Hounds Take a Short Ride

 Day started with the normal routine after staying up again until 4am to download and install Apple's OS Sierra onto my iMac. When it was slowing down I then realized what was late to me was the perfect time for those on the west coast.

For readers that use Macs, I have to say I like the new OS, the new features and I have not come close to seeing everything it is doing. That will take some reading and then digging into my computer to see how things work.

When I loaded the camera card this morning for the first time, it repaired my Photo Library. I have some photos I will check to see if their status changed or not after uploading them from iPhoto in the spring of 2015. So far I have no problems with the OS upgrades on all my devices ... things work as they should. A lot of people on the Mac forums feel different than I do. Yet, in the 6 years I've used a Mac, many hours every day, I've had only one problem that was "user error" (me) trying to use File Vault on an older machine.

It didn't bother the hounds either way. Their routines rarely change and they know their 'slave' keeps weird hours late at night ... all they want is sleep, food and walks ... with an occasional ride in the FJ.

Stella started her morning with some fresh wet tall grass. I think she just likes it because she has had no digestive issues, stomach is not growling ... she just likes grass.

Sadie was positive there had been moles in the yard this morning. She might have been right. I've heard the best time to catch them is 7am and 7pm ... it's why I never fish, hunt or look for moles ... I never catch, kill or see anything.

I stood from the chair to watch Sadie since she had gone to the north part of the field. She made sure to look back at me just to see if I was watching her. I was ... it's the new "adult supervision".

When she was finished, she came running back to the house without me having to call her.

When I told them it was "time for coffee" they both headed for the house ... a daily routine.

A little before lunch I decided that after the hounds were fed, we all would get in the FJ for a short drive through the country to visit an old friend and ex co-worker, that retired this past July. To make this trip to their house you need 4-wheel drive and in the winters you will need to drop down into LOW 4-wheel drive. Can you picture driving this road just to get to the highway on the way to work every day in the middle of the midwestern winters??

This next shot is me coming down the last part of their driveway. There are 2 very sharp 90° turns on a narrow one lane of gravel with very steep banks on each side.

The one time I go out for a surprise visit after being invited many times this summer, they weren't home. LOL  It didn't matter, as the hounds and I enjoyed the ride out through the local country side. We had the best of both worlds with the windows down so they could see out and get some fresh air ... with the AC turned on to keep the cabin cool in 87° temps.

By the time we got home ... it was time for a walk. I could tell right from the start both of them were going to be stubborn today. So I let them do what they wanted while I walked the path slowly.

Sadie is making sure her ears are still flexible.

Stella has always had a 'happy go lucky' personality ... here she is running while looking at the sky ... lol

With the temps high today we probably will not take the next walk until 7pm. We found out last night that time of day was perfect for a walk close to sundown. If you click my Wordpress blog on the left sidebar called "Life of Hounds", the photos of last night's walk are there.

I finished Chinle's Rattlesnake Cafe ebook last night and hear she is going to release another new book around Christmas time. I'll save my pennies between now and then so I can pick that up. She has a great style of writing and all of her books have a little twist at the end, even after the murder has been solved. She mentioned the hounds in one of her books last year. They were fed another "barkie bone" for that.

Another thing I have been doing these past couple of days after more reading about password managers. I am moving slowly from LastPass to Apple's Keychain. Of coarse Keychain is used only with Safari browser, while LastPass will work with all top three browsers. One difference I like, with Keychain I have that free for all of my devices. With LastPass I would have to pay to use it on my phone and tablet.

I figured if the FBI was begging, forcing, threatening Apple to open the iPhone of the San Bernardino attacker ... then security must have been pretty good.

It's NFL night tonight, to start the weekend of football.

Another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Helps In The Kitchen

From the sky and feel, rain was almost certain this morning. A quick look at Wunderground proved otherwise. It's the return of high humidity that gave it the feel.

Nothing more than a 25% chance of rain for the next 7 days. Once again the hounds started their day off the same as recently. Neither stays out long ... Stella heads left and Sadie goes straight out into the field to dump their tanks. Quick return inside to sleep until an early walk or lunch is served.

For two different breeds that are noted for wandering off or taking off running at a strong scent ... I am pretty lucky that all three of them can wander around the yard and field without a leash or tether. Heidi had the reputation as "a runner" when I bought her from GABR and no bloodhound owner recommends leaving a bloodhound leash free ... ever.

You are now witnessing Heidi's normal path to finding that perfect spot for dumping. Unless it's raining, then she heads behind the yews next to the house.

