Hounds Get A Bonus Walk

Woke up this morning early to the sound of wind. Luckily the air was warm instead of cold like last week. I could tell at 7:45am we had a really good chance to reach above 80° today.

Most of the tree leaves were taking 90° turns due the 15-20mph winds from the SSW. That the opposite direction need to have the leaves in the yard blowing toward my burn pile.

By midday it was time for the first walk of the day. I was fortunate that all the high winds were not blowing all the allergens into the air, and unlike the days after they cut the field ... I had no allergy problems ... I was having a memory problem.

I have to tell both Sadie and Stella to 'go on' to get them past those piles of soft dirt. For some reason they like to eat the soft dirt pushed up by moles, even in the yard.

They were happy to move on though and get into their walk.

It was about this time that I remembered I had left the hot water running in the bathroom sink, with my wash cloth blocking the drain plug, preparing for a shave. I knew the sink had a drain opening at top that would probably work ... but 'Murphy's Law' and I have never had a good relationship.

I told the hounds "come on we have to go" ... and started trotting back to the house to cut the walk short. Of coarse this confused the heck out of Stella because she had not finished her walk yet ... Sadie only heard the word "go" and thought we were trotting to go ride in the FJ, so she was right beside me.

Stella wasn't happy about the situation but trotted behind me all the way to to the house. I was right, the water was at the top flowing through the emergency opening at the top of the sink. I decided while I was there and the wash cloth was hot, I'd go ahead and shave. (Harry's is the best razor blade I've ever used)

Both hounds laid by the bathroom door watching me ... so I thought 'why not'?? Why not go back walking at a leisure pace so they could finish their walk? Off we went ... Sadie was thrilled, hopping up and down trying to grab my hand with her mouth. While Stella started with her lumbering slow walk into the field.

These next two photos don't show the sharp drop off in the area of about 50' deep just past the trees.

It didn't take long for Stella to get back where the deer must spend a lot of time during the night. That is her favorite spot of the walk.

As Ed said ... too warm for vibrant leaf colors this year.

Since I had not forgotten anything else, I went at the hound pace of slow and even turned into the far right corner of the field. That also gave me a different angle/view of the field looking NW, where you can barely see our path left of that roll of hay.

There are so many scents in this field from start to finish I really believe that Stella would spend the day exploring each one if I were to let her roam on her own. Yet, with that freedom she would eventually get herself in trouble or have possible highway problems by following her nose and curiosity.

I wanted this photo to show the color of the mahogany trees to the right of my house. That tall tree on the left side is a sycamore tree and the last of three trees that tall that did not blow down in June 2008. Those other two trees that tall were on the bank along my driveway.

I played around with some suggestions from searching the FJ forum and a Google Search to reset the 'check engine light'. I'll find out if it worked the next time I take the FJ for a short drive. The gasket inside my gas cap looks in good shape and fairly new. I need to crawl underneath the FJ and look around ... find those O2 Sensors and see if dirt or corrosion is the problem.

As far as changing gasoline, that won't happen soon since I still have 3/4 of a tank left and no more than a little local driving planned.

After the 2nd hound walk at 12:34pm, I shut Sadie and Stella in the bedroom, Heidi roamed the house and I took off in the Z4 for a drive on the 42 mile loop. The top was down but with high winds that's all I could hear ... the wind. It was great to come home and see that Stella added to her days of "no damage while I am gone" to her record. Her last episode of separation anxiety was June 24th, this past summer.

The day was so nice even with the high winds, all of us spent the afternoon outside. Evidently I have thrown away my 2nd water hose that I use to connect and make it stretch out to the wood pile. I would have it to use in case my fire would get out of hand. I can't find the second water hose anywhere, so the burn pile will stay as is until I get another hose.

The hounds enjoyed being outside but since I cut that area last week, both of them have been more interested in that spot than roaming the field.

When Sadie and Stella came back and were either sitting or standing by my chair I decided it was time to head back inside. I could play some Mahjong and fix some late lunch. It was a few minutes later that Heidi was at the door wanting outside.

Lately she likes to go outside by herself and enjoy her time alone. When I didn't see her in the driveway or the front yard, I glanced through the bedroom window to see her sitting in the shade enjoying the breeze. The picture was taken from the inside, shooting through a screen window.

