Hunt reports and other miscellaneous ramblings that heretofore were laid down between leather bindings. Now, maybe someone else will get a laugh or two out of reading them.
...we had 2" of rain the week before, and another nice rain shower overnight. But by the time hounds moved off at 6:15am, the showers had moved off the coast and a slight ground fog had formed. It was 45 degrees, with winds to be out of the north. but calm at dawn. Couldnt ask for more perfect hunting weather!
We had 9 1/2 couple out- Bobby and I emptied our kennels, to make 6 1/2 couple, thrown in with Freddy's 3 couple. Freddy cast his hounds into the swamp of Georges Branch from the north side, while Bobby and I walked ours in from the south side. My Sara found the line of the first fox, which ran for a short 35 minutes before going to ground on high ground on the edge of the woods. A second fox was found, and we had a good chase that lasted for almost 2 hours with this pilot staying in the bottom of the swamp the entire time. There was a brief split, but we were powerless to do anything about it ( just cant get to the hounds in that quagmire!). During the split, we listened as the foxes passed each other, travelling in oppostie directions, 3 times. Finally, on the fourth pass, the two packs must have run head-long into each other because they all got together for the last 1/2 hour of the chase, which ended with that fox denning in a field on the north side of the swamp. (First fox went to ground on the south side).
I was thrilled that Sara was the hound that got the line sorted during the first find- you can see and hear it all on the video. My internet was down for 2 days, and already the details of the hunt are fading- but the video was uploaded right after the hunt, so everything is accurate on it.
Taken right after the first fox went to ground
It was definitely worth getting up at 3:45 am! All the puppies did great- well, Rebel got left ( you will hear it on the video, lol!),but my Reilly and Bobby's Raven stayed right with the pack all morning,came right to my horn when I blew, nd jumped into their resp;ective hound trucks readily. That makes hunt #6 for my Reilly. She's gonna be a good huntin' hound!!!
All the hounds were covered with thick , black swamp mud- when I got home, I let my bitches out into the exercise yard for 2 hours, hoping they would roll around in the grass to clean off. That mud is still stuck to them!
Violets growingamidst the skunk cabbage in the swamp bottom
Drawing the skunk cabbage in the dried-up swamp @ 6:30am.
...at 6:30 am on April15. It's so very, very dry. and warm- 59F degrees at the draw in the "swamp"- which isnt much of a swamp these days. We walked right through the "branch" and barely got our boots wet. Not good.
13 1/2 couple out today. Freddys' and Jeffs' hounds joined up with Bobby's, Tommy's and mine. At 7:10am, freddy's hounds opened on a fox that was viewed crossing the County House Rd. The rest of our hounds, which had been working the other side of the road, but further west, harked. We got a decent chase going, with surprisingly good hound music in light of the conditions. Unfortunately, we have a car follower that comes out with his cur dog always along for the ride. And something happened..... ( watch the video)...which caused the chase to blow up 40 minutes later.. Hounds were loaded and we headed for the only other wet spot around, Georges' Branch, located about 2 miles away. A second pilot was found down in this boggy bottom, and hounds ran him well for 45 minutes.
Since I had scheduled to ride in a fund-raising event in the afternoon, I departed the hunt at 9 am, without taking part in the second chase. ( No regrets, there!) I did stick around long enough to get hound music from that chase, also. I only post a few seconds of the hound music from each chase on the video-although I could listen to it for hours,I doubt most folks could!
Most excellent ride on the big guy later in the day, followed by a good dinner, and champagne with dark chocolate and strawberries as I write this and upload the video. Not a bad day!
Curtis brought his 10week old pups out for a ride in his hound truck
Hounds casting themselves after their fox got headed by a car follower. None of the hunters viewed where the fox had gone
Marilyn, Sara and Reno, trying to recover the line of their fox at the road.
...which didnt happen until we got all the way back to that woods' edge in the background. The fields are just too dry.
...was a tradition on the Eastern Shore for generations of foxhunters. Up until the turn of this centruy , people would come from Pennsylvania, Maryland's western shore, New Jersey, and who knows where else to watch as upwards of 50 couple of hounds would be set loose on the red fox population of Kent Island, Kent County and surrounding areas. It wasn't unusual to have 30 or more car followers and 15 or more hound trucks watching the combined pack of PennMarydel foxhounds run from just after sun up until the last few hounds gave out. It was a tough ,but friendly competition, amongst a breed of houndmen that are now virtually extinct. Toby Calloway, one of the few remaining, passed away on Saturday at the age of 94.
I moved here 20 years ago from Pennsylvania, and was fortunate to witness some of these hunts while there was still enough country to run that many hounds. But, sadly, Kent Island is now full of condos and marinas and housing developments have surrounded the quaint old towns of Centreville , Chestertown , Easton, et. al.
...And so , our Easter Monday Hunt today consisted of just our regular little pack, diminished in size slightly due to the fact that the winds were to blow upwards of 45 MPH. I left Marney and Reilly home,after seriously considering leaving them ALL at home. I have been doing this huntin' stuff long enough now that I must learn to trust my instincts. Sigh.
The meet was moved up to 7 am, in an attempt to be ahead of the heaviest wind gusts. ( Here on the Shore, the wind usually cranks up right about 10am- almost always!). I hemmed and hawed long enough before leaving the farm to make me 10 minutes late. (I called ahead and told them not to wait for my hounds. In a way, I was hoping that they would find a fox and be running upon my arrival - and I could just turn out behind them.)
We have only Tagglers Gate or the County House woods left to hunt this time of year when the wind is blowing this hard. Tagglers Gate in no where near a highway,and therefore, our choice again today. (Holiday traffic going home from the beaches would most likely be crowding the main roads).
