At last, the Rabbits are back

 It's been a long eight years. The winter of 2018 was an unusual winter. A normal snowfall for this area is at most 4 or 5 inches of snow that lasts perhaps 3 or 4 days. Yes, it gets cold- I have experienced 25 below zero, perhaps a bit more over the years. This particular winter, around Thanksgiving we were blessed with 18 inches of snow. It's normal for a snow to melt within a week of falling. This time it sleeted and got cold! It all froze into a heavy crust that didn't go away for about a month. The Deer and Antelope in large numbers, were limping from the frozen crust that cut their legs. A large group of Antelope overnighted at the creek below the house, and it was alarming how many of them were limping. We lost enough Deer and Antelope that Oregon Fish and Wildlife curtailed the Deer and Antelope tags for several years. The Jacks apparently starved to death.

It's been a rough eight years! One the things that I have been critical of is having a Hawk that just sits! We- Falconers, call that type of "Falconer," Pet keepers! It's a shame to have a Hawk that never gets to fly and just sits in a cage. How ever I had no choice. Each year I would go out checking for places that held Rabbits, Nothing! So, for eight years I would take her weight down to hunting weight (that would take at least a month to get her weight back down) then spend a couple of weeks checking fields for a sustainable population that was never there. I was afraid to kill even one as that might slow the recovery even more. 

I even tried to hunt her or at least exercise her on a Drone. She would just sit there and wait until the time was right then grab the lure. Apparently, I wasn't smart enough to figure out how any of this would either give her some exercise or be fun for her. I decided it wasn't worth the effort and, just built a 24 by 10 mew's that was big enough for her to fly around and get at least a little exercise. She is now 10 years old

Last year in a four-mile hunt ( checked, with an app that measures steps) to check the viability of hunting I managed to turn up one Rabbit. I was afraid that its name might be either Adam or Eve, so I chickened out.

Now at last, the Rabbits have returned. So far, we have killed 6 Jacks, but the important part is, we  are seeing 10 or more Rabbits, while actually catching one on each of the last 6 days that I have hunted.

Today we actually caught two. The first flight today resulted is her catching one, but it got away from her before I was able to get to her. At 82 my ability to run is severely limited. 

Hope severely stone bruised her right foot in her early life and today her right rear talon stays completely folded against the bottom of her right foot. She has learned to compensate and if given the chance grabs them by the head, so that they can't pull off. When Rabbits were plentiful, she might catch two or three before she managed to hold one of them. Their normal escape mechanism was to run through a Sage as part of their escape plane. If she grabbed the biggest target (its' butt) then they could scrape the Hawk off with the Sage. After a bit she began to head hunt. Now however there are a lot of "Young" Jacks out there and they are sometimes not strong enough to scrape her off. Or she is just determined to hold on. Her last two kills have been butt grabs. With both of them when I got there, she was lying on her side with a large branch of the Sage between her legs and the Rabbit in her left foot. It has the look of a "wreck" more than a catch.

Jack Rabbits are reputed to have a two acre "Home range". They of course know every bush and "get away" place in there. They either make or find tunnels in the large Sage that they use as escape tunnels that they can run through, the Coyotes and Hawks get scraped off, or at least it delays their pursuit. When Hope hits one her wings are of course splayed out and her feet hit first. When she hits one like that you can hear the crash from hundred yards or more away. In that case the only target is the Butt, and if she does connect, the wings and the grip of one foot is what holds the Rabbit. It's amazing to me that she can hold a large Jack with one foot while she waits for me to arrive with my tongue hanging out from exhaustion.

I have been afraid that I would not be agile enough to actually be able to hunt her when they di arrive, but it appears that I am not done quite yet, and happy times are here again!

My partner in Crime! When I arrive on the scene, I have to dispatch

the Rabbit, then find my phone. This one was fully adult.

The pictures below are of our

last hunt

                                                                I give her tidbits in a cup

                                                             to give her something else and

                                                             then a nice juicy chunk of meat

                                                             so that I can clean the Rabbit.

