Wednesday November 28, 2007....Well finally the deer season is over and we can hit the woods again and hunt some hare. It's still bareground now and rabbits in these parts are hard to find without the help of snow. But if your a rabbit hunter, you'll be out there looking for some bunnies. Don't give me that "bull" about not hunting them "White on brown".
Today I hunted Hannah and Kenny my partner for the day would hunt a male dog named Hank. Both Hannah and Hank are sired by the same hound "JACK" who is pictured here on the right. "JACK" is right out of Mr Bill and will be 12 years old in a few months. He's sired some really good hunting dogs around here and I have a pair of male puppies out of him just turning 6 months of age. Bruce Mcneilly and I split a litter of what might be the last pups sired by JACK! "JACK" is a "BIG", hard hunting athletic hunting hound, with a big nose with no quit and could run when others couldn't. Now we hope to get some more "JACKS" like him, crossed with all that Mr Bill blood in our line of dogs.
It was in the low thirties during the night and we hit the woods with a bit of a breeze blowing and a heavy frost. The dew points I found out later dropped during the day as did the temperature. We cast the hounds at 8:00 A.M. and it didn't take too long before Hannah hit some old night lines and the two dogs worked their tails off to jumped that hare, but with no luck. These lines might be 4-8-10 hours old who knows? Usually she can lift one after a fashion but it didn't happen on this morning. We worked the hounds through some great cover for a long time without a start, but finally after a lot of walking Kenny just about stepped on one. This goes with hunting them "Whites" on bare ground. They sit very tight!. Off they go, the pair of them running steady and they made two large circles in a watery swamp where there was a lot of tall thick grass in some close growing alders. The hare crossed by me a couple times some hundred yards away and when I finally made the adjustment in my position he changed his pattern. Kenny got the same treatment too. Where to stand often times is a guessing game so a bit of luck is always a welcome commodity. After two hours of good running, the hare came by me and stopped about 20 yards away, so I picked up my new Benelli that I call "THE UNDERTAKER" and pulled the trigger. NOTHING HAPPENED!!!! The bunny bounded off without shots fired and the hounds came by shortly after that. A half an hour later Kenny "BLASTED THE BUNNY"! My Benelli has a very weak spring that pushes the bolt forward into a lock position. But when walking through the heavy brush I can see where it can inadvertantly get pushed back a bit, just enough to prevent the gun from firing. Now I have to find out if this is the design of the mechanism or a fault with my gun.
Billy Superneau a friend from Vermont has one just like the one I have and he loves his. By the way he calls his "THE UNDERTAKER". Guess he figures his is the original UNDERTAKER so I might rename mine. At the moment I'm calling mine a no good for nothing "&@^%! +?^^$@"....(just kidding).
The day was really a nice day to hunt, but around here bunnies come hard without snow. LIFE OF A HARE HUNTER! Never easy! We work around some more good cover and decide to hunt out toward the truck. Just before we got out of the woods, Hank got one going and we spent an hour and a half trying to get this bunny dead! I said tried! They ran this one good at first but the longer it went, the tougher the running got, or at least the poorer they ran. How in the world can they work an old line 4-8 hours old or longer, but sometimes can't hold a line 4-5 minutes old? We were close to them when they hit a check, and it was about time to go, so we caught them and called it quits. This bunny was lucky to live, but "WE"LL BE BACK"!

