1 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
s t n e t n Co 6
18
Traditions Teenage of the First Buck Marksmen MIDLANDS EVENTS
4
ALL IN THE FAMILY
33
DUCK SEASON IS IN FULL SWING
46
MIX UP YOUR HOLIDAY MEALS
36
SOLO SKINNING SENSATION
38
BUCK SCORING
40
FISHING TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION
42
TAKE ONE MAKE ONE
45
Santee woman furthers fudge business
Fix shrimp and grits the Simply Southern Bistro Way
‘The Blade’ gains Internet stardom for deer-processing knife skills
DNR teaches first-time hunters
2 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
from the lake
A
s a new resident of South Carolina, I’m learning about unique areas of the state that focus on aspects of those areas that bind the people to create local cultures. With that in mind, I’ll be looking to people in the Lakeside communities to provide input to this magazine which serves as a portrayal of its diverse population. This issue of Lakeside features a boy’s first hunt, how quickly one man can skin a deer and local delicacies such as shrimp and grits, and fudge (although no one shared this with me, ahem). We obviously know a little about hunting and fishing in the area, but what are some of the other qualities that
about us EDITOR Rick Carpenter rick@theitem.com
PHOTOGRAPHY Matt Walsh matt@theitem.com COPY EDITORS Jessica Stephens jessica@theitem.com Melanie Smith melanie@theitem.com Rhonda Barrick rhonda@theitem.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jade Reynolds jade@theitem.com Raytevia Evans ray@theitem.com Matthew Bruce matthew@theitem.com Joe Kepler COLUMNISTS Earle Woodward PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Cary Howard cary@theitem.com Leigh Bruce leigh@theitem.com Rosie Peavy rosie@theitem.com Eddie Hodges eddie@theitem.com
48
CLARENDON COUNTY MANAGER Gail Mathis gail@theitem-clarendonsun.com ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Waverly Williams Paige Macloskie waverly@theitem.com paige@theitem.com
From the force to the farm
Mark Pekuri mark@theitem.com
define the population? Are there businesses or communities that attract certain clientele that we can feature? And what about all of those part-time, weekend residents? Where are their special hangouts and what do they do when they’re in town? We want Lakeside residents to take ownership in this magazine. With that said, I’d like to hear from you as we move forward with our next publications. You can call me at (803) 774-1201 or email me at rick@theitem.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Karen Cave karen@theitem.com
ON THE COVER Photo by Matt Walsh
The McLeod family.
Rick Carpenter EDITOR OF LAKESIDE
DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 3
s t n e v e s d n a l d i M KERSHAW COUNTY
Find something for everyone on your Christmas list at the 2014 Holiday Sales Show from Dec. 5-17 at the Douglas-Reed House, 810 Lyttleton St., Camden. Browse through wonderful handmade gifts of jewelry, stained glass, pottery, wood items, food items and more. Times: 5:30-7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5; 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6; 1:30-6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7; 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Dec. 8-13; 1:30-6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14; and 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. MondayWednesday, Dec. 15-17. Call Jane Peterson at (803) 425-7676 or visit http://fineartscenter.org.
The 38th Anniversary of the Candlelight Tour of Homes will take place from 3 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6, beginning at Camden Archives and Museum, 1314 Broad St., Camden. Admission: $15 in advance; $20 day of tour; special military pricing on day of tour with ID. Call (803) 300-3762 or (803) 427-2765 or visit www.camdenleague. org. The Camden Community Concert Band Christmas Concert will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, at Camden High School, 1022 Ehrenclou Drive. Comprised of more than 50 performers, the Camden Community Concert Band is an affiliate of the Fine Arts Center. Visit http://fineartscenter.org. Don’t miss “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at 7 p.m. ThursdaySaturday, Dec. 11-13, or at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14, at Wood Auditorium. A hilarious Christmas classic, the play tells the story of a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant when they are faced with casting the Herdman kids, who might be the most awful kids in history. Admission: $15 adults; and $10 for students, seniors and military. Call Jane Peterson at (803) 425-7676 or visit http://fineartscenter.org. The Camden Art Fall Show will run from Dec. 11-Jan. 16 at Bassett Gallery. Camden area artists will present their recent works in painting, sculpture, pottery, gourds, jewelry, mosaic and other mediums. The public is invited to view and purchase the art during the exhibit. The Fine Arts Center will be closed for Christmas break Dec. 22-Jan. 2. Each year a guest judge picks the top three pieces, along with two honorable mentions, while the patrons vote on People’s Choice. The opening reception will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 11. The exhibit will run daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call Jane Peterson at (803) 425-7676 or visit http://fineartscenter.org.
BERKELEY COUNTY The Celebrate the Seasons Holiday Driving Tour will be held daily from 6 to 9:30 p.m. through Dec. 30. Enjoy the dozens of spectacular, animated light displays that wind through the Old Santee Canal Park and Santee Cooper’s headquarters. This holiday 4 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
event is powered with 100 percent Green Power from Santee Cooper and uses energy-efficient LED lights. Admission is $5 per vehicle, and proceeds benefit Berkeley County charities. The 2014 Hanahan Christmas Parade will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Dec. 6. The parade will start and finish at Hanahan High School. For details, contact Hanahan Exchange Club at (843) 259-4945. The Town of Moncks Corner annual Christmas Parade will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7. The parade will begin at Berkeley High School and end at Main Street Extension. Call (843) 899-4780 for more information. The Annual Town of Moncks Corner Christmas Tree Lighting will be held at 5:15 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, at Unity Park, Main Street. The ceremony will include music from various local performers, the lighting of the Christmas tree and a visit from Santa Claus.
ORANGEBURG COUNTY The Orangeburg County “Christmas in Our Town” parade will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, on Russell Street. The Town of Bowman Christmas Parade will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 131 Poplar St. Are you a talented storyteller? You should participate in Story Slam scheduled for from 7:30 to 9:30 on Friday, Dec. 12, at CupSide Down Café, 950 Chestnut St., Orangeburg. Based on a poetry slam format, a story slam is a contest of words. On the night of the event, slammers sign up to tell a 5-minute short story. Eight to 10 names will be drawn at random to participate. Between each “act,” the audience will be engaged in story improv game and interactive story starters. Judges will pick a winner at the end of the evening, and the audience will pick a favorite also. Participation is open to everyone age 18 and up. Call (252) 5991099 for information. The Orangeburg County Fine Arts and the Orangeburg County YMCA will feature an all-new Christmas event this year – the Jingle Bell Jog! Put on your sneakers and participate in this onemile run/walk at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13. The Jingle Bell Jog will begin and end at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center, 649 Riverside Drive. Call (803) 531-6186 for more details. The Town of Elloree will celebrate a Small Town Christmas from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13. Event will feature breakfast with Santa, store sales and museum specials. The Elloree Christmas Parade will also be held Dec. 13.
Let’s be
Honest CLARENDON COUNTY Buy a barbecue plate and some homemade holiday décor at the St. Matthias Episcopal Church Christmas Bazaar from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 9 N. Dukes St., Summerton.
