There is nothing quite like warming up in front of a fire this time of year. No heaters provide the same kind of roasting warmth as you get from open flames. Inside by a fireplace or outside by a roaring barn fire on a freezing day, the flames will keep you warm. At least on one side.

As a kid we were taught not to play with fire but also were taught how to build fires and cook on them. Every camping trip from the time I was eight years old and sleeping within feet of the house in the back yard involved some kind of fire.

We managed to build them in all kinds of weather, from the middle of the summer when you didn’t want to get close, even to roast a marshmallow, to pouring rain where we had to build the fire under some kind of lean-to. In the winter we curled up near them in sleeping bags, rolling often to try to keep both sides warm. And the glow was very comforting when telling ghost stories around them, but the glow just didn’t go far enough!

Different kinds of wood burned in different ways but we usually just went by what we could find already dead. Our hatchets did chop down small dead trees but mostly we cut up fallen limbs too big to break. Pine straw made a good starter but we usually slipped in some newspaper, too.

Building the fire circle, a some-what round circle of rocks to keep the fire contained, was a tedious process. It took a long time to find enough rocks the right size. But then laying the wood out and getting the fire started was the challenging part. If not laid out just right it seemed we got a big flame for a few seconds when the paper and pine straw lit but then nothing. Wood too big, too damp or stacked wrong just would not light.

Matches were frowned on but we always had some. I tried many times to start a fire by striking flint on steel and even rubbing sticks together but matches always worked. And I always had to turn to them to get my fire started. At least I was prepared, with Strike Anywhere matches with their heads dipped in wax so they would light under wet conditions.

Cooking on the fire was always fun and most of the time the end results was somewhat edible. I loved marshmallows roasted on a straightened coat hanger or stick but always let mine catch on fire. No nicely toasted brown marshmallow with a hot center for me. I wanted mine burned black on the outside and melted on the inside. The hot melted marshmallow would burn your tongue every time but you hd to eat it fast before it dripped onto the ground!

I cooked hotdogs the same way. The only difference was they would not flame up like the marshmallows. But they would have a nice crispy black side with other sides not cooked much at all. But that mixture of textures and flavors just made them better, like a fine five course French meal.

My favorite fire cooked dinner of all time was what we called a “campfire dinner.” I learned it in my RA group at church. A big patty of ground meat was placed on a square of tin foil and sliced potatoes, carrots, onions and a chunk of butter were stacked on top. The tinfoil was folded around it making a sealed pack that was placed on hot coals. When opened you could eat it right from the tinfoil and its steamy goodness was very filling. And you didn’t have to wash dishes!

Breakfast was always a complex challenge, with toast burnt on the open fire, bacon burned on one end and almost raw on the other and eggs scrambled in the bacon grease until most of it was somewhat cooked. I don’t know how many times my friends and I cooked a breakfast like that and survived. The food police would have heart attacks now days seeing kids eat half cooked bacon and eggs – with everything from ashes to pieces of pine straw and egg shells mixed in!

None of the above would have been possible without our great fire building skills. Sometimes when I fire up my fireplace insert I remember those days. Even though I now use a chainsaw and gas powered wood splitter, I still love having a fire. And I still can’t get it started without plenty of newspaper! My central heat and air system just does not keep the house warm right. Not like the fire does.

From the forecast it looks like I will need a big fire the next week!

Its nice to be able to deal with the cold weather by building a big fire, curling up under a thick blanket or turning up the thermostat. But what do critters in the wild do? They deal with the cold in many different ways.

We all know bears hibernate, but they don’t, really. Bears sleep though the winter but they can wake up. Their heartbeat slows way down but nothing like true hibernation. A ground squirrel does hibernate. Their heartbeat is around 300 beats per minute in warm weather but it slows down to only one beat per minute while they are hibernating. You can not wake one up until you warm it up.

Bugs like wasps deal with the cold by finding a protected area to hide in. At my farm, where the heat does not stay on, they find a good place to hold up during the cold by coming into my room in the barn. If I turn on the heat they start moving around when it warms up. Those don’t survive the winter.

Hornets abandon their paper hives in trees and the female will find a hole in the ground or a hollow tree to spend the winter. Then when it warms up it starts a new hive, just like the female wasps that survive. As they build the nest and lay eggs their hive grows and gets bigger and bigger.

Most warm blooded animals and birds have to stay active and find food all winter long. Some birds migrate long distances to avoid the cold When I was growing up we read about robins being the sign of spring, but that seemed silly since robins were around all winter long. The reason is robins from northern states, where the ground stays frozen for long periods of time, have to fly south. It is real hard to find earthworms, robins’ favorite food, when the ground is frozen.

