A reflection on growing old

 As you might have noticed my posts have dwindled to nothing in the last few years. Primarily because I have had little to nothing that was worthy of my time to write and yours to read. I admit that it has caused quite a bit of reflection and query on my part. While I like to "give my opinion" when given the chance, I rightly decided that the value of that exercise had dwindled to an end. It has caused me some consternation as I imagine it has of all that found themselves old quite suddenly. This is my attempt to put to words what and why was the cause and effects, of it. 

I am well aware that some may consider this to be whining and all I really needed to do is "get off my ass, and get with the project." I assure you its not that simple. It has been a cascade of unrelated events that has brought me to the realization - that I have grown old. Now that I finally understand it, I am a bit more accepting of the situation.

The first step began with my decision to get my left knee replaced "before I got too old". It took a lot longer to talk the VA into doing the surgery than it should have. Then it took 11 months to recover enough that I could walk without concern. They did a good job and I now have about 800 miles on that leg.

One of the reasons that I chose that time was that the Jack Rabbits that I depended on to hunt with my Hawk, had crashed. So missing a fall season was no big deal. That condition has persisted for 8 years. There still aren't any Jacks here. So instead of out every other day walking anywhere from 2 to 4 miles in the Sage, I am sitting on my ass, and learning to like it.

Another detriment to my physical conditioning is what is called a frozen shoulder, which eventually resulted in one of the attach points of my bicep disconnecting from the elbow. Allowing the bicep to bunch up. That has occurred to both arm's, eliminating my ability to do any weight training, thus limiting my ability to maintain any conditioning that is so precious at any age. This covers the physical causes.

Suddenly last year I no longer had any desire to fly my plane! I would make plans to fly the next day, yet go outside in the morning, stick my finger up in the air and decide that it was too windy. I could not understand or explain. I just didn't want to roll the plane out. After coming out here to the Rock House, I have flown that plane into places that if a glitch had occurred I would have never been able to get out, without even a bit of hesitation. Now the slightest breeze was too big of a risk. I once flew from Deming, New Mexico to Truth or Consequences at 35 miles per hour. I landed across the runway without getting off the pavement. Now a breeze that doesn't even register, stops me. It just wasn't fun anymore. The one thing that got me through "Man o Pause", no longer interested me. 

At the age of 18 I had been selected to attend Helicopter training at Fort Rucker Alabama. My father had requested that I get on with growing up- somewhere else. The army drug their feet and I felt enough pressure that I told them to either take me or forget about it. Of course they didn't care. I instead went to Michigan with an older brother. Over the years that missed opportunity haunted me. It took me till I was 56 years old before I got to learn to fly. Now I could give a shit less?? It didn't make sense. 

Yesterday I watched a You Tube vid that told about the 5 or 6 things that happened when one reached 80 . There was a lot that applied to me. It was mostly an attitude change.

In my early 70's I basically dropped out of the one thing that had been my passion. I stopped interacting with the Falconry community.  Since 1978 I devoted myself to the legalization of falconry. I surrounded myself with other falconers as devoted to the cause as I was. Lots of trips to Portland to testify to the wildlife board. With a lot of friends and hard work we prevailed. Then sometime in my 70's I decided that it was time for me to step back. I was content to do so.

Then one by one all of the people that had formed what was my life died. Very few of the old guard survived. I no longer knew any of the next generation. All of my family died as well. I am now the only member of what was my family, still alive! The phone doesn't ring anymore. The people that I valued are gone.  I felt lost and alone for most of a year. I have acclimated since. I am still alone, but it now doesn't matter that much. I have my childhood sweetheart and she is enough!

So now because I am afraid to stress my arms that much, the left one cramps if I put too much strain on it. My exercise program is on hold. I am left with walking the runway when the weather allows, a few squats, but that is not enough. At 81 I can lose more condition than I can build up! The cruelest blow is the lack of game. I am afraid to kill a Jack Rabbit since the death of even one rabbit could slow the recovery even longer. Even I cannot force my self to walk over hill and dale without a hawk on my fist.

While even to me this sounds a bit like whining, the betrayal that cuts the most is the continuing loss and refusal of the Rabbit population to recover. I find that quite amusing actually.

I am doing what I can to at least adjust to advancing age and eventual loss of being able to live this far from "civilization". To say the least Social Services are non-existent here. To counter I have purchased a Tesla model Y. Basically a computerized car. The biggest boon to that is that the car style may be outdated, but not the function. Every time there is an update or improvement to Tesla's, mine gets the update as well. Full self driving is the feature that I want and will need. As of now, I can get in the car, tell the AI feature (Groc) to take me to Safeway in Burns Oregon, and it will do so, parking in front of the store. Likewise anywhere at all. Hospital visits for Brenda and I are a piece of cake. In other words as long as I can remember where I want to go, this car will take me and bring me home. 

I have a charger in my garage, and there are now enough commercial chargers that I can go where ever I want. I now have 15,000 mile on the car for a cost of 922.00 a savings of more than$1500. Where the car really shines is in high traffic areas, and freeways. With 6 cameras its awareness is far superior to mine.

It is my intention to keep on keeping on as long as I can, and however I can, but it gets easier to sit every day.

   

 Well here we go again. Another year, another Christmas. Hopefully all of you are still healthy and happy. There have been a lot of changes this year, most for me are of the mental nature. I suppose that is normal even though I have postponed it longer than most manage to do. Turning 81 has been a shock to my system. There is no one to blame other than my own self. Darn nearly all of my contemporaries have died. I am the last of my line. I seem to have lost interest in most everything that I valued and enjoyed. The biggest blow (betrayal) was the loss of almost all the game critters in the area. Game for Falcons to hunt is Shot, between West Nile killing almost all the Sage Grouse, and Bird Flu infecting the Duck population, prospects are dim indeed. The Bird Flu is the worst. A falcon killing an infected Duck has about three days to live. While there were a few Rabbits in the area it was still much too few to actually hunt. 

On the positive side I now have 612 miles on my new knee. I have a program that measures all the miles that I walk. So in actuality my problem is that I just am not interested in doing anything.

