Microbursts and other updates

Sometimes I feel the guilt of not having blogged in a few days.  It's sort of like the confessional and the sins build up the longer you stay away.

So, forgive me, it's been six days since I blogged.  In that time we've lost power when a front went through, a microburst wiped out about 20 acres of prime grouse habitat, and I broke a tooth and have a new high-tech crown.

The microburst hit as a front came through last weekend and we just got out to see it on Wednesday.  It was tough to get a good picture of it but here's the best ones.

Despite spending two mornings at the dentist this week I've been able to get a lot done with the dogs.  Tuesday morning we ran Maggie and one of Jack's brothers, Mike, in the rain.  Maggie found six or seven woodcock and held two of them long enough for me to flush which is a big step forward for her. We moved a couple of grouse and a couple of woodcock with Mike to make for a pretty good morning.

Wednesday morning was spent getting a new crown put on my broken tooth.  The dentist has his own digital imaging and CNC machines and made the crown while I waited.  Pretty amazing technology.

Thursday we went out to check out the microburst site.  Really glad it was out in the woods and not near any houses -- not as extensive as the damage from a tornado but just as devastating where it touched down.  Dog wise things started off a little slow with the first brace finding only one grouse.  The second brace started out just as slow but then we got in to a little different section of the cover and things picked up fast.  Angus had a couple of grouse finds and a few woodcock with Maggie getting into at least one of each. The final brace of the morning had Lucy and Little Thudd finding grouse I think we moved 10 birds on four finds.

The next day was a red barn morning and Max and Little Thuddd got the first brace.  Max was obviously feeling better as he ran all over the place and needed to be reined in more than once.  He had a couple of woodcock encounters.  While Thuddd knocked off  four if my memory serves me.  In the next brace Jagger and Trash ran well but we only had two finds.  Trip was on the truck as I was short a dog with Brandy off on a home visit.  She showed that it won't take long to get her ready for hunting season as she knocked of three woodcock finds in front of Angus who backed on each of them before having a couple of bids on his own.

This morning was pretty amazing.  It started out with Pete up on the side of a cut over mountain where he found bird after bird.  By the time we finished we had flushed 13 woodcock on 8 solid finds and 10 grouse on four finds.  Lucy was up next and she pointed 4 woodcock and bumped a grouse and I walked up a woodcock.  Maggie was the last dog on the truck this morning and found four woodcock the one she pointed the best got hung up in the cover right in front of her and almost ended up as breakfast.  Back home I ran two braces of puppies and they continue to gain in strength and speed.  They are all hunting to the front and looking for birds.

Timmy brought Brandy back and after lunch we went over to Tony's so he could pick up Little T (aka Little Frankie).  Little Thud was very glad to see his Dad even if it was only for a short visit.

Luck of the Draw

We have lots of different places that we work the dogs on wild birds and sometimes you find them where the were last time and other times it doesn't work out quite as well.  Today was the perfect example of the luck of the draw.  I put Pete down first in a cover we ran last Sunday with Trash and Veronica and they pointed a bunch of grouse and woodcock.  Today Pete ran well but only found one grouse that he pointed and held with nice style.  Then we tried a new part of the same cover with Lucy and Angus (GSP that Tony recently got in for training.  We walked up a grouse and then Lucy and Angus went on a woodcock finding spree with Lucy having six finds and Angus two woodcock and a grouse.  Maggie got the short end of the stick as the dog she ran with had a problem and we had to cut the run short.

I've starting mixing it up a little for the puppies running one of the Jack puppies with one of the Moon puppies.  The 2 1/2 difference in age is all but undetectable now and all four of them are hunting for the elusive house grouse when they get run.  The next step will be to start taking them away from the kennel and running in other covers.

Saturday was a stay at home day with the puppies getting out and my attending to some writing I had to finish up for PDJ.  It was also the last day of our recent heat wave.  The air mass has changed with a high today in the mid-70s and the humidity is all but gone.

Friday was a Red Barn morning despite the lingering heat and a high in the low 90s Friday afternoon.  Down in Red Barn everyone ran well and had birds there were actually some grouse around as we moved 7 grouse and 11 woodcock with three braces of dogs.  The best brace for me was the middle one where Max, that had a sore foot and didn't run for a week, ran really strong with no apparent problem with the foot.  He had two woodcock finds and a grouse.