The Hunt Is On

The highest of the high Wisconsin celebrations begins at the break of dawn on Saturday. It is opening day of deer season, a day scratched on new calendars in January. A day when nothing, absolutely nothing takes precedence over trekking into the woods. The opening day of fishing season approaches, but really is no competition for the opening day of deer season. This one is the biggie.

To brag for a moment—this will be my 65th consecutive year of participating in the hunt—I didn’t even miss when I was in the army. I’m not much of a hunter anymore, these days my hunting companions ask if I remembered to put bullets in my rifle.

Of course deer season is much more than bagging a deer. It’s about families getting together, grandfathers and grandmothers, sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. Swapping stories. In most families the deer hunting stories, told over and over again, have become the stuff of legends as a little embellishment each year adds to their flavor and fun.

For me, it is one more excuse for being outdoors, walking in the woods, enjoying the sights and smells of late autumn. I’ve been known to nap on warm afternoons in the woods; and I’m often caught reading a book—but I am out there. I am deer hunting—my way of course.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There are no shortcuts to important places.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 3, Fireside Books, West Bend. 11:00 a.m. Celebrating 12 years of speaking/signing at Fireside books. Campfires and Loon Calls—travels in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. Also featuring Agriculture history books: fiction and nonfiction.

December 7, Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 7:00 p.m. Max Kade Institute. Stories from Wisconsin: Germans, Beer and Prohibition.

December 10, Sheboygan Falls Library, 9:30 a.m.: A brief history of Wisconsin Agriculture.