Not Warm Enough For Heidi

It might be sunny and blue skies outside but that doesn't mean that Heidi has declared that spring has arrived. It is not even close to her threshold of 70° and until then she will act accordingly. That means a lot of sleep time and as the day gets longer she will eventually end up on the couch that she shares with Stella every night. She does spend time outside right after her lunch and depending if it is raining or freezing, the only options this week, she might take a lap around the house. Sadie and Stella were happy to be outside this morning even with a ground that was frozen.

There is a little 'ranting' below.

These popped up a few days ago, in the four different areas I planted them last summer in the middle of the July heat after the Japanese Yews were pulled out. I miss the deep green yews in the winter but they had become just to big to keep trimmed. I still didn't know until they were pulled out, just how deep their root system was and if it could reach my septic system.

I took a little over 24 hours to go from lakefront property to a corn field drained like pulling a plug of a bathtub drain. Evidently the Ohio River, ~70 miles away, must have stopped peaking, giving the rivers in Indiana a place to run to. It's nothing new, happens every spring but we are way ahead of the annual rain schedule.

By the time I hit hit the path, Sadie and Stella were ahead of me and on their own pace.

A lot of new scents for both of them to check out this morning, at 30°.

For some reason this week, Stella will come when I tell her 'over here' ... I've left her on her own while Sadie and I walk. She has not wandered off in quite a while.

As long as it is not raining, we have been getting in a couple of walks per day. There was one day this week or was it last week ??? that Heidi walked out into the field with us and explored while the bloodhounds and I did the half mile walk. She actually trotted from the house to the field but my camera was back inside the house.

At least all of the rain, over 6" in 17 days, has turned the dormant winter lawn to green. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of mowing this year but between the days of rain. Predictions of a 'wetter than normal' spring and summer will make things interesting.

I guess the most excitement we have had recently was changing from Directv to Dish Network about 8 days ago. I did the normal cost analysis before making the decision since I would be breaking my contract and would have to pay extra to do that. I made a lot of calls to Directv to see what kind of 'retention' or 'loyalty' discounts they could give me as they did in past years. Of course anymore with their customer service shipped out overseas communication is harder to understand each year.

This may not be the same for everyone but what I say here pertains to only my experience.

I was told over and over there was nothing Directv could do as far as discounts ... for someone that had been with them since 1999, minus the 7 months I did switch to Dish Network due to contract negotiations with local channels on showing HD quality production. So basically I had been with them since they had bought out a company called Prime Star Satellite back around 1999.

The tipping point in my decision this time was when I received my bill and saw an increase because they were charging me for Regional Sports Network channels for the first time ever. After a google search on 'RSN' I found out not only what that charge was for but that Comcast Cable was being sued a few years ago for doing the exact same thing Directv was now doing with those charges.

I pinch pennies enough to know that I was not a happy Directv customer and the issues with understanding the customer service rep on the other end of the call continued to send me to the brink of insanity. Let's just say I had to call back a lot of times, spending hours on the phone, with no positive results.

So the option was to switch to Dish Network, getting those 3 free sports channels back plus a sports channel (Pac12) that would give me more college football games next fall and the same 200+ channels I had with Directv .... but .... with a 2-year price guarantee. It would be $20 per month cheaper until September then $43 cheaper per month after my final discount with Directv would expired.

After a cost analysis and seeing what my calls to Directv did to my heart rate ... I made the call early Monday morning to my local Satellite provider to make the change. They were there on Wednesday morning. Same installer that did the initial install plus installed my HughesNet Gen5 satellite internet system.

24 hours later Directv was giving me those "Come Back" discounts of $29 per month for the next 12 months ... all the same programming.

What kind of business plan is that? Losing a long time customer, telling me they could not offer anything in way of discounts .... UNTIL AFTER the account was closed?

