Hounds Survive Rain

Somewhere we lost a day this week. I have had a hard time believing today is already Friday.

There was a reason we didn't blog on Thursday. For most of the day we were shut inside with the surrounding area above the saturation point.

Each time I would step into the yard yesterday, water would come up around the edges of my shoes. Throw in the temperatures in the high 50s and it was a pretty easy decision to stay inside. It all started late Wednesday afternoon right after the hounds started home from visiting a friend.

About 15 miles from home it started raining at blinding speed and didn't stop. Later that night storms knocked out not only our internet signal for a short time but Directv was lost for about half of an inning in the Dodger/Cubs game.

Consequently Thursday didn't bring much action besides this. I guess the hounds didn't like feeling the water come up the sides of their paws. Heidi was not available for photos since her trips outside were an immediate right hand turn behind the yews and under the roof overhang each time she needed to go outside.

Today was a different story with sunshine trying to break through the overcast skies. Sadie and Stella were not outside long this morning before running to get back inside for their morning siestas.

Stella was still trying to wake up here this morning with her eyes closed.

It wasn't until a few hours after lunch, with hopes those extra hours would help dry the ground, that we had our first walk in two days.

With their fast start telling me the ground was okay to them ... we took off ... while water squished along the edges of my shoes with each step. The strange thing is, it gets wetter the higher the ground goes towards the back of the field.

There were plenty of deer scents to keep them interested but neither one stayed in one place for too long.

Stella follows a deer path in the thick brush.

Sadie continues to wait for me but I can tell she is anxious to keep moving on  ... she has places to go.

Then the normal nose exercises for each hound while Heidi stayed back inside with the temps barely crawling over 60°.

This is along the back edge of the field. Sadie is okay, but Stella tries to quietly sneak away into her 'no fly zone'.

Looking dismayed as usual, she returns to the house at the end of her walk.

With the overload of carbohydrates for lunch, it wasn't long before the hounds and I were down and out for an afternoon siesta for a few hours.

I will say the energy I felt with the Paleo Diet I followed for 16 months with meat, fish, chicken, eggs, fruits and veggies has disappeared with a large increase in carbohydrates, no meat, no fish, no poultry of any kind. It's been six weeks of a Vegan Diet and I am looking at making some adjustments.

We might see the World Series before November. It's one of my pet peeves when MLB runs too late in in the year. (Follow The Money) It will either be a good book, or a possible college football for tonight's entertainment.

In the meantime Sadie is letting me know we need to go for a 2nd walk to make up for the lost day yesterday. She has stood in the doorway staring at me the time I have taken to write and post this.

The fall temperatures are here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Hounds Enjoy A Day Off

After the big day yesterday fighting fires ... there were no plans for today except kick back and relax.

That sounded good over coffee but it wasn't long before Sadie demanded to take the morning walk.


The temps (low 70's) are perfect and they look to continue for the next week or so ... except for tomorrow where the high will be 59°. Sadie was more than happy to get started and always starts the walks by grabbing my left hand by her mouth as if she were leading me out into the field.

Stella veered off left almost immediately but was only looking for a spot to dump her tanks ... then ran back to join Sadie.

Recently there seems to be a lot more scents making them more active. When I see them moving like that I make sure my camera is ready to take any pictures of deer jumping out of the woods or running in back of the field.

I let both hounds roam without calling them. At the point where we turn to head home, I stood and waited for them to finished their exploring.

Before I turned around, Stella was trying to sneak off into the 'no fly zone' ... yet, she came immediately when I called her.

With Heidi back at home outside I decided to check Sadie to see if she could find her when I asked "where's Heidi".

I could see Heidi up by the trees wagging her tail when she saw us. She will not go on walks with us but likes to hang out in that part of the yard while we are gone.

Sadie meets Heidi.

Here Stella thinks she is going to escort Heidi back inside but Heidi had other ideas.

The sky looked like rain was on the way. The radar showed some small storms a state away so I figured I had time to rake the leaves from the bank or fence line up to the middle of the gravel driveway ... where I burned them. There wasn't much of a chance of the fire spreading, in the middle of gravel ... but I did keep my eye on it.

