Thanksgiving and Deer Season
Ken Batten
November 27, 2025
Years ago, I remember hearing a story about a Vermont farmer way down in Vernon Vermont. His house and barn were just this side of the Massachusetts state line. Surveyors re-surveyed the line between the states and found that his farm was actually in Massachusetts. The surveyors were a bit nervous about telling the old farmer, since he was such a proud independent Vermonter. They explained to him that a lot of those old time surveyors liked their rum pretty good and they didn't always run a straight line, so his place was now in Massachusetts. The old farmer replied, "Good, I was just about sick of them Vermont winters anyway."
The rule of thumb has always been, you'll have snow on the ground for tracking on the last week of deer season. Another rule of thumb is that you better have your snow tires on before Thanksgiving. Snow usually comes and goes starting in late October and then stays on the ground in late November or early December. Of course, there are always exceptions.
Here in North Hyde Park the snow came about two weeks early this year. I wasn't quite ready for winter yet. I told that to a local farmer and he said "I don't think anyone was ready." It brings back memories of growing up in the 1960's and 1970's. It was a time of exceptional snow and cold. The four year period between 1968 and 1972 were way above average in snowfall and cold, and there hadn't been a span of that kind of weather in the past 100 years. Of course, at my age, that was all I knew and thought it was normal.
The last couple weeks of November brings the regular deer season in Vermont and Thanksgiving falls on the last Thursday of the month. It is practically a sacred time in the state. Businesses close, people take time off from work, kids skip school. Bruce O'Meara told me that the Spaulding High School vice principal called some of the East Orange boys into his office and told them that he knew that they were going to skip school to go hunting, so he told them to take the time off and come back as soon as they got their deer and do the best that they could to keep up with their studies.
Some hunters went to deer camp and some drove a short distance to their hunting spots, but most, like us, just walked from their front door since we lived right in the middle of deer country. Even though dad never posted his land, whenever a local wanted to hunt there, they would always ask for his permission first. Dad would tell them where they could hunt so it wouldn't interfere with us. Just about everyone that you came across in the woods was someone you knew.
There were a few camps around that had a group of out-of-staters that came year after year and they were pretty good guys and had some good hunters. But now and then some showed up that you had to keep your eye on. Fortunately they wore blaze orange, so they were easy to see. It was the first time we saw blaze orange. A couple of my friends called them pumpkins. Most of us wore wool, red and black hunters plaid.
Within a few years just about everyone was wearing some blaze orange when we realized how much it improved safety.
Some of those hunters from down country had nice cars and the best equipment, but you could tell they had no idea what they were doing.It was a half mile walk up the dirt road from our one room schoolhouse to our house. One day I was walking home after school. About half way home there was a big fancy car with out-of-state plates parked beside the road. A little further on, there was a man in a pumpkin suit, blaze orange, sitting up on a stone wall over looking the road. I waved to him and thought that he must be resting or waiting for someone. He was there the next day and the day after that. That's when I figured out that it was his deer stand. I guess he thought if he could see his car and the road there was no chance of getting lost. My dad was talking to another one and he asked him if he had any luck. He told my dad no, but he got off a sound shot. My dad asked him what a sound shot was. The pumpkin said, that's when you hear a sound that could be a deer and you shoot at it. My dad proceeded to give him a good chewing out about how dangerous and stupid that is. Dad also invited him to get out of our area.
I had a favorite deer stand right on top of a hardwood ridge on our farm. I shot my first buck there in 1970 when I was fourteen years old. I never was a great hunter, too impatient, so I didn't get too many after that. I would always hike up to the top of the ridge in the dark so I could be sitting there about fifteen minutes before daylight. I'd try to sit there for an hour or so and by then I'd be freezing. Then I would slowly hunt my way back down through the woods to my parents house for lunch. One of my favorite memories was walking into our warm kitchen filled with the wonderful smell of Thanksgiving dinner being cooked by my mother. It wasn't just the warmth of the woodstove, it was the warmth of home, and family, and love.
