I pulled to the side of the road near the J. Robert Gordon Sandhills Field Trial Ground, rolled down the windows, and enjoyed the sweet, warm breeze blowing through my truck. The calendar said it was deep into winter and yet I had the windows down. Fancy that. I wasn’t lost; heck, I’ve never been lost in my life. Misguided, yes, misdirected, absolutely, but lost? Never. Wherever I am I am, and on this sunny, bluebird day I looked out at some 60,000 acres of longleaf pines, love grass, and bobwhite quail courses. Many famous dogs ran here, and up-and-coming pups will run here—it’s ingrained in the fabric of the Sandhills. Birds, bird dogs, and bird hunters—it’s been this way for a long, long time.

I wasn’t lost, I’d just overshot my destination—John Webb Road in Ellerbe, North Carolina, the location of The Webb Farm. Ellerbe is near Rockingham, due east of the Pee Dee River and west of Pinehurst. It’s an area that Sir Walter Raleigh liked because it helped him popularize tobacco. Here, between the Piedmont and the Atlantic coast, there is a mixture of just enough red clay and sand to make everything grow, from peaches to millet. At The Webb Farm, folks’ attention is squarely on the Sandhills trinity of land, quail, and bird dogs.