Domain Technical Difficulties

Due to some technical difficulties I have changed this blog's url back to the free blogger url it had. Please change your bookmarks to:

https://bhounds3.blogspot.com

Stella Gets Her Morning Walk

With rain from Friday afternoon until yesterday, moving us up over 52" of precipitation for the year,  and 10" over the annual average, Stella had not been able to walk the field since Friday morning. I was surprised how warm it felt at 36° but wasn't about the amount of water coming up from underground surrounding my boots.

I noticed even before Stella had her breakfast that something was wrong.

She wasn't her normal energetic self, excited ... no thrilled, she was going to get to eat. The first sign was this morning as I started to get out of bed in the dark when I noticed a dark still shadow like a sphinx at the foot of the bed. She was beyond quiet, staring at me.

As she and Heidi followed me to the door for their first trip outside, she didn't trot, she walked slowly, behind me not out in front leading us. Back pain? Did she tweak her back sometime during the night?

Well it wasn't soon into the walk I could tell she might be hurting a little bit. She didn't trot toward me to catch up like she always does at the start of the walk.

Since Stella didn't get in any walks yesterday because of the rain, I decided today I'd give her a little freedom and we would move her at her pace. I didn't see a lot of deer scat being eaten but she was into gathering information with her nose pressed to the ground or in the taller grass.

Once that happened then should could file the name or have one of those automatic searches of her database that would tell her who had been there and when they had been there as long as two weeks ago. The bloodhound nose is amazing.

Along the back edge of that field is heavy deer traffic, showing many of those small paths that move to the fenced area where they jump over and head to the empty field behind this one. It's been 13 months since I last saw deer in this field. Those were great times when Sadie and Stella would chase the ones they saw, never catching them. It's times like those I am happy my camera caught all the action.

We spent a lot of time along that back edge of the field today. She was taking her time, plus she is never in a hurry on these walks. Today it took us 22 minutes to cover a little over a half mile.

Facing the woods to the north ... smelling or hearing something?

Same spot every day ... food or the mysterious large stray field cat?

Back on the hunt, right down the middle of one of those deer paths.

Nothing to do now but a late morning nap until lunch is served. She will take an afternoon siesta on the couch while I watch the Colts - Cowboys game.

Of course Heidi did not go with us and  this was about the best I could do for fining her presence. There wasn't anything visible except her tail.

Maybe a gross picture to some but one any dog owner has seen. Why is this on a blog post? Well a few reasons really. One, it was just late September that she had her teeth cleaned. Since that time she has been getting a daily OraVet Dental Hygiene Chew that the vet staff had good things to say about the results they were hearing, preventing plaque build up.

Do those small spots show the plaque is breaking up? Yet since I last checked there is new plaque on that front tooth. Plus it looks like a build up along the gum line. I have a tooth tool that would remove that but the biggest problem is all the bacterial that would be involved if I chipped it away, possibly leading to an infection. I'll leave it there.

Recommendations?  Yes, I have a child's tootbrush with dog toothpaste but I admit I have not been brushing her teeth every day, but some.

They were not too interested in hitting the yard later ... both headed back inside after some deep thought.

Although I am getting use to the way Wordpress's new editor works I am still not happy that I have to insert each photo one at a time if I want them listed in an individual list. I could group any number of them in a gallery format but I like having the photos as big as the theme allows. I don't like the word "theme" either compared to template or design.

Some of you might have seen that I made a change last night back to having a sidebar on the right side. Different reasons for that but I think I have finally decided on a design I like. Since buying the Premium Plan I had a few hundred new 'themes' I could choose from but in the end I chose to keep the one I had.

After that dark and overcast morning I was shocked but happy that the sunshine popping out of those clouds as I finish this post. With nice temperatures and sunshine with no rain ... perfect day.

Since I am a self-proclaimed hermit, I don't get out much. Therefore I am not surrounded by the hustle and bustle of Christmas panic for last minute gifts. If I had not glanced at my calendar a while I ago I would have never known we are only 9 days away from Christmas.

For new readers/followers ... a little warning. Since I am a world renowned scholar I blog about a variety of topics on this blog. This post here is one reason I decided last Sunday to move in a different direction. This was a daily type post on our other blog. I always try to include 18-25 photos in these kind of posts.

When I wanted to expand a little inside my demented mind I knew the topics would be much different and more random. I am trying to keep it at two posts per day because with that expansion of expertise coming out of my overactive brain cells, I cannot fit it all in one post per day.

Since I felt most readers saw the post yesterday that I would be changing the domain name from bhounds3blog.wordpress .com to houndsandotherstuff .com, I went ahead and started that process this morning. It has not finished yet. GoDaddy says it will take 4-6 hours to propagate the blog with her new url. Yes, I did put a space before the .com on purpose, in case you were wondering.

The blog title will not change ... uh, it might, it's probably best to have them match.

To see if this change will affect those that follow the blog by Wordpress Reader or by email, I too have followed my own blog with both of those options so I can see firsthand if there are any issues getting to the site or being notified of a new post after the change of the domain name.

