Thursday November 17th, 2005.........Ken and I head north again to transport more building supplies and to get some hunt time logged in. Due to the bulk of "stuff" we have in the truck there is only room for one small dog box so we take just Ken's male JACK. After an early start and a long haul we arrive at our destination and unload the supplies, take care of a few issues then head for the hills to shoot some bunnies. We hit the woods about 10:30 A.M. and within minutes Jack has a hare on the move and a blazing steady run get underway. Round and round in the thick fir trees the chase takes place and even though the hare is mostly white on the bare ground we have no luck seeing the critter. Fifty five minutes into the hunt I get a good look at the bunny and down he goes sprawled out in the evergreens.
Before the day ends we get 3 more runs like the one just described. Two of those runs end up with a dead bunny in the vest and the last rabbit gets lucky as we have to call it a day to start the long drive back home so we catch the dog on a dead run and call it quits.

Thursday December 1st, 2005.......Ken and I have a pattern going so it seems as our trips north seem to all hit on a Thursday but it's just a coincidence the way it has turned out. This time we have 2 females with us. Ken has a little bitch by the name of "JAZZY" and I have "Sophie" both are heavy in BUCKSHOT MR BILL blood. Once again it's bare ground up here with an air temperature of 30 degrees. It'll warm up to about 35 degrees later on so conditions are ideal. We cast the hounds and JAZZY gets the first start and moments later the two hounds are together and well matched up. Steady is the only way to describe the run and I might add with a little "foot" to boot. After 45 minutes Ken blazes away at the hare but the hunt continues. Clean miss, YYUUUK! Oh well I guess I'll just have to take care of that hare myself and a while later I drill rabbit number one. As it turned out that would also be my last bunny of the day. Kenny gets serious and kills every rabbit we started the rest of the day. Both hounds ran extremely well the way they are suppose to. Plenty of foot for these little bitches and NO LOSSES. All the hare started were shot and so far this year we have accounted for ALL the rabbits run. Our hounds generally don't lose a hare on bare ground but when the deep cold snows come it will unfortunately get tough. Jazzy is turning into a first class hound with great bloodline. Her sire is dog by the name of SUGAR MT'S BULLSEYE BUTCH and her dam is F.C. FAM'C MOUNTAIN VIEW SUE.

Saturday December 3rd, 2005.......Today we hunt locally in a place we refer to as the "Hell Hole" as it's a long walk in and a long walk out. Got some extra guns with us today with 3 grandsons Christopher, David and the youngest Daniel. The other gun is Kenny who is becoming a pretty good hunting partner. Ken has his big Mr Bill dog Jack and I have my Mr Bill dog Tim. Jack is a wide ranging hard searcher and Tim is just the opposite as he hunts hard but close and is a peach to handle. It is cold today with the temperature at 14 degrees and a twenty mile an hour wind that blows steady all day long.
Jack gets a start a long ways away and with the wind it takes a while for Tim to hear Jack and get coupled up with him. This particular place has some good cover and the rabbits run very big circles. In short order both hounds are out of hearing and the wind is horrid. I call Kenny on the two way to find out if he can hear the dogs and they are running not too far away from him. Before long the hunt swings back our way and David gets a whack at the rabbit and the rabbit survives the attempt on his life and thirty minutes later Christopher lets go a round himself. The run continues. The kids see the bunny another couple times without getting a shot off and the minutes of this run tick off into the hours. The hounds run non stop and do a great job on the frozen ground. FINALLY after three and a half hours Kenny cuts loose with his twelve guage and the bunny dies. Both hounds move in on the bunny and thats that. We move off a bit and Jack goes his way and I work Tim in a good patch of hemlocks and jumps a bunny out of a squat into a good hard drive and Jack catches up in short order and "their biting at his tail". A short twenty minute run drives the rabbit across a tote road 30 yards from where Christopher is standing and Chris takes a snap shot at the fleeing fur ball. Now you don't get much time to get off a shot at driven bunny crossing a six foot wide tote road. A minute or two after the shot Christopher hoots signaling the fact that he got the bunny. We gathered on the road and leashed the dogs. Chris showed us where he was standing and where the hare crossed when he took the shot and I was impressed. NICE SHOT!
We got two more long runs before quitting Jack getting the start on one and Tim on the other. We took the long long walk out and headed to the store for a hotdog and a drink. The kids did great and they seem to really enjoy this rabbit hunting thing!

