Saturday, Sunday and Monday hunts ( phew)

Sara striking a pose during the first draw on Monday.  She is a sweetie.

Saturday:
Gorgeous day-29 degrees, light frost, no wind at the draw. Temps rose to the mid-50's by later in the day, warmed by a S/SW wind blowing @ 10-15mph.

Only 8 1/2 couple with us today: my 2 couple,Tommy's 3 couple and Curtis' 3 1/2 couple. 

Curtis viewed a fox on his way to the meet, so we went to try to find it.  Mission accomplished within about 10 minutes and we had a nice chase on this red for 70 minutes before he went to ground .



Here's a pretty cool pic-  this first fox was really being pressed by our hounds and you can see his tracks in the bottom of this photo- look how deep his nails have dug in!   And then you see the hounds' tracks  towards the upper left. 

  After that, two thwarted attempts  were followed by my Lark finally  finding our second fox .  We had another  chase of about  an hours' duration before this red also went to ground.   

They were both two good runs, but nothing especially exciting happened.  Yikes, I hope I am not getting jaded ....  O- I did drop my radio as I bent down to get my whip on Marney  as we were walking out from the first den.  Tommy lent me a spare.  When the hunt was over, Curtis, Olin and I went back to the woods to hunt down the radio.  Olin keyed his hand-held  radio's mike while holding it up to some loud music on the truck radio.  I think it took less than 3 minutes to locate mine.  Good thing I hadnt turned it off as I often do so as not to have any chatter  turn a fox...
Saturday night- baked cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting  for Curtis and Olin.

Sunday, Jan 30:

Curtis, Tommy, Freddy and Jeff hunted the Cannery .   Because I had *that* knowledge beforehand,  I decided to leave my hounds in kennels and just bring the horse. It would be nice to just follow  a pack and not have to be concerned as to where my hounds were ,for a change.. 12 1/2 couple  roused a red at about 8:10am. Reynard did a spin around the Cannery woods and then bolted across the road to run the "dry cow lot". He continued on, crossing High Stump rd at Stevie Leeks house. From there, the fox ran the state-owned ground behind Stevie's for  a few minutes.  The guys were on Burrsville rd to the west of  the covert, while I was in the woods coming up behind the hounds.  They said about 10-15 deer busted out across the fields next to Stevie's house, while the fox came into the same field but made a turn and bore away from the deer's path at about a 45 degree angle.    Hounds never wavered  and continued to push their pilot across another paved road and on over to the the Latham woods.

For the next 2 1/2 hours, hounds chased their pilot around the Latham woods.  We actually think they swapped foxes a couple of times.  Around  10:30, our fox ran back to the Cannery Woods and then made a tight swing to come right back over the road and across the cornfield behind Billy Parker's house.    Billy has a big pile of  old drain pipes in his back yard.  The hounds ran around them, and through Billy's yard, checking  behind Billy's garage. ( Billy had been sitting on his front porch for most of the chase, watching the fox and hounds go by!)   A couple of hounds tried to pick up the scent on the other side of Billy's house, but the chase pretty much blew up there.  Hounds couldnt recover the line, and at 11am the hunt was called. 

It took another 1/2 hour to locate 2 hounds and discuss plans for the rest of the day.  Freddy and Jeff wanted to hunt on, so they went elsewhere.

But Tommy and Curtis, knowing that we would be hunting again the following day , were ready to call it quits.  (They knew that both Bobby and I would have fresh hounds for Monday's hunt! )

By the time I hacked back to my horse trailer, it was just noon. Rap was a very good boy! (Note to self: the cinnamon  cake recipe is a keeper!  )

Monday, January 30:

Once again, 12 1/2 couple were out. But a very different pack than Sunday's 25 hounds.  I didnt bother much with the cameras all weekend -but I did get some hound music both days, so i might try and post short footage from both days just to see if one can hear the difference in the sound of the cry of the two packs.

Today it was my  4, Tommy's 6,  Bobby's 6,  Curtis' 6, and Jim's (guest from Delaware again)  3.

It was 29 degrees and a cold wind from the NW was to blow all day at 10-20 mph sustained, and higher gusts.  I had thought about bringing Mel, and was glad I didnt. The wind was brutal all day. He'll get his chance later this week....

We cast the hounds at 8:15. At  8:35,  a red fox broke covert on the west side ,  turned south, crossed the road and set his mask towards Wyatt's chicken houses, via  Gallo's field  and TaborWoods.  Once in the woods behind  Wyatt's, hounds ran up and down the covert for a good 45 minutes. then the pack split.  6 1/2 couple came on a red that crossed over Burrsville rd close to where it intersects with Cattail Branch rd to the south.  We missed viewing the fox, but we got a good look at the hounds tearing it up across the paved road and alongside a hedgerow.  We drove down a clamshell lane to the  "gravel pit" and got there just in time to view Charlie across  the lane in front of us.   I was only able to capture the hounds as they FLEW by:

 All of mine were running this fox, save  Marney.  She, meanwhile, was with the other 6 couple running thier own fox around Wyatt's.

