Where's The Snow?

Wunderground had today's forecast big on snow in this area. Then as I looked closer it was saying ~<1" ...

Yet when we stepped outside this morning it felt cold enough to snow and luckily there was no wind to make it feel colder.

So far I have not noticed the time change, for me or the hounds. Setting their time for lunch last spring at the time change was a good move. It is basically stays the same for them year round.

I have had a few readers ask me if Heidi is okay or where's Heidi ... It's below her 70° threshold so she has moved back into her normal winter hibernation spot ... my my Marmot sleeping bag. It looks like she has taken ownership of that bag.

Of course nothing bothers Sadie. It doesn't matter what the weather is, all she wants is her walk. Lately she is becoming more and more demanding, if that is possible. She is willing to sit for longer periods of time, giving me 'her stare' until we go.

I could tell by the pace that Stella was doing to start the walk, that she would not be coming with us today. She was walking in slow motion while Sadie had already moved ahead of us.

I was beginning to wonder if I would be walking alone today when I saw that both of them were lagging behind my pace. My pace is not fast but that did not matter to them. Today was added protein day. I hate that habit but they are hounds and all dogs eat gross stuff at times.

Before I knew it, Sadie had charged up near me on the run and then curled back to some points of interest. She always likes to run up and hit my knee or leg with her nose just to let me know that she is back.

I set my lens at 50mm so I could take the a picture of what I actually see when I looked backed at Stella. She is right of center in the picture, if you have a hard time finding her. This gives you an idea how far out in front Sadie and I are.

Sadie was her normal excited self during the walk. It felt like a Monday to me and by the time we got to this point of the walk I had seen one single small snow flake dropping from the sky. Just one.

At first I thought Stella was going to make a run for it to catch up to us. It looked like it for a couple of her steps but she stopped when she found something. I knew then she would not be coming with us today. I was guessing we would see her over by the neighbors' woods on our way back. It's good for her to do her own thing as long as she is not near the highway (100')

The air was crisp, not as cold as you would think at 35°, but it kind of felt like it could snow. It will be interesting to see how today's forecast will play out. The hounds and I both need our food replenished, so no matter what the weather is going to be, I am going out to grocery shop and buy dog food.

As I near the back edge of the field Sadie has not moved to far from the spot pictured above. I catch her through my zoomed lens chomping down on something. I hate to think what it might be.

Once again within a minute of taking that picture, she came running up around me, slowing down from her full out sprint.

I think I am seeing a little weight loss for her and that's a good thing. At her age and breed I have to watch her weight as she gets older. The vet told me she was in great shape for an 'almost 9 year old'. He remembers checking her when she was 6 weeks old. I didn't bring her home until she was 12 weeks old.

As I made the final turn on the path to return home I glanced along the horizon. Since I don't wear my glasses while walk due to them getting in the way as I look through the camera viewfinder so I have to squint to see if I can find Stella. A lens at 200mm always helps me find her.

She was right where I expected she would be, around the woods behind the neighbor's house. Luckily she was more towards the field instead of the highway.

When I called her name she raised her head and started walking toward Sadie and I. Today Sadie did not have to run after her. She continued to walk and made it all the way to us, without me having to use a leash. That's pretty good for her.

That did not mean she would walk with Sadie and I back to the house. Don't be fooled by her. There were still things she wanted to check out and may have missed the first time when she started her walk.

Once again I set the lens at 50mm to give you a better idea how far away she is as Sadie and I get close to the house.

This was taken from the corner of the house. Sadie and I both went inside. I was pretty sure based on past experience that she would come to the door wanting in within the next ten minutes.

Sadie made one last look to see where Stella was.

I hear the splashing of wet pavement from passing traffic on the highway. Winds have shifted from the east, which is very rare to get winds from that direction. My iPhone weather app tells me it 'feels like' 27° and that crazy snow icon is stretched across the rest of the day.

One of my blog readers that I found through my Wordpress blog, has a Basset Hound and a Pyrenees. Her Basset Hound did not have skin issues like Heidi but her Pyrenees did. She told me that after a week of feeding Rachael Ray's Basic 6 kibble, her skin cleared up. She also added some coconut oil 2x per week.

So that is the food I am going to buy for Heidi today. I haven't tried that food yet and the way I see Heidi' has nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying it. I was looking through pictures of her taken this time last year and she looks exactly the same. Although her skin issues have stabilized these past couple of years you can still see slight changes of irritation based on what season it is.

