Odd tumor
with his legs still on the floorFriday, December 12, 2014
A death in the Hog Hunting family...
Last summer Dad always talked about how he wanted a Blue Lacy as a hunting dog, but we could never find one that wasn't priced outrageously or that wasn't half way across the country. But FINALLY I found one that was under $500 and she lived in Mississippi. I convinced mom to go meet here in Montgomery and pick up the dog and her sister for a friend of ours. He named his Lacy so we named ours Blue. (Technically, her registered name was Down South's Lacy Bell) For 5 months she and Candice lived happily in their pen together... But Wednesday night Candice just snapped. It was a massacre. Thursday morning I rushed her to the vet and after 4 hours of surgery and removing her leg he said it would be up to her. Unfortunately, she just didn't have enough fight left in her and she was found dead this morning at the vet's office. I would really like to thank Dr. Scott for everything he tried to do. It was a monumental task. He said that after all his years, that was the worst case he's ever seen. She was a good puppy while we had her...
She was such a goober lol
She was such a goober lol
I guess that's just a lesson to us that we should never buy a dog.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
No Good Sense, but maybe Hog Sense will do :)
Well, I have come to the conclusion that we either have hog fever or we don't have the good sense that God gave a billy goat. Yesterday, which was opening day of youth season for deer, we decided we'd take the dogs out on a wild hair that a select few hogs would be just as crazy as we were and be stirring in the cold. At 6am it was a toasty 21 degrees and there we were loading dogs.
My first sign should have been the fact that I had on 2 shirts, 2 jackets, 2 pants, a cap, insulated socks, and my boots and was still cold. The second sign should have been that we didn't have a windshield on the ranger. Sign number 3 was that the road had been worked and it hasn't rained here in a month... can you say dust storm?
But all of that aside, once we made it through all the dust and finally got to turn some dogs loose it was worth it. There were a ton of people that went. First of, Taterbug and Tanner and maybe Bo (I cant rightly remember) turned their dogs out. It wasn't long before we got a few sound off barks, but nothing major. About 30 minutes later, I happened to be looking up the hill and about 13 pigs and shoats crossed the road. I hollered at dad and asked him if we could turn our dogs out now and he said yes. Then, the race was on.
Tracker was showing them a good 6-700 yards away in the fork of a creek. So here me and dad go to try and find the dogs. By ourselves, mind you. When the tracker finally got back in range it was showing all of our dogs bayed. Pulled up within 90 yards and heard the squeal. I went out first. Once I got out there I hollered back at dad and told him they had another one caught about 10 yards farther from me. We both caught a hog each... but didn't have any string... not long after dad drug his catch over to mine we heard the cavalry coming. They brought us some string and we tied those two up.
A little ways up the road, the dogs struck again. This time they were bayed across the creek, which happened to be dry. Tied that one and brought it back. However, the group left us and it just happened that Bo's four-wheeler broke down and it them a pretty good while to get it back out to the road and he limped it back to the main road and hitched a ride on back to the group with Woodie and Melissa. Once we made it back to the group, it wasn't long before Tanner and Bug's dogs bayed again. This time they had a decent hog and killed a little piglet off to the side. So, then we turned our dogs out and they and dad went on a little "walk-about". Well, the group left going to a few dogs that were bayed. We didn't know where dad was so we stayed and waited and waited and waited. Still no dad. So I told Woodie that the only thing I can think to do was to go back to the group and hope we find him on the way. When we caught back up they had a big black sow stabbed in the road, but no dad. Loaded that sow up and Woodie said, "I'm gonna go back and see if I cant find Jerry"... He did finally.
Mine and Dad's matching hogs
The piglet and bigger hog
I guess I don't have a picture yet of the sow that they stabbed... Sorry about that.
I don't know if it was the cold or what, but after that people were ready to head back to the trucks, so we did. After we left Travis called and said that they had bayed, stabbed, and left another pig... and Tanner and Bo ended up with this nice sow too...
So all in all it was a good November hunt... a little chilly, but worth it!
My first sign should have been the fact that I had on 2 shirts, 2 jackets, 2 pants, a cap, insulated socks, and my boots and was still cold. The second sign should have been that we didn't have a windshield on the ranger. Sign number 3 was that the road had been worked and it hasn't rained here in a month... can you say dust storm?
But all of that aside, once we made it through all the dust and finally got to turn some dogs loose it was worth it. There were a ton of people that went. First of, Taterbug and Tanner and maybe Bo (I cant rightly remember) turned their dogs out. It wasn't long before we got a few sound off barks, but nothing major. About 30 minutes later, I happened to be looking up the hill and about 13 pigs and shoats crossed the road. I hollered at dad and asked him if we could turn our dogs out now and he said yes. Then, the race was on.
