Sadie Finds The New Bird Nest

It didn't take the hounds long to find out today's weather was going to be different today and their temporary confinement inside was going to end ... no rain for six more days, IF that forecast holds.

Without my thermometer not hanging on the wall, I took an early morning glance online at WeatherUnderground to see what the temp was outside a little after 7am. That is when I saw the lack of rain forecasted for the next week. It was still sweatshirt and shorts weather but still much nicer than hearing rain for another day.

Slight interruption ... there is a surprise photo below.

With that change, the hounds did their first quick trip outside and back waiting at the door for their breakfast. While they are outside I am pouring kibble inside. Now they go right back outside after eating for a searching mission, one they use to do first thing in the morning. A few months back, once they found out they were getting two meals per day ... they changed their routine to eat the fastest way possible. All three of them love to eat.

After I stepped back inside to pour a cup of coffee, the hounds had more than a few minutes to disappear. I was happy to come outside to see both of them still around and in their field searching mode. Although it was in a different area than their normal patrol.

After the time when Stella took off in the direction behind her in this photo, over to a drainage ditch that is between my neighbor's yard and the field between us ... I am always leery when she is on that side of the yard ... but she came when called today with no problem.

I wonder if there is any 4-leaf clover in my yard?

A little after 9am, After their short nap of an hour or so, they both came to get me and drink the last of their water which sits besides my computer desk. They were wanting to go outside again. With the sun trying to come out, but still wet grounds ... no walk was taken yet but they had time to search their yard. Sadie found something surprising and I may have not noticed it until she sat below it with her nose pointing upward.

I'm not sure I would have caught 'the surprise' if I had not seen Sadie sitting beside me and staring up at the new bird nest. Yes, the birds have been busy and quite determined, since I took down the carport thermometer on Sunday. They tried the the corner ledge in the carport but it was too small for their nest to stick.

It looks like they decided to move outside under the overhang. I'll have more photos about what goes on there. When you think about it, that is just an amazing amount of work building that nest. This is a place I don't mind having a bird nest.

Stella in the meantime is not into bird chasing or watching like Sadie is ... she continued to collect data on scents on top and underneath 'her' yard.

Stella is checking to see if the field is still too wet to venture out into and possibly requesting a walk.

That's Sadie's "look", asking me if we can go for a walk now. Due to the saturated ground and wet grass, the first walk may not happen until after their lunch today. I need some sunshine to dry out the muddy grounds in the field.

Stella continues her yard exploration and data collection all the way back to the house.

Heidi had an afternoon bath yesterday with the shampoo. It cleaned her skin up really well and by last night the skin below her ears and down her neck was soft and I could see healing taking place. Her other red spots were also soft, supple and she showed no pain when I touched them.

The water and vinegar applications seem to be working.

I keep catching myself glancing up where the thermometer was for the 19 years that I've lived here. It was installed before I moved into this house. How long? I'm not sure. I decided this morning, for a day or two, I'd prop it up over by my trash can. The trash can upside down is the one  I use to collect leaves, sticks or anything else when cleaning the yard. The five gallon bucket seemed like the perfect holder for the thermometer.

Over the next few days am going to decide if I want to hang the thermometer on the wall it is now sitting in front of. I am thinking during nest building seasons (like now) I could take it down and sit it like this. Then during the "off season" it could hang on the wall, which is just left of the shed where it was before.

The hounds are back to their normal sleep time until they eat lunch. I don't have a lot planned today except to spend time outside, even if it's doing nothing but sitting in a chair. The grass is cut, the driveway weeds are under control with my regular use of the weed eater on them.

I am going to have to pull out the debit card to get some cash ... I need to air the tires up on my Mini Cooper. Sound strange? Well the oldest gas station in town (over 50 years old), closed recently and I no longer have a place to get "free air" to air my tires up. All the other local gas stations have air machines that want a lot of my quarters. I can't say I am happy about that.

Yet, with the change in the weather, all is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Another Day of Rain

The farmer knew the weather that was coming when he got his field planted yesterday. It was just in time for the light rain that started last night and never stopped. I was also glad to get the yard mowed on Sunday, in between rains.




It was a slow day here in 'the tropics' with a light rain most of the day. It's these kind of days where the hounds hibernate and there isn't much to blog about.

Heidi hibernates, Sadie sleeps and Stella is back to chewing her Nylabone that had been missing. I noticed the other day that Sadie was storing all the balls and bones between the wall and her dog bed. When I pulled her bed up there were 5 more bones hidden under the center of her bed.