Thursday November 8, 2007....Kenny and I decided to roll the truck about 4 hours north for a day trip even though it's deer season. Some places are pretty safe to hunt right now, others are not. Oh!! What a long drive we have ahead of us just for one days hunt and then of course the drive back is always twice as far; and some of you know what I mean. But if you love it as some of us do; then you just suck it up and do it.
We wanted to get our young dogs into a hunt and shoot a few bunnies with them hopefully and see how they could handle the "wascally wabbit" out there in the wild. Well the distance we had to drive meant that I'd be picking up Kenny at 3:30 AM which I did. So off we go with my young dog LUKE and Kenny had one of his named CRYSTAL. Luke got in on a hunt last month with the older dogs and Crystal has never been gunned. Both are just under 18 months of age and running real good. CRYSTAL right now is a top notch young dog; as good as they get for her age. Big nose and a tireless hunter. We did stop along the way to visit a Mc-E-Dee's to coffee up on and then we munched down a couple McMuffins to boot. That hit the spot and after more rolling of the wheels we get to our hunt spot. It was 28 degrees driving up but the thermometer in the truck registered 32 when we reach our destination.
We got geared up and the hounds collared, both wore tracking transmitters as well as shocking collars. Can't be too safe with young eager dogs. Finally we cut 'em loose and both hit the woods with plenty of eager hunt. Luke opened first and started working an old line. Crystal joined him in a minute or two and then they got a bit steadier. They checked and started working the line back to where they had started tonguing and worked a line the opposite way about 50 yards and went right into a drive. They ran real well for over an hour before they hit a hard check in a real wet swamp. They would pick the line a bit then drive a bit then repeat the same all over again. Finally after nearly 30 minutes of this, they sight chased the hare who had hunkered down on a small plot of grass surrounded by water. Luke saw him go and both dogs levied some thunder upon the fleeting bunny. This would begin to mark the last thirty minutes of bre'r rabbit's existance on this side of eternity as Kenny a while later drilled him with a nice shot in some thick green cover. Both pups "did big" on this 2 1/2 hour run. We decided to try another spot as we were scouting the area as well as hunting it.

The new spot we tried didn't look great once we got off the road so we tried another place. Once again Luke got the start and both dogs cranked it up into a steady drive. Good news or bad news??? We're in strange ground with young dogs! Luke has been shocked off deer but Crystal hasn't; what do you do. I always hope for that first check 'cause if it's a deer there usually aren't any checks. Well there were no checks and the hounds were going straight away. I moved toward them as best I could but they were humming it right away from us. I called Kenny on the phone to get his view of the situation and he said it sounded "fishy". They were real far away and I thought they checked but wasn't sure so I kept moving hard. When I stopped they were driving. Kenny called and thought we should get them. I hit Luke on the low setting of my Tritronics 'cause he doesn't like the shock at all and I wanted to go easy on the dog. He stopped barking but CRYSTAL kept pounding. I kept calling Luke and "toning" him with the hand held shocking device and to my delight he comes in after a short time but Cyrstal is still running. I called Kenny to tell him that Crystal was still running and he said he was shocking her on a higher setting but she wouldn't let it go. We got lucky here in a way as Kenny was way behind me but in a good position to cut her off. All of a sudden BAANNGGG, a shot rings out as Kenny shoots a bunny on the dead run and Crystal comes pounding on that line right up to the dead hare. WOW! Talk about luck for as it turned out Kenny's shocking device was screwed up and not working right, consequently Crystal never got jolted. Now what would Luke do when we get another hare going. Well we worked the dogs toward the truck when Luke opens up and gets into a run and Crytal joins him and this run is a rip snorter. Both dogs shine and this run is text book great. I guess the low setting shock that Luke got didn't deter him from running another rabbit. Phew; that was a close one for the young dog. He was in on one of these kind of runs several weeks ago when we hunted with Bruce McNeilly and Billy Donnan. I figured they were running a hare then but we'll never know. But for sure these 2 young dogs had a hare smoking this time.
After two hours and ten minutes of pushing this bunny all over the place,these "LUCKY" rabbits feet the dogs were chasing would survive the ordeal 'cause it's getting late and we have to pick up and head for the barn; ONLY four hours away!

