Wirehaired Pointing Griffon | Bluestem Kennels

Puppies on the way and pupdates!

January 20, 2014

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons chukar hunting, Duck Hunting, Elevage du Bourg-Royal, Hunting Nevada, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Puppies, Quebec, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 2 Comments

Sue’s retirement

Sue out on the South Dakota prairie

12 year old Trey gave me an update on how 10 year old Sue is doing up in South Dakota. He says that he is finally licensed and has a shotgun and is ready to shoot some birds over her. We miss Sue and my youngest boy Caleb (age 4 1/2) asks about her at least once a week. We want to keep our dog numbers at 4 here at the house, so that we can hunt them regularly and give them personal attention, so retirement and re-homing is a necessary sadness. But we are so happy to give folks an opportunity to experience the griffon who might not be able to afford or have no desire to raise a puppy. I can’t wait to see pics of Trey and Sue with some birds in the fall!!

Sue’s sweet face

Pupdates

I really appreciate all of my puppy owners who contribute photographs and stories of their dogs as they grow up. It is truly the reason why we do this.

Pete, Whiskey, Andi and chukars in NV

Great job to sharpshooter Andi and our oldest boy Whiskey, who will be four years old soon! He is from our first, or “A” litter in 2010 with Sue and Sam. Andi and Whiskey really tore it up in the chukar field and we couldn’t be more proud!! Thanks to Pete, Deborah and Andi for giving him such a great life out in Nevada!!

Sal and 2 year old Chester

We received a lovely Christmas card with photos of Chester from Sal and family out in New York! When Chester isn’t out with Steve “Hoss” Anker training or out with the Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter, he’s having a good time at home on Long Island. He is from our 2012 “C” litter from Sam and Mae. Sal has done a great job working with this dog and he has a bright future ahead!

Chester taking a rest

Chester’s “C” litter sister TracHer is having a good season up in North Dakota. She has a new brother, a 10-month old German Wirehaired Pointer named Max. Thanks to Susan and Tom for the lovely Christmas card with photos. Tom had surgery is on crutches from a knee injury incurred while hunting, so we send prayers for a speedy recovery.

TracHer and Susan in the ND snow

Chester and TracHer’s little sister Zoey, from our “F” litter in 2013 also from Mae and Sam, is having a blast down in Oklahoma with Jimmy and Sandi. Here’s what Jimmy had to say:

This girl is the best thing that every happened to Sandi and me. Here some updated photos. She is now 10 mos old and weighs 55 lbs. We just bought some land in the badlands of SW Oklahoma and she loves it. Here is some photos of her expeditions so far. She loves hunting antlers and when go into the shop she will go to the gun safe and sit there until I either get a gun out or tell her we aren’t going hunting.

Jimmy and Zoey

Zoey on point

Zoey water retrieving a stick

Zoey retrieving an antler

Zoey patiently waiting for the ducks

Zoey and her mallard haul!

Thank you so much again to all of my owners for contributing to this and keeping me up to date on how their dogs are doing. It is really important for us to see their success, it keeps us going during the times that we find the pressures of breeding overwhelming. Watching the gun dog lifestyle continue in our pups is one of our greatest joys.

I will be sure to keep everyone posted on the upcoming litters. BB is already heavy and I need to get some pictures of her, along with updated shots of the rest of the dogs. I’d also like to do video of Tor. Now that I’ve recovered from travel, the holidays and a major plumbing project, I will do a better job of keeping the blog updated. Charles and Matt are out right now trying to spook up some pheasants, all of the chaos lately has really cut into their time in the field. Until then, stay warm and don’t blow away in these winds!

Hunting season slowing down and puppy season upon us

December 17, 2013

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Bird Hunting, Hunting Colorado, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, Puppies, Quebec City, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

With all of the holiday and end-of-year activity, Charles has only had a chance to get out hunting once on November 30th, for the first time since my birthday hunt. They did manage to bag a few birds and we all hope to get out for a few more before the season ends at the end of January.

Charles and Matt each bagged a rooster on November 30th

Breeding season is upon us! Sam and BB mated on Friday and Saturday, so we are looking at puppy whelping around Valentine’s Day (February 14) and homegoing in mid-April as long as everything goes as planned. I am checking Mae every few days and we are getting closer, pro-estrous (bleeding) could be any day now, or it could be a few weeks out. Having some space between the two litters is a good thing! We are also waiting on Velma, but she has until mid-March to cycle within our cutoff time.

Right now I have 18 reservations for this breeding season and have already have a reservation for 2015. I am really flattered by all of the attention and positive feedback that we are getting on our puppies. We have so much fun raising them and love sending them to great families!

Speaking of our breeding program, our new male is just over 6 weeks old and looks like a fat little dude! Renee says that he is very active and inquisitive. We can’t wait to meet him. It sounds like his registered name might be Bourg-Royal FC Hector and we would call him “Tor”. A tor is a medieval pagan/early Christian holy hill in England. Here he is with his littermates

Tor at 6 weeks up at the very top of this photo on the left

Cordelia and I will be flying up to Quebec City on the Friday after Christmas and will bring him back on the Monday before New Year’s Eve. Of course, we will enjoy lots of great food, sightseeing and good friends while we are there.

Pupdate time. Roxy is from our 2011 “B” litter from Sam/Sue and lives out in Utah with Randy and Pam. Sounds like Roxy and Randy had a great time in North Dakota. Randy said:

Wanted to send a few photo’s of the results in North Dakota this year with some of my buddies. Bird counts were a little over the limit with what the picture shows but it took more people to run the cameras so they couldn’t all be in the picture. Over all another excellent trip in the Dakota’s even though the bird numbers were down.

Roxy done an amazing job and has lived up to everything an owner could ever expect. Again,,thanks for the ability for me to experience life like this with her by giving me the opportunity to get her as a pup from you. Griffs forever.

