The first day of gun only buck hunting season is an unofficial holiday in West Virginia. The kids are off from school for the week, but most businesses have limited employees show up for work on the first Monday of hunting season. The fourth week of November is enormous income revenue for West Virginia as well. We have numerous out of state hunters come to bag a big buck. Mom was an avid hunter and got her share of deer. I had the rack from one of those deer mounted after she passed.
She had it nailed to the wall of her out building for years and I took it after she passed. I look at it all the time and think of her in the woods. She loved to be outside and she hunted squirrel as well as deer. I get my love of the outdoors from her and I feel blessed to have had some good times with her in the woods. I have surpassed her hunting by bagging deer as well as squirrel, bear and turkey.
I will say that I saw something this week that I have never seen before. I was coming to work and passed a man on a bicycle with his hunting rifle strapped to his back. I had seen him once before with a bow on his back. Momma Said, “If he is lucky enough to bag a deer how will he get it home?” I could see if he was pulling a wagon of some sort with his bike but he was not. The question remains a mystery. Good luck to all hunters, make sure to wear your blaze orange and be respectful of the beautiful woods around you.
I hated to go to the woods and come across the remains of someone’s lunch including beer cans, pop cans and food wrappers. Momma Said, “If you pack it in, pack it out.” It is just as easy to put your trash back in your backpack and take it home to dispose of. The beauty of our state is so often marred by those who do not respect it. Take care of our resources so the hunters of the future will still have a pristine place to maybe bag the buck of a lifetime.
Chocolate Toffee Grahams
Ingredients
- 1 14-ounce box graham crackers
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup bittersweet morsels
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Coat two large baking trays with nonstick spray or line with aluminum foil. Lay graham crackers on trays in single layer; set aside.
- Combine brown sugar and butter, bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, cook 2 to 3 minutes or until mixture thickens. Drizzle sugar mixture over both trays of graham crackers.
- Press nuts on top of graham crackers. Bake 5 to 7 minutes until the sugar mixture becomes fragrant and begins to harden.
- Place the morsels in a small zip bag. Fill a large bowl with warm water (around 120F) and submerge the bag 2 to 3 minutes to melt the morsels. When the morsels are melted, remove the bag from the water and clip the end of the bag with scissors. Drizzle chocolate over graham crackers.
- Cool on trays before removing. Cut or break into triangles.