So things are good. Good weather, bright sunny skies, MLB spring training games in the afternoons and a week or two away from March Madness ... the perfect time of year for a sports addict. And like offers for new customers for both Directv and Dish Network ... free movie channels for 3 months. One big plus this new HD DVR receiver will now download to an external hard drive. I will never have to transfer recorded movies and ballgames from a DVR to DVDs again.

The hounds are enjoying 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sadie Couldn't Wait For First Walk

Like I said the other day, the hounds are still on Daylight Savings Time for the spring and summer. They failed to change their inner clocks in November. That means they want to take walks earlier, howl and bark for their meals earlier, then wake up earlier. Sadie was whining for her first walk of the day and it was still dark this morning.

So there was no delay when the clock struck 8am. We were outside feeling quite warm in 36° taking our first walk of the day. I tried using the flash for the first few photos. That's Stella just behind the burn pile thinking there were deer in that area. I can't say if there were or not.

Sadie was thrilled to be outside. It was her 3rd time this morning and the day had not even started yet. You can barely see the sun rising in the background through the woods facing east.

I wasn't sure if Stella was ever going to leave this area, just barely in the field and not a foot away from the backyard. I kept walking, concentrating to hold the camera still with each shot. I still ended up with a lot of blurred photos this morning that I did not post here.

After this photo I decided to turn the flash off. It does give you some idea just how early we were outside. It is not as cold as it looks.

I took the same photo immediately after turning the flash off and decided it was light enough to take photos with a slower shutter speed.

Stella decided Sadie and I were getting to far away ... zoomed in at 200mm and with her running speed it was hard to catch her before she turned the corner to sprint after us.

By the way both hounds were acting I assumed the deer scents were strong. I can't remember the last time we had a deer sighting on the walk but it's been a while.

With yesterday's skies being dark and a constant drizzle, this photographer took a day off. I didn't take one photo outside nor with the iPhone. Consequently the weather pushed all of us into a deep hibernation mode with a day full of movies. I also transferred a lot of movies and ballgames from the DVR to DVD's. If I clear my older DVR player of all the saved tapes I can either upgrade to their newer model of DVR or threaten to switch to DishNetwork for some 'retainer discounts'.

I knew Stella wasn't going to get past the first turn today. Sadie and I continued our walk and headed for the back of the field. You can see the sun is starting to rise.

With the highway dry today I'll be taking the Z4 out for a spin. I continue to check my repairs each time I return home and find that everything I installed is still tight as new.

You can't really see how far away I am from Sadie but I am close to making the final turn home.

All of the photos of her sprinting to the back of the field were again, blurry. I can't remember having this much trouble as I have had recently. Of course it's dark and with the slower shutter speed I have to keep the camera steady on the hounds longer which is the perfect condition for operator error.

This was my test today. I had the tower lined up with the three vertical marks inside my viewfinder. By the time this photo reached the editing room, I had to straighten it 2°.

Sadie also hung back more than she normally does. Unlike Stella, 99.9% of the time she will come running to catch me without me ever saying a word. I remember once last summer where that .1% occurred and I had to go back out to find her after 35-40 minutes.

It's hard to believe it's 5 days till Christmas. Last night on the local weather, they said it had not snowed on Christmas here since 2010. It looks like we will only have cold temperatures for the holidays with Saturday spitting out some rain/snow showers that will barely amount to a 1/4 inch.

I have printed out my College Football Bowl tv schedule. Counting last night there are 13 straight days and nights of college football games, except for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Add in the NFL games and college basketball games, all 15 of my tv sports channels will get a good workout the next few weeks.

Without glasses, at times it's hard for me to find Stella from a distance. The camera lens set at 200mm helps me do that. Today I saw she had not moved 10' from the last time I saw her this morning. In the spring, summer and fall that area she is standing in is solid overgrown brush full of sharp thorns.

Once she heard me call her name she stepped out like she was going to meet me but had to turn around one final time before heading home.

