Howling Winds And 31°

What a rude awakening !!!!

Yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts for the 3rd day in a row and this morning I walk outside and notice some very very light snow flurries.

It was near 70° by lunchtime yesterday, hot enough for the infamous hermit ... Heidi ... to escape from her hibernating cave built with my Marmot sleeping bag. She didn't join us for the walk yesterday afternoon but she did explore the front, side and back yards while we were gone.

We took off for our 2nd of 3 walks of the day. I could tell that Stella was back to her old habit of laying back ... Sadie and I kept walking. I wanted to see what Stella would do if I left her alone and in the end I was right.

Sadie really enjoyed the warm weather, almost if not 70°. You could even feel the heat from the sun as we walked. It was hard to believe that by Saturday morning I would be back in wool socks, hiking boots, jeans and a down parka doing the walk.

As I glanced back I saw no sign of Stella as I expected. Sadie and I were walking along the back edge of the field. Just as I was about to turn my head and face the direction I was I was walking ... I noticed that Stella was already over by the woods behind the neighbor's house.

That was what I expected her to do but I did not think it would happen that soon. As long as she stayed in my viewing area I was fine with it.

Sadie hadn't noticed her ... she kept exploring the center of the field while I continued to walk.

Whatever Stella had found it must have been good, she didn't even lift her head as I approached her.

Once Sadie saw Stella, she took off sprinting to see what she had found. Once I got over to that spot and looked at the ground ... you wouldn't believe ... I found nothing there. Nothing but bare ground and wet grass.

When Stella refused to even lift her head and come when I called her, I pulled out the only decision maker I had ... the standard 6' dog leash. Even after I connected it to her collar, she pulled away to move her head back to the spot she was really interested in.

I dropped the leash to the ground and she followed me as we walked directly to the house instead of moving back to the worn path.

I knew it would be cold this morning when we got up but when I stepped out to take the first picture of the day, a freezing wind hit my face and it felt much much colder than 31°. Luckily it's going to change by Monday and get back up into the 50s and 60s.

I guess one advantage of having a black car is that it doesn't matter how light the snow flurries are, you can tell it's been trying to snow. Nothing of any substance is expected in 'the tropics' today.

We did the normal wait before taking the first walk of the day ... coffee, internet reading. The winds had picked up even more speed, it was freezing my face and small crystals of snow was barely visible. My iPhone weather app said it was 31°, winds out of the west at 18mph and a 'feels like' 18°.

At least there was a lot of blue sky and you could see the sunshine so all is not lost.

Both hounds were energetic and didn't take long to move out in front of me quite a ways.

You can barely see the direction of the winds blowing the hay that was missed during last fall's mowing. While I was looking at Sadie, Stella sprinted around both of us and headed to the far right corner.

It was good to see her running again. I was beginning to wonder if she was feeling okay since it had been a while since she had been sprinting at full speed in the field.

Sadie then passed me sprinting but she was heading in a different direction than Stella ... both interested in different areas.

Sadie went one direction and Stella headed the other direction ... both very focused on the scents they had found.

I was surprised to see Stella sprint toward me when I called her name ... that was a sure sign just how cold it must have been. She was way out in front of me before I could focus the camera. She did some good running today.

I knew when I saw them like this ... something was up and I wondered if I was going to have to chase them to the woods north of us and farther than I wanted to walk or run in today's weather.

Luckily when they took of running they did a large looping circle instead of heading toward the woods in the 'no fly zone'.

There were either sounds or scents that really had their interest today.

Stella is too skinny. I've been feeding her larger portions of food but that doesn't put the weight back on her. It looks like she needs more fat and protein in her food.

Sadie still battles a heavy waistline but some of that should come off this summer.

For once I didn't have to call either of them to 'come on' as we neared the house. Both of them wanted back inside where it was 30° warmer.

It was a good test for my camera today. The other day when I mentioned too many of my early morning pictures seemed to be blurry lately, I had a reader comment:

"The camera may develop moisture trouble inside the lens with the change in temp from inside to outside for the short term."

I thought that might be a possibility but then I started thinking why did it take so long to do that? It was only recently I started noticing a change in my picture quality. So today's change in temps was a good test to see if what I thought might be the problem.

User error ....

I think today's pictures I took on this mornings walk proves that I had become lazy when taking pictures. I might have been breathing while I took the picture, thus a slight movement of the camera. I definitely found out my arms were out of position because I had become lazy.

