Monday, February 22, 2010

The German Shorthaired Pointer


The German Shorthaired Pointer has one of the most unique and unclear origins of any sporting dog breed. I have read many different accounts of how the GSP came to be. Most accounts say that dogs such as the Spanish Pointer, English pointer and several other German scent hound breeds were involved in producing what we see today. A few accounts of the breed origin argue that the English pointer was never involved.The actual dates vary as well, some say the GSP was around as early as the 16th century, others say the 18th century. Point being, there really isnt a set in stone list of what breeds went into the mix or when it actually happened. What we do know is it happened something like this. For many centuries in European culture only royalty could hunt and they had a kennel full of dogs for every purpose. The common man had no priviledges and no money, but he needed to survive and provide for his family. He couldnt afford a different dog for every purpose, so he set out to create an all purpose dog.This dog would have to retrieve fur and feather from water or land, point and track a variety of game,be a watch dog, and blend into the household. Hence the GSP or "Common mans" dog. I would agree that Brewer has all of these traits, and I will probably never have a different breed of dog. He is still a puppy and very unrefined, but I cannot imagine a better dog for me. And to think I wanted a Lab. Easy easy, just kidding, I still love labs, and if I had one I would be bias towards them too. I will also confess I am curiously attracted to the state dog of South Carolina, the Boykin Spaniel. I watched a few of them work at a field trial and have been interested ever since, but the GSP is still the dog for me. What kind of dog is your favorite and why? Thanks for stopping buy, stay tuned.
Checkout this link for a great video on the history of the GSP. http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid58743927001?bctid=59961806001 .
I am trying to just post the video on here put blogspot is not cooperating.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

99 years

Yesterday my family laid to rest my great grandmother. She was 99 years old. Lessie Smith Briley.

From the High Point Enterprise

ARCHDALE — Mrs. Lessie Smith Briley 99, former resident of Lake Dr. died Sunday morning at 3:10 a.m. in the GrayBrier Nursing and Retirement Center.

Mrs. Briley was born June 26, 1910 in Guilford County a daughter of Willard A. and Etta Smith. She had been a resident of High Point and Archdale most of her life and was retired from Adams Millis Hosiery. She was a graduate of High Point High School in 1928 and a member of Welch Memorial United Methodist Church. She was a former Sunday School Teacher in the Children’s Dept and Assistant Teacher of the Adult Bible Class. Mrs. Briley was a former choir member and past president of United Methodist Women. She was married to Roscoe Leroy Briley who preceded her in death in 1987.

Surviving are 1 daughter; Mrs. Sylvia Paul and husband Joel of Archdale; daughter-in-law Mrs. Carol G. Briley of High Point; Sister-in-law Mrs. Ruth Smith of Florida; 5 Grandchildren; 4 Great Grandchildren and 3 Great Great Grandchildren. Also surviving are several nieces and nephews. Mrs. Briley was preceded in death by a son Richard L. Briley, 3 Brothers and 3 Sisters.


Mammaw Briley as we called her, was as classy a lady as they come. She drove until she was 92 years old. One of the funniest things I remember about her is one of her dogs Winston. Winston was a cocker spaniel. He came to her normal but as time progressed he took on the appearance of a color phase black bear. Winston was a big fan of hot dogs and mammaw let him endulge him self. When my grandfather(her son) died, she sat by his side and ran her hands through his hair and called him her baby. She didnt remember a lot of us at that point, but she knew her son. She truly lived her life dedicated to God. Mammaw was the cornerstone of the legacy we try to up hold. Not many people make it to 99, but then again not many people walk the straight and narrow like her either. I am honored to be her great grandson and I hope to live my life like her. This loss does not sting, but it is cause for rejoicing. There is no doubt she fought the good fight,she finished the race, she kept the faith, this life ended, but she received another.

1 Corinthians 15:55 Where oh death is your victory? Where oh death is your sting?

Monday, February 15, 2010

Bone Collecting Legalized in Virginia




Article courtesy of J.R. Absher from the Newshound at Outdoor Life http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/newshound/2010/02/bone-collecting-legalized
For years, sportsmen in Virginia who regularly head to the woods in the late winter and early each spring to collect shed deer antlers were violating a state law.

