Barbecue Rib Spice Rub

Recipe type: Jim's original

This is just a basic spice rub recipe that I came up with for my baby back pork ribs. I also use it on bbq chicken leg quarters, a special salmon fillet recipe I have as well as a few others. It's pretty versatile and isn't just for bbq.

1 part salt
1 part black pepper
1 part cinnamon
1/8 part ground cloves
1 part ground thyme
1 part mustard powder
1 part cayenne
2 parts brown sugar
2 parts dried cilantro flakes

Mix well and grind in spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
Store in an airtight container.

PA Archery deer season opener, Saturday 9/29!

Woohoo! It's finally here! I've only been counting the days since muzzleloader season ended in January....
Anyway, just something to keep in mind this weekend when hitting the woods. Safety. More specifically, treestand safety. While I'm not sure of the actual statistics, falling out of your treestand is probably the the biggest risk in the hunting world. They say it's not a matter of if you're going to fall, but when. So the best way to protect yourself is to invest in a safety harness. If you already have, and use it religiously, then good for you. If not, you owe it to yourself and your family to make the small investment in your personal well being.
Treestand safety harness run the range from a basic chest harness for $20 or $30, all the way to the Hunter Safety System vests that are in the $100-$130 range. While the chest harness is definitley better than nothing, they do offer a distinct disadvantage. Since the main strap wraps around the circumference of your chest/ribs, it is possible that if you fall from your tree that you may break some ribs and/or end up hanging upside down. A better choice in my opinion is a full body harness that has leg loops as well. This will keep you upright, and also distribute the force of hitting the end of the support strap.
So please bear all this in mind, don't ruin your opening day by falling from your stand and slamming head first in to the ground. That won't be good for anybody, except maybe that big buck standing back in the brush watching!

Good luck and happy hunting!

Camp "iT" Guide Services

While Camp "iT" doesn't actually offer any kind of guide service, there is a bounty of great hunting opportunities. In this pic, you can see our archery hunter "Sam" and his highly skilled giude "Jack" felt that the best opportunity on this particular day was to hunt right from the porch of camp. Here he's seen gruntin' in a big one for "Sam". The well equipped guides at Camp "iT" also take safety to heart, seen in the use of a blaze orange hunting vest by our guide "Jack". Great care is also taken to ensure that our hunters stay hydrated during their long hours afield, as evidenced by the multiple bottles of refreshing "beverage" seen on the treestand platform, within easy reach of our hunter should he begin to feel parched. Needless to say that on this day, there was no big game killed, just a few brain cells.

PLEASE NOTE: This photograph was taken strictly for entertainment purposes. Camp "iT" and it's members do not in any way condone the use of alcoholic beverages during hunting hours (unless you're not hunting...). It is illegal in the state of Pennsylvania to hunt while under the influence of alcoholic beverages or other controlled substances, and Camp "iT" stands behind this law. Again, this is NOT a real hunting photo. That should be pretty obvious, however I'm sure that someone somewhere would take it seriously had I not written this disclaimer.

Camp iT Baked Oatmeal

This is an opening-day favorite, served at Camp iT for who knows how many years. It's a slightly sweet, hearty way to start your day in the woods....

Ingredients

§ 2 eggs
§ 1 cup sugar
§ 1/2 cup oil
§ 3 cups regular oatmeal
§ 2 teaspoons baking powder
§ 1 cup milk
§ a pinch of salt


Process

Combine 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup oil in a 2 quart baking dish and mix well.

Add 3 cups regular oatmeal, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup milk, and a pinch of salt. Mix well again.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

For a larger crowd, use a cake pan or 9x13 baking dish and double the recipe.

