Rain Rain & More Rain

After a beautiful weekend of weather, it started raining sometime late Sunday night and hasn't stopped as of right now, Tuesday at 8:51am.

It may have stopped a few times yesterday but every time I took the hounds outside for a break, and the time I sprinted to the mailbox, there was light rain at a minimum.

This morning it was raining so hard that Sadie and Stella ran to their spot to pee and then sprinted back to the house. Heidi made an immediate right turn just outside the door and scooted behind the Yews and under the roof overhang. I could tell not only by the sounds of the wind last night (strong) but looking at the Countryman this morning that it had been windy and raining all night.

When it gets this much water I know there has been some heavy rain the past 24 hours. It looks like I will have to spend a few days resetting the edging brickes since the ground has pushed them forward. Ground swell is a killer around this house.

The hounds and I have a little bit of cabin fever this morning. Wunderground is telling me this rain will finally be over today at 11:00am, then we will have three days of sunshine to make sure the ground will be dry enough to handle the predicted 1"-3" of snow on Saturday. Throw in the time change late Sunday night, moving an hour ahead ... it should be an interesting week.

The few times they have predicted snow this year in 'the tropics' it has turned out to be not much more than ground cover. There might have been a day or two with an inch or two of snow but nothing that I can remember.

Looking at the heavy amount of water falling on that red stone tells my my gutter is plugged up with something and not able to drain down the gutter spout. Hard to imagine what that might be since there are no leaves, and I cleaned out the gutters in the fall and on a nice day in January. It might be that the water is backed up due to the large amounts of rain at one time.

I will get up there this afternoon and unplug whatever is the cause. At least the lawns in the neighborhood are getting green. I've never seen as much lawn damage by moles as I have this winter. For the first time that I can remember in 19 years, they have moved to the front yard.

I guess it was the perfect time to play around with blog themes on Wordpress. I changed mine three or four different times on Monday. Looking through the 189 free Wordpress options, I soaked up a ton of data usage. Not this blog, my other one on the sidebar.

When it was all done ... I went back to the same theme (template) I started with over a year ago. Since I have deleted that blog a couple of times and rebuilt it, I don't have many posts there right now. I do have a slide show of 40 photographs of the hounds.

I usually don't watch much tv besides ballgames and an occasional movie. If something shows up interesting on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel then I'll tune in. I have my DVR set to record the new shows as they return to the tv schedule.

One show I really like is Dr. Jeff Rocky Mountain Vet on the Animal Planet station. He does some amazing work and a large amount of customers. I watch my taped version but I think this show is on Saturday nights 9pm eastern time.

Yesterday and today are times I am happy I moved the Z4 to the inside parking space along with the car cover. It was so windy last night the only way the cover stayed on the car was the bungee cord under the car connecting the two grommets on each side of the cover.

So after watching the one hour show of Dr. Jeff, I caught a show I had not seen before but found out later it was in it's 2nd season. They were showing The Last Alaskans, one show after another. I set the DVR to tape them and then after the first hour show I started watching the taped version so I can fast forward through each commercial.

The show was so interesting that I watched 4 straight hours while hearing the wind howl outside and rattling the storm windows. For those of you that live in or travel in small fiberglass trailers and combat those 50-60 mph winds out west ... you are to be commended. In fact any size of RV in those kind of winds at night, you should be commended for what you go through.

Still raining fairly hard at 9:15am.

Sadie of course is sitting at the door way of the computer room, giving me the stare ... wanting her morning walk. But with the amount of rain in the past 24 hours and right now, I believe her walks will be held off for another day. There is nothing good about two bloodhounds with muddy paws that go past their ankles. (About the time I posted this blog post, her kong ball rolled over and hit my chair leg ... the game of fetch had started)

She will toss me one of her bones or balls today to play some indoor fetch. That seems to help with her cabin fever. Heidi has been back in bed since just after her breakfast kibble (normal) and Stella is working out the Nyla Bone before she starts howling for lunch around 11:20am. I'm serious when I say that, she does howl for breakfast and lunch. Maybe sometime I can figure out how to post a recording of her howling here on the blog.

Just to show you the hounds are alive and well ... here are a few pictures of them on Sunday. Heidi made an appearance outside and stayed out while I sat in a chair enjoying the weather and the bloodhounds roamed the field. The biggest news of Sunday, it was hound toenail day. Sadie finally let me cut all of hers in one setting. There is never a problem with Heidi or Stella getting theirs cut because they lay down and roll on their back for me to cut them.

Stella enjoying Sunday afternoon while Sadie runs to her spot out of bounds before I can call her back. I guess I cut back too much of the brush last fall, giving her an open area to access the wooded area.

This was the only picture I took of the hounds on Monday ... light rain, so we were not outside long.

