A late start, but it ended well...

Marney during the second draw

We didn't hunt yesterday. Sunday's temps did not get above freezing all day, and the WIND was incredible. 20-30mph,with 40 +mph gusts. Since this was forecast well in advance, we didnt even plan on hunting , therefore,   everyone had enough notice to plan  on doing something else.  I planned on doing some house cleaning....

I baked  Raspberry Cream Cheese brownies and  then went to PetSmart to buy the incontinent old Lakie, Emmett,  a "Male Sanitary Wrap", instead. .  ( Not to be confused with a Doggie  Diaper, which, apparently is best suited for bitches.) The "MSW " worked great,  except  he soaked through it within an hour of putting it on him.  (Husband :  "But I JUST had him OUT"...)  But I digress....

Our meet time today  was moved back to 10am to allow the ground to loosen and the temps to rise from the low 20's F.  The forecast was for a high of 44F ,  12 degrees warmer than the preceding day.  Winds were to blow out of the S/SW at 10-20mph.  It was pretty windy when we weren't in the woods.

SOMEONE invited the guests from Delaware back. I never got a chance to find out how many hounds were out  altogether, since the guests never  leave their hound trucks . They wait for us to find the fox(es), and then dump out. But it should have been 14 couple, unless somebody has a bitch in heat I dont know about.

Reno opened on the first fox at 10:20 am.  All  hounds harked  -some from the woods and some from two trucks -(sic )and ran this fox to ground in 35 minutes.  Charles denned in a hole in the middle of a cutover corn field, underneath the power lines, several hundred yards from the nearest road.

By the time Bobby and I caught up with Curtis and Tommy, they had walked some of the hounds out to the road ,  but most of the pack was beginning to drift back down the powerline towards the covert where the fox had been jumped.  Bobby headed back to where  our hounds had begun the cast  ( via the roads) . Meanwhile,  I walked across the field, through a nasty briar bed and on down the powerline cutover.  Ran, actually.    Now, I have always been a slow, long distance runner (slow twitch muscles!), and I gotta tell ya', these not-so- short  sprints through  tall grass and boggy ground  "aint' easy"!  Crap, why didnt I bring the horse today??!  )   But I digress again....

I  encountered about 6 couple of hounds in the cutover. I had been blowing the horn and Sara, Marilyn and Lark were coming to me, as were a couple of Tommy's.  The rest were "visiting" hounds that chose to ignore me, which was ok by me.  Bobby had called his back to his truck, along with my white bitch (Marney).  Tommy and Curtis  had most of theirs. So... since nothing else was paying attention to me,   I jogged my girls the  3/4 mile to the road, where they were loaded. 

Two hounds were still unaccounted for, one each of Curtis' and Tommy's, and  it was decided that Bobby and I would draw the  (upwind) Johnny Boy woods. If we got a fox, that couple should hark   The plan worked like a charm and at 11:20 am, Part Time opened , all of *our*  hounds harked, and we heard the tailgates of our visitors drop. (again!).  This  fox chose to stay in the Johnny Boy woods for the next  2 hours, running round and round and round and... well, you get it.  The covert is full of water and briars and  although the pack ran this fox steadily, they  could only get up hard on him when he would cross back and forth over a small clearing in its' midst. I was never in the right place today to catch the sucker with my camera. Viewed him twice, but since the hounds werent able to burn his butt, I didnt bother much trying to video:

At about the two hour mark, we hatched another plan:  Bobby,Curtis and I  would walk into the covert from different directions and attempt to head the fox towards Tommy . If  it worked, the fox should cross a wide , watery path only a few  hundred feet in from a dirt road where the others waited -(in their trucks, of course).

Well, "Plan your hunt and Hunt your plan" - it worked!!!  Except two foxes came out, about 200 feet apart.
Only Twister and a few visiting hounds were running the one closest to the dirt road.   Bobby, Curtis and I had enough time from the tallyo to get in position to break the main pack.  They were easy to break  and I really think it's because they were probably getting bored with this fox, too.

All hounds were loaded and I was on my way home  by 1:45 .  Not a barn burner, but a steady fox that chose to stay tight today.