As I was headed towards Tagglers, and only about a mile from where the others had begun their draw, a HUGE red fox came flying across the road right in front of my truck. He was exiting some state-owned forestry that is currently being harvested , via a cutover cornfield. The loggers must begin operations at 7am, and the start-up of their heavy, HUGE, equipment ( relevant later in this tale) must have flushed Reynard. He was running west, straight upwind, and towards the covert where Bobby, Curtis and Tommy were hunting. I grabbed my radio and tally-ho'd . They had their hounds on the ground, but had not yet found a fox. I was instructed to stop and turn my three bitches (Marilyn, Sara and Reno) out behind the fox.
My mind raced- Reno and Sara have deep voices, but Marilyn- she's not exactly a squeaker, but she's no basso , either. All of the other hounds would be upwind. Would they even HEAR mine?? On the other hand, the fox was running right towards them - somebody's hounds should hark.
Me: "Bobby, are you sure??!"
He: "YEAH , go ahead. I'll load mine and be right around to you."
I flew out of the truck, dropped the tail gate, and in less than 10 seconds SARA (!!!) , followed by Reno, and then Marilyn, struck the line. They were off in a flash, running the edge of another cornfield back to an old cutover woods their fox had entered less than 30 seconds ahead. Being downwind, I got a good earful of the music 3 PMD's can make when they are up on top of a hot fox.
Sadly, it didnt last. I listened as they ran this fox left-handed, moving in a counter-clockwise circle. I was wishing, at that point, that I had brought all five of my bitches. Wow- these 3 were really sounding great! That wish went out the window rather fast, BECAUSE : the fox crossed back over the road, about 100 yards from where he had come over. I viewed him fly over the blacktop, and go on into the cornfield on the other side. He was heading right towards the loggers, and even though that equipment was downwind of me, it was incredibly loud. I turned my back to it and the fox -my hounds were coming to the road.
WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYBODY??? I radioed to Bobby, not in those exact words. None of the guys could hear my hounds, and they were in the same woods, just upwind. And their hounds weren't harking, which meant they couldn't hear mine , either. Bobby told me he was still loading his hounds. I told him he'd never get here in time, and I wanted to hold mine up at the road until more hounds got to me.
First, he said, "ok". Then he shouted, "NO, don't break them! Let 'em go, we'll get ours right to ya."
Now, Reynard was crafty, and he had put some distance between himself and his pursuers when he ran them through that cutover mess, but he still wasn't more than a minute ahead of them when he crossed the road. But when my bitches hit the pavement, they couldn't smell him. The wind was cranking up, and it was only about 7:25am. I tried to help them pick up the scent, and all three were trying, heads down, sterns going like mad. But the ground was too dry. Scent was gone. I took them into the cornfield and walked them all the way through it and back to the woods' edge ( another , oh, 200 yards, at least). Encouraging them and trying to talk to Bobby on my cell phone at the same time. ( I didnt grab my radio).
Me: "They can't find it, I'm gonna load them.... JUMP, RENO. Yoyoyooyyoyo...Marilyn ,Hoick!'
He: " I'm almost there"
Me: " The equipment is making so much noise over here and the wind is howling and it's just too dry....JUMP, RENO!"
....and then:
RENO hollered: "FOUND IT!!!"
Followed in a nano-second by:
MARILYN and SARA asserting: "YEP, HERE IT IS!!"
One of the few times in my foxhunting life that I have regretted hearing hounds open on a fox.
The little pack of 1 1/2 couple recovered the line at the woods'edge and disappeared into the thicket. They were headed in the general direction of the logging equipment. Briefly, they made a swing due south and away from the loggers. I ran the edge of the woods to try to stay in earshot , while making yet another call on my cell to Bobby. He informed me that he had arrived at my hound truck in the road, and had his hounds on the ground. Jeez.... we both were UPWIND. I was more than 200 yards closer than he, and already I could no longer hear anything. Wonderful. A shotgun start was quickly turning into a mess.
Several minutes passed before I caught sight of his hounds' sterns- they were going to pick up the scent exactly where my bitches had found it: right at the woods' edge. At that moment, I caught the sound of my girls tonguing - they were going away from me and towards the loggers, and I only caught a brief note. Bobby's 2 1/2 couple were tonguing now, but they were so far behind that they would never make my hounds. Great. We had two small bunches running downwind from us, and perilously close to the moving timber cutters.
[Sidebar: Have you ever seen this logging equipment?? It's 2 stories high, and has a big sign plastered down the side of it that reads : STAY BACK 300 FEET. It sounds as "bad " as it looks. Bad, in the slang sense of the word, that is.]
I, as my Dad used to say, was not a happy camper. In fact, I was kinda ticked off. Shoulda, woulda... next time, I will follow my gut instinct. But no time for regrets- I had a situation, and I had to deal with it. Once I saw Bobby coming towards the woods, I turned around and began to run back to my truck. No point in two of us being upwind. And Tommy and Curtis had yet to appear...
For the next hour, we hunted those hounds. I must have walked/ran 5 miles. I drove around to the downwind side of the covert and walked in from there,blowing my horn and calling. I could hear nothing.
I got back to my truck, and drove around to where the logging trucks exit the woods onto the road, parked and walked in the woods from that side. I would be upwind, but if I blew my horn, and those hounds were in there, they should hear me. IF they could hear above the din of the loggers.
Last fall, I spent several hours clearing out a boundary trail in that woods for me and my horse. It took the loggers less than that to block it with the crowns of the cut trees that they had raped. But I was able to find my way, climbing over downed branches thick with pine needles. O, the ticks....
I kept getting closer and closer to that monster machine that plows down the trees and it was moving straight towards me. I was WAY less than the 300 feet that the thing warns one to stay clear, and it was really kind of scary. For me. And then it occurred to me, how scary must it be for these timid foxhounds? I was concerned that a tree branch could easily fall on one of them. I kept calling and blowing, and to my relief, turned to see Marilyn coming up behind me. The others had to be somewhere in here , too.
Apparently, the foxes had become acccustomed to the loggers' presence already. There is a well-used earth in the field located only 150 feet from where the loaded tractor trailers exit the woods, and I had the opportunity to check it as I went by. There were fresh tracks all over it. Reynard had chosen to take my hounds through the work area, obviously with hopes of foiling them. He succeeded.