Wednesday October 24, 2007....I got up at 4:30 this morning and prep'd for a hunt a couple hours further away from the equator than where I am now. It's 54 degrees out when I picked up Reggie for our jaunt north under in an overcast and misty sky. It rained last night and it seems that every time we say hunt the word rain follows. It's suppose to clear off but the trees will be wet once again. Deer season starts in few days so The "Crambo" and I will get a last bunny hunt in this month before we have to give up the woods to the guys who call themselves deer hunters! We got just Hannah again but I wished we had Luke too after his good showing last week while on his first hunt. But the cover is thick where we're going and us AARP's can't cover ground as we once did and Hannah is an easy handling dog.
As we approach our destination the temperature had dropped to 42 degrees out. We're gonna get wet but the running should be good. We get ourselves and the dog all geared up with our "electronic stuff" and we're ready to go. "Old Bruce" got to see the GPS in action last week and boy that little toy sure is a help.
We're not in the woods very long climbing a pretty steep hill when Hannah opens up and gets herself into a steady drive, and soon the run is out of hearing. Boy have the rabbits run big circles this fall! Sound doesn't carry all that well either in the thick wet fir trees depicted in this photo at the left. Killing bunny will be a task in this stuff but once the hare establishes a pattern all we can do is find a spot and wait. We carry these little folding saws that help us clear out a shooting lane and you'd be surprised what a difference this can make. We do whatever we can do to shoot the rabbits and we get our fair share of dead ones.
I hear all that garbage by some guys who say they don't hunt on bare ground! WHAT!!! You mean your not a true rabbit hunter!!
The time is ticking by and we're into this run for over an hour when I finally see the hare but just a flash of the fur ball and I can't get off a shot with "The Undertaker". The hare has skimmed by Reggie a few times but hasn't shown himself to him yet. The "Old Trooper" gets his share of rabbits and between the two of us; this one, shall surely die. And that's what happened when bre'r hare pushed his pretty face across a small opening I had been watching and at the two hour and fifteen minute mark, "bunny died". Like I've said before we don't "harvest" a "dang blasted thing" we kill 'em. Save all that politically correctness jazz for the LIBERALS.
We move futher up the hill just a short ways when all of a sudden a hare goes busting out of some thick raspberry bushes I stepped into. That hare had not moved during the previous run as Hannah had pushed the now dead bunny close to that spot several times. These little critters can sit tight sometimes. The dog is in hot pursuit but the run doesn't last long when the "Super Dooper Pooper Scoop Trooper" Cram kills this bunny. After this kill it takes a while to get another start but eventually we have another rip snorter of a run going. The hound pushes the hare out of hearing a number of times but alway circles back somewhere near where we are. We get another great run lasting almost two hours before the shooting starts and ends the chase. We decide not to shoot another hare in this place, and opt to try another cover a few miles away.

We head for the truck with the dog on a leash and follow the pointer on the GPS to straight line us out of the thick fir trees. At the truck we get a drink and give Hannah some water too. Man the water table in these parts is well below average. The three hare we took were all very large and that's probably why they ran such big circles? We drive down the road a ways and hop into this cover that we know is very hard to see in, but we wanted get a feel for the bunny population here. Well we got a start OK and this run was the run of the year so far. Hannah jumped the thing in the toughest thickest mess of blow downs and firs trees you could imagine; actually worse than that! Something about this bunny though he "stunk" real good and she put the biscuits to him. Round and round this went with not even a momentary check. Twenty minutes into the run she's out of hearing and I scramble to get to a high spot to put the "TRACKER" on her. As I reach the summit of this God forsaken place I hear her coming back. Before long she's circling round about us but not close enough so we'd see him. Then off she's gone again out of hearing. I call Reggie on the phone and tell him, "I'm a heading for where she had crossed earlier and take a chance he'd cross there again. Well it happened that way except I was too late getting there and I'd have to wait another half hour or so before they might come back again this way. I unloaded my gun and told Reggie to try and catch her if he could so we could evacuate out a here. Quite a while later the chase turned my way as I had thought it might and got close enough to call her off the line and end this run. WOW! This was a chase! We'll be back after deer season when we have the "YUTES" to help us shoot the bunnies in this place. We got some great running and we won't forget this hunt for a while

Thursday October 18, 2007....It's 4:30 P.M. and we're heading north for a two day hunt in God's country. We're treking upcountry in two vehicles as Reginald can only hunt on one of the prescheduled two day hunt. We'll meet my nephew Mathew up there and two guys from New York will meet us there late into the evening. Two "Yutes", Christopher and Joshua, are taking a day off from school to get in their first hunt of the year. The guys from New York are Bruce McNeilly and Bill Donnan. Bruce is a highly regarded judge (one of the best) and Bill has done some judging himself. Both are reported to be "rabbit hunters". We get to camp ahead of Matt as he had to work late but strolled in around 9:30 P.M. Bill and Bruce pulled into the driveway around 11:15 after an 8-10 hour drive. What people will do to hunt the "Wascally wabbit". We didn't do much talking after everyone arrived and quickly turned in for a short nights sleep.

