You should know who you will be hunting with

To the hunters of BBHE 2016:

I invited Chris Toliver to hunt with us this season and at first I was confident that he would make a great addition to the hunt. However, Chris just recently celebrated his 50th birthday. Please congratulate him when you see him. 50 is a big deal. Check out his cool birthday cake. Martin, you will love this one.

Birthday cakes made out of beer are all fun and good, but the next photo is just downright startling. I will take responsibility for whatever happens at BBHE this year. I will do my best to keep Chris under control. The thing that gets me is that I asked him if he did anything stupid on his birthday, anything that he would be embarrassed about the next day, and he told me no.

THEN.......

This photo emerges...........

I mean, who even owns a garment like that, much less puts it on for a birthday photo. NOW, I am starting to get nervous about my selection. My advice to you as you enjoy BBHE this year, don't drop the soap. If you drop your keys, then kick them all the way to the car, and sleep with one eye open. I know I will be.

Kit

Sleeping Beauty

What we have here are the sleeping beauties.... waiting to be put back in service.

BBHE 2016 Planning Starts Today

Hunters:

As you know, planning for the BBHE hunt starts way before November. We had discussed some dates early on but I had to modify those dates because they didn't include any weekend hunting days. I almost forgot about Neil Miller (Sorry Neil). I have made a few changes to the previously discussed dates. The change I made to the schedule adds one more hunts and allow us to hunt over a weekend so Neil can join us. The only casualty will be that Chris will not be able to join us until the afternoon of the 12th. 

Martin and Chris have already purchased their plane tickets. That is great news. Here are the official dates.

(remember that you can click on the images to make them bigger if you need to)

Here is how I have it planned for the above week in November:

Note: Rob is fighting for full custody of his daughter and if he wins he will not be joining us for the hunt this year. Family comes first. The following is assuming that Rob will be joining us.

Martin and Rob arrive to Dallas on the 10^th.

We load the trailer, do the grocery shopping, and precook meals on the 10^th. We all stay at the Vinson Hotel – group rates of $149 per person but free if you help all day.

We wake up early on the 11^th and get to the camp by noon as we did last year, buying our licenses before we make camp. To speed the process I will buy my license online and ask that Chris and Rob do the same. They will mail it directly to our houses. That way we can get as much scouting and stand setup as possible.

Then we hunt on opening morning of the 12^th through the 15^th. 

Chris will be arriving on the afternoon of the 12th.

On the 16^th we do a morning hunt, break down camp, and then maybe do an afternoon hunt as we did last year. After that we return home.

On the 17^th Martin and Rob fly home and Chris drives home.

There is a possibility that Alicia, Mateo and I will go camping there on the 4^th through the 6^th. If we do that then I will simply leave the camp setup so we won’t have to do that when we arrive to hunt. That would be the “best case scenario”.

Hunt #1,2        12^th

Hunt #3,4        13^th

Hunt #5,6        14^th

Hunt #7,8        15^th

Hunt #9           16^th

That is 9 hunts in 5 days. Not too bad.

I would like to do the Buzzard Bluff Rib Fest on the 12^th

Licenses:

We have two options for licenses; a 3 day license or a 5 day license.

There is a $55 difference between the two. That can buy a lot of ribs when you multiply that by 4 hunters. So I propose that we each get a 3 day license and space them out like so.

Kit:      12^th – 14^th

Chris   13^th – 15^th

Martin 14^th – 16^th

If Rob is able to join then he will pick up Martin’s Dates and Martin will buy his for whichever dates he wants to since he will be the last person to buy a license. (He can’t buy his online because of international issues). This way we will always have a tag to hunt with. If all 4 of us are hunting then we will have 8 tags and that is more than plenty. If for some strange reason we need more then we can use Neil’s tags. Neil is a resident and can take up to 4 deer.

Victoria and Sterling (Winner of the Master of the Game Award 2015) will not be joining us this year as they both have graduated and secured real jobs back east. 

Marshall and Vicki Jeffus will not be joining us this year because they are marrying off their last child. Since parents don't get to pick the date and children can sometimes be horribly insensitive to hunting season dates, they are SOL for BBHE 2016.

As it stands right now, here is the list of hunters and their status:

Kit Vinson - Definite YES

Rob Vinson - Maybe

Martn Riedel - Definite YES

Neil Miller - Definite YES

Chris Toliver - Definite YES

That is all the news that is fit to print.

Introducing BBHE Guest Hunter - Chris Toliver

Hunters:

I am excited to announce that my very close friend from Austin, Texas (formerly Wichita Falls), Chris Toliver, will be joining us as a guest hunter at BBHE 2016. Today he officially committed to the entire week of the trip. He will be filling the bunk left open by Sterling Vinson. If Chris performs well (meaning he doesn't shoot a bigger dear than I do) then we will conduct the black ball ceremony and if he passes then we will proceed to new hunter initiation and then hazing. If he survives all of that then maybe he might come back to hunt again and we can add his face to the row of floating heads on the blog. But we are getting WAY ahead of ourselves.

Chris is a proud Texan, an avid hunter, a connoisseur of fine whiskey,  and a knife collector (Get him to tell you the story about the drunk knife purchase he made at the Renaissance Fair). He has two fine kids and no wife. For that reason it is really hard to find a photo of him without a girl on each arm, but I was able to find a few.

Proud Texan

(I told him that he could find bucks bigger than this one in Arkansas. HA! The joke's on him)

We've been friends since the mid 1980s (over 30 years)

Don't let the Jane Fonda Jazzercize headband fool you, he's a tough mudder.

I know that everybody will enjoy having Chris hunt with us as much as I will. The countdown continues until BBHE 2016. Stay tuned.

Exactly 6 Months Away

We are exactly at the halfway point between last season and next season. That is huge news because this means that I can start planning the hunting trip without appearing too strange. I won't go as far as to start planning meals (though I have thought about it) but I will start tying down dates so that people can start buying tickets and reserving the week for

BBHE 2016

Being Married to a Hunter

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/know-youre-married-hunter/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=SH&utm_campaign=SH

If you are married to a hunter you need to read this in order to appreciate how bad it could be.

If you are a hunter then you need to knock it down a few notches so that you can show this article to your wife/girlfriend and show her how bad it could be.

Big is Back

This is for all you jokers who made fun of my big tent...