A Busy Day For The Hounds

I knew last night that if I did nothing else today, it would be mowing the yard. That would most likely take place in the afternoon because the grass is still wet up until 1pm.

Last week when I was cutting back some of the giant ragweed in the field, the old fashion way, with hand trimmers I had a couple of places I wanted to clear out.

These areas always grow back and I keep cutting them back. Through all of this yard work I was going to let the hounds spend the day outside. I figured with all of that open field they would have plenty of room to occupy their noses. I was wrong.

I ended up using the long handle trimmers the most. I didn't need the garbage can to carry weeds that were cut down to my burn pile in back. Those cheap gloves are still around and still usable after 3 years.

It is kind of an optical illusion but those small saplings, some weeds are growing up through my rock that is on a small bank between the trees. Behind them off the side of the yard is the overgrowth that borders the field next to my property.

It did not take long for me to cut all of that back. I took the first barrel of limbs up to the burn pile on the backside of the yard. I glanced in the 7 acre field and there wasn't a bloodhound anywhere. They were not in the yard, not in the field ... I KNEW EXACTLY where they were ... the neighbors. Sure enough both of them were right next to the lady wagging their tails, while she was hanging her laundry out to dry in the sun.

It might sound strange but it seems to be the norm around around ... even though we had never met, I knew their names and they knew mine. I can't remember when they moved in but his father had lived there before them. We always wave if we see each other in the driveway, or in the yards but had never introduced ourselves. Evidently Sadie decided it was about time we did that ...

After a nice short discussion, they asked if I would be interested in the last of their peppers they had grown in their garden. They confirmed it's hard to have a garden here due to the deer and rabbits, which can eat it faster than you can pick it. I also found out there is no solution to winning the war against yard moles. Also, their Dish Network internet was just as high as my Exede Satellite internet service with never enough data for the month.

Before I could finish my yard work for the day and get back over to their garden to pick up some peppers .... he brought me a bag full of them before I had even cleared out around my trees in the backyard.

I love those kind of peppers and will be including them in about everything I eat. That is how much I like them and for some reason even the hot peppers never give me indigestion.

This was the 2nd place I wanted to clear out. Its where the old fence post is, the one I talked about last spring. This time I am going to clear out to the bare ground again but this fall I am planting rye mixed with grass seed and cover it with straw. It will then look like the area I cleared in April 2015 which is just to the right of the trees.

Instead of carrying all of those downed limbs, weeds, wild flowers to the burn pile on the opposite side of the yard, I made two piles right there that will be burned as soon as they dry out.

The 3rd area I wanted to clear out is the giant ragweed in the field next to the yard and just to the right of our path. They did not cut it last week. The owner of the field would like to have it cut but it's taller and too thick for him to use his riding mower. I told him yesterday when he stopped by as he toured his field, that I would cut it all out once I got my Echo Weed Eater started. He has the same Weed Eater with the same story ... great the first year ... never started again.

Consequently since I could not get it running ... this 3rd area stayed for another day. What you see cut is what I did last week with the shorter handled trimmers pictured at the start of this blog. At this point in time I still wasn't done with yard work and for some reason Stella and Sadie stayed within my sight while I worked in the backyard.

It is always time for a walk though. To them it doesn't matter what time of day nor the kind of weather. They are always ready to go.

This area is a heavy deer area. The deer go down into that gully that is overgrown and into the woods that border first part of our walk.

I think they really do prefer the cut field over the field with lots of flowers and butterflies. They are a lot more active when they have room to run and room to put their noses to the ground and run forever.

With the yard work, the visit to the neighbors, lunch, watching me mow the yard plus the daily hound walk ... Stella found one of the few spots in the backyard with sunshine and took a nap that lasted for almost an hour ... she never moved.

My mower came with a piece to close off the shoot on the side of the mower, to keep the grass inside the mower to be mulched. I've always had the combo blades but I have never used that piece that lets the cut grass be mulched at the same time. It was easy to install and I was shocked at the results. I loved it!!! I didn't have the rows of cut grass that are shot out the side of the mower when it's too tall. I couldn't believe I had not tried that in the 19 years that I have lived here.

Even with it being pretty windy, the skies were again blue as you can see. Very few clouds and the air from the Southwest was on the cold side. The temps dipped to 49° last night and that is perfect weather for sleeping as long as the window is open.

Sadie, being the more active one, spent all afternoon doing only this in a hundred different places.

Stella would probably rather do this more than anything else ... except eat.

Heidi decided she would come outside after her lunch. She never got out of the yard but did a lot of exploring in the front and backyard while I was mowing. I am going to Google search for some kind of dog food that I can give her to help her gain weight. In the past 15 months she has not lost any weight but had not gained any either. She is literally "skin and bones" ... with a blood work test that graded perfect readings. None of the four vets had any suggestions for the kind of food to feed her to get her weight back to the normal range.

By the time I put the mower and all of the other equipment back into the shed, 'the crew' was ready to finally get to go back inside for their afternoon siestas. They had a full day of being outside.

In the meantime I am going to look through this bag of peppers and find a couple that I can use tonight with my dinner of brown rice and steamed vegetables. I am past the 2nd week of my diet changes and am passing with flying colors. The urges for all the good stuff like pizza, Pepsi, ice cream and candy are becoming less frequent as time moves on.

It's nice weather with beautiful days but my allergies are going insane here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sadie & Stella Love The Cut Field

With the sun still behind the clouds, we took off for the first walk of the day right after lunch. Heidi decided she needed a day to recover from her walk on Sunday.

Hard to believe the temperature was still below 70° as we started. Sadie and Stella took off in a trot as soon as their feet hit the yard ... I didn't ask if they wanted to walk or not.