Tracker was showing them a good 6-700 yards away in the fork of a creek. So here me and dad go to try and find the dogs. By ourselves, mind you. When the tracker finally got back in range it was showing all of our dogs bayed. Pulled up within 90 yards and heard the squeal. I went out first. Once I got out there I hollered back at dad and told him they had another one caught about 10 yards farther from me. We both caught a hog each... but didn't have any string... not long after dad drug his catch over to mine we heard the cavalry coming. They brought us some string and we tied those two up.
A little ways up the road, the dogs struck again. This time they were bayed across the creek, which happened to be dry. Tied that one and brought it back. However, the group left us and it just happened that Bo's four-wheeler broke down and it them a pretty good while to get it back out to the road and he limped it back to the main road and hitched a ride on back to the group with Woodie and Melissa. Once we made it back to the group, it wasn't long before Tanner and Bug's dogs bayed again. This time they had a decent hog and killed a little piglet off to the side. So, then we turned our dogs out and they and dad went on a little "walk-about". Well, the group left going to a few dogs that were bayed. We didn't know where dad was so we stayed and waited and waited and waited. Still no dad. So I told Woodie that the only thing I can think to do was to go back to the group and hope we find him on the way. When we caught back up they had a big black sow stabbed in the road, but no dad. Loaded that sow up and Woodie said, "I'm gonna go back and see if I cant find Jerry"... He did finally.
Mine and Dad's matching hogsThe piglet and bigger hogI don't know if it was the cold or what, but after that people were ready to head back to the trucks, so we did. After we left Travis called and said that they had bayed, stabbed, and left another pig... and Tanner and Bo ended up with this nice sow too...
So all in all it was a good November hunt... a little chilly, but worth it!
Friday, November 7, 2014
And then there was 3...
Well, we had gotten down to one horse.. Legs.... and now we are back up to three. Mom and I both got mares. Mom got a quarter horse mare in August that she calls SweetHeart and I got a black gaited mare couple of weeks ago that I formally name Ebony's Silhouette. (I went a little crazy taking pics)
Ebony's Silhouette
Size different much??
She LOVES the water
Leg's said he had an itch lol
SweetHeart
She had an itch too
Playing in the water with Legs
He's so dramatic
Ebony's SilhouetteSize different much??She LOVES the waterLeg's said he had an itch lolSweetHeartShe had an itch tooPlaying in the water with LegsHe's so dramaticMIA for a while, but back in the swing of things!
I realize that it has been a pretty good while since my last update. I won't try to give everyone the entire update, I'll just hit a few highlights.
When we first started hunting our new place, they were over come with hogs. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Anyway, in 9 weekends only hunting an average of 5 hours on both Saturday and Sunday we managed to catch 130 hogs. 30 hogs over the original challenge that they gave us. With that number we closed out hog season with 242 catches with the year of 2014.
Like I said, I'm not going to try to recall every weekend, but one weekend in particular was worth re-telling. We got to our normal meeting spot and got everyone rounded up by 6am. We were hunting with some new now friends of ours for the first time. Southern Style Pro Staffers Wayne and Veronica and another couple and their small children. We voluntarily let them turn their dogs out first out of respect. They run around but never struck on anything. We moved on down the road. Eventually, Henry and I convinced Dad to put just two of our dogs on the ground; Tanner and Whitey. It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes since they hit the ground and they bayed. A little spotted pig about 45 pounds. Tied him and brought him out. Dad decided that that little pig wasn't alone. He walked Tanner and Whitey out the side end of an oat patch not far from our original bay. 756 yards later the tracker was showing bayed. And then, it happened... The call for a bulldog rang out. Me and Charlie struck out. Running that distance anyway would have been hard, but running it with Charlie was even worse. 120 yards from the bay I had to turn him loose. And then the chase was on! About 10 minutes after I turned him loose it was complete silence. No dogs barked and no hog squealed. I didn't know what to do... the only thing I could do was keep heading into the bay. I feel as though I've mislead y'all about the people. All 4 men had been in the woods a good 30-45 minutes ahead of us women. There was 4 of us women, one of which had never hunted before. Well, we finally made it in and finally heard some racket. Problem? Bout 10 yards from us was "big nasty" (the name that one of the women gave this hog) and in between us was a slew. One bulldog who was already beginning to give out and 4 women with no men in sight. Well, we lit out across the slew, calling for help, strategizing if we had to this ourselves. Finally, just as Charlie was giving completely out, Henry showed up! I was so happy to see him I didn't know what to do. Anyway, they struggled a while after I pulled Charlie off to get the hog down. They ended up stabbing him and we brought him out. We didn't catch anything else that day...
