The Hounds Still Making Small Changes

{This morning, Thursday, I re-read this post and was astounded to see so many misspelled words and poor grammar. I corrected what I could find and rewrote some sentences. I always proof read the post before publishing it but it's obvious I have not even done a good job of that. I'll try to improve.}
 
Changes happen to all of us when the seasons change or they decide we need to turn our clocks back or forward. It stays darker longer in the mornings thus the hounds wake up earlier instead of later. (strange) The two feeding times are the same and rarely change. Yet, I have noticed some small changes in Stella and Heidi since Sadie is gone plus Heidi's teeth extractions. Nothing bad but interesting.

I mentioned either yesterday or the day before that Stella was now whining when she wants to do for walks. They might wake me up earlier than normal, like before 7am now, but within minutes of chowing down on breakfast they have both moved back to the dark bedroom and are soundly sleeping. Time seems consistent, where Stella now walks to me in my desk chair and whines while wagging her tail ... it's a few minutes before 9am and that is her way of telling me she wants to go for a walk.

You might think she just wants out to pee but that is not the case as these photos show every day. She wants to get in the field and start walking. Another change for her that I am sure you can see from the daily photos is that she is exploring more off the beaten path. It's not all deer scat that she is thinking about, so I might have been wrong to say that yesterday. She is checking out different scents and covering both areas to the left and right of the path.

When she took off this morning I thought she was just looking for that place to poop that all dogs of any breed searches for. About the time I was thinking it is so strange how in a big field like this, she has to find that one spot ... but she wasn't doing that at all ... she was just tracking a scent she picked up.

Another good change from the past ... when I call her name she seems to be running back to me more than I can remember. Once she is on the path she doesn't wait to be petted or hear a 'good dog', she trots right by me and gets as far in front of me as possible.

I remember when she was acting sick, yet the vet at that time (different vet as of Sept 15) couldn't find anything wrong with her ... her tail was lowered all the time, she walked slow and never trotted and was losing weight. So it's great to see her tail in the curled position, telling me she is locked into some scent she has picked up and she is running more.

I took these next two photos back to back on two different settings. This first one had the normal 'no flash', which I use 99% of the time.

This next one I put on the 'landscape' setting on the dial ... maybe a little difference but to me, not to noticeable.

I tried the 'flower' setting on the dial for these but I see no difference than when I take photos of flowers with the 'no flash' setting.

While I was messing around taking landscape photos ... Stella was on her own mission of trying to figure out what had gone from the woods to the field and then into the gully. I thought I was going to have to start running toward her when I saw where she was and the way she was acting.

She turned and headed further away from me. See the difference in her compared to a month or even longer ago?

With the temperature at 40° for the morning walk, Heidi was in her winter routine of sleeping under Mexican blankets and a sleeping bag. She might dig a little to get them in the perfect position but I usually help her out by covering her up ... she likes being under them hidden as much as possible.

Stella will also whine during the afternoons now around 3pm to walk again. That is much earlier than we use to take afternoon walks. One day I thought I'd see what she would do if I didn't take her for a walk at that time ... she kept whining until I said 'let's go' ... she headed for the field as we stepped outside.

I don't see either hound taking the open position of 'leader of the pack'. It was obvious a few years ago when Winston was no longer here that Sadie was in charge. She didn't fight either Stella or Heidi but always would check on them as they walked back inside the house. Or if we returned from our walk with Heidi still in the yard, Sadie would always run to her and tap noses. She would even get up in the middle of the night if I got up sick.

Stella and Heidi basically go with the flow of the day. Neither is demanding except at lunch time, if I am late feeding them. Neither seems to be in competition for the most attention. They still share water. Neither wants the food of the other. If Sadie had her way she would have eaten Stella's and Heidi's kibble after she finished her own bowl in 45 seconds. She always checked their empty bowls for that one possible piece of kibble left behind.

The times I let Stella outside on her own in the afternoons when she goes to the door, nudging the round door handle with her nose to see if it will open, she never goes into the field to explore or wander over to the neighbors house. She rarely gets off the carport, looks around and then comes back to be let inside.

Heidi is a lot more active. She is back to running laps around the house in the afternoons. She does not try to play with Stella. They don't chase each other. About the only thing they do together is sleep next to each other. A lot of the changes in Heidi are due to the surgery to extract a couple of teeth that were causing infection. Plus ... she has barked more since that surgery than she has the 7 years that I have had her.

So those are the small changes I am seeing in both hounds.

I finished up the last few files of papers that meant nothing and were too old. I have a half a trash can of paper to take to recycling. That trash can is the 32 gallon Rubbermaid can. I also cleaned out three drawers of a small wood desk I have.