I'll just say this about retirement living ... "its a dangerous job but I knew it would be dangerous when I took it." I still love every day of it, after 56 months of it.

The hounds are happy, I'm happy, it's another great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Sun Is Out & The Hounds Are Back

It was great to wake up to sunny skies, birds singing outside loud enough to hear around some long distance heavy equipment operating over at the landscaping business. I know it's been a few days since our last post but believe me, with off and on rain, overcast skies and two bloodhounds that didn't want to go further than the edge of the carport ... there wasn't a lot to blog about.

There have been some changes though and some of you have noticed just from last night.

I went ahead and changed the domain name of this blog back to the original blogger url when I set up the blog in October 2011. From what the traffic reports were showing last night, it looked like most if not all regular readers and those that found my blog by searching for 'lil snoozy trailers', had visited and saw the notice of the new domain name change. I may have missed a few but I don't think there are many.

Since I am always a patient person (j/k), I deleted the old .com domain last night instead of waiting until Friday - then went to my GoDaddy account and not only deleted the domain name there but also my GoDaddy account. Why all the change? It must be one of those periods I go through from time to time where I don't care about the $12 per year for a domain renewal but I hate paying the $144 per year to do it. Like a friend told me in January ... "why pay for a domain if it is not producing income" ... good point.

So it's final, I have no more urls to move to.

The rains were pretty consistent for the past few days. About the time you thought you saw some sunshine trying to poke through the clouds, a light rain would start. The hounds were not happy and by Monday had a severe case of 'cabin fever'.

Not only did the domain name change since our last real post on the 10th of March but so have the hounds. Changes that I am not real happy about but I am thrilled with Heidi's change.

For some reason 3 or 4 days ago, the hounds quit walking directly out into the field like they have done for years ... yes, years. Straight out from the house and linger in the field exploring as much as they wanted. "Free range" so to speak. Well for some reason the other day they made a turn left and headed to the north side of the yard.

Now that I think about it, it was rainy that morning so they were both staying under the roof overhang walking along the side of the house. Plus around the new area I cleared last week, both were very interested in what had been walking in that area. I don't mind them walking in that area but what Stella did a few days ago changed everything. She is now on "double secret probation".

It was the normal routine ... dogs out while I am inside making coffee. I walk into my computer room to turn on the computer and glance out the window to check on the hounds. Sadie is sitting in the field stiff as a board, like a statue, facing the house. I had seen that look from her before but never more than one or two times in her 7-1/2 years.

I knew something was wrong.

Without taking the camera with me I sprinted outside because I was pretty sure I already knew what was going on. Stella had ran off. I could tell with Sadie not moving even as I approached her that she was giving me the look of "someone is in big trouble". While glancing over the north field where the hounds never go and yelling Stella's name ... she is no where to be found.

I look back along the bush line along the path that we take for the daily walk ... I don't see her anywhere. I am not in the state of panic yet but I am beginning to think the worse. High speed highways are never nice to hounds that are loose, nor any other breed of dog.

About the time that I turn to head to the house, grab the keys to the FJ to go find her .. my glance barely catches a red color bloodhound down inside the deep drainage ditch that runs along the edge of the north field and my neighbor's yard. It is deep enough that in some parts of that ditch she would not have been seen.

Luckily as I yelled her name ... Stella jumped out of the ditch and came sprinting to me. Sadie met her nose to nose, tails wagging to let her know "never do that again".

I was thrilled to say the least that the worst had not happened. I definitely didn't want to see her laying in the highway when I looked that direction. So the problem now ... both hounds continue to make that immediate left as they hit the yard and I cannot let Stella out on her own. The 80' tethered rope that is anchored in the field is back in operation temporarily and Stella is connected to that anytime the hounds want to go out and enjoy the yard. That has been rare since it's been raining most of the time.

Stella looking back to see if I am watching her.

Stella checking a 2nd time to see if I am watching her or can she make an escape and head north and back to that ditch.

Stella is never happy when I call her to come to the house, she would love to get back to that drainage ditch she found. The good news is, although they are both stubborn at times, they do come when their name is called ... but at THEIR pace.

From all the rain you can see that one part of the yard's grass has grown exponentially over the past few days. Once it dries out this afternoon I am going to mow just that small section. The grass is taller than any other part of the yard. It was a section that Winston used all winter when he dumped his tanks. Good fertilizer.

Heidi has improved taking the supplement the vet gave me on her last vet visit a week and a half ago. It was something called Herma A Spike. I won't say that her energy level is up because that had already improved but it feels like and looks like she has gained some muscle around those bones that were showing. Also on her rear paws, hair is replacing the bare skin and is becoming thicker. She is also still eating dog food with grains included. I'll post more about that later, with her own post and hopefully some photos.

It's good to be back blogging here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Domain Change

I have decided to close the current domain name earlier than the expiration date. So for those that follow this blog on a regular basis you should change your bookmarks/favorites to:

www.bhounds.blogspot.com

This will be the last domain change for this blog. The change will happen some time this week and no later than Friday.

www.houndsandrvs.com will be deleted.