Hello, friends. This November marks the 38th fall I have returned to the Meadow Valley Wildlife Area in northern Juneau County. Friends and family in an expanding group come from as far away as Niagara, Wis.

Once the kids are old enough to sit on a toilet and not fill a diaper, they get to come to deer camp building weekend.

We always put up camp two weeks before the traditional gun-deer opener, and though it is a lot of work, we also have plenty of fun.

Saturday, Nov. 7

High 55, low 27

My dad started this public property deer camp while attending college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the mid ’50s. My brother Mike joined dad in about 1970, and my brother Tommy and I joined dad over the next two years.

Back in the good old days, we camped in an 8-by-8-foot canvas tent I sent to the dump about five years ago.

In 1987, the year I tried to canoe up the Mississippi River, I bought a 17-foot camper and scabbed together a small wooden-framed shack that led from the door of the camper into an area for about a 10x12 building that I covered with plastic sheeting. I stayed at camp for four months that year.

Each fall, our plastic shack became larger and more elaborate, as did our group, which was named The Red Brush Gang in the mid ’80s by a group of hunters that watched us hunt in the nearby Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.

We have always worn hip boots, hiked in from one to two miles and generally hunt in the red willow marshes of this beautiful piece of paradise that encompasses more than 200 square miles when adding in all of the adjoining public lands.

This year, the Red Brush Gang members pooled their finances, brains and work ethic.

In early August, we had a big party, I mean work weekend, at my place and built an 18 section 36-by-18-foot take-down shack. The walls are 2-by-4 construction with sheet insulation and steel siding.

Today, we put the new shack together for the first time, built enough bunk beds to sleep 16 and rigged up a table setup to seat at least as many.

We cut our firewood for the season, with yours truly running the saw and my stepson Joey Dushek running the wood splitter alongside Ross Moll.

These boys are both sophomores in high school, with Joey going to school at Necedah and Ross attending school at Niagara.

Outdoor excursions bring these boys together at deer camp, duck camp and Canadian fishing vacations.

Ross’s dad, Jeff Moll, went to school at Poynette with me, and that is the geographical tie shared at this camp, which sometimes numbers 24.

Tonight, we lit the woodstove for the first time this fall, fixed up a kitchen and as usual the kids from 8 to 16 hung out around the campfire, and the adults split their time between the campfire and the shack.

I figured it out and I have spent a good three years of my life camped here and have seen many changes.

The changes in wildlife really interest me. When I was a kid we would not see a wolf, black bear, fisher, bobcat, turkey or whooping crane. All of the above are now inhabitants of this vast piece of oak forest and marsh.

On Sunday, when most of the gang headed home, my stepsons Travis and Joey Dushek and nephew Riley Schuster and I headed to our tree stands, armed with bows and arrows.

Harvesting a whitetail deer in Meadow Valley with a bow and arrow is a challenge.

There is zero agriculture. Baiting is not allowed and the deer have no rhyme or reason to how they travel, not to mention that they have become very nocturnal.

I believe the every-square-mile presence of the eastern timber wolf has made them much more wary as well.

I received an excellent text message while in my stand at 3 this afternoon. Travis had made what he felt was a good shot on a buck.

While waiting in his tree after the shot, Travis passed up a larger buck.

At dark Travis, Riley and Joey pulled into camp with my truck and a really heavy-in-the-body seven-pointer.

Travis and I live in the same house and the 58-pounds of boneless meat that Travis harvested from that buck will make for many fine meals.

I love deer camp! Sunset.