Before computers or at least in their early years I was obsessive in filing everything. Each hound had their own folder and each vet receipt was filed with the newest on top. Same with my tax returns. Same with all the different cars, trucks and VW buses I had. If they had a receipt for something, it was filed. I even found folders full of paper files that I had forgotten all about. Some of the dates I was seeing was 1991. LOL

I found a folder of all my receipts and manuals for the Yamaha stereo I bought in 1984 and still use today. Furniture receipts ????? Why ???

So the end of this story is, I went from three file cabinet drawers that were full, plus three more plastic file tubs that were full of filed papers ... down to one plastic tub that has 4 folders in it. The few papers telling me "Paid in Full" are in my fire proof safe.

Throughout this sorting of papers, throwing away, recycling or the burn basket ... I ran onto some photos that had been misplaced. Those showed a lot of different hounds I had in the past, photos of friends and their kids ... those kids now in their twenties and thirties. I guess the next project will be converting maybe a thousand or a few hundred less 35mm slides into digital photos.

I also have a lot of foreign paper money I need to exchange. I'm not sure it would amount to much but there would be a lot of countries represented.

I guess this was my way of downsizing the paper files, computer discs, floppy discs, and some books. Since I downsized my clothes, dishes, pots and pans in 2014 when I thought I was hitting the road full time ... the two hounds and I are living in a fairly empty house. I like not having clutter sitting around.

I took this next photo for you and I. For you it's proof there was frost last night ... for me it's showing me that 'my' summer and hot weather is over. Time flies when you are having fun.

 

One more small change in Stella ....

Lately the morning walk ends with her standing at this tree staring out me. She does not move when I call her. She does not move under any circumstance .... until

She sees that I am going inside and I'm not bluffing her.

Most mornings I have not been able to catch her running through the camera lens but this morning I did.

After striking out trying to find an electronics recycling center and a window business, I thought I'd try my luck at Walmart in finding a Speck iPhone case with rubber gripping. With colder temps my iPhone without a case is slicker and harder to handle. My 'no case' experiment is over I guess.

The electronic recycling business was no longer a business, the building was empty. If there was a window business in the location I was told they have terrible window signage ... I saw nothing for 3 blocks that dealt with making or selling windows.

At Walmart they had every case imaginable, even for the new Apple XS phones and Samsung 9 ... but not in my 8plus that was black. I didn't think a Speck case that was turquoise with pink trim would work for me.

I fed the hounds and noticed it was up to 60° so what better time than to go out and enjoy a little warm sunshine. By the time I started my return trip up the driveway from the mailbox both hounds were gone !!!!

It is rare anymore to see Stella out in the field by herself. That has to be the first time in a month for her to do that. As I walked closer to the yard and could see around that edge of the carport ... there sat Heidi enjoying some afternoon sunshine.

I could feel the warmth on her coat ... she was probably warmer there in the yard than sitting in the house.

Once I asked Stella if she wanted to go on a walk, she went from that position to running toward the path. She was ready.

Heidi thought her stomach needed some sun and her back scratched by rolling in the grass. I thought she might go on the walk with us but she decided to stay where she was.

I checked one more time to see if Heidi was following us or looking at us leaving just in case she wanted to go with us but she was sleeping sitting up.

The light is much better for taking photos this time of day instead of early morning.

As Stella and I approached the north yard I could see that Heidi had moved. When I called her name, she could hear me but could not figure where where the sound was coming from. She never saw me.

I have a feeling that Stella is pouting on her walk because I wouldn't let her eat deer scat. That is her pouting look when she doesn't get the food she wants ... such as the food I am eating for lunch or dinner.

Again, Heidi can hear her name but acts like she can't see me.

Still walking slowly and acting like she is mad.

There is a story about this water meter. 20 years ago when I moved in this house, that steel cover for the water meter was 1" above ground level. 10 years ago I lost a large Poplar tree and a Maple tree due to straight line winds, that stood about 10' in front of the house and maybe 30' above this meter. My front yard is slowly sliding downhill. I guess those trees not only provided shade but did a good job of preventing erosion.

My replacement Garmin VivoSmart3 that Garmin sent me for free when my strap broke at the end of September, is now acting weird. It will not download accurate information and the screen to Garmin Connect on my iPhone that collects that information keeps changing screens. I have not gone far enough into it to see if it is a Garmin problem or the iPhone app problem.

I believe it's my watch after it failed to record my sleep, total steps and some of my hound walks consistently the past few days.

