Nov 14 - Nov 15

This morning Hope weighed in at around 1000 grams. I guess I am going to have to quit feeding her the Liver and Heart after giving her all her normal food after a kill. Even though she was quite heavy this morning, she was still calling to me even when she only heard me walking. What the hell, I need the exercise, and the Dogs were very anxious to go, so I decided to go hunting any way.

                                                                     The Sunrise was quite nice.

It was quite stormy and windy yesterday, and of course the Steen's get quite a lot more moisture out of the Storms that go through this area.

The Steen's got quite a bit of snow lately.

When we got to the field, I decided to hunt an area that is quite thin cover, but might well be harboring some refugees from the areas that I have been hunting hard. I decided to hunt without the dogs for the first part and them bring them into the hunt if we didn't get any thing.

After covering quite a bit of ground, finding a few, but somehow Hope wasn't able to connect. I couldn't see much difference in her interest. Almost all of the slips were long ones, that mostly took her out of sight. There were a couple of close calls, but no hair in the feet.

As I circled around to where Karen was, I was eventually able to signal her to turn the dogs loose for a final push. Again the slips were pretty far out, but Brick going a bit further out than Josie, hit a Jack on one of his circles back towards us. The Jack had no choice but to run in our direction. Hope took off as soon as he broke cover, flying to intercept. I was quite interested to see what was going to happen, since their closing speed was somewhere around 80 MPH. I know that Jacks can clock in at 45 MPH. I have clocked them with the speedometer before. Hope can fly faster than a "speeding Jack", so I held my breath. The Jack apparently didn't see her coming because he wasn't changing course or slowing. Hope finally came to her senses, and managed to miss him, but it wasn't by much. It could have been an accident that she did, hopefully it was because she was too smart.

We made another drive down along the fence before quitting, and we got one more chance. On this one I had a front row seat. She came down crashing into the ground, but she was trying for the head, She hit him in the ears just above the skull. Apparently she is tired of getting strained through the Sage bushes. She does prefer the head when she can. Karen met us with the car, and we came on home. We will hunt again tomorrow.

Tami called in the afternoon wanting me to check Yogi. They had gone out by the ranch and Yogi caught the only Jack that they saw. She crashed into a Sage really hard and didn't want to fly to the perch after being fed. She ended up walking to Tami rather than fly.

I checked her wing and found no noticeable damage, so we are hoping that it is only a bruise. I suggested that she keep her on the perch until she regains the use of her wing. She is holding it tight, but just doesn't want to use it. She has caught 16 Jacks now and that with only about an hour at a time hunting on the ranch and generally only jumping one or two rabbits at the most. Perhaps if she is off long enough Hope can catch up.  Yogi is on fire this year, flying better than she has ever flown. Where it takes 15 or more slips for Hope to find one dumb enough to come home with us, Yogi is killing the first one more times than not.

Wed. 15 November- number 14

We were promised a storm with the winds due around 10:00 AM for today. So we were out of the house by 9:AM. Hope still weighed 970 grams.

We walked perhaps a 1/2 mile before we jumped anything, and it was way out there. Of course Hope wasn't able to catch it. The fact that she flies anything and every thing helps to keep her number of catches low, but she still has not the knowledge that Yogi possesses.

I had walked to the top of the hill, about a mile, and still hadn't had what I felt was a good chance for us. I turned and started on a different path down the hill. After traversing about half the way to the bottom with only one slip, I got on a knob and signaled Karen to turn the dogs out.

Josie, my little female, stays right under my feet when she is wearing the collar. I forgot them today, so today- not so much! Brick the male hunts close with or without the collar, and he came right to me. Josie hit a Jack right out of the car and she was off! I had stood on the top of this knob that gave me good visibility for about 50 yards in all directions. I had been sure that we would see a Jack hiding there. It was just that sort of a place. I had been there for about 10 minutes yelling for the dogs and we had seen nothing. I got ready to go after Josie had rejoined us, and gave them the command to "find it."  Brick did, just about 15 yards in front of us was a Jack that had been hiding there all along. I don't think that he was aware of Hope until she had her talons buried in his neck. 

