Saturday, Sunday and Monday hunts ( phew)

Sara striking a pose during the first draw on Monday.  She is a sweetie.

Saturday:
Gorgeous day-29 degrees, light frost, no wind at the draw. Temps rose to the mid-50's by later in the day, warmed by a S/SW wind blowing @ 10-15mph.

Only 8 1/2 couple with us today: my 2 couple,Tommy's 3 couple and Curtis' 3 1/2 couple. 

Curtis viewed a fox on his way to the meet, so we went to try to find it.  Mission accomplished within about 10 minutes and we had a nice chase on this red for 70 minutes before he went to ground .



Here's a pretty cool pic-  this first fox was really being pressed by our hounds and you can see his tracks in the bottom of this photo- look how deep his nails have dug in!   And then you see the hounds' tracks  towards the upper left. 

  After that, two thwarted attempts  were followed by my Lark finally  finding our second fox .  We had another  chase of about  an hours' duration before this red also went to ground.   

They were both two good runs, but nothing especially exciting happened.  Yikes, I hope I am not getting jaded ....  O- I did drop my radio as I bent down to get my whip on Marney  as we were walking out from the first den.  Tommy lent me a spare.  When the hunt was over, Curtis, Olin and I went back to the woods to hunt down the radio.  Olin keyed his hand-held  radio's mike while holding it up to some loud music on the truck radio.  I think it took less than 3 minutes to locate mine.  Good thing I hadnt turned it off as I often do so as not to have any chatter  turn a fox...
Saturday night- baked cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting  for Curtis and Olin.

Sunday, Jan 30:

Curtis, Tommy, Freddy and Jeff hunted the Cannery .   Because I had *that* knowledge beforehand,  I decided to leave my hounds in kennels and just bring the horse. It would be nice to just follow  a pack and not have to be concerned as to where my hounds were ,for a change.. 12 1/2 couple  roused a red at about 8:10am. Reynard did a spin around the Cannery woods and then bolted across the road to run the "dry cow lot". He continued on, crossing High Stump rd at Stevie Leeks house. From there, the fox ran the state-owned ground behind Stevie's for  a few minutes.  The guys were on Burrsville rd to the west of  the covert, while I was in the woods coming up behind the hounds.  They said about 10-15 deer busted out across the fields next to Stevie's house, while the fox came into the same field but made a turn and bore away from the deer's path at about a 45 degree angle.    Hounds never wavered  and continued to push their pilot across another paved road and on over to the the Latham woods.

For the next 2 1/2 hours, hounds chased their pilot around the Latham woods.  We actually think they swapped foxes a couple of times.  Around  10:30, our fox ran back to the Cannery Woods and then made a tight swing to come right back over the road and across the cornfield behind Billy Parker's house.    Billy has a big pile of  old drain pipes in his back yard.  The hounds ran around them, and through Billy's yard, checking  behind Billy's garage. ( Billy had been sitting on his front porch for most of the chase, watching the fox and hounds go by!)   A couple of hounds tried to pick up the scent on the other side of Billy's house, but the chase pretty much blew up there.  Hounds couldnt recover the line, and at 11am the hunt was called. 

It took another 1/2 hour to locate 2 hounds and discuss plans for the rest of the day.  Freddy and Jeff wanted to hunt on, so they went elsewhere.

But Tommy and Curtis, knowing that we would be hunting again the following day , were ready to call it quits.  (They knew that both Bobby and I would have fresh hounds for Monday's hunt! )

By the time I hacked back to my horse trailer, it was just noon. Rap was a very good boy! (Note to self: the cinnamon  cake recipe is a keeper!  )

Monday, January 30:

Once again, 12 1/2 couple were out. But a very different pack than Sunday's 25 hounds.  I didnt bother much with the cameras all weekend -but I did get some hound music both days, so i might try and post short footage from both days just to see if one can hear the difference in the sound of the cry of the two packs.

Today it was my  4, Tommy's 6,  Bobby's 6,  Curtis' 6, and Jim's (guest from Delaware again)  3.

It was 29 degrees and a cold wind from the NW was to blow all day at 10-20 mph sustained, and higher gusts.  I had thought about bringing Mel, and was glad I didnt. The wind was brutal all day. He'll get his chance later this week....

We cast the hounds at 8:15. At  8:35,  a red fox broke covert on the west side ,  turned south, crossed the road and set his mask towards Wyatt's chicken houses, via  Gallo's field  and TaborWoods.  Once in the woods behind  Wyatt's, hounds ran up and down the covert for a good 45 minutes. then the pack split.  6 1/2 couple came on a red that crossed over Burrsville rd close to where it intersects with Cattail Branch rd to the south.  We missed viewing the fox, but we got a good look at the hounds tearing it up across the paved road and alongside a hedgerow.  We drove down a clamshell lane to the  "gravel pit" and got there just in time to view Charlie across  the lane in front of us.   I was only able to capture the hounds as they FLEW by:

 All of mine were running this fox, save  Marney.  She, meanwhile, was with the other 6 couple running thier own fox around Wyatt's.

When Marney's fox threatened to cross the road in front of Wyatt's and head towards Tommy's house, they decided to break that bunch.  And therein lies the start of two frustrating  hours  that followed.  I was following the other bunch, thinking I had seen all of my hounds on.  But tommy radioed to me that he was pretty sure he had seen Marney over at Wyatt's.   I went around to where they were loading hounds to  get her, but she wasnt  anywhere to be found.

Meanwhile, the other fox went to ground after a good run through the cutover woods near the "girls' trailer".
It was now 11am..   I had my farrier coming at 2pm. Three of my four hounds were loaded.  Only Bobby's Part-Time( we KNEW he was with the bunch my 3 were with), and Jim's Lark ( not my Lark) were still on the ground along with Marney.

The wind was really roaring now, so I drove my pickup all the way behind Wyatt's chicken houses and alongside the big ditch. Then I started walking the woods. I found Lark for Jim, but no sign of Marney anywhere.  I walked, blew the horn and \called her until I had to leave to go home at 1 pm. Bobby had Part-time loaded  by now.

This is the first time in the 4 years that  I have had my own hounds  I left a meet leaving one "out". But I could'nt miss the farrier-  I needed to have a long talk with him regarding  Rap's feet.  Tommy lived only a couple miles from Wyatt's, and Bobby lived nearby, too.  I knew they would keep an eye out for her.
But I was really, really annoyed at Marney.  I told the guys that whomever found her, could just keep her. I won't  have a hound that doesn't come in.  ...

So I started to drive home. Thinking the entire way how I could get back to the meet before dark to look for her some more.  And then, just as I was but 10minutes from home, my cell phone rang.   It was a man who lived  next to Wyatt's.  He had picked Marney up on the road right at Wyatt's lane, taken her home and put her in his pen.  And waited-I dont know how long-  before he noticed the ID plate on her collar and decided to call.

The entire time I was looking for  and calling her, she was downwind from me. And couldnt get to me.  I was relieved to know she was safe  And ashamed that I was so quick to assume she was being naughty (especially  because  none of my bitches have ever been a problem before.)  Bobby picked her up  and offered to take her home to his kennel, but Jim was still at the meet and he offered to give her a ride home to Delaware. (Turns out he lives only 3 miles from me).   I wanted her home in her own kennel!

