First day buffoonery

After all the preparation, and all the careful planning, the time finally arrives. You aren't in that groove yet. Collars are misplaced, whistles are not to be found, "Why can I only find three dog boots?" We have all been there and luckily it gets better.

Our first day found us in an area we hunted many times before. Bob, and his Spinone, Sophie, came along with me and Glen's pup, Bandit. We struck out that morning in an area that was absolutely wonderful for the last two years. Ace and Ruby were resting after a three-hour non-productive cast in the heat.

10 minutes after I turned Bandit loose, he found a water barrel with a dead skunk in it. By the time I arrived, he was happily swimming and drinking. That was some nasty water. I got him out right away and gave him some freshwater. Dogs!

We walked about 3 miles with the dogs working hard in 80° heat, when they both got very birdy in the alfalfa field. A few minutes later, they started coming up. They came out of the alfalfa, out of the tops of the trees, and out of the shaded ditches. It was really nice.

Someone asked me about the dirt roads up here. Yep, we got them.

Dinner thanks to some fine bird dogs

And barely adequate shooting!

Randy free range grilled grouse with a hint of Cajun and malt beverage carefully prepared over domestically drilled natural gas.

Backroad Fun

As we made our way, in a leisurely fashion, across South Dakota and into Montana, we found museums, herds of bison and just plain beauty.

The leaves are changing up here now as we pass through the mountainside.

Morning Glory

The Missouri River at sunrise today. View from the office window.

Shopping at the mall.

Part of the reason I like to come up here so much is the stores. Where else can you find Scheels and Cabelas. What a rush to go through the door of either of those stores. Hundreds of shotguns and rifles, new and used, and any shotgun shell you can think of. The old diesel just will not pass one by.

On the road again!

I have my copilot watching diligently. With a full tank of diesel, and a belly full of three egg omelette. We are headed up through the heart of Illinois. Through towns called Mount Zion, Elwin and Decatur. This area was settled by French-Canadians brought in by the railroad building a line from Chicago to Mobile. Huge coal seams were discovered underneath the flatland here. This area is known for a coal mining disaster in 1930. Now, it's all about the corn and beans.

Veggie Mecca

Cracker Barrel, my favorite on the road place to eat!!

It's Time.

Sage Grouse, MT, 2011

Cap and Me on Valley Quail

Tomorrow, the old F-250 heads North. With stops in Illinois to pick up one of the hunting party, and another stop somewhere short, I should be chasing Sharptails and Huns Monday in Montana.  This year, I have the advantage of using my Glen Bahde Truck Vault (a one-of-a-kind at this point, since Glen hasn't finished his, yet.)  to store my guns, ammo and a mess of other stuff that gets hauled around the country every trip. Taking my three dogs (Ace, Ruby, Cap) and Glen's dog, Bandit, I won't need my Jones trailer this trip.  Since diesel is $4/gallon, that seemed a prudent decision.  Also, maneuvering around on those two tracks with a trailer, while sporting, can be a pain, occasionally.

My new Glen Bahde truck vault.

All the dogs will ride in crates on top of the truck vault.  It's a nice set up for traveling the back roads.  It seems most the hunters I meet out west have a version of this setup, so there must be something to it.

 

2012 Georgia Region NSTRA Ironman

Pistol Shoot

Horseshoes

Skeet Shooting

Heading out to find birds!

In the heat of summer, no one thinks about running dogs, but when the cool mornings hit, it's on every one's mind.  We get together in September to run the dogs a little, catch up and get mentally ready for the trial year.  Our "Ironman" started way back in 2000 as a way to have fun and spend the day gossiping about bird hunting and trialing and giving new dogs a little taste of trial life.  The events are finding birds, pistol shooting, rifle shooting, skeet fishing and horseshoes.  It takes pretty much all day with 20 to 30 contestants.  Then we have a nice dinner with cooked quail and all the fixin's, thanks to Jimmy Johnson! What a wonderful way to get the year started!!

Snake Aversion Training!

Showing Cap the empty cage- Nothing in There, Boy!

Reassurance

After correction on the snake crate- he won't get near!

 

I've heard so much about snake aversion training that I knew it was necessary, but I was leery about doing it.  Problems with uncertified instructors using poor techniques caused me to hesitate.  I saw this man's ad and looked up his website.  Then, I called him and pretty much grilled him for 30 minutes.  In a nutshell, I am impressed with the system he uses and the theory behind the system.  He knows snakes, venomous and non-venomous!  And, he knows dogs and how they learn.  He puts the two together and you have a great method for teaching your dog to avoid snakes- all snakes! The timing of the stimulation is very important, critical even.  Jason Clark, of Southeast Reptile Rescue, is an expert in snakes. He will stimulate the dog, not when it first gets scent, but when it follows that scent right up to the snake and gets as close as it can.  The dog, as I understand it, associates the actual snake with the correction not merely the scent. It took 10 minutes per dog and my Brits were moving all around the area, a snake scent covered area, until they SAW the snake.  At that point, they backed away or went around the snake by a wide margin! My 2 year-olds only took one correction, at the proper time, and they were believers.  It was not a huge shock, either. It was a 30 on a scale of 100 with a Dogtra system. (Maybe a 3 on a Tritronics?)  The final exam was a Rat Snake on the ground with no crate around it.  All my dogs saw and avoided by a wide margin!  Very nice. He used a Copperhead, a Moccasin and a Timber Rattler in cages and a Rat Snake, uncaged, for the Final Exam.   