When I bought this place in 2006, I was able to pay cash for it. The sale of our place in Klamath Falls left me enough money to do so. Neither Karen or I had anyone to leave it to when we died, so I took out a Reverse Mort, and got half my money back. We used that to fix the place up and get a few things to make our lives easier. Of course Karen died leaving me the sole owner, meaning that when I died the place would go to the mortgage holder. Then Brenda joined me, leaving her in jeopardy when I died. A mortgage outfit contacted me wanting to buy out the current holder, offering me a substantial amount of money to do so. I would only agree if they could add Brenda to the title. They did so to my delight, dropping some $40,000 into my bank additionally.

So with my increasing ageing I found my new problem. When I was on the Oregon State police one of my projects (self assigned) was the older drivers that were a hazard. One of which was Karen's dad who would not quit driving and causing accidents. I sent them in to be reexamined at the DMV. Now Karma is about to take a bite out of my ass. My problem is that I have two neighbors within 25 miles, none of which need to stop what they are doing to get groceries for me. The Social aspects of this area do not include Seniors living in the outback. 

So I bought a Tesla model Y with the money from the Reverse Mort. The thought behind that is that I can tell it where to take me without causing a hazard to other drivers. The nice part of the car is that when they update their programs they also update my car. They installed a Tesla Super charger in both Burns and Jordan Valley enabling me to go either direction. The cost for the Super Chargers is .34 cents a kilowatt. It takes about 10-15 minutes to recharge.  I installed a Tesla Charging system in the garage. The cost for me is .11 cents a kilowatt. making the cost - .03 cents a mile. 

This is the warmest December that I have ever experienced here. It is changing now. The wind has been blowing like crazy for the last three days, and the forecast is that it is finally going to be winter from now on.

Hopefully this finds you all well and happy.

 May God take care of you all!

MARRY CHRISTMAS !!

 

At first it depressed me, but after a lot of thought

Making headway

 I enlisted Brenda in my quest to find a suitable area to hunt. She is not able to walk all that much due to a knee replacement from years ago that is now malfunctioning. Hopefully we will be able to get that fixed a little later this year. However the Oregon Canyon area that I have been hunting is serviced by a looong dirt road down through the middle of it. She can drive the car along as I trudge through the Sage looking for victims. The geology of that area is marked by what used to be a lake bed, so its flat enough that the winter runoff from the Mountains surrounding it has to evaporate rather than run off. The Sage is short and bristly as well as thick. There are rocks scattered all over requiring one to watch very closely where you put your feet. I hate to say this but I am finding I am not as surefooted as I once was.

The great part about having Brenda there is that I don't have to return to the car to change areas. I wanted to see if I could find a "hot" spot for Rabbits. As you can see there is a lot of country to check. I was especially looking for some smooth ground that had enough Rabbits to make it worth while.

Leah had been holding one hind leg up all day appearing to have tweaked it on one of her runs the day before. We took her along, but I wasn't going to allow her to run. She is driven so much that I knew that she would just aggravate it more. I didn't want to leave her at home, besides Brenda was the one who was going to have to put up with her hyperventilating while I was walking.

 I tried several different places along the road, but wasn't getting anything up for Hope to chase. So I decided to just do many different places. This is where having a driver was a plus. No backtracking required. There was a spot of very thick Sage and overgrown Grease wood that had several Bunnies that she chased, but couldn't get through. There was also an old shack with at least two Bunnies that hid in the subfloor. After trying one more spot that seemed to have no Jacks, I gave it up. Three miles was enough in that ankle breaking terrain, so I gave up. One of the things that I wanted to examine was if Leah was a help or was she flushing them so far out that it was making it harder for Hope to score.

If a Jack jumps within 35 to 50 yards from us, Hope's odds are about 75 percent improved. She almost always either catches it or there is hair left on the ground. She injured her right foot on a lava rock several years ago, and lost some ability in the process. It made it much harder to hold a Jack. They would strip her off by running through a hole in the Sage. She compensated by making head shots. Now she almost always goes for the head. They end up tangled up in a ball on their sides.

So after a three mile walk, I didn't find as many Jacks for her to chase. Hope didn't get much to eat, only tidbits. We returned home with me having walked 3 and some miles over some really rough terrain.

I got a tip from a neighbor last night that he had seen some Jacks on one of the roads a few miles down the Hwy. Leah was not limping any more so we headed out to give it a try.

The ground was so much better that I gave thanks for it. We had not gotten into the field more than a 100 yards when Hope took off after a Jack, slamming down about 200 yards away. Most of flights that long, end up with her missing, but this time she didn't come up to sit on the Sage. Leah has learned to stop and watch the flight, then rush to where she went down. I had been listening for screaming to indicate that she had been successful, and not heard anything. I marked the area as best as I could and started wandering that way. Leah was hanging around an area where I thought Hope had gone down. As I got closer I began to hear quiet little sounds. I was amazed that she had managed after all.

In these pictures I have already untangled them and broken his neck. so that I could find my phone and take some pictures without prolonging the Rabbits pain. When I had straightened him out, he kicked away from me and began jumping up and down. They went at least two complete back flips with her holding onto him. She had grabbed him by the face and he couldn't do more that a muffled squeak. He was a big boy. He supplied 6 meals after processing. Winter is coming and I need food for the times we aren't able to hunt. 

So I at last have the answer to the question of Leah's worth. She has made the team! Even though they are aware of us and flush further out, Just the fact that she causes them to move gives us more opportunity.

I tend to fly my hawks a bit fat. My only requirement is that they try. Most hawks hunt to eat. Harris Hawks hunt because they like it. There comes a point where they are too heavy to be agile enough to catch game. I have never during hunting season fed her if she didn't catch something. So I let her decide how much food she wants. When she kills she gets all she can eat. So we hunt every other day or till she kills something. In essence when she is so heavy that she can't make the turns, she goes hungry except for a few tidbits. A hungry hunter seems to be able to overcome what ever obstacle is presented to her.  

First time visitor

While watering this morning I went in the old Chicken house. I could hear some scrabbling and looked in one of the old empty feed barrels. Imagine my surprise when I find, not a Mouse as usual, but this little guy!

