Camp Chicken Chronicles

Deer Season Re-Cap

2011-12-28T18:52:00.003-05:00

I was fortunate enough to take a nice 8-point buck on 11-11-11 at about 5:20 pm with my bow.

Unfortunately, in the excitement of the moment, I made a pretty poor shot. Arlene, Mary Sue and I ended up tracking my deer for about three hours. He took us down into the thickest part of Camp Chicken.

In our excitement, we forgot a compass and for about an hour we were totally lost back there. The buck kept looping back and making figure-eights and before long we didn't have a clue where we were. I mean, I had a general idea but when you're out in the woods in the dark, that isn't too good.

Finally, we came to a part of the woods we were familiar with. We had come out by the old spring just north of Arlene's shack. What a relief that was. I ran back to camp to get a couple more flashlights and the Blazer and told the girls to stay right there.

Of course, they didn't listen but kept tracking and found the buck just about 20 yards on the other side of our road. He was only about 200 yards from Arlene's deer shack.

We managed to drag him out of the dense thicket he was in and haul him to the car. The rest was fairly easy but it was close to midnight before we finally got him cleaned up and hung on our buckpole.

It was quite a thrill.

Trip to the Stirling Camp

2011-10-30T18:29:00.007-04:00

Mary's brother George lives in North Carolina and every November he comes home to go deer hunting.

Mary's Dad's property is near Camp Chicken so we volunteered to take the 4-wheelers and load up some apples and sugar beets to take up to the Stirling hunting camp to put out for the deer. George doesn't get here until a day or two before the season starts so he doesn't get a chance to put out any bait for the deer.

We put the apples and beets in Arlene's little trailer and loaded up for our adventure.

When we take the 4-wheelers, Mary always had to hold Tiny, but Arlene came up with this idea for a "Tiny Carrier". She took an old camo back pack and turned it around so the backpack part was in the front. Then she took a bungee cord and attached it to the shoulder straps in the back to hold it in place. We put Tiny inside the bag so she was able to ride without Mary having to hold her.

Tiny actually really likes it. She is comfortable and warm and she can look around and see where we are going.

We headed out to make the trip to the Stirling camp. It is quite a ways away from Camp Chicken, probably at least two miles on two track roads. Part of the road goes through poplar swamp and it gets pretty muddy. The last mile is pretty rough. It was slow going with a fully loaded trailer and both Arlene and Mary on the 4-wheeler.

But we made it and didn't get lost once.

Mary spread out the apples and beets and we put the rest of the bags in the old horse barn for next weekend. Years ago, men would come up in this area and cut pulpwood. My grandfather, Elmer Rutledge, his brother Len, and his cousin, Hughie Leach and their families would live up in these woods and cut pulpwood for a penny a "stick". I think a "stick" was actually a poplar tree. They used horses to drag the "sticks" out of the woods and they kept them in small barns.

We spent some time looking around the hunting camp at the new deck and outhouse that had been added since our last trip up here.

I really liked this old thermometer that was hanging on the front of the cabin.

This sign hangs on the old horse barn welcoming guests to the Stirling camp.

Beautiful Weekend at Camp

2011-10-15T10:37:00.012-04:00

Last weekend the forecast was for 75 degree temperatures and sunny weather so Arlene, Mary and I had a brainstorm. We would take off work at noon on Friday and go play golf and then go spend the weekend at camp.

It was quite a trick to get our clubs and everything else into the car but we managed it. We couldn't leave Tiny in the car as it was too hot so we took her golfing. Thank goodness Munoscong Golf Club is a very tolerant place and Tiny is a very good little dog.

We had a great time and then headed to camp.

Saturday was so beautiful and we were up early and went to town to get more corn for the deer and then back to camp to cut wood for Mom and Dad. There was a huge ironwood tree down near camp and since it makes great firewood we wanted to get it cut up.

It didn't really take too long to get the tree marked and cut up. Arlene marks the tree we are going to cut up so that the logs are uniform and stack easily and also so that they fit in Mom and Dad's stove.

We got the tree marked, cut up into lengths and loaded in the trailer. Then we took the big trailer down to Mom and Dad's and put the wood away in their woodshed.

After we got back, I took a few photos of the beautiful leaves around the camp clearing.

It was so nice out that we decided to take the 4-wheelers for a ride. When we got back to camp we had a nice surprise; Arlene's daughter Judi and grandson Anthony had come for a visit. We had a really nice dinner of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.

Afterward, we built a nice fire and had coffee while we visited. We had another nice surprise when Mom came up for a visit also. It was a really beautiful evening with a full moon rising right at sunset. I took these photos around the campfire but they didn't turn out so well for some reason.

It was a perfect weekend at Camp Chicken.

A Busy August.....

2011-10-11T18:45:00.009-04:00

It has been a long time since I've written anything from the old Camp Chicken.

We have had a busy summer. Arlene is doing well with her knee replacement and my ribs have finally healed enough after four years to play golf again.

My brother Chris, his wife Judy and my nephew Ross were here for a visit in August for my parent's 60th Wedding Anniversary Party. Unfortunately, Chris had a flu bug for most of the time we were at camp. I didn't get a chance to even take any pictures.

Shortly after that, Arlene's grandson, Clifton, his wife Robin, and his children Savannah and Jack came for a visit and spent a couple of days at camp. Most of the rest of Arlene's family dropped in for the day also.

Chayse and his "GG" return from a walk.

Clif, Rob, Jack, Savannah and Madison enjoy breakfast at camp.

Jack, Madison, and Savannah eating S'mores around the campfire.

Little Courtney in her lawn chair.

Arlene had all of her great-grandchildren at camp at one time; Chayse, Madison, Courtney, Savannah and Jack.

Since that time, Arlene, Mary and I have been busy getting ready for deer season and cutting wood for Mom and Dad.

We put up the corn feeders at Arlene's hunting spot and at camp so that we can watch the deer. I wasn't gettin that much action at camp but they are eating Arlene out of "house and home" as my Gram used to say.

After a careful investigation of the deer cam photos, we finally figured out why.

If you look at the photo you can see that the deer have figured out how to turn their heads sideways and stick their noses in between the "varmint" cage and turn the spinner and dispense their own corn.

We laughed pretty hard when we saw these photos. No wonder she was going through 100 pounds of corn a week. The big ones knock the corn out of the feeder for themselves and the little ones.

I have been entertaining myself hunting those darn turkeys. I thought I was all set this year. Arlene's son-in-law, Dan lent me his turkey gun. He has it all tricked out with camo and a red dot sight. All I had to do, he said, was lay my cheek on the pad and put the red dot right on the turkey's head.

So, I am all ready when the turkeys come in. I put the red dot right on the big gobbler's head and pull the trigger...BANG and the turkey runs away. What the heck? Apparently, I either didn't know how to use the sight or something went wrong.

So I went and got the turkey target he gave me and tried to pattern the shotgun and I was way off. So I decided to go borrow a gun from my Dad. He has a nice 12-gauge, full choke. So I put a light load in it and shot at the turkey target and it patterned pretty nicely. Then I put in the 3-inch, turkey loads (#4) and pulled the trigger and almost blew my shoulder off. WOW!!! Did it kick.

Anyway, Sunday, I got another chance at those dastardly turkeys and somehow I missed again. I have no idea how or why. But, I'll keep trying.

I think this must be the turkey doing his "Victory Dance":

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-27T11:50:00.005-04:00

Sorry that the Camp Chicken Chronicles has been silent of late. It has been a busy spring.

Arlene was doing really well with her new knee until the last week of her therapy and she began to experience a great deal of pain. Turns out she has a stress fracture of the small leg bone in her right leg, the same leg as the new knee. It was very disappointing to her and very frustrating. She is doing better but I don't think it has completely healed.

We were at camp last weekend just in time for the first black fly and mosquito hatch. Wow! I forgot what it was like to be swarmed by biting insects. Whew.

We had been at camp the first weekend in May and it had been great. We set up the croquet game and had some pretty intense matches. Tiny watches with great interest from the cozy comfort of her chair as the game progresses. I noticed that in this photo, you can see that she is getting old. I hate the thoughts of that. She is such a big part of camp now.

We had a very nice time that weekend. It was Mom's 81st birthday on Saturday, May 7th and we went out for brunch on Sunday for her birthday and Dad's. He was 84 on April 25th.

Last weekend, we got to camp about our usual time and tried to cut the grass but the insects swarmed us pretty bad. Mary managed to get the area around the firepit done and I did the long grass where the motor home used to be. The motor home is gone, thank goodness. We don't have to look at that old wreck anymore.

After getting things unloaded we toddled off to Hessel casino for the evening. We didn't have much luck and were tucked in our beds back at camp by 11:30 pm.

Saturday morning was really beautiful and sunny. We got up at 8:00 am and had our donuts and coffee and got to work. Mary and I loaded up all the junk that was piled up around camp. There was an old swing, two BBQ grills, and an old lawn mower. We threw it in the trailer and hauled it up to "Malfunction Junction", the local junk yard.

I just wanted to get rid of it, but as it turned out, the stuff was worth some cash! We headed back to camp to load up the rest of the old lumber from the deck we replaced last summer at home. I wanted to haul it up in the woods and put it on the brush pile on the "Short-cut Road".

Small problem, though, the new Chevy Trailblazer is wider than the old Blazer I used to have, so it barely fit in between some of the trees on the road. Don't think I will be trying that again. We did manage to get the wood unloaded and I had to turn that darn trailer around up in the woods because the rest of the road is blocked by some downed trees.

After a good deal of cussing, I managed to get turned around and get safely back to camp. Our last task of the camp cleanup, was to hook up Dad's old snowmobile trailer to Arlenes big 4-wheeler and haul it over to the other big clearing and out of our way.

We took a break and had some lunch and then headed to Mom and Dad's to load up Dad's riding lawn mower and take it out to Cindy's house so she could mow her back yard. Mary started up her push mower and mowed the front yard for her and we were done in no time.

Back to camp for a relaxing evening. Arlene was grilling T-bone steaks and potatoes for supper. Wow, were those steaks delicious. Cindy came up for dinner and afterward, we made a nice fire and had "Smore's". We were really having a great time, when the wind died down and the bugs got really bad. We had to give up and go inside and play cards for the rest of the evening.

Rain moved in overnight and it was still very wet and cool in the morning. We listened to the weather report over morning coffee and donuts. Severe weather was possible later in the day so we decided to pack it up and come home.

We probably won't spend Memorial Day at camp. Arlene's granddaughter, Sarah is graduating from Sault High on Sunday and her open house is Saturday. Looking forward to socializing with everyone and eating some really great food.

Depending on the weather, we might make a camp run on Monday. We'll see how tired we are from graduation. I have to haul the trailer back to camp anyway.

The city alley plow went by a couple of weeks ago and dug up this big piece of concrete out of our yard and flipped it up onto the lawn. We busted it up into pieces with the sledge hammer and I need to haul it up to camp and get rid of it.

Well, have a great weekend everyone and get outside!!

At Last......

2011-03-19T20:26:00.005-04:00

Finally, we were able to take a trip to Camp!

It was supposed to be sunny and mid-thirties today so we called up Mary about 9:00 AM and asked her if she wanted to go to camp. She said that she would love to so I told her that Arlene and I would pick her up about 10:30 AM.

We had no idea what kind of shape the road to camp was in so I loaded up shovels, warm clothing, winter boots, and three pairs of snow shoes just in case. We picked up Mary and headed to Pickford.

No trip to Pickford is complete without a stop at Snickerdoodle's for Jamaican-MeCrazy Coffee and a freshly baked treat of some kind. Snickerdoodle's is a really unique little coffee shop and bakery/restaurant across from the Pickford Presbyterian Church. They serve specialty coffees, fresh baked goods and lunch items and have a really nice selection of homemade jams and other goodies.

We each got our coffee to go and a treat each; Mary got a Bismark, Arlene got a bear claw and I got a cream cheese roll-up and we toddled off to camp.

The road was pretty icy until we got to the corner and once we turned down the camp road, it was just muddy but pretty solid. We took our time and as we got to our camp gate a truck pulled up and stopped. It was Ronny and Tim Leach. They were cutting firewood down at the old Leach farm.

We had a really nice visit with them. The road into camp still had quite a bit of snow on it so we decided to walk in.

It is always a relief to go to camp and find everything is okay after the long winter. We have had some really bad wind storms so I was worried that trees might have fallen on the trailer or our big shed but all was well.

Arlene is doing so wonderful on her new knee. She was able to walk all the way into camp and it is quite a ways. It was just so great to be at camp.

We walked around and just enjoyed being out in the woods. It is always so peaceful at camp. Surprisingly, there were not any mice caught in any of the traps in the trailer.

We decided to go before Arlene got too tired so we drove to Hessel casino. We had a really nice time. Mary and I didn't lose any money and Arlene won about $200, pretty typical.

We left about 6 pm and stopped at Main Street Cafe for dinner and then on home.

The full moon is really spectacular tonite. It is the "Supermoon", the closest the moon will be to the Earth in 18 years. Wow, is it bright. I tried to take pictures of it but it is just so hard to do. They just don't turn out.

Well, until next time, take care everyone.

Gladys Susie Wise-Rutledge....We Miss You Gram!

2011-03-05T02:00:00.007-05:00

Saturday was my grandma, Gladys Rutledge's birthday. She would have been 107 years old. She passed away at the age of 100 on April 18th, 2004.

It is because of her and my grandpa, Elmer Rutledge, that Camp Chicken even exists. It belonged to them and when Gram passed, it was passed on to my mother, Gloria Smith.

Gram lived through many trials and changes, the Great Depression and all of the major world wars to name a few. She saw America change in so many ways. The things we take for granted today; cars, telephones, indoor plumbing, electricity, radio, and television were all "new" things in her lifetime.

Gram loved Camp Chicken, only she called it the "Forty". She liked to sit in a chair outside at camp and listen to the birds and the wind in the trees. She loved the sound of the wind in the trees and would always remark that "the trees are really talking today".

Camp brought her peace, I think, and good memories of the times she spent there with Gramp. They had huge gardens at camp and helped Mom and Dad cut wood to heat our house.

I think of her often when I'm at Camp and sometimes, I feel her presence there. Arlene, who has what I call "Native ESP", sometimes actually sees her spirit there. I think she comes to see what we are up to and to just make sure that we are all right. It is a comforting feeling, really.

I miss her and even now, I'll pick up the phone to call her if there is something on TV that I know she would like to see. Sometimes when I'm driving to Pickford, I'll think, "Oh, I should stop by and see Gram". Then I realize that she is gone.

She had a huge influence in my life. She told us stories about our family history and because of that, we know where we came from and how we got here. She taught us to be frugal with a dollar and to work hard.

Gram loved to read and passed on that love to our Mother, Gloria, who passed it on to us. My brother, sister and I all love to read and my nephew, Ross is a voracious reader. Ross gets his love of reading from his Mother, Judy and from our side of the family too.

Gram also loved the outdoors and was an avid birdwatcher all of her life. She took great pleasure in nature and all of the plants, trees, and animals that inhabit our world.

Gram was a wonderful cook and baker. She made the most incredible ginger/molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies and my favorite, apple pie. I really miss the apple pie made from the transparent apples that grew on the apple trees at Camp Chicken.

I know that my sister Cindy really misses the ginger cookies.

One time when Gram and Gramp were away, Cindy and our cousin Sandie Nettleton got into Gram's large cookie jar and ate all of the ginger cookies. Boy, were they sick!

When Arlene was desperately ill with cancer and couldn't eat anything at all, Gram baked her ginger cookies every week, and told her to eat them because ginger helps settle your stomach. Arlene says that Gram's ginger cookies helped save her life.

Gram was wonderfully skilled in the old arts of sewing, crocheting, knitting and quilting. For years she quilted with the other Senior Ladies down at the town hall. When she got too old to go down and quilt, she quilted baby quilts at home. Everyone who was blessed with the gift

Oh Gram had her moments too. She had an awful temper and could be difficult. When she got very old, sometimes the bad seemed to outweigh the good. There were times when I know she drove my poor Mother crazy.

To my Mother's great credit, she still went to Gram's house every day after my Grandpa passed away in 1983 and made sure she was all right, brought Gram her mail, and did countless chores for her. I know it wasn't easy for her to be Gram's caregiver for so long.

But, as is usually the case, we tend to remember the good times we had with Gram and all of the wonderful things she did in her lifetime.

Happy Birthday, Gram! We sure miss you.

Arlene's Surgery

2011-02-26T15:01:00.005-05:00

We have had a very busy two and a half weeks.

Arlene had a total knee replacement on February 8th. The surgery was a success but she had a reaction to the morphine they were using in the pain pump. So they switched to Demerol and that made her just as nauseous, poor thing. They finally resorted to percoset and that was a little better.

She had the surgery at 7:00 am on Tuesday, February 8th and was sent home at 10:00 am on Thursday, February 10th. Wow!

Since then, it has been a busy time. We have had a home health nurse, an occupational therapist, and a physical therapist visit once or twice a week.

Arlene has been very brave and has religiously done her exercises two or three times a day and as a result is doing remarkably well. She is still in pain, of course, and will be for a while but her mobility is really great.

She still uses her walker but only when she goes out or when she does certain exercises. When she is at home, she can use her cane.

Yesterday, Jamie, her therapist, told her that since she is doing so well, she can go up and down the stairs to the second story as often as she wants. Arlene was really excited to hear that.

We had made the living room into a bedroom for her, and she has been in exile on the first floor since her surgery. Now she can go upstairs and use the shower and soon will be able to go back to sleeping in her own bed. Maybe next week or maybe even tomorrow.

We've learned to take it day by day.

We are both looking forward to being able to go to Camp Chicken soon. The EUP didn't get much snow this winter so we are hoping we will be able to go to camp early this spring.

I really miss Camp in the winter months. It seems like such a long time since we have been there and I'm getting anxious.

Maybe next weekend, we'll drive out and see how far we can go up the road to camp.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T11:18:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Camp Chicken Crew: Cathy, Arlene, Mary and Tiny Totster!

Last Weekend at Camp for 2010

2010-11-30T19:32:00.006-05:00

We had planned on leaving for camp early Friday morning but the fickle UP weather had something else in mind. You guessed it...high winds and rain then freezing rain then snow and lots of snow.

We did a little shopping and went to the casino for the afternoon then spent the evening hunkered down at home. The forecast for Saturday was pretty iffy.

Saturday morning turned out pretty nice with very little wind. So on the spur of the moment, we packed up and headed to camp. On the way, we called sister Cindy and invited her to our now famous Thanksgiving Dinner at Camp Chicken.

Camp Chicken is beautiful after a fresh snowfall!

We got the generator going and the car unpacked and headed for Arlene's blind, the Cadillac II. We spent the entire afternoon out there staring at the trees. There were no blue jays, no chickadees, no partridge, and no deer. It was eerie!

For the entire hunting season, Arlene has been watching these two giant partridge come in to eat corn at her blind. The partridge have claimed her bait spot as their very own and defend it against all comers. They have driven off the blue jays and squirrels.

The one time I sat in her blind by myself, a small deer came in to eat and the partridge actually flogged him. It was so funny. They dive-bombed him as he came in to eat. He jumped about three feet in the air and looked around to see what the heck was after him.

Once he settled down, he came back in and began eating with the big birds. After a few minutes they flew at him again to drive him off. I've never seen anything like it ever. It was crazy.

But for some reason, the partridge didn't even show up that afternoon.

Soon it began to snow really hard, great big white flakes. We tried to catch them on the camera.

We finally called it quits at 5:30 and while Arlene put our dinner in the oven, I went to call Cindy to see if she was coming up. She was but the road was really icy so I went and picked her up.

As we pulled up to the trailer, we both saw eyes at the end of the clearing. Sure enough the deer were in there having their own feast of apples, corn and carrots. They didn't even run away when we got out of the car.

Arlene had made coffee, so we had some while we waited for dinner to finish. Soon we were sitting down to a huge pan of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, rutabagas, and sweet potatoes smothered in home-made gravy with dinner rolls on the side. Arlene makes this up every year for us so that we can enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner at camp. She puts it all in a big baking pan and heats it up in our little gas oven.

As we were stuffing ourselves the generator ran out of gas. After dinner, I was going to go fill the generator and Cindy decided to go with me. As we got outside, I heard the wolves howling far away to the west. It is an eerie sound in the dark night. I got the generator filled and started and we headed back.

Cindy needed to go to the outhouse so I stood outside listening and watching. As I shined my light around, the deer at the end of the clearing just looked back at me. They are so funny. They know that as long as it is dark out, they are safe. They are so used to us, that we can stand outside and it doesn't even bother them. Sometimes I think that I enjoy watching them more than actually hunting them.

After we had cleaned up from dinner, we got out the Phase 10 cards and had a couple of games. Soon it was 10:30 and time to drive Cindy back home.

Sunday morning I got up early and watched the end of the clearing while I had coffee but no deer appeared. They must have stuffed themselves the night before.

After Arlene got up, we began packing up the trailer. It is always kind of a sad day when we close up camp for the winter. I began doing the outside chores as Arlene finished up the inside. It took less time than we thought so we decided to go to the end of the clearing and follow the deer tracks to get a sense of where they were coming from. The snow makes it much easier to track their movements.

We walked around quite a bit which is a challenge for Arlene right now. She has to have a knee replacement this winter. Finally, it was time to head home. Reluctantly, we headed out. At some time, we'll be back to shovel the snow off the trailer and shed roofs, but that will be it until spring.

Success!

2010-11-23T20:19:00.008-05:00

Well, it was a great four days at the old Camp Chicken.

We got to camp about 1:00 PM Wednesday afternoon and it was sunny and nice. After we unloaded the car, I took the 4-wheeler and baited our hunting spots.

Arlene was hunting at the Cadillac II and I was going to give the "Cube" a try. We had been hunting about 2 hours when Arlene called on the radio and said that she had a 4-point coming in but he looked a little small so she didn't think she would shoot him. I said okay and returned to scanning my new hunting area.

About a minute later, a loud "BANG" sounded from the direction of her shack. It scared the heck right out of me. I called her on the radio and asked "was that you?"

Turns out the 4-point had turned sideways and was quite a bit bigger than she had thought so she decided to take him. She dropped him right in his tracks and he fell right there. He wasn't a trophy but he was as fat as a hog and in great shape. He'll make "good eatin'".

