Hounds hunted 5 out of the last 6 days- today was short and sweet

The sky to the north of High Stump Rd at 7:15am

...and the sky to the south of High Stump Rd  at 7:15 am

And the demarcation of the two, directly over top of High Stump Rd!

  12 couple went out again this morning, and our plan was to let them run for about an hour.   After this past week they are hard and lean, but definitely in need of a couple of days off. They certainly didnt need to run for very long today. When I let my  bitches out of the exercise pen to load into the horse trailer, Marney,Marilyn and Sara jumped right in.  Lark, on the other hand,  made a bee line right back to the kennel,lol! But she wasnt sore, so I loaded her, too. (I think she's not real fond of travelling in the horse trailer).

Bobby and Tommy  had to walk only 100 yards down a ditch  before Part time opened in the tall weeds.  It hadnt taken but a minute for the pack to hit the line of a very co-operative  red fox. It was 7:32am. During the ensuing 45 minutes, this red made two huge clock-wise circles around High Stump Rd.  We viewed the fox as he crossed the road going over AND coming back, during the first swing.  Charlie stayed nice and close to the road, which made it unecessary for me and Rap to  leave the blacktop.   When  the fox made his third trip  over High Stump, we all missed seeing where he crossed, and you will see how the hounds had trouble picking up the line. (Each time  the fox hit the road , he ran it down a  bit before ducking back into the woods). When you hear Tommy say."If he ran the road down,we'll  have a job this time", he means because no one viewed the fox cross over the road, we wont be able to help hounds recover the line if they check. As you will hear at the very end, it was Radio who hit it again. It was  now  about 8:15,  and after the completion of  these two complete circuits, our fox changed his course and ran straight away to the north.( He wasnt going to make it too easy for us.!)  When  Bobby and Tommy got in position on the next road,  they viewed two foxes break covert, both headed towards them( heading north). I viewed a  third fox  travelling SOUTH, running towards the same covcert ,as  Rap and I made our way around.

Definitely a good time to break the pack!  They were running the second fox that the guys had viewed, and everyone was in position to hold up the hounds when they hit Parker Road.  It was 8:39!!! Our chase couldnt have gone any better.  All on,  and all earning a very well-deserved rest for the next couple of days.

Hunting again on Thursday, after the cold front moves through. It was 62 degrees during our chase this morning, and the high today is forecast to be in the low 70's. Too warm!

I had the helmet cam on, and the battery died after about 5 seconds. So I ditched that, and the video here is done with me holding the Nikon.(You know, the one that doesnt focus worth sh*! half the time).  But the audio is good, and pretty funny at times. And there is some good, in focus video of the hounds running.

All I edited out of the video that I  *was* able to stop and take  was the really out of focus stuff, and the video is chronologically as the day unfolded. But once our fox headed north, Rap and I had to hustle and there was no time to mess with the camera anymore.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Foxes are mating.and WHAT A RUN!!!

Our first chase of the morning was the best  run over the most open country we have had this season.  It started when hounds opened @ 7:39am when they  found two foxes mating in the woods behind the Foxhuinters Clubhouse.  For a few minutes, we had the pack split, but the vixen went to ground after only 10 minutes' running. and all hounds quickly settled on the dog fox.  Charles ran the woods round for only a few minutes more( guess he wanted to be certain he had lured ALL of  the hounds away from his lady friend!) and then he broke covert on the north side to begin a  cross country  journey the likes of which I havent seen in a long time.  

There are A LOT of open  fields north of the drawn covert, and this fox chose to run all of it,  even though  he had the option of ducking into woods that ringed the fields, if he so desired. ( Before I got a glimpse of him, I was beginning to think that perhaps we were experiencing our first -ever coyote chase). 
But our pilot was viewed several times by others , and it was a red.

I pulled the Nikon point and shoot out only a couple of times, but the views you will see are NOT the distorted view of a wide angle lens (like on the helmet cam).  When you see the hounds cross a road and continue on across wide open wheat fields, ,that was shot after he had already been running in the open for over 30 minutes.,with two other road crossings  behind him.

The sad thing, is , had he not been turned by a carfollower and his f$%@*&@ cur dog at the very next road, , this fox was in country, and was headed for more country, in which we could let him roll on.  But when he got headed,, he turned towards territory in which that was NOT the case. GODDAMYOUTIPPY.
So, we loaded the pack after a breath-taking  chase lasting 70+ minutes . And I filmed our valiant pilot as he made good his escape to forebidden country. He had been dealt an unsportsman-like disadvantage and deserved the escape, IMO.  . Hope we find that one another day....

We then returned to the Clubhouse woods  and drew an area much  further west than where the hounds had  previously found. It took a little longer ( temps were soaring!) , but our cold-nosed PMD's succeeded and by 9:25  another chase was in progress.   This time the fox didnt leave the covert, and  our hounds ran him round and round the big woods for over an hour.  At around 10:45, with the temps nearing 65 already, and a south wind steady at 15-20 mph,  we whipped the pack off.  All were there except my Sara and Marilyn.  (Marney was in kennels). But both came to my horn within a couple of minutes.  They were so  tired!!!

