Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Bluestem Kennels, home of hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons! It is crazy to think that we are going into year thirteen of breeding AKC and NAVHDA registered Griffons. Our next litter is planned for the Fall of 2023 between Obi and Ruth, feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you are interested in getting on our reservation list.
We spent Thanksgiving at my cousin’s in Tennessee, then Charles and the dogs made their way out to north central Nebraska and south central South Dakota for some more hunting. It wasn’t an incredibly productive trip as far as birds in the bag, I only got one photo with a Nebraska pheasant and some dogs.
Ruth and Duke bringing in the Nebraska Sandhills swamp pheasant
They did locate a covey of Hungarian Partridge in south central South Dakota, which was unexpected. But by and large the roosters were sparse and getting out farther than what he could reach with the twelve gauge. It was also quite cold to Charles’s thinned out southern blood. Not that it was anything that kept him home, but I doubt that he’ll be going out for the late season in the west again any time soon.
The benefit to me in all of this is that it put Ruth back into shape and pushed her heat cycle out a bit. I’m hoping that she comes into heat here towards the end of this month or the beginning of next month, which would put her summer heat cycle into July. We have our daughter Cordelia’s graduation in May, then after Caleb gets out of school he heads to camp for two weeks, then I’d like to get a family vacation in to the founding father’s area of Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston right before breeding season hits. I am typically home with pups in the Spring and early Summer, so it will be nice to get out and about for a change instead.
The area that Charles just hunted is currently socked in with two feet of snow with eight to ten foot tall drifts in some places. Many ranchers are struggling to get to their livestock and lots of long haul truckers are stranded out there, so say some prayers for those folks. They don’t get a lot of air time in the media, but they are near and dear to my heart since that is my home.
Hunting season is getting ready to get going here in South Carolina with woodcock. I’m thinking I’ll pick up my licenses here after the new year and start chasing some around with Charles and Caleb. Charles is also starting to prepare Obi for NAVHDA Invitational 2023, so we’re all excited to see how that goes. Luckily Charles has found some neighbors here with bird dogs who like to help with dog training, in addition to the time spent with the NAVHDA chapters.
But this week it is time to welcome the two adult kids from Nebraska, I pick the first one up at the airport tomorrow! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, surrounded by good food, abundance and the love of family.
I really should not be blogging, but I know how much y’all have been missing me. Well, not so much me these days as these fab updates from our owners. But that comes later. First of all, I wanted to say that I had no idea how much work it takes to run an AKC breed parent club. Boards, committees, and lots of blood, sweat, and tears from dedicated volunteers. I am really stressing about my first issue at the helm of the Griffonnier, but it looks like it is coming together well. “How do I get this Griffonnier,” you say? You have to join the AWPGA: http://awpga.com/
Another awesome must-have magazine is Versatile Hunting Dog from NAVHDA. I’m excited/embarrassed to be in the November 2014 issue. Guess how you get Versatile Hunting Dog: you have to join NAVHDA.http://www.navhda.org/. I went ahead and scanned a copy of the article so that the non-members can check it out.
Thanks again to New Englander Jason Wade for coming all the way out to Nebraska/Iowa to put it on, and to Tracey Nelson for being a great hostess. Also thanks to the people who let me ask about their recent Handler’s Clinic experiences: Susan Davy, Dan Dorfschmidt, and Matt Heard.
I was also recently published in Tufts University Seabird Ecological Assessment Network’s publication Field Guide to Beached Birds of the Southeastern United States. The field guide will be used to help citizen scientists to identify bird carcasses. They needed a photo of a female canvasback carcass and found it here on the blog. Here is the link to the guide, my photo is on the bottom left hand corner of page 72: https://app.box.com/s/k01qk2eic0ojc0h0tjv7. I’m always happy to donate my work in the name of science and conservation.
Birthday Hunt
I bagged my first official shot-it-all-by-myself Nebraska rooster on my 40th birthday. That’s about the best present I could get. I’ve been attributed to some Nebraska roosters in the past, but it was always up for debate since others had also put pellets in it. But not this time.
I love chocolate cake, but I love birthday roosters more.
So that was the high point of the hunt. The low point of the hunt was at the end where we had to cross this shallow creek into a fallow field that was all plowed up and uneven. I tripped on a giant dried up dirt clod and didn’t even catch myself. It was a full-on face plant into the dirt. I may not be known for my gracefulness, but I have become an expert in totally wiping out safely while holding a firearm.
Oh yeah, and Charles got a rooster too. But you expected that.
That is my poor photography skill with the glare, not evidence of any supernatural forces.
