Saturday Trip to Camp

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.