Sadie's HUGE Mistake Today

Monday started off beautiful, great weather and the next 7 days looks good in that regard. I had plans for a couple of tasks today. Getting up early, I felt recouped from my lack of sleep over the weekend.

Until I walked my face into that invisible spider web this morning as I went to take the daily photo from the rear corner of the house, facing the backyard. I don't know if this was the spider that built the web but when I glanced up at him, he was moving. By the time I took the photo and headed back to the house, he was in this position.

With that happening I realized today might be one of those 'critical days'. Remember 30-40 years ago when we were all into Biorhythms? For some reason I just remember the 'critical days' warnings.

Stella decided after walking to just the edge of the yard, it was too wet to go anywhere in the field, to do anything ... she headed back to the door and went back to sleep until lunch.

By leaving the car cover off the Z4 the past few weeks, I had some heavy blowing rain storms leave rain drop marks and some dust from the highway on the Z4 ... so it was going to get my first hand wash job. It was great weather to wash the car.

To keep Stella from wandering off while I washed the car, I pulled out the old 80ft tether and connected it out in the field so she would have some room to roam and hopefully cut down some of the giant ragweed in the field. All she did was protest by laying down in the field right by the yard ... and howled like she had lost her last friend. I guess she doesn't like that tether anymore like she use to.

I knew Sadie would go out to her favorite spot in the field and she had not been going outside the 'boundary' so I didn't worry about her. Maybe an hour later, or when I finished drying off the car, putting the water hose away and setting my bucket, and wash mitt in the sun ... I started to look for Sadie because she had not returned to the house, like she normally does. That was odd.

Stella and I took off north into the field heading to Sadie's favorite spot ... she wasn't there. Yelling her name as I walked out into the field ... I didn't see her and that was quite odd with her. She never does that. I heard a lawn mower but she never stays around the house when I mow the yard like Stella does ... still, that meant the neighbor or neighbors were outside.

Could it be? I really hope not. If they go to the neighbors then they can also head out into the highway following their nose and ignoring their brain. I glance over at the neighbors house and he is on his riding mower, his wife is outside in the yard ... but no Sadie. Now I am getting more than a little concerned.

Just as I start to turn to go back to the house to get the FJ and start the dreaded drive to find her ... I see Sadie running in their front yard. They also live on a hill above the highway but it seems closer to the road than my house but isn't.

When she hears me yelling her name, she sprints into the field not toward me but the house. She knows she is in trouble. The neighbor was trying to talk over the sound of the mower, but she said that Sadie had been following her around the yard and garden. She knew it was my dog and it was okay with her that Sadie came over to visit.

So within the last month both bloodhounds have gone way outside of their boundary when I left them alone to wander the field like they had for almost a year. I am debating whether to declare 'Marshall Law" but troops are stretched too thin to come to help me here in 'the tropics' ... so I will have to start some 'adult supervision' and only let them roam the field while I stand watching them while taking photos or am sitting in the backyard where I can stand and check on them ... at least until they cut the hay. Then I won't have to stand ... LOL. From now on, neither of them will be left outside to roam on their own anymore.

I just can't afford to make a mistake of giving them a chance to run into the highway, while they innocently follow their nose.

Other than that, it was a very productive day. After my two cups of coffee and some organic coconut sugar replacing the old granulated sugar ... normal morning reading of blogs, news, sports and emails ... I gave Heidi her 20 minute Epsom Salt soak. During that soak I will also take a wash rag and clean her stomach, armpits, legs and paws of any dead skin and/or dirt. The salts must have worked ... she eventually sat down in the deep bath water, laid her chin on the edge of the tub and fell asleep!!!

So besides the Sadie escapade, I had already given Heidi a soak, washed the Z4 all before 1pm ... a trip to buy groceries was next on the list. The daily hound walk would take place today back at the normal time of late afternoon. The photos of the walk have been the ones you have seen posted between my rambling paragraphs.

