Modern Wild Man ~A Pup's First Season~

Modern Wild Man

A pups first season is full of adventure and a privilege to be apart of.

Meg at ten weeks old.

In the sporting world, the bond between a bird hunter and dog is extraordinary.  We share our passions and experiences.  Our bonds run deep, and there is a mutual understanding and affection for our pursuit.  Bird dogs are born from long lineages to hunt and pursue game: setters and pointers, spaniels and Labradors, they own an ingrained spirit of the hunt.  The cultivation and care for this spirit is key in the first year of a hunting dog.  Some dogs naturally develop into great hunters and sporting companions easier than others.  Each breed has its own attributes and tendencies, and with those come challenges and opportunities.  I am partial to the Labrador Retriever.  The AKC says of the Labrador Retriever: "Physical features and mental characteristics should denote a dog bred to perform as an efficient Retriever of game with a stable temperament suitable for a variety of pursuits beyond the hunting environment. The most distinguishing characteristics of the Labrador Retriever are its short, dense, weather resistant coat; an "otter" tail; a clean-cut head with broad back skull and moderate stop; powerful jaws; and its "kind," friendly eyes, expressing character, intelligence and good temperament."

Our family was happy to bring in our newest Labrador two Christmases ago as a Christmas puppy from Santa.  Meg quickly found her way into our hearts as a family dog and companion, and found in her own heart a passion for bird hunting.  Meg has a soft golden coat, and a sturdy frame.  Her deep brown eyes seem to look deeply to you for leadership and companionship.  Our first female Labrador, I have found her to be softer to train and sometimes meeker to discipline than male dogs I've hunted with in the past.  She longs to please her family and is happy to sleep the day away nestled in our family vehicle on road trips.  Labradors are intelligent sometimes getting into mischief, and often bringing along their own brand of comedy.  

Meg came to us first as a family companion, but with hopes to be a great hunting partner, and she has not disappointed on either.  We introduced Meg to birds for the first time when she was twelve weeks old.  I acquired some pigeons from a friend with an ever growing flock and introduced her to them in a cage on the ground, quietly and gently.  Her first experience with birds was a positive one, and it was evident from the start that she had the heart of a hunter.

Megs first exposure to birds.

    

Throughout the spring and summer, Meg developed into a fine hunting companion.  We worked in the cool morning and evening hours gently introducing planted upland birds and mild gunfire.  Water retrieves in a small pond near our home became a game she loved and longed for.  The eagerness in her eyes for you to throw a dummy or rubber bumper, for the chance at a retrieve, to please her handler is indescribable.  As the summer progressed she learned to master double and triple retrieves in the yard around our home.  Training sessions are kept short, and session of play are added to keep things fun.  

As the summer days turned cooler and the sun moved south, the days grew shorter and Meg's first hunting season was at hand.  We spent many days afield, both upland and waterfowl hunting this past season.  Meg quickly developed a passion for quail hunting, she longs for it.  It didn't take long for her to figure out how to use the wind, to work cover towards her hunters, and I can honestly say we didn't lose a single bird that was shot down all season.  Meg works a downed bird with confidence; aggressively working cover, her nose tight to the ground.  As a team we have learned to hunt together, to read each other and to work birds together. 

Modern Wild Man, Meg and Wild Man friend after a quail hunt!

 Meg's first few waterfowl hunts brought a new aspect to her resume.  Learning to sit quietly and calmly in a blind is a skill that many retrievers struggle with.  Practicing restraint at the sound of the gun and making the retrieve when called for is another aspect of blind hunting that takes a dog time to master.  Swimming through decoys, watching for birds in the air and making water retrieves with greater Canadian geese are all aspects of a versatile water retriever.  Meg happily and honestly worked all the tasks asked of her on the pond and river this season.  We purposely hunted small bodies of private water this season to keep things quiet and under control.  The bird numbers were good, and shot opportunities on most of our hunts seemed to come along nicely.  Meg has grown to love the sight of decoys going into the back of the pickup.  She has learned to mark downed birds on the water and to use the bank as well as the water.  

A pups first season afield, their growth and the adventures are a privilege to be apart of.  Meg has matured into a faithful companion in the field and at our home.  The opportunity to hunt with a partner who always has time to go, who is never too tired, and is never critical of the weather brings a sense of satisfaction and goodwill to a sportsman.  There is a joy in helping a bird dog develop their skills and instinct, and with it comes a responsibility to take that dog somewhere wild!

