December 24, 2015

As you can see, Christmas has come to the Desert. We are finally getting getting a white Christmas. We have been dry for quite a long time. So far we have gotten at least twice our normal rain fall for the year. 4.5 inches is our average and I think we got that in November. I am hopeful that all the aquifer reservoirs are back to normal. All of the ponds or "dug outs" are designed to gather the run off from seasonal springs that with normal winter water levels, flow most of the year around. These numerous little ponds supply water to support much more varied wildlife than one would imagine. The desert only looks empty.

Jessie

An update is due for Jessie. I have decided that the year is a bust and better left behind. I have been flying her on the Kite to keep her condition up to snuff. That is, when the weather cooperates.

 The 42.5 is straight line wind, not a gust. The kite that I have is a good one, but anything over 15 MPH is an awful lot of hassle. The last time we tried to fly her, the wind was hitting 17-24 MPH. Jessie took off, flew around a bit and landed on my shoulder. I couldn't blame her. The wind has not abated in the slightest. I will most likely give her another chance next fall. She has flown for me for 11 years, and been an awesome falcon, taking every thing from Geese to Sage Grouse. Her parents
died at 12 and 13. That doesn't mean that her attitude will be any different, but if you go by a comparison she is about 80 in people years. If she would rather not hunt, I don't have a problem making a ?pet? out of her.

In the spring I will either get a hybrid Peregrine/ Gyr from a breeder that I know or take a young Prairie Falcon from the wild. I am getting up there as well, so I am not sure that I can find an eyrie that I can get my old wrinkled ass into to get one. It wouldn't do to fall off a cliff out in the outback. My biggest fear here is being the object of a search party.

Karen and I are doing quite well considering, and enjoying ourselves tremendously in the process. We would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and hope that you all are doing as well as we are.

Jessie

In the time since I last posted, I have slowly reduced Jessie's weight downward to bare minimum. It has had no effect on her as far as hunting.

A Raptor's body is unlike ours, in that their metabolism is hundreds (depending on the species) of times faster than the human body. Most if not all have no real fat on their body and the muscle is the fuel that allows them to hunt and stay healthy. Thus a hawk that misses prey and does not eat, loses muscle until it can no longer make the pursuit necessary to obtain food. Hawks hunt according to their weight. A fat hawk is not fast enough, cannot turn fast enough and therefore does not catch prey that is healthy. Once it loses enough weight to be in peak physical condition, the prey that was too fast yesterday, does not stand a chance on the day when her weight is right. What you strive for is to have the hawk or falcon in peak physical condition. Their mind and body both needs to be at its peak.

Falcons are different in that weight does not play that big a part in their hunting success. It is attitude that is the primary influence. That is not to say that a Falcon with an empty stomach is not motivated to catch quarry. An empty stomach can be a real motivator. Pared down to basics the part that concerns falconers is that a Hawks attitude can be modified to be a better hunter by weight control. Whereas a Falcon will react favorably up to a certain point, but the peak performance depends more on the birds attitude. A Hawk with an empty stomach and at peak physical condition is intense and will hunt better. If you keep withholding food It will continue to try to catch something until it gets too weak to hunt.  A Falcon that has been treated the same way will, once the peak condition has been reached, only have worse manners and will not fly as well.  A falcon that is too fat will sit on poles or in Jessie's case the ground. One that is too weak will do the same thing. One that feels good and is keen to hunt will revel in flight, one that is too low will not want to fly, thus sits.

I have known this lesson for as long as I can remember. I have also known that the reason that Jessie is not catching stuff is more in her mind. The problem however is that I do not know the reason that she was refusing to close with prey that she had knocked down out of the air. Both her mother and father died at 12 and 13 years old. This is her 11th year of hunting. I have considered that she just doesn't want to fight with the Ducks on the ground. Yet her physical condition appears to be no less than it has been in years past.

Of course this post is read by some falconers as well as just interested people. The first advice that you get is that she is too fat. The guy that had the project that she came from has more experience with this particular species of Peregrine than I, and all the birds that he has had do not weigh nearly as much as does Jessie. Of course if they all had the same experience they all might have the same weight range. I however still believe that Jessie is just a bigger bird than they are, while I also believe that her experience and time with me perhaps allows her to carry more weight. As in the paragraph concerning weight and attitude, what she thinks has more influence on the outcome than her weight.