These past two days I have made sure my left hand is directly under the lens, that both my arms and elbows are tucked in close to my chest to prevent any movement of the camera. Forming a human tripod for the camera. Then right before taking the picture I either take a deep breath or hold my breath.

It might be my eyes but the pictures from this morning's walk look much sharper to me so that proves to me it was user error ... me ... that caused the pictures being not quite as sharp as I use to take.

Not much planned today except for some book reading, watch a couple of college basketball games and stay warm here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

LOL ... What An Idiot

I really amaze myself at times. After finding the mistake I made a couple of days in the spelling of rip-rap ... using riff raff ... makes me wonder what's going on "up there".

Meaning ... my mind. Are there small chunks of debris floating out of control throughout the thousands of brain cells? Did I really destroy that many brain cells in my younger days, when there was always a party somewhere? You have to admit that when you read those words "riff raff" you thought "what in the hell is he talking about ... the guy's crazy".  LOL

The difference in spelling of those two words is troubling. LOL ... and not one reader said "hey you might want to check your spelling" ... you most likely were not able to because you were laughing too hard ... I know I was this morning. The hounds thought I had finally gone crazy by my constant laughing. Stella came running over to me thinking I had hurt myself.

If I had not replied this morning to Greg's comment from a couple of posts ago I would not have seen my error. He spelled rip-rap correctly but even when I read his comment a couple of days ago I didn't notice the correct spelling.

Add in the fact that when I wrote the post, Blogger was highlighting "riff raff" in bright yellow signifying that I had spelled it wrong ... then putting the red dots under the misspelled word after I clicked "ignore" on the yellow highlight.

Or ... you can check any word for correct spelling and the definition now, just by typing that word into the address bar of Google Chrome using Google as  your default search engine. How easy is that? .... What was I thinking??  LOL

Friday seems to be the day for the sky to be full of contrails. There were not as many this morning as previous Friday's but there are more than any other day of the week.

By working outside during the great weather I am ready to head to bed way before midnight instead of my normal 2am. That means not only I but the hounds wake up earlier and we have gained a couple of hours of activity during daylight these past couple of mornings.

We started our first walk of the day about two hours earlier than normal .. you might notice that Stella needed some "supervision" this morning. I wasn't in the mood to be ignored so early in the day.  LOL

I don't leave the leash on very long and once I take it off she still continues to walk slow giving me a look that I have really hurt her. Yet there are some days she is more stubborn than normal. It's during the times when she hears her name called and me saying "come on", then turning and going the opposite direction .... that I pull the leash out of my pocket, backtrack to her and connect her.

Sadie in the meantime is Sadie ... nose to the ground, tail up and curled ... with things to do and places to go. She loves these walks in the field and never gets enough of them.

I let Stella go on her own path after I unhooked her. I don't mind that as long as she eventually turns and heads our direction. Now if she would have ran into those woods, like she never does, then it would have been time to pull the leash out again.

Of course the distance between me and her gives her plenty of chances for her to change her mind. Her nose will pick up a scent and distract her, thus she changes directions.

Example --- heading toward Sadie and I ... "but I think I smell something over there".

 Then she turns back toward us without being called.

Sadie doesn't care ... she is on her own exploration.

There was nothing within eye sight, nor on the horizon, but Stella was positive the deer had gone that way sometime since yesterday afternoon. In fact that is one of their normal paths because I have seen deer jump the small mashed down wire fence at that same spot.

So she is correct in her thought process.

We may reach 70° again today with some thunderstorms in the forecast for this afternoon. the wild bushes are trying to tell me it's spring time by showing me their new green color ... but by tomorrow we are back in the 30's with a chance of snow north of us.

After a couple of days of cold weather we will be back in the 50's and 60's for the next ten days.

Most of the time the final stages of the daily walks are not direct routes. The hounds will always find something they want to check out or have to stop and really investigate what is hidden in the thick grass.

We don't have a lot planned for today, except to enjoy the great weather. We did three walks yesterday but the two afternoon walks were without the camera.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to plant some grass seed in the area that I cleared last fall. The owner at the landscaping business a couple of houses away, didn't think a couple of days of cold temperatures would hurt if I wanted to plant some grass seed yesterday.  I've watered it this morning and hope that a lot of the seed stays on the incline if it happens to rain hard this afternoon.

