It's Saturday and Katrina has cooled the area down some. Brag, the dogs and I are headed to Seale for yet another pre-season exercise.
I wonder if Alabama officials will panick again and order the evacution of Lower Alabama? Afterall Katrina is expected to come within a hundred miles and one can't be to careful, you know.
redneckin Storm Watch

by counties.
"Mandatory for all first-time hunting license buyers born on or after August 1, 1977, the course satisfies the requirements of Alabama law, and involves training in hunter ethics, state wildlife and hunting laws, firearms handling and safety, muzzle loading, archery, wildlife identification and management, outdoor survival skills and first aid. In addition to providing a basic foundation for novice hunters, the course is an excellent refresher for experienced hunters and is accepted in all 49 U.S. states and Canadian provinces where hunter education is mandatory before hunting license purchases."

Russell County
August 22, 23, 25
November 7, 8, 10
Extension Office
Phenix City
Call 334-298-6845

Lee County
November 7-10 6:00-9:00
Lee County Extension Service Office, Opelika
Call 334-749-3353

In addition, Alabama offers a "Hunter Education CD Rom and Internet Course Information"
"The Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries has announced an alternative delivery program that allows students to obtain partial credit for the hunter education course by completing an interactive CD-ROM or internet program."

Also worth noting, 30 Alabama counties are having a "STEP OUTSIDE Youth Dove Hunts". Unfortunately, nothing for Lee or Russell county. Wouldn't or couldn't one of you large property owners/developers schedule a youth hunt?

Schedule for 2005

with sweat and this is just from walking around the dog pen.

I started this morning over at the Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia where GF’s mother was having some out patient surgery. The surgery went well and the growth removed from her spine was a benign arthritic cyst.

Then, by the Russell County Courthouse where I was going to talk to the Probate Judge, Al Howard, but the place was full of people taking care of business. I’ll take care of that later.

We didn’t run the dogs this weekend. It was more the fact that Lucy was sick again than the heat. We run the dogs at daylight and quit mid morning. Lucy had another infection of some type. She’s doing well now but she scared me enough that we made a trip to the vet Friday afternoon. He gave her a shot of antibiotics and gave me some drops to give her daily.

I thought at first that she might be sensitive to the flea drops I used on the big dogs. I rubbed a single drop on her the last infection and a day later she was sick. This time, Brag put a puppy flea collar on her late Saturday and she was sick on Monday. Trouble is if it is a reaction to the poison in the flea medication, why did she respond within hours of the injection by the vet this time?

I’ll keep an eye on her for a while. I just soaked all the dogs, her included with the hose to cool them down after I gave Lucy her medicine. She, also, got dosed with hook worm medicine. The first treatment didn’t get rid of them all.

and all I did was get the chiggars, or chiggers if you wish, to find a new spot to burrow in.
Well, it is "Pizza Night". Do you think GF would want to spend a romantic night of connect the dots after she tries painting them with fingernail polish?

Update:. The results have been mixed.
With GF to.
I owe her a new bottle of nail polish (wouldn't you like to know what color?), but the chiggars seem to just get a buzz off the fumes. GF owes me a "connect the dots" And a pizza.
I've never had bleach fail, though it seemed like when I put on the clorox, the chiggars started spreading.
I've had ammonia suggested as well as rubbing down with "sheets" of Downy fabric softner

Update:
Must be a bad year for chiggars or maybe I should say a good year for the chiggers. The #5 search string leading to redneckin involves the little s#!+'s and how to get rid of them. Or how to stop the itching.
And the answer seems to be, "you can't".
Stop the itching, that is.

injection of canine distemper-hepatitis-parainfluenza-parvovirus vaccine today

that yesterday was Maizie, Julie and Dixie's day to get their heartworm medicine. I gave each one a pill wrapped in a piece of sandwich meat. Julie and Maizie swallowed it whole. Dixie, ever the suspicious and a dainty eater to boot, delicately chewed the meat before spitting out the pill. I resorted to that old standby, I pinched the corners of her mouth and held it open while I pushed the pill to the back of her mouth where she couldn't spit it out.

Lucy has to go to the vet before she gets hers.

Every Saturday without fail, Brag and I have ran the dogs since turkey season ended here in middle eastern Alabama. Invariably, we have had nice fairly cool running weather with a dew or more on the ground, even now in the dog days of August. As a matter of fact, the last tough hunt, weather wise, was our last run at the Capps place out past Crawford, Alabama. That was the last time Rye, the current elder of our rabbit hunting group tentatively named the “East Alabama Rabbit Hunters and Souse Eaters Social Club, attended. The heat got to him that day.

Today, there was a light misting drizzle as we loaded the dogs for our Saturday trip to where our hunting club has a lease on a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama. Thirteen week old Lucy settled down for the ride, sharing her compartment with docile Maizie. She’s getting to be an old hand at the transport end of the game, this being her third trip. Part of the road was in it's usual state of disrepair.

The long walk down the straight firebreak that ran on the top of a long,,,,well I suppose us flatlanders would call a ridge, though you people from steeper climes would laugh at such a description, from where we parked the pathfinder. Halfway down the break to where we had planned to start, Julie’s head snapped down to the damp pine straw.

You think?

Of course. It's Saturday. Brag and I are off to exercise our rabbit dogs

Brag and I should know. We’ve been running the dogs every Saturday morning since the end of turkey season here in mid-east Alabama on the Georgia line.

As we rolled the old pathfinder south on 39 towards my hunting lease near Seale, Alabama, I told Brag that we would have to have a normal day and be back by ten am. I planned to go to Opelika, Alabama to do a photo-story on the protests/counter protests at a military funeral.
The little ladies in the back must have overheard because they really put on a show, running their best races of the year. We finally had to catch the dogs while they were running a rabbit in order to leave.

It was slightly before six, when we got to the collection of shacks we call cabins. Tiny and Mike were still asleep after a hard night of socializing with Cuz and one of the Florida boys. We stopped as per instructions that were on my call wave and woke Tiny to tell him we were going all the way to the back line to start the day. . From the bleery look he gave us, I don’t think he remembers the call at all. He mumbled something about catching up with us later. Oh, by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TINY.

I haven't posted yesterday's pre-season exercise. The girls did great and the word "quit" wasn't in their vocabulary.

I was busy posting this photo piece on Sgt Christopher Taylor of Opelika, Alabama who was killed in action in Iraq and the protests and counter protests that surrounded his funeral.

I'll post yesterday's races later

If it's this early, it must be Saturday and Brag and I are going to run the dogs, including little Lucy. It is and we are. Details later