Pheasants Plus

We went pheasant hunting today. Four hunters, two dogs, Bonnie our photographer, and a pheasant in a pear tree.

Or maybe a birch tree.

Or maybe pheasants don't really sit in trees at all.

And really, there were at least 15 pheasants. That's how many were planted in the fields for us. Not that we met them all ... we only managed to find 10 of them!

Here's Matt, me, and Adam looking for some pheasants:


I like this view better, because it shows all four hunters - my dad, Adam, me, and Matt.


A close-up view of me and Matt:


We look fetching in blaze orange, don't we?

Adam's dog, Molly, is a great hunter girl and really impressed us with her fabulous nose and tireless running. Here's one of the first birds shot -- Adam had just picked it up off the ground:


If you look closely in that picture, you'll see Molly behind some grass in the lower left side of the picture and closer to Adam, just below the bird, is Hannah, mouth open, very interested in the pheasant! Yay Hannah!

When the sun came out, it got really warm. Thankfully there was a nice little pothole for the dogs to go swimming in!


Hannah is the one in the little orange hunting protector, swimming in the pond. I can proudly say that I "taught" her to swim, and it's nice to see her do it all on her own!

I love this shot of Adam, Molly, and Matt:


Seriously, the love of blaze orange must be in the genes!

Another bird taken, and see who's all interested again? It's Hannah!


At about this time I started noticing some weird behavior in Hannah. She had been running around, smelling, and was very interested in the birds, for sure. But I started to notice that she would appear to pick up a scent, get all excited, and then suddenly tuck her tail and be afraid to move forward.

It was as if she had finally put the pieces together and realized that finding the pheasants brought on that awful, loud, scary noise.

Sigh.

I SOOOO want her to be a hunter girl.

She began walking right by my side, or right behind me, and started crying a little bit. Especially right after the guns went off.


We went to take a coffee break. Here's my hubby with his sexy yellow shooting glasses :P.


Hannah, all decked out and looking very hunter-ly, watching the woods for signs of critters.


We decided to head out again. Hannah flushed her second pheasant of the day, a beautiful rooster.

She couldn't take any pleasure in it, though. She seemed afraid to even go up to it. It went downhill from there. We kept trying to walk, but Hannah was walking so close to me she was actually stepping on my heels. Molly was left to cover the whole area by herself. And pretty soon Hannah was shaking, and crying. Disappointed and ready to cry, I decided to bring her back to the truck.

Whatever is she going to do when we are in South Dakota hunting for three days?!?

She and I hung out in the truck for about half an hour, until everyone came back for lunch. Then, while lunch was on the grill, my parents stayed with Hannah while Matt, Adam, and I went out for a quick hunt.


I'm not sure if this was taken during lunch or later, but here is Adam and Molly taking a break by the truck. It really was a nice weather to be outside! Not too cold for Jenn, the wind kept it cool enough for the dogs, and all the rain held off despite some threatening clouds in the sky. Unfortunately it was those 20-30 mph winds that kept the birds tucked tight on the ground!

After our late lunch Matt and I decided to take Hannah off for another hunt. I felt that she finished fairly strong; she surprised us by being willing to run around and smell, and didn't seem frightened any longer. We had one frustrating rooster that was playing hide and seek with us all along a trail at the edge of the field. If Hannah had caught on a little better, she would have helped Matt and I get him ... unfortunately we ended up letting him live for another day.

So, maybe she will end up being ok with hunting after all? We really don't know what to expect from her. I finally decided to make a deal with her that is similar to what my parents did when we were growing up and had to eat food we didn't like. They told us it was ok if we didn't like something, but kept asking us to try it again periodically in case we changed our minds. So I told Hannah it's ok if she's too scared to be a good hunter girl; we will love her no matter what. But I hope she keeps trying it, because we like it and we think if she got over her fears she would love it too! She has all the instincts and passion.


Before we left, we snapped this picture of Adam and his hunter girl, with two pheasants. Boy, that male rooster sure was gorgeous!


And, of course, Matt and me and Hannah. You can expect to see this picture on our Christmas card ;).

Also, a shout out to Pheasants Plus in Warba. Great facility to hunt at!

could I be any happier

We're listening to old country ... Oak Ridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Dolly Parton. Down the hall, Adam is cleaning and singing along. My husband has just arrived from the Cities for the weekend and is sitting on the floor of my room, rubbing the dog's belly, and she is loving every minute of it -- she has missed him and loves that her family is together! These are the moments life is made of.

