Hounds Enjoy Their Last Warm Winter Day

After weeks of hiding inside, only coming outside long enough to relieve herself ... yesterday the weather was so nice that Heidi came outside and stayed outside. She enjoyed herself. She doesn't know it yet but as soon as this post is published she is headed to the bath tub for a warm bath and a manicure afterward.

While I walked around picking up those small tree limbs in the yard, all three hounds roamed and explored on their own. Of course Stella had to test me and disappear. I stopped my tree limb expedition and changed it to a 'hunting' expedition. She can sneak away so fast.

Heidi did a lap around the house slowly, then inspected the outside border of the backyard and driveway. It was so warm that I think we could have stayed outside all afternoon yesterday. I thought it was unbelievable weather but I remembered yesterday when I took a picture of Winston on Christmas Day in 2015 and it was just as warm.

Here is a picture from that day. He had hurt his back 6 days before and could no longer walk. Even after two years I still miss that basset hound, he was the greatest. Yet by midnight tonight there is suppose to be snow showers until 6am, so we will be seeing colder weather.

I didn't pick up all of those limbs but almost filled my 32gl trash can to add them to the small pile. It doesn't look like it now but by next spring I'll have a good size pile to burn.

After I rounded up Stella as she walked out of the woods in back of the house, I had no choice but to put her on the 80' tether that is anchored in the field. It keeps her in the area within my view but gives her enough room to room. As you can see she had no problem walking into the brush and dead ragweed just behind the burn pile, getting tangled up.

I never heard a thing last night during some solid sleep but there was evidence this morning it had rained pretty hard last night. It was very warm this morning as we headed out on our walk. I can always tell if it's raining lightly before we go out by looking at the passing cars from inside to see if they have their windshield wipers on. This morning it was safe enough to try a walk through the wet field.

Stella surprised us all by taking off north in the yard ... opposite from Sadie and I. As I called her name she gradually turned and walked toward us. It took a while for her to get even close to us,  plus a little nudge from me to move her into the right direction. No doubt the most stubborn hound I've ever had in 30 years.

Sadie was moving fast enough with her nose to the ground that she was faster than the camera.

Once Stella hit the path ... she and Sadie were running around that first turn. They know it will take me a while to catch up to them.

It's hard to tell but this is one of the worn paths into the woods the deer take. It goes through the brush and after about 10' will change to a steep gully. When she walks out of this area or any part of the woods there are still thorns that grab her coat and tangle her up at times.

Sadie of course is on a scent and is focused on that ... nothing else.

By the time I was walking about halfway down the back side of the field I could feel a drizzle of rain hitting my face. None of that made a difference to Sadie. She had a lot more area to inspect.

Sadie continued to inspect an inch at a time, along that back side of the field.

I didn't take this picture today to check the camera alignment but to capture the fog. It was almost 8:30am when I took this, so there is no chance of any sunshine today.

Turning toward home, the wind from the SW increased and was blowing light rain in my face. I could hear it hitting my rain jacket.

Sadie thought she was feeling the same rain so she started her sprint toward me without me saying a word. As I snapped the camera shutter as fast as the camera would focus, I came up with only four photos from the time she started running from the back of the field. One of them was too blurred to post.

They will never run directly to the yard non-stop, no matter what the weather is doing. There is always something they need to check out before ending their walk.

To Stella it's just another day ... no worries in the world ... just food, sleep and walks. Pretty simple life.

As expected, I found out after my first day of riding my bike inside for 30 minutes on a trainer yesterday afternoon, that I would need to take today off to recover. It will get better but it's always hard to start riding again and getting into bicycling shape. I have enough muscle pain today that even Ibuprofen is not working.

The Garmin Connect App sent me a new update the other day. Along with a new Apple update for the iPhone, I was hopeful that my Garmin VivoSmart 3 would connect to the new phone like it did with my 6s. So far this morning it has not. I'll find out later since I just turned the phone off to reboot it. I can download the Garmin data to my computer with no problem but it makes it so much more convenient to see that updated data on the phone.

I had something I was going to ask all of you on this post but now I can't remember what it was. Typical isn't it?

It's foggy, it's warm and only 3 days till Christmas for those that celebrate it. It's hard to believe how warm it is in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sunny Skies And High Temps

We started later this morning, so the sky was bright with sunshine and with heavy frost below my boots. I couldn't believe I was seeing a high of 54° today on Wunderground and only 4 days before Christmas. We will enjoy another day of 56° before it turns cold on Monday. I like winters like this.

