Deer - Deer - Deer

It was just before 6pm and much darker than any of these photos show. In fact I could barely make out what it was with my eyes. I had just started to step away from the computer, and was about to close the blinds, when I noticed a dark shadow that looked bigger than dead ragweed in the field. So I tip toed to my camera while Sadie and Stella were sleeping. Not until I zoomed in on that shadow at 200mm did I see this ....

Not wanting to startle the deer, I kept my blinds lowered but open. I shot this through the mini blinds, and two windows. You can see how close she is to the yard over by the corner property pole.

She didn't mind me taking pictures from the inside as she stayed there eating for a few minutes, slowly moving toward the corner of the yard. Stella was still sleeping at my feet. In fact I had to step over her to get a better angle out the window.

By this time as she slowly walked past the corner of the yard and actually in the exact area that Stella has been checking out lately right before she steps inside the property pole at the end of her walks ... I saw a 2nd one following her.

What would Sadie and Stella do if they knew there was a deer this close to their yard?

By this time I had quietly and slowly raised the mini blinds so the lens was only shooting out the inside window then the storm window. It was much darker than the picture shows.

I decided it was time to take a chance and walk outside. Of course when I headed toward the door, both bloodhounds woke up thinking they were going outside too. I whisper to them to stay inside, shut the screen door quietly and walked to the corner of the house. By the time I got there, hearing the beep of the camera focusing ... she was staring right at me.

We stood there quite a while it seemed looking at each other. I thought I'd back the lens out a little bit to prove to the hounds just how close she was to the yard.

I started walking through the yard toward her ... being careful not to step on any leaves to scare her off. She continued to stare at me as I stopped, focused and took another photo.

Not until I intentionally yelled did she take off sprinting for the woods to the north at the other end of the field. The first deer heard what was going on and decided she had better head home also.

The second deer wanted to check one last time to see if I was going to chase her.

It was so dark I had to hold the shutter down pretty long before it would focus. I knew without the help of a tripod these pictures would be blurry and out of focus but I didn't want to miss the chance of taking some sort of pictures of them.

When I walked back to the house, Sadie and Stella were standing at the screen door waiting to hear about all the excitement they missed.

You never know when things might turn exciting here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Bloodhounds Track Scent & I Ramble

Even on the days we start our day later than normal, I am still up at the normal time first thing in the morning to let the three hounds outside while I pour out their breakfast kibble. Today was one of those days I headed back to bed as they ate breakfast. I knew the reason that I could not sleep last night, forcing myself to try to sleep a little after 3:30am. So the photo shoot didn't start today until after 12 noon.

It was 'warm' but not to Heidi. She stood and analyzed things for a few minutes, then ran back inside for an afternoon nap. Instead of making the immediate right just outside the door, lately she has been using the Z4 as a guide leading her to the driveway. At this point she will decide if she is going to the backyard or the front yard, if at all.

Since we started so late, both Sadie and Stella were 'high energy'. While I tried to consume two cups of strong coffee to get the blood flowing and my pulse rate somewhere above a flat line, they wrestled inside. About the time I was on cup number two, Sadie tossed one of her Kong balls to me letting me know since she didn't have her walk at the normal time, I could make it up to her by playing a little indoor fetch.

Once I let Heidi walk back inside, I grabbed a light jacket and my camera for our first walk of the day. Sadie and Stella were more than excited that they were finally going to get to be outside in warmer weather and the field of scents awaited them.

This is Sadie sprinting to get started.

This is Stella trying to catch up.

The bloodhounds focused on tracking scent this morning instead of ingesting natural protein. I didn't have to do many verbal commands, nor did I have to spend time herding them in my direction. There was plenty of different smells in that field to keep them more than busy this morning.

I read a post this morning over at 5C's Que Pasa, that all of us might take note and run through our mental checklist when it comes to electronics and the different battery chargers we have for about everything we own. They had a very close call in their RV on their way to spend the winter in Mexico. It was definitely a reminder to me to check how I do things, especially when I am leaving the hounds at home alone while I am out shopping, visiting friends, etc.

Some of you may have noticed I have been back in the playing mode with my blog. I changed the background Sunday from a darker gray to the same crimson color that is on my blog. By today I decided I didn't like that and changed the background back to a lighter gray than was here before. I think I like that better.

Long time readers will know in the 'old days' of this blog I use to change my mind all the time about which RV to buy, whether to sell the house and every thing I owned to travel like those bloggers I read about on the left sidebar. I use to drive ZippyPinHead crazy with my 'whiplash' decisions. At least now, changing my mind about blog template designs is much cheaper to satisfy my addiction of bouncing from one decision to the next.

I see those sounds I hear inside my house but can never see from the windows, is the ATV making his rounds. You can see the fresh tire prints coming from the 'no fly zone'.

So speaking of decisions, I mentioned yesterday I was thinking of re-starting my old Wordpress blog. It was something I started actually a couple of years ago where I would write just an intro paragraph of content and then list photos below it. Yet over those couple of years I've deleted it, then went back to it. (whiplash).

Sometime last summer I moved this blog to the Wordpress platform, really just started my daily writing there while leaving 6 years worth of posts and photos here. I'll not go into the long story of what happened in the summer and fall ... but I will announce that yesterday I started that blog with one paragraph and some photos. For you that would prefer just photos without my rambling you can bookmark this site or follow by email. If you have a Wordpress account you can click the 'follow' button in the lower right of your screen.

