A Weekend of Fr Brit Field Titles

This weekend Mike attended the Midwest Epagneul Breton Gun Dog Wild Bird trial in Iowa and came home with two new titles on the dogs.  The trial was held in CRP fields with wild pheasants which are Jack's favorites.  Jack's talent and experience showed in his run and his handling of the birds and impressed the judge enough to earn him 1st place in his stake.  This win completes Jack's Gun Dog title; not bad for having run in only 4 trials.

Mike also entered his puppy, Rip, in the TAN which is a natural ability test for Fr Brits.  She quickly showed her bird finding ability and pointed with style to earn her TAN title.

All in all a fun and successful weekend.  Thank you to the breeder - judges for considering our dogs.  

Photo fest, part 2

Our season continued in November.

I still need a good dose of ruffed grouse hunting every year, again this year it was in MN.

Due to spring rains, the habitat in KS was great this year.

Even as we closed out the season we were already talking about and planning next year.  But in the months in-between we will be busy.  We are planning two litters, one Setter litter and a Fr Brit litter not too far behind that.    As winter begins to break our produce operation will be revving up with  Farmer's Markets and bread baking beginning in April.  

Cheers

Lynn Dee

A little photo fest

It has been way too long since I have made a post, my apologies.  If a picture says a thousand words, how about I post a bunch of photos as a way of getting caught up?  I'll start with Montana in this post.

As we walked into our favorite local watering hole in MT for the first time since last year we were greeted with "welcome home."   Yep.  

A rare foggy day.  There is actually a dog on point up in the middle of that fence row.

We had an unusual amount of rain and mud this year.

The Sheriff in his official position on the console between us in the truck.

to be continued........

Montana in the Rear View Mirror: Heck No, We're Heading Back

Well, we are a bit impulsive.  We had planned to hunt Nebraska from Oct 28 until the Kansas opener Nov 12.   NE is only about 30 minutes from our home with nice quail habitat and even some pheasants.  But this year the temps just aren't cooling down.  Highs in the 70s and even 80s are persisting and the grasses and brush are still green from lack of frost. So we slept on the idea of returning to Montana one night and when we woke we each got busy loading up to go. I write this from the road, tomorrow midday we will pull into our favorite area, grab the guns and let some dogs rip.

To Mike and I, bird hunting is all about the dogs.  Without them we simply would not bird hunt.  However, our trips to Montana are not just about the bird hunting, there is more to it for us.  Yes, one part is that it represents the end of our busy season of growing/marketing produce, time to take a break from work and Markets.  But more, it is the call to a place where we can park the OR out where  even most hunters don't wander.  Where we go days without seeing any other people except perhaps a rancher passing by to check on their cattle.  A place where there is more bird habitat than we could ever hope to walk through. Complete silence.  Total darkness except for moonlight.  That is what pulls us back time and again.

I will check in again soon with photos and updates.  We have not hunted Montana in November before so we are looking forward to what lies ahead.   Happy Hunting all!

Montana in the Rear View Mirror: Post 2 of 3

Of our 10 dogs along this year, 4 were ryman-type Setters.  We had two experienced adults plus two 10 month old newbies.  There is another new puppy in the household, Breeze, but she was only 10 weeks old.  Friends made an amazing offer to take care of Breeze while we were in Montana so on the way north we swung through Minnesota and dropped her off with them.  I think Breeze had a fabulous time with them and their 9 year old daughter.  This is one of the update pics we received while on the road:

Montana served up some less than favorable weather this year including several days of rain, so I have fewer photos than usual.  But following are a sample of the setters at work:

Sally handling sharptail grouse nicely

We had thick fog one morning which is very unusual for MT hunting.  My GPS told me that Storm was on point up ahead and as I approached I could barely make her out, she is the tiny dot standing between the windmill and the bales. 

This time her GPS said she was on point but she was just over the lip of a hill, backing Jack who was on point in the next draw over.

There are many lessons to learn on the road and learning to take water from a bottle is an important one in Montana.  Here Kate shares with Belle.

Kate

The real joy of taking young dogs is watching them really "turn on" which is when their hunting instincts kick in and leaves the puppyness behind.  It happened to Flint on this day in a nice sharptail draw where I hunted him with his mother, Sally, and I was even lucky enough to drop the first bird he pointed.

I was very pleased with my little 28 ga that I had gotten at the end of season last year, it is so light to carry! 

 That little gun dropped even big phez over points with no problem.

Sally: Is it my turn?

I usually just scissor off hair with burrs in it rather than endure tedious grooming but this was Storms beautiful tail so I did take the time to brush it out. 

She's a classy gal.

Thanks all for looking, I will work on Part 3 soon!