Hounds Feel The First Frost

I could tell from the start, it was colder than it had been this morning. While I walked through the kitchen to let the hounds outside, the open window told me wearing cargo shorts may not be an option today.

Camera in hand as usual for the first pictures of the, I heard the grass and leaves crunching like potato chips with each step as Sadie headed for the field.

Stella decided she would come back outside later when it was a little warmer.

By 9:30am we were on the first walk of the day and I must admit, it was colder than I expected ... or it might have been the cargo shorts I was wearing. We continued on ...

As with each new day there are new scents for the hounds to explore but this morning they both locked into something and took off running around the first turn before I was even near that point. I had to use the 200mm setting to catch their running pictures.

They flew by that one spot on the right side that has been holding their interest the past couple of weeks and it was obvious they were not going to wait for me to catch up. I was actually expecting some deer activity as I turned the corner.

They stopped just for a few seconds to see if I was coming, then bolted into the field with a lot of activity that I did not catch with the camera. Sadie was moving in all kinds of different directions, many more than what the pictures show.

It was good that both of them got some running in and plenty of nose exercise.

It's funny to think back to when my neighbor bought this field through another neighbor's estate sale. He told me he was thinking of planting corn in the field, while alternating it with soy beans each year ... I am glad that didn't happen. It's really nice to have access to this property just behind the house.

I took this next picture directly into the sun. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I liked the shadows I was seeing. I'm sure with a polarized lens filter, I could have changed the quality of the picture.

Sadie had her nose to the ground toward the end of the walk all the way through the yard up to the corner of the gravel driveway. With Stella acting about the same way, there must have been a lot of animal activity near the house last night as we slept.

Stella held this pose for a while ... I have no idea what she had picked up on.

That is about all the leaves I have left in the backyard to rake, all the way over to the house. There is about the same amount in the front yard. The mahogany tree is leafless but the sycamore tree by the driveway still has large leaves on the top half of the tree.

I am thinking Monday we will complete rounding up the leaves for 2016.

Nothing out of the ordinary planned for Saturday. Typical day and night of college football, with a walk or two for the hounds slid in between games or at halftimes. With less than two hours until the first games kickoff, the only decisions on the table to be made are ... do I change my cargo shorts to jeans ... and do I make a fast run to the store for some groceries.

It's sunny but chilly here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

The Hounds Prefer Public Blogging

After some discussion with the hounds, some thinking, analysis and adding some home security features ... the hounds decided they wanted to come back to public blogging.

It seemed like a good day to make the change since it's a Friday and starting a holiday weekend for those that celebrate Daylight Savings Time which also makes a change sometime around 2am Saturday night. I use to love that "fall back" when I was working but now it only affects the hound's eating schedules.

Stella has been starting her days off this week with some yoga while facing the west. I know she is in deep thought when her ears are laid back like that.

While Stella meditated, Sadie decided it looked like and felt like it was too cold and wet to be walking anywhere in the field and was more than happy to head back into the house, for me to drink coffee while they get a short nap in.

This past week had a couple of days of 10mph winds from the SSW. That was just strong enough to blow the leaves off the trees and out of the yard ... at least most of them. A little rain one night that week also helped clearing the trees. We are almost to the point for the last leaf roundup of 2016.

Stella has continued her habit of lagging behind on our walks. Usually by the third walk of the day I will carry the retractable leash with me in case she gets into a mode of totally ignoring me.

I could tell as soon as they made the first turn that the scents were strong and it might come to a point where I would have to make the trek north to bring them back out of the 'no fly zone'. Yet, it's Friday so why not let them do as they want and go as far as they want, just as long they don't head towards the houses which are near the highway.

This is when it became interesting as they both lock into something of interest and take off to the left, faster than I wanted to follow.

At this point in time I was pretty sure they were headed over the slight incline and were off to the races, following whatever scent they had picked up. I did not see any deer on the horizon but the noses of the hounds were certainly active this morning.

Sadie head over to touch noses with Stella signaling to her they need to get back. Soon after they both started running toward me. During this time I had not said a word, just kept walking along our path.

I've been pretty happy with the weight that Sadie has lost this summer. It's never good to have a bloodhound overweight. I'm sure the 2-3 walks per day help her.

Stella is a year younger than Sadie and has possibly gained a couple of pounds since she arrived in August 2015, but is still showing a trim waistline and is in the correct weight range.

From the 'far north' to the 'far right', they ran to their favorite place. They have both figured out the deer path that leads down into the gully. That gully is definitely off limits to them.

This picture will look about the same in a couple of months but it will be only 40+° colder and possibly white from a snow fall. I'd like for it to stay like it is ... high 60's, and sunny.

Just because we are on the last turn toward home doesn't mean that Stella stops with her purging of the field.

I slide the lens to 18mm to show just how far away she was from us. I turned to walk home without calling her to see what she would do.

