You People Are Great!

When asked to step up, you respond with vigor.

While we're not exactly swamped with DUTCH T-Shirt orders, we've gotten more, in a short time, than I would have expected. Some people have even donated the $28 and decided to fore go the shirt so the whole amount goes to Dutch, which is cool. Other people are sending cash, with no strings (or T-Shirt orders) attached.

Thanks to bloggers Steve Bodio and Todd Birchfield our original post went nearly viral. On the first day we broke all visit records, logging 247 visitors!
We received donations from Great Britain, as someone had cross posted Steve's post- which linked our post- to the British website, The Hunting Life. We're still getting several visitors a day from that site.. and a lot of them are off to the bookstore, as many of the comments were about Dutch's landmark book, Gazehounds & Coursing. I think he may be moving a few copies this month.

I've heard from the quilt raffle organizers, and they've raised over.. well, a lot of money, and that was before you all read about it here, so a lot of money may turn into a shitlo boatload of money.

And if you follow the live traffic feed over there on the sidebar, you'll see that a goodly number of blog visitors have left via Dutch's bookstore . Dutch has confirmed one book sale... a very expensive book, in fact.. as a direct result of our post.

So.. why not keep up with the good news:

Buddy came home from the hospital on Saturday, and in Dutch's own words, "is on the mend". The snowball effect of which is that Dutch was able to bring out his hounds yesterday.. hounds who hadn't run in nearly a month.. to put the fear of god your deity of choice into a few jackrabbits. We took this opportunity to give Dutch his own shirt. He likes it, and thinks everybody should get one! ;o)

Other than the fact we had to walk 2 hours before jumping the first one, a good time was had by all. We'll be doing it again tomorrow.

Step Up to the Plate.

Many of the readers of this blog know Dutch Salmon, or know who he is. In addition to being one of the best outdoor writers in America, he's one of the true gentlemen of the sport of hounds and open field hunting.

We've known Dutch, and his wife, Cherie and son, Buddy for almost 10 years. Just before New Years, Buddy was air-lifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital with a sinus infection that got out of control, first with paralysis, then seizures. He's had at least one brain surgery, and is still hospitalized.

This has caused financial hardship, and untold wear and tear on vehicles, as there's no easy way to get from Silver City to Albuquerque.. just check a map.. not to mention the cost of lodging in a city hundreds of miles from home.

The coursing community of the southwest has stepped up to try and help defray some of these costs the Salmon family are facing. There is a raffle going on for a "Saluki quilt" for which I'll try and post the details of.

We'd like to expand the effort beyond New Mexico. One way you can help is to check out Dutch's bookstore. There are thousands of titles available, on subjects ranging from open field coursing and fly fishing, to biographies of the heroes and villains of the Old West, and more. If you've never checked it out, now would be the time. Books make great gifts!

Not content to sit and let others carry the load, we've come up with a unique fund raiser: The "Dutch" T-Shirt!

Yes, it's the same great style as the official poster for your favorite new President, and the image posted here recently of an eminent blogger/photographer.

The large (6.7" x 9.7") image will be displayed prominently on your choice of White or Natural cotton T-Shirts, in S-M-L-XL for $28 including shipping. All proceeds, less our raw materials and shipping costs, will be turned over to the Salmon family. Please email me: dan@shotonsite.us , or Margaret: margaretfairman@gmail.com with your order, and with questions about orders and sizes other than those listed. We'll accept payment by PayPal, or personal check. I've placed a tool at the top of the sidebar for PayPal orders directly on this site. If you use this method to order and pay, make sure you tell us the color and size of the shirt you want in the message box.

I heard from Dutch by email this morning. He says Buddy is improving, and may be able to come home soon. He also told me he hasn't chased a hare in more than a month.... possibly a personal record. All the more reason to hope for Buddy's return to health.

We hope you all can help. And pass this information on to those who aren't savvy and hip enough to read this blog!

UPDATE: Here are the details on the quilt raffle. I'm sorry, I couldn't add the pictures of the the quilt, but I've seen it, and it's pretty cool, especially if you have Salukis, or are close to someone who is:

"Cindy Brown has donated a 52 inch quilt in shades of blue and gray withSaluki heads in the corners (see photos), to be raffled off and all theproceeds will go to Dutch and his family. Cindy will bring the quilt andtickets to the hunt on January 17^th . The tickets will be $10 each or 3for $25.00. SWCC will offer tickets via the USPS. Send your check, madepayable to SWCC to the treasurer Bill Brown, PO Drawer 29, Mesquite, NM88048, sorry no paypal. The tickets will be returned to you and thedrawing will take place at the Dutch’s Pack Hunt on February 14^th .Checks will be taken up until the day of the drawing and tickets givenout if you are sending a check by mail it must be postmarked by February5^th so we have time to get the tickets back to you. If you are notpresent at the drawing the quilt will be mailed to you and watch for theannouncement on the lists we have posted information to."

Coming Right Up!

As I write this, we're sitting at 19,999 visitors to this blog. The next one will be nearly famous... ;o)

UPDATE: 4:19PM MST... Welcome, visitor number 20,000, from Tijeras, New Mexico. I'm pretty sure I know who you are, (L.O.), but please contact me to confirm!

