The Hounds Don't Mind Freezing Temps

It's good to see in a few days we will have high temperatures in the high 60's four days in a row because this morning by 10am it could barely reach 31°. Quite a change from yesterday afternoon where it rained lightly off and on, to the point that the hounds didn't stay out very long after their lunch.

Is that the most boring, non-exciting starting paragraph you have ever read anywhere online?

While it rained yesterday I was more than happy hanging out inside reading books and taking breaks with games of Mahjong. I also did a lot of research online about different things on my mind. It's really amazing just how much information you can find at the tip of your fingers with the internet.

I remember before my first computer I was connected to the web with Microsoft's Web Tv sometime in 1996 or '97.

Sadie and Stella went no further than this after lunch yesterday with a light rain hitting them on their backs.

Heidi walked out to where you see the wet concrete, did an abrupt about face and headed back to the house. She decided she could hold it until later in the afternoon. There was no way she was going out in the rain even if she was shielded by the roof overhang.

But this morning was different. For the first time this fall, the grass had a crunching sound as I walked into the yard. Heavy frost covered the yard and all parts of the field that were in the shade.

While Sadie was hopping up and down, grabbing my left hand with her mouth to get me to start the walk ... Stella sprinted ahead of us, on her own schedule and with her own plans.

Once Sadie saw that I had moved about 50' into the field and the walk had officially started, she took off running to catch up with Stella. You would have thought they were headed around the corner and out of sight by the way they were running ... not today.

I didn't say a word and kept on walking. Each time I turned around to see what they were doing, Sadie would be looking up to see if I was going to stop or keep walking. I was kind of surprised she didn't follow me.

Finally she realized that I was already by the roll of hay on the back side of the field and wasn't going to wait for her ... she sprinted as fast as she could to catch me.

While Sadie slowed to match my pace ... Stella was just starting to walk to the path to meet us. As I turned toward home a freezing cold from the southwest hit me in the face, reminding me that summer was over. It felt as cold as a mid-December/January wind.

Since Stella stood in one spot for most of our walk, she always thinks that as we meet on the way back that she can then start her walk with Sadie and I following her. Once I said "we're going home", they both stopped and turned from the direction of the neighbors to the return path.

They put their noses to the ground on what I call the alternate path home and followed that all the way to the property pole on the north side. Keeping up a pretty good pace I followed them right up until the yard. I passed them to get these closing pictures.

You might be able to tell with this post and the one yesterday, I am having a hard time writing about something. I could post less frequently but I am not sure that would even help my minor writer's block. Things just get slower than normal at times in the fast paced life of retirement.

With sunshine and dry grounds, we will be taking one or two more walks today.

I can't believe it's almost noon today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It Will Be A Wet Apple Festival

The raindrops started hitting the leaves outside of my bedroom window around 3am. It wasn't a heavy rain but a constant light rain. I finally fell asleep at 4am with no plans of getting up at 8am to feed the hounds. They would get breakfast when I woke up a little after 10am. It was still raining lightly but all three hounds went outside for their first bathroom break of the day. Apple Festival starts tomorrow night thru the parade on Sunday ... it is suppose to rain all weekend.


While the town fills with people, I will do a little grocery shopping this afternoon after this post and the hounds get their lunch. Then I'll stay inside my house all weekend, starting tonight, watching football and the MLB Playoff games.

Stella yelped last night on the couch while I was petting her ... I wasn't sure today if she would do the walk or not. It was a spot right above her rear hip between her upper leg and stomach. I could not feel anything swollen but didn't dig much to keep her from yelping again. She went back to sleep and I left her alone.

It was on the right side, on her upper side just above the upper leg or shoulder blade.

I didn't think she would go far so I let her do what she wanted as Sadie and I marched forward in the wet field and a few drops of rain here and their but not even a sprinkle. No rain jacket, just a t-shirt and my North Face snow boots to keep dry.

Sadie did her normal daily, every walk, routine ... exploring. She never looked back for Stella but just kept her nose to the ground and tracked scent.

Not quite 9-1/2 months old, great shape with a little gray on her muzzle. I still would like to know what that means with her licking her lower front leg in that one spot all the time. She normally does that licking while laying on her bed when I am getting ready to leave or at night just before we turn the lights out to sleep.

She was hard to get moving off her search this morning but I cannot leave her behind or she would never come back to the house.

She would explore this 7 acres for hours on end if I let her stay out that long alone.

As we walked back toward the house I did not see Stella anywhere through my lens. Had she snuck off again, even with a sore back???? Just as I was about to give up hope of finding her, I barely saw her in the lower part of the front field.

As I called her name she ignored me as usual and slowly meandered toward Hasler's.

About the time I got close enough to her to grab her collar, she looked up and started walking toward me and Sadie on our alternate path home. She kept following me as I kept repeating "come on" ... a nice surprise.

It would be pretty tall but that tree in the middle of the picture is slowly rotting. I need to cut that down either this fall and let it dry out to burn next spring or wait and see if it falls down over the winter. Yet it might not be rotted enough to fall for years to come.

Just in case it might be raining too hard on Friday to take our walk I thought I'd take the weekly leaf color pics today. Not a lot of color so far this year except for the few isolated spots throughout the field.

I like the different colors on ground level right now. The field is usually cut down by now so it's a lot of different colors that I miss because of that. Will they cut the field later this month??  I'm guess they won't.