All  5 of my girls got steak and noodles with their kibble for supper ( courtesy of  the dumpster diver again!).  I made sure Marney got a little extra.  :-)

Our hounds hunt better....

...when it's just OUR hounds!  Today's forecast was for rain to develop in the afternoon as a warm front moved our way. Fridays forecast  sounded like a total washout, while today we supposedly had only a 50/50 chance of  light showers. I'll take those odds to hunt, any day.

Tommy brought 3couple, Bobby brought 3 couple( he left Part-Time home!) and my 2 couple made for a small pack of 16 hounds. 

When I was about 15 minutes away from the meet, my cell phone rang. It was Bobby calling to tell me that a fox  was sitting on a dirt pile 200 feet from him, " just waiting for us!".  I  told him that as soon as Tommy arrived, release the hounds and go!!!!   I'll hark mine when I get there. 

As I pulled around a corner only a few hundred yards from where they started at Danny's Pond , the radio crackeled: "STOP RIGHT THERE , HOUNDS ARE COMING RIGHT TO YOU!" .  I slammed on the brakes, jumped out and dropped my tailgate. It was perfect.  Moments later, I followed the pack   as they swept through the woods parallel to the road and  right alongside me.

We had a total of 3 foxes over a  2 hour time period., covering an impressive amount of territory. This first red ran the woods  from Danny's Pond to Dead End, making some large circles  for 45 minutes before turning his mask west.  Now he changed course and headed west via Douggie Grey's branch to the  Beaver Dam. A check of about 2 minutes followed. This is where we all agree that the first change over in foxes occured, because the route of the pilot changed completely. This one ran  farther  west, going   up through Wickie's woods and on to the "Little Coal Woods" and "behind Millers" .  He spun around there, crossing back and forth over a large power line cutover for awhile and then decided to break covert on the south side. He ran in the open  behind Milllers for   several hundred yards, then ducked back into the Coal Woods.  He made that swing 3 times. During the second time around,  as the hounds ran the foxes' line over the open, a group of about 10 deer were running single file across the same field, alongside  the hounds, but a  couple hundred feet away. It was cool to watch  -  the hounds were oblivious to the deer.

After the third trip, Charles sought safe haven in a huge woodpile in the cut-over section of the woods.   It was around  9:45.  Tommy had an 11 am doctors appointment. Ok- so we'll walk in and get the hounds ( it's about a 1/4mile walk to get to the edge of the woods, and then  we had to pick through the mess of the cut over timber....and did I mention the water??  )  JUST as Bobby and I were only a couple hundred feet from the pile, the hounds opened again.  Did they flush that second fox back out -or was  this another tag-team switch in progress?



The log pile where fox # 2 switched over to fox #3

 When Tommy viewed the fox  cross from the Coal woods , over the open and through power line cutover, he was certain it was a bigger, lighter colored fox.  And this fellow also ran a very different pattern,  leaving the Coal Woods, crossing the branch and making a run behind Geisels chicken houses.He returned to the branch very quickly, and then ran up and down it, parallelling Almshouse Rd. Finally, he broke covert, crossed   the road, and went into the Slaughter Woods to the south. But within seconds of getting inside that covert , he was viewed by a car follower crossing right back over the road, to return to Miller's ( "behind Miller's" is all open fields)

Ok- NOW, it was 10 am..  Hounds were running so much harder  than they had yesterday and I knew it killed Bobby to  ask Tommy, "what do you want to do, big brother??  This is a perfect time to get them..."
But he was right.  And so we did.  We had a long view of this last pilot as he made his way across the green wheat- I tried to video, but I've decided that if the video isnt exceptional, I'm not going to bother posting. ( I've been told by someone that the videos are boring). And I couldnt get the fox in focus....

We havent hunted the Coal Woods and Millers yet this year, but we will definitley be back here .  And soon.
And without any time constraints,  Charles James!

Wednesday, January 25th hunt- Back in the Saddle

A pretty start to a pretty day

...after missing two hunts because of the flu.   And 5 hours in the saddle was more than Rap and I needed,  but it felt good to be out on such a beautiful day.  We'll both sleep well tonight.!

Our guests from Delaware  were back again, but today our total number of hounds was only 11 1/2 couple.
Bobby left Shamrock home because he noticed Part-time humping her and naturally assumed she was coming into heat.  He had also left her home on Monday for the same reason.  I remember he mentioned  earlier this  morning that she wasnt bleeding, and that was kind of odd....This has relevance later in this report, honest!!

We drew Johnny-boy's woods at 7:55am, and at 8:06 we had a fox on the move.  Part-time made the find and  he and 4  other hounds got ahead of the others.  There was some babbling going on by  some of the guests' hounds which caused the rest of the pack to be unable to hear those front hounds. It took us a good ten minutes to get to them and get them to shut up long enough so that they would hark. ( The woods is virtually underwater, and the surrounding fallow cornfields are as wet as a soaked sponge.  Rap was sinking in past his ankles with every step across the fields).

 Our fox made one big sweep through Johnny-boys  woods, running west to Frog Hollow where he was viewed crossing the dirt road by a car follower.  He made a loop through Frog Hollow and came right back to where hounds found him.  All with only 2 1/2 couple on his brush.  But his decision to swing back worked in our favor and by 8:40, all hounds were on. This red gave the hounds a good chase until just before 10am, when he went to ground only a few hundred  feet from where he had been roused.  I was able to get to them and call them out, and by the time I had them on the edge of the field, the guys were pulling up  along the dirt lane where we had unkennelled earlier.  I had a very sloggy couple of hundred yards of wet field (planted in ground cover) to cross to get the hounds to the trucks.  All but Part Time followed me out, and he wont follow anybody but Bobby, so my feelings weren't hurt, lol! ( this little tidbit also has relevance for later in this report!).

Bobby  had to walk in and retrieve Party, who was doing what Party does best when he's not hitting a line - farting around.  Meanwhile, the rest of us headed a bit north  for the next cast.  Bobby joined us only a few minutes later.  While Tommy cast his hounds, we got a chance for a quick cup of coffee.  The time was10:30am.

Rap wanted a bite of Bobby's sandwich.  He got a peppermint  instead ..

No sooner had we begun our  brunch break  when   Tommy's hounds opened.  I hopped back on Rap and we dropped the tailgate. ... And then  Tommy's pack shut up seconds later!  We walked ours into the woods  towards his and you-know-who began to tongue. Our other hounds honored, Tommy's harked, and our next chase was gearing up.  It was around 10:36.

This fox ran the "14 acre piece" and  the woods on the north side of  Wilhelm rd for about 1/2 hr.  A little after 11am he crossed Wilhelm Rd , setting his sites for the  woods where our first fox gave chase.....and  went to ground in a hole about  100 yards in from Wilhelm Rd.  This particular covert is rented by  unfriendly deer hunters, and although the season is pretty much over, we try to stay out  of it.  Horse tracks would not be wise, so I dismounted and walked in to help get hounds away from the hole.   

All were accounted for save 3 couple.  Part-Time and my Marney were two of them.  For the next ,o- almost two  hours (!!!!!)  we hunted for   hounds. By 12:30, all were accounted for save... yep, Part-Time and Marney.  What a pair to have out.....together!

