Conan the Megatron Barbarian (LOL!)
Nov 20, 2022 7:46:14 GMT -5
Shawn, jerseyrose, and 3 more like this
Post by Lannie on Nov 20, 2022 7:46:14 GMT -5
Wow, what an adventurous and cold evening we had last night. I was feeding the dogs their dinner, and decided, since the path in the snow was fairly flat and I was in my tennis shoes, that I'd go see if Rich needed any help with his part of the evening chores. I was almost to the horse barn when I heard two loud rifle shots, followed by four more quick ones. More than one rifle firing. The dogs were scattering, not knowing which way to run, but now that the leaves are falling off the lilac hedges, I saw splotches of red up on the road in just east of our house a hundred yards or so. Horus had run over to the edge of the corral and was staring toward the road at full attention, so since I was closer to him than the driveway gate, I hoofed it across the corral and saw some guys going down into the ditch on the far side of the road.
There were two pickups stopped on the side of the road, but one of them left. The other one was just sitting there, idling. I didn't have binoculars, so I couldn't see the license plate numbers. Pretty soon, a guy came up and stood next to the truck, and I was standing there in the pasture, near the road, staring at him, with three big white dogs beside me. (I love my doggies!) Standing in the pasture with my TENNIS SHOES on, let's not forget. There's still quite a bit of snow out there, so I had to step carefully. Finally, the guy and another guy that joined him got in the truck and drove off. I thought that was that, so I started back across the pasture and corral, and just as I was about back to the barn, the truck came back, going west. I kept walking, wondering where Rich was, and finally found him standing out by the driveway gate, watching them. As I was walking to the gate, the truck came BACK down the road, going east again. WTH?
Rich had been watching two OTHER guys on foot that were hiking up the neighbor's hayfield across the road about a quarter of a mile, then hopped the fence and went east. They shot a deer (or two) from the road, it ran up the hill and across to the OTHER neighbor's property and they followed it. Rich called both neighbors afterward and neither had given permission for any hunting, so they not only broke the law by shooting from the road, but they trespassed on two people's properties. Anyway, while we were still out there, Rich went to the house to get the binocs while I watched the two guys dragging the Mulie doe back down the hill to the truck. But even with the binoculars, I couldn't see the numbers on the truck's plate. Too far away... However, the dogs could see everything, including that those guys just killed a deer.
Now, I don't know if they were upset because someone killed an animal, or they wanted to go steal that doe from the guys, but Maggie and Conan were mighty worked up over the whole deal. I felt we'd better stay out there and keep them close until after the guys left, but OMG they were taking their time coming back with the dead deer. Once they got the doe back to the road, they dropped her on the gravel and both dogs lunged forward. I yelled, "STOP!" and I'll be damned if they didn't both hit the brakes and do a full-stop! I was kind of impressed. They just stood there watching, so I told 'em "C'mere, jugheads," and they came over to me and sat so I gave them a cookie for being good. Then they resumed watching, and when the road hunters hoisted the deer into the truck bed the dogs lunged forward again, and again they stopped immediately when I yelled stop. Wow.
By then the sun had gone down, the wind had picked up, and the temp was down to about 16. I was FREEZING, because I had only intended to come outside long enough to feed the dogs, but ended up out there for nearly an hour, trudging through snow with only tenny-runners on, no hat, no sweatshirt under my non-windproof coat... my hands felt like blocks of solid ice. I finally yelled at the guys, who were standing around the truck, talking (maybe recounting their brave hunting techniques of killing a deer from the road). I don't know if they could hear me, but I have a pretty good voice when I want to be heard. I yelled at them to GET MOVING, ALREADY! GET OUT OF HERE! VAMOOSE! They piled in the truck a minute later and drove off, so we were able to bring the dogs back up toward the house and we went inside to warm up.
I don't know what the first truck did. I think they shot one and killed it outright in or near the road ditch and loaded it up and took off with it right off, but I'm only guessing. The guys in the second truck had to chase theirs down and drag it back. I'm all for hunting, but this business of stopping in front of someone's house and shooting from the road is BS. If we could have seen the license number of that second truck, Rich would have called the sheriff, but neither of us wanted to approach four guys with rifles who were hunting illegally, so we weren't able to identify them.
But my dogs did GREAT! And the cattle panels we put up a month ago worked beautifully to keep them in, because they obviously made it across the pasture much quicker than I did, but when I got out there close enough to call them back, they were just running back and forth inside the fence. I know if they could have gotten over the cattle panels, they would have. We still have to fix the gate where they're getting through (which is why we had to babysit them until those guys left last night), but the FENCE is so far keeping them in. Fingers crossed.
