Bucks of Dinner Island II

This is very true......  I grew up on a lease in what is now  the Lower Suwannee NWR...  We had a camp inside the lease on 80 acres the head of the lease owned. (That 80 acres is still privately owned in the middle of the NWR)  I hunted with family and friends... We were very tight knit. We always ate breakfast and Saturday night supper together in the big kitchen in the cabin....  We had everything, tractors, jeeps, swamp buggies. A mack daddy generator that ran on diesel.... We had dogs, most owned by members a few owned by the club with members assigned to keep and care for them in the off season.....  The cabin had 12 beds. We also had a Semi Trailer that was converted to a bunk house for members and guests that did not have a bed in the house or have their own camping trailer at camp.... We also had a second semi trailer for storage... We had a second kitchen on the screened in porch  with a pass through to the main kitchen. In case we had a big crowd and needed more cooking space...

When I first started going during deer season I was 6.... I had a bed in the cabin because there were only 3 little kids that were directly connected to the controlling members of the club.. So we slept in the house.  I got moved to the bunk house at 12....  At 16 a member that I only ever knew as Pappy at the time... His last name was Morgan.... Passed away.... He was old, grizzled and sometimes harsh... But he always took time to teach the youngsters...  He is the one that first taught me to handle a moccasin, rattlesnake etc safely with a snake hook.....  We also used to trap hogs. The boars we would castrate and notch the ears of the boars and release them.

Probably less than a year before he died.... One of the elder members saw we had a bunch of small hogs in a trap on his way in for lunch... Several of the young guys were sent out to cut and notch the little boars and let the gilts loose.  There were several gilts and several little boars in the trap 40/50#.... We were trying to lasso or get a rope around them and drag them over the side... In about 15 minutes we had gotten one gilt out of the trap.. Pappy drove out to check on us.... He was like what the hell you young fuckers doing... Do you want to hunt this evening? This ain't an all day job...  Those are just babies... They ain't going to hurt you.. Least not bad... He got out of his truck and climbed over the side of the trap. He was in his 80;s at the time. He started grabbing pigs and handing them over to us.... Boar cut him and mark him... Gilt let her loose..

I spent a ton of time with Pappy and he taught me a lot...... He was the person that would go out about 3:30 in the morning and look for where the deer had been moving. Checking for tracks crossing, our rye patches as he called them. Looking for deer and or where they had been moving during the night.... To have a game plan for running the dogs.... I started riding with him when I was about 10.... When he was close to passing, a  few senior members spent time with him.  My Dad and I visit him a couple times as well... He never said anything to me. But a couple of the senior members said that he made them promise I got his bed in the cabin and that I take over his job of going out and checking where to run the dogs in the morning.

I was in my early 20's Georgia Pacific sold much of that land to a Japanese held company then it was quickly sold to the federal government and became A NWR Reserve.... Most of the members went their own way...... I moved to Miami for a job.... In a year I decided there was no amount of money worth living in Dade or Broward County... So I moved back to Hillsborough County...    5 of the senior members were still hunting the privately owned 80 acres...  I was asked if I wanted back in... So I made number 6... We had a nice set up... No more running dogs... But we had a lot of food plots and feeders...  We had some issues with trespassers because we were surrounded by the NWR.. They would slip in and find our food plots and feeders... They would slip in and try to hunt them.... You could walk the property lines and there were tree stands everywhere.... We also had a new issue with the feeders.... No one ever remembered seeing bears on the lease... But after I came back from Miami, the bears had showed up. They wrecked feeders... They tried to break into our cabin and storage trailers... Still it was a great time... With people I had known and hunted with all of my life.... All of the other five members were old enough to be my Dad... In fact all of them had kids that were older than me.

At 30 I got married the first time... And I had a stepson that was a hot mess... And I was the only Dad he had.....  So I got out of that club... I just did not have time...

I would occasionally hunt as a guest here and there with old friends from the first club that had moved on to other clubs.... The problem was, in the original club... there were only four younger guys about my age... And many of them were busy with family, life etc.... Most of the people from the first club were my Dad's and Grandfather's age... And they were not getting any younger... Many were slowing down... A lot had passed away

At 34 I joined a small club in Baker County.... Everyone was nice enough. I was invited in by a guy I did business with... It was all family and close friend oriented.... I was the sole outsider... Everyone was nice enough.... And at the very least I think they liked the fact that I would bring prime ribeyes for a cookout..... It was a nice group of guys and given time, I think it would have worked out well.... But by 35 my marriage was going to shit and I got out after one season.... I got divorced and that was a huge financial hit.... Took me a few years and a hell of a lot of luck to  rebound...  Met my forever wife shortly after I got divorced....  I would sometimes go hunt with my Dad's youngest cousin in Georgia... it was a good time and we are good friends. He is only about 14 years older than me... But no club/lease etc... He was a farm bureau insurance agent. And had access to hunt all over the place....

In 2012 I joined a lease in Flagler County.... Again a family oriented lease and I was the outsider..... It might have worked well with time... But I had some fairly major surgery in 2014.... Same year my wife had to have major heart surgery..... I stay in for three years. But never hunted the third year... In the spring I was recovering from surgery. In the fall and all during deer season my wife was recovering from heart surgery... I was not going to leave her.

Since then it has been one health issue after another.... I spent years not doing this, not doing that etc because of doctors orders etc... I have pretty much said fuck that... if I am going to die, I am going to LIVE first... I have no children...Most of my old hunting partners are very old or gone.... I have some nephews... But only one has asked me about hunting. But he is a bit young (He would be a good age if I was in better shape.) He is 11... I have told him I am going to start him shooting next spring and do some dove hunts next fall to get him started. But Frankly I need him to get bigger before we deer hunt.... He is a tough little guy... Competes in Ju jit su.... But he is smallish for his age.... IF he took a deer close to a mile from the truck I am probably going to need his help to drag it out.

Ideally I would like to start a lease on my own... Where I cover most of the costs and invite people to join at minimal cost.... But cost of leasing hunting land is much different than in the 1970;s

So unless I find the right fit.... It is probably all just memories now...