Lightning Strikes Twice

Once again we have lost another dog due to kidney failure.  Four months and one day to the date from saying goodbye to Girlie Girl, we said goodbye to Hank.  I have had the honor of owning Hank since he was 8 weeks old.  He was 13 1/2 years old.  We lost him on August 15, 2011.  It is hard to have to loose a dog quickly and just as hard seeing the decline over two weeks.  I could never say which was easier or which was harder.  I long to see my old friend again, but know that he is no longer suffering.  We love you Hank Beagle!

Recovering from Christmas company

Getting some lovin'

Waiting patiently at the Emergency Vet.

Dawg Days of Summer

Well, summer officially came around 3 weeks ago, but you would never think that based upon the temperatures that the South has been experiencing since late May.  I cannot remember the last day that the high was less than 90 degrees.  But, I love the heat. 

It has certainly been a strange year fishing.  There have been very few King Mackerel caught this year near the coast in SC.  Fish that are typically caught in the fall, such as Spots, have been running in the past few weeks.  And there have been lots of slow days on the water.

We were fortunate to spend some time on the boat in June with a friend and went out to The General Sherman wreck.  We need more experience finding smaller wrecks / reefs as we had a hard time actually locating the wreck.  Even though we never could anchor up directly over it, we did manage to catch a good number of black sea bass, but all were too small to keep.  Overall, it was a great day on the water.  Wind and waves have kept us from heading out in the boat lately, but hopefully as the month goes along, we will have the chance to go out some.  

Also have fished with Grown Dawg's son and his wife and caught a good number of spots and whiting.  Lots of fun fishing with them, that is for sure!  Even got to see one of the large sharks that hangs out a Cherry Grove Pier feeding on scraps.  Always entertaining.
On the non-fishing side of things, we have had a purple martin couple build a nest on our front porch.  We officially have four babies in the nest and a couple of very attentive parents that are caring for them.  It was amazing watching the adult birds build the nest as well as check on the progress of the babies every few days.  Can't wait to see them get big enough to fly!

Hopefully we will have better fishing and boating news in the next few weeks.  But the water and wind has to cooperate!

Memorial Day

Today is the day we remember all those men and women who were so brave as to give their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom.  Typically on Memorial Day, most people have the day off of work and spend time with family.  Here in the southeast, LOTS of people head to the beaches / lakes.  I have been fortunate enough to work on our local Army base and interact with soldiers every day.  I can only imagine the impact that deployments take on family members.  One of my co-worker's husband is deployed now and she not only works, but has three children and two dogs that she takes care of when she is not working.  Her strength is really amazing. 

Fortunately, I only know one soldier from the area that gave his life for our country . I had the chance to work with his wife.  His name is Scott Dyer and he was killed in action October 11, 2006 in Afghanistan.  Here is just a little about Scott. 

CW2 Scott W. Dyer, 38, an assistant detachment commander, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group here, died from injuries sustained in support of combat operations.

He deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in August 2006.

A native of Titusville, Fla., Dyer enlisted in the Army Nov. 11, 1987, as a cavalry scout. After completing basic and advanced individual training at Fort Knox, Ky., he was assigned to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. In 1993, Dyer volunteered for Special Forces training and upon completion of the Special Forces Qualification Course he was assigned to 3rd SFG as a Special Forces engineer. He served with the 3rd SFG until January 2002 when he was assigned to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, here, as a civil affairs engineer.

In 2003, Dyer volunteered to attend Warrant Officer’s Candidate School and graduated in June of that year. He was reassigned to the 3rd SFG in February 2004 as an assistant detachment commander. 

Awards and Decorations

The Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Combat Infantry Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, Military Freefall Jumpmaster Badge, Military Freefall Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Ranger Tab and the Special Forces Tab. His posthumous awards include the Bronze Star Medal for valor, and the Purple Heart.

Thank you to all current and previous members of the Armed Forces for what you do.

Lessons Learned

We finally got the boat.  We put it in the water the day we got it and spent a few hours on the water.  It was a weekday and not a lot of water traffic, so we thought it would be a good time for the 'newbies' to go out.  Things went pretty good, but we had some difficulty with getting the boat on the trailer.  After multiple attempts, we finally got it trailered and had to fix it's position.  We did some damage to one of the bunkers, but that was easily fixed fortunately.  David Perry is a good man to deal with!

