Hounds Pass Out By 3pm

Unless you were here it would be too hard to understand just how beautiful every day is this time of year in 'the tropics'.

No heat, no humidity, windows open 24/7, any rain forecasted never arrives ... it's great.


We had a fairly late start I guess. I am not sure why but really didn't realize the time until I was making coffee. It didn't feel that late. Even with that, Stella decided it was too wet for the first walk of the day and headed back to the house soon after her visit to the field. She was wanting to sleep a little longer.

From the time it took me to consume my daily two cups of coffee, read my email, some blogs, sports and little news it looked like the perfect time to take that first walk of the day even with it being an hour or so before lunch.

Both hounds were happy as usual. Stella did her best to keep up with Sadie and I and didn't lag far behind like she has recently.

They both found their favorite stuff to eat in the same spots as before.

It looks like the corn crop in the field behind the field we walk in, is more than ready to be picked. I would think that would happen sometime this week with all the great weather predicted.

By the time we got back from walk #1, Heidi had moved from the front yard to the backyard which has more direct sunshine before noon. That huge pipe sticking out of the ground is the capped off well from 40 years ago. The story is, they tried using their own well water but switched to 'city water' soon after. I don't know if that change was because of water quality from their well or the availability of 'city water'.

As I was messing around outside for an hour or so, Sadie kept bothering me like she wanted another walk. She gives you that stare down when she wants to go or will hop up and down if she thinks we are going for a walk. Yet, it was barely over an hour since they finished their first walk.

I stalled her for another hour inside before I decided if that is what she wants to do, then we'll do it. They were more than happy to take off. Heidi was barking and that seemed to tell me she wanted to go also ... but all she wanted was to go outside.

The walk was a little faster paced. The hounds didn't hang out in anyone spot like the photo above. Then something I had not seen on any walk in the 19 years that I have been here.

On the way back Sadie takes of sprinting and never stopped.

She did stop though and from the way she was acting I thought Heidi had come out into the field and Sadie had seen her wagging white tip on her tail ... but there was nothing there by the time we caught up with Sadie.

It wasn't Heidi because when we got back to the yard, Heidi was back over in that same spot she was at this morning, soaking up some sunshine.

Sometime around lunch I had a wild thought ... "why am I paying them for something that has to have a simple solution?". I went back to the local hardware store to pick up my weed eater, along with a new dry filter to go along with my new spark plug I bought yesterday. I even mixed up a new batch of gas/oil mixture they recommend.

My weed eater was behind a long line of riding mowers in for repair. I could see why they told me it would take a couple of days.

After draining all of the fuel, pressing the bubble to release as much fuel as possible and getting it empty as possible, I tried starting it ... I think you can see by Stella's response what happened ... nothing.

She proceeded to walk over and give herself a good scratch in one of her outdoor napping spots but today ... that wasn't the spot she wanted.

After a little thinking, she decided she had to move if she was going to sleep outside this afternoon. Why not? She and Sadie had two walks completed by 1:30pm, the yard mowing could wait until tomorrow, she was fed and had nothing else planned for the rest of the day.

After finding a better spot with more hot sunshine, she looked back for my approval ... then started her thought process for starting her nap.

In the meantime my bloodhound that has the strong tracking chip inside her, was exploring different parts of the yard nonstop while Stella slept. If Sadie is outside she never has time to take a nap ... there are too many things to check out.

After Sadie practically walked over the top of Stella, waking her up ... Stella decided that sleeping inside may be a little safer around Sadie.

All three hounds were passed out by 3pm ... I wasn't certain a 3rd walk for the day would take place. We have NEVER done 3 walks in a day and it might not be something I want to introduce to them, to prevent any new habits taking place.

I played around with my two camera lenses. You can look through the photos and see if you can see any differences in them. Some are taken with the Tamron 18-200mm with a lens hood. Others were taken with my Nikon 55-200mm with a filter and a lens hood.

With these hounds passed out in the middle of the afternoon and Sadie snoring loudly, at times it's really hard to resist an afternoon siesta in the late afternoon.

Fantastic weather here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sadie Finds A Praying Mantis

With the AC turned off and all the windows opened, it felt like fall. I'm not sure where September went but it wasn't here long enough to remember.

Doesn't it seem like it was hot summer summer weather just a couple of weeks ago? Today the weather was great to get a few things done outside before it rains again.

Cleaning gutters was one of my projects today. With a lot of dry leaves inside them and not having the wet leaf problem it made the job that much faster ... and cleaner to do. I am hoping to clean and wash the Toyota FJ this week also. A lot of hound wear inside that needs to be taken care of.

Right after lunch it was time for a walk. It was beautiful today and most of the afternoon was spent outside doing something. You can see the leaves just starting to change color.

I bought a new spark plug for the Echo SRM-225U Weed Eater ... it still didn't start. I drove down to the local hardware store where I bought it to let them take a look at it. Their repair business must be good because they said they'd call me in a couple of days. I was tired of trying to figure out what was wrong with it and decided to let the 'pros' fix it. That also delayed the cutting of the giant ragweed until I get that back.

