Visit to the Pillars of Rome

Sept is the time of our fly in and we get a lot of people who have never been in the High Desert, and I like to show them some of the highlights of the area. This group consisted of Nick (from Alaska), Mike Hauck, Alabama) Mike and Kathleen (Seattle) Roger H (Grants Pass, Oregon)

I contacted the owner of the Pillars and we were able to see them close up. If you click on a picture it will expand to full size and allow you to scroll through all of the pictures at full size.

 A little cutie in the shade, only about 18 inches long. We left him where we found him.

 Canyon Wren

Sept Fly-in

Each Sept Karen and I would host a fly in for our friends. Every one, flyer or not, was always welcome. We would all get together for a party that would last close to a week. It was a great time for all of us and Karen and I looked forward to it probably more than anyone. Then when every one would leave it would take us a week or more to get used to the quiet, and the empty feeling. It was a bit like our kids had come home for a family reunion. I chose this time to scatter Karen' ashes so that our family could be here to perhaps get some closure as well. Each and every one held a place in our heart.

The day finally arrived and it was time for Karen to take her last airplane ride. You see Karen hated to fly. She liked the planes, but both the times I got her in mine she never lasted longer than the time it took to turn around and land again, and to my knowledge she never opened her eyes. I had a joke that I wanted to take her ashes up to 10,000 feet and kick her out as revenge, but decided that I really wanted her ashes closer to me.

We had quite a gathering here for the flight, and a very nice and fun BBQ afterward, as well as a good cry.

I have put together a short video of the actual flight as well as some photo's. 


Karen's obit       Password      owyheeflyer

Time to go Hawking

I decided last year that I would begin Hawking this year in Sept whether Hope had completed her molt or not. I know that she still has feathers coming down, but what the hell, I need to get more time to hunt. Harris's seem to not like the weather around Christmas so I will tack an extra month on the first part of it and curl up by the fire when it gets nasty outside.

I had moved Jessie out of the weathering area to her own Mews since I didn't plan on hunting her any more. That left the weathering area as a large flight pen for Hope. It took a week or a bit more to get Hope down to the point that she remembered where the source of food actually is. She came to me last week, and I brought her in the house for a refresher course in human relations.

She did quite well, hardly ever bating and only crapping on the rug one time. I decided to put her on the creance to call her for a couple of days, and had no problem other than the fact that she thinks it is a rubber chicken apparently.

I eventually got her to fly to me with the line in her feet, then traded her for it with a Rabbit leg. I was only using the creance to keep her from catching one of the real Chickens.

I have been putting off taking her into the field as I didn't have a telemetry transmitter on her yet. Tami has been so busy with things on the ranch that I have not been able to catch her long enough to cast Hope so that I can secure a transmitter to her tail feathers. Today I gave up and just mugged her with a towel and stuck one on. Missing my helper for sure.

Glenn and his Son-in-law had seen a bunch of Jacks crossing the road down by the airport in the evenings, so I went down there. Perhaps I should have waited until the evening as I only saw two Jacks in about an hour of walking.

She was getting quite desperate.  I think it was the hole that attracted her. Here she is with a dried up Coyote turd that used to be a Rabbit. She soon decided that it wasn't what she was looking for.

Hope automatically dropped back into hunting mode and behaved as though it was only last week that we were hunting every day. She is weak of course from sitting all year and the two rabbits that we saw were quite safe, but Lizards are another story. She caught at least one of the two that we flushed. I would like to say that it was a thrilling chase, but the crash into a Sage bush made up for all the twists and turns that usually accompany a Jack kill.

Revisit to Jordan Craters

Glenn and Eric got their Antelope cut, wrapped and frozen and decided to stay another day to make a road trip to Jordan Craters. I decided to do the full thing, so we started at Charbonneau's grave site and took a side trip to the Cow Lakes campground through the lava fields, then on to the Jordan Craters road. I wanted them to get the full perspective of the Lava Flow.

After we got on to the Jordan Craters road we began to see lots of Antelope hunters that had not been as lucky as Glenn and Eric.

Eventually we arrived at our destination- Jordan Craters.

The eruption is reputed to have occurred some 2500 years ago and it was so
 determined by examining the lichen on the side of the rocks. 

You can see it on the cliff face across the way.

There have been two areas where the feeder tubes have collapsed. 

They are quite big and scary.

These are some of the smaller feeder tubes that broke.

Quite interesting, but getting a decent picture that portrays what

it actually looks like in person is a bit beyond my capabilities.

In spite of all that rock some extremely hardy plants still manage to get a foothold.
The area is worthy of a visit if you get a chance.