It's Wet But It's A Friday

We woke up to the sound of rain but all three hounds headed for the door to be let outside before my feet even touched the floor. It was barely daybreak but obviously they were ready to start their day and that always means breakfast. I knew Stella would not leave the protection of carport, Heidi would sneak out under the roof overhang and Sadie would sprint to the field, rain or no rain. As I poured kibble, Stella stood at the door looking inside and waiting for me to finish.

The past few days the hounds have determined for some reason, that it's time to start getting up before 7am and start the day. By the time I finish making my coffee, they have all finished their meal and have headed back to sleep in different spots scattered throughout the house. They are awake for no longer than 10 minutes, 15 at the most.

Within the next hour the rain had stopped, the temps were even cooler than before and Sadie thought it was time for her walk. I agreed and before I could step 5' into the field, Stella was already trying to sneak away toward the neighbor's yard a vacant lot away. She could not believe I caught and stopped when I called her name.

After telling her to either join Sadie and I for the walk or go back inside, she decide a walk would be nicer so she headed toward our path to join us. She walked into my leg as she moved around me on the path and kept walking. She will not walk around me or Sadie when she is heading somewhere. Even in the house she will walk right on your foot if you are in her way.

As the yellow daisy and orange wild weed flowers die off, these are taking over the field but mostly just behind the house. It's very interesting to see they are just in that area, for reasons I will not write about. Still the location of these purple flowers make me wonder.

I did not prefer to take a photo of the butts of bloodhounds but wanted to show they were both wanting on the path. Stella wanted to keep her paws dry as possible and Sadie had claimed the path as hers. It took a while but Sadie finally veered off on her own path she follows along the edge of the field.

It is one of those days where the rain will be off and on. We might catch some of the storms that are in the forecast but we always seem to miss some as they move south of us. These wet conditions have put some projects on hold while giving me the chance to start my new drainage system along the back of the house.

It will not be right next to the house but about 3' out, or at the edge of the grass and river rock. The system I have now I put in 20 years ago and I have noticed that water is starting to puddle too close to the house instead of draining. With this rain it will be the perfect time to dig my 12" ditch and pull out the old drain and install a new on with a gravel base.

The hounds kept their lead on me this morning. They did their normal route, stopped at their normal spots in the field and I didn't have to say a word to either of them to get them to follow me home. On the way back they stayed on the path and walked right behind me most of the way, out of the range of the camera.

As I see the weeds growing around these rolls of hay, it looks like they may not come back to pick them up. I was told last summer by the son that cuts the field, they didn't need the hay but they cut the field as a favor to the neighbor who owns it because he gives them some of his land to farm on. Evidently they have gotten out of the cattle or horse business because a few years ago that same son told me they used all 32 rolls of hay during the winter.

I took this with a 50mm focus to show how far the hounds get out in front of me at times. Another strange thing is, they never turn right to check out what I have called "the far right corner" in past posts. I am guessing there is no to little deer traffic coming out of the gully. I believe the ATV action last summer in that gully and in this field chased the deer away. Deer experts ... am I wrong? I know nothing about deer or any animal that is wild.

With all the weeds and wild growth in the field I can barely see the paths that we follow. When it's grass you can see where I have worn down a path, so defined that Google Maps will pick it up on their satellite photos.

No photo today to prove it because Sadie kept moving when I tried to take a photo of her right side ... but I could not feel that lump this morning before our walk. It shocked me enough that I stepped back to take a look at it and saw nothing along her stomach line.

I still wonder what effect if any, deer scat has on Stella. The vet told me not to worry about it.

I guess I was wrong. You can see that lump on Sadie's right side. As I looked at it as she walked by me, it would disappear based on her walk or running.

Stella has turned 9 years old and seems to be moving a little slower by the month. She wanted in the back of the FJ the other day when I was unloading groceries but couldn't jump like she could last year. She has no problem though climbing on my bed in the middle of the day for her siesta.  LOL

A smaller roll of hay but with the weeds starting to hid the roll you have to wonder if it will ever leave the field. Surely they will not leave it there.

Even though it was a steady rain this morning when we woke up I cannot say the field was any wetter than it is sometimes with hard ground and heavy dew. I still use the North Face snow boots as my rain boots. At least they are being used in some way.

Property line pole, where the neighbor told me he wanted it left there after the survey. What is interesting his survey does not match my survey from 25 years earlier, completed by the same survey company. By his survey I have gained a lot of yard, but now there is the question ... is the fence along my driveway on my neighbors property or my property?

At the base of the driveway bank it shows that to be the center line of a 70 year old railroad right-of-way. It is 15' on each side of that center line. Which puts my property line 13' past the fence line. It's much like the right-of-way the state highway owns, yet people have yards and mow within that range of property.

When I finish my projects and am bored some morning next month I will take a trip downtown to the courthouse and have someone explain to me what all of that means.

