Deer Not 30' Away From Hounds

For the second time that I can remember these past few months, deer was so close to Sadie and Stella you would have expected their famous all out sprint after them while baying loudly. Yet, just like last time neither bloodhound noticed. Bloodhounds are bred to flush deer out of the woods and/or to find them after they are shot. It's in their DNA!!! This morning ... not a response and the deer was right there !!!!

It all started around midnight last night as a severe thunderstorms blew in. Since I took this picture in the dark without a tripod the photo is blurry but at least it shows one toad was taking cover inside the carport before the storms hit. One of the best thunderstorms I had seen and heard in a while. You would have thought it was in April or May. The sky lit up like daylight and I thought that bolt of lightning was right outside the window.

It wasn't suppose to last much longer after 1am. I'm not sure when it stopped as I fell into a coma and stayed that way all night, past our normal time to start our day. With a bright sun, winds coming out of the NE it was a little nippy on the walk this morning ... yet after a fresh rain Stella found the grass to taste better than ever.

Sadie ran out way ahead of us, nothing out of the ordinary. Both hounds were into the scent searching mode this morning and you could tell the deer traffic was heavy along the edge of the woods right behind our house.

Stella is walking along a worn path by deer traffic.

In September I started taking pictures of these three areas to track the changing colors of the fall leaves. There are still a lot of leaves still on the trees. The longer we walked, the brighter the sun shined and the brighter the leaves became.

Still ... there was no deer scent in the air nor any sign of them on the horizon. The normal walking activity continued.

You can barely tell from the photo but those areas where the wild growth have been mashed down are deer paths down into the woods or upward from the woods into the field that the deer take.

Sadie was a little deeper into the brush than normal but wasn't beyond excitement. Usually when deer are near she is frantic and has uncontrollable excitement. Not today.

While taking this photograph I noticed something white ... just left of dead center and at the edge of the taller brush. When I took the camera way from my eye that white spot got much larger. Without my glasses it wasn't clear what it was but I thought it might be a white plastic bag blowing around and had become stuck in the brush.

After looking closer at this next picture, I clicked on it to make it bigger and you can see the deer is standing between the hounds, just below the top of the picture or just past the tall brush.

About the time that thought came to mind ...

That "white plastic bag" moved  ... and moved fast.

It is the first time in six years of taking blog photos that I have been able to catch a deer in their horizontal mid air flight ... mid air, yes ... but not horizontal.

You would have thought by now the sounds of loud baying bloodhounds would have been in the chase like they have done in past years. If you were walking with me you would have been shocked at their reaction.

They did not even lift their heads, move a muscle, didn't bay, didn't take off running. The deer had jumped out just on the other side of that tall brush to the right of them. In what I call the 'far right corner' of the field. I couldn't believe it!!!

As they both turned into that area I still did not see any excitement by either hound. In fact Sadie was not even close to where the deer was standing or was bent over eating grass when I first saw her.

Stella finally figured out what had happened so she took off running but she didn't bay like she normally does when deer are in the area ... nor was she sprinting.

Even then she was slow to respond even after she was right at the point where the deer jumped into the woods.

To them ... what would have been a exciting deer chase in the past ... was nothing more than a normal uneventful walk. Neither hound had any frantic reactions to what I saw.

Stella decided it was time for some scratching. You can see today is so much different than yesterday's dark and gloomy sky. I was still trying to process just how big the deer was and how close it was to the hounds when it escaped.

By this point of the walk the deer sighting was a distant memory to me and not even on the radar of the hounds. To them it was nothing more than another of many Friday morning walks.

Stella thought she had found something on the way home. In this area I would suspect she smells the invisible field cat that roams at night, fighting sometimes and keeps the mice under control.

Sadie is looking at nothing in particular. She is probably wondering if Stella is going to end this walk or are we going to stay out here all day.

One last look to see if deer were following us ... they never do nor expected to. It just shows how nice today is even if it's in the 50's. If I were to mow a nice circular golf green out there it would be a nice Par 3 hole.