Its a Spotted Skunk! I had them in Klamath, but I didn't think that they lived over here in the Desert. I first went to get Brenda, since I was sure she had never seen one. I carried the tub outside and tipped it over so that he could get out. Naturally he hid under the barrel, squirted when I tried to roll it out of the way. He's pretty little so it was more like a fart than a squirt. They, to me don't have that bad of a smell so it was a nonevent. He then made a break back to the house not his vaunted freedom.

I went in to see if I could point him to freedom, but he was much more interested in something to drink. 

I left him there with the door open so that he could leave when he wanted to. Hopefully Leah will not find him. What do you think the chances are?

I took Brenda with me yesterday when I went Hawking. She has resisted driving the Tesla so far. I thought that the dirt road that I have been hunting would be the perfect place to get a feel for the car. I also had an interior motive, I could walk as far as I wanted or needed without having to retrace my steps. She could drive alongside the road, see the ?chases? and I wouldn't have to walk as far. It was a good idea. I put in 3.7 miles before she caught one.

 

A little hope in sight?

 I had just about convinced myself that this year was going to be a bust as have the last 7 years. I will admit that I have been more than a little down in spirits. Yes, everyone has been trying to push me to avoiding getting old as well as acting like it. They have had limited success. After all the reason that I moved here in the first place was to be able to hunt my Hawks, not to mention to get away from civilization and the resultant nut jobs that the rest of you have to put up with. I have spent more than a year trying to get back to my reality and joy of life and its been tough. I have been to all of my old hunting spots and there still isn't much to hunt. Its not supposed to be that way. My only course of action for the last 7 years is to throw food to a Hawk that would like to supply her own food. Welfare isn't all that much fun.

The scarcity of Rabbits combined with the cost of gasoline during the Biden years was one of the reasons that I bought a Tesla. Gasoline is down a bit, but nowhere near enough. Currently Regular is $3.50 a gallon. Once they installed a Tesla Super Charger in Jordan Valley, I was able to make a Tesla work. That allows me to get our groceries in Idaho, then put enough charge back in the Tesla to make it back home. It takes about 5 minutes to add 20 % to the battery so that I can go home and plug it into a home charger. The cost of a Super Charger in JV is .29 cents a KW. At home it cost .11 cents a KW.

The other reason that I bought one is that this car will allow us to live remotely and stay out of the "old Welder's Nursing home". I can and have got in the car, Told it to take me to Costco in Nampa Idaho, and it does so only requiring me to pay attention. That will go away in the future, and once it does I will be able to sleep while it does so.

So far all of my prime hunting spots have required anywhere from 2 to 4 miles to find just a couple of Rabbits for her to chase. While walks of 3 and 4 miles a trip are good for me, not so much for the Hawk. Many more of what used to be good hunting grounds just do not have anything at all to offer.

Today as a last resort I went South towards Nev. to see if there was anything there. I have never really hunted there, mostly because its about 40 miles away. The weather is a bit different due to the terrain. The ice storm that wouldn't quit might have possibly had enough of a reduction of the Ice that killed all the Rabbits here. I will admit that I was just about ready to call it quits for another year.

The spot is called Oregon Canyon. I had hunted there a long time ago just to see what was there. At the time there were Rabbits everywhere, so there was little reason to go there again. I drove back in a good dirt road till I arrived at what appeared to be some good heavy Sage. I stopped the car, let the dog out, and got Hope on my Tee perch and started. I only got a few feet into the Sage and my heart sank. The ground was basically dry lake bottom that would be mud during the wet season. Not normally where I would expect to find Jacks. I decided to try it for a while and then move further down the road if it didn't work out. About 20 steps into the Sage, Hope took off after a Jack that I hadn't seen. It avoided her through two stoops, before she lost it. I called her back, and began picking my way through the cluttered Sage with renewed hope. No more than 20 or 30 steps and a Jack flushed within 20 yards of us. She caught him. Leah was right there before the dust settled. I yelled at her to whoa, and she did. She was right there at the edge of the dust storm, but she didn't interfere. I would have liked to have the time to record all of this, but I was way too busy. You've seen dead Jack Rabbits before. Hope again had him by the head and he was all wrapped up nicely so that the more he pulled the tighter and more immobile he was. I didn't want her to take a beating while I fussed around with vanity shots.

I was blown away. One flush could be a coincidence, but two that close has to mean that there might be enough Rabbits there to hunt, and the area is big enough that I don't have to hunt the same area more than once a week.

Now back to the Tesla. One of my friends stated after finding out that I had bought the Tesla. "Can you imagine seeing Larry driving a Tesla". AS though I am some kind of a Cave man who is so primitive that he could not imagine such a scenario. Well in fact I do have more of the Neanderthall genes than 87 % of the population. They say that they died out due to infertility, not stupidity.

The trip was 80 miles. In the Honda passport it would have cost me $12.60 to go there, after I drove another 55 miles to replace the fuel. In the Tesla it cost me $3.60, and I can replenish that at home.

Yes there are adaptations required to own and run an EV, but it will get better as time goes by. Even a Caveman can figure that out.

Oh, by the way if you should decide to test drive a Tesla, drop my name as having recommended you, it would benefit both of us.

Busy weekend

 One of the new people that attended and contributed to the overall success of our fly-in, came for this last weekend. Ed Phillips, besides wanting to fly around the area, likes to hunt, especially Coyotes. His wife had a prior commitment, so he came to do some hunting. Hope had not been able to connect the day before and was still down to weight, so we took her out in a spot that I had not hunted before. I was seeing a few Jacks in the field next to me, so I felt that we could find a few Jacks there that had not been hunted.

We drove to the end of the runway to begin our hunt. I was explaining to Ed how to hunt Jacks and how if we could get a close 'slip' Hope would almost always catch the Jack. If they had a longer distance to plan, they would almost always get away. Most people have no idea how well adapted Jacks are to survival. If  you remember on my last post I spent a bit of time with the proposition that most of the catches by a Hawk are because the Jack has a physical factor that interferes with their ability to evade capture. 

