Stella Has Changed Routines

After Sadie was gone in September 2018 I always wondered if Stella wanted to walk in the field because she wanted to or because I wanted to. There were too many times I would have to practically beg her to join me on the morning and afternoon walks, causing me to wonder. She is always changing her routine but recently the change has been huge. This is her response 99.9% of the time when I ask her "you wanna go for a walk" and there's her answer.

Where she use to whine around 9am just months ago to take the walk through the wet field, only canceled by rain, anymore she is sound to sleep at 9am and will join Heidi in sleeping right up until lunch is served. With the hot afternoons I try to walk early evening but it doesn't matter to her. Here it is late morning and the response is the same. "I'm not going anywhere no matter how many times you say let's go"

With lunch served, if it's not raining she spends about an hour sunbathing. I can't help but think those warm stones make her hips feel better or her back.

Heidi enjoys her bed now being right next to the central air vent. With the temps in the 80's now, she will spend most of her afternoons here, next to the cold air. I have not caught her on camera but she still likes to go outside on her own every afternoon, do a little wandering and then lay under the sunshine if it isn't too hot. Otherwise ... right there on her dog bed.

I decided to watch Stella's walk one day. I was even prepared to follow her next door if that is where she wanted to go. I'd even go as far as two houses down if she wanted to check out the water temps for the neighbor's pool. So I stood and watched to see what she would do.

It turned out to be nothing more than the "new normal", her afternoon walk and only walk of the day for so long that I can't remember when it started to be this way.

Yes, the hay is that tall again, where you can barely see her tail. All the rain has been good for the hay growth but the fields across the highway are still not planted and it's raining again as I type this. About the time it dries out enough to get tractors and plows in the field, it rains.

While I was giving her the chance to go anywhere, she walked from the previous photo over to our return path and came home without a word of any kind coming from my mouth. She does that day after day and goes no further than she has to, to relieve herself.

She likes to shake off all the hay seeds and yellow pollen before she comes back inside.

And the "official" end of the walk by walking along the side of the house.

Sometimes her walks are not even what you have seen. They are not any longer than a quick search on the driveway and back to the house. A few times I attached the 25' retractable leash to her thinking that might lead her to the field ... she sits there and makes sure her 85 lbs are as low as possible so there is no way I can move her. Similar to a heavy rock you are trying to move.

Along with her changes to routine, I have seen and felt changes with me and blogging. I admit I love having the extra time to enjoy the day and I seem to get a lot more done around here without taking the time to put a blog together. I take daily photos but not nearly as many as I did in full blogging mode. Nothing official to announce but a post or some hound photos here and there are about all I can come up with.

Both hounds will be 10 years old this summer. Is that the reason for a slower pace summer this year? I think Heidi may be 10 years old since her age is really an estimate. When I picked her up 8 years ago from GABR they estimated she was around 1-1/2 years old but no way to tell. She shows no signs of older age except some graying on her nose and around her eyes.

Stella is so laid back in personality that there isn't a gray hair anywhere on her. I have noticed more crud around her eyes this summer than usual, from the pollen in the air. She still gets the hip/joint supplements 2x per day but there are times she looks like her hips are bothering her as she tries to lay down. No yelping of any kind but she takes it slow and easy to lay down.

Things are good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Battle Hotter Weather

As the temperatures get hotter every afternoon this week, our routine didn't change much. Fewer photos were taken and there was less interesting things to write about. I continue to be on the fence on deciding a few things. So here are a few photos from the last few days that I didn't blog.

Every day after her lunch Stella likes to take a 30 minute nap in the sun. Heidi sprints back inside as soon as she relieves herself and Sadie roams the field. While Stella wanders the field during the morning walks, Sadie will get her running in as the grass gets taller and taller all over the field.

Each time Sadie finds Stella over by the neighbors house. I've been letting her do what she wants since our last post here. I have been basically lazy and haven't done anything besides two walks per day, nibble food during the day only when I feel hungry, without fixing what you would call a meal. Then every night I watch Reds baseball on tv and while the hounds sleep.

With my food supply very low it was time to find some groceries and the perfect time to get serious about what kind of food I was going to start eating. I went back to logging all my food intake on Cronometer.com It will break each food down into the micro nutrients and track your protein, fat, carbs and calories plus all the vitamins and minerals. If you click on one of those topics, it will list from the highest to the lowest food in that category. I can see now why my weight was starting to creep upward while I ate less food before this recent change.

