Who's Tracking Who??

While they hounds were sleeping around 6pm, they had visitors ... and close to 'their yard' too. It was darker than the pictures show. I needed a tripod for clearer photos but didn't have time to get it. There only two of them, taking their time for an early evening meal.

Deer Not 30' Away From Hounds

For the second time that I can remember these past few months, deer was so close to Sadie and Stella you would have expected their famous all out sprint after them while baying loudly. Yet, just like last time neither bloodhound noticed. Bloodhounds are bred to flush deer out of the woods and/or to find them after they are shot. It's in their DNA!!! This morning ... not a response and the deer was right there !!!!

It all started around midnight last night as a severe thunderstorms blew in. Since I took this picture in the dark without a tripod the photo is blurry but at least it shows one toad was taking cover inside the carport before the storms hit. One of the best thunderstorms I had seen and heard in a while. You would have thought it was in April or May. The sky lit up like daylight and I thought that bolt of lightning was right outside the window.

It wasn't suppose to last much longer after 1am. I'm not sure when it stopped as I fell into a coma and stayed that way all night, past our normal time to start our day. With a bright sun, winds coming out of the NE it was a little nippy on the walk this morning ... yet after a fresh rain Stella found the grass to taste better than ever.

Sadie ran out way ahead of us, nothing out of the ordinary. Both hounds were into the scent searching mode this morning and you could tell the deer traffic was heavy along the edge of the woods right behind our house.

Stella is walking along a worn path by deer traffic.

In September I started taking pictures of these three areas to track the changing colors of the fall leaves. There are still a lot of leaves still on the trees. The longer we walked, the brighter the sun shined and the brighter the leaves became.

Still ... there was no deer scent in the air nor any sign of them on the horizon. The normal walking activity continued.

You can barely tell from the photo but those areas where the wild growth have been mashed down are deer paths down into the woods or upward from the woods into the field that the deer take.

Sadie was a little deeper into the brush than normal but wasn't beyond excitement. Usually when deer are near she is frantic and has uncontrollable excitement. Not today.

While taking this photograph I noticed something white ... just left of dead center and at the edge of the taller brush. When I took the camera way from my eye that white spot got much larger. Without my glasses it wasn't clear what it was but I thought it might be a white plastic bag blowing around and had become stuck in the brush.

After looking closer at this next picture, I clicked on it to make it bigger and you can see the deer is standing between the hounds, just below the top of the picture or just past the tall brush.

About the time that thought came to mind ...

That "white plastic bag" moved  ... and moved fast.

It is the first time in six years of taking blog photos that I have been able to catch a deer in their horizontal mid air flight ... mid air, yes ... but not horizontal.

You would have thought by now the sounds of loud baying bloodhounds would have been in the chase like they have done in past years. If you were walking with me you would have been shocked at their reaction.

They did not even lift their heads, move a muscle, didn't bay, didn't take off running. The deer had jumped out just on the other side of that tall brush to the right of them. In what I call the 'far right corner' of the field. I couldn't believe it!!!

As they both turned into that area I still did not see any excitement by either hound. In fact Sadie was not even close to where the deer was standing or was bent over eating grass when I first saw her.

Stella finally figured out what had happened so she took off running but she didn't bay like she normally does when deer are in the area ... nor was she sprinting.

Even then she was slow to respond even after she was right at the point where the deer jumped into the woods.

To them ... what would have been a exciting deer chase in the past ... was nothing more than a normal uneventful walk. Neither hound had any frantic reactions to what I saw.

Stella decided it was time for some scratching. You can see today is so much different than yesterday's dark and gloomy sky. I was still trying to process just how big the deer was and how close it was to the hounds when it escaped.

By this point of the walk the deer sighting was a distant memory to me and not even on the radar of the hounds. To them it was nothing more than another of many Friday morning walks.

Stella thought she had found something on the way home. In this area I would suspect she smells the invisible field cat that roams at night, fighting sometimes and keeps the mice under control.

Sadie is looking at nothing in particular. She is probably wondering if Stella is going to end this walk or are we going to stay out here all day.

One last look to see if deer were following us ... they never do nor expected to. It just shows how nice today is even if it's in the 50's. If I were to mow a nice circular golf green out there it would be a nice Par 3 hole.

For once in her life, Stella is waiting for me to head to the house instead of vise versa.

Sadie doesn't have a clue what she missed.

I have started a folder in my Apple Photos program named 'deer'. I don't know why I have not done that before. After I go back and add all the deer photos of the past 6 years into that folder I'll be able to see their trends and when they show up.

It was yesterday afternoon when I ran out of my 20Gb of data that I pay for every month. My billing cycle starts on the 11th of every month so I ran out about 8 days too soon. The main reason for running out of data was during the past month I couldn't wait until 2am to start all of the different macOS High Sierra updates. I did those large (1-3Gb) file downloads during my normal times, thus wasting my data.

I planned weeks ago of running out at the pace I was using data. $15 would get me an additional 5Gb of data. Any of that not used by the 11th would be carried over until I needed additional data again.