Friday October 19, 2007.... Reveille was called at 5:00 A.M. and the troops rolled out of the sack at a snails pace. Got our gear and loaded hounds and off we went. Only in Maine would you see a sign like this along the road. Take a kid Trapping, Hunting, Fishing. Those guys from CLINTON COUNTRY (New York) would never see one of these in their overly liberal State. Man how do us Sportsman let liberals get all that power? They're at it in Maine too trying to shut down a lot of our freedoms. The least we can do to protect ourselves is to get out and vote!
After a nice breakfast and a short drive we reach our hunting spot and get ourselves geared up and the dogs collared. We've got a mile walk to get to where we'll hunt and we huff and puff our way into the bush.

The foliage here is still on the trees and anywhere there isn't a fir tree there are tall thick grasses growing. I'm running just Hannah this morning and the boys from NY have 4 dogs down. One of them I know and she goes by the name of "Brunette", a sister to Famiano's old dog "BRUNO". It takes about 15 minutes to get a start and the five hounds work an old line for about 5 minutes. After a while they jump the hare and exploded into a steady run. The hare makes a huge circle and comes right back into the proximity of the start and gets by everyone without being seen. Round and round they go and the hunt shifts afar for twenty minutes or so only to return again as if to tempt us. Once again nobody sees the hare in the thick under story of cedars, firs, and tall grasses. Round and round they go and time ticks away. One hour, two hours, three hours and still the hare survives. There's been a few shots fired at this critter but like the NY on the Yankee cap states, NOT YET does "bunny" die. It's another 45 minutes before this run ends. I saw the hare 3 times and couldn't get off a shot in the thick cover and I guess everybody else has seen a flash or two of the rabbit during this chase. But the chase was great and the chase is always better than the kill. We get another run in short order and this would be another driving affair but it doesn't last anywhere near as long as the other. Wham, Billy drops this one with his Lefever double. We decided to head back to the car to give the other dogs a chance to run.
We had a longer walk out than the walk was coming in but finally we made it and we got to " chug-a lug" a gatorade or two.
We got another set of dogs and I would include in this group a pup of mine named "LUKE". This is his first hunt so we'll see what happens. It takes a while to get a start and it's Luke who makes the find. The hare makes a loop and a half and runs into Billy's Lefever and a load of bird shot. the pup makes it to the dead hare along with the others and he likes what he sees. It takes a while to get another start and to make a long story short the hounds get split up and Luke is by himself. The others went the other way and over a big ravine where you couldn't hear them. Luke isn't too far from the truck so I go get Hannah to run with him. This brace ran fast and steady. Bruce caught the other dogs and put them in the truck and then we all got together trying to shoot the hare ahead of Hannah and Luke. This hunt was pretty spirited but the hare lived a charmed life for a while avoiding some lead charges sent his way here and there. Then about 5 P.M. Billy once again put an end to this hunt as the light grew dim in the mixed fir and pine trees. the pup did good and this ended our first days hunt. The last time Reggie and I saw a Lefever in action, rabbits were never jeopardy and survived every volley of shots fired. guess the difference must be in the shooter?

