Sadie Loves Oikos Yogurt

I had read lately on Ed Frey's Blog he had been eating Oikos Yogurt instead of Greek Gods Greek Yogurt. He may have found that brand of yogurt easier to buy depending on what location he has parked his RV at. With my recent upset stomach problems after I would eat Greek Gods yogurt I decided last night to give Oikos a try.

Not only did I like the taste, it also didn't give me any indigestion. Like all cottage cheese or yogurt containers that I have finished, Heidi and Stella gets the first licks inside the container for whats left and then Sadie gets to finish it. With the great weather outside today, Sadie decided to take the container with her this afternoon.

It's gone!! The inside of the container is spotless.

Stella was more interested in other things besides yogurt. She knows that once Sadie has the container, there is no more sharing of what's left.

I wanted to get the 2nd walk in right after lunch today because I had plans of putting the top down on the Z4 and taking an afternoon drive.

The temps has moved above 60°, warmer than the inside of my house, and I could tell it would be perfect weather for a drive with the top down today.

Stella was really interest in what was north of us. I couldn't see anything but she could smell or hear something. Maybe it was the nice new bird house the neighbors have put up next to their yard and the same field we walk through. They are four lots away from us.

I held the 6' standard leash up in my hand for Stella to see. I guess she thought she was going to get hooked up or I had hooked her up because she stayed on the path behind him most of the way home.

The drive through the country is a mixture of two lane highways and a narrow country road that is designated as a state highway. Over the years I have found where the cops sit waiting for drivers just like me. I keep an eye out for them and adjust my speed accordingly ... there was that summer night a few years ago where the small town cop drove out of a corn field to let me know I was going too fast. He didn't pull me over but flashed his lights at me and I heard the message loud and clear.

With the new rear wheel fixed, I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. I didn't feel anything before either but after their repair I thought there might be a chance of vibrations if it was not done correctly.

When I returned all of us, including Heidi, went outside to enjoy the afternoon weather. You would think with a backyard plus a 7 acre field to roam, they wouldn't hesitate to get lost ... yet Sadie wanted to stand right next to me.

While we were facing the back I realized that Heidi had not moved to the backyard after her trip out front to relieve herself. I found out why ... she had found  the warmest place in the yard, facing the sun.

By the time I returned to my chair at the corner of the house, the bloodhounds had moved out into the field like the original plan.

In the six years that I have had Heidi (this July) she has never walked near the highway. She has never ran away or gone to either neighbors yard. Not bad for a hound that had a reputation of "always needing to be leashed" and was noted on their adoption paperwork.

I expect with the weather getting warmer we will be seeing more pictures of Heidi and hopefully some of her taking the daily walk with us.

Stella decided the warmest spot in the sun was in the driveway. She just needed to scratch one more time before sitting down.

The theme for the rest of the afternoon and evening was water. That's right ... water, as in drinking water. I find myself not drinking nearly enough water, if any at all, during the winter months compared to the summer.

(Editor's Note: We took our 3rd walk of the day about the same time this blog post was published)

It was another fine day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Some Friday Morning Rambling

As you know I am a night person, if you are a long time reader. So it wasn't a surprise to me last night when I had the urge to go grocery shopping 12 miles away at 11:45pm.

That meant the hounds had to be woke up from their deep sleep and 'ask' them to move to the bedroom, where they stay when I leave the house. All three hounds reluctantly agreed but it sure did look like Stella was still in a dream state as she slowly walked toward the bedroom.

Of course whenever food is involved they are always wide awake and that didn't change at 12:30am while I unloaded the groceries. I could feel as I opened the door for the first time this morning that those predicted warm temps had arrived. The hounds loved it too, as they moved into a new area for them while I was inside making coffee.

Once the brush grows back this spring, that pathway will be closed and solid green with wild berry bushes, thorns and tall weeds. They will not venture in that direction until next winter. Still it is a 'no fly zone' for them.

Stella finally walked out on her own but it took me many times calling her name before she would move. She always comes but she will take her own time doing it. Her DNA has a heavy dose of 'bloodhound stubbornness' listed in her AKC description.

