Losing track...

Last week we had a good chase in the rain ( cant remember which day right now), and then I promptly caught a bad cold and missed 2 hunts on , I believe, Monday and Tuesday. (??) We had more rain, but hunted again on Friday. I wasnt 100%, but went because my hounds needed to GET OUT of the kennel. We had a good run with a fox that liked to run the dirt roads. I sprained my ankle while running to get to hounds at an earth.  Saturday it rained AGAIN.  I went and got some arnica for the ankle, and by Sunday morning, the bruising was GONE, and I could walk on it. Amazing stuff!!

Which brings  me today's hunt. Which is freshest in my mind.  We put two foxes to ground around the Cannery woods in the first hour and a half. Neither fox stayed up for more than 15 minutes before running to an earth. Hounds were gathered and we  drew the woods behind Latham's.  A nice -running red got up and hounds pressed this pilot for about 75 minutes before he, too, decided he had had enough and went to ground at the gravel pit.  But before doing so, he made at least 3 circles around the "punchbowl" field (my name for it, as it is a large plot almost completely encircled by woods, with a gravel pit at the one open end.).  Sevral times he crossed over the open, and almost everyone got several good views of him. ( see the video).

I walked out to a hedgerow that cuts across the field and stood in one place as the fox went around me.  At one point, he came right to where I was hiding, but saw me and turned back.  Didnt seem to faze him one bit,as he made another long circle after that,  running in the open for a good part of it.

Not the best hunt report. I needed to catch up, but everything is kind of fuzzy up until  last Friday....  Hounds are very fit, except for Reno and Marilyn who have been in heat.   Reno should be good to go by next week-we needed her on Friday when we had that fox that ran the roads so much!

Scattered  thoughts ...tired...hunting again tomorrow, need to get some sleep!

Reilly's First Fox!!!!

The weather forecast for this weekend is a gloomy one- rain/snow showers today, high of only 37,but light winds.  Sunday, on the other hand, is forecast to be colder, with windy conditions ( gusts over 40mph  expected).  We hunted today, knowing that there is a chance we may not go tomorrow.

Some  rabbit hunters with beagles were already hunting the planned meet location when we arrived, so a last minute change put us walking hounds into Johnny Boys' thicket at 8:35am. 11 1/2 couple spread out through the water-logged woods in search of quarry.  At 8:45, a high-pitched squeak was heard not far from Bobby and me.  And then again, and again, with more conviction.   More of our hounds put in to the high note and then we heard Part Time's booming voice hark. Yep. It was RIGHT!!  And it was REILLY'S  squeaky find!!!!

Within seconds, hounds from all over the covert converged and settled in behind her as the fox was pushed out of the thicket, across some wheat and further west into the "big woods".  After a quick run around that covert, we viewed the fox  crossing a wide expanse of wheat on his way back to the thicket where he was found.  HOunds were'nt far behind, so I  ran forward to the line to await their arrival.  They made a check on the woods' edge , but then recoverd the line and screamed it across the field.   We were being pelted with rain that would quickly change to sleet... but I did'nt care .  We had a hot fox on the move and my puppy was up front!!  (All on the video)

Hounds pressed this fox for 75 minutes before he finally went to ground in  an earth  on the edge of  the big woods. All were on at the muddy opening  of the den.   Raven, Bobby's puppy,  was the last hound to leave the earth, and the front half of his body was covered in black mud.

 By  the time we got all hounds away from the hole it was  sleeting hard;  none of us had to discuss what to do next.  Hounds were called away and everyone headed home.

Good job,  Reilly!!! BTW, her dam, Reno, has been bred again . With  luck, we will have another litter of good pups around mid-April.  (Hunting homes may be needed if she whelps a large litter , so stay tuned if interested!)

Poor Marney!

This will be a short entry- Downton Abbey is on in 45 minutes!
We had a chilly morning with no wind. By the time the hounds moved off at 9:10, the temp  was above freezing , the sun was out ( but didn't stay out for very long), and the iced-over water puddles left from our recent storm were thawing quickly.We had  only 11couple out. (Note to self: mark the calendar -Marilyn is now in heat)

Hounds  ran two foxes, but both must have been vixens, as neither one stayed up for more than 1/2 hour .  The dens are being freshly dug-out as if  the foxes are prepping for imminent arrivals of kits.  It won't be long now...

