Stormy deluge



upper left corner!



The point of light  is Bobby's flashlight!

Saturday night and through the day Sunday, DelMarVa got hit with a barrage of severe thunderstorms.    The training  storms dumped 4"of rain at my farm, but some areas received as much as 13 1/2".  The lightning  and thunder lasted all night.

When I arose at 3am, the radar showed that although it was pouring on the east side of the Peninsula, it was dry to the west where we hunt ( at that particular  time, at least!).   The hunt was on.

Loading the hounds was done in-between bolts of lightning ; the storm cell was directly overhead and the lightning strikes were almost non-stop. The deafening thunder ,however, didnt seem to faze the hounds at all.
It was coming down in buckets as I pulled out my drive.

The temp was 70 degrees with a slight  east wind  when I arrived at the meet.   Pitch black here , but the light show happening over my farm could be seen   far off in the distance.  We drew Burleigh's field, then alongside George's pond where the corn towered overhead.  The tall stalks made it difficult to notice that the lightning was moving closer.  Rumbles of thunder gaves us a heads up, and it was quickly decided to load the hounds and get out of that area as we didnt want them to jump a fox and get down into the swamp with a storm approaching.

At that point, it was about 5:30 and I was happy to have my bitches in my own truck.  Freddy decided to try and draw the cornfield we hunted yesterday,as it's right behind his house. I guess he figured  if the skies opened up he could go home and his hounds would eventually come in on their own, lol.

Bobby, Curtis  and I waited while Freddy cast his hounds.   Just as they began to trail, the lightning and thunder moved directly overhead.  .  It was now light enough to see down the dirt lane, and Curtis and I viewed a fox cross the lane. But it wasnt the same  fox  Freddy's hounds were trailing, so we didnt turn out.  After 10 minutes or so, Freddy's  trail blew up.  It was lightning and thundering in earnest now , and we can see the storm clouds moving in swiftly above us. So what does Bobby decide to do? He turned his hounds out and ran them down the lane to try to pick up the line of the viewed fox.  Well now,  I couldn't be the only one with hounds not on the ground, so I dropped my tailgate and followed suit.  Dumb and Dumber, yes?!

As we were walking  in the open on the  lane alongside a bean field ,  it occurred to me that this WAS a pretty stupid idea.  A loud crack, and some pretty scary bolts was all it took to convince the other two. When our  hounds  didnt pick up the scent right away, we hurried them back down the lane and into the safety of the trucks. ( ARE they safe from lightning  in the bed of a truck with a hound box on it?? I know one is safe inside a vehicle as long as one doesnt touch any metal, but what about the hounds?? Just curious).

So, we didnt run a fox this morning. And I have to say that I am really not disappointed about that. Hounds got out, and we  all came back safe and sound.   There's always next time....

 (By Sunday afternoon, there was widespread flooding in many areas of the Shore.  We received more rain  from these storms than we did from Hurricane Irene last summer.   In four days, the mosquito population will be exploding.... just in time for my company, dammit).