We hunt again tomorrow @7:30 ,still in Delaware ( it's deer season in MD).  I expect to take all of my hounds and the horse, unless one of the bitches tells me otherwise. (I open the kennel gate, and if anyone doesnt come out, I leave'im home! That's why Marney stayed home today- she wouldnt even come out of the dog box this morning!)

Saturday Hunt , 11/26

Another frosty start tto the day. Temps quickly rose from just above freeezing @ 6:15 am ,to 66F degrees by the end of the hunt,  5 hours later.

Sun still below the horizon. But light enough to illuminate this scene any huntsman will understand.

Cirrus clouds put an end to yesterday's blue bird skies.

If I dont write something down each day, I will never be able to distinguish the highlights of the five day hunting holiday.So,as wiped out as I am,  I will attempt at least a brief recollection of today's events.

We had 13 1/2 couple: Freddy's 9,  my 4, Bobby's 7 and Tommy's 7. Jeff didnt make it down from NJ and Curtis was busy deerhunting in Maryland
Wind was, and will continue to be ( until the cold front moves through here  on Monday), out of the SW. It was light, as yesterday, but it seemed harder to hear no matter where one was located today.

Hounds were put into the covert at 7:30 am , and immediately began cold trailing.  For the next 40 minutes  they tried to get a fox on the move without much success.  As Tommy and I waited on the downwind side of the covert, I happened to turn around to look at the open fields on  the opposite side of the road .  Just as I did so, a gorgeous  big red fox jumped up from some tall weeds where he had been lying-in., about 200 feet from me.  He had been sleeping there, and I watched him as he trotted away from me, stopping three times to sit and look over his shoulder to listen to the hounds as they picked their way along in the woods 1/4mile upwind.  I tallyho'd , and  gave a quick explanation over the radio as I began to run towards the covert where the hounds were still just picking along. Tommy joined me, and although the fox had been content  to move along slowly, once Tommy and I began to blow the hounds out, he turned on the after-burners and took off.  Freddy  got to me and the two of us ran the 10 or so houndcs  that had come to the horns to  the spot where I had viewed Charlie pop up.   They hit the line and took off, and I turned around and watched as hounds harked  to them from ALL CORNERS of  that covert on the other side of the road.  A man and woman on bicycles were making their way slowly up the road and were forced to stop when  some of the hounds ran right in front of them.  It was  amusing to see the looks on their faces as they watched in awe as  "dogs were  acomin' from everywhere!" , As they put it!LOL!

What a lucky break!  We had the entire pack on this fox, and he showed great sport for almost an hour. During this time,  Charles decided to run right through  some recenlty constructed chicken houses and around the owners' RV (in which they were sound asleep). Bobby and I watched the pack as they swarmed around the folks' yard and a huge manure pile located  only a few feet adjacent.( Eeewwwww...)  It was a long check, and since we were afraid that someone's peaceful slumber was being rudely awakened,  we decided to drive down their lane and load the pack.  HOwever, just as we got in front of the RV, hounds picked the line back up and  re-entered  some woods.  As I turned  to hop back in my truck  for a hasty retreat, my eyes met those of  "the Missus".   Her head  was sticking out of the window of the camper's pop-out sleeping compartment. Uh -oh.....But when  Bobby and I  began spewing   forth profuse apologies , she cried  out ,
  " The fox ran RIGHT through my yard!!"... with a HUGE grin on her face! Phew!!  Lucky again!  I muttered to Bobby as I waved madly  and smiled back at her: "Add another landowner gift to the list this year!"'lol.
Right after that happened, I took this video:

 It was the only time all day that I  stood still long  enough to pull out the camera. This is right after we left "the Missus's " abode. Tippy had viewed the fox when Charlie   popped out of the covert and ran the road before ducking into woods on the other side, right at a yellow road sign.  You'll see the hounds over-run  the line when they hit the road. Then you hear  Tommy blow them forward, and you can see Repo (and a couple other hounds)  smelling the fox in the roadway, while the others are coming towards us.   They recover the line right at the sign.

From there, it becomes a whirlwind of foxes.  I can't remember where exactly this fox led the pack next, but at some j uncture,  Bobby and I  got stuck trying to break  his Shamrock and   Freddy's Gypsy  off another fox.  Meanwhile , the rest of the guys were having great views of  yet another fox and the hounds as they ran the open several times . After I got back to my truck with Gypsy, and a s Bobby was still trying to get Shamrock, (lol!),  I heard  via the radios that the main pack had put their fox to ground about a mile from me. They had all of mine loaded except for Marney and Marilyn.  I flew down there, got Marilyn out of the covert, but Marney was nowhere in sight. It was another 15minutes before i found her running the fox's line backwards,in the open.  I got her head up by blowing the truck horn, and then I had a long sprint in some soft ground to get to her. But she met me half way, so I made a big fuss over how good she was to come to me.  ( After all, as Marney saw it, it wasnt her fault that HER ride wasn't there to pick her up at the end of the chase!)

Somewhere before that, though, we did have a bigger split,because I remember Tommy,Bobby and me  breaking 12 hounds as the rest were running somewhere else.  ( It's getting really fuzzy, as I am really tired!)

I do know that when I loaded  Marney,and  Bobby had gotten Shamrock, it was 10:30 and all hounds were in trucks.  And Freddy was asking where did we want to hunt next....