When Marney's fox threatened to cross the road in front of Wyatt's and head towards Tommy's house, they decided to break that bunch.  And therein lies the start of two frustrating  hours  that followed.  I was following the other bunch, thinking I had seen all of my hounds on.  But tommy radioed to me that he was pretty sure he had seen Marney over at Wyatt's.   I went around to where they were loading hounds to  get her, but she wasnt  anywhere to be found.

Meanwhile, the other fox went to ground after a good run through the cutover woods near the "girls' trailer".
It was now 11am..   I had my farrier coming at 2pm. Three of my four hounds were loaded.  Only Bobby's Part-Time( we KNEW he was with the bunch my 3 were with), and Jim's Lark ( not my Lark) were still on the ground along with Marney.

The wind was really roaring now, so I drove my pickup all the way behind Wyatt's chicken houses and alongside the big ditch. Then I started walking the woods. I found Lark for Jim, but no sign of Marney anywhere.  I walked, blew the horn and \called her until I had to leave to go home at 1 pm. Bobby had Part-time loaded  by now.

This is the first time in the 4 years that  I have had my own hounds  I left a meet leaving one "out". But I could'nt miss the farrier-  I needed to have a long talk with him regarding  Rap's feet.  Tommy lived only a couple miles from Wyatt's, and Bobby lived nearby, too.  I knew they would keep an eye out for her.
But I was really, really annoyed at Marney.  I told the guys that whomever found her, could just keep her. I won't  have a hound that doesn't come in.  ...

So I started to drive home. Thinking the entire way how I could get back to the meet before dark to look for her some more.  And then, just as I was but 10minutes from home, my cell phone rang.   It was a man who lived  next to Wyatt's.  He had picked Marney up on the road right at Wyatt's lane, taken her home and put her in his pen.  And waited-I dont know how long-  before he noticed the ID plate on her collar and decided to call.

The entire time I was looking for  and calling her, she was downwind from me. And couldnt get to me.  I was relieved to know she was safe  And ashamed that I was so quick to assume she was being naughty (especially  because  none of my bitches have ever been a problem before.)  Bobby picked her up  and offered to take her home to his kennel, but Jim was still at the meet and he offered to give her a ride home to Delaware. (Turns out he lives only 3 miles from me).   I wanted her home in her own kennel!

All  5 of my girls got steak and noodles with their kibble for supper ( courtesy of  the dumpster diver again!).  I made sure Marney got a little extra.  :-)

Our hounds hunt better....

...when it's just OUR hounds!  Today's forecast was for rain to develop in the afternoon as a warm front moved our way. Fridays forecast  sounded like a total washout, while today we supposedly had only a 50/50 chance of  light showers. I'll take those odds to hunt, any day.

Tommy brought 3couple, Bobby brought 3 couple( he left Part-Time home!) and my 2 couple made for a small pack of 16 hounds. 

When I was about 15 minutes away from the meet, my cell phone rang. It was Bobby calling to tell me that a fox  was sitting on a dirt pile 200 feet from him, " just waiting for us!".  I  told him that as soon as Tommy arrived, release the hounds and go!!!!   I'll hark mine when I get there. 

As I pulled around a corner only a few hundred yards from where they started at Danny's Pond , the radio crackeled: "STOP RIGHT THERE , HOUNDS ARE COMING RIGHT TO YOU!" .  I slammed on the brakes, jumped out and dropped my tailgate. It was perfect.  Moments later, I followed the pack   as they swept through the woods parallel to the road and  right alongside me.

We had a total of 3 foxes over a  2 hour time period., covering an impressive amount of territory. This first red ran the woods  from Danny's Pond to Dead End, making some large circles  for 45 minutes before turning his mask west.  Now he changed course and headed west via Douggie Grey's branch to the  Beaver Dam. A check of about 2 minutes followed. This is where we all agree that the first change over in foxes occured, because the route of the pilot changed completely. This one ran  farther  west, going   up through Wickie's woods and on to the "Little Coal Woods" and "behind Millers" .  He spun around there, crossing back and forth over a large power line cutover for awhile and then decided to break covert on the south side. He ran in the open  behind Milllers for   several hundred yards, then ducked back into the Coal Woods.  He made that swing 3 times. During the second time around,  as the hounds ran the foxes' line over the open, a group of about 10 deer were running single file across the same field, alongside  the hounds, but a  couple hundred feet away. It was cool to watch  -  the hounds were oblivious to the deer.

