Icing

I hunted on a deer lease in Fredericksburg for 11 years. The lease was a hill country panorama of hills, cliffs, creeks, mixed trees, and wildlife.

I used to love to go before the season started to "scout" the deer, fill the feeders, repair the blinds, and clean the cabin. We would spend entire days roaming hill and dale while talking about past experiences on the lease.

At nightfall, we would build a fire in the iron potbelly stove and sit around it telling tall tales and generally being men in the company of other men with similar interests.

When the season started, more of the same. We would leave work on Friday and race to the hill country. We would stay on our private hunting preserve until Sunday night and then reluctantly drive back to Austin to our lives of normalcy.

I have rekindled this experience at the Tin Star. The last two months have been a pleasure of filling the corn feeders, putting out protein blocks, and preparing the deer stands. With each visit, I have taken pleasure in searching for tracks, examining droppings, and finding "rubs" on the trees where the bucks wore the velvet off their antler headdresses.

To be honest, on occasion I have actually "hunted" for deer, but that ancillary activity is nothing more than icing on the cake.