Heidi Joins Us For The Walk

For reasons unknown it's now a rare event when Heidi decides she wants to do the complete .45 of a mile walk through the field. Today was a surprise around 4pm when she cruised through the backyard and never stopped. Maybe it was the great weather with no humidity that had her in the mood for walking.


Between taking a lot of good pictures of her during the walk, trying to catch Sadie chasing butterflies and keeping track of Stella ... I ended up with 58 afternoon pictures to choose from. I am posting more than normal but there were just that many good photos of them.

Like I have said before, Sadie does not hurt the butterflies but loves chasing them. They are much too fast for her to actually catch. You can see Sadie making a quick turn trying to catch just one with two more butterflies up ahead.

Another rare thing is getting all three hounds into one picture. It happens but not much and is usually hard to do because they are always going in different directions, but not this afternoon.

Sadie gives me her best all-time photo for leaping at a butterfly flying away. It's funny how she leaps at them, yet my camera never catches her in that pose.

That orange flower is the one I would like to transplant to my front flowerbed. They bloom every year in different places in the field. Would it bloom every year in one specific spot?

Heidi's nose is just as good as those of Sadie and Stella. Maybe not statistically but with a purpose of flushing out rabbits.

A little orange in an area that is all green this time of year.

The pace is slow for all the hounds. Normally Heidi has hung back by now but I could tell today that he was going to complete the walk. You can see the gradual climb.

Compared to June 2015 I cannot believe how much better she looks. She is definitely back to her old self. I am not sure if it was the probiotics I was giving her, or the supplement the vet gave her a year ago. That vet supplement was the same as what she would give a dog coming out of surgery. She has gained more weight back than she lost in early 2015.

Walks with hounds are never fast, aerobic thresholds are never met but their noses are working a 100mph.

With extremely short legs, Heidi maintains her consistent pace.

That is until her powerful nose picks up a scent that needs identified.

Sadie didn't have anywhere particular to go nor was there anything on the ground or air that she was chasing. She just remembered there was another place that has some of that 'natural protein'.

The "fly-by" didn't bother Heidi ... she kept walking the same speed and no need to hurry.

I think by now you can see how I could take so many pictures in just one walk. We haven't even got to the butterfly pictures yet. There weren't many of them today. It was like the cool weather ran them off.

I am already walking along the back edge of the field. I'll not leave Heidi behind like I do Sadie. She will run if I call her name but I always give her time to go at her own pace. Basset hounds teach you to slow down and that everything doesn't have to be a rush to get there or finish.

She is about 12" tall at her shoulders, so you can see how fast the wild flowers, grass and plants are growing.

With overcast skies you would think rain is nearby but that will not happen until tomorrow and it looks like it might rain all day and most of the night ... if Wunderground is right.

I could barely see Stella still at the first corner of the walk. What is interesting, in less than a minute when I looked for her again, based on the time showing in the picture file, she has moved to the far right. She covered a distance in less than a minute that would make her almost have to trot or jog ... to escape.

Once I told Sadie "let's go get Stella" ... Heidi made a sharp left hand turn to take a short cut through the field to meet me.

Here she is back on the path again, walking the gradual downhill.

Still time for an interruption, with her nose telling her to check something out.

If I were to turn and face perpendicular to Stella she had already walked past me toward the north. This afternoon she did not even look up when I yelled her name ... she just kept walking. She had no intentions of walking in our direction nor back to the house.

Still after 'herding' her back to us ... there was just enough time to look at the butterflies.

At the pace these three amigos are walking I estimated our arrival time back at the house to be sometime Sunday afternoon.

It will be even harder to see Heidi in the field with a few more weeks of growth.

Their noses slowly lead them home.

You can tell by the cut grass of the yard we are almost home, but that seems like a mile away. Sadie and Stella are still checking things out in back of me. They met Heidi and I about the same time we reached the corner of the house.

You might think with three blog posts and a lot of pictures that I have spent all day in front of the computer. Without having to edit the sizes of pictures in HTML, to make them sharper in Blogger I can put a blog post together here much faster.

I also had to ride my bicycle for an hour and a half. Took time to eat and then took a short siesta before the 4pm walk. Of course when I sleep the hounds sleep. Maybe they have finally taught me after three years of retirement ... how to live like a hound.

I only changed the color of the blog template (WordPress calls them themes) ... so it might stay this way for a while. I'm not sure what it is but I am one or two things away from being a 100% satisfied with the way the blog looks.

I keep repeating myself but I can't believe the weather this summer in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... one of the best summers ever.

Heidi Explodes With Energy

While I was out front watering the plants, both bloodhounds had headed to roam the field. Heidi was enjoying the sunshine until I walked into the back with my camera. She barked at me, trotted toward the middle of the yard for some Saturday morning exercises. She tried to get Stella to play, no response ... but Sadie wasn't interested.


I'll let the pictures tell the story.

An Early Start To Saturday

As we started our walk this morning I thought it was a little bit nippy while I wore my normal shorts and t-shirt. The North Face snow boots have become my summer, keep my feet dry boots. After our return I found out why it felt cold ... 58° on August 5th ... 8am.


Sadie did a sprint from the house before I even finished my 1st picture that I take every day just outside the door. As fast as she was taking off I thought we might have 'walked in' on some early morning deer. That wasn't the case though, she must have been running after nothing .. a cat nor butterfly was anywhere in sight.

Once again I saw nothing on the horizon. No deer, and no neighbors were outside. There is a large St. Bernard that lives at the house across the highway but I did not hear him barking at us. Sadie must have heard something I didn't.

