Heidi Was Out First For Afternoon Walk

Normally I would have waited and included this in Sunday's blog post but I thought Heidi deserved her own post on her afternoon. There were quite a few readers that followed the blog when Winston was alive ... they were basset hound lovers. Since Heidi doesn't get out much there are only a few of those readers left and enjoy any kind of news about her.

When I announced that 'we are going for a walk' to Sadie and Stella, I heard Heidi jump off the bed and she went running to the door. Could it be true, that she wanted to go on the walk?

When she took an immediate right turn to the front yard I figured that might be all she wanted. Earlier today after lunch she spent over an hour outside by herself while enjoying the warm weather.

So I was somewhat surprised when I turned to check on her and she was slowly running toward me to join us on our afternoon walk.

Just 6 months ago most of that front leg was bare skin. It wasn't raw and sore like it had been the previous two years off and on but the skin was soft and supple, with no hair. With the recent change to SPORTMiX dog food, she has had more hair grow and growing on her four legs than any other time since October 2014.

Some of the other bare spots she was showing up on her rear have grown hair back along with the outside of her ears. There were a few spots on each ear that was losing hair for some reason. I think we are somewhere in the 3rd week of the dog food change and she has never looked better.

While the bloodhounds hung back Heidi took off on the path to gain the lead with her tail wagging and her ears flopping from side to side.

Stella finally passed her and took the lead. I think she tried to intimidate Heidi by walking as close as she could next to her but Heidi did not budge an inch and made Stella walk around her. Stella has even walked on my feet if I am in her way.

A slight uphill grade here and since this is only her second walk of the season I assume she is not in the best walking shape but even today Heidi would trot in different parts of the walk. It didn't take her long to regain the lead.

Does it look like she has gained some of her weight back?

She stopped to pose for the camera but once she heard that shutter pressed she was back to walking in a slow trot.

Sadie got a lot of running in this afternoon. She loves this field and loves her walks.

The best guess and that is all it is when it comes to Heidi's age, is that she will be 8 years old sometime this fall, maybe December. Since she was a runaway and not claimed at her local shelter, the basset rescue service did not have any of her birth records, or previous shot records when they picked her up from the shelter in June 2011.

She finds that walking on the path is much easier than the taller grass.

She looks quite a bit smaller than the bloodhounds but she is feisty enough to hold her own when one of them try to power by her. 99.9% of the time neither Sadie nor Stella will do anything to bother Heidi. I remember when I first brought Stella home, she wanted to get Heidi to play. Heidi wasn't interested and barked enough to let Stella know to back off.

So with a walk plus spending over an hour outside by herself today I think we can officially say it's Spring and we will be seeing a lot more of Heidi in future posts.

Another find day of retirement here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Hounds Vote To Keep Same Blog Theme

It's been a couple of days since I mentioned the idea about changing this blog's theme (template) to one of the new Blogger themes they recently announced.

They are all nice and well designed. It was like the people that designed them took a leave of absence from Wordpress and contracted out some work for Blogger. That is not true about leaving Wordpress, I am only using that as an example to show how similar they are with Wordpress templates.

Even with my nightly consumption of NCAA College Basketball Thursdays thru Sunday night ... I still have had time to look at the new themes, to changed their fonts, colors, add gadgets and see what this blog would look like with the new designs.

Off topic ... We saw our first Robin of the year this morning. I was surprised that Sadie did not chase after it when she glanced over. Also last night while I was sitting on the couch watching the first basketball game, a male Cardinal was sitting just outside the window, looking inside to see how I was doing. I didn't have a camera around to take a picture of him but I hope to see him again soon.

One of the reasons I was thinking about changing themes, was the option they had where the main page of the blog, lists a list of posts in order, each with a short summary and a "read more" link. I cannot be sure but it might cut down on the amount of data used when someone opens the blog. It also might load faster on your phone or tablets.

Sadie was running back to the house when I yelled 'coffee'. That keyword seems to work and they will both head back to the house when I say that. She ran within 15' of the Robin and never changed course ... interesting since she is a qualified bird chaser.

