From East to West and back again

Derek and I have just returned from the NM State Championship archery shoot in Farmington, NM.  It's a 400 mi trip there, clear across New Mexico from the far eastern corner where we live to the far western corner.  Fortunately, my mother lives in Santa Fe, a convenient half-way point.  On the way in, we stopped for lunch and finished the drive in the afternoon, but coming back we spent the night and came home Monday morning.

The way the State Championship works is like this: there are 6 shoots during the year- American, Vegas, Indoor, Field, Animal, and Hunter rounds.  You get 10 points for winning, 9 for second, and so on.  You can carry 40 points to the Grand Field.  At the GF, you shoot the Field, Animal, and Hunter rounds again.  The Field and Hunter are 28 targets x 4 arrows each for 112 arrows each round.  The Animal round can score on the 1st arrow and, done right, you'll shoot just 1 arrow for 28.   That's a total of at least 252 arrows, plus any practice shots.  All this is done in the field, up and down hills... quite a bit of walking... in the hot Farmington July sun.  It's a physically tiring round and it's important to pace yourself and stay hydrated.

Over  hill and over dale

Terrain

Derek has good form

Two sets of 20's

Derek won State Champion last year and, since it was the first year for his class, he set State records for every shoot.  He didn't start shooting until the outdoor rounds, but still won the overall.  This year, he shot the Vegas, Indoor, and all the field rounds and won them all.  Me, I won 4/5 with a 2nd place.  This meant that we both carried the full maximum of 40 points to the Grand Field.  In addition, Derek had a new bow this year- a Diamond Razor Edge- which he shot in all the field shoots.  Immediately after the last one, though, he got another new bow- a Hoyt Ignite- which was going to be a bow to grow into.  However, he shot it so well, that we made the last minute decision to use it for the Grand Field.  I was shooting a new-to-me Hoyt Alpha Elite that I used for the last Field round and I had an also new-to-me Hoyt Vector Turbo that I decided to use during the Animal round to give it some field experience.  The stage was set.

There were some exciting moments.  As I mentioned, we shoot 4 arrows at each target during 2 of the rounds.  All year long, I'd not needed any spare arrows and so I was carrying 5 arrows of the same fletch and 3 spares with slightly different fletch.  No surprise then that one of my shooting group nearly did a Robin Hood on my arrow, breaking it.   No problem... I pulled out my spare.  A few targets later, though, I shot a very tight group and one fletch sliced the fletch off another arrow.  No problem... I pulled out my different fletched spares.  On the first shot with it, the arrow cork-screwed and  hit about 6" low giving me a nasty 3 points instead of 5.  Bad shot, I figured.  On the next target, it did it again. Now we had a problem. Close examination showed that one of the fletches was misaligned- this happens rarely, but it does happen.  Fortunately, my other spares were good and I finished the round out in good shape.  And also fortunately, I'd brought my fletching gear, so I spend that evening stripping off my odd-fletch spares and re-fletching them all to match.

On the next-to-last target, Derek shot and his arrow corkscrewed.  On his next shot, the rest didn't drop like it was supposed to.  Turns out his cable clamp was loose.  There are rules for this, though, and I quickly fixed his mechanical problem, he retrieved his arrows, and shot again, scoring an 18/20, saving the day. Good times.

Derek ended up scoring considerably higher (30-50 points higher) this year than last, thus setting all new records.  I shot better than last year, too, although not so dramatically.  We both won State Champion in our respective classes, which was a fun thing to do.  I feel like I worked hard at my shooting this year and even though there wasn't much competition in my class, I was happy.

State Champ!

State Champ 2!

Coming home, we took a side trip thru the Jemez Mountains.  I'd worked here for 2 summers as a biologist 20 years ago and hadn't really been back, and I wanted to show Derek the country.  We were going to cut in from Cuba, NM but I thought that might be too much "mountain" for car-sick-prone Derek, so instead we hooked up from San Ysidiro to La Cueva, and then across to Los Alamos and down to Santa Fe.  It added about an hour and half to the trip, but it was worth it.

In the woods

At the Valles Caldera

The Jemez was, of course, gorgeous.  The caldera has got to be one of the prettiest places on earth.  There's a popular climbing spot just to the west of the caldera and we stopped to watch some climbers work.  Derek noted a couple of cabins across the road and said that would be a neat place to live; fish in the stream, climb on the rock, and elk hunt in your back yard.  Hard to argue with that.

Heading hom: 62 F, 31 mpg, 8 am

It was a long and tiring, but fruitful, trip.  We saw pretty much most of what New Mexico has to offer, from hot desert country to cool green meadows to wide-open plains.  We saw elk, deer, pronghorns, prairie falcons, violet-green swallows, towhees, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, and a goshawk.  It was dry, raining, windy, still, hot, and cool.  We ate green chile, pizza, and steak.

Georgia, unfortunately, had a rougher weekend, coming down with a fever and irritable bowels.  I think she needs a little more rest after her cancer treatment.  And I don't know about Derek, but after driving 800 miles, shooting 300 arrows, and hiking up and down hills in the hot sun, I'm needing a little rest, too!

Off To A Rocky Start

As I noted in my last entry, my youngest son is showing an interest in rock climbing.  We did a couple of large and fairly easy boulders as a warm-up and then he started bugging me to do another climb on the rocks in our NW corner.  So, the other day, we headed back there to check on the pasture and do a little climbing. 