And very few hunters—and not all game officers, for that matter—were aware of the obscure regulation. That’s because under a strict interpretation of the Virginia statute, possession of all wild animal parts (without a permit) was strictly forbidden.

Thankfully, a bill passed last week by the Virginia House creates an exemption for the collection of whitetail deer headgear. Introduced by freshman Delegate James Edmunds, HB1283 was approved by a 95-1 margin.

The measure now heads to the Senate where its approval appears imminent.

As presently written, state law prohibits the ownership of “any wild bird or wild animal or the carcass or any part thereof, except as specifically permitted by law.”

According to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the law was intended to guard against the illegal trade of wild animal parts and to allow only licensed hunters to possess their legally taken big game trophies.

Ironically, Edmunds, a Republican who represents Virginia’s 60th District, discovered he was technically breaking the law after a colleague noticed some sheds decorating his General Assembly building office in Richmond and told him about the statute.

The greenhorn representative was not cited for his unintentional infraction.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Im a proud papa






The fun trial almost didnt happen for us yesterday. We didnt get to leave Raleigh until about 10 pm Friday night. It snowed the entire drive and things got pretty dicey a time or two but we made it to High Point(my parents house) alright. I made a game time decision at 6:00 am Saturday morning to go for it. It turned out to be the right decision. It was about an hour down the road to Rimrock Shooting Preserve in Harmony , NC. We saw a few wrecks on the way but made it just fine. There were about 15 or 20 dogs in the event. It was basically just for the members of the Yadkin Valley Chapter of QU, so it was small.I got my first experience as a judge in the competition. It wasnt as hard as I thought it would be and judging another hunter and dog helped me when my turn came. Brewer did awesome for his first event. For those of you who do not know how these events work I will explain. Yesterday there were 2 different fields used. One for flushing dogs and one for pointing dogs. When it is your turn to go, you have to sit in a designated place with your dog where you cannot see the field while someone plants the birds. The field is about 15 acres give or take a few acres. You have 20 minutes to find 3 birds, shoot them and complete a full retrieve. The field is a cut corn field and the birds are planted in patches of the corn. The faster you complete your run the better. For pointing dogs like Brew, the dog has to hold a point for three seconds, then the hunter has to walk in and flush the bird, shoot it and not take any steps. To get points for a full retrieve the dog has to retrieve the bird to hand, the hunter gets one pivot step and thats it. The best dog/hunter combos yesterday did this in around 3 minutes, but they are old pros. Brewer actually found 4 birds, one flew too low to the ground all the way out of bounds. Brewer was fast on his tail or I would have shot. Since the bird went out of bounds, It was a lost cause and we moved on. He pointed and caught 2 birds I flushed out and he retrieved them to my hand. But since I did not shoot the bird I was penalized a little. With our time running out he went on point again, the bird flew and I connected with a second shot.It was the perfect point, shot and retrieve, but time expired before Brewer got back to me with the bird, so we lost a lot of points. We scored 150 points, the best scores for the day where in the 240's. The top six pointing dogs and the top 4 flushing dogs were selected for the final round. We came in 7th so our day was over, but I am still so proud of how well he did. Just a few seconds sooner and we probably would have advanced. On 2 occasions, Brewer made the most beautiful point I had ever seen, he locked up hard, it was textbook stuff, he looked just like those stickers for your car with a GSP pointing. I wish I could have taken a picture of those points, they were awesome. Steffi and I could not be more proud of how well Brewer did yesterday, he completely exceeded my expectations and I cannot wait to compete with him again. I learned a lot yesterday, it was a valuable experience for both Brewer and my self. I know we can improve greatly the next time out. Steffi took some great pictures that I will put up tomorrow. I left the cord needed to transfer the pics from the camera at home.
On another note, I just realized that Daniel "Moose" McLaughlin, the man behind the Moose Droppings blog, gave this blog a great endorsement. He did a post just about me and NC OUTDOORSMAN back in January and I just realized it. I want to take this opportunity to really thank him for that. I wish I had realized this sooner. I greatly appreciate him doing that, he has a great thing going over there at Moose Droppings, I check it out everyday. Hopefully I can continue to improve this blog and my writing to get to his level. If you havent done it already, go to my links on the right side of the page and click on Moose Droppings, he has a very informative blog and I guarantee if there is big news in the outdoor world, he knows about it.
Well, it is Sunday morning and we are going to Church with my parents. I have to get in the shower before I make us late. I am really excited about the future of this blog, we will see were it takes me. Thanks for stopping by, there is plenty more to come. Thanks to all the guys from Yadkin Valley QU and Rimrock Preserve for putting on a great fun trial yesterday, cant wait for the next one.
By the way, I am officially 28 years old today.

