Hounds Energized This Morning

While Heidi kept care of the house as usual in cold weather, the bloodhounds were having a lot of fun this morning.

Windy And Cold For The Hounds

Heidi decided soon after lunch that the temperature might be a lot higher but with that 20mph wind blowing freezing cold air ... it was just as cold as yesterday. Her stay outside was no more than 10 minutes if that. Her and I dream of those 80° days of summer.

Not many words today, so I'll post some photos from this afternoons walk ... plus a couple from last night. Stella wanted more room on the couch to sleep and following the Bloodhound Laws, she figure this was the best way to get Heidi to move. Once she found out that Heidi was not going to wake up to move, she had no other choice but to share the couch.

Maybe tomorrow will be warmer in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Refuses To Move

Like any good bloodhound, when Stella wants something she tries to use her strength and weight to get it. In this case she wanted Heidi to wake up and move so she could have more room on the couch to sleep. So  she tried her way of getting more space.

Heidi won the battle and never woke up.

A Rough And Humorous Start Today

It's trying it's best to snow as forecasted but without much success. Here in 'the tropics' we are in kind of a 'pocket' where storms follow the I-70 corridor north of us and the Ohio River south of us. Radar may show we are about to get blasted with snow storms, thunderstorms or even tornadoes but they always seem to split at the Indiana /Illinois state line and follow those two routes or move around us within miles.

I haven't been up 2 hours yet and already there seems to be a feel that something is off today. Years ago when the fad of biorhythms were telling the us why we felt the way we do, it would be what they called "a critical" day for me today ... I just call it being grumpy and it's always caused by too much sleep. I work well with 3-4 hours of sleep but I am hard to live with when I get 7 or more hours of sleep.

Today I can feel I am hard to live with.

Yet, it might not have been too much sleep that started this 'off day' ... it could have been when Sadie was sprinting for the door as I let them out for the first time of the day within minutes of waking up. She ran into the back of my left knee causing me to fall and stumble as I caught myself before hitting the floor or running into the door head first ... that should give you a good idea.  LOL

Or it could have been 5 minutes later, where the same hound is so excited about her breakfast, as usual, and tips over a 3qt bowl of water when her paw came down on the edge of the bowl as she was hopping up and down. Nothing worse than having unexpected water everywhere within 10 minutes after you wake up. I swear I watched that water move in slow motion as it hit me and almost the ceiling.

Needless to say, I needed a walk to 'cool off' because one cup of coffee had done nothing to change my outlook on life this morning. The weather apps said it was cold, it felt warm. It was suppose to snow but hadn't really. I could see that both hounds had their own agendas so they were going to get total freedom ... plus less chance of a 100# hound running full speed into me ... I had a feeling today wasn't meant to be my day, after my rough start.

I had no doubt that by the time I got back to this part of the walk on the return trip that I would be asking Sadie to help me find Stella. I was sure she would be out of sight by the time I got back. But once again she could do what she wanted today. I was in no mood for a 100 verbal commands to get her to move.

I could hear it but I couldn't see it. Even the camera couldn't see it. I could actually hear very small balls of snow hitting my jacket with my wool ski cap over my ears. When I glanced at my dark blue parka sleeve, it showed me I wasn't going insane today after all. It's always good to know that you haven't fallen over the edge of insanity ... but for some reason I could still feel water from Sadie's water bowl somewhere on me.

As usual she was oblivious to all that had happened this morning. If had not been in her way, she wouldn't have hit me in the back of the knee. If I would have moved the water bowl 6" away, she would not have hit the edge of it with her paws, sending her water out in slow motion as high as the ceiling.

So all was good to her ... she is outside on her walk and she is tracking scent. Nothing else matters.

I turned to make one final look to see where Stella was as my camera lens, set at 200mm, picked her up walking INTO the wooded area ... I was certain she was going to disappear.

By now I am seeing snow flurries, and taking photos with it in the background in my view finder but not showing up on the photos. I could also see a little of it starting to stick to Sadie's coat.

I don't mind cold temps as long as there is no wind. That makes a world of difference in how warm you feel. A little snow but nothing major.

