Deer Season - 2011

October and November are deer season in this neck of the woods...although October came and went without a whole lot of anything, other than gearing up and the desire to be in the woods.   Activity around the campground and mild weather kept life pretty busy in the real world...and hunting kinda took the back seat.
November 15 is of course, opening day of firearm season here in Michigan, is not just a day to hunt...but is even more than that...a family tradition for all of us to hunt together at my father-in-law's 50 acres.  And the night before is a traditional get-together of craziness and fun where we all get in the deer hunting mood by watching "Escanaba in da Moonlight" together...and being just downright crazy.  It is not just fun...it is tradition!  We all spend the night and then get up early on opening day to my mother-in-law even making us breakfast...which I am so thankful for...because she has to get up around 3:30 or 4:00 or so to do this.  (Mom, you are amazing...and we are blessed!)  Anyway, the buck pole had some "ven" hanging in it this day, thanks to my brother-in-law, Matt, who kept life interesting by making family history and getting 2 bucks in the same opening day.  (see pics below).  It was great!  The rest of us produced no deer...but were able to still have fun vicariously with Matt's success.  (wow...bet you didn't know I knew that word...did ya?)

 A few days later, Caleb got an interesting 3-point buck...with the help of Emily and I.  I guess if you are here and reading this blog...you don't mind hearing the story...right?  Well...here it is if you are interested.  You may want to get a cup of coffee or something cuz I like to give all the details, so one of these days when this story is getting a little foggy, I can sit down and re-live it...along with several others like it I have taken the time to write out over the past couple decades of hunting.

Caleb, Emily, Zack and I all got up on Saturday morning, Nov. 19 to hunt the first Saturday of the firearm season together.  After a quiet first hour or so on the stand, I got a text from Caleb asking for help in tracking a buck he had shot.  I had heard some shooting in the area, but none sounded close enough to be Caleb.  Nevertheless, I got down from my stand...since I had spooked most all the deer in the area getting into my stand about an hour earlier anyway, and headed Caleb's direction to help with the tracking (by the way, Caleb is color blind and cannot see a blood trail...which is extremely sad for an avid hunter like himself...but it keeps him needing me...which makes me feel good and lets me in on the fun too).  Anyway, on my way over to where Caleb was hunting, I kicked up a pretty good size buck and saw him running in the direction of where Zack and Emily were sitting.  Keep that in mind...because I will come back to this big buck in a little while...since I needed to get over and help Caleb track the buck he had shot.
I came back by the house on my way to Caleb's stand, and Emily had already come in from hunting...and she said she was going with me to help track the buck Caleb had shot.   So Em and I headed that way.  When we got there, Caleb showed us where the buck was when he took the shot and which way he had run...and there was no sign of blood in any of those areas...even after 15 to 20 minutes of looking.  Caleb was sure he hit it, but thought he saw signs of his shot hitting further back on the deer towards the hind quarter...and he saw the deer limping as it ran away.   As most of you reading this will know...this is not a good sign.  If you don't have a blood trail and the deer is only wounded, and not in the vitals...well, you don't have much of a chance of finding your deer..unless, you get real lucky and stumble upon it after it has had time to lay down and possibly lose enough blood to die...or you come up with a plan.  I actually believe it was a God-sent plan...because I didn't really even think about it...it just kinda came out of my mouth as an instant plan...so I can't really take the credit.  Anyway, after finding zero blood and looking around the area... which I just happen to know quite well, after 22 years of hunting these woods...I told Caleb he needed to make a very wide circle around these woods to a certain point on a trail on the far side of the woods where he could see up one trail and down another and possibly get a shot at his wounded deer we would try to drive to him as Emily and I slowly made our way towards where Caleb was going to be.
Emily and I continued to look for any signs of blood we may have missed while we gave Caleb enough time to get around to the far side of the woods I had told him about.  When he got there and neither Emily or I had found any signs of blood or even signs of the deer stumbling through the woods...we began our drive in the direction the deer had gone and also the direction of where we believed he would lay down next if he were wounded.  This was a spot I had found deer bedded often and a couple of times in similar situations to this one where I was following a blood trail to some thicker cover where the deer had stopped.  About the same time Emily and I got to this thicker area of the woods I looked down the hill and saw Caleb sprinting down the trail I had sent him to.  He was running full bore on up ahead in the direction we were heading and supposed the deer to be heading.  I turned to Em and said, "I'll bet Caleb is chasing that deer we probably just kicked up."   About the same time I said it, we heard a single shotgun blast.  A few seconds later, we heard Caleb yelling for us.  It worked.  Caleb had seen the buck about the same time he had seen us, out ahead of us a little bit, running through woods.  When we had seen Caleb sprinting up the trail he was trying to get out ahead of the deer so he could take a shot as it came running by him.  As luck would have it...the buck ran within 20 yards of him and even stopped.  When it stopped though, it stopped with a tree between them.  Caleb even took a step to one side so he could get a shot off and the buck did not run.  Caleb made a good shot...and then yelled for Emily and I and the celebration began.  A couple pictures taken with Caleb and the deer and then Emily and Caleb and the deer and then dragging the deer back onto our property (since it had run off of camp property and onto the adjoining golf course property)...and all that was left was the gutting...but that would have to wait.
Sorry, I am not done yet...remember, there is still another nice buck in the woods and headed towards Zack, who is still on his stand.
Just as soon as Caleb and I drug his deer back into the woods of our property, Emily and I high-tailed it back towards the part of the property where I had seen this nice buck disappear into the woods.  We had Caleb take a different route through the woods just in case the buck had veered off  the course towards Zack, and then Caleb might be able to drive him back Zack's way.  Emily and I split up once we arrived to the point I had last seen the buck head into the woods, and I was reminded of his size when I saw his hoof print in the open dirt of the road where he had crossed.  He was indeed a nice size buck and was worth a little effort on our part to see if we could get him to head towards Zack.  I headed straight into the thick cover of the woods where he had run and I sent Em on around to the opposite side where there was a trail part of the way and then some open woods she could walk through towards where we would eventually meet up close to Zack's stand.  There were deer in this part of the woods alright, and Emily let me know that 4 doe had run between her and I...but no buck.  There was still hope.  I kept pushing into the thicker cover...until my phone vibrated. Caleb had received a call from Zack telling him that a beautiful...or rather "majestic" 10-point had just run past his stand at warp speed...with a doe out in front of him.  Zack said there was no way he could have got a shot off...and in hind sight we are all glad he did not even attempt to shoot a big mature buck on the run anyway, with the chance of a wounding shot being so great.  Zack told us which way he had run and we made an attempt to try and drive him back, but I am thinking he probably didn't stop running til he hit the corn fields that were just beyond our swamp.  We all met up at Zack's stand and heard how awesome this buck had been and how close he had come and how fast he was running.  We all had some mixed feelings.  The drive itself had been fun.  It had brought some excitement our way, even if it was mixed with some regret of not being able to bag this big buck.  Another "big one that got away" story to tell.
I told Zack later in the day that I have several similar images etched in my memory of the same type of bucks that I have encountered over the years...that were also big ones I had a close encounter with that got away, and I let him know that he will be replaying that scene in his memory for quite a few years to come.
All in all, it was a great day...one I will remember for a long time...and always be thankful for being able to enjoy with my kids.

