Bloodhounds Walked In Freezing Temps

The first reminder that I did not turn the heat on before going to bed, hit me soon after I made my first step onto the floor. It was cold inside the house, like 58° cold. As I let the hounds outside for their first trip of the day, everything looked like it had a layer of snow but luckily that was only heavy frost. The hounds were happy to come back inside for their breakfast kibble and a quick nap before their first walk of the day. It was colder of course outside.

By the time I had shot my 2nd photo from the corner of the back of the house, Stella had already taken off and was running away. I had no idea what she was doing or where she was going but it was obvious she had a plan.

While she slowed (left side of pic) Sadie found interesting activity in the woods. I had barely stepped into the field and wasn't sure if I was ready for an all out sprint after her. I would have had to start sprinting after her if she were to head toward the gully.

As I kept an eye on Sadie, I glanced up looking for Stella. You can tell how far away I am by the incline of the field ... but for some reason Stella was heading in the opposite direction of our path and at a pretty good clip.  Where was she going? I now had two bloodhounds going in opposite directions so in my mind I had to chose which one I was going to focus on.

With Sadie backing her way out of the brush and back on the path along the edge of the woods, I turned to look for Stella.

At first I didn't see her anywhere and thought she had ran into the woods behind the neighbor's house. Then just barely did I see something that almost looked like a dead weed but it was too big, then it started moving ... I knew that had to be Stella moving through the field.

When I yelled her name it must have startled her ... notice the ear movement as she raised her head up quickly.

Then just like that she took off running for Sadie around the first turn. The wind chill of 24° must have added energy and motivation to the two hounds this morning. I didn't mind the chill. With little to no wind it wasn't that cold.

Just like yesterday, as I continued to walk, Stella stayed behind. I figured we would pick her up on the way back.

Sadie had plenty of work to do along the back edge of the field. She is out there for one reason, to inspect and identify scent. She is rarely concerned with what Stella is or isn't doing.

I kept zooming the lens to 200mm so I could see what Stella was doing and where she was. Sadie and I had barely made our final turn home and I could see that Stella was slowly walking toward the path to meet us.

There is nothing fast about Stella most of the time ... every time she walks it is slow and easy.

Just as Sadie and Stella met on the path, the trotted toward home but most likely to get to the new deer scat before I could stop them.

I had to remind myself this morning that any new leaves that fall to the ground in back, would not be raked. This area is raked for the last time and very few leaves are on the tree limbs above. The backyard is officially ready for it's first snow.

The hounds wanted to make sure that I raked all the leaves away from the fence and tree trunks. Once they approved of my work they trotted for the house.

With no wind I must admit it was tempting to get an early start on Phase 3, the final phase of the 2017 Leaf Project. It just didn't seem right to be outside raking leaves at 9am in 35° with a wind chill factor lower than that. I'll waited until the hound finish lunch before I got started about a 15° increase in warmth. I knew with the new large rake it wouldn't take me that long to finish the job.

Next spring I'll be straightening those edgers and backing them up with more dirt. It just shows how  much of the ground moves over the years. I am also thinking about making a new edge to the driveway possibly make it a little wider and changing the angle a little bit. With that dirt being a mixture of hard clay mixed in with gravel base that idea may not last long next April.

It was sometime close to 11am where Sadie was giving me her 'stare' that is usually signifying it's time for a walk. Walking now was not the usual time and was a strange request. Then I had my answer, Stella started howling which led Heidi to barking ... it was time for lunch.

Now 11am may be a little early for their lunch since they were fed around 7:15am but their stomachs didn't change a few weeks ago when Daylight Savings time 'fell back' ... so to them it was noon and time to eat.

This gave me a chance to go outside and check to see if it had warmed up enough to start raking leaves earlier than planned. My iPhone showed 35° but the old accurate carport thermometer was up to 42°.

Heidi agreed with me within a few short steps toward the driveway ... it was damn cold and not even close to 42°. With a slight wind from the SE not only was it making it feel colder than ever it also changed the leaf plan from raking across the yard to down the yard ... I always follow the direction of the wind when raking.

Heidi got no closer than this before turning around and running back inside. She decided it was way too cold to pee, that she could hold it and her Marmot sleeping bag was much warmer than standing outside freezing, trying to decide what to do.

I had the feeling it was not going to get near the forecasted high today. I almost talked myself out of finishing the lawn raking but with rain tomorrow and the Z4 parts arriving on Monday, I knew I had to finish this front yard today. So I put jackets on in layers and it wasn't long before my red North Face jacket was laying on the porch.

This took me only 1 hour and 5 minutes. That included clearing the culvert of leaves so any rain, snow or melting ice can pass through under the driveway.

I went inside and grabbed the two 20v batteries, pulled my new toy out of the shed and blew the few leaves left in the driveway, down to the highway letting traffic blow them away. Actually it took only one semi-truck passing by for those leaves to disappear.

With what battery I had left I started blowing the leaves along the drive over and under the fence to the bank where they were dry out and be burned in March or April as we burn off the bank.

The last fire for 2017.

Another productive day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Thought She Hid

 

On this morning's walk in freezing temps, Stella ran out front so far away I couldn't see her. Then I saw something a little bigger than a dead weed or dead hay ... plus it moved. So when I yelled Stella's name, it startled her ... she thought she was well hidden.

