Tuesday Tails

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Today I am joining Dogs N Pawz for their very first Tuesday Tails Blog Hop.

This is the Blog Hop that features shelter animals. Find a cat or dog at your local animal shelter and feature them on this Blog Hop! Come join the fun and help a furry friend find a forever home!

I am featuring a dog from Elmbrook Humane Society a humane society in Brookfield WI.

This is Joanie

Animal ID
19679002

Species
Dog

Breed
Bulldog, English/Mix

Age
6 years 11 days

Sex
Female

Size
Medium

Color
Brown/White

Spayed/Neutered

Declawed
No

I’m a naturally playful, curious, and trusting canine. Take me for a big walk every day – give me something to do. I love to be a busy bee! After my job’s done, I’ll curl up with you in the evenings.I get along with some other dogs,I would probably be okay with cats and you can try me with children of all ages. I’m friendly, affectionate, independent and my new owner should have previous Bulldog experience.If I sound like I could be the one for you, come on in and visit with me,you’ll be glad you did! My adoption fee is $200.00

20950 Enterprise Avenue | Brookfield WI 53045-5224
Phone: (262) 782-9261 | Fax: (262) 782-3356 | E-mail: elmbrookhs@ebhs.org

Pass this girl along to your friends so she can find a furever home.

This is a new blog hop! If you want more information you can visit Tuesday’s Tails Blog Hop page by Dogs N Pawz .

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Wordless Wednesday ~Hunt Test

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Wordless Wednesday is a community linkup of bloggers. Visit our host, BlogPaws, and you can use the icons below the post to hop from site to site. It is a great way to discover new blogs…..or even just a convenient way to find all of your favorites in one place. When you visit each site, be sure to leave a comment and let them know you found them through Wordless Wednesday.

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Monday Mischief ~Young Norman

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I went through all my old cd’s of pictures and loaded the pictures onto the computer to save them on my external hard drive so I would have another copy of the pictures in case something happened to the disks. I came across these pictures of baby and young Norman when he was in his mischievous years. Norman will be 12.5 yrs old on May 3rd so thought it would be appropriate to post up some photos of his younger years.

My big sister Brooke.

So sleepy as a puppy.

Big and little.

Just me.

Young man

Norman used to get into all kinds of mischief with our 2 pet coons. They grew up with Norman, we had them 5 years before they died. Their names were Bulky and Mr. Bigalow. They were neutered so they were nice to John and I. Didn’t much care for other thou. The raccoon’s also knew the difference between Norman and other dogs. They didn’t care for other dogs at all.

This is a Blog Hop. Thanks to Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog , Luna, a Dog’s Life , and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop. Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.

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Black And White Sunday

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I decided to do a different type of Black And White. These photos were changed to be 100 year old newspaper.

We decided to hook up with
YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner
My Life in Blog Years
Dachshund Nola
Blog Spot for Black and White Sunday

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DNR Hatchery ~Picking Up Our Pheasant Chicks

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

MacKenzie Center, part of DNR.

Our Adventure to the DNR Hatchery began Thursday April 18th, 2013. Earlier I placed a order with the hatchery to buy 100 day old hen pheasants. Thursday they being separated from the roosters so I could go pick mine up. The Hatchery is on The State Game Farm along with the MacKenzie Environmental Center.

“Experience the best in outdoor education.”

The MacKenzie Environmental Education Center (MEEC) is one of the most diverse environmental education centers in Wisconsin. Encompassing 250 acres, the center has a variety of habitat types including prairie and forestland. MEEC is an excellent place to visit and learn more about the natural world through hands-on outdoor experiences, family outings, hiking and picnics.

Located just 25 miles north of Madison, MEEC is readily accessible to people of all ages in south-central Wisconsin.

Rearing Facility.

This is what the state game farm does, taken from their website:

State Game Farm

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) – State Game Farm is located near Poynette in central Columbia County. The goals of the State Game Farm and the pheasant stocking program are to provide quality pheasant hunting opportunities on public and private lands, promote safe and ethical behavior in the field, and cooperate with conservation groups dedicated to promoting pheasant hunting in the state. There are a number of programs the WDNR uses to accomplish these goals.

All ring-necked pheasants provided by the WDNR for each of these programs are produced at the State Game Farm. A pair of indoor breeder barns were built in the early 1980s to increase bio-security measures and pheasant production levels. By adjusting indoor lighting levels, the Game Farm staff is able to artificially induce production at any time of year. Currently, pheasants in these barns are put into production in February and the first eggs are collected in early March.

