10 Days of Celebration

In 10 days, Bill Howard's Outdoors will be celebrating its 1st Year Anniversary.  BHO all started as a way of posting the weekly outdoors column I was to begin writing for the Yancey County News and the Wilson TImes online.  It also allowed me to post a few more photos and some other not-newspaper-worthy thoughts and comments.

Readership per month.

Over the last year BHO has picked up a decent following of readers, with one milestone on pace to happen within the next 10 days. We'll save the milestone announcement for when it happens.

Top Blog Badge for 2011.

BHO also picked up a tidy little award as one of the top hunting blogs for 2011 and consistently listed in the top 25 hunting blogs as shown on either side of this blog site.

I have also been able to communicate and become acquainted with several great writers and people from other outdoors blogs such as The Will To Hunt, SoCal Bowhunter, Sole Adventure, Life and Longbows, and the Outdoor Blogger Network, just to name a few.  Even companies/people such as Lester Harper from LH Custom Archery and Randy Mabe from Broadhead Kennels have become invaluable as sources of information and dare I say it, friends. The outdoors community is truly a blessing in this hectic, stress riden world.

A lot of great things happen from minds like these, including a project I am currently working on, BowAmerica, an e-magazine for bowhunters, and a program started by Will Jenkins at The Will To Hunt called Harnesses for Hunters.

Over the next 10 days I will share a few stories from readers of the outdoors column and BillHowardOutdoors.com, post several gear reviews, and revisit some of the more 'memorable' posts we have had over the last 365 days.

Bill Howard writes a weekly outdoors column for the Wilson Times and Yancey County News and the bowhunting blog site GiveEmTheShaft.com. He is a Hunter Education and International Bowhunter Education instructor, lifetime member of the North Carolina Bowhunters Association, Bowhunter Certification Referral Service Chairman, member and official measurer of Pope and Young, and a regular contributor to North Carolina Bowhunter Magazine.