by Demoderby4 » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:42 pm
Well last Wednesday was again another stupid and frustrating adventure... short version of it, eventually we finally got everything planted, 3 stands hung and most shooting lanes cut, still have a few more to do and cover the stands some. Here's the long version...
I asked 3 people for permission to use their roto-tillers multiple times well over a month ago up until last week, and come tuesday night i still had no tillers ready to use since everyone thought i wasn't serious or some garbage like that. Please don't tell me i can use it and do nothing about it. So my buddy called me Tuesday night and said his friend had one we could use, ok great there's some stress off our backs! So we set up the schedule for the next day. Wed came and i headed over there in the mid to late morning and they have the roto tiller torn apart in my buddy's friends garage, i was like oh ok what ya guys doing? His response was. "Oh we have to get it running" I said, "you said we could use it yesterday" "yeah if we can get it working, he repsonded,. I was quite pissed about that, don't say we can use it when u dont even know if it runs... idk that just kind of ticked me off some, so we spent 2 hours trying to get it to work, it wouldn't, it needs a new carb or something like that. So then long story short my friends buddy called his grandpa and he fortunately had an older roto tiller and a walking seed spreader we could use. Thank god!
So we then finally decided to head up the Gander Mountain to buy our seed. We ended up getting a big bag of "buck oats" "evolved harvest clover blend" "Evolved harvest no till easy plant" and "evolved harvest chicory blend" Then we headed out to the land we hunted last year and were planning on hunting this year to plant everything. We were getting really excited too on the way there! Well, we get onto the road where the guy lives and we start to drive by his property line and we start seeing new posted signs... were like ok maybe him and the other guy whose land my stand was on decided to put signs up so we wouldn't be confused or something, we keep driving and we keep seeing the posted signs all along his property, and then we get ready to pull into his driveway and his gate is closed, locked and a HUGE "keep out" sign on it. We were like what the heck is that all about? Immediately we both didn't know what to do so we sat in the end of the driveway for a minute and a jeep starts pulling up to the house so we drive over to the jeep and the guy was like "you guys need something?" we told him were looking for joe the owner, he then replied "joe? Joe hasnt lived here for over two weeks, he lost his land and house a while ago." Our jaws pretty much dropped open, we were flabergasted (sp) joe gave us no warning what so ever, never a word or warning that he could be losing the land or anything like that, he just led us on like everything was fine. I couldn't believe it! Needless to say we were pissed! (Imagine if we already pkanted out there! [:@] So we then asked if we could go back and at least get our stands and my buddy had a trail cam back there. He reluctantly and rudely let us walk back with his supervision to retrieve our stuff. This was quite ridiculous. He picked up a hefty stick and carried it the whole way and told us "just in case, since we have had 3 break in's already" I was like are u serious? but wasn't going to say anything. So we then got our stuff got back in the truck and sat on the road for about 20 mins deliberating about what to do. Both of us extremely mad and frustrated at everything that just happened.
So after all the options of state land, trying to find new land, or knowing anybody that has land, we decided that the most reliable and smart option would probably be to go out to my buddy's dads house and set up there. He had about 5 acres behind his house. (property lines well known!) lol! But it just kind of sucks going from what we thought was over 400 private acres last fall, to barely 200 private acres last month and now down to 5 private acres where we are at now....
But whatever, we could of gave up, took the seed back, sat around and cried about it all day, but we sucked it up, went out there at his dad's and got to work.
We looked around and found 3 decent spots. The land is spaced horizontally, not vertically so it kind of makes the land less plentiful in wooded acres, its mostly tall shrubbery and about 1/2 acre of woods. Not ideal by any means, BUT their are deer tracks everywhere in it, and trails cut down throughout the shrubbery, so its really thick, but easy to get around in, by us and deer. I'm pretty sure the deer use them a lot to go get water, and whatever food they could find before we planted. Like I said it's no where near ideal land for hunting, but the deer are always back there (sightings ny my buddy and his dad) and it has great cover for not being wooded very much. (i have pictures but im letting the camera's battery charge before i put em on, ill put em on right after i finish this)
So after that we planted the plots, hung the stands, cut some lanes out and tested out the stands.
Def. not what we had in mind when the day started and it was quite frustrating for the first half on the day, but it all worked out and we finally have out plots planted and just about have our stands ready to go for fall! My buddy even said he wants to lime and fertilize next year and do it right now that we know where we will prob. be doing em again, so that was nice that we finally agreed on that. We also agreed that not hunting that land the guy lost is kind of a relief considering he was so shady about the whole ordeal and we really just didn't like the vibe we got form him ever since we first talked to him. We could kinda tell something wasn't right with everything, but oh well i guess, we have new spots and hopefully will at least see some deer!
We might not of done it by the book this year, but now that we are on the same page about liming and fertilizing if this year doesn't go as planned, next year surely will. But it was nice to be out in the woods, and actually get some work done after continuous failed attempts!! I'll post pics in a min!
Matt Cain
SE MI
Them Darned ol' deer.
jk! Hopefully once he see's how much better mine will hopefully look if everything goes to plan, he will change his mind come next year. Thanks for the idea msB, i will def do this with the buck oats, im glad they seem to work well without much preparation, and i will but some brassica's over em and see how that works, pics to come! 
