Sadie's Butterfly Chase Started Early

Sadie's morning started really fast as she sprinted as soon as her paws hit the driveway. I don't know what she had seen but whatever it was by the time I focused the camera, she thought she had it surrounded. She was beside herself with excitement ... chase butterflies ... or track strong deer scent? Might be too many photos this morning ... 29. Plus a little rambling at the end of the post.


You can barely see a black butterfly just left of her nose.

She did nothing to the butterfly except give it her stare down.

Evidently these morning butterflies decided that hiding at ground level would be better than trying to fly away from Sadie like they do in the afternoon. She was sprinting from one spot to another to stare down butterflies.

Stella was on her own path and it was obvious she was not looking for butterflies. She was smelling fresh 'natural protein' ... who knows, maybe that stuff is helping her gain her weight back.

With a light rain all night I knew the field would be wet today, maybe a little more than the normal heavy dew. I remembered to apply some mosquito repellant this time so I had a very nice bite free walk. I did notice one mosquito fly up under my ball cap bill but flew away. The stuff works ... 25% DEET. I have tried all the natural stuff and it just not work for me.

I am going to let this flower grow a little longer before I confirm what it is from Google Images. It is the first time that I have seen this flower.

Sadie had moved from chasing butterflies to strong deer scent. I wasn't able to get a good picture of her taking a few steps into the thick brush where the deer had worn down some of the brush. Stella was equally interested.

My very first time I was able to capture some of that 'natural protein' that both hounds enjoy adding to their diet.

While Sadie headed for the far corner of the field where the deer hang out, Stella thought about running that direction but when I yelled "over here" she stopped and only stared then walked back along the trial.

The one thing about Sadie that I have said before. I can let Sadie stay behind as long as she wants, she will ALWAYS run to catch up to me. On the other hand the two times I have tried that with Stella, it was 30-45 minutes later when I had to go back out to this far corner to get her to come home. One of those trips last year, I drove my FJ back to that area to get her.

Sadie getting a lot of running in this morning. When both rear paws are off the ground that is some pretty fast running.

Sadie heading for the back edge of the field trying to get Stella to follow her.

But as we all know, Stella has her own GPS and will come and go as she pleases, at her desired speed. That is one thing that makes her a great bloodhound.

Stella did find strong deer scent here. In this exact spot I have seen deer in the past, up to 5-10 of them, run and jump over a small hidden fence into that soybean field to Stella's right.

She was stubborn on this spot ... I had to walk back and get her with a gentle tug of her collar. There are times she will try to resist my tug.

At the same time I had Stella back on the path, Sadie took off sprinting and Stella tried to follow. She didn't sprint but moved faster than a trot.

Not sure what Sadie was sprinting for ... that seems to be a common theme for her today ... running is good for her.

As the both looked toward that woods to the north of us, I had a feeling they would love to go check it out. We usually don't extend our walks out that far. I guess we could and start getting a longer walk in but I'm not sure Heidi would complete it. It's best to keep the walking path as routine as possible, with a ocassional exploration trip over there with Sadie and Stella.

More things for Sadie to chase ... where did she come up with all of this energy this morning. Maybe it was the temp being only 72° during the mid-morning.

Stella decided it was time to start her slow trek home.

Sadie came running up behind me at full speed. She always likes to brush the side of my knee just to let me know she is back. Stella is starting her path to the single pole at the north corner of the property line.

I would guess in this part of the field there is probably some deer scent but also the field cats that are rarely seen out during daytime.

It might take some time but they finally make it back to the yard. All on their time, not mine. I can see that Sadie has lost some weight (good) this summer because I see her waistline and barely see her ribs. Stella is getting back to close to that.

Well another week of low temps for August. My 10-day forecast shows temps no higher than 81° in the month of August. That is just hard to believe.

Today I might transplant those wild field flowers I spoke of yesterday. One thing I noticed this morning, even with the rain with my extra wide overhangs the Azaleas and Dallies do not get the water they need from the rain. The ground around them is dry.