I told her I was on my way and hustled back to camp to drop off my pack and gun.

I pulled up to her buck and we tied him to the 4-wheeler and dragged him to the meadow to field-dress him. In about 25 minutes, he was hanging from the buck-pole.

It was a good thing that she decided to take the 4-point that afternoon, because the weather changed for the worst for the rest of our time at camp. It was windy on Thursday and much more windy on Friday so we decided to spend the day butchering her deer.

Mary and Tiny had come up to spend Thursday and Friday with us and helped us with the butchering chores. We had Janet's famous venison lasagna for dinner and headed to the casino for Ladies Night.

On the way home we noticed that the wind had begun to really blow and by 3:00 AM Saturday morning, it was a gale. The trailer actually started rocking and Arlene almost woke us up to get out of there.

Saturday morning it was still windy and very cold so Mary and Tiny packed up and went back to the Soo. We decided to give up on hunting for the day and headed to Pickford for a delicious breakfast. On the way back to camp, we saw a nice 6-point running down the blacktop road. We both just laughed. We had been looking in the wrong place for bucks, they are out on the highway.

Saturday evening the wind finally died right at dusk so we sat in the trailer and watched the deer come in to eat. Arlene was hunting out the trailer window, LOL.

We spend the rest of the evening playing Phase 10 and relaxing.

Sunday, I went out to hunt in Arlene's shack while she cleaned up the trailer and packed up. I didn't see a thing because it was still so windy.

We had a great time even though we didn't get to hunt that much due to the windy conditions. Deer just don't move in the wind.

We are going back on the day after Thanksgiving, even though the forecast right now is for snow and .... you guessed it WIND!

Finally...Deer Season

2010-11-16T19:30:00.006-05:00

Arlene and I missed hunting opening day of Michigan's Firearm deer season for the first time since we started deer hunting at Camp Chicken.

Opening Day was Monday and it was just too difficult for either of us to get off for the day so we decided to take off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to give us a good long weekend of hunting.

We are both getting antsy tonight knowing that we are leaving at noon tomorrow. We have all our stuff piled all over the kitchen and dining room.

The weather is still mild here for mid-November. It was almost 50 degrees today but a cold front is supposed to move in for later this week with some snow in the forecast.

But, the weather doesn't really matter. It is the relaxation of being at camp and the anticipation that at any moment, some big buck will walk out in front of one of us.

Rumor has it that there is a nice 12-point running around up there.

Deer season is always a bitter-sweet time at Camp Chicken, especially Thanksgiving weekend because we know that it is our last time at camp until spring.

I find that with age 60 staring me in the face, time at camp becomes more and more precious. I savor every minute that I am there. I find myself just sitting at looking at the woods and trying to memorize how it all looks.

Last Saturday, we went to camp just for the day to take down our feeders and cameras. When we got home I looked at our photos. We had another buck in our photos.

He has kind of goofy horns. He has three nice points on one side and a long spike on the other. He was in camp a couple of times and once he was in with a doe so maybe the rut is getting going. The full moon isn't until Monday so everyone is saying that the rut is late this year.

But we have 5 days this week and 3 days next week to hunt so maybe one of us will get lucky.

Only 15 hours and 25 minutes and I'm off work and headed to camp.

Wish us luck!

Getting Ready!

2010-11-09T17:38:00.007-05:00

We have been working very hard getting everything ready at Camp Chicken for Deer Season 2010.

Last spring, we purchased two new deer feeders from Moultrie that feed automatically on times that you can set yourself. It has been so much easier to put out feed for the deer than in the past.

We have been encouraged by the number of deer that have been taking advantage of the regular feeding schedule.

Last Saturday night we actually had 5 deer at the camp feeder at once. It is so much fun watching them.

We have been hearing a coyote pack pretty regularly so we think that the wolves that have been inhabiting our property have moved on. Conversations with some folks who are pretty knowledgeable about these things have told us that wolves won't tolerate any other canines in their territory so the fact that we hear the coyotes is a good thing.

For the first time last weekend, we had deer cam photo of a buck. He is only a 4-point but right now any buck sighting is pretty encouraging.

The raccoons are still pestering us but that is to be expected when you feed with corn. The little buggers just love corn. We even put out tuna fish and cat food and watched them totally ignore it in favor of the corn on the ground.

This guy is trying to figure out how to get more corn out of the feeder.

This past Saturday started out very cold, 14 degrees, but warmed up into the 50's by afternoon so we hopped on the 4-wheelers and just rode around to various areas checking for deer sign and looking at the wind damage.

We've had five or six major wind storms in the past few years that have totally changed Camp Chicken. We have so many huge trees uprooted and blown down that what used to be some of the most beautiful parts of our property are unrecognizable. It is sad to see what the wind has done.

We are scouting a spot to move the Skyview Shack to. It is in a nice spot but when we built it, the area was in a drought. Since then we have had very rainy times and the road to the shack has been very wet and at times under water. We plan on totally dismantling it and moving it in pieces. We'll have to see in the spring how that all turns out.

All in all, we are getting excited for the coming deer season. Hopefully, it will be better than last season when we saw so few deer.

We plan on going to camp this weekend to finish up our preparations. Our shacks are ready.

We checked out "The Cube" on Saturday. It is the first hunting shack we built on the property. It is just a 4 x 4 foot cube built on a wooden pallet. We eventually attached it to the old pair of skis that my Dad's old ice-fishing shack was on so that we could tow it around the property.

It is in a really good location on a hillside overlooking the balsam swamp area on the north forty. It hasn't been used since we moved it there three years ago. When I got into it, I found that the front end of the shack had sunk and the windows were looking at the ground about twenty feet in front of the shack.

So Arlene and I attempted to pull it forward up onto a rocky knoll by hand. That didn't work very well as we aren't as strong as we used to be. So Arlene thought that she could pull it with her 4-wheeler. I headed back to camp for a tow rope and she maneuvered her big 4-wheeler into position. She found that she couldn't just pull it, she had to back up and jerk it to get it moving. So she pulled and I pushed from behind and we managed to move it three feet up onto the knoll.

We swept it all out and I think I'll try to hunt out of it in the afternoons.

Of course, Arlene is hunting out of the "Cadillac II" and has all the comforts of home in there.

I'm going to alternate between "The Cube" and the new popup blind that Arlene bought me for my birthday.

Only 8 days until we get to go hunting!

My First Wild Turkey

2010-10-27T18:33:00.003-04:00

He wasn't the biggest gobbler I've seen at camp but I was pretty proud of him in any case.

He and two other gobblers and one hen came walking right into camp on a beautiful sunny morning October 3rd, while Arlene, Mary and I were sitting having coffee.

I was so excited that I ran around the trailer looking for my shotgun and shells like a crazy person.

I made so much noise that I scared them and they ran to the end of the clearing. I had to sneak out of the trailer and stalk them. They were about 80 yards away and I had to keep a small grove of birch in between me and them.

I managed to get within about 25 yards and when the gobbler closet to me lifted his head way up to look around, I shot. He immediately went down and I thought I got him.

Much to my surprise, he got up and flew away. I took a shot at him on the wing and was sure that I had hit him.

Mary came out to help me and we started to look for him. Mary spotted him on the ground with another gobbler perched on a log watching him. I had to walk up and finish him off.

It made me feel a little sad that the other bird was staying with him. Mary thought that it was his brother, which of course made me feel even worse.

Arlene thought that he was the lead or head bird and that's why the other bird stayed there.

In any case, I found out two important things about wild turkeys, well, actually three things: 1. they are really big birds, 2. they are really hard to kill, and 3. I don't know enough about wild turkey behavior and need to study them more if I'm going to hunt them.

I think that he may be a younger bird but since I don't know how to age a wild turkey, I'm just guessing.

But, I'm still pretty proud of my first Wild Turkey!

...More Candles

2010-09-28T19:26:00.013-04:00

Friday was a repeat of the Labor Day Storm. We had 4 inches of rain in less than 24 hours and very high winds. We decided to wait until Saturday morning to go to camp.

Saturday was cloudy and rainy but we decided to go anyway. We got to camp about 9:30 AM and got camp open and the heat on. Arlene wanted to put together her deer feeder so we put the kerosene heater on in our shed and soon it was warm and cozy in there. She and Mary and Tiny stayed in the shed putting together the feeder.

We spent the day getting our feeders positioned and loaded with corn and put up our deer cams. The rain finally quit, thank goodness.

We ate the rest of Mary's chili for dinner, that we had frozen from last weekend. Boy, was it good. Cindy came up just as we finished eating so we gave her the rest of the chili.

We decided to go for a ride to look at the deer. It is our favorite thing to do this time of the year. The bucks are still out in the fields so there's a good chance of seeing some good ones.

We weren't disappointed. There was a huge 8-point laying out in the river field chewing his cud. He was perfectly symmetrical and really gorgeous.

We went on to the Moore hill fields but there wasn't much there so we went on to the Town Line road. There were four really nice bucks there. While we were watching them, two of the bucks started sparring with each other. It isn't too often that you get to see a fight like that. It was a rare treat.

After watching for a while, we headed back to the river fields and in the little field by the Moore Hill, we spotted this little four point about 50 yards away. He posed for a couple of photos for us. He was still in the velvet.

We stopped at the river fields again but the big buck was gone. I took a nice photo of the sunset on the trees with the deer feeding in the fields.

On the way home, we decided to go down to the big field at the end of the road. There were no deer there, but the sunset was incredible. Arlene took some really pretty photos of it.

We headed back to camp and played cards until after 11:00.

Sunday turned out to be as beautiful as Friday had been lousy. Plenty of sunshine. The moon was still high in the sky at 10:00 AM.

Mom, Dad and Cindy were coming up for my birthday celebration at 12:30 PM. Arlene was cooking steaks, boiled red potatoes, and baked carrots on the grill with cheesecake for dessert.

While she prepped lunch, Mary helped me cut up the ironwood that we had pulled down last weekend.

My birthday lunch was the best ever. Mom said that she had never had a steak that good in her life.

Dad had brought the pickup so he left after lunch to go watch the Lions game and Mom stayed until almost 3:00 PM visiting with us. It was a perfect day.

After she left, we decided to go for a 4-wheeler ride. I rode with Arlene and Mary and Tiny took my 4-wheeler. We rode through all of our trails. The woods are so beautiful this time of year. The yellow and orange leaves give the light in the woods a golden glow. It is like being in a fantasy land.

When we got back to camp, Arlene decided to take a ride down to the big field. She punched the big 4-wheeler and had me screaming on the back and we raced out of camp. Mary and Tiny followed at a more sedate pace and caught up with us at the field.

Tiny was warm and cozy tucked in Mary's jacket and seemed to be enjoying her ride.

Sadly, our time at camp was over and we had to close up everything and head home. We decided to check out the fields on the way home. The big buck wasn't in the river field but the four bucks we had seen the previous night were in the same field on the Town Line.

We watched for a while and then headed on home.

Wood and Candles

2010-09-21T16:41:00.006-04:00

Another big wood cutting weekend at Camp Chicken!

Friday night, Arlene, Mary and Tiny, and I got to camp about 5:15 pm and hustled around opening up camp. Ronnie Leach was supposed to drop off the wood splitter at 5:30 pm. When 5:30 came and went, we decided to load up the chain saw and start cutting up the big logs into 14 inch blocks to get a head start on the wood splitting crew.

We cut up one good sized pile of logs and as it was getting pretty dark, we called it a night. Back at camp, Arlene cooked us up some polish sausage and just as we finished dinner, Ronnie and his wife Wava pulled in with the splitter.

I had a nice chat with them and after they left, we decided to take a run to Hessel for the rest of the evening. We were home by 10:30 PM and hit our beds.

The next morning we were up bright and early. We were just finishing our second cup of coffee, when the rest of our "crew" pulled in. Arlene's daughter Janet drove out from the Soo to give us a hand.

It was raining but not too hard so we headed for the woods. Mary and Janet were the wood splitters, Arlene was the measurer and I was the cutter. We had our system down just like a factory.

The sun came out around 11:00 and it turned into a really nice day. We hauled our first trailer load down to Mom and Dad's around noon. We all had to stop at the trailer to take Tylenol and Motrin before we headed out again.

We cut wood all afternoon. When Arlene and I finished cutting up the blocks we helped Mary and Janet with the splitter. Cindy came up just after noon and gave us a hand.

We had a huge load on the trailer by 4:00 pm and loaded the rest onto Arlene's small trailer that was hooked to her 4-wheeler. Then we all headed to Mom and Dad's.

Apparently, we overloaded the trailer and the tires began to smoke half-way to Mom's. I had to ride the 4-wheeler the rest of the way and have Mom bring the pickup back.

We unloaded half the trailer onto the pickup and the whole convoy went to Mom's to unload. We finally got most of it into the woodshed and left some on the pickup for Dad to unload into the new garage.

Arlene headed out early to ride the 4-wheeler back to camp to get the chili on. Mary, Janet, Cindy and I went back to camp for dinner. Boy, were we tired.

Mary had made chili for us and it was really delicious. We were starved. Janet had to eat and then head to the Soo to babysit Chayse for the evening. The rest of us stayed at camp and played cards.

After I smoked everyone at Phase 10, we headed to bed.

Sunday, we didn't get up until 8:00 am and with no work to do, took our time having coffee. Mary and I built a fire and we just sat and rested.

Mom, Dad, and Cindy were coming up at 12:30 pm for lunch and cake for Cindy's birthday.

Arlene cooked her famous burgers on the grill and we had cole slaw, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and chips. It was so good.

We surprised Cindy with a cake and sang Happy Birthday to her. It was a really great day.

Mom and Dad headed home and the four of us just sat and relaxed.

Of course, we aren't much for sitting. I decided to take the 4-wheeler and trailer and pick up the good scraps that were left from the wood splitter. When I got back to camp, Cindy was holding Tiny and Mary and Arlene were over in the woods by my bow shack. There has been an ironwood tree hung up over there for about three years and they decided they would throw a rope over it and try to pull it down.

After several attempts involving a ladder, clippers and a long pole, we decided to tie the rope to my 4-wheeler and yank the thing down. Finally, success. Next weekend, I'll cut it up for Mom and Dad's stove.

We puttered around camp until about 4:00 pm and closed up camp and headed home.

Arlene has to have a lump removed this week so we aren't planning any projects for next weekend that would involve heavy lifting.

We'll put together Arlene's new deer feeder and get our cameras ready and up. I want to take the saw down to her shack and trim up trees and get her area ready for hunting.

Woodchucks at Camp Chicken

2010-09-13T19:52:00.005-04:00

The weekend weather looked pretty iffy. A front bringing lots of rain was supposed to roll through the area about noon on Saturday. We needed to get Mom and Dad's winter wood cut, so we decided to go to camp anyway.

Friday was really nice, sunny but cool. We made it to camp about 5:15 and got our woodcutting gear ready and the big trailer hooked up to the car. We headed to the area near Arlene's deer shack where we had a pile of wood that we had gathered the spring before.

About 3/4th of it was still good, so we managed to get it cut up before dusk. We went back to the trailer and decided to go see if the big buck was out in the field again. We saw does with fawns (a good sign) and two small 4-points but no big bucks. So we headed back to camp for dinner.

Arlene made our Friday night favorite: sliced polish sausage, baked beans and fried potatoes all mixed together. It was delicious! We ate it out of our new "cowboy" bowls that Arlene's sister Judy bought for us in Ohio. They are made from metal with a white enamel coating and remind us of the kind of bowls that cowboys use around the campfire.

Saturday morning we were up at 6:10 AM having our coffee and we were out in the woods by 7:30 AM. We knew that we had to beat the rain that was coming by noon. We were really hustling. I think we only took one break. We cut up all the piles of wood that we had collected and loaded them in the utility trailer.

The rain had held off so far. Mom came up for a visit just as we finished and we headed to her house to unload our trailer. We finished up about 2:00 pm and headed back to camp. We just got in the trailer and changed our clothes when the rain came down. After a warm cup of coffee, we opted for a nap. We were pooped!

Cindy came up for supper and we had Arlene's famous hamburgers. Wow, were we hungry. After dinner, we played Phase 10 until 10:00 PM and hit our beds.

Sunday we slept in until 8:00 AM. We had our coffee and headed out for Phase Two of our woodcutting weekend. There were about six large, dead, peeled, maple trees near Arlene's shack that we thought we could cut down.

Now we have a new Husqvarna chain saw and it is a really good saw, but I've never taken down a tree bigger than eight inches and these babies were over a foot in diameter. But, we figured we could try it. I cut it just the way the manual that came with the saw had described and it fell exactly where I wanted it to. I was pretty proud of myself.

We felled at least eight or nine of those big trees and cut them into lengths of four blocks. Then we had to move those big logs. They were to heavy to carry so we flipped them end for end. What a lot of work.

Cindy came up just as we were about half-done and helped us move logs. We put them in piles near our trails and the road so that we can cut them up and split them. Our neighbor at camp, Ronnie Leach, is kind enough to let us use his wood-splitter to split them up.

After our chore was done, Arlene grilled us up some Polish Sausage and we had them on a bun. We were starved. Mom came up for a visit as we were eating.

It was a beautiful sunny day. We took our time closing up camp and left about 4:00 PM. We stopped at Cindy's and put more Round-up on the poplar gads we had cut off. We knocked on her door but when I peeked in, it looked like she was asleep in her chair. So we went to the BP for an ice cream cone and headed home.

We got about two miles when Mary noticed that a large black cloud had come up out of nowhere to the west of us and was moving rapidly toward us. We joked that we had been trying to beat the rain all weekend and now we had to race it home.

As I drove faster the cloud seemed to be gaining on us and by the time we hit 9-mile road it had almost caught us. We hurried to get to the Soo before it hit. We dropped off Mary and Tiny and hustled home. We made it into the house and got everything unloaded as the rain hit.

I was in the shower when the thunder and lightening started. I got out of the shower and went downstairs to check the weather on the Internet because the sky looked really weird. Sure enough, we were under a severe thunderstorm warning.

It was a humdinger too. Some areas near us got baseball sized hail. Mom and Dad had lightening strike so close to the house that it blistered the paint on their back door and the wind was so bad that it blew their storm door open and broke one of the hinges.

Thank goodness we made it home before the thing hit. The storm was pretty severe.

We are hoping for better weather for next weekend.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-08T17:13:00.005-04:00

Labor Day weekend was a bust! Friday night we had heavy rain and 60 mph winds and it was really scary here in the Soo.

Arlene had gone to Ohio with her sister, so Mary, Cindy and I planned a night at camp for Saturday. But, Saturday's weather wasn't much better than Friday's weather. We had rain and more wind so we canceled our Saturday stay at camp.

Sunday was a little better so when the rain cleared out by 11:30 am, I called the girls and we decided to head to Pickford. Mary, Tiny and I stopped at sister Cindy's trailer first to give her a hand.

We cut away the small poplar trees that had sprouted around her trailer and soaked them with Roundup to see if we can get rid of them. Then we fixed her screen door and back door so that they would latch. Mary fixed her tub faucet so that it would turn on without using pliers. We tried to fix her bathroom door knob but I think it needs a new knob.

Having finished our chores, we all got in the Blazer and headed to camp. It was cool but sunny so we sat outside for awhile and relaxed. I had brought burgers to cook out so I got to try out the new cook shack. My culinary skills are not in Arlene's class but I managed to cook the burgers without burning them.

By then, it had become a little chilly so we decided to eat inside rather than outside. Dinner was pretty good. Burgers, chips, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

After dinner, we opted to stay in and play Phase Ten.

I did remember to take some photos of the new tables we had made from the deck lumber leftover from the "Cluck Shack". They look pretty good if I say so myself.

It had begun to get dark so we closed up camp and decided to take a ride down the Three Mile Road toward Moms. Cindy had to drop off some books for Mom. We saw deer out in the fields near the river. Unfortunately, I only had the little binoculars that I keep in the Blazer console. We saw several nice bucks in the river fields.

We continued on toward Mom's and saw two does with fawns out in the fields. We turned around and started back and noticed some good sized deer that had joined the does and fawns. One deer seemed really large to me so I had Mary and Cindy take a look at it with the little binoculars. It was hanging at the edge of the field about 150 yards from us. Suddenly Mary said "Oh my gosh, that is a big buck".

I took the binoculars and sure enough, he was huge. Biggest buck I've ever seem. I had the camera in the car but it was too dark to get a photo. He seemed unconcerned with our presence and proceeded to walk majestically along the edge of the field.

We watched in awe until he disappeared into the brush at the end of the field. Wow! It was really a thrill to see a big buck like that.

We reluctantly headed to Moms and then home.

Hopefully, we'll get nicer weather for this weekend. We have wood to cut and lots of other chores at camp to get done.

"The Cluck Shack"

2010-08-29T17:27:00.010-04:00

We had to tear the old side deck off of our house this summer and replace it. The new deck boards looked so nice that we decided to put new deck boards on the rest of it.

We hauled all the old lumber to camp and Arlene got this brainstorm for a lean-too for her grill. The grill is under a spruce tree and tree trash falls on it all the time. So she thought if it was under a shelter, it would stay cleaner and she would be out of the sun and rain while she was cooking.

So she drew up the plans for this lean-too and last weekend at camp we started building it. We used the 2 x 6's for the floor and used landscape timbers for the supports.

We used the old deck boards for the roof and for the floor.

This weekend, we headed back to camp to finish her lean-too. Mary and Tiny came up too so we had the whole crew.

Last weekend was cool and it rained off and on so we couldn't finish. We managed to get all of the boards cut so all we would have to do this weekend was screw them on. After a few glitches, we got the sides and the back on.

We had so much lumber left that we decided to make a small table to put by the fire so that when you are sitting in your chair you would have something to set your coffee or whatever on.

We used to use milk crates but they are really low and in the dark you can't see them very well and I always worry that someone will trip over them. Many times, I've set my cup down on what I thought was the crate and totally missed and dumped my coffee.

So I wanted a table and I thought that with the old deck boards it could look really rustic. So we started with an idea of how tall and wide we wanted and it turned out perfectly. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of it. Oh well, next time.

It looked so great that Arlene thought we could make a tall one so that she could put it by her grill shack and have a place to set things as she is grilling. For some reason, the table didn't go together as well and the first one but we got it built.

