The Hounds Are Snowed In !!

I was up late, like very very late ... so we started the daily routine by me jumping out of bed to feed the hounds at the normal time, glance outside to see how bad it was then sprint back to bed. I know they told us a couple of inches of new snow by noon today so it wasn't that much of a surprise ... but looking at the hounds in the snow and how much of their legs disappeared ... it was deep.

The Intellicast radar was showing the front was about finished and would pass through but up in the upper right corner it was telling me there would be "snow showers" this afternoon. Well that will be an interesting concept. One that will cancel any late afternoon walks.

Stella had to make sure she smelled snow before getting to far out into it. I could tell the tire tracks I made last night after a quick trip to town for snack food, had disappeared. If I shovel anything it will be the carport floor out to the edge of the carport/driveway. I am not motivated this year for working outside in snow. No snowmen will be built, no snow forts ... no playing in the snow.

Stella decided to get a little stretching in before taking off for the back of the field. Sadie was already gone but she had to go and go bad ... it was right after her lunch and she was trained as a 12 week old puppy to go outside after she ate or woke up. She still does that on her own almost 10 years later.

I could see from her running in the field that the snow was deep and would be over the top of my North Face snow boots if I were out there in the field. Not interested. I've been on walks where the snow is up halfway my calf. Not interested. Yet, the hounds are. They have been sitting quietly staring at me to let me know they want to walk. Not interested.

January 13

Today at noon

Neither hound was interested though in going for any walk when they were outside. Once they were finished dumping their tanks, they sprinted to the house. Check out Stella's legs to have some idea how deep the snow is.

IF ... IF I decide to shovel some snow out of the carport ... I will go along the edge out to 'Winston's Patio' ... those 6 red brick blocks. But I think I might wait and see if those snow showers help me out clearing off the snow. Of course it is going to get colder tonight after midnight so that is telling me all of this stuff is going to turn to ice.

No ... I didn't screw up. It was late in the fall and the Z4 was dirty enough to wash. I only do hand washes, no car washes ... but it was too cold to wash the car at the time. I thought I'd at least get one day last November to wash the car and the put the Z4 under the car cover like I do every winter, but that one day never appeared until last Thursday ... wasn't interested.

I wasn't going to put a dirty car under a car cover, giving the wind any chances of moving that car cover a little and scratching the car's surface. I have seen sports cars left outside in all kinds of weather in Chicago, Boston, NYC ... so a few inches of snow won't hurt.

Yet, it does hurt a little to see this much snow blown over the back of it. Maybe I could slide down the driveway and take it out for a high speed run today to blow the snow off of it. That was typed 'tongue in cheek' by the way for anyone not able to pick up on my sick humor ... I don't even like taking the FJ out because of the amount of salt that you see mixed in with that dark colored sand on the highway to the left.

Heidi ????

She went out first thing in the morning before breakfast but she had seen enough ... she turned and sprinted for the couch after her lunch when I said "get outside" ... Not interested.

Well the snow has stopped at this point of the post. It feels pretty warm at 22° and a wind chill of 14° ... it is temping to put the boots on and see how far we get on the walk ... but its quite a mess to clean up between the two bloodhounds feet, legs and stomach, then the snow sticking to my boots, jeans etc ... no mudroom and to cold to clean up outside.

So ... not interested.

It's pretty and white today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

The Hounds Lasted 3 Minutes Outside

Sadie started her "stare down" at me right after her breakfast. It's her way of 'begging' to go for a walk. It happens various times during the day if I am not on her schedule. I kept telling her "we are not going outside today, it's too cold" and she kept staring. At 9:30am it was up to 1° but with the bright sunshine the temps would creep up near 20° later this afternoon. She didn't know that would NOT change my mind about taking our half mile walk.

With Stella joining her later at the entry way into my computer room, it was confirmation that both bloodhounds had to go outside to dump their tanks. I glanced at WeatherBug at 11:50am and it was up to 12° with a wind chill of 5°. I decided that was warm enough for no longer than 5 minutes ... that should give them enough time to do what they had to do ... and give me enough time to take some photos to blog about.

As you can see both of my vehicles have remained parked since Friday at noon. That is not deep snow by any means but I haven't had any place I really needed to drive to. This sunshine is suppose to disappear while I am inside this afternoon, watching the NFL Playoff game and an IU basketball game at 4:30pm. With that change we are suppose to see snow start falling and give us another 2" by tomorrow at noon. The deepest snow I have ever had here is 26" around 15 years ago.

