I'm back...

It's been a while since I wrote. We cancelled our home internet, so I am only online at the library or the coffee shop. We have implemented draconian austerity measures. Internet, cell phones...Simplify, Simplify.

The baby goats are growing at an amazing pace. We were blessed with two healthy goat kids. Both of them were boys though. We are trying to sell them as purebred Saanen herd sires, but if that doesn't work we'll have to sell them for butcher goats...or butcher them ourselves. They are painfully cute.

Jenny and I took a trip to Oregon and spent some time swimming in the Grand Ronde river. The puppies got a little wet too. The puppies are cruising along and we will be able to hunt with Oberon by the end of the month. It'll be his first time out. We are hoping for his hunting and retrieving instincts to kick in. We're a little worried about whether he will bring the birds back to us. He might just think they are his lunch. It'll be all good.

Jenny's pregnancy is progressing beautifully. What a blessing.

As always, we are completely in awe of how blessed we are living out on our farm. The animals are all healthy, the garden is booming, the boys are growing like weeds. We have family coming in to visit this afternoon. What a mighty time.

No more new animals...

No more new animals until Whisper has her kids. Except for this Labrador Retriever we rescued from the shelter. She is only six weeks old and is completely adorable. She and Oberon are (more or less) getting along. They sleep together anyway. Her name is Titania.

Speaking of baby animals. Whisper is very, very pregnant and should be kidding within a week or two.

Hopefully she will wait until after I return from a backpacking/fly-fishing trip I'm taking with the boys. We are going up to a place called Kelly Creek to spend a few days. We plan on hiking in a few miles, setting up a camp, and doing some fishing. If the water is low enough, which is a bit dicey this early in the summer, the fishing is usually great. I can't wait. It'll also give Jenny a few days off from parenting.

The garden is booming along. We grew enough radishes to do the farmer's market, but the lettuce that was supposed to go along with it got eaten by the chickens. So, we have hundreds and hundreds of radishes that are getting ready to bolt and go "woody." I guess you can't complain about having too much food, although it's hard to do too much with a zillion radishes.

The good Lord has blessed us with a beautiful garden this year. We are enjoying it's bounty. We are truly, truly blessed.

The puppy has landed

We picked up our new puppy on Monday! His name is Oberon and he is a German Short-Haired Pointer. He should make a great bird dog. Believe it or not we located a pure-bred Labrador Retriever at the pound too. We'll be picking up that puppy in a few weeks. They'll have each other to chew on and maybe they won't eat quite so many shoes.

We got him into a real pheasant wing today from a bird I shot last season. He really enjoyed playing with that. I'm going to start breaking him to gunfire as soon as I can pick up some .22 blanks. He's showing some great instincts already. He will "point" song birds an chickens. As always, keeping him away from the chickens may be a problem.

I'm bringing Caspian, the goat, in to the vet school (it's practically free) today. Maybe we can get a better idea of what's wrong with his ankles. I'm worried about him. I would be heartbroken if there was nothing we could do for him.

I think I may make a little cheese today. And we are making sausage on Friday. Probably feta cheese today and just bulk venison/pork breakfast links on Friday.

The weather continues to be a gardening challenge. It's also a challenge for everybody's patience as well. We are having the barn restoration day on Saturday. My friend Jason and I poured some concrete footings today. We are going to jack up the barn a couple of inches, put down the footings and brace the foundation with 4x6 beams. Of course we will be cooking up a big farm lunch and dinner for folks who show up to help. What a blessing it is to have such good friends and community.

Life is so wonderful. I am just amazed at how beautifully things are going. I just feel so blessed that I want to keep thanking God every chance I get. We are truly blessed.

OK, this time for sure....

I am 99.9 percent certain we will actually get a puppy this time. We've picked out a specific puppy and put a deposit on him. We've had quite the series of misadventures trying to get a dog, but I think we've got one this time. Matty helped me pick out a German Short Haired Pointer. He is super cute. He should be a good upland dog as well as a waterfowler.

On another note, there are teaching jobs starting to open up for next fall. I guess the future is in God's hands. Just pray and take the next right action and leave the results up to God. Regardless of what happens, we continue to be so blessed.

A splendid day in the field!

What a glorious day! Luna and I spent the entire day together. We hunted partridge and quail all day. We hunted my property and the property of the neighboring farmers. I have permission from all of the big farms around here.

The stubble on the wheat fields was perfect for partridge. The day started out flushing a covey of partridge almost right away. They flushed far out and flew about 150 yards. We followed them through two barbed wire fences, across the dry creek bed, and up a steep hill. We flushed them a few more times, each time flying 100+ yards, and eventually got a couple of shots. No birds yet. This went on for most of the morning. Eventually Luna and I bagged one gray partridge. Luna made an excellent retrieve of the lively, wounded bird.