At 1pm, I put  a very tired Rap on the trailer , hopped in a hound truck and got a lift back to where the fox had crossed over Wilhelm Rd.  I began to walk  the woods where the fox went in, while the guys did reconnaissance on the roads. At the same time,  Bobby walked into the "14 acre piece" .   And there,  he just happened to hear Marney yelp, one time.  And THERE was  Part -Time -  all over her, trying to hump her.  Now I KNOW she's not in heat, since she was just  in heat in December...

Well, that explains it.....lol!  Part-Time is becoming quite literally  a pain in the arse. ( And Shamrock missed out on two hunts for no reason.)

Hunting tomorrow, but it will be only my hounds, Tommy's and Bobby's. YAY!!!! Since Shammy isn't really in heat, and neither is Marney, we should have a total of  9 couple out.  Yeah -  including  Part-Time.

Missed it!

.....despite getting a flu shot last fall, I still caught the bug on Friday night. Yuk, don't want to relive this past weekend anytime soon....
So, I missed Sundays hunt, a short one of 1 1/2 hrs duration. The hounds ran one red the entire time and marked him to ground at 10:30am.

Today, 13 1/2 cple ran for a total of over 4 hours. The last chase resulted in the pack accountng for their fox after a two hour pursuit. My hounds missed out again.

Feeling much better today, expect to have my girls out on Wednesday. Will probably take Rap rather than Mel, since I'm not feeling mentally or physically ready to deal with the big guy..

Missed celebrating my mom's birthday yesterday, but I don't want to get anywhere near her until I am totally over this flu. Lunch at Mason's will have to be next week, mom!

Friday, January 20 hunt # 53

The morning started off sunny, windless and 11 degrees warmer than the day before .
16 couple unkenneled at the meet with a more subdued sense of enthusiasm than they had the previous morning. (4 hours of hard running will do that!). But all hounds that had participated in yesterday's good chase returned for more. Our additional 1/2 couple was Part-Time -Bobby had left him home on Thursday because , as he put it then, "he ain't right"(!)
Whatever ailed Party yesterday morning had resolved by yesterday afternoon!

We walked the pack in on two sides of the covert: Bobby and I walked ours into the west side, while Tommy and Jim walked the others into the east side. There's alot of standing water in this woods, as there is everywhere in most places, and this coupled with the fact that hounds were not as anxious as yesterday meant that it took about 25 minutes before anything began to happen.

Roscoe, Reno,Pearl, Repo (all Bobby's) and Marilyn and Sara (mine) opened at 8:55 and began to run their fox west. As the other hounds began to hark, they ran into another red on the way. This pilot headed north. Wonderful. As perfect as the chase yesterday had been, the hunt today would prove to be a headache.

The bigger packs' fox ran for the next two hours, trying like hell to cross RT 317. We turned him at least 4 times. Each time, hounds came too close to the road for comfort for me.
I spent the entire hunt guarding the branch (def: woods with water running through it!) where it ran underneath the road.

Fortunately, during an early swing in his run Charles came very close to where the smaller bunch had just denned their fox. Bobby had walked to the pond where those hounds were digging at the hole to hark them to the big bunch. Just as he was getting to the pond, the fox that the larger pack was pressing ran past him. Right past him. Like, less than 50 feet. Charles then jumped into the pond and swam across it to the other side. Bobby watched as the pack followed. The entire time, he had the radio mike keyed. Besides hearing the hounds roaring as they flew past him, you could hear the splashing as they hit the water. And then this, " Awwww, where's that lady with the camera???!! Too bad she's missing this!" And on, and on, and on, lol! Damn....how often does one get the opportunity to witness that?!

At 11:00am, when two foxes broke covert right in front of Tommy and Olin, we all got there in time to break and load the hounds. I had had enough of doing highway patrol, as had the others. Hounds will get a well-earned day off tomorrow, and then go again on Sunday. In Delaware. And as far from a highway as we can get!

Hunt # 52 for my hounds this season: A good chase of 4 hours today

..15 1/2 couple ran the first red from 8:48am until the fox got tired and switched the pack onto a fresh red at 11:50am. ( This first fox ran in the open alot, and at around 11:30 he began to make some tight swings in the woods without  keeping to his previous pattern of running back and forth across  the wheat field seen in the video).

The fresh fox ran in the woods the entire time. At 12:45 when we viewed him cross over  the dirt road  only a couple hundred feet in front of us we decided to break the hounds . Their  second pilot was headed into different territory, and although all hounds were on, four hours' running  was enough.  (We are hunting again tomorrow. When we invited our guests to come back again, they  seemed surprised and said they would have to rub their hounds down with liniment tonight. We'll see if they come back tomorrow!!)

When we met at 8:30am, we  thought we counted 15 couple , including the guest hounds from Delaware ( still shotgun season  for deer in Delaware).  But as you will hear, we actually had 15 1/2, lol!
It was 22 degrees at the draw, but warmed up to 42 by the time we finished.

Will be remembered as the day I mooned the fox when I went into the woods to pee and he ran right behind me...no video of that, thank goodness!

Watch Sara (the only lemon hound) as she pauses at the ditch before going through it.This was the third time this fox had made this huge circle across the open, and I can just imagine her thinking " OMG, we gotta run that field AGAIN??!" LOL!  But she stayed  packed up right with them all day. I love my hounds!

Woohoo- Back to having two hunt horses!!!

Sunday,January 15th was as cold and windy as the day before . 14 1/2 couple were put into the covert at 8:35. It was 22 degrees, and that north wind was still blowing...

I  brought Rap and had parked my trailer at a blanket customers' house located about a mile or more away from where the hunted started .We had a nice warm-up hack over a rock-solid dirt road to catch up with the guys.  If Rap wasnt sound, I'd know it real quick!

The video is chronological, so you will get an idea of how the day played out. The woods are very thick on the County House side, and thick and very swampy on the "branch" side.  There was little open running today as the fox stayed in the woods most of the time.

Hounds found at 8:45 am, and the first couple minutes of the video  shows Rap and me catching up with the pack . Hounds had split,jumping two foxes at the same time.  But 5 1/2 couple quickly gave up their pilot and harked to the other bunch. (I do alot of counting heads when that happens,as you'll notice!)  Also,remember that the FOV of this camera makes everything look farther away than it really is, most of the time when you see the hounds, i am right on top of them, watch full screen via Utube)
This fox stayed right in the County House ,running back and forth over the dirt lane that cuts through  it several times.   I guess he didnt want to run out in that wind, either!  After about an hour and a half, hounds made a check in the woods and shut up completely, but   for only about 45 seconds.  When they began to tongue again, it sounded different, and the route of their pilot also changed.  The fox made  a couple swings through the north side of the woods and then crossed the dirt lane and  took off through the branch side ,setting his sights for the Dead End woods.  I'm pretty certain there was a fox tag-team switch at that check...

....Because this fox never returned to the County House Woods for the remainder of the chase, running the Dead End Woods side of the branch for the following 75 minutes. At about 11:20, I viewed him cross a path near Danny's Lot.  The guys were out on a paved road, about 1/2 mile away, but had access to the  area via a dirt drive.When I point and say,"he'll probably swing around",  I was right. The fox made a circle back toward the dirt drive.