He did 6 different climbs up this face, using just about every inch of the rock.  He did this one first, then over the little overhang to the left, then across the large crack to the right, and different routes up the front.  He's naturally  good and I saw some progress as he got used to the rock- he was switching feet and just using his hands and feet together much better.

The traditional "peak" shot

We had fun.

Next up is a picture of grass.  Just grass. This is good stuff for us ranchers.

Grass.  Green grass.

Falcon-wise, I'm just working with the prairie falcon, trying to get her into a routine of circling a bit, then catching a pigeon.  Last time out didn't go so great.  I'd fed her a bit in the morning and I think that took the edge off her appetite by the time I finally got out in the evening.  She circled us a few times but lost interest and landed on a pole.  I did get her back, though, and she did behave better on her pigeon, so I guess we made a little progress. 

Excitement and Changes

It's been exciting around here the past couple of weeks.  First, though, the changes.  I heard thru the grapevine that a certain biologist and a certain group of organized birders were upset at some of the photos I posted of the peregrine falcon take.  They felt that I had "compromised" the nest site.  In spite of the fact that this is a legal, defensible activity, I understand their concerns.  I thought I made a good attempt at not giving away exact locations and, yes, if you were standing under the exact cliff you could probably find the nest ledge, but really, at that point, all you'd have to do is lift your binoculars up- just like we did.

It's easy to get nest locations and I sure didn't think I was giving away anything that you couldn't find in a dozen other places. For instance, if you pick up a copy of "Raptors of New Mexico" you will find not only nice pictures of nest cliffs for all the raptors, but the county given, landmarks shown, and in some cases, the nest site circled on the photo!  Another "for instance" is that you can sign up for birding tours and get taken to some of these sites.  But, whatever...there was some concern and so I locked my blog down until I had an opportunity to go thru and cut out some references and pictures.  I also made some phone calls and talked to some people, reminding them that I did spend 11 years as a raptor biologist, am published in peer-reviewed journals and symposium proceedings, and so forth.  Instead of spreading dissent thru the grapevine, all these folks really had to do was shoot me an e-mail and say "Hey, Bryan, have you considered....?"  All I was trying to express with the photos and descriptions is the work, preparation, skills required to take a wild peregrine falcon, along with the sheer excitement of the thing. It's kind of A Big Deal and is probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me.   In any case, though, some sections have been modified, photos removed, and we're back up.   It should go w/out saying that if I missed something and you're concerned about it, you should let me know.  And, hey, if you organized bird-watchers want a presentation on falconry from a life-long raptor enthusiast and fellow birder, let me know.  You know, I originally got into falconry because I didn't know anything about it and I thought it would be good to have actual first-hand experience if I wasn't gonna like it.

Speaking of the falcons, they're doing great!  I started flying the prairie falcon and her training is coming along well.  Yesterday, she circled overhead and climbed a bit before getting her reward.  She's getting steadier in the field and on the whole, I'm looking forward to catching a duck or two with her this winter.  The peregrine's fully feathered now and is just starting to get trained.  He's a playful bird, for sure.  His personality and the prairie's are 180 deg opposites.  She bates away but takes the hood very well- never even scratches at it. He bates to me, lands on the glove and chups but hates the hood.  I carry him from the mews to house and he rows the whole way. She never rows. He picks at his food. She rips it apart with a vengeance. She sits on the edge of the perch calmly, he stands in the middle of it, looking over the edge. And so on.

Wendy- the prairie falcon

The biggest news is that it is raining and the grass is growing.  Just look at the difference in the grass in the above photo versus some of my earlier shots!  We've rec'd 2-4" of rain in the past 3 weeks and it's just great.  I absolutely appreciate the rain more after the drought we went thru.  The thought of it not raining at all is a fearful one!  Let's see some rain pictures!!!

Rain comin' down!

A rain gauge doing its job

Water!

A rainbow at the end of the storm

And now that it's raining, we're stocking up on cattle.  It's possible that we'll have a long summer and be able to graze until Nov.  If so, then we can salvage this season and make a living.  I have 3 trucks coming in today and another 3 tomorrow.  My neighbors are also getting cattle and that caused some excitement the other night.  It had just rained 0.8" and their truck couldn't make it to their pens to unload.  So, they asked if they could store their cows in our pens for the night.  We ended up unloading the truck in the dark, in the rain, in the mud.  And no one complained.

Ships in the night

I originally tried to cut down on my guitar business this summer, but I learned a lesson.  Never turn down work if you can do it.  I've now picked it up again and am stocking up on work.  I'm also in the process of getting a real, actual, stand-alone shop so that I can move out of the house (where I've been working for 11 years).  In addition to giving me a dedicated shop, I can use my existing "power tool building" as a badly needed pigeon loft and I can free up the room I've been using, turning it into a ranch office.  Stay tuned!

Youngest son, Derek, wanted to try rock climbing and so, several weeks ago, we stopped off at REI during a blood transfusion run to ABQ so he could try on kids harnesses.  We ended up buying a Black Diamond Whiz Kid and it arrived this week.  So, of course, it was off to find a suitable rock.  Derek took to it like a monkey to a tree.  We all had fun.  Pictures by David:

Whiz Kid in action

Up the rock!

Welcome back!