Stella's coat has become very soft after 16 days on the SportMix kibble I bought. It is manufactured by Earthborn and is sold just a half mile from my house at the hardware store. I'll buy a 40# bag today for Sadie and Stella. Sadie has the softest coat of all of them and has never had skin issues.

Other than the shopping run, nothing else planned but staying inside and keeping warm. I have a couple of new books I want to start and one older one I want to finish.

Very light snow is falling now here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana as I post this.

DST Does Not Bother The Hounds

With everything in our lives computerized, there were no clocks to manually move forward one hour last night when turning off the lights around 2am.

The hounds were all sleeping in their normal spots and they didn't wake up any later this morning. Actually based on the 'old' time, we started the day about an hour earlier than we had the past weeks. It was going to be really cold this morning and the hounds found that out was they walked on the 'frozen tundra'. It didn't feel later with the DST time change.

It was the normal routine before starting the morning walk, coffee coffee and more coffee. This gives you some idea that it's in the 20's. The t-shirt and cargo shorts were switched back to wool socks, jeans and the down jacket for the morning walk. At least this morning the down jacket, ski cap and ski gloves were used. Freezing temps are still better than the snow that was predicted.

Stella joined Sadie this morning and without much coaxing, she made the whole walk with us, a pleasant surprise.

Does it look like 22° ?

Stella was already into her Sunday stroll pace. Nothing to get excited about today. She will be fed the same time for lunch with DTS not changing that at all. In fact they might finally get their way and eat earlier than 11am (old time). They will determine their lunch time by howling and/or barking.

Sadie had been following the edge of the field non-stop, even past the first turn. Maybe the freezing temps make those scents that much stronger. Or, there were just more of them this morning.

Stella was about to lag behind but right after I took this picture she looked up and trotted in our direction. Maybe it's the colder temps that motivates her enough not to lag behind or follow her own schedule.

They were excited to get to the far right corner of the field, it's the entry way to the 'deer highway' that reaches downhill into the deep gully. I could almost imagine a group of deer walking through there at daybreak.

Stella is right on the entry ramp of the deer freeway.

Surprise surprise as she continued to follow Sadie and I.

Even from a distance I could hear Sadie making that sound that bloodhounds have when they are really inhaling a scent. Years ago someone that walked Bertha everyday when I had to leave them in a kennel while I was on a business trip, told me she had never heard a sound like that from any other dog.

I heard that sound as I snapped this picture. It's the sound of her jowls flapping as she sniffs deeply into the ground. It is a continuous flapping sound with each inhale.

You can tell here that once again she is pretty keen on tracking. She probably lives for these two walks per day so she can get a nose workout.

Stella had stood and looked over at the cornfield. She was almost positive that deer had ran through here into the field. Just to the right of her is where I have seen a line of deer follow each other, jumping over the older wire fence that has been mashed down. Once they hit that cornfield they talk off running and hopping high into the air, faster than any bloodhound chasing them.

I did not have to say "let's go" this morning. By this part of the walk the hounds were gladly heading back to a warm house while my finger tips inside my ski gloves were numb from the cold.

Nearing the house I kept hearing a loud bird conversation. I saw two birds sitting at the top of the Mahogany tree in the backyard. They either heard the hounds or my camera beeping when the focus locked in because as I pressed the shutter, they flew away. The camera caught just one of them.

They flew higher and circled back to the edge of the driveway and landed high on the tall sycamore tree. Guess where those hard little round buds land?

I can only assume after the million of times I had pushed buttons on my Directv remote over the years while watching college football, college basketball, NFL games and MLB games ... it was bound to happen. Last night only some of the buttons on the remote were responding. I was only a phone call away of having Directv sending me a new replacement, free of charge.

Since some of the buttons were still working by changing channels and turning the DVR and TV off and on, I thought there was a chance I could salvage this remote and get it to work again. With 'March Madness' only a couple of days away this is no time to have to wait for a new replacement remote to show up in the mail.

I went into the drawer that is full of all the owners manuals I have for different things. Everything from the Bunn Coffee Maker to that PIA Echo non-starting weed eater. This time I needed to find the Directv Remote manual because I was going to reprogram it. I pulled out the two stacks of manuals that fill the draw to the maximum amount without blocking the drawer.

Not only did I find that manual but the results were even better than I ever expected !!!

A month or so ago I wrote on this blog about a possible 'senior moment' when the owners manual for my Nikon D3200 had strangely disappeared. I was 99.9% sure I had put that manual in this drawer with the others. Multiple times I looked at every manual one by one ... not finding the owners manual for the camera. My memory cells were turning to soap as I mentally retraced my steps trying to remember where I left that manual for my camera.

