The Hounds Start Off Strange

As I start writing this morning the day is a little over 3 hours old for us. Stella was determined to wake my up in the dark as her whine was the loudest I had ever heard as I tried to comprehend what was going on. That isn't the strange start that I am speaking about in the post title though. The normal routine is me turning on the light then BOTH hounds run to the door to be let outside because they know that as they are reliving themselves I am pouring their breakfast kibble into their bowls.

So strange and it had to be a first ... ever. I am at the door having to wait for both of them. For some reason Heidi had sprinted around the corner to the living room and was on the couch, Stella was standing looking at me as if she was trying to figure out why did she have to go outside. Compare this to their normal running to the door ... that is a strange start to the day. It wasn't raining and it was a little after 6am, normal time for them.

It didn't end there.

For some strange reason I was ready to go and wanted to start the walk a little earlier than normal, at 8am. Stella was sitting in the open area in my small house which is next to the kitchen island but right outside my computer room. With her front legs crossed, she didn't have any plans of going anywhere. After all she had not drank her water yet before the walk.

I had to stand at the door, holding it open, telling her to "come on" and could barely get her out of the house. So strange !!!! As I took my daily photo of the field across the highway from my carport step, Stella sat in the middle of the carport and wasn't moving. As I was taking my first step in the field, she was standing at the corner of the house not wanting to go anywhere, acting as if it was raining.

It had rained a little over night but there wasn't standing water anywhere, nor was the yard or field that wet but for some reason she did not want to take the walk this morning. Maybe she didn't like me choosing the time we walk?

After a lot of verbal convincing, she slowly stepped slowly in the yard and it was like she was taking her last steps as she entered the field and walked passed me. I could almost hear her dragging her paws on the ground because she was walk that slow.

It's a good thing when my boots built for snow are used more after rain. Looking back at this past winter here in 'the tropics' we really did have a pretty mild winter. We had very few days of single digit temps and really only one period with some substantial snow but that was it. I might have to check out the Farmer's Almanac and see what the weather prediction for this summer is.

While I enjoyed the warm morning, Stella moved over to the old return path and was on a deer scent. Things had flipped to normal just like that. I was finished with verbal suggestions for her today so I let her go at her own pace as long as she was within my view. I had to stand waiting more than a few times for her to proceed through the walk.

I did not finish watching the Oregon - Virginia basketball game last night. I had seen enough by 11:45 pm and went to bed. There were some pretty good college basketball games last night, a couple of upsets all after an afternoon of watching baseball. I will follow that same routine today ... but I still feel slightly motivated for some reason today.

Besides vacuuming the house and doing some dusting, I might hit the yard after this post and start the process of picking up all the small sticks throughout the yard and add them to my burn pile. There are a ton of them laying in the backyard and front yard all the way down to the highway.

The eating plan still continues to be successful. Every time I wanted something sweet yesterday I ate an apple or a bowl of mixed berries. I buy the large bag of  blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. That solved the urge for something sweet. It was not intended but it turned out to be a "meatless" Thursday. I followed recommended portions on everything I ate except the size of my lunch salad. Those salads have always been large.

I almost forgot, but we had some major excitement yesterday in the 'hood. I heard a pretty loud, low flying helicopter as I was watching baseball. We do have helicopters pass the house but never this loud and never that low sounding ... I headed outside and grabbed the Nikon D3200 sitting on the table.

I was right. As the helicopter was leaving it was barely clearing the tops of both trees down by the highway. Across the highway on the single path road next to the field that leads to the old steel bridge, were two state patrol cars, three and then a few minutes later four county sheriff cars and SUVs.

I have no idea what was taking place. I didn't see anyone apprehended but about an hour after they all left, the local town police pulled into that road and drove all the way down to the steel bridge.

That was the excitement for the day until the end of the Reds baseball game.

As you can see, Stella was in her detailed investigation mode this morning.

I was curious if she would go all the back to the back of the far right corner of the field. She has not been in that area more than once since Sadie left us. It has not been the first time I have thought that Sadie basically took care of and and led Stella on the walk ... getting her to keep moving, to track scent and cover a lot more field than Stella has since last September. Sadie use to sprint to catch up to me, Stella never does.

