 Well, the election is not the only big story around Minnesota. This past weekend marked the start of the deer hunting season. And this week's Northwoods Adventure are Josh Peterson, Recaps Opening Weekend. It's that time of year again when most Minnesotans wake up early and go into the woods, wearing nothing but blaze orange. Minnesota's deer hunting opener kicked off Saturday morning at sunrise, but while deer population is expected to be up, the first weekend harvest has been relatively low. There's a lot of activities. Hunters are enjoying the warm weather, but it did slow down deer movement a little bit. One thing that is extremely unique about this hunting season is the warm weather and the extreme impact it's having on the opening weekend of deer hunting. Just acts might sit's worth owner if it's worth meats. Because of the warm temperatures, many hunters who normally would hang their deer or butcher it themselves, rush their deer into meat processors, creating such a backup that many deer processing locations stopped accepting deer. Everything that's gotten shot has been getting brought in, whereas normally some of these people would cut their own deer up. We're getting a lot of people that aren't normally take your deer to get processed type of customer. If you do happen to get a deer and the mild weather continues, there are some steps to follow to ensure you keep your venison fresh. Put it in a cool garage and pack the cavity full, chest cavity full ice. The warm weather has also raised concerns over another issue. hunters should be aware that wood ticks are still out and it's best to take precaution. There are a lot of ticks, the black legged ticks won't disappear until the temperatures consistently stay below zero or below freezing at least, both day and night. And so every time that the temperature rises above freezing during the day, the ticks will come back out. But no matter what the weather, it's best to always be safe and have fun while you're out hunting and enjoying the best that Minnesota has to offer. We just want people to be sure to be safe, be sure to wear your blaze orange everywhere you go, and think about not only your target, but the target, whatever's behind the target, that's really important when you're shooting deer with a rifle. With this week's Northwoods Adventure in Bemidji, I'm Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.