Carrying On

What goes around, comes around?  Top photo: Annie today at 4 months, Bottom photo: her mother 5 years ago, at 6 months. Annie carried this stick for most of her run today here in Michigan and it brought to mind her mother Sally's first days in Montana at the age of 6 months. On one of the first days in MT, puppy Sally found this cattle pelvis and proceeded to carry it all the way back to the truck. The next week she got into sharptails and forgot all about bones. Annie's time will come, meanwhile I enjoy watching the puppy in her.

A Day of Double Takes

  

Some things you have to look twice before your brain makes the connection with what you are seeing.  I took these photos today but no, I am not back in New England and that is not the Atlantic.  It is a bay on Lake Michigan with a north wind blowing and lake effect snow in the air.  

This morning's double take woke me up faster than the caffeine in my tea.  I stepped out of the trailer to get something and my car started up. All on it's own.  I was standing right next to it and suddenly it was running.  Took my synapses a quick lap to realize that I had the keys in my pocket and that I had somehow managed to "butt dial" my remote starter.  A bit amazing given that the small button must be pressed twice to remote start.  

Last double take of the day was sitting in the trailer eating dinner. Looking over at Kate as she watched out the window my heart did a double-take and I saw my late, beloved Ditto as a youngster.  Two generations separate them yet bring them together.    

    Kate, tonight                                                Ditto, too long ago

Cheers and Happy Hunting all...

Lynn Dee

Reflecting on Blogging

After a year +  hiatus from blog posting I am giving it another try with a bit different and fresh angle.  This blog was originally created years ago because friends and family wanted to know what I was up to and that all was well as we travel each fall for bird hunting.  Particularly while on the road where internet service is often limited to a weekly top-off at an in-town bar & grill, maintaining a blog as a single info source seemed easier than managing email exchanges.

However, in recent years I have come to realize a shadowy side to posting about wingshooting traveling. Hunters used to read about bird hunting in destination states in a single article in an outdoors magazine months after the season had closed. Pleasant reading that led to fireside dreams of similar trips but it all seemed so distant and unlikely to actually happen for most.  But today, social media is bursting with thousands of hunters who in real-time read about hunting trips and they see people just like themselves in the photos.  Hunters "go live" on Facebook to take their cyber friends along as they hunt or post photos and videos of their day's hunt even before the birds of the day have been cleaned.  In addition, the average age of hunters in the US is on the far side of middle age which translates into them having more time and money for travel as families and careers have grown and are on their own. The end result of these trends is  that anywhere it has been posted that the bird hunting is good, every motel, campground, and bar & grill parking lot is filled with out-of-state license plates and dog boxes.  

I recognize that my vehicle and RV have been one of those for weeks every year and frankly, that isn't going to change.  I still plan to be hunting several months a year for a variety of species in a variety of states.  But the focus of this blog will be the how, what and why, not the where. It will reflect smaller hunts, the dog pack, passions and events.  Perhaps not anything that will be on someone else's bucket list, but hopefully some food for thought, a chuckle and a light little read.  Happy Hunting all.