The Waiting is Over!

My last blog was "Waiting on Winter".  Well, winter is here!  We got our first major storm the evening of Dec 2 and woke up to 4-6" of snow and 30 mph winds.  It wasn't quite as bad as the big storm of '06, but it was definitely A Storm.  In '06, I had to do Operation Falcon Rescue and rip the window out of the hawk house to rescue my prairie falcon who was sitting on top of the snow in the last 16" of air space.  This time, I got smart and moved the falcons from their mews, putting the prairie in a shed and the peregrine on the perch in the camper shell.  I was glad I did because over the next 2 days, the hawk house filled up with snow.  My next step is to make some windows for the hawk house that'll block the wind and snow.

Sunrise over the propane tank

Lookin' East.  Note drifts.

A bit nippy.

Except for a brief episode of furnace cycling that I fixed by climbing up on the roof and knocking ice off the vent tube, we weathered the storm with electricity, water, and heat intact.  Thank God!  First warm day, though, I need to take the furnace apart and clean out the exhaust pipes.  I used to do this once a year or so and then slowed down but I think it's due now.

On the Davidic Front, he and Georgia went to ABQ for a transfusion and ended up staying for 10 days.  David's hemoglobin got down to 2.8 g/dL which is WAY too low.  His resting heart rate was 150 bpm.  It was time to get something done and so the doctors decided to keep him in the hospital for a week, give him steroids, and monitor him.  It took awhile for the steroids to kick in, but eventually they did and seemed to work.  Prior to steroids, his hemoglobin was dropping about 2-2.5 g/dL per day.  Afterward, the hemolysis slowed to about 0.5 a day.  David and Mom are on their way home today and it's likely that they'll be back in ABQ at the end of this week, but we'll just see.

Getting a Wii transfusion

Steroids and transfusions are not a long-term cure at all, although the steroids can sometimes- rarely- send hemolysis into remission.  That would be incredibly wonderful but at this point, we're starting to talk bone marrow transplant for David.  I suspect that process is going to start pretty soon.

After release from the hospital, D and M needed to stay nearby for monitoring before they were allowed to go home.  ABQ, though, was getting the storm we were getting, making travel nearly impossible.  Ronald McDonald House to the rescue!  In all our hospital stays, we've never had to use this, but it was a Godsend this time.  D and M were able to stay right there close to the hospital for a very reasonable fee and in comfort.  Thank you McDonald's!

David and McFriend

Back at home, I've mostly just been working on guitars.  This is really my peak work-time and I try to make the most of it.  I've also done a few recordings of customer's guitars that I throw out on YouTube.  Here's one:

That's about it for now... we're thankful for the snow, for staying safe and warm thru the storm, for Ronald McDonald house, our friends, family, and everything else!

Waiting On Winter

We're in that stretch of the season where cattle have shipped and I'm mostly tying up loose ends and getting ready for winter. So far, the weather's been really nice- we've had a few cold days but for the most part it's been 40-60 deg F days and nights just around freezing. The wind hasn't been too bad, generally running about 5-20 mph. We got 2-4" of snow a few weeks ago and then that melted off.

I've been taking advantage of the weather and flying my falcons and I've discovered that they both fly really well between 9 and 3 pm. Any earlier and I'm not awake. Any later and they know that the coming evening means they won't eat and, as a result, they both stick too tight to me and don't fly. At mid-day there are thermals and both birds are steady enough that I can let them soar on the thermals to gain some height. The birds have different styles that are interesting to watch. The prairie falcon is more business and seems smarter as she'll herd pigeons around in the sky until she gets them where she wants them and then she'll dive. When she gets a foot on a pigeon, it's all over. The peregrine flies faster and will chase pigeons more but he doesn't have the control over a pigeon that the prairie falcon does. And he screams almost constantly. The prairie is fun, the peregrine is kind of obnoxious.

Wating for lift-off. Prairie falcon

The peregrine nearly got eaten for lunch himself last week, I was flying on pigeons and after a couple of strong fliers, he went up nicely again, so I tossed one I thought he could catch. They had a good chase around on the flat and then the pigeon decided to out-run the falcon but he was just slow enough that the falcon though he could catch him. I watched the chase thru binoculars and finally saw a pitch-up about a mile away.

First thing I did was get out the telemetry and get a signal. As I turned toward the truck to drive over, I saw an immature golden eagle winging across the prairie about 60-75' off the deck heading straight toward the peregrine’s location. That didn't look good so I jumped in the truck and headed off as fast as I could go. I managed to get ahead of the eagle (by driving 40 mph across the prairie...) but wasn't sure where the falcon was and didn't want to run over him. So, I stopped and jumped out with the telemetry and that's when the eagle passed me, rolled over in the air, and stooped, just over the rise from where I was.