This is about the best I can do making a panoramic photo of the field, as I stood next to Stella in the southern corner of the field. I can see our path, and have for years, on Google Satellite ... pretty interesting.

It was good to see some small green buds on the bushes in the background ... another sure sign that spring is near.

I want to know what came out of here and where did it go?

have not viewed any tv news since early Thursday morning. The silence is fantastic.

When the camera catches Stella's paw in the air while she is walking, does that show just how slow she is walking ... one step at a time, in slow motion. No time table and definitely no schedule for her.

She didn't stop to look today but did glance over toward the neighbor's house just to make sure things were fine over there.

This morning's strangeness continued as she did NOT check out the corner on the right, nor did she sniff along the edges of the fence line and around each tree. Maybe it is because she heard me tell her "I have to go buy dog food" and decided it was best to get back inside as soon as possible.

own I only closed the door with the baby gate as a backup. I wasn't going to be gone for more than 5-7 minutes.

It was good to feel a dry door knob when I got back because that meant she had not tried to open the door while I was gone. I also commended myself as I walked in and out of the local hardware store with only a 40 pound bag of dog food on my shoulder and not Baby Ruth candy bar in my pocket nor did I stop for a free warm bag of popcorn that they make in an old popcorn popper. All of these activities were finished by 8:35am.

It will be interesting to see if the strange routines from this morning will take place tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, it's a great day for baseball and baseball on tv here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

8 Days Until March !!!!

Sunshine always makes a difference, no matter what the temperature is nor what month it is. It just makes a difference. I had not even started my first cup of coffee when I could hear the birds outside singing to each other like it was a Spring day. It was 29°. Again we all started our day later than a few weeks ago but none of us minded sleeping an extra hour. I couldn't stop reading one of the books last night, just picked up from the library yesterday. Can you guess which one kept me up past 1:30am reading?

With the high today going to climb into the middle 40's, all of the frozen puddles of water were starting to melt in the yard. Although the large puddle inside the carport remained water. I was happy I chose the North Face snow boots to wear this morning. I use them as my rain boots also ... because I am cheap. LOL

Stella had her own plans this morning. She veered off the return path and headed to the middle of the field. As long as she was heading in the general direction that I was on the path, it was okay. I kept an eye on her while I enjoyed the great morning, a little past 10am. The air was filled with different kind of birds chirping away, the sky was blue and the sunshine was bright. A perfect morning.

I was wearing layered clothing with my light down jacket, not the parka. I really didn't even need my gloves but wore them anyway. As I walked, so did Stella at a pretty brisk pace.

Slowly without any input from me, she gradually moved toward me and about the time I got to the first corner, she cut me off, walking in front of me over to the brush area next to the woods. She was so close to me when she cut in front of me she almost stepped on my boot !!!

After I moved out in front of her, I glanced behind me and didn't see her!!!! She had walked down into the woods maybe 6' before I barely saw her. As I walked over to find out where she was plus prevent her from getting further into the woods and then down into the gully, she turned and walked toward me like nothing happened.   LOL

As we moved into the part of the field that was no longer frozen but extremely saturated, I could still hear the sound of the leaves and long grass breaking with a crunching sound with each one of my steps. Water came up along the sides of my boots with each step. Stella stayed just to the side of the path to keep her paws dry as possible.

I let her move along the back edge of the field at her own pace. I walked up ahead of her and had moved over to the path that Stella was walking on.I had not walked along the edge of the field in back for many months. It was also drier up there compared to the path we use every day.

I was able to take the same photo of the turkey farm and AT&T tower but it looks so much different today because I was standing at the edge of the field about 20' closer to the tower. In my eyes it makes a huge difference while I used the same zoom setting as I always do. I could not believe how different it looked.

When I told her "let's go home", she was happy with that and headed out on the path, with a few stops along the way. She is such a funny bloodhound. No plans, no focus, and walks as if she goes from moment to moment without any thought of a plan. To say the least, she is a pretty laidback bloodhound.

This does not happen often ... she beat me to the yard this morning.

What is she thinking ????

LOL ... I have no idea. Classic pose for Stella, obviously in deep thought.

