Hunting Saturday March 17, 2007 10:00AM
Hill ‘n Hound Farm

Huntsman: Eleanor Hartwell

Whips: Jill Wagenknecht, Gene Deutsch, Lee Deutsch, John Korenak
Four Wheeler Whip: Gary Pregler
First Field: Mary Hensel (fieldmaster), Roger Smith, Ron Ausman, Leslie Granger
Second Field: Anne Hoagland (fieldmaster), Sue Marshall, Tess Fleishli, Leslie Ayers, Michael Murphy, Gigi Harrow, Janelle Allton.
13 ½ couple of hounds. Quite a few puppies were out.
GPS readings 11.05 miles
2:09 hrs moving 1:25 hours stopped. 3 hrs 34 minutes total
Max speed 22.2
Moving average 5.3

It was a cold and overcast day. The temperature started at 32 degrees and increased to 38 degrees while we were hunting. Barometric pressure was falling. The ground was quite muddy and boggy in the bottoms. Winds were from the East Southeast at 1 to 2 mph.

We parked Hill n Hound farm. Many of us had brought two horses since it was a back to back day hunt. I had brought two horses and chose the greener of the two for today’s hunt. We hacked down the road toward the cross country course. We turned across the stadium field and jumped a coop into the pasture. Eleanor drew the hounds into the woods there but nothing was found. We jumped out of that pasture and crossed the cross country field. She drew the hounds into the draw in the tree line but found nothing. We then went on down to the river bottoms and drew along the woods there. She then started to put them into the fingers. John viewed a coyote and shortly thereafter we heard the hounds speaking. Off we started and ran almost to Hwy 67. There the hounds lost in the woods. We thought the coyote had turned north and we were trying to find a trail to head that direction when the hilltopper field Tallyho’d a coyote headed south. I believe it was Tess that first spied the coyote. We turned around in time to watch the coyote head south and to see the hounds about thirty yards behind with Daphne in the lead. We followed Mary on a wild run across the fields and it took Eleanor even a while to catch up with us. The hounds lost the scent in the open fields and we pulled up to wait for the remainder of the pack. The total length of the run was 2 1/2 miles. Eleanor gathered up hounds and took them back north toward Hill ‘n Hound. We ran into Gary along the way and he had one of the puppies (Ikon) on the four wheeler with him. The puppy had crossed the highway so he brought him back. We then went down and drew in the fingers again. This time Twilight and others were working hard on something but never got anything moving. We called it a day and headed in.

After hunting we had a brunch in Gary Pregler’s house. Michael Murphy made Irish stew in honor of St. Patrick’s day. He also had some good potatoes, salad, and sandwiches. No one went hungry.