This is Rachel, the woman that had never been before. Pretty good first time if you ask us! Lol
Me and Aubry! My "prodigee"
That was a Saturday... The following Sunday was just as active. We bayed a good sized hog on the very edge of the Tombigbee River. Had to use both bulldogs, but not much of a run...
The Catch!
Me and Dad
Us crazy girls!! :)
After that catch we went on deeper into the area and met up with one of the president of the club that we were hunting on. He told us to go down a road that we have forever named "The Road to the Left". We turned out and immediately jumped a family of shoats. Doubled bayed 2 of them. After tying those two up we went a little piece and turned out again. Then it happened... Double bay again on two decent sized hogs. One sow and one boar. Henry and Dale struck out on the sow and we went on to the boar only to realize later that we had left Henry and Dale without any string to tie their hog up with. Dale left Henry holding the sow, came and found us, got some string, and went back to Henry.
I know that this post is getting long, but I'm going to tell one more story and call it quits.
Our last weekend, we had hunted all morning without any luck... we were headed out, feeling kind of defeated... but the dogs refused to leave empty handed. We got up into a semi-thick briar area and the dogs jumped a couple pigs. Everybody but me and Melissa left and went to that bay. We were standing there and heard Chiwa barking... on the opposite side of the road. Got to thinking and realized that him and Black Betty were out there together and must have a hog of their own. Here me and Melissa went to get our own hog. We got all the way out there just to realize they were in the middle of a decent sized slew. I tried to cross first, sunk up to my thighs and turned around. It just so happened that a tree had blown down across the slew, so I decided to walk the log out to the hog. On my way across, I took the bark off of the tree with my boots. Know what lives under the bark of a dead tree? FIRE ANTS!! By this time Henry and Dale had arrived and the hog was dead. Hard headed Henry decided he would just go across the slew. It didn't work for him either. Dale walked the log and jumped down to the hog... Henry CRAWLED the log, which stirred up the ants. Dale handed the hog up to me and I handed it up to Henry. He then said he was going to throw it to Melissa... He threw it alright, but it didn't go very far. She managed to get it out though. Then it was time for us to come back to land. Since Henry already stirred up the ants they were out to get us with a vengeance, and boy did they!! We brought out both hogs though and were proud of them...
When we first started hunting our new place, they were over come with hogs. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Anyway, in 9 weekends only hunting an average of 5 hours on both Saturday and Sunday we managed to catch 130 hogs. 30 hogs over the original challenge that they gave us. With that number we closed out hog season with 242 catches with the year of 2014.
Like I said, I'm not going to try to recall every weekend, but one weekend in particular was worth re-telling. We got to our normal meeting spot and got everyone rounded up by 6am. We were hunting with some new now friends of ours for the first time. Southern Style Pro Staffers Wayne and Veronica and another couple and their small children. We voluntarily let them turn their dogs out first out of respect. They run around but never struck on anything. We moved on down the road. Eventually, Henry and I convinced Dad to put just two of our dogs on the ground; Tanner and Whitey. It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes since they hit the ground and they bayed. A little spotted pig about 45 pounds. Tied him and brought him out. Dad decided that that little pig wasn't alone. He walked Tanner and Whitey out the side end of an oat patch not far from our original bay. 756 yards later the tracker was showing bayed. And then, it happened... The call for a bulldog rang out. Me and Charlie struck out. Running that distance anyway would have been hard, but running it with Charlie was even worse. 120 yards from the bay I had to turn him loose. And then the chase was on! About 10 minutes after I turned him loose it was complete silence. No dogs barked and no hog squealed. I didn't know what to do... the only thing I could do was keep heading into the bay. I feel as though I've mislead y'all about the people. All 4 men had been in the woods a good 30-45 minutes ahead of us women. There was 4 of us women, one of which had never hunted before. Well, we finally made it in and finally heard some racket. Problem? Bout 10 yards from us was "big nasty" (the name that one of the women gave this hog) and in between us was a slew. One bulldog who was already beginning to give out and 4 women with no men in sight. Well, we lit out across the slew, calling for help, strategizing if we had to this ourselves. Finally, just as Charlie was giving completely out, Henry showed up! I was so happy to see him I didn't know what to do. Anyway, they struggled a while after I pulled Charlie off to get the hog down. They ended up stabbing him and we brought him out. We didn't catch anything else that day...
This is Rachel, the woman that had never been before. Pretty good first time if you ask us! LolMe and Aubry! My "prodigee" That was a Saturday... The following Sunday was just as active. We bayed a good sized hog on the very edge of the Tombigbee River. Had to use both bulldogs, but not much of a run...
