New field

As I mentioned before the field that I had been hunting was played out. That is there were only as many Rabbits in it as there should be, rather than so many that it boggled the mind. The other fields that we tried did not have enough in them for a young hawk carried by a gimpy old man, much of a chance of success. It was time for some new country. The fields that I had been hunting was mostly Grease Wood, which as the name suggests, is nasty. Stickers that poke through your pants, I can't imagine diving head first into one of them.

I called Phidel Larrusea (Basque ) at Arock to see if I could still hunt his ranch. This morning John and I went over there to see what kind of populations they had. The Sage there runs from chest high to knee high. I think we saw about 30 total while we were there, plus about 5 Bunnies. Bunnies wind Hope up like the energizer Bunny Hawk. Of course she still hasn't a clue how to catch a dodging Jack much less one of those hyper bunnies. What turns her on is that they run like hell, while the Jacks just lope along waiting to see what we are going to do. Loping at this time is not one of her big turn on's. I decided that four trips with no real reward was enough justification to wing another one. Or at least try. Not all that easy with a pistol, so nothing is guaranteed.

We had several slips on Bunnies and she made a shot or two at some of the Jacks with no success. I was afraid that she was actually going to catch one of the Bunnies if we kept jumping them, so when we got into a bigger concentration of Jacks, I managed to wing the second one that I tried for. Hope slammed into him when she saw him. I intended to let her have her way with him until I saw that he was a senior citizen carrying all the nasty things that old Jack Rabbits get. He had a fist sized lump just off his back bone, pus pockets in his front leg, and who knows what all else. The back leg appeared to be only Jack Rabbit meat, so I cut one off and between it and the food that I carried, I had enough to fill her to the point that she couldn't take another bite- literally.

A "make hawk" would be ideal, but one does what one can. She will get it. No doubt!