2005, in retrospect

An absolutely true story by J.A. Miller

2005 was a great year for the hunter in me. I had been practicing my archery skills, in hopes of making my first archery kill, and I was able to spend a lot of time in the woods, which is always a good thing. After a rough start to my archery season, caused by a few, let’s say 3, misses, I did finally seal the deal and harvested an adult doe. I know most serious hunters would believe that taking a doe in archery season is a piece of cake, but since it was my first with a bow, I was tickled. But that isn’t really the reason for this literary account of my 2005 deer season. So let’s get on with it…..
The PA rifle season was a tough one this year. Despite an abundance of fresh deer sign all over our mountain, I didn’t see a single deer the first day, which is very unusual. I saw one on the second day, but didn’t get a good look as it was moving quickly through the brush. Wednesday, day 3, however, things changed slightly. Near the very end of the day, I was sitting along a trail counting down to quitting time. I had been very careful while sitting there to make any movements very slowly, and look slowly around before making them. There were many rubs and several scrapes in the area, so I wanted to be as cautious as possible. Apparently I wasn’t cautious enough.
I simply reached up with one hand and scratched my ear. As soon as I put my hand down, I noticed a set of eyes looking at me, and I knew those eyes had seen my movement. The deer turned it’s head and I realized that it had antlers, but the bit of brush between me and him concealed any detail. He decided to turn and go straight up the hill to my left, and it appeared as if he was circling above me. I slowly began to stand up, but lost sight of the deer for a moment and as I saw him disappear up the hill behind me, figured that he’d gotten closer than what I realized and he busted me again. That was the last deer I saw during the first week of the season.
Fast forward to the following week. Wednesday night me and a hunting buddy (Dan K) arrived at camp after a short 5 days at home. Thursday was pretty uneventful, decent weather and a couple of does sighted, but nothing for the game pole at camp. Thursday night, we had a substantial snow, amounting to about 8 inches of fresh powder when we woke up Friday morning. I headed out, thinking that the deer should be moving since the storm system had moved on and the weather was clear and sunny, but cold. I think I was wrong. I hunted for a few hours, moving through a few of my standard spots, and saw nothing, not even a fresh track. A bit discouraged, I headed down over the hill towards where I saw the buck the previous week. Again letting my guard down just a bit too soon, I stopped in some thick saplings very near to where I saw the buck before, and lo and behold, there he was pawing at the snow and foraging for some food. But he saw me before I saw him, and bounded off.
Figuring it was my only chance, I set off after him, following his tracks in the snow. They began to get closer together, which signaled me to the fact that he was slowing down to a walk. As I slowed my pace down to match, looking around, he must have been a little more on his game than I was. He stood up from some brush about 50 yards ahead and took off again. I thought, “Ok, that’s twice. I need to step it up, or I’m going to lose him”. Trying to be more careful and alert, I continued on. He wound me though some thick brush, and slowed down again. As I’m creeping along his trail, again I notice a set of eyes looking at me, too late again. He must have been pretty relaxed because he was feeding again, but once he saw me, he was off one more time. Heading for even thicker cover this time, I considered giving up. I didn’t have anything better to do though, and now I felt I had a score to settle with this guy. I wasn’t going to let him give me the slip. Now he was heading straight up the side of the mountain, almost making a complete circle from where we started.
He crossed over a logging road, and slipped into some cover I had hunted before. I knew there were some old grassy roads in there and that is what he was following. His tracks again slowed down to what looked like a crawl, then they suddenly made a ninety-degree turn off the trail and into the saplings. I thought, “Oh, no you didn’t”. But he had. I stopped, and slowly turned my head, and sure enough, there he was. But this time he was still lying down, facing his back trail. I figured he had to have seen me coming, but seemed totally at ease. My only problem now was how I was going to get my body and my rifle turned to face him. My persistence paid off though, and after what seemed like 10 minutes, I had gotten myself turned to face him, and my rifle shouldered.
I dialed up the scope so I could examine his points and make sure he was legal. All I needed was for him to turn his head slightly. I would be able to tell if he had all the points I needed to see. After what seemed like another 10 minutes, he did indeed turn his head, and though they were small, there were 8 visible points. I released the safety on my trusty Winchester and harvested that buck that I had worked so hard for. It turned out that he was a year and a half old, small racked, 8 point. Not a trophy by any means. But for me, he was better than any Boone & Crockett 12 point that might have casually passed by my tree stand. I worked for this deer, and the satisfaction I felt by successfully walking up on and harvesting a bedded deer was one of the most amazing things I have ever felt. It was a spectacular end to a great hunting season.

