Prepping for Pheasant Fest!

I admit, I am a horrible procrastinator.  So here we are – exactly 3 weeks away from the day we’ll leave for Pheasant Fest, and I still have a ton of things to do to get ready. 

 

Let me back up a minute though.  I got a call last summer from Pheasants Forever asking if Uplanders Warehouse would like to buy a booth at Pheasant Fest and be an exhibitor there.  Price was only $900 or so for the 3-day event.  I had heard of the event, but had never attended previously.  Back when I committed and purchased the booth, we had only been in business for a few months, and Pheasant Fest sounded it like it might be a great opportunity to promote the business and reach out to 30,000 fellow pheasant hunters, so we jumped in.

 

Little did we know the $900 for this show would be the cheap and easy part   I don’t even want to add up the expense of everything we’re shelling out to show at this thing or I’ll get sick.  The time and effort is even greater than the financial investment.  This show is consuming all of our time right now as we come up on the final weeks before we leave.  We’ll take off on Wednesday, February 4 to start our cross-country trek (Bozeman, MT to Madison, WI – approx. 1,200 miles each way).  The show itself runs Friday-Sunday, February 6-8.  Thankfully, gas prices are cooperating; I was seriously considering dropping out of the show back when gas was $4+ per gallon.  We’ll be hauling a trailer with our exhibit décor, inventory, supplies, etc.  It has become quite the project.

 

Initially it was going to be my wife (Dixie – my booth babe and I at the show, but after talking to other businesses that have participated in Pheasant Fest in past years, I’m thinking we might get swamped (again, potentially 30,000 attendees).  So I bribed my son that if he had straight A’s in school at the time we take off, he can come too.  I’m really hoping he has the grades, cause I think we’re going to need a 3^rd person at the show.

 

If you’re in the Madison area, or already planning to go to the show, we’d love to see you! Our booth # is 748 – I’ll have something for you to make it worth your while.

 

I’m hoping to find time at the show to write a couple blog entries and keep everyone up to date on how things are going for us.  Hopefully the weather cooperates for the road trip, and we don’t run into any mechanical issues.  See you at the show!

Caring for your dogs in cold weather

Wow! It is colder here in Montana than anything I’ve ever experienced.  We just went through a stretch in December where the coldest temperature that registered on my truck gauge was 31 BELOW zero.  The coldest weather I had experienced previously was probably in the 10 below.  It was that kind of cold where your spit freezes before it hits the ground!

 

Having lived in snow country before (in Utah), I had previously researched how to care for my dogs in the cold weather.  My rule of thumb has been anything 10 degrees and warmer is ok. Between 0 and 10 degrees, I need to make sure they have adequate shelter and warmth within their kennel, but below 0 is time to move the dogs indoors. 

 

I had advance warning that the cold air was coming, and decided to cut a pet door into the side of my storage building in the backyard. The building has a concrete floor and is heated – and I figured the dogs would be plenty warm. I put several old blankets on the floor and some cedar shaving beds for them.  I was quite impressed with the setup when all was said and done and felt confident the dogs would like it as well. 

 

The storage building is separate from their kennel. Instead of locking them in the storage building, they were left free to roam our fenced yard – and had the choice of going in the storage building or in their regular dog kennel. 

 

The cold spell went on for a couple weeks – and the first week, we didn’t get above 0 day or night – it was seriously cold! 

 

The damndest thing happened.  While I witnessed the dogs using both their old kennel and dog houses, and the new storage building, the dogs seemed to prefer their old kennel houses to the new heated digs.  Their standard kennel houses are 55 gallon plastic barrels with a door cut in one end and filled with cedar shavings.  I had noticed on other not-as-cold occasions that 2 or even 3 of the dogs would bunk up in one barrel.  Maybe I’m wrong in assuming my dogs are smart enough to find the warmest shelter, but it seemed every time I went to check on them, they would come out their barrel houses – not the new, warm digs I prepared for them. Maybe its’ habit, but maybe those barrel houses are warmer than I thought they would be.  I’m curious to get a temperature reading inside one of the barrels with one or more dogs in there.  If any of you have information on this or anything related to share, please chime in.

 

One other important consideration when helping your dogs get through the cold spells is to make sure you feed more than usual.  I learned this from a cattle rancher friend of mine who said the only thing he does for his cattle during cold spells is to double-up on the food, and they always do fine.  I’m guessing some of you may have noticed your own dogs will lose weight in cold weather if kept on the same volume of food.  They definitely burn more calories staying warm when it’s cold out.  I fed double their standard during the sub-zero temps, and they all did great.  Now that it has warmed up a bit (20-30 degrees north of zero), I have backed off the extra food. 

 

I hope we have weathered the coldest temperatures of our first winter here in Montana.  And I’m sure my dogs share the same sentiment!