With the weather, not much is planned outside today. I hear the dishes screaming at me, so they will get washed today while the vacuum is yelling behind the closet door. Washing dishes and vacuuming will be the highlights of the day.

Sadie or Stella can change those plans at anytime with more exciting things to do. If that happens the Nikon D3200 will be in my hand recording any interesting things they do.

Thanks for stopping by to check on us. At least it is warm in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana today.

Stella Sets A New Boundary

Bloodhounds are so much different than Basset Hounds. They are not as laidback as Basset Hounds and every day to them is a vacation full of potential excitement.

They are somewhere between a child experiencing their "terrible two's" or one starting their teens.

There is never a dull moment when you own a bloodhound, let alone two of them.


With a beautiful warm morning, Sadie wanted her walk before I had made coffee. She wasn't giving up and stood their in that stare for over five minutes.

When neither one would come back to the house when I called their names, I went back inside and poured my daily ration of coffee grounds into the filter, poured just the right amount of water to make two large cups of coffee and flipped the lid down for it to start dripping into the decanter.

I took a warm wash cloth and cleaned Heidi's face and eyes. I even opened my Activity Monitor on my computer since it tracks data usage live, all before I went back outside. I figured during the elapsed time both bloodhound had probably wondered off in the field or the woods by the neighbors house.

I was shocked when I walk out around the corner of the carport ... they were both slowly walking back to the house, almost at the yard exploring every inch of ground.

An hour later we were taking our first walk of the day. There are two things that Sadie will chase at a full speed sprint ... falling leaves and birds that are on the ground. If you look closely on the upper left side of the picture you can see the bird that is going to give Sadie some great aerobic exercise.

Once she decided the bird was gone and out of 'her' field it was time to circle back and check the area of the crime, then meet me to let me know it was time to start the walk.

Stella moved out in front of us so it was looking like this was going to be the perfect early Sunday morning walk in beautiful weather. Little did I know at the time that a little later Stella would be setting a new record for any hound walk taken in the past 19 years.

Sadie was still focused on the bird that got away. It had to be here somewhere and she was going to find it.

Stella was getting in her extra protein for breakfast but came trotting any time I called her. I walked over once to look and hopefully see what she was eating but all I found were leaves soaked with bloodhound drool.

As we turn the corner we are walking at a good pace and I decided that if the hounds headed to the far right corner I would stand on the path along the back edge of the field and give them all the time they wanted to explore.

I didn't know just how quickly those plans would change.

Things are looking normal and good at this point of the walk. They are walking away from the heavy deer traffic area and following the edge of the wooded area that will bring them back to the field along the path we walk.

I continued to walk a little further up the path, where I was going to take some pictures of all the field and some of the corn field behind us.

When Sadie ran up beside me panting and then looking back to where Stella was I knew something must be wrong. She seemed agitated.

When I turned around there was no sign of Stella. I've seen this before, even in this direction so it wasn't a big deal ... except Sadie was not acting normal. She took off running in that direction. It was like she came to get me to show me something.

As I ran toward that wooded area I am now concerned because Stella is not on the left side where you see the green bushes, where she normally is hidden. She is not responding to me yelling her name. I don't see her anywhere ... I start to feel a little panic.

I stepped over that fallen tree limb you see in the picture below. I walked to the tree just to the left of center and found out just past that tree is a very steep slope ... no sign of Stella.

But wait !!!!  Just barely I see the tip of a red bloodhound tail, wagging in the air and it is moving away from me faster than I can move through the area. She is down heading down this steep slope into a thick wooded gully.

I try to take a picture of what I see of her, for me and this blog post ... but the camera isn't locking into an auto focus and at the rate Stella is moving away from me I don't take the chance of trying to get a picture ... because I am running down this slope yelling her name. She is taking off, locked into to something.

It was new territory for me. I had never been in this part of the woods. Sadie stood back in the field and I assume was watching all of this. She did not move into the wooded area.

I was finally able to catch up with Stella and grabbed her collar. Otherwise she was not going to turn around even with me that close. Whatever she had locked into with her nose, she was not going to stop until she found it.

After I walked her up the slope and back into the field, she and Sadie went running down our normal path along the back of the field as if nothing had happened.

She looks at the camera as if to say "what's the big deal?"

With my pulse rate up over my threshold from running down that slope, I had a pretty good idea that my hands would be moving enough that sharp clear pictures the rest of the way home probably was not going to happen.

I did not have the leash with me today but once Stella knew we were heading home she and Sadie trotted along the path in front of me.

Does this mean it's officially Spring? Does the groundhog in Pa have any influence on determining when Spring will arrive in the Midwest? I think the dandelion is a sign that Spring is close to being here.

