Even The Hounds Have Low Energy

It must have been wishful thinking when I put that title on yesterday's blog post. I glanced through some photographs dated last October and things were not finished until the end of October. So I'll probably have one more cut on the yard before I put it away for the winter.

The hounds must be in a 'low energy' mode this week. They didn't do much as far as adding photos to this blog today. We took a walk earlier in the afternoon, with Heidi deciding to join us.

I didn't have the motivation to rake the yard. I almost started later in the afternoon but decided to prepare dinner early so that took me away from any yard work. Speaking of yard work, the weeds in the gravel driveway are coming back ... I'll not be on my hands and knees pulling them again.

Someone was saying today that the lack of color in the leaves this fall is from all the rain we received this spring and early summer. By this time last year there were a lot of bright colors along the driveway and the same trees that are in these photos. I don't see the bright colors happening this year.

Here is an updated photo of that buried animal holder for the tethered rope I have used for years. I mentioned before that the only way this comes out of the ground is with the help of a vehicle or a tractor pulling it up.

I'll leave some photos we took today but we did absolutely nothing again today. We will be watching the Cubs - Pirates baseball game tonight. I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan but will be watching Kyle Schwarber on the Cubs. He was playing at IU just two years ago. I am a baseball fan but don't watch every game due to the number of games in a season, but it is really enjoyable watching playoff baseball especially in a one game playoff ... you either win or go home until next season.

That's about all there was going on today in "the tropics" today. Retirement life is great!!

Was Today The Last Time I Mow In 2015?

Another beautiful cool day here in the tropics with blue skies and a bright sun.

With the temps feeling cool, even at 79°, I fired up the lawn mower, lowered the level one notch, put the hounds in the bedroom since Stella will open the door and come outside when I am mowing and took off mowing for an hour.

I wish I could mow the yard at this level all the time, but with a field next to me, moles that love my grub worms and plenty of strange seedlings in the air to infiltrate the grass ... I'll have to work with what I have. In the past I have used all kinds of lawn food, different grass seeds, grub worm killer and weed killer ... but it's a never ending battle, an expensive one.

With the grass cut one level lower and some leaves that were mulched along the way, I hope to get out in the morning and rake the whole yard, thinking the smaller mulched leaves will be easier than a lot of regular sized leaves. I have the electrical leaf blowers, but they are very loud and may actually take longer to move the same amount of leaves that are raked. Of course the leaf blower is easier on the muscles than the constant movement of raking.

I do plan to put on some Scott's Winter Fertilizer in November.

Some time before I finished my first cup of coffee this morning, Stella and Sadie were enjoying some mild wrestling inside the house. Every time I grabbed my camera, they would stop and stare at me. Consequently I have no photos of inside play nor the times they lay side by side chewing on the one nylabone. That was the time to go outside.

Tails Curled - Ready To Charge

Winter must be around the corner because Winston is going into hibernation mode and sleeping more than normal ... which is basically more than a lot. Stella continues to move when I do and follows me most everywhere I go. She is starting to feel at home though and will go outside and come back to the door to be let inside without me with her.

For the first time in over 20 years I have taken the tether up from the connection in the field ... stored for another time. It's the first time I've had all my hounds not needing to be tethered while outside roaming the field.

Heidi's skin is improving after the 2nd week giving her a different kind of probiotics. More hair continues to grow back on her paws and rear hocks ... still she is very skinny. The more I feed her the bigger the pile of poop is so I am not sure feeding her more is the correct answer for gaining weight. One vet in June was afraid it might be cancer but 4 months later she has more energy than ever, feels better, plays more ... but her weight is scary low.

The hounds didn't seem to be in the mood for anything when we went outside late in the afternoon. As you can see all afternoon bloodhound aerobics were canceled due to lack of interest. It was a good thing that I did go outside for a few more photos though ... look what I left on my bumper? At least I found the battery now instead of 25 miles down the road.