I had to take a photo of the thermometer just for my own memory later on. That red needle has been above 80 and 90 so long I was beginning to wonder if the thermometer still worked.

As you can see there is always a little bit of growth on the outside edges of the field. The owner would like for them to cut and bale that area also but they never go that far over. If he comes out with his own tractor and mower to cut it, he will also cut the giant ragweed that was left next to my yard.

Some purple mist was still around on the edge of the field.

I've noticed that when the field is cut short, that is when Stella likes to get her running in. She loves to run.

While Sadie would rather spend her time 'tracking' what scents she finds. She is a much better tracker than Stella.

Hard to tell anymore between them ... but this is Stella in the photo below.

You can see how our path shows up after they mow. The grass is a little thicker there since it's mashed down over time and isn't mowed as close as the other grass.

Throughout the afternoon Sadie kept bothering me to go back outside. In the past I would have let her out to roam the field but not after she went next door a week or so ago. When I would go out with her, she would stand and stare at me instead of looking around the field. It wasn't that long since the walk before but she and Stella wanted to walk again .. not quite 3 hours after their last walk. So off we went, only this time the sunshine had poked out of the clouds.

Once Stella found this spot just after the first turn ... where the deer hang out ... she never left that spot while Sadie and I walked 3/4 of the way.

She came when I called her but started to go to her right thinking she could continue the walk but it was over ... she wasted her walk by sitting in that one spot eating stuff.

She took her time coming home but always within my sight ... finally strolling into the backyard.

The spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping and preparing for a night of Monday Night Football ... neither of them are interested in politics ... just food, walks and sleep.

Remember that I wrote an earlier post today. You can click the "older posts' button below or over on the right sidebar, titled Heidi Surprises Us On Sunday.

This time of year is hard to beat anywhere but in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Surprises Us On Sunday

For once the local tv weatherman was correct. Much cooler temps after a night of rain while the hounds slept. While we got to bed early, we all woke up early to a light rain, overcast skies and the temperature at 60°

That's quite a change from the 70's in the morning and mid 80's during the day.

The hounds had a pretty good weekend, surviving another weekend of nonstop football, getting in walks in between games or at halftimes.

While it was a little sad to see all of the flowers gone, it was great to walk with the field cut and I could keep better track of where they were running off to. We thought about walking this morning but there was still a very light rain going on.

Stella's favorite is eating the wet grass after the rain. She does not vomit it back up so I can only assume she eats it because she likes it, instead of trying to settle an upset stomach.

Even with sporadic big drops of rain hitting her, Sadie could not figure out why we couldn't take an early morning walk. She didn't hesitate though to head back to the house once it started raining a little harder.

Just like I thought they would, the farmers let the hay dry out for a day on Saturday, let the dew dry out Sunday morning ... then rake and bale the house sometime Sunday afternoon before the expected rain later that night.

With dad running the baler, his son ran the rake ... they still did not want to take that area giant ragweed next to my yard. I tried getting the Echo weed eater started. It has a steel cutting blade and would move right through that ragweed at ground level ... it ran and then shut off. I still need to play with some adjustments before giving up hope and having the local hardware store fix it.

After they left the hounds and I took off for a Sunday walk. A big big surprise ... when I asked Heidi if she wanted to go for a walk ... she jumped down off the couch and headed out to the field along with Sadie and Stella. I couldn't believe she walked right into the field without any coaxing by me.

From the start I could tell she was going to go at her own pace. There were a lot of smells for her to catch up on, after 5 months of refusing to walk with us. I can only conclude that she does not like to walk in the field when the grass is tall (like Winston) and the temperatures have be lower than it was in June when they last cut the field.

The longer I waited for her to catch up with us, the slower she walked and the faster the bloodhounds go out in front of me. I decided to let her roam at her own pace since she was taking her time of moving to different spots instead of a direct path.

Stella was right behind her as far as doing her own thing. Only Sadie and I were in the walking mode and she stayed out in front of me for most of the way.

By the time we made that last small turn toward the house, I could see Heidi up ahead waiting or possibly stopping her exploring once she saw us. She started wagging her tail ... something I have yet to catch in a photo ... and then kept up with Sadie and Stella as we walked back to the house.

She has not gained any weight this summer, yet has not lost weight so it's been stable for the past 15 months. She eats the same amount of kibble that I feed the bloodhounds, twice per day but that doesn't help either. With her blood work coming back perfect in her last trip to the vet in the spring at least I know that she has nothing wrong internally.

Once the field is mowed, you can see our paths from the grass that has been mashed down. I knew the path was not going to be straight this year because of all the flowers we walked around instead of on.

Saturday was another bright sunny day ... it was perfect.

This was early Saturday morning for their first walk of the day. Really wet with heavy dew but nice to have it cut.

They both had a lot of places they wanted to check out. Luckily I did not see anything hanging from their mouths whenever they would raise their heads out of the small piles of hay.

It was pretty slow trekking back to the house because there was just too much to smell on the way.

Even after a 2nd walk of the day in early evening, Stella couldn't believe that she had to come back inside the house. Both of them are still being supervised when outside and that will probably continue for months to come.

I just bought my 2nd gig of data this morning for the home internet connection. For all of you Apple users that read my blog ... I have not had any major issues with the new OS Sierra. My screen has locked up a couple of times to where I had to reboot the computer but nothing as far as software malfunctions. Yet I don't do as much as a lot of the 'power users' but enough to see it's a good upgrade.

I have moved the blog back to one blog post per page. For older posts you can click the link here at the bottom "older posts" or over on the right sidebar all of the posts are listed in order, with the most recent on top. That's a Blogger design, not mine.

I may post later tonight ... it will depend if the rain will stop long enough for us to get a walk in. It has not been raining for the past few hours so I'd say the chances are good for a 2nd post today at the normal time of 6:30pm or so.

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