Coldest Day Yet But The Hounds Love To Walk

It was nice to see that sunshine but don't let it fool you. We were out the door before 8am and my WeatherBug app was telling me it was only 25° but was going to feel like 17°. Sadie started her 'stare down' around 7:30am from the doorway wanting to walk and started whining by 7:50am ... I knew I didn't have a choice. So I dressed as if I was going to spend all day on the ski slopes, grabbed the Nikon and took off. Only my face told me during the walk just how cold it was.

To not confuse, I have changed to writing content that goes with the photo below it, instead of switching in the middle of the post. Feels like the right thing to do, so I'll go with it. From the time Sadie had hit the field for the 3rd time since she woke up ... she was all action. There would be nothing but high paced tracking for her today.

There were a few spots where more intense research had to be done for her to identify what had been there. She can never miss anything when her radar is locked in, otherwise known as her curled tail.

Stella is just ... well Stella. She was on her own today. With the temps below 20° my jaws couldn't handle repeating "come on" to her a hundred times during this walk ... so she was on her own. I had a sneaky suspicion I would not see her on our way back and would be spending some time looking for her.

By this time Sadie's jowls were making noise to let me she was still nearby. I'm wondering if the colder temps make the scents stronger.

I was shocked to see Stella running our direction when I turned around to check on her but don't let that fool you into thinking she is going to walk with us today. I'll tell you beforehand, Sadie and I were on our own today.

As you can see Sadie was pretty oblivious to everything else going around her, and it did not matter who was or wasn't walking with us.

There was no eating this morning just pressing her nose into the ground a little harder and you can tell by those folds in her forehead she is doing a lot of analyzing about what she has found.

Who knows, maybe all the 'natural protein' Stella has eaten over the past 8-10 months has helped her regain all of the weight she had lost early last year.

By this time my exposed face is frozen. Watery eyes made it hard to see through the camera's view finder and the freezing wind had really picked up coming out of the NW instead of our normal SW direction. Everything else I had worn was keeping me toasty warm. The ski gloves were pulled out this morning for the first time this winter.

I am not sure what is going on with my pictures this morning, with being a little out of focus at times. It's hard to imagine that my hands are that unsteady when I hold the camera. Anyway, you can see the sun had not been up that long this morning when we took the first walk of the day.

Sadie continued her torrid pace exploring as much of the field as possible.

Just as I expected, as I passed the first corner on my way back ... Stella was nowhere to be seen. Based on the part of the woods she walked out of the other day I decided I would walk into the woods in the same spot.

As you can see as I looked down into the gully, looking left and right ... no sign of any red bloodhound. How can she disappear just like that and not be seen?

I still continued to yell her name, thinking I would see her moving among the trees and along that big bank of dead leaves. But ... nothing.

As I was walking back out into the field, there she was acting as if she had never gone anywhere and was there the whole time. Once she saw me, she started wagging her tail and trotted toward the house with Sadie following. I'm glad it was only a few minutes before she showed up. It was too cold just to leave her outside alone.

When we came back inside I wasn't sure that Heidi was even going to get up for lunch. This is her way of beating the winter cold. She set's all time records in that position for never moving. For some reason this year, she has moved from the bed to the couch for her all-day sleeping marathons.

All it took was a few hours to pass and hearing Stella howling for lunch, that she raised her head, jumped off the couch and came sprinting to spot I set her dish of kibble. She posed for the second day in a row for the new phone camera but didn't stay out long in the temps like they are today.

I am reading online today on how to take the best iPhone 8 Plus photos. That research covers improving the texture of a photo like the one above or the zoom photos I have tried to take. I have a feeling it is more user error than anything.

Stella wanted me to ask, if you were to look into those eyes would you even imagine that I can destroy a room if left too long along with Sadie or that I can disappear in a matter of seconds and never seen nor heard?

This is the normal position for Sadie and Stella every night whether I am on the couch or not.

There were two things I wanted to get accomplished today. I wanted to find a way where my Garmin VivoSmart 3 would synchronize with the  new phone. I had tried every suggestion on the internet, Garmin forum, Apple forum and MacRumors forum without any success. I was about to write it off as a lost cause and forget about it.

Then I decided I could see the same information the watch collected during the day and downloaded into Google Connect on the phone or to Garmin Express on my computer. Evidently months ago when I stopped using the Express I deleted it and today I had to reinstall the program. That put me in a mode to reload my Garmin VivoSmart2 as if it was a new device.

As expected all of the data automatically downloaded to my computer as soon as the watch was recognized. Out of curiosity I picked up the phone and tapped the Garmin Connect icon and within seconds it dowloaded all the data as if the watch had never been disconnected.

So the first goal of the day was reached.

I am now at the stage of wanting to know more on how to take better photos with the phone, so while the wind is howling freezing air outside I am inside searching and reading information where I can tweak the zoomed photos to make them better, etc. I did find out that Apple uses a file named .heic instead of .jpg for photos taken after their iOS11 update.

