The Hounds Have a Bad Day

Wow ... what a day. So much happened today I am not sure where to start.

The weather was fantastic and we spent most of the day outside ... well, not all of us and I'll get to that.

After lunch was served we headed out for our daily walk with Heidi staying back at the house protecting the yard and hopefully would find my missing steel hinge pin for my lawn mower. The walk started out normal and I decided I'd take and post as many pictures with the camera lens set at 200mm.

I decided by the first turn, with Stella stopping at her normal spot recently, that I was going to let them do whatever they wanted and I was going to walk nonstop. That would turn out to be a bad decision but one that I had been doing at least the past 5 years !!!!

Still going normal at this time and I was not aware of what would be happening for the last half of the walk.

Stella decided to run to catch up with Sadie. I was already veering left, following the path to the back edge of the field. The hounds were headed for the far right corner where what I call the 'deer highway' is located.

I have walked the edge of the field in back and when I took this picture I was about to make the final turn heading home. I could tell by Sadie not running toward me that they might not join me for a while but probably would before getting out of their sight.

I knew for a fact that when Sadie looked right at me and didn't come running like she normally did ... most likely the hounds were moving into "new territory" ... they were NOT going to catch up to me. I just had a gut feeling I would be sitting in my chair outside at the house waiting for them.

Getting closer to home ... no sign of the hounds.

Another 50' closer to home, no signs of the hounds.

I got back home, pulled up my chair and waited for the hounds. I really thought when I lifted the camera and focused at the corner I would see them running home. Once again I was wrong. In fact I was really wrong.

After 5 more minutes, no sign of the hounds and now I am a little concerned. I wasn't going to walk all the way back to the field, so I hopped into the FJ without my camera. They were still at the back right corner doing what the pictures were showing before. They were startled when they saw my FJ or most likely it was 'a vehicle' ... they didn't know it was me.

Once Sadie saw me turn around to go home. BOTH HOUNDS STARTED RUNNING BEHIND THE FJ !!! They ran nonstop and as hard as they could. So I guess one good thing out of this is they had some nice exercise.

I didn't consider this to be a good experience for them. Back to that theory "you give them an inch they will take a mile" and will try to do that again in the future. They will always try to stretch their boundary.

With the winds pretty calm and blowing toward my property and not the neighbor's I decided to burn my pile of tree limbs. I stretched the hose out from the house and found out that it reached all the way to the pile. I didn't need another hose to add to the one I had.

I stood there with the hose next to me and the water turned on, plus a rake. Since Stella kept wandering off I put her on the tether anchored in the field. That didn't matter since she moved into the yard and slept most of the time sleeping in the sunshine.

There was a reason I had to tether her.

Now the 2nd bad thing of the day happened. While starting the fire, Sadie and Stella headed into the woods behind that fire. The had NEVER been in that area ... ever. That woods follows the neighbor's property out to a country road. The woods is pretty deep and thick, walkable but not real good since the ground stays wet and muddy most of the time.

I made sure the fire was under control and headed into the woods calling their names. By this time I am pretty pissed about the whole day of having bloodhounds. They have really tested me on this last excursion.

Once again, Sadie stopped looked right at me and then turned and kept walking away from me ignoring my calls. Stella understood my tone of voice so she started coming toward me. Or it might have been the cussing I was doing.

So Stella was attached to the tether where she slept outside most of the afternoon. I moved Sadie inside with a pretty stern lecture between the woods and inside the house. I doubt if she cared. I snuck around and looked in the windows since she had free run of the house. She and Heidi were sleeping on the dog bed in the corner of the bedroom.

So much for the lecture.

I ended up burning the bank just to the right of this burn pile with hopes of burning all of the dead ragweed and leaves. I was able to clear most of that area but it did not burn as hot as I expected and some was left behind. After I made sure that all the simmering pieces of wood were put out with water ... the hounds and I took a walk.

Sadie obeyed every one of my comments while Stella was on the 25' retractable leash. Neither one of them tried to veer to the famous spot of the far right corner of the field this time.

So Heidi wins the "Hound of the Day" award today. It was great weather with Thursday and Friday being even better with temps in the 70's before it falls with highs in the 40's on Saturday.

A rough day for the hounds here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

The Hounds Love The Weather

I waited to post this at the end of the day because I wanted to include any photos I would take during the afternoon while we were outside enjoying the weather.

That turns into a long post with a LOT of pictures. I can't seem to post just the best pictures but I try to add pictures that lead into those best pictures because it adds to the sequence or narrative.

Due to staying up extremely late last night, we didn't start our day until 10:30am. The hounds did NOT miss their breakfast at their usual time around 7:30am, so they didn't have to wait ... they would never let me be late for breakfast.

