Natasha Ruble

Ok, it's my first year ever hunting. My husband has done this his entire life and time and time again, tried to get me to go out with him. Yes, I'll cook the game, yes, I'll eat the game, but you have got to be CRAZY if you think I am getting up at 4am to sit in a tree and not talk the entire day to hunt the game for three simple reasons...

1. IT IS 4am and still dark out
2. IT IS freezing and
3. If you know me, you know that I LOVE to talk.

Because I decided to marry this CRAZY hunting guy a few months ago , I found it only natural to fulfill the "adventurous" wife roll so I went hunting with him. As I expected, it was colder than I ever thought up 20 yards in a tree stand and to my surprise, I couldn't stay awake! I even had to put my arm around a branch to keep me up there, otherwise I would have awoke to a dangling safety harness below the stand...not my idea of fun!

After going out with Brad a few times, I hadn't seen anything and started to get a little burnt out. I was about to throw in the towel last Sunday after an hour and a half in and the extremely cold weather. As I climbed down the stand, Brad followed but not with out giving up or giving in. He offered to drive the deer if I would stay just a little longer.

Leaving me near the stand, Brad takes off to push the deer my direction. Within fifteen minutes, four does go sprinting by all too fast to take a shot! After I watched them go into the woods, I turn around to see a lonely doe, standing completely still only about 60 yards in front of me! I remember saying, "Okay - breathe, here's your chance. You can do this!" I got myself so excited that I hadn't noticed how far away from the "steadying" tree I had been.

Another pep-talk, "That's alright, you can still do this!" Once I steady myself, I take a shoot and just barely miss her! "Yes! A second chance!" The doe stood strong with out a move looking as to see where the shot came from. As I rear back and shoot again, I come up with what I thought was only another miss. "Bummer", I said.

Right then, Brad appears out the woods excited to see what I got. "Nope, sorry honey - no deer" I reported. I took him over to show him where she was standing and low and behold, we found a blood trail! "WOO HOO! I got her!" I screamed. When I shot, she jumped and ran off so quickly I assumed I missed her.

For the next two hours we tracked her through a couple different fields and a woods until we came up short. She had jumped onto property we didn't have permission to hunt but, man - what an experience! Although we didn't find her, my heart was pumping the entire time, from the moment I took my first shot until the end of the trail.

I said to myself, "I finally get it - I love this sport and if my husband is CRAZY, then I guess I'm CRAZY right along with him because I can't wait to bag one for home!"

I thank Brad for having the patience to stick with me and continue to push me and hopefully next time I'll come out with a deer and some great pics. Until then, I'll keep practicing.

Adams County Rush

Dateline 12/19 Adams County, Ohio, 9:05 AM


It was a snowy December morning during the deer gun law bonus weekend. An hour and a half into the hunt, who decided to rear its horned head, but a nice 6 point buck. He stood a mere 50 yards away staring straight at you revealing nothing but antlers and the white of his chest. In a flash it was lights out! You put a hole in his chest with an exit wound right behind his ribs. He scurried a paltry 15 feet while kicking and flailing for only a few seconds, before giving in to his demise.

Wow! What a rush to bag such a cunning, keen animal, and from such a short distance. Within minutes the deer was headed down the mountain, field dressed, and washed out, on its way to the bed of a pick-up truck.

Storefront Location Opening Soon!

View the progress of our new retail location at 8081 St Rt 366, Russells Point, OH 43348

Indian Lake Area

"Indian Lake is the scene you should make" ... bet you've heard that before, and you've probably seen it in 2009!

The second annual Visitors Guide included all the names, addresses and phone numbers of Indian Lake Area Chamber members. With the help of grant money, the chamber was able to spend over $12,000 to market Indian Lake in other areas, including Columbus, Dayton and northern Ohio.

Your Indian Lake Chamber had a very busy 2009 promoting countless events as well as hosting over twelve of your large hometown crowd pleasers!

Did you attend the Indian Lake Boat Show, Maple Syrup Festival or Shake Down Cruise? How about the Movie on the Beach, Downtown Car and Craft Show or Beach Spectacular? You never want to miss the Fireworks Display or Party on the Beach with the Danger Brothers! Hey, you didn't forget about Putt-Around-the-Lake, Balloon Lift off or the Fall Fest did you?

All of these are fabulous events around the Indian Lake area that are hosted and promoted by the Chamber and its great group of volunteers and local businesses. At Indian Lake Outfitters, we're pleased to be a part of your Indian Lake Chamber, life-long residents of the community and supporters of the many area events and attractions. Will you join us in 2010?

Extra Weekend

Although the week-long gun season in Ohio has come and gone, the extra hunting weekend is here!

