Stella Continues To Expand Her Boundaries

Although it's a beautiful day outside, I haven't accomplished much. You can do that when you are retired but at times it surprises me since I use to be called a "workaholic". In fact the photos I took are probably the only thing I will get done for the day, unless I rally before the NFL game tonight and get some dishes washed.

A dog walk is definitely on the schedule later today. The recent heat wave that baked the leaves off the trees, increased the process of corn and beans coming close to becoming ready for harvesting.

I wanted to try something different today by using the 75-200mm lens on all the photos. I normally only use it if the hounds are out in the field some distance away but today I wanted to shoot it when the hounds were close to the house. The results were different of course but it is a result that I liked.

Winston and Sadie started the day like all others ... sniffing their yard for anything new. Stella stood and watched, not sure if she wanted to get her feet wet from the heavy dew this morning.

Stella continues to expand her territory and personality by the hour. Yesterday she played with Sadie for the first time. This afternoon when they came back inside, they touched noses and starting playing and running inside the house. Luckily they stopped on their own soon after and were asleep after their sudden burst of energy.

She also checked out the front part of her territory, looking in the direction of the highway. Not for long as I called her name and she immediately turned around and headed in the reverse direction. All the other hounds were glancing that direction probably wondering what she was doing as they too are not allowed any further than that corner of the house.

Late yesterday after Sadie had brought out her "big" bone to chew, she stepped away to get some water and at that time Stella decided she would check it out herself. She liked it so much that she laid down, held the bone with her paws and was chewing on it when Sadie returned.

There wasn't any kind of fighting or growling. Sadie slowly passed her giving her the eye and laid in her normal spot under the coffee table. Today the same thing. Each time I tried to get a photo of them playing or chewing the large bone ... they both stopped. This photo was about the only one I could get. It was also taken with the 75-200mm lens. She lifted her head when she heard the beep of my auto focus ... I have turned that off for future photos.

I really like how Stella has merged into the pack of hounds without any issues. It's been an unexpected smooth transition. I was expecting at least one period of disagreement.

I don't know about you but I think that Heidi's skin is improving. For those readers looking at her for the first time, it probably looks pretty bad, but believe me when I say that her skin has improved a lot. I am continuing with the Epsom Salt soaks. I am also logging into a spreadsheet her condition, rating her skin 1-5 with 5 being the worse and the kind of food, any treats or shampoos.

Her rear shoulder was raw a few months ago and the vet told me that hair would never grow back in that area. You can see the white hair still making it's attempt to come back. All of the skin that is hairless is soft compared to hard and crusty before.

With the temperatures dropping almost 10-15 degrees I am wondering if the temps that were in the 90's played a factor in her outbreak last week with redness and some hot spots? Hopefully the lower temperatures will mean improving skin.

I can't believe it's already Thursday. Yet being retired I am rarely aware of what day of the week it is. That will change with the NFL and College Football starting their games on tv every Thursday night. I'll know the days from those scheduled games.

With the recent merger of AT&T and DirecTv, I am getting bombarded with offers by mail to come back to AT&T plus more discounts added since I was and am a DirecTv customer before the merger. They keep getting higher in their offers ... today was $500 in credits, and double the data per month and something I had not seen before with data plans ... unused data would be carried forward.

I took a close look at that since AT&T now has 4G service in my area, which they didn't have when I changed to Verizon in June 2014. When I played around with their different plans, my monthly fee would still be $120 more per year for what I have now. Also I would have to pay Verizon a fee for breaking my contract 10 months early. I estimate that would be around $150 added to the cost. I still might have to go back and take a closer look at that.

It makes you wonder just how much companies over charge you and get away with it, when they can offer you a $500 credit. Just last month when I told DirecTV I was thinking of taking the cheaper option and flipping to DishNetwork, they gave me a $20 per month discount for 12 months plus I had to extend my contract only 2 months longer than it was for to begin with.

I wouldn't have switched because I had already check out the sports channels with different packages and the cost for me would have been close to the same. Still another company giving a $240 credit just for talking to them.

I need to call more I guess.

Here is something a little different to end this post. Here is a photo of the weather prediction for this winter by the National Weather Service. El Nino is the factor this winter for weather. I have stated previously, I am not sure I want to tent camp this winter in the SW with them getting more rain than normal, just to stay warmer. I know it doesn't rain much normally in that area but from all I read they will be getting a lot of rain. Rain is rain if you know what I mean.

