Just A Few Pictures

I have basically stopped blogging but felt like posting some photos of the hounds from the past few weeks.

This Blog Is Going Out Of Business

I've gone back and forth on this decision a lot in the past months. It probably shows in my writing and photos that this blog has ran it's course. There are a couple of reasons I am going to stop blogging, from being bored with writing the same kind of posts each time and posting photos of the hounds in almost the same positions, the same areas of the field as before ... more importantly I want my time back.
I started enjoying the days I did not post on the blog a lot more than the days I sat down to put a post together. It's amazing how much time you have when you are not blogging or spending time on social media. I now have time to ride my bicycle in an attempt to get back into some really good physical shape. I can sit outside reading a book without wondering if I missed a great photo for the blog. The hounds roam freely while I am outside.

There is also more time for hound maintenance for three of them. Things like trimming toenails, giving them a bath or combing their undercoats out. I also found the walks to be more enjoyable without the camera, then being able to come back inside and do other things besides moving in front of my computer to download, edit photos and put a blog post together.

I guess I am just tired of doing the same thing on this blog over and over. It is more like work than being fun.

This blog would be 7 years old this October. I have quit numerous times in the past and even deleted it a couple of times. In fact over those 7 years I have gone from a paid domain to two different blogspot domains.

I'll still take photos of the area and the hounds. I don't need a blog to look at them. They are all on my computer in specific folders for quick access. I know that is selfish in a way but really what was life like before the internet. I'd like to get part of that life back, especially in reading books and riding my bikes. In the winter I will ride my road bike indoors setting on a 'trainer'.

I made a comment a year or two ago when I quit this blog. At times blogging is like me standing down by the highway passing out pages of my life and that of the hounds to passing cars and strangers I don't know. Being a private person and one that likes solitude living wins out in this case.

I have spent time thinking about all the options of blogging, maybe some new ways of blogging that I thought I might want to do but the bottom line was I did not want to do any of it.

I want to thank all of you that stuck it out to the end. Believe me there have been a lot of inconsistent activity written here, sometimes even changing my train of thought in the middle of a paragraph. So you had your chances to leave many times. Thanks again for taking your time to stop by and see what was up.

Thanks for all the comments, all of the emails and becoming online friends with some of you.

So with this post I will officially announce that the hounds are retiring from blogging and we will continue to enjoy living in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Good luck to you all.

The Hounds Battle Hotter Weather

As the temperatures get hotter every afternoon this week, our routine didn't change much. Fewer photos were taken and there was less interesting things to write about. I continue to be on the fence on deciding a few things. So here are a few photos from the last few days that I didn't blog.

Every day after her lunch Stella likes to take a 30 minute nap in the sun. Heidi sprints back inside as soon as she relieves herself and Sadie roams the field. While Stella wanders the field during the morning walks, Sadie will get her running in as the grass gets taller and taller all over the field.

Each time Sadie finds Stella over by the neighbors house. I've been letting her do what she wants since our last post here. I have been basically lazy and haven't done anything besides two walks per day, nibble food during the day only when I feel hungry, without fixing what you would call a meal. Then every night I watch Reds baseball on tv and while the hounds sleep.

With my food supply very low it was time to find some groceries and the perfect time to get serious about what kind of food I was going to start eating. I went back to logging all my food intake on Cronometer.com It will break each food down into the micro nutrients and track your protein, fat, carbs and calories plus all the vitamins and minerals. If you click on one of those topics, it will list from the highest to the lowest food in that category. I can see now why my weight was starting to creep upward while I ate less food before this recent change.

So far I am losing a pound per day after three days. Most likely that is just water weight. I can make it from breakfast to the time I go to bed without feeling hungry. Basically no grains, no pasta, no beans, a few nuts or seeds and dairy is allowed but not much because that kills your required low carbs count.

On the Friday morning walk I didn't see Stella anywhere on the horizon and she wasn't near the edge of the woods behind the neighbor's house. So I told Sadie "go find Stella" and she took off with her head in the air as high as she could get it.

She stopped once looking in all directions, then moved left toward the last place I saw Stella. About the time I started walking that direct she turned completely around and started running toward the neighbor's backyard.

