Friday, February 27, 2009

Prayer, It Works

Photobucket (Uno @ 3 months)

My son, Zebedee, claims Uno, and his twin brother, Zach, claims Annie. These two English females are approximately 9 months old. Uno is from OH but has adjusted well to the south. Her sire is really producing some nice houndogs. His name is GRNITECH Main Street Jack. Uno's Mama (Dam) is a real coondog too named GRNITECH GRCH Blue Swamp Diamond.

Presently, Uno will chase almost anything that will run: coons, cats, deer, and armadillos. We are just glad she isn't standing around our feet and acting lazy and disinterested. However, we are preparing to concentrate on her training and break her from some of these bad tendencies.

One thing about Uno is when you release her, she's gone. A month ago we lost her while we were hunting. I did not put a tracking collar on her because I didn't realize how far she would venture away from us. We finally had to leave her that night because she did not return and it was very late. All the kids were in the truck with me (seven of us in all) and it was crowded---sardines in a can. There were bodies lying in all directions, twisted and tangled. For the next three days we drove around calling for Uno, blasting away on the horn, stopping and questioning neighbors to find out if they had seen a dog matching her description. To no avail; the search had been futile. We even placed a shirt belonging to Zeb on a bush hoping she might return and remain there until we found her (we heard that this trick will work). The kids, my wife, Jessica, and I drove around that third day until we were dejected and ready to call off the search. Our last attempt was to gather around the truck near where we last saw Uno and pray. And pray we did: "Our Father, we love Uno and we ask You to bring her back to us..." James has taught us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). So after praying we shouted, "UNO, UNO, UNO." Still, no Uno. We then gathered back in the pickup, nine of us this time because Jessica and the baby were with us, and started home. Just as we reached the end of the field one of the kids screamed, "there's Uno!" It was a joyful reunion. Once again the nine of us, well, make it ten with Uno, bowed our heads and thanked the Lord for returning Uno to us unharmed and healthy. Paul said to take all of our request to the Lord, which we did (Philippians 4:6). However, we should have prayed earlier, about three days earlier in fact.

Photobucket (Uno @ 8 months)

Good time, Good Fellowship, Good Food

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Annie is Zach's 9 month old English female. Last night she treed a coon that we released in a field that is surrounded by woods. We were really excited about the interest she had in treeing. She has been opening up on the trail real well, but treed fairly hard last night. This follows her showing in Pearson, GA Sat. when she reached the finals in her first field trial competition (running and treeing a drag).

Special thanks to the Reed family for catching the raccoon, allowing us to hunt on their property, and for supplying the boiled peanuts! I believe between our two families there were 17 of us last night in the woods. I really enjoyed the discussion with Rod concerning the sovereignty of God in fulfilling His purposes through our choices and activities. The example we discussed related to Paul's experience in Acts 27. The angel expressed to Paul aboard the ship that no person's life would be lost during the storm (v. 22), but God used Paul's warning (vv. 30-32) and the efforts of the men (vv. 43, 44) to bring them to safety. What an encouragement to know God works through our prayers and lives to accomplish His pleasure!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Blaze

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Blaze, with a name that brings to your mind "burning brightly or fiercely" we were excited to commence coon hunting. I hunted raccoons from my childhood until shortly before I married and started preaching. My children, however, were old enough to enjoy wildlife and outdoors, so we began hunting together during the weeknights over a year ago (Nov. 2007). We have found this to be an enjoyable alternative to television and we really enjoy the excitement it brings.



Blaze was a young English male. When we bought him he was around 6 months old. We discovered that he could really trail a drag. We would take an old coonhide and simulate a hunt by dragging the skin around the yard or into the woods and place it in a tree. Blaze, each time, would follow the trail and bark up the tree where the hide was placed. No trail was too hard or difficult for Blaze. He was really living up to his name.



After Blaze mastered the drag, we started taking him into the woods at night. Sometimes he would run in front of us and stop and stare back at us. This was expected though, he was still just a pup. On other occasions he would bark excitedly and run around. Once he treed in a large hollow tree. Later we tried hunting Blaze with older dogs to try and educate him. These older dogs are often referred to as "pup trainers." Our pup trainers included Ranger, Jinx, and Gus. As we began to hunt with other dogs we discovered that Blaze liked to face bark. Face barking is when a dog gets in the face of another dog while treeing and barks so as to try and show dominance, start a fight, or to intimidate. Fighting at the tree is an activity we want no part of, from dogs or humans. We did not like where this would lead. We decided, and this was really tough for Zach because he claimed Blaze as his own, to part with Blaze. We would let an experienced coonhunter have Blaze and try and break this bad habit he was developing.



We're not sure whatever happened to Blaze. I lost the hunter's name who took him and have had no success in finding him. Zach is especially curious. I think Zach really misses Blaze because he keeps his picture around on the wall, and under his pillow, and on the mirror. One thing is for sure, we appreciate Blaze for helping us get started and hope he is treeing a lot of coons.
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Slick Treein' Idiot---A real coon dog, that is what we were getting. We drove down below the GA border into North FL for a walker (Treeing Walker---type of coon dog) male named Gus. Now Gus had a 1st place win in a UKC hunt and a winning pedigree. And at the time we thought that really meant something. We were both impressed and excited about the looks of Gus and his potential to chase and tree a coon. Oh, can you believe this, the owner also gave us $100 off the original sale price.

We couldn't wait for Gus to tree a raccoon. So we led him below the house to our creek the following night after we brought him home. What a mouth Gus had on him. He opened immediately on what appeared to be a hot track (recent coon track). Oh the excitement, Gus immediately was treeing a coon too! The kids and I hurriedly took off to where he was barking up the tree. I began to be a little concerned however when his barking led us to the top of a hill of planted pines. Most coons stay in the bottom you might know. I was even more concerned when I saw the tree Gus had his front paws on and his head was looking up at; a tree about ten feet high. Obviously there was no raccoon, but we shined our lights up to make sure. We were correct on our initial assessment, no raccoon. Gus probably was a little out of shape and still had to get accustomed to us was our logical conclusion for the mistake Gus made on this night.

A month later and many, many trees without a coon brought us to another conclusion. Gus was not out of shape, neither was it a problem with being accustomed to us, Gus was nothing but a Slick Treein' Idiot. Don't misunderstand, we liked Gus as a dog. Very loyal, very friendly. But loyalty and friendliness was not what we were pursuing. We wanted a coon dog! A Slick Treein' Idiot is what we had. Slick Treeing, you understand, is when a coon dog acts or even believes a coon is up the tree. The dog barks as if this is the case. However, as my boys relate, "the dog is lying." No coon could be found on Gus' trees.

Eventually a man from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina bought Gus. He understood what Gus was, but he really liked his pedigree. We told him, "Gus is a Slick Treein' Idiot." That was the last we saw or heard of Gus. We wish him well.