Mom came up for a visit while we were working and we were telling her about the idea we had for the sign for our grill shack. She said that she would go home and make the stencils for us on her Cricket machine.

Today, we got up and had our coffee and packed up our suitcases and got them out of the trailer. While Arlene cleaned the trailer, Mary and I bravely tackled building another small table to set by the swing so we would have a table at each end. We managed to get the sides assembled and with Arlene's help put it together. It turned out so nice that Arlene had us move the old round table to the other end of the swing and she claimed the new table for her end.

Shortly after we finished it and were putting away the outside things, Mom pulled up. She had the stencils and her Sharpie markers and was ready to make our sign. Mary and Tiny had to go so Arlene and I visited with Mom while she sat at the old picnic table in the shade and made our sign.

It turned out really great and I think she was really happy to put her stamp on the new shack. After it was finished she wanted to see it up on the shack so I got my tools out of the car and attached the sign to the cook shack which we had named "The Cluck Shack". The sign really makes the shack look great.

Mom thought that the "Cluck Shack" sign turned out so well, that now she wants to make a "Camp Chicken" sign for out by the gate.

She had to go so Arlene and I finished packing up and closing up camp. It was 85 degrees today and really hot so we got in the car and turned up the A/C and headed home.

After unloading the car in the heat, a nice cool shower felt really, really good.

Family Visit July 2010

2010-08-09T19:25:00.010-04:00

Well, we haven't been able to spend much time at camp this year.

We had to repair the north foundation of the house this spring, then we had to build a new side deck and then replace the boards on the back deck and Arlene had knee surgery, and then the summer has been very, very hot and humid.

The week of July 12th, my brother Chris, his wife Judy and my nephew Ross came home from Spokane, Washington for a nice visit.

They had flown into Minneapolis and rented a car and drove the rest of the way. On the way through Wisconsin, they bought fireworks and these really cool sparklers. Here, Chris and Ross are lighting them at the fire.

They spent two days at camp. We played croquet and badminton and had a nice fire both nights. The weather was a little cooler than it had been so evenings were pretty comfortable. The second evening the mosquitos got really bad so we went down to Mom and Dads to set off the rest of our bottle rockets and light more sparklers.

We went to Mackinac Island for a day, too. It was nice but pretty warm. We went to the Fort and the Butterfly House and had dinner at the famous Horn's Bar on Main Street. Here's some photos of us on the ferry return.

Friday, Chris was going to a golf scramble for his LSSU Computer Science and Math reunion, so Judy, Ross, Cindy and I went to the beach for the afternoon. The wind was really blowing so the waves were pretty big for Lake Huron. We had fun but as the afternoon wore on the wind just got stronger and stronger so we packed up and headed to Cedarville for supper.

We had a wonderful time but all too soon, their visit was over. Hopefully, they will be able to return next year and we can spend more than just two days at camp.

Saturday Trip to Camp

2010-03-14T09:36:00.010-04:00

We took a trip to camp on Saturday to burn our brush pile while there is still snow on the ground and everything is still really wet.

We were up bright and early and after loading the car, picked up Mary.

When we turned onto the road that heads up to camp, we noticed that something was on the road. It was a large flock of wild turkeys. They were right in the middle of the road and in no real hurry to cross. I got some nice shots of them in front of the car.

On the way up to camp, Arlene spotted a deer standing completely motionless in a thicket by the road. It always amazes me how long a deer can stand perfectly still.

We got to camp and there was still snow left but not enough that I couldn't get through it with the Blazer. We had brought two fire sticks to get the brush pile going but the pile was so wet that they had little effect.

Arlene, ever the firebug, decided that we needed to try gas, so I drove to the storage shed to get the gas. But even that wouldn't get the pile going.

I decided to try a more traditional method so I walked to camp and got some maple and cedar sticks and then gathered birch bark. Finally, we managed to get the thing started.

Arlene and Mary tended the fire as it slowly burned away. It was quite windy, which helped fan the flames and kept things moving along.

As the pile began to really get going, a small mouse came scurrying out of the inferno and flopped on his back to "Stop, Drop, and Roll". Apparently, he had seen the video! He dived under the pile of birch bark and huddled there. We peeked in at him and found him to be shaken but largely unhurt. I'm sure he'll be inside our trailer in a few days, looking for a new home.

The fire finally died down to one stubborn wet spruce log and a pile of coals so Mary and Arlene rolled the spruce log into the wet snow to extinguish it and we poured two big cans of water on the coals and covered them with snow.

Satisfied that everything was completely out and the coals were cold, we went to check the trailer. We did have a couple of mice in our traps, so we cleaned that up.

Instead of getting warmer, it began to get colder so we headed to Hessel to gamble.

As usual, Mary and I had no luck and Arlene was pretty lucky.

About 7 o'clock, we decided to get something to eat. Arlene thought we should try out the food at the "Runway" Bar.

Now let me explain about the "Runway". When I was younger, the Runway Bar was a notorious "Dive". There were fights in there every single weekend and one time, someone got mad and tried to drive his car through the front door. My Gram called it the "Beer Garden", and would jokingly say "want to stop and hoist a few?" every time we passed there on a ride. Most people wouldn't be caught dead in the Runway.

But several years ago, new people bought the bar and completely remodeled and expanded it. Now it is very nice in there and really clean. The decor is what we call "North Woods" and they have old snowshoes and skis on the walls along with deer heads, a stuffed raccoon trying to open a Cracker Jack box, a stuffed squirrel, a coyote and even a martin.

I was reluctant to go there but Arlene convinced us and I was pleasantly surprised. It was really nice and the burger and fries were first rate. It was real hamburger made into patties not the frozen stuff from Gordon's foods.

We had a nice dinner and headed home. It had been a really long day and we were all ready for our beds.

Gladys Susie Rutledge - We Miss You Gram!

2010-03-05T08:17:00.006-05:00

Today is my grandma, Gladys Rutledge's birthday. She would have been 106 years old. She passed away at the age of 100 on April 18th, 2004.

It is because of her and my grandpa, Elmer Rutledge, that Camp Chicken even exists. It belonged to them and when Gram passed, it was passed on to my mother, Gloria Smith.

Gram lived through many trials and changes, the Great Depression and all of the major world wars to name a few. She saw America change in so many ways. The things we take for granted today; cars, telephones, indoor plumbing, electricity, radio, and television were all "new" things in her lifetime.

Gram loved Camp Chicken, only she called it the "Forty". She liked to sit in a chair outside at camp and listen to the birds and the wind in the trees. She loved the sound of the wind in the trees and would always remark that "the trees are really talking today".

Camp brought her peace, I think, and good memories of the times she spent there with Gramp. They had huge gardens at camp and helped Mom and Dad cut wood to heat our house.

I think of her often when I'm at Camp and sometimes, I feel her presence there. Arlene, who has what I call "Native ESP", sometimes actually sees her spirit there. I think she comes to see what we are up to and to just make sure that we are all right. It is a comforting feeling, really.

I miss her and even now, I'll pick up the phone to call her if there is something on TV that I know she would like to see. Sometimes when I'm driving to Pickford, I'll think, "Oh, I should stop by and see Gram". Then I realize that she is gone.

She had a huge influence in my life. She told us stories about our family history and because of that, we know where we came from and how we got here. She taught us to be frugal with a dollar and to work hard.

Gram loved to read and passed on that love to our Mother, Gloria, who passed it on to us. My brother, sister and I all love to read and my nephew, Ross is a voracious reader. Ross gets his love of reading from his Mother, Judy and from our side of the family too.

Gram also loved the outdoors and was an avid birdwatcher all of her life. She took great pleasure in nature and all of the plants, trees, and animals that inhabit our world.

Gram was a wonderful cook and baker. She made the most incredible ginger/molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies and my favorite, apple pie. I really miss the apple pie made from the transparent apples that grew on the apple trees at Camp Chicken.

I know that my sister Cindy really misses the ginger cookies.

One time when Gram and Gramp were away, Cindy and our cousin Sandie Nettleton got into Gram's large cookie jar and ate all of the ginger cookies. Boy, were they sick!

When Arlene was desperately ill with cancer and couldn't eat anything at all, Gram baked her ginger cookies every week, and told her to eat them because ginger helps settle your stomach. Arlene says that Gram's ginger cookies helped save her.

Oh Gram had her moments too. She had an awful temper and could be difficult. When she got very old, sometimes the bad seemed to outweigh the good. There were times when I know she drove my poor Mother crazy.

To my Mother's great credit, she still went to Gram's house every day after my Grandpa passed away in 1983 and made sure she was all right, brought Gram her mail, and did countless chores for her. I know it wasn't easy for her to be Gram's caregiver for so long.

But, as is usually the case, we tend to remember the good times we had with Gram and all of the wonderful things she did in her lifetime.

Happy Birthday, Gram! We sure miss you.

A Ride to Camp

2010-02-21T09:36:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day here in the EUP so Arlene and I decided to take a ride to camp.

We have very little snow on the ground so the road in to camp was easy to navigate. Many thanks to Dana Galer who keeps the camp road plowed every winter.

We parked at the gate and walked in. I had put the snowshoes in the car, but we didn't even need them.

Camp was quite serene and quiet. There were quite a few animal tracks and we had fun investigating them. I love coming up here in the winter and looking at all of the tracks in the snow. You can really see what kind of critters visit camp while we are away.

There were small tracks that could be a fox or a small coyote and the spot under a spruce tree where he killed a rabbit for his dinner. The snow was all torn up and there was bunny fur everywhere.

That is nature's way. One dies so that one may live.

There were some mystery tracks also. This animal has fairly large feet but pushes a path through the snow as it moves. There were quite a few trails like this all over camp. We had fun guessing what it might be.

We saw no wolf tracks, thank goodness. There were big deer tracks though and he/she had wandered all over the camp clearing.

We brought the camera but never saw any animals to photograph. Darn. So we took turns taking each other's pictures.

I would guess that if we don't get any more snow this winter (fat chance of that), we will be able to start cutting wood in a couple of weeks.

Mom and Dad burned up everything we had cut for them and had to buy two cord of wood for the stove. It seems a shame that they had to buy wood, when we have 40 acres of maple to choose from.

Maybe with the new chain saw, I'll be able to cut larger diameter trees and we can borrow Ronnie's splitter and really get some wood done.

After spending some time at camp, we decided to go to Hessel casino. We had a lot of fun. As usual, Arlene gave me a twenty to play and I won her $200. I took my $10 that I had to spend and turned it into $40 so we left pretty happy.

Then it was on to the Soo. We wanted to take Cindy out for dinner but she is down and out with a terrible cold. So we went to the Soo casino and had dinner and gambled until midnight and didn't spend a nickle of our own money. Those kind of days are really fun.

We can't wait to start going to camp again. We have been playing Facebook games all winter and that has passed the time but I am ready for some outdoor pursuits.

Deer Season 2009 Recap - Wolves and a Last Chance Deer

2009-12-27T18:27:00.007-05:00

In the crush that is the holiday season, some things have fallen by the wayside and unfortunately, it was the Chronicles.

Arlene and I made a pact this deer season that no matter how few deer we saw or what happened, we would enjoy ourselves and have fun.

We had a great time this deer season. Mary and Tiny even came up for opening day and the day after and acted as my spotter at camp. I decided to hunt out of my pop-up bow blind this year as the weather was very mild.

We saw few deer during the season but had a relaxing time. We went to the Hessel casino quite a bit and tried to make the best of the deer scarcity.

We hunted 8 of the 15 days of the season and saw maybe 6 different deer. We did have two regulars, a medium-sized doe and her fawn. It was the only fawn we saw during the entire time.

The last weekend we were at camp was for Thanksgiving. Arlene had made our traditional turkey, mashed potato, turnips, dressing smothered in gravy "TV" dinner and it was scrumptious.

Friday night just as Arlene was getting ready to leave her shack, wolves began howling right behind her. She called me on the radio and I suggested that she stay put and I'd drive the Blazer back to her and try to spook them out of there but she declined. She pulled her 4-wheeler right up beside her shack to load up and for the first time ever, left her rifle loaded and put it around her neck as she rode out into the meadow.

Once out in the open, she stopped and unloaded it and came in to camp. It bothered both of us that they were that bold. Protected or not, if I feel that I'm in danger from a wolf, he's going down.

Saturday was our last day to hunt as we have to close up camp for the winter on Sunday. I decided to hunt in camp again and it was a long day with no deer coming in. I did some chores and puttered around in between hunting. I held out little hope that I would even see a deer with the wolves around.

Just at dusk, I noticed that a deer had trotted into the clearing and soon another appeared. It was the same doe and her fawn that we had been fattening up all deer season.

I called Arlene on the radio and said, "Guess who's here". She replied "it's our two little gluttons right?" I chuckled and answered her that it was.

Suddenly, from behind the east edge of the camp clearing, I could see a really large deer with it's head down, coming into view. I radioed back quickly to Arlene that I had something big coming in.

I was sure it had to be a buck. In the fading light, I peered through my binoculars at the deer's head, straining to see the antlers.

Damn! It was a huge doe.

Suddenly, another large deer appeared from the same spot. This had to be the buck. Again, I strained to see the antlers but was disappointed to see that it was another huge doe.

Dejected, I radioed Arlene to tell her that I had two huge deer in the bait pile but they were both big does.

She radioed back, "SHOOT ONE OF THEM!!!"

"Oh," I thought, "that would be a good idea".

So with less than 2 minutes of shooting light left, I lifted my rifle. The largest of the two does was separated from the other three deer and standing completely broadside. She immediately noticed the movement and I knew she was going to run. I quickly aimed and squeezed the trigger. Four deer scattered as I tried to follow her and mark her direction.

The radio rang and it was Arlene asking if I got one of the does and I replied that I had.

I quickly changed clothes, loaded my handgun (just in case) and grabbed my good flashlight and small spotlight. Arlene arrived at camp just as I stepped out of the trailer and I suggested that she drive to the east end of the clearing.

We checked for blood or hair and found none. Arlene suggested that we walk about 20 yards apart and check for a blood trail or tracks.

It was now very dark as we moved slowly up the hill behind the east end of the clearing. We had been searching for about 15 minutes when Arlene found a spot where the doe had stumbled and tore up the leaves. Until that point, I was beginning to think that I had missed. We changed direction and continued scanning for blood, or tracks or any sign at all.

Suddenly, very close by, the wolves began to howl. I panned my flashlight in the direction the howling had come and it immediately stopped. That worried us as my light shines out 105 meters.

I told Arlene that we had to find my doe soon before the wolves did. We were walking faster now. I had given up on the blood trail and decided to walk and pan the area around me with the big spotlight, hoping to find the doe by sight.

Just as I cleared a small patch of spruce and panned the spotlight ahead of me, I spotted my doe. "I found her, R" I yelled, "we have to get her out of here fast."

Quickly, we came up with a plan. I would stand guard and Arlene would try and get her four-wheeler up to where the doe was. She would have to drive back to the shed to get ropes and then get the big 4-wheeler up into a spot where we didn't have a trail. I could see that she was really reluctant to leave me there alone.

"R, you have to go," I told her.

After she left, I put my back against the biggest tree I could find. I took out the handgun and kept panning the flashlight around me looking for eyes. It was a really long 10 minutes until I could see the 4-wheeler lights returning.

Luckily, Arlene can really drive that 4-wheeler. She was working it around the big trees and smashing down the small ones as she powered up the hill toward me. At one point she had the thing up on two wheels but managed to right it and kept coming toward me. I was really glad to see her.

We got the big machine turned around and the doe tied to the hitch. Now the trick was to get her back out of there. We worked our way back down the hill and finally into the camp clearing.

Arlene went into to change into her old clothes to field-dress the doe. As I waited outside, my sister Cindy pulled up. I had forgotten that we had invited her for dinner. I quickly filled her in and told her to stay in the trailer but she wanted to help.

Arlene pulled the doe over to the clearing at the start of the short-cut road and Cindy and I took the car so that we could use the bigger spotlight that plugs into the car cell phone port.

Cindy agreed to hold the light while I helped Arlene clean the doe. It was hard for Cindy as she had to keep closing her eyes to keep from gagging but she was a trooper and held the light perfectly steady the whole time.

It didn't take Arlene long to get the doe cleaned and soon we had her back in camp and hoisted high in the air on the buck pole.

Finally, with all of our work done, we could get cleaned up and have dinner. It was delicious.

Sunday

We got up early and gave Mary a call to see if she would come out and give us a hand. After coffee, we got busy packing up and loading the car. Mary showed up and really helped out carrying stuff to the car and helping me with the outside chores.

We lowered the big doe onto Arlene's 4-wheeler to transport her to the shed where we were going to butcher her.

The new kerosene heater came in really handy to heat the shed. It was a miserable day outside. It was snowing hard most of the time but the snow was that wet slushy heavy junk that gets you soaking wet.

Arlene is really getting good at butchering the deer into large chunks. Mary and I helped by putting the large chunks into ziplock bags and then we loaded the bags into large garbage bags to carry to the car.

Amazingly, we were done by about 2:30 pm and had camp closed up by 3:00 pm. It is always a sad time for us when we leave camp for the winter.

We were home and unloaded by 4:30 and eager for a shower and something to eat.

So, it is goodbye to Camp Chicken until we have to go up there this winter to shovel off the trailer and shed roofs.

Oh I almost forgot, here is a photo of Arlene on her 4-wheeler with her deer rifle. Her niece Crystal's son Hunter doesn't believe that his Auntie Mary (that is her real first name) hunts deer so this photo is just for Hunter.

Deer Season Opener 2009

2009-11-17T17:00:00.005-05:00

As expected, opening weekend was pretty slow at Camp Chicken.

We arrived Friday night and got the trailer open and the generator going. While the trailer heated up, we headed for Hessel for supper and some gambling. We had a nice time and actually won some money.

Saturday, we were up early and spent the day getting our hunting spots set up for the next day. About 2:00 we came in for a break and Arlene had parked her 4-wheeler right in front of the trailer.

Suddenly, she sat up and looked and then pointed out the window. As I looked out, I could see a 4-point buck meandering toward the bait pile at the end of our camp clearing. When Arlene had looked out the window, she could see her 4-wheeler handlebars and the tops of a set of horns. The buck was sniffing her handlebars!

Apparently, the little guy was wondering what this new thing in his territory was. We had a good laugh about that one.

This is a photo of him leaving that my new trail camera captured.

Saturday was Arlene's birthday, and Mom and Dad came up for a visit and to bring R her birthday present. Dad is doing a little better after a bad fall last week that left him with a broken shoulder blade. They only stayed an hour so we decided to go to the casino for a little while.

Arlene was extremely lucky with her birthday money from Mom and Dad and came home with almost $400 and I came home with $80.

Opening morning was clear and mild and we saw deer right at daybreak. However, by 10:00 am it was blowing a gale and the deer were hunkered down. The wind died a little at dusk and a few deer did come in but they were pretty jumpy.

Mary and Tiny came up about 3:00 pm and sat in the car so they wouldn't scare the deer. They snuck into the trailer and watched the deer at the end of the clearing and waited for us to come in. We had a nice dinner of Janet's lasagna and played Phase 10 all evening.

Monday morning was cold and clear and the deer came in about 7:30 am. Mary and Tiny were "deer spotters" for me while I hunted in my little pop-up blind. We saw deer that day both morning and evening.

We decided to go to the casino for supper and had hamburgers and then played for a little while. It was fun.

This morning was really cold and frosty. Arlene was feeling a little tired so I went to her shack to hunt but didn't see a thing but two bluejays.

She saw two does, one is a fawn but the other doe isn't her mother. They are just hanging around together. Arlene took this beautiful picture of the big doe from our trailer window.

Mary and Tiny left about 9:30 am and I stayed out until about 12:30 pm. I came in and helped Arlene load the car and we came in early.

We didn't see many deer but the weather was sunny and mild both Monday and Tuesday so it was still a nice weekend.

The big bucks that were hanging around during the first week of November have apparently vanished into thin air. We saw the little 4-point, a spike horn and Mary saw a small buck with half of his rack missing. Other than that we only saw a few does. The deer are pretty scarce. I think the wolves have alot to do with that.

We are home relaxing and getting chores done so that we can go hunting next weekend.

Getting Ready for Deer Season

2009-11-10T06:04:00.011-05:00

Fall has been so rainy and cold here in the E.U.P. that we haven't been at camp very much.

I did use my birthday money to buy a new Bushnell trail cam with an infrared flash, thanks Mom and Dad, to put up right in camp. We have been putting out corn, carrots, and sugar beets to see what visits us when we aren't there.

I haven't been able to check the camera for two weeks but we have been able to come up for an hour every three days to put out more deer feed.

Sunday when we checked our cameras, mine had 682 photos on it. Wow! Of course, I had it set to take a lot of photos but that was still a large number.

Most were of the Mama deer and her baby and the larger doe that is usually with them. I'm assuming that she is the matriarch of the little clan.

But about halfway through the photos was a nice surprise.

Later in the photo collection was another surprise. A nice 4 point has been visiting us pretty regularly.

And right near the end of the 682 photo sequence was this nice surprise.

It appears that the 4 point visits quite a bit but the big guy comes around about every three days.

Hope he shows up on opening morning!!!!

Scary Weekend at Camp

2009-10-18T13:21:00.005-04:00

While we were at camp last weekend, Arlene had a rather frightening thing happen to her. We had taken her 4-wheeler back on the road past her shack and we left it at the old spring. We were going to try and find a dryer route to what used to be Dan and my hunting shack.

We had my GPS unit and flagging tape and we were meandering along the edge of the semi-swamp marking a new trail back to the Skyview Shack. We reached the shack without problem and on the way back, Arlene suggested that we get a fix on the end of the new road and we would walk toward it to see if we could build a trail in from that way.

We had only gone about 30 feet, when suddenly Arlene bent over and grabbed a small tree. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was extremely dizzy. Then she started to get sick to her stomach and had the dry heaves.

At this point, fear really started to set in and she said "we have to get out of here!". We were nearly at the northeastern corner of the 80 acres and a long way from camp. She thought that she could walk back but I told her that wasn't a good idea and to stay right where she was.

I ran back to the 4-wheeler as fast as I could, started it up, and managed to get it all the way back in there to where she was. She was so weak that she could barely hang on to me as we bumped and sloshed our way out.