Randy and Roxy on the left

Another great day for Roxy and Randy in ND with the gang

Frankie from our Sam/Mae 2012 “C” litter is having a great life out in Colorado too. Her owner Mike said:

Frankie had a great year last year with several good wild hunts and a LOT of preserve training (82 successful points last year ). Not as many preserve hunts preseason but my oldest helped me gear her up a few times with some planted chukar. Opening day in Kansas we limited out. And we took a Wednesday last week into eastern Colorado. Very few birds and It took all day but me and a buddy both got our birds. Fetching is really coming in this year, was sketchy last year.

She is doing great, just thought I would say hi.

Mike and 20 month old Frankie with CO roosters

18-month old Abby is from our Sam/Sue 2012 “D” litter and lives with Rob down in Western Illinois. Rob said:

Abby was wonderfully today. Took her by herself for a few hours today trying to get more range. She was stretching out farther and covering ground methodically leaving nothing untouched. She worked for over an hour with no bird contact. Then she got birdie and tracked for about 150 yards. Then stopped on a dime. I was not sure she had it the it erupted from the switch grass a rooster. One shot later it was in her mouth and on its way back to my hand. She dropped it out about twenty yards and started tracking and up came number two. Hit it but not real hard she was on it and caught up to it. Two roosters in less than five minutes. She was great.

Thanks

Rob, 18 mo old Abby and roosters

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and most prosperous New Year! I will be sure to post a report when I get back from Canada with Tor and hopefully we’ll have some breeding news on Mae too. Sorry, I don’t get the dogs dressed up in elf garb or make them sit in front of the Christmas tree. May your days be filled with family, friends and some late season hunting too!

Mid-season hunting update

November 20, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Quebec, Southeastern Nebraska, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

I think I’ll start off on telling you all what is happening with this blog. It is blowing up on me a bit. Right now I’m getting between 60-100 individual viewers everyday, each reading between 5-10 items. If you search anything online about Wirehaired Pointing Griffons and hunting, we are the top kennel name that pops up. I’m getting phone calls and e-mails every day about puppies, which is great! But if you have to leave a voice mail, get me on the phone and I sound stressed and frazzled, or send me an e-mail and it takes me a week to respond, please try to understand. We are not a big farm with lots of kennel hands or anything. We are just a busy family that loves hunting with our dogs, which takes us on the road this time of year quite a bit too. I respond to everyone.

If I had to wager, I would bet that my females are getting ready to cycle in December. They are both showing about the same amounts of changes and Sam’s interest is high in both of them. Mae might be a little ahead of BB. So, I’m thinking that they’ll have puppies in February that go home in April. But it is Mother Nature after all, so we’ll just wait and see.

My birthday was on November 9th, so we went and chased some birds. Charles got 2 pheasant and a quail. I missed the shots that I had. But it was fun to get out on a beautiful fall day anyway.

Birthday girl Charity, your loyal narrator

BB, Sam and Charles with my birthday presents

Last weekend, we took time away from bird hunting for Charles to go after his annual mule deer in the Nebraska Sandhills. I was able to stay back in town and visit my family. He took this bad boy opening morning. It is a tie with his muley from 1999 for personal best deer antler rack.

Charles’s mule deer buck and rifle out on the prairie

Up close with Charles and his deer

I’ve been all amped up about trying to shoot a goose. There is a pond along the Platte River that I have access to and I went out to it for a couple of hours the day before yesterday. Saw lots of geese on an adjacent pond that is property of the gravel mine, so I’m hoping that if I get in some morning in the dark and set up, I might be able to get them flying into the mining pond. But we’ll see, it is a work in progress.

Charles will take the weekend off from pheasants due to it being the last weekend of rifle deer season. We don’t want one of the dogs to get shot on accident.

I am also getting ready to go to Quebec the weekend between Christmas and New Years Eve (God willing!). The puppies are three weeks old now and have their eyes open. I’m not sure which one of these three is mine, but I plan on calling up there tonight and I’ll find out. Renee and Gilbert have very busy jobs on top of having way more dogs than I do, so I completely understand.

Cristal and Fortis puppies at 3 weeks old.

I am so thankful for all of my owners who take such great pictures and write such nice e-mails to keep us up to date our our pups. 8 month old “Ed” is out of Sue and Sam’s 2013 “E” Litter. Here is what owner, Bob, had to say about their trip to North Dakota:

We had a great hunt in North Dakota this year. We had 5 hunters and got our limits 2 of the 3 days we hunted. It rained all day on our second day so the hunting was pretty short. Ed figured out the game and has picked up the art of pointing just like I hoped he would. He also has shown his desire to retrieve with no hesitation. Very successful first North Dakota hunt for Ed! It is awesome what a good dog can do. And at only 8 months old is unbelievable!

Bob and Ed had a great time in ND!

Ed’s stack of ND pheasants

And as always, year and a half old TracHer, from Sam and Mae’s “C” Litter is having a great time living in North Dakota! Susan and Tom are so generous to share their photos with us. On this day, Susan got the first bird of the day, but missed for the rest of the day (I know that feeling!!), but Tom got his limit.

Here comes TracHer with a pheasant!

TracHer retrieving another pheasant

TracHer is excited about the bird that she brought to Tom

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for! Hopefully we’ll get out to chase some pheasants around then. Take care.

North Dakota Trip, AWPGA Nationals, Nebraska Pheasants and other news…

November 6, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized AKC Hunt Tests, Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, grouse hunting, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting Nevada, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Pheasant Hunting, Pheasants Forever, Puppies, Quail, Sharp-tailed Grouse Hunting, Southeastern Nebraska, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 2 Comments

When you go three weeks without blogging, stuff piles up, so I apologize if this seems a bit like a random barrage. What most people come to my website for is to find out about new litters, so I suppose I will start there. Mae is starting to have changes and Sam wants to be in the kennel with her, so by the looks of things we will have a breeding between them within the next month. So, let’s project that they breed at the beginning of December; that would have puppies being whelped at the beginning of February and going home at the beginning of April. This is all just my somewhat educated guesstimation and by no means guaranteed. Mae is 6, so I suspect that she will have a litter around the same size as last year, which was 4. BB (who lives with us) and Velma (who lives with a friend) are set to have their first litters this year. They should come into season anytime between now and April. I will not breed after late March because any pups after that would interfere with being able to take a summer vacation before school starts for the kids and hunting season starts for us. Right now I have 12 reservations with deposit and other folks trying to decide. I could have anywhere from 12-30 pups if all goes as I plan, but it isn’t up to me.

