Rain & Organization

We were up early as usual but it wasn't because of thunder or lightning it was just normal routine. Stella starts whining right before sunrise, at least that is the sound I wake up to. That wakes up Walter who sleeps next to Stella on the floor on the side of the bed. Once Walter wakes up he trots over to Heidi's bed and pushes his flat nose up against hers, so she is now awake. They all know that breakfast kibble will be served within minutes of reaching the kitchen. Once they noticed the sky full of rolling storm clouds they were not sure they would make their trip out to the yard right after breakfast. I've been waiting for rain, those weeds will be easier to pull out of the ground now instead of using chemicals to kill them.

High humidity is not normal around here most of the time but I could feel the thick air. One weather app said it was a 81% and the other 72%. No matter which was correct, it was muggy. I could tell that any outdoor activity wouldn't last long so I had time to do what I have been wanting to do for quite a while. Take stacks of paperwork off my desk, sort and file or shred. Last year before moving I cleaned out my files filling THREE 32gal trashcans and taking them to the recycling center. So my files now are only one plastic container and are also scanned digitally.

Still I spent all morning on the computer while the hounds slept next to my desk. So the organizing didn't start until a little after 1pm. The rain poured straight down with little wind so I could keep all the windows open as the temperature dropped to 66°. After it stopped the winds picked up from the south and really cooled things off. I think we might make up the deficit we had for annual rainfall at this time of year.

There have always been great sky shows and all three of my DSLR's were sitting on the counter waiting for action. I didn't see a lot of flooding today so the ground is still absorbing all that is catches.

That rain you see is probably between 6-8 miles away.

Walter had his first chance at "problem solving" this morning. He is housebroken and goes outside after each meal. This morning the winds were strong and it felt like rain was within minutes away. Could he go out in the yard, do what he needed to do before it starts to rain??? That was his question of the day. No photos to prove it, but he decided he had to go no matter what ... so he trotted out in the yard and made it back inside just as the first drops were hitting the patio.

Of course the best view of the rain where you can still stay dry is looking out the living room window. With the window open and a screen that Stella had not tried to climb through, they could get a good accurate smell of the rain hitting the yard of rocks.

I think the loud clap of thunder startled him a little bit.  LOL

By mid-afternoon the skies were trying to turn blue and clear but was having a pretty rough time of it.

There really are times that Walter is actually chewing one of his toys instead of Stella's ears, jowls or legs. She never cared about chewing toys the past few years until he showed up. Now she wants every toy that he has.

By 4pm when I sat down to check out the first official baseball game of the year on ESPN, Walter let me know he had not been getting enough attention today. He spent about a minute telling me all about it with his growling and half barking.

I didn't feel like cooking dinner last night and when that happens most likely I'll call for pizza delivery. At least I have ordered smaller pizzas now than past years. That's a medium from Papa John's.

For the first time I tried their Jalapeno Poppers ... very good and well worth the $4 order. That had just the right amount of "hot" ... they didn't drive you to your knees, blind you or make you sweat under your eyes, but they did have a nice 'bite' to them. Highly recommended.

I didn't watch much of the baseball game and ended up flipping through channels ... and of course nothing interests me. I'll post this then head back to the couch to restart reading Going Back To Bisbee. I have added a few more blogs to the list on the sidebar for you to check out. I have been told by a few past readers they won't read until I go back to WordPress ... not going to happen. LOL

It's wet and not wild, here in the "Wild West" tonight.

I Clicked The Wrong Button On Monday

We woke up to cold temps (low 40s) and windy today but that is not what caused the strange blog post to show up when you tried reading it last night. Monday night I loaded the photos I was going to use for my next post, enlarged them like I always do before typing my text. Only I did not have time to put a post together so I was just going to save it and "close" it ... by habit I hit "save" and then the "publish" button ... thus the blog showing up on other's sidebar and nothing was there when you opened it because as soon as I did that I went back and deleted the post that was nothing but photos.

It was a restless night last night, up and outside many times because Heidi is having some upset stomach issues. She still rolls on her back every morning and growls at herself, trots to the kitchen when food is served and begs for my food like always, so I know she is okay. It does make for a sleepless night though hearing her walk past my bed and then trying to get to the patio door before she does. My new hip is getting a good workout during the night.

To backtrack a little, Sunday I took a few photos, not many. I put the 70-300 lens on the Nikon and made it a "day of zoom". Here are a few of those photos.

Yes even the hound photos were zoomed in.

After my big day on Saturday of riding my longest ride on the bike and then taking a 2.2 mile hike with some climbing after lunch, I knew by Saturday night I had done too much. I wasn't sore but I was really tired. The hounds picked up on that I guess so Sunday they were not interested in any walks. They spent most of the day Sunday just hanging out with me as we took a day off.

