01/18/2007 Well another year has come and gone. Time flies when you get older... or maybe that's when you're having fun... which ever.... There has been a lot going on but I don't have the time to post it at the moment as it is late.... keeps your beagles looking down and coonhounds looking ups!

09/12/2006 Well fall is just about upon us again and I am really looking forward to it! Not only for the cooler weather but for the hunting season too. Jack has started working the Beagle Boys on these cooler mornings. Jack says I'm wishin' my life away but I can't wait for the cool, frosty mornings, the smell of a wood fire in a  fireplace, and the sound of driving beagles hot on a bunny track! Beside the usual faces here on the farm we've added a few more. Jack got 3 beagle pups from Terry Hardy. A female named Windy and her brother, and a male named T.J (Thunder Jr.) who is off the old Cindy female and Fred Gentry's Stubby male. T.J. is a full brother to the 2 males we already have just younger. We'll have some real fun with the little guys. Also we have a coonhound female out of Ted Willaims Yadkin River Sky female (raised here on the farm) and Pete Barber's Geoff male. Her name is Jinx. We also have a Yellow River bred redboane female we have yet to name......there is a story behind this but I'm not at liberty to post it here.  Pictures will follow soon...........jmd

07/01/2006 Make sure you dogs have plenty of fresh water in these hot summer months! Most people don't have to be told this but it seems every year we hear of someones dogs expiring from lack of water. If your hunting, keep a jug of fresh water in your truck. For you and the dogs. You never know when you might need it.

02/03/06 Once again Southeastern Treeing Walker Days are coming to Salisbury NC. Jack will be down on Friday and we'll both be there on Saturday. Looking forward to seeing everyone there the last weekend in Feb. 2006.

02/03/06 Look out guys the Beagle Boys are coming through!!! These two 8 month old pup are really putting on a show. They got to run with their dad yesterday and they gave Stubby (who belongs to Mr. Fred Gentry of Beagle Run Training Pen) a run for his money!! Jack took them again today and they ran a rabbit for 2 hours at a dead run. Wish I could have been there! Jack said that they saw the rabbit several time and he was layin' her back.... Jack has also bought Betty (a 1/2 sister...can't remember) from Raymond Burcham along with the Boys aunt Sandy who is a full sister to their momma. The Boys have run her raggity... ha.. poor girl, Jack has to bath her ears in pad coat on tough days.... she's good to go the next morning.... I am gettin geared up for a little competition huntin.

01/01/2006 Can you believe it .... another year is in the history books... I hope everyone is doing well and survived the holidays okay. It can be a stressful time for families separated. My daughter lives in Ohio and had a baby girl on Monday Jan. 9th, 2006. She and my grandson didn't get to come home for the holidays. I didn't get to go up due to work. I hits kinda hard. Jacks daughter Jessica came to see us though. And his sister and her husband came for Christmas Eve dinner. We went to their home on Sunday and had dinner with them.

Allot of things happened last year...some are mentioned below. Another was Yadkin River Tater passed away. He was 12 years old. He was off a great YR Dixie and YR Chico female named YR Hope. (Better known as the Three Legged Dog) Jack gave me Tater as a gift. He was born here on the farm and I raised and trained him. Though he wasn't my first YR dog, he had a special place in my heart. He'll be sorely missed.

Jim Meeks has a new dog he's promoting name Curt. (Now I wonder where he got that name from?!) The dogs got to be pretty special for Jim to run an ad on him in American Cooner. Check him out. If you've got a good YR female this may be the way to go.

Pete Barber has a nice stud dog too. His name is Geoff. We went rabbit hunting a few weeks ago on Pete's property and he had three super nice pups out of him. The were really friendly and playful. Pete had taken them for a walk down to the creek and was just getting back when we pulled up. They will make some really fine young dogs.

I bet the coonhunters have really been busy lately! Jack bought back Yadkin Rvier Cracker from Chris Leigh. He has a few bugs to work out but sometimes that can be expected in a young dogs.

WOW The Beagle Boys are crackin' the whip!  I forget that they are only 7 months old. Jack and I have been taking them to various spots and free casting them. Boy they are sure EXCITING!!! Jack has killed a rabbit in front of them and they got another gear!!! Jack traded off the Margo female and bought the Sandy female from Raymond Burcham. Sandy is a full sister to the Boys' mother. Lightning is getting most of the checks now with Sandy right behind him. We both are very proud of the Boys. It feels good just to get out in the sunshine, even on the cooler mornings, and listen to a good race. It's just one of the things I enjoy doing with my husband. I am really lucky to have a husband who's company I truly enjoy. We keep the Boys in the same kennel together and they play all day long when we're not hunting. They play a form of tag and rare up on their back legs like little horses pawing at each other. Sometimes the whole kennel will get caught up in their antics!

