Opening Day

Tomorrow Nov 15th is Michigan opening day of deer season with a firearm. I would like to take this time to wish everyone, "Good Luck & Safe Hunting"


Below I have posted a poem on what it's like to be at deer camp on opening day.
It’s called ‘Palace in the Poplar,’ and, as far as I can tell, its author is unknown. Here it is:

“It’s a smoky, raunchy boars’ nest, with an unswept, drafty floor.
“And pillowticking curtains and knife scars on the door.
“The smell of a pine-knot fire from a stovepipe that’s come loose
“mingles sweetly with the boot grease and the Copenhagen snoose.
“There are work-worn 30-30s, with battered, steel-shod stocks.
“And drying lines of long johns and of steaming, pungent socks.
“There’s a table for the Bloody Four and their game of two-card draw.
“And there’s deep and dreamless sleeping on bunk ticks stuffed with straw.
“Jerry and Jake stand by the stove, their gun talk loud and hot.
“Bogie has drawn a pair of kings, and is raking in the pot.
“Frank’s been drafted again as cook, and is peeling some spuds for stew.
“While Bruce wanders by in baggy drawers, reciting ‘Dan McGrew.’
“Nowhere on earth is fire so warm nor coffee so infernal
“Nor whiskers so stiff, nor whiskey so rich, nor hope blooming Oh so eternal.
“A man can live for a solid week in the same old underbritches
“And walk like a man and spit when he wants and scratch himself where he itches.
“I tell you, boys, there’s no place else where I’d rather be, come fall.
“Where I eat like a bear and sing like a wolf and feel like I’m bull-pine tall.
“In that raunchy cabin out in the bush, in the land of the raven and loon.
“With a tracking snow lying new to the ground, at the end of the rutting moon.”

                       “A clean kill, or a clean miss. Your will, O Lord,”
                             Again remember to be Safe & Good Luck!