August 12, 2022

 Well I have been pretty lazy as you might have noticed. With gasoline that is way too expensive and the hot weather I haven't accomplished much more than survival so far this year. Airplane gas is $6.40 locally and it just killed the fun of flying. I had a fuel leak somewhere in my fuel system, and after replacing every thing else, I broke down and ordered two new 5 gallon gas tanks from the Kolb Factory. 

https://vimeo.com/739154369  password if needed -   Owyheeflyer

I had changed my routines with the high prices, and was concentrating on exercising and attempting to lose a bit of weight that came way too fast while I wasn't looking. With the gas cost, I stopped flying the first thing in the morning and began a walking regime for the dogs and me. Josie this year was 12 and really getting crippled with arthritis. I recently got some Hemp Oil and that is helping her get around and restored her quality of life a lot. Both of us needed to get as much exercise as we could get. Of course after walking the runway it would be getting pretty hot, and the wind comes up by about 10 AM. As you know its easy to get in a rut, and excuses are easier than doing..

I have been "flogging" myself over becoming a hermit, with little success, but Hawking season is not too far in the future, so I guess its time to get off my butt. Its been another losing proposition this last year, with the drought affecting the Duck Hawking and the Jack Rabbits have crashed as well. I quit very early last year because the populations of Jacks was so low that I was afraid that I could possibly slow the recovery by killing any of the few rabbits that were still around. The water had all dried up in the back country, reducing the amount of Ducks that were available to hunt as well, so better to quit altogether.

I am beginning to see some sign that there might be a few Jacks around by the "scrapes" (Territorial markings and dust baths) along the runway.One of the ways to locate hunting locations is by the trails that they make in the weeds. There is a tall lite brown early grass that covers a lot of the ground here, and the Jacks will make paths about 4 inches wide through it. The more paths, the more Jacks using them. They can be seen from the air and if you are close enough to the ground, you can scare them out of hiding.

So the search for some decent rabbit populations was enough for me to finally break my inertia, and get the plane in the air. Plus with my fly-in in on the near horizon, I need to be at least proficient enough to at least go along on some trips.

https://vimeo.com/739326938  Password    Owyheeflyer

This is the first of two video's of this trip and consists mostly of low level scouting of the areas frequented by Jack Rabbits.

https://vimeo.com/739292601   Same password. This one explores an old Lava flow along Jordan Creek and some of the possible Duck ponds in that area. I have never been desperate enough to have to travel that far to find Hawking possibilities. Now I am!

I learned quite a lot on this foray. The first is that its going to be pretty "tough sledding" as far as Jack Rabbits are concerned. However the Duck Hawking should be good, I have at least five more ponds that I can hunt on. Now if Bud had his head screwed on straight then all would be well on the western front. However although he is a striking looking boy, its gonna take more than just good looks to put a Duck in his feet.

As you can see, he is about done with the molt. Just four more covert feathers on the wing that I can see. Nothing missing that would affect his flight. Done or not we will begin our training to hopefully be on the wing for opening of Duck season.

On a personal note, I have a new Lady in my life. Her name is Brenda. She is from the same little rural community in WVa where I grew up. I have known her since she was 6 years old. Our parents visited and fished together a lot. Their Church was one of the Churches that my father ( a Methodist Minister ) served on his circuit. She was always as "cute as bug", and grew to be a beautiful woman. However our paths diverged before she was old enough to be be able to date. My path took me to Calif. where I married Karen. The next time we met was at my fathers funeral, in 1968. She had married the only kid in my child hood that I truly despised. Apparently she concurred in my opinion of him as the marriage only lasted a couple of years. Her second husband died 13 years ago. We had been in contact over the years via computer, but lost track of each other. After Karen died I attempted to find her again, but not knowing her last name, it proved impossible. She called me this spring and was still interested so we arranged a visit in June. The attraction was still there so we decided that she should come here so that we could share the rest of our lives together. She is now on her way here with the few things that she doesn't want to do without in her car, and a U haul trailer. She mostly gave away most of her stuff, or traded it for help in clearing out her home. She asked me if I needed a big screen TV. I told her that I had one already. She began her drive West yesterday. My TV died this morning. :-/

As you may know I had been seeing a lovely lady named Connie. I had hoped to someday convince Connie that life with me wouldn't be all that bad, but living with me was not in her plans. I understood that condition from the start and accepted that it would be that way, so it was not a surprise. I always enjoyed Connie's company and her spirit. She helped me more than I can relate. Its been tough to have to learn to live without Karen, but with her help, I can now do so, however I want a partner to share what ever days I have left.