A Bloodhound Nose ??

Basset Hounds are bred to flush rabbits out and into thick brush, the woods, a field or a backyard. To do that Heidi would have to get out of bed first and it's almost 11am. I have seen a Basset Hound in action though and Sadie (the WA Basset Hound) did just that, flush a rabbit into the thick brush where the rabbit stops in panic. The shoulders of the Basset Hound is made specifically to charge through brush so thick you cannot even walk through it.

The Bloodhound has the better nose though and is bred to track deer whether they are walking through a field or woods and after a hunter has shot them. A few years ago Sadie and Stella would sprint after deer they would see in the field but I haven't seen a deer in this field since November 2017.

From the pictures I take of Stella everyday you would think that she has a great Bloodhound nose but I have two pictures today, really just one picture but two stories, to prove she either doesn't have a great nose, or maybe she lost focus or maybe since it wasn't deer scent she didn't care. Yet we all know how she loves deer scat. Her nose story continues.

As I walked over to get a better view of this tree limb, I practically stepped on a rabbit hiding in the brush. It was not more than a foot away from me when it took off sprinting toward the gully. Heidi has a great nose for tracking rabbits and no doubt would have been baying and chasing that rabbit as fast as she could. I've seen her do it in this field but not today, she was still in bed.

Stella had walked right past the rabbit no further away than the distance from the path on the left to the edge of the brush on the right. What, maybe 10' away? She is well past the place I almost stepped on the rabbit so she is not even close. Don't let that picture throw you off.

Now Stella does not have the worst nose in Bloodhound history because she does show signs of tracking deer scent or deer trails just like this morning. There were a million signs that deer had been running through this field a few hours before we made our appearance. I don't think you would want to see a million pictures of a deer hoof print in the soft ground so I have included just one of those pictures further down the blog post.

Sadie was 'the tracker' ... strong strong desire to track scent. Stella has a more relaxed approach to her tracking. I have no doubt that she would stop immediately if I mentioned the word "food" or had some small bone treats in my pocket. THAT is one thing she can track ... any kind of food or treats.

In my lightweight down jacket I was enjoying this Saturday morning walk with no wind to speak of. WeatherBug said it was 34° but my carport thermometer said it was 42°, so I kept picturing that 42° in my head as I walked. Hard to believe it will be in the teens on Monday for a high temp of the day.

I let Stella go where her nose led her. After all she is a Bloodhound and looks as if she is tracking something. So I veered off my path to follow her.

You can barely see a path straight ahead and that was made by deer traffic. The camera did not capture the path as clear as my eyes.

This is a little better view of a deer path cutting across the middle of the field to the left of me as I followed Stella.

Looking at those two pictures you would think that I am entirely wrong with my assessment of Stella not being a tracker. She looks professional in each of those pictures. Remember how much she loves finding deer scat and adding that to her kibble diet as more protein? Remember how good her nose is supposed to be?

Well she literally walked right over the top of not one of these piles of deer scat but the second pile not two inches away. HER NOSE WAS DOWN LESS THAN AN INCH ABOVE GROUND !!!! How did that happen? Too old? Too new? Not hungry? Lack of focus?  :)

This is one of the million pictures I took this morning of deer hoof prints in the soft ground. They were everywhere, from right on my path to all over the field. So there is deer still in the area, I just have not seen any of them.

With her tracking scent over this morning, she starts the slow walk home. When I say slow, I mean even slower than that. Each step is in slow motion so that you wonder if that front paw is ever going to touch the ground. She walks like she is suspended in air as I anxiously await for her to catch up to me. I'd like to get back to the house for a brunch I plan to make sometime today.

Then ... a sudden burst of energy where she is almost running BUT she has to do a full body shake at the same time she is running. As her body goes forward trotting, her ears show that her head is moving left to right back and forth as she shakes. Who needs a good Bloodhound nose when you have agility like that?

Obviously after five weeks of the lamb based dog food instead of chicken as the main protein source, that has not made a difference in her scratching. No fleas that I can see. No red bumps, no skin irritations. It just itches.\

With another Saturday morning walk in the books she was energized to get back inside so she could sleep. Her and Heidi's eating schedule is off today, way off. All because of Stella.

Since I was in a deep sleep I have no idea what woke me but when I finally came out of it I heard hound toenails making a sound on the hardwood floor as if they were pacing or moving back and forth. At first I thought it was Heidi because she kind of tip toes in the dark but then I heard a stomach making a gurgling sound ... that is always Stella.