I had a downloaded .pdf file copy but it always seemed easier to read through the manual in my hands with the camera sitting nearby instead of having to read a manual on the computer.

So, as I am looking for the remote owners manual I see this page. It was one I had looked at 3-5 times before during the prior searches for the camera manual. The "Approved Memory Cards" caught my eyes. I couldn't believe it!!! Could it be???

I slowly closed the book back to the outside cover and there was my answer. The Nikon D3200 User's Manual had been there the whole time. I had not lost my mind (that's debatable) and the manual was exactly where I had put it months ago ... in the drawer.

I know that may seem like a small issue but when you finally find something that was missing, turning your memory cells into soup as you try to remember where you put something, it was a great feeling.

There was a 20° increase today temps in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana and that put the hounds back into the 40's which is pretty nice this time of year.

The Hounds Check For Snow

Last week when it was 64° and sunny, the local tv weatherman warned us that snow was on the way ... today. Yesterday that snow icon disappeared for today from my iPhone weather app.

Late last night before going to bed at 2:30am after my last ballgame, that icon was back, it was freezing outside at that time so the snow was back as a possibility.

Since we were or I was up late last night we didn't crawl out of bed until 915am. As I was making coffee I did add one hour to the current time to see what this would be like on Monday after we "spring forward". Sadie was positive we were taking her walk right off the bat, even before coffee.

Stella was even in the walking mode before coffee.

Yet when I yelled to tell them "come on I need coffee", the both started for the house knowing they were not going to walk yet.

Heidi came back outside with us but it was only to relieve herself. She was back inside where it was warm almost within minutes. Stella was checking me out to see if I was dressed for a freezing weather walk. I was, I had her standard leash in my pocket just in case ... and told her "let's go".

Both of them took off fast, way ahead of me. That did not mean that Stella was going to walk with us today. It just meant she started fast. She had other plans and I wasn't going to stop her today. It was 31° and felt colder but there wasn't a sign of snow anywhere.

Sadie had her normal energy this morning. She got some running in. She also tracked a lot of different scents.

The only time her nose came off the ground was when she stopped to look for Stella. Otherwise, her head was low to the ground, tail was curled and totally focused on those scents her whiskers and ears were keeping near her nose.

Stella was about to head in the opposite direction when I called her name. She veered back onto the path but was out of my view pretty quickly.

Sadie wasn't going to wait for her, she had moved around the corner and was heading to the back of the field.

She sprinted from the right side of the field out to the center, where she started some rapid changes of direction, tracking that scent every inch of the way.

She stopped for the first time to see where Stella was. Stella was nowhere in view and I had no idea where she was.

Sadie did not look long before she was back to tracking.

Maybe she heard something because she stopped to look in the direction of Stella again ... but I did not see here anywhere on the horizon.

It looks like Sadie might be losing a little weight. I don't want her much lighter than this.

Just as I crested the small hill while waking back home I spotted Stella over by the neighbor's woods but much further west and near their backyard. I don't want her anywhere near there because she can pick up a scent in their drainage ditch that heads to the highway.

So I told Sadie ... "go get Stella" and off she went for the rescue of Stella.

Once Sadie got near her and then turned around to run back to the path, Stella decided to follow her.

Only at her pace, not Sadie's.

After that it was a slow walk home. It was already past noon and I had the urge to take the Z4 out for a longer ride than I normally do. I knew just what road I wanted to do today.

I didn't have my camera with me and due to the road I was driving, it would have never been possible to take any pictures. With a narrow winding road, with no shoulders, up and down, through trees covering the hills ... I would go from short stages of straight highway into sharp 20mph turns and hairpins. It gave the Z4 a chance to do what it was designed to do.

It was really fun to drive and a highway I had taken many times with other sports cars that I have owned. As I headed through a local town back to my house, it was hard not to make a right turn to their casino and play some craps. I need to go sometime because I have that feeling that doesn't come often. I usually have good results when I have a strong urge to go throw some dice.

I'll be watching more college basketball today, in fact as soon as I post this. There will be a late game tonight at 11pm. Since the team I was interested in was beat last night I may just tape the 11pm game between Oregon and Arizona and watch it Sunday sometime.

That 60° weather is not seen anywhere on the ten day forecast, so we are back to cold weather. I want that warm weather back.

No snow, so it's all good here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.