October 19-24 Charles, BB and Sam met up with Lou, Murph and Midge in North Dakota for a pheasant/duck hunt combo. Also along was deer camp friend, Ozzie, and Lou’s father, Lew (AKA Lou Senior or Old Lou). They saw some stuff. They shot at some stuff. They stayed in a cabin and cooked on a Coleman stove. I’ll spare you the second-hand details and get down to the bird totals and photos.

Saturday, October 19, 2013: Charles and Young Lou got 3 sharp-tailed grouse.

Sam brings in the sharpie retrive with BB on backup. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Sam brings in the sharpie retrieve with BB on backup. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Sam bringing the sharpie into Charles. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Young Lou, Murf, Sam, BB, Midge, Old Lou, Charles and the sharpie. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

The day’s stringer of sharpies back at camp. Photo by Charles

Sunday, October 20, 2013 – skunked

Monday, October 21, 2013: Charles got 2 roosters

Charles and the first pheasant of the trip. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Tuesday, October 22, 2013: Charles got a rooster pheasant and a mallard hen late in the day.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013: Charles got one rooster

Thursday, October 24, 2013: Young Lou got two roosters (no photo available)

Random pic of Lou cooking since there is no pheasant pic. It snowed Saturday night, so this must be Sunday morning.

The trip was more about the memories and the time spent together than the bird totals anyway. I hope that the guys enjoyed themselves even without game bags overflowing.

The griffon masters

As Charles was driving home from North Dakota, Cordelia and I were on the road to the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon National Specialty in Greeley, Colorado. We missed the fun hunt, specialty show and annual meeting, but managed to see the supported entry show on Saturday and go to the banquet. We also had an awesome sojourn into Boulder to shop and eat on Pearl St. and do some hiking in Boulder Canyon and at the Flatirons.

Cordelia and Charity in Colorado for AWPGA Nationals

It was great to catch up with some griffoniers and talk dog nerd talk freely. AWPGA National Specialty 2014 is on for Kennebunk and Union, Maine from August 25-31. In addition to the events held this year in Colorado, they’ve got the Korthals Cup back on and there will be AKC and NAVHDA hunt testing opportunities available (in place of the fun hunt), and an interesting grooming and handling seminar. I hope to make it out, but it is cutting it awfully close to the opening of dove and grouse Sept. 1. I encourage any and all griffon enthusiasts to join the AWPGA and attend a specialty, so much fun! Here are Susan Edginton’s photos of this year’s specialty dog show, if you want to check those out:

http://sedgintonphotos.photoreflect.com/store/ThumbPage.aspx?e=9111641&g=1ZZR001G02

Last weekend also had plenty of excitement! Charles and Matt went out on Saturday in search of rooster pheasants and actually found some! Nebraska Game and Parks planted 4000 pheasants this year on public land across Eastern Nebraska (finally). If you’ve read my blog during pheasant season over the past few years, you know how much I like to whine about the decline of pheasants in our part of the state and how much NGPC needed to stock. Well they have heard the desperate pleas of the hunters and “did us a solid” (as my kids would say). The Pheasants Forever Rooster Road Trip party took 17 pheasant out of Northeastern Nebraska in one day off of public land. We are very excited for this pheasant season in Eastern Nebraska, now that we know that we actually have a chance. Both Matt and Charles took their limits and Charles got a quail too. In total he said that they saw 20 pheasants and 50 quail.

Mid-day bag in Southeastern Nebraska

End of day bag. One of Matt’s roosters somehow got away.

By the time they pulled into the driveway, it was dark and the kids and I were in the middle of dinner, so no great photography went down. Sorry.

On the same day we found out that our new male was born!! He will be coming from Bourg-Royal Kennel in St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec, Canada, the same kennel as BB. Different parents, both French imports. We are very excited to bring him home around the first of the year!

Cristal and the 4 puppies: 1 male and 3 females

Announcement in the last Griffonnier with the parents’ credentials

And the blog post wouldn’t be complete without some pupdates. Here’s Midge (who went on the North Dakota trip), from Sam and Mae’s 2013 “F” litter with a big haul of pheasants from Montana. Charles said she is a hard charging little dog with a great coat and lots of prey drive.

Midge and Montana Pheasants

Midge’s older sister TracHer from Sam and Mae’s 2012 “C” litter has been having a great season up in North Dakota and is showing off all her skills. According to Susan, “Gorgeous day today….we limited out 50 miles from home. TracHer retrieved 4 of the six birds, one in water with cattails.”

18 month old TracHer on retrieve of a North Dakota rooster

TracHer on left with Tom, Susan with Zepher (griff unrelated to my dogs) and their friends, the week prior to the close-up photo

And one of my first dog babies, Whiskey from Sam and Sue’s “A” litter 2010, took his girl Andi out on her first duck hunt out in Nevada. They did so awesome and I love how much Whiskey is Sam Jr!

Andi, Whiskey and some ducks

Well, that pretty much wraps it up for right now. Charles and I are heading out on Saturday in hopes of some pheasants and ducks. We are still debating about where, but it will be pretty close to home. I’ll keep you posted. Until then, stay warm, winter is coming!

Duck Hunting the Atlas Blizzard, BB’s NAVHDA UT and more news…

October 14, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Heartland NAVHDA Chapter, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Sioux Falls South Dakota, Snipe Hunt, Teal, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

Charles has been on the road during the week for his corporate job 3 weeks in a row now, then we’ve been traveling on the weekends for hunting, testing and training. I’m currently taking care of the 3 dogs and 3 kids, working as a substitute teacher in middle school and high school English, writing for Lion Country Supply and finishing my master’s degree in secondary education. So sometimes the wheels just come off the bus and not everything gets done as it should. I did manage to get my introductory blog post on to the Lion Country Supply site: http://blog.lcsupply.com/2013/09/postcards-from-the-great-plains-first-post/ It is different than writing for here, where I just sort of talk to you like I would if you were sitting here at my kitchen table with me.

