Stella Disappears

I was going to blog about Stella's disappearance on the public blog up until the time I downloaded the pictures into my iMac. I did not blog about her disappearance before, when she did this exact same thing last spring. I had to ask myself why blog about it? Am I just wanting to generate blog traffic? Am I wanting to see what kind of response I get or the comments it receives? Why am I blogging every day publicly anyway? So ... I came here to document the disappearance.


I am going back to commenting BEFORE the photos instead of after them. It makes more sense and is also easier today when I list photos without comments. Our walk this morning started out like all of the, except this one was around 9am. That's fine as we have been starting our walks later in the day this past week.

I wasn't going to take the camera this morning but I am glad I did after what happened. For some strange reason I thought about notifying Kelly and have her put the new blog on their blog sidebar. Since my story of blog stalkers and threats are not true, it would not matter if the blog was listed. Of course, Chinle might see it and then would be able to keep track of what the hounds and I do.

Since I am undecided about the future of public blogging, I'll not ask Kelly to add the Wordpress blog to the list. Afterall I have used 15% of my 3Gb of free photos before I would either have to make version 2.0 of the blog or pay a monthly fee for expanded photo storage just for a blog.

I am two days away from my Facebook account being permanently deleted. That means if I were to log back into my Facebook account AFTER August 28th, I'd have no history, no friends, no photos. I would have to go back and block all the people I don't want finding me nor have a desire to see their accounts. I do miss Facebook "just a little" ... the photos for the FJ Group were fantastic but mostly off road mods and rock climbers. I do miss seeing what a few of my friends are doing. But really they were just "Facebook Friends" that never really kept in touch with me in real life ... except for a couple.

Twitter gives me all the sports news and photos I need. Most of those people have duplicate info on their Facebook accounts. I never heard back from Stephanie concerning Stella.

I knew at this point of the walk that I would be letting Stella do whatever she wanted. Most of the time she is up near the first corner when I leave her behind and then she will wander over toward Haslers or behind Lueking's backyard.

It was this picture that I thought about later when I didn't see her anywhere in the field as got closer to home. Had she gone into the woods? That is the only place she could have gone because she was nowhere in the field outside of her normal places.

Sadie will always look back to see where Stella is.

The sunshine is out an hour later but from this photo you would think today was going to be overcast and cloudy.

Sadie took off looking for Stella as we came to the first corner. Stella was nowhere in sight along the horizon. I looked from the woods on the left, across the field and to the right toward Haslers.

Stella was gone ... I suspected she was in the woods to the left, where I last saw her with her nose to the ground.

In 20 years of living here I have only walked in this woods a few times, probably less than 5 times. It's always wet and muddy down below as I found out that time I was looking for Bertha. But today the ground was dry and it was really nice back in here. I should go back and explore more.

No signs of Stella anywhere. I called her name over and over, hoping to see her come running through the woods ... but did not see her anywhere.

I can see why Lueking's son and grandchildren were walking through this woods last December ... it's nice and easy to move through.

Just think ... this woods rebuilds itself naturally. For all the fallen, rotted trees on the ground, there are new ones growing, with tree trunks only 3" to 6" in diameter.

I was actually shocked I did not see Stella in these woods.

A final check of the field. Sadie and I walked over to the edge of Hasler's drainage ditch ... no sign of Stella. Luckily I did not see her laying by the side of the highway, although traffic is really lite for a Saturday morning.

Sadie was looking through the yard, ran to the carport door and then the front yard looking for Stella ... I left her inside and then drove the FJ back to the turkey farm behind us. Stella was nowhere in view.

I was gone for 8 minutes looking for her in the FJ. It had been 38 minutes since we started the walk. As I pulled into the driveway there was Stella in the carport, walking out to the front to meet me. She was happy I was home. She did her normal 'poking' me with her nose, smelled my hair and then tried opening the round door handle as Sadie and Heidi barked from the inside.

I'll not blog about this. But it's good to document it here. I hope I can find the "label" from the last time she did this so I can keep all of her disappearances together.

For not doing a lot except watering my flowers on occasion, they are looking pretty good. It will take 2-3, maybe 4 years before these plants grow enough to look good. I don't miss the large yews.

