walked to the corner of the house. By the time I got there, hearing the beep of the camera focusing ... she was staring right at me.

We stood there quite a while it seemed looking at each other. I thought I'd back the lens out a little bit to prove to the hounds just how close she was to the yard.

I started walking through the yard toward her ... being careful not to step on any leaves to scare her off. She continued to stare at me as I stopped, focused and took another photo.

Not until I intentionally yelled did she take off sprinting for the woods to the north at the other end of the field. The first deer heard what was going on and decided she had better head home also.

The second deer wanted to check one last time to see if I was going to chase her.

It was so dark I had to hold the shutter down pretty long before it would focus. I knew without the help of a tripod these pictures would be blurry and out of focus but I didn't want to miss the chance of taking some sort of pictures of them.

When I walked back to the house, Sadie and Stella were standing at the screen door waiting to hear about all the excitement they missed.

You never know when things might turn exciting here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.