So even knowing all that I have put in print here, I began taking her weight down, by shorting her on her meal at the end of unsuccessful flights. The last time that I flew the Lake she flew at heights that I had difficulty finding her again after taking my eyes off of her. She wasn't more than 400 feet or so, but it was still hard to find her. She again knocked a Duck down but did not close with it. She only got a leg and half of a Quail breast. I next flew her at Tami's house on a bunch of mixed Ducks on the creek. She sat on the hay stack and only flew when I approached the creek. She knocked down at least two Ducks and did not get either of them. She also never got higher than 50 feet. I cut her further. Again the same behavior, same height. The third time I flew her was a repeat of the previous trips. I cut her still further. I finally decided that I was wasting my time by going over to the ranch, so I turned her loose her at the house and began walking up the creek. She flew around my head trying to get me to offer her some food. As I turned to go to the house, I jumped a Jack Rabbit. She gave chase and eventually crashed through a Sage bush trying to catch it. Peregrines just don't do that. I took her home and fed her a Quail and a Starling. Her weight was 802 grams. Her "normal" flying weight is 870 grams. The next day I fed her half of a pigeon without flying her.

Today she weighed 860 grams, she of course still thinks that she is starved. I put the kite up and raised the lure to about 375 feet. I picked her up, weighed her, hooded her, and took her out in the yard and turned her loose. She began mounting up after the kite. At about that time Karen discovered that the lure had been shaken off the down rigger snap that secures it to the stand off stick on the line. After a string of cuss words I retrieved the lure with the garnish on it. I looked up in time to see her grab the stick that normally holds the lure and then let go. The only thing I could do was yell and swing the lure. She did not see me for a bit, so I was in the process of securing it to my weighted lure, when I heard Karen say "Holy shit!" By that time Jessie had grabbed the lure off the ground. It of course popped out of her feet, and she turned and landed on it again. Apparently her stoop was pretty spectacular. I had to be content with being able to pull it all back together.

I have decided that I am going to be content with flying her on the kite until a bit later in the season if at all. If she wants to "retire", she has earned the right. I will most likely give her a chance a bit later and will probably try her again next year. I have also decided that it is time to get another falcon. I will either get a hybrid Peregrine/Gyr or perhaps get a young of the year Prairie falcon next spring. I have some experiments that I want to try any way. If Jessie wants to fly next year we will do so.

UpDate - Jessie and other stuff

I am still scratching my head concerning Jessie. The Ducks on the Lake finally wised up and are now resting elsewhere. Yesterday I went to Tami's house, picked up Reuben and we went to the ditch behind their house. There were Ducks there, and its a good flushing situation. Jessie was at what I consider her low end weight. I turned her loose and she sat on a hay stack. I finally got her to fly by walking out in the field. She would not get very high, but I flushed anyway. She knocked a Mallard to the ground, but did not close. I flushed again and she knocked a Teal to the ground and didn't go in after it either. The Mallard flushed and even though she was out of position, caught up to it and grabbed at it, but did not connect.

All of this is weird behavior for her. I am left wondering if she does not feel good enough to grapple with them on the ground. I am about to believe that at 10.5 years, she just might not want to fight a Duck on the ground any more. She obviously knows that eventually I will feed her at least a little bit.
I gave her a whole Pigeon and will not take her out again until she hits her low end weight. If she still resists grappling with a Duck we will call it for the year, and I will look into a replacement for next year.

We had some really early cold weather and snow. We were below zero for almost two weeks. It actually snowed about three and half inches and it stayed on the ground thanks to the cold snap. This is the earliest that it has gotten below zero since we came here.

These are some Cedar Wax Wings that got lost and came through here.

This is a nice set of antlers that I found last year and stuck on top of the wild hog skull.

Makes a nice perch don't you think?

 When the snow came, the Quail really ganged up on the Chicken food.

   

Just guessing, but it seemed that there was over a hundred.

A great Blue Heron stopped by for a visit.

To counter the boredom, I am varmint hunting again. I skinned and dried the Raccoon that I caught, for later sale. I really had not gone out to do any real calling or hunting while I was working with Jessie. So I have been working up to it slowly.

On one of our trips back from the ranch I went around the back side of the gravel pit. Karen had seen a Coyote hanging around the end of the runway and we had seen a Coyote at the gravel pit. Earlier a  trucker had dumped a large pile of Red Delicious Apples. He apparently was overloaded and the scales were open, so he got rid of the excess. The Coyotes were eating the apples even though they were frozen as hard as rocks. Over the next two days I killed two youngsters there. The Coyotes ate every one of the apples left there even though there must have been several hundred pounds of them.

