In the year or so I've known him he has gotten more critical and harder to please with dogs. That's a good thing, he's hungry for more knowledge and better potlickers. He is getting along real good with the pups from the Cajun program, has taken them 4-5 times now. He's starting to sort through what he hears or has heard according to what he sees and be able to pick out what he can use for his own opinion.

  He's wanting to get a mule and hunt more with me, he was looking to buy a good mule ready to use. He works on a ranch, rides and ropes, pretty good cowboy, due to the cost I have encouraged him to find a 2-4 year old mule that is unbroken and make him a mule. He thought my mule was great and I explained to him I hunted on her at night the fourth time she'd ever had a man or saddle on her back, rode her where I wanted to go, led dogs. and jumped a fence or two. It don't take long at all to have one useable, and from there on out they just get better. With his skills I could coach him through the first 3 or 4 days and then he could just stay after it for a month or so, in no time he'd have a good mule of his own without much money tied up.

  I used to have an extra mule for Lisa, Chelsea, or visitors but he aged out. He was actually given to me and was supposed to be a man killer, I told them I didn't want someone elses problem but finally they said just try him if you can't use him sell him in the loose horse sale and we'll split it. I gave in and went and picked him up, came home tied him close and solid to a tree and saddled him, I'd been told when you cinched him and stepped back he'd have a bucking fit. I had leaned up a 5 foot sorting stick just for the occasion, when I stepped away he jumped and kicked one time, I didn't even have time to grab the sorting stick.
  I led him out in the county road, grabbed the headstall, pulled his head around to me and stepped on expecting the very worst, he left in a running walk up the road. I didn't go far and came back and hooked a big tire and rim to the saddle horn right out in the road and took off, he didn't try to run away from the very noisy tire like many do, I pulled it off both sides of the saddle didn't bother him at all got back to the house. Chelsea was 8 yrs old had been riding her own horse (not a kid horse) for 5 years but she'd never saw a mule and was having a fit to ride him. I told her this mule is supposed to be bad you don't need to ride him yet, she kept on and finally I said alright but if he bucks you off you better not say a word, I pitched her up on him and off they went no problem at all.
  After this long winded tale that was totally irrelevant to the original post, I can say that mule was just misunderstood and smart enough to know who he could take advantage of. We used him here for many years everyone rode him, but if a stranger was going to ride him I'd saddle him before they got here so they wouldn't see him act up, and be afraid of him. Sometimes he'd have a pretty good fit, I could scold him and he wouldn't do it but it just went with him. He had some scars in the girth area, I figure whoever started him had ridden him really raw and that made him cinchy.

 He's just a good, kindhearted young fellow.

  A package arrived here from a young fellow that's a friend of mine, "Colt Humble" we've hunted together a little bit and talk on the phone often. Months ago he'd mentioned he needed to get him a good sticking knife, so I referred him to Cajun and told him Cajun hammered in the finger guards and they were pretty cool.. I had also told him it would be good if he could get some pups from him. They got together on the phone and he ordered him a knife and some pups, unbeknownst to me he ordered me a knife as well that arrived today sheath and all. A really good set up, about a 6 inch blade with the forged in finger guard. Thanks to Colt and Cajun I now have a really nice new sticking knife.

                                                                   

                                                                   

 Congratulations Slim, on the hunt and the journey you've made with your dogs.

 Condolences to you and yours.

 They're doing more and more, usually have to put them up in their 5th month.

 Dogs baying 2 hogs after hunting hard, new catchdog's first appearance looked good and no injuries, can't complain about that.

 That was a scruffy looking hog for sure. Do you vest all your dogs?

