Been a while

So I have been lazy with this blog.  Ella is doing well, but does not come when called.  She will whoa when told and sit still till I come, but she has a mental block about coming to heel.  I will get  it eventually.  She is now 38 pounds of furry.

Today I went to the river and had a good time paddling a bit.  I hit the nice little rapid above the shop and played in the eddie line for a while before heading over to the shop wave for a little surf session.  With no outfitting other than the saddle, it was hard to do much.  I have the canoe on saw horses now.  I am going to get the outfitting back in soon.  I also have a kayak I am converting to a c1.  It should be fun when done.

That's it for now...

Ella

Miss Ella is here!  Allison and I picked up a little pointer/ shorthair pup on Oct31st.  She has been a handful thus far, but she had certainly worked her way into our hearts.  She has shown point and a willingness to search out and explore.

I had a wing on a string out yesterday, and she pointer it 6 or 7 times before I put it up.  I brought her back outside a few minutes later and she actively searched the area we worked in searching for the wing with her nose.  I was very happy to see that.

Sellout

I have sold 3 boats in the last few weeks.  I just got to the point where I was tired of storing them and never paddling them.  I am keeping one canoe for me and one kayak for Alli.  The rest is for sale.

The new pup is going to arrive at the end of October.  I hope to use this blog to track her training.  I have been getting really excited about training again.

been a while

Well, I have not updated for a while.  I dislocated my shoulder running the mill hole a few weeks ago.  It still hurts, but I am paddling again.  I took the outrage out once, a friend's impulse, and my newest acquisition a pyrahna s6 playboat.  I bought Alli a i3 221 as well.  That little s6 is freaking tiny; like 7 feet long.  I surfed it, but every time I pushed the envelope a bit, my shoulder hurt so I gave up.  I got a few good side surfs in on the shop wave.

I will probably leave it as a kayak and play with it this year and convert it to a canoe next, but who knows...

A buddy of mine is looking for a new car, so I will be driving him around tomorrow to find a car.

Snow Creek

Today after work I met up with a bunch of folks, including some from the Smith River valley canoe club,  to run Snow creek on a release from the Shepard's Mill pond.  We all had fun and spent about an hour or so all running the flint mill hole rapid.  It is a solid class 3 right in the middle of the run.  I watched about everybody run it before I did so I could pick my line.  I hit my line and bounced through without swimming.  It was the first real rapid I had run in the canoe, so I was very happy.  Now I want to go back...

With any luck pics and video will be up soon.

Season's End

Track season has ended.  Friday the 20th I spent the day at Greensboro A&T for the 1a State Track Meet.  Everything went well, one of our athletes won a State Championship, 3 were runners up and all the kids we brought score points for the team (top 8).  Now I have a month off till summer basketball.

Spring is also over.  We went from mid 70's to high 80's- 90's overnight.  Soon the water will be warm enough to get in the WW canoe and play a bit.

The garden is in and growing, but the peppers are looking pathetic.  I need to fertilize them.  The skinks and lizards are all over out at the house, eating the bugs and skittering under the flowerpots whenever we go onto the porch.

Oddly enough, with summer coming on, I am thinking about fall and hunting season.  I am going to try to get up to Michigan for 3 days of grouse hunting for my birthday.  Soccer season will be over, so it looks like it might happen.  It will be the first time I have hunted there and I am looking forward to it.

New Shoes

Went to Winston today and got stopped in at Great Outdoor Provisional company.  There I found a pair of Chaco sandals on the clearance rack for half off.  Bought them right up as my Tevas from last year are totally dead.

I also stopped at Sports Authority and got a pair of New balance running shoes 1/3 off.

Pretty happy with the afternoon purchases, but the chacos are really chunky.  I feel like a spice girl wearing them.