Blog

The Hole

November 1, 2023 | Short Stories | Comments

Bud Cole and Andy Grimes were rivals, to put it mildly. Each was a pointing dog trainer-handler for the public in the shooting dog category. They were based in Southside Virginia, a land where tobacco and pine trees for pulpwood and saw timber dominated the rural landscape. The year was 1963. Read more

I Wish

October 24, 2023 | Bird Dogs, Poetry | Comments

I wish I could ride again One more time Ole Leonard Over course two On Chinquapin See Silverwood Read more

When January Comes

October 17, 2023 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Poetry, Remembrances, Ted Baker | Comments

When January comes I will be here at home First time since 1994 Won’t be at Chinquapin The second week Of that cold month at home I spent in North Florida From 1995 through 2022 Read more

Of All the Gifts

October 9, 2023 | Poetry | Comments

Of all the gifts they gave me And there were many None were more rewarding Than my boyhood on a farm Read more

If We See a Scout

October 2, 2023 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

The junior judge announced at the first breakaway, “If we see a scout riding in front, his dog will be disqualified.” Ben Reach, the senior judge, thought, “Oh, Hell.” Read more

What if?

September 28, 2023 | Bird Dogs, Poetry | Comments

What if there were no more field trials? Soon there would be only ankle warmers For only competition’s testing leads to better breeding It’s not a way-out theory It’s the truth Read more

Days Remembered

September 20, 2023 | Poetry | Comments

I was twenty three to thirty Care worn and sometimes depressed But grouse season opened So I put my setter in the plywood box I’d built Read more

Mountain Roads

September 12, 2023 | Poetry | Comments

I love to drive the byways Of the counties of my youth Where the Blue Ridge rises steeply And the hollers hold streams roiling in the spring Where white pines blend with rhododendrons And hickories caress poplars and ginseng grows below Where stone bridges span the bottoms and high vistas wait at tops Where Forty Fords hauled moonshine and peach brandy to West Virginia miners in my youth Yes I Read more