Brophy Red Dog Camp Underway

Wednesday, August 3, 2011:

This was the coldest morning we have seen yet at camp. Cayotes kept the dogs up all night, taunting them with their howls. The crew got another early wakeup, and good thing because with more people comes a little bit slower morning, but thats ok.

Hills:

The hill rotation finally made its way back to the home pastures at triple gates.

Brace 1: Lily and Rio, 30 min, TSW

If there had been any wind, Lily would have been a fart in the wind. She acted a little dainty in the cold dew, and never faded more than a few yards from Corinne. With Lily, this kind of run is expected, and further proliferated by the fact that she just had pups. She did, however, have 1 perfect find on chickens. 12 o’clock tail that she hit very solid and didn’t move an inch during the flush.

This was Rio’s first time down on the ground and he did nice. Poor Ed has broke the shower, broke the door on the trailer, and today for the first time since camp started 22 years ago, a dog, Ed’s, caught a wild bird. He pointed, was tweeted on because of no intensity, and grabbed the bird. After taking the bird from him, it was obvious that it was probably sickly. Still a camp first! Otherwise he ran nice and was focused.

Brace 2: Sadie, Finn, Jamie, 37 min, TSE

Sadie started off a completely different dog than last week. She listened to Mary very well and went with us. The course went straight east, and once Sadie reached the pond at the end, she flipped off her ears. She started chasing tweety birds all over and not coming with. Lucas tried to get her to come with him, but she would have no part of that. She ran her own course for a bit until she ran into cattle at the far south end, in the next pasture. After she realized how big those guys were, she ran back and finally went mostly with Lucas and Mary, and Ed who came to help. She knew what she was doing out there, and was not intimidated at all by the hills, more pushed forward by them. Unfortunately no birds.

Jamie had a lot of independence and a lot of speed, but not always forward. She pointed and held for a long time in a good area for birds, but no birds were produced. Most likely at some point there were birds there, as she worked the area very well after. After 20 min, she was pretty tired, as this was also her first time down. At the end she didn’t want to stop, and took a bit to catch.

Finn ran another very impressive, forward race. He ranged very well for Bob but also listened and stayed with him. No birds, but he was hunting. He also showed no interest in taking water, even though he was obviously a bit tired. At the end he took water, which means he knows he was done. Could probably use some training to take water, whether he wants it or not.

Brace 3: Bently, Silvia, Dawn, 29 min.

Silvia had a very consistent speed forward, but got separated from the rest of the group half way out. She was very hot by the time Phil and Corinne caught her, and brought her to a windmill to cool her down. They let her go, planning on going north, but she decided to go south. Phil and Corinne pursued in chase, and Silvia actually had a couple birds. The first set of birds she might have pointed, but was out of view. On the second group of birds she busted without pointing at all. Phil decided there was no handling her so he picked her up and brought her back on the saddle.

Bently is very unlike his sister Sadie, in that he absolutely wants to please and be with you. He ran a very consistent race, always to the front. About 7 min in, he flash pointed, then went forward, seemingly working a turtle, watching his body language. A second later a chicken got up and he chased. Lucas fired, and Bently soon came back and found another bird, and then 5 more got up. Very great for this almost 2 year old. He took water very well, and was very happy to come. His gait is very nice, and overall he is a very handsome male, holding his tail at 12 o’clock while he runs.

Dawn had a somewhat similar race to last week. She started off a bit slow, and Bob soon realized she had cactus. As soon as he got it off of her, she was a totally new dog. She had more confidence as she ran, which was seen in her tail--going from a 9 o’clock tail while she ran to a 10:30-11:00. No birds, but very nice race.

***

Ken and Ed took the trailer in right away yesterday afternoon so that training wouldn’t falter.

With all of the dry days in a row, Painters have been making great progress on the haying, and started down at the ranch today! They worked all day, and got the whole first meadow hayed, and half of that baled--awesome work! Since we can now drive on the meadow, we decided to birdwork in the evening.

Birdwork: 6pm, pond in first meadow, huns

Rio: Ed handled, and the purpose was to reinforce training since he made a mistake earlier in the day. He handled it perfectly, tail at 11 o’clock. Great training at right time.