The original hatchery from the early 1930s is still in use today. Approximately 330,000 eggs are incubated annually in incubators that have been in use since the 1950s. Weekly hatches occur from early April through the end of June. At the end of the hatching season approximately 250,000 chicks will be hatched. Many of these chicks will be reared on the Game Farm, with some going to conservation clubs that participate in the Day-old Chick program. Hen chicks are also available for sale to the public.

Pheasant chicks are reared in two environmentally controlled brood-rearing barns. These barns were erected in the early 1980s to increase bio-security measures and the efficiency of chick rearing operations. Approximately 60,000 chicks are reared indoors until they are 6 weeks old. Chicks are then transferred from the indoor rearing facilities to the outdoor range fields until they are released in the fall.

DNR office building.

The Hatchery.

Once inside the hatchery to pick up our hen pheasants I asked the gentleman working there if he minded me taking some pictures for my blog, he said “of course you can and I will give you a tour”. I thought that was great! I have picked up hen pheasants from them before but I never got a tour.

Sexing the chicks.

These are the workers sexing the chicks. The chicks were just hatched out and being sexed. They keep the roosters to raise and release during the Wisconsin pheasant hunting season on the DNR public land. The hens are sold to the public. I paid .15 cents for one day old.

Picking out the roosters.

Roosters go in this hole.

How they tell the roosters.

You can sex the roosters by the hens when they are a day old. You look below the eye on the cheek pouch and there will be a line with no feathers. This is the rooster. When I have gotten hens in the past I have gotten a couple roosters so some do slip by. It is hard to sex them after

Another rooster.

150 roosters.

They count 150 roosters and put in these containers.

Recounting and making sure 150 in bin.

This guy is recounting and making sure there are 150 birds in a bin. These will then go to the brooder house.

1934 incubator.

This was one of the first incubators used back in 1934. They were still using this incubator up until a few years ago.

Can see how old this incubator is. 1934

You can tell how old the above incubator is by looking at the number 662W. That number was the phone number of the incubator company. What a great piece of history.

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Follow-Up Friday 4/26/13

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Today we have some exciting news for Follow-Up Friday….we will be co-hosting with Jodi at Heart Like A Dog. This is my first co-host with Jodi at Heart Like A Dog, she had a great blog with a great Follow-up Friday blog hop so why don’t you hop on over and see what Jodi is doing with Sampson and Delilah.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Black and White Sunday-

I got a lot of comments from my fans saying they loved the action shots of Black and White Sunday. I love to take action shots. I especially like to get shots jumping across the creek or jumping into water. I love how the dogs launch over or in the water. They really get some flight. Gambler is a great jumper and this was the first time Glory jumped over.

The same picture in color.

I took a break from Monday Mischief this week and finished up A Tribute To My Dad. Part 5 was blogged on the anniversary of his passing 19 years later. If you want to read all 5 parts the links are below. Thank you for listening to my story. It was a long over due story that I needed to tell.

A Tribute To My Dad-

Cleaning The Wood Duck Houses-

Jodi at Heart Like A Dog asked: “So do you use these ducks in your training, or are they just wild ducks on the land? Do the dogs love the ducks, or do they stay away?”

These ducks we don’t use in training as they are wild wood ducks so we clean the houses out each year in hopes that they will use them to build their nests and hatch out their chicks. The dogs (all 4 of them) LOVE any ducks, if they see them they will chase them.

Misty Shores Chesapeakes asked: “Did Norman get the old egg?”

Yes Norman got his egg. It was floating down the creek and he stuck his head under water grabbed it and swallowed it as fast as he could. He loves eggs. When I go in my hen house he waits for me to come out to give him a egg. He takes it and carries it to the garden where he buries it and then goes back for it later.

Wordless Wedneday ~Pillow-

Gambler is my only dog that needs to lay on someone or somedog. All the other dogs can lay by themselves but not Gambler, he is always laying next to one of them and laying his head on them. He likes to snuggle. When I go to bed at night he sleeps up by my head in a ball and rests his head on my neck. Glory and Nellie don’t mind Gambler laying on them but it’s a no no to lay on daddy Norman!

This ‘N That Thursday-

Thanks to everyone and their encouraging words to me and Gambler about our hunt test. I will keep everything in mind as we have another test this Sunday.

2 browndawgs asked: “Did you get the Gambler in the water on the second try?”

Yes I did get him in the water for a little bit of the blind on the second try, once he was near the end there was the winger station from the flyer station out there (where the guys were hiding to plant the blind) and that pulled him in so he went over there to check it out so I called him back in.

Hawk aka BrownDog said: “I know we are supposed to love cold water…but if there is a better way “around” to get the job done…we’re not stubborn…we just “use our heads” to get the job done.”‘

Hawk, you are so right, you chessie’s use your heads way more than us humans would like, but that is why we own chessie’s because they can think outside the box. It takes a special person to own a chessie and to be able to do anything with it.