I kept navigating the blocked trail down to its' end at a"canal", hollering and blowing the entire time. And, thank the Lord, just as I emerged onto the ditch, I saw all 3 couple of the missing hounds coming to me. It was a long walk to get them back to a hound truck, and once loaded, I resolved that mine would not be on the ground again until they got home. It was only 9am, but I knew this was a bad idea from the start, and I had had enough.
During this search,Tommy and Curtis had decided to move further south and draw the Big Pine woods. Really??? Bobby's and my hounds would never hear theirs to hark, should their hounds find. Once we got our hounds sorted, Bobby and I went around to see what was happening. Not much. They viewed a fox. They tried to put hounds on it. The hounds picked at it for awhile and then the hunt blew up. Gee, no surprise, there. Winds howling and ground dry as a bone. It took them awhile to round up their hounds, also. The hunt was over. And maybe, if we dont get any rain to speak of soon, this may be it for the season.
Sara, Reno and Marilyn trying to recover the line after the fox crossed back over the road . Notice how hard they are panting already- and they had only been running about 15 minutes
....were not barn burners, but Friday's hunt, #95, was another "puppy hunt", with 3 of the pups and 4 mentor, older hounds.
We haven't had any rain to speak of in weeks, and everything is dry and crispy. The ground in the fields is like hardpan. Most of the many ditches are almost dry, save for the very wide and deep "canals". You know it's dry when the farmers resort to irrigating the winter wheat! Pivot irrigation is rarely needed during Spring...
The puppy hunt was a good exercise. A long draw of over 70 minutes finally yielded a luke warm trail that eventually got a bit warmer The older hounds opened seriously at 9:10, and the little pack stayed with their fox through the swamp for 40 minutes. Their pilot, however, was way ahead of them, and when the hounds came to the road, we broke them. It was never going to be a hot chase, and since the hound s were headed into an area where it would be really difficult to get to them, we played it safe and loaded at the road . We had begun the draw at 8am, and we were done by 10 am. It was enough for the pups, since they would be going out to hunt with the regular pack the next day.
...Saturday, hunt 96:
The cast at 7:30am, after the initial outburst on the cold trail ( pics below), I didnt mess with the camera
The warm spell has ended, and the temps are really where they should be for this time of year . It was 37 F when 12 1/2 couple were cast into the hedgerow alongside Gallo's field at 7:30 am.
A beautiful full moon was setting in a cloudless sky as I drove to the meet. I always think this portends a slow hunt, and today this proved to be the case. The foxes must have been out carousing all night. Part Time hit a cold line right at the cast, and trailed it into the woods, a distance of a couple of hundred yards. Once in the woods, the hounds picked at this line for a good half hour. Finally, they began to tongue "with some authority" as the locals say (love that expression!), and they ran this red for 40 minutes until it went to ground. Another fox was viewed running Gallos field only minutes later, but by the time we could get hounds forward to the line, scent had evaporated. They could not find it. The view came from a car follower on the road and his description wasn't precise enough , especially with the wind now blowing at 20-30 mph. The hounds would have to be right on top of the line to smell it.
Hounds were gathered, although we had several scattered throughout the Big Pine Woods, I headed to Fisher's Bridge to get downwind in an attempt to locate the 6 or 7 still unaccounted for. As I passed the Big Piine woods, I viewed a fox running the blacktop road in front of me . He popped back into the Big Pine Woods and about a minute later Tommy's dog, Joe, wandered out into the road not far from where the fox went in. Joe was leaving the covert that the fox had just entered, but about 100 yards away. I tried to get Joe to find, but he just couldnt smell anything. Once we finally had all hounds loaded, we called it a day.
We need this wind to stop blowing, and we need some serious rain. The forecast for our Easter Monday hunt: windy ( 20 -30mph sustained , AGAIN) with 20% humidity - just a carbon copy of the last several days. ( Now THAT is an expression that is totally obsolete, lol!)
PS - all puppies did very well again. Reilly went off with the others at the cast and never looked back. And when Bobby emerged from the woods after the one short chase, she was right with him.
Reilly, my puppy, asking, "are we there yet?" At least she's used to riding in the truck now- no slobbering anymore!
12 1/2 couple today- including the 2 couple of new entry hunting for their 4th time. But this is the first hunt where all four pups hunted with all the other hounds. (Tommy's puppy, T-Bone hunted with the regular pack on April 1).
It was 47 degrees at 7:30, but the day was to warm up quickly to a forecast high of 74 ( it is 77 as I write this!). We wanted to get a short, tidy chase in , and be done before 11am. But with Part Time and Marney out, along with new entry, I was ready for anything and cleared my schedule for the entire afternoon.
I should have more faith in our hounds, because before 10 am, we were seated in the restaurant ordering our post -hunt breakfast.
We chose to go back to Taggler's Gate ( we are losing hunt country because the farmers are getting into the fields in some places,and they have begun logging a large section of one of the state woods),. We have found a fox there before that stays close, and runs large loops around the woods that encircle the gate and the dirt lane that leads up to it. A good fox for our puppies to run, if we are lucky enough to find him.
Hounds were unkennelled at 7:35 and at 7:44, they opened on a nice, big red . Just before we let the hounds out, we had viewed about 10 deer leaving the covert we planned to draw. The fox must have moved the deer, and he moved out behind them. Our hounds had to trail him up, and it took a good 15 minutes from the time they began to trail until they really began to run.
All of the puppies packed right up and went with the older hounds. As soon as I i heard the first few notes of the strike hounds, I ran out of the covert and back to my hound truck. We wanted to ride this pack tight today, and we had only 3 hound trucks. The wind was coming out of the north, and although it seemed calm, the road we needed to guard closely was upwind and ,therefore, hearing the pack wasn't easy.
