I've gotten to where I don't bother taking the camera out to the desert when we go hunting. It's heavy, gets covered in a fine, fine dust that seems like it can't be doing the camera any good in the long run. And if I'm going to tote something weighty, I'd rather it be the binoculars so I can better watch the action when it goes over the horizon.
So it was yesterday, as I packed Sandia and Fanny in the car for a rare afternoon hunt with Dutch. A brisk East wind was blowing, keeping the temperature in the mid 50's, so we weren't worried about heat. We were at a field we hadn't visited in several weeks, and is always good for a couple of chases, if not exactly bountiful.
We'd walked south about a mile and a half, and then cut west a bit, then back north an equal distance without even a sniff of a hare. We decided to turn to the west for a while, and that's precisely when the hare jumped right in front of Sandia. He got the jump on everybody, and had a good run up, which eventually turned the hare... hard, to the right, almost right into the mouth of Dutch' s Phyllis (winner of the Desert Hare Classic) who was closing fast. I saw her head go down in the high cover, but she came up empty. Sandia avoided the collision, and stayed right behind the jack through several more turns.
Eventually the hare made a straightaway break, with Sandia still on its tail. In fact, that was one of the more impressive parts of this chase, that despite the extremely high cover in this particular field, Sandia never let the prey get more than a couple of feet ahead of him, always keeping him in site. When they broke into an open patch I could see Sandia lunging, ever so close to the hares rear, but not quite making contact. Those would have been some pretty impressive photos had I, you know, had my camera with me...
But that's not the "money shot" referred to in the title. Ninety seconds after the race began, Sandia, with some help from Phyllis finally snapped up the jack. A very brief "discussion" ensued as to who "owned" the jackrabbit, and for a while Sandia carried it back in tandem with Dutch's soon-to-be impressive puppy "Cinnamon", but she finally let go and Sandia proudly brought "dinner" back to me. That was the money shot, as these events are rare.
This was probably Sandia's finest overall course of his young life, the first where he really looked like some of the best Galgos I've seen coursing in the southwest. The best moves of the jackrabbit didn't shake him. He kept it in sight despite difficult conditions, and he refused to give up until the job was done.
But his day wasn't over. After a fifteen minute rest, and some goats milk and water, he was back out front as we started our final sweep back towards the vehicles, and boom! Fanny jumped this one, and for a nearly nine year old staghound, did herself proud in the run up until Sandia and Phyllis took over. This rabbit had a different plan than it's "brother", and ran in a- fast - straight line to the southeast. Sandia was, again, right on it as the rabbit's sinister tactic became apparent. It was trying to get to a heavy concentration of creosote bush.. nasty stuff you don't want your dogs running into, and pretty much guaranteeing the jackrabbits survival to run another day.
The dogs straggled back looking like survivors of a WWII beach assault. Dutch's Ashley had a big hole in her foreleg, while Sandia had a long, ugly tear on his rear foot and, discovered later, a couple more holes in his armpit and chest. Not deep, just tears, but ugly. By the time we got home, he'd stiffened up significantly. This morning, he's moving around much better, but we may take him to the vet, because he won't let us touch him.
The drawback to the vet idea is that they'll probably want to suture the wounds, which means he'd most definitely miss a big Galgo outing planned for next week. Galgos are coming down from the north of the state, including his mother and siblings, and others are coming from out East somewhere. So for now, I've got him on antibiotics and letting him keep the wounds clean on his own.
Meanwhile, we've purchased a bigass crockpot, and there'll be jackrabbit in the dog food tomorrow!
So that was yesterday. One jackrabbit got caught. One got even. Rubber match anyone?
That's right. Why should we be any different from everybody else. Just in time, too, as the skies opened up yet again right after we got it back on terra firma.
Black Bellied Whistling Ducks. As the map at the link shows, these guys are way north of their usual range. (We're on the Red River in SE Oklahoma). "Very un-ducklike" indeed. I thought they were something altogether different when I first saw them.
Yep. We're growing bottle brushes,
and these yellow, fuzzy balls (protected from the trunk on up by very sharp thorns!),
And if this isn't just a little bit disturbing.... I don't know.
