Hot Muggy & Busy

We have had a lot of rain lately here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana but so has Sierra Vista AZ. I miss those open sky light shows I use to see over the Huachuca Mts and the Mule Mts to the left. A Facebook photographer took this the other day. You can see his name in the lower left corner, Arizonan Yeti.

When it's not raining here, it has been hot and muggy, a typical summer in Indiana. I try to squeeze in the yard mowing in between rains which at times is not a lot of time to finish. With it hot the hounds, dog and I have been camping out inside most of the time enjoying the cold air conditioned air. So not a lot of blogable events to write about and just a few photos.

Crazy Weather

Since December this years weather has been nothing but strange, crazy, and wild. Since the Z4 was put away for the winter 'dirty' I didn't put it under it's car cover this year. I woke up to this picture today and could barely see some small snow flakes falling. April 16 ?? I can't do anything but laugh about it. I have a washer update later in the post.

As always even a trace of snow energizes the hounds. About the time I clicked my first photo of them they both took off running way ahead of me. Even Stella was trotting a little faster than normal.

Either deer, rabbits or other night animals were really active last night because both hounds had noses to the ground and tails curled upward. They were intense in their exploration.

They went far enough into the thick brush, with new thorns, that I had to call and tell them to 'get out here' ... they knew what that meant.

About the same time I almost caught up with them, they took off sprinting around the corner and moved to their next favorite spot.

They repeated that again as I came close to them ... running far ahead of me.

Sadie of course looked back to check on me, making sure I was still upright and had a pulse. She never wants me to get too far behind.

What was the scent they were going crazy over, running in different directions that the camera could not even pick up.

When their ears aren't lying down and Stella is moving faster than a slow walk ... you know the scent is strong.

With new growth sprouting in the bushes that brings new sharp thorns. There were enough of them that Stella got hung up for a minute or so until she figured out how to set herself free.

Then once again took off running away from me.

They followed that idea all the way back to the house.

The more I thought about my washer situation last night with both the washer and dryer sitting outside their normal space, I decided even with that one water hose connected I could still lean the washer over toward it's side so I could look underneath ... I was surprised what I found and it made the water mystery even more confusing.

I knew the floor under the washer did not seem wet enough that would match the amount of water I found on my kitchen floor. But I knew the water had to come from there because of how saturated that dry towel got when I set it in front of the washer while doing my two small loads on Saturday.

I expected the floor to be really wet and possibly some standing water but there wasn't either of that. My next surprise is what I found inside the washer by looking from the bottom of it. I didn't see any signs of water, leaking hoses, or water trapped in the small 1/4" wide trap around the edge. All I found was dust and cobwebs. That's a good thing ... yet confusing.

With my bright LED camping flashlight I was able to see quite clearly from bottom to the top on all four sides. I didn't see a water stain anywhere. So I decided to put it and the dryer back in their normal spots and do more thinking.

By last night I had already ruled out buying used. There are only two reasons someone is selling a used washer and dryer ... it's either a money pit with problems or they have upgraded and bought one newer and more expensive. I don't like taking a chance on stuff like that.

I also know due to my DNA that I could never handle a new washer sitting next to my 38 year old dryer that works. It would drive me insane having them different. That's just the way I am. So on my way to buy groceries right after this post, I am going to stop by the local laundromat and see what the cost is, does it use debit cards or quarters, and what kind of vibe I get about the place. After all if I was a full time traveler like I wanted to be a few years ago, I'd have to use laundromats to wash clothes.

In the meantime I have gone back to 'layered clothing' for today but it will be high 50's and then 60's after tomorrow. I am saying it again ... the last day of freezing weather.

Thanks for the comments in the previous post on ideas on replacing a broke washer ... but is it really??? Testing tonight or tomorrow to see what happens.

Light snow disappearing from the grass here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

We Have Traded Snow For Rain

Since I last posted there have been a LOT of changes. It's warmer and that's a good thing. ALL of the snow is gone. It's very really windy, the field is too saturated to take any walks and there is standing water in the gravel driveway in places and in the backyard. All is good and as soon as the field gets a little dryer in a day or two ... the hound walks will resume.

