It's Almost Too Quiet Today

Living on a hill a hundred feet from a major highway you get use to the traffic noise after residing here for 20 years. It's not evident until Sunday mornings, where it is so quiet around here that you could hear a pin drop. This morning was one of those days with a light rain mixed in.


As I was standing at the corner of the house taking my daily "2nd picture", I felt some light rain. With a forecast of a good chance of off and on rain throughout the day, increasing tonight, I knew our chances for three walks today might be slim. Sadie thought otherwise.

As soon as she saw that I had gone into the house to grab my light rain jacket, she was more than excited that we were going to take the chance of getting wet on this walk. The weather radar was solid with colors signifying rain. She went immediately into the tracking mode and followed the same deer scent along the tree line as she did Saturday morning.

Both of them were not into any kind of eating 'stuff' this morning, just Sadie inhaling deep enough with her nose pressed to the ground. I could hear her jowls move as she gathered all the information she could about who and what had been in 'her' field while we were sleeping.

Stella on the other hand didn't have time for any kind of work. She was into a casual morning stroll like she didn't have a care in the world.

Yet, Sadie was more intense than ever, collecting all of the information left by the scents her nose was picking up. When she has her ears out sideways from running to the next spot, you know she has too much work and not enough time to finish it.

Still, Stella was having none of the high intensity that Sadie was showing. She will and would walk at her own slow pace. When I mentioned the possibility of rain and we needed to get home ... she walked even slower.

She then decided that she would let me know that she was still in charge of this walk, by lagging behind and ignoring anything that sounded like me calling her.

To give you an idea how different the weather is this morning, not even the enhancement button could help this photo in lighting it up or making the sky blue again. The butterflies were gone this morning so the mosquitoes moved back into town. After three quick unexpected bites, I remembered my new can of repellant sitting back at home.

These rolls of hay told me a story this morning, showing that I really am aging through all my denials. It's why you see old men wearing their ball caps crooked ... because they feel like they are on straight. I notice that sometimes with mine if I look in the rearview mirror before driving.

Lately when I edit my photos I notice that things are not straight as they should be. Luckily in the cropping section of Apple Photos, you can turn a photo any direction to make them straight. These rolls of hay helped me straighten the picture out and remind me that my balance is a little off today. I'll not tell you just how much that editing adjustment was.

As I continued to walk home with not a drop of rain anywhere, the hounds lagged behind enjoying all the scents this field gives them. Bloodhounds can smell scent up to two weeks old, even in water. I always wonder what their noses tell them with 7 acres of wild stuff growing, deer traffic, and a cat or two.

I didn't have to bribe them this morning with a treat when they got back home. They seemed to be finished with their exploring for this morning and could feel it was time for their daily morning siesta.

Who would have ever thought those pretty white flowers really are weeds, and not good weeds either. While looking up their pictures on Google Images this morning, I clicked the button "view page" and ran into a blog named Dave's Garden writing about "weeds in my lawn". He has the same problem I do with moles and weeds in his yard because we both live next to a field.

Who would have ever thought something as pretty as this could have such an ugly but factual writeup. I guess I will NOT dig some of them up and plant them in my flower beds but then again if their seeds are viable for decades and they will fold around a fence or other plants ... maybe they would be good to hide my old cast iron railings in front of the carport.

Here is what he said about what I call "that white flower":

“The prettiest, but most annoying weed is the Convolvulus arvensis also called Field Bindweed or Swallowtail's Dress, as we call it in Romania. It chokes the plants and is one of the most invasive species. I am pulling out thousands of Field Bindweeds, not to mention how many times I have to unfold them from the fence or from my plants. The roots are deep, but sometimes they come out easily; still they have rhizomes which produce more sprouts. I've found out that their seeds are viable for decades and only one plant can produce 500 seeds."

Don't feel sorry for Sadie and Stella by the looks on their faces. They sniff their way all the way to the house, on EVERY walk. They walk into the house quietly not wanting to wake up Heidi after EVERY walk in the morning. Sadie jumps in her big leather chair with the ottoman to sleep and Stella lays down behind my computer desk chair so close that I can barely roll the chair back enough to sit down.

They will sleep almost to lunch time. If lunch is not served on time, Heidi will start barking and that leads Stella to howling or vise versa. Sadie does not bark or howl but stands right in front of the food container waiting me to pour kibble into their bowls.

I am about to post this and with the windows open I can hear how wet the highway is by passing cars and trucks. There still isn't much traffic as most people are in church. They have a lot of churches in this small rural town and almost as many bars ... I guess you have to even life out someway.

To long time readers this will come as no surprise. To new readers I might let you in on a secret ... I change my mind a lot. I don't have a lot of history on this blog to show that and back up the facts but long time readers can attest it's true.

So as I turned on my computer this morning and as always Google shows me 12 websites that I go to often, the small picture icon of this blog was one of the 12. Here is the problem ... I liked the way the blog looked in that picture better than my current blog home page.

Yet, that other one had all the links of information in the Footer of the blog and not on the Sidebar as it is now. I need to find a template (WordPress Theme) that has the look of the other one I used on Friday with the Sidebar I have today. With a day of rain in the forecast what better time than to look through templates again, using all of my data left with 4 days to go on my billing cycle ... and find a template that I like.

Luckily I have listed those I previewed and added an asterisk or a number of them to the ones I liked. It also occurred to me this morning when looking at my categories, I had nothing written here about the "Other Stuff" part of the blog. All of that history is on my old blog.

