North Star Hunting Beagles

Brenda and I have been raising beagles for over 40 years and along the way we raised two children as well.  We have a daughter Nicole and a son Benjamin.  Both of them are out of the house and have been living their own lives for several years but your children are always your children no matter where they are.  They are following their dreams which has taken them far away from us at times.  Brenda and I have moved around the country with Nicole and Benjamin while they were growing up so they are not strangers to moving and starting new roots in different locations.  

We all started out in Wisconsin; Brenda's family is from Green Bay and mine is located out in the country about 1/2 hour from Green Bay.  Sure, we are all CHEESE HEADS, and Green Bay Packers fans; we would not have it any other way.  Our first move out of Wisconsin took us to Southern California; after two years there it was time to move again.  We then lived in Northern Minnesota for about 6 years and then back to Wisconsin for awhile.  The next move took us to upstate NewYork (just Brenda and I), the kids were on their own by that time.  After a couple years in New York we moved (you guessed it) back to Wisconsin again which I thought at the time would be our last move.  I was wrong again; we moved to Pennsylvania temporarily on a work assignment.  We were in Pennslyvania for about 18 months and that assignment ended earlier than planned.  So, back to Wisconsin; no not quite yet.  We were asked to make a stop in central Lower Michigan (Midland, MI) for about 10 months.  We are now back in Wisconsin for good; I have retired so no more moving or traveling for work.   

So you can imagine that trying to maintain a bloodline of beagles with all of that moving was difficult and I did have to start over once after we moved from California to Minnesota.  We sold all of the beagles when we left Wisconsin and moved to Southern California (not a good place for hunting beagles) with hopes of buying some of the bloodline back when we could have beagles again but that did not work out unfortunately.  We started over again when we moved to Minnesota and have been able to continue since then.  Some of our moves were good for hunting and raising beagles.  Northern Minnesota had good hare hunting; we could train the dogs in our backyard.  New York has a significant amount of solid hunting beagle breeding and great beagle clubs.  We had fun living there and I spotted the bloodline that would become a big part of the future of our kennel.  I noticed several good females that were out of the same male but different females and was impressed with the producing power of that male.  That led me to contact Les Blondino to talk about his male, Buck's Branch Kalagha; eventually we drove down to Virginia and bred one of our females to Kalagha.  Living in Pennsylvania has been beneficial for us also.  I decided to try to find a Gay bred female to breed to our Kalagha male Toby.  This was not an easy task; much more difficult than I thought.  Then I contacted David Hatfield in Eastern Kentucky.  David has mostly Gay bred hounds in his kennel so we went to Kentucky to visit him and his wife Faye.  They are great people and what a nice bloodline of hounds.  We purchased a female pup (Xena) from David and also a five year old female, Queen (1/4 Gay breeding).  We are happy with both of those hounds.  

Finally I was able to accomplish one of those once-in-a-lifetime hunting trips I always thought of making but did not because of the distance while living in Wisconsin.  Brenda and I traveled to Maine in November 2010 to hunt hare.  What a beautiful part of the country; I believe it is a hare hunter's dream after spending five days there.  I contacted Stanley Gomm of Boom Hill beagles at first just to talk about his beagles but after a few discussions decided to make a trip up to hunt some hare.  Stan has a great set up above his garage where you can stay, a 40 acre enclosure stocked with hare for training the young dogs, and knows where the good hare spots are in the Old Town, Maine area.  Stan also has a very impressive kennel of beagles that can put some fear in a hare.  We did go back to Maine in November of 2011 but we drove from lower Michigan to Maine.  It was a beautiful trip; we went through Canada, through up-state New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and then up through Maine to Old Town.  We stayed for a week this time and had some good hunting and great weather while we were there.  This may become an annual trip for us; even when we return to Wisconsin later this year.  

There are some advantages to living in different parts of the country.  You will meet some great people, experience some fun and educational adventures, get in some great hunting, and learn to appreciate your home state for all it has to offer.