The Hounds Get 2 Walks Today

A nice surprise to have cool temperatures today. We will have a few hot days in the next month or so but days like these are great to have.

Even with the heavy dew still visible we took off for our first walk of the day. Since it was after 11am, sunny and not a real great time to take photos, I decided to use my lens hood that came with the Tamron lens. I've never used them before but thought I'd give this a try to see what the results were. So these morning photos are 'under the hood'.

As fast as the hounds took off I was sure deer were in the area or had been in the area. Sadie and Stella had their heads down and tails up as they trotted along worn grass where the deer have walked.

By the time I got to the first turn, they were both way out in front and almost to the back of the field. Yet, I didn't see anything that would cause them to take off.

Stella was pretty keen on the left side of the path and different times would stop to sniff the air. Just as quick she took off running to catch up with Sadie at the back of the field.

Sadie and I had almost made the turn to head home when Stella saw us and ran to catch up. By their nose activity there had to have been a lot of fresh deer scent, possibly from just this morning.

At this point, by the way Stella was looking, I was sure she was about to take off sprint. I have to remind myself even with that kind of look from her, it's not what she sees but the scent she smells and just how powerful her nose is.

Instead, she turned with Sadie and headed home on the path I was walking.

These are not going to last long. Just in the past 18 hours I had seen a lot of the purple flowers had dried out and died. So fall is hear and all of this landscape is in the process of changing.

Heidi greeted us when we got back. She was sitting in the sun next to the house but needed to sniff Sadie and Stella when they returned. I can see in this photo where the lens hood had an effect because the drive is never that dark in the middle of the day.

After channel surfing during the commercials of the football games I was watching, I could see again today that we would walk at halftime of the game we were watching. Today that was the Colts game. I did not use the lens hood on the following photos.

They did not start off as fast as this morning but their hunting was just as intense. Usually when they get two walks in a day, their pace is pretty slow for the second one. That proved to be true today.

At a slow leisurely pace, we finally made it to the back of the field. Each time they got to far ahead of me, they would wait for me to catch up. They probably think that I am the one that is tired, not them.

As you can see they stayed together this afternoon.

I'm wasn't sure if there was something wrong with Stella but she sat down suddenly on the walk back. She had not been running, wasn't panting, she just decided to sit for a minute.

All was good and it was time to get back home and back to finishing the nap she was taking.

They both walked it into to the yard and slowly headed for the door.

I think I can see a difference in the photos between using a lens hood and not. Of course it was a different time of day, different lighting but I like the photos without using the hood.

After the last game of the night, I'll be back to play around with Google Photos and Flickr. I did load all of the photos I took today, more than the blog photos, into Google Photos automatically but I doubt that I put them into their albums. I sent just a few good ones to Flickr.

With good weather tomorrow I am going to wash at least the Z4 but last time I did that with the Mini Cooper I ended up detailing both the Mini Cooper and the FJ ... the FJ needs to be cleaned up.

It was a quiet Sunday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

All They Wanted Was Their Walk

Due to staying up too late watching baseball games on the west coast, this past week I've gotten up to let the hounds out and fed them breakfast every morning at 'their' normal time, but would go back to bed. Sleeping 2:30am - 7:00 am is never a good deal.

So this morning was no different and by the time the first cup of coffee was consumed the skies were clear blue and the sunshine had returned in full force. We start the slow climb to 76° these next few days.

The hounds ate their first meal as fast as ever and then immediately went into their 'stare down' wanting to walk. At 7am it was still too wet to walk anywhere, plus I was going back to sleep. Is that too much info?

As soon as that first cup was consumed both bloodhounds were standing like those bloodhound end tables you may have seen being sold on the internet. I knew they were ready to go ... wet ground and all. Yes ... it was still very saturated with all the rain we got yesterday. The higher we walked the wetter the ground became.

With the day off and all that rain to wash away the old smells and giving them new smells to explore ... the hounds were not only high energy, they were all over the place on this walk. So many places to go that they were almost in a frantic state as they scrambled back and forth along the walk.

At this point in time I was sure they had locked into something and would never stop running. Luckily I did not see any deer on the horizon but they had found plenty of the deer tracks to make them almost take off over the edge and down into the gully. A quick loud yell helped them change their minds.

Once again Stella had a mind of her own and I didn't even bother trying to get her to move. I just kept walking. Little did I know she would find another 3-4 places to stop along the way home.

They may have started running together but something caught Stella's interest ... over toward 'the no fly zone' which goes from the back of the field and anything past 10' toward the left if I am looking toward the back of the field.

This pose always confuses me ... since any bred of dogs don't see well, what does she see?? Or is it her nose that is getting her to pose like that?

Once again I was not going to even attempt to yell to come on because she was going to ignore me anyway. It's the DNA of the bloodhound breed. Sadie stood watch for a while, looking back at me and then back to Stella. She decided it was time to leave Stella and came running toward me.

As usual once Stella figures out no one was with her ... she came sprinting and just brushed up against my leg at full speed. I have to watch her up until the very last second and dodge if needed because she has at times hit me at full speed and didn't even flinch.

Living proof the walk was wet ... the Nike's are not waterproof.

I'll continue some reading about the online biz I mentioned yesterday but with weather being so nice today, I'll be outside most of the afternoon enjoying the weather. I need to get up on the roof today and check some spots after the high winds the other night. I also need to do a little more on that fence that I keep trying to repair.

Some things are changing in the online sales business that may make my decision pretty easy to not pursue it and continue to be a retired "slacker" ... which I can handle.

Amazon and eBay are in the process of making it impossible to sell products and have them drop shipped from the supplier. I always liked that type of drop ship business because I would have 3,000 - 10,000 items listed in both stores plus a separate website and would not have to spend a dime on inventory ... until a sale was made and then paying for only the item that had sold.

In addition to those changes, the NFL doesn't like their officially licensed merchandise being sold on Amazon and eBay, where it cuts in THEIR BILLION dollar business, so they are attempting to ban those sellers and threatening the suppliers. If one pro sport wins that battle you can expect the NBA and MLB to follow suit. Here is the article that discusses it. Sure counterfeit products are part of the problem but all of my suppliers are authenticated and legit.

So ... I am beginning to think it might be a lot nicer sitting back in the sunshine drinking ice tea after a fresh cut yard ... enjoying 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.