You should be able to click on each picture to view it in large format for easier viewing. 

This is my exercise program as well as my entertainment. Its good to be active again.

A reflection on growing old

 As you might have noticed my posts have dwindled to nothing in the last few years. Primarily because I have had little to nothing that was worthy of my time to write and yours to read. I admit that it has caused quite a bit of reflection and query on my part. While I like to "give my opinion" when given the chance, I rightly decided that the value of that exercise had dwindled to an end. It has caused me some consternation as I imagine it has of all that found themselves old quite suddenly. This is my attempt to put to words what and why was the cause and effects, of it. 

I am well aware that some may consider this to be whining and all I really needed to do is "get off my ass, and get with the project." I assure you its not that simple. It has been a cascade of unrelated events that has brought me to the realization - that I have grown old. Now that I finally understand it, I am a bit more accepting of the situation.

The first step began with my decision to get my left knee replaced "before I got too old". It took a lot longer to talk the VA into doing the surgery than it should have. Then it took 11 months to recover enough that I could walk without concern. They did a good job and I now have about 800 miles on that leg.

One of the reasons that I chose that time was that the Jack Rabbits that I depended on to hunt with my Hawk, had crashed. So missing a fall season was no big deal. That condition has persisted for 8 years. There still aren't any Jacks here. So instead of out every other day walking anywhere from 2 to 4 miles in the Sage, I am sitting on my ass, and learning to like it.

Another detriment to my physical conditioning is what is called a frozen shoulder, which eventually resulted in one of the attach points of my bicep disconnecting from the elbow. Allowing the bicep to bunch up. That has occurred to both arm's, eliminating my ability to do any weight training, thus limiting my ability to maintain any conditioning that is so precious at any age. This covers the physical causes.

Suddenly last year I no longer had any desire to fly my plane! I would make plans to fly the next day, yet go outside in the morning, stick my finger up in the air and decide that it was too windy. I could not understand or explain. I just didn't want to roll the plane out. After coming out here to the Rock House, I have flown that plane into places that if a glitch had occurred I would have never been able to get out, without even a bit of hesitation. Now the slightest breeze was too big of a risk. I once flew from Deming, New Mexico to Truth or Consequences at 35 miles per hour. I landed across the runway without getting off the pavement. Now a breeze that doesn't even register, stops me. It just wasn't fun anymore. The one thing that got me through "Man o Pause", no longer interested me. 

At the age of 18 I had been selected to attend Helicopter training at Fort Rucker Alabama. My father had requested that I get on with growing up- somewhere else. The army drug their feet and I felt enough pressure that I told them to either take me or forget about it. Of course they didn't care. I instead went to Michigan with an older brother. Over the years that missed opportunity haunted me. It took me till I was 56 years old before I got to learn to fly. Now I could give a shit less?? It didn't make sense. 

Yesterday I watched a You Tube vid that told about the 5 or 6 things that happened when one reached 80 . There was a lot that applied to me. It was mostly an attitude change.

In my early 70's I basically dropped out of the one thing that had been my passion. I stopped interacting with the Falconry community.  Since 1978 I devoted myself to the legalization of falconry. I surrounded myself with other falconers as devoted to the cause as I was. Lots of trips to Portland to testify to the wildlife board. With a lot of friends and hard work we prevailed. Then sometime in my 70's I decided that it was time for me to step back. I was content to do so.

Then one by one all of the people that had formed what was my life died. Very few of the old guard survived. I no longer knew any of the next generation. All of my family died as well. I am now the only member of what was my family, still alive! The phone doesn't ring anymore. The people that I valued are gone.  I felt lost and alone for most of a year. I have acclimated since. I am still alone, but it now doesn't matter that much. I have my childhood sweetheart and she is enough!

So now because I am afraid to stress my arms that much, the left one cramps if I put too much strain on it. My exercise program is on hold. I am left with walking the runway when the weather allows, a few squats, but that is not enough. At 81 I can lose more condition than I can build up! The cruelest blow is the lack of game. I am afraid to kill a Jack Rabbit since the death of even one rabbit could slow the recovery even longer. Even I cannot force my self to walk over hill and dale without a hawk on my fist.