All the new themes had a lot of nice features. If I were starting a new blog I would probably use one of them. After uploading everything this blog has into the new blog I set up so I could look at different themes ... I came to the conclusion this morning around 3:00 am that I didn't see anything that would make me want to change. There were always one or two things I didn't like about the new design.

It's always a possibility later but a lot of the things I see readers using here would be different and harder to find on the new themes. Those things on the sidebars that did show up okay on the new themes, did not look as good since I was changing the default design of the blog.

The hounds were more than happy to keep their blog the way it was. Although they were more interested in getting their first walk of the day. A small chance of rain around mid-afternoon but at least it was 65° when we stepped outside. I don't mind the overcast skies as long as it is warm.

I had decided before starting this walk that I was going to give Stella total freedom. I wanted to see what she would do, with hopes that she would keep up with me and Sadie.

Back to the blog topic, I am going to keep it to one blog post per page. A few people have told me it uses less data with only one post per page instead of multiple posts. I am sure the number of pictures I include is a factor in data usage.

For the few people that have told me they like the option of showing multiple posts with a 'read more' option like the Wordpress blogs have, I guess I can only suggest looking on the right sidebar under the listed Blog Archives to read past blog posts. That would be the only options for those readers that do not stop by every day and might miss past posts of the week or month. Also the daily readers might find that to work okay. I hope so.

I was pretty sure when I took this next picture that Stella was telling me 'thanks but no thanks' and that she had other plans today on the walk. Sadie and I turned the first corner ... I hoped that Stella would not end up back in the neighbor's drainage ditch.

As we walked the sounds of all the different birds talking was loud. It was like they had came from nowhere since the weather was warmer. The sounds did not bother Sadie, as usual she had plenty of scents to check out.

As I turned and did not see Stella, I picked my pace up. I was anxious to get to the final turn of the walk since I was pretty sure Stella was going to end up next door. She might be near the wooded area but also their drainage ditch was a possibility. Sadie lagged behind a little and then sprinted to me as she normally does.

After I made that final turn I didn't see Stella anywhere on the horizon while I looked through my zoom lens set at 200mm. I did not see her anywhere. I was sure she was back in either the neighbor's backyard or down in the drainage ditch again. I didn't run but I was now walking as fast as I could.

Then while scanning the horizon I picked up something kind of rust color ... it moved ... she was near the woods but on the opposite side of them, a distance furthest from my house.

When I yelled her name, she did her normal stare right at me and then went back to what she was doing. One funny thing in his picture and the one above ... the brick house looks like it is so close to the white house but is actually down the hill and across the highway a good distance away.

As I walked calling her name and getting closer ... Stella turned and started her slow walk to Sadie and I. She looked about as sad as a hound could/can look ... almost like she had lost her best friend. What I wouldn't do to know what she is thinking when she looks like that.

Sadie made her mad dash to Stella, touched noses, turned and got her to trot toward us on the path. That didn't mean that Stella was going to increase her walking pace ... it just meant she was on the path home.

There is always something to check out before they get home. They never run out of scents to smell.

At least Stella continued walking non-stop after Sadie and I returned home. She wasn't fast but she was steady.

With my first game not starting until 6pm tonight and with the skies overcast I am going to pull out the ladder and get up on my roof to check the gutters and pick up the small limbs that have blown on the roof. I'll take my camera with me and try to post some rooftop shots later this afternoon or on tomorrows blog post. I always enjoy sitting on the roof to get a different view of the neighborhood.

I have quite a few new limbs to pick up in the yard also ... so after their lunch  of kibble, all three hounds and I will be spending most of the day outside enjoying the nice weather ... unless that rain shows up. So far Heidi is still in her winter routine, not realizing how warm it is outside.

If you have read this far ... I posted all of these pictures today without any editing. Can you see any differences?

My internal clock must have calibrated itself last night because it feels like a Saturday here in 'the tropics' today of southern Indiana.

