The Hounds Enjoy My Retirement

I couldn't come up with a title for this post this morning. That doesn't mean I can't put a post together and give it some time to 'simmer' and hopefully the day will come up with something to put in that title block. The rain did not show up again yesterday, while my friend in Chicago told me she had 2" in less than 15 minutes yesterday. We are a few hundred miles south of Chicago. Like always the bloodhounds lead me outside to start a new day. If it weren't for them I wonder if I would take as many walks per day? I think I would.

I still think this is the prettiest flower in the field, no matter how dangerous it is.

I felt on Sadie's right side this morning, no change. It's not gushy with fluid, it's not hard like a rock, it's a bit smaller in area and it feels just like it would if you felt her stomach ... there's still a small lump.

Verbal herding was needed this morning and a lot of it. They did not hear the bribes I was offering them for when they returned to the house. They did not hear me mumbling to myself. They did not hear anything I told them ... nada, zip ... nothing.

I have a new container of K9 Creme that I am going to apply on Stella's elephant spots. Hopefully that will work and it will show if it does or not in the following blog posts for the next few weeks, maybe months, or longer.

Here is the only photo I could get of Sadie's right side ... she wasn't thrilled about it. If my eyes are focused correctly, I can barely see that fatty tissue ... can you?

With the morning temps in the mid-70's, it was nice and cool each time we walked in the shade. When we made the first turn, a slight cool breeze hit me from the NE ... I could tell it was going to be another nice day here in 'the tropics' ... you cannot beat summer weather like this. The Farmer's Almanac predicted it would be wetter than normal this summer ...

If you are wondering, yes I did have to backtrack and take a hold of Stella's collar to get her to move. She was in the same position you see even after I grabbed her collar and refused to move. She didn't growl ... just didn't move.

A little color in the field.

From a distance the 7 acre field looks flat. It's not. There are not large hills but there is plenty of rolling terrain as these two regular size rolls of hay show. The times I have walked from the woods up ahead, back to our direction in that area, the incline looks tall and steep.

How long will the hay sit in this field before they load it onto a trailer and take it away.

That might look like Stella is increasing her walking speed, don't let it fool you ... one paw at a time ... slow slow slow.

A smaller roll and was probably the last bale the did. It was rather a poor outcome with about 50% of the hay they normally get from the first cut of the summer.

Hard to see but the trees near the house show the slight breeze from the NE.

Is it food she smells, does she hear people talking, or is it some kind of other noise?

When everything seems to be green, including the house (painted to blend into the environment) ... this bright red leaf stood out 100' away.

I did a flea search on Stella last night with one of those metal flea combs that will bring a flea to the surface ... not one flea was found. So it has to be allergies, maybe environmental? Pollen? Grass?

Allergies reminded me of all the different kinds of Grain Free Food I was feeding the hounds a couple of years ago. I found this article this morning to be interesting and concerning. If you feed your dogs Grain Free Food ... take a look.

FDA warns pet owners about the dangers of Grain Free Food ... here.

Since February of 2017 all three of the hounds have been on Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice without the long list of fruits and veggies. I stuck with it because it because Heidi got results in battling her skin issues and Stella's coat was softer than ever plus she started gaining her weight back. Sadie's coat was also and continues to be softer than ever.

A vet told me when he was looking at Heidi at her worst, in his study on food allergies for dogs, only 3% of those allergies were food related. He said they had found that one cause was the beef in Heartworm meds. Yet, Heidi never responded to treatment in 2015 (?) with environmental allergy meds. She did not respond to Grain Free Food but she did respond to a food with fewer ingredients.

Of course I have a spreadsheet to compare all the different foods I fed the hounds, listed by each ingredient.

The following photos are going to give you a pretty good idea of the daily routine of the hounds after their lunch. I don't know why, but rarely do they do anything more than this. Today was very nice outside, nice enough to sit outside and just enjoy the day ... but it wasn't more than 15 minutes where they wanted back inside.

They don't understand that it's a life of retirement that gives them this opportunity in the middle of the day. A little over 4 years of me being retired and I still enjoy each and every day as they do also.

Obviously from the photos you can see they do a lot of thinking about possible plans or scents to check out that they missed in the morning.

With Stage 10 of the Tour de France being in the Alps today, it was nice to watch that in the middle of the day, fast forwarding through the 3 minute commercials. Fantastic shots of the Alps taken from the aerial tv cameras during the race. It's really unbelievable country and villages in France.

It looks like Stella could sleep there all afternoon but she was at the door wanting back inside within 10 minutes after Sadie, Heidi and I had gone inside.

Of course after watching all of that bike riding up 7% - 9% mountain grades, for over 100 miles having a few flat sections between climbs all of us were exhausted by the time their 4 hour race was over. They moved from their living room sleeping spots to the bedroom floor while all of us took a nice long siesta. Just another advantage of being retired.

