18 hunts for my hounds so far

... It's been a slightly erratic start to the season, however, things will now begin to shift into a higher gear.

I would be lieing if I said that I didnt miss Mel and Reno and Sara.

Revy, the new ottb, is doing GREAT with the hounds, but it will be some time before I am comfortable hunting him by myself. Fortunately, I still have old Rap, and I will make do with him until I am more confident on Revy. Meanwhile, Revy will go hilltopping with Alex in the saddle and Shirley and her steady horse, General, as the babysitter, a few more times.

We've missed Reno's cold nose on more than one occasion, as our foxes have been prone to running the dirt roads quite a bit. But Reilly, my 2nd year young bitch, has been consistently credited with finding foxes. And even Marilyn has surprised me this season by finding a couple of foxes herself. ( Yeah, the black-backed gyp, wise ass -you know who you are...) And Marney- well, she's always been a bit shy, but this season she is being very good about loading into anyone's hound truck. Very proud of all my girls, just wish I had a few more.

Another aside -all 3 bitches have been in season recently, so all 3 should be good to hunt clear through March! Marilyn - last to come in season- may be a bit chunky at the moment, but it wont take long to run that off of her! I started her back last week, and it was she who found our first fox this past Tuesday.:-)

So , my plan: take lessons with Revy to build our confidence ( he's gotten me off 12 times out in the woods so far, lol. It's #13 that kinda has me spooked!), trail ride and hilltop him ( leave my hounds home on the days I hilltop him so I have no worries there), and be content to hunt Rap for the time being. Revy is excellent with the hounds, stands still as a stone, and goes in a rubber snaffle. He just needs me to learn how to ride him through his spooks! haha. We'll get there, no hurry.

Starting next week, deer laws relax in Delaware. We will have two complete weeks with no deer firearm days to get in the way of foxchasing. Our next hunt is Monday.

Had to share:

A lot of my "Foxhunter" friends dont understand my willingness to fox chase on foot/with a hound truck, as opposed to not always "riding to hounds" on horseback. Its really just about priorities. And for me, it's being with the hounds and watching them work. If you dont get goosebumps listening to this song, then just stay back there in first or second flight with your flask and your coffee-housing and have your own kind of fun. But THIS is what it's really all about:

Foiled by the Irrigation Pumps

Pivot Irrigation.  The pump house for this irrigation is located at the pond behind the cornfield where we have been cubbing. The noise drowns out everything else....There was a second pivot running across the road, which doubled the amount of noise.

....it was 63 degrees with high humidity and no wind when Bobby and I cast the hounds at 6:50am this morning. But we almost didn't bother turning out, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have even bothered. But Curtis had come out to guard the road for us, and I had made the 35 minute drive after arising at 4:30am, so I wasn't about to just turn around and go home.

The irrigation was running in all of the soybean fields that surround the corn, and one of the pumps, located at the pond where our fox likes to linger, was making so much noise that we couldn't hear when Part-time opened on a fox. He was ahead of the others, and they couldn't hear him, either. Bobby did a swing around the corn while I stayed close to where we turned out. I could just barely hear Part-time, but Bobby, closer to the pump amd closer to where the hound was running, could not. Curtis, located farthest from Part-time, could hear him the best, since he was also farthest away from the pump.

By 7:30, we had all of the hounds save Party loaded. Bobby moved back up closer to where we turned out, while I positioned myself closer to the driveway of the house (and farther from the pump). Bobby heard the hound tonguing, and it was moving towards him. When the voice got closer, Bobby cracked his whip with hopes of breaking a hard-headed hound that he couldn't even see. Party kept right on speaking, and kept right on coming towards the path where Bobby stood. The sound of the whip had turned the fox, because Party ran into the lane and then did a quick turn around to head back into the corn.But Bobby was close enough to get to him and get him stopped. There was a quick discussion as to what to do: turn the pack out, or quit. Had there been more help, we would have let the hounds chase. But the chances of them getting away from us (and into the path of morning traffic on the paved road) was too great, given the noise from the pumps.

I won't even count this as a time out for my hounds - just chalk it up as hound exercise. However, the sunrise was worth getting up for:

Wild Boar Hunting in Maui

.... It's a rainy Sunday here on DelMarVa, so I will digress briefly and catch up with some notes I've been meaning to add here.

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I ended up with 85 hunts for my hounds for the 2012-13 season. Bobby and the others had well over 100. It was a good season, but I wouldnt say it was our best. Meanwhile....

