It doesn't always work out the way that you want.

 I have been working hard here at the place. I installed an electric gate on the driveway. Its always a pain in the butt when the rancher next door turns his cows out. There is little feed for them, and the smell of my hay stack requires that we keep the gate closed. Karen and I both hate opening and closing gates. At one time someone who lived here had an electric gate, so the idea has been lying there rotting away my resistance. Finally Costco had a sale on the one that I needed, so there went some more of my "summer wages" It took me most of a day to get it installed. I had to load up my cutting torch in the quad trailer to rid myself of some of the earlier attachment points. Everything seemed to be working satisfactorily, then the wind came up yesterday. I was a bit surprised at how much resistance a 20 MPH wind can cause. I had to adjust the "closing force" to counteract the wind.  Then I spent some time wiring the hanger with some flood lights so that I can see the area that I skin Coyotes.

I decided that it was time to do a bit more hunting, so I set my inner alarm for 5 AM. When I woke this morning, I grabbed a couple pieces of toast and headed to Bogus Creek.

I got there just as the Sun began to light up the sky. Coyotes were howling their greeting to the Sun down the creek towards the line Shack. The wind was also blowing that way, so I decided to go upstream to a couple of little springs, and try my hand there.

                                The moon set as the sun rose in the sky.

The normal set up to call Coyotes is to find an area that has some Coyotes, find a good field of fire, facing into the wind, with your back to something to block your outline. Now I am new at this, and the learning curve is pretty steep. As they say, " Even a blind Hog finds an acorn now and then", and I have been pretty lucky so far, and an accurate flat shooting rifle will go a long way to even the odds. Now someone who has never matched wits with Willy C might think it is a piece of cake. Not so!

The last Coyote that I called got suspicious out about 200 yards, and the rifle turned the tables for me. I have been told that one should have both a rifle and a shotgun when calling. Well I don't want to carry a shotgun along with all the other stuff that I carry.

The longest area of visibility was down wind, and about 100 yards maximum. In front of me I had about 75 yards before Lava domes cut off the view. I started the call, and about 5 minutes into the series, I could see a Coyote coming on the run, straight at me. I tried to get the rifle up, but the scope was set on 9 power, before I could readjust, a 3/4 grown Coyote ran up to the decoy, realized that it was a fake, turned and ran back the way that he came. Disappearing just as fast as he appeared. The descriptive term- "Bear Cub with mittens" comes to mind.

I had to laugh at the mental picture of what my reactions had been. I hoped that he would stop somewhere out there to look back, but he never did. I then cut to a "Coyote pup in distress" call, hoping that would make him look. I was scanning the area, and saw a large full grown Coyote cross the creek below me. He was obviously headed down wind to see what his nose could tell him. I had to turn over on my belly to try to bring the rifle to bear on him. I kept thinking that he would stop to check things out, but he never did. He dipped over a little ridge between us, and when he peeked over, he was about 60 yards out, and directly downwind. I never saw him again. Coyotes 2, pilgrims 0.

I went down the Creek towards the line shack, and stopped in a few places to call, but apparently all were sound asleep somewhere else.

I had been looking forward to calling at the shack, as I was sure that it was the spot to redeem my morning with, but I never saw a thing.

All was not a loss however. I find as I get older, I tend to loose things on occasion. Knives have been the obvious age indicator for me. For a while I was losing them on a regular basis. I even attempted to counteract this tendency by buying cheap ones, two at a time. Well this morning I discovered that I am not the only klutz running around without adult supervision.

So I spent the morning looking at Sun Rises, Moon sets, not seeing another soul, but seeing vast distances, and beautiful vistas. Finding that I am not the only one who can't keep a knife. Not to mention the exquisite pleasure of being outsmarted by Willy Coyote.