Saturday October 20, 2007.... Hunters had hit the sack early last night because of the long day and the short night the day before. I had been awake for a while because I never ever did share sleeping quarters with that which sounded like a goat. The rythym was steady and evenly spaced and went like this. Inhale, ZZZZzzzzzzzz, Exhale, BAAAAAA! Inhale, ZZZZzzzzzzzz, Exhale, BAAAAAA! And so on........But dawn was breaking and a hunt had to get started so I put and end to the goat thing by snapping on the light and the hunters wiggled around no faster than a night crawler on wet grass. OK boys up and at 'em.
We got through the usual wake up and move around stuff after a fashion, along with some sharp remarks about the goat in our midst during the night. Before long breakfast was had and we're parking trucks at the hunt site. As we collared the hounds we just dropped them unleashed and proceeded to do another. Before the last one was collared we had a hunt going as "Brunette" hit a hot track right besided the road. It had rained all night but had stopped before we hit the woods but everything is wet. But that meant for good scenting and the hounds didn't disappoint. Steady and fast they went and without a check. The hunt eventually turned our way and a big doe walked out of the woods near Christopher and creeped herself away from all the commotion. After a while a shot was fired but now the hunt continued on the other side of the road as the hare ran faster than the bullet. I had Hannah in this group of five hounds and I forget the names of the other hounds now on the ground. Eventually after a long run it ended and we had to get another one going and that we did. This rabbit ran deeper than the one before and after some running we heard a shot just beyond where the hounds had gone. It was nobody in our group and this day was Junior Deer Hunting Day in the State. A junior could take either a buck or a doe today and they were the only ones allowed to deer hunt on this day. We figured they shot at the doe that Christopher had seen early in the morning that the hounds had pushed out. We hunted this place all morning then went back to camp to change dogs again. I ran Hannah again in the afternoon with Luke and Bruce ran a pretty good male named Rocky. This hunt would be a rerun of the long run we got yesterday. Strong continuous running in very thick cover. The hare could be seen on occasion but nothing to shoot at and on and on it went. Several hours into the run he got shot at but that was it. Just shot at. The hunt changed directions and the hare ran straight away from where we started him headed to parts unknown. As the hunt moved away I radiod Christopher and Joshua to move toward the hounds. Right away I knew this hare would not come back our way. They kept moving away from us so I told the boys to forget the rabbit and catch the hounds. Bruce and Billy proved their worth as rabbit hunters as I suspected they were after seeing them in action the day before. True to my suspicions they were on top of the hounds when they got caught. Bruce and Christopher were first ones on the dogs and Billy Joshua and I were close by. We were just too far into the big woods to be fooling with and the run had every indication that the dogs were running off game. I think they ran true but we'll never know. The three dogs however had run exceptionally well earlier and Bruce's Rocky dog showed me a lot. I whipped out my GPS as we had no clue where we were and the little "tech toy" told us we were just over three quarters of a mile away from the truck. We had hit an old woods road during the catching of the dogs and we follwed it a ways until it turned leading us away from the truck, so we had to "bushwhack" through the woods to the truck. Man a GPS sure is a help when your in deep strange country with not a clue where you are. The compass would've gotten us out but only after a long long walk.
The boys from New York "did big" and Reggie says they are "TRUE" rabbit hunters and I agree. Hope they come back for more of the same soon. A great time was had by all.

Thursday October 11, 2007....It had rained off and on yesterday and a bit more through the night so when we got up on this morning it was cloudy, misty and with the temperature at 50 degrees. Man we're gonna get wet? We got a quick breakfast and headed out to our first cover to hunt. My camera went to Florida with my wife who was going to Disney with one of my grand daughters while we were gone on this trip.So no pictures with these stories. We cast the three dogs we had with us CHASE, NYNAH and HANNAH! Chase hunted a straight line away from us and Nynah followed him. Hannah hunted with me and got a start in about ten minutes. She ran steady for ten minutes or so alone and then we heard Chase and Nynah start another hare a long ways away. RATS! Got a split hunt going. Hannah ran steady and so didn't the other two on their rabbit. She ran that hare round and round through some thick cover and Reggie caught a look at it but didn't get off a shot. Wayne pushed down to cover the other dogs who were nearly out of hearing and got himself in the right place at the right time to shoot their hare. He collared Chase and Nynah and walked them back to get them in with Hannah who was still going steady. They ran trio for nearly an hour before Wayne shot this one too.We got two more runs similar to the one we just had then we had a long dry spell and decided to move places.
The next place had great cover in it but didn't hold a thing or at least we couldn't find a rabbit here. We went several hours without another start so we moved again. This time we hit a hare right off and had a good driving affair going, check free. Shots got fired and rabbits died. Our last chase of the day began at 3 P.M. and the hounds ran this hare all over the place without getting killed. The cover was thick with few shooting lanes to see in. At 4 P.M. Neal called on the phone and asked if we should catch the dogs and call it a day. Well, we still had a couple hours of daylight left even under these dark threatening skies so I suggest we keep hunting this sucker 'till he got dead. And that's what happened as brer rabbit gave up the ghost a wee bit after 5 o'clock. We got plenty of running when a hare got going but that long dry spell tired us out a bit. Nonetheless it was a great time had by all.
Back in camp Pete had the fire going and had us just as cozy as you could get. Spaghetti was on the table covered by some great sauce made up by Wayne's wife. When it comes to eating on a trip "you ain't a gonna beat Neal and Wayne".
Everybody was tired from the hunt and the short night's sleep we got from the night before rendered us a bit wobbly.