Like everyday, after a couple of cups of coffee and morning internet reading, we took off for our first of two daily hound walks. Stella was pretty excited this morning, showing more emotion than usual. Sadie had already sprinted to the back of the field directly behind the house. You can see from the brown grass just how busy the moles have been in this warmer than normal winter.

It felt good this morning, around 50° with no wind. A ski cap and light gloves were needed with the GoLite 800 jacket. To think it's going to be in the 60's later and stay that way for the next 10 days is fantastic. Is it too early to do some spring yard stuff in February?

I've tried a few times to show how steep the wooded area is just off the field. I walked into that small area of woods today to get a better picture, different angles. Yet after downloading them into my computer and looking at the large size version I still have not captured just how steep it is to the bottom of the wet wooded area.

A lot of trees have been blown over in the past years. I didn't hear all of them fall but I was surprised just how many large trees had been blown over. All due to high winds and a very very saturated base.

This is the limb where the unidentified animal feasted on the tree bark and some of the wood. One reader suspects it's the action of a porquepine.

I took this next picture standing right next to the limb instead of a zoom shot from the field. That's a lot of eating.

While I was inside the wooded area the hounds did not follow me but stayed out on the edge continuing their morning of gathering intel. Between their noses and mouth, everything will be identified and stored for their future reference. They can't let just anyone or anything in "their" field.

It's good once again to see Stella continue walking in our general direction instead of just all out ignoring Sadie and I.

She always looks like she is disappointed whenever she walks but that is just her look naturally as a bloodhound.

They didn't waste time this morning and rarely stopped. It was like the field was full of new scents even though we had just walked the field late yesterday afternoon. They were in constant motion.

With the sunshine giving off a little warmth at 10am, I could see from the sky it would probably be the first time I take the Z4 out with the top down in 2017. That will be later this afternoon when the temps hit the max high for today. I'll probably do my 42 mile loop out through the country. The return trip is on a highway that is smooth, you can see forever and increase the speeds to the point of giving the I6 engine a workout and blow out some of the winter cobwebs.

I followed Sadie and Stella up to through the far right corner. Stella followed us without me calling her name. It will be nice to see all of this green again. I've never been a fan of the winter dormant colors.

The past few days I have been driving the Mini Countryman in the 'sport' mode. With a push of a button, the steering gets tighter, the gearbox gets smaller, the acceleration faster and a slight feel of a sports car from the All4 Mini SUV. It feels great when driving in that mode but the real sports car was sitting back at the house and once again confirmed why I will not sell the Z4.

I say that because I did think at the time in early December when I traded for the Countryman that I would move to a one car garage for the first time in so long that I can't remember. It seems like I have always had more than one car since ... let me guess ... 1995. Yet every time that I drive that Z4 I know there is no way I can sell it.

I saw last night where Al over at the The Bayfield Bunch is getting use to Blogger's format in posting and uploading his pictures. He has been having trouble with Live Writer and Picasa. I started this blog in 2011, deleted it a couple of times but rescued it within the 60-day window to not lose everything. I've tried Wordpress and like that platform a lot but there are advantages of using Blogger ... once you get a template designed the way you like it.

Another blogger I read had his Apple computer crash the other day. He is not sure if he has lost everything or not. I have around 22,000 pictures on my hard drive and backed up on an external drive for those 'just in case' moments. But he has thousands more pictures than I do and many more posts in his blog history. He will find out today what happened.

I think for us Apple users, something happened in their last OS update. Since that time my iMac has been shutting down and restarting on its own while it is in the sleep mode. That is usually a sure sign of either a virus or someone has control of your computer. Running BitDefender showed me there were no viruses or malware anywhere on my computer.

Then this morning I clicked on my 'Contacts' folder to add a new email address and my address book was blank. I checked all of the setting and every block that needed checked was checked. A good sign was the Contacts folder in my iCloud still had all of my addresses.

So I took a wild ass guess and rebooted my computer right before the hounds and I took of for our morning walk ... the Contacts in the folder were back ... all was good.

Many of you know I am a Excel spreadsheet addict. I'll not list everything I track here at home on a spreadsheet but one thing I have done for the past 18 years is track every penny that I spend, down to the cent. I have different categories, even separating dog food, vet trips and dog treats to give you some idea how detailed it is.

