Hounds Enjoy Sunday Morning

We had just gone outside for their 2nd trip and my first. With camera and and coffee in hand, it was a beautiful morning to sit outside and let the hounds roam the field.

There was one problem though.

Stella is 'gun shy'. I hadn't had but two sips of hot freshly brewed coffee when I hear a gun shot in the distance. Sadie was out in the field and turned to look at me ... but Stella had different plans.

Before she could even get to the field, as she sniffed the southern border of the yard, she turned and immediately trotted for the door with her ears back in an unusual position. All of us headed inside. Stella ran for her hiding spot in the bedroom closet.

It then turned into the normal 'inside' routine with me reading sports online, some emails, some texts from friends and drinking my daily two cups of coffee. Stella later came out to lay and sleep beside my desk chair with Sadie sleeping just a few feet away.

Once Sadie was up, she begged and begged to go out for a walk. She does that in two different ways. One way she will sit and stare at me, if that doesn't work she will walk over and nudge my arm with her nose, while I am on the computer. By 11:30am it was time for our first of two walks for the day.

With the temps barely touching the 60° mark, and the first 1/3 of the walk in a shaded area. I knew my feet were going to get wet and it was going to be cold but we continued. As you can see the first part of our walk is in the shade and that means heavy dew and very wet feet.

Stella immediately headed the wrong direction to check out that one specific spot in the field that has caught her attention this past week. I thought I might have to call her but once she saw Sadie had found something, she took off and ran toward Sadie, moving into the correct direction as far as I was concern.

I used a few "come on" to keep her moving as I didn't want her to lag behind today. Last night during the halftime of the Washington / Oregon football game I connected the 25' retractable leash on her. She doesn't mind it and I never have to pull on it to get her to move. She seems to know to keep moving when she is wearing the leash.

They were both anxious to turn that first corner and get to their favorite spots of the field ... on the right side in tall grass, beaten down by deer traffic during the nighttime hours. I was too actually because it would be in the sun.

By the time I made the first turn, my New Balance mesh shoes were soaked, socks were soaked and my feet were freezing. It was good to get into the sunshine and it made a big difference.

Stella was pretty good in her exploring, she kept moving and didn't stay in any one spot too long.

As I glanced to the left of me, I realized this field that looks so flat from a distance really has a good size incline in the back end of the field. The field as a whole all heads towards the SE corner of my backyard to drain all of that underground water. I do see a little difference in elevation in the yard when I look back at photos from ten years ago.

Stella headed back to the right corner of the field. She had not been up there in a while. I walked over to check out the wooded area, too see if there was a drop off or was it fenced. She has not gone into the woods but likes to check out the edge of that wooded area. I might change the path to include that corner into our daily walk.

A couple of photos of the wooded area behind Stella.

Out of nowhere, Stella took off in a sprint to catch up with Sadie. This is along the back edge of the field, bordering another corn field that stands between us and a turkey farm.

As you can see, the deer traffic must have been heavy last night as they both rarely took their noses off the ground.

From year to year I try to keep the same path. Right after the field is cut it is hard at times to see the worn path. It is finally coming into view today on the way back. At no time is the path worn down to dirt. 

Stella heads back to that same spot she went to when the walk started.

Until April 2015, this part of the yard up to just past the trees on the right side was nothing more than overgrown bushes, tall saplings, wild rose bushes that never bloomed, and thick under brush.

Once the neighbor surveyed the field after he bought it, planted that metal pole to show the corner of the property, is when I decided to clear out the brush and plant grass. I consider this area around the trees the best part of the yard and is much cooler in the summer. My survey in 2000 does NOT show that area as being part of my property.

The typical fall Sunday afternoon is planned ... different food within my changed diet mixed with NFL football. The hounds seem okay with that schedule ... Sadie is snoring loudly as I type this.

With the temps below that 70° threshold that Heidi has, she has declared it winter and is wrapped up in her sleeping bag while she sleeps on my bed ... that is basically her bed that I borrow on a nightly basis.