Worn out from hiking up and down hills all morning, Luna and I came home and took a nap together.

We went out again when it cooled off in the afternoon. We bagged one more bird, a beautiful crossing shot, and called it a day. We came home exhausted and sore. After Mass and chores tomorrow, Luna and Colleen and I plan to hunt again.

What a splendid day in the field. I am so blessed. The fall air, the dew on the wheat stubble, the exercise, a dog and a gun, smell of gunpowder, working the birds, just everything was perfect. Tomorrow promises to be just as wonderful. I really needed a good weekend of rest and recreation. What a spiritual blessing.

fall bird hunting

Luna and I have been hunting up a storm lately. We hunted pheasants on Sunday and grouse on Monday. The pheasant hunt was successful. Luna flushed five pheasants and we, Colleen and I, shot four. The grouse hunt was a little different. Luna has never been grouse hunting and wasn't completely clear on the concept. She did flush two grouse, but neither one offered an opportunity for a clean shot.

She loves hunting but seems to burn out after a few hours. Me, I'd hunt all day.

I love the fall. The hunting seasons are opening. The hot weather is subsiding. It's harvest time in the garden. The school year is starting fresh and exciting. Steelhead season is just around the corner.

I've arranged an animal-sitter for deer/elk hunting camp this October. I am so excited. I found a local family through 4-H that should work out well. I will go up into the foothills where I hunt and set up a camp for about four days. Various friends come up to camp each year to hunt or just hang out around the fire. It is one of the highlights of my year.

Colleen and I had pheasant piccata for dinner last night. It was great. I imagine you could also make it with chicken. I've also used venison for the same recipe.

1. Cut your pheasant breast into 1/4 thick fillets and soak in milk for three hours.
2. Coat the breast in flour and brown in three tablespoons of butter.
3. Pour in a cup of white wine and simmer for an additional 2 minutes.
4. Remove the fillets to a warm plate and add a handful of fresh, snipped parsley, three tablespoons of capers, and three tablespoons of lemon juice.
5. Simmer the sauce down until it is thick and serve over the warm pheasant breasts.

It is such a pleasure to enjoy a wild game meal with friends. I am so truly blessed.

Luna goes pheasant hunting

Luna's first pheasant hunt. We went to a hunting preserve for some training and to have some fun. Luna thought it was a grand old time. A few pheasants she was totally oblivious to and I kicked up. One she practically stepped on, and two she totally smelled and flushed. It was totally exciting for me and her.
She didn't retrieve very well, but got the general idea when I went to get the pheasant for her and put it in her mouth. Then we had to try a few times when I needed her to "leave it" for me.

It was a beautiful day in the field. Sunny, warm, beautiful country. Dogs, and guns, and birds. It was great.

Cooked up a great pheasant paprika dish. Diced bacon, diced pheasant, stock, cream, sour cream, carmalized onions, and lots of paprika. Served over egg noodles.

Life is grand. It doesn't get any better than this.

Puppies, steelhead, and teaching

I apologize that all my posts have been about dogs, steelhead, and teaching. It's February, what can I say. Not much else going on. We will be ordering seeds tonight as well as a four tray germination heat mat. I've never tried one before, but I'm hoping it will help jump start the peppers and tomatoes. We will also be discussing chick orders, barn cleaning and restoration, goats, pigs, fencing, and of course, MONEY. Romance and finance.
My teaching week is done tomorrow and I'll have four days off for President's day. My teaching schedule is fairly light as it is which allows me to do farm stuff even during the school year. I also don't expect to be teaching in the summer. Our only income this summer will be from the farmer's market. Farming is sort of like gambling I guess. Or Russian roulette. We've never done the farmer's market gig before, but we've had so much food the last couple of years we've been giving it to friends and charity.
The dog, as you can see, is now big enough to jump on the couch. She is still quite a handful, but she is learning. I can't wait to take her grouse hunting in September. Then waterfowl hunting, which I'm hopelessly obsessed with.

The seasons dovetail into each other here in Idaho. Gardening and fly-fishing for trout in the summer, harvest and grouse in the early fall, then waterfowl, deer, and elk, then ordering seeds and starting them indoors, then Spring Turkey, then planting season, then back to summer. It works out well. I've never had it so good.