I am still working on the template design. As always photos posted there will be the same ones most of the time that you see here. I know, it seems like double work and totally going against the reasons I discussed last summer of getting down to one blog.

Since I started blogging again after my short three weeks of disappearing in September 2017, I've started this blog, started a new Facebook account that I use mostly to follow and read different groups that I'm interested in, and started an Instagram account so I could follow some old bloggers that went from blogging to posting on Instagram.

I always liked following Glen at ToSimplify and The Blonde Coyote's fabulous photography that she has turned into a book. Once they moved their operation from blogging to Instagram I had no other way to follow their travels and adventures over there.

What was the reason I was wide awake until 3:30am ???  I couldn't resist having 'just one cup' of coffee after 7pm. I did it again when I told myself the last time this happened, never do that again. Also that delicious Dutch Apple Pie from Marie Callender's is causing a lot of indigestion. My system is not use to that much sugar I guess, so last night was pretty rough.

The thing is, I only cut the pie into six pieces, having only one piece on Saturday night when it was finished and then only two pieces on Sunday. I would hate to think I have to add that to my list of foods that I cannot eat anymore ... a list that seems to be getting longer as I get older.

Some time this winter I hope to glance up at those nests and see some eagles sitting in them. In 19 years that has only happened twice that I can remember.

Speaking of indigestion ... I am back looking at my diet choices again. A couple of years ago I tried the Paleo Diet with great results. Within two weeks my idigestion was totally gone. Yet, with a family history of cardiac disease I didn't feel comfortable having meat 4-5 dinners per week plus the other fat. So I did a complete 180° (whiplash) and went to a Vegan Diet.

I then had problems with different kinds of beans, a major source of my protein. I also found certain raw fruits had too much acid, thus causing me heartburn. Besides that discomfort, I was also starting to feel lethargic at times. Basically trading that meat, fish and chicken protein to beans and more carbohydrates made me feel bad instead of better.

That different range of diets led me to pull off an old book from my shelf called "Eat Right For Your Type" by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo. As with anything else on the internet all reviews ranged from fantastic to terrible, healthy or a disaster waiting to happen.

So what do I do when I have time on my hands, questions in my head and needing to look at the options ... I make a spreadsheet. I love spreadsheets, as I have noted here before but there has also been a nice change on those in the past few months. When Microsoft announced they were not going to continue to support their 2011 Microsoft Office for Mac, I decided I would take another look at Apple's Numbers program that came free with my computer. There was no way I was going to pay another $120 or more for the newer Office program with what very little I do on basic spreadsheets.

Once I figured out how to link cells in Numbers from other spreadsheets that are tabbed within that master spreadsheet then it was a definite time to make the change. I can say the more I use it, the more I like it, even better than I liked Excel. It was a click of an icon to convert .xls to .numbers

Long story short ---- I transposed information from that book on what foods I should eat based on my blood type. I then 'grayed out' all the foods that I knew gave me indigestion. Once I started eating only those foods suggested in the book and were not grayed out I started feeling fantastic. But ... with a Type O positive, it says I am a 'meat eater' and to stay away from grains.  LOL

I'll use that spreadsheet again, and basically make my own diet that includes foods that do not cause indigestion, different meats in moderation and water for drinking.

Stella was all over the field today as we walked. Both hounds were on their own as I walked my normal pace, stopping on occasion to take a photo or to look at the surrounding scenery or sky.

When Sadie's tailed is curled up like this, with her head down, paw up ... she is locked in on the scent.

Along with warmer weather this week I expected my Z4 parts to arrive any hour now. Once that happens the repair will commence. Six new parts need to be installed underneath the car. Some of them have plastic fasteners, some with metal screws. Using the printouts of the detailed parts description, location along with hardware it should be fairly easy. I know in my case as always, "Murphy" will be looking around the corner just to make it not as easy as I think it will be.

Stella got a little jogging in this morning or really this afternoon, as it was after 12 noon.

They might be a large breed of dog, even Heidi with her short legs holding 45# ... but they are all an easy hound to live with and take care of. All they want is food, sleep and few walks during the day.

Sadie has to be running pretty fast for her ears to flop in the wind.

About the time that Stella thought the walk was over, Sadie had found something in their yard. By the way she acted it had to be just a feet away. After close inspection of the tree, Sadie took off sprinting down the edge of the yard toward the burn pile. I glanced in that direction and luckily saw nothing.

Sadie in the meantime did her tracking from the couch. Any rabbits outside now will be their next spring after the temps get back into the 70's. Until that time she will spend the majority of her time right here ... nice and warm.

I had a lot of photos today, more than normal. As I went though them to choose which ones were going to the blogged about, there were too many good ones to pass up. It takes a little longer to edit them here on Blogger after I post them but it's well worth it.

I hope you didn't mind my rambling today. I have to put all these thoughts somewhere or I'd go insane thinking about them.

It's warmer today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana with 60° a possibility by the weekend.

Who's Tracking Who??

While they hounds were sleeping around 6pm, they had visitors ... and close to 'their yard' too. It was darker than the pictures show. I needed a tripod for clearer photos but didn't have time to get it. There only two of them, taking their time for an early evening meal.