DIY

In five weeks my upland season will begin. To celebrate the occasion the girls and I woke up bight and early to enjoy a great training session and a good swim.

After the training we went home to complete some yard yard work and then celebration continued with a DIY project on my truck. I added a raised platform in the bed on my truck. I now can fit two large kennels in the truck: either facing out of the tail gate or facing out the passenger side flip window. I kept the slide widow on the driver side to ensure proper air circulation for the pups.

In a few weeks I plan to install a Cargo Caddy to store the guns and gear. I'll really like this set up because I can always be ready to go for a quick hunt or training session. Another reason is because it was fairly in-expspensive to build and I can always disassemble it when need be. Not too mention that when it is all said and done this set up will be on the lighter side. So I'll keep saving $ for future 300 miles a day for day hunts!!

The girls love it!!

I placed several tie-downs eyelets on the platform to secure the kennels and gear.

til next time....

Hot, Hazy and Ready for Fall

I'm patiently waiting for the cool of the evening to arrive so I can run the dogs at the local park. As the hot day turns into evening I'm thinking back to all the adventures I've had with my dogs over the last few years. Some good, some great, some indifferent and some frustrating, as you can see by the teeth marks in the Acme 210 1/2 English Whistle!

Don't you worry a good summer brew and an even better read will help this summer day pass.

til next time...

The 4th

We decided last year that this 4th of July we were not going to host our annual pig/lamb roast. So instead we decided to go camping. Throw in my sister's family and a good friends family and we have a crew.

We ventured up to a new area on the eastern stretch of the area known as the "The Flattops".  After an extra hour in the car due to the holiday traffic on Friday we made camp just as the the sun went down.

I picked this area because it looked a little out of the way but still relatively close and it held endless opportunities to fish. Reservoirs and rivers in between were the ticket to the trip. I was only able to get on the water for about three hours each day but I made use of the that time catching a Colorado Slam: Rainbow, Brown, Brook and Cutthroat Trout.

Little guy....

Bear River

Columbines

Wild Irises

The very green high country.

The girls being girls.....

til next time....

Garlic

My first attempt at growing garlic has turned out to be somewhat successful. The bulbs are bit on the small side but it looks like they will be able to spice up a few dishes.

More to harvesting to come.

til next time....

86'd

So Nichole and I made a big, long awaited and bold move today. We decided that life was too short to sit in front of a TV so we got rid of our cable. All we have left are a crappy 12+ year old TV, a DVD player and our wireless Internet modem. So from here on in: books, rented movies and our computers are the entertainment. There's more to life and I have a laundry list a "to do's" around the house so now is the time. Then you add in the training and condition season for the dogs, the summer dry fly action, camping and just plain old living in Colorado! So I guess the question I have is why did it take so long?   And to boot, in two months the dogs and I will be salivating over the impending upland hunting and trialing season!!!

So to coin a phrase from the restaurant industry.....Cable is 86'd!! 

Camping

My wife Nichole and I have been big fans of camping whenever we get the chance to get out in our great state of Colorado. We try and find places within three hours of Denver. Our camping has evolved, and will continue to evolve, as we venture out in the back country. Starting with the "pre set" campsites we would always look forward to the trip until some sort of community camping turned the trip sour. Now we tend to explore areas in which we have never been and find the best campsite possible. Most of the time these campsites usually hold elk and deer hunters in the fall.  Who knows what's next, maybe a nice durable, convenient and versatile Jumping Jack Trailer to make the next step in our camping evolution. When we camp I always try to wet a line as much as Nichole and the dogs will let me. Usually that's just a few hours at the most but I was able to get some quality time on the water.

Camp site

Sunrise

High Mountain Lake

One of my all time favorite bumper stickers!!

I've never had good success fly fishing on lakes but this day I was able to land a few fish. Including this nice brown that put up a nice little fight.

Hhhhmmmm.....Beer

Abby

til next time...

Finding the time to fit it all in

That's what I've been doing lately to fit in as much training as possible. Finding the time to fit in a few drills or to give Abby a good run whenever possible. Whether it be first thing in the morning, just before dark or anything in between. It's slow progress but it's progress on the foundation building while steadying  a spaniel....hup. Hup means up hup and she's learning that she has to hup whenever or where ever it may be.

We took some time on Monday to fit in a longer training session at a local dog park that was originally intended for training sporting dogs. Over time the original intention slowly went to the dog...walkers. I can go on and on about this one but I'll save it for another day.

After a few runs while working on the hup training we headed over to join the "walkers" and let the girls cool down in the water.

I was very impressed with Abby's delivery to hand while retrieving in the water. She previously would drop the dummy to shake off the water. But now the "hold" command is teaching her to hold the dummy and eventually the bird until I say "give". It's amazing how tennis balls can screw up a dogs retrieving and delivery. But like I said before I can spend a few hours on that one but at least I now know better.

We were back on the training grounds on Wednesday morning and after we put our work in for the day I decided to put some much needed time on the water.

Before I knew it I was on the cool water in Cheesman Canyon. I made the trip with a few long time fish buddies Adam, his dad Denny and Matt. I would call the 5 hours that we fished there more quality and quantity!!!

It was big fish Wednesday!!!

I caught and landed my personal best Colorado trout.
A 4 llb (at least) Cutbow

A nice Rainbow caught by Matt

Adam even horsed in a few nice Rainbows!!!

Great day to fit it all in!

til next time....

Back on the Radar

For the last two weeks I was lucky enough to be traveling through Spain with my wife Nichole. You can call it a much belated honeymoon since we have been married for almost three years now. It was defiantly a trip to remember. Our travels took us to Madrid, Santander, San Sebastien and Barcelona. The main focus of this trip was enjoy the basically necessities of Spanish life: food and wine. An enjoy we did! The food was outstanding as we tried many of the delicacies that we have only read in cook books and magazines. To wash it all down....wine...and lots of it..white, red and rose. Other than the food and wine the other highlight of this trip was the stop in Santander. This northern port city is where my grandfather jumped on a ship that took him to this country almost a 100 years ago.While there I was able to meet two of my second cousins for the first time. Truly a great experience. 

While traveling through the Basque region I was able to take a quick drive through the city of Eibar. Many upland nuts, like myself, carry shotguns that were produced in this small industrial city. Basque gun makers such as AyA, Grulla and Ugartechea, to name a few, call Eibar home. There wasn't much access to this wonderful industry so a quick drive through was all that I was able to do.

Getting back to our daily routine will be hard but we have plenty of  great memories that will last a lifetime!!

til next time...

Happy Birthday

Mia.

Yes, I can hardly believe that she is turning 5 years old. We've had many great hunts together in the past 5 years and many more great hunts to come!

til next time....

Steady

We are starting to see some great progress in Abby's training. Steadying a spaniel is not as easy as finished dogs make it look. It takes time and patience to complete this process. Here's a video of a training run we made the other day. You'll see Abby's progress within the run itself.

til next time....