Summer's Officially Here

The air conditioning was turned on last yesterday afternoon as all three hounds started panting with their tongues hanging out of their mouths ... inside the house. That's the official look to turn on the AC for another summer of high temps and high humidity. Who's complaining? Not I, I love hot muggy weather and will take this over those 7° days just a few months ago.

Again the field looked like it had grown another 6" overnight, but this portion of the field is always the tallest of all 7 acres. All the underground water flows this direction and it has a lot of afternoon sunshine. At least we could still see which way to go.

While Sadie charged out in front, I was reminded that yesterday Stella tried her best to take off to the north woods. It got to the point of no return as I watched her and listened to her ignore my calls. I had to take off sprinting to catch her. She wasn't running but had her head down and was walking at a fast pace, almost past the 2nd house north of us.

So today the focus was to keep her walking with Sadie and I ... but it was hotter than normal this morning. She slowed to her afternoon pace which is almost like me walking in slow motion, yet I wasn't going to let her fake me out today with that ... then attempting to escape.

Do you notice anything different in the picture below?

I did not see any beaten down grass, nor any kind of path but something just barely inside the brush had Sadie and Stella's attention. A lot of verbal commands were needed to get them to move. It was hot, muggy, not even 9am and the gnats were out in force.

Not even halfway through the walk my hiking boots are completely saturated.

I was curious enough to check last year's blog posts to see when we turned on the air conditioning. That is one thing that is good about a blog, it makes it easy to find answers for questions concerning the house, the hounds, the vehicles, weather or myself. It wasn't until the 2nd of June that the AC was turned on and a week later where it seemed to be running full time.

Why does Stella cry like she is in pain ... when I sneeze ??

By the time I turned around Sadie was headed into the brush and Stella was about to follow her. What was leading them out of bounds??

Calling their names and telling them no got both of them back on the walk with each hound going their own separate ways.

After yesterday's escape by Stella, Sadie was going to keep a close eye on her. She did this various times throughout the walk this morning, just to make sure that Stella was still in view.

"After further review" as they like to say in NFL games ... I have decided this morning they planted corn in the back field and not soybeans like I guessed last week.

Can you feel the 'mugginess' in those photos?

What a difference a few months makes in the weather here and the color of the fields.

At this point in time I wasn't sure if Stella was going to make it back to the yard before noon. Each step was deliberate, no signs of being in a rush and no signs of veering off course. Would she make it home by noon?

She made it to the yard about 5 minutes later but still at the same pace. She can tell it's hot and in that case she does nothing fast or normal ... everything is slower for her.

While my mind was daydreaming yesterday I thought that I might start blogging again at the end of the day instead of this time of morning. I know that will not change your reading habits nor is it an attempt to. It's just a warning that new posts may not happened until late afternoons or early evenings. That way I can decrease some of the morning photos, add some afternoon shots that would include Heidi and include a whole day not just the morning walk.

Just because the temperatures are above Heidi's threshold for activity does not mean she wakes up any earlier. She isn't real active and photogenic until after her lunch.

If anyone would like to live in 'the tropics' the house next door is going to be for rent. My neighbor of one year, that works in the Texas oil fields and stays up here a week per month, moved out last week. I knew something was going one when the satellite installers were taking his satellite dish down without replacing it. I also saw some loaded pickup trucks pulling away from the house.

Not sure when it will rain again after a forecast of a 'wetter than normal' summer ... and I don't know if my last place Reds will ever lose again since they are on a 6 game winning streak. (Have I jinxed them?) Besides, I'm back on Facebook and even signed up for an Instagram account last night so I could find some old bloggers that moved to Instagram. I can also follow that 'vanlife' group.

Does it really matter if you try to hide from Google if you have used Blogger for years and have gmail as your email service, both owned by Google ... the lightbulb finally came on inside my head and I realized they already had info on me that would never disappear so back to Google Chrome I came. It uses less data than Apple's Safari does.

I may have finally found an 'in home' pet sitter ...  waiting for a reply from her.

That's about it for this morning from 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... air conditioning was a great invention.

A Very Nice Sunday

It was sunny and cold when we woke up this morning but I'll take that over winter weather any day of the week.

Not much was planned for today, besides the normal Sunday NFL games, buy some gas for the FJ, and cook my weekly batch of brown rice, different beans for salads and burritos this week.