When a friend of mine , the profession

al huntswoman for  the Santa Ynez Valley  Hounds in California,  asked me if I had any interest in joining her for a wild boar huntwith catch dogs in Hawaii this past May , it took me...o, maybe 2 seconds to decide if that were something I might reeally want to do....HELL, YEAH!!!!     We  planned  the trip to allow 5 full days on the island  for a couple of days hunting,  rounded out with lots of hiking and beach time.    And the trip went pretty much as planned!

We were scheduled to hunt Tuesday and Thursday. However, heavy rain in the  hunt area on Monday afternoon washed out the road, and Kurt ( our host)  notified us of the cancellation at 9:30 pm on Monday night.  Uh-oh... Since we had never met Kurt in person, and all of our cell phone conversations with him since our arrival on Maui had been very garbled, both Claire and I wondered if this guy was really going to come through for us.  He did.  Wednesday morning he called us to say that we could have a "short" hunt that evening ( he works on a cattle ranch , so the hunts could'nt start until 5pm).

Kurt picked us up at our B&B in Makawao at 4:30 pm, and less than 1/2 hour later we were  walking his 6 catch dogs ( Catahoula/Cattle dog /Bull terrier mix. They must be able to latch onto a pig and also work cattle) into shoulder-high brush along a steep hill. For over 2 hours, until sunset, we scrambled through , over and under the thickest vegetation I've ever been in.  But although some traces of a boar were seen,, the dogs never found one.

Now, Claire and I had already hiked for 3 consecutive days, on the toughest trails I could find via the internet. Trails not less than 4 miles long, with steep increases in elevation( our goal was to get the BEST views of Maui from atop the highest ridges) had our legs screaming before we began the hunt. We hadn't expected to be scrambling up and down steep inclines covered with shoulder-high vegetation for yet another 3 hours!

Thursday, however, we opted NOT to hike and instead spent our last morning on the beach down at Wailea.

OK, I'm 60 years old here, andsince I'm pretty CERTAIN there will never be another photo of me in a bikini on a beach in Hawaii EVER AGAIN, it's going in the record. Tough shit if you think it's appropriateor not. 

The beach at Wailea, taken before the tourists in the resorts that flank it were even awake.

Kurt picked us up Thursday afternoon and this time we headed to the cattle ranch where he had been seeing boar all week. We headed out into the bush on a Polaris loaded down with 5 people and Kurts' dogs. After a very short drive Kurt stopped the Polaris next to a 6' high double-strand barbed wire fence and allowed the dogs to cast. Immediately, the dogs took off and within seconds were out of sight. We heard them bark, and next thing Claire and I knew, Kurt,Stone and their friend were FLYING over that barbed wire. (Stone about 14yo- explained later , "when we hear our dogs bark, we need to GET TO THEM right away." The concern being that a boar can injure a dog in an instant, and Kurt had just lost one of his best bitches to a boar the week before. )

We followed , managing to scale the wire without getting hung up or ripping our clothes in the process.

The dogs had encountered the boar, as evidenced by the gore mark between the eyes of one of them. The pig managed to get free though and in its' panic fell over a steep cliff to a canyon about 200 feet below. Dogs and hunters scrambled/slid down the slope as far as we could until we encountered a ledge with a 15-20' almost vertical drop to the bottom. Steep enough that we had to hand the dogs to Kurt one at a time so he could drop them down to the canyon floor below. Kurt slipped and managed to scrape up the left side of his back. It looked like a good case of road rash, and I could tell by his grimace that it stung!

Dropping the dogs, one by one, down to the bottom





Kurt, about to jump to the canyon floor.

OK, so we are now  boxed into this narrow canyon with uneven, volcanic, rocky footing beneath our feet and tall brush growing up all around us. And a very rattled wild pig somewhere in the proximity. We couldnt see him, nor hear him. And the dogs werent acting like they knew where it was, either. I remember Claire telling me, "boar never run UP". And then I remember thinking to myself "just stay behind the guy with the GUN!"

The footing down there was just a bit rocky! Right here, we are all wondering where that damn pig was!

Finally, we heard a dog bark ABOVE us and I watched as Brownie harked to it. (Couldnt see the other dogs,but they, too, ran up the side of the ravine to join in. A mad scramble up the cliff ensued as we all followed , and we heard the pig squeal when the dogs latched on to it. They had bayed the boar in a shallow, cave-like hole. There was room for only Kurt and his friend to enter so Claire and I could only hear Kurt as he ordered the dogs to let go of their quarry. Instantly, the dogs emerged from the pigs' lair and made their way towards us. Very impressive!