I have learned that one of the techniques that they use with good results is to just hide until you pass on by them. So I walk a bit then stop. That will make them think that you have seen them so they flush. If they are close enough the Raptor has an improved chance of catching them. Hope's reaction time is excellent and anything within 30 yards is at the very least going to lose some hair if not its life.

That very thing did happen within a few minutes of entering the field. A half grown Jack busted from cover, and Hope had him before he got to the first large Sage bush. My impression that it was a Brush Bunny. The one question that I did not have the answer to, was how Leah was going to react to a screaming Rabbit in Hopes grasp. 

  I guess I needn't have worried, neither Hope or Leah seemed to think that it was a problem. In this case there was nothing wrong with the Jack other than the fact that it was young. I was a very happy falconer. It was also the first young Jack that I had held in my hand in years.

Our next days program was to call a few Coyotes in to the rifles. We went over to the Ranch and set up in a good spot. On the way we saw and were seen by five or more Coyotes in the fields as we drove to our set. We walked back in to a lake to call. Apparently we were seen as the Coyotes began howling. We started calling and what I would call a second year Coyote came to within about 300 yards of the call and paid the price for it.

The next day, we again drove down to where we had caught the young Jack just as we got into the field. I felt that we hadn't really walked through any of the real area at all. We put in 3.7 miles and only got two or three long slips at Rabbits during the two or three hours that we hunted it. Now I am back to the previous doubts that I am going to find enough rabbits to hunt.

Still here!

I decided after my Christmas letter that this blog had gone on about as long as it was worth doing. Primarily because I wasn't doing anything that I considered worth writing about. The "jury" is still out on that one. We will see if that is still true.

They say that a knee replacement takes a long time to recover from. Mine turned out well and probably better than a lot of them do. Of course age has a lot to do with it as well. Primarily because it is so easy to lose, both ambition and conditioning. I was told by a Nurse Practioner that my recovery would not have the best outcome because I would be unable to go to physiotherapy due to the distance that I would have to travel. That did not happen, in fact I eventually had to slow down quite a bit because I was doing too much, especially in the last 6 months of last year. I eventually realized that I just needed to allow the time needed for the leg to heal. At 80 it takes no time at all to get flabby and lose condition. Also at the time I was having problems with my left shoulder and back. Several years ago I had a "Frozen Shoulder" that ended with one of the attach points to the muscle in my right arm to tear loose from the elbow joint. Once that occurred the pain stopped. This spring I had a problem with my back and shoulder that just would not go away. In the last few days of June the left arm muscle snapped off from one of its attach point at the elbow. This time my arm was discolored, shoulder to my wrist, but there was no more pain.

This all reminds me of a story told to me by one of my neighbors, ( the one at 25 miles distance) The story goes that at a family reunion the youngest brother at 75 years old arrived and everyone inquired about his health. He related a long litany of complaints about all his bodily functions that no longer responded, lack of sleep and a long list of others ensued, When he finished his older 85 year old brother sighed and said " Oh to be 75 again! Apparently I am now there.

The biggest factor in my life enabling me to be as active and healthy as I am, other than good "genes" has been my ability to exercise regularly. So now my exercise routine seems to be walking. Weights doesn't seem like a good idea right now. I have an app on my phone that records how far you walk. I am now up to 503 miles since June 2,2024. It really hasn't helped. I have learned to like sitting on my ass!

As I have related many times previously this area has not recovered its Rabbit population. Hunting my Hawk has been my main reason for being active.

 It apparently takes a long time to recover when every Jack Rabbit in your area starves to death. When the die off is caused by disease and over population the recovery typically takes about 7 years to the point that they are so plentiful that another die off occurs. Now we are dependent on a much slower process of expansion from places that did not suffer from the ice in 2018 that killed almost all the Jack Rabbits within a 100 mile or more radius.

I have not been able to hunt my poor ole Harris for the last 6 years as there was nothing to hunt her on. I hunted for two weeks last year and quit because I was actually afraid that If I did kill one it might be the key to reproduction for the area. I had hoped that this year would be the one where I could actually find a huntable population. So far I have searched all the old hawking spots within a 60 mile circle and have really found nothing better than the Sage right outside my fence. I just returned from a 3 mile hunt where in we did catch our first Jack of the year. She had 7 chases before she was able to finally catch one. 

They like to tell you that the predators take out the weak and sick ones from the population and that predators actually make the prey populations stronger. Mostly when they are talking about reintroduction of Wolves into the wild. It is actually true, but a bit misleading where Wolves and Cows are concerned. The Cattle herd is doing just fine without them, thank you.

This particular Jack's demise came about because he let us get too close. The other 6 Jacks that did not get caught, flushed 100 yards away resulting in a long flight to catch up, giving the Jack time to plan his escape. Do not kid yourself Jack Rabbits are smart, and know every bush in their 2 acre home range. With those big ears, no one is going to sneak up on them, plus a hawk on a stick 8 foot in the air is hard to miss in a three foot high area of Sage.

Hope will catch or at least grab every Jack that jumps within a 90 foot circle of her. She is that fast!

When I cleaned him, I was reminded of the number of Jacks with a Tape worm cluster stuck on them, that are caught. Late into the fall a large number have clusters of Tape worms under the skin. If its big enough I am sure that it seriously affects their chance of out running a pursuing Hawk.

 The tape worm is specifically designed to infect Canids, is passed from Rabbit to Coyote when they are caught and eaten. The Rabbit gets it from its mother and other Jacks, through them eating Rabbit pellets, or the eggs off plants. The tape worm burrows through the Rabbits gut to form cysts under the skin. Depending on where the cyst is formed depends on whether it handicaps the Jack, making it easier to catch.  This one didn't have worms, but it did have some sort of a compaction in its guts that was formed of compacted Sage or other green material into a rather large knot. It otherwise seemed to be healthy enough. However, did that contribute to the reason that it tried to hide, rather than run as did all the others that I encountered this morning?

