The Hounds Enjoy Wednesday

While I pulled a few weeds from the mulch area in front of the house, Stella soaked up some sun while Heidi slept inside. She did not move while I worked and didn't know that I had checked my mailbox. In fact she had no idea I had left her ... until I walked back in the carport. She was really hot, hot enough to start panting. A sure sign she is not in shape yet for the warmer temps.

While I mowed the yard and washed the car, she slept inside with Heidi. Late afternoon it was a perfect time to take our afternoon walk, the same one I blogged about this morning with Heidi.

We didn't last long yesterday afternoon. The second time she sat down and stared at me, I told her "let's go home" and without hesitation she turned around we headed home. We took the same path that we take walking toward the back of the field.

This morning was different though. It was 20° colder, the skies looked like rain was on the way although a glance at the radar showed we were on the southern tip of the storm that covered over 200 miles north of us. While Stella walked at her own pace I thought about my plans for today. Those will not be much more than just enjoying being outside.

All that rain is north of us.

I can't remember the last time it rained but this part of the path all the way to the back is still muddy, too soft to walk on, so Stella and I walk just to the left of it. There was still some standing water as we got closer to the back of the field, which is a few feet higher in elevation.

I am not sure what she wants. I had not said anything to her, nor was any kind of food mentioned. Maybe she was wondering if I was going to keep up with her today or lag behind?

Almost home and a quick check on the neighbors. She didn't stop today, just looked in their direction as she continued her pace.

Evidently there hasn't been a lot of nighttime animal traffic around these trees. The past few days she has not stopped to smell anything ... just a straight walk to the door to get back inside.

It was an afternoon of perfect weather again. Our activities ranges from soaking up some sun to start my tan while Stella slept and Heidi roamed. I thought we were finished until Heidi came to be about an hour later to go outside. She found a spot in the backyard and spent over an hour by herself just enjoying the warm day.

While Heidi was outside, we had our excitement for the day and possibly the wee. Two trucks showed up and at first I thought it was another load of egg shells but it turned out to be two loads of fertilizer. I'll be sure to take some photos when they start to apply it to the field. The ground is still too soft to plow.

The red truck was stuck for a short time have emptying his truck. He kept spinning the tires through the mud and finally gain enough traction to escape.

Not much happened today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana but it was still a nice one.

Heidi Loves 73°

Tuesday's weather was fantastic and one that Heidi did not miss. It was getting pretty hot by lunch so neither her or Stella stayed outside too long. They are not in shape for 'summer heat' I guess. While she slept inside with all the widows open I was able to mow the yard for the first time this year and found enough energy afterward to wash my car. Stella spent the time outside sleeping under the sunshine.

I didn't know what she would do Tuesday afternoon. The day prior, without the camera, she stopped before she got to the first corner and turned around to head home. So it was going to be interesting to see what she would do.

She likes to investigate scent probably more than Stella does. She is slower in her process and reminds me a lot of Winston as he would take all day to finished the walk. So it's normal that she gets left behind to do her own thing. Other times she will do all she can to lead Stella and I through the field while staying in front.

Not on Tuesday.

By this time she has had to stop twice to really get the data left by the scent. In fact she never raised her head when I called her. She also didn't show any signs of wanting to continue with Stella and I.

Did she stop and turn around because I had left her behind?

By this next photo, Stella and I was on the return home. We had cut our walk short because Stella wasn't in the mood to walk either. She sat down a few times, did nothing ... so we turned around and followed the path home. There was Heidi up ahead not 10' away from the area we had left her.

She was happy to see us, turned immediately and started trotting away from me. She was heading home and most likely back inside to sleep on the couch while I read the book Top Gun.

The way she acts and reacts sometimes I get the feeling that she has lost some of her eyesight. There is also something going on with her hearing as she is startled sometimes with the smallest of noises, jumps off the couch and sprints away.

It was a book I couldn't put down, it was that good. I had planned to add a second post of these afternoon photos plus ones with Stella but I couldn't stop reading Top Gun. By 6:30pm I had moved from my chair outside to the couch inside and continued reading until I finished it, three hours later.