As soon as we got back to camp, I gave her two aspirins and had her just sit still. Hurriedly, I put everything away and packed the car.

As we drove to the Soo, she seemed to get better and complained of the chills. She declined a visit to the ER and thought it was perhaps a virus.

After sleeping at home all afternoon, she got up at 6:00 PM and the dizziness returned this time with heaviness in her chest and arms. Taking no chances, we headed for the ER.

After spending the night in the hospital, her cardiologist scheduled her for a heart catherization on Wednesday in Traverse City.

The results were really good and showed that her heart is fine with only a slight blockage in a peripheral artery. The cardiologist there feels that her high blood pressure medication is causing her heart rate to drop way too low, about 44 bpm, and his recommendation was to cut it in half.

The day after the procedure she was feeling much better with a heart rate of about 65 bpm and is feeling much better.

I guess the lesson here is that bad things can happen anywhere and at anytime when you are out in the woods. In hindsight, with just the two of us there, we should have left a note with a map of where we were going and how long we expected to be gone.

Neither of us had taken our cell phones because we had forgotten to charge them overnight like we usually do.

So we found ourselves in a bad situation that luckily turned out all right but it could have turned out much worse. Our guardian angels must have been keeping an eye on us.

Quiet Weekend at Camp

2009-09-30T17:51:00.006-04:00

Arlene and I took off early from work Friday to head to camp. On the way, I called Mom to let her know that we were going and she said that their garage door had quit working. So after unpacking we headed to Mom and Dad's to have a look.

The door is definitely broken and needs a new spring (the big one that attaches to the rod that makes the door go up and down.

We went back to camp and decided to clean up the area on the other side of the place where the motorhome used to sit. We had piled branches, logs and stuff in the holes hoping it would rot and fill them up, but it never really did and just looked messy.

I know, it is the woods, but we like camp to look neat and clean. So we hauled away two trailer loads of brush and made a new brush pile in the meadow.

About 6:00 PM we headed to Hessel for dinner with a short detour to the fields near camp to do a little scouting.

Saw a couple of nice spikehorns, and while we were turning around, noticed what appeared to be four large doe in the second field back. I dug out the binoculars from under the back seat to take a closer look. The "doe" turned out to be a nice buck, at least a six-point, quite possibly larger.

We headed on to Hessel and stayed until they closed the place.

Saturday was quite cool and cloudy and we were both concerned as we had invited Mom and Dad, Cindy and Arlene's brother Wayne and his wife Joan up for dinner. We usually celebrate my sister Cindy and my birthdays by going out for brunch but we thought we would change it up this year and invite everyone for dinner. Arlene generously volunteered to cook.

About 11:30 AM, Mary and Tiny surprised us with a visit and we sat around chatting by the fire for awhile. Of course, we aren't much for sitting around, so we went up to the hill to see if we could dig out this huge limestone rock that Arlene's sister Judy wanted for part of her walkway. An hour later after excavating a three foot hole and breaking the shovel, we got that thing out and loaded on my little trailer. Wow, was it heavy.

About 2:00 PM, the sun finally appeared and saved the day for our dinner as we had planned on eating outside. Arlene started cooking and everyone showed up on time.

We had a real feast: grilled whitefish cooked on cedar boards that we had soaked for three hours, bison tenderloin, chicken breast, boiled red garden potatoes, peas, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet onions and bread with frosted brownies for dessert. It was great.

After dinner, we sat and visited by the fire. We were so busy that I forgot to take any pictures.

Everyone but Cindy left by 9:00 PM and we built a real roaring fire and stayed out until almost 11:30 PM.

Sunday, we slept in until almost 10 AM, unheard of for us. Usually, we are up by at least 8:00 AM.

We took a ride on the 4-wheelers and checked our trail cameras but no bear pictures, thank goodness. Our bear must have just been passing through.

We packed up early as we had to go to Cindy's and spray down her outside entryway with stuff to kill the hundreds of spiders that have taken up residence there.

It was like a Halloween movie as I was spraying, the spiders were coming down on webs trying to get away from the spray. Yuck. I was smacking them with the broom and killing them. Now her only outside broom is full of dead spider guts, so I went to Walmart tonight and bought her a new one.

We helped her take her air conditioner out of her window as it is supposed to turn quite cool this week.

No camp this weekend, although we may go up Sunday and check the cameras and cut some wood if the weather is decent. Arlene's great-granddaughter, Madison, is turning three on Saturday, so we are going to her birthday party.

Camp 9-11-09

2009-09-19T11:03:00.009-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Arlene and I bought this stuff called "C'Mere Deer". It is a powder or liquid product that is supposed to bring in the deer like crazy.

So we thought that we would try some. The weekend before, we sprinkled some at our two hunting spots, the Taj Mahal and the Cadillac Shack and put up our trail cameras.

Saturday, we went to check for pictures but found none. While I was fiddling with Arlene's trail cam at the Cadillac spot, she decided to spread some more of the "C'Mere Deer".

Within a minute, we could hear rustling in the brush as something approached us.

"Wow", I said, "that worked fast".

Suddenly, a chipmunk appeared and headed straight for us. He stopped a few inches from where I was kneeling at the camera and peeked around the tree at me. He was so cute.

Skirting Arlene and I, he headed straight for the log where she had poured the "C'Mere Deer" and began licking it like crazy. We were laughing so hard I almost wet my pants.

Apparently high on the powder, he ran over to the food block I had set out and attacked it, trying to chew the small bits of corn out of the block.

Soon another chipmunk appeared and began to scurry around.

I told Arlene that they should call this stuff "Chipmunk Crack" instead of "C'Mere Deer"!

Finally, we left the "monks" to their meal and headed back to cook dinner for Cindy and Arlene's sister, Judy. Arlene was making Porterhouse Steak, baked potatoes and corn on the cob.

Boy was it GOOD!

After dinner, we spent a beautiful evening by the fire and did some stargazing with the telescope.

Sunday morning, we decided to go check the deer camera at Arlene's shack again. This time we took the digital camera so that we could just do a quick scan of the memory card to see if there were any pictures.

I plugged the card in the camera and took a look.

Hey, there's a deer! Hey, there's another deer! Hey, there's a ...... oh my gosh...there's a BEAR!

In the eight years we have been using trail cameras at camp, we have never, ever had a photo of a bear until Sunday.

And guess what he was doing??? He was licking the log that had the "C'mere Deer" spread on it.

Needless to say, we brought the "C'Mere Deer" home with us and don't plan on using it any more.

Why don't they put on the label: "Attracts Chipmunks and Bears!!!!

We aren't at camp this weekend, as Arlene has a had a death in her family and has to attend a wake on Sunday. But, this afternoon, we are going to go to camp and check those cameras again and make sure the bear didn't come back.

The Cadillac shack is no more than 200 yards, as the crow flies, from camp so we want to be real sure we don't have a bear problem.

Sunday, we tried to make as much noise as possible. I took out my .357 mag revolver and shot about 40 rounds at our little target range. Then I got out the .380 and the .22 pistols and did the same. Hopefully, the noise will convince the bear that camp is not the place for him/her.

I'll keep you posted on today's photos.

Labor Day Weekend at Camp Chicken

2009-09-08T18:33:00.015-04:00

Friday, September 4

It was a sad day for my family as Mom, Dad, Cindy and I went to Pellston to attend my Uncle Ed's memorial service. Uncle Ed was married to my Dad's only sister, Aunt Mary. I drove us down and back and by the time I got back home it was after 4:00 pm.

Arlene had everything ready so we just had to load the car and hitch up the trailer and we were off. We were going to just unload and go to Hessel to the casino for dinner but I was kind of worn out from the day so we decided to just stay at camp.

We aren't much for taking it easy, so we decided to get started early on our Saturday project. My Dad had given Dan a little utility trailer last year and he had put a sort of flat bed out of 2x4's on it. We decided that with a little re-design we could put a box on it and make a nice little wagon to haul wood. So Friday night we took all the 2x4's off of it.

We played a game of Phase 10 and went to bed early.

Saturday, September 5

We were up early and headed into town to pick up nuts and bolts to attach our wagon "ribs" to the wagon.

We used a thicker sheet of OSB board for the floor and after some careful cutting with the saw managed to cut slots for the "ribs" to fit in and got the floor secured. Arlene and I stained it and while it was drying, we measured and cut the sides.

After we had it all screwed together we stained the finished product. We used scrap lumber left over from Arlene's hunting shack and our camp shed so the whole project cost us a total of $5.00.!

How do you like our little five dollar wagon?

Cindy came up for a dinner of grilled Brats, corn-on-the-cob from a camp neighbor's garden, and Bush's grillin beans with canned potatoes added.

After dinner it had cooled off quite a bit so I started a fire and we had coffee. Mom surprised us by dropping by for a visit and we had a really nice time chatting with her.

Just before dark, I dug the camp telescope out from under the bed and put it together and aimed it at what I thought was Mars. To my surprise, the big object in the southeastern sky was Jupiter with three of it's moons orbiting around it. When the full moon came up, we turned the telescope on it and took turns gazing into the moon. It had been a great day!

Sunday, September 6

Sunday dawned warm and sunny just like the last two days at camp. We slept in and relaxed drinking coffee. We spent the morning putting up our deer cams and putting out food blocks for the deer at Arlene's Cadillac Shack, the Taj Mahal bow shack and one at the end of the camp clearing.

About 1:15 Arlene's daughter Janet surprised us with a visit and she brought little Chayse, Arlene's newest great-grandson for his first trip to Camp Chicken. He is five months old now and really growing.

Of course, Arlene had to take him for his very first 4-wheeler ride.

As you can tell, he wasn't afraid at all, but seemed really interested in how his "GG"'s buggy worked.

I called Mom and told her that Janet had brought the baby up so that she could spend some time with him and she was at camp in a flash.

Soon afterward, his mom, Steph, Auntie Sara, and cousin Anna pulled in and it was like old times at camp when they all used to come for the weekend. Before long they had the badminton net up and had a game going.

Chayse relaxed on my Mother's lap while he watched his Mom play badminton.

Mom must have a pretty comfortable lap, because he was asleep in no time.

Soon, Arlene's sister Judy and their niece Cheryl arrived. Cheryl was here for a visit. My sister Cindy pulled in shortly after and we had quite a lively crew at camp.

Arlene had brought lots of food and Janet and the girls brought hot dogs and chips.

While Arlene cooked dinner, the whole crew went up into the woods to help Judy pick up some flat limestone rocks for a walkway she is making at her house. One thing that Camp Chicken has a bounty of is ROCKS. Gram used to call camp, "Stony Lonesome", which I think is a pretty cool name too.

Finally, Arlene had dinner ready and we all sat down to a feast of grilled fresh whitefish, pork country ribs, bratwurst, hot dogs, fried potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and garlic and herb french bread toasted on the grill. Yum, Yum!!!

After stuffing ourselves at dinner, everyone relaxed by the fire. The girls helped clear and I did the dishes.

All too soon everyone had to leave and camp was once again quiet.

Arlene, Cindy and I spent the entire evening around a roaring fire. Just as it got dark the coyotes began to howl very, very close to camp so I went and got one of my handguns out and set it by my table, just in case. It was actually nice to hear them. The wolves had driven them out of our area in the past two years.

I got the telescope out again and we looked at the moon and Jupiter. Before long it was almost midnight. Evening is my favorite time at camp. I love sitting around the fire. There is something comforting about a fire. Maybe it something buried deep in our DNA from long ago; fire means life and warmth.

Monday, September 7

Sigh, last day of a long weekend at camp. Time just flies by at Camp Chicken.

Our trailer has a mouse problem! We have been catching the little buggers all weekend. So today was clean out the cupboards and cubby hole day. Arlene and I vacuumed up mouse poop and used Clorox disinfecting wipes to clean up all the places where they hide and mess. We can't figure out how they are getting in.

While Arlene was finishing cleaning the bathroom, definitely a one-woman job, I was putting some things away in the shed when I found a nest of leaves and stuff up in the part of the shed where we have some boards laid on the rafters. As I was brushing the leaves down, I saw a MOUSE running for cover in the soffets(sp).

I grabbed the ladder and my heavy leather gloves and tried to get him. I had to move the ladder as I chased him back and forth from one soffet area to another. Arlene was now outside cleaning the grill when she could hear swearing, banging and thumping from the shed. She came over to see what the heck was going on.

I finally figured out that where each rafter met the soffet board, there was a gap there that the mouse was running through and getting away from me. So I took two pieces of 2x4's and slowly began working the mouse to the middle soffet.

Finally, I had him trapped but to my surprise, there wasn't just one mouse, there were FOUR MICE. One by one, I caught and killed each one, sorry ASPCA, but they had to go! Actually, one of them managed to escape and I chased him all over while Arlene laughed her *ss off at the picture of me chasing the little critter.

Later, I took mouse poison and put it everywhere I could think of; the outhouse, the new shed, the old shed, the motor home, under the woodpiles, everywhere.

As the day grew hotter and hotter, we decided to pack up and head home.

Next weekend, the MOUSE WAR will go on.

Rainy Weekend At Camp

2009-08-31T20:08:00.003-04:00

Well, another rainy weekend here in the great northwoods.

But, Arlene and I went to camp anyway. We managed to get unpacked and take a nice 4-wheeler ride before the rain started.

Arlene grilled some nice pork steaks and made fried potatoes on the grill and while we were eating dinner the rain started. It rained all evening so we just stayed in and played Phase 10 all night and went to bed early.

I woke up about 3:00 AM and the wind or rain was making a strange noise just like a freight train. I jumped up and went to look outside but everything seemed ok. I was sure we were going to get blown away or something. Arlene said she heard it too but figured if it was a tornado there is really nowhere to go to hide from it at camp so she just covered up her head and waited to see where we would land.

We made it through the night and we were both up at 6:30 AM! We wanted to go to Skinners to get our new chain saw but they don't open til 8:00 AM so we drank coffee and played cards until then. We came home with a nice new Husqvarna 16" chain saw.

We had planned on burning the big brush pile in the meadow and since it was still raining, it seemed like a safe time to do it. There was brush and all of the old siding off Mom and Dad's garage that we had re-sided last fall.

We poured gasoline on the brush...I know...bad idea. It didn't want to light so we poured more gas on it and tried again. Arlene lit a rolled up paper towel and reached to toss it on the brush when WHOOSH the gas caught and flames jumped everywhere. Luckily, Arlene didn't get burned but it scared the heck out of me.

The only time the fire got a little scary was when the flames got pretty high and were getting close to some maple branches. But, it was raining hard the whole time so everything was soaked.

We began flipping the siding over more toward the middle of the clearing and gradually the fire began to settle down. We sat in the car in the rain for four hours watching the fire burn. Every 15 minutes or so we would go out and push everything toward the middle.

By 3:00 PM we had a pile of ashes and burning debris about 3 feet across.

We went back to the trailer about 4:00 PM and played cards again until 5:00 when Arlene went out, in the rain, and cooked steaks, baked potatoes and corn-on-the-cob for dinner. Good thing the grill is under a big spruce tree.

Cindy came up for dinner and we played cards all night. I don't know what we would do at camp in the rain if we didn't play cards.

Sunday dawned sunny and cold but we'll take that any day. What a really nice day it was. We had our coffee and got to work. The generator needed maintenance so while Arlene did that I went to spread the ashes from the fire out so that they would cool off.

We just puttered around camp and we were just headed to town for more water to completely drown the ashes when Mom pulled up.

We had a really nice visit with her. It was so nice to just sit outside in the sunshine and relax.

We got this brainstorm to plant some stuff for the deer in the spot where we had burned everything so we planted our little crop. Can't wait to see if anything actually grows there.

We went for a really long 4-wheeler ride and as it was getting late we decided to start packing up to go home. It was hard to leave as it was such a beautiful day but by the time we got home it was after 6:00 PM.

We're really looking forward to the upcoming 3-day weekend. The weatherman actually sounds hopeful that it may be actually nice!

FINALLY....

2009-08-26T18:07:00.007-04:00

A weekend at Camp!!!

Sorry that I have been away. It has been a crazy summer. Much has happened and we have been very, very busy. In addition, the weather here in the EUP has been horrible. It has rained every weekend this summer and when it didn't rain on the weekend, it was just too hot to go to camp.

But, last weekend, Arlene, Mary, Tiny and I headed for camp Saturday morning after a very rainy Friday.

At the beginning of summer, we brought up a new addition to our campfire circle. Arlene's daughter Janet gave us their old swing as she received a new one for Mother's Day. So it is a nice addition to the camp circle.

Tiny thinks that the armrest makes a great perch for her to keep track of all the action at camp!

Our first task was to fix our two chains saws that have been acting up lately, so Mary and Arlene began taking them apart. They cleaned up the small one and replaced the chain. We were able to cut down two dead spruce trees but it still doesn't seem to be running right.

Of course, Tiny had to keep a close eye on them from her new "throne". She rarely lets any of her "people" out of her sight and must always account for all of us at all times.

After taking our bigger chain saw apart we found that the saw had "cooked" itself. There must have been a oil leak somewhere inside and it got so hot that it totally fused the drive shaft. So, next weekend, we are going into Pickford to Skinner's and buy a new Husquevarna (not sure of the correct spelling) chainsaw.

My sister Cindy came up Saturday evening as Arlene had cooked New York Strip steaks, baked potatoes and corn on the cob on the grill for all of us. What a feast! After dinner we enjoyed coffee by the campfire until it got too cold and damp to sit out.

We went inside for a rousing game of Phase 10. I guess Cindy must have left about 11:00 PM.

Sunday, we slept in until 8:00 AM. We sat around drinking coffee and visiting and since it was gloomy and looked like rain, we played another game of Phase 10. Cindy came up for the afternoon.

When the sun finally came out I mowed the grass while Arlene and Mary tore apart our old lawn mower that we are trying to fix for a camp mower.

I think the two of them just like tearing stuff apart!

We finished our day by playing Phase 10 at the picnic table outside and then packed up for home.

The forecast for this weekend is for a few showers on Friday, rain on Saturday, and a few showers on Sunday. Sheesh....

But, if it does rain, we may burn the big brush pile in the other meadow.

And of course, there is always Phase 10.......

A Tribute To Our Friends

2009-06-09T17:00:00.004-04:00

June has not been a kind month to the inhabitants of Camp Chicken. We have lost several of our loved ones in the month of June.

Our good friend, Kathy Fike, passed away on this day, June 9, 2000.

When we first began coming up to Camp Chicken, Kathy wanted to come along. She had never been an outdoor person, living most of her life in Sault Ste. Marie. She was a Native American and was the second employee hired by the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians after the Tribe gained federal recognition in the mid-70s.

Kathy lacked any kind of outdoor skills and Arlene jokingly called her a "City-Indian" but she was our friend so in the early days of Camp Chicken, she tagged along.

In the first fall at camp, we made Kathy trim trees, haul brush and saw wood. I was sure she was going to cut off her thumb or worse. But, she was a good sport and worked hard to help us reclaim the camp clearing from Mother Nature.

At other times Arlene called Kathy, "Bear Bait". Finally, Kathy was brave enough to ask why.

"Well," Arlene said, "if we stumble onto a bear, I know that I can always out-run you, Kath. So you are our Bear-Bait. He'll get you and we can get away."

I think that Kathy thought Arlene was serious, because if she went for a walk in the woods, she made sure to take my dog with her to protect her.

Just two years ago, on June 12th, we lost another good friend, Joanne Fletcher. Jo had been ill for awhile but certainly not ill enough to pass away. Her death was totally unexpected and shocked us all.

This is one of the few photos that I have of Jo. She hated getting her picture taken and I probably have 50 photos of Jo with her hands in front of her face. This photo was taken at Arlene's grandson Arnie's graduation open house. Little did we know that just 10 days later, she would be gone.

When Arlene was just a young mother, struggling to raise three daughters on her own, Jo babysat her kids. She was just like a second Mom to Arlene's daughters and a second Grandmother to Arlene's grandchildren.

Jo was funny, honest and out-spoken. She was one of those friends that you could call at 2:00 AM for any reason and she would help you out.

We tried many times to convince her to come to Camp Chicken for the weekends but Jo loved her creature comforts and prefered being home.

Joanne and Kathy were great friends and talked to each other on the phone almost everyday. They both loved going to the casino.

Several times a year, we would all go on a "Casino Run". Arlene called Kathy, "Erma Tuttle, the Queen of the Shuttle" because Kathy always wanted to be the driver. If it was a gloomy Saturday or Sunday, Arlene would say, "call Erma and Jo and Mary and see if they want to go on a run" and we would all hit the road.

We would drive from the Soo to Hessel Casino, then to St. Ignace Casino, then on to Brimley's two casinos and finally back home to the Soo Casino. It was always great fun. Of course, if your money ran out early, it could be a long, long day.

We really miss our friends and talk about them often, sharing stories about them and honoring their memories.

Memorial Weekend Recap

2009-05-31T17:53:00.008-04:00

Sorry this is a week late.

Memorial Weekend was pretty nice at camp, very cold for this time of year but sunny. We spent the mornings and early afternoon cutting more wood for Mom and Dad.

The mosquitoes and black flies were really bad. Saturday, we had to run to town and get Tiny a flea and tick collar because the ticks are really bad at camp. We have never had ticks right in camp before so that was strange.

The woods were a riot of color as the wild flowers were in full bloom. We had trilliums, forget-me-nots, and all kinds of beautiful flowers.

Although we worked hard, we took time to play too. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we took a break to go to the Hessel casino to gamble a little. We were pretty lucky too and played for the entire weekend on just $20 apiece.

We hung up the "Little Girl on the Swing".

The "Little Girl on the Swing" belonged to Gram and during the summer months, she always hung on a tree limb in Grandma's yard. Gram gave it to us to hang at camp. Each spring, we hang her on a birch limb right by the camp woodpile so that we can see her. It is a symbol that camp is open and Gram is with us. Camp never feels right until the little girl is happily swinging in the camp breeze.

I have to tell you a funny story about our weekend.

When we got to camp Friday night, Arlene was really tired, so I offered to unpack our groceries and put things away. Usually Arlene does this and Mary and I do the "outdoor" chores like getting out the generator and the four-wheelers.