It's going to get up to 64° today. The hounds and I will take at least one more walk, possibly two. I'll take the leash this time because it looks like I could use it, unless Stella decides to do something entirely different. You never know whats up ahead with these two partners in crime.

She is a great bloodhound, with a funny personality and I admit she continues to give me "a run for my money" ...

They are both begging to be fed lunch right now, so I have to go.

It's a beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Hounds Veg Out On Saturday

Due to a terrible night of sleep, I didn't start the day as earlier as normal. We were up and walked before any coffee was made.

Even with a late start, the first hound walk of the day was completed by 10:30am ... our first pictures were not taken until almost 1pm.

Heidi made it outside for a short trip after the lunch time kibble was served. Sadie and Stella wanted lunch at the normal time but didn't get it due to their late breakfast.

She still looks thin but it feels like she has gained a little weight. I noticed the other day looking at the different breeds of Basset Hounds, yes there are sub-breeds, that she looks like the smaller breed of bassets.

I would have to dig back through those websites to find the official name of the basset hound that she looks like.

The ballgame I wanted to watch today started at 1pm. My couch is shorter than a normal couch but longer than a love seat. It sits me and two hounds comfortably ... when a third hound wants to get on the couch with us, it gets interesting.

Normally Sadie sits in her own chair, it's a large leather chair with an ottoman. Stella usually lays on the left side taking as much room as possible and then when she is not in bed, Heidi will lay next to me.

Today when Sadie jumped up in Stella's spot before anyone else sat down ... the puzzle was in danger of having problems.

Stella did her pouting stance where she will sit in front of the couch and lower her head and eyes toward the floor ... not moving a muscle ... until I decide to move something or someone.

Today I did not tell Sadie to get off the couch but I slide about 2" to my left and Stella thought that 2" of open space was enough room for her to squeeze in and then turn and force herself into a bigger spot on the couch.

Heidi didn't move an inch during Stella forcing her way on the couch in a space about 2" wide. In fact she did not even wake up.

She slept through the whole game.

Sadie was totally unaware that Stella was trying to force herself onto the couch. She started snoring sometime in the first half of the college basketball game ... but did wake up long enough to eat her lunch at halftime of the game.

She didn't beg for a walk today and was more interested in sleeping.

More than likely all of this sleeping was caused by a late lunch, although they normally sleep during the same time every afternoon.

It was sometime close to 3pm that Sadie woke up and started acting like she wanted to go for a walk. Stella had woken up and nudged the door handle with her nose to go outside ... so it was time. I decided to take the camera with me on this walk along with the standard 6' leash.

This morning's walk was with only the 25' retractable leash. I was pretty sure by the time I stepped outside that Sadie and I would complete the walk without Stella. It was a gut feeling I had. I wasn't wrong about that and it didn't take much time to confirm my thoughts on what Stella would do.

It was nice out today although it was cooler than predicated. There were zero clouds in the sky, cold enough for a ski cap, light gloves and a light jacket. Once again Sadie got some running in today, two or three different times during the walk.

She loves going on these walks. I say that a lot but she does. It's her nose that keeps her focused and active.

Glancing back I see that Stella has barely moved into view. Since she isn't trotting in our direction I can tell I'll probably find her in the middle of the field on the way back if not over by the wooded area.

What would you do if you had a hound like this ??

Sadie was almost positive that Stella was behind us or at least catching up to us ... I let her in on the bad news.

In fact Stella was seen going the opposite direction and something had caught her undivided attention to where she didn't even move from that one spot as Sadie and I walked the return path.

I called Stella's name one time to see what she would do. She heard me and then went right back to eating.

While I was taking the picture of Stella, Sadie had snuck off behind me and for some reason had gone over to the opposite side of the field. She acted as if she heard something in direction of the farm a couple of lots over.

A zoomed picture of Stella, just to make sure she was still around.

Once Sadie found out that Stella was up ahead she ran to let her know it was time to go and head back to the house. Whatever Stella had found, it was so good that Sadie couldn't pull herself away either. I had to walk over with the leash in hand to get Stella to move.

It wasn't ten SECONDS after getting back inside the house that both bloodhounds laid down and were sound to sleep, like the walk never happened. It's been a good Saturday today with enough daylight to get a Z4 drive in, with the top up. The next game I wanted to watch doesn't start until 8pm, so I will probably read a little until then.

I took the Mini Cooper Countryman out on the freeway yesterday for the first time. It drove as good as I thought it would. It was very comfortable and I could see making a trip out west in this car without any issues. I don't like to stop a lot when I am driving and the comfort of the seat confirmed I could do that in this car.

I had a couple of cars passing me but slowed down just slightly to the side of me to take a look at the "blacked out stealth" Mini. For the first time that I can remember, I didn't see any State Police on the freeway in either direction of my trip.

Warmer temps are here for at least another week in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.