_MD_

Wolves suck!

Well folks here is my newest hound. He is nameless at this time but we are working on one. This picture was snapped when he was 1 day old. To get an idea how big these pups are you can see their mothers paw on the left. Now I have to figure out how to get him home. Right now he is around 1500 miles from home. I haven't even got to hold him yet and I am already planning for his first field trial... Man I sure am soft for new lab pups.

At some point weather it be when your old or young there was a hunt that Indoctrinated you into the brother/sister hood of hunting. My indoctrination happened when I was 8 and living in Wyoming. My dad took me antelope hunting on our ranch, where we would ride horseback and try to sneak up on this buck. To this day I can remember just about every detail of our successful outting. I also remember that I was to blame for the skull cap being broken when the horns were being cut out. Well, for nearly thirty years these horns have hung in one barn or the other. I have alway thought it would be nice to do something with the horns when I could afford it. This spring I decided it was now or never so I took them in. This afternoon I went and picked up the mount. It made me get all misty when I saw it. Well here he is. He has never been scored nor will he ever be, but even after of hanging in a barn for all those years he a very respectable buck.

Well folks my daughter got her first letter home from school today. It said "Welcome to kindergarden! Your teacher is..." After reading the first sentence I realized this school thing is for real and nothing I can do to stop it. My babies are getting big. The next thought I had was of all the school letters I caught before my parnets and my 007 abilities of changing bad news into good. Dang I was a master of carbon paper. My dad did keep one discpline notice because it made him laugh. It was when I got caught handcuffing a kid to the bottom of urinal. Right now one girl has this kind of potential. Still need to work on the other....HAHA Then fear hit me, will this be the only letter from school I can trust? Bring on the Pain I'm ready. I think

oh yeah, it's a lab. I'm hoping for a dark yellow or red colored pup.

Well I have gone off the deep end with this hunt test/field test thing. I have put a deposit on a new pup that should be born around the 27th of Aug. The kids don't know yet so it should be real exciting when he arrives. This time I went for pedigree all the way. The Dam and Sire are champs all the way back to the grandparents. A few months ago I bought a small freezer about 7 cubic ft and it is full of training ducks. I'm looking forward to 2008 and putting some miles on going to Field tests and hunt tests. I am hoping that I can have a FC or AFC by the time he is 3. Lofty goals but if he is as good as his folks it should be obtainable. I'll post some pic as soon as I get some... In a couple few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Canada to run my my dog in some hunt tests. I started these tests so I could find girl friends for my dog but it has turned out to be a lot of fun and real addictive. I packed up my dog and 2 kids (my girls are 5 & 2) and headed north. Here are some pictures that other people took. My camera is loaded with pictures but they will just have to wait until a different time. The first set of tests were near Irricana, which is NorthEast of Calgary just a little. Although we ran several scenarios here are the only pictures I have. By the way, I was in duck Heaven. I have never seen an area like this before. Here we are just getting to the line at getting ready for the first bird to fly. The bird has been down, Cooper has marked him and the judge has called "dog". It's go time. Cooper does his job well here and it's time for bird number 2. And here we go for bird 2. Here some pictures from the test near Wabamun. Cooper got his title on this trip, the event was great and the people even better. The pictures pretty much tell the story so here ya go.

Thanks for the info.

Hey DogDoc, Can you tell me what the difference is between a NAHRA Regional Event and just a normal NAHRA event a club would hold?

The first test was less than stellar. I was nervous and the dog feed off that. Needless to say we failed the first test. The next day we smoked through the marks like nothing. I guess it took a practice run to get me and the dog comfortable with all the people, judges, dogs and trucks, etc.. When we train it has always just been us. With one leg down I am looking for more tests to go to. My goal is to get his Started title this year.

This weekend my dog and I are entering our first hunt test. I am starting at lowest level, "Started". Does anyone have any useful advice? I have also been told that I use the wrong command to send him on a retrieve. I have always used the word "Break" instead of his name. Any words of advise on how to combat this problem? It's much to late to start with his name as he doesn't even blink until he hears "Break". I hope to come home this weekend with 2 of the 4 required passes to receive his started title.

I use 2 different connections my best being a T1. Both are very slow. It's becoming a drag to have to wait and wait and wait.

Congrats to both of you.

I won't be putting a "No Girls Allowed" sign up. I have opted for the new DNA testing XTGenderIdentifier. I will mount it by the door. The siding is a pine ship-lap, with the rough side out(sort of looks like cedar). We put this on our house 5 years ago and it looks good and has lasted well, as we still haven't need to restain it yet and it was cheaper than anything else we looked at.

Ok here are the rest of the pictures. This picture was taken from the house. Here they are swinging up the roof trusses. The ones you see up are just the traditional ones but the ones in the front don't have anything in the center. and that's where my office is. This is my office. The ceiling hight is just a little over 6' but it is 12' X 14'. This is going to be the perfect arrow building, fly tieing reloading room. Never again will I have to ask my wife where she has moved my stuff too. This shot is kinda dark but you can see what I've got. I have 6 8' florescent lights. It's nice and bright. Now I have to build some benches and move in. But the first thing I need to do is get my little TV set up so I can watch games.

My shop is all but finished and I thought it was time to start sharing some pictures. In the end I went with 28' X 32' with a 12' ceiling. It aslo has a 12' X 14' office upstairs. I have lots of pictures so I will make a second post this evening. This picture may be a little hard to see but basically the empty spot is where the shop is going to be built. Here is the floor. This is a monolithic slab. I believe they used 17 1/2 yards concrete. Here is a picture at the end of week one. Not to bad for 5 days of work. You can now see the 2 windows, the man door and the 10' X 12' door.

What runny nose?

I know the April has past but I finally got a picture that I like for this theme. This a a rack I found hunting with my brother years ago. The find and the hunt is a great story and as I think about the hunt I can still feel sweat running down my checks. Anyhow here it is.

I don't mind the change but what I can't stand is the main page now takes longer to load than the old one and you can't access the menu options until it's all loaded. It's poor programming design to put so much stuff on the first page people leave because they get tired of waiting or avoid the main page all together.

Today was my daughters first karate tourney. I think I was more nervous than she was. There were 19 kids in her group with all different belt colors. Everyone got something to take home, which was really nice. She did her form like a champ and she was really happy with what she did. Eventhough she didn't win I was really proud of the way she handled herself. Here are a couple of pictures from the day. Here she is getting ready to start her form. I didn't do a very good job taking pictures once she started. I was just to busy watching her do her thing. Here she is receiving her medal. My little champ!!!!

Jeramie, The shop is fairly small, as shops go, it's 28' X 32' with a 12' ceiling. The pellet stove sounds interesting.

The progress on my shop is going great. In a week they have poured the concrete, framed it, put on the roof trusses and have almost it all boarded in. I told the builders I was going to heat the shop but I didn't know how, well I have to know very soon. Originally I was going to use a barrel stove, I always enjoyed sitting around one when I was a kid, but now am having second thoughts because of the space requirement. Anyone have suggestions on how to cost effectively heat a shop?

Maybe Scott is going to start enforcing the size rule for avatars and signatures. Probably help speed this place up.

Are you thinking of putting in for the big boy units? You might as well apply since you have the chance. Who knows what you can end up with. Congrats on the tags.

After 2 1/2 years my phone is on it's last leg. I was thinking of getting a LG enV. Does anyone here have one? Likes or Dislikes?