If you missed your bag limit between November 30th and December 6th, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has included an extra weekend of gun hunting for you on December 19th and 20th! During gun week, and this extra weekend, you can legally hunt deer with a muzzleloader, handgun or shotgun from a half-hour before sunrise to sunset.

Why hunt deer you ask?

In Ohio, you have made the white-tailed deer the most popular game animal hunted. According to the ODNR, Ohio ranks nationally in annual hunting-related sales coming in at 8th place and you've earned them 10th in the number of jobs associated with the industry.

While hunting, you have also generated an economic impact on Ohio of around $859 million through the purchases of your equipment, fuel, food, lodging, permits and licenses. That's FANTASTIC!

As a hunter this season, you are encouraged to take more does using the reduced price antlerless deer permit and donate extra venison to organizations that assist Ohioans in need. When you donate your deer to a participating processor, you are not required to pay the processing costs.

If you're not aware of the state's deer zones and hunting regulations, pick up your free publication of the 2009-2010 Ohio Hunting & Trapping Regulations, available where ever your hunting licenses are sold, on the web at http://www.wildohio.com/ or by calling 1-800-WILDLIFE.

Your Chamber of Commerce

Are you starting a new business and not sure where to begin? Rest assured you are not alone! When Bryan and I decided to take the plunge and form Indian Lake Outfitters, one of the first things we asked was "How do you start a business?" and "Where do you go to start a business?" We were given a very common answer "You need to join your local Chamber of Commerce."

The Logan County Chamber has many of the answers to most of your questions and they will greatly assist you in getting started down the right path. The Chamber works closely with several other organizations including the Community Improvement Corporation, the Convention and Tourism Bureau, the Small Business Development Center of Columbus, Indian Lake Chamber and local county villages and officers. Each organization plays a role in developing a new or existing business.

The Community Improvement Corporation does a lot of behind the scenes research that allows you as a new business owner, to get information regarding utilities, population, growth and comparison studies. The CIC continuously works towards economic development and incubator programs for small business start-ups.

The Convention and Tourism Bureau operates out of the Chamber office as well. Much of the CT's focus is to bring people to your community as tourists, sharing with them what you have to offer in the county vis Bus Tours, Home and Garden Tours, Rally at the Peak, community celebrations and many of your obvious tourist attractions - Mad River Mountain, Marmon Valley Farm, Indian Lake, Maries Candies, Piatt Castles, Ohio Caverns, Logan County Historical Museum and the Holland Theatre.

On the first Thursday of each month, the Chamber offers a meeting place for the SBDC to sit down with you and answer questions that arise about your business ventures. Their consulting services are free and extremely informational - you just call the Chamber to make an appointment.

Once your business is open, the Chamber continues to work for you on many levels. They offer a First Thursdays Chamber Chat each month, which is a great morning meeting over coffee. It keeps businesses informed of what is going on in the county. City and county officials are present, several forms of news media, advertisers and lots of local county business owners.

The Chamber can also connect you with other forms of business networking that goes on in the county such as the Logan County Meet Ups or the local Business Networking International, both great groups of like minded business professionals that pass business through word-of-mouth referrals.

If you haven't joined your Chamber, you should and if you're asking what your membership does for you and your business, attend any of these events or organizations for a warm welcome and open arms to grow and start your business!

Whitetails Unlimited

Whitetails Unlimited is a national non-profit conservation organization that exist right here in your local community. Founded in 1982, WTU was created to generate funds to support "educational programs, habitat conservation, and preservation of the hunting tradition for the direct benefit of the white-tailed deer and other wildlife".

The Logan County Whitetails Unlimited Banquet sets out to do just that for you and your youth. The 2nd Annual Banquet will be held on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at the Huntsville Event Center, 6886 Wishart Street, Huntsville, Ohio 43324. Social hour begins at 5:00pm and the buffet dinner will be ready by 6:30pm.

The fundraising event will include a dinner, auction, and prizes with a wide variety of products including firearms, outfitter packages, hunting and outdoor related equipment, artwork, and collectibles only available at WTU events.

Fifty percent of all net proceeds will go directly back to your local area, Logan County, for conservation-related activities. Proceeds from this event will benefit your youth and other wildlife conservation projects.

A membership is included with each single ticket purchase. There will be special drawings for Table Captains and Sponsors. There is also an Early Bird Special and a Bucket Raffle Package.

For ticket information and pricing, please contact Steve McCafferty at 937-441-7958.

