JD in my first "Homemade" deer stand.

As I drove down an old farm road the other day I was immediately reminded that deer season is just around the corner.  Velvet antlers caught my eye as a young buck stopped at the sight of the four wheeler.  As the buck slipped into the thicket I sat there for a few minutes and soaked in the silence.  It was then I decided to make a detour and head down to one of my favorite spots in the woods. 

I entered the old oak hollow and followed a trail that lead to a spot that my Dad and I discovered some twenty years earlier.  On top of a little knoll we found the perfect funnel area for deer to travel between the two adjacent crop fields.  It didn't take long for Dad and I to nickname the spot "The Acorn Stand".  I can still picture the first time I eased through those woods by myself when I was twelve years old.  Not much has changed about the spot over the years except for that stand that Dad and I put up.  It has started to look like a retired prize fighter over the past several years.  Standing only a meager eight feet tall in its prime the stand seems to have shrunk and it now stands with a distinct sway to one side.  I was hesitant about climbing it that day but as I reached the top it was as if I had just sat there for the first time all over again.  Mother nature and time have put a beating on this stand but the stand still had that feel that made it my favorite spot from the first time I hunted it. 

My detour that day to my favorite hunting spot was not only to reminisce but also in anticipation of the upcoming season.  This season only a couple hundred yards away from where I made my first memories in the deer woods another young hunter will climb into a stand with the hopes of a successful hunt.  The young hunter is my cousin JD.  JD will be twelve this coming season and after taking him last year on a hunt I could tell that the passion that caught fire when I sat in "The Acorn Stand" twenty years ago was there for him as well. 

I'm not exactly sure how the season will go but as I sat in my favorite spot that day I thought about how fun it was going to be to walk with JD on this journey of his first deer season.  JD has been helping me get ready for the season and I know he's pumped.  My goal is to help guide him through the ups and downs that a young hunter goes through and also to teach him as much as I can about the things I've learned over the years.  Another goal is to try to capture as much of his season on video so one day JD can watch it unfold over and over again.  So with all that being said wish JD luck and say a few prayers for the cameraman.  I think this season will be a special one.