Owyhee Field Day

One of the ladies that we have come to know in Jordan Valley coordinates a field day for fifth graders at the various schools. This is not just one or two schools in the area. It covers schools both from Oregon and Idaho. The size of the schools varies from 20 students in one or two room schools, to large metropolitan areas. I guess she knows a sucker when she sees one, and she was relentless in the understated guilt that she laid on me, and of course I agreed.

The date was April 31 to May 1st at Owyhee Reservoir. We were given a half brother to Josie, our Brittney. His name is Brick, and he is 1 1/2 years old.  It was a given that we would have to neuter him. I arranged the surgery at a vets office that was on our way to our campsite. We dropped him off, and continued on to our site. It is at a campground that also houses the Dam personal. The road into the area is a bit more rural than I would have thought. We of course had to drive through Idaho to get there. I am sure that you have heard of various sites, as in- "You can't get there from here". The road there was built in 1927 or 1928. I am sure that it was a bit of a challenge to build at the time. I went back to get Brick later that day.

I am molting the two girls on the block, so it wasn't all that much problem in dragging them along as the stars of the show. The programs were quite varied and I am sure, interesting to the kids. There was everything from Fur trapping to wild horses to gold panning. I am sure it was much a more interesting day than sitting in a class room. The program covered two days of demonstrations to 15 kids at a time. FFA teens were the guides for the kids. There was about 600 or more kids that went through the programs.

I put together three short video's that covered the aspects of hunting with Falcons and Hawks, and the rest of the time was taken up with questions and petting Yogi. Of course the hit of the show was that wonderfully patient sweetheart, Yogi. Almost all wanted to pet Jessie, but I explained that we just didn't have enough band aids to cover the wounds that were bound to occur.  Not all of the kids got to go to all the presentations, but Yogi allowed 120 kids, their guides and various parents and teachers, to pet her.

It was a bit cold at first, but the classes didn't start until 10:AM, and the two days were the very best days thus far this year.

The only time that there was any panic was when Yogi made a really clever sneak attack on poor ole Brick, the new dog. After that we put him in his kennel to keep him safe.

He's trying to recover from it all this evening.

Finished Raccoon and desert flight.

After I had skinned and fleshed the Raccoon, I salted it and rolled it up to begin the tanning process in the morning. Of course I managed to forget that I didn't have enough chemicals to complete the process, so back to the computer and the drawing board. The skin was then put in the freezer to await "Priority mail" to deliver the ordered chemicals.

The tanning process to me had always been a bit of a mysterious and daunting process. I was quite surprised to find that the method that I am using is amazingly simple and fast, about four days at the most. 24 hours for the "pickling process", 24 for the tanning chemicals to do their stuff. Then a shampoo, drying and "breaking" the hide. Since I do not have the advantage of a compliant Native American female to chew the hide, I have to do it the hard way.  What the process consists of is to rub the hide over an edge to "break" the fibers and keep it soft. It is the weak spot of my expertise so far. Most likely brought on by my innate laziness.

"Laziness is the mother of invention" or so I have always been told. I have invented a number of sometimes brilliant solutions, sometimes not!

Thinking about the upcoming "softening process" I remembered a Clothes dryer that I had relegated to the "farmers dump" up by the runway. It had been hauled up there after a Civet Cat moved into the Dryer where it had sat in my hanger. Although the heating part of the dryer was a bit iffy, I felt that it might just work for me since I didn't need the heat part. Thinking that a couple of tennis shoes bouncing around on the hide should soften it while cool air was blowing and drying the hide at the same time.

My problem with "breaking" the hide is that it is done over a long period of time. One is supposed to flex the hide as it is drying and I can never decide which is the right time to do so. I don't mind the work, it just seems that I never do it at the right time.

So I fire up the quad, hook up the little trailer and off to the dump I go. I turn it up on its top, shake as much dirt out of it as I can. After getting it back to the hanger, I spend the next two hours trying to find the electrical pigtail that I obviously took off when I stored it originally. Finally after looking every where, at least three times, I find it hiding under my shoeing anvil. Then there is a search for the right tool to loosen the little weird size nuts that secure the pigtail to the electrical board. The little Bakelite board does not allow one to use anything other than a socket, and it needs to be a deep socket as well.  It only took five trips back and forth to the tool box before I finally hit on the right combination. Finally I get it on and attempt to plug it in to the 220 V plug on the wall. There are two different types of Dryer plugs. You guessed it, I have one different than the pigtail. Sigh! Finally I just grab a spare unused piece of wire and wire it direct. Get the vacuum and suck the lumps out, never thinking that I might need to wash the inside of the drum.

