The Hounds Enjoy the Change In Weather

The day was flying by and when I glanced at the clock it was already close to 4pm. While the water was rising south of me and beginning to flood the nearest field, the sun was out and it looked like we were at 60° using the carport thermometer. It felt warm ... so we started the 2nd walk of the day.

Before the walk, just after their lunch I fixed this section of fence again, didn't take along and should last until the next 40mph wind.

Looks almost like fall in this photo. I like how the red metal roof stands out in the background.

It was a great day to walk. Warm, no wind, the ground was still slightly soggy and became wetter the higher we climbed. The field has gradual elevation toward the back, then levels out at the fence line.

Sadie did take off over the edge toward the gully for the first time but turned around quickly when I yelled 'no'. If I let them go into the gully, most likely they would come back but that one chance that they didn't then puts them in range of a busy country road this time of day with people coming home from work. Also the smells of the landscaping business would lead them near the highway ... a disaster for a loose hound. So it's best to keep them on this side.

They both stay way behind and by the time I turned around to take a photo they had ran all the way back to me, then took off for exploring new ground.

Other than that the afternoon was pretty uneventful. All the hounds slept, I read blogs and articles on the internet, sat outside to enjoy the sunshine, had an apple and went into my thinking mode ... that's always a dangerous thing for me. It's days like today that remind me of Winston taking a nap in the sun, either in the yard or on the warm concrete.

A beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

All They Wanted Was Their Walk

Due to staying up too late watching baseball games on the west coast, this past week I've gotten up to let the hounds out and fed them breakfast every morning at 'their' normal time, but would go back to bed. Sleeping 2:30am - 7:00 am is never a good deal.

So this morning was no different and by the time the first cup of coffee was consumed the skies were clear blue and the sunshine had returned in full force. We start the slow climb to 76° these next few days.

The hounds ate their first meal as fast as ever and then immediately went into their 'stare down' wanting to walk. At 7am it was still too wet to walk anywhere, plus I was going back to sleep. Is that too much info?

As soon as that first cup was consumed both bloodhounds were standing like those bloodhound end tables you may have seen being sold on the internet. I knew they were ready to go ... wet ground and all. Yes ... it was still very saturated with all the rain we got yesterday. The higher we walked the wetter the ground became.

With the day off and all that rain to wash away the old smells and giving them new smells to explore ... the hounds were not only high energy, they were all over the place on this walk. So many places to go that they were almost in a frantic state as they scrambled back and forth along the walk.

At this point in time I was sure they had locked into something and would never stop running. Luckily I did not see any deer on the horizon but they had found plenty of the deer tracks to make them almost take off over the edge and down into the gully. A quick loud yell helped them change their minds.

Once again Stella had a mind of her own and I didn't even bother trying to get her to move. I just kept walking. Little did I know she would find another 3-4 places to stop along the way home.

They may have started running together but something caught Stella's interest ... over toward 'the no fly zone' which goes from the back of the field and anything past 10' toward the left if I am looking toward the back of the field.

This pose always confuses me ... since any bred of dogs don't see well, what does she see?? Or is it her nose that is getting her to pose like that?

Once again I was not going to even attempt to yell to come on because she was going to ignore me anyway. It's the DNA of the bloodhound breed. Sadie stood watch for a while, looking back at me and then back to Stella. She decided it was time to leave Stella and came running toward me.

As usual once Stella figures out no one was with her ... she came sprinting and just brushed up against my leg at full speed. I have to watch her up until the very last second and dodge if needed because she has at times hit me at full speed and didn't even flinch.

Living proof the walk was wet ... the Nike's are not waterproof.

I'll continue some reading about the online biz I mentioned yesterday but with weather being so nice today, I'll be outside most of the afternoon enjoying the weather. I need to get up on the roof today and check some spots after the high winds the other night. I also need to do a little more on that fence that I keep trying to repair.

Some things are changing in the online sales business that may make my decision pretty easy to not pursue it and continue to be a retired "slacker" ... which I can handle.

Amazon and eBay are in the process of making it impossible to sell products and have them drop shipped from the supplier. I always liked that type of drop ship business because I would have 3,000 - 10,000 items listed in both stores plus a separate website and would not have to spend a dime on inventory ... until a sale was made and then paying for only the item that had sold.