But what did get done as it should was our duck hunt in the Nebraska Sandhills on opening day. It was extremely cold and windy, as we caught the southeastern corner of what is being called the Atlas Blizzard that devestated the cattle industry in southwestern South Dakota (I’ve been following on another blog: Just a Ranch Wife http://www.justaranchwife.com/). It definitely pushed the ducks south and right to us that day. We both got our limits by midday and it’s a good thing because I had cotton pants on that just got completely soaked by the flying snow and I was locking up with some pre-hypothermia symptoms. Our favorite method is jump hunting, so we were taking the action to the ducks. I managed to catch a duck double that I shot on GoPro video and I posted it on our YouTube channel:

And the final shot on the day. Let me tell you a bit about these end of the day shots. I have my camera on a tripod and use the 10 second timer to take these. I don’t look into the mirror before we take them. I line everyone else up, hit the timer, then run into the picture. I will never look like one of those cool, sexy huntresses in one of these pictures. Like this one, I look like I have a damn chef’s hat on.

Charity and Charles with BB on 2013 opener of duck season

The following day was completely blue sky and right when we get ready to hunt, I realize that my license must have fallen out of my pocket the day before. No hunting license, duck stamp or HIP number anywhere. So I just carried the camera instead (after a good cry, of course).

Charles and BB started Sunday with a wood dock drake

Charles and BB leave the wooded pond

The head of a wood duck drake is one of the most beautiful gifts of nature

Charles and BB back in the open looking for snipe

I call this one “Anticipation”. This is Sam having to let BB go as lead duck dog for the first time.

Charles and BB creep into a wet spot

Snipe way up in the air

Charles and BB also got a snipe on Sunday

A week later, BB received her NAVHDA Utility Prize III at the Heartland Chapter Fall Test in Thurman, Iowa. Although I had planned on attending and helping out with the test, my kids all caught colds and we just really needed to stay home and recouperate. We had considered pulling out of the test the weekend prior just because of having too much going on, but we had already paid our fee, so off Charles went. BB had a “no-pass” in Sioux Falls in August due to not doing the duck retrieve, so we have been focused on water work in both our training and hunting. She did what needed to get done with the duck search, steady by blind, and duck retrieve. She aced the track, as always. She was the last dog to run in the field and she was false pointing piles of feathers and breaking on the flush, which she hasn’t done in awhile. But we’ve been so focused on getting over the water hump that she hasn’t been on upland birds since hunting sharp-tailed grouse at the beginning of September. But we’ll take it! So BB is now officially Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem JH, NA I, UT III.

Our co-owned female, Velma (De Jac’s Zip A Dee Doo Dah NA I) who is the same age as BB, is now dual registered with the AKC and NAVHDA, which was the final step in preparing to hopefully breed her within the next few months, in addition to the females who live with us. I paid her a visit a month or so ago in order to take pictures that the AKC needed for registration.

Velma at 2.5 years

I had originally capped my reservations at 10 but there were more folks really wanting to get on the list, so it looks like I’m at 13 now after 3 verbal commitments yesterday and in the process of finalizing with deposit. As we are trying for 3 litters, I have high hopes that we will have enough puppies!

Speaking of puppies, we have our fingers crossed that Sam’s stud successor will be born around Halloween! He is coming from the same kennel that we acquired BB, Bourg-Royal Kennel in St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec, Canada. Should he be born and it isn’t a litter of all girls, he will be parented by two French imports: sire GCH Fortis des Sonnailles du Haut Davy FD NA I and dam Crystal D’O des Roches de Vouise.

Fortis on point. Photo by Amy Caswell

Crystal on point and posed. Photos by Claudette Blackburn

We are so very excited and hope that all goes well for human mom, Renee, mama Crystal and the babies!

Last but not least it is time for some pupdates. We got word from Kyle in Illinois within the last couple of weeks that Gomer got his NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize I with a perfect score of 112 points. I don’t have the name of the chapter, but will keep my eyes out for it in Versatile Hunting Dog magazine. He is from 2012 “D” Litter from Sam and Sue.

TracHer from 2012 “C” Litter from Sam and Mae took a limit of sharp-tailed grouse with owner, Susan, a week ago. TracHer and Susan live up in North Dakota. Susan said, “It is so rare that I hunt alone with just one dog, and very nice to go my own pace. TracHer did great. Ranged a bit, but would come back in. It is also rare that I get my limit!! TracHer found and retrieved to hand all 3 birds. ”

Susan and TracHer with a limit of sharp-tailed grouse.

TracHer’s sister (but not littermate), Midge, is from Sam and Mae’s 2013 “F” Litter and is really looking nice! I hear that she’s had some pheasants shot over her in Montana within the last couple of days.

Midge at 7 months old

Hearing lots of good reports from other owners as the season kicks off and I can’t wait to see the hunting pics!! Kyle from across town here said that he got Gomer’s brother Duke out on ducks, “I had the chance to get Duke out duck hunting a couple times this weekend. He did awesome. I didn’t get any pictures, but we got into the teal and wood ducks. ” Duke is also taking after his mama Sue, Kyle said, “I saw a while ago that you posted a picture of Sue with socks and toys in her mouth. That must be where Duke gets it from. We can’t keep socks in one place at our house, he finds every dirty pair and carries them around. Haha.” That really made me smile!

Oh this blog post has taken me way too long to write. Thank you owners for keeping me up-to-date with the pups!! What’s next for us? Saturday, Charles, BB and Sam leave for the big North Dakota trip. Charles will be focused mainly on guiding his old friend Ozzie from New York. A week from Friday, I leave for AWPGA National Specialty. If we can just make it through October, we’ll try to have a less insane November. But hunting season is only so long. And you only get so many hunting seasons in your life. So stay tuned for more craziness.

