A Bloodhound Surprise

Starting this post I have only been up less than two hours but I have seen more change and surprises than I have in a month. What is in store for us today for the rest of the day? Will sitting on the couch duplicating yesterday afternoon and last night be a factor? I can't imagine seeing as much as I did this morning in less than an hour ... I hadn't had my second cup of coffee yet !!!!

It didn't matter the bedroom was filled with bright sunshine. Heidi was on her dog bed in the far corner of the room where the sunshine through the east window streams right on her. I may have had a different schedule this morning but she didn't.

I can tell it is spring, even if it's only been official for a couple of days. I can see it in the field across the highway and I can see my yard turning green from front to the back. It's time to drag the lawn mower out of the shed and make sure everything is ready for the first mow. Do you notice the two Sassafras saplings are not in the lower part of the picture?

I had not stepped off of 'Winston's Patio' when I knew immediately that the world had slipped off its axis and Stella was going to dictate what was going to take place. I cannot remember how many months it has been since he started her morning walk and did not take the path into the field.

When she kept ignoring my calls I knew there was no hope today. All I needed to do was 'buckle up' and enjoy the ride because Stella was behind her wheel of stubbornness and anything I said wasn't going to mean a damn thing.

She did stand at the property pole at the corner of the yard before she took off down the return path. She turned to look at me as I stood on the normal path, soft with a lot of saturation. She looked proudly at me, acknowledging my "get over here" ... then turned and walked away ... as you see here.

As I slowly walked back into the backyard toward the return path I wondered what the hell was going on today. With Stella's new ideas for the walk this morning combined with all of those very weird dreams that kept waking me up last night, I could tell the earth was having its own case of vertigo.

By this time I had stopped saying a word to Stella because I knew from past experience, when she gets this way it will not matter what I say or do. I could have gone back into the house and she would have continued on like nothing was off schedule. I am sure you have picked up through all of my drivel since December, that I like things in order. I don't like change that much ... well when you start walking the opposite direction taking the return path first ... how much change could I handle ??

As I walked up the path, I see Stella now meandering back to the middle of the field between both of our worn paths I really wondered if our walk this morning would amount to anything more than just walking in circles. I wasn't sure we would get to the first corner, let alone finish the half mile path. See how I like things to remain the same ??  LOL

My one cup of coffee at this point had done nothing to calibrate my brain cells. I had gone back to bed as the hounds were eating their breakfast kibble. Watching basketball games, sometimes two or three games at once on the split tv screen evidently wore me out. I was out of March Madness shape. I had a problem though.

During the day, I before the games, and on the way to buy more food, I stopped by the library to pick up the two books I had ordered through the state library system by Dr. Michael Greger. "How Not To Die" and his recipe book that went along with it.

Off of the "New" shelf I took a book named "The End Of The Myth" by Greg Grandin.

After reading a few pages of each, both books were so good I couldn't put them down. So I turned off the sound on the tv and would glance up from my book on occasion to check the scores or any action I needed to watch. IF it was a close game, I'd put the book down, turn up the sound, bring that game to the full screen and watch the last five to seven minutes of the game.

I was wrong to suggest the other day that Dr. Greger might have been influenced with bias, stressing a plant-based diet is the way to eat because of his position as the director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the US. He loves animals just as much as I do but he has the scientific proof that the plant-based diet is the way to eat. He also has proof that eating that way DOES reverse heart disease and many other diseases. To me, scientific data to back up his recommendations is the key factor in all of this.

It was his grandmother who influenced his diet thinking and his career path. I'll not go long on this because you can read her story in the first two pages of the preface in the book. Basically she is released from the hospital at 65 years old in a wheelchair, told by surgeons she has weeks to live and there is nothing more they can do for her. She has already had by-pass surgery. She signs up for the Pritikin's Study and showes not only signs of heart disease reversal ... but lived another 31 years to the age of 96 !!!

It's a book you will find hard to put down once you start reading it.

While going the opposite direction, not quite to the first corner, Stella turned and looked at the neighbor's house like she does every morning on 'the way back'.  LOL ... funny hound.

The other book is a great lesson of US History, something I wish I would have spent more time studying in college. I've only read the first 75 pages of the book but WOW ... what a story. Was I taught all of this in past history classes and forgot how this took place?

It starts after 1750, describing in detail the strategy, the famous men in charge and the movement west in the USA. Early in the book there were hints describing how our country got to all the racial tension today, the polarization that pushed Trump to the presidency. The last comment on the book sleeve, just inside the cover states ...