I can always tell when Sadie is really focused tracking scent because I can hear her jowls flapping with a noise that is hard to describe and one that only bloodhound owners can recognize.

I would love to have an drone flying around this field taking photos 24/7 just to see the animal activity when we are not on our walks.

It was hard to get Sadie to leave but I told her "go find Stella" ... she took off running in the direction of the house with her nose to the ground.

I just assumed that we would be going into the woods to look for Stella, so I was walking along the edge of the field and woods to the left of our path as we start our walk. But Sadie was running toward the middle of the field away from me. Then I saw the reason why ... there was Stella, out toward the middle of the field and right next to the alternate path we take walking back home.

Here is proof of what I was hearing hit my jacket. Not a bad closeup photo with a Nikon camera set at 18mm.

Stella was sure she could hear the snow drops too.

Sadie stopped trotting in the yard to listen for them too.

I thought they were getting ready to run and chest bump each other to start wrestling, but for some reason they both decided instead of continuing their path to the corner of the house and then going inside ... all of that small snow they 'hear' my be caused by the lawn moles that have been having a field day in warm weather, tearing up my backyard.

There is something about snow, in any amounts that make these two crazy. They will wrestle at times outside if it is snowing but since there wasn't enough, they decided to wrestle inside .... "that will make him more insane".

I forgot to mention that as I walked up to Stella in the field, we started walking back toward the house .... she ran from behind me, cutting me off right in front of me and then slowed or stopped in front of me where once again I am about to fall and stumbled enough to regain my balance.

See what I mean about the moon and stars not lined up properly for me today? Of course all of this might be caused by my brain knowing it will not be fed it's normal 14 hours of college football today for the first time since the first weekend in September.

No matter what, it will be another great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... this retirement gig is a great thing.

Stella Loves Temps In Teens

Light snow is forecasted for Saturday but it looked like it almost started this morning. It was nothing but heavy frost and luckily at 8am, no wind made 16° feel pretty warm. There is something Stella likes when it's below 20° because that is when she is the most energetic any time of year.

This is just left of the burn pile and behind the dead ragweed. I know exactly what has their interest. I forgot to the tell the story about Wednesday night close to 11pm. I had let the hounds outside for their last bathroom break befor going to bed. I always stand outside with them, small flashlight in hand to see where they go. Wednesday night was different. As soon as we moved to the backyard I see in the same place the hounds are in this picture, a few deer.

They immediately took off sprinting in the woods as I could hear all kinds of tree limbs either still on the trees or on the ground, breaking as they ran. Neither Sadie nor Stella knew what was going on, they just wanted to pee.

I knew from the start of this walk that both hounds would be on their own. I'd walk my pace, take pictures and they could move at their own pace and go where they wanted. They were going to get total freedom today.

Stella didn't take long to decide that today she was not going to be left behind. It has taken a long time to see her running full speed but she was this morning.

Both hounds were easy to see as their red coats stood out in the background of white heavy frost.

There will not be much planned today for outdoor activities. As weird as it sounds, in this cold weather the roads are dry and clean and  I have had the urge to take the Z4 out. It has a great heater so freezing temps will not be a problem.

Weather like this always reminds me of when I had VW bugs in the 60's and early 70's. Since they were air cooled engines, their heating system was based on the engine getting warm. Then heat from the engine would cycle through the system up to you in the front seats. By turning the knob below the front of the driver's seat you could adjust the power. A flip of a lever determined if you were going to have windshield defrost or heat in the flooring area.

Sadie was chasing something this morning along the edge of the gully.

I am guessing she disrupted a warm place for a field mouse or field mice.

Someone is not having a good start to their day this morning.

It did not take a lot of verbal commands to herd the hounds this morning. Evidently it was cold enough that they were as motivated as I was to get back inside where it was warm. Of course Heidi had us all beat and was in her normal spot, sleeping inside her sleeping bag while she waits for lunch.

The freezing cold kind of took all the motivation away for taking any photos for the rest of the afternoon. We did do another walk later in the day with only a retractable leash attached to Stella. It was warmer but still quite cold.

The more I use my new phone the better I like it, it was a good decision to upgrade even though I had no plans to until a couple of weeks ago.

Bright and sunny today but maybe snow tomorrow here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.