Road Trip - times two!

The dog days of summer are often pretty quiet for most people....but it sure hasn't been for us.  We lost my dear sister Jeanne, Mike's BIL Bob, and our beloved old gal, Patch.  I then embarked on a 3600 mile round trip from home in KS to the Maine coast and back.  My co-pilot Tweed and I got a lot accomplished: I delivered 3 of Storm's puppies to wonderful homes, visited with friends in PA, VT and ME, filled up on lobstah fresh off the boat, picked up a Tweed daughter who is joining us for Montana hunting and finally, picked up a few nostalgic pieces from the now-empty family home in northwestern PA.

                  The pups looking a little road weary in their portable pen as we made a stop along the road.

The home gates never looked so good as they did when I finally pulled in last evening.  And yes, despite the heat wave, Mike was outside working when I got home.

But, as a friend recently said about us, moss doesn't grow beneath our feet.  Today and tomorrow is dedicated to loading up the Open Range RV and closing up the house so we can leave Wednesday morning.  We will visit friends along the way but on Friday will arrive in central Montana in time for the Big Sky EB Club wild bird trial.  The trial is hosted and run by great folks who were very welcoming to us last year on our first visit and runs on their terrific grounds and we look forward to renewing acquaintances.  Jack will be running on both Sat and Sun....I wish I could say that I had dedicated time to preparing him because he deserves that, but no matter what the outcome we know the dog that he is and will have a blast with him all fall.
                            On a run last month Jack showed us that quail season should be fun this fall

Monday, Sept 1, is the opener of the Montana bird season opener and it will find us after sharptails and huns - pheasant season doesn't open until mid-October.  If it is warm in the early season we will head to the mountains for awhile and hunt ruffed and dusky grouse. We are full of excitement and can't wait to hit the road.  As usual, I will try to find internet access to occasionally post updates as the season progresses.  Our plan is to hunt a couple/few different areas in Montana over the next couple of months, returning to Kansas in time for the opener here Nov 8.  Happy trails and Happy tails!

Puppy breath

Storm's litter turned 5 weeks old yesterday.  I can't believe how time has flown by this summer and that they will start leaving in just a couple of weeks.  They are a healthy and hearty bunch of pups and Storm has been a great mother.  During part of this summer I have online work projects and I have their indoor puppy pen in my little office - they are very amusing office mates but I somehow even manage to get some work done.  These pups are heading in a wide variety of directions with their new owners and a couple will have 2 home bases: Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio/Montana, Missouri, Texas and Wyoming/California.  Some of the owners are picking their pups up at the house but I will be hitting the road for Vermont in mid-August for a combination puppy-delivery and visiting with friends. Puppy road trip!

I took these photos a couple of days ago, it's never easy to get good pics while wrangling a group of loose puppies.

Busy Spring and Puppies!

Things have been very busy here at our little spot in the world.  As if starting a produce business and remodeling the house weren't enough, we are also preparing for the whelping of a Setter litter in less than 2 weeks plus have a baby French Brit.  I'll try to briefly catch you up.

First, our place is blessed to be sitting on very good quality ground.  There is active farmland all around us but this property has not been farmed for quite a while and has become overgrown.  Mike is putting the soil back to work with his organic Glacier Rock Produce Farm.  He spent early springtime sodbusting and preparing the ground and now has hundreds of vegetable plants thriving under his diligent care.  Once ready, produce will be marketed to restaurants and markets in the area.

The house we bought last year fits us very well but this spring we have been doing some updating.  We laid new flooring, installed new lighting and bought new appliances.  We are on-hold at the moment, waiting for the cabinetmaker to finish the new wall oven cabinet and island countertop but that should pretty much wrap it up.  It has been a lot of work but we are very pleased with results so far.  I will post some pics when completed.

Mike built a great deck this spring where we spend a lot of time.  He also extended the railing to keep the dogs out of the beautiful flower garden that the previous owner had lovingly planted.  It is a bit of a mystery watching things grow in there since I'm never certain which are weeds and which are flowers.  But patience has paid off and there have been blooms for weeks now and should be all through the summer.

On the "pack" side of things we have exciting news.  Back in April I made a quick trip to PA and bred my setter Storm to a handsome tri-color grouse dog, "Gus."  (yes, I know that he is retrieving a pheasant in this photo but I just like this particular pic of him)





Gus sired my last pups out of Tweed and those youngsters have been such a huge success that I just had to go back to him.  Since Tweed is Storm's mother, I am expecting this litter to be of the same quality. Several perfect homes have already been arranged but I am hoping for a large litter so there will still be puppies available.

These two photos are of one of the Tweed x Gus youngsters taken this spring.  His owner has raised him in a classic manner: 27 months old now he has never seen a pen raised bird or an electronic collar.  Not only has Jerry done a great job with the pup but I also love that he carries a camera and sends me photos!

And last, but certainly not least:  just this week we stumbled across a French Brittany litter with a pedigree that we couldn't resist.  When I saw this little gal whose coloring reminds me so much of my late, beloved setter, Ditto, it was a done deal.  Let me introduce "Jazz" who fills the last spot on our birddog team

K-9 Comings and Goings

There is a new member of the Firelight pack: Belle, or her proper name, Isabelle du Pays de Soleil, is a beautiful orange roan Epagneul Breton.

   Belle's timing was very good, she was ready for us to pick her up just as our bird season was closing here in Kansas at the end of January.  Our quick trip to AZ was an all-EB trip, we took just Jack and Dee with us as my honorary-sister Sandy held down the fort and hung out at the house with the Setters.  On our way south we stayed overnight at a ranch cabin belong to a friend of Mike's and the next morning we pheasant hunted, visited with his friend and then made a long planned trip to a nearby field.  