I had a call from my old college friend last night telling me that he was able to check out in person a trailer that I might be interested in. They manufacture in only two locations, Denver CO and Indianapolis IN. You can check out their trailers here if you are interested. It is definitely a possibility and a close call betwen the two now, with the Taxa Trailer I spoke of a few weeks ago on my old blog.

I joined the Facebook owners group for Taxa Trailers a few weeks ago and have noticed a couple of problems that owners have to fix themselves with company pdf instructions. I just joined the owner's group for the HikerTeardrop Trailers so I can track any issues they may have.

For the new readers, in June 2015 I made a trip with one bloodhound (Sadie) and two basset hounds (Winston and Heidi) to tent camp in Colorado and Utah. I answered a lot of questions I had with that trip. The following August 2015, two months later, I thought long and hard before deciding to go pick up Stella who was being listed as a "re-home".

I knew at that time IF I chose a 2nd bloodhound, then any travel plans would be put on hold. Until you try to walk two large bloodhounds with a leash or leashes, you have no idea how strong they are and how they like to go in different directions. Basset hounds don't mind walking next to each other wearing a splitter to one leash.

Good news ... I see the sun breaking through the clouds.

I hope to get two things done this week ... not required just an urge. With a new printer cartridge I need to reinstall the printer software so my 2 month old iMac will recognize it. I may be able to use bluetooth or wi-fi instead of a usb connection.

The other 'big' goal is to look at my manual settings on my Nikon D3200 camera and check out different ways of taking photos with the dial at 'P', 'S', 'M' and 'A'. Of course the computer inside the camera might be better than my adjustments, for the better picture.

As far as games go ... I started winning at 2048 too much on both my computers that I went back to playing Mahjong. Remember that when I transferred my files from my 6.5 year old iMac to a new iMac in May ... it cleared out my Mahjong results and I had to start the 160 games over. I now have all of them completed under 4 months with some of them finished under 3 minutes. I might get an hour or two of playing that game today while I sit looking out the large window and seeing all of those having to drive to and from work.

Heidi was sound to sleep in the corner of the living room. That spot is available since I moved my bicycle that is on an indoor trainer. When I first moved in this house in 1997, my bloodhound Max use to like to sleep in the same corner as a puppy.

I can tell it's going to be another great week here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Makes History

I would have to do some deep digging back through Heidi's folder of pictures to see when the last time she made two complete walks in the field on back to back days. I know my short term memory might be on shaky ground at times but I am positive it's been YEARS since Heidi did two walk in a row. Today she even led the walk.


While I sat in front of my computer most of the day trying to find just the right blog template that I wanted, the skies never changed, it never rained and the best decision of the day was keeping the Reds game on tv in the background. After returning from our afternoon walk, the Reds were behind 13-3 with 3 more innings to go. It took little effort to press the "off" button on my Directv remote.

During the normal trip outside after the hounds had their lunch of kibble, Heidi had moved back to her regular routine of walking along the side of the house where the Yews use to be, then darting or jumping out into the front yard to relieve herself. She was moving so fast the camera barely caught her running from the yard to the driveway.

With the driveway incline that would put me in fantastic shape if I spent time just walking back and forth up the hill a few times daily ... Heidi went from a fast run to a slow walk. She had other plans for her energy that I was not aware of.

By 3pm I had come to a final decision on the blog design, answered some emails and replied to blog comments ... Heidi thought it might be time for our afternoon walk. She stood and thought about her plan before making any abrupt moves.

Within seconds of being outside Sadie was already running through the field chasing butterflies and Stella was slowly walking up the path trying to get the walk started. I think she would have liked to stay inside and sleep.

I could tell soon after stepping into the field it was going to be one of the biggest challenges of my week to keep these three hounds moving in one direction. I think it all has the possibilities for a super bowl commercial some time.

Here is one butterfly that ignored Sadie's fast running and jumping at air trying to catch them. She stayed here and enjoyed her meal on the Butterfly Milkweed. (Google Images is a great invention)

I was still in shock that Heidi was not only on the walk but was not lagging back with other interests such as following her nose. She acted as if she was on some sort of mission today, she had a plan.