Every thing worked just perfectly, so I tossed the perfectly shampooed shiny hide in the drum, put in some shoes and start it up. After about 10 minutes I open the door to see how things are going, and was dismayed to see how dirty my nice hide had gotten. So I kill the power, and hose it out. Then its back in the house and a new shampoo. Then I stretch the hide on a metal stretcher to dry. The sun is shining and the temps are about 64 degrees, so while the hide is drying, I start work on my summer tan. It was that nice.

When I thought the hide might be dry enough I toss it back in the dryer and run it through two cycles of 70 minutes each. When I took it out that evening the hide seemed to be quite flexible, so I hung it on the wall with the rest of the furs.

 
This morning I checked it and found that the entire day yesterday was a total waste. It was as stiff as a board, so I turned it inside out again and started doing what I should have done yesterday. You win some and lose some, and waste a lot of time as well.

Now I have been brutally honest with you for quite some time concerning my foibles, and quite frankly I find the traitorous way that my mind sometimes works to be quite amusing. It helps if one is smart enough to not take yourself too seriously. You might think that I am the only dumb one reading this selfless confession- MULEMUFFINS! You are not fooling anyone!

Today was just as beautiful and nice as it was yesterday, and I had nothing else pressing so it was time for my plane to get a little attention for a change.

I flew East to check an area called Sand Springs, then over to the Owyhee Canyon, back to Rome and up Crooked Creek to the house. The flight was one hour and 7 minutes. The OAT was 54 degrees and I dressed too warm. By the time I got back home I was sweating except for my feet.

https://vimeo.com/87624835

password: owyheeflyer

The further misadventures of a novice

As you know every thing in the desert revolves around food and especially water, since that will concentrate the food. The creek down below the house is nice, and I wouldn't like the property as well if it were not there. However it supplies a never ending list of things that like to eat Chickens and Pigeons.

The first year we were here we had a Badger kill 18 of my Chickens on Christmas Eve. He dug into the Chicken Pen, killed all he could and then dug a burrow to wait until he could stand to eat a bit more Chicken. Every fall or winter I get at least one Raccoon taking advantage of the abundance of protein here.

This year it was two Bobcats and at least one big Raccoon. One or the other dug a hole through the roof of my Pigeon house and almost decimated my pigeon population. They killed more than 20 birds. I had been counting on the excess of Pigeons for help on the winter food supply for Jessie the Peregrine.

With the help of my "trapper buddy" we set a live trap that he had bought just for catching Bob Cats. Well, we caught a Boar Raccoon in it and that rascal bent it enough out of shape to get out. In the mean time I rebuilt the roof of the Pigeon house and put a metal roof on it.  I set about trying to catch the varmint, any way I could.

One day before Christmas one of the passing raptors killed a Mallard Duck down on the creek. The next morning the carcass was gone, so I knew he was still here. Time for plan B. I had bought a steel trap on one of my trips to Cabelas, so I did all the research I could on line, and proceeded to set that trap for him. It took a few days but he came through again and got caught in the trap. I could see the area where the trap was from the house, and could check it with bino's from the window.  After a few days I went to check it and see about replacing the bait. Well the area was pretty torn up, and my trap was pulled through a Greasewood bush that I had wired the trap to, but it was empty. What ever had been trapped, pulled its foot out of the trap jaws. I had put a "trail Camera" where it could see the trap, and it showed a Raccoon peering in to the camera. In checking with my mentor I was told that Raccoons are very hard to keep in a trap. He suggested a rock for a drag rather than tying it hard and fast. I considered that option and decided that I didn't like the idea of searching through the Sage looking for a critter dragging a trap. I decided that nothing could uproot a Greaswood bush, so I used some aluminum wire that I found lying around the house, to secure the traps that I set to the Greasewood bushes.

