Another Morning Hound Walk

The pace has been fast and furious since we are getting use to cold weather every day. I hate talking about weather but it's a big factor in what we do. It's early in the winter and the Bloodhounds are already showing signs of 'cabin fever'. We still get our two walks in per day as a minimum ... Except Heidi.

She came outside after lunch yesterday and didn't move off of the carport. As soon as that cold blast of wind came around the corner and hit her in the face right behind the Z4, she turned and headed back towards the door ... then changed her mind.

She wanted to make sure it was just as cold over behind the FJ because she really had 'to go' since she had just finished lunch. She studied the ground, sniffed the air, licked her lips and finally gave up ... too cold. I don't think she moved off the couch literally all afternoon. Around 7pm she jumped off to shake and loosen her neck and back muscles, then jumped right back on the couch and started her nightly routine.

Finally around 9pm I had to coax her to go outside with Sadie and Stella. She didn't mind that as she sprinted through kitchen to the door and ran to the driveway. She realized she had been holding it too long.

While I flipped back and forth between ballgames, movies and the MLB channel for any last second updates on baseball trades ... she continued to sleep. This photo is my new phone taking one 2x zoom and a tone adjustment.

She does come up for air on occasion. She might walk in a circle, then curl back under the blankets.

It's very important to get those blankets just right to keep her nose warm.

A bloodhound needs her rest after a full day of activity. 

Each time I step out in this field it feels like the whole field is sliding south. I can't recall if the incline was as steep as it is now. I thought I remembered this area being a lot more flat, but it's hard to see in photos from years ago when I had a different group of hounds. Probably just my imagination.

I have found the right clothing combination where I am never cold, even down to single digit wind chill. The hounds never seem to mind and their walks every morning are almost the same ... until today.

Stella was moving in and out of the brush area. I wasn't sure I wanted to leave her behind on a day like this morning. If she were to take off it would be too cold for her if she was gone for 30 minutes or longer.

Sadie was just Sadie ... trying to cover as much ground and as many scents as possible within the 15 minute walk.

I knew at this point in time I was going to have to walk back and get Stella. She was hard to deal with this morning as I had to herd her at least to the first turn and then some more after that.

Even here, I had to nudge her one more time before she made the right hand turn.

I realized this morning as I open up my blog dashboard to write this post that I was at a loss for words. I still am as you can probably tell by what I have typed so far. I'll leave the rest of the photos from this morning's walk. I seem to be very distracted this morning.

I guess the main objective today will be to do some shopping to replenish the food supply. Since the roads are dry and clear, I'll drive the Z4 over to the store for some added fun on the drive. Plus the trunk in that car gives me just enough room to store what I buy which doesn't leave room for a lot of extras but just what I need. It does hold more bags of groceries than you would expect it to.

Yet, another fine day ahead here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi's Winter Aerobics

She tested the outside temps after lunch, did an immediate turn and headed back inside. Finally after some coaxing around 9pm, she went outside to relieve herself. This is her normal winter activity ... no reason to be alarmed.

Heidi's Winter Hibernation

It's nothing out of the ordinary for Heidi. I've seen it for 6 winters now. She moves into the deeper winter hibernation as the temps get colder outside. It's like those hibernations you read about bears. Probably the only difference is, she gets fed 2x per day and she is the most active before and after those meals. Today was no different with a wind chill of 14° outside at 10am ... it wasn't even close to her temperature threshold of 70°

Sadie wanted to go out as soon as her 60 seconds or less breakfast was over. It didn't matter that she had just been outside right before it was served. I am not sure, as some have suggested over the years, that she would be a hound that would enjoy staying outside 24/7. She is pretty addicted to 'her' large leather chair and ottoman. It's a place she spends every night while movies or ballgames are on the tv.

Stella let me know very early in the walk today she wasn't interested in covering much ground. Sadie and I continued on knowing we could pick her up on the way back, hopefully somewhere within view.

Since buying the new iPhone my Garmin Connect app is working off and on. More off than on. From reading on both the Apple sites and Garmin site, it seems to have started with Apples update to iOS11 a month or so ago. I am finding out I was one of the lucky once to have consistent connection on my iPhone 6s. I can still download the Garmin data to my iMac but it's really convenient to see everything with a 'tap' on the Garmin app on the iPhone.

I said something in passing yesterday about possibly adding a page on top with nothing but photos of the 'ears in motion' of both bassets and bloodhounds. It looks like from the emails I have received, there is enough interest for me to make that happen. With it freezing and too cold to pick up sticks in the yard, this might be the day to do a little 'page building' and get all of those ear photos in their own page. I'll let you know when I am finished, or keep glancing at that row of pages on top of this blog.

Giving Stella her daily morning massage that she requests by walking into the computer room and standing next to my desk chair, shows me that she is back to her normal self. She has gained all of the weight that she lost sometime last February thru March. Those two big knots that were visible on her hips are gone and have been for a while. She can handle a massage on her lower back and hips without yelping in pain. Plus seeing her sprinting full speed yesterday morning was a plus.

Sadie was back at the corner of the gully, just on the border of the far right corner of the field. This morning she was too fast for me and did her sprinting to catch up before I turned around to captured it with my camera. With it getting colder I had picked up the pace of my walk. We get most of our winds from the SW but like today, when that are out of the NW I can expect freezing cold air hitting my face.

I don't get many visitors on my Wordpress blog but at times I enjoy that blog more than this one. It is simple and fast to put a blog post together. I imagine the Google and Bing bot crawlers don't care for the generic url name that comes with a free account, thus not many ways to generate traffic. It is interesting though that both blogs have their own audience, with very few viewers looking at both blogs.

