Stella Was On Her Own Today

For various reasons I decided today, on all walks, Stella would be on her own. She could go at her own pace, in any direction she wanted and that Sadie nor I would be a factor in anything she did. I was guessing we would find her by the woods behind the neighbors house or possibly heading north to the woods. Either way we would be able to find her. So why the freedom??

The thought did occur to me that letting her go where she wanted might be a way to get it out of her system, realizing that might take a week and close to 14 trips of freedom. More than likely the decision was based on me. I was finally getting tired of saying "come on" to a very stubborn bloodhound. Yep, that was the real reason.

She walked the return path leading Sadie and I ... her normal routine. Like always she had other plans past this point of the walk.

The first one I have seen this year.

I am almost at the first turn when I see that Sadie likes today's policy just as much as Stella ... I turned and headed east.

With perfect weather lately, the local farmers have been working non-stop. They put in a lot of hours in a work day.

I took one last look to check on Stella's location and sure enough, she is migrating toward the neighbors. Would I find her in their woods or their backyard by the time Sadie and I got back?

That ATV path from last summer has almost disappeared in the tall grass. It would be coming right at the camera if you could see it.

It was perfect weather to walk this morning. Sadie was covering a lot of ground in a short period of time. Stella was completely out of view, at least mine without my glasses. I never wear glasses on the walks, with or without a camera.

I thought I saw movement up ahead a long way away. My 200mm zoom barely picked up Stella. She is more in the middle of the north part of the field than close to the highway.

Sadie continued to chase invisible birds and acted confused she either didn't see them or get them airborne.

We were not walking fast but I was keeping an eye on Stella. It would be easy to catch her being this close to her. Sadie had already started running that direction to let her know it was time to turn for home ... plus she wanted to find out exactly what held Stella's interest over there.

Without me saying a word, she did look in our direction, then turned around and walked around the corner of those woods.

Once Sadie touched her nose, Stella started her slow walk toward the yard. As you can see from this angle of the field we had quite a climb on a short steep hill.

Last night past midnight the field filled up with different sounds of different animals. I wish I knew what they were, possibly deer was one of them but then a reply that sounded like nothing I had ever heard since moving here 20 years ago. As I was shutting the door and turning off the computer the conversation was so loud that I thought someone might have pulled off the highway into the driveway and was talking loudly ... but it was all animals making the noise.

The sounded very close to the house, just outside the bedroom window ... maybe it was cats and not deer ... Sadie seemed to have found the spot they were sitting. Still not sure.

Both checking out that spot before they head for the house. Slight overcast today with scattered thunderstorms but the percentages are pretty low for this area.

Unless I can decide just to choose the best photos, these posts will have over 35 each post if I wait to the end of the day to post something.

We took our afternoon walk a little earlier today, around 3:15pm due to the cooler temps. As I had my head down setting my Garmin VivaSmart watch to track time and distance, Sadie took off sprint toward the trees. I barely saw the squirrel scampering up the tree trunk.

Not catching the squirrel did not decrease Sadie's enthusiasm for her walk, she did what she always does in the field ... track scent with a little aerobic jogging added to her workout.

Stella had 'free range' this afternoon also. She didn't see what the difference was nor why it was such a big deal. She followed the path at a very slow pace with just a few stops on the way to check something out. Overall, she did well without any verbal herding on my part.

We barely caught a plane coming out of the clouds on it's decent into the Indy airport 70 some miles north of us.

With it looking like rain most of the afternoon, that never arrived, we didn't really do to much. The hounds slept, I did some of the household chores and ended the afternoon up with a couple of half loads of laundry. No water issues this time either.

After reading the book yesterday putting me in the mode to read more, I have a few on my bookshelf bought years ago but never read or finished after I started them. Temps are border line for the air conditioner but it seems to like running today after it was 12 noon.

Heidi is in a huge sleep mode, only getting up to eat and the short 2 minute trip outside after her noon meal. I guess her inner clock is telling her it's in the 80s again today.

Nothing more to report from the front lines here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Love This Weather

Those scattered thunderstorms in the forecast never showed up over the weekend but it made me, the farmers and even the sparrows busy trying to get things done before it rained. Before I could finish breakfast on Saturday they were preparing the field to plant later that afternoon. So far this spring has not been "wetter than normal", yet I am mowing my yard every 3rd day to keep up.

Last year the sparrows built their nest in the upper corner inside my carport. I left the nest there for their return but they had different plans for 2018. It's small but in a perfect spot I guess, on top of my electric power meter.

