11/20/08 

8:30 PM.  The opening of Wisconsin's gun deer season is Saturday.  Imagine 600,000+ blaze orange-clad hunters heading into the woods in search of the elusive thirty point buck.

I'm already all tingly. Not just about the hunting prospects but also about the camaraderie and deer camp shenanigans that surround this event.  It's really quite social what with friends and family - the whole nine yards.

Here's the deal.  I'm already at our camp.  I snuck out of my day job this afternoon while nobody was looking.  The balance of the crew arrives tomorrow.  That includes Wench, Lawyer, Sid, Mennonite, Android and Braumeister - the usual suspects.

I'll be posting daily updates to this year's deer camp.  Pictures too.  Maybe some recipes of our starvation diet.

So check in from time-to-time and enjoy the fun and enjoy the hunt.  Vicariously as it were. 

By the way, since I started publishing these on-line hunting diaries I learned that our wives (and at least one girl friend) began checking this blog as a way of keeping tabs on their men-folk.  Ladies, you can count on me to make sure that only fair and balanced reporting of the facts ever finds its way on-line.  Nothing but the truth.  No outrageous tales like you might get from a fisherman.  You know me, I don't want any trouble.

On a serious note; for all of you hunters, good luck, shoot straight and be safe.

I'm going to put another log in the wood burner and return to my book.  More tomorrow.

Good night.

Tom

Oops.  Forgot to tell you that it is freak'n cold here.  20 degrees!  I went out earlier and turned the thermostat up on the hot tub.

11/21/08 - Get Ready.  Get set...

Everyone is here.

We're all settled-in and relaxing.

Dinner tonight featured deep fried Wisconsin crappies.

Fish tacos!

Accompanied by frijoles, slaw and really spicy chipotle-mayo sauce and cold beers.

Yum!

11/22/08 Go!

4:30 AM.  Daylight in the swamp boys.  Well, not quite anyway. It is dark - hardly any moon.  It is 8 degrees above zero.  I believe I have found the perfect breakfast for these conditions.

I looked everywhere trying to find the Heinemann's recipe for baked oatmeal.  No luck.

So, here's the bbest surrogatefor deer camp baked oatmeal.

1/3 c of butter.

2 eggs

3/4 c of brown sugar

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t of vanilla extract

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

1 c + 2 T milk

3 c oatmeal (quick or regular)

This serves 6 – so you need to at least double the recipe for your normal deer camp.

In our continuing tradition of surprises Braumeister just left for the hospital - seems he woke-up with what might be a detached retina.

Hoarfrost

9:30 AM  Coffee break. Braumeister is back and out hunting.  Something about floaters and a bad vitreous humor.  He had the entire ER to himself until the cops brought in the guy with multiple stab wounds.  Everyone has seen deer but nothing tagged yet.

5:15 PM.  For the first time ever our deer camp didn't tag a deer on opening day.  I am bummed yet optimistic.  Our visions of venison bourguignon have vaporized.  We have been reduced to eating chicken wings and bean soup tonight.  For now I am enjoying a Ketel One on the rocks (with twist) and King Oscar sardines.   

Bean soup:  Start with three smoked pork hocks from the local butcher shop.  Simmer in a pot to make the stock.  Remove.  Add two packages of navy beans, one sweet onion (chopped fine) and 1t of chopped garlic to the stock.  De-bone the hocks removing skin, fat and gristle.  Return meat to the pot.  Cook all day - low and slow.  Add salt to taste.  Put in the garage to set.  The next day remove the congealed fat on the top.  Reheat and serve with Caesar croûtons. Yum.   

9:30 PM.  Good night.

11/23/08

5 AM.  It is a balmy 24 degrees outside as the camp stirs to life.

11 AM  Post-breakfast report = nothing tagged.  Beer rhymes with deer and since I haven't any deer pictures to share - here is a beer picture.

