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