SO....we headed back to the country we had hunted on Friday, hoping that all of those foxes that we had pushed out of that little thicket on Cattail Branch would be back  there again.   And they were.  And I viewed one away as Bobby  drew the covert.  And the hounds hit a line of another one as he was walking the pack to my view. And then it was crazy for another hour while the pack ran this fox until we finally broke them. Hounds were getting strung out, it was now 65degrees, and we didnt want to spend the rest of the day looking for hot, tired hounds all over the countryside.  Breaking them wasnt easy, and quite comical, and maybve tomorrow when Im not so tired, I can add the details of  how our day ended.

All I know is that we are hunting again tomorrow at 7:30am from the Foxhunters Clubhouse.  I will be leaving Sara at home ( we are hunting AGAIN  on Monday, weather permitting), and maybe Marney, too, if she appears as jammed up as she looked when I fed them  this aftternoon. 

And I gotta tell ya'... I'm feelig a bit jammed up from all the running on foot I did today, too.

Black Friday hunt- woohoo!!

Blue Bird skies and light winds out of the SW, with a slight frost as  10 cple were put into the covert at 7:25 am.  At 7:35, hounds struck a fox along the big ditch behind Larrimore's chicken houses and gave our pack a hard run for the next 2  hours. He crossed Cattail Branch Road, to the east of the chicken houses and made a swing through a small covert on the other side.  While the fox and the hounds were in that covert, 3 more foxes were viewed away from the same woods!  I viewed two: one ran south in the open, cutting diagonally across a cutover corn filed, crossing Cattail Branch Rd  1/2mile down from where the hunted fox went over.  This fox gave Rap and me  a beautiful view as he then ran the open wheat fields  all the way to Wyatt's chicken houses.

 I had the helmet cam on, and here's the video, but , as you can see, you cant see the fox.

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The second fox that I viewed popped out very close to the one that went away, but he doubled right back into the woods. Its a small covert, probably  about 5acres, and our hunted fox ran it aound then crossed back over to Larrimores side.  Bobby and Freddy viewed  yet another fox, not the hunted one,  come out of that same small wood.
Heres video from the Nikon,the only time I had a chance to pull it out.But  at least you can see the hounds, and you can hear the hound music.  I viewed and heard fox and hounds pretty much like this all morning ,yet the helmet cam doesnt pick up either audio or visuals:

Here's video during the middle of the chase:

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For the next two hours, Charlie led our pack on a beautiful run from Larrimores to the 80 acres, crossing Hendricks field at least 4 times, giving everyone a great view of him, and the hounds on his line.Bobby stayed on the highway to the north ,where he had the best vantage point and was downwind. Freddy stayed at the 80 acres and the power line cutover, while I stayed on the south  ( upwind) side. All of us viewed the fox and the pack several times. We had the country surrounded except for the west side.  One time Charlie threatened to go that direction, and came very close to Parker Road,but he turned back and didnt run that way again. During this time, yet another fox,not being chased, was viewed running back and forth across Hendricks field.

At about 9:10am,  our fox decided he'd had enough of running in the open and made a beeline for the highway ..Bobby was with the pack when they crossed over., but when the fox turned towards country we didnt want to get into, he and Freddy  held them up. ALL ON!! even Sara,bless her heart, and RENO, the bitch who I recently weaned ( she was last, but she was there!)

I am learning the limitations of the helmet cam, and hope that I can  eventually get better vids. But it is obvious after todays hunt, that it will never do what I hoped, and that is to get the fox as he makes a great run in the open. Like today.But perhaps the running commentary, and the occasional sound of the pack in full cry will warrantposting to the blog. ( More for my benefit, so I can recall the hunts as I look back).

Since we are hunting tomorrow, Sunday and Monday,  we called it a day. The footing along the fields edges was very soggy and deep.  We've had a lot of heavy rain recently , and I havent seen the fields this wet in a long time.  I'll leave Rap home tomorrow, and probably Sunday ( different fixtures), and then hunt him again on Monday.Rest up hounds!!!

Hunt #27, Monday, 11/21

I hadn't planned on hunting on Monday. The forecast was for  rain all day and I had to have my mother to a doctors appointment at 11:30am. But the radar showed a break in the clouds that was to last for most of the morning, and the meet time was set at 7:30am.  Hmmmm. I could just slip over without my hounds and follow the hunt with no worries. OR I could take my girls and REALLY hunt, and hope that I'd have all of them back in the hound truck by no later than 10:00.

Since Tommy and Curtis'  are just starting their hounds , I knew the hunt wouldn't last much more than an hour and a half at most (if the guys had any control over it, lol!).  So at 6:30, I loaded my four into the hound truck and had a quick talking to with Marney, "don't get dragged, and BE THERE when I need to quit." If a hound can give you the "evil grin" , the look on her face was it.

There had been quite a bit of rain overnight. The temp was 53 degrees with slight wind out of the S/SE. The cloud cover was heavy and low to the ground when we put the hounds into the covert next to the "dry cow lot" at 7:35.