Tequi: Greenbroke dog, purpose was to start off in a positive way. She pointed the bird but took a few steps. Ken moved her back. She took another step, he moved her back again. She stayed and he flushed, but Tequi took a few steps. Ken corrected again, and moved on. Another bird was planted, and she handled perfect. Very good training for this green-broke dog.

Pups: Acey, Ragnar, Dagney, Paris

All pups were worked on checkcord, purpose was to just give them some experience with some birds, get their head into why they are out here. For all the dogs, no one had a solid point, but all had some recognition and chased except for Dagney.

Paris had the most problem finding the bird, but eventually found it and chased. Great work for these young pups.

***

Mary made an excellent dinner of smoked turkey wild rice soup and sweet corn. Since today was so cool compared to the rest of the days in the last week, so soup tasted great!



Tuesday, August 2, 2011:

What a morning! Last night was probably the Worst night of dogs barking ever! The incisive barking was spurred on by 2 dogs getting loose at different times throughout the night--each being a male and giving themselves away to Lucas by Kate and Lily in the trailer.

At 12:30, Ragnar was loose and Lucas caught him, Mary being woken up also and putting him in his trailer. About an hour later, Lucas was again woken up by Kate and Lily barking. He went outside with a light and saw a red flash by the California cul-de-sac. He then found Rio standing by his chain, a clip attached to his collar, but nothing else!

Even after both of these incidents, the dogs barked all night long. Even Lucas, having the Ruff gene of sleeping soundly, was woken up multiple times. Bob, Mary, Ed and Lucas all met outside at 5:30am, the time to wake up, but all irritated and sleepy. Whitney was the only one who slept through everything, only waking up from an icecube placed on her neck by Lucas.

The crew chatted about what to do with those darned barking dogs tonight, then finally decided to go run dogs.

***

Hills:

The crew headed over to Triple Gates (though proven today by Bob and Lucas to Ed and Mary that it is Technically a Quadruple Gate, with only 3 gates ever closed) and ran the picnic hill section with pups.

Brace 1: Dagney and Ragnar, 22 min

This was Dagney’s first time off of horseback, and Ragnar’s second time (though hearing from Mary, his first time was in Joliet, but for only 5 min). Keeping this in mind, these pups did a very nice job. They kept towards the front most of the time, but ran out of energy by 15 min. No birds, but made some good moves and at points had nice energy and drive.

Brace 2: Acey and Paris, 17 min

Acey made a long cast off to the side and took Lucas and Bob a little while to get her back on track. By the time they got her to stop chasing tweety birds far away, she was pretty tired. She didn’t have any game birds, but had lots of energy and a nice race--hunting all the while.

Paris also had a huge improvement from the Eagle trial, and even foothandling last week. She ran with energy and stayed with us. She didn’t have a bird, but saw one get up and chased it for a while. She then ran back to where it got up. Smart pup! Great job.
***

Roading:

With the ATV still out of commission, Lucas and Bob roaded the old-fashioned way: off of horseback.

Lucas’ Horse: 27 min
Galt
Tequi

Bob's Horse: 27 min
Shauna
Erin

Erin and Shauna looked like pros, pulling very hard against the harness. Galt figured the game out pretty quickly, however Tequi had the most issues figuring it out. Watching Bob’s horse and dogs in front helped, and soon all the dogs were pulling very well. Water at 12.

***

Reinforcements come today! Last minute things are being done to make their transition as easy as possible. Whitney cleaned out Old Blue, and Lucas worked on the write-up. Ed made counter-production by breaking the shower--whoops! Plumber Bob has been called!

***

The gang has arrived! The Boss and Linda pulled in finally around 5pm after a long journey from Illinois the day before. For them and us, it was like coming back home. The evening was spent helping set up Phil’s trailer and get the puppies and horses situated.

Mary made southern green beans, pulled pork and spiral cut turkey--awesome!


Monday, August 1, 2011:

With the heat index supposed to be over 100 by 9am, the crew decided to get up as early as they had been (5:30am). The ATV is also still out of commission, so no roading will happen today. Rats!

Hills:

In keeping with a good pasture rotation, we headed out to Hitchcocks section and a half just east of camp. Upon arriving, it was noticed that the field that used to be a large CRP, owned by Greg Wilke, was now all corn, with a large irrigation pipe system set up. So much corn!