I raked all of that out yesterday, down to bare dirt. I also cut off any small tree stumps to ground level so I'll have no trouble mowing this area. The concrete blocks will stay, where they have been for 42 years, to prevent erosion. I'll use the weed-eater around those after the grass fills in.

I mentioned the other day about switching out the larger blue trash can with the smaller gray one because the gray one fits better in the Mini Cooper S Countryman when I make those trips to the recycling center.

The red mirrors on the all black car are growing on me. they do not bother me at all now and in fact from the side view ... they kind of even out the large red tail lights. I like the all black look and am glad I decided to remove the red stripes a few weeks ago.

I believe I have found an answer about dog food ... "right under my nose". Due to health reasons of the owner, the old feed store in town had to go out of business a few months ago. It had a great selection of highly rated dog food. When I say highly rated, I use the site Dog Food Advisor for a rating.

So it was to my surprise yesterday when I typed in the brand of dog food I had seen at the local hardware store. I was looking for a new rake when I noticed their display of 40# bags of dog food was almost empty. The bags are usually stacked up to my shoulders.

I never really paid attention to it because it was in a hardware store. I thought most likely it was a cheap brand name. Little did I know that Dog Food Advisor gave this particular blend of chicken meal and rice a 4-star rating, out of 5.

It's called SportMix, a small family owned business for over 40 years and has never had a recall. The bloodhounds will start this in a few days since their food is almost out. Heidi started have issues with the food I spoke of a few days ago ... so I am going to try her on the SportMix and see if she responds in a positive way ... or is it just spring allergies popping up.

I may have found the problem with my pictures being blurry early in the morning with a few at any time of day. A reader commented the other day that it might be the inside of my lens not adapting to the change in temperature from inside the house to outside on our walks.

I am thinking it is my laziness. I had forgot to either hold my breath as I took the picture or take a deep breath right before. It also could have been not having my arms tucked as close to my body as possible with my left hand under the lens, forming a human tripod.

Add is some possible light shaking by my hands ... and it all equals blurry pictures.

It's a beautiful day here in 'the tropics of southern Indiana ... by the way ... stay away from that "riff raff", it will get you every time.  LOL

The Rip-Rap Project

My last day of motivation was Saturday ... the day I had two tractor buckets of rip-rap delivered from the landscaping biz just a few lots away.

At that time I was thinking I could finish the project on Sunday but I had no desire until this morning to do any kind of work like that.

 Of course my excuse yesterday was rain .. light rain ... the rain in the forecast. I had convinced myself with rain soaked ground it would be better for setting the rip-rap. It didn't really matter.

Sadie and Stella checked the weather conditions first thing this morning and with a day full of clouds it seemed like a perfect time to at least get this project started.

The first stage was to move this pile of rock to the bottom of the bank. I had ruled out the wheel barrow down the driveway ... If it is not computers, spreadsheets or accounting I have a really big problem with "Murphy's Law" when it comes to projects that involve physical labor. I didn't want to end up as 'road kill' in the middle of the highway, laying next to a wrecked wheel barrow of spilled rip-rap due to excessive speed going down the driveway out of control.

So .... It would be one rock at a time and I was pretty sure I could toss them in that space between the two trees and hopefully the smaller trees at the bottom of the bank would slow down or stop the falling, rolling rip-rap.

I started immediately after the morning hound walk. I put on my gloves but didn't change my shoes into the steel toe boots I wanted to wear. I was that anxious to get started. All went well, with no smashed fingers, no broken toes and all of the rock stayed in the general area after it stopped.

After all the rock had been moved to the bottom of the embankment, I went inside to trade shoes, into the steel toe boots plus take off a long sleeve shirt because that was too hot under a sweatshirt.

I put the smaller pieces into this trash can because I was wanting to fill in an area by the culvert where the earth is washing away. I wasn't sure there would be enough but I could tell by the time I finished how much more I would need. I found dragging this heavy trash can full of small rip-rap was much safer than using a wheel barrow.

The bank just past that fence post is the area in need of some support. It is about 50' or so from the pile of rock that I tossed down the hill. So once again I am picking up and moving one piece at a time until I was down to the lighter pieces where I could carry two. I never do anything the easy way but this gave me a good workout to start the spring and summer activities off.

Many times today I forgot it was still winter on February 22.

I didn't get a picture of the staging area after all of the rock were slid, tossed down the embankment. This one last piece was heavier than I wanted to carry 50' by hand so I'll let it set there until I decide what to do with it.

