On The Way

Well, we are airborne on Delta flight DL2007 bound for Glenham SD. The blue ridge mountains were gorgeous in the early morning light and there was snow on the ground when the clouds broke over Ft Wayne IN.

Dad and I are enjoying the in flight wi-fi courtesy of google. Dad has just figured out how the pandora app on his ipad works, and even though he couldnt get enough bandwidth to buffer out a Netflix movie, he is in internet connected travelers bliss as he listens the ricky skaggs, emmylou harris and guy clark on his new tablet. Me, I am tuned into Old Crow Medecine Show on my android phone while I am writing this blog post.

We have a short layover in MSP and then into the dakotas, where it is a balmy 12 degrees. The group is cheerful and of good character, and the latest reports from Marc indicate we can "gun up" this afternoon if we get there by 3.

More to follow!

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By the way..

After we get back from the frigid North, having to some extent diminished the local pheasant population, I need to figure out a time to take my wonderful wife to this warm-looking place:



Thanks, honey.

Testing, one two...

Well, looks like Matilda has gone mobile. I just installed the BlogAway app on my Android phone and am giving it a quick go. Look for more mobile blogging in the near future if this pans out.

We took this pic of Jack out at the Guilford Courthouse National Battlefield park, the weekend before thanksgiving.  Apprently it is the last pic i took with the phone. Pretty nifty huh?

Sodak Pre-Hunt

You know, the anticipation pre-hunt is almost as fun as getting out there and getting some. We head to Pheasant Cove in about 56 hours, and Dad was acting like a kid in a candy store last time I saw him. I am sure he has already packed and re-packed and un packed and cleaned his gun and re-packed. I finally got all my man stuff and implements of bird-death down out of the attic and am trying to figure out how little I can bring and not freeze in the 2-degree Farenheit tundra of Glenham South Dakota.

Needless to say, this is going to be a fantastic trip. I can already anticipate it.

Dean the Acrobat

Dean decided he wasn't quite getting enough press recently, so he needed to show off a little bit out at Lake Brandt this weekend. Despite his lack of desire to retrieve birds, he has a pretty incredible ball drive.While he is not quite as intense as a Shepherd or a Lab, he makes up for that with a little extra style and panache (not to mention persistence..)

  

I managed to get quite a few shots of him airborne - tricky to do, since I was throwing the ball, working the camera and receiving the retrieves. But some of these are quite interesting - you might almost call him an artiste.

  

But me? An acrobat artist? Not so much..

Wild Game Cooking

I am proud to introduce yet another facet to my man-blog: Dean's adventures in the world of Wild Game Cooking.

Tonight's meal was a product of our recent upland bird hunt at Riverbend, and boy was it delicious. Bacon-wrapped Fingerville Quail on Mushroom Rice Pilaf, with Soy-sauteed Sugar Snap Peas. Served Family style with a Fat Tire Ale. Mmmm..

We started out with a little food prep - only had to take three spent shot out of the birds. Once I got them all cleaned up, they looked pretty good!

The plan was to wrap the birds in bacon..

roast until cooked throughout and nicely browned..

\

and serve over a mushroom rice pilaf with sauteed sugar snap peas on the side, family style.

Damn, that turned out well!

Hunting Video #1

Stephen takes a quail over Dean's point, steady to fall.