(Note:  when  I say "here they come' and you see a hound run past me and harking, that hound was not skirting. That was Bobby's dog, Roscoe,who Bobby had loaded a little earlier when I saw him  getting ready to go "exploring" by himself, lol!. )  A hasty decision was made to break the pack, and  the hound trucks were in position when Charles circled around and overtop of the drive. Nice. All hounds were on, and  I noticed several had ice on their coats.  By 11:30, all hounds were loaded and we  decided to call it a day. Afterall, the Ravens game was to start at 1pm...

January 14,Windy and cold!

The hot trail during the first draw. Sara ,that "wrong colored hound" stands out, ey?!

27degrees at 8 am, but a west/northwest wind blowing at 15-20 mph made it feel o-so much colder!

12 1/2 couple  hit a pretty good trail as soon as we put them into the covert at 8:32 am.  They got this  fox on the move, but it  didnt stay up for very long at all-going to ground only 20 minutes later in an earth  in the middle of a powerline cutover behind  "the crazy lady's place".  Hounds were walked from the hole and on into the woods again by Bobby and Curtis. Tommy was on the lookout  on the west perimeter and upwind a bit, while I was positioned in a small clearing smack in the middle of the covert, downwind. Not alot was going on, but I was in the sun and out of the wind, and it felt nice. 

I was hoping to get lucky and see a fox  cross this small clearing, and I had the camera out and ready. When nothing happened after a good 20 minutes, I got bored and let the camera shut off.  A couple minutes later I looked behind me and saw a fox cross a woods road about 60 yards away.  He was picking his way along and stopped to look at me before continuing slowly on into the woods.  I grabbed my radio and told Curtis and Bobby to bring the hounds up to my view and as I was talking to them, the fox came back into the lane and sat down.  Bobby and Curtis were a good hundred yards away from me, in the opposite direction and it took them several minutes to get to me. During that time, I viewed the same fox cross back over the path twice more. The last time over he ran a downed tree across the path.   When the hounds approached the area, it was interesting to watch them  work the puzzle.  It was Reno who followed the line through the twists and turns until she took it away across the log. All hounds harked ,and another short chase ensued.  This fox  went to ground after only 45 minutes, and it went into the same earth where the first fox denned. ( I never bothered trying to get this fox on camera, since I was having so much trouble getting the f*$&#% to focus)

Now that hole must have been pretty stinky, cause it took some doing to get the ohounds away from it.  Terri, Tommy's small blue bitch, was way down inside the den when I walked up to it.  I pulled her out and got a hold of her with my whip and walked her , Sara and Twister away.  Most of the others had come to the horn or our calls save for Roscoe, Jocko and Annie. It was only 10:50am.

It was decided to try to find one more fox so that any hounds not accounted for would hark  Damn, something told me this wasnt a good idea today... But what the heck, I had all day since it was already too late to try to get a ride in  ( first day of shotgun in Delaware, so it would only be halfway safe to ride out at lunchtime).

Tommy walked his hounds into the woods about  a mile east of where the first two denned.  I had all four of my bitches in my truck.  Bobby had all of his in his truck.  I was seriously considering leaving mine right where they were until....Tommy's hounds opened  at 11:10 and two foxes were viewed away.   But the pack was running a third, and when that fox crossed over a gravel road right in front of Bobby's truck, I couldnt resist turning back out again.   12 couple were back together .  Only Curtis' Annie had failed to hark. We had a good chase on this red until he decided to make a run for the highway. What IS IT with all these foxes running straight for the damn highway???    Bobby thinks he turned the fox back from the road   ( he was blowing the truck horn HARD!) , but the hounds still overran and spilled onto the blacktop. Traffic came to a dead stop . A very nice lady driving  a van  with a cocker spaniel sitting in her lap held  up the eastbound line of traffic by stopping dead center on the yellow line. Tommy stopped the westbound side.  It was just before noon, and no one had to ask if we were going to hunt on , since we're hunting again tomorrow.

(Annie was located 15 minutes after we sorted hounds, still in the covert not far from the earth where the 2 foxes went to ground)

Cop cars and motorcycles and sirens and lights -o my!

Wednesday, January 11 hunt: .14 1/2 couple  began their chase on a red fox found in the small covert alongside Dougie Greys place at 8:22am. A hard frost was quickly melting as the sun warmed the atmosphere from a low of 27 degrees. An east wind was going to be a challenge, and it proved to be so early on when Charles headed first south, than made a large swing eastward and on to the north. He crossed the highway before anyone even knew he had made that turn to the north.  Bobby and I got to the front of Marvels' horse pastures and stopped to listen. We could hear the pack faintly BEHIND us,and realized that we all were way behind the fox and the hounds.  They were running hard in the Jimmy Henry Woods.  Everyone one else was still over in Squirrley Hill, and Bobby and I had one hound truck.  We did a fast U-turn on the highway and could hear the hounds swinging back towards us. Charles was setting his sights on the covert where he had been found.  At the same moment that we heard the pack coming, we heard loud sirens  headed our way, coming from the east and headed west on the highway.  Becauset hat wind was blowing right down the road, we heard them alot sooner than we saw them .  I'm guessing we had about 10 seconds warning.  Just as the hounds were exiting the woods and spilling onto the shoulder of the road, I looked up to see 4 police motorcycles with sirens wailing and all kinds of blue and red lights flashing. Behind them were 4 police cruisers with sirens blaring and lights flashing, also.  And they were barreling down the highway doing at least 75 mph.  I've never seen anything like it -it was like a scene out of a movie.

The adrenalin was pumping-I knew the motorcycles would not be able to stop if a hound ran in front of them.  I looked behind me, towards the pack  -  hounds were stepping into the road, despite Bobby's and my whip cracking and hollering. I looked back at the cops - and they were almost on top of us.  I remember dropping the tailgate and seeing hounds get in. Lark got scared and ran under the pickup and out into the middle of the road, but she darted right back under the truck (where she ususally goes when folks get to hollering-she doesnt like loud noise).   I remember seeing the motorcycles pass by me so close I could have reached out and touched the cops' arms! I dont think they slowed down at all.  But the police cars did slow down-in fact the last one in the entourage had to come to a complete stop when a hound  ran in front of it.

I  never saw  what it was  they were "escorting", but it had better been  somebody damned important to justify travelling at that speed.  When the dust cleared, we had only 4 couple in the truck, but no other hounds came out at the road.  Wow, my heart was still pounding.  Bobby had a huge grin on his face. ....
When the sounds of the sirensfinally faded, we heard the rest of the pack running hard ,still on the north side of the road.

The original fox must have made a quick swing  over the highway and gone right back again, keeping  the
 4 couple with him.  The others must have jumped another fox as soon as they hit that north side of the road.  This is my guess, since for the next 2 1/2 hours,  the pack followed a fox all over the Jimmy Henry woods, up almost to Baker Rd and back,making this swing many times. Tommy viewed the fox with the hounds only 100 feet behind him at one point.  I never viewed the fox, as I refused to leave the highway. The pack made three swings behind the "Beer Garden" ( now a  church, lol!) right alongside the highway - so I wasnt about to leave that road unguarded! So, I sacrificed some views for the safety of the pack, and  that's fine with me!

At about 11:30, the fox went to ground not far from Vorhees Pond.  The  sky was getting ominously gray.The forecast was for heavy rain to begin by early afternoon, and I was really happy  this  hunt was over.

