The Hounds Daily Trek

The hounds and I hope everyone survived bring in the new year last night. Compared to many years ago, ours is not too eventful.

I'll not turn the tv on until 1 minute before midnight to watch the ball drop in NYC and then we head outside to take a look at the sky, the stars and wonder what's in store for the next 12 months.

I like to go back to this time last year on the blog to see what was going on. It was a sad time of year last year with Winston's health issue but there were some other things to read that were nice to compare to this year.

Sadie was giving me the stare early this morning, telling me she wanted to walk but I had not even finished my first cup of coffee and she had been outside just a few minutes earlier. She had to wait until the 2 cups of Seattle's Best coffee were finished. The temps said mid 40's but felt freezing to me. I was hoping to overdress with the heavy duty down jacket and ski gloves, since I have been freezing for the past few days even with the higher temps.

As I turned on my camera I noticed the low battery warning was showing up on the menu. I decided I would try to drag out the last few minutes of battery life by turning the camera on and off between pictures being hopeful the camera would work for the walk. Who knows, that might take even more battery life turn the camera on and off between pictures rather than just leaving the camera on during the walk.

Stella was just as interested as Sadie in today's 'trek' ... they investigated a few new spots and kept up a pretty fast pace.

Another nice crisp day with the sun shining. I can't complain about the weather this time of year. We may have a couple of days of rain starting later tonight but weather predictions are always pretty flexible in this area.

Earlier this morning I took off the car cover off of the Z4. I was going to leave the top up with the heater on and take a drive after the walk. It was nice to see it start right up after sitting for almost a month and through some single digit temps.

Stella was about to head to the right corner but when I yelled 'come on' she made a quick left hand turn and headed for the back of the field. Sadie came up behind us and followed Stella ... she didn't have any interest in the far corner like yesterday's walk.

Like I said earlier, both hounds were keeping a pretty quick pace today. They spent a lot of time in front of me instead of lagging behind me.

Both hounds seemed pretty content with the normal path taken. No urges and no looks towards the 'no-fly' zone and headed down the path.

 I was thinking of the 3-4 college football games I was going to watch today and tonight, then remembered it was Sunday and it would only be NFL games today. There is only one I am kind of interested in. The Green Bay - Detroit game will not be on until tonight ... so the day will be totally free.

I stopped by the library yesterday to pick up a couple of books I was interested in reading. I knew something was up when there were no cars in the parking lot, nor any lights on inside the library. They will re-open Tuesday.

I've noticed all three hounds have been spending more time than normal, licking and chewing themselves. There hasn't been any recent changes in dog food. Based on my allergies the air does not seem dried out from the electric heat and all the blankets they sleep on are washed on a regular basis. So I am not sure what the cause is.

While closing out my 'Monthly Mileage' spreadsheet, I wondered again why do I have two cars after seeing the total number of miles driven in 2016. I'd tell you that figure but you wouldn't believe me ... LOL.

My body measurements for the month remained the same, although I ate smaller portions of food, spent less on groceries and only fell off the diet wagon once for a large pizza spread out over two days. I started to do that to monitor any progress when I made some diet changes in May 2015.

In 2016 I blogged more than any other year since staring in October 2011.

I lost all my momentum on the detailed house cleaning. I still have the walls to do but at least everything is back in their places and I have made the annual drop off to Goodwill. I can't see anything else I can get rid of, it's down to my bare minimum.

I had a friend tormenting me yesterday via text ... she grew up in Indiana and knows about cold weather but she has lived in California for many years. She and her husband are vacationing in Barbados this week, meeting their son's future in-laws. Just looking at the pictures she was sending me of the beach, the sailing etc ... warmed me up.

I see where one of the blogs I follow, JD Finley has sold his Class A, and Jeep ... to live on a sailboat in the area of the islands. I look forward to reading about his transition from RV to sailboat living.

Well, I think I am headed out to the nearest car wash to get the 'Coachman' back to being clean before the rains tomorrow. Get some of the mud off of it. Sadie is wanting her 2nd walk of the day since lunch is over while Heidi has moved her afternoon napping spot out to the couch.

It should be a pretty active afternoon.

Another successful year of retirement is in the books, with my annual date in the month of April. The book I read years ago was right "You don't need a million dollars to retire" ... that changed my retirement plans to choosing an earlier date.