The hounds are sound to sleep. I've had my coffee but need some oatmeal for breakfast. Plus I need to start cooking a large pot of beans for later today and the next few days. My problem is, once they are finished cooking, they taste so good I cannot stop eating them. They don't last longer than 2 days.

I'm glad Stella's back. She acted happy that I came home.

Sadie And Stella Run Away

This morning's walk started out like all other daily walks. When they took off running I didn't realize they would not stop and run out of sight. Evidently we had just missed deer in the field.

Another great day to get things done here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Deer Sighting

The weather forecasts were correct, it was 60° this morning as we started our morning walk. As I write this a little before 10am, it's 64° and hard to believe for August weather in this location. It will take all day to get up to 79° but that is still cool enough for the hounds to get 3 walks in today ... hopefully Heidi was join us.

Same routine, same path most of the time ... only this morning Stella and Sadie strolled together for most of the walk.

I am finding there isn't really much to say about this morning's walk. I could have started a couple of hours earlier and then lead into my 'to do' list but I still have a lot of time to get a lot of things done today. This cooler weather has motivated me today.

It's good to see that Stella's tail is in the upright position ... it's a good sign she is feeling good again.

I didn't know it at the time I took this picture, but Sadie had picked up deer scent. She did not take off, nor did Stella to chase them. She was looking in the right direction.

As I made the final turn, I looked over to my right along the wooded area and 4-6 deer were scattering and sprinting from the field to the woods. I only caught these two. Many more were further to their left.

Stella stopped and looked, sniffed in that direction, she was in a postion staring that direction I was certain she was going to take off running in that direction. When I told her "you're too late, they are gone" ... she turned and walked my direction.

Deer in the area that they did not see did not seem to be a big deal to them. They had other stuff they wanted to check out before I caught up to them. They took off running way ahead of me.

It took some coaxing but I was able to get both of them moving in my direction home.

Sadie acted as if we should keep walking somewhere, as she was not ready to come inside. It was a great walk with no humidity, no mosquitoes, and was cool t-shirt weather. It should be a great day to get a lot of low priority stuff done today. The AC is turned off and all the windows are open, with a good chance of that happening for the next 10 days.

I was so happy with the performance of the 'beta' version of Apple's new macOS High Sierra on my laptop computer, that yesterday afternoon I installed it on my iMac. Here is a preview of the improvements, macOS.

A few of the things I have noticed is a faster Safari browser, really faster. I've made it my default browser again and put Google Chrome back on the shelf in the Apps Folder, out of sight. The editing features in the Photo program are much more detailed, some professional settings that I will probably never use.

Of course with any OS change I've had to make some adjustments. I mentioned the other day my 2011 version of Microsoft Office for Mac would not work on the new OS after October. Microsoft was no longer going to support that with updates. They are wanting everyone to buy their 2016 version. For the 'basic' stuff I do in Excel I didn't need a new Office package.

I did a lot of searching, reading and testing Apple Numbers that came free with my computer. By the end of Tuesday I had converted all of my Excel spreadsheets to Numbers with no issues. I also converted all of my Word Docs to Pages.

I finally found out how to link cells between spreadsheets. I didn't find it in my 100's of internet searches or reading the forum full of Mac geeks. I even posted my question on that forum and didn't get an answer on how to link cells from different spreadsheets. I did not find my answer in Apple Support ... I found it on my spreadsheet after it was converted to Apple Numbers. By highlighting the cell I wanted to link to, it showed me the formula.

So all is good migrating from Microsoft Office to Apple iWork programs and they are free.

On a closing note, all of the plants I planted a few weeks ago are too far under the roof overhang to get rained on. After our night of rain on Monday night, I could tell the next morning what plants got watered by the rain and which ones did not ... none of them were touched by the rain. The Yews were like that but I never had to water them after they matured.

It's fantastic weather today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Will Deal With Rain Today

I guess with all the eclipse excitement yesterday someone is allowed to yawn while they do their morning stroll. Or was it that I had a different sleep schedule last night, where the hounds moved from the living room to their bedroom spots around 5am. I'll get to that story later. In the meantime they just finished their morning walk this morning five minutes before it started raining.

Even though we moved at 5am, they had been sleeping all night in their normal living room spots while I worked on my computer. I was still able to get a little over 3 hours of sleep which put their breakfast kibble before 8:30am, so they were fine with that. Weather radar was showing there was no time for two cups of coffee before a walk ... so a 30 minute break after they ate, we headed outside.