Braumeister (incidentally a national home brewing champion) makes our deer camp beer.  This year a lager and an imperial stout

7:00 PM.  Hunted this afternoon with everyone's lack of success weighing heavy on our minds.  At least mine anyway.  The weather was positively fine.  36 degrees with a 10 MPH breeze out of the southwest - subsiding by 2 PM.

I covered a 15 acre wildlife opening adjacent to a cedar swamp and an impenetrable alder thicket.  I have my trusty Browning A-Bolt - 7mm magnum.  Big optics too.

At 3 PM a younger buck wanders out of the thicket and walks slowly in my direction - head-on.  At about 125 yards I put the cross hairs on his chest and... POW.

Deer down.

The skunk is out of the bag.

Awesome venison tacos tonight with authentic frijoles and garden salsa.  I am in a jolly mood.  Good Night.

11/24/08 

4:30 AM.  30 degrees and snow.

4:30 PM.  We got about 3 inches of the white stuff today and we all thought that the contrast might make hunting a bit easier; harder for those tree-munchers to sneak against the contrast of the snow.  We all came-in for breakfast after 10 AM without seeing  hide nor hair of a whitetail.  Things were quiet with only a couple of distant gun shots heard.  This has been some slow hunting.  Kind of like watching paint dry.  I did see several flocks of these little fellas.  They've arrived from further reaches to the north to winter here.  Wisconsin winters for them must be like Florida winters to people.  Anyway, they're fun to observe searching for seeds because they do it with both of their feet scratching simultaneously.

A word about tree stands and snow.  It scares the crap out of me.  Clunky boots, bulky clothing, rifle, pack, gloves - a wonderful combination for a slip and fall to the ground.  It's a pain to haul your stuff up on the end of a parachute cord but safer.  Same for climbing in and out - three out of four limbs in contact at all times. 

Nice view, eh?

The boys cleaned the place and we butchered, packaged and froze my deer. They've left and I'm puttering about doing laundry.  Ordinarily I'd have gone out and sat for the last couple of hours of daylight; but truthfully I'm pooped. I'm also beginning to feel a bit lonely.  Funny how that sensation materializes so quickly.

After chores tomorrow I'll head back to Tosa to attend to some day job stuff then return with my darling wife and Girlfriend.  Guests too for Thanksgiving.  It should be fun.

Good Night.

11/25/08

3 PM.  Back in good ol' Tosa - albeit temporarily.  I afforded myself the decadent pleasure of sleeping-in until 7 AM.  It was great.  On the drive home today I observed an interesting roadside curiosity.  A survey crew was working in a field along a county highway with transit, a GPS device on the end of a stick and the other usual contraptions.  They were all dressed in their blaze-orange bibs, coats and hats (a good idea during gun deer season).  They all also happened to have their back tags on. 

So here's the $1000 question - did they have guns in the back of their crew cab pick-up in case a deer popped into view? 

11/26/08

7 PM.  Back to the hunt.  It was a quiet afternoon - only one neighbor hunting along with me and it stinks.  Really. The farmer across the road has been spraying liquid manure on a freshly plowed 80 acre field.  This would not be the time to  be hanging laundry out to dry.  Whew!  Anyway, no deer and no shooting and aside from the obviously pungent atmosphere it was an altogether fine afternoon.  No need for scent control.

When you sit outdoors by yourself on a sunny 32 degree winter afternoon you have plenty of  time to think.  I spent most of my afternoon thinking about the Budget and Finance Committee meeting of last night.  Jill and I both attended.  Jill is a member of the Parks and Forestry Board and I am a simple citizen.  We both share a serious interest in the future of Hart Park.  I thought the comments by Alders Ewerdt, Purins, Krol and Maher (Committee Chair) were thoughtful and insightful. Donegan's email too.  Anyway, thanks to  those committee members that voted for the motion to proceed with the demolition and rebuilding of the athletic fields at the park.  Speaking for myself I want this investment in Tosan's quality of  life to move forward.  On to the full Council.

The mayor and I had a nice chat.  A sense of humor the mayor has.  Really.  But I digress.

More hunting tomorrow.  Family visiting too.  The critter that left this sign is on the menu.