It's Slo-Motion Friday

You'll notice the field across the highway has changed color. After they spread their fertilizer yesterday the disc's the whole field to mix it in with the dirt. It should rain this week.

I am going to add a couple of pictures to show the operation yesterday afternoon. They are all self-explanatory showing how the piles of fertilizer disappeared. As far as any kind of rude smell ... there was/is none.

Even late morning, it felt like Saturday and I had to remind myself for no particular reason that it was Friday. Most days feel the same when you are retired, living in the land of constant excitement. The pace is face, schedules are full and never a spare minute ... LOL

I guess that is why Stella declared this morning "slo-motion" Friday. She was walking so slow in the house this morning that she actually tripped over her front paw and almost fell down. All from dragging her feet with each step.

Probably the best news of all .... the 60's have arrived. No, not those 60's ... the temps. It looks like from the weather forecast they will be here or higher for the next 7-10 days and that is perfect. Maybe I'll become motivated enough to start my 2017 'to do' list.

Once again the goal was to get Stella around that first turn before I left her alone to do what she wanted. Sadie even circled back a couple of times to touch noses with her to let her know she needed to get with the program and speed it up a little.

She did start trotting to catch up once she saw that Sadie had found something too interesting. There were a lot of new strong scents this morning. Sadie was pretty busy.

It is trying hard to be Spring.

With the slow pace walking, that also seemed to decrease my urge to take pictures. I can't remember the last time I came inside after a walk with only 17 pictures to download. With my first game starting at 7:09pm tonight, I had have plenty of time to add new afternoon pictures and get in a couple more walks.

I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere this morning because both hounds were taking their time. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to make it back to the house sometime today.

I think you can see the effort Stella is putting into her walk. Each paw seemed to feel like they had been dipped in concrete to her. I've said it before, I have never seen a hound walk as slow as she does.

I took a look at the new Blogger themes (templates) last night. I started a new blog to work with so this blog would not go back and forth with all the changes I was looking at, while being actively read.

I have to admit I am not finding many of them that I like enough to change from this design. Since I can changed background colors, fonts, and gadgets, really the only thing I am looking at are the different designs. I tried 5 different designs and made my changes.

In each case, there were 1-2 things with each new template that didn't look good. For example when I added the gadget to list the blog roll, each new template showed slight differences that I did not like. I didn't like the way the images of the hounds looked on the sidebar.

I was under a time limit where at 7pm I turned off the computer (sleep mode) and started watching the basketball games until past midnight. I was still able to get a little over 2 hours of looking at the templates before the games started.

I think I'll feed the hounds, take a walk without the camera and come back inside since it's so windy and reactivate my test blog and look at those templates again.

Need food, need a maid, need an assistant ... all is good here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Stella On Her Own Today

I am anxiously waiting for that week of higher temperatures of 60-70°. I found out really quick this morning it had not started yet. We took our morning walk in 41° weather, but it was still nice.

A couple of trucks had partial loads of fertilizer dumped when we first went outside. By the time I started writing this post there were three more trucks show up and they tripled the amount these first two trucks delivered. One very important thing is ... it doesn't smell while we are out. That might change later but shouldn't be too bad.

Sadie didn't hesitate to let me know she wanted to go on a walk with her infamous stare. You have to admit she is consistent even when she knows I don't go anywhere until I have ingested at least one cup of coffee.

Stella was more than happy to come inside and curl up behind my desk chair for a nap as I scanned my latest sports news and the IU fan forum for the coaching search updates. As of this morning they were showing there had been over 1.2 million views on that forum post, just one post alone.

This was the first load that was delivered.

We headed out for the walk in cool weather but with no wind it was nice. We must of had a field cat in the area last night since both Sadie and Stella went to the same area as soon as they got outside for the walk. I do see a cat at night sometimes as I pull into the driveway. The headlights pick up those cat eyes while sitting in the dark.

I decided before we got outside today that I would let Stella do anything she wanted and go anywhere she wanted ... total freedom. You will see her path from this morning's walk but I am going to talk about different stuff than a verbal description of our walk today. Lots of stuff to cover and more pictures than I have ever added to a blog post, 37.