Wunderground is showing a good 10 day forecast for 'the tropics' ... I have a few plans this week and one of those is washing and thoroughly cleaning the two tons of dog hair out of the FJ. All of the dried hound drool will clean off easy from the plastic dash but I might have to put some effort in getting those hound nose smudges off of the windows.

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

Hounds Under No Restrictions Today

I decided today I would make some changes to the daily walk. I've done it before but when Stella started going outside the limits I went back to some 'adult supervision'.

We didn't get the first walk in until 11:30am. The field was still really wet in the shaded areas ... but I didn't say a word to them until the end of the walk this morning. Stella tried to head in the direction of the neighbors house instead of the direction Sadie and I were walking.

For their first trip of the day, right after their breakfast, both of them are now back to their older habit of walking straight out into the field instead of heading north. Sadie will look back at me at times to see if I am watching her.

I still don't see a lot of bright, vibrant colors while these leaves change. Nor did I do any Google searches to find out what makes those colors so vibrant one year and dull colors the other year.

The deer scent along the field must have been strong because Stella never stopped once as we started our walk. Both of them had tails up and noses down with a pace that was fast as a trot.

Sadie has the better tracking nose and was pretty intense this morning with her exploration.

Without saying a word to her, Stella ran to catch up with Sadie.

How much longer will the rolls of hay sit in the field. I was told the other day by the field owner that the farmer he lets bale this field has 100 head of cattle that go through the 32 rolls during the winter.

The corn field in back has been picked and we can see the turkey farm and AT&T tower now. I remember one day in a December snow storm, Sadie as a puppy jumped over that small hidden fence and sprinted across that field after some deer she had seen. I couldn't catch her, nor find her later. She was at the doorstep a few hours later.

Like I said, today I didn't say a word to either hound ... I kept walking and taking photos while letting them do anything they wanted.

I've always wanted to take a picture of this sign but always before I could never get the Nikon 55-200mm to focus at the 200mm setting. The Tamron 18-200mm had no problem focusing in on what I wanted to take a picture of.

Unbelievable that Stella started running toward Sadie and I as we headed for the house. This past week or two, I had to practically drag her by the collar to get her to move.

We are almost home when Stella decides to change direction and head the wrong way. She did not go to the neighbors, neither of them were outside, but she had found a spot she wanted to check out. It's the only time today that I told her to "come on".

With the MLB Playoffs in 'full swing' the first of four baseball games today and tonight started a little after 1pm. Hounds were fed, had at their morning walk and all that was needed was my lunch. Although it was only Friday, with that many games being shown back to back, I know the hounds would get a 2nd walk sometime between games.

They spent some time outside during my lunch and the 1st game. I let Heidi spend as much time as she wanted outside. She stayed outside enjoying the sunshine for over an hour after Sadie, Stella and I went back inside.

What I thought would be between baseball games, we took off on our walk. Little did I know that once that commercial was over, the 2nd game had already started.

Stella went straight to the spot she wanted to go to this morning at the end of her walk, when I called her. This afternoon I just kept walking, letting her do anything she wanted.

Something told me that she would not be running to catch up with Sadie and I nor would she still be in that same spot when Sadie and I returned from our walk.

The leaves seem to be dying before they can change colors this year.

As Sadie and I started to make that first turn, I turned around to see where Stella was ... same place.

Sadie would rather walk then just stay in one spot. There are too many things that activate her nose.

This is about the only section of color leaves.

As Sadie and I made the turn to head back home, I didn't see Stella on the horizon. I didn't see her to the left of us so I assumed the worse ... she was at the neighbors house. She won't last long if she continues to do that. If she goes that far she will eventually go as far as the highway.

I guess it was better than what I assumed, she is standing there at the edge of the woods that are behind the neighbors house.

Without calling her, she noticed Sadie and I were walking by and she started heading our direction.

As the AKC book says for the bloodhound breed ... she is definitely stubborn.

The three of us cruised on home with not much said. No lectures, just walking.

Baseball in the fall reminds me of the days growing up a long time ago .. then it was just the World Series, with no playoffs and no wild card teams. Interesting how all the sports got greedy, players and owners alike ... still there is something special about watching baseball in the fall.

