This week was all about the dogs and flowers- posies and woofers. Practices, challenges, and trainings. Add in the gardener who loves her flowers, and the dogs who love their homegrown tomatoes, it was a packed full week!
Checking Trail Cameras
Sundays have turned into rest and checking the trail cameras in anticipation for archery season. Now, I don’t hunt archery, and the hunting I do enjoy, I like being out in the quiet woods more than anything! But archery season is a season where my husband gets to find some joy in life before his main deer seasons come.
On our journey, I was trying to take the advice of my husband’s older cousin. Find all the colors when you are outdoors. I met this small salamander crawling his way across the woods, only stopping for his photo shoot.
Picking Flowers
With the near of summer almost here, I was doing my best in harvesting a bouquet from the garden for myself, as well as my last monthly subscriber. The flowers are beautiful, but apparently the mosquitos also enjoy the flower patch. It really feels like my house is empty and missing its blooms, but it is not worth the bug bites.
Practices with the Bird Dogs
Bella, our German Shorthaired Pointer, and Ruger, our English Pointer needed some practice with chukars before their upcoming chukar challenge at North Montour Sportmen’s Club’s challenge.
My husband bought some chukars from Delp’s, and practiced with them twice throughout the week.
Bella’s drive for birds is nuts. She rolls in the grass before it is her turn to go; she bites at the least, which our oldest dog Molly definitely taught her to do, saying hey let’s go or I’ll take myself! She is such a girly girl in does better when she has some cheerleaders encouraging her to return the bird the full way.
Ruger is absolutely a manic for birds when he is out in the field in the middle of nowhere. We don’t have him conditioned for the heat. We just learned about the high heat and the high humidity can just take the energy out of dog not conditioned for it. The weather we have been having in this late summer was slowing him down, but on a cooler evening with low humidity, he is like a sports car going through the field. His nose finds the scent extremely well. Even this week, he was not letting a bird go that my husband couldn’t find.
Evenings in the Garden
Not every evening is good for bird dog practices. Some evenings are best to let the dogs enjoy the backyard. Let their zoomies out.
This week specifically, all three found their way into the garden. Hint, hint- I let them in! Molly is our oldest dog, a mix between multiple breeds, but mainly an Australian Shepherd mixed with a Labrador Retriever. Molly and Bella are living life by finding all the tomatoes still available to munch of for an evening snack.
Ruger is more hesitant on enjoying a snack in the garden, as usually he is running around the yard full speed ahead. The one night, he finds his way into the tomato patch and ends up helping himself! Then goes jumping at his trees again . . . only to develop a stomach ache. Thank goodness for a combination of slippery elm and homeopathic remedies, because he was fine by the end of the evening.
As the dogs are enjoying their tomatoes, I’m enjoying the flowers with the sunsets. It was right before the mosquitos usually came out, so I was able to take lots of pictures of my flowers. With September here, the flowers begin to slow down, but the beauty of the garden still hangs on.
Progress of the Kennel
My husband wanted to and tried to keep going with working on our pole barn style dog kennel. In reality, the week was already packed full with both of us working full time jobs during the day, working with the dogs in the evenings, whether with practice chukar challenges or retrieving skills with frozen birds, and all the other little chores to keep the homestead running.
At this point, it is looking good with all the main floor windows in, the plywood on the main floor, and even the two sets of doors placed and operational.
Next will be adding the windows to the attic, adding the plywood up there, adding the dog doors, and completing the siding.
Chukar Challenge
Living two and a half hours from our chukar challenge crew and events, we packed everything up, besides the dogs, Friday evening. Saturday morning, my husband had everything else ready to go- chickens and ducks fed, Molly fed, Bella and Ruger in their kennels on the truck bed.
We arrived at the challenge at North Montour Sportsman Association, signing in at the top of the hill where the runs were taking place. Fields were thick, but the weather was at least borderline warm and cool. Tubs of water were available for the dogs to dunk in after their runs.
Ruger’s Run
For us, Ruger and Shawn ran fourth in the pointer field. He’s such a good boy- Ruger- but he is a bit socially overwhelmed. His curse is the wind stops when it is his run, and lo and behold that’s what happened Saturday.
He covered the fields, but had a tough time finding the birds. Sometimes it is just the conditions of the run rather than the dog or the handler. It was just the other evening this week that Ruger found a bird that I don’t think other dogs would have been able to find.
Bella’s Run
Bella ran later in the late morning. She is opposite than Ruger in where she loves seeing everyone and meeting other dogs. In reality, I think she is being sweet on everyone so that somebody can treat her like the princess she is so that they let her off her leash to go after the birds. The birds that are set out for the other dogs before her. A shot goes off and she immediately goes from jumping up to see people to sitting at our feet.
She took off first thing in her run, eventually finding all three birds. With her, the conditions don’t matter. She is game. And she is finding those birds no matter what. Afterwards, Shawn put her in the tub with the water, and she took her good old time in enjoying the refresh.
Tune Up for the Dogs
After the challenge, we loaded our dogs up in our trainers dog boxes on their truck. Bella was so excited to be having time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Amy at Gray’s Smokin’ Gun Bird Dog school. Her and Ruger were scheduled to have a tune up to work on some essential skills and learn how to back each other’s points. Bells just wanted to give Mike hugs instead of loading up.
Ruger was way more hesitant, getting into the back of the truck surrounded by shorthairs. But, Mike and Amy make the dogs feel at home when they’re at their trainings.
Build a Farmette Life
Dogs are gone for two weeks. The garden is hanging on for a few more weeks before our first fall frost. And it will give us time, weather permitting, to keep working on our dog kennel.
Leave a Reply