The pup is doing just fine. I worried that she might be more of a hindrance than help because of her running. I have never seen a dog as active as her. I have paced her at 30 MPH running along side my quad. She can do it for three miles as well. I checked! We have developed a compromise for when I walk the runway for my daily exercise. On the trip to the end she is allowed to run where and how fast she wants. I may not see her at all, but she meets me at the end where I have a bench. On the way back she is required to walk at heel. I mentioned in an earlier post the I had purchased a shock collar with a 4 mile range. It has a function that will buzz without the accompanying shock. When I press the button. she will turn and circle back, thus staying within a small enough radius that we can at least see the Jacks when they jump. I was also concerned that she might burst in on the struggle when the Hawk did actually catch one. I am very pleased that this did not happen today. She is crazy about Rabbits, she just about dismantled Brenda's Honda before I found that Brush Bunnies were sleeping on the air cleaner, under the hood in Brenda's car. I actually caught three of them in a live trap this spring under her hood. They eat wires too!

When she was a pup she used to bark at Hope, and Hope would try her best to grab her. As she got older and her butt spanked, she quit that, but I wasn't sure if Hope had forgiven her. Apparently so, she has displayed no aggression towards her at all.

As you might imagine there have been some changes in my life due to all these changes and enforced nonactivity. In other words I have taken my first steps in "Getting old". There are of course all the platitudes concerning that. Like "its only in your mind! Bullshit! Its a reality, not a figment of ones mind. Only two of the guy's that I used to enjoy doing things with  are still alive. Both live in other areas, and one of them has forgotten how to communicate. 

As you might imagine living where I do now could turn from my dream to my nightmare, and possibly soon. Considering its 130 miles to the nearest Walmart. gas is a problem since it has to be trucked in, the cost is much higher than you city folk have to pay. "They" put in a Tesla fast charger in Jordan valley, 50 miles away. So I bought a Tesla Model Y. I also installed a 48 amp charger in my Garage. It now cost me .11 cents a Kilowatt to charge it. A kilowatt is good for 3.2 miles, and about $9 bucks to go to that Walmart. The part of it that counts is that the damn thing will drive for me. I can tell it to "take me to Walmart in Nampa" and it will do so. Its my best hope to keep out of the "Old Welders home" when I get too feeble and unsafe to drive myself. "Visiting Angels" don't come out this far. Wish that I had bought the Truck rather than the Y, but I couldn't afford the Truck. Did I mention that it will come find me if I should forget where I parked. Its my new Hawking rig. Its a bit low to the ground, but I have had it some interesting spots so far. 

Christmas 2024

 Another cycle around the Sun is near to completion, so I thought I might catch you up on the happenings or rather nonhappening's here in the High Desert. In retrospect quite a lot of changes have taken place this year, yet my mental reaction to the year was mostly boredom. 

Brenda and I are still getting along better than anyone likely deserves. I have no complaints other than she seems to be totally committed to testing my willpower with goodies and tasty things that are laying around waiting for me to gobble them up.

We met my 1st cousin and his Lady at the Painted Desert again this year and had a great time. I got my knee replaced on the 5th of June, bought a new Brittany Puppy  on the 10th of June. Most of the summer was dedicated to healing, and raising a pup. 

I've had a lot of dogs over my lifetime. All were wonderful! Several were exceptional. This one stands out from all of them in the "cuteness" category. Her parents were "Field Trail dogs" and she has the motor to match. As a small pup she was always running, and mostly out of sight. She is highly intelligent and as manipulative as a "bar girl". She seems to think that I am the next best thing since "kitty box Nougats".  A four mile shock collar is imperative with her. Its not necessary to shock her, but its ability to call her back is its main feature. All of the pups in her litter were named after Star Wars characters. She is Leah. Probably not the right spelling, but it is what it is.

Our fly-in was the highlight of the year. We are dwindling down as we age out of flying, but the ones who come make it special. Leah got to go on her first flight due to refusing to let one of the guy's take off. At my suggestion he stuffed her in his other seat and took off. She only got excited when she saw the trucks on the Hwy.

                                                                 Nap time

After the fly in I took Brenda to the coast via Crater Lake again. We went to the Redwoods, and traveled up the Coast seeing the sights. We spent a few days camping at one of the regular fly-in friends. The thing that made the biggest impression on Brenda was how many Pine trees there are in Oregon. Coming from W.Va. where the dominate tree is a Hardwood, all the Pines were a bit of a shock to her. We lost fifth gear on the truck coming back about 50 miles from the coast. It was a bit slower driving in forth gear, but we made it back with no problems.

As you might be aware, I turned 80 this year. Something that I never considered would happen. I guess it made a bit bigger impression than I anticipated. I haven't been able to hunt since 2018, when the Rabbits starved to near extinction. During that time my left shoulder got to the point that I couldn't exercise or hardly put a coat on. I somehow decided that flying had lost it's edge. Primarily due to gasoline costing around five dollars a gallon. I did pretty well until the recuperation time to get my knee healed to the point that I could use it again. Then when I did get to where I could get around almost as well as before, the Rabbits were still non existent.

It seems that almost all of the people that were in my "circle" are gone. Most of us don't live to be 80 years old. I guess that I became a bit depressed. I didn't think so until yesterday. I was going to town for a couple of Veterans appointments. The Sun was just coming up, and as usual the Sunrises here in the High Desert are spectacular, I was thinking about the friends that have gone before me, and the ones that I still have. The tears were blurring my vision. Sorrow that they couldn't share the beauty with me and gratitude for the times that they did.   I thanked God for each and every one of you, and promised to do better.

Merry Christmas!                                              

I give up!

 Much to my chagrin another year is going to have to pass before there are enough Jack Rabbits to allow me to actually hunt them. I put in 40 miles last week with little to no Jacks to show for it. In early June there was a sudden influx of Jacks that seemed to indicate that they were back. I had 6 to 8 Jacks each evening, traveling across the open field below the house to get water from the creek. Then they disappeared! I blamed it on my new Pup scaring them off, but they are not any where to be seen. Tami was telling me that she was seeing 20-30 Jacks on the road from the ranch to Cow Camp, but they aren't there now either.

I had always assumed that the "Jack Rabbit cycle" was that it just took 7 years to rebuild through the survivors eventually building back the populations through breeding. I am not so sure anymore. For one thing the influx of Jacks was real. I had two Jacks that survived the winter and I would see their tracks in the snow throughout the winter. One of them died on my alternate runway this spring, and then all of a sudden they were everywhere, and just like that after about a month or so they were gone again. The Coyotes and my dog could not possibly be that effective in killing and running off so many overnight.