I am not sure why my profile photo is not showing up when I make comments on other blogs and reply to comments on my blog. I have removed and added the same photo on my profile but no change. Any ideas??

It's another great day here in "the tropics" ... I need to get ready for the daily dog walk, we are hoping that Heidi joins us this afternoon.

It Must Have Been The Rain - Stella Finally Plays

I'm not sure if it is the change of weather, where the temps have dropped from the high 90's inside the carport to the high 70's today ... with a day full of light rain. Anyway Stella had a couple of firsts happen today and things I've been waiting for.

All morning she would go outside but once she found out it was raining, she wasn't interested in that and would walk back to the door to be let inside. Of course the all-weather hounds, Winston and Sadie, didn't care and Heidi didn't get out of the house until after noon. She as most of you know is the "queen of the couch" and definitely a good weather hound.

"No Way Am I Going Outside In The Rain"

In 11 Years Has Never Lifted His Leg - House Trained By A Female Bloodhound Bertha

After they gobbled their lunch faster than I had seen in a while ... they must like Duck being the #1 ingredient ... they were waiting on Stella to finish as I played guard for her and kept the other hounds from getting to her food bowl. Heidi has her own food which this bag has Lamb Meal as the #1 ingredient ... she also gobbles her food down as fast as Winston and Sadie.

Stella always goes outside after eating, deep into the field do dump her tanks as does Sadie. Winston will go as along as the hay/weeds are not to high, then he will migrate back to the yard for an easy clean up until the field is cut again.

Today though, Sadie stood and watched as Stella went to the very back of the field. I wanted to see if she would come back on her own or would I have to call her. As she started sniffing the wood line I yelled her name and for the first time since I've had her ... she broke into a full sprint toward the house. I had not seen her run before and today is Day 8 since she arrived.

She was so fast that I was only able to take one photo between the time she started sprinting and arrived in the yard, where Sadie met her and for the first time since I had Stella ... she and Sadie started playing!!  Which is one reason I decided to pick her up ... to give Sadie someone to play with that was her own size.

Stella in a Full Sprint

Stella On The Left - Sadie On The Right

They played more than the one photo show but after downloading all that I had, the only time the camera took the photos were when they were sniffing noses. Winston sensed something going on and he wanted to play too, but found out both bloodhounds were a little too tall for him.

In his younger years he would have jumped up to their level but not at the age of 11, where he has occasional back issues and not quite as strong in the hips.

I must say the drop in temperature has been great today. The windows are back open, the sound of rain hitting the sycamore leaves and the constant rain drops. After all of that high energy just 10 minutes ago, all four hounds are sound asleep for the afternoon. We will probably go outside later this afternoon but the daily walk has been canceled for the day.

We walk in snow, heat, but never rain ...

Today was one of those days I started thinking about downsizing my electronics. It all started when Gazelle sent me an email telling me the 9th was the last day they would give me the best price for my iPhone 5S. After checking their site, they would give me a minimum of $201. I upgraded and bought it through Verizon last summer for $199 and a two year contract.

I also checked to see what they would give me for my iPad Mini. It was something I was not going to buy when I did last year. In fact I wasn't going to buy any iPad at all when I turned my first iPad in for a good price. It wasn't until I saw the iPad Mini's retina display, the advantage of having the size of the Mini compared to the regular size, when I decided to buy it.

I use it a lot when I'm watching ballgames, either looking at rosters of the teams or in-game stats and checking scores of other games.. I also use it as my main electronic book reader, although I have very few electronic books. It's also good as a GPS when traveling. I still like reading books in paperback or hardback format. Now traveling ... electronic books would be the way to go.

Since Gazelle was going to give me a great price for the iPad Mini I was curious enough to check on my new MacBook Air 13" laptop that I just bought before traveling in June. It was to be my main computer while traveling, where I could upload my photos from the Nikon camera and it would be easier to blog with compared to using the smaller iPad.

Gazelle priced it at such a good price that I considered it. They will turn around put it on eBay and Amazon for sale at a huge profit for them. I found it tempting to get rid of all three items. I had not even turned on this Mac Air for over a week.

