Recap of the last four days.

Tuesday I made a trip to Burns to help my friend Pat put a roof on the mews that we got from Sandy and Scott. We had finished one side of the mews but had to stop since we ran out of panels to do the other side. Of course in putting it back together it would not necessarily look at all like the original, as Pat's needs would be different. She had done the extra work and now needed to put a roof on what she had done.

I brought Hope with me since she now had a place to stay, and intended to meet Connie at the last place we had hunted on my earlier trip. I was anxious to hunt somewhere else, and give my spots some rest. Hope caught a Jack that made the mistake of trying to run in the open.

I returned home Wed. afternoon feeling pretty good. I had helped Pat, did some "honey Do's" for Connie, caught a Jack. Pretty hard to top.

Thursday I went to Arock to hunt. Here are some pictures of the area that I hunt.

We hunted for about 3.5 hours there. She caught three Jacks, and lost two of them on her own, and the last was assisted by my over eager Britt- Josie.  Her weight was 994 grams.

After resting for a bit, I went back to trying to figure out what was wrong with my hot tub. I finally found that the intake at the filter was totally blocked with calcium. Once I poked it out with an ice pick, the hot tub began working. The best news ever, I really need that tub in the cold weather. Especially after hunting for three hours in the lava rocks.

Today her weight was 943. It was 7 degrees this morning, and she spent the night outside in her weathering area. The hot tub was at 103 degrees. Yippee!

I waited until time to get the mail and took her,  without the dogs, (Josie was a bit gimpy today) along with me since I intended to hunt at the ranch today.

She grabbed a Jack on her first flight, but when I got there the Jack had made its escape. This field is all Grease Wood and really nasty. I have no idea how she keeps from being injured in this crap, just happy that it is so. We had several slips on Jacks, but it just never worked out all that well. I saw her make a "dive" from about 20 feet into the top of one, and bounced off. They are that tight.

Crooked Creek runs through this field. and of course lives up to its name, switching back on itself over and over again. This time of the year there are bunches of Ducks that rest on it throughout its length. Hope has never really had a chance to catch any feathered quarry, and I was interested in seeing what she would think of flushing Ducks. I actually got within "Harris Hawk range" of a mixed bunch of Ducks. They flushed, hope took off, did a wing over from about 15 feet and SPLASHED into the water with abandon. I ran over picturing her with a Mallard busily dragging her to a watery grave.  Instead I found a confused hawk standing in about 6 inches of water in the middle of the creek. I would like to believe otherwise, but I am sure that she saw her reflection in the water and thought it was a duck.

She soon dried and we went back to the pursuit of the willy Jackrabbit. She pulled hair on at least two other Jacks, and got so desperate that she began poking into dark places and trash that had round objects that might be Rabbits.

Again she went home hungry. That is one of the good things about her hunting with extra weight. I do not feed her if she doesn't kill. When she kills again, I will be able to feed her all she can stuff down her crop. Since she was so heavy I can do this without having to worry about her getting too low in condition. The leaner she is the faster she becomes.  Tonight I put her in the shop. She should be a bit more comfortable.