I don't think Heidi moved an inch while I read those last three hours. She had squeezed into a spot between Stella and I and slept the night away.

It was beautiful weather Tuesday in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Anything Political Deleted

Some of you may be wondering where Heidi has been. She has been doing a lot of this along with her daily movement from one sleeping spot to another throughout the day. She will have sudden bursts of energy, running a few laps around the house inside. Of course she took a walk yesterday afternoon only because I didn't have my camera with me. She's good.

Monday morning Stella had other ideas on how we should start our week. I admit, I did see some very tiny rain drops hitting the back of my camera and it had rained most of the morning before we attempted to walk. She wasn't going anywhere yesterday. She turned and went back to the door as I followed her back inside without any morning walk.

Today was different. I'm sitting here mid-morning with all the windows open with a slight breeze and a lot of bird activity. I think I saw them building a nest in my front gutter yesterday afternoon. They are going to have to find a different spot because anything like a nest in my gutter will be removed this afternoon as I pull out my ladder to do some checking.

I'll wait for the sun and wind to dry out the front yard, so my plans to mow just the front will not take place until late afternoon. I'll start by cutting it a little high this spring so it will build a nice root system.

I've got some other yard maintenance plans today. I'll pull any weeds out of the mulched areas, pick up all the small sapling limbs I cut along the driveway bank a few weeks ago. I need to add a bag or two of rock down by the mailbox and I might even find enough time or energy to wash the car today. The weather is just that nice to get a lot done outside today.

I must say the NCAA Basketball Tournament was very enjoyable this year. Too much replay reviews for me, just like it has become in all the other sports, college or pro levels. After that last reversal with a little more than a minute to go in the game last night I was fed up with replay. If you have to take 5 minutes to decide if that pinky finger just barely touched the basketball as it was batted away by the opponent BUT DON'T call the foul right before .. then something is drastically wrong.

Just like calling balls and strikes in baseball. Sure the ball is coming across the plate above 90mph most of the time but that is why they are a professionals. They are able, supposedly, to call balls and strikes for high speed baseballs. Studies over the last 11 years of baseball has proven that basically umpires behind the plate simply suck at their jobs.

Oh ... the blog post title today.

I mentioned the other day I was thinking of getting rid of any blogs, or websites, even twitter accounts, that dealt with politics, immigration, Washington D.C, refugees in the USA and Sharia Law in the USA ... well I did.

I didn't have many that I followed on Twitter since I use that mostly for sports news. I didn't follow politicians but a few people I did follow did, so political crap would show up if the person either retweeted something political or was in a Twitter argument.

On my Blogger blog's sidebar I had the four links I mentioned in my last post here and deleted all of them. I had a couple of the same links tucked away in my Feedly Reader account and deleted them there also.

It was a GREAT decision to get rid of all that crap. And that is what it is ... crap.


So without those links anywhere in my online world and still not tuning into tv news ... I feel much better. I wasn't stressed out by the news but I thought way too much about what I was hearing or reading ... now I can think about the hounds, summer, the to do list, etc without all the noise from D.C. I do glance at the headlines online but that is as far as I go. It  shows me I am not missing anything.

I filled up a couple of hounds mitts worth of hound hair out of Stella again on Monday. I follow that up with the small rake with the metal tongues to pull out more of that undercoat that wants to get out. Stella loves being brushed.

The book I am reading about the start of Top Gun is a really interesting book. My first four years in the Navy were at NAS Miramar where Top Gun originated. I worked in a squadron of F-14's at the time. Great location, a LOT of traveling and every day seemed busier than busy. If you are interested in the history of Naval Aviation, it's a good book to pick up at the library or off of a bookstore shelf.

I'll leave you with the rest of the photos I took on this morning's walk. I've run out of things to say. Plus I find it hard to sit in front of this computer with such great weather outside. All of these photos were taken straight from the Canon G9 X, without any editing. I am slightly surprised that I like that camera more than my Nikon D3200.

Really nice weather so far this month in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.