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Blindfaithmarcia’s blog

Marcia has started a blog with the intent of communicating her feelings about our dogs and their world along with, I’m sure, thoughts about other topics such as politics, hunting, husbands and, well, you get the point. Links and the like will be posted here soon.

CHOCOLATE  MALE  PUPPY AVAILABLE.

One of the two chocolate male puppies born to Sophie on July 4 is now available for sale. The original buyer has decided to wait for a pup out of the litter that Lily will be having later in the year. The pup is EIC and CNM CLEAR. Pups will go to homes the weekend of August 20. Call for more info ( 217-247-2754).

SOPHIE’S BORN ON JULY 4, 2010.

Sophie had 5 pups. There might be a chocolate male available so call for more info. EIC testing will take place soon.

MORGAN HAS SUCCESSFUL SURGERY!!

On Thursday, May 6 Morgan became ill while training and had to have emergency abdominal surgery by Brad Cooper at East Lake Hospital for Animals followed by care at the U of I ICU and then more care at ELHA. Morgan is doing fine now and there was no cancer so we, once again, thank The Good Lord for his many blessings!

SOPHIE BRED and due July 2!

Sophie came into season on Sunday, April 18 and was bred to Bruce Mountain’s beautiful chocolate male, Woody on May 1 and 2.  See the puppy page for details.

10- Hole Ainley Trailer Sold….14-Hole Jones Trailer for sale ( Ray Weaver, see For Sale page).

We are selling our 10-hole Ainley trailer and getting a 6-hole Ainley with ATV capacity ( getting old! ). If you or someone you know might be interested give us a call. Details on the trailer can be seen on the  For Sale page of this website and pictures are now  available in our Photo Gallery.

BUSTIN’ AND LILY

Bustin’ and Lily each have passed all three Juniors that they have run and will each run for JH titles at Michigan Flyway the weekend of May 21. They both did very well in challenging juniors at  Backwater in early April with Bustin’ being especially sharp. We had to scratch on Saturday at GRCI at DesPlaines due to Morgan’s surgery but drove up on Sunday where both dogs passed. Now we shoot for the titles.

TITLES!!!!!!!! Both Bustin’ and Lily earned their JH titles on Saturday at Michigan Flyway. The tests were challenging and both brown dogs did very well. I know that it is hard to believe but we had to walk a total of 2400 yds to run the first series and a total of 2800 yds to run the second series. So much for the hip replacement holding us back!! On Sunday Ray and I decided to run the guys again with Ray running Lily to save time. Bustin passed again but, for some reason, Lily dropped the duck about 10 yards in front of Ray and would not pick it up! ?????? Has not been a problem since so we will chalk it up as a fluke and move on.

MAGGIE ( 07/01/2001 – 12/10/2009)

Before Bill left for his surgery we had to hospitalize Maggie for what we thought was a simple gastrointestinal problem. It turned out to be anything but simple and our beloved Maggie had to be put to sleep the morning of December 10. Although Maggie was not our most talented competitive dog she was a beautiful and wonderful DOG, all that anyone could ask for in a friend and companion. We will miss her deeply and look forward to the day when we will see her again at The Bridge. Take Care, Maggie!

GOIN’ SOUTH

Lily( our young chocolate female) is with our good friend, Ray Weaver, getting ready for the trip to South Carolina for winter training. Wish we could be going along. The training grounds are wonderful and the hosts, Bobby and Louisa Mead, are equally so.  As of 2/24/2010 reports from SC are all positive. Lily is doing well and should be ready to run hunt tests  when she returns to Il. in mid March.

ARCHERY

Well, the bow season is rapidly drawing to a close with only 6 days left. We are still going out for a ” Big Boy” but would also like to take one more deer of any persuasion since we gave two of our kills away. In that regard I am happy to announce that I( Bill) have recieved my new Mathews Z7 bow and it is set up ( Sam’s Pro Shop) and ready to rock! Marcia has sold her Mathews Drenalin and is now shooting a Mathews Passion, their new bow designed especially for women.

Deer Processing

Marcia and I thought that we would let you know that we always have our deer ( and some other wildlife as well) processed by our good friend Bill Hamilton who lives just outside of Danville, Il. Bill is a retired butcher who processes deer in order to have some extra cash for golf and traveling  the country with his lovely and understanding( blood trails down the driveway!) wife, Nancy. Bill is swamped with work each Fall so I’m not including his phone number. If you need processing call me and I’ll contact Bill or his partner Carl to see if they can help you out. Bill and Nancy are both graduates of my alma mater, Westville High School.

Bill’s Surgery..an update.

I had my surgery( THR-AA) on December 7 at 3PM. According to all involved the surgery went very well and I am recovering nicely. Rehab is going according to schedule and the folks that I’m working with are great as well. Since I was experiencing some pain during a couple of exercises I visited the Ortho guy who first diagnosed me and found that I have a “non displaced stress fracture of the upper troc” so I have to take it easy for a while, eliminate the painful exercises and take different pain meds. It should take care of itself. Call if you feel like chatting, especially about dogs or hunting.

