Just Missed Deer

As forecasted the sunshine disappeared yesterday to make room for light rain that started after midnight. That same light rain started again last night. It was still happening this morning as the hounds and I could wait no longer for a walk. With my North Face snow boots on I was able to keep my feet dry and a light rain jacket over a fleece jacket kept me warm and dry during the walk. The rain was more of a mist than sprinkle ... the hounds didn't care.

Sunday turned out to be a very productive day with some stray small twigs taken off the roof and out of the gutter. Within a hour and a half I had the FJ and Z4 washed and hand dried. By the time I did the short high speed run in the Z4 the convertible top was completely dry as I tucked it under the car cover with rain on the way.

This photo here pretty much describes what type of day we are looking at today. Unless the rains are harder, we will get another walk in this afternoon since both walks were cancelled on Monday. At least it is warm and that's all I care about.

With a lot of time spent inside yesterday, Heidi continues her sleeping marathon today, I continue to look at houses on realtor.com out of curiosity and brain cell exercise. I clicked off a few games of Mahjong yesterday under 3 minutes. I am still trying to get all 160 games of Mahjong completed under 3 minutes but there are a couple that I doubt that will ever happen.

MSN money had an article today on the best towns to live on in every state if you are on a fixed income of social security and a pension. It was good to see that a few of them listed were towns I had looked at in my search the past few years, but not the one I'd like to move to. I might take a closer look at one of them listed.

With the hounds having their noses to the ground for the start of the walk I wasn't thinking about any surprises today. That is their normal activity and we had not seen any deer in person since last November yet there has been a lot of fresh hoof prints seen on our recent walks.

For some reason Stella is in the exploration mode lately (weeks) rather than eating additional natural protein. That a good thing and what I like to see. I noticed on RVsue's latest post yesterday, a dog a the dog park she was visiting had an owner trying to break their dogs habit of eating foul stuff by putting an electronic collar on their dog.

I would never try that on Stella since I don't like any kind of 'shock' training for any kind of dog. Besides what I have read years ago on electronic fences, bloodhounds pain threshold is so strong that they didn't feel the electronic shock to keep them  inside the fence. I am glad we have the land around the house that the hounds can enjoy naturally.

Since I was not expecting any surprises, by the time I turned away from taking the above photo, realizing what my eyes were seeing, getting my camera in the shooting position and focused ... the two deer were about to disappear in the wooded area in the 'far right hand corner'. You will have to look close for their bright white tails.

I was sure that Sadie would lock onto their scent and take off toward or into that wooded area. i was prepared to run after her if I needed to.

She surprised me by showing no interest in heading that direction.

Of coarse Stella was in her own little world oblivious to anything around her.

She gradually joined up with Stella and I at the halfway point of the walk.

Sadie was more intent on exploring the back edge of the field like she does every morning. Deer was the furthest thing from her mind ... and her nose.

It's always hard to tell what Stella is thinking but she certainly has the look as a 'deep thinker' most of the time ... even when she sleeps.

The mist never got heavier, there was very little wind and the hounds had a relaxed slow pace walk. With them back inside and sleeping until their lunch, mostly likely it will be another quiet day inside while it rains lightly outside.

It might take a while but eventually they head back to the yard.  The last 1/4 of the walk may be the slowest of the walk we take on a daily basis.

Somewhat hard to believe that April is almost over. We are way ahead of our average rainfall 4 months into the year.

Not much going on today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Pace Is Fast And Furious

With nice weather yesterday there were a lot of farm equipment just like this on the highway in front of the house. With rain predicted for Monday, farmers were plowing, spraying anhydrous or fertilizer on their fields. Due to the two fields within view of the house being in an official flood zone, they usually don't start any kind of work until later in the spring. Here at home today a lot of things could be happening inside and outside ... depending on my motivation.

Before I could barely get outside this morning Sadie was already checking out the field drainage ditch that moves behind my burn pile. I have never seen water in this ditch but based on the dugout shape of it, there must be some kind of drainage from the field.

I could tell early on that Stella was going to march to her own drum beat today. I let her do what she wanted during the walk Sadie and I took. At no time did I call her name to follow us or to verbally herd her in the direction of the house ... she was on her own clock.

Although it was warm enough just to wear a light jacket, Heidi was back in bed sleeping after her breakfast with no intentions of walking this morning nor getting her picture taken. She also is always on her own schedule.

While walking I was going through a list of things to do today in my head. Like always what gets done will be determined by the time of day or night. I have a baseball game to watch at 2:15pm, an IndyCar race to tape and watch after the ballgame sometime and a Pacers NBA playoff game to watch tonight. A DVR makes all of that convenient if I decide to chose to work the 'to do' list during the daylight hours. I'd also like to take another drive in the Z4 today on one of the many routes we can choose from.