In May 2015 I started the Paleo Diet. I had good results, losing 15 pounds, a couple of inches around my gut, two inches on my waist and body fat was reduced 9mm. I loved it at times. At other times I 'wondered' if I was making the right decision ingesting that much fat with a family of heart problems on my dad's side of the family. I admit bacon tastes fantastic but all of that fat ......

Way back in history, in the 70's I was a strict vegetarian. I knew what it was like to eat that type of diet. I was also younger, weighed only a 160 and rode my bicycle training for racing roughly 400-450 miles per week. It's too long of a story to tell why I came back to what many consider a 'normal' american diet. I will say laziness was a big reason.

Over the past couple of months I had decreased the amount of red meat I was eating, decreased those trips to DQ and other fast food joints, less to no candy but I could feel myself falling off that wagon again. So about a month ago I started researching again about different diets. Not really diets but different ways of eating.

I had been leaning toward a lacto-vegetarian like before ... eating dairy, poultry and fish. Yet my digestive system hasn't liked dairy products like my brain does in recent years. I consider chickens as some of the filthiest animals in the world and those huge pens of cattle in Kanas out in the middle of nowhere always flashed into my mind after seeing them many years ago.

I could feel myself leaning "veggie" again. So with the decrease in eating meat, fish and chicken the past couple of months I was almost there anyway. It was that dairy getting in the way ... the ice cream, the yogurt with me needing TUMS later on in the middle of the night to survive. Could I really go to Nick's and not order my favorite strom or never head to 5Guy's again for their great burgers????

So last week I decided to go vegan. I started with a 3 day water fast and could have gone longer but started fresh vegetable juice on the 4th day. It will be a week tomorrow since I started this radial change in my eating habits. Hard as hell to get through 14 hours of college football on Saturday and 12 hours of NFL football on Sunday ... it wasn't the games ... it's those damn commercials with all the food you love to eat that made it hard. I survived.

Yet, 3 weeks into the football season I have been able to survive the urge to buy junk food, all the stuff I use to eat non stop while watching football games in the fall. I know there will always be strong urges waiting around every corner for me.

Otherwise there are just really a few changes I made ... I went back grains, beans and legumes instead of fish, chicken and red meat. I've always been big on vegetables and fruits ... that is if I can keep Stella out of my fruit bowls sitting around the kitchen.

Losing weight is not the main objective ... it's the cholesterol, the triglycerides, feeling lighter, eat less foods that cause mucus build up and general inflammation throughout the body. I've always have had low blood pressure, low resting heart rate. I've passed the two stress tests with flying colors and I've made it to my mid 60's without a heart attack or by-pass surgery ... my dad and uncles did not. I just felt better getting back to fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts.

I will admit though it's really hard at times to get through those periods of around 20 minutes to go out and make a fast food run, order a pizza, or just run out for a tub of Ben&Jerry's Ice Cream ... I have found that drinking ice cold water during those urges kills the pain and it goes away.

I think the last picture of Sadie and Stella show once again they are pretty close friends and Stella has been great for not only me but also Sadie ... having another hound her size.

They will be on a 'short imaginary leash' though ... no more leaving them out of sight knowing they will come back. I gave them an inch and both of them ended up taking a mile.

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

A Football Sunday

We woke up Sunday morning to some heavy fog and allergies that have been out of control the past few days.

It only took a few hours before the sunshine started to break it's way though the fog and clouds. We are headed back to the mid to high 80's this week in 'the tropics'.

I'm not sure if it was the fog, but Stella didn't get off the carport floor and Sadie never moved from "Winston's Patio" ... stared out into space, glanced and at me ... then headed back to the door to be let in, without me saying a word. After all I've been the full-time doorman since April 2014, they decide the plans for the day.

I can only assume this change in seasons this past week is the cause for me going crazy with my nose being plugged, itching and setting all-time sneezing records ... it might be the reason that Heidi and Stella have been scratching more.

A little later we went back outside to sit and enjoy the morning. As a test I mounted the Nikon 55-200mm lens to check something out that I was curious about. Interesting that any distance past 135mm would not auto focus, as before.

