The coolness delayed itself about as long as it could this year.

Temperatures were above normal most of the way through September and that was day and night. But at the very end of September, we started to feel that change we were all looking for. Temperatures getting into the 50s at night surely lets us know that the awaited fall season is nearly here and if we can wait just a few more days, everything will be right.

The moisture is back in the ground as the last weekend of the month saw plenty of rain come even if it was at night.

The daytime highs will still be up there enough that we can get hot during these fall afternoons, but no near where they were just a month ago. But in just a few days when the highs are in the 70s and the night-time lows are in the upper 40s and low 50s, we will know that the 2010 fall season has definitely visited southwest Georgia.

When it drops much lower than that most of your neighbors will say that winter has finally come to our part of the world.

I kinda want winter to be colder than in the 40s, but we have to start somewhere and getting to the 40s, then to the 30s, and then into the freezing temperatures range is good enough for me. This far south we don’t need bark-busting temps.

In another 10 days or so, the firearms deer season will make its way to most of Georgia.

Many times the opening weekend of the deer season sees a warming trend come through. Not every hunter is disgusted with the change, but most do holler that it would be nice to have a cold opening weekend.

Some of these old boys mean it, but some of these very ones are the hunters that are sitting around in the stores when it is cold. They then say it is too cold to hunt. All that may be true to some extent, but that fellow that sits out in the cold day after day is going to not only get his buck, he is going to get a big one. It may not be a world record, but it will be bigger than any of the deer the neighbors kill.

These cool mornings have been extra nice, but with the return of the warmer weather, and it will come, the insects will return also. Do yourself a favor and get a thermacell unit. That small unit will clear out a 15-foot diameter area in just a few minutes and make it comfortable for you to hunt and remain still.

An earth-scented repellent is available for these units this year so your hunting area can smell like dirt. That is the environment the deer live in so why not make it smell realistic to them. These units don’t work all that well if a wind is blowing. But then the insects are so lightweight that they get blown away in the wind so they aren’t there to bother you.

The thermacell folks have some very attractive lamps that house the units and thus look good on your patio plus keep insects away from your party and out of your food and drink. They are not just for hunting anymore. Many uses for the thermacell units.