For those of you who are on the reservation list for 2020 Spring Puppies from dam Bluestem’s Prairie Fire, NA I “Fire”, we are going to use Bluestem Otoe Chief, NA II “Chief” as the stud. His information is on the “About Our Dogs” page of the website. Let me know if you have questions.
If you would like to be on the contact list in the event that we have additional puppies available, please e-mail bluestemkennels@gmail.com.
In other random kennel news, I took Ruth in for her OFA hip x-rays and the vet said everything looked good, so now it is just a matter of getting the certificate back from OFA to see what rating they give her hips.
Sandhills Upland Opener
Our usual luxury accommodations in town are currently occupied by other family members, so we decided to camp at the lake over the weekend. With all of the moisture this year we were happy that the sandburrs were still pretty moist, but the mosquitos were sure thick. The boys and I focused on things like swimming, shooting 22 rifle, kayaking, making s’mores (and just making meals in general), and my favorite part — stargazing.
The night sky of the Nebraska Sandhills, photo by Brenda Allison
Sunset over the lake, no filter. By Charity Upchurch
Not listed on AirBnB!
Fifteen year-old Conrad has become a good kayaker,
Ten year-old Caleb had fun with the .22. Both of the boys did, we ran out of ammo.
You can see in the background of the picture of Caleb that some unknown soul added an “amenity” to our shared primitive campsite. They turned a five gallon bucket into a pit toilet by cutting the bottom off of it, creating “teeth” so that you can stick it in the sand, then screwed a toilet seat to the top!. So all you needed to do was to dig a hole to put it on top of, then you use your shovel to “flush” with the sand pile. Thank you creative redneck!!
Oh but you wanted to hear about hunting, right?
So after every upland magazine has published an article about the Nebraska Sandhills, every yahoo in the country is out there trying to chase sharptailed grouse and prairie chickens. Which I am happy for honestly, there was a span of about five years where it looked like we were the only ones out there. The non-natives stay pretty close to the highway because unless you know the dunes, it is a scary place. And even for those of us who know it, it can play tricks on you sometimes. This year the biggest hazard is water on the roads, so even if you have maps and GPS that say that a road is there, it may be closed or flooded.
Charles took Zoro out the first day and ended up with a dove and a sharpie in the bag.
Charles and Stonyridge Zoro with a sharptailed grouse and a dove
On Monday he took Ruth out and got a limit of three.
Bluestem Peaches En Regalia, NA I “Ruth” and Charles with a limit of grouse.
The Sunday grouse went in the pot with some marinated chicken and canned vegetables for supper that night.
Cutting up grouse for the pot.
Camp food (the grouse is the dark meat)
Coleman camp kitchen
The three sharpies that came home with us went right on the griddle with some chimichurri sauce on the plate (I forgot to take pictures). Give them a good marinade and cook them like a medium rare steak for the best flavor. When I’m at camp, I cook it as stew meat all the way through just to make sure that I’m avoiding food poisoning, since our sanitiation is as good as we can get it, but not up to normal “hot-water-from-the-tap” standards.
Up Next
I am really sucked into youth football right now, but it will be over in time for pheasant and quail season. I console myself with the fact that I’ve shot plenty of grouse and prairie chickens, and that youth football is only this year and next.
Charles has his sights set on some early teal duck action here locally. He is going to skip North Dakota again this year until things improve habitat and bird number-wise up there. He did draw a Sandhills antelope tag, so he’ll be back out there for that and some more birds and ducks hopefully.
Continued success in the fields for everyone and good luck to all of those who are running in fall hunt tests!
Bluestem Kennels 