Welcoming New Links

Between giving cars away and searching for buried treasure, I have not had a chance to welcome my new links.
I would like to welcome Outdoors In SW Georgia. This blog is run by Gary who is writing about southern deer hunting at it's finest.

Right now he is big into Twitter and dreaming about getting back to the woods. Please go over and visit his site to give a little encouragement to the big guy.


Our next new link is from a beautiful woman that seems to be taking the hunting world by storm. Her blog is Scent Free Lip Gloss, but everyone knows it as Hunts Like A Girl.
She has bears roaming around her blog and wants you to know that she is still naked. I can't tell you how fast I clicked over there and how good looking she is.

Our last new link is from our own Kristine that runs the OBS blog. This is her new personal blog that will chronicle her steps from indoor city girl to an true outdoors woman. The name of her blog is aptly, Tenderfoot Diaries. We are all anxiously awaiting her experiences as she records the changes in her new blog.

Live-Blogging The Carnival

Your favorite roving reporter will be live-blogging the 40th annual Watermelon Carnival for the Bodock Times. The Watermelon Carnival will start Friday and I encourage all of you to come by and visit, especially our local bloggers like Mandy at Mommy Cracked or the wild and unpredictable Crystal at Boobs, Injuries and Dr. Pepper.
There will be a whirlwind of media covering the Carnival this year. I have not received confirmation but I am sure that the Skinny Moose Media will be live-streaming all Saturday. RapidPulse Radio should be here spinning tunes and doing interviews, and the Morning Show with Doug Leier at 790 KFGO will be set up near the pavillion. Should be a lot of Fun!

Yes, I Do Actually Work

Some people have to get back to work, you know. Can't be sitting around giving cars away all day and blogging 'till the cows come home.
August is closing in, which means work camps, hunting season and football are all right around the corner. There is a lot to do. Back later.

(Last) Car Giveaway Winner #5

We are down to the very last car that is to be given away. I hope that everyone has enjoyed playing and hopefully I can give something else away in the future. Maybe a deer or duck hunt at the famous Christmas Place. Right now I am swamped with phone calls and plane reservations from the winners heading this way to pick up their classic automobiles.
The last winner in the contest is none other than Mushy from Mushy's Moochings. Besides bombarding me with pleas to win a car and chomping on a giant cigar, he has been blogging about a great vacation to Gatlinburg, TN., a great boy's night out, fixin' (yes fixin') up around his house, family pics and his pals from his high school class of 1864.
Now, what has he won? why only the coolest car we have. A classic 1955 Chrysler Desoto Firedome.
This car is in great shape and has some very surprising extra features. You will never feel lonely driving this cool vehicle around.
Congratulations Mushy!

Car Giveaway Winner #4

We are back to the great car giveaways. Some people still do not understand that they are not eligible. My stupid brothers for instance, and that damn Old Scratch are out. No lawyers of any kind are eligible, and no Lammeys either.
This weeks' winner is from Texas. She is long, tall, cool and hot also.
She signs herself as H2O, but is Becky at Tall, Cool Glass of Water.
Lately she has been very political with posts about the economy, jokes, and she really doesn't like President Obama. Do not go over there if you are easily offended.
Now what does a red hot beautiful Texas gal need to cruise around in? Why this really neat and economical 1963 Ford Falcon. This is a small compact car with big trunk space to keep her horses in. Warning... this vehicle has a few minor dings and dents.

Jeff''s God Review

A great American and writer in the tradition of Jack London, Nash Buckingham and Rex Howell has reviewed the new novel by the famed author Hershel Howell.
Mr. Matt Coughlin at Bright Idea Outdoors Weblog found the book very interesting, exciting and a must-read. Go over to his sight and read his wonderful review.

Owls Arrive

This week owls arrived for all the kids. Sarah, Spencer, Michael, Austin, Katie, and Erin received their owls and letters from the Thunderhoof Academy of Hunting and Magic and are excited that a new school year is upon them.


They need cauldrons, ammo, spell books, camo clothes, Katie needs a wand and Erin needs a new rifle. It cost a lot to get them into school. Spencer wants a coyote!
This year the older kids will be sitting for their O.W.L.'s. that is Outdoor Wizarding Levels, I think they will do fine.
We will finish up the car giveaway next week.