After a late lunch and a lot of games of Mahjong, I decided it was time for the 3rd walk of the day. I had to wake both bloodhounds up to make that walk ... it was a decision I wish I had not made.

Along the woods that border the field right behind my house.

Just by the way Stella was acting I could tell this walk might not turn out well. She was going places she was not allowed to, multiple times. Remember if you 'give her an inch she will take a mile' ...

That proved to be the case tonight.

As they both followed the deer path and headed to the right corner, I decided I would continue my walk and stand where we turn to go to the house and wait for them.

This is just before the point I stood to wait, along the back edge of the field.

Through the camera lens I can still see both hounds, so that's good. Sadie never likes to lag behind for too long and you can see she starts to run toward me. Stella is to the right of her and as long as I could see her, it was okay.

Of coarse before Sadie can get to me, there is one spot that both hounds like to spend time at and in this case Sadie turned right to that spot.

Stella is still in view so that is good. I am standing pretty far away using the 200mm setting to see them.

I was looking the opposite direction toward the north part of the field, trying to find a good picture to take ... when I turned back around Stella was nowhere to be seen.  NOT GOOD!!!!

I knew she had disappeared down "the deer highway", a path I posted here last night. So I sprinted from the top of the field, past Sadie toward that 'deer highway' in hopes of catching Stella before she wandered down into that gully which leads to a country road between these fields and the landscaping business you see pictured.

When I start walking on that deer path I still cannot see Stella. Calling her name she shows up and had been a little future on the path and "down" into the gully a little bit.

It would be an understatement to say I wasn't happy ....

The walk stopped immediately and all three of us walked a direct route back to the house. She knew she was in trouble because she sprinted into the house and headed for the bedroom instead of the computer room. She is still hiding as I post this.

Other than that ... it was a great day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Some Sunday Rambling

{Warning: Long and lots of photos}

Every day starts the same. The hounds are fed their breakfast somewhere between 7:30 - 8:30am. At times we may start our day then or later, depending on what I do.

Today ... it started really late. I guess that is what happens when you are watching college football at 2am eastern time. Both were great games and hard to turn off ... so I watched them to their finish. That added up to around 14 straight hours of college football ... flipping to check on other games when a commercial came on during the 'main' game.

During those 14 hours of college football viewing, the daily routine of the hounds does not change. They get their two meals per day, their two walks per day, their normal siestas in their different spots throughout the house.

All three of them go outside the very first thing in the morning. While they are outside I pour out their breakfast kibble. They never leave the yard when they know they are about to be fed food. Then while they are eating I am making my coffee.

After they finish eating, and as the coffee drips ... we head out for my first photos of the day. Some times they will wander the field but recently they don't do much but check out the area I cut just last week, explore the yard and then return to the house for a morning nap.

We took our first walk of the day after their lunch. Even with overcast skies, it felt warm ... like t-shirt warm. Checking when I got back, it was 75°. It is preparing us for three straight days in the 80's starting tomorrow, before the steep drop to 66° on Thursday.

Speaking of the warm fall weather, Ed answered my post about leaf color and why some years they are bright and other years they are dull. It explains what I was wondering about.

His info:

This may be what you are looking for: "A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors."

While on the walk this morning I thought about not his answer but why does he have the inclination to look up something like that on the internet and I don't. He also answered my question a few weeks ago when I wondered why don't farmers here cut their corn shorter than they normally do, compared to other areas of the USA or Canada.

As long as I can remember, which is back to when I was approximately 5 years old ... rocks, leaves, bugs, exploring, etc ... didn't interest me. Sports did. I remember drawing up football and basketball plays on a piece of paper. I had a scrapbook of baseball and football cards ... but I never had a bug collection or leaf collection.

It's too bad I glued those baseball cards to scrapbook paper because some of those cards were worth thousands of dollars, if they didn't have that spot of 50 year old dried glue on the back of them.

Of coarse back in the 60's growing up, sports were not on tv 24/7 but you had the "game of the week" during baseball which was the New York Yankees every Saturday afternoon on CBS. While living in the Indianapolis television area, the weather man for the CBS channel in Indianapolis was someone by the name of Dave Letterman. Funny stuff, even if you didn't care about the weather.

