For the past 5 years John has been going to Saskatchewan, for the past 4 years I have been going. Last year I went to England instead to visit with a friend and one of my puppies (Marie) that I sent over there. We got invited along to hunt snow geese in Saskatchewan after a puppy buyer bought one of Nellie’s puppies. His name is Mike and the puppies name is Pearl. We have become really close friends because of this meeting.
John and I left Thursday night 9/26/13, we headed up to Mikes house and spent the night with him before heading on our way. His girlfriend and son joined us for supper and the dogs got to hang out and get used to each other. We took Gambler and Glory this year. Nellie got to go last year and Norman well you know he isn’t well enough to do a weeks worth of hunting so they both stayed home and Grandma watched them. Pearl of course came into heat like she always does on our hunting trips so it made it interesting for Gman.
Lew having to swat Gambler away from Pearl.
Glory hanging with John.
We got up early Friday morning and head on our journey. John and I were in one truck, Mike and his friend Jim were in another and Tim and Jason were in one more. 6 of us were going to be hunting and staying at our friends farm house in Saskatchewan.
Friday night John we crossed the boarder, we had to stop and check in. We got the third degree on why we were coming to Canada, who we were going to meet up with, if we had any fruits, how much ammo we had, how much tobacco and alcohol we had, if we were paying people at the farm house, if we were going to work for them, if we had any gifts for anyone, if we had more than $10,000 (yeah right, I wish). After we answered their 20 questions we got cleared to go in. We drove for another couple of hours until we made it to our friends house in Regina that we meet up with each year and do the great cheese exchange. I finally got to meet Patti’s dogs. Reece, Ardi and Nugget. I met Nugget when she was 8 weeks old last summer when my friend Kathy brought her up from NC and Patti came down from Saskatchewan to pick her up. She was a wee bitty thing last summer and now she is a adult still petite and very pretty.
The kids at Patti’s.
Nugget.
We had a nice visit and then Saturday morning we continued on our way. We made it to the farm house, got our stuff settled in and waited for the rest of the hunting party to show up. We had a nice visit with the folks that own the farm house. They are such wonderful people that do so much for us while we are there. Kerry nicked named Gambler Giblet so I made her a team Giblet t-shirt. She was so happy to get it. Saturday night we had a shrimp boil and invited our hosts Terry and Kerry. They had never had a shrimp boil and they loved it!
The shirt I made.
Sunday morning was our first day of hunting. We had 7 guys and 5 dogs. 4 chesapeakes and 1 golden. We did alright but not the best for that many hunters. You are allowed 20 snow geese per person a day. We can hunt ducks, Canadian geese and cranes also. We ended up with 38 birds.
The sunrises were just beautiful.
Gambler.
Glory with her first crane. She did great.
Louie
The number of birds was just crazy.
Glory taking her goose to John.
Gman had to have his picture from the truck as he and Louie didn’t get along.
Monday 9/30/13
Today we got 29 birds.
Sadie.
Mike and Pearl.
Gambler and his crane.
Gambler and his goose.
Gambler and his snow goose.
Tim and Louie.
Gambler taking a break to scratch his back.
Glory wondering where the birds are.
Jim and Sadie.
Tuesday 10/1/13
16 birds.
It starting out raining today. When it rains you can’t get into the fields as the roads to the fields are dirt with some gravel so you have a good chance of getting stuck. We got to sleep in a bit then John and I went out and did some crane hunting by the farm house. We got our 5 cranes a piece that we are allowed a day.
Gman has no problems with these long legs.
Glory and her crane, she had no problem either.
Louie came out to hunt but didn’t get any cranes.
Crane haul.
Sadie
Wednesday it didn’t rain so back to the fields for some goose hunting.
27 birds.
Pearl.
Gambler.
Glory.
Thursday 10/3/13
21 birds.
Friday
13 birds.
Glory with her duck.
Gambler.
Gambler.
Glory.
Gambler and Glory’s birds.
Saturday 10/5/13
This was our last day of hunting and it was by far our best. 7 hunters and 124 birds. This is how it should of been every day.
Gambler.
Many birds.
Glory.
We had a great safe hunt. No mishaps so to speak and no fights between the dogs. It was a fun time and looking forward to going back next year.
Sounds like a great week!
Since I’m not a hunter, I have to ask….What do you do with all those birds? Clean them and freeze them? Or do you donate some? I know the deer hunters in my area often donate their deer to homeless soup kitchens……
do you know in 6th grade I won our spelling bee by spelling “Saskatchewan” and I had never even heard of the place back then 🙂 Great photos!
lol that’s great, it’s a hard one to spell even as an adult.
Hi Y’all!
Love it when the sky is black with birds, like a storm cloud, blocking the sunlight!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
it is so surreal to see in person, just beautiful
What fun! I love that you share your stories and pictures — hunting fascinates me because I know nothing about it. LOL
Thank you, I am glad to share my stories.
Fabulous pictures and it sounds like a fun hunt. If you didn’t get birds, you sure got great pictures!
Hubby used to go to Canada every year for duck hunting but once they got so picky about bring firearms in and the licensing and firearms fees got so expensive, he quit going. But they always had great hunts with lots of birds!
He should go back, it just cost us $25 for the declaration of firearms and maybe 150 for the license, it’s the gas that kills us.
What a great trip. Loved seeing all the beautiful pictures, and I must say that it was great that you allowed the Golden Retriever to join you. 😉
But of course! Sadie is a good girl.
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