Working for nothing!

 I am just about done. The only thing left is to soften the skin. This to me is one of the harder parts of tanning. Of course fleshing is the actual hardest part. The entire episode was a learning experience anyway.

I decided to find out if animals were easier to skin after they had cooled down. My theory being that the fat that is so hard to remove from the skin would stay with the body rather than on the skin. I also thought that there was a possibility that using an air hose to blow up the critter would then allow the skin to actually separate from the flesh.  This I found to be untrue, however it will compress the bladder enough that you can get a urine sample without even trying. The last experiment was to see if the fleshing was easier if the skin was a bit dryer. The fur buyers like to have the skins coated in Boraxo after fleshing. This drys the skin out until it sounds like newspaper when shook.

 I asked the only expert that I know. A relative of the guy's at the Ranch. The only problem is, since he is a hard core desert rancher, he is not inclined to be lazy and put anything off, he didn't know. Well, after careful observation, I have come to the conclusion that "There is no good chain gang", or a better way to do this stuff other than that already in practice. Sigh!

The skinning wasn't all that big of a deal. It would have been better if I had done it the first evening, but if there is one thing that I have, it is time, and answering questions is a good thing anyway. I have long ago stopped being surprised at being wrong on occasion. Its good for your humility. Hell nobody likes to be around anyone who is perfect. Of course I could be over qualified on the less than perfect part.

After getting it skinned I covered it up in Boraxo and left it until the next day to start fleshing.

Of course there were some really tough spots around the head. The layers of meat there just will not succumb to a fleshing knife. Using a razor was bound to create some thin sports. No biggie, I have sewn up mistakes and bullet holes before.

After it was as good as I could get it, I mixed the brine to pickle the skin. It consists of 4 oz of pickling acid and two pounds of salt to two gallons of water. You let it soak for 24 hours stirring it occasionally.

After 24 hours the white color shows that it is done. You then rinse it out, and put it in a bath of one gallon of water with a cup of baking soda to stop the pickling acid. It is then put on a stretcher and partially dried. Then about a cup of "Liqui-tan" rubbed into the flesh side of the hide, rolled up fur side out, and left overnight.

Then of course a rinse and shampoo to get all the stuff out, and the hair clean. Now I will have to soften the skin as it dries over the rest of the time that it takes to fully dry.

As I said earlier, I don't have any problem working for free, and he will be worth more than $25.00 to me.

Jessie and Yogi seem to think that Badger tastes a lot better than Coyote. There just isn't much meat on them, and no fat at all on this one. Hard doings in this desert this year for sure. I only got about 11 meals off the guy. We have done our share however, we are using everything except the growl.

The hide has dried enough to begin the process of "breaking" the hide. I was surprised to find how thin the skin on their belly is. It is almost translucent. Here is the new guy beside one that I have had since the 70's.

In the early 70"s, a new arrival in Oregon, I killed this Badger at some cliffs where I was looking at Prairie Falcons. I never really thought about it, but it was apparently just a youngster. A fella I knew tanned the hide for me. I have actually seen Badgers that were a bit bigger than the new one.

Here is the finished product. The small one was taken in the spring. This one has his full winter coat. I like him much more than the $25. bucks the fur buyer offered.

Winter seems to have finally arrived here. We have had it pretty easy so far. We got 4.5 inches of snow a couple of days ago. (rare here) and this morning it was 10.5 degrees below zero.

What is it about Christmas??

The first year we moved here, a Badger got into the Chicken pen on Christmas Eve and killed 17 of my Chickens. His mistake was that he decided that the Chicken house was such a great supermarket, that he decided to dig a burrow in there to be near his food source.

As you are aware, I have decided to stop hunting with the Hawks this year, and the area is so drought stricken, along with several other factors, that there is little to hunt other than Ducks. I had hoped to be able to take up the slack with my predator hunting. Even they are so reduced in population that I have yet to be able to call anything in at all. So mainly I am giving the Malheur public library a workout with my Kindle.

Karen had just gotten back from getting the mail at Burns Jct, and I was looking on the computer for a distraction of any kind. Betsy, the paranoid, began barking. I looked to Karen to see if the driveway alarm had gone off, but she was just as puzzled as I. I looked out the parking area windows and could find nothing there. I yelled at Betsy, but she refused to stop. Then I heard Yogi screaming her defiance. A quick check revealed a Badger circling around the weathering area trying to find a way inside, with Yogi daring him to come on in. Every body is braver on the other side of a fence.