I was so disgusted with the trap that I had bought from Cabelas That I ordered some bigger ones from a Trapping supply store on line, as well as some stuff to neutralize the smell.  Nothing is as simple as a bullet, but one does as is needed for the problem at hand.  My problem was that these guys were moving through in the middle of the night. When I sold my Coyote skins, I bought some prepared scents that were geared for Bobcats. Raccoons are merely a nuisance, Bobcats are worth something. I knew from tracks after a snow fall that a Bobcat some times moved along the the creek heading over to the ranch across the road.

When I got the new traps prepared I went down and replaced the one with the Cabelas trap and set a new one a bit further up the creek where I could see it from the house. I set the trap in as I would for a Bobcat, and put the scents in that I had bought. Not all that surprisingly, Skunk makes up most of the lures ingredients. Cats for whatever reason really like the smell of Skunk spray, be they domestic or wild. All through most of the rest of January nothing happened.

Then at noon on the day of the super bowl, I got up and did my usual look out of all the windows, of course looking for anything to shoot. I was quite surprised to see a big Bobcat down in the Sage coming up the creek towards the house. My rifle was right by the window, but I couldn't get a clean shot there so I went out to the rifle rest where I normally shoot, to try to get an angle that I could shoot him. Karen and I each saw him two more times, but so quick and fleeting a glance that I could never get my sights on him. He was not alarmed or even knew that we were trying to shoot him. They just move very stealthily from cover to cover, and it is rare to even see on in the wild at all. They blend so well that when they stop they literally disappear. Finally somehow or the other he disappeared and I never got a shot or another sighting of him. He apparently jumped the creek and got into the heavier cover and moved on up the creek heading for Tami's.

This morning I decided to check the traps and see if the baits needed refreshing. I was alarmed to find that I had again caught something, but this time the trap and the critter was gone. The ground was torn up all around the Greasewood bush, and I could see where sharp claws had dug up the ground. I of course assumed that I had caught and lost a Bobcat. I had wired the trap to the bush with a piece of the Aluminum wire that I had found here at the place. I liked it because it was very easy to bend. I never in my wildest dreams thought that a critter could break it, but there it was. Feeling like a idiot as well as a cad, I went back to the house and got the dogs which were my only hope of finding it.

Now my two dogs are designed to find birds, but they were my only option. Josie seemed to be interested, Betsy sniffed the spot and dismissed it immediately, but I was hoping that if they came face to face with the critter they would have sense enough to somehow let me know.  I drove on down the road on the quad while the dogs ran all over the Sage looking for birds. They do cover a lot of ground and I was hoping that on one of their trips back and forth one of them would find it. I was not happy to think of the poor thing out there with a trap on its foot. No chance to survive at all.

I got down the road about a half mile, and did not see Josie. She had been last seen at the end of our fence. It is a place that the Deer like to sleep in as there is quite high Sage and good places to hide. So I began to back track and eventually Josie came down the road looking for me. I was bummed, as I had hoped that she would have the critter bayed up and holding it for me. Her predecessor would have done so, but she was raised differently. I decided to go through the cover anyway just to make sure. I had walked through most of it and was standing there watching the dogs for some sign that the object of my search was here. Josie came around a big bunch of Sage and I heard something strange. I almost dismissed the thought, but decided to check it out. As I rounded the bush I heard a chain rattle. I hurried around expecting to find a Bobcat, but there was a Coon tail sticking out of the bush instead. I had caught it by the hind foot. I am not sure that I could have found it if the trap had been on the front foot.

I called Josie and she was a bit interested, but she had run right by it, and what alerted me was the Coon growling at her as she ran by. It never occurred to her that was what we were looking for. Betsy came by and barely even glanced at it. She apparently doesn't point Coons since they don't fly.

As you can see it is not a very big one, weighing only about 15 pounds. They can get up to 30 or 40 pounds.

So having my nose rubbed in it, I have decided to listen and use a rock drag. I am also using some much more serious steel wire. I cannot explain why I always do things the hard way, apparently it is a pattern that I am not going to break this late in life. Sigh!


