Stella Starts Off Fast Today

It was the fastest I had seen her move in months but I did not have my camera in my hand at the time. When I let the hounds out for their first trip outside to start the day, I pour out their breakfast kibble. By the time I am finished with that, usually all three hounds are jostling for position to get in the door first. Not today ... Stella wasn't there.

That meant she probably went out into the field to dump her tanks. I would not have to call her because when breakfast is served she knows it and will not miss it. As I stood at the door for less than a minute, Stella came "sprinting" round the house and Z4, fast enough her feet almost sled out from under her.

While I sneezed from the door to the field to start our walk at 8am, the hounds had taken off way ahead of me. Once I could see again, Stella had her tail in the air and was trotting all over the field. I had decided this morning to let her be on her own since the tree trimming crew were not there this morning.

About the time I turned to check on her, she was trotting toward me in almost a run. Her increased stubbornness during her walk convinced me she was feeling better.

There are going to be more wild berries than normal it looks like. They will not be mine though, the neighbor a few houses down that owns the field will take a few trips along the border of his field in his ATV to pick enough of them for his wife to make some pie.

Sadie paid no attention to either me or Stella as she was way out in front and on her own schedule. A lot of new ground scents this morning, she was all over the field moving in all directions.

Stella found multiple spots of new fresh deer scat. During her final stop I had to go back and get her ... she didn't like that I came to get her.

Sadie is doing some massive shedding. I brushed out her undercoat outside. I put this piece on her back to take the picture but it came out from the thick fur on back of her shoulders. Pretty amazing what is considered a short haired hound could product that much hair underneath what you see.

It was 60° this morning when we started the walk, perfect weather for me and the hounds to start our day ... with no plans. We will be flying by the seat of our pants today. A lot of possibilities to do, including nothing.

Both of them were going to stretch out their morning walk as long as possible.

It occurred to me this morning that by this time next month, it's most likely the field will have been cut and baled into large rolls of hay ... grass, flowers, berries, weeds and all.

Out of all the afternoon possibilities, "nothing" was the theme for the day or maybe "sleep" was. It was a bizarre afternoon. For some reason after consuming my Jif peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread it felt like I had been hit up the side of my head with a hammer. It wasn't a headache but a feeling of being extremely tired ... so I went to bed for a short siesta.

The siesta was strewn with some of the strangest dreams I can ever remember. I was beginning to wonder if I was feeling the effects of a tick bite I had the other day where I didn't catch it on my post-walk inspection. Luckily Sadie thought someone was at the door or heard a noise she didn't like because she woke me up around 3:30pm with her barking that was in the attack mode. It was a good time for a walk ...

Stella continued her day of more energy and acting like her old self. She kept up speed on the walk plus by this afternoon tried numerous times to veer over the to woods behind the neighbor's house to see if that big blonde cat was around. It was like 'herding' hounds today as I tried to keep both of them headed in the general direction together.

While Sadie was on one side of the field ...

Stella had snuck off and was headed toward the other woods.

She turned and headed toward me when I yelled her name and added "over here" ... it's funny how she reacts to those two words.

I still cannot believe how cool it was this afternoon. The wind had picked up speed and was strong enough to keep the tall grass and flowers leaning to the right.

At a pace faster than I had seen in a while, Stella headed up the path without looking back and just kept on walking ... as if she was going somewhere specific. It wasn't a trot nor a run but a much faster walk than I had seen her do in a long time.

Sadie continued her search behind us.

Every once in a while I'll see a solo flower in the 7 acres of field.

One the way Stella was ready to head home and call it a day. She had plans for more sleep. I got a dose of how it feels to be a hound with all the sleeping I did today.

During our half mile walk I did not see a bee or butterfly anywhere.

Once last attempt to slide over to that wooded area. She must think I cannot see her.

Sadie was still more interested in her own exploration. Can you get the idea how hard it would be to have those two on a short leash traveling and staying at different State or Federal RV parks?

Stella glides in home. That grass looks too short ... I'm going to let the yard grow back to 4" tall before I mow again.

While sleeping the area must have been hit with some sort of electrical energy. Blogger was acting buggy trying to load pictures into the blog while other websites were loading instantly. I had to unplug and plug my card reader usb back in to get it to work. Some settings had be changed back to where I had them and a background picture on one of my monitor had disappeared.

Same routine as last night ... I'll have some dinner then turn on the Reds again again at 7:05pm. Last night I witnessed MLB history was a reserve player off the bench started a game, hit 4 home runs and 10 RBI's to set an all-time Reds record and a MLB record for a 5th hit, 4 HRs and 10 RBIs. On Sunday that same player came to the plate in a 0-19 slump and ended up striking out.

The day was too quiet today.

Another great day of retirement here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Cooler Temps Gets Us Outside

I remember the first Spring that I was living here a lady abruptly pulled her car off the highway into my yard by the mailbox, jumped out and was frantic as she ran toward me. I had no idea what was going on as I was in the process of removing gravel down by the trees in front plus digging up old dead flower bed to replant grass. It was these purple flowers she was excited about ... they were all over the field.