She chose the 'alternate' path so that is the one we took. It wasn't going to be a fast trip though. The house might be in view but this part of the walk from here to the backyard may take almost as much time to cover as the distance we have walked up to this point.

It's because they do a lot of this. Deer and cat scent must be identified for them to be happy ... moving slowly inches at a time.

There are times I think I might have time to leave them where they are, go inside and grab a cup of coffee, then come back to watch them. I am pretty sure though if that were to happen, I'd find Stella over by the neighbor's woods or yard. She knows when I am not around, and she never hesitates to expand her horizons.

Without any wind today it will be a good day to get outside this afternoon to pick up more of the small tree limbs that have blown into the yard. I'll try to get Heidi outside for longer than 5 minutes and take some photos. I might have a blog post later today with just photos of the afternoon.

After that Z4 drive, maybe during, I'll be heading to the store to buy all the ingredients I need to make chocolate and peanut butter fudge. The urge to have some of that was so strong last night that I almost made a late night run to the store. The urge has not gone away so far this morning, so it's a requirement now.

Doing very little in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana is a good thing.

Hounds Slow Down For Their Afternoon

After this morning's performance by the hounds, I could not expect something better. It was only their energy level that was high this morning and I knew if they were anything like me, it would not be an all day affair.


Soon after I posted this morning's blog post, I took all of the hounds outside to do whatever they needed to do before being left in the house while I drove around locally with my camera in hand. While they wandered a little in the field I cleaned my camera from the small view finder attachment to the inside of the lens hood.

The truck pictured above was one of two trucks I saw making a very slow right hand turn from the highway to the country road within view of my desk. It's pretty amazing they could fit something that long into a narrow road without cutting down a utility pole or a mailbox, yet they did make that turn without damaging anything.

Since the two trucks were blocking the roadway I could not get much closer than where I took the picture. It looks like they are rebuilding a small bridge that I found was closed last summer during one of my local drives through the country.

The older farm house above is about 1.5 miles behind my house. The picture is a little crooked but was holding the camera up pointed out the window as I drove by. I still don't feel good taking pictures of other people houses, so there will not be anymore. I passed on some real gems during my short drive today.

A lot of the roads near my house are a lot like this, although this is one of the few flat roads. It is one that I ride my bike on during the summer.

I did take pictures of those closed businesses in town. I have downloaded them but this time I am going to do some online research before I post, hopefully finding some history to each of the business I am going to talk about.

After that I took a drive across the highway for some more pictures of the old steel bridge. Not much had changed in the two years since I was there last. I'll make a post later just about the bridge itself and the updated pictures I took this morning.

Somewhat different driving the Mini Countryman All4 drive compared to the Toyota FJ I had before. This car sits about 4" lower in ground clearance but with the manual transmission I can see getting about anywhere I want to go off road. No ... I am NOT saying this is off-road.   LOL

I do like how those red mirrors stand out surrounded by all of the greens. My house is setting there to the left in the middle of the woods from the way it looks. The 7 acre field behind my house seems to have disappeared.

You would think after looking at this next picture my house is in the middle of the woods with nothing but trees around it. There isn't a clue there is a field anywhere near the house.

That small field across the highway seems like a waste of time to plow, to plant and to harvest ... but really it's much larger than meets the eye. I forget that the tree line in back is not the bank to the small creek that moves under the bridge ... but just a small wooded area between the front and back of this one field.

After they turn left after that wooded area straight ahead of the tractor, it moves into a much larger field to plant. This next picture is toward the left, next to the road I took to the bridge. You can barely see my house on the right side of the picture.

The field then spreads out to the north for quite a ways. As you can see, the field that I look at every day is a very small portion of the total size of that field. It makes sense now why they spend their time farming that area.

Before taking pictures of the bridge I stopped in the landscaping business to check on buying more rip rap. I have one more spot I want to add to the bank. It's a large hole in the side of the bank where the large sycamore tree once stood until June 2008. It was as large as the sycamore tree still standing.