In addition to those changes, the NFL doesn't like their officially licensed merchandise being sold on Amazon and eBay, where it cuts in THEIR BILLION dollar business, so they are attempting to ban those sellers and threatening the suppliers. If one pro sport wins that battle you can expect the NBA and MLB to follow suit. Here is the article that discusses it. Sure counterfeit products are part of the problem but all of my suppliers are authenticated and legit.

So ... I am beginning to think it might be a lot nicer sitting back in the sunshine drinking ice tea after a fresh cut yard ... enjoying 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Sunshine Returns

Like I said earlier this morning, the weather in Indiana can change in a split second, so the weather men/women have a tough job.

Consequently after going out a few times this afternoon and mostly under a real light rain, by 4:30 the skies were on the way to clearing up. Sun was trying to shine in the NW. The temps were nice, all of the water that I had surrounding the house this morning was gone. Everything is growing fast and is really green.

Checking out the wunderground site for my local weather, no rain is noted for the next 7 days ... so the rain moved out of the area about 6 hours early. One of our first trips out right after lunch, Stella and Sadie thought it was okay to go for a walk, as they stood there in a light sprinkle of rain. They like four things a LOT ... food - sleep - daily walks - rides in the FJ.

By 4:30pm they wanted to check out the ground for me, although I thought I heard their paws squishing in soft wet ground as they checked out their field. I could tell how wet it was by the way they tiptoed in certain spots.

Sadie wanted to ask me again for a walk but we never go when the ground is really saturated. Snow yes, rain no.

She is persistent ... this is the same look she gives Heidi when she finds her in the big chair in the living room. Sometimes Heidi ignores her, curls up and sleeps, other times Heidi feels the visual pressure to get off the chair and does, heads for the bedroom to sleep in there.

Stella wanted to give it one last chance to go on the walk ... giving me the okay sign. That look right there is one of her begging looks ... please, please, please.

They finally realized the walk was called for today. I expect it will be nice enough tomorrow to two different walks.

My friend in Chicago has kept me informed throughout today about the weather up there. We both want to see the Cubs/Reds game tonight in Chicago. Although she lives much closer to Wrigley field than I do ... we will both be watching the game on tv.

I've spent most of the day reading, reading and reading. The urge to return to an online sales business has been getting stronger and stronger. So I've had to read a lot of information to catch up on any changes in procedures, look at new sources and talk to my teacher from 2005 who has been in online sales since 1999. We have talked on a regular basis even when I was out of the business.

No decision has been made, just doing some research.

I was also looking around on Flickr today. I follow just 3 people but one feature on that program with any photo that is available for the public ... you can see what camera they used, click on that camera link and then see every public photo on Flickr taken with that specific camera. Pretty interesting to see the graph in the upper right hand corner showing how many photos were taken by that camera and uploaded into Flickr for the year.

I saw that the Nikon D3200 had a large decrease curve in the number of photos taken. I wonder if that is because other users were/have the same issues I've had with mine? Or is it because less photos were uploaded into the Flickr program?

It's been a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Non Stop Rain

It started raining again last night after the afternoon storms ... it has not stopped since. Consequently the hounds have not been really enthused about their outdoor explorations.

Heidi did her immediate right to stay under the roof overhang and behind the yews. Sadie and Stella stopped to analyze the situation with rain coming down that the camera didn't pick up. Stella couldn't go under overhang in back like she normally does because that is flooded. Sadie ... didn't matter, out to the yard she went.

When the rain puddles in this one spot that means my gutter system is over worked, even with a clean route to the downspouts and nothing blocking the downspout entrance. It will come right over the edge of the gutter.

Another sure sign my 6" dia, corex underground drainage system is over capacity ... it runs parallel to the house, away from the house along the edge of the driveway and over the embankment underground, left to right.

As I turned the corner it was confirmed we have had a lot of rain. My drainage system runs along that edge between the river rock and grass. Yet this is not even close to the worse amount of rain I have seen here.

The record was having a 'river' running down the driveway, the culvert filled and overflowing across the highway. The fields across the highway were completely under water with some parts of the highway flooded out and one lane closed.

The  forecast is for rain the rest of the day and tonight. Some time around 10pm it is suppose to end and then bring us 7 straight days of sunshine and temps getting as high as 76° ... but that can change in a split-second in Indiana.

It's a wet one today in 'the tropics" of Southern Indiana.