The interesting part for me was the fact that as soon as Hope grabbed him and the Jack screamed, Brick stopped and waited for me. Good boy! Neither dog interfered with Hope and when they would even come close, she would flap her wings and give them "the look". They went on about their business and did not tempt her.

So here I am, having walked about a mile and half with no results. Have the dogs for 5 minutes and have a Jack in the bag. Seems kind of obvious doesn't it? If Hope has it in control neither dog would interfere. A flopping Jack sticking out of a Sage will get Josie on it right now. I'll just need to keep a close eye on things and hopefully it will all work out. As we were getting in the car to return home the winds started.

Nov 12

While the sky was fairly clear this morning, we still had a nice Sunrise. The clear part however didn't last all that long. The clouds began gathering the more the Sun rose.

It was a bit cooler than the last few days with the temps at 30 degrees. We got all our chores done and was out of the door by 9:30. Hope, when I weighed her, came in at 943 grams.

I decided to try another field this morning, but after walking the width and breath of it we only saw one Jack. Then a Prairie Falcon decided to horn in and make a shot at Hope as she was chasing it.

We loaded up, and this time for a change up we went to another field.  This time to the top of the hill, where I generally end my hunt, before we started. After a fair amount of tries and misses, Hope finally caught one. It broke loose before I could get to her to help. Grrr!

We kept running into Deer. Only one of them was a buck, and from the looks of him he might be an old on on the down hill slide. As you can see? he is only a three point, but he is pretty big. As they age they keep the height and width of their horns, but they eventually end up with only wide spikes or forks.

When I got to the bottom, I met Karen and asked her to take the car across the field to the other side, where I would meet her. As I walked, I jumped two different Jacks and while Hope was getting close, they were still scraping her off on the Sage bushes. As I neared Karen, I asked her to let the dogs out since I was pretty sure we were going home empty handed. This time I had put their shock collars on them, and while I had it set to call rather than shock, I was pretty sure I could keep them in useful range. We hadn't gone very far when a Jack that had been successfully hiding lost his nerve and made a break for it. Hope caught him in no time. Josie was with me as we made our way to her. Josie couldn't stand it any longer and ran up to the bush that Hope was stuck in. The Jack was on the other side however, trying his best to pull away. I believe that Hope was so surprised that she either let go, or a charging Dog was all the incentive the Jack needed to pull away. Either way, Hope was left sticking in a Sage, while I threw a temper tantrum. Not at the Dog or Hope, but at myself for not stopping the Dog. She didn't know any better, while I for sure did. Just not fast enough.

Karen asked if I wanted to put them up, but I decided to leave them out for a while longer. Both dogs were staying in nice and close, as well as working the cover quite well. We hadn't gone more that 100 feet when another Jack jumped and again Hope caught him. I made sure that Josie stayed back with me as we approached. The set up was just like the other two, Hope on one side of a bush holding onto his butt with one foot, while he strained to pull away. This time I drug out my 22, thinking that I would make sure that this one didn't pull away. The range was about 10 feet. As some of you might know, the bullet, when leaving the barrel dips below line of sight and then rises until gravity starts bringing it down to the ground. The gun is sighted in for 50 yards. That means that it is about 2 inches low at 10 feet. The Jack was somehow still alive after five shots. ( I could dig up a logical excuse if I had more time.) Josie firmly believing that I am in real life as wonderful as she thinks I am, decided that it was surely dead, and went in to anchor it for me. Hope again let go or had it pulled out of her feet, I haven't decided that as yet. I stood there with my mouth open trying to decide if I was happy or pissed. I eventually came to the conclusion that "all's well that ends well", and left it at that.

 The dogs were both grateful for the chance to participate.

I am going to have to spend some time thinking about the benefits of the dogs compared to the possibility of having Josie perhaps hurt Hope, by grabbing a Jack when she is stuck in a Sage Bush, or if the dogs cause enough of a distraction to the Jacks to make them more vulnerable to her attacks. I am quite sure that the latter is the case. We caught two Jacks in two flights today. This last one is another Old Timer. He had fat packed all over him, so I know that he is well aware of the dangers of life, and not likely to make a dumb mistake. I am also quite sure that he knew that the two Dogs were there as well. I think the Hawk was the surprising factor that he didn't see.

Karen really liked and admired my temper tantrum. She said I looked cute jumping up and down like that.