When Sadie stood looking at Stella I knew things were turning bad. Stella was headed to the woods behind the neighbors house and that is outside the boundary for her. As I backtracked calling her name ... she eventually came running toward me. It wasn't that easy though, she didn't want to change direction.

The new 2007 FJ is doing great the few times I've driven it. I still haven't found the attachment to it that I had with the blue one. I guess I may have liked that 'radical' look better than the 'stock' look. Everyone likes the color of the new one.

There was still something bugging me about it, to the point I finally duplicated a side view picture of it, then blacked out the white lettering on the wheels so I could get a comparison with my vehicle instead of what I was seeing of others in Google Images.

I liked the black tires better than showing the white letters on the outside. I've never been a fan of white letters on the outside. I always try to buy all black sidewalls when I buy tires but in this case these tires were on the car when I made the trade.

So Tuesday morning I drove to the local tire store to have them flipped. It was good to hear the store manager's high recommendation for the Yokohama tires I had on the FJ. He considered them being a better tire than the Bridgestone Dueler AT that I had on my other one.

So I left Tuesday morning looking like this and returned home looking like the 2nd picture.

I like the look better. It does look like it sits lower than my blue one because the running board sits lower than the rock rails I had on the other. Overall I am happy I made the trade, it was a good decision.

My vegan diet continues. The urges for fast food runs, candy or ice cream are practically non-existent anymore. I had to buy jeans two inches smaller and will be replacing my current cargo shorts because they are falling off of me. The fat calipers showed on the 1st of November that just in the past 30 days I had lost 4mm of fat from my side, a few inches around my stomach and my weight staying the same.

I am thinking of adding yogurt and fish when I shop next time. I have also had some noticeable changes with that diet change on September 7 ... no sinus issues, no coughing, no indigestion waking me up in the middle of the night.

Where's Heidi you may ask?  Sleeping, hiding out, staying inside most of the time. She did come out a few days this week to explore the yard while the bloodhounds and I took our walk. She has ZERO interest in walking in the field. She had a bath yesterday with Burt's Bees for Dogs shampoo. I've started wiping her legs and stomach with a cloth full of water/vinegar now 3-4 times per day instead of just on occasion to see if that makes a difference in her continuing skin condition.

She does wag her tail a lot but like in the next picture, the camera rarely if ever picks up that motion of her moving tail. She was wagging her tail standing there as we returned from our walk yesterday.

Nothing else planned out of the ordinary. Once the final leaves fall from the Sycamore trees and dry out, I'll rake and burn them for the final time. No Leave Left Behind program will be complete for 2016.

I almost forgot to add that those that received the private blog by email will continue to get this blog in that email. I am not going to add the RSS feed back to the blog but I have added the email subscription block to the blog. It will probably take Blogger a few hours before it updates this post on those blog's that have me on their sidebar. To those that couldn't read the blog this past week, changing my settings was something I had to do until some changes were made here due to my 'surprise' visit from a blog reader.

It's still nice weather here in the tropics of southern Indiana.

Another Beautiful Saturday

The day started off much different than the normal routine. I woke up before the hounds did and it was our normal time.

Heidi had moved completely under her sleeping bag, Stella was taking all the bottom third of the bed stretched out and Sadie was in the corner floor on her dog bed, snoring so loud ... it woke me up.

I didn't feel the cool air of the 40's coming through the open windows so that was a plus, still I thought it would at least be in the 50's. To my shock, as we stepped outside for the first hound walk of the day I could feel that I 'overdress' for the walk ... I had added a sweatshirt to the cargo shorts/tshirt combo. As I glanced left to the old carport thermometer ... 66° at 10:30am.

That was great for us. Stella decided she would lead the way this morning and took off.

As I neared that first turn, I glanced back to see how far the hounds were since they were enjoying their "natural pellets" as Russ calls them. I was shocked to see both of them right on my tail, almost too close to squeeze in a photo.

I decided as I normally do for the first walk of the day, to let Stella do whatever she wanted at her pace. That also gives her a chance to run to catch up and she loves running. It's also good exercise for her. I forget sometimes that she turned 7 years old this past August.

Sadie letting me know that she is the best hound at walking and never strays for too long during our walks.

We were almost to the point of making our left turn to walk along the back edge of the field ... Stella is still in that one spot right by the first turn of the walk at the corner of the woods.

Here she comes, without me calling her.

Then a sharp fast right turn to check out the 'deer highway' ...

For some reason she is wanting to catch up with Sadie and I. You'll notice in the flight path, both of her ears are laying over each other in the horizontal position ...

It doesn't matter how fast she is running or for how long ... there is always something to stop for and investigate.

This line of trees on the north edge of the field is about the only color we are going to get this year.

The hounds are ready to head back home ... they heard me mentioned they would get a treat when we returned ... as will Heidi because she is a great basset hound fighting through skin issues for the last two years.

I guess my Mahogany trees will show some color also. The problem is I will end up having to rake all of those leaves in the next few weeks, starting Monday.

Another great weather day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.