15th Anniversary
This week, 15 years ago, I made my first post on this weblog.
To quote the About page:
This goes back to 2004. Mom always kept reminding me that I came from a long line of Methodist ministers. I think of myself as a good Methodist boy at heart. However, I never got my calling. I did not fret about it all that much. I figured the Good Lord knew my number. If He wanted me, I was there. For my part, I always made sure I was getting dial tone. Know what I mean? Well, I got into my mid-forties and one day I got to thinking about it and one day at lunch I was musing to myself: How did Jesus Christ know he had his calling? I mean, there’s a guy who suddenly one day in his Thirties decided he was going to start a ministry. How did he know? The more I thought about it, the more it became clear that asking the question itself constituted the beginning of a ministry. So I went back to work, and looked for some other sign of where I should go with this. There on my desktop was the instructions on how to start a weblog, and an unfinished piece I was writing for the 24hourcampfire.com on Genesis 9, specifically verses 2 thru 4.
Other guys get their calling and have really cool verses to guide them– like John 3:16. Me? I got stuck with Genesis 9:2-4. I guess this is kind of sounding like one of those 9-inch man stories you hear, but the point is I am going to stick with it until I get the calling to do something else.
Fifteen years ago, I’d really just gotten started writing for the outdoors. I was an avid deer and turkey hunter– been doing it since the early 80’s. However, it was only after I got the farm that things started to fall into place.
Back then, the big things on my mind were my sons. I didn’t want them growing up as mall rats. I wanted to turn them loose on 200 acres and make sure they understood there was more to life than video games and soccer. I documented getting them through Hunter Ed and helping them get their first squirrel, first deer, and first turkey.
About 4 years into the weblog, I got recognized by Deer & Deer Hunting and Turkey & Turkey Hunting and spent the next 10 years as their pro-staffer for Kentucky. I was also the goto guy on D&DH for questions about deer rifles and reloading. It was fun. I got to write a lot.
My favorite haunt through all of this was the 24 Hour Campfire and it still is. There are a lot of great people on there, and even though I’m supposed to be somewhat of an expert now, it’s 24HourCampfire where I go when I need to ask a question.
What have I learned? Read the 10th Anniversary post . Nothing much has changed.
What can you all learn? My buddy, Big Bob, is a retired gun rag editor from the Sixties. When I got into “the biz” Bob told me to save everything I wrote and after about 8 years, I’d be able to go to that drawer and rewrite the same stuff over and over and keep on selling it. He’s in his Eighties now. He was right. Once in a while you get something new comes your way– a 6.5 Creedmore. You dig back to what you wrote about the 6.5X55 Swede and there you are. This weblog, for what it is worth, is my filing cabinet.
In that spirit, I’ve added an “On This Day. . .” feature over on the right side that shows the posts I’ve made previously. I encourage y’all to read as much of this site as you can.
So what’s ahead? Two things for sure. Big Bob and SuperCore are both 20 years older than me, and so as I’m turning 60, they’re. . . well, you can do the math. They’ve teaching me a lot of what it is to age as an outdoorsman and a shooter, and I hope to document that process for you in my own experience. Added to that will be the upcoming adventure of retiring to the farm with KYHillChick. We plan to make Deer Camp a permanent daily lifestyle– no guarantees on when. However, you’re bound to start seeing posts sooner or later on this subject.
The other big new thing is bringing grandchildren into the sport. Mooselette is six. All she talks about with me is deer and turkey and the upcoming squirrel season. Daddy Moose has already caught her with a tablet under the covers watching hunting Youtubes. The giveaway were terse whispers of “Shoot it! Shoot it!” coming from her bedroom. She’s already learning about reloading. Our plans for the farm include a bunk house for the grandchildren.
This post has already been read 554 times!
I think we can all say thanks for 15 years of great reading. I would love to have all these entries in book form to give to my father. That’s the only way he goes about his reading, and I really think he would enjoy these.
I think you’d be talking a phone book-sized volume.
There is a plan, albeit on the back burner, to get a book of selected parts. KYHillChick started editing it several years ago and got side-tracked with her new massage therapy business. We’ve spooled off for yet another thing we do when we retire.
Many thanks, Matt. Your support over the years has been important to me.