Sept 1st  (early morning) "roaded" Gunny two miles & Taffey, Kooly & Daisy five miles
                                     note: "temp" in the upper sixties when finished & plenty of dew on the grass,
                                              91º this afternoon = not going dove hunting
               Sept 2nd (early morning) repeated yesterday's "roading" routine, didn't skip a day in order to
            to catch up with weather issues
                                     note: a little warmer, higher humidity and no dew on the grass, no problems    
                                              92º for a high today, much cooler tomorrow
            Interceptor
            Sept 3rd (late afternoon) rain in the morning.......and very cool and cloudy all day
                          Gunny ran five Dokken doubles at the Square Pond (lots of surface weeds)
                          Taffey, Kooly & Daisy ran the "longest" pattern blind at BT's hay field (nice stretching
                          run for a little exercise) 450 yards with rooster pheasants
                          Gunny ran six walking "poorman" singles with a rooster pheasant and primer pistol
                          (used a place board and stickman at the line as per the other day......he is getting
                          very solid with this routine)
                                     note: the marks increased from 60 yards to about 150 yards
                                     note: more marks seems to be having a positive effect, since I am the
                                              gunner, he always gets the help I would expect at the right time &
                                              this has resulted in him defining a much tighter AOF & smarter hunts
            Sept 4th Gustav supplied us with almost 24 hours of rain = day off
                                     note: continued to practice goose calling with three new calls
            Sept 5th (morning) picked up 20 chukars at $6.45 apiece (after gas and tax = $8 each)
                          (evening) "road" - Sq. Pond DTA....Gunny 2 miles, Taffey 4 miles, Daisy & Kooly 5 miles
            Sept 6th (early morning) teal season opener on Mississippi - took Taffey
                                    note: nice day, no  teal.....not even a shot (for us) with very few getting anything
                                             rest of dogs day off
            Sept 7th (morning) "roaded".....Gunny two miles & Taffey, Kooly & Daisy five miles
            Sept 8th (early morning) trained at BT's - Gunny ran nine singles with a heavy cover change in
                          terrain......rooster pheasant, primer pistol & remote line.......followed by a cold blind
                          Daisy, Taffey & Kooly ran three similar singles and each finished with a cold blind
                                     note: everyone did a good job & just beat the rain
            Sept 9th (early morning) teal hunting Mississippi - took Taffey (to hunt) & Gunny (for the ride)
                                     note:  Mississippi Teal Hunts (Link)
            Sept 10th (morning) "roaded".....Gunny two miles & Taffey, Kooly & Daisy five miles
            Sept 11th (early morning) teal hunting Mississippi - take Daisy (to hunt) & Gunny (for the ride)

                      This morning Daisy and I had three chances. The first was a single that was just barely
                      nicked. Daisy made a long blind retrieve in open, lunging water. While I was handling   
                      her about a dozen "buzzed" the spread and disappeared. The next two chances were
                      doubles, but I only got the first one each time. That was it....not a whole lot of action.

                      Then, the wind really kicked up from the south making where I was at kind of "useless". 
                      Three "bluewings" seemed enough. Luckily, the landing was north and my Carsten
                      Bluebill "surfed" back.  
                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"The Blind"

"ready to go"

"another sniff"

        Sept 12th day off with rain, but the teal were delicious - the fillets were "butterflied" lengthwise,
                        bacon was cooked until it was opaque and each slice was halved, the fillets were
                        rolled around a piece of pepper jack cheese and a slice of jalapeno, a strip of bacon
                        was "toothpicked" around each roll, "teal wraps" were dropped on a sheet of aluminum
                        foil and placed under the oven broiler, at 465º the top side got 4 minutes and the bottom
                        5 minutes producing a medium rare, choice teal wrap, before the melted puddles of
                        pepper jack could harden, they were scooped off the foil and placed on top each
                        teal morsel............mmmmmmm good! 