A funny thing happened though and so far as of 12:23pm today it is still working. I know and expect download speeds to decrease after my paid data is gone. That is a known fact, a part of the contract. Instead of getting speeds of 45-47Mbps I now get a little over 1Mbps. That 1Mbps were speeds we dreamed of in 1996. In today's world sometimes email won't download, photos won't upload to a blog, websites may or may not load ... so people buy more data to get them through the end of the month.

Last night during the severe thunderstorms, where my HughesGen 5 satellite service never lost it's signal from space ... websites were still downloading fast, my blog where most posts have 20-30 photos each was downloading normal. Another words I was seeing no decrease in internet performance. It was so good that I did a speed test and found Hughes had decreased my internet speeds to 1.46Mbps as I knew it would.

I knew today would be the real test. In the past at lower speeds my photos would not finish loading into the blog post I was writing. So I'd pull out my billfold and buy another few gigs that would put me back to normal speeds of 45-48Mbps. This post has 31 photos that loaded normally, maybe a little slower than usual but they still loaded okay.

I also did a large 3.3Gb file download for the macOS update for beta users. It completed in the same time it would have normally taken. I found that to be really strange and unexpected for two reasons. One, decreased download speeds that should have made that crawl and two, in the morning when many other users are downloading that same update at the same time.

So I have not had to buy additional data yet. It might be my lucky month for the next week.

I almost forgot to tell you that as a test I used the block on the blog to subscribe to my blog by email. I wanted to check to see if it worked and how long it would take for me to get a new blog post in my inbox. I am sad to say it took 14 hours from the time I posted this post for it to show up in my inbox.

For those of you that subscribe via email, is that normal for you ... 14 hours after I post? If so, it might be better if you would either bookmark the blog, added to your Feedly account for immediate updates or look for my blog on other blog lists ... if that 14 hour difference bothers you.

Today will be more of the same activities we do everyday with some added house cleaning in preparation for our Saturday College Football Marathon.

The hounds need to get their noses calibrated it looks like, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Voting Was Unanimous 3-0

Not only did Stella cast her vote but so did Sadie and Heidi ... although there was no eating of dirt prior to voting for them. Soon after lunch all three hounds hung out around the FJ discussing how then were going to tell me that 'they' run this blog, that I am only the typist and photographer. It kind of reminded me of my working days were people hung out in the coffee lounge discussing various things.

Instead of writing out a long detailed description of what went on during our board meeting, I'll just say here was the final decision, unanimously voting 3-0, where I was not allowed to place a vote nor voice my opinion. I was only there to take notes and then later have those meeting notes approved by Stella before posting. She insisted her photo be the 'feature' of the blog.

The discussion was short and sweet -- nothing changes from what has taken place the past 6 years. We will continue to ramble, rant a little at times, keep away from current events in the world and USA, keep away from religion and political discussion nor turn the blog into "talk radio". Cussing will be at a minimum if any at all. Posts will be published when we feel like it as well as composing the post. Photos of the hounds will be taken from all angles and all sides ... chances are the hounds will not wait for me to get in front of them just to take pictures from the front.

They tried it a couple of years ago but found it was too much work, therefore at no time in the future will each hound have their own blog and written from their point of view. GoPro cameras are under consideration but will be discussed in their next meeting ... currently all the hounds want their own cameras and mounted all at the same time ... "one for all or all for none" ??? is that how that goes?

After all, all three of them get dog treats, pieces of pizza crust and sometimes plain pancakes or waffles at the same time ... not just one of them. So the same thing goes with the camera ... until they can come to their senses and see the logic of only buying one GoPro and sharing it ... just like blankets, bones and chew toys.

Earlier with the power out while they took down the older electrical system lines that crossed the highway ... I sat at the kitchen table playing one Mahjong game after another, with the Nikon D3200 sitting right next to me.

Sadie was very interested in the stopped traffic on the highway has they removed the older power lines from high across the highway. She has never chased a car but she was sitting at 'attention' looking out the door window and her nostrils moving in an attempt to see who was out there.

After the utility company trucks left and I knew their job was finished, it was a perfect time for their afternoon walk. Much better lighting for picture taking this time of day compared to the morning pictures.

I could tell by the way they took off running they were headed for the 'far right corner' ... the scent of deer must have been strong.

The hounds did not know that high above them, on the tower for high powered cables, sat a hawk. As we got closer to making the final turn home, the hawk flew away into the north woods.

I don't know how it's possible but Stella did it ... while running and having her tongue stick out and fold sideways. You will need to click the photo for a closer look.

Later this afternoon I let Sadie roam the field on her own without a leash. I put Stella on the 80' tether to keep her somewhat near the house. It was such a nice day I didn't see any reason to keep them inside if they wanted to go outside.

I was at my computer when I heard a sound what I thought was coming from a hawk. I immediately ran outside thinking a hawk might be doing "fly byes" over Stella or Sadie. All I saw was a deer about 30' from the yard, turning and sprinting away while Stella sat in the yard staring in the deer's direction. With Sadie out in the field with no leash I was sure I was going to have to hunt for Sadie ... so I grabbed the retractable leash for Stella and my binoculars.

By the time I had transferred Stella from the tether to the leash and picked up my binoculars off the ground ... Sadie was sprinting to me from the north edge of the field, panting, out of breath ... the deer chase must have been a short one. You could tell by the look on her face she had some fun chasing that deer out of 'her' field.

It looks like a week of great weather here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.