I take a monthly average of each category and then link to the previous year's spreadsheet. With a column of the monthly cost right next to the current one I can see if the cost are more or less than the previous year.

Even after 47 days of the new year I see my cost for groceries are increasing at a rapid rate. It's somewhat alarming because every 7-10 days I buy basically the same stuff. All of my meals are the same with an occasional 'treat' at times. It will be interesting to see how those cost adjust as we move through the year or is food costs increasing without letting us know.

Two big highlights from last night's shopping, was a large bag of Animal cookies Crackers on sale ... low or no fat ... even the hounds approved them. The other was a small bag of Blue Diamond Almonds ... HABANERO BBQ flavor. I was anxious to feel the habanero flame but it's much milder than I expected.

Has anyone ever had habanero pie? Great stuff.

With the feeling of winter being over, still it's way too soon to call it officially over, I am going back through my mental list of stuff that I didn't get done this winter. There is plenty of time to make a comeback and all things can be done in warm weather also.

My recycling center likes me since they do make a little money off of what I turn in. My trips are becoming more frequent because as I get closer to that magic age of 65 my paper junk mail delivered daily is increasing exponentially. How long will it take before "they" leave me alone???? I need some help here.

I may have mentioned recently I was either changing diets or looking at diet programs again. An old book off my self called The Blood Type Diet was an eye opener. About everything they mentioned to avoid are foods that still give me indigestion, even if it's healthy food.

Of course after little thought ... it was time for a new spreadsheet!!! LOL

The first thing I did was list all foods that I eat, even the condiments. I highlighted foods that give me problems. Then I added to that list of foods from the book The Blood Type Diet, which broke them down to (1) highly beneficial (2) neutral and (3) avoid. Those foods to avoid I changed their font to a light gray color.

Again, seeing the foods from my original list that gave me problems, matched up a lot with the ones I had grayed out from the book. My shopping list was getting more defined.

I have decided to take a little from all diets ... Mediterranean, Paleo, Vegan, Lacto-Vegitarian. Although my blood type, Type O, has a meat eating recommendation, what I have normally eaten for years is more along he lines of Mediterranean or LactoVeggie. With fish and chicken added but mostly fish. I think I will stick to that.

Basically the trips to 5-Guys Burgers will continue to be in 'moderation'. I can't remember the last trip I made there anyway so I assume I am way below the limit. No processed foods, except those Animal Cookies LOL, sugar with coffee but restrict as much as possible after that. A lot of fruits and veggies and make sure I keep the bowl of fruit on top of the refrigerator so Stella doesn't steal my bananas, mangos and apples.

This past month I added a few pounds, 2mm of fat around the waist when I added more beef like the book suggested but cut back on carbs. I had better decreases in weight and body fat on the Vegan diet ... but that made me feel tired a lot.

Enough about diets ... I need one of those old fashion Pepsi's made with sugar that they sell at the local Dollar Store.  (joking).

Well I have to stop this rambling, it's 12:03 pm and both bloodhounds are standing right next to my chair staring me down for lunch. We are just seconds away from Stella staring her last ditch effort for me to feed her by howling.

A beautiful morning here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

This Weather Still Amazes Me

I hate talking about my local weather everyday but it's amazing and hard to believe for the month of February here in the Midwest.

It was cold today with winds changing from their normal SW direction and brought cold air from the NW/N around 15mph.

We still got our two walks in, bundled up in the down parka, ski cap and ski gloves. It was cold with that wind blowing but it was sunny and I could handle that. With the winds, most of our day stayed around 40° and the 'feels like" close to 33°. The hounds got their walks in and solid amount of sleep throughout the day.

Starting tomorrow that is a different story and what I find amazing. I am looking at a 10 day forecast of no days below 62° and even one day above 70°, which means Heidi may actually go outside and spend some time in the yard.

I decided this morning I wasn't going to say a word to Stella or Sadie on our morning walk ... they could roam where they wanted and eat what that wanted ... I was tired of saying 'come on' and 'stop eating crap'.

About the time I took this next picture of Stella I turned the opposite direction so I wouldn't see what it was she was eating.

Same with Sadie ... I turned after taking the picture and kept walking.