The ranch next door had a Cancer Eye Cow that they put out of its misery. The only problem was that it was 325 yards from the closest spot that I could get to shoot at the Coyotes that came to dinner. I can make that kind of shot with a proper rest, but a fence post isn't good enough, at least for me. It took two days before they found the Cow. Now three days after discovery there is almost nothing left. I finally got tired of it and drug the cow to a bit better spot.

I went over this evening at about 4 PM with a seat and my camo. They were working calves down in the corral, which is in sight of the Cow or at least the spot in the Sage where it is. Finally they began to wrap it up after the sun went down behind the Mountains. A large male Coyote walked right by me no more than 20 yards away and headed down to the carcass. My camo is the loose leaf type, and apparently works really well. He went to where the cow used to be and then worked his way back to the carcass. I waited until they all got on their horses and left the area to go home. I shot this guy right on the point of the shoulder and he dropped right in his tracks. There is no blood on either side of the Coyote. The bullet is perfect for selling hides, no big holes, with luck I won't even have to wash this guy. This bullet, if it hits a bone, explodes without coming out the other side. This guy is chunky too.   He was really impressive when he walked by. 

Still resisting

Jessie this afternoon weighed in at 852. I hoped that she would take the hint and get with the program. Unfortunately that was not to be.

There was a Prairie Falcon sitting on the fence line going to the Lake. I was pretty sure that would spell a mess with it interfering with Jessie if she did want to catch something. Thankfully that did not happen, as the Falcon flew off to the North, and we never saw her again.

I turned Jess loose and she showed signs that she was going to hunt this time. She took a fair pitch over the pond, and I began to walk down towards the Ducks. She was right over the pond for about 5 circles, Then as I neared the pond she flew wide, and some of the Ducks seeing their opportunity, slipped out of the far end. Jessie made a long sloping attack, but was too late to get one over the dry ground. She eventually tried to grab one in the butt as it was going through the trees surrounding the pond.

She just fooled around after that, flying low and strafing the Ducks on the water. We stood on the hill and let her fly until she got tired and sat down. She took to the air several more times, but never really showed that she was wanting to do any thing.

She eventually started circling me, so I gave her the lure, feeding her a Quail leg and half of a breast. We brought her home and put her on her inside perch. Several hours later I gave her the back and the guts of the quail. She will again lose some more weight, I just don't want her to lose too much. We were -4 last night, and will likely be the same tonight.

I am not sure why I didn't just do all this in the first place, but hope and stupidity springs eternal.

Jessie- Always a challenge.

If you recall, on my post of November 20, I said that Jessie seemed to like me this year, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. It is as though I had a crystal ball, or rather an awful lot of experience with the devious mind of this creature.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that Jessie is the best falcon that I have ever had. When she works,  there is no doubt that she is going to make something happen. She fears nothing. She has killed Canada Honkers, driven Swans to the ground, just to escape her talons. When she is on, there are few equals. She is as steady as any falcon that has ever been trained. When she is good, she is really good, but alas she is not good without a fight.

Almost every one who sees her only sees the beauty of her form and coloring. There is no doubt that she is indeed a very beautiful specimen of her species. I loaned her to a guy in the hopes that she would breed and make some babies. Unfortunately she is old enough and was taken young enough that she no longer thinks of a male Peregrine as a mate. I had said some things about her that lead him to believe that she was a "spoiled b***h". He could not ever talk to me about her but what he said that he couldn't understand what I was talking about, she was a lovely falcon. A real sweetheart. She is all that and more, but she will do nothing the easy way, even though at 10 years old she knows more about this yearly routine of killing Ducks than I do. She really does not long for her freedom, She likes to be inside at night.

Last year I had to take her down to almost nothing to get her to behave. She killed her first Duck on her second flight. She did however, about three weeks into the season, decide that she didn't want to hunt any more, but she soon got over that. All last year, if she didn't kill, she didn't eat. I am not sure why I expected this year to be any different.

My observation is that falcons are very proud birds, and do not take easily to abrupt, rude behavior from anyone. Jessie is easily offended. I tried very hard this year to not offend her, and she reciprocated.