-Andrew

Friday, February 12, 2010

Fun Trial time

Well, the Fun Trial is here, Brewer and I never got much of the work in I had hoped we would. I am pretty nervous about tomorrow. I know it is not a formal setting, I just hope Brewer doesnt make me look totally ridiculous. This morning he chased a car down our street. He has never done that before. I am pretty sure I woke the entire neighborhood up at 5:45 yelling his name a half dozen times. Richard Wolters in his book Game Dog states that by this time you should not have to yell at your dog to get him to obey you. As a matter of fact he says that yelling is probably never the answer because the dog believes he can get away with his current bad behavior until you yell. As soon as you believe the dog has learned to respond to you, never give a command more then 2 times. If the dog sees or hears you give the command and still chooses not to listen, nip that problem in the bud, dont let it get to yelling. I think this is one place I have not followed through well in Brewers training. There are some things he does well when we tell him, other things like responding to the COME command no matter what, he needs work on. I am pretty sure that he will not chase any more cars, unless he went into shock from getting spanked and has blocked out the whole experience. He knew he behaved badly and tried to hide from me in the flower bed. I picked him up by the skin on the back of his neck and the skin on his back and carried him inside popping him 3 times on the rear when we got there. He stayed away from me for a minute or 2 and then he came and said he was sorry.
Sunday I officially enter into my upper 20's. My dad always said I should be careful what I choose to do because time flies and I will be 30 before I know it. Well, 28 isnt 30, but it really emphasizes what I already think about daily. What the heck am I going to do with my life, cause this aint it. There are a few plans in the works, but I am constantly anxious about making those plans a reality, and life constantly seem to change my plans. I feel like the principal states, Lack of purpose equals lack of direction which eventually leads to spiritual death. Or better said by Aaron Tippin "You ve got to stand for something or you ll fall for anything".
I know I have purpose and I know I have God's grace to rely on.I just cannot seem to climb out of this rut. How do we as followers of Jesus learn to activate our faith? I believe we must trust in God fully. To trust in God fully, at some point we have to take a chance and give something to God in our lives that we dont want to. It is called a leap of faith. It shouldnt be so hard but it is. In our culture if we cannot see it, hear it, or touch it, "it" is considered a strike against progress and deemed unnecessary or irrelevant. We have eliminated the need for God in our lives, or so it would seem. We have everything we need and we have it RIGHT NOW. Even those of us who profess our faith to God. We expect blessings and answers and miracles and direction RIGHT NOW. One of the things that encourages me every time I think about it is this, throughout the Bible, there are Heroes and Villains. God takes the most unlikely people and turns them into relentless passionate purpose filled advocates for him and his glory, and he does this time and time again. The thing we often miss about all of these people is the process God took them through. We read a few pages of their story and get fired up asking God to give us courage and faith like Nehemiah or David or Moses or Noah. We lose sight of the fact that their faith was forged over years of struggling to get it right, trials and tribulations and screw ups. David was anointed king of Israel when he was very young, it was not until about 15 years later that he actually became king. Could you imagine that, knowing you had been anointed King over all of Israel by God,and then having to wait and wait and wait to sit on the throne. Are you sure this is what you said God, cause right now, I dont see how you are gonna make this happen. Sound familiar? All of these men fought their fights, won and lost physical and spiritual battles, all the while God was with them, patiently waiting on what he knew was to come. Lets not forget our walk with God is a process, there are steps to be taken and lessons to be learned. All of us will stumble and fall. Proverbs 24:16 "The Righteous man falls seven times, and he riseth again" The ins and outs of how our culture operates is not a reflection of how God operates. Even in my lowest darkest moments I have felt God's pursuit, heard his whisper in my ear. What a great God I serve that he would pursue me still, with full knowledge of my actions and cold heart. Our walk with God is a process, faith is cultivated by faith and revelation. The more you trust in God the more he reveals himself to you, the more you know about God the more you trust in him, the more you trust in him the further he takes you. Its not about who is good or bad, or what you have done or anything like that. its about trusting. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The Bible states that as long as the earth is in motion there will be SEED TIME & HARVEST. So right now you are either sowing, waiting, or reaping.....