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Who doesn’t love a parade? The annual Evening Optimist Christmas Parade will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, on Main Street. The parade will feature marching bands, beauty queens, festive holiday floats and more. The theme for the parade is “What Christmas Means To Me.” Back by popular demand, Sumter Little Theatre will present “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” Thursday-Sunday, Dec. 11-14, at 14 Mood Ave. This hilarious Christmas play tells the story of Grace Bradley, who is struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant when she is faced with having to cast the Herdman kids, who are possibly the most awful kids in history.
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The Carolina Backcountry Christmas will be held on Saturday, Dec. 13, at Sumter County Museum, 122 N. Washington St. For more information, call (803) 775-0908. Ready for some wonderful Christmas music? Enjoy the Community Concert Band Christmas Extravaganza from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14, at Sumter Opera House, 21 N. Main St. If you have a passion for classical music, you won’t want to miss Classical Piano Dueling Hands / Hughes & Zhang on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015, at Sumter Opera House. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., attendees will be entertained by acclaimed pianists Zachary Hughes and Susan Zhang. A native of California, Hughes has been captivating audiences with his musical empathy and nobility. He has studied with Ann Holler, Fabio Parrini and Chih-Long Hu. Active on the competition scene, Hughes is pursuing his bachelor of music degree at The Juilliard School. Zhang made her orchestral debut at the age of 12 with the Augusta Symphony and has been featured as a soloist with the South Carolina Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has performed in venues in North America, Europe and Asia. IPRO Concerts will present Holiday Blues Fest on Saturday, Dec. 27, at Sumter County Civic Center. This entertaining event will feature Clarence Carter, Roy C, Theodis Ealey and Nellie Tiger Travis. Call (803) 406-9274 for details. The 15th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Walk will be held on Monday, Jan. 19, at USC Sumter Nettles Building. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. with the walk beginning at 9:30 a.m. A celebratory program will be held at 11 a.m.
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DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 5
Traditions of the
First Buck
Photos and article by MATT WALSH matt@theitem.com
6 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Five-year-old Hunter McLeod holds up a .223 rifle that he and his grandparents take deer hunting. The .223 has less kick than highpowered rifles and won’t hurt his shoulder he shoots. 7 | LAKESIDE DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015when
W
e start them young down here. Kids in the South learn what it means to reproduce when the rut sets in at the first cold snap of deer-hunting season. They learn that the crashing sound echoing through the pines is two bucks — big bucks — competing for a doe in estrus. They know what estrus is before they are old enough to read because their big brother or sister made them take a whiff of a vial of the pungent perfume secreted when a doe is in heat. They know — maybe too soon — why the bucks swell with testosterone and madly chase does who point their cotton white tails to the heavens during the thunderous rush. Down here, they learn that rutting means the mating ritual of deer before they are old enough to tie their own boots. They learn to kill while sitting in Grandpa’s lap. They sit curled around the stalk of a rifle and pull a 5-pound trigger that is longer than their index fingers. They might not know exactly what it is or why, but they know that when they get their first kill, they will get to wear a deer necklace, consisting of zip ties or shoestring and deer testicles. Five-year-old Hunter McLeod adorned his own deer necklace in late October.
A LONG TRADITION As it is with many, hunting is a family affair for Hunter and the McLeods. His grandparents, Bonnie and Mark, taught Hunter’s
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father, C.J., to hunt a few years after he learned to walk. Mark’s family has been living in Pinewood since the “Confederate War.” Mark’s father taught him how to farm; his family now runs A&J Farms, one of the largest hog farms in South Carolina. But Mark taught himself how to hunt with a 12-gauge shotgun that was given to him by his brothers. He passed his skills along to everyone in his immediate family. Pages of photos in old albums pay homage to the McLeod family and friends who have learned to hunt deer under Mark’s wing. The McLeod family’s Nasty Branch Huntin’ Club clubhouse is a few driveways from their home. There, a dozen deer hang as trophies on the wall. When a family member or close friend shoots a big one, everyone shows up to the clubhouse to take pictures and admire the kill while it is skinned and hung in a refrigerator. The biggest deer hangs proudly in their home. Mark’s wife, Bonnie, shot that one in 1996. It was 226 pounds with a 17-inch, 9-point spread. She was so excited when she saw the deer through her scope she didn’t realize how close her forehead was to the eye piece, and when she fired, it hit her in the head, and she had to get four stitches in the shape of a crescent
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Hunter lines up a rifle with the help of his Grandpa Mark in a tree stand in Wedgefield.
moon between her eyes. “Mark taught me how to hunt, and when I killed that first one in ’92, it was on,” she said. “I never stopped.” She went on to teach her son C.J. how to hunt, and he killed his first deer sitting on her lap. This year it was her grandson Hunter’s turn.
THE NEW GENERATION Bonnie says Hunter is her heartbeat, and he was born to hunt his father — made that clear on his birth certificate. Hunter stands a little less than 4 feet tall. The McLeods consider the .223 assault rifle a short gun, and it is nearly taller than he is. He is too short to look through a scope and shoot at the same time. When he hunts with his grandparents, Mark lines up the deer in the cross hairs, and Hunter sits on his lap and pulls the trigger. Hunter uses a .223 assault rifle because most of the higherpowered rifles will strike a blow to his little shoulder, Mark said.
The first day he practiced with the .223, he hit his target by himself. Feeling confident, he went out to hunt with his grandparents that evening on a doe day, a day where doe can be legally taken, with the hopes of shooting his first buck. After saying a prayer and spraying him down with scent killer, his grandparents let him walk to the deer stand toting the rifle until he couldn’t carry it anymore. The deer stand sits on a point like a treehouse about 200 yards into the woods just outside of a soybean field in Wedgefield. It overlooks an alley in the forest that was carved out for power lines. The power lines string across the sky, and below them are intermittent piles of corn, discernable from the stand only through a pair of binoculars. The McLeods can see for nearly a mile to the left or right in the stand. When they climb into the deer stand, they have about an hour to DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 9
Hunter steps out of a deer stand to find a deer he just shot at during a hunt in October, just before the rut.
10 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
quiet down until the deer begin to come looking for corn. This is the hardest part, Mark said. Hunter fidgets, as boys do when they are told to sit still. He finds an empty shell that came out of a gun his father fired a few days before and plays with it a bit until it slips through his fingers and falls onto the grated flooring of the stand. The noise pings the silence and echoes through the pines, up the power lines and back. It was not a loud noise by any reasonable measure, but in the forest, the whispering leaves are like canon fire on the senses. Bonnie picks up the shell and whispers, “Is that a .270?” “Yup, that’s a twooo-sheventy,” Hunter replies. The deer stand is Hunter’s classroom in the wild forest, as it was for all of Bonnie’s children. She has taught lessons about everything from hunting safety to God. “One time my son asked me what ‘poberty’ was,” she says. “Not puberty—‘poberty.’ That was it, I laughed so hard that we had to leave the stand.” When things start to quiet down and the sun drops below the trees, the forest produces illusions of phantom deer moving toward the corn piles. Every shape and moving branch is thoroughly examined with a pair of binoculars. Mark spots a shadow lurking out of the brush. It’s a doe, and it’s followed by two others. Mark, Bonnie and Hunter wait in silence, because where there are does, there is bound to be a big buck right behind them, Bonnie said. Twenty minutes later, with no other deer emerging and the three does still eating peacefully from the pile of corn, Mark decides this is a good opportunity for Hunter to get a shot at a doe. Hunter climbs into his grandpa’s lap with his finger wrapped around the front of the trigger guard and waits for him to line the deer up in the cross hairs of the scope. Mark tells him not to touch the trigger until he says to, so Hunter waits patiently for the countdown. 1…2…3 The whispers are broken with the sharp crash of rifle fire. The doe jumps 5 feet into the air after being hit near its front right shoulder and hurtles into the woods. “You got it, Hunter,” says Bonnie, congratulating him on his shot before the three climb down to look for the deer. There is blood on the corn pile where the shot hit, and Mark shows Hunter to DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 11
follow the trail of blood where the broken branches make a small trail through the woods. The sun is completely gone by this point, and the woods are a deep shade of gray. The only thing discerning blood from sap is an LED flashlight, but the blood is becoming harder to find as night sets in. It appears that one got away.