With the morning so nice, she and I spent some extra time right there in the north backyard. I picked up some new limbs and tossed them into the overgrown brush area. This is the area I'd like to light a match to and burn about 20 years of dead limbs, dead leaves and give the ground some new area for new growth.

See .... she can be a nice bloodhound when she want's to be. She isn't stubborn all the time. How can you resist that kind of look?? Yes ... she does get everything she wants, at least 99.9% of the time.

For new readers or first time visitors ... that fence post and rolled barbed wire has been there since the mid 1940's based on the story my dad told me.

Stella still continuing to move to her right to finish her walk along the side of the house.

Just because it was beautiful outside Heidi still had sleep to catch up on and wasn't happy when I woke her up. Later she came out, inhaled some water and went back to sleep on the big leather chair. It's the same chair that Winston use to use, then Sadie and now Heidi. It's a great comfortable chair and I sit there sometimes for hours reading.

With the great sunny day outside at noon you would think that the hounds would have gone outside and stayed for hours enjoying the great weather. I was willing to stay outside that long. It was up over 40° and sunny. I think you will find the following photos shocking. I'll let them tell the story. No .... neither went any further than the photos show.

Heidi seems to like Oikos Triple Zero blended greek yogurt. The brand by Greek God's is a little too sour for her and she will not lick the last of the container. As you can see with the Dannon brand she has no problem burying her head inside the container to lick the bottom of the container. I always share it will both hounds.

I like Plochman's Mustard but I hate their container. I keep the nozzle clean so it spreads the mustard evenly. The problem is the mustard blocks the opening of the container and prevents the flow of any mustard, no matter how clean the nozzle is. So to fix that .... I poured half the Plochman's container into a French's mustard container, which never stops the evenly smooth pour when the container is squeezed. Is that politically correct to do in today's society?  (joke)

That just shows you some of the exciting activity around here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. I tried again, giving the hounds a chance to go outside to enjoy this weather but Stella did not wake up and Heidi went outside just long enough to pee and came back to the door.

Because of that I can almost assure that there will not be enough hound activity this afternoon to blog about. I will not get many more photos than what I have right now. Therefore I am going to post this now as my only post of the day instead of waiting until 6pm, thinking or hoping I'd have more photos to add.

So which book kept me up until 1:30am, where I had to force myself to put the book down and go to bed?

Hero Dogs by Wilma Melville with Paul Lobo.

I started the Bernie Sanders  book first yesterday afternoon because I was really curious what I would find. I started the book with an open mind and read 79 straight pages. It was interesting because many of the things that he wanted "his movement" to accomplish ... Trump has done since January 2017. Granted, Bernie wrote this book and what he wanted before the 2016 election but the fact still remains a few things have been accomplished by a man he hates.

Although I had read 79 pages without stopping, two names of people that he respects (in his own words) made me stop reading and my first impression of Bernie Sanders was correct. This is a man I want nothing to do with. Those two people? ... Linda Sarsour and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (my favorite dingbat)

Like all the other far left Presidential hopefuls, he wants to tax the rich and give more free services to those in need, middle to low incomes or those not wanting to work, plus of course ALL immigrants, legal or otherwise. Yet with millions of dollars in his bank account, and three luxury homes, I find it hard to believe that Bernie would like to give himself that same tax increase.

What he preaches against he has ... wealth.

Would he make the last ten years of his income tax returns public like he wants President Trump to do? Would any of the screaming Democrats make their tax returns public? Doubtful. Including Trump they have all followed the US Tax Code, I have no doubt about that but I also beliew a few people walked away paying nothing in taxes just like Amazon because they have top notch tax accountants.

Here's a tidbit about Bernie ... enjoy reading it:  Bernie's A Fraud !

Jussie Smollett ???   I can't stop laughing. What "a piece of work" .... let's see just how far they follow the letter of the law because I can bet my ass if that was me, I would be convicted as a racist, hate crime offender and would be behind bars the maximum amount of time allowed. Just mailing that hate crime letter to himself should put him behind bars based on Federal Law. Prove to me that I am wrong with that assumption.

A beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. I'm going back to my book.