The falcon was up almost immediately, but ignored me and flew off. Another telemetry chase ensued and I found him sitting on the ground about 3/4 mi away. He flew 100 yrds to the lure and I everything looked fine until I noticed him favoring a leg (although he did manage to wrap it around some food first). I didn't find any blood and the leg doesn't look twisted or anything, so I decided to wait and see. Back home, he devoured a quail but definitely favored his right leg.

I checked on him several times during the night and each time he looked a little better. The next morning he was on his rock near the window, on both feet. When I went in, he flap-jumped over to me and was a little gimpy on the right leg but was able to use it, move it, and stand on it. He also flew across the mews, no problem. A week later, he looks pretty normal. He was one fortunate falcon.

On the Davidic front, we finally have a preliminary diagnosis. David seems to have an extremely rare disease called Congenital Erythropoietic Porphyria (CEP). You can read about it here:
http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/about-porphyria/types-of-porphyria/CEP and here:
http://es.wikidoc.org/index.php/Congenital_erythropoietic_porphyria.
David isn’t showing the extreme blistering that you’ll see in these links, but he does have some blistering on his face and, ironically enough, we encouraged him to get sunlight to boost Vitamin D because that’s supposed to help other anemia conditions. He has tested positive for most of the conditions and we’re waiting on some definitive test results now. In the meantime, he continues to have blood transfusions, but they seem to be less and less effective. In the beginning, he was getting 1 unit of blood every 3-5 weeks and we were able to drive to ABQ and home on the same day. Then he developed antibodies which must be matched. In addition, the doctors upped his blood from 1 unit to 2 and then 3. All this means that it might be 4-8 hours before the transfusion is even started and we’re typically there for 2-3 days at a stretch now. And he’s requiring transfusions every week now in spite of, or maybe because of, increased units. His hemoglobin dropped all the way to 3.5 g/dL once and has been below 4.0 a couple of times. Normal is 14-18 g/dL. I had David’s blood tested yesterday and it was 5.0 (less than 1 week after 3 units of blood) but because today is Thanksgiving and because a weekend visit requires an ER visit, we (us and doctors) are trying to hold until Monday. But, I assure you, we’ll back in ABQ on Monday morning, bright and early- maybe even checking into the ER Sunday night and getting started. I don’t know.

Out on the ranch, I’ve mostly been doing some prairie dog control. We have a LOT of prairie dogs. I’m in the process of GPS’ing the towns, but I think we’re going to have close to 3,000 acres of prairie dogs. In a normal wet year, they’re not too bad as the dog towns actually green up before anything else and the cattle really like that fresh short grass. But in a dry year like this past one, they can do some serious damage to the gramma grass. Plus, they are not self-regulating populations and can increase very rapidly. So, I’m doing prairie dog control.

David with Prairie Dog #1 with his new Ruger 10/22

Right now, we’re just spinning our wheels. Mom, Brianna, and Derek went down south to Pinon NM for the holiday and David and I are going to some neighbor’s for Thanksgiving dinner. I am battling a weight loss plateau and so I’m not going to eat much, if anything, but David likes to visit people, so I guess we’ll go visit.

And that, folks, it what’s going on. This is (Wild Kingdom voice on) Life on The High Plains. (off).

The End!!!

I’m sitting here in a nice warm house writing this while the wind’s blowing 40 mph outside, creating sub-zero wind chill factor.  We finished shipping cattle yesterday and it’s the end of the longest, hardest ranch season I’ve yet had.   The drought was absolutely killer and the only thing that saved us were the rains at the end of July and into August.  Others were not so fortunate.    Adding to this were some business disputes, the battle with my son David’s blood disease, and the passing of my grandmother.  It’s been quite the year.  But here we are, still alive and kicking. 

The actual process of cattle shipping went extremely well, thanks in part to the feeding that I was able to do about a month prior, and also to an exceptionally good group of cowboys that worked with and for us.  The cattle love high protein cattle cake and when I fed them this year, I used my FoxPro predator call as an additional call.  I programmed a siren and a recording of me honking the horn into the FoxPro.  Once the cattle were trained to this, they really came well.  I was able to call them across the pasture and then thru the gates.

Cattle following the feed truck

Cowboys following up, pushing the stragglers

Cowboys at work.  Waiting to load the alley with more cattle.

Phillip working the alley.

Like father....

...like son!

