Brag and I pulled into Cuz’s yard to pick up his rabbit dog, Judy, about 6:45 this morning. She took one look at who had arrived and started yelping excitedly. She knew what was up and approved at the top of her voice.
The lights were out in Cuz’s house and in Rye’s across road. And they stayed out. Turns out, they had had a long night at the dog track over at Shorter, Alabama.

Brag, Uncle NoPass's grandson and my main rabbit hunting partner and I are going to exercise the dogs in the morning at our club on a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama.

Some of the younger bucks are staying at the "cabin" tonight, so they'll probably be throwing rocks at us at daylight when we turn our dogs out to run the cabin rabbits. Nothing's better for a rough hangover than then sound of a pack of rabbit dog's racing around the "yard" in full cry.
heh

my fenced in veggie garden which is inside a fenced back yard surrounded by fenced in dogless neighbor’s yards. Can’t be to careful with my ladies honor, you know, though the way they’ve ran rabbits for the last six months, a little sooner might improve the pack. I really shouldn’t say that since Dixie And Sugar are in heat.

And speaking of gardens

“You’ve been awful quite about your garden this year, ain’t you?”
Well it’s disgraceful. You’d think I was a Yankee or

Sugar got introduced to the electric pine limb last evening.
And she found it to be a shocking experience.
Heh

She’s worn the shock collar before but has never experienced its effect till yesterday afternoon. See, Sugar has turned into a howler along with her other quirks and neurosis. And the bad thing is she fires up Julie, Maizie and Dixie. The sounds, the four happy @$$holes make in their pen when the neighbors cat decides to take a sloooooow evening stroll past, are pretty much the sounds they make when they run a rabbit. And that sound, my friends, is music to my ears. Except for Julies squeal on an extremely hot track. That sounds more like a guy with his privates caught in a pair of vise grips and explains some of my finest shots. I was shuddering so bad I sprayed the rabbit rather than shot at him. But alas not all my neighbors have the fine cultured taste that I have in music and this isn’t that music, anyway. But it is a truly and awesome sound when you have four beagles reaching for the high notes, cascading over each other reaching ever higher.

in the morning. Sugar and Dixie have the electric pine limb s on and I'm daring Sugar to run a deer. Cuz told us to pick up Judy, his rabbit dog. One of the finest in these parts, she truely won't run nothing but a rabbit. I've always wondered how Cuz beat Uncle NoPass out of her.

I mainly use a recurve bow or a 12 ga. loaded with 00 though I do use a rifle occasionally. I like it to be up close and personal. To completely penertrate, within feet if not inches, a long hunted whitetail buck's defenses. Not shoot him like a unsuspecting cow feeding in a pasture. Plus it gives me some great excuses. So, don't be to disappointed when you tell me about the trophy you killed with a primitive weapon, an inline ( I suppose these would qualify) blackpowder with a 3x9 scope at 125 yards and I ho-hum.

I already think that if you're going to use a compound bow with stabilizers, triggers, optical sights, rear sights, kisser buttons and Lord knows what else, you may as well use a rifle, so you can kind of guess what I think of crossbows.
How about a true primitive weapon season in Alabama. Say, recurve, longbow or spear from 1 October till the 15th when the season would allow the modern primitive weapons?
Talk to the car insurance people. They'll tell you there are plenty of deer in Alabama. Maybe even to many in some areas. A longer season might help to. Most rabbit hunters don't talk to fondly of deer either. If you talk to Uncle NoPass, he'll tell you real quick that "deers were the ruination of hunting".
But still, different strokes.

Under the new rules, hunters could use turkey decoys, crossbows and sights on muzzleloaders -- practices that are all currently banned

I wore my snake leggin's all day. They were warm but not unbearable and while I was aware of the extra weight, they didn't tire me out.
and when I saw this at the end of the day, it made the heat and extra weight suddenly seem worthwile.

Once again I apologize for sending you over to another one of my sites. I'll fix it, I swear.