There would be no 'herding' of hounds today. All three were on their own during this walk. Heidi was spread out taking as much of the couch as possible to sleep until lunch. Sadie and Stella were going to have free reign of the field ... go where they wanted as I walked along the path taking early Saturday morning pictures.

Stella continues to act more like her old self this morning. As the hounds were getting ready to go outside she nudged Sadie's nose as if she wanted to play. That is something she has not done in so long I can't remember the last time they playfully wrestled.

I could tell by the path made in the tall wet field, along the edge of the field and woods, that deer had followed this line all the way around the corner to the back of the field. Sadie and Stella was locked into that scent, working slowly to start their walk.

It's not out of the norm but I always find it interesting just how fast this field grows after it's cut in late June or early July. It has changed so much over the years. From only tall hay years ago to a lot of clover, wild flowers and weeds taking over that tall hay the past two years.

With Wunderground Weather telling me today will be an exact copy of yesterday, and that is just too hard to believe. It was so nice yesterday with a high of 71°. It will be perfect bike riding weather after this post is published. I'm going to be taking the Giant road bike out to ride for an hour or two.

Here is an interesting picture that can only be seen if I get out early enough and before the sun burns off the dew hanging on the grass. I just remembered that if I highlight each photo, one at a time, I can add a link which gives you the ability to click on any photo for a larger image.

I am not sure if you can tell in this picture but it gives you a better idea of  what all of that dew looks like for just a foot away.

At first I thought Stella was heading to meet us on the return path but the more I watched her through my 200mm zoom lens, I could see she was going to ignore my calls and walk north while Sadie and I were walking southwest.

Like most of her morning walks, Sadie's focus is mostly using her investigative abilities, more than eating the 'natural protein' I speak of at times.

Just because Stella hears me calling her name, doesn't mean she will head my way. Maybe she is just telling me to follow her instead, that she is leading the walk.

As you can see she is going to give me every chance to follow her, as she continues her walk in the opposite direction of Sadie and I.

It was a slow process, but she gradually walked a big swooping loop that led back to Sadie and I. By the time Sadie had stopped a couple of times, Stella had caught up. This picture shows she has gain some of her weight back after losing so much of it in March.

By the time we hit the shaded area of the field again on the return home, it actually felt cold. I cannot imagine ever wearing a sweatshirt in the moth of August where I live but this morning I could have.

As I arrived at the corner of the house I asked Sadie "where's Stella" ... she looked for her but not in the direction where I saw Stella.

You can barely see Stella just right of center. This would be directly behind Sadie, not in the direction Sadie was looking. That gave me time to go inside and change shoes. By the time I stepped back outside to set my boots in the sunshine to dry this morning, I could hear Stella out of sight, shaking off all the water she had collected during the walk.

As you see the Wordpress blog template (theme) has changed a few times since Friday morning. Like always I can never make up my mind. Not all have every feature I want. What I like about this design is the sidebar on the right and easy to read. My pages are easy to find, listed in tabs across the top. The posts look good when they are opened.

Each post is easy to see on the main page, especially since I have been publishing two posts per day lately. I don't do that all the time but post when I feel like writing. One of the bloggers I follow will post 5-8 times per day, depending on what his camera has captured or what is on his mind.

What I don't like about this design is the black color for the header but the are only a few choices for change. None of the choices are better if not worse. This design looks too plain, I'd like to have something a little more current with the times.

It seems that a lot of the latest or new designs have most of the things I want, except for two. Most of them put the sidebar of information and links at the very bottom of their pages or they will hide those links in a drop down menu in the upper right corner, that might not be noticed by readers. Most of those newer templates give me the option to add my own header image.

On tablets and phones the sidebar of information will always be on the bottom of the pages no matter what template I use.

Of course if I were to pay for a template, that would give me more options to make changes in design and color. But 'Free' is good when it's just a personal blog that is not monetized.

So there might be more changes to the design later, depending if I want to spend more time looking over the same 174 free templates available that I spent hours looking at yesterday and again late last night.

I noticed the state police were warning people in the local paper yesterday, about the increase of heavy traffic that will take place on August 21st, when the solar eclipse happens. I see that one of the optimum areas to view the eclipse is about a 100 miles south to southwest of me ... and ... the highway that goes in front of my house was one of those listed for increased traffic to and from that optimum area.

That will be exciting times here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The New WordPress Blog Working Out Great

While looking at the field it 'looks' much hotter than it is ... the old wall thermometer tells the real temp.

I've thought about digging this up and moving it to my flower bed. They come back growing every year and it's would not only give some color it's free. There are two of them in the field, so I think I will do that tomorrow morning before it rains on Sunday.

After the 3rd day of buffered aspirin twice per day, Stella had a little extra bounce in her step this morning. She ran faster than she has in months but not a full out sprint. It's was good to see her kinda of play with Sadie a couple of times. She takes the aspirin with no food but I always give it to her with kibble.

I thought this cloud formation was cool this morning.

Stella getting a little trotting in her workout.

Those rolls of hay will be moved eventually, most likely no later than this fall.

After kind of nudging Sadie on the nose as she ran by, Stella looks like she is feeling great this morning. Then having both feet off the ground while she ran is great to see. Her hips and back have to be feeling better.

It's also always good to see Stella's tail up and curled.

Reds game on in 10 minutes ... it will be Ballpark Franks tonight for dinner.

I LOVE the new blog.