Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

We had a productive weekend at camp. We got moved in on Friday evening, And I do mean moved in, fridge full of food, power tools, clothes for the weekend, tandem axle trailer full of lawn mower, weed whacker, chainsaw, generator, ATV, a little dirt bike, gas cans, coolers...

It was all about work this weekend, no big ATV rides.

Pam brought her 48" john deere mower along and she started cutting grass right away Friday evening as me and the boys hauled coolers, bags and tools into the cabin. Oh yeah, can't forget about the 7 guns I drug along too, all rimfires. 17HMR, 22 mag and 22 long rifle. Levers, semi autos, bolts, a revolver and a pistol. Plinko-rama.

We got a bonfire lit Friday night just as Buschpilot and Les showed up. Then it was time for smart talk around the fire that eventually migrated into the cabin. A fun night as always, we got to hear about the new ice fishing shacks that the guys had got for themselves, they will be fishing in style this year!

Saturday morning I made omelets for breakfast, each one probably weighed about a pound

Pam started again with mowing and trimming. Nate and I looked over the soffit and fascia materials and came up with a plan. We started marking and cutting, framing and boxing the corners etc. Very time consuming.

Backwoodsbrian came out to scout for a spot to set up a bear bait, he settled on a spot on the south end of the property close to a water source. If he sets up on our land it will be legal for him to use a barrel for his bait station. It also helps his confidence that someone won�t come in and set up right on top of him a couple days before season which often happens on public land. So, he'll be set up just inside our property line bordering state land. We'll put a camera on his bait station once he gets set up.

The big surprise of the weekend was when Dusty and Eileen showed up Saturday afternoon! We had no idea they were coming, they made a quick trip to drop off a bunk bed set that they purchased for the girls room in the cabin. Nate was supposed to set that up but I kept him busy helping me all weekend so he hasn't started on that project yet.

Nate and I got back after the soffit and fascia project on Saturday evening while Pam relocated a pile of boards we had stacked on the east side of the cabin.



We cooked a whole chicken with potatoes, carrots, celery & onions on the old barrel cooker, we tore into that Saturday night after a hard day of working.

Sunday morning I was instructed to take little Joe out and do some plinking with the assortment of rimfires we brought along. (He had been bugging me from the moment we got to camp on Friday night)

He started with the single shot marlin model 15YS, he ventilated some soda cans then we moved up to the Remington nylon 66. Then he ventilated soda cans with rapid fire

His eyes got bigger with each different gun I brought out for him to try. After the nylon 66 was my Winchester 9422M (lever action 22 magnum). This one has a fixed 4 power leupold scope, he figured that was pretty sweet. Next was the Bolt action Savage 17HMR with a Burris 3-9 power scope. He really liked that one too. Later in the day he got a chance to shoot a High standard 9 shot .22 revolver and a MKII Ruger pistol. I think his favorite of the whole lot was the high standard revolver.

Breakfast was a typical camp chickenbuck special (more than anybody should try to eat in one setting )

We got back to work after breakfast. Here we are, the old guy up on the ladder and the kid on the ground holding said ladder



Mid day on Sunday we got some fun company, White bear came out with white bear cub.



A rain shower chased us inside for a couple hours but that's ok. The timing was about perfect as we needed a break and it gave us a chance to sit down and visit.

We eventually packed up yesterday and pulled out of camp. Pam got the place mowed nicer than it's ever been, we got a heck of a good start on "un-junking" the place, and we got over half of the soffit and fascia up.

It's quite a change, a huge improvement actually.



The trail cameras had over 800 pictures all together, lots of does and fawns and even a couple of bucks. Nothing big, little 6 & 8 point baskets, but it's really nice to be seeing a few deer on the cameras.

It was a great weekend, lots of good company dropping by camp and a really nice surprise visit from Dusty and Eileen. We'll all be wishing Dusty the very best of luck with his 6th chemo treatment today. I really hope it goes well, I can't wait for him to get a break from the chemo. It's terrible stuff, I know it's working and the results have been amazing, but this has not been an easy walk in the park for Dusty.

We'll stand by him all the way through this fight. He's made progress that basically has doctors scratching their heads in disbelief. But that progress didn't come easy, I'm praying for better days in the near future. He certainly deserves it.