Oct  1st   (afternoon) "roaded" at the Square Pond - Taffey, Kooly & Daisy went six miles &                         Gunny did three miles                         Interceptor for all          Oct  2nd  (late morning) "roaded" at the Square Pond - Taffey, Kooly & Daisy went seven                         miles & Gunny did three miles                         (afternoon) Gunny to vet for a "whole bunch" of shots & annual heartworm test was                         negative          Oct  3rd  day off for all.......except  (afternoon) Gunny scouted Horicon with me.........beautiful,                        crisp afternoon in the marsh.........not going to fight the "numbers" this weekend, but                        will hunt one day next week before the grouse trip          Oct  4th  (afternoon) "roaded" at the Square Pond - Taffey, Kooly & Daisy went seven                        miles & Gunny did three miles                                     note: duck opener at Horicon (Wisconsin).......wait until weekday          Oct 5th   rain = day off......worked on decoys          Oct 6th   (late morning) "road" all.......five & three miles.......work chukars                                    note: buy Wisconsin hunting license on line          Oct 7th   (very early morning) hunted Horicon Marsh with Taffey, went very early.....2nd boat                        out but six passed us before we got to the main marsh, set up in a good spot....then                        two groups set up north and south of my spot.......lots of shooting, but not by me,                        a lone teal dropped into the decoys four minutes before shooting time and left just                        a half minute before legal time. it wasn't a wasted trip because I now know just                        exactly what "too much stuff" is, need to trim down on decoys and forget about the                        Power Hunter when I can't get out of the boat......near shore....Taffey was perfect                                   note: tripped over the trailer tongue before going out....had a severely                                            bruised hip (which didn't help), ice & Naprosin later made for a quick                                            recovery along with sleeping 12 hours                                       note: Frontline Plus - Taffey, Kooly & Daisy...Kooly got a new Preventic collar                                            for fresh tick protection on this weekend's grouse trip          Oct 8th   (evening) Taffey, Kooly & Daisy ran the remote drop drill with Gunny watching from                        a tie out.....Gunny then ran the short bumper and two longer cold blinds....followed                        by three hand thrown doubles working on steadiness and control                                   note: got most of the "stuff" lined up for the trip, finish list tomorrow          Oct 9th   (morning) "road" all four dogs plus do some wagon wheel casting with Gunny,                         work Taffey and Daisy on chukars                                   note: charge fan battery & clean both guns          Oct 10-12th trip to northern Wisconsin - grouse                                   note: great cabin to hunt from and sleep........with Direct TV & heated, "one                                             nole: outhouse, more leaves up than expected and hunted in short                                                     sleeves Saturday & Sunday                                            note: 17 flushes mostly not visible with two grouse in the bag for three                                                     days of hunting (afternoon Friday, all day Saturday and morning                                                     Sunday                                            note: dogs mostly showed inexperience with Dan's Wirehaired Griffon                                                     do very nice work                                            note: Taffey and Daisy did the largest amount of hunting by themselves                                                      while Kooly & Gunny hunted as a brace twice to spell the other                                                      dogs.......they  both hunted a bit too linearly at first ("roading"                                                      mentality), but Kooly settled into a better close in pattern toward                                                      the end                                            note:  Finding out I am NOT close to being in the required shape for this                                                      kind of hunting (long walking with very rough terrain) was a huge                                                      concern.           Oct 13th day off for all......mostly for me....call doctor                                             note: Chronic knee and leg problems while hunting became very painful                                                      liabilities (at times). I fell twice the first day with no harm done                                                      (luckily). Being much more careful the next too days and hunting                                                      mostly trails eliminated anymore falls.                                                      The issue is expanded by the information that our hunting in SD will                                                      be more difficult. Everyone else is much younger and I don't want to                                                      be a "yoke" around their necks. The bigger problem is my four dogs                                                      will represent two thirds of the "canine crew" for the trip.                                                      I can't fathom the walking being any worse in terms of terrain, but                                                      distance and the number of days will be an additional factors. Dan                                                      was convinced it would be much worse for me. Bird density may                                                      be my only hope. The fact the initial segment of pheasant season                                                      has a daily starting time of noon will make the day in the field                                                      shorter, too. However, it will be the warmest part of the day.                                                               update: SD was easier! footwear corrections & easier terrain                                                                         made a huge difference even  though we walked A                                                                         LOT FARTHER                                                                                                                        Oct 14th  rain = day off                 Oct 15th  run set of three cold blinds across the erosion strips in the picked bean field at the                          Square Pond DTA.......Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny.....all did well            Oct 16th (afternoon) "roaded" Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny.......three miles                                note: boat readied for Saturday's duck hunt           Oct 17th (noon) "roaded" Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny.......three and a half miles           Oct 18th duck opener - Illinois (Mississippi) - Daisy, going in the afternoon....fog, navigation                         and safety were the deciding factors....small, slow boat, one person& after the fact                          comments from those coming in when Daisy & I were going out were validations                                note: got to the spot scouted a couple of weeks ago & set up ready to hunt by                                         3:00 pm, quite a bit of shooting from the other end of this island & we had                                         three quick shooting opportunities.......none of the ducks flying were going                                         to decoy and were already shying from the Mojo (turned it off), found out I                                         don't shoot nearly as well from the Power Hunter (sitting), at about 5:30 pm,                                         the blind around the corner (in the picture) shot twice and as I glanced over                                         a duck was hooking out of their sight and not flying normally, landed about                                         150 yards from us on a narrow patch of land, after waiting a bit and seeing                                         no dog coming from their direction (didn't see see one in their boat when                                         they went ashore out of sight, either), it became a long blind for Daisy,                                         with lunging water all the way, I avoided loosing her behind the two                                         clumps of cover the left of the AOF..........she brought back a very alive                                         hen green wing teal                                note: shooting ended at 6:13 pm (heard some almost half hour later), picked up                                         quickly to avoid darkness issue....didn't work, got semi-lost on a bend in                                         channel and hit a mud flat on the Iowa side, corrected and then it looked                                         like I would be right in the middle of two barges passing in the night,                                         decided to cross a mud flat that has a ton of stickups, water was about six                                         inches higher than the last time through this area (when it was light), got                                         hung up on submerged logs three times, but the shoreline was clearly to the                                         east (lots of light from cottages), finally made the navigable channel to the                                         landing, one of the barge spot light workers must have noticed my "passage"                                         and had nothing else to do, so he lit up the shoreline to my right for quite                                         awhile, no need..but it was a nice gesture, got back to the landing at 8:15 pm                                         and home at 11:30 pm.....some might think this was a bit too unnecessary, but                                         I enjoyed every minute of the hunt, on the final run down the side channel,                                         Daisy was curled up, sleeping in her small space in front of me with her head                                         resting on my boot..........priceless!                                            side note: after I pushed the boat (still loaded with all the hunting gear) into                                                          the garage.....Daisy leaped up on top to look for her teal