Friday October 12, 2007....It rained hard all night and the wind blew at a gale's pace just as the weather man predicted. RATS! I just hate this hunting in the rain. But at least the weather guy said it would stop by mid morning then stop all together by noon! We all got up early with a bit more zip than yesterday. We had a light breakfast and in short order we're ready to take off to the same cover we hunted in yesterday afternoon. The Gray Jays met us at the door as we broke camp and I couldn't resist the temptation to hand feed the little critters before the trucks rolled. Pete and Larry led the way and we followed with a caravan of trucks. Half way there the "bird hunters" in front put the brakes on and consistent with the way bird hunting is done in Maine the occupants rolled out of the vehicles, loaded their guns, and got a killing shot on a ruffed grouse. Actually in this case the bird must be referred to as a partridge. When shot on the ground it's a partridge BUT when shot in the air it's a RUFFED GROUSE.
With that out of the way we got to our hunting spot. It's raining "cats and dogs" as they say and this won't be fun. But we can't abort the hunt no matter what. Neal and Wayne decide to follow Pete and Larry to road hunt birds so it will be just Reggie and me to get this hunt underway. We gear up and collar the dog with the tracking device and off we go into the bush. Hannah does her stuff looking for a bunny and it's not long before she's off and running. She circles the hare a couple times in some thick stuff and Reggie and I can't move around much during this hard rain and the fir trees soaking wet. Before long Hannah is out of hearing and for 15 minutes loose track of the hound. But we have a lot of confidence in her ability and we know that the hare will be back. Just as we thought, she comes back into hearing running steady. The hare runs by me a short distance away but I can't muster a shot. Fact is, I didn't even have time to raise the gun as the hare darted across the four foot wide trail I was on. About 30 minutes into this chase Neal and wayne return to get into some rabbit hunting. Chase and Nynah get into it with Hannah and round and round they go. It took another hour to kill this hare and it wasn't long before we got another run just like this one.
At one point during this hunt I was a bunny away from limiting out and my new Benelli automatic, "the Undertaker" was batting a 1000. The way one of the chases went found me down low not far from the road, so I decided to move out there in case the hare tried to cross over to the other side. It continued to rain hard and I was somewhat cramped up in all the gear of which most was wet. Low and behold the hare hits the road about 60 yards away and turns in the middle of it heading right for me. I pick up the autoloader or so I thought. Because of all the wet clothes and some stiff muscles, plus my bad shoulder (got to blame something) the gun never got all the way to the correct shooting position where it should've been, when I commenced firing. Bang..Bang..Bang..and the hare kept coming my way. Then he ducks back into the same side he came from to get away. I hadn't taken the plug out of the new gun yet and if I had I probably would've gotten off 2 more shots? Well the rabbit died a bit later when Neal drilled some little BB's into him.
About noon after a full morning of real good running the guys wanted to break for a sandwhich so the hounds were caught and put in the truck. We thought it a good idea to try the other side of the road but this didn't work out as the cover had changed considerably. We went back to where we started the day and once again good running was had. Later in the afternoon a steady run went out of hearing again in the same place that Hannah went early in the morning. The only thing that we could hear was the relentless rain. For sure the weatherman had missed his forecast once again. The only job in the world where you can be consistently wrong and still hold a high paying job! It's 4 o'clock and the hounds have run out of hearing! None of these hounds have run off game and for sure they weren't going to loose this bunny under these scenting conditions. Only one thing to do is wait and they'll be back? Neal thought we should find the hounds and pick up so I had to go back to the truck to get my tracker as I decided not to carry this morning with all the clothes and rain gear I had on. So I worked my way out of that mess of fir trees to the road and then walked to the truck. About the time I get there Reggie calls from his position a long ways away that the dogs were coming back. Ten minutes later I can hear them pounding the hare back to where it all began. They circle round and round a few more times in the thicket where the dogs found the rabbit earlier, and when they got near Neal they were picked up thus ending a pretty good hunting day.
We headed back to camp and the vehicle ahead of us "bird hunted" along the way and managed to get a shot at one but the critter dodged the lead shot. At camp the Jays were there to greet us looking for that hand out they would eventually get; still the rains continued.
Pete had the camp all warmed up and he had cooked natchos for us to munch on. Neal and Wayne decided to go down to the brook to wash up in the rain???? Now the little brook we saw when we arrived the previous day was now a roaring river. It was flowing strong and the water temperature was probably in the forties or lower.
We eventually sat down for supper with a meat loaf that Neals wife had made for us, with baked potato and corn niblets. We had a great time in camp and Pete was in rare form with his joking and stuff. At one time the talk centered round about the boxing profession and some of the great fights of yesteryear. Pete got into the spirit of the Hollyfield Tyson fight and he was going at it throwing blows back and forth as the fight was rekindled in his mind. Pete "dang" near knocked himself out as he recapped the fight. All evening long this guy had us in stiches. We listened the the Red Sox Indians game a while off his truck radio then turned in for the night around 9 P.M. We had a great day.