This year she has been all sweetness and a poster child for well behaved falcons every where. She has not required a telemetry transmitter at all this year, flying the kite with serious determination, at a much higher weight than she ever has. No signs of her normal tricks or tantrums. Then the wind quit blowing so we went hunting, not much else to do. She has so far knocked down at least three Ducks, and not attempted to close with them afterward. I decided that the area where I was hunting was the reason for that, so we went to the lake. There is a nice dry spot at the end that the birds like to fly over, that is perfect for killing them.

We have been three times with her knocking ducks down two different times, but not closing with them afterwards. I reasoned that they had been knocked into the swamp because I had flushed too early. Her weight was right at 900 grams, so I began to slowly take her weight down.

The weather has been below zero for the last two nights, and the other pond that I like was frozen over, so in the middle of the day the Ducks go to the Artesian Lake that feeds Crooked Creek. There was about a hundred Ducks on it. She was a bit low, but was high enough to kill a duck. Numbers do not intimidate her at all, so I wasn't worried on that account. I flushed and she smacked a Duck out of the air, but did not land. I only gave her half of a Quail.

Today she was down to the weight that she normally does most of her hunting at,- 874 grams. I decided this time rather than flush all the Ducks I would see what she was going to do, and help her if she seemed serious, but wait for her to show that she wanted a Duck. She flew around over the Ducks, and when some flushed she gave chase, and Karen thought that she heard her hit one, but she kept flying. We just stood up on the hill and watched. She lowered her pitch to about 100 feet and circled over the pond, giving a halfhearted chase when some flushed on their own, but never showing any sign that she wanted to catch one. We stood there for about 20 minutes while she screwed around. She landed on the ground once and in an old Red Tail nest the other time. I finally walked away and she followed to get her meal. She got half of a Quail breast and the leg that was on the lure. Of course she was pissed when she found that there was no more food. Tonight she will lose 20 to 30 grams, and we will see if she decides to work for food.

Alternative conditioning

The wind has died, and with it the chance to get Jessie in flying condition. Plan B of course is to take her to the field, since she will fly no further at home than is required to get me to throw the lure.

Karen and I took Jessie to the ranch next door. There is a small pond there that if approached properly, any Ducks sitting on it do not have a chance if the falcon really wants one. We left at 4 PM, giving us an hour and half of daylight. The last time I flew over the pond, it was jammed full of Ducks.

When I flush I go to this end of the pond so that the Ducks have to flush over land. To do so, I travel along the creek that is behind me. As I started along to get in position, a large number of Ducks flushed off the creek. The creek is difficult because there are plenty of places that the Ducks can get back into the water. At that point it rapidly turns into a Rat hunt that I do not have the speed and physical endurance to bring to a possible positive solution. 

I released Jessie and she flew up, but really not over the pond. Hoping that there would be something there, I rushed the dike. Empty! The ducks that had flushed earlier had gone in a couple of hundred yards further up the Creek, so off I went. The Ducks saw us coming and flushed well ahead of us. Jessie tried and splashed several of them back in to the pond. They only waited until she flew to the far side of her circle, and flushed again. By this time Jessie had been in the air for about 10 minutes and was getting lower and lower, finely she landed on a rock to rest.

I went back to the pond and Karen, and tossed the lure when Jess left the rock. She grabbed it and took it towards the pond, landing on the dike. Regardless of the out come, I was pleased with the amount of conditioning that she had demonstrated, and her desire and attempts to catch one of the Ducks. She had done her part, it was the human factor that screwed things up. I asked Karen to take a few pictures of her, and walked off without picking up the lure that she had left to come to the fist.

  

We made an attempt to get ready earlier in the day in the hopes that the Ducks would be using the pond for rest in the middle of the day. The wind again was down to nothing, so I had to go back to get my lure. I don't need it with the kite, but I do if we fly game.

This time I stayed away from the creek, so that I could fly it if the pond was again empty. It was in fact almost frozen over. I peeked back at the creek, and promptly managed to scare some of the Ducks off of it. I dodged back down and made my way to Karen, who I had left holding Jessie while I did my recon.

I put her up, and she took position by the Ducks and the creek. We timed our approach with her position over the Ducks. Finely they could stand it no longer and busted off the Creek. Jessie smacked a Mallard Drake out of the air into the willows. She did not go in after him, which surprised me a bit. She gives no quarter to the females, but is hesitant on the Drakes. She broke her leg on a Drake in 2006, and she is still a bit shy. Not always, but with it buried in the Willows and the beginning of the season, I could understand.

