Monthly Archives: February 2013

Hunting

The Ranch Road

Toward the end of quail season, Rob Haney called saying that he had a free Saturday and it looked like the expected, big “norther” wouldn’t hit his area until Sunday night. We, the we being myself and Sonny, my Brittany Spaniel, hurried up to Rob’s ranch, only a 6 hour drive in my Company’s Suburban, arriving just as night fell, for a go at the quail the next day.

Low clouds greeted us Saturday morning along with a medium, south wind that offered us wonderful scenting conditions. Sonny found the quail and we scored heavily during the day. As shooting time ended, our limits stuffed in our game bags, we decided on something different for our evening meal.

Instead of our usual steak cooked over mesquite logs on Rob’s “old timey”, fired brick, bar-b-que pit, we grilled 8 quail halves. They were spiced up with a half of a jalapeno pepper, then wrapped with a piece of bacon and grilled until the bacon was done. We added a baked potato, along with chopped, green, Ortega, chilies and onions and we had a feast!

Up early on Sunday, Rick went to church, and Sonny and I headed out for a quick repeat at the quail. Parking the Suburban along the main ranch road, we were greeted by more low clouds and a steady, light northwest wind. Uh-oh, it looked like the “norther” had arrived early, beating the forecast by a good 8 hours!

An hour later, we were hunting into a strong northwest wind with large flakes of snow blowing all around us. Sonny, mostly white, with a few reddish brown spots, was getting hard to see as he worked 50 yards to the front.

We bumped into 2 coveys, I knocked down 4 birds, but the balance of both bevys just melted away into the falling snow. We soldiered on for the next hour, fighting the wind, snow and poor visibility, until we were “whited out”. No Sonny out in front, one mesquite tree, out of the thousands on the ranch, close by, nothing but white, up, down and around me! Stopping in my tracks, I whistled for Sonny to come in, sat down in the snow and surveyed my situation.

As I debated my options, Sonny and I huddled together in the snow for nearly 10 minutes,. Those minutes of debate and indecision, along with never having, or dreaming, that I would be caught in a situation like this, caused my psyche to race from panic, to fear, until logical thought took over. Then I used my head for something other than a hat rack, and figured out what to do.

No compass, of course, since I was ONLY hunting on Rick’s 2,000 acre, ranch. I knew northwest was to the front, since we had been hunting into the wind. I knew the ranch road, where I had left the Suburban, was behind me. So, I decided to try to walk back to the truck. Even if I missed the truck, I could stay on the ranch road until I got back to the main ranch house.

Always carrying a check cord for the dog, I snapped it on to his collar, he heeled along with me, and keeping the wind to my back, carefully walked the mile back to the ranch road, guessing correctly, turning right and. it turned out, that I was within 200, yards of the truck. Of course, it was white too! Before heading back to Houston, I waited for over an hour for the snowstorm to break, then for the next 8 hours (normally an easy 6 hour drive) slowly drove home.

All of my life I have tried to beat nature and weather forecasts, and, one more time, I lost!

Pictures

Favorite Pictures

Looking back over my blogging career, some pictures taken are really good, some pictures that I took missed the point and some are just plain bad!  Three that stand out are pictures that tell a story in themselves, stories of stealth, challenges and escape.  The following expands a little on these 3 pictures.

The first, a sailfish jumping in the harbor in Mazatlan, Mexico, see my post of June 28, 2008, [“Sailfish In Mazatlan Harbor”], I had rented a fishing boat for a day, we had just put out the lines, even before we cleared the harbor mouth and this sail hit one.  He jumped several times and, luckily, I snapped this picture at the right time.  We landed the fish, a nice one, I had it mounted, but it was destroyed by a tornado in Spring, Texas, but that too is another story.

The second, was of a turkey in 2009, truly a remarkable picture, my post [“Counting Coup”], I had really counted coup, an old Indian term, meaning to touch an enemy warrior, with a coup stick, very brave and a very Indian thing, on this turkey.  He came along searching for this hen, I was clucking away, but no clucks when he was this close, not 6 feet, fearing he would see the movement.

The last is of the big buck lying on the ground that I shot on November 7, 2012, my post [“Challenge Unanswered”] and his proposed opponent.  The second buck is pawing up the ground, stirring up the dust, which is pictured.  The second buck was challenging the big one to the doe he was following, of course, it was unanswered.

Weather

Ground Hog Day

This past Saturday, February 2, 2013, was Ground Hog Day.  This was a huge celebration in Pennsylvania, settled by Germans, home of the day.  The German influence goes way back in time to the Romans who had conquered half of the British Isles they took the custom over to the mainland and influenced the Teutons (Germans), them thinking this was a good way to see if winter would drag on, or end.

It was cloudy in Pennsylvania this past Saturday the ground hog didn’t see his shadow so spring is near.  But in Texas things were different.

Bee Cave Bob, our local prognosticator, an armadillo, came out of his burrow, saw his shadow and went back in.  Six more weeks of winter down here!  This picture is of an armadillo that wandered into our yard.

Our weather forecasters need to get their act together, because this sounds like a serious dichotomy to me.