Still, it has it advantages. It's much faster than my 5 year old iMac with the solid state hard drive. The screen quality is fantastic and unlike the brand new version of the MacBook ... this one still has the slots on the side for my ScanDisk card from the camera to upload photos, a USB slot and a couple of fire wire connections. Whereas the new MacBook is going to all wireless. It's also nice to sit at my kitchen table with the big window that looks out over the highway, plus the fields across the highway and use it as I surf the web.

I remembered that last fall I could have used a spare computer when I made the mistake activating File Vault to encrypt my hard drive, then finding out later after my computer crashed, that it did play well with an older iMac ... I needed a "spare" computer to blog with, do my normal financial transactions, that was bigger than the size of a iPad Mini. I had to point out the small print on this screen to the Geek Squad Rep, to show him why it didn't work after they made the same mistake as I did, by reactivating File Vault!!!!  "it may not be compatible with File Vault"

So even thought it's very tempting to make some extra cash, I still use all of these devises on a regular basis. I guess I have to admit that I could probably live with out them and adapt but it's that I don't want to. I found the iPhone to be a very valuable tool when traveling. Whereas when cell phones first came out, I only bought one to carry with me for emergencies when traveling.

The iPhone also has a great program called "Notes" that I use all the time. It's like my brain and saves me when I can't remember stuff. Also the maps on that iPhone has saved me more than a few times from getting lost.

So the devices will stay with me and will be used. I have no plans to upgrade after Apples announcements today with the large 12" iPad and the new iPhones. Another reason I like that iPhone ... the camera. It's great to use for quick shots when I am not taking the Nikon with me.

Sorry for getting off subject from the hounds ... but the cool rainy weather makes me ramble at times.

The hounds and I are happy with the drop in temps ... this kind of weather is always nice in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Survived The Labor Day Weekend

Their pace was pretty fast and furious for the Labor Day Holiday with food, a lot of college football on the tv and temperatures hot enough outside that justified hours of sleeping in the cool inside.

They didn't do much different than their normal days which included numerous trips outside then back inside to enjoy the AC. We did do the daily walk every day after 7pm. They slept their normal amounts of time, which is a lot. In fact all 4 hounds are sleeping as I write this in the middle of the day.

Heidi went out this morning just long enough to pee and then sprinted back inside the house as I was walking in to get the camera. The other three hounds did their daily sniffing expedition and Stella passed a very big test being off the tethered rope.

The previous owner said that she use to follow her riding mower as she mowed the yard. The sound of my mower last week when Stella opened the door on her own and came out to meet me mowing, was probably because of that reason. Well today it wasn't me mowing, but my neighbor that is north of me. He is across a field but the sound of his riding mower was loud enough that she heard it.

So when she was way out in the field taking care of her business, she starting to meander in a northern direction. I called her by her new name and she turned to come towards me. Not only was it good that she came in my direction but she once again answered to her new name which is only a week old.

She hears her name in this first photo. It's her choice to go to the neighbors or back to her yard. It was her slow pace but she did make it back to the yard.

With Heidi back inside enjoying the dirty blankets that will be washed today, Winston was trying out his latest hobby of eating the fresh fine grade dirt that is pushed up through the ground by the moles. I cannot tell you what he enjoys in eating that dirt but he likes it. I hope this new habit of his is short term.

Sadie is staring to like Stella more and more since she sees that Stella has no intentions of becoming "leader of the pack". (On a side note I know it's proper English to put that period inside the quotation mark but to me it's never looked right that way ... so I follow my own rule).

Sadie is starting to spend more time sleeping next to Stella or at least with 3' of her. There has been no issues of eating dog food in the same room. All three hounds eat their food much faster than Stella does and I've had to stand in front of her to keep the other hounds away from her food dish until Stella finishes. They seem to REALLY like the Fromm Less Active blend with Duck as the #1 ingredient. Heidi started her new bag of Earthborn Holistic food today, moving from Bison Meal to Lamb Meal as the #1 ingredient.

I also made a short trip to town last night and left her in the bedroom with the other three hounds .. she did okay again, no signs of damage to the walls, back of the door or window sills. That might sound weird but from photos on the Bloodhound Owners group on Facebook, all of that damage plus more is photographed. Most likely caused by the hound's separation anxiety.

I am sure having the other hounds with her in the same room play a huge factor in Stella's success when I am away. I am also willing for her to have a bad day occasionally and understand it's always possible.