It was perfect weather when we stepped outside. Close to 60° and you could feel the warmth from the sun, unlike a winter day. Yet, the day cannot start without a couple of cups of coffee.

The only thing that moved Stella toward the house that first trip outside was, she thought she heard something about 'food', 'eating', 'do you want?' ...

So, soon after their lunch we headed out for our first walk of the day. I can't get around the new routine. I have always let the hounds out after they eat. It was part of the housebreaking process when Sadie was a puppy, as well as all my other puppies. So now Sadie expects that we will be walking at that time.

I knew that once Stella stopped at her 'new' spot this past week that she wasn't going to leave. Sadie and I kept walking and I'm sure that Sadie enjoyed getting to all the new scents first.

This is a zoomed picture of Stella ... but she is really pretty far away, like at the start of the walk.

You can barely see Stella in the center of the picture. Sadie and I are at the first turn.

I am still trying to show you just how deep the gully is. You can almost see it here. Just past that row of trees in the center of the picture shows just how fast it drops almost straight down. It is so steep that even the hounds would NOT be able to walk down the side of it.

Sadie is getting the first scents before Stella shows up. Both popular spots both hounds love checking out.

As I turned to see if Stella was coming ... she was trying to get caught up ... but, she was going to stop just long enough to check out what her nose picked up.

They figured two noses were better than one when they hit the far right hand corner and along the back edge of the field.

These next two pictures are a panoramic view of the field from left to right. It's a great piece of property and we are very fortunate to be able to use it.

How did this tree grow into that type of form? Where did all of the lower branches go? I shot this directly into the sunshine without any lens filter.

While the bloodhounds and I walk through the field, Heidi hangs back to check out all of the yard. She is looking better because ... finally ... new hair continues to grow on her legs and paws.

Once again the picture shows her tail drooping when it is actually wagging back and forth.

Stella's theme of the day has been "I'm going to do what I want to do" ... Sadie, Heidi and I are ready to go inside but Stella still is hanging out in the field re-smelling her first spot of interest.

It was nice enough today that we spent more time sitting outside enjoying the great day.

I wasn't sure if it would happen but the thought of cutting the nails of the hounds outside. These clippers always bring different responses from Stella and Sadie.

Stella does not mind having her nails cut, so she sniffed them and then moved over into the yard and laid down expecting me to cut them. Sadie didn't stay around long enough to even sniff them ... she saw them (probably caught the scent of them) and took off running.

I was just enjoying the great weather, Stella was sleeping and Sadie was wandering like always. As you can see the grass does look a little long and tall enough to mow. That is what changed my mind from cutting the hounds toenails to mowing the yard one last time.

Stella loves the yard, the sunshine and the cool breeze from the southwest.

So I decided to cut the yard one more time. I was planning to do it within the next three days with the high temperatures in the 60's and even 70's on Wednesday. By the weekend those highs is suppose to drop to the 40's.

I was able to mulch the last of the leaves ... BUT A BIG PROBLEM !!!

In the area of the center of the yard as I was mowing, I glanced down at the side discharge guard and saw the hinge pin that holds it to the side of the mower had vibrated loose and was about half way in. I stopped and slid it back into position. I mowed most of the yard doing that and checking it as I mowed.

Near the center of the front yard the discharge guard blew off the side of the mower. The pin was gone. With the length and weight of the pin it should have been an easy find ... but wasn't. So far I have walked the path of the mower over the whole yard. In some places I was on my hands and knees running my fingers through thick grass just in case the grass was hiding the pin.

It's there somewhere. I'll buy a new garden rake since mine broke while fighting the fire on the north side of the yard a few weeks ago. Then I'll run that rake through the yard and have it show up that way. I'll have to find it by next spring because if I mow over it, it could really tear up my mower. It's a steel pin.

For the last cut of the year I always lower the mower blade one level shorter. The yard is about the worse shape I've seen it in this year. I can already see my first "to do" list thing next spring is to pull the landscaping bricks out and then backfill with dirt to put the edgers back up straight.

I'm thinking about a trip downtown for the Chinese Buffett for dinner and then watch a couple of good college basketball games tonight. I think I have only cleaning the gutters one last time to do before winter. I installed new insulation around my windows and doors on Monday so the house should be pretty air tight for those freezing winds in January and February.

I can't pull the trigger yet in folding down the back seats in the FJ, laying matching color Mexican blanket over them and letting the hounds take short trips again. It really does look good without the hair from the hounds, the dried drool and smudges on the windows. It will eventually happen, just not sure when.

We had THREE hound walks today, the yard mowed all by 3pm.

A couple of more days of great temperatures before it drops to the 40's here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.