Over at church, attendance has been dropping steadily and rapidly and I was beginning to wonder if I might be the problem. I held meetings with church members and had some discussions that I feel good about. I'm sticking tight for now, but that, too, was a stressful time.
The biggest news. though, is that my grandmother, the matriarch of the family, died on Sunday evening. She'd been in the nursing home for a year and half with rapidly declining health, mostly unable to recognize any of us for maybe a year. This probably gave us all time to say our goodbyes but it's sad to see someone decline like that. It was my grandmother who kept 2 ranches and a bank running for close to 30 years after my grandfather died and she kept that control until just about 3 years ago. At that time she passed the reins on to my mother and aunt, splitting the main corporation into 2 separate ones. That's when I got "promoted" from "cowhand" to "ranch manager". Not more than 2 months later, she fell and broke her hip and that was the beginning of the end. Here's a link to her obituary.
In other news, my falcons are flying. The prairie falcon is doing great. The peregrine, not so great. Here's what I said on the falconry forum:
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Today, I had a south wind which means that it blows up the face of this butte in my backyard:
The prairie killed a pigeon two days ago, ate all she wanted, and was fasting yesterday. Today, her weight was right back to 630, so I loaded her, some pigeons and went out to the base of the butte. She has started going up on her own, but I figured this would help. There were a bunch of ravens and a wild prairie flying around the butte- the wild prairie went into a stoop on the opposite side and didn't come back up so I went ahead and let my bird go. She flew in 1 circle- I could see her catch the wind on the down turn- and then immediately headed for the butte where she circled and went up just like an elevator until she was up there mixing it up with the ravens. I didn't want things to get out of control, so I tossed the pigeons- one strong bird and one young bird. The young bird flapped a hundred yards and landed on the ground and by then the falcon was in full-tilt stoop at it. This was cool- 1) her first real altitude, 2) first real stoop, and 3) coming right at us.
She whapped the pigeon hard enough to roll him over and then kicked up and looked back. This was really cool to see as she was RIGHT THERE. She flipped back but overshot the pigeon. Pigeon then got up and headed upwind- he could see the pigeon house and he was going for it! The prairie got off the side and worked up above him and drove him back down wind where she was able to tag him again, but he let the wind lift him and she went underneath. After that, he _really_ pumped for home and she was right after him. They disappeared over a rise and seemed to have gone down into a creek bed between us and the house- about 1 mi away.
We got a fix with the telemetry and then I sent my wife in the truck down the road and across the creek while I walked toward the fix. When I came over the bank of the creek I paused to look and the first thing I saw was the prairie dragging the pigeon down the opposite bank toward me. When I actually approached her, she flared away a bit, so I tossed the lure down. She ignored it, but seemed to settle down at the sight of the familiar object, as she stayed toward me and started plucking feathers. She'd already eaten the head, so I pulled the pigeon crop and helped her break into the breast. After eating a bit, I ripped a wing off and moved her to that while I pocketed the rest. Then I picked her up, hooded her, gave a couple of more bites thru the hood, and we walked back to the truck with her sitting very nicely. Back at the mews, I set a wing/breast on the perch and unhooded her. She'll be stuffed tomorrow, but that's okay. Good effort = good reward.
I was happy. Sure, she tail-chased the pigeon, but hey, she hit it twice and as far as she was concerned it was HERS. I am happy at her persistence and I'm also glad I put the Power Max on her instead of the Scout. I got some exercise and it was a beautiful evening on the prairie.
Update on the peregrine: he's acting like a spoiled little brat. Screaming, baby-fluttering, sitting on the ground, etc. I'm tempted to wring his noisy little neck, but I've been here before and patience rules. I've put him up for a couple of weeks while I focus on the prairie falcon as duck season opens on Weds and I always intended for her to be my duck hawk and him to be my late season pigeon hawk, anyway.
What I'm going to do for the next 2 weeks is work on his screaming by going into the mews a lot and feeding him thru a food chute at night (so that the food is there in the morning). When I fly him again, I'll look for that south wind and fly him up against the butte. He just needs a little maturity, some flying experience, and we'll be fine.
The prairie killed a pigeon two days ago, ate all she wanted, and was fasting yesterday. Today, her weight was right back to 630, so I loaded her, some pigeons and went out to the base of the butte. She has started going up on her own, but I figured this would help. There were a bunch of ravens and a wild prairie flying around the butte- the wild prairie went into a stoop on the opposite side and didn't come back up so I went ahead and let my bird go. She flew in 1 circle- I could see her catch the wind on the down turn- and then immediately headed for the butte where she circled and went up just like an elevator until she was up there mixing it up with the ravens. I didn't want things to get out of control, so I tossed the pigeons- one strong bird and one young bird. The young bird flapped a hundred yards and landed on the ground and by then the falcon was in full-tilt stoop at it. This was cool- 1) her first real altitude, 2) first real stoop, and 3) coming right at us.
She whapped the pigeon hard enough to roll him over and then kicked up and looked back. This was really cool to see as she was RIGHT THERE. She flipped back but overshot the pigeon. Pigeon then got up and headed upwind- he could see the pigeon house and he was going for it! The prairie got off the side and worked up above him and drove him back down wind where she was able to tag him again, but he let the wind lift him and she went underneath. After that, he _really_ pumped for home and she was right after him. They disappeared over a rise and seemed to have gone down into a creek bed between us and the house- about 1 mi away.
We got a fix with the telemetry and then I sent my wife in the truck down the road and across the creek while I walked toward the fix. When I came over the bank of the creek I paused to look and the first thing I saw was the prairie dragging the pigeon down the opposite bank toward me. When I actually approached her, she flared away a bit, so I tossed the lure down. She ignored it, but seemed to settle down at the sight of the familiar object, as she stayed toward me and started plucking feathers. She'd already eaten the head, so I pulled the pigeon crop and helped her break into the breast. After eating a bit, I ripped a wing off and moved her to that while I pocketed the rest. Then I picked her up, hooded her, gave a couple of more bites thru the hood, and we walked back to the truck with her sitting very nicely. Back at the mews, I set a wing/breast on the perch and unhooded her. She'll be stuffed tomorrow, but that's okay. Good effort = good reward.
I was happy. Sure, she tail-chased the pigeon, but hey, she hit it twice and as far as she was concerned it was HERS. I am happy at her persistence and I'm also glad I put the Power Max on her instead of the Scout. I got some exercise and it was a beautiful evening on the prairie.
Update on the peregrine: he's acting like a spoiled little brat. Screaming, baby-fluttering, sitting on the ground, etc. I'm tempted to wring his noisy little neck, but I've been here before and patience rules. I've put him up for a couple of weeks while I focus on the prairie falcon as duck season opens on Weds and I always intended for her to be my duck hawk and him to be my late season pigeon hawk, anyway.
What I'm going to do for the next 2 weeks is work on his screaming by going into the mews a lot and feeding him thru a food chute at night (so that the food is there in the morning). When I fly him again, I'll look for that south wind and fly him up against the butte. He just needs a little maturity, some flying experience, and we'll be fine.
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I've otherwise just been working on guitars and chatting on Facebook. Am very much looking forward to getting cattle shipped and out of here and moving on into winter.
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