Time to stop!

In reality, the year 2019 is over. Christmas is just around the corner. Hibernation is pretty high on my list of things to do. The year has been pretty good overall. It has probably been the least active year of my life. I didn't go fishing even one time, and my flying has taken a back seat to every thing I have done. The only thing that remained the same was my Hawking, yet even that suffered from loss of my normal joy of life. Yet I have persisted.

I went hawking again yesterday, and drove to the only other spot that used to have enough Jacks to make the 100 mile round trip worth while. The area is high Sage, with lots of thick Sage as well as Lava outcrops, and it is rare indeed to get a clear shot at a Jack. This is the spot that Hope injured her foot at the end of last years hunt. Normally it also holds an abundance of Bunnies that break up the hunt, by supplying a shot of excitement to the normal long slips on Jacks. However I have seen none of these little dynamo's in the last two times I have hunted there. We put in three miles of exercise yesterday in an attempt to bring a Jack home for the freezer. Hope could not close the deal however, and we came home empty handed.

After a long night of considering the risks and rewards of continuing pursuit of the dwindling numbers of Jack Rabbits, I decided this morning that it was time to give it up for the year and hope that this next one will have a few more Jacks in it. Other areas do have more Jacks, but I seem to be down to one tract of Sage within 50 miles, that holds enough Jacks to make it worthwhile to drive there. So this morning when I picked up Hope from her perch in the Shop, I gave her the first food this season that she didn't catch.