 The foxes must had been lying-in, and it wasn't until 8:04 that hounds opened . We had a  combined pack of 13cple, but  most of Bobby's and 2 of mine had followed us back out of the covert before the first fox was found.  We loaded them and  only minutes later the others opened and  were headed  from behind the grain tanks towards the Red Barn .   We thought our best option would be to hark ours on the red barn side.  But this fox covered a lot of country in a short amount of time, and we didnt get there in time.  Charlie ran from the red barn, through the "80 acres"  and  began his  trip back towards the grain tanks  via "Johnson's Thicket'.

Charlie had  swung all the way around in a  counter-clockwise  circle,  and was now headed towards Dwayne's house. They flew through the covert next to Dwaynes,  crossed the road and continued west into the "Buzzard Swamp",.  We were able to hark the hounds in the truck there:

Now Charlie was pressed even harder, and  continued heading west out of  the Buzzard swamp , past the clam shell pile, and on to the Church on Burrsville Rd.  He made a turn in the open there , over some newly planted green winter wheat, and I watched as the  pack made a swing frighteningly close  towards more grain tanks on highway 14.    They turned back, thank goodness, and made a run along the woods parallel to the highway, eventually  ending up back in the Buzzard Swamp.   Here we had a split onto 2 foxes. One ran around the Buzzard Swamp, to the cannery, on to the clam pile shed and back to the woods behind the church.  The other fox  stayed in the Buzzard Swamp for about 20 minutes , then broke covert and made a bee- line back across Parker Rd and into the woods next to Dwayne's.   Bobby, Tommy and I were at the road when the hounds running that fox crossed Parker Rd.  . We loaded them- they were VERY hot hounds. Panting like crazy.  All of mine were there except for.....guess who?!

There were only about 4 cple running the other fox, and Tommy  and Curtis were with them.  Their pilot went in not too far behind the clam pile shed and  they loaded all except.... guess who??!!  She was there, but she hadnt seen Tommy or Curtis' trucks since last spring, so she didnt want to jump in either one .  I wasnt far away, but by the time I pulled up to the shed, Tommy said Marney had headed back into the woods.  (Remember that  devious smile?!) ....  I  had only walked a few hundred feet into covert , blowing  and calling for her, when Tommy radioed that she was back at  the trucks again and  " I've got my hands on her".  And I thought : " just WAIT until I get MY hands on her !", lol.

It was  around 9:30.  All hounds were loaded. All hounds were panting and very hot. .  It had been a  fast morning and hounds ran hard.  

I made it home by 10:15.  And as I unloaded the hounds into the kennel  I could have sworn I heard Marney chuckle ....


(postscript: a third fox was jumped behind Dwayne's house also, but only  1 1/2 cple got on that one, and we   put a stop to that real quick!)

Sunday, 11/20 , Hunt #26

Sunday- o my.  50 degrees,with a southerly wind and a cloudy sky when everyone gathered @ 7:15am.   21 1/2cple total , and the first  time out this season  for  at least  6 cple.  We knew what to expect, and the day played out pretty much as we thought it might.

During the first draw  hounds split onto two foxes. The larger pack 's fox ran west and after about 20 minutes, was viewed crossing into Maryland from Delaware's Taber woods. Those hounds had to be stopped. Meanwhile, the second fox had Marilyn, Shamrock, Cody and Pearl in pursuit.   At the split as fox #1 continued west, fox #2  looped back eastward. Rap and I had a great view of fox #2 as he ran in the open for about 200 yards before cutting back into the pistol range.  Here is video taken with the helmet cam during that fox's run  in the open:

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The camera has a fixed, 170mm wide angle lens, which unfortunately, makes everything seem farther away. I could see the fox clearly,but he is not discernable in the video. But the action and the hounds, are still worth posting. The chase on fox # 2  dwindled once he got back into the woods. Ealrier, right before hounds opened at all, Mr.Fred viewed a third  fox leave the pistol range on the south side, cross the paved road and head into the "cemetery".  I was positioned downwind on the north side of the covert when the video was taken and I viewed.  The plan was to bring the larger bunch back around and turn them out behind the 2 cple running fox # 2. But by the time the hounds arrived, that chase  had long ended and in fact, Marilyn and Cody had actually trailed up the big bunch.  I was in Delaware on my horse, and Marilyn was in Maryland and would not load into Curtis' or Jeff's truck.  The fox had gone on into Maryland with one of Mr. Browns'hounds  still chasing it.  If I didnt get around there in a hurry, Marilyn might decide to go with him.

The ground was saturated from recent heavy rain, andt he country has a network of very  nasty irrigation ditches that makes negotiating  it on a  horse  a challenge, even when one knows the country backwards and forwards, which I do.  My mind flew into overdrive: Bobby''s truck was sitting on the road about 1/2 mile away from me, with Mr.Fred sitting in Freddy's truck  very near it.  Lightbulb moment: Get  THERE fast, hop off horse, jump in Bobby's truck and get around to Marilyn before she could get into country where we cant go.  I asked Mr. Fred  ( over 80yo and slightly impaired from a stroke) if he thought he could  hold my horse ( ball of fire that Rap is, lol) on the road  for me. He obliged, and I was back with Marilyn in the truck no more than 10minutes later . It would have taken me almost that long to get to her on the horse, assuming she didnt move. As I knew he would be, Rap was standing in the road in the exact same spot, in the exact same position as when I  left him. Mr. Fred  was impressed: : " He didnt move at all!".  Good boy, Rap!

