Thanks for the replies guys!

Here's how my Saturday morning went..
I woke up, got dressed, and headed to the swamp. My stand was already at the tree from the night before. I borrowed a seat harness and some climbing gear from work, I didn't really think I needed it.. but we'll get to that later..
I walk the familiar woods, then get to the swamp. It was about 25 degrees so the water had a layer of ice. I get to my stand and set everything up, things are a little different in the dark. I get situated, strapped in, and start climbing. I figure I got about 30ft up or so, with "tree island" to the far left of my peripheral and the treeline to the right as my main shooting area.
I've only "hunted" this year maybe 3 or 4 times sitting in those ghetto treehouse treestands made of 2x4s. I've seen about 10 deer this year, and a friend shot a young 5pt buck from that stand. I had a giant doe in front of me but it was too dark for my scope, and I let a spotted doe walk out of my sights.
I sat up high and got situated for a day long hunt. I had a coke and a sandwich packed up for later, and tried to get adjusted before I needed to stay quiet. Somehow I moved wrong and dropped the coke can, I'm not scared of heights but it was a little discouraging watching it fall. I decided to adjust my foot platform for a little more stability. I hooked my feet in the straps tight and tried to bring the platform up closer to the seat platform. The thing acted like it wanted to drop as easily as the can did. I recomposed but my adrenaline was pumping. I had a lanyard on the bottom platform and a safety strap, but the thought of actually getting down using just the top platform and safety lanyard was a real wake-up call.
Anyway I managed to regain composure and set in for the hunt.
The sun rose, birds and squirrels kept moving the cat tails, and then I started hearing some deer in the woods moving around. Finally I saw a decent size doe come out and drink from the "pond", about 50 yards or so off. I sighted her in and pulled. Guess where she took off to? Tree island of course! I had an opportunity and took another shot while she was running. I decided to end the hunt and track because I didn't hear any splashing after she got to the island.
I -safely- descended my tree, took off through the cat tails, and found the doe. I thought her to be a bit small and was a little disappointed for my first kill, until we got to the processor and it was the largest of 7 deer there.
I can say that dragging the deer out of the swamp was one of the hardest workouts I've had in awhile. the shot was through the lung/ heart, and it bloated up, so the knee-high water was easy enough, but the cat tails and thick was pretty difficult.
What I did notice was that every time a shot was fired from within the woods, there was a little activity toward my end of the swamp.
It is an ordeal but the swamp seems to be like a great place for end of the season high pressure hunting.
I do kick myself for not waiting longer for the monster swamp buck, but I do anticipate the food on my table when it gets back from the processor.

Here's the doe dressed and loaded up, you can see the killshot around the lung.