So I got out of bed to let her go outside. It was pitch black in the house and outside because it was 4am !!! While she trotted off around the Mini out towards the field, I put on my lightweight down jacket and slipped on my cheap Chinese flip flops and headed outside with my bright LED flashlight. It wasn't that cold outside even while standing there in a pair of Russell Athletic Gear gym shorts.

I could see as I stood behind the house she was straight out from the house halfway between the yard and the woods. She had found some nice tall, possibly wet grass to eat and was eating like it was her last meal. Luckily when she was finished she trotted to the house where I was standing. It may have been more about me sneezing than her being obedient.

Of course, since I couldn't go back to sleep I got up. Computer on, lights on, with Heidi still sound to sleep. Stella was checking out the dog food container to see if the lid just might be off or loose for her to grab some kibble ... at 4:15am!!!

Finally after 30 minutes and hearing her stomach gurgling again I decided that maybe some kibble would settle her stomach. Of course as soon as that measured cup of kibble hit Stella's stainless steel bowl .. Heidi woke up and came sprinting to the computer room because breakfast was being served.

Yes, they both had breakfast at 4:30am.

Just like their normal routine after breakfast, they both went back to their dog bed and slept soundly. I never heard Stella's stomach gurgle again after that. So you would think by now as I type this both hounds would be barking and howling for lunch but they are both asleep ... that's what happens when you get up at 4:30am.

I did get back to sleep for a solid four hours of sleept. Thus the late start for the morning walk.

I have a basketball game I want to watch at noon. Right before that I plan on having eggs, with steamed spinach right there in the cast iron skillet and warmed up salmon. This change in eating is really helping and I continue to feel the change in appetite and the amount of food I eat in a day. Getting under 1,500 calories is not intentional but is easy to do with what I have been eating.

Otherwise, I have no plans after the ballgame is over. The book about Steve Jobs is a very slow read but at the same time it is very interesting. I bought the book when it first came out four or five years ago but never finished reading it. So that is the plan, read the book from start to finish.

I'll see what Heidi has planned for this afternoon but I can almost bet that it will not be much different from the pictures I posted last night about her afternoon. She might stretch her threshold down to 60° but until then don't expected a lot of active pictures of her outside.

Hard to believe we are 29(?) days from April.

All is good this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi's Afternoon

As promised, some photos of Heidi's typical afternoon since she has been hibernating in the mornings. Since the temps are not up to her threshold of 70° yet, that means she really doesn't do much as she waits for spring. Mid 40's is not going to keep her outside for too long as you can see from these "right after lunch" pictures.

She will rotate from the big leather chair with her blanket back to the couch to continue her afternoon siestas. She has figured out that at 6pm when I give Stella her dose of joint supplement that is time for her daily dog treat. She will wake up to let me know it's 6pm.

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

Amazing Keto Results

Yes it's only been 6 days since I decided to get 'serious' about cutting carbs. I pulled a Keto grocery list from my files last week and went shopping. There wasn't a lot of difference in what I bought except a few important things were not bought. Things like pasta, oatmeal, sugar, nothing in a package. For a while now I have been eating steak, chicken with the skin on it and salmon. That did not change this week.

Also these numbers are honest numbers. I never cheat when taking my weight or measurements, something I have been doing every month since I retired in April 2015 while escaping from all the soda machines, fast foods and Friday morning pastries.

I also followed Paleo's owner carb limit instead of the low 20g limit by Keto standards. He raised it to 50g per day. My spreadsheet shows me after six days of eating I am averaging 41g of carbs per day. That's good enough for me and a HUGE difference than just a few weeks ago.

Since first thing last Saturday morning to first thing this morning (after the hounds were fed), I've lost 5 pounds !!! I also lost 2" around my stomach. Yes, hard to believe but I'm only comparing what I wrote down last Saturday morning when I felt fat. I know this will not be the normal weekly loss. I know that a lot of it may be just water weight. Yet, the numbers don't lie.

Some slight differences that may have been a factor in this much change ... no sugar in my coffee until Wednesday morning but yesterday and this morning's coffee was back to black, no sugar. No plate full of pasta. No double portions of cooked oatmeal with sugar added for breakfast or a snack. No sugar added to my 1c of frozen berries. No David's organic bread with butter and jam. No bananas or apples. No almonds.

I did finish the book I was reading about a family of four taking a year off from any kind of sugar, with a few days scattered where they could cheat on that plan. Bottom line that after that year they returned to eating foods with sugar in it but at the same time they stayed away from a lot of the foods that contain sugar, especially fructose. Fresh fruit is almost all fructose but with the fiber and micronutrients the fruit has, she said that would balance out the fructose and it would be okay to eat fresh fruit. But they did not and no longer drink any kind of fruit juice.