Sadie was going all different directions in the field, too fast to catch on camera ... or was it too fast for me to react with my lack of sleep?

She checked with me often to see if she could roam on her own or were we in a hurry to beat the rain.

Even Stella picked up on the urgency to keep going because you could feel that rain was in the air. I guess that is to be expected after a day of history taking place yesterday, although not really witnessed where we sat in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I found out on this walk that I am Stella's best friend when she hears thunder rolling in the skies. She came with a history of fearing thunderstorms when I brought her home August 2015 but I have seen very little anxiety from her when it storms. Yet, this morning when she heard the thunder she didn't waste anytime getting to my side as soon as possible. She trotted quickly across the field to meet me on the path, then stayed next to my side out of camera range for most of the return trip.

Is Stella smelling deer in the air or is it rain that has her nose pointed toward the north? This about the time the sound of thunder changed her plans.

It must have been deer scent she was smelling because the storm clouds were coming from the West, not the direction she was facing.

As the thunder continued to sound off, the hounds were never called by name to keep going. They may have searched on the way but they kept up with my pace all the way to the house.

I thought about cropping Stella's tail out of the picture but decided to leave it ... I like to keep the pictures as original as possible, even if they are a bad picture quality.

I'll try to keep this next story short but wanted to relay it to you just to show how 'little errors' can add up to disaster, even if you are experienced doing your hobby. My long time friend from college that is into canoeing, planned a trip in advance, to be on the water during the eclipse.

He spent weeks looking for the perfect starting point of his canoe trip on the Ohio River toward SE Illinois yesterday so he would experience total eclipse darkness while on the water.

He called me late last night to let me know he was one very lucky man.

• Rowed 16 miles west on the Ohio River in a canoe for his planned location to witness the eclipse.


• Forgot to clear the used memory of his iPhone before he left on the trip.
  
  
  
  • When trying to make a video during the eclipse his phone stopped after 2 minutes because all of his memory was used with prior videos still on phone.
  
  
  • "Out of Service" area -- can't call anyone


• Turns down an offer from two photographers BEFORE his arrival, to tow him back with their motorized boat after the eclipse.
  
  
  
  • They called him when they returned and saw his car was still in the parking area next to theres but his phone did not have area service. He did not hear the call.
  
  
  • He found this out after he returned and callled them to tell them thanks for the offer.


• With winds, an unexpected thunderstorm, "high seas" and a strong under current to row against ... he thinks he may have made a 'fatal' error.


• With changes in weather conditions and big waves on the Ohio River ... it turns dark earlier than normal with the storm passing through.


• Luckily makes it back to his car 16 miles later ... charges his phone and finds cell service while driving, to call his wife.

He told me after thinking about what he had done, he knew he would have never attempted that return trip even in daylight hours ... but was stuck ... he had no choice because even if he went ashore he was so far out in the boonies away from a road or town it would not have made a difference.

He is someone who has a lifetime of backpacking experience in the western states and Alaska. Plus he has rowed his canoe on the Ohio River many times in good weather. He came up to my local lake last fall where we canoed for the afternoon. He is almost at the level of being over causeous with safety before going out on the water ... yet yesterday was much different with a lot of small unexpected changes.

Now ... why was I up until 5am.

I had thought about it last week but it wasn't until 12:30am last night that I decided to try Apple's new beta version of their new OS called High Sierra. The few times I have tried beta versions in the past I have had good luck with them and no major problems.

I did not have any problems last night ... just a slow download and a super slow install, taking almost 4 hours total.

I will write a separate post about that operating system, so it might help some of you that have Apple computers. Many of you may use your tablet or smartphone to read the blog, so in that case there is a beta version of their new iOS for the iPhone and iPad but I prefer to wait until the official release when trying it on the phone. Right now I have the beta version of High Sierra downloaded on my laptop, not my main computer, the iMac.

After today the rain will pass through, humidity will leave and that weather front coming down from Minnesota will leave us with some nice cool temps to close out August.

I have more reading to do about Apple Numbers so I can convert all of my Excel spreadsheets ... WHY???  You guessed it ... the new operation system will not recognize (supposedly) Microsoft Office product. Although on my beta copy I was able to open my Excel spreadsheets and input numbers.

Busy day here today while the hounds sleep ... all is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.