What Squirrel?

As some of you may have noticed on my other blog yesterday afternoon, Heidi did something she has never done in the 7 years she has lived here. After a short trip outside right after lunch with Sadie and Stella, about an hour later she walked past me and stood at the door to be let out. What took place in the next 2 hours and 45 minutes was funny, interesting and even a little weird for her.

When she did not come back to the door to be let in soon after going outside, I glanced out the windows to see if she was laying in the sunshine, something she has always enjoyed doing on hot sunny days. I did not see her in the backyard nor the front yard. So I grabbed the camera and started my search.

It didn't take long to see her over behind the burn pile, a place I had never seen her go before. Even though she is in perfect health my mind for a few short seconds thought the worse. Then when she glanced at me but didn't move, didn't wag her tail I wondered if she had hurt herself or had a tick bit her making her feel this way. It happened to Sadie a few years ago, where I blogged about it.

As I zoomed in the camera I could see she was just laying there in the shade on a really hot day. Was the 76° inside the house too cool for her? Or did she just feel like getting away for some private time.

I want back to the house and decided to sit by the door at the kitchen table to play some Mahjong on my laptop in case she walked to the door wanting inside. But an hour passed and I went outside to check on her ... here was what I found ... in a deep sleep taking an afternoon nap. I could tell by the way her ear laid, she was in a dream state of sleep.

I quietly turned and headed back to the house, letting her sleep. ANOTHER hour passed, no Heidi ... once again I walked out to check on her and saw that she had moved a little deeper into the brush. You might notice she did that to stay in the shade. She seemed more than content, so I returned to the house.

30 minutes later same thing ... she is back to a sound sleep. By this time it had been a little more than 2-1/2 hours since she went outside by herself.

Finally not quite 4pm she decided it was time to head back inside ... she had a nice afternoon of sleeping, almost 3 hours worth.

I am liking this range of temperatures .... high 80's during the day, hot like I like it and into the 60's at night where you can sleep with the windows open. The humidity has not kicked in full time yet.

Sadie was off as soon as we started this morning, thinking she was seeing birds in her field. I did not see any get airborne but something made her dart all over the field.

Stella continues to start each walk out well. By the time we turn that corner up ahead, our recent walks, morning and afternoon have turned into what I call 'work'. Too much verbal herding is needed and a few times all out begging is used to get her headed our direction. She is one stubborn bloodhound.

Sadie was getting  a lot of running in this morning.

Stella veers off on her own walk ... but I eventually talked her into joining us by the time we got to the back of the field. I have the feeling she would love to wander off toward the north woods since her failed attempt this past weekend.

With rain on the way and days full of sunshine, these freshly planted fields are going to change over night with growth.

Normal routine ... we get back from the walk, the hounds sleep, I download the photos edit them and then upload them into my Flickr account for free online storage. It wasn't too far past 11:30am where Heidi and Stella demanded lunch by barking and howling. Of course Sadie is ready to eat anytime day or night.

It was not has hot as yesterday and in fact didn't feel that hot to me at all. I had just finished mowing the yard an hour earlier, continuing my mowing every 3rd day to keep up ... but the hounds only wanted to head back inside.  In fact Stella never left the driveway and Heidi trotted toward the door.

While the hounds slept the afternoon away I could get back to the book I just started reading the night before. I couldn't put it down and had to force myself to stop reading and go to sleep last night. I have been following his blog for years but did not buy the book when it came out in 2014. I thought it was just a reprint of his blog with photos ... things that I had already read and photos I had seen.

That was not the case at all ... in fact it has not only no photos, it has no chapters. I like that.

A book titled Freedom At Both Ends of The Leash occupied my time this morning from the time we got back from the morning walk throughout the afternoon, only with a break for my hour siesta. I finished the book of 204 pages just in time for Sadie's afternoon walk, after starting it around 6pm yesterday.

To the south the skies looked like the forecast was correct ... to the northeast rain was not even a thought.