Pupdates
Bob and Ed, who hail from Minnesota (and from our “E” Litter 2013 between Sam and Sue), had a great hunt up in North Dakota this year:
What a fantastic trip to North Dakota for Ed again this year! 5 guys hunting and we brought home our limits even with the tough wind we had. Ed’s performance was fantastic and I could not ask for anything else from him. He is a solid pointer and retrieves to hand with no hesitation. He proved his worth when he found a bird we knocked down which ran into a cattail slough. I am once again very happy for having found you while researching the breed. I can’t wait for our trip in 2015! Bob
Ed, Bob, and the birds in ND.
Trucks, dogs, and birds is where it’s at!
Jealous! In more news from North Dakota, Susan and TracHer (2012 “C” Litter between Sam and Mae) took out some roosters in the western part of the state:
A good friend got permission from an old high school classmate who farms in western ND, but north of I-94 (where the famed pheasant hunting area is) yesterday. I experienced an all time first in my hunting life. I shot a double, and was the first in our party of 3 to get birds. I end up in that category of, I GOT ONE! only to be told by the guy hunting to either side of me, that no, they got it. I’m a little slower to shoot so do better when I can get away from the others enough to get a bird on my own time, and it happened in spades yesterday!! TracHer did great again…in the pics she is bring my bird back to me, with our friend Don Winden in the pic as well. There were, indeed, a huge number of pheasants out amongst the oil drilling rigs and wells…The birds seem to have adjusted alright for now.
TracHer on retrieve with Don looking on.
Closeup of TracHer and the pheasant.
TracHer and the cows
I love how she manages to shoot with a gun and a camera! I need to work on that. Staying in the North Dakota theme, Ernie put together this cool video with footage from his GoPro and some tunes, “Country Boy” by Aaron Lewis and “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynard.
Here’s a photo of Ernie and Duncan (from our “H” Litter 2014 of Sam and Mae)
Duncan, Ernie and a North Dakota pheasant limit.
A bit closer to home, it looks like Rob and Maggie of Omaha (from our 2013 “E” Litter between Sam and Sue) had a great trip to South Dakota:
Maggie did fantastic for the start of her second season. She works perfectly in my opinion. She stays close, her drive is fantastic, she is very methodical and thorough yet not too slow and her nose is awesome. She points solid and does a great job at retrieving, especially the sneaky ones that are hard to find. When I turn her loose I almost never even have to direct her. Just when I think that she might be nearing a range that I would consider being too far out she puts her head up to check where I am at and readjusts to stay in the working distance that I prefer. Sometimes it’s like she can read my mind. I’m sure I am biased but I just can’t say enough about how well I think she hunts. I love this dog! Take care. Rob
Rob, Maggie, and roosters.
Taking it way down south, I got an update from Charbel in Mexico with Freyja from our 2014 litter of Sam and BB.
I’ve been off the grid lately with lots of work but finally manage to find some time for R&R. Sorry I couldn’t send you pictures sooner but here are a couple. This is Freyja´s first hunting trip in the beginning of November, we went Dove hunting, it wasn’t a good weekend because of the climate but we manage to get a few doves and the dogs had a lot of fun.
I have her leashed to me or to a long check leash since she still need to learn that there is no point in chasing flying birds, she will run all the way trying to follow a bird that fly’s by specially falcons when they are kiting the area and she tends to draw out thorns like a magnet, specially one I hate don’t know how its called but its a round seed fool of thorns that acts like Velcro. Took me more than an hour to remove all the thons from her, the bright side is that the thorn never actually gets it the skin but it does tangle in the hair. But I would let Freyja run free after every hunting morning.
The second morning while we were lunching in the field she dash into a corn field, after a few minutes suddenly a entire covey of quail flush out and 2 seconds after that Freyja came out of the field with that smiley doggy face she makes. We were all shocked since no one was expecting that. It was amazing!!!
This weekend we are going to be flying to Mexicali Pheasant hunting I´ll send you pictures after we come back.
Best Wishes, Charbel
Freyja ready to go.
Charbel and Freyja taking a break from dove hunting for a selfie.
Four labs and a griff cooling off.
Freyja coming back in.
Wow, thank you owners! You force me to come back and blog even when I don’t think that I want to. Then when I’m done, I see how much fun you have with your pups and it makes everything worth it.
The week of Thanksgiving is upon us, isn’t it? So that means that we go hunting, right? I hope so. I’ve been stuck at home the last couple of weekend with deer season. Charles didn’t see one big enough to shoot out in the Sandhills last weekend and went out yesterday for a doe along the Platte River and didn’t see anything.
We really should be thankful to God every day. As my grandfather says, “You’ve got a roof over your head and food on the table”. We take important things for granted, like clean water. 1 billion people on Earth don’t have access to clean water, and we’re lucky enough to be able to fuss over hunting dogs.
I am thankful for you, my readers, for hearing what I have to say and enjoying what my kind puppy owners are nice enough to share with me.
Bluestem Kennels 