Pearl with the first groundhog of 2009.
Pearl slides into a fox sette to check. Note the fox scat at entrance.
Mountain slides into another sette.
Mountain crosses a creek on solid ice.
I went out digging on the dogs on Monday.
Mountain found the first active groundhog sette of the season, but it was Pearl who actually located it underground and worked it to a stop end. She did a nice job, and came out without a scratch. I am not sure what this fellow was doing about this time of year; it was 28 degrees and snowing!
Mountain busted a fox out of a sette a few fields over. She had barely entered before the fox bolted out of a grass-obscured hole up the hill about 20 feet. Mountain came out of the same exit about 10 minutes later and worked the scent up into the trees and disappeared.
I let Pearl loose to see if anything else was home. She stayed underground for about 20 minutes, and I was hopeful, but she never opened up. Just as she was exiting, Mountain came back over the hill.
I decided to call it a day as I had busted one of the handles off my posthole digger as I let them slide off my shoulder at the fox sette. Woops!
This is the second time I have done this; the first time was a few years back when I was pounding on a fox sette to make sure the dog and fox had actually moved to a stop end before beginning to dig.
The wooden handles of posthole diggers are very strong when slammed into the ground vertically, but they do not have a lot of sheer strength coming down sideways. I will have to get a replacement handle before the weekend. Hopefully, it will stay cold!
.
Pearl slides into a fox sette to check. Note the fox scat at entrance.
Mountain slides into another sette.
Mountain crosses a creek on solid ice.
I went out digging on the dogs on Monday.
Mountain found the first active groundhog sette of the season, but it was Pearl who actually located it underground and worked it to a stop end. She did a nice job, and came out without a scratch. I am not sure what this fellow was doing about this time of year; it was 28 degrees and snowing!
Mountain busted a fox out of a sette a few fields over. She had barely entered before the fox bolted out of a grass-obscured hole up the hill about 20 feet. Mountain came out of the same exit about 10 minutes later and worked the scent up into the trees and disappeared.
I let Pearl loose to see if anything else was home. She stayed underground for about 20 minutes, and I was hopeful, but she never opened up. Just as she was exiting, Mountain came back over the hill.
I decided to call it a day as I had busted one of the handles off my posthole digger as I let them slide off my shoulder at the fox sette. Woops!
This is the second time I have done this; the first time was a few years back when I was pounding on a fox sette to make sure the dog and fox had actually moved to a stop end before beginning to dig.
The wooden handles of posthole diggers are very strong when slammed into the ground vertically, but they do not have a lot of sheer strength coming down sideways. I will have to get a replacement handle before the weekend. Hopefully, it will stay cold!
.
1 comment:
These are nice photos and seeing the dogs at work is the best part of this blog. the shot of the frozen creek is great, I havent seen a frozen water surface in 15 years down here in Africa where the days are hot and the ground is baked, not frozen hard.
good stuff
J.CT
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