Remembrances

Lambing Time

May 29, 2021 | Prose, Remembrances | Comments

On our small farm In Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains Lambing time commenced On Christmas Eve The pregnant ewes Were gathered in Our barn with third-cutting alfalfa hay In the manger down the middle Read more

Magic Memories From Field Trials

October 20, 2020 | Remembrances, Short Stories | Comments

I have stored in my kit bag of field trial memories some special (to me) ones that come back often deep in the night when after waking sleep will not return. Here are a few. Read more

Robin and Rick in Alberta

March 15, 2020 | Remembrances | Comments

Rick told me of a trip to a trial in Alberta he and Robin made back when they were getting started with just a few shooting dogs in their strings. The trial had stakes in every open category and they ended up with winners or placements in all except the Derby. They were feeling good about it. Robin had been talking on the way out west about how he felt constant pressure to uphold the Gates name and reputation. Read more

Robin and Rick

March 14, 2020 | Remembrances | Comments

I had a phone conversation with Rick Furney this week that brought back vividly memories from the past quarter century and beyond, sweet memories of watching Robin and Rick compete head to head in field trials across the country. I first watched Robin handle at the Eastern Open Shooting Dog Championship at South Hill, Virginia, in 1976 when Hilmar won for Larry Moon and Alamance Pride was Runner-Up for Arthur Bean, and Robin handled a marvelous string of shooting dogs. That was forty-four years ago! Read more

How Many Miles

February 24, 2020 | Prose, Remembrances | Comments

How many miles Did the Big Man ride Behind a bird dog Puppy, Derby, All-Age? Through heat and storm On prairie and in pines From Canada to Florida From boy to aging man Read more

The Florida Championship or How I Became the Reporter

January 22, 2020 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, Remembrances | Comments

How was I ever so lucky As to end up the Reporter Of the Florida Open All-Age Championship? Me born a mountain boy sheep farmer? Luck pure Luck The main force in my life And I’ll bet in yours Some good some bad of course Read more

Hawfield

December 7, 2019 | Prose, Remembrances | Comments

Captain William Crenshaw’s Farm Until he died in 1897 In 1948 its 2760 acres lay abandoned Its antebellum manor burned Read more

Gunny

September 4, 2019 | Bird Dogs, Remembrances | Comments

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

Remembered on D-Day 2019

June 13, 2019 | Prose, Remembrances | Comments

I remember today A night long ago At the N&W passenger depot At Cambria Virginia I was six years old it was 1944 I rode there with my father to visit His friend the Station Agent Read more

Farm Jobs I Did and Did Not Like

May 23, 2019 | Remembrances | Comments

My boyhood farm jobs started at age six with opening gates for my father to drive through in his 38 Chevy and spreading two-handful piles of salt at ten-foot intervals in hilltop pasture cow trails, then calling the stock in to savor it with, “Coo sheep, Coo, Soo Calf, Soo,” until they arrived on the run to lick the salt up and be counted and inspected. This job came every Sunday afternoon as my father, his friend Jack Atkinson, a fellow farmer and N&W Trainman, and I inspected the stock on both their farms. This job I loved. Read more