Ankle Deep in Deer Candy Would Be a Nightmare

Our son had a golf tournament last weekend in Georgia and while he was knocking around the white ball, I was taking a gander at all the hardwoods on the course and looking for deer tracks.

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Can’t shake that urge when autumn rolls around, I guess. I picked out a few good locations for deer stands but the foursomes coming through talking about birdies and missed putts probably would put the kibosh on any kind of quiet steath. Course security probably would get a little itchy about hanging a stand, too.

One thought that rumbled through my mind as I admired a bumper crop of acorns under one tree was that we should be thankful that we don’t get a full blast of mast production each year. Several years ago I was talking with a biologist about the weather and acorn forecast, and he was smart to remind me that not every tree puts out a full load each year.

Be it due to rainfall, lack of rainfall or other factors, if every oak, persimmon, beech and other mast tree put out a full load we’d be doing the backstroke in acorns and nuts. Nature takes care of itself in ways we don’t always fully understand.

So when we’re sitting around the cafe or camp house drinking coffee and wondering why the mast production isn’t as good this season, let’s remember that it’s not always a bad thing that we get a year off now and then.

—Alan Clemons, Managing Editor

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