Sadie and Stella didn't care though. They took off running along the edge of the field and and didn't stop until they moved around the first turn. The scents must have been pretty strong for them to take off like that.

Of coarse Stella found her usual spot that she is always interested in.

Sadie was in full search mode and had been most of the walk today.

I'm not sure what spooked Stella but I caught her just as she turned, right before she took off running to catch up with us.

We headed back to the house but you can see that Sadie is very interested in something she had found. Once I saw her hop into the air right above that spot she is checking out, I knew it was something important.

If you look closely you can see what her prize was. I ran Sadie off to let the praying mantis continue it's movement through the field.

Sorry to be brief tonight, but the hounds and I just got up from our afternoon siesta a little after 6pm and still have a little daylight we can enjoy before the sun sets. For those interested, all the photos today were taken with the lens hood mounted.

It was a good Monday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Quiet Sunday

With two of three of my football teams winning this weekend, I guess you could call it a success. Besides the game, the weather was fantastic, no rain and even some thoughts of prepping the AC for winter.

Like I mentioned the other day, it's nice leaving the windows open but lately my allergies have been in the high range and drives me insane even after taking a tablet to control them. I saw today that Heidi's eyes were having the same allergy problems also.

I'm pretty sure the soy beans in the photo above and the rolls of hay in the photo below will be gone sometime this week. I hope to take some photos of the equipment that will do both of those tasks.

We were not outside long for time this morning. With the Indianapolis Colts playing in London England, their game was going to start at 9:30am which would just extend our day of watching football after a busy Saturday.

All the hounds came back inside to sleep until their lunch was served. They didn't seem interested in taking a walk that early in the morning.

By 3pm they decided it was time. It looked like rain but it was just clouds. By late afternoon the sunshine was out bright. It was another good walk.

You could tell Sadie and Stella were both on a mission today ... it was like there was somewhere they both needed to be.

By the time Stella hit this spot, she didn't leave. I caught her here between sneezes ... she must have snorted something as she sneezed 4 to 5 times.

But she didn't leave that spot while Sadie and I continued our walk. You can barely see her dead center of the next photo.

Sadie continued her walk with no problem. She would prefer to stay fairly close to me and rarely if ever stays as far back as Stella does.

Stella finally raised her head long enough to see Sadie and I were on our way to the house ... she decided she might want to head our way.

It was an easy stroll for both of them all the way back to the house.

Heidi was standing at the corner of the house wagging her tail as she was happy to see us. My photos never catch her tail moving from side to side but she does wag her tail a lot more than my photos show.

Due to health reasons an 'icon' in my small town is having to shut the business down. It's a feed store for all the locals that have farm animals, dogs or cats. It's been a family business for 75 years and really the main place I buy the dog food for the hounds. The prices rarely changed over the years and carried all of the different Diamond brand dog kibble.

It's not the dog food I'll miss but the conversation with the owner during the times I stopped there every 18 days for another 40# bag. It was also a place for the older guys to hanging out and chew the fat. It will be sad to see the doors closed for the last time.

Otherwise, besides those allergies ... all is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Days Of Gray Skies & Low Energy

Those days of bright sunshine and hot temperatures seem like months ago ... it's only been a few days of change. Once those cool temps arrived they stayed.

After a lot of yard work done early in the week, the hounds and I laid low the rest of the week and didn't do too much. Photos were taken and uploaded into Google Photos and Flickr every night. Walks for the hounds were taken ... along with some siestas, some football and some reading.

It looks like rain is right around the corner but doesn't feel like rain. We took off for our walk close to noon, not knowing if we would take a 2nd walk later this afternoon either at halftimes or between football games.

Stella has been hanging way way back this week in each of her walks ... to the point that Sadie an I have already made the turn to head home. This morning was no different.

They started out together but Stella has found something in one spot that she will not leave ... so I don't yell for her to come with us.

Sadie never likes staying too far behind and she will always come running without me calling her. Seeing her waistline means she has lost the weight she needed to this summer.

As I approached the back end of the field, Stella was nowhere in sight.

About the time we were headed down the last half of the walk I was pretty sure that Stella may have ran into the woods for the first time. I was preparing myself for driving around the neighborhood in back of the house, to see if I could find her once I got home.

Then ... I see she is running trying to find Sadie and I.

Once she saw us, she slowed to a slow trot and all was good.

She really wanted to head north. She kept veering away from me and Sadie but would come toward us each time I called her. They both headed back home.

Almost to the yard.

I took the Z4 out for a road trip yesterday, even with the forecast of rain. I decided it didn't matter if I drove it in the rain or not ... it's an easy car to wash and clean up. I did hit a couple of intense storms to and from my visit. As usual the I6 engine purred like a kitten.

One good thing happened besides a great visit with my old friend ... I was away from home for almost 8 hours ... Stella did not damage anything while I was gone. That is the longest I've been away from her and having no damage to the room she stays in with the other two hounds.

Not much in store but an afternoon and night of college football. Most of the games I am interested in don't start until 3:30pm eastern, so I'll post this earlier than I normally do.

The summer is gone in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.