Where's The Snow?

Wunderground had today's forecast big on snow in this area. Then as I looked closer it was saying ~<1" ...

Yet when we stepped outside this morning it felt cold enough to snow and luckily there was no wind to make it feel colder.

So far I have not noticed the time change, for me or the hounds. Setting their time for lunch last spring at the time change was a good move. It is basically stays the same for them year round.

I have had a few readers ask me if Heidi is okay or where's Heidi ... It's below her 70° threshold so she has moved back into her normal winter hibernation spot ... my my Marmot sleeping bag. It looks like she has taken ownership of that bag.

Of course nothing bothers Sadie. It doesn't matter what the weather is, all she wants is her walk. Lately she is becoming more and more demanding, if that is possible. She is willing to sit for longer periods of time, giving me 'her stare' until we go.

I could tell by the pace that Stella was doing to start the walk, that she would not be coming with us today. She was walking in slow motion while Sadie had already moved ahead of us.

I was beginning to wonder if I would be walking alone today when I saw that both of them were lagging behind my pace. My pace is not fast but that did not matter to them. Today was added protein day. I hate that habit but they are hounds and all dogs eat gross stuff at times.

Before I knew it, Sadie had charged up near me on the run and then curled back to some points of interest. She always likes to run up and hit my knee or leg with her nose just to let me know that she is back.

I set my lens at 50mm so I could take the a picture of what I actually see when I looked backed at Stella. She is right of center in the picture, if you have a hard time finding her. This gives you an idea how far out in front Sadie and I are.

Sadie was her normal excited self during the walk. It felt like a Monday to me and by the time we got to this point of the walk I had seen one single small snow flake dropping from the sky. Just one.

At first I thought Stella was going to make a run for it to catch up to us. It looked like it for a couple of her steps but she stopped when she found something. I knew then she would not be coming with us today. I was guessing we would see her over by the neighbors' woods on our way back. It's good for her to do her own thing as long as she is not near the highway (100')

The air was crisp, not as cold as you would think at 35°, but it kind of felt like it could snow. It will be interesting to see how today's forecast will play out. The hounds and I both need our food replenished, so no matter what the weather is going to be, I am going out to grocery shop and buy dog food.

As I near the back edge of the field Sadie has not moved to far from the spot pictured above. I catch her through my zoomed lens chomping down on something. I hate to think what it might be.

Once again within a minute of taking that picture, she came running up around me, slowing down from her full out sprint.

I think I am seeing a little weight loss for her and that's a good thing. At her age and breed I have to watch her weight as she gets older. The vet told me she was in great shape for an 'almost 9 year old'. He remembers checking her when she was 6 weeks old. I didn't bring her home until she was 12 weeks old.

As I made the final turn on the path to return home I glanced along the horizon. Since I don't wear my glasses while walk due to them getting in the way as I look through the camera viewfinder so I have to squint to see if I can find Stella. A lens at 200mm always helps me find her.

She was right where I expected she would be, around the woods behind the neighbor's house. Luckily she was more towards the field instead of the highway.

When I called her name she raised her head and started walking toward Sadie and I. Today Sadie did not have to run after her. She continued to walk and made it all the way to us, without me having to use a leash. That's pretty good for her.

That did not mean she would walk with Sadie and I back to the house. Don't be fooled by her. There were still things she wanted to check out and may have missed the first time when she started her walk.

Once again I set the lens at 50mm to give you a better idea how far away she is as Sadie and I get close to the house.

This was taken from the corner of the house. Sadie and I both went inside. I was pretty sure based on past experience that she would come to the door wanting in within the next ten minutes.

Sadie made one last look to see where Stella was.

I hear the splashing of wet pavement from passing traffic on the highway. Winds have shifted from the east, which is very rare to get winds from that direction. My iPhone weather app tells me it 'feels like' 27° and that crazy snow icon is stretched across the rest of the day.

One of my blog readers that I found through my Wordpress blog, has a Basset Hound and a Pyrenees. Her Basset Hound did not have skin issues like Heidi but her Pyrenees did. She told me that after a week of feeding Rachael Ray's Basic 6 kibble, her skin cleared up. She also added some coconut oil 2x per week.

So that is the food I am going to buy for Heidi today. I haven't tried that food yet and the way I see Heidi' has nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying it. I was looking through pictures of her taken this time last year and she looks exactly the same. Although her skin issues have stabilized these past couple of years you can still see slight changes of irritation based on what season it is.

Stella's coat has become very soft after 16 days on the SportMix kibble I bought. It is manufactured by Earthborn and is sold just a half mile from my house at the hardware store. I'll buy a 40# bag today for Sadie and Stella. Sadie has the softest coat of all of them and has never had skin issues.

Other than the shopping run, nothing else planned but staying inside and keeping warm. I have a couple of new books I want to start and one older one I want to finish.

Very light snow is falling now here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana as I post this.

The Hounds Enjoy Friday Morning

Again it was the normal routine this morning. Another beautiful day in March and questions on where winter went or if it even arrived this year in 'the tropics'.