After the third trip, Charles sought safe haven in a huge woodpile in the cut-over section of the woods.   It was around  9:45.  Tommy had an 11 am doctors appointment. Ok- so we'll walk in and get the hounds ( it's about a 1/4mile walk to get to the edge of the woods, and then  we had to pick through the mess of the cut over timber....and did I mention the water??  )  JUST as Bobby and I were only a couple hundred feet from the pile, the hounds opened again.  Did they flush that second fox back out -or was  this another tag-team switch in progress?



The log pile where fox # 2 switched over to fox #3

 When Tommy viewed the fox  cross from the Coal woods , over the open and through power line cutover, he was certain it was a bigger, lighter colored fox.  And this fellow also ran a very different pattern,  leaving the Coal Woods, crossing the branch and making a run behind Geisels chicken houses.He returned to the branch very quickly, and then ran up and down it, parallelling Almshouse Rd. Finally, he broke covert, crossed   the road, and went into the Slaughter Woods to the south. But within seconds of getting inside that covert , he was viewed by a car follower crossing right back over the road, to return to Miller's ( "behind Miller's" is all open fields)

Ok- NOW, it was 10 am..  Hounds were running so much harder  than they had yesterday and I knew it killed Bobby to  ask Tommy, "what do you want to do, big brother??  This is a perfect time to get them..."
But he was right.  And so we did.  We had a long view of this last pilot as he made his way across the green wheat- I tried to video, but I've decided that if the video isnt exceptional, I'm not going to bother posting. ( I've been told by someone that the videos are boring). And I couldnt get the fox in focus....

We havent hunted the Coal Woods and Millers yet this year, but we will definitley be back here .  And soon.
And without any time constraints,  Charles James!

Wednesday, January 25th hunt- Back in the Saddle

A pretty start to a pretty day

...after missing two hunts because of the flu.   And 5 hours in the saddle was more than Rap and I needed,  but it felt good to be out on such a beautiful day.  We'll both sleep well tonight.!

Our guests from Delaware  were back again, but today our total number of hounds was only 11 1/2 couple.
Bobby left Shamrock home because he noticed Part-time humping her and naturally assumed she was coming into heat.  He had also left her home on Monday for the same reason.  I remember he mentioned  earlier this  morning that she wasnt bleeding, and that was kind of odd....This has relevance later in this report, honest!!

We drew Johnny-boy's woods at 7:55am, and at 8:06 we had a fox on the move.  Part-time made the find and  he and 4  other hounds got ahead of the others.  There was some babbling going on by  some of the guests' hounds which caused the rest of the pack to be unable to hear those front hounds. It took us a good ten minutes to get to them and get them to shut up long enough so that they would hark. ( The woods is virtually underwater, and the surrounding fallow cornfields are as wet as a soaked sponge.  Rap was sinking in past his ankles with every step across the fields).

 Our fox made one big sweep through Johnny-boys  woods, running west to Frog Hollow where he was viewed crossing the dirt road by a car follower.  He made a loop through Frog Hollow and came right back to where hounds found him.  All with only 2 1/2 couple on his brush.  But his decision to swing back worked in our favor and by 8:40, all hounds were on. This red gave the hounds a good chase until just before 10am, when he went to ground only a few hundred  feet from where he had been roused.  I was able to get to them and call them out, and by the time I had them on the edge of the field, the guys were pulling up  along the dirt lane where we had unkennelled earlier.  I had a very sloggy couple of hundred yards of wet field (planted in ground cover) to cross to get the hounds to the trucks.  All but Part Time followed me out, and he wont follow anybody but Bobby, so my feelings weren't hurt, lol! ( this little tidbit also has relevance for later in this report!).

Bobby  had to walk in and retrieve Party, who was doing what Party does best when he's not hitting a line - farting around.  Meanwhile, the rest of us headed a bit north  for the next cast.  Bobby joined us only a few minutes later.  While Tommy cast his hounds, we got a chance for a quick cup of coffee.  The time was10:30am.

Rap wanted a bite of Bobby's sandwich.  He got a peppermint  instead ..

No sooner had we begun our  brunch break  when   Tommy's hounds opened.  I hopped back on Rap and we dropped the tailgate. ... And then  Tommy's pack shut up seconds later!  We walked ours into the woods  towards his and you-know-who began to tongue. Our other hounds honored, Tommy's harked, and our next chase was gearing up.  It was around 10:36.

This fox ran the "14 acre piece" and  the woods on the north side of  Wilhelm rd for about 1/2 hr.  A little after 11am he crossed Wilhelm Rd , setting his sites for the  woods where our first fox gave chase.....and  went to ground in a hole about  100 yards in from Wilhelm Rd.  This particular covert is rented by  unfriendly deer hunters, and although the season is pretty much over, we try to stay out  of it.  Horse tracks would not be wise, so I dismounted and walked in to help get hounds away from the hole.   