Roast Bacon-Wrapped Venison Loin

Roast Bacon-Wrapped Venison Loin

Recipe Type: Jim's Original

Ingredients:

1/2 of a whole venison loin, or backstrap trimmed of all fat and silverskin
spice rub (Emeril's original Essence is good, I use my own blend)
5 or 6 strips of bacon

Process:

Coat the loin in the spice rub. Let sit for a while to come to room
temperature, and to let the spices penetrate the meat.
Rub with a light coating of olive oil and sear in an extremely hot skillet,
preferably cast iron. This will be smokey, so make sure there is adequate
ventilation. Once the meat is browned on all sides, remove from the heat.
Beginning at one end of the loin, wrap the strips of bacon around the loin,
overlapping each strip slightly until the entire loin is wrapped.
Return the meat to the skillet, or onto some other roasting pan or broiling
pan.
Insert meat thermometer into the center of the loin.
Place in a 350 degree oven until the meat reaches approximately 140 degrees.

Remove from oven, cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes or so.
Slice very thin and serve with the juices from the pan/cutting board.

Done this way, the meat will still be moist and juicy, and will appear to be
medium rare in color, and the juices will still be mostly red in color.
There are risks associated with consuming raw and/or undercooked foods, so
please be aware of this fact. While I cannot condone eating raw or
undercooked meats, I feel that this dish tastes best this way. If it is
cooked to a higher temperature, this cut of venison will dry out and not be
as good.

Given generous portions, this should serve 2-3. Petite portions will serve
4-5.
This vension dish is great served with roasted-garlic mashed potatoes and
grilled fresh asparagus, along with a nice glass of a dry red wine. My
personal favorite reds are shiraz and merlot.

