Peg,
How's it looking for deer? Crusader and I would really like some venison (and we could help with the pigs!).
If'n we lived a little closer, I'd bring 'em to ya.
Lack of rain over the summer has us as dry as a popcorn fart and deer-poor. The private hunting clubs, on leased land, have actually drilled wells and made watering stations to keep their herds. Most deer are sticking close to river bottoms and the lower watershed lands.
We lost a big chunk of our old hunting land and have been monitoring several areas of what we do have with game cameras, but haven't had much show up....even with food plots and piles of corn (it is now legal to hunt deer over feed).
My younger son killed a couple last year, but they were on someone else's land as a guest. It's normal around here for the deer to move out of an area for a few seasons....but they always come back. A lot of it depends on food availability and water.
(I spent 60+ hours in my little box blind last season, overlooking a little plot, and didn't even hear one grunt.

That's more time than the last 15 years combined).
Don't give up hope, pal, I ain't forgot about you guys down there in the swampland. 