I am seeing a little color in the trees, and hunting season is use around the corner. The summer has been dry, and in my experience that is good for cottontails. Naturally, dry weather isn’t as optimal for hare. Wet springs and summers can be bad for cottontails, which have their young right on the ground, sometimes in the open. In lowlands, an all day rain can fill the small depression where newborn rabbits are nested with hair that the mother pulls out of her own coat. It is no secret that I am not thrilled about cutting grass, and in my neck of the woods, July and August were months of very infrequent mowing. I have neighbors who roll their lawn, aerate it, add fertilizer, plant expensive grass seed, and even irrigate their yards. Me? I mow it when it is wet, letting the clumps smother future growth. As a result, my lawn is populated by the hardiest of plants—weeds. Oh, I have Queen Anne’s Lace, stinging nettles, and even burdock. I know people that sow expensive grass seed, my dogs drop burdock in the yard that they collect while hunting. When it gets as dry as we were over the late summer, then I have the only green lawn in town. We were under a drought warning and watering lawns was strictly forbidden. My green lawn looks great from the road, where you pass it at 35 mph and do not realize that it is a well groomed lot of weeds with a little grass and clover mixed in.
Lately, since the beginning of this month, the arrival of meteorological autumn, the grass has greened up, and my bumper crop of crabgrass and buckhorn plantain goes nuts, and I am busy in the field with the dogs. The weather has cooled, and we have experienced the return of morning dew. I love morning dew, and it can make an average dog look great! Lately, I have been getting some screaming fast chases on morning dew in a big sorghum field on a farm. The rabbits are found in the nearby thickets, and then they burst into the sorghum and proceed to run circles that are shaped more like mazes and Hebrew letters. I was listening to the hounds run a big cottontail in the shape of a series of adjacent lameds, the Hebrew name for the letter that makes the sound of an L. Lamed is the last letter in ketal, the word for dew. I started thinking of Psalm 133:3 “It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there, the Lord ordered his blessing, life forevermore.” Zion was a small hill in comparison to Mount Hermon, which is over 9,000 feet in elevation and is often snow covered. Meltwater forms the beginnings of The Jordan River. The verse reflects an idea that dew, often the only moisture in ancient Israel, must have dropped off the mountain, under the cover off darkness, and then covered the land with life giving water. This is how they explained how water shows up without rain. Today, we talk about thermodynamics and the formation of water droplets through condensation, but I think the psalm is much more poetic.
Lamed is the tallest letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, and is shaped like a shepherd’s staff, and the word lamed means to goad, like using a staff to move livestock. I watched this rabbit zigzagging in overlapping lameds, running through dew drenched sorghum, and the dogs were absolutely locked on to the scent, as the wet crop held the scent, allowing the hounds to run with their heads held high. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching good hound work, when dogs are able to solve tricks that the rabbit makes to fool the hounds and cease the chase in tough scenting conditions. I appreciate a big nosed dog, solving olfactory riddles and sorting through the labyrinthine changes that a rabbit will make in order to optimize its chances of eluding pursuers by seeking dirt, gravel, rocks, and bare ground in the driest of conditions. I really do like those chases, but I like a good driving chase even better, at least for the music! This particular rabbit made his way to the end of the field and burst into the goldenrod of an adjacent property (did I mention I have some of that in my yard too?) and that resulted in big circles that looked more like rounded of squares.
There is just something magical about dew. I can’t say enough about it, when it comes to making things right! Oh, and after those dogs have been chasing in the heat for months, this dew makes it look like their noses are attached to the rabbit by an invisible string, and almost all of the chases will be long, until the rabbit decides that it is in his best interest to take this endeavor to the subterranean realm, and hide out until the dogs have left. That can even be risky, I have a small dog that can get in there pretty far, too far for my liking.
“Where are my boots?” I asked my wife, Renee, one night?”
“You are kidding right?” She asked.
“No.”