That’s it for my Follow-Up Friday co-hosting with Jodi from Heart Like A Dog. Thanks again for the day.

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This ‘N That Thursday

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs for their This ‘N That Thursday’s blog hop!

This is what she has to say about the hop,

“This ‘N That Thursday is for anything you want! Maybe you want to post about unrelated topics, or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post, or you have awards to share, or you have one long post…anything goes! So grab the button and join the hop!”

Saturday

I had a full weekend with Gambler and Glory this past weekend. Saturday we had our first AKC hunt test of the season. It was put on by the Fox Valley Retriever Club and was held at Bong State Park. If your in Wisconsin and are into outdoor activities Bong is a great place to do things. You can enjoy camping, hiking, horseback trails, get involved in rocket launching, upland training and hunt test training along with running competitions there.

Gambler and I were running seniors, John and Glory were running juniors. To run juniors Glory needed to do 2 single retrieves on land and if she passed land she got to move on to the water series. She passed her land so John and her moved onto water. She did 2 singles on water and passed her first junior hunter test of the season. She was such a good girl! You can tell by the picture how happy the both of them were!

Gambler and I on the other hand didn’t fair so well. I should said Gambler did great, I didn’t fair to well. Seniors consists of 2 land and water retrieves, a land and a water blind and one of the series has to have a honor in it. Other things can be done also like a diversion and a walk up. We started out with a land double with a honor. Gambler stepped on the second bird thrown, went on to retrieve the live flyer that was shot and he had a little bit of a hunt but stuck with it and found his bird. While he was out there hunting the judge commented on what a great hunt he was doing and that is the way it should be done. He then got to honor the next working dog. He sat there patiently and was excused after the working dog was released. He got called back to the next series. That series consisted of a land blind and a water blind. He ran the land blind first with lining the blind and didn’t need help from me to find it. He moved on to the water blind. I lined him up, released him, he ran around the bank and not straight into the water, I forgot I was in a test and not training and I called him back to me side and lined him up again and resent him. When at a test you don’t get to repeat or redo things. So I tried to finish the blind but he wan’t listing to my whistles so I called him in and I knew we were not passing. I was a nervous wreck so that didn’t help with my thinking. I can’t say it was a waste of time as anytime out at a test or training is a learning experience and I learned what I need not do next time.

Sunday

Sunday Glory and I had a dog show put on by the Fond Du Lac Kennel Club. It was held at the Fond Du Lac expo center. Glory was being shown in the Amateur owner-handler group. She was the only dog in her class so she took First in that class. She went up against one other female for Winners Bitch. The other dog won Winners Bitch and Glory got the Reserve Winners ribbon. We had a good time and got practice in the ring and hopefully learned something for next time which will be in a week. Here are a couple pictures of Glory and I.

Stacking Glory

Photo taken by Julie Darling.

First and Reserve Winners

So that wraps it up for today, why don’t you hop on over to 2 Brown Dawgs see what their up to and grab the badge and join the hopping fun!

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Wordless Wednesday ~ Pillow

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

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Cleaning The Wood Duck Houses

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Each spring we clean the 2 wood duck houses we have by our creek in our marsh. This creek happens to be named Sand Spring Creek hence where our kennel name came from since it flows through our property. We clean the houses and put new bedding in them so the wood ducks have a nice place to make a nest and hatch their chicks.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wood Duck or Carolina Duck (Aix sponsa) is a species of duck found in North America. It is one of the most colourful North American waterfowl.

The Wood Duck is a medium-sized perching duck. A typical adult is from 47 to 54 cm (19 to 21 in) in length with a wingspan of between 66 to 73 cm (26 to 29 in). This is about three-quarters of the length of an adult Mallard. It shares its genus with the Asian Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata).

The adult male has distinctive multicoloured iridescent plumage and red eyes,with a distinctive white flare down the neck. The female, less colourful, has a white eye-ring and a whitish throat. Both adults have crested heads.

The male’s call is a rising whistle, “jeeeeee”; the females utter a drawn-out, rising squeal, “do-weep do-weep,” when flushed, and a sharp “cr-r-ek, cr-e-ek” for an alarm call.

Their breeding habitat is wooded swamps, shallow lakes, marshes or ponds, and creeks in eastern North America, the west coast of the United States and western Mexico. They usually nest in cavities in trees close to water, although they will take advantage of nesting boxes in wetland locations if available. Females line their nests with feathers and other soft materials, and the elevation provides some protection from predators. Unlike most other ducks, the Wood Duck has sharp claws for perching in trees and can, in southern regions, produce two broods in a single season—the only North American duck that can do so.

