The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

First the good.  We spent several days visiting with Lisa and Cliff Weiss of October Setters in Idaho. These folks are dedicated ryman-type hunters and breeders and over the years I have known very few breeders as knowledgeable as they.  We were fortunate to breed our Sally to their beautiful Heath and hopefully we will be welcoming puppies in late November.

               Sally                                                                                     Heath

                                                                                 
                            


Lisa graciously invited us to join her in hunting sage grouse while we were there and even took us to one of her "honey holes.",  It was a long, bumpy drive from her house to an area flanked by snow-capped mountains: a real treat.
   
                                                                       Lisa and "Doc"

Indeed it was a honey hole - we saw more sage hens in those two days than we will probably ever see again.  Mike had bought a tag and I charged up my camera.  We got to see some of Lisa's wonderful dogs work as well as let our pack stretch their legs after the 20 hours drive from KS to ID.  Mike was able to gun a sage hen over his Fr Brit boys.

 
Oh, I almost forgot.  The area pictured above was also responsible for The Bad.  Within the first half-hour of hunting for our whole season, Mike tripped over sage brush and fell.  Which is not uncommon when walking in such terrain.  But this time he fell on his gun and cracked the stock.  It can be repaired and we do have a back-up gun along with us but it was definitely sad.

With the breedings done it was time to head to Montana.  But first Mike decided to figure out why the gas furnace on the RV wasn't working.  There was frost each night and know that it will be even colder before we return to home.  He took it apart and found a mud wasp colony the size of Manhattan was the problem.  Doing some McGyver-like problem solving he had it cleaned out and working well in not much time at all.  We had a somewhat leisurely drive of about 8 hours ahead of us to eastern Montana where we hunt. But about 4 hours into the drive we heard a loud "bang" and said ohoh.  Although the truck and RV were handling steady as could be, a pretty-new tire on the RV had blown up.  Without a safe area to work on it along the busy highway we instead limped the 4 miles to the next exit.

                                                                      The Ugly

Mike changed the tire and discovered that the tire had also damaged the gas lines in that area of the RV.   It can all be repaired but without a working refrigerator or stove and very warm temps outside, we caved in and pulled into a full service RV campground, something we rarely do.  Tomorrow we will get the necessary repairs and be on our way.

But tonight, we will hold hands and say our prayers of thanks for getting through today safely.