What The Heck Was That?

We were up this morning at 6:30AM. Ron and I went in to the MiniMart for coffee, and a sausage and egg muffin. It's a daily ritual with him before he starts his work day. All the locals are there. You get to see everybody and find out what happened yesterday, read the paper and find out what everyone has planned for the day.

Ron had to go sort sheep and take a load of them to another town. Yesterday we sorted the real pregnant sheep from the moderately pregnant ones and moved them into the lambing barn. The real pregnant ones should start having their babies soon. That was a lot of hard work, but I like helping him and Dave with chores. Helping them is my was of saying that I appreciate what they do for me when I come down to hunt. Not nearly an even trade, but it makes me feel better.

While Ron was sorting and hauling sheep, Caity and I went on a three hour hunt by ourselves. For an almost seven month old puppy she did a great job. She flushed three pheasants this morning, but they were all girl birds and you can only shoot the boys. The first one she flushed by accident and didn't see it until it was thirty yards away. She stopped, looked at it, and continued her search for birds. At that age I don't think she knows yet what she looking for. She was sniffing and smelling for scents, stopping to look up to see what was going on and where I was. The second pheasnat flushed about ten yards from her. I think it startled her. She came back to me and sat down behind me. I could just imagine what was going on in her head. She had that look on her face as if to say, "What the heck was that?" She stayed close to me for the next half hour before she decided to start hunting again. The third pheasant flushed right from under her nose. She stood up on her hind legs and watch it fly away as I yelled to her, "hen" letting her know that we were only after the boy birds, "roosters." She didn't go chasing after it but came back to where the pheasant had been sitting and got a good nose full of its scent. That was all the stimulation she needed for the remainder of the morning hunt. However, we never flushed another bird, boy or girl. It didn't matter because the only goal we had was to flush a few birds so she could figure out what's it all about. I think she almost has it figured out, almost!

Ron may get a chance to hunt with me this afternoon, if the babies don't start coming.

Holler at you later!

Now, Where Was I?

Now, Where Was I?

It's been a while since I've written anything on my blog. I have been busy finishing up the homestead. Got all that done except for one upstairs room. It will be my writing room where random and not so ramdom thoughts will flow and take on life. That will get done this month, sometime.

Right now I'm down in Malcom, IA with my friend Ron and his wife Patty. Came down last Wednesday night to get a last pheasant hunt in before the season closes tomorrow, Tuesday. Thought we would have some snow but that's not in the cards. I like hunting in the snow. It's easier to hunt them when they leave tracks in the snow. And you don't end up spending time where they are not. Thursday we did chores on his farm. Putting bedding down for the lambs, getting the pens ready for them lambs to have their babies which starts tomorrow. He has about 600 head of lambs and they will all have at least one baby and some of them will have, two, three and four babies. Friday morning we went to Kalona to pick up a load of sheep from an auction barn and brought them back for a guy that Ron knows.

It's been extremely mild and most all the snow is gone. I have been trying to give Caity, my new lab, some hunting experience. She has been out a couple of times so far, but she is still pretty young and I have to keep reminding myself how young she is. But its hard when you have hunted behind an experienced lab like Beau. I told Ron yesterday that I should put a sign on her forehead that says, "I'm a puppy, be patient with me."

Anyways, we hunted south of Malcom in Otumwa over the weekend and had a lot of fun with quail and lots of pheasants. We were going to go south to Bloomfield near the Missouri border but made friends with a family and hunted around Agency both days. We didn't see any quail on Saturday but got into them pretty good on Sunday with the help of our newly made friends. Apparently we were hunting too far east, we think.

Today I need to clean the birds we shot yesterday and maybe get a two hour hunt in before noon. Ron has to move sheep and I will probably hunt alone this morning.

My next appointment with my doctor will be on January 24 and I little nervous and excited at the same time. I know my PSA won't be anywhere near zero, but if it continues to decline I will be happy. I haven't been dwelling on my condition lately because in the grand scheme of things, my stuff is minor. When I'm back in Madison this week I look forward to spending time with my best buddy who is having some health issues. I won't go into details here but will bring you "Up To Speed" later.

In spite of everything that's going on life remains good and I look forward to getting up, standing upright and taking in fresh air.

Later