The lack of rain to start the month of August made everything outdoors hot and dusty.

The plus side of the inhospitable environment is that the deer flies and mosquitoes were bothered by the weather as well.

I had the binoculars out looking over some deer and to my surprise found a nice bachelor group of bucks feeding in a field. Four of the bucks were legal bucks in our area with three points up and some with even more. Two others were decent six points but would not be legal for anyone but a kid hunting as a junior hunter. In a month or two this group of deer would be harder to find and less likely to be friendly with each other as they started to take an interest in the local doe population.

The start of archery season on October 1st is fast approaching and the sales flyers for archery gear has been arriving daily. This is the time to start checking over your archery equipment and supplies.

Taking some rust off your shooting skills is highly recommended as well.

This is the time to tune in your bows and hone in on an ethical shooting distance. Taking long shots or poor shots can result in animals being wounded and maybe not recovered.

The acorns and apples are starting to fall and it doesn’t take long for the deer and turkeys to zero in on them. Archery season allows hunters to take either a buck or doe with the proper license and many hunters take advantage of the early season before the deer catch on to the hunting pressure.

October is absolutely a beautiful time of year to be in the woods and it hardly matters if I actually harvest a deer or not.

The closer that I get to thinking about retirement the less serious I think about harvesting any game animals. It’s just nice to be sitting on a log or stand and chilling out with nature!

The last of the WMU 2D’s have been sold and a few thousand 1A’s still remain for last minute hunters who seek a doe tag. I have some friends on either side of Route 8 that are more than happy to share some time and hunting spots with me. One deer works for me and any extra goes towards a food bank or friends that request some venison to help them stretch out their food budgets. A very worthwhile program that helps distribute venison and wild game to food banks and other non-profit groups is the Hunters Sharing the Harvest. This program has been around since 1991 and helps distribute healthy protein from venison to hungry Pennsylvanians. An average sized deer can feed up to 200 people in one meal at a Salvation Army or church food center. There is no reason for any venison to ever be wasted with a program like this in place. They provide a toll free telephone number to call for more information at 866-474-2141.

Check them out and help them out if you can this hunting season.

Strangely enough I have many non-hunters ask me if I can provide some venison for them to try in a dish or two.

Apparently the Food Network has featured venison dishes in many of their chef’s recipes and it has been touted as a low cholesterol, organic non-additive nutritious choice for consumers.

We spent the day last weekend up at Clear Creek State Park which is north of Brookville and east of Clarion off I-80.

It is an awesome place that was not crowded for a Sunday and had many nice features for wading the creek, swimming, hiking and picnics. This is the one of the 121 State Parks that Pennsylvania features which includes Valley Forge the first PA park in 1893.

Valley Forge was later gifted over to the National Park Service in 1976 for the United States Bicentennial Celebration. There are 58 National Parks in the U.S and more than 400 sites that have the same privilege due to many historic events. The one hundredth anniversary of the National Park System is officially on August 25th of 2016.

There will be special events all across the country in all of the parks celebrating the NPS birthday. The closest National Park in our area is the Allegheny National Park in the North Central-North West Region above Interstate 80. Make it a point to visit a park and be part of a special anniversary celebration, remember it won’t come around again for another 100 years! So pack up the kids, the wife, the in-laws, the dog and a picnic and head for the great outdoors.

Until we meet again, get the hot charcoal fired up on the BBQ and I’ll stop in for a venison burger!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.