It's Time!

 I'm sitting here in the relative coolness of the cabin while the oppressive heat from the sun burns my lawn and toasts all my flowers.  But do I care?  No!  Because tomorrow I go to pick up the new Puppy.  The breeder is about a 5 hour drive from my house but I'm taking the long way and enjoying the scenery along the way.  My route should take me through Lewiston & Clarkston, Walla Walla and the Wallowa Mountains.  All places I have never been to before (Actually P.T. and I camped briefly at Wallowa Lake years ago but it was all at night and dark out).  The scenic voyage should take about an hour longer but will be well worth it.  The truck is comfortable and has icy A/C so the 100+ temps won't affect me until the radiator blows up in the No Cell Service area of the Idaho Oregon border. Hooray!

Monday morning I go to meet with the nice folks at Forest Cove Tollers and finally get to learn which one of the 13 little sausages is mine.  I spoke with Steve the owner many times and he seems to have a system to determine which of the pups are the 'birdiest' and from there he determines which pup goes to what home.  My understanding is that they have some homes for hunting, some for agility, some for service animals and some for just all around pets.  I figure he knows a lot more than I do about which will make the best hunters but not knowing which puppy is mine for the last few weeks is tough.  If you go to their website and look at the pictures they are all adorable but all different with the coloring and markings.  All I really hope for is a lot of white on the underbelly which should help in the Tolling aspect of hunting (Again, look it up.  Do I have to tell you people everything?)  Of course it doesn't really matter which one I get, she will be the 4th best dog ever to grace the H7HT blinds.  Clyde, Peat, Waylon and June are all pioneers in the quest to retrieve birds that we shoot, and Ladi should be no different.  Of course I plan to be The Expert in perpetuity from here on out because somehow maybe my shooting skills will improve just by knowing that I don't have to go into the icy cold water to get all my hen Widgeons.  Maybe.

Well anyway, stay tuned for more groundbreaking information aboot our newest member.  I should be back in town on Monday night and by the time I get rested up and out for the 21st potty break I should be able to get at least one picture up of the new heartbreaker.

GBCH

Well, well, well. I'm Back!

 Hey friends, it's me Bob D.

I'm back and ready to resume my position as the poster with the most-er.  Stay with me here as I get all of you up to date on the recent happening's, on new events and what I am about to drop on you.  

I am getting a puppy!

I know what you are saying.  "Holy Heston Bob D, you are finally getting the dog you have been talking aboot for years?"  Yes.  But first let's explore the reasons why this is the venue I have announced this grand news on.

A bunch of 50 year olds have told me that Faceofbooks and Instantgram are all the rage with the youngsters these days but for a long time members of the H7HT always got the word to the street on this very blog.  We told you aboot all of the trials and tribulations of our hunting exploits in long form, with many more than 40 characters and sometimes more backstory and explanations than you may have wanted.  Sure, we might be longwinded but it turns out some of you liked it.  Sometimes we even created poetry and songs and catchphrases that we hoped you might like.  But then that day came when we realized that nobody, NOBODY, actually read the blog.  We believed that we were doing this just for ourselves, and the time we put in to create a posting that we hoped would connect with all our thousands of readers, turned out to be just something that was a giant waste of time.  For Heston's sake, we could be out scouting rather than typing away in the 'hunt and peck' method just to entertain ourselves.  So, the day came when we adapted to the times and used our amazing social media skills to put pictures on thefaceofbooks so that people would know how amazing our hunting skills are.  It seemed that the days of the Blog were dead.

So here I am today knowing that this was all a lie.  People actually not only read the blog, but liked it!  I spent a couple weeks back East with some old friends and they all lamented the dissolution of the Blog. Turns out that old people actually enjoy the story.  They like to read.  They seem to want to hear aboot Tom Foolery and disappointment and all the ways we fail in our duck hunting trips.    Many of them even said we should start up again.  Who knew?

So, without further adieu, I announce today that I am getting a puppy.  A purebred Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retreiver.  And I will use this blog as the space to vomit out all the useless information about raising this dog for tolling (look it up.  Come on, I can't tell you everything can I?) and the joys and downfalls and highs and lows of being and old guy with a new best friend.  Stay tuned......