Blog

Hope for Quail in Virginia

September 22, 2020 | Bobwhite Quail, Other Things | Comments

As a dedicated quail hunter in Virginia from the 1960s through the 1990s, I have since been in mourning for the bird. Wild quail seem to have virtually disappeared from the Old Dominion. But there may be hope for the noble species, at least in the coastal plain, thanks to joint efforts of the Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Read more

Per Stirpes or Per Capita

September 18, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

It seemed to Ben that sibling strife dominated his law practice these days. He and Sam Nixon MD were mulling the causes as at 5pm each nursed his three fingers of The Macallan in Ben’s library-conference room. The subject of their mulling was the Tucker family, its members long patients of Sam and clients of Ben. Read more

Buck and Booty

September 8, 2020 | Fiction, Short Stories | Comments

Buck was handling and Booty scouting for Bootjack in the opening prairie championship of the season. The dog’s owner Fred Gray was riding in the gallery for his first prairie trial. He had bought Bootjack as his first trial dog in April and put him with Buck on recommendation from a friend. The grounds were new to all. Buck and Booty had studied them on Google Earth on Buck’s iPad, a recent gift from his son. Read more

About Families

August 25, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben and Sam found themselves in old age constantly contending with family strife in their practices of law and medicine. Time after time they watched families disintegrate into discord, indeed mutual hate. They often were on hand when a patriarch or matriarch died, only to witness strife break out among the children with unbelievable ferocity. “Why,” one or the other of the curmudgeons would ask the other after a family Read more

Dream Trip North

August 13, 2020 | Short Stories | Comments

It was his twenty third drive from Georgia to Manitoba, interrupted only by two summers in the army. He wondered if this would be his last. He made it in five days, sharing time behind the wheel with his scout Booty Blevins. Both were exhausted when they arrived. Neighbors came over and took charge of the dogs and the stock. Too tired to eat, he and Booty were quickly under blankets and asleep in the shack that served as their home for July and August. Read more

The Blue Hen ~ Conclusion

August 4, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

One by one the sealed bids were opened by the club’s president and read aloud to the hushed crowd of tuxedoed and gowned revelers. The bids ranged in odd numbers from a low of $30,001 to a high of $50,001, of which there were two. These were, as the two the Curmudgeons had predicted, by Harvey Grant and Fred Lee. Read more

The Blue Hen ~ Part I

July 31, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Harry Ganes got the bad news from his doctor as a total surprise. What he thought a minor scalp irritation was a melanoma, far advanced, result of too much unprotected sunshine, a common problem for those in his profession, pointing dog field trial trainer-handler. He now knew his days on earth were short, and he set to planning best he could for his wife Mary’s future without him. Read more

Callin’ in Some Chips

July 19, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Allen Collins called on his cell phone from North Dakota on July 15. “Mr. Ben, I got a problem.” Allen had just finished successfully a two-year program at a community college. This summer he would decide whether to go on for a bachelor’s degree or take a job in the quail plantation economy where he had grown up as the son of a plantation manager. He was torn between the two futures, for he had worked beside his father since childhood and loved everything about the quail plantation world, especially the dogs and horses. Read more

On Being a Farm Boy

July 15, 2020 | Prose | Comments

I would take nothing For my days as a farm boy Days waking up To chores with the cows and sheep The hay and the pasture The fences around them Read more

The Prenup

July 4, 2020 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben learned from Sam that Buck Branch had left Minnie, his wife of thirty years, for a younger woman, how much younger was a matter of speculation by the curmudgeons as they cast popping bugs for bream on the pond at Mossy Swamp Plantation. It was March 1 and the smell of smoke from controlled burns filled the soft spring air. “She says she signed an agreement that says she gets nothing before they were married.I told her she should consult you,” Sam said. At these words, Ben’s temper flared. “You mean nothing, no alimony or share of marital property?” Ben asked. Read more