For once in her life, Stella is waiting for me to head to the house instead of vise versa.

Sadie doesn't have a clue what she missed.

I have started a folder in my Apple Photos program named 'deer'. I don't know why I have not done that before. After I go back and add all the deer photos of the past 6 years into that folder I'll be able to see their trends and when they show up.

It was yesterday afternoon when I ran out of my 20Gb of data that I pay for every month. My billing cycle starts on the 11th of every month so I ran out about 8 days too soon. The main reason for running out of data was during the past month I couldn't wait until 2am to start all of the different macOS High Sierra updates. I did those large (1-3Gb) file downloads during my normal times, thus wasting my data.

I planned weeks ago of running out at the pace I was using data. $15 would get me an additional 5Gb of data. Any of that not used by the 11th would be carried over until I needed additional data again.

A funny thing happened though and so far as of 12:23pm today it is still working. I know and expect download speeds to decrease after my paid data is gone. That is a known fact, a part of the contract. Instead of getting speeds of 45-47Mbps I now get a little over 1Mbps. That 1Mbps were speeds we dreamed of in 1996. In today's world sometimes email won't download, photos won't upload to a blog, websites may or may not load ... so people buy more data to get them through the end of the month.

Last night during the severe thunderstorms, where my HughesGen 5 satellite service never lost it's signal from space ... websites were still downloading fast, my blog where most posts have 20-30 photos each was downloading normal. Another words I was seeing no decrease in internet performance. It was so good that I did a speed test and found Hughes had decreased my internet speeds to 1.46Mbps as I knew it would.

I knew today would be the real test. In the past at lower speeds my photos would not finish loading into the blog post I was writing. So I'd pull out my billfold and buy another few gigs that would put me back to normal speeds of 45-48Mbps. This post has 31 photos that loaded normally, maybe a little slower than usual but they still loaded okay.

I also did a large 3.3Gb file download for the macOS update for beta users. It completed in the same time it would have normally taken. I found that to be really strange and unexpected for two reasons. One, decreased download speeds that should have made that crawl and two, in the morning when many other users are downloading that same update at the same time.

So I have not had to buy additional data yet. It might be my lucky month for the next week.

I almost forgot to tell you that as a test I used the block on the blog to subscribe to my blog by email. I wanted to check to see if it worked and how long it would take for me to get a new blog post in my inbox. I am sad to say it took 14 hours from the time I posted this post for it to show up in my inbox.

For those of you that subscribe via email, is that normal for you ... 14 hours after I post? If so, it might be better if you would either bookmark the blog, added to your Feedly account for immediate updates or look for my blog on other blog lists ... if that 14 hour difference bothers you.

Today will be more of the same activities we do everyday with some added house cleaning in preparation for our Saturday College Football Marathon.

The hounds need to get their noses calibrated it looks like, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Enjoy The Heat Wave

Everything looked the same this morning. Windy, overcast skies and signs of recent rain. Yet there was a huge difference as we started our morning walk. It was a 29° difference and a coat, gloves and ski cap wasn't needed in the 62° weather. I am not sure if the hounds noticed or not, they were excited as usual that we were heading outside.

With it raining most of the afternoon yesterday once again they didn't stay out long after they had their lunch. It does mean that Heidi makes her appearance within camera range for her second trip of the day outside. She walked as close to the house as possible, under the overhang to stay dry, but once she headed to the yard she tip-toed one paw at a time to check how wet it was.

You can see just how close the Azaleas miss the rain for water, just to the front edge. It's like that on all four of them. I placed them in the middle to allow for growth and not having them hang into the yard when they are fully grown. I guess I'll find out my next move next spring if they survive the winter.

With all the rain yesterday and last night, Stella had some nice fresh wet grass to choose from this morning. She stretches each blade of grass out like she is using it to floss her teeth.

I could tell soon after we started that Stella would probably not be joining us this morning, then going off on her own. I was almost at the first turn when I started to wonder if Sadie was even going to come with me. As usual she started sprinting toward me when she saw I was too far ahead.