She soon landed on a rock to rest. Karen went back to the car, as she was cold, and the rest was just going to be a predictable waste of time. I wanted her to fly more, so that she could build more muscle, so we went up the creek. She was soon in the air following me, but though we went quite a ways up, found nothing to hunt. I now had my lure again, so I called her down.

She is doing quite well this year,( her 10th ) and while stronger than I had thought. If I was able to do my job, she would be catching Ducks. I have two more ponds here that I can fly, one of which will require her to be a lot higher than she is flying right now.

If the wind blows tomorrow, I will put the kite high enough that she will have to work her butt off to get it.

Jessie, a new year, late start.

Working out of town all through the month of Oct has us on a late start, at least for us. I generally begin taking Jessie's weight down the last weeks of Sept. and that gets us in the air shortly after Duck season begins. That leaves her to finish her molt while she flies. Waiting another month or so at a heavier weight hasn't improved her molt at all. She is just where she normally is when I begin cutting her down. Of course having her laying eggs in the hopes of immaculate conception doesn't do anything to improve stuff either. A raptor laying eggs will stop her molt cold for at least a month. No way to avoid it however. I did try a couple of years ago to put her with a male, but I guess she has a love/hate relationship with only me. She laid three eggs this year.

She has mellowed quite a bit this year. She actually seems to like me for a change. I am not going to hold my breath that it will last the whole season though.

There are two ways to condition a Falcon, generally speaking. One can just turn them loose to fly and build muscle, usually tossing a few Pigeons to make them go up so that they can actually have a chance at catching the thrown Pigeons. The theory is that when she goes high, you give her a pigeon that will not be able to out fly her. When she flies too low you toss your best Pigeon. One that will out fly her. I apparently am not smart enough to be able to get that theory to work. Jessie will fly them in a tail chase until she intimidates them into the ground, where upon she will grab them and eat the whole thing, gaining enough weight that it sets us back several days. I have found that eventually the raptor learns that you can be manipulated into tossing a Pigeon by her flying wide and out of position. Once they learn that, they begin acting as though they are going to go off wandering, just waiting for you to weaken and toss a Pigeon.  I am sure it is a matter of judgement on my part, so I have given this method up completely.

The method that I prefer is either a kite or a balloon to give her a reason to go up and to stick around. Apparently helium is running out, and they don't want to sell me enough to blow up my weather balloon. Normally wind is not a problem here, in fact generally there is too much. That is until I want to fly Jessie. In years past, Jessie has wanted to fly enough that she will go off on her own to get some altitude, and when she begins to tire she will come back to take the lure and her meal. If there is wind she will check the kite height, search for a thermal to help her climb and then come back in to grab the lure and her meal. Last year I had to take her down to the high 700 grams to get her to behave. This year she thinks she is starving at almost 900 grams. (in case you are wondering there is 28.5 grams in an ounce.)

Yesterday the wind died completely, eliminating the kite for the flight. I have been turning her loose and tossing the lure for her if she looked like she was going to land. She has been using the hangar roof for her perch. The last few flights of hers have been pretty short, with her showing no sign that she is even a little bit tired, so I ignored her landing. Karen was yelling at her encouraging her to stay in the air, while I walked away. She landed on the roof finally, but again flew off immediately when I did not toss the lure. ( It takes no time at all for the rascals to pattern you. ) this time she strafed my head. Karen yelled that she was coming back also at head height. I turned to face her, she landed at my feet, ran up and  "footed" my boot, looking up at me and threatening me. Brick the new dog went up to see what was going on, and she started after him. He took the hint and vacated the premises. I of course had to feed her. It is the second time that she came to me without waiting for the lure. Two days ago she hovered in front of me until I stuck up my fist.

Today it appeared that we were going to have enough wind to keep the Kite in the air. I ran it out to about 225 feet. As soon as it got in the air, the wind began to die down. I went back into the house to eat dinner and hopefully come out to a bit more wind. No luck, the kite went back down to the ground. I again put it up and went back into the house. Finally the wind came up a bit, and I went out to look. The lure had come loose from the attachment and was on the ground. I pulled the kite back down, and the wind again came up a bit, so I ran it back into the air.