 

More shooting

As you know I have gotten into Predator hunting this year, having nothing else to fill the short winter days and ease my "blood lust" requirement. With my replacement rifle, came a desire to reduce the size of the hole on the opposite side of whatever I shot. You ladies might want to skip this one, unless you are interested in shooting.

I am a "Reloader", having made my own shells and sometimes bullets since the late 60's. I had some H 380 powder that was reputed to be one of the best for the 22-250 that I am shooting. I decided to use the Hornady 40 grain Vmax bullet, whose main feature was that it was explosive. I did find a pretty good load that was 3677 fps. and just one big ragged hole at my 50 yard sight in distance.

I thought that that was pretty good and I shot about 6 Coyotes with them. Every thing was fine if I could hit in the shoulder as the bones caused the bullets to blow up not exiting the other side. Some of my shots were in close- 75 to 100 yards, and the only problem that I had with that was one poor Coyote that I shot that was facing me and about 20 feet lower than where I was hiding. The bullet hit the backbone and opened her up for about 14 inches. That is when I started shooting them in the shoulder. One nice feature of this bullet, is that the Coyotes never moved after the shot. If I hit them they were dead, generally dropping in their tracks.

Of course Coyotes do not willingly go to the skinning shed, so some of my shots were at pretty long distances. That meant that I had to now carry a range finder when I went to call Coyotes. I got to where I was using an "Alaskan Back pack" (frame big enough to pack out Moose) to carry all of my crap.

My next adventure concerned a Coyote that was suspicious of my calling, and began to edge away. I knew that I was going to have to take my chances with what I considered an extreme distance. My rifle was sighted in at 100 yards at this time. I raised the sight at the top of its back, and pulled the trigger. I didn't see what happened, but I heard the bullet hit with a "whack". I kept my eye on the last spot that I had seen her, and was actually quite surprised to eventually find her quite dead. I had hit her just under the spine and another sewing job was in store for me when I got her skinned. I paced it off as I walked back to my stand and ended up with 325 paces.

My next evolution was "Point blank range". In essence that means sighting the rifle in at the distance that will give you the least amount of variation both over and under out to 300 yards. For the loading that I listed above that was 245 yards. That resulted in being 1.7 inches high at 100 yards, 2 3/4 high at 200 yards, 4 1/2 low at 300 yards. Sounds pretty good right?

The first thing that began to cause some doubt was a Coyote that I finally called in one 4 degree morning at daylight. It was pretty close, about 125 yards was my guess. I aimed at the middle of the shoulder and was quite surprised when He left the area at a high rate of speed. There was an inch or so of snow on the ground and I tracked him for about a 1/4 of a mile, and could find no indication that I had done any more than cut a few hairs off his back. Now I know where my sight was when I pulled the trigger, and it was on the shoulder, perhaps a bit high on the shoulder, so the bullet had to have been still climbing when it got to the Coyote. A Coyote is about 7 to 9 inches from top of the shoulder to the bottom of the chest.

My next problem came with "Frankenyote" of the post before this one. I can't be unhappy about how that came out, but the fact still remains, that I can still screw it up. I just resigned myself to giving it a lot more thought before I pull the trigger. The only problem with Coyotes is that there just usually isn't much time to waste when they finally show themselves.

My trapping - predator mentor had an old Remington 788 rifle in 22-250 that he had put aside for one of his son's 223's. He was having a problem with clean kills with the 223, and wanted to have his 22-250 operational again. I offered to work up a load for his gun.

I have been trying for 6 months or more to buy some more of the H 380 powder that I had used for my loads. I don't know if you have tried to buy anything to either shoot or make something to shoot. If the president has accomplished nothing else, he has spurred a run on guns and bullets. It is almost impossible to find bullets and powder. It just isn't on the store shelves, and you can't back order powder either. So I decided to use a different powder that I had, and rarely use. It is a bit faster burning than the H 380. I picked a starting load that was comparable to the one that I had worked out for the H 380, thinking that the comparable load would be pretty close. Actually it worked out to be the best load for the gun. I produced a five shot group that was less than 1/2 inch. I shot the group through a chronograph and found that the bullets were traveling at 4000 feet a second. That means that the "Point blank range" sight in was for 260 yards. At that sight in, the bullet was .49 inches high at 50 yards, 1.7 high at 100 yards, 2 1/4 high at 150 yards, 1.7 high at 200 and 3 1/4 low at 300 yards. I no longer need a range finder.