Billboard Install

Check out the installation of our newest advertising campaign through ComStor Outdoor - "Always On...Always on Target"

Meet Up

How do you advertise your business or product, meet new people, business professionals and friends? For us, it's all about networking and word of mouth. We have a fantastic group of local business owners in our community that have formed a local MeetUp group. We meet every third Tuesday of the month at different locations to discuss current events, share experiences and network with other people interested in business. The support and turn-out is phenomenal but we have to "work" the crowd. We have to make the effort to talk to as many individuals in the room as we can and we have to create that personal connection to not only be remembered but remember the connection as well. Nothing's worse than coming home with a stack full of business cards and not being able to put a face with the name. We are often reminded in our networking groups that it's not NetSIT or NetEAT, it's NETWORK. We have to work to make an impression.

As I said, we do a lot of networking but we realize that other forms of advertisement are necessary. I received a very memorable tip sheet from a printing company that I'd like to share with you. It's called "How to Kill a Business in 10 Easy Steps:

1. DON'T ADVERTISE - Just pretend everybody knows what you have to offer.



2. DON'T ADVERTISE - Just assume everybody knows what you sell.



3. DON'T ADVERTISE - Forget that there are new potential customers who would do business with you if they were urged to do so.



4. DON'T ADVERTISE - Tell yourself it costs too much to advertise and that you don't get enough out of it.



5. DON'T ADVERTISE - Be sure not to provide an adequate advertising budget for business.



6. DON'T ADVERTISE - Tell yourself you just don't have time to spend thinking about promoting your business.



7. DON'T ADVERTISE - Convince yourself that you've been in business so long customers will automatically come to you.



8. DON'T ADVERTISE - Forget that you have competition trying to attract your customers away from you.



9. DON'T ADVERTISE - Overlook the fact that advertising is an investment in selling - not an expense.



10. DON'T ADVERTISE - Forget that you have to keep reminding your established customers that you appreciate your business.

Silence is Golden

Well, as Indian Lake Outfitters, we survived our first weekend at the flea market! We set up Friday afternoon and the doors opened Saturday from 9-5 and Sunday from 10-4. The weather was gorgeous and the breeze came through the building just enough to spin our ceiling sign display. What a great place to people watch! I found myself studying customers movements and body language more than conversing. If you want an honest opinion from your ideal target market, step back and watch their reactions! Sometimes silence is golden!

Free ILO.COM Shirt

The Indian Lake Outfitters brand is starting to catch on and our t-shirt's are in high demand!

We had our top follower wash the company car for a FREE ILO.COM t-shirt. What would you do for a FREE shirt? Send us your pics, posts and videos to showroom@indianlakeoutfitters.com!

Operation Store Front

The beginning phases of a physical store front for Indian Lake Outfitters.

The Conception

It all began with a board game - a graduation gift to be precise. The day came when I had finally graduated college and a very wise man gifted me a book and a board game. Little did I know it was not just any gift, it was the beginning of my future. It was a very popular book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and the board game, "Cash Flow 101". Later when I had opened the gift, I chuckled to myself - my Dad was always reading books about rising to the top, maximizing the dollar and being your own boss. I wrote my thank you and kinda tossed the items to the side. I never did open the board game and on two different occasions had tried to sell it at a yard sale for $10. Three years later, being desperate for cash to get a website started and open an e-commerce store, I tried my hand at eBay. It was time to move the game out of the closet and into someone else's hands. I began to search the auction site to see if there were other similar items listed. WOW, they were listed all right and for way more than $10! I took pictures of my gold mine, posted the item auction style and waited 3 days for the highest bidder to come in. By the time the auction was over, that board game brought over $199! Needless to say, I was tickled pink with my first "official" sale. I turned around and used the money to create the web-site you now know as http://www.indianlakeoutfitters.com.

An Owl in the Woods

While shooting bow Sunday at the Sidney Fish & Game an owl was perched in the tree next to me.

2009 NRA Banquet

The NRA

George Wingate formed the National Rifle Association in 1871 with the primary goal to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis". The NRA's interest in promoting the shooting sports among America's youth began in 1903 and the program was in full swing by 1906. Around 1934 the Legislative Affairs Division was created but it wasn't until 1975 that the division began to lobby for political defense of the Second Amendment. While continuing their commitment to training, education and marksmanship, the first hunter education program was established in 1949. Being widely recognized today as a major political force and as America's foremost defender of Second Amendment rights, the NRA has, since its inception, been the premier firearms education organization in the world. Join the NRA today.

https://membership.nrahq.org/forms/signup.asp

2009 DU Banquet

Ducks Unlimited

Beginning back in 1937, Ducks Unlimited is a leading wetlands and waterfowl conservation. Their mission is to "conserve, restore and mangae wetlands and associated habitats for North America's waterfowld. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people". Become a member and be a supporter - 88% of your dollar goes to conservation and waterfowl/wetland education.

https://www.ducks.org/support/donateonlinesecure.aspx?promokey=JoinDU-AdultMembership-Vest&ID=320&responsecode=Z882AAAA

Bear Jugular