We got Jessie ready and while it was still up, it was only about 125 feet. I turned her loose and she took off, powered around grabbing the lure on the first circle. Perhaps she is in better shape than I thought.

https://vimeo.com/146461978

If the wind doesn't improve shortly, I may just have to go hunting ready or not.

Retribution!

After discovering the carnage to my Pigeons, I began setting traps. The one above is the only one that I set that is lethal, instantly. Therefore I set it so that the only thing that could be hurt was a varmint that intended to kill pigeons. I set some "Dog Proof traps where the Coons could access the area.

Having Dogs and Cats I have to of course be careful about how I trap and where. There is an area behind my captive Chicken house where Racoons have traditionally entered the area. There is a rock wall with a gap that they have used. That one has a Steel trap, but a Dog couldn't use it. The Dog Proof traps are basically a steel pipe that can only be triggered by grasping toes stuck in there. Racoons use their front paws a lot like hands, and these traps take advantage of that. I sometimes catch Ground Squirrels that are inside trying to get the bait with them.

I had just about given up hope of catching the Coon. It had been so long and there was no real reason for him to go into the Pigeon House. Nothing there but a few bones. Not even the surviving Pigeons were going in there.

These traps are very effective and scary as well. They are so strong I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a few bones broken in this critter. As you can see the trap jumps forward when triggered. dIt is a major chore to set the darn thing and worthy of a bit of sweating, but there is no messing around or suffering with this type of trap. There is no way to remove it without a special tool to do so. That is why I am so careful about where I set it.

I am a happy camper, revenge is always sweet.

Tan Rat

Well I finished the Rat today, and she turned out pretty well. I had some problems with her tail when I was splitting it during the skinning process, I split the skin but didn't realize that about two inches of it didn't have a bone in it. That part was pulled off. Crap, but stuff happens. Then after it was tanned and I was making it soft and  flexible, I broke another little bit off, by being to aggressive with the process of breaking down the drying fibers. Sigh! She still looks good and feels amazing, but still, their tails are quite striking.

Varmint revenge

I had thought that things had gone pretty well at home while I was gone. There were of course many things that needed catching up on.

I knew the Dogs had missed me, but the cat was a surprise.

On the surface things seemed to be just fine. One of my little "Old English banties" had hatched four chicks in the garden among the radishes just before I got back.

 As usual with these types she was insecure with babies among all the giant Buff Orphingtons, so she was hiding outside with them at night.

 I also noticed that the Pigeons were not eating all their food. Deer were trashing all the trees in the yard. I also noticed some quite large Pack Rat turds scattered all over the back porch. On the face of things, all was in fair shape, just needing a bit of my personal attention to return things to normal.

The Deer showed up in the early afternoon of the first day home. So I did a bunch of yelling and firing a shotgun over their heads. They didn't seem to be too impressed, so when they got out about 80 yards, I lowered my aim. They finally moved off, although reluctantly. The next afternoon about 5 PM here they come again. Four Does walking up the hill headed for the house. I got the shotgun and again shouted and fired the shot gun over their heads. Same evening back again, so this time I burned a few of them. Next day here they come again as if it was all a mistake. All in all it took 5 times with me progressively peppering them with shot, before they finally seemed to take me serious. It finally got to the point that I had a hard time keeping from dropping the lead doe permanently. Its a good thing that Karen had already put a Deer in the freezer. I finally was apparently able to convince the Does that the place was off limits. This morning while standing outside searching the area for the Coyote that I fed the last coons to, I saw this Buck down by the creek.

 It is the peak of the rut for Deer. To say they get a bit distracted from the normal world is a bit generous. The dogs and I were standing in plain sight by the pool, and he walked to within 50 yards of us, only leaving because Brick began barking at him while I was getting the camera.

Now for the Pack Rat. I baited the "Gangplank with a fresh half of an apple, then proceeded to winterize the place as we seemed to be on a fast track to cold weather. The Fifth wheel went pretty well, I blew out the lines, dumped the black and grey tanks, emptied the hot water heater, then flushed the lines with RV antifreeze. Blew out the sprinkler system and insulated the distribution lines.

Then I discovered that the reason that the pigeons weren't eating all their food was actually due to the fact that I only had 12 birds left.

When I opened the loft, I found only bones and feathers. The Raccoons had killed all but 12 birds that were not sleeping in the loft because it was so crowded. I estimate that they killed over 70 birds total. They also killed the mother hen and her babies. Now there are traps covering the entry area, with another 1/2 dozen "dog Proof" traps coming. I will be running a trap line for Coons this fall. Its too bad they aren't worth something as furs.

