Christmas 2024

 Another cycle around the Sun is near to completion, so I thought I might catch you up on the happenings or rather nonhappening's here in the High Desert. In retrospect quite a lot of changes have taken place this year, yet my mental reaction to the year was mostly boredom. 

Brenda and I are still getting along better than anyone likely deserves. I have no complaints other than she seems to be totally committed to testing my willpower with goodies and tasty things that are laying around waiting for me to gobble them up.

We met my 1st cousin and his Lady at the Painted Desert again this year and had a great time. I got my knee replaced on the 5th of June, bought a new Brittany Puppy  on the 10th of June. Most of the summer was dedicated to healing, and raising a pup. 

I've had a lot of dogs over my lifetime. All were wonderful! Several were exceptional. This one stands out from all of them in the "cuteness" category. Her parents were "Field Trail dogs" and she has the motor to match. As a small pup she was always running, and mostly out of sight. She is highly intelligent and as manipulative as a "bar girl". She seems to think that I am the next best thing since "kitty box Nougats".  A four mile shock collar is imperative with her. Its not necessary to shock her, but its ability to call her back is its main feature. All of the pups in her litter were named after Star Wars characters. She is Leah. Probably not the right spelling, but it is what it is.

Our fly-in was the highlight of the year. We are dwindling down as we age out of flying, but the ones who come make it special. Leah got to go on her first flight due to refusing to let one of the guy's take off. At my suggestion he stuffed her in his other seat and took off. She only got excited when she saw the trucks on the Hwy.

                                                                 Nap time

After the fly in I took Brenda to the coast via Crater Lake again. We went to the Redwoods, and traveled up the Coast seeing the sights. We spent a few days camping at one of the regular fly-in friends. The thing that made the biggest impression on Brenda was how many Pine trees there are in Oregon. Coming from W.Va. where the dominate tree is a Hardwood, all the Pines were a bit of a shock to her. We lost fifth gear on the truck coming back about 50 miles from the coast. It was a bit slower driving in forth gear, but we made it back with no problems.

As you might be aware, I turned 80 this year. Something that I never considered would happen. I guess it made a bit bigger impression than I anticipated. I haven't been able to hunt since 2018, when the Rabbits starved to near extinction. During that time my left shoulder got to the point that I couldn't exercise or hardly put a coat on. I somehow decided that flying had lost it's edge. Primarily due to gasoline costing around five dollars a gallon. I did pretty well until the recuperation time to get my knee healed to the point that I could use it again. Then when I did get to where I could get around almost as well as before, the Rabbits were still non existent.

It seems that almost all of the people that were in my "circle" are gone. Most of us don't live to be 80 years old. I guess that I became a bit depressed. I didn't think so until yesterday. I was going to town for a couple of Veterans appointments. The Sun was just coming up, and as usual the Sunrises here in the High Desert are spectacular, I was thinking about the friends that have gone before me, and the ones that I still have. The tears were blurring my vision. Sorrow that they couldn't share the beauty with me and gratitude for the times that they did.   I thanked God for each and every one of you, and promised to do better.

Merry Christmas!                                              

I give up!

 Much to my chagrin another year is going to have to pass before there are enough Jack Rabbits to allow me to actually hunt them. I put in 40 miles last week with little to no Jacks to show for it. In early June there was a sudden influx of Jacks that seemed to indicate that they were back. I had 6 to 8 Jacks each evening, traveling across the open field below the house to get water from the creek. Then they disappeared! I blamed it on my new Pup scaring them off, but they are not any where to be seen. Tami was telling me that she was seeing 20-30 Jacks on the road from the ranch to Cow Camp, but they aren't there now either.

I had always assumed that the "Jack Rabbit cycle" was that it just took 7 years to rebuild through the survivors eventually building back the populations through breeding. I am not so sure anymore. For one thing the influx of Jacks was real. I had two Jacks that survived the winter and I would see their tracks in the snow throughout the winter. One of them died on my alternate runway this spring, and then all of a sudden they were everywhere, and just like that after about a month or so they were gone again. The Coyotes and my dog could not possibly be that effective in killing and running off so many overnight.