Mike had told me about a small field that he had hunted many times with his 2 late Brittany brothers, Zeke and Scout.  Both had hunted until they were double digits in age and over the years they had put on many a show with roosters, giving him a full gamebag and memories for a lifetime. This field in particular held many memories of their hunts together.  We had brought their ashes along with us and stood watching as the breeze gently spread them across the field where they had shared such joy.

We then continued south, looking foward not only to picking up the pup and spending time with her breeders, Don and Linda Rice, but also to visit and hunt with friends Jeff and Donna and not lastly, briefly escape from the cold and snow.  We did run into a brief snowstorm in Flagstaff but we smiled as the temps rose as we dropped in elevation from there.  Jeff and Donna winter in a beautiful part of AZ and the scenery was a beautiful backdrop to a good day of quail hunting with Jeff generously guiding us the unfamiliar grounds.  

Our Setter numbers have also changed a little.  If you remember, in 2013 I kept 2 pups, Seth and Sally, from Tweeds litter.  We hunted them in Montana and as their breeder it was educational and fun to watch them go from playful pups to hunting well and handling birds long before their 1st birthday.  But our plan all along was to place Seth since we really do not have room for another male.  In January, after a couple days of wicked cold hunts with us and our dogs, Seth was purchased by another small breeder of rymans: with them he will be a ruffed grouse dog and stud dog for their lovely females.  I still miss his sweet face but know that he is happy to have a family of his own taking good care of him.....and I also can look forward to the day when a pup from him will come back to me to start the circle all over again.

So Sally is the chosen one to stay on and to hopefully carry on our little family line here at home.  She is sweet, silly and stylish and covers the ground with speed.  Her covey finds here in KS seem to each time be buried deep in cover so her photos are poor but I think the future is bright for the Firelight pack.

 

Gentleman Bob in Kansas

Let me begin with an apology.  I have been derelict in my blogging.  A number of readers have let me know that they have been disappointed in the lack of posts here, I feel badly about that and to remedy the situation I now have several posts lined up to publish to get everyone caught up.  In a bit of self defense, I do want to state that much of the reason that I have not written is because we have been busy:  when we are on the road in Montana we hunt several days a week and care for the pack of dogs whereas hunting out of the house here we have both of those plus running a household, visitors, holidays, and a tiny parttime job, which does not leave a lot of time for writing.  

The Kansas hunting season ran from Nov 9 -Jan 31.  We opened the season with a bit of skepticism given that last year the bird numbers, especially pheasant, were down so significantly due to the drought.  So we decided that we would focus on the bobwhite quail this year since they are native to the area and therefore better equipped to handle weather extremes: they have been here a long time and hopefully will continue to be.  We were not disappointed.  Most of our hunts were day trips where we would leave the house in the morning with a lunch packed and we would be home by late afternoon, tired and usually with birds in the bag.  (as always, click on any photo to see it enlarged)

Quail are found in brushy areas, typically along either crop fields or tall grass fields.  To this New Englander, some of our local quail habitat reminds me of the old, overgrown Vermont farms where I loved to hunt ruffed grouse.  Coveys are found along the edges of fields or even feeding out in fields and once flushed, the singles fly into brush and treed areas or tall grass, the thicker the better.  The dog work is closer and requires more brush-busting than Montana or Kansas fields for pheasant so we usually ran just 2 - 3 dogs at a time.  The dogs did great with each one showing their own strengths and skills.  And of course being dogs, weaknesses too, but they were minor and we forgive them just as we hope they forgive us when we are less than perfect.  You have to look hard to see the dogs in some of the pics due to the cover.

Dee holding them tight til we get there, Jack backing

There are actually 3 setters on point/back in there

Storm

Mike walking along typical quail cover with dogs working the brush

Me walking in on a point with 3 other dogs backing

I have so many photos from the season that I want to share, there will be more in the promised subsequent posts. But I do want to share photos and memories from our opening weekend because it was special to us. The day after the opener we were thrilled to be joined by both Mike's son, Colt, and our wonderful friend, Jess, from Texas.  Colt is a busy engineering student at K-State and this was the first time in over 2 years that he has been able to come along for a hunt.  He and his Dad walked and talked all morning long.

Mike has now hunted with Jess for a few years and we were really looking forward to his visit and hunts this year.  Jess makes the long drive up from Texas in search of bobwhite quail, once plentiful in Texas.  He has 2 very well mannered dogs, a Vizsla, Lu, and a Drahthaar, Ilse.  One of our favorite memories of his visit this year was a time when Jess dropped a rooster for which Ilse ran in for the retrieve as did Jack and Dee.  The boys love to retrieve and assume all birds are theirs but Ilse reached in, picked it up and as she lifted it over their heads the look on her face made it very clear that this was her owners bird and the boys had better back off....and indeed they did, giving us all a laugh.  We had a lot of fun but with an abrupt ending as Ilse tore a large gash in her leg on barbed wire which laid her up for a week or so but she healed fine.

(The above pic of Lu is actually from last year, somehow I failed to get any good pics of her this year but love this one of her and figured it bore repeating it.)

Weather this winter has been unusually cold and snowy for this area.  Most winters any snow melts within a few days but this year it stayed.  To reduce the stress on the quail, we didn't hunt them on days with bad weather or really low temps.  Surviving and avoiding wild predators takes enough of their energy, they didn't need us bothering them on those days.  Right up to the end we saw reasonably sized coveys and big, healthy birds with fat on them so we hope that they come through the winter well.

Cheers
Lynn Dee