Just Missed Deer

As forecasted the sunshine disappeared yesterday to make room for light rain that started after midnight. That same light rain started again last night. It was still happening this morning as the hounds and I could wait no longer for a walk. With my North Face snow boots on I was able to keep my feet dry and a light rain jacket over a fleece jacket kept me warm and dry during the walk. The rain was more of a mist than sprinkle ... the hounds didn't care.

Sunday turned out to be a very productive day with some stray small twigs taken off the roof and out of the gutter. Within a hour and a half I had the FJ and Z4 washed and hand dried. By the time I did the short high speed run in the Z4 the convertible top was completely dry as I tucked it under the car cover with rain on the way.

This photo here pretty much describes what type of day we are looking at today. Unless the rains are harder, we will get another walk in this afternoon since both walks were cancelled on Monday. At least it is warm and that's all I care about.

With a lot of time spent inside yesterday, Heidi continues her sleeping marathon today, I continue to look at houses on realtor.com out of curiosity and brain cell exercise. I clicked off a few games of Mahjong yesterday under 3 minutes. I am still trying to get all 160 games of Mahjong completed under 3 minutes but there are a couple that I doubt that will ever happen.

MSN money had an article today on the best towns to live on in every state if you are on a fixed income of social security and a pension. It was good to see that a few of them listed were towns I had looked at in my search the past few years, but not the one I'd like to move to. I might take a closer look at one of them listed.

With the hounds having their noses to the ground for the start of the walk I wasn't thinking about any surprises today. That is their normal activity and we had not seen any deer in person since last November yet there has been a lot of fresh hoof prints seen on our recent walks.

For some reason Stella is in the exploration mode lately (weeks) rather than eating additional natural protein. That a good thing and what I like to see. I noticed on RVsue's latest post yesterday, a dog a the dog park she was visiting had an owner trying to break their dogs habit of eating foul stuff by putting an electronic collar on their dog.

I would never try that on Stella since I don't like any kind of 'shock' training for any kind of dog. Besides what I have read years ago on electronic fences, bloodhounds pain threshold is so strong that they didn't feel the electronic shock to keep them  inside the fence. I am glad we have the land around the house that the hounds can enjoy naturally.

Since I was not expecting any surprises, by the time I turned away from taking the above photo, realizing what my eyes were seeing, getting my camera in the shooting position and focused ... the two deer were about to disappear in the wooded area in the 'far right hand corner'. You will have to look close for their bright white tails.

I was sure that Sadie would lock onto their scent and take off toward or into that wooded area. i was prepared to run after her if I needed to.

She surprised me by showing no interest in heading that direction.

Of coarse Stella was in her own little world oblivious to anything around her.

She gradually joined up with Stella and I at the halfway point of the walk.

Sadie was more intent on exploring the back edge of the field like she does every morning. Deer was the furthest thing from her mind ... and her nose.

It's always hard to tell what Stella is thinking but she certainly has the look as a 'deep thinker' most of the time ... even when she sleeps.

The mist never got heavier, there was very little wind and the hounds had a relaxed slow pace walk. With them back inside and sleeping until their lunch, mostly likely it will be another quiet day inside while it rains lightly outside.

It might take a while but eventually they head back to the yard.  The last 1/4 of the walk may be the slowest of the walk we take on a daily basis.

Somewhat hard to believe that April is almost over. We are way ahead of our average rainfall 4 months into the year.

Not much going on today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Another Day Of Nothing

Evidently the rivers are getting back to normal water levels so the creek on the sides of these corn fields are able to flow out thus draining water from the fields. All the water in the field on Monday was gone in a matter of 24 hours. All this rain is making the yards and the field green, tall enough to mow on Thursday (waiting to dry out) and bright sunshine that lead us to a nice morning walk.

I did a whole blog post of 'rambling' and then deleted it after I edited the photos this morning.

We stepped out this morning for our first walk around 9am. It should be the last day of cold weather (30's) and a lot of things will get done on Thursday and Friday outside when it's the 70's and hot. Sounds like t-shirt and cargo shorts weather to me.

I can tell by the way Stella is moving on her walks she is feeling good. I still think she has some soreness with her hips. I noticed she kind of flinched the other night when she crawled off the couch slow to stretch between innings of the baseball game.

I started feeding Sadie a measured cup more of kibble a few months ago and already see that her ribs have disappeared so I am back to feeding her a little less food. It's never good to be overweight at her size and age.

What is this pile of mud? What kind of animal does that?

I still find I don't have a lot to say when I post these pictures. Like I have said before, our daily routine basically never changes although I have some plans for bike riding this summer as long as my left knee holds out. I am not sure if the hounds would keep up with me if I did laps around the field on my mountain bike or not but might try that.

Almost every morning that I walk through the field I keep wondering if they are going to bale hay this June/July or will they turn it into an ATV park for their grandsons and their next door neighbor??

It's about that time for the annual check up and annual shots for the hounds. This year I am going to take the bloodhounds at the same time. Heidi usually goes alone because it's just too hard to handle 3 hounds at one time out in public or in and out of the FJ. I only get the rabies shot and pass on the other two because we don't go to dog parks, they are not kenneled nor around other dogs. Anyone else pass on the rabies shot? I think those are legally required.

