This is 4/5 of this years team. A dark bay is the other member.

New Season Coming Soon

Upland game bird season has been under way for a couple weeks, but the pheasant opening is a little over a week away. I started preparing the horses to ground tie,and tolerate the sound of gun shot about a month ago. I started hunting with both of them two weeks ago shooting at everything that flies with a single shot 22. That means that I was illegal in several ways. I also knew that the probability of my hitting anything was very remote, but the training we worth the risk to me.

On foot I've been out three days, about two hours each day. I saw two large coves, shot once and got nothing. Most of the birds flushed out of the other side of the cover away from me. That is often the way it goes when one hunts alone.

Gospel Hump Wilderness Area

End of the road camp near Gospel Hump.


Trail partners Newell Morgon, and Jim Willis doing what they do best.

Getting ready to saddle up with horses on a high line.

We took extra horses in case we decided to pack in at some point. We never did spend the night away from base camp, so I lead my spare horse, rode one out, switched the saddle over and rode the other one back.

A view up the trail, which in this case is an unimproved road.

This is Horse Thief lake which was a short hike from camp. Lots of fish in this lake but we didn't figure out how to catch them.

Newell had a portable electric fence which allowed us to use this meadow as a small pasture.

A little rest along the trail. Check the cinch then climb back on.

Where did that trail go?

Looking across the canyon.

A nice trail ran along one edge.

Rainbow Lake from our ridge top trail.

New Dogs

L to R: Lily, Sugar and Spicey checking out a coyote den.

The two new dogs...Spicey on the left and Sugar on the right.
Our house and barn are in the left background.

Junior with Farmington and our place in the background.


Juneau tragically died on January 7. With the sudden death of her former owner, and our friend Paul Fischer on January 12, events fell into place, and I ended up with Juneau's mother and sister. The mother, Spice, is mostly the typical Brittany brown, while Sugar, Juneau's sister, looks very much like Juneau did.

Tekoa Railroad Grade

Tekoa is a little town eleven miles north of us. Today we hunted along the county road about 6 miles north of Farmington in the RR grade that connects the two towns. The tracks were removed years ago. These first two pictures were of Juneau on another hunt a few days ago, but I liked the pictures so I threw them in.


This was today on the R.R. grade.

Here is a look at the cover. Lily is barely visible at left center.

This is a look at the old track bed. Right now the birds can be found in large flocks that flush 100 or more yards ahead of us. You can see 20 to 40 birds at a time, then walk for two more hours and see nothing. Most days I get a shot at a partridge, sometimse at a pheasant, but today I didn't fire a shot.

Another Hunt in the Snow

The last of the sun on the Idaho hilltops.

A look at the cover. Juneau took a dip up to her chim. She was covered with beads of ice in a matter of seconds.

A storm is coming tonight so we got in a little hunt in the evening sun.