I checked the water trap the next morning and found that the apple half was totally gone, but no Rat.

 This happened for three nights. I finally began to wonder if it was actually a Rat, or something else taking the apple off the bait wire. I decided to put the trail camera out there to make sure. The rascal was walking the edge of the tub and eating the Apple right off a 12 inch welding rod. Unfortunately I erased the disc, but it was for sure a Pack Rat, and a HUGE one at that. This one was a trophy, so I retrieved one of my Hava Hart traps. That proved to be her downfall, and she woke me up the next morning rattling around in the trap. I put her out in the hanger to keep the dogs away from her.

I decided that this one would go on my wall, so I needed to keep the hide in as good shape as I could, so guns, and dogs were out of the question. The quad and a spare vacuum hose solved the problem.

After running the engine for about five minutes I melted the vacuum hose, so I cut a slit in the bag to see how the Rat was doing. She wasn't, she had fortunately succumbed to the fumes nicely.

The sucker was as big as an Eastern Grey Squirrel. I have spent the last three days tanning her pelt. Soon he will join my other trophies on the wall.

I have finally got Jessie down in weight to the point that we can start training. I flew her to the lure on a creance last Friday. Today she was close enough to her weight that I turned her loose. She is pretty weak, but seemed to enjoy the chance to fly. When I threw the lure, she struck it three times, just to show that she could I guess.

I was quite pleased, she is acting better than she has in years. Her manners are as close to perfect, as Jessie ever gets. She came to the fist with no hesitation, every thing was perfect. I decided to give her an entire quail since I wouldn't be flying her for another two days. Then she freaked me out by not being able to hold the entire quail. I have never seen that before. I have seen her eat almost an entire Pigeon. Now I will worry for the next two days that something is the matter with her.

Temporary insanity

I guess it all began when I didn't get much in the way of Fire Calls this summer. Goodness knows every thing in the West was either on fire or going to be on fire. My company, for what ever reason, got almost none of the calls for Water Tenders. I admit I was a bit frustrated. My bags were all packed, and I could be on my way in less that an hour. No one called.

I had wanted to get a Sauna for the place here, it seemed like the perfect addition for those cold winter nights and evenings. Finely, I got a call for Northern Nev. and spent about four days. Netting about $1100. Things were looking up. The Sauna's went on sale and they had the one that I wanted for $900. 00 off. Its a sale, right? So I jumped on it, and soon had it together and installed in the Shop.

 All that worked out great, but I was still a $1000.00 in the hole. I wanted at least another job to finish paying for the thing. That led to me volunteering for other work that the company is doing. He is always short handed and having difficulty to find someone who would work. Something that I always find amazing, but not too surprising since it appears to be easier to get "free" money than it is to work for it.

Well it just so happened that he had a contract to "treat" about 724 acres of mixed Juniper and Pinion Pine forest. By treat, I mean to grind up enough trees so that they were spaced out about 30 feet apart. Basically a park type setting. I assume it is to slow any fires that might come that way, nothing is for sure however as there is really no rime or reason visible to the naked eye as to its real purpose.

This was to be accomplished with a couple of machines that are realistically "tree mowers".

This is the one that I ran.

This is what the forest is supposed to look like after we were done. The shredded areas used to be trees.

Some of it was pretty easy, as it was mostly Sage, the rest could go to 

thick, "dog hair thickets".  Lower down, the trees were fairly small.

Higher on the hill, to large formidable trees.

So we began getting every thing ready the 9th of October. Three days of hauling machinery and setting up camp.

The camp is at 6500 feet altitude. Every thing went well for a week, and by working 10 hour days, we were making some headway. Then on the 6th day of work the belts that powered the grinding head burned up. I will admit, that it was my fault. Bad technique I guess. Well that took about three days to fix, so I went home until they fixed it. The drive is 7 hours, so its nothing that I really am interested in doing on a regular basis if I can help it.

I went back on the 21st and met the new guy, who took the Boss's place, while he went to Colorado to work on another project. The idea was for the two of us to compete as much of the project as we could before the weather set in and stopped work. Kenny Smith is a rancher that has worked for EC (boss) for years and is very good at it, but doesn't work all that often. He mostly does Fire Boss work in the summer, and spends the rest of his time working on his ranch. I guess he too thought he needed some cash.