Good night.

11/27/08

11 AM.  The house is beginning to fill with all sorts of wonderful smells.  Baked squash to make squash casserole.  In my view what is likely the world's best pumpkin pie.  From the Moosewood Cookbook - Mollie Katzen's No-Fault Pumpkin Pie.  I grew Connecticut field pumpkins in the garden this year.  I like to take what I call the eater size gourds - 9 to 10 inches in size - slice them in halves, scoop-out the seeds and bake them face down on a cookie sheet until they soften and collapse.  Scoop-out the cooked flesh and puree in a food processor.   Freeze in pie-size amounts.

Most of today's dinner came from the garden - squash, pumpkin, potatoes, corn and green beans.  The centerpiece is wild turkey - about as organic and free-range as it comes.   

Our neighbor's son-in-law just stopped by to ask if they could trail a deer that wandered over the line fence.  Hunting's been slow for them too.  

6:30 PM.  Wow.  The smells of good food cooking!  Family, a fire in the wood burner and dogs under foot.  What fun.  I have much to be thankful for.  There's the obvious stuff like a career that affords me all kinds of flexibility in my schedule.  Good health.  There is the great state I live in that is part of a great country.  But most of all it is the company of friends and the love amongst family that I am thankful and grateful for. 

I'm also thankful for the bounty of nature that seems to come my way. 

Once again this afternoon I recited my silent prayer of thanks. 

There is a doe hanging in the machine shed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

11/28/08

5:30 PM.  I did not hunt today.  Our guests departed late morning, Jill went to town  to pick-up a tractor part and brave the holiday shoppers.  I assumed my alter ego - Tom the Butcher.  That's like Joe the Plumber only I have this fantasy of having a snarky conversation with some lame politician while stropping a very sharp knife really close to his liar nose.  Anyway, I butchered my deer today.  That makes three for the year so far.

I'm really picky when it comes to butchering which is why I couldn't do it for a living.  I'm just too darn slow.  Nonetheless, others like my style because I'm one of the few people who can skin a deer and not get hair all over everything.  There is nothing worse than deer hair in your steaks or chops.  I'm also meticulous about trimming every last vestige of silver skin and fat from my meat.  That's the stuff that imparts a gamey flavor to venison.

The other way to make your venison taste bad is to cook it wrong.  Here's the deal.  Grill or sear it to medium rare.  Do it fast on an exceedingly hot grill or skillet.  This method is suited to steaks and chops and the better cuts of meat.  Otherwise cook it low and slow and very long until if falls apart at the touch of a fork.  Roasts in something like a crock pot are excellent.  Anything in between is guaranteed to be tough and not taste very good at all.

Some of the tougher cuts that come from the shoulders and hocks are really suited to grinding into hamburger.  If you do that be sure to add no less than 10% pork to the grinds so as to give the burger some fat for binding.

Some other tips.  After field dressing your kill get it cooled-down as quickly as possible.  For an early season bow kill I'm often stuffing the body cavity with bagged ice.  Also, do not split the pelvis.  Doing so exposes the hams to the air and possible contamination.  I see deer at the registration station in this condition all the time and it makes me nuts.  There's no good reason to do this so what's the point.  Leave all the hide intact until you're ready to skin the animal.  If you hang your deer hang it from the hind legs.  All the better cuts are in the hind quarters and you want those elevated above the animal's shoulders.

If any of you readers are carnivores be careful not to drool all over your keyboard.  This stuff is better than any fatty, feed lot raised, antibiotic-infused dead cow from the grocery store.

Venison kabobs tonight on the Smokey Joe.

Good night.

11/29/08

5:45 PM.  I completed everything on my list today. Made a trip to the town dump with a couple of barrels of recyclables, post office, grocery store, smoked a batch of pheasants (very popular during the upcoming holidays), scrubbed my cutting board and deer tarp, disposed of the deer carcass and sat for a couple of hours until dark in hopes of adding another deer to the tally.