Got to spend some time with Growndawg's son and daughter-in-law at the beach.  We were able to fish some, but not much was biting.

It has been an unusual spring as far as fishing has been concerned.  It doesn't seem like there have been any large runs of fish like there have been in the past year or two.  Whenever I start to feel like I know something about fishing, then everything changes and I realize I don't know much of anything.

Hopefully we will be catching more fish soon!

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Today was a sad day in our world.  One of our real dogs, Girlie Girl,  had not been eating well over the past week and so we decided it was time to go to the vet.  While I was there with her yesterday, they did blood work and an ultrasound of her kidneys.  The vet compared her blood work to some that was done in January and based upon that and the ultrasound findings, it was determined that she was in liver failure most likely secondary to cancer. 

Cancer is a horrible disease for all of God's creatures.  We could have gone down a long path of surgery and possible chemotherapy, but it would have had the same outcome in the end.  With heavy hearts, Grown Dawg and I came to the realization that it was best to have her put down.  She was one of the best dogs that any human could ask to have.  We were blessed to have her as part of our lives for 9 years.

She went to Heaven this morning around 10:00.  She will be cremated and we will spread her ashes at the beach.  We took her there often with us and she loved the time there.

Here are some pictures of our Princess Dog.

At the beach!



Bone time.




Laying in 'her spot' on the rug. 







Laying in the sun.  One of her favorite things.



Weekend Beach Time

We went to the beach for the weekend a couple of weekends ago.  Mainly to go down and attend a class / comedy show by Capt. Jimmy Price.  He does several fund raising events to provide Christmas presents for under privileged children in the Oak Island area.  You can check out his website and some of the other things that he does here: http://www.topdoginc.org/. 

One of the crazy things about his class was that we were sitting next to a older gentleman that we started talking to.  As it turns out, it was Don Betts of Betts, Inc.  Such as Betts cast nets, Billy Bay Shrimp.  THAT Don Betts.  The only way we found out that is who it was is that one of the captains that was presenting mentioned his name during his presentation.  Also, Capt. Jimmy Price thanked him as he donated a good amount of items that were used as door prizes.  Grown Dawg was asking Mr. Betts about some of the different cast nets and the best ones to use and if the larger nets, such as 8-10 foot nets were hard to throw.  Mr. Betts offered to send us a DVD of  'How to Throw a Cast Net' which we received later in the week!  He is definitely a man of his word.

We also did some fishing from the shore / docks in the backwater, but with no success.  It was colder than expected and the tides were pretty extreme.  We didn't even see any fish, much less catch any.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.



Me and Capt. Jimmy Price



Mr. Don Betts

Grown Dawg fishing.

These 2 guys were catching plenty.

Yellow Storm Rising

Spring officially announced its arrival with the pollen storm to end all pollen storms.  I noticed the outflowing of yellow snow on Tuesday.  I had parked my car outside and within less than an hour, it was covered with a layer of pollen.  Combine that with the wind and dry conditions here lately and you have a full blown pollen storm.

The Bradford pears always bloom here at the end of February or early March, but the pine trees, dogwoods and the majority of hardwood trees REALLY work hard to show up one another come late March.  Grown Dawg and I noticed how the pine trees were loaded down with the small blue/purple pollen cones over the weekend.  And today they had all turned yellow.

The parking lots have a dull green / yellow coating on them and everyone is starting to complain of their allergies.  The drug companies must love this time of year.  Sort of like Black Friday for every other company in the world.

I am just waiting for the non-existent Spring showers right now.

At least it is starting to get closer to fishing season!

Thank Heavens for Warm Weather and other Stuff

This past week's weather has been a wonderful peek at Spring.  But in the southeast, we really don't have a true spring.  Just early summer in my opinion.  Winter has been long enough and cold enough for me.  Fortunately, we have already had some days in the eighties.  A nice chance to open the house up and have some fresh air moving through.  We even have had to turn the air conditioner on for a few hours on Monday.  It is funny how excited you get about using the air conditioner.  I am sure that mid-August, I will be missing days like that.