Wednesday December 7, 2005......Very cold this morning at 16 degrees with a strong wind and a dew point of 7 degrees. That is really dry and low dew points cause the wind chill to drive down to single digits and below. I had underestimated the cold and didn't dress for it as well as I should have so it was a bit uncomfortable for me in the woods today. We hunted close to home and a young beagler who's legal first name wouldn't you know it is Hunter. I brought Ruth and Kenny had Jazzy, two 13" bitches with pretty good nose. For sure they needed it this morning. We had about an inch to two inches of old snow on the ground and the swamps were all ice. Ten minutes in the woods Jazzy opened up and Ruth harked in quickly and a hunt was underway. Unbelieveable what we expect these creatures to do chasing bunnies all over the woods by smell! You add poor scenting conditions to that and the miracle just boggles the mind. Both hounds ran real well with a steady drive and few checks. The hare ran a long way ahead of the hounds but the hounds couldn't be shaken from the track. Forty five minutes into the hunt Kenny kills the hare and the hounds made their way with authority down to the kill. Ruth had suffered a severe back injury a year ago and I was very pleased to see her mobility show some improvement.
It took a while to find another rabbit and Ruth got onto this one first and drove a long ways before Jazzy chimmed in. It was still pretty cold but that didn't stop the dogs from running very, very well. I was elated to see Ruth perform as well as she did and her mobility immensely improved. This place we were in today was new to me so I had no idea where the crossings might be and where the best stands were. The hounds circled big several times so I set myself up in a place where they crossed a couple times, figuring the hare would eventually return. That he did, but I still didn't see the bunny because I must've moved at the wrong time and turned the hare. I readjusted my position and waited for the race to return to me. Right now they were nearly out of hearing and the chase stayed that way for another twenty minutes or so. But as it usually does, the hare circled back and I was ready. Closer and closer they came when all of a sudden HUNTER goes running by me about forty yards away just in time to turn the hare from coming by . I caught a glimpse of the thing angling away and then out of sight. I got to see the hare up close ten minutes later, however that was after Kenny shot the bunny YUK! Both hounds ran as one right up to the dead hare once again and we picked up and went home. So far this year we accounted for every hare we started, a statistic that means very much to us!
On the way home I said a little prayer thanking God for the physical improvement my hound Ruth displayed during the hunt. I sure am thankful and I asked for her continued good health!

Saturday December 10, 2005......We got a 14 inch dump of snow yesterday so the morning hours begin with a snow shovel, followed by a plow. Up and down the driveway, on the porches and eventually on the roof. Then I drive up to my daughters up the road to plow her out. Christopher pitched in and did his share of the lug work and eventually the millions of little white flakes got taken care of. Deer season is still underway and I want to run Ruth again solo and after her great run the other day I couldn't wait to test her again in this deeper snow. Sophie is laid up being in heat so she's out of the question for a run. Chris and I head out to a small cover for a hunt where there would be no deer hunters to bother us and to see how Ruth would do. I carried a single shot .410 and Chris had a 20 pump his Dad bought him last year. The plan was for Chris to take the dog to the further end of this cover before he cast her and I would check around for deer sign. I'm not 100 percent sure that her deer running days are over.Twenty minutes passed when Chris called to say that she had a start. With the snow on the trees and the distance they were from me I couldn't hear a thing. Fifteen minutes later I got to hear her and she was coming my way in a steady fashion filling the air with that sweet music. About 50 yards away she swings left in that same steady manner and goes off curving back toward Christopher from whence she started this hunt. The hare stayed in the thick pine trees for a long time then made a dash for another thicket some several hundred yards away then curved back again heading to the original area where the dog got the start. Chris has grown savvy enough now to understand that a hare usually tries to go back to the vicinity it started from, and he had the presence of mind to ambush the hare on a likely crossing. KAAABOOOOOMMMMM his gun fired and a hoot followed. I called him on the walkis talkie to catch the dog as we were going to pick up. The run lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, solid, steady and without a falter even after it got all tracked up. There were too few hare in this thicket it turned out to justify killing another hare here so we picked up and called it a day.

