The first Blessing held at the new property "Valley Green Farm" Eolia, Missouri.

Hunting October 29th Valley Green Farm
Huntsman: Eleanor Hartwell
Whips: Jill Wagenknecht, Mary Hensel, Lil Lewis, Gene Deutsch, Lee Deutsch
First Field: Werner Kugler (field master), Stephanie Mihlbaugh, Robert Mihlbaugh, Lei Ruckle, Sue Marshall, Eddie Beyers, Heidi Fox, Jean Mutrux, Roger Smith, Tom Neese, Ron Ausman, Rebecca Corrington, Debbie Daugherty, Nick, Leslie Ayers, Jane Liesman, Leslie Granger, Bob Wilmott and daughter Gina.
Hilltoppers: Geri Waushausen (field master), Annie Hoagland, Abby Mutrux, Shelby, Sarah, Michael Murphy, Debbie Hogan, Colby tinsley, Tess Fleishli, Kristi Herbst, Janelle Allton, Charles Burch + others.

Someone counted 34 riders total I think there were a couple more than that.

GPS readings 14.77 miles 1 hrs 59 minutes moving 1 hr 07 minutes stopped. Total time: 3 hrs. 6 minutes not including blessing time
Max speed 25.7 mph
Moving average 6.1 mph

Blessing 8:45 AM
Hunting 9:00 AM

After having a wet week, it stopped raining late Friday night and the sun came out displaying beautiful fall colors for the weekend. The weather was 50 degrees at blessing and warmed up to 62 degrees before we went in. Barometric pressure was steady, it was bright sun all day. The ground was rather muddy from the recent rains. Winds were calm from the SSW.

After a lovely blessing service, we headed SW down the driveway and past the kennels and toward the road entrance. We then turned off toward the South through a new trail that took us across the top of the bluffs and around to below the natural bridge. We saw a beautiful bald eagle fly over. The fall colors were marvelous. We paused in the field next to the creek and we could see the hounds running across the top of the bluffs. It was a magnificent sight! Eleanor waited and listened but they never seemed to pick anything up. We meandered around the new property and came up by the silo which is a major landmark for navigating this territory. Most of the back part of the fields then was lost from the front of the field due to a old wire fence that Ron and Stephanie stopped to cut in order for horses to traverse it safely. We were lost from Werner for a while but Ron and Stephanie got us back on track. Shortly after we rejoined the front of the field we heard Eleanor give a view Halloa and off we went. As we were going along, Tom and I saw Rebecca’s horse launch a shoe in the air and Tom kindly got off and retrieved it for her. After three hours we headed in for a wonderful pot luck brunch with open bar. The Three Creek Bassetts had also come out for the blessing so there were over 50 people at the brunch.