Weather Pic.

Did I mention the wind? Today, it finally diminished enough to slaughter a jackrabbit and get it into the crockpot... only about 20 mph today. When the above photo was taken, it was gusting over 50. View is facing south. The Florida Mountains are back there... somewhere. The dust is in the air.

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.

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.

Y'Oughta See the Giants Fan's Jaw!

That's a real fan! I only considered putting my fist through the wall...

The Dark Side.

Absolutely last word on the Subpar Super Bowl... The Nueva York Giants were the recipients of some of the greatest luck in the history of sport. Or was it luck? Maybe there were dark forces at work that we can only wonder at, or dream of.

This was the kind of "luck" that Notre Dame used to have before their god deserted them after the hiring of Charlie Weis. There must be supernatural forces in play here... but not benign forces. These are dark forces. These are Faustian- Robert Johnson down-to-the-crossroads kind of sinister forces. I'm convinced of it. What other explanation could there be for this...


So enjoy your brief notoriety, Eli. Down the road, the piper will still have to be paid.

Damn... I despise that whole hillbilly family ;^)

How About This Sport Fans??

Who's the Numero Uno Champion Factory in college sports? I bet you know.

HT Brian at MGoBlog . Yeah... big hint.

Freakish Dogs.

Airedale Terriers the size of Irish Wolfhounds! I'm told they're bred for wild hogs, and they're apparently not a mix. Sandia didn't really like them sniffing around.

Buffy's Day. Looking Old School.

Like she used to do it back in the day. First jack of the day, and she led out like a young dog. Speaking of the young dog, yes, that's him running just behind Buffy.

And Buffy just enjoyed herself immensely. Still the prettiest dog on the planet.

Is That All There Is?

Well, that pretty much sucked. You realize this means the world still hasn't made Mercury Morris shut the fu hell up. Y'know, 18-1 still looks one win better than 17-0 to me ;)

Is Eli Manning a better quarterback than..... Peyton Manning? Sure looks that way. Is he a better QB than Tom Brady? You must be joking.

So thanks boys... for the most boring 3 quarters of football. At least the 4th quarter was... um, interesting. And, with the exception of the T-Mobile ad with D-Wade and Charles Barkley, the commercials were lamer than any year in recent memory.

And I'm out of Tequila.

Stanley Cup, anyone? I like hockey better, any way. Go Wings!

Hey look! The Biggest Loser is on NBC!

Is This It?

2:42 left. Patriots 14, Giants 10. It's up to the Pats' defense. What a phenomenal drive by the Brady Bunch. Holding breath.

More Live Blogging...

4th Quarter starts. Still anybody's game. Giants have a very good defensive plan, but one that could... should burn them some time in this game. Eventually, Brady's going to find the open receiver for the BIG ONE. One hopes.

If Patriots win, my pick for MVP is Wes Welker... fastest white man in the NFL.

Ohhh no. A big play by the Giants! More later.

Tom Brady & the Heartbreakers?

Hey, this is almost like "live blogging" the Super Bowl! Except this is all you'll see here until the end of the game. Maybe.

I know it's only half time... (great show by Petty et al, by the way), and I know the Pats have the lead, but geez.... I don't like the way this game's going.

Fortunately, they have the human equivalent of the Cray Supercomputer as the head coach, so I assume the problems will be adjusted to during the halftime. History awaits.

As to the commercials? Worst I can remember. That Doritos ad with the giant rat? WTF??

Hey Sports Fans.

I know I snuck the above poll in there last night, but surely by now, with only 3 hours left to vote, there'd be more than Buddy Salmon's and my vote. Hop on it, OK??

An Informed Electorate...

As Super Tuesday approaches, it's good to remember...
Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Kin.

Got an email this morning from Steve Garth, who has Sandia's sister, Maya. He included pictures that he said I could share... so below, is Maya.

She looks very much like Sandia. Looking a little bit different, because he's smooth-coated, is brother Zuni...

He also seems to be not as long in the body as Sandia and Maya.

