Nothing But Norman #79

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Happy Saturday All!

This was from one of our hunts at Pheasant Creek Hunt Club. My friend Lynn was shooting and I was taking pictures. She is a guide at the hunt club with her pointers. I got to let Norman and Nellie get a few birds that day. I just love the first photo I’m going to show it in color too so you can see the beauty of the rooster pheasant in color.

Guess you really can’t see the color since I resized the photo. Norman used to point the birds before he flushed them. He was just a clown sometimes he would pounce on them like a mouse.

Once again Norman has come back to me. My best friend got me this set of glasses for Christmas. I thanked her for including Norman and she said “he will always be part of the family”. Thank you Amy, I love them!

We are joining Ruckus The Eskie and Earl’s World for Sepia Saturday.

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We are also joining The Pet Parade.

Hosted by: Rascal and Rocco, Jan’s Funny Farm, Basil the Bionic Cat, Barking From The Bayou and Love Is Being Owned By A Husky.

FitDog Friday~Snow Covered and Cold

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

This past Monday John and I both had off of work. With the deer season starting over the past weekend the SS gang didn’t get to go hunting so when the deer hunters went back to work we went out in the rain for a pheasant hunt. The dogs didn’t care that it was cold and raining, they were so happy to be out running and releasing some pent up energy. We ended up with one pheasant and no pictures because of the rain. After the pheasant hunt the snow started coming, John and Glory hit the road to go do a afternoon duck hunt in a corn field. I am a fair weather hunter and it was too cold and snowy for me so I stayed home with Gman and Nellie.

When the gang is hunting and burning calories we feed them a extra meal in the middle of the day to keep their weight up. It also keeps their energy up so they can stay warm on these cold hunts. Even know they are Chesapeakes and are built for the extreme conditions we still put a neoprene vest on them to help keep their heat in and stay warm. Glory did a excellent job out in the harsh elements this day.

There were plenty of birds in the field when they got there but they didn’t want to come to where John and Justin were set up so all Glory got for her time in the cold was one duck. She didn’t care, all she cared about was getting out and spending time with the boys doing something she loves to do.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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Monday Mischief~8 Long Years Paid Off~Bobcat Mischief

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!!

DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT MY BOBCAT HUNT

Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!! Warning!!!

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It’s been 8 long years and I finally got drawn for a Wisconsin Bobcat Tag. Back in the day it used to be you were able to get drawn every 3 years for a bobcat tag, not anymore. The DNR had extended the years between tags and it has taken me 8 years to draw a tag. I was super excited when I got my tag in the mail. First thing I did was call up my friend up north in Hayward and told him I had a tag and to keep me in mine when he needed someone to go hunting. Mike lives in Hayward, has hounds that he used for running, coyotes, coons, bears and bobcats. I have gone hunting with Mike in the past and have gotten a bear, John has gotten a bear an bobcat. It was now my time again to go hunting up north.

It all started last Sunday night……ring, ring, ring…….Hello…….JoAnn we are getting snow up north can you get up here midweek and go cat hunting……YES, YES, YES I can……(never mind the fact that Glory came into heat and I have to take her to the vet on certain days to run progesterone tests so we know when we can breed her. Never mind the fact that my new car came in and I have to pick that up. Never mind the fact that I need to be back Saturday to meet my friends for my Birthday celebration).

I’m not a fan of driving so I asked my nephew if he wouldn’t mind taking off of school and coming with me so I didn’t have to make the 5 hour trip by myself. Of course he said YES, YES, YES.

We took off Wednesday after school. I took the first driving gig, got a hour and half away from where we were suppose to be, stopped for supper and hit the road again. At this time is has become dark and the roads are all snow covered. Joey said “how come you got the easy driving and I get the snow”? Hmmmmm that’s why your along! Joey had to drive 40 mph while I tried to watch for road signs in the blowing snow and make sure we got on the right roads. We finally made it up to Mikes, jumped in bed and started our day off again at 5am.