17 Miles of Bad Road.

This past weekend, Sandia took part in the TCC* Derby in an area near Socorro, New Mexico. The event consisted of breed hunts on Saturday, with the winners and other placers moving on to run for the Conejo Cup on Sunday.

To get to the hunt area, it was required to navigate the above pictured county "road"; dust, washboard ripples, and soft powder ruled the day. We had to do this twice a day.

By virtue of winning the "Sprint Stake" on Saturday, defeating several of his litter mates, and his mother, along with a shag-coat longdog and a whippet, Sandia got to join the Cup hunters on Sunday.

When the dust cleared, and the scores were tabulated, Sandia wound up in 3rd Place... along with three other hounds.

He's pictured here with Margaret, and judge, Paul Sagar from Great Britain. I thought he might end up 2nd or 3rd... I just didn't expect all the company.
And we'd like to congratulate the winner, Frank Cassano's nice Saluki, Haba.

It was a beautiful weekend of spectacular coursing, with lots of sunshine, cool temps, (mostly) good sportsmanship,
and most importantly of all....

...nobody blew up!

*The Coursing Conservancy. Sorry, no link- website not available to the public.

Best Little Wh.. Bath House in Texas.

One of the reasons we like to park at our friend, Sherita's place is this awesome shower. It's not a stall... nosireebob! This... room.. replaced a common stall. Walk in, sit... or stand... and let the two shower heads drench you.

OK, maybe it's not the coolest shower in Texas, but I'll bet it's the coolest in Coleman County, because Sherita did all of the construction herself. And not just the shower, but the whole damn bathroom!

See, not only does Sherita breed Borzois that kick ass in just about any kind of running competition you can enter a hound in, but she's also an independent contractor, who can be found up on somebody's roof one day, and under a house in a, uh "world of shit" as it were, the next.

She writes about her home repair and construction adventures in her blog, which I've had on my blog list for quite some time. It's mostly to write up her dogs, but I get the most entertainment from the stories like the one linked above, and her observations on the human carnival.

Sherita's hospitality has been appreciated by us gypsies for a couple of years now. I mean, how do you thanks someone who's generosity extends so far as to install a 30 amp outlet on her house for us to plug in to?

I guess this is a start. :o)

I'm Flattered, but...

... they really need to work their spellchecker.

Gauss Gause, Texas.

Answer: "Holy Crap!!!"

Question: What's the only appropriate response, when you drive around a curve and are confronted by a shovel the size of a city block?!?

..And you're not in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, or West Virginia. Didn't expect this in Texas.

Dan's Inauguration Poster.

Make your own "Obama-style" poster here.

These Kinds of Tragedies Hit Us Right Where We Live.

Survivors Of Gas Station Explosion Mourn Tragic Loss Of Gasoline

It's bad enough the price per gallon is on the rise again without these senseless losses......... :o)

Air Show.

This weekend's lure coursing trial was held at the Triple Crown Dog Academy in Hutto, TX, and while there was plenty of speed, grace and agility on the ground, (Sandia picked up another 2nd place finish in Singles.... and he now runs a complete course without stopping in the middle!), the real show was in the air!

There were birds of prey aplenty, and they made the most of their photo ops, by flying directly overhead several times a day.

Of course, there will always be Red Tailed Hawks...

...and this was one of a pair that were doing quite the aerial ballet most of the weekend. I think they may be up to something.

As I was shooting the second runs of the day, I heard a commotion in the thicket next to where I was sitting. I glanced over in time to see all the small birds diving into the brush. I knew immediately what I was going to see overhead...

...this Sharp-shinned Hawk, on the prowl for lunch.

Finally, there was this large fellow; a Red Shouldered Hawk. My Peterson Guide says the red on the shoulders is not always visible from below, but it shows up just fine here. But just in case it didn't, there is the "window" at the base of the primary feathers to confirm the identification, which shows up plainly here as well.

On the Road Again.

That's us. And just in time, too. With all the rain of the past couple of days we were turning mildewy. We've been parked too long in high humidity and precipitation, and are longing for the land of single-digit dew points.

So today, we bid farewell to 2008 and hit the road for the first time in '09, and are heading for Texas, and then (oh yeah) New Mexico.

But first! We needed to stop off in Acworth, GA and get the new rear window graphic installed. It was past time to get the old one off..

...The dark parts were turning white, and the whole thing was dried out and brittle. Besides, few people knew what the hell they were looking at. When they finally figured out the jackrabbit, they missed the dog completely, which gave Buffy an inferiority complex.

With Margaret's new design, the ambiguity is right out the window, (no pun intended). It's right in your face..

Almost like a Greyound Bus, huh?

Thanks to a quick install by Les and his employees, we were on the road (again) in no time, beat the Atlanta rush hour, and got 2/3 of the way across Alabama before stopping for the evening.

Timing Is Everything

If you were at the G.A.N.G. year-end trials last week, you remember the "pond", or you looked at the pond pictures in the previous post.

If those same trials were scheduled to begin today... they'd be cancelled. We now have not only a pond, but tributaries as well. This picture was taken from the driveway after 2-3 inches of rain fell overnight and this morning. More is on the way...