Sunday, January 8th

12 1/2couple met at the Dead End woods at 8:15am.  The pack consisted of our regular week day group  of my 2cple, Tommy's 3 1/2 cple,  Bobby's 3 1/2 cple and Curtis' 3 1/2 cple.

Hounds found  a very sly and willing pilot at 8:26.   This red ran  one large swing around the Dead End woods and then took off running down wind straightaway to the south.  He flew over Wilhelm Rd,continuing through Johnny-boys woods ,  across a power line cutover and into the Frog Hollow woods. We caught up with him as he crossed the dirt lane that runs through Frog Hollow. ( you'll see him cross the road).  He covered so much ground so quickly that , until we got our first view of him, we thought we might be running a coyote.  For then next 50 minutes, this fellow gave good chase, retracing his path from the Dead End, through Walton Williss' woods and on into Frog Hollow,  At about  9:20, Charles began to loop back and forth between Johnny Boy's and Frog Hollow. His circles got tighter inside Johnny Boys woods and he popped out  into the open at its' southern edge at around 9:40. You will see him paused in the green wheat field on the video.  After he darted back  into the woods, something changed. Charles must have decided to save his brush. Hounds somehow switched onto a different red-and this one had the mange.  We never expected what happened next:  At  just after 10am, a fox broke covert out the same corner where you saw the first fox pause in the wheat. But it was a different fox. A mangey fox. And hounds were literally nipping at his heels across the wheat.  The front hounds rolled this sickly fellow only moments later, and right in front of us. ( private Utube video, must send me your Utube user name to view).

\Hounds were gathered  quickly and taken north again to draw theWeber Woods.   This covert lays close to a highway, and it makes me nervous when we hunt it. But the highway was upwind today, and theTHREE foxes that fled its' cover all chose to run with the wind.  The pack settled on the last fox to leave, and his flight across the open is on the video.  It was only  10:15! That didnt take long!

This fox was another willing fellow who led our PMD's on a nice chase, running in the open much of the time, until we decided to break the pack at noon, while all were still on ( although getting really strung out!) During this chase several other foxes, not hunted, were viewed -  including a brace that  were running together.

Very proud of all of my bitches, particularly Sara, who hung in there for the entire second chase.She gives it her all, even with her  supposed bad heart!

Thursday, January 5th,just enough snow....

.....to make scenting difficult for the first couple of hours.

I was surprised to awaken at 5am to a dusting of the white stuff. But the weatherman promised there would be a quick warm up to the mid 50s by afternoon, with winds to swing around from the present almost calm North to a blowing S/W. An unfavorable scenario for scent!

On Wednesday,I took Rap back up to Doc Riddle for the third time. The horse is still sore and I want to kmow WHY and WHERE. It is definitely just a case of sore heels, caused by the farrier not keeping the toes short enough. Doc's farrier reset the front shoes, taking almost a HALF INCH of toe off feet that were just trimmed by my farrier only 2 weeks ago!
We put a 2 degree rim pad on his fronts until Rap can grow some heel on his own. Now the problem is finding a farrier who will keep trimming the toe to get Raps angles back to a natural 52-54 degrees. I don't think my farrier is aggressive enough to do what needs to be done. :-(

So, Thursday I took Mel. to the hunt.  I also took the helmet cam. I've found new software that will make uploading and merging video segments easy, and I was eager to get some raw footage with which to experiment.

Because of the weather conditions,we decided to go right back to the Pistol Ramge Woods where we had gotten that nice -running red fox on New Years Day. The first cast resulted in Part-Time making the find at 9:48 . We had put the hounds into the covert at around 9:25 amd it was obvious from the get -go that they would be hard pressed to find a fox. But our 9  couple got this red on the move out of the pistol range, through the Latham woods, and on out the "middle strip" woods almost to Parker Rd. A car follower viewed a fox coming across a field bordered by Parker Road, headed BACK into the pistol range. I was with the hounds, while Bobby and Tommy were still walking back to their trucks. Wes, the car follower, wasn't being clear about where he saw this fox cross the field. When  the hounds hit the open, they couldn't smell and made a check. A frustrating few minutes ensued as we tried to recover the line. When the pack hit it heel over a wheat field, we broke them back at Parker Rd and loaded. Only my white bitch ,Marney, kept on the fox's line towards the woods. This is all on the video!

And then the damn  camera quit. You will hear the deafening beeps it began to make.
Too bad, because by the time we got the pack turned back out, the sun came out, the snow melted, we did get a chase in. I grabbed the Nikon and got our hunted fox crossing the ditch, and added that to the tail end of the helmet cam vid.( thanks to that new software!).

Hounds ran  this fox until almost 11 am.  But Charles always had a pretty good lead on the pack, and it was never a burning hot chase. When Bobby viewed the fox running the edge of Sullivan's field, we decided itwas a good place to break them. 

What started being a dark and gloomy-looking morning turned quickly into a warm, and blustery sunny afternoon.

Now, if I can just get the battery life of this helmet  camera figured out, I think I may begin to get something worth watching! 

New Years Day Hunt on MEL!!!!!

This is the first time I've had Mel ( aka "Annie's Irish Melody"), my 13 yo homebred  Irish Sport Horse out with hounds in over a year.  I had turned him away when he came up lame a year ago October ( after getting him ready to hunt!), and for all last season,I pushed my poor out of shape QH into service.We managed to get through it, but  I was missing the big guy,big time.

Then, I rode Rap all  this past summer to get him fit , thinking Mel's hunting days were over. And now Rap is not 100%.   However, in July,  I started Mel  on a regimen of Polyglygan injections. WOW! I've got my old horse back!! And today was his return to the hunt field. He was perfect!!  Not as fit as he needs to be but he'll get there. Today I was able to  save him by knowing when to just sit still and wait patiently for the fox to come back to us. Mel  had enough to make him tired, but not enough to make him cranky.

 We drew the pistol range woods  with 12 1/2 couple  at 7:45 am. It was 32F with a good frost on the ground, winds calm but were to blow quite hard out of the south by late morning. Forecast was for 20-25mph sustained. The temp was to soar to close to 60 F. We wanted to go early and beat the heat and the wind!

At 7:57, hounds opened on what we soon discovered was a brace of reds.  They flew through the woods, crossed a tax ditch, and went on through the Latham Woods, headed west. Within minutes, they were swinging back to the pistol range woods. Everyone  got a beautiful view of the brace running abreast over the wheat fields.

Now here's the thing, folks: Mel is a 17.2H ISH,and not as easy  as Rap to ride.  So trying to get him to the view, get hi m stopped,pull the camera out of my pocket (after pushing the radio back into its case), put the whip around my neck, and get the camera turned on, is a challenge. O-and still have one hand on the reins!

So- I missed getting the brace running together. But the foxes split once they got back into the woods, and  the dog fox made another round, running all that open again only minutes later. I got that, but not all of it is in focus.

