Don't Know Yet

I keep having to pinch myself every morning as I pour my first cup of coffee to make sure that I am seeing another day of great weather. Where did it come from and how did it turn into a daily repeat. Mid to high 80's, low 60's at night, cool breeze in the morning and sunshine. So I was curious very late last night to check AccuWeather and see what the months of August and September might bring.

It was all the same, with a few days of rain which will be a welcomed sight. By late September we will drop to the low 80s to mid 70's thru October. So I didn't feel guilty at all today as another day passed with me doing nothing on the 'to do' list. A list that was postponed after reading a DYI article that put most of my tasks on the list of "Never do these in humid weather" ...

By the time I had finished taking all the photos of the field, the sky and the edge of the woods that are trying to grow wild blackberries ... both hounds were already by the first turn. Obviously they were more interested in eating today than tracking making it one of our harder walks.

No change in the status of Sadie's lump. Can you see it in the above photo?

The gully is usually passable in the summer with some slight overgrowth. I never go down into the gully because the floor of it is always wet, and ground soft enough to go over your shoes. I found that out over ten years ago when I was trying to find my other bloodhound Bertha (before Sadie).

If it is as thick as it looks then it's no wonder that I have not heard the ATV traffic in this area like I did last summer. Nor have we seen any deer at anytime day or night.

I waited and waited with the camera focused, holding it still and waiting for the butterfly to open its wings. It flew away just as it did. I wasn't able to catch it today with the wings fully open.

That roll of hay is on our return path. I walk around it on the right side to keep on the path. This morning Stella decided she would try a new route to that roll of hay. Of course she had no plans to walk around it ... but by it ... and try to escape to the woods straight ahead. Ignoring my calls I ended up following her and leading her by the collar back to the path. It's only Wednesday and I can see her theme of the week is to be as stubborn as possible, at least on the morning walks.

Everything is green.

I saw this just left of the house two photos above. So I put my camera on this spot and waited for the RV to fly by. Very nice.

Sadie was ready to head to the yard, then inside where it was cool. Stella could have stayed outside all day I think but the times I have tried that and went into the house without her ... it will not be 10 minutes later that she is standing by the door looking inside, wondering if she is going to get to come inside.

All you plant experts ... any ideas what has happened to this leaf?

After a late night last night downloading the new macOS beta on my iMac and laptop I started the day about an hour later than normal. I remembered that this time of year nothing gets done in the mornings until the Tour de France is over. That takes up most of my July as I like to watch it mid-morning, a taped copy that I start about the time they are actually finishing the race.

Our afternoon was a little different today. Since the temperature was only 82° we finished our afternoon walk a little before 3pm today. I also took my camera with me instead of taking Stella on the retractible leash. I wanted to see if I could see some butterflies, so I turned the 'beep' sound off on my camera that tells me the photo is in focus. This morning that small beep was making them fly away. Also that afternoon light is much better for taking photos.

The funny thing was I did not see one butterfly as I am making the first turn of the walk. They were out yesterday afternoon but not today so maybe we were too early.

Stella and I had walked around the roll of hay as we started our return ... Sadie decided she was going to get a little running in this afternoon. Everything may look green compared to where you live but this field is really dry. I could hear the grass 'crunch' with each step and was glad we didn't have fires anywhere near.

As I turned on our 'alternate path', here was the first butterfly up ahead. They were in the hover mode today and really didn't sit still to where they would spread their wings out all the way.

Sadie glanced up seeing Stella and I were way ahead ... she decided she didn't want to be left behind and started her second run of the walk.

It feels like a 10° drop in temperature as soon as we step inside the shade. I was already at the corner of the house ready to go inside but both bloodhounds were enjoying the shade.

You can see by two tongues hanging out, that Sadie and Stella felt it was a lot hotter than 82°. They will be wishing for this weather next December.

Phase III of my beta macOS is working better. I can see where Apple programmers have made some slight changes as they move to an official release this fall. They have made the font brighter than the grey color Phase I & II had. The computer wakes up faster from the sleep mode. Even in the Photo program, the edit button's font was changed to black making it much easier to read than the very light grey on a yellow button. So I guess they really do pay attention to the feedback sent in by beta users.

What is strange in this OS so far, when I log into my blog it sends me to the dashboard but when I click "view blog", where I either want to read or make comments on other blogs ... Safari and Google Chrome log me out ... Firefox keeps me logged in. You would think since Google owns Blogger which owns this blog that they would always keep me logged in. I have a feeling that Google and Apple will not work smoothly in the future when both platforms are used together.

They don't have their desktop page fixed yet, where the large pile of sand in the Mojave changes color depending on your location. For instance the sky and sand dune will get darker as it gets later.

For those that have either signed up to follow the blog by email or have requested me to put their email address in my automatic notification system inside the blog ... I don't have any answers on why it is not working properly. There is nothing I can do to change the code to make it work as I have to work with what Blogger has given me in their template.

The weird thing is, when I put my own email address into the box to notify me of a new post ... I received the invite immediately in my inbox asking me if I wanted to follow the blog. Other's say they never received the invitation email. When I signed up to follow by email by using the box on the right side of the blog page, I too have to wait 14-16 hours before I received an email copy of the latest blog post. To me that is not right either.

Since I have no answers I suggest to those readers that still want to follow the blog on your own. Click the title 'Hounds and Other Stuff'. That will load the correct URL in the address bar, for you to either copy and paste into your Feedly Reader account or add it to your blog roll. If you do not have a Feedly Reader account and/or a blog ... then bookmark the blog or make it a favorite (depending on your operating system) and click on your bookmark/favorite when you are wanting to read the blog. If there is a new post it will automatically be at the top of the home page.