While even to me this sounds a bit like whining, the betrayal that cuts the most is the continuing loss and refusal of the Rabbit population to recover. I find that quite amusing actually.

I am doing what I can to at least adjust to advancing age and eventual loss of being able to live this far from "civilization". To say the least Social Services are non-existent here. To counter I have purchased a Tesla model Y. Basically a computerized car. The biggest boon to that is that the car style may be outdated, but not the function. Every time there is an update or improvement to Tesla's, mine gets the update as well. Full self driving is the feature that I want and will need. As of now, I can get in the car, tell the AI feature (Groc) to take me to Safeway in Burns Oregon, and it will do so, parking in front of the store. Likewise anywhere at all. Hospital visits for Brenda and I are a piece of cake. In other words as long as I can remember where I want to go, this car will take me and bring me home. 

I have a charger in my garage, and there are now enough commercial chargers that I can go where ever I want. I now have 15,000 mile on the car for a cost of 922.00 a savings of more than$1500. Where the car really shines is in high traffic areas, and freeways. With 6 cameras its awareness is far superior to mine.

It is my intention to keep on keeping on as long as I can, and however I can, but it gets easier to sit every day.

   

 Well here we go again. Another year, another Christmas. Hopefully all of you are still healthy and happy. There have been a lot of changes this year, most for me are of the mental nature. I suppose that is normal even though I have postponed it longer than most manage to do. Turning 81 has been a shock to my system. There is no one to blame other than my own self. Darn nearly all of my contemporaries have died. I am the last of my line. I seem to have lost interest in most everything that I valued and enjoyed. The biggest blow (betrayal) was the loss of almost all the game critters in the area. Game for Falcons to hunt is Shot, between West Nile killing almost all the Sage Grouse, and Bird Flu infecting the Duck population, prospects are dim indeed. The Bird Flu is the worst. A falcon killing an infected Duck has about three days to live. While there were a few Rabbits in the area it was still much too few to actually hunt. 

On the positive side I now have 612 miles on my new knee. I have a program that measures all the miles that I walk. So in actuality my problem is that I just am not interested in doing anything.

When I bought this place in 2006, I was able to pay cash for it. The sale of our place in Klamath Falls left me enough money to do so. Neither Karen or I had anyone to leave it to when we died, so I took out a Reverse Mort, and got half my money back. We used that to fix the place up and get a few things to make our lives easier. Of course Karen died leaving me the sole owner, meaning that when I died the place would go to the mortgage holder. Then Brenda joined me, leaving her in jeopardy when I died. A mortgage outfit contacted me wanting to buy out the current holder, offering me a substantial amount of money to do so. I would only agree if they could add Brenda to the title. They did so to my delight, dropping some $40,000 into my bank additionally.

So with my increasing ageing I found my new problem. When I was on the Oregon State police one of my projects (self assigned) was the older drivers that were a hazard. One of which was Karen's dad who would not quit driving and causing accidents. I sent them in to be reexamined at the DMV. Now Karma is about to take a bite out of my ass. My problem is that I have two neighbors within 25 miles, none of which need to stop what they are doing to get groceries for me. The Social aspects of this area do not include Seniors living in the outback. 

So I bought a Tesla model Y with the money from the Reverse Mort. The thought behind that is that I can tell it where to take me without causing a hazard to other drivers. The nice part of the car is that when they update their programs they also update my car. They installed a Tesla Super charger in both Burns and Jordan Valley enabling me to go either direction. The cost for the Super Chargers is .34 cents a kilowatt. It takes about 10-15 minutes to recharge.  I installed a Tesla Charging system in the garage. The cost for me is .11 cents a kilowatt. making the cost - .03 cents a mile. 

This is the warmest December that I have ever experienced here. It is changing now. The wind has been blowing like crazy for the last three days, and the forecast is that it is finally going to be winter from now on.