“Oh, okay,” she sighed and moved her hands to her hips. Never a good sign. “Well, you have a pair on the floor in the middle of the kitchen, another in the bathroom next to the tub, there’s a pair in the trunk of my car, I do not know why, there are three pairs in the closet where all the others should be, and there are two pairs beside the hamper.”
“There’s a pair in your car?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Are they my rubber boots?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I wonder how those got in there?” I asked.
“Well, a few months ago you took my car to run dogs a few mornings when you were driving someplace far away. You were scouting for rabbits at a place you drove by after leaving a cemetery for a funeral. Or something like that.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “That was back when we had dew, deforestation the heat wave! Are they in the car, where?”
“Follow your nose,” she said.
“I am not a beagle,” I replied.
“You don’t have to be. That’s a stink that no one can go ‘nose blind to. I was driving somewhere and had to stop and move them to the trunk to avoid the stench. I ordered groceries for pick up at the grocery store, the poor kid almost fell over when he put the groceries in there.” Covid has ushered in drive through grocery pick up at the local market.
“Really?” I asked.
“I told you to get them out of there, and that I wa sn’t going to touch them! That was 4 days ago.”
“I don’t remember that,” I scratched my chin.
“Probably because you were too busy fussing with your tracking collars.”
“Oh yeah, I had to get some crud out of the area where the collar slides into the transmitter. I need to get those boots, the dew has returned, and my other boots are waterproof but the moisture is hard on the leather.
“Good,” Renee said, “And while you are at it, get those boots by the hamper put away too.”
“I don’t know where the hamper is,” I said.
“I guess that explains the blob of dirty clothes I keep finding in the bathroom closet,” Renee said, “Just get the boots out of the bedroom.”
“Okay,” I said.
I have been sloshing in dew ever since. The only thing better is frost. Oh, I love a good frost which is frozen dew. When it begins to thaw and steam and the cool air makes for high scent and lots of great chases, with no need to worry about the dogs getting too warm. I better get those insulated boots ready too, thinking of frost. I will wait a few days before I ask Renee where I put them. My rubber boots had a pair of wet socks in them, which happened when I took off my boots to drive and then stepped out of her car before putting my shoes on. I just threw those socks into the boots and then put my shoes on. Whew, a few months in the trunk really ripened them up. No matter, autumn is here. Some see it has the harbinger of winter, but I see fall as the last climactic rush of summer. Beautiful foliage, hunting of all kinds, lower temperatures, and that good old dew that coats the ground here in the Appalachian Mountains. Dew is a blessing, like the psalms say, and hunting season is just around the corner.
Lately, since the beginning of this month, the arrival of meteorological autumn, the grass has greened up, and my bumper crop of crabgrass and buckhorn plantain goes nuts, and I am busy in the field with the dogs. The weather has cooled, and we have experienced the return of morning dew. I love morning dew, and it can make an average dog look great! Lately, I have been getting some screaming fast chases on morning dew in a big sorghum field on a farm. The rabbits are found in the nearby thickets, and then they burst into the sorghum and proceed to run circles that are shaped more like mazes and Hebrew letters. I was listening to the hounds run a big cottontail in the shape of a series of adjacent lameds, the Hebrew name for the letter that makes the sound of an L. Lamed is the last letter in ketal, the word for dew. I started thinking of Psalm 133:3 “It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there, the Lord ordered his blessing, life forevermore.” Zion was a small hill in comparison to Mount Hermon, which is over 9,000 feet in elevation and is often snow covered. Meltwater forms the beginnings of The Jordan River. The verse reflects an idea that dew, often the only moisture in ancient Israel, must have dropped off the mountain, under the cover off darkness, and then covered the land with life giving water. This is how they explained how water shows up without rain. Today, we talk about thermodynamics and the formation of water droplets through condensation, but I think the psalm is much more poetic.
