Stella Plans Her Day

With the field across the highway planted, the hounds and I had a full day of activity ahead of us. It was suppose to be hotter today than yesterday and it's almost perfect weather this time of year.


Stella started her day, thinking and trying to get her plan together.

While Sadie did a little early exploring through the wet grass as coffee was brewing inside. It looks like part of the field near the backyard is growing by the hour ... a winter full of great bloodhound fertilizer makes the grass grow faster.

I was tired of getting my feet wet the past few mornings, so this morning I put on my hiking boots and set the New Balance running shoes (yard shoes) off to the side.

Stella got so deep into the thorn bushes that the long vines were sticking to her as she tried to back out. She didn't notice them and kept on charging. In the meantime my arms and legs are showing signs of thorn cuts after I climbed up and around the bank yesterday cutting those 1"-2" saplings.

I could tell that Sadie was pretty locked into scents this morning but didn't know just how much until we turned the corner.

While Sadie went in front of us with her nose to the ground, Stella was following her own pace and taking her time.

At first by the way Sadie was acting I thought she was going to run down into the gully through the thick brush. She definitely had a strong scent and no doubt that scent was deer.

Luckily when I called her name, she came running out of the bushes and headed in a different direction.

It was a pretty slow pace back to the house. Stella kept walking in our direction without any desire to head to the woods to her left. Sadie kept her nose to the ground almost all the way home.

After we returned from the morning walk I decided it was time for Phase II in clearing the bank. I needed to move all the small tree saplings I cut yesterday up to my burn pile. They are too green and would not burn today. I'll let them set there until next fall and by the size of it I might have one of my biggest fires yet.

Here is a pretty good sample of the saplings I am talking about. There are some pointing the other way that are larger in diameter, it takes time to cut them no matter what size they are.

I decided I wouldn't wait another few weeks to burn the bank. I decided to start today and anything that did not burn I will cut and stack for another fire tomorrow. There were probably a few that I was unable to get to yesterday when I was in the cutting mode.

This area is after the last part of the fence. I remember years ago that was nothing but green grass that I mowed every time I mowed the yard. After the straight line winds in June 2008 tore out a bank full of tall mature trees, that area went from grass to nothing but saplings..

Stella wasn't up for any kind of supervisory role. I guess I didn't need to put her on the tether to keep her in the field since she slept through most of the fire burning process. She did jump up though when I asked Sadie if it was "time to eat".

Each time I would carry a bundle of saplings up the bank to the burn pile I'd look to see where Sadie was. She decided she needed to check on the new grass seed that I planted on the bank by the old fence post.

It was good to see that almost everything burned in that first section. That was mostly dead leaves. It looks bad now but in a month or two it will be covered with new green growth of ragweed or unidentified weeds.

Yes part of the fence caught fire in the same place as two years ago. My garden hose was ready to kill the flames. It looks like that big stack of thorny vines are not going to burn so they will be the 3rd part of this process.

I mentioned in my last post for every sapling I have cut over the years, three to four new ones will grow back. I have tried everything to kill the tree, from black spray paint on the fresh cut stem, to stump removal chemicals, and slamming a hatchet down the center of the stem.

With all the smoke blowing toward the house, Sadie was making sure I had the fire under control and a call to the local fire department would not be needed. That reminds me of a funny story about the fire department and my neighbor's fire last summer.

The two neighbors north of me have huge banks from their front yard to the highway. For the 20 years I have been here, they have burned the dead brush on those banks right down to the shoulder of the highway every year. I noticed last summer that two fire trucks showed up to the neighbor next to me. I thought that was strange because he and his wife were outside watching it with the garden hose nearby in case it got out of control.

I found out in a conversation the other day that someone in a car passing by on the highway decided THEY needed to call the fire department for the out of control grass fire, thus the two fire trucks showing up unexpected.

Soon after my fires were on their last legs, Sadie decided it was time for lunch. When I walked inside Heidi was already standing by her food bowl and started barking at me when she saw me.

I was about to start washing the cars when I decided instead to run to town to buy a bag of dog food. The hounds have about 3-4 days left I expect but for some reason today I decided to buy early and keep the bag in the car until needed. If I were to bring that new bag inside, Stella would break into it when she had the chance.

It was a good thing I did, I bought the last bag on the pallet and their next delivery is not due until Tuesday. On the way back home I decided it was time for a little more lunch. That salad I had did not last long and for the past week or two I have been craving the best fish sandwich I've see, just 20 miles away.