So far I am losing a pound per day after three days. Most likely that is just water weight. I can make it from breakfast to the time I go to bed without feeling hungry. Basically no grains, no pasta, no beans, a few nuts or seeds and dairy is allowed but not much because that kills your required low carbs count.

On the Friday morning walk I didn't see Stella anywhere on the horizon and she wasn't near the edge of the woods behind the neighbor's house. So I told Sadie "go find Stella" and she took off with her head in the air as high as she could get it.

She stopped once looking in all directions, then moved left toward the last place I saw Stella. About the time I started walking that direct she turned completely around and started running toward the neighbor's backyard.

Sure enough, there was Stella right next to the woods in their yard where they throw food scraps out for the field cat. Stella was scarfing down food as fast as she could. I couldn't take any photos of that because I was trying to get to her as fast as I could. That included jumping over their small drainage ditch that goes along the edge of the yard.

Sadie headed her back in the direction of the house ... the afternoon walk I had Stella on the retractable leash to keep her near us.

Late Thursday night I logged into my two week old Instagram account and deleted it. Then I logged into my Facebook account and deleted that. All in the name of downsizing my internet footprint and spending time on this blog and my private blog whenever I feel like writing.

I still have a Twitter account which I will keep. I use it as a reader mostly for all my sports teams. I do follow James Woods, the actor, because he comes up with some great stuff to remind people just what the truth is in this time of constant manipulated information.

For some reason the Z4 has not left the carport for the past three days. I had a big workout mowing the yard on Thursday afternoon late. It was hotter than I had planned on and 52 minutes later I finished and then stood in front of a fan to cool off as fast as possible. My highest pulse rate during that time was 82% of my max and for the past week my resting pulse rate has averaged 49. I think that shows  have a healthy heart. Now to get rid of some of this gut.

When I put some gas in my FJ the other day it was the highest prices I had paid but was still not higher than prices were in 2013 based on my checkbook register entry that I do on a spreadsheet. I have done that on a spreadsheet since 1997 when Lotus 1.2.3 was the spreadsheet to use.

I did think about starting a blog where I could rant yell and scream about anything that made me mad. Plus I would talk about life in general, ask questions I wonder about at times. I even talked it over with a friend of mine that is also thinking of downsizing his blog activity and social media.

The more I thought about what he said and what I felt, I decided I did not want to have a blog like that. I want my life as simple as possible, the fewest conflicts as possible and computer time online the least amount possible. That might change next winter when it's single digits outside.

I'll be prepared this winter though. That same friend I was talking to me, mailed me a full length Carhartt Coverall that fit me perfectly since I am two inches taller than he is. Last winter at times on the walks I found out that high quality ski underwear and jeans were not enough to stay warm during that half mile walk. The Carhartts should change that drastically.

Sunday will start with the daily hound walk, then back home in front of a tv by 9am for the F1 race at Monaco. After that I will flip over to ABC to watch the Indy500 at noon with the hounds being fed and out for a pre-race pee. I will not watch all of the preliminary pre-race stuff loaded with commercials.

I am thinking of stepping out on the 'thin ice' and expanding the "Other Stuff" part of the blog title and possibly bring some life to this boring blog where no topic will be left behind.

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana because I LOVE hot weather.

Not A Lot Of Hound Activity

I am not sure if it was the "muggy" feeling outside or the August average temperature that zapped the hounds this week ... they had less energy than I did. Heidi has all but disappeared for social life and being photographed. The bloodhounds and I have still been able to squeeze in a couple of walks per day. With college football only two weeks away, things are looking up here in 'the tropics'.

You can tell the distinct difference in personalities between Sadie and Stella with this picture. While Stella slowly strolls the majority of time during the walk, Sadie cannot get to all the new scent fast enough.

Today was going to be a day where both hounds had total freedom. Since it has been months since Stella has visited the drainage ditch next door, closer to the highway, I felt pretty good letting her go on her own. She didn't disappoint me ...

