Fall 2024 Upland Redemption: The Start

Hello all,

The girls and I are finally headed west for the 2024 Upland Hunting Season. My job in South Dakota is starting earlier than originally planned, so we are making the journey this weekend. I am writing from a parking lot where we stopped for the night. After a wicked crazy few weeks of getting things ready to leave home for a few months, packing for 3 seasons of weather, work, and upland hunting, and jamming it and the dogs all in a 21′ van, we finally set out late afternoon for an exciting stop at the DMV to renew my driver’s license. ha.

I only drove about 5 hours, an hour of which was spent sitting in a traffic jam to go about a mile, because well, this ‘ole girl ain’t what she used to be and the dogs needed to eat and have a walk–er… have a drag-me-around-a-parking-lot at 10:30 at night because I am a bad dog mum that apparently hasn’t worked much on the leash-walking and heeling skills for months; because it is summer, it is hot, and I hate hot. So our first night just had to be hot and unbearably humid and the Bluetti died at 4:00 am. because I forgot to plug in to charge it up fully before leaving. So the lull and cool breeze of the fan stopped. Did I mention that Pheonix got skunked right before loading up to pull out? How did that even happen?! And I had mere minutes to get to the DMV an hour away before they closed. So, she went right in her crate and we hit the road. That was pleasant in the humid air of the van with her wanting to cuddle with me, I’ll tell ya.

Anywho, depending on how many hours I can get in driving today, I am hoping for a stop in Nebraska to hunt our first prairie birds. I am getting pretty excited about this prairie hunting thing, though I’ve been nothing but a forest grouse hunter my entire life. I have no idea what I’m doing or where to go, but I’m doing it. And hey, I’ve been binge-watching it on YouTube, so I’ll figure it out, right? Nebraska will be one of the states I hunt again this season as a South Dakota-bordering state since I can only hunt 10 days in SD. I wish I had known that before taking a job there! Oh well, I look forward to hunting Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana on my days off and maybe Kansas on the way home for Christmas in December.

I plan to record our hunts and our life living in a van in South Dakota for the next 3 months. And we will see how it all works out for a litter in January and rather that will be in PA or NM, if I can find housing to do that there. It would be fantastic to have the litter in New Mexico and quail hunt while there. I’m looking, if you know of anything. And if you are out this way and want to hunt together, let me know.

So, that’s all for now, peeps. It’s getting light so time to make a coffee, a little breakfast, get on the road, and get the air conditioning going! Just a little update on our sojourning tales of the pursuit of upland birds behind the quintessential upland bird dog, the Llewellin Setter.

Please pardon the grammatical errors and the uninteresting update.

Love, M.

P.S. Hug your Llewellin Setter