As a last resort I went to the area ( a 60 mile round trip ) that I had found so many Jacks in the past. Where the Lave flows were, was full of Brush Bunnies. Hope went nuts, and they wore her to a frazzle. However since they only live in volcanic areas they are never more than 20 yards from a hole. With a ferret they wouldn't have a chance, but on their own its almost impossible for a Harris Hawk to be fast enough to catch one of the little "pocket rockets. " I walked the entire area and finally saw one Jack. 

I decided to give it one last shot. The field just West of the house has always held at least four Jacks. Hope and I, without the dog, traversed the entire thing and only saw 3 Bunnies I hate to say it, but its time to give it up.

  

#$%*#%

 Yah I know that is a heck of a title, but that is exactly what I am feeling. I have hunted every day since the last post and there is basically nothing of  the Rabbit family to hunt. The only interesting part of the days efforts since my last post is watching the new pup run. I've hit new spots every day since we caught the half grown rabbit and have found nothing to chase. 

I need to find at least four different fields to alternate my hunts so that I don't burn out the ones that actually do have enough Rabbits to hunt. That has not happened yet. We just got back from another fruitless  search, wherein We tried at least four spots in that area and did not turn up a single Rabbit. I have walked 40 miles according to my phone this month and killed one Rabbit. I am trying to find someplace local that I can hunt, but that apparently isn't going to happen. I will drive to Arock tomorrow to see if I can get permission to hunt one of the good areas there. It has been my mainstay in the past, but the old owner died and the ranch has been sold, so no idea if I will be able to hunt there or not.

The pup is a hoot to watch. She runs full out leaping over the Sage that gets in her way. Not what I had in mind when I decided to get another pup. It is possible that she scares every Rabbit within miles with her soaring flight over tall Sage Brush. Its easy to tell if she jumps a Rabbit, its yip yip fading off in the distance when she does find one. I have not yet made up my mind as of yet if she is a plus or a minus. I have my suspicions but hell there doesn't seem to be anything out there to scare. Poor ole Hope has taken to following the pup in the hopes that she will jump something, it appears she has lost faith in me. So far she has not found any rabbits so I have no idea what Hope will be able to make of that. I had thought that she might attack the pup, but so far she doesn't seem bothered by her, even walking past Leah on the ground without even giving her a second look. No idea what Leah will do if and when Hope does get a Rabbit in her feet. That may not happen though. 

October 2024

 I imagine that some of you are a bit surprised to once again finding one of these in your inbox. Its a bit of a surprise to me as well. This last year has had a bit more of a cost than usual. I'm still kicking, but sometimes you have to check, just to make sure.

I managed to get the VA to replace my left knee in June. I picked up a new puppy five days after the operation. The knee was interesting to say the least. I still need several steps with a grimace before I get lined out. Hopefully that will go away with time.

The actual main reason that I have not wanted to do anything with the computer is that I had to buy a new one last year and it appears that every thing that I did using Windows 7 is not anywhere near the same. The things that were so intuitive with 7 is now much more of a problem with W 11. One of the more endearing features of this version is that I have to keep moving the page up so that I can see what I am typing. I am sure that there is some way to center the text, but my current fix is to make the font so small that I have trouble reading it. 

I turned 80 just a few days ago, and with all the forced inactivity it is much harder to fight against the current.

I took Brenda to the coast after the fly in this year. We did most of the Coast, and I got to show her all of the features that I like about the coast. I guess I did pretty well, she remarked to me that she had never known that there were so many Pine trees in Oregon.

After our return, I began to trim Hope down for some hunting. She has as much trouble losing weight as I do apparently. Today was our second attempt at finding some rabbits to chase. I walked 2.75 miles this afternoon only finding 5 Jacks to chase.  I walked most of the distance in what had been one of my best spots, only finding 4 in an area that would normally hold 8 to 10 Jacks. I changed fields and lucky for us, found a half grown Jack that has not learned all the tricks of evasion.

If I had to guess this year is still going to be difficult, requiring a lot of travel just to find something to chase. I'm not sure how long I am going to put up with the scarcity of rabbits, before I pull the plug.

Christmas 2023

 While both Brenda and I have given up on sending Christmas cards, we haven't given up on hoping that you have a great Christmas! 

It's been a year of mixed blessings. The first 6 months of the year was very wet. An unusual situation for the High Desert. Everything grew like weeds, since all we have here are weeds. Brenda seemed to be happy about that as her favorite tool is a weed eater. Since I am such a perceptive and loving partner, I bought her a weed eater with a battery start system.  

With the help of a good friend, and his nephew, we replaced the roofs on the "Cat House" and the Hangar. Both needed the repair, since they were the original roofing from 1978.

 While I didn't get to show Brenda as much of Oregon as I wanted, we did go to Crater Lake, and the Painted Desert. Our biggest problem with traveling was, Brick, our last remaining dog. He has since died. 

We had a lot of company this year and we enjoyed every bit of it. 

Brenda's daughter, Granddaughter, and my niece came a week before our fly-in. My good friend John Hauck, from Alabama, spent 6 weeks or so with us. It was great to have the company. 

The only real downer was the Rabbit populations. There just aren't enough rabbits here to justify killing any of them, so my hawking this year is a bust. The only bad part of that is - will I still be able to hunt them when they do recover. I have been exceptionally blessed with good genes. However, nothing last forever, and at 79 I have been seeing some chinks in my "armor" as of late. My "motorcycle injury" has finally made itself known, but perhaps the worst was finally having to take blood pressure meds. All medications have a physical cost linked to it. I really have no excuse for complaining about it however, nothing last forever.

We have yet to see any snow, other than an 1/8 of an inch a couple weeks ago. I guess we will have to do with Hoar frost this year.

We wish you the best Christmas ever! Cherish your friends, and relatives, and be happy!

 

 

 

 

Nov. 2023

 Well, another bummer type of year. Rabbits are still down! Bird flu is still around. My last dog- Brick has died of old age. Weather is great however!