Car Giveaway Winner #3

This time we are giving away a really rough and tumble truck! People are still being added to the drawing so put your name in. A few more people have also been disqualified. Mel at Idaho Fishing is out. Everyone knows he needs a canoe and not an automobile. Sorry Mel, though our pontoon the Othmar is waiting for you to visit. Michael at Troubled Child is out. Can't have but one main vehicle in a blog at a time.Huntslikeagirl is in (of course).
Our winner is Holly at NorCal Cazadora.
Still a new convert to hunting, she shares each thrill of the hunt on her blog. Lately she has been seen with a mysterious big-hatted hog hunter shooting hog videos and talking about hog brains. Which reminds me, where's Bill? Anyway, she has recipes, politics, fashion, and fishing on her extremely interesting blog. Congratulations!
What about the truck? My dad says he thinks it is a 1962 Willis Truck. I don't know, but it is great for going anywhere or you can leave it right there and hunt out of it. (This vehicle needs some hood and bed adjustments)
Great for mud or mountains, Holly can tear up the road with this fabulous prize!

Car Giveaway Winner #2

There is some bad news in the drawing. Othmar Vohringer has been declared ineligible. The reason is simple. Why would a man that rides around in a camouflage limousine all day need another automobile? Dazed has also been kicked out of the contest. He would want to put boom box speakers in and classic cars are not to be ruined that way.
The second winners in the great car giveaway are Art and Jeff at Simply Outdoors. These two guys are always enthusiastic about deer hunting and love the outdoors. The brothers have been showing Trail Cam pics, going on Quad trips, and blogging about nature and what the state of Michigan has in store for them this year. In fact their latest post is how the year has flown by and it is almost time to get ready for deer season.
What did they win? I am not an expert on classic cars but I think that they can each enjoy a piece of this sporty 1950's vintage machine.
Send me your mailing address and I will have this in the mail for you.
Disclaimer: The automobile needs slight body work.
Congratulations to Art and Jeff!

Car Giveaway Winner!

I am giving away 5 classic automobiles this week. Kees is promising to kill me with a boomerang if he doesn't win one. Sorry. Plus, I hate to say it but Neither of our favorite two Limeys are eligible. They would drive on the wrong side of the road and kill someone.
The winner is our own CDGarden at Timber Life.
Right now she is blogging abour Raspberries, patriotism, and her wonderful little outdoor Iowa home. she needs a cool car to match her husbands cool airplane.
She is a member of the OBS, always leaves comments and is a laid back easy going person that I am proud to call my friend. Congratulations!
Now what has she won? Just a very cool 1951 Plymouth Cambridge. this automobile is slightly used, but would look great tooling around the famous Christmas Place. Could use a new set of tires along with minor other work also.
Please email me your mailing address and I will send it to you.
Congratulations to our first winner!

Work Camp and Drawing

Christmas Motors, MS> This weekend will be the first big work weekend at the famous Christmas Place. Since the temperature is steady at 100 degrees, I am sure that all the members will suddenly remember that they have something important to do this weekend and will disappear.
Firewood has to be cut, we need to start bushogging the fields, roads need to be trimmed out and every stand needs repair. I am also sure I will be very busy by myself down there.
We have reached the point that it is time to start thinking about hunting season again. Thoses big bucks are out there waiting and you have got to be prepared.
On a lighter note, the Grand Drawing for the Car Giveaway will be at Noon on Saturday.

Bamboozled

I have received many, (many) emails wanting to know just what the hell I think I am trying to pull with my car giveaway.
I ask them,
"Do you think you are being bamboozled, led down the prim-rose path, having the wool pulled over your eyes, made a fool of, and hoodwinked?"
They say "Yes"
This is going to be a lot of fun, so throw your caution to the wind.
Hurry and sign up for the great car giveaway before time runs out.
This weekend our drunk cook (Burney) will draw the names out of a hat and the first winner will be announced on Tuesday.

