Stella Cancels Today's Walk

With the winds howling throughout the night I wasn't sure what I would see in the yard this morning. Luckily noting but pure white drifting snow blanketed the front and back yards. It wasn't suppose to be snowing this morning but by the time we took a short trip outside at 10:30am it was coming down hard.

Of course the highway dept's snow plows have applied so much salt on the highway, they are cleared as if a fresh rain occurred. With each pass, their snow blade was making the snow at the end of my driveway deeper and deeper. It's a common occurrence and one that I am use to when it is snowing. The wind chill was single digits but it felt a lot warmer than that. The hounds thought so too.

We had no plans to take a walk. I put my hiking boots on, leaving the snow boots inside. I wasn't going any further than the corner of the house while Sadie and Stella relieved themselves and checked out the depth of the snow. There is never any snow too deep for Sadie to keep her from tracking scent.

My boots in the driveway, no more than a couple of inches of snow.

You can see the drifting effect from the high winds last night, that rattled storm windows and howled like an oncoming train. I wondered as I dosed off what I would see in the yard when we woke up. The four Azaleas are showing no signs of death during the past month of extreme low temperatures and now this white stuff.

It's always good to see the hounds use that field as their depository and not the yard. Stella is not sure if the walk is official or not. She has finished and is wanting to head back inside I think.

Once Sadie ran back to the house Stella was ready to move back inside for her late morning nap.

Yet, it felt warm enough that a walk might be possible. Stella stood and checked out the temperatures a little longer. It's not the temperatures that bother her, it's her feet getting cold in the snow that gets her to turn around. So far there were no signs of 'cold feet'.

Heidi thought we were insane for going outside. She had spent a few minutes out this morning after we got up, as I was pouring their morning kibble, She was positive she was not moving from her sleeping bag. She couldn't believe when I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk.

I came back inside and switched from the hiking boots to my North Face snow boots. I knew with the down parka, ski cap and gloves that I would be warm enough to make the half mile walk. I was pretty sure that we would not be outside too long before Stella would get cold enough to come back inside. I didn't feel we would get far.

Of course Sadie loved it because we were 'walking' ... that is all she wants and to exercise her nose.

They both started off with excitement, hopping around, trotting in different directions as they felt snow under their paws. Something told me we would not be going too much further even with me warm enough to complete our daily walk.

Sadie was moving around faster than my camera could catch. I would love to transfer whatever she smells into some kind of computer software that would let me know exactly how strong the scent is, then tell me the source.

It was about this point of the walk that I thought I noticed a slight stagger from Stella and even some cautious walking by Sadie. Both were showing signs of getting 'cold feet'. Were we about to turn around?

There's the sign that Stella is not going to walk anymore away from the house. That raised paw had me turning around and telling them "let's go home". Sadie did not even hesitate when she heard those words, as both of them turned around and headed for home.

But it wasn't fast ... Stella was creeping slowly, lifting her paw off and on, then continuing. Sadie also stopped a couple of times and lifted her paw but she acted as if it never happened. She didn't want me to see that she couldn't walk in this stuff.

Almost to the yard but now Stella's other paw is cold.

Sadie was sure that I did not see her raise her paw on two different occasions. If I had, the chance for any kind of walk was not possible. Still she even thought there might be a chance for her and I to come back outside and do the half mile walk, after leaving Stella inside.

By the time we hit the door way, Stella was pushing her nose hard against the door to push it open and Sadie was right behind her, fighting her way in front to be back inside first. They both trotted into the living room, happy to be back where it was warm.

The hound walks have been canceled until further notice.

By the way the wind chill temps look, it might be not until next Thursday where it will be warm enough to get out into the field. This snow isn't melting until then and then the field will be saturated with freezing water and slush.

I guess after I changed the blog format to a two columns and made the width a little narrower, the Ukraine bots decided it was time to visit and collect as much information as possible. They seemed to like everything I wrote about the past October and each post had over 1,000 page views each after midnight. They had taken over the number one spot for total page views, way ahead but all of those from people in the USA.

I removed the long list of 'topics' on the blog sidebar because they were rarely clicked. I also wanted to make the right sidebar of information the same length as the post area. I made the blog narrower because I wanted the content to be about the same width as my photos, for it to look right. I think I like the changes but not 100% sure.

Not much planned today besides a day and night college basketball games, then a couple of NFL Playoff games late afternoon and one tonight on tv. I have all the ingredients ready for some small soft shell tacos on corn tortillas. I probably have more ingredients than that small tortilla can hold but I'll manage someway.