Kenny, being a Cowboy also prefers to cook with a campfire. My own particular motto is " patience my ass, I'm going to kill something", I preferred my gas griddle, but what the heck, never insult the cook. Even with a bit of Sage brush thrown in to flavor the fire, I have to admit he did well. 

The weather of course kept getting a bit colder, but nothing really out of the normal range of comfort for a coat or jacket. My machine apparently has a hole in the heater core, so I had to glean whatever heat I could get out of the air conditioner side of the set up. If I tried to use the  heater, the entire cab would fog up and I couldn't see a thing. As you might imagine with a whirling grinding wheel about 6 feet across and carbide teeth all over it, dust could be a bit of a problem. Visibility is a premium and a necessity. Windshield cleaning was a regular feature of work.

I had worked my way quite high up the hill and came on a great Pinion tree. It towered over all the other trees around it, and was crowned with lots of cones.

I guess the Pinion only has cones every third year??

Apparently this is the year.

These are where the seeds are. Notice the yellow at the ends of the cone "leaves", that is pitch. Lots of it! The area supported a lot of Ravens, Pinion Jays and Ravens. I only saw about 15 Jack Rabbits, two Coyotes, and six Cows. Nothing else there.

I noticed a skull over to the side of the Tree.

A wild boar! I was amazed, but I learned later that there were a few of them in the country.

The interesting part is the 30 cal bullet hole between his eyes. Its a bit low,  but it was just high enough in the head to at least shock his brain and stop him. A very good thing for the shooter, Pigs really get pissed if you shoot them in the sinuses.

One good thing about the work, is that I had no time to take a nap. I got up at 5:30 in the morning, ran outside, started the generator, then perked a pot of coffee, made a lunch and breakfast.  Work until 5 PM, fix dinner, read and try to stay awake until at least 9 PM and do it all again. I had cell service, barely, and thanks to a cell booster that I bought for $325.00, was able to get emails and call out. Its worth it to be able to talk to Karen on a regular basis. That way both of us could rest easy knowing that every thing was OK.

Then last Sat. my cell phone began dumping to a non existent voice mail, or just cutting off after two rings. The only place that I couldn't call was home. I could send an email however and could request Karen to call me. I spent one entire evening talking to Verizon and three days later I could again use my phone to call home.

We had gotten almost all of the easy stuff "treated" and then my machine again broke down. This time, it wasn't my fault, just general maintenance.

One of the problems that I was having was my left knee began hurting, bad! As the result of an old motor cycle injury in 1970, I had over the years developed a bit of Arthritis in it. Somehow working on the machine aggravated it so badly that it was swollen up and I had trouble walking or much of anything else. I was using a heating pad along with Ben gay and aspirin. None of it helped.,

Karen and the dogs came to visit on the 27th. and I took half of a day off. We had a good time and she went home on the 28th. Two hours into my shift the seal on one of the hydraulic heads went out. I limped back to camp, and after notifying the Boss, spent the rest of the day sight seeing. The day was a bit of a bust any way. It began raining after noon and there was snow on the higher parts of the job. 

I visited the town Of Eureka Nev, and just drove around a bit. The next morning after talking with the boss, learned that it would probably take a week to get parts for the machine and to get it repaired. I elected to pack up and come on home. It is only going to get miserable, and more difficult as the month wears on. I was afraid to leave the trailer there for a week, with no one in it to keep it from freezing up. I just checked the forecast, up to 7 inches of snow by Monday. Time to go home. I had 128 hours, going to have to be enough.

It had been raining all morning, with a few snow flakes mixed in. The clouds were hanging just above camp, and the area that I broke down in had a skiff of snow on it.

The Mountains were all covered on their upper slopes.

On my drive home, I could finely see where the clouds part, and where all our rain goes. This is McDermitt, Nev. right on the border. If you will notice to the right is rain falling behind McDermitt, and to the left rain is falling on the Oregon Canyon Mt's. In the middle it is basically clear, and right in the middle is where our house is 49 miles north.

An evening in the hot tub, does wonders for sore knees. I even managed a good nights sleep in my own bed, and even though I was still grinding trees in my sleep, I woke to a new day, a new promise.

This is the sunrise that I was blessed with as the sun rose.

Its kinda nice to be home again. I think I will give retirement a try- again.