This fox was a road runner- he ran the paved road, which turns into a dirt road, 4 times. Each time he did this, the hounds would check on the road giving Reynard a bigger lead. At about 9:00, he made his 3 rd trip down the road, running it about 100 yards. It was the dirt portion, and we knew that the pack would have a hard time picking up the scent. It was a good time to pick up the puppies. We positioned ourselves where the fox was viewed when he ducked back into the woods. In the video , you'll see the hounds running right at the camera- we were all waiting so we could hold up the puppies and get them loaded. They had had 75 minutes' running, and the temperatures were rising quickly. That was all they needed for this time out. All the pups had stayed with the pack, especially during the previous 2 checks in the road. They didnt know what it was that they were doing, but they were sure having a ton of fun doing it!!
You'll see the older hounds having trouble finding the line-mainly because Bobby mis-judged slightly where he saw the fox pop back into the covert. But the hounds get it straightened out, and once they recover , the fox made one more big swing around Tagglers gate via the road (again!). Tommy wanted to let them run, so we did not try to break them. At 9:20, however, the pack shut up cold behind the gate. Bobby and I ran the 100yards around the bend to find all the hounds on the edge of a wheat field. The fox had gotten so far ahead of them by this time, that they just couldnt stay with him. They were hot hounds, and there had been no water where they could refresh themselves with a drink during the chase. It didnt take much effort on our part to call them out to us. By 9:30, all hounds were loaded and we were headed for breakfast.
... at 5:15am, as I was having my coffee,a sudden noise and shudder rocked the house that lasted about 5-6 seconds. It sounded like a train, but it was a single gust of wind. One huge blow that actually shook the windows! Since the weather forecast showed 20-30 mph sustained winds already in some local areas, I determinded right then that Reilly would not be hunting today. A quick phone conference between Tommy,Bobby and I confirmed that all puppies would remain in kennels . Their next time out will have to wait until Wednesday.
All the way to the meet, the sky was dark and ominous and the wind was gusting-so unusual here before sunrise.
A gloomy, windy morning as I sorted hounds
This is at 6:30 am
And these two were taken right before sunrise.Looking west here.
..And looking east , here. A heavy , low bank of clouds!
However, once we got into the woods for the first draw and subsquent chase , the wind wasnt much of a problem. The fox was jumped by Reno and Sara (she is feeling much better this week!) at 8:31, and ran for just over an hour before going to ground . All 12 couple were on at the hole located on the edge of the woods on the upwind side. But it was clear as we loaded the hounds that the wind was, indeed, going to be an issue for the rest of the morning.
Our second draw yielded another handsome red at about 10:10. This one preferred to run in the open quite a bit, and I missed getting to see two long runs over open fields because I had guessed incorrectly as to where this fox would head. Tommy radioed to me that Sara was running second over the open!!! She's definitely responding to the Doxy treatment for Lyme's. ( And I've got a big bottle on hand, because the ticks are the worst I've seen in a long time, and no doubt I'll be treating another hound or two before the summer is out.) . At about 10:45, as I was heading towards cry , I almost ran over a mangy fox as he crossed the road in front of me. Hounds were coming on this one- a tag-team manuever by the quarry had been executed.
By now, the wind was getting ridiculous.I have video of the hounds running the fox I viewed as they crossed the road and ran downwind of us across some open cornfields. But the wind is so deafening that I didnt bother posting it. At 11 am, we dsecided we would break the pack at the first opportunity, while all hounds were still together. At 11:10, Bobby and I managed to get into position ahead of the pack- without viewing the fox-and got them stopped. All were on. Phew, thank goodness for that! Looking for a wayward hound in that roaring wind would not be fun.
Yep, no regrets leaving a horse and puppies at home for this one!
This video has some footage of Bobby and my hounds making the find, and our first fox on the move:
The bottom video is just the fox, for those not interested in watching the hounds
Tommy's puppy, T-Bone, after the hunt this morning - one tired pup!
Today our hunt consisted of a small pack of only 7 1/2 couple, including Tommy's puppy,T-Bone. Bobby could not join us because a ball game took priority, and when he called me mid-\morning to ask how the hunt went, I could not resist an April Fool's prank:
Our actual hunt:
We began the draw at 7:45am, and it took until 8:35 for the hounds to get their fox to leave the covert where he had been tiptoeing around them for close to an hour. Hounds trailed him around the small covert the entire time. The hounds ran this fox well for another hour until their pilot ran a large swing in the open and back to a woods adjacent to a large den at the edge of a field. I think the fox was attempting a hand-off, but only 2 couple of hounds fell for the ruse. The others continued to pursue the original fox. My hounds and Tommy's pup were with with the larger bunch that stayed true to the first fox. (T-Bone had gotten a breather at one point earlier in the chase , when the fox crossed a road and Tommy loaded the puppy at the road . Later, when the fox crossed another road, Tommy let T-Bone back out again.)
At about 10:15, when the fox was making a run over yet another road, headed back to the covert where he had been jumped, all hounds were picked up. ( We are hunting again tomorrow, and I know they were thinking about Bobby's hounds being fresh from a day off! lol!) T-Bone did super! But he was ready to fall asleep only moments after he got back inside the hound truck.
Now, what I told Bobby:
He: "So, how did your hunt go?"
Me: "WOW, SUPER!!!! You Should have BEEN here!!! Tommy and I brought our puppies . We got a hot fox and the puppies were running 4th and 5th - they ran for over 2 hours!!"
He: "REALly?"
Me: " Yeah, and at one point, they were even running him BY SIGHT!!! Ran him by sight right to the hole! They got a really good noseful at the den-Reilly was in up to her butt! And then... you're not gonna believe this..."
He: " what, what, you took your puppies when i 'm not there, huh."
Me (ignoring his comment): "THEN, the fox bolted out another hole in the den and Tommy's puppy almost ran right into it! He and the fox made eye contact!!"'
HE: "Damn. " Long silence.... then: "I'm bringing both my pups tomorrow".
It was all I could do not to bust out laughing and fess up that it was an April Fool joke. But he fell for it, totally. So as soon as I hung up , I called Tommy and asked him to go along with it.