Brace 1: Lea and Brenna, 40 min

Lea was handled by Whitney, as she will run her in the fall to gain experience as a handler. Lucas was helping her, staying close as to make sure Lea handled for her. At 5 min in, Lea had a good stop to flush 30 yards to the side. Whitney and Lucas walked over, but Lea started to break. Lucas yelled ‘HO’ but she was gone. Knowing that the dog knew she didn’t have a collar on, and that she would completely blow Whitney off if something wasn’t done, Lucas tried to run her down.

She started to take a dump about 20 yards from Lucas, and he jumped off and sprinted towards her. When he was about 10 ft from her, her eyes widened like saucers, not expecting this at all! She took off, Lucas sped up and dove, grabbing her by the skin of her thigh. She yelped, and he picked her up and took her back to where she made the mistake. He put her down and said very forcefully “HO”. He then had Whitney say Ho, flush in front, throw a piece of grass, and fire her gun. After this, Lea handled perfectly for her.

She had 2 backs on Brenna that she handled automatically, Whitney jumping down and giving her mental encouragement. She didn’t have a huge front race, and was very tired by the end, but most likely due to not being in shape. No reason to push a 10 year old dog, though. No other birds.

Brenna ran about the same style of race Lea did, short to medium range. She had some corrections with pointing lots of turtles, and one well handled stop to flush. She, like Lea, was worn out at the end, probably ran these girls too long. But very good training overall.

Brace 2: Mariah and Ritha, 30 min

Mariah ran a very nice, front moving race. She needed some correction on a stop to flush, as she took some steps. Very low setting on the collar is all that is needed with her. Had one more correction near the end when she started to run blow-offy. That was all she needed to stay with Lucas, and overall a nice race for a girl not competing in the fall. No other birds.

Ritha did a very nice job, but no birds. She listened well and was hunting the whole time. Was medium to far range in front at all times.

***

This afternoon was spent getting the final preparations ready for Ken and Linda and gang (Phil, Corinne, Kathryn, Nicolette). Bob, Lucas and Ed set up the puppy kennels for the 5 8-week-old Lilly/Galt pups and Ashley, the 16-week-old Mariah/Clifford pup. When the gang arrives tomorrow, they will set up the shade-a-pups so they always have good shade.

Lucas added a section of sprinkler hose to the south end for Mocha, Tootsie and Galt. Mary and Whitney came to help add a few more nozzles and make sure it was working well. Just about when you think “Man, its getting hot!” the sprinklers come on. Perfect timing!

Lucas and Ed spent a long time trying to figure out what was wrong with the ATV. Following the directions from the online manual, the chain didn’t seem to be loosening or tightening at all--very frustrating. They believe that the chain is pretty old, and therefore needs to be replaced. Hopefully tomorrow they can figure that out more.

Since today was so hot, the crew decided to have dinner in town at the Golden Steer before doing chores. Joe McBride showed up and joined us for dinner; and had some Rocky Mountain Oysters!

Even at 8:00pm, the temperature was still hovering at 90 degrees! It’s supposed to cool down tomorrow, let’s hope that happens!



Sunday, July 31, 2011:

Today has a heat advisory, so we got up early to head down far south to the two half-pastures. Ed stayed back at the ranch to road 3 braces of dogs.

Roading:

Brace 1: 21 min, time: 6:15, t: cool
A-team:
Galt
Tequi
Lily

Dogs did well, Galt and Tequi pulled, Lily off to the side.

Brace 2: 21 min
Kate
Ritha

Kate pulled the most, moved Rhett to the other group since Kate is in season.

Brace 3: 20 min
Rio
Annie

Both did a nice job, are in shape from running around the yard, both pulled.

Brace 4: 8 min
Senior Brace with Indy!
The 12 year old Indy was wondering why she was here, so Ed gave her a light 8 min roading brace for fun. She thanked him a lot!

***

Hills:

Drove to far south half-pastures. Got delayed on one hill on the way there, but didn’t get completely stuck, and didn’t have to take horses out either. That Ruff gene is just too strong!

