I guess I should have caught more of them. It would have been a quicker death than what they suffered through. Its been a really hot summer, lots of days in the 104 range. I broke down and put another air conditioner in. Thanks to Connie, who had an extra.
The feral Horses are crowding the Sheepsheads and making the water situation much worse for the wildlife. The studs dominate the water holes and make a mess for every thing. The range is carrying many many more than it can sustain. The ranch next door, who lease the graze in that area, have brought their Cows in because of them. They cannot haul enough water for all of them.
A friend from my days in Klamath drew an Antelope tag for this area. I scouted for him and managed to locate three water sources that he could hunt. He came over two weeks before the season to look at things on foot. We went to one pond that I was sure that no one else would find or hunt, and we decided that it would be his best chance to hunt an area that the car hunters would not interfere or find. By the time he got back it too had dried up. That left two ponds with water in about 30 square miles.
I was surprised to only see one other hunter myself, and they saw only three. So apparently the hunters for this area either gave up or are bunched some where else. Glenn and his Son in law got their last Antelope yesterday. Both are quite nice animals, and I am both happy as well as relieved.
Hope finally ate on the fist this morning. I have been cutting her back for at least a week or more. She has had her freedom from restraint since Christmas, and she decided that she liked it a lot. I have been flicking her little tidbits for several days and she would still not get closer than five feet from me. Today she really needed to eat. I gave her a couple of tidbits and just sat down in the gravel and stuck my fist out with some Jack Rabbit in it. After a lot of false starts she began to grab at the food trying to rip it out of my hand. After three tries, she gave up, got on the fist and ate her food. Another week or so and it will be "Rabbit time"!
I was over run with Thistles ( Tumble weeds) this year, and I somehow got behind. I spent all of the cooler morning pulling thistles and hauling them off down in the field below me. Long sweaty day, but it looks better.
I am beginning to get ready for the fly-in. This will be the first without Karen. I will scatter her ashes on the first day of the fly-in, so she will still get to participate one more time.
