Haven t posted in a very long time but basically here is how things go.

We have two very good hives and 1 ill be surprised if it makes the winter. The two nucs did not do very well at all. However the packages did awesome and i would def buy bees from Dadant in Paris Texas again. I'm looking at getting a few medium boxes to make over the winter as well as a Queen Castle. I think one of the failures for this year was i could provide queens for the swarms i collected. I'm going to extend the bee yard a little bit for ease of use and hope to do a few splits next spring. I also want to make a few nuc's up myself. We will see how things go. I'm still feeding sugar water 1 part sugar 1 part water but less often now. The days have got cold and they seem to be taking up less. The two good hives are 4 Deeps deep. Which i am very happy about, hopefully this will give them and me a good basis for next season.

On Saturday sieve and i went down to Dallas to fly his birds on a known rabbit field. The day was a bit of a disaster weather wise. Charlie did chase after a squirrel but after that we was soon back in the car and heading home.

I did take the rest of Saturday to make myself a T-Pole Perch , using a Rubber Squeegee and some astro turf. I got both items from walmart for 9 bucks so i'm very pleased with the results !

A funny thing happened at work today, or at least i think its funny. They are sending us emails once a week with a devotional message that is supposed to inspire.

Today's had a picture of a very beautiful butterfly and the caption was supposed to inspire us .

I sent a comment back stating that , one didn't understand what they where referring to. The response i got was that if the butterfly was not willing change it would never become something so beautiful. This got me thinking does the caterpillar have a choice, does the maggot have a choice. Do they say one day, hey i'm going to be a fly, or im going to be a butterfly. NO they dont, they have no choice they are not in a poisiton to willing choose its predestined and nothing apart from everloution will eventually change that cycle of life.

A friend and i where checking out 2 bee tree's on his property. As we where checking out the bee's we saw two red tails chasing each other off. We also spotted a road kill squirrel it looked like it was very young, We cut the tail off and i removed the flesh so i can use it in a lure

Walking Time Bomb

I'm a walking time bomb, well that's what the Dr tells me, 11 months ago everything seemed to be OK, I passed my immigration medical with no problems, but things have slowly gone down hill or maybe even caught up with me. The stress of work and life in general have changed that much in the last 11 months that today it took 3 people to check my blood pressure.

In the month that has gone by its amazing how going out with steve's hawks has become so important to me, I forgot how to be so absorbed in something that takes your mind away from everything outside of that immediate vicinity. I used to do competition fishing. I wasn't very good at it , well i never one any prizes but that wasn't the point for 4 hrs a week i could go fishing and try and catch as many fish as i could, sitting on the bank waiting for that float to bob and then take a strike, if i stuck fast enough we had a carp or a bream, sometimes it was a tench it didn't matter as long as it was big and put up a fight. One fish become two , two became 4 and before you knew it 4hrs had gone and there was 8-10lbs of fish in your net waiting to be weighed and released back to the stretch of river or lake i was fishing. I have forgotten how that 4hrs became void of a boss that shouts at you, money worries and other things that happen in life.

I'm glad falconry has come along when it has, for a moment in time all those stresses are gone, its just you, someone who has become a very good friend , a hawk and some game. The excitement of the chase as a cotton tail makes a dash for freedom. Shouting HOHOHO to get the hawks attention, scrambling through brambles as you race to keep up with the bunny in hope that the hawk has also spotted it and wants to chase with you. There is something very human and very basic about falconry , there is an excitement there, there is something that makes you feel alive. One purpose, one mission and whether you like it allot its been something we have been doing since Adam and eve were expelled from the garden of Eden. That day something died to make cloths for two people, something was hunted and in the millions or thousands of years that have gone on since that same basic instinct is still there. It might be sanitised, it might be even forgotten by some but its still there ticking away.

Today i was told i need to make a life style change, Today i wish i was at the airport shouting HOHOHO and forgetting all other things but one, the hunt is on and we are going to hunt something.

Went Hawking with Steve again, We went to some WMA land in Texas. Not much to report, We flushed a rabbit but it got away to the surprise of steve's hawk smash.

