Scanning Old Photos

We were up early today and it looked like rain was just miles away. Only Intellicast Radar showed nothing within 250 miles.

It looked like we would get at least one walk in today, maybe two if the rain showers didn't show up this afternoon.

As usual all the hounds were excited about Friday and starting their weekend. Heidi was asleep as usual, right after breakfast ... while Stella and Sadie were outside but not really excited about too much. Stella wants to go back to sleep ... Sadie looking to explore.

Sadie hits the floor running every morning. She is pretty active throughout the day, with short naps. Stella on the other hand would sleep all day if there wasn't the smell of kibble in the air around lunch time.

It might just be me but I think I am seeing more gray around Sadie's nose than last winter. She does have a little waistline showing so that's a good sign that she has lost some weight this summer.

They slowly migrate back to the house, as normal routine in the morning.

It wasn't real confusing but I did have to google the process of scanning photos on my iMac. It was something I've been wanting to do for years but never took the time to start. Now that I have the process down, you will be seeing the bassets and bloodhounds I've had in the past. You have seen a couple when I mentioned them ... but while I looked for my old photo albums, I found a vault of hound photos I had forgot about.

It will be a slow process as all of you know that have converted printed photos to digital photos but I am going to scan every one of them. The frustrating thing is I am 1" too short on my scanner screen to fit 3 photos at a time.

For those that have Apple computers and have questions about how to scan your photos, plus where do they end up in your computer, leave a comment below or email me for the process.

Here is my first basset hound, Harry. I bought him as a puppy in 1987 from a "backyard breeder", a friend at work, while living in Oak Harbor, Wa.

He was a great basset hound but didn't have really good features for an AKC Basset Hound. I'll write more about him later but he lived to be 13 years old ... he was a lot like Winston in personality but loved to wander off anytime day or night. He lived on Whidbey Island, Wa ... in Breckenridge, Co ... and Bloomington, IN. He was 8 years old in this photo.

Most of the day was doing all the domestic stuff that needs to get done. That rain did show up sometime around 2pm while I was vacuuming the house and oblivious to the world outside. I ended the day by giving myself a haircut, got all the hounds together for some fun toenail cutting. I had to try get Sadie to understand it's too wet to walk with rain hanging from the weeds in the field. She is still not positive that is the correct answer or excuse.

It rained hard here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Overpriced Echo SRM - 225U Weed Trimmer

** I added more photos after the original post **

Most of our days here are "spur of the moment" plans. Without a list of things to do to the house or outside this summer, it became a very very lazy summer.

This morning I decided to implement a new 2016 Plan of Attack against the falling leaves. I know it's not even close to October, where the 4 hound crew last year supervised in getting rid of the leaves. This year I am going to get rid of them a little at a time, maybe when I feel like working with them and today was the 'test run' for that new plan.

I also wanted to start my overpriced Echo SRM-225U weed eater with the steel blade and knock down some giant ragweed today. I bought it a couple of years ago when I needed something that could cut through brush and 1"-2" diameter trees, in the area that I cleared last April 2015 and then planted grass seed.

It did well that first year and I had all of that brush cut down not only there but along the bank that runs beside my driveway. It also cut through the small saplings with no problems. It sat a full year, I didn't try to use it last summer. Before this winter I emptied it's gas tank and stored it for the winter. Earlier in the spring of this year ... it wouldn't start. So it went back in the shed for the summer.

Today I brought it back out and followed all the steps of troubleshooting the problem of not starting, along with a brand new mixture of gas/oil and a clean air filter that is dry after being saturated with fuel at some time ... it wouldn't start. I finally got it started. It coughed and sputtered but would not idle. Once it was going strong enough that I thought it was running but when I pressed the throttle, it died.

 So it sat there long enough for the photo and it went back in the shed. I paid a lot of money for that piece of crap and many other's have the same complaint as I do on the internet. I have a feeling it's a fuel filter problem. I bought it at the local hardware store, they carry all the Echo equipment. They will fix it at little to no cost if I decide I don't want to try fixing it.

But I didn't need it to blow leaves. I knew I had a small leaf blower somewhere. I hadn't seen it for years, in fact it was so long ago I couldn't remember if I still had it. In one of my high energy cleaning the shed days, I put this old dirty leaf blower on one of the racks near the top of the shed out of the way ... and out of sight.

I poured in some new fuel, and it started by the 4th pull of the rope. After all of these years of not being used, it coughed, sputtered, blew blue smoke out the exhaust but it kept on running ... then finally hit it's prime and we were blowing leaves off the driveway and off of the bank ... in the direction of my area to burn. It's wasn't overpriced like the Echo SRM-225U.