ANOTHER TRY Two hunting trips later, Mark decides to up the game. He chooses a different stand in a place they call the Dairy in Pinewood. He chooses a different gun, a Remington 7 mm Magnum. “This deer ain’t going to run away after this,” Mark says. That morning, the fingers of winter swelled into the South before the leaves finished turning colors in the heart of fall. Parts of South Carolina saw a rare five inches of snow, and it was only the day after Halloween. The weather change triggers a fatal madness in bucks like a werewolf under a full moon. It sends them running from the shelter of the woods toward doe in estrus. It sends them running toward cars on the highways and into bullets in cornfields. Hunter, Bonnie and Mark cram into the stand. It’s a freshly built turret overlooking a corn field, and there are office chairs for them to sit on as they try to spot deer emerging from the ring of forest around them. Within half an hour, a doe comes strutting out of the tree line on the left side of the field. It is followed by three others and a small buck. Bonnie presses Mark to let Hunter shoot the small buck so he can get his first kill, but Mark insists they wait.
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Hunter and his grandparents walk out to a deer stand before a hunt.
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The does eat corn from the field, perking their heads up to look at the tree line. One doe jumps, and her tail shoots straight up. She freezes in that position, looking away from the deer stand where the McLeods are watching. On the opposite side of the field, Mark sees two more does eating corn about 200 yards away. The shadow of a buck pokes its antlers out from the falling corn stalks, and Mark signals to Hunter that it is time to shoot. There are almost a dozen deer in the circumference of the field when Hunter and Mark take aim. Bonnie watches the deer through her binoculars. “It’s a huge one, Hunter,” she says. “Oh, my God. Your first one might be a trophy buck.” A screaming energy envelops the stand as they line the deer up, but it is silent. The does were too concerned with the corn, and the bucks were too concerned with the does to be worried about the McLeods pointing a rifle in their direction, let alone feel the adrenaline pumping through the stand. The bang of the 7 mm sends a shockwave of noise through the field, and the deer freeze in a photographic state of shock. Mark’s head drops, and he slides the bolt back to re-cock the gun. They missed. Hunter’s head bumped the scope as he pulled the trigger, and the bullet hit the ground beneath the deer. Mark looks through the scope to see if the deer is still there, but it has hopped back into the woods. Seconds later, moments after the disappointment set in, Bonnie spots another buck, a nine point, stalking a doe 100 yards away, right in the center of the corn field. Mark and Hunter regroup. Hunter shoots the buck square this time, and it drops on the spot. Everyone in the stand is shaking from the adrenaline, even Mark. “I can’t believe how excited Mark got,” Bonnie says. “I think he was shaking when he lined that second one up.” Hunter is elated. “I want my deer necklace,” he says as Mark collects the kill. They take the deer back to the clubhouse where family members and friends came to take photos of Hunter and his first deer. While his father and uncle skin the deer, Mark puts a pair of gloves on, dips his fingers in a gut bucket of deer blood and paints a circle around Hunter’s face. He finds zip ties and fastens them together to form a necklace to bejewel Hunter with the deer testicles. Hunter adorns the necklace reluctantly, gritting a smile for his family’s cameras. “Smile, bud. You only have to do this one time in your whole life, and that’s it,” Mark says. “Just for your first buck.” Someone cracks a joke, and he melts with a grin. 14 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Bonnie shows Hunter the blood on a pile of corn where he shot a deer. This is where the real hunt begins. Mark treaded through the nearby forest to find it. DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 15
16 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Hunter is presented with a deer necklace and a face full of deer blood after killing his first buck at the age of five in a field in Pinewood.
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by RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com
O
n a warm fall day in October, Tabitha Scruggs is wearing a white visor trimmed in gray with an Under Armour logo. Jeans, a T-shirt and boat shoes finish off her casual look as she hops out of the passenger seat of the family’s SUV. When she walks to the back of the vehicle, she bends at the waist to secure her long blonde hair in a ponytail before preparing to gather her shootin and firearm. Along with her twin, Jordan, Tabitha opens the trunk of the vehicle and dresses for some practice shots at Hermitage Farm Shooting Sports in 16-year-old Thomas Sumter Academy students have been a part of t team at the private school since seventh grade and continue to en their skills and hunting together and practicing their shooting Sumter. As expected of twins, Jordan and Tabitha sometimes co out for each other and sometimes correcting or compl “I had to remind him that we were sophomores th Tabitha said. On this day, they’re in familiar territory. Tab during the skeet-shooting season with the r range with her husband. As they throw t over their shoulders and add a couple Jordan head to the first stand at He Although Tabitha is just two m intently to him as he tells her different combinations – pride. “We could do th at clay targets li The Scrugg father has doves spo t
| 18 18 DECEMBER DECEMBER 2014 2014 -- JANUARY JANUARY 2015 2015 | LAKESIDE LAKESIDE
Twins Tabitha and Jordan Scruggs shoot skeet for Thomas Sumter Academy.
o ng gear
d like an expert Camden. The the skeet-shooting njoy the sport, honing at their family home in
omplement each other – looking leting a thought for the other. he other day when someone asked,”
bitha and Jordan practice at Hermitage Farm rest of the TSA team. Coach Amy Cantey owns the their expensive, top-of-the-line over-under firearms e of shells to their safety vests and belts, Tabitha and ermitage Farm to get in a few shots. minutes older than Jordan, she follows his lead and listens r which targets he wants to try. And over and over, they try exhibiting shooting skills in which they obviously take a lot of
his all day,” Jordan says with a smile. And for about an hour, they shoot ke pros, calmly directing the other with one word: “Pull.” gs twins grew up with hunting and firearm safety all around them. Their s always hunted, and now Tabitha said she really enjoys hunting squirrel and although she doesn’t do it as often as she used to. Because of their love of the ort, Tabitha and Jordan probably won’t ask for your typical Christmas gifts, revealing that they’ll probably ask for bullets to continue to supplement their beloved hobby. For anyone of any age who is interested in hunting or learning about a firearm, DECEMBER 2014 2014 -- JANUARY JANUARY 2015 2015 || LAKESIDE DECEMBER LAKESIDE 19 19
Tabitha said you can learn to shoot with anything, but Jordan said they prefer over-under firearms over automatics. “If it’s an automatic, it can misfire. An over-under is not as likely to misfire,” Jordan explained of their choice in firearms. Other than shooting for competition as a part of the team, Jordan hunts for sport, and she’s a runner. They’re close, and hunting and shooting are two of many activities they share with their family. As expected, they have a bit of twin sibling rivalry going on when it comes to shooting, but Tabitha said with a smile, “He always wins.” Of their relationships and friendship, Tabitha said Jordan may not be as protective of her as some might expect a brother to be, but she definitely looks out for him. “If anything, I’m more protective of him. If someone does something or tries to pick on him, I got it,” she says with confidence and all the adoration in the world for her brother.