I figured I would have to pick Stella up on the way back and most likely over by the woods behind the neighbor's house but I was wrong ... as I turned to see what she was doing ... she was sprinting toward me.

I thought she was going to slow down next to me to get a pat on the back but she kept running to catch up with Sadie. Both of them stayed out in front of me for the first half of the walk.

Sadie got there first ... Stella decided to find her own.

By this time the wind had picked up speed and it's the coldest air I have felt in a couple of weeks. I kept thinking about tomorrow and how the high temperature would be close to 64°. Would it be too much to dream about a mild March and close out a mild 2017 winter?

As I walked along the back edge of the field, both hounds explored different areas of that part of the field. That was fine with me, they were out in the open doing what they wanted to do and were within walking distance if I had to go get Stella later.

Sadie saw I was getting too far ahead and came toward me in a full out sprint. I was lucky to catch her with ears flying and both front paws off the ground. This will rank as one of her top pictures out of the 8,000 I have taken of her. That number does not include the pictures I took her first two years and lost them when I reformatted my Windows PC, thinking I had backed up the week before.

Sadie decided she was going to stick right next to me for a while so I wouldn't get too far away. Stella was oblivious to any kind of life outside of the area her nose and mouth occupied.

This is a distance picture as we make the final turn and head for home. You cannot beat a day like today for the month of February.

For a split second I thought of walking and not saying a word, even back to the house without Stella, thinking I'd come back outside and hook her up to the leash over by the neighbor's woods. I didn't want to do that today so I called her name a few times and never got a response.

Sadie and I headed over to her and about 3' from her she lifted her head and started trotting in my direction ... right past me.

With both of them still pretty far ahead of me, Stella kept stopping and looking in the direction of the woods. Had the neighbors laid out some kind of food for the few animals that wander at night? Or did she smell that unidentified animal she chased a few weeks ago.

Whatever it was, she decide she needed to sit down and analyze the situation before I got up to her.

We moved on, but she was still curious as she faced that direction while she walked away from the woods.

All I needed to say was 'milk bone' and they took off sprinting for the house. I don't feed them that brand name of bone but one with no grain and made with peanut butter. They know what I am talking about when I say those two words. We don't have them every day but enough to where they never forget.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking a large pot of beans and then some cornbread which I baked inside a cast iron skillet. I have a couple of ballgames I'll be watching tonight. 

I did not take the camera with me on our afternoon walk. It was colder so I wanted to make it short as possible. We walked the full distance but I had Stella on the 25' retractible leash.

Are you a true fan of a team if you have been kinda hoping your team loses games this past month and for the rest of the season, so it increases the chances of the coach being fired after the season? That is where I and a lot of alumni are at right now this basketball season.

You may have noticed I have added a new blog on the sidebar, named Bedlam Farm. I have disagreed with Jon on some things over the years yet we have found common ground after exchanging a few emails. He has a lot of great photography and information on his blog. He will usually post 3-5 times per day, has readers from all over the world in the millions of viewers.

He is a professional writer with over 26 books on dogs, and a few about the farm animals he has on his farm in upper state New York. Like he says, he is not a farmer but a writer living on a farm. He blogs honestly, very open, at times direct, and at times he will cause controversy. His comment section is closed because he gets enough of those comments on his Facebook account.

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in is blog and decided to add it to the sidebar today. 

I am still debating in my mind whether to put the link to the site I blogged about the other day, PuppySpot, up on my sidebar. I do have a basset rescue site I've used up on the left sidebar and this site would be similar except all of their puppies are for sale. 

I know that the link to the old VW buses site has nothing but VW buses that are for sale but I posted that link mostly for readers to be able to view them not really buy them.

I have always stayed away from posting links to different sites that dealt with hounds or cars. I have had a surprising number of people ask me in the past if I would link their site, where they are selling something. I haven't done that because I didn't want the blog to turn into a blog showing things for sell. That is not the reason for this blog. 

If I really wanted to do that, I'd monetize it by setting up a bunch of affiliate links and maybe even a 'donate button' for the hounds, collected by PayPal. Not interested.

I think I will just stick to writing about the hounds and a little about retirement life here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.