Just the addition of 300 fps reduces the bullet drop and the fluctuation of its path by a really significant amount. Plus the added speed will contribute to the explosive properties of the bullet by that much more. I had been a bit disappointed by the speed of the H 380 load, so I decided to see how my rifle liked the different powder.

I found that the exact same loading of 34.5 grains of IMR 3031 would produce this 3 shot group. The group measures .320 outside to outside. That is less that 100 thousands more than the diameter of the bullet.

I didn't waste much time in changing all my loaded ammo to this load. Now all I need is one Coyote to volunteer.

Frankenyote- Frank for short.

Well the tanning process is complete, and Frank has joined Roberta (winter ) on the left, and Bob (a summer) Bobcat on the right.

Its fairly amazing how quick and well the tanning process went. I suppose when you don't have to wait for someone to get around to your project it goes a lot faster. All in all it took two days. The hide is nice and supple, and of course the surgery is well hidden by the luxurious fur that Frank was sporting before he ran afoul of me.

Gun sights and boredom

The weather has moderated to the point that the below zero temps have given way to low teens. I have gone out several mornings trying to call in some Coyotes, and have met with utter failure each time. Enough so that I have been catching up on my reading and unfortunately watching the steady decline of America on TV. There just aren't that many Coyotes this year. The only place that you can find them is with the Cows. There isn't enough food out there in the Sage to make it worth while, so they move into the ranches where the food supply concentrates.

Out of desperation I ordered a book off of Amazon for my Kindle that of course guaranteed that I could kill more Coyotes if I read it. What the heck, I was out of reading entertainment and anything to lower the learning curve of predator hunting would be a worthwhile pursuit.

One of the chapters concerned rifles and the best point to be sighted in. Now most rifles are sighted in for 100 yards. As most normal hunting situations are at distances like that or closer. Here the nearest tree or obstacle to sight is likely in a neighbors yard. As most of you know that the bullet as it leaves the barrel of a gun start lower than the line of sight, then arc above the line of sight, crossing again at predetermined distances and eventually dropping to the earth. How flat the bullet shoots is governed by weight, speed and ballistic co efficiency. I will not go into it in detail, but for instance a hunting rifle bullet can, with a 100 yard sight in, drop as much as 26 inches out at 300 yards. That of course makes it difficult to hit anything unless you know where it will cross the sighted line. The key of course is to know how much it drops at any given distance..

In essence there is a distance for sighting for each bullet by caliber, weight and speed that the bullet travels, that gives the least amount of variance. Coyotes are very cunning, as evidenced by history and Indian folklore. They do not willingly give up their hides. Lots of them hang up in the 200 and 300 yard range. If anything looks a bit out of order, they fade away without being seen. Sometimes what you do see is pretty small, so exact accuracy is of paramount importance.

I shoot a 22-250 rifle with a 40 grain explosive bullet that is traveling at 3672 feet per second. My reloading manual showed a 245 yard sight in as the best sight in range. That would mean that at 50 yards the bullet would be 3/4 of an inch high, 1 3/4 high at 100 yards, 2 1/2 high at 200 yards, and 3 1/2 inches low at 300 yards. The theory being that a straight on sighting would hit the kill zone on the Coyote no matter how far out it was. Sounds good- right?

My normal sight in is 100 yards. If they are further out then I hold a bit higher. So far this year I had not missed even out to 321 paces, but what the heck, I can handle improvement, most likely need it.

As you can imagine I was interested in trying all this out. Now, I have a good view of quite a bit of the area around me. I can see a 300 yard area below me that sometimes a Coyote will cross to get to the Creek, and up to 350 yards on the other side of the creek. I have been watching since early October and have seen nothing, other than Deer down there. So on a snowy morning I decide to go across the road and get set up before daylight to call there, I know that a local Bobcat sometimes hunts there and Coyotes use the area as well.