So here in middle Georgia we will see robins all winter long. They head back north with the spring and really are signs of spring up there, but not here.

For a while I could not understand why I saw so many blue herons in the winter, then I realized there is no way they could get fish from frozen lakes. So they fly south to find open water where they can feed during the winter. As lakes and ponds thaw further north they head back that way.

Geese, ducks and many other kinds of water birds also fly south for the winter, then head back north as it warms to nest and start the cycle over again. Some birds do stick around in the winter and find food the best they can. Wild turkey can’t fly long distances so they have to scratch in the snow to dig up food.

Squirrels are famous for burying acorns and they do it to have a food supply during the winter. They don’t remember where they bury their acorns, they find them by sniffing them out. So they may eat other squirrels acorns if they find them. That is one reason they are so territorial in the winter, trying to run others off.

Deer and other big game have to eat foods they ignore in better times. They will feed on honeysuckle, green briar and other evergreen plants during the winter. But they depend on their fat supply, too. Deer feed heavily on acorns in the fall and build up layers of fat to sustain them all winter long. That is the reason a good acorn crop is so critical to deer herds.

Cold blooded animals like fish just get real inactive. They go to deeper water and hold near the bottom, feeding rarely. They will eat an easy meal if one comes close but bass and bream don’t move around a lot in real cold water. Other species, like hybrids and stripers, are more adapted to cold water and feed all winter long.

Some species of trout, like steelhead, feed in very cold water. Steelhead are just rainbow trout that are hatched in streams but swim out to lakes or the ocean, live a grow a few years then go back into streams to spawn. They get big and fight hard, and live to spawn many times, unlike some species of salmon that die after spawning.

You may have noticed hawks on power lines along roads recently. This behavior happens each winter. You won’t see many until it gets cold. They move to roadsides to catch mice and birds that live along ditches since food in the woods gets scarce this time of year. Many get hit by cars as they swoop across roads to grab a mouse for lunch.

Critters have it much worse than we do. They have to adapt to the cold. We can just throw another log on the fire and be glad we don’t have to sleep outside!

Although I grew up on Clarks Hill Lake in Georgia and still have a lake house there, my favorite lake of the dozens I visit each year is Lake Martin in Alabama. I have been fishing the lake and camping at Wind Creek State Park since my first club tournament there in 1975, at least once a year and often four or more times each year.

Last month I went to a club tournament there. Wind Creek has improvements made to the ramp and parking as an Alabama Tournament Lake and it is a great facility. The staff at the campground office and marina were extremely nice and helpful.

Four rules there confused me so I checked them out after I got home.

One, my partner and I were to set up a tent he was bringing but he was delayed until Thursday morning. I slept in my van Wednesday night. When he arrived early the next morning we went fishing, leaving both vehicles and boat trailer on the campsite I had paid for, with coolers, a grill and other camping things on the site. At 2:00 pm I received a call from the park saying my site was not in compliance since there was no tent on it and it would be considered open. That was no problem since there were only three sites in use in the whole area of over 40 sites, but they insisted I come in and set up a tent immediately.

I called and talked to Bruce Adams when I got home. He is a ranger at the park. He explained the rule about a tent was for the convenience of other campers to know the site was open but they would make exceptions if you were in an RV since that might be the only way to travel. That seems strange – You can leave a site completely empty if you drive off in an RV but you can’t leave a bunch of stuff on your site without a tent or it will be considered vacant. Seems an empty site would give others coming into the park the idea it was available much more than one with a bunch of stuff on it.

Two, we stop the second day of our annual two day tournament at 1:00 on Sunday since the rule has always been we had to vacate the campsite by 2:00 and we could pack up after weigh-in. This year the rule, printed on the front of the park pass under Campsite, Visitor, Cabins, is you have to vacate the site by 11:00 am. I found out the 11:00 checkout is only for cabins – on the back it says checkout of campground after 2:00 requires an additional fee. We did not notice the note on the front only applied to cabins when we saw it just before going to bed Saturday night.

Three, there is a rule only one camping unit can be on a site. That meant my partner and I have to sleep in the same tent, no matter how much one of us snores or any other problems that may cause. That does not seem very tournament friendly. And it seemed several sites around me had more than two units with many people using them.

I was told that was also for other campers convenience and the park was in the business of selling campsites, so two men to sleep in different units would have to get two sites.

Fourth is you must camp in a “real” RV or tent. Does that mean my van, which I have built a bed in and carry microwave, coffee pot, heater, fan, radio and other camping equipment, is not “real?”

I was told my van would be a real RV since it is set up for camping.

These rules apply to all campgrounds in all Alabama State Parks.