A quick trip to the gun closet and the .17 HMR and I went out to meet our visitor. He saw me and in true Badger form began advancing towards me. Well that was a mistake!

The .17 is the perfect weapon for Badgers. The hole in his chest is not even visible, not even a blood spot, but he dropped in his tracks. The little .17 grain bullet obviously blew his heart to pieces. He never knew what hit him.

Josie is the bravest of the bunch. Brick stayed well back until he could be sure that it was safe.

Not my normal hunting attire, and it looks as though I could have pulled my sweats up a bit as well.
I am sure glad that he didn't find the Chickens first. I would have never found him until after the fact.

Now I get to skin him. I have to admit that is going to be interesting. I will need to skin his feet out and then there is the musk gland that should make it interesting.

Saturday:

I decided to experiment with this one. Always before I have skinned the critters as soon as I could, always the same day. To sell a hide it must be "fleshed", stretched and dried. A fleshing knife is similar to a draw knife used to peel bark off trees, only it is dull. Of course when a hide is fresh, the fat is a bit of a pain to get off, requiring a fair amount of exercise. Of course with anything one can over do it as well, generally when you least expect or need it. I prefer to "work smart", or as my dear ole dad used to say, Lazy.

I have tried in the past using an air hose to separate the skin from the critter. The result was no different from one not blown up as far as I can tell. I decided that I would let the critter cool overnight, pump him up with the air hose and see if things were better. I may as well admit I was stalling because I didn't really want to skin this suckers feet down to the nails. Of course stalling wasn't going to make it go away, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I turned the heat on in the shop this morning so that I could at least be comfortable. While I was waiting for it to heat up in the shop, I realized that the weather was better than it would be in the afternoon and I needed to fix some fence down in the lower pasture. I  had thought that I would skin the Badger then fix the fence. Well, I decided that since I was going to need Karen to help me, I had better put off the skinning until we finished the fence.

I gathered every thing up in the quad, and even though we had about forty feet to stand up, It didn't take nearly as long as I had thought. So I put every thing up and came in the house to warm up. Then Karen asked me what a Badger was worth on the market. I did a computer check and couldn't find much information. I finally decided to call the place that I sold my stuff last year, and found that $25.00 was about all I could expect.  Wellllll, apparently there was no need to stall any longer. I didn't need to skin feet for a critter that was going to hang on MY wall. It feels strange to say it, but 25 bucks ain't worth the trouble. I will work for free, but not cheap.

I got all set up, strung out the air hose and pumped him up. Full of air with his stubby legs he could have passed for the way that he looked when he was trying to get in the weathering area with the hawks. No longer restrained with having to please someone else, I cut his hide right above the ankles, and proceeded on with it.

Well I can tell you that leaving a Badger to cool out does not make the skinning process any easier. Neither does blowing them up with the air hose. Fleshing is just as hard warm or cold. I did however somehow miss the Mustelidae glands, because he was not even as stinky as a Coyote. One out of three isn't that bad.

Since this entire thing is for my benefit, I decided to see if rolling the skin in Borax overnight will make the fleshing process any easier. Still stalling I guess. I will let you know in the next post.

Jasper update

I am sure that most of you remember Jasper, a special little Kestrel that Tami Flew as her first raptor. Tami of course is our neighbor and my last apprentice. Jasper was caught in a family group that had not dispersed. He consequently had no idea of what he could catch and what he could not. To me the perfect timing for a future falconry bird.

We entered him to Starlings, which were as big as he was. He had no idea that Starlings were anything  other than normal prey for a Kestrel.

 He taught Tami a lot about raptors and how to teach them to hunt. We had a good season with him and for his reward, released him here at the house.

He has spent the fall and winters here at the house. The first year he stayed in one of the windsocks, which gave him shelter, but left him out in the wind. I built a Kestrel box in the hopes that he would pick up a female in the spring and raise a bunch of little Jaspers.

I saw him the first spring with a female and he showed her the box. She took one look around and declined. They ended up going over to the ranch and nesting in the trees.

His female for whatever reason, died just as the youngsters began flying. There were two of them, and Tami eventually rescued them and tame hacked them back to the wild. One of the males actually spent nights on her back porch for most of the winter.I believe that he is still there, but has moved into the Barn.