As far as I know, Bobby still thinks I took Reilly. I guess his mind was so much on umpiring , that he didnt even realize the date Tommy and I will get an earful tomorrow, I'm sure.
And I am going to take Reilly, because I know all of the other puppies will be there...
First, I must own up to something: During the puppy hunt on Thrusday, while waiting for Tommy's hounds to find a fox during the second draw , I had a bit of a mishap. There were two very large, downed trees ( about 24" diameter oaks-no small pines were they!) laying on the ground. One was laying slightly overtop of the other one. The bark was stripped, and the trunks were as smooth and as hard as a baseball bat ( only an 24" diameter baseball bat!) Well, as I stood on the top tree, it moved. My feet went out from under me and I came down on that trunk straddled as if I were sitting on a horse. And I came down hard. So very, very hard. Very hard. Did I mention, I hit it HARD??? Holy cow. I jumped up and ,of course, acted like nothing had happened. "Fine, yeah, I'm fine."... No really, I'm ok." .... "I'M OK". But inside, sheesh, I was seeing stars, lol! Couldnt barely move by Thursday night. Went to bed with an ice pack situated in an area where no one wants to have to put an ice pack....
The next morning, I was surprised that I wasnt as stiff and sore as I thought I would be. But I had no desire to sit a horse...
...and hadnt really planned on taking one today. But at the last moment, I decided to throw Rap ( he was the cleanest) on the trailer, loaded the hounds in the back and pulled my LeChameau rubber riding boots on overtop of my jeans. ....WHAT WAS I THINKING??!!! Clearly, I wasnt thinking at all about the bruises on my seat bones and surrounding body parts!
Our meet was set for 7:45am, and although it was raining at 5am, by the time I arrived it had stopped. The temp was a cool 47 degrees, and the wind was to blow out of the NE ( off the ocean, but the hunt country is about 35 miles inland). A damp, but not cold morning. At least it didnt feel that way to me as I mounted Rap. (But then, I didnt feel much right at that moment because when my seat hit that saddle -those first 5 or 6 trot posts were torture, lol!!!) Hounds were in the covert, and I had a big field to cross to get to them. I just remember thinking as I moved Rap up into a pain-relieving canter, "will I be able to stand this for 3 hours??" Did I mention that the 20 yo Berney Bros saddle I use on Rap has a flatter, harder seat than the more padded one I use on Mel? Had I remembered, I would have been riding a dirty horse, instead.
Hounds got a fox on the run at 8:10am, and as soon as they began to sing, my mind focused on the chase and I forgot about everything else. (Well, every once in a while, I would get a reminder of sorts! Like ,when I had to jump off and get Raps' leg untangled from a vine. Getting back on, and having to stretch that left leg up to reach the stirrup... holey,moley.) But,back to the hunt...
13cple gave this fox a good run for two solid hours. There were no splits, and no switching of foxes. Everyone had several good views during the chase as this pilot ran in the open over large expanses of wheatfields and fallow cornfields several times. He was roused in a mess of cutover ( where Rap got himself hung up), and eventually, at 10:30 went to ground.
My Nikon wouldn't record, and I thought I was getting the fox as he ran right to Rap and me, and then later, as he crossed in the open in front of us. Nope, it wasnt there when I uploaded . But the helmet cam did capture the fox as he ran to us, although he looks small. And the hounds in full cry.
A fun day, with good hound work. Trying to reach 100 hunts for the season. Last year my hounds went out 108 times, but I dont expect to best that total this season. Hunting again Sunday and Monday- we're gonna try!!
The puppies' entry into the pack could not have gone better on Thursday, March, 29.
We had a small pack of 8 1/2 couple, including 2 couple of new entry. It was already very windy at the first draw, and the gusts were to be in excess of 40mph again by afternoon.
We met at 8:30am, and had hoped to find a fox and put him to ground before 11am.
It almost didn't work out that way because it took 3 casts and 2 hours to find a fox that was above ground!
Finally, at 10:30, a fox was found in Miller's branch. Bobby's and my hounds were on the ground at the draw, and all of them opened at one time. They must have run right into the fox! Tommy harked his, but not before I got a great view of the strike hounds as they crossed over a clearing. Wes had viewed the fox , but I didnt get there in time. No matter, all I cared about was getting a view of the puppies.
This fox ran for only 20minutes, but he/she covered alot of open copuntry before going to ground in the Little Cole Woods. Bobby got another view of the hounds a few minutes before the fox went in. He said that all were on, but Reilly and Raven were last coming across the wheat and trying as hard as they could to keep up! Wish I could have seen that! Bobby was laughing as he described how hard those two were trying their best to stay up with the others.
When we got to the woods, all hounds came right to us as we called them away from the hole , and Reilly was the first one to jump into Bobby's hound truck ( again!!).
The first draws, although blank, were excellent experiences for the puppies. Reilly went away from me and went right with Bobby as he made the first draw-that was great. She wants to hunt!!!
All of the puppies performed well, no problems with any of them. Now I just wish I had one more bitch from that litter....
Once I got the fox on the video, I got bored with him running circles around us, so Rap and I went off for a long ride around to the upwind, highway side of this covert. ( As I mention in the blog, we also just wanted to get away from the hordes of mosquitoes!)
Leaving the meet , as I pulled out onto the highway, I spotted this vixen sitting on her den in a field on the opposite side of the highway from where we hunted. . She had her cubs at her feet. I could see the little black cubs moving around her. This is a cropped version of one of the two photos I took that look like the one below. (It's the best my camera could do) She was probably about 200 yards away!
This is how far away she was!
Now, for the hunt report:
... as the mantra goes, "plan your hunt and hunt your plan". Which I did today, with no regrets! Because of the high winds forecast, the guys decided to hunt the County House woods- it is an area that the Ireland family has been hunting for generations, long before the highway that borders its' north side was ever even a paved road. This is their favorite meet when the winds are howling because one can stay on the dirt road that cuts right through the middle of the woods and remain close to the hounds -unless the fox decides to go straight away. (Which he usually won't do when the wind is this bad).
