Winter In April

It was less than a week ago where I was washing my car after mowing the yard wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts. My brain was sure that "spring is here" with the hot temps of summer right around the corner. As Stella and I finished our walk this morning, the "feels like" temperature was 31°. It felt colder than that as we marched through the wet field.

What Will The Hounds Do This Week?

It seems like any kind of routine change happens on Monday's with these hounds. So you have to wonder, what will the change be this week or is it even going to happen just because it's Monday. I had the first change by getting up an hour earlier but only after I felt a bloodhound nose nudging my arm and some light whining as Stella was standing next to the bed. You might think she wants to go outside to pee but she only wants food and to eat her breakfast. With bright sunshine that early I had no problem starting my day.

I remembered the other day I told myself I would trade all of this rain for sunny skies even with winter cold temps. Well today I got my wish. We didn't take our first walk until 10:30am but it was only 25° and yes, it felt cold. Yet it was nice not having to walk through a wet field.

Stella was into adding protein to her diet this morning. That is about as nice as I can say it. I hate that habit of hers. Sometimes she will stop if she hears me say 'No' but other times she might decide to be stubborn and act like she doesn't hear me.

We had a late start this morning because I spent time reviewing and adding some things to my reviews of my Apple Watch and my Canon G9 X camera. I started them months ago when I bought each of them the first week of January. I am happy with both purchases.

I am somewhat surprised I like drinking black coffee after decades of drinking coffee with two teaspoons of sugar in each 12oz cup. I also find that I don't have a feeling of bloat after those two cups of coffee like I had been feeling lately. I don't have one grain of sugar in my house, with no plans of buying any. Some times I will add some heavy whipping cream but that does not add any kind of sweetness to the coffee. 3rd day in a row with no sugar in my coffee.

With it being so cold outside I will still stay inside reading books. I might pull a movie off the shelf to watch today. Usually when it gets near to the baseball season (31 days to opening day), I like to watch movies I have about baseball. It has almost turned into an annual tradition. Last night the movie feature was "Money Ball", a true story that did just like they thought ... it has changed the way baseball rosters are put together and the way the game is played at the major league level.

I basically let Stella walk on her own with very little verbal herding this morning.

Stopping and thinking ... not sure about what but she did not move from that position to scratch herself, she just sat there for a short time then came trotting toward me.

Finally she decides it's time to head home.

A little jogging to catch up with me. Plus she thought she heard me say something about "lunch".

With food on her mind she didn't take the time to inspect all the trees, she wanted to get inside as soon as possible ... would lunch be served?  :)

With it cold outside most of the day Heidi flat refused any photo session of her today. She was outside long enough to relieve herself and then SPRINTED back to the door to be let inside. Late in the afternoon while I was playing hours of Mahjong, Stella walked over to the kitchen door and nudged the doorknob with her nose to let me know it was time for our afternoon walk.

Although chilly, it was close to 40° and still sunny, so no complaints about the weather. As you can see Stella did her normal very slow afternoon pace.

As I post this I am returning to the couch for more book reading. Not much going on today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Love This Weather

Those scattered thunderstorms in the forecast never showed up over the weekend but it made me, the farmers and even the sparrows busy trying to get things done before it rained. Before I could finish breakfast on Saturday they were preparing the field to plant later that afternoon. So far this spring has not been "wetter than normal", yet I am mowing my yard every 3rd day to keep up.

Last year the sparrows built their nest in the upper corner inside my carport. I left the nest there for their return but they had different plans for 2018. It's small but in a perfect spot I guess, on top of my electric power meter.

With the great weather where you can sleep with the windows open in 50° weather, the 2nd hound walk of the day is in the 70's and nice enough to get a 3rd walk in by the late afternoon. Stella is staying around on her own without wandering off. She has trotted at times but no longer runs full speed.

Sadie will be 10 years old this June and she always gets in some running every time we walk. When her ears can lay flat on top of her head ... she is at max speed.

