Lethal Weapon 4

I just wanted to post one more shot of this jackrabbit, since it was kind enough to give me lots of good close-ups this morning.. Look at those back feet; in fact look at the whole rear assembly. Like an athletic sighthound, that's the "engine" that makes this critter second only to the pronghorn in pure speed in North America. Add to that the agility to turn on a dime at that speed and you've got one formidable prey species.

Yeah... we got skunked again today. What of it?

Double Suspension

Extended...

Contracted...

Ease on down, ease on down the ro-oad.

To say I managed to get myself into a good position today, would be an understatement.

Unabashed Self-Promotion.

Tired of coming to these pages every day and seeing the same post you already read yesterday.. or the day before that? Wouldn't you like to know when the content has changed without looking at the website itself? Of course you would.

We've hooked up with Feedburner to give you the tools you need to know when something new is here. Up above, is the headline thingy.. it scrolls through the past 5 blogpost titles. The cool part is, you can grab it and put it on your own blog, your My Space, or Facebook page.. anywhere you can paste a little HTML.. even on your EMail signature. Just click the "Grab this..." line and Feedburner will walk you through the rest.

At the top of the sidebar on the right, is a link to set up EMail alerts whenever there is a change here. Simple.

If you want to subscribe to a reader, or your Yahoo, or Google, or AOL, or whatever homepage or reader you use, you can just click on the "subscribe to a reader" button on the sidebar near the SiteMeter counter. I was shocked to find, when I pasted in the subscriber counter, that this blog has..... ZERO... none, nada, zilch... subscribers. Get off your butts people!

Meanwhile, On the Day Shift.

When it rains, it pours.

Yesterday, we drove out into the countryside to look at 40 acres that a friend has on the market. We took Sandia and Rally. When we parked, we let them out for a "potty break".. Sandia got leashed up, but Rally, who's been doing well of late on healing her partial torn achilles, slipped by. Well, she was staying close, so we figured we'd let her evacuate, and we'd leash her up then.

That was before the jackrabbit. And she was looking good for the first 150 yards or so. She even turned it, and was closing when...

Do I even need to finish the story?

Now we need a good orthopedic vet surgeon in southern New Mexico... and some means to pay them with.

Night Shift.

Whoa! What's this? It's night time.. this jackrabbit, being nocturnal, should be happily munching on vegetation... not running for his life! What could cause this non-standard behavior?

Well here's a clue. Scottish poacher uh, "entrepreneurial game harvester"*, Matthew, has the spotlight, and he knows how to use it!

And after a few trial runs the hounds, including Mona here, learn to follow the light, because that's where the jack is.

The biggest difference between day and night coursing is the course. Races are usually short, especially if the guy on the spot can't keep the hare in the light. From 7:30 to 10:30 last night we probably released the dogs on a dozen jacks.. maybe more, as I lost count. We drove only about 5 miles in that time, which brings up the other big difference: No Walking! (It does get a little tiring putting the car in neutral, hitting the parking brake, grabbing the camera, and jumping out the car over and over and over again.) The above is one of two that were caught.

Photographing this activity is just about impossible, so when I saw that image with Mona and the jack so close, and in the range of the flash, I was ecstatic, no matter that it's out of focus, and a little overexposed.. it's exactly what I was hoping to get on this little project.

By the way, for those who are interested, this activity is perfectly legal as long as no one is carrying a firearm. Dutch, being on the NM Fish and Game Commission made sure of that! And in this particular area, we'd be more likely to be confronted by the Border Patrol than the Game Warden.

*Thanks to Scottish native, Andrew at Regal Vizsla , for the politically correct terminology ;^)

Beaver Shots.

Another New Mexico "attraction"; big hair never looked so good.

Return With Us Now to Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear...

Among the many reasons we love this part of the country.. the jacks, the green chiles, the dust.. we have to include these vestiges of the Wild, Wild West . Would this happen in Ann Arbor? Not on your life. (Watch the video if for no other reason than to check out news anchor, Nicole Brady. Hot!)