From where it gets to -35
 

Greetings from the Bakken oilfield region. I think the old saying is that it’s country that is hard on horses and women. We came up here chasing sharptail grouse. We found a few but the last few years the count has been way low.

The picture of the upright rock is not a political statement but is called a stone Johnny . These date from pioneer days and signal that a house can be seen from the top of the hill.

The gun in the last picture is an 1898 Colt that Josh Lowensteiner found for me.

One of my forebears homesteaded up here and lived in a soddy. Between the long cold winters , drought, isolation and grasshoppers eating the wheat crop that was enough and he returned to balmy, tropical northwest Iowa.

Gosh, that's beautiful country!

Big country! Nice Colt & bird Bruce!

Up here it runs six acres per cow and maybe one thousand acres per grouse, at least that’s what it seems. I run a pointer and a setter simultaneously up here. Big running dogs that will run 30 -40 miles per day. They run 50 to 300 yards out and will point and hold from that range. They back on sight and without commands.

Northern Minnesota tomorrow to chase ruffed grouse. There I run one dog at a time and keep it closer.

Big Country
 

Bruce my kind of country lots of shoe leather no riding on the front of Tx Quail Trucks!! I hunted sharp tails back in the late 70's out of Martin SD. We traded goose hunts in Tx with a dentist in Martin who fixed all the local Indians teeth and we had carte Blanche on miles of Indian reservation land. Flew my Brittany up in a friends Cessna 210 from Tx and she curled up and slept the whole way. Shot everything from a Francotte 12 to a solid rib Model 97 Delux grade Win. Dentist had labs and we paired for quite a good team. Will never forget the experience. This is why I'm so keen on Blues in NM every year lots of relatively easy flat rolling country. 15 miles is a good workout day that's why at 73 I do my best to stay in shape. I'm lucky one of my best friends Charlie( I wrote about in PP) is 2 years my younger but keeps me on my toes!!Blues hold better in NM than the Tx Blues! Best of hunting to you and your friends this year and I hope we may meet someday.

I’ll likely be in sw NM in Feb. chasing quail.

Martin SoDak is a nice town with lots of business and good looking country.

Our last day in NoDak we probably put up 30-40 pheasant. I certainly could have limited. The dogs were having fun.

I will be there Jan 13-16 that’s 4 days of non stop hunting. Longest Charlie and I have attempted!