Brace 1: Erin 35 min; Kate and Jordie 45 min; all Irish

To avoid the heat, we decided to run 2 braces of 3 dogs, and with 6 people, each handler had a scout. We rode into the southernmost half-section, then into Hitchcocks half-section to the west, with the large, steep hills.

Erin shot out at the beginning, but soon realized he was pretty out of shape. He was corrected right at the start for not coming with Lucas, and ever after listened perfectly. He’s a very mature dog, and knows the game well. Unfortunately no game birds, but we had an incident with a redtail hawk. The bird of prey flew up when the dogs came near, but landed rather close. Erin got near and Lucas shocked him to stay away, as was not listening. Luckily all the dogs avoided what could have been a very ugly situation! Phew!

Erin slowed down in the middle, but hunted well. More roading and running and he’ll be perfect.

Dennis’ Jordie was handled by Whitney and ran nice. Had one spectacular find, and one good one. Kate has been worked hard over the past week and is handling much better, but still not broke, busted a few birds. Dennis says this dog could be a two year process, but once she’s broke, she’ll be dangerous.

Brace 2: Shauna, Sol, Sammy (pointer), 50 min

This brace was run in that southernmost pasture. 5 min in, we had a pretty ugly situation. Sol went on point in front of us, in the flatter part of the pasture. Bob thought it was Shauna, and got off his horse to flush. Dennis questioned him, while at the same time Shauna went on point 100 yards ahead. Lucas yelled to Bob that his dog was on point, but he was still confused; obviously in need of a refresher course in handling (Bob wrote this!). Shauna then broke and Lucas yelled to tap her, which he did and then sorted her out. Meanwhile, Sammy came in and chased the birds Shauna put up. All the while Sol held his point, making it slightly less ugly than it could have been. Fortunately, things improved a bit as we went on.

After the messy correction, Shauna turned it on. She had one find where because of how she came up perpendicular to the wind, as she pointed, a bird got up. Then about 10 more chickens got up around her. She handled perfect. After a correction on listening and going with us, she rolled in front, fast. A little out of shape as time went on, but nice race. She had another find that seemed like a turtle find, Bob shouted ‘get outta there’, but turned out to be a bird. More of a bump-to-point, but good correction. Finished the course strong and in front. Bob needs a bit more instruction and electrical stimulation.

Sammy gave Dennis a run for his money. He had to chase him down to put the collar on him, as it was originally on Sol. Before he got it on though, she busted a bunch of coveys. After using the collar for some correction, she handled much better for him.

Sol had 3 great finds and acted like an old reliable dog. Race front and medium range, this is the dog Dennis expected to see yesterday. Solid race.

This brace, we saw in total upwards of 100 very young chickens, most all of them worked on, or busted by Sammy. Very good training with these 3, great to see so many birds!

Bob and Lucas made it back to the trailer first with Shauna, so Bob went to open the gate. As he did, because of the spring being so tight, the lever slipped and smacked him in the eye area. Luckily it HJV’ actually hit his eye, but blood was streaming down his face when Lucas gave him something to stop the bleeding. Also lucky we had Renee with us! She cleaned the wounds (2 small gouges under his eye and top side of his nose) and bandaged them. Now he just needs to go get a tetanus shot! After 23 years of opening these gates you’d think he’d have it down.

At the end of this brace the temperature had risen considerably. Glad we got done when we did! Tomorrow we need to be out there earlier than 7, like we have been.

***

After we returned to camp Jason came down with one horse and said that he was going down south to move some cattle north. Bob encouraged Whitney and Renee to help him out. So Jason went home to pick up two more horses (Taz and Jesse) for them to ride. Then they, along with Bob, drove south to move the cattle. Once there, Jason, Renee and Whitney rode off to survey the pasture to find all the cattle while Bob waited for Roger to come by to pick him up. Once all the cattle were gathered together they were driven north toward the gate. Renee and Whitney were doing quite well and all that was needed was Renee’s guitar to add a bit of local color.

Once near the gate most of the cattle went through without a problem, however, there were two young calfs that resisted and one ran the fence line south toward Renee. All eyes were on Renee to save the day but, all of a sudden, a polar front moved through and Renee froze. The calf ran by her for freedom. Jason, stuck to his horse like glue, rode to the rescue with lariat in hand to show the calf who was boss.

