Sadie Finds A Praying Mantis

With the AC turned off and all the windows opened, it felt like fall. I'm not sure where September went but it wasn't here long enough to remember.

Doesn't it seem like it was hot summer summer weather just a couple of weeks ago? Today the weather was great to get a few things done outside before it rains again.

Cleaning gutters was one of my projects today. With a lot of dry leaves inside them and not having the wet leaf problem it made the job that much faster ... and cleaner to do. I am hoping to clean and wash the Toyota FJ this week also. A lot of hound wear inside that needs to be taken care of.

Right after lunch it was time for a walk. It was beautiful today and most of the afternoon was spent outside doing something. You can see the leaves just starting to change color.

I bought a new spark plug for the Echo SRM-225U Weed Eater ... it still didn't start. I drove down to the local hardware store where I bought it to let them take a look at it. Their repair business must be good because they said they'd call me in a couple of days. I was tired of trying to figure out what was wrong with it and decided to let the 'pros' fix it. That also delayed the cutting of the giant ragweed until I get that back.

Sadie and Stella didn't care though. They took off running along the edge of the field and and didn't stop until they moved around the first turn. The scents must have been pretty strong for them to take off like that.

Of coarse Stella found her usual spot that she is always interested in.

Sadie was in full search mode and had been most of the walk today.

I'm not sure what spooked Stella but I caught her just as she turned, right before she took off running to catch up with us.

We headed back to the house but you can see that Sadie is very interested in something she had found. Once I saw her hop into the air right above that spot she is checking out, I knew it was something important.

If you look closely you can see what her prize was. I ran Sadie off to let the praying mantis continue it's movement through the field.

Sorry to be brief tonight, but the hounds and I just got up from our afternoon siesta a little after 6pm and still have a little daylight we can enjoy before the sun sets. For those interested, all the photos today were taken with the lens hood mounted.

It was a good Monday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Are Loving This Weather

Today was my first day of reading my monthly data limit of 15Gb with Exede internet service. They slow the speeds way down ... even slower than 'dial up' based on what www.speedtest.net tells me.

They claim they slow downloads down to 5Mbps but I don't even get that during my free data after midnight. I stopped calling about it because nothing every got fixed.

It doesn't take much go go over 15Gb of data in one month. Once that data is used by you or running in the background, it's gone and you never get it back unless you want to pay. This month I found out the hard way by working with Google Photos before midnight. I also updated and added apps to the nee iPad Mini I bought a few weeks ago. I DO track my daily usage on an excel spreadsheet and could see weeks ago I was going to run short ... even if I reduced my daily usage. So I can buy more at $10 for 1Gb. Or I could change my plan to 18Gb per month for $10 more per month ... but ... I'd lose my free data period between midnight and 5am every day.

All of this doesn't effect the hounds though ... their daily routines stay in place ... food, sleep, walks, fetch, conversations.

There was really heavy dew today and Sadie snuck out the north side of the yard. That pole shows the property line between the field and my yard. Jim's recent survey is not even close to my survey I have from when I bought the house in 1997. He isn't concerned and neither am I. He lives a couple of houses down from me.

When I told Stella to "go out there", she went straight out from the house into the field and then came running back when she was finished. There were still more spots to investigate in the yard before I had to make the "coffee" call ... where they both come running to the house. Strange how keywords can get them to do things ... like "football" they lay down and sleep, "eat" they sprint to the house from anywhere, etc.

We took our first walk of the day around noon and you can see how wet the field is in the shade. The sun was hot though so the AC is running today for the first time in a while.

There seemed to be more things to stop and smell for them today. They both like eating the fresh dirt pushed up by moles or whatever. They both took their time on this walk ... it was slow and a little long to complete.

Here is one of the last ones left in the field, whereas a few weeks ago my side of the field was full of the purple mist.

Sadie makes the first turn on her own but it didn't take long to have Stella sprinting toward us to catch up.