It's good to see that Stella slowly migrates to the field as Sadie and I walk much further in front of her. Still quite shocking that she will walk toward me when I call her without having to walk over to here to tug on her collar. I hope she keeps that new habit.

It is always a slow process to finish the walk because there is so much new scent they have to check out.

That field cat has to be around here somewhere.

I might do a little tent testing with Stella this summer like I did with Sadie, Winston and Heidi in 2015 when we set the tent up and slept in it in the backyard a few nights before our June trip. If Stella passes a few tests with the tent then we might do a little camping this summer. There are really some nice National Forests around and plenty of open land to camp without moving into a SP.

It is certainly taking it's time getting warmer. Heidi was out just long enough to relieve herself and then sprinted back to her blankets on the couch.

A slow overcast cold day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Are Back To Normal

It didn't take long for things to feel like they were back to normal, me included. Sadie and Stella want to walk all the time. Sadie, Stella and Heidi want to eat all the time. It is still not warm enough for Heidi but I really believe if I were to let the bloodhounds out on their own, they would spend most of the day in the field.

Strong winds for around here were forecast last night and they arrived. Since all of the storm damage with huge trees blown out of the wet ground in June 2008, I am always a little anxious when the winds get around 40mph. I still have huge Sycamore trees due south of the house. The Sycamore tree in June 2008 was just as tall and was pulled out of the ground like a weed, falling through the fence and all the way across the front yard.

Yet, those were straight line winds in 2008 and last night wasn't nearly the same speed. So about all the damage I found in the yard from last night's wind was this small tree limb from the Sycamore tree. If there were any other limbs in the north or front yards, they had been blown out of the yard last night.

Stella wanted to let me know that she was back in control since the frozen tundra was gone. While Sadie headed south, Stella headed north ... that's never a good way to start the daily walk. Until she responded to me yelling her name, it looked like by her pace she was going next door to check out the neighbor's backyard.

Granted, we took the day off yesterday from walking so the field would have more time to change from a muddy field to only a wet field. With almost 2" of rain in addition to 4" - 6" of snow melting I was somewhat surprised there wasn't more water this morning being squeezed from the ground with each of my steps.

I could tell a lot of verbal herding was going to take place today, if both hounds were going to finish the walk.

With the winds howling from the SW around the 20mph mark, I could feel freezing cold air hitting my face although the temps had jumped to the mid 30's. If it were to stay like this the rest of the winter I would take it. The forecast shows it will be 40's and 50's a lot of days in the next 45 days.

I didn't realize it at the time I took the photos but a lot of them today did not have the hounds as the main focus but the surrounding weeds, bushes etc. My camera may have automatically switched from 'single point' to 'all area' focus when I turned it off. It does that sometimes but not all the time.

Sadie was more than happy to be going on walks again. I could not remember today when her obsessions with these walks started because I don't remember her being this demanding for walks when Winston was around. Of course back then, she was not the head of household, Winston ran the show.

This time last year Stella had started losing her weight mysteriously so it's good to see that she has gained all that she lost last year. I have a feeling her previous owner had dog food out at all times for her to eat along with their other dogs, whenever they wanted. She is alert any time there is any kind of food around or is being cooked.

Not to get into politics but I was happy to see the government decided to go back to work. I want my tax refund from my filed taxes they electronically accepted at the IRS on January 19.

It has been a long time since they have trotted over to the 'far right corner' of the field on this walk ... they did not today either ... but they took their time exploring every inch along the back fence line. I was beginning to wonder if were going to make it back home some time today.

As we turned home, about in the middle of the rear field Stella decided she had things to do. She took her slow time, Sadie and I waited ... and waited ... and waited for her to finally catch up. Stella does nothing fast .... nothing.

Without me saying anything, just walking with Sadie ... Stella finally figured out we were going home with or without her. She broke into a trot to catch Sadie as we took the normal path back home. It wasn't cold but the wind was stronger as we walked into it instead of having it at our backs.

I can't wait until the field is nice and green this spring.

This past fall and early winter has been the worst mole damage I have ever seen in my backyard. I need to have someone bring their riding mower and roll the yard for me this spring. It would be a first time I've ever done that. I am debating whether to apply grub worm killer in March to get rid of or lower the number of moles.

Heidi did not hesitate to come running when lunch was called but she came to a sudden stop once she felt the strong cold wind from the SW come out from behind the Z4. She eventually moved out into the yard but didn't stay out any longer than required to relieve herself.

That is one thing about winter ... with all of the tall ragweed and thick brush gone for the winter, it gives Sadie easy access to the woods right behind the burn pile. From the way the dead ragweed has been mashed I think deer pass through there at night. I have caught them in that area sometimes when it's really late.

 I guess both bloodhounds were satisfied with their morning walk. They didn't stay outside after their lunch much longer than Heidi did. Within minutes all three had found their normal afternoon sleep spots and were sound to sleep. Lately Stella has decided to pin my desk chair close to the desk and sleep right behind me. For me to get up and out of the chair I have to wake her up to move.

It's hard to believe that January is a week from being over. Time is flying as usual.

It's a quiet day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.