By now, the others had turned out on  the fox Mr. Fred had viewed about a half hour or more earlier. I hopped back on Rap and rode to cry.  This fox was running the state ground behind Wyatt's chicken houses.
This entire area is cut with the same sort of ditches, and I knew I'd have to choose my course very carefully around all of the country.  The ditchbanks which are  anywhere between 15 and 25 feet wide  ( not the ditches themselves,many of those are   bigger and wider-so much so that some are referred to as ''canals" ), are only mowed by the state every other year. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this is NOT the year. I was to find out that although some sections aren't too bad, most are totally overun with the worst briars and sticker bushes I've seen. In additon, there are quite a few trees down over the paths,probably due to the recent hurricane and nor'easters. To put it bluntly, it was a mess.

For about a half hour, I was on the wrong side of one of the "canals", but I was downwind and I could hear the pack as it moved back and forth, north/south.   I followed the music as best I could, sometimes running the ditchbank,and sometimes having to run the edges of the very soggy fields.  Rap was being a trouper about plowing through the thorn bushes, but when we encountered a downed tree crown blocking our path along the ditch,  the briar beds around it were a roadblock.  I had no choice but to dismount  and try to create a gap in the crown of the tree that Rap could get over. I managed to break away some of the thinner branches, but the main stem of the top of the tree was about  6 inches in diameter with several large spikes of broken, brnaches jutting straight up in the air.It was laying about 2 feet above the ground.  I couldnt get enough of the other branches cleared away to get a hole big enough to jump over it.  But I wasnt about to turn around (we had only about 100 yrds  more of the bad stuff!)and since I couldnt take him on either side, I wasgoing to have to find a way to help him over. I climbed up on the stem , andbegan jumping up and down on it to try to get it low enough that his belly wouldclear the spikes.  That worked at first, and as I balanced on the wet and slippery branch, I tried to pull Rap over.  He got both front feet over, but as I was pulling him, I lost my balance and fell, causing the branch to fly up and hit him in the belly.  One of the spikes cut  high up on the inside of his left hind leg. Now he had front feet one one side, and back feet on the other side of the tree. with spikes of broken branches perilously close to his belly. He didnt move. I couldnt jump up and down on the tree limb now that he was straddling it.  Finally, I got back on the tree and gave one hard weight-bearing jump as I  pulled him over.  Phew, he was clear!.. Onward ho!

Despite this delay ( sorry I didnt have the helmet cam on for this, but it never occurred to me at the time ), I wasnt out of the chase.  Here is some video of some of that chase:

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Again, the hounds werent far in front of me before and at that hedgerow ( they were to my left at the hedgerow), but they look like white specks in the video.  My Nikon Coolpix8100 would have done a much better job, but I  wouldnt have been able to hold on to it!

This fox went to ground  shortly before 11am about 150 feet from the paved road. It had been a hard 3 1/2 hrs  for Rap- not only did he have to contend with chest high briars and weeds, but the corn stubble has been left unusually high ( about 24") in many of the fields.  The farmers are trying out a new cover crop- a variety of radish that  they will allow to rot back into the ground., but I dont know if that has anything to do with why the corn stubble is so high.  Whatever, it makes for hard going over the cutover fields!  (We also wondered how the radish cover would affect scent, but that obviously was not an issue.  Good thing, cause the damn radishes are everywhere.) :

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Postscript:  the issue with the fisheye wide angle lens is not the only problem with this camera.  It is a waterproof camera, but  the mic hole is covered with some of the waterproofing seal, not a mistake, as the manufacturer has acknowledged the problem, and there are many,many complaints logged regarding it.  And although you can hear my voice , ambient sound, including the hounds' cry, is inaudible .  Therefore, although the concept of this camera, and the basic design is good, there are several bugs that need to be removed before it would satisfy me.  There is a more expensive model, that is NOT waterproof, has a 135 mm lens( not as wide), and also has GPS capability.   Does one sacrifice protection from the elements for better video and, assumingly, better sound?? Or should I just send it back for a refund,and stick with the Nikon point and shoot. I mean, really, how many times do ya need to see the horses head???

                                     Back home:  the end \of a well-deserved bare-naked roll

3 to Ground,Sunday Nov. 13, 2011

The day began as a gorgeous morning with the waning  full moon setting as the first rays of sunlight hit the trees in a blaze of glory. This pic was taken at 7:15am, just  a few minutes before we began our hunt with 13 couple.  Hounds were walked down a path in the middle of the covert shown in the picture.  As Tommy, Bobby,Freddy and I walked the hounds in, I turned around after the hounds had been on the ground for only  seconds -I didnt see my Marney or Marilyn.  I  turned around quickly to be sure they werent back on the edge,and before I could get back down the 150 feet in the woods where the others were, Marney opened.  Part-time honored her immediately. They were both ahead of the others ,but only by about 100 feet. It was just 7:25am, and we had walked no  more than 30 seconds into the woods. That alone was pretty cool, but having Marney make the find with Tommy's and Freddys' hounds being out in addition to our regular little week day pack made it even sweeter...