Saturday October 13, 2007....Today will be a half day hunt as we planned to leave around early afternoon or so. Because we're so deep in the woods and the next cover we'd hunt is about 10 miles on our way out it was decided to secure the camp with clean up and fixing of the outhouse before we headed out. Pete picked me to engineer the outhouse fix and that we did. No longer do we have to wear a seat belt to keep us fast to "OUR SEAT" without falling out as the structure has canted itself forward over the years of bearing some heavy loads.
With chores complete I said good by to the Canada/Gray Jays by treating them to some fig squares. We had three left and they snatched up the squares whole and took off for the woods. See ya next trip!
On our way out we crossed by a large cutoff where there were several large trees left standing and perched on a large branch sat two huge bald eagles. We stopped to admire the critters a while then kept a trucking. After a fashion we arrived to this new cover that Pete selected for us and right off we got a start and right off the dogs went over a hill and out of hearing. It took them quite a while before we heard them come back running steady as a clock. It took over an hour to bag this one. We hunted some more with good running until 1 P.M. then called it quits. Certainly our thanks go to Pete for letting us share his place for this hunt in the Wilds of Maine!

Wednesday October 10, 2007....It's about 1:30 P.M. and I'm trucking towards Reggies place to begin a trip north for a two and a half day hunt. We would meet up with Neal and Wayne our other hunting buddies along the way and later meet up with our host for the trip Pete Brown and his friend Larry. We made this trip into this wilderness area last hunting season and had a great time. I sure hoped that the Canada Jays would be there again to greet us. Neat little creatures of God.
We were suppose to meet Pete at a point in the deep woods off one of the many dirt roads. But we got screwed up and had to head back to the hot top and punt. Luckily Pete sensed we were lost and came looking for us and found us. We hit camp at 11 P.M. and promptly hit the sack.

