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

Oh brother...

Well I suppose we could trade mug shot photos like baseball cards...

Me & the sherpa, well, I don't know the sherpa but I think we've walked the same path ... Somewhere, there are mugshots of sherpa dave, probably a half a dozen states in the US, & if there was actually film in those cameras in places like mexico, peorto rico, japan....

dave's all grown up now though....

well, pretty much.

You guys give a holler if you drift up this way

Pugs, supermag, thanks guys.

Dave,

Your thread has inspired me and others I'm sure to look into what makes deercamps hunting companions and family such a True Treasure. It has given me ideas of how to build my own and how to redo the look of my house to make it more appealing to my family nestled into the woods like it is, I'll have a cabin for a home soon. More importantly it has given me ideas how to have more fun with my kids.... ThankYou!!!

In my line of work now I speak almost daily with a father and two sons from Northern MN, eachday they call instantly it reminds of this thread and of the fellow hunters in the far north whom I consider friends. They told me it was -20 up there on Friday keep the fire going in that stove and stay warm..

Well I'm ramblin, So to you,yours and hey Boy, my Best Wishes and Good Luck in all of your future endeavors, especially those which include trips to Daves Deer Camp!!!

Thanks for letting us share this with you Dave.....

Thanks Wabster, yeah it's cold up here, we had -30 this morning!!

early this morning while everyone was still sleeping, I hear some noises outside in the dark.

I go to the window to look outside & i see the boy has pulled in the driveway & the lights are on out in my shop, crazy kid came up to do some ice fishing today & he was looking for chairs or something to sit on while they fish (he brought an equally crazy friend with him)

so, they are out on the lake sitting in a portable fish house, probably running a pair of airplane jigs on heavy line in the house & probably have a tip up each set up outside... (which will quickly freze in) fishing for big pike.

So, I'll have to head out to the lake to check on those boys pretty soon here, make sure they don't freeze out there!!

Dave

Dave,

The boy is Krazy.... I thought I was bad about doing silly things, sat out in a near blizzard at -10 with a windchill at -45 once while duckhunting.. Keep an eye on them and tell the boy to catch a bigun for me..

Dave,

The thanks should be given to you. You started the thread, and it went nuts with good advice, a place to vent, a place to mourn, a place to keep up on what is happening in the deer woods. My kids are getting to the age where they want to hunt. I want to start a camp of our own with extended family included. Reading and re-reading this thread makes me want it more. And it will be in no other place than Northern MN. I was born there, raised there, and damnit our camp will be there. This thread is an insperation to me as odd as that my seem. They way the people on this board responded to it with great advice in order to help a guy who most have not met in person is just awsome. That is one of the many things that keeps me coming back to this site.

Thanks Dave, and all who contributed to it.

Tom

Dave,
I certainly hope this thread is a continuing thing.I have so enjoyed reading it.Takes me back a few years to deer camps I have known.Please keep it up.Thanks.

Stan

Wow Stan, registered in 02, 5 posts... kind of the silent type huh?

Very nice to hear from you.

Thank you, thanks all.

Dave

Dave,
I haven't visited the fire for awhile but would like to say Thanks for tipping me off on this thread. It was an enjoyable read and it was even more enjoyable to spend time with you and your family at the shack. I think this thread in a way was theraputic after the loss of our dear friend. Seeing that the boy and his grandpa had a place to get away and do the things they enjoy was good also. Thank you for that!

Jim

Thems nice words Jim, thanks.

and please do come up for some snowmobiling, but please try to help remind me not to leave the beer outside for too long or we'll have to do like I had to do last sunday out there.

beer defrost.

That would be a dandy time to do some brain work on our "invention"

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hunting-Decante...383QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Dave, saw this auction and thought of your shack.