Knowing I had shoes that could handle the wet field dew, our first walk of the day was pretty early but after the two cups of daily coffee. Today I thought I'd pull another new pair of hiking boots out of my closet to make sure they were waterproof. I wanted to try them on this wet morning walk.

I had bought some Oboz Tamarack hiking shoes a couple of years ago and never used them because I couldn't make up my mind if I really liked them after I bought them. I had gone to the store to buy some Keen's but they were sold out and I was told they were getting great feedback on this model of shoe.

They also worked well in the wet field, were comfortable, but didn't feel as good as the last pair of Keens I had wore out. Since I've worn them in the field, no chance I'll sell them 'used' on eBay for any price close to what they are worth ... so I think I'll start wearing them a little bit each day to break them in before this winter.

It was another beautiful morning and Sadie didn't want to wait to long before she and Stella could start their exploring.

They didn't wait for me to take the picture above, by the time I looked down after taking the picture both of them were sprinting for the turn ... I didn't see any deer on the horizon but they obviously had found something of interest.

I finally caught up with them and let both of them roam at their own pace. No commands, just let them do what they wanted ... as long as Stella stayed within her boundary.

After taking a lot of pictures this time of day, late morning, I have come to the conclusion that might be the worst time of day to take pictures because of the lighting.

Both of the hounds were very active with scent tracking. We must have missed deer by minutes or half hours ... but they had been through this area very recently.

They don't know what to do ... obviously the deer scent is really strong but they don't see or know anything is in the area ... should they take off or return to where I am. I still had not said anything to them.

They are almost beside themselves with confusion.

While we made the last veer to the left to head the final leg home, they still had a lot of stuff to identify. Really that is what the majority of their nose activity is ... 'identifying' what has been in the area.

Finally Sadie decided she was coming in for the afternoon.

Between that last walk and the first football game at 1pm ... the hounds jumped into the FJ and we headed to Country Mart gas/mini mart. Their gasoline quality is rated a top tier plus their 91 octane gas has no ethanol in it. Since it was mentioned on the FJ forum that might be the reason for my warning lights on my dash ... I thought I'd give it a try. It's the same gas I put in the Z4.

While suffering through another Indianapolis Colts game ... only they won this time after blowing a lead ... I decided that as soon as the game was over I'd give Heidi not only a bath with shampoo but end it with a 20 minute soak in warm water and Epsom Salts for her skin.

She actually laid down in the water this time and almost fell asleep again. I was ready to pull her out of the tub if her nose went below the water line. It came close as her lips were underwater with her eyes closed.

After that it was time for the afternoon walk. How did I know that?? Stella was howling and Sadie was hopping up and down on her rear legs as if we were going for a ride in the FJ. It was already 5:30pm.

 
Once again I let the hounds roam at their pace. As Sadie and I were almost to the back of the field ... there was no sign that Stella had even made the first turn.

By the time we were walking parallel with the back edge of the field, Stella came running as if she had heard a gunshot somewhere. She is 'gun shy' but I did not hear anything.

She was really on her own pace during this afternoon walk. Sadie and I were heading for the last half of the walk and Stella was still at the back of the field.

She finally figured out I wasn't going to call her and she was way behind us.

That gave her and Sadie check out some places one more time before coming in.

Sadie was ready to 'call it a day' ... Stella had other plans.

Sadie and I were already back at the house. I went inside, loaded the photo card into the iMac and made sure Stella was still out there. I wanted to see if she would come home on her own.

It didn't take long for her to glance up and she could tell Sadie and I were not around. She sprinted from the back of the field directly behind the house all the way to the door ... she was happy to come inside.

With only one NFL game on local tv at 4:30, I've had it turned on in the background but while it was on I've washed hound bedding and vacuumed the house. I'm going to put air in the tires of the mountain bike and start riding that around the border of the field without the hounds.

It seems like a picturesque idea to have both bloodhounds follow along side me while I ride around the border of the field but there are two issues with that.

1. No matter what I am doing or where I am riding -- they would follow their nose at their pace.
2. If I ride along the edge of the field I will be going by the yards of three neighbors, places where I don't want Stella and Sadie to become familiar with. The old 'out of sight out of mind' theory works for them.

Big plans for Monday afternoon ... mowing the grass and mulching as many leaves as possible during that exercise. There are not many more times left to mow the yard for this year but a lot of leaves left on the trees. 

I can't complain about anything ... the weather has been great this fall and October is a week away of being over. I am hoping for a mild winter.

All is good today in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.