It never matters to Sadie how hot it is, was or going to be .. she just loves taking the walks. Those are in addition to the time where I let her out each afternoon for about an hour, letting her roam the field at will. Sometimes she will return to the door on her own but most of the time I stand outside and yell her name. On rare occasions I need a pair of binoculars to find her.

As Sadie and I headed for the back of the field, Stella took the old ATV path to meet us on the way back. She does that only on her afternoon walks, it's not part of her morning routine. Funny how many different routines she has, much different than Sadie.

Looking this direction the talk of rain was just a rumor ... but at least the yard was mowed just in case it rained later or within the next few days.

If you walked with Stella in the afternoons you would think she might be on her last legs as she drags her feet through the field, barely able to left one paw in front of the other. When you can see her tongue hanging out, you know it's hot.

As I took my first step into the yard I couldn't believe what I saw with the hounds walking behind me. Stella was still out in the field but Sadie was a few feet behind me. This is the squirrel Sadie will chase at a full sprint from the time she steps outside in the carport toward the squirrel sitting on the fence.

But this afternoon that squirrel was caught red handed in the yard not 20' away. It stood motionless as I focused my camera.

I turned around to check on the hounds. You can see that Stella is still quite a bit away but I was positive that Sadie would take off sprinting any second after the squirrel.

I turned back to the squirrel that was still there sitting motionless. So still it let me take more photos of her.

As I walked slowly closer I was shocked she did not take off into the field.

I was even more shocked the hounds had not even noticed her nor showed any kind of interest in her. If you look closely at the left year of the squirrel I am pretty sure that is a tick on it's ear, full of blood showing it's been attached for quite a while.

What do you think ... 8'-10' separating the three and not even a look in the squirrel's direction.

As the hounds slowly walked past her, never responding, the squirrel hopped to the center of the yard behind the hounds. She even turned to look at them just as shocked as I was.

Well I have caught up with real time as they say. A day and a half of photos included. So tomorrow's should be just a day of photos and not as many as today. This schedule of posting late afternoon or early evening already feels like a better time. I am still not sure if I'll do this daily but I would think at least every few days.

Blog readers left in droves in 2015 when I announced I would not be traveling with three hounds and I would not be buying a RV. At that time Stella had not arrived. A few stayed around as the blog changed from RV thoughts to more of daily lives of the hounds in Indiana, but more left when I decided to move this blog to Wordpress. Yet I have even ran off more readers with I guess taking time off ... or maybe they can see how bored I am with the blog the past few months by the way I write. Anyway, blog visitor numbers are down to a trickle.

Blog traffic numbers have always interested me for some reason. Maybe I am trying to justify the time it takes to put a post together or is it that result that internet research has found in today's world of social media of needing "likes" or comments etc ... all ego based.

Who knows.

I just know that Sadie is standing next to me wanting to go outside again. Stella is sleeping so close to my chair that I can't roll it back from the desk to stand up and walk away, while Heidi is stretch out as far as possible sleeping soundly on the couch. (she was when I started this) ... so it's time for some dinner, catch up on sports news of the day and prepare for the late start (10:15pm) of the Reds game in San Francisco.

I think we will be back the same time tomorrow.

'The tropics' of Southern Indiana has been awfully nice lately.

Where Did Heidi Go ??

With temperatures close to or a little above 90° after their lunch at 11:30am, none of the hounds stayed outside more than few minutes. 30 minutes after coming inside Heidi was standing at the door wanting to go back outside. I figured it would be a quick trip and she would be back at the door wanting in where the rooms were filled with air-conditioned air. When I looked outside 30 minutes later she was not in her normal spots she likes to lay in the sunshine. So I grabbed the camera not knowing she would be somewhere for the first time ever, in her 7th year living here. You will notice as time passed she would move to keep in the shade ... these photos covered almost a 3 hour time period.

