Alternate hunting

Normally my hawking gives me an outlet for my blood lust, but things are far from normal this year. We took Jessie out yesterday in the hopes that she would find something to hunt.

The ranch next door is my best chance, I should say, my only chance to find some Ducks. The migration really has not set in as of yet, so the birds that I have available are the residents.

When I hunted there a couple of days ago, I found a bunch of Gadwalls in a little gravel pond that can best described as puddle. It is in the same field where the ranch's remuda is kept. Their horses are not like most horses, these come to you when you enter the field prepared to be caught up and used. Jessie really doesn't pay much attention, but it can be a bit of a pain when you are trying to call her down. I had helpers this time to distract the horses.

I was stuck this time, it was the pond or nothing. The rest of the creek had a pile of Cows in the fields on either side of the Creek. Cows are not at all interested in seeing anyone in the same field. They seem to have a guilty conscience, and are quite sure that you have evil intent concerning them and stampede in the worst possible direction.

I turned Jessie loose, and it soon became obvious that the pond was empty this time, and she was flying quite wide of the pond. She did get a lot of exercise however and eventually went to sit on the hay in a Stack yard in the next field.

While Tammy, Tara and George distracted the horses, I went to the far end to call her. The little darling at the first part of the season, always wants to be cute. Well, its her idea of cute. This consists of trying to see if she can rip the food off the lure by hitting and grabbing it at full speed as she rips by. Eventually she will quit that, but she tries any way. Even if she does manage, she will fly back to the lure when she finishes what she stole. Having seen this routine before, I always make sure there is something in the garnish on the lure is sturdy enough to withstand this kind of treatment.

Well she hit it twice, hard. She didn't get anything however, and tiring of this, I tossed the lure in front of a big pile of Greasewood, so that if she did try to carry it, she would land in the Greasewood. Well this is as familiar to her as her routine is to me. Plus she lost sight of it and landed instead on a fresh pile of horse shit. Unfortunately no one was able to record that for prosperity. She soon recognized her mistake and ran over to the lure.

As you might remember I have always had trouble picking her up off the lure. I am sure sometime in the far past, I have pushed her a bit too much and created the indelible thought in her little brain that I really do not have her best interests to heart, and even though I have just given it to her, my actual ambition is to take it away from her and eat it myself.

I have found it best to stay back a bit, and let her eat the garnish on the lure and then offer her the rest of her meal on the fist. George thought that her running style is cute, so her wanted to video it. He used his Smart phone so the size of the picture is a bit different. You can see her attitude when she decides that George is a bit close. It is also interesting to note that situations such as that triggers not the instinct to flee, but to fight.

 https://vimeo.com/77189128

password is : owyheeflyer

We still do not have a decent place to hunt Rabbits. I have therefore decided that I will give Puddy Tat to a fellow that lives on the West side of Oregon. He has huntable populations of Eastern Cottontails there. I will Keep Yogi at least for the time being. The State Falconry meet is the 24th of the month and I will take her there and give her to him then.

So now with time on my hands, I have decided that I well do a bit of Varmint hunting. Coyote hides brought an average of $40.00 each, with Bobcats bringing $525 last year. The guy that has taught me how to skin Coyotes  and Cats can manage the job in about 15 minutes. I am down to about an hour and half so far.

I gave my trapper friend the furs and the dead Coyotes that I got over the season and the deal was that I would get half when he sold the furs. I cleared $730. However I suspect that he was a bit more generous than he really needed to be. I bought a varmint rifle and the other stuff that an "elderly kid" felt necessary to pursue this new hobby. Of course I blew the first one up if you remember, but the company felt guilty and gave me another. I am sure that you might find it hard to believe, but the gun was actually faulty.

Well it just so happens that Oct is a good month to start. The Coyotes are wearing their winter clothes. So far I have two.

With as many Cows as they have at the ranch it is inevitable that some will die from various mishaps, or eat something that is poison and die. When they do it doesn't take long for the Coyotes to take advantage of the windfall. When the population is high they can clean up a full grown Cow in as few as three or four days. The last mishap occurred as they were preg. testing the Cows. One of them would not go through the chute, balked and started to jump the chute walls, changed her mind and ran into the wall and broke her neck. With 300 or more Cows to do, they just pulled her out in the Sage to a bone yard.

George and I went there this morning at day break to see if we could get one of them.

  This guy was chewing on the neck, and didn't see us. He never got out of his tracks.

As you can see he is holding a lot of beef in his tummy.

I spent the day skinning, fleshing and washing hides. Oh well it takes my mind off the political bullshit going on.