Stella did some deep thinking trying to figure out why she tore the blinds down again. I'm not sure she came up with any answers. Luckily I have found out from the company that installed them, their promise is true ... free replacement and labor for ONE TIME ONLY!!!

It just just a few years ago when I went "cold turkey" and quit buying and drinking 2 liter of Pepsi and would drink that during the day of watching football games. This drink doesn't taste as good but is much better for me ... pure filtered ice water. I think over the past couple of years it has been a factor for keeping my weight off.

Monday morning I felt much better and I knew as soon as the cup of coffee was gone I was going to take my longest ride on my bike and in fact I was going to ride my road bike back on the roads that I use to ride. A description of that ride is on my blog sidebar or you can click here if interested. It was my initial goal the first afternoon I came home using a walker to get around the house. Back on September 9th when I was released from the hospital the surgeon told me to "walk as much as possible and I'll see you in two weeks."

Riding a bike seemed like a dream instead of something possible. I worked up gradually to riding 15 miles out on the road towards Ramsey Canyon and riding for 1 hour 30 minutes. This morning I feel good enough that I could ride the same course ... but its windy and 48° so far this morning so I'll hold off for a while and see what the day brings.

At least with Heidi's digestive issues, she is able to make it outside and I have noticed she has the same route all the time. Walk toward the west corner of the fence, make a left and follow the fence line to the other side of the yard and then hunt for the perfect spot. It doesn't matter if it is 4:00pm or 1:15am ... same thing. She is never in a hurry either.

I might have mentioned the neighbors have a new 8 week old black lab puppy, pure bred with papers.  Evidently they changed from their plans of crate training it to just putting it in the backyard and shutting their patio door, leaving it alone for hours at a time. Consequently Stella is hearing new sounds from morning to night. If I knew that I would not hurt myself, I would climb my 5' concrete block fence and bring the puppy over to my yard or house. Last night it set a record of an hour or more straight of howling, barking and crying in the dark ... no one was home.

I could tell the way the day was moving along on Monday afternoon, the skies that is ... that a storm was brewing somewhere. Probably not here but somewhere. As we moved into the early evening friends from the Midwest were sending me screenshots of their weather and photos of their backyards ... they were getting a full blown winter snow storm. Asking what was going on???? This morning I see they are somewhere between 9°-11° depending on if they live in Chicago or in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

So 48° and windy doesn't seem to bad after all.

Before I decided to buy this house I asked myself a few questions to make sure I was making the right decision. These were two of them.  (1) If they were to develop the land all the way up to your fence with houses and yards would you still want to live there? -- YES.  (2) Are you willing to use poop bags and pick up after the hounds after ever meal and take them on all hound walks just in case? -- YES. Lets say they have not developed the land behind but I have become very use to you know what.  :)

I originally bought some bags at Pet Smart with the small container to put the rolls of bags into and hook it to a belt that I never wear. So the nice container that came with it was never used, with the bag just in my pocket. That supply ran out so I decided to be cost effective and buy the next batch at Walmart which had more bags in the pack and less cost. Once those ran out I came up with another plan.

For a few dollars more I could buy a box of 1,000 !!! bags and have Amazon prime delivery them in two days. They have been sitting in the pantry until the Walmart supply ran out and as you see that happened just a few days ago.

During this transitional period of adjusting from never having to be close to "it" with Stella using the field behind the house at all times (taught to her by Sadie), Heidi's were only as near as the length of the pooper scooper handle ... something I forgot to pack. These work out great though and I have passed the boundary of being bothered by what I am picking up with my hand wrapped inside the bag for protection. I now notice I get a little pissed on our walks where I see that other dog owners are not as dedicated for a clean pathway.

Heidi has made the adjustment from green grass to small stone and Stella from tall hay to small stone or waits for the walk.

My hip keeps getting stronger by the day just like the doctor told me it would during our last appointment on October 22nd. That one exercise he told me to do hurt at first but now makes my hip even stronger as well as making my balance better when using the right leg as a pivot point or pushing off point. I see him again on November 20th. By that time I will have ridden my bike over 200 miles since the last appointment.

With it cooler and windy I will not get outside on the bike but that doesn't mean I can't grab a camera and go hike somewhere new today. The high will be 63° and that is good enough to get outside. I just know no matter how good I feel I can't do a bike ride and then a hike later in the day ... it's either one or the other. It is hard not to follow that plan.

Sorry for the confusion Monday night with the blog post not showing up. Habits are hard to break sometimes but 'old dogs can learn new tricks' just as the new pooper picker upper.  LOL

The skies are changing fast this morning in the 'Wild West'.