Hard to believe another week is halfway over here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Enjoy My Retirement

I couldn't come up with a title for this post this morning. That doesn't mean I can't put a post together and give it some time to 'simmer' and hopefully the day will come up with something to put in that title block. The rain did not show up again yesterday, while my friend in Chicago told me she had 2" in less than 15 minutes yesterday. We are a few hundred miles south of Chicago. Like always the bloodhounds lead me outside to start a new day. If it weren't for them I wonder if I would take as many walks per day? I think I would.

I still think this is the prettiest flower in the field, no matter how dangerous it is.

I felt on Sadie's right side this morning, no change. It's not gushy with fluid, it's not hard like a rock, it's a bit smaller in area and it feels just like it would if you felt her stomach ... there's still a small lump.

Verbal herding was needed this morning and a lot of it. They did not hear the bribes I was offering them for when they returned to the house. They did not hear me mumbling to myself. They did not hear anything I told them ... nada, zip ... nothing.

I have a new container of K9 Creme that I am going to apply on Stella's elephant spots. Hopefully that will work and it will show if it does or not in the following blog posts for the next few weeks, maybe months, or longer.

Here is the only photo I could get of Sadie's right side ... she wasn't thrilled about it. If my eyes are focused correctly, I can barely see that fatty tissue ... can you?

With the morning temps in the mid-70's, it was nice and cool each time we walked in the shade. When we made the first turn, a slight cool breeze hit me from the NE ... I could tell it was going to be another nice day here in 'the tropics' ... you cannot beat summer weather like this. The Farmer's Almanac predicted it would be wetter than normal this summer ...

If you are wondering, yes I did have to backtrack and take a hold of Stella's collar to get her to move. She was in the same position you see even after I grabbed her collar and refused to move. She didn't growl ... just didn't move.

A little color in the field.

From a distance the 7 acre field looks flat. It's not. There are not large hills but there is plenty of rolling terrain as these two regular size rolls of hay show. The times I have walked from the woods up ahead, back to our direction in that area, the incline looks tall and steep.

How long will the hay sit in this field before they load it onto a trailer and take it away.

That might look like Stella is increasing her walking speed, don't let it fool you ... one paw at a time ... slow slow slow.

A smaller roll and was probably the last bale the did. It was rather a poor outcome with about 50% of the hay they normally get from the first cut of the summer.

Hard to see but the trees near the house show the slight breeze from the NE.

Is it food she smells, does she hear people talking, or is it some kind of other noise?

When everything seems to be green, including the house (painted to blend into the environment) ... this bright red leaf stood out 100' away.

I did a flea search on Stella last night with one of those metal flea combs that will bring a flea to the surface ... not one flea was found. So it has to be allergies, maybe environmental? Pollen? Grass?

Allergies reminded me of all the different kinds of Grain Free Food I was feeding the hounds a couple of years ago. I found this article this morning to be interesting and concerning. If you feed your dogs Grain Free Food ... take a look.

FDA warns pet owners about the dangers of Grain Free Food ... here.

Since February of 2017 all three of the hounds have been on Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice without the long list of fruits and veggies. I stuck with it because it because Heidi got results in battling her skin issues and Stella's coat was softer than ever plus she started gaining her weight back. Sadie's coat was also and continues to be softer than ever.

A vet told me when he was looking at Heidi at her worst, in his study on food allergies for dogs, only 3% of those allergies were food related. He said they had found that one cause was the beef in Heartworm meds. Yet, Heidi never responded to treatment in 2015 (?) with environmental allergy meds. She did not respond to Grain Free Food but she did respond to a food with fewer ingredients.

Of course I have a spreadsheet to compare all the different foods I fed the hounds, listed by each ingredient.

The following photos are going to give you a pretty good idea of the daily routine of the hounds after their lunch. I don't know why, but rarely do they do anything more than this. Today was very nice outside, nice enough to sit outside and just enjoy the day ... but it wasn't more than 15 minutes where they wanted back inside.

They don't understand that it's a life of retirement that gives them this opportunity in the middle of the day. A little over 4 years of me being retired and I still enjoy each and every day as they do also.

Obviously from the photos you can see they do a lot of thinking about possible plans or scents to check out that they missed in the morning.

With Stage 10 of the Tour de France being in the Alps today, it was nice to watch that in the middle of the day, fast forwarding through the 3 minute commercials. Fantastic shots of the Alps taken from the aerial tv cameras during the race. It's really unbelievable country and villages in France.

It looks like Stella could sleep there all afternoon but she was at the door wanting back inside within 10 minutes after Sadie, Heidi and I had gone inside.

Of course after watching all of that bike riding up 7% - 9% mountain grades, for over 100 miles having a few flat sections between climbs all of us were exhausted by the time their 4 hour race was over. They moved from their living room sleeping spots to the bedroom floor while all of us took a nice long siesta. Just another advantage of being retired.

The highlight of the night will be watching the MLB All-Star game. I will not tune in until after all the 'made for tv' introductions are finished. I will miss all of the pre-game festivities. I just like watching the game itself. Anymore it seems like the MLB, NBA, and the NFL all try to be more extravagant than the other sports All-Star games or the NFL Super Bowl. As a long time sports fan I will say it's all out of control anymore ... a topic I find very irritating.

Although it was 88°, the cooler wind from the north made it possible to take a late afternoon walk. Sadie took her normal path while I walked Stella on the retractable leash.

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