The Hounds Survived The Hot Temps

The 15° - 20° drop in temperatures these past few days have made 'the tropics' a great place to be. Beautiful weather where you can sit outside at night without bugs and the humidity.

The hounds have a few more days of these before we climb back into the 90's with a heat index over 100°in the early evenings. I like hot weather but I've really liked the temps in the 70's the past few days even better.

You may be wondering "where have we been" ... nowhere. Just like in the winters when they go into single digits, the hounds and I became wimps in the hot weather as we hung out as close to any air conditioned air we could find. Believe me, there wasn't much to blog about when the hounds become inactive.

This morning was a different story though ... for the first time in a long time they did a little wrestling as they headed out for their first of two daily walks. During those days of high temps we only walked early in the morning because the heat index was still over a 100° at 8pm, most nights.

I've been trying the camera at different settings in search of getting those clear sharp photos I remember seeing when I first bought the camera over a year ago. I've decided it might be my eyes because I cannot see any changes in the quality after I change settings.

For any photo or camera readers, I'm using a 18mm-55mm lens, single point focus and a quality setting of 'raw' for these photos today. It might be the lighting at 11am but I can't say I am thrilled with any of these photos.

There has been some major mole work since they cut the field. One spot in particular in the whole field. Luckily it's pretty far away from my backyard.

Stella continues to do her own thing on our walks. There have been a few times this past week where she had not moved from that favorite corner of hers by the time I returned to the house. Once she figured out I did not wait on her ... she sprinted from this area to the door to get back inside.

During the days where the temps were in the 90's there was none of that running at anytime. They both walked so slow you would have thought they were on their last steps. It was hot enough they had no problem following me and wanted to get back inside as soon as possible.

These past few days of cooler weather they have been back to their old routines. They seem to be pretty happy that the field was finally cut and baled.

I walked over here one day to see what all the interest was. There was nothing more than 3-4 small pebbles of deer poop. Sometimes it was nothing but bare ground, so it's hard to say what holds them in a spot for so long.

The corn in the back field seems to be growing by the hour. There has been just the right amount of rain in between all the sunshine we have been getting.

Stella started running this morning but I wonder if she has gotten out of shape this past week or two. She ended up walking to the path about half way to it.

Sadie and Stella head off to another one of their recent favorite spots.

Sadie can tell that Stella is headed outside of her boundary again. She has been spending a lot of time here on her first trip outside every day. I'd like for both of them to return to their habit of going into the field straight out from the house instead of in the direction of the small woods by the neighbors house.

As for Heidi, she has spent 99.9% of her time inside with her only activity moving from the couch to bed and her food/water bowls in between. She goes outside to only long enough to dump her tanks. The one time I carried her to the field in hopes that she would join the hound walk, she turned and sprinted for the house.

Her skin has stayed the same for months and at times I see it's better than last year in June when I compared photos. I did notice as the temps rose she itched more than normal and chewed a few new spots on her legs. After we had those temperature drops, her skin improved. Could heat really be an issue for skin allergies?

She did spend some time laying in the sun in the backyard the other day but I did not have the camera with me to record her historic event as I was putting away the lawn mower, weed eaters and cans of gasoline.

She seems to act her normal self and still has her huge appetite. At times I think she might still miss Winston and not having another hound that is at her eye level.

As I have mentioned in the past on this blog, there are times I feel there is not much sense in blogging when the photos are the same every day, the hounds even stop in the same places on their walk every day. I've been spending less time driving around since it was too hot to have the hounds in the FJ with the windows down. It's hard to blog when nothing is being done.

Stella had a few mysterious days recently where I was gone only 10 minutes each day and she went wild trying to dig and chew herself out of the house. Then the very next morning I leave for an hour and a half and she is the perfect hound, with no separation anxiety.

I am looking into using some scented oils that seem to work for hounds that are afraid of thunder, fireworks, gunshots and separation. I have also thought about buying the jacket that is used to calm a hound when they have a fear of thunder. Storms are not her problem though ... separation is her issue.

Her previous owner tried to kennel her while she was gone. Petsmart suggested their largest and strongest "Kong" crate ... Stella broke out of that her first day. I don't think crating her would solve her separation issue and I am not going to spend $500 on the "alcatraz" model to find out.

Without the long 'to do' list like I had last summer, it's been too laidback this year but the weather is beautiful in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

A Nothing Day Today

Nothing too exciting today here in 'the tropics'. The day started slower than slow and didn't end much faster as the photos will show.