She found that using dextrose was a great healthy substitute for sugar when she baked cookies, cakes or pies. She did have some good recipes at the end of her book. I will not be so strict but at the same time I will not be eating french fries with ketchup or even plain french fries. I have been craving burritos lately though.  :)

As you will see, Stella decided the longer she walked, climbing that 47' of elevation, the path was getting wetter and she didn't like getting her paws wet. She spent most of the walk next to the path but not on the path after this next photo.

After finishing that book about no sugar, I went back to reading the 600+ page book about Steve Jobs. It was past midnight but I was still wide awake and didn't want to watch tv. It's a long read basically with lots of information and a smaller font so I am only up to his senior year in high school. It was amazing what he was doing with electronics while growing up.

Stella had a little energy this morning. It was a very warm 31° this morning with no wind and a high of 43° by this afternoon. I hope to get some photos of Heidi this afternoon since she has been hibernating the past few days after the temperatures dropped into the 30's.

While she sits in the same spot every walk to scratch herself, I try to get as far in front of her as possible with hopes of getting some photos of her running. No running today though, just a little trot that turned into a walk.

Still maintaining her walk just to the side of the path.

At the bottom of the very gradual hill, the bath feels dryer, so she moved back on it to finish out the walk. As you can see she isn't in a hurry to get home. She is never in a hurry unless she is being fed breakfast, then she sprints around the Mini Cooper from the field, to come back inside.

When I told her "I have to go buy dog food", she stopped and looked at me. I had said that magic word that always gets a response from her ... "food".

I kept reminding her I had "to go" and that is one of two "go's" she will respond to ... when I tell her I have to go buy dog food or I have to buy groceries, lately when she hears that she will go straight to the bedroom and lies on the floor waiting for me to shut the door. I like that habit and I hope she keeps that one.

Today I only shut the door and did not use the cord to tie between door knobs to prevent her from breaking out of the bedroom and escaping. When I returned from the dog food purchase, the bedroom door was still shut and the door knob on the inside was dry ... so she had not tried to open the bedroom door while I was gone.

Looking at my blogs a year ago, we had about as much rain as we have had this year. A couple of inches over our average but the floods of a few weeks ago were taking place now in 2018. The field to the south of me was completely under water. So some things never change. I still think we have had a pretty mild winter here in 'the tropics' this year.

After updating all of my spreadsheets this morning because some of them are updated monthly on the 1st of every month, I see that I am going to have to do some driving this summer. Otherwise at my current pace I will drive less than 3,000 miles for the year.

I saw an interview last night on tv with a scientist that had studied windmills and solar panels for the main source of energy. He was involved with the $150 billion dollar investment that Obama passed out to study those two possible energy sources a few years ago. This scientist said the same thing an engineer at work told me 6 years ago when I asked him about all the windmills I had seen up by Lafayette IN near I-65 and Hwy 431.

Neither solar panels or windmills are efficient enough to supply the USA with full-time energy. He was the second scientist I have heard this month say, "even if the solar panels were efficient enough, there is not enough available land in the USA to build the solar panel farms needed to produce the electricity required by the country." On average the sun shines and the wind blows only 40% of the time across the USA. That percentage is an overall average.

I read something very interesting this morning and I will link that article here. It explained why all of a sudden Michael Cohen has turned against Donald Trump. The reason is something we have not heard on the news or in the online news but it is not surprising. Read through the whole article.

Along with my change in diet, weight and size of my stomach I have been completing a lot of my Mahjong games under 3 minutes. For those games that I don't, I am still completing them between 3:15 and 3:45.  There are a few games that I cannot get any lower than they are, in the three minute fifty seconds range. It just shows you how exciting some of my afternoons are. My goal is to get all 160 games finished under 3 minutes. When I started a few years ago I was trying to get them under 7 minutes.

I am proclaiming right now, my 2019 "to do" list will be the #2 priority this spring and summer, right behind the hounds at #1. So as a warning, my blog posts will most likely be posted around 8pm eastern time once the weather warms up for me to be outside working.

I see I am going to get my junk mail today in the mail from what I see on the USPS email they send. They scan what they are going to deliver. Most of the time I mark my name and address out with a black permanent marker and toss it in the recycling bin but one of them I will call about.

It's a new internet service being offered in my area. I'll find out if they service my location, many offers do not. This offer is unlimited data, faster download speeds and ~$60 cheaper per month. That sounds great to me. That would almost be good enough to pay the hefty fee to break my contract with HughesNet Gen 5 Satellite service.

Well that is it for this morning. I'll hopefully post some  photos of Heidi's day later tonight.

It's warming up and sunny this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.