tree stands

Kev and I went and put up tree stands yesterday. I really didn't want to, because my allergies were really acting up and I just wanted to curl up with my box of Kleenex and die. They were bad enough that I was contemplating asking someone to just shoot me. Instead, I took my box of Kleenex and went to hang tree stands.

That's one bad thing about moving. Before, I'd go with Kev and Lynn, but I'd just stand around, looking pretty while the guys did the real work. Not this time, I had to help. Another bad thing about hunting in a new area is we just aren't as certain of the travel patterns of the deer. At the farm, where we have a creek and 160 acres, we really felt good about one stand, but couldn't figure out where to put a second stand. See, there's water there, with the windmill and even the creek, but...there aren't any food plots for the deer anywhere around, it's pasture for miles and miles. Great shelter for the deer during winter, but no special food. So, we decided to put up one stand here and we'd watch their patterns. We also found a place where Kev wants to put up a food plot, so maybe next spring, we can plant a small alfalfa stand, or just some clover and other grasses that deer like.

Then we drove over to Uncle Glenn's quarter section, but decided it wasn't really good for a tree stand. Then we drove on down to the Hill. Grandpa B's place. Well, Mom and Sandy's place now. Mom leased it to a local guy to run cattle and he had asked to put up a tree stand, and she said yes, but told him that we wanted to hunt there too.

He put up a stand all right, a huge tripod stand with a feeder that he built fence and fenced off an area, and he even took in a tractor and cleared out his area first. He did a lot of work for someone who just asked to put up a tree stand. He's also got a trail camera set up there. (see, we're natural hunters, we have never put in a feeder and we leave the environment natural and trashy. By trashy, I mean limbs and tree branches and such, not trash trash.)

The windmill is running, so deer could come in there for water. They got two tree rows there for shelter and there are fields of feed and Milo near by, so it should be a pretty good spot. Kev and I set up our second stand back behind the house, closer to the water than the other guys, and we are quite a ways from his stand. But, looking at the track in the mud around the windmill, we think the deer come in from the south, get a drink, then circle to the east, where we put my stand, then back around to the north west to that feeder. There were several tracks going that way anyway. We'll see. I know that in years past, there were deer scraping their antlers over my side, so I hope they still do. A friend of mine told me he's seen several big bucks cut across the road there.

It would tickle me to death if a big buck came by and I got him with my bow.

I love being out there, in the country. But it wasn't as much fun with snot dripping out of my nose, with itchy and swollen eyes, and me sneezing constantly and when I actually have to help instead of just looking pretty. Kev told me to stop sneezing, because I'd scare the deer. Yeah, only someone without allergies would even think that was funny. But, the stands are up, fall is here, and I'm ready to get a deer.