Not sure about my blogging plans for the weekend. It was nice taking time away from the computer last weekend. I might try that again while I spend all my time watching ballgames.

Have a good weekend ... another week has passed here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Hounds Lifestyle Is The Best

Wednesday was a full day outside doing some yard work and cutting the giant ragweed on the corner of the field.

I also cut some small stumps down to ground level in preparation of planting grass seed on the bank by the old fence post in the backyard.

Of coarse I had Sadie and Stella supervising and inspecting my work. By 5pm I have to admit I was tired from that activity, with no energy nor interest in blogging last night. With the MLB playoff game not starting until 8pm, the bloodhounds and I took of on our 3rd walk of the day, for the 2nd day in a row.

This morning we woke up to another beautiful day. It was early but I could hear a combine off in the distance and figured the corn field that is between the field we walk in and the turkey farm, was harvesting their corn.

As we were coming inside after our first trip of the day, I noticed someone was trying out my chair. It didn't move the whole time I was snapping pictures. I am not sure why they are not sharp and crisp ... maybe my hands shake a little in the morning.

Sadie is getting use to the 3 walks per day ... a new habit. By 9:30am she was begging to go outside where she will stand and stare at me to let me know she wants to take a walk. Stella is only demanding when it's time to eat but will follow us once the walk starts.

I know it's early but from what little changes in leaf color I see, I don't feel we will be seeing the really bright colors. I'll have to read and find out what makes them that bright colorful leaf, where other years they turn into dull colors.

With the field cut, Stella is getting her running in everyday and sometimes twice per day. She loves to run.

I knew when both of them took off running around the first corner, with no deer in sight, they were anxious to get to the spots were deer spend time. Lately you can barely pry them away from the spots they find.

Stella either hears me and ignores me telling her to "come on" or is just oblivious to the outside world once she has started eating her added protein meal.

I now have to walk over to her to give her nudge to get going. She's never happy when I make her leave those spots.

Sadie is not as intense but will follow the beaten down path that the deer have made through the tall grass. Just to the right of her is a deep gully full of wild overgrown weeds and flowers.

I was right about hearing a combine this morning. You can see where they have picked the corn with a lot more to go. For any readers with a farming background and I know there are a few ... my question is, why isn't this combine cutting the corn close to the ground? I see in other blogs where the stalks are cut almost to ground level, whereas this farmer is not cutting that low.

This next photo was taken on our 2nd walk of the day just a couple of hours later. You can see the dust almost blocking the view of the combine. That dust is one reason I will wait to power wash my house until the two fields in front of my house and across the highway are harvested. I usually power wash the house in the spring but I missed doing that this year ... not sure why.

The leaves are changing color and someway this red leaf made it out to the center of the field.

On the way back home on our 2nd walk today, Stella's tongue is letting me know the temperature is above 80°. She was right ... Wunderground told me it was 82° when we got back to the house.

We only have one more day of 80° weather and then the highs will be in the low to mid 70's. It's a perfect time of year to be living in the Midwest. Speaking of weather I have some family and friends on the east coast of Florida. My cousin lives within a block of the ocean, has been through a few bad hurricanes without much damage over the years but this one might be different.

A few friends I have not been able to get a hold of and without them posting on Facebook I assume they are on their way out of town. One friend has decided to stay and party with her neighbors and ride out the storm. That seems to be the common theme for some, even with millions of people evacuating.

There are very few places in the USA that does not have some type of natural disaster ... from forest fires, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

I headed out for a trip to buy groceries and once again Stella did not do any damage to the bedroom while I was gone. I was gone over an hour. Can I assume she is finally over her separation anxiety? Last week I was gone for 8-9 hours, she passed that test with flying colors. The last time she destroyed anything was June 24 ... that doesn't include the fruit that she steals from the bowl on the counter while I am outside mowing the yard.

It's already Thursday and with the MLB Playoffs added to my College and NFL football viewing ... once again I do not have enough tv's to watch all the games I want to watch, which are scheduled at the same time.

That's all for today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.