I have received some feedback from readers about the issue of the yews and septic tank along with the speed in which my blog loads into their computer, table or phones. I am almost certain that changes are on the way. Some will require a lot of manual labor but as I have been walking around the house this past month, surveying for any maintenance that might be needed, I can see that I am going to be a busy tired individual from a lot of manual labor.

I really don't have anywhere to plant them but I hate to let the Yews die while sitting on the burn pile for next fall's bonfire. I've been told that yews have very strong and a very deep root system. I'd have to look to make sure but I think I planted these about 6 or 7 years ago.

I didn't know at the time that my septic tank was right below the yews under the window to the right of the porch. It was described to me that the septic tank was in front of the carport and further down the yard. After finding an old diagram last summer among some house paperwork, I saw that the septic tank was right below the front edge of the yews, or 6' from the edge of the house and only 3' to the right of the porch steps.

Based on the diagram and written notes I am assuming they put in a concrete tank in 1975 with the clay type of pipe. So does it matter that the root system of the yews run deep with a concrete tank?

In today's world of high speed internet, many readers may have high speed with unlimited monthly data. Some may have slow internet speed that takes forever to load a blog like mine with a lot of pictures. I am one of those readers that pays too much for only 15Gb of data per month. I get 2 more Gb's from Verizon on my iPhone so that helps a little I guess.

Other readers have a lot less Gb's per month and when my blog is soaking up their data because of the amount of posts per page or the large numbers of pictures I include in my blog, it might be time to make some changes to the blog with the new Blogger templates available.

I did reduce the number of posts per blog page to one. Ed told me this morning that when he loaded the blog after that change it used half of the amount of data it took to load the previous day with two post per page setting. So that was good news.

I looked at the new Blogger templates last night, Blogger calls them 'themes'. A lot of them had the option that Wordpress has had for a long time, where you open the blog to see a list of blog posts. They have a short written summary with only one picture ... then an option of "read more" that opens to the whole post.

Or there is the option of having a single picture from each post, in columns with dates where you would click the picture to open up that specific post. Depending on how many posts I would adjust the settings to, would determine how fast the blog page would load I guess. I am leaning toward the theme with a list of posts, with short descriptions, one picture and the option to "read more".

That options sounds like it would help a lot of readers by using less of their data and loading faster into their computer, tablet or phones.

I did find a few of the new themes I liked with their default settings, fonts and colors. I would have the option to do changes to colors, format and fonts. Yet ... I like the way the blog looks now, the format, the colors, so it is a hard decision.

Still .... for longtime readers you know how I like change, how I like to mess around with templates, web pages, fonts, etc. Since it's cold outside and the first NCAA games do not start again until tonight ... I have plenty of time today to play around with new blog templates. Of course I will save this blog to my hard drive so if I decide to come back to the same design I can.

My other problem is and I apologize for, I can't seem to keep from loading a LOT of pictures in each blog post. This one has more pictures than I have ever done but I liked the pictures I loaded and only chose 40% from the total amount I took this morning. I put a few of the same pictures on my Facebook account for those few friends that don't read blogs but love the hounds. Stella's original owner and the young lady that gave me Stella like seeing her on Facebook. I don't know if they visit the blog or not.

Then I put a few on my Wordpress blog from this collection because I like that blog personally and have just a few readers that prefer less of my babbling and more pictures.

So let me know how you feel about changes to the blog. Feel free to send me any of your suggestions, complaints, or likes to me by commenting or sending me an email. Sure, I write this blog and it is mine as I have been told ... so "do anything you want" .. but really this blog is yours. You take time to come here and read or look through the pictures of the hounds and I appreciate that.

I like writing and I like taking photos of the hounds so it's an even trade off for all of us.

I go and have gone through periods where I don't feel like blogging but most of the time I have the urge to blog. It was interesting to read Al's process of how he puts his blog together. He too likes to spend time with photography, editing the photos and putting a blog together. I must admit though, after I read his process here I am not sure I would continue to blog on a regular basis.