 

I think that with this training, the snake vaccine and a snake bite kit in the truck, we have taken all reasonable steps to avoid and/or mitigate a snake bite problem. I feel somewhat better about hunting Montana next week with the Prairie Rattlers.

 

Jason charged me $50 per dog. Follow-up sessions are $35 per dog and are recommended by the company annually. Click the link and check them out.  I am glad I took the time.  http://www.snakesareus.com/home

Hey, Honey! Want to go for a ride?

Just smell the aroma of guy stuff!

So, it's Labor Day! It's also my birthday! The Ball and Chain and I were sitting in the living room pondering life and making it alive to another year, when an idea popped in to my head. "Honey, I may need some stuff at the store." "What stuff?", she queried. "I'll know it when I see it." was my considered response. So, off we went to the land of orange and camo.

Down here, bird hunting is an after-thought. Real men hunt deer, big bucks, and stuff like that. The local  shop in Macon, in fact all the stores of that genre in this area, hit the deer, turkey hunting and fishing equipment real hard. Dog stuff is mainly for duck dogs. But, there are training collars and other gear that would cross the lines from duck/deer/turkey/dove hunting over to the sport of gentlemen. I like just being where men and women are trying on boots, guns, camo and stuff. Videos of deer kills and stalking, and cleaning carcasses are running continually throughout the store....ahh, sweet music of the outdoors!

I did manage to find a buy on ammo and bought a box or two to get me started. I will order the rest of the best stuff from www.uplanders.com in a week or so. With the good prices and free shipping (over $100), it's a deal that can't be beat.

We are getting close.....22 Sept, the big diesel rolls out of town to Montana.....



The Blue Grouse

Blue Grouse

I, someday, will chase a few of these.  Old books I read say they are the largest of the grouse family and only smaller than the pheasant, when it comes to game birds. Just recently, I read they are second only to the Sage Grouse in size in the Grouse family.  Having harvested several Sage Grouse, I  can agree with that.  I've heard they eat as well as the Ruffed Grouse, too! High mountain habitat make the hunting very challenging and that is right up my alley.  I'm still recovering from the last Chukar hunt I went on, but it only whetted my appetite for the red-legged demon.  I'm going to study this bird and maybe figure out where I can get the dogs in the area of a suitable population.

Hunting Tips (From State of Colorado website)

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Lower elevation: Hunt edges, benches and draws. Look for berry or mast producing shrubs such as chokecherry, serviceberry, elderberry, currant (ribes), and oakbrush. Look for seaps and other water sources which tend to hold green forbs and insects later into the fall.

Higher elevations: Get as high as you can and then hunt downwards. Know your trees! Lodgepole pine is too low, keep going to spruce/fir. Look for vaccinium with berries and high elevation forbs and/or pockets of insects.
Look for sign such as feathers, droppings, tracks and dusting bowls.

• A good bird dog is an asset in the sage/aspen areas. They aren’t as much of an asset in the high country (where birds don’t tend to hold a point) and can even hamper your hunting efforts.
• For every bird you see, you’ve probably walked past 5-10.
• Dusky grouse (formally know as blue Grouse) tend to be gregarious; where you find 1 bird there should be others nearby.
• When flushed in the high country, blue grouse tend to fly downhill and often escape by flying up into trees. When in sagebrush-aspen areas they tend to hold for pointing dogs and flush.
  

Randy and Ace- ID 2012

Randy and Cap- ID 2012

Randy, Ruby, Cap, Ace- ND 2011

The weather is (somewhat) cooler. The muscadines are loaded down.  The Tulip Poplars are turning. My pasture hay is being cut as I write.  It's almost time for hunting and trialing season.  Friends of mine are already in Montana preparing for the big national NSTRA trial in Lewistown, MT.  This year we will point the diesel north on September 22.  With stops in Illinois to visit a friend and South Dakota for the same, we will have dogs on the ground in Montana on the 24th.  They all swear they are ready, but I suspect they'd say that while dragging a broken leg. After all, that's the kind of dog I want- one that will hunt all day, every day. 

(I was just rudely interrupted by a friend calling from Idaho praising their new Ford F-350.  That's all I need!  I'm keeping my 2001 F-250 running fine at 330,000 miles and fighting off new truck fever.)