The temperature was 4 degrees. Now I used all my earnings from last year to get me set up for just this type of hunting. I can stay warm enough to spend 45 minutes sitting on the ground, but movement can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. I use a "stadium" type seat, and can lean back a bit, but sometimes the elevation that the Coyote shows up can cause a bit of a challenge to get the sights on the critter. Finally after about 45 minutes a Coyote appears on the creek bank below me at about 75 or so yards. I admit I was a bit shaky, but the sights were on the Coyotes shoulder when the trigger broke over. The Coyote squatted a bit and took off at high speed. Sometimes they will run a bit if the shot is not immediately fatal. If you can track them they will pile up after the adrenaline runs out. There was an inch of snow, so tracking was not going to be a problem.

I walked back to the truck, and drove to the other side of the creek and began my tracking, expecting to find the Coyote piled up in the heavy sage. Well there was no blood at all, and after about 500 yards or more he finally quit running and began walking to another part of the ranch where it was a bit less exciting. A total MISS! How in the hell did that happen? I just don't normally miss. Just ask my dog, she will tell you that. She thinks I never miss. The only thing I can imagine is that I was a bit high on the shoulder when the trigger broke, and the bullet just barely missed the top of the back. Well crap! That wasn't supposed to happen. Back to my cave to sulk.

I decided that the charts were wrong, and the bullet was not performing as it was reported to be. I shot groups at 100, and 200 yards and found that they matched the book exactly. A hard pill to swallow. Being of genuine W.VA. redneck stock, shooting has always been one of the things that I excel in and pride myself on. Oh well, I decided not to tell my dog.

Finally shame at my slothfulness crept in to the point that I could no longer ignore the guilt, so a new plan to hunt a new area that should have a bunch of critters that had never heard a varmint call before and would be waiting for me to come gather them up.

A bit of a glitch occurred when I woke the next morning to find that a pretty brisk wind had blown in about a half inch of snow. I decided to wait for daylight before I started out so that I could look the country over to find a good spot. The wind was of course in the wrong direction for what I had planned, so I was pretty sure that it was a waste, but what the hell, I was already dressed.

I started up the hill from the house just as the Sun came up, and immediately turned back for the camera that I had forgotten.

 Already the day was better, just being able to see the Steens  glowing with the rising Sun.

I spent an hour watching the empty landscape, suffering just enough to ease my conscious about my slothful ways.

I returned home determined to ignore the suspicion that I was growing old and worthless. About mid morning I decided to call an old friend from the area where we used to live. I spent about 10 minutes talking to his lovely wife, and had just began talking to him, when I see a Coyote pop out of the brush across the creek. At first I was a bit amazed at the sight. I have not even heard a Coyote howl for months. I hung up, grabbed my rifle and went out to the hot tub to use if for a rest. I know that the top of the hill is 350 yards away, so I figured him for 300 yards. I couldn't see enough of him at three power, so I cranked the scope up to 9 power, held just below the top of his back, thinking that it would drop at that range. I touched it off and could hear the "smack" of the bullet and see the Coyote drop. Better!

 This is a camera view from where the Coyote was standing.

 The hide looks pretty good from here. The bullet I have chosen, is very explosive. The idea being that the bullet enters, blows up without exiting the other side. This requires a solid hit, and if it hits a bone, the hide damage is minimized.

 This is the first indication that the bullet hit a bit high. After returning to the house, I dug out the rangefinder and found to my surprise that the range was only 265 yards. Crap, the bullet hit just where I aimed.

  Remember I said that when the bullet hits a bone, even at that range, it blows up. Unfortunately in this case it took out the same amount of hide. At first I was inclined to discard it, but I cannot do that. I have been boning them and freezing them to feed to Yogi. She hates them, and likes the taste. It saves on my food bill for her, and salves my conscious at the same time. I decided to see how bad it was. As you can see the damage was fairly substantial, but due to the scarcity of things for them to eat, the hide was not all that fat. I have been wanting to tan one to hang on the wall to add to my "Redneck Ambiance", so this was a pretty good candidate for that.

 If any of you are wondering, a Coyote will supply 28 meals of hawk food, 30 if you don't blow them up. Its an ironic change of events that the top of the normal local food chain is now feeding those that he would normally prey on. First rule of Redneck- don't waste anything!

The hide fleshed quite well, and it only took 30 minutes or so to sew up the hole. Since the hide will be in a "tube shape" and turned hair side out, the missing part shouldn't matter all that much on the wall.

