Fixing Windows Without Stella's Supervison

With the temperatures back in the high 80's I moved to an indoor project today that actually started yesterday. I have been wanting to work on my windows, something that is really not a repair but more of making them look better and more importantly last longer. With many years of normal wear with condensation build up in the winters that left some stains in the wood, plus a few hounds liked testing the strength of the window sills with their teeth, I had a few 'indentions' I needed to fill. I also wanted to sand the stains out of the wood, then stain where needed and apply some polyurethane.

Year by year I kept putting it off. Then for a few years I told myself it wouldn't matter because I was going to have all new windows installed. Of course after that I kept changing my mind. So it was Day 1 of sanding window frames and sills, vacuuming the dust from sanding and then wiping each window with a damp cloth ... perfect time to stain is tomorrow morning.

As you can tell, Stella fell back into her old habit of ignoring me and made a strong attempt to head due north after stepping into the field. I watched for a while and took pictures as she moved north, in the direction of the neighbors backyard.

Finally I had enough and decided it was time to go get her. She still ignored me while I called her name but finally looked my direction. When she saw me heading her way, she made a right turn and headed toward me like she had been listening to me the whole time.

Hard to believe looking at the morning sky a little after 10:30am, that thunderstorms were in the afternoon forecast. Plus the humidity was heading back to the 90% range and a high of 86°.  {Note: By 4:45pm it had not rained yet ... it was bright an sunny.}

As I planned my strategy for sanding all the windows and the front door which is natural wood on the inside but painted on the exterior side, I noticed that Stella was not moving around in front of me today on the walk. She kept her distance behind me and never had the urge to pass me.

As you'll see she walked quite a ways just following me.

There was a time she needed to stop and scratch. I have let her scratch but make her stop if she goes near three areas that are in the process of healing. (1) That spot on her head (2) her right eye (3) up in the corner of her left front leg where the staples are.

As the squadron of mosquitoes buzzed by my ear once, I decided to beat them to the house ... I increased my walking pace. I had been walking for a few minutes when I realized I had better turn around and check on Stella ... she was nowhere in view !!!!

Then she raised her head and I barely saw her way behind me to the right of the path if you were looking from my location.

When she caught me looking that direction she stool very still as if she was hiding from me.

When I called her name she started walking toward the path, then started trotting toward me.

That trot didn't last long and in the meantime while she slowed down ... the mosquitoes decided it was time to attack me. Should I wait on a slow moving hound or sprint to the house to get away from the mosquitoes??

I waited.

I took pictures of other things.

As she slowly walked around me like there was no urgency, no reason to sprint to the house ... it was just another morning walk to her.

She is one of the most nonchalant hounds I ever had ... maybe even more than Winston was.

Heidi was waiting for us when we got back. She seemed to think it was time for lunch, although it wasn't even 11am yet. She went into her nonstop barking mode to convince me it was time to eat ... but she had to wait until 11:30am.

I think you will agree with me when I say I can see a huge improvement in her looks these past few days, compared to this summer. She is also a lot more active. I tend to believe it's from her surgery on that tooth infection instead of not having two large bloodhounds around.

Stella checked the air quality after her lunch but nap time for her was just a few minutes away as I continued sanding my windows.

Tomorrow I will find out if I was close in guessing the color of stain to match the wood I have. I was asked once why don't I just sand all the wood windows and trim, apply primer and paint all the woodwork white ... but I like the look of the natural wood in this older house.

Only one baseball game to watch tonight, no football ... plus I am finishing a couple of books I picked up at the library last week. I plan to apply polyurethane on Thursday after 10am ... maybe Friday will be a good day to wash the car and mow the yard.

Another good day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Can't Believe It's October

The day may have been shortened with two afternoon MLB baseball games today, but I had a few things I wanted to get finished before they started at 1pm. It's amazing teams can play 162 games in the regular season and have two divisions end in ties for the leader. These games today would decide who was a 'wild card' team Tuesday and who would start on Thursday, not having to play in a one game playoff ... winner take all. I am expecting these soy beans to be picked any day now. I hope it's next week so I can keep the windows closed due to dust and not have temperatures in the mid to high 80's outside.