There were a few minor changes today ... some to this blog, some additions to my Feedly account, some more ideas of traveling with Stella and general day dreaming.

The biggest and most enjoyable change today was the "heat index". That dropped around 15° and made a huge difference in the comfort level inside and out. Less air conditioning was ran today and the afternoon hound walk was more enjoyable ... even at a leisure pace.

Sadie was giving me that "stare" to walk this morning but at the time I took this photo I had not had my first cup of coffee ... so we weren't walking anywhere, except back inside to pour that first cup.

I saw a lot of blue skies today but it had a feel of being overcast most of the day. The rain is unpredictable but that doesn't really matter while all of us hide out inside to escape the afternoon heat.

Not sure where he was head but he had highway traffic backed up longer than the traffic laws allow and really nowhere to pull off to the side if he passed the intersection just in front of him. He passed that turnoff and the line of traffic slowly passed by the house.

After the hounds had lunch we did the normal trip outside. Heidi wasn't out longer than 5 minutes before she headed back to the door for me to let her inside. Stella decided she would sleep there because she was sleeping right before lunch ... she likes sleeping anywhere.

Sometime a little before 4pm I decided to do the afternoon walk. The weather seemed okay temperature wise outside, I needed something to do and the hounds are willing to walk anytime I grab the camera and say "lets go".

It might be just me but it seems that since the field has been cut and baled, the hounds spend more time with their noses in the ground than anywhere else.

Stella wasn't happy that I called her before she could walk into those woods. She started my direction but took her sweet ass time doing it. She has been pretty stubborn this week for some reason.

I did one more look at this last roll of hay they had here and there is not a string to bind it with anywhere. Just a roll of hay that is slowly falling apart.

Stella made one last attempt to sneak off into her "no fly zone" but once again slowly walked in my direction when I called her. When I say slow, I mean slower than slow. I've never seen a hound that walks as slow as she does.

They brought the red trailer last night right after we finished our walk. Probably a good thing because Stella would have been real interested in meeting their springer spaniel they had in back of their truck. Something seems to be wrong with the tractor but didn't see anyone today working on it, the few times I looked in that direction.

I've been thinking today of going back to a vegetarian diet. Last year I started Paleo Diet and lost a little over 20 pounds but never felt comfortable eating as much bacon and red meat as they recommended. I've been adding brown rice back to my diet which the past 6 months has had more chicken and salmon and less red meat.

As you see I started playing with the blog template today. From the choices of Blogger templates there isn't one that gives me everything I want in design but the one I changed to gave me more things I wanted than the one I have been using since January. Let me know of the fonts are too small for you to read, since I did decrease the page font one size smaller.

I am not finding any ticks on Sadie or Stella after our walks since giving them NexGard in April. They still love me though, as I pull off 4-5 after every walk. With the record heat out west, my friend in Phoenix says the scorpions are out in full force ... I think I'd rather have the war against ticks here in Southern Indiana.

It's that same time of year where I think of making some travel plans. I always wait too late and by this time it is really hot in the majority of the western states. That puts my choices up towards Montana, the Dakotas or the Pacific Northwest. I was planning to head that direction last July but Heidi became sick a few days before our departure. The vet needed for her to stay here 30 days before she could travel.

Of course last summer I had different hounds and a different combo. I handled the one bloodhound and two basset hounds with no problems in Rest Areas or off in a grassy area when refueling. All liked the tent, they slept most of the time I was on the highway.

This year Stella makes it a little different situation. One is because she is a large hound and I've gone to two bloodhounds and one basset hound. Here at home even two bloodhounds at times are hard to handle when they were both leashed when walking last fall. Plus the few times I have taken Stella with me to buy dog food in Bloomington I've let her out on a leash before we head back home.

With that store being on a busy four lane street and new surroundings, I found Stella to be a little skittish when I had her out on a leash. The traffic noise spooked her and she had the urge to take off running if I did not have her on that leash. She couldn't wait to get back inside the FJ.

Most likely a lot of her anxiety is from the times she had moved in her first six years. So if I am serious about traveling this summer, I need to load the hounds up in the FJ, with my standard 6' leashes and drive about 70 miles to the freeway and head to the nearest Rest Area to see how Stella would handle that. I know Sadie and Heidi would do okay in a Rest Area stop.

I think I'll go study cameras and see if it would be worth buying the Nikon D3300 at a discount price since they are discontinuing that model this summer.

Overall it was slow but a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.