As a last resort I went to the area ( a 60 mile round trip ) that I had found so many Jacks in the past. Where the Lave flows were, was full of Brush Bunnies. Hope went nuts, and they wore her to a frazzle. However since they only live in volcanic areas they are never more than 20 yards from a hole. With a ferret they wouldn't have a chance, but on their own its almost impossible for a Harris Hawk to be fast enough to catch one of the little "pocket rockets. " I walked the entire area and finally saw one Jack. 

I decided to give it one last shot. The field just West of the house has always held at least four Jacks. Hope and I, without the dog, traversed the entire thing and only saw 3 Bunnies I hate to say it, but its time to give it up.

  

#$%*#%

 Yah I know that is a heck of a title, but that is exactly what I am feeling. I have hunted every day since the last post and there is basically nothing of  the Rabbit family to hunt. The only interesting part of the days efforts since my last post is watching the new pup run. I've hit new spots every day since we caught the half grown rabbit and have found nothing to chase. 

I need to find at least four different fields to alternate my hunts so that I don't burn out the ones that actually do have enough Rabbits to hunt. That has not happened yet. We just got back from another fruitless  search, wherein We tried at least four spots in that area and did not turn up a single Rabbit. I have walked 40 miles according to my phone this month and killed one Rabbit. I am trying to find someplace local that I can hunt, but that apparently isn't going to happen. I will drive to Arock tomorrow to see if I can get permission to hunt one of the good areas there. It has been my mainstay in the past, but the old owner died and the ranch has been sold, so no idea if I will be able to hunt there or not.

The pup is a hoot to watch. She runs full out leaping over the Sage that gets in her way. Not what I had in mind when I decided to get another pup. It is possible that she scares every Rabbit within miles with her soaring flight over tall Sage Brush. Its easy to tell if she jumps a Rabbit, its yip yip fading off in the distance when she does find one. I have not yet made up my mind as of yet if she is a plus or a minus. I have my suspicions but hell there doesn't seem to be anything out there to scare. Poor ole Hope has taken to following the pup in the hopes that she will jump something, it appears she has lost faith in me. So far she has not found any rabbits so I have no idea what Hope will be able to make of that. I had thought that she might attack the pup, but so far she doesn't seem bothered by her, even walking past Leah on the ground without even giving her a second look. No idea what Leah will do if and when Hope does get a Rabbit in her feet. That may not happen though. 

October 2024

 I imagine that some of you are a bit surprised to once again finding one of these in your inbox. Its a bit of a surprise to me as well. This last year has had a bit more of a cost than usual. I'm still kicking, but sometimes you have to check, just to make sure.

I managed to get the VA to replace my left knee in June. I picked up a new puppy five days after the operation. The knee was interesting to say the least. I still need several steps with a grimace before I get lined out. Hopefully that will go away with time.

The actual main reason that I have not wanted to do anything with the computer is that I had to buy a new one last year and it appears that every thing that I did using Windows 7 is not anywhere near the same. The things that were so intuitive with 7 is now much more of a problem with W 11. One of the more endearing features of this version is that I have to keep moving the page up so that I can see what I am typing. I am sure that there is some way to center the text, but my current fix is to make the font so small that I have trouble reading it. 

I turned 80 just a few days ago, and with all the forced inactivity it is much harder to fight against the current.

I took Brenda to the coast after the fly in this year. We did most of the Coast, and I got to show her all of the features that I like about the coast. I guess I did pretty well, she remarked to me that she had never known that there were so many Pine trees in Oregon.

After our return, I began to trim Hope down for some hunting. She has as much trouble losing weight as I do apparently. Today was our second attempt at finding some rabbits to chase. I walked 2.75 miles this afternoon only finding 5 Jacks to chase.  I walked most of the distance in what had been one of my best spots, only finding 4 in an area that would normally hold 8 to 10 Jacks. I changed fields and lucky for us, found a half grown Jack that has not learned all the tricks of evasion.