No Leaf Left Behind

With a full day of rain on Wednesday the plan was to let the leaves that had fallen to dry out until Friday when the whole yard would be raked a final time. The rain that stared in the middle of the night on Wednesday morning, took most of the remaining leaves from the trees near the yard. So as we started our day out with our normal walk, there was nothing planned but a few household tasks.

It was still quite wet early morning and cold. I decided to do the walk with the bloodhounds before coffee was even made. I needed to make a quick trip to Bloomington to return the mop I had bought because I found the corrected refills for my older mop on Amazon late last night. I could drink my coffee on the way there.  Both of them were full of energy this morning. They took that first turn at full speed just like a race horse.

This gives you some idea of what the rain and wind did to the remaining leaves that were on the trees  Monday.

With today and Friday have fairly high temps in the afternoon I was pretty sure I could finished the Leaf Project for 2017. Then when the Z4 parts arrive next week I can jump right into that job before the month of December gets here and the temperature drop to where that repair work would be quite uncomfortable.

Sadie spent a lot of the walk this morning looking back to see if I was going to keep up with them or not. Their morning walk pace was much faster than normal. I was hoping they were not going to attempt to escape toward the north woods, I wasn't in the mood to do any jogging ... at any speed.

Along the back edge of the field is always filled with strong scents of something. Probably deer.

While Sadie and I were lagging behind this morning, Stella took off like she was out on her own solo walk. She even chose the path we were to follow.

During the time we had lunch nothing had changed with the plans. I had no intentions of raking leaves today. I wanted to do some house cleaning, cook some meals in advance and possibly a load of laundry. So with the dishes hand washed and set up to dry, Sadie thought it was the right time to take the early afternoon walk. She did an inspection of the backyard before we got started and noted all of the leaves that had fallen since Tuesday.

I could see that once those leaves dried out today it wouldn't be much of a job to rake the last of them from the backyard, the north side yard and for the first time of the year, the front yard.

With a 15° bump in temperature it was the perfect weather to take a way. The sun was out but wasn't hot and the interesting thing was ... I couldn't feel any kind of wind, nada, zip.

If you look closely at the next picture you will see with Sadie stretched out from running her ears are in a position I have never seen them before. Not only have the flipped upward but have curled back forward at the same time. Whereas Stella's ears in the above photo is just the normal flapping up and down while she runs.

Sadie had definitely locked into something and was moving non stop with her nose to the ground.

That is until she heard something squealing. I heard it too and like her I could not tell where it was coming from nor what it was.

Stella in the meantime had figured out that Sadie and I had left her behind. She sprinted from the first turn all the way up to the ATV path. I thought she might follow Sadies earlier path but Stella really likes taking that ATV path back to our final turn. She will take that path almost every afternoon walk, but not in the morning.

You would think that she could tell that Sadie and I are just to the right of her but she is acting and running as if she doesn't know where we are, like we really have left her behind.

Sadie decides to start home, with her nose and ears still active.

Stella is taking the short cut to meet Sadie ... as all three of us hustled our way back home.

This is what we are looking at to rake to complete Phase 2 of the leaf project. The longer I walked and felt no wind I kept thinking it was the perfect time to rake the leaves. I was sure I could get the backyard and side yard finished, then do the front yard tomorrow. My house cleaning was moved to Friday afternoon once Phase 3 of the leaf project is completed.

I know that is not enough leaves to worry about in most peoples eyes. But it's my DNA ... I have to have a clean lawn before the winter starts dropping snow. It's just like I cannot mow just part of the yard in the Summer. I have to mow all of it wether some parts of the lawn need it or not.

I prefer the yard to look like this. Raking also gets the dead grass or weeds out of the yard.

It was time to try the new battery operated toy out on the driveway, which was covered in leaves. By the time I decided to take a picture of it I had already blown the leaves from the top of the driveway and was starting toward the bottom of the hill.

It is not as powerful as my electric leaf blowers, nor is it as loud. It works well enough, it's extremely light and didn't take a lot of time to clean off the driveway. I think it will do fine for what I want it for. I moved all the driveway leaves along the fence. Tomorrow after my two 20v batteries recharge I will move those leaves up and over the spaces in the fence to where they will stay on the bank until next spring for the annual bank fire.

The total leaf job took less than 2 hours. Yet I could feel how good of a workout I got just with the normal movement of raking. Start time for the final leaf raking project will depend on wind direction and air temperature Friday morning.

Now that I have recovered a little from more yard work, I'll get that load of laundry finished before the NFL game or college basketball games tonight on tv.

The big surprise of the day ... Sadie was sitting next to my desk chair this afternoon. She ever does that when there isn't any food around. So I knew she was trying to tell me something was wrong. She had plenty of clean cold water. She had been fed and walked twice, so it was strange as she sat as close to my chair as possible.

I took a look at her closer and started petting her and sure enough ... I felt a tick, then saw another one that had attached near her ear. Those were the only two ticks I found. Once I removed them, she was hopping around acting happy as if we were going out for a walk.

It was another productive day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Bloodhounds Ears Get Exercised

 

With two walks today not only were Sadie and Stella's noses getting a work out but their ears were flexing in positions I had never seen before. Take a look and see of you can see some of the weird positions the camera caught their ears in.