We haven't had any rain to speak of in weeks, and everything is dry and crispy. The ground in the fields is like hardpan. Most of the many ditches are almost dry, save for the very wide and deep "canals". You know it's dry when the farmers resort to irrigating the winter wheat! Pivot irrigation is rarely needed during Spring...
The puppy hunt was a good exercise. A long draw of over 70 minutes finally yielded a luke warm trail that eventually got a bit warmer The older hounds opened seriously at 9:10, and the little pack stayed with their fox through the swamp for 40 minutes. Their pilot, however, was way ahead of them, and when the hounds came to the road, we broke them. It was never going to be a hot chase, and since the hound s were headed into an area where it would be really difficult to get to them, we played it safe and loaded at the road . We had begun the draw at 8am, and we were done by 10 am. It was enough for the pups, since they would be going out to hunt with the regular pack the next day.
...Saturday, hunt 96:
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| The cast at 7:30am, after the initial outburst on the cold trail ( pics below), I didnt mess with the camera |
The warm spell has ended, and the temps are really where they should be for this time of year . It was 37 F when 12 1/2 couple were cast into the hedgerow alongside Gallo's field at 7:30 am.
A beautiful full moon was setting in a cloudless sky as I drove to the meet. I always think this portends a slow hunt, and today this proved to be the case. The foxes must have been out carousing all night. Part Time hit a cold line right at the cast, and trailed it into the woods, a distance of a couple of hundred yards. Once in the woods, the hounds picked at this line for a good half hour. Finally, they began to tongue "with some authority" as the locals say (love that expression!), and they ran this red for 40 minutes until it went to ground. Another fox was viewed running Gallos field only minutes later, but by the time we could get hounds forward to the line, scent had evaporated. They could not find it. The view came from a car follower on the road and his description wasn't precise enough , especially with the wind now blowing at 20-30 mph. The hounds would have to be right on top of the line to smell it.
Hounds were gathered, although we had several scattered throughout the Big Pine Woods, I headed to Fisher's Bridge to get downwind in an attempt to locate the 6 or 7 still unaccounted for. As I passed the Big Piine woods, I viewed a fox running the blacktop road in front of me . He popped back into the Big Pine Woods and about a minute later Tommy's dog, Joe, wandered out into the road not far from where the fox went in. Joe was leaving the covert that the fox had just entered, but about 100 yards away. I tried to get Joe to find, but he just couldnt smell anything. Once we finally had all hounds loaded, we called it a day.
We need this wind to stop blowing, and we need some serious rain. The forecast for our Easter Monday hunt: windy ( 20 -30mph sustained , AGAIN) with 20% humidity - just a carbon copy of the last several days. ( Now THAT is an expression that is totally obsolete, lol!)
PS - all puppies did very well again. Reilly went off with the others at the cast and never looked back. And when Bobby emerged from the woods after the one short chase, she was right with him.
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