The Last Day of Summer

...and the temperature is still almost  80F at 8:30 in the evening.  It's time.  Time for the flies to stop annoying the livestock, ,time for the curtains to billow in a cool, crisp breeze, time for a deep blue sky and the golden burnished light of  an early autumn day.

Here on DelMArVa we are supposed to get 2-5" of rain over the next  36 hours.  Flood advisories are posted and everyone that could, cut their grass today.  My horses wont leave the barn at dusk due to the mosquitoes.  (Wait until next week, boys ....)

...and  fall  seems so very far away. 

We plan  to hunt this Sunday.  Hopefully, the weatherman might get it wrong and the rain will blow through taking the heat and humidity with it.

Meanwhile, the birthday hunt on 9/21 was as good as we could expect, under the circumstances. We had only a few acres of standing corn left in which to draw. There was a heavy fog, temp was 63 degrees @ 6am. Winds were to be out of the S-S/E @ 5-10mph ,but it was dead calm as we drew the pitiful looking stand of corn with only 5 cple.  

Shamrock,one of Bobby's steady gyps, made the the find at 6:10.  We had hoped that only 5cple might keep the fox within the corn for a little longer than he stayed. But every hound was throwing tongue just as loud as they possibly could and their pilot bolted .  He flew across the lane right in front of Black Bills house ( an abandoned bungalow named for the  man who used to live there),  into a small covert bordering  Baker Rd.
He was aiming for the chicken houses across the road, and we could not let him get there.The fog was getting thicker as the minutes passed.  Hounds were held up within the covert after a run lasting  a short half hour.( I dont think Charlie  made it across the road, but I dont know what became of him. ) All were loaded within seconds.  It was done.  We had a  birthday chase, albiet a short one, on a day with horrible conditions, in a now-risky country.

Our cubbing in the corn is done now. We will hunt Georges Branch on Sunday\ and then we might not  go again until October 1st,when we are able to hunt in Delaware. It will be a different ball game then as we won't have to be holding up hounds anymnore.

Maybe fall will have arrived by then.

Enjoy  my birthday song, sung by:  Lark, Marney, Sara, Shamrock, Pearl, Whip, Roscoe, Radio,Part time and  Repo. ( we have alot of sopranos.... and a squeaky screen door  hinge!)

Raven, sleeping in a sunbeam

Raven, awake

So what now?!

....the corn came off of  the fields around George's Pond on Friday.  That left us only Burliegh's fields to hunt on Saturday, and we knew it would be our last hunt there for awhile,too. Heavy equipment was lined up along the road there which meant it,too,would be gone before Sunday.

Most of the corn in Burleigh's was flattened by Hurricane Irene. It is hard for the hounds and for us to manuever through it. Hounds have to be constantly jumping over every stalk that is laying on its side. Hard for a hound to keep its nose to the ground while  doing that! I had to hyke my knees to my waist with every stride.
 It was a less-than -ideal day,weather-wise.  Cooler by almost 20 degrees from the last hunt @5:30am.. But winds out of the NE @ 10-15mph made the air heavy and  also made it impossible to hear unless you were in one location, ( and which was NOT where the hounds were most of the day .)

The best run of the morning was the last, and that fox threatened to cross the highway once.Thankfully , he turned back.  I was the only one there when he came close to the road, and as soon as he turned back, it was only seconds before I couldnt hear *anything* again. Wind was all wrong, all day.  I was glad when it was over @ 8:30am.

Its bow season in Maryland now, and foxchasing doesnt open until October1st in Delaware.  Our only hope is maybe a chance out next Sunday morning @ George's.  Realy looking forward to hunting C & R Center after October 1st!!  I  will definitely be mounted for those hunts,and I'm hoping Shirley will want to join us on General  ( or Rap! I'm trying to convince her to hunt Rap this season,so I can hunt Mel more often)

Today, ,Sunday, I cleaned ALL of my tack. Wormed ALL of the hounds.  Rode Mel, which meant I had to clean his tack all over again. Customers came with more blankets ( procrastinators!). Got domestic and made Crab stuffed Portobello mushrooms (moms favorite), and was gifted with a precious bag of Pole Limas,so I stretched them by making succotash with some of the last of the fresh corn.