Stella Loves The Sun

Battery For The Weed Eater

Well, time for some Mahjong, then the daily hound walk, some salmon and veggies before a 1 game playoff in baseball tonight. Such is life in retirement.

The Greek God Yogurt

Some people may think "yogurt is yogurt" ... but in the 45 years I've been eating yogurt I've never thought that. Like all dairy products over the years the costs have climbed exponentially, even from last week ... yet when it comes to addictions, costs rarely matter. I had noticed this brand on the shelves many month's ago ... the price was much higher than I was going to pay for any kind of yogurt, so I would resist trying it.

I didn't have my current addiction at that time. So today after seeing a 40 cent increase over last week's price, I paid $4.98 for this container of yogurt you see between Sadie's paws. No, she doesn't get spoonfuls or even a spoonful but she does get to lick out what's left inside the container. She also likes to put her teeth marks on the container to let everyone know she's finished. There usually isn't much left but she will sit next to me drooling while she waits for me to finish the container. Maybe she is now addicted?

Ed Frey was mentioning this yogurt so many times on his blog that one day my curiosity got the best of me, so I sprang for the expensive yogurt and could not stop eating it. Months later I will not even consider any other kind of yogurt. I did a test with the yogurt I was eating before this, both are high in sugar content ... but my last yogurt does not taste nearly as good as it use to.

I am not even sure it's the taste that has hooked me. It does taste fantastic but it's also the texture that is nice. I am not sure I will take the next cost hike though, I have my limits. I cannot ever see myself paying over $5 for a container of yogurt. Even though, I do pay almost as much for a smaller container of Ben & Jerry's ice cream on occasion. Of course the yogurt and ice cream are NOT on my diet.

The hounds got some exercise in sprinting and playing before the college football games started at noon on Saturday.

Winston and Heidi were not interested nor are they ever been interested in any kind of aerobic exercise. Heidi was missing during this time and I found her in a new spot she is trying out which is way outside the allowed limits. She refused to move when called ... all I need is another stubborn hound.

The hounds and I survived another long weekend of watching college football for 14 hours straight on Saturday and 2-3 different NFL games on Sunday. We did the daily walks at halftimes of the afternoon games. So while I watched the games, the hounds got their sleeping in and exercise. It got exciting though when Stella found out early Saturday evening that Winston had taken her spot on the couch, plus while she was up drinking water ... Sadie moved into the last spot on the couch and Heidi came out from the dark bedroom to take the chair that Sadie was sitting in.

Stella came back into the living room without a spot to sit except on the floor.

Stella stared for a short time processing what took place. She saw a space on the couch next to Winston not much bigger than her paw. Bloodhounds seem to think the the space 1"x1" can be expanded to fit them stretched out as long as they have a desire. Right after Stella put her paw in the 1"x1" space and had the look in her eyes that she was going to climb on the couch and sit on top of Winston ... I yelled 'no' and she migrated to her spot on the floor.

Hours later during the final game of the night, I made the mistake of leaving my spot on the couch for some water ... only to come back to the living room finding I no longer had a seat anywhere. Luckily the ottoman is large enough that I moved that over to where I could sit and see the game.

Stella, Winston, Sadie

There wasn't a lot of photos taken this week. Saturday was cool, windy with a little rain ... Sunday was just lazy and today was shopping day for dog food and yogurt.

I was wrong in my writeup last Thursday or Friday when I stated the farmer got 4 trailers full of corn ... those same 4 trailers made numerous return trips to fill up and the number I saw were 16 trailers full as of this morning. I didn't see all of them. Not knowing anything about farming or crop production, that seems like a lot of corn produced for such a small field.

The hounds didn't do much today ... Stella and Sadie played again which is now their daily ritual ... while Winston found one of his favorite spots to lay in the sun and watch the traffic on the highway. He later laid down for a full nap but woke up when he heard me with my camera.