As far as football games on Saturday, I can't remember seeing any more than one game per Saturday and Sunday's had one NFL game on each channel ... CBS and NBC. For me that included the Chicago Bears most of the time on CBS and the Cincinnati Bengals on NBC.

Later when something called the AFL started, some of those games could be watched on Saturday nights.

I guess I am getting off track here but what I am trying to say ... growing up, sports were what I was most interested in. Sixty years later it's still the same thing. I will go on Google to search for sports statistics or sports information but rarely will I go on Google to search for a name of a flower, a bird, or anything I don't have the answer for dealing in the subject of nature.

As far as driving, I've always enjoy 'road trips' but have never been able to stop and enjoy the scenery ... everything seemed to be drive straight through. Those 'road trips' included more than a few trips from San Diego to Indiana and some from Seattle to Indiana. Or the time I took "The Loneliest Highway in the USA" ... US Hwy 50 ... from Sacramento to Indiana. I still drove that non-stop ... stopping for only gas or a gas station to open so I could get gas ... drive thru's for food ... a couple of short 1 hour naps.

I commented at the time on this blog, I thought that might be the reason I enjoyed the driving as much if not more during our one week trip to Utah in June 2015.

I have a pretty long list of blogs I follow over on the left side of this blog. Some of those blogs moved back and forth, off and on that list ... so if there is a blog you use to read that is no longer listed and would like to see it again ... let me know the the name or what it was about and I'll add it back to the list.

As I read those blogs there are fantastic photos of places they are traveling ... I have found I have been to a lot of those places, although not RVing and in some cases I lived in places they blog about. I admit I have lived in some pretty amazing places and some of those are blogged about by other bloggers ... it's quit different compared to the lifestyle here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana with the hounds.

Iv'e looked back through this post and see that I have only talked about one thing I was planning to write about when I started to "ramble" ... and now can't remember what I was planning to write about ... lol ... typical for getting older.

I'll let this post sit here and simmer a little to see if my brain cells can go out and gather up what I was going to write about. I had other things I wanted to ramble about that would not include religion or politics.

Photos info ... all the photos up to this point were taken by my Nikon D3200 camera with the Tamron 18-200mm lens and none of them were edited, just straight photos with any flaws they may have.

Photos from this point forward were taken by my iPhone 6S. Their new photo program will let me edit them just like I do on my computer but I will keep the original photo format just to so we can compare.

Their football positions.

Hang on ... may memory is coming back!

Why do I have an interest in trading my FJ for another FJ, same year, maybe different options, just to change color to silver to match my silver Z4 ??? Crazy isn't it?

     Or it might be that sound I hear while driving that I cannot determine if it is a maintenance problem, tire noise or just my imagination.

If all my research on dog food over the years, visits to four different vets in 15 months for Heidi's skin issues and discussions with all of those vets about allergies that hounds have ... show there is only a 3% chance those allergies are caused by dog food instead of the environment ....

     Why don't I move to a different location instead of changing dog food to eliminate allergies Heidi has, Sadie licking her leg or Stella scratching where no fleas are present?

Will there ever be a way to get away from Directv or Dish Network's high prices and still see the same number of ballgames that I watch ... without "streaming" those games to my tv? Streaming movies or games is something I cannot do because of my monthly data limit on my home internet service.

     I'm sure there will be. I am getting teasers to try Sling TV to watch certain games but not all games. Apple TV keeps making improvements, does that use internet data? I'll have to check.

Will my location always keep me from the latest in technology ... or does that even matter?

     If there isn't a game on I want to watch or an occasional movie I want to see ... my tv is not turned on. Still, will I be 'squeezed' out by new television technology getting television signals in the future due to what services are available in my area?

Why do I have a 'check engine' light on my FJ dashboard and some other lights here in Indiana but those same lights disappeared while traveling in through Kansas, Colorado and Utah in June 2015?

     I've check that issue with Google searches, FJ forums and tried all of their suggestions to fix the issue. I even talked to the service manager at the Toyota dealership about it. The other day I saw something new .... the gasoline I am using may have too much ethanol in it. Once this tank of gas is used I am changing to a 'top tier' gas station and go back to 91-93 octane instead of 89 octane I've been using.