With the great weather where you can sleep with the windows open in 50° weather, the 2nd hound walk of the day is in the 70's and nice enough to get a 3rd walk in by the late afternoon. Stella is staying around on her own without wandering off. She has trotted at times but no longer runs full speed.

Sadie will be 10 years old this June and she always gets in some running every time we walk. When her ears can lay flat on top of her head ... she is at max speed.

Sunday after their lunch I decided it would be a great time to brush out some of the winter coats of all three hounds. I start with a hound mitt and finish getting the rest of the undercoat with the normal small steel brush. By the time I finished setting up the operation Stella decided to move first in line and took over my area. Brushing her makes her fall a sleep.

Heidi likes the mention of three things, a bath, toenail clippers and getting brushed.

All of the rain scheduled for Saturday afternoon kept pushing out 8 hours ahead. With no rain after midnight Saturday night they were ready to add some fertilizer on Sunday afternoon. With a spreader that wide it did not take long for him to cover the field ... that is until he ran out.

Yet, with modern technology of a cell phone, he could get replenished right where he was without going anywhere. This is the first time I have seen a truck with this arrangement of liquid supplements for a delivery service. He backed next to the tractor to fill it up.

Every morning walk starts with Stella staying behind to eat some fresh wet tall grass. I don't have to call her to catch up with us. The past few weeks she has decided that is what she wants to do on her own.

It usually happens on Fridays but yesterday morning the sky will full of contrails. These were taken around 9am. Military or commercial aircraft ?

Hound walks No.2 and No.3 of the day always has Stella walking at a very slow pace. Most of the way she will not get off our path.

As you can tell the field right behind the house, has the tallest grass in the field. Two reasons for that, bloodhound natural fertilizer all winter and 7 acres of underground water that migrates to this area of the field. With great weather recently it is strange that I have not seen nor heard any ATVs in the field.

This gives you some idea how nice the weather has been everyday.

With the nighttime temps dropping into the low 50s every night, we start our walks in a field that is so wet with morning dew you would think it had been raining all night. My North Face snow boots keep my feet dry and warm. My hiking boots become so saturated on one of the walks from the heavy dew that I had to put them back on the shelf until July. My feet were soaked before we barely started the walk on Saturday.

The other day I thought it was a scampering rabbit that led Sadie into the woods on a sprint and down over the edge toward the gully. This morning I found out it was not a rabbit but a sparrow launching from ground level. She was sure she had found their nest and was very interested in heading back into the woods as I kept telling her 'no'.

It's hard to see with the camera but along this edge of the woods there is a narrow single path of worn grass that goes all the way to the first turn on the walk. Stella has been following that path of scent every morning. How many deer walk through there on that path while the hounds and I are inside for the night?

Not even a 1/4 of the way into the walk and my boots are soaked to the top of them.

Lately Stella has been taking a shortcut on the walk. Luckily instead of wandering over to the woods behind the neighbors or even the next house over, she will gradually angle toward our return path to meet Sadie and I on the way back.

By the time we finish walking the back edge of the field, turning for home ... she meets us in the middle of the field.

Sadie pays no attention to anything or anybody on her walks most of the time. Her nose is too powerful to let her get distracted.

Stella might try to walk further north across the path as if I do not see her but once Sadie gets near, she knows that we are on our way home and will wait for us.

As usual the morning walk ends with two noses checking out that scent that walks into the backyard, following the tree line.

I admit even in this great weather my to do list has barely been touched. Maybe I am waiting for the extreme hot weather, where it's too hot to be outside after 10am, I don't know. Besides the three hound walks per day, all of us (Heidi included) spend a lot of time just sitting outside without the camera enjoying the sunshine. The Z4 is being driven more than the FJ in this weather and there enough different roads we can drive where each daily drive is not the same. The Z4 runs smooth and quiet as if it were a new engine.

I am still using DuckDuckGo for my default search engine and have not moved from Apple's browser  Safari. I'll use about 8% more data per month without Google Chrome but I know that Safari does less data harvesting. The only junk email I am getting now with those changes are from me signing up on the Bob Vila site for a free washer and dryer. I have a 'junk' email address I use for times like that so I can see just how much junk mail I have generated by signing up for something.

Well it's time for a morning drive and I can get back just in time to hear Heidi (barking) and Stella (howling) telling me it's time for their lunch.

Fantastic weather lately in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.