Once again, the Rabbits are scarce enough to be on the endangered list. About the best I can do in a 4-mile hunt with a hungry hawk on a 7-foot perch is 2-3 Jacks sighted, mostly at 2-300 yards, running at full speed. Last year I quit in the middle of November. I didn't want to do that again.  So, I began to consider the problem.

I reasoned that the drone should supply a way to exercise her and keep her mind normal. I decided to put a quail leg on the normal Drone lure. My thoughts were that she would work her way up to the lure parked at 100 feet. Reality showed me that she had no idea how to fly, beyond a kamikaze dive into Sage Brush. After some head scratching, I realized that had been all the flight opportunities that had been presented to her over her lifetime.  

I took her out of the weathering area, weighed her, then turned her loose to take a perch on top of the hanger. I fired up the drone and started climbing as I got it in the air. When the lure cleared the ground, she started after it. On reflex, I pulled it out of her range. ( Nobody's perfect!) She wasn't even able to fly up 10 feet to grab it. She sat on the ground to try to figure out what happened and what it meant. I brought it back around and made sure that she could get it.

two days later I set the drone up outside, ready to fly, and decided that I would walk the triangle of Sage outside my fence with her on the T Perch. Then if we didn't catch anything, we would go back to the drone. I managed to walk about three hundred yards out in the field, when she left the perch and flew back to where the drone sat. She walked around it, looked it over for a lure and then just sat there waiting for me to come back and feed her. A bit of a quick study, that girl! She learned that as quickly as a bad habit. I did call her back and finished my walk. We did jump one long range Jack, that she couldn't find when she finally got to the last spot that we saw him. 

This time I was more aware of her lack of flight and kept it low enough, flying the lure in a large circle about 50 feet above the ground and made sure she caught it. This was the time that I discovered that an entire quail was more food than she needed. The third day after this flight I set up the drone, but not take it off the ground. I had the lure covered so that she could not see it. 

One of the ways that I measure her intentions about hunting, is that I leave her loose in the Weathering area. If she isn't waiting by the door, she is not coming to me, and I can go on with my other stuff. Her problem with knowing that there is a lure somewhere, meant that she didn't need to come to me, she already had that worked out. So, I didn't feed her at all.     

I didn't make that mistake again, and the next flight was better. I had practiced flying in a large circle with the lure about 75 feet off the ground. I had started putting her in her Giant hood after weighing her. I put the drone up and parked far enough away that she would not grab it before I could regain the controls. This time it all worked like I had intended. 

I have never had to use a lure in her training. I introduced her to it during her initial training and she has never forgotten. In fact, it holds such allure for her that once captured, she does not let go. I am hoping that she learns that it is merely a one- time thing and no more meat will appear. So, when she came to me, she would drag the lure along with her. Today she left the lure and came to the fist. Much better!

I am not sure where I am going with this exercise, but she at least has an interruption to her daily routine. I will try to find a way to run the drone and film it. Perhaps when she has learned to fly I can capture some of it. 

I have decided that I am not going to kill any of the resident Jacks here. They are down to bare minimum here, and I don't have the luxury of paying the gas prices to go to where there might be some. The home range of Jack Rabbits is somewhere around two acres. Some of the 100- or 200-acres plots may only have one or two Jacks in them. The more I kill, if I could, would possibly slow the repopulation down even further. I am getting old enough that I can see the end for me, and it isn't that far in the future.

Some of you may remember Yogi. I got her in 2011 from a rehabber in St. George Utah. She was quite a bird, and was such a smart, thinking, hunting hawk. I flew her for several years in several different cast situations and she always impressed me. I gave her to Sarah Morrison for several years. She sent her back to me when she moved to Montana. I gave her to Tammi Stoddart next door. She started out for her first flight for her this year. She flew to a Sage and came back to the perch. On landing she was unsteady and seemed to have trouble standing up. Tami took her back home and called me. Everything was normal, mutes looked good. After three days of observation, no symptoms other than an inability to stand up. I believe that she had a stroke. She is improving and beginning to regain her ability to stand. 

Catch up

 I seem to have a little time with nothing much to do, so I might as well do some catch up. It's been an interesting year. Not sure if it's my advancing years or just what, but my attitude towards life and everything has changed. I'm not real sure that I am all that happy about it, but don't know what to do to change it. I suppose that it is natural, and I have always been a "closet hermit", but it is worse this year. Perhaps it is just a "phase" that one goes through. My mind seems to be "all there", but of course I would be the last to know. 

With the help of a good friend and his nephew I managed to replace the last two remaining roofs on the property that needed it. The insurance was a nightmare, but it's done. 

Our fly-in went extremely well, the weather was great, and everybody had a great time. Everybody loved Brenda, and she made it so much easier on me during the time that everyone was here. She is also spoiling me completely. Perhaps that is why I am so listless.

Our sleeping habits are quite different, I like Sunrises, she likes going to bed in the AM. I have never snored unless I was really tired. She came to bed the other night, and I was in that point of sleeping where I was aware that she had come into the room, but yet not awake. I was sleeping on my left side when she got into bed. I hadn't moved because I didn't want to wake up. Then I felt her put her fingers on my wrist to check my heartbeat. It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. I suppose that could have been the point when I realized that I might be old.

It has taken me a month almost to get Hope down to flying weight, but there is really no hurry, the Rabbits are still very scarce. I walked for 2.6 miles Tuesday and saw two bunnies and two Jacks, all of which outsmarted my flabby hawk. Perhaps I am spoiled but it would be nice to have a few more critters to chase or be able to afford the gas to find them. 

I am now down to my last dog. Josie died this spring, and Brick my male apparently has the same "I don't give a shit" attitude that I do. He stopped going for a morning walk this Spring. He is a bit more "stove up" than I am, but when I started off with Hope, he came along too. CBD oil and doggy aspirins helps him out when the pains are bad. It's nice to have him along. I accuse him of having a bit of dementia, he seems to know where I am going so that he can get in the way. I tossed down a tidbit for Hope when we returned yesterday. He thought it was for him right up to the point that Hope bit him on the foot.