I brought Rap and parked on the west end of the covert, then hacked down the road about 1/2 mile to where Tommy, Bobby and Curtis were to turn out. Surprise!!! A guest from Delaware arrived with 1 1/2 couple. Now I was really glad my hounds were at home!( see earlier posts in archives!)
11 1/2 couple went into the woods at the "crossroads" at 8 am. At 8:10, a short burst of music emmanated from the pines , but faded quickly. A cold trail. At around 8:30, hounds finally got the fox on the move, through the pines and into the "ivories" ( I have no idea why these dense evergreen shrubs are referred to with that moniker). An itchy tailed fox was the quarry, although for a brief time the pack split on a second fox. But when both foxes returned to the pines, hounds converged on just one. This one ran back and forth over the dirt lane several times- so much so that I got bored and decided to run Rap around to the upwind, highway side of the covert with the hope of catching a glimpse of Reynard should he decide to run the edge of the woods that borders a wheat field on that side. I really just wanted to get away from the damn mosquitoes that were driving both Rap and me crazy. That plan worked. No bugs, warm sun, but at 9:55 the wind came up with a vengeance, which meant that I couldn't hear a blessed thing over there. That is, unless the hounds and the fox were right on top of me. That did happen -and I had the camera on, waiting and hoping that I would catch a glimpse of the fox. However, I did not plan on Rap having to take a pee at that particular moment. My normally still -as- a -stone, well-mannered , hunt horse suddenly began fidgeting and dancing around while I was trying to point the camera towards the approaching choir. It was a missed photo opp - not sure if the fox heard Rap's fidgeting or his waterfall ;-)
For the last hour , I played catch-up with the pack- not really trying to get close to them, since it's not possible to ride behind them in the County House unless the fox is gone away. Which, as hoped, didnt happen. (that mantra thing again!). At 11am, I heard via my radio that the hounds would be picked up the next time the fox crossed over the road. (With the increased wind, every time the fox went into the south side of the woods, no one could hear the pack) I had decided to go exploring to find a way across the swampy branch on this south side and had succeeded in finding my way into Douggie Gray's back field. (Something I would NOT attempt on Mel- he would have sunk right in up to his belly, like he did a few weeks ago someplace else!) I was now on the downwind side of the covert, and could hear the pack well even though they were on the other side of the road that cuts through it. I heard the tally-ho, and the subsequent hollering as they loaded the hounds. By the time I crossed back over the branch and arrived back at the crossroads, the guys had just finished sorting the hounds.
When I hacked out of the woods and into the open near my horse trailer, the wind was gusting over 40 mph . This hunt could have gone so, so bad if that fox had decided to run with the wind and leave the County House....that didnt happen today . Still glad I left my bitches home, though.
No hunting on Tuesday oe Wednesday this week, but a hunt with all the puppies and the regular pack together, this Thursday!! A "graduation" of sorts, for the "R" pups!!
Some video of our pilot and the hound music from the hunt:
You Tube asked me if I wanted them to fix my shakey video -now all the subtitles are flying all over the place,! I wont do that again,lol!
Hounds lost their fox on this gravel driveway at 7:30am. We quietly called them out of the yard so as not to awaken the residents!
.....Since someone needed to be done by 10am today, our meet time was moved up to 7am. It was another foggy morning with the temp at 53 degrees. The East wind just will not quit, but it is now slightly more NE than SE, portending colder temps as it eventually swings around to the north. A hard feeze is predicted for tomorrow night!
I actually preferred the rainy conditions of yesterday over today's very foggy , cold dampness.
Tommy walked his hounds into the first covert and no more than 2 minutes passed than they sang out on a fox at 7:06 . The rest of us harked our hounds, and a chase on a vixen ensued that would last for only 20 minutes. She handed the pack of 11 1/2 couple over to her mate at about 7:30. Charles James rose to the task of luring the threat away from his lady by breaking covert and running the open for a good 1/4 mile. We know this because we all viewed the vixen on her single turn around the covert, and Tommy viewed the much larger dog fox as he went away. Tommy lost him in the heavy fog, and when we caught up with the pack they had checked in the driveway of a neighboring house. When the hounds failed to recover the line after about 4 minutes, a quick decision was made to load them and go look for another pilot. ( It WAS only 7:30 on a Sunday morning, and we surely didn't want to wake up those folks!) It was a short drive upwind to the next covert, where another red was roused at 7:35. With the pack roaring behind him/her, this pilot decided to head for safe haven , also. It was another short run ending with another fox gone to ground at about 7:55am.
A long draw was made even further upwind, without much success. Just as all hounds were loaded, Tommy mentioned that Twister and another of his hounds weren't present. It was now 8:45am, and the fog had turned into a cold, heavy mist. I opted out of another draw, and Curtis and Bobby followed suit. No sooner said than done, however, and we all heard Twister and his comrade tonguing in the distance. Tommy was with them, and since he needed to be done early, there was no debate concerning whether or not we would turn out on Twister.
It was all over by 9am. And I was actually kinda happy to be getting home on a Sunday before 10am.
Marilyn got a good poke in the eye this morning, most likely a thorn from running all the briars. Reno is 3-legged gimpy. Sara still hasnt got her endurance back ( what little she has, lol!) from her latest flareup of Lymes. (I left her home today). And Marney... well, Marney is Marney. Unpredictable, but to give her credit, she has been very good about coming up at the end of the chase of late. (And that is her only "issue".)
What I'm getting at is this: 20-30 mph winds, with gusts to 40mph are forecast for tomorrow. I do believe I will leave my bitches in kennels and just follow the other hounds on a horse. Safer, and less stressful!
But if I had Larkie- she would be goin'. Never had to worry about Lark. Ever. Just not the same without her.... (Hey, when you only have 2 1/2 couple, losing your best one is tough!)