Here is a quick video of Meg on one of many goose retrieves she made this season.

If you enjoy reading about Meg and her hunting adventures please check out:

A Perfect Saturday

It's Pheasant Season

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Modern Wild Man ~Quail and Dumplings~

Modern Wild Man

Quail and Dumplings will warm your stomach and your soul.

Egg dumplings ready to be cut.

One of the project goals here at Modern Wild Man is to pass on tried and true recipes for wild game.  Bringing home meals for your family, providing and cooking are eternal and prehistoric needs of man.  At Modern Wild Man we prefer to bring protein home from the wild; from fresh air and clean water, not laid out on pink styrofoam wrapped in plastic.

Quail and dumplings is a family favorite at our house.  This dish is iconic, it's one that grandma used to make.  A pot of quail and dumplings stewing quietly on a stove top in the family kitchen is like a warm fire or a cozy blanket, wrapping you in warmth and security.  I think this dish could be used as a definition for "comfort food".  I hope you have the opportunity to bring the savory smells of warm stewing quail, and the comfort of homemade dumplings into your kitchen and home. 

This recipe is easily scaled depending on the number of folks you are feeding, or the number of quail in your game vest.  I usually figure one quail per person, and one egg and a cup of flour for enough dumplings for the same person.  

Modern Wild Man Quail and Dumplings

Ingredients-

4 Quail dressed and cleaned

4T butter

2T vegetable or canola oil

2 carrots chopped

4 ribs celery chopped

1 medium yellow or white onion chopped

2 cloves garlic smashed and chopped

32 oz chicken or game broth

4 large eggs

4 cups all purpose flour more or less

salt and pepper to taste

Modern Wild Man and Meg with a mess of quail from November.  

Start by roasting the whole quail in a heavy dutch or iron skillet.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Oil the dutch with the 1T vegetable oil.  Rub each quail breast with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Lay the quail breast up and spaced apart in the bottom of your dutch.  Place a 1T pat of butter on the breast of each quail.  Slide the dutch into the heated oven for 12 minutes.  Don't worry if the quail are a little on the underdone or pink side when the 12 minutes is up, we are going to pick the roasted quail and stew in our broth in just a little bit.  After the 12 minutes of roasting, take the hot pan out of the oven, and set it aside to let the quail cool.

While the quail are in the oven building that incredible roasted flavor, it's time to chop up the veggies.  Once you've chopped through the carrots, onion, celery and smashed garlic add them all to a heavy soup pot or dutch oven with 1T vegetable oil.  Turn the heat to medium low and let the veggies sweat in the bottom of the pan for a little while.  After 10 or 15 minutes of sweating on medium low heat, the chopped vegetables are ready to stew.  Pour in the 32oz of chicken broth and bring the heat down to low.  Put a lid on the pot and let the aromatic vegetables do their stewing magic.

While the vegetables stew and build a perfect broth and the roasted quail is cooling, it's time to make up some homemade dumplings.  Dumplings and noodles can be bought prepackaged for sure, but if you've got the time, counter space and a little courage I think you will find homemade dumplings and noodles to be much better than boughten.  In a medium glass or ceramic bowl beat together the 4 eggs.  Once the eggs are beaten together, fold in the 4 cups of flour a little at a time with a fork.  The egg and flour mixture will form into a beautiful golden sticky dough.  Keep your hands floured to help keep it from sticking too bad.  Work the dough into a ball with your floured hands and knead it until all the lumps are out.  If the dough is still too sticky, add additional flour 1T at a time.  When the dough is worked into a firm ball, flour a large cutting board, rolling pin and knife.  With your hands, separate the dough into thirds and put one of the thirds onto the cutting board.  Using the rolling pin, roll out the dough to the desired thickness of your dumplings.  Some folks like thicker dumplings than others.  Once you've rolled out the dough onto a floured cutting board, use the sharp floured knife to cut out your dumplings.  Move them to a floured plate or cookie sheet to dry slightly as you work through the other two thirds of the dough.  Your dumplings are ready to boil and thicken that tasty broth.

Dumplings rolled out and cut, waiting for the soup pot.

Now that your dumplings are done it is time to pick the cooled quail.  Pick the cooled breast and leg meat from each quail.  Put the meat into a clean bowl separate from the bones.  The vegetables in the soup stock should have stewed for an hour or more by now, and they have given all the flavor they have to offer by now.  Using a slotted spoon or wire spider dip out the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic from the flavorful broth, I usually put them in the bowl with the quail bones.

