Hunting Saturday January 26th, 2008 10:00AM
Steckel Farm

Huntsman: Eleanor Hartwell (Seamus)

Whips: Jill Wagenknecht (Camo), Gene Deutsch (Waffles), Lee Deutsch (Belle), Tess Fleishli (PT)

First Field: Mary Hensel (fieldmaster)(on Toby), Eddie Beyers, Leslie Ayers (Gabe), Leslie Granger (Floyd), Mary Smithing (Topsy), Christy DeMauro (guest on Maurice)

Second Field: Anne Hoagland, Gigi Harrow

Jr. Field: Lei Ruckle (Fieldmaster)(on Ronny), Cissy Calvird (Okie), Joy Yates (Wakeyan), Diane Begemann (Spanky), Mackenzie Bussard (Rocky)

12 couple hounds

GPS readings 13.8 miles 2 hour 39 minutes moving 1 hr 59 minutes stopped. Total time 4 hrs 48 minutes. Max speed 18.5 mph
Moving average 4.9 mph

Lunch/Brunch – Provided by Anne Hoagland and Gigi Harrow. We had Sandwiches, chips and cookies in the Steckels barn.

It was a cold morning although the weatherman had promised that the weather would warm up today after a very cold week. The temperature was 34 degrees when we started and warmed up to 48 degrees. The wind was from the South. The sky was overcast when we started and the sun came out later. The Masters allowed parkas for those that wanted them. Barometric pressure was falling. The ground was frozen and fairly dry.

We started out eastward down the drive and then headed south toward the Macoupin River. We went along the river and then headed Northwest to avoid having to cross the drainage ditch while Eleanor continued to draw the hounds along the river. We heard the hounds speak and Eleanor reported that the hounds had something at the base of a Sycamore tree and the hounds were marking. Whatever was in the tree did not want to come out and play. She continued along the river and drew up the ditch and then up a valley. We encountered some cows here that were out where they shouldn’t be and were quite excitable. Gene went to find the farmer to let him know his cows were out. We continued north and then turned west at the top of the hill and south back toward the river. Along the river the hounds found a raccoon in a hollow stump. Some of the puppies got very excited and were marking but Eleanor got off and verified that it was a raccoon. We moved on and crossed the river on the bridge. We went up to Sherwood Forest and the hounds started speaking. The lost and then found and lost again. Tess thought she saw a fox go into the woods there but no one saw anything come out. Eleanor cast the hounds back through the woods and a few of them came out speaking and heading southwest. Since we were close to the bridge most of the field headed in. Some hardy souls stayed out (mostly juniors) led by Lei Ruckle as one field. Since we’d already been out 3 hours Eleanor gathered the hounds and we started back. We caught up with those that had headed in earlier and all came back together.