So, what’s next, you ask?   Well, plenty… we’ve got some maintenance to do before winter fully hits, shutting water off, winterizing things, and stuff like that.  Then there’s the battle for David’s health- that will surely take priority as we try to figure out what’s wrong with him.  I’ll be flying my falcons when it’s not too windy, and I mostly hope to get to work on some guitars!  And I think I’ll start praying for rain NOW.

The Calm Before The Storm

It's getting longer and longer between blog updates and that's because we're just kind of cruising right now. If this blog were a cross-country airline flight, we'd be about Nevada. There's some turbulence coming up as we cross the Sierras and then we'll be landing in L.A to finish the journey. Well, something like that, anyway.  In the meantime, we're getting ready to ship cattle on Saturday and the cattle season will be drawing to a close. Yessir... the cruise part is over, we're about to hit some turbulence, but hopefully we'll get this thing landed and get back on terra firma.

To get ready for cattle shipping, I've been spending a lot of time feeding and counting cattle. “Feeding” involves driving around towing a cake feeder. I honk my horn to signal the cattle and they come running for the sweet, high-protein cake. This serves several purposes; it puts weight on the cattle and it also trains them to the feeder which makes gathering easier. Cottonseed cake is expensive stuff and a lot of cattle owners don't like to feed it, but it really is good stuff from my perspective. Feeding takes a lot of time, a lot of wear on the ranch truck, and gasoline costs money. But it's also a great way to count cattle and it gets me out in the pasture. 

Trusty Ranch truck and cake feeder

The wheel turns the gear which turns the chain which turns the belt...

...and the belt pulls cake out into the hopper, which an arm opens and dumps.

Cattle at sunrise

Deer season opened on Saturday and we've been out looking for a buck. This is the first season in a long time that I've had trouble finding deer and I attribute it to the dry conditions. The cattle are foraging in areas where they don't usually go and I think this pushes the deer out. But, we found 14 deer yesterday and I'll be heading back to that canyon this afternoon to see if I can waylay a buck when they come out again. [Edit: the wind came up and I never made it.  Oh, well....]

On the falconry front, both birds are flying fairly well and reliably. They're both going up decently. Neither has taken a duck although the peregrine knocked a teal down a few weeks ago. I'm taking a short break from flying right now while I get ready for shipping and while I deer hunt. Will probably start flying again on Wednesday, though. Just a short break.

On the Davidic front, 2 weeks ago the doctors decided to give him 2 units of blood instead of the usual 1 unit. For some undetermined reason (there are a lot of those in this game) he didn't do well and inside 2 weeks had actually dropped to nearly his worst level. The hospital wanted us to come to ABQ that evening, but the reality of a 4.5 hr drive, arriving at 10 pm, and then etc, resulted in Mom and David going to Santa Fe and doing another transfusion on Saturday. Then they stayed over on Sunday to meet with the doctors on Monday. Come Monday, the docs decided not to meet after all, and so they came home. If it weren't for my mother's house in Santa Fe, this would a LOT more stressful, but, thank God, she has a very comfortable little place there that's a great home away from home.

I'm finally getting some solid guitar work done and getting my savings account built up again. That's nice and I really enjoy working on guitars. It's relaxing and satisfying work.

That's the update from here.

Sunday lunch in the local cafe.  Mom and David were in ABQ.

First snow.  You might be able to see the sandhill cranes on the right.

Peregrine progress

Today is a new day and I made some progress with the peregrine.  First, for the uninitiated among you, here's what I'm dealing with  (I suggest you turn your computer speakers down, or at least have the "MUTE" button handy):

For the past week, I've been let the peregrine eat and I've been going inside with no food, just saying hello, and then leaving.  I'm trying to break the food association link.   This didn't really make any difference in behavior, although he did gain a little weight. Tues ,the wind was blowing from the south, pushing it up the butte where I flew the prairie Sunday. She was scheduled to fly, but unfortunately was still a little heavy so I decided to take a chance with the peregrine and see how he'd do.

I set him on the ground right at the truck so I wouldn't have to walk with him screaming thru the hood in my ear. After several sit-on-the-ground sessions where he'd sit until I got too far away and then he'd get up, make a circle around me, and land again, we got closer to the butte. He felt the wind and went right up the side to the top where a tiercel prairie immediately joined him. The two chased each other around a bit and I was really surprised at how well the peregrine handled himself and how aggressive he was- HE made most of the moves on the prairie. They flew around for awhile and then I tossed two pigeons just as the falcons drifted out of sight over rise. Nothing.  The pigeons circled aimlessly, looking for home. Nothing.  The pigeons gained height. Then, suddenly, WHOOSH!!!! the peregrine went ripping by overhead, followed by... the tiercel prairie. We were treated to stoop after stoop as both falcons chased a specific pigeon and each other.

