DVD Recorder & Hounds

First of all I will say that every since I deleted the .net domain from this site, my visits from China, Russia and the Ukraine practically disappeared. That same .net domain is what I used when I was on Wordpress and found via their program that almost all of the traffic from the .net domain was foreign spam visitors.

How could I tell? When I installed a 'plug-in' to block spam visits (hits) my spam traffic went to less than 10 per day. When I moved to my Blogger blog my spam traffic exploded to over 100's per day by directing that .net domain to my Blogger blog.

Of course earlier Heidi did get up for lunch. She never misses a meal of Fromm kibble and even eats almost the same quantity as the bloodhounds do in an attempt to regain her lost weight. When you look at these photos remember that just 10 months ago all the white hair on her rear upper and lower legs was raw red chewed skin. The vet at that time said that hair would never grow back on those areas. Those areas also included the tops of her front paws.

I think you can tell a difference and even see new hair trying to fill in all of the bald spots. By midday there is more redness than what she has when she gets up in the morning.

It is a slow process trying to get her cuticles to retract so her nails can be cut back shorter each week.

Well I installed the DVD recorder and am ready to record programs I have saved on my Directv DVR. I will find out very quickly after trying to record if the program is protected against copy or not. Years ago I could copy almost all of those programs that I would save on the DVR. I will find out how things have changed. To test, I will use only one DVD-R to see if I get the error message and if I do I will move to the next ballgame, race or movie to check their status.

After getting things set up, I heard that familiar sound of the door handle making a noise as Stella moves her nose in the upward motion as if she was opening a door handle that was a lever instead of round. Old doors have old door handles which have some wear and tear where it can be moved slightly in an up and down motion if I want it to or if she wants it to.

Like they have done recently once they were outside they both stood there by the house not moving to the field, which until the past few weeks that is all they did ... take off. Now they want for me to say "let's go for a walk". (I know the period belongs inside the last quotation mark but to me that doesn't look good)  lol

This walk was a little different as the photos will describe.

You can tell it was pretty slow paced compared to this morning's walk. Stella was still going to test me though just to show me she thought she was in charge. She does this by putting the bloodhound gene in action by "ignoring" me. She would do anything to be able to get back to that "no fly zone" she ran to the other day.

Checking to see if I am watching her

Ignoring me say "come on"

Checking one more time if she can escape

Continues to ignore me saying "come on"

Finally decides to turn my direction

Not happy so she will take her time ... very slow

One last look at the "no fly zone"

Walking home slow as possible

Sadie waits up for us - she wants to get home

Walked in slow motion all the way to the house - when she closes her eyes she isn't happy

Otherwise it was a beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana with more predicted in the days ahead.

The Hounds Love Fridays!

It's going to be a beautiful Friday here in 'the tropics' today. Our whole schedule started a coupe of hours later than normal. The skies were overcast when the first photo of the field across the highway was taken from my door step. I am not sure why but I always like having that same photo each day on the left margin to start the blog.

In it's separate folder it's nice to see the changes  in those photos from day to day, month to month or annually. It will be interesting to see how the spring operates after such a mild winter here.

I was reading last night about ways to shore up my bank along the driveway. In one spot it is borderline dangerous. A serious weather event (straight line winds) that happened in June 2008 started the demise of the bank along he drive. Those winds pulled up large trees all the way down the bank like weeds and spread them across my frontyard, through the fence.

Add in the issue of a 6 year fight with the neighbor on property lines. He couldn't read and understand even with help from my lawyer. A few springs ago I wake up on a Saturday morning to the sound of chainsaws. The neighbor had decided after his chat with my lawyer that he would hire some of his friends that needed money to cut down every tree that was left on MY bank ... plus pull out any roots.

Talking to him about erosion that would take place after removing those trees from my bank were way above his level of intelligence. Luckily this *$^@##(N moved in July 2014. Add in the fact that the local utility company decided about three years ago they would institute their right of public domain and cut all the large trees on MY bank under THEIR power lines to MY house .. so it's safe to say over the last 8 years MY bank as gone from a 125' bank with solid large trees to keep the bank intact ... has changed drastically. I have some work to do with large riprap rock this spring and maybe summer.

How did I ever get going down that direction ... LOL ???

Anyway the hounds and I were a couple of hours behind schedule today. That means they will have lunch a couple of hours later than normal. It doesn't matter to them as all of them are sound to sleep after their morning walk. Except Heidi. She is asleep but refuses to walk until the temps get warmer than 42°.