                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"ready to broil"

"medium rare"

"time to serve"

          Sept 13th Wow! the rain will not let up = another day off (at least we are not in Texas)
                               note: the new grass seed in the south airing yard has sprouted mightily and
                                        buried the straw cover & the tomato plants are full of fresh pickins',  
                                        geese flew over the house this morning = scouting is in order because
                                        there are three days left in early goose season
          Sept 14th MORE RAIN as Ike moved through (evening) Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny each did
                          a nice session of walking baseball = very responsive and worked slowly
                               note: Gunny is taking very good casts & did three concept doubles at the end
          Sept 15th (very early morning) Kooly went teal hunting on the Mississippi & Gunny rode along
                               note: very slow, but Kooly was totally enthralled with all the different kinds of
                                        birds in the air = he got two teal
                                note:  Mississippi Teal Hunts (Link)
          Sept 16th (evening) Taffey, Daisy & Kooly "roaded" four miles and Gunny two miles at BT's
                                note: filled up water and feed tower in the Johnny House (third time)
          Sept 17th (afternoon) Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny "roaded" one mile & Taffey, Daisy & Gunny
                          were given an opportunity to work on chukars
                                note: Gunny flushed two with no sign of pointing, but do a nice job of dechasing
                                note: Daisy had two very nice points with a short dechasing lesson on the first &
                                         stood and watched the second one fly off after a nice point = I got up near
                                         and stroked her some without affecting the point
                                note: Taffey had a nice point, in fact it was a surprise to her to suddenly find an
                                         upland bird to point.......huge change in body language & the best part was
                                         she let me flush it.......something new
                                note: the birds were good flyers......which makes a big difference 
                          Frontline Plus Taffey, Daisy & Gunny
                          Preventic new collar for Kooly 
          Sept 18th (morning) Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny did extended sessions of walking baseball
          Sept 19th (early morning) day off for Taffey, Daisy & Kooly............Gunny goes teal hunting
                                 note:  Gunny's 1st Duck Hunt (Link)
          Sept 20th day off for all - decided to pass on Iowa duck opener.....not enough time to scout
                          and out of state license license expenses
          Sept 21st (morning) "roaded" at BT's...Taffey, Daisy & Kooly went 5 miles & Gunny 2 miles
          Sept 22nd (morning) repeated yesterday's "roading" routine
                                 note: redesigned the van "floor plan" for five crates & dogs = need for the Oct
                                          trip to south Dakota, much more efficient use of space    
          Sept 23rd (morning) repeated same "roading" routine
   
          Sept 24th (early morning) trained at BT's hay field = setup a 125 yard Box Drill (four marks) with
                          a remote line, Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny ran their four singles with a flagged 3"
                          Avery flasher and primer report
                                 note: everyone marked well except Daisy (either checked up short or blew past) 
                          drove to the swim-by pond to help Anne W. do swim-by with Katie and ended up
                          running Gunny on a swim-by (he did fine)   
                                 note: design platform to use Avery Power Hunter layout blind in the boat for
                                          lower profile when duck hunting    
                                 note: fresh water and check food level for chukars
                          (afternoon) Daisy worked three chukars......Gunny worked two chukars
                                 note: three points for Daisy.......zero points for Gunny 
                                 note: nine chukars left
                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"Daisy" - point one

"Daisy" - point three

"up close"

          Sept 25th (mid-morning) Taffey, Kooly & Daisy "roaded" five miles....Gunny did three miles 
                                 note: waited until temperature was in upper 60's
          Sept 26th (morning) Taffey, Kooly & Daisy "roaded" five miles....Gunny did 2½ miles &
                          (evening) Gunny intro'd to Avery Ruff Stand, no issues = jumped up on it after a little
                          coaxing with the "place" command 
                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"Gunny"

"place"

"Avery Ruff Stand"

                                note: charge all wingers
                                note: build small boxes for layout blind support in boat
          Sept 27th (morning) Taffey, Kooly & Daisy "roaded" five miles....Gunny did 3 miles
                                note: worked at the Square Pond DTA & dogs could take a quick dip in the
                                         pond on every loop around the bean field
                          (dusk) Taffey, Kooly & Daisy were introduced to the Avery Ruff Stand in the front
                          yard by doing a few simple retrieves off it. Gunny did a few, too
          Sept 28th (late morning) Gunny ran a 15 bumper, five slot lining drill with incrementally
                          increases in length and greater distances to the next "slot", slots were formed by
                          3" Avery Flashers ten short steps apart
                                note: struggled with this "slot " at first = improved to nice efforts at the end,
                                         still not getting a bold, forward "lean & lock" look  on straight out, need to
                                         use birds consistently with lots of short cold blinds in mild cover (often)
          Sept 29th van at mechanic proactive replacement of fuel pump & help Ann W. Katie's swim-by
                                note: trained swim-by in the rain|
                                note: van will not be finished until tomorrow
                                note: worked on layout blind setup in the boat
                                                                     (left click on thumbnails)

"gas tank box"	"gas tank cover"	"blind support"
"layout seat"	"Power Hunter"	"blind open"
"blind closed"	"Bluebill blind"

          Sept 30th  day off for all