All in all, a successful cattle drive and a new experience for Renee and Whitney. Whitney and Jason drove back to camp while Bob and Renee went with Roger to finish distributing salt and minerals to several other herds. Then back to camp for a few beers and lively discussions.

***

Before dinner, Lucas took Whitney out in the meadows with Lea on a double-length check-cord to work on the Come command. Whitney did great!

Ed heated up some homemade tamales from an old lady from California. They were awesome!



Saturday, July 30, 2011:

Another night without rain, Painters must be thrilled! Crew got up at 5:30 on Dennis’ request--wow!

Yesterday, the chain fell off of the ATV while Bonnie was roading. Last night Dennis and Lucas took a look at it, but they need some chain oil and need to figure out how to tighten it. Roading, unfortunately, did not happen this morning. Lucas plans to fix this for tomorrow’s group.

Hills:

The plan was to head all the way down to 3 pastures south, but due to a minor mishap, Lucas managed to get the rig a little stuck entering the 2nd pasture south --wouldn’t be a Ruff if he hadn’t!!

Puppies: Group 1

Brace 1: Sadie, Finn, Silvia, 25 min, 2nd pasture south, west side

Mary, Lucas and Bob ran these pups with Renee’s help while Whitney and Ed helped Dennis with his adult dogs. The garmin was put on Sadie, and thank gosh we did! At about 10 min out, Sadie had ran off, after being stuck behind us a while. Lucas used to garmin to find her back near the truck while Bob and Mary rode the rest of the brace. When Lucas found Sadie, she acted as if he wasn’t saying her name or yuping her. He decided to try and run her down and turn her. It worked very well and he eventually caught her while she was drinking from a small pond. Good training that she needs to stay with the horses, and listen when we call her!

Silvia ran a nice race, very ready for the hills. She got caught behind a lot, but Mary called and waited for her to come to the front. Good training on staying in front, and nice medium range. Good stamina throughout.

Finn did a fantastic job for his age. Ran big, in front, and always stayed with Bob. He had 1 find with a chicken, pointed and held, then broke and chased. Came back on Bob’s request. Very nice male, far range, listens well, rolls. Very exciting to watch him run.

*Note* Don’t run 3 dogs without more help next time. Need more eyes and horsepower, especially to keep Sadie with the group and not get sidetracked chasing tweety birds.

Brace 2: Bently and Dawn, SW pasture from triple gates, 25 min, no birds

Bently spent the first 2 min peeing one continuous pee. Needs to be walked on a long checkcord next time. Has a slight problem with loose stools, spent the first half cleansing about 8 times. After he was done, he ran very nice, opened up more, listened very well. He was hunting nicely.

Dawn started off very timid. She was slow, near the horses, and behind a lot. At about halfway, she became a new dog. She opened up a lot, became focused, and rolled. At the end, she was extremely impressive, her rolling pattern being very fluid and natural. Will be exciting to see how she progresses throughout the rest of camp!

Hidalgo Dogs:

Brace 1: Sol and ‘pointer’

Dennis handled ‘pointer’ while Ed handled Sol. Sol was lost at about halfway, last seen heading East. Sol ended up being lost for 3.5 hours, but was finally found at camp, wondering where we had been!

Brace 2: Virgil and Big

Virgil, 1.5 yrs old, had 1 broke find, handled very nicely. Dennis is very happy with his progress! Big had a nice big race, no corrections, and one find that he handled perfectly.

Brace 3: Flint, 45 min

With Sol still missing at this point and the puppies done running, the crew decided to split up and watch for him. Bob and Renee took Dennis’ truck and drove down to the far south-east end and waited. Dennis ran Flint in the Triple Gate pasture with the large pond (SW) from the south gate where the truck was, being aided by Whitney, Mary, and Ed. Lucas stayed at the truck with his horse and rode around slowly on the large hills nearby just looking for Sol.

Flint had one piece of birdwork, but released and needed correction. He also pointed many, many turtles to Dennis’ dismay. Dennis was also having a problem handling him, so Flint ran with chains on to help slow him down. Because of this, his handling improved.