It's one of those small town, out of the way places that are a concrete block building, a kitchen and 3 tables that could cram in 12 people if needed. They have the best fish sandwich I have ever had, including out in the PNW.

So things were going pretty well with Phase II of the bank clearing finished, a good lunch, beautiful weather ... I could wash the cars or take a siesta. Since I believe it's best to wash cars either early morning or late afternoon the option of a siesta won.

It's a beautiful night for some college football, so I am headed inside to get cleaned up and drive to Bloomington to watch the IU spring football game. That will close out their NCAA allowed spring practice.

Phase III of the bank clearing may be delayed tomorrow. I just received my UPS box to return the Exede modem, power supply and TRIA. I can take that up to UPS tomorrow since there is no longer a UPS drop off in town. Exede included in their package an offer I can't refuse to "come back". All I need to do is call them and mention those two key words for an offer of a lifetime.

Too much work getting done here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... I'm tired.

HughesNet Gen5 Is Great

We were up early enough to see the dew still on the grass in the field and backyard. It's amazing to see how much of the field grass has grown just in the past few days. With the temps reaching the 70's this afternoon, Stella will finally get a bath with dog shampoo that is focused on relieving itching.

We had our morning walk at 10:30am. All of these pictures are from that time. I am still using the lens hood and making zero edits on any of the pictures. Instead of narrating the walk, I'll talk about my experience with the new (to me) HughesNet Gen5 satellite internet I had installed yesterday.

Some readers like myself live in rural areas and may need internet service that is faster and affordable. I've had this service for 21 hours and have found a couple of more good surprises as a new customer.

Before I start I will say right up front, the speeds are way faster than advertised or were certified by the FAA. I have seen a distinct difference in the speed of loading web pages and uploading over 100 photos last night into Google Photos and Flickr. I was happy with my Exede service and thought it was fast ... but this stuff right now is 'crazy' fast.

One new surprise this morning is I have free data for the first 20 days of service. I called customer service this morning because their data tracker was showing I had used zero data, where my iMac's Activity Monitor showed I had used 1Gig of data by midnight last night.

So I had to call to see what was up. She told me they give me 20 days of free data so I can get all of the updates downloaded, new apps or software downloaded, movies etc ... without using my data to 'get things set up'.

Last week I was told by the local distributor, I'd get 20Gb of data per month, speeds of 25Mbps and uploads at 3Mbps all for $67 after tax. There was no installation charges. Their modem had the wifi router built in, so there would be only one box. He did tell me though they were getting consistent download speeds of 45-48Mbps instead of 25Mbps.

Those speeds have checked out and have not changed since my install yesterday afternoon. I am also getting those same speeds on my iPhone and iPad Mini using the wifi to my modem.

The $67 per month pricing includes the $20 equipment rental for the first 12 months of the 24 month contract. It will be back in the $80's after 12 months, which is what I was paying Excede AFTER a monthly $20 discount. For that ~$80 I'll still get faster speeds and more data.

As far as data, I forgot to mention I get an additional 50Gb per month between the hours of 2am-8am. I will most likely be up after 2am to use it before I am up at 6am to use it for 2 hours.

Hughes launched their latest satellite last month, March 16. It covers all of the USA, more area and Alaska. For those readers that have read reviews about satellite internet, take those negative reviews from complaining customers with a 'grain of salt'. Before I decided to install Exede in June 2014 I read a lot of reviews from different websites. Some were scary, but in my location I had no other choice for internet service.

After reading some of the Exede reviews you would have wondered how they ever stayed in business if they were that bad. Yet, my reliable source for almost everything electronics, or computers ... CNET ... had good reviews.

I found it to be very very reliable, even in heavy thunderstorms or high winds. My internet signal rarely dropped offline and when it did, it was never longer than 30 minute if that long. Speeds were consistent at 12Mbps. Exede's customer services was always helpful and knew what they were talking about. At least from the phone conversations I had with them.

With the word getting out to the public about the new HughesNet Gen5 system, I expect my speeds to decrease over time as more people sign up for their service. Yet, it would take a lot of people using their internet service to decrease the speeds in half to 20Mbps or so.

With the 20 days of free data I will be using the internet without limits just to check how much data I could go through in a day. My computer's activity monitor will be able to tell me how much data I use. Since I shut my computer off every night, that activity monitor starts at zero every morning.