Never liked keeping a diary...

I have realized this blog has become more of a diary format than what a blog typically is or should be these days...and I know from way back...that I am not a "diary-type-of person"...so, also being the perfectionist type of person I am .... I am officially giving myself permission to change to a "random" format and have entries that not only pertain to life happenings...but also thought processes as well (so we know there will be a whole lot less entries, if it has to do with thought processing!) (Did I just dog myself?....I think so...)

Young State Park 2011

Once again, we borrowed Matt's pick-up and Uncle Ed's RV and headed north to Young State Park.  This has truly become our end-of-the-summer home away from home.  We are able to relax and kick back there and other than Zack getting a little bored now and then, we all seem to enjoy the routine.   We have been going there long enough, we kinda have our favorite things to do...such as our traditional first meal of steak and corn-on-the-cob, our numerous trips into Kilwin's (or Dairy Queen)...along with once-a-day wifi trips into town also.   We will almost always make a trip up to Charlevoix or Petosky...and sometimes both, and every other year we will probably rent a jet ski for a day.  This year Zack and I made history by making a long jet ski trip up to Charlevoix  and going under the draw bridge on the jet ski while it was up...and then going on out into Lake Michigan...just far enough to say we were there.  It was a fun trip.
We also hang at the beach...and by the way, Young State Park has an awesome beach on Lake Charlevoix.  We can walk from our camper down to the beach in just a couple minutes.   We always take our bikes and they get plenty of use, and we will usually make a bike trip into town...although this year we did not.