SKEET SHOOTING AND HUNTING Cantey said the TSA team is diligent in its efforts to improve shooting skills. Although they’re not allowed to practice for competition until November, many of the students on the team hunt and visit shooting ranges individually to keep up their skills. Despite their youth, many of these students’ knowledge of firearms, safety procedures and their marksmanship are pretty impressive. And apparently, you don’t need to have previous experience to become skilled and knowledgeable about firearms of all kinds. Trina Tracey, another member of the TSA team, said she had absolutely no hunting experience, but her father was military, and she decided she wanted to give it a try. “I had never hunted a day in my life but always wanted to. My dad is in the military, and I said I wanted to try because my dad had told me about all of these stories, and I found it interesting,” Tracey said. Cantey said the team has worked with students who are complete beginners and have never fired a gun before joining the team. Capt. John W. “Billy” Downer with South Carolina Department of Natural Resources heads up the sporting clays shooting team at Laurence Manning Academy and agrees that younger students interested in learning about the sport are welcomed. Downer said some of the students he has worked with at LMA also had no experience before joining the team. Some might say, “This is the South. Of course teenagers are hunters and are aware of how to use firearms.” Others might be alarmed that high school students are allowed to use firearms. Downer said one of the main elements in the sport of shooting is firearm safety — something the coaches stress to their students when practicing and competing. “The biggest thing about this sport is responsibility. With football and cheerleading, you may see more accidents there than you would at a shooting competition,” Downer said. “These students are introduced to hunter education, and DNR also works with schools for
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Jordan shoots at a clay target at Hermitage Farm Shooting Sports in Camden.
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it to be included as part of curriculum for agriculture.” So students learn and are aware of the proper way to hold a firearm when competing and how to carry the firearm when off the shooting course. Ultimately, Downer said the sport makes students more responsible, more focused and all around better students in and out of the classroom. Along with responsibility and focus, the students gain a group of friends — practically a family of peers — who share a common interest that takes much practice, and they also enjoy challenging and encouraging each other. “We learn about hunting and safety and prepping,” said eighth-grader John Burroughs. “We stick together if we need help, and we’re like a family.”
EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OF SHOOTING Although these students enjoy the sport of shooting, it’s not all about the hunt or hitting a target. Downer said some people don’t realize that colleges and universities offer scholarships for students who have participated and performed well in sporting clays competitions. To spread awareness of the opportunities, DNR is making multiple efforts to bring the teams and programs to schools across South Carolina. Currently, there are 36
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Jordan shows an emptied shell after a round of practice.
DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 23
Tabitha takes a turn shooting at clay targets in Camden.
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teams in South Carolina at private and public schools and clubs – that includes six teams at public schools. To promote the program and to make people aware of the benefits of being knowledgeable about firearm safety and the opportunities out there for students, DNR is planning an event April 18 in hopes of getting more schools and clubs interested in the program. “This will be open to any young student interested, middle school and up. We’re working with several schools, and we’re culminating this event because we want to get them interested,” Downer said. Through the programs, the students learn about safety measures, receive 4H shotgun training and other opportunities to better their skills in shooting in hopes of being a part of a team and possibly using that experience to receive scholarships. Like DNR, the South Carolina Youth Shooting Foundation makes efforts to get more youth interested in sporting clay shooting, to show support to teams already formed and to give encouragement and support to schools and clubs interested in starting teams.
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DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 25
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DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 31
An assortment of fudge is seen at Smith’s Fresh Fudge in Santee.
32 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Family ALL IN THE
Santee woman furthers fudge business by JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com
I
f fudge is what you’re looking for, then Lane Kelley has a treat to tickle your taste buds. Owner of Smith’s Fresh Fudge, she whips up special flavors according to the season. Popular right now: red velvet, dark chocolate orange, dark chocolate cherry, white chocolate and peppermint bark fudge. Her father, George Smith, started the shop 46 years ago with four flavors – butter pecan, chocolate pecan, chocolate walnut and peanut butter. She’s worked with the concoction company for 30 years and now offers about 80 flavors. “In the summertime, watermelon and peach are popular,” Kelley said. “When I can get fresh fruit, I use it for different flavorings. Pumpkin fudge and sweet potato are fall favorites.” The shop is set inside a gas station, so the candy is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “We get a lot of tourists,” Kelley said. Her son, Lee Kelley IV, also works in the shop. He marks the third generation working with fudge, and with Lane Kelley
expecting her first grandchild in March, the hope is he or she will be the fourth generation to take on the mantle. As the name implies, the fudge is made daily. “We use top-quality ingredients,” Kelley said. “You don’t want to skimp on the ingredients.” So this fudge aficionado has a few tips on making the best fudge. They include: • Weather is a big factor. Don’t make fudge when it’s raining. • If you’re making fudge when the humidity is high, adjust your liquids so it will set right. • Make sure you stir it well. • Use real butter and real cream. No margarine. So, the next time you go to make a batch of chocolaty goodness, think of Kelley’s guidance. And if you’re down near Santee, stop by Smith’s Fresh Fudge, 9030 Old No. 6 Highway, to try a bite of that season’s flavor. It might just spark some culinary ideas of your own.
DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 33
Full E
very year, hundreds, if not thousands, of South Carolina duck hunters head to the great state of Arkansas to hunt. I have to admit that I have been included in that number but not for several years now. At one time, there was absolutely no need for anyone in South Carolina to head any farther away than Sparkleberry Swamp or maybe the coast. South Carolina was a duck-hunting Mecca. I know it’s kind of hard to believe, but it’s true. I started chasing ducks back in the 1960s with a dear friend that has now departed. Ed, his brother Randy and I would head down
to what was then Billup’s Landing and spend the night in the bottom of a boat. We could hear thousands of ducks and Canada geese calling from nearby Santee National Wildlife Refuge all night long. As we tried to sleep, the whistle of wings overhead kept us from ever achieving that goal; we were wired by the time the sun came up. Back in those days, the flats around Billup’s and the refuge would freeze occasionally, and on those days, if you could keep your little hole of water from freezing back over, you could experience some outstanding duck hunting. On one day in particular, the ice was perhaps three-quarters of
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an inch thick, and we were one of the very few parties that braved the elements and hunted that morning. There were four of us surrounding our little decoy spread, and before you could see well enough to tell drakes from hens, the ducks were pouring in. We managed to take 16 mallards that morning, just a few shy of the limit in those days, but for four youngsters of 16 to 18 years old, we had accomplished the seemingly impossible. As we spread our wings and got brave enough to venture into Sparkleberry, which had a reputation of letting you in but never letting you out, we found that there were more ducks in the swamp than we could reasonably attempt to shoot at; we were in heaven. There were days in Sparkleberry that would rival anything that I would ever experience in Arkansas or elsewhere. The old saying is that “all good things must come to an end,” and so it was with duck hunting in South Carolina. For years, the fall rains never materialized, and Santee Cooper Public Service Authority would pull the water levels down to the point to where the swamp was dry enough to burn. No water equals no ducks; it’s as plain and simple as that. Through the years, beginning in the 1980s, the duck numbers began to dwindle, and by the ’90s, they were all but gone. Add to that the fact that the winters have not been cold enough to freeze ponds and lakes in Virginia and North Carolina, thereby driving the ducks farther south, and you have a recipe for disaster. I continued to hunt for years, thinking that this year may be the year when the ducks show up, but they never did. South Carolina Waterfowl Association was providing some limited shooting on the lake and surrounding area when they shot their compounds, and some of the ducks would naturally migrate into the swamp when the grains on their property began to peter out, but for the most part, most of the migratory birds were gone. I’d hear, on occasion, that this group or that crowd had blistered
a few mallards, and it would make me go back to the swamp, but it usually turned out to be a bust. I didn’t pull the trigger on a duck last year. So, what’s a fella to do? Well, there are still a few birds along the coast, and there are Wildlife Management Areas that can be used for hunting and draw hunts that provide some shooting. There is the Hickory Tops WMA that holds a lot of wood ducks, but that comes with a crowd of folks. Not that that will keep you from shooting at ducks; it’s just not my thing to hunt in a crowd. With the wood duck limit at three birds now, a trip into the swamp to shoot woodies is a pretty good idea. While they aren’t much for decoy shooting, they are fun to pass shoot and are pretty good on the table. A stray mallard is not completely out of the question. As I come to the end of my hunting life, I do long for one more really hot duck hunt; TV shows such as the Honey Brake Experience don’t help much. Duck season should be in full swing by the time this issue of Lakeside gets widely circulated, and I’m going to buy a duck stamp and give it another try; maybe this year is the year it will all break loose. I can always hope. Until then, if I want to get in a good duck hunt, I may just have to saddle up and head to Arkansas, Missouri, maybe South Dakota or Louisiana. I hear they’ve got some ducks and duck call makers around West Monroe.
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DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 35
Mix up your holiday meals Fix shrimp and grits the Simply Southern Bistro way by JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com
M
any restaurants have a version of the classic shrimp and grits. It’s certainly a recipe Jeff Dennis was exposed to in his time in the food industry and in his chef training. But once he opened his own place, Simply Southern Bistro in Sumter, he wanted to put his own spin on the dish. Like other great chefs, Dennis focuses on fresh ingredients. “Nothing comes out of a big, plastic jug,” said Gail Dennis, his mother and part owner with him and Wayne Dennis, his father and Gail’s husband. That means using real butter, not margarine, and real grits, not the instant kind. Also, no frozen shrimp allowed and no substitutes for the heavy cream in the recipe. Chef Dennis recommends Andouille sausage and white Chablis for the wine that goes into the gravy. He went with cheese grits over original or buttered to give the grits a creamier texture and brighter color. And don’t let the idea of grits make you think this delight is limited to breakfast and brunch. It’s served all day long at Simply Southern Bistro. “It’s one of our best sellers,” Gail Dennis said. “It’s nice and warm on cold days.” You also don’t have to feel stifled by a certain amount. The West Wesmark Boulevard restaurant serves it up in full or half portions. So don’t be afraid to grow or shrink the measurements to fit a crowd or an intimate gathering. Once you’ve fixed this taste sensation, the Dennis family suggests plating and serving it immediately.
Southern Shrimp & Grits
36 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Courtesy of Jeff Dennis, owner and executive chef of Simply Southern Bistro. Makes six servings 1 1/2 cups grits grits, and reduce the heat to 5 cups water low. Simmer covered until 1 cup cheddar cheese thick stirring occasionally. 1 tablespoon butter Add butter, salt and 1 1/2 pounds of medium cheese. Mix thoroughly until shrimp, peeled and deveined cheese is melted. 1 cup onions, diced Heat olive oil in sauté pan. 1/2 cup diced peppers Add onions, peppers and 1 tablespoon roasted garlic sausage. Sauté until golden 2 ounces of white wine brown. 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning Add shrimp, white wine, 1 cup sliced smoked sausage garlic, Cajun seasoning and 2 cups heavy cream heavy cream. Cook until 2 table spoons good olive oil shrimp are done. Pour mixture over cheese Start by bringing the grits and serve. water to a boil. Add the
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o l o S g n i n n i Sk n o i t a s n Se et n r e t n I ains g ’ ng i e s d s a e l c B o ‘The eer-pr d r o f stardom knife skills H photos
38 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
and a
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David “The Blade” Soto sharpens his skinning knife before filleting a deer at Peach Orchard Processing in Dalzell.
D
avid “The Blade” Soto can skin a deer in under 2 minutes, and he is a YouTube sensation. His fame originated at Peach Orchard Deer Processing in Dalzell in the past five years, where he learned to skin deer from owner Roy Floyd and his crew. Soto’s speed is a big help in the middle of deer-hunting season, when the processor has so many customers it has to call Sumter County Sheriff ’s Office to help direct traffic to the parking lot from S.C. 441, Floyd said. In the peak of the season, the dead deer form five-foot-tall mountains in Peach Orchard’s skinning room. This is where Soto gets to work each season, skinning hundreds of deer for customers across the Southeast. The processor hit the world stage when its video of Soto skinning a deer in under 2 minutes went viral with more than 500,000 views on YouTube. Another version of the video was shared on Outdoor Life Magazine’s website. The employees put the video up as a promotion for a high-carbon stainless skinning knife they were trying to sell, but they didn’t think it would contribute to any kind of success, Floyd said. The video helped sell more than 10,000 knives. “I am famous and broke,” Soto said with his Spanish accent. Soto is a 23-year-old native of Mexico, and he wields a skinning knife like a Samurai chef at a hibachi restaurant — twirling it to transition from cut to cut. Soto got his start working at the processor salting and preparing
deer hides. From salting hides, Soto learned the basics of skinning a deer from Peach Orchard’s Mike Gil. Soto learned from the best, he said. The first time he skinned a deer, it took him 30 minutes. Now, he is the fastest skinner in the shop, and he has videos of himself skinning a deer in one minute and 31 seconds. “To get fast, you just have to practice,” Soto said. “We get a lot of practice here.” Floyd, 50, got his start working in the meat business at a Bi-Lo grocery store when he was 16. He modeled Peach Orchard Deer Processing after his friend’s shop, Tracey’s Deer Processing, when he was managing a Food Lion. He and his wife thought it would be a part-time gig where he only worked a few nights a week. It didn’t quite work out that way, he said. He has 18 employees who process an array of animals including hog, alligator, deer, goat and cows year round. It’s a full-time job, he said, and the store has gained popularity for products such as jalapeño-and-cheese-stuffed venison snack sticks that 12 other processors sell. Peach Orchard collects hides from processors across the Southeast to be turned into textiles. Last year, Floyd traveled across the South to pick up 50,000 deer hides. The processor skinned 4,200 deer last year. “When I first started this, I didn’t know there were that many deer in the country, let alone South Carolina,” Floyd said.
