Stopped by to visit my couple of landowners where I hunt

[roundball]

Dropped off Honey Baked Hams, Christmas cookies, poinsettia plants for Christmas...had nice chats, both volunteered for me to continue right on planning to hunt their land.
Each place is small but surrounded by hundreds of acres of other woods and doves, deer, squirrels, turkey don't know about boundary lines.
2013 will be 20 years with these 2 landowners...lucky guy.
Deer ends January 1st, but squirrel runs on through the end of February, then turkey starts in April

 

[wattlebuster]

Nothin beats having those little honeyholes that just costs a bit of kindness and Christmas cheer. You have got 20 yrs worth of memories that is priceless from it too I bet. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Compared to what it would cost to lease hunting rights in many places, I agree with Roundball and Wattlebuster, and kindness plus taking a garbage bag out of the woods with anything that may have blown onto the property that is trash is good policy. On one of the farms that I am friends with the farmer, they are getting up in years, so I will probably need to start helping with the mowing..., (Yahoo! I get to drive the tractor! :grin: ) And the groundhogs are getting numerous so need culling, and part of the fence needs fixin'... wait all of that is fun and gets me out from behind a desk...
:wink:

LD

 

[roundball]

Nothin beats having those little honeyholes that just costs a bit of kindness and Christmas cheer. You have got 20 yrs worth of memories that is priceless from it too I bet. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

And in particular, my entire 20 year involvement with muzzleloaders has been on those couple little parcels of land...caplocks, Flintlocks, rifles, smoothbores, doves, deer, squirrel, crows, turkey...all of it right there

 

[Robby]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Robby

 

[Spikebuck]

Too bad more hunters don't take the time to do what you did. When I used to hunt Iowa, I always visited the landowners and the smallest of gifts would bring the biggest smile on their faces.

I hope you can keep those parcels for hunting. The huge farm I hunted most near my home has been leased out even though I always made an effort to stop by several times a year and talk and provide gift certificates and goodies each year, and I know others that hunted it did the same. I've had access to that farm since I was old enough to follow my Dad around chasing squirrels to his side of the tree. I spent more hours just walking around all times of year than actually hunting. Now, one cannot even walk on it in the off-season. Midwest Whitetails has it and all access rights other than the farmer doing his thing to make a living. Our small town has a Christmas star on one of the bluffs on the farm that overlooks the Mississippi River and Highway 61 so all kinds of travelers can see it, and the guys that put it up each year had problems even getting permission to go out this year to put it up because "there is a bowstand out there in use."

This was the primary thing that drove me into getting into a lease this year. I hated to do it, but around here it's getting down to having one's own land, leasing, being lucky enough to have relatives or good friends with land, or hunting overcrowded state land. :idunno:

 

[Little Wattsy]

Dropped off Honey Baked Hams, Christmas cookies, poinsettia plants for Christmas...had nice chats, both volunteered for me to continue right on planning to hunt their land.
Each place is small but surrounded by hundreds of acres of other woods and doves, deer, squirrels, turkey don't know about boundary lines.
2013 will be 20 years with these 2 landowners...lucky guy.
Deer ends January 1st, but squirrel runs on through the end of February, then turkey starts in April

Brilliant move!!! :v

 

[Sperit de bois]

Here in Maine we have M.P.R.L,Maine Public Reserve Land,anyone can hunt on it,belongs to the State,It's scattered all over the state thousands of acres.There marked on the the hunting maps and on "The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer" I know when I was stationed in VA that was the case,Hunt Club of hard time finding a place,I use to drive up to AP Hill from Norfolk and hunt,you never knew what area or even if you would get to hunt.
It never hurts to make plans to help around the farm during the year,always something needs fixing or harvesting..Makes for a pretty nice vacation,take the Camper and set up on the farm.Some call that a Dude Ranch and have to pay to enjoy working on a farm.