When Sadie saw me putting on the Mountain Wear down parka, she was positive we were going to walk the half mile. That is an example of her "stare down". Based on the temperatures and our experience yesterday in similar temps, we were not taking any walk anywhere this morning. I had a gut feeling that neither hound would be out very long in wether like this. There was no wind but the arctic temps cut you to the bone outside of the down parka I was wearing.

So while they wandered in the field slowly looking for that magic spot they always need to find before dumping their tanks, I stood at the back corner of the house watching them. All I could really think about was getting back inside and fixing two more cups of coffee, doubling my daily consumption.

What a shock !!!

As soon as Sadie was finished fertilizing the frozen field ... she came sprinting to the house. She had enough of the arctic feeling. That is very rare for her. She is the hound that never wants to come inside.

I never called her name, didn't even whisper under my breath but she came to the house on a full run.

She was lucky that her tongue did not stick to her nose in the freezing temps. I am not sure she would have liked having hot water poured on her nose to get her tongue back inside her mouth.

Stella took a little longer trying to find that special spot that all dogs have to find before they relieve themselves. I kept watching for her to lift any of her paws from being too cold. She didn't run as fast as Sadie when she was finished ... but she ever stopped until she nosed the door to go inside.

Although snow is forecasted for later today and tonight ... I have hope ... it is suppose to be 50° next Sunday.

Like in the past winters, the hounds can only be pinned up inside for so long before that cabin fever sets in. While I made more coffee and downloaded these photos, Sadie and Stella started some hard wrestling along with some playful growling and barking. It was only total silence when they stood like statues staring at each other while they thought of their next move.

How did I know we were outside for only 3 minutes?

The time stamp on the image file in Apple Photos, told me my first picture of the field across the highway was at 11:54am and the last picture here of Stella trotting through the yard was taken at 11:57am.

It's pretty amazing they were both satisfied with their time outside with it being one of their shortest trips outside in their lifetime. Heidi in the mean time is where you saw her yesterday ... just substitute the photo of her in yesterday's post to this one. Nothing has changed with her and won't until the temps are back in the 40's at least.

I have 7 different towns in AZ and NM listed on my iPhone Apple Weather so I can see all the temps/weather of each town including where I live ... makes me wonder if a move is not in my future.

Another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Cancels Today's Walk

With the winds howling throughout the night I wasn't sure what I would see in the yard this morning. Luckily noting but pure white drifting snow blanketed the front and back yards. It wasn't suppose to be snowing this morning but by the time we took a short trip outside at 10:30am it was coming down hard.

Of course the highway dept's snow plows have applied so much salt on the highway, they are cleared as if a fresh rain occurred. With each pass, their snow blade was making the snow at the end of my driveway deeper and deeper. It's a common occurrence and one that I am use to when it is snowing. The wind chill was single digits but it felt a lot warmer than that. The hounds thought so too.

We had no plans to take a walk. I put my hiking boots on, leaving the snow boots inside. I wasn't going any further than the corner of the house while Sadie and Stella relieved themselves and checked out the depth of the snow. There is never any snow too deep for Sadie to keep her from tracking scent.

My boots in the driveway, no more than a couple of inches of snow.

You can see the drifting effect from the high winds last night, that rattled storm windows and howled like an oncoming train. I wondered as I dosed off what I would see in the yard when we woke up. The four Azaleas are showing no signs of death during the past month of extreme low temperatures and now this white stuff.

It's always good to see the hounds use that field as their depository and not the yard. Stella is not sure if the walk is official or not. She has finished and is wanting to head back inside I think.

Once Sadie ran back to the house Stella was ready to move back inside for her late morning nap.

Yet, it felt warm enough that a walk might be possible. Stella stood and checked out the temperatures a little longer. It's not the temperatures that bother her, it's her feet getting cold in the snow that gets her to turn around. So far there were no signs of 'cold feet'.

Heidi thought we were insane for going outside. She had spent a few minutes out this morning after we got up, as I was pouring their morning kibble, She was positive she was not moving from her sleeping bag. She couldn't believe when I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk.