The chase was on as this fox ran up Georges' branch, then made a return trip back down, but on the opposite side of the stream.  Wind was out of the S/SE at about 15mph, but we were upwind and had t o fly around to Knife Box Road  to hear them.   There is a small farm with Charlevoix cattle between the branch and the road, and Charles took advantage of the cows by running right through them. We watched as the pack had trouble-not smelling through the cattle yard-but finding their way through the nasty wire fence enclosure.    The result :  some hounds went to the road and ran the road down to pick the line up  again in the field ( pretty amazing to watch, as they had no human help). Others turned back into the woods, still tonguing. We now had two foxes up. One entered  the woods behind Ricky's house.  Bobby, Freddy and I stayed with that bunch, while Tommy and Curtis went with the others.

Our fox ran  Burleigh's open fields all the way to a small covert next to a highway. Freddy watched as the fox came right to the edge of the road, then doubled back behind a small doe.  Seconds later, the doe kept on into the woods,while the fox ran west across the open farmland shown in the video.  It was a pretty run, and I wish I had gotten there in time to see the fox. Freddy and his dad saw it all, and I managed to get the hounds running the open for about 1/2mile.  When I stopped the camera, the hounds were still runing the open, then they passed through a small covert next to Baker rd.  The fox crossed Baker rd and continued on in the open for another mile to return to where he had been found. 

Meannwhile, Marney ( Sara,Marilyn AND Lark were in the other bunch) and  the others were still busy running  their fox up and down Georges branch.  Tommy and Curtis, hearing everone's hollering  about  the long run in the open  decided to come and see what all the excitement was about. This left no one riding Marney's bunch! I  left and went to find them, knowing I was about to miss out on some great views. But Marney- I had to know where she was.  I went downwind to Knife Box rd, but  couldnt hear anything. So I went 90 degrees, onto a road to be parallel with the covert and about 3/4 of a mile  up that road, I finally heard them.They were travelling west,. headed for Garland Lake-and a gravel pit not too far from town. I got to the bridge at Garland road and could hear the hounds coming towards me. I prayed  that the fox would turn away and not cross Garland Road because I  knew I would have trouble holding them up alone-Marney is notoriously hard to break off a fox. My prayer was answered, and this fox turned back to run  the entire length of  the branch again.

(ignore the first few seconds-the fox is out of focus. I tried to edit it out,but the edited version would not upload).
 By now, the other fox had gone to ground and hounds had been gathered..  Curtis had joined me, and we could hear hounds running not far from the 'overgoin'. The rest of the hounds were unkennelled  and  the reunited pack ran this fox to ground about 1/2 mile away.  But Marney and her little bunch  had been running this one the entire time we had been following  the other hounds . Curtis and I  viewed the third fox as he was leaving the same covert  where hounds had just denned. . The pack was  quickly  brought to the view and everyone watched as this fox ran straight to the same earth.

It was now 9:35, and the wind was just beginning to get serious. The forecast was for sustained breezes of 25-30 mph, and  it was amazing how fast it came up.  We had trouble hearing  when the wind was barely blowing, so it was a unanimous decision to call it quits while we had  all of our hounds accounted for.

Foggy,Foggy Morning

The entire drive to the meet was in fog with less than 1/4 mile visibility

At the meet, 8am, waiting for the fog to lift

video is self explanatory, lol!
 

 Well, I typed a long accounting of the days events, and then hit a mystery key. POOF! it was all gone. I didnt know that could happen with this blogpage.  Damn.

So , short version:
Foggy as hell at 7:30am, so we were forced to wait an hour and a half. Hounds didnt get on the ground until 9:10am. 10cple, still foggy, SEwind,  as we drew the woods.T emp was 38 @ 7:15am, and was still in the low 40s when we began. 

By 11am when we were done,  the temp had risen to  70 degrees.  I had begun the morning wearing 4 layers on top, and by the time we finished, I was down to one.  And I was very glad I had clipped both of my horses the day before. (Full body clip on Mel, just Rap's belly and chest, as he keeps a short coat ).



Part Time opened a couple of times, then shut up.  My Marney opened a couple times, then she shut up.  I  rode forward to find the two of them with 3 of Larry's hounds, feathering but not saying anything. I  followed them for  a couple hundred yards as they left the woods and tried to trail along a cutover corn field., but when they got close to a marshy area and it didnt look promising , I turned them back  to the others still in the woods.   As I rode back towards the covert being drawn, I saw  3 cple  running the edge of the woods down towards a culvert. My Sara  ( the only lemon hound) was in front,but not saying anything.  All of them had sterns going a mile a minute,and moments later Larry's hound running right behind Sara began to tongue. She joined in, followed by the other 4.   I watched as they trailed into the woods by the culvert and  before I could finish  my sentence, "they're about to go runnin' !" over the radio, the rest of the pack was harking.  



 What followed was  a blur.  Three foxes were roused at the same time, with the pack splitting thusly:  2 1/2 on  one, 6 1/2 cple on the second, and one couple on the third. All three foxes ran west, all three crossed over the same paved  road,but at different   places. One fox ran down  the  middle of  the road  for at least a hundred yards before ducking towards some chicken houses.