After the first fox went to ground in a large wood pile, all the hounds came to us except Marney.  The guys were anxious to go find another, so I told them to just go on, and i would walk Marney out and catch up with them.  The pack was moved about a mile upwind  and I was advised not long after  via the radio  that they had , indeed, found another fox.   As I was walking  Marney across a field  in front of the wood pile, I faintly heard the pack in full cry.  Bobby radioed to me that their fox was moving in my direction and jokingly said "sit  tight, he may be coming right to you".   Now  the chances  are slim that the fox would run right to me, right?   I kept walking,quickening my pace, but also keeping my eyes on the fields and covert on the other side of the road that I was approaching. The hounds were sounding closer all the time.  Then- tally-freakin'-ho, here comes a fox, running right towards Marney and me.  I  hit the ground and lassoed Marney with my whip and had enough presence of mind to turn the camera on. 

The camera wasnt on zoom- the fox was no more than a  couple hundred feet from us at his closest  juncture.  Marney had him in her sights and was frantic to get free of my grip - hence, the shaky  camera footage, lol.    After the fox went by us, I stood up and saw the hounds across the road, on the woods' edge.  I was certain that  they must be  coming on this fox, and was looking forward to cutting Marney loose right as they passed us, and getting it on camera.  But, alas, it was not to be.  The fox Marney and I viewed with such anticipation was not the hunted quarry.  I watched in dismay as the pack ran the woods' edge briefly and then ducked back inside the covert.  And then I heard the cry of 10 1/2 couple  quickly fade away.  The hunted fox had turned back towards where it had been found, and the fox Marney and I had viewed had merely been flsuhed out of the covert as hounds flew by. Damn. I dont know which one of us was more bummed out., my  bitch or me.

Anyway, by the time I caught up with the action, the hounds had put this second red  in a hole, too.  One more draw was made in an attempt  to pick up the scent of the  "fly-by fox", but by the time we got the pack to the line, they couldnt find it. 

Not one of our better days, but after the three incredible hunts of last week, we really cant complain.

And I will always remember that moment with Marney -the longing in her eyes was almost palpable!

Tired? who said my hounds were tired?!

...After that hard chase on Wednesday, I was thinking that I might leave my hounds home for the following days' hunt( Thursday, 2/07).But yesterday morning they were  anticipating another day out of the kennel with much enthusiasm.  Who was I to deny them??

It was 29 degrees with a biting north wind when 17 1/2 couple were walked into the Cannery woods at 8:30.  A hard freeze was back on the ground after the brief thaw enjoyed earlier this week.

Pre-dawn, around 6:15am

Hard, frozen ground again! about 7:30 am.

 (Jeff had come down from New Jersey again, and our guests from yesterday were back,too).  A fox was found  at about 8:40, but he didnt stay here long at all !  At 9:15, he made his move out of the country by running  a narrow hedgerow,  crossing  over Parker rd , to  continue on a diagonal across Burrsville rd  to the pistol range briar  bed. But he didnt stay there, either!  This fox set a straight course southwest  through the Taber Woods , crossing Cattail Branch rd on his way to the Hickman Woods. Hounds were held up before they entered that covert.  It was only  9:45 when we broke them about 3 miles from where the fox was roused.

On the video,I arrive at Parker Rd after the fox crossed ( viewed across the road by Olin), and get the camera rolling in anticipation of the hounds. Before they reach the blacktop, however, several deer came FLYING across the road in front of me.  I let the camera roll on and less than a minute later the pack arrives at the road.  You can watch as they check  very briefly on the macadam, and then recover the line into the very, very thick briars on the far side.  You will also see some hounds run down the edge where the deer went, but immediately come back. They were not tonguing.   We had several puppies on the ground, and still no deer chase!  I LOVE OUR HOUNDS!!!! :-)

But I digress....

It was decided to go back and hunt the covert adjacent to the Cannery Woods in keeping with the wind direction.  Another fox got on the move at  about  10:15; well, actually, 3 foxes came out of the Buzzard Swamp woods but all hounds settled on one. For the next hour , this fellow made a couple large swings around Mr. Parkers' field, Tacky Radishes and the clam shell pile and then decided that he, too, had no desire to remain on the east side of Burrsville rd.  He crosses and runs the large expanse of cutover cornfields on his way  westward  to Frog Hollow.  (This is on the video.The time stamp shows him crossing Burrsville rd at 11:20am. ). Again, this fox had a straight-arrow course and  continued due west to the Clay Swamp.  We broke the pack before they got into the swamp.  It was 11:45. Enough!!!  Hounds have hunted 5 of the last 6 days ,now they shall get a rest as the storm arrives Friday. Only rain forecast for us, so we should be good to go on Sunday.