The weather conditions were 52 F degrees and foggy as I drove to the meet. The forecast was foreboding: showers in the morning, giving way to thunderstorms by the afternoon. I had planned on taking Rap, but a check of the radar suggested that it might be wise to leave him at home. And I am oh SO glad that I did! (If not for the weather, the mosquitoes and TICKS are horrendous out there.)
It was raining steadily when I pulled up to the meet. Not a deluge, but a steady, windless shower. As the Dopplar radar had suggested, this lasted for about 15 minutes then waned to a heavy mist.
Since we had decided ahead of time to stay away from any highways on a foggy/rainy Saturday, we met at Taggler's gate to hunt the state-owned Tabor Woods again. At 8:20, 11 1/2 couple were walked into the woods adjacent to the "pepper patch". After a draw lasting just over a half hour, Radio and Pearl opened simultaneously 200 feet in front of us in some cutover. All hounds harked. It was 8:53am, and a light rain was just beginning to fall.
By the time Bobby and I walked out to the road to catch a ride back to our hound trucks, it was pouring. Hard. Well, at the time, we thought it was hard. No worries- I had my Barbour light weight rain jacket with the hood on, and my Barbour quilted vest underneath . With the old stand-by LeChameaus' on my feet, I was confident I would stay nice and dry. Heh....
We needed the rain- it has been quite dry the last week or so, and it definitely seemed to help scenting conditions because the hounds were absolutely SCREAMING behind their fox. And thank goodness for those PMD voices , for we were relugated to remaining on the paved roads, watching and listening as our fox preferred to run the dense woods and cutovers , most likely not running in the open because it was now raining like cats and dogs. And the wind had picked up considerably. My Barbour was soaked through, and my arms were wet and cold.
Just when we thought conditions were getting kind of difficult ( hearing the pack was becoming impossible unless you were exactly downwind, and then it was hard to tell just how far away they were), the heavens opened up and a wind-driven deluge commenced that would last until we broke the pack. I mean, it came down in BUCKETS. Sideways. Fortunately, I had another waxed cotton Barbour ( which I never wear) stashed in the hound truck, along with a heavy sweatshirt.. All of that layered over the damp vest and long sleeved polo just barely drove the chill away. It was 70 minutes into the chase , and there was no discussion needed regarding when to hold up the hounds. The problem was, we couldn't hear them unless we stayed downwind. And just when we thought we knew where we could get to them, by the time we got there, they were long gone. This was one hot chase going on; but by this time, all we cared about was getting home and getting dry.
Olin viewed a fox cross the lane in front of Taggler's gate at 10:10. Everyone converged there, fully expecting to be standing on the foxs' line as the hounds broke covert and came to the lane. We waited. The rain let up at about 10:25. We could hear the hounds ,and although they were coming towards us, they quickly bore away from the lane. This was not the hunted fox. (Insert appropriate multiple obscenities uttered here!)
Bobby made a mad dash down Latham's drive in an attempt to get close to them as they ran in the covert behind the Latham farmhouse. I stayed back at Taggler's gate, along with Olin, Curtis and Tommy. The rain had now quit completely. Bobby tally -ho'd the fox as it made its' first run across the wheat field behind the farmhouse. And o boy, did I hear about THAT! (Most of us did not view the fox all morning). With hounds only 30 seconds behind their pilot, everyone had to hustle to get there in time . Bobby and Tommy got the pack stopped and loaded at 10:35 . All were on save for Sara , and she came up behind only a couple of minutes later. Poor Sara- that was a hard run for her, she was very slow coming out of the hound truck when we got home!)
Great chase! Wish I could have seen more of it, lol! But the music was lovely when it wasn't being drowned out by the sound of the rain on my hat.
I forgot to set my alarm clock, and had my neighbor not called me at 6:45am, I would have never gotten up in time to have the hounds loaded for our 7:15 departure from the farm. A quick call to Shirley and Barb let them know they had an extra 15 minutes, and I got the horses fed and the hounds loaded just as they arrived.
All three of us crammed into my l;ittle Ford Ranger (I got the back seat, if you can call it that!) and headed through some patchy fog to meet Bobby at the County HouseWoods at 8:15.
Sara, Reno, Reilly, Roscoe, M&M, Rebel & Raven comprised out littlepack. three of the puppies and four older hounds. We walked them into the woods at the crossroads, and in less than 3 minutes, old M&M began to tongue. Reno joined her, and although they never got close enough to this fox to really get running, hounds did a great job of trailing him persistently for 45 minutes. We called them out when we saw them getting into the thick, black mud of the swamp.
We only had Bobby's truck with us, as we positioned Shirley and Barb in mine on the other side of the covert -just in case! I walked the puppies out of the swamp while Bobby was getting in front of M&M, and to my utter surprise and joy Reilly was the first hound to jump up into his box. ( And it is a much higher jump into his truck than mine!) THAT alone made the morning worthwhile for me.
A great experience for the young hounds. Just wish we could have shown Barb a fox! Thanks, ladies, for helping us out!!
Now off to get a horse ridden before it gets any hotter!
That's Tommy's puppy running to me on the far left.
Ryan, aka "T-Bone" or "Tebow", on the left.
The puppy, deciding whether he really wants to leave me and go through that water-filled ditch.
He did! He is on Tommy's right.
....I don't count any days that I hunt without taking my own hounds. That rarely happens, but I don't count them.
Another ridiculously foggy morning due to the above-average temperatures. 8 1/2 couple hunted adjacent to my ex-brother-in-law's farm. A fox was found at 8:25 am, but didnt stay up for more than 25 minutes. I really didnt mind, because the fog was so thick you couldn't see more than a hundred yards in front of you. We made two more casts without any luck., so at 10am we decided to pack it in and go for breakfast.
Tommy brought his puppy, Ryan, now renamed T-Bone ( or maybe it's Tebow - the local accent makes it hard to tell!). The pup went right with the pack and hunted the fox. He also came right back to Tommy ( and to me a couple of times, but I didnt' encourage that!). That puppy will do just fine- this was only his second hunt.