Since there are still a lot of leaves on the trees I am not concerned about getting every leaf right now. It was good we burned them when we did because by 2:15pm it was pouring rain.

Some suggested I brush the hounds weekly to cut down on the amount of dog hair caught in the FJ. I use two tools on all three hounds. Sadie has the softest coat of all and I can practically brush her non-stop with the rake and the mitt, never running out of hair. There is not one time I move that rake lightly through her coat that I don't get some excess hair out of her.

Heidi rarely sheds any hair and it doesn't matter what the season is. Using the rake very lightly across her coat, I might get just enough to cover the tips of those metal prongs ... with the mitt, close to zero amount of hair.

Stella loves to lay down and get brushed anytime that I want. For some reason she also rarely sheds hair. If I run the mitt across her coat multiple times ... I get nothing. If I move the rake across her coat a few times lightly ... I will not even fill the rake with hair.

Sadie is the dog hair culprit in the FJ.

We are going to wait a few hours to see if it dries out a little more before we take an afternoon walk. Last night our 2nd walk of the day included the 25' retractable leash on Stella and no camera.

As I write this it's a little past 4pm and I can feel a siesta coming on.

Another good day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

A Very Exciting Day

For a day where nothing was planned the hounds and I had a lot of activity, some excitement and a few answers.

I'm not sure where to start but I can say my first trip outside this morning Sadie and Stella went no further than this before they started heading back inside.

From the overcast skies, their lack of ambition and me not having my morning coffee yet ... it didn't seem like much was going to happen today. I'll give you a hint though ... wind and fire don't mix!!

By 10:30 I had two cups of coffee moving through my system, activating all my nerve endings, getting good blood flow and my brain waking up as those brain cells reacted to the caffeine in my system. It was time for our first walk of the day.

I could still feel the winds kicking up at 10-15mph, it was warm but not uncomfortable. It was going to be a good day.

Stella decided to deviate from the normal path and head to the left ... the far left ... although today she came toward our direction, without hesitation, the few times I had to call her.

She and Sadie met up before the first turn. I didn't see any deer but I could hear tree limbs breaking down in that gully to the right. I was preparing myself to get ready for some great photos ... thinking a deer chase was near.

It certainly looked like the pair was on to something.

No matter how hot the action is, when you have an itch ... you have to scratch it.

As we moved up near the far right corner of the field ... there was no action ... there was no deer chase ... in fact both hounds backtracked their way just to make sure they had not missed anything.

I think this is about as close I am going to get to some nice color this year for fall leaves.

All of us had made the last turn to head home ... when all of the sudden, Sadie took off to the left and was moving in all different directions, faster than my picture taking ability could keep up.

She gave up and decided nothing was there. I glanced toward the house today and I was certain that I did not see that much leaf color yesterday and they might not be there tomorrow with a prediction of rain ... so I decided to capture some history just in case.

As I continued to walk to the house the hounds continued to veer far right. They were on their own path home. Since I was going to back the FJ out, drag out my leaf blowers/vacuums from the shed ... I didn't mind them taking their time on the way home.

I came up with an idea to cover folded down backseats in the FJ, not only to protect them but hopefully to control the amount of dog hair getting on the seats. At first I had a pretty colorful Mexican blanket laid across the back of the seats ... that was until I was looking in closet for a 50' extension cord.

There is sat, in a different closet from the other Mexican blankets ... a blanket with colors that matched the FJ. Since the blanket matched I was now positive I would not be trading it in for a silver one. Later on I confirmed it, because I also found where that strange noise was coming from, that I mentioned over the weekend.

It might not make a difference but I hope to keep the dog hair from getting in between those seats that are folded. Also there is a felt type material on the back of those seats and that material is like a dog hair magnet ... so we will see how that works out.

Of coarse we had to check it out and take short test drive. Sadie was so excited about riding the FJ again she was beside herself with excitement. She practically ran over Stella and jumped over Heidi as she hopped up and down in front of me as we moved toward the FJ.