What I didn't know that part of the "inside" routine is to check the mouse traps. Arlene thought that I knew the routine so she didn't check the traps.

Saturday, I thought I could smell a dead mouse in the trailer bathroom. I complained to the girls about it but they both had a bit of a cold so they didn't smell anything.

Sunday the smell was much worse and I thought that maybe a mouse had crawled into the trailer drain and died in there. Again I complained to no avail, as the girls couldn't smell a thing.

Monday, we were packing up and Arlene was doing the "inside" part of packing and Mary and I were doing the "outside" part.

Suddenly, I heard Arlene say, "Did you say you still smelled a dead mouse in the trailer?"

As I turned around, I could see a large dead mouse in a trap, dangling from Arlene's hand. "Where did you get that?", I asked.

"I found it in the bathroom cabinet, under the sink", she answered. "Didn't you check the mouse traps when you unpacked the groceries?"

"No," I answered, "I didn't know that I was supposed to".

Mary and Arlene are now both convulsed in laughter at my expense. "Why didn't you just check under the sink when you smelled a dead mouse?", they asked.

I don't know why I didn't, I just didn't think of it.

But, overall, it was a great weekend, except for the seven bites I got on my right elbow that turned into a severe allergic reaction that sent me to the doctor the next day. Thanks to a shot and massive amounts of Benedryl, those have finally cleared up.

We couldn't go to camp this weekend as Arlene's granddaughter Anna, graduated from high school. And we can't go next weekend, as it is Anna's graduation party. But, maybe the next weekend.

Honor Our Veterans

2009-05-22T07:36:00.008-04:00

Arlene's grandson, Clifton, is currently serving his 6th tour in Iraq.

Like thousands and thousands of other brave young men and women, he puts himself in harm's way everyday so that his family and his country can be safe.

So, while you are out this weekend enjoying the outdoors, stop for just a moment and say a prayer of thanks for the men and women who have proudly served our country so that you and I can enjoy the freedoms we have as Americans.

Woodchucks at Camp Chicken

2009-05-12T17:51:00.010-04:00

It was "Woodchuck Weekend" at Camp Chicken!

Arlene and I took last Friday off to give ourselves a long weekend at Camp. The weather Friday was really nice with cool temperatures, warm sunshine and a breeze stiff enough to keep those blasted UP blackflies pinned to the ground. Perfect weather to cut wood.

Mary Sue and Tiny even got to camp early so that they could help us cut wood for my Mom and Dad.

We spent most of Friday just east of the camp clearing cutting up dead maple and my Mom's beloved Ironwood. Ironwood, for those who don't know, is a member of the birch family, but is also called the American Hop-hornbeam maybe because it's seed pods look just like Hops. When dry, it burns slowly and leaves a bed of very hot coals making it perfect for woodstoves.

I gave Arlene and Mary the name "Woodchucks" because they never let any piece of wood go to waste. No matter how small the stick is, we can still use it, they insist. So anything too small for Mom and Dad goes on the camp woodpile for campfire wood. Nothing goes to waste with those two "woodchucks".

Arlene cooked us a great dinner of grilled steak and potatoes and biscuits. We ate like lumberjacks.

Saturday found us up very early to go to town to a garage sale that supposedly had an backyard sauna for sale. Arlene wants a sauna for camp.

Finnish saunas are extremely popular in the UP because of the large Finnish population that lives here.

Sauna is really more of a Yooper verb than a noun. It means to sit in a small shack, usually made of cedar, and pour water on rocks heated on the top of a wood stove, and sit in the steam. When you have had all the heat you can take, you run outside and take a cold shower or roll in the snow if it is wintertime. Sounds like fun, huh?

Anyway, the sauna wasn't really what we were looking for. We ran a few errands and headed back to camp. We needed to drain the water and bleach solution we use to sanitize the water tank so that we could fill the trailer tank with water.

We ran into Mom and Dad on the road. They had come up and got the wood that we had cut up the day before. They couldn't visit too long as Dad had to get his hair cut.

Then it was off to the south of camp to another spot that had quite a bit of dead, dry ironwood and maple. We spent the entire day back there, cutting, dragging and hauling wood back to camp to put on the trailer for Mom and Dad.

Some of the dead maple was pretty big for the wood stove so Arlene decided to split it.

I had kept a small fire going in the camp firepit all day so that we could cook hotdogs over the fire for lunch. Why is a hotdog cooked over an open fire the most delicious meal ever??

Then it was back to the woods. Finally, at 4:00 pm, our backs couldn't take anymore and we quit for the day.

The girls began hinting that they really needed a cup of coffee and a hamburger for dinner so I told them that if they wanted to go to Hessel casino for the evening, we had to take a little nap.

Sunday we were supposed to take Mom and Dad out for their birthdays and Mother's Day but Mom was so dizzy she couldn't even walk so we'll have to do it next weekend. Since Arlene is a Mom, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother we took her out for brunch.

Unfortunately, brunch didn't agree with her and she spent most of Sunday in the outhouse. All in all, it wasn't a great day to be a Mom!

Mary and I amused ourselves by cutting up camp wood on the old "cart path" that runs in a circle around the camp clearing. Arlene's grandchildren built it for the little cart they had when they were small. It looked like a little dune buggy. They had more darn fun with that thing, riding around and around camp as fast as they could go.

We decided to knock off by 2:30 and just sit and enjoy the rest of the afternoon sitting by the fire.

We finally packed up about 5:00 and headed home. I hate packing up! It is so much more fun to unpack at camp than packup.

Well, there is always next weekend!

Nice Weekend at Camp

2009-05-05T11:00:00.006-04:00

Arlene, Mary, Tiny and I went to Camp early Saturday morning even though the weather forecast was for rainy and cold weather.

Arlene wanted to "house clean" the trailer and Mary and I would work on cleaning up the mess around camp from the winter. We got to camp about 10:30 AM and it was rather cool and cloudy so we made a nice fire and got to work.

Something is killing our beautiful spruce trees! I don't know if it is an insect infestation or a type of tree disease but it starts with the ends of the boughs turning a kind of yellowish-brown and then slowly the needles fall off and the tree limbs die. Does anyone know what this might be or how I can find out what it is???

Anyway, the high winds this winter caused the tops of three of our dead spruce to snap off leaving a big mess by my bow shack. Mary and I removed all of the limbs and cut those up to burn up in the campfire and then I cut up the trees for firewood.

We did other chores too and had quite the busy afternoon. By 4:00 PM Arlene had completely finished cleaning the trailer and we were just taking a break when it began to rain. Mary and I hustled inside to wait it out. We decided on a game of Phase 10 to pass the time. Soon the rain turned to HAIL and it was pelting down pretty hard.

I was going to make sandwiches for dinner but the girls were hinting that they would like something warm to eat, like maybe a hamburger. I soon realized that they meant they wanted to go down to the Hessel casino for dinner and some gambling fun.

Sunday dawned cool but sunny and after a breakfast of coffee and donuts we started cutting firewood for my Mom and Dad's woodstove. They burned quite a bit of the wood we cut for them last fall during the long, cold winter so they need stocked up.

Arlene's brother came up and cut up a bunch of downed dead trees and left them piled up to be picked up later.

Finally, about 3:00 PM we called it a day. Muscles that had remained unused all winter except for snow shoveling were pretty sore and tired so it was time to quit. We just sat and enjoyed the sunshine and the peace of being out in the woods.

Can't wait to go again this weekend!!

My New Blog...

2009-04-25T12:35:00.005-04:00

Please take a moment to check out my new blog Whitetails For Women and tell me what you think.

Why a new blog?

When I started Camp Chicken Chronicles, it was really just a family blog. My brother Chris, sister-in-law Judy, and nephew Ross live far away in Spokane Washington. Arlene's grandson, Clifton was serving his third tour in Iraq. The Chronicles was a way to let them know what we were up to and to entertain them with our sometimes crazy camp activities.

Now, I didn't know anything about the "blogoshere". I don't use Facebook, text on my cellphone, have a MySpace page and the only blog I had ever even looked at was my sister-in-law's blog, Cheery Tomato Productions. I was seriously out of the blogging loop. But, after reading Judy's blog, I thought it looked like fun. So I went to blogger and started creating my blog.

I spent about two weeks with the design and soon I was happily blogging away.

To my surprise, Kristine of the Outdoor Bloggers Summit and Marian at Marian's Hunting Stories, stopped by for a visit one day. They were so nice and so encouraging and I was surprised to think that anyone but our families would be even vaguely interested in my little blog.

Soon other people began to stop by and offer kind words and I met all kinds of wonderful people that belong to the OBS, a dedicated group of men and women who love the outdoors and blog about it everyday.

I used to write all the time when I was in my teens and twenties but somehow, along the way, I stopped. I had even dreamed of becoming a writer but was either too lazy or became discouraged and gave up my dream. But, blogging became an outlet for my self-expression. I found that I still really enjoyed writing and the challenge of fitting words together on paper.

Blogging is wonderful because you can use words and pictures to express yourself.

But, I haven't answered my own question, why a new blog???

I found that I had lots and lots of ideas for things to write about that just didn't fit with the family feel of the Chronicles and I didn't want to lose that unique "voice" that the Camp Chicken Chronicles has.

So, I decided to start a totally new blog that talks about Whitetail Deer Hunting from a woman's perspective and includes a way for women to share their hunting experiences. I'd really like the blog to have a community feel for all of the great women who are as passionate about whitetail deer hunting as I am.

This doesn't mean that I'll stop blogging about Camp Chicken! It is a place that is deep in my heart, bones and blood and if I could, I would be buried there when I die. I belong to it more than I belong to any other place on the face of the earth and that will never change.

Earth Day

2009-04-22T10:17:00.006-04:00

Today is Earth Day.

The entire country is looking for some activity to do today to help the environment and celebrate Earth Day. I was going to do this big blog about saving the planet, stopping Global Warming and doing something ecologically sound for Mother Nature and on and on.

But, I realized that I would be "Preaching To The Choir"!

Outdoorsmen and women are active 365 days of the year doing things that benefit Mother Earth and the environment.

There is no other group of people who do more for conservation than sportsmen and sportswomen. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation "Hunters and outdoor enthusiasts have historically led the fight for conservation and wildlife resource management, benefiting all Americans."

"Through license fees and special excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment, they (hunters and outdoor enthusiasts) currently contribute more than $4.7 million each day for the benefit of wildlife."*

Not to mention the billions of dollars that we pump into the state and federal economies buying all of the goods and services that relate to the outdoor activities we participate in.

Hunters were America's First Environmentalists.

And are we thanked for saving America's wildlife and wild, beautiful places?? Heck no! We are vilified as blood-thirsty demons who prey on innocent Disney-like creatures.

So here is an idea of what all outdoor-loving men and women can do for Earth Day. Take the day off! You've earned it. And get out there and enjoy the Outdoors.

*If you want to read the rest of this great article go to The Hunter and Conservation

The Native American Way

2009-04-19T11:06:00.003-04:00

While celebrating the birth of Arlene's newest great-grandchild, I've been thinking a great deal about my friend.

Arlene is a member of the Bear Clan. In the Anishnabe culture, the Bear Clan were the warriors and protectors of the people. Arlene's native name is Mosadem, (I probably have the spelling wrong), which loosely translates as the "Bear who walks where she wants". The name fits her perfectly as she is strong, independent, brave, and insists on doing what she considers the right thing no matter what other people may think. Bear clan members are devoted to family and fiercely protective of their family members and so is she.

Being Arlene's friend has allowed me the privilege of attending many native ceremonies and functions. Native people have a different way of looking at the outdoor world and the creatures that inhabit it. Traditional native people believe that all things in the Creator's universe have a spirit; trees, rocks, plants and the animals and birds. While this seems at odds with our European religions, it makes sense to me for some reason.

Arlene never really fears any of the animals that prowl the Camp Chicken forests. She views us as intruders into their space and that the animals really mean us no harm. They will choose to avoid contact with us whenever possible unless they want us to see them.

I'll never forget the time we were out for a ride while at Camp and we spotted a bear back in the field. He or she was headed away from us when I pulled the car over so that we could watch him. Suddenly, he stopped,turned and stood up to look right at us. He half-raised a paw as if in greeting and then slowly turned and ambled away. I looked at Arlene and said, "what was that all about?". She explained that he recognized her as being Bear Clan and was greeting her. I must admit that it made the hair on the back of my neck stand right up.

Native people believe that we should live in harmony with the natural world and that Mother Earth will provide for us everything that we need. But, we must respect her and treat her as a sacred being. I do my best to try and follow this teaching. I am encouraged by the new interest in green initiatives and the fight against global warming.

Native people understand that there has to be a balance and that we ignore that philosophy at our own peril. Unless we try and change our bad habits, Mother Earth will lose patience with us and correct the unbalanced condition herself perhaps with catastrophic consequences.

Congratulations to Arlene!!

2009-04-16T10:24:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Arlene! She is a great-grandma for the FOURTH time. Little Chayse Daniel was born April 14 at 10:06 PM. Mother and baby are both fine. Chayse will be a little outdoorsman for sure and even has some camo-baby clothes.

How Camp Chicken Got Its Name

2009-04-01T19:48:00.009-04:00

Excepts from the Camp Chicken Diary...

That first fall, our friend Kathy wanted to come and help us and stay at camp. Now Kathy was not used to the woods at all and I don't think she slept one wink that first night at camp. Pop-up campers are really just a tent on wheels and you can hear every twig snap and noise from outside.

Now I hadn't really spent much time in the woods since I was about 13 and I was now in my middle 40's. The night noises at camp kept me awake also. I never knew that the woods could be such a noisy place at night. Don't these animals ever sleep?? There were coyote howls, brush cracking, twigs snapping, crickets chirping, some terrible screeching that Arlene said was an owl and all kinds of other noises.

But, for that September, we went to camp every single weekend. We fell into a sort of routine. We would get there on Friday night and hustle to get the pop-up set up and everything unpacked before dark. Mom and Dad would usually pull in right behind us and give us a hand. We would drag an old truck rim that Arlene found out of it's hiding spot and build a fire and cook some dinner. Sometimes we just had cold sandwiches.

Saturdays were spent hacking brush and trying to reclaim the camp clearing. We worked like dogs. Mom and Gram would come up for a visit every Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Every night Arlene would sleep like a baby. Kathy wouldn't sleep at all and I slept with one eye open, alert for any sound. Kathy and I were sure that a big bear would sneak up on us and grab us in that pop-up camper. The camper didn't seem to offer much protection against a squirrel let alone a bear.

When we went to bed at night, we would turn off the Coleman lantern and set it on the picnic table which was right by the camper.

One particular night, at about 2:00 AM, I could hear some rustling outside. Suddenly, there was a huge CRASH, BANG and the sound of breaking glass.

Kathy and I sat up in bed and faced each other. "Was that noise inside or outside?", I asked. "Outside," Kathy replied. "I'm not going out there to see," I said. "Neither am I," she replied.

We both crawled back under the covers and pulled them right up over our heads.

Now, unknown to us, Arlene was awake and heard the whole exchange.

When morning came, we went out to investigate the sound. Something, probably a raccoon, had knocked the Coleman lantern off of the picnic table and it had fell onto the seat and then onto the ground, shattering the lantern glass.

The next afternoon when Mom and Gram came up for their visit, Arlene said, "Welcome to Camp Chicken, Gloria!" With much glee, she related the story of how scared Kathy and I had been by the midnight intruder.

And from that moment on, "The Forty" became "Camp Chicken".

Arlene painted a sign and even found a piece of wood that she carved to look like a chicken to hang from the sign.

So, now you know how Camp Chicken got it's name.

Camp Chicken - The Beginning

2009-04-01T19:13:00.008-04:00

From the Camp Chicken Diary

Camp Chicken never used to be called Camp Chicken, it was always called "The Forty" even though it is actually 80 acres. It was always called "The Forty" by my Grandparents, Gladys and Elmer Rutledge.

In 1996, Arlene got this brainstorm that we should go camping again. We used to go tent-camping but since sleeping in a tent on the hard ground had little allure for me, she suggested that we buy a pop-up camper. I agreed and we went to our local dealer and got a real good deal on a 1995 model with a regular size bed in one end and a queen size bed in the other.

We tried going to a state forest campground but the weekend that we were there, a bunch of locals partied drunkenly for most of the time we were there. I refused to go to any more public campgrounds after that.

Arlene suggested that we ask Mom if we could camp at "The Forty" and she said we could. Now, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa and Grandma used to use the property to garden and there were two large meadows of about 3-4 acres in size that used to be big gardens. But, they hadn't been used in about 15 years!

Nature has a way of reclaiming the land and boy had it! The once huge meadow was now a mass of spruce and poplar thicket. There was one small clearing left by the old red trailer that was about 30 feet by 40 feet and the rest was woods. Dad brought up the lawn mower and mowed a spot for us to park the pop-up.

That first September weekend, Arlene, her grandson, Arnie who was about 9, and I camped out. After dark we only had the light from the fire to illuminate the dark and boy was it dark. All around us the forest creatures could be heard moving around us as they weren't used to intruders into their domain.

The very next morning, armed only with a hand saw and a hatchet, we set to work to reclaim the meadow. Arlene said that we had to limb the spruce trees up high enough so that we could see further out into the woods and more importantly so that the animals could see us and avoid walking right into camp.

We had no outhouse so you had to take a shovel, go dig a hole to do your business and then cover it up. Yikes. We had no water except what we could carry and only the power that was in the trailer battery. When that went dead we were out of lights. We hadn't even thought to bring a lantern.

But, our dog Bear loved it. I tied him up the first few weekends we went to camp until I was sure that he wouldn't take off into the woods. After that, he had the run of camp.

Mom, Dad and Gram liked it too. They hadn't been up there much in recent years. Oh, Dad and Mom would come up in the fall and spring to cut wood but never to just sit around and enjoy the woods.

So that first weekend, we worked really hard at pushing back some of the forest. Mom and Gram came up for a visit both Saturday and Sunday and watched with some amusement as we hacked away at the spruce limbs.

But, you know what? It felt great to be outdoors!

Spring ??

2009-03-29T20:51:00.008-04:00

Well, spring is not here yet. We had more snow last night and today, probably about 2 inches instead of the forecast of 6 - 8 inches. Yuckkkkkkk.

So I went to the basement to clean our deer rifles, that I am ashamed to say, I didn't do the week after deer season. Maybe because deer season left me feeling kind of sad.

We didn't see hardly any deer and we had wolves howling right in camp on two consecutive weekends. Add that to the fact that someone shot the mother of our twin fawns and it just put me in a real crappy mood.

We can't figure out why we have so few deer on the property any more. I expect it has to do with our neighbors huge food plots to the north of us, WOLVES, and the after-effects of violent windstorms that have changed the entire property by knocking down many, many trees.

But, I getting off target here. Normally, I really enjoy cleaning our rifles. I love guns, always have.

When I was little, my Dad had a bunch of gun catalogs because he was going to be a gunsmith. I don't know why he never became one but I sure loved those books.

I look at a gun the way some people look in awe at a Picasso or a Da Vinci. To me a gun is a beautiful work of art. I especially love rifles because of the wooden stocks, there is just something really beautiful about the wood and metal together.

Arlene thinks I am nuts, of course. She just doesn't get it. To her a gun is a tool, just like a hammer or a screwdriver. It is an implement used to kill game to put food on the table, period. She doesn't understand when I go babbling on and on about the newest Taurus line of handguns or about the latest gun that Dan, her son-in-law is customizing. Frankly, she thinks we are both nuts! Sigh.

I decided to clean my Ruger 10/22 while I was at it. I had forgotten what a beautiful little rifle it is, so I took some photos of it.

The checkering on the stock is especially beautiful and the photos really don't do it justice.

Our local Chippewa County Shooter's Association Gun Show is this weekend and since it is supposed to snow, again, I may have to sneak off to take a look.

A Saturday Drive To Camp Chicken

2009-03-14T21:14:00.006-04:00

We took a nice drive to Camp today and saw partridge, lots and lots of deer and three bald eagles. Unfortunately, the eagles were about three hundred yards away but I did my best to get a shot of at least one of them.

From the Camp Chicken Diary...

2009-03-10T15:00:00.004-04:00

In the early days of Camp Chicken, I got the idea of keeping a camp diary. We could record what we did on the weekends we were there and keep a record of our camp adventures.

Here is an excerpt from our Camp Chicken Diary...

When we first began going to Camp Chicken on weekends, our good friend Kathy would go with us.

Kathy had never done any kind of outdoor activites and was a complete novice in the woods. She didn't know how to make a fire or use a hand saw to cut wood.

In those early days, we cut all of our campfire wood by hand with a small camp saw. Arlene and I took turns gathering wood for the fire and cutting up small trees for our wood pile. As you can imagine, it was a lot of work.

We tried to teach Kathy how to use the hand saw, but it took her a very long time to cut up a few small sticks of wood for our fire.

One day, Arlene and I were going to leave camp for a few hours to watch Arlene's grandson, Clifton, run at a cross-country meet. Before we left, she told Kathy that she had to cut some firewood and make a good fire so that Arlene could cook our dinner when we returned.

When we returned, a large fire was burning in the firepit and Kathy was relaxing in her chair by the fire. My Mom and Dad were sitting by the fire visiting with her.

"Wow," Arlene said, "great fire, Kath, how did you do it?"

"Well," Kathy replied, "I cut up the wood and built a fire. I know how to do stuff."

Upon a closer inspection of the fire, Arlene noticed that the logs in the fire were quite large, too large for Kathy to have cut with a hand saw.

A quick check in the back of my Dad's pickup confirmed our suspicions. Dad's chainsaw was in the pickup bed.

"All right, Kathy" Arlene said, "tell the truth. Harry cut up the wood for you with his chainsaw and he was the one who built the fire, right?"

The guilty look on Kathy and my parent's faces told the whole story. They had come up for a visit and when Kathy told them that she was supposed to cut wood and start a fire, my Dad took pity on her and did her chores.

Our good friend Kathy is no longer with us. Sadly, she passed away from stomach cancer several years ago. We miss her at Camp Chicken. In fact, she deserves much of the credit for the Camp Chicken name. But, that's another story.

Gladys Susie Rutledge

2009-03-04T17:26:00.010-05:00

On March 5th, my grandma, Gladys Rutledge would have been 105 years old. She passed away at the age of 100 on April 18th, 2004.

