Youth Hunt 2000, with Charles and I in the back on the right

Heartland Chapter #491 Pheasants Forever meets tonight, Thursday, August 18th at 7 PM at El Bee’s on Hwy 50, near the Sapp Brothers Coffee Pot/Water Tower.  Youth Hunt Planning Meeting, new members welcome!

Sue has been in heat the past week and it has been a real pain keeping Sam away from her.  We do not want fall puppies because it conflicts with hunting season.  I hadn’t been letting them exercise together, until Sam wore me down with his endless whining about not getting to hang out with his lady.  So a few days ago I started letting them run together again, but just practicing manual birth control, which consists of lots of yelling and running after him to prevent him from mounting.

I have also been busy doing battle with the burr plants on my property because I’m tired of brushing out BB every night to bring her in.  I think that I about have them defeated and should finish the clean up this weekend.  I am normally anti-herbicide, but these plants have me ticked off.  I don’t think that I can convince Charles to spray though.  Hopefully the good old weed and seed will do the trick.

We have our first guiding gig of the year lined up for September 19th out at Pheasant Haven and are looking forward to it.  If you would like for us to guide for you at any of the Omaha/Lincoln area preserves, feel free to give us a call at (402) 682-9802 or shoot us an e-mail at bluestemkennels@cox.net.  Charles does the majority of the dog handling in the field and I assist with gear.  It’s very enjoyable to share our love of dogs and hunting with other people.

At this point we are planning on staying in Nebraska to hunt through mid-October, then head up to North Dakota for a week.  Which reminds me, I need to order my hunting license and get my Eastern Nebraska Prairie Chicken tags.  Also on my hunting related agenda for the day is I need to order some training birds for this weekend so that we can work with BB on planted birds and the gun before we hit the real deal.

Charles and I have decided that we are not going to do AKC or NAVHDA hunt tests at this point.  I know it looks cool to have a title behind your dogs name, but we just don’t have the time for it in addition to hunting and guiding.  Not taking away from the folks who do hunt tests, it is good for them, but it just isn’t our deal right now.

Two more weeks to go…I think this is probably one of the most exciting times of year to be in Nebraska.  The football people are excited, the hunting people are excited…we’re just all excited to be a part of “The Good Life”!