Since 2009, the retirement home of Shot On Site Photography... the source of the finest sighthound performance images in the world. As of August 1, 2022, the blog will become much more photo-centric. Not only will I post images from the homestead in the foothills of the Little Florida Mountains, and surrounding environs, but also tips about shooting, editing, archiving, software, hardware and more. The political rants will become few and far between (but not eliminated! It is 2022 after all!)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Dutch Salmon's Desert Hare Classic Results.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Dutch Salmon's "Pack Hunt", 2008 Results.
OK.. a little teaser: The weather was perfect, and everyone got their money's worth.
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Doors Are Open. A Crack.
We're starting with a bumper sticker,
Fun House.
Looks like fun, in a kind of disorienting way. Looks like more fun to be in the cast!
Even DeMille Had to Start Somewhere.
OK, Dan gets a little out of control with Windows Movie Maker. Don't do what you do when you go out to the movies and rush out as soon as the movie is over. Sit there while the credits roll!
We may have to invest in a real video camera... this is too much fun.
Get ready... the dogs move out in a hurry, but don't miss Randir's "cameo"! And watch how smart Sandia (pink blanket) runs; doesn't use it all up on the runup, but starts to move up through the pack as the course gets longer. Smart dog. In this case, when the hare came back toward our postition, he had a huge lead and we were able to call the dogs off. We'll do more of this.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Coming Soon.
On a commercial note: we're about to launch a storefront at Cafe Press. Margaret's been very busy this week working on some designs that you are going to want. Seriously. Stay tuned, and I'll post a sample and details before the weekend.
Money Pit.
After checking with friends in the Las Cruces, El Paso, and Albuquerque area for advice about vets, we decided to just take her to the local (and only) vet in Deming. Since she's shown a propensity for not staying sound for more than 6 months at a time, we were just going to get the most basic (read: cheap) repair, and retire her from running competitions.
Unfortunately, the local guy admitted he had little experience in repairing this type of injury... which by the way, was that the achilles tendon had completely separated from the calcaneaous (heel) bone. He set up a referral for us to a vet in El Paso.... one whose name we already knew from our previous search, and came with a glowing, albeit expensive, reference.
Tuesday, we'll take
Oh, that the local guy could have done it... the office call, exam, and referral were a whopping $31.00! And we walked in without an appointment.
Update: So I don't need to tell you, those Google ads around this site are more important than ever. Who wouldn't want to look at the Patriots' cheerleaders in bikinis.. huh? You know you would.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Lethal Weapon 4
Yeah... we got skunked again today. What of it?
Double Suspension
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.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Unabashed Self-Promotion.
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!
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Meanwhile, On the Day Shift.
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 ;^)
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Return With Us Now to Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear...
Super Tuesday "Humor"
Just a sidenote... the only part of me that would touch Ann Coulter's ass is the part at the end of my leg. No, the other end!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
And the Winner Is....
Close enough that if we lived here we could have conceivably cast the winning ballots! Our South Dakota primary isn't until June. I originally figured it would all be settled by then. Now I'm sure we'll order up our absentee ballots. We, like you, can make a difference. But who will we make a difference for? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...
...I just don't know...
Weather Pic.
When I said yesterday that I would give the dogs a break, I didn't mean it quite literally. Fanny has some kind of foot injury. Much pain, but no bruising, or swelling, or blood. Mysterious. Yesterday Buffy dropped her gracilis muscle- and - smashed a toenail. The sisters are out of commission for the rest of the season... Buffy probably for good. The good news is that the puppy is staying sound, as is Geezer-boy, Randir. Rally is an enigma. We'll test her achilles tendon this weekend up in Mountainair at a NOTRA "practice" race meet. She seems ready.
In other news... my 3 week bachelorhood ends tomorrow, as I go to El Paso to pick up Margaret. And not a moment too soon.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Mountain Blanket
Can't let the day go by without at least one post. This was about 7AM MST today. This solitary-but very large- cloud hung over my favorite little mountain range for hours. That's the Capitol Dome formation on the right. I need to get out and do more of this, and give the dogs a break. Tomorrow looks promising.