The straight line winds pulled that 125' tree out of the ground like a weed. It fell through the fence and was tall enough to almost cover the width of the yard. You can barely see the large hole in the bank where the tree was. It is just left of those rocks you see in the center of the picture. It needs to be filled.

That is my driveway under the tree. The rest of the tree almost reached to the other side of the front yard. My bloodhound at the time, Bertha, was checking out the damage, barely seen to left of center. Sadie did not arrive until two months after this happened.

The Directv satellite dish did not survive the tree limbs. When they came to reinstall the new system I had him move the dish up to and bolted into the front of the house. That prevents wind damage and is hidden by the Yews planted a few years later.

By the time I returned from my local drive, the hounds were ready not only to eat but take a mid-afternoon walk. It was a slower pace this time and all three hounds spent the rest of the afternoon in a solid deep sleep.

Heidi was passed out on the couch, Stella stretched out on the floor behind my desk chair and Sadie moved back and forth from "her" large leather chair in the living room to her dog bed in the corner of the bedroom. All the windows were open with a nice breeze so it was great sleeping weather.

I was pretty sure that Heidi was going to make the afternoon walk. It was above her 70° threshold, sitting at 77°. She looked motivated within her first few steps outside.

You can see how much hair has grown back in on her front leg and paw and she does look a little heavier than last fall/winter.

She then bolted to the right and took off running around the front of the house for a lap. As she returned on the back side of the it was a reminder of #9 on my to do list this summer ... install new brick edging between the river rock and yard. The same bricks as in the front. I still have a lot to do before I get to #9.

I asked her one more time if she was going on the walk and she gave me a solid no. She stood looking away and never moved. I got her answer loud and clear.

Stella let me know early in the walk, that the fast pace she did this morning was not going to be an afternoon thing for her. She was back to being slow and after looking at that picture I could swear the grass grew another 6" after this morning's walk.

Four Five perfect, nothing out of place, dandelions. (thanks for letting me know about my error)

There are times I wished I was paying attention in geography or geology class ... one of those non-sports classes in school. I'd love to know what these are and who makes them. The liquid mud formations fascinate me.

Sadie warmed up a little in her search ... but then again, she never slows down and is always active in her walks. A totally different energy level than Stella's.

I was about to call Stella's name ... but she started heading my way on her own. Not fast ... but in the right direction.

Both of them decided they had enough fun for one day and slowly headed down the path back home.

Another one of many farm equipment traveling south down the highway today.

Just one more thing to check out before their siesta.

Sadie was walking behind me until she saw Heidi up by the house. As always she took off sprinting, and touching noses with Heidi just to let her know she was back.

While Heidi found a way to cure her itch ... Stella walked slowly around her without stopping to even say hello.

Now ... she looked ready for a walk as she started barking at me.

Even after a couple of glasses of freshly brewed cold ice tea, by 3:30 that thought of a siesta sounded like a good idea. It didn't help much with three sleeping hounds but I was able to resist.

Those 6 days of rain forecasted out of the next 9 days have been blown off the map. No rain today and now it's only 3 of the next 9 that has a possibility of rain. Plenty of good weather for me to get back on that 'to do' list.

Do I like my Mini Cooper Countryman? --- yes
Do I miss my blue Toyoto FJ? --- yes
Would I like to have my old white 1994 Chevy pickup truck back --- yes
Do I need the seldom driven Z4? --- yes

This is why I need 4 different cars but only have 2.

I have found that a printed out 'to do' list is much better at keeping me focused on the job at hand, rather than checking a list on my computer, on my iPhone or in my head.

Those tiny things you think you feel crawling on your legs or neck are back ... ticks.

Stay tuned for a post, with pictures, about the steel bridge that is at least 70 years old and the local business that are now closed after decades of serving a lot of local people and are missed today.

It was another nice day here in 'the tropics of southern Indiana.