Other wonderful 'spring things' that have gone on include daffodils and Bradford pears blooming.  The early pollen haze is already here.  Day lillies are sprouting, but flowers will not be here for a bit.  The brown yard is starting to get green patches of weeds as well as some of the grass is sprouting back.

I LOVE THE SOUTH!

Other random life stuff:

Mama Dawg had her knee replaced the end of January and has done fabulous and has actually been discharged from therapy as of Friday. 

Our granddaughter, 'H Dawg' turned 6 months old. 

One of our real dogs had some surgery and had to wear a cone on his head for 10 days.  It came off today - THANK HEAVENS!

Water temperature at Apache Pier is up to 55 degrees, so there will be some good fishing sooner rather than later.

Grown Dawg has been spending time on the boat under the watchful eye of David Perry of Marine Service Center in Murrell's Inlet and has been pulling a good friend's flatbed trailer in anticipation of boat hauling. 

Hopefully, fishing news will be in the next post.

Higher Education

Grown Dawg went to a Fishing Seminar today.  Yeah, this is the third one in 2 months, but we are trying to be better at fishing.  This one was at Oak Island Recreation Center and was put on by Capt. Jimmy Price and Capt. Jerry Dilsaver.  One of the best things that he learned was about cast nets and the best way to throw them.  Apparently it is like swinging a golf club.  It is not power, but technique that gets it done.

The best part is that he scored a FREE fishing rod.  It is a 7 foot Star Rod which is made by Sea Striker.

Guess he will be wanting a new reel now. 

Wonderful..................

Saltwater Sportsman Seminar

Me, Grown Dawg and a friend, Cur Dawg attended the Saltwater Sportsman Seminar on Saturday.  It was in Bolivia, NC which meant an early rise for us to get there in time.  The panel of presenters included Mike Marsh, Capt. Rob Ferris, Capt. Jimmy Price, Capt. David Kesler, Capt. Darrin Callahan, Capt. Ray Massengill, Dennis Barbour, Harry Vernon, III, and George Poveromo.  Topics that were covered included Offshore Trolling Tactics, Flounder fishing, Vertical Jigging, Trout Fishing, Red Drum, King Mackerel, Bottom Fishing, and Daytime Swordfish. 

The seminar format was very well done!  For most of the topics, there were four panelists who had a discussion regarding the best techniques for targeting the species that was being discussed.  Each topic was between 30 and 45 minutes, so you didn't get overloaded on the information that was presented.

It was also great that there were tons of door prizes handed out.  And it was really nice stuff.  Items like Costa Del Mar sunglasses, free Sperry shoes and every form of fishing tackle that you could imagine.  They also gave away a trip for 2 to Bimini Sands.  We did not win anything, but that was okay.  We do have a chance to win a Mako boat, but that drawing if from ALL of the registrants for all of the different locations that the seminar series held.

As part of the registration, we got a free year subscription to Saltwater Sportsman magazine, a 1/4 pound spool of Suffix fishing line, OrPine boat was, a book written by George Poveromo and some other goodies.

Hopefully the weather will warm up quickly so that we can put some new found knowledge to use.

Second Christmas

Last week we were able to enjoy our second Christmas.  The few days before and Christmas day, Growndawg's youngest son Preacher Dawg, his wife, and their daughter (our granddaughter) came for a visit.  On Christmas day, my parents, Old Dawg and Mama Dawg as well as one of my cousins came and had lunch with us.

Here is Old Dawg and Mama Dawg with the granddaughter.

Then last week, Growndawg's oldest son, Scrappy Dawg and his wife, Sh'naynay Dawg came for a visit.  It was was great to see them.

We are very blessed to have been able to spend time with family over the holidays and actually got an extended holiday season! 

We both got gift cards to Bass Pro Shops as part of Christmas so we can outfit for fishing season!  Yeah for more fishing supplies.

Reel Cold Beach Time

Spent a long weekend at Cherry Grove last weekend.  Just some time away following the holidays.  It was nice to get away for a few days, but it was cold.  Reel cold.  Here are a couple of pictures of the canal behind the condo with ice in it at low tide.  Frozen salt water!