It is because of her and my grandpa, Elmer Rutledge, that Camp Chicken even exists. It belonged to them and when Gram passed, it was passed on to my mother, Gloria Smith.

Gram lived through many trials and changes. She saw America change in so many ways. The things we take for granted today; cars, telephones, indoor plumbing, electricity, radio, and television were all "new" things in her lifetime.

Gram loved Camp Chicken, only she called it the "Forty". She liked to sit in a chair outside at camp and listen to the birds and the wind in the trees. She loved the sound of the wind in the trees and would always remark that "the trees are really talking today".

Camp brought her peace, I think, and good memories of the times she spent there with Gramp. They had huge gardens at camp and helped Mom and Dad cut wood to heat our house.

I think of her often when I'm at Camp and sometimes, I feel her presence there. Arlene, who has what I call "Native ESP", sometimes actually sees her spirit there. I think she comes to see what we are up to and to just make sure that we are all right. It is a comforting feeling, really.

I miss her and even now, I'll pick up the phone to call her if there is something on TV that I know she would like to see.

Happy Birthday, Gram!

January at Camp Chicken

2009-02-07T10:40:00.008-05:00

Well, we hadn't been to camp since deer season. Winter came really early to the UP this year and every weekend it has either stormed or been well below zero. We were very concerned about the amount of snow that could be on the trailers and our new shed. Several years ago we had put up a 12 x 16 metal storage building but a heavy February snowfall collapsed it when we couldn't get into camp to shovel it off.

So, last Sunday Arlene, Mary Sue and I decided that the weather might permit us to get into camp. A call to Dana Galer, who normally plows the road in to camp confirmed that we could get as far as the corner, as people were logging up in the woods but the camp road hadn't been plowed in 2 weeks.

We made it to the camp gate but it was a little deep in spots. My new car, "Little Red" is pretty good in deep snow. We put on our snowshoes and trudged in. Arlene and I took turns breaking the trail. Wow, we decided that we were pretty out of shape. The snow on the trailer must have been four feet deep.

First we had to dig out a spot in front of the shed to get the door open so that we could get out the ladders. Mary volunteered to tackle shoveling off the shed roof and I started on the trailer roof. I didn't want Arlene to help me much as she was still sick with the terrible flu bug that everyone is so ill with up here. But after shoveling off about a 1/4 of the trailer roof, I knew I would need her help.

Mary amazed me by managing to shovel off the 12 x 12 shed in almost the same time it took us to clear off the trailer.

As we were finishing up, Arlene started to get really sick again. She had terrible stomach cramps and kept doubling over. I was really worried as we are back in the woods with a very snowy and difficult road to negotiate to get out of there. The hill that we have to climb to get back to the plowed road is always bad anytime there is snow or ice. But "Little Red" climbed right up it with little trouble. whew!

On our way back to the Soo, we bucked high winds and blowing and drifting snow. We ran into snow squalls bout nine miles out and most of the time couldn't see a thing. It was nerve wracking but we made it back safely.

Unless we get alot of snow in the next month, camp should be safe until spring. I can't wait until spring. It started to snow here the first part of November and just hasn't stopped and the cold has been deep and brutal. The coldest January ever I thought the weatherman said.

Well, that's all from the Frozen North for now. I'll post a Deer Season recap next week. I just didn't seem to get time to do it after November with the holidays and other stuff.

Countdown!!!

2008-11-14T15:38:00.003-05:00

Well it is 3:40 pm on the eve of Firearm Deer Season in Michigan. I am home with the car packed waiting on Arlene to get here. She said she'd be home at 4 PM. She is out at her sister Judy's where they are finally putting her new modular house on the foundation. This whole process has been slower than molasses! If any of these people worked for me, I'd of fired the whole bunch weeks ago. Poor Judy! She is so anxious to get into her new house and it seems to have taken forever.

I am so excited for deer camp that I can't hardly stand it and the minutes are ticking by so slowly I had to check three clocks to make sure that they didn't stop or something. Why is it that when you are waiting to do something you just love to do the time goes by so slowly? But it flies by when you are doing something you really love to do.

Arlene just called and they still don't have that thing on the foundation. What the heck.

Well, I'll be gone until Wednesday night and I'll hopefully have a "Big Buck" story to tell. To all our hunting friends out there, best wishes and if you are hunting in Michigan: Good Luck and Be Safe!

14 Hours 10 minutes and counting!!!

Deer Season 2008 Preparation

2008-11-08T20:23:00.008-05:00

Well, opening day is only SEVEN days away now and the countdown is on! It is raining and very cold here in the old U.P. this weekend. Arlene and I were going to go up to Camp to stay the weekend but the weather put a damper on that idea, literally.

So today we went out to Pickford and got the trailer from Camp and went to town for our load of sugar beets. We parked the trailer at camp and got out the "buggies" and loaded up our beets and some carrots for the deer.

We went to Skyview first and dropped off bait and picked up my deer cam from back there. It is really really wet back there and hard for my little buggie to negotiate the trail so I have decided to hunt with Arlene at Cadillac Shack opening day. Dan has a big 4-wheel drive 4-wheeler so the mud and water is no problem for him to get back to Skyview. I hate to abandon him but I don't want to take a chance on trying to get back there with my gun on my buggie and tipping over or something.

On our way back to Skyview, we surprised the little twin fawns who were at Cadillac shack having a snack. They are so used to us that the one fawn didn't even leave the feeding station. I talked to him as I went by and he just stood and looked at me. They are getting very independent and aren't always close to Mom.

Here they are with Mom three weeks ago. They were much smaller then. But they have been eating alot of corn since then and are really growing.

This photo was taken this past week and though you can't really tell from the picture, they are much bigger now.

We went back to Camp and got another load of beets and dumped it at Cadillac. We needed to take down the corn feeder and the camera. I also had to take down my doghouse blind and get it put away. Of course, the weather picked that moment to rain really hard and Arlene and I were soaked to the skin by the time we were done. Luckily, I had hooked up the battery, turned on the propane and started the furnace in our trailer so we had a warm place to go when we were done. I always keep extra clothes in the trailer so I was able to change into dry clothes for the ride home. Arlene wasn't as lucky and had to ride home in wet clothes.

I had to pack up my bow and bowhunting gear and take it home. I hate doing that because bowhunting is definitely my favorite over rifle hunting. We do have late bow season from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31 but usually there is so much snow that it isn't practical to bowhunt that late up here.

We just need to get our clothes ready, decide on our dinner menus, and most importantly of all, buy SNACKS. Good snacks for your deer shack are a must and great care must be taken to get just the right selection. They have to be easy to transport, not make alot of noise when you open them and taste really good.

I am starting to get excited now as I look forward to the opener next Saturday.

Bowhunting Success at Camp Chicken!

2008-11-02T17:54:00.006-05:00

Congratulations to Dan, Arlene's son-in-law, who bagged his first deer with a bow on Saturday afternoon. He made a really great shot from about 40 yards away while just sitting on a milk crate on the ground. He was really excited and so were we.

We had an extremely busy weekend. We stayed home for Halloween and had a housefull of guests and had a great time. Saturday morning we left early for camp and while on the way up there saw 3 wolves right out in the open field about 100 yards from the road. They weren't very afraid of us and finally ran away. They were only about a mile from my parent's house. I won't tell you my opinion of the planting of wolves in our area by the DNR as I don't swear on my blog!

We got to camp and got unloaded and get the furnace going as it was 27 degrees. We went back to town and picked up corn and sugar beets and went back to camp. As we were unloading the stuff into our old red trailer, a very large spikehorn came walking right into camp. He could see us and knew we were there! He was only about 30 yards away. He walked down our cart path to the Taj Mahal feeding spot, looked around and walked back to the start of the path and then walked back to the feeding spot again. Finally, he walked back to the start of the path and looking right at us took a few steps toward us, stopped and switched his tail and walked away toward the road. We were just amazed at him.

We loaded up the 4-wheelers and went out to check out Arlene's spot. When we got back to camp, one of my student workers from work, Theresa and her boyfriend Chris, were at camp. I invited them out to hunt racoons later that night and they were getting the "lay of the land" at the spot they would be hunting.

Arlene's brother came out again and we helped him load a trailer load of downed and dead maple for his wood burner. After that we set up our target and sighted in our deer rifles. We then loaded my trailer full of wood for Mom and Dad's fireplace and took it down to their house. While I unloaded the wood and stacked it in the woodshed, Arlene and Dan climbed up on the garage roof to fix the leak around Dad's new stovepipe. They managed to dink around until I had most of the wood in the woodshed.

We rushed back to camp as we still had to pull a big tarp over Dan's motorhome and get ready for the afternoon hunt. Arlene had ordered her electronic deer call and wanted to try it out. It has the sounds of rattling horns, a doe bleat, a doe-in-heat bleat, a buck grunt, and a buck snort/wheeze. She drove me nuts with that thing until Dan called her to tell her he had a doe down with his bow and we called it a day to go help him load her up and bring her out.

Theresa and Chris came about 9:30 and went out to wait for the midnight racoon raiders and we played Phase 10 until about 11 and hit the hay.

It was a very full day.

Sunday, I slept in and didn't hunt as I went to church with my family. It was remembrance Sunday and we had lost my Aunt Flora, my Dad's sister-in-law this year. My aunt Mary Hessel(my Dad's only sister) was coming and my cousin Judy and her husband Bob. After church we all went to brunch.

While I was away, Dan and Arlene made their first attempt at butchering. Dan had ordered this DVD on the internet and they had watched it and decided that they could butcher Dan's doe themselves. I advised them to let her "season" for a few days but they figured they would go ahead and do it that day. Much to my amazement, they were all done with her by the time I got back at 1:00 PM.

The new shed is perfect for butchering and with the salamander Arlene's sister lent us, we can work out there in comfort. Hopefully, we will have another nice deer to butcher next weekend.

Arlene's New "Buggie"

2008-10-21T20:34:00.010-04:00

Arlene has a new 4-wheeler, actually she bought it in July but I forgot to write about it. She has a really bad hip and knee and it has kept her from being very mobile at Camp Chicken. She used to love to go for long walks around our trails and roads but for the past couple of years has been stuck at camp. Now with her new wheels she can go all over and she is having so much fun.

Saturday, we loaded up the buggies with sugar beets, carrots and corn for our deer feeding stations and went out to check out our spots. This is my favorite activity for the fall; getting everything ready for rifle hunting season. Even though I bowhunt, I still enjoy getting the other hunting spots baited so that the deer know where to find food.

I love checking out the sites to look at tracks and seeing what new trails they have made to come in to eat. I try to combine that with the camera photos to get an idea of when they come in and what trails they are using. Arlene has missed out on much of this until this year and she is really enjoying it.

We worked on cleaning up some of our old roads in the afternoon and took the new camera to take some photos.

She thought this view of one of our beech trees was pretty neat.

The fall leaves were at their near peak last weekend and of course, we had 50 mph winds on Monday and they are almost all knocked off the trees. But, there were still some really pretty ones left on Saturday.

All in all, it was a great day. I went bowhunting about 5 pm and two nice does came in to check out the new food we put out. We don't usually use carrots but Arlene thought it would bring more deer in to the spot where I have the outhouse blind set up. After watching that doe stay at the feeding spot for almost an hour eating carrots, I have to agree it was a good move. Except we are going to need lots more carrots to feed her LOL. She must have eaten a half-bag full. She didn't eat much corn or sugar beets but really went for those carrots. In the deer cam photos we looked at the next day, she came back at midnight to fight off the raccoons and get the rest of her carrots.

I can't wait to get to camp next weekend and check out the photos. We have to figure out something to deal with those pesky raccoons before they actually damage the corn feeder.

Dinner Guests at Camp Chicken

2008-10-20T19:37:00.002-04:00

"Ok Ratso, the coast is clear"

"Come on, hurry it up"

"Wait for me, Bugsy, I can't quite reach it"

"Mom, I thought you said dinner was at 6:30?"

Bow Season Begins at Camp Chicken

2008-10-12T19:04:00.008-04:00

Sorry I haven't had much time to blog lately. Arlene's sister Judy is getting rid of her old trailer and getting a modular put in. We have been very busy helping her pack and move all her stuff out of the trailer so it has been a very very busy time.

But, Dan and I have been bowhunting. The weather has been very warm and the deer aren't really moving during the day very much so I haven't seen anything to speak of. One big doe by herself and one big doe with twin fawns.

Arlene and I bought ourselves a new megazoom digital camera and it takes pretty good pictures. It is nice for wildlife.

I put a one of those outhouse blinds down by the Cadillac shack spot and have been using it for the afternoon hunts. This partridge came right up in front of my pop-up blind yesterday. I managed to get the camera on him and take this shot. He blends in so well with his surroundings that he is hard to even see in the fall leaves.

This is my new friend "Chip". He gets under my feet as I try and fill up the corn feeder at the Cadillac shack spot. He is so darn cute as he waits for me to drop corn so that he can stuff his little cheeks full.

The leaves were really spectacular yesterday and today. Arlene was still helping her sister so I went to camp late Saturday. Dan and I hunted all morning and then spent the rest of the day riding around on our 4-wheelers taking pictures.

The camera just can't seem to capture how really beautiful the leaves are. I'm sure that by next weekend, they will be all on the ground. We were very lucky to have this day and it's beautiful colors.

And that is my Mother's little piece of heaven in the good old U.P.

The Storage Shed is Finished

2008-09-24T18:47:00.009-04:00

Family--I'll try to get the rest of the pictures on Flickr tonight.

Actually, the shed was finished two weekends ago. We were darn tired and sore but managed to complete our project with some help from Arlene's daughter Janet.

Last weekend we tore off the old siding from Mom and Dad's old garage/woodshed and replaced it with plywood. What a chore! We managed to get it all done almost.

Monday, Arlene, Mary, Tiny and I went out to Mom's and began to apply the stain. We managed to get alot done but didn't have enough to completely cover it so had to quit for the night. Yesterday, the weather was very warm here for September, so we were going to go out and stain again. Arlene came down with a horrible cold and Mary and smashed her hand in a door at work so just Mary and I went and we got quite a bit done. We still have to finish up and I think we'll need about 5 or 6 hours to do it.

We plan on going to camp this weekend and finishing up at Mom and Dad's and then we have to stain the Camp Chicken "Poop Coop" (our outhouse). With our leftover shingles and OSB board we put a new roof on the outhouse and it badly needs a new coat of stain.

Getting ready for bow season and there isn't much time left as it starts a week from today. I got some "Buck Jam" out at the Taj Mahal and got my deer cam up so we'll see what deer are visiting that spot. Hope to have some pictures for everyone next time.

Busy August at Camp Chicken

2008-09-08T18:52:00.007-04:00

It has been a very busy time at the old Camp Chicken. My brother Chris, sister-in-law Judy and nephew Ross were here for a 10 day visit in late July-early August. They were able to spend 3 great days at camp and we had a lot of fun. Arlene, Mary Sue and Tiny joined us all this year and Tiny had even more people to spoil her.

We took a day-trip while they were here to Munising and went on the glass-bottom boat shipwreck tour. It is a definite must-see. Here's a photo of nephew Ross and his old auntie Cathy on the deck of the glass-bottom boat in beautiful Munising bay. We viewed three shipwrecks and saw an bald eagle's nest with 3 adolescent eagles in it and the Mom or Dad on guard very close by. Visit my sister-in-laws blog for some really great photos.

We also went to Miner's Castle that day and then a long drive to Grand Marais for some of the best freshly caught lake perch I have ever eaten at a very Yooper-ish restaurant called The Sportsman's Club.

As a special treat for Ross, his Auntie Arlene made him a "Marshmallow Gun". It is a blow-gun made of PVC pipe and you insert a mini-marshmallow into the mouthpiece end and blow really hard and the little marshmallow flies about 30 to 50 feet depending on your lung power. Here's a photo of Ross with his.

We all took turns with our guns trying to shoot the marshmallows into the fire and trying to shoot each other. The guns are really alot of good clean fun and the directions for making them can be found on the internet.

Of course, we had to play croquet and had several cut-throat badminton matches. We did manage to play a good many games of Attack Uno too. Tiny looks on intently as the badminton action really heats up.

That following Monday we started our most ambitious project in the history of the Camp Chicken Construction Company. We built a 12 x 12 storage shed. We had no blue-prints and no shed kit, just an idea and some drawings on legal paper. I sure wish my Grandpa Elmer was still alive to help us out. He was a master carpenter and could have drawn up the plans for it.

We used patio blocks and treated 4 x 4's for the foundation and trying to get that level and square took about 6 hours LOL.

The next weekend we brought all the 2 x 4's and OSB siding to Camp and started building the walls. We were three tired women after that chore.

I was smart enough to know that we weren't up to building rafters yet, so I ordered them made for us. It was good and bad, as pre-made trusses come with 2 foot long tails so that you can cut them off to suit your project. However, you have to cut them all the same length and perfectly level so that you can attach a board to close them in if you want to make a soffit. Arlene read up on how to make soffits on the internet. Oh my gosh, what a difficult thing that little part was.

tune in next time for more pictures of our building.

In Memory of Kitten Mitten

2008-07-08T19:17:00.003-04:00

Arlene and I lost our beloved cat, Kitten Mitten yesterday.

She was the joy of our lives and we miss her terribly. We put her to rest in our back yard as it was one of the spots that she loved to look at. She would lie on the dresser in my upstairs bedroom and watch the yard by the hour from my bedroom window.

We remember with gratefulness the love she gave us during the short three years that we had her and pray that she is now at peace in a better place.

Almost Spring!!

2008-04-06T12:57:00.004-04:00

Saturday looked like a really nice day up here in God's Country, sunny and 50's, so Arlene, Mary, Tiny and I loaded up the old Blazer and headed to camp. The road in was a little treacherous but we made it to our gate. I tried to drive in to camp but the snow is still too deep. Maybe by next weekend, we will be able to drive in.

Mary and I shoveled out the firepit and I got us some lawn chairs so that we could sit and enjoy the sunshine.

It was almost too warm to sit in the sun. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet and just sat and visited all afternoon. I did my favorite task, which is to split wood for the fire and keep it going.

After awhile, everyone was hungry so we cooked hot dogs over the fire. Why is is that the first hot dog cooked over the campfire tastes the best. Yumm.

We had Potato Chips and sliced Colby/Jack cheese, and Reese's Peanut Butter cups for dessert. It was a feast. As the afternoon wore on, it got a little chilly so we let the fire go out and packed up. On the way out we saw 4 deer and two big turkeys and a big skunk. It is unusual to see a skunk out in an open field in the middle of the afternoon

We are hoping for good weather next weekend so that we can stay the night.

KC-X Next Generation Tanker Contract

2008-03-09T09:24:00.004-04:00

I have never really used my blog for political views or for expounding on issues but to all my blogging friends out there, I must take a stand on this issue.

If you haven't heard the Air Force has awarded a $35 billion defense contract to the Northrop Grumman (NG)-European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Team, sending 19,000 jobs to France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

I am outraged by the Air Force's decision to award the KC-X Next Generation Air-fueling Tanker contract to a foreign competitor. This is a decision that absolutely should not be allowed to stand. This is wrong on just so many levels. We should not export National Security!!! And especially not to France, a country who pretends to be an ally but is really in bed with our ENEMIES.

The American people need to rise up and revolt against this decision by the millions.

Thanks to NAFTA and other ridiculously stupid policies by the government, the American Worker is under attack as never before. Americans deserve to have a good job and this is just another horrible example of our government shipping jobs that American workers should be doing to foriegn companies.

Michigan has been especially hard hit by these kinds of policies. Congress should pull the funding for this contract immediately and fire the idiot procurement officer that thought this was a good idea.

You can voice your opposition to this lunacy by going to Kansas Representative Todd Tiahrt's blog and competing a short survey. http://www.house.gov/tiahrt/tanker_survey.htm

I also wrote my Senators and Congressman to voice my outrage and I urge you to also.

Thank you.

Beautiful Winter Day at Camp Chicken

2008-02-25T06:28:00.016-05:00

Saturday was a really beautiful day in the E.U.P. with temperatures in the low 30's and plenty of sunshine. What a relief after three straight weekends of blizzards and heavy snowfall. Arlene and I decided to get to Camp and check the snow level on the trailer.

As you can see, it was a little over knee deep with a heavy crust from last weekend's freezing rain.

Here's Arlene hard at work shoveling the trailer roof.

It sure looks beautiful from up here.

If you look at the snow you can see some good tracks. Some big rabbits have been having a fun time playing around camp.

Even a partridge stopped by to see what we were up to and to grab a snack from the top of this birch tree.

What a lot of snow! That's the picnic table buried under all that white stuff.

Arlene takes a well-deserved break after I manage to dig out the picnic table.

The Taj Mahal was pretty much buried but we didn't have the energy to snovel any of the snow from it.

The "Poop Coop" doesn't have quite as much snow on it but there is still a lot there.

But it was just great to be outside on a beautiful day in the woods. The sun was really warm and it felt so good to just sit with the sun shining on your face. It is so quiet and peaceful in the woods in the winter time. The only sounds are the wind singing in the spruce boughs and the chickadees calling to each other. If I would have had a comfortable chair, I could have taken a little nap.

The Excellent Blog Award

2008-01-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

I am so honored and humbled to have been awarded the Excellent Blog Award from Marian Ann Phillips at Marians Hunting Stories. I have only been blogging a short time and people like Marian, Rex, Kristine and my Sister-in-law Judy have given me great encouragement with my blog. I have met some really great people through blogging and to be recognized with some of these folks is really special. By accepting this award, I found from reading Marian's blog that I should pick out 10 or more blogs that I thought were worthy of The Excellent Blog Award.

Marian's Hunting Stories - "Stories of Marian's hunting experiences with her husband, daughter and grandchildren! Also, her favorite pictures of family, friends or whatever!"

Cheery Tomato Productions - My Sister-in-Law Judy's "Thoughts and photos about art, life, my family ... A place to share my enthusiasms!"

Deer Camp Blog - Stories of deer camp, friends, tall tales and fun times. Rex is one of my great new blogging friends and one the founders of the Outdoor Bloggers Summit.

Hunt Smart Think Safety -Kristine is a fellow Michigander from TC and has a great blog about hunting and women hunters, outdoor tips and safety.