David shows off a night’s work of skinning before deer season hits its peak. DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 39
How to score
Your Buck by JOE KEPLER
It’s not all about the points
The spread of a buck’s rack is measured. Just one part of scoring a buck properly. 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 40 DECEMBER
W
hen deer hunters swap stories, a main point to boast about is how many “points” a buck had. Even for non-hunters, it’s a common turn of phrase, but how do you really score a buck? The answer might surprise you and make you consider going back to school to touch up your math skills. Scoring a buck is a lengthy process involving circumference, length and width, along with addition and subtraction. To help explain the process, we talked to Adam Nicholas, a hunter on “Final Descent Outdoors” hunting show on the Pursuit Channel. An Oklahoma native, he has been with the show for four years and has previous experience on the show “Buckventures” on the Sportsman Channel. He began hunting at age 15 and today uses rifles and bows to predominantly hunt whitetail deer. To get started with the scoring process, you will need flexible measuring tape that has one-eighth-inch markings because all measurements of the rack are made to the nearest one-eighth of an inch, even if it comes out evenly to a half- or quarter-inch measurement. You can also use a wooden ruler or yardstick to properly measure out the width of the rack. The first measurement is the main beam length on each side of the rack. The main beam is defined as the base of the horn all the way up to the tip of the outermost tine (horn point). Using the flexible tape, run it up the outside of the main beam, and record the number in inches and eighths of inches. After that, you will measure the tines, or points, on each side of the rack. Points are defined as a projection “at least 1-inch long with the total length exceeding the width of the point at one inch or more of length,” according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources website. To measure the point, you start at the base where it comes off the main beam and run the tape all the way to the tip. Each point is labeled separately as G1, G2, G3 and so on to count each individual point on each side of a rack. Once you have recorded all the G points on each side of the rack, you will measure and record any abnormal points. Those are defined as asymmetrical or unmatched to any other points on the rack. For example, if you count to G5 on your left side rack but only G4 on the right, that extra point is considered abnormal and must be recorded separately. At the end of the scoring process, the total length of abnormal points will be subtracted from your overall score. Even if the points match up symmetrically from the right side to the left, the length of the points must also match up, or that will be deducted as well. That means if your G1 score for the left side is 1 3/8 inches different than the matching point on the right, the difference between the two will be subtracted from the final score. “I would say the majority of bucks have up to a G4, which would make it an ‘eight-point buck,’ but there are some like a 12 point that go up to G5 and G6,” Nicholas said. After finishing all the lengths, move on to measuring the four circumferences used in the scoring process. While the amount of “G” points may vary from deer to deer, there will always be just four circumference measurements taken no matter the size or shape of the rack. These measurements are defined as H1, H2, H3 and H4 and record the mass or thickness of the main beam between “G” points. The H1 measurement is taken at the smallest point between the burr (base) of the horn and the first point, G1. H2 measures the main beam thickness between points G1 and G2, H3 is the main
beam thickness between points G2 and G3, and H4 is between points G3 and G4. What you would do is wrap the flexible measuring tape around the main beam in the space between the aforementioned points and record the total inches around each point is. It is crucial that you take the smallest, or thinnest, part of the space rather than the thickest. It is also important to know that even if your rack does not have a G4 point, you must still measure the H4. In that case, take the appropriate measurement from G3 to the tip. When the fine measurements are completed, take out your ruler or yardstick to get the inside spread. That is determined as the widest point between the main beams. One important note to remember is that the inside spread number may equal but never exceed the length of your longest main beam. There are two other spread measurements that are used in this final step. “You’ll also have the tip-to-tip spread, which would be the tips of the main beams and how far they are from each other,” Nicholas explained. “Then you’ll also have the greatest spread, which would be from whatever point coming off the main beam, the outside of that to the outside of the opposite.” After jotting down all the measurements in, it’s time to do some math. To get your score, add the inside spread, both beam lengths, all the point lengths and each circumference measurement, keeping in mind the one-eighth rule. Once you have that total, subtract the total deduction number from that number to get the final score. After that, hunters can see where their trophy stands in the eyes of two major wildlife organizations: Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young. The minimum entry score for a Boone and Crockett whitetail is 160 inches for its “All-Time” minimum entry, which comes with a listing in the group’s awards book as well as its “Records of North American Big Game” book. Pope and Young, a system used for bow hunting, lists the minimum accepted score as 125 inches and a world record of 204 and four-eighth inches. That trophy is credited to Mel Johnson of Peoria County, Illinois, all the way back in 1965. “If you shoot a ‘Boone and Crockett’ buck, it’s a pretty prestigious feat,” Nicholas said, referring to the strict guidelines for the group. “The benchmark right now is hitting the 200-inch mark. The 200inch deer is hitting the grand slam in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to win the World Series. “I would say for hunters across the country the odds of shooting a deer with over 150 inches, that’s quite an accomplishment,” he added. “With the way that folks are managing their properties now, the deer have really started to put on the headgear.” “In my opinion, hunting a mature animal that’s smart and outwitting a six- or seven-year-old buck is quite an accomplishment,” Nicholas said. “I don’t get caught up in the score as much, but when you do shoot a good one, you kind of want to puff your chest out a little bit.” If you’re planning ahead, you can print out a score sheet in advance of your hunt — a downloadable file of the score sheet is available online through the SCDNR website. Nicholas said there are also programs you can download on your smartphone that will allow you to plug your measurements into it rather than carrying pen and paper when you head out. “Antler Colt Shirley pulls a Metrix” is available on Apple and Android phones, and “ScoreMyRack” is available for Android. catfish out of the water So the next time you want to brag, he follow thesewith stepsatobow. back itHe shot up with some simple math. uses both a spear and a
bow to catch catfish off the front of the airboat.
DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 41
FISHING TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION F by JOE KEPLER
ishing tournaments are a year-round event in the Southeast, and 2015 will certainly be no different. Tournaments on lakes Marion, Moultrie, Wateree, Murray and others across the state will give anglers of all ages and experience levels a healthy dose of top competition. The area tournament season begins early in 2015 with Cabela’s “King Kat” Tournament that runs Feb. 19-21 on lakes Marion and Moultrie. It will be one of five Super Events leading up to the 2015 King Kat Championships in October on Lake Wateree in Camden. It started in the summer of 2013 but was moved to a more ideal season in the winter. It was held in February for the first time in 2014, and it will happen again in 2015. There is a guaranteed payout of $10,000 and prizes, and the deadline to mail registration is Feb. 5. Start time each day is 6:30 a.m., and fishing ends at 3 p.m. Weigh-in is at 4 p.m. If interested, you can register through www.KingKatUSA.com. The 2014 event brought in 120 anglers from 12 states, according to the King Kat website. The first-place team of Cecil Menshouse and Jason Withrow from Kentucky caught seven fish weighing a total of 215.3 pounds in two days to win $5,000. The duo also brought in the big fish of the event with a 46.76-pound catfish to win an additional $1,200. The next week there will be the Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters Tournament on Lake Marion. The one-day tournament will be held Feb. 28. It is the first year of the tournament, which was originally scheduled to begin last year before the ice storm forced its cancellation. In March, Fishing League Worldwide will host a 2015 WalMart Bass Fishing League event on Santee Cooper. The one-day event will be March 21 and is one of five events planned in the South Carolina Division of the league. Registration will be from 4 to 6 p.m. on March 20 at the Manning Walmart, 2010 Paxville Highway. The marina will be John C. Land Landing in Summerton. Lake Wateree will host a regional later in the year from Oct. 15-17. Also in March, Hill’s Landing out of Cross will host its annual Spring Fling Cat Tournament. It will be held the second weekend of March and runs from daylight to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and on
Sunday it starts at 11 a.m. The group will also have a Catfish Stew Cook-Off the second weekend of October that will also include a one-day tournament that runs from daylight to 3 p.m., and its biggest event comes in November with the Big Cat Tournament, which will be celebrating its 13th year. For all of its tournaments, it will be a catch and release, with the only exception being that October’s tournament will require that just the bigger fish be cut loose. To qualify for the win, a fisherman’s catch must swim away upon release. One of the longest events in the early season will be the 2015 Santee Cooper Country Fishing Derby. The 28-day event will run from March 30 to April 26, according to the tournament’s site. A daily $200 prize and a weekly $1,000 prize will be given for the biggest fish in four categories: bass, crappie, catfish and striper. The overall biggest fish of each of the four species will win $10,000 at the end of the tournament. Only fish caught on Lake Marion, Lake Moultrie and the diversion canal can be submitted for prizes, and all fish must be caught on hook and line or rod and reel. Registration is $10 for adults and $5 for kids under 16 and is good for the entire tournament. Scales will close at 6 p.m. every day except Sunday when they will close at 3 p.m. Clarendon Chamber of Commerce is hosting the fourthannual Santee Cooper Open Team Tournament on April 25. It has drawn as many as 130 boats in the past, and organizers are hoping for even more in 2015. For more information on the event, call (803) 435-4405 or email chamber@clarendoncounty.com. In May, the 2015 SC CATT (Carolina Anglers Team Trail) Championship will be held at John Land Landing from May 3031. Qualifiers for the championship are going on already through divisional contests. Each lake affiliated with the competition has its own final, at Lake Marion. It comes with a $120 entry fee and a $10,000 purse. The Bass Federation of South Carolina has planned out its 2015 schedule, which starts locally on Lake Murray on Jan. 31. The event will launch from Dreher Island. On Feb. 21, it will host an event on Lake Wateree, then on April 4, it will be at John Land Landing. The deadline for entry is always the Saturday before, and entry information can be found at www.TBFofSC.com.
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Striper BAIT: Live shad is the best, but some use topwater bait rubber tail jig, bucktail and others. BEST TIME/PLACE: You will have the best luck catching striper three weeks before and three weeks after Thanksgiving, when the water is between 55 and 70 degrees. The fishing will get better as the water cools down. LIMITATIONS: Fish must be at least 26 inches in length; anglers may only take three fish each.
Crappie
BAIT: Small minnows and small jigs can be used.
BEST TIME/PLACE: Crappie will be biting through the month of December in the deep water of the Santee Cooper lakes. LIMITATIONS: Anglers can take 20 fish per person with no size restraint.
Flathead Catfish by MATT WALSH matt@theitem.com
BAIT: Big, hardy, live baits and live perch are ideal.
BEST TIME/PLACE: Fall is the best time to fish for these predator fish. This is a time when they school together in clusters before going dormant for the winter time. They will situate themselves in the deepest part of the water where there is still oxygen (approximately 4050 feet). LIMITATIONS: None
Blue Catfish BAIT: Gizzard shad and perch can be used.
BEST TIME/PLACE: Fall is a great season for blue catfish, and they can be found feeding on mussels on the ridges of the lake. They don’t like the muddy areas. A clam bed on the bank is a good indicator that blue catfish are in that area. LIMITATIONS: None
DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 43
Renee and Catie will be serving Sumter County, Clarendon County and ALL of Lake Marion for your Real Estate and Property Management needs.
We wish you a Catie Loadholt Happy and Safe (803) 460 460-7875 7875 holiday Season. Summit Property Management
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44 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Take One Make one DNR teaches first time hunters photos and article by MATT WALSH
D
epartment of Natural Resources’ Lynwood Kearst has taken hundreds of children on their first hunts in all corners of South Carolina. He is the regional coordinator for Take One Make One, a program that targets children ages 10-17 who want to try hunting but don’t have the means to hunt, whether they come from impoverished backgrounds or from families that have never hunted before. “That’s all I have been doing for the last 11 years, taking youngins huntin,’” Kearst said. The program begins with DNR’s mandatory 8-hour hunter education course for all hunters born after June 30, 1979, to obtain a hunting license in South Carolina. The class is not a bunch of 10-year-old boys. The class held at Simpson Hardware & Sports in Sumter in mid-October is packed this time of year, right before the rut – right before the big deer start to move to the cold, faint whispers of the coming Carolina winter. Myriad demographics, including young girls, law enforcement officials, military officers and experienced hunters from other parts of the country who wanted to be licensed in South Carolina, pack into a tight break room for the course. Breanna Gandy, a 17-year-old high school student, was in the class. She had gone hunting many times with her boyfriend and said she has experienced the rush of seeing a buck emerging from the woods, but she has never shot one for herself. “I don’t come from a hunting family,” she said. “I go to school and see my friends do it, and I have felt the adrenaline
rush when you see a deer and all you can think is ‘shoot it, shoot it, shoot it,’ but I have never taken one, so I want to get my first deer and have that experience too.” The course teaches everything from the basics of various guns and identifying species to taking ethical shots at animals. After students pass the class, Take One Make One pairs kids with mentors, and they go hunting on private land. The majority of Kearst’s kids are from single-parent families that have stories that might be in the newspaper or on television; they are usually kids who need a father figure, he said. He has a mentor for each situation. “You have a chance to take kids away from whatever situation they might be in, put them in a stand in the woods and teach them about the natural resources,” DNR Outreach Coordinator Ryan Bass said, “that there is more to hunting than killing.” When the time comes to finally shoot a deer, both parties are equally excited, Bass said. “I took a very young girl and her mom hunting this weekend, and we missed the first deer, and the little girl started crying,” Kearst said. “I thought she was done; I thought she’d never go hunting again.” Moments later, another deer popped its head out, and the little girl shot it square in the shoulder. Her stand erupted in a pandemonium of high fives with Kearst, and her mother congratulated her on her first kill. “Sometimes I can’t tell who is more excited, the mentor or the mentee,” Bass said.
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Herald Johnson gets into his John Deere tractor to bale hay. 48 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
From the Force to the the Farm by MATT BRUCE
matthew@theitem.com
DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE 49
T
hey say money doesn’t grow on trees. Yet Harold Johnson has spent the past 15 years proving otherwise. For the 63-year-old cultivator, money grows on trees, shrubs, rosebushes and myriad plants that sprout each year in his yard. Johnson is the owner and founder of Treehouse Nursery and Feed Supply, 3750 Thomas Sumter Highway, a family run farm on the south end of Dalzell near Shaw Air Force Base. The nursery offers more than 150 varieties of plants, shrubs and trees, ranging from fruit vines to hedges to large palm trees. For Johnson, the business is a labor of love that grew out of a hobby more than 20 years ago. Though he’s tilled soil for much of the past two decades, many Sumter County residents may remember him as the former chief of Sumter Police Department. He served 10 years atop the department and spent nearly 30 years on the force, retiring in 2001. He’s been building up his business ever since. For Johnson, the 13-acre pasture represents a return to his roots.