One last look at Stella had me thinking this might be a day she disappears into the woods by the time we get back. In the past I can only assume that is where she goes when we can't find her after a hour of searching and calling her name. She will always come home on her own not too long after we finish the walk. I'd rather have her in view instead of wandering.

With the strong winds behind me from the southwest I as amazed just how different the temperature was compared to just 24 hours ago. We are still looking at Sunday being above 70°.

This picture doesn't tell the story. To me that looks like freezing weather with wind and even possible snow. It is one that I will see this January when it is that cold. I am very happy at this part of the walk to feel the warm air.

Sadie doing her normal exploring ... her walks never change no matter if we take two or three of them in a day.

As I continued to walk home I could barely make out a moving object far in the distance. I lifted the camera to my eye with the lens at 200mm and could barely see it was Stella. She was moving at pretty good speed in the direction of the neighbor's woods.

I gave Sadie my normal command of "go get Stella" and she was off.

I thought I was going to catch them tap noses so I left the camera on them ready to capture a picture of that happening. Not today. In fact Sadie spent time checking out what Stella had found before leading her back to the path we take.

From the half mile walk, sometimes for Stella the last 100' is the slowest and longest of all. She will get distracted right up until the time she is standing at the door, nudging the round door handle with her nose hoping it will open. Here is an example of that slow 100' in today's walk.

You might think she is on her way to the house but when I turned around again to check on her she had walked back out into the field.

Once I yelled her name ... she headed toward the house.

But again .... sharp right turn to see what that is ... nothing is ever definite with her.

Finally she realizes it's time to come in and start that morning nap that will carry her to lunch ... life is tough for a bloodhound.

Not much planned again today but my food supply is telling me it's time for a grocery trip again. I usually stop and grab a 40# bag of dog food for the hounds on the way home even with a few days of meals left from the previous bag. That 40# lasts on average 17 days for two bloodhounds and a basset hound.

With the World Series finishing last night I am back to two sports to follow ... college football and in about ten days college basketball. My NFL time has decreased a lot this year, down from last year and that seems to be the trend nationwide.

Another great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... it's warm again.

Sadie Drags Me Out Into The Cold & Rain

I knew if I did not decide to take this early morning walk, then Sadie would not leave the doorway to my computer room and would keep staring at me for hours on end. We woke up to rain, earlier than normal and dark inside the house. I felt energized and didn't hesitate in starting the day a few minutes after 7am. When it's cold and rainy outside, is there anything better to do with a hot cup of coffee and a brain full of words to type ... than to blog?

Quite a difference from yesterday when I spoke about my mind being a black hole and finding it hard to put any words to print. Was it the early morning starting time? Hot coffee? Or the 7 hours of good sleep? I'm not sure but I found I was doing things without a lot of thought or analysis.

The hounds didn't think or analyze .... they hit that field and took off running.

Another thing I didn't put a lot of thought into was what I was going to wear in 33° weather and light rain. The weather radar looked clear at the moment but it had been raining the first two hours we were up. I didn't hesitate to grab my Columbia winter parka today and putting on my snow boots that have been doubling as my rain boots.  I wanted to stay warm and dry and didn't care it was only November 1st.

When I started the walk I knew for sure what I was wearing was perfect for this weather. I was not only warm but dry as I started hearing drops of rain hitting my parka. It was strange to me that as dreary the day looked, I felt as good as I do when it's a hot sunny summer day. Why the change in moods.

Sadie had already disappeared around the first turn. Stella was trotting to catch up with her and I was pretty sure they both would end up where they were yesterday. With the rain becoming harder I wasn't going to let Stella hang back today. We had to make this walk fairly fast in case it started to pour.

I was right. As I made that first turn they were there in the same spot as yesterday.

I kept walking and kept repeating "let's go" and was actually getting some kind of response from both of them. So it did not surprise me to see Sadie run up along the right side of me. I was even more shocked to see Stella right behind me as I turned to see where she was.