Hounds & New Furniture

I knew after yesterday's 61 photo post and a tour of some sort outside of the yard or house, putting something together today was going to be tough. It would probably be more verbal than photogenic and hardly any excitement. Yet, like the morning skies showed me this morning, not every day if full of sunshine at 5:30am and not every day will be exciting. Still there were going to be some situations today where the results might be surprising.

As Stella and I prepared for our morning walk, the skies were not the only thing that was different today. A new development happened on the 1st of August that put a slight dent in the daily routine. I could no longer have that cup of coffee before we took a walk unless I go back to getting up in the dark. Why would I want to get up before sunrise? So we had to make a slight change to our schedule. It's also tough to do.

Around 6:16am this large yellow school bus backs into the cul-de-sac at the entry of the neighborhood and waits for all the kids to walk down the street to get on this bus. I am not sure if it is for elementary or jr. high because there is a second bus that does that same thing about an hour later. Kids do get on both buses. With that 6:15am time frame, Stella and I have to be back inside the house or our daily walk will get really complicated. A cup of coffee before the walk will put us past that mark.

So after the walk I was able to sit and watch the clouds change formations as I had my two cups of coffee. The temps had barely hit 70° and the breeze was cool from the SE. I had not made up my mind up yet whether to do any bike riding today, plus Stella wanted to make a full inspection of the fence line after last nights heavy rain.

It was then I remembered I was going to have furniture delivered today.  The last pieces to the furniture I bought one day after I arrived, on June 14. It took all of this time to get a couch and loveseat delivered along with two extra kitchen chairs. I was only joking with the furniture store manager a few weeks ago when I called to see if they had forgot my remaining order, when I asked "what do they have to do ... make it?" ... he replied "as a matter a fact they do." He was serious.

While Stella enjoyed the cool temps I realized I had a 4-hour window to wait around for them to show up. I spent most of my morning while I waited for them, editing all the posts that I had transferred from the WordPress blog. I didn't get all of them done but I did about 3 hours worth.

After I walked back outside with my second cup of coffee, Stella decided she needed to be closer to my chair. The one that is comfortable but doesn't match anything. Yes, probably a little anxiety is still left with the move. I have a few posts worth of stores on that period of time. She did freak out a few times, that you will read about later.

She lifted her head from her sleeping position when she heard the beeping and the diesel engine down the street. She doesn't know it's the morning school bus backing in. She also thought if she looked around the yard it would give her the answer she was looking for. Plus the next door neighbor might be tossing her some morning bbq chicken since he did that the last two Sunday nights, after asking me if it was okay.

It was lunch time and no one had shown up with the furniture which didn't matter to the hounds because at 11am local time they like to be fed their lunch. Just like in 'the tropics' Stella also likes to take a nap in the hot sunshine right after her lunch.

The furniture truck pulled up in front of the house while the hounds were enjoying the sunshine out back. So it was simple to keep them in the yard until everything was set inside and the paperwork was signed for proof of receipt. It was sunny today but the low 80's and with my early morning routine of leaving the windows open filling the house with cool air ... I had not turn on the AC yet.

So now for the real test.

Long time readers will know from photos that all of the hounds all the way back to 1997, at least in Indiana, had free reign of the house and could sit or sleep anywhere. I had leather couches and chairs then but not now. Stella's drool could kill a brand new couch's upholstery so I hope to train her to stay off of the furniture. Heidi will be a little bit harder to control because she has total freedom in the house when I am gone. She has never destroyed a thing while being left in the house. So it's very likely I'll come home sometime and she will be on the new couch or loveseat UNLESS I buy a new baby gate to block her from the living room. (It's another Stella story explaining WHY I need to buy another baby gate).

So as I sat on my new couch reading Chinle's book The Cessna Cafe, I watched both hounds to see if they even attempted to get up on the new furniture. Heidi didn't go near it and ended up on her favorite blanket in the same corner as it was before the furniture arrived. Stella did the full inspection with her nose, looked at me for a few seconds and then laid down right in front of it for a short nap.

Yes ... I could buy a new sheepskin type blanket to put on the couch so they can lay on the couch but that doesn't mean that bloodhound drool would stay WITHIN that blanket and if it didn't, it's hard to get "gorilla glue" off anything, any material, once it dries and will stain if it is wet.

So that's it. The house feels a little more like a house now that I have some furniture in the living room. Just one small chair with a coffee table and end tables didn't do much for household decor for the past two months. I did leave room in back of the loveseat for Heidi's blanket to sleep on and for Stella to have enough room to stand and look out the window. They love doing both of those things.