Missouri Early Teal

September 23, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Missouri, Missouri Early Teal Season, Mound City Missouri, Pheasant Hunting, sora rail hunting, Teal, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

After work on Friday, Charles and I headed down to our friend Bill’s spot in Northwest Missouri to try our first shot at early teal. Although the reports were not good and the weather hadn’t really cooled down enough to move the big flocks, we figured it was worth a shot even as a scouting run for snow goose later in the season. All of the land surrounding Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge is privately held, so you either have to know someone who owns land, connect with a guide who leases land or belong to a duck club in order to hunt this area near Mound City, MO. We pulled into town around 7:30 and met up with Bill, who gave us some background information about the area. The most interesting thing for me was learning about the duck club culture, which is very similar to how a golf country club operates: a large (like $50k) startup membership fee, then a couple grand a year for dues. Many famous coaches and athletes are a part of the clubs that show up mostly for the bigger duck season and snow goose. Early teal is a slower season for the area, as there are just not that many folks coming in for a one-species hunt.

The cabin we rented was about 7 miles southwest of Mound City and only a couple of hundred yards from the 10 acre marsh and pond that we would be hunting. As we pulled into the driveway on Friday night, an opossum crossed in front of our vehicle. We knew it wouldn’t be long for the dogs to find it, but hoped that it would move on quickly so we wouldn’t have to deal with a dead critter. So much for that, because it wasn’t 15 minutes later that Sam showed up with it dead in his mouth. One less nest raider prowling in the night and good fur hunting practice for them.

BB on left and Sam with the opossum

Saturday morning, Bill, his son Cole, his friend Frank and Frank’s 14 year-old son Luke came out to the cabin and we all trudged out through the dense fog to the pond prior to shooting hours. Although we were 20 minutes before shooting hours started, we might have had a better chance had we gotten there earlier, as a flock circled our head a couple of times as we walked in. Bill went out into the decoys to turn on the mojos about 10 minutes prior to shooting time and a flock of 15 landed right behind him, then swam in front of him, getting spooked up when he returned to shore. Luke and Frank sat to the left of me at the top of the pit blind and Charles sat to the right, with Sam and BB on a lead. Bill and Cole sat behind us without guns. A pair of the teal came back and landed on Luke’s side, so right when shooting hours opened, his dad had him flush the ducks off of the water and took his shots. One of ducks clearly landed in front of us in the pond, the other appeared to fly off.

Fog in the bog

A flock of about 15 came in not long after and Bill called on us to shoot as they were about 4 feet from landing on the water. This was my first time on a pit blind hunt over decoys, so I was glad that he told us when to shoot because I didn’t know whether to let them land, then flush them up or shoot them on the way down. I squarely hit one of the ducks and fired a second shot into the flock. Luke and Frank also took shots, but Charles really didn’t have any clear shots at that point, so he abstained from firing. BB and Sam brought back the 2 ducks that we could see clearly in the water in front of us. We continued to sit, but as the sun rose and the distant shooting at the clubs to the north held steady for awhile, but then began to fade around 9 AM. We let the dogs loose to see if they could find anymore ducks and BB pointed one dead in the millet, then retrieved it. So that brought Frank and Luke’s total to 3 and I had 1. About 9:30 AM Luke and Frank decided to head back to Kansas City, while Charles and I were ready to try our hand at hunting the sora rails that we saw flitting around the swamp.

Luke, Frank, Charles and I with our teal

Charles and I weren’t quite sure how to approach the swamp and the sora rails at first. We walked around the edge of the swamp on the levee hoping that BB would wade out into the swamp looking for them. But she had never hunted sora before. We did get lucky and Charles shot one of the edge of the swamp, but BB really wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for, so I waded out into the swamp to guide her. At that point, we just decided to wade around the mid-calf deep water between the millet strips and see what would happen. About 2 hours later, BB had become the sora master, both pointing and retrieving the tiny birds, about the size of a skinny robin. BB also found an additional teal that had been taken in the flock salvo in the morning, so since I was the only one who had shot at the teal out of the two of us, it went on my tag. Charles bagged 6 sora rails and I shot my first ever that afternoon. I think the first bird of a particular kind is always super exciting, so I had my first teal from the early season and my first sora in the same morning. We really had a blast on the sora hunt, as we had never waded through a swamp to hunt before.

Charles out walking the swamp for sora rails

Close-up of the sora rail harvest

Charles, BB and I with the harvest

Bill was really disappointed that we didn’t have the teal numbers to take limits both days. I think that is sort of the standard in that part of the world when it comes to waterfowl. He told the story of the record 1100 snow goose harvest by one hunting party in the conservation season (when there are no limits). That seems a bit wanton to us. We’ve been hunting long enough in various places to know that you don’t always know what you’re going to get, if anything. That’s why it is called hunting and not just killing. So we sat again Saturday night and saw one flock fly high over our heads, and again on Sunday morning, when we saw nothing. There wasn’t even much shooting coming out of the duck clubs Sunday morning, as the night had been warm and the morning was sunny. The ducks were sitting over on the refuge and had no reason to move.

We are excited to have made a connection down in Northwest Missouri and we look forward to returning for big ducks and snow geese!

Pupdate

TracHer had a great time at summer hunting dog camp in Wisconsin! She is around a year and a half old and is from Sam and Mae’s “C” litter 2012, TracHer is back home in North Dakota now and getting ready for hunting season!

TracHer working out in front of her trainer

TracHer holding steady after the flush

Bringing back the big retrieve.

Doing great on her water work too!

Thank you Susan for sharing the terrific photos!!

We have opening of Nebraska High Plains ducks the weekend after next, then a couple of weeks later Charles will be guiding some old friends from New York on ducks and pheasants up in North Dakota. BB’s breeders, Renee Fortier and Gilbert Tremblay, are coming all the way from Quebec to Lincoln for German Wirehaired Pointer nationals next week, so I will head down and visit them on Thursday. Somewhere in between high plains duck and the North Dakota trip is BB’s second shot at the UT test. At the end of October, the same day Charles returns from North Dakota, I leave for AWPGA nationals in Colorado. So we’ve got lots of dog excitement coming up and I’ll sure to keep you posted. Best of luck in the field to all of my fellow hunters out there!!