Many years we will take a family hike on the hiking trails and this year I had a specific goal in mind.  I wanted to try and "recapture" a picture we had taken years ago during our family hike of the kids and I.  And, the goal was also to try and find the same place...or at least someplace that looked about the same with the tree we were sitting on and the trees behind us.  We didn't exactly succeed in duplicating the picture...but it was fun trying and the updated picture of the kids and I was a memory maker in itself.
We eat out a lot and have some favorite places, but this year  BC Pizza was the place for us.  One day I think we had donuts for breakfast and just bread sticks and cheese bread for supper.  We were quite the junk food junkies...and lovin every minute!

I buy our firewood by the truck full.  We kinda like to keep the fire going...most of the time.   It's the kind of fire that you only have to throw a little more kindling on in the morning and the hot coals, and a little fanning or blowing will get it going.    And, personally, the coffee maker is a huge part of my vacation needs, along with my little transistor radio...which this year I discovered I could also get working on battery power, so I was able to take it to the beach with us.  There is a great radio station out of Petosky that plays a great mix of oldies and pop rock. (Lite 96.3 WLXT) that I usually keep tuned in.

That's the quick re-cap of our camping trip.   I recommend Young State Park as a great place to go...but being in the campground business...I have to really watch promoting "other" campgrounds too much.

Summer Blurr......

Ok...I have 15 minutes until dinner, and 15 minutes to tell you about the summer blurr that occurs every summer here at Somerset Beach Campground.   That's what we call it here.   It begins about the time our summer staff arrive (first week of June)...and life is crazy and in full speed, going like crazy...long days, lots to do and we are just plain busy.  Youth camps in session, RV camping with campers coming and going, work projects happening for me personally, keeping my summer staff busy and trying to keep up with many demands from all directions, ...and mostly, trying to keep up with the break-downs(you name it...it has probably broke down this summer).   Not a whole lot of time to just sit and relax...those moments are fairly few and definately have to be scheduled and intentional.  I am currently in one of those moments...and thus an opportunity to "veg" and reflect a bit.  A day off from the regular routine, although part of the summer blurr and although towards the end of the blurr...nonetheless, part of it.  I realized I had not entered a blog in a while, as "the blurr" had taken it's toll on blogging and most other parts of semi-normal life for the past couple months or more. 
We actually only have 1 full week of summer camps left in the summer camp schedule, and for most people, it is believed that life at camp basically ends...and of course...that is when I laugh, and let them know that SBC camp life definately continues and the schedule remains busy, actually very busy for at least a couple more months...and then it remains in action...but less busy.  The difference that will occur in the next couple weeks or so...is our summer staff will begin to end their time with us and go back to whatever they will be doing next in their life (school, work, ???), but our schedule of incoming groups will continue here at SBC nonetheless...and now we get to do it without the help of the 25 or 30 summer staffers that assisted us in the process in the heat of the summer schedule (heat is a very appropriate description of this past summer by the way....as I am really looking forward to cooler days).
Well, that is my 15 minutes of blogging...do you understand what the blurr is?  It is just a shorter "blurr" than our life as a whole...which I am finding to also be a blurr...so, get out there and make the most of YOUR blurr...OK?
Here is the summer camp video for 2011 that Sara put together to be used for promo and our camp dinner
Somerset Beach Youth Camp Video - 2011

Zip Line Dismount Platform Construction

After several ideas on how to get our zip liners dismounted...I think we have finally come up with a fairly simple idea, based on all the other ideas we had to work through to finally get to this one.  It has been a long and complicated process of thinking and re-thinking, based initially on our desire to not plant a structure out in the middle of the open field as a potential eye sore and visual distraction.   But, since something portable was not user friendly or even safe, we moved into the realm of creating something stationary.  Once again, ideas were many, based on input from other camps and other zip lines we were aware of...but all of them seemed to have potential problems or pitfalls of some form or another, and we could not come up with a good fit for our particular situation.  So, about a week ago, and after we thought we had come up with a dismount platform we could live with, I decided we had better do a simulation of the idea in mind and get some guinea pig riders out on the zip line, simulate the structure we had in mind and test the distances from the zip line riders to a structure in-between the lines.   I immediately realized that if we were going to have a fixed structure between the 2 zip lines, it was going to have to be at least 5 feet away from the rider passing by...or it was going to be too close to be considered safe.  After some more test runs we decided upon a plan of having a stationary platform w/ steps that would only be 3 feet wide...in-between our zip lines that are 13 feet apart at the point of dismount (which is near the belly of the gravity brake zip line and the point where the rider will eventually end up after gravity brings them to a stop).  So, after the rider has come to a stop... a rolling platform is rolled up next to the stationary platform, positioned then underneath the zip line, and the rider is pulled to the point of dismount on top of this rolling platform where they can be unclipped from the pulley and safely end their ride.  If the rider happens to be lightweight, and higher than the platform, a hook and crank system will be used to aid in pulling them down to the level of the dismount platform.  After the rider is unhooked, they exit the zip line down the steps on the stationary portion of the platform.    Ride over.