This Friday will be the third puppy hunt for my Reilly and Bobby's Rebel and Raven. (Tommy will be away and cant join us with T-Bo??, which is why we decided to have Tommy bring him today.) Shirley and Barb will help us out in case we need a hound truck some where in a hurry. Sara, Reno, Roscoe and M&M will be the mentors!
I really hope the fog wont be as thick, because we are hunting the County House woods, and it's right next to the highway, only 1/2 mile from where I lost Lark .....
9am, after the first fox went to ground. There is a woods inside that fog bank!
11 couple went into the woods behind Tommy's kennel at 8am, and within a couple of minutes Radio ( who is looking incredibly well after being treated for a systemic fungal infection) began to wind. At 8:06, his voice boomed out : "GOT IT!" and next we heard young Pearl's squeaky voice : " Yes, Here it is!". The others harked and off they went on a very large and very fast running red fox. This fellow showed great sport for an hour and 15 minutes, and I got several good views of him, even managing to get him with the Nikon a couple of times.. He ran the woods most of the time, but at about the 50 minute mark, he busted out across a very large field, running under the irrigation pipes for a good 1/2 mile. Back into the woods he went, behind Tommy's house, and then 10 minutes later he came right back out into the field, right behind my hound truck. He was moving much slower now- that open running, with the warming temps must have really taken it out of him. I saw his tongue hanging as he ran at a much slower gait. He got himself back into the woods and at around 9:25 hounds made their first check . It lasted for only about 60 seconds. As they began to tongue again, I glimpsed a view of a fox cross the ditch I was standing near. He was FLYING. I knew right away that this fox was not the same fox the hounds had been chasing. There had been a tag-team switch in the woods, and I was kind of glad because I saw up close how fast that first fox was sinking. (O, you Brits-I know what you are thinking! But the sport is so very different here!)
The new pilot took off through the woods, heading west. He then made a quick turn south, broke covert briefly, and then ducked back into the woods and went to ground. His half of the relay lasted only 20 minutes. By 10am, we had all hounds loaded. And it was a good thing, because the temperature had risen from 42 F at 7:20, to 73 degrees 11am. A 30 degree rise in under 4 hours. Phew! No wonder the second fox didnt stay up for very long!
A good chase on a very game fox. 'Hope we get another chance at him before the season closes.
Saturday, March 17 Hunt:
..48 F degrees at 7:15am , with an east wind off the ocean. Warm temperatures yesterday warmed the ground,and by last evening the fog had already begun to settle in. By the time I pulled out the drive this morning , it was pea soup with visibility less than a 1/4 mile in places.
Shirley and her Morgan,General,were along for the hunt today. I did not take my hounds- Marilyn will only jump into my hound truck or Bobby's, and he wouldn't be hunting today. I didn't want to risk any problems with the other guys loading her if for some reason I wasn't right with them, so I felt it was safest for them to stay in kennels. They will go tomorrow.
The upside of that: I was only needing to take one rig- the horse trailer. When Shirley hunts with me, we put both horses in my horse trailer, and she drives my hound truck. With the price of fuel nowadays, that gets to be an expensive proposition. So today, only one truck was on the road. Tomorrow, when I hunt Mel, it will again just be one truck: the horse trailer with Mel up front and my hounds in the back.
We had Curtis' 3 cple and Tommy's 3 1/2 couple to make a whopping total of 13 hounds. Hustler, Curtis' littermate to my Marney and Marilyn, is credited with the find at around 10:10 am. It seemed as if the fox waited for the fog to lift to take a morning run, as the find was made just as the sun burnt off the fog. Tommy was drawing an adjacent, down wind covert and once Curtis' hounds took the fox's line across the open and into the woods where Tommy's hounds were, half of his harked. The other three took off on another fox and Tommy got thrown out of our chase because he had to go break them.
Shirley and I had a great view of
the 5 couple emerging from the covert to follow the line across a road. This pilot took those 5 cple of hounds on a good tour of the countryside, running in the open often. At just about the hour mark, with Tommy now back with us, and the fox passing over a dirt lane , they decided to break them. (I overheard some comment made about having to run with fresh hounds tomorrow, lol!)
Rap, against a foggy backdrop
Shirley and General
Sunday, March 18 Hunt:
Today was Mel's turn:
It was another very foggy morning at my farm as I pulled out the drive with Mel and my hounds at 6:30 am. Our meet was at 7:30 this morning, instead of 8am. It was a carbon-copy of yesterday's conditions with an east wind and a temp of 47 degrees, but I drove out of the fog after 20 minutes. It was only along the coast this morning, so not an issue during the hunt.
Hounds were put into the first covert at 7:35, and opened briefly . The chase didnt last long,and by 8:10, another draw was commencing. I wasnt with the hound trucks when the guys loaded the hounds after the first short run, and Marney didn't load. I spent the next 1/2 hour hunting her down. She followed Mel and me about 1/2 mile towards the woods where the next cast was in progress. At 8:40, a co-operative red got on the move and as soon as Marney , Mel and I got within earshot ( east wind again today-what a pain), Marney harked to the pack. All right, all on - 11 1/2 cple.
This fox ran through woods that completely encircle 3 large wheat fields. He didnt want to show himself much, and I only got two views of him. But he ran through those woods ringing the fields at least 4 times.
A couple of times he threatened to breakaway to the southwest, but never did. At around 10 am, I was informed via the radio that my Marilyn (!!!) was on top, and Sara (no surprise there, as I'm treating her for Lyme's again) was on the bottom. The hounds were stopped at 10:20 when Charles finally decided to head out of the country to the west. It was getting warm very quickly, and by the time I arrived back at my trailer it was 11am.
Forgot to reformat the helmet cam's memory card ,so didnt use it., and had little time to mess with the Nikon today. (Mel takes a bit more ridin' than Rap!)
Predawn, at the meet, 6:10am