The highlight of the night will be watching the MLB All-Star game. I will not tune in until after all the 'made for tv' introductions are finished. I will miss all of the pre-game festivities. I just like watching the game itself. Anymore it seems like the MLB, NBA, and the NFL all try to be more extravagant than the other sports All-Star games or the NFL Super Bowl. As a long time sports fan I will say it's all out of control anymore ... a topic I find very irritating.

Although it was 88°, the cooler wind from the north made it possible to take a late afternoon walk. Sadie took her normal path while I walked Stella on the retractable leash.

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

Sadie Drags Me Out Into The Cold & Rain

I knew if I did not decide to take this early morning walk, then Sadie would not leave the doorway to my computer room and would keep staring at me for hours on end. We woke up to rain, earlier than normal and dark inside the house. I felt energized and didn't hesitate in starting the day a few minutes after 7am. When it's cold and rainy outside, is there anything better to do with a hot cup of coffee and a brain full of words to type ... than to blog?

Quite a difference from yesterday when I spoke about my mind being a black hole and finding it hard to put any words to print. Was it the early morning starting time? Hot coffee? Or the 7 hours of good sleep? I'm not sure but I found I was doing things without a lot of thought or analysis.

The hounds didn't think or analyze .... they hit that field and took off running.

Another thing I didn't put a lot of thought into was what I was going to wear in 33° weather and light rain. The weather radar looked clear at the moment but it had been raining the first two hours we were up. I didn't hesitate to grab my Columbia winter parka today and putting on my snow boots that have been doubling as my rain boots.  I wanted to stay warm and dry and didn't care it was only November 1st.

When I started the walk I knew for sure what I was wearing was perfect for this weather. I was not only warm but dry as I started hearing drops of rain hitting my parka. It was strange to me that as dreary the day looked, I felt as good as I do when it's a hot sunny summer day. Why the change in moods.

Sadie had already disappeared around the first turn. Stella was trotting to catch up with her and I was pretty sure they both would end up where they were yesterday. With the rain becoming harder I wasn't going to let Stella hang back today. We had to make this walk fairly fast in case it started to pour.

I was right. As I made that first turn they were there in the same spot as yesterday.

I kept walking and kept repeating "let's go" and was actually getting some kind of response from both of them. So it did not surprise me to see Sadie run up along the right side of me. I was even more shocked to see Stella right behind me as I turned to see where she was.

I probably have too many blurry pictures today but in a way it catches the hounds as they are running, sometimes faster than the auto focus on my camera can bring them into view.

The rain was light but loud against my parka sleeves. When you are dry and warm it really doesn't matter how much it rains. The hounds didn't mind getting wet nor did I.

It looked like Stella might decide to stay in the field all day unless I called her name. She wasn't fast but she slowly walked toward us and eventually caught Sadie and I.

Once Sadie tapped noses with Stella, they both took off in a trot heading home.

Just because we get close to the yard doesn't mean the walk is over. If either hound finds something interesting to check out further they will and it doesn't matter how hard it is raining. The little color of the leaves are gone today. The leaves have fallen but plenty are still on the trees. They will keep me busy raking them, or blowing them, or leaving them. (greg's suggestion)

Stella gave me a look as if she was telling me "yes, I know it's raining ... but" she follows her own pace as usual.

It's an old parka but it still works. It has survived heavy snow, hard rains in all kinds of single digit temperatures. Why upgrade?

I was able to do some software updates this morning before 8am. That puts me in the range of using my extra 50Gb of free data I get. I did not plan to use a lot of data today because I am very close to using all of my monthly 20gigs that I pay for. I had gone back to Google Chrome a few days ago and once again .... it nailed me with an unexpected update with Google Chrome Helper running in the background, an update you can no longer change from automatic to manual.

Just in a blink of an eye 386Mb zipped through my available data just like that. For those of you that have unlimited data that doesn't sound like much but when you pay for only 20Gb per month that is about half of your daily data budget. It didn't take me long to export my Google bookmarks to my desktop and then open Safari and import all of my updated bookmarks, using Safari again as my default browser.

Is it hard to believe it's already November 1st, it seems that summer was just here a few weeks ago.

In my post yesterday Greg suggested a new invention of "Castor Oil for Writers". Maybe that is why I feel in the mood to write.

I had an insurance adjuster show up yesterday to take a look at the damage under my Z4. He pulled out his new iPhone 8 to take photos under the car. I offered to jack up the front of the car for easier access but he didn't mind crawling on my freezing concrete floor to check out the damage. Being a fellow IU football fan we both agreed just how frustrating it was to follow IU football year after year with below average results.

I'll get an itemized list of for the repair estimate. My friend tells me that he has had great experiences with USAA insurance when a claim is filed.

I've added a couple of old blogs I use to follow on the left sidebar. I am probably back to my original list of bloggers for you to take a look at if you want. There are some that have great photography of where they are or have been. Everyone seems to be in a different place in the USA or Canada and that's what makes it interesting when reading their updated posts.