You make a good point Grogel , Our camp doesn't get quite as cold as Daves , but we've had beer cans and bottles burst , wine bottles shatter , but the hard stuff makes it through the winters here

Phil

Pretty cool grogel. I think there is a small bottle of EJ in a kitchen drawer out there right now & I'm sure it did just fine in the -33* temps we had sunday night!!

in the old shack up on the range we have a cork capped glass bottle that's ... well it's been fit into a cow foot... as in, hoof & lower leg hide skun clean off of a cow leg & fit tightly around this "antifreeze" bottle, a drink from the cow foot is kind of fun every now & then.


I like this little hunter jug you found tho.

might have to bid on it.

Dave

Dave,
Mr. Infrequent poster here.How about updated pictures of the cabin?Thanks.Don't let this thread die.It's too good.

Stan

I'll see what I can do.

I've been going out there on weekends when I get a chance & cutting firewood mostly for next season from some salvage piles left behind from loggers in the area. Easy cutting, mostly jackpine but last time out I got a pickup load of birch.

The deer are definately out of the farm country & wintering in the forest, deer population is way up right now out by the shack because of this. you should see the trail we take driving in to the shack. it's absolutely pounded down with deer tracks. Looks like someone has been herding sheep through there.

Deer are eating a lot of cedar browse, what ever they can reach.

The shack is doing good, the whole family, (my wife & I along with our 3 kids) stayed out there last sat night. We got company too, one of my good friends came out with his 3 kids & they stayed overnight with us. Me & my buddy stayed up & pollished off a case of beer & talked real smart till early hours of the morning. Sunday we celebrated my youngest boy's 4th birthday out at the shack.

We later made our way up to Lake of the woods where my Uncle mentioned so much in this thread & my nephew (the boy) were out in a permanent fish house fishing for big pike. It was good to see them guys. We talked about all getting together for a good wood cutting weekend at the shack some time soon.

If I get out there this weekend I'll get some good winter pictures & post them, I do believe I will be going out there because the trail needs to be plowed again (snow's gett'n deep)

Thanks for the interest, I guess as long as someone is interested I'll keep posting with progress on the cabin itself, food plots, trails, stands or what ever.

BTW, there is a large 3 ring binder out at the shack now with this thread printed out on some 147 or so pages. Everyone's kind words & advice, tips, jokes etc will be out there for reading material for as long as the shack stands.

So, you are all there in thoughts & words.

I think that's kind of neat.

Dave

Who would we contact to get this post stickied or even better,assigned to it's own section?

Stan

EDIT:Ten minutes later.I went to the home page and sent an email to the forum admin requesting this either be stickied or assigned to it's own section.Now if a bunch more people would do this I'll bet they would comply.

Stan

Dave,

Do you have a camp log book? I stayed at a buddies camp this summer for a fishing trip and they had a camp log on the table that dated back to the mid 80's. There was another from the earily 70's when the shack was built.

Anyway, I could have stayed up all night reading that thing. The stories and just simple entries I find fasanating for some reason. There were a ton of photo albums through the years too. Those were just as great to look at. You probably already have them, but if you don't...it's an idea.

Tom

Heck yeah we keep a logbook Tom, Less than a years worth of entries so far but it's still fun reading back.

Here we go Stan, finally made it back out there over the weekend. We took a couple snowmobiles out there & went riding with our 2 boys. We've got a snow coach that we tow behind one of the snowmobiles. The boys ride inside the snow coach. Trails were pretty good, we put on about 100 miles on saturday. Sunday we put on about 35. These pictures were taken on Sunday, we just went on a short trip, took the boys to a sliding hill (there are a couple of red plastic sleds strapped to the roof of the snow coach that we took along for the boys to use at the big sliding hill)



Here's a picture of my shadow.


Here I stopped in this stand of cedar trees on our property, probably my favorite trees.


Here I stopped on one of the forest trails to get a picture of what the trails look like through the state forest were we do most of our riding.

It was a nice weekend, we saw quite a few deer yesterday while riding. I had the camera in my pocket all day but wasn't fast enough to get any deer pictures.

Dave