One trait they share in common, is the willingness to get it on after Mr. Jack! That's "trainer" Wiz, the Saluki, in the middle.

We're hoping to get together with all these guys in a couple of weeks. What fun!

Life Comes At You Fast...

..at least here in New Mexico. And I like fast stuff, so was enthralled by this news of a new "land speed record" out of Holloman Air Force Base. (and not just because the puppy's name is mentioned in the article!)

No indication if Amtrak is looking into the technology for getting the trains to run on time.

Oh Good. It's Not Just Me.

(Gilkey-Detroit Free Press Photo)

I've told fellow football fan friends often.. I really don't remember this guy's career at Michigan. I'm not alone.

Unsafe in Any Decade.

Noooooooo!! No! A thousand times NO! Hasn't this asshole screwed up enough elections for two lifetimes? Please someone, put me out of my misery.. better yet, put him... wait, does he have Secret Service protection yet? I better let you all finish that particular sentence.
Not again.
Sob!

Gleaned from Google Ads.

Hope you all are checking out the Free Hog Hunt ad. I'm afraid my semi-dyslexic brain looks at that every time and sees "Tree Frog Hunt". MMMMmmmm-mmm, 30-40's my limit.

Every now and then something interesting pops up, up there. I saw this product advertised, but only briefly, the other day. Good thing I remembered the name of the business. This is a very interesting product. I'm trying to figure out if it's a product that would lend itself to Open Field Coursing. It's certainly less expensive than the California-made mechanical slips that most of the people are using now.

I'd like all my hunting friends to check it out and see what you think. It may need some modifications, but they wouldn't seem to be difficult. It would probably also be easy to modify for lure coursing. Check it out and send me some feedback.

Looking for dog food? Lots of ads for that up top, too. Help us out, and check them out.

Dad? Can We Go Hunting?

That's what he's saying. I don't need an animal communicator to figure that out. It's been four days.. the winds of the last two days (35, gusting to 50 and blowing lots of dust) has petered out, bringing in a cold front from the North. Perfect, to go out and chase a few.

As usual, Buffy used her scouting talents to jump all the hares today. She just doesn't have the endurance any more to stay in the race, (and the picture). I had Sandia on a slip lead for this one. I let him free course back to the car, and on the way back Buffy jumped one for him.. they disappeared across the road, but I did see Sandia jump one of his own on the way back. Just about the time we got to the car, we got another one up, but too far away. I actually called Sandia off of it. He's one smart puppy.

Today's Nature Shot: Horned Larks. This desert's thick with 'em.

Not Politics. Aren't You Glad?

Getting back to dogs... think dogs don't know how to have fun?


We're in New Mexico... (well, I am, anyway) to avoid this crap, but damn! This looks like a blast!

HT Paula, my BFF ;^p

We Roll 'em Out, You Pick 'em.

Mysterious Traveler Entrances Town With Utopian Vision Of The Future

Listen. It beats the latest "State of the Union Address".

If you don't vote, don't bitch.

Election (1999)

Election year humor from your friends at Slate.com

Proof-readers Wanted

Have you stopped beating your wife?

The following confusing poll arrived today with our regular Trailer Life Directory Technical eNewsletter:

We Want to Know

Do plan to RV more or less in 2008

than you did in 2007?

Yes

No

Thank you

The Rear End's the First to Go.

That's what they say, anyway. Here's more proof that Randir is a biological freak! Remember, this is an eleven and a half year old -male- Scottish Deerhound. And... he'd just had 4 or 5 (short) runs on jackrabbits prior to this leap.

Forgive the quality.. I shot this with the phone :)

What Bulgarians Want.

Had our first visitor from Bulgaria yesterday. One of the fun features of SiteMeter is the ability to glean a lot of information from the visitors to the blog. This would include the search words they used on Google to end up with the old Hare-Brained Express 2008 on their search results.

I don't know what's more disturbing.. the search, or the fact that we had a post that was, at least on the surface, relevant.