 We have 3 Plott pups loose around here that were 4 mths old a week or so ago and in the last week or two I have been hearing them bark down in the woods, I figured they were trying to run a rabbit. Yesterday I  heard them across the road in the brushy fencerow, they sounded treed, I got to looking and the little idiots were treeing on birds, they'd be looking up at one and barking then when the bird flew further down the fencerow they'd follow until it stopped or they saw another and tree some more. That went on forever. Never had any do that around here.
  Monday my wife brought home our girls long haired chocolate colored Aussie dog because she was going to be out of town for a few days, those pups had their hair stood up and were raising cain, they kept getting closer to him and he wouldn't go with Lisa for being leary of the pups, after she got him in the pen they bayed him  for 2 hrs with me running them off periodically with the BB gun. Don't know how that will translate to baying hogs or treeing bear but it has been comical.

  Thank you'all.

 There are no discernable differences in their behavior or working traits, I have bred the black ones but never black to black. Best I can tell that is a color gene only, probably recessive and occasionally links to present as dominant.
  At the moment I have 2 black pups not old enough to work, they are from 2 different litters, one is all home breeding the other is a three quarter home breeding from a female that was out of one of my males and another strain female. That total outside female had 3 or 4 black ones when bred to my yellow male. When I get them at home there is usually just 1 or 2. Long term I usually have from 1-3 on the yard.
 I don't mind them at all but don't breed for them since that's not how I found them but don't consider it when evaluating them. Some folks that see them prefer their color.

  To add to that I frown on the Curs and Plotts that don't hold up as well as their counterparts, IE some time back I mentioned a Plott female with all the traits and abilities that was culled because of constantly running her feet off. Nature culls all weakness in the wild, in our performance animals it is up to us to play that role.

 No, the only dogs I carry are one that is hurt too bad to walk. If they can't follow me all day and still catch I don't want them, to me that would be embarrassing for the dog. IE yeah, he will really catch but I have to carry him so he doesn't get too tired.

 I will echo what Cajun said, I pay pretty close attention to everything I hear, see, or read. If we are just stuck in our own experience or even in our respected mentors experience, we could be missing the forest because of the trees.
  My base beliefs come from many conversations with Everett Weems, Ben Jordan, and Charles Gantte, but I pick up tidbits everywhere, and dream up some from my own observations and still fall short. I don't believe we'll ever be able to 100% understand and predict genetics.
  I don't mind getting old, that just means I didn't die young. God has kept a hand of protection on me and blessed me with good health.

  Spook has the same sire as the others, their sire is heavier made than Spook. Actually, that is all I had against his sire he was a little bit heavier made than I prefer, and it would tell on him if we had a long hot day. His dam was a half sister to the others grand sire.

  Spook is just black with yellow trim rather than yellow with black trim. He is bred the same as the others but he is older than them.  I get a few colored that way every now and then.

                                                           HOOKER IN THE FOREGROUND, MOTHER TO COWBOY AND QUEEN TO BE PICTURED BELOW                                                                                       

                                                           

                                                                                                  MY THIRD AND CURRENT COWBOY
                                                           

                                                                                            QUEEN, LITTERMATE TO COWBOY, POOR PICTURE
                                                           

                                                                                                                SPOOK
                                                           

                                                                                                                 GYPSY
                                                              

  Had a tough day, supposed to have been 5 cows was only 4, rode and looked for them a long time in timbered hills and hollows. Dogs finally hit their track and bayed them but there was one that kept punching through the dogs they'd apply the ivory and get her stopped and the other 3 would catch up to her. Repeat the process numerous times and they got turned toward where they needed to go but we were trapped behind an old fence. Took us awhile to get through and when we did dogs showed to be near the pen we were headed to "a neighbor let us use his pen, he'd succed his cattle in" the problem cow was trying to get in with them while the dogs were flogging her. Got her and waited for the trailer to get there to load her.
 Then went back and sent the dogs back down the hill to find the other 3, they bayed them in there and we started punching them up through the cedars and briars, got them in the open and the fellow that owned them was hazing the right hand side he let them back in the timber. Repeat the process and when we  put them in the open one bolted, dogs on her, she went in the timber across the open and way on over there we caught her. led her out was loading her in the trailer and she died, only the third one I can ever remember dying that we caught to load, lord only knows how many times I've done that. 
  Went back for the other two, they'd made it way off over there, dogs found them drove them back near the open by myself before Adam got there "we'd split up looking for the cows and the dogs had trailed way off before baying them" one cow was staying in front the other decided to stop I told Adam to try to punch her to the front cow, while I tried to haze the front one towards where we needed to go, got them out in the open though separately, and got them caught and loaded without incident. The first cow and the third cow were well earmarked and had bloody noses. The fellow was glad to get them, he'd given 3000 to 3700 for them, he was present for the whole deal on the one that died and wasn't upset "with us" about her dying.
  It just didn't go smoothly but they were pretty rank Brangus cows in over a thousand acres with little or no fences and 90 percent timber, we could hardly ever get up to a trot, it was hard on cows, horses and men.