Sadie was sure someone had been in our 'burn pile' last night. I didn't have an answer for her when she looked back over to me.

Then they did what they do best. Put their noses to the ground, explore the yard for any new traffic but only after they made a trip to the field to dump their tanks. I wonder why Heidi can't use the field like the bloodhounds do?

I was pretty sure that I was going to have to go get Stella. She likes to head north outside of her boundary. With that ditch running along the field and my neighbor's yard, leading to the highway, I cannot afford for her to find a scent she likes well enough to lead her in that direction.

Here is is coming back after I called her. She wasn't thrilled about having their excursion cut short.

She continued along the line of the yard, up in the area that I cleared in April 2015 and planted grass. That has been one of the best things I've done since living here.

This fence is on the north side of the yard, with the old wire fence running north and south. Every year I burn that area so there is fresh growth for the spring and summer. These are taken a few days after I cleared out that overbearing, wild Giant Ragweed.

We might have just enough time to take a hound walk before the first NFL game at 1pm. After that it's weekend football routine, just like Saturday.

I did take the Z4 out for a nice 42 mile loop. I start driving up and down hills surrounded by trees before I turn west where it's flat and nothing but fields of corn and soy beans for as far as you can see. It was beautiful this morning with no humidity, cool air and the engine purring like a kitten ... nice and quiet.

I returned to find that Stella stayed with Sadie and Heidi like always, shut off in the bedroom. NO DAMAGE by her. She is on a streak of almost 3 straight months of letting me leave the house from 1 - 5 hours, without tearing up the house trying to get out. She is getting better.

We had time to do our daily walk before the first NFL game. The hounds were sound asleep by kickoff.

A lot of new scents after a rain.

I'm not sure what Sadie had found and didn't see this look until after I downloaded the photo. Nothing jumped out, fly away or snap at her.

All of those purple colors from last week are disappearing fast as the purple mist dies out.

The hounds don't realized that we are on a "pre-game" walk, which means their pace needs to be a little faster than normal.

Stella of coarse has her own speed, especially where the deer sleep.

At least they came my direction when I said "come on".

Stella tried to sneak away to the 'no fly zone' but was caught once again.

The colors of purple are turning brown.

Another reminder to them that it's football Sunday.

Stella wanting me to know ... she doesn't want to go in the house but wants to stay outside to roam the field.

All is well though ... they were fed, walked, given fresh water and they slept ... another routine day for them.

Hot weather is coming back here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I Forgot Friday Afternoon's Photos !!

Sometime Friday night I realized I had not downloaded the photos I took to include on Friday's blog. Hard to believe. All of the house cleaning must have scrambled my brain cells to have forgotten the photos of our mid-day walk on Friday.

Heidi made her after lunch appearance. That pose is so strange because her back is actually straight and level when standing. Her nails were cut later in the day. After a week of Taste of the Wild Grain Free food with venison and lamb meal at the top two ingredients her skin has really improved this week.

With the gray clouds off in the distance it was a good time to get at least one walk in. Even Sadie was off on her own and seemed pretty excited on a couple of things she had tracked.

From the start Stella was on her own schedule and was rarely in view. By the end of the walk she was nowhere around, nor could I see her. Sadie and I drank some water in the house and then took off to find Stella since she had not shown up at the house.

They have just turned the corner and are heading for their favorite part of the field.

Sadie had found something where she had headed into the wooded area by the very back of the field but she came sprinting toward me when I called her name.

Of coarse before she got to me there was something else that caught her attention.

By the time the house was cleaned, my haircut and the hounds getting their nails cut, the sun was back but here were signs of the heavy rains 2-3 hours earlier.

For some reason after every rain Stella likes to chew the tall grass ... she will not eat the weeds or flowers but the grass.

Sadie was positive it was dry enough for a walk this afternoon but the field was saturated with the amount of rain earlier.

It's Saturday and that means a lot of college football today. Problem is, most of the good games are on later in the day and at the same time. The hounds will get their walk in as long as there is not more rain. We normally go outside at halftimes of ball games.

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

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.