Like I said ... Stella was marching to her own drum today.

No, I never called her name ... I just kept walking with Sadie.

Sadie may not pay much attention to Stella during the walk unless she sees her getting out of bounds or heading in the opposite direction of us ... then she takes the supervisory role.

I mentioned I had added the free Flipboard to my reading list. You can chose which subjects you want to follow and Flipboard does the rest by supplying you articles that are not listed on the mainstream media. In some cases the topic might be the same but are written by web authors not associated with newspapers or magazines.

Tijuana is a town I use to spend a lot of time in when I was 40 years younger and living in Southern California. There were a lot of things to do there from places to eat, their horse race track or enjoying the entertainment the city provided. It was shocking to see today on a headline in Flipboard that since January 1 of this year 650 people have been murdered, related to drug cartels fighting over neighborhoods.

It was also shocking to see on tv the other night where a California senator was talking about the gang problems in a town called Oceanside California, a place I either lived in or 5 miles away in Carlsbad for close to 9 years. It is hard to even imagine either of those two stories being possible in towns where you could walk or drive in while feeling safe.

That's what makes living here in 'the tropics' so nice. The bad thing is, this town is usually closed for the night by 9pm, nowhere to get something to eat ... yet low to zero crime.

Looks like the neighbor finished plowing his large field yesterday. A sure sign that Spring has officially arrived ... finally.

As I looked for Stella along the wood line to the left of me, I couldn't find her. Then out in the middle of the field there she was with her head down and walking fast, heading north, as if she knew exactly where she was going. Without me saying a word, she stopped and stared right at me.

When she decided to ignore Sadie and I, heading her own way north ... that is when Sadie decided it was time to step in to let her know that was the wrong thing to do ... running after her to get her headed back in the direction of home.

I did not say anything to Sadie either ... she did this on her own.

I have thought more about moving again, only this time with a change in strategy as far as looking at houses. One of the main hold ups is me not wanting a mortgage payment for the rest of my life, since it's been years since I have had one. I never planned on having a mortgage payment during my retirement years. That might be too 'old school' in theory.

So the other night I started looking at houses in the town out west, that might need some work, a little paint or yard cleanup and even some new flooring installed ... all for a lower price range than I had been looking at and where it would be an even swap financially if/when I sold mine.

I came up with some new houses to look at and some of them had been remodeled inside, where the only thing I would need to do is paint outside in a color I like and work in the yard installing a 'desert landscape' so I would not have to spend time mowing grass.

All the same questions linger in back of my mind on the decision to move. Those have never changed really since this blog started in October 2011. Although at that time I was thinking of traveling full time in some sort of RV and with only one bloodhound since Stella had not arrived yet. (2015)

Some people say if you can't make a final decision then you need to stay where you are. Others say if the urge is there, then move even if you are undecided and things will workout once you get there. I use to put very little thought into moving decisions and it always worked out but as you get older I guess that 'free spirit' becomes hard to maintain.

Of coarse this field is perfect for the hounds and it would be hard to leave just because of that. Not only would they have to turn into 'city' hounds but I would also have neighbors living within 25' of me ... could I even handle that?

It never changes over the years, I always run different possibilities in my mind and usually decide to delay my moving or traveling decision until after the hounds pass.

There are definitely other things I enjoy about this area besides just this field for the hounds. If I had things I didn't like about it, I would have never stayed here 20 years. So we will see what the summer brings.

That is about all I have for this morning. I might post some photos of Heidi on my other blog later today. That blog is on my sidebar here called "It's A Hounds Life".

As you can see Stella decided to take a detour as Sadie and I walked into the yard.

She teaches me to relax about things ... nothing is really that important. You can tell by the look on her face she is giving me a teaching moment on patience.  LOL

It's almost too quiet today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Lazy Saturday

As you will see, it's been a lazy Saturday so far today and it's not quite noon. I made a run to the local recycling center, walked around the yard, thought about washing the Z4, sat outside for a while and took all of these photos from my seat. The hounds were not interested in anything besides what you see. Their lunch was served early so they are content for the rest of the day.

Flickr was bought by SmugMug and I was happy to see that I will not lose my free account with Flickr. It's sunny in the mid-60's but still enough chill in the air to keep the windows closed and the sweatshirt on. Glancing outside just now to see that Sadie and Stella still have not come up for air in the field, with their noses to the ground.

Spring has arrived in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.