All were accounted for save 3 couple.  Part-Time and my Marney were two of them.  For the next ,o- almost two  hours (!!!!!)  we hunted for   hounds. By 12:30, all were accounted for save... yep, Part-Time and Marney.  What a pair to have out.....together!

At 1pm, I put  a very tired Rap on the trailer , hopped in a hound truck and got a lift back to where the fox had crossed over Wilhelm Rd.  I began to walk  the woods where the fox went in, while the guys did reconnaissance on the roads. At the same time,  Bobby walked into the "14 acre piece" .   And there,  he just happened to hear Marney yelp, one time.  And THERE was  Part -Time -  all over her, trying to hump her.  Now I KNOW she's not in heat, since she was just  in heat in December...

Well, that explains it.....lol!  Part-Time is becoming quite literally  a pain in the arse. ( And Shamrock missed out on two hunts for no reason.)

Hunting tomorrow, but it will be only my hounds, Tommy's and Bobby's. YAY!!!! Since Shammy isn't really in heat, and neither is Marney, we should have a total of  9 couple out.  Yeah -  including  Part-Time.

Missed it!

.....despite getting a flu shot last fall, I still caught the bug on Friday night. Yuk, don't want to relive this past weekend anytime soon....
So, I missed Sundays hunt, a short one of 1 1/2 hrs duration. The hounds ran one red the entire time and marked him to ground at 10:30am.

Today, 13 1/2 cple ran for a total of over 4 hours. The last chase resulted in the pack accountng for their fox after a two hour pursuit. My hounds missed out again.

Feeling much better today, expect to have my girls out on Wednesday. Will probably take Rap rather than Mel, since I'm not feeling mentally or physically ready to deal with the big guy..

Missed celebrating my mom's birthday yesterday, but I don't want to get anywhere near her until I am totally over this flu. Lunch at Mason's will have to be next week, mom!

Friday, January 20 hunt # 53

The morning started off sunny, windless and 11 degrees warmer than the day before .
16 couple unkenneled at the meet with a more subdued sense of enthusiasm than they had the previous morning. (4 hours of hard running will do that!). But all hounds that had participated in yesterday's good chase returned for more. Our additional 1/2 couple was Part-Time -Bobby had left him home on Thursday because , as he put it then, "he ain't right"(!)
Whatever ailed Party yesterday morning had resolved by yesterday afternoon!

We walked the pack in on two sides of the covert: Bobby and I walked ours into the west side, while Tommy and Jim walked the others into the east side. There's alot of standing water in this woods, as there is everywhere in most places, and this coupled with the fact that hounds were not as anxious as yesterday meant that it took about 25 minutes before anything began to happen.

Roscoe, Reno,Pearl, Repo (all Bobby's) and Marilyn and Sara (mine) opened at 8:55 and began to run their fox west. As the other hounds began to hark, they ran into another red on the way. This pilot headed north. Wonderful. As perfect as the chase yesterday had been, the hunt today would prove to be a headache.

The bigger packs' fox ran for the next two hours, trying like hell to cross RT 317. We turned him at least 4 times. Each time, hounds came too close to the road for comfort for me.
I spent the entire hunt guarding the branch (def: woods with water running through it!) where it ran underneath the road.

Fortunately, during an early swing in his run Charles came very close to where the smaller bunch had just denned their fox. Bobby had walked to the pond where those hounds were digging at the hole to hark them to the big bunch. Just as he was getting to the pond, the fox that the larger pack was pressing ran past him. Right past him. Like, less than 50 feet. Charles then jumped into the pond and swam across it to the other side. Bobby watched as the pack followed. The entire time, he had the radio mike keyed. Besides hearing the hounds roaring as they flew past him, you could hear the splashing as they hit the water. And then this, " Awwww, where's that lady with the camera???!! Too bad she's missing this!" And on, and on, and on, lol! Damn....how often does one get the opportunity to witness that?!

At 11:00am, when two foxes broke covert right in front of Tommy and Olin, we all got there in time to break and load the hounds. I had had enough of doing highway patrol, as had the others. Hounds will get a well-earned day off tomorrow, and then go again on Sunday. In Delaware. And as far from a highway as we can get!

Hunt # 52 for my hounds this season: A good chase of 4 hours today

..15 1/2 couple ran the first red from 8:48am until the fox got tired and switched the pack onto a fresh red at 11:50am. ( This first fox ran in the open alot, and at around 11:30 he began to make some tight swings in the woods without  keeping to his previous pattern of running back and forth across  the wheat field seen in the video).

The fresh fox ran in the woods the entire time. At 12:45 when we viewed him cross over  the dirt road  only a couple hundred feet in front of us we decided to break the hounds . Their  second pilot was headed into different territory, and although all hounds were on, four hours' running  was enough.  (We are hunting again tomorrow. When we invited our guests to come back again, they  seemed surprised and said they would have to rub their hounds down with liniment tonight. We'll see if they come back tomorrow!!)