Stella was happy to get her nylabone back. She grabbed it and took off running to her spot on the floor to start her chewing exercise. Sadie at times falls into those "bloodhound property laws" that are listed on the sidebar named "Too Many Topics" ... all the water, all the bones and all the balls are hers.

Not much went on today. I did a lot of reading about Heidi's skin, hyperthyroidism as a possibility for her weight loss last year, and the normal sports news. Heidi had come to a point of needing a bath so we took care of that this afternoon. I noticed a lot of her skin was dried out, a little rough ... so I am not sure if that is the skin infected with yeast being killed or her response to water/vinegar.

Every time we went outside today, there was a light rain ... so the bloodhounds didn't do much more than the photo shows.

Warmer temps and sunshine are in the forecast for 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Playing With Different Camera Settings

After feeding the hounds their lunch around 1pm, I put on a fresh application of the water, vinegar mix for Heidi. I found out that you don't even want to take a day off from doing that. By today almost all the improvement she had shown ... was gone after taking a day off Sunday from any mixture.

I continued to read that link from my earlier post this morning about different focus settings on my camera. I ended up taking over a hundred photos just playing around with different settings this afternoon.

Although we had taken a walk earlier, Sadie and Stella still wanted to get me outside again. Stella didn't hesitate one second on what she wanted to do ... lay in the sun. Of course Sadie is too active to do that and as you can see Sadie couldn't stand still.

Once Stella thought Sadie was getting something, it was worth standing up to see what she was getting. It wasn't anything beside Sadie having her nose in the ground inside the tall grass. Consequently she laid back down.

Stella didn't lay there for long though and was up making sure that Sadie had not found some food that she should be getting. She then started that slow stroll out into the field by the bush line.

In a split second as I turned around they were both gone, hidden by the tall grass.



You can barely see Sadie in this photo. Further out in the field the grass does not even come up to my knees and isn't as thick.

Sadie decided she was going to make a run for it while Stella stay in her favorite part of the 'backyard'.

There is a story about Sadie's missing teeth on the bottom row. While she was a puppy and I was gone all day at my job, for her own protection and my sanity ... I kept her inside, in the largest black kennel you've seen for large breed dogs. Plenty of room. Yet she spent all day trying to get out.

More than a few times she had grabbed those those steel rods that formed the cage and could squeeze them together with her teeth and jaws. I could NOT bend them back using pliers. Eventually her teeth became loose and fell out.

Stella still strolling and once I looked through the camera lens and saw her take a couple of steps inside that brush line ... I called her name and she decided it was probably a good idea to head back to the house.

Only at her own pace ... very slow.

It may say it's 62° but it feels like 50°. A day for lot of reading and more coffee to stay warm. Rain is on the way so a early evening walk tonight may not happen.

After all the different settings I tried on the camera, I can't tell any difference in these photos plus the ones in the pervious post showing our afternoon walk after lunch. Heidi decided staying in bed was the best thing to do with the cold temperatures.

When will it get hot in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ?

A Slow Monday

Not a lot took place today. I did more reading about the different camera settings from the link posted earlier today. That took most of my time. Heidi had a some water vinegar applied and while Sadie, Stella and I went for a walk ... Heidi hung outside around the house while we were gone.

I tried different settings on this walk and I CAN tell a difference in the photos. The hounds are in focus and not the surrounding grass or bushes. Also when exporting them from my computer, I send them to a folder on my computer so Blogger can import them from that folder. Otherwise Blogger will not import from the Apple Photo program.

In that process on a drop down menu, I changed the photo quality from "high" to "maximum". I did not make any edits to the sharpness of the photos like I've had to do before. I might be getting close to the quality I remember before.

These hounds don't miss a smell. I'd like to see what kind of animal traffic this field gets at night or the predawn hours.

This is Sadie running for once. Usually all the running photos are from Stella but Sadie can run at a pretty good speed when she wants to.

Today I decided I was going to follow Stella up to the right corner and see what was so interesting to her. The past few days she will not leave this area. It didn't take long to see why she doesn't leave. You will have to look closely at the 2nd photo.

I told her to "come on" and she followed me and Sadie for the rest of the walk.

As we approached the backyard I could see Heidi was over in the side yard ... eating tall grass, where I had let it grow out a little bit on the bank. So that is all three hounds that enjoyed eating grass today.

Now ... back to more reading here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.