August 31, 2017

Feels Like A Friday -- It's Thursday

I guess you can call it my new routine ... normal computer, coffee, morning hound walk ... then 2-egg sandwich with tv news turned on since the hurricane hit SE Texas and then flooding in Houston. Luckily tonight the IU vs OSU game is on at 8pm ... college football is here !!!!





Sadie had a LOT of energy this morning and ran all over the field. She was having fun. Stella even showed more energy than normal. She followed out path until her normal spot in the back part of the field. I have stopped giving her buffered aspirin the past week to see what she do.


I need to make an effort to apply the K9 Klear on a regular basis because I think it helps and works on her 'elephant spots'.


With Sadie way behind us, Stella trotted out in front from the first corner to the spot on the right which is full of deer scat.


Here is Sadie doing some all out sprinting ...




She ran all the way out into the middle of the rear part of the field ... then sprinted over to me by the hay rolls.





It looks like Christopher took my suggestion to check out where the deer enter down into the wooded gully. I never hear his ATV but from this path that was not there yesterday afternoon, he made a lot of trips sometime this morning or late last night. Maybe he is setting up one of his field cameras.


Once Sadie saw where Stella was ... she took off running again ... she got a lot of running in this morning and is now asleep next to my chair right now.



I had to walk over again this morning to tug Stella's collar to get her to move.




This bee is alive and as deep inside the flower as possible.


By the time I got to the corner of the house, Stella was trotting home.



Then she stopped with Sadie ... I thought I might have to go back out into the field to get them.


But she trotted home when I called her name. She is now asleep next to Sadie behind my chair.


It's going to be another good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

August 30, 2017

Today Was Productive


I didn't know it this morning when we headed out for our walk, but today turned out to be very productive with dishes finished, house vacuumed, laundry done, shower and shave. I'll dust a little tonight and might wash walls tomorrow. We still got two hounds walks in and almost a third.


I thought about leaving Stella to do her own thing this morning and even expected I would return home after the walk without her. I decided again at the last minute that I did not want to do that. So I walked all the way back to tug at her collar to get her to move my direction.


She is still a good bloodhound but for some reason she has fallen in love with deer scat.



Sadie waited for us to catch up. The morning was nice and cool, and at the time I had no plans.


I also took off the lens hood for all of these pictures. I think that is what I am going to do from now on ... keep it off. I just remembered I keep forgetting to change the photo size in the html before posting.



I can see a difference in them morning pictures without the hood on the lens. I like these better. Yet, I have never had the same full color quality as I did the first time I was shooting pictures with the new camera. Is that because I was shooting them in "raw" setting and a larger size?





This is my view from my "Mahjong Desk" ... at the kitchen table on the MBA usually playing Mahjong.


While I was trimming some of the limbs on the Sycamore tree after lunch, Heidi decided to sit out in front to soak up some rays. She is a great basset hound. I wonder how bad she was treated since she was always running away and ending up in the local animal shelter before I got her?



By late afternoon I thought we'd sit outside and enjoy the weather while Sadie and Stella roamed the field. The only problem with that was, they did not want to roam the field ... they wanted to eat deer scat.


In the yard they also like to eat the fresh dirt pushed up by yard moles.





A little bit of house work wears me out usually. Combine that with a large plate of pasta and I could almost take a nap.

All is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

August 29, 2017

Heidi Went On A Walk Today



Today started like all the others. It's hard to blog when my days rarely change and I am not going to start looking for things to do or pictures to take just to blog. I cannot complain about the weather, especially after see all the people in the SE Texas area. It's just hard to imagine where all those people will go and how much they have lost due to the Hurricane and floods.



You know, I don't even feel like writing here right now so I am just going to let the pictures tell the story.







I think Heidi may be having some old age hip trouble. She walks slower than she normally does but she did make the whole walk today. I am beginning to think I need to buy the hip supplements for her and Stella.












It's always a good day when Heidi takes a walk here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella's Condition Update

It's been about 6 months since Stella started losing a lot of weight, getting down to 65 pounds in April. Since that time she has gained some weight but could gain more. Kelly commented on the public blog a few weeks ago that she thought Stella looked good. Stella's energy is normal. Her water intake and appetite have never changed ... they are normal.





All of her coat is course and has very little black hair mixed in like her tail. When I got her in August 2015 her coat looked like Sadie's in color and a soft texture. You can barely see that inside her lower legs there is a loss of hair. It's not mangey or raw but looks dark like some sort of skin infection.


She loves eating deer scat and spends more time doing that than anything else. I hate that habit. Recently I have had to tug her at the collar to pull her away from the scat. She does not resist me like she has in the past.


She doesn't run like she use to. She will trot but no full speed running.



I have thought of buying a different kind of high protein dog food just for her. It is sad to see how much she has changed since August 2015 or even this time last year, a year ago.


I will keep monitoring her health for any improvements and document them here.