Thursday December 15th, 2005.........It was four degrees below zero here the last two mornings and the twelve inches of week old snow is some chilly. I acquired Bruno from Tony Famiano over the weekend so I saddled him up and headed out for a hunt with Kenny and his Jack dog. We cast the hounds amid a miriad of hare tracks and waited. It didn't take long for the two dogs to get a start as both are "get 'em up, sick 'em" hard hunting pros. Before long they were on a split so we just let them run. Round and round each hound ran solo and we just let them be. The snow still clung to the branches on the trees from last weeks storm and the branches were bent downward hard, adding to the already poor visibility. Also, the snow filled trees muffled the sounds of the two free tongueing beagles and that put them out of hearing often. Ken and I didn't do much moving around as to do so would just invite the snow to fall on our heads whenever branches were disturbed. After a fashion the dogs got together and round and round the hounds ran with each dog sharing the load in front. At the two hour mark the hunt had crossed a tote road and Kenny called me to it, as he knew this cover rather well and we set up to ambush the hare here, should he decided to circle back. But that didn't happen either as the hare was content to stay in the cover he was currently in. Another hour passed without getting a shot at the critter then BRUNO went silent? Huummmm that was odd as this hound doesn't get shaken out. Ten minutes later Kenny calls on the radio that BRUNO came out to him and that he had icicles frozen on each foot. Easy call, leash him up and head for the truck. I got Bruno from Ken while he chased down Jack. Then I carried Bruno to the truck. Got Ken's truck started and turned the heater on full blast and placed the dog on the front seat. I didn't try to force the ice off the dog for fear of injuring him but I just let the heat work the ice loose along with the hounds tongue action. Ken arrived with Jack and we headed out. When we got to my truck Bruno had managed to get the front icicles mostly off and I took a picture of the dog with the icy "boots" still on the hind legs with a few front toes still encased. Evidently Bruno got into some water during the run and the snow just froze to the wet feet and created a ball of ice. And I mean a ball of ice on each foot. Life of a HARE HUNTER! Not easy when "frosty" shows up.