Stella made an abrupt right turn as she headed for the house. She doesn't like getting her paws wet any longer than she has to and whenever it rains she feels the driest way to walk is on the river rock that is along the back of the house.

Well the sunshine is out at 11:07am. I might start digging my ditch after the hounds have their lunch. That sounds like a lot of work and besides it is Friday, a day off.

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... thanks for stopping by.

Heidi's Winter Hibernation

It's nothing out of the ordinary for Heidi. I've seen it for 6 winters now. She moves into the deeper winter hibernation as the temps get colder outside. It's like those hibernations you read about bears. Probably the only difference is, she gets fed 2x per day and she is the most active before and after those meals. Today was no different with a wind chill of 14° outside at 10am ... it wasn't even close to her temperature threshold of 70°

Sadie wanted to go out as soon as her 60 seconds or less breakfast was over. It didn't matter that she had just been outside right before it was served. I am not sure, as some have suggested over the years, that she would be a hound that would enjoy staying outside 24/7. She is pretty addicted to 'her' large leather chair and ottoman. It's a place she spends every night while movies or ballgames are on the tv.

Stella let me know very early in the walk today she wasn't interested in covering much ground. Sadie and I continued on knowing we could pick her up on the way back, hopefully somewhere within view.

Since buying the new iPhone my Garmin Connect app is working off and on. More off than on. From reading on both the Apple sites and Garmin site, it seems to have started with Apples update to iOS11 a month or so ago. I am finding out I was one of the lucky once to have consistent connection on my iPhone 6s. I can still download the Garmin data to my iMac but it's really convenient to see everything with a 'tap' on the Garmin app on the iPhone.

I said something in passing yesterday about possibly adding a page on top with nothing but photos of the 'ears in motion' of both bassets and bloodhounds. It looks like from the emails I have received, there is enough interest for me to make that happen. With it freezing and too cold to pick up sticks in the yard, this might be the day to do a little 'page building' and get all of those ear photos in their own page. I'll let you know when I am finished, or keep glancing at that row of pages on top of this blog.

Giving Stella her daily morning massage that she requests by walking into the computer room and standing next to my desk chair, shows me that she is back to her normal self. She has gained all of the weight that she lost sometime last February thru March. Those two big knots that were visible on her hips are gone and have been for a while. She can handle a massage on her lower back and hips without yelping in pain. Plus seeing her sprinting full speed yesterday morning was a plus.

Sadie was back at the corner of the gully, just on the border of the far right corner of the field. This morning she was too fast for me and did her sprinting to catch up before I turned around to captured it with my camera. With it getting colder I had picked up the pace of my walk. We get most of our winds from the SW but like today, when that are out of the NW I can expect freezing cold air hitting my face.

I don't get many visitors on my Wordpress blog but at times I enjoy that blog more than this one. It is simple and fast to put a blog post together. I imagine the Google and Bing bot crawlers don't care for the generic url name that comes with a free account, thus not many ways to generate traffic. It is interesting though that both blogs have their own audience, with very few viewers looking at both blogs.

Sadie had locked onto a single worn path that is deer traffic. It has to be that since there isn't a second track parallel to it for it to be a truck or ATV track. Again this morning she was very active in her tracking. There isn't a walk she takes that tracking isn't her number one objective.

It's amazing to see how much ground she can cover with her nose near the ground.

I would guess this is almost the perfect form for a tracking bloodhound.

I almost forgot to mention I saw the field cat late last night. Really it was the eyes of the cat that my small camping flashlight picked up as I scanned the yard, field and along the backside of the house. While the hounds were doing their thing in the yard, I wanted to find out what I heard hit the house due to the high winds that were rattling the storm windows.

I was going to walk around to the front of the house, starting with scanning the area on the backside of the house. Right next to the NE corner of the house were two small eyes staring back at me when the flashlight moved to that area. The cat was gone within seconds and with the hounds on the opposite side of the yard they saw nor smelled anything.

It took 200mm zoom to see this, but Stella did hear me calling her name on our way back. She hears me when she wants to I guess.

Maybe the freezing temps were making Stella a little more motivated this morning to get back home since she was leading Sadie and I in that direction. She is usually behind us, not in front of us.

A rare sprint to the house to complete the walk.

In the meantime, Heidi never knew we left the house.

Not much is planned again today. I did take the Z4 out Sunday around noon. It doesn't mind the cold weather as long as the roads are dry and the sunshine is out. It has a great heater. The front lower grill I replaced along with the other air ducts and plates under the car, are still tighter than tight.

I am feeling my annual winter urge to start my book reading marathons. I still have a lot of them on my bookshelves to read for the first time. I might also build up a free library of ebooks to read on my table or phone. Either way, it's going to be a winter full of book reading.

It's another fine day of retirement here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, with college football bowl games starting on December 16th. In the meantime the College Football D1-AA playoffs will keep me occupied.