A Sunny Day on the River

It was sunny and 62 degrees on the Grande Ronde today! That's in Northern Washington State in early February! I was fishing with my sleeves rolled up. Colleen and Luna and I and two friends and their dog went down to the river to fish and relax. The puppies wore themselves out playing and eating fish guts, and I wore myself out not catching fish. Fish were caught, just not by me.
At dawn we were sitting at the bottom of the Lewiston grade waiting to rendezvous with our fellow anglers. Sitting in a roomy, old, American truck with a dog and a friend. Can't beat it. The roads were a little icy and foggy on the way there, but things had cleared by the time we reached the bottom of the canyon on the Ronde.
We saw eagles and mule deer. I really needed a day in the wild after a long week of teaching.
My friend Jamie caught these two, and three others, on a fly-rod. I tried flies briefly but didn't really have the right set up. After watching him and looking at the rig he was using I'll be going back next week with the right gear.

Steelheading is a weird obsession. You can fish all day and not catch a thing. Some days are stellar, and you actually catch a fish. Steelheading sort of falls between the end of deer and waterfowl season, before Turkey season, and around about the time you are reading seed catalogs and ordering seeds. It's a great excuse to get outside and make a day of it in the middle of winter. Sure beats the shack nasties. We should be starting our tomatoes and peppers in the next couple of weeks.

I'm back at home, the sun has set, the owls are hooting, and it's time to go.

Bunnies have left the area

We haven't seen but one rabbit this week on our morning walks. Hopefully they have left the immediate garden area. More likely, some have left and the rest have become nocturnal. We will see when we start the lettuce and radishes in the garden. I will play with Luna and a rabbit hide to make sure she has the scent right, but I had been kind of saving the hides for fly-tying.

Today is the last day of my "face to face" work week. I have four hours of face time and a few hours of prep to do. I'm not too overwhelmed. I will be on puppy duty all day Friday and have plenty of farm chores and work planning to do around the farm. I love working my own schedule but that means I have to actually set aside the time to do the work. Whether that's Saturday night at 2 am on the couch, or a sunny Friday afternoon at the picnic table. If I put it off, I don't get paid.

Well, it's breakfast, then off to teach.

Little Hunter

Luna and her favorite toy. A mallard wing saved from hunting season. We went out for a long walk, long for a small puppy, and saw a rabbit. I took a shot with the .22 but missed. I probably would have got it with the 20 gauge, but I think the noise might be too much for her. The breeder got her used to a .22 starter pistol, so she had no problem ignoring the .22. She didn't notice the rabbit at all. It was a ways away. That'll come later I'm sure.
She is a wild ball of furry, snapping, growling, teeth. Teething puppies, Oh my! She's getting a little better about fingers and toes, but she'll chew anything in her path. All of our seed catalogs have been torn to shreds. The best time to pet her is when she's half asleep. We really do love her. She's going to be a great hunter and a great addition to our animal menagerie.

Puppies and goose meatballs

After a long day of antics, Luna has finally gone to sleep. She was so wild. Chew, bite, run, play. Her favorite game is to chase the real duck wing. I saved a bunch of duck and goose wings from hunting season this year and she loves them.
We had a glorious meal of goose meatball spaghetti tonight. Sorry no recipe pictures. I borrowed the recipe from Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook. I made a few modifications, but essentially it was the same. I baked the meatballs instead of deep frying them. I bake my meatballs in a casserole with tomato sauce to cover halfway up the sides. 350 degrees. Excellent recipe and an excellent meal.

The puppy, Luna, is home

Luna, our puppy, is home. We drove down to Southern Idaho to pick her up. We hit a couple of snow storms on the way. On Whitebird grade a semi got stuck going up and we almost ended up stuck behind it when we lost momentum.


Luna slept all day in the car, so she had a frieghtening amount of energy when we got home. Lab puppies have a well deserved reputation it seems and she set out to destroy everything in her path. Chew toys, cat toys, shoes, toes, fingers, and even the living room carpeting.
After the initial burst of energy when we got home, she has settled some. She goes nuts for a half an hour then falls fast asleep.
The breeder had already introduced her to gunfire and real birds, so we got to see her retrieve a real bird while the breeder fired a starter pistol. We have a rabbit living in our strawberry patch and can't wait to put her to work chasing it out. She is a beautiful dog. We are truly blessed.

Our new huntress, Luna

The geese are starting to fly over the Palouse and over our land again. The warming temperatures have brought them up from the Clearwater and Snake Rivers to feed on waste grain.



We went down to Boise to visit the newest hunter in our family. A three week old black lab who we have decided to name Luna. She will be trained as a hunting dog and cherished as a new family member. She is just about the most adorable little creature I have ever seen.

She squirmed around and cried for a few minutes then fell asleep in my arms.

Here is Luna with her mom and dad.

Here is Luna walking and crawling on the carpeting.

Colleen and Luna, two of the most beautiful girls in the world.