The driveway was pretty well covered with leaves to start the fall season and in less than 15 minutes that little old leaf blower had moved all of the leaves right next to the area I am going to burn them. After some testing in the yard, I think it's going to be a major new tool this year instead of raking leaves. It will also eliminate me working with my larger leaf blower/vacuum that needs electricity to run and working around a 100' electrical cord.

For some reason, not until this morning, did I realize the corn field across the highway has almost finished it's process and will be picked fairly soon. I remember that field being planted earlier than most others around here, right before 3 straight days of rain, so only logical it has died out first.

Not sure if you can tell but if you look closely there are a few red leaves inside, showing signs of leaves starting to change their color.

While I was trying to get the Echo weed eater started and then blowing leaves off the driveway ... Sadie and Stella spent time roaming the field in back. I was happy to see they were within their boundary out there while I was busy doing something else.

Sadie was the one that got her running in today. Stella on the other hand thought it was a little too warm to exert much energy. She moved slow today and it didn't matter where she was ... she was in slow motion mode.

Sometime around noon we headed out for our walk. It was getting warmer today, mid 80's, and I knew later this afternoon was going to be too hot to do much walking. Summer isn't over yet I guess.

The hounds took off and once again they trotted way ahead of me. I guess they had places to go while I tried to focus in on some of the many butterflies.

By the time I was in range to zoom in on them, they were in the far right hand corner. They didn't have any problem leaving and following me as I walked by them. They had a lot of places they wanted to check out today.

This was a fairly small butterfly but I was able to photograph it. They move fast and I really think the sound of a beep when my camera is in focus scares them off ... today I turned that sound off.

Not sure what it was but I really liked the design and color of this butterfly.

By the time we were 3/4 of the way done with the walk I could tell that Stella had had all the fun she needed for today. I think she prefers the hay to be cut lower so its easier to gain speed when running.

I wanted to see if I could photograph one of the younger butterflies. They are really small, may be hard to see ... but it's dead center in this picture.

The hounds cruised back home at pretty slow speed ... they were both asleep soon after getting back inside. The house inside had increased to 80°, so I shut the blinds on the west side for the afternoon and turn the ACs back on. Heidi approved and rolled on her back to sleep on the couch.

Later in the afternoon we sat outside enjoying the weather. I took some hand trimmers and cut down a lot of the giant ragweed in the field and near my burn pile. Those hand trimmers may be a better option than that overpriced Echo SRM-225U weed eater ... that won't start.

I had thought about a 2nd walk for the hounds but it felt hot, the iPhone weather app was telling me it 'felt like' 90° and with Stella's tongue falling out of her mouth, that was a sure sign a 2nd walk would not be attempted today. We decided we had to take a walk after I posted this, so I have added some new photos below.

Here is the link to the pictures of butterflies I took on the walk today.

My new iPad Mini2 arrived today. Free shipping and day delivery. I had forgotten how small it was but did remember it fit in my hand perfect to read an ebook, a pdf file or a website. It didn't take long for me to download the few apps I use, and change some settings.

Just like the iPhone with the retina display, all the photos on this blog looked really sharp, and clear. I can't believe the difference compared to the older Apple 27" LED Cinema model monitor.

I thought about restoring my backup from November 2015 from my last iPad Mini but instead set this one up as a new account. Google Photos worked just like advertised. I had all my photos on the iPad Mini by using Google Photos, online. So it will take no memory on my hard drive.

Speaking of photos ... last night while I was in Apple's Finder (like Windows My Computer) I was changing some file names when I saw I wrote something wrong here last week when discussing the size of my photo library.

I said it was 22.4Gb but last night I see that was just my old iPhone library. The newer Photo Library that Apple used to replace iPhone is 167Gb of photos. There are a lot of duplicates though .. maybe not a lot ... but more then I want to go through and delete. It's the way the program Photos handles different devices.

So I am pretty well set. Some diet changes, football season is here, my old leaf blower works, the weather is great, Heidi likes the venison and lamb blend of dog food (her skin looks better), I'm back in the world of electronics with a new iPhone and iPad Mini ... all are used daily.

Now, if I had someway to have groceries delivered so I wouldn't have to shop ... I'd have it made.

Life is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Some Mid-Week Rambling

We were all up early but the day really didn't start until after lunch. It was one of those days where you weren't sure what you wanted to do. The hounds were no help in me making a decision.

So, we kicked back most of the day ... isn't that the norm around here?

