Heart Shall Be Bolder
• Feb. 11, 2007 - Yoiks, yoiks, tally-ho!
| The most recent event of note in the life of Thor was an invitation to go fox hunting this past Saturday. As the new owner of a 12 gauge shot-gun (single shot, break open action) I was happy to take them up on the offer. These friends of mine own a 90 acre farm here in Maryland (which for our county is a good sized farm) and they've got 8-10 foxes that prey on the chickens and ducks.
At a civilized 11am or so, therefore, we set forth to defend the homefront from all enemies, foreign and domestic. There were three of us, Duane (owner of the farm) - armed with a .22 w/scope, Jason (mutual friend) - armed with an automatic 4 round 12 gauge, and myself - armed with the aforementioned single shot 12 gauge. Duane put Jason up in a tree stand along with a boombox that contained a tape of a "distressed rabbit" as a means of luring the foxes out. Duane and I then staked out the left flank.
I was not expecting great things from this tape, but after about 10-15 minutes two foxes showed up. The first came across the open field between us and Jason. Duane took a shot with his .22, but missed. That fox took off into the woods to our right. Meanwhile, Jason was waiting while a second fox worked its way up the far side of the tree line (his tree stand was in a thin strip of woods between two fields). I was urgently pointing out a "third" fox who was waiting on the hillside just out of range of my shotgun. Turns out the neighbors have a small, furry dog that resembles a fox to a fair degree.
Fortunately, Duane did NOT shoot the neighbors' dog. And Jason did shoot the oncoming fox. Score one for the home team! As we were walking up to the tree stand, we noticed that Jason's attention wasn't on us, and moments later he fired again at the first fox - who had worked his way up the streambed towards the "wounded rabbit". But ... he missed.
Hunters 1, Foxes 1
We returned to the house for restorative and fortifying beverages (hot chocolate) before making our way to the opposite corner of the property. This time we were deeper into the woods and more widely scattered. Unfortunately, even 20 minutes of "wounded rabbit" calls failed to bring the foxes forth. So Duane had his daughter take her dog and beat the woods, hoping that they would spook a fox towards us. This strategy proved unsuccessful. All of which meant that I had a nice half hour or more in the wind-tunnel of a deer stand.
It is astonishingly hard to stay awake and vigilant and do anything else - at least for me. I tried praying for various people on my lists, I tried counting sheep but I couldn't see any, I tried wiggling my toes and they refused to co-operate, why I even tried quadratic equations before finding that I couldn't remember any. This proved to be the low point of the day.
Eventually we conceeded defeat (Hunters 1, Foxes 2) and headed back to the house for warm bowls of hearty chili. No cornbread, but very tasty corn chips completed the repast. Jason's family joined us after their activities and wanderings. We spent an hour or so hanging out with the farm folks before having to pack things up for the day.
I'm looking forward to the next round. Hopefully this time I'll be able to actually get a shot off this time (and not at the neighbors' dog)
;)
Thor |
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• Feb. 11, 2007 - Sorry folks!