Monthly Archives: October 2011

Its Halloween…Time For Costumes

Posted in Fun, Holiday by

The 2 brown dawgs are getting their Halloween costumes ready for trick or treating.

Storm is going as a Treeing Walker Coonhound.  Here she is practicing.  She couldn’t get to the tree so used the next best thing.

'Coon Up A Tree

Thunder is going as an old-time sea-captain.  Here he is practicing keeping watch on the deck of his dog stand on a foggy morning.

Captain Thunder

Nestle decided that she will be going as a black cat.  :)

BOO!

Hope you have a very

Happy Halloween!

Stop by tomorrow and find out how Team Duckbusters did at the tournament.

Sunday Stills–25 and 50 Steps

Posted in Sunday Stills by

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge was fun:

Choose a starting spot, walk 25 steps in any direction and take 3 photos. The 25 steps can be outside your home, inside your home, in your neighborhood or away from your neighborhood.  Once your steps have been counted out, you must anchor one foot, you can pivot on that foot but your anchor foot may not move.  Choose a starting spot, walk 50 steps, repeat the instructions above. The 50 steps can be in a different direction, a different location or the same as the 25 steps.

I went to a couple of the local parks. Unfortunately, it was overcast and drizzling.

25 steps:

For 50 steps I went to another park.  Between the parking lot and the play area, there are a bunch of apple trees.  I was there a couple of weeks earlier and the whole place smelled like apples.  There were still a few left on the trees.

Go Team Duckbusters!

Posted in General/Misc, Hunting by

Tomorrow is the 2nd Annual Michigan Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club’s Duck Hunting Tournament.  Last year Cindy of Team Duckbusters took home the trophy.  You can read about it here and  here.  The rules are simple: obey all laws and bag limits, one Club member and at least one member owned Chessie per team and have FUN!

From 2010...Left to Right: Chris, Jim, Thunder, Smokey (Thunder's pup), John and Cindy...the 2010 winner!

So the sled has been loaded with the decoys and dog stand…

Decoys, Dog Stand

And The Swamp Trolley will be headed out early…

Swamp Trolley (you can just make out Thunder in the trailer...thanks to Gary for this photo)

Hopefully there will be a lot of…

Thunder With A Haul

So that someone from Team Duckbusters can keep that trophy!

Best of luck to all participants and remember hunter safety!

Now a quick follow-up.

Thank you for all of the great comments on yesterday’s post about about Thunder and Storm’s dog houses.  thatjenk asked if we built the houses.  No, we don’t have those kinds of skills.  :lol:   They are made of red cedar and insulated.  We bought them from someone in South Carolina.  They arrive by truck on a pallet as bottom, sides, top and have to be assembled, (but the assembly was easy with just a screwdriver if I remember).  They are super heavy and weather well.  You can read more about them on the company’s website, here.  Thunder’s house is the extra large insulated model here and Storm’s is the large insulated, here.  There are a lot of options you can select: insulation, heater, air conditioning.  :)   We purchased Thunder and Storm’s houses about a year apart and had a great experience both times.  I think Thunder’s house is about 5 years old and Storm’s 4 and they still look great, (well except where Storm chewed on her house :-x ).

Have a great weekend!

Getting Ready For Winter

Posted in Fun, General/Misc by

It won’t be long before we will be thinking about wind chills.  This week we took most of the sunscreens down from around the kennels and put the windscreens up.

Ready For Winter

The windscreens go around the sides and the back of the kennels.  The 2 brown dawgs also got some nice new fluffy bedding.

Cedar Ribbons

As soon as Thunder saw his new bedding, he went right in to fluff it up.

Can't I Just Enjoy My New Bedding?

But wait what is Storm doing?

What Is That Girl Dawg Doing?

We wanted to put cedar ribbons in Storm’s house this year.  Usually she has straw because she eats the cedar.  She isn’t much interested in eating straw.  Buying two kinds of bedding is a pain and with cedar you don’t have to worry about it getting wet and moldy.  Also, the doggies smell nice after snoozing in cedar all day.  :)   We figured Storm is older now and hopefully she wouldn’t be interested in eating her bedding.  But no, she was eating the cedar ribbons like spaghetti noodles.  So back to straw for her.

Straw

Strom tried it out.

Much Better

I Like It!

I guess each dawg is just used to their own type of bedding.

I Still Like My Cedar Chips

Thunder wasted no time trying the new bedding out.  Believe it or not, he is all curled up inside of his house in the following picture.  :)

All Tucked In