The short test ride worked out well. Heidi was in the front passenger seat looking out the open window. The two bloodhounds were in the back and within a couple of miles both were laying down.

That was not the excitement of the day though ... remember ... fire and wind?

With the strong winds yesterday from the south instead of the normal southwest .. a lot of leaves had collected along the back of the house and in the small side yard on the north side. I decided with a leave blower I'd blow all of them "with the wind" and eventually get them down close to the highway to let normal traffic flow and southern winds to blow them out of my yard.

The first part worked great ... I had moved a large pile of leaves down along the side of the front yard. Sadie and Stella sat and watched the whole evolution. About the time I started blowing them a little closer to the highway .... for some strange reason I decided to burn them.

I convinced Sadie and Stella they needed to stay inside while I burned the leaves I had moved to the lower front yard. Without that 2nd water hose I had nothing for fire control except a garden rake. I had a plan as I stood in the field to watch the fire progress.

I had been wanting to burn the brush on the north side of the yard for many years but never took the time to do it. So it was good to get the bank cleared along with my small pile of leaves that were in the front yard.

My plan was to walk along the fire line between the field and the brush area and push burning leaves back into the area that was already burned. That was keeping the fire from spreading into the field.

The previous picture and the next picture, I am standing in my front yard facing the direction the fire was moving.

I was able to keep the fire from moving down the bank toward the highway. Although both neighbors burn their banks every spring from their yards down to the edge of the highway shoulder.

It was a little exciting as I was in the middle of the brush fire, pushing the fire line back into the burned area ... at the same time that fire was migrating to my right down the bank slowly toward the highway and also to my left through the trees on the opposite end of the fire, approximately 60'-80' away.

This shows how much the fire moved among the trees along my fence toward the field in back. I was walking in that brush trying to push what burning leaves and brush I could, back into the burned area to keep the fire from spreading with my garden rake. I was also using the old technique of stepping on the fire with my old expensive New Balance shoes that were designated "yard shoes' years ago. All without my water hoses.

That burned area got as far as the right side of the picture below or almost three sections of fence ... opposite direction from the fire moving down the bank toward the highway.

 
Remember when I spoke of my relationship with 'Murphy's Law" the other day ... maybe yesterday??? well as I was working the fire line .. I pulled my rake through some thick burning brush .... MY RAKE HANDLE BROKE????

So all I had left to control the fire were my shoes. By this time I was almost finished anyway but I still had fire moving toward the highway and in the opposite end 80 feet away toward the field in back !!

So a small pile of leaves, this side of that burned area, that curls out into the yard ... and one match ... with off and on wind gusts ... burned that much area.

There were a few good things that came out of all of this ....

The leaves were gone. That area among the trees I had wanted to burn for 10 years or more was finally burned. The field did NOT catch on fire. I did NOT catch on fire and no passing cars caught on fire .... so all of that was good.

Yet ... the best is yet to come.

Since I was filthy with fire smoke, black fire soot on my legs and a little on my face ... I was dirty enough that I could crawl under my Toyota FJ while it was running with hopes of finding what that 'strange noise' was. The one that I have been hearing off and on for many months.

I also wanted to check out something that I thought might be the culprit of the dash warning lights I spoke of the other day.

The catalytic converters are shot ... wore out. Sometimes the one in front would make a vibrating sound on the inside while the engine idled. From what I have previously read that is also why I have the check engine light. It is also the 'strange noise' I have been hearing sometimes but not all the time.

I was scared it was a transmission noise, so I am glad it's an expensive catalytic converter repair instead of a more expensive transmission repair. If those are bad I am sure the O2 Sensors are bad, thus the reason for the codes the reader found for O2 Senors.

By 2:15pm, I was clean, I had my FJ answers and a new blanket that matched the FJ colors so the hounds could ride in back again and the fire only burned what I wanted it to burn .... plus the hounds were sleeping in preparation of their late afternoon walk.

An interesting, successful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.