STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Sunbury Press has released Beagle Tales 6, Bob Ford's sixth installment of his humorous home-spun series. About the Book: In Ford's sixth collection of outdoor humor he continues to strike a chord with hunters and dog lovers as he makes observations about contemporary life, often through nostalgic narratives of the simpler days of his youth (way back in the 1900's). Ford is an award winning freelance writer, and his work has appeared in The American Beagler, Better Beagling, Hounds & Hunting, Sporting Classics Daily, and Fur-Fish-Game. He lives in the hills of Pennsylvania with his wife, Renee, and a pack of hunting house beagles. Excerpt: When I was a kid, there were a few January rituals that characterized most of my time. One of them was Christmas trees. Our beagle club had a running pen, and the road into the enclosure's parking lot was plowed. People would dump Christmas trees there. I now hear all sorts of debate about the value of used Christmas trees in an overall effort to maintain a quality running grounds, as the trees are dead and will shed their needles in time, yielding Christmas tree skeletons, which are not ideal cover. Our club liked them in the winter, and the task at hand became distributing the trees over the running grounds into clumps of decent cover capable of allowing a bunny to hide from air predators. "How old are you?" the club president asked me. "I will be 14 soon," I answered. "How would you like to disperse Christmas trees around the club?" He scratched his chin. "Where are they?" I asked.

"In the parking lot," he scratched his head. "Space them out. Make piles that are as big as a picnic table. Don't put them on the paths, but put them in places off the feed strips that will grow again in the spring. I don't want to be mowing Christmas trees. Stack them where the cover looks sparse. I will make sure you get a little money for your efforts." Now early January was still hunting season, so Saturdays were out. That left Sundays to work on this project, as Pennsylvania has never permitted Sunday hunting. I had a paper route that I had to do on Sunday mornings, but I could do this tree job in the afternoon. "Dad, what are you doing this Sunday?" I asked. "Working," he said. "How about the following Sunday?" "Working." Dad was serious about work, and his job did not give him many Sundays off. Once in a while the work rotation aligned with a calendar that matched up with family events. The factory where he worked did not have a work schedule that was concerned with family events. They had developed a complicated scheme that involved workers changing shifts every week while also varying the days of the week wherein an employee was scheduled to be off. This then was modified by offerings of overtime and a desire to maximize productivity. "Your mom can drop you off," Dad said. Beagle Tales is a trademark of Sunbury Press, Inc. Find more at www.beaglebard.com. Beagle Tales 6 Authored by Bob Ford List Price: $14.95 5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 156 pages Sunbury Press, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-1620067925 ISBN-10: 1620067927 BISAC: Pets / Dogs / Breeds For more information, please see: http://www.sunburypressstore.com/Beagle-Tales-6-978162006...