Here are a couple pictures of the construction so far...which is only up to Day 3 at this point.  Day 1 was forming and pouring the concrete footing runways.  Day 2 was setting the metal poles and the framework for the dismount deck...and dodging several scattered thunderstorms also.   Day 3 was pulling the forms and backfilling around the concrete footing runways.  More of the process and pictures yet to come... so stay tuned.

Recent Fishing Trip to Houghton Lake

Even though there were a few reasons that made this short weekend not the best...there were enough other good things to make it worthwhile overall.  A week before we were supposed to go, Caleb and I decided to join 4 other "Osborne Clan" and head up to Houghton Lake for a spring Walleye fishing trip.  The forecast was not good...but when you have a trip planned out...you don't back out...so we headed north.
3 boats, a friend's cabin on Houghton Lake our destination, Matt & Scott, Dad & Lenn and Caleb and I all headed north early Saturday morning, May 14...with visions of Walleye dancing in our heads...and on our lures and hooks.  The forecast was rain, wind & cold.   The weather man was not our friend...but he was indeed correct in his prediction.  Caleb literally was on the verge of hypothermia at one point in time...and to make it worse...the fish were not biting.  

So, the total of our first day of fishing was just enough for a fish fry that evening (6 keeper Walleye...a keeper has to be 15 inches).  Lenn prepared the best walleye I think I have ever had.   It was worth the cold and misery of the day out on a blustery, windy, rainy, rocking and rolling Houghton lake.  (I will admit, I felt really bad for Caleb, as he only caught 2 fish each day...and of course, we all had visions of catching our limit and having lots of fish to take home...which obviously did not happen). 

With the fact that we all froze our frames, Matt, Scott, Caleb and I took a trip into beautiful downtown Houghton Lake to Walmart to seek warmer clothing.  It was somewhat hard to find...but we did succeed, and had some fun in the process.

The second day we woke up to actually being able to see our breath...even after we brushed our teeth.  The sun was shining...but it was still cold...somewhere in the 40's...and still windy...very windy...and the rain did indeed eventually return also.  The fishing didn't get any better either...so we all decided that lunchtime break was going to be spent watching a movie...and warming up.   We watched "The Rainmaker"...appropriate for the weekend, right?   It was a long movie...so we had plenty of time to warm up...and unbelievably so, we were all ready to hit the lake again, hoping our luck would finally change...and the fish would finally be biting...but...after trying almost every lure in our tackle box...and then out of desperation...even resorting to a bare hook and bobber with a worm on it....we still could not coax all the fish we were seeing on our fish finders to take any bait.   Uncooperative fish!  They lived to see another day.

Caleb and I had to pack up and head out that Sunday evening, as Caleb had school the next day...and I had work and the busy season beginning at camp.  The other 4 stayed and fished the next day...but still...the fish were not hungry....and we came home with no fish in the coolers....BUT, we had a great time being together, made some memories, had a great fish dinner, and developed a greater resistance to hypothermia.   All in all, it was worth the effort.  We now have a great desire to go on a fishing trip to Canada where we hear the Walleye will actually bite.
Here is a link to my facebook pics of this trip if you want to see a few more.
facebook houghton lake fishing pics

Zip Line Excitement

The newest thing at the camp right now is the zip line.  This was initiated as an Eagle Scout project by one of our long time campers, Tobin Tarantowski and his family...and has now become one of the newest attractions at SBC.   Still in the midst of working out the dismount bugs...as I write this blog entry...but, hopefully in the near future we will be up and running for a summer's worth of zip lining here at camp.  
Here is a youtube video of Emily and Caleb from this past week, and Emily's first time to try the zip line, which was also historical, as it was also our first injuries...as Emily provided us with some good input on some possible ways people can hurt themselves on the zip line.   She held onto the wire cable at take-off, which scraped and cut her hand, and then on the second trip down she banged into the railing on the launch platform. (sorry you had to be a guinea pig here Em, but we did appreciate the pointing out of possible future problems!)
Here is one of her rides down the zip line:   Emily's historic zip line run