It was warm enough on Saturday where Stella joined us to take the complete walk. It looked like the snow was about half of deep as it was on Friday. The temps had been over 35° that afternoon and all night. I was happy with the change and the hounds were happy.

Stella was more than focused on scent instead of food supplements. She kept her nose to the ground just like Sadie for most of the walk.

The higher we got in elevation and further back in the field, the wetter it got. There was more standing water and it was starting to come up over my boots, not just along the sides with each step. Water trails followed Sadie's running paws. I could see that I would have to towel dry her stomach off as well as Stella's once we returned home.

As we headed back to the house toward the end of the walk, the hounds checked out more deer tracks that went toward the highway running along the north side of our property. The temperature was perfect for this walk.

Not that the sunshine was that hot but I knew with the sun out and the temps higher that snow would be melting. I wanted to help anyway I could so I took the snow shovel and slid the moist snow toward the edge of the driveway bank. Snow was a little over 4" deep. My drive was level again on top of the drive ... the other 80' down the hill and to the driveway, I would let the sunshine do it's own work.

With rain forecast on Monday ... I put the car cover back on the Z4. I doubled check around the bottom edge of the soft covertible top and made sure it was dry where all of the snow was packed just a few days ago. It does not take that long to take the cover off and roll it up as I take it off ... take a drive ... the put it back on when finished, just like all the other winters.

With the temps above 35°, Heidi made a longer appearance than normal during the freezing weather. She did NOT go out into the snow still left in the front yard but hugged as close to possible against the house as she checked things out.

By Sunday morning my shoveling the day before helped the snow disappear to where most of the driveway was once again visible. You can see in the background that basically the snow was gone ... hopefully for this winter.

This was 24 hours after I had a yard full of snow ... hard to believe it disappeared that fast but I'll not question the how or why ... it's gone and it's good.

Sometime during the night I thought I heard loud wind, very loud wind. Then I heard rain hitting the storm windows ... the rain had come and it had storm velocity. I could hear Sadie snoring on her bed in the corner of the room. Stella doesn't snore but breaths loudly when in a deep sleep. I was happy they were not begging me to wake up so they could eat breakfast kibble.

Like I said earlier, it will be a day or two before we can walk. The short trip that Sadie took out to the middle of the field at lunch left mud stains about an inch above her paw. Stella had no urge to go that far out ... it's too wet for her. Heidi of course never got of the mulch in front and the gravel in the driveway but she inspected the perimeter.

The camera didn't catch the movement of the car cover but the winds are between 20-30 mph and this car cover is flapping in the wind. I learned years ago to pull a bungee cord under the car to connect to both eyelets in the lower center of the cover, to keep the car cover on the car.

I did turn the Z4 on and let it idle a little on Saturday after sitting in the single digit temps.

Not a lot to blog on. One change I am going to do on this post, I am going to leave the photos alone as they loaded. Google Blogger does compress the images, taking away some of the sharpness ... last year sometime I started going into the html and changing the size back to the original size for a sharper image. Tom commented on my last post that my blog was using too much of his data when it loaded ... so hopefully this will fix his data usage problem.

Windy, rainy beats freezing and snow here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Declare It A White Christmas

After my lunchtime drive on dry roads and overcast skies, I came home with intentions of putting on my car cover before the snow arrived. I was busy doing other things inside and forgot to check the weather outside. By the time I looked it was too late. No problem. I have a feeling the original owner parked this car outside all the time in northern Illinois. The hounds took me outside for walk through after the first 30 minutes of snow ... they needed to go out and have some fun.

After their lunch before my drive, Stella smelled yard moles which are destroying my backyard. I am lucky that she doesn't dig for them like my previous bloodhound did.

Sadie was busy but checked to make sure we were not going for a walk.

Then about 3:30 when I glanced outside it was a steady snow but not heavy. By the time I put my wool cap, ski gloves and down parka ... it was coming down harder and we were off. I'll let the photos tell the story. I was snowing harder the longer we walked. Stella was energized as usual in the snow. They had fun ...

It needs to be at least an inch deep for it to be an "official" white Christmas but the hounds think it will have not problem reaching that depth and more by tomorrow morning. We will go out at midnight to check it out.

It has been 7 years since there has been a 'white Christmas' here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.