The Eve of the Opener

“. . . The stockings were hung by the chimney with care”

Actually, the clothesline IS filled with hunting socks at the moment. Last night Angus did his last load of hunting clothes.

Preparations have been going on for some time. Last weekend, I was out at camp, puttering around the whole weekend getting the last of chores done prior to the Opener. It was down to all those little things that would not exactly make or break the hunt, but could put a dent in getting out the door on time. A new battery had to be put in the clock. The walkie-talkies needed charging. I gathered up everyone’s knife and brought it back home for a final sharpening.

Angus was busy all weekend cutting up firewood for the campfire.

The meat pole got its last coat of stain. I found a $7 can of stain last month at Home Depot in the Ooops Bin. It’s a nasty gnarly khaki color, but it should keep the wood from rotting. While I was at it, I put a coat on the new deer ramp for the truck.

Deer ramp? Look, back when it was just the S-10. It took two of us, all we had, to get some of these deer into the back of the truck. Now I have a Silverado. I bought a set of brackets from Amazon for $25, and stuck them on some 8-foot 2X8.

I now have a chain going across the back of the bed, attached at the hardpoints with carabiners. In the middle, I hang the block and tackle we use to get the deer hoisted onto the meatpole. I figure now that we can set the ramps up on the back, get everything attached, and one guy can pull on the rope and another can boost from the bottom and even the biggest deer will go right up into the back. I have not had a chance to try it out, but I will be sure to take pictures when I do.

I picked up a couple of saws at Harbor Freight. They’re on sale this month– $7 bucks for a saw that goes through a pelvis like butter.

Tonight I need to go shopping for food. We’ll have at least one extra cooler filled going down this weekend. We’re out of dishwashing suds. We’ll need plenty of breakfast sandwiches.

My duds are already packed up in a bin. Normally getting the gear prepped for the morning consumes about a solid hour of work, but I had some free time on Sunday. I even went as far as getting the ammo and flashlight put in my gear bag. I will still have to check everything Friday night, but I already have better than half of it done.

One of the hardest things about having a deer camp is keeping straight what is at camp versus what is at home. I get to camp on Friday night after sundown. Something turns up missing. The question then is: did I leave it at home or did I mislay it at camp? I have found there are only two solutions:

1) Pre-position everything ahead of time. Run through checklists, etc. I hate checklists. They lie. Things like ammo, are normally inventoried and put away a full month ahead of schedule.

2) For cheap stuff, buy a bunch of it. I probably have 6 extra cheap flashlights at camp. I have extra hats, gloves, underwear, etc. If something gets left at home, there are replacements at camp. I have extra copies of my license printed off. There is even an extra mouse for my laptop.

One new addition to the kit this year is the tablet. Angus and I got matching Samsung Galaxy 2 Android tablets. I’m taking mine with me on the Opener. The main reason I’m taking it is because it cuts down on the bulk of hauling a book with me. I love reading history books in the blind. This thing is awesome. I loaded up a bunch of free books from Gutenburg.org. The list includes Grant’s and Sherman’s memoirs as well as a new book I snagged at BN.com about Eisenhower. There is enough reading material to keep me going through turkey season. If I was really ambitious, I could throw my broadband wireless dongle in a coat pocket and surf the net, or make Skype calls.

The thing that scares me about this tablet is how easy it would be to drop it out of a treestand. I’ve done that with a few paperback books over the years. However the tablet has a little wallet that it fits in. It has a small attachment point for a wrist strap. I replaced the strap with a snap attached to a retractable key ring. The key ring clips to the outside of my hunting coat. If I drop it, the tablet will stay attached to me.

It is always good to know who your processor is before you pull the trigger. Myers in Lennoxburg went dark last year. I have been using Mike Jett over on Salem Ridge Road. There is a new guy on 22 between Neave and Falmouth that calls himself Extreme Processing. If I get a chance to use him this year, I will let you know. His operation looks good and his prices are reasonable.

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