Mom came over and took some pics of the puppies :

Enough already

.....I'm sick of it. Sick and tired of this humidity. I can stand the heat, but this morning it was 70F with 88% humidity when we drew the corn. Like a sauna. Not quite as bad as last Saturday, but close. I did a lot of running on foot, in the dark, keeping Charlie in the corn where we wanted him to stay. The mosquitoes are really bad right now, so a long-sleeved top is a necessity. I had grabbed a heavy cotton cable knit sweater to throw on over my shirt - the weather report SAID it was going to be about 65 for a low, but it neglected to mention how much moisture would be in the air. I was so hot, but taking off the sweater was just not an option due to the bugs. The moon was high overhead, no longer full, but illuminating the country as if God was shining down a flashlight. At 5:15 when we unkenneled, we could see every hound. A fox had been close not long before our arrival, and all the hounds were smelling him. I was keeping a close eye on Lark, expecting her to open first, but Part-Time beat her to it. Part-Time jumped the fox at 5:33am, and Lark and the rest of Bobby and my hounds were in full cry in seconds. Freddie and his dad were just pulling up to their point on the irrigation lane that runs right through the middle of the field. He was upwind ( wind out of the S/SE about 10mph) and could not hear our 51/2 cple. Neither could his hounds. But the fox conveniently made a swing in their direction, and by the time Charlie made his way back towards where we turned out, all hounds were on. Being downwind, Bobby and I could hear the pack as the fox led them on a circuitous route through the corn. Freddie could only hear them when the hounds got close to him, but his vantage point was crucial, and he knows to stay put. If the fox gets across that irrigation lane where he is positioned, it's only a couple of hundred yards to Baker Rd. Our fox made many big swings in the corn, and then started acting like he wanted to go somewhere- either into the branch(mucky wet bottom land within a woods) on the north side or towards George's back lane on the south side. At 6:50 he made a couple tight swings on the south side and then Freddie tally-hoed him as he crossed the irrigation lane. We had already agreed that we would pick up the pack at the first opportunity - they had been running for close to to 1 1/2 hrs, and we knew they'd be hot. Bobby and I flew to the back lane and made a left onto the irrigation lane to get to Freddy. Just as we made the turn, Charlie cooperated by popping out onto the lane. He was running right AT us, between Freddie and us. When the fox saw us, he jumped back into the corn, back to the side where he had been circling for so long. How freakjn' lucky was that??! We were right there when the pack poured into the lane, and it didn't take much to convince them to quit. All on!! All so very, very hot!! We made a bee-line for the overgoin' ( see last blog post for definition!), backed the hound truck right up to the waters' edge and dropped the tailgate. I so much wanted to join those hounds as they splashed around in that cool water. But I had a customer to meet @ 7:30 am in the nearby town for a blanket pickup, and mixed company made that NOT an option anyway. Got home, put hounds up, changed into dry clothes and loaded Mel for a hack at Redden. Sun beating down, no breeze at all, and the temp reading 84. Huh. , the high was not to get above 80. We got through it, both of us soaking, sopping sweaty by the end of only an hours' ride. Sick of it. The long-awaited cold front is supposed to arrive within the next few hours, and the low tonight is forecast to be 50. I'll believe it when I stop sweating.

Saturday, September10. Poetry in motion- kinda

Another early morning chase ( yawn).  I could've slept an extra half hour,as one person didnt arrive until 5:30, and I was at the meet @ 5am.  Listened to "Coast to Coast" on the drive over,as usual.  George Noury spooked me enough this morning that I stayed in my truck with the windows locked until someone else showed up!


Drew the cornfield next to Georges' Branch again-it's the only corn field still standing that we can hunt in at the moment.  Can't remember another year in which all the corn came down this early. 67 F, no wind, but very humid still.  Hounds jumped a fox @ 5:51am and our little pack of  9 1/2cple had a good chase for 70 minutes.  We had to break them again and I was almost wishing we had done it earlier. Of course, Mr.Fred said, " what??? let'em run till suppertime!"  Those hounds were so hot that  we ran them down to the overgoin'  and unloaded them into the stream  to cool off. Yeah, overgoin'. Obsolete phrase, ( over going ) used by Shakespeare as a verb in King Henry VIII.  Pretty sure these fellas didnt learn it from him....
.
Took me 3 years before I figured out what they were saying...The "overgoin'" here is a creek crossing-no bridge- just a firm spot with rocks on the bottom (imported rocks, since there are no indigenous stones here on the Eastern Shore!) through which  you can drive a vehicle.  That is,  unless there has been a recent heavy rain. Like last week.


