Stella Sets A New Boundary

Bloodhounds are so much different than Basset Hounds. They are not as laidback as Basset Hounds and every day to them is a vacation full of potential excitement.

They are somewhere between a child experiencing their "terrible two's" or one starting their teens.

There is never a dull moment when you own a bloodhound, let alone two of them.


With a beautiful warm morning, Sadie wanted her walk before I had made coffee. She wasn't giving up and stood their in that stare for over five minutes.

When neither one would come back to the house when I called their names, I went back inside and poured my daily ration of coffee grounds into the filter, poured just the right amount of water to make two large cups of coffee and flipped the lid down for it to start dripping into the decanter.

I took a warm wash cloth and cleaned Heidi's face and eyes. I even opened my Activity Monitor on my computer since it tracks data usage live, all before I went back outside. I figured during the elapsed time both bloodhound had probably wondered off in the field or the woods by the neighbors house.

I was shocked when I walk out around the corner of the carport ... they were both slowly walking back to the house, almost at the yard exploring every inch of ground.

An hour later we were taking our first walk of the day. There are two things that Sadie will chase at a full speed sprint ... falling leaves and birds that are on the ground. If you look closely on the upper left side of the picture you can see the bird that is going to give Sadie some great aerobic exercise.

Once she decided the bird was gone and out of 'her' field it was time to circle back and check the area of the crime, then meet me to let me know it was time to start the walk.

Stella moved out in front of us so it was looking like this was going to be the perfect early Sunday morning walk in beautiful weather. Little did I know at the time that a little later Stella would be setting a new record for any hound walk taken in the past 19 years.

Sadie was still focused on the bird that got away. It had to be here somewhere and she was going to find it.

Stella was getting in her extra protein for breakfast but came trotting any time I called her. I walked over once to look and hopefully see what she was eating but all I found were leaves soaked with bloodhound drool.

As we turn the corner we are walking at a good pace and I decided that if the hounds headed to the far right corner I would stand on the path along the back edge of the field and give them all the time they wanted to explore.

I didn't know just how quickly those plans would change.

Things are looking normal and good at this point of the walk. They are walking away from the heavy deer traffic area and following the edge of the wooded area that will bring them back to the field along the path we walk.

I continued to walk a little further up the path, where I was going to take some pictures of all the field and some of the corn field behind us.

When Sadie ran up beside me panting and then looking back to where Stella was I knew something must be wrong. She seemed agitated.

When I turned around there was no sign of Stella. I've seen this before, even in this direction so it wasn't a big deal ... except Sadie was not acting normal. She took off running in that direction. It was like she came to get me to show me something.

As I ran toward that wooded area I am now concerned because Stella is not on the left side where you see the green bushes, where she normally is hidden. She is not responding to me yelling her name. I don't see her anywhere ... I start to feel a little panic.

I stepped over that fallen tree limb you see in the picture below. I walked to the tree just to the left of center and found out just past that tree is a very steep slope ... no sign of Stella.

But wait !!!!  Just barely I see the tip of a red bloodhound tail, wagging in the air and it is moving away from me faster than I can move through the area. She is down heading down this steep slope into a thick wooded gully.

I try to take a picture of what I see of her, for me and this blog post ... but the camera isn't locking into an auto focus and at the rate Stella is moving away from me I don't take the chance of trying to get a picture ... because I am running down this slope yelling her name. She is taking off, locked into to something.

It was new territory for me. I had never been in this part of the woods. Sadie stood back in the field and I assume was watching all of this. She did not move into the wooded area.

I was finally able to catch up with Stella and grabbed her collar. Otherwise she was not going to turn around even with me that close. Whatever she had locked into with her nose, she was not going to stop until she found it.

After I walked her up the slope and back into the field, she and Sadie went running down our normal path along the back of the field as if nothing had happened.

She looks at the camera as if to say "what's the big deal?"

With my pulse rate up over my threshold from running down that slope, I had a pretty good idea that my hands would be moving enough that sharp clear pictures the rest of the way home probably was not going to happen.

I did not have the leash with me today but once Stella knew we were heading home she and Sadie trotted along the path in front of me.

Does this mean it's officially Spring? Does the groundhog in Pa have any influence on determining when Spring will arrive in the Midwest? I think the dandelion is a sign that Spring is close to being here.

It's going to get up to 64° today. The hounds and I will take at least one more walk, possibly two. I'll take the leash this time because it looks like I could use it, unless Stella decides to do something entirely different. You never know whats up ahead with these two partners in crime.

She is a great bloodhound, with a funny personality and I admit she continues to give me "a run for my money" ...

They are both begging to be fed lunch right now, so I have to go.

