I check my blog each morning to see how many people have read my posts. Over the weekend when I got on the blog it showed an error message. I thought it was a problem with my computer. Later I had June try to get on and she got the same error message, also. I wasn’t sure about what to do. Finally, I contacted the web host and they found the problem and enabled me to get on the blog and for most people to read it.
Stylish male puppy.
Earlier picture of them just hanging out.
Abby feeding the puppies outside.
I thought I was home free. Not so fast. I started a blog post and had over 400 words when I decided to save it. When I hit save nothing happened. I hit a button to preview my work. Nothing happened. They had told me that one of my plugins was causing the problem. After they fixed it my counter wasn’t working. Now “save” and “preview” aren’t working. I had to get out of my blog to find the phone number to contact my support for this blog. I lost everything I had written.
After about an hour with support the blog is working. “Save” and “preview” are working. I still don’t have a counter but I may be able to add one later.
The puppies are really growing. I started them with a lock wing pigeon. They got too aggressive so I started flying one for them. I wave the pigeon in their face to get them excited and when they are all trying to get the bird I let it fly away. As they chase I say, “get that bird, get that bird”. They all chase for a short distance. As they grow they will chase longer.
There are still a lot of people petting the puppies. Most of the buyers are coming by as often as they can and I have friends who just like to pet the puppies. The puppies are used to people and really like people. Also, they get to hear the Gun Conditioning CD from Masters Voice twice a day. I have been giving them a milk formula twice a day. In the formula I soaked Puppy Chow. Now at 7 weeks old I quit the milk but soak some Puppy Chow in warm water for them. They also have dry Puppy Chow in their pen all day. I put their mom, Abby, in with them each day and sometimes twice a day.
Watching The Flush on television. They were hunting Montana. A lot of years ago I hunted Montana. I had just got some new GPS collars and I made sure they were paired with the hand held before I left. From my house it was over a 1000 miles to where I was in Montana.
I had hunted some of the BLM land and as I went from one place to another I saw a guy combining wheat. I figured he was probably thirsty so I took him a bottle of water. When I got close he stopped. He took the water and I asked if I could hunt where he was combining. He told me he just worked on that farm but the guy who owned it was coming across the field.
Boss pointing a pigeon in a tree.
When the owner got there I gave him a bottle of water and asked to hunt. He said, “you can but there isn’t much here but I have another place about 8 miles from here that has some birds”. He told me how to get there and said, “park by the tree”. I must have looked at him funny because he said, “you may be surprised but that’s probably the only tree you’ll see between here and there”. And he was right.
I parked under the tree. The other side of the road was Canada. I was there the first part of September and it was warm. I had a bucket of water in the truck. Most of the time I set the bucket beside the truck so the dogs could get a drink if they came back near the truck. On this day I forgot to put the bucket beside the truck.
About a quarter of a mile from where I turned out was a low draw that ran for a long way through this pasture. Actually it was just a low spot that ran through this pasture. There was no trees or brush growing near. Just low growing pasture. I had 4 dogs or more. I had turned them all loose. I had an old female setter by the name of Lady with me. She went on point and a sharp tail grouse flushed. It was close and slow. When I shot it rolled. Lady retrieved.
Abby pointing a pigeon.
That was my first sharp tail. We didn’t go far until she was on point again. There wasn’t much cover. When I went in front of her 5 or 6 sharpies flushed. These birds were holding well and were close. I was hunting with an automatic 20 gauge. I don’t remember how many times I shot but I knocked 2 birds down. Lady was the best retriever I’ve ever owned and she got them both.
We were only on this place about an hour. It was hot and the dogs needed a drink so we started back to the truck. It was flat with very little cover so I could see the dogs really well. I saw my male dog, Pal, go by the truck. I remembered I hadn’t set the water bucket out. He hung around the truck for a little while but left without me seeing which direction.
We got back to the truck but Pal wasn’t there. I watered the other dogs and put them in the truck. I checked the GPS and it showed Pal over a thousand yards, I thought, to the south east. I put some bottle water in my vest and started after him.
I walked a long way checking the GPS as I walked. I wasn’t gaining on him much. I had gone almost a half mile and he was still over a thousand yards south east. I really examined the GPS and realized that it was saying over a thousand miles. It wasn’t reading that collar. It was reading where it had been turned off the last time. My house. Over a thousand miles not yards. Now I was really worried. How was I going to find Pal.
Mann.
After that I had no idea where to go but I continued down the low spot in the pasture. It was near noon and there wasn’t much shade anywhere. I just happened to see him lying in some grass where it may have been a little cooler. I went to him with a water bottle in hand. I didn’t have a leash with me but I took my belt off and after he drank some water we started back to the truck.
When we got to the truck he drank from the bucket and I put him in the truck. I didn’t hunt him for the rest of the day and the next day he was fine. But I carried water with me and remembered to put the water bucket out next to the truck.
After seeing the color of the meat when cleaning the sharp tails and 1 Hungarian partridge that I had I decided not to shoot anymore. I had tried prairie chickens and didn’t like to eat them. The meat of the sharp tails and Hun looked the same.
But I’m okay with just working the dogs. The next morning I turned all of the dogs loose early on BLM land near a large pond. The pond was on private land but the BLM came real close.
Abby on point on wild quail.
As we went toward the west with the sun just coming up I saw 3 deer feeding along the ridge to the west and some ducks flying just above them. Would have made a neat picture but I am seldom prepared but I can still see it in my mind.
I had a young dog with me that needed a lot of wild birds so after it warmed up I drove the roads. When I saw birds, pheasants or sharp tails, along the road I turned the young dog out. I never fired another shot at the birds. It’s easier when working dogs to not have to worry about taking a gun.
Mann pointing a pigeon.
It may have been the time of year or the area I hunted in but I didn’t see many pheasants. And I shot the only Hungarian partridge that I saw. I know there had to be a covey of Huns but I never saw them. But to be able to work the dogs for several days in a row was worth the drive. I hope to go back some day.