The call of the wild.

Today I spent the day in the woods. Making sure that the area I am going to be hunting is ready for the upcoming whitetail season. (2 months from now.) My dad, older brother, and myself drove out and did the preliminary look see at the 80 acres that we rent for hunting. Our hunting party (dad, brother, sister in law, uncle and myself) have our favorite spots that we hunt from. Dad takes the front corner, Bill the back corner, Uncle Dave the pines in the middle, Hilary takes the pines in the back corner, and I take the stilt blind in the middle to the west of Dave's pines.

We've even given some of the blinds (our home away from homes) names. Hilary is in the "Primal Place." I'm in the "Push" blind. It's called the push blind because my brother tried to open the door by pulling the door out towards him. Nearly pulling the entire side off. Then when he went to climb back down the ladder he leaned on the door and fell fight through the door which had to be pushed to open. Bill's in the "Tree house" There's also the"Ring of fire."

We cleared the fire lanes of the branches that had sprouted up since last season. The guy who owns the property had gone around with a brush hog last weekend, so there wasn't that much we had to trim down. He added a couple of firring lanes for me which will be nice. Shooting from my blind was like firring through tapioca pudding. Any which way you went you hit something. But, I've taken 2 smaller bucks from that spot, so I'm not complaining. All that's left is to replace the floor and some of the tar paper on the sides of my blind and I'm ready to go.

Last season we got a total of 6 deer between us. My sister in law filled her combo tag the first day. It was her first time hunting. Beginners luck! It took me 5 years to get my first one. Dad got a large doe, Bill got a medium sized doe, I got a small buck to finish out our time hunting. (Uncle Dave couldn't go last year.) We only shoot what we can eat, so when we had all gotten one we hung up our rifles.

This coming season we are going to be giving out awards for the biggest and smallest deer. The "Brown boot" award will go to the hunter with the largest deer and the 2nd place weenie goes to the hunter with the smallest animal. The brown boot comes from the "lucky" brown boots that my sister in law had worn in the woods. And the 2nd place weenie comes from a trophy of a hot dog that mom and I found at a garage sale this summer.

I can't wait for all the new deer camp stories. Last seasons will be tough to top.