Anyway,  the dog  fox ran round and round until I think there was a trade off after a very brief check in the woods at 10:10.  Despite the fact that we knew we had  AT LEAST 2 foxes running around all morning, we had only 2 splits. Right after the brace got into the "pistol  range woods" , they split with 4 couple running one and 8 1/2 on the other.  But the pack  got back together again before the one fox went away over the open.  Then later,   Roscoe and Repo did split off again in the Pistol range, and Bobby told me to the break them.  As I  rode around the edge of the covert to get in front of the hounds, I almost ran over the fox!  He turned around, ran the edge right in front of me for about 50 feet, then made a hard 90 degreee turn and ran the tall grass along another ditch, headed  north and straight for Billy Parkers house.  I got Roscoe and Repo turned back and harked them to the others. After that, the  hunted fox's pattern changed. The pack was being taken in tighter circles and  more to the south than before.  I viewed him several times, but most of the time I was looking to the Southeast, straight into the sun. I turned on the camera, and  got the fox a couple of times ( but you'd better have a keen eye!), and some  hound work.

At  around 10:55, this fox made a swing close to  Burrsville Rd more than once.  And then he slipped out over the road, headed to the cannery. It was  a few minutes after 11:00.   But the hounds had been having a lot of trouble staying up on Charles  as he wound around the thick briar beds during the last half hour of the chase.  They had a long check at the road, and  it was decided to pick them up.  All were on, after a very hard run of over 3 hours.

It was one of the best hunts for me, not just because of the views and the way the hounds worked so well. But because Mel did not disappoint me. He seemed so happy to be back out with hounds again. That big stride of his is back!!! I love Rap, he's good as a back up horse, , but he will never move like this ISH moves!!!

Happy New Year!!! Some champagne, and a nice rib roast beckon!

(And the hounds will eat VERY well on some prime rib scraps over the next few days. The butcher gave me about 10lbs. of it! )

Dec 26 (Oy Vey!) and Dec 27 Hunts-(WOOHOO!!!)

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And that was the extent of the helmet cam for the day. Right after that, the camera started beeping, and a red light ( not the battery indicator) started flashing. You can only reset the camera through your  computer when that happens. Just another reason to ditch this piece of crap equipment. I got less than 5 minutes video at the very beginning of the morning. Useless!!

The Boxing Day hunt, IMO, was not one of our better days.  It took a long while before the hounds found the first fox,and when they finally took off in hot pursuit,several hounds stayed back in the covert,tonguing the line of another fox. I was on Rap and stayed back with Tommy and Curtis to round those hounds up.Two of mine , Marilyn and Marney (this, her second time out after being up for 3 weeks), were in this bunch and I needed to get a physical hold on Marney and lead her out..After I broke that little bunch ( pistol needed-but some of them can be very hard-headed, including Marney!), I had to get off the horse and walk Marney out to the road where a hound truck waited to give this group a lift to where the big pack was running. Which was now a couple of miles away.

It was 9:45am when I got back on the horse. We had started at 8am. Tommy and Curtis were still trying to get a couple of hounds out of the covert where I had just brought out my own two.  A fox was viewed away at Everlines, headed towards a canal. That was a couple miles east of us. Rap had started out fine, but after almost 2 hours , he was definitely feeling off again. And it hadnt been a hard 2 hours of riding. I couldnt in good conscience ask him to go on. The horse trailer was only 1/2mile from me, so I took him in and hopped a ride with Tommy to get around to where the main pack was still running.  I dont remember how that first chase ended,  By the time Tommy and I got to the others, they were about to draw the Jarroll woods

.We had 20  couple out (not a typo) - Jeff  came back down \from New Jersey , Freddy's, Tommy's, Bobby's ,Curtis' ' and my hounds. We didnt have any real splits, but that's mainly because we had so much trouble finding foxes.

The short video here shows the fox that was found in the Jarrell Woods only  minutes after Tommy and i got there. Charles popped out of the woods and sat down in the road in front of us for several seconds, then went back into the covert, crossed another road on the west side of it, then ran the open for a good while.  When the fox got back into another large covert further west,  ,the chase blew up. Freddy tried for another hour to find another fox, and the hounds did trail for theentire hour.But nothing much cameof it. Finally,at 1 :00, we called it a day.

Charles , as he sat down in the road for several seconds before ducking back into thewoods

Now TUESDAY- 12/27, that's a whole different story!!!

Yesterday (Boxing Day) we had a NWwind ,blowing hard at 20mph, sustained, and higher gusts. It was sunny and in the 40's.   Today, a low pressure system is approaching from the south that will evolve into a nor'easter later tonight.  Ahead of the storm we had a slighlty lighter south wind, and the temp was 38 F during the draw at 8am.  The rain  and gale force wind was forecast  to start by noon.  It was cold and very damp for the first hour.

Our pack of 15 1/2 couple found a handsome looking fox at 8:07. This red took us on a great run for the next 2 1/2 hours, covering a large part of the country.  A couple of times we thought that the pack might have switched pilots when his pattern changed ,but that was not the case.

In the above video,  you see the hounds leaving the covert where they found this fox.I viewed the fox, but didnt get him on the vid. Then,you'll see a fox come back over the road. This was about  20minutes later. But this was NOT the hunted fox. A tractor trailer then goes by, and I thought it was going to turn our hunted fox, but it didnt. And then youll see hunted fox cross right where the other one did.  The foxes crossed within minutes of each other.

There was a split at around 9:30,  when this fox ran to the  Garland Road  bridge and got turned back by a car.  There is a gut there where the creek runs under the road, and when the hounds overshot where the fox doubled,they all spilled out into the road. We didnt want them crossing Garland Rd and were about to load them when some hounds still  back down in the gut opened. When the hounds in the road harked and got back into the gut, a second fox was roused and that's when things got really interesting.

8 1/2 couple were taken north, back towards the covert where fox # 1 was jumped . The other bunch went east, staying in  Georges Little Branch.  As Bobby, Tommy and I  approached the water crossing ( the "overgoin',lol!) , Ginny tallyho'd fox #1 running on our side of the water. ( She was on the opposite side).
This fox must have crossed the branch right at the overgoin, as the hounds were running the branch up on Ginny's side. Bobby and I had his older dog, Rosco , and my Marney in the hound truck ( we had held them up only a few minutes before).  The next video shows us turning them out onto the fox's line and harking the other hounds,( who were now checking at the water) ,  to them.  Very good experience for Marney!

Less than 10minutes later, fox # 1 decided to break out of Georges big branch and run due north, crossing a road and running in the open .   He made a bee line for Mutt Ruffs Woods.  That was getting out of the hunt country on the north side, so everyone flew around to a dirt road bordering Ruffs Woods and we tried to break the pack.  5 people and two pistols couldnt get the job done!!  Those hounds were HOT on that fox and there was no stopping them...

Now they were headed for the Bell Tract, and it was imperative that we  not let them get there. We got very lucky when our handsome pilot broke covert viewed by both Ginny and I. I grabbed my pistol,- that had only 2 shots left- , and ran to where the fox popped out of the woods and ran the edge .  I got the hounds  stopped, but according to Ginny  and Tommy, while I was doing it, ANOTHER fox popped out of the woods and ran right behind me, going the same direction as the hunted one.  Too bad somebody else didnt have a camera rolling!

Now it was time to go catch up with the other 7 couple,who were still running fox # 2 in Georges little branch.  They ran for another 15 minutes and then their fox went to ground behind Tower's shed.  Bobby and I got to them and got them loaded.  It was 10:30. 

A great day with a  very nice red fox ( fox #1). The fox in the video is fox # 1, as I never viewed the other one.