When we met at 8:30am, we  thought we counted 15 couple , including the guest hounds from Delaware ( still shotgun season  for deer in Delaware).  But as you will hear, we actually had 15 1/2, lol!
It was 22 degrees at the draw, but warmed up to 42 by the time we finished.

Will be remembered as the day I mooned the fox when I went into the woods to pee and he ran right behind me...no video of that, thank goodness!

Watch Sara (the only lemon hound) as she pauses at the ditch before going through it.This was the third time this fox had made this huge circle across the open, and I can just imagine her thinking " OMG, we gotta run that field AGAIN??!" LOL!  But she stayed  packed up right with them all day. I love my hounds!

Woohoo- Back to having two hunt horses!!!

Sunday,January 15th was as cold and windy as the day before . 14 1/2 couple were put into the covert at 8:35. It was 22 degrees, and that north wind was still blowing...

I  brought Rap and had parked my trailer at a blanket customers' house located about a mile or more away from where the hunted started .We had a nice warm-up hack over a rock-solid dirt road to catch up with the guys.  If Rap wasnt sound, I'd know it real quick!

The video is chronological, so you will get an idea of how the day played out. The woods are very thick on the County House side, and thick and very swampy on the "branch" side.  There was little open running today as the fox stayed in the woods most of the time.

Hounds found at 8:45 am, and the first couple minutes of the video  shows Rap and me catching up with the pack . Hounds had split,jumping two foxes at the same time.  But 5 1/2 couple quickly gave up their pilot and harked to the other bunch. (I do alot of counting heads when that happens,as you'll notice!)  Also,remember that the FOV of this camera makes everything look farther away than it really is, most of the time when you see the hounds, i am right on top of them, watch full screen via Utube)
This fox stayed right in the County House ,running back and forth over the dirt lane that cuts through  it several times.   I guess he didnt want to run out in that wind, either!  After about an hour and a half, hounds made a check in the woods and shut up completely, but   for only about 45 seconds.  When they began to tongue again, it sounded different, and the route of their pilot also changed.  The fox made  a couple swings through the north side of the woods and then crossed the dirt lane and  took off through the branch side ,setting his sights for the Dead End woods.  I'm pretty certain there was a fox tag-team switch at that check...

....Because this fox never returned to the County House Woods for the remainder of the chase, running the Dead End Woods side of the branch for the following 75 minutes. At about 11:20, I viewed him cross a path near Danny's Lot.  The guys were out on a paved road, about 1/2 mile away, but had access to the  area via a dirt drive.When I point and say,"he'll probably swing around",  I was right. The fox made a circle back toward the dirt drive.

(Note:  when  I say "here they come' and you see a hound run past me and harking, that hound was not skirting. That was Bobby's dog, Roscoe,who Bobby had loaded a little earlier when I saw him  getting ready to go "exploring" by himself, lol!. )  A hasty decision was made to break the pack, and  the hound trucks were in position when Charles circled around and overtop of the drive. Nice. All hounds were on, and  I noticed several had ice on their coats.  By 11:30, all hounds were loaded and we  decided to call it a day. Afterall, the Ravens game was to start at 1pm...

January 14,Windy and cold!

The hot trail during the first draw. Sara ,that "wrong colored hound" stands out, ey?!

27degrees at 8 am, but a west/northwest wind blowing at 15-20 mph made it feel o-so much colder!

12 1/2 couple  hit a pretty good trail as soon as we put them into the covert at 8:32 am.  They got this  fox on the move, but it  didnt stay up for very long at all-going to ground only 20 minutes later in an earth  in the middle of a powerline cutover behind  "the crazy lady's place".  Hounds were walked from the hole and on into the woods again by Bobby and Curtis. Tommy was on the lookout  on the west perimeter and upwind a bit, while I was positioned in a small clearing smack in the middle of the covert, downwind. Not alot was going on, but I was in the sun and out of the wind, and it felt nice. 