The birds drifted off to the east where they were joined by a female prairie. The pigeon went out of sight over a rise and I saw the female put in a more serious stoop. We started running, watching for rattlesnakes!, and about 0.8 mi later (I Google Earthed it)  found the peregrine out on the flat, happily munching away on his catch. He was glad to see us.  The prairies were nowhere to be seen.

I let the peregrine eat, then tore a wing off, got him on that, and picked him up. He didn't like being picked up too much, but I got him eating again, then hooded him. We had a long walk back in the now 25 mph headwind and back home, I gave him a wing to tear on.

Good flight. Just like the prairie did, he got some height. I think that butte's going to be useful, but I'm getting telemetry I can carry with me!

Sunset on the prairie with the peregrine

 Mom and David are off to ABQ for another blood transfusion for David.  This is Number... I've lost count...6?   They're also getting the camper window that I busted in Winfield replaced.  $350...whoooshh.... gone!

The End of an Era

The past couple of weeks of have been pretty stressful.  There's an ugly ranch situation going on that I can't talk about until it's settled.  It has me talking to our lawyer, getting papers together, calculating, re-calculating, and just doing a lot of wondering.  We're looking down the road at shipping cattle, with all the preparation and busy-ness stuff that brings.  I always hold my breath until the final count is done as you can count pasture every day and come up with great counts, but all that matters is how many head cross that scale and go into the truck.

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. 

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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. 

Under Construction

Well, this is the longest I've gone in updating my blog.  It's not that nothing has been happening- to contrary, a lot of things have been happening, but it's just been the same thing over and over and over and over, in a seemingly never-ending repeat.  You ever see "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray?  Something like that.   It seems like I've been building stuff all summer long.  And it seems that way because that's exactly what I've been doing!  First the hawk house, then the shop, then working on the buildings that got emptied when I moved into the shop, then re-arranging the house where stuff got moved out, and on and on and on and on.  In the middle of all this, there's a ranch to run, antelope hunters to take care of, taxes to pay, deaths, births, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and on and on and on and on.  Whew, I'm already tired.  But wait!  There's more! I've been flying both falcons, too.  Teal season opened this week and we've trying to catch one.  So far, no luck, but the falcons are flying better, sticking around, coming to the lure, and just getting better and better trained.

Enough chit-chat, let's get to the pictures...

Nearly Finished!

The hawk house is nearly finished.  All the metal is up, the exposed wood is painted to match the roof, and all that's really left to do is put flashing on the corners.  But I'm tired of spending money, so that'll just have to wait until next year.  For now, the building is solid and comfortable.  There's the prairie falcon sitting up against the window to the left.

Birds, Boxes, and Band saws.

Benches upon benches!

Working on skirting

Inside the shop, I am pretty well full.  I have tables, benches, saws, box racks, and falcon perches.  The shop makes a pretty place to park the prairie before going flying.  Outside, I'm in the process of putting in Z-flashing to protect the top of the skirting, and digging the skirting about 2" into the (hard) ground to help keep rodents out.  It's slow work, but I should be finished with it tomorrow.  I'm backing the north skirting with some insulation and this should help a lot this winter.

Guitar work has been coming along well.  I find that it's nice having all my stuff in one room, but since I have 3 benches, I tend to get tools scattered around the place and I walk around a lot more to get this or that tool.

New bridge and saddle

Neck reset and setup

In the process of doing guitars, I've also recorded a few videos for the customers.  Here's the top guitar in action:

And here's the other one:

And finally, on the Davidic Front, mom and David are off to ABQ this afternoon.  David's hemoglobin was 5.1 gm/dl today, almost what it was back in May when we started looking for a solution to his anemia.  I don't know what we'll find when they get to the doctor's tomorrow, but if you want to keep up, follow me on Facebook.  Speaking of Facebook after years and years of resisting, I've signed up.  Probably part of the reason I haven't updated my blog is 'cause I've been busy kicking around FB to see what it'll do.

OH YEAH, let's not forget the RAIN!!!

Last week we got 2" on the west side of the ranch and 3" on the rest.  It will let the grass grow just a bit longer, but it also filled up the creeks and ponds so that the cattle can spread out a lot more and get to grass they haven't grazed all summer.  It also means that I'll have some ducks to fly with the falcons!

Heading to the field

 I think that's enough for now!  Upcoming this week, I need to ride the pastures and get a complete count of cattle on the grounds in preparation for shipping sometime next month.