Jasper came back over to our place and again spent the fall and winter here. For the most part I just kept an eye on him. When we started getting some really serious weather and cold, he began hunting closer to the house. I decided to see if he remembered me, and waved a Starling at him and threw it in the parking lot. He wasted no time in swooping down and carrying it off to a spot to eat. When I judged that he was having trouble finding food, I would feed him. He always responded.

This last spring he again paired with a female and they raised a clutch of young over at the ranch. As the youngsters got bigger and more demanding, he began to spend a lot of the day here at his old spots. When the young ones finally dispersed, he came home to stay. This time he started using the Kestrel box to sleep in at night.

The windsocks are his major hunting perch's. He also hunts from the chicken house and telephone line over the horse corral. He is hunting birds when he uses them.

I went out to do the evening chores this evening, and could hear a strange sound coming from the Pigeon house. I identified the sound as I got closer. Kestrel! I opened the door and there was Jasper trying to get out of the screened window. I held the door open and called his name. He saw the open door and flew out landing on the telephone wire. On the floor was a Starling with no head. I picked it up and walked out in the open end of the runway, called his name and waved, the threw the Starling out on the ground. He took off, snatched it up and took it to a comfortable perch to eat it.

Apparently he either saw a Starling go into the Pigeon door ( 8x10 ) of chased one into there. Earlier this year I had to let him out of the Chicken house after he went in chasing Sparrows. This is his third winter here. I find it amusing that he still remembers our association. I have never tried to make him dependent, but if he shows any signs that he is having trouble getting food, he know where I live.

Further avian flu information.

In my last post I told you that I was stopping my hunting activities due to Avian flu. One cannot help but second guess decisions like that, but apparently it was the right decision. I received this email from North American Falconers Association.

Avian Influenza Alert!!!! Level two
1 message
NAFA President <nafapresident@n­a­f­a.com> Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 5:02 PM
Reply­To: nafapresident@n­a­f­a.com
To: lcottrell1020@gmail.com
Dear Larry
Earlier this week I informed you of an Avian Influenza outbreak in northern
Washington. This same virus has now been found in a flock of domestic guinea fowl
in southern Oregon. These fowl were exposed to migratory waterfowl in a local marsh.
I received a call today from Dr. Pat Redig today and the autopsies on the dead
falcons from northern Washington have shown this to be a very contagious and
deadly form of Avian Influenza. Dr. Redig recommends a temporary break from
waterfowl hunting be taken by all falconers hunting in the Pacific Flyway at least until
more information is available.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/2014/SA_H5N8_Oregon.pdf
If you chose to continue hunting ducks with your falcons and goshawks, I would be
very cautious about letting multiple birds eat the same duck. The duck can appear
perfectly healthy, and freezing will not kill the virus. Also, be cautious of using the
same glove with multiple birds creating blood and saliva exchange.

Jessie seems to be happy with the decision, she has been fed two days in a row. That hasn't happened for a long time.

An early end to hawking this year.

Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, I have decided to end my Hawking this year. Its bad enough that there are few opportunities for Ducks due to the ongoing drought. Now it appears to me that there is a real danger from a strain of "bird Flu", HPA1 H5N8 to be exact. A friend on the Canadian Washington border just lost four of his falcons after one of his Falcons killed a Duck. That falcon fed from it and he fed the rest of the Duck to his other breeding falcons. They died within a couple of days from the disease. He and his wife are quarantined until they can find for sure that it was not transmitted to them as well. I am not worried about Karen and I, but I have no intention of risking Jessie to that stuff. It would only take a couple of days for birds from that flock to arrive here given the right storm. The last two times that we have gone out, there was nothing on the Lake for her to fly. So any Ducks that we get here will be migrants from the North.

Below is a press release from NAFA.

Jessie Hunting Ducks, Dec 5th, 2014

Jessie was actually ready to fly yesterday, but it had been raining and I wanted the rain to soak in a bit. She was a bit high in weight, I thought. She weighed 924 grams, so I gave her a wing from the last Duck she had killed, deciding to wait for another day. When I weighed her today, she weighed 920 grams, so the only thing I gained was the ground was a bit more settled.