Yesterday I was curious enough to check back on our older blog for posts a year ago, to see what had changed in our activity if anything. Basically it was the same for this time of year (the dogs days of summer) with the field being a little taller last year at this time. My 'to do' list is still in a holding pattern with lack of motivation being the reason.

I took Stella's picture before Sadie and I continued the morning walk. She is not quite at the first turn of  our walk. Most of our afternoon walks are without a camera and Stella attached to the 25' retractable leash. It's too hot for me in the afternoons to stand around watching her eat deer scat because she is stubborn in the afternoons and will not leave.

Whether it be 2 or 3 walks for the day ... Sadie never changes. She loves the walks and loves investigating scent even more.

As I crested the small hill on our way back, I didn't see Stella anywhere on the horizon. My 200mm zoom lens scanned from the left to right. I knew once that I walked further I'd be able to see her in the lower elevation ... although the field looks flat from a distant view.

When I called her, she made the gradual turn toward me and slowly walked hidden through the taller weeds.

Sadie had run up the path looking for Stella in the normal places, like the spot we left her and then glanced over toward the neighbor's woods but she couldn't find Stella either by eye sight or her nose.

She creeps at times when she walks ... thinking she is hidden and I cannot see her.

I think you can tell by the pictures, it's going to be another beautiful day here. I've been spoiled this summer. Temps haven't been that bad, most of the rain forecasted missed us by going north or south of us. I have hard time imagining what bad weather is anymore.

If I didn't call the names of these two I don't think they would come back to the house for hours. I would not mind doing that but with the highway nearby and a nose strong enough to lead them astray ... that's not a good combination. I am lucky enough just to let them walk not leashed. Some bloodhound owners have told me they would never let their hounds off leash, even in a field such as this.

Sorry to say that Heidi has not been in any recent blog posts. She is not sick, feels great and will have a daily burst of energy inside where she barks at herself while rolling over on the carpet. Then it's back to the couch or the dog bed in the other room for more sleep.

She has figured out if she stretches out in the middle of the couch there is barely enough room on the ends for Stella or I to sit down. Eventually she will curl up giving us room later that night as I watch either baseball or football on tv.

I think Stella and I are going to take a short drive over to the vet this morning and get weighed. I am anxious to see how much weight she has gained since April when she had dropped to 65 pounds and was nothing but skin and bones.

How many readers have their NASA approved glasses to witness the eclipse on Monday?

The hounds will be staying inside the house during that short period of time. I am north of its path but still expect some darkness and cooler temps for a short period of time Monday afternoon. I am still curious of the State Patrol is correct in their traffic prediction on the highway that goes in front of the house.

Not much activity to write about lately here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Only iPhone 6s Photos This Morning

I have posted some photos on this blog when I first bought my iPhone 6s last year. I did an experiment before that and sold my iPhone 5s then went to the 'old fashion' flip phone, just for phone calls. It had other email, texting, smart phone features but I only wanted the flip phone for phone calls.

After 10 months I realized I missed some of the features of the iPhone and one of those was a good camera. I was not seeing the same quality with my old Nikon Cool Pix 3100. So I bought the iPhone 6s last year for the other missed features but to also have a new camera for inside shooting. Yet, I have rarely taken blog photos with it. This morning that changed.

I was reading Al's post over on the Bayfield Bunch last night about his first trip into a retail store that sold smart phones. You can read his story at the link above "Al's post" but basically he was wanting a smart phone for their camera feature. That lit a bulb in my brain where I asked myself why am I not using the iPhone camera for my blog photos? How does the quality compare to my Nikon D3200 DSLR camera?

So today you get to see what I found on our first walk of the day. After looking at my two choices in size of photos for the blog, the size I normally use is x-large but with the vertical iPhone photos that makes them almost too big. The large size made the photos look to small. So excuse me if the x-large photos are messed up on your phone or tablet.

I only adjusted a couple of the photos with one being cropped and two of them enhanced for color, depth etc. All the other photos are exactly as I downloaded them from the phone to my computer and then to the blog.

Besides it being another beautiful day here in 'the tropics', I found the colors to be better on the iPhone compared to my Nikon D3200. For me I have seen the photos I took when i first bought the Nikon D3200 in September 2014 to be much much better than the photos I take now. I am still searching for the reason for that.

