Auntie Emm's Revisited

                                               It was the second week of January 2005 and once again I was headed for the North Central Kansas farm country.  I had decided to join Bernie and his crew one more time for a week of sun up to sun down late season season bird hunting. There were many things I liked about hunting with these guys. Bernie always made the arrangements and drove his truck. Most importantly we always hunted some pretty good areas and saw plenty of birds.  Bernie was pretty frugal and always did things in the most cost effective way so we ate at the best and cheapest places possible. That is if we weren't cooking ourselves. I loved the camaraderie. We were all drawn together by our mutual passion for the sport but otherwise wouldn't see much of each other throughout the year. Bernie was the glue. Regardless of his quirks we all respected and enjoyed being on the road with him. We'd all pool our money and take turns from year to year being the banker. Then there was the philosophy of one man one dog and system of dropping each other off. This worked great. I also enjoyed some of the cross country conversations we'd have as well as discussions in the truck from one run to another. Bernie loved to talk and had an opinion often with a humorous twist to his view point. Some of his often used phrases were "OK fella's here's what were gonna do!" "The pheasant is an edge bird" "What's the number one rule in pheasant hunting? Follow the dog!" Oh and not to be forgotten " We can hunt here". Sometimes true sometimes not! Nobody drank to much because we were just to damned tired to do much of anything but take care of dog's,clean birds, gun's and eat at the end of the day but there was always a bottle of "C and C" as Bernie called it that being Canadian Club whiskey. This tradition of having "C and C" along started years back on a trip to South Dakota. Joe,Bernie's son in law, had brought some along one year and Bernie said "Joe mix me up some of that with a little Pepsi". He thought that was pretty good so we all had a couple as we cleaned the days birds. Then we were headed up to the ranch house one night where we cooked pheasant dinner for the extended family of about 12 people at their house. This of course really helped with our possession limit! As we were heading up to the house Bernie says" Arlan grab that bottle of "C and C" there might be somebody that might like a drink with dinner" Joe gave me a look like "OK whatever" as he knew Bernie not being a drinker already had had a couple drinks and we also knew the family being very religious were not big drinkers if at all. Well Joe had prepared ahead of time and we all were in the kitchen sitting around the table waiting for dinner to be ready and Bernie with the bottle of "C and C" in his hand turns to everyone and say's would anybody like a drink before dinner? No taker's! Just silence. I'm a little nervous but say sure when asked so I watch Bernie start to pour 3 drinks for us and not being a drinker again he pours tall water glasses about half full of whiskey and then fills with soda! He's all smiles with his face red from the sun and flushed from the alcohol. I just sat back and watched the show hoping we'd get through dinner without any damage or Bernie passing out face first on his plate! We did but it was a classic. From that moment on the "C and C" was a part of the experience but someone else always mixed the drinks!
                                                    So it was all the history we had together and the miles traveled down the road with our dog's that drew me back one more time. However there was another reason. I had the good fortune to have been blessed with  all 3 of my Setter's being exceptional bird dog's and it was Beau's turn for a solo trip. At just 2 year's old he was beautiful as he surfed the wind and stalked these wily birds. This dog was exceptional and just needed time working wild birds to develop. So the objective on this trip was to get him into as many birds as possible.
                                                     We hunted a lot of Milo again and Beau did very well. His heads up style and cautious demeanor when he got into scent made him exciting to watch let alone shoot over. The hunting was tough as it was once again very cold with about 4 to 6 inches of snow cover. We got into birds on every run so beau was getting lot's of practice but with the cold weather and kenneling in the truck at night with temperatures below zero I was concerned about his weight. This dog covers a lot of ground and even though I'd get as much food in him as I could he still would get pretty thin. After a couple day's of sun up sun down hunting I decided regardless of what the rules were at the house we'd rented Beau was coming inside! He was shivering as I took him out of the kennel box which even though had plenty of straw and 3 other dog's generating heat around him was still very cold. When I went into the house I said" Here's what I'm gonna do" and that was to take my dog upstairs put him in the bath tub and give him a nice warm bath to get him heated up. Then he'll sleep in my room. Bernie said he had "never" given a dog a bath. And yeah I believed that but I treated and valued my dog's differently and didn't care what the rules of the house were at this point.