When we were going down, I had hoped that we could fish some.  Maybe for red drum or trout, but it was so cold, there is no way that I could have done it.   It got up near 60 degrees one of the days, but the mornings were still cold!

I saw a dead fish from a distance that was on the bottom.  And I think that I saw sea gulls picking up dead shrimp off the bottom of the canal.  Most likely from the cold weather.

Hopefully the weather will warm up and the water will get a little warmer for the sake of the fish.

Cold Way to Start 2011

We got more snow and ice on January 10th.  The weather folks were right when they said that our part of NC was going to get hit the worst.  Here are some more pictures of our house, yard, and road in front of our house.  There is no picture of me laying in the driveway after falling on my butt.  The camera fortunately was not injured.  Growndawg just shook his head at me.  I shook my head at me too.
 

View of our house from the road.

  

Our post light with icy driveway in the background.

 

The road in front of the house.  Still icy despite traffic.




Our old dog with his coat on.  He isn't even breaking through the ice.



Raleigh Saltwater Fishing Expo

Last Saturday, January 8th, we made a day trip to Raleigh to go to a Fishing Expo.  They had lots of one hours classes offered during the 3 day event which made it well worth the money.  It was $8 to get in, free parking, and on Saturday there were classes that ran from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.  We didn't stay for that long, but did get there to check out the exhibitors before going to the seminars that we were interested in attending.

There were two large buildings worth of exhibitors and more boats than you could imagine seeing.  We had the chance to see the Onslow Bay Boats that Growndawg had read about online.  The one boat that he really wanted to see was the The Onslow Bay 23 TE.  Here is what the Onslow Bay website says about the boat:

"The Onslow Bay 23 TE has been specifically designed for the 23 and under category of the Southern Kingfish Association. The centerline length over deck is 26'11" and a huge beam of 9'5". The waterline length is 23'."

Which basically means that you have a 27 foot boat, but can enter to compete against smaller boats.  No big deal, right.  Well if you have a boat that is 23 and under and do well in a tournament, then that can mean lots more money for your team.  Also, this boat comes with 2 motors which equates to getting where you want to fish faster and having more time to catch fish. 

And I am sure the guys who are winning bunches of money in the 23 and under category love this boat.  Just seems a bit unfair to those of us who have a true 23 and under boat.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Onslow Bay.  The first one gives you an idea of how massive this 'little' boat is.  The second one shows a 24 ft Sea Hunt being dwarfed by the 23 foot Onslow Bay.  Sorry about the fuzzy pictures - phone photos.

Anyway.  Back to the expo.

Our first seminar was by Capt. Jerry Dilsaver who was talking about catching King Mackerel.  Check out his website http://www.captjerry.com/ to see that this is a man who knows what he is talking about.  He covered making rigs, use of single strand vs stranded wire, live bait vs dead bait, the use of chum and even answered questions regarding fish bags after he was done with the lecture.  Hopefully we can use some of this information to catch king on the new boat.

The next seminar was by Capt. Butch Foster who talked about bottom fishing.  Here is his website http://www.yeahrightcharters.com/ .  This man has been fishing for over 50 years and currently specializes in targeting grouper and other bottom fish.  His seminar talked about the importance of anchoring over a live bottom location to ensure the fish stay where you are fishing.  He uses some serious terminal tackle - 10/0 non-stainless hooks on 250 pound test leader and 150 pound swivel.  He uses 150 pound test fishing line.  He prefers live bait to dead bait but says what many people say in that fish will bite what they want and it varies from day to day.

Now, if it will just get warm enough to fish, maybe we can put some of this newly learned information to good use.

Reel Snow

Fortunately or unfortunately, we did not get to celebrate a white Christmas.  But we did get a white day after Christmas.  Not exactly sure how much we got, but Growndawg measured it early in the day and we had over 8 inches then.  It snowed until well into the evening.  Thankfully it never lasts very long where we are.

Here are some of the pictures from our house.



This is looking off our front porch at our neighbors.  You can't even see the road.




Our 3 real dogs having to take care of business.



In our backyard - The two rows of border stones are almost buried.




Our Princess Dog who is NOT happy about the snow.




Early morning sun on the backyard the next day.