The iPhone 6s camera also took sharper images than the Nikon D3200. I did not have to make any adjustments for the sharpness like I have to at times with the Nikon D3200.

With it being about 10° cooler today after 12 noon it was much nicer to walk today. While local towns were having severe thunderstorms within 25 miles of us last night, we only had hard rain for 15 minutes.

I see now that I should have changed the setting on my iPhone to take "square" pictures instead of the default "photo" setting. If not cropped a lot of these photos are too tall.

I found out today that Stella was the one that was sick in the middle of the night last night while I was sleeping. I found a wet roll of tall grass by the door, so she did try to go outside before she got sick. I didn't hear a thing.

I could have cropped these pictures to cut away some of the ground and sky out of them but as a test I wanted to see just what the iPhone would give me. I was shooting blind basically because with the bright sunshine I could not see what I was taking a picture of on my screen, unless I used my body to block out the sunshine.

This camera is a 12-megapixel, autofocus, optical image stabilization, true tone flash, panorama up to 63 megapixels, timer mode, burst mode, f/2.2 aperture, 5x digital zoom, IR filter, auto image stabilization, noise reduction, face detection and photo geotagging. It will also shoot video which I may have to try sometime once I figure out how to post a video on this blog.

Not only Al's blog post last night but also the new iPhone 7 tv advertisements led me to try the iPhone camera today. I'll not buy a new iPhone for quite a few years but the photo advertisements are pretty good for the iPhone 7.

There are a lot more features on this phone that I don't use. I don't mind learning the ones I don't know but basically I like only certain things on the iPhone or any smartphone and use those.

What do you think of the pictures so far?

I do know it was much easier to carry than the light Nikon D3200 but like I said, in the bright sunshine I could not see what I was taking a picture of.

I have my settings where these photos don't automatically go to the iCloud because I don't have enough memory and I refuse to pay for 'cloud storage'. They will automatically load into Google Photos instantly. I will load them into Flickr manually like I do the photos taken with the Nikon D3200.

My weather app that comes with the iPhone shows this kind of weather for the next 10 days with two to three days of possible light showers. We know those rain days are always flexible and may not happen.

Stella may wander on her own while Sadie and I walk but lately she has been veering toward the return path to meet us as we walk back.

It was another day where it looked like she is gaining weight. You can see some ribs there but her chest is filling back in and looks much bigger than it did just a month ago.

Even as we get closer to the house, that doesn't mean the hounds are in a hurry to get back unless it's above 90°. Even then, Stella is never in a hurry to get back home.

With breakfast being served much later today the hounds will not have their 2nd meal until later this afternoon, a time that I would prefer anyway. I'd like to split their meals 8-10 hours apart but they usually want food again 3 hours after their first meal.

After seeing these pictures I think I will try more with the iPhone on our afternoon/early evening walk today. I am going to change the setting to "square" to see if that makes a difference in size and presentation.

With only 2 days to go until I start a new HughesNet billing cycle and a new 20Gb of data, I am still about 1.5Gb's of unused data off of my daily pace. I'll be using that up by looking at more YouTube videos from fellow bloggers and a trailer that I am looking at.

As many of you do, I follow Tioga George's blog on my sidebar and noticed recently one of his followers that comments a lot seemed interesting. So I added his blog on my sidebar today. If you like adventure you might want to take a look ... it's called Point To Zero.

I also added Gone With The Wynns. I use to follow them years ago but deleted them from the sidebar during one of my past cleaning periods where 53 blogs went to 28 blogs on my sidebar. They use to RV, have lived off grid, but are now in traveling on their sailboat.

Another blog I have been following for a while is JD Finley. He is in the process of converting a large passenger bus into a RV. Some great ideas and he documents all of his work with pictures on his blog. Very talented.

Not much is going to happen today. I might have to head out for some grocery shopping as my food supply is low. I sure wish I had online delivery available for groceries out here in rural America or maybe that Amazon drone delivery idea. Even a maid or personal assistant hire might not be a bad idea. I'm not sure if I am really joking about that last idea, doesn't sound like a bad one.

Nothing is going to be purchased for a while but lately I have been back to looking at trailers, trucks, converted cargo trailers and cargo vans ... I'll continue that research today while staying cool while drinking iced tea.

My internal GPS has calibrated itself ... today feels like a Saturday.

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