Maybe she's normal after all

My normal routine is to hunt Hope every other day. I tried to cut down on how much I was feeding her the last time she killed. However I am sure that I over fed her as usual, but most of it was Bunny, which doesn't have all that many calories. When she began calling to me the day after her last kill, I almost believed that I had indeed cut her food intake to a manageable level. That is, until reason took over.

The morning of the 18th dawned cool and lovely as is fairly normal for here.

So when I picked her up yesterday, the 18th, I expected her to be pretty hungry. She weighed 940 grams. OK so now she has learned to lie to me. That's OK, I am somewhat used to it.

I took her to Arock. I haven't hunted this field for more than a week. As I was getting her out of the car, I could see a Jack about 60 yards away,moving off into the Sage. I put her on the Tee perch and we followed his path through the Sage. He soon flushed and she gave chase. He hid and she circled back. I walked along the fence and we were jumping rabbits every few yards, but she pursued like she was going shopping. It did not take long for me to decide that today was going to be a short one, and she would be hungry when we finished. I made a big circle, still busting rabbits all the way back to the car. She was still not being serious.

This was really the first time that she has been this lazy. It is a normal, for most hawks, reaction. It however surprised me, as its the first time she has acted that way. When I took her out of the box at home, she was surprised that we had quit rather than gone to another field. We will see how she does tomorrow.

The evening sunset did not disappoint however.

Saturday Nov 19th.

This morning dawned cloudy and cold, 22 degrees. When I weighed Hope she weighed 910 grams. Lets see if she can be nonchalant after losing a full ounce overnight. The further East that I went this morning the warmer it got, all the way up to 27.

The Jacks were a bit more scarce this morning than they had been yesterday, but we still had enough to keep us interested. She was still having trouble catching one, but the enthusiasm was back. Almost all of the slips that we were getting were quite long ones. Those rarely work out, but we kept trying. changed fields hoping to find a few more Jacks. She is still flaring up, but somehow the Jacks are able to evade her. A couple of them resulted in her trying to run them down on foot after they had dodged the attempted strike from altitude. I think she needs to go higher.

What seems to work best for close slips is to of course use the terrain to try to get above and use the element of surprise. One of these resulted in jumping a Bunny. She missed this one, as the Bunny had a pretty long head start, and holes are every where. I began walking up a large outcropping, and Hope took off, flared up in the air and crashed back down. A Bunny began screaming. In truth I was not all that happy about it. Yeah I know, but a Jack caught is a real meal earned. Poor ole bunnies aren't much challenge for a bird Hope's size. In reality, I doubt that she gives a shit what I want.

There was one consolation however, in that one of her "throw ups" actually worked. Take a look at the pictures and you will see that catching this one wasn't all that easy. You may have to look close, but he is in there.

It looks a bit like she is stuck there. Her feet are

in fact only holding on to the Bunny.

I peeled the Sage back so you could see.

This time, I only gave her a front leg off the Bunny. She was a bit taken aback when I didn't give her any more. After she finished the leg, I started on back on the line that I had been walking. She eventually began to release the glove that always before had given her all the food she could hold, and started thinking about hunting again.

We got a couple more slips, and I couldn't fault her try or effort. The car was coming up, and I had one more spot that I thought might hold a Jack. He was there and she missed him by fractions,  then tried to run him down, but Harris legs are not designed for any thing other than sturdy.

When she turned to come back I had a Jack front leg for her. When she finished it and I turned to put her in the box she would not let go of the glove, so I took it off and put both her and the glove in the Hack box. When I got home after a 30 minute delay at Tami's house, she was still holding it. 

Back at work

Sunrise on the 14th

Sunset the afternoon of the 14th

After 4 days off, Hope was getting pretty restless, perhaps even desperate. Enough that when I went out last night to lock up the Chickens she began calling. I had fed her a Bunny's rear leg on her second day of rest. She wanted more. She weighed in at 926 grams this morning.

Today was supposed to be deteriorating as far as the weather was concerned. It was 32 degrees this morning and the wind was forecast to come up by 10 am with increasing winds the longer the day went on.

I asked Karen if she wanted to go with us, and when she agreed that she did, I decided to hunt on the other side of the ranch next door. There is a small band of Sage that seems to hold about 10 or 11 Jacks. It is Grease Wood with open spaces between them. The Sage extends all the way to the Alvord almost 40 miles away, but the Jacks are only concentrated in one spot - as far as I know. Its nice and level and the Jacks tend to stay close to the road, so it was a perfect place for Karen to have the maximum visibility without having to walk. Many of you might not know that with Karen's heart affibs, she cannot walk very far. She is feels pretty good, just no stamina. With Karen along I can take the Dogs as well, so its almost a family affair.

Out of the hood onto the perch.

Ready to go

We had gone through the good part close to the road, and jumped quite a few of the Jacks there. She was trying pretty hard, crashing into bush after bush trying to get her feet on one, but being thwarted at every turn. It would help if I could run a bit, but even the thought of the visual of me running through the brush as I used to do is rather hilarious even to me. Probably best if I just plod along as best as I can. Some of her flights took her several hundred yards off. I have learned to stand still until she comes back as there is usually more than one Jack close to where the other one had hidden.

We went the entire length of the field to where it opened up to pasture without success. I stopped to tell Karen what I intended to do. We let the Dogs out and I rested a bit.