His blog is fantastic and one that I look foreword to reading every night. His pictures are second to none. I am sure he spends a lot more time, in fact I KNOW he spends a lot more time editing his pictures than I do mine. We both shoot about the same number of pictures per day and we only post on blog post per day.

Yet we each have a different process of putting the blog together. As do ALL bloggers I am sure.

I have had only two people that have blogs, ask me how do I do mine blog on Blogger with the amount of pictures I post ... so here is my process.

1. Download pictures from camera card into my iMac's Apple Photos program

2. I edit each one by clicking the "enhance" button. That will change the color, lighting, contrast etc ... but not the sharpness. I can do that with a different option but usually don't because readers have better eyesight than I do and probably see the pictures being sharp anyway.

3. I then choose which pictures are going to the blog and export them to a folder on my desktop labeled "Blog Public". Due to Bloggers process in importing photos adding a folder to import from was the only option I had with the Apple Photo program.

4. I go into my Blogger dashboard to write a new post. Insert the title.

5. Something probably different than anyone, I load all of my pictures at once, in the order that I took them. Then I import them from the folder on my desktop.

6. I slide the first picture to the left and start writing. Then enlarge each picture as I write in between the photos.

I have been asked WHY do you load all of your pictures first?

I found out two things by doing it that way. It is much faster to put the blog together that way instead of inserting the pictures in certain spots of the content. The BIGGEST difference was getting rid of all the frustration of uneven spaces between pictures and paragraphs. On Blogger, sometimes the spacing between pictures and words would not be the same when I was inserting the pictures one at a time in between the content.

I find the time to put the blog together was much faster loading all the pictures at once before writing anything ... and ... the spacing is ALWAYS the same between written word and pictures.

I put my cursor below the picture, hit the 'return' key ... that creates the even space between the picture above and my paragraph. Then after I finish writing the paragraph the pre-loaded picture below is right next to my sentence, UNTIL I type the period and hit the 'return' key.

That puts the same spacing between words and pictures every time. When I get to the next picture in line, I enlarge it to X-Large, place my cursor in the space between the next pictures and hit the 'return' key.

So there is my blog lesson for today LOL. We all have different ways of putting our blogs together but for me this is the easiest and less frustrating way to do it.

Al, if you are reading this, you are to be commended on the way you do your blog. The time and detail editing you do is more than I could ever do I am afraid. I don't have that much patience.

That is why you have such a great following and a great blog, one of, if not the best blog that I follow. I appreciate all the effort you put into your blog and as all fellow bloggers know, there are times it's hard to put words to print ... even with great fast computers, so I know how hard it is sometimes.

So I am going to end all of this babbling and feed the hounds their lunch. It's already after 1pm local time. I have three hounds 'giving me the eye' so I know they are ready for lunch.

I see I have 37 new tweets about my sports and I am sure once I open my IU fan forum back up I'll have another 8-9 pages of comments to read to get caught up on our coaching change. I am pretty sure who it's going to be. I am a thrilled IU fan if that turns out to be Billy Donovan but I can still live with the other options listed too. Anybody but Tom Crean is good for me.

As you see Stella had a fantastic walk and got some running in, following Sadie more or less and I did not have to go out to get her with a leash.

I thought at this picture she was going to head to the neighbors so I stood silently watching but she had only found one specific spot that she was not going to leave.

Sadie and I left her out there and came back inside. By the time I took off my coat, poured my 2nd cup of coffee and started downloading the blog pictures ... she was still outside in the same spot.

As I walked out toward her calling her name, she looked up and started trotting toward me and then ran back to the house. She is a great bloodhound with a funny personality. I am still happy that I decided to pick her up in August 2015.

Remember to let me know if you like the upcoming blog changes and tell me what you would like to see or not see on the blog. Or any suggestions that will help load the blog faster for you no matter what tool you are reading from.

It looks like they will be spreading some fertilizer today with rain a couple of days away.

It took 2 hours and 7 minutes to put this blog together for those readers that are curious. It normally doesn't take that long.

Life is good here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.