Stella is now starting to show how excited she is to walk in the morning. There no "Sadie staredowns", nor hopping up and down while I grab my ballcap ... just a little wag of her tail and some light whining. Once I open the door she takes off for the backyard while I stand on the small porch taking the daily photo of the field across the highway.

I knew before we left it was going to be wetter than normal ... I found out at the end of the walk just how much more. The thing is ... I hate getting wet.

It has been interesting to watch Stella on these walks the past couple of weeks. She has shown no interest in ignoring my calls and taking off out into the middle of the field or to the neighbor's backyard. She might veer a little either way off the path but that is about as far as she goes. Why the change?

Again today there was never a time that I had to tell her "come on".

It wasn't until the photos were downloaded into my computer and I had the chance to look at them to see I had a bad day taking photos in the morning. Too blurry, nothing seemed really sharp. Of course on some of the plants in the field,  I needed a macro lens to capture the small droplets of dew.

I am not sure why I couldn't get this photo sharper but it does show just how wet the field was this morning.

That spot on her head is one of the small growths that was cut off last Wednesday. It was about the size of a tick and has scabbed up over the weekend. Her inner left front leg looks good where three staples were added to close the cut from the larger growth. She gets the staples out this Wednesday. Also after four days of eye ointment, the eye were the two tumors were removed really looks good.

I was starting to take a step back in her direction to get her, when she started walking toward me.

Then she surprised me by breaking into a run where I was pretty lucky getting two photos taken just in time. Her ears give her away showing the speed she has. Although she has yet to sprint full speed.

Terrible photo but you can barely see the droplets of water.

No she will not walk alone all the way to the yard. There is one spot up there she likes to check out before I catch up to her.

The only flower like this in the field this week, on our way back to the yard.

It's another Monday for her. A little time drying herself off, then a nap until lunch. Then another nap after lunch before a late afternoon walk. Bloodhounds lead a rough life.

The first sign of how wet the walk was.

These will be dry in no time once the sunshine arrives.

I hope to see all of these crimson buds bloom in the next few days like the yellow mum below.

Yesterday Stella decided to walk out and enjoy the sunset. Heidi had other plans as she took off around the house, exploring every inch of the way. She actually has the better nose compared to Stella but not as good as Sadie's was.

After a hard day what else is there to do but sleep while setting up. Yes her eyes are closed and she is snoring lightly. The vet tech said her nails are trimmed back as far as they can go and they still look long. Such is the nail of a basset hound.

For those that updated their Apple devices to the new iOS 12 and you use iMessage, it was big news today that there are some issues under the new iOS that texts are getting filed wrong and everyone's conversations are showing up in other people's accounts. I have nothing to fear but I am guessing there are some people across America sweating bullets with that news.

With my windows cleaned spotless, a great job if I do say so myself, I have been able to see if Stella is still trying to escape from the bedroom through the window above the bed. After the four times I have had to go out to the store, library or just a drive ... there are zero bloodhound nose smudges on my clean windows. She uses her nose to poke at doors or windows to see if they open, even in the car.

These mornings are so nice anymore to sit outside with morning coffee that it is almost hard to get up and start your day. This might be might favorite time of year living here. The atmosphere makes the yard grow faster where I could move every third day. Raking leaves will be right around the corner since it's October.

After lunch we did our normal trip outside. Where Sadie use to roam the field after lunch, neither Stella nor Heidi comes close to heading that way. Bother are more interested in going back inside for a nap. The sunshine was a little brighter than Stella liked, so she squinted her eyes.

Once Heidi relieved  herself, she immediately went back to the door to be let in.

Stella thought more about what she wanted to do the rest of the day. Her days rarely change even when the seasons do.

About the time I was heading to the living room for the start of the first baseball game, Heidi walked by me heading for the door not ten minutes after she came inside. She wanted to soak up some sunshine and stayed outside by herself for a little bit over 30 minutes.

But in the end ... their afternoon routines kicked in and that meant siesta time for both of them.

It was too nice to stay inside to watch baseball and not as hot as they forecasted ... so I headed outside to enjoy the weather, even if it was just sitting in a chair.

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