I could import all the posts and photos to this blog from the 6 year old blog on Blogger but the last time I tried that a year or so ago, there were a lot of issues between the different blog platforms. Blogger and WordPress don't play well together.

I'm okay with starting over, with what I consider a new blog. As I write about that "Other Stuff", categories will be added. But right now it's time for just one more cup of coffee and back to looking at templates.

(note: I know I shouldn't start a sentence with the word "But" and I also know I should place the period or question marks inside quotation marks) ... but to all the grammar police and spelling bee champions out there, I like starting a sentence that way and putting periods outside of quotation marks ... plus the spelling here will be only as good as the WordPress spellchecker. I am not a professional writer so you might find a mistake here and there when I write.

Yet, even on rainy days, its great living in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Joins Us For The Walk

For reasons unknown it's now a rare event when Heidi decides she wants to do the complete .45 of a mile walk through the field. Today was a surprise around 4pm when she cruised through the backyard and never stopped. Maybe it was the great weather with no humidity that had her in the mood for walking.


Between taking a lot of good pictures of her during the walk, trying to catch Sadie chasing butterflies and keeping track of Stella ... I ended up with 58 afternoon pictures to choose from. I am posting more than normal but there were just that many good photos of them.

Like I have said before, Sadie does not hurt the butterflies but loves chasing them. They are much too fast for her to actually catch. You can see Sadie making a quick turn trying to catch just one with two more butterflies up ahead.

Another rare thing is getting all three hounds into one picture. It happens but not much and is usually hard to do because they are always going in different directions, but not this afternoon.

Sadie gives me her best all-time photo for leaping at a butterfly flying away. It's funny how she leaps at them, yet my camera never catches her in that pose.

That orange flower is the one I would like to transplant to my front flowerbed. They bloom every year in different places in the field. Would it bloom every year in one specific spot?

Heidi's nose is just as good as those of Sadie and Stella. Maybe not statistically but with a purpose of flushing out rabbits.

A little orange in an area that is all green this time of year.

The pace is slow for all the hounds. Normally Heidi has hung back by now but I could tell today that he was going to complete the walk. You can see the gradual climb.

Compared to June 2015 I cannot believe how much better she looks. She is definitely back to her old self. I am not sure if it was the probiotics I was giving her, or the supplement the vet gave her a year ago. That vet supplement was the same as what she would give a dog coming out of surgery. She has gained more weight back than she lost in early 2015.

Walks with hounds are never fast, aerobic thresholds are never met but their noses are working a 100mph.

With extremely short legs, Heidi maintains her consistent pace.

That is until her powerful nose picks up a scent that needs identified.

Sadie didn't have anywhere particular to go nor was there anything on the ground or air that she was chasing. She just remembered there was another place that has some of that 'natural protein'.

The "fly-by" didn't bother Heidi ... she kept walking the same speed and no need to hurry.

I think by now you can see how I could take so many pictures in just one walk. We haven't even got to the butterfly pictures yet. There weren't many of them today. It was like the cool weather ran them off.

I am already walking along the back edge of the field. I'll not leave Heidi behind like I do Sadie. She will run if I call her name but I always give her time to go at her own pace. Basset hounds teach you to slow down and that everything doesn't have to be a rush to get there or finish.

She is about 12" tall at her shoulders, so you can see how fast the wild flowers, grass and plants are growing.

With overcast skies you would think rain is nearby but that will not happen until tomorrow and it looks like it might rain all day and most of the night ... if Wunderground is right.

I could barely see Stella still at the first corner of the walk. What is interesting, in less than a minute when I looked for her again, based on the time showing in the picture file, she has moved to the far right. She covered a distance in less than a minute that would make her almost have to trot or jog ... to escape.

Once I told Sadie "let's go get Stella" ... Heidi made a sharp left hand turn to take a short cut through the field to meet me.

Here she is back on the path again, walking the gradual downhill.

Still time for an interruption, with her nose telling her to check something out.

If I were to turn and face perpendicular to Stella she had already walked past me toward the north. This afternoon she did not even look up when I yelled her name ... she just kept walking. She had no intentions of walking in our direction nor back to the house.

Still after 'herding' her back to us ... there was just enough time to look at the butterflies.

At the pace these three amigos are walking I estimated our arrival time back at the house to be sometime Sunday afternoon.

It will be even harder to see Heidi in the field with a few more weeks of growth.

Their noses slowly lead them home.

You can tell by the cut grass of the yard we are almost home, but that seems like a mile away. Sadie and Stella are still checking things out in back of me. They met Heidi and I about the same time we reached the corner of the house.

You might think with three blog posts and a lot of pictures that I have spent all day in front of the computer. Without having to edit the sizes of pictures in HTML, to make them sharper in Blogger I can put a blog post together here much faster.

I also had to ride my bicycle for an hour and a half. Took time to eat and then took a short siesta before the 4pm walk. Of course when I sleep the hounds sleep. Maybe they have finally taught me after three years of retirement ... how to live like a hound.

I only changed the color of the blog template (WordPress calls them themes) ... so it might stay this way for a while. I'm not sure what it is but I am one or two things away from being a 100% satisfied with the way the blog looks.

I keep repeating myself but I can't believe the weather this summer in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... one of the best summers ever.

Heidi Explodes With Energy

While I was out front watering the plants, both bloodhounds had headed to roam the field. Heidi was enjoying the sunshine until I walked into the back with my camera. She barked at me, trotted toward the middle of the yard for some Saturday morning exercises. She tried to get Stella to play, no response ... but Sadie wasn't interested.


I'll let the pictures tell the story.