Oh, and remember to hang fly paper around the dog pen to help control flies

I wore my snake leggin's all day. They were warm but not unbearable and while I was aware of the extra weight, they didn't tire me out. Especially
Sorry about having to leave the page, I have to do some repair and setup to the media directory

It should be cool. I'll give Cuz and Rye a call to see if they want to meet at our hunting lease on a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama and share a thermos of coffee. They might even want to bring Dusty's (Cuz's grandson It's all explained in the previous rabbit journals, or do I need a "cast of characters" page?) two new dog's. He had one gave to him and she had a puppy.
lol
Looks beagle.
But as long as it hunts.....rabbits

It was in the air, today. A vague hint of the coming season.

My feet swung to the floor with the first sounds of the alarm next to a futon that I use as a bed. Five o’clock, time to put on the whole bean coffee that I had pre-ground the night before. Instead of preparing for another day working on the old house, I was getting ready to take what passes for Mine and Brag’s rabbit dogs, Maizie, Julie, Dixie and neurotic Sugar out for a run.

I yelled at Brag as I pulled up on the other side of the gasoline pumps from his little two wheel drive "city" pickup. I was on my way to Seale, Alabama in 2's old Pathfinder to exercise Brag and my “rabbit” dogs “Wish I could.” he replied, “but I got to go to work. They don‘t give me enough rabbit days as it is without me taking one in the summer.” I gave him a little false sympathy before heading for 431 south and the pine plantation I hunt on.

You people, do know that you can buy gas as cheap if not cheaper in Phenix City, Alabama than in most of Columbus, Georgia, don’t you? And this in spite of Alabama’s higher taxes. I suppose they feel like they have a captive market when a lot of Phenix Citizens come to Columbus to fill up with gas and buy a carton of smokes while they put a few dollars in their retirement plan, hoping that their six numbers come up.

as I walked around the trailer I was pulling behind the pathfinder. There was a spring in my step and a smile on my lips as I crossed the narrow asphalt road to Uncle NoPass‘s house. I had finished up a side job and had some spare time, so I stopped by Uncle NoPass’s to see his new rabbit dog and receive my butt chewing for not stopping by for over three months. The fact it was lunch and my aunt always cooked a noontime meal with extra’s had nothing do with it, though I didn’t turn down a plate.

In my lifetime, Uncle NoPass’s house has went from “out in the country” to “in the city”. He had a hard time adjusting to the city limits sign especially after being told they would put him in jail if he used his guns to shoot anymore squirrels out of his pecan tree, even a .22.

The following post was supposed to have went up two weeks ago. I'm behind in everything with little hope of catching up. I'm fixing to be down for a day or so as I get "HP Total Cared" for re-installing the hard drive. I'll let you know how that goes. But to keep you busy for the next minute or so

Sugar’s back,, dang it!

topped the shopping list this morning. I followed up in the afternoon with 15 minutes per dog, one on one.

Starting with Sugar.
I really feel like I’m wasting my time with her. The first day, I leashed her for the short walk to the front yard where I would put her on a 20-foot lead. Skittish, she practically had to be drug up the hill and around front. I snapped on the lead and slipped the short leash off her. She was making good time, in a mad dash toward the kennel, when the slack came out of the rope. She hit the ground with a thunk. I called "Here Sugar, Here and drug her across the yard to me. When I had her at my feet I told her what a good dog she was and gave her a liver treat. That sequence of events happened twice before I took her back to the pen and got Julie. Sugar was a lot easier today, though.

Julie looks, hunts and minds good. Gentle disposition with a good nose, she just loves company. And she looks sooo good with her nose constantly gliding just above the ground. It seems like she is constantly hunting. I think her and that squeal will be one of the good’uns that grace “The Rabbit Journal”.

Dixie. Well, ZAP comes to mind. Broke off deer, she might be a fair dog. What Dixie needs is a couple of times chasing some deer with the new electric pine limb around her neck and a good ol boy with the transmitter. It’s got a lot more reach than that newspaper.

Maizie.
Maizie.
What to say about Maizie.
A big baby who will follow Dixie on a deer trail and has one of the worst sounding voices, I’ve ever heard on a hound. I cringed every time she opened her mouth on the last rabbit hunt of the year. She sounds like somebody’s house dog.
She had a good hunt, though, on that last day. We’ll have to see.

I think that at this point, Sugar and maybe Mazie are on my cull list, if they don’t shape up by June 1. I hope you’re listening Dixie. It’s kinda cushy around here. You can be swapped off to a deer club.