When we first started this Woods To Food project, I thought that getting many of various ingredients would be challenging, but at least squirrels and rabbits would be easy. The close of rabbit season is now about a week away, and I’m three rabbits shy.
The first rabbit wasn’t taken by me, but I think it still counts. My Dad took it away from a Red Tailed Hawk. Now lest he gets issued a citation for practicing falconry without a permit, I should explain. Dad was harvesting milo last November (in rabbit season, I might add), and a hawk that you could call either enterprising or lazy was watching him do it. When the giant John Deere combine harvester jumped up the little bunny and sent it running down the field, the hawk swooped down and nailed him. Dad stopped the combine and shooed the hawk away, and collected the rabbit. So don’t feel bad about my Dad stealing the hawk's dinner. By stopping the combine he actually saved the hawk’s life and kept the grain hopper free of messy feathers.
I was at the grain truck on the other end of the field, and Dad gave me the rabbit when he stopped to unload. I cleaned it, and we have it ready to go. We won’t have to worry about biting into any lead shot in this one. But each of the two recipes in Cooking Wild in Missouri call for two rabbits, and we only have this one. The boys and I took a little walk out at Three Creeks Conservation Area looking for rabbits when the TV crew was with us, but it was cold that day, and we had a lot going on, so we didn’t give it a fair shot.
Our other attempt was last Saturday. My cousin who has a farm north of town (and a great blog www.waitingforthoreau.com) agreed to let us give her place a try, but added that neither her or her husband had seen any rabbits this year. They had a lot two years ago, but none now. They attributed this to a dense population of coyotes they hear calling nearby nightly.
But we didn’t have many other options, so despite the negative outlook on our prospects we gave it a try. I soon noted that my hunting party was infected with a pervasive lack of resolve. They were all with me, but Oliver said he didn’t feel good, so Ann went back to the truck with him not long after we started. Henry soldiered on with me, but I could tell that he wasn’t into it, because he wasn’t able to keep up. He had been at a friend’s birthday party the night before, and stayed up about four hours past his regular bedtime. With fatigue causing him to drag his feet, I soon threw in the towel as well and we headed back.
We returned to the truck to find Oliver and Ann out cold in the back, napping in the sun. My total hunt time was less than 45 minutes, so I’m not sure I can even count that as trying. On the way back to town I decided to take Oliver’s complaints about not feeling good seriously and took him to see a doctor. By the time we got checked in his temperature was 102.5, and he tested positive for strep throat, so I’ll give him a pass for early exit from this hunt.
It was a beautiful morning, but it retrospect I probably should have taken a blanket back to Cosmo Lake and let everyone nap in the sun while I gave trout fishing another go. But now I just need to decide how to play our last weekend of rabbit season coming up this weekend. 
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