We’re ready for your visit to help us celebrate our grand outdoor heritage

The planning and the brainstorming for the 24th Annual Woods-N-Water News Outdoor Weekend are now officially closed.

Oh, like always there will be some odds and ends that will need our attention, but for the most part the Outdoor Weekend is a wrap.

We are excited about some of the new attractions for our visitors and of course we are happy to have our mainstay popular attractions back. After all, the Outdoor Weekend just wouldn’t be the Outdoor Weekend without our Puppy Tent, Chili Cook-off, a strong lineup of seminars, the Ultimate Air Dogs National Championship competition, hundreds of exhibitors, Bill Yoder and his trophy whitetails, the frontier and civil war encampments, Mr. Food Plot, Ed Spinazzola and in general an atmosphere of a celebration of our outdoor heritage wherever you walk on the fairgrounds in Imlay City.

As for new attractions we’re pleased to have Tim Hart and his Big Buck Pole cameras rolling and our stage rocking with whitetail mania. Tim and his band of loyal hunters will bring some of the many monster bucks taken by Michigan hunters this past season. You’ll hear their stories and many others I’m certain. Tim is a master at getting people excited about whitetail hunting and our hunting traditions.

Steve Francis, owner of Country Smoke House, will again offer his very popular demonstration of butchering and processing your whitetail. The tips he offers has helped many hunters care for their game once they have harvested it.

And of course the entire Francis family will be on hand to offer samples of their sausage and jerky produced at their facility. My favorite is the cherry elk sticks. I can taste it now.

New this year is Chef Ryan who works for Country Smoke House and will offer some on the spot recipes for the huntin’ camp. Or I suppose so you can grill your harvest all year long in the backyard. You won’t want to miss it. Steve will show you how to get your harvest to the freezer safely and correctly, while Chef Ryan gets it on the grill.

We’re also excited to bring back Tony LaPratt and his unique tactics and tips to hold deer on your small acreage. Tony has become one of the foremost authorities on whitetails. He will be offering some of his secrets to whitetail success and signing up hunters for his popular and informative “Whitetail Bootcamps.”

One of the newest events is Alexandria’s Nature Bus for the youngsters. Dick Grant, a 32 year veteran of wildlife conservation and education will be with us from the Howell Conference & Nature Center. Over 70,000 people a year visit the Nature Center and take advantage of their many environmental education programs.

Through a grant from the Spirit of Alexandria Foundation, they will share with youngsters fun interactive games and activities, educational hands-on exhibits, such as live falcons, owls, woodchucks, opossum and an assortment of other native Michigan creatures.

I encourage you to read the story of the Spirit of Alexandria Foundation at: www.howellnaturecenter.org.

And for the second year the Woods-N-Water News Outdoor Weekend 3-D Archery Championships are back. Working with X Factor Archery almost $2,000 in cash and prizes are on the line in three separate moving 3-D archery competition categories, Youth, Open and Team. Three tournaments in three days. Please visit:

www.xfactorarchery.com to get all the details, there is limited space so sign up today for any of those three tournaments. You can also give Bryan or Aaron a call at X Factory Archery to sign up, 517-524-7230.

We’ve also got a few new vendors with merchandise perfect for your hunting or fall fishing trips.

One thing that isn’t new is the price of admission, only $7.00, free parking and children under 12 are free. In our 24 year history of bringing you the Woods-N-Water News Outdoor Weekend we have only increased our price of admission one time, from $5 to $7.00 a half dozen years ago. We’ve got enough going on inside the fairgrounds during the Outdoor Weekend to make it worth your time.