Two of  the three foxes came back and hounds were gathered at the road.. The last two hounds, which turned out to be my Marilyn and Marney running the third fox,came to my horn running  from behind the chicken houses, across a field and to where I waited on the road.  Hounds were hot, I was hot (I had shed layers along the road,, throwing them to trucks as I went by, lol!).It was enough for everyone.  I had a loonnggg hack back to my trailer, where hounds were sorted.   Rap was wonderful, crossing  a rickety wooden bridge  ( he HATES bridges).  Good boy!

My Sara is the only lemon hound

following the 3 cple right before they hit




Using 30 yo , very heavy clippers,  here is Mel during the Tuesday clipping session only halfway done. Rap is awaiting his turn, on the left.  My arms, hands, &  shoulders ached afterwards, I'm  getting too old for this !

 



Sunday, Nov 6 Hunt

I'm so tired that I'l llet the video clip set the scene re:weather .

10  1/2 couple were put into the covert at 7:45am, and by 7:49 they had a fox up and  on the move. A quick start thanks to a beautiful red fox with a big white tip on his brush. It happened so fast that all I go twith the camera  was a few seconds of the hound music only moments after they got him up. . This fox made a quick swing through the woods behind a small pond and then headed south towards a paved road that marks the southern boundary of the hunt country.  There he parallelled the paved road for a few hundred yards before making a swing back north, then a  turn east in the direction of chicken houses that border the east side of the country. Reynard ran alongside that road briefly, then darted across it and hounds had to be stopped.

The run lasted only 55 minutes and all were on save Shamrock.  She could be heard tonguing back by the pond. so I went to try to catch up with her while the hounds were brought back to the meet.  I was able to stay with her as she picked her way on a cold  line through some brambly woods,( much to Raps dismay!) but by the time the pack got close enough to hark them to her,  she had given it up.  It was now just after 9am, and our plan  from the onset had been to be done by 9:30 . (" Plan your hunt and hunt your plan!")  But a short hunt is better than no hunt, so we loaded Shamrock and that was it.

Rap had an easy day and  I had plenty of time to get home, put hounds and horse up, and take Mel to Redden  State Forest for an afternoon hack.

The only pics I got were of these  two young, handsome bucks. I was walking through the woods on the way back to  my trailer at the end of the hunt and noticed the two standing only 100 feet off the trail .  They were frozen long enough for me to stop, turn Rap around, dig out the camera, and snap off about 20 shots.

And here are the pumpkin pie croissants that the guys scarfed up ! New recipe,very fast and super easy:

PUMPKIN PIE CROISSANTS
2 packages of   refrigerated Crescent roll  dough

PUMPKIN PIE FILLING:
1/2  block cream cheese ( I used low fat)
1 cup of canned  pure pumpkin ( NOT  pumpkin pie filling)
3 TBs of sugar or Splenda
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

For the filling:
Mix cream cheese, pumpkin,. sugar and pumpkin pie spice until smooth  and creamy.

Unroll crescent dough and separate .  Slice each piece of pastry lengthwise in half. ( So if there are 8 rolls in a tube, then you will end up with 16 pieces out of one package).

Place about 1 TBS of the filling along each piece of crescent roll  and roll it up.

Mix 4 TBS of  turbinado  surgar( or regular sugar, if that's all you have), and another  1TBS, of the pumpkin pie spice together and roll each pumpkin pie croissant in the sugar/spicemix.  Bake @ 375 F  for about 15-18 minutes.

I drizzled them with a confectioners sugar glaze while they were still slightly warm.: mix  a few TBS  of 10x sugar with water, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract  and 1 tbs melted butter to make glaze. (Glaze makes them shiny, but you can skip this step).

Nov 4 , Hunt #21

The weather conditions this morningwere totally different from Tuesday.  The low never got below 44 F overnight, which made it 14 degrees warmer.  A very heavy fog enveloped me during the entire drive in the dark - not a fun drive. But by the time I drove inland 30miles, the fog lifted, and the wind was relatively calm but out of the N/NE.  Not a good direction for following hounds , and by late morning it was to be blowing a steady 25-30mph.  I was hoping we'd be finished our hunt before that happened....

At  7:55am,  Gail viewed a fox away on the west side of the hunt country.  The hounds were walked to the view and by 8am the pack was running.  Unfortunately, this fox didnt stay up for very long and went to ground after only  20 minutes.  Before  anyone could get to the hole,  a couple hounds opened north of the earth and in moments the rest of them harked. This second pilot  showed us great sport for the next  2 hours , running large circles through the woods , and running  a dirt road  for a good distance on three separate occasions.When the fox ran the woods, I was up with the pack most of the time.  When he ran the roads, all of the guys got to view him.  I never viewed the fox, as I was always right behind the pack. But that NE wind was making it difficult for the others to hear the hounds at times, and I was able to keep them informed of the packs' whereabouts.

By 9:30, the wind was already beginning to blow quite hard. The only  video I had time to try to take was when the pack came out of the woods and ran a path  right alongside it.  I was galloping Rap right behind them  and trying to hold the camera.  But we were in the open, and you will be able to hear just how bad that wind was blowing.  Not long after, this fox went to ground also.  All hounds were on, and by 10 am, it was over. Thank goodness, because the wind was howling by then!

It was a great chase, all the guys got several views of  our very obliging pilot, and Rap and I spent most of the time right behind the hounds. But I;ve decided a helmet cam is a necessity, as trying to hold the reins, a radio ,my whip,  and operate a point and shoot camera  is crazy on a fast day!

