Good Luck and Good Hunting!          

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to your story and photography, too.

Can't wait to hear it.....

Ciao Killie.

Look forward to hearing the experiences that some of us are presented  yet never stop to notice, nor acknowledge, admire or enjoy. Some of us may be blinded and deafened by anticipation and miss the greater wholeness of the experience.

Your messages remind me of a great movie that I continue to discover interesting and sometimes significant occurrences that I missed the previous ten times of viewing.

Been away a little while and one of the first thing I wonder was where is Killdeer, and her wonderful stories! Have a nice hunt, Killy.

Been thinking about that Postal Gal myself. Cant wait to hear the words.

This would go a little faster if I knew how to get the file size of my videos down. I am still digesting, and need some sleep.
Sorry.
I won't forget, really.

Killdeer

               

Ciao, Felix!



Killdeer  

Killdeer,

Your new Sheepeater is sitting here waiting for your return from the wilds.  Will ship on Monday.

Mike

My HERO!!
 



 

Killdeer,
And here I thought Wingnut was talking about a bow . . .

AWESOME you drew a sheep tag!!!!! looks like the tracking dog did her job as well!!!

It always seems to be something... right before the season. Now, to some, hunting season seems to be of not much serious import. Kinda like preseason football, or the Ice Capades.

I plan my whole year around it. I have since the mid-eighties.

This year, a long-awaited death in the family, five days before departure. Circumstances were such with the rest of the family that the funeral was postponed until this week. I was sweating bullets, though.

Clark, dealing with the devilish details here, gave me his blessing to go. I think he was happy to get me out of the house, to be truthful. So, as it was in my beginnings, I was alone on this trip, and poor Clark was on his own down here.

The truck got packed, stuffed to the gills, even though I cut down on stuff. I filled the cooler on the way out, and I was off. The weather was balmy. The mountains loomed big and beautiful in the distance. Freedom.

Killdeer

Most of you know that I hunt in the National Forest, and have been going to the same place since 1986. As I have related before, the place is old home to me, though along with the comforting familiar, some uneasy change has taken place over the years. The big one is that the area has been designated a "no logging" zone, which has changed the character of the woods over the years. How many... ten? Logging, as a source of renewing the browse and thickets that keep deer in place, is good, as long as they don't take that tree that you like to sit under, or the one that you took your first deer from. So, my old favorites keep on getting older, decaying, and falling to advanced years, wind or lightning. But the deer population has fallen as well, though the acorn crops are splendid. There are more bears in the place, too, as trees get big enough and hollow enough to provide good hibernation shelter, and the human traffic has decreased.

The hunter numbers are drastically down. I saw two Virginians during the two weeks of muzzleloader season. The other folks I saw go back on the trails were carrying the full backpacks and wearing Spandex, looking like models for REI.

The old chestnut shelter is gone, and a gaudy bathroom has been placed in the parking lot. This disturbs my view greatly, and babies down the rough feel that the place used to have. Many of my favorite features remain, though, and there is ample room for my somewhat ornate camp. The firepit, which we rebuilt after the shelter-razers dozed it, carries the flame of 25 of my years there, and those of the ones who hunted there before any of us were born.

So I return.

 

Killdeer

This camp was full of somber thoughts. Stresses at home, work, and life in general keep me flailing away at depression. As my father wanes, I of course give more thought to my own mortality. We lost a fellow archer right before I left, Brian Krebs, and I vowed that he would share my fire. I have not heard of Bodark Okie's condition, but it seems that we will lose him too.

Well, if we wait long enough, we will lose everybody, eh?

That makes the Now very important. Sharp and fleeting. When I put up the camp, I kept all of my fellows in mind, I wanted this fire to burn bright, the spirit to flame up, that it might be shared. I believe in such things, that there is more here than meets the eye, that there are things that we will never be privy to, and that prayers in the heart are probably heard louder than any choir. Well, I hope so, anyway.

I got a new cookshack this year. I know, my camp looks like a commercial for a certain very large, very well-known outfitter, but dammit, the stuff works. And it is far better than that leaky old EZ-Up, the one that has leaked like a tuna net since Day One.

I looked and looked. I really tried to find a suitable alternative. I hated like hell to push the "add to cart" button on something called a "gazebo." Well, wouldn't you? But, floorless is a plus, the reviews were good, they stressed its toughness, and, while I could do without the screens (which enable mice to climb the inside walls very easily), it seemed the ticket. So I cringed, squeezed my eyes shut and clicked.

That EZ-Up is SO out of here. I never got a heavy snow, so I have not completely tested it, but I got some steady rains and moderately high winds (35-40 mph), and it never flinched.

I will not use the G-word for it. It is my cookshack.



Killdeer

In said cookshack, I stashed a goodly supply of wood, scrounged from various places all year. Leftovers at Baltimore and ATAR, found pieces on the side of the road, chunks from fallen trees and two goodly ash logs salvaged from an Asplundh (gesundheit!) operation on my mail route. These green logs were carried to my truck, where they aged in the bed for three months. They provided the backstop that I like for my fires, and burned slowly. Two logs were just right for three weeks.





Nice camp!

I also brought along all the leftover meat from my freezer. Had some bear from ApplePie last year, and some venison from a customer who pities my low success rate. Oh, and a couple of beautiful NY strip steaks from Safeway. And some Italian sausages.

I know that I like grilled meat, can't really grill at home, and there is seldom any meat in my hunting camp for some reason.   :rolleyes:

Killdeer

shoot straight and have fun.good luck,steve