The Woodcock are Here Again

The Woodcock were here again tonight and there were many filling the evening with their song. I’ve heard them for a few weeks off and on but tonight was an incredible chorus! In case you’ve never heard them, here is what they sound like: Woodcock “peeent” sound

This is a new experience for me—that is hearing and seeing Woodcock in the spring in such numbers right outside my door! The Upper Peninsula is such an incredible place and I still can’t believe I get to live here! I am so blessed.

Also in good numbers (as far as I know) have been the Sandhill crane—which I had never seen until this past fall and which also has a very distinct and almost prehistoric call, like a pterodactyl—and thousands of geese, ducks, and sea gulls. I faintly heard the spring peepers last week, but the chill in the air must have quieted them again for now.

The Black Bear are awake from their winter naps and are raiding bird feeders all around. I took my feeders down in hopes of saving my fence from another one coming over for a snack. 🙂 Maybe I’ll just dump the remaining seed and corn on the other side of the fence and let them have at it. There is no sense in storing that food until next winter, right?

I can’t wait to get out and about to explore this incredible place I am blessed to now live and to really, really start working the dogs, last years pups I retained, and the new students. I just cant wait! I really am going out of my mind to get out and explore, run the dogs, see, learn, do!

But I can’t leave the puppies for long… and then, reality sets in reminding me of all the work projects that pay the bills that are nagging at me, not to mention needing to do taxes, and all of the fixing and mending that needs started here. And a huge project I can’t wait to complete is when the kennels finally arrive in two weeks! They will go up in the barn for now until the permanent kennel deck can be built. Scott, honey, please, please hurry and get here with the kennels. 🙂

Next, will be the conversion of the garage into my dream puppy facility and office. 🙂 The office is so I can still spend all my time with the puppies while I work. And puppies can grow up biting my toes and sleeping under my desk. Puppies will have a larger play area, it will be easier to keep clean and disinfected than my kitchen and they will be able to get out into puppy play areas and do their business.

Another project coming up is to plant a ton of trees along the road frontage and north side for privacy and a wind/sound barrier. And of course, the big garden full of fruits and veggies, the water-catching system, the meat chickens and rabbits project (yes, I can do this even with all of these bird dogs because fencing is a wonderful thing), the new, deluxe racing-pigeon loft just because I love to have a loft full of racers. And then, I have to find a “barn guy” to save the other barn before it falls down, I have to paint the house so the insurance company doesn’t cancel me (again), and then, a project that I’ve wanted to do for years is to customize an enclosed trailer so that all of my Llews and I can travel all over the US to hunt and train and I won’t have to find a place to stay because I can stay in the trailer.  Can you imagine Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Kansas, Arizona, back to Maine, and possibly the deep south for a break during a frigid winter for quail? Ahhhh…. wouldn’t it be grand? I’ve had it built in my mind for years!

I’ll get there, right? As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Okay, that’s all. I was just rambling via my Android phone WordPress app (I still desperately miss my Blackberry, though) while letting out the pack one last time tonight and the beautiful song of the Woodcock inspired me to share. 🙂

Hug your Llewellin tonight and take them to the woods tomorrow!

-LML