At the start ofthis clip,hounds had justmade a check in the woods after running the open milo fields.  They picked it up again only moments later,and came out of the woods to run along the edge .

Hunt # 20, Nov. 2 .Marney Finds!!

 It should be illegal to have this much fun, lol:

Sunrise, 7:40am

Heavy Frost!!

Frost burned off quickly in areas where the sun hit early.

11 cple met @ 7:45 am. A  hoar frost  covered the brush with a thick coating of white The temp was 30 degrees, wind to be out of the NE, but calm at sunrise.

At 7:50, there was a quick burst of tonguing on the woods' edge, then silence pierced by  infrequent   voices calling out as the hounds feathered madly in the tall  weeds.  They trailed this line for about 10minutes before Part Time and Reno ( the bitch that I just weaned the pups from 2 weeks ago, she didnt last too long, lol!) began to tongue way ahead of the others.  At 8:05, Gail viewed the fox away, heading north towards the ditch where Radio had gotten stuck in the pipe last week.  I headed down the ditchline, and stopped  after only 50 yards -I could hear Part time and Reno heading my way, but the rest of the pack were way behind. I was on the opposite side of the ditch ,had the lead  hounds in sight, and ran behind them as they made their way towards the dirt lane.  The two were having trouble smelling this fox,but they perservered and it appeared as if they may cross the road and head towards some chicken houses on the far side.  I got to the lane to hold them up, but it wasnt necessary, as they made a long check only a few yards in,which  gave the others time to catch up.  Everyone was on the lane to watch as the hounds tried their darnedest to follow this fox over the frost covered  woods' floor.  PArt Time and Reno emerged first, and a long check followed on the lane.  Did Charles run the lane south? I know he didnt run it north, and I suspected that he crossed over the lane and into  the very tall stand of frosty weeds shown in the first photo.  Sure enough, after severa l minutes, the pack trailed into those  weeds and Bobby, Howard and I  began to walk in with them.  The plan was to walk them through the weeds and into the woods towards  those chicken houses on the other side. Maybe Charles had gone for some breakfast....

But no, hounds stayed within this plot of tall grass, looping back and forth with no sucess until they opened once more. But after only a couple seconds, it was clear that they were running heel  towards the dirt road.  I got to them and turned them back towards the guys, then hurried back to continue on with the draw.
Not much was happening save for  some subdued notes from the hounds as they walked over the now-cold line of their pilot.  However.... just as I rode up, I happened to see Marney, away from the pack in a section of the weeds where no hound had yet been.....and she was feathering madly.   Could she?  Will she??  Rap and I followed her, leaving Bobby and Howard as they continued on towards the woods.

Then... yes, she can!!!! Marney opened, softly at first, with her high-pitched note that is unmistakable. As she continued to tongue, the other hounds honored her and came flying through the weeds. It was so cool to be right there to see her, as the weeds are chest high on the horse. If I hadnt noticed her feathering, and hadnt  followed her, I would have missed seeing her find. 

Our first pilot had given the slip to the pack, but this fresh one was ready and willing to run. And run he did.
First he went south, towards the southern perimeter gate, then he made a swing back north , running close to the aformentioned chicken houses .  By now the pack was in full cry and flying .  They went through the  weeds where they had lost their first pilot, gathering  steam as they stayed in the woods running parallel to the dirt lane.  I galloped north on the road while Bobby and Howard were still making their way out of the field.
I could hear the pack swinging  west, and as Rap and I rounded a turn they flew out into the road only 100 feet in front of us.  When they hit that lane,  all of them kicked it up another gear.  I was the only one with the pack, and at that moment I was about to find out if my little QH was up to the task of staying with them.
Surprise, surprise!  I didnt have to ask much, as Rap is pretty keen to his job.  There is nothing more fun than riding right behind a pack in full cry.... and being the only one there!

Hounds ran the road down for about 1/2 mile before turning back east and into the woods. It appeared that he was now setting his sights towards  the  old Beagle Club grounds on Rabbit Run Rd. Andy and Gail were already headed that way.  They viewed the fox cross the road  close to the Beagle Club gates, and it was obvious that this fellow had no intentions of swinging back to the state land-he was headed out of the country .  When he crossed over Fire Tower road about 15 minutes later, we had to break them.  9 1/2 cple jumped into Andy's hound truck, and only 1  1/2 cple jumped into Bobby's. It didnt matter, all were on, and all were accounted for. I had a long hack back to my horse trailer,and en route, bumped into a rabbit hunter ( oops, his hounds decided to follow my horse until a crack of the whip discouraged that)  and two fellows on motocross cycles ( which are illegal in the state land). But one cyclist  had a helmet cam!  A brief discussion ensued as to which type of camera is better.

 We sorted hounds back at my trailer, and Gail was kind enough to cool my horse out while I loaded mine.
By 10 am, we were on our way to breakfast, and the temperature had climbed 25 degrees.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AVU3wRrQp0k"

This is during  the time the hounds came to a loss on the first fox.. They had trouble running him from the start, due to the heavy frost.  The loss came on the other side of the road, where the sun had yet to melt the frost. It is there, also that Marney opened on the second fox. No time for the video camera after this short clip!