In honor of deer season opening here in Georgia – yes, I do hunt since I love venison!

There is something special about sitting 30 feet up in an oak tree during deer season. You have made your way to your stand in the dark, easing through the still woods with nothing to guide you but your flashlight and any markers you put up during daylight. The woods look completely different and nothing is the same.

When you finally settle on your seat and arrange everything carefully so you can move into shooting position without a sound, you relax. It is about 30 minutes before legal shooting time and far too dark to see a deer on the ground, anyway.

The first thing you notice are the stars. Clear and bright beyond anything you can see from town, they are hard and cold. And if the air is icy they do not blink at all, they just stare at you wondering how you intruded into their night world.

Then you hear a sound, a slight crackling in the leaves. Is it the big buck you seek, moving past you well before you have any chance to take it? Or is it a raccoon making his last food forage before the sun runs him into hiding? Or is it Bigfoot coming after you for his breakfast?

Then you remember the mountain lion killed near LaGrange last year – not nearly far enough away. In the dark you will never know what it is, but your imagination sure can go wild.

Then there is a little lightening of the sky to the east. The stars seem to fade a little in that direction and within minutes vague shapes emerge on the forest floor. That one beside the big pine has to be a trophy buck staring at you, doesn’t it? You don’t dare move for fear of spooking him. Please let him stay there for just long enough to get shooting light.

Shooting light proves the big buck to be a stump. You knew it was there but the gray light changed it. Bushes, trees, rocks and stumps take on a different life before the sun comes up.

Suddenly you notice your breath. Foggy plumes issue from you into the air, like waving a white flag for any wise old buck to stay clear. So you breathe gently, trying to make it disappear.

When it gets light enough to shoot, you keep your head still and move only your eyes. When you hear a distinct crunch in the leaves behind you, there is absolutely no doubt it is a squirrel. No deer ever makes that much noise. There is no reason to even look. So you inch your head around as carefully as possible, with tiny movements. Sure enough, there is that bushy tail.

Birds appear like out of a magician’s hat, suddenly perching on limbs around you and greeting the sun. They go about their breakfast business as you watch. It is amazing how many different kinds of birds inhabit Georgia woods. And when a woodpecker drums on the tree just over your head you almost jump to the ground in fear.

Minutes drag, but suddenly you have been in the tree for hours. The sun is high and bright and there has not been a sign of a deer. But just as you decide to leave for the day, you see a whitetail standing broadside to you not 30 yards away in the open. How in the world did it get there? It must have popped out of the ground like a mushroom.

Your heart pounds louder than the woodpecker’s racket until you see it is a doe and you are not meat hunting today. You watch her browse on acorns and enjoy her beauty, and wonder again about the conflict you feel shooting such a pretty animal, but knowing you will when the time comes, and enjoy venison cooked many ways.

It never fails. The doe leaves so you decide it is time to return to the real world. As you lower your gun to the ground a snort behind you snaps your head around and there stands the biggest buck you have ever seen, watching you intently. And your gun is 30 feet below. No matter, you would not have time to raise it to fire even if it was in your hands.

You watch as the buck bounds off, knowing this stand will be avoided for the rest of the season. But you have other stands and plans in mind. His time will come.

As you climb down, get your gun and start walking out of the woods, you wonder how anyone could consider such a day unsuccessful.

Ronnie Garrison is an outdoors internet, magazine and newspaper writer who has won many awards for his magazine, newspaper and internet columns, and the author of The Everything Fishing Book and “Keys To Catching Clarks Hill Bass” eBook. He fishes almost everyday and has been a bass club tournament fisherman for 39 years.
Experience:

Ronnie Garrison has written a weekly outdoor column for the Griffin Daily News since 1986 . His has been writing feature magazine articlse for state magazines since 1987 and he has over 500 articles published in Georgia Outdoor News, Alabama Outdoor News, Georgia Sportsman, Kitchen Drawer, Bassin Times, Bass Champions and Sporting Clays magazines and in 2002 wrote The Everything Fishing Book published by Adams Media. Those articles have won more than 30 “Excellence in Craft” awards from the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association. He is a member and past president of that organization and a member of Southeast Outdoor Press Association and Profession Outdoor Media Association.

From Ronnie Garrison:

Some of my earliest memories are of following my grandmother to local farm ponds, trying to catch anything that would bite. I never met a fish I didn’t want to catch. If you love fishing as much as I do, I think you will enjoy my About Fishing web site.

I love all kinds of fishing, both fresh and saltwater and enjoy trying to catch any kind of fish. Let me know what you like. What is your favorite. Give me a question about your specialty and I will help you find an answer!