Update on Rap!!!Pretty certain he has only an abcess about to pop. Heat in the RF foot now, but we KNOW both front feet are clean from xrays taken.  Hope the thing pops soon! when the electricity comes back on ( power out due to storm), I m gonna soak it.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

...and thanks to all who are following my blog. I am amazed that so many people are taking the time to read these hunt reports!! Our farmer pack is nothing like an organized, recognized hunt, as you can plainly see, lol, but we always have a blast watching our hounds work. And isn't that what it's all about, anyway?!

Our Christmas Eve morning hunt was not the best day out with hounds, IMO. It started out fine, with hounds on the heels of their first fox at 8:29. But in addition to our regular weekday pack of 12 1/2 cple, there were an additional 7 couple, Freddy's hounds and our jolly friend, Jeff, made the long drive down from New Jersey with his. (he 's found out that he has a torn meniscus in his right knee, which makes that long drive very uncomfortable!)

Not surprisingly, the pack split after about 50 minutes. 4 couple, including Toyota(Jeffs), The Skinny Bitch(Tommy's), Roscoe(Bobby's) and my Marilyn, ( I can't remember who the other 2 cple were, but I know there were some of Freddy's there, too), pushed their fox over a long stretch of fallow cornfields to the Maryland state line about 3/4 mile to the west. Tommy viewed the fox away, but he couldn't get to the pack in time to hold them up. It is still deer season(just muzzleloader) in MD, and that fox took the hounds right into a woods where there were some deer hunters. Oops... Meanwhile, the main pack continued on behind the other fox, apparently giving good chase for the next hour. I wouldn't know, because I spent the entire time guarding a dirt road in Maryland as Bobby, Freddy, and I tried to 1) break the 4 couple and 2) keep their pilot from crossing a dirt road that ran through the middle of  the woods. The deer hunters were on the west side of that dirt road. Actually, we WANTED the fox to cross that road- we were there and ready to break them, should he do so. (The covert they were running in on the east  side is flooded and full of briars, making it impossible to get in front of them as they run through it.)

Finally, Freddy was able to get the pack stopped when he viewed the fox break out across a power line cutover. We loaded that bunch and returned to the meet. But by then , the other fox had gone to
ground, and that chase was over.

By the time those hounds were called away from hole and heads were counted, it was nearing 10am. I had both my bitches loaded in Bobby's truck.( I left Marney home,since she had run two consecutive days' after being up in kennels for 3 weeks.  And Sara is just now coming out of heat. She will be back out on Boxing Day) I needed to be leaving for home by 11am. And although I knew I'd hear alot of ribbing by the others, I had no plans to let their feet touch the ground again! Wise decision, since it wasn't until 10:20 that the next fox was jumped. I was now back in my own hound truck, but the reunited pack was trailing their fox just enough that i wasn't able to get my bitches out of Bobby's . I gave him the evil eye twice when he threatened to turn them back out on me!

I hadn't viewed a fox all morning. I decided to stick around for a few extra minutes when I heard over the radio that this newest pilot was running hard and in a woods not too far from another highway. While all of the other hunters stayed on the east side of the hunted country, I drove to the north side, by the road. A farm lane allowed me to drive away from the highway and get a hundred yards closer to where their fox was running. Another good decision: only seconds later, a big, beautiful light red fox broke covert running parallel to the road, across the emerald green wheat field. He ran to the farm lane,then turned and ran the lane away from me. I watched him disappear back into another woods to the west.
That was a great view, and worth waiting around for. I tally ho'd over the radio, and warned the fellas they should move around to the northwest side of the covert, quickly!

I waited and watched as the pack worked the line until they disappeared from my view, then sat tight for a few more minutes, just in case Charles decided to make another round. He didn't. But I was glad I stayed put because 5 minutes later Patty, Tommy's old bitch, trailed up behind. By the time she got into the middle of the green field, she was upwind and couldn't locate the pack. I ran and got to her, loaded her and took her to Tommy. By now it close to 11:30, and I hated leaving during the best chase of the day, but had no other option. House cleaning, then company, awaited at home.

That last fox went to ground about a half hour later, so I didn't miss all that much!

A cleaned house, company for the traditional Italian feast of the 7 fishes , and candlelight Christmas church service at 11pm with my 84 yo mom rounded out the day. And a great present this morning: sleeping in until 7am!!

Hunt #41, Dec 23rd, another great day

Looking east at the meet,the cold front and rain exiting east. Look how soggy the ground is!! There was water laying everywhere.

... we had heavy rain overnight. At 5am, the temp was 67 F .But the cold front was blowing through from the west at that time and two hours later, the temp had droppped to 47!  The winds died down somewhat by the time 12couple of hounds  moved off at 8:00am.

Today was Bobby's day to hunt Wye Island. But we had made the decision yesterday to hunt close to home instead. And WOW!  Am I glad we did!  You dont get runs at Wye Island like we had today....

 The first fox really doesnt count:  We cast the hounds into a woods behind Larrimores chicken houses and this first red fox was roused at 8:18 am. I viewed him FLYING along the side of one of the chicken houses. He made a turn to the north and headed right for a large den in the side of a ditch bank.  That fox didnt stay up for more than 3 minutes!


The hole(s) where the first fox went in.  I counted 4, but I was in too big a hurry to get hounds away from there to look too closely!

 Hounds were  called back from the hole and we headed over to the red barn woods. The next pilot was much more willing. He was found in the woods near the dry cow lot, about a mile from where we had denned the first red. This fox crossed High Stump road, ran into the state land, down the ditch behind Wyatt's c hicken houses,then across about a half  mile of open grass as he made a diagonal line from Wyatt's to the  Jarred   woods.  I have him crossing over some of the field on the  beginning of  this video. 
 He jumped a ditch in this small covert, and I missed getting him as he miscalculated the jump and did a belly flop in the water-it was hilarious.  But I did get the hounds and a pretty spectacular deer jumping the ditch going the opposite direction.  You'll see the hounds check at the ditch, and they needed a little help getting straight.  But you'll hear Curtis  encouraging my Lark- she recovered the line back in the woods.

Then, all hell broke loose, which you will also hear, lol!  When we all headed to the highway, 3 foxes were viewed coming from three different sides of the covert..  The next fox on the video is theone Bobby and I turned back from the highway. He was not the hunted fox. The hunted fox went away to the east, although Im pretty certain the hounds switched onto a different fox in that covert, because for the rest of the chase, the fox ran a much different pattern, in entirely new country. Regardless, this fox showed great sport by running the woods behind Tommy's house for over an hour.  I was in the woods and got the fox  on camera as he ran right past me, with the hounds less than 200 feet behind him. They were running the fox by sight  then! 
(sorry that piece isnt in focus).  Another half hour passed with the hounds still  pushing their pilot up and down the big  woods behind Tommy's until finally, Chalrie tired of that and was viewed away as he headed straight for the Marshy Hope "canal".  Hounds had to be stopped there, or else they would have been well on their way to the town of Greenwood.

I left alot out- there were so many foxes viewed, but not hunted. And I witnessed alot of great hound work , and some crafty moves by the hunted foxes.

Watch for that deer leaping the ditch in the background- it's pretty cool!

Can anyone help me figur eout why the camera doesnt focus sometiomes, but at other times it does??? I've had so many great photo opps ruined because the camera wont focus. :-(

Thursday, Dec 22 hunt-correction.ya'll knew I meant 10 couple! But may have 20cple out next week!

