It seemed there were a lot of hunters at the show Friday and Saturday, but Sunday must’ve been the day for the fishermen. I talked to so many anglers today that I am hoarse and met a great bunch of people all three days. Looking forward to seeing the new friends we made again. I’m really looking forward to this fishing season and from the looks of it, we’re going to be busy! Mike and I are heading out Tuesday to scout the walleye population and we’re going to get ready to be up and running for the March walleye push!

On another note, I was FINALLY able to get hold of an excavator to work on our driveway- I’ve called every contractor with a shovel over the last three months but finally connected with one that I can depend on. He’s coming out this week to rework the driveway for us and not a minute too soon. Going to grade it and ditch it too after pulling up the old, deteriorated asphalt that previous owners just kept dumping gravel on instead of tearing up and doing it right. May seem like a silly thing to write about, but its been driving me nuts trying to keep up with it on the tractor.

On the renovation/remodeling; everything is moving right along- even more wallpaper has been removed and we are really happy with the results.

This weekend Mike and I are running our booth at the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman’s Classic expo in Roanoke at the Civic Center. Come by and have a look around- there are many, many great vendors here and so are we! Come by to look at available dates or just listen to our latest fish story!

We’ll be here today until 8 pm and tomorrow until 6 pm.

Talked to the vet again today and she tells us his blood work is fine with the exception of a high liver enzyme that isn’t surprising for his age.

She was also surprised that he showed an improvement after only one dose of his pain meds as it should take 4 days to thoroughly get it through his system. That is a very good sign as he should get better and better over the next few days. He is feeling much better for sure- he normally doesn’t come upstairs to sleep in our bedroom anymore as he doesn’t like the steps up, but he tore right up them last night. He also hasn’t been sleeping on his back either, which I suppose was something he did because it made his hips feel better.

Anyway, he just seems to be much more comfortable and I am really glad we gave this vet a try. Although she is in this case treating the symptom as it’s all she can do for him, she is really aggressive about treatment. She pretty much solved Charlie’s skin problems immediately and he knows it too- he is very happy to go in to see her. Our previous vet office wasn’t quite as thorough with him and never got the same results.

No wonder she was voted best of Floyd for vet care!

Dr. Thomason is the vet and their information is:

Blue Ridge Veterinary Hospital
436 Floyd Hwy N
Floyd, VA 24091
(540) 745-3800

Today we took Quido to the vet because his arthritic hips have been bothering him a lot lately. We have a new vet we’ve been using who is fantastic for us and she tells us that he does have some atrophy in his hindquarters due to the fact that he is favoring his right rear leg. She gave us some pain meds for him to make him more comfortable and WOW what a difference. He still favors that leg because it is weak, but he is trotting around like a pup and I am hoping that if we take advantage of his pain meds we can get him out to exercise and hopefully help strengthen him up a bit. Right now the lazy bum is out like a light, stretched out and comfortable.

As for me; I spent 9 hours priming the entry way to get ready to paint plus another two hours sanding and taping. I am definitely hurting on Quido’s behalf! All I get is ibuprofen though…that lucky dog!

I want to take a second to plug some old friends and new in the fishing world.

First, a little background though: I am very opinionated about the level of service I receive when I open my wallet for anything. No matter if it is up the road at the Buffalo Mountain Country Store to buy a gallon of milk or if I am spending large dollars at Lowe’s, if money is going from my hand to yours I expect to get what I pay for and I expect good service to come with it.

Case in point- last year at the Greensboro Fishing Expo I visited a vendor there and spent a healthy amount of cash on equipment I needed. The vendor, who will remain nameless, also assured me that he could get me wading boots to fit my size ‘holy crap!’ feet and promised that as soon as he got back to his shop he would send me pricing, sizing and style availability. Cue crickets chirping now because it’s been over a year and I’ve heard nothing.

Now bring in Mike Smith and a casual mention to good friend of Greasy Creek Outfitters and owner of the Green Drake Fly Shop down in Greensboro, Stewart Gordon.

When Stewart heard that I needed to get some wading boots and was having a hard time finding my size, he pulled out his catalog and immediately sent me info on sizes he could get and the pricing. The bottom line was that within a week of telling Stewart what I wanted, he made a special order and shipped them out to me before I even had a chance to find out what the price was. Needless to say, I have a pair of excellent fitting boots at a great price and you can be sure that when I need to order again the Green Drake will get my business.

Now fast forward to the present. When Mike and I went to the Charlotte Fly Fishing Show last weekend, I had specific items I was searching for- namely 9 wt line in sinking and floating so that I could outfit my reel and a spare spool I was going to purchase. Now, for those of you that don’t fly fish, buying line for a fly rod is much more expensive than buying for a spinning rod. You get anywhere from 90 to 100 feet of line and you’ll pay anywhere from $30 to $80 or so for it. So, I was essentially looking at spending a healthy amount on line and another healthy amount for a spare spool for my Redington reel. On top of that, in keeping with my tendency to go for the hard to find, 9 wt line is an odd ball. You can easily find 5,6,7,8 and then 10 and 11, but not 9. Luckily, I stopped by Madison River Fly Fishing Outfitters who gave me a great deal on 9 wt floating line (yep, they had it) and suggested that I try using a sink tip system instead of rigging a spare spool with sinking line. Since the sink tip system route would save me about $80 in the end, I was all for it. The problem; they didn’t have any of them at their booth but promised me that if I wanted to try it they would mail it to me when they got back to their shop. Remembering my issue the year before, I hesitantly paid up and gave them my address. I thought that I would wait a couple of weeks and see if Rob Domico was true to his word before I started steaming but Rob didn’t let it get that far. Day before yesterday I got a nice little package with my new sink tip system in it and have added another quality, trustworthy fly shop to my list of favorites. They are both Orvis retailers, by the way.

So thank you Stewart and thank you Rob for restoring my faith.

Their web addresses (click to visit):

The Green Drake: www.thegreendrake.com
Madison River: www.carolinaflyfishing.com

Visit them and tell them Gil from Greasy Creek Outfitters recommended them!