If I had to guess this year is still going to be difficult, requiring a lot of travel just to find something to chase. I'm not sure how long I am going to put up with the scarcity of rabbits, before I pull the plug.

Christmas 2023

 While both Brenda and I have given up on sending Christmas cards, we haven't given up on hoping that you have a great Christmas! 

It's been a year of mixed blessings. The first 6 months of the year was very wet. An unusual situation for the High Desert. Everything grew like weeds, since all we have here are weeds. Brenda seemed to be happy about that as her favorite tool is a weed eater. Since I am such a perceptive and loving partner, I bought her a weed eater with a battery start system.  

With the help of a good friend, and his nephew, we replaced the roofs on the "Cat House" and the Hangar. Both needed the repair, since they were the original roofing from 1978.

 While I didn't get to show Brenda as much of Oregon as I wanted, we did go to Crater Lake, and the Painted Desert. Our biggest problem with traveling was, Brick, our last remaining dog. He has since died. 

We had a lot of company this year and we enjoyed every bit of it. 

Brenda's daughter, Granddaughter, and my niece came a week before our fly-in. My good friend John Hauck, from Alabama, spent 6 weeks or so with us. It was great to have the company. 

The only real downer was the Rabbit populations. There just aren't enough rabbits here to justify killing any of them, so my hawking this year is a bust. The only bad part of that is - will I still be able to hunt them when they do recover. I have been exceptionally blessed with good genes. However, nothing last forever, and at 79 I have been seeing some chinks in my "armor" as of late. My "motorcycle injury" has finally made itself known, but perhaps the worst was finally having to take blood pressure meds. All medications have a physical cost linked to it. I really have no excuse for complaining about it however, nothing last forever.

We have yet to see any snow, other than an 1/8 of an inch a couple weeks ago. I guess we will have to do with Hoar frost this year.

We wish you the best Christmas ever! Cherish your friends, and relatives, and be happy!

 

 

 

 

Nov. 2023

 Well, another bummer type of year. Rabbits are still down! Bird flu is still around. My last dog- Brick has died of old age. Weather is great however!

Once again, the Rabbits are scarce enough to be on the endangered list. About the best I can do in a 4-mile hunt with a hungry hawk on a 7-foot perch is 2-3 Jacks sighted, mostly at 2-300 yards, running at full speed. Last year I quit in the middle of November. I didn't want to do that again.  So, I began to consider the problem.

I reasoned that the drone should supply a way to exercise her and keep her mind normal. I decided to put a quail leg on the normal Drone lure. My thoughts were that she would work her way up to the lure parked at 100 feet. Reality showed me that she had no idea how to fly, beyond a kamikaze dive into Sage Brush. After some head scratching, I realized that had been all the flight opportunities that had been presented to her over her lifetime.  

I took her out of the weathering area, weighed her, then turned her loose to take a perch on top of the hanger. I fired up the drone and started climbing as I got it in the air. When the lure cleared the ground, she started after it. On reflex, I pulled it out of her range. ( Nobody's perfect!) She wasn't even able to fly up 10 feet to grab it. She sat on the ground to try to figure out what happened and what it meant. I brought it back around and made sure that she could get it.

two days later I set the drone up outside, ready to fly, and decided that I would walk the triangle of Sage outside my fence with her on the T Perch. Then if we didn't catch anything, we would go back to the drone. I managed to walk about three hundred yards out in the field, when she left the perch and flew back to where the drone sat. She walked around it, looked it over for a lure and then just sat there waiting for me to come back and feed her. A bit of a quick study, that girl! She learned that as quickly as a bad habit. I did call her back and finished my walk. We did jump one long range Jack, that she couldn't find when she finally got to the last spot that we saw him. 

This time I was more aware of her lack of flight and kept it low enough, flying the lure in a large circle about 50 feet above the ground and made sure she caught it. This was the time that I discovered that an entire quail was more food than she needed. The third day after this flight I set up the drone, but not take it off the ground. I had the lure covered so that she could not see it. 