2023 Fly-in

 As you have noticed my posts have rather dried up. This one may well be the last. I have visited everywhere within range of my little planes fuel tanks at least 20 times, videoed all of them. There is little new, just wash- dry-repeat. Perhaps after I start hunting again things will be a bit more exciting.

Our fly-in was very nice and very smooth. We had 14 visitors this year, and with Brenda's shopping, there was no shortage of things to eat. The weather even cooperated for once, and there was little to no smoke from fires. 

My flying was restricted to checking Cows for the ranch next door and most of my time in the Kitchen. Mine was the only Kolb aircraft, all the others had Experimental Amateur Built planes that were capable of speeds of 90 miles per hour at a minimum. Three of the guy's had the newer 360 degree cameras that take great video. With the increased speed they were able to cover much more ground. This one is from a friend that lives in Arizona and he flies both planes and drones. The video of the house and planes flying are from the drone. I was impressed. I believe you will be as well.

https://youtu.be/Hk9fLli6qSU?si=7OnPMcBKV0aZ9rjZ

Everyone has now gone home except for John Hauck. He is doing exceptionally well, building strength every day. He has apparently beat his Cancer. 

It finally quit raining!

A bit of a screwy title, but in fact the weather has been as close to miserable as is possible. For an area of 4.5 inches of rain, we have had a lot of rain. Now of course we go directly to 90+ temps.

My main goal this year was to replace the roofing on the hangar and Cat House. The asphalt shingles were most likely laid in 78 or 79 and we had shingle rain after any and all windy days. I had been saving for at least a year or so to be able to replace the roofs.. A wind storm in March had been the final straw. I took the measurement to an outstanding metal roofing company in Ontario, Or. I also turned it in to the insurance Co. Their estimate for 3 tab roofing came to $13,000 +. 

My friend Toby from the coast had offered to help me when I was ready. Roger had also offered his help. 

Toby and his nephew, Fletcher came over early and even with the rain squalls and wind finished it in about three days.

Roger coming on the agreed time, arrived well after completion of all the projects, Leaving only fun things left to do.

 I even knocked some of the dust off of the "Fire Dragon", and rolled her out.

 https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/841575829

Its been a while since I have posted, and it appears that there have been a few changes. It appears that the link above used to be able to click on it,  and it would open the video. Now what I have had to do with the "link " is to highlight it, right click on it, then select the line that says "go to Vimeo!", It should take you to the actual video of our flight. 

We had company for at least a week and half, and of course had a great time. Now of course I have no excuse for not doing some playing for a change.

The Painted Hills, Oregon

Finally the weather has broken and it's worth going outside. It has been my wish to show Brenda some of the splendors of Oregon . It has been a long long winter and now we seem to be going from nasty to full summer. 

The first on my list of Brenda's introduction to Oregon, was to visit the Painted Hills in the central part of the state. I have never gotten around to going there, so this was a trip for me as well. The area is about 250 miles North, so we planned to spend three days total. I looked it up on the web and found that there were really no RV camps close to where we wanted to be, but a nice couple had visited the area and told of a chunk of ground owned by the Forest Service that was open to camping and unregulated.  Sounded good to me!

There were two ways to get there so I intended to go one way and back the other. The first leg of our trip went from Burns Or, to John Day, then West to Mitchell. John day is at a much lower elevation than here at the house, so we dropped off down a long steep Canyon about 20-30 miles in length. As we came around a sharp curve, near Canyonville, a tree weakened by all the recent run off of melted winter snow had fallen across the road. The signs were plentiful that the water had been over the road in many places. It was still quite a surprise and I had an interesting time getting all that weight stopped. We sat there as traffic built up in both directions, (Probably 5 cars either direction. Its kinda of remote) before someone with a chainsaw came by and cut it out of the road.

Once past John Day, it was about 77 miles to our turn off. Winding roads, through a narrow sliver of a Canyon, eventually coming to the town of Mitchell. The turn off is about 5 miles past the town.

We found the camping spot with no trouble at all. At the time there were only cows there and it took us no time to get set up. We spent the evening checking out the scenery and even though it was still raining lightly I made a couple of short trail hikes and took a lot of pictures.It had been really pouring the rain, so everything was muddy, as well as water over the road in a few places. The mud was what I call "tallmud", the more you walk in it, the taller you get.

In the four days that we were there we had about 15 different campers stay there. We had a parade every morning when the cows came out of the hills to drink.

I took a LOT of pictures on this trip and have included all of them worth seeing, in an attempt to give you some idea of what the place is about. So this will be short on narration. 

The area is actually pretty small as far as Parks go, but long on beauty. Almost all the hiking trails are about 1/2 mile. It is a lesson and view of time and the changes that have and will occur, apparently quite naturally. Unless the Neanderthals were much more destructive than we thought.

This is the end of the public road. The area beyond this and the lake in the background are all private.

I took a few pictures of the rocks, as all of them were different.

The signage was a bit hard to see, but there was a lot of information on them.

While it rained often the drops were not thick, but they wee big!

The Painted Lady of the Painted Hills!

I let Brick out of the truck to pee while I looked at this large boulder. I was amazed to find that there was a Cholla, "Jumping Cactus", at the base of it. True to its name, a chunk of it managed to get in the hair of Bricks leg. It was only stuck in the hair, so I managed to get it out with a stick.

And last but not least was an outcropping of Rhyolite ( Such as occurs at the Pillars of Rome. just down the road here at the house.)

After all the scenery we decided to do a little scouting around and of course went into the town of Mitchell to see what was there. I neglected to take pictures, but there was a General Store and a Gift shop there. Brenda cannot go past a store without searching it for things she cannot do without, and the little "country Store" in Mitchell is a treasure trove. I saw things in there that I had been searching for, for years. This is a little town serving probably less than a 1000 people within a 50 mile radius. If they didn't have it you didn't need it. Great people too. Brenda found some Strawberries that were almost as big as apples. She made me go back the next day to buy some more.

We stayed a total of four days, and just relaxed. Brenda loved the area, much different from what she is used to. The "park" is small by most standards, but well worth the visit.

All the pictures are shown small in the body of the story, but if you click on one of them it will open up full screen and you can scroll through them.