When I went out to do my chores this morning, she appeared quite anxious to hunt. So after Karen came back from the mail at noon today, I gathered her up to give it a shot. I asked Karen to try to get some video of our hunt. She reluctantly agreed. The camera is one of the little Sam sung hand held cameras. It takes good video, but it has no view finder, and is so small that it is almost impossible to hold steady. I have it mounted on a "gun stock" type rig, but even with that it is a miracle to get a steady shot. It also has a tendency to search for focus, and you are guaranteed to have it go fuzzy at the wrong time. Any way I thought it might be worth while to at least try. Karen was kind enough to not share her opinion.

The day was actually just perfect. It was about 50 degrees, a bit overcast, but little to nothing for wind. I put Jessie in the air, and we began our walk towards the lake. She flies this lake the best of all the spots that I have taken her. Of course there are few places to fly her this year. She has had problems here in the past. This is the first year that she has shown the " field generalship" that a falcon needs to be successful. She flies higher here than any other spot that we have flown. She is very careful in the timing of her stoop so that she can get to them before they get to the "braided" water courses coming out of the lake. She has been timing her stoops so that the Ducks have time to clear the lake and the reed beds behind the lake.

After she took to the air, we started towards the Lake. This is the anxious part, since we will not know if there is going to be anything there to hunt or we will have to call her down to the lure. Jessie kept cranking up higher and higher, and finally two Mallards started flying, but landed at the edge of the reeds at the back part of the lake, preferring to not take the chance of flying under a Peregrine already in the air. Jessie didn't react to the ruse. Finally they could not stand the pressure and broke out of the lake in an attempt to get away from me. Jessie slashed down out of the sky following them around behind the trees. I could not see the strike, but I could hear it even as far away as I was from the impact.

I made as good time as I could to get to her. She was trying to drag the Duck out of the shallow water  at the edge of the swamp. I reached down and picked them both up and took them to the drier part of the bank. Surprisingly she did not object or act defensive about the Duck. A bit of a new thing for us. Normally, hostility is the main feature if I try to help her. I sat her in a dry spot and secured her leash, then backed off so she could do her thing. It was apparent that the Duck was not dead even though she had opened her neck all the way to the vertebrae. I broke the Ducks neck and we had another rodeo, but neither one of us was bucked off.

Jessie this time decided to eat a bit of meat along with all the fat.

She even opened up the stomach cavity, and removed the intestines.

This is the finished product, after an hour of eating. She did really well this time, and I don't have to worry about her not getting anything to eat but fat. It was almost a balanced meal for a change.

Here is the link to the video, such as it is.

https://vimeo.com/113760833   password is - owyheeflyer

Now it is time for a bit of reflection, about what I have done in the past and what I am doing this year. A fair number of those who read this are falconers as well, and as such know what it is like to have a raptor that is a problem to handle. I have always maintained that Jessie is a bit of a "Prima donna", but most of  those who have seen her think that I am exaggerating. Perhaps theirs are worse, or most likely they have not seen into her mind as I have.

Jessie is what is called a dual socialized raptor. She was taken from her mother at 28 days old. She was old enough to know that she is a falcon, but young enough to think that I might be an ugly falcon too fat to fly. As such, she has no fear of me, and is quite convinced that I only give her food out of weakness, and am only waiting for an opportunity to steal it back.

My problems actually began when I first started flying falcons in the 1980's. I was sharing hunting fields with George Peden, a friend who had access to the Running Y Ranch in Klamath. It was composed of canals, and large fields. Both of us had limited time to fly, and we took turns at the few Ducks that were on these canals.It was as tough a set up as there is, and a miracle if either of us ever caught anything.

As I said we were limited in time, so when your bird either caught something or came to the lure, we hustled our birds out of the field so that the other could get a chance to put his bird up. Even after I left there and there was absolutely no reason to be in a hurry I still continued that practice.

Jessie , having no fear, had no problem showing me that she did not like me hurrying her up, and at least three times left her prey and began the climb up my arm to tell me so face to face.

This year I finally decided that one place on this earth is just as good as another, and there was no place that I had to be right at the moment, other than where I am. So this year I backed off and let Jessie alone, not even touching her Duck unless it was fighting her. It finally does not matter how often she flies, it is more important how well she flies. She has responded by flying better and a lot more seriously. You can see in this video she is not paying any attention to me at all,even though I am only inches behind her. Her wings are high and tight, and relaxed. Last year I seriously thought about getting rid of her, this year she is a sweetheart. I have always said to my apprentice's in an attempt to get them to study the Raptor and read what the Hawk is thinking, " The hurrieder you go, the behinder you get". As you can see, I can't even spell it, but it works, its about time I followed my own advice.

