Al Hansen
Well-known member
Yesterday, Friday the 11th of January, right after breakfast, I was going to head out to the ranch and run down to the river in my Kawasaki Mule. Heck, it was like visions of sugar plums just before Christmas. I had taken care of feeding all the dogs and then gone to the Puppy House and cleaned it out while the 10 blacks were eating dry puppy food. My to do list was complete, the Mule packed and on the trailer. Nothing to do now except finish breakfast and drive the short distance to where I normally set up on the Rio Grande. I wanted to set out just a few decoys at this time of the year and see if I could entice some ducks to give them a look while they were traversing the Rio Grande corridor.
I walked out to the kennel and got Chipotle. He knew exactly what was on my mind and joined in on the excitement level I was at. I double checked the trailer to make sure all was well and we left for the ranch. I happened to glance at the dash when I was turning onto a county road and that is when I noticed something blinking that said, "Check Gauges". That is when I saw that the temperature gauge was not in order. It was below the cold line after 7 miles on the road. So I checked the level of anti-freeze and it was not too bad. I put in a half gallon to fill it up. But nothing changed, so I headed home.
In November, on the 16th, Belize had 6 yellow pups. That kept me busy, I thought, but boy was I wrong. On December 11th, Jalapeno had 10 black pups and it was then that I knew I was really busy. Chip and Jalapeno had an all black litter and they in turn taught Bev and me a few things we were unaware of. For example, we have always brought out our litters to the Puppy House when they were 4 weeks old. Well not too long ago I was awakened at 2:17AM, to some noises coming out of the office where Jalapeno's litter of ten were keeping residence. When I opened the door there were 5 pups on the floor just walking around and fussing like crazy. Mom had gone into the whelping box to nurse the pups and they couldn't get back in. Normally when the pups are getting out of the box it is because they are about 4 weeks old. In this litter, we had one black male get out at 2 1/2 weeks. Now I was looking at 4 males and a female out at 3 weeks and not quite two days. So after getting them back in the box so that they could nurse, as soon as Jalapeno was done and out of their I put in the full sized door and that stopped them from getting out. Only one problem that also stopped Jalapeno from getting in. After breakfast, I brought the litter out to the Puppy House and that has been their new home. While cleaning their new home it also marked the first time we ever had a 3 +week old pup get out by using the doggie door. It is a full sized one that adult labs use. We had three that must have been all together and bull dozed it open. So when I finished cleaning up the east side of the house, I looked outside to see how they were doing. Heck, they all went back in using the doggie door. They were still not quite 4 weeks old.
The last time I hunted ducks was on Nov. 15th when I took 5 gadwall. Then after that the Rio Grande got way too high for me to even think about, we also had some unusual rains at the end of Nov. and beginning of Dec. When the river abated to a flow of less than 500 cfs, just before Christmas, I took off and drove out to the ranch only to get stuck where I always park my truck. I had to unload my 4010 Mule and pull my 06 Super Duty Diesel 2 wheel drive truck out of the mud. I was one happy guy to get home again after just a minor set back.
So now, I will have to wait until I get the thermostat taken care of. I do know that it will have to wait until the Seahawks/Packer game is over. I guess Monday will be just fine. We still have two weeks left in the season. Our last day in January is on Sunday the 26th. I just tried to cross my fingers but old age has made that a challenge!
Al
Here is what it was like on a beautiful morning in May last year. Bev and I were sitting by the ponds having our morning java when we had some guests arrive.
This is our view to the west from her art studio.
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Bev and I were in our swing having coffee waiting for some Gambel's quail to come in for breakfast.
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This was one of many broods that came in on May 8th. The adult pair had 19 chicks in this group.
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I was amazed when this Eurasian collared dove came in to feed. I thought perhaps the youngsters would have bolted at its size but the parents didn't so they were just fine accepting the stranger.
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It wasn't but a minute or two later when this guy came by looking for his breakfast. Those chicks would be exactly what he would order if his timing was right. This morning, one of the parents must have seen the road runner because all was quiet. We watched it run towards the west away from the feeding area. It took a while but more quail came in to eat. It was another interesting morning.
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Belize was stretched out here and never moved other than her head. The quail seem to know that our dogs will not bother them because they do not pay attention to them any more..
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