It Was a Great Afternoon

This is my 2nd post of the day. Basically I had so many pictures by the end of the day that I wanted to post, there were almost too many for just one post ... plus that first post was around mid-day.

It was nice to see the gutters were full of DRY leaves and a dry gutter, so it was pretty easy to clean. I pulled all the leaves out from my ladder, then raking them up and burning them. The front and back of the house had less than a 32 gallon container of leaves. While I was on the roof, both hounds stayed in the field, never ran away.

I also got up on the roof and checked for any damage shingles, plus tightened some screws that hold the gutters to the soffit. It's a great view from the top of the roof.

It wasn't until I downloaded this next picture that I saw Sadie was standing on three legs with her left front paw off the hound. She was not in the middle of walk but standing.

After the leaves from the gutter were burned, I pulled out the leaf blower and blew all the leaves from the top of the driveway to the bottom, along the fence line and let the wind blow them from the bottom of the driveway down the highway. I think we are now set for winter weather.

While the hounds took an early afternoon siesta, I put the top down on the Z4 and headed out through the farm lands, a 42 mile loop. As usual the I6 engine purrr'd like a kitten.

It wasn't long after returning home all of us moved outside. That is, except Heidi. She had gone outside earlier today and had no interest in joining us. As Stella slow sneaked off toward her new favorite area, Sadie gave her the stare down ... I could tell we were most likely taking off for our 3rd walk of the day even though it was only a little bit after 3pm.

The burn pile of tree limbs is gone, completely burned and ready for a new stack that will be built up over the winter as more tree limbs fall during the snow and ice this winter.

That dirt area will be seeded with grass next spring, so finally all of the thick brush, wild bushes etc are completely gone from that area under the trees. Even though I didn't do a professional job, the grass has grown in so well over two years, that section below the trees is the best part of the lawn, front and back.

This is Stella's technique in "slowly" sneaking away. It's interesting that over time she comes up with different routines and different places she likes to go ... then out of nowhere, she will find somewhere else that interests her. Wasn't it just last summer she and Sadie always headed toward the neighbor's house.

I was pretty sure when I took this next picture Stella was about to walk into the wooded area. She did and luckily walked back out to the field.

Sadie was very interested in what Stella was doing. Her curiosity got the best of here and she had to go see what Stella had found.

As I started to walk out with my camera in hand Sadie was pretty sure that meant we would be walking for the 3rd time today ... she just wanted to make sure she was thinking the same thing I was.

If I knew the hounds would never go down into the gully, next door to the neighbors, out into the highway or to the back of the field out of site ... I would let them stay outside as long as they wanted while I went back inside. But, I can't take that chance. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Always something interesting.

Somewhat repetitive but our 3rd walk of the day, same path, same stopping spots ....

No sign of of Stella ... just about half way down or the center of the picture next to the brush line you can barely see her as she steps out.

Just like that she came sprinting around me and headed to join Sadie.

They love this area in the far right corner. As they should, there is a lot of signs of heavy deer traffic in this area. I let them stay as long as they wanted ... they eventually started walking toward me.

Here is a view of the field while I stand in the far right corner.

As we turned to head home, the sunshine was directly in our face and very bright. Too bright to take any pictures. Stella always looks like she is taking her last steps when she finds out she has to go inside.

Going through my list of stuff I wanted to get done before the temps turn cold and its the same stuff I do every fall ... I believe the only thing I have left to do, is wash the outside of the windows. It will be another day in the 70's tomorrow so that sounds like a good window washing day.

I'll probably take advantage of the weather and take the Z4 out again. I have a few other highways to take down through the hills and trees of southern Indiana.

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is a week away and I am sitting here in 71° weather here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Unbelievable Weather - The Hounds Love It

Stepped outside this morning in cargo shorts and a t-shirt and knew immediately it was going to be a great day. Like I said yesterday we have two days of 70's before dropping to the 40's as high temps.

Things I wanted to do is moving right on schedule, with my plan today is to get in three walks for the hounds, get up on the roof with my leaf blower and blow out the gutters and enjoy the late afternoon's weather. Hard to believe it was already Thursday.

This is part of the bank I burned yesterday. It may have looked dry and and an easy burn but it wasn't. The fire did not burn hot, did not burn everything so I'll wait until next March/April until I burn the rest of the bank heading toward the highway.

Today's morning walk was much much different than yesterday's walk. First we took off before lunch was served. Second both hounds finished their free range walk and came back to the house without me having to go out and find them.

Here is a little bit of fall leaves still hanging on.

Stella had plenty of time to check out different areas like always but there were a few times, not many, where I had to say "come on". She and Sadie spent most of the walk fairly close to each other. Actually they spent most of the walk ahead of me and my camera.

They took off around the first corner. I thought they were headed to yesterday's 'scene of the crime' but they stopped in their normal spots.

Without saying a word, both hounds followed that deer path you see that is worn and turned right to head for their favorite corner.

I can't remember what I was saying when Sadie gave me this look.

A high speed turn with ears flying.