The hounds seem to love the new year 2017 here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

2012 Mini Cooper S Countryman Passes Test

That title may not draw a many regular readers but it's purpose is actually for those in the future that will find my review at the bottom of this blog due to Google spiders indexing it.

There might be someone like me that will be looking for some owner experience in the Mini Cooper Countryman and would like to know what it does in general terms.

So for those that have arrived, maybe curious ... we are starting with the normal hound's morning walk photos. Just as many as usual with only one picture of the Cooper Countryman at the bottom of this post to show the results of my test for it today.

It was very nice to feel the temps in the 40's as we stepped outside this morning. The skies look like rain maybe but by that time I'll be sunk into my couch watching an Indiana basketball game at 12:30am, where I do not expect them to win. That will lead me to the game I really want to watch today around 3pm ... the Washington vs Alabama football game.

Once again the team that I will be cheering for probably will not win ... The Dawgs of Washington. They could but probably won't. Then we will finish the evening with the Clemson vs Ohio State game, one that I don't care who wins nor do I care about either team. Yet, they are part of the 4 team playoff for college football.

I let the hounds roam at their own pace while I walked mine this morning. I was actually more interested in the 'sky show' I was seeing with different cloud formations ever direction you turned.

The normal storm systems will travel north of me and south of me ... it seems. That does not matter if it is winter snow storms or spring tornadoes. For years I have watched them split at the Indiana/Illinois state line and then follow I-70 to the north and the Ohio River to the south. We will still get some severe storms here in 'the tropics' but not nearly as much as those 70 miles north of us.

Stella was in the mood to keep up with Sadie today. I'm not sure what her thought process was but she was interested in following Sadie.

All the pictures look the same to me, at times bore me but then after downloading them and looking at them closer I can usually see something slightly different that my eyesight did not.

One thing I did notice this morning though were both hounds moving deeper into the wooded area, the tall dormant grass and even into the top part of the gully.

They were both thrilled to be back at their 'happy hunting grounds'. I could tell from the start that neither of them were going to leave too soon and most likely I would be on my final approach to home, after making the final turn.

It wasn't so much the tower nor the turkey farms that caught my attention in this picture ... it was the sky.

In these next 7-8 pictures you can see the difference between Sadie and Stella. Notice that Sadie is looking at me and probably cannot see me clearly but they sure do look like they are looking right at you even from a far away distance.

Sadie will ALWAYS come toward me after looking at me if she knows I am pretty far away. Okay, there are those few times where she doesn't but I would say that happens less than 1% of the time.

She will run in my direction without being called.

Whereas Stella may look right at me but that does not mean she is going to come running towards me. She is just the opposite of Sadie where if she does come my direction, it is less than 1% of the time time.

She will always stare at you, then turn the opposite direction and go back to what she was doing and doesn't have a care in the world what is going on around her. I wonder at times when she does this, if she will ever come home if I were to ignore her and keep walking.

Still has no intentions of heading Sadie and my direction.

Then with an abrupt left turn she will start her gallop usually right into my leg where she can nudge me with her nose to let me know she is back or she is there.

You might think snow is on the way but it's to be in the 50's for the next few days before going back to the daytime highs in the 20's.

While Stella, Sadie and I were finishing our morning walk ... I decided I was going to take the Mini Cooper Countryman out a different road but it would be a 'true test' for what this car could do. The Edmund's review says it can do everything the FJ can do EXCEPT climb large rocks and rutted roads where you have less than 4" of ground clearance. It also has 20 cubic inches less in the cargo area. All things I knew before making the trade.

I decided to head out to my friends house, the same road the hounds and I took in the summer, out through the cornfields, gravel and hard packed dirt roads. We blogged and took pictures of that local trip.

I wanted to try out his driveway. It starts with a 60° or steeper incline with sharp left and right curves. He says if you don't have 4x4 you will not make it ... I noticed the other day his wife was driving a Toyota Rav4 so I was pretty sure 'The Countryman' could do it.

It climbed without any problem. Having the manual transmission was a plus I think in all of this testing today, especially the driveway. The first half of the road test was mostly gravel, semi loose gravel since they had just laid a single lane of new gravel in preparation for winter snow and rain. At times this same road will washout due to the small creek that runs the full border of the road.

I came to a T in the road where I decided to take a left instead of the normal right. I had a vague idea where it would end up but I had no idea what the road was like getting there. The road went up and down, sharp curves, maybe 1-1/2 lane but a lot of time just 1 lane ... all on hard packed gravel and dirt with occasional mud. It had blind corners on top or just past a steep hill, not knowing if traffic was coming from the opposite direction.