"The border wall may or many not be built, but it will survive as a rallying-point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism."

I highly recommend this book and that is based on reading only a few pages.

As you can see Stella decided on her own that taking the walk backwards was not good for brain cell health. She made the short crossover to our normal path, then over to the edge of the wooded area like always. Even I felt better after she moved back to our normal routine. Whew ... close call.  :)

Can you tell between these two pictures which is on my manual settings and which one is taken with the automatic setting? Which one do you like?

With underground water seeping up the sides of my hiking boots, Stella was also aware of the wet path and walked along the edge of it in the taller grass to keep her paws dry. Rain, snow, sleet or ice ... she doesn't like her paws getting wet. Sadie would have charged through just to show me how high she could splash the water.

I surprised myself yesterday at the store and how I felt throughout the day and night with my changed eating habits. With March Madness it use to be sandwich material, liters of Pepsi, huge bags of tortilla chips and large jars of salsa. Not yesterday. My 36 oz jar held cold water. I munched on carrots and broccoli with no salad dressing to dip into. Later when I ate dinner it was another large salad and two cups of 15-bean soup.

Was that the cause of my weird dreams last night?

Stella wasn't done wandering ... I let her go. She knew what she was doing and where she was going ... I followed the path while keeping an eye on her. She hasn't run off to the north woods since the time that Sadie decided it was a good time to lead her to new frontiers. They sprinted away from me that day in a playful run, hopping up high enough to see over the tall hay as they ran north.

What's this ??? She is going to cross in front of me while I follow the normal path ?? I couldn't believe she was in the same area of the field as I was after all of the changes she had this morning. I glanced at my watch and it was hard to believe, we were on time for the walk. It had not taken any longer than following the normal way. Once again I think Stella is trying to remind me to 'lighten up' it just life ... relax. Go with the flow.

Of course with the change of direction in my eating, the fat content has dropped a lot. I am alway below my recommended 1,850 calories per day although both Dr. Greger and Dr.  Fuhrman say counting calories is not important eating a plant-based diet.

So is it Vegan or Vegetarian? I would have thought it would be one or the other. Last weekend I could not figure out where the term "Whole Food Plant Based" diet came from. I had been a Lacto-Vegetarian for 8 years many years ago, I had never heard of that term until recently.

After reading the past three to four days on this diet plan I finally figured it out and it was something that Jeff over at Respectful Living told me this past weekend in an email.

To many Vegans and Vegetarians still eat processed food, bags of chips, sugary sport drinks, pastry with tons of sugar, candy, etc ... all because it was meatless, possibly dairy less. The Whole Food Plant Based way of eating does not include any of that type of eating. Basically it is fruit, vegetables, beans and legumes.

I am still not getting enough protein. Taking my weight x .4 tells me how many grams of protein I need per day and with this meatless diet I am not getting anywhere close to that. I AM seeing more positive results in the nutrient content of the food I am eating. Like both doctors say it is not the quantity of food you eat but the quality of food, optimized nutrition. Cronometer tracks your food intake right down to the very last mineral.

>Unless I shock myself, I still think there will be times I'll grab a pizza at Mother Bears in Bloomington or a strom at Nick's, even a Five Guys cheeseburger. The neat thing about Five Guys, I no longer have to fight traffic to drive to the other side of Bloomington, then south out of the way just to get to a cheeseburger, because they have built a new store next door to Nick's on Kirkwood Ave ... perfect.  :)

Right after I took this picture my camera's battery icon started flashing red at me. With a morning like this mornig why was that not a surprise? I knew it would be touch and go the rest of the way if I was to finish the walk on film as we usually do. I started turning the camera off and on to nurse it back home and still get a few pictures of Stella as she finished her walk ... like nothing out of the ordinary happened today.

This time last year I had already mowed my yard once. Not a chance to mow for weeks from now unless some hot sunshine shows up and makes it grow faster. I look at this picture and thank my lucky stars for what I and the hounds can walk through every day. Compared to the current pictures of Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska with water up to the roof line of all the houses ... two different worlds. I feel for the people going through all of that.

I have wondered about my recent blogging activity. Twice per day ??? Really ?? I know it has only been a few days but I like doing that early evening post of Heidi's afternoon activity with just a short paragraph and all pictures. This morning post seems to have evolved into a step by step narrative of Stella's daily walk. I find it hard to decrease the number of photos since there seems to be some sort of story following her through the field. Her post doesn't look right with few pictures.