THE SEED Johnson was the second youngest of six children, growing up a farm boy on a humble cotton field along Reynolds Road in Dalzell. His father was a cropper who came from a long line of farmers, teaching his children how to pick cotton, raise cattle and plant corn, soybeans and wheat. Johnson remembers days of waking up before the sun rose to long hours spent milking cows, feeding goats, pigs and turkeys, sowing seeds and baling hay. It was a work ethic that would later benefit him as he built up his small business. “We were not wealthy farmers. My dad and ma were very good people. They raised their kids on that farm. But when you got out of high school, you generally had to go find a job somewhere.” When he turned 19, Johnson left the farm and got a job installing gas tanks for Suburban Gas Co. There, he met a young recruit for Sumter Police Department who invited him to join the reserves. Hesitant at first, Johnson said he finally took a ride with the officers one Friday night and fell in love with the idea. “You’re helping people, you’re working with people,” he said. “They gave us uniforms and put us in a car — it was the nicest car I’d ever driven. So I fell in love with it, and I found me a home.” It would remain his home for the next 30 years as Johnson worked his way up from reserve officer and became police chief in 1990.
Johnson had his own small pasture out in Wedgefield when he became the chief, where he raised goats and chickens. The position, however, required him to move within city limits and forced him to literally sell the proverbial farm. He uprooted his family and moved to a sandlot on Cromer Drive with no trees. But Johnson admits he still had the farm boy in him.
STARTING SMALL The move from the country set in motion a chain of events that led Johnson to sort of stumble upon his destiny. His new house in Sumter did not have a single plant on the property. Lacking the money to landscape his new home, Johnson turned to his oldest brother, a professional agriculturalist, who began showing him how to grow his own plants. Johnson’s brother taught him a technique called “rooting,” which consists of using cuttings from plants and cropping them in small soil patches until roots grow for new plants. Johnson soon learned that he could “root” most plants by cultivating them in his brother’s greenhouse. His first batch saw him root 100 azalea cuttings in the greenhouse, and 90 of them sprouted roots. “My theory was if I put in 100 cuttings, I might get 20 out of it. But about all of them worked,” he said with a chuckle. Johnson took the batch home and began planting the young azaleas around his house. A neighbor asked him if he’d sell the extras at $1 apiece, and Johnson accepted, making $25 on the deal. The transaction covered a steak dinner for him and his family at a nice restaurant. “That kind of started the thought of, ‘I can grow more of these,’” he said. “But I had no real thought of building my own greenhouses and doing stuff like this at that time. I was basically just doing it for my house.” A few weeks later, however, when the same neighbor asked him to root a gardenia rosebush, Johnson began to realize he may be on to something. The next spring, he rooted 100 more azaleas and took them to a small hardware store in Sumter, selling them to the owner for $1.50 apiece. The next winter, he went to a larger hardware store and offered to root the plant for them as well. The owner offered to buy a few thousand azaleas. It was Johnson’s first big order. He enlisted the help of his brother to devise a way to fill it. And he was on his way. By the following spring, Johnson had grown all the azaleas for the hardware shop, and his business continued to grow from there. “That was the beginning, and I just absolutely fell in love with it,” he said.
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3250 Carter Road | Sumter, SC 29150 Phone: (803) 775-5025 | Fax: (803) 775-3595 OFFICE HOURS MONDAY - FRIDAY 8:30 - 5:30 | SATURDAY BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
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Johnson holds a sprouting plant in his nursery.
Mary and Catie will be serving Sumter County, Clarendon County and ALL of Lake Marion for your Real Estate and Property Management needs.
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Johnson quickly realized he could root just about any plant and soon began taking cuttings from every nice shrub he noticed. He soon was able to move from his brother’s greenhouse and set up shop on a vacant piece of land owned by his father-in-law just off Queen Chapel Road. That came in 1995, toward the end of his policing career. Johnson established a mist house and greenhouse and even had a 30-foot well built on the property. He said he often sat out there during the weekends and rooted plant cuttings, watching them take form in his greenhouse — everything from crape myrtles to Japanese maples and daylilies. He noted the serene surroundings provided relief from the endless phone calls and pressures of solving “rapes, robberies and murders” on a daily basis. “I’d use that as a getaway,” he said. “I’d go out there, and it was just peaceful. You sit out there, and the birds were singing, the sun was shining, and I’d sit there and cut my cuttings, prop my little one-gallon pots up to get the root balls. “All of that was stress releasing,” Johnson added. “There was really a lot of stress at that time. It’s a tough job, and sooner or later it takes a toll on you. Sometimes, you need to get away.”
FULL BLOOM Johnson began selling plants at the Queen Chapel Road farm just one day a weekend. But soon, the demand forced him to open up twice a weekend. Soon after, he found himself spending more and more hours at the plant farm as his customer base continued to grow. In 2001, he retired from the police force and dedicated himself to his new hobby full time. He spent nearly 13 years on Queen Chapel
before moving to the current site in 2009. The feed supply has become a second arm of the nursery, and Johnson said it helped sustain the business during the economic downturn, when plant sales dropped significantly. Johnson said he saw several year-round plant nurseries across the state fold during the recession and planned to add layers to his business. He relied on his farming background and began raising cattle. Through the years, he also began selling feed for horses, chickens, dogs and goats. His team of up to five employees makes deliveries to several parts of the Midlands and has increased feed supply sales by 1,400 packs this year. “I found out really quick, if you’re going to do this full time, you better diversify,” he said. “During those good times, we were able to build that business up. And when the bottom fell out on the plants side, we worked harder to build the feed and hay business.” On top of that, Johnson and company formulated their own all stock feed, which the shop sells. Treehouse Nursery also provides all the feed for the University of South Carolina equestrian team, selling them about 1.5 to 2 tons each week of the Florida-based product from Seminole Feed Co. Johnson said he also provides plants to 23 different stores and chains across the state. The nursery has grown to include more than 100,000 plants, several farm animals and two barns where feed and fertilizer supplies are stored. In recent years, Johnson began leasing a 26-acre field at the back end of his farm that he calls “The Field of Dreams.” He and his team use the field to pasture and bale tons of hay each summer to sell. “It’s just been a wonderful experience to grow my own business, he said.”
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Johnson bails hay in his barn.
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54 DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 | LAKESIDE
Pee Dee Cardiology. Exceptional Cardiac Care in Sumter.
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DR. DENNIS LANG – NOW ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS Heart conditions caused by high blood pressure and cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and family history are on the rise. And that’s why choosing the right cardiologist to evaluate, diagnose, treat, and prevent heart conditions is more important than ever. Pee Dee Cardiology has a long history of providing the highest quality adult cardiovascular care in the region. Our Sumter practice, led by Dr. Dennis Lang, a highly-skilled cardiologist, is accepting new patients and we’re ready to provide you the care you deserve and need. To make an appointment call 1-803-883-5171. Physician and self-referrals are welcome.
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