                                                    I loved hunting the Postman's 320 a section with CRP and crops on two sides so I was anxious to take Beau on this run. Steve dropped me off again and we headed through wheat stubble with Beau working birds all the way across. This took a while as he's very cautious not wanting to crowd the birds. So we had several points as we worked this area with a group of hen's taking us back and forth through the cover. I'd walk in to flush with Beau solid on point and the birds would have run ahead so I'd release him and we'd continue over and over again. I didn't care how many hen's we worked in this way as it was just fun to watch him perfect his craft. I was hoping as we moved east toward the fence line we might pin down a Rooster and I was right as Beau picked up scent again as we approached and pointed about twenty feet off the fence. It was bare wheat stubble and I had no idea where this bird might be. I took several step's ahead of Beau towards the fence line when the Rooster took flight to the right heading to the CRP. I luckily made the 30 yard shot with the bird coming down just short of the CRP. This opportunity occurred because Beau didn't push or pressure the bird which is why I quickly grew to love hunting this young dog.
                                              We crossed over into the CRP and worked the ravine on the east side as I had done with Mick the year before. There was plenty of sign and Beau picked scent along the fence line and we worked a long way on this east side of the CRP with birds obviously moving ahead. It was another cat and mouse game with Beau unable to get ahead of these birds. They took us all the way to the end of the field adjacent to the road ditch and a dirt road. I knew this would be the final chance to get a shot if we had Roosters so I approached cautiously as Beau sure enough pulled up on point right at the top of a small rise before the road ditch. As I walked forward all hell broke loose as multiple birds took flight. No matter how many times this happens to you It still takes a few seconds to focus as you just watch the birds rising before picking out a Rooster. Luckily I did just in time to drop a bird right on the road. What a walk that had been. But again I had a dog that didn't get to aggressive or frustrated with the moving birds.
                                            As I turned Beau around to the north I saw two truck's one with a dog trailer pull over by the cemetery. I didn't know if they saw me or not and when I saw them get out and get ready to hunt I was concerned about getting in their cross fire with my dog. Since I had shot two birds I decided to head around to the wheat stubble so they could see me and get out of this area. Of course Beau put on a show working birds as we headed up to where they were now watching. We must have moved birds in that direction coming out of the CRP. I let him point a couple before I just heeled him up the fence line to the road. There were 4 guys from Missouri that had English Pointer's and also had permission from the Postman. Since I had been dropped off they had no way of knowing I was there. I could tell they weren't ecstatic I was there ahead of them but it was almost eleven o'clock in the morning so get up earlier I thought to myself! I explained I hadn't hunted most of the section at all and they asked about Beau having seen him work a couple birds in the open wheat stubble remarking how impressed they were after I told them he had just turned two years old. I wished them luck as they headed out to "Gang Hunt" the CRP. A practice I had come to abhor for many reasons I'll talk about later.
                                         So I called Steve on my cell phone and let him know I was done early so he could pick me up. I'd have about an hour wait so Beau and I got some sun as we waited by the cemetery for our ride.
                                           It was a little after noon when, Steve and BJ, Bernies son pulled up and we headed out. A mile down the road we turned south and started up an incline when suddenly the wheels started to spin in the dirt now turned to a slick muddy mess with the mid day sun. The incline wasn't that great but this Kansas dirt is like quicksand when it gets wet. We would spend the next 2 1/2 hour's getting a quarter mile down the road doing everything we could with brush ,grass and whatever was available to put under the wheels to gain traction in this gooey muck.

Stuck in the Kansas mud with Mary's truck.
Once the mid day sun hit the roads it turned
them to quick sand. 

 The truck Bernie's wife always gave us order's to keep clean was now covered with mud. We all maintained a pretty good sense of humor about it and eventually got going again and back to bird hunting.
                                           The rest of the week passed with some good days and the over all bird count better than the previous year according to Bernie. There was always lot's of talk and focus on the number's. This wore on me but I turned a deaf ear to this year's ago. I was happy with my dog and glad I had brought him in the house as I thought he deserved it! And could tell it was OK with him as well. We violated another house rule as well moving the evening bird cleaning into the kitchen due to the cold weather. I helped clean and bag as well as mix the " C and C"!
                                            The evening before we left I took Beau for a long walk around the farmstead aided by what was almost a full moon. That's when I noticed the tornado shelter out behind the house and imagined how many times over the life of this place a family had to take cover down that cement fortress from the raging winds that came across this country. The place was nestled in between a couple gentle rolling hills obviously picked I bet for protection from such storms. But as we walked back to the house I knew this would be my last visit here as the openness and free access of the North Dakota plains was calling me back.