It's a beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Stella's Out Of Bounds

As we stepped outside in freezing air this morning it was nice to remember this would be the last day of cold weather for a few weeks if not longer.

We took the morning walk between my two cups of coffee. I had all of my internet reading done faster than normal, staying away from any news websites. Of course after Sadie and Stella came back inside from the trip they make after they eat breakfast ... Sadie sat in the doorway giving me the stare that she wanted the walk right then. I had to have at least one cup of coffee before we could do that.

The grass was frozen and I could hear the crunching sound as I walked into the backyard. Slight winds out of the north which is opposite than the normal air flow. That didn't bother either hound this morning. Although I didn't sense the intense focus like they have had these past few days.

I had decided while putting my down parka on that I would let them have total freedom on the walk this morning. I was going to walk my pace, take some pictures and hopefully both of them would be close to me as I returned homed.

I could tell soon after starting the walk that this would be a morning where Stella was in her own little world. Nothing needed to be said because any words from me would be ignored. I kept walking ... it was colder than I had planned for. The coat and gloves were great but the jeans were not keeping the cold air out too well.

As I was about the make the first turn of the walk Stella confirmed she wasn't interested in walking today. It was going to be a morning of protein supplement in the natural way. I didn't want to think about it. Besides, the air from the north was freezing ... wasn't it just a week or so ago I was out in cargo shorts and a t-shirt?

After downloading the pictures from the camera this morning into my Apple Photo program on my iMac ... I wasn't really happy with any of them. Even after editing a little, the colors were pale, nothing stood out from the hounds being active ... all of them seemed dull to me.

Yet, the sky was blue, sunshine and a slight breeze ... it's a nice day without the pictures.

Sadie decided it would be a good time to get some running in. I wasn't to the back of the field yet but close. She sprinted all the way to me, hitting me in the knee with her nose ... letting me know she was there. That is good exercise for her.

There was no sign of Stella anywhere. My eyes scanned the field toward the wooded area behind the neighbors house and she wasn't seen. Although it might look like the field is flat, there is some slight inclines. This morning I found out just how steep some of those inclines are.

I asked Sadie "where's Stella?" ... little did I know at the time she was looking in the right direction but in an area that is way out of bounds for all the hounds.

Finally 'out of the ground' pops Stella. She had walked much farther past the wooded area and was in an area that is definitely out of bounds. The only time she had been this far north was chasing deer and chasing the surprised dog that was walking with my neighbors in the wooded area behind my house last Christmas.

I had no doubt she was scarfing down something as fast as she could before I could get to her. She didn't move and was eating as fast as possible. The closer I got to her, the more leash I was pulling out of my pocket.

It looks like she has a mouthful of something.

She wanted to show you she could still scratch with a leash on.

After walking a few feet, I took the leash off of her and let her slowly walk back to the house. Sadie couldn't figure out what the problem was, but there was still something interesting in the other direction.

I'm not sure what's up for today. I have nothing to do outside but have the urge to go somewhere. At the same time I am not sure I want to fight the traffic. Friday traffic always seems to be a little worse that during the week.

The Mini Countryman is still working out well and I am pleased with the change in vehicles. It is still running at 31mpg for all types of driving. There are times I do wish I still had the Toyota FJ but when you drive as few miles as I do in a year's time, it really doesn't matter what vehicle I have.

I am happy to be back blogging on Wordpress. I found out what may be the problem with my blog traffic although it is a new blog and it takes a few weeks for the search engines to index it. The keyword of 'bloodhound' in the search on Wordpress lists all kinds of blogs for everything that had the word 'bloodhound' in it ... but none of them are about dogs.

Basset Hound blogs seemed to be more popular but a lot of them started and then stopped blogging. From all the 'pros and cons' I read about yesterday, comparing which platform to use ... Blogger or Wordpress ... for what I am doing on this blog I can just stay here.

It was fun playing around yesterday looking at different templates. They call them 'themes' on Wordpress, and so many more to chose from.

After being up for 2-1/2 hours, Sadie has decided this is the day she is going to bug me, bother me, beg for stuff ... she seems restless this morning ... I don't ever remember basset hounds being as driven for attention as bloodhounds are, but that might be because I have two bloodhounds.

I might blog later but right now things are pretty quiet here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

A Slow Monday

Not a lot took place today. I did more reading about the different camera settings from the link posted earlier today. That took most of my time. Heidi had a some water vinegar applied and while Sadie, Stella and I went for a walk ... Heidi hung outside around the house while we were gone.

I tried different settings on this walk and I CAN tell a difference in the photos. The hounds are in focus and not the surrounding grass or bushes. Also when exporting them from my computer, I send them to a folder on my computer so Blogger can import them from that folder. Otherwise Blogger will not import from the Apple Photo program.