I'm going to go out on a limb, and say this visitor is an old Soviet Bloc female Bulgarian Olympic weightlifter.

Making Great Dogfood.

Begin by having fast, agile, and long-winded hounds who can catch the second-fastest land mammal in America.

Then follow the steps in the slide show... (advisory: If you're used to getting your meat in a bag at a fast food drive-thru, or in the shrink-wrapped, styrofoam packages I mentioned previously, these images may not be your cup of tea)



For detailed step-by-step instructions, click on the slide show.

Must be a lot of tryptophan in jackrabbit. All the resident hounds have been sound asleep since dinner!

Milestone: The Best Ever.

I don't care if you don't agree with me. The greatest baseball radio play-by-play man- ever- turned 90 today. Don't believe me? Rent One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. What other baseball announcer could inspire a column like this one from the author of Tuesdays With Morrie?

A New, Completely "Natural" Feed From Nutro?

Well.... no. Of course not. But soon, since I couldn't find a procedure anywhere on the Internet for dressing out these guys, (and being someone who doesn't mind getting his meat in the magic shrinkwrap and styrofoam packaging), I decided to have an expert, none other than author, fisherman, houndman, M. H. Dutch Salmon, show me how it's done. And since I have a camera, and know how to use it... you all will learn how, too.

This fella's documented from the chase to the dog food dish. Next jack, I'll try out Steve Bodio's recipe... I'm thinking I'm going to like it. Dogs are already half out of their minds here, and it's still outside in the crockpot.

That's coming up in a future post. Hang in there.

Eight More Years!

This week's Onion story, plays on your sense of nostalgia. If this weren't deliberate satire, it would make a great true story. Dammit.

Chasing Jackrabbits Sure Makes Me Sleee...zzzzzzz

Today's Feature: Fanny!

Posing nicely, here, with Cooke's Peak as a background. Last time we saw Fanny on these pages, she was chasing plastic, and looking damned good about it. This, however, is significantly more impressive:

Hard to believe this hare got away. But Fanny's going on 8, she's not 8 months old. She's running well enough to get entered in Dutch Salmon's Desert Hare Classic, though.

We started of with Fanny free coursing, and Sandia on a slip lead for the first time. He was in this course, but I held him up just a little too long, so he didn't make the pictures. They ran about a half mile, and both came back quickly.

Then we jumped one that was too far out.. Fanny took off anyway, but I held Sandia. The course took Fanny back towards the car, so I started walking that way with Sandia. I watched as Fannt flushed another on her way back... a very fuzzy, distant telephoto shot shows that she should have come back with tail fur in her mouth! She was soooo close all day.

Before Fanny made it back to us, we jumped one for Sandia to run on his own. There are some pictures, but this is Fanny's day. :) He disappeared over a ridge pretty quickly. There's a good sized valley, with lots of brush, so I knew he'd be back soon. And he was, just about the time Fanny got back, so I leashed them up, as they'd had enough work for one day... Fanny 3, Sandia 2, and it was starting to sprinkle.

As we left the field I saw my old friend, the Golden Eagle on a power pole. Magnificent creature!

Wow! A Record-Setting Day.

(click to enlarge)

You guys are awesome. You must really like Sandia. Or was it the old Deerhound? Whatever the motivation, yesterday set an all time record for visits to this site. 126 visits! Only a few weeks ago, the daily average was around 18-22. Do the math. The traffic increase seems to be connected to our westward movement into New Mexico. Hmmm.

And based on the new country counter we've put on the sidebar, we're actually getting readers from other coutries.. I mean other countries besides the Netherlands. ;-) South Africa? Bahrain? Austria? Yemen? Sweden? Argentina? Vietnam?...... Vietnam? (No, I don't have any children there trying to hunt me down... that I know of.) A quick check on SiteMeter shows that many of the visitors from these other countries... 30 different countries!, actually spend time here, and read stuff. Others, for whatever deviant reasons, get here from Google searches that take them to the screwing deer photo I used in a previous post. Many others come here from Patrick's blog, or Steve Bodio's Querencia, which is odd, since he doesn't have a link to us there.