I like the different colors in the field ... some won't last long and it will turn tan and brown, in exchange for the leaves on the trees turning different colors. From the early starts it looks like it could be a quite colorful fall season this year.

I can tell and alway have, Stella really enjoys this field. She would probably stay out here all day if I would let her.

Sadie is just as interested as Stella is when she finds different scents. She really is more of a tracker than Stella is. She is more focused, somewhat serious where Stella likes to play around on her trips out in the field.

No matter what ... Stella is always on her own time ... and that's perfect, the way it should be.

I call these things "little green sticky things". They are better than velcro. They will stick to skin, hair, clothing, shoes, show laces and I have no idea what their official name is but I don't care for them. They are everywhere after we finish our walks.

I was going to mention it before but now I remember to ... this summer had very few lightning bugs, not many gnats, mosquitoes, or tics. The ticks basically disappeared after April, the mosquitoes never showed up and the gnats were not that bad either. It was very enjoyable to sit outside most of the summer when we were not in "the heat dome".

With those slow speeds I spoke of, it takes forever to upload photos into the blog. It takes forever to download a news or sports website with photos and videos. I guess I will need to quit being cheap and pay $10 for another gig of normal speed of 13Mbps - 19Mbps.

After lunch we decided we'd go out to check the weather ... it looked beautiful during our walk earlier. As you can tell, the energy levels were up and you could see by the look on Heidi's face along with the tongues of Sadie and Stella ... the AC had to be turned back on.

While they stayed home to monitor the AC, I put the top down on the Z4 and head out for a quick drive to the store with a nice 25 mile drive. I replenished my supply of fruits and veggies for the week. The change of diet a week and a half ago has brought on a few urges to fall off the wagon but I have been able to fight through them each time.

I didn't notice at first what was going on when we went out after 6pm. The is a reason we were so late and still need to get a walk in. The smell of wild onions was strong but as I glanced up I could see the field was being cut just like I had hoped it would. It also looks like I was not awake enough from my siesta to hold the camera steady.

I'll get better photos tomorrow when they come back to roll it, but you'll notice they have a brand new tractor. I looked at photos from last June to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was.

I guess the old saying "beggars can't be choosy" is true ... I would have liked to have that field cut a little lower than they are cutting (that new tractor had a new mower, cut nice and low) it plus that corner of giant ragweed growing out of control would be nice to get out of the way. Looks like I am going to have to get that Echo SRM-225U fixed to get the job done.

It might be just my eyes or the time of day but the past few days it sure does look like the old Nikon lens shows with more color than the new Tamron lens. Can you tell which photos were shot with each lens?

It might be slow uploading photos to the blog due to my speed restrictions for hitting my monthly data limit but that is not the reason for the late posting ... our afternoon siesta ran a little longer than planned ... but it worked out great because it gave them time to start cutting the field.

'The tropics' of Southern Indiana are really nice right now.

Late Entry

Right after the post we took off for walk before it got dark. I could resist and the hounds LOVED that 'their' field had been cut. With that new tractor, came a new mower and a sharp blade ... the field has never been cut as good as it is right now.

They don't cut the field twice in a summer/fall too often so this was a very nice surprise.

Sadie was almost 'beside herself' with excitement. The photos did not catch that but she was going back and forth, looking back at me to start the walk.

Not only did I find the field cut short, but it was not beat down with a high speed dull mower blade but a nice cut that left the ground soft instead of having to step on small spears.

Some way this guy missed all the action and survived.

Of coarse Stella was oblivious to anything around her, including my voice repeating "come one".

That sunshine didn't last long, it was gone for the day.

The home of those "little green sticky things" I spoke of earlier.

Heading back home. They will probably rake the field early Saturday morning and then bale it into rolls in the afternoon or will come back on Sunday. I'll try to get photos of their new tractor around my college football games. I am going to have to look because I am pretty sure I took a photo of their new blue tractor last summer.

Enjoy your weekend!!