***

The afternoon was filled with many naps and chilling out. Around 5, Bob used the front end loader tractor to pick up a bunch of sand to fill in holes on the dog line. After a few loads and some shovel man-power, the holes got filled and its much easier to move around. Yay!

Fed dogs afterwards while Dennis made a fantastic home-grown dinner of pheasant fingers, salad with snow-peas and lettuce and sweet corn grown in Olathe Colorado. We’ll have pheasant fingers for a week!

Planned birdwork with pups was put off until Sunday due to a rain cloud. Never got any rain, but it wasn’t worth the risk. No big deal.



Friday, July 29, 2011:

First night without storms! The dogs also slept a lot better, all the young guys getting used to it all.

Roading: 20 min, water: 10, time: 6:30am, t: cool
B-Team:
Erin: Front Left
Brenna: FR
Lea: BR, tied to front
Mariah: BL

Dogs did very well in the cool morning.

***

Puppy Groups:
Group 1:
Jamie
Bently
Sadie

Fin
Dawn
Silvia

Group 2:
Ragnar
Dagney
Paris
Acey

Mocha
Tootsie

Hills:
Puppies: Group 2

We ran 3 braces of puppies on foot at Triple Gates from Group 2.

Brace 1: Acey and Ragnar, SW pasture, 20 min

Acey ran big and in front; rolled in front, definitely hunting and showing herself. Some concern whether she would stay with us on foot, but she wanted to be with us. Very impressive, definitely ready for horseback.

Ragnar is a bit younger, but fast. Reminds me of Galt the way he speeds off balls-to-the-walls when he smells something he likes. Big male, has a nice loping gait. Ready for horseback.

Brace 2: Paris and Tootsie, NE pasture, 20 min

Tootsie has obviously been foothandled before (Lee Jr.), nice sweeping pattern in front, good medium range. Very snappy, high tail. The dominate female personality, more like Lightning, snappy and front. Very birdy, knew what she was doing, but no birds. Horseback ready!
Paris is a bigger female than Tootsie, nearly ran me over! Has a longer, loping gait, holds her tail at about 10 o’clock. Runs around well, not intimidated at all, medium range. Horseback ready!

Brace 3: Dagney and Mocha, NE pasture, 20 min

Dagney did a very nice job, rolled in front, good range. Her timidness that we’ve noticed on the barrel was completely gone. She showed she was hunting, and focused. Very impressive, listened well. Horseback ready.

Mocha is the only pup that showed a little bit of intimidation. The only times she would run big was when she would chase after Dagney. Not quite sure what she was doing out there, but still ran around alright, never puttered out.

*All the pups were very impressive, and now its obvious why Mary has had a big dilemma choosing out of her 4. Not sure if Tootsie and Mocha are ready for horseback, are just barely 1 yr old. No birds, but good experience.


Hidalgo dogs:
Bonnie ran her dogs while Lucas, Bob, and Mary ran the pups. She was helped by Whitney and Renee.

Brace 1: Kate
Bonnie was working on keeping Kate with her and turning.

Brace 2: Houston and ??

Brace 3: Buck and Jordie
Lucas handled buck for Bonnie, while she handled Jordie. Buck ran a nice race, needed some correction for running off and not listening to turning commands. After the 2 corrections he listened very well and stayed with them.

Jordie ran around nice, not as big as Buck. She had 1 stop to flush. She was running to catch up to Lucas, Bonnie being behind still, and tripped over a chicken. At this point in the morning there was no wind and humid. As soon as the bird got up Jordie pointed and Bonnie flushed another bird. Very nice handling.


***

Mary and Lucas worked on tweaking the automatic sprinkler system, coming to 8 min off and just under 3 min off. Just about when you think “Its hot” the sprinklers come on. Perfect! They also worked on maintenance for the barrels, moving some dogs around, setting up barrels for the California dogs, and cutting up some of the ground grates that were being used to stop some dogs from digging, but were bent and in the way.

Ed Meyer is our new camp addition--and he’ll be here for the rest of camp, alright!! He showed up midday with hot dogs, horses and himself, but Lucas, Mary, and Whitney were there to help him get settled in.

Earlier in the afternoon Bonnie left and will be back later in camp, but Dennis came later in the evening. Thank you Bonnie for all of your help to setting up!!