Evening in a Small Town

Getting home from work, after chatting with the neighbors, the dog tells you it's time for a walk.

You head out, walking through city streets until you reach a wooded dirt trail carved into the hillside. Ahhhhh, trees, serenity, the sun setting. Up ahead, there's a man walking with his two golden retrievers. As you get closer, you realize it's the father of your high school friend, and the two of you walk with your dogs for the next half an hour, catching up on family news and talking about everything from photography to hunting. Coming out of the woods, he tells you that his daughter lives just around the corner, and gives you directions to her house. You walk over there and sure enough--your friend is outside in the front yard, with her family, so you stop there and talk to them for another half an hour.

Leaving there, a shortcut through the neighboring school yard will take you home. Walking across the fields, you hear a horn honk from the nearby road. Looking up, a white SUV tells you it's your cousin, and you wave hello. It feels good to be surrounded by a community you know, to feel that you belong.

An evening walk thus gives you both serenity and society, nature and community, and shows you how even in the span of a couple hours you can renew connections that span through the web of your history. This is not something to be found in the ever-changing cities and suburbs, but just in small towns.

Two Years Ago

Two years ago today, my hubby and I said our vows on a green hillside overlooking a lake. See? Here's us:

What a happy, beautiful day! I've been thinking a lot today about the details of that day--the huge smiles we wore all day, the fun we had taking photos, the beautiful flowers, the tasty cake ... speaking of cake, I ordered one for us to celebrate with over the weekend:

Not looking quite as pretty now, are we?

Yep, we spent Sunday in our comfy clothes, lounging on the couch watching the Vikings after a morning of yard work. We talked about trying to do something together to celebrate our anniversary, but we were just too tired after a busy weekend of work. And today, which is our actual anniversary, Matt is in Victoria and I am here in Cloquet, 150 miles apart.

Some moments I wish we could go back to that happy, perfect wedding day, and in other moments I simply wish we could have done "something special" together over the weekend, or that we could have actually been together today. But in the end, I think it's pretty cool that we were just as happy watching the game in our sweats, and that we love each other and enjoy each other's company no matter what. Eating Buttercream cake and mowing the lawn? Maybe that's priceless.

Marriage rocks.

Meant to Be

Over the summer, I scoured web sites of Duluth architects, and zeroed in on Wagner Zaun. I then contacted Doug Zaun to inquire about designing a house for us when we moved to Duluth. My first week at work, I was chatting with a co-worker about where we'll live when we move here, and mentioned Doug's name ... and he said, "well, we have Doug's wife working in our office!"

So that's how I first met Emily Larson.

My first impression was -- really cool, down to earth, energetic, entirely awesome. I haven't seen her much around the office lately, but on Saturday night got a phone call from my friend Antonia, who I worked with at the U and who lives in Minneapolis.

"Jenn Reed, you'll never guess -- I am sitting here with Emily Larson, Doug's wife, and we've known each other since we were two!" They grew up together and remain friends to this day. The world continually proves itself small, and I love it! I just saw Emily in the hall and we talked about how we were meant to meet, and how cool it is that we both know (and love) Antonia.

In the Garden

A couple weekends ago I was back in Victoria to spend a little much-needed garden time.

As I was weeding, I jumped back when I saw these guys out of the corner of my eye:


Ummm, Kelcie, if you're reading this, I think this is the same insect we saw outside our windows this spring! These guys were crazy. Over 2" long, all black. Unlike any hornets I've seen (which have usually had some yellow on them and not been quite this big). Anyone know what these guys are??

I was pretty excited to see this guy poking out between the leaves:


My first eggplant! I tried to grow them (unsuccessfully) last year. So thrilling to see this after all this work!

I worked my way through the garden, picking this week's harvest:


Carrots, onions, cucumbers, Brandywine tomatoes and Sun gold tomatoes, peppers, chard, squash ... mmmm! I love Nature's delicious bounty!

Family time

My parents have been in the Cities several times this summer. The first few pictures are when we took a break from a weekend of packing to take them to the Arboretum. The last couple of pictures were taken at Tiger Sushi on Matt's birthday.

