project started 2004 --End who knows ??

[Michelle K linnane]

Here was us getting trees out. A good size dozer can move a lot of stuff out of the way in a very short time.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

My next post does not have anything to do with building. But it shows what was happening in March of 2008. Here are some pictures of a litter I had these are the third generation of these dogs I have owned. I owned the Field champions in their backgrounds and breed both the Dam and the sire of the litter. This is Sheba and she had 8 health puppies. This is what I was going on in March of 2008. The puppies are new born here.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

Here is a month later and my neighbors kids are socializing the puppies like only kids can and Sheba loved them coming in whelping box so as they pet her and do not give all attention to the puppies. The pups crawled all over the girls I have a male from this litter. Will show pictures of him I have currently. The kids really did a good job with pups.

OK now on to some building it is now May 2008.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

Well decided to open the game preserve in the winter of 2008. Need pen, have been to the breeding center in NY reynolds game farm talk to many people and decided to start small with a pen that did not have to be lowered in snow storm. Offered some challenges to do so but here is what I game up with. Our soil here is so wet I decided to scrape off top soil and laied down about 20 ton of sand. Did the post 8 foot apart kind of like a pole barn.

Here show us spreading some sand and then the finished product we used kennel fence so we did not have to build doors the first year.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

To keep the food some what out of the rain and stuff we hammer a little roof and then cut brush and placed it in the pen. As most pheasants pens have cover and the only thing the brush did was make it almost impossible to catch the birds so in the following year we got rid of it.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

OK Made do with that pen the first year and I was in the mud all the time and so where the birds, their food had no settle and it was not easy to care for them. No easy place to catch, getting birds was a nightmare.

The first thing I did was for next pen I brought about 30 ton of two inch stone for drainage.

Being in the mud is not good for any animal, the bird tail feathers did not look good going throught the mud all the time. The pens would hold water due to clay on the bottom. When it was cold it was icy and not easy to care for them.

Once that was spread they brought material they place in horse areas a type of stone dust. This gave us drainage and that was what I wanted.
Also I want a barn up there that I could place young birds and have a heat lamp so that would be the next step after we prepared the ground

 

[Michelle K linnane]

I did not mention this but my pens are on the highest part of my property but the soil here so heavy, in the spring the water just runs.

Here is us spreading stone dust and the last pictures when we spread crusher run so we could get up the pens easier even when it was really wet. Placed shale down as base and then crusher run to dress it off.

I had a 99 ford pickup that I was going to get rid and a guy who did some Carpenters work for me needed a truck so he worked the truck off. He would come on weekend and at night he hand I worked togther and got it down.

The carpenter did not realize I wanted really big over overhangs so he started to some rafters and we had to redo them. Also I wanted it 12 inches on center with a really good pitch to hold snow load.

I used crusher run for barn floor.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

Well we worked at night after work for over month and finally got pen ready for birds. Here are outside shots everything is ready for birds, waters and feeders and nice dry pens no cover but I give grass clipping every couple of days and cows corn on the cob, oats, fresh alpha I picked and tall weeds espically golden rod or milk weed they love to pick.
When I had the cover in the first pen they never hid in it, just ran through it when you are trying to catch them.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

You can see from the inside of the barn I used scrape metal from my kennel just turned it the other side show nothing but white showed from outside was good enough for pheasant pens and help save on cost.
So now I have two seperate pens for two different age groups I have a building that is 8 feet wide and 32 feet long. Which is very nice at time to store some food up there runs birds in the catch building or to brood you birds when it is time to go outside.

 

[Michelle K linnane]

This next post is off track again but I think you will enjoy it.

Some guy shows up one day and wants to buy a 1 pheasant in the fall of 2009. He was a master falconry (Mike Cornell) who lived in the same town as I did. He wanted it for his Goshawk. Yea no problem that is what I am in business for.

I have always had an interest in birds of prey, even more so lately running game preserve. Have many young Redtails in the fall. Birds of prey have always interested me. With everything I have going on I have never had a time to presue the interest.

Well Mike is hunter and has been doing falconry for 30 years. So now having I have a source to ask questions too. Mike came over at times to help me catch bird help with the hunt and loves to watch the dogs work.

I asked if anybody had ever hunted a dog and hawk or falcon together, well one thing lead to another and the following spring Mike is now looking for a falcon. To hunt pheasants with my dogs. He thought a falcon would be a good choice.
He already had a goshawk and wanted something a little different. He had a hard time finding what he wanted as wealthy oversea people buy all the white falcons Gry falcons for big money from the states $10,000 and $20,000. After a great deal of searching he finds a bird. She is a hybrid 1/2 Saker and 1/2 Gry at a resasonable price.

Zema arrives one day. Mike calls and said would you like to see the Falcon and of course I can not wait to see her. When I first look at her the first words out of my mouth are they always this ugly? There is just no other way to put it, she is homely, she looked like a hemroid with fuzz. Fortunately Mike has gotten used to me blurting stuff out that is on my mind and laughed.

Well the next step will be to introduce her to the dogs. Zema has now arrived! So we will attempt to take dogs who either retreive
or point birds for a living and say here is your new hunting buddy. I was a little worried about this part, I had an idea how the dogs would
react I was worried they would try and retrieve her. From the time she was a few days, Zema like to eat. How much that bird ate has always amazed. There was no question about it Zema (the Falcon) is homely and a pig.