I loved Ted Baker like all of us
‘Cause he loved us in spite of us
He gave us a place that was ideal
To run the Sunshine and the Florida for 60 years Read more
Blog
Long Leaf or Concrete
It was a dread but familiar problem. How to solve it and satisfy long-waiting heirs and at the same time save a landmark of unique natural beauty was the challenge.
Fred Fulton had owned Leaning Pine Plantation fifty years, bought it with the proceeds of his early and first big business deal. He had stewarded it lovingly since, even as urban development approached it relentlessly.
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Last Hunt
John Cole had been hunt master on Old Pine Plantation thirty years. Before that he had worked on other plantations in the quail belt, that land between Albany and Tallahassee where quail still thrived, thanks to Yankee old money, fire, and God’s providence. Read more
If You Want to Win at Chinquapin
If you want to win at Chinquapin
Bring a dog with nose and hunt
One that hits the cover hard
But floats across the sand Read more
Perfect Revenge, Almost
The opportunity for revenge came thirty years after the despicable act calling for revenge.
Let us start with the despicable act. Read more
When You Sell the Farm
When you sell the farm you grew up on
A part of your heart goes with the deed
And you mourn the loss and in bed you toss
For months after the sad closing day Read more
Whatsleft Plantation
Whatsleft Plantation enjoyed a special place in the hearts of Ben Reach and Sam Nixon MD. It lay on the edge of Thomasville. It had been in the family of its owner Frank Atkinson since 1880 when his great-grandfather discovered it while escaping Cleveland’s ice and snow and lodging at a fashionable Thomasville resort hotel, that day’s equivalent of The Breakers in Palm Beach. Read more
The Hand Off
Fred Fox and Benny Carr had been partners thirty years. They had traveled the circuit each year, starting in Canada (later South Dakota), where they trained, in late August, then drifted south week by week. In December they’d begun the winter piney-woods season at the Georgia Open All-Age and Derby Championships, then worked the Florida, the Continental Derby and All-Age... Read more
What’s This?
What’s This?
You ask.
Just the best hour field trial course
In all Quaildom Read more
Hi-Tech Climax
It was the end of the season. It promised to be a battle royal between two all-age dog-handler-scout teams. The dogs were Gen-X and Millennial, full-brother pointers, sired in West Kentucky, the latter from a year-earlier litter. The handlers were Mike Eanes and Ike Reams, former team mates in a “helpin’ each other” partnership that went sour. The scouts were Archie Bell and Will Smith, twenty-something former Georgia high-school baseball rivals who had pitched opposite one another in consecutive-year state championship finals games, each winning and losing one. There was no love lost between opposing team members. But that was nothing compared to the rivalry between the dogs’ owners. Read more