Ken Batten grew up on a small sheep farm in West Topsham VT. He was a logging contractor, soldier and rural mail carrier. He now lives in North Hyde Park VT with his wife Tina-Marie. You can contact Ken at kenbatvt@gmail.com or PO Box 5 N Hyde Park VT 05665
The rule of thumb has always been, you'll have snow on the ground for tracking on the last week of deer season. Another rule of thumb is that you better have your snow tires on before Thanksgiving. Snow usually comes and goes starting in late October and then stays on the ground in late November or early December. Of course, there are always exceptions.
Here in North Hyde Park the snow came about two weeks early this year. I wasn't quite ready for winter yet. I told that to a local farmer and he said "I don't think anyone was ready." It brings back memories of growing up in the 1960's and 1970's. It was a time of exceptional snow and cold. The four year period between 1968 and 1972 were way above average in snowfall and cold, and there hadn't been a span of that kind of weather in the past 100 years. Of course, at my age, that was all I knew and thought it was normal.
The last couple weeks of November brings the regular deer season in Vermont and Thanksgiving falls on the last Thursday of the month. It is practically a sacred time in the state. Businesses close, people take time off from work, kids skip school. Bruce O'Meara told me that the Spaulding High School vice principal called some of the East Orange boys into his office and told them that he knew that they were going to skip school to go hunting, so he told them to take the time off and come back as soon as they got their deer and do the best that they could to keep up with their studies.
Some hunters went to deer camp and some drove a short distance to their hunting spots, but most, like us, just walked from their front door since we lived right in the middle of deer country. Even though dad never posted his land, whenever a local wanted to hunt there, they would always ask for his permission first. Dad would tell them where they could hunt so it wouldn't interfere with us. Just about everyone that you came across in the woods was someone you knew.
There were a few camps around that had a group of out-of-staters that came year after year and they were pretty good guys and had some good hunters. But now and then some showed up that you had to keep your eye on. Fortunately they wore blaze orange, so they were easy to see. It was the first time we saw blaze orange. A couple of my friends called them pumpkins. Most of us wore wool, red and black hunters plaid.
Within a few years just about everyone was wearing some blaze orange when we realized how much it improved safety.
Some of those hunters from down country had nice cars and the best equipment, but you could tell they had no idea what they were doing.It was a half mile walk up the dirt road from our one room schoolhouse to our house. One day I was walking home after school. About half way home there was a big fancy car with out-of-state plates parked beside the road. A little further on, there was a man in a pumpkin suit, blaze orange, sitting up on a stone wall over looking the road. I waved to him and thought that he must be resting or waiting for someone. He was there the next day and the day after that. That's when I figured out that it was his deer stand. I guess he thought if he could see his car and the road there was no chance of getting lost. My dad was talking to another one and he asked him if he had any luck. He told my dad no, but he got off a sound shot. My dad asked him what a sound shot was. The pumpkin said, that's when you hear a sound that could be a deer and you shoot at it. My dad proceeded to give him a good chewing out about how dangerous and stupid that is. Dad also invited him to get out of our area.
I had a favorite deer stand right on top of a hardwood ridge on our farm. I shot my first buck there in 1970 when I was fourteen years old. I never was a great hunter, too impatient, so I didn't get too many after that. I would always hike up to the top of the ridge in the dark so I could be sitting there about fifteen minutes before daylight. I'd try to sit there for an hour or so and by then I'd be freezing. Then I would slowly hunt my way back down through the woods to my parents house for lunch. One of my favorite memories was walking into our warm kitchen filled with the wonderful smell of Thanksgiving dinner being cooked by my mother. It wasn't just the warmth of the woodstove, it was the warmth of home, and family, and love.
Ken Batten grew up on a small sheep farm in West Topsham VT. He was a logging contractor, soldier and rural mail carrier. He now lives in North Hyde Park VT with his wife Tina-Marie. You can contact Ken at kenbatvt@gmail.com or PO Box 5 N Hyde Park VT 05665
Author Kenny Batten with his first spike horn whitetail buck at age 14 in 1970.
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