The skies turned blue and I could tell from the start that Stella's nose was working a little better than normal.

How? When her nose is working better than normal ... she ignores my calls to "come on".

Then she wanted to walk into the wooded area that is off limits to both bloodhounds because of the huge drop off into a valley about 10' into the wooded area. She did come when I called for her to get out of there ... then Sadie and her trotted down along their path. A few times Stella headed to the middle of the field based on what her nose was telling her. She had a lot of interests today while walking.

She went even further than normal to the right side of this field than she normally does. Once again my Nikon D3200 decided not to work during the times she was sprinting towards Sadie and I to get caught up. I was able to catch her running on just one photo.

With both hounds really giving the area along the fence line extra attention I knew I was going to have to watch Stella as we approached the turn to go home. This fenced area is where deer jump the fence and sprint through that field toward those barns. The times I have seen them do that, they are usually in groups of 5-8 deer. So you can see both hounds have a real interest in the area today.

As I turned the corner to go home, I looked to see Stella's nose in the air and her attention pointing to the "no fly zone". I could tell she wanted to go back and almost did until I yelled 'no' to her. She didn't run to me immediately ... she stopped a couple of times to look back to the area she wanted to visit again.

She gave in and came back to join Sadie and I but she didn't seem happy about it.

Between the camera not working all the time, plus the amount of time both hounds walked close to me, we didn't take a lot of photos on the way back. You will see though they both explore the ground from the field through the back yard all the way up to the house ... their noses miss nothing.

After I watch a game of basketball at 2:30pm today, I am going to hook up a brand new recorder that will record all the ballgames and the last 3 Indy500's I have on my DVR to DVD discs. I need to clear off that DVR not only for space on the hard drive but I am also considering getting a Directv DVR upgrade to their Genie model, that has 1Tb of memory. I bought this recorder a few years ago after a huge power surge destroyed my other recorder. I was able to find and replace the exact same model.

I don't keep all my recordings but a few things I would like to keep and have in the past on DVR for future viewing.

We might fit in an afternoon walk today since the weather is nice. Heidi's skin is looking the best ever this morning, at least the best it has in the past 18 months. So I hope to get some photos of her skin improvement, if I can ever talk her out of sleeping all day today.

Life is good today ... in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Walk In Cold Weather

I know I declared that "winter is over" a few weeks ago when the temperatures rose above 70° only for a day. It's cold today, stuck on 40° but that seems to be normal weather for this time of year.

When I think of winter, I think of temperatures 20° and below, with or without snow. I could tell the first time we went out this morning the hounds were wanting to walk then but I needed coffee and to catch up on all my online reading since I took yesterday off from the internet for most of the day.

After that 2nd cup of coffee it was time to check out the weather for a late morning walk for the hounds. It was overcast skies this morning but having no wind was a plus. I decided to take the hounds out for a morning walk and I would wear the Mountain Hardwear down jacket, to make sure I stayed warm. As soon as Stella and Sadie saw me putting on the down parka, they knew we were going for a walk and both became pretty excited. Heidi stayed buried under her blankets with dreams of 70° temperatures.

1st request for a walk

I will say her skin is still looking very good. Maybe it's the time of year but in the past that has never made a difference. All of her missing hair on her rear paws, rear legs and lower sides of her stomach has new hair filling in those bare spots.

Stella took off first to take the lead on the walk as Sadie stayed next to my side. Stella went running to Sadie anytime I told her to "come on". She was very obedient throughout the walk.

It is hard to show just how deep this gully is in the wooded area but if you look into the woods you can tell it goes almost straight down.

For some reason Stella did not veer right today to the far corner of the field, but followed Sadie to the brush line and then trotted along with Sadie. As I started to turn for the way home, Stella was already next to the tower and as I yelled "no", she came running towards me, then nudged my hand with her nose when she got back on the path.

Sadie decided today to get in a little sprint workout. Just as Stella and I were about to walk into the carport toward the house, here came Sadie.

Wunderground weather shows I have just a couple of more days in the 40s and then it will be 7-8 days with the highs in the mid 60's. That is the kind of March weather I like.

If you are a college basketball junkie like I am, March is our favorite month. A game this weekend finishes the regular season, then conferences tournaments all over the USA, which will lead into that March Madness Sunday where 68 teams will be chosen for the tournament. Add in a little MLB Spring Training baseball on TV in the afternoons and it turns into a perfect sports month.

It's going to be pretty fast paced here on the couch with 4 different channels showing the tournament. Like they say here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... "basketball isn't a game, it's life".