Problems, Problems (Harry got Problems)

Just when you think your problems are so overwhelming that you can not go any further, the next guy in line will have worse problems than you. Take that Harry Potter kid, now he has problems.
Damn Voldemort is chasing him all over the place, people are shooting spells at him right and left. Werewolves, evil warlocks, poisons, snakes, and all manner of things are continually after him. Makes it hard for a body to sleep at night worrying about that poor boy. I am going to go see the Half-Blood Prince tonight. Hope Harry survives.

The Christmas Place Car Giveaway

As everyone knows the famous Christmas Place is loaded with Gazillionaires. Everyone is rich except for the slaves (me and Burney).
I have struggled to keep the Deer Camp Blog afloat over the years and these fat cats finally have decided to help by sponsoring a give-away. Not just a give-away, this blog is giving away cars. Yes, cars! The ultra rich owners are giving away on this blog a fleet of Automobiles. (I am sure there is a deduction in there somewhere)
Starting next week I will give 3 to 4 cars away to whomever leaves a comment wanting one of these classic automobiles.
Good Luck to everyone.

A Confederate Map 13

You would think it would be easy to take a simple map that has two lines drawn to intersect and find that spot, wouldn’t you? Well, it is not.
It was afternoon by the time that Mark, Marian and Bob, GuyK, Denise, and myself had loaded up a couple of jo-blades and the survey equipment and driven around to the old Christmas Cemetery. There we unloaded in a little pull-off from the road and slipped over to the graveyard. We were on posted land but we do know the landowner Paul Brown. He would have given us permission to visit, but we did not want any questions about what we were doing. We all felt excited as if it was a great adventure; like we were in the middle of the book “Treasure Island.”
Mark and I quickly located the flat marble slab over the grave, checked everywhere for snakes and brought everyone up while we used our hands and the bush blades to clear the marble top so we could inspect it.
The writing was faded with his name, date of birth and death (just a few years after coming here). In the center was a round shape like a sun in the clouds. There were no other markings found that we could use, so we put the instrument over the sun shape, leveled it and aimed it due West. I quickly found out that this was not going to be easy.
100 years ago, I am sure this was all open crop and pasture land, but now it was a grown up forest. It took Mark and I about 15 minutes to cut a hole through the brush enough for us to run out first 100 foot line. After that I would aim, people would chop and cut enough to see and we would move.
A lot of time was spent shooting around trees and resetting the instrument. By 6:00 PM we had only covered half the distance shown on the map.
At 8:30 PM we called it a day and headed back to steaks on the grill that Denise and Marian had decided to get going after it looked like there would not be a treasure chest of gold found. We ate hearty and talked about the journal and map for a few hours, enjoyed a nice fire and went to bed eager to start again the next day.
Noon on that next day, GuyK drove a stake in the ground at the 1962 foot mark. There did not seem to be anything there special that marked the spot. I am not a surveyor so I figured we were within 15-20 yards of the spot at worse. We left that line and headed over to the big Indian Mound near the Beehive Stand marked on the map. Another hour of clearing, looking for a marker and finally setting the instrument as close to the center of the top of the mound as possible and we shot our first line due South.
Once again it was tough work to clear a line through the woods. The woods were bigger and more open but we still had to shoot around a few trees. We drove the stake in the ground at the 849 foot mark at around 6:00 PM. Unfortunately, the two lines did not meet. Did I mention that I am not a damn surveyor.
Anyway we were within 10 feet of the westerly line but over about 20 feet west of the first stake. Everyone was determined to figure out what was there, so we decided to take a quick dinner break and come back with the metal detector. Once again a good meal of hamburgers made by the ladies and by 7:30 PM we were back in the woods. It does not get dark in the summer until close to 9:00 PM here. We had shovels and high hopes as Mark turned on the metal detector and slowly started covering the area.
He almost missed it, it was getting dark and just a slight reading came on the metal detector as he made his way around a large rock. Looking back, I should have realized the rock was not supposed to be there anyway. Excitedly we dug around the rock (with Guy giving directions) and pried it up and out of the way. Everyone got quiet as Mark turned the metal detector back on and moved it over the hole. It gave a loud buzz and everyone almost went crazy. Denise grabbed a shovel and started digging like crazy.
Finally we all cooled down and Mark and I started carefully digging. It was dark now but we had some flashlights and a large Coleman lantern that Marian lit that gave us a bright circle of light.
Metal scraped on metal and I got on my knees to dig around whatever we had hit. To my surprise it was the tip of a metal rod about a quarter inch around that stuck up from the hole. This cooled everyone off as we gathered around and stared at the tip of the rod sticking out of the ground. A bottle was produced, a few cokes from a cooler and some plastic glasses were found and we sat down to talk about what it meant and what to do next.