In that process on a drop down menu, I changed the photo quality from "high" to "maximum". I did not make any edits to the sharpness of the photos like I've had to do before. I might be getting close to the quality I remember before.

These hounds don't miss a smell. I'd like to see what kind of animal traffic this field gets at night or the predawn hours.

This is Sadie running for once. Usually all the running photos are from Stella but Sadie can run at a pretty good speed when she wants to.

Today I decided I was going to follow Stella up to the right corner and see what was so interesting to her. The past few days she will not leave this area. It didn't take long to see why she doesn't leave. You will have to look closely at the 2nd photo.

I told her to "come on" and she followed me and Sadie for the rest of the walk.

As we approached the backyard I could see Heidi was over in the side yard ... eating tall grass, where I had let it grow out a little bit on the bank. So that is all three hounds that enjoyed eating grass today.

Now ... back to more reading here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Nikkor 55-200 Lens Now Working

With rain predicted tonight, I heard the rumbling sound of farm equipment and assumed the field across the highway was being plowed. It was the next field over, where they had plowed a few weeks ago. One tractor was spraying fertilizer with another following with a new round of disking.

It wasn't long before a 3rd tractor shows up with planters on the back. Of course my Nikon D3200 decided it didn't want to work again. It's been on the blink now for the year it's been back from repair. I don't think I'll be buying another Nikon in the future.

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It looks like a case of user error ... a long article but it's the answer to all my frustration with this camera ... dslr-autofocus-modes-explained.

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The hounds went out for an early scout of the yard. Neither was too enthused about starting the week, although Stella entered the field on the far corner again where the grass is not as high. She tried to sneak out along the edge of the brush line.

It was about this time while I was trying different things to get the Nikkor 55-200 lens to work. For the past several months when turned to the 55mm mark the lens would not retract flush like it should. I found a fix for that on the Nikon D3200 forum months ago. It said to turn the focus ring counter clockwise and the lens would retract to the correct position. When doing that I always felt resistance and hear a slight plastic clicking sound. I figured that was normal since it was being turned counter clockwise. Today when I tried that on the 55-200, it was smooth as butter. There wasn't any kind of resistance nor sound.

When I tried taking photos with the 200mm zoom, the lens auto-focused with the lens moving in and out very smooth without any kind of sounds. Was that my problem with focus in the past? I had not been able to take a zoomed photo higher than the 135mm setting on the camera for quite a while.

With it working I started taking photos from different lengths of zoom. I saw where the birds tried building a new nest in a different part of the carport last night. The problem with this area, that ledge they were trying to build on is only 1/2" wide and not enough surface to hold a nest.

In the meantime as I was trying to get photos of the farming across the highway, Stella decided she would quietly sneak away. I am going to have to start watching her and calling her back before she gets into the wooded area. She has been creeping past her boundary lately.

Sadie decided she would hang back and try to talk me into the first walk of the day but it's way too wet for that right now. It might take a few more hours for the field to dry out from the heavy dew.

Stella starts her escape.

I was only able to get this one photo of the farming going on this morning with a 55mm setting, then I cropped it. When I turned around I couldn't see Stella so I yelled her name pretty loud for her to get back to the yard.

She wasn't happy being caught but did start her slow trek back to the house.

With the camera battery low, I stopped attempting to take more photos, happy that the lens was now working again. I still don't know if it's my eyes but the photos don't look nearly as sharp to me as they did when I first got the camera.

One difference is when I first bought the camera I was shooting NEF Raw quality then but changed that this past year to JPEG Fine due to the large file size of the raw images. With limited data per month I could not afford to upload as many photos to the blog as I do with each photo being 6-7Mb's in size with the raw quality setting, unless I did my blog posts after midnight. Between midnight and 5am I get unlimited data that is not counted as part of my monthly usage.

I've been going over the camera owners manual over and over, reading the Nikon forums in trying to solve the different issues I've had with this camera. Years ago I used a Cannon Manual camera and various lenses without any trouble.

Heidi is headed for a bath after this and a fresh application of the water, vinegar mix. This morning is the typical "two steps forward and one step back" in the process. I'll let you guess which direction she is going this morning.

I'll try to add some more photos to this post after the battery is charged up.

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Here are some photos taken after the battery charged up. The lens is still moving smoothly and retracting to the correct position. It will be interesting to see how long it works.

Sadie and Stella take in a meal of grass chewing. Looking back on the blog a year ago and I see that the field this year is much taller than last. I had not got Stella yet and Sadie was still being tethered while she roamed the field.

Heidi's skin looked almost the same as this year and Winston spent a lot of time just laying in the yard.

Overcast skies and another day of cool temps here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.