A few of you have asked where is Heidi, if she's okay ... she is, buried deep inside 'her' Marmot sleeping bag and isn't enthused to have her picture taking. She has officially declared winter is her for her. I have a surprise for her on Sunday ... it's suppose to be above 70°

The World Series will end after tonight with Game 7. If you are a baseball fan, no matter who your favorite team is, you have to admit it's been an exciting World Series ... although I am not a fan of the 'juiced' baseball ... I prefer pitching duels with games like 2-0 or 3-1 instead of 13-12 with similarities to playing MLB on PlayStation 4.

Sometimes I will turn on the tv to sports talk shows. It will be on in the background but a lot of times those shows don't last long before I turn off the tv. Why does every show in sports or news turn into having loud arguing with each other ... even if they were hired to present different points of view. Yelling and arguing does not improve viewership as ESPN has found out the last year or two, more layoffs to occur.

There were other things I was going to 'ramble' about in this post but they have evaporated in my mind ... I can't remember anymore stuff to write about.

With it raining again there will not be much planned for today besides the usual ... some internet surfing, games of Mahjong, some reading and a possible siesta ... speaking of ... maybe it was that 5 hour siesta I had yesterday afternoon that made me feel so much better today. It could have lasted longer and into the the baseball game, but the phone ringing woke me up just in time.

With Sadie and Stella wrestling inside, it's a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Starts A New Week

With the cold temperatures settled in Stella has not officially named it winter yet. There are a few days next week she will be back in temperatures of the high 60's. In either kind of weather she is still the best 'beggar for food' that I have ever seen. She is quiet about it and that look you see in the above photo is her patented "I'd like to have that" look.
My curiosity increased enough today that I did a search on Google for the winter weather predictions here in 'the tropics'. I found sites that cut their detail into my zip code. All I will say is, it was good to see no temperatures in single digits. That is good enough for me.

Stella showed once again this morning that she continues to improve from last spring by running more, acting more like her old self inside and outside. I had planned again to let her do her own thing on this walk this morning and she was more than interested in keeping up with Sadie.

Even though ... Sadie was beginning to wonder if Stella and I were ever going to get started on this walk or not.

Once Stella saw how far Sadie was, who had disappeared around the first turn, she took off running to catch up. With Sadie out of view she obviously had found something very good, something that Stella could not ignore.

By the time I reach that first turn whenever the hounds have disappeared, only one of two things normally happened. They have stopped like they did this morning ... or they are running full speed toward the back of the field tracking a deer scent.

No deer this morning though. They had come and gone hours before we made it outside. I am beginning to wonder if the light ATV traffic has scared most of the deer away? I haven't seen one deer since the ATV traffic increased, although it does not happen every day.

I see where a few of the bloggers I follow are doing their annual migration to warmer temps in the Southwest. Some of them have already arrived. I've talked before that when I made the decision to give Stella a new home that my traveling plans would change drastically with two bloodhounds.

We made that trip to Colorado and Utah for a week in June 2015 but that was with two basset hounds and one bloodhound, Stella had not arrived yet. Big difference. It took some work with only two hands and three hounds but overall it was workable with two smaller basset hounds.

Yet Sadie did what any normal bloodhound would do when she smelled an animal near the tent. She dug so hard at the corner of my tent to get out sometime around 4am to see the antelope, it made a hole in the seem right above the floor.

The reason I know it was antelope that was driving her crazy, I saw more than five of them the next morning waving goodbye to us as we left our campsite. Sadie was loud enough trying to get out of the tent that she woke me up, along with Winston and Heidi.

With two large, strong bloodhounds, then Heidi ... I've always thought this field is the best place for them. I've tried walk Sadie and Stella before with two separate 6' standard leashes like I would have to traveling ... it's not possible once they find a scent that makes them take off running.

Stella is a good FJ rider but once she is outside the FJ in a different place than home (the vet) she gets quite skittish and tries to run away. She literally freaked out the last time I took her with me to buy dog food at T&T Feed & Seed.

Due to staying up late last night watching one of the wildest baseball games of the World Series, I see that my mind is all over the place writing this post. Sorry for all the misdirection but I really have no idea what to write about this morning.

So I think I'll stop babbling and post the photos I have left from this mornings walk.

I think this is about all of the fall colors we will get this year.

Haven't moved from the time I approached them, walked past them and made the final turn home. I had to walk back to tug at Stella's collar to get her to move back to the path with us.

They seemed to think it was another successful walk this morning as they trotted ahead. They prefer the alternate path home we started last month.

Stella was looking serious this morning as she finished her walk.

Sadie needed to check out one more thing before she walked into the yard.

Stella hears the St. Bernard barking at her from across the highway. So far in the 26 months I've had Stella, she has never ran across the highway to check out the huge dog barking at her.

Time to get warm, take a short morning nap and wait for lunch to be served.

The time has been flying with baseball, football and now college basketball being on tv almost every night of the week. I can still get a couple of things checked off of my 'to do' list before bad weather arrives. Otherwise, remaining items will be moved to the 2018 To Do list.

I now hear rain outside here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.