"Andy and Julie Outdoors - Andy and Julie are a great couple who enjoy life in the outdoors.

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles - The Adventures of Albert Rasch and family in Florida's great outdoors.

The Wild WoodsWoman - Dana has a great blog about women who love the outdoors.

Ok, I can only come up with seven for now since these are the ones I check on and read pretty regularly. But these blogs are really great ones and I want to recognize them as really excellent blogs.

A History of Camp Chicken - Chapter One

2008-01-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

I started working on this in early December but didn't get around to posting it with the holidays and all.

Now that it seems winter is here, I won't be able to get out to Camp on the weekends like we do in the Spring, Summer and Fall months. I really miss Camp in the winter. Oh we get up there once in a while but it isn't the same as being able to go and stay for the weekend.

When Arlene and I were younger and in much better shape, we would drive to the start of our camp road and then snow shoe in to camp pulling a sled with all of our gear for the weekend. It is harder to do that now and even if we could, it is difficult to do when you are staying in a travel trailer. They aren't exactly designed to be used in sub-zero temperatures. I wish I had the money to put a nice cabin up there.

Now that I have lots of time on my hands, I thought it might be nice to share a history of Camp Chicken with everyone. It has only been called Camp Chicken for about the last 10 years. Before that it was simply called "The Forty".

My Great-great Grandfather, William Rutledge was a pioneer homesteader in Marquette Township, which is in the Northeast corner of Mackinac County in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. He came to Goderich Ontario from Tyrone Ireland with his parents and there married Betsy Ross in 1861. In 1882 he and his family moved to Blairville, where my parents still live today, only about 3 miles from Camp.

His son, John Thomas Rutledge, my Great-Grandfather came to Pickford in 1890. He homesteaded the 80 acres that is now Camp Chicken. The 80 acres of property was sold at some time but recovered by my Grandfather Elmer Rutledge, John Thomas's son and was owned by my Grandpa Elmer and Grandma Gladys until their deaths. Gram passed on at the age of 100 years and 6 weeks on April 18th of 2004. Now the 80 acres belongs to my Mother Gloria. At some point it will pass on to my brother Chris and I but I just think of us as trustees as it will eventually belong to my nephew Ross, Chris's son. Neither my sister or I have children, so Ross will naturally inherit Camp Chicken.

So, for as long as I can remember, we have been going up to "The Forty" as my Grandpa called it, even though it was actually 80 acres.

Some of my earliest memories of "The Forty" are of going up there with Gramp and Gram to walk around or to shot the old .22 that Gramp had. I must have been about 5 years old when he taught me to shoot. He was a stickler for safety and everything I know about shooting, hunting and safely handling firearms, I learned from my Grandpa and my Dad, Harry. I remember being so excited when I was old enough to go small game hunting with Gramp and Dad. Now when I go hunting, I feel that connection with them and it's like Gramp is still right there with me, telling me what to do. Sometimes when I'm hunting deer at Camp I feel like it's Gramp thats sending me a deer to harvest.

The Anti-Hunting Crowd just don't get that part of hunting. I don't hunt just because I like shooting animals. I hunt because it keeps that connection to my Grandfather and my Father alive. My Dad is in his 80's now and doesn't hunt anymore. It's the memories and the tradition and connection to family that is the most important part of hunting for me. Everytime I go up to Camp and go hunting, I feel like I am honoring my family and my ancestors. And because of that, I try to be an honorable and ethical hunter. I never shoot more than I or my family need and I eat what I shoot.

Camp Chicken In The Snow

2008-01-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a very Happy New Year!

Yesterday, Arlene and I decided that we had better get up to camp and check out the snow level on the trailer. It is unseasonably warm here, 35 degrees and rain in the forecast for the next four days. Snow can get very heavy when it gets rain on top of it. So we loaded up the snowshoes and a shovel and headed out about 10 am.

When we turned off the highway onto the secondary road, Arlene spotted a large bird sitting the very top of a large tree in a field we usually see deer in. It was an eagle! We were pretty excited. Actually, there were three eagles, two mature birds and an adolecent bird. They weren't close enough for any photos though.

The road in was plowed and there was a nice parking spot at our gate that was plowed out. Many thanks to Dana Gaylor who keeps the seasonal road our camps are on, plowed out in the winter.

We strapped on our shoes and started in the camp lane stopping to take a few pictures. I just wish it had sunny instead of cloudy and gloomy.

I had taken my new gun with me to do a little shooting at camp. It is a Firestorm .22 handgun that is exactly the same as my Firestorm .380 pistol. I bought it to practice with because .22 ammo is a lot cheaper than .380. It is a sweet little handgun and shoots really nice. After shooting a couple of clips, I got to work climbing up on the trailer to shovel off the show. It's a really cool view from up there.

Once we got the trailer cleaned off, we decided to take a walk back through the woods to Arlene's shack. There were lots of deer tracks in the meadow on the way to her shack. You could see where the deer were digging in the snow to get down to the grass underneath. There were even several places where you could see where a deer had bedded down and made impressions in the snow. I love tromping around the woods in the snow and looking at all of the tracks the animals have left. It is always neat to see what has been traveling around and where the animals are going.

After we snowshoed back to the car, we took off our shoes and walked down the road to Wayne's gate to see if the deer were crossing the road to come into the meadow. I am quite surprised to see them spending the winter in camp. Normally, the deer head for the big deer yards in the cedar swamps but I guess with very little snow last winter and this winter, they are hanging around. They may hang out in the thick balsam swamp on the lower 40 acres. They could winter there pretty well as it has thick balsam and poplar and some good water sources.

On our way back out the road, we stopped and took some pictures of the snow hanging in the trees. It was very beautiful with all the snow.

It was pretty snowy on the old camp road. The trees were really beautiful.

Here is me in the nice new hooded camo sweatshirt I got with the Cabela's gift card that Chris, Judy and Ross gave me for Christmas. I also got a pullover camo sweatshirt, camo T-shirt and a cool little .22 target that spins around when you hit the little metal turkey on it. Many thanks guys for some great gifts.

This is a really nice shot of Arlene!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2007-12-21T18:38:00.000-05:00

To all of our Families and our new Blogging Friends:

We wish you the Merriest of Christmas's and a very Happy New Year!!!

Camp Chicken Campfire Stories

2007-12-15T07:21:00.000-05:00

Now that winter is really here and we can't get out to Camp Chicken on the weekends, I have a lot of time on my hands. So I thought I would share some campfire stories that we tell up at Camp Chicken to scare visitors and each other.

There are some critters around the Upper Peninsula northwoods that you need to be wary of if you come up here to visit.

THE WAMPUS-CAT

My Dad, Harry told us about this ill-tempered, nasty creature when we were just kids. The Wampus-Cat is a medium to large cat that prowls the thick, dark swampy places of the Eastern Upper Peninsula. It has a large head that looks somewhat like a lynx and powerful front shoulders and razor-sharp claws. However, instead of having a normal hind-end, it has another large head, front shoulders and legs at the other end. So the Wampus-Cat looks like the front end of two big cats stuck together. Dad says that this makes the Wampus-Cat particularly cranky and bad-tempered because it can't ever poop. Now, you know how cranky you feel when you can't poop even for one day, so imagine how bad-tempered this kitty because it can never poop.

The Wampus-Cat is constantly in an argument with itself on what direction it wants to go and what it wants to do. Each head and brain has it's own ideas of what it should be doing and where it should be going. So this makes the Wampus-Cat even more grumpy and bad-tempered.

So if you are out in the woods near Camp Chicken or anywhere in the E.U.P. beware of the Wampus-Cat. If you are so unlucky as to run into one, turn and run away as fast as you can. You see, it will take the Wampus-Cat some time to decide which end is going to chase and eat you and by that time you will have been able to get away.

THE HIDE-A-BEHIND

My Grandpa, Elmer, told us about the Hide-A-Behind when we were just little and we have all been terrified of it since then.

The Hide-A-Behind is a tricky and scary critter that, as the name implies, hides behind things. It is especially fond of hiding behind you when you are walking alone in the woods after dark.

Imagine yourself on a dark forest path. You might be on your way out to your deer stand. You are carrying a small, dim flashlight. Suddenly, you hear something rustling along behind you. You stop and it stops. You walk and it walks. You spin around and shine the flashlight but you see nothing. As you begin to walk again, you can almost feel a presence behind you. You begin to almost feel something breathing down your neck. You just know that something is back there, sneaking up behind you. Screwing up your courage, you again spin around and shine your light but there is nothing there. It is the Hide-A-Behind. He can sneak up on you in the dark and when you turn around hides behind something so you can't see him.

I swear I have almost caught him several times but he always manages to hide from me. I'm not sure I really want to see him, because Grandpa said he was a really scary looking critter. I don't know that he actually ever really saw one or was just making all of it up.

All I do know is that when we were kids and had to walk in the dark from Grandpa and Grandma's house to the car, we would run like crazy so the Hide-A-Behind wouldn't get us.

Deer Season 2007 - Update

2007-11-29T05:56:00.000-05:00

I am happy to say that I got a deer!

Last Monday afternoon, Arlene and I looked at the weather for the week and it looked pretty bad; lake effect snow, cold and high winds. We decided that we didn't want to wait for the weekend to take the utility trailer back up to camp to store for the winter. So we got off work a little early, and hooked up the trailer. Since we thought we might have a couple hours of hunting time after we got there, we dressed in our hunting clothes and just took my gun. We got the trailer situated and parked the car in the meadow near Cadillac II and walked in.

After only a half-hour, Arlene could see a deer coming in from the East. It was a small button buck. He was in eating for quite a while when a car on the road spooked him and he left. About 20 minutes later he was back, and munched some more until another car sent him off into the thick woods.

Not too very long after that, I spotted a doe walking in from the road to Skyview. She came right to the food and began to eat. She was a real nice doe, not too small and not too large. I had the gun ready in the window and when she finally offered a good shot, I took it. She ran parallel to the road and towards camp and made a sharp left turn and disappeared. Arlene was sure she was down. It was 3:50 pm. We gave her about 20 minutes and then went to look.

She was about four feet from where we saw her turn and down in a small hollow. I knelt beside her and apologized to her for shooting her and thanking her for her sacrifice. I've been doing this since I learned a Native American teaching that says that when you go hunting, one animal will always sacrifice itself so that you and your family can eat that winter. When you see that deer, you will know, deep inside your heart that this is the animal that you are supposed to shoot. The deer will offer you a broadside shot so that you can shoot it in the best possible place so that it will die quickly.

After I learned about that legend, I thought about all the deer I have taken and realized that every one of them came in and offered me a perfect broadside standing shot. They were sent to me. So now when I sit down to a delicious meal of venison, I say a prayer and thank the deer for it's sacrifice and honor it's memory.

I was very lucky to get the doe because since then our weather has been awful. We've had heavy lake effect snows, high winds and near blizzard conditions for the past week and a half. I was hoping to hunt our Michigan Muzzleloading season which is Dec. 7 to the 16th but with Pickford getting a lot of snow all last weekend it looks pretty doubtful. The road to camp is considered "seasonal" and the county rarely plows it.

We will have to get in to camp at some point to check the level of snow on the trailers and shovel it off if it is too deep.

Time to break out the snowshoes!!!!

Camp Chicken Deer Camp 2007 Week 2

2007-11-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

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.

Camp Chicken Deer Camp 2007

2007-11-19T17:18:00.000-05:00

DEER TAKEN: ZERO

GREAT MEMORIES: A MILLION

Deer Camp 2007 was a fun, relaxing time at Camp Chicken. Arlene, Dan and I arrived on Wednesday night and were so excited about the next four days. Mom and Cindy came up to visit us that night and to bring Arlene a birthday present as November 14th is her birthday.

We could hardly sleep that night and I was up at 4:34 am to get ready.

Dan was itching to get going too and was all dressed and over to fill up his new Stanley thermos by 5:15 am.

Dan and I were in Skyview at 6:04 am, which was a tad early as you really can't see until about 7:00 am.

We saw quite a few deer that day but none we really wanted to shoot. Friday proved more of the same. We are pretty picky about what we take anymore. When you think about the work involved in shooting a deer: tracking it, dragging it out of the woods, field dressing, hanging it so that it ages properly and then butchering it; you want to make sure you take a good one.

After we got in from hunting Friday night we found my sister Cindy trying to figure out the gas oven so that she could get the lasagna cooking for us. Arlene's daughter Janet makes us a big pan of venison lasagna for our dinner during deer camp. Yummm! After a great meal we got out the Attack Uno game and went a few rounds. 10:00 pm is bedtime during deer season so Cindy reluctantly left so that we could get some shuteye.

Friday, while hunting with Dan in Skyview, I popped something in my neck and suffered the rest of the day with muscle spasms. So I decided to hunt Saturday from the Taj Mahal right by camp in case the spasms got so bad that I had to put some warm compresses or ice on my neck. Arlene convinced me to hunt with her at Cadillac II on Saturday as it is within easy walking distance of camp so I agreed.

Saturday was perfect UP deer weather: no wind and a steady soft snowfall. We saw a good buck at 7:45 am and Arlene was ready to pull the trigger but he never stepped out of the bushes for a good shot. I couldn't get a good look at his head but I saw a lot of antlers. The last we saw of him was his hindend headed East.

It was chilly that day so Arlene had her "Mr. Heater" going all day in the Cadillac II, to keep me warm . It really puts out the heat. I wanted to make sure my neck was warm so the muscle spasms didn't return so I dressed in lots of layers; poly-pro long underwear, heavy camo sweatpants, a heavy thermal underwear top, hooded sweatshirt, camo insulated bib overalls and my camo/blaze orange reversable vest.

At least that is how I started the day. Here I am, alert and watchful and the Cadillac II is now warm enough that I can take off the bib overalls and hooded sweatshirt. It's getting pretty toasty in here.

About an hour later, the Cadillac is really warm now. Those Mr. Heaters really put out the heat!! It is snowing and about 28 degrees outside but inside it must be about 75 degrees. I've shed the camo vest, insulated underwear top, camo sweatpants, and hunting boots and am down to just my poly-pro black long underwear.

Okay, it's really getting warm in here. I had to shed my heavy wool hunting socks next. I told Arlene that all she needed in there were some rocks and water to pour on them and I could take a sauna (it's like a steam bath for all you non-Yoopers out there).

I guess the heat finally got to me because about a half-hour later, Arlene took this photo:

Arlene was hoping a deer would come along so that I could shoot my buck in barefeet and long underwear. She thought that would be a great story.

For some reason, Arlene was quite comfortable and didn't seem to be bothered by the heat in the shack at all. She managed to be quite a bit more alert than I was, as you can see.

We did see deer all that Saturday. Our skinny resident doe came in to eat. She normally eats at the Taj Mahal and is so used to our presence that she merely raises her head to look at us while we are outside the trailers at Camp. I hadn't had time to put out food at the Taj, so she came down to the Cadillac for her meal. She had found a boyfriend too, a young muscular spikehorn that Arlene had seen the previous day. They made a nice couple. He's going to be a really good buck next year.

When we came in from our shacks after dark we had a nice surprise; Arlene's daughter Judi (Dan's wife) had driven out from the Soo to spend the night and go hunting with Dan the next day. We had leftover lasagna and macaroni soup for dinner. Just as we were finishing up, Mom pulled in to visit and brought treats. My Mom is so great! Every weekend that we are at camp, she bakes some great treats for us to eat: ginger cookies, brownies, peanut butter and jelly bars, and lots more.

Sunday morning was cold, calm and very clear. The stars were just brilliant in the early pre-dawn sky as we made our way out to hunt. Dan and Judi took his big 4-wheeler out to Skyview and I hunted with Arlene in Cadillac II. It was an odd day. We never saw a single deer all day long but Dan and Judi saw 13. We decided to call it quits at 1:30 pm so that we could get in early to pack up camp and get home to unload in the daylight.

So the sad story is that for the first time in a very long time, there were no deer hanging from the old Camp Chicken Buck Pole for Opening Weekend. But that's ok. We had a great time, great food and great company. And, there is still this weekend!!!

Deer Season Preparation at Camp Chicken

2007-11-12T19:06:00.000-05:00

Busy weekend at Camp Chicken as the final preparations were done for the deer season opener on Thursday, November 15th. We arrived at camp Friday, about 5:30 pm and Mary and Tiny arrived shortly after. Dan was already there and had started the generator and run the extension cords to the trailer and motor home. Cindy came up for supper as Dave had left that day for sunny California to visit his family for 3 months.

After dinner, we had a rousing game of Attack Uno. We are so addicted to that darn game. What fun we have playing it!

Thats Cindy and Mary during a lull in the game. We hate to let them sit beside each other as they tease each other so badly. After Cindy left for home, Dan, Mary, Arlene and I stayed up visiting until past 11 pm.

I was up at 5:30 am to go sit in the Taj Mahal for a couple of hours but no deer. We all had coffee and planned the days chores. Why is it that coffee tastes so much better at camp? Actually, everything tastes better at camp.

We all went down to Mom and Dad's to help Dad carry in his new wood stove he got at Tractor Supply for his garage. We had quite a time getting the stovepipes all hooked up but managed to get it all set for him. Mom rewarded us with homemade brownies. Yumm!

Mary's brother was flying in from North Carolina Saturday afternoon for deer season. He hunts just a short distance from Camp Chicken at his father's property. So she left to pick him up at the airport and we went back to camp.

Dan and I went to Skyview to put our chairs, heater and extra little propane tanks in the shack and to replenish the feeding station. Wow, what a muddy mess! The deer have it all torn up back there. We found that a big poplar tree had come down right across our path to the shack just missing it by about 10 feet. If it had hit Skyview only 5 days before deer season, I don't know what we would have done. I took down the camera to download the deer pictures and he went to get the chain saw to clear the tree out of the way.

Next, I brought beets to Arlene's shack, Cadillac II and took out the card from her new deer camera. It takes really sharp photos but the settings between pictures are can only be 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes. It took 241 photos in just three days!!

Arlene's camera caught a nice sequence of photos of a good looking 4-point.

There were some really beautiful shots of deer on the camera but I especially liked this one of a graceful doe in a fresh snowfall.

Arlene took some nice shots of Dan and I on our 4-wheelers riding back and forth from camp to Skyview from her shack. Dan's 4-wheeler is quite a bit larger than mine.

This is me on my little Honda 300. My neighbor Ronnie calls them "Buggies". Well, I just love my little "Buggie". It is a little workhorse around camp and uses less gas than those big machines.

Arlene was getting her things ready in the Cadillac II and trying out her new chair. She bought this really comfortable leather office chair for her shack. Talk about going First Class, LOL. It reclines and has comfortable armrests and you can adjust the height with just a touch on a lever. I just hope she doesn't fall asleep in there.

After our chores were done we went back to camp to look at the deer photos. Dan had to go home that night so Arlene and I went to Hessel casino for supper.

Sunday, I got up early again to hunt. We had our coffee and went to work finishing our chores.

Everything is all set for deer season and we are getting pretty excited. We have things to do at home Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday after work we'll load up and head for Camp Chicken Deer Season 2007. We can't wait!

Beautiful Camp Chicken Weekend

2007-11-06T05:02:00.000-05:00

Mary, Tiny, Arlene and I went to Camp for the weekend. We left early Friday at 2:40 so that we could get to Camp and hook up the utility trailer for the trip to Pickford's Feed Mill for a load of sugar beets. When we got back we went to Arlene's shack's feeding station to put up the new Bushnell Trail Camera that I bought her for her birthday and Christmas present. It is a nice camera and uses SD memory cards so all you have to do is unlock the camera and swap out the memory card. Saves alot of time mounting and unmounting the camera.

I had put my camera up at Skyview the weekend before so I fired up the 4-wheeler to run back and collect the camera and download pictures.

Arlene decided that it might be our last weekend warm enough to grill out so she made grilled pork chops, fried potatoes and boiled baby carrots for dinner. Cindy and Dave came for dinner and afterward I downloaded the camera photos. Mary waited impatiently for the photos to download while we cleaned up and did dishes. Excitedly she announced "There's a buck". Once the pictures were all downloaded, I transfered them into Corel so that we could all look at them and sure enough, there was a buck.

He is the biggest buck I've seen on our property since we started coming up here 10 years ago and certainly the largest one captured on camera. He actually has a piece of rotton wood sticking out of his mouth. The wood is saturated with "Buck Jam" a gooey apple-flavored jam that has minerals in it that deer really like. We had used it three years ago but discontinued it when we thought it was attracting bears. When so few deer were visiting the stations, Arlene remembered how much the deer loved Buck Jam and started using it again and within two days we started seeing lots of activity at the stations again.

Saturday morning was very cold, about 25 degrees but I went out for a few hours to hunt in the Taj Mahal. Didn't see a thing. After the girls and I had coffee and donuts for breakfast we went to work. Mary and Tiny helped Arlene drain the water out of the trailer and put away our swing and lounge furniture while I used the 4-wheeler to bait all of our spots. Mary and Arlene built a nice fire so that when we took a break we would be warm.

Mary and Tiny had to leave early Saturday so R and I continued our chores until Mom came about 2:00 PM. She brought treats and we had a nice visit. At 3:30 I got dressed and Arlene and I went back to the Cube. She sat in the Cube and used the doe bleat call and rattled while I set myself up in ambush spot but no love-sick buck visited us.

Afterwards, we went to Hessel casino for dinner and to play a little while.

Sunday morning was as cold or colder than Saturday and I was out in the Taj Mahal about 40 minutes earlier than usual. I hadn't been in there 10 minutes when I could hear footsteps on the frozen leaves and then the sound of the crunching of sugar beets. It was too dark to see more than shadows so I used my binoculars and picked up a deer eating at the beets. It was quite large but I couldn't make out it's head so don't know if it was a buck or not. It left before it was light enough to see.

After breakfast, we went out to check the camera and found that we had it too far from the bait pile for the flash to take good pictures. So we moved it to the tree that I used with my camera and set it up again.

Afterwards, I cut up a nice dead maple limb and R built a fire while we worked at packing up stuff to take home that we don't use in deer season. Space in the trailer is at a premium during hunting season so any unnecessary items are taken home.

