Hounds See Their First Arizona Snow

Snow was in our forecast for sometime after midnight. We had a winter advisory warning out until Saturday morning for areas above the 4,500' elevation. By the time we woke up on Friday morning that prediction of 3" of snow had changed to 2-5". It would be our first snow since moving to Arizona. It was expected more than a surprise because of the weather data research I had done before deciding to move the this great area. Believe me this is nothing compared to what we were used to. Although ... the hounds acted like they had been Arizona hounds their whole life.

Stella was nudging my hand sometime around 4:30am wanting me to get up. She didn't need to go outside, she wanted to eat breakfast. Without moving a muscle I told her to go back to sleep in the room filled with darkness. Luckily she obeyed and I was able to get another 35 minutes of sleep before Stella officially called it the start of the day ... she started howling at 5:05am ... in the dark.

That howling was the same one I hear in the afternoons if I am late feeding her lunch so I knew she was wanting to eat. It was the first time I ever heard her howling before we were up for the day. I hope this isn't her new routine ... even if it is only for a few weeks.

This will give you some idea what that howling looks like. This is from Wednesday when I returned from my Miller Canyon hike.  Once she starts howling then Heidi will join her by barking until the kibble is in their dishes.

Scanning the fence line this morning once it was daylight, as you can see the mountains we normally see were no where to be found and I did not see any signs of overnight snow. I started thinking the weather forecasters were not any different than the forecasters back in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

When I first glanced I thought my patio chair that was blown off the patio during the night might be filled with snow in the bottom. Those little white tabs on each chair leg looked like snow. I was wrong. Only white plastic pieces for the chair legs and that was nothing but rain on the chair. You can see a little snow residue on the blue towel. Nowhere near the 3" they talked about after midnight.

While I was back in the computer room I didn't realize the snow 'storm' had stated without me or the hounds. It was only when I got up to get more coffee did I see it was snowing outside. If we had a full day of this type of snowing I could see the 5" by the end of the day. It was going to get too warm to do that though. The scouting report I had about snow in this area, it is always gone by the end of the day.

After two attempts to go outside but immediately turning around on the patio to go back inside, Stella could no longer hold it and had to go out in the light snow fall to pee. Heidi ??? Not a chance. She did the immediate turn on the patio hours ago and was back on her bed in the deep corner of the bedroom sound to sleep. Both hounds had proved to me this morning, they were officially Arizona hounds.

Just for proof to text some out of state friends, I found the one place that had the deepest snow.

Some time during the morning she had moved from her bed to her other favorite sleeping spot in the computer room.

It wasn't 3 hours later I hear the water dripping from the rooftop. I look outside to see sunny blue skies and not a trace of snow in the yard. You can barely see the drops of water coming off the roof to the ground.

It looks like the foothills had some snow but all of this was much less than I expected.

It was a photo of a bird like this on a Facebook Group for The Wonders of Cochise County that I decided to try the Canon Power Shot SX70. I mentioned the other day in the right kind of light I get better results when zooming than I get on my Nikon D3500 70-300mm lens. If you look closely at the bird I think you will see the quality I am talking about.

Although the snow is gone, Heidi, Stella and I are dreaming for a day like this. Taken just a few days ago we all know it's possible to have some bright hot sunshine even when the temps are in the 50's. After all they are officially Arizona hounds and they LOVE sunshine.

If Heidi cannot get a good warm place outside to sleep in the sunshine after breakfast she will always find a warm sunny spot in her bedroom. She has a vet appointment tomorrow for an annual checkup, annual shots and hopefully a nail trim by one of the vet techs.

After getting serious about it, it was not really hard to connect my tv for the first time to my wifi. I could then access Amazon Prime Videos and found more free movies to watch than I had ever found on Cox Cable On Demand. I added a ton of them to my 'watch later list'. With my Best Buy award points that I had built up I only paid $29 for the 6Gb Apple Tv. I have that hooked up and am in the process of connecting it to some sports channels. Once I get that accomplished and see that I can watching the ballgames I want ... Cox TV will be canceled but I will keep their outstanding internet service.

Hard to believe we are just a few days away from 2020 (sounds weird) but that means we are also closer to warmer weather.

First now here in the 'Wild West' this morning.

The Hounds Thought I Was Late Serving Lunch

It wasn't the time of day that threw the hounds off their inner clocks, it was an activity. They thought I was too late in feeding them lunch kibble. That usually happens between 11:30am to noon. Today they were not wanting to be fed because they were hungry nor because it was 11:30am. I had the yard mowed by 10:30am, an activity that usually happens either lunch time or late afternoon. Once that mower shut off ... they thought it was time to eat. While Heidi barked non-stop ....