We jumped in Mikes truck with his 3 hounds, took off looking for tracks in the fresh snow. Once we got into the national forest the snow was over a foot deep. The truck brush guard was pushing the snow as we tried to blaze a trail. It was just crazy the amount of snow there was. I thought for sure we were going to get stuck, or I was going to have a heart attack if I had to get out and run after the dogs in that snow. We drove around for 1 1/4 hrs until we finally came across a big track that was made during the night along a creek bottom. Mike released the hounds and we waited to hear what they were going to do.

It was less than 10 minutes and the hounds were barking up a storm which meant they must of tree’d the cat. So I grabbed my gun which is a Benelli automatic shotgun with 3″ BB for shells and off we went. We followed the barking and met up with the dogs that indeed had the cat tree’d. Normally cat’s don’t tree, they run and run and run because they can out run the dogs but because the snow was over a foot deep and by the looks of it this cat had it’s belly full it tree’d right away. Mike walked around the tree and found the right spot for me to stand and it was all over then.

My first bobcat, which is a male and weighed 35#.

Mike and his talented hounds.

Joey being the nice nephew he is and carrying out my cat.

Carrying out the cat, we ended up going in only 150 yards.

The drive home.

G & G smell something.

This isn’t MK!

The hunt was done and over in a half hour. Nothing wrong with that as it was only 13 degree’s and started to snow again. I was very happy with the day and waiting 8 years was worth it. When I googled the average weight of a male bobcat it came up with 21# so I was extremely happy with the one I got which was 35#. I will be sending him to the taxidermist to be mounted and he will join the other critters in my house. This was indeed a great mischief day.

Bobcats are mainly hunted for the sport of hunting and for keeping the cat populations at bay. The DNR does take the carcass and does all kinds of research on it.

On a side note: I made it back in time to get Glory’s progesterone test done and will be repeating it again today and hopefully breeding the middle to end of this week and last Friday Joey took me to pick up my new car! I got a 2015 Honda Fit and I love it. 17 years I had my Toyota Tercel and it was time to give it up.

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~The Gx2 & N Team Pheasant Hunting

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Nellie

Nellie & Glory

G, G & N Team

We are joining Dachshund Nola & Sugar The Golden Retriever for the Black and White Sunday Blog Hop.

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FitDog Friday ~Saskatchewan Day 4

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Saskatchewan Day 4 is Tuesday day 3 of hunting. We had 5 guys hunting with 5 dogs retrieving the birds. We didn’t shoot many birds, a total of 16 so the dogs didn’t get much of a work out today except for their mile walk to and from the field.

Here are some photos from our hunt. The big deal that happened today was that John and Glory got 4 White Fronted Geese otherwise known as Speckle Belly Geese. You don’t see very many of these geese so when a couple flocks came flying in John was lucky enough to be sitting in the right spot and Glory got to retrieve them.

John and Glory’s 4 specs.

Glory proud as ever with her spec.

Hi dad, here is your spec.

Gambler

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Black And White Sunday~Where’s Glory

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

We are joining Dachshund Nola & Sugar The Golden Retriever for the Black and White Sunday Blog Hop.

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FitDog Friday~Another Goose Hunt

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Went on another early morning goose hunt with the G team. I set my camera to a higher ISO so it was at 1600, I didn’t do anything else as I didn’t know quite yet how to change other settings. I think these pictures turned out much better than my blurry across the screen photos.

Gambler

Gambler

Glory

Glory.

Glory.

Gambler hanging out by the blind.

Gambler and Glory hanging out by the blind. They each had to be on one end.

Gambler head shot.

Glory head shot.

Gambler screwing around.

Hunting is done, lets screw around more.

Screwing around time, I can do that.

Gambler doesn’t share well, as you can see in this photo Gambler wanted to claim all the geese as his, so he got a talking to with the hat. There will be no growling at Glory.

Really I can behave! Today’s birds.

Still need to tweek the settings but for the most part I was much happier than I was the other day with my photos.