It has now been a few days using Apple's new OS El Capitan that I installed last week. I can tell the differences, even those behind the scenes and I like some of the new features. I am not one to jump on all the new features ... I still like backing up to my computer instead of 'the cloud' ... I like plugging my iPhone into my computer to download photos instead if using wifi for that same thing. There will be many features I will never use but they are there if I ever decide to. I'll have to give this OS update an above average rating ... it works well.

The major league baseball playoffs start tomorrow with their wild card game. Those games will carry me through he week nights and some week days between football games. There has always been something about baseball in the fall ... makes it seem like fall is here.

With the recent bag of dog food that Sadie, Stella and Winston eat ... they are consuming 1.833 pounds per day. I can see that Sadie is losing the weight she needed to lose. Winston is maintaining his slim waistline and Stella showed up in very good shape, not to heavy or lean .. just right. Yet all three hounds would eat non stop if I put the food out.

Heidi still eats her own Earthborn Holistic Grain Free food. Her 28# bag is lasting her 50 days. Even though she is communing .56 pounds of dry dog food per day ... she has not gain any of her weight back. In fact this morning and yesterday I could swear that she has lost weight. Yet she is happy, wags her tail, sprints through the house once per day ... and her skin rashes seem to be continuing to improve.

As usual things are pretty slow here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana if you are looking to read about exciting events.

The Hounds Play & Some Reading

Friday was another day of 'not much happening' ... did a lot of reading, books and online. I checked out some new features of the new Apple OS and had to reset some email settings so my gmail accounts would work well with Apple Mail. After a full day of using Safari as a browser, I changed my default browser from Google Chrome to Safari ... I could tell a major difference after the update.

It was cool temps outside and high winds. That meant I had to add a sweatshirt while still wearing my summer combo of cargo shorts and t-shirts. I have closed most of the windows in the house since there was a chill in the air.

The basset hounds slept all day mixed in my old blanket. Winston likes to be completely covered up and Heidi only to her head. They have slept every minute today and tonight that was not spent eating or going outside. They did not even go outside when Sadie and Stella went.

The bloodhounds on the other hand started a little gentle playing inside ... by the time Stella was doing sprints around the living room I decided it was time to take the pair outside, high winds and all, to let them burn off some energy. We did the daily walk through a light drizzle but the field was loaded with deer scent and the hounds loved it.

It feels like fall is on the way but I noticed on the 10-day forecast that it will be high 70's and a day of 80° next week.

They are quite the pair ... just like I expected.

Stella has the bright red collar with black on her tail.

This is the last white flower in the 10 acre field

A weekend of football is the normal schedule starting tomorrow ... I wonder if I can get groceries delivered to my house here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana?

Apple's New OS El Capitan Installed

Today is kind of weird because I was up all night with the download and installation of Apple's new OS El Capitan. From everything I had read from the experts it would be a great upgrade, a lot of good fixes behind the scenes and highly recommended to install without waiting a few weeks for the updates.

It took a lot longer than I had expected based on my other OS updates in the past. To use my free data I waited until midnight to start the 6+GB download. Not only did that take a lot of time, over 3 hours, the installation was almost as long and so slow at times I thought it might have hung up on me. It finally finished after 6am when I thought everything would be done a little after 3am when I started.

In the past I've never had any problems updating an Apple OS on my iMac, nor did I have any issues after the new OS was installed. It was taking so long to download that I set my alarm for a couple of hours of sleep, then come back for any needed acceptance checks or enter keys. I couldn't sleep so I got back up and did some research about the installation on my laptop computer, plus played some games of Mahjong while I waited.

Bottom line ... the new OS was installed without any issues besides taking a lot of time. I can tell a difference in speed, also how fast different files or apps open and a few programs now run without the problems I had on the Yosemite OS. My iMac just turned 5 years old so that may have been the reason for a slower installation. After this blog post I am going to go through it and check out the new features of the new OS that have been written by different computer experts. I'll probably not use some of them but it's always nice to see what's "under the hood".

