GREANEY, Minn. 鈥� Readers may remember Beryl Novak, the solitary woodsman who has lived the last 46 years in his one-room deer shack in the woods north of this unincorporated little town.
Well, Novak reported last week that he got his buck. He has a new cellphone now and has even learned how to take photos and text with it.
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鈥淪hot an 8-pointer at 10:35 a.m. on Wednesday,鈥� Novak reported by text.
A fresh coat of snow overnight had the hunter excited that the bucks might be on the move. And he was right.
Not that we would expect anything different.
鈥淭his makes deer number 77 in 60 seasons. ... I missed a few years while I was in the Air Force,鈥� Novak said in a text.
He鈥檚 not bragging. He has an uncanny knack of writing things down. And an uncanny memory. And an uncanny ability to succeed in the woods. With his trusty .270 in his hands, Novak figures he's only been skunked six or seven times over 60 seasons.
鈥淚 have many memories over the years of the deer I've shot and of the deer I've missed," he said. "Especially the big ones that outsmarted me. I really feel privileged to have grown up and to have lived in the sticks. When I step outside, I'm hunting. There is a sense of real freedom. Visitors often comment about how quiet it is. For me, there is no stress. Overall, I've had a good life up here.鈥�
Novak, now 73, has been hunting on his property there since 1977 when he moved into what was originally intended to be his one-room deer hunting shack but became his permanent home.
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Readers may recall the News Tribune story on Novak that was published just before the 2021 deer season that has been viewed nearly 1 million times online and appeared in newspapers across the country. The story about Novak's solitary, simple life in the northwoods 鈥� he has no car, no running water, no computer and he grows and hunts much of his own food and splits wood for heat 鈥� clearly struck a chord with many readers.
Since the story published, Novak has reconnected with some long-lost friends, including another Orr High 歪歪漫画 graduate who now lives in Hermantown and who visits him regularly.
Novak had the buck skinned by the next morning and the tenderloins removed, destined for his dinner with some fried, garden-grown onions that night.
"I've got the carcass picked pretty clean," Novak reported. "Now to bone the meat, cut it into pieces, wrap it and put it in the freezer."
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