A rare day when every thing came together

Ron and Joyce, friends from Klamath Falls came over to do a bit of Rabbit hunting. They now live in McMinnville and no longer have access to Jacks very often.

Ron unfortunately seems to be coming down with the Flu. Of course that did not become obvious until they had arrived. Karen and I have both had our flu shots, so I guess we will see how effective they were. He was pretty sick the first night. They slept in the fifth wheel, and at first every thing was fine. The temps dropped down to 19 degrees overnight. When Karen and I changed the sheets in preparation for their arrival, we actually put what I thought was too many blankets on the bed. We told them they could throw them off if it was too warm. Well they didn't have to worry about that since the propane tank went empty sometime in the middle of the night. The fan continued to run while the heater tried to warm the trailer, but in fact was making it colder. Joyce came in the house feeling a bit like an ice sickle. I went out, changed tanks and finally got the heater running again. They were warm underneath all those covers except their heads and faces. Of course it was another matter getting dressed.

While we were waiting for the temps to come up a bit so that we could go hawking, I peeked out of the window in the dinning room and there was a Coyote standing about 50 yards off. I opened the window as quietly as I could and shot him with my 17 rimfire. He took off going towards the creek. The dogs and I went to see if we could find him. We crossed the fence and found him about 50 yards up the creek. So I spent the early morning skinning a Coyote in the hanger.

After I finished we loaded up the birds and headed over to the ranch to do a bit of hunting. I flew Hope first and it didn't take long before she was off chasing one in the distance. She made a couple of shots at him, but couldn't make it happen. She returned back to the perch and we continued on. In total we jumped 5 Jacks with her catching the 5th one flushed. Unfortunately I managed to forget to take a camera. Her weight this morning was 954 grams. She worked and tried a bit harder this time. She is improving day by day.

Ron was able to drive alongside us while we were hunting, so he got to see the whole thing without exhausting himself. When she finished her meal, we put her up and got Ron's Harris,Chili, out.

I had never handled her before and had only seen her once before in a hunting situation. She had also never flown from a Tee Perch. It took her about 5 minutes to see the advantage of the height, and she rode quite well. We finished what Hope and I had not covered, getting a few slips. She had one that she ripped a double hand full of hair out of his butt but he still got away. When we got to the end, we crossed the fence and began walking back. We had another flight at one a long way off, but ended up by the truck with no rabbit in the bag. Ron was flagging pretty badly by then, so I told him to wait by the truck while Joyce and I made a foray out a bit further. About the time that we had traveled maybe 10 feet, Chili took off and a cloud of dust and a scream followed soon after. Joyce being the fleetest of foot got there first and managed to stop the Jack with her foot. Chili wasn't letting go, but the Jack was dragging her along a bit.

I killed the Jack about the time that Ron arrived. I stood up and Ron bent down to take her up from the rabbit. He covered the rabbit with his vest and asked for the tidbits. I had transferred them to my tin cup, so when he got them he set the cup out from the vest. Chili wasted no time walking to the cup and began eating out of it as though it was a normal event for her.

I took Joyce to look at the Artesian spring that spawns Crooked Creek. 

We came back to the house and had a bit of lunch while I finished taking care of the Coyote that I had shot. When I came back in Ron wanted to have Joyce get familiar with his new Glock pistol. There was a Deer lying down in the field near the Sage, and I wondered what she would do when we began shooting. The answer is nothing. In fact several more came out of the Sage to see what was going on.

If you look close to the left of the Deer, you can see the Coyote coming across the field.

When we finished and came in the house I looked out in the field and all of the Deer had come out of the Sage and began feeding. Now we had shot about 25 rounds of 9 MM shells which are not quiet at all.

I got the camera and took a picture of them, and then noticed that they all were looking off to the North. I looked in the direction that they were looking and saw a Coyote walking towards them. I again opened the window, but the Coyote wasn't stopping even when Ron Whistled at him. She went into the Sage at the bottom which was out of my firing vision, so I went out to the shooting bench. she obviously knew where she was going, and came out of the Sage onto the path. I had the 22-250 this time. I finally decided that she wasn't going to stop, so I led her and touched it off. She disappeared and a loud whack from the impact followed. The Dogs and I got the quad and drove down to get her.

The dogs and I had surprised the first one nosing around by the weathering area, the other morning, so I was very happy to be rid of that one, but this female was a total surprise. All in all a pretty fruitful day. Its a rare thing worthy of celebration when anything goes right, much less every thing going right.

Ron and Joyce decided to sleep in the house tonight.