I am also going to call my Directv technical customer service to get a better understanding of downloading movies in their "on demand" program. I am not sure if the data is used only when the huge library file is downloaded or as each movie is watch, or both. I know 3 years ago when I connected my DVR box to my wifi it was sucking data like water to download Directv's large library of movies.

For those that travel or live in an RV, I am not sure if HughesNet can travel with you like Directv can. I have not called to ask them about that. I do know for sure that Exede satellite service was not mobile.

I can't think of anything else to tell you about the new internet service I have. I am glad I decided to make the change and very happy with the performance of the new system. I am sure about the time I post this, I'll remember something I forgot to say. You might want to check back for any updates, which I will type anything I remember later in a color of crimson.

On this morning's walk I saw history taking place. Stella was on her own this morning and followed right along with Sadie and I until she got to the deer bed where she stops every walk. Only today was different. You can see her walking in the picture above out toward the path we walk on.

The "historical" part is when she turned toward me and started walking to meet me and Sadie without calling her. She would normally continue north to the neighbor's woods. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing.

She came right up to me as I got closer. The moon and stars must have been lined up last night for this to happen.

Heidi did come outside with us on her own but wasn't interested in walking. She did go with us on our walk last night but I didn't take the camera with me. So while we walked, she stayed outside around the house.

When I asked Sadie "where's Heidi" ... this is her reaction.

Then once she saw Heidi in the distance ... can dogs really see that far??? Some studies say no but I find it hard to believe she is running toward her just based on scent.

I tried but wasn't able to catch when Sadie touched noses with Heidi but she does that all the time when they meet like this. She will even do that when Heidi comes back inside at night while Sadie is inside the house waiting for her.

I guess this picture captures her tail wagging but a lot of my pictures of her do not. Her skin and coat seems much better than anytime I can remember since October 2014. Yet, when I look at her pictures a year ago, she looks the same. She has gained her weight back.

Stella being Stella, doesn't acknowledge Heidi and just walk right past her like she wasn't there. LOL She has always been like that for the 20 months that she has lived here. She will even walk on my feet at times or try to walk over my legs if I am blocking her path while I sit on the couch.

I am in the process of taking a series of pictures of the farmer that plants the field across the highway. I'll post those and only those pictures later tonight showing the process from expanding out their planter rakes to loading their seed.

Since they alternate between corn and soybeans every year or two, I am expecting soybeans this year but will have to wait and see what grows. while they do that almost a month early, the other field on the other side of the dirt path has not even been plowed yet. That field is owned by a different farmer.

Fantastic weather to be outside.

Yesterday was my 3rd year anniversary of retirement. I still call it my best career decision I ever made. Some adjustments had to be made financially but I would not change a thing, it's been great.

If you have any questions about the satellite internet, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll answer the best I can. I still feel the pictures are looking better with the lens hood on this Tamron lens.

A lot of good things happening right now here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

I Confuse Myself Sometimes

Right before sundown he showed up to disc his field last night. It's a small field and with something that wide it wouldn't take him too long. Luckily the wind was blowing away from the house and all that dust was headed west and not toward the house. I had my windows open and had completed my weekly house cleaning earlier in the day.

While on the hound walk this morning I saw he still has about half of his field to do. That is the section that goes to the right of my house and behind the two neighbors across the highway. I just caught the tail end of the local tv news the other night where they were discussing income per acre. Don't take this as accurate, but the part of the show I caught was talking $15 per acre after they harvest their crops.

Sadie had not made it out to this part of the yard yet. So the robin was safe, while the hounds were over by the burn pile. I moved my mower up one level so I am letting this part of the backyard grow a little before I mow it again. The mole hills and tracks are disappearing naturally with the rains and the grass is overtaking the weeds as it gets greener. I did not apply any Scott's turf builder nor grub worm killer.

 I have a feeling the big blonde cat was checking out the yard last night while we slept. Sadie and Stella slowly walked investigating every inch along the back side of the house. They spent a lot of time around the air conditioner, then slowly migrated up the small hill to the far north of the yard where the robin was.

They have decided that is their new place, barely out in the field for their bathroom runs. They may head back in the direction of the house but not before they stand looking in the direction of the neighbor's house. Their nose scans the area before they turn to walk toward me.

By 9:45am this morning I had all of my walls and doors hand washed and wiped down with a towel. Before I did any cleaning, I vacuumed all of the walls and ceiling. I guess I could buy some new attachments for my old Swifter, or just buy a new one. The last time I used a Swifter to clean the walls, it was hard to put into words what you don't see on your walls and the Swifter picked up.