I will not take the time to set up my tripod, manually focus my camera in hopes of catching a lightning strike ... but I did catch this on the other night with my iPhone ... barely. That bit of orange was like a huge ball of fire when I clicked the shutter button ... I didn't know that I even caught that until I downloaded the photos.

It's that time of year where it's going to rain for a short period of time every afternoon or early evening. Maybe not here where I live but other parts of town and within the view of my eyes. I have a group I follow on Facebook from the local county where people can post their photos from snakes, spiders, flowers, rain, monsoons, lightning or food. Plus I can see it raining sometimes off in the distance, just not where my house is.

As I edited photos this morning from blog posts from May back to December 2018, I saw a lot of rain, a lot of ice and snow in those photos and I glanced and saw things like -7° or 10° and knew that Stella and I would not have to walk through that any longer. Nor would Heidi have to be curled up in her sleeping bag to keep warm, even with the heat on inside the house. The more blog posts I saw the more I confirmed to myself why I moved.

I got an email today that said my blog had made a "huge turn into a new world - one of exploring the West." She hoped I would continue to get out and about like that ... That is definitely my plan. As the temps cool down I plan to add hiking to my daily activities where I can take my camera and in some cases can see how the hounds do in that setting.

There is going to be a lot more stuff to blog about out here as a few readers already know because they have during their RV travels. The Western states are so much more easier to write about than east of the Mississippi River. Also while editing my blog posts I saw what I already knew ... boring boring boring ... the same walks, the same photos in the same parts of the hound walk, the same yard work stories and the same farm equipment photos.

I have made two trips where I took a lot of photos and I plan to turn them into two different blog posts in the very near future. Some that follow my Facebook account have seen them and know what I am talking about.

One last thing or two last things ... I have only 76 more posts to edit and publish from the Wordpress blog. I like having everything in one blog ... although I have to keep that Wordpress blog active otherwise I lose all the photos in those blog posts that I have transferred. Second thing is, as things have sorted out these past few days since I returned to blogging ... I will be posting most likely around 6pm-6:30pm Pacific Time instead of Eastern Time.

For those curious, the hounds have adjusted very well to this move. I'm sure that Heidi misses her green grass yard and her big leather chair but she has also found that warm patio is great to sleep on since it's in the shade and she prefers 6-7 different places in the house to sleep depending what time of day or night it is, so the chair isn't needed.

Stella still puts her nose to the ground every walk but is really more curious why all of those different birds talk to her. She has also figured out it feels good to run or trot on the sidewalks or in the middle of the streets since we are always walking when the sun comes up. (very little if any traffic) She gets the same distance if not a little more and by the time we are back home all she wants is some water and a nap.

Stay tuned for more stories and photos from the 'wild west'.

The Hounds Enjoy Their Weekend

First of all I hope all the blog readers that experienced tornado weather yesterday that moved through the south made out okay without any kind of damage. We had nothing like that yesterday but woke up this morning to signs of heavy rain last night while we slept. These first few pictures are from an exciting Saturday ... as you will see the hounds didn't do anything different from any other day.

Stella and I had a good Saturday morning walk. I planned on posting just one blog post Saturday later in the day, thinking I would get some activity from Heidi. That did not prove to be a correct assumption. She didn't do much, didn't want to do much and following her lead ... Stella and I ended up not doing too much on Saturday either, with great weather outside.

With a weather forecast of rain most of next week I was going to mow the yard while it was dry. In some spots the grass was tall enough to mow but I knew if I waited another two to three days after the rains, then it would be too tall to mow with a lot of excess grass lying around. After seeing some water standing in the field this morning and my neighbor's culvert I was happy I mowed yesterday.

Like I said, Heidi didn't do much yesterday. Did that short burst of sprinting and getting airborne on Friday afternoon take that much out of her? She spent a little time outside after her lunch but wasn't interested in anything else besides sleeping the rest of the day. She had to get ready to watch the Reds game at 7pm. I decided to spend the day reading books.

Stella felt the same way. Took a look around, then turned to head back inside. She was in her afternoon siesta mode within minutes of stepping inside the house.

I never heard rain last night while I slept. I did close all the windows though because the temps were going to drop to the low 40's during the night. This is always a sign that it has rained a lot. The water comes from under the edge of the shed wall, yet when I sit a level on that carport floor ... it is level.

Even if the standing water is small in this part of the field I know by that, the path in back will be saturated under the leaves and there will be spots of standing water on the path the further we get into the field at a higher elevation.