(the short video just showing the fox and the hounds crossing the open)

Burning HOT scent and a dead battery

Holy cow, we had our fastest run this season this morning.   A slight thaw-the temp was 33 degrees when we met at 8:15am. The forecast  promised temps to rise to the upper forties later in the day, and sunshine warmed once-frozen ground quickly.

We had 17 couple out, including 4 couple of guest hounds including several puppies.   Hounds were walked towards the designated covert, but Bobby's and my hounds opened on the edge of the woods , less than 100 yards from the road. They trailed the line into the woods and soon all hounds harked . The best chase of the season was about to unfold.

Seriously, scent must have been very, very good because the hounds FLEW without checking for 2 1/2 hrs until Charles finally presented a puzzle which  the pack just couldn't figure out.  We were pretty much doing all we could to just stay up with the hounds all morning, and therefore, didnt see whether the fox had entered a small covert after crossing a big irrigation ditch, or whether he had, instead, run the  adjacent open wheat field when they finally did check. Curtis, Tommy and Bobby walked in three directions to try to help them recover the line, without success. Hounds' tongues were hanging to the ground, and since another hunt is scheduled for tomorrow, they were walked out to the road.

34 hounds began the chase; only 20 were still on the ground at the loss. Young  puppies and older hounds were being picked up and turned back out  during the latter  hour  and a half when they got too far behind.   3 of my 4 hounds (Reno home, in heat) didnt make it to the end.  Only my puppy, Reilly  stayed on the ground  for the entire chase. And she was always right up there!! I think she lost 3 pounds today, lol!

My camera battery died during the first hour, and the pace was so fast I had trouble getting it focused in time to catch the fox the times I was  able to get a view. And at least twice, I thought I had the camera on, but it wasnt..  So, all of the video you see of the hounds running (hard!!) was taken all within the first hour. The remaining ninety minutes,  as the ground continued to warm up,  was just as good.

I thought Tommy was joking when he stopped me as I was leaving to tell me we are hunting again tomorrow. Rest up, bitches, rest up!!

Sunday and Monday's hunts

The Whitely Woods  at the first draw; 9:15am on Sunday

Conditions improved as the morning  progressed

Sunday was another hunt with the same group as Saturday, minus 2 couple. An  inch or two of  fresh snow covered the landscape as we cast  15 couple into the Whitely Woods at 9:00 am.  There were fresh tracks in the snow everywhere, and it wasnt long before hounds struck a line . But two foxes had been footing the covert, and a  mediocre chase ensued that ended when we broke the hounds at a long check. This wood is so dense with briars that you can't even walk into it, so we decided to leave this area  to hunt the "back woods" behind Freddy's farm, a couple of miles away.

This proved to be a good decision, as a nice-running red was jumped by  Freddy and Tommy while Curtis, Bobby , Jeff and I were extricating my  truck and Curtis' truck out of  a snow covered  mud puddle.

fresh tracks in fresh snow- so pretty!

Curtis gets a backwards pull by Jeff, while Bobby  and I  await my turn.

We got both trucks out within minutes and drove as fast as safely possible ( 15-20mph) over  slick roads to catch up to the action.

Bobby had all of our hounds in his truck except for my puppy, Reilly. She had jumped into Tommy's truck when we broke the pack at the Whitely woods. Hence, she was on the ground running with a bunch of hounds with which she wasnt very familiar .  The motherly instinct  was kicking in, and I wanted to get to her to be sure she was packing up and running.  But of  course, she was.  No worries with that one!

We had a good fox that ran over the open , making two large circles  while  returning to the  covert where he had been  found each time.   By the time he made his third trip back to his starting point, his crafty manuevers over much  ice and water had put him way ahead of the pack.  It was almost noon, so hounds were called in.  Everyone had the Super Bowl on their mind!