Lamed is the tallest letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, and is shaped like a shepherd’s staff, and the word lamed means to goad, like using a staff to move livestock. I watched this rabbit zigzagging in overlapping lameds, running through dew drenched sorghum, and the dogs were absolutely locked on to the scent, as the wet crop held the scent, allowing the hounds to run with their heads held high. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching good hound work, when dogs are able to solve tricks that the rabbit makes to fool the hounds and cease the chase in tough scenting conditions. I appreciate a big nosed dog, solving olfactory riddles and sorting through the labyrinthine changes that a rabbit will make in order to optimize its chances of eluding pursuers by seeking dirt, gravel, rocks, and bare ground in the driest of conditions. I really do like those chases, but I like a good driving chase even better, at least for the music! This particular rabbit made his way to the end of the field and burst into the goldenrod of an adjacent property (did I mention I have some of that in my yard too?) and that resulted in big circles that looked more like rounded of squares.
There is just something magical about dew. I can’t say enough about it, when it comes to making things right! Oh, and after those dogs have been chasing in the heat for months, this dew makes it look like their noses are attached to the rabbit by an invisible string, and almost all of the chases will be long, until the rabbit decides that it is in his best interest to take this endeavor to the subterranean realm, and hide out until the dogs have left. That can even be risky, I have a small dog that can get in there pretty far, too far for my liking.
“Where are my boots?” I asked my wife, Renee, one night?”
“You are kidding right?” She asked.
“No.”
“Oh, okay,” she sighed and moved her hands to her hips. Never a good sign. “Well, you have a pair on the floor in the middle of the kitchen, another in the bathroom next to the tub, there’s a pair in the trunk of my car, I do not know why, there are three pairs in the closet where all the others should be, and there are two pairs beside the hamper.”
“There’s a pair in your car?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Are they my rubber boots?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I wonder how those got in there?” I asked.
“Well, a few months ago you took my car to run dogs a few mornings when you were driving someplace far away. You were scouting for rabbits at a place you drove by after leaving a cemetery for a funeral. Or something like that.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “That was back when we had dew, deforestation the heat wave! Are they in the car, where?”
“Follow your nose,” she said.
“I am not a beagle,” I replied.
“You don’t have to be. That’s a stink that no one can go ‘nose blind to. I was driving somewhere and had to stop and move them to the trunk to avoid the stench. I ordered groceries for pick up at the grocery store, the poor kid almost fell over when he put the groceries in there.” Covid has ushered in drive through grocery pick up at the local market.
“Really?” I asked.
“I told you to get them out of there, and that I wa sn’t going to touch them! That was 4 days ago.”
“I don’t remember that,” I scratched my chin.
“Probably because you were too busy fussing with your tracking collars.”
“Oh yeah, I had to get some crud out of the area where the collar slides into the transmitter. I need to get those boots, the dew has returned, and my other boots are waterproof but the moisture is hard on the leather.
“Good,” Renee said, “And while you are at it, get those boots by the hamper put away too.”
“I don’t know where the hamper is,” I said.
“I guess that explains the blob of dirty clothes I keep finding in the bathroom closet,” Renee said, “Just get the boots out of the bedroom.”
“Okay,” I said.
I have been sloshing in dew ever since. The only thing better is frost. Oh, I love a good frost which is frozen dew. When it begins to thaw and steam and the cool air makes for high scent and lots of great chases, with no need to worry about the dogs getting too warm. I better get those insulated boots ready too, thinking of frost. I will wait a few days before I ask Renee where I put them. My rubber boots had a pair of wet socks in them, which happened when I took off my boots to drive and then stepped out of her car before putting my shoes on. I just threw those socks into the boots and then put my shoes on. Whew, a few months in the trunk really ripened them up. No matter, autumn is here. Some see it has the harbinger of winter, but I see fall as the last climactic rush of summer. Beautiful foliage, hunting of all kinds, lower temperatures, and that good old dew that coats the ground here in the Appalachian Mountains. Dew is a blessing, like the psalms say, and hunting season is just around the corner.
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