  Going to get some escaped cows today over between Ft. Gibson and Tahlequah. Took some Cur Dog pics while loading up. but they aren't very cooperative subjects and I'm a poor camera man. Will get Lisa to put them on that site so we can upload them and post later.

  Yes, the bulldog keeps up real well, he has made a few 12-14 mile trips since I started using him. One day he got pretty hot and I really believe it was a hormone thing, like a woman having hot flashes, since he is recently neutered. Before nor since he hasn't done that and often mixed in those trips he has caught 1-3 hogs.

  I've ran through some burns before but not as fresh as this was, and it hampered them but did not shut them down. Riding through the burn I saw some fresh sign where it appeared the hogs had an urge for roasted nuts. I was surprised they would even attempt to feed in the fresh burn, some of the old rotten logs were still smoking a little.

 Went Tuesday, parked about a mile away from the actual hunting spot and rode on in, only to find it had been burned in the last few days. Smoke was still hanging in the creek bottom, live creek lined with cane breaks, oak timber on both hillsides should have been a good spot-without the burn. Rode away from there in an effort to get away from the burn and did hit a spot that wasn't burned, dogs jumped a hog and he ran by us, 300 yds later he hit some more burn and the dogs immediately lost him. Rode a long way to get away from the burn and did get in some hog sign but just didn't have enough dog power to use it.

  Went Thursday 2 young dogs got struck and left out, couldn't hear them but we were just going their way, another young dog came from behind us and as he went by I saw him start winding, he went out of sight in the brush and jumped a good brown boar that came by us with the dog in hot pursuit. The other 2 that had been 700 on over made a u-turn and were coming our way, they ran smack dab into one another all got together and down below us we saw the hog, the dogs were gathering it up and bayed just out of sight. It was the one the 2 young dogs had been running because it was a black sow, caught her and moved on. They struck again and went to running, we didn't know at the time but they were running a hog that had ran to the highway, Adam's dad had ran over it and called to see if we were in there, it happened to be a bar I'd recently worked over. We had hunted there alot and hadn't had them run to the highway.

 We jumped out onto the right of way and rode .75 up there and went in the north side, got in a bunch of fresh sign, dogs struck and left the country, we elected to go to the truck and haul around towards where they went. There was another hog that had gotten ran over crossing out of there that wasn't there when we had arrived. When we got back in signal 2 young dogs were bayed near a road, they had a broken legged buck deer, they had not left running a deer must have ran into him and couldn't resist the sight. They soaked up some electricity. We drove around to another section and got a signal on the other dogs seemingly coming out, don't know what happened. There were some uncommon happenings going on that day, rather unusual hunt.

  Went today to get 6 yearlings out of some unfenced farm ground that joined the Corp land on the Arkansas river, miles of country. Rode 3 hrs looking for them in the timber and sloughs next to the river. Finally found them, had taken 2 mild dogs. Got the yearlings in the farm ground and drove them 3 miles west to a netwire trap and a long lane that was the nearest thing to a pen for even more miles, those yearlings had traveled the entire way at a trot, but stayed together with the dogs in front leading ,got the calves loaded successfully. Had mixed feelings about my choice of dogs, didn't want a rough dog for fear of flushing and scattering the punchy yearlings but had never once driven cattle that far at a trot, basically under control except for the speed. Could turn them left or right, and did hit a small gate with them.