Females typically lay between 7 and 15 white-tan eggs that incubate for an average of 30 days.However, if nesting boxes are placed too close together, females may lay eggs in the nests of their neighbours, which may lead to nests which may contain as many as 30 eggs and unsuccessful incubation, a behaviour known as “nest dumping”.

After hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way. The ducklings may jump from heights of up to 88 metres (290 ft) without injury. They prefer nesting over water so the young have a soft landing, but will nest up to 140 m (150 yd) away from the shoreline. The day after they hatch, the young climb to the nest entrance and jump to the ground. The ducklings can swim and find their own food by this time.

These birds feed by dabbling or walking on land. They mainly eat berries, acorns, and seeds, but also insects, making them omnivores.

Drake Hen

Walking across the marsh.

The dogs love to go with when we walk anywhere’s on our property. This gives them time to run and play and not have to worry about vehicles.

Straighting up the house.

The old nest.

Once he opened the door the above picture is what was inside the house. There were a couple old wood duck eggs that never hatched. There were feathers from a blue jay and the grey area’s in the picture were owl pellets. The hole to get in the house is pretty small so John thinks a screech owl took over the nest after the wood duck was done.

Cleaning out the old mulch.

Norman grabbing the old egg.

Gambler smelling the mulch.

Putting new mulch in the box.

Finishing up the second house.

The nesting boxes are all set now for the wood ducks if they choose to use them. The dogs had great fun on this adventure.

A Tribute To My Dad ~Part 5

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

3:30 am April 22, 1994

Phone rings: Me, “hello”

Mom, “dad was taken to Waupun Memorial Hospital can you get up here”

Me: “yes, I will be right there“

I was a hour away from the hospital. By the time I got there dad had already passed away. I went in said my goodbye’s, kissed him on the cheek and said “till we meet again”.

Now the hard part leaving your love one at the hospital to never see again. We were always a strong family and stuck by each other during the most difficult times. This was no different. I thank God I had my mom, my brother and his wife there and I’m sure they all were glad I was there also. We left as a family that was bonded for life by death.

MARKESAN- Mr. Maurice R. Bradley, age 47 of Markesan, died Friday, April 22, 1994 at the Waupun Memorial Hospital. He was born on November 24, 1946, in Portage, WI., the son of Raymond and LaVerne Froelich Bradley. He was a member of the St. John’s Lutheran Church of Markesan, the 1964 Pardeeville High School Class, the American Legion, he had been in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, he was former member of the Markesan Fire Dept. he had been employed at Ness Electric, and was head electriction for Friday Cannine Co. On July 20, 1968, he married Renee Sue in Markesan. He is survived by his wife, Renee of Markesan; one son, Jan (Lynn) Bradley of Salemville; one daughter, JoAnn Bradley of Milwaukee; his parents, Raymond and LaVerne Bradley of Dalton; his mother-in-law, Alberta of Markesan; three sisters, Judith (Donald) Jerome of Pardeeville, Diane (Randy) Laybourn of Dalton, Cindy (Allen) Zook of Dalton; one brother, Dennis (Lana) Bradley of Dalton. One sister, Linda, his father-in-law and his grandparents all preceded him in death. Funeral services will be on Monday, April 25, 1994, at 11:00 a.m. at the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Markesan, with Rev. Dennis Meier officiating. Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. till 11:00 a.m. at the church. The Wachholz Funeral Home of Markesan is in charge of all arrangements. A memorial has been established.

This picture of footprints in the sand are my footprints from a trip to California. I walked along the beach, turned around and saw the footprints so I took a picture of them. After dad died I thought this saying would work perfectly with this picture.

Parts of cards gotten at funeral.

Flowers from funeral.

Planting a tree in honor of dad who died on Arbor Day.

Some of my relatives came the day of the tree planting. My dad’s cousin Dick who was in the army & Legion with him and went to Vegas with him said a few words, a prayer and then took the empty shell casings from the military salute to my dad and pushed them in the ground by the new tree. I didn’t know he had kept them. It was a nice memorial.

This property where we planted the tree was my dads. It is now known as Bradley Branches and the new home of my mom and dad as they rest there.

When my dad died the nurse asked us if we wanted to donate my dads organs. I remember mom telling the nurse as she was crying “why should I donate his organs, no one would donate to him”. What a sad comment to make. The nurse left us alone and we talked and we then decided it didn’t matter that dad didn’t get a kidney. He was gone now and if we could help just one person out then my dad would be happy he didn’t die in vain.

It turned out that dad helped out many people. We got this letter in the mail shortly after his death. What a difference one person can make!