Add the picked quail meat and dumplings to the broth and bring the heat up to medium, or medium high.  Gently bring the golden broth up to a boil with the quail meat and dumplings added, stirring occasionally.  The dumplings need twelve to fifteen minutes to boil depending on how well done you like them.  Serve this hearty and warming dumpling soup by itself with crusty buttered bread, or over mashed potatoes if you like.

A hot pot of quail and dumplings bubbling away.

Don't forget to stop by the other Modern Wild Man blog posts here.

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Modern Wild Man ~Check Out the New Logo~

Check out the new Modern Wild Man Logo!

Modern Wild Man ~Seasons End~

Modern Wild Man

Seasons change.  It ends so it can begin again.

The sun sets on another hunting season.  Kansas upland quail and pheasant ended yesterday, and the duck season closed last Sunday.  Goose season is still open, but will be closing soon.  This season has been kind to me.  I was in the field a great deal and enjoyed every minute of it.  

My season opened with a trip to Wyoming with my oldest son, Little Wild Man.  We made our way across the Kansas prairie, through Nebraska and onto the high plains of Wyoming for an antelope hunt.  The time spent in the pickup, just him and I on the road was beyond value.  A boy and his dad on an adventure, heading across the west to hunt big game.  We smiled and shared stories and jokes and coffee.  We spent time with family friends in Wyoming, and the hunt was great.  Connecting on an opportunity the first morning with a great antelope buck, we returned victorious with antelope meat for the family.  

As the fall gained momentum, so did the hunting season.  Warm afternoons turned into cold evenings and the season's first frost.  Black walnut and oak trees turned yellow and red with the shorter days, and the clean fresh air after a frost fell across our home on the plains.  The Kansas upland season opened, and with a Labrador pup in her first season it was much anticipated.  Meg had spent last spring and summer in training; working to hunt birds, to stay close to the gun, and to retrieve.  This was her first real hunt, wild birds and an open season.  

Opening day was a family affair, with three hunters and Little Wild Man tagging along, five of us in total, counting the dog.  The morning's long streaming rays of light and warmth glistened on the tall bluestem grass, and our pant cuffs dampened with the melting of the evening frost.  Worn leather boots, old orange hats and game vests holding a scattering of feathers from past hunts are a welcomed image in my mind.  Images like this take me back over past hunts and experiences, through years and seasons, all in an instant.  We worked cover with Meg, around thickets and briars, along field edges and wood lots.  Our first covey of the day was strong with birds, and Meg did not disappoint.  With a firm flush through the tall grass off a small creek scattered with scrubbed brush the birds crossed one of our hunters and sat back down within sight.  A large hill top banked to our west, and a slight breeze rolled to us out of the south.  We brought Meg in from the north using the breeze and landscape to her advantage.  We bagged three birds in all, after working the covey with Meg.  Only slightly diminishing the group of wild birds, we never intend to ruin a covey.  We hunted quail most of the day, stopping for a sandwich and a cup of coffee.  Our group thinned from four to three, and then three to two, and finally it was just Meg and I.  We found several coveys that day, all healthy with birds.  This was the first of many quail hunts Meg and I had this season.  We hunted with friends, with family, and just her and I throughout the season.  I can honestly say, I think Meg loves to hunt quail, it is her passion. 

The days of fall slowly began to give way to winter.  Warm afternoons seemed to struggle to hold on, and blue skies and sunshine no longer offered a promise of warmth.  The season at hand was the rifle deer season, an annual event across the country.  From Maine to California, folks anticipate deer hunts.  There are so many traditions and so much heritage surrounding deer hunting it is akin to its own denomination.  I am ordinarily a bow hunter, but with a growing family and a new pup to work at home, I opted to hunt with my rifle this season.  Kansas rifle season opens on a Wednesday, and I was fortunate to be able to take a few days off from work.  My experiences have proven that time spent in the deer stand is often needed time.  The needed time is not necessarily time needed in the field, or in the pursuit of deer, but time for reflection, time to be alone in the quiet.  Watching the sun rise, deliberately being quiet and staying still have a way of bringing you to your center, to see your own reflection.  Slowing down and purposefully watching nature, the woods, the wind, the movement of a squirrel or little song bird brings therapy to a man.  Time in the deer woods has always been a form of  healing to me, often times healing for things I didn't know were ailing me.  