Hopefully this finds you all well and happy.

 May God take care of you all!

MARRY CHRISTMAS !!

 

At first it depressed me, but after a lot of thought

Making headway

 I enlisted Brenda in my quest to find a suitable area to hunt. She is not able to walk all that much due to a knee replacement from years ago that is now malfunctioning. Hopefully we will be able to get that fixed a little later this year. However the Oregon Canyon area that I have been hunting is serviced by a looong dirt road down through the middle of it. She can drive the car along as I trudge through the Sage looking for victims. The geology of that area is marked by what used to be a lake bed, so its flat enough that the winter runoff from the Mountains surrounding it has to evaporate rather than run off. The Sage is short and bristly as well as thick. There are rocks scattered all over requiring one to watch very closely where you put your feet. I hate to say this but I am finding I am not as surefooted as I once was.

The great part about having Brenda there is that I don't have to return to the car to change areas. I wanted to see if I could find a "hot" spot for Rabbits. As you can see there is a lot of country to check. I was especially looking for some smooth ground that had enough Rabbits to make it worth while.

Leah had been holding one hind leg up all day appearing to have tweaked it on one of her runs the day before. We took her along, but I wasn't going to allow her to run. She is driven so much that I knew that she would just aggravate it more. I didn't want to leave her at home, besides Brenda was the one who was going to have to put up with her hyperventilating while I was walking.

 I tried several different places along the road, but wasn't getting anything up for Hope to chase. So I decided to just do many different places. This is where having a driver was a plus. No backtracking required. There was a spot of very thick Sage and overgrown Grease wood that had several Bunnies that she chased, but couldn't get through. There was also an old shack with at least two Bunnies that hid in the subfloor. After trying one more spot that seemed to have no Jacks, I gave it up. Three miles was enough in that ankle breaking terrain, so I gave up. One of the things that I wanted to examine was if Leah was a help or was she flushing them so far out that it was making it harder for Hope to score.

If a Jack jumps within 35 to 50 yards from us, Hope's odds are about 75 percent improved. She almost always either catches it or there is hair left on the ground. She injured her right foot on a lava rock several years ago, and lost some ability in the process. It made it much harder to hold a Jack. They would strip her off by running through a hole in the Sage. She compensated by making head shots. Now she almost always goes for the head. They end up tangled up in a ball on their sides.

So after a three mile walk, I didn't find as many Jacks for her to chase. Hope didn't get much to eat, only tidbits. We returned home with me having walked 3 and some miles over some really rough terrain.

I got a tip from a neighbor last night that he had seen some Jacks on one of the roads a few miles down the Hwy. Leah was not limping any more so we headed out to give it a try.

The ground was so much better that I gave thanks for it. We had not gotten into the field more than a 100 yards when Hope took off after a Jack, slamming down about 200 yards away. Most of flights that long, end up with her missing, but this time she didn't come up to sit on the Sage. Leah has learned to stop and watch the flight, then rush to where she went down. I had been listening for screaming to indicate that she had been successful, and not heard anything. I marked the area as best as I could and started wandering that way. Leah was hanging around an area where I thought Hope had gone down. As I got closer I began to hear quiet little sounds. I was amazed that she had managed after all.

In these pictures I have already untangled them and broken his neck. so that I could find my phone and take some pictures without prolonging the Rabbits pain. When I had straightened him out, he kicked away from me and began jumping up and down. They went at least two complete back flips with her holding onto him. She had grabbed him by the face and he couldn't do more that a muffled squeak. He was a big boy. He supplied 6 meals after processing. Winter is coming and I need food for the times we aren't able to hunt. 

So I at last have the answer to the question of Leah's worth. She has made the team! Even though they are aware of us and flush further out, Just the fact that she causes them to move gives us more opportunity.