So, the truck vault is finished and ready to be packed with gear.  My first inclination is to the last in-first out method of packing.  I will look at items used every day and have them at the front- guns, shells, electronics, batteries, dog boots and tape.  Nest down the list would be items used, but infrequently and also, first aid/skunk formula, etc. followed by good stuff to have along, but not necessarily used every trip.  Finally, the bins in the back will be camping stuff, tarps, chains and emergency road stuff. That's the plan.....

It's not long now.  I'm trying to talk the B and C into flying to ID to meet me for a few days on Chukar and quail around the first week of October, but it's not looking good at this point.  I'll keep working that angle. 

Finished! My new truck vault!

If you look carefully at the bottom picture, you can see that the vault fits perfectly between the wheel wells.  When the drawers are secured, I have perhaps 3 inches of play to the tailgate.  At the back of the vault (front of the truck), those two silver things are recessed hooks to pull up two lids for more storage space. Since this is Vault #1, the next one off the assemble line will take advantage of all the little things we learned finishing this one.  Glen is starting on his own box today.  The most difficult thing to get right is seating the locks properly and setting the striker plates, etc.  Inspecting closer, you may see how I made numerous small corrections.  At any rate, it is very solid, looks good and will allow me to carry and  lock my stuff on trips.  Now, I will attack that pile of stuff behind the driver's seat- some of which has been there 10 years or more. This should be interesting! 

Working on the truck vault!

Thanks to Glen Bahde, and his father who did the carpentry, I am very close to finishing my truck vault.  Made of poplar, oak, and marine-grade plywood, this a lifetime box. Glen put many hours in to the detail and finishing and the final touch is the Linex lining (spray in bed liner) on the exterior.  With two drawers, one lockable for guns and such and the other matching in size, I will have all the room I need to carry all my incidentals.  The dogs will be in kennels on the top.  Glen is pushing for me to get a "bed slide", in addition, and that may be in the future.  But, for now, I will carry the vault and my dog kennels under my truck topper. We have close to $800 in materials and I'm incredibly glad Glen is not charging by the hour for his time.  I noticed a similar commercial box, just recently, selling for close to $3800.  I have some trim work and adjustments to make and this bad boy will be sliding in to the bed of the old F-250 diesel...

Is your "Beast of Birdin'" an F-250/350?

The Overhead Display Hole

I guess I was blessed with one that lasted longer than most, but when my overhead display (also known as the trip computer, mileage computer, temp sensor)  went out, I figured no big deal.  Then, I caught myself looking up there at a blank screen time after time. I noticed it was nice to know the temp/direction/miles to go to flameout and all that other nice stuff.  I called the local Ford guy and gave him the part number off the old unit and asked him to give me an estimate (in case I needed to rob a bank on the way over). He said Ford doesn't make the part and he can't get me one!  What? Passing up an opportunity to triple the profit on a part? That doesn't sound like Ford Motor Company to me! I got on the Internet and found a Ford blog site that gave detailed instructions about how to repair said part. (http://www.ford-trucks.com/)  I unplugged the black box, detached it from the mount, unscrewed three screws and layed open the innards.  It looked like the inside of my desktop computer.  Sure enough, one of the resistors was loose, so I gently pressed it back in to place.  I hooked it up and it worked! I noticed it was dim and all the functions didn't work, however.  More investigation revealed there should be 7 chips- I only had 5 chips in 7 holes. Two of the chips had fallen off!

Back to the Internet to find  a guy to fix it. I found several people who sell re-conditioned boxes and, also, new OE boxes.  The refurbished ones run about $100 and the new ones are about $220. I gave in and ordered a new one, and he gave me a $20 credit if I sent him my old one (hence, the photo of the hole where it was- lol.).  Interestingly, one guy said the refurbished ones have all the computer upgrades and show instantaneous mileage, as well, something my 2001 F-250 never did display.  So, I should be getting an upgrade on the my computer out put, too. That figures since my truck is almost 12 years old now. 

Note: the most difficult thing in this whole operation was getting the cover off.  There are detailed instructions here (http://www.ford-trucks.com/), but I suggest taking it to your local repair place and paying them to show you how to do it.  Don't cheap this one- if you break it, you will pay much more than you save.  Once the cover is off, the rest is a piece of cake!  

This is the guy I used, but there are many others out there.  Google "F-250 Overhead display" to start your search, or message me and I'll find the website address. George DeCarlo 57olbird@gmail.com

***UPDATE***

The part arrived before noon today and it took me 10 minutes to plug it in, put three screws in the mount and put the cover back on! It's working fine and it should last me another 10 years...or another 325,000 miles.  Along with the part, were instructions on removing the cover and box.  They are the same instructions on his website.  Overall, I am pleased with the transaction.  Everything was exactly as presented and I recommend this method.  

The Updated Repaired Version! Whoohoo!