I started back through the field, a bit further out this time. Karen had stopped to get an idea of where I was going. We jumped another Jack in some sparse cover. I was a bit surprised since the Jacks generally prefer more cover than this area provided. This one was pretty close. She flashed over a Sage about 30 feet away, and the Jack began screaming. I was so happy and relieved that I was jumping up and down.

When I got around the bushes, Hope was lying back out of the way of the thrashing Jacks feet holding him by the head with both feet. I gave him my thanks and dispatched him as quickly as I could.

As soon as he was still, I gave her the cup of tidbits, covered the Jack with a cloth, and offered her a hind leg of Bunny. She soon stepped off the Jack and we walked a bit away, so that Karen could cut a front leg off and put it in my bag for her when she finished the Bunny leg.

We walked back to the car, and I let her finish her meal while we talked, and the Dogs ran around.

I could not see that her toe bothered her at all, or was painful. It will most likely grow back. It may be somewhat malformed, or it could be just as pretty as the original. Time will tell. I know mine grew back, and if there isn't damage to the nerve in the toe, it should be just fine.

This is Hope's Trophy string

I keep the tails off the Rabbits, and string them up by the hall way. This is the way that I keep track of how many rabbits or what ever Hope and all my Hawks catches. Since the Jackalope is extinct in this part of the country, tails are about the only trophy that a Rabbit has. I had the string that was Puddy Cat's share of the last year that she and Yogi hunted together. I had thought that the two birds had taken 40 Jacks that year. When I counted the string, I found that Puddy's share was only 15 Rabbits. This is number 19 for Hope. She is doing better than I  have given her credit for. I have hunted them both the same, and that is every other day.

If Hope can begin to put together an attack plan that will allow her to have a better chance to catch every Rabbit, rather than relying on them making a mistake, she will be the force to be reckoned with that I know that she can indeed be.

The wind now is at 21 MPH with a wind chill of 27 degrees. Time to throw another log on the fire.

Time out

I feel that Hope needs a few days off to at least allow the sensitivity of her injured toe to tone down a bit. I once had to attend a 2 week training in Kansas wearing steel toed boots, after losing my big toe nail, learning to overhead weld. It was pretty tough for a while. Wrestling a Jack might be just a bit uncomfortable.

 The toe looks just fine, and I want to keep it that way.

I have come to feel great sympathy and admiration for plumbers. I seem to have finally managed to fix my clumsy mistakes, and we are back to the comfort of having "indoor plumbing".

I love where I live, and can not conceive of being stuck in a city or even a rural community. However there is a price to pay in time and fuel. It is only a hardship in times when you break something that you don't have a spare for. I have always tried to stock up on replacements, but sometimes it is something so obscure that only a trip to town or Amazon can cure.

My problems began when our toilet began leaking when flushed. It has always been a problem because when the thing was built the base securing the toilet to the floor was recessed 1 1/2 inches below the level of the floor. So far every fix has been temporary, lasting about two years. I made a trip to town to buy what I felt would allow me to finally fix it once and for all. Upon returning I managed to let the toilet fall over and broke the tank. It took a couple of days to get to town and buy a new one. While I was waiting to make the trip, I looked on Amazon and found a new item that was designed for a recessed pipe. I of course ordered it- next day delivery. It however was on a Saturday night, which means that it would not be delivered until Tuesday evening. While I was in Lowe's buying the toilet, I saw the same thing, less the next day shipping cost. Sigh! No biggie, I kinda like going outside to whiz, and waving to the world. As Reuben ( 11 at the time) from next door says, " The world is a man's bathroom". Karen's problems are her own and she is probably used to it by now.

When the new seal arrived, I installed the toilet and then found that the supply line was about 2 inches too short. Bigger sigh!. No problem, Amazon has these things, a couple of clicks and a 16 inch water supply line is on the way. I was very careful and made sure that the fittings looked the same where the line connected to the tank. It will take me an extra day to get it, but saves me 6 hours driving and about $36 bucks of gas. No big deal, we can keep the tank full with a bucket from the bath tub.

Finally the line arrives and I march into the house feeling good. Right up to the time I realize that the fitting on the shutoff is 1/2 inch and the line I have is 3/8. OK, minor set back, out to the hanger and see what I have that I can either solve the problem or Micky Mouse it. Son of a gun, I find a shutoff just like the one in there but with a 3/8 fitting. Of course the old one is sealed on there pretty good, and the result is a broken copper pipe. ARRRG! I shut the water off, and after I calm down, go back to the hanger and glory be, I find a remnant of a copper pipe the same size that has the fitting on it. I prepared it and got all the tools that I would need, along with the wet vac. I vacuum up all the water, but I can't seem to get all the water out of the line. So I vac as much as I can and try to solder it. The crap won't stick or flow as it should. I even had solder paste, but while I could get it down to a drip, I couldn't get it to stop leaking. So we fill all the containers we had with water, and I give up for the night. Of course I spent the entire time dreaming of soldering failures. It was a relief when the sun finally came up. I had decided that there was something wrong in the type of Solder that I was trying to use, so I got a different roll of solder, and it flowed just like it should, and just like that my troubles went right down the tube.

Its sometimes inconvenient living where we are, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. There are compensations of course.

Sunrises are one of the great things about here.

Of course we had the Super Moon last night. It was nice

being able to look out in the field and count 8 Mule Deer feeding on the grasses.

Then there are the Sun Sets, that will knock your socks off.