No rest for this little guy. He's working the ocotillo from sunrise to sunset. My "blind" is just sitting in the parked car next to the flowers. I wanted to add this because I noticed the shot of the black chinned hummer I posted the other day is actually out of focus when you click to enlarge it. Not so on this, which is my best hummer shot ever! Click it.
Tarantula Hawk. Check it out, this is one big wasp. The body is about 2" long. Click the link for the scientific stuff.
of which we have half a dozen samples in the yard. A couple of weeks ago, they sprouted a group of red buds at the ends of their "stalks". I took a closer look at them and realized that they would bloom even further, but I had no idea this plant that actually looks dead most of the year, would bloom like this.
There's another, larger hummingbird hanging around, but I haven't captured his image yet. It's either a Broad-tailed, or a Ruby-throated. My money's on the Broad-tail.
Wilsons Warbler. A bird that looks like it bought a bad toupee.
All through its history, there has never been a shortage of characters in baseball. In 1976, there was no bigger character than the Detroit Tigers Mark "the Bird" Fidrych.
"We are Fam-i-leeee"... That's Sandia and his sister, Maya in the image above. While she's longer than tall, and he's taller than long, the family resemblance is still unmistakable.
So, here's the "money" shot I didn't get a couple weeks ago. He dropped it about 50 yards short of us.. I guess it felt pretty heavy after running it almost a mile, then carrying it back almost a half mile.
Nope. That dew point isn't a misprint.
I've been telling everyone how nicely "landscaped" the yard is, but when Dutch and a couple other of our fellow hunters stopped to see the place the other day, Dutch called it, (I thought), "zeroscaped". Yeah.. I've heard of that. But it turns out it's not "zeroscape", it's xeriscaped.
Subjecting our readers to yet further spectacular views from the Homestead. This from the couch. The dilemma: watch TV or look out the window? No dilemma for Fanny, who's soaking up the sun, while Rally waits for her to move.
Hide the women and kids... it's blood and gore! 
Nasty stuff.
Every hockey fan knows that, with all due respect to Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe is "Mr. Hockey". And if Gordie, (the only player to play on a professional level in 5 different decades), is Mr. Hockey, his wife, Colleen is "Mrs. Hockey".
Image, New Mexico Garden Club
From the NOTRA meet in Mountainair this past weekend. Dust a-plenty, mixed with dried sheep poop!
The year was 1980......
Not to be confused with a morning TV talk show featuring a clutch of yakking near-celebrity babes, and not-so-babish babes. Nope, this is the view early evening from the front porch of the Hare-Brained Homestead. We went up to see if the battery of motion-sensitive searchlights would work. One did. More investigation is required.
I don't usually promote fashions available from CafePress that don't make us a buck or two, but Patrick has designed some pretty cool gear with a message some who read this blog don't want to hear. Doesn't mean it ain't so. Check it out- he's selling with 0 markup, and he's letting you copy the art on the blog to make your own... whatever. I'm going to make a shirt!
...and then there's POLITICAL NEWS:
Landscape vegetation includes two palm trees, lots of cholla and prickly pear cactus, barrel cactus, a fig tree, and other trees, bushes, and shrubs yet to be identified. The pale pink roof to the right of the house is the cabin. Lot is all the darker area, plus all the way to the right edge of the image frame.
Margaret thought the name was too "cutesy".. but I think I've beaten her into submission, and she's put together some cool potential business card designs, and logos. This is just one example. 
...which got them into what could have been a very serious situation. In fact, it turned out to look much worse than it actually was. (And give me points for being professional, and keeping the shutter button pushed when my dog was in the middle of flying ass over teacup in the middle of the desert!).
They found their feet so quickly, that all three dogs got back on the jack, and a good course ensued. I know it was good, because Sandia won it!
Burrowing Owl. Although they are listed as endangered in many states, we see a couple every time we go out to hunt. This one let me get pretty close before he bolted.
We had to drive up to the new house today to make sure the manufacturer tags were still on both sections per federal law. (Who knew?). As we turned off the pavement, there were a couple of trucks parked on the shoulder looking up at the mountains behind the house. We stopped and asked what they were looking at. Ibex was the reply. They're reguler visitors I guess, so now we have to add a spotting scope to the budget.