Enjoy!
- Jim Miller

Wishful Thinking

An absolutely true story by J.A. Miller

It was the weekend preceding the 2004 Pennsylvania whitetail rifle season, which opened that Monday, November 29th. Most of the crew had arrived at our camp in upstate PA early in the weekend, so there’d be plenty of time to relax and socialize, enjoying the camaraderie that a close knit hunting camp has to offer. As usually happens, my dad and I headed out to scout our hunting areas. This was mostly just a formality though, because we both knew exactly where we were going to be come Monday morning. Mostly, it was just a time to get out in the woods and catch up on life, and enjoy time together and what Mother Nature has to offer.
I had an antlerless deer tag to go along with my regular antlered deer tag, and since we were there for the entire first week of the season, it would not have been impossible to end up with multiple tags filled. I was so excited about the upcoming week that I began to shoot my mouth off a bit, and exclaimed how cool I thought it would be if I could fill my buck tag, and my doe tag, before lunch time on Monday. Given the amount of deer I had seen in the last couple of years on opening day, I believed there was some possibility that this could happen, but more than likely it was just wishful thinking.
Monday morning, 0:dark:thirty comes, and we all gather around the table for breakfast before everyone gets geared up and heads off to their respective hunting spots. Dad and I jump in the truck and head down the road to our normal parking spot. Cool, looks like we’re the first ones here. That’s a good sign. The moon was full, so the landscape was absolutely beautiful, and so well lit that we didn’t even use our flashlights. We began the hike up the steep first part of our route and soon we were at our turning point. It was an old overgrown logging road that led straight to my stand, and then continued a few hundred yards around the side of the ridge to where Dad usually sits. We stopped here to catch our breath a bit, take in the scenery, and also to load our rifles before continuing to our spots, using only the moonlight, I began to push several of my trusty Federal .270 Win cartridges one by one into the magazine of my Model 70. Little did I know just how big a mistake this would turn out to be.
A short time later I was settled into my stand, waiting for the sun to rise and the rest of the days’ events to unfold. The tall pine I’m leaning against has served as my backrest for several years now, and the pile of rocks strategically stacked at its base still making a good seat for me. Around 8:30, I catch some movement off to my right, just a few minutes after I heard some shots much further down over the hill. Looks like a couple of does coming. They were moving pretty quickly, but finally stopped for a minute or two. As I checked them out in my scope, they began moving again. They stopped one more time, just at the edge of some thick cover that would have had them completely hidden from me had they taken one more bound. I had the scope on one of the does, and had a clean shot at her shoulder. Figuring I had a good bit of time, I moved the scope to the other deer, checking to see if it was maybe a slightly larger doe. It was a larger deer, but where it stopped moving, a tree concealed its head, so I couldn’t be 100 percent sure it was a doe. Just as I was getting ready to shift my crosshairs back to the smaller of the two, they decided it was time to move on, and in one quick leap, they were gone. “I should have just went with the sure thing when I had the chance”, I told myself. Again, I was completely unaware of just what implications this mistake would hold later in the morning. I figured it would be ok…as it was still early, and traditionally I’ve seen quite a few deer at different times of the day, so naturally I assumed I’d get another chance.
As the excitement of the previous incident started to wear off, I got comfortable again, and prepared for a long day in the woods. About 10:30, I caught some movement over my right shoulder. There was a deer moving quietly out of some thick cover, and up onto the logging road that runs past my tree. I thought to myself, “What the heck is that on it’s head?” Of course I knew what it was, and the adrenaline started to flow heavily as I realized this appeared to be a legal whitetail buck. My next problem however, was how I was going to stand up and get myself turned in the correct direction. Somehow, amid the violent shaking from the combination of the cold and the adrenaline, I managed to do just that. I was now standing, with my rifle raised to my shoulder, watching this buck through the scope. He continued to move up the rise, but was just inside the edge of some brush. I could still see him, but it wasn’t where I wanted to take the shot. I thought, “That’s ok, he’s going to be clear of that brush in another few steps, and I’ll have a perfect broadside shot.” Just before he was to be in the open, he did an about face and began backtracking his steps. This anticipation was absolutely killing me, and was doing nothing to help calm the shaking I was doing. Good old buck fever rears its ugly head once again. He continued back down the small rise, on his original track, until he got to the logging road. This is where it got interesting. He turned and kept walking slowly, but he was heading right towards me! I’m looking at his rack as he is closing the distance, completely unaware of my presence. Finally, I was able to count the last point I needed to see to in order to call him legal. I moved the crosshairs down to his brisket, and clicked my safety off. He’s still coming slowly; probably about 25 or 30 yards is all that separated him from me. I got the sight picture I wanted, and began to slowly squeeze the trigger. “Let it surprise me” I reminded myself, and finally it broke. Suddenly, I realized that all I heard was a deafening metallic “click” from the firing pin, which was not followed by the usual loud report and the smell of smokeless powder in the air. I thought to myself “This cannot have possibly happened to me, could it?” And during the same period of time that these thoughts were racing through my head, the nice 6-point buck had realized I was there. I cracked open the bolt on my rifle to confirm my suspicions, and in the very same split second where I saw for sure that there had not been a round in the chamber, the buck took one leap and was gone. Indeed, it did happen to me.
So my day seems to have begun with several mistakes. Loading my rifle in the dark, and not taking the first shot opportunity I had. Had I used my flashlight to load my rifle, I’d have caught the fact that I didn’t quite have the bolt open far enough to catch the lip on the first round, situation averted. Or, had I decided to take the first shot I had at the doe, I’d have realized then that there was nothing in the chamber. And with them as far away as they were, I probably could have gotten away with working the action and chambering a round. And even if I didn’t get away with it, and getting a shot off at the doe, at least there’d have been a round in the chamber later when that buck showed up.
Perhaps my biggest mistake was not in what happened Monday morning. Quite possibly, it was the day before, when I decided to speak aloud my wishes of taking both deer before lunchtime on Monday, instead of just keeping my wishful thinking to myself.

- Jim Miller

Welcome to Camp iT!

Grab yer gear, head on upstairs and find a bunk, there should be a few left.

Stick around for a while and once you discover life at Camp iT (little i, big T), you may not want to leave!

And always remember, "I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here".

Catch ya' later...