Life has found me busy the last few weeks. Erin has been studying rediculously for her first set of boards for med-school, which she took two weeks ago, and in the meantime I packed up all of our stuff in a 24' UHAUL plus another pick-up truck load and 12' trailer. I wonder where in the hell all of this stuff comes from, but we have way more belongings than I thought, especially when you are carrying it all day in 85 degree weather. After her test we went camping in Grand Haven and Ludington for a week, which was a nice change of pace. Now we are living in Grand Rapids, and trying to get settled in. Below is a picture of Coco going nuts over the birds in the quail pen. She has been coming along nicely, and I hope to get a picture of her pointing sometime soon.
Casper has also been doing well. This is at one of the places I train during the summer.
This picture of Freddy is from earlier in the spring, but I haven't posted any of him and have not been on the computer very much since earlier in the spring so I figured I would throw this one up here.
Last week when I brought my last load of stuff to Grand Rapids, I took a break and headed over to Dave TerHaar's. I brought the puppies along and took a few pictures. I really liked this one. This is Jr., who is Freddy's brother. These are both really fun puppies to train and watch. They are both fancy and love birds. Hopefully they will have a good fall. Shep, another 1 year old dog pointing a quail.
Erin and Otty kicking back at the Grand Haven State Park. It wasn't overly warm, especially being rite on the lake, but it was nice to just relax. Otty made herself right at home.

Some grass on the beach at the Ludington State Park.

Erin, Otty, and I on the beach at the Ludington State Park. It was nice and cool with a great sunset later on. Also some neat driftwood, and last, but not least, a gorgeous sunset on the beautiful lakefront of Lake Michigan.

Early Summer 2008

It's been a while since the last post, but that's what happens when the weather gets nice. No time for indoor stuff when there is work to be done! The baby pups Coco and Daisy are having a blast. I get them out every chance I can for walks, and they both have some really nice qualities so far, with little to dislike at this point. Both are fancy, love to hunt, point, and are bird crazy. The other day Daisy pointed two quail, while Coco helped her with a divided find on the second one. They also seem to be able to handle the heat well for little ones. I have also been breaking Woody and Casper, as they both showed readiness, and have taken the process well. Woody also got third in the walking open puppy at the Kalamazoo Field Trial Club at Ionia, while Casper got second in the open walking derby with a nice race and a broke find. I plan to just keep working them on liberated birds and breaking until July 15th, when I can get back into the woods and work on wild birds and get them both ready for the fall derby season, as well as hunting season. We are tentatively planning on going to North Dakota for a little over a week in early September hunting, and then coming back through the U.P. to hunt grouse for a week or so. I have also acquired a nice little female shooting dog, Keystone's Red Rein (Otty), which is Daisy's mom. She is ball of fire to watch, and is a nice bird finder. She also has some nice trial wins on her with her previous owner, one of them being the one hour National Grouse Derby Classic with a grouse find. Freddy has also been coming along very nice showing class, drive, and is doing very well on his birds so far. My wife Erin and I are going camping next week, and we just moved to the Grand Rapids area, and are not all the way settled in yet. I have pictures to post but they are on my desktop computer which is not set up yet. Check back for them in a week or so.