Evidently the hounds didn't mind cutting the walk off short ... they are in full stretch mode in two different rooms on the floor, sound to sleep as I am writing this. I am going to have to go back and take a look at those small towns in Arizona and one town in particular in New Mexico for available housing.

See what the snow does to me here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ?

Heidi & Sadie Love The Warmer Weather

It took a while to get outside this morning because I couldn't tell if or how hard it was raining. All signs on the highway and in the carport showed there had been a lot of rain overnight continuing this morning. Stepping outside I could hear the wet pavement with passing traffic but I didn't see them using their windshield wipers. That was the sign it was time to take our morning walk.

After I come up with a plan to keep the hounds off of the carport this spring or summer, long enough for concrete repair to dry I will be filling in cracks and this worn low spot. Sadie doesn't mind rain. She will walk right through the standing water but Heidi and Stella always step around any kind of water or wet pavement.

It may be close to 50° warmer than just a few days ago but that doesn't mean that Heidi had any change of plans. Her routine is to go out first thing in the morning with the bloodhounds, back in for breakfast, a stop by her water dish and then heads for her sleeping bag.

So with the warmer weather things have changed drastically. I was still wearing multiple layers of jackets but today the top was a light rain jacket instead of a large down parka. My ski cap was left in the house and my ball cap was back on my head. No gloves. The ground was no longer rock hard but showed water coming up through the ground along the edge of my hiking boots as I took a step.

Stella has had a new routine the past few days since we were able to get back outside and one that I am not happy with. Yet, it's stubborn Stella and she will do what she wants.

Sadie took off running into the area behind the burn pile, through the dead ragweed stems. That is her favorite place the past 10 days.

Stella though was in her own world and you will see by the photos listed in the order they were taken ... she did not join us for the walk until Sadie and I were almost finished. She still took her own way home and at her own pace.

Sadie was back in her element with tracking, running, diving deep into the brush for a closer analysis of what her nose lead her too.

The hawk was huge. He took off from ground level just past the first corner in the brush, as Sadie came close to the turn. I did not know I had caught it on film until I downloaded the photos from the camera.

The AT&T tower was back in view today ... the fog was gone but it was still overcast and a breeze from the southwest.

A full out sprint to catch up to me ... I was too far ahead of her.

I was very curious where Stella would be as we headed back home. With her new routine I am never sure. I am always happy to see her on the horizon though. I don't think there is a chance of her heading to the front yard while I am out of view but she might head down into the woods. With today's weather she would be stomach deep in mud if she went to the bottom of the gully. How do I know that? Sadie did that as a puppy.

By the time I was close to Stella she was in the field no further than directly behind the house. Of course she ignored everything I was saying to her, like "we are going home". She did turn and head toward the house.

Sadie was catching up to us and both hounds rarely let their noses above ground level.

As Stella started to walk away from us I thought I'd stand in the yard and just watch where she was headed with the possibility that I would have to go get her ... but all she wanted was to come back through the northern part of the yard ... at her pace.

We have had a daily afternoon visitor this past month, even when the temps were single digits or below zero. Luckily the visitor is never around when Sadie steps outside. The squirrel walks on top of the fence all the way to the end, turns around and head back to this point where she jumps off and scampers into the wood.

We will enjoy this warmer weather the next two days but snow is on the way Friday and Sunday. It will be a typical Indiana winter weather from now on. There will be drastic ranges of high temperatures. It is suppose to be warmer than normal and more rain than snow. That rain is suppose to be more than normal all the way through spring.

With the single digit temps last week I caught myself doing my annual house looking online. I have a list of small towns in the state of Arizona. I also have a friend that lives in Phoenix giving me a few more based on his state wide travels when he worked for the state.

I came to the same conclusion as I do every year. It's hard to choose just one town that I like or house that I like. Even selling my house here would not pay for a house in those small towns unless it was a major fixer upper. Moving into a house that is move in ready would change my budget from no mortgage payment to having one. The hounds would adapt to any change but I am not sure they would enjoy trading 7 acres of green grass for 7 acres or more of sand.

Through my years of research almost every area in the USA has 2-3 months of 'bad' weather ... but I find it harder to handing the cold as I get older. I doesn't make me miserable by any means but 50° sure feels better than 8°.

A little smartphone tidbit ... only charge your phone or tablet just long enough to reach 100% battery. If we leave that charge going on all night while we sleep, it actually shortens the battery life. This is what I have read. If there are any electronic experts reading this, feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

It's warm, windy and wet here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.