Sadie had locked onto a single worn path that is deer traffic. It has to be that since there isn't a second track parallel to it for it to be a truck or ATV track. Again this morning she was very active in her tracking. There isn't a walk she takes that tracking isn't her number one objective.

It's amazing to see how much ground she can cover with her nose near the ground.

I would guess this is almost the perfect form for a tracking bloodhound.

I almost forgot to mention I saw the field cat late last night. Really it was the eyes of the cat that my small camping flashlight picked up as I scanned the yard, field and along the backside of the house. While the hounds were doing their thing in the yard, I wanted to find out what I heard hit the house due to the high winds that were rattling the storm windows.

I was going to walk around to the front of the house, starting with scanning the area on the backside of the house. Right next to the NE corner of the house were two small eyes staring back at me when the flashlight moved to that area. The cat was gone within seconds and with the hounds on the opposite side of the yard they saw nor smelled anything.

It took 200mm zoom to see this, but Stella did hear me calling her name on our way back. She hears me when she wants to I guess.

Maybe the freezing temps were making Stella a little more motivated this morning to get back home since she was leading Sadie and I in that direction. She is usually behind us, not in front of us.

A rare sprint to the house to complete the walk.

In the meantime, Heidi never knew we left the house.

Not much is planned again today. I did take the Z4 out Sunday around noon. It doesn't mind the cold weather as long as the roads are dry and the sunshine is out. It has a great heater. The front lower grill I replaced along with the other air ducts and plates under the car, are still tighter than tight.

I am feeling my annual winter urge to start my book reading marathons. I still have a lot of them on my bookshelves to read for the first time. I might also build up a free library of ebooks to read on my table or phone. Either way, it's going to be a winter full of book reading.

It's another fine day of retirement here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, with college football bowl games starting on December 16th. In the meantime the College Football D1-AA playoffs will keep me occupied.

The Hounds Battle NW Winds

With the freezing air blowing from the NW at 15-20 mph, the wind chill of 14° was a well deserved rating. Of course there is one hound that has a pretty high temperature threshold for staying any length of time outside, Heidi knew it wasn't 70°.

Stella Felt Good This Morning

The hounds were energized as soon as their paws hit the door step this morning when I opened the door for the first time this morning. During the time I was pouring out kibble, they normally go out into the field, dump their tanks and are standing by the door waiting to get inside to eat by the time I am finished. But not today ....

When I didn't see anyone but Heidi standing at the door, I glanced out different windows and caught Stella sprinting ... sprinting ... in front of the carport chasing Sadie around the house. By the time I got outside to get them, they were on their 2nd lap at least, probably more.

The house rule has always been, "no hounds allowed in the front yard" due to the chance of chasing an animal across the highway or seeing anything of interest near the road. Yet once they saw me they knew it was time for breakfast.

So it didn't take me long this morning that I could tell that the hounds were about ready to release any 'cabin fever' they had over the weekend where frigid temps kept us inside a lot. Stella had no interest in hanging back today as she was following Sadie up to the first corner of the walk. She broke out to the middle of the field while Sadie was hot on a trail on the edge of the gully and heading for the far right corner.

By the pace of the hounds, you would almost think that deer had been here just hours before. I have no idea about when or how deer migrate through the field or gully. I'm not a hunter so if they don't have a batting average or a yards per carry stat, then I don't know much about them.

The beautiful day here in 'the tropics' got an early start this morning. The sky was looking great as we walked along the path. I had also figured out this morning why all of us seem to be starting our days earlier, the hounds wanting to walk earlier and eating earlier ... all of us are still on Daylight Savings Time.

The camera didn't catch Sadie's movements around this corner because I was walking but she kept going back and forth around that corner, not ten feet in distance. I knew that once she was finally finished she would sprint toward me to catch up.

She was so intense in what her nose had found, I thought a few times that she was going to charge through the dead ragweed down into the gully.

I turned around just in time to catch her sprinting toward me to catch up.

This might be one of my best 'bloodhound ears' photos ... I might have to start a page at the top or a link where there is a folder of nothing but photos of basset hound and bloodhound ears 'in action'.

The books I have read about dogs and bloodhounds over the years, tells me that when they are searching like this and even eating stuff we don't want to see or want them to ... it's all part of them identifying who, when and what have been in that area.

With no wind this morning it was cold but felt warm ... if that makes any sense.

It's interesting to see that what the AKC calls a 'red' bloodhound matches the light brown or tan color of dormant hay.

As I walked toward home I called Stella and she actually started walking our direction to join us back on the path. That was a pleasant surprise and a definite change for the past month or so. Maybe she is starting a new routine.

Just because we are in the field near our house and the neighbor's, doesn't mean they stop tracking scent in the field. They do this all the way to the backyard and even sometimes in the backyard depending what they find.

The field is not bad to walk through since it wasn't cut and baled a second time last fall.

Just because I want to get inside and we are close to the house doesn't mean they want to. This is a common reaction to me saying "come on" ... it really is normal bloodhound obedience that is noted in their AKC write-ups and something every bloodhound owner knows before they decide to have their lives changed.

Juuussssttttt one more thing to check out.

But no problems to Stella. It's a new week, she'll sleep beside my desk chair while I write this post and will not be really active until she is ready to eat lunch. At that time, if I happen to be late, she will start howling ... LOL

Our weather in 'the tropics' at this time is normal for this time of year.