Monday October 8, 2007....Columbus day today and the kids have off from school so I got to take them out a while even though I still have alot of chores to do with all the leaves coming down to clean up and some more wood to take in. But the three "YUTES" (Youths, if your from Harvard) got to get out according to them. I set the alarm for 5 A.M. so we can get an early start and maybe be able to hit some old scent a bunny might leave during the night to facilitate getting a start. The alarm goes off the way it was supposed to and I'm greeted with the sound of a pounding rain outside. I used to hunt in this stuff but no more for me. When your young it's "who cares" but no no, no more of that. I get up anyway and turn the T.V. on to catch the weather report and check the scores of the "feetball" games played yesterday. The weather guy said it would clear up later in the morning but with wet trees your gonna get soaked no matter what! I let the kids sleep in until 7 A.M. and call Reginald that I wasn't going to hunt but would take the kids out a while if they still wanted to go. Oh ya; they still wanted to go. So we hit the road a bit later than what we planned, but "shoot" at least they're gonna get in the woods. Of course it's still raining out and the temperature is 48 degrees, but for "YUTES" it doesn't matter?? We just bring Hannah again today to a spot that I can just sit in the truck and listen while the "MEN" work the hound for a start. This place is bounded by water on three sides and I can watch the road with full visibility from the fourth side. A good safe little place for the boys to do their thing. The problem is getting a start??? About thirty minutes into the hunt Christopher calls on the radio to say that Hannah just got a start and I reply great and I would watch the road in case the hare would cross to go into another portion of this section. And the hare cross this road pretty often. Hannah is running steady and the boys have a hunt going. About 20 minutes into the run I see the hare cross the road from the comfort of the truck. Heck no I wasn't gonna hunt in that water. I call the boys on the phone to tell them the good news that "brer rabbit crossed to the other side. They've hunted here enough to know the drill and pretty soon Christopher hits the road and positions himself on a good crossing where the hare usually come back. All the while Hannah is putting it to the hare. Ten minutes later the hare swings back toward the road and crosses right by the truck. I had walked down the road to watch Christopher shoot the thing but the bunny fooled us and crossed ten feet from the truck. Now the hare has moved back on the side with Danny and Joshua. Hannah is getting some stinky rabbit smell pretty good and the run moves at a pretty good pace. KaaaaPooooW Joshua lets fly a round at the hare but never cuts a hair. Christopher ran up the road to take a new position but gets set up too late to intercept the fur ball, and Hannah keeps pounding right on by him. Twenty minutes later the hare crosses the road where he crossed the first time but nobody is there. All three boys hustle out to the road this time and take up stands. I tell Josh to stand by the truck as the hare usually do the the same thing. Sometimes! But this creature decided to do it again and ran into a blast from Joshua. But the young'n missed! The hare made a small loop and crossed the road right by Christopher and Danny but they couldn't get off a shot as the hare was flying low. Hannah pounded out of hearing and the boys went back into the bush to take up a stand. A while later the hare ran by Danny who fired once then it went by Joshua who fired thrice. Third time never fails as they say and 'ole Joshua reaped his first bunny of the season. Ok boys in the truck it's HOT DOG time. We got a nice hour and forty minute run and each kid got to see the hare before the chase ended. They wanted more of it but I had stuff to do. The boys did great realigning themselves as the hunt moved around and they are getting to "get it"!

Saturday October 5, 2007......."THE AGONY OF DEFEAT" rides again. Today we hunted locally and consistent with local hunting at this time of year we got "skunked". Not because the dog couldn't run but because we couldn't find a rabbit. YUK! Under clear sunny skies all we could reap out of this hunt was some nice scenery and a bit of exercise. The three kids Christopher, Daniel and Joshua enjoyed themselves getting into the hunt even though we couldn't get a rabbit started. They worked the dog through some nice cover by themselves while Reggie and I walked down the tote road. Not too bad a plan for us old "AARPS" to walk the road while the kids work the hounds.

At this time of year in these parts the hare are pretty well spread out and could be hiding just about anywhere, but due to the few that there are, finding them is mostly just a plain old luck thing. After the foliage drops and the weather turns a bit colder and the bunnies turn white some, it becomes a bit easier to find them. Up north the hare population is denser, so finding hare is not usually a problem up there. Next week we're going up so we should get into some pretty good action.
But today would be just an outing in the beautiful woods of Maine having a little fellowship and gets the kids out who've been anxious to get in the woods.
Better days are ahead of us, for sure!