Sure enough, there was Stella right next to the woods in their yard where they throw food scraps out for the field cat. Stella was scarfing down food as fast as she could. I couldn't take any photos of that because I was trying to get to her as fast as I could. That included jumping over their small drainage ditch that goes along the edge of the yard.

Sadie headed her back in the direction of the house ... the afternoon walk I had Stella on the retractable leash to keep her near us.

Late Thursday night I logged into my two week old Instagram account and deleted it. Then I logged into my Facebook account and deleted that. All in the name of downsizing my internet footprint and spending time on this blog and my private blog whenever I feel like writing.

I still have a Twitter account which I will keep. I use it as a reader mostly for all my sports teams. I do follow James Woods, the actor, because he comes up with some great stuff to remind people just what the truth is in this time of constant manipulated information.

For some reason the Z4 has not left the carport for the past three days. I had a big workout mowing the yard on Thursday afternoon late. It was hotter than I had planned on and 52 minutes later I finished and then stood in front of a fan to cool off as fast as possible. My highest pulse rate during that time was 82% of my max and for the past week my resting pulse rate has averaged 49. I think that shows  have a healthy heart. Now to get rid of some of this gut.

When I put some gas in my FJ the other day it was the highest prices I had paid but was still not higher than prices were in 2013 based on my checkbook register entry that I do on a spreadsheet. I have done that on a spreadsheet since 1997 when Lotus 1.2.3 was the spreadsheet to use.

I did think about starting a blog where I could rant yell and scream about anything that made me mad. Plus I would talk about life in general, ask questions I wonder about at times. I even talked it over with a friend of mine that is also thinking of downsizing his blog activity and social media.

The more I thought about what he said and what I felt, I decided I did not want to have a blog like that. I want my life as simple as possible, the fewest conflicts as possible and computer time online the least amount possible. That might change next winter when it's single digits outside.

I'll be prepared this winter though. That same friend I was talking to me, mailed me a full length Carhartt Coverall that fit me perfectly since I am two inches taller than he is. Last winter at times on the walks I found out that high quality ski underwear and jeans were not enough to stay warm during that half mile walk. The Carhartts should change that drastically.

Sunday will start with the daily hound walk, then back home in front of a tv by 9am for the F1 race at Monaco. After that I will flip over to ABC to watch the Indy500 at noon with the hounds being fed and out for a pre-race pee. I will not watch all of the preliminary pre-race stuff loaded with commercials.

I am thinking of stepping out on the 'thin ice' and expanding the "Other Stuff" part of the blog title and possibly bring some life to this boring blog where no topic will be left behind.

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana because I LOVE hot weather.

Stella Escapes

... from the retractable leash.

I wanted to try something brand new this morning, something I had never done before and I wasn't sure if it would work or not. With Stella wandering to the north almost immediately on our morning walk the past few days, I didn't want to go after her this morning so I thought I'd put her on the 25' retractable leash PLUS take my camera.  (also none of the photos this morning were edited)

I have used this leash on many of our afternoon walks and she does fine with it ... until a couple of days ago when she refused to move from the corner of the house. In fact when she did that yesterday, I let her back inside the house, then Sadie and I did the late afternoon walk in 8:19 When we returned she was sleeping on the floor.

The first test started as I walked toward the field and she walked along the house, her 'new' path heading north and eventually to the woods behind the neighbors. I thought to myself "well, you have 25' from me to find out that path isn't going to work today".

The small wire springs were found at the foot of my driveway this morning where someone must have decided they did not need them or it fell out of someone's passing pickup truck. It looks like the size of a chair seat cushion. I'll hide it back here until I make my recycling run this week and give it to them.

Stella wasn't happy about it but she turned and started to walk toward me at the edge of the field and yard. I stood as the leash retracted, not wanting to pull on her collar.

With me on the path already getting soaked from a field that was wet from late night rains, she was walking up the return path which gradually moves further than 25' from each other. I stopped to get a better grip on my camera and felt a tug ... a strong tug ... an escape tug.

Seconds after I took this picture, I heard the leash retracting fast and on the end of it was her collar. She had wrestled herself out of confinement when I was feeling those strong tugs with my head down looking at my camera.