The "weirdness" didn't just start this morning after I woke up for the day ... yes I got a few hours of sleep after the installation was finished. I did a quick check of some of the basic functions before I turned off my computer this morning and then slept for a few hours. No, the "weirdness" started yesterday after I posted on my blog. The mind is an amazing animal at times. It can be so brilliant at times and yet so absent minded. This pertained to my ScanDisk card that goes inside my camera.

As I was getting ready to run outside last night to take a photo of this great sunset, the door on my camera to the camera card was open, which means the card is in my iMac to download the day's photos. The only problem was, it wasn't in my iMac. A lot of times after downloading and editing the photos, I will eject the card and sit it next to my keyboard as I continue to either blog or work on the computer. The card was NOT sitting by the keyboard. One of those "senior" moments I guess.

An Amazing Sunset Last Night

Those are the only three places the card could be, in the camera, in the iMac or beside the keyboard.

I turned on the lights in all the rooms in hopes of seeing it sitting somewhere I had forgotten it. It wasn't around anywhere. How could that be? It's a normal routine of moving the card from the camera to the computer and back to the camera. I had not made any trips to other parts of the house, but the card was gone!!

Then I remembered I had grabbed a candy wrapper (I fell off the diet wagon hard this month) next to my keyboard and threw it away. Could that camera card been mixed in with the candy wrapper?  After lifting that wrapper from the trash, the card was not with the wrapper. Still a little confused, I checked the desk again, then the area around my camera and even on the kitchen counter by the coffee machine just in case. After that I pulled out my bright camping flashlight to look in the trash ... there it was, off to the side, slightly down in right corner missing the coffee grounds from the morning. I had found it but it was nowhere near the candy wrapper.

I hate to think what my mind will be like when I am in my 80's.

This ugly bone was intact for a couple of years until Stella showed up, already a month ago. Sadie had chewed on it more than any other bone she had. I was surprised actually that she let Stella have it soon after she arrived. Stella will lay down and chew away while Sadie lays next to her watching. I've had to watch when one of those corner pieces are finally chewed off so I can throw it away instead of taking a chance she ingests it and cause intestinal problems, if not a vet visit.

Notice The 4 Corner Pieces

A Couple Of Weeks Ago

Just a few sample pieces showing how they are taking this bone apart.

Today

The hounds continue to be friends. There have never been any issues among the four of them. I really didn't expect any problems because of the personalities of the three hounds I already had. They like people and other dogs, cats, rabbits, deer, squirrels, etc.

So that is about all for today. I'm off to explore the new OS, then visit the MacRumors forum to check for any issues/fixes that other users are having. The hounds didn't do much outside today, it's cooler and windy .. with the temps below 70 that means Heidi is only outside long enough to dump her tanks. I've noticed that Stella may be a "fair weather" hound but of course Winston and Sadie can always find something gross to eat in the field.

Checking The Temperature and Wind Direction Before Heading Back Inside

Winston Does Not Care What The Weather Is ... Never Matters To Him

I Give Up Trying To Stop Him From Eating Stuff In The Field Or Yard

Stella Moves In Slow Motion Most Of The Time

While on the computer last night not quite dark, the window was open that faces the field and woods ... I heard what I thought was an animal grunting. It was loud enough to hear it easily from where I sat. As I turned to look out the window, at least 5 maybe more deer took off along the edge of the woods. They evidently heard me move from my chair to the window. Needless to say, this morning those two bloodhounds were all over that area and refusing to come back inside.

I'll have to watch out for deer while walking Sadie without a leash and during the times that I let the hounds outside. I don't think any of the hounds are young enough anymore to get away from me and that they would stop fairly soon after their short burst of speed in attempting to chase them. It will be something to keep an eye out for this time of year.

Also I don't think we are going to see a lot of color from the leaves this year. Most of the leaves are turning dark brown and dropping to the ground before they get to change their color. I am not sure about the reason for that, whether it is a lack of water or the temps were too high too long this past summer.

As you can tell it's another laidback slow day here in "the tropics" with not much going on.