So with a break needed and a call from my HughesNet installer telling me it would be after lunch before his arrival, the hounds and I took off for a walk. Heidi was sound asleep on 'her' Marmot sleeping back in front of an open window enjoying the breeze.

You may have noticed I typed HughesNet and not Exede when I mentioned the installer calling. There is a reason for that and luckily since I was not really paying attention, it will not cost me anything in fees for changing service providers unintentionally.

The other day I mentioned on a post here the local business that installed my Exede system in June 2014, texted me as an Exede Customer telling me about the new plan available in my area as of April 1. For some reason I thought it was a new Exede plan. I also thought I was on an automatic two year contract renewal after my expiration date.

I found out last night just how confused I was on this transaction. It wasn't a 'senior moment' but more of not paying attention to what was said. Or maybe it wasn't, because when I looked back through those texts from the local business at no time was HughesNet mentioned.

What I found strange was the day I set up an "update" day (today), they billed the debit card I gave them. What was confusing was the description for that transaction said HughesNet and not Exede. The next confusing thing I noticed was that on the Exede website the plan they were offering me locally was nowhere on the Exede website.

Just a short break from the topic ... Sadie got in some really good running this morning. 100% effort and without being called.

When I saw the different name I really didn't think to much about it since I was happy with the savings in my new monthly bill, faster speeds and more data per month. I thought I'd call the local business to verify if something had been entered wrong before my service appointment.

Last night the owner texted me since it was after office hours to let me in on the change in service. I did some quick internet review searching on the Gen5 system and found no problems with it. The new satellite was just launched March 16, 2017. I watched the video on the HughesNet website, from building it to launching it ... pretty amazing stuff.

As far as reviews found on the internet ... I will read them but don't put a lot of stock in them. I'll analyze what is being said by active or past customers and then decide ... but if the review is from CNET, then that something I strongly consider before making a decision.

I was going to call Exede again and make sure I was not breaking a contract. I will say that if there was going to be a fee charged to me for breaking a contract I would have had second thoughts about the change. I have had nothing but great service with Exede and unless I start streaming movies through my Directv, the faster download speed may not be that much of a factor since I have great fast speed now for internet surfing.

I found out after my first two years had passed I was not on a two year renewal but on a month to month basis. No one from Exede ever told me that whenever I talked to Customer Service.

Besides the difference in speed and data limits, I'll not get a free data period between midnight and 5am but will get an extra free 50Gb of data for the month, to use between the hours of 2am-8am. Still a good period of the day to do my large OS updates, download movies or ballgames. Those OS updates do not take place too often.

I'll write more about the new system later after it's installed and give kind of a system review for those of you are interested. What I found interesting was that the Gen5 system automatically compresses and optimized web content with built-in SmartTechonlogies to make web pages load faster while using less data.

I will be able to monitor that activity with my Activity Monitor that I always have open on my other monitor incase something downloads that I am not expecting.

It also includes a video data saver so you can watch more videos using less data. It will adjust data rates for streaming video to deliver DVD quality.

Under my current system I basically cut out my YouTube videos because of the amount of data I was using. With only 15Gb per month I had to really control the amount of video I watched and made sure that all of the 'autoplay' settings were turned off, along with using Flash Control and Ghostery apps.

I'll keep posting updates to the system change and let you know if I made a good decision. The owner of the local satellite business told me that he is getting great feedback from past Exede customers that changed to this new HughesNet system last week.

What else was confusing???  My old old old washer I blogged about a few weeks ago didn't work. At that time the belt had decided not to work, thus the wash machine did not spin to get all of the water out of the clothes.

I was about to say heck with repairing a 38 year old washer and just buy a new washer and dryer. I still might because it is past due I guess for replacement, but they still work okay and with me being retired I found that I do laundry less frequently.

So last night I did a small test to see if the machine was going to spin or not ... it did !!!!  I loaded the wash machine to capacity, including three pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts. Both would be very heavy when loaded with water. I would find out if the weight of the wet load would be a factor for the spin cycle not working.

The rinse and spin cycles for two loads worked perfect. I had done nothing to fix the problem of a few weeks ago. So the wash machine may be on it's last legs but I will continue to use it until it stops working.

Well I have to get the hounds fed lunch, and then barricade them in the living room, blocked by a baby gate when the installer shows up in about an hour. All three of them would be more than willing to help him do his job or at least supervise him if they were not blocked off.

It's perfect weather today here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.