Dec 7th

I spent all afternoon yesterday rearranging the shop so that I could extend the night time perch for both Jessie and Hope. The weather is bone chillingly cold at night, and I don't want to leave Hope out in it.

This is the finished product. I am not all that happy with where I have to put it, but one does what you have to. If I had less stuff it would be easier. Hope was not used to a door swinging in her face so she tried to escape when I came in to take the picture. I weighed her and she was 974 grams. I tied her to her outside perch about 10 AM after it warmed up to 10 degrees.

I decided to wait until after Karen came back from the mail, and go over to a spot at the ranch that I wanted to try. I wanted to take the car as it leaves a lighter footprint on a muddy spot that I have to traverse to get to where I wanted to hunt. It is four wheel drive and does quite well in soft terrain.

I again picked her up around 1:45 PM and found that she had dropped another 10 grams. The area that I wanted to hunt is a bit further along on the back side of the Pothole field, which I think has been supplying water for the Jacks. Whether or not they require water, they still prefer to locate near it, and the grass that it encourages to grow.

Every time that I can hunt here at the ranch saves me 2 or 3 gallons of gas, Not to mention the reduction in time that it takes to get there and back. I prefer to not concentrate my hunts in one area to reduce the pressure that is put on the Jacks to a point that they do not feel so pressed that they relocate. The area that I have been hunting is just a small sliver of adequate cover. It is mainly Grease Wood, but it is good enough to hold a good number of Jacks. Then comes an expanse of bare gravel with a few clumps of Grease Wood scattered through it. Then an expanse of Alkali that nothing likes. The area that I wanted to try was on the other side of the Alkali and appeared to have some good cover. Not too heavy and not too thin.

I drove on from the spot that I normally hunt by a 1/2 mile or so, and began to see Jacks when we got out of the Alkali part of the field. I brought a video camera today and stuck it on the side of my head since there isn't any where else to put it. It appears that my head is either a bit sloped or the camera is crooked. Your choice. The video is a lot less than I would prefer, but as the saying goes, it is better than nothing.

The entire hunt took less than 8 minutes to a kill and a total of 20 minutes counting the time spent with her eating and walking back to the car.

https://vimeo.com/194752153   password   owyheeflyer