Anyway, I was glad we had the opportunity to cool them off quickly 'cause a few of them, including Shamrock, weren't looking so good. But a quick dip and a cold drink  revived them, and my three  (Marilyn is still in heat) had a comfortable ride home.

Great hound music, as this fox kept making circles in the corn, coming close to us several times. "Alarmin' the castle", as Freddie would say.  Another Eastern Shore foxhunters' term ( at least, I've never heard it anywhere else,  somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) that also has nothing whatsoever to do with Shakespeare. Just another way of saying they were tonguing their hearts out.

This was @ 50 minutes into the chase.

Wednesday, September 7 huntt

DelMarVa was spared the torrential  rains that western Maryland , D.C.and PA experienced on Wednesday and when I checked the radar @ 4am  it looked like we would have no problem getting our hunt in. But when I stepped out the door to head to the kennel- holy cow! The atmosphere was saturated, and the temp was 74 degrees .And although the wind was forecast to be out of the S/SE at 10-15mph, at 5am it was dead calm.

I grabbed rain gear, but the thought of having to put it on overtop of long pants and  a longsleeved shirt was not appealing.


We drew Burleighs cornfield @ 5:15 am., Freddie walking his hounds in from Janes back lane while Bobby and I walked ours down the lane that leads to the irrigation pump.  The corn around us was flattened by Hurricane Irene  making it slow going for us and the hounds.  Freddie fared better than we, and @ 5:20am, we heard two of his hounds tonguing in the distance .  We  were upwind and it was hard to hear them. They were headed towards Baker rd, so we turned around and started out of the corn.  Our hounds stopped dead and listened,trying to figure out how best to hark. Some chose to work their way through the downed corn, while most decided it was faster to run out the irrigation lane to the road and run down the road to cry. In the dark, I hoped there were no cars coming down Baker rd.

By the time we got to the road, hounds were in full cry and running the cornfields behind Black Bills. My clothes were soaked , and the humidity was stifling.  I thought about Sara, and wondered if I should have left her home. (She supposedly has a heart defect, and she does tend to run out of gas during long chases.)

Our fox made a couple tight swings in the corn behind Black Bills and then we could hear the pack headed towards a small woods that borders Baker rd. Across that road lies chicken houses and  "Georges' little branch".  We did NOT want the pack getting over into that country this morning.  We all got to the road before the hounds, and probably turned our fox back. (It was  still too dark to tell if Charlie had made it across the road, yet   it sounded as if the hounds were coming right to us).  We didnt wait to find out, and broke the pack before they got within 100 feet of the road. Right in front of someones house -our hollering probably didnt wake them up, since the pack had to have run right behind the house only minutes earlier.

All hounds were there , except for my Sara and Bobby's Shamrock, but  Sara popped out of the woods only a couple minutes later ( BIG sigh of relief!), and Shammy turned up  in an unexpected location shortly thereafter.

The time was only 5:50am!!  It was unspokenly agreed to that we were done.  Not a long chase, but given the forecast, and the actual horrible weather conditions, it was enough.

Later that  morning, the wind did pick up, and the humidity dropped considerably. Enough so that I got home and loaded a horse for a very pleasant hack @Redden SF for almost 2 hours.  Returned  home by 10:30am, and heard that DCwas getting hammered with torrential rains from TS Lee.  Alex called  me from PA and told me his barn  was flooding and at mid-day had already received more rain than they did during Irene.

6:38am, on the way home from the hunt. Ominous looking wall cloud that amounted to nothing!

We never did get any of the remants of  TS Lee until later that night.

Puppy pics and catching up

...from the Labor day weekend. Saturday's hunt was a good chase for just over an hour. Nice heavy dew, cool  temps.  Sunday, totally different conditions,  very warm, muggy, and  not a drop of dew. Hounds trailed and trailed for way  over an hour.  Bobby got close enough to them to break them,all loaded except for two of Freddie's that kept on. Bobby and I left, Freddie turned out on his two again and they ran for about 45 min.
Im not sorry I left. Just not  a good morning, I should have stayed in bed!
 Went home and rode both horses.
Monday, took both horses to Redden by myself., first Rap, then came home and got Mel and took him. Windy and warm, ok as long as I stayed out of the sun. Spurs on Rap- when he was younger, it would insult him, and I  have never worn them while riding him.  But he needed some waking up,and they do the trick now.
I like riding alone cause  the horse and I get really tuned in to each other.