Evening Birdwork: 7pm
Puppy Group 1:
Fin
Dawn
Silvia

Went out near hun birdpen and worked on a fence line perpendicular to the wind.

Finn pointed very nicely with a high, 12 o’clock tail. He broke before Bob could kick up the hun, so Finn grabbed it. Bob got him to release the bird, then it flew away and he let Finn chase it. He caught it again, and upon Bob calling come, he came back straight to Bob. Good start.

Dawn didn’t quite get a point in. She came straight into the wind of the bird, so crept forwards towards it. Never a staunch point, but definitely birdy and could smell it. She pounced in, bird left and she chased. Couldn’t catch it and came back nicely.

Silvia was worked first but the bird left so crew waited until end to work her again. She was very birdy, and flash pointed for an instant before rolling in. No point isn’t a problem, its their first day and probably not used to hun smell.

Overall a great start to getting the pups into their purpose out here!

***

Dinner happened after birdwork as Bob and Renee stayed in town late. McBrides showed up about while we were cooking and shared some great stories and funny jokes. Jason also stopped by with Ryan and it was good to finally see him! Finally ate dinner in the gazebo this year!! The stars were out again and it felt more like home.



Thursday, July 28, 2011:

Stormed early this morning. Lightning stopped all early morning plans to go out on the hills. Renee made potato pancakes for breakfast and they were delicious! Sat around and drank coffee while Bob read through and edited Lucas’ write-up. Around 9am it stopped raining and Lucas set up the Hidalgo’s ATV with the water pump for roading.

Roading:
A-team: 20 min, water at 10
Galt: Front Left
Shauna: Front Right
Tequi: Back Left, tied to front
Lily: Back Right

Team did very well, but tired at the end. Stayed overcast and was a very comfortable mid 60s temperature for so late in the morning. Positions are perfect, Galt and Shauna did very well in front, listen to ‘yup’ very well. Tequi needs to be tied to the front and back.

Buckaroo: 20 min, water at 10, 15.
Rhett: Back Left
Kate: Front Right
Ritha: Back Right

At halfway point, the sun came out and the temperature rose very fast. After watering at 10 min, they needed another quick water break at 15. Hot at end, but did well.

Roading path right now goes up to the top of the entrance hill, then down out to the first gate where the cattle are. Usually about 3.5 loops. Hopefully we can figure out a better plan!

***

Today was a lazy day full of book reading, writing, and sleeping. We had 100 Huns delivered around 1pm and put 50 in each half of the large bird pen. They all look very healthy and were happy to leave their small transportation houses.

Sitting around the table chatting midday, a huge semi suddenly showed up at our backdoor -- food delivery! We stored the palette up in the new barn where we have been in past years.

With the quail also being delivered in Ainsworth at 7pm, the gang decided to have dinner at Pizza Hut after and were joined by Roger and Janet! Great to see them. With it raining every single night so far this week, they have been very busy trying to get hay done.



Wednesday, July 27 2011

Storm overnight with lots of rain. Will put off mowing down here south for at least another week or two. Rats!

With Brophy dogs taking a day of rest, Firefly had a good training day on the hills.

Houston and Jordie:
Pasture a mile sound of Triple Gate.
Houston, a pointer, broke dog ran well in front. Bonnie used chains the day before to slow him down and get a handle on him and it seemed to work today, medium range. Jordie, an Irish, ran about the same range. Both dogs went birdless, but we saw about 25 birds, both chickens and sharptails. Seem to be more sharptails than last year, but still majority chickens. Most were clutches of young birds with their mother.


Kate and Virgil:
Triple Gate SW.
Kate, an Irish, had a similar issue as Houston, running off. Bonnie put chains on a roading harness, but the dog didn’t go very far. After 2 min, she took them off and she was a handful after. Got a good handle at halfway point. No broke finds, but good corrections.

Bob ran Virgil, a 1 1/2 year old pointer, nearly broke on his own. Did a nice job, had a few nice finds, didn’t catch any. Fun to watch and out front.

Put up or worked at least 27 birds, mostly chickens but a few sharptails.