Stella howled.

There are only two times during the day or night that Stella howls at the top of her lungs ... after she steps inside for breakfast and at lunch if I am late serving it. They go outside first thing in the morning and while they are outside I'll pour kibble and make my coffee.

This morning Stella was running more than I had seen in a while. The high temperatures were suppose to be 65° by 4pm and I had big plans just as soon as the morning walk was over.

My lightweight battery powered leaf blower is great to use to blow leaves out of the gutter. It took me longer to back the car out of the carport so I could open the side shed door to pull out the ladder then get up on the roof ... than it did to clean the front and back gutter.

I came up with a leaf plan while I was on the roof walking along the edge blowing leaves out of the gutter. I decided for the first time in the 21 years I've lived here, to mow all the leaves and yard in just one direction ... with the leaves and grass all blowing toward the field. My mower would only mow on one side of the yard, back and forth ... I walked the mower backwards each time I was at the end. It worked fantastic and may be my process this year instead of raking and burning leaves. Here is what the backyard looked like after I was finished.

Normally if I would have mowed pushing all the leaves to the center of the yard it would have never been as clean as it is now.

The burn pile will be burned sometime in November. Leaves and weeds are running late this year.

The front yard I did NOT get the same process because there wasn't that many leaves after the high winds on Saturday night.

So by 10:47am the gutters were cleaned, the yard mowed and the leaves mulched. I was still wearing clothes to do a morning walk in at 44° and with all the activity I was burning up. While the hounds ate their lunch ... I changed into cargo shorts.  Yes, that's right. With the temps going to be 65° I had to celebrate the heatwave we were going to have today.

The plan was to put polyurethane on the inside of my front door and on all the windows that I had sanded, cleaned with a few repairs a few weeks ago. Rain and cold temperatures prevented me from putting on polyurethane any sooner than today.

Stella is starting to enjoy these walks like Sadie use to ... instead of just walking along the path.

I went back into my photo library and pulled out some comparisons, showing the differences in the leaves changing color for the last three years on this day in October.

This was taken today, looking toward the house and almost all green leaves.

Here are the same trees one year ago on October 22, 2017

This was taken 2015 October 22nd.

Winston enjoying a field that was cut twice that year and if you notice to the left of him it shows the overgrowth of what I call the north yard. I had not cleared all that brush out yet and planted grass seed.

Here is the same tree line this morning take out in the field instead of my backyard.

This was 2016 October 22nd ... today those same trees have all green leaves, no signs of Fall. I did notice it was normal for the soybeans not being harvested this late in October.

I finished my polyurethane project by 3:20pm. Every window in the house was open not because of strong polyurethane fumes, just because it was a nice day and it would help in the drying process.

Stella started whining for a walk about 3pm so she was more than anxious to get outside twenty minutes later. Heidi went outside but didn't walk with us. It was warm enough for cargo shorts and cool enough for a sweatshirt.

As you can see Stella's energy level on the afternoon walks is quite different than in the morning. She looks like she can barely make it back to the house most afternoons.

While Stella and I walked the field ... Heidi decided it was perfect time to soak up some sunshine.

It's hard to believe that she came to me through a rescue service with the reputation being a 'runner'. A handwritten note on the adoption paperwork in June 2011 stated "must be leashed at all times."

Normally whenever a Jif Peanut Butter jar is empty, all the hounds share what is left. That was the highlight of Sunday afternoon watching this. Heidi decided on her own when she had enough and let the jar lay where it was. Stella had her eyes on it the whole time just waiting for her turn.

She wanted it in a different location so she picked it up with her mouth and walked toward the hallway or the main walkthru of the house.

Based on how she was acting, her long tongue wasn't quite long enough to reach the bottom of the jar. When she started chewing the hard plastic to make it a shorter jar so she could reach it that is when I called the game over.

After getting the things finished today as planned. I am moving the the wall cleaning project tomorrow as temps drop back down to the highs being the mid 50's. My cargo shorts will be put back in the dresser and the jeans will be back in action.

Thanks for all the feedback about my comments about blogging. I might have put out the wrong impression when I talked about my extremes in a lot of things I do. Some readers must have thought I was thinking of stopping blogging completely when I said something "blog all the time or not at all". I didn't mean for that to sound like I was going to quit blogging ... just that I was going to blog less frequently.

Blogging every 3 to 4 days seemed to be a popular answer and it might lead to that ... otherwise I will blog when I get the urge and try not to go longer than 4 days without posting at least a few photos. There might be some daily blogging based on what I am doing.

A very productive day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.