I was hoping to get lucky and see a fox  cross this small clearing, and I had the camera out and ready. When nothing happened after a good 20 minutes, I got bored and let the camera shut off.  A couple minutes later I looked behind me and saw a fox cross a woods road about 60 yards away.  He was picking his way along and stopped to look at me before continuing slowly on into the woods.  I grabbed my radio and told Curtis and Bobby to bring the hounds up to my view and as I was talking to them, the fox came back into the lane and sat down.  Bobby and Curtis were a good hundred yards away from me, in the opposite direction and it took them several minutes to get to me. During that time, I viewed the same fox cross back over the path twice more. The last time over he ran a downed tree across the path.   When the hounds approached the area, it was interesting to watch them  work the puzzle.  It was Reno who followed the line through the twists and turns until she took it away across the log. All hounds harked ,and another short chase ensued.  This fox  went to ground after only 45 minutes, and it went into the same earth where the first fox denned. ( I never bothered trying to get this fox on camera, since I was having so much trouble getting the f*$&#% to focus)

Now that hole must have been pretty stinky, cause it took some doing to get the ohounds away from it.  Terri, Tommy's small blue bitch, was way down inside the den when I walked up to it.  I pulled her out and got a hold of her with my whip and walked her , Sara and Twister away.  Most of the others had come to the horn or our calls save for Roscoe, Jocko and Annie. It was only 10:50am.

It was decided to try to find one more fox so that any hounds not accounted for would hark  Damn, something told me this wasnt a good idea today... But what the heck, I had all day since it was already too late to try to get a ride in  ( first day of shotgun in Delaware, so it would only be halfway safe to ride out at lunchtime).

Tommy walked his hounds into the woods about  a mile east of where the first two denned.  I had all four of my bitches in my truck.  Bobby had all of his in his truck.  I was seriously considering leaving mine right where they were until....Tommy's hounds opened  at 11:10 and two foxes were viewed away.   But the pack was running a third, and when that fox crossed over a gravel road right in front of Bobby's truck, I couldnt resist turning back out again.   12 couple were back together .  Only Curtis' Annie had failed to hark. We had a good chase on this red until he decided to make a run for the highway. What IS IT with all these foxes running straight for the damn highway???    Bobby thinks he turned the fox back from the road   ( he was blowing the truck horn HARD!) , but the hounds still overran and spilled onto the blacktop. Traffic came to a dead stop . A very nice lady driving  a van  with a cocker spaniel sitting in her lap held  up the eastbound line of traffic by stopping dead center on the yellow line. Tommy stopped the westbound side.  It was just before noon, and no one had to ask if we were going to hunt on , since we're hunting again tomorrow.

(Annie was located 15 minutes after we sorted hounds, still in the covert not far from the earth where the 2 foxes went to ground)

Cop cars and motorcycles and sirens and lights -o my!

Wednesday, January 11 hunt: .14 1/2 couple  began their chase on a red fox found in the small covert alongside Dougie Greys place at 8:22am. A hard frost was quickly melting as the sun warmed the atmosphere from a low of 27 degrees. An east wind was going to be a challenge, and it proved to be so early on when Charles headed first south, than made a large swing eastward and on to the north. He crossed the highway before anyone even knew he had made that turn to the north.  Bobby and I got to the front of Marvels' horse pastures and stopped to listen. We could hear the pack faintly BEHIND us,and realized that we all were way behind the fox and the hounds.  They were running hard in the Jimmy Henry Woods.  Everyone one else was still over in Squirrley Hill, and Bobby and I had one hound truck.  We did a fast U-turn on the highway and could hear the hounds swinging back towards us. Charles was setting his sights on the covert where he had been found.  At the same moment that we heard the pack coming, we heard loud sirens  headed our way, coming from the east and headed west on the highway.  Becauset hat wind was blowing right down the road, we heard them alot sooner than we saw them .  I'm guessing we had about 10 seconds warning.  Just as the hounds were exiting the woods and spilling onto the shoulder of the road, I looked up to see 4 police motorcycles with sirens wailing and all kinds of blue and red lights flashing. Behind them were 4 police cruisers with sirens blaring and lights flashing, also.  And they were barreling down the highway doing at least 75 mph.  I've never seen anything like it -it was like a scene out of a movie.

The adrenalin was pumping-I knew the motorcycles would not be able to stop if a hound ran in front of them.  I looked behind me, towards the pack  -  hounds were stepping into the road, despite Bobby's and my whip cracking and hollering. I looked back at the cops - and they were almost on top of us.  I remember dropping the tailgate and seeing hounds get in. Lark got scared and ran under the pickup and out into the middle of the road, but she darted right back under the truck (where she ususally goes when folks get to hollering-she doesnt like loud noise).   I remember seeing the motorcycles pass by me so close I could have reached out and touched the cops' arms! I dont think they slowed down at all.  But the police cars did slow down-in fact the last one in the entourage had to come to a complete stop when a hound  ran in front of it.

I  never saw  what it was  they were "escorting", but it had better been  somebody damned important to justify travelling at that speed.  When the dust cleared, we had only 4 couple in the truck, but no other hounds came out at the road.  Wow, my heart was still pounding.  Bobby had a huge grin on his face. ....
When the sounds of the sirensfinally faded, we heard the rest of the pack running hard ,still on the north side of the road.