I pretty much got the falconry knot down pat now which i pretty pleased with. My Game Vest arrived from Bass pro today , so one less piece of equipment to get. i've been trying to make some leaches out of 255lb nylon chord. I'm not to sure if its to thin but its interesting none the less.

I finished the California study guide today but about to start re-reading it until i have it down pat then i'll take the online test and see what we get.

Came across the Oklahoma Falconry meet/video for this year, It looked like fun, haven't heard much else. It would be pretty good to meet up with some of these guys as there my state club. I also added Chris Kimbels new Blog, he has an interesting article on how to make Hoods.

One of the lines that has always struck me is when Jeff Goldblum character said " Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

I read a news article today how scientists have taken DNA from 20 year old refrigerated mice and cloned them. They say it heralds the way to bring back woolly mammoths and other extinct species. I always think of that quote when i read about cloning of animals that have long past. They died for a reason and regardless of whether we agree or not they should stay dead. Nature moved on and selected the best for that distinct moment in time.

Today they celebrate the down fall of a plot to blow up the houses of parliament in the united kingdom. All week kids will have been getting hold of fireworks setting them off all ours and making a general nuisance of them self. Tonight there will be massive bonfires all over the UK with people burning effigy of a little be known character called Guy Fawkes.

In another country somewhere that is growing more and more to be home they celebrated the 5th for another reason .

Today i celebrate it because on my drive along platter road i spotted 4 Red Tail hawks All sitting on the telegraph pole about 500 yards between them. The cold is now bringing more of them down through this area towards Dallas.

I also ordered a game belt from the Bass Pro shops, see above picture i like the fact its small and isn't like a ruck sack.

Yesterday Sunday i headed over to Steve's house, he said 2.30 - 3.pm but the clocks went back one hour which meant we would loose an hour of sunlight. I was impatient i have been waiting all week to go out with Steve and his two Harris hawks smash and Charlie. In a very short time its become something that is waited and looked forward to the whole week. So i arrive early well a few minutes to early might be bad manners and late would be unforgivable.

I had a gift for Steve a copy of the US army corps map for lake Texoma. I had my friend Kevin who is the tree stand hunter ( something i could never do) print it up to poster size. When i used to fish in the UK i was not one just to sit there and wait, always changing tactics, bates , depths trying something new till the fish struck.

We headed out to the east side of Hangermans wildlife area. There are two plots of public land almost next to it. We drove down after scouting out the surrounding area and pinpointing the exact spot. We got there we noticed a few trucks so we found a quite spot and smash came out. we sort of did a figure of 8 in the surrounding land but we didn't spot anything till on the way back to the truck. smash was looking at things in the distance . All of a sudden a bird flew up into the air, then another then another, there must have been 30 wild turkey's take flight. We headed off for another spot through the drain off areas of the lake, not much really happened until something rather spectacular happened

I was walking along with the T-Bar , perch or pole. It's kinda of funny cause i wasn't quite sure how to use the thing, Either to use it as a stick to beat brush or just hold it aloft in the air and look rather silly cause there is no bird on it. Then it happened ... the pole got slightly heavier and i look up only to see one Harris hawk sitting on it . i looked at Steve and just grinned what can you say but it was totally amazing ! It seemed lie forever and Smash did actually turn the pole to say hey i want to look this way before he flew off. We think he caught a snake , it looked like a snake to me and im sticking with that.

On the walk back to the car Steve did they public relations thing with some two guys and there three children that had spotted us. Before the trip home the sun set over the lake. All in all a very good day.

Checking the Land out

Today my Step Daughter (aged 10) and my daughter aged ( 6 months ) took a drive along platter to learn the lay of the land. If i know the vicinity of where i can hunt i can start to narrow down possible locations.

The potential hunting area is to the North West of Platter with a mixture of course and wooded ground there are two main roads into there area , We noticed on the upper Platter fields road 2 other cars which suggested this is where the hunters come for deer and other game. When i get a bit more time ill check it out for actuall game

The Other area of interest is West Burns Run . The ground on the east side of west burns road is open to the public and again offers a mixture of different terrains.

We did spot a Golden Eagle today not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing but certainly and interesting thing.