The birds were released this morning at 7:10 am for the activation race from Crawfordsville, Indiana. Ron & Josh Deisher found us a great spot down there to release the birds in a wide-open space. The birds took off well for the most part with one group heading east, then coming back west before leaving out of sight to the Northeast.The first group of birds arrived to, the loft at a faster time than we expected, with them arriving from the west. This is troublesome because we fly a South - North course. After arriving back to the loft, the birds (almost every one of them) would continue to fly for several minutes. They were very jumpy for some reason. We did not see any hawks today that would usually cause this behavior, however that doesn't mean they were not around. We continued to see birds trickle in all day until around 5:30pm and most of them arrived from the Northwest. We are confident we will see more birds in the morning. Our temperatures were very cool today, as they were yesterday which is a big change. Earlier in the week it was in the mid 80's, so we are hopeful that the cool temperatures will help the birds. As of tonight, we have 1989 birds that have returned.As of now activation fees are due. As stated before, we do not want to hold up the first race so if everyone could please start to send in activations. You can pay using the PayPal link on the website, or by credit card. There are fees that apply to both of these options. IF you choose to mail a payment, PLEASE send it Priority Mail. This service will be roughly $9.00 but should be here in 2-3 days and will have a tracking number. We will be looking to have the 1st race by next week, so please do not wait until the end of next week to mail because it will not be here in time. Payment can be mailed to:Hoosier Classic Race10258 S 1150 WWanatah, IN 46390Click to Pay Using PayPal LinkCredit Card payments can be made by calling the office at 219-733-0011Saturday 9/24, someone will be in the office limited hours. Regular office hours are Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm CST.
Today a hand inventory was done for all the birds before the activation race tomorrow. The following birds were found to have either a non working chip ring or no chip ring:Linda Loft - 806 LUNanez Loft - 7031Aladdin Loft - 5 ALIFThese birds have had their chip rings corrected however they WILL NOT SHOW on the inventory today. For an activation race you do not need a basketing list for wincompanion. You do need one for Benzing regardless if it is a training or a race. (This is where it gets complicated). In order for a Hand Inventory to be live, we had to use an old basketing list from September 2nd. Because of that, any bird that did not scan on 9/02 will not clock because it was "not on the basketing list." The following birds have been found to not be on the basketing list, so they will not show on the inventory today, HOWEVER, they will be manually added to the basketing list to allow them to clock tomorrow should they return from activation. (Let me just say that it is quite difficult to explain how Benzing and Wincompanion work to be compatible and how both systems operate.) Moving forward for ANY races, the birds will all be basketed by hand and a basketing list uploaded for Benzing & Wincompanion. Because this activation is not considered a race, we wanted to show a live inventory vs. a private one. The following birds are here, healthy, and going to activation tomorrow, but did not show on the inventory today:KRL - 207VK - 5949MOJO - 17BEKO - 8We have also made contact with breeders that have had injured birds and will be removed. With all of that being said, we are scheduled to have the activation race tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather cooperates and we can finally get this going. Again we would like to have the next race within 1 week, so Please, Please Please, be ready to send in activation fees if you are using the mail system. We will send more information out tomorrow with options for payments.Best of Luck to everyone, we are excited to get this series moving and with everyone's help of getting payments in on time we will stay on schedule for the final race. Jim & Kelly
Yesterday's activation was cancelled due to storm clouds moving across the course. During our drive back about 40 miles from the loft the skies were very dark and we felt we made the right decision. However, by noon all had passed and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. Moving forward - We are training today. There is a possibility of rain tomorrow as well as strong winds on Wednesday & Thursday. Hopefully we can get activation in no later than Friday. We have received several payments for activation fees, and thank you to those who have sent them in already. IF you pay activation before the actual activation race, any birds that do not return from the activation will have their activation fees refunded. We will need to have the first race no later than October 2nd/3rd to stay on track for the final race. Keep in mind that the race date has already been moved once.We are asking fanciers to start preparing to send activation payments in as quickly as possible once we get the activation race in. We usually have to wait 2 weeks for all of the money to come in before the first official race, and this year we would like to not have to wait that long. We are asking fanciers to please plan on having your payments into the office by October 2nd. This will give everyone two weeks from today. Again, if you pay and your bird does not return from activation we will refund the activation fee for the bird(s). Please understand we do not expect anyone to pay before activation, we are only asking that you plan to get payments ready to mail by the end of the week/early next week. We do not recommend that you choose to mail payments regular mail. The postal service can be slow, and could potentially loose the payment. We strongly recommend that if you plan to "mail" a payment that you use some type of quicker service with a tracking number; ex: Priority Mail (Approx. $8-$9 Flat Rate Envelope), Priority Mail Express ($26.95 Flat Rate Envelope), Certified Mail (this is not an expedited service). We also have PayPal & Credit Card Processing (Fees Apply For Both)We would like to Thank Everyone for their patience. The weather this year has been difficult and unfortunately we can not control the weather. We are about 8-9 days behind on our activation race due to the weather compared to previous seasons. This race only exists because of all of you, Thank you very much for your support.
The activation race for today has been cancelled. There looks to be a storm straight west of the release point that is moving east towards the course line home. We will take no chances of the birds getting caught up in this storm. We will continue to review the weather for tomorrow & Tuesday. The weather is changing almost hourly right as we continue to monitor different weather apps.
With the weather we have coming this week we feel tomorrow will be the best day for the activation race. This decision was made at 4:00 pm today after spending the early afternoon studying the weather for here at the loft as well as along the course. Monday was the day I wanted to do the activation, but there is rain at the release point on Monday. After that we have 2 days of rain here at the loft and then 2 days of 15-20 mph strong wind days. The birds have had 22 training tosses and have had a lot of time on the wing. We hope to release by 7:30 am. If the weather is questionable or we have to hold the birds due to fog then the activation race will be cancelled, and the birds brought back.Good Luck to everyone and let's hope for a good trainer tomorrow. On another note, Congratulations to our friends at Hi-Cal Connection & Two-Be-Won for having a great finish in the AfrikaPro Race. Congratulations to all the top finishers!
Good Morning,Birds were taken back to 70 miles today however the fog again is very dense. Jim is bringing the birds back to 46 miles. Once it clears up we will post the time of release. We are also watching the weather closely for having the activation race next week. Have a great weekend
Birds were loaded this morning with hopes of getting them down the road training. As of 9:00 am this morning we have very gloomy skies, with light drizzle and visibility is very poor. We have decided to let the birds off the trailer to loft fly and get some exercise. We will load again in the morning and expect to be able to train tomorrow as the weather looks much much better.
Good Morning,We have fog here this morning with mostly cloudy skies. There will be no training today. We are watching the weather for our next opportunity to train. They are calling for rain the next two days. We will continue to monitor the weather. We have been reaching out to Blue Chip Casino regarding the date change & room rates. After making a trip to the hotel to get a response we were told they would be in contact by Monday with an update. The director there had several events going on this week through the weekend and did not have time to discuss. We are working on it though to get everyone that had rooms booked rescheduled.
The birds were loaded this morning starting at 3:30 am. There has been complete cloud cover since daylight has hit and does not seem like it is going to change. At this point we feel that it is better to let the birds off the trailer to loft fly than to have them sitting on the trailer with what looks to be like no chance of the sun coming out.We are disappointed with the weather this morning and will load again tomorrow.