I was fortunate to see deer every time I was out.  I passed on a nice two year old buck on the opening morning.  Watching the deer through the scope of my rifle, I couldn't help but think how much his antlers would grow for next year.  Three young bucks cruised past me on the first evening of season, seeing only one at first, then the flick of two more tails.  Deer are like that, look away for an instant and back, and they somehow appear like a ghost.  On the second morning I watched the same buck that I passed on the morning earlier, thinking again about taking the shot, but reminding myself I had more time to hunt.  Just like that, only minutes after watching a young buck with promise of growth fade into the tall grass of the prairie, a group of three nice bucks rushed into view.  These bucks all carried heavy horns in their fourth or fifth seasons, and all their attention was on a single doe.  Their pursuit of her was relentless, and I was able to position myself for a shot knowing I might be forgiven some movement because of it.  My Weatherby 25-06 bolt action is a fine gun.  I have taken many trophies with it over the years, and provided meat on the table for my family.  The fine checkering of a walnut stock firmly gripped in my hands, and a deep breath of  December air settled into the shot.  The largest of the three bucks was broadside in my scope, standing still, his white antlers gleamed in the morning sun.  Moments like this are what make sportsmen, moments like this are what sportsmen dream of.  My Weatherby was true to form, and moments later I had filled my Kansas deer tag.

Modern Wild Man with a Kansas buck.

December is my favorite month of the year.  Deer season is open, along with upland and waterfowl.  Most of my free time during the last month of the year was spent in the field.  I was able to put considerable time in the duck blind and field this winter.  Waterfowling can be bittersweet, birds move in and birds move out with the weather.  Just when you think you've got things figured out, and a line on were the birds want to be, they change.  All in all, this years duck season was good.  I didn't have a banner year, but my dog made her first water retrieves, I made new friends in the blind, and ducks went into the freezer and onto the table.

Meg wasn't sure about her first water retrieve, after a few weeks hunting quail, upland had become natural to her.  Our first afternoon duck hunt served us some comedy and a learning experience.  Not long after setting up we had a nice group of three wood ducks work into the pond we were on.  Shooting the three ducks had Meg excited, but swimming out after them was another story.  Now, I have been working with Meg most of the summer on water retrieves, through decoys and with some gunfire, and she loved it.  Here and now, in the moment she wasn't to sure.  Thankfully, the pond was small, only a few acres of water and I was able to walk with Meg to the downwind bank and introduce her to our ducks, now washed up along the shoreline.  Quickly she smelled the birds, and I allowed her to carry one back to the blind.  The second group of birds to work that afternoon were American Wigeons or Baldpate.  The wigeon is a fun duck to hunt, readily decoyed and cruising in fast like a fighter jet.  We were able to work the group from a high passing across our decoys, banking quickly to my mallard hen call.  Swooping around, their wings cut the air as they cupped into our decoys.  There were four ducks, and three shooters in our group.  Offering terrific shot opportunities, we were able to take all four ducks.  Again, Meg was excited by the gunfire, and knew she was to retrieve.  Hesitantly, she walked out into the water, only to whine and come back to shore.  Quickly we circled around the bank again, looking to retrieve the birds winded up against the shoreline.  This time, however, one of the birds was crippled and looking to escape.  As we approached the wigeon drake with his neon green blaze across his eyes, set against a brilliant white top and gray cheeks, he flapped his wings and swam out into the pond.  The birds action set Meg's instinct into overdrive.  She lunged with all four feet and leapt, all her heart and soul went into the water intent on retrieving that bird.  This was Meg's first big time water retrieve, and she passed the test with flying colors.  Convincing her to retrieve a bird from the water since has not been a problem.

December turned into January, duck hunting turned into goose hunting, and as January ended so did many hunting seasons with it. That's the thing about seasons, they change.  I know that a fall harvest requires springs growth and vigor.  I understand that next year's wild game needs this year to replenish.  I recently had a frank conversation with a friend over a cup of coffee.  We spoke about seasons and plans for next year and so on.  In that conversation, one of us and I don't remember which said "I've only got 30 or 40 seasons left, if I'm lucky".  That struck me, the ultimate season I suppose.  We never know what next season will bring, what turns our lives may take.  For now, I think I will look forward to fishing, spring turkey and the morel season.  I'm already thinking about next year's fall and winter, my two boys, Little Wild Man and Littlest Wild Man, and the adventures I hope to take with them someday.  This season was a season of growth and contentment, a season of finding oneself and making friends, a season of learning and one of teaching.

I hope that you will enjoy the next season of Wild.

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