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FitDog Friday~Dove Hunting

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

This week’s FitDog workout was goose and dove hunting. Hunting season started for us here in WI and the dogs couldn’t be happier. This is the season that they were bred for, live for and love. They love to hunt and in doing so they stay fit. They are in training all summer long to keep fit, you don’t want to take a couch potato dog that sat around all year and start hunting it without any preconditioning. It’s not fair to the dog to do that to them as well as being unhealthy. So many injury’s can occur while out hunting to a fit dog and even more so if a dog is not fit. So do your dog a favor and keep them fit all year long.

This week Gambler and Glory went goose hunting while Gambler and Nellie went dove hunting. We spent 5 hours out dove hunting, the dogs got many retrieves as we ended up with 60 birds. Some were long retrieves so they really got a work out. Nellie doesn’t get to hunt much as Gambler and Glory since she is older so she was in heaven out in the field.

Nellie:

Gambler: He had a great day with his little hunting partners. Today he got to hunt with Dustin and his brother Shane.

A good day was had by all.

Thank you all who helped me with there tips on my camera’s settings and shooting in low light. I did change the ISO to 1600 and that really helped. I still have some tinkering with the shutter speed in order to get better pictures so I might be picking your brain again.

Stop back tomorrow to see Norman on last’s years early goose hunt on Nothing But Norman.

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Thursday Barks And Bytes~Early Goose

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

This past Monday was the start of the early goose season here in Wisconsin. Since Monday was Labor Day John and I both could go hunting. We went with a couple friends of ours and Dustin our friends 11 year old son. He started hunting last year under the mentor program. He will be mentored until the age of 13. John and I got to bring Gambler and Glory as our pick up dogs for the morning. Gambler needed a little refresher course on hunting in a field and laying down quietly besides me. Glory had no problem with that task.

See Gambler I can lay nicely in the field, why don’t you take some lessons from me?

I took my Nikon D60 in the field with me and when I got home and looked at the pictures I remembered from last year in Canada that I couldn’t take pictures in the early morning as it was just getting light because I didn’t know what settings to use. It happened again this year, all the pictures in the early morning were all blurred, so if anyone has any tips for me I would love to hear them as I have to figure this out by the end of September when we are going to Canada again.

This is about the best one.

Another one.

All is get is a big blur.

Dustin his dad and our friend Justin who owns Riley.

We had a good hunt for opening morning. We ended up with 11 geese. I know I for sure shot one and Dustin said “I think I got one too”! He does such a good job hunting with us and he really enjoys it. He is so respectful of the dogs and is really cautious when he is shooting. When hunting was over Glory hung out with Dustin.

Hi Glory, let’s explore.

Hi Dustin, whatcha got?

I got a hole.

You want to look?

Good girl Glory, your my pal.

One happy boy.

Who’s more happy? Gambler or Dustin?

Some miscellaneous pictures.

Glory sitting pretty.

Glory standing pretty.

Gambler guarding the birds.

Our geese with the dogs.

Group photo.

We had a great hunt. In the afternoon we went dove hunting, stop back tomorrow and see the pictures from that hunt.

The co-hosts for Barks And Bytes are Linda from 2browndawgs and Jodi from Heart Like A Dog.

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FitDog Friday~Pheasant Fitness

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Our FitDog fitness this week was 2 days of Pheasant Fitness. We still have some pheasants in our pens so we thought since it was a nice weekend we should put some pheasants out and let the dogs get in some pheasant hunting while staying fit. The dogs of course were so excited that they finally got to get out and do a little hunting. It’s been a long cold snowy winter here so not much hunting going on for the SS gang.

Nellie burning rubber to get to the marsh.

Coming out of the tall grass.

Taking a breather.

I think I smell a bird.

Glory’s turn. I think it is in here.

Mom it really is in here.

Told you!

Gambler had the most fitness as his bird got away.

Still has energy to jump into the grass.

Still going strong.

So happy to be out and about getting fit.

Since it is spring now, training season is right around the corner so keeping fit will be happening more often around here.

Please enjoy our FitDog Friday Blog Hop brought to you by SlimDoggy and our co-hosts Peggy’s Pet Place and To Dog With Love. Join the Hop or just enjoy the links below – lots of fun fitness tips and advice!

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