The All4 drive performed just as described, whether it was on loose gravel, hard packed dirt or spots of mud. Sometimes the lanes were worn down enough I wondered if 4" clearance was going to be enough ... but each time it was. Those gravel/dirt roads later turned into some new pavement with the same type of up and down hills, sharp curves and narrow roads.

The Countryman naturally went into it's sports car mode and handled just as good as my BMW Z4, although the Z is a smoother ride, has more power but at no time did I feel a lack of response from the Mini Cooper S 181hp engine.

Once again I feel good about the transaction and am finding out there is not much I am missing with the Toyota FJ. I definitely like the 34mpg gas mileage I am getting in all types of driving.

Well the hounds need a quick 'pre-game' break outside to dump their tanks and then I'll be on my football game marathon for the rest of the day.

I am still deciding on which direction to take on buying new tires. I have barely enough tread left on these Pirelli Run Flat tires that came with the car.

Happy New Year from 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

The Hounds Enjoy Another Beautiful Day

This had to be one of the coldest days in recent weeks. It said it was 31° but felt closer to being in the teens. By the time we finished the morning walk I had frozen fingers under my gloves.

Sadie and Stella didn't seem to notice and were probably wanting to stay out longer than we did.

Last night as I approached the top of my driveway and was making the turn into the carport ... my headlights caught a golden-red cat sitting just at the edge of the yard in the center of this next picture. By the time I got out of the car and walked out to see if it was interested in food in the freezing night, the cat had already disappeared.

That explains a lot about the reason Sadie has been so interested in that area and down into that ditch these past few weeks.

With Sadie bothering me lately earlier and earlier for her first walk of the day, I put on all my cold weather gear and we headed out a little after 9:30 this morning. It instantly felt colder than 31°. There were some winds from the NW that made a difference in the wind chill factor.

Yet, it was clear skies and sunshine so I can't really complain just because the temps were borderline frigid. After all we are not walking through deep snow or on ice.

Stella ended up staying so far back that at one time I couldn't see her through the zoomed lens. I thought she might have moved into the wooded area but about that time I saw her rise up from the ground on the horizon. I didn't realize there was that much of an incline.

Sadie and I had already turned the corner, and once we made that turn ... it got a lot colder with a stronger wind. Once that wind hit me in the face I couldn't wait for the walk to be over.

I had no idea that Stella was coming up behind me, so when I took this picture I was focusing on only Sadie ... when Stella ran into the view finder about the time I took the picture. Her speed was much faster than what the picture shows.

They explored ... I continued to walk.

As we made the final turn home, they both walked so close to me that even the 18mm setting could not fit them into a picture. It wasn't long before they took off jogging in hopes of getting a little more exploring done before I got there.

Stella has set another new record of letting me leave the house without her showing any signs of separation anxiety. That is always a good thing but even after 16 months I still wonder when the next episode will be. There has always been a 'next episode'.

After some late morning errands, they had their lunch when I got back and Sadie was 'demanding' another walk ... it had only been a couple of hours since her last walk. Once they get that after lunch walk in, they normally will sleep the rest of the afternoon in different spots inside the house.

That is a very deep gully just a few feet into the woods. Luckily none of the hounds venture into that area because it is nothing but mud on the gully floor.

Stella took the lead for the afternoon walk. She was almost making the turn to the far right corner when I yelled the word "hey", she stopped and started heading my direction.

Then she and Sadie was off to the back edge of the field.

They both had a lot of 'nose activity' today.

Two things that Sadie has always chased are birds on the ground and flying leaves. Today she was not only chasing the leaves that were bobbing around the field from the wind but she was also approaching those that landed, with caution. You never know when those leaves might attack.

While I was watching Sadie and her leaves, Stella had almost snuck off to the 'no-fly zone' behind me. I had to go to the 200mm zoom because she was that far away from us. Something had her interest and she surprised me when she stopped and came when I called her. I thought for sure she had smelled something and was going to take off after it.

She is never happy after being caught trying to escape.

As we get closer to January 1, the college football bowl games have better matchups. I'll be watching college football for the rest of the afternoon and tonight it looks like. A crockpot of vegetable soup will be finished about supper time. Football and hot soup on a freezing day sounds good to me.

It would be a beautiful day to fly today ... not a cloud in the sky.

January 1st is right around the corner here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.