Sharptailed Grouse Hunting Opener and Other News

September 16, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Upland Hunting Trips Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Gun Dog, Korthals Griffon, Missouri Early Teal Season, Missouri River, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Sharptail Grouse Hunting, Sharptailed Grouse Hunting, Teal, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

Reservations and Breeding Plans

At this point, I have taken 10 reservations with deposits for my Spring 2014 litters and continue to get interest daily. Even though I am planning three litters (from Mae, BB and Velma), I won’t even start breeding for another three months or so (which puts whelping 5+ months away and homegoing 7+ months away). I just want everyone to know that I am a bit hesitant about taking additional reservations right now. If everything goes as planned, I could have 12-20 puppies in 2014, but I just don’t know right now.

Sharptailed Grouse and Dove Opening Day: September 1, 2013

Charles had a great opening day of grouse in the Nebraska Sandhills on Sunday, September 1st. We set out into the northern dunefield of our usual opening day spot. Our “usual opening day spot” consists of two east-west running dunefields with about a mile wide valley in the middle. I let Charles, Sam and BB head deep into the dunes, while I waited behind at the truck with Mae. Once they were out of sight, I set off eastward into the rising sun. I was probably 100-300 yards south of Charles and clearly heard one shot about 15 minutes into our walk. I had a single bird get up to my left about 5 minutes later, but I missed the shot, which was the only one I had on a grouse all weekend. Not long after I heard another single shot. Charles and I met up at the eastern fenceline of the section about 45 minutes after we had started and talked about what we had seen. He had seen a few large flocks of grouse and had 2 in the bag, so we headed up into the northeastern corner of the section to make sure that we had covered everything, then turned back around to go west towards the truck. Once again, Charles was to the north of me in the higher dunes and I was working the southern edge. Sure enough, not 5 minutes after we parted ways, I heard another single shot. I went over to him and he had his limit of 3.

Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Hunt Sharptailed Grouse

Sam, Charles and BB with their limit of sharptailed grouse on opening day 2013

We worked for another hour walking westward where he had seen the larger groups, but we didn’t see a single grouse. We then set up our decoys at a windmill and sat for doves for an hour and a half or so, each taking one, but it was too hot to sit the whole day, so we headed back to town to spend time with the family.

Charles and Charity with the obligatory one dove each to start the season

The following day we set out into another spot that has been an annual producer for us. I walked for 3 hours and Charles walked for 4 and neither one of us saw a single sharptail, which is very odd. Some folks say it was last year’s drought not leaving enough cover for nesting, others say they were killed in the massive summer hailstorm that hit the area, but all I know is that they have been in this spot for 15 years and they weren’t there on Labor Day. We called it a hunt midday on Monday and headed out to the lake with friends and family.

Charles has spent the last two weekends working with BB on the duck search and retrieve for her second shot at the NAVHDA Utility Test in October. This coming weekend we will be heading down to Missouri to try our hand at the last weekend of their early teal duck season. Sam is usually our main duck dog, so he will have to hang back back at the truck while BB finally gets her chance to be the waterfowl star.

Pupdates

Got a message and photos from Bob in Minnesota about his pup Ed, from Sue and Sam’s 2013 “E” litter. Sounds like he is doing great and has some fun adventures in store for this season:

Ed is a big boy and tipping the scales just shy of 60 pounds on his 6 month bday. He is loving our weekend camping trips to the lake and is a hard charger in his water work. In fact he gets close to the lake and will rip the leash out of your hands to go in while carrying his bumper. Last weekend he pointed 2 grouse sitting in the woods near the lake on one of our walks. Ed is looking real nice on his points but still is breaking so I have some more work to do. He is retrieving to hand and I am hoping that continues when hunting season begins here in MN. I have taken a break the past week on training as we have been having triple digit temps up here and it is just too hot. Ed will be heading out in mid September for official gun introduction and bird and gun association. Out pheasant season starts on October 12 here in MN and then we are headed out to North Dakota on November 6 for our first North Dakota adventure of the fall. Thinking trip number 2 will be in December but that will depend on the weather and how he does this fall on our other outings.

Ed at 6 months chillin’ on the deck

Ed hanging out in the house

Ed and his toy pheasant

16 month old Chester from Sam and Mae’s “C” Litter of 2012 lives out in New York and has been practicing hard for the upcoming season with his owner Sal and trainer Hoss. He’s pictured here at a Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter training day.

Chester on point

Another shot of Chester on point

Chester retrieving

And handsome three year old Whiskey out in Nevada from Sue and Sam’s “A” litter of 2010 has been caught by owner Deborah being very silly these days.

Whiskey thinks that crocs make great chew toys

Whiskey peeking out from his blanket

As always, thank you to the puppy owners for taking such fabulous photos and sharing them with us!!

I just talked to my eyes on the sky down in Missouri and he said that with this warm weather there aren’t many teal flying, but this coming weekend is the last one of the season, so it is the only shot we’re going to get on this particular season. Since we’ll have our Missouri license anyway, I see us heading down there for some other waterfowl seasons this year too since it is only an hour and a half away. So wish us luck and we’ll keep you posted!!

Pupdates and Hunting Season in 2 days!

August 30, 2013

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update Bird Hunting, Dove hunting, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Prairie Chicken Hunting, Puppies, Sharptail Grouse Hunting, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 1 Comment

I’m supposed to be packing for the annual trip to the Sandhills for the September 1st dove and grouse opener since we’re leaving tonight, but I just had to get these pictures out before I got too distracted by hunting season!

This is Zoey, she is 6 months old and is out of Sue and Sam’s last litter that was born early this year. Jimmy has been doing great work with her down in Oklahoma and is shown here perfecting her water retrieve. Rumor has it that she’s going off to waterfowl school, but she’s definitely got the basics down!

Zoey water retrieve at 6 months

Another shot of Zoey retrieving a dummy

Zoey also looks cute just laying around the house…

Zoey chilling on the kitchen tiles

Zoey’s sweet face!!