Along the back edge of the field, they both seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. I thought they were headed to the 'no fly zone' but they stopped and then turned with me to head home.

Since they cut the field the 2nd time this year I can tell the whole field is mostly grass growing back without any signs of weeds or ragweed showing up. Granted it's the fall and not the time for that stuff to grow but this field will have a good start of grass next spring.

Stella trots to keep up and showed no signs of wanting to hang back and leave Stella and I.

Stella had to turn left and check one final thing out before heading for home. After a short break before feeding them lunch where they decided by their howling and barking when they would eat, they were soon asleep for their afternoon siestas.

I like that I cut the yard one level lower for the winter. I'll put some Scott's Winter Fertilizer on tomorrow late in the day right before it rains. It should be no problem for the hounds.

Off to the roof with my leaf blower ... weather is great here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

The Hounds Have a Bad Day

Wow ... what a day. So much happened today I am not sure where to start.

The weather was fantastic and we spent most of the day outside ... well, not all of us and I'll get to that.

After lunch was served we headed out for our daily walk with Heidi staying back at the house protecting the yard and hopefully would find my missing steel hinge pin for my lawn mower. The walk started out normal and I decided I'd take and post as many pictures with the camera lens set at 200mm.

I decided by the first turn, with Stella stopping at her normal spot recently, that I was going to let them do whatever they wanted and I was going to walk nonstop. That would turn out to be a bad decision but one that I had been doing at least the past 5 years !!!!

Still going normal at this time and I was not aware of what would be happening for the last half of the walk.

Stella decided to run to catch up with Sadie. I was already veering left, following the path to the back edge of the field. The hounds were headed for the far right corner where what I call the 'deer highway' is located.

I have walked the edge of the field in back and when I took this picture I was about to make the final turn heading home. I could tell by Sadie not running toward me that they might not join me for a while but probably would before getting out of their sight.

I knew for a fact that when Sadie looked right at me and didn't come running like she normally did ... most likely the hounds were moving into "new territory" ... they were NOT going to catch up to me. I just had a gut feeling I would be sitting in my chair outside at the house waiting for them.

Getting closer to home ... no sign of the hounds.

Another 50' closer to home, no signs of the hounds.

I got back home, pulled up my chair and waited for the hounds. I really thought when I lifted the camera and focused at the corner I would see them running home. Once again I was wrong. In fact I was really wrong.

After 5 more minutes, no sign of the hounds and now I am a little concerned. I wasn't going to walk all the way back to the field, so I hopped into the FJ without my camera. They were still at the back right corner doing what the pictures were showing before. They were startled when they saw my FJ or most likely it was 'a vehicle' ... they didn't know it was me.

Once Sadie saw me turn around to go home. BOTH HOUNDS STARTED RUNNING BEHIND THE FJ !!! They ran nonstop and as hard as they could. So I guess one good thing out of this is they had some nice exercise.

I didn't consider this to be a good experience for them. Back to that theory "you give them an inch they will take a mile" and will try to do that again in the future. They will always try to stretch their boundary.

With the winds pretty calm and blowing toward my property and not the neighbor's I decided to burn my pile of tree limbs. I stretched the hose out from the house and found out that it reached all the way to the pile. I didn't need another hose to add to the one I had.

I stood there with the hose next to me and the water turned on, plus a rake. Since Stella kept wandering off I put her on the tether anchored in the field. That didn't matter since she moved into the yard and slept most of the time sleeping in the sunshine.

There was a reason I had to tether her.

Now the 2nd bad thing of the day happened. While starting the fire, Sadie and Stella headed into the woods behind that fire. The had NEVER been in that area ... ever. That woods follows the neighbor's property out to a country road. The woods is pretty deep and thick, walkable but not real good since the ground stays wet and muddy most of the time.

I made sure the fire was under control and headed into the woods calling their names. By this time I am pretty pissed about the whole day of having bloodhounds. They have really tested me on this last excursion.

Once again, Sadie stopped looked right at me and then turned and kept walking away from me ignoring my calls. Stella understood my tone of voice so she started coming toward me. Or it might have been the cussing I was doing.

So Stella was attached to the tether where she slept outside most of the afternoon. I moved Sadie inside with a pretty stern lecture between the woods and inside the house. I doubt if she cared. I snuck around and looked in the windows since she had free run of the house. She and Heidi were sleeping on the dog bed in the corner of the bedroom.

So much for the lecture.

I ended up burning the bank just to the right of this burn pile with hopes of burning all of the dead ragweed and leaves. I was able to clear most of that area but it did not burn as hot as I expected and some was left behind. After I made sure that all the simmering pieces of wood were put out with water ... the hounds and I took a walk.

Sadie obeyed every one of my comments while Stella was on the 25' retractable leash. Neither one of them tried to veer to the famous spot of the far right corner of the field this time.

So Heidi wins the "Hound of the Day" award today. It was great weather with Thursday and Friday being even better with temps in the 70's before it falls with highs in the 40's on Saturday.

A rough day for the hounds here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.