Sunday after their lunch I decided it would be a great time to brush out some of the winter coats of all three hounds. I start with a hound mitt and finish getting the rest of the undercoat with the normal small steel brush. By the time I finished setting up the operation Stella decided to move first in line and took over my area. Brushing her makes her fall a sleep.

Heidi likes the mention of three things, a bath, toenail clippers and getting brushed.

All of the rain scheduled for Saturday afternoon kept pushing out 8 hours ahead. With no rain after midnight Saturday night they were ready to add some fertilizer on Sunday afternoon. With a spreader that wide it did not take long for him to cover the field ... that is until he ran out.

Yet, with modern technology of a cell phone, he could get replenished right where he was without going anywhere. This is the first time I have seen a truck with this arrangement of liquid supplements for a delivery service. He backed next to the tractor to fill it up.

Every morning walk starts with Stella staying behind to eat some fresh wet tall grass. I don't have to call her to catch up with us. The past few weeks she has decided that is what she wants to do on her own.

It usually happens on Fridays but yesterday morning the sky will full of contrails. These were taken around 9am. Military or commercial aircraft ?

Hound walks No.2 and No.3 of the day always has Stella walking at a very slow pace. Most of the way she will not get off our path.

As you can tell the field right behind the house, has the tallest grass in the field. Two reasons for that, bloodhound natural fertilizer all winter and 7 acres of underground water that migrates to this area of the field. With great weather recently it is strange that I have not seen nor heard any ATVs in the field.

This gives you some idea how nice the weather has been everyday.

With the nighttime temps dropping into the low 50s every night, we start our walks in a field that is so wet with morning dew you would think it had been raining all night. My North Face snow boots keep my feet dry and warm. My hiking boots become so saturated on one of the walks from the heavy dew that I had to put them back on the shelf until July. My feet were soaked before we barely started the walk on Saturday.

The other day I thought it was a scampering rabbit that led Sadie into the woods on a sprint and down over the edge toward the gully. This morning I found out it was not a rabbit but a sparrow launching from ground level. She was sure she had found their nest and was very interested in heading back into the woods as I kept telling her 'no'.

It's hard to see with the camera but along this edge of the woods there is a narrow single path of worn grass that goes all the way to the first turn on the walk. Stella has been following that path of scent every morning. How many deer walk through there on that path while the hounds and I are inside for the night?

Not even a 1/4 of the way into the walk and my boots are soaked to the top of them.

Lately Stella has been taking a shortcut on the walk. Luckily instead of wandering over to the woods behind the neighbors or even the next house over, she will gradually angle toward our return path to meet Sadie and I on the way back.

By the time we finish walking the back edge of the field, turning for home ... she meets us in the middle of the field.

Sadie pays no attention to anything or anybody on her walks most of the time. Her nose is too powerful to let her get distracted.

Stella might try to walk further north across the path as if I do not see her but once Sadie gets near, she knows that we are on our way home and will wait for us.

As usual the morning walk ends with two noses checking out that scent that walks into the backyard, following the tree line.

I admit even in this great weather my to do list has barely been touched. Maybe I am waiting for the extreme hot weather, where it's too hot to be outside after 10am, I don't know. Besides the three hound walks per day, all of us (Heidi included) spend a lot of time just sitting outside without the camera enjoying the sunshine. The Z4 is being driven more than the FJ in this weather and there enough different roads we can drive where each daily drive is not the same. The Z4 runs smooth and quiet as if it were a new engine.

I am still using DuckDuckGo for my default search engine and have not moved from Apple's browser  Safari. I'll use about 8% more data per month without Google Chrome but I know that Safari does less data harvesting. The only junk email I am getting now with those changes are from me signing up on the Bob Vila site for a free washer and dryer. I have a 'junk' email address I use for times like that so I can see just how much junk mail I have generated by signing up for something.

Well it's time for a morning drive and I can get back just in time to hear Heidi (barking) and Stella (howling) telling me it's time for their lunch.

Fantastic weather lately in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.