The Beauty of the Beast

Elusive, beautiful, majestic, and hunted...the whitetail deer! I used to dislike deer season for many reasons. I thought to myself, how can anyone kill these beautiful creatures. I can say that I've tried hunting, if you can call it that. I carried a black powder gun out to a deer stand, sat there and watched the sun come up, listened to the crows and the squirrels, watched deer frolicking, fell asleep, and froze my butt off. I thought I could hunt, but I now know that I never would have pulled the trigger. The oddities of deer camp amazed me and I never really understood the hype and "buck fever" so to speak, until the last few years. I did not appreciate deer camp until I realized it's not really about the deer at all. It's about family and tradition! It's a time to see friends and family that you haven't seen in awhile and eat a lot of food and drink a lot of drink. It's a time to cherish the loved ones you have and a time to reminisce about the ones that are no longer with us even though it seems like they are still there. It's the one time of year that we can get together with all generations in a family and all of our friends with no expectations or baggage that holidays so often times have. We meet at deer camp because we want to, not because we have to. It's a time to enjoy nature in a way that cleanses the mind, refreshes the soul, and gives us some good belly laughs and memories that strip away the stressors of everyday life. So, here's to Deer Camp memories and stories of the Biggest Beast of a Buck in the woods!