I don't know which I enjoy more actually. Hunting season is great fun but I enjoy the month before when you are keeping the feeding stations stocked at each shack and out walking the woods looking for tracks, rubs and scrapes. Arlene carefully checks around each feeding station, looking for tracks or signs of bucks and to see what direction they may have come from and where they went when they left. Of course, the trail cameras make it much easier. You can see exactly what time the deer came in and how long they stayed. Some of the newer camera models even have the moon phase info on them. It's all high-tech hunting now. But even with all of that, the deer are pretty good at outsmarting us humans. Bless 'em.

Another Rainy Week for Camp Chicken

2007-10-29T06:06:00.000-04:00

It was a very rainy and cold week again. Arlene and I went up last Wednesday to check the feeding stations and the camera and found the food gone and the camera full. We put out carrots and sugar beets for the deer and took the camera home to unload the photos.

We had many pictures of some nice does and a photo of a spikehorn that was coming in for a meal. You have to really look closely to see the shiny points protruding from his head.

After inspecting her photos, Arlene found something very unusual in one of them. We aren't sure what this visitor is. We looked at the photo in Corel's Photo software, which allows you to zoom in on any area of the picture. We can't tell if this creature is a monkey, the boogey-man, or maybe a small bigfoot. Maybe it is a special Halloween visitor. We invite you to copy it to a photo program of your own and send us your ideas.

If you look at the photo above in the middle of the right-hand side, you'll see a birch tree that is sticking out sideways and there is something on or near the tree.

Look at the photo below and you'll see that there is nothing on or near that same birch tree. In the other 76 photos on the camera, there is that same birch tree but no visitor on it or near it. There are photos in full daylight, nighttime, and dawn, dusk and every light condition in between but it is only in just that one photo.

Mr. Raccoon was also back for a snack. I wish I could catch him actually facing the camera but he must be a little shy.

It poured rain Friday and Saturday but Sunday was partly sunny and cold so Mary, Tiny, Arlene and I went to camp. We built a nice fire and kept it going all day while we went to all our spots to leave food for the deer. They are really starting to hit the beets and carrots now that the weather is turning colder. Each feeding station is really torn up with lots of tracks. There are several nice big tracks at the spots with no cameras, of course. We hope this large visitor will visit the camera sometime soon. We moved the camera to "Skyview" to see what action is going on down there and hopefully, will have some neat photos to show you all next time.

Short weekend at Camp Chicken

2007-10-23T06:12:00.000-04:00

Last Friday it rained so hard here it was like a monsoon. Arlene, Mary and I decided to do something different since we couldn't go to camp. We went to Mackinaw City for the evening. We went to the new Mackinaw Outfitter's store, a Bass Pro Shop outlet. It is beautiful!! It has a large aquarium with native fish like brook trout and perch and a beautiful 40 ft. tall mural of the Mackinac Bridge painted on the wall. The store is all done in knotty pine. After browsing for a while we went to Darrow's Family Resturant for dinner. The food there is just awesome and they have about 25 kinds of homemade pie served in slabs. We stopped at the new St. Ignace casino to check that out on our way home. It was a fun evening.

Saturday, the rain tapered off so we packed up a few things and went to Camp Chicken. It was pouring here in the Soo but as we got closer to Camp it stopped and actually cleared up. We did some chores and checked the deer cam at Arlene's shack and it was full. I hadn't emptied it from the last weekend so 80 pictures must be the max with the settings I have it on. It only took photos on Monday and that was it. We finally found a lid for the corn bucket feeder that the gray squirrels can't pry off so we set that up.

That night we went out for a "deer ride" and there were quite a few deer out grazing in the fields. We got back about dark and put a frozen lasagna in the oven for dinner and played Attack Uno while it baked. It was delicious with garlic toast.

Sunday, I got up at 6:00 am and went bowhunting while Mary, Tiny and R slept in until 10:00 am. They must have been really tired. Sunday was unusually warm, 65 degrees and sunny. What a beautiful day. Mary and Tiny left about 2 pm and R and I packed up everything, then about 3:30 went down to the spot where Dan saw the wolf and hunted. R rattled and I sat and waited to see what might come in. We had something very interested and it was circling us until someone on a 4-wheeler stopped out on the road and spooked it. Darn. We'll have to try that technique again.

Deer are back at Camp Chicken

2007-10-16T07:20:00.000-04:00

Last weekend the deer returned to Camp Chicken. Dan's encounter with the wolf must have scared it out of the area and when we checked the deer cam we had 46 pictures and all of the deer feeding stations were empty. There were lots of deer tracks at each spot and it was obvious that they had been in eating quite often.

Here is a Mom and Baby that came in on Tuesday for a early morning snack:

This doe got upclose and personal with the deer cam:

I thought this was a really pretty pose by this alert doe:

If you look closely at the bottom of this photo you can see that we had "Midnight Bandits". I just wish I had positioned the camera to point a little lower:

I love the deer cam. It is like Christmas each time I go get it and download the digital pictures onto my laptop. I wish I had two or three more cameras to put up around Camp Chicken. It's like having a secret window into the world of Camp Chicken wildlife.

A Wild Weekend at Camp Chicken

2007-10-09T06:09:00.000-04:00

Arlene is off on her trip to North Carolina and Virginia so it was just Dan and I going to camp this past weekend. So of course, when left alone without supervision, we got into trouble. It started early Saturday morning when a thunderstorm dumped about 3 inches of water on us in just minutes. Although we had the trailer awning tilted so that the rain would run off, it wasn't tilted enough for that kind of downpour. So sometime between 6 am and 8 am the awning filled with water. Dan saw it when he got up and tried to get the water out but it broke the awning. I was so upset and so was he.

It rained hard all that day until about 3:30 pm. During breaks in the rain, we checked our cameras and deer feeding stations. The film deercam is not working at all now for some reason. There were a few deer on the digital cam but just the same ones we have been seeing. Most of the deer feed was uneaten. The squirrels had pryed the lid off the automatic corn feeder again and it was empty. We scouted a spot for Dan to hunt on the ground as we only have one bow shack, the Taj Mahal. We found a good spot on our road back to Skyview just opposite the Old Spring in the thick spruce, balsam and poplar. He could see three very good runways there. So we used brush to make a three sided hideout for him.

At 4:30 pm we went out to hunt until dark. I didn't see anything at all but Dan saw one deer running really fast just at the curve of the road.

Cindy and Dave came up and they brought subs for us to have for dinner. After dinner, we played Attack Uno until about 10:30 and went to bed.

We were up early and out to hunt. I didn't see any deer but did have a neat thing happen. A big Barred Owl appeared right in front of the Taj Mahal and sat on a limb of the big fallen log about 15 feet in front of me. He/She was so cool looking but I wondered why it was out hunting at 8:30 am instead of at night. She passed up three fat gray squirrels right in front of her and seemed to be looking for smaller prey. She kept twisting her head around and looking right at me with those big black eyes like she was trying to figure out what the heck I was.

At about 8:50 am, I heard a shot from down near Arlene's shack where Dan was hunting and then the radio crackled but I didn't hear his voice. I was a little concerned about that. Shortly after that, his ATV came speeding into camp and I knew something was up. I climbed down to go see what had happened. He had seen a wolf. He was pretty shook up too. The wolf had come from behind him and popped out on his right at about 10 - 15 feet away on a deer runway. If it hadn't been for a sassy little red squirrel who spotted him, Dan wouldn't have been alerted to something behind him. He said the wolf didn't get alarmed until he racked a shell into his handgun and the wolf took off. He fired a warning shot to speed him on his way. That is way too close for comfort.

We spent the rest of Sunday sighting in a deer rifle Dan built for his Dad and I sighted in my little Ruger 10/22 to do some squirrel hunting. I shot my handgun and found that I am in need of practice.

Dan left to go to his Dad's about 1:30 pm and I stayed and cleaned up the trailer. I headed home about 2:30 or so.

The presence of the wolf explains the lack of deer and other wildlife around Camp Chicken. We have seen no partridge or rabbits at all this season and instead of the usually 10 to 20 deer on the property, there are only about 7 different ones showing up on the camera.

Perhaps, he'll move on and we'll have better luck next weekend.

No Camp This Weekend

2007-10-01T06:21:00.000-04:00

Since it was my birthday weekend, September 29th, we decided not to go to camp. Arlene is leaving Thursday for a trip to North Carolina and Virginia with her sister Judy and she needed to get things ready for that. Arlene, Mary Sue and I went out to the casino for dinner on Saturday night and it was really good.

We did go to camp on Saturday to check the cameras and replenish the feeding stations. The clever squirrels had pryed the lid off the 5-gallon corn feeder at R's shack. I don't know how they did it as I have a hard time getting the lid off. While we were filling the feeder, a little red squirrel was waiting for us to finish and scampering around our feet. At one point, he was about a foot from my leg and I thought he might use me like a tree to climb up to the feeder.

I did have some new deer on the digital camera at the Taj Mahal but the film deer cam is still not working right and the 4 pictures that turned out are terrible. I'm not sure what the problem is.

This little spikehorn came in eat. If you look really closely, you can see he is still in the velvet.

Last weekend, we discovered a strange track at Skyview's feeding station. Dan thought it might be a wolf but I'm not so sure. I got out my track book and it almost looks like a big racoon track.

The Shacks are all set for hunting season now. I took some photos of them so that you guys can see what they look like and what their names are:

This is Dan and my shack, "Skyview":

This is Arlene's new shack, "Cadillac II":

This is the small shack that we mounted on a platform and attached it to the old skis that Dad had on his big fish shack. Dan can haul it around with his big 4-wheeler. We call it "The Cube" because before we changed the roof and made it a little higher, it was 4 feet wide, 4 feet long and 4 feet high. We have it on a little knoll to the northeast of camp facing the edge of the balsam swamp. There are several good runways there so we hope to see some deer.

And last but not least, "The Taj Mahal" which is a bow hunting shack, regular deer shack, muzzleloading deer shack, and Ross's playhouse:

Our last shack and the first we ever hunted in up here when we began to deer hunt was Dad's old hunting shack, so it is named, of course, "Dad's Shack":

This photo was taken last year as I didn't get time to get up there yet this year. She's getting pretty rough and the mice have been busy in there chewing at the insulation but it has always been a great shack location. We have taken a lot of deer out of there: 2 bucks and about 9 doe and the doe are always really big ones. Last year I took a monster doe there. I may hunt out of her one last time just for tradition's sake during hunting season as I think the elements will take their toll and this will be the last year it will be usable.

I am getting my gear ready for bow season which started Oct. 1. Dan bought himself a new bow so he is excited about his first bow season. It will just be the two of us at camp this weekend as R will be away and Mary and Tiny can't come either. The forecast looks iffy with chances of rain all weekend but we'll give it our best shot, no pun intended.

Bird Season Opener at Camp Chicken

2007-09-17T16:33:00.000-04:00

Small game season opened this weekend so we headed to camp Friday night with our shotguns to hunt the elusive partridge. It was raining really hard when we left the Soo but tapered off near Pickford. We got unloaded and shortly after we arrived Dan pulled in and then Cindy and Dave came in for dinner. R cooked pork chops and fried potatoes on the grill for us. Mary Sue and Tiny arrived shortly after dinner. It was raining and very cold outside so we all played Attack Uno until about 10:30 pm and hit our beds.

Saturday was cold but clear so we got an early start on our chores. We set up a corn feeder at R's feeding spot to get the deer coming in there. R and I changed the bow shack window and made it smaller so that it will be warmer for me this fall. After our chores were done, R and Dan went partridge hunting while Mary and Tiny and I went to town for corn, deer feed blocks and to get my small game license.

Since the governer lifted the fire ban, we were able to finally have a campfire after a three month absence. We kept it going all day and it was great. Camp is so much better with a fire.

I downloaded the pictures from my deercam, a digital camera that you mount on a tree that takes photos of whatever comes into the feeding station. No bucks yet but a few deer are coming in.

This is our "resident doe". She is kind of thin, but has been coming in to the Taj Mahal feeding station on a regular basis.

We aren't sure where this little fawn's mom is, but I'm sure she isn't far away.

About 3:00, R, Mary and Tiny took a nap and Dan and I went hunting. We didn't see anything or even flush up a bird. R woke up about 5:30 and cooked chicken breasts on the grill and we had a feast for dinner. Dan went to lay down right after dinner as he felt pretty tired. Mom and Dad stopped in just as I finished the dishes and brought maple sugar cookies. Yum, Yum. Dad says you can get diabetes just looking at them. She is making treats to send a box of goodies to Clifton in Iraq.

After dinner, R, Mary, Tiny and I went to look at deer. Mary had seen a wolf cross the road on her way up Friday night, just down the road towards the oat field. He must have spooked the deer because the oat field was totally empty. We saw many does and fawns in the other fields but few bucks. They will be getting more solitary now as they rub the velvet off their antlers and begin to establish their territories.

R, Mary and I played attack uno and went to bed early. It was too cold to sit outside by the fire.

Sunday, we were up at 7:00 am and had our coffee. Mary and Tiny left early to go to the Soo. R took some darker paint back to her shack and redid her camo job. Dan and I went hunting and scouted out a spot to put the "Cube", our small shack on the sled that we can tow around to different locations.

Dan left shortly after that and R and I packed up and headed into town about 2:30 pm. We were going to Janet's for Steph's birthday party as she turns 17 on Monday.

A New BBQ grill for Camp Chicken!

2007-09-10T06:25:00.001-04:00

Arlene, Mary Sue, Tiny and I went to Camp for the weekend. Arlene bought a new BBQ grill for camp as the old one is just worn out. We had thought to put it together when we arrived, but as we pulled into camp the rain came pouring down. So instead we stayed inside and cooked pork chops and fried potatoes for dinner. Dave was going to the car races at Kinross, so Cindy came up for dinner and a round of Attack Uno. We had a blast and played until 11 PM.

Saturday dawned clear and cold so Mary and R began to assemble the new grill. They thought it would take about and hour, it took three!!! I watched the fun and used Ronnie's wood splitter to split up some maple that Dan had cut 2 years ago after the big windstorm. The air turned "blue" several times as the girls struggled with about 20 pages of instruction and lots of small parts but they met the challenge and now camp has a great new grill.

We hauled the wood splitter back to where R's new hunting shack is to split up a bunch of wood that Dan had cut 2 years ago after the big wind storm. We worked until about 4 pm and quit for the day.

R cooked petite steaks and fried potatoes on the new grill for supper and man, was it good. About 6 pm we took a ride to go and look for deer.

Sunday, we finished splitting wood and packed up early to head home. It was a really nice weekend.

Arlene's New Hunting Shack, Part Two

2007-09-06T06:19:00.000-04:00

We spent a great Labor Day weekend at Camp Chicken! Our plan was to finish Arlene's hunting shack. We arrived late Friday night and had just finished dinner when Dan and Anthony came in. We had a nice visit and Dan, R and I talked "hunting" until late and turned in.

We were up early Saturday morning and Dan, R and I started cutting the holes for the shack windows. It is a tricky thing to do and luckily, Dan is pretty darn good with the skillsaw to cut them freehand. Once all five were cut, Dan and I cut the trim for the outside and attached it around the windows.

Arlene gave us the "boot" as she needed to do the inside frames herself. Dan cut down two big dead maples that were in her sight-line. Then he and I set out on our 4-wheelers to our hunting shack, "Sky-View" to repair the roof. R had bought a half package of shingles at the ReStore for two bucks and they almost covered our roof.

When we got back, she had actually finished the windows and started staining the shack. In the meantime, our good neighbor Ronnie Leach had dropped off his big wood splitter for us to use for the weekend.

Mary Sue and Tiny arrived at camp also. Tiny had been really sick with an infection on Friday and Mary wasn't sure they were coming. So it was nice to see them.

Arlene grilled supper for us and Mary, Dan, Anthony, R and I ate outside at the big picnic table. After dinner, we went for a ride to look at the deer, our favorite pastime in the late summer and fall. We went down to an oat field near the river and there were lots of deer there. We noticed that one had nice horns and our spotting scopes confirmed it was at least an 8-point. Turns out there were two large bucks in the field together, one a perfect 8-pt and the other a 9-pt. WOW! Biggest deer I've ever seen around here.

My sister Cindy caught up with us about dusk and came back to camp for a game of Attack Uno. Dan and Anthony had to go home so we sadly said goodbye to them.

Sunday morning, R went back to her shack to work on insulating the inside and Mary and I started to split wood. We split a bunch and Tiny watched from her favorite chair with my old camp shirt for a pillow. Mary and I went back to check on R and she was almost done insulating so we started building the shelf she wanted inside her shack. Mom walked back for a visit and to see the progress. Tiny decided that since we were all too busy to pay attention to her, that she would cuddle on Mom's lap.

We finished the shelf and by 4 pm quit for the day and loaded the trailer up to haul everything back to camp. Mom had brought treats for us and boy were they good. We all laid down for a nap before dinner and when Mary and I woke up it looked like rain coming so we worked like crazy to unload the trailer and get all the leftover wood and our tools piled in the old trailer we use for storage. We just finished when it started to really pour. R woke up as it started to rain and made dinner for us. Grilled pork chops and potatoes with garden tomatoes and cucumbers, Yum Yum.

The rain finally quit and we went out for a ride to look at the deer. No big bucks tonite, just spikehorns and one nice 4-pt. We called my sister Cindy and she came up for a game of Attack Uno.

Monday morning found an intruder in camp, a big skunk surprised Mary when she took Tiny out to go "potty" at 6:45 am. Yikes. I grabbed my gun but he hustled away. I made coffee and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and R went back to put the finishing touches on her shack. It really looks great!!!

Mary and I split wood all morning and then she and Tiny headed back to the Soo. I rode down to see Ronnie at his "camp" to see when he needed the splitter back. When I got back, R had cleaned up the trailer and loaded the car and was staining our steps. It was getting late so we headed home.

See you next weekend, Camp Chicken.

Arlene's New Hunting Shack

2007-08-30T07:09:00.000-04:00

For the past two weekends, Arlene, Mary Sue and I have been building Arlene a new deer hunting shack at Camp Chicken. It has been quite an adventure as we have never built anything like this before.

We started at home by building the frames for the floor, the four walls and the roof rafters and then loaded everything in the utility trailer and hauled it up to Camp Chicken. The next day we assembled the frame and started attaching the OSB board siding.

The next weekend we went to Camp to work on the shack. Only this time Mary Sue and her little dog Tiny spent Friday night with us. It was their first time overnight at Camp Chicken. Tiny did very well for her first "stayover" and seems to really enjoy Camp.

Saturday morning we started bright and early. We attached the rest of the OSB siding. Dan, Arlene's son-in-law and I measured and cut siding and R and Mary nailed it on. We finished everything but the door and took a break for lunch. After lunch, we built the door and attached it to the shack. That was the hardest part really.

Tiny had her own chair with an old shirt of mine for a cushion and from there she supervised the project.

That night, Mary Sue and Tiny, as well as Dan and Anthony, Arlene's grandson, had to go home so it was just R and I at Camp. The next morning we started working again and nailed in a second layer of floorboard and roofed the shack with tar paper.

We finished the roof by attaching metal trim to the ends of the peak to protect the tar paper. As we were taking a break Mom walked in to surprise us and take a look at the new shack.

Goodbye for this year

2007-08-21T18:38:00.001-04:00

We all went out to dinner on the last night that Chris, Judy and Ross were here. It was very nice and we all ate too much. Too soon our week with them was over and they were on their way back to Spokane but we made a lot of great memories during their visit. Camp Chicken was a fun and noisy place while they were there. It will return to it's quiet and serene self now and await the fall colors.

Attack Uno at Camp Chicken

2007-08-21T18:32:00.000-04:00

We discovered a new favorite game at Camp Chicken during Chris, Judy and Ross's visit. It is called "Attack Uno" and it is very addicting. Grandpa and Grandma even joined in on the fun. We just couldn't seem to stop playing it. We did have to quit at night as there wasn't room in the trailer for all of us to play. But, that was okay as it gave us a chance to see the stars which are very beautiful at Camp.

Chris, Judy and Ross visit Camp Chicken

2007-08-21T17:48:00.000-04:00

My brother Chris, his wife Judy and my nephew Ross spent a few days at Camp Chicken last week during their visit with our parents. We had a lot of fun at camp. Ross practiced his BB gun skills even though the BB gun was not very accurate, he still managed to hit the 9-ring. We also played badmitton and croquet. The croquet field was rather rough and quite a challenge so we had to move it into the badmitton court so that it would be on flatter ground.

Pickford Hay Days 2007

2007-08-05T08:01:00.000-04:00

Each year Pickford Michigan holds its annual Community Days on the first weekend in August. This year's theme was Pickin' and Grinnin'. Arlene and I went early Saturday morning to set up our chairs on main street to save a spot to watch the parade. My Mom Gloria, sister Cindy and her husband Dave set up beside us. Our friend Mary Sue, her little dog Tiny and her friend Carol sat with us also. The parade was really nice this year and we enjoyed it very much. My Dad's sister Mary Hessel and two of her friends were there and my Dad's brother Dewey Smith and his wife Greta. My cousin Larry Smith and his wife are home from Texas and we saw them at the parade also. After the parade, Arlene, Mom, Cindy, Dave and I went to the Town Hall for the Lions lunch, then walked to the Methodist Church for the Strawberry Social. As you can tell, food is a major attraction at Hay Days.

We visited the Pickford Historical Museum and saw the new Veterans Memorial there. Wow, what a great display. There is a wall plaque with nameplates of Pickford resident's that served or are serving in the armed forces; along with photos, uniforms and newspaper clippings.

We all then went to my Uncle Jays, my Dad's brother, to see their house. This house is very old and Uncle Jay and Aunt Adriene's sons, Larry, Bill and Mark, and their son-in-law are painting it for them. The house belonged to my Mother's grandmother, Margaret Clegg-Wise and then at some point, Grandpa and Grandma Smith bought it and lived there until Grandpa's death in 1968, then Uncle Jay and his family lived in it. So the house has very strong ties to my family.

After that Arlene and I went to the Town Hall to listen to some great blue-grass music played by local musicians, some of whom are good friends of ours.

We took a trip to Camp Chicken to pick up our trailer so that we can go get lumber to build Arlene a new deer hunting shack. We plan to build it in our back yard here in the Soo and trailer it out to Pickford to Camp Chicken in pieces then put it together. Since neither one of us have ever built one before, it should make for some interesting times.