I tend to fly my hawks a bit fat. My only requirement is that they try. Most hawks hunt to eat. Harris Hawks hunt because they like it. There comes a point where they are too heavy to be agile enough to catch game. I have never during hunting season fed her if she didn't catch something. So I let her decide how much food she wants. When she kills she gets all she can eat. So we hunt every other day or till she kills something. In essence when she is so heavy that she can't make the turns, she goes hungry except for a few tidbits. A hungry hunter seems to be able to overcome what ever obstacle is presented to her.  

First time visitor

While watering this morning I went in the old Chicken house. I could hear some scrabbling and looked in one of the old empty feed barrels. Imagine my surprise when I find, not a Mouse as usual, but this little guy!

Its a Spotted Skunk! I had them in Klamath, but I didn't think that they lived over here in the Desert. I first went to get Brenda, since I was sure she had never seen one. I carried the tub outside and tipped it over so that he could get out. Naturally he hid under the barrel, squirted when I tried to roll it out of the way. He's pretty little so it was more like a fart than a squirt. They, to me don't have that bad of a smell so it was a nonevent. He then made a break back to the house not his vaunted freedom.

I went in to see if I could point him to freedom, but he was much more interested in something to drink. 

I left him there with the door open so that he could leave when he wanted to. Hopefully Leah will not find him. What do you think the chances are?

I took Brenda with me yesterday when I went Hawking. She has resisted driving the Tesla so far. I thought that the dirt road that I have been hunting would be the perfect place to get a feel for the car. I also had an interior motive, I could walk as far as I wanted or needed without having to retrace my steps. She could drive alongside the road, see the ?chases? and I wouldn't have to walk as far. It was a good idea. I put in 3.7 miles before she caught one.

 

A little hope in sight?

 I had just about convinced myself that this year was going to be a bust as have the last 7 years. I will admit that I have been more than a little down in spirits. Yes, everyone has been trying to push me to avoiding getting old as well as acting like it. They have had limited success. After all the reason that I moved here in the first place was to be able to hunt my Hawks, not to mention to get away from civilization and the resultant nut jobs that the rest of you have to put up with. I have spent more than a year trying to get back to my reality and joy of life and its been tough. I have been to all of my old hunting spots and there still isn't much to hunt. Its not supposed to be that way. My only course of action for the last 7 years is to throw food to a Hawk that would like to supply her own food. Welfare isn't all that much fun.

The scarcity of Rabbits combined with the cost of gasoline during the Biden years was one of the reasons that I bought a Tesla. Gasoline is down a bit, but nowhere near enough. Currently Regular is $3.50 a gallon. Once they installed a Tesla Super Charger in Jordan Valley, I was able to make a Tesla work. That allows me to get our groceries in Idaho, then put enough charge back in the Tesla to make it back home. It takes about 5 minutes to add 20 % to the battery so that I can go home and plug it into a home charger. The cost of a Super Charger in JV is .29 cents a KW. At home it cost .11 cents a KW.

The other reason that I bought one is that this car will allow us to live remotely and stay out of the "old Welder's Nursing home". I can and have got in the car, Told it to take me to Costco in Nampa Idaho, and it does so only requiring me to pay attention. That will go away in the future, and once it does I will be able to sleep while it does so.

So far all of my prime hunting spots have required anywhere from 2 to 4 miles to find just a couple of Rabbits for her to chase. While walks of 3 and 4 miles a trip are good for me, not so much for the Hawk. Many more of what used to be good hunting grounds just do not have anything at all to offer.

Today as a last resort I went South towards Nev. to see if there was anything there. I have never really hunted there, mostly because its about 40 miles away. The weather is a bit different due to the terrain. The ice storm that wouldn't quit might have possibly had enough of a reduction of the Ice that killed all the Rabbits here. I will admit that I was just about ready to call it quits for another year.