Monday, February 8, 2010

Bone Collecting

I told you yesterday that Brewer and I were going shed antler hunting. Well we went, and while we didnt find any antlers, Brewer did find what looked to be the femur of a deer. So while it wasnt a shed, we are definitely on the right track. I also stumbled upon my new honey hole for early deer season next year. I have walked all around this particular piece of public property many times, but I still have not covered it all, apparently. I cannot wait to try this spot out, I have hunted within a few hundred yards of this spot and seen deer often. I wish I could draw you a picture, but you will just have to trust me when I say this spot is money in the bank. It is a secluded creek bottom that bridges 2 pieces of land together that are divided by a small cove off of the main lake.It is literally invisible from the main path, and you have to be purposefully wondering around to find it. I just never walked this land far enough in that direction before because it is a pretty tough walk through a bunch of thorns, who knew. I am hoping it is far enough off of the beaten path to keep other hunters away. On another note, Brewer flushed 2 quail from a thicket in that creek bottom and they flew right over my head, too bad it was Sunday. I was excited to see them though, the game lands manual says they are there but I have never seen one until yesterday. I wish I could say he went on point, but he flushed them. Maybe he can be the first ever GSP to enter the flushing dog category this weekend.
Well the ribs were disappointing in my opinion. Steffi liked them,but I expected more spice, and the were not as tender as I had hoped for. I did learn a thing or two from this little experiment and I will be sure to get it right the next time. I felt bad, my brother in-law came over to watch the game and I told him not to bring much, that I had it covered. We had chips and very little salsa(I thought we had more), sweet potatoes, hot dogs (that he brought),and the ribs that finally got done after the first quarter. The beef roast was a bust and it never got served. I had an apple pie to bake, but I realized too late that it took an hour to prepare. He probably will not come back over, at least for dinner. Sorry Andy