The Catch!Me and DadUs crazy girls!! :)After that catch we went on deeper into the area and met up with one of the president of the club that we were hunting on. He told us to go down a road that we have forever named "The Road to the Left". We turned out and immediately jumped a family of shoats. Doubled bayed 2 of them. After tying those two up we went a little piece and turned out again. Then it happened... Double bay again on two decent sized hogs. One sow and one boar. Henry and Dale struck out on the sow and we went on to the boar only to realize later that we had left Henry and Dale without any string to tie their hog up with. Dale left Henry holding the sow, came and found us, got some string, and went back to Henry.
I know that this post is getting long, but I'm going to tell one more story and call it quits.
Our last weekend, we had hunted all morning without any luck... we were headed out, feeling kind of defeated... but the dogs refused to leave empty handed. We got up into a semi-thick briar area and the dogs jumped a couple pigs. Everybody but me and Melissa left and went to that bay. We were standing there and heard Chiwa barking... on the opposite side of the road. Got to thinking and realized that him and Black Betty were out there together and must have a hog of their own. Here me and Melissa went to get our own hog. We got all the way out there just to realize they were in the middle of a decent sized slew. I tried to cross first, sunk up to my thighs and turned around. It just so happened that a tree had blown down across the slew, so I decided to walk the log out to the hog. On my way across, I took the bark off of the tree with my boots. Know what lives under the bark of a dead tree? FIRE ANTS!! By this time Henry and Dale had arrived and the hog was dead. Hard headed Henry decided he would just go across the slew. It didn't work for him either. Dale walked the log and jumped down to the hog... Henry CRAWLED the log, which stirred up the ants. Dale handed the hog up to me and I handed it up to Henry. He then said he was going to throw it to Melissa... He threw it alright, but it didn't go very far. She managed to get it out though. Then it was time for us to come back to land. Since Henry already stirred up the ants they were out to get us with a vengeance, and boy did they!! We brought out both hogs though and were proud of them...
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Fun hunting!
No need in me trying to catch it all up because I can't remember myself. But weekend before last was so much fun that it needs to be recorded!
Weekend before last was the best one we've had in a long time.
Saturday!
Found a big boy in the middle of the road about 5:45am. Turned Hound Dog and Whitey out and where did they bay? In the middle of a little pond! Soaking wet first thing! Turned both bulldogs a loose and Charlie did great! Caught by the ear and never let go... However, Jase caught by the tail and got pretty cut up. Several cuts under his neck and one good one on his hip. It was worth it though!!
And then one little pig after him...
And then that Sunday we got to hunt a new place! And the hunt was on! Majority of the morning we were playing catch-up with our hunting partners, so we spent at least an hour with no dogs on the ground. I finally told dad that we weren't gonna catch anything at all with the dogs in the box, so we let Tanner out... and she gave us a little pig. Running to her I got hung up on a vine and I hit the ground. I hit it hard too! Had to lay there a minute because my whole leg went numb... got to her though. No pic of it.
And then a little later on we got separated from everybody because Travis and Shannon got stuck and Woody and Melissa went to get them unstuck. Finally, after marking all of our turns with toilet paper so they could find us, Woody and Melissa showed up and said that Shannon and Travis wanted us to come back to them and see if our dogs would get on a big hog they saw. About that time, the bay rang out... in to this sow
We had just enough time to tie this girl up and the bay sounded again... another 200 yards into this little boar...
Finally, got these two to the ranger and met up with Shannon and Travis. We went right up to a oatpatch FULL of pigs. We turned a few out and caught one right there (No pic of it). And the rest of our dogs took off on a run. Finally, caught up with them right on the river bank. And caught this guy...
And we looked up and Hound Dog had swam the river with hog number 6 which he killed. He finally made it back across the river (give-out)... But while we were there we all stepped all over this guy...
We ended up with 6 total!
Woody, Dad, Travis, and Shannon
Me and Carrie rolled all over this guy while we were cleaning out the wheels.
Weekend before last was the best one we've had in a long time.
Saturday!
Found a big boy in the middle of the road about 5:45am. Turned Hound Dog and Whitey out and where did they bay? In the middle of a little pond! Soaking wet first thing! Turned both bulldogs a loose and Charlie did great! Caught by the ear and never let go... However, Jase caught by the tail and got pretty cut up. Several cuts under his neck and one good one on his hip. It was worth it though!!
And then a little later on we got separated from everybody because Travis and Shannon got stuck and Woody and Melissa went to get them unstuck. Finally, after marking all of our turns with toilet paper so they could find us, Woody and Melissa showed up and said that Shannon and Travis wanted us to come back to them and see if our dogs would get on a big hog they saw. About that time, the bay rang out... in to this sow
Woody, Dad, Travis, and Shannon
Melissa and ME
And then this past weekend we only caught 2 on Saturday, but it was a nice training day for Carrie and a nice renewal hunt in her Aunt Lisa
Me and Carrie rolled all over this guy while we were cleaning out the wheels.
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