It looks like the weather experts have shoved their predicted snow tomorrow completely off of the schedule and in exchange only a week of colder temps. I'll take it, the hounds will take it. I could tell though this morning was different for them.

Stella had found a new bathroom spot, Sadie slowly sniffed her way to the back next to the bushes for hers. Surprising to see both of them turn and run back to the house when they were finished. Coffee was waiting for me inside.

I wanted to get an early start on our morning walk today. It looks like my basketball tv marathon starts at noon local time and my last game I am interested in, UCLA, will not start until 11:35pm local time. I won't watch every game but there looks to be 4-5 games I will sit and watch from the couch.

Right after we started the walk both hounds had their noses to the ground and both were walking very very slow. It is their process of identifying new scent. Neither was interested ingesting what they found, just ID it and moved on. With their slow pace I was able to get more pictures of their faces instead of their butts.

They moved together, slowly one step at a time and at times would meet to compare information. They seemed to be working as a team today. Funny to watch them because I could tell they were really thinking about what they were finding and frowns on their foreheads were showing a lot of analysis taking place.

Sadie was about to sprint around the corner but stopped immediately to turn and look at me to see if it was okay. Once I told her to "go on", she and Stella took off. I moved in their direction tip toeing over the water that was still standing right by the corner.

As you can see the hay/grass is getting green pretty fast with all of the rain we got last Monday and Tuesday. There are spots in my yard that I could mow but they are just clumps of grass in different spots.

As they continued their investigation I moved up to the farthest point of the field looking NW. I wanted to take a picture of as much of the field as possible to show a better picture of the field itself.

What I call the 'back edge' of the field is off to the right of the picture and heads toward the woods. Straight ahead you can barely see our path (greener) that is across the picture and veering to the left.

Stella was finding a lot of good stuff. She almost decided to stay behind. I had to send Sadie back to get her with the command "go get Stella". She ran, poked her nose at Stella and sure enough, they both turned and trotted toward me.

They didn't wait for me as they sprinted past me and went along the back edge of the field. I could see signs of a lot of deer traffic and Sadie was pretty sure that they had made a right turn, ran through the brush and jumped the small wire fence into the corn field behind this field.

It's so nice out this morning neither one was ready to head back to the house. We took our time, no rush and the weather was great at not quite 50°.

Stella decided to walk even slower toward the end of her walk. She didn't stop anywhere this morning but it took her forever to get back to the house. One slow step at a time.

Sadie saw three birds up ahead and took off sprinting while I was photographing Stella. The birds didn't stay around long and Sadie's sprint ended up being pretty short. You can see how fast the brush is turning green. Spring is trying to get here.

This next picture is for Tom. We were discussing the house being at the bottom of this field and the effect of underground water, a post from the other day. Tom ... this is the point where all of the underground water from the field heads. It's just in front of the burn pile on the left.

To add to the formula of erosion, 70 some years ago there was a road that went down into the woods going in front of that post. it went from the driveway out to the country road just a little south of me.

That road connected to my driveway and was a way for my dad's family to get their farm equipment up into the field I walk every day. For years the previous owners of the house would have to refill this area with dump trucks full of dirt or stone because it would wash out over the winter.

I stopped most of it when I found someone that could deliver something called 'mine dust'. It blocked a lot of the water, stayed firm and you could still grow grass over the top of it.

On my Wordpress blog I have found someone that has a Basset Hound and a Pyrenees. Her Pyrenees had skin issues similar to Heidi's. They found the food that worked was Rachael Ray's Only 6. They also found eliminating grain free food that had pea starch in it helped. They also added a probiotic supplement and coconut oil to her food two times per week.

I have tried the probiotic supplement for over a year. A lot of the grain free food Heidi was eating had pea starch in it. I tried the coconut oil on her food but was adding it every day a couple of years ago. I have not tried the "Only 6" dog food. I am going to try that with Heidi and see if that is the magic solution. They said their Pyrenees skin problems saw results with the food change in a weeks time after they had spent time just like I did, trying to find what was the cause.

I thought of moving my blog posting back to 6-7 pm instead of the middle of the day. I know as the weather gets warmer I will not be around a computer in the middle of the day to put a post together.

The problem is I like adding a lot of pictures to each post and if I waited to make just on long blog post, I'd have over 40 pictures on that post. I usually take over a 100 per day and choose which ones after I edit them. I like to keep the pictures in a fairly close sequence and I find it hard to pass on enough of them to get it down to 10 pictures or so.

Like college football season, the hounds will get their afternoon walks and short breaks to relieve themselves during halftimes of all these basketball games I am going to watch. We also go outside or take a walk between games. They will always be the priority over any ballgame.

It doesn't look like I'll be able to squeeze in a Z4 ride today. I noticed some nice dried bloodhound drool from Stella on the rear corner of the car this morning as I walked by. Stella evidently had been checking out for any possible way for her to get inside the car and go for a ride.

Another week has passed here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.