“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
President John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961. Read more
One Who Gave For Us — And Paid A Price
Category: Other Things
Hope for Quail in Virginia
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.
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An Open Letter to the American Field Publishing Company
Dear American Field management and ownership:
I have been a loyal subscriber and contributor for six decades. I understand and appreciate the economic reasons for your leavIng behind the world of print media. I write to urge you to pursue excellence in the world of internet publishing. I will gladly pay for on-line access to your priceless records of the pointing dog world going back to 1874, and I believe others will also. Please do not let your (and our) heritage slip away. Read more
How I Came to Write About Bird Dogs
I came by a love of stories, written and oral, by inheritance. My father and his father loved them too, and from an early age turned me to reading stories. They were both fans of O. Henry, Jack London and James Thurber, among others. My father liked particularly light verse, especially that of Ogden Nash, which appeared regularly in The New Yorker Magazine Read more
Gunny
Ask a professional trainer-handler of pointing dogs to name his best dog ever and you will likely get an ambiguous or evasive answer. Not so from Jim Heckert, who broke into the pro ranks long ago and has been at it ever since while also managing quail shooting plantations, including Wire Grass at Albany, Georgia for Thomas Vail of Cleveland Plain Dealer fame and currently Cedar Grove Plantation at Clarksville, Virginia for my friend Will Pannill. Read more
Montana 2019!
Tom’s Labor Day weekend with Jim Heckert near Choteau Montana. Read more
Ben
Over six decades my heart has been owned by a series of bird dogs, all but one an English Setter. The one exception was Ben, an English (or American) Pointer. As I remember them all in reverie, Ben appears in my mental DVD again and again. He was talented, and handsome, and lovable, and happily memorable. Just bringing him up in my mind’s eye makes me want to hug him. Read more
Horse and Mule Tradin’ Stories
My friend Jim Heckert, Manager of Cedar Grove Plantation, Clarksville, Virginia, just gave me two really good books, Horse Tradin’ and More Horse Tradin’ by Ben K. Green DVM. The stories in them got me thinking about my heritage.
My paternal grandfather, Harry McClanahan Word (1865-1944), was in his first career a successful farmer-livestock dealer, and my father (1897-1954) apprenticed under him. That’s where I got my love of all things agrarian. My grandfather Harry’s life story is filled with cautionary tales, the first being Stick With What You Know. Read more
Ambitions
At 80 I often reflect on my ambitions
Many unrealized but not for lack of trying
Many secret until now
So here is my confession
My first ambition was to be a farmer
But recurring droughts and collapse of cattle prices
Taught me in the 1950s
That I could not make a living from the soil Read more
2018 Montana Hunt with Jim Heckert
These photos were taken while upland bird hunting near Choteau, Montana, east face of Rockies. In two days of hunting sharptails and Huns, we encountered five Grizzly Bears at uncomfortable range, a mother with three year-old cubs and a solo adult of unknown sex that eyed us from woods edge at a range of about 150 yards! Read more