I came back inside and switched from the hiking boots to my North Face snow boots. I knew with the down parka, ski cap and gloves that I would be warm enough to make the half mile walk. I was pretty sure that we would not be outside too long before Stella would get cold enough to come back inside. I didn't feel we would get far.

Of course Sadie loved it because we were 'walking' ... that is all she wants and to exercise her nose.

They both started off with excitement, hopping around, trotting in different directions as they felt snow under their paws. Something told me we would not be going too much further even with me warm enough to complete our daily walk.

Sadie was moving around faster than my camera could catch. I would love to transfer whatever she smells into some kind of computer software that would let me know exactly how strong the scent is, then tell me the source.

It was about this point of the walk that I thought I noticed a slight stagger from Stella and even some cautious walking by Sadie. Both were showing signs of getting 'cold feet'. Were we about to turn around?

There's the sign that Stella is not going to walk anymore away from the house. That raised paw had me turning around and telling them "let's go home". Sadie did not even hesitate when she heard those words, as both of them turned around and headed for home.

But it wasn't fast ... Stella was creeping slowly, lifting her paw off and on, then continuing. Sadie also stopped a couple of times and lifted her paw but she acted as if it never happened. She didn't want me to see that she couldn't walk in this stuff.

Almost to the yard but now Stella's other paw is cold.

Sadie was sure that I did not see her raise her paw on two different occasions. If I had, the chance for any kind of walk was not possible. Still she even thought there might be a chance for her and I to come back outside and do the half mile walk, after leaving Stella inside.

By the time we hit the door way, Stella was pushing her nose hard against the door to push it open and Sadie was right behind her, fighting her way in front to be back inside first. They both trotted into the living room, happy to be back where it was warm.

The hound walks have been canceled until further notice.

By the way the wind chill temps look, it might be not until next Thursday where it will be warm enough to get out into the field. This snow isn't melting until then and then the field will be saturated with freezing water and slush.

I guess after I changed the blog format to a two columns and made the width a little narrower, the Ukraine bots decided it was time to visit and collect as much information as possible. They seemed to like everything I wrote about the past October and each post had over 1,000 page views each after midnight. They had taken over the number one spot for total page views, way ahead but all of those from people in the USA.

I removed the long list of 'topics' on the blog sidebar because they were rarely clicked. I also wanted to make the right sidebar of information the same length as the post area. I made the blog narrower because I wanted the content to be about the same width as my photos, for it to look right. I think I like the changes but not 100% sure.

Not much planned today besides a day and night college basketball games, then a couple of NFL Playoff games late afternoon and one tonight on tv. I have all the ingredients ready for some small soft shell tacos on corn tortillas. I probably have more ingredients than that small tortilla can hold but I'll manage someway.

Evidently the hounds didn't mind cutting the walk off short ... they are in full stretch mode in two different rooms on the floor, sound to sleep as I am writing this. I am going to have to go back and take a look at those small towns in Arizona and one town in particular in New Mexico for available housing.

See what the snow does to me here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ?

The Snow Has Come And Gone

It started snowing harder around 3pm Friday but it didn't look like we were going to get much more than an inch. I was wrong about how much snow we would get. I thought it might be a good time to get the 2nd walk in but after a few steps outside and that freezing strong wind hitting me in the face, I cancelled it.

Stella didn't mind the decision since she was on her way back to the house before I made the official call. Radar was showing the snow storm was not going to last much longer. After that it will be just a week of freezing cold weather.

The hounds thought a ride to town might be possible since they couldn't go on the walk. I was done driving for the day, so it was back inside.

We waited another couple of hours and tested the temps again but it was too cold for me. Stella was checking to see if I was walking back to the house. Once she saw that I was, she headed for the door.

With the high winds rattling the storm windows I suspected a lot of the snow was going to be drifted. Heidi was not going to wake up to go outside but the bloodhounds always like to go out one last time before they officially call it a night ... even though they have spent sleeping through prime time tv.

The camera flash worked well and my hands were surprisingly steady enough to have some clear photos in the dark at 11:45pm.

Looks to be around 4" in most place. It should be a nice Saturday morning walk and plenty of snow in the field to walk through.

Sadie is always smelling something ... this is the top of the driveway right in front of the carport. There were no tracks at all in the snow until the hounds came out.

As you can see, I needed some sort of change on the blog so for the first time ever I have a blog with two columns.

The wind is howling tonight in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.