Tito Beveridge ambled over to our group from Covey Rise with a loose, easy gait and a generous cheshire grin. The broad smile seemed to be an invitation to fun. The test tubes in his hand, used to sample vodka, confirmed it.

Produced in Austin, Tito’s Handmade Vodka comes from Texas’ first legal distillery. And on our tour of his distillery, the affable owner himself served as our host, talking not only about his business but his connections to the countryside.

“I’m from San Antonio,” he said, “so I grew up quail hunting south Texas.”

His family once owned the property of Joshua Creek Ranch, one of the finest places for upland hunting in the nation.

The connection between hunting and fine liquor is clear. What hunter doesn’t toast a successful day in the field?

But Tito’s path to producing vodka is more circuitous…

Northern goose down is the finest insulating material known to man–at least for clothing to keep you alive under the worst conditions. Down is the ultra-fine, almost weightless plumage that lies between the skin and the outer feathers of ducks and geese. It’s at its best in Arctic waterfowl, and the term ‘eiderdown’ is found in accounts of Arctic exploration going back centuries, the eider being a duck common to Scandinavia. Any material that can insulate a swimming bird in the frigid waters of the Arctic must be good insulation.

Although feathers and down have been traditional materials for quilts and comforters for eons, down presents two major problems when used in clothing: First, it tends to settle, clumping in one spot; and second, it is very difficult to confine with even the finest stitching.

In 1936, a Seattle sporting-goods dealer named Eddie Bauer solved both problems, perfecting not only a method of quilting articles of clothing to hold the down in place, but also a means of keeping the pesky little down fibers from worming their way out of the garment.

Kodiak, an energetic 3-year-old springer spaniel, was the perfect pick to accompany Mark Haglin and his three sons on a pheasant hunt in South Dakota. The owner of Pine Shadows, an award-winning hunting dog breeder, set off in late December after a large snowstorm. The wind had coated the cattail sloughs and corn rows with a thick layer of white.

“After struggling toward what we thought was the edge of the cattails,” says Haglin, “Grant set Kodiak on top of the snow and she quickly went to work.” Kodiak dropped down under the snow. After a minute a rooster exploded out of the snow with Kodiak busting out right behind the bird. Haglin shot the bird, Kodiak made the retrieve, and dropped back down under the snow coursing through the maze of trails under the snow. In quick order, another bird made its way out of the snow with Kodiak right behind. The pup repeated this show at least six times in just a 10-minute time period. Determination, a powerful gait, a friendly disposition: these are just a few typical spaniel traits…