Brittany Play Date

I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera, so I'll have a few entries as I try to post pictures from recent events.

First up: our Brittany play date from a couple weeks ago. Hannah and I joined some other Brittanies from ABR, and their parents, for a Saturday morning play date. There were 11 dogs total!

Anyplace with water was a big hit!

Morgan and Hannah greeting each other.

So much fun to see all these Brittanies around!

This little sweetheart - Sadie - is a foster dog who went blind this spring. It is so
inspiring and amazing how she gets around. What a sweetheart!

Tia and Daisy playing

By the end of the morning the dogs were pretty tired! That's Hannah in the shade.

Q&A

I think it must be because I’ve been reading Q&A sessions on Pioneer Woman’s web site lately, but I realized that I have been getting a lot of questions myself that others might be wondering about too. (Although my answers won’t be near as entertaining as hers!)

How is your job going?
Honestly? It’s better than I could have imagined. I can’t believe that at one point I considered removing myself from the interview list because the hiring process was so involved … that would have been crazy! I get to do a huge variety of things, and it’s never boring, and my co-workers are smart and savvy and entertaining. Most importantly, we have a coffee club - $5/month for your coffee, brewed for you. What more can a girl ask for?

What kinds of things are you working on?
Well, thinking about the last few days… I wrote a staff report for next week’s Planning Commission meeting, attended a meeting of a design review committee for the Canal Park area, worked on our web site, and reviewed the proposed DNR shoreland regulations to determine how to incorporate them into our new zoning code. Sounds fascinating to all of you, right??

Do you miss SRF?
I thought I would be so sad about leaving behind a great office and a job I cared about. Now I have discovered that I was feeling more stifled at SRF than I thought. I love being free from billable time. I do, however, miss my friends there and think about them all the time!

What do you miss/not miss about living in the Cities?
I miss the dog parks as an easy way to tire my puppy! Love not having to deal with the weekend traffic going north. Time will tell what I add to this list.

Ok, be honest – what’s it like living with your brother?
I watch a lot more tv!

What’s the best thing about living with your brother?
How good he is to Hannah … it’s important to me that I have a happy puppy.

What’s the worst thing about living with your brother?
Ummm … the wet hand towels n the bathroom? ;). That was probably the weirdest thing for me. Since Matt and I shared multiple bathrooms the towels were always dry!

What have you been doing over those hour-long lunch hours?
Yeah, you all know I was complaining about having an hour-long lunch. Well, I’m proud to say I’ve made excellent use of that time and have been loving it (I may owe Kelcie that beer after all … was it a beer that we bet on?). I’ve been running errands, getting my hair done, have scheduled all my chiropractor appointments over lunch, and when I don’t have other things to do I go to Starbucks and read.

How have you been spending your time in Duluth?
Well so far I’ve pretty much been in Duluth only for work. I have to get home to Cloquet to let my puppy out and spend time with her. Once Matt moves up here we can share those duties and hopefully I can spend more time doing stuff. But my evenings are spent cooking, taking dogs for a walk, and relaxing at home. Actually, it’s been pretty nice. Maybe I should keep my life this way!

How’s the house selling going?
It’s going slow. No leads yet! We’re unsure when it will all happen.

When is Matt moving north?
See answer above.

What’s it like having a long-distance marriage?
So far, not too bad. The second week was when I was really stressed and overwhelmed with a new routine and Hannah not doing well, and I missed my husband’s help, support, and calming influence! But we talk every day, and text and email each other about little daily things, and get to see each other on weekends.

Have you found a house in Duluth yet? Where will you live?
We won’t start looking for a place until our house sells. We’ll take whatever we can find (we will rent) that’s in a decent neighborhood and will take a dog!

How’s Hannah?
Hannah is doing awesome now, thank God. The second week here she started having a lot of accidents in the house and seemed so clingy and miserable. I was freaking out about what could be going on with her – she had been so good the first week and seemed to not mind the transition, and now she’s sick? I had even made a vet appointment. And then Adam figured it out: he found an old bag of puppy food in the basement that Hannah had been snacking on, completely disrupting her poor system! Now she’s back to loving life. She goes for walks, plays in her pool here, goes to “Dougie day care” a couple days a week, and gets lots of food and treats and love. She’s a good pup!