After postponing surgery until Dec. 14  we have now had the date moved up to Dec. 7 due to a scheduling conflict on the Dr.’s part. Dr. Gordon Allan of The Orthopedic Center of Illinois will due a right hip replacement ( anterior approach ) at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Il. at about 1:30PM that day. Hospitalization will be about 2-3 days then back home to Little Wappaoolah. Biggest goal….Bowhunt one more time this season with the new Z7. Bill will miss the beginning of the southern trip with Ray but may get down there for the end of the trip and the Swamp Fox NWTF Banquet.

Change in plans…..

We will probably not be running field trials this fall. I ( Bill ) have known for some time that I would eventually need a hip replacement and for the past month it has been difficult to train effectively or at all. Consequently I will have hip replacement surgery on December 14( This is a new date…I could not stand the thought of missing the best part of the deer season so I moved the date back a bit! ). I’m looking forward to enjoying every thing more after the surgery but it would seem very unlikely that wwe would be able to run Morgan in any trails this fall. It’s a shame since his work had been very good up until a month ago. Oh well…..The Good Lord works in mysterious ways and my life has been blessed so I have confidence that this will work out for the best.

Ripley has been sold!

We sold Ripley in early October to a friend and client in Minnesota. Although we hated to see Ripley go we feel confident that this was best for her and hope that she does well in her new home to the north. May God go with Ripley and her new owners.

YOUNG GUNS

Our young dogs, namely Ripley( 2yr 3mo and now sold), Lily ( 1yr 10 mo) and Bustin’ ( 19 mo) are doing very well with their training.

Ripley is well into her handling work and is beginning to run cold blinds of the easy variety and moving into triples. She is running FT type singles as well. She can run senior doubles and some master triples but still needs more work on blinds to get to senior level completely.

Lily and Bustin’ are doing increasingly difficult singles( up to 200 yds) with multiple changes in cover including long water entries and carries back onto land. They could easily do junior work and are nearly steady. Both are beginning handling work with baseball and wagon wheel. They also are doing  simple doubles. Bustin’ in particular is doing very well and seems to be making progress in leaps and bounds which is probably his main problem…the leaps and bounds that is….overexuberance at first!

Lily who is ” down South” with Big Ray and is doing multiples and hunt tests blinds now so we look forward to running her this spring although we are uncertain as to what we are going to run first…with her and Bustin’ as well.

MORGAN ( and Linc) at Mississippi Flyway HRC …..MORGAN TITLES!!

Morgan earned his HRCH title in grand fashion on May 30, hammering the last series water test after the honor dog broke. Throughout the spring Morgan was plagued by rebirds, breaks, no birds and mechanical failures but he pulled through each time. Morgan passed seven consecutive finished events, most with low pass rates ( 11 of 25 this weekend). He had no handles on the 40 marks and 7 diversion birds and ran the 14 blinds beautifully.His only ” flaw” was being asked to reheel twice. The Captain did well! We will now try some field trials with Morgan, Linc and possibly Sophie.

Linc as usual passed with a flawless performance. That makes 13 straight finisheds without a failure. Linc is a good boy!

MORGAN  at ILLINOIS RIVER HRC

After being sick all night on Friday, probably from being in the truck during an horrendous thunder and lightning storm, Morgan ran well and passed the finished both days. The tests were four of the nicest and most challenging the I have run in HRC. The judges ( Fred LaPenske, Mike Botts and John Hawkins) are to be commended for setting up the tests which were very realistic hunting scenarios and a whole bunch of fun to run! Now Morgan needs one pass to attain the HRCH title. He and Linc will give it a run at Mississippi Flyway HRC the last weekend of May. Then we will run some FT Quals.

Garth Brooks said it well…..

” Let’s set sail with Captain Morgan and never leave dry land” !!!!

MORGAN ( and Linc) at Mississippi Valley HRC

Morgan and Linc both ran beautifully and passed both Finisheds the weekend of May 2 and 3 at Mecca Mines near Victoria, Il. . Saturday’s pass earned Morgan his HR title and he now needs three passes for the CH title. Linc has now passed 12 Finisheds with no failures. He’s a beautiful animal with great marking ability. When another dog broke on the honor and ran directly behind him to make the retrieve amidst much hollering and shouting, he turned his head as if to say ” What’s with that dog?” You had to be there to appreciate his demeanor.

Backwater Spring Hunt Test, April 4-5,  2009

Linc and Ruff each passed the Master. This leaves Ruff  with one pass necessary to qualify for the BRC Hall of Fame. We hope to try for the last pass so that Ruff may join her mother, Haley, and her grandmother, Mindy, along with Sophie and Linc as members of the H of F. Morgan ran exceptionally well, actually better than both Linc and Ruff,  but broke, somewhat controlled, on the honor in the second series. It was his first break ever and occured largely due to my complacence! Oh, Well!!!

MORGAN ( and Linc) at Gun Creek HRC

Morgan ran his first HRC Finisheds the weekend of March 28 and 29 and he was sensational, passing each day with no handles on marks and only four whistles on the four blinds. Morgan’s buddy Linc also passed each day with flying colors.

HALEY:  3-17-1994 —– 2-02-2009

Our beloved Haley, daughter of Mindy and mother of Ruff, died a month before turning 15. She was a fine dog in every way and will be missed each day. You can read about Haley in our Top Dogs section.

Marcia’s World

We have just received word that Marcia will have another article published in Just Labs magazine. Look for Adventures in Inedibles in the May/June issue. The article should bring a laugh and smile to any lover of Labs!