Sunday Marney cut her ear. I've had hounds come in with cut ears lots of times, but this one was especially bad.  when it didnt stop bleeding after 7 hrs., I taped her ear to her head so it wouldnt move whenever she shook her head. That worked, and I was able to take the bandage off after a couple hours. She was making a bloody mess of the kennel,  literally!

Puppies are just over 2 weeks old now, and starting to move around,eyes open.  I took some pics.

Hunting @ 5:30am tomorrow, if this rain doesnt mess us up.

MArney with her tampon and duct tape .

My female is on the right.Might have to name her Irene!

my girl, the only female

She is also the biggest of the lot!

August 31- felt like autumn

My bitch,  Marilyn, is in heat and I had no intention of bringing her this morning but when I loaded up the hounds at 3:55am, I guess I was still half asleep. She jumped right in the hound box and it hit me right then that I should have separated her while they were still in the yard. All four of them were wound up, anticipating what was to come and attempts to pull Marilyn back out of the truck merely created more excitement. I decided to let her ride along - she would have probably barked like crazy in the kennel by herself anyway. And since the cool night meant folks would be asleep with open windows, I didnt need her waking up the neighborhood at 4am.


It was 53 degrees with a starlit but moonless sky as we drew the cornfield next to Georges Pond again. As we walked the pack along the path separating the corn from the woods and Georges Branch, I almost took a header when I walked right into some fallen tree branches . So much for somebody riding the edge in daylight to check for storm damage from Hurricane Irene. ...


Marilyn kept quiet until the remaining 9 cple opened inside the cornfield at 5:15am. First Bucky, Freddies old gyp, spoke. In the ensuing moments voices could be heard harking to Buck-buck and by 5:18 we had a pack in full cry pushing their pilot through the corn. Roscoe , Pearl  and Marney were a bit slow to hark, and by the time our fox crossed Baker Rd with the hounds not far behind, we could hear two of them trailing up behind. At the highest point in the cornfield, winds from the storm had flattened several acres of the cornstalks. This made navigating through it especially difficult for the younger hounds and my Marney decided to come back to me. I ran with   her back to the trucks and loaded her into  the back of Bobby's . He would follow cry and head to Baker Rd to hark her while I took the now-wailing Marilyn in my truck away from the cornfield in an attempt to quiet her down.


By now, the fox was running Burleighs cornfields on the east side of Baker Rd and was heading away towards Baboo's. Marilyn had shut up as soon as I got to the truck, but rather than risk her turning the fox should he want to come back across the road, I headed to Baboo's . From my vantage point there, I could hear the hounds well.  Charlie ran the pack close to the back of Baboo's house ( have no idea how that old abandoned place got it's name) before turning away from me and heading deeper into the corn. About 10 minutes later the pack could be heard, faintly by me and clearly by the guys, still running the corn but nearing Janes back lane on the south side. I arrived back at Baker Rd just as the fox made a swing towards it . Charlie wanted to go home, and we wanted him to do just that. Marilyn was quiet as a mouse.


A car passed by, coming at Bobby, Freddie , Mr. Fred  and I. Afterwards, we could tell that it had influenced our pilots course-he had wanted to cross the road about 1/4 mile down from where we stood waiting- but hounds could be heard running parallel to it now  and only a few yards within the stalks. At 6:13am they over- ran his line and spilled into the road. Meanwhile,  the fox made a turn to head deeper into the corn. During regular hunting season, we would have left the pack alone to recover the line, but right now an hour's run is duration enough and we picked them up. All on, once again! Freddie and Bobby would get to work on time,even though old Buck-buck had jumped into Bobby's truck and decided she wanted to stay there awhile.  It was comforting - and amusing- to know that I'm not the only one to have trouble getting a stubborn hound to leave her hunting buds.

Looking forward to the weekend as we plan to  hunt Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Hoping to take a horse at least one of those days, even if it means riding in the dark.