Did you know that a small town dump is probably the best possible source of local information?  Think about it - a small town.  It is difficult to keep a secret in a small town.  Everyone has to go to the dump.  Aside from a place to dispose of garbage, recyclables and old appliances the dump is also a giant repository of secrets and information - both useful and otherwise.  Jill routinely asks me what I learned whenever I return.  Today all the talk was about how lousy the hunting has been.  Seems everyone was grousing about earn-a-buck rules or grumbling about not seeing deer.  Our total for the year is only three deer - about half of what we usually kill by this time.  But I've seen plenty of deer and have countless pictures of gangs of them from the trail camera.  Plus there's still more hunting opportunities remaining between now and early January.  So maybe these guys are sleeping in their stands or not spending enough time in the woods.

I have mixed feelings about deer numbers.  On one hand they're magnificent creatures and absolutely fun to watch in the wild.  On the other hand as a tree farmer I am constantly reminded of their impact when I see the damage they cause to young trees.  Visualize thousands of ten year old soft maples - knee high and sporting about three dozen branches.  Maple bushes I call them. They grow fast - but not until you can get one above the browse height of a whitetail. 

As further evidence of my theory about the dump being a veritable trove of information the local paper today said that deer registrations for opening weekend were off by 27% percent compared to last year.  So it will be interesting to see the final numbers after the DNR counts all the registrations after the seasons close.

Anyway, seeing as it's the season to be thankful for all things there is a deer in the woods tonight with much to be thankful for.  I doubt he has any personal knowledge of this fact.  I had him in my crosshairs for about a minute with fifteen minutes of daylight left.  A nubbin buck. I let him walk.  This old hunter is such a soft touch.  Sheesh. 

11/30/08

6:30 PM.  Last day of camp.  Woke-up to a sky the color of slate and the winds have picked-up.  This morning the weather guessers forecast bad weather.  A good day for soup.  So I located my largest stockpot and commenced to reduce the remnants of the Thanksgiving bird to soup stock.  Following that I fired-up the ATV and we fetched a bow blind, a stool from a deer stand and a Christmas tree.

The weather grew progressively worse.  About the time the Packers took the lead it was blowing like a gale and the snow made visibility close to nothing.  The weather guessers are calling this Winter Storm Andrew.  With the wind howling I figured any self-respecting deer would be hunkering down.  I stayed in and hunkered down to watch the Packers lose their game and started putting my stuff away. 

Two cartridges expended resulting in two deer.  A few comments about the business end of taking a deer with a firearm.

This season I hunted exclusively with my Browning A-Bolt - chambered for a 7mm Remington Magnum round.  I call it The Thunder Stick.  When fired the grass will lay flat and everyone knows that Tom got a deer.  The rifle is largely made of stainless steel with a composite stock.  It's ideally suited to hunting in foul conditions.  It is also equipped with a BOSS (a muzzle brake) that allows you to fine-tune the barrel harmonics to the rounds you are using.  The result is really tight shot groupings.  The BOSS significantly reduces the walloping recoil of the magnum load.  The rifle is topped with a Leupold 6.5X20 scope with a 300 yard zero.

Each round in the rifle is tipped with a 150 gr. Swift Scirocco boat tail Spitzer bullet.  With a muzzle velocity of about 3100 fps it imparts about 3200 ft/lbs of energy.  Using a bonded bullet results in complete expansion upon impact along with retention of most of the bullet's weight.  Here is the bullet I recovered from the deer I shot last Sunday-

Tonight I will lovingly clean my rifle of every last molecule of copper fouling, I'll anoint the bore and moving parts with a light coating of gun oil and then lock it in the safe with its brethren.  Treat your weapon well and it will serve you faithfully for your entire life.  Handle it with careful respect and understand its capabilities.

As for the soup the yield on an adult wild turkey is impressive.  I could probably serve my small collection of readers and still have leftovers.  We've been eating leftovers for days.  Turkey sandwiches.  Turkey with gravy. I have a vision of turkey salad when I get back to Tosa.  After cooking the stock for most of the day remove all of the bones and save any remaining meat.  Add a chopped sweet onion along with a big pile of cut carrots and celery.  Salt to taste.  Simmer.  Twenty minutes before serving add all the meat and a package of noodles. These are best.  Top with chopped parsley.  Now I have a humongous batch of leftover soup.