I think I will call him Frank. I just finished another fleshing session and will begin the tanning process this evening.

Throw another log on the fire!

Winter is progressing right along, although it has been pretty boring so far. As you can see we had a "blizzard" and it snowed almost an inch.  You may recall that rainfall here averages 4.5 inches a year. Thankfully being retired I could stay inside with the exception of the "critter chores", and getting more firewood.

With the advent of the snow I can see just how many rabbits we actually have here this year. Perhaps 3 or 4 are still alive and coming around the house. Pretty big let down for me. We had about 60 using the place this spring and most of the summer. Then in August they just disappeared. We also had several coveys of Quail and now we have perhaps 20 or so. They are coming in to the place to help the Pigeons and Chickens with their feed.

The weather so far has been pretty good. The coldest mornings have been still above zero.  A couple of mornings it got down to 4 degrees when I hunted Coyotes. Not much joy on that front either. It seems that the Coyotes have crashed in this sector as well as the Rabbits.

Most of the winters that we have spent here, it has stayed pretty good until the middle of Dec. and is pretty cold all through Jan. It seems to be right on schedule this year. The temperature this morning was -13 Degrees.

The biggest problem with minus temps is water for our critters, and during these minus temps, I end up carrying water. It is a blessing that I don't have to go outside unless I want to. It is compensation for being so old.

I have been a bit concerned about Jasper however. If you remember he is the little Kestrel that Tammi flew in 2011. He has chosen to stay here again this winter.  Last year the wild male that lives over at the ranch next door, managed to freeze himself to a metal rafter in their barn.

I primarily worry about him finding enough food when the temps get below zero. It takes a surprising amount of calories to keep such a little guy alive. About the only vermin that I ever see around here is a few Mice and Kangaroo Rats. The Rats are nocturnal, so a few Mice and whatever birds he can catch are about the only options.

Mice are a piece of cake for a Kestrel. Birds however are a different matter. Most can out fly a Kestrel, and most Kestrels do not ever try, unless they are desperate. Jasper hunts them regularly. He just needs to wait until they are distracted, and when things get tough, Jasper gets tougher.

When we were hunting him, it was here on the place, and mostly we hunted the Chicken pen for the Sparrows that were helping the Chickens with the food that I gave them. Last year I supplemented his food with an occasional Starling out of Jessie's food supply. I could tell when he needed some help, because he would sit on the power pole by the house. I fed him fairly often last year during the coldest part of the year.

He stayed here at the house until the Spring when he moved over to the ranch and courted a female that came by and stayed with him. I do not know for sure all that happened, but I think that the female that he paired with died when the young were just beginning to fledge. We found her when two young Kestrels of the year were found on the ground by one of the houses.

Young raptors have about a two week period where they are pretty helpless after they fly from the nest. We put a nest platform in the trees where they were found so that the parents could feed them. It never happened, so Tammi became a foster mother to them. Right about that time Jasper showed up at the house again.

All the rest of this year Jasper kept his distance, but stayed here at the place. I would see him most days sitting on the wind sock or his house that I put up for him last year.

When we were hunting him, I was in charge of the bagged game, so he was used to me whistling and waving a bird at him. He has shown no interest in me at all since last winter. When he has been hunting the pens, he would fly to the power lines when I approached.

This morning with the minus temps, I was concerned for him. I admit, I stayed in the house a bit longer until the minus temps came up above zero. Not much use in pouring water in tubs that would freeze before the Chickens and Pigeons would get a chance to drink. When I did finally go out, he was on the Chicken pens hoping to find a stupid Sparrow. He flew however up to the power pole while I was out there. I decided to see if he remembered and was hungry. I went into the house and picked up a half of a Starling and went back outside. I whistled the call that I used and waved the half Starling. He began bobbing his tail, so I knew he wanted it. I tossed it in the ranch yard, and as soon as it was in the air, he was off and on his way. He swooped down picking it up and flew off to a convenient perch to eat his meal. I don't mind feeding him occasionally, he has earned it.

One of the compensations of the winters here are the sunsets. Here is one as it developed. With the exception of sharpening the pictures, they have not been "photo shopped".