Nov 30

The wind has once again slacked off. I had hoped to fly her Friday, but we went to bed with wind Thursday night and it blew for 2 days. Gusts to 40, and sustained at about 27 MPH. Not that much of a big deal for us, but the poor people East of us are going to be catching hell.

Jessie was showing signs of unrest by today. She started keening at me when I went out this morning at daylight. The other two days she was happy to get a Quail. Today was different.

We took her up at 1PM and headed to the Lake.

There is another storm blowing in from the South West, but things are calm for now.

This time when I approached the Lake, I stayed back a bit more, just in case the Ducks, the last time we were there, flushed when I raised Jess up in the air to ready her to fly. One never knows what will be on the Lake, if anything, until you crest the ridge line. I was watching Jessie to see how she was flying as an indicator of Ducks or disappointment. She started cranking up into the sky, so I began to feel a bit better.

The back half of the pond had only Coots, but as I walked further the good Ducks began to show. Holy Crap! there was a pile of them on there this time. This time I decided to not actively flush. Perhaps I was concerned that she would be swamped with the sheer volume of the Ducks present. I could see Mallards, and even Canvas backs, or Red heads, I can never be sure.

Jessie kept climbing in anticipation. Finally the Ducks couldn't take it any more and they began to try to make their escape. Jessie began her stoop straight down at the Ducks. The Ducks broke to their left trying to get around and under the trees. Jessie cut a sharp left, and finished her stoop on the other side of the trees. She then "threw up" over the height of the trees and went in after her prey.

I was quite a way up the hill, and had to descend, and skirt around the end of the pond to get to her. As I got to the lake itself, I could hear a Mallard squawking over the bank on the other side. Its hard to hurry, but I gave it my best shot.

As I got to where I could see her, I was surprised to see a Immature Red Tail trying to bluff Jessie out of her Duck. Jessie and the Duck were on one side of a tree stump, and the Red Tail was on the other.

I have no idea how long the Red Tail had been there, I didn't even know that he was in the area. He must have been sitting on the back side of the trees.

As soon as he saw me, he turned and took off, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Jessie resumed her fight with the Mallard Hen.

I was finally able to finish the Duck, and I did my best to get comfortable while she plucked the feathers and then the fat. If she ate any of the meat, it was by accident.

Once she had eaten all the fat she could hold we went home for her well deserved bath. She is now sitting in the heated work shop, drying off.

Thanksgiving

The weather until yesterday has been quite windy, with storms all over the states. We were finally able to do a bit of Hawking with Jessie. I have discovered that the Ducks land on the lake to rest during the middle of the day. The Lake of course is the artesian spring that forms Crooked Creek. Its a bit difficult to get to due to a boggy piece of bottom land that you have to drive through or around. I had not felt that it was wise to try it until Monday. We got there at 1:30 PM. We had walked to a point just out of sight of the lake.  I was just getting ready to release Jessie, when the Ducks all lifted off the pond without any noticeable cause. I couldn't believe it! Since our options had just gone to nothing, I decided to go ahead and turn her loose in the possibility that one or two might have decided to stay for a bit.

Jessie climbed so high that I had trouble finding her. I guess I am not used to looking in that section of the sky. Once she got in position, we started over the hill only to find that the only thing left was Coots, which was not going to lift off the pond no matter what. I ended up calling her to the lure, and feeding her.

Tuesday was crap, with the wind howling like it can do here, so we went back to the Kite. I ran it up to about 500 feet and she worked her way up to it, in spite of the wind. It was good exercise if nothing else.

Wednesday all the storms blew out. I had a pair of new headphones for my plane to try out, so a test and recon was in order. The headphones worked really well, but I was very surprised to find that there were no Ducks at all on any of the ponds, the Creek or the lake.

This morning dawned with storm clouds, quite warm - 51 degrees- very little wind, so a flight was again in order. I was surprised to find that a new bunch of Ducks had come in overnight. The little pond that I really like was thawed out and full of Ducks.

I went to the Lake to check and found that my Coots were still there, but there was nothing else, so it was the pond.

I hustled back to the house and convinced Karen to come help me. I had to agree to vacuum the house when we go back just to get her to help, but she agreed. Its sad what one has to do just to get some help doing important things.

We loaded on up and headed over to the Ranch. A picture of the Steen's is a necessity of course.