I think this last photo of the morning shows that she is a pretty happy bloodhound and Sadie is no longer upset with the new hound in the family.

This is suppose to be the last day for a while where the temps here will be in the low 90's. Someway tomorrow it will have a high in the 70's. I hope we have seen the last of the 90's until next July sometime.

You never know what the change in weather might bring here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

Hounds and Other Stuff

She's AWAKE!!

It's been a pretty slow day here in "the tropics". We are down to one day to go with the days in the 90's. It is suppose to drop to the low 80's until Saturday and a freezing 72° after some forecast of rain. I'll take it. I love hot weather but low 80's is better than mid 90's when there isn't a beach around.

Some readers have emailed asking if Heidi is okay since she has very few photos posted compared to the other hounds. Heidi is doing great and is slowly improving. She is gaining some weight back after losing 28% of her 46# this past year. She has hair that continues to grow back in areas the vet did not expect due to the skin damage. I know that red skin looks terrible and sore but it's soft to the touch and doesn't seem to bother her.

The thing is she is a 'couch potato' ... always has been. She will roll and bark at herself, she will run sprints in the house when she first comes back inside in the mornings ... as long as the other hounds are still outside. She sleeps a lot like most bassets do. Plus I think a lot of her energy has been zapped by whatever is going on with her. She will go on the daily walks when she wants to, which isn't often anymore. About the only time she goes outside is to do this:

I think you will see her coat is looking really good after eating Earthborn Holistic dog food the past 52 days. I can also feel some muscle along her spine coming back and I am seeing a little less of her ribs. So I believe she is gaining some weight.  The skin looks good one day and all it takes is for her to start chewing again for it to look the way it did this morning. Overall, believe it or not, the majority of her skin issues are healing.

I am tracking on a spreadsheet everything that is going on with her, adding things that might be the cause of her skin issues. It's really hard to tell what the factors are that irritate her skin. I still think most of it is caused by the environment from the pollen and dust in the air.

Stella is still doing great off the leash. This morning was a real test as we were all outside before the sun came up and she took off for the field faster than normal. I thought there might be another animal out there she had to chase but found out she was just in a hurry to dump her tanks. Still it was dark enough that you could not see any of the hounds without a flashlight and she came running when I called her name. She continues to be a great bloodhound.

Winston and Sadie made sure to know what had been walking around their yard while they were inside last night. Their noses seem to work overtime. By the way, Sadie is now spending time sleeping next to Stella different times during the day. Stella is also becoming a little jealous when it comes to attention and will nose her way into the lead if possible. She seems to have taken over the couch.

I think I read the pet food and pet toys industry is more than a $350 million per year industry. I've spent more than my share on kong balls, deer antler bones, cloth bones, pig ears, hard marrow bones and bones from the local butcher at the grocery store that is no longer in business .... yet ... Sadie spent more time and had more fun licking out the very last drop of peanut butter from the Jif Peanut Butter jar her last night.

She was determined enough at the end to slide that jar as far back into her mouth as possible so her tongue would reach the bottom of the jar. She still couldn't get all the peanut butter out but she had fun. Amazing isn't what hounds like to do or any dogs for that matter, with things that don't cost a lot?

Since I had a little time this morning to mess around on the internet and do different computer stuff I dabbled with Google+ again, looked at, downloaded and then deleted Picasa, and read about Wordpress blogs compared to Blogger.

First about the blogs.

I was able to find some pretty honest opinions from the blogging geeks and even though they were set up on the Wordpress platform, the majority of them said Blogger was the way to go for what I am doing. I would prefer not to move my blog. Blogger has unlimited storage for texts and photos, etc. Wordpress of course has a lot more templates, a more professional look but a limited amount of storage on their free version. If I would want to go to their .com and furnish my own server for it to reside on, then no problems. Been there done that.

I don't know why since I am on Facebook where I follow a lot of groups, keep in touch with some old friends and post just a few photos of the hounds ... for some reason this morning I thought of activating my old Google+ account again. I did some research to see if there were any new updates or changes, clicked all the buttons I need to set up the account.