Gute Nacht.

By the time this blog post is published I will be on the road and heading west for South Dakota.

Crammed into my GMC will be three middle-aged hunting and fishing buddies, two hunting dogs, six guns, enough ammo to overthrow a small banana republic, boots, blaze, dog chow, groceries, several cases of beer, a lap top, a couple of gallons of venison chili, some fine sipping whiskey, and my last two jars of garden salsa. 

The crated dogs will have more freedom of movement and traveling comforts than the hunters. Priorities you know.

We're part of a larger group totaling ten hunters and seven dogs.  Taking no chances - this year we have a lawyer AND a doctor in the group.

We all have South Dakota pheasants on our minds as we're making our annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of ringnecks - Doland, SD.

Where we're going the technology pick n's are rather slim.  If I can locate an internet connection I'll update this post with a field report or two.  Otherwise, a full report and some pictures will follow early next week.

Guns up!

Tom 

October 30 - Day One - A travel day.

654.4 miles one-way; and I am suffering from something awful.  I was up all night with chills, a splitting headache, aches and pains all-over and a horrific case of nausea.  My buddy drove most of the way today and I slept until we were just shy of LaCrosse.  Gas in Rochester, MN was $2.06 a gallon!  In sleepy little Doland we have an entire house to ourselves, finished basement, grill, kitchen and satellite television.  We even have wi-fi but I don't know if it's ours or the neighbors.  As I type this the guys are walking to town for dinner and I'm turning-in to see if I can shake whatever has afflicted me.  More tomorrow - presuming I can drag myself out of the sack and can catch this signal again.

October 31 - Day Two - First Day Hunting

Sorry about the delayed post.  Connectivity issues.

Tough hunting.  Hardly any of the corn is off of the fields.  It is wet.  No, it is soaked.  It would seem all of the birds are hanging-out in the corn and until it is picked they're happy to stay in the corn and not the natural cover and bottom lands.

In the AM Girlfriend and I were working a slough and I went into the water and got soaked.  In the PM two additional hunters got in too deep

We hunted until shooting time and got eleven birds for our efforts - no lack of effort on our part.

Finished the day with steaks on the grill and all of the fixings.

Trick or treat in Doland tonight.  We pooled every last bit of candy we had for the beggars and after it ran out switched to jerky.  No complaints.

I'm feeling better but was up last night with the sweats followed by chills, shakes and aching joints.  I talked to the doctor this morning over coffee and a cigarette (him not me) and he suggested that I get a Lyme disease screening as soon as I get home.  Motrin is my friend.

Here's a picture of Lawyer and Girlfriend

November 1, Day Three - Second Day of Hunting

One of the attractions of South Dakota pheasant hunting is that you cannot possibly start before 10 AM.  None of that nonsense of getting-up before daylight and crawling about in the dark to hunt at sun-up while freezing your tushie-off.  You get to sleep-in.  I slept good.

This was a rather disjointed day of hunting - something that has euphemistically been described as a cluster-free-for-all.  It began with Lawyer and I slogging through a mile-long slough with Girlfriend while all of our buddies occupied the dry and easily-traveled high ground.

This was followed by slogging through another mile of soggy corn after which we found-out that one of our buddies lost his truck keys.

I dislike being critical but don't you think that anyone who thinks to pack a back-up shot gun might ALSO think to pack a back-up pair of truck keys and place them in the secure possession of someone else?  Sheesh.  Hours lost.

From there we figured-out the Hot LZ version of pheasant hunting.  Run and gun. Boom boom.  Birds down.