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Gonna be a good day

I have not posted nearly as much as I wanted in the last week or so. The weather has kept me from doing anything with Brewer for the most part, and I have just been tired. Today is Super Bowl Sunday, I am pulling for the Colts, but I will not be devastated if the Saints win. Steffi has to work all day, so that is disappointing, she might make it home by halftime. Today is looking pretty nice so far, me and the Brew will get to run around this afternoon. It is just about time to start looking for shed antlers, I think I have him trained to find them since I hide his antler( a shed I found last year) in the house and around the yard, he usually finds it. We will see.
If you know me you know I love to eat, Steffi says I dont have an off button like most people, she might be right. Since it is Super Bowl Sunday, a traditional excuse to pig out, I am currently preparing 2 racks of baby back ribs, and a large beef roast. In the same way I am strangely attracted to hunting critters of all sorts, I get really excited about any opportunity I have to use my grill. I generally do not follow recipes. I usually experiment with different things even after I find a good way of doing something. Most of the time this works out pretty good, but sometimes disaster strikes. My wife wouldnt tell me the truth, but just the other day I tried to cook a roast in the crock pot, I thought I followed all of the right steps, but somewhere along the way I messed up. The truth lies in the fact that Brewer only wanted 1 tiny piece. After he managed to chew it up he just walked over to his water bowl took a few sips and didnt ask for more. Amazingly though, Steffi liked it, interesting....It was really bad, way too chewy and dry, who knew you could dry something out in a crock pot? My point being, I cannot consider my self grill master or chef just yet, but I am pumped about these ribs. They are currently absorbing a dry rub of brown sugar, chili powder, garlic pepper, black pepper,a little salt and a little butter. This afternoon, I will cook them in the oven at about 225 degrees for 2 hours. Then I will use a combination of A-1 marinade and Kepley's down home BBQ sauce to add some more flavor and moisture and place them on the old stand by Weber charcoal grill for a few minutes for that smoked flavor. That is my make shift recipe for baby back ribs, I will let you know how it turns out. I havent decided what to do with the beef roast yet, but it is currently marinating in A-1 classic marinade and black pepper. I could drink that stuff.
I am in for a great day. The house is clean, I get to go shed hunting with Brewer, come back and fire up the oven and grill, watch the big game and enjoy some great food. Hopefully Steffi gets off sooner rather then later so there is still food left when she gets here.
I plan on continuing to reinforce Brewers training today by attempting to make him quarter different areas in search of sheds. I know this could be confusing for a dog to hunt shed antlers not birds, but I think he can handle it. If he cant, maybe I will find some nice sheds at the Fun Trial next week. One last note, Steffi and I took Brewer to the Vet this week because we though he was sick, turns out he is fine. I was anxious to get him on the scales to see how much he has grown. Last time we took him was sometime in October or November. He was 30 lbs then, now he is 50 lbs.He doesnt look like he has grown much to me, but I see him everyday. I think he is 23 or 24 inces tall. He is 8.5 months old. Both his mom and dad are a good bit bigger then he is now, so I think he has a lot of growing left to do. They are both around 70 pounds and stand about 2 inches taller then he does. Of course I want him to be as big as possible. I realize this serves no purpose except to inflate my pride, so if he doesnt get that big its ok, but I hope he does. We had the vet clip his nails because he will not cooperate for us at home. Turns out he doesnt like it there either. My self, Steffi and the assistant had to pin him down while the vet clipped his nails. He turned in to a little monster, growling, whining and yelping. The funniest part was when we had him held down, he saw the clippers moving towards his foot, and before the even touched him he yelped really loud as if it already hurt. I felt so bad doing that to him, but those claws were getting long. The only way I could get him to calm down was by asking him where the DUCKIES and BIRDIES were and asking him if he wanted to go HUNTEM UP, this seemed to distract him just long enough for the Doc to finish. He was all kisses and wags afterwards because he was graciously rewarded for his courage with doggy treats. Next time we might just put him under.
Well, time is a-waistin, Thanks for stopping by, I will let ya know how those ribs turn out and hopefully have some pics of the sheds I find today.

-Andrew

Monday, February 1, 2010

My latest adventure

My posts here recently seem to be all about Brewer and me, so bare with me, here comes another one. One of my absolute favorite things to do is to go out after a fresh snow and look at all of the critter tracks. I took Brewer out to the local reservoir this afternoon. This particular reservoir has lots of land around it for us to roam around on. We were following the trail around the lake and as usual Brewer was working the area around us. He disappeared for about 20 seconds and when I blew the whistle a gray fox came flying out of a thicket 50 yards from me, a few seconds later here comes Brewer full blast right on his heels. Despite our best effort that fox gave us the slip and was never seen again. Brewer followed the scent and I followed the tracks to an intersection of about 5000 fox tracks that went in every possible direction and we were done with that. However that did lead us to an area on the back of a field that was littered with deer tracks. I followed a set of buck tracks into some ridiculously thick cover only to find an empty bed. However as I came out of the thicket I looked up just in time to see a deer give me the flag and run off. Luckily Brewer had not seen the deer.It never fails , especially at this particular spot that he finds a few deer to chase, the high pitched bark ripping through the woods is always a dead give away. He did chase a few deer today, but not this one. We tracked this deer for about 200 yards, but it was getting dark and Brewer had stepped in almost every one the deers tracks so they were getting hard to distinguish from his. One thing that struck me as odd was a pair of really fresh scrapes I stumbled upon while tracking this deer. At first I thought they might be turkey scratches but there were only deer tracks in and around them. I took a picture with my cell phone(didnt have my camera AGAIN). I will have to investigate this spot again soon. It seems a bit late for scrapes?? On the way back to the truck we came across a horse of a buck track(fresh) and followed it a bit. Brewer got ahead of me and then I heard the barking. He finally came back to me a minute later. I never saw the deer but judging by his track I bet he was a big boy.
I told you I was going to be revamping Brewers upland training in preparation for the upcoming fun trial. Today also on the way back to the truck(before the other buck track), we walked through a large field, I had him quarter the field by whistle and hand signals. He was tired by this point but he did well. Some people say the only way to hunt over a GSP is when they are worn out, they might be right. Thanks for checking in. Stay tuned

-Andrew