The Hounds Were Active This Morning

Weather Underground is telling me we have only two more days of highs in the 70's. By Tuesday we will be back in the 50's and 60's and the toughest decisions of the day will be whether to keep wearing shorts or change to jeans. As you can see, we have some new truck tire prints on the path this morning ... visitors last night were all over the field in a pickup truck and a speeding ATV.

It looked like someone was either getting driving lessons in the truck or the chance to drive without a license ... which is normal around here in a farming community. With that traffic stirring up all kinds of scents ... Sadie and Stella had a "field day" this morning.

All that beautiful sunshine yesterday was hiding behind some clouds this morning. It felt like rain could be on the way, but that is not scheduled until Sunday night. This year has not been a good year in my location at least, for weather forecast accuracy. We will see what happens with clear gutters and a lawn that is mowed.

The air had a slight touch of smoke this morning. I am not the only one burning stuff around here and the campfire last night, next door, lasted well past midnight so that fall smell of smoke is a common occurrence. With Stella showing some energy early this morning and Sadie doing her normal darting from one scent to another I could tell they were going to be pretty busy on the walk. I kept my eye out for deer just in case.

When they suddenly stopped their jog at the first time, almost in unison, I knew something was up ... they were serious this morning and were definitely going to catch anything they could find that had been trespassing. They 'think' they own this field just like the Bloodhound Laws state at the top of this blog. Yet it is owned by a neighbor that doesn't care what we do in the field except catching it on fire like he did years ago.

The hounds went from noses to the ground to an all out sprint to the middle of the field, including Stella. I saw no signs of deer anywhere but I thought they both were headed for the woods to the north and had 'seen' something I had not. I wasn't running yet and hoped I didn't have to. After my productive day yesterday there are a few unknown muscles feeling it today ... like soreness.

Could it be that one of the new truck tire tracks is what stopped them? That doesn't seem right by the way the took off sprinting. They are not really rabbit hunters like Heidi is so that couldn't have been the reason. Whatever it was they both stopped as fast as they started their sprint. My 200mm lens could barely pick them up ... being a long way off I was happy to see them stop when they did

I yelled loudly "hey, over here" ... Sadie came sprinting to me as always ... Stella need more time to identify what they had found.

She decided she had enough and wanted to get back to Sadie and I ... without calling her ... here she came, running faster than she had in many months.

They both didn't hesitate in getting back on the task at hand ... search, and identify.

Am I correct thinking that these are a small saplings of some kind? All future trees in the field and so close together. This patch was right behind the hounds in the picture above.

Sadie led the way ... Stella followed.

This is one of her favorite spots to stop and scratch ... if the rolls of hay were there, she would be just in front of them or up by our final turn home.

Since the back part of the field had been checked out, they both ran in the direction of the house again leaving me way behind. It's good that they can run off leash, something that many bloodhound owners have told me they would never do, no matter how big a field was.

Luckily the alternate path home puts me pretty close to Stella on the right side of the picture.

What I wouldn't give to find out what these two are thinking when they stop like this.

The bright colored leaves are few this year but right next to the yard.

In early September my burn pile looked like this. A lot of those green weeds had died this past month. The taller ragweed on the left side out of the view of the photo has really died off. Ill not burn them but will do what I did last year ... cut them down with the mower. Jim was happy to have it cut but it gives Sadie a clear path into the woods. She liked doing that last winter.

While taking the hounds out for their last trip of the night last night around 10:30pm I noticed one small ember in the pile of ashes. I walked over to check to see if anything else could spread while I slept.

So yesterday with some matches and help from a rake, that burn pile went from the picture above to the one below. Over the winter a new pile will start with fallen tree limbs from the high winds and the winter storms we get. There have been some years the burn pile has grown big enough by March or April that I have to burn again.

I doubt that I will have another blog post tonight. I start my weekly football marathon at noon and will finally turn off the tv and the lights around 2:30am, after the last west coast game is finished. The hounds will still get their 2 meals, 2-3 walks, same amounts of sleep in their normal places while I watch the games.

I am glad that Tom recommended the GarminVivoSmart watch last May. It is accurate and provides a lot of information ... at times too much info. It vibrates telling me to "move" if I have been at the computer too long or on the couch watching games. It can sort out my deep sleep from light sleep plus show me the times I get up during the night if I do. It will even tell me who is calling or sending me a text ... by name. If I forget to stop the timer after our walks, it will stop it for me later, then I can go into their app and edit the time and distance for that walk.