Thank you so much to Jimmy and Sandi for all of those great pictures!!

I swiped this picture off of Facebook, but I didn’t think that Deborah would mind. Whiskey is from Sue and Sam’s “A” Litter from 2010, so he is 3 years old now and lives out in Nevada. Here he is with his little Lab buddy Ruger who is holding him down and giving him a tongue bath. Too funny!!

Whiskey getting a bath from Ruger

Thanks Deborah for capturing such a hilarious moment!

Hunting Blog

For the last couple of years I’ve been posting our hunting stories on to versatilehunter.com, separate from this here kennel blog. I have to talk to Charles this weekend and see if we want to continue on that URL or if we want to consolidate our presence here on the kennel blog. I also used to be active on Twitter under @VersatileHunter, but just really hit a wall with trying to keep everything updated. Then to complicate things, I’m also going to start hunting blogging for Lion Country Supply. So I’ll probably be writing my first draft either here or on versatilehunter.com ( there is also a button to up at the top that says “Hunting Blog”), then write a final draft for LCS. Plus I’d like to start really honing my writing to where I’m submitting articles to magazines. So please bear with me as I decide where I’m steering this whole writing ship. I’ll let you know sometime next week where things are at so that you can keep up to date with my blathering.

So wish us luck up in the Sandhills, I will be wearing my GoPro, so hopefully I’ll actually hit something to show you on YouTube:)

Our First NAVHDA Utility Test

August 26, 2013

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update AKC Hunt Tests, Korthals Griffon, Midwest Tri-State NAVHDA Chapter, NAVHDA, NAVHDA Utility Test, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Sioux Falls South Dakota, Steady to shot, Utility Prize III, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 1 Comment

On Saturday, August 17th was our first North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) Utility Test in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with the Midwest Tri-State NAVHDA Chapter. In the running were Sweetgrass Plainsman Samson “Sam” age 5 and Bourg-Royals CB Bluestem “BB” age 2 with my husband Charles handling both dogs. The Midwest Tri-State NAVHDA Chapter is one of the best in the country and folks come from all over to participate in their events.

They came from far and wide…

The Natural Ability dogs were first in the field on the day, with Sam as the first Utility Dog who ran. His very first point was not on one of the planted chukars, but was a wild rooster pheasant! The gunner said that he was twitching to fire, but it isn’t that time of year just yet! Sam did fairly well on his first three finds, but it just started to get out of control. The field was packed with birds and he was finding them every 45 seconds in some places. He just came apart. Sam has been hunting wild birds his whole life but has only received steadiness training in the past year, so he just couldn’t handle the overwhelming number of birds. His pointing and retrieving never fail, but his habit of breaking on the shot came out in full force. He probably had 10 total finds, but only held on maybe 3 or 4 of them. Afterwards, Apprentice Judge Leo Boman told us that we need to go ahead and make a correction with the dog in the field, not letting him mess up over and over without trying to right it. This is different than AKC, where the dog is supposed to work without correction and commands or face an order from the judge to “pick up your dog” (meaning you failed). So that was a great tip for future handling.

Charles walking in on one of Sam’s points

Although it shows Charles carrying a shotgun, it is not loaded and only the two chapter gunners do all of the shooting for the test.

A bird in the air, Sam breaking on the shot

A bird in the air, Sam breaking on the flush

Sam on retrieve

Charles was pretty disgusted as he walked out of the field with Sam, but I knew that was where the dog would make mistakes and his time to shine would come later on in the day. We had to shake it off quickly because we were running 2 out of the 3 utility dogs that day, so it was a short break until it was BB’s turn.

BB has become an outstanding field dog and proved in this test that she is ready to move on to Master Hunter runs in AKC (American Kennel Club) Hunt Tests. She had 4 or 5 finds and every single one was textbook steadiness. There was even a point where Charles chose to run after a bird to try to flush it and BB just stood there stone still.

BB stands steady with a bird in the air (see it up between the trees?)

BB retrieves to hand

Another bird in the air with BB standing steady

BB on retrieve

Moment of Impact: BB stands by as a bird gets hit in front of the smaller cottonwood

We walked out of the bird field with BB feeling as if we’d taken our first steps toward a Utility Prize I. We were very hopeful. It was time for a delicious lunch of chili and cornbread. You can’t beat the food at NAVHDA tests!

The next order of business was the duck search for the utility dogs. Sam was up first and we had no worries about his performance. Swam the full 10 minutes and searched the pond thoroughly. He did not find the duck, but that isn’t the point of the exercise.

Sam going hard on the duck search

BB’s weak spot is the water. With Sam always dominating the retrieves while we are duck hunting, she just hasn’t had a chance to get fired up about it. She did an okay search, then came and sat down by Charles at around the 7 minute mark.

BB out on the duck search

Afterwards we talked to Dan Griffith, who is a full time trainer of German Wirehaired Pointers and a very experienced Utility Tester. We were wondering if Charles should have re-cast her out into the pond. Dan told us that if you re-cast without judge’s instructions, it is automatically a one point deduction. If the judge wants you to re-cast, they will tell you. Do not re-cast on your own. Another great handling tip for the future.

The Natural Ability dogs did their duck retrieve first (which BB had no problem with at her test, NA Prize I with a perfect score of 112). The setup for the Utility dogs was that they walk on leash on heel through a set of posts to the blind. The dog is released from the leash and “whoaed” behind the blind. Shots are fired and the dog has to stay steady behind the blind. The dog is then moved just outside of the blind so that he can mark where the throw of the duck lands. More shots are fired and the duck is thrown.

Sam marks the throw. You can see the heeling posts in the foreground.

We were in no way prepared for the 50 yard duck retrieve that they set up for the Utility Dogs. The throw was way outside of shotgun range and it is only because of Sam’s absolute love of swimming and water that he was able to pull it off. We had not trained for that distance at all.