That doesn't mean that Heidi will change her early morning schedule but I have to guess she will be outside with us this afternoon after the temps near 50°. Obviously there is something that visits this area at night just behind and to the left of the burn pile. This morning it was Sadie checking it out, yesterday Stella was very interested in that same spot.

It makes a world of difference when there is no wind. I think that applies under any weather conditions in any part of the USA. In the winters here, the wind can play a major factor in if you are freezing or comfortable outside on these walks. Of course it makes no difference to the bloodhounds.

I knew before this but Stella gave me a look of confirmation that she wasn't moving today and she would be on her own.

At the same time Sadie was sprinting as fast as she could around the first turn, she had places to go unlike Stella.

One last check on Stella before I walked out of view. You can barely see her in the middle of the photo. With her new routine she set last Monday I had an idea we would pick her up on the way back in the field to the right of our alternate path. Just a hunch.

Sadie was moving her nose through the tall grass and her jowls making noises as she inhaled as much scent as possible. Her nose was getting a good workout this morning.

I caught Sadie just as she started to run to catch up with me. I thought I had caught her with ears up and flying but she was so fast I caught her ears as they were falling as she was ending her run. She will get a couple of full speed sprints in every walk she takes. Not bad for being over 9 years old.

I was focused more on the hound with the turkey farm as a background but not until I was looking at the photos after downloading them, did I realize the AT&T tower was straight in my picture. No adjustments were needed to have the tower standing straight in my photo.

Heading back to the house, up in the distance I could see something moving and my camera lens confirmed that Stella was walking in the same direction as she started to do this past Monday. She wasn't moving fast so it would be no problem catching up to her with my normal pace.

Sadie would look for Stella whenever I'd mention Stella's name.

Even with the sound of a helicopter that I was still trying to find in the sky, Stella did not even lift her head to take a look.

It wasn't flying directly above us but it looks like the passenger is taking a look at us. It was above the field, possibly the road behind the field across the highway from us. I've seen this same helicopter before but not often.

Stella was in full ignore mode today. She never moved when I called her which didn't surprise me.  Even when Sadie walked over to her, she didn't move in my direction ... so I had to go get her.

As usual, as I got near her, she and Sadie trotted toward the backyard leaving me behind.

I was pretty unmotivated yesterday afternoon. I took the Z4 drive for 56 mile loop, then spent some time outside but didn't take any pictures. I let the bloodhounds roam on their own while I walked around looking at the house and yard. Heidi was standing at the door to go back inside by the time I got back to the carport.

So today I plan to finally pickup tree limbs like these and add them to the '2018 Burn Pile'. There are many more in the front and backyards that are broken up. It looks like I'll have enough to come close to filling my 32gl trash can.

Watching one of my favorite shows last night called Homestead Rescue, I found out here at home I had made a big mistake last March by burning off the brush and planting grass on the bank at the rear corner of my house. The grass may eventually help but every since I cleared that large area three years ago I've had water turn and go down the small hill toward my house.

With all the saplings and heavy brush taken out so I could plant grass and expand my yard, it changed the water flow in and under the field during heavy rains. The same thing happened with the bank along the driveway. So I'll have some work to do this spring in building those areas back up after I find out what to do to prevent the water from going that direction.

I'd say the highlight of the day yesterday in this fast paced life of retirement, was to change my default browser back to Google Chrome from Safari. I did all of the Chrome updates during my free data period before 8am. And ... I found out last week how to change a hidden setting in Chrome that would stop all videos from automatically playing and soak up a lot of my data.

I like the new Firefox browser but just like the older version, it is still a data hog.

I have yet to watch any of the lower tier football bowl games due to lack of interest in any of the teams. Pictures from those games look like I am not the only one because the stands are empty while they play the games. It looks like the first game I watch will start tomorrow at 11:30am. Could it be possible that even with a payoff to each team, they still lose money because of the requirement of having to buy a certain number of tickets and travel expenses?

The hounds have been fed at the normal time but before 10:30am, Sadie is staring at me and Stella just started howling for lunch. It's not going to happen until it's 11:30am, almost an hour from now.

I am not sure yet but I may start to blog every few days instead of daily. I am adding some bike riding to my daily routine, some other exercise and other things, so the blogging I will do may not post until later in the day or early evening.

Unbelievable winter weather today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Two Different Hound Theories

While Sadie did her normal tracking of scent from the start to the very end of the walk, Stella decided she wanted none of that and was on her own walk.