One of the ways that I measure her intentions about hunting, is that I leave her loose in the Weathering area. If she isn't waiting by the door, she is not coming to me, and I can go on with my other stuff. Her problem with knowing that there is a lure somewhere, meant that she didn't need to come to me, she already had that worked out. So, I didn't feed her at all.     

I didn't make that mistake again, and the next flight was better. I had practiced flying in a large circle with the lure about 75 feet off the ground. I had started putting her in her Giant hood after weighing her. I put the drone up and parked far enough away that she would not grab it before I could regain the controls. This time it all worked like I had intended. 

I have never had to use a lure in her training. I introduced her to it during her initial training and she has never forgotten. In fact, it holds such allure for her that once captured, she does not let go. I am hoping that she learns that it is merely a one- time thing and no more meat will appear. So, when she came to me, she would drag the lure along with her. Today she left the lure and came to the fist. Much better!

I am not sure where I am going with this exercise, but she at least has an interruption to her daily routine. I will try to find a way to run the drone and film it. Perhaps when she has learned to fly I can capture some of it. 

I have decided that I am not going to kill any of the resident Jacks here. They are down to bare minimum here, and I don't have the luxury of paying the gas prices to go to where there might be some. The home range of Jack Rabbits is somewhere around two acres. Some of the 100- or 200-acres plots may only have one or two Jacks in them. The more I kill, if I could, would possibly slow the repopulation down even further. I am getting old enough that I can see the end for me, and it isn't that far in the future.

Some of you may remember Yogi. I got her in 2011 from a rehabber in St. George Utah. She was quite a bird, and was such a smart, thinking, hunting hawk. I flew her for several years in several different cast situations and she always impressed me. I gave her to Sarah Morrison for several years. She sent her back to me when she moved to Montana. I gave her to Tammi Stoddart next door. She started out for her first flight for her this year. She flew to a Sage and came back to the perch. On landing she was unsteady and seemed to have trouble standing up. Tami took her back home and called me. Everything was normal, mutes looked good. After three days of observation, no symptoms other than an inability to stand up. I believe that she had a stroke. She is improving and beginning to regain her ability to stand. 

Catch up

 I seem to have a little time with nothing much to do, so I might as well do some catch up. It's been an interesting year. Not sure if it's my advancing years or just what, but my attitude towards life and everything has changed. I'm not real sure that I am all that happy about it, but don't know what to do to change it. I suppose that it is natural, and I have always been a "closet hermit", but it is worse this year. Perhaps it is just a "phase" that one goes through. My mind seems to be "all there", but of course I would be the last to know. 

With the help of a good friend and his nephew I managed to replace the last two remaining roofs on the property that needed it. The insurance was a nightmare, but it's done. 

Our fly-in went extremely well, the weather was great, and everybody had a great time. Everybody loved Brenda, and she made it so much easier on me during the time that everyone was here. She is also spoiling me completely. Perhaps that is why I am so listless.

Our sleeping habits are quite different, I like Sunrises, she likes going to bed in the AM. I have never snored unless I was really tired. She came to bed the other night, and I was in that point of sleeping where I was aware that she had come into the room, but yet not awake. I was sleeping on my left side when she got into bed. I hadn't moved because I didn't want to wake up. Then I felt her put her fingers on my wrist to check my heartbeat. It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. I suppose that could have been the point when I realized that I might be old.

It has taken me a month almost to get Hope down to flying weight, but there is really no hurry, the Rabbits are still very scarce. I walked for 2.6 miles Tuesday and saw two bunnies and two Jacks, all of which outsmarted my flabby hawk. Perhaps I am spoiled but it would be nice to have a few more critters to chase or be able to afford the gas to find them. 

I am now down to my last dog. Josie died this spring, and Brick my male apparently has the same "I don't give a shit" attitude that I do. He stopped going for a morning walk this Spring. He is a bit more "stove up" than I am, but when I started off with Hope, he came along too. CBD oil and doggy aspirins helps him out when the pains are bad. It's nice to have him along. I accuse him of having a bit of dementia, he seems to know where I am going so that he can get in the way. I tossed down a tidbit for Hope when we returned yesterday. He thought it was for him right up to the point that Hope bit him on the foot.