Sam brings in the duck

At that point, we knew that it would take a miracle for BB to get that duck. She did great in the blind and I saw her mark the throw, but she got distracted by the decoys next to the shore and would only go about 20 yards out to search (within shotgun range). We tried to cast her farther, but to no avail. BB did not get the duck and received No Prize as a result.

The final event was the track. Flight feathers are pulled from a pheasant or duck and left in a pile at the start. The pheasant or duck is either allowed to run and hide on its own, or if a carcass is used, it is dragged to a particular spot. Sam never follows a track from point A to point B. He knows that the bird is there, he just wants to go to points C. D, and E, then pee on them, then find the bird. So he did the track…sort of:)

Sam comes back from his track with the duck

BB does an amazing job of tracking and always goes from point A to point B flawlessly. But as she didn’t get the duck, it was all for naught. So we ended the day with Sam earning a Utility Test Prize III. It was our first test and I was just happy to bring home a prize, especially on Sam who has just been a wild bird hunting dog for so long. BB was perfect in everything but the water. We will hunt her alone on wild ducks down in Missouri for early teal season in a few weeks and then Nebraska High Plains duck season a few weeks after that.

It was a great time in Sioux Falls and we learned so much from folks. It was great seeing Cliff Koele of Coppershot Griffons, home of several NAVHDA Versatile Champions, who recently announced his retirement from testing and breeding. He will now focus on fishing and mentoring other breeders/trainers. We had so much fun with all of our fellow handlers, the volunteers and the judges. We learned and laughed. It’s just dogs after all.

Congratulations to our fellow griffoniers who also participated in the weekend from Aux Lake Kennel! From left to right: Keith Feldhaus and Deke UT I, Scott Moore and Josie as observers, Rick Jones and Jessie NA II and the godfather himself: Larry Woodward and Holly UT I. Thank you Kim Jones for allowing me to use your photo. We had a chance to spend time with the Joneses since Jessie ran on Saturday, but only saw everyone else briefly as we were ships passing in the night. Their UT dogs ran on Sunday.

Aux Lake Crew

Wow and a big thank you to the Midwest Tri-State NAVHDA Chapter for a great test. We will be back.

I have so much more to write about, but am just out of time for today. I will be sure to post again later this week before hunting season starts on Saturday!! I have some pupdates that I need to clear out of my queue before I get way behind! Talk at you later this week.

Summer comes to a close…

August 13, 2013

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update Korthals Griffon, Lion Country Supply, Midwest Tri-State NAVHDA Chapter, NAVHDA, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, OFA, Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, Pheasant Bonanza, Sioux Falls South Dakota, Utility Test, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

It has been a very busy summer of work, family, travel and dog training here. Sorry that I have not had a chance to keep you all updated, with the kids all at home with me, it makes it challenging to find the time and quiet space to do it all. I suppose it would make the most sense to me to work backwards chronologically with the news.

On Friday we will be traveling up to Sioux Falls, SD to run Sam and BB in the NAVDHA Utility Test at the Fall Test of the Midwest Tri-State NAVHDA Chapter on Saturday. They have been doing well in practice and I’m hoping that they both prize. Some folks grumble about whether they get prize I, II or III, but it is one day in the life of a dog. If the dog is having a bad day, there is something in the environment that they don’t like, the conditions are not what we are used to, etc., etc., the dog might not get the prize we want. In the recent issue of Versatile Hunting Dog, NAVHDA’s magazine, two of my most respected dog training mentors ran dogs in UT and NA and didn’t prize at all. These are folks who have been doing this way longer than we have, or most folks I know have, for that matter. We don’t reach some sort of state of dog perfection and never have a bad day or a bad score. So any and all NAVHDA prizes are celebrated here!

The last couple of weeks we have been on the road on summer vacation. The dogs stayed over with our friends at Pheasant Bonanza in Tekamah, Nebraska (http://pheasantbonanza.com/) while we were gone. They have a full training and boarding set-up there, we elected to board only. It is nice to take your dog specifically to a place for gun dogs that is clean and well-maintained. The dogs came back healthy and happy. (Not a paid endorsement)

BB’s OFA hip certificate came in the mail while we were on vacation, so she will be ready to be bred sometime around the new year. We are still working out who we are going to use as a stud, so we will be sure to keep you posted.

While we were traveling, I spent the day in the Lion Country Supply office. Right now, I am in the process of updating their catalog of over 2300 dog training supplies. It was cool to meet the people and see the facility. My favorite part of the office was the gun dog humor found on the restroom doors. Instead of Women and Men it was Setters and Pointers, ha!

Setters and Pointers on the restroom doors at LCS

The kids dropping me off at the office.

Before we left for vacation we were training every chance we had! Every weekend was spent on trips to the pond and field. Even when we were sitting around the backyard, we were practicing blind dummy retrieves and “whoa”.

Sitting in the yard: Mae, BB and Sam

BB brings in the goose Dokken Dead Fowl dummy from a blind retrieve

Sam’s goose blind retrieve

I suppose I should explain a blind dummy retrieve. That is where the dogs have to stay in the yard on “whoa” and one of us goes way back into the woods and hides the dummy without them seeing where we placed it. One of the dogs is then released to go fetch the dummy. The dummies are not scented and the dog is only finding them by sight, which is fairly difficult for them.

We had a cool new dog box shipped out to us from Michigan. It is a hound style box and the dogs have lots more room and are able to stick their heads out of the side of the box. It will make the long distance trips much more comfortable for the dogs and we are glad to have finally retired the “slave ship”. It was a nice enough dog box, but it just didn’t have enough room for multi-day roadtrips.

BB and Mae getting ready to depart on the maiden voyage of the dog box

Sam and Mae at the pond in the new box

Well that pretty much sums things up for the time being, I will be sure to update you all next week as to the outcome up in Sioux Falls, keep your fingers crossed for a good Saturday for us! I am still running behind on returning voice mails and e-mails, so I apologize to those of you who have reached out to me and I haven’t gotten back to you. I have dedicated time set aside this week to get caught up before we head north on Friday. Talk at you next week!

Oh and hunting season starts in two weeks! Woot!

Bluestem Kennels