With the start of the walk is a slight incline almost all the way to the first corner, there was no running involved. That would be using energy that she planned on using later.

While I was looking in both directions you could tell that Sadie and Stella had joined as a team to cut this exploration today into an effort of more coverage in less time. When they are in this kind of pose there is only one thing that will break their concentration ... mention the word 'food' or anything that is food.

As with any basset hound worldwide, anytime you are looking at pictures you can't tell by their legs if they are running ... but their ears are a dead giveaway.

I did not even call her when she was running ... it was just part of her plan.

While I was waiting for her to catch me, I had noticed that Stella was walking away from all of us in a northern direction which would be toward the center of the field. After taking this picture of Heidi I turned my view towards the middle of the field and Stella was nowhere on the horizon. Zip, nada, ... gone!!

Some how in a short period of time Stella had changed direction and went the opposite way, moving behind me either running or trotting and letting me find her not in the field but up in the far right corner and heading into the gully where the deer migrate.

While I am trying to keep Stella and Sadie from going down into the gully through that overgrown brush ... in fact I am running in their direction calling their names for them to stop ... Heidi continues her pace and is way out in front of all of us ... she is leading the walk!

Somehow, some way I was able to get Stella and Sadie out of the brush and headed in the right direction. After all the running I did chasing them, I guess Sadie had to check to see if I was okay and not laying on the ground somewhere.  HA

I don't feed the brand name 'Milk Bone' but one similar that has better ingredients. But I do say the brand name "Milk Bone' because they all respond to those two words and know they will be getting something to eat. Here Stella is asking if she just heard what she thought she heard ... "did you say Milk Bone?"

When Heidi heard those words she took of running, Stella kept walking her slow pace as usual and Sadie was about to fly by my knee in a full-out sprint. They all had a new focus now and it wasn't walk or searching ... it was food.

They still know it doesn't matter what they do, that once I say those two words they will ALWAYS get their treats and it doesn't matter if don't they come as fast as I want them to.

Heidi was wagging her tail headed for the door. She was already barking for her 'Milk Bone' by the time Sadie and Stella reached the house.

How can a hound look so sad when there is food involved?

Some readers in the past have asked me if having three hounds make times noisy around the house. It's just the opposite. Once they get their walk finished or meals, they fall asleep and the only noise I will here will be a ocassional snore or breathing behind my desk chair from Stella.

With the change to this blog I am now posting photos to only one site instead of two blogs and Facebook. It makes it much faster to post and gives me more time away from the computer. I keep finding things to use in the background to use for the blog and as I use this platform more, the easier it is to post.

Like I said at the start of this post, I have finally decided on the blog design. I liked having that header image where the other blog did not have that option. I like the home page where you can still see the 12 previous posts with a clean modern look to it. The pages are where I wanted and once I found out that all the links I used in the sidebar of the previous blog design this morning, would be there once a post was opened ... then I knew this was the template (theme) I wanted to use.

The name of this free Wordpress them is "Baskerville 2".

Speaking of change ... I forgot to mention the change Apple made to their new iMacs has not turned into the hassle I thought it would be for me. When they made the computer thinner, the slot for the SD card moved from the side to in the back. How inconvenient could that be?

I thought I might have to use an older adapter that would take five different SD card sizes but after 3 months from replacing my almost 7 year old iMac, I find having the SD card slot in the back not a problem at all. I do have to lean a little further from my chair to reach the back of the iMac, but not a problem.

Of course there is always something I wanted to say at the end of the post but by the time I get there, a lot of times I forget what it was. For example I've been wanting to talk about that SD card slot for weeks and finally remembered today.

Is is just me or have the first 6 days of August flown by? I don't want summer to end. The other night at 3am when I woke up to shut bedroom windows because the temps had dropped into the 50's ... it hit me that fall was just around the corner.

I'm not ready to put jeans back on, along with a jack or coat.

It's nice to have all the changes finished these past few days. It's been a 'wild' 30 days when it comes to changing stuff.

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