That doesn't really matter though. It's warmer, sunny, leaves are blowing away by the wind, I have some food in the fridge, gas in the car and two sleeping hounds in the middle of the afternoon.

A great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Thought Summer Returned

When the temps hit 60° early afternoon, Heidi thought summer had returned. Even though it was a little below her 75° threshold, she found time to enjoy the warm sunshine.

Stella Is Out Below 40°

I had just started my second cup of coffee when I heard Stella whining, sitting looking at me wagging her tail. It was still 36° outside and I wasn't ready yet to walk through the wet field for the first time this fall in temperatures in the 30's. She wanted to go for a walk.

Once again she was at the back of the field directly behind the house before I even took my first step in the field. Luckily I didn't feel any wind so it would be warmer than my wildest imagination had told me inside. I've decided after this morning's walk she wasn't tracking deer scent like Sadie use to, these past few days. She is tracking scent to find deer scat.

With my hiking boots still a little damp from yesterday's walk, I stepped into the wet field thinking of a new plan to not only dry my hiking boots today but also apply some Scotch Guard to keep the water out of the insides. The solution for drying the boots enough to spray that Scotch Guard will be written later.

With a wool hat and my lighter North Face gloves on, I was going to be warm for the next 12-15 minutes. Stella was trying to high step through the wet grass on the path. I don't think she likes getting her paws wet either. She wastes no time when she gets back home to start licking her paws and legs until they are dry.

Her ears show how fast she may or may not be going.

She had turned to look at me but by the time I snapped the camera shutter, she was in the middle of turning back around and trotting away from me. It was good to see some blue sky hidden behind a hazy sky with a little fog mixed in.

Her plan was to not look back and stay out in front of me as far as possible this morning.

With a gentle trot, she was covering the very narrow pathway of mashed down grass that deer had taken earlier this morning.

This gives you some idea of how the sunshine is trying to make an entrance to today but first it had to burn off some light fog and clouds.

After we made the turn for home, Stella took off galloping in the tall wet grass. She was energetic this morning.

There is sound that goes with this picture ... hard to describe and only one that a bloodhound makes with their jowls.

Once she saw me pass by ... she was going to get back in front of me but still made a few stops along the way.

 She is almost positive that some kind of animal is in her yard while she sleeps at night.

I thought she was sitting down to scratch herself but she just sat there looking at the field. Without her collar on, she has been scratching less.

Of course with the morning as cold as it was, Heidi was already starting her winter hibernation and it's only in the middle of October. Will there be a fall this year? Or will it move from summer to winter, just like it missed spring this year.

It was chilly today where Heidi only stayed outside long enough to relieve herself. She chose a different area than the front yard which was nice. She is spending more time growling at herself and rolling in blankets when not sleeping, a sure sign she is feeling good.

On really hot days you can flip the trashcan over and let the sun dry it out if some fluid happens to seep through the large trash bag. Days like this it might not happen. Stella didn't know if it was a decoration or an intruder so of course she had to check it out.

She has never shown an interest in the fence along the driveway until today. I will see birds and squirrels move across that top piece but rarely see anything on the ground running in front of the fence. She had to check it out though. I was reminding her that she was out of the boundary.

About half way down the driveway she decided she turn around and head back to the house. She was never close to the highway but had moved too far from the house. I'd prefer she would continue to stay out of the front yard and spend all of her time in back.

I thought she was going to come inside with Heidi and I because I was actually getting cold. I cannot believe 'my' summer is gone. When I didn't see her in the driveway or carport I expected to see her in the field but I was wrong again. She was over by the north part of the yard, another place she hasn't had a lot of interest in.

I cannot wait any more for it to get hot and dry outside so I can open the windows. I have to apply the polyurethane now to the windows and inside the front door. Otherwise all the sanding and staining I have done will have condensation destroying it. I guess I need to break down and buy a large humidifier to use during the winter to cut down the amount of condensation on the windows. I need an excuse to go look around Lowes anyway.

I have a small stack of papers left that I need to sort through. These are old tax returns which will be burned and some older work files where they had too much information to take any chances of recycling yesterday. I'll burn those also in the next few weeks as I burn the fallen limbs from last spring and the leaves I rake this fall. It feels good to have organized closets and a lot of old paper files no longer taking up space.

Not a lot happened today. I did finish the paperwork project. I also cleaned out three drawers in the desk so as of this afternoon the desk is clean, all of the closets are reorganized and clutter taken away. I'll start scanning a few old photos sitting on my computer desk and put all of the hound photos away since it's pretty obvious I am not going to scan hundreds of photos where I can only scan one photo at time through my Epson printer.

It's great weather again to work inside here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.