Same quality but that .heic format will take up less space to store your photos. For those of you that have Apple phones and Windows PC computers, you will have to get a free converter downloaded so you can work with your photos taken with an Apple phone.

I did find out I was using the zoom wrong and the reason a lot of my zoomed photos were blurry.

We ended the freezing day with a walk a little after 3pm without the phone or Nikon. It wasn't any warmer this afternoon than it was early this morning. It might be time for a short siesta like the hounds take every afternoon.

Another week is about over here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Were Active This Morning

Weather Underground is telling me we have only two more days of highs in the 70's. By Tuesday we will be back in the 50's and 60's and the toughest decisions of the day will be whether to keep wearing shorts or change to jeans. As you can see, we have some new truck tire prints on the path this morning ... visitors last night were all over the field in a pickup truck and a speeding ATV.

It looked like someone was either getting driving lessons in the truck or the chance to drive without a license ... which is normal around here in a farming community. With that traffic stirring up all kinds of scents ... Sadie and Stella had a "field day" this morning.

All that beautiful sunshine yesterday was hiding behind some clouds this morning. It felt like rain could be on the way, but that is not scheduled until Sunday night. This year has not been a good year in my location at least, for weather forecast accuracy. We will see what happens with clear gutters and a lawn that is mowed.

The air had a slight touch of smoke this morning. I am not the only one burning stuff around here and the campfire last night, next door, lasted well past midnight so that fall smell of smoke is a common occurrence. With Stella showing some energy early this morning and Sadie doing her normal darting from one scent to another I could tell they were going to be pretty busy on the walk. I kept my eye out for deer just in case.

When they suddenly stopped their jog at the first time, almost in unison, I knew something was up ... they were serious this morning and were definitely going to catch anything they could find that had been trespassing. They 'think' they own this field just like the Bloodhound Laws state at the top of this blog. Yet it is owned by a neighbor that doesn't care what we do in the field except catching it on fire like he did years ago.

The hounds went from noses to the ground to an all out sprint to the middle of the field, including Stella. I saw no signs of deer anywhere but I thought they both were headed for the woods to the north and had 'seen' something I had not. I wasn't running yet and hoped I didn't have to. After my productive day yesterday there are a few unknown muscles feeling it today ... like soreness.

Could it be that one of the new truck tire tracks is what stopped them? That doesn't seem right by the way the took off sprinting. They are not really rabbit hunters like Heidi is so that couldn't have been the reason. Whatever it was they both stopped as fast as they started their sprint. My 200mm lens could barely pick them up ... being a long way off I was happy to see them stop when they did

I yelled loudly "hey, over here" ... Sadie came sprinting to me as always ... Stella need more time to identify what they had found.

She decided she had enough and wanted to get back to Sadie and I ... without calling her ... here she came, running faster than she had in many months.

They both didn't hesitate in getting back on the task at hand ... search, and identify.

Am I correct thinking that these are a small saplings of some kind? All future trees in the field and so close together. This patch was right behind the hounds in the picture above.

Sadie led the way ... Stella followed.

This is one of her favorite spots to stop and scratch ... if the rolls of hay were there, she would be just in front of them or up by our final turn home.

Since the back part of the field had been checked out, they both ran in the direction of the house again leaving me way behind. It's good that they can run off leash, something that many bloodhound owners have told me they would never do, no matter how big a field was.

Luckily the alternate path home puts me pretty close to Stella on the right side of the picture.

What I wouldn't give to find out what these two are thinking when they stop like this.

The bright colored leaves are few this year but right next to the yard.

In early September my burn pile looked like this. A lot of those green weeds had died this past month. The taller ragweed on the left side out of the view of the photo has really died off. Ill not burn them but will do what I did last year ... cut them down with the mower. Jim was happy to have it cut but it gives Sadie a clear path into the woods. She liked doing that last winter.

While taking the hounds out for their last trip of the night last night around 10:30pm I noticed one small ember in the pile of ashes. I walked over to check to see if anything else could spread while I slept.

So yesterday with some matches and help from a rake, that burn pile went from the picture above to the one below. Over the winter a new pile will start with fallen tree limbs from the high winds and the winter storms we get. There have been some years the burn pile has grown big enough by March or April that I have to burn again.

I doubt that I will have another blog post tonight. I start my weekly football marathon at noon and will finally turn off the tv and the lights around 2:30am, after the last west coast game is finished. The hounds will still get their 2 meals, 2-3 walks, same amounts of sleep in their normal places while I watch the games.

I am glad that Tom recommended the GarminVivoSmart watch last May. It is accurate and provides a lot of information ... at times too much info. It vibrates telling me to "move" if I have been at the computer too long or on the couch watching games. It can sort out my deep sleep from light sleep plus show me the times I get up during the night if I do. It will even tell me who is calling or sending me a text ... by name. If I forget to stop the timer after our walks, it will stop it for me later, then I can go into their app and edit the time and distance for that walk.