Scrambling up to get to where the dogs have caught the boar. Kurt is ahead of me, upper left corner

It all happened so fast, and the adrenalin rush was awesome!

We now had a dead pig that needed to be dragged back up to the top of the ridge. I continued to video while Claire grabbed the fourth leg and helped. By the time the boar was gutted and loaded onto the Polaris, the sun was just above the horizon.

The view from the ridge top, right after loading the boar.

Kurt asked us if we wanted to continue to hunt on in the dark ( silly boy), and soon we went to try and find another victim. The dogs were cast 3 times , without success. The full moon was getting higher in the sky, yet it provided little illumination. The guys were now wearing headlamps, and Clair and I were doing our best to keep from tripping over rock outcroppings as we followed behind them through the brush. When a large crash was heard in the bushes about 100 feet ahead, Kurt threw me his light and then took off running behind Stone and Brownie. Almost at the same time, Claire and I heard more rustling in some bushes about 50feet to our right. The other dogs headed in that direction. It was a brief "OSHIT" moment when we realized there had been more than one boar hanging out at this spot. The guys had gone on ahead after Brownie , and neither Claire nor I had anything more than a Nikon in our hands.

Moving on to try and find another boar, a calf jumps in front of the Polaris.

The other dogs came right back to us, and not long after, so did the guys. But Brownie was nowhere to be seen or heard.Kurt said he thought that he had heard her scream one time, but nothing after that. This was cause for concern. Ifshe were in pursuit of the boar,she would be barking, and if she had caught it and latched on to it, we would be hearing the boar squealing. But there was only silence in the darkness, and that made us all very uneasy. We spent the next 90 minutes looking for that dog, all the while Claire and I were hoping that nothing bad had happened to her. Kurt had just lost one good bitch to a boar the previous week, and we didnt want him losing another one on our account.

After checking several cattle watering troughs for Brownies' tracks, we slowly started to head back to where we had begun the hunt. Finally, in the headlights of the Polaris, she appeared. Unharmed. Kurt: "I feel alot better now". Just a bit of an understatement - it was a BIG relief to us all.

It was now around 10pm, and I guess since we had only had one kill, Kurt felt obliged to ask us if we wanted to keep on hunting. In unison, Claire and I hollered over the din of the ATV's engine. "HELL NO! -these dogs are STAYING right HERE!"

Ma'Halo and Aloha to our Hawaiian friends!

FOUND !!!!

I'm going to try again to post video from yesterday and pics from both days, and if I can't, I guess I'm gonna have to try and contact someone to find out why. This morning was even cooler than yesterday by two degrees. The "wind" - calm at sunrise- was to be out of the north today, rather than NE. Is that what made the difference? Who knows- scent is a fascinating phenomenon that has stymied hunters for centuries. Anyway, back at the same cornfield, hounds turned out in the same exact spot, at almost the exact same time (6:55am today). Once again, hounds spoke as soon as their noses hit the ground. Even though we couldnt discern any tracks in the hard packed dirt and mowed grass, it is obvious that the foxes use the dirt lane often. The difference this morning is that they cold trailed the line for only about 10 minutes and then cry changed and WHAMMO!!! - we had a good chase on the move! For the next 50 minutes our little pack of 2 bitches and 6 dogs pushed Charles through the corn. Howard, road whipping for us again, could hear them well when the fox circled towards the pavement, but fortunately, this pilot always turned away and would circle back towards an irrigation pond on the east side of the field ( where I was positioned). When the fox crossed over the same lane where we had unkennelled, and within 200 feet of my hound truck ( stuck in a ditch. AGAIN. NEVERMIND. Sigh) right around 8am, both Bobby and I waited for the hounds to spillout of the corn. As anticipated, they made a check long enough for us to assess their condition. They were hot, hot, hot, so we broke them while we had the chance . All on!! And all seemed ready for a ride. A perfect little run that more than made up for yesterday. Too bad this fall-like weather can't stick around, but sadly, it is forecast to heat back up to more normal August temps by the weekend. Have some good music toshare, but I doubt ifIwill be able to upload it here.

well,okay, it let me add the sunrise photo from yesterday , so I'll upload the camera and try to add the rest. There were NO high clouds this morning- I wouldnt try to pass this off as today's sunrise-NO bullshit on this blog - EVER. But you'll have to check back- I have a horse that needs ridin' before it gets any warmer outside!  

The sunrise this morning - a light ground fog and an almost cloudless sky.