It doesn't bother me blogging twice per day. Jon Katz at Bedlam Farm, posts multiple times per day but has only one photo each on each post. So each blogger has their own way, which is fine.

With my late start this morning I have not taken the time to look at the news online nor have I turned on the tv. By the time I finished my first cup of coffee and read all of my email, Stella was whining to get started. She is a great house dog, minus her occasional bouts of anxiety when I am gone. It is hard to believe that both hounds will be ten years old this summer.

I forgot to mention one interesting thing about following the recommendations from both doctors ... if I were to follow the amounts of fruit and vegetables to eat, I would have to go to the store to buy more fruit and veggies everyday and no longer than every other day. I tried eating the recommended amount of vegetables yesterday and could not do it ... I was full and didn't have any hunger cravings at any time.

Probably this weekend, after the NCAA field will be reduced to 32 teams from 68 teams, I'll spend one morning raking and picking up all the loose tree bark, sticks and a couple of limbs from the yard and add to the burn pile. My huge bonfire is scheduled for early April. It might be my biggest fire ever.

Stella may have started her walk off entirely different this morning but that didn't mean she would end it that way. Right after she passes that last tree on her right, she veers down the slight incline toward the house and follows the edge back to the carport. How long will it be before she changes that routine ??

A beautiful day this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Perfect Bloodhound Morning

It was a great morning to walk. It was identical weather to yesterday morning, around 31°, and signs of heavy frost melting slowly. No wind is always nice and of course Stella dictated our start time by waking up from her morning after-breakfast-nap and rehydrating herself with nonstop drinking. That always gives me time to get a jacket on, my sock hat and grab my camera.

While I was taking my daily picture of the field across the highway, Stella wasn't waiting for me and she was well on the way of starting her morning walk. She brought a few surprises but one you will not be able to see in the pictures. That is because it involved sounds ... verbal herding ... there wasn't any.  I was SHOCKED and HAPPY !!!

As she followed the path she was bypassing her normal stops in the field where she finds strong deer scent or deer scat. While I followed her I did not say a word to her. I was enjoying the sky, looking into the woods and hearing a million birds talking.

A reader sent me a very valuable link yesterday after she had read about my diet changes and food discussions these past few days. Nutrition Optimizer did all the analyzing work for me and it was free. Since he is a smart engineer he was able to design a system that analyzes 'nutrient density' in all the food we eat. To get a detailed analysis about me all I had to do was download my information from Cronometer's "servings" file, then upload that cvs file into their website.

They will let you eat any diet you choose and will give out a detail nutritional list of food you eat for each diet, whether you are an athlete needing performance or a couch potato wanting to lose weight. At no cost he will show you where you are deficient in nutrients and then suggest a short list of foods to eat to make up those deficiencies. I chose not to pay the ~$10 for more detailed food lists and menus.

It was interesting to see that they suggested I go back to eating seafood, poultry and beef. It included grains but only two ... oat bran and wheat bran, both found in oatmeal and a good quality wheat or in multi-grain bread. Nothing was listed under "Nuts & Seeds" except coconut water. The veggies did not list broccoli nor carrots .... but remember this list of foods was to optimize the nutrients I am not getting enough of.

So of course after looking at it yesterday afternoon and adding a new shopping list in my app AnyList, I found some valuable information in their FAQ section of their website. After all the reading last night and looking at different food lists suggested for each of the diets I have eaten in the past and currently ... I had only one question.

Do I eat only the foods they listed on the short list to make up for those deficiencies or add that list to the foods I currently eat? There were a few veggies and fruits listed to make up for my nutrient deficiencies that I don't buy ... like asparagus and seaweed. They only listed blackberries and boysenberries for fruit. They listed lentils but no other kind of beans, which are a major source of protein for any plant based diet.

Because of that, I think this short list of foods, 30 of them, is to be added to the food I am already eating and in some cases I already am, just not enough.

They also set my macronutrient limits such as calories, carbohydrates, protein, and fats. They were much different from what I had used in the past couple of months eating something between a Keto and Paleo diet. They were also much different than the Plant Based diet I just changed to. Based on 1,850 calories per day, those limits were:

Protein - a MIN of 125g .... Fat - a MAX of 95g ... Carbs - a MAX NET of 125g per day.

Without beef and seafood these past few days I have found it very hard to eat enough protein on a daily basis. That includes adding black and garbanzo beans to my large daily salad, something I have eaten every day for years.