Keep your powder dry.

That's Quite A Resumé , Norm...

Below is the funniest line I've read about the Minnesota senatorial race, and subsequent recount, which ended yesterday with a proclamation of victory for author/comedian/lecturer, Al Franken. It comes from this post by Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight.Com blog:

"Let's be frank: Norm Coleman doesn't have much of a future in electoral politics. Defeated Presidential candidates sometimes have nine lives, but defeated Senatorial candidates rarely do, and in his career running for statewide office, Coleman has lost to a professional wrestler, beaten a dead guy, and then tied a comedian. He doesn't have much to lose by fighting this to its bitter conclusion. But it's hard to envision how he'll come up with enough ballots to overtake Franken."

Coleman should think about that before he puts the state through a long, drawn out, expensive, and ultimately futile legal challenge.

So, congratulations to Al Franken. Minnesotans have shown the guts that the Texans didn't have a few years back when they rejected Kinky Friedman as their governor.

Watch This Space.

Coming soon...
World's biggest bumper sticker! Time to change out the Express' rear window graphic. Photos to follow.

And if you're partial to normal size bumper stickers, remember we carry with us a stock of all sighthound (and more) breeds to all the trials we attend. (Pharaoh Hounds currently SOLD OUT.. Thanks guys!!).

Also, bumper stickers and more are available at our Cafe Press storefront!

Waterboarding Is F-U-N!

My preference for shooting lure coursing on fields with a little bit of character is pretty well known. So when we arrived at the hilariously named G.A.N.G. Park, (which is, in reality, the home and property of our friends Les and Shirri), we were thrilled to see the result of weeks of rain in North Georgia; a pond, which Les thought he had filled for good, was back.

The G.A.N.G. folks, being an entertaining bunch, made sure that for most of the five days of lure coursing trials scheduled for the end of the year, the pond would be in play... at least for the more enterprising of the hounds.

So many hounds spent so much time in the water that one of the exhibitors donated a prize for the most entertaining of the swimmer/diver/skier/SCUB.. well, you get the idea. A judge was selected from those on hand to peruse and select a "winner" from our many images. When all was said and done, this Afghan Hound was picked as the best water crosser....

I decided to include a few favorites of my own, which include not just the comic antics of a few goofy dogs, but also this graceful, and picturesque Saluki...

...and for pure comic relief, this sequence featuring an Ibizan Hound who was sure... absolutely sure that...

"I can clear this thing!...

...I think I can clear this thing...

...ummm.... uh-oh...

...nope. Can't clear it after all."

For me, that was the jump of the week. Check out all the water shots at the above link, and all of the images from five full days of lure coursing here.

Making A Little History

Today, Tuesday January 30, 2008, Sandia became the first Galgo Español to run officially in an American Sighthound Field Association lure coursing trial. Granted, it was only the "Singles" stake.. (hounds run by themselves, with only a ribbon as a reward), and he didn't win... but he did take the 2nd place ribbon... Out of an entry of 2. It has something to do with his propensity to stop in mid-course and want to come back. A simple shouted command to keep going gets him around the rest of the course. It wasn't always that easy, so I'll take what we get.

This image was supplied by photographer, Lee Gearhart of Uma Rapiti Photography, who plies his talents in the Southeast US. You may find more Sandia images at his website.

I'll have more on the pond in the picture in a future post. It played a big part in keeping everyone entertained this weekend.

Hare-Brained Express Tour 2008. A Look Back.

For the first time since the Express took to the road, our annual odyssey didn't begin and end in Georgia. Ended, yes, (red flag) but we started our 2008 travel in southeast Texas (green flag). Things are back in sync now, as we're not leaving Georgia until the first or second of January. I assume we'll end 2009 back with our friends in good ol' red Georgia!

This map illustrates our GPS trail for the year. What it can't show, unfortunately, are the legs that were traveled more than once. Trust me, there are quite a few. It also shows our travel leaning more and more towards the Southwest, a trend I suspect will continue, until we don't travel at all.

That California trip sticks out like a sore thumb, doesn't it?

Merry Christmas from the Families.

Robert Earl Keen

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

What the heck. After perusing South Park, Monty Python, and other Christmas anthems not safe for work or kids, I ended up with the same video we used last year. And it's so good, arguably the greatest non-traditional holiday tune ever, we're just going to make it an annual thing. Our "christmas card" to you!

Only In the Southwest.

The quality's not great, but that can be explained away by the fact I shot it from the moving Express, through a dirty windshield... the curved part... with my phone! It's also heavily cropped, but was just too cool to pass up.

If it's hard to make out... it's this fellow in a Santa suit.

Thats the Old Christmas Spirit!

The Farkers are having fun with this one... I particularly like the comment from the British MP who declares "These cards are profane. Christmas is a Christian festival and should not be associated with swearing and vulgarity."

So, on this shortest day of the year, I'd like to wish one and all a happy Festivus! Patrick the Terrierman, explains why the distinguished MP is basically full of crap.

Meanwhile... I do need to throw together at least one web card for this holiday season. If you know us, watch your inboxes!