The spot is called Oregon Canyon. I had hunted there a long time ago just to see what was there. At the time there were Rabbits everywhere, so there was little reason to go there again. I drove back in a good dirt road till I arrived at what appeared to be some good heavy Sage. I stopped the car, let the dog out, and got Hope on my Tee perch and started. I only got a few feet into the Sage and my heart sank. The ground was basically dry lake bottom that would be mud during the wet season. Not normally where I would expect to find Jacks. I decided to try it for a while and then move further down the road if it didn't work out. About 20 steps into the Sage, Hope took off after a Jack that I hadn't seen. It avoided her through two stoops, before she lost it. I called her back, and began picking my way through the cluttered Sage with renewed hope. No more than 20 or 30 steps and a Jack flushed within 20 yards of us. She caught him. Leah was right there before the dust settled. I yelled at her to whoa, and she did. She was right there at the edge of the dust storm, but she didn't interfere. I would have liked to have the time to record all of this, but I was way too busy. You've seen dead Jack Rabbits before. Hope again had him by the head and he was all wrapped up nicely so that the more he pulled the tighter and more immobile he was. I didn't want her to take a beating while I fussed around with vanity shots.

I was blown away. One flush could be a coincidence, but two that close has to mean that there might be enough Rabbits there to hunt, and the area is big enough that I don't have to hunt the same area more than once a week.

Now back to the Tesla. One of my friends stated after finding out that I had bought the Tesla. "Can you imagine seeing Larry driving a Tesla". AS though I am some kind of a Cave man who is so primitive that he could not imagine such a scenario. Well in fact I do have more of the Neanderthall genes than 87 % of the population. They say that they died out due to infertility, not stupidity.

The trip was 80 miles. In the Honda passport it would have cost me $12.60 to go there, after I drove another 55 miles to replace the fuel. In the Tesla it cost me $3.60, and I can replenish that at home.

Yes there are adaptations required to own and run an EV, but it will get better as time goes by. Even a Caveman can figure that out.

Oh, by the way if you should decide to test drive a Tesla, drop my name as having recommended you, it would benefit both of us.

Busy weekend

 One of the new people that attended and contributed to the overall success of our fly-in, came for this last weekend. Ed Phillips, besides wanting to fly around the area, likes to hunt, especially Coyotes. His wife had a prior commitment, so he came to do some hunting. Hope had not been able to connect the day before and was still down to weight, so we took her out in a spot that I had not hunted before. I was seeing a few Jacks in the field next to me, so I felt that we could find a few Jacks there that had not been hunted.

We drove to the end of the runway to begin our hunt. I was explaining to Ed how to hunt Jacks and how if we could get a close 'slip' Hope would almost always catch the Jack. If they had a longer distance to plan, they would almost always get away. Most people have no idea how well adapted Jacks are to survival. If  you remember on my last post I spent a bit of time with the proposition that most of the catches by a Hawk are because the Jack has a physical factor that interferes with their ability to evade capture. 

I have learned that one of the techniques that they use with good results is to just hide until you pass on by them. So I walk a bit then stop. That will make them think that you have seen them so they flush. If they are close enough the Raptor has an improved chance of catching them. Hope's reaction time is excellent and anything within 30 yards is at the very least going to lose some hair if not its life.

That very thing did happen within a few minutes of entering the field. A half grown Jack busted from cover, and Hope had him before he got to the first large Sage bush. My impression that it was a Brush Bunny. The one question that I did not have the answer to, was how Leah was going to react to a screaming Rabbit in Hopes grasp. 

  I guess I needn't have worried, neither Hope or Leah seemed to think that it was a problem. In this case there was nothing wrong with the Jack other than the fact that it was young. I was a very happy falconer. It was also the first young Jack that I had held in my hand in years.

Our next days program was to call a few Coyotes in to the rifles. We went over to the Ranch and set up in a good spot. On the way we saw and were seen by five or more Coyotes in the fields as we drove to our set. We walked back in to a lake to call. Apparently we were seen as the Coyotes began howling. We started calling and what I would call a second year Coyote came to within about 300 yards of the call and paid the price for it.

The next day, we again drove down to where we had caught the young Jack just as we got into the field. I felt that we hadn't really walked through any of the real area at all. We put in 3.7 miles and only got two or three long slips at Rabbits during the two or three hours that we hunted it. Now I am back to the previous doubts that I am going to find enough rabbits to hunt.