Adjusting To Cold Weather

It was just a little over 4 days ago I was outside wearing cargo shorts, a sweatshirt finishing up the last of the leaves and mowing the yard one last time. The temperature was 71°.

I think you will be able to see the "coldness" in the photos below. It's not close to the 70's but 33°, when we headed out on our walk around 8:33am. Without any wind it was somewhat warm with a down jacket and gloves ... in just 4 days.

How is it possible to get out on the walk by 8:30am ?? For some reason I've been getting to sleep before midnight and waking up by 7:15am. It's barely dark, cold inside the house and all the hounds are thinking about is "pour out that kibble".

Stella and Sadie took off sprinting to start the walk. It's hard to believe that we are scheduled for a full day of rain tonight and through tomorrow. There may not be enough pictures and activity to blog about.

Luckily it looked like this around 8:33am but by 10:15am the sun was out and the skies were blue.

As usual there were plenty of new scents for the hounds to get some nose exercise. I let Stella do what she wanted and did not try to get her to move when she stopped at different spots. Sadie on the other hand had a pretty fast pace.

As you can see Sadie and I are about to make the first turn while Stella hangs back.

For some reason Sadie veered left of the path instead of moving up to the far right hand corner. As I turned to check for Stella she was already almost to me and flying full speed.

Once again when they got to this point of the walk I was sure they were headed to their 'no-fly' zone. It was nice they waited for me and as I made the turn left to head home, they did also.

They are quite a pair with funny personalities. You never know what they may do next or what they find to get into.

No neighbors in view but something has Sadie's interest. There is a house across the highway that has a Saint Bernard ... with a wireless fence. It does not stay outside all of the time, at least not in the front yard but loves to bark at us if he knows the hounds and I are taking our walk.

While I walked back to the house the hounds didn't move. I let them hang out in the field while I loaded up my 32 gallon trash can of recyclables plus another full of bagged trash into the FJ. Heidi was going to be the first hound to make a trip in the 'new' FJ. I still like how clean the FJ is so I am not sure when the bloodhounds will get the chance to ride.

It's normal that Heidi and I are the only ones that go to the Recycle Center due to the lack of space available in the back, plus the amount of time the back door is open to unload.

There is one thing bad that happens when you get up and feed the hounds earlier in the morning. That means that Stella starts begging to be fed lunch around 10am. Even after having two meals usually by 11:30am ... they don't beg for food the rest of the day or night.

Besides the a couple days of rain, it looks like the next week will be in the temperature ranges of 42°/53°. The problem is it takes all day to get up to those highs and most of the days are spent in the lower cooler range.

Does anyone know anything about a diet based on your blood type? I bought a book about that years ago but never pursued it. Still on the shelf. Yesterday one of my pages I follow on Facebook, linked and talked about that subject. After I started reading their link I saw it was the book I bought years ago.

It might be the answer on why I have indigestion when eating oatmeal, some grains and certain kind of beans. All three of those are necessities for a vegan diet in getting protein. Ironically being a Type O blood type, the book shows grains, certain beans and oatmeal would upset my digestive system. The Paleo Diet I followed from May 2015 to September 2016 was the recommended diet for my blood type.

It looks like I have more reading to do today about those diets.

We are heading for our 'winter routine' here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Sunday's Crisp Weather

This is the 2nd post of the day. I had too many pictures to put in just one post and in fact there might be too many pictures for this post.

Looking at Wunderground, it showed it was 30° when we were ready for our first walk of the day. I pulled out my 20 year old Mountain Wear down jacket w/hood and some The North Face gloves. As usual Sadie grabbed my left hand with her mouth to help me get started on the walk.

Both were really excited to get started for Sunday morning walk and took off. You'll notice the frost on the ground. Not as bad as the weather hundreds of miles north of us.

The skies were clear, the temperature was cold and no wind. It's going to be a great day.

They moved so fast this morning I was sure they were going to head around the first turn without waiting for me. It was the fastest I've seen them take off ... I couldn't remember the last time they got this far ahead of me.

Stella at her normal first stop.

Sadie sees something or smells something ... then took off around the first turn.

Stella was very active, moving in different directions. Before I could take a picture of Sadie and then turn back to take another plus check on Stella ... she came sprinting around me.

No stopping for Stella this morning ... she had to catch up with Sadie to prevent her from getting something she could have.

At this time I thought I'd be able to join them in the far right corner but that was not the case. Things got real interesting before I could even make that corner where they turn.

Sadie took off along the back edge of the field ... running ... and nose to the ground.

With Stella stayed back at the corner I now had a problem with both in opposite directions. Sadie was still highly excited with the scent she had found and was running ... Stella was hanging back. I had to turn my head in both directions to keep track of them.

It's hard to catch with the camera but at this point Sadie was still running along the edge of the field.

She was up by the cornfield, near the high power tower and I was pretty sure she was headed for their 'no-fly' zone. Stella was still back at the corner and I was not even near the back of the field.

I turned to check to see what Stella was doing and when I turned back around to see Sadie ... she was gone !!! Just like I thought she would be.

Sadie has always been good when running out of view. She does not run away and will come back to check to see where I am. Stella would take off in the same situation.

I turned to check Stella and take a picture and by the time I could do that she was already halfway down the back edge of the field, sprinting toward Sadie. I was still not close to the back of the field. I was taking all of these pictures with my zoom lens out to 200mm.

When I saw them in this position, I knew both of them were taking off and and out sight.

As I continued to yell at them to come back, they both were off out of sight. About the time I thought I'd be waking toward that direction to find them, the both came running over the hill toward me.

Evidently they had all the excitement they needed to satisfy their nose. They ran past me like I wasn't even there and headed down the path toward home.

But just because they might follow that path, doesn't mean they will follow that path all the way home and they might take a few detours along the way.

That is what happened today ... they took their own slow time to get home.

After they declared their walk officially over, they both headed to their favorite spots in the house, for a short nap before they eat lunch. Even with some NFL games today, we will still get out for another walk or two.

It's cold but it's really a great day here in 'the tropics' in southern Indiana.