I had this hunt report half way finished when the damn dog  hit some key on the keyboard and it ALL DISAPPEARED. Sheesh

10 couple out, including three of my four bitches.Marney back in action.(Sara will be ready to go this weekend).  I was late getting to the 8am meet, so I called ahead and told the guys to start the draw without me.  Curtis' dog jumped the first fox at 8:07. I arrived at 8:10am and was able to get my bitches harked right behind the pack as they made a run down the side of a field. Perfect way to get Marney back  into the swing of things. Just perfect!

This fox ran for 40 mintues then went right to a hole in the same covert where he was found. All hounds were on. We walked the pack across the street and into  some woods about 1/4 mile away.  Just after 9am, the second fox was on the move. I had a close encounter with him when he cut the corner of a field were I was standing alone.  He ran within 50 feet of me, and turned his head and gave me a long look as he went by.  A funny colored  fox-very dark on the sides, almost like a gray fox color, but definitely NOT a gray fox.  The damn camera was in my pocket , but I was so transfixed by the mutual stare we were having that i never thought to get it out!  But I grabbed it in time to get the hounds as they went by.  We had several hounds ahead, and a bigger bunch running them up behind, as you will hear and see  on the video.

This fox ran some woods, then crossed a road and made a nice run in the open after blasting through a small covert on the other side.  Our hounds were having trouble getting together-the back hounds were way behind the entire time on this fox.  When the front hounds hit the woods on the other side of the road, they switched onto a different fox.  I viewed the original funny colored fox as he broke covert and ran the open to the north, but the hounds never came on him. Their new pilot took them on a different course , running  east through a big stand of woods, crossing  another road, and then hitting another large woods. After blowing through that covert, he made a wild swing to the north, crossing yet another road, and then bearing back east. He eventually went to ground in an earth next to a  drain pipe along a huge tax ditch.  A good run!
By now it was 11:45, and the temperature had soared to over 60 degrees.  A good time to quit.  Bobby and I were the first to get to  the hounds as they marked the earth..  As we began to walk them out, we heard the sound of a hound in distress.

I've heard that sound before.  I've heard that exact HOUND before. It was Bobby's dog, Radio.  The same hound that had gotten himself immortalized on video when he got himself stuck in a drain pipe back in October at the C &R Center.  And he had done it again:

. But this time, the end of the pipe was badly bent-much more so than the pipe at the C & R .   Tommy and Curtis arrived on the scene, and using a nearby deer stand's metal ladder, they attempted to bend the bent top of the pipe up.  No luck. Tommy left to go find better tools.

I stayed with Radio. He got himself turned sideways and was trying to squeeze out, but couldnt get his shoulders cleared.  I started digging away at the dirt on the outside of the pipe with my bare hands and somehow  created enough space for him to squiggle his shoulders clear. But he was laying sideways, and the pipe edge was very sharp. I didnt want to pull him liike I had done last time, for fear of him getting sliced up.  But  Tommy re-appeared and he pulled Radio out the rest of the way.  Crazy hound.  'Thought he would have learned a lesson after the first time!

End of story.  Hunting tomorrow again, at 8am.

All of the fields have these things sticking up ,along with the left over cornstalks. Nice footing for the horse, hey?

This radish is 10 inches long!

P>S>  remember the new cover crop I talked about? Radishes. The farmers no-till the radishes, then let them die back and rot into the ground. The thing  is, right now these radishes are sticking up out of the ground about 4 inches.,which makes riding a horse over these fields a challenge.

Wye Island Hunt, 12/21/11

On Tuesday , the weather for  my  Wye Island hunt  on Wednesday wasnt looking very good at all.  The forecast was for rain showers to develop overnight  , with more showers early Wednesday morning, turning into a steady ,heavy rain later in the day.  But the hourly forecast showed only a 50% chance of showers up until around noon time. I was willing to take those odds, and decided the hunt was on.

When hunting Wye Island, it's imperative to check the tides. It IS an island, afterall, and when the tide is low, foxes LOVE to run the shoreline, staying out of view.(In most \places there is a very steep drop off down to the waters' edge, as you can see in the helmet cam video.) Low tide was to be at around 7:20am, with the high tide somewhere around noon. Ideally, we would have waited and started our hunt at around 9:30am, when the tide was well on its way back in.  But the  impending rain forced us to move the time up to 8am.
When I drove over the bridge leading to the Island at 7:45am, there was a fair amount of shoreline exposed.
Crap. At least the rare S/SW wind would push the tide in faster....

It was 52 degrees, and the wind was blowing at about 15-20 mph. (A rather pleasantly warm  day on Wye Island ,compared to most! Last year, we hunted  here with several inches of snow on the ground, and the small coves and inlets  ringing the island were completely frozen over in places- a hazardous scenario when the fox runs over the ice and the hounds following him  dont make it!)

Wye Island is a Maryland Wildlife Management Area  of 2800 acres. Fox chasing is strictly limited here to only 12 days a year, and one must enter a lottery ( sic) with hopes of being assigned a day.  Today was my day. Rain? Wear a raincoat.  Sore horse? Vet says there's nothing wrong but some low heels, give him some banamine and ride the sucker - and find another farrier right after the holidays.

The other caveat: one is only allowed to bring 6 couple of hounds to hunt. And there is a charge of $5 per hound. So,today would set me back $60. I  brought only 1 couple, Marilyn and Lark ( the other two bitches are just about ready to hunt after being in heat ). Tommy brought 2 couple:Twister, Jocko, Terri and ' The Skinny Bitch" ( really, that's what he calls her, lol!)  Bobby brought Reno, Shamrock, Roscoe and Pearl.  And Curtis brought  Dawn and one other hound whose name escapes me at the moment...

Ok, so it wasnt ideal conditions.  But it wasnt horrible, either.  We got the first of two foxes up and on the move at 8:07am.  This red ran for 55 minutes and then went to ground in the earth in the photo.

 Hounds were gathered and roaded to the Holly Tree covert,where two foxes broke covert at the same time at about 9:40 am.The pack settled on one and ran it for another long hour until they came to a loss on the disappearing shoreline of a small cove on the east side of the island . ( The first chase stayed to the west side of the island).
I was with them and watched as they tried in vain to recover the line for about 15 minutes. Either Charlie gave them the slip  ( the tide was coming in, and the shoreline was quickly disappearing), OR, he went in somewhere along the bank of that small cove.) Regardless,  by the time we gathered the hounds and walked them  back out to the road, it was raining .  And the wind was really starting to blow HARD.

At  around 11am, as I was hacking back to the trailer parking area, the sky opened up and the rain really began to come down.  We planned our hunt, and it went pretty much as we had hoped, except for the damn low tide.

Took video with the helmet cam and I find it to be pretty useless. Just a lot of the horses' head bobbing, wind noise, and not much else.  The segment shown here was the best- and i was alot closer to the hounds across that  cornfield than it appears.  And the audio sucks, as far as being able to hear the pack in full cry.  The handheld Nikon does much better- took a few seconds of the hounds with it for comparison.

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Finally got a chance to photograph this quaint Methodist Church , located on the road t o Wye Island. Founded in 1807.(The Eastern Shore of Maryland  was the birthplace of the Methodist Church in America).