She called them by name and wondered if it would be okay if she came back and dug them up to replant at her house. At the time I had not been here long enough to even know who owned the field in back and side of my house. Permission granted.

Sadie started her morning walk off with some very focused effort. I was more concerned with the hounds wandering over to supervise the early start of the tree trimming job than her interest in the woods.

Stella was on her own path and pace just to the right of my path, walking along the edge of the woods and field just in case Sadie had missed anything.

She wagged her tail and kinda groaned/barked this morning when I asked her if she wanted to go on a walk. Sadie was at my desk at 7:55am asking to go. With my 'free' data period over in a few minutes we have been walking in the mornings a little after 8am.

Over all Stella showed she had a little extra energy this morning. With a cool breeze it was nice and confirmed what the weatherman said last night, today was going to be about 12° cooler than Monday ... high 70's.

Stella got a little trotting in just as far to catch up to Sadie and I on the return path home.

Where Sadie will finish her high speed sprints by running by me as close as possible or running into my knee at times ... Stella was always slow up into a walk right before she reaches me.

I thought this picture was a good representative of just how nice the days have been lately here in 'the tropics".

With the sound chainsaws and a machine that turned large tree limbs into mulch shooting into the back of a larger truck, Sadie was more than curious about what was going on in 'her' neighborhood. I had to remind her to "stay here" while she watched the man work high in the tree.

I guess the third tree will either be coming down or trimmed back to the state of ugliness. I am not an expert in tree trimming but to me they are cutting them back too much. When I had my trees trimmed about 10-12 years ago, they left plenty of limbs with the leaves on them.

When I asked them about trimming my tall Sycamore tree next to the driveway they told me they could go up 85' and I told them they needed about 40 more feet to trim the top of my tree. I have a pretty good estimate to top and trim two Sycamore trees next to my driveway. He also gave me a price for cutting two of them down.

You can barely see the bright orange shirt in the middle of the tree cutting out a lot of it. It was bare by the time we poured out lunch time kibble for the hounds.

While I decided to mow the front yard an two inches lower to match the backyard, the tree crew were loading up their equipment. That great green Maple tree looked as I expected it would. Stella approves the lower cut but I am not so sure.

I guess if you are going to trim trees that last for a while there is no choice but to have them look like this after they are trimmed. Is the normal for trimmed Maple trees?

Yesterday when it was near lunch time the temps were around 88°. Today that was a totally different story so we took a hound walk right after their lunch. Wunderground was showing 73° and WeatherBug 69°, so I split the difference.

Stella was up to her old tricks of trying to sneak off into the woods. She had about half of her body inside that area but stopped when I yelled 'No' and hopped out like nothing was going on.

I could not believe how cool the breeze was at lunch. It was strong and felt great since I had just finished mowing the front yard about 30 minutes prior. I like the shorter cut but the grass is not as green. Like everything I guess, there's a trade off involved. Jon Katz on his blog today stated they had decided their yard experiment was over and they were going to let the other half of their front yard to grow like field.

Stella stayed pretty near Sadie on this walk for a change.

I didn't realize how many flowers there were until I downloaded this picture. That is Sadie with her nose to the ground. I have only seen a couple of bees so far this summer.

Stella was ready to call it quits and get started on our afternoon siesta that seems to be an everyday occurrence lately.

After a few hours of rest, I grabbed tall glass of ice tea and headed outside. Fantastic weather. Sadie slowly snuck off into the field, checking twice to see if I was watching her before she disappeared into the tall grass.

Is the grass too brown? Better taller and greener? Scott's Lawn and other online DIY sites tell me my type of grass in this area should be cut to 1-1/2" to 2". This is cut in that range. My front yard was 3" to 4" before I cut it today.

First glance to see if I am watching her.

Second glance to see if I am watching her but more hidden as if she is just walking in the yard.

A few minutes later Stella became curious and stepped out from under the shade.

She could smell where Sadie stepped into the field but continued to walk along the edge of the yard all the way to the opposite end.

With Sadie and Heidi wanting back inside I walked to the north edge of the yard and called for Sadie. I did not see her at all at first, then I saw her sprinting full speed on our return path to the yard. All my camera could catch was when she ran into the yard. She has been getting a lot of high speed running in these past few weeks on our walks, plus the one bird chase in the field.

Pretty amazing the best grass of the yard is over here in the shade section, where a few years ago this was all overgrown with wild thorny bushes, saplings, thick dense brush that was shoulder high.

What's best ... higher or lower ??

Heidi spent the same amount of time the rest of us did outside but was not interested at all in getting photographed. She hid in the front yard most of the time or at the door to go back inside. There is just a glimpse of the shorter cut front yard. As soon as she was inside, she was on one of her sleeping spots on the couch, Sadie was on her dog bed in the bedroom and Stella stretched out beside my desk chair.

With my activity today being two hound walks and mowing the yard, nothing else is planned. Sadie would probably go on a 3rd walk if I wanted but Stella is more interested in sleeping here at 5pm. So most likely it will be a few games of 2048, have some dinner and turn on the Reds game at 7pm.

It's fast paced today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.