***

Morning was cool from the rain last night, and the clouds hovered over the south pastures which made the 2 braces a perfect temperature. After we returned Bonnie roaded 2 more dogs out of camp.

More camp setup today, Lucas and Bob set up the gazebo in record time! Mary and Whitney worked more on the mister sprinkler system. On the way back from the morning braces, we checked the big bird pen. Seems to be in great shape, only a few minor fixes that need to be made.

All the birds are arriving tomorrow at different times, so birdwork will start Friday! Feeling well rested from the day off, Brophy dogs will officially start the hard part of bootcamp tomorrow with roading the adult dogs and running some derby dogs!

Special note: Saw the stars tonight and it really felt like home.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Circle Paw Dog Camp opens for business!

Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio crew left Iowa at 8am with a great cool morning for driving 3+ hours. Humidity was gone, and slightly overcast. Trip to Ainsworth from Iowa was an easy drive with a short detour due to a bridge out. Luckily Route 20 wasn’t affected too much by the flooding in Iowa and Nebraska, but 29 southbound was mostly underwater. Lucky for Mary the northbound was open! Crazy.

Entering Ainsworth, Old Blue automatically took Pine street like it has for the past 10+ years, while Bob went though town and headed south on Hwy 7. As we all know, there’s a bit of a competition between the Ruff family and the Geddeis’ on who will arrive at camp first. Last year Corinne and Lucas almost won, however this year Bob managed to hold the title (Amy would be proud). Pine Street was a bit slimey due to rain over night, but drivable. To Lucas, the title was worth the real home stretch feeling.

Temperature was around upper 80’s on arrival and dry. Dogs were cool from the morning drive, horses content. With barrels set up, putting out dogs was a breeze, sprinklers turned on right away.

Dogs found summer homes, all on the front line of the shelter belt. Mary, Lucas, and Whitney got their trailers cleaned and situated while Bob assembled the new bed he brought with--having slept on the old one for over 20 years!!

All gathered in the kitchen, Bob called Lucas “honey”. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again!

Bob made a dinner of hamburgers, mashed potatoes, and grilled zucchini--awesome and easy! McBrides showed up before dinner and had some great catching up chats. Big thank you again to them for mowing the front ‘lawn’!

Tomorrow is an easy day for the 23 dogs that showed up today, but we plan to run 4 of Bonnie’s on the hills.

Note: Ragner is a night barker, sounds like Galt. Decided to just let them be for the first night. Mary is convinced his dad, Galt, was whispering to him that it was ok.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Bonnie and Dennis are life savers! Over the weekend they set up all the barrels and stakes, and got the house situated. Also, Joe and Lori McBride mowed the grass around the house and the dog area on a 102 degree day. THANK YOU!!!

Heather Lyons arranged for her friend, Kelsie, to clean the house prior to our arrival. They also bug-bombed the house and this made for a great head start in getting camp set up. This has to be a standard procedure in the future!

After some minor brake issues in the early morning, Lucas and Whitney left with the Boss’ rig at 9:30am with 13 dogs and 3 horses. Getting in Old Blue without Ken and Linda didn’t seem right--but they will be joining us next week! YES!!!

The crew met up with Bob and Renee Knutson hauling 4 dogs and 2 horses near Freeport and the convoy started. Bob’s rig looked like the Beverly Hillbilly Clampett’s with a new mattress and bed headboards in the bed of the truck. All he needed was a rocking chair and a fridge to complete the picture. Temperature was a bit hot, but dry. Checked animals just west of Dubuque and all were content.

The convoy picked Sioux City as the destination this year and arrived at 5:30pm. Suggestion for next year is to leave 1 hour later so arrival is at 6:30pm, closer to when the temp might be a bit cooler.

We overnighted at the Day’s Inn Motel which we picked because of its proximity to Eldon’s restaurant where we enjoyed a great dinner and wine list last year. The motel allowed us to park on a grassy area, facing north/south so we’d have more shade for the dogs. All were happy to get out and stretch their legs. Bob pulled out some chairs and, in keeping with a long tradition, offered some adult beverages. Temperature was hot and humid, but cool in the shade, and a nice breeze.

Had a good dinner at Eldon’s followed by some ice cream at Culver’s. Mary rolled in at 11pm after a 14 hour drive and then called it a night.