Dinner on the back porch - pure Eastern Shore flavor; clams casino with clams harvested this morning, and succotash made with pole lima beans and sweet white corn, both picked down the road from my farm. Champs. Fresh blackberries larger than quarters from a friends garden for dessert!

52 degrees this morning!!

Let me preface this by noting that I have been having recurrent problems posting to this blog. I can not edit text,nor add more photos or videos to this entry. Except somehow, it allowed me to enter this paragraph at the top of the report. So, I am tired of f*ing with it for now-I have to get up at 4:30am to hunt again tomorrow.

A beautiful shot of the sun rising above the cornfield should be appearing HERE.



What a gorgeous morning it was. Cool,crisp, with the verly slightest hint of a NE wind which may have been our problem this morning. A hot air balloon passed over the cornfield prior to the draw and then drifted off to the west - my first realization of the wind direction since I hadn't bothered to check the weather forecast. Usually, the balloons will drift west to east. At 6:50, Bobby and I cast our 4 couple ( 2/3's of my bitches are still in heat!) into the middle of the corn via a dirt lane that cuts through the center. This lane parallels a paved road, both run north-south. Howard, a friend and fellow fox hunter from nearby, had agreed to ride out and guard the road for us. He was positioned on the road and at the end of the gravel driveway of the house that is flanked by the corn on its' south side, and soybeans on its' north side. Hounds began to speak as soon as they hit the ground, and we thought we had lucked out and hit the line of a hot fox right away. Alas, the video shows the best part of the morning. Hounds would hit and miss this line for a half hour before we decided to call them back and try another draw. Same problem again. Part-time opened, hounds harked, but they didn't stay with it. After another 20 minutes passed, we called them back and walked on to try another cast further west- not our best option, as we were now getting close to the paved road . Seconds into this draw, Howard tally-hoed a fox in the driveway. Bobby was 150 yards south of me on the lane, and I was close enough to the driveway that I arrived there in time to view a scrawny looking red run the drive for about 20 feet towards the road and then duck into the corn between the paved road and the dirt lane that Bobby was on. Charles had to either go straight on through the corn, heading south, or turn west and cross the road in front of Howard. I ran back to the lane , called hounds to me and lifted them to my view. Repo opened, followed by Part-time and although they all tried to find Charles, they just couldnt smell him. Several hounds had begun to enter the soybean field that lay on the north side of the driveway( not sure if that is where the fox had been before Howard and I viewed him), so we quickly gathered them. We knew that damn fox was in there somewhere, so we tried ONE MORE TIME to find him, to no avail. We quit at about 8:20. At least hounds got some exercise! Going back to try again tomorrow.... Gave the tenant in the farmhouse a homemade blueberry sour cream coffee cake, and he reciprocated with a dozen of his hen's fresh eggs. I think we both enjoyed our breakfasts! eanchor="1" >

The balloon asit drifts away from us. And the cornfield where we tried to find a fox. The sky really was that blue!!

Repo - GITTIN' IT!!

End of an Era...

.....My homebred ISH, Annie's Irish Melody, aka "Mel" or "shithead",died  July 5th .  He was only 15, and he was supposedto be my old ladies hunt horse, butkhaving inherited his mothers' delicate digerstive system      , he colicked for the 4th time this spring/summer, and this timeIcouldnt save him.  He had his faults ( stubborn Irishman at times), but he was solid as a rock out hunting - NOTHING fazed him.  Solid as a rock. 

I have a new project now, a 6yo OTTB who may or may not make it as a hunt horse for me.  Ihe seems to prefer ring work to being in the great outdoors alone.  We'll see.....

We had our first cub hunt this morning - only Bobby's hounds and mine,making a very small pack of only 4 1/2  couple.  But they found a fox less than 5 minutes after being cast and ran him til my friend Shirley viewed him crossing the lane she was on. We broke the hounds then - all on and all already very hot.  It was very short, but just a perfect run for them, as none of them are very fit.  We have a new area to cub hunt in this season, and I am hoping this new horse can handle being out there by himself because it has rides cut all through the corn. 

My blog page wont let me correct typos or edit, so please excuse this disjointed entry.  It was 7:35 when we held up the hounds.

In addition to losing Mel, I also lost Sara and Reno . Well, as of today, Reno is still alive but she has cancer and is spending her last days as a barn dog, enjoying her freedom to mosey around the farm.  It was a sad summer, and I am hoping the worst is behind me now.

Here is a VERY brief clip of then hounds running in the corn, taken by my friend Shirley. (Also screwed my right hand up, and she came along to literally lend a hand, lol!)