Camp Chicken Deer Camp 2007 Week 2

Dan couldn't go to camp for the Thanksgiving weekend so Arlene and I packed up and headed to camp Friday morning about 8:30 am. It was really cold, about 10 degrees. We got the generator going and turned up the heat in the trailer to get it warmed up. We had dressed at home in our hunting clothes so all we had to do was grab our backpacks and guns and head to the Cadillac II. Soon we had the Mr. Heater pumping out the heat and we were toasty warm. The day was crisp, calm and dry but by early afternoon it started to snow. We didn't see anything but big does and babies all that day. By evening we had about 2 inches of snow on the ground.

This is "Red", he lives in the remains of the Cadillac I, that we tore down and stacked up right beside the Cadillac II, when we built the new shack. He is a cute little pest and has gotton pretty fat eating our corn for the last month and a half.

We had our Camp Chicken traditional "Day After Thanksgiving" dinner that night. Arlene takes the leftover turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnips and baby carrots and puts in all in a 13 x 9 inch cake pan, smothers it in the turkey gravy and we heat it up like a big TV dinner. It is delicious!! Cindy came up for dinner and we played three handed Attack Uno until about 9:30 and she headed home.


Saturday morning we found 3 more inches of snow on the ground and headed out at 6:30 am to hunt all day. The day started okay but the weather got worse as the day went on.




The snow really started to come down pretty heavy and the wind got up and it was an old-fashioned UP snow storm. Naturally, deer don't move in that kind of weather.

Arlene seems to think that this is the reason I don't see any deer. I don't understand what the heck she's talking about. In this weather, there weren't any deer to see!



Finally, about 4:30 pm as the wind died down they started coming in to eat. We had a big doe and her fawn in eating and three other big does wanted in to eat. Something was snorting right behind the Cadillac and suddenly one of the big does spooked and we had deer running in every direction and in a heartbeat they were all gone.


Sunday morning was clear and beautiful with a full moon still pretty high in the sky at 6:30 am. It was so bright on the new snow that we didn't even need flashlights to walk back to the shack.



We had deer in early to feed but nothing nice enough to shoot. This little doe came in to eat and if you look closely, you can see "Red" right under her feet eating too. He gets so close to the deer's feet, that they sometimes kick him accidently.


By 9:00 am, the wind got up again and we called it a day. Rats, no deer again.


We had to close up Camp Chicken for the winter Sunday, so that means a lot of work. Arlene does the inside of the trailer and I do the outside chores and hook up the utility trailer to haul the 4-wheeler back home for the winter. I cut down a nice little spruce for our "Outside" Christmas Tree. We put up an artificial one inside but it just doesn't seem like Christmas without a real tree so we decorate one outside too. We actually finished in record time and were home by about 2:00 pm.