Summer's Officially Here

The air conditioning was turned on last yesterday afternoon as all three hounds started panting with their tongues hanging out of their mouths ... inside the house. That's the official look to turn on the AC for another summer of high temps and high humidity. Who's complaining? Not I, I love hot muggy weather and will take this over those 7° days just a few months ago.

Again the field looked like it had grown another 6" overnight, but this portion of the field is always the tallest of all 7 acres. All the underground water flows this direction and it has a lot of afternoon sunshine. At least we could still see which way to go.

While Sadie charged out in front, I was reminded that yesterday Stella tried her best to take off to the north woods. It got to the point of no return as I watched her and listened to her ignore my calls. I had to take off sprinting to catch her. She wasn't running but had her head down and was walking at a fast pace, almost past the 2nd house north of us.

So today the focus was to keep her walking with Sadie and I ... but it was hotter than normal this morning. She slowed to her afternoon pace which is almost like me walking in slow motion, yet I wasn't going to let her fake me out today with that ... then attempting to escape.

Do you notice anything different in the picture below?

I did not see any beaten down grass, nor any kind of path but something just barely inside the brush had Sadie and Stella's attention. A lot of verbal commands were needed to get them to move. It was hot, muggy, not even 9am and the gnats were out in force.

Not even halfway through the walk my hiking boots are completely saturated.

I was curious enough to check last year's blog posts to see when we turned on the air conditioning. That is one thing that is good about a blog, it makes it easy to find answers for questions concerning the house, the hounds, the vehicles, weather or myself. It wasn't until the 2nd of June that the AC was turned on and a week later where it seemed to be running full time.

Why does Stella cry like she is in pain ... when I sneeze ??

By the time I turned around Sadie was headed into the brush and Stella was about to follow her. What was leading them out of bounds??

Calling their names and telling them no got both of them back on the walk with each hound going their own separate ways.

After yesterday's escape by Stella, Sadie was going to keep a close eye on her. She did this various times throughout the walk this morning, just to make sure that Stella was still in view.

"After further review" as they like to say in NFL games ... I have decided this morning they planted corn in the back field and not soybeans like I guessed last week.

Can you feel the 'mugginess' in those photos?

What a difference a few months makes in the weather here and the color of the fields.

At this point in time I wasn't sure if Stella was going to make it back to the yard before noon. Each step was deliberate, no signs of being in a rush and no signs of veering off course. Would she make it home by noon?

She made it to the yard about 5 minutes later but still at the same pace. She can tell it's hot and in that case she does nothing fast or normal ... everything is slower for her.

While my mind was daydreaming yesterday I thought that I might start blogging again at the end of the day instead of this time of morning. I know that will not change your reading habits nor is it an attempt to. It's just a warning that new posts may not happened until late afternoons or early evenings. That way I can decrease some of the morning photos, add some afternoon shots that would include Heidi and include a whole day not just the morning walk.

Just because the temperatures are above Heidi's threshold for activity does not mean she wakes up any earlier. She isn't real active and photogenic until after her lunch.

If anyone would like to live in 'the tropics' the house next door is going to be for rent. My neighbor of one year, that works in the Texas oil fields and stays up here a week per month, moved out last week. I knew something was going one when the satellite installers were taking his satellite dish down without replacing it. I also saw some loaded pickup trucks pulling away from the house.

Not sure when it will rain again after a forecast of a 'wetter than normal' summer ... and I don't know if my last place Reds will ever lose again since they are on a 6 game winning streak. (Have I jinxed them?) Besides, I'm back on Facebook and even signed up for an Instagram account last night so I could find some old bloggers that moved to Instagram. I can also follow that 'vanlife' group.

Does it really matter if you try to hide from Google if you have used Blogger for years and have gmail as your email service, both owned by Google ... the lightbulb finally came on inside my head and I realized they already had info on me that would never disappear so back to Google Chrome I came. It uses less data than Apple's Safari does.

I may have finally found an 'in home' pet sitter ...  waiting for a reply from her.

That's about it for this morning from 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... air conditioning was a great invention.