Incredible year, my friend. It was great to finally meet you this year. Looking forward to the next time we can meet up. Stay safe and stay wild in 23!

@Derek Towles yes sir. Putting faces to names gives a perspective and understanding to all the posts and stories I have been enjoying. 👊💪

@Donovan Sears It was great to meet you this past summer. Need to make it an annual thing. 

@Tom DeKrey agreed. Let’s do it again this year 🍻 

I completely enjoyed reading that! What a year! The smoker looks great. Those turkey calls have me puzzled on how one gets it to produce the sound needed (Maybe I'll dig thru some YouTube videos and learn 🤔). And congratulations to Chris (it is Chris, yes?) on his graduation! That's awesome!  You and your wife are so blessed, and I name you and many others off by name during my prayers. Sure, sometimes I fall asleep and oops, don't get that far 😮‍💨🤦‍♀️😉. So thankful you made it thru the cancer scare. You are tough!
Here is to an amazing 2023 for you & your family!🎉

Heckuva year for sure Tom. Here’s to an even better 2023, especially one with no health scares💪👊

@Lisa 🙏🦌🏹🎣🏞 I very much appreciate being in your prayers. Chris finally decided he was going to finish and once he makes up his mind it will get done.  Think of the turkey call as fingernails on a chalk board in a controlled way. Hope your 2023 is as wonderful as you are to this platform. 

@Mike Larsen thank you Mike. Hope your year is a blessed one as well. I paid my health dues this year. Should be good for a while. 

@Tom DeKrey I see (nails on a chalkboard). Interesting to create a 🦃call! 
Appreciate your kind words!

As I get older, I realize that reflecting on the past year is merely recounting the many memories made and filed away in the cranial vault to be pulled and recounted when the situation deems appropriate. Fortunately, I still hold the combination and the vault doors have been swung wide open. As every year has its challenges and rewards the past trip around the sun was no exception.  I did some things for the first time (even at my age where I am pushing 60 much harder than I am pulling 50) it was the first time I processed a deer (something I had planned on doing anyway but because the processors all quit taking deer at the end of December my decision was made for me) I went on my first Texas hog hunt with my son and several of his friends, my wife and I attended the very first Send-it -Slam and met the entire GoWild crew as well as a whole mess of members I have known only by name through the best damn outdoor platform ever imagined. I turned my first duck call and fabricated a couple beehives. In addition, there were pounds of venison and goose pastrami made deer jerky dried, maple and walnut syrup processed in the spring and honey harvested in the fall. I trapped multiple raccoons and an opossum to aid in a robust turkey population (plan to get more traps out this winter once I find the time) and have harvested several of those Turkeys for pot pies and a curry dish that will have you coming back for seconds. Over the summer I built a reverse offset smoker that through trial and error I am learning the art of wood fired smoking. I continue to make custom pot calls merely for the joy of creating a tool that can coax a wary tom into shooting range. On the personal front, our son graduated from college this past spring, a milestone for him and a proud moment for us to watch him walk across the stage. This fall I had a patch of skin cancer removed from my back, fortunately the margins came back clear, had I let it go longer the news may have been very different. I urge all of you to keep an eye on anything that doesn’t seem right and have it checked out. Thank you, to all my friends current and yet to be made on this platform. I look forward to reading your posts and following the successes and lessons learned. Remember there are no failures only situations that hold the potential of education.

Reflections of a Year Well-Lived

Tom D

Are you sure?

Derek T

Tom D

Donovan S

Tom D

Donovan S

Lisa �

Mike L

Tom D

Tom D

Lisa �