Based on what the Mahogany tree is doing by the house, I am guessing this is a Mahogany tree in back of the field.

This is the edge of my north property line. I really do live in a nice area.

Stella led us back to the house which is much different than her usual routine. Maybe she wanted to get back inside due to a sore leg or back. I saw no limping from her, felt nothing swollen this morning and she did not yelp when I petted that area after the walk.

After 2am last night I still could not get to sleep so I got up and did all of the Apple software updates for the iMac, MBA, iPhone and the iPad Mini.  It took a long time for all of that. Just as I tried to download the photos to this blog the site was hung up and wouldn't load anything, even after I closed Blogger and reopened it.

About that time I saw on my Activity monitor a large download of data of some sort and I went from 63Mb to 215Mb just that fast and it would not have stopped unless I shut Safari down like I did. It must have been some sort of cache update in the background because I have all software updates turned off so they will not use up my data automatically.

It feels like a Friday but it's only Thursday ... should help with traffic and fewer Walmart shoppers. If nothing else I need to get out of the house so I'll head there after I feed the the hounds plus stop at the Auto Body Shop to talk to them about fixing or getting an estimate on the Z4.

All is good today ... may even get some house cleaning done later this afternoon.

Sadie & Stella Don't See Deer Again !!

I am beginning to think that Sadie and Stella need to go in for some maintenance on their noses. For the 2nd time this summer I've seen deer close to me and close to them with no response. For the 2nd time in 14 hours, two deer have been within 30' last night and at the first corner this morning ... no response by the hounds.


It looks like we may have a couple of curious new neighbors. Last night around 6:30pm Sadie, Stella and I were heading out for our 3rd walk of the day but NO CAMERA ... big error. Just as we turned the corner of the house and stepped toward the yard there they stood, two deer not 30' from the edge of the yard ... just as shocked as we were. None of us moved, the deer the hounds and I just stood still so the others could not see us. Even when the deer turned and sprinted for the woods, neither Bloodhound chased after them.  (strange)

This morning started like any other walk early in the morning. We were a little later today, just past 9am. At this time I did not see who was staring at us again. Sadie slowly strolled to the wet field and Stella stopped to eat some nice tall, wet, green grass. Little did I know what I would see up ahead.

I thought I saw deer at the first corner of the walk but without my glasses on I can't see distance that clear. So I focused the 200mm zoom lens and sure enough, there they stood. A mom and baby looking at us again. I don't believe it was the same two from yesterday. I turned to look to see if Stella was going to take off after them ... she had her nose to the ground totally unaware there were deer in the area.

Same response from Sadie. She had no clue that two deer were within eyesight and close enough to chase. I saw the deer turn and walk around the corner and knew they would not be there by the time we arrive.

The closer we got to the corner Sadie decided that yes, something had been in this area but didn't show that bent out of shape excitement that she usually has when her nose locks into a strong scent.

Stella was on her own pace, taking her time exploring the field. She finally came trotting toward me to catch up. Still, she did not show any 'deer urgency'.

By the time I turned the corner the 'light bulb' had turned on in Sadie's nose and she was positive there were deer in the area area and took off sprinting for the far right corner ... the deer entry ramp down into the gully.

She was a day late and a dollar short in her search. The two deer were long gone, back at their camp telling their comrades about the two idiot bloodhounds they saw and were never chased. I'll be looking for them again between 6pm - 8pm, from inside and looking out the window, not to scare them off.

With both hounds enjoying the field in totally opposite directions I was able to catch some butterflies this morning. I am going take the camera with me on the afternoon walk today because again last night the field was full of butterflies.

Stella met Sadie and I on our return trip. She had just crossed our path and was headed north when I said "over here", so she stopped and waited on us.

Sadie let the butterflies alone this morning. This one was about a foot in front of Sadie's nose but she didn't charge the butterfly this time.

Stella did a little trotting this morning during her walk. She does this in the same part of the path almost every day now.

On the way back, both hounds needed to check out the area again where the deer stood. Like me, they couldn't believe they had missed them.

I kept walking and decided I'd let the hounds come back to the house when they wanted to. I guessed that by the time I went in and changed from boots to shoes, then bring the boots back outside to dry out in the sunshine that they would be at the door ready to come inside.

I was right.

It looks like the utility crew is back to check on their new installation.

With the forecast of a high of 86° today, this will be the coolest part of the yard. I need to get a nice chair to put out there.

When I got to the corner of the house to go inside, Stella was still back at the edge of the woods. By the time I was at the door to come back outside with my boots, she was standing at the door whining to come inside.

With my new plants watered this morning and the high temps of today I'll not be doing much more outside until later this afternoon. The ACs have already turned on automatically so the heat must have arrived early. It's not quite 11am yet.

With spending time inside today I'll have time to put a couple, yes, TWO more posts today. I have some photos I took Sunday afternoon right after the hounds had lunch ... all three of them spent some time laying in the sunshine, even Sadie and that's something that deserves a blog post.

The other post will probably have a few readers shaking their heads ... but once again I can explain everything like I have before. Basically the day or month might be different than before but the story is still the same ... stay tuned in for that one.

I am in my 2nd business day waiting for the local utility company to at least stop by and check the tree limbs touching the transformer and wires that lead into my house from the utility pole.

I can already see it's going to be another fine day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.