On Monday, the weather was cold ( again!) : 26 F degrees  when hounds met at 9:30am.   But there was a cold wind blowing out of the NW at 15-20mph, and overcast skies. It felt much colder than the day before(when the temps had risen all the way up to a balmy 38 f!).  I dont mind the cold. It's the wind that makes it unpleasant.

12 1/2 couple ( our regular weekday pack of Tommy's, Curtis', Bobby's and my hounds) met at the Red Barn.  We were hoping that the deer hunters who had inhabited the surrounding  woods for the past 10 days hadn't shot the good foxes that have been providing us such great  sport here in previous weeks.

This was the second time Charles crossed the road at this same spot.  (He would make his return trip over  the open , crossing  the road right where the red barn used to stand. I could never get there in time to catch him, though)

The first time Charles crossed the road

It took only 9 minutes to have our fears allayed.  We made the draw into the woods next to the dry cow lot and found Charles ready and willing to take our pack on a run that would last until we broke the hounds off his brush at noon. The only checks occurred two times when other foxes not being persued briefly got in the fray.  But both times, with a bit of help , the hounds got back on the scent of their pilot .

3 good chases in 3 days.  Hounds will rest up on Tuesday and  go again on Wednesday.

Ground Hog Day

crossing a frozen beaver dam during our second chase of the day

My Reilly, she's a big girl now! ( Brown headed hound w/ brown lip , centr top)

.....17 couple met at the County House at 9:15am. consisting of hounds belonging to:.Tommy, Bobby, Curtis, Freddy, Jeff, Jim and me. 

I have to admit I was a bit concerned that they might not all pack up together, but  they did!

Hounds chased 2 foxes over the course of 4 hours. The first one ran round and round the County House woods without ever breaking covert.   We all got weary  of that, so hounds were held up and gathered at  about 11:30. (times are probably more accurate on the video-I did those subtitles earlier, and now I am tired and everything is getting fuzzy).

The next pilot was also found in the County House woods, but he more than made up for the seclusive first fellow  even though I never got a view of him.  This fox ran straight-necked through the  covert on the north side of the dirt lane, out the east end, across Dead End Rd, and on into Weber's woods. Once there, he kept going east, towards Burrsville. He did circle back one time, crossing back over Dead End rd to re-enter the woods , but on the south  side of the dirt lane.  He  was moving west now, and he was wasting no strides in doing so.   He kept going- all the way through the woods, across the power line cutover and on into Miller's branch, where most of the water is frozen solid.   It was first  thought that a passing car  had headed  Charles as he was attempting to bust out  of Miller's and across the perimeter rd to continue his trek westward over a wide expanse of open fields.  The pack spilled across the road as Bobby and I pulled up, only to check in the snow-covered open on the other side.

We had seen the car. We knew the hounds were close to the road. It seemed very likely that our pilot had, in fact, been doubled. Bobby, Freddy and Tommy walked the road with hounds in different directions, trying to help them recover the line.  Bobby walked them back down into Millers branch.  Over 15 minutes passed, probably more like 20 .  Freddy chatted with a nearby landowner for a bit.  Meanwhile, I  had noticed several hounds feathering wildly in the field before they were all called back to the trucks waiting at the road.  This fox had been such a great pilot, no one really wanted to see the chase end.  Including me. So I decided to look for the fox tracks in the field.  I walked a good 100 yards out into the open-past where the hounds tracks' had trampled the snow.... and there they were! This fox had gotten across the road ahead of the car, and our hounds had been right all along.

Bobby and Freddy unkennelled  hounds, and walked them to me, and  slowly they picked the (literally) cold line diagonally across the open towards a water-filled ditch. Once there, they again had trouble sorting out which way Charles had gone, but Bobby  guessed correctly that  the fox had tiptoed across  the ditch at a frozen beaver dam. The camera rolled as the hounds picked their way gingerly over the ice, with Bobby following behind.(O- I was SO hoping for some comic relief there, lol!)

Once across, the hounds continued on westward to the huge  woods behind the old Ireland homestead, where they  finally got the line hot again.  Here, they ran fast and hard until the quarry went to ground in an earth in the corner of Jeff Scot's field. All were loaded and we were done at around 1:30.

Most of this is on the video, in one way or another. I am chilled to the bone, and headed for  a hot bath and a glass of wine...

Hunting  again tomorrow ( if we dont get too much snow).  
Note to self :  Remember to leave Reno HOME this time!!!! ( she's in heat).