And so it begins....

Today is August 1st, the start of another season.  It has been very hot and very dry here all summer (as in most parts of the country), and any crops that are not irrigated are looking like a loss.

Several  mid -day storms did blow through the peninsula  today, a phenomonan (sp?)  not seen a single day in July. (storms usually roll through late in the day).   A few miles away, a cell dumped 3" of rain locally, while my farm received a light shower that lasted all of a couple of minutes.  It's been like that all summer. The ground here is like cement ( I have a band of rare clay that runs through my property, so I dont have the normal sandy soil everyone else has).  Which is one reason why I hack my horses at the state forest, 5 miles away -very sandy, soft footing there.

Anyway,  the activity in the  tropics is heating up, so perhaps this first full August moon ( there will be another this month) portends a change to a wetter, cooler weather pattern. 

And then again, maybe not: Temps are to be in the 90's   into the weekend. We expect to have our first hunt this coming Sunday. The low temps will not fall beneath the 70's. All we can hope is that the humidity lets up a bit.  It will be a short hunt, but all the hounds will need.

This early in the season it is usually only  Freddy, Bobby and me hunting. No one else is willing to get up for  a 5:00am meet, lol!   Freddy has 1 cple of new entry, Bobby has 1 cple, and I have one young bitch to enter. Tommy has the 4th littermate to Reilly, Rebel and Raven, but that dog wont be seen until Tom starts to join us in late September or October....

I got a new horn!  Well, not brand new, but a good S & A that has a nicer tone than my other horn. All of Bobby's and my hounds are used to it now ( first day, when I blew it while the hounds were out, they totally ignored it, lol!).  

I took some pics of the hounds during exercise today, just to compare how they look now with later in the year. Marilyn is so fat!!!!

Marilyn

Rebel, Repo and Reilly

same trio

Part-Time ("Party") in foreground,  Raven in back

3 of my 2 1/2cple: Marney (front), Marilyn (l), and Reno (r)

That's Raven (l), Rebel (c), and Party (r), with Radio's white head in bottom left of pic

Reno

Pearly Girl

..and off by herself because she just came in heat, Sara. (Here is where she let me know that fact, lol!)

There should be 6 cple:
Raven, Reilly Rebel - new entry
MArilyn, Marney, Sara, Pearl, Reno, Radio, Repo, Part-Time,  Roscoe

Freddy will have  3 1/2 cple, for a combined pack  of  9 1/2 couple to start off cubbing. 

So, we'll see how it goes.....