Collarless ....

Sadie was oblivious to everything going on between Stella and I. She was darting back and forth across the path and finally started making a beeline to the corner of the field.

At the same time, Stella walking as if she was proud of what she had accomplished, walked on the return path ignoring me when I was calling her name and saying "over here".

She finally decided to join Sadie and I and jumped over to our path heading out to the field. I could see that a lot of the tall grass had been blown down or beat down by the rain sometime last night after 1am. I didn't hear any rain while sleeping so maybe it didn't rain at all but the field was wetter than anytime this spring.

To make it easier for me I left the retractable dog leash on the path right at the junction where we either take the original path to the left or the alternate path to the right that heads to the north backyard.

Every one of those tips (buds) were wet and somewhere out there is our path that we wear down with our two to three walks per day unless it is raining. I remember when my neighbor bought this field a few years ago, he told me he was thinking about planting corn. Hearing that I was ready to move. Luckily for me and the hounds he left it as it was and trades the hay to the farmer that cuts the field in exchange for them to plant corn in one of his fields.

Yes that is Stella continuing up the return path in total denial that she is hearing me calling her. After weeks of following Sadie and I on the morning walks, a few days ago she decided she was going where she wanted, when she wanted and would ignore any sound coming from my mouth ... except ... when I ask her "do you want to eat". Then she howls.

Sadie continued her quest of finding who and what had been in 'her' field in the hours since late yesterday afternoon. She was intense in her search this morning.

Until I told Stella 'no', she had made a left turn to head up the overgrown ATV path from last summer. At the same time you have to remember that she is walking slower than slow in all of these photos.

Sadie is nowhere in view and may have already ran up ahead and made the turn for home.

Unlike Stella, she will always turn and run toward me if she gets too far ahead of us. I am beginning to believe this field is growing by the hour.

Stella is now in her pace to get home. She is tired of the walk, no interest in sniffing scent and stays on the path almost all the way home. She is already thinking about her morning nap.

Sadie will explore and investigate scent all the way home.

Stella followed the path all the way to the yard.

Is it a habit or an allergy? This is one of three places she will stop and scratch herself on the walk. Each place she stops is the exact area within a two foot diameter.

I was standing partially hidden around the corner of the carport just enough where I could see her with the camera but she couldn't see me that well. Dogs don't see well to begin with but with me out of view it was even harder for her ... and to enough to cause her concern.

She moved faster than she had the half mile walk when she thought Sadie and I had left her outside.

A little dark but I wanted to post all the photos on the blog this morning with no editing of any kind. I have gone into the html of this post to change the size of the photo from s640 (Google's compressed size) back to the original size of s1600, which makes them sharper.

Let me know if you can see that much difference in the quality of the photos you normally see here. Thanks.

I am not sure where all of my good energy took off to but it wasn't too much past mid-afternoon where we were headed for an afternoon siesta. Those small corn tortilla soft tacos must have killed any motivation I had to be an active member of society. I think by these photos you will get the picture.

We always go outside right after lunch, usually pretty close to noon or a little after. Each hound does their own thing. At times the bloodhounds take off for the field, Heidi will explore around the house by doing a full lap with her nose to the ground and I will sit outside to soak up rays to get a little extra natural Vitamin D.

It was another day in the low 80's with a slight breeze, right on the borderline of having all the windows open or closing them and letting the air conditioner run. It wasn't quite hot enough for the AC yet a little too warm not using it. Add in some allergies for sneezing ... not much was done this afternoon.

One thing that does happen though daily, is the area the hounds inspect or sit is always different than in the morning as we start our walk.

Stella just about in the scratching mode.

Heidi was just as confused as I was on what to do. Walk? Nap in the sun laying in the grass? What? She decided sleeping all afternoon on the couch in the cool shade was the best thing to do.

It's already late May but still a lot of farm equipment using the highway. I am pretty sure this is the same guy that has the field directly across from me but today he was coming from the south while taking up about a lane and a half of the highway.

It's was one of those times that the best thing I can do is pull the car cover off the Z4 and take a little drive. It doesn't matter which direction we take nor if we have been on that same drive before, it always feels good  by the time you finish and return home.

It really was a nice day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.