                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"The Shadow knows"	"pintail"	"canvasbacks"
"32 inch goose"	"two more"	"full bodies"
"Avery drake FB"	"view to the right"	"Daisy's blind"

        Oct 19th (afternoon) ran Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny on three blinds  
                                   note: Gunny still does not have a good straight ahead look                                
        Oct 20th (late morning) "road" all.......three miles
                                   note: buy SD license on line
                                   note: clean out van and start loading for SD trip

        Oct 21-26th KwickLabs First South Dakota Pheasant Hunt (link)

                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"close"	"Dan & Al"	"Jim & Al"
"one to go"	"off the road"	"Dan planning"

         Oct 27th  day off for everyone - scouted bean field pond - WOW!......300+ geese
                                                                     (left click on thumbnail)

"It's Time!"

         Oct 28th one more day off
          Oct 29th (afternoon) Daisy did a short session of walking baseball with a couple of concept
                        doubles afterwards, Kooly did several concept doubles taking most out of order &
                        doing a blind before any marks, Taffey did about the same thing as Kooly and
                        Gunny did several hand thrown concept doubles (working on the routine at the line) 
          Oct 30th (dusk) Taffey & Gunny worked together in honoring retrieves.....then Daisy & Kooly
                        did the same thing (no e-collars)    gas today was $2.27 per gallon   
                                    note: huge number of geese feeding.....late afternoon in the bean field
          Oct 31st (afternoon) goose hunt.....setup around 11:30 am & went home for lunch.....Daisy and
                        I came back around 1:30 pm to start the hunt, but first changed the setup a bit (put a
                        feeders closer to the layout blind)....................... four geese came in around 2:00 pm
                        and were headed for the pond.......not good because if they splashed down there the
                        rest of the geese this afternoon may end up no where near us..........finally got them
                        turned around and shot one, long wait until at 5:15 pm, one lone goose decoyed in
                        and I just "dinged" him enough that he went into a long glide all the way to the pond,
                        Daisy had a tough time snagging him after many dives, hurried and picked up
                        everything.....but one group of 12 came along and saw us......not many "educated" 
                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"initial 18 decoy setup"

"Daisy released"

"2 o'clock goose"

"Daisy's two pose"