What a shock I had when I stepped around the car this morning. I had forgot to put all the stuff back in the shed after I mowed the yard yesterday. That just shows that we did not get back outside much yesterday afternoon and I evidently did nonstop book reading right up until the time the Reds game started. Only the mower was rained on.

I was also a little surprised that Stella was going to go on the walk this morning. I took a step onto the path and had water coming up the sides of my boots, over the edge of the soles of the boots. With more rain on the way, about 40 miles west of us, we didn't have much time to get this walk in this morning.

Stella didn't take long to decide the path was too wet and she moved off to the side as we started. The field grass is growing fast, faster than my yard is.

If the path was fairly dry she walked on it. Once it became to saturated with the rain water, she moved off the path just like always. She is smarter than the AKC thinks she is.  :)

We are nearing the back of the field, about 40' higher in elevation based on facts from my Apple Watch, and there is standing water on the path. That is not out of the ordinary.

I made some minor adjustments today in my clothing. With it being 44° at 10am I went from summer clothes back to wool socks and a thermal long sleeve undershirt. I am a wimp the older I get when it comes to cold weather. It did snow lightly the first week of April last year so in comparison this weather is not bad.

Stella didn't investigate a lot of scent nor did she eat deer scat this morning. She acted as if she wanted to get this walk over as soon as possible. Walking at a pretty steady pace we knocked off 3 minutes from our total time for the walk.

You might notice her collar has a slightly different tint of red. (faded) The other bright red collar I tried the other day was just too small for her. Late last night I opened the closet door in the kitchen where I have all the older hound collars hanging along with my three 6' leashes. I found a collar that was a little longer. I moved her current rabies tag to this collar and slide it over her head this morning.

She whines when I take the collar off of her as if she likes wearing one. So she was pretty happy this morning to have a different collar to wear. Heidi does not wear a collar until she makes a trip to the vet. Sadie and Winston didn't either

Most of the day is going to look just like this. With more books to read and the Reds starting at 2:30pm today, it can rain all it wants to outside.

I've gained all the weight back I had lost a few weeks ago. At least I know the reason for that and my spreadsheet confirmed what I thought the reason was. One is eating 500 more calories per day, bumping it up from 1500 to 2000 range. Along with that is an increase in carbohydrates. Like I have said before, carbs and I do not get along, with added weight and slight indigestion when eating food that is called healthy.

I do best somewhere between Keto Diet and a Paleo Diet compared to a meatless diet or one with a lot of grains and fruit.

I thought we might take the older path home but at the "Y" Stella kept walking our newer path we started a few years ago. It's the one we take the majority of time and ends up putting her in the northern part of the backyard.

She got an early start of cleaning her legs up and didn't wait to get in the house to start her daily routine after a walk through the wet field. She will lick to dry her legs and all of her paws dry. I have not mowed the north side year nor this north section of the backyard yet.

She was about as close as she could get next to the house. Closer than she normally does and I can only assume it's because of how wet the walk was. I still have not decided what to do about the area where the river rock is. Mulch or grass?

With temps in the 40's, a cool breeze and no changes predicted for the day, you can expect Heidi to do this most of the day. She does demand the sleeping bag though, even when she moves to the couch. I know that when she is staring at me shivering she is wanting me to bring the sleeping bag to her on the couch.

I heard about Trump's new idea for placing the illegal immigrants in the US ... giving them a bus ride to the sanctuary cities.  LOL ... isn't it interesting that those politicians that support sanctuary cities do not support that plan to accept them. I still say, the Democrats are 'giving' Trump a landslide win in 2020.

The NBA Playoffs have started I guess. I never watch the NBA and I can't even tell you who won the championship last year. For being a sports fan and a college basketball fan it is a little strange how I have no interest in professional basketball.

I found a Toyota FJ on AutoTrader last night that had everything I wanted in one but have not found that combination since I traded my first one in November 2017. It was silver instead of blue, it had the rock rails and the TRD package just like my first one had. The color and features are what I've wanted every since I traded that first one I had.

It is very tempting to make the drive to Northern Kentucky just south of Cincinnati to check it out ... but I won't. I remember why I traded my last Toyota FJ just last August. That lingering sharp pain in my hip joint every time I climbed into the seat. Plus I am on pace to drive less than 3,000 miles total for 2019 unless something drastic changes in my driving habits for the next 8 months. So what difference does it make what kind of car I drive, when I drive so few miles?

IF Heidi decides to shock me today and I can take some outdoor photos of her, I will and add those to my next post. That is highly doubtful but you never know with her. In fact this morning I woke up to her barking from the hallway ... that has never happened, ever. She sprinted to the door when I walked by her and then tip toed around the standing water in the carport to get just off the edge of it to pee. She has always been the perfect house dog.

All is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.