I probably have too many blurry pictures today but in a way it catches the hounds as they are running, sometimes faster than the auto focus on my camera can bring them into view.

The rain was light but loud against my parka sleeves. When you are dry and warm it really doesn't matter how much it rains. The hounds didn't mind getting wet nor did I.

It looked like Stella might decide to stay in the field all day unless I called her name. She wasn't fast but she slowly walked toward us and eventually caught Sadie and I.

Once Sadie tapped noses with Stella, they both took off in a trot heading home.

Just because we get close to the yard doesn't mean the walk is over. If either hound finds something interesting to check out further they will and it doesn't matter how hard it is raining. The little color of the leaves are gone today. The leaves have fallen but plenty are still on the trees. They will keep me busy raking them, or blowing them, or leaving them. (greg's suggestion)

Stella gave me a look as if she was telling me "yes, I know it's raining ... but" she follows her own pace as usual.

It's an old parka but it still works. It has survived heavy snow, hard rains in all kinds of single digit temperatures. Why upgrade?

I was able to do some software updates this morning before 8am. That puts me in the range of using my extra 50Gb of free data I get. I did not plan to use a lot of data today because I am very close to using all of my monthly 20gigs that I pay for. I had gone back to Google Chrome a few days ago and once again .... it nailed me with an unexpected update with Google Chrome Helper running in the background, an update you can no longer change from automatic to manual.

Just in a blink of an eye 386Mb zipped through my available data just like that. For those of you that have unlimited data that doesn't sound like much but when you pay for only 20Gb per month that is about half of your daily data budget. It didn't take me long to export my Google bookmarks to my desktop and then open Safari and import all of my updated bookmarks, using Safari again as my default browser.

Is it hard to believe it's already November 1st, it seems that summer was just here a few weeks ago.

In my post yesterday Greg suggested a new invention of "Castor Oil for Writers". Maybe that is why I feel in the mood to write.

I had an insurance adjuster show up yesterday to take a look at the damage under my Z4. He pulled out his new iPhone 8 to take photos under the car. I offered to jack up the front of the car for easier access but he didn't mind crawling on my freezing concrete floor to check out the damage. Being a fellow IU football fan we both agreed just how frustrating it was to follow IU football year after year with below average results.

I'll get an itemized list of for the repair estimate. My friend tells me that he has had great experiences with USAA insurance when a claim is filed.

I've added a couple of old blogs I use to follow on the left sidebar. I am probably back to my original list of bloggers for you to take a look at if you want. There are some that have great photography of where they are or have been. Everyone seems to be in a different place in the USA or Canada and that's what makes it interesting when reading their updated posts.

A few of you have asked where is Heidi, if she's okay ... she is, buried deep inside 'her' Marmot sleeping bag and isn't enthused to have her picture taking. She has officially declared winter is her for her. I have a surprise for her on Sunday ... it's suppose to be above 70°

The World Series will end after tonight with Game 7. If you are a baseball fan, no matter who your favorite team is, you have to admit it's been an exciting World Series ... although I am not a fan of the 'juiced' baseball ... I prefer pitching duels with games like 2-0 or 3-1 instead of 13-12 with similarities to playing MLB on PlayStation 4.

Sometimes I will turn on the tv to sports talk shows. It will be on in the background but a lot of times those shows don't last long before I turn off the tv. Why does every show in sports or news turn into having loud arguing with each other ... even if they were hired to present different points of view. Yelling and arguing does not improve viewership as ESPN has found out the last year or two, more layoffs to occur.

There were other things I was going to 'ramble' about in this post but they have evaporated in my mind ... I can't remember anymore stuff to write about.

With it raining again there will not be much planned for today besides the usual ... some internet surfing, games of Mahjong, some reading and a possible siesta ... speaking of ... maybe it was that 5 hour siesta I had yesterday afternoon that made me feel so much better today. It could have lasted longer and into the the baseball game, but the phone ringing woke me up just in time.

With Sadie and Stella wrestling inside, it's a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.