So I will continue to eat, add the foods they suggested to give me optimized nutrients, log in what I eat into Cronometer. In two weeks I'll upload that servings file again and see what kind of adjustments they tell me to make.

A couple of interesting things were pointed out in the review of Dr. Greger's book "How Not To Die". That's the book I had the state  library system send a copy to my local library for pickup. Dr. Greger stresses a plant-based diet is the best one to eat. Yet, Nutrition Optimizer pointed out that he is also on the Board of Directors for the Humane Society.

Does that influence his writing and his beliefs in a plant-based diet is the best to eat? I think that is a valid question and one to think about.

Nutrition Optimizer does like what Dr. Joel Fuhrman has to say in his book Eat To Live, the book I pulled off my shelf the other day. I bought that when it came out in 2003. Of course in the label of the book it says "Lose 20 lbs Or More In 6 Weeks" ... but I have always found as long as I am eating grains, and a lot of carbs those lbs do not disappear easily if at all.

There were so many of these deer tracks this morning I could have filled the blog up with them. This is me turning back in the direction we came from but they are very fresh prints from earlier this morning.

As you see, Stella was doing the walk on her own this morning. She leisurely strolled, sniffed a lot, ate nothing and wasn't stubborn. That's a perfect morning for any bloodhound owner ... with 'stubborn' being the keyword there.  :)

As I looked through all of the nutrition reports they listed for each type of eating there was one word that kept popping up into my thoughts ... Moderation ... They were not leaning toward Keto or Paleo nor were they suggesting a 100% plant-based diet either. There was meat, seafood, low-fat dairy, eggs, only cheddar cheese, in my case. The way to eat by their recommendation was the way I have been eating for the past two to three months.

I will say just in the past few days I have cut out chicken, meat and seafood along with dairy I do feel hungry more times during the day than I did before making this change. The cravings for food after 8pm has always been there and is a constant battle. Sorry but drinking water to wait out the 20 minutes of screaming for food, doesn't do it for me. An apple does though.

So in conclusion of this food discussion, check out Nutrient Optimizer for curiosity if nothing else and I will continue to think about what food I should eat. Out of all the information I have read the last two to three years about what to eat, their focus on nutrients is one I find to be the most important. Now, don't get me wrong, there were some foods that are considered nutrient and healthy for you, where they rated it at zero or below in their 'nutrient rating' which made me shake my head and wonder.

Information overload.

I think I am leaning toward just eating healthy food. I'll add those foods they sent me to fill those nutrient deficiencies which will also eliminate those hunger cravings I have

Every walk Stella gives me the chance to get ahead of her so I am in a good position to take pictures of her running. For that to happen though, she has to trot or run. As you can see, she was only into 'leisurely strolling' this morning ... the perfect bloodhound pace.

With good weather, I am going to pull out a shovel from the shed and head down to the culvert next to the highway. I need to shovel all of MY driveway gravel that was washed away with the heavy rains last week. That overflowing rain water ran down the driveway and cut about a 3"x 6" ditch in hard packed gravel and carried a lot of the gravel into the grass ditch culvert.

I am also going to get my pruning shears and a pruning saw out then cut a few small Sassafras trees down at the end of the driveway along the bank on the other side of the fence. They are not supposed to grow taller than 20' but I don't want to find out if that is true or not.

For some reason the State of Indiana will not let me pay my state income tax bill when I e-file my state taxes. Yet after I printed the Indiana state filing instructions it gives me a website link to make that payment. The problem is THIS YEAR, the online e-file will not let me file the state taxes because of that warning. I can't get past that to even e-file the taxes.

So from what I have read I have two options.

1. Mail my Indiana State Taxes in by Certified Mail, signature required when received and then make my payment on their online site.


2. Mail my Indiana State Taxes in by Certified Mail, signature required when received and include a hand written check for my balance owed.

This is 2019 !!!!!!

I was able to file my state taxes electronically for over 10 years and make my payment electronically for over 10 years at the same time I e-filed. WTF  Indiana ???? If there are any blog readers from Indiana please chime in .. I'd love to know what the problem is and if you had the same problem.

It was another successful morning walk for Stella. She was happy and I was happy. As I sat down to move the photos to the computer and then to the blog, she curled up behind my desk chair to sleep a little. Of course that means she plops her 83 lbs up against the legs of my chair so I am pinned in next to my desk, preventing me from rolling the chair back far enough to stand or walk away .. without waking her up.

Who knows ... it might be time for lunch, or a snack and she would never want to miss that.

Driveway gravel recovery, tree trimming and washing the dishes are the goals today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.