I bought it mostly for tracking my resting and active heart rate.

Not much else is going on this morning. It's cool with the windows open. Stella has spent the last hour licking her paws and legs dry ... she cannot stand leaving them wet after we do our morning walk. Sadie always lays by her water bowl protecting it as she sleeps until lunch is served. Heidi has not moved since breakfast, as usual.

Oh, I almost forgot ... I've added a few new blogs to the blog sidebar on the right. One has a basset hound where the title of her latest post was "Basset Hibernation" so Heidi is not the only basset that knows what time of year it was. I am slowly getting back to the 50 or more blogs I listed over the years here. It is the easiest way to see new posts by bloggers I follow but also gives blog readers a chance to read other blogs. I like the side bar more than I like them listed in my Feedly account.

The "labels" were changes yesterday to around 90 topics now in a list format instead of a cloud format. The times I have tested the search box in the upper right doesn't give me the accurate results as the Labels list does. Right after I post this I am changing the title from 'labels' to 'topics'.

I admit after almost two weeks (tomorrow) of blogging again, it's nice to be back blogging and taking photos.

It sure sounds quiet today, almost too quiet for a Saturday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Present A New Problem

As with anything in life, changes present new challenges. It's nothing new and it happens every time the field is mowed. The challenge during the multiple daily hound walks changes from trying to see them in tall grass to now watching for and preventing them from eating what they find.

It's the point in time of dog ownership where we find out they really are just dogs and not what their owners wish them to be. They might seem just like children or grown people as they sleep on couches, eat people food, toss things at you to play and understand what you are saying.

They are all of those things but one act they do proves they are still dogs. They can eat the grosses stuff when they find it. After a fresh cut field that includes dead mice and an occasional dead bird that was caught under the mower. Deer scat is the furthest thing from their mind when there is other stuff to try to devour before I scream "NO".

As Sadie and Stella walked mostly along the edge of the field after making that first turn, I could see a worn path right where Stella stopped, signifying deer traffic. You can kind of see the path right above her head that would lead into the gully.

She was positive the deer had gone that way and was about to get deep into the brush and down in the gully until I told her to get out of there. I am happy to see she knows what that means when I say it. An example of when hounds act like people.

With the field cut it was still a little wet this morning in the shaded areas but nothing like it is with tall grass. Now we can venture up into the far right corner adding a little more time, more steps and a longer walk ... and without getting soaked from the tall grass in the shaded area.

Here is Sadie about to act like a hound and not a person. It's a time where her nose is just too good. Luckily she dropped what she had found when I said "drop it". In the past about the time I would say "drop it", Winston would take one big gulp and it was gone. He never got sick but it made me sick seeing it happen.

There were a few times this morning that Stella broke into a trot that was a faster pace than previous weeks. I get the feeling she likes having the field cut.

When the hounds are in the searching mode it's a constant battle to keep walking forward while turning to keep an eye on them. They never drop anything they find on their own, only when I tell them to. Luckily on this morning's walk, they did not eat anything they found and followed my commands of "no" or "drop it".

Sadie was walking very slow as I took this picture. You notice she was able to curl her paw as much as she could with each step. It was like she was walking in slow motion.

Looking at the rows of drying grass, flowers and weeds it does not look like they will get their normal 16-18 rolls of hay. The field needed to be cut but I could tell during our walks that much of the field was not real tall nor thick like it has been in the past.

Even with the sunshine out early this morning and covering most of the field, Stella did not like walking over the rows that were still wet. Once she stepped into the yard she trotted to the door. She needed water and a morning nap when she got inside.

The afternoon turned out more productive than I had planned. One thing led to another and before I knew it 8pm was just around the corner. All three hounds made an appearance after their lunch. It didn't take long for Heidi to head back to the couch for a Sunday afternoon siesta while a cool breeze blew through the house. Sadie and Stella let me know that I probably should mow the yard.

By 12:30pm I was able to sit down for lunch and watch the IndyCar race. That followed into a Reds game. Since they were winning today instead of that loss on Saturday I watched most of the game but not all. I had the sudden urge to take the Z4 out for a nice 50 mile drive. It's perfect weather right now at 75°.

I was going to wait until there was more shade on the front yard but after I finished the mowing the backyard I kept going. It might rain tomorrow and there's a very good chance for the rain to return this week from Tuesday through Thursday.

Once again this week the Garmin VivoSmart3 shows I went over my max heart rate while mowing the yard. It wasn't that hot nor was I going that fast but much more effort mowing with a push mower than I ever suspected. Following the 'old school way of figuring the max heart rate, mine is 160. That is taking 225 - my age. There is probably a more accurate way in today's math but we used that formula for years while training for bike races.

The Z4 doesn't get driven much but when it does it runs quieter and smoother than any car I have owned.

After three hound walks today, the hounds are beat and were in a deep sleep by 7:30pm.

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.