I bought it mostly for tracking my resting and active heart rate.

Not much else is going on this morning. It's cool with the windows open. Stella has spent the last hour licking her paws and legs dry ... she cannot stand leaving them wet after we do our morning walk. Sadie always lays by her water bowl protecting it as she sleeps until lunch is served. Heidi has not moved since breakfast, as usual.

Oh, I almost forgot ... I've added a few new blogs to the blog sidebar on the right. One has a basset hound where the title of her latest post was "Basset Hibernation" so Heidi is not the only basset that knows what time of year it was. I am slowly getting back to the 50 or more blogs I listed over the years here. It is the easiest way to see new posts by bloggers I follow but also gives blog readers a chance to read other blogs. I like the side bar more than I like them listed in my Feedly account.

The "labels" were changes yesterday to around 90 topics now in a list format instead of a cloud format. The times I have tested the search box in the upper right doesn't give me the accurate results as the Labels list does. Right after I post this I am changing the title from 'labels' to 'topics'.

I admit after almost two weeks (tomorrow) of blogging again, it's nice to be back blogging and taking photos.

It sure sounds quiet today, almost too quiet for a Saturday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Supervises Burn Pile Fire

For me to pull the ladder out of the carport shed I need to back out the FJ. The hounds always think they are going for a ride when that happens. Once Sadie and Stella decided we were not going anywhere, Stella headed for the back yard for a nap, Sadie went to the field to roam and Heidi wandered all parts of the yard. I was preparing to go on the roof to walk along the edge and clean out the gutters full with leaves. I finished everything I wanted to do this afternoon except Operation Hound Nails was moved to Saturday morning before the weekly college football marathon.

For some reason Heidi always finds the edge of the bank interesting enough that she will slowly walk the full length with her nose to the ground. With the temps up to 77°, she spent all afternoon outside.

Since I live outside the "city" limits, this burning is legal. The pile was started last fall with tree limbs the had blown down over the winter. In March when I cleared the bank small saplings were added and then added again with large tree limbs and leaves when REMC trimmed the trees around their power lines. I was surprised how dry the pile was after 7 months. A match held to a few leaves and within a minute I had a large flame.

These leaves never caught fire but they were smoldering ... I watered them down with my hose while the pile burned below. I also sprayed water on the dead ragweed and all the green growth behind the fire to keep it out of the woods.

I glanced over into the field and found Sadie staring back at me, checking to see if she could continue roaming the field. She had been out there for more than an hour. I needed to put up the hose and the rake, then clear out all the leaves that had blown up next to the house. I was going to rake them into the yard and mulch them with the mower but thought the easiest way was rake them and then after 3 barrels (32gl) full of leaves I could burn them.

I put Stella in charge of watching the last of the fire just to make sure nothing shot out of that pile of ashes while I put all the tools up and pulled the FJ back into it's parking spot. She must have thought everything was under control because after a few minutes sitting and staring at the burning pile she decided a nap was the better option.

If you look closely you will see the butterfly.

Another thing on the list for this afternoon was buying some new Cyprus Mulch to fill in this side over the older stuff. On the side opposite the carport it was mostly dirt after the Japanese Yews were pulled out. The holes they left were filled back in but there was hardly any old mulch left.

Of course Stella and Sadie needed to make sure I had estimated the correct amount of mulch.

I will sand that rusted steel in front of my crawlspace and paint that the same color as my front door ... a dark brown or maybe a light utility gray. I am still undecided what I am going to plant here next spring. Here are the before and after photos.

I am concerned the Azaleas will not survive the winter. To keep them living so far I had to water them every few days because they don't get enough rain water. A few of them in front of the carport are too far under the wide overhang to get the full amount of rain. I am pretty sure you will not see me blogging about being out here in the middle of winter, in 20-30 degree weather watering them.

I liked that the Yews had a great green color year round and the only thing I had to do was trim them a couple of times per year. The problem was this last time I trimmed them, their stems were getting so large that my electric trimmers could not handle the diameter of the stems. Plus I did not know if their root system was deep enough that it was damaging my septic tank system.