What really impressed me, though, was the way they both (Maggie and Conan) stopped instantly when I yelled at them to stop. I'm so used to the LGD mindset of "I'll come back when my business is finished," that my jaw dropped when they both responded like that. I have good dogs. (In case anyone is wondering, Jasper did not come out front with us, but stayed back in the horse corral, barking at those guys the whole time. He's old now, so he does the barking part, but from a safe distance. He lets the kids take point.)
And I hope hunting season is over soon.
There were two pickups stopped on the side of the road, but one of them left. The other one was just sitting there, idling. I didn't have binoculars, so I couldn't see the license plate numbers. Pretty soon, a guy came up and stood next to the truck, and I was standing there in the pasture, near the road, staring at him, with three big white dogs beside me. (I love my doggies!) Standing in the pasture with my TENNIS SHOES on, let's not forget. There's still quite a bit of snow out there, so I had to step carefully. Finally, the guy and another guy that joined him got in the truck and drove off. I thought that was that, so I started back across the pasture and corral, and just as I was about back to the barn, the truck came back, going west. I kept walking, wondering where Rich was, and finally found him standing out by the driveway gate, watching them. As I was walking to the gate, the truck came BACK down the road, going east again. WTH?
Rich had been watching two OTHER guys on foot that were hiking up the neighbor's hayfield across the road about a quarter of a mile, then hopped the fence and went east. They shot a deer (or two) from the road, it ran up the hill and across to the OTHER neighbor's property and they followed it. Rich called both neighbors afterward and neither had given permission for any hunting, so they not only broke the law by shooting from the road, but they trespassed on two people's properties. Anyway, while we were still out there, Rich went to the house to get the binocs while I watched the two guys dragging the Mulie doe back down the hill to the truck. But even with the binoculars, I couldn't see the numbers on the truck's plate. Too far away... However, the dogs could see everything, including that those guys just killed a deer.
Now, I don't know if they were upset because someone killed an animal, or they wanted to go steal that doe from the guys, but Maggie and Conan were mighty worked up over the whole deal. I felt we'd better stay out there and keep them close until after the guys left, but OMG they were taking their time coming back with the dead deer. Once they got the doe back to the road, they dropped her on the gravel and both dogs lunged forward. I yelled, "STOP!" and I'll be damned if they didn't both hit the brakes and do a full-stop! I was kind of impressed. They just stood there watching, so I told 'em "C'mere, jugheads," and they came over to me and sat so I gave them a cookie for being good. Then they resumed watching, and when the road hunters hoisted the deer into the truck bed the dogs lunged forward again, and again they stopped immediately when I yelled stop. Wow.
By then the sun had gone down, the wind had picked up, and the temp was down to about 16. I was FREEZING, because I had only intended to come outside long enough to feed the dogs, but ended up out there for nearly an hour, trudging through snow with only tenny-runners on, no hat, no sweatshirt under my non-windproof coat... my hands felt like blocks of solid ice. I finally yelled at the guys, who were standing around the truck, talking (maybe recounting their brave hunting techniques of killing a deer from the road). I don't know if they could hear me, but I have a pretty good voice when I want to be heard. I yelled at them to GET MOVING, ALREADY! GET OUT OF HERE! VAMOOSE! They piled in the truck a minute later and drove off, so we were able to bring the dogs back up toward the house and we went inside to warm up.
I don't know what the first truck did. I think they shot one and killed it outright in or near the road ditch and loaded it up and took off with it right off, but I'm only guessing. The guys in the second truck had to chase theirs down and drag it back. I'm all for hunting, but this business of stopping in front of someone's house and shooting from the road is BS. If we could have seen the license number of that second truck, Rich would have called the sheriff, but neither of us wanted to approach four guys with rifles who were hunting illegally, so we weren't able to identify them.
But my dogs did GREAT! And the cattle panels we put up a month ago worked beautifully to keep them in, because they obviously made it across the pasture much quicker than I did, but when I got out there close enough to call them back, they were just running back and forth inside the fence. I know if they could have gotten over the cattle panels, they would have. We still have to fix the gate where they're getting through (which is why we had to babysit them until those guys left last night), but the FENCE is so far keeping them in. Fingers crossed.
What really impressed me, though, was the way they both (Maggie and Conan) stopped instantly when I yelled at them to stop. I'm so used to the LGD mindset of "I'll come back when my business is finished," that my jaw dropped when they both responded like that. I have good dogs. (In case anyone is wondering, Jasper did not come out front with us, but stayed back in the horse corral, barking at those guys the whole time. He's old now, so he does the barking part, but from a safe distance. He lets the kids take point.)
And I hope hunting season is over soon.