The original fox must have made a quick swing  over the highway and gone right back again, keeping  the
 4 couple with him.  The others must have jumped another fox as soon as they hit that north side of the road.  This is my guess, since for the next 2 1/2 hours,  the pack followed a fox all over the Jimmy Henry woods, up almost to Baker Rd and back,making this swing many times. Tommy viewed the fox with the hounds only 100 feet behind him at one point.  I never viewed the fox, as I refused to leave the highway. The pack made three swings behind the "Beer Garden" ( now a  church, lol!) right alongside the highway - so I wasnt about to leave that road unguarded! So, I sacrificed some views for the safety of the pack, and  that's fine with me!

At about 11:30, the fox went to ground not far from Vorhees Pond.  The  sky was getting ominously gray.The forecast was for heavy rain to begin by early afternoon, and I was really happy  this  hunt was over.

Sunday, January 8th

12 1/2couple met at the Dead End woods at 8:15am.  The pack consisted of our regular week day group  of my 2cple, Tommy's 3 1/2 cple,  Bobby's 3 1/2 cple and Curtis' 3 1/2 cple.

Hounds found  a very sly and willing pilot at 8:26.   This red ran  one large swing around the Dead End woods and then took off running down wind straightaway to the south.  He flew over Wilhelm Rd,continuing through Johnny-boys woods ,  across a power line cutover and into the Frog Hollow woods. We caught up with him as he crossed the dirt lane that runs through Frog Hollow. ( you'll see him cross the road).  He covered so much ground so quickly that , until we got our first view of him, we thought we might be running a coyote.  For then next 50 minutes, this fellow gave good chase, retracing his path from the Dead End, through Walton Williss' woods and on into Frog Hollow,  At about  9:20, Charles began to loop back and forth between Johnny Boy's and Frog Hollow. His circles got tighter inside Johnny Boys woods and he popped out  into the open at its' southern edge at around 9:40. You will see him paused in the green wheat field on the video.  After he darted back  into the woods, something changed. Charles must have decided to save his brush. Hounds somehow switched onto a different red-and this one had the mange.  We never expected what happened next:  At  just after 10am, a fox broke covert out the same corner where you saw the first fox pause in the wheat. But it was a different fox. A mangey fox. And hounds were literally nipping at his heels across the wheat.  The front hounds rolled this sickly fellow only moments later, and right in front of us. ( private Utube video, must send me your Utube user name to view).

\Hounds were gathered  quickly and taken north again to draw theWeber Woods.   This covert lays close to a highway, and it makes me nervous when we hunt it. But the highway was upwind today, and theTHREE foxes that fled its' cover all chose to run with the wind.  The pack settled on the last fox to leave, and his flight across the open is on the video.  It was only  10:15! That didnt take long!

This fox was another willing fellow who led our PMD's on a nice chase, running in the open much of the time, until we decided to break the pack at noon, while all were still on ( although getting really strung out!) During this chase several other foxes, not hunted, were viewed -  including a brace that  were running together.

Very proud of all of my bitches, particularly Sara, who hung in there for the entire second chase.She gives it her all, even with her  supposed bad heart!

Thursday, January 5th,just enough snow....

.....to make scenting difficult for the first couple of hours.

I was surprised to awaken at 5am to a dusting of the white stuff. But the weatherman promised there would be a quick warm up to the mid 50s by afternoon, with winds to swing around from the present almost calm North to a blowing S/W. An unfavorable scenario for scent!

On Wednesday,I took Rap back up to Doc Riddle for the third time. The horse is still sore and I want to kmow WHY and WHERE. It is definitely just a case of sore heels, caused by the farrier not keeping the toes short enough. Doc's farrier reset the front shoes, taking almost a HALF INCH of toe off feet that were just trimmed by my farrier only 2 weeks ago!
We put a 2 degree rim pad on his fronts until Rap can grow some heel on his own. Now the problem is finding a farrier who will keep trimming the toe to get Raps angles back to a natural 52-54 degrees. I don't think my farrier is aggressive enough to do what needs to be done. :-(

So, Thursday I took Mel. to the hunt.  I also took the helmet cam. I've found new software that will make uploading and merging video segments easy, and I was eager to get some raw footage with which to experiment.

Because of the weather conditions,we decided to go right back to the Pistol Ramge Woods where we had gotten that nice -running red fox on New Years Day. The first cast resulted in Part-Time making the find at 9:48 . We had put the hounds into the covert at around 9:25 amd it was obvious from the get -go that they would be hard pressed to find a fox. But our 9  couple got this red on the move out of the pistol range, through the Latham woods, and on out the "middle strip" woods almost to Parker Rd. A car follower viewed a fox coming across a field bordered by Parker Road, headed BACK into the pistol range. I was with the hounds, while Bobby and Tommy were still walking back to their trucks. Wes, the car follower, wasn't being clear about where he saw this fox cross the field. When  the hounds hit the open, they couldn't smell and made a check. A frustrating few minutes ensued as we tried to recover the line. When the pack hit it heel over a wheat field, we broke them back at Parker Rd and loaded. Only my white bitch ,Marney, kept on the fox's line towards the woods. This is all on the video!