Heidi decided to surprise me by going an entirely different direction and was only in that area long enough to dump her tanks and then head back to the door to be let in? Why on such a beautiful day? Winston would have taken off to explore every inch of the yard, maybe lay in the sun but Heidi has a much different personality than he did.

This morning Stella didn't have much interest other than eating that soft dirt pushed up by my yard moles. Over the years I've tried everything suggested to kill the grub worms and prevent yard moles ... all with no success. Anyone have some ideas on what to use?

By the time I read all the internet news on sports, answered emails, read Facebook and Twitter a couple of hours had already passed. I was still curious about my password manager that I use called LastPass so I started more Google searches to find out if any recent news had been released ... maybe some alternatives. I like LastPass and have it on my desktop and laptop for free ... I am too cheap to pay the $12 per year just so I can use it on my iPhone.

It might not just be my way of thinking but I rarely if ever use a site, banking (never), Apple Pay (no yet) on my iPhone where I need a user id and password. I am still not convinced that is secure like a laptop or desktop is. So I continue to use the free version of LastPass.

Plus I aways enjoy doing a Google search on ".... vs ... " when I have something on my mind.

By 4:30pm, Sadie was giving me the 'stare down' to get my butt out of my chair, back away from the computer and get an afternoon walk in ... sounded like a good idea to me. It also felt like rain as soon as we stepped outside.

It was all clear to the north but looking south it was storms showing up on the WeatherBug radar.

It was a day for butterflies and I was able to catch a couple while on the walk.

Sadie and Stella both went their separate ways, finding all these nice spots to bury their noses in the thick grass. During the whole walk, they both spent a lot of time stationary, in different spots, doing what they do.

You can tell how fast the Mist Flower is dying out, more and more by the day. They will return to those ugly dead stems scattered all over the field until they cut the field again, which may not be until next summer.

Ten minutes into the walk it felt like those rain clouds were right over the top of us ... luckily it was only gray clouds and no raindrops. I didn't realized rain was a possibility today.

While I was spending time taking photos of butterflies, adjusting my camera setting to 'no beeps' when in focus, Sadie and Stella had already moved to the very back of the field ... a long way away from me.

I am loving the new Tamron lens I bought a few weeks ago ... it has all the ranges I use on one lens and more important to me .. it focusses first time every time without errors.

By the time I caught up with them, they were back to their own individual tasks of identifying different areas of the field.

I continued my walk and letting them stay on their own schedule. When I was a at a point of the walk where they would be out of sight, I called each of their names one time and they both came running. That is pretty good for hounds, noted for being a stubborn breed and not recommended to be off leash.

Sadie trotted right past me and headed home ... with only a couple of stops along the way.

I didn't want to wait to describe today's walk after my rambling. I like to kind of match the walking details with the photos. During the walk I thought that I had a lot of 'other stuff' on my mind to write about. Nothing important and maybe not even interesting topics to blog about ... but as I mentioned yesterday, it's been hard to write lately so maybe a little rambling was due.

I admit and have many times before, at times I feel this blog is pretty boring and if it feels that way to me, it has to feel that way to some of you. Yet, I like to write and I like taking photos of the hounds even if the path never changes and their routines are consistently the same.

Let me know via email or by commenting here ... any suggestions for what you would like to see on this blog.

I know it's my blog and I can do or write about what I want .... some say "it's your journal and write about whatever you want, readers can choose if they want to read or not". I agree with some of that but not all ... I feel that if you take the time to visit my blog then I have some responsibility to cover information or photograph things that you are interested in  when it comes to "Hounds and Other Stuff".

So I am open to suggestions.

I have a couple of other private blogs on Blogger where I write. It's been less frequently lately but one is a private journal of personal thoughts. Then I kept a private blog with the same colors and template that this blog was back in December 2015. I was using that as my main blog for the hounds and my life here in the tropics when I wasn't posting on the public blog ... mostly as my reference for future use. I have photos of house maintenance, issues, repairs, more photos of Heidi as documentation ... supplementing my memory. It has been quite useful.

I can also import all the new blog posts from this blog to that blog when I feel I want to update it with all my blog pots.

Yesterday I ran onto something that may be hard to imagine but in a way it IS POSSIBLE ... more government control of bloggers. It's toward the bottom of this blog post ... but it made me wonder, what would happen to all our blogs if this were to happen in the future. With all of the current mainstream media censorship plus Facebook and Twitter controlling what content is seen by the public ... that blog post could be fairly accurate.