It felt nice enough late morning to head out for a walk. The field was not as wet as it had been the past few days. My shoes were wet but not squeaky saturated like before. I didn't get the camera clicked fast enough in this next photo ... for the first time that I can remember, there were pure white butterflies next to these while flowers. They flew away while the camera focusing.

Stella started out the leader of the walk this morning but she gets distracted easily ... there are just too many scents for her to inspect and she drops behind pretty quickly.

As well as Sadie. But that is their job, their habit and excitement ... scent tracking.

Could it be rain is on the way? A lot of wind today with overcast sky.

Not sure what it was but Sadie decided she had to roll on top of it before Stella could eat it. Nothing was visible on Sadie as she jumped up and took off running.

And run she did ... took off around our first corner and never stopped until she was in the back of the field.

Stella was somewhat shocked by Sadie's response and wondered if Sadie might be getting something that belonged to her.

By the time Stella and I got to the back of the field, Sadie was finished with whatever she found and was waiting for us.

It felt like rain with heavy air, a strong wind ... the hounds decided it was time to head back home.

Stella kept trying to wander off and disappear ... but I called her each time I caught her and she would slowly head our direction.

Since we left Heidi outside while we did the walk, when I got back to the yard I asked Sadie "where's Heidi" ... she put her nose to the ground and was headed around the corner of the house until I called her. She was right though ... Heidi was around that corner ... just further down in the front yard.

It's interesting that she will never walk across the lawn directly back to us but will head across the lawn to the lower part of the yard to walk up the driveway. Nothing is fast with her ... her pace is consistently slow.

It was around 11:43 am and Stella was howling to let me know that she wanted lunch served early today. That might because her breakfast was a little earlier than normal ... or it might be and probably is just because she loves to eat all the time. She has gained weight over the past year that I have had her,  a year next week.

You may have noticed you have not read the word "tick" in many months. Back in April they were so bad that I added a "tick counter" in the upper left corner of the blog but once the count for me went over 100, I took the counter down ... headed to the vet for some NexGard and that worked fantastic. I only had to use one dose for the summer.

I rarely have the ticks on me after a walk, where I use to have 4-5 on me after each walk. The hounds stopped having them once the NexGard was used and yes that is the correct spelling. Another thing that has not been as bad as the past are mosquitoes nor the biting flies. So spending time outside reading a book has been enjoyable this past week of cool weather.

My book reading has blocked out all of the "noise" of terrible news reporting and politics. The tv is only turned on for a ballgame or movie ... such a relief. We have taken drives around the local area with the windows down. I don't believe Sadie or Stella are interested anymore in local trips, since they lay down and sleep most of the trip. Although they are really excited when they can go in the FJ. Heidi maintains "shotgun" and will lay down to sleep, depending how long the drive is.

I decided after the hounds were fed lunch that a short drive in the Z4 was a good idea. Powerful and quiet at the same time ... a smooth ride.

Not much went on during the afternoon. I had some baked chicken breasts on my George Foreman grill for an early dinner. Obviously Stella decided I need help in cleaning the small drip pan sitting under the front edge of the grill.

With the hounds acting like they wanted to go outside, I grabbed my ice tea and camera and headed for "Winston's Patio", which fits just my chair on those 6 red blocks by the corner of the house. Sadie was giving me that look of "lets go for a walk" ... but I could feel that things had changed in the heat index from this morning. Too hot for a walk.

I had not checked for the official temperature but you can see from the ragweed blowing, we had some pretty strong winds from the SW. Later I found the temperature at 5pm to be 87° and an index of 101° ... those cool temps a few days ago were nice while they lasted.

This same spot seems to change color first every year.

Facing the wind, Stella decided no walk was needed, she just wanted to kickback and enjoy the strong breeze. Clouds were moving fast in the sky. I found out later there was tornado activity again on the NW side of Indianapolis just like last week. This activity was a little further NW from the area last week.

After Sadie did her new morning loop through the field, she was ready to go back inside. But she had a scare right before she got to me.

Something landed on her back and she jumped about 3' into the air turning at the same time. After twisting and turning she couldn't reach what had landed on her back and she was freaking out. At first I thought it was a huge horse fly ... then I thought it was a butterfly ...

Only to find out it was a small leaf. I didn't get any of the action shots because I was laughing too hard to take photos.

In the meantime, while I was taking the leaf off of Sadie's back ... Stella was wanting to go back inside where the air conditioning was back on and the house was much cooler.

Then she disappeared while I had my back turned. I didn't see her in the field and doubted she would have headed that way. Maybe something got her interest in the front yard but that would be very rare for that to happen. She was right where I thought she was ... standing at the door waiting to be let back inside.

Not much planned tonight, maybe I'll pull a movie off the self .. otherwise it was another successful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.