The field where the little pond is, also is a feed lot for yearlings. The pond is in the far rear corner of that lot. There are feed bunks in about the middle. Karen and I walked up the road past the yearlings. Once we were safely past the heifers, I began to walk toward the back side of the pond, so that I could flush the Ducks away from the water.

I am sure that most of you have never had the odious chore of dealing with cattle. Cows have an inborn ability to foresee what you want them to do, and thus decide what course of action they can take to circumvent that outcome. I suppose it is some inborn instinct to combat predators, which of course is the way that you are viewed from a cow's perspective.

Well these critters decided that the best course they could take to accomplish that task was to run to the far corner of the lot. The fact that they had to run from behind me in a large and very noisy group to get around me and take refuge behind the pond, caused no hesitation on their part. The Ducks not wanting to be caught in the stampede, of course took off in mass to go to a quieter part of the ranch. There I was again, standing on the lip of a suddenly empty pond with a hawk on my fist.

I was considering crossing into the next field to go where they had set down in another little puddle.

Then I would have a whole new set of complications as you can see looking at me from across the fence.

At that time I got close enough to the pond to see that a Mallard Drake and hen had elected to stay in the pond. What the heck, perhaps this will still work. I turned Jessie loose and she started circling the pond. I decide to rush it, and at the same time the heifers saw Karen and turned back in my direction again in mass and in full stampede mode. Jessie was smart enough to know that if she grabbed one of the ducks, she would be right in the middle of a stampede. She wisely declined. I called her down to the lure.

Apparently from my posture, dejection is still the main emotion present here.

They say some days are diamonds, this one was Bullshit! courtesy of the heifers.

Two and three

After her last duck, where-in she ate all she could hold. I finally decided that she wanted to hunt and fly badly enough that her weight was not going to be a problem. She did weigh 910 grams, which is about an ounce higher than I really wanted. We had a day that we had to go to town, and I decided to feed her rather than take a chance that she would be too low for the weather. So that added a day or two to her layoff.

It has been pretty cold here, and I am too soft hearted to leave her out in the cold night, not being sure that she would have enough weight to keep herself warm. Yeah I know, the wild ones are sitting on the top of a telephone pole somewhere, and they manage quite well.

I have been helping Tami with Yogi, and have been willing to let Jessie go without hunting to try to get Yogi back on track. Today however there was just no excuse.

The pond that I flew last, was frozen solid, so the Lake was our best bet. After Karen got back from the mail, we loaded up and headed to the Lake.

Once she got into the air, I walked up to where I could see the Lake from the top of the hill. There was a pretty big flock of Ducks on it. She began to build a bit of altitude, and here came the Prairie Falcon. The sky was a bit bluer before I ran out of breath and cuss words. The Prairie crabbed with her once and again tried to crab, but Jessie rolled over and showed the Prairie her talons. The Prairie faltered a bit in her flight, and I decided to flush before the thing deteriorated even more.

A bunch of the Ducks broke from the Lake and Jessie smashed a Duck out of the air, but into the reeds at the end of the Lake. Jessie turned as fast as she could, but left the Duck where it fell, I am sure, because she couldn't see the Duck in the Reeds. She started building up altitude again, and another bunch of Ducks broke from the Lake and over the trees. Jessie followed.

I went looking for her, and found her with a nice Scaup. This is the first time that she has left any of the birds that she has struck, and gone back up to wait for me to flush again. I am not used to her thinking.

                                          I asked Karen to pose with her while she plucked.

                                                      Then of course, it was my turn.

Again, I let her eat all she wants. The darn things do not freeze all that well, and it is better that she eat all she can while they are warm and as tasty as they are likely to be. She of course peeled all the fat that she could find off it.

I gave her a leg to chew on while I walked back to the car. By this time she was having a bit of a problem bending over far enough to see what she was eating.

I will have another couple of days before we go out again. If it was all meat then she would be down pretty fast, but most of that is fat that you see sticking out in front of her.

Duck killing can be a very messy business, plus all that dry Duck requires something to wash it down with. Knowing that she likes to bathe after a kill, I started the heat in the shop, and drew her a nice warm bath. She wasted no time at all in jumping in.

 She looks a bit better and a lot cleaner now, so I picked her up and took her into the shop so that she didn't freeze into a ice cube.

                        She deserves a bit of pampering, and I am happy to supply it. She did well!