I do like the open space in front of the house. It's easier to get into the crawlspace since I don't have to crawl through and under the Japanese Yews that were blocking the entry. It will also be easier to to drain the septic tank from the inlet side.

We fit in 3 hound walks today by 5:15pm, plus the yard work, etc ... I am tired but have only one baseball game to watch tonight. It will be early today bed tonight (~midnight) so I will be rested for my 14 or more hours of college football on Saturday.

My jaw was killing me last night between 5pm and 1am ... today there was no pain at all. Strange.

It was a successful afternoon here in 'the tropics' today ... gutters cleaned out and I didn't have to call the local Fire Department to put my fire out.

Heidi Says "No"

As usual, every morning I tell Heidi we are going for a walk but she has never been into morning walks. With only one Mexican wool blanket left to wash and then hid in the closet due to recent increase in redness on her legs ... I donated my Marmot Trestle 15 sleeping bag to ween her away from the wool blankets. When she heard me talking she slowly raised her head out of that pile of sleeping bag and without looking at me, telling me there was no way she would go outside in 56° weather.

It was a few minutes later when we started the walk. Stella had her wet tall grass for the morning, Sadie was already sprinting into the field. It felt like perfect weather at 56° for cargo shorts, North Face snow boots to keep my feet dry and a sweatshirt.

I don't think there were any deer in the area but I am sure Sadie had smelled or heard a rabbit escaping into the safe zone of the woods. What ever she heard or smelled, it definitely had her interest.

We proceeded on without Sadie. I realized it was Friday with a high of 77° forecasted this afternoon. I have BIG plans for this afternoon probably after the hounds have their lunch. Besides cutting toenails of all the hounds I am going to burn my huge burn pile with expectations of flames over 10' high. I'll try to take photos if possible ... otherwise my hand will be on a running garden hose to control any unexpected turns of the fire.

Stella was more than happy to spend time tracking scents today and running enough to keep up with Sadie. They spent more time side by side than apart so I guess they thought with all the new scents out today that two noses would be better than just one nose.

This had this pose a few times during the walk. That always has me scanning the horizon completely around the field for any deer that might be out late in the morning. It has happened before. You can click the 'label' on the right sidebar on "Deer Chase" and see photos of past times where deer had the hounds sprinting after them.

It's when they suddenly take off running after scanning the air with their noses that puts me on alert, that I might be running after them whether I want to or not.

They were just moving to a different part of the field instead of chasing whatever they found.

They locked their noses onto the 'alternate' path this morning. Was it the cat they smelled? What makes me ask that is because only a field cat would be this close to the trees in the backyard.

By the time we stepped inside, I had my afternoon plans laid out in my mind. I'll pull the weeds in the front flower beds, get the leaf blower out and blow what leaves are left around my house and driveway bank down the hill toward the highway and let fast traffic take care of disposing them. I need to make another trip on the roof to clean out any dry leaves from the gutters before it rains in the next few days.

After that ... Operation Hound Nails which is always challenging with Sadie sprinting around the yard trying to escape the clippers, Stella rolling on her back wanting a manicure as does Heidi. All three will be bribed with dog treats.

The big excitement will be starting that fire to burn down as much of the burn pile as possible. Fallen limbs this winter will start a new pile for next springs burn.

I tried to sneak quietly to catch a picture of Heidi sleeping when we got back. She heard me just in time to look at the camera.

Thinking I was going to get some good fall colors this year, I started a new folder inside my Photos program named 'Fall Colors' just like I did for 'Butterflies' last year. I take the same photo every Friday of three different areas. As you can see from the comparisons below ... not much has happened this year for bright vibrant colors.

Top photos of each were taken September 15 ... next photos were taken this morning, October 20.

A few weeks ago when I was visiting a friend that has a bigger lot with a backyard that is heavily wooded. He told me he never rakes leaves and mulches them with his mower. I tried that last Friday with some pretty good results but at the time I was having mower problems. I did not find out later my blade had slipped and turned on me after hitting a large rock hidden in the leaves I was mulching on my driveway bank.

Yesterday with my old blade put back on the mower and the rubber mulching shield to block the side shoot ... the mower mulched a lot of leaves faster than I could have raked them. Ill keep doing this until they last leaf has fallen, even if the grass is not tall enough to mow later this month.

It's another fine morning being retired here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.