Enough already!

It has been a few days and Jessie is down to 877 grams. Low enough to fly high and well. She has been trying to get me to fly her or failing that, feed her, but I don't think she is ready for more than 900 grams for a flying weight yet. Perhaps later.

This morning it was minus 4 degrees. Its damned early and its screwing me up. My only choice now is the Artesian Lake at the ranch or drive my butt off trying to find Sage Grouse or other upland game. Not ready to do that yet. After 1 PM Karen and I loaded up and trundled over to the Lake. There were Geese flying, but they were going down below us to Anderson Res. there was also a pretty large flock of Geese resting in the hay fields, so I felt pretty good that the Geese were not going to be a temptation for Jess.

There was a bit of wind, and the temps were 18 degrees. I took her hood off and she wasted no time getting in the air. She was zipping around and flying as though she was chasing something, but I guess she just wanted to fly and felt good. An indication that her weight was just about right. We made our way to the crest of the hill overlooking the Lake and she had climbed up to a good ( for her) height over the pond. We slowly got up to where we could see and saw nothing but Geese again. They panicked and flushed. Jessie came streaking down and smacked one of the Geese bouncing it into the ground. She threw up and as the Goose was trying to get going again slammed into him again out of our sight. Cursing, I took off again trying to get there before the dumb shit was killed by the Goose. As I cleared the ridge close to her I could see her on the Goose and it wasn't fighting at all. About that time I stubbed my toe on a frozen cow pie and took a header, eventually coming to a sliding halt about 10 feet closer than where I hit. Fortunately I didn't hurt anything much and I was down in the bottom and out of the Sage. I regained my feet and went to help her. The Goose was not fighting at all, apparently he didn't hit the ground at a glancing blow as I was fortunate enough to do. I made sure he was dead and we allowed her to eat while we took some pictures and I did some cussing about having to pluck another Goose.

Just in case any one is confused about all this, let me explain. The first Goose that she caught weighed 5.6 pounds, picked, with no wings, feet or guts and head and neck. This one weighed 8.6 pounds with no head and neck. Jessie weighs one pound 14 ounces. I just can't let her do this any more than I can prevent. Today she used the ground to do her work for her, but I can't count on that, besides I hate to pluck Geese.