Then a long slow slog through a freshly combined field of seeds.  That would be a mile square field of picked sunflowers.  Imagine a square mile of punji sticks and mud where man and dog run the constant risk of impaling themselves on a freshly-cut stalk - and you walked it in three sweeps.  Yikes.  We're all grateful that we have our own urologist in the group this year.  Did I tell you his name is Richard?  He goes by Dr. Dick.  Really.

Fifteen birds today - under the legal limit. But as the resident law enforcement officer in our group pointed out - It's hunting, not shooting.

My highlights of the day - Girlfriend reinforced her reputation as Mighty Dog.  She made some awesome flushes and even more awesome retrieves.  I dropped a couple of birds and I'm feeling terrific (physically-speaking).  The doctor now says maybe just a virus but to still get labbed-up for Lyme.  The guys have suggested if I need a lab test to just have a couple of the Labrador retrievers give me the once-over sniff test.  We'll see.

Good Night from Doland.

November 2, Day Three - Last day of hunting.

Everyone slept-in later today with the time change.  The doggies caught some extra sleep-eye which is good.

It was freak'n hot today.  Mid-seventies.  This is fall pheasant hunting?  It is looking like global warming has situated itself into the land of giant wind turbines.  These conditions are tough on us old guys and even tougher on the pups. 

You know what I've learned in the past 48 hours?  Whoever has the highest boots and most enthusiastic dog gets the crappy assignments. So I and a few of my compatriots walked miles of stinking, boot-sucking muck, along with tangles of reed canary grass driving the birds to the guys on the high ground where they were summarily killed.  Same for mile-long fields of corn.  Back and forth.  This sucks.  Sigh. 

Nonetheless, this was a good day - eighteen birds. 

Me and Girlfriend - inseparable.

My highlight of the day was the close encounter with a skunk while making our last drive for birds.  Girlfriend got within fifteen feet of a very surprised skunk and I was able to call her off before the varmint raised its tail and sprayed.  We both got a strong whiff of the musk but weren't hit. Score:  Tom - 1, Skunk - 0.  Guess who lived to tell the tale.  Girlfriend's highlight of the day was an early-morning roll in a very fresh cow pie.  So fresh it was still green.  My GMC now smells like stinky hunters, wet dogs and barn yard.  Blech.

Incidentally, late today the Acadia has manifested a loud shriek from the right front wheel.  Something has lodged itself in between the calipers of the brakes - a tiny stone from driving through all of these God-forsaken suck-holes of mud? It has lessened after driving backwards and hitting the brakes but hasn't gone away.

I'll let you know how I get home.

Good night from Doland.

November 3, Day Four - Travel Day

This has been one of the toughest hunts I've had in quite awhile.  We had plenty of time last night and today during the ride home to talk about what worked, what didn't work, what we should have or could have done differently.  In the final analysis we all decided to do it again next year.  If hunting were easy everyone could do it.  Besides, friends and memories are priceless.

Here's the group (we ended-up one short)

About that horrific squealing that was coming from the right front wheel?  Here is the culprit-

A piece of South Dakota granite (slightly polished) that had lodged itself behind the brake calipers.  The nice guys at Schuchard's Westside GMC Truck in Watertown, SD pulled the wheel and rotor to dislodge it.  All at the horrific cost of $12.72.  Thanks OnStar for getting us all on a three-way call to drive-in to rectify the problem.

No decent road trip should be without the appropriate road food.  Agreed?  I know when I travel I always pack some munchies and drinks.  Knowing where I was planning to travel TosaGuy gave me a heads-up a couple of weeks ago about a place worthy of a stop.   He said - Tom, if you get anywhere close to Brookings, SD you need to go to Nick's.

Thanks TosaGuy.  Just so you know, Nick's is remodeling the shop so they had their trailer set-up just next door.

We sat outside on one of Nick's picnic tables and shared a couple of bags of sliders and Diet Cokes.  72 degrees and sunny.  Awesome.  We've decided to make it a regular stop. 

In a 5 to 4 ruling today the high court cast aside the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment.

This is HUGE.

In case you didn't know it this is the first time that the justices have conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791.

Details here.

It's a good day for us law-abiding firearm owners.

Tom