I had to clear out this area before I laid the rock. With a rake and some limb trimmers it was pretty easy to do. You can see that off to the right and left of the open space at the bottom of the hill. I'll burn that this April. Some of this is double stacked and based on what little water actually moves down this area (very little) it should work. In fact I cannot remember the last time it rained hard enough where water was moving down the driveway and over this area but the bank needed some support.

After 15 years I have retired my Cincinnati Reds ball cap from yard work. It was worn out and the life expectancy of the hat was reduced when it picked up some battery acid while I was repairing the Class C RV I had for a short time in 2013. So, the green and gold of the Sacramento State Hornets officially took the position of my yard work ball cap.

If you remember Stella chewed up my Indiana Football ball cap I would wear while doing yard work last summer.

Those of you familiar with my "Weed Project" in the summer of 2015, will notice I have a different larger trash can for collecting weeds, leaves, sticks or stones. I had to trade this out for the gray one I used for yard work. This blue trashcan would hold my 39gl plastic bag of 13gl bags of trash ... but it would not fit in back of the Mini Cooper Countryman when I would go to the recycling center. They only charge $2 per 39gl bag of trash. That gray trash can fits perfect inside the back of the Countryman. With free unsorted recycling, my trash runs are now about every other month.

I thought the hounds would enjoy being outside while I moved rock to the bank but Stella hated being tethered and never moved. As you can see Heidi was not thrilled being outside at all ... so they stayed locked up in the house while I worked. Sadie loves it outside but has been wandering outside her boundaries lately.

I had about 4 trips left of moving the rock to the bank when I hear this LOUD, clear, bloodhound howl from the opposite end of the house. Since I have not repaired the screen windows from Stella's escape last summer I left the windows open today without a screen ... but only 3"in the room they were staying in.

During my last 4 trips of moving those last few pieces to the bank I had this ugly image of Stella digging through the drywall and house siding, escaping again ... it was an ugly ugly image and one I hoped I didn't see once I finished in a few minutes. I was happy to see as I climbed the hill toward the house that she was NOT standing outside.  LOL

As I slowly opened the bedroom door I was expecting the worse even though Stella has not had any episodes of separation anxiety, destroying things for over two months. She was standing on her hind legs, her front legs on the window sill and her nose in that 3" opening, trying to slide the window upward. Impossible for her to do in that position but she just let me know that she will still try to escape this summer if those windows are left open.

It's been 12 years already since the state highway department tore out all of the highway asphalt and redid the highway from scratch. They also added new asphalt turnouts for the mail carriers, and new shoulders. Because of those changes they had to move my mailbox. I guess they thought the concrete culvert would brace the mailbox pole ... but this area has been a disaster every since.

I knew I did not have enough rip-rap in that trashcan to do the whole area but I at least wanted to get the worse part of the erosion. I will buy more an fill in the rest of the area. The more I look at it, I might take up the rip-rap and add more driveway stone to this area.

I was finished by 11:50am which was great because originally I wasn't planning to get started on this until after 1pm. The area in the driveway where they dumped the rip-rap was cleared out and level. Tools were put away, a quick shower and clean clothes had me on the highway in the Z4 with the top down by 1pm.

The hounds had been fed, inspected my work and were back to sleep by the time I shut the doors. After a nice 50 mile drive, I took the bloodhounds out for their 2nd walk of the day then stayed outside for a while soaking in some Vitamin D from the sunshine. Up to 70° today.

I went cold turkey and stopped taking ibuprofen last fall. I didn't buy a new bottle when I ran out. Instead if I have any muscle soreness I'll pull out the tube sock with two tennis balls inside and tied off. I lay on those. It's great to break up those knots in your back, release any muscle tightness along with hitting some pressure points. Muscle relief without meds. That tennis ball/tube sock idea was suggested to me by an old friend that is a physical therapist.

So far so good as my back and arms feel pretty good after all the bending over and lifting heavy rocks today.

My next project is to try to find that lost steel hinge pin from my lawnmower side shoot protector. That plastic piece blew off during my last mow and I did not see the steel pin wiggle loose. It's in the front yard somewhere. I hope to find it with my rake before my mower finds it later in March. Steel pins and high power mower blades don't mix.

Remember what I said about me and Mr Murphy's Law? That's a fine example.

Project #1 is complete today here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.