Anyway... thanks for visiting. I'll try to make it worth your while to keep coming back. For instance, I'm taking Sandia out again today, so we can beat the possible "wintry mix" that's coming tomorrow.

The Family that Preys Together...

Sandia's Aunt Camille ...and himself.

UPDATE 1/23/08: Some people thought that Sandia caught a second jack. Would that that were true! I just remembered this picture of Camille from a TCC hunt two years ago, (which also appeared in the Performance Sighthound Journal article on the Galgo), and how Sandia looked so similar with his jack. I wanted to put the two together. That's all.

Oh Wait! This is Really It!

What comes after giddy? (Besides "up"). We returned to the "big ranch" today, after a one-year hiatus. Things are looking good there.

Let Sandia loose with Buffy and the auld warrior, Randir, and they almost immediately got into action.
Sandia can close! This hare is in peril.

And look who's joining in!! (Shh.. let him think he's helping.. he's 11 1/2 now, after all).

But Sandia apparently doesn't need any help, even though Buffy sneaks into the shot to try and steal some of the glory. This run came as quite a shock to me... I didn't expect this level of performance for a couple of months yet. He's only 8 months old! Thank you Chris! He's definitely a keeper. And to the reader who is here every day from Holland... I expect a comment! ;-)

Semper Fi.

Saw this new TV commercial today during the Patriots-Chargers game. It gave me chills.


I've enjoyed watching the Silent Drill Team ever since I first saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show back in the early '60s; or was it the '50s?!? Yikes! I'm old.

Some of you know that while I was a "Navy guy" for 4 years, my last year, 1969, was spent with the Fleet Marine Force in VietNam, with a Marine rifle company. I have a lot of respect for them.

Semper Fi.

This Is It!

Giddy. That's how I feel. But, after all, what did I expect? He got to watch us on Wednesday. And he got to watch at least 12 courses at the hunt yesterday. I knew he'd know what to do.

Off-lead portrait. Cooke's Peak.

What's that? Something moving!

It's a rabbit!

Go! Sandia, Go!

And, of course, he came back. We'll keep him.

Scenes From a Hunt.

Yesterday, I took Sandia and the camera to a nearby hunt. It was good to see old friends, and meet some new ones, and get reacquainted. But mostly, it was good to see hounds doing what they do, doing what they've done for more than a Millenia; and doing it in such a beautiful setting.

This dog worked hard, over a long, long time and a great distance. Usually, unlike life, hard work isn't rewarded. In this case it was.

They're back out there today, but I have another task. It's time to let Sandia loose on a jackrabbit. Let the learning begin!

Might As Well Get a Greeter Job at WalMart.

It's bad enough these days, when anybody with a couple hundred bucks in their pockets can get a fair-to-decent digital SLR camera, and set up business as a "Pro-fesh-uh-nul Photographer". My advantage, of course is experience. Having the technology and camera speed and knowing how to use the technology and that speed are two different things. 9 times out of 10 I'm still going to get the better shot than the other guy. Or girl.

Fer example, I get communiques like this:

Dan
Are you going to shoot any ASFA trials in places where I tend to show up? J ___ ran pretty well at ___ over ___ _____, but the photographer's work was not very good. __ has a poor sense of timing, and ___ focus is sloppy. I want a good picture of J___ for her breeder
(Edited to avoid embarrassing anyone)

So, what me worry?, right?
But, as "the Coach" on ESPN's College Game Day is wont to say: "Not so fast, my friend". Casio is about to tilt the field of play way out of whack. Beginning in March, any granny, or cuzzin Bruce with a thousand bucks laying around can get the perfect shot, (s'long as they can aim the damned thing, that is). The magic machine they will do this with is below:




See what it says on the lens barrel? If you want to see what kind of resolution you can get at that kind of speed, check out the samples here. Pretty impressive. So impressive I might as well retire to a life of leisure and panhandling in Deming, New Mexico.


Just kidding.