And then the damn  camera quit. You will hear the deafening beeps it began to make.
Too bad, because by the time we got the pack turned back out, the sun came out, the snow melted, we did get a chase in. I grabbed the Nikon and got our hunted fox crossing the ditch, and added that to the tail end of the helmet cam vid.( thanks to that new software!).

Hounds ran  this fox until almost 11 am.  But Charles always had a pretty good lead on the pack, and it was never a burning hot chase. When Bobby viewed the fox running the edge of Sullivan's field, we decided itwas a good place to break them. 

What started being a dark and gloomy-looking morning turned quickly into a warm, and blustery sunny afternoon.

Now, if I can just get the battery life of this helmet  camera figured out, I think I may begin to get something worth watching! 

New Years Day Hunt on MEL!!!!!

This is the first time I've had Mel ( aka "Annie's Irish Melody"), my 13 yo homebred  Irish Sport Horse out with hounds in over a year.  I had turned him away when he came up lame a year ago October ( after getting him ready to hunt!), and for all last season,I pushed my poor out of shape QH into service.We managed to get through it, but  I was missing the big guy,big time.

Then, I rode Rap all  this past summer to get him fit , thinking Mel's hunting days were over. And now Rap is not 100%.   However, in July,  I started Mel  on a regimen of Polyglygan injections. WOW! I've got my old horse back!! And today was his return to the hunt field. He was perfect!!  Not as fit as he needs to be but he'll get there. Today I was able to  save him by knowing when to just sit still and wait patiently for the fox to come back to us. Mel  had enough to make him tired, but not enough to make him cranky.

 We drew the pistol range woods  with 12 1/2 couple  at 7:45 am. It was 32F with a good frost on the ground, winds calm but were to blow quite hard out of the south by late morning. Forecast was for 20-25mph sustained. The temp was to soar to close to 60 F. We wanted to go early and beat the heat and the wind!

At 7:57, hounds opened on what we soon discovered was a brace of reds.  They flew through the woods, crossed a tax ditch, and went on through the Latham Woods, headed west. Within minutes, they were swinging back to the pistol range woods. Everyone  got a beautiful view of the brace running abreast over the wheat fields.

Now here's the thing, folks: Mel is a 17.2H ISH,and not as easy  as Rap to ride.  So trying to get him to the view, get hi m stopped,pull the camera out of my pocket (after pushing the radio back into its case), put the whip around my neck, and get the camera turned on, is a challenge. O-and still have one hand on the reins!

So- I missed getting the brace running together. But the foxes split once they got back into the woods, and  the dog fox made another round, running all that open again only minutes later. I got that, but not all of it is in focus.

Anyway,  the dog  fox ran round and round until I think there was a trade off after a very brief check in the woods at 10:10.  Despite the fact that we knew we had  AT LEAST 2 foxes running around all morning, we had only 2 splits. Right after the brace got into the "pistol  range woods" , they split with 4 couple running one and 8 1/2 on the other.  But the pack  got back together again before the one fox went away over the open.  Then later,   Roscoe and Repo did split off again in the Pistol range, and Bobby told me to the break them.  As I  rode around the edge of the covert to get in front of the hounds, I almost ran over the fox!  He turned around, ran the edge right in front of me for about 50 feet, then made a hard 90 degreee turn and ran the tall grass along another ditch, headed  north and straight for Billy Parkers house.  I got Roscoe and Repo turned back and harked them to the others. After that, the  hunted fox's pattern changed. The pack was being taken in tighter circles and  more to the south than before.  I viewed him several times, but most of the time I was looking to the Southeast, straight into the sun. I turned on the camera, and  got the fox a couple of times ( but you'd better have a keen eye!), and some  hound work.

At  around 10:55, this fox made a swing close to  Burrsville Rd more than once.  And then he slipped out over the road, headed to the cannery. It was  a few minutes after 11:00.   But the hounds had been having a lot of trouble staying up on Charles  as he wound around the thick briar beds during the last half hour of the chase.  They had a long check at the road, and  it was decided to pick them up.  All were on, after a very hard run of over 3 hours.

It was one of the best hunts for me, not just because of the views and the way the hounds worked so well. But because Mel did not disappoint me. He seemed so happy to be back out with hounds again. That big stride of his is back!!! I love Rap, he's good as a back up horse, , but he will never move like this ISH moves!!!

Happy New Year!!! Some champagne, and a nice rib roast beckon!

(And the hounds will eat VERY well on some prime rib scraps over the next few days. The butcher gave me about 10lbs. of it! )