Truckin' On Social Security

Bobby limped out and bought a brand new truck yesterday.
We have got to get rid of Social Security and put these people back to work.

Harvest Sheet 2008

Please click on picture for a larger view.


there are a few not on there, such as when Kim bagged her hog during
the great hog hunt of 2009

Another Hard Days' Night

The Howell Open

Each fourth of July brings all the family together and it is when the bloody Howell Open occurs each year. Bragging rights and agony are in each shot as the men of the family fight each other to the last hole to win the golf match. This year was no different except that we sent a certain sleazy coast lawyer back home with his tail between his legs. Here are a couple of pics of the losers paying off to us.
We play in a scramble format so everyone can contribute. This year Dad, Kent, Bebo, Hunter, Trent, Paul and myself played along with our friends Bill Kyrick, Joe Black and Greg Jones. It was the most fun I have had in years. We beat the crap out of them the first two days and they squeezed out a victory on the last hole in the Sunday round. It was absolutely great to play with my Dad again and his 83 year old self came through for his team on the last day as his competitive juices got flowing and he carried his team through the last 6 holes and made a birdie at the last to win. That sorry dog never could stand to lose.

A Confederate Map 12

It was the weekend of the 4th of July that I set for the treasure hunt. I had taken the old rifle, removed the butt plate and pulled out a folded, yellow piece of parchment. I understood the writing easily. It was drawn to show a point on the East that said Parker, with a line from there going West 1962 ft.
Another point on the map said Indian Mound with a line running South 849 feet. Where they met was the proverbial X with a notation beside it that said 690 feet.
Here is how it looked. Not much of a treasure map I thought to myself. I realized that the point labeled Parker was the grave of Mr. Parker that had originally started the plantation. I also knew from the map exactly which Indian Mound the other point was supposed to be. I bought a good compass, borrowed a survey instrument and I had a hundred foot tape. I set my plan in motion.
I needed help and finally told Mark (Mailrider) who eagerly agreed to help me after reading the journal. Denise was gung-ho to start and I also brought Marian and GuyK into the search after swearing them to secrecy. Cookie was kept in the loop by cell phone.
As friends and bloggers, I thought it would be fun for all of us to write about our experience. They were all invited up for the 4th of July that year.
I wrote all about the fun we had in this post.
The weekend ended, we all packed up to leave and I watched GuyK leave with his camper. Marian pulled out after many hearty good-byes, then we all got in our trucks and left for home too.
An hour later I met my friends in Yazoo City and we headed back to camp for the treasure hunt. Dad and the rest of the family were gone and we opened the camp back up, got the map out and looked it over. Mark and I knew we would have to do most of the walking and measuring but it was thrilling to actually start.
The treasure hunt was on!

Damn A Duck

It was 105 degrees when Dad rounded us all up to help him for just a few minutes. He herded us down to his pond and explained the situation.
He was draining the duck hole to plant millet, but the last bit of water would not drain. He sent us into the creek beside it to dig down and increase the flow of outward water. Everybody got a turn on the shovels as Dad shouted instructions.
Damn a duck.

Night Fishing

Saturday night had cooled down to a balmy 99 degrees and the kids were clamoring to go night fishing (thanks to Davin). Catfishing at night! Sounded like loads of fun, so we waited 'till dark and headed up to the lake. We lit a big bonfire on the edge of the lake, got everybody a rod with catfish bait and turned them loose.
They crowded the dock and the stern of the Othmar and started fishing. I forgot to mention that there were approximately 40 zillion mosquitos there too. It wasn't long until they tired of this and the fish would not bite.
They could hear Thunderhoof splashing around down the lake but he would not come close. (Davin was scared)
We came in early but I can see that on a slightly cooler night we could all have fun fishing and sitting around a big fire. Where's our favorite fisherman, Matt, and his family?