Well, we lost our old main lodge and several buildings to a fire in 1974. We then had two major floods in 1994 and 1998. Now we have survived a CAT 3 hurricane which is unheard of in our part of the world. I guess my next Plague will be locusts, but I sure hope the Lord calls me home before then.

First, and most importantly, all of our families and our employees families are fine. No one was hurt. However, we have sustained some fairly severe damage from downed trees. Here again, I see the hand of God at work. Our only building that suffered severe damage was our storage rooms. All of the other cottages can be quickly repaired. It’s mostly a case of replacing some shingles, power stacks, and a few places where a small limb punctured a roof. We see no reason why we can’t have all of this completed within two weeks.

Our major task is getting up all of the downed trees on the Lodge grounds, and clearing all of our major woods roads and Jeep trails. We have made a ton of progress on the Lodge grounds in just one day. Thanks to great customers , we have two more pieces of big equipment coming in this evening and in the morning. We see no reason why we can’t be ready to open in two weeks. You will see a good many snapped off pines in the woods, but those tops will just provide more cover for the quail this season.

Our biggest problem is that the entire county got slammed. Our local EMC manager is a good friend. He told me that he could have us up and running in two weeks. Regretfully, that meant we had to cancel all of our first two weeks of reservations. Even though we cook with gas, I do not believe that anyone should be deprived of lights, running water, and heating and air. The good news is that almost all of these folks were able to find alternate dates that worked.

In summary, this is a setback, but not insurmountable. Cader IV and the finest group of employees a man could ask for will have this place ready to rock and roll by the first of November. We covet your prayers, and appreciate your loyalty and friendship. Things can be repaired or replaced, but people can’t be replaced. In spite of all of this, I am completely confident that we will be ready , and will have a great hunting season.

I just wanted to provide everyone with this quick update as we are really strung out and working non-stop; so finding the time to communicate has been tough. Now you know everything I know except how to start a “Go Fund Me” page.