Deer Highway - Major Traffic

I still wonder at times what keeps Purina dog food in business after 85 years if their dog food is as bad as it is rated? Are all of those positive reviews online just fake?

     Is everything just over analyzed now days ... and I mean everything.

While holding the iPhone camera horizontal I found out if you press the volume adjustment button, the camera will take the photo.

Even with a different camera, Stella still likes to hang back and take the walk on her own pace.

She also still likes to try to sneak off in the neighbor's direction if I am not looking.

She also is not happy when I catch her trying to sneak off and decides it's best to follow Sadie and I home.

Interesting results using the iPhone on the 5pm walk. Depending on the light, the iPhone takes great photos, but I didn't see anything here that would make me want to replace my Nikon D3200 as my main camera.

The iPhone camera is a good camera to substitute for a smaller camera and taking photos inside.

One a final note ... as of today there are only 9 of 32 NFL teams with a winning record.

It's been a great weekend here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana (except for that Hoosiers loss against Nebraska)

It Was A Good Saturday

Started the day early with a little fog. About an hour later the sun was trying it's best to fight through to make it another great day.

Sadie stood out in the field ready for the first walk of the day. That is her pose for the 'stare down' telling me it's time for a walk. She has the same pose inside or outside and will not move unless she knows the walk is going to start. There was a problem though ....

I had not had my first cup of coffee yet and we never start the day until I have a couple of cups in my bloodstream to get the brain cells activated. She and Stella came running for the door while I yelled "coffee" ... that is their new command to get them to come inside after their short 2nd trip outside just after their breakfast.

After a breakfast and some online reading, plus printing out my tv schedule for the college football schedule today ... the bloodhounds and I headed out for the first to two walks today.

The leaves are dying before they can really change their color ... it's different every year. I am not sure why but I am sure there is a reader out there that has a simple answer.

When the hounds are together and have their noses to the ground, most of the time that grass is worn down like our path but it's not my path ... it's the path the deer take.

Stella got in some good sprinting and an 'ear workout'. You would think that would air her ears out a little.

That deer path I mentioned is pictured right here. You'll notice the grass is mashed down along the edge between the cut grass and the overgrown brush.

That is one reason both hounds love to spend time eating deer scat buried deep in that brush, that is never cut by the farmer that bales hay.

I decided today that I would follow the field instead of my path and that put us up in the far right corner of the field and a different view when taking a photo. Those trees are what I see from the house that border the field. It's a deep gully to the left of those trees, 50 to 60 feet deep.

They both enjoyed I deviated from my normal path, so they could cruise the edge of the field along the back side all the way to the point in the walk where we turn and head back to the house.

Stella started heading the direction of the neighbor's house until I called her. Then she came trotting toward me knowing she had given it a good attempt before being caught.

While I followed the path home, they both took what I call the 'long way' .. always in view but they walk through the field over to the north corner of my yard and then walk toward the house.

By the time we got inside it was time for college football, plus a bowl of those beans that had been cooking in the crockpot all night.

I will say the Google Photos is working out well. I have over 27,000 photos loaded. The website is free and I can access every photo I own from my iPhone or iPad Mini without using any of their hard drive memory. It doesn't take that much longer to upload the pictures I take every day into Flickr, which does not compress the size of the file and a much better photo.

Well it's 12:33am local time and I am watching the 2nd half of two football games ... UCLA at Washington State and the Boise State game on a different channel. Being up this late watching the games out west is the normal Saturday routine. I did catch the Cubs grand slam home run in the 8th inning during a commercial of the Ohio State game I was watching at the time.

I almost forgot, after the Indiana loss to Nebraska (made me sick), the hounds and I went out for their 2nd walk of the day before we started the 8pm games. Due to the time of day (possible deer), I put the 25' retractable leash on Stella .. she didn't mind. I didn't have an extra hand to take photos of the 2nd walk.

As far as my searching or just looking at different tv, internet options ... it always ends the same due to my location. Not all services they advertise are available so what I have works very well and I don't mind that I don't have to change services ... I'd just like to pay them less money.

I will say it's great to be back in the smartphone and iPad mini life ... both are used a lot and are very handy for supplementing my older memory.

Another great day here in 'the topics' of southern Indiana.