Friday December 23, 2005......Christopher and I were up at 2:30 A.M. getting ready to head north for a hunt. A couch had been given to me and I had to get the bulky thing out of my garage. Kenny would make the long trip with us too. We took two hounds Ruth and Jazzy. Because of the thin ice crust we have here at home I haven't had a dog in the woods for over a week. The conditions up north were said to be better. After a 260 mile drive one way we arrive at the camp to find a crusty snow that had just been covered by an inch and a half of new snow. It was 24 degrees out and conditions looked good. We unloaded the couch changed into our hunting stuff and headed for the woods. With the slippery driving we had it took us longer to drive up there, so we got a pretty late start hunting. It was 9:45 before we cut the dogs loose and pretty soon the dogs got a hare going. Just a few minutes after this hunt got going two wood choppers showed up to cut some wood on the lot we were hunting. It seems that they are scheduled to do some logging in this spot. They didn't mind us hunting here while they worked so we let the dogs run. But it wasn't fun as the roar of the chain saws was too noisy for us to enjoy the hunt so after shooting some bunnies we decided to pick up and move.
We ended up in a cover we had hunted a bit a year ago. At first we couldn't find a track as the dogs hunted hard. Ten minutes into the cast Jazzy opened up and Ruth harked in to her and off we go. The hare ran a straight line about a quarter of a mile and crossed the road we drove in on, and out of hearing they went. Ken and I talked on the radio and met in the road where the hare and dogs had crossed. The hare evidently was found away from his normal living space and the hounds drove him straight home where he decided to stay. We followed the chase and finally caught up to the dogs in the cover they were running in steady as steady could be. Christopher had moved up to the hunt on his own as he continues to learn how to hunt these things. There was some tough cover in here and visibility was again, as it commonly is in these parts DIFFICULT to see in. The dogs pounded the hare all around the place but evaded the hunters time and time again. Finally Ken cuts loose a couple rounds and then lets out a loud hoot which, let us know the kill had been made. We gathered up the hounds and spent a few minutes discussing the run and how each one of us ALMOST got the rabbit. During this chat time I noticed that I had lost a glove and that really blew my mind. This pair of gloves really keep my hands warm and they cost about 40 bucks. DANG that made me mad. No way could I retrace all my steps in that tight cover looking for the glove.
BAAHUMBUG!-By now there are rabbit tracks all over the place but I had noticed a track heading back toward the truck so I decided to follow it as Ken and Chris followed with the dogs on a leash. It was after 2 P.M. now and we're a half a mile from the truck. We could get another run before quitting and should find this rabbit easily. Sure enough I jumped the hare after several hundred yards of tracking and we cut the dogs loose. Normally we would have let the dogs hunt but we wanted to move away from where we shot the previous rabbit and finish the hunt closer to the truck. The hare runs straight toward the truck with the two dogs in pursuit then he makes a wide swing and runs a straight line all the way back up to where we just got a two hour run. Dang it! Oh well that's what we're here for so we move up to THE THICKET and wait for the hunt to swing back. Round and round they go, here there and everywhere, except in front of a hunter. Now it's getting late and we have a five hour drive ahead of us but a rabbit is a rabbit so we'll get him dead, hopefully. Of course I'm half hunting the rabbit and 100 percent hunting for my lost glove. Losing that thing rattled my cage. Pooowwww Christopher gets a whack at the hare and we hear that HHOOOoooooOT. Got the bunny. He does good and catches both hounds and we head out with the skies darkening. I get to the road first and in a short while Chris makes it to the road and we wait for Kenny to get out of the woods. Ten minutes later Kenny shows up and we start the walk to the truck. Kenny says look what I found as he pulls out of his game bag the nicest looking left hand camouflage glove you would ever hope to see. Man was I a happy camper! If that dumb bunny hadn't decided to go back all the way up to where we were earlier in the afternoon the GLOVE would've been history. GREAT HUNT, GREAT FINISH and a smile on my face with two golves on my hands. HALLELUIA!

Wednesday December 28, 2005......Pretty cold this morning at 12 degrees and a tough frozen icy crust. Can't get any luck with the weather as the last storm we had turned to rain and everything has frozen up. The hounds could walk on top without breaking through which is good, but the hunters had a tough go of it walking in the woods without snowshoes.
Anyway there won't be many dead bunnies shown with this story in fact, Adam Parker shown in the photo holding up in his empty right hand came the closest to getting a bunny dead. If the young hunter had connected on the only shots fired, he wouldn't be displaying woulda-coulda-shoulda! Adam is my hunting buddies grandson and it was his first time out with us and our hounds. Couldn't have picked a poorer running day. The dogs ran absolutely horrid and the only dog that could keep the rabbit going was Bruno. the other two dogs Tim and Pete who are very good dogs themselves just could not smell it today. Bruno ran this rabbit over 3 hours with a lot of difficulty but did manage to put the hare by me four times, Reggie twice and Adam once. Reg and I let the rabbit run in hopes that Adam could kill the thing and it did "ALMOST" die. Hopefully Adam will come back and hunt again when the hounds will run much better, 'cause today they ran as poor as it gets for us except for what Bruno did.