12/01/2005   I want to thank everyone for the letters and feedback I've been getting. Ya'll have been great. Since Jack is home now in the evenings, it's a little more difficult to respond to them all but I do save all of them and will get caught up sooner or later. Promise. Jeanne

11/09/05  Boy the Beagle Brothers are really starting to go. It tickles Jack and I when the young dogs get excited and start to understand the game. We've been running them in the puppy lot of Fred Gentrys for the last couple of weeks when it's been wet enough (and cool enough) for a rabbit to lay scent. Jack bought a female 7 yr. old named Snowy River Margo to help with the next step in training. She's a sweet old girl. Soon they will be going on a real hunt for wild rabbits. I can't wait....

10/29/05 We had a great visit from Bill and Marge Foote from Kansas. We had breakfast at the local Dinette with Bill, his wife, Chris Leigh, and Raymond Burcham ( a Beagle man). You can bet we talked dogs. Bill was out to pick up a nice looking Walker female. Good luck with her Bill. We had a really good time with these people. Ya'll come and visit any time...

10/09/05    Pete Barber sent me a picture of Geoff who is a nice hound. Look for him in the photo gallery. Pete and his buddies stopped by this evening. I got to meet Dave Gilroy, and Steve Taylor. (They're in the gallery too.)

*****NEW FLASH******   10/08/2005    We still have this big male pup out of Blaster and Chris Leighs Dixie female. He is a super nice, very large, goofball, of a four month old pup right now but I asked Jack what he was going to do with Timber (pups name) and he said "Make a coondog out of him." ..Hummmm... the saga continues? Stay tuned.....

I received a letter from Dacia Blanchard from Montana the other day.

09/16/05 Pete Barber and Ted Williams, you need to get me pictures of your dogs so I can put them on here.

After hunting for more than 40 years, and more than 25 years dedicated to the Yadkin River Bred Coonhounds, my husband has sold his dogs. I swear it hasn't rained for several weeks and on this day it rained in Yadkin County just after Chris Leigh left with the dogs. It is the only place in the entire state that it rained. I couldn't go out and watch. I get too emotional.

It's not safe to hunt around here anymore. Lands leased by deerhunters and the general public in a strange state of panic for the past couple of years has ended this adventure. It gets old being run off property that we have permission to hunt by the neighbors, who obviously have never lived in the country, being shot at by God only knows who, and because we still can't seem to get our dogs to read no tresspassing signs put up by deer hunters, oh and the ever creeping urban sprawl. A few years ago we lost our right to retrieve our hounds and it's steadily gone down hill since then. Eventually this is going to happen to most coonhunters. Like it or not, if you coonhunt, it will happen.

We talked about moving to another state but Jack has family here. His family has lived within 5 miles of here since the 1700's. I understand his ties with the land and the River. I wish I was articulate enough to put how I feel about this whole turn of events. He has a rich history here. So we will sit back and watch the world change around us. (Oh, and fish and rabbit hunt as long as we can....)

We are not the only ones in this area this has happened to. Fewer places to hunt means fewer places for guides to take casts and now some clubs are talking about merging. We have a friend who was accosted in the woods by policemen, or game wardens, who thought they were havesting drugs! Tried to put handcuffs on the wife who was waiting at the truck for her DEACON IN THE CHURCH husband and his friend retrieve their dogs off land they had permission to hunt. Jeez, people it's just starting. Curtis Sparks has a dog going to the UKC World Championship and then she is going to Jim Meeks. It will be his last hunt.

My husband and I are UKC licensed Master of Hounds and Bench show Judges. We are active members in several clubs but club participation has really dropped off in the last several years. People are tired of the hassles of trying to hunt. 25 years ago it wasn't nothing to have 60 to 100 dogs. Now we're lucky to have 4 casts total. It's just sad. No, what's sad is when we had our game laws meeting for our district, last January, the only two coonhunters that showed up were  Jack and myself. In a room full of deerhunters who extended the deer season another month. If you don't know it deer season run from September to the second week of December. Now it will run till January. Coon season starts the second week of October and runs till the end of February. We can't coonhunt during deer season. Longer the deer season, shorter the coon season. It doesn't leave us time really to hunt. Not enough to justify keeping, feeding, and caring for, dogs year round.

Our Coonhunters Association isn't going to look out for us so it's up to you... if you want to hunt you are going to have to stand up for your right to coonhunt. Nobody is going to do it for you. You are going to have to actively join together and stop what's happening to our sport before it becomes a fading memory of what used to be......jmd