It would make me want to move my 'personal blog' back to a Word Document on my hard drive ... suggested by one friend of mine years ago when I told her about my new blog. There are a lot of things I like about Blogger over a Microsoft Word document but at the same time ... having those deep thoughts only on my computer sounds like it might be right and time for a change.

As you know last week I spent a large amount of time after midnight so I could use the free data period offered by my internet provider to upload close to 30,000 photos to Google Photos as a backup ... an online backup. Yet the picture quality on Flickr is much better because it will upload all of your photos AFTER you have made any edits on the original photo and they are not compressed into a smaller file size. Google Photos does not and would prefer you do your edits on their program.

A lot of work was put into Google Photos, so I hate to stop using it. It's nice that any photos I take of the hounds with my iPhone (which I keep forgetting to add to the blog) is automatically updated in Google Photos and vice versa. With the automatic setting it's fast for me to upload every photo taken that day (25-100 per day), just by doing a "select all" and then exporting them to a folder on my desk top. Google Photos will upload those automatically as soon as those photos touch that folder.

I've started loading those same daily photos to my Flickr account which I have linked on the left sidebar of this blog in the upper left corner. You can see the sharp quality in the photos. In that case I do the upload manually after midnight to save my data. Since those photos are in the edited original setting and are NOT compressed ... it takes more data to upload but is just as fast.

So I am using both and it really doesn't take that much time. I also don't have to do it every day even if I take photos every day.

I usually post 1-4 photos on Facebook but not all the time. It's for those that do Facebook but never read my blog. I have had very few friends that are local, read my blog but they are addicts of Facebook.

I still like my Wordpress blog a lot. Although it updates on my left sidebar I rarely get a visit to that blog so I guess I'll keep it just for me. It has only a couple of sentences of verbiage and mostly photos. Yes, they are the same as you see on this blog.

As far as blogging ... is it dying out slowly? Are bloggers quitting, moving to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter? I see less updated posts on the blogs I follow here. No big deal but I am just mentioning it because of the trend ... less blogging frequency.

Traveling ??? The urge has slowly disappeared as I feel more and more content where I am. I've done enough analyzing on all the pros and cons of traveling with the hounds, sell or not to sell the house and change my base camp location, and what vehicle to travel in when I do end up traveling. I will, it's just not going to happen with two bloodhounds.

I've tested them here locally. They go on all the short trips with me except the grocery shopping trip. They ride well ... except there was the time a month ago where we were driving the short 3 mile drive home after buying dog food ... I did not realize until I got home, that Stella had tore the bag of dog food open and was eating kibble as fast as she could before we got home. LOL

They ride very well as does Heidi. Yet controlling them with two 6' leashes or two leashes on one splitter doesn't work well with them when tested here in the field. They are both very strong and they like to go different directions, one splitter and two leashes presented a control problem.

I analyzed and decided that before I decided to go get Stella (Dipstick) last August. I was fine with that decision now as I was then.

Should you force yourself to eat when you never feel hungry through out the day? I've been having more days like that.

For some reason I have not been taking my Z4 drives. It is being driven a lot less than the Mini Cooper I had. When I take off in that car I know I like it better than the Mini Cooper and even if it's not driven much, it's a keeper. One of the Z4 forums did a poll to check ages of Z4 owners. Very very surprising that the majority were 65 or older and many over 70 years old.

Oh I almost forgot. In 10 months I have gone full circle after selling my iPhone 5S and my iPad Mini2 last November ... A few weeks ago I went back to an iPhone 6S, a little bigger screen than the 5S, better camera and the updated guts to run it. Great decision in getting back to a smart phone.

A few weeks ago while sitting on the couch with a laptop while watching football ... it's a great way to watch the stats of games you are watching ... I realized I missed the size of the iPad Mini, doing the same thing I was doing with a laptop. Then when I downloaded a few free books to Kindle I once again missed the size and convenience for reading books on the iPad Mini.

So, last night I bought a new one. It was on sale, it's the 2 not the 4 like I had before and only a few dollars more than I sold my old one for last November. I never used it to take photos with, the iPhone is doing that. I didn't buy the one where I can add cellular data because I would rarely use that. I read about the difference in the 2 and the 4's ... not enough for my use of it to pay a little more. It's fast, great for reading e-books ... although I go back and forth between them and books.

Options are always good and I don't see myself ever being a bare bones minimalist. It is good to know though my urges to trade cars, where that at times were obsessive, are gone with the two vehicles I now have.

I'll remember all the stuff I was going to ramble about as soon as I post this ... but this is way too long as it is and it's already past 6pm.

It's been a good summer here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... so good, that it's already over.