After spending a few hours adding photographs, looking for communities, trying to set privacy settings I decided it was just more work than I wanted to add to my computer time. This blog and Facebook are enough. I didn't see any reason to have duplication between the three platforms and Picasa is not my main photo manager. So I deactivated the Google+ about as fast as I set it up. I know that the new Google Photos has unlimited storage but I have all my photos in the Apple Photos program that is on my hard drive and it's backed up every hour on an external hard drive.

Since all the photos on this blog are stored in Google's Picasa, I wanted to see how much data I had used, and how much was left. I never liked it when I looked before because it always wanted to download the 22,000 photos I have on my hard drive, before I could input just what folders I wanted it to download. I was curious enough to look at it again.

This is that type of morning I have at times where I mess around with computer stuff. The college football game tonight starts at 8pm so I have plenty of time to do nothing today. Plus it was giving me something to do between the numerous trips outside with the hounds. It's one of those days with them. They want outside but as soon as they get outside, it's too hot so they want back inside. At least I am getting a workout today, thanks to them.

Anyway I couldn't find anywhere to log into Picasa with my blog info from Google+ so I did the same thing I have done in the past with the same results. Isn't that the definition of insanity?

I downloaded the Picasa program and as soon as it was downloaded it started importing all my 22,000 photographs automatically!! There might even be more photos than that because my Photos file is 25Gb and many years old. So I immediately canceled Picasa and trashed it. Then emptied the trash.

I already put a lot of my photos on Flickr, I use Photos to edit all my photos and can use the Nikon camera editing system if I really want to get technical in photo editing.

So basically the morning was wasted doing things on the computer that I did not end up keeping. Here are a couple of photos I took this morning. These white flowers are blooming all over the field.

A few weeks ago I blogged about killing all the wasps that were in that AT&T phone terminal box for the neighborhood. I had also gotten rid of a couple of nests earlier in the summer when I washed the house siding. Well those wasps are back with vengeance. I need more spray where I can attack them from 20'-30' away. The war with them continues.

Where were the hounds through all of this?? Their normal activity .... sleeping!!

Not much going on, that's about all today from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

It Feels Like A Sunday

As I write this it's 3 minutes until 1pm. Three of the four hounds are sleeping, enjoying the coolness from the air conditioned rooms. I'll let you guess which hound is up, giving me the stare down ... because she wants to eat.

From the very first trip outside this morning, it felt like a Sunday. Not counting the actual first trip of the day because that took place at 4:30am when Winston decided to wake up and moan loud enough to wake me up because he needed to go outside. That's what happens when you sleep through the last trip outside for the hounds before bedtime just for this reason.

So once one hound woke up the other three woke up. Of course Heidi is the only logical one of the bunch and she isn't moving except to change her position and go back to sleep. So it was I and three hounds walking through the house, flipping lights on as we go, on our way outside. It was cool and beautiful that time of day. Clear skies, stars, no sound ... it was like camping.

It was back to bed until 7am and the daily routine starts. Most retirement days are like Sundays and that's the way I like to keep them. Maybe and that's a big maybe, one thing will get done, although it's a really minor thing compared to those working most of their daylight hours. No plans for today and writing this blog post early might be the only thing that gets accomplished today.

You can see that Winston is still tired after sleeping through most of the football games on Saturday and Saturday night. Heidi is still inside sleeping through this photo shoot, Stella is laid back and relaxed as usual and Sadie ...

Well Sadie started the morning excitement off by catching a scent as soon as she walked outside, went sprinting out of the house and around the corner at full speed ... I then saw a flock of geese launching from "her" yard airborne, never to return, although we could hear them talking off in a distance. Luckily Stella who was not leashed, walked in her normal slow motion right beside me and didn't react to Sadie's sudden burst of speed.

Since there were aliens in the yard, I felt it was best to keep Stella on the tether this morning. It didn't matter to her. She enjoyed the sunshine and a short nap while Sadie did recon making sure there was nothing else in the area.

Winston didn't care what all the excitement was about ... he is just the same, every day.

In the meantime while one basset slept inside and two other hounds sat relaxed in the yard, Sadie did her